And don't miss out on Reports on Bart Jordan and evidence of advanced pre-ice-age civilizations.
For more ways to connect, visit:
FN on Facebook
Valley 9/11 Truth
FN's Youtube Channel
The views expressed herein are writers' own and not necessarily of Flyby News.
Fair Use Policy that describes use of copyrighted material is at FlybyNews.com.
Feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News is appreciated.
You can write to the editor by email: - noflyby(at}yahoo{dot)com -
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus,
and has supported critical campaigns for a healthy
environment, human rights, justice, and nonviolence,
since the launch of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era
US-Iraq Death Squads * VT Nuke Increase
10 May 2006
"He not busy being born, is busy dying."
Bob Dylan
1) Iraq's Hidden News - Return of the Death Squads
- - General who eavesdropped on public is new CIA chief
- - The President of Iran's Letter To President Bush
- - Kucinich Asks Tough Questions of Bush, Rumsfeld
- - My Meeting With Rumsfeld by Ray McGovern
- - Ray McGovern Is Going to Rumsfeld's House
- - THE CON - Kerry Won. Now Get Over It . . .
2) Nuclear plant gets OK for final stage of power increase
- - Forget Iran; Worry about Vermont
- - Free Speech @ Entergy VT Nuclear Headquarters
- - Brazil Officially Starts First Uranium Enrichment Facility
Editor's Notes:
When John Negroponte got in as Intelligence Czar, known for his role with those of the Death Squads in El Salvador, it was of no surprise when George Bush nominated Michael Hayden for the new CIA head, an insider with the Neocons and a four-star air force general. The war is within, the cover-up, the treachery, obvious. The article by John Pilger is important to consider, "Return of the Death Squads Iraq's Hidden News." The following segments show actions of those of eloquence and noble resistance: Ray McGovern, Greg Palast, Dennis Kucinich.. The fight continues, while item 2 covers the issue of the dangerous power brokers sucking more juice out of an aging nuclear power plant than it was originally designed to achieve. Hopefully the people of Vermont and New England will unite, and this will be the end of a bizarre era when VY gets decommissioned in 2012.
Today, every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day
when this planet may no longer be habitable. Every man, woman, and child
lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads,
capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or madness.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
1) Iraq's Hidden News - Return of the Death Squads
- - General who eavesdropped on public is new CIA chief
- - The President of Iran's Letter To President Bush
- - My Meeting With Rumsfeld by Ray McGovern
- - Ray McGovern Is Going to Rumsfeld's House
- - THE CON - Kerry Won. Now Get Over It . . .
Return of the Death Squads Iraq's Hidden News
By John Pilger 04 May 2006
In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes
the difference between Iraq as seen on the corporate news and the
real news, such as the return of US-trained and armed death squads,
reminiscent of Central America and Vietnam.
RETURN OF THE DEATH SQUADS - IRAQ'S HIDDEN NEWS
The lifts in the New York Hilton played CNN on a small screen you could not avoid watching. Iraq was top of the news; pronouncements about a "civil war" and "sectarian violence" were repeated incessantly. It was as if the US invasion had never happened and the killing of tens of thousands of civilians by the Americans was a surreal fiction. The Iraqis were mindless Arabs, haunted by religion, ethnic strife and the need to blow themselves up. Unctuous puppet politicians were paraded with no hint that their exercise yard was inside an American fortress. And when you left the lift, this followed you to your room, to the hotel gym, the airport, the next airport and the next country. Such is the power of America's corporate propaganda, which, as Edward Said pointed out in Culture and Imperialism, "penetrates electronically" with its equivalent of a party line.
The party line changed the other day. For almost three years it was that al-Qaeda was the driving force behind the "insurgency", led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a bloodthirsty Jordanian who was clearly being groomed for the kind of infamy Saddam Hussein enjoys. It mattered not that al-Zarqawi had never been seen alive and that only a fraction of the "insurgents" followed al-Qaeda. For the Americans, Zarqawi's role was to distract attention from the thing that almost all Iraqis oppose: the brutal Anglo-American occupation of their country.
Now that al-Zarqawi has been replaced by "sectarian violence" and "civil war", the big news is the attacks by Sunnis on Shia mosques and bazaars. The real news, which is not reported in the CNN "mainstream", is that the Salvador Option has been invoked in Iraq. This is the campaign of terror by death squads armed and trained by the US, which attack Sunnis and Shias alike. The goal is the incitement of a real civil war and the break-up of Iraq, the original war aim of Bush's administration.
The ministry of the interior in Baghdad, which is run by the CIA, directs the principal death squads. Their members are not exclusively Shia, as the myth goes. The most brutal are the Sunni-led Special Police Commandos, headed by former senior officers in Saddam's Ba'ath Party. This was formed and trained by CIA "counter-insurgency" experts, including veterans of the CIA's terror operations in central America in the 1980s, notably El Salvador. In his new book, Empire's Workshop (Metropolitan Books), the American historian Greg Grandin describes the Salvador Option thus: "Once in office, [President] Reagan came down hard on central America, in effect letting his administration's most committed militarists set and execute policy. In El Salvador, they provided more than a million dollars a day to fund a lethal counter-insurgency campaign... All told, US allies in central America during Reagan's two terms killed over 300,000 people, tortured hundreds of thousands and drove millions into exile."
Although the Reagan administration spawned the current Bushites, or "neo-cons", the pattern was set earlier. In Vietnam, death squads trained, armed and directed by the CIA murdered up to 50,000 people in Operation Phoenix. In the mid-1960s, in Indonesia, CIA officers compiled "death lists" for General Suharto's killing spree during his seizure of power. After the 2003 invasion, it was only a matter of time before this venerable "policy" was applied in Iraq.
According to the investigative writer Max Fuller (National Review Online), the key CIA manager of the interior ministry death squads "cut his teeth in Vietnam before moving on to direct the US military mission in El Salvador". Professor Grandin names another central America veteran whose job now is to "train a ruthless counter-insurgent force made up of ex-Ba'athist thugs". Another, says Fuller, is well-known for his "production of death lists". A secret militia run by the Americans is the Facilities Protection Service, which has been responsible for bombings. "The British and US Special Forces," concludes Fuller, "in conjunction with the [US-created] intelligence services at the Iraqi defence ministry, are fabricating insurgent bombings of Shias."
On 16 March, Reuters reported the arrest of an American "security contractor", who was found with weapons and explosives in his car. Last year, two Britons disguised as Arabs were caught with a car full of weapons and explosives; British forces bulldozed the Basra prison to rescue them. The Boston Globe recently reported: "The FBI's counter-terrorism unit has launched a broad investigation of US-based theft rings after discovering that some of the vehicles used in deadly car bombings in Iraq, including attacks that killed US troops and Iraqi civilians, were probably stolen in the United States, according to senior government officials."
As I say, all this has been tried before - just as the preparation of the American public for an atrocious attack on Iran is similar to the WMD fabrications in Iraq. If that attack comes, there will be no warning, no declaration of war, no truth. Imprisoned in the Hilton lift, staring at CNN, my fellow passengers could be excused for not making sense of the Middle East, or Latin America, or anywhere. They are isolated. Nothing is explained. Congress is silent. The Democrats are moribund. And the freest media on earth insult the public every day. As Voltaire put it: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
First published in the New Statesman - www.newstatesman.co.uk
http://pilger.carlton.com/print/133564
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - General who eavesdropped on public is new CIA chief
Published by The Independent (UK) 10 May 2006
President Bush yesterday named Michael Hayden, a four-star air force general, to be the new director of the CIA. General Hayden is expected to face tough questioning both for his military background and his role superintending the warrantless domestic eavesdropping programme by the ultra-secret National Security Agency, which he led between 1999 and 2005. But his confirmation by the Senate seemed in little doubt last night.
For the complete article, see:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article362857.ece
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The President of Iran's Letter To President Bush
Mr George Bush,
President of the United States of America
For sometime now I have been thinking, how one can justify the undeniable contradictions that exist in the international arena -- which are being constantly debated, specially in political forums and amongst university students. Many questions remain unanswered. These have prompted me to discuss some of the contradictions and questions, in the hopes that it might bring about an opportunity to redress them..
For the Full Text, click => The President of Iran's Letter to President Bush
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich Asks Tough Questions of Bush, Rumsfeld
Wants Answers About What the U.S. Is Doing in Iraq and Iran
May 6, 2006
Congressman Kucinich has been asking tough questions of the President and the Secretary of Defense.
He wrote letters in April to both Secretary Rumsfeld and President Bush. The text of the letters appears in the May 4 issue of the Congressional Record Extensions of Remarks.
Kucinich's April 5 letter to Rumsfeld began, "I am writing to request a copy of all records pertaining to Pentagon plans to use U.S. Special Forces to advise, support and train Iraqi assassination and kidnapping teams."
He referred to the January 5, 2005 Newsweek report of Pentagon plans to train elite Iraqi troops to put down growing violence there, dubbed "the Salvador option." He then cited 15 news reports since this time last year, suggesting that "the U.S. has trained and supported highly organized Iraqi commando brigades, and ... some of those brigades have operated as death squads, abducting and assassinating thousands of Iraqis."
Finally, Kucinich asked, "Mr. Secretary, in light of this evidence of U.S. support for and the existence of death squads in Iraq, what is the basis for your January 11, 2005 statement, that the idea of a Salvador option in Iraq is 'nonsense'?"
Kucinich's letters to the President concerned Iran. In his April 14 letter, he asked about reports that troops are already operating in Iran. If these reports are true, he suggested, "it appears that you have already made the decision to commit U.S. military forces to a unilateral conflict with Iran, even before direct or indirect negotiations with the government of Iran had been attempted, without UN support and without authorization from the U.S. Congress."
In conclusion, Kucinich wrote, "Any military deployment to Iran would constitute an urgent matter of national significance. I urge you to report immediately to Congress on all activities involving American forces in Iran."
Four days later, Congressman Kucinich again wrote to the President, this time asking about reports that "the U.S. is fomenting opposition and supporting military operations in Iran among insurgent groups and Iranian ethnic minority groups, some of whom are operating from Iraq." Once again he asked the President to report to Congress on U.S. support for anti-Iranian insurgent groups operating in Iran.
"It is a great breach of public trust to set this country on another path of war while keeping the Congress and the American people in the dark. I am demanding that you respond."
Read the full letters to Rumsfeld and Bush
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - My Meeting With Rumsfeld by Ray McGovern
When Rumsfeld broadened our dialogue to include the never-to-be-found Iraqi weapons of mass destruction,
saying, "Apparently, there were no weapons of mass destruction," I could not resist reminding him that he had
claimed he actually knew where they were.
For the complete article, see:
www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=7187
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Ray McGovern Is Going to Rumsfeld's House
By David Swanson
Ray McGovern wasn't aiming to make Donald Rumsfeld stutter and stammer like a kid caught cheating on a test when he asked him last week why he'd lied us into a war. That was just a side benefit. Ray wants answers, and he's taking his demand to Donald Rumsfeld's house in Washington, D.C.
On Thursday, May 18, a large coalition of groups is planning to deliver to the White House all the signatures and comments posted on a petition at www.DontAttackIran.org As the name of the site suggests, the petition simply asks the President and Vice President not to launch another aggressive attack on foreign soil an attack that would necessarily be promoted with lies, lies that are already being spread by the Bush administration.
For the complete article, see:
www.afterdowningstreet.org/rumsfeld
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - THE CON - Kerry Won. Now Get Over It . . .
by Greg Palast
...because they're putting '08 in their pocket. Republicans just seem to have that winning spirit. They also have caging lists, felons of the future, rotting ballots, snuffed canaries, and a lock on the votes of Kissinger-Americans and the undead.
WARNING! There are cranks and kooks and crazies out there on the Internet who say that George Bush lost the 2004 election, like one titled, "Kerry Won" published on the TomPaine.com web site two days after the election. I wrote it.
On November 11, a week after TomPaine.com published it, I received an e-mail from The New York Times Washington Bureau. Hot on the investigation of the veracity of the vote, The Times reporter asked me pointed questions:
Question #1: Are you a "sore loser"?
Question #2: Are you a "conspiracy nut"?
There was no third question. Investigation of the vote was, for The Times at any rate, complete. The next day, the paper's thorough analysis of the evidence yielded this front-page story, "VOTE FRAUD THEORIES, SPREAD BY BLOGS, ARE QUICKLY BURIED."
As America's self-proclaimed Paper of Record had no space for the facts, I thought I'd share some with you here.
"Kerry Won" was not a two-day inquiry la Times. It was the latest in a series of investigative reports coming out of a four-year team examination, begun for BBC Television's Newsnight, Britain's Guardian papers and Harper's Magazine, dissecting that greasy sausage called American electoral democracy.
For the complete article, see:
www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=501&row=0
2) Nuclear plant gets OK for final stage of power increase
- - Forget Iran; Worry about Vermont
- - Free Speech @ Entergy VT Nuclear Headquarters
- - Brazil Officially Starts First Uranium Enrichment Facility
- - Nuclear plant gets OK for final stage of power increase
MONTPELIER, Vt. --Federal regulators on Thursday cleared the Vermont Yankee
nuclear plant for the final stage of its 20-percent power increase.
For complete AP article, see: Nuclear plant gets OK for final stage of power increase
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - Forget Iran; Worry about Vermont
Published On Monday, May 08, 2006 2:28 AM
By LEAH S. ZAMORE
Harvard University
Crimson Staff Writer
www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=513410
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - Free Speech @ Entergy Nuclear VT Headquarters
Free Speech Demo & Walk to Entergy Nuclear Headquarters,
May 13, 14; Reddy Kilowatt to Join Anti-Nuclear Movement
For information on the walk call Citizens Awareness Network at 413-339-5781 or 413-863-8952;
www.nukebusters.org
For information about the 24-hour Free Speech Demo call Traprock Peace Center at 413-773-7427.
www.traprockpeace.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Brazil Officially Starts First Uranium Enrichment Facility
Published May 9, 2006 by OneWorld.net
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Brazil has inaugurated its first uranium enrichment facility to produce the type
of fuel for nuclear power plants that Iran is running into trouble for attempting to produce.
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0509-01.htm
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes FNs' use of copyrighted material is posted at FlybyNews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Empire * Permafrost? * Navy Noise * NukeBuster
02 May 2006
"Won't need no shadow man running the government
Won't need no stinkin war
Won't need no hair cut
Won't need no shoe shine
After the Garden is Gone"
-- Neil Young
1) US Iraq Iran Israel 9/11 Nuke Foolery
- - The American Empire and the Commonwealth of God
- - Resources for the 9/11 Truth-Peace Movement
- - The United States, Israel, and the Possible Attack on Iran
- - Neo-conservatives threaten nuclear war on the pretext of Iran
- - Iran Urges United Nations to Oppose American 'Threats'
- - The Untold Story of Israel's Bomb
- - Wayne Madsen reports cyber warfare
- - Stephen Colbert at the White House Dinner
- - 300,000 March in Manhattan at Anti-War Protest
- - Springsteen and Young: Music of a Once and Future Democracy
2) Chilling warnings on receding permafrost
3) Navy Sonar and Mass Dolphin Stranding
4) Vermont State Rights CAN Protect New England
Editor's Notes:
There is perhaps too much to absorb in this issue; so please pay particular attention in item 1, following information on David Ray Griffin's newest book. In this section Jeremy Lynes is offering 9/11 truth DVDs at cost to help bring peace and justice into our world. Please help with that initiative. Item 1 includes other investigative reports on Iran, Iraq, Israel, US and nuclear foolery, and a review by David Swanson of the newest songs from an era yet to disappear, thanks to Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen. Item 2 again touches upon the carbonization of our atmosphere. The picture looks grim, but then why is an engine to convert waste to clean power not yet receiving funding for prototype development? Item 3 is more proof that the Navy's LFA sonar is killing dolphins and whales. Item 4 is a hopeful sign that Vermont will claim sovereignty over the federal and corporate forces pushing for excessive and dangerous nuclear power.
"All that is necessary for evil to succeed
is for good men to do nothing."
-- Edmund Burke
1) US Iraq Iran Israel 9/11 Nuke Foolery
- - The American Empire and the Commonwealth of God
- - Resources for the 9/11 Truth-Peace Movement
- - The United States, Israel, and the Possible Attack on Iran
- - Neo-conservatives threaten nuclear war on the pretext of Iran
- - Iran Urges United Nations to Oppose American 'Threats'
- - The Untold Story of Israel's Bomb
- - Wayne Madsen reports cyber warfare
- - Stephen Colbert at the White House Dinner
- - 300,000 March in Manhattan at Anti-War Protest
- - Springsteen and Young: Music of a Once and Future Democracy
The American Empire and the Commonwealth of God:
A Political, Economic, Religious Statement
By David Ray Griffin, John B. Cobb Jr., Richard Falk, & Catherine Keller
Book Description
Four distinguished scholars here level a powerful critique of the rapid expansion of the emerging American empire
and its oppressive and destructive political, military, and economic policies.
Publishers Weekly - REVIEW
What do you get when you put three theologians together with an attorney? Not a joke, but a deadly serious, academic analysis of our nation, its past and its future. This collection of nine essays addresses the ideological and practical evidence and consequences of what the authors see as an often disguised imperial agenda inherent in the founding and development of the United States. The authors, besides sharing the conviction that the United States "is seeking to become the world's first borderless empire" whose imperialist policies constitute "the primary threat to the survival of the human species," share an affinity for the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. While they object to imperialism on "political, economic and ecological grounds" as well as on "religious-spiritual-moral grounds," they spend most of the book making their secular statement; only the last three essays speak directly of religion. Keller's contribution contains a particularly interesting "debate" between the people she calls "Bush-Doctrine Idealists and the great idol-smasher John Calvin." Students of American history, government and political science, will feel quite at home within these pages..
Available at Amazon.com www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0664230091/ref=dp_proddesc_0/103-8142988-0768628?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=283155
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Resources for the 9/11 Truth-Peace Movement
Join the campaign for world peace and justice by distributing 9/11 Truth DVDs.
Get any amount for $1 per DVD, plus mailing.
Contact Jeremy Lynes => linelites@mindspring.com
by telephone (east coast USA) ===> 1-404-892-7114
The following is from Jeremy via email:
I have made up a new dvd with Loose Change and with a 17 minute short introduction to 911 truth and the involvement of the Federal Reserve. It also has a clip of Steven Jones' lecture.. It is a great dvd to give to people, it is very nonconfrontational and nonchallenging. I highly recommend it as a pass around.
...If anyone wants a copy of this Loose Change or another pass-around dvds, I supply them for $1 each - labeled and with envelope. Though they may not be 'IN' the envelope and you may have to insert them. Price is 80 cents each if you get 100 or more.......shipping is extra. I can do paypal; just enter in my email address. Add for postage - $1 for 1-2, $2 for 3-5, $3 for 6-10, $4 for 11-20, $5 for 21-30, $6 for 30-50, $7 for 51-100
1. LOOSE CHANGE 2ND EDITION with Federal Reserve addendum
2. Professor Steven Jones of BYU lecture on explosives in the towers.
3. 911 IN PLANE SITE the directors cut
4. 911 MARTIAL LAW by Alex Jones
5. 911 ROAD TO TYRANNY by Alex Jones
6. PAINFUL DECEPTIONS AND DAVID RAY GRIFFIN 911 LECTURE ON CSPAN2
7. AEROSOL CRIMES.....dvd on chemtrails
8. BOHEMIAN GROVE by Alex Jones
I believe informing others is our best tactic at this time.
Loose Change is excellent in convincing folks that the
threat our country and the world is under is very real.
If anyone has other suggested DVDs, pls let me know.
Jeremy Lynes linelites@mindspring.com 404-892-7114
For other resources, see FN's
Films that Make a Difference
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The United States, Israel, and the Possible Attack on Iran
by Stephen Zunes
Published on April 29, 2006 by Foreign Policy in Focus
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0429-21.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Neo-conservatives threaten nuclear war on the pretext of Iran
Pseudo-religious group worships the Bible of Greed, and not of Jesus
by Pastor John, International Affairs Columnist
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2006/04/12/01172.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Iran Urges United Nations to Oppose American 'Threats'
Published May 2, 2006 by the New York Times
Iran Urges United Nations to Oppose American 'Threats'
by Warren Hoge
UNITED NATIONS - Iran asked the United Nations on Monday to take a stand against American threats
that it said included possible nuclear strikes on its territory and that were "in total contempt of international law."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0502-02.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Untold Story of Israel's Bomb
By Avner Cohen and William Burr
Sunday, April 30, 2006 Washington Post; B01
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/28/AR2006042801326_pf.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Wayne Madsen reports cyber warfare
WayneMadsenReport.com
MAY 2, 2006:
Ed. note: Yesterday, WMR was warned by a reliable European source that there was unusual access activity detected regarding our web site. Fifteen minutes later, our server, which also supports other web sites, temporarily went down. But we have the identity of the source of the unusual access activity: the US Army's 5th Signal Command in Mannheim, Germany. Two component activities of the 5th Signal Command the 2nd and 7th Signal Brigades -- appear to be involved in information warfare operations and influence operations. Note to 5th Signal Command operators: by hacking into U.S. computers protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, you are in potential violation of Federal law (the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Section 1030, US Code, Fraud and related activity in connection with computers). If your Commanding Officer, Brig. Gen. Dennis Via, authorizes such illegal hacking, he is in violation of the law and it is your duty, pursuant to Army and DoD regulations, not to obey such illegal orders and report them to the Army Inspector General -- 1-(800)752-9747, 1-(703) 601-1060 or DSN: 329-1060.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Stephen Colbert at the White House Dinner
Published on Monday, May 1, 2006 by Daily Kos
Transcript of Stephen Colbert's monologue at the
White House Correspondents Dinner
Saturday, April 29, 2006
www.commondreams.org/views06/0501-30.htm
+
For video tape, more info:
www.thankyoustephencolbert.org/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 300,000 March in Manhattan at Anti-War Protest
Published April 29, 2006 by the Associated Press
300,000 March in Manhattan at Anti-War Protest
by Desmond Butler
NEW YORK -- Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters marched Saturday through Manhattan to demand an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq just hours after an American soldier died in a roadside explosion in Baghdad - the 70th U.S. fighter killed in that country this month.
www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0429-08.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Springsteen and Young: Music of a Once and Future Democracy
By David Swanson
[EXCERPT]
Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young have just released a pair of incredible albums of protest, one a bone-rattling revival of the best of rebel music of ages past, the other an impassioned attack on our present slide toward fascism. A hundred years from now, if the human race has survived, when a future Springsteen records a future "Seeger Sessions" it will be bound to include the music of Young's "Living With War." Also by that time, Young's instant classic, "Let's Impeach the President," will have been translated, as any national anthem should, into a variety of languages, some or all of them, no doubt, destined to be deemed inappropriate by future proponents of the worst of the past.
Springsteen's album is a foot-stomping, sing-a-long, can't-sit-still party. It's amazing that with music this good anything remains to be done in the world and that televisions are actually purchased and viewed. As long as you have one, though, flip the CD over and watch the DVD of Bruce and his buddies jamming in a farm house and talking about what they're trying to accomplish. And stick the CD in a player you can bring to your next local activist meeting, labor rally, Camp Casey, impeachment forum, sit-in at your congress member's office, or immigrants' rights event. This is not the slow and pensive Bruce, and these are not songs that only a political activist could love. This is music that everyone will dance and tap their hands to, many without catching on to the themes that give this music power.
Young, like Springsteen, uses a chorus of enthusiastic voices on his new album, which provides a sense of masses of people united
behind his songs, including the opening track "After the Garden is Gone."
Won't need no shadow man running the government
Won't need no stinkin war
Won''t need no hair cut
Won't need no shoe shine
After the Garden is Gone
The title track, "Living With War," quotes from the Star Spangled Banner and also says:
I join the multitudes
I raise my hand in peace
I never bow to the laws of the thought police
I take a holy vow
To never kill again
To never kill again
"Shock and Awe" is one of the rockingest tunes, and one of the more timely, with its lyric
"Back in the Days of Mission Accomplished," citing Bush's speech of May 1, 2003.
But the song destined for immortality is the song that will in coming weeks and months be used as a
movement song, the song that fearlessly and directly tackles the greatest immediate need the world has:
"Let's Impeach the President"
Lets impeach the president for lying
And misleading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all our money out the door
Hes the man who hired all the criminals
The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors
And bend the facts to fit with their new stories
Of why we have to send our men to war
Lets impeach the president for spying
On citizens inside their own homes
Breaking every law in the country
By tapping our computers and telephones
What if Al Qaeda blew up the levees
Would New Orleans have been safer that way
Sheltered by our governments protection
Or was someone just not home that day?
Lets impeach the president
For hijacking our religion and using it to get elected
Dividing our country into colors
And still leaving black people neglected
Thank god hes racking down on steroids
Since he sold his old baseball team
Theres lot of people looking at big trouble
But of course the president is clean
Thank God
Listen to "Let's Impeach the President"
www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/9726
Listen to whole album:
www.jtmp.org/NeilYoung.htm
For this entire article, link to:
www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/9751
2) Chilling warnings on receding permafrost
02 May 2006
The annual loss of around 1 per cent of the world's permafrost areas will trigger the release of more greenhouse gases, starting a vicious circle that could make global warming even worse than anticipated, scientists have warned.
Peter Kershaw from the University of Alberta at Edmonton, Canada warned an audience of over 500 people at the Royal Geographical Society, London on Thursday that `due to global warming, permafrost in the Arctic is degrading.' Kershaw has been monitoring the effects of climate change on Arctic biotopes for many years, supported by volunteers who can join his research via the Earthwatch Institute.
Kershaw's research on locations in Canada at Churchill and in the Mackenzie Mountains has shown that permafrost areas are receding rapidly, and if current trends continue they will disappear completely within decades. These vast frozen areas on all continents surrounding the North Pole harbour over 400 gigatons of organic carbon locked in frozen peatland. Kershaw thinks that the release of methane and carbon dioxide from these peatlands will act as a positive feedback loop that could make global warming even worse than previously thought. `The permafrost component of global warming has been underappreciated,' he told Chemistry World.
`Peter Kershaw's research shows how global warming is beginning to unravel the earth's natural systems for storing carbon,' said Roger Mitchell, chief scientist at Earthwatch Europe. `If this system is further disrupted there will be huge consequences for the entire planet.'
For the complete article, see:
www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2006/May/02050601.asp
For FN's resource page on this issue, see:
The Mounting Evidence of Global Warming
3) Navy Sonar and Mass Dolphin Stranding
by Mark Palmer mpalmer@cal.net
via Stop LFAS list serve
www.yahoogroups.com/group/stoplfas
Sun Apr 30, 2006 1:21 pm (PDT)
Subject: LFA: Sonar Called Likely Stranding Cause (Wash Post, LA Times)
STOP THE NAVY NOISE!
Activist E-Mail Alert for Navy LFA Sonar Campaign
International Marine Mammal Project, Earth Island Institute
= = = = = = = = = =
Dear LFA Activists:
As many of you know, much of the world's current concerns with intense military sonar effects on whales and dolphins began in Hawai'i, where sonar testing and annual anti-submarine warfare training cruises offshore associated with strandings and other problems for whales and dolphins, caused local activists to raise the issue of underwater noise pollution. Their cause has now become a global concern, in no small part due to their dedication and your
dedication.
A new study out by the National Marine Fisheries Service suggests that acoustic bombardment by intense Navy sonars could have caused a horrible stranding of up to 200 melon-headed whales in Hawai'i in 2004 (see articles below).
Just as predictable, unfortunately, is the continued denial by the US Navy that there is anything wrong or that the use of intense military sonar could possibly have any effect on anything. What, me worry? (This of course also fits into the pattern of the current Bush Administration to deny any adverse impacts on the environment from their disastrous cowboy diplomacy and business-friendly actions.)
What to do? What to do?
As always, we need to insist that Congress keep the Navy accountable. And we need to change Congress so that Congress will not continue to toadie to the Bush military/industrial complex (which is really not so complex, just greedy) agenda.
November 2006 will be a watershed, even historical, US election -- get ready for it! Plan to vote.. Throw the bums out and restore our democracy!
-- Mark J. Palmer
Mark J. Palmer
Assistant Director
International Marine Mammal Project
(415) 788-3666 x139
(415) 788-7324 (fax)
EarthIsland.org
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
WASHINGTON POST
Sonar Called Likely Stranding Cause
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 28, 2006; Page A08
Federal marine specialists have concluded that Navy sonar was the most likely cause
of the unusual stranding of melon-headed whales in a Hawaiian bay in 2004.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/27/AR2006042702084.html
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Report: Sonar May Have Caused Whale Stranding
By Tony Perry, Times Staff Writer
April 28, 2006
SAN DIEGO - The unusual stranding of 150 melon-headed whales in a shallow bay off the island of Kauai in 2004 could have been caused by the animals being spooked by the use of sonar by Navy ships, a federal agency reported Thursday.
"We can find no other cause for this event - given the fact there are many things we don't know," said Teri Rowles, a marine mammal veterinarian with the Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-me-whales28apr28,1,395863.story?coll=la-news-a_section
For more FN resource links, see:
The harmful impact on Whales and Dolphins
by the U.S. Navy's experimental use of active sonar systems
4) Vermont State Rights CAN Protect New England
From Deb Katz < deb@nukebusters.org >
Great News!!
The Vermont House has passed a version of S 124 by a vote of 130-0!!
This bill clearly was seen as a home, state rule issue. It was the work of many volunteers from a group of organizations pulling together to ask their members to call their state representatives which turned the tide- NFV, NEC, VPIRG,CLF, VCE, CAN and others.
Thank you for your help!
But we are not done. This bill now gives us the chance to terminate Vermont Yankee's license and replace VY with sustainable energy. We now have a choice about our energy future. It will not be easy. We must convince a majority of representatives that it is in the best interest of Vermont to turn off VY in 2012.
We must organize, organize, organize EVERYONE especially in the north about the choices that Vermonters can make to be a truely green state. We are going to teach and talk to every representative about the issues around VY and how VT can replace the 30% of electricity it gets from VY with solar, wind and energy efficiencies!!
Get Ready!! Set!! GO!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Flyby News Renewable Links and Resources:
This Letter of Concern by Dr. John W. Gofman explains the experimental proof that there is no safe dose for alpha particles emitted by the radioactive decay of plutonium when inside the human body. This is shown, too, by the harm from nuclear power plants and Depleted Uranium used in missile shells. For more on the nuke issue and activism, visit these web sites: Nuclear Information and Resource Service, New England Coalition, Citizens Awareness Network, Traprock Peace Center, and The Radiation and Public Health Project.
Converting Waste Heat Into Power -- ReGen Power Systems, Ltd. of Sanford, ME, is pioneering development of a 1 megawatt low temperature Stirling power system to convert excess process heat and steam energy at industrial plants into electricity. The system will be powered by a novel Stirling engine designed to operate at the moderate and lower temperatures found in process heating at paper mills, steel mills, chemicals and petroleum refining facilities, glass ovens, cement plants and similar locations. In addition to high efficiency, the ReGen systems will produce additional power with no new fuel combustion. Not only will Industries save money, but they can produce electricity with no new pollution emissions, enabling companies to contribute in a positive way to the environment. For more information, visit a Stirling Solution for Onsite Power Production.
SolarFest -- New England Renewable Energy Festival - SolarFest is a nonprofit organization with a mission to educate people about renewable energy by engaging the community through the performing arts. SolarFest's new home at Forget-Me-Not Farm in Tinmouth, Vermont, exceeded hopeful expectations in July 2005. Its beauty is inspirational, and the welcome feeling extended to all. The organizers would like to see the SolarFest model go nationwide. Flyby News will again be participating with our favorite festival. Come visit Vermont, Flyby News, and Solar Fest on the weekend of July 15 and 16, 2006. For more information, visit SolarFest.org.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you would like to receive more Flyby News alerts for the New England
region, send an email to flyby@mtdata.com & insert "subscribe" in subject
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes FNs' use of copyrighted material is posted at FlybyNews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Policy Intel * 911 Oil Currency * Uranium
23 April 2006
"The war in Iraq was coming and they
were looking for intelligence to fit
into the policy.
-- Tyler Drumheller
retired CIA operative
1) Policy Not Intelligence Led U.S. to Invade Iraq
- - Purge at the CIA - America's Gulag
- - Condoleezza Rice Implicated in New Leak Scandal
- - West Point Graduates Against The War
2) 9/11 and the oil-sleazy-empire-business
- - 11 Remarkable Facts About 9/11
- - Stop the dEvolution of the Bunker Buster Nuke
- - Uranium bombing in Iraq contaminates Europe
- - Chernobyl + 20 - resources and information
- - Radiation and Public Health Awareness
Editor's Notes:
This issue contains more evidence about a peak oil scam.
The problem is not about supply and demand in a free market,
but the underlying control, theft, and bewildering madness to
use policy over intelligence for a world at war with itself.
Take action - witness - and share -
"Confronting the Evidence:
A Call to Reopen the 9/11 Investigation."
- Order a Free DVD -
Reopen911.org
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Related to the spirit of freedom and democracy,
Flyby News will be presenting a free screening::
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 6:00 pm - at the
Wheeler Memorial Library, Orange, MA
For more on films-freedom-truth movement:
Films that Make a Difference!
1) Policy Not Intelligence Led U.S. to Invade Iraq
- - Purge at the CIA - America's Gulag
- - Condoleezza Rice Implicated in New Leak Scandal
- - West Point Graduates Against The War
CIA Warned Bush of No Weapons in Iraq: Retired Official
Published on Saturday, April 22, 2006 by the Agence France Presse
The Central Intelligence Agency warned US President George W. Bush before the Iraq war that it had reliable information the government of Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, a retired CIA operative disclosed.
But the operative, Tyler Drumheller, said top White House officials simply brushed off the warning, saying they were "no longer interested" in intelligence and that the policy toward Iraq had been already set.
The disclosure, made in an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" program due to be broadcast late Sunday, adds to earlier accusations that the Bush administration used intelligence selectively as it built its case for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq and the toppling of Saddam's regime.
The administration claimed in the run-up to the war that Baghdad had extensive stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and was working clandestinely to build a nuclear arsenal, therefore, presenting a threat to the world.
An extensive CIA-led probe undertaken after the US military took control of Iraq failed to turn up any such weapons. But Bush and other members of his administration have blamed the fiasco on a massive intelligence failure and vehemently denied manipulating information they had been provided.
However, Drumheller, who was a top CIA liaison officer in Europe before the war, insisted Bush had been explicitly warned well before an invasion order was given that the United States may not find the suspected weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
The information about the absence of the suspected weapons in Iraq, according to excerpts of Drumheller's remarks, was clandestinely provided to the United States by former Iraqi foreign minister Naji Sabri, who doubled as a covert intelligence agent for Western services.
Then-CIA director George Tenet immediately delivered this report to Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other high-ranking administration officials, but the information was dismissed, Drumheller said.
"The group that was dealing with preparation for the Iraq war came back and said they were no longer interested," the former CIA official recalled. "And we said 'Well, what about the intel?' And they said 'Well, this isn't about intel anymore. This is about regime change.'"
Drumheller said the White House did not want any additional data from Sabri because, as he pointed out, "the policy was set."
"The war in Iraq was coming and they were looking for intelligence to fit into the policy," he argued.
The CIA declined to comment on the disclosure.
Drumheller admitted that Sabri was just one source, but pointed out that the administration would not shy away from other single-source information if it suited its policy goals.
"They certainly took information that came from single sources on the yellowcake story and on several other stories with no corroboration at all," he complained.
The White House had embraced a British report that Iraq had purchased 500 tons of uranium from the African nation of Niger, allegedly to restart its nuclear weapons program.
A special CIA envoy Joseph Wilson, who made a secret trip to Niger in late 2002 to verify the report, dismissed it as unfounded -- much to the displeasure of the White House.
Drumheller, who retired from the agency last year, is the second high-ranking ex-CIA official to criticize the administration's use of intelligence in months leading up to the war.
Paul Pillar, who was the national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005, wrote in the March-April issue of Foreign Affairs magazine that the White House was "cherry-picking" information and that "intelligence was misused publicly to justify decisions already made."
There was no immediate reaction from the White House to the latest charges.
Copyright 2006 AFP
###
www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0422-04.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Purge at the CIA - America's Gulag
Published by CounterPunch
April 22 / 23, 2006
Purge at the CIA
America's Gulag
By JOHN CHUCKMAN
Often small things provide the most disturbing evidence for world-changing events, as when naturalists observe the quiet disappearance of some little known species. The CIA's firing of senior officer Mary O. McCarthy is a political event of just this nature.
Ordinarily, the firing of some middling CIA officer is not an event to interest many other than John Le Carre fans and those who linger over cappuccino at the CIA's Langely cafeteria. Not just conservative throw-backs recognize the need for secrecy in many intelligence matters.
Ordinarily, the fact that some CIA agent has broken his or her oath of secrecy would not cause much disturbance outside the unhinged James Angleton types who make up some portion of any intelligence community. Surely, out of tens of thousands of employees, this is something that happens with regularity.
But Ms. McCarthy's case is different, and it is of interest to the world. She is responsible, reportedly by her own admission during a furious round of polygraph tests, for information supplied to The Washington Post concerning the CIA's vast secret prison system.
This CIA-run gulag, and there is no name more fitting, does not resemble the case of a new secret weapon or of a mole planted somewhere abroad. The existence of a secret gulag goes to the heart of democratic values.
Is the population of any democratic country not entitled to be informed of so vast and creepy an enterprise? To exercise their franchise based on facts? At some point, any secret operation, if it becomes large enough and affects the lives of tens of thousands, risks undermining the very legitimacy of the government running it.
The reputation of the United States abroad has suffered perhaps irreparable damage from the excesses and stupidities of Bush's War on Terror. So much so that Americans are now advised by their own State Department to guard their behavior and even identity when traveling abroad. Are Americans not entitled to be informed of what has caused this? Of what has been done in their name?
If you can keep tens of thousands secretly locked away and subject to torture, what prevents this number from becoming millions? Where are the limits without public information? The inherent integrity of American government officials, you say? Three-quarters of the world's people today would laugh caustically at the suggestion.
John Chuckman lives in Ontario, Canada.
www.counterpunch.org/chuckman04222006.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Condoleezza Rice Implicated in New Leak Scandal
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042106Y.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - West Point Graduates Against The War
Launches Campaign Against the Deceit of the US Government
www.commondreams.org/news2006/0421-05.htm
2) 9/11 and the oil-sleazy-empire-business
- - 11 Remarkable Facts About 9/11
- - Stop the dEvolution of the Bunker Buster Nuke
- - Uranium bombing in Iraq contaminates Europe
- - Chernobyl + 20 - resources and information
- - Radiation and Public Health Awareness
They got away with 9-11 and mass murder (thus far)
By Karl W B Schwarz
4/22/2006
[EXCERPT]
This will come as a shock to those aficionados of Peak Oil. There is no shortage of oil, just a shortage of truth coming from the people who are so greedy they cannot get out of the stuck-on-stupid mode.
Back in December I sent out an email update that reduced 9-11 down to three simple issues. Quoting from that email:
For those interested in the underlying reasons we have invaded Iraq, the document available at that link and the two books Neoconned and Neoconned Again will give you the information needed to understand the bigger picture. My book One-Way Ticket to Crawford, Texas provides even more background and proof that the true terrorists and the true enemies of Americans are the RNC and DNC and their wealthy elite masters.
It is really quite simple:
The U.S. goal of remaining the only military Superpower and even regional powers eliminated; and
The U.S. insistence that all oil sales will be in petro-dollars, not the Euro; and
The U.S. intent to dominate the world oil and gas supplies because that will ensure that oil sales will remain denominated in dollars, not Euro. Whomever controls the oil and gas can control entire economies by denying energy supplies.
The US policy of growing our economy by increasing the National Debt would not be possible if the Euro becomes the worlds trading currency for oil. Hence, Iran and Venezuela are terrorists since they intend to trade in Euros. Even the UN Oil for Food program was run through France and denominated in Euros. If the Euro becomes the oil trade currency our economy would melt down in a year or less.
I look at 9-11 as means to implement policies that Americans would not have otherwise endorsed. It really is that simple, for before 9-11 there is not a single thing George W. Bush could have said to get Americans riled up to attack Afghanistan. It was a Pearl Harbor so Americans would support the war and go back to not paying attention to what our government and major corporations are really up to.
BOO! They want Americans to remain very afraid and desiring of protection. Wake up your life and your future are being plundered!
Note that they still have not said a word about Bridas Corporation. No one has written more about that than I have and I will continue to point to that hidden reason and hidden agenda. Bridas Corporation was years ahead of US oil companies in controlling that vast supply of oil by controlling the pipeline access to get it to the oceans. The Clinton Administration and the Bush Administration beat up on Bridas Corporation for many years before 9-11 happened to block them from succeeding.
They did not win $500 million in a US Court of Appeals based on some arcane principle. They won because they proved massive amounts of interference of contract towards what they already had agreements on.
That is one of the primary reasons that South America, especially Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela, are rejecting US policies that attempt to dominate them. . Bad policies do not sell well and DC has become nothing but bad policies over the past three presidential administrations. Our presidents do not serve the American people, they serve commerce, the Wealthy Elite and major corporate interests.
I look at the DU matter in its simplest terms as being an incredibly inhumane byproduct of our idiotic policies. They know it is deadly and have known since the 1940s, yet they expose people to it and then ignore what they have done. They really could not care less how many they kill with DU. It is a means to de-populate and get rid of useless eaters, to quote Henry Kissinger.
Those resources belong to the Wealthy Elite! Did you not get the memo?
In another email update in November, I disclosed a little known report that shows that Venezuela may well be sitting on the single largest oil reserve in the world at a whopping 4 trillion barrels of heavy crude oil. That trading in Euros is scary indeed, but it is the policies of this government that has undermined the value of the US dollar and made that happen so they could go after any Euro-Terrorist.
Saddam Hussein traded in Euros and look at what they wrought. Iran is trading in Euros and even opening up an Oil Bourse to trade in Euros. Watch the BS from DC. Venezuela is trading in Euros so that makes him a terrorist too. Hugo Chavez might even make DC have to change their style of robbing you and me.
Venezuela, according to some arcane reports, sits on four trillion barrels of heavy crude. That is not a typo. Venezuela has reported reserves of FOUR TRILLION barrels of oil.
www.radford.edu/~wkovarik/oil/oilcharts.html
The Bush Administration launched a war to take over the Caspian Basin, that contains oil reserves estimated at a mere 200 billion barrels, or a thirty-year supply of oil. That war was to take over the country with a pipeline that is needed to get crude oil to the ocean ports, where it can be shipped to refineries abroad. An upcoming email update addresses all of the facts surrounding those matters.
If this report is accurate, Venezuela alone has roughly four times the amount of oil in all of the Middle East. You can see what our policies about that oil have done in the way of insane policies from our government.
The following map is British Petroleums version of oil reserves and note the huge difference stated for South America.
The Peak Oil theory might be a myth created to drive up the price of oil and gas, and here is why I state it that way.
Another factor that might be driving the synthetic belligerence towards Chavez is that he and the Peoples Republic of China [PRC] recently entered into long term agreements for Venezuela to supply oil to the PRC. They have even made arrangements to build a pipeline from Venezuela to the west coast of Panama to facilitate shipping of the oil in tankers too large to go through the Panama Canal. The financing deal on that pipeline was done about six months ago by someone that I know personally. If Bush, Cheney and the oil companies that pull their strings truly are trying to dominate and control the worlds petroleum supplies, that unpardonable sin by Chavez might be all the reason they needed to try to take over Venezuela, assassinate Chavez as suggested by Pat Robertson, or otherwise try to punish Venezuela for not playing along. Venezuela is one of the few countries denominating their sales of oil in the Euro and that 4 trillion barrels of oil denominated to the Euro is bad news for DC. They would have to exercise fiscal sanity and fiscal policy for a change and that means their buddies cannot steal as much from the US Treasury in the future. You can imagine how desperate they are to maintain that status quo.
It is definitely something worth thinking about and holding our leaders accountable for, since they seem to think that everything has to be so secret.
Of course they want us to think that the Middle East is so valuable and strategic. It is not, just strategic to the Zionists and our oil companies. Making the Middle East so strategic is consistent with their policies.
The reason for this email is what follows. Meria Heller (www.meria.net ) sent this to me and asked what I thought about it. I gave here the short answer and this email is the long answer.
U.S. Oil Discovery- Largest Reserve in the World!
Stansberry Report Online
4/20/2006
Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world more than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction. Three companies have been chosen to lead the way. Test drilling has already begun
Five months ago, the U.S. Energy Department announced the results of a land survey
They reported this stunning news: We have more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth.
Here are the official estimates: 8-times as much oil as Saudi : Arabia 18-times as much oil as Iraq 21-times as much oil as : Kuwait 22-times as much oil as Iran 500-times as much oil : as Yemen And its all right here in the Western United : States.
James Bartis, lead researcher with the study says, Weve got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East.
More than 2 TRILLION barrels. Untapped.
Thats more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil in the world today, reports The Denver Post.
When asked about Americas least-publicized oil supply, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch said: The amounts of oil are staggering. Who would have guessed that in just Colorado and Utah, there is more recoverable oil than in the Middle East?
Three million barrels of oil per day That translates into more than $20 BILLION a year.
These are the conservative estimates. The U.S. Energy Dept. estimates an eventual output of 10 million barrels of oil per day. At that rate, the money flow would be even greater.
www.stansberryonline.com/OIL/
It is a safe bet that they discovered this oil years ago and are just now getting around to telling us about it. There were policies they wanted to put into play, like taking over the Caspian Basin oil so Russia and the PRC would not be able to use that 200 billion barrels against us as an economic weapon. As most know now, Bush planned to take over Iraq in his first Cabinet meeting. The 20 Year War Plan identified over 20 nations to take over, and each having vast supplies of oil and gas.
As far back as the George H W Bush Administration they planned to take over the Caspian Basin in Operation Steppe Shield. The 20 Year War Plan desired by the Neocons and Zionists, and Big Defense, Big Banks and Big Oil was concocted under the Clinton Administration.
You see, if one controls the energy they can control national economies of other countries. They can even control and crush us as they are doing now with high gasoline and energy prices.
Sooner or later, in savior fashion, they will tell you about the vast pools of oil under the Ouachita Mountains in West Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma that are down about 30,000 to 35,000 feet and has been known about for over 20 years.
The oil crisis is a fraud folks. It is all about control and US domination of world commerce through military might and control of the majority of oil and natural gas.
They are using terrorism and other artificial means to pump up the prices and rip money out of your pocket and out of the economy. It is greed running rampant and a government in DC that see nothing wrong with that since those huge campaign donations will keep flowing in.
All a politician has to do is support certain policies and they are assured of massive money for their continued stay in office.
Our government and our oil companies are at this very time waging economic warfare against the American people and it is time to show them the door and put a stop to it. This is an election year do not for your own sake send a single incumbent back to Washington, DC.
Best regards,
Karl
To receive email updates, write to: kwbschwarz2@snet.net
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 11 Remarkable Facts About 9/11
Number 1 - The Mysterious Collapse of World Trace Center Building 7
"It is commonly known that the Twin Towers fell on 9/11, but did you know that a third building also fell that day? WTC Building 7, a 47-story steel-framed skyscraper located one block from the Twin Towers collapsed at 5:20 that evening, imploding in the exact manner of a professionally engineered demolition. It fell suddenly straight down, at near freefall speed, and landed in a compact pile of rubble, barely damgin any of the surrounding buildings.."
For complete text with color images, and 10 other remarkable facts, see:
www.peaceproject.com/dollars/CR3.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Stop the dEvolution of the Bunker Buster Nuke
Join the Stop Divine Strake Coalition
The Stop Divine Strake Coalition
Calls for an International Day of Action
The U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) plans to detonate a 700-ton ammonium nitrate and fuel oil explosive on June 2, 2006 at the Nevada Test Site (NTS), a federal facility 65 miles north of Las Vegas. They are calling this test Divine Strake.
While this test is not nuclear in composition, its purpose, according to DTRA documents, is to simulate a low-yield nuclear weapon. Given that previous nuclear tests have occurred only a few miles away from where Divine Strake will occur, this test raises the specter of kicking up previous radioactive contamination and sending it downwind. We have been told too many half-truths and outright lies to believe in the safety of this test. Furthermore, no full environmental impact statement has been done to verify that there is no radioactive contamination at the particular site.
It must be stressed that the presence of the United States military on Western Shoshone land is uninvited. In fact, the Western Shoshone have been fighting for sovereignty over their ancestral and treaty-recognized lands, and to shut down the NTS for years. Most recently, their efforts brought them to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) which found the United States in violation of recognized fundamental human rights standards and international law, and ordered the United States to freeze, desist and stop their activities on Western Shoshone land. All this while the DTRA was preparing for the Divine Strake test
For more information on this concern, see:
www.shundahai.org/divine_strake.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Uranium bombing in Iraq contaminates Europe
Published by San Francisco Bay View newspaper
19 Apr 2006
Uranium bombing in Iraq contaminates Europe
by Bob Nichols
Nine days after the start of the American president's 2003 "shock and awe" uranium bombing campaign in Baghdad, an invisible radioactive uranium oxide gas cloud swept through Britain's towns and countryside and throughout Europe.
Respected scientists reported on the unrevealed gas cloud after conducting research on specialized high volume air filters in England. Dr. Chris Busby and Saoirse Morgan stunned Europe in a Sunday Times of London article on Feb. 19, 2006.
Their scientific paper, released March 1st, 2006, [1] proved the event. With all the vigor of delusional drunkards, British nuclear and military spokesmen predictably denied the reality of an invisible radioactive cloud.
Article Truncated
For the complete article with links and resources, see:
www.sfbayview.com/031506/uraniumbombing031506.shtml
Bob Nichols is a Project Censored Award Winner. He is a correspondent for the San Francisco Bay View newspaper and a frequent contributor to various on line publications. Nichols is completing a book based on 15 years of nuclear war in Central Asia. Nichols is a former employee of the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant. Nichols can be reached by email. You are encouraged to write: bob.bobnichols@gmail.com.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Chernobyl + 20 - resources and information
on activities worldwide, see: www.nirs.org/c20/c20us.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Radiation and Public Health Awareness
The Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP) was established by scientists and physicians dedicated to understanding the relationships between low-level, nuclear radiation and public health. The RPHP "Tooth Fairy Project" "..grew out of the work of Dr. Jay Gould, Director of the Radiation and Public Health Project and author of The Enemy Within: The High Cost of Living Near Nuclear Reactors. By analyzing 50 years of US National Cancer Institute data, Dr. Gould proved that.of the 3,000-odd counties in the United States, women living in about 1,300 nuclear counties (located within 100 miles of a reactor) are at the greatest risk of dying of breast cancer.." Before the Cassini-Earth-flyby, a Letter of Concern by Dr. John W. Gofman provided ample evidence showing why there is no safe dose for alpha particles emitted by the radioactive decay of plutonium.. This concern has also been realized by the impact from the use of Depleted Uranium missile shells, which has caused much harm to soldiers and civilians, but especially to the young. For more on these issues, actions, and campaigns, visit these web sites: Nuclear Information and Resource Service, New England Coalition, Citizens Awareness Network, Traprock Peace Center, and The Radiation and Public Health Project
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes FNs' use of copyrighted material is posted at FlybyNews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Iran & Nukes * GW Plame * 9/11 Air * UFO
13 April 2006
"It is no longer a choice, my friends,
between violence and nonviolence.
It is either nonviolence or nonexistence.
And the alternative to disarmament,
the alternative to a greater suspension
of nuclear tests, the alternative to
strengthening the United Nations and
thereby disarming the whole world,
may well be a civilization plunged into
the abyss of annihilation, and our earthly
habitat would be transformed into an inferno
that even the mind of Dante could not imagine."
--Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Remaining Awake Through A Great Revolution
1) The Iran Plans
- - Bunker-Buster Nuke Impact On Iran Video
- - Mind Games Over Iran
- - MoveOn Petition to stop a nuclear attack on Iran
2) Leaker-in-Chief - Evidence Suggests White House Conspiracy
- - With One Filing, Prosecutor Puts Bush in Spotlight
- - Ben Affleck: Bush 'Can Be Hung'
- - Gangster Government by Greg Palast
3) Climate Change Shattering Marine Food Chain
4) 9/11 NY Air - Illuminati - UFO Disclosure
- - Illuminati's Agenda
- - Disclosure Project UFO - ET Documentation
"Corporations have been enthroned
and an era of corruption in high places
will follow, and the money-power of the
country will endeavor to prolong its reign
by working upon the prejudices of the people
until all wealth is aggregated in few hands
and the republic is destroyed."
- Abraham Lincoln
Editor's Notes:
"It is no longer a choice, my friends, between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence.." This MLK quote is of significant relevance, especially now with the push of Iran to join the nuclear club. The time is now to give up on the nuclear deterrent-proliferation direction that is contradictory (at the least) and mad (at the most). It's a direction for nonexistence.
The above quote by Honest Abe reveals the complicated forces at work in the last hundred years, controlling an illusion of temporary prosperity for some, while the Republic and the environment go down way under. Yet as item two suggests, there is hope for some justice to be rescued from an administration obsessed with its own oil-nuke-corporate-neocon world domination agenda.
Item 3 is on the sinking environment, coral reefs in particular, where it looks like without a miracle, survival for all humanity in this Century is a real long shot. But then there is the stuff in item 4. First, while the mainstream media focuses on the charade of the Zacarias Moussaoui trial, the real story of government misleading the public stays unnoticed. The BBC article shows that 'medical problems linked to the 9/11 attacks on New York has risen to at least 15,000.' In this last item is an article-link on the Illuminati's Agenda, and make sure you link to FN's 2001 archive issue on military and other credible witnesses on UFO / ET experiences. These are not the times for the faint of heart; and with life, hope remains eternal.
O eons of darkness, eternal night,
you are only a backdrop of wondrous light..
and here I might find through the core of self,
the entrance to illuminate, to perceive,
to flow with atoms expelling light,
as a river of purity in the deepness of night.
1) The Iran Plans
- - Bunker-Buster Nuke Impact On Iran Video
- - Mind Games Over Iran
- - MoveOn Petition to stop a nuclear attack on Iran
The Iran Plans
Would President Bush go to war to stop Tehran from getting the bomb?
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
Issue of 2006-04-17 - New Yorker magazine
One of the military's initial option plans, calls for
the use of a bunker-buster tactical nuclear weapon
By Seymour M. Hersh
Air Force planning groups are drawing up lists of targets, and teams of American combat troops have been ordered into Iran, under cover, to collect targeting data and to establish contact with anti-government ethnic-minority groups. The officials say that President Bush is determined to deny the Iranian regime the opportunity to begin a pilot program, planned for this spring, to enrich uranium.
For original article:
www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060417fa_fact
also posted:
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12645.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bunker-Buster Nuke Impact On Iran Video
The Union of Concerned Scientists has an excellent online video
which describes the effects of a one-megaton bunker-buster weapon
dropped on Esfahan [Isfahan], which is said to be the primary location
of the Iranian nuclear weapons program.
UCS calculates 3 million dead, 35 million exposed to significant amounts of
radioactive fallout, with the fallout extending to Pakistan, Afghanistan and India.
See: www.ucsusa.org/global_security/nuclear_weapons/nuclear-bunker-buster-rnep-animation.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Mind Games Over Iran
by Jim Lobe, TomPaine.com
Whether psy-ops or premeditation, those calling for strikes on Iran are the same folks behind the war in Iraq.
www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/04/11/mind_games_over_iran.php
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - MoveOn Petition to stop a nuclear attack on Iran
Please take a moment to add your name to MoveOn's petition
to stop a nuclear attack on Iran. You can sign on now at:
http://political.moveon.org/dontnukeiran/?id=7310-3695849-YpPoCw9S4gycFVkbxg53wA&t=4
For more on Actions, see:
Campaigns for reclaiming a lost USA democracy
2) Leaker-in-Chief - Evidence Suggests White House Conspiracy
- - With One Filing, Prosecutor Puts Bush in Spotlight
- - Ben Affleck: Bush 'Can Be Hung'
- - Gangster Government by Greg Palast
Evidence Suggests White House Conspiracy
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Report
Thursday 06 April 2006
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald stated in a court filing late Wednesday in the CIA leak case that his investigators have obtained evidence during the course of the two-year-old probe that proves "multiple" White House officials conspired to discredit former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a critic of the administration's pre-war Iraq intelligence.
This is the first time the special counsel has acknowledged that White House officials are alleged to have engaged in a coordinated effort to undercut the former ambassador's credibility by disseminating classified intelligence information that would have contradicted Wilson's public statements.
Fitzgerald's court filing was made in response to attorneys representing I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, who was indicted on five counts of perjury, obstruction of justice, and lying to investigators related to his role in the leak. The attorneys are desperately trying to obtain evidence from the government that will prove Libby did not intentionally lie to the grand jury when he was asked how he found out about Plame Wilson and whether he shared that information with the media.
Furthermore, Libby's attorneys have argued that they are entitled to the evidence in order to prove Libby was not engaged in a "plot" to discredit Wilson. However, Fitzgerald says the evidence he has obtained proves there was a coordinated effort by White House officials to discredit Wilson.
Fitzgerald wrote in the filing, "There exist documents, some of which have been provided to defendant and there were conversations in which defendant participated, that reveal a strong desire by many, including multiple people in the White House, to repudiate Mr. Wilson before and after July 14, 2003."
Although Fitzgerald makes it abundantly clear that Libby is not charged with conspiracy, he argues that Libby's suggestion that there was no White House plot to discredit Wilson is ludicrous, given the amount of evidence Fitzgerald has in his possession that suggests otherwise.
Truncated, for the complete article, see:
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040606R.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Leaker-in-Chief
By William Rivers Pitt
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040706J.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - With One Filing, Prosecutor Puts Bush in Spotlight
Published by the New York Times; April 11, 2006
By David E. Sanger and David Johnston
www.nytimes.com/2006/04/11/washington/11leak.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Ben Affleck: Bush 'Can Be Hung'
for 'Probably' Leaking Plame's Name
http://newsbusters.org/node/4815
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Gangster Government by Greg Palast
Gangster Government
A leaky President Runs Afoul of 'Little RICO'
Buzzflash
by Greg Palast
Sunday, April 9, 2006
www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=490&row=1
3) Climate Change Shattering Marine Food Chain
Stephen Leahy
Published by Inter Press Service News Agency
BROOKLIN, Canada, Apr 10 (IPS) - The loss of reefs will have a catastrophic impact on all marine life.
One-third of the coral at official monitoring sites in the area of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have recently perished in what scientists call an "unprecedented" die-off.
Extremely high sea temperatures in the summer and fall of 2005 that spawned a record hurricane season have also caused extensive coral bleaching extending from the Florida Keys to Tobago and Barbados in the south and Panama and Costa Rica, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Reef Watch.
High sea temperatures are also killing parts of Australia's 2,000-kilometre-long Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest living reef formation. As summer ends in the Southern Hemisphere, researchers are now investigating the extent of the coral bleaching. Up to 98 percent of the coral in one area has been affected, reported the Australian Institute of Marine Science last week.
"The Great Barrier Reef has been living on this planet for 18 million years and we've undermined its existence within our lifetimes," says Brian Huse, executive director of the Coral Reef Alliance, a U.S.-based NGO dedicated to protecting the health of coral reefs.
"Twenty percent of Earth's reefs have been lost and 50 percent face moderate to severe threats," Huse told IPS.
The economic value of reefs globally is estimated at 375 billion dollars, he says.
Coral reefs are uncommon, found in less than one percent of the world's oceans. However, they are considered the tropical rainforests of the oceans because they provide home and habitat to 25 to 33 percent of all marine life. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) considers coral reefs one of the life-support systems essential for human survival.
Truncated, for the complete article, see:
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32843
For FN's resource page on this issue, see:
The Mounting Evidence of Global Warming
4) 9/11 NY Air - Illuminati - UFO Disclosure
- - Illuminati's Agenda
- - Disclosure Project UFO - ET Documentation
Problems mount from 9/11 fallout
By David Shukman
BBC News science correspondent
The number of people with medical problems linked to the 9/11 attacks on New York has risen to at least 15,000. The figure, put together for the BBC, counts those receiving treatment for problems related to breathing in dust. Many of the victims say the government offered false reassurances that the Manhattan air was safe and are now pursuing a class-action lawsuit.
On Tuesday, a coroner said the death of a policeman who developed a respiratory disease was "directly linked" to 9/11. James Zadroga - who worked at Ground Zero - died in January. The New Jersey coroner's ruling was the first of its kind.
Truncated, for the complete article, see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4904188.stm
From FN archives, see:
Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports,
looking into the unanswered questions.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Illuminati's Agenda
COAST TO COAST AM - April 11, 2006
Illuminati's Agenda .... Alan Watt the course of history...
Researcher of esoteric history, Alan Watt discussed how ultra high level sects have controlled the course of history to a pre-determined goal and are still in power. Currently, the agenda of the group he referred to as the Illuminati is a kind of "world planning" in which the population would be massively cut back in order to create a more pristine environment for the 500 million or so that remain.
For the complete article, see:
www.coasttocoastam.com/shows/2006/04/10.html#recap
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Disclosure Project UFO - ET Documentation
Testimony of Astronaut Edgar Mitchell - May 1998
In February 1971 Astronaut Edgar Mitchell flew on Apollo 14 and was the 6th man to walk on the moon. In his testimony, he acknowledges the fact that there have been ET visitations here on Earth as well as crashed craft and recovered materials and bodies. He also speaks of the concealment that has been prevalent surrounding this subject for over 50 years and the lack of oversight and visible Government control. He is concerned over our stewardship of this Earth and sees our growing environmental crisis as real.
For transcript and other information on Project Disclosure, see:
Testimony of Astronaut Edgar Mitchell - May 1998
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Testimony of Merle Shane McDow,
US Navy Atlantic Command - October 2000
Mr. McDow entered the Navy in 1978 and gained a top-secret, Special Compartmented Intelligence (SCI) clearance with a Zebra Stripes. He was assigned to the Atlantic Operational Support Facility, Atlantic Command, then under Admiral Trane. Mr. McDow was present when a UFO was tracked by radar and seen by pilots visually moving at high speed up and down the Atlantic coast. The Command Center was put on Zebra alert and Admiral Trane gave the order to force down the UFO. Mr. McDow discusses the threats, intimidation and confiscation of logbooks that occurred after the event.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Testimony of Sgt. Clifford Stone,
U. S. Army (ret.), September, 2000
Stone has seen living and dead ETs in his official duties on an army team that retrieved crashed ET craft.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Testimony of Master Sgt. Dan Morris
USAF, (ret.)/NRO Operative September, 2000
Dan Morris is a retired Air Force career Master Sergeant who was involved in extraterrestrial projects for many years. After leaving the Air Force, he was recruited into the super secret National Reconnaissance Organization (NRO), during which time he worked specifically on extraterrestrial-connected operations. He had a cosmic top-secret clearance (38 levels above top secret) which, he states, no U. S. president, to his knowledge, has ever held. In his testimony, he talks of assassinations committed by the NSA; he tells how our military deliberately caused the 1947 ET craft crashes near Roswell, and captured one of the ETs, which they kept at Los Alamos for three years until it died. He talks about the intelligence teams that were charged with intimidating, discrediting, and even eliminating witnesses to ET/UFO events.
For excerpts on above testimonies, see:
Testimonies from Project Disclosure - Part 2
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes FNs' use of copyrighted material is posted at FlybyNews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
New Oil Order * Dire Warnings * Gay Marriage
04 April 2006
"The cataclysmic consequences of unsustainable development
pose a challenge to the world that will make the
war on terror seem a mere distraction.."
-- Giles Hewitt
1) The New World Oil Order - Venezuela at the Top
- - Peak Oil Scam Exposed - Again (Mike Ruppert Too)
- - US and UK Forces Establish 'Enduring Bases' in Iraq
2) Forum Hears Dire Warnings Of Environmental Collapse
- - Is It Too Late to Stop Global Warming?
3) Feingold announces support for full gay marriage rights
Editor's Notes:
The storms this past week, tornados, are dim beginnings of more powerful weather pattern approaching. But top on this issue is breaking news from Greg Palast and Venezuela. Chavez wants to stabilize the oil price and states they have more oil resources than Saudi Arabia. The next item, an article by Jerry Mazza, a contributor to OnlineJournal.com, writes about the Peak Oil Scam. With the information from Chavez, and with that of global warming, the problem may not be from scarcity, but from too much of it. Item 2 begins with the top quote, dire warnings that make the war on terror a mere distraction. At this point, this realization is just a matter of mere time. Item 3 is a clear example of how Russ Feingold differs from John Kerry. This is not a flip-flopper, and someone that can take on the mainstream with an independent and strong voice for a transformation in government, and a plus for freedom and security. With unity, we just need the majority of voters, and our determination to not allow the theft of democracy go on any longer.
Flyby News will be presenting a free screening:
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 6:00 pm -
Wheeler Memorial Library, Orange, MA
For freedom and truth resources, see:
Films that Make a Difference!
1) The New World Oil Order - Venezuela at the Top
- - Peak Oil Scam Exposed - Again (Mike Ruppert Too)
- - US and UK Forces Establish 'Enduring Bases' in Iraq
THE NEW WORLD OIL ORDER:
HUGO CHAVEZ TELLS BBC,
WE HAVE MORE OIL THAN SAUDI ARABIA
Greg Palast Reporting for BBC Newsnight TV
Monday, April 3, 2006
In an exclusive interview with GREG PALAST, Hugo Chvez declares a new oil order.
Venezuela officially demands OPEC recognize his nation's reserves as largest.
Tonight, BBC Newsnight will kick off its Latin America Week Special with Palast's exclusive report from Venezuela.
Read below about BBC Newsnight revelations ...
NO MORE CHEAP OIL SAYS CHAVEZ
BBC Newsnight
Monday April 3, 2006
If you thought high oil prices were just a blip think again. In an exclusive interview with Greg Palast for BBC Newsnight the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has ruled out any return to the era of cheap oil.
The colourful Venezuelan leader hosts the OPEC meeting on June 1 in Caracas and he will ask OPEC to set $50 a barrel - the average price last year - as the long term level. During the 1990s the price of oil had hovered around the $20 mark falling as low as $10 a barrel in early 1999.
Chavez told Newsnight "we're trying to find an equilibrium. The price of oil could remain at the low level of $50. That's a fair price it's not a high price". Hugo Chavez will have added clout at this OPEC meeting.
US Department of Energy analyses seen by Newsnight show that at $50 a barrel Venezuela - not Saudi Arabia - will have the biggest oil reserves in OPEC. Venezuela has vast deposits of extra heavy oil in the Orinoco. Traditionally these have not been counted because at $20 a barrel they were too expensive to exploit - but at $50 a barrel melting them into liquid petroleum becomes extremely profitable.
The US DoE report shows that at today's prices Venezuela's oil reserves are bigger than those of the entire Middle East including Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states, Iran and Iraq. The US DoE also identifies Canada as another future oil superpower. Venezuela's deposits alone could extend the oil age for another 100 years.
The US DoE estimates that Chavez controls 1.3 trillion barrels of oil - more than the entire declared oil reserves of the rest of the planet. Hugo Chavez told Newsnight's Greg Palast that "Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world. In the future Venezuela won't have any more oil - but that's in the 22nd century. Venezuela has oil for 200 years." Chavez will ask the OPEC meeting in June to formally accept that Venezuela's reserves are now bigger than Saudi Arabia's.
Chavez's increased muscle will not go down well in Washington. In 2002 the Bush administration welcomed an attempted coup against Chavez. He told Newsnight that the Americans had organised it in an attempt to get hold of Venezuela's oil.
Ironically by invading Iraq George Bush has boosted oil prices and effectively transferred billions of dollars from American consumers to Chavez. Up to $200 million a day - half of it from the US - is flooding into Caracas. Chavez is spending this on building infrastructure and increasing the minimum wage and improving health and education in the poor ranchos which surround the cities. As a result even his opponents accept that Chavez is extremely popular and will easily win the next Presidential election in December.
Chavez is also spending billions in the rest of Latin America - exchanging contracts for oil tankers and infrastructure projects and buying up loans in Argentina and Brazil. He has made cheap oil deals with Ecuador and the Caribbean.
He has also spent some of the dollars which have come in from the US supporting Fidel Castro in Cuba. In return Cuba has supplied the thousands of doctors and teachers who are transforming conditions in the barrios of Caracas. Washington accuses Chavez of buying influence in Latin America.
The Newsnight team had to endure the long speeches and marathon six hour TV shows which Hugo Chavez delights in. Chavez posed for Newsnight posing with the sword of Simon Bolivar the 18th century liberator who drove out Spanish imperialists from South America. The symbolism was clear but behind the showman is a clever political brain.
Chavez has not invaded any foreign countries. He does not have secret prisons at home or abroad. Chavez has repeatedly won democratic elections and the opposition operates freely although some members have been charged with accepting illegal foreign donations. Nonetheless George Bush's administration repeatedly targets Chavez on human rights and finances his opponents.
Earlier this year US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld compared Chavez to Hitler - because he was elected democratically - and last year the influential American evangelist Pat Robertson called for his assassination. Robertson later apologized and said that he did not "necessarily" have to be killed so long as he was kidnapped by American special forces.
Chavez told Newsnight that he was still concerned that George Bush had not learnt the lessons of Iraq and would order an invasion to try to secure Venezuela's oil. "I pray this will not happen because US soldiers will bite the dust and so will we, Venezuelans". He warned that any such attempt would lead to a prolonged guerilla war and an end to oil production. "The US people should know there will be no oil for anyone".
Chavez does not accept Tony Blair's criticism of him for lining up with Fidel Castro. He told Newsnight "if someone is sleeping together it is Bush and Blair. They share the same bed."
--
Also see The Guardian story about the report:
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1745467,00.html
Read, "The Assassination of Hugo Chavez," in Greg Palast's
new book, "ARMED MADHOUSE: Dispatches from the Front Lines
of the Class War" to be released by Penguin Dutton
June 6 (US) and July 7 (UK).
Pre-order it today or donate to Palast Investigative Fund
for a personally signed copy at: www.gregpalast.com/armedmadhouse/preorder.html
View Palast's investigative reports for Harper's Magazine and BBC Television's Newsnight at GregPalast.com
Special thanks to Matt Pascarella, Leni von Eckardt, and Richard Rowley for their
research and production assistance on this report.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Peak Oil Scam Exposed - Again (Mike Ruppert Too)
by JERRY MAZZA
[EXCERPT]
This is a theory put forth by 18th century scientists.
Within 50 years, Germany and France's scientists had attacked the theory of petroleum's biological roots. In fact, oil is abiotic, not the product of long decayed biological matter.
And oil, for better or for worse, is not a non-renewable resource. It, like coal, and natural gas, replenishes from sources within the mantle of earth. This is the real and true science of oil. Read all about it.
In fact, working in the 1950s, Russian and Ukrainian scientists, cut off from the Western World's oil supply, applied their keen minds to the problem and, by the1960s, had thoroughly demolished the idea of oil as a 'fossil fuel,'
Is it any wonder then that Russia is one of if not the leading producers and exporters of oil. The isolation of the Cold War forced Russia to dig deeper, literally, to find oil deeper in the earth in some places, and to look in other places where no one had thought to look to reveal more.
This while America feels incumbent upon itself, since it claims oil production and discovery has peaked and will fade to nothing in several decades, that America's feels it must make war to take other people's oil: Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, the Caspian Basin, Sudan, etcetera.
And to others who have oil, it must either rattle its saber, as with Venezuela, threaten to kill its president who will not buckle and sell all his oil to America. And with the Saudis we will protect them from their own terrorists and any Saddam that comes along. And we will get in bed with them so long as we can have the lion's share of their oil, and the say-so as to who gets the rest. And therein lays the evil genius, secret and sham of the 'Peak Oil' put on.
If oil, as coal, and natural gas, restores itself by nature, if we will more likely run into it then out of it, how do we continue to make money on it? Certainly not by giving oil away at some reasonable price.
Believing in 'Peak Oil' is not a price to pay to avoid the price of drilling for oil in new ways, for setting fair and unwavering commodity prices. The cost of blood and lives and the future of nations are too much to pay for the folly of 'Peak Oil.' In fact, realizing that oil is a self-renewing resource puts the neocon agenda into a new perspective.
Jerry Mazza is a freelance writer residing in New York.
Reach him at gvmaz@verizon.net.
Originally posted:
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/091705Mazza/091705mazza.html
Pages 1 and 2 of the complete article is posted -
www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=63&contentid=2819&page=1
www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=63&contentid=2819&page=2
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - US and UK Forces Establish 'Enduring Bases' in Iraq
Published on Sunday, April 2, 2006 by the lndependent/UK
US and UK Forces Establish 'Enduring Bases' in Iraq
Despite talk of withdrawal 'when the job is done', there are signs that coalition troops will be there for the long term
by Andrew Buncombe in Washington
The Pentagon has revealed that coalition forces are spending millions of dollars establishing at least six "enduring" bases in Iraq - raising the prospect that US and UK forces could be involved in a long-term deployment in the country. It said it assumed British troops would operate one of the bases.
For the complete originally posted article, see:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article355178.ece
Also, posted:
www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0402-02.htm
2) Forum Hears Dire Warnings Of Environmental Collapse
- - Is It Too Late to Stop Global Warming?
Earth Forum Hears Dire Warnings Of Environmental Collapse
Professor Jeffrey Sachs, director of the UN Millennium Project.
by Giles Hewitt
New York (AFP) Mar 29, 2006
The cataclysmic consequences of unsustainable development pose a challenge to the world that will make the war on terror seem a mere distraction, a global environmental conference heard Tuesday.
In a keynote speech opening the fourth biennial State of the Planet conference at New York's Columbia University, Jeffrey Sachs, director of the UN Millennium Project, said ignorance, misplaced priorities and indifference were keeping the world firmly on a path to disaster.
"Everything we think is at the core of our geopolitics -- the war on terror, Islamic fundamentalism -- have almost nothing to do with the real challenges we face on this planet," Sachs said.
"They are a distraction and a misunderstanding," he added.
Addressing the two-day forum's main topic -- the feasibility of sustainable development for billions of people worldwide - Sachs painted a grim picture of systemic environmental collapse, coupled with war, famine and pandemic disease.
The astonishing pace of economic growth in Asia and the increasing demands of development in the industrialised world will in a matter of decades, Sachs argued, impose a burden far beyond that which the world is already woefully failing to carry.
"It is the central challenge we face on the planet," he said. "Every single major ecological system we have is already under profound stress."
While highlighting climate change, deforestation, oceanic degradation and population growth, Sachs, who is also director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, warned against viewing the problems associated with unsustainable development as an esoteric issue for scientists.
"Politics is central," he said, condemning what he called the "scientifically antagonistic" policies of the current US administration under President George W. Bush.
"We're fighting all the wrong wars in this country," Sachs said, adding that what the White House really needed was a subscription to Scientific American magazine.
"Our political leaders do not have the training to understand these issues," he said, citing the crisis in Sudan's western region of Darfur which Sachs argued was primarily the result of water shortages that had prompted conflict.
"We view these crises first as political crises when we should view them as ecological crises," he said.
"And they will abound. They will get worse." Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, warned of a dangerous disconnect between the makers of macro development policy and the people their policies were meant to benefit.
"We need to listen to local voices and seek local solutions," Pachauri said.
"We need to think of a new form of democracy," he added, arguing that freedom from tyranny was incomplete without freedom from poverty and want. "Democracy is not merely holding elections," he said.
For Agence France-Presse article and related links:
UN Millennium Project
Columbia University
See: www.terradaily.com/reports/Earth_Forum_Hears_Dire_Warnings_Of_Environmental_Collapse.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Is It Too Late to Stop Global Warming?
Published on Monday, April 3, 2006 by the Associated Press
Is It Too Late to Stop Global Warming?
by Seth Borenstein
WASHINGTON - A man stands on a railroad track as a train rumbles closer.
"Global warming?" he says. "Some say irreversible consequences are 30 years away. Thirty years. That won't affect me."
He steps off the tracks -- just in time. But behind him is a little girl, left in front of the roaring train.
The screen goes black. A message appears: "There's still time."
It's just an ad, part of a campaign from the advocacy group Environmental Defense, which hopes to convince Americans they can do something about global warming, that there's still time.
But many scientists are not so sure that the oncoming train of global warming can be avoided. Temperatures are going to rise for decades to come because the chief gas that causes global warming lingers in the atmosphere for about a century.
"In the short term, I'm not sure that anyone can stop it," said John Walsh, director of the Center for Global Change and Arctic System Research at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.
For the complete article, see: www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0403-01.htm
For FN's resource page on this issue, see:
The Mounting Evidence of Global Warming
3) Feingold announces support for full gay marriage rights
Feingold announces support for full gay marriage rights
RAW STORY
Published: Tuesday April 4, 2006
United States Senator Russ Feingold this week indicated that he not only opposes a constitutional amendment in Wisconsin to ban gay marriage and civil unions, but in fact, favors full marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples.
Calling such a ban a "mean-spirited attempt to divide Wisconsin," Feingold urged constituents at a Paddock Lake "listening session" not to support it. He went on to argue not just for civil unions, but gay marriage.
"Gay and lesbian couples should be able to marry and have access to the same rights, privileges and benefits that straight couples currently enjoy." Feingold went on to add, "[This] kind of discrimination ... has no place in our laws, especially in a progressive state like Wisconsin. The time has come to end this discrimination and the politics of divisiveness that has become part of this issue."
The Senator went on to argue that religious groups do not have to recognize any civil marriage.
Source: www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Feingold_announces_support_for_full_gay_0404.html
For more links on Feingold, see:
Campaigns for reclaiming a lost USA democracy
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes FNs' use of copyrighted material is posted at FlybyNews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Time ~ Heating Up * 9/11 Invest * Nuke Increase
01 April 2006
We cannot solve the problems we have created
with the same thinking that created them.
Albert Einstein
1) Was Confusion Over Global Warming a Con Job?
- - Time Cover Story - Global Warming Heats Up
2) Venezuelan Government To Launch International 9/11 Investigation
- - Long Live The 9/11 Conspiracy!
- - How the FBI Let 9/11 Happen
- - Fitzgerald Will Seek New White House Indictments
3) ENVY Nuke-Uprate may now go to 110%
Editor's Notes:
Today's FN begins with reports from ABC News and Time magazine on the critical warming on the Gulf Stream currents. Item 2 is an eye-opener: Jimmy Walter (Reopen911.org) and WTC survivor William Rodriguez are both in Venezuela where they met with with the President of the Assembly, and will soon meet with Hugo Chavez. They hope to support an official Venezuelan investigation into 9/11. Included are other 9/11 articles, resource links, and an update on the federal investigation into the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson. The last item is an alert on the NRC squeezing Vermont Yankee for all the power the aging nuke can crank out, "up another notch from 105 to 110 % of original licensed thermal power."
Flyby News will be presenting a free screening:
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 6:00 pm -
Wheeler Memorial Library, Orange, MA
For freedom and truth resources, see:
Films that Make a Difference!
1) Was Confusion Over Global Warming a Con Job?
- - Time Cover Story - Global Warming Heats Up
Was Confusion Over Global Warming a Con Job?
Some Claim Disinformation Campaign Attempted to Create
the Impression Scientists Were Broadly Divided
WASHINGTON, March 26, 2006 - - American attitudes about global warming are shifting, according to a new poll by ABC News, Time magazine and Stanford University -- but it has taken years for the public perception of the problem to catch up with the warnings.
That lack of concern may have been just what big oil wanted.
It's not as if the information hasn't been out there: A new ad by the Environmental Defense Fund warns time is running out to combat climate change, adding, "Our future is up to you."
But Virginia's top climatologist doesn't buy it.
"The American people have just been bludgeoned with climate disaster stories for God knows how long," said the climatologist, Pat Michaels, "and they're just, they've got disaster fatigue."
Michaels is one of a handful of skeptics still downplaying the danger. But they are a tiny minority.
The vast majority of scientists has determined global warming to be a real threat. So why has it taken so long to convince Americans?
Misinformation Campaign
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ross Gelbspan blames a 15-year misinformation campaign by the oil and coal industries.
"The point of this campaign was not necessarily to persuade the public that global warming isn't happening," Gelbspan said. "It was to persuade the public that there is this state of confusion."
A 1998 memo by the American Petroleum Institute said, "Victory will be achieved when average citizens recognize uncertainties in climate science."
To redefine global warming as theory -- not fact -- the industry funded research by "friendly" scientists such as Michaels.
The industry's influence even extends into the White House - where up until a few months ago a former oil industry lobbyist, Phil Cooney, chief of staff at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, was one of the president's top environmental advisers, editing scientific reports to make global warming seem less threatening.
"From now on, we don't have scientists write reports and just take them," said Rick Piltz of the group Climate Science Watch. "We pass them through a White House filter before they're ever published. I mean, that's scandalous."
A few oil companies, led by BP, have changed their tune and are now aggressively addressing the problem. But some continue to promote the idea there are "uncertainties in the science."
ABC News' Geoff Morrell reported this story for "World News Tonight."
www.abcnews.go.com/WNT/print?id=1770428
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Time Cover Story - Global Warming Heats Up
From the Magazine | Cover
Posted Sunday, Mar. 26, 2006
Polar Ice Caps Are Melting Faster Than Ever...
More And More Land Is Being Devastated By Drought...
Rising Waters Are Drowning Low-Lying Communities...
By Any Measure, Earth Is At ... The Tipping Point
No one can say exactly what it looks like when a planet takes ill, but it probably looks a lot like Earth. Never mind what you've heard about global warming as a slow-motion emergency that would take decades to play out. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the crisis is upon us.
It certainly looked that way last week as the atmospheric bomb that was Cyclone Larry--a Category 5 storm with wind bursts that reached 180 m.p.h.--exploded through northeastern Australia. It certainly looked that way last year as curtains of fire and dust turned the skies of Indonesia orange, thanks to drought-fueled blazes sweeping the island nation. It certainly looks that way as sections of ice the size of small states calve from the disintegrating Arctic and Antarctic. And it certainly looks that way as the sodden wreckage of New Orleans continues to molder, while the waters of the Atlantic gather themselves for a new hurricane season just two months away. Disasters have always been with us and surely always will be. But when they hit this hard and come this fast--when the emergency becomes commonplace--something has gone grievously wrong. That something is global warming.
The image of Earth as organism--famously dubbed Gaia by environmentalist James Lovelock-- has probably been overworked, but that's not to say the planet can't behave like a living thing, and these days, it's a living thing fighting a fever. From heat waves to storms to floods to fires to massive glacial melts, the global climate seems to be crashing around us.
Scientists have been calling this shot for decades. This is precisely what they have been warning would happen if we continued pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, trapping the heat that flows in
from the sun and raising global temperatures.
Environmentalists and lawmakers spent years shouting at one another about whether the grim forecasts were true, but in the past five years or so, the serious debate has quietly ended. Global warming, even most skeptics have concluded, is the real deal, and human activity has been causing it. If there was any consolation, it was that the glacial pace of nature would give us decades or even centuries to sort out the problem.
But glaciers, it turns out, can move with surprising speed, and so can nature. What few people reckoned on was that global climate systems are booby-trapped with tipping points and feedback loops, thresholds past which the slow creep of environmental decay gives way to sudden and self-perpetuating collapse. Pump enough CO2 into the sky, and that last part per million of greenhouse gas behaves like the 212th degree Fahrenheit that turns a pot of hot water into a plume of billowing steam.
Melt enough Greenland ice, and you reach the point at which you're not simply dripping meltwater into the sea but dumping whole glaciers. By one recent measure, several Greenland ice sheets have doubled their rate of slide, and just last week the journal Science published a study suggesting that by the end of the century, the world could be locked in to an eventual rise in sea levels of as much as 20 ft. Nature, it seems, has finally got a bellyful of us.
One result of all that is warmer oceans, and a result of warmer oceans can be, paradoxically, colder continents within a hotter globe. Ocean currents running between warm and cold regions serve as natural thermoregulators, distributing heat from the equator toward the poles. The Gulf Stream, carrying warmth up from the tropics, is what keeps Europe's climate relatively mild. Whenever Europe is cut off from the Gulf Stream, temperatures plummet. At the end of the last ice age, the warm current was temporarily blocked, and temperatures in Europe fell as much as 10F, locking the continent in glaciers.
What usually keeps the Gulf Stream running is that warm water is lighter than cold water, so it floats on the surface. As it reaches Europe and releases its heat, the current grows denser and sinks, flowing back to the south and crossing under the northbound Gulf Stream until it reaches the tropics and starts to warm again. The cycle works splendidly, provided the water remains salty enough. But if it becomes diluted by freshwater, the salt concentration drops, and the water gets lighter, idling on top and stalling the current. Last December, researchers associated with Britain's National Oceanography Center reported that one component of the system that drives the Gulf Stream has slowed about 30% since 1957. It's the increased release of Arctic and Greenland meltwater that appears to be causing the problem, introducing a gush of freshwater that's overwhelming the natural cycle. In a global-warming world, it's unlikely that any amount of cooling that resulted from this would be sufficient to support glaciers, but it could make things awfully uncomfortable.
"The big worry is that the whole climate of Europe will change," says Adrian Luckman, senior lecturer in geography at the University of Wales, Swansea. "We in the U.K. are on the same latitude as Alaska. The reason we can live here is the Gulf Stream."
For posting of complete article, see:
www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1176980-0,00.html
For FN's resource page on this issue, see:
The Mounting Evidence of Global Warming
2) Venezuelan Government To Launch International 9/11 Investigation
- - Long Live The 9/11 Conspiracy!
- - How the FBI Let 9/11 Happen
- - Fitzgerald Will Seek New White House Indictments
Venezuelan Government To Launch International 9/11 Investigation
Truth crusaders Walter and Rodriguez to appear on Hugo Chavez's
weekly TV broadcast
Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones/Prison Planet.com | March 31 2006
[EXCERPT]
Billionaire philanthropist Jimmy Walter and WTC survivor William Rodriguez this week embarked on a groundbreaking trip to Caracas Venezuela in which they met with with the President of the Assembly, and will soon meet with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in anticipation of an official Venezuelan government investigation into 9/11.
Rodriguez was the last survivor pulled from the rubble of the north tower of the WTC, and was responsible for all stairwells within the tower. Rodriguez represented family members of 9/11 victims and testified to the 9/11 Commission that bombs were in the north tower but his statements were completely omitted from the official record.
Jimmy Walter has been at the forefront of a world tour to raise awareness about 9/11 and has still yet to receive any response to his million dollar challenge in which he offers a $1 million reward for proof that the trade towers' steel structure was broken apart without explosives.
Rodriguez said that he was told an FBI agent had asked the hotel him and Walter were staying in turn over a list of names of residents. Upon hearing this, the National Assembly provided armed military protection for the entirety of the trip. In addition, Walters said that CIA agents were seen surveilling the beach on which he and Rodriguez had handed out free DVD's a day earlier.
Rodriguez and Walter are also set to appear on Hugo Chavez's weekly broadcast 'Alo Presidente' - which is often subsequently the source of major international headlines. If there is no coverage of this event then we know for sure that a blackout order is in place.
Rodriguez and Walter offered their full support for Charlie Sheen's recent public stance on 9/11 and were heartened by his efforts. The potential of a government level inquiry endorsed by Hugo Chavez dovetails with Sheen's call for an independent investigation to be carried out by political foreign nationals.
Though the establishment media will no doubt seek to demonize Chavez as a militant with an axe to grind, this is an exciting development and the next step on the road to a genuine investigation that will seek to uncover the truth rather than hide skeletons and whitewash as was witnessed with the staged Kean committee.
For original posted article, see:
www.prisonplanet.com/articles/march2006/310306launchinvestigation.htm
Also Posted:
www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=134693
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Long Live The 9/11 Conspiracy!
Anyone still care about the heap of disturbing, unsolved questions
surrounding Our Great Tragedy?
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Here is your must-read for the month. Here is your oh-my-God-I'm-sending-this-piece- to-every-smart-person-I-know hunk of outstanding, distressing, disquieting media bliss.
Here it is: an absolutely exceptional inside scoop on the white-hot world of Sept. 11 conspiracy theories, writ large and smart by Mark Jacobson over at New York magazine, and it's mandatory reading for anyone and everyone who's ever entertained the nagging thought that something -- or rather, far more than one something -- is deeply wrong with the official line on what actually happened on Sept. 11.
See, it is very likely that you already know that Sept. 11 will go down in the conspiracy history books as a far more sinister affair than, say, the murky swirl of the Kennedy assassination. You probably already know that much of what exactly happened on Sept. 11 remains deeply unsettling and largely unsolved -- or to put another way, if you don't know all of this and if you fully and blithely accept the official Sept. 11 story, well, you haven't been paying close enough attention.
But on this, the third anniversary of the launch of Bush's illegal invasion of Iraq by way of whoring the tragedy of Sept. 11 for his cronies' appalling gain, what you might not know, what gets so easily forgotten in the mists of time and via the endless repetition of the orthodox Sept. 11 tale, is the sheer volume, the staggering array of unanswered questions about just about every single aspect of Sept. 11 -- the planes, the WTC towers, the Pentagon, the fires, the passengers and the cell phone calls and the firefighters and, well, just about everything. It is, when you look closely, all merely a matter of how far down the rabbit hole you are willing to go.
For the complete article, see:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2006/03/29/notes032906.DTL&nl=fix
For more resources, see
"911 Eyewitness" video
Scholars for 9/11 Truth
http://www.911blogger.com
http://www.Reopen911.org
http://www.911truth.org
http://antiwar.com
Global Network Against Weapons
and Nuclear Power in Space
For FN's archive resource links, see:
Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports,
looking into the unanswered questions.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - How the FBI Let 9/11 Happen
by Jeff A. Taylor
How the FBI Let 9/11 Happen
Never mind Moussaoui, the smoldering gun was right there all the time
[EXCERPT]
Anyone paying attention to the Zacarias Moussaoui trial gets it now. All the 9/11 blanks are filled in, and the picture is complete. Sorry, conspiracy freaks and blind partisan hacks. Dull, common, gross incompetence is again at the heart of a deadly government cluster-hump.
Do not linger on Moussaoui's bizarre suicide-by-testimony or the literal cheerleading for his execution-He knew. He lied. And 2,749 people died.
Neither of these is the real story of this case. Rather, the story is the definitive proof Moussaoui's case provides that the U.S. government . . . missed clear opportunities to stop 9/11.
The testimony of FBI agent Harry Samit forever buries the quaint notion that 9/11 was unforeseen and unpreventable. Beginning with Moussaoui's August 16, 2001 arrest Samit mounted a global and indefatigable investigation of the man and concluded that an attack involving hijacked airplanes was imminent.
For complete article, see:
www.reason.com/links/links033006.shtml
and posted:
www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1606548/posts
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Fitzgerald Will Seek New White House Indictments
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Report
Tuesday 28 March 2006
It may seem as though it's been moving along at a snail's pace, but the second part of the federal investigation into the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson is nearly complete, with attorneys and government officials who have remained close to the probe saying that a grand jury will likely return an indictment against one or two senior Bush administration officials.
These sources work or worked at the State Department, the CIA and the National Security Council. Some of these sources are attorneys close to the case. They requested anonymity because they were not permitted to speak publicly about the details of the investigation.
In lengthy interviews over the weekend and on Monday, they said that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has started to prepare the paperwork to present to the grand jury seeking an indictment against White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove or National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.
Although the situation remains fluid, it's possible, these sources said, that Fitzgerald may seek to indict both Rove and Hadley, charging them with perjury, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy related to their roles in the leak of Plame Wilson's identity and their effort to cover up their involvement following a Justice Department investigation. More...
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032806Z.shtml
3) ENVY Nuke-Uprate may now go to 110%
New England Coalition Alert
FLASH- NRC made public today that it has now given ENVY permission to crank its old reactor up another notch from 105 to 110 % of original licensed thermal power.
The experiment continues, based NRC told us, on a March 26, 2006 ENVY letter explaining that new changes in the plan to monitor and evaluate acoustic signals would not be less stringent than those in the steam dryer plan originally agreed upon.
This ENVY filing appears to be an archetypical example of technical pencil-whipping. They did not like what their instruments told them, so they are proposing to alter their methods. This version of the rubber ruler trick will not find a lack of empathy at NRC. They have closets filled to overflowing with regulatory rubber rulers.
Let's keep score. ENVY powered up March 3rd and heard some strange noises on March 4th and reported out to NRC after a 24 hour hold as required . They were then to hold at 105% OLTP for 96 hours while NRC analyzed. That would have put them ascending to 110% OLTP on the 9th. They sent their " Let's try this" filing in to NRC on the 26th and now it's the 31st.
This record duration head-scratching over what the raw data means gives us some confirmation of our contention that the way to measure flow induced vibration on reactor internal components is to put measuring instruments on the reactor internal components (or at least - inside the reactor vessel-which is finally what was done at Quad Cities); not to try modeling what is going on using extrapolations from instruments on the external surfaces of piping seven to ten feet away from the outer shell of the reactor.
Flow induced vibration is a difficult concept for a lot of folks to grasp - on a small scale it is like wind vibrating a reed. At VY, its several million pounds of steam per hour pushing past obstructions such as the steam dryer under about a thousand pounds of pressure, or as Arnie Gundersen describes it: For every extra 5% they go up in power, they push through an extra 100,000 horsepower .
Those readers who are older will perhaps remember movies about test pilots trying to break the sound barrier. Just because those old planes were coaxed to do it once, doesn't mean they could do it on a routine basis 24/7 for the next 26 years.
Raymond Shadis
New England Coalition
802-257-0336
www.necnp.org
New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution
VT . NH . ME . MA . RI . CT . NY -
P.O, Box 545, Brattleboro, VT 05302
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes FNs' use of copyrighted material is posted at FlybyNews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Sea Ice Quakes * Waste Power * 9/11 Quest
27 March 2006
"Greenland's glaciers deliver large quantities of fresh water
to the oceans, so the implications for climate change are serious."
The present state of the 'ocean conveyor belt' that transfers warm,
less salty water from the Pacific to the Atlantic as a shallow current,
and returns cold, more salty water from the Atlantic to the Pacific as a
deep current flowing further south. This flow is threatened by melting ice
in the Arctic, and disruptions off the Antarctic coast.
See following for Gulf Stream graphic and more on this critical concern:
Ocean Forces Threaten Our Climate
1) Sea rise could be 'catastrophic'
- - Glacial earthquakes rock Greenland
- - Studies: Polar warming speeds up
2) Iraqis Killed by US Troops 'On Rampage'
- - Charlie Sheen and Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth
- - 911 Scholar for Truth Murdered
- - Senate hearing set on move to censure Bush
- - Feingold '08 Discussion Groups
Editor's Notes:
ABC News, mainstream as Walt Disney, is featuring an expose this week on real concerns of Global Warming. One scientist interviewed said that not only that global warming could be catastrophic, but it's dumb, based on people wanting to drive big cars, SUV's. These media conglomerates like to place the blame on the sucked-in-public, never mind the shadow government engaging in major actions for "their" national security interest for fossil fuel, nuclear energy and weapons. But now that the mainstream can't deny signs of human-induced Global Warming, what can we do about it?
One direction is in the development of a 19th Century invention to convert waste (energy already there) into clean electrical power. An innovative cost-effective sustainable-fuel technology could help distribute energy and conserve resources. Scientists also need to discover and endorse ways for producing carbon sinks, absorbing carbon from the atmosphere back into the Earth. The slash and burn agricultural days of the past need to end; eating a vegetable-based diet would help, and overcoming the fascist government and military strategies of the US government. Those in power are oil men, and those pushing for Star War and strategies for world power and conquest.
On the latter concern, FN is endorsing a plan based on what was effective in removing the Shah from power in Iran. How did the people unite to get passed the government police forces and controlled media? The answer -- Cassette tapes. The words of Ayatollah Khomeini could reach the common person due to a cheap and effective communication tool. Today, in the USA, instead of cassettes, we have DVDs and films to expose the betrayal of human rights and the US Constitution, revealing the coverup of what happened on 9/11/01. Item 2 has some mainstream media reports on the realization of the omissions and distortions of the official 9/11 Commission Report. We need everyone to not just watch these films, but help copy and distribute them.
For resources to get the truth out, see:
Films that Make a Difference!
Please let us know about other films and
duplicating resources for DVD distribution!
1) Sea rise could be 'catastrophic'
- - Glacial earthquakes rock Greenland
- - Studies: Polar warming speeds up
Sea rise could be 'catastrophic'
By Paul Rincon
BBC News science reporter
Published by the BBC News
23 March 2006, 23:43 GMT
Earth could be headed for catastrophic sea level rise in the next few centuries if greenhouse gases continue to rise at present rates, experts say.
A study in the US journal Science suggests a threshold triggering a rise in sea level of several metres could be reached before the end of the century.
Greenland could be as warm by 2100 as it was 130,000 years ago, when melting ice raised sea levels by 3-4m.
'Danger zone'
"These processes of rapid ice sheet retreat are already happening. It just takes a while to get metres of sea level rise. But our study says that if we warm the Earth by more than two times the equivalent of pre-industrial carbon dioxide levels, we could be entering the danger zone," said Dr Overpeck.
"The ice sheet retreat and sea level rise on the order of what happened 130,000 years ago is inevitable and irreversible."
Other work in the journal Science shows "earthquakes" caused by sudden movement of Greenland's glaciers are rising.
Some of Greenland's glaciers, which are as large as Manhattan and as tall as the Empire State Building, can move 10m in less than a minute, according to Harvard University scientists. This jolt is sufficient to generate seismic waves.
Not only has the frequency of these events increased, but they appear to occur more frequently in late summer than other parts of the year.
When water accumulates at a glacier's base, it acts as a lubricant causing large blocks to lurch down valleys.
"Greenland's glaciers deliver large quantities of fresh water to the oceans, so the implications for climate change are serious. We believe further warming of the climate is likely to accelerate the behaviour we've documented," said co-author Meredith Nettles at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York, US.
Email of author of this article:
Paul.Rincon-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
For the complete story from BBC NEWS, see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/4834806.stm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Glacial earthquakes rock Greenland
New Scientist Breaking News - Glacial earthquakes rock Greenland
And the quakes can be substantial: a 10-metre slip of an ice slab roughly ...
Other ominous news comes from a pair of new studies examining sea level...
For this article published Mar 25, 2006, see:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8889-glacial-earthquakes-rock-greenland-ice-sheet.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Studies: Polar warming speeds up
World Environment - MSNBC.com
Polar shift: Melting ice, quakes and higher seas. Studies in Science
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11975255/ - 60k - Mar 25, 2006
For FN's updated resource page on this issue, see:
The Mounting Evidence of Global Warming
2) Iraqis Killed by US Troops 'On Rampage'
- - Charlie Sheen and Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth
- - 911 Scholar for Truth Murdered
- - Senate hearing set on move to censure Bush
- - Feingold '08 Discussion Groups
Iraqis Killed by US Troops 'On Rampage'
Claims of Atrocities by Soldiers Mount
by Hala Jaber and Tony Allen-Mills, New York
Published March 26, 2006 by the Sunday Times of London
THE villagers of Abu Sifa near the Iraqi town of Balad had become used to the sound of explosions at night as American forces searched the area for suspected insurgents. But one night two weeks ago Issa Harat Khalaf heard a different sound that chilled him to the bone.
For the complete article, and photo, see:
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2103695,00.html
or
www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0326-01.htm
In the photo.. "An Iraqi looks at the bodies of three girls among a total of 11 civilians allegedly killed during a US raid near the city of Balad, north of Baghdad, on March 15. The US military has ordered a probe into the killings last week, the latest in a series of allegations of abuse and indiscriminate shootings that has mired its three-year occupation of Iraq. The US military said four civilians were killed, two women, a child and a man. Irai police say 11 died including five women and four children. (Agence France Presse Photo/Dia Hamid)
www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0326-01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Number Of Iraqi Civilians Slaughtered In America's War?
As Many As 250,000
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11674.htm
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Slaughtered
(Officially acknowledged) In Bush's War 2322
http://icasualties.org/oif/
The War in Iraq Costs - $249,992,308,158
(See the cost in your community)
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Charlie Sheen and Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth
Excerpt from Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth newsletter
Coordinator, Kevin Barrett:
Email: kevin@mujca.com
Charlie Sheen has blown the mainstream media lid off 9/11 truth.
* Charlie Sheen Ignites 9/11 Truth Firestorm:
"Challenge Me On the Facts!"
www.prisonplanet.com/articles/march2006/240306challengeme.htm
* Morgan Reynolds Makes Mincemeat of "Demolition Denial"
http://nomoregames.net/index.php?page=911&subpage1=refuting_demolition_debunkers
* David Griffin talk in Oakland
Thursday, March 30th at 7:00 p.m. PT
(10 p.m. ET, etc.) -- listen live on the web! Info at:
www.pdeastbay.org/911MythReality
For those of you who spent last week in a cave in Afghanistan,
you can catch up on the Charlie Sheen story at:
http://911blogger.com or www.prisonplanet.com
Charlie Sheen has responded publicly for the first time since the media firestorm over his comments by challenging his detractors to debate him on the evidence of 9/11 and not issues relating to his personal life.
"I am an American citizen who loves my country and as a citizen with my passion for this great country I demand that I be challenged on the facts not on immature behavior from twenty years ago," said Sheen.
Sheen tipped his hat to A.J. Hammer and CNN's Showbiz Tonight for having the guts to cover the story and give 9/11 skeptics a balanced platform on which to discuss the issues. He called the CNN poll showing around 82% support his stance on 9/11 an "inspiration" and "staggering" but Sheen also outlined the fact that he was not entirely surprised by the outcome. Sheen said he was encouraged by the support shown on blogs and message boards across the Internet.
The poll directly contradicts a line of attack used on a Hannity and Colmes piece Thursday night which claimed that Sheen's views didn't reflect the mainstream of America. If we are to treat an 82% majority as the mainstream then that accusation is completely fraudulent.
"I was vilified for expressing my feelings about what I saw and I was demonized for expressing my gut reaction to what I saw."
Even so, both Dan Rather and Peter Jennings' gut instincts were that the collapse of the buildings looked like controlled demolition so Sheen is hardly on a skinny branch in simply stating what common sense told him at the time.
Sheen reiterated his main focus as being on what caused Building 7, which wasn't hit by a plane, to become only the third steel building in history to collapse from fire damage (the other two being the twin towers). Photographs taken prior to the building's collapse show minor fires before it falls in a textbook demolition fashion.
"If there's a problem with Building 7 then there's a problem with the whole damn thing and guess what? There's a serious problem with Building 7," said Sheen.
Sheen demanded that Larry Silverstein, the owner of the WTC complex, explain what he meant when he told a September 2002 PBS documentary 'America Rebuilds' that the decision was made to "pull" the building, which is a demolition term for deliberate implosion.
"When someone makes a statement like that I think it warrants a follow up response," said Sheen.
Sheen challenged the mainstream media to run a poll on Building 7 asking if viewers believe from video evidence that the building was brought down by means of controlled implosion.
Sheen expressed his excitement at the response that his stance received and hinted that this was only the beginning of the journey.
"It feels like you and I have started the revolution and God bless America," said Sheen in closing.
For the web site of the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance
for 9/11 Truth, see: mujca.com
You can also learn more on this from 911Truth.org
Also from FN's archives on the Bush Conspiracy and 9/11
Investigative Reports, looking into the unanswered questions.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 911 Scholar for Truth Murdered
Michael Zebuhr, a Scholar For 9/11 Truth, was murdered
recently under very suspicious circumstances...
www.informationliberation.com/?id=8503
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Senate hearing set on move to censure Bush
24 Mar 2006
The Republican-led U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee announced on Friday it would hold a hearing next week on a call by a Democratic lawmaker to censure President George W. Bush for his domestic spy program.
Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060324/pl_nm/security_eavesdropping_dc_1
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Feingold '08 Discussion Groups
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Feingold08
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/americansforfeingold
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/massforfeingold
FN is registered with more than 200 discussion groups,
And founded a discussion group for Flyby News:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FlybyNews
For FNs resources on strategic actions, link with
campaigns for reclaiming a lost USA democracy
Flyby News Support
To support actions and campaigns please consider sending a check
of any amount made payable to Flyby News. For donations of $10 or
more ~ we will send you a flybynews.com art decal and 911 DVD.
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Please note if contribution is for DVD distribution campaign.
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes FNs' use of copyrighted material is posted at FlybyNews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
9/11 Obstruction * Oil & Nukes * Forest4Sale
22 March 2006
They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations
of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity
of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently
interested in public events to notice what was happening.
-- George Orwell
1) Agent Faults FBI on 9/11
2) Bush Didn't Bungle Iraq, You Fools
- - MSNBC Poll Results - Progress in Iraq?
- - Military builds up its bases in Iraq
- - The Nuclear Madness of George Bush
- - India/USA Nuke Deal With Australian Uranium Exports Possible
- - Deranged, Disconnected, and Dangerous
- - Stop Bush from Selling 300,000 Acres of National Forests
3) Richard Sitcha Defense Update
- - Prison Update from Jehan Abdur-Raheem
Editor's Notes:
The FBI agent who arrested Zacarias Moussaoui weeks before Sept. 11, Special Agent Harry Samit, 'told a federal jury Monday that his own superiors were guilty of "criminal negligence and obstruction" for blocking his attempts to learn whether the terrorist was part of a larger cell about to hijack planes in the United States.' Agent Samit was suppose to be a star witness for the Prosecution to give Moussaoui the death penalty. Instead, the testimony put the Prosecution on the defense, and documented the obstruction of justice that enabled the attacks of 9/11/01. The second item begins with a powerful commentary by Greg Palast showing how Bush/Cheney reached their objectives in the US invasion/occupation of Iraq. Also note article on military bases for so-called long-term interests. Other articles include about the nuclear madness of this current Bush administration, and its plans ti sell 300,000 Acres of National Forests. The third item has an important update from the Richard Sitcha Defense Committe, and an update from another friend in prison, Jehan Abdur-Raheem. Now is not the time to give up. Please take actions for human rights, for our environment, and help get 9/11 truth DVDs out for massive grassroots' campaigns to stop planeticide by renegade governments.
For updated film resources, see:
Films that Make a Difference!
1) Agent Faults FBI on 9/11
Published on March 21, 2006 by the Los Angeles Times
[EXCERPTS]
Agent Faults FBI on 9/11
The man who caught Zacarias Moussaoui testifies that higher-ups blocked
his efforts to determine whether there was a larger plot.
by Richard A. Serrano
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia - The FBI agent who arrested Zacarias Moussaoui weeks before Sept. 11 told a federal jury Monday that his own superiors were guilty of "criminal negligence and obstruction" for blocking his attempts to learn whether the terrorist was part of a larger cell about to hijack planes in the United States.
During intense cross-examination, Special Agent Harry Samit - a witness for the prosecution - accused his bosses of acting only to protect their positions within the FBI.
His testimony appeared to undermine the prosecution's case for the death penalty. Prosecutors argue that had Moussaoui cooperated by identifying some of the 19 hijackers, the FBI could have alerted airport security and kept them off the planes.
Samit's recollections Monday were the first ground-level account of how FBI agents in Minneapolis - where Moussaoui was arrested on a visa violation 3 weeks before the attacks - were appalled that their Washington supervisors denied their requests for search warrants in the effort to find out why the Frenchman was taking flying lessons and what role he might have in a wider plan to attack America.
"They obstructed it," a still-frustrated Samit told the jury, calling his superiors' actions a calculated management decision "that cost us the opportunity to stop the attacks."
Samit was not alone in his contempt for his superiors.
His suspicions were backed up by Coleen Rowley, then an FBI lawyer in Minneapolis, who in a May 2002 memo to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III complained that Washington had blocked efforts to determine what Moussaoui was really doing. Rowley is not scheduled to testify during the sentencing phase.
Moussaoui pleaded guilty last year to being a part of the Sept. 11 conspiracy. His lawyers maintain that the government had plenty of leads in the summer of 2001 that a major terrorist action was afoot, even without Moussaoui's cooperation. They point to a memo by an FBI agent in Phoenix warning of Middle Eastern men taking flying lessons, and the fact that then-CIA Director George J. Tenet was apprised of Moussaoui's arrest.
Under MacMahon's daylong questioning, Samit said that officials at the FBI headquarters in Washington rejected a series of attempts to obtain a warrant to search Moussaoui's personal belongings.
Had the belongings been opened before Sept. 11, agents would have found numerous small knives, jumbo-jet pilot manuals, rosters of flight schools and other clues that might have helped them understand the Sept. 11 plot.
Samit wanted to seek a criminal search warrant, and later one from a special intelligence court. But officials at the FBI headquarters refused to let him, because they did not believe he had enough evidence to prove Moussaoui was anything but a wealthy man who had come to this country to follow his dream of becoming a pilot.
He said that as Washington kept telling him there was "no urgency and no threat," his FBI superiors sent him on "wild goose chases."
Samit said that when he asked permission to place an Arabic-speaking federal officer as a plant inside Moussaoui's cell to find out what Moussaoui was up to, Washington said no.
And he said that when he prepared a lengthy memo about Moussaoui for Federal Aviation Administration officials, Washington deleted key sections, including a part connecting Moussaoui with Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Samit said he was so frustrated and so convinced that attacks were imminent that he bypassed FBI officials in Washington and met with an FAA officer he knew in Minneapolis. But he said FAA agents never got back to him, and never asked to see a pair of small knives, similar to box cutters, that Samit had found in Moussaoui's pocket and in his car.
Samit further described how he took it upon himself to cable the Secret Service that the president's safety might be in jeopardy. He recounted in the cable how Moussaoui had told him he hoped to be able to one day fly a Boeing 747 from London's Heathrow Airport to New York, and how he also hoped to visit the White House one day.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0321-11.htm
For FN's resources on this topic, see:
Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports,
looking into the unanswered questions.
2) Bush Didn't Bungle Iraq, You Fools
- - MSNBC Poll Results - Progress in Iraq?
- - Military builds up its bases in Iraq
- - The Nuclear Madness of George Bush
- - India/USA Nuke Deal With Australian Uranium Exports Possible
- - Deranged, Disconnected, and Dangerous
- - Stop Bush from Selling 300,000 Acres of National Forests
Bush Didn't Bungle Iraq, You Fools
THE MISSION WAS INDEED ACCCOMPLISHED
by Greg Palast for The Guardian, 20 March 2006
Get off it. All the carping, belly-aching and complaining about George Bush's incompetence in Iraq, from both the Left and now the Right, is just dead wrong.
On the third anniversary of the tanks rolling over Iraq's border, most of the 59 million Homer Simpsons who voted for Bush are beginning to doubt if his mission was accomplished.
But don't kid yourself -- Bush and his co-conspirator, Dick Cheney, accomplished exactly what they set out to do. In case you've forgotten what their real mission was, let me remind you of White House spokesman Ari Fleisher's original announcement, three years ago, launching of what he called,
"Operation Iraqi Liberation."
O.I.L. How droll of them, how cute. Then, Karl Rove made the giggling boys in the White House change it to "OIF" -- Operation Iraqi Freedom. But the 101st Airborne wasn't sent to Basra to get its hands on Iraq's OIF.
"It's about oil," Robert Ebel told me. Who is Ebel? Formerly the CIA's top oil analyst, he was sent by the Pentagon, about a month before the invasion, to a secret confab in London with Saddam's former oil minister to finalize the plans for "liberating" Iraq's oil industry. In London, Bush's emissary Ebel also instructed Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum, the man the Pentagon would choose as post-OIF oil minister for Iraq, on the correct method of disposing Iraq's crude.
And what did the USA want Iraq to do with Iraq's oil? The answer will surprise many of you: and it is uglier, more twisted, devilish and devious than anything imagined by the most conspiracy-addicted blogger. The answer can be found in a 323-page plan for Iraq's oil secretly drafted by the State Department. Our team got a hold of a copy; how, doesn't matter. The key thing is what's inside this thick Bush diktat: a directive to Iraqis to maintain a state oil company that will "enhance its relationship with OPEC."
Enhance its relationship with OPEC??? How strange: the government of the United States ordering Iraq to support the very OPEC oil cartel which is strangling our nation with outrageously high prices for crude.
Specifically, the system ordered up by the Bush cabal would keep a lid on Iraq's oil production -- limiting Iraq's oil pumping to the tight quota set by Saudi Arabia and the OPEC cartel.
There you have it. Yes, Bush went in for the oil -- not to get MORE of Iraq's oil, but to prevent Iraq producing TOO MUCH of it.
You must keep in mind who paid for George's ranch and Dick's bunker: Big Oil. And Big Oil -- and their buck-buddies, the Saudis -- don't make money from pumping more oil, but from pumping LESS of it. The lower the supply, the higher the price.
It's Economics 101. The oil industry is run by a cartel, OPEC, and what economists call an "oligopoly" -- a tiny handful of operators who make more money when there's less oil, not more of it. So, every time the "insurgents" blow up a pipeline in Basra, every time Mad Mahmoud in Tehran threatens to cut supply, the price of oil leaps. And Dick and George just LOVE it.
Dick and George didn't want more oil from Iraq, they wanted less. I know some of you, no matter what I write, insist that our President and his Veep are on the hunt for more crude so you can cheaply fill your family Hummer; that somehow, these two oil-patch babies are concerned that the price of gas in the USA is bumping up to $3 a gallon.
No so, gentle souls. Three bucks a gallon in the States (and a quid a litre in Britain) means colossal profits for Big Oil, and that makes Dick's ticker go pitty-pat with joy. The top oily-gopolists, the five
largest oil companies, pulled in $113 billion in profit in 2005 -- compared to a piddly $34 billion in 2002 before Operation Iraqi Liberation. In other words, it's been a good war for Big Oil.
As per Plan Bush, Bahr Al-Ulum became Iraq's occupation oil minister; the conquered nation "enhanced its relationship with OPEC;" and the price of oil, from Clinton peace-time to Bush war-time, shot up 317%.
In other words, on the third anniversary of invasion, we can say the attack and occupation is, indeed, a Mission Accomplished. However, it wasn't America's mission, nor the Iraqis'. It was an Mission
Accomplished for OPEC and Big Oil.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
{Palast returns to the pages of the Guardian today
with this column. Catch his commentaries weekly.}
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
On June 6, Penguin Dutton will release GREG PALAST'S NEW BOOK, "ARMED
MADHOUSE: DISPATCHES FROM THE FRONT LINES OF THE CLASS WAR." Order it
today -- and view his investigative reports for Harper's Magazine and BBC television's Newsnight -- at http://www.GregPalast.com.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - MSNBC Poll Results - Progress in Iraq?
March 21, 2006
Do you agree with President Bush that real progress is being made in Iraq?
* 16596 responses
Yes - 17%
No - 83%
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3080
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Military builds up its bases in Iraq
U.S. officials talk of a long-term commitment, but they avoid using the word "permanent."
Published by Associated Press; March 21, 2006
www.sptimes.com/2006/03/21/Worldandnation/Military_builds_up_it.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Nuclear Madness of George Bush
Green Left Weekly #661, March 22, 2006
On February 6, US President George Bush confirmed his intention to commit the US to a program of reprocessing nuclear fuel. Touted as a key measure in the ''Advanced Energy Initiative'', outlined in Bush's January State of the Union speech, the plutonium extracted from spent fuel is allegedly to be used as a fuel source for a new generation of nuclear power plants across the US and elsewhere. The proposal will overturn a 29-year ban in the US on reprocessing spent nuclear fuel to extract plutonium.
[Full article]
www.greenleft.org.au/back/2006/661/661p12.htm
* US nuclear hypocrisy: Bush pushes Iran sanctions
www.greenleft.org.au/back/2006/661/661p12b.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - India/USA Nuke Deal With Australian Uranium Exports Possible
From: "Bill Smirnow" < smirnowb@ix.netcom.com >
Subject: Calls, Lobbying Needed..
The article below doesn't mention that not only is this not a done deal but that there's significant opposition to it at least here in the USA. Hence the need for those of us in India, USA, and Australia to lobby our representatives to kill this deal dead in it's tracks.
In the USA please call your Reps & Senators at: 202-224-3121 & 1-877-762-8762 and push strongly to kill this deal. The destruction of the NPT Treaty and nuclear weapons proliferation may hang in the balance. Please forward this to other related lists and individuals.
Bush Briefs Australia PM on India Nuclear Deal
www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-nuclear-india-australia.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Deranged, Disconnected, and Dangerous
By Paul Craig Roberts
Not since Abraham Lincoln have American civil liberties been so threatened as by the Bush regime. America even has an Attorney General, a Vice President, and a Secretary of Defense who believe in torture. How do they differ from officials in the Third Reich or Stalin's KGB? Anyone who believes in torture is not an American.
For the article, see;
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12432.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Stop Bush from Selling 300,000 Acres of National Forests
From: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Dear NRDC BioGems Defender,
The Bush administration wants to sell off an astonishing 300,000 acres of our national forest lands across 35 different states -- to pay for its mismanagement of America's finances.
We need your immediate action to stop this raid on our natural heritage, which would sacrifice some of our nation's most treasured wildlands, including irreplaceable expanses of several NRDC BioGems.
Go to www.savebiogems.org/takeaction.asp and tell the U.S. Forest Service to withdraw this proposal to sell off any part of our national forests for the sake of funding budget shortfalls.
The Bush administration has cynically put forward this national forest sell-off as a fast way to raise millions to pay for a rural schools program that has run out of funding.
America's rural schools deserve financial support -- but destroying our legacy of national forests to pay the bills is unconscionable.
The Bush administration's lengthy list of "Forests For Sale" includes prime habitat in Montana for bears, elk and wolves; popular recreation spots in Alaska's Tongass National Forest; old-growth forests in northern California; wildlife-rich ecosystems in the Appalachians and hundreds of other natural treasures.
Logging companies, real estate developers and other commercial interests are already lining up to start the bidding.
Go to www.savebiogems.org/takeaction.asp and tell the Forest Service to protect these priceless wildlands for all Americans, present and future.
Thank you for helping to protect the legacy of America's national forests.
Sincerely,
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
NRDC Senior Attorney
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Green Living Journal - Now linked from FlybyNews.com
Green Living is a practical journal for friends of the environment, publishing news you can use, mostly related to environmental issues. Based in Vermont, the Journal has regular topics that include organic gardening, green building, health, ecocareers and right livelihood, outdoors/sports, socially responsible investing, econotes, questions and answers, book reviews, and features on topical environmental issues. Flyby News places an ad in this special journal and helps distribute it in southwest NH and central Massachusetts. We recommend your visiting it online for a green perspective: GreenLivingJournal.com
3) Richard Sitcha Defense Update
- - Prison Update from Jehan Abdur-Raheem
Richard Sitcha Defense Committee -
Dear friends of Richard Sitcha,
After 2 1/2 years in detention, Richard's case is on the docket to be heard in the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (New York City) (above the Fed. District Court of Hartford). The court announced a 30-day deadline to submit an appeal brief, that is March 30, 2006.
After a year without an attorney, and much support from Malik Ndaula of the National Immigration Project (Boston) in filing pro se motions/petitions -- succeeding in rerouting the case back to the Hartford District and in line for this appeal to the Circuit Court level, we have scrambled to find an attorney.
Kevin Hoffkins of Westport CT has agreed to take on the case. We expect he will file immediately for an extension of the deadline, in order to give him time to dig through the files, do research, and prepare the brief.
The Sitcha Defense Fund has $2000 to transfer to this case, and Lorena will advance the other $3000. We are asking for donations and will probably plan an event to raise support and funds.
This is our moment to help move Richard along toward freedom and to join him in his "house of hope". Your ongoing support for Richard is most appreciated: prayers, letters, and donations.
Letters to: Richard Sitcha
#39823; DN1-Room 205;
Plymouth County Correctional Facility;
26 Long Pond Road;
Plymouth MA 02360.
Donations, comments, questions: Suzanne Carlson,
Sitcha Defense Committee, P O Box 1263, Greenfield MA 01302. Email - suzannec@crocker.com
With hope,
Suzanne Carlson
for the Sitcha Defense Committee
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Prison Update from Jehan Abdur-Raheem
From his letter to Jonathan Mark, March 16, 2006
"..My own situation has taken a turn for the worse.. The Transfer [to another prison facility] was denied for a year. The Administration here says I'm an "influential Muslim" and I pose a danger to the facility; so although I broke no prison rule, they will keep me in "The BOX" and out of the population. Another year in solitary - not a good thing, but I will make it good somehow. Enough for now - Stay strong and thanks for your support."
Jehan Abdur-Raheem
77A1180
Elmira Correctional Facility
P.O. Box 500
Elmira, NY 14902-0500
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes FNs' use of copyrighted material is posted at FlybyNews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Irreversible Change * Censure * 9/11 Proof * PU
16 March 2006
"When the President of the United States breaks the law,
he must be held accountable. That is why today I am introducing
a resolution to censure President George W. Bush."
Senator Russell Feingold
March 13, 2006
1) Climate change 'irreversible'
- - States Calculate Global Warming Pricetag
- - Another Senate Attempt for Oil Drilling in ANWR
2) Russ Feingold Censure Remarks
- - Support the Censure of pResident Bush
- - The Empire Inflates Weapons In Space
- - U.S. push to keep bases in Iraq
3) 9/11 Truth Revealed
- - Scholars Affirm Cheney Complicity in 9/11
- - DVDs Available to Help 9/11 Truth Awareness Grow!
4) Chernobyl: A poisonous legacy
- - Chernobyl: Half-lives and Half Truths
- - Nuclear Free Vermont - Legislation/Action Update
- - Citizens Awareness Network Strategy Session
"Sea ice in the Arctic has failed to re-form for the second consecutive winter,
raising fears that global warming may have tipped the polar regions in to
irreversible climate change far sooner than predicted."
Steve Connor,
Science Editor;
The Independent
14 March 2006
Editor's Notes:
FN's resources began by following the telltale trail of the Cassini-Plutonium flyby of Earth. Documents showed US plans to dominate the world by taking the "higher ground" militarily, controlling space and all below. It is a plan doomed for failure like Empires before, overextending its reach in hubris, arrogance, greed, fear, and ignorance. Already by exploiting nature and the burning of fossil fuels, humans have reversed the powers of balance and harmony, causing planeticide, killing our planet. From the loss of CO2 sinks (from deforestation), and from the overload of what has already been released into our atmosphere, it will require a miracle for humankind to survive this Century. We neglected to learn from our past, and what had made Mars and Venus end up with above 95% CO2 concentration in their atmospheres. Was it more important to reach Saturn to study origins of life before learning to sustain an ecosystem on Earth?
Yet even if we don't have the power and wisdom for survival in this Century, we could at least achieve integrity in the evolution of self-government. Senator Russ Feingold, in calling for the censure of President Bush, has taken a leadership role for a possible return to a legitimate and responsible US government. His actions have received immense support from ordinary people, and disdain from those making believe that a fascist government will protect them. Please, not only support Censure, but also the longer process for reclaiming a lost USA democracy. Part of your taking strategic actions may be in asking Senator Feingold to help develop a succession plan. For what likely happened to Senator Paul Wellstone was no accident. A plan in place to respond to another assassination, will not only help the movement of integrity, but also enable our outlasting those in charge for terror. Perhaps, too, such a plan will limit the chances of another such tragic assassination.
Only by changing the old guard now in control of Congress, will justice and democracy and principles of the Republic in the USA prevail. The big elephant in the living room is 9/11. So, again, this issue provides more resources and proof of controlled demolition and scholars claiming how the stand-down orders by Dick Cheney allowed the attack on the Pentagon building. I recently watched the Loose Change DVD on 9/11, and highly recommend it. Please get extra copies of this film, too, and help reach critical mass for awareness. The truth will set us free. And while Chernobyl's 20th anniversary comes into focus, we can see the reality that if we don't take a stand now, our death will come much too quickly, and long lasting in contrast to the beauty of creation and nature.
Since miracles exist (even in the humility of our sharing life at all), we have an opportunity to stand up to our fear, and make choices based on love. This is the time to go the distance, to make such an effort, at least until the ending/beginning of the 25,800 year Mayan calendar cycle, December 21, 2012. Old measures may again come into the forefront, and age-old wisdom may prevail. No one really knows what will happen; anything is possible, as life, creation, and love, are one.
The spirit of democracy cannot be imposed from without.
It has to come from within.
Mohandas K. Gandhi
1) Climate change 'irreversible'
- - States Calculate Global Warming Pricetag
- - Another Senate Attempt for Oil Drilling in ANWR
Climate change 'irreversible'
as Arctic sea ice fails to re-form
By Steve Connor,
Science Editor
Published by The Independent (UK)
14 March 2006
[EXCERPT]
Sea ice in the Arctic has failed to re-form for the second consecutive winter, raising fears that global warming may have tipped the polar regions in to irreversible climate change far sooner than predicted.
Satellite measurements of the area of the Arctic covered by sea ice show that for every month this winter, the ice failed to return even to its long-term average rate of decline. It is the second consecutive winter that the sea ice has not managed to re-form enough to compensate for the unprecedented melting seen during the past few summers.
Scientists are now convinced that Arctic sea ice is showing signs of both a winter and a summer decline that could indicate a major acceleration in its long-term rate of disappearance. The greatest fear is that an environmental "positive feedback" has kicked in, where global warming melts ice which in itself causes the seas to warm still further as more sunlight is absorbed by a dark ocean rather than being reflected by white ice.
Sea ice in the Arctic has failed to re-form for the second consecutive winter, raising fears that global warming may have tipped the polar regions in to irreversible climate change far sooner than predicted.
For the complete article, see:
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article351135.ece
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - States Calculate Global Warming Pricetag
Published March 15, 2006 by Inter Press Service by Jim Lobe
For article, see: www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0315-04.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Another Senate Attempt for Oil Drilling in ANWR
From American Progress Report - SNEAKING IN OIL DRILLING:
The Senate conservatives are once again trying to insert a back-door provision into the budget that would allow for oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. "At the same time, oil companies are cleaning up the biggest oil spill in North Slope History."
For the full report, with resource links, see:
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/apps/nl/newsletter2.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=917053
For FN's resource page on this issue, see:
The Mounting Evidence of Global Warming
2) Russ Feingold Censure Remarks
- - Support the Censure of pResident Bush
- - The Empire Inflates Weapons In Space
- - U.S. push to keep bases in Iraq
Remarks of Senator Russ Feingold
Introducing a Resolution to Censure
President George W. Bush
March 13, 2006
[EXCERPT]
Mr. President, when the President of the United States breaks the law, he must be held accountable. That is why today I am introducing a resolution to censure President George W. Bush.
The President authorized an illegal program to spy on American citizens on American soil, and then misled Congress and the public about the existence and legality of that program. It is up to this body to reaffirm the rule of law by condemning the President's actions.
All of us in this body took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and bear true allegiance to the same. Fulfilling that oath requires us to speak clearly and forcefully when the President violates the law. This resolution allows us to send a clear message that the President's conduct was wrong.
And we must do that. The President's actions demand a formal judgment from Congress.
The facts are straightforward: Congress passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as "FISA", nearly 30 years ago to ensure that as we wiretap suspected terrorists and spies, we also protect innocent Americans from unjustified government intrusion. FISA makes it a crime to wiretap Americans on U.S. soil without the requisite warrants, and the President has ordered warrantless wiretaps of Americans on U.S. soil. The President has broken that law, and that alone is unacceptable. But the President did much more than that.
Not only did the President break the law, he also actively misled Congress and the American people about his actions, and then, when the program was made public, about the legality of the NSA program.
He has fundamentally violated the trust of the American people.
Most troubling of all, the President himself participated in this disinformation campaign. In the State of the Union address, he implied that the program was necessary because otherwise the government would be unable to wiretap terrorists at all. That is simply untrue. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. You don't need a warrant to wiretap terrorists overseas period. You do need a warrant to wiretap Americans on American soil and Congress passed FISA specifically to lay out the rules for these types of domestic wiretaps.
A formal censure by Congress is an appropriate and responsible first step to assure the public that when the President thinks he can violate the law without consequences, Congress has the will to hold him accountable. If Congress does not reaffirm the rule of law, we will create another failure of leadership, and deal another blow to the public's trust.
The President's wrongdoing demands a response. And not just a response that prevents wrongdoing in the future, but a response that passes judgment on what has happened. We in the Congress bear the responsibility to check a President who has violated the law, who continues to violate the law, and who has not been held accountable for his actions.
Passing a resolution to censure the President is a way to hold this President accountable.
The Constitution looks to the Congress to right the balance of power. The American people look to us to take action, to speak out, with one clear voice, against wrongdoing by the President of the United States. In our system of government, no one, not even the President, is above the law.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the resolution be printed in the Record following my remarks. I yield the floor.
For the complete transcript, see:
http://feingold.senate.gov/~feingold/statements/06/03/2006313.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Support the Censure of pResident Bush
When the president misleads the public and the Congress and willfully and repeatedly breaks the law, there need to be some consequences --that's how the law works for everybody else.
Censuring the president is a reasonable first step in condemning the president's actions. Now it's up to us to show broad public support for Senator Feingold's resolution. Can you sign this petition asking Congress to join the call for censure?
http://political.moveon.org/censure/
In addition to signing this petition with MoveOn, please consider calling and/or writing your Senators as well as any candidate(s) and tell them that your vote and support for them will depend on their supporting this resolution, as you may feel, too, the Republic and democracy is at stake.
The Congressional Switchboard number is 202-224-3121
Censure Update (3/15) from MoveOn:
"Since yesterday afternoon, when we launched the petition, over 200,000 of us signed up to support Senator Russ Feingold's call to censure President Bush for his illegal wiretapping. Now, Republicans are on the attack Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO) even accused Feingold of "siding with the terrorists,"1 and the Republican National Committee is mounting a petition against him.
We've got to work quickly to show other senators and the media that hundreds of thousands of us support Senator Feingold and the rule of law. So, we're increasing our goal: we want to get 350,000 signers by the end of the week.
http://political.moveon.org/censure?id=7043-3695849-isVy2MypobhgzwEiSquazg&t=1
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Empire Inflates Weapons In Space
Pentagon eyeing weapons in space
Budget seeks millions to test new technologies
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | March 14, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon is asking Congress for hundreds of millions of dollars to test weapons in space, marking the biggest step toward creating a space battlefield since President Reagan's long-defunct "star wars" project during the Cold War, according to federal budget documents.
The Defense Department's budget proposal for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 includes money for a variety of tests on offensive and defensive weapons, including a missile launched at a small satellite in orbit, testing a small space vehicle that could disperse weapons while traveling at 20 times the speed of sound, and determining whether high-powered ground-based lasers can effectively destroy enemy satellites.
Article Truncated, for a complete version, see:
www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/03/14/pentagon_eyeing_weapons_in_space/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - U.S. push to keep bases in Iraq
http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-03-15T050147Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-240616-1.xml&archived=False
3) 9/11 Truth Revealed
- - Scholars Affirm Cheney Complicity in 9/11
- - DVDs Available to Help 9/11 Truth Awareness Grow!
9/11 Truth Revealed at Movie Premiere In Auburn
By David R. Kimball
March 12, 2006
[EXCERPT]
For one evening in Auburn, California, the taboo was lifted.
Members of the general public got together in a room and openly discussed the crime that the Bush Regime uses to justify everything from the dismantling of the U.S. Constitution, to hideous torture, to war without end; the crime that many Americans remain in denial about - and are too afraid to even look at closely themselves, let alone openly discuss with others.
On March 8th, the group Sacramento 9/11 Truth presented the premiere showing of a new DVD, 9/11 GUILT - THE PROOF IS IN YOUR HANDS*, by leading researchers and authors Don Paul and Jim Hoffman.
Don Paul is the author of over twenty books, including 2002's 9/11: Facing Our Fascist State. Jim Hoffman's website - 911research.wtc7.net - is considered to be one of the best 9/11 research and analysis sites on the Web. Don Paul and Jim Hoffman co-authored Waking up from Our Nightmare in 2004, a definitive analysis of "9/11" which reveals many crucial facts deliberately kept hidden by the mainstream, and most of the alternative, media.
In the DVD, Jim Hoffman presents conclusive proof that WTC Building 7 and the Twin Towers were NOT brought down as a result of jet-fuel fires as we've been told by the corporate media, but rather imploded (WTC-7) and exploded (The Towers) as controlled demolitions which would take weeks if not months to set up.
He also thoroughly deconstructs the media's disinformation lies about how these massive steel and concrete buildings could come down so rapidly, and proves for instance how only the use of explosives can explain how ALL of the 90,000 tons of solid concrete in each Tower turned into powder in 15 seconds.
Following Jim Hoffman in the DVD, Don Paul presents much evidence as to who the true perpetrators of 9/11 really were: and it is NOT "Muslim terrorists" as the Bush Regime and the complicit media endlessly repeat. Rather, it is those who had both the motive and the means to commit this horrible crime; those who BENEFITTED.
Don Paul names five specific individuals, and shows why they are likely suspects. He demonstrates how we have to look toward certain world elites, the financiers who profit from war and a corrupt economic system as the guilty parties if we wish to see justice done in regard to 9/11.
Now that we have the proof proof that would stand up in a court of law it is vital that additional Citizens' Grand Juries be convened, and that the public continue to be made aware of the true nature of what we face. We ALL need to become involved, for it is only by confronting these discomforting realities and coming out of our collective denial that we the people - will be able to bring enough pressure to bear to see real justice in regard to "9/11".
The truth shall make us free.
*This new DVD is available at:
http://wtc7.net/store/index.html
and/or
www.peaceproject.com/books/av.htm
For the complete article, see:
www.indybay.org/news/2006/03/1807523.php
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Scholars Affirm Cheney Complicity in 9/11
SCHOLARS AFFIRM CHENEY COMPLICITY IN 9/11
Experts conclude Vice President possessed foreknowledge
and suggest Moussaoui trial a "distraction"
(I-Newswire) - Duluth, MN: March 13, 2006 -- A society of experts and scholars contends that the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui-- for willfully concealing advance knowledge of the events of 9/11 - has the status of a Soviet-style "show trial" and functions as a diversion from the real culprits. The nonpartisan group, Scholars for 9/11 Truth, asserts that the evidence implicating Vice President Dick Cheney of that very offense is more obvious and compelling. If they are even remotely correct, then the alleged terrorists appear to have been cast in the role of "patsies."
The experts base their conclusion on testimony presented to the 9/11 Commission by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta on May 23, 2003, which was omitted from its final report, and on related events at the Pentagon. Members of the society will present their findings during a press conference to be held at 1 PM on Tuesday at the United States Courthouse in Alexandria, VA, the location of a hearing to determine whether Moussaoui, who is called "the 20th hijacker", should serve a life term or receive the death sentence.
"Mineta's testimony is devastating," observed James H. Fetzer, Ph.D., McKnight Professor at the University of Minnesota. Fetzer is the founder and co-chair of the scholars' society, which recently joined with Judicial Watch in calling for release of documents, films and videos, and physical evidence withheld from the public by the administration. "It pulls the plug on the Commission's contention there was no advance warning that the Pentagon was going to be hit."
According to Secretary Mineta's testimony, which is in the public domain, when he ( Mineta ) arrived at an underground bunker at the White House ( known as the Presidential Emergency Operations Center ), the Vice President was in charge. "During the time that the airplane was coming in to the Pentagon", he stated, "there was a young man who would come in and say to the Vice President, 'The plane is 50 miles out.' 'The plane is 30 miles out.'
"And when it got down to, 'The plane is 10 miles out,'" Mineta continued, "the young man also said to the Vice President, 'Do the orders still stand?' And the Vice President turned and whipped his neck around and said, 'Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?'"
"The only reasonable interpretation of the orders," Fetzer observed, "is that the incoming aircraft should not be shot down".
Philip J. Berg, Esq., Former Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania, added, "Those who made it happen were obviously in the position to know that it was going to happen and therefore could have sounded a warning alarm. The case against Cheney is more powerful than the case against Moussaoui. No one is more culpable than the perpetrators. If Moussaoui deserves the death penalty, what does our Vice President deserve?"
Other members of the society include Robert Bowman, head of the "Star Wars" program in both Democratic and Republican administrations; Morgan Reynolds, former Chief Economist for the Department of Labor in the Bush administration; Andreas von Buelow, former assistant defense minister of Germany; Steven E. Jones, a professor of physics from Brigham Young University and the society's co-chair; and Griffin, a noted theologian and author of The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions.
Documentary support for the conclusions reported here may be found at the Scholars for 9/11 Truth web site at www.st911.org.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - DVDs Available to Help 9/11 Truth Awareness Grow!
COPIES OF LOOSE CHANGE FOR $1
If anyone wants a copy of Loose Change or another passaroundable dvd, I supply them for $1 each, with small label and envelopes included. Any quantity you want.; shipping is extra; paypal okay.
I believe informing others is our best tactic at this time...Loose Change is a good for convincing newbies. its time to wake up. If anyone has other suggested dvds, pls let me know.
Jeremy Lynes [Email] < linelites@mindspring.com >
For more on film-discussion forums, see:
Films that Make a Difference!
For more FN resources on this topic, see:
Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports,
looking into the unanswered questions.
4) Chernobyl: A poisonous legacy
- - Chernobyl: Half-lives and Half Truths
- - Nuclear Free Vermont - Legislation/Action Update
- - Citizens Awareness Network Strategy Session
Chernobyl: A poisonous legacy
Twenty years after a blast in the nuclear plant at Chernobyl spread radioactive debris across Europe, it has been revealed that 375 farms in Britain, with 200,000 sheep, are still contaminated by fallout
By Andy McSmith
Published by The Independent (UK)
14 March 2006
After two decades, the legacy of the Chernobyl disaster is still casting its poisonous shadow over Britain's countryside. The Department of Health has admitted that more than 200,000 sheep are grazing on land contaminated by fallout from the explosion at the Ukrainian nuclear plant 1,500 miles away. Emergency orders still apply to 355 Welsh farms, 11 in Scotland and nine in England as a result of the catastrophe in April 1986.
Article Truncated, for the complete posting, see:
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article351153.ece
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Chernobyl: Half-lives and Half Truths
As we approach April 26, 2006, the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe it is worthwhile to keep some of the facts and media distortions in mind. Thanks to John M. LaForge for the data and article, which is linked following excerpts of his article entitled: "Chernobyl at Ten: Half-lives and Half Truths."
AP, May 15, 1986: "Airborne radioactivity from the Chernobyl nuclear accident is now so widespread that it is likely to fall to the ground wherever it rains in the United States, the EPA said."
AP, May 14, 1986: "An invisible cloud of radioactivity spewed over the Soviet Union and Europe, and has worked its way gradually around the world."
Star Tribune, May 17, 1986: "Since radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear accident began floating over Minnesota last week, low levels of radiation have been discovered in . . . the raw milk from a
Minnesota dairy."
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May 1996: "radiation contamination was detectable over the entire Northern Hemisphere."
The pro-nuclear Time magazine reported in 1989 that perhaps "one billion or more" curies were released, rather than the 50 to 80 million estimated by Russian authorities.5 One curie is the amount of radiation equal to the disintegration of 37 billion atoms 37 billion becquerels per second. It is a very large amount of radiation.
"After all, the IAEA is in the business of promoting nuclear energy, not discouraging it. For 10 years the agency has attempted to downplay the consequences of the accident," wrote Alexander R. Sich in a cover story for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. The IAEA, still downplaying in 1995, said any increase in cancer caused by Chernobyl would be "undetectable."
Nineteen months after the disaster, in Nov. 1987, the U.S. government officially doubled its estimate of the "background" radiation to which we are exposed every year.
For the complete article, and resources, see:
www.ratical.org/radiation/Chernobyl/Chernobyl@10p1.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Nuclear Free Vermont - Legislation/Action Update
VT Senate bill S.124 has recently been introduced to restore some semblance of democratic process to the nightmare of the proposed extension for the license of the aged and brittle Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, that received strange vibrations attempts were made to increase its output. Please contact (call or write) Vermont legislators and ask for their active support (more than just their vote) for this bill. It is only right that there be an informed, fair, democratic debate of allowing or not allowing the only nuclear plant in the state to operate 20 years beyond its current license and design life. Please also consider writing a letter to the Editor stressing the necessity of an informed, fair, democratic debate; and of legislative involvement on the proposal to extend the Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee license. Just a few calls and letters can make an enormous difference.
Ray Shadis
Staff Technical Advisor
New England Coalition
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Citizens Awareness Network Strategy Session
March 19, 2006 -Green Fields Market - Gfld, MA
{upstairs meeting room} - 10:00- 5:00pm - Sunday
For more information, visit NukeBusters.org
RSVP: cchang@nukebusters.org or 413-339-5781 for more info
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes FNs' use of copyrighted material is posted at FlybyNews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Resource Wars * Nuke Vibes * Pentagon Flicks
10 March 2006
"We have no desire to dominate, no ambitions of empire."
"Free nations don't attack.
Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction."
-- George W. Bush
Both above quotes, prior to the US unprovoked invasion of Iraq
"I just want you to know that, when we talk about war,
we're really talking about peace."
-- George W. Bush
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it,
people will become accustomed to believing it."
- Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels
"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things
over and over and over again for the truth to sink in,
to kind of catapult the propaganda."
- George W. Bush
1) Resource Wars Here and Now
- - Congress Can Stop the US-India Nuclear Proliferation Agreement
- - The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse
- - The Chairman of the Senate Cover-Up Committee
- - Bush signs renewal of Patriot Act
- - Feingold Makes an Iowa Move
- - Instant-Runoff Voting is Gaining Momentum as Problem Solver
2) Feds put Vermont Yankee uprate on hold due to excess vibration
- - Citizens Awareness Network (CAN) - calendar
- - Nuclear Waste: Bury It and Forget?
- - Major Crude Oil Spill Near Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
3) Scholars Call for Release of 9/11 Information
- - Warning: Are Scholars for 9-11 Truth Being Sabotaged?
- - 9/11 and other Video Resources on the Web
4) "The Book That Changed My Life" - Malik Abdullah Akili
"Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories
concerning the attacks of September the 11th;
malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame away
from the terrorists, themselves, away from the guilty."
-- George W. Bush
43rd US President,
Yale Skull & Bones Society
Stated at the United Nations,
November 11, 2001
Editor's Notes:
First of the items of today's FN is on Resource Wars. In the thick of this mess is a new push for nuclear proliferation with the Bush-India nuke deal, and the hypocrisy of the US rhetoric against Iran. This item has other related news regarding the Patriot Act, which has been used to arrest Richard Sitcha and others for no crime committed. This item also updates on Russ Feingold and his efforts and campaign for regime change in the US; and on the growing momentum for Instant Runoff Voting.
Item two is about the nuclear power industry being on shaky ground in its plans to extend the life and increase the output of old brittle nuclear power plants. [For those wanting FN email alerts regarding central New England area, you can receive them by sending an email to flyby(at)mtdata.com and write "subscribe" in subject field.] Also in this item is breaking news on a major crude oil spill near the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Updated at FlybyNews.com is on the development of a 1-megawatt low temperature Stirling power system to convert excess process heat and steam energy at industrial plants to "pollution-free" electricity. To learn more, click => "A Practical Stirling" Solution for Onsite Power Production.
Item 3 is on a petition calling for the release of US-confiscated film that would likely expose what hit the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Plus links for film resources.. Please consider supporting re-opening 9/11 investigations. This coming 5th anniversary on Sept. 11 can help reveal the cover-up and the deceit that has turned Iraq into chaos, and a recruiting ground for terrorism. The last item is an article from my friend in prison, which took second place in a writing contest called: "The Book That Changed My Life."
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that really matter.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
1) Resource Wars Here and Now
- - Congress Can Stop the US-India Nuclear Proliferation Agreement
- - The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse
- - The Chairman of the Senate Cover-Up Committee
- - Bush signs renewal of Patriot Act
- - Feingold Makes an Iowa Move
- - Instant-Runoff Voting is Gaining Momentum as Problem Solver
The Coming Resource Wars
By Michael T. Klare
March 07, 2006
[EXCERPT]
Michael T. Klare is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College and the author of Resource Wars and Blood and Oil, both available in paperback from Owl Books.
It's official: the era of resource wars is upon us. In a major London address, British Defense Secretary John Reid warned that global climate change and dwindling natural resources are combining to increase the likelihood of violent conflict over land, water and energy. Climate change, he indicated, "will make scarce resources, clean water, viable agricultural land even scarcer" and this will "make the emergence of violent conflict more rather than less likely."
This shift is due in part to the growing weight of evidence pointing to a significant human role in altering the planet's basic climate systems. Recent studies showing the rapid shrinkage of the polar ice caps, the accelerated melting of North American glaciers, the increased frequency of severe hurricanes and a number of other such effects all suggest that dramatic and potentially harmful changes to the global climate have begun to occur. More importantly, they conclude that human behavior, "most importantly, the burning of fossil fuels in factories, power plants, and motor vehicles" is the most likely cause of these changes. This assessment may not have yet penetrated the White House and other bastions of head-in-the-sand thinking, but it is clearly gaining ground among scientists and thoughtful analysts around the world.
For the most part, public discussion of global climate change has tended to describe its effects as an environmental problem, "as a threat to safe water, arable soil, temperate forests, certain species and so on. And, of course, climate change is a potent threat to the environment; in fact, the greatest threat imaginable. But viewing climate change as an environmental problem fails to do justice to the magnitude of the peril it poses. As Reid's speech and the 2003 Pentagon study make clear, the greatest danger posed by global climate change is not the degradation of ecosystems per se, but rather the disintegration of entire human societies, producing wholesale starvation, mass migrations and recurring conflict over resources.
..In this world of warring states, the 2003 Pentagon report predicted, "nuclear arms proliferation is inevitable." As oil and natural gas disappears, more and more countries will rely on nuclear power to meet their energy needs and this will accelerate nuclear proliferation as countries develop enrichment and reprocessing capabilities to ensure their national security.
Military superiority may provide an illusion of advantage in the coming struggles over vital resources, but it cannot protect us against the ravages of global climate change..
For the complete article, see:
www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/03/07/the_coming_resource_wars.php
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Congress Can Stop the US-India Nuclear Proliferation Agreement
The following is from: Friends Committee on National Legislation
http://www.fcnl.org
phone: (202)547-6000 * toll-free: (800)630-1330
When President Bush arrived in New Delhi last week, India had the capacity to produce 6 to 10 nuclear weapons per year. When he departed after reaching a tentative nuclear deal with India that South East Asian nation will potentially be able to produce nearly 50 nuclear weapons per year.
Before the new U.S.-India nuclear agreement is implemented, however, Congress will have to approve changes to existing legislation that would weaken several nonproliferation laws. This deal would undermine years of work by the U.S. to strengthen the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the international agreement endorsed by 188 nations that bans the export of nuclear technology to countries that don't agree to international inspections of their nuclear programs.
India has refused to sign the NPT and has conducted tests of a nuclear weapon as recently as 1998. Nonetheless, the Bush administration wants to provide India with nuclear technology and fuel. In exchange, India has agreed to international inspections for 14 of its 22 nuclear reactors. This proposal undermines the NPT by tacitly encouraging other countries to make bilateral nuclear agreements with non-NPT members in violation of a basic principle of that agreement.
The proposed U.S.-India agreement could also deteriorate relatively stable relations between India and Pakistan if the latter perceives this agreement to be an aggressive move. What would stop Pakistan from reaching a similar agreement with China? Furthermore, even while the U.S. is criticizing Iran (an NPT member) for developing its nuclear technology, the U.S. is simultaneously creating a double standard by offering India (a non-NPT member) similar nuclear technology. The US loses a lot from this nuclear agreement with India and gains very little.
*Congress Can Block This Deal*
The verbal nuclear cooperation agreement that President Bush negotiated with Indian Prime Minister Singh last week is far from a done deal. Congress will soon begin debating legislation to implement the U.S.-India nuclear agreement.
Please let your representative know that you care about reducing the nuclear danger and that you oppose the US-India nuclear deal. To see reasons and talking points visit:
www.fcnl.org/redir/1506india/
Rep. Ed Markey (MA), a leading critic of the deal, recently quipped, "You can't preach temperance from a barstool."
If you have not done so, please encourage your representative to cosponsor H.Con.Res. 318 (www.fcnl.org/redir/1606hconres318/ ), a bipartisan resolution expressing concern about the proposed nuclear plan. See an updated list of cosponsors:
www.fcnl.org/redir/1706cosponsors/
Some congressional offices have not heard from their constituents on this issue, so many may think that the public does not care about or understand this issue. Your emails and calls to your representative are key, especially if he or she is on the House International Relations Committee. Find out if your representative is on this committee at www.fcnl.org/redir/1806houseir/
Read FCNL's Legislative Action Message on the U.S.-India nuclear deal from two weeks ago:
www.fcnl.org//redir/1906indialam/.
For updated information about the U.S.-India nuclear deal,
please visit: www.fcnl.org/redir/2006nuclear/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse
Published on 18 Jan 2006 by Energy Bulletin
The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse
by Krassimir Petrov
Economics of Empires
www.energybulletin.net/12125.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Chairman of the Senate Cover-Up Committee
The Progress Report - www.progressreport.org
by Judd Legum, Faiz Shakir, Nico Pitney
Amanda Terkel and Payson Schwin
3/9/06
INTELLIGENCE
The Chairman of the Senate Cover-Up Committee
Earlier this week, the Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), voted along partisan lines to avoid a clash with President Bush over his domestic spying program. The New York Times writes that the intelligence committee has become "so paralyzingly partisan that it could not even manage to do its basic job this week." By voting down a sensible proposal offered by Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV) to comprehensively review the spying program, Roberts failed once again to demonstrate he has the leadership to conduct the required oversight of the Bush administration. As Rockefeller said, "This committee is basically under control of the White House." It was "no surprise that Mr. Roberts led this retreat;" he has been doing the "president's dirty work" repeatedly over the past few years in his efforts to stonewall investigations into important national security matters.
The Progress Report has compiled a comprehensive report detailing how Roberts and his Senate Cover-Up Committee have obstructed investigations into the Bush administration's use of pre-war Iraq intelligence, the administration's complicity in acts of torture against detainees, and the White House's outing of a former CIA agent, among other issues.
For the complete American Progress Report, see:
www.americanprogressaction.org/site/apps/s/custom.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=598395
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush signs renewal of Patriot Act
09 Mar 2006
After a long battle with Congress that went down to the wire,
Bush signed a renewal of the USA Patriot Act on Thursday,
a day before 16 major provisions of the old law expire.
For article, see:
www.suntimes.com/output/news/patriotact09.html
In the Senate, only these 10 voted against the act:
Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Carl Levin (D-MI), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Ron Wyden (D-OR), James Jeffords (I-VT), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Patty Murray (D-WA), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Robert Byrd (D-WV).
The rest voted with Bush and against freedom.
= = = = = = == = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Feingold Makes an Iowa Move
by Chris Cillizza | March 8, 2006
[EXCERPT]
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) has recruited veteran party operative Paul Tewes to help him begin the long process of courting Iowa voters.
Feingold is beloved by many on the party's ideological left for his lonely opposition to the Patriot Act and his 2002 vote against the Iraq war. He is hoping to tap into the fundraising and organizational energy that former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean used to catapult himself from obscurity to the top of the 2004 presidential field.
For complete article, see:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2006/03/feingold_makes_an_iowa_move.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Instant-Runoff Voting is Gaining Momentum as Problem Solver
Published on Sunday, March 5, 2006 by the Associated Press
It eliminates need for runoff election, cuts 'spoiler' effect
by Ross Sneyd
www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0305-02.htm
2) Feds put Vermont Yankee uprate on hold due to excess vibration
- - Citizens Awareness Network (CAN) - calendar
- - Nuclear Waste: Bury It and Forget?
- - Major Crude Oil Spill Near Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Feds put Vermont Yankee uprate on hold due to excess vibration
By Kathryn Casa | Vermont Guardian
posted March 7, 2006
[EXCERPT]
BRATTLEBORO Federal regulators have frozen the Vermont Yankee power increase at 105 percent after a measurement on Saturday recorded vibrations that exceeded acceptable levels, the Vermont Guardian has learned.
The NRC last week issued approval to allow Vermont Yankee to increase power to 120 percent of its design capacity under close scrutiny because of concerns about the plant s steam dryer, the component that removes water droplets from the steam before it feeds into the turbines.
The conditions require VY operators to increase power in increments of 5 percent and hold each increase for 96 hours after the vibration and stress measurements are sent to regulators.
An inspection of the VY dryer in November revealed more than 40 hairline cracks. VY officials said the fissures were probably old, and were detected with sophisticated magnification equipment first used during the most recent refueling outage to check 20 cracks found in the dryer in 2004.
Although the steam dryer is considered a non-safety component, experts say breakage could compromise the reactor s safety systems if, for example, a piece of the cracked dryer were to break off and lodge in a valve.
Cracks discovered late last year in the welded reinforcements of the Dresden II reactor s steam dryer in Illinois, which is similar to Vermont Yankee, also raised concerns at the NRC about the stability of the devices.
Dresden II, a boiling water reactor like Vermont Yankee, was shut down for a refueling outage when inspectors discovered fissures in six triangular stainless steel gussets that had been welded onto the plant s cracked steam dryer in an effort to reinforce it.
"To NRC s credit they re saying let s take a look at this," said Ray Shadis, technical advisor to the anti-nuclear group New England Coalition. "But what we anticipate is that they will once again sharpen their pencils, do some calculations and figure out that maybe they can run a little bit longer."
Last week Shadis said he didn't expect VY to exhibit problems at 105 percent because operators last year told the NRC that they had already run the plant above 100 percent.
"If they have excessive vibrations or strain at 105 percent and the executives from VY have already admitted that they routinely run flow rates in excess of 100 percent, I have some concern that they should permit the reactor to run at all," Shadis added.
Vermont Yankee officials did not return phone calls at press time.
For article, see:
www.vermontguardian.com/local/032006/VYUprateStalls.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Citizens Awareness Network (CAN) - calendar
ASK Entergy Yourself!!
March 13, 2006
Pioneer Valley Regional School
Northfield, MA
7:00 p.m.
Come ask Entergy yourself what matters to you!!
Open to the Public
- - - - - - - - -
CAN Meeting
March 16, 2006
Brooks Library Meeting Room
Brattleboro, VT
4:00-6:00 p.m.
Learn what CAN is up to and how you might get involved. We currently have ongoing efforts to shutdown the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor (just over the border in Vernon, VT). There is much going on! Broader public involvement is essential!
March 19, 2006
CAN Campaign Strategy Session
Greenfield Market - upstairs meeting room
10:00- 5:00pm
For more information, visit nukebusters.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Nuclear Waste: Bury It and Forget?
Published on Thursday, March 9, 2006 by Reuters
Nuclear Waste: Bury It and Forget?
by Jeremy Lovell
www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0309-01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Major Crude Oil Spill Near Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
DRILLING CAUSES MAJOR CRUDE OIL SPILL
NEAR ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE
Potentially Largest In Alaska North Slope History
..On Thursday, March 2, a BP oil operator discovered signs of an oil spill at a caribou migration site on the snow-covered tundra of Alaska's North Slope. Three days later, response workers finally uncovered the source of the spill - a breach in an oil transit pipeline feeding into the larger trans-Alaska oil pipeline infrastructure stretching some 800 miles across the state.
Clean-up crews have already vacuumed up more than 50,000 gallons of crude oil and melted snow off the delicate tundra, but at least one report from an industry expert has indicated that up to 798,000 gallons could be unaccounted for, possibly making this the largest crude oil spill in the history of the North Slope, and second in Alaska only to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Oil is still dripping from the breached pipeline and the full extent of the damage and affected acreage are unknown. The multi-agency spill response team will attempt to come up with an estimated spill volume in the next two days.
For the complete press release article, see:
www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/releases/pr2006-03-07.asp
3) Scholars Call for Release of 9/11 Information
- - Warning: Are Scholars for 9-11 Truth Being Sabotaged?
- - 9/11 and other Video Resources on the Web
PETITION - Scholars Call for Release of 9/11 Information
Please take a moment to sign this petition at the web site of Scholars for 9-11 Truth. Its purpose is to obtain the release by the government of pertinent 9-11 evidence such as Pentagon surveillance video and tapes seized by the FBI from businesses nearby the Pentagon immediately following the strike. The goal is to obtain at least l0,000 signatures. It only takes a couple of minutes to sign the petition, and if you like, you can remain anonymous, insofar as your name being displayed publicly on their Web page.
While I don't normally have any faith in the effectiveness of petitions, I strongly urge you to take two minutes of your life to sign this one. I have signed it and I urge you to do the same and pass it around to all the forums you frequent, as well as share it with those on your email lists.
www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/929981172
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Warning: Are Scholars for 9-11 Truth Being Sabotaged?
by Victor Thorn & Lisa Guliani
www.wingtv.net/thorn2006/noplaners.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 9/11 and other Video Resources on the Web
Loose Change 2nd Edition - Google Video
VIDEO: America - From Freedom To Fascism
This site has a lot of great videos www.question911.com/links.php
VIDEO - Bush Successful at Permanent Legalization of Torture
VIDEO - NSA Whistleblower Alleges Widespread Domestic Spying
Cynthia Mckinney Grills Rumsfeld over missing Pentagon Trillions
For more on film-discussion forums, see:
Films that Make a Difference!
For article archives, see:
Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports,
looking into the unanswered questions.
4) "The Book That Changed My Life" - Malik Abdullah Akili
From Collins, NY Correctional Facility - General Library Service
Certificate for Second Place to Malik Abdullah Akili; 94A5238
For "The Book That Changed My Life" Writing Contest (December, 2005)
The Book That Changed My Life
By Malik Abdullah Akili.
I am an Afrikan male, born on April 5, 1940 and raised in a community commonly known as "Hells Kitchen" in New York City. As a child of the 40's and 50's, I would come to know "racism" in every facet of its virulence. Without a doubt the sickness of such abject bigotry would be sorely stamped upon my body and soul and it's destructiveness would follow me long into adulthood.
One clear example of one such devastating experience was delivered to me in the hallowed halls of the Catholic School my mother sent me to. The nun's [who were our teachers] presented all of us fledgling readers with two books to read from in the earliest grades. Those books were Little Black Sambo and the Black tar Baby story from Brier Rabbit. As the only Afrikan child in the class, the white students thought it was hilarious to mimic the book to poke fun at me, which humiliated me and made me feel ashamed. And the teacher never interceded to stop them from doing so. Although I couldn't have articulated it at the time, I was drowning in such a profound sense of shame that it overwhelmed me and affected my very soul.
As a result of this ongoing experience, [The nun's/teachers kept those two books on the reading list for the next few years], I found myself totally withdrawn from the educational process. I shut down. I tuned out. In the mind of the child that I was, I pushed away the only thing that I have power over - I subconsciously reasoned that if reading was so painful, I just wouldn't do it!
Before long the damage of "racism" would be compounded by my inability to read, bringing me deeper and deeper into a world of pain and shame. At that time I was unable to understand where the hurt was coming from, I only know that it was worse than anything I ever experienced before and that I didn't know how to make it go away. I remained functionally illiterate until I came to prison, where I would ultimately find and read the book that changed my life.
Once I learned how to read, I couldn't get enough books to satiate my hunger to learn. And the books that I tended to read became outlets for the pent up rage I still carried within me. I read Jack London's raw, naked wild and free military novels and dreamed of smashing my enemies, overwhelming, vanquishing and crushing them completely so I could sink my fangs into the hunters neck and never, never let go.
In time my reading habits matured as I did and before long I moved on to a higher for of literary work and I began reading all of Rafael Sabatine's books. And it was his book, particularly the "Lion's Skin" that touched me to my very core. The essence of this book was centered upon a hunter who sold the lion's skin while the beast still lived within it. In turn, the lion killed that man- as he continued to hurt him. This story fascinated me. It made me smile to consider that even under the lash, the hunted bested the hunter and killed his oppressor.
At the time, the representation of ultimate equality expressed in this book hovered just above my consciousness. And I found myself more able to define myself more constructively. However, it would take several more years for me to truly understand the underlying essence of this book and then learn how to isolate my real enemy, still mired in my early pain and shame, within me. And in the transformation of my thinking, I came to realize that I was my own worst enemy and that if I was going to change my life, I had to kill the enemy within myself first! The book still inspires me to dig deep inside of me, confront those things that I have taken for granted concerning myself and push myself forward towards even more positive change.
Considering the impact that the "Lion's Skin" had upon me, it is no wonder that I consider it the "Book that Changed my Life"!
For more on this and related issues, see:
My Friend in Jail - Malik Abdullah Akili
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes FNs' use of copyrighted material is posted at FlybyNews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
9/11 Truth * BushAmerikkka * DU Explodes
27 February 2006
The 9/11 attacks were created for justification of U.S. covert plans
to grab influence over oil politics in the Middle East and as an excuse
to take away the rest of Americans' liberties through a manufactured
threat-scenario called, "The War On Terror."
Jack Duggan
Published by Pravda (2/16/06)
1) 9/11 Truth--Will Americans Be the Last to Know?
- - Village Voice - The ABC's of 9-11:
- - The Secret History Of Mohamed Atta
- - Porter Goss's Op-Ed: by Sibel Edmonds
- - Garofolo: 9/11 Was An Inside Job
- - 911Truth Grassroots Connections
2) Bush bankrupts America
- - Not One Penny More for War! National Call-In Day
- - Secret Service Report Claims Cheney was Drunk
- - Venezuelan-Owned Citgo Faces Congressional Inquiry
3) DU SCANDAL EXPLODES
- - The Queen's Death Star: Depleted Uranium Measured in British Atmosphere..
- - Radioactive Russian roulette
- - NRC Meeting on License Renewal of Vermont Yankee
"If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem."
Eldridge Cleaver
Editor's Notes:
FN has updated its campaigns for reclaiming a lost USA democracy. Please note that there is never a shortage of campaigns, but now we need initiatives to build a momentum regarding what has been used to justify stealing US freedom. Not only has this treacherous deceit destroyed thousands of lives on September 11, 2001, but it is actively destroying principles of the US Constitution, and causing untold suffering in Iraq, Afghanistan, destabilizing peace throughout the world. The suffering is too great to become immersed in a thousand campaigns that wont accomplish anything. Reopen911.org has produced an excellent film to shed light on 9/11. After receiving a free DVD: "Confronting the Evidence: A Call to Reopen the 911 Investigation," FN has received 15 more, ($1 per DVD). We plan to order more when funds allow, and will circulate at libraries, community access television stations, etc.. Please consider joining such a campaign, so by next September 11 (at the 5th anniversary), we can successfully reopen investigations and place the criminals behind bars where they belong. Item 2 gives more reasons for this effort. There is not a moment to lose. Item 3, too, is at the boiling point of disgrace and nuclear treachery. There is more powerful evidence that Gulf War Syndrome was caused by the use of depleted uranium. In this item, too, is an important article by Leuren Moret, called "The Queen's Death Star: Depleted Uranium Measured in British Atmosphere from Battlefields in the Middle East."
"The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction,
is the first and only object of good government."
Thomas Jefferson
1) 9/11 Truth--Will Americans Be the Last to Know?
- - Village Voice - The ABC's of 9-11:
- - The Secret History Of Mohamed Atta
- - Porter Goss's Op-Ed: by Sibel Edmonds
- - Garofolo: 9/11 Was An Inside Job
- - 911Truth Grassroots Connections
Pravda Prints 9/11 Truth--Will Americans Be the Last to Know?
"During the Cold War, Pravda ("truth") was an ironic name. Today, the US corporate media is as ruthlessly controlled as the Soviet media ever was--for a rare exception, see next item--and, irony of ironies, Pravda is telling US the truth about the 9/11 hoax that engineered American Stalinism: "
There is no war on terrorism
by Jack Duggan
Published by Pravda
February 16, 2006
[EXCERPT]
All the stories we see in the TV news, print and Internet media today are like mice in a small room occupied by a grizzly bear. We can see the bear, hear him panting and growling as he attempts to stomp on us, but everyone pretends he's just not there, even though he's eating all the food and we mice are starving.
The bear is the U.S. government and media cover up of the 9/11 attacks. They never came close to proving that foreign "terrorists" were involved. Of all four missing planes' passenger manifests, not one Middle Easterner was on any of them. A jihadist who is bravely going to his death for the sake of his beliefs in Allah and Islam is a martyr and wants the whole world to know it. Martyr's families receive reverential praise and support in their communities for decades. Yet not one of the "terrorists" the American government insists were on the aircraft used their real names or were listed on the passenger lists. At least seven of the nineteen 'hijackers' are still alive.
The 9/11 attacks were created for justification of U.S. covert plans to grab influence over oil politics in the Middle East and as an excuse to take away the rest of Americans' liberties through a manufactured threat-scenario called, "The War On Terror."
What good are all the thousands of articles about politics, global warming, education, scandals, religion, economics and how we must always go out and vote so that we can "make a difference"? If our votes really did make a difference, they'd be illegal.
Who cares about such articles when the cover up of what really happened on 9/11 is hands-off, an untouchable leper? What good are they when in the name of a phony "terrorist attack," our way of life no longer exists except at the pleasure of corporate-driven federal socialists? We are being starved of our liberties by a ursus horribulus that stomps every mouse who dares get in his way or mention that he's there.
I see a lot of authors write all around the grizzly bear, almost approaching the truth, but none seem to have the conviction to call for an open door to run the bear out of the house. Our Founding Fathers would have made a bearskin rug.
I will tell you here and tell you now with no equivocation: THE 9/11 ATTACKS WERE NOT DONE BY TERRORISTS..
There were dozens and dozens of reports by rescue workers on the ground at the WTC complex that heard explosions over an hour after the planes crashed into the towers. They felt explosions under their feet that were so powerful that seismographs registered them at 2.1 and 2.3 on the Richter scale. Only explosions could have caused them.
The weekend before the 9/11 WTC demolition, all power was shut down to install "computer cables." No one was allowed inside and all security cameras and alarms had no power for 30 hours. Computer cables don't connect with building electricity, so the need to turn off and close both towers to do so is indicative of another motive, like planting charges without alarms and video surveillance. Marvin Bush, brother to President George and Jeb, was a principal in Securacom, which was in charge of security for the World Trade Center. Didn't hear that on the TV news, did you?
Suckers who still buy into the monumental lie that aircraft crashes caused the collapse of both WTC Towers, cannot explain how a steel beam weighing twice as much as a Boeing 767 flew from one WTC building over 390 feet to bury itself very deeply into the neighboring American Express building.
Even harder to explain is why WTC Building 7, a block away, collapsed "because of fire," when it received no damage from the Twin Towers' collapse. No other skyscraper in the world ever collapsed because of a fire of any type, including that from a B25 bomber crashing into the Empire State Building decades ago.
Of all the air crashes in the USA over the past three decades, how many ground crashes resulted in not recovering their black boxes, containing pilots' voices (CVR's) and aircraft telemetries (FDR's) before and during impact? Yet not one usable black box was ever recovered from any of the four planes that reputedly were hijacked on 9/11. Not one.
Flight 93 that contained the "Let's roll!" myth, where four passengers supposedly tried to overpower the hijackers, did not crash into one small area like it should have. It's debris was spread over 8 miles, indicating that it was shot down by a military fighter jet, exploding in the sky and raining down debris over eight miles, "like confetti."
The WTC was the biggest crime, mass murder, 'hijackings' and air crashes in US history. Yet all the forensic evidence was immediately removed, buried or shipped to smelters so that not one investigator from any agency could inspect it. Who has that kind of power?
President Bush and all his staff swore to God to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America , then apparently went on to violate their oaths of office by completely ignoring the Constitution. Bush maintains that he can ignore the U.S. Constitution and tap into private computers, phone lines, medical records and any other private citizens' data whenever he wants, by his self-declared doctrine of "Unitary Executive." He claims that as Commander-In-Chief the president is the sole judge of the law, is unbound by the Geneva Conventions against torture and possesses inherent authority to subordinate the entire government to his rule - including Congress and the courts.
Bush also originated "Extraordinary Rendition." This program, also condoned by Vice President Dick Cheney, involves the clandestine transfer of suspected terrorists to countries ruled by regimes that torture and commit other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Dr. William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA, referring to a set of CIA flight logs obtained by his organization, said the logs were "...irrefutable proof that the United States is 'disappearing' people into secret facilities where they are held incommunicado without charge, trial, or access to the outside world."
The American Reichstag Fire of the 9/11 "terrorist attacks" was created so that the American public would back the invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Iran in the name of "The War On Terror," while stripping away the rights of the same American public. The results have been the same as in Nazi Germany, suspensions of freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and private ownership of property. Citizens are forbidden to own the same weapons that their "servants," their police and military, carry to defend themselves. There is literally more freedom in most Third-World countries than now in the USA, which has ten times the per-capita prison population than the People's Republic of China.
Alexis de Tocqueville wisely observed, "I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America."
When are citizens going to demand that the cover up of 9/11 be kicked out the door along with the people who invented it? When will the truth be told, that THERE IS NO WAR ON TERROR, but only on oil and on citizens' rights?
The bear is there, but where are the mice with the courage to force him out the door?
Jack Duggan
1999-2006. PRAVDA.Ru.
For the complete article, links-resources, see:
http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/16-02-2006/76020-terorrism-0
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Village Voice - The ABC's of 9-11
What Really Happened:
A Beginner's Guide to the 'Truth' Movement
The Seekers-
Published by The Village Voice
February 21st, 2006 11:48 AM
by Jarrett Murphy
Essentially, it's all about physics and common sense. Cut steel, and buildings fall. Crash a plane, and the Earth gets scarred. Fire a missile; see a hole. What's up must come down, cause makes effect, and for the truth to set you free, it must be freed itself.
It's dark in the basement of St. Mark's Church and dark outside on a mid-December Sunday night, but inside they have seen the light. Among the 100 or so people in the room, many wear buttons that read "9/11 Was An Inside Job." Others grip the vital texts in their hands - 'Crossing the Rubicon", The New Pearl Harbor, or 9/11 Synthetic Terror. Most in the largely (but not exclusively) white and male crowd can quote you the important passages from "Rebuilding America's Defenses" or The 9/11 Commission Report. A few can guide you through the details of concepts like "peak oil" and pyroclastic flow. All of them suspect and a few simply know that their government was somehow complicit in the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans four Septembers ago.
They are watching the new edition of Loose Change, a slick, witty documentary featuring a hip soundtrack and a rapid-fire assault on nearly every aspect of the "official" story of 9-11. The work of 22-year-old filmmaker Dylan Avery, Loose Change came out last year to take its place in a growing library of DVDs that 9-11 skeptics can own: Painful Deceptions, Confronting the Evidence, 911 in Plane Site, 9-11 Eyewitness. Shown in similar gatherings around the country and passed among likeminded friends, the films are what tie together the disparate ends of what many of its members call the "9-11 Truth movement." They unite Luke Rudkowski, an earnest Brooklyn College freshman, with David Ray Griffin, a California theologian who wrote The New Pearl Harbor. They link Les Jamieson, a web designer and coordinator for New York 9-11 Truth, with multimillionaire Jimmy Walter, dreamer of car-free, self-sustaining cities. And they bind a FDNY lieutenant attending his first Truth movement meeting with Michael Ruppert, the Crossing the Rubicon author who blames a fiance's CIA-and-Mafia-linked drug running and arms dealing for helping to drive him out of the LAPD two decades ago.
It's easy to dismiss the odd characters. It's harder to ignore the regular guys in the room, or the polls showing that 49 percent of New York City residents believe the government knew about 9-11 before it happened, or the rock-solid certainty of these supposed doubters. "I'd love to be proven wrong. I would love for someone to come to me and say I'm full of shit. It hasn't happened," says Avery. "I have scientists on my side. There's so much evidence supporting my side, and the government's side has nothing."
Article Truncated, for the complete article, see:
http://villagevoice.com/news/0608,murphy,72254,6.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Secret History Of Mohamed Atta
U.S. Didn't Need Able Danger To Locate Terrorist Ringleader
FEB 21 2006 - Venice, FL.
by Daniel Hopsicker
A MadCowMorningNews World Exclusive!
From: www.madcowprod.com/02212006.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Porter Goss's Op-Ed: by Sibel Edmonds
(a.k.a. whistleblower) t r u t h o u t | Perspective
12 February 2006
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021206C.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Garofolo: 9/11 Was An Inside Job
On February 23, 2006 at 7:39 pm EST, XM SAT radio channel 167, Air America Radio,
The Majority Report, co-host Janeane Garofalo said, "9/11 was an inside job! I have
come to this conclusion about that." Garofolo was also quoted as saying, "I think all
Air America phone-in callers should open by saying, "9/11 was an inside job. We can
all agree on that.", then get on with their specific question or comment. We should
re-condition the listening audience to accept the Truth about 9/11 as the gospel.
Repetition, to inspire research...."
Reported 2/25/06 at: www.total911.info/
Source: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/911TruthAction
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 911Truth Grassroots Connections
http://www.911Truth.org
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
New 9/11 resource from Ken Jenkins -
I would like you to know about the new 9/11 card I have produced.
You can see it at: www.peaceproject.com/dollars/CR4.htm
Note that it comes in two sizes. If you like the card, let me know.
It forms the centerpiece of a "9/11 activist kit" which will include a
new button: "Ask me about 9/11" and the David Ray Griffin DVD
of his talk in DC from last Sept.
Ken
KenJenkins@aol.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Recommended video by David Ray Griffin
Here's new video, which probably provides the best case yet of this
type for the controlled demolition of the WTC. It's about 30 minutes.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=psP_9RE0V2I
For FN's resources on this topic, see:
Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports,
looking into the unanswered questions.
2) Bush bankrupts America
- - Not One Penny More for War! National Call-In Day
- - Secret Service Report Claims Cheney was Drunk
- - Venezuelan-Owned Citgo Faces Congressional Inquiry
Bush bankrupts America
By Jerry Mazza
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Feb 19, 2006, 17:06
Under George W. Bush's $2.77 trillion budget for fiscal 2007, federal spending would top revenue by $354 billion, following a six-year string of staggering deficits -- 2005's was $429 billion. And that's just for openers. Step right up, it's the greatest rip on earth!
Bush's 2007 budget also includes $120 billion more for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, total since 9-11 attacks about $440 billion. That's apart from the defense budget upped 7 percent from last year to $439.3 billion. While spending on war like crazy, tax cuts to the rich so far weigh in at $880 billion. Bush recommends making them permanent, his Rx for disaster.
The red ink will wash like blood across the total federal debt to almost $9.3 trillion. It's dragging interest charges will make it even harder to deal with future fiscal problems. Consumer and corporate interest rates will be higher, making it harder to expand business, more difficult to live.
Additionally, while planning cuts in Medicare and Social Security, the president snuck some $700 billion for privatization in his budget (as of 2010) to be paid out over the first seven years, which revenues ironically would come from Social Security tax revenues. This is the same privatization plan Congress dumped with a thud last time it was presented.
But like the good Duce he is, he won't go away fast, at least not until he breaks the economy and he gets busted himself for his various illegalities: lying about Iraq Weapons of Mass Destruction; killing Iraq citizens and American soldiers; outing a CIA operative whose husband, Joe Wilson, caught him lying about yellow-cake uranium from Niger; okaying NSA spying on US Citizens; torturing Abu Ghraib prisoners against the Geneva Conventions; not to mention the ever-widening, well-documented case that the administration participated in and engineered 9-11. Quite a rap sheet. And that's just a paragraph.
Article truncated, for the complete article, see:
www.onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_518.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Not One Penny More for War! National Call-In Day
Call the Capitol Hill Switchboard on Tuesday Feb. 28th at 202-224-3121 and ask to speak to your Representative (or one of your Senators). Give them this basic message in your own words: "I strongly oppose the war in Iraq. I want all our troops brought home safely, without delay. I urge Representative X to vote against the President's $72.4 billion 'emergency' supplemental request for the war." More Info: www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/8237
The Republicans who run Congress will include small amounts of money for all sorts of good things in the supplemental or group of supplementals to be voted on. This will provide your Representative all sorts of noble excuses for voting for a lot more money for war. Tell them this position will only be credible if they cosponsor Rep. Jim McGovern's bill, which simply ends funding for the war: www.afterdowningstreet.org/end
To see how your Representative has voted on the war, download the UFPJ Congressional Scorecard (in Excel spreadsheet format) by clicking here: http://tinyurl.com/ex2bs
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Secret Service Report Claims Cheney was Drunk
Sloshed: Journalist Says Secret Service Report Claims Cheney was Drunk
Capital Hill Blue reports that Secret Service agents filed report saying vice president
was "clearly inebriated" during the Whittington shooting.
By Dave Lindorff
For articles by Dave Lindorff, see:
www.thiscantbehappening.net
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Note: On March 25 2003 President Bush signed executive order 13292,
a hitherto little-known document that grants the greatest expansion of the
power of the vice-president in US history.
For article, see: http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12055.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Venezuelan-Owned Citgo Faces Congressional Inquiry
For Offering Discounted Oil to U.S. Poor
Republican Congressmember Joe Barton of Texas has launched an investigation
into one of the worlds major oil companies - Citgo. The Venezuelan-owned
company announced a discounted gas program for poor Americans last year.
Well speak with Democratic New York Congressman Jose Serrano, one of the
few members of Congress promoting this effort.
Source: www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/24/1513213
3) DU SCANDAL EXPLODES
- - The Queen's Death Star: Depleted Uranium Measured in British Atmosphere..
- - Radioactive Russian roulette
- - NRC Meeting on License Renewal of Vermont Yankee
DU SCANDAL EXPLODES
Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - FreeMarketNews.com
The Preventive Psychiatry Newsletter has written to its subscribers telling them that the real reason the former Veterans Affairs Secretary, Anthony Principi, recently resigned was because he has been involved in a massive scandal covering up the fact that Gulf War Syndrome was caused by the use of depleted uranium, according to the SF Bay View.
In the article Arthur Bernklau, executive director of Veterans for Constitutional Law, reportedly wrote that thousands of our military have suffered and died from, [and depleted uranium] has finally been identified as the cause of this sickness, eliminating the guessing. The terrible truth is now being revealed. Bernklau went on to detail several alarming statistics. The historical disability rate amongst soldiers last century was about 5 percent, although it approached 10 percent during Vietnam. But due to the use of depleted uranium in the battlefield, 56 percent of the 580,400 solders that served in the first Gulf War were on Permanent Medical Disability by 2000. 11,000 Gulf War veterans are already dead. Now 518,739 Gulf War Veterans, almost all of them, are currently on medical disability.
Principi, under the order of the Bush Administration, had been allegedly covering up the disastrous results of using depleted uranium since 2000. However, with so many soldiers having serious health problems it has become impossible to keep secret.
Source: www.FreeMarketNews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=8018
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Queen's Death Star: Depleted Uranium Measured in British Atmosphere
from Battlefields in the Middle East
by Leuren Moret
For article, see:
www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2006/DU-Europe-Moret26feb06.htm
For a Dr. Chris Busby Report on DU in British Atmosphere, see:
www.llrc.org/aldermastrept.pdf
According to Leuren Monet, this is 'the biggest story in 50 years
on radiation... and far more serious than atmospheric testing pollution.
This is at least ten times as much with a half-life of 4.5 billion years."
Here is another article that just came out in the World Affairs Journal.
www.mindfully.org/Reform/2006/Earth-Weapon-Moret24feb06.htm
For FN's archive resources on this topic, see:
-- DEPLETED URANIUM --
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Radioactive Russian roulette
By Kevin Kamps
www.vermontguardian.com/commentary/022006/RadioactiveRoulette.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - NRC Meeting on License Renewal of Vermont Yankee
Wednesday March 1
7:00- 9:00 PM
Latchis Theater
50 Main St
Brattleboro, VT
NRC will describe the "process" and take questions from the public.
Let NRC know what you think about this reactor being relicensed!
Citizen's Awareness Network (CAN) Meeting
March 2, 2006
Greenfield, MA
4:30-6:30
Learn what CAN is up to and how you might get involved. We currently
have ongoing efforts to shutdown the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor
(just over the border in Vernon, VT). There is much going on! Broader
public involvement is essential! NukeBusters.org
Flyby News Support
To support actions and campaigns please consider sending a check
of any amount made payable to Flyby News. {For donations of $10
or more ~ we will send you a flybynews.com art decal.}
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading and supporting independent news.
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes FNs' use of copyrighted material is posted at FlybyNews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Reopen911.org * Access TV * Billions Stolen
13 February 2006
"As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression.
In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains
seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all
must be most aware of change in the air - however slight -
lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."
William O Douglas
1) Reopen911.org - Confronting the Evidence
2)- Media Action Alert - Help Save Public Access TV
3) Billions Stolen From Iraq
- - Bush ignored CIA advice on Iraq, says former spy
- - Libby: White House 'Superiors' OK'd Leaks
- - CIA chief sacked for opposing torture
- - US prepares military blitz against Iran's nuclear sites
- - Iran is prepared to retaliate, experts warn
Editor's Notes:
The momentum is building for either our worst fears to be realized or our greatest dreams. Item 1 is a critical tool to use in a positive campaign to get beyond being controlled by fear. The more we confront the evidence surrounding the events of September 11, 2001, the more we honor those fallen, on that day and afterwards. Item 2 contains time sensitive information from Democracy Now to save community access television. The deadline for this is the end of Monday, February 13. Item 3 begins with a powerful segment of "Sixty Minutes" on CBS TV. The corruption is becoming too obvious to ignore.
Please pass the word on this issue; take action for local independent media,
order the free Reopen911.org DVD, and help change the present course
of chaos, madness, and greed, for truth, peace, integrity, and justice.
1) Reopen911.org - Confronting the Evidence
- - Media Action Alert - Help Save Public Access TV
Reopen 911 - Confronting the Evidence
Reopen911.org is a web site, and group of individuals encouraging a real investigation
into the the tragic events of September 11, 2001. This organization was founded and
underwritten by Jimmy Walter, an extraordinary individual who has generously
given his time and resources to work in a positive and meaningful way.
Flyby News highly recommends this film:
"Confronting the Evidence:
A Call to Reopen the 911 Investigation."
- Order your free DVD -
Reopen911.org
WARNING
The material in this DVD is extremely disturbing,
but sharing it can make all the difference in the world!
For other FN recommended films and DVDs, see:
Films that Make a difference
2) Media Action Alert - Help Save Public Access TV
From Democracy Now!
DEADLINE FOR THIS ACTION
IS THE END OF THE DAY,
Monday, February 13, 2006:
File a comment with the FCC
Cable TV and the major telecom companies, while competing for your business, are united in trying to do away with local public access television and the right of cities and towns to negotiate fair deals with these companies. These multi-year deals, called franchises, are the basis of the PEG system - the Public, Educational and Government channels that these cable/telecom companies must provide to cities where they do business.
Companies like Verizon, AT&T (formerly SBC Global), Comcast and Time Warner hope to hike their profits while at the same time doing away with any public interest or pubic access obligations to the cities and towns where the operate.
Choose a link below and follow the simple instructions - the deadline for comments is for the end of Monday February 13.
Keep Community Media Local!
For cable access organizations, producers and access supporters there are three excellent sites available to choose from:
Access organizations = www.alliancecm.org
Access producers & friends = http://mnn.org/saveaccess/nprmhowto.html
General public & other allies = www.freepress.net/fcc/comment.php?d=05-311
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ABOUT DEMOCRACY NOW!
Democracy Now! airs on over 350 radio and TV stations, including Pacifica, NPR, community, and college radio stations; on public access, PBS, satellite TV stations; on the World Radio Network's European Service and on the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia service; as a "podcast", automatically downloaded to your computer or portable audio player; and streams live M-F at 8am EST at DemocracyNow.org
3) Billions Stolen From Iraq
- - Bush ignored CIA advice on Iraq, says former spy
- - Libby: White House 'Superiors' OK'd Leaks
- - CIA chief sacked for opposing torture
- - US prepares military blitz against Iran's nuclear sites
- - Iran is prepared to retaliate, experts warn
From CBS News - Billions Stolen From Iraq?
Some $8.8 billion dispersed for reconstruction efforts in Iraq
is unaccounted for, says the U.S. official in charge of tracing it.
02/09/06 "CBS" -- -- For a report broadcast on "Sixty Minutes"
Sunday, February 12, 2006 at 7 p.m. ET/PT,
60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft investigates the billions spent on reconstruction-related work, particularly money paid
to a contractor, Custer Battles, now being sued for fraud.
Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, says $8.8 billion is unaccounted for because oversight on the part of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the entity governing Iraq after the war, "was relatively nonexistent."
The former number two man at the Coalition's transportation ministry, Frank Willis, concurs. "I would describe [the accounting system] as nonexistent." Without a financial infrastructure, checks and money transfers were not possible, so the Coalition kept billions in cash to pay for its multitude of projects. "Fresh, new, crisp, unspent, just-printed $100 bills. It was the Wild West," says Willis.
Such an atmosphere made it possible for billions to go missing and companies to defraud the Coalition. Custer Battles, a company quickly formed after the war to get reconstruction contracts, goes on trial next week, accused in a whistleblower suit by an ex-employee of bilking the U.S. government out of $50 million.
"[Custer Battles] wanted to open fraudulent companies overseas and inflate their invoices to the U.S. government," says the ex-employee, Robert Isakson. He says he refused to go along with the scheme and "two weeks later, apparently I heard they began exactly the fraud they described to me," he tells Kroft.
Willis remembers Custer Battles, which was formed by former Army Ranger Scott Custer and a failed congressional candidate, Mike Battles, who claimed to be active in the Republican party and have connections to the White House. "They came in with a can-do attitude, whether they could or not," he says. "They were not experienced. They didn't know what they were doing," says Willis.
They nevertheless got contracts and their work quickly drew complaints. "They failed miserably," says Col. Richard Ballard of a $16.8 million contract Custer Battles got to secure the Baghdad Airport. Col. Ballard, the inspector general for the Army in Iraq at the time, says the company failed to provide the X-ray equipment required by the contract.
"These were multi-million-dollar devices for which they received a considerable cash advance so that they could procure them, and then they never procured this equipment," says Col. Ballard. On a bomb-sniffing dog and trainer Custer Battles did procure, Col. Ballard says, "I think it was a guy and his pet, to be honest with you," he tells Kroft. The Colonel noted that the dog "would refuse to sniff the vehicles."
In a memo obtained by 60 Minutes, the airport's director of security wrote to the Coalition: "Custer Battles has shown themselves to be unresponsive, uncooperative, incompetent, deceitful, manipulative and war profiteers. Other than that, they are swell fellows."
Instead of removing Custer Battles, the Coalition praised them and continued to give them contracts. One of those contracts involved procuring trucks for moving cash around the country - some of which were inoperative and had to be delivered via tow truck. "I don't really know [how they got away with it]," says British Col. Philip Wilkinson, to whom the trucks were delivered. "The assumption that we had was that they had to have high political top cover...," Col. Wilkinson tells Kroft.
Custer and Battles are now under federal investigation and declined to be interviewed. But in taped depositions, they disavowed any knowledge of fraudulent invoices outlined in the lawsuit.
By Ira Rosen MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Also posted: www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11856.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush ignored CIA advice on Iraq, says former spy
by Julian Borger in Washington
Published February 11, 2006 by The Guardian
The CIA official in charge of intelligence on the Middle East until last year has accused the Bush administration of ignoring assessments that sanctions and weapons inspections were the best way to deal with Saddam Hussein, and that an invasion would have a "messy aftermath".
In an article in the next edition of the bimonthly journal, Foreign Affairs, Paul Pillar, has become the highest-ranking CIA official from the prewar period to accuse the White House of manipulating the intelligence on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction.
The allegations contradict the findings of two official inquiries into the intelligence debacle, which have largely blamed the CIA and absolved the administration. They also emerged on the day it was reported that Lewis Libby, a former aide to Vice-President Dick Cheney, had told a grand jury that he had been "ordered" by "his superiors" to leak classified WMD information to the press to bolster the case for going to war.
Article Truncated, for complete article see:
www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1707520,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Libby: White House 'Superiors' OK'd Leaks
By TONI LOCY
02/10/06 "AP" -- -- A former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney told a federal grand jury that his superiors authorized him to give secret information to reporters as part of the Bush administration's defense of intelligence used to justify invading Iraq, according to court papers.
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said in documents filed last month that he plans to introduce evidence that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff, disclosed to reporters the contents of a classified National Intelligence Estimate in the summer of 2003.
The NIE is a report prepared by the head of the nation's intelligence operations for high-level government officials, up to and including the president. Portions of NIEs are sometimes declassified and made public. It is unclear whether that happened in this instance.
In a Jan. 23 letter to Libby's lawyers, Fitzgerald said Libby also testified before the grand jury that he caused at least one other government official to discuss an intelligence estimate with reporters in July 2003.
"We also note that it is our understanding that Mr. Libby testified that he was authorized to disclose information about the NIE to the press by his superiors," Fitzgerald wrote.
Article truncated, for the complete AP article, see:
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11858.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - CIA chief sacked for opposing torture
By Sarah Baxter and Michael Smith
02/12/06 "The Times" (UK) -- Washington -- The CIA's top counter-terrorism official was fired last week because he opposed detaining Al-Qaeda suspects in secret prisons abroad, sending them to other countries for interrogation and using forms of torture such as "water boarding", intelligence sources have claimed.
For complete article link, see:
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2036182,00.html
or
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11886.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - US prepares military blitz against Iran's nuclear sites
"This is more than just the standard military contingency assessment," said a senior
Pentagon adviser. "This has taken on much greater urgency in recent months.
For complete article, see:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/02/12/wiran12.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/02/12/ixnewstop.html
or
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11879.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Iran is prepared to retaliate, experts warn
By Bryan Bender
Globe Staff
02/12/06 "Boston Globe" -- WASHINGTON -- Iran is prepared to launch attacks using long-range missiles, secret commando units, and terrorist allies planted around the globe in retaliation for any strike on the country's nuclear facilities, according to new US intelligence assessments and military specialists.
For article, see:
www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/02/12/iran_is_prepared_to_retaliate_experts_warn?mode=PF
or
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11881.htm
Flyby News Support
To support actions and campaigns please consider sending a check
of any amount made payable to Flyby News. {For donations of $10
or more ~ we will send you a flybynews.com art decal.}
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading and supporting independent news.
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes FNs' use of copyrighted material is posted at FlybyNews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Why We Fight * Rumsfeld's Hitler * Citgo
09 February 2006
Every gun that is made, every warship launched,
every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense,
a theft from those who hunger and are not fed,
those who are cold and are not clothed. This world
in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending
the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists,
the hopes of its children.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
16 April 1953
1) A War Too Far
- - Why We Fight - by writer/director Eugene Jarecki
- - Human Rights Abuse In Gitmo Continues
2) Pat Robertson again calls for Chavez's assassination
- - Rumsfeld likens Venezuela's Chavez to Hitler
- - The CITGO BUYCOTT EXPANDS
"This budget is not just fiscally bankrupt, it is morally bankrupt.
This budget chooses war over health care, tax cuts over education,
special interests over need of the nation and rich over poor. This budget
cuts vital domestic funding because of spending for the war in Iraq and the
tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, placing the burden squarely on the
backs of poor and working class Americans. The President's budget will
increase defense spending by almost 7%, to $439 billion, while vital
finding for Medicare, Medicaid, education, veterans health care,
children's health care, Welfare, transportation, NASA programs
and the Department of Agriculture are slashed. All this, while
requesting an additional $70 billion-or $120 billion for the year
to fund the misguided and ill-advised war and occupation of Iraq."
Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich
February 6, 2006
Editor's Notes:
The above Dennis Kucinich quote reminds me of the eloquence and clarity in what inspired FN to endorse this Ohio Congressman for US President in the 2004 elections. Yet his adding NASA in his description of what is under-funded is ill advised, since this agency is now a component of the administration's waste and cronyism, and an organization that has largely been overtaken by the military industrial complex. The Cassini space probe, and recent nuke launch to Pluto are just a bit of the problem. Yet on the whole, his words are well taken, and that of President Eisenhower, who even in the highest office of the US Government, could only warn Americans of this threat.
Item 1 begins with an article called "A War Too Far" and reveals those responsible for the uprising of Muslim-West discontent. The idea of a leader responsible for the killing of more than 100,000 innocent people in Iraq, (who claims the numbers are only 30,000), and speaking at Coretta Scott King's funeral, and lecturing to those protesting the sacrilege of the Muslim prophet, Mohammed, can only be described as disturbing. The movie, "Why We Fight" is reviewed in the first item, too, which was inspired by the renowned President Eisenhower Farewell Address. Also, in this first item is a disturbing report in today's NY Times about continued torture and the disgraceful conduct of the US treatment of prisoners on the Island of Cuba. But disturbing issues seem to be the norm of the day. In item 2 you have preacher Pat Robertson again calling for the death of the democratic leader of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez; and you have US Secretary of Defense, Rumsfeld, likening Chavez to Hitler. Why don't people look into the mirror of their own souls, or perhaps the distortion is purposeful and their allegiance is to an underworld? But all this craziness is making truth more apparent, and if you buy gas regularly in the US from anywhere else other than Citgo gas stations, you likely have not comprehended the importance of supporting those fighting for truth and freedom.
In the councils of government, we must guard
against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought
or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential
for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties
or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted only an
alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of
huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful
methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together..
We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great
human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy
it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings;
that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibilities; that
all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges
of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and
that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace
guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Farewell Address - January 17, 1961
1) A War Too Far
- - Why We Fight - by writer/director Eugene Jarecki
- - Human Rights Abuse In Gitmo Continues
A War Too Far
Tom Porteous
Published by TomPaine.com
February 07, 2006
Tom Porteous is a syndicated columnist, writer and analyst who has worked for the BBC and the U.K. Foreign & Commonwealth Office. He is co-director of the International Network for Conflict and Security, a consultancy group specializing in conflict analysis.
The publication in a Danish newspaper of a series of cartoons mocking the prophet Mohammed, including one depicting the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a terrorist's bomb about to explode, provides an unsettling glimpse of the way in which the "war on terror" is providing opportunities and motives for political entrepreneurs on both sides to escalate tensions between the Muslim world and the West.
In Europe, a major escalating factor has been the decision in the past weeks by some European newspapers to re-publish the Danish cartoons (which first appeared in September). Editors of these newspapers have defended their decision by invoking a perceived need to protect freedom of expression against religious dogma and fundamentalism.
Whatever the motivation, it was clear that re-publication of the cartoons, besides helping to sell more newspapers, would intensify both the Muslim anger the cartoons had already provoked, and the growing anti-Muslim sentiment among Europeans that the Muslim reaction has stirred up. Neither the Islamophobic right-wing European parties nor Islamic extremists in Europe and the Middle East will be sorry that the issue has escalated in the manner it has..
For Western governments, therefore, now would seem like a good time to reappraise the strategy of the whole "war on terror" and the rationale behind it. Is it working? Is it the best way to tackle the problem of terrorism? Is there not a danger of exacerbating the problems the strategy is supposed to address and of sparking a wider cultural conflict between the West and the Muslim world?
Instead, recent days have seem a escalation of confrontation between the West and another Muslim state, Iran, and a clear restatement of both the rationale and the strategy of the "war on terror" in President Bush's State of the Union address. The uncompromising message from Washington is the Churchillian refrain: "Never give in, never, never, never, never."
Worse, Bush's State of the Union address marked a clear broadening of the war on terror. No longer does the U.S. government limit itself to speaking of a narrow war against terrorists, or a struggle against an "evil ideology" of Islamic extremism.
According to Bush, the West's opponent in a new global conflict that has replaced the Cold War is now "radical Islam"-the very political ideology to which increasingly large numbers of Muslims are committed, if the successes of radical Islamists in recent democratic elections in Palestine, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon and Iran are any evidence.
As the furor over the cartoons shows, the further we go down this road, the more the "war on terror" will infect cultural outlooks and popular attitudes both in the West and in the Muslim world, poisoning relations between them. We must not allow a military and intelligence battle between a coalition of governments and a bunch of extremists and desperados to develop into a real conflict between cultures and peoples.
Source www.tompaine.com/articles/20060207/a_war_too_far.php
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Why We Fight - by writer/director Eugene Jarecki
A Movie.Net Review
{EXCERPT]
Why We Fight looks at what President Eisenhower called "the military-industrial complex"-an unholy alliance between the defense sector, the military, and those in government that Eisenhower feared could threaten the structure of our society. Today, the United States annually spends nearly three quarters of a trillion dollars on defense-more than on all other discretionary parts of the federal budget combined. And most people barely know about it, let alone have any say in it.
Eisenhower's warning was limited to the defense sector, but it can really be applied to the entire American corporate-political state. With the enormous costs involved in campaign finance and the need for members of Congress to bring jobs to their districts, the most important constituents for any politician are not you and me, but those whose companies write big checks and create jobs. And it doesn't matter what party is in power. One quick look at the past century's wars shows Republicans don't own the copyright on making war or serving special interests. Democrats and Republicans alike face obscene campaign costs and constituents who want results. This is where American industries gain "unwarranted influence." The problem is systemic. And those in power are unlikely to fix it since, more often than not, they are part of it.
Things look pretty dark. And in the darkness it's easy to get disillusioned and frustrated. It can make you want to holler. But also in the dark lies the prospect for change. I don't mean "change" in some syrupy, inspirational-video kind of way. I mean what history has proven. Dark ages have historically preceded periods of enlightenment and progress. And while it's dark, it's hard to imagine it may ever get light again. But it is during dark times that people seek change..
For the complete review, see:
www.movienet.com/whywefight.html
For the web site of the film, see:
www.whywefight.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Human Rights Abuse In Gitmo Continues
Tough U.S. Steps in Hunger Strike at Camp in Cuba
By TIM GOLDEN
Published by the New York Times - February 9, 2006
[EXCERPTS]
United States military authorities have taken tougher measures to force-feed detainees engaged in hunger strikes at Guantnamo Bay, Cuba, after concluding that some were determined to commit suicide to protest their indefinite confinement, military officials have said.
In recent weeks, the officials said, guards have begun strapping recalcitrant detainees into "restraint chairs," sometimes for hours a day, to feed them through tubes and prevent them from deliberately vomiting afterward. Detainees who refuse to eat have also been placed in isolation for extended periods in what the officials said was an effort to keep them from being encouraged by other hunger strikers.
The measures appear to have had drastic effects. The chief military spokesman at Guantnamo, Lt. Col. Jeremy M. Martin, said yesterday that the number of detainees on hunger strike had dropped to 4 from 84 at the end of December.
Some officials said the new actions reflected concern at Guantnamo and the Pentagon that the protests were becoming difficult to control and that the death of one or more prisoners could intensify international criticism of the detention center. Colonel Martin said force-feeding was carried out "in a humane and compassionate manner" and only when necessary to keep the prisoners alive. H e said in a statement that "a restraint system to aid detainee feeding" was being used but refused to answer questions about the restraint chairs.
Lawyers who have visited clients in recent weeks criticized the latest measures, particularly the use of the restraint chair, as abusive.
"It is clear that the government has ended the hunger strike through the use of force and through the most brutal and inhumane types of treatment," said Thomas B. Wilner, a lawyer at Shearman & Sterling in Washington, who last week visited the six Kuwaiti detainees he represents. "It is a disgrace."
The lawyers said other measures used to dissuade the hunger strikers included placing them in uncomfortably cold air-conditioned isolation cells, depriving them of "comfort items" like blankets and books and sometimes using riot-control soldiers to compel the prisoners to sit still while long plastic tubes were threaded down their nasal passages and into their stomachs.
Officials of the military and the Defense Department strongly disputed that they were taking punitive measures to break the strike. They said that they were sensitive to the ethical issues raised by feeding the detainees involuntarily and that their procedures were consistent with those of federal prisons in the United States. Those prisons authorize the involuntary treatment of hunger strikers when there is a threat to an inmate's life or health.
"There is a moral question," the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr., said in an interview. "Do you allow a person to commit suicide? Or do you take steps to protect their health and preserve their life?"
Dr. Winkenwerder said that after a review of the policy on involuntary feeding last summer Pentagon officials came to the basic conclusion that it was ethical to stop the inmates from killing themselves.
"The objective in any circumstance is to protect and sustain a person's life," he said.
Some international medical associations and human rights groups, including the World Medical Association, oppose the involuntary feeding of hunger strikers as coercive..
Until yesterday, Guantnamo officials had acknowledged only having forcibly restrained detainees to feed them a handful of times. In those cases, the officials said, doctors had restrained detainees on hospital beds using Velcro straps.
Two military officials, who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the question, said that the use of restraint chairs started after it was found that some hunger strikers were deliberately vomiting in their cells after having been tube-fed and that their health was growing precarious.
In a telephone interview yesterday, the manufacturer of the so-called Emergency Restraint Chair, Tom Hogan, said his small Iowa company shipped five $1,150 chairs to Guantnamo on Dec. 5 and 20 additional chairs on Jan. 10, using a military postal address in Virginia. Mr. Hogan said the chairs were typically used in jails, prisons and psychiatric hospitals to deal with violent inmates or patients.
..Detainees' lawyers said they believed that the tougher approach to the hunger strikes was related to the passage in Congress of measure intended to curtail the detainees' access to United States courts.
Federal district courts have put aside most lawyers' motions on the detainees' treatment until questions about applying the measure have been litigated.
"Because of the actions in Congress, the military feels emboldened to take more extreme measures vis--vis the hunger strikers," said one lawyer, Sarah Havens of Allen & Overy. "The courts are going to stay out of it now."
..On Jan. 9, Mr. Odah told his lawyers, an officer read him what he described as an order from the Guantnamo commander, Brig. Gen. Jay W. Hood of the Army, saying hunger strikers who refused to drink their liquid formula voluntarily would be strapped into metal chairs and tube-fed.
Mr. Odah said he heard "screams of pain" from a hunger striker in the next cell as a thick tube was inserted into his nose. At the other detainee's urging, Mr. Odah told his lawyers that he planned to end his hunger strike the next day.
Another lawyer, Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, said one of his three Bahraini clients, Jum'ah al-Dossari, told him about 10 days ago that more than half of a group of 34 long-term hunger strikers had abandoned their protest after being strapped in restraint chairs and having their feeding tubes inserted and removed so violently that some bled or fainted.
"He said that during these force feedings too much food was given deliberately, which caused diarrhea and in some cases caused detainees to defecate on themselves," Mr. Colangelo-Bryan added. "Jum'ah understands that officers told the hunger strikers that if they challenged the United States, the United States would challenge them back using these tactics."
For the complete New York Times article, see:
www.nytimes.com/2006/02/09/politics/09gitmo.html?th&emc=th
2) Pat Robertson again calls for Chavez's assassination
- - Rumsfeld likens Venezuela's Chavez to Hitler
- - The CITGO BUYCOTT EXPANDS
Robertson again calls for Chavez's assassination: "Not now, but one day"
Summary: On Hannity & Colmes, Pat Robertson once again called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, "Not now, but one day, one day."
During the February 2 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, Christian Coalition founder and 700 Club host Pat Robertson reiterated his call for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
When co-host Alan Colmes asked Robertson, "[I]f he [Chavez] were assassinated, the world would be a safer place?" Robertson answered, "I think South America would." When Colmes later pressed Robertson, asking, "Do you want him [Chavez] taken out?" Robertson retorted, "Not now, but one day, one day, one day."
Earlier, Colmes had asked, "Should Chavez be assassinated?" Robertson explained that "one day," Chavez will "be aiming nuclear weapons; and what's coming across the Gulf [of Mexico] isn't going to be [Hurricane] Katrina, it's going to be his nukes." Co-host Sean Hannity agreed that "the world would be better off without him where he [Chavez] is, because he is a danger to the United States."
Earlier that day, on the February 2 edition of ABC's Good Morning America, Robertson addressed his original August 22, 2005, appeal, in which he had said: "We have the ability to take him [Chavez] out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability." During the interview, co-host Robin Roberts asked Robertson to explain his comments on Chavez, his condemnation of the citizens of Dover, Pennsylvania -- who voted a school board out of office after it imposed an intelligent design curriculum -- and his statements regarding former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, in which he suggested that Sharon's stroke was the result of Sharon's policy, which he claimed was "dividing God's land." Robertson replied:
I'm very passionate about certain things, and unfortunately, my passion maybe runs ahead of me. And in the context of what I'm saying, it isn't quite as strong as it sounds, but I am passionate about certain things and it's not politically correct at all.
For the complete article, and comments, see:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200602030003
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Rumsfeld likens Venezuela's Chavez to Hitler
Defense chief expresses concern at
'populist leadership' in Latin America
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11159503
or
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/03/politics/main1279205.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The CITGO BUYCOTT EXPANDS
Defeat the boycott - BUY CITGO GAS TODAY! - Editorial by Mary Ratcliff
The American Family Association, whose website bills itself as "America's largest pro-family online action site," announced Wednesday a boycott of Citgo gas stations. The right-wing website invites readers to send a brief message to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that says: "Dear President Chavez, Just a note to let you know that I will not be shopping at Citgo. I don't want my money going to someone who has vowed to bring down my government."
"A source at the company's Houston headquarters said Citgo has received more than 37,000 e-mails from people pledging not to buy gasoline at the company's 14,000 U.S. service stations," Reuters reports.
"This is the second campaign focusing on Citgo because of Chavez. In 2005, liberal groups began urging people opposed to the Bush administration to buy their gasoline at Citgo gas stations as a sign of support for Chavez."
Today the Bay View is renewing the call for a Citgo BUYcott, not a boycott, as a token of our admiration for President Chavez and his revolution that is sweeping South America and, we hope, spreading northward.
Bay View Editor CC Campbell-Rock is in Venezuela now, having attended last week's World Social Forum - see her first two stories on the WSF in this week's Bay View. She is staying over this week to tour the Venezuelan countryside with other delegates from Global Women's Strike to meet the grassroots revolutionary leaders who are making the kind of miracles in education, health, housing, economic development etc. that could revive and transform the hoods of the U.S.
President Chavez envisions the 14,000 Citgo stations throughout the U.S. as little embassies dispensing not only bargain gasoline but direct assistance and encouragement to Black and Brown poor people. While the U.S. government plots "regime change" schemes to drive Chavez from power so as to grab Venezuela's oil wealth, Chavez offers his love especially to the people of the U.S. whose bloodlines he proudly shares: African and Indigenous people.
Get your gas at Citgo, the oil company that cares about us
As U.S. oil companies Chevron and Exxon-Mobile report record profits - Chevron's the highest in its 126-year history and Exxon-Mobile's the highest of any U.S. company ever - Venezuela's Citgo, a subsidiary of its state-owned oil company that operates eight refineries and licenses 14,000 gas stations in the U.S., is setting aside up to 10 percent of its refined oil products, especially heating oil, to be sold directly to poor communities and institutions in the U.S.
Venezuelan oil is already heating homes - and warming hearts - in the hoods of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York, Maine and Rhode Island this winter. "There is a lot of poverty in the U.S.," Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told Rev. Jesse Jackson. "Many people die of the cold in winter."
While George W. Bush, in his State of the Union message Tuesday, decried his countrymen's "addiction to oil," President Chavez reaches out through Citgo stations to share Venezuela's oil wealth with those in the U.S. who need fuel for survival, not for SUVs. Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world outside the Middle East.
Venezuelan opposition leader Julio Borges, running a distant second to Hugo Chavez in the current presidential campaign, alleged Tuesday that President Chavez has given away more than $5 billion to Cuba, $4.5 billion for Brazil, plus more than $200 million for the United States, "They're all programs in which Venezuela gives money or gasoline or oil and receives nothing proportional in exchange," Borges told the Associated Press.
While Borges recited the statistics as an attack on Chavez, they also testify to Chavez' brilliant strategy to relieve suffering and uplift the poor throughout the Western Hemisphere. Chavez reminded Borges that all the recipients of Venezuelan petroleum products pay market prices, though special financing makes the purchases affordable.
Some countries pay partly in goods or services, such as bananas or beans. Cuba trades the work of some 20,000 Cuban doctors now treating Venezuela's poor without charge. "How much do 20,000 doctors cost? Add it up," said Chavez.
His PetroCaribe pact, an agreement with 13 Caribbean countries, allows them to pay 60 percent of their bill for Venezuelan oil up front and to pay off the rest as a 25-year loan with a 1 per cent interest rate. Similar financing is being offered to heat the homes of the poor in the northern U.S. this winter with Venezuelan oil.
To support the only oil company that cares about us, patronize your nearest Citgo station. To find it, use the "Citgo Locator" at www.citgo.com/CITGOLocator.jsp.
For the complete article, see:
www.sfbayview.com/020106/defeattheboycott.shtml
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes FNs' use of copyrighted material is posted at FlybyNews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Scholars 911 Truth * Hamas * Leonard Peltier
31 January 2006
Scholars for 9/11 Truth
is a non-partisan association of scholars in fields as diverse
as history, science, military affairs, psychology, and philosophy,
dedicated to exposing falsehoods and to revealing truths behind 9/11.
1) Scholars - 911 Truth - Exposing the Hoax
2) Climate Expert Says NASA Tried to Silence Him
- - DU News - Gulf War Veteran Dennis Kyne
3) Hamas Victory's Silver Lining
4) Message from Leonard Peltier regarding Dennis Banks
- - Pieces of the Economic Puzzle - Amherst, Feb. 9th
Editor's Notes:
A groundswell is building for a scholarly approach to investigating the "official version" of what happened on September 11, 2001. Item two covers the government crackdown on the truth about human-made Global Warming for decades. The sub-item article is on a new resource on Depleted Uranium from a Gulf War Veteran, Dennis Kyne. Item three covers an article by Gideon Levy on the bright side of the Hamas victory in Palestine. Item four marks this Monday's 30th year since the fraudulent extradition and arrest of Leonard Peltier by the US Government. This includes a recent statement by Leonard Peltier, who appreciates not being alone in the struggle for human rights and justice in the US.
Doing time creates a
demented darkness of my
own imagination. . . .
Doing time does this thing
to you. But, of course, you
don't do time.
You do without it. Or
rather, time does you.
Time is a cannibal that
devours the flesh of your
years
day by day, bite by bite.
- Leonard Peltier
1) Scholars - 911 Truth - Exposing the Hoax
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
THE OFFICIAL 9/11 STORY IS A HOAX
by:
Robert M. Bowman
James H. Fetzer
Wayne Madsen
John McMurtry
Morgan Reynolds
Andreas von Buelow
29 January 2006
We believe that senior government officials have covered up crucial facts about what really happened on 9/11. We are therefore joining together in common cause as members of "Scholars for 9/11 Truth", because we are convinced, based on our own research, that the administration has been deceiving the nation about critical events in New York and Washington, D.C.
We believe these events may have been orchestrated by elements within the administration to manipulate Americans into supporting policies at home and abroad they would never have condoned absent "another Pearl Harbor." We appreciate that this White House is incapable of investigating itself and would prefer to believe that the possibility that Congress might hold an unaccountable administration accountable is not merely wishful thinking.
We encourage news services around the world to secure scientific advice by taking advantage of university resources to verify or to falsify our discoveries. Extraordinary situations require extraordinary measures. If this were done, one of the great hoaxes of history would stand naked before the eyes of the world and its perpetrators would be clearly exposed, which may be the only hope for saving this nation from even greater abuse.
[EXCERPT]
The 9/11 Commission, designated to investigate the attack, was directed by Philip Zelikow, part of the Bush transition team in the NSA sector and the co-author of a book with Condoleezza Rice. A Bush supporter and director of national security affairs, he could hardly be expected to conduct an objective and impartial investigation. The 9/11 Commission Report is replete with omissions, distortions, and factual errors, which David Ray Griffin has documented in his book, The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions. The official report, for example, entirely ignores the collapse of WTC7, a 47-story building, which was hit by no airplanes, was only damaged by a few small fires, and fell seven hours after the attack.
Here are some of the kinds of considerations that are profoundly troubling to objective reason:
In the history of structural engineering, steel-frame high-rise buildings have never been brought down due to fires either before or since 9/11, so how can fires have brought down three in one day? How is this possible?
The BBC has reported that at least five of the nineteen alleged "hijackers" have turned up alive and well living in Saudi Arabia, yet according to the FBI, they were among those killed in the attacks. How is this possible?
Frank DeMartini, a project manager for the WTC, said the buildings were designed with load redistribution capabilities to withstand the impact of airliners, whose effects would be like "puncturing mosquito netting with a pencil." Yet they completely collapsed. How is this possible?
Since the melting point of steel is about 2,700F, the temperature of jet fuel fires does not exceed 1,800 under optimal conditions, and UL certified the steel used to 2,000F for six hours, the buildings cannot have collapsed due to heat from the fires. How is this possible?
Flight 77, which allegedly hit the building, left the radar screen in the vicinity of the Ohio/Kentucky border, only to "reappear" in very close proximity to the Pentagon shortly before impact. How is this possible?
Foreign "terrorists" who were clever enough to coordinate hijacking four commercial airliners seemingly did not know that the least damage to the Pentagon would be done by hitting its west wing. How is this possible?
Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, in an underground bunker at the White House, watched Vice President Cheney castigate a young officer for asking, as the plane drew closer and closer to the Pentagon, "Do the orders still stand?" The order cannot have been to shoot it down, but must have been the opposite. How is this possible?
A former Inspector General for the Air Force has observed that Flight 93, which allegedly crashed in Pennsylvania, should have left debris scattered over an area less than the size of a city block; but it is scattered over an area of about eight square miles. How is this possible?
A tape recording of interviews with air traffic controllers on duty on 9/11 was deliberately crushed, cut into very small pieces, and distributed in assorted places to insure its total destruction. How is this possible?
The Pentagon conducted a training exercise called "MASCAL" simulating the crash of a Boeing 757 into the building on 24 October 2000, and yet Condoleezza Rice, among others, has repeatedly asserted that "no one ever imagined" a domestic airplane could be used as a weapon. How is this possible?
Physics research establishes that only controlled demolitions are consistent with the near-gravity speed of fall and virtually symmetrical collapse of all three of the WTC buildings. While turning concrete into very fine dust, they fell straight-down into their own footprints. We are obliged to conclude that the 9/11 atrocity represents an instance of the approach--which has been identified by Karl Rove, the President's closest adviser--of "creating our own reality."
For the complete article, see:
www.ScholarsFor911Truth.org/PressRelease29Jan2006.html
For FN's resources on this topic, see:
Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports,
looking into the unanswered questions.
2) Climate Expert Says NASA Tried to Silence Him
- - DU News - Gulf War Veteran Dennis Kyne
Climate Expert Says NASA Tried to Silence Him
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published by the New York Times
January 29, 2006
The top climate scientist at NASA says the Bush administration has tried to stop him from speaking out since he gave a lecture last month calling for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming.
The scientist, James E. Hansen, longtime director of the agency's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said in an interview that officials at NASA headquarters had ordered the public affairs staff to review his coming lectures, papers, postings on the Goddard Web site and requests for interviews from journalists.
Dr. Hansen said he would ignore the restrictions. "They feel their job is to be this censor of information going out to the public," he said.
Dean Acosta, deputy assistant administrator for public affairs at the space agency, said there was no effort to silence Dr. Hansen. "That's not the way we operate here at NASA," Mr. Acosta said. "We promote openness and we speak with the facts."
He said the restrictions on Dr. Hansen applied to all National Aeronautics and Space Administration personnel. He added that government scientists were free to discuss scientific findings, but that policy statements should be left to policy makers and appointed spokesmen.
Mr. Acosta said other reasons for requiring press officers to review interview requests were to have an orderly flow of information out of a sprawling agency and to avoid surprises. "This is not about any individual or any issue like global warming," he said. "It's about coordination."
Dr. Hansen strongly disagreed with this characterization, saying such procedures had already prevented the public from fully grasping recent findings about climate change that point to risks ahead.
"Communicating with the public seems to be essential," he said, "because public concern is probably the only thing capable of overcoming the special interests that have obfuscated the topic."
Dr. Hansen, 63, a physicist who joined the space agency in 1967, directs efforts to simulate the global climate on computers at the Goddard Institute in Morningside Heights in Manhattan.
Since 1988, he has been issuing public warnings about the long-term threat from heat-trapping emissions, dominated by carbon dioxide, that are an unavoidable byproduct of burning coal, oil and other fossil fuels. He has had run-ins with politicians or their appointees in various administrations, including budget watchers in the first Bush administration and Vice President Al Gore.
In 2001, Dr. Hansen was invited twice to brief Vice President Dick Cheney and other cabinet members on climate change. White House officials were interested in his findings showing that cleaning up soot, which also warms the atmosphere, was an effective and far easier first step than curbing carbon dioxide.
He fell out of favor with the White House in 2004 after giving a speech at the University of Iowa before the presidential election, in which he complained that government climate scientists were being muzzled and said he planned to vote for Senator John Kerry.
But Dr. Hansen said that nothing in 30 years equaled the push made since early December to keep him from publicly discussing what he says are clear-cut dangers from further delay in curbing carbon dioxide.
Article Truncated, for complete article, see:
www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/science/earth/29climate.html?th&emc=th
or
www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0129-01.htm
For FN's resources, see:
Mounting Evidence of Global Warming
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - DU News - Gulf War Veteran Dennis Kyne
Dennis Kyne is a military veteran who served for fifteen years in the US Army, and over a year on the front lines of Gulf War I as a battlefield medic. He has seen first-hand the effects of Depleted Uranium weapons.
Gulf War Syndrome is a disease that thousands of servicemen and women brought back from Gulf War I, and today they continue to die from the side-effects of Depleted Uranium and PB Tablets. Meanwhile the Military maintains that these sypmtoms are "undiagnosable," and continues to conduct unethical testing of medicine and weapons on battlefield personnel in Iraq today.
After an honorable discharge in 2003, Dennis devoted his life to Support the Truth. Today Dennis travels the country describing his first-hand military experience, and educating young Americans about the ill effects of Depleted Uranium.
For more information link to DU News
For FN's resources, see:
Depleted Uranium
and the devestation and harm from exploded shells..
3) Hamas Victory's Silver Lining
Only the right can
By Gideon Levy
www.haaretz.com
29 January 2006
The good news from the occupied territories is that Hamas won the elections. As opposed to what the chorus of national intimidation - speaking in one voice from Benjamin Netanyahu to Ami Ayalon - is saying, the political change in Palestine could be good news. Not that the victory of an extremist religious organization is not without dangers and problems, and that a secular, moderate and uncorrupt movement would have been preferable. But, in its absence, one can find quite a few points of light in the Hamas victory.
First, these are very authentic results, achieved through elections that were respectably democratic, even though they took place under the least democratic circumstances imaginable, the occupation. As usual, we were threatened by our experts with "anarchy," and, as usual, the Palestinians did not meet those expectations. There was no shooting and no rioting; the Palestinian nation had its say with admirable order. It said "no" to a movement that did not bring it any achievements in the just struggle against the occupation, and it said "yes" to those who appeared to the voters to be braver and with clean hands. The religious issue was set aside: Most of the Palestinians, it can be safely said, don't want a religious state; they want a free state.
Second, both Israelis and Palestinians can learn important lessons from the results of the election. The Israelis have to finally learn that applying force will not get the desired results. On the contrary. In recent years, until the tahadiyeh, the lull, there wasn't a month that went by in which we did not hear about the elimination of another "senior" Hamas official. From assassination to assassination, the movement only grew in strength. The conclusion: Force is not the answer.
The Palestinians also have to learn that it was the moderation of the movement that led them to victory. Hamas did not win because of terror attacks, it largely won despite the terror. It has been moderating in recent months, changing its skin, agreeing to a lull that has lasted since November 2004. During all that, its power only grew. As opposed to the fragmented Fatah, whose heads have no control over what happens on the ground, when Hamas wants, not even a toy gun gets fired. The few terror attacks of the past few months were not the handwork of the violent and murderous group we knew. This is an important lesson. Only Hamas can truly fight terror. The war Israel waged against terror, with its innumerable assassinations, demolitions, arrests and detentions, has been far less effective than one judicious decision by the heads of Hamas.
There's more good news. Only the right can do it? If that view is true, if only people of the right can bring peace, like Ariel Sharon on our side, then we are now facing a new chance that should not be missed. A peace deal with Hamas will be a lot more stable and viable than any agreement we sign with the PLO, if Hamas were to oppose it. Hamas can make concessions where Fatah would never dare. In any case, the Hamas that forms the government won't be the Hamas that sends suicide bombers. The comparison to international terror organizations is also nonsense: Hamas is a movement fighting for limited national goals. If Israel were to reach out to the extremists among its enemies, then maybe it can reach a real agreement that would put an end to the tumor of the occupation and the curse of terror.
To that end, both sides, Israel and Hamas, must free themselves of the slogans of the past. Those who pose preconditions, like disarming Hamas, will miss the chance. It is impossible to expect that Hamas will disarm, just as it is impossible to expect that Israel would disarm. In Palestinian eyes, Hamas' weapons are meant to fight the occupation, and, as is well-known, the occupation is not over. Practically, and indeed morally, the armed are armed if they are equipped with F-16s or Qassam launchers. If Israel were to commit to an end to killing Hamas operatives, there is reason to assume that Hamas would agree, at least for a while, to lay down its arms. The months of tahadiyeh proved that, even when Israel did not cease its own fire. In the coming months, the risk of terror attacks will be further reduced: A movement that wants to consolidate its regime and win international recognition will not be busy with terror. Nor will it allow Islamic Jihad to steal the show.
Now is the time to reach out to Hamas, which is desperate for international, and particularly American, recognition, and knows that such recognition goes through Israel. If Israel were to be friendly toward Hamas, it could benefit. Not that Hamas will all at once give up its extremist demands and its unrealistic dreams, but it will know, as some of its leaders have already declared, to set them aside if it serves their interests. Israel, which in any case did not speak with Yasser Arafat or Mahmoud Abbas, now has an opportunity for surprise. Instead of wasting more years with rejectionism, at the end of which we'll sit down with Hamas in any case, let us reach out now to this extremist group, which was democratically elected. Israel has nothing to lose from such an approach. We've already seen the achievements of the hand that assassinates and demolishes, uproots and jails, we've already seen those policies fulfilled in front of our eyes: Hamas won the elections.
For FN's resources, see:
Mid East Peace
4) Message from Leonard Peltier regarding Dennis Banks
- - Pieces of the Economic Puzzle - Amherst, Feb. 9th
From: Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
Message from Leonard Peltier
regarding Dennis Banks and the Sacred Run,
Aho my relations,
For the past few weeks, I have been receiving daily updates from the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee regarding the rallies, events, and support that you my supporters are organizing for Feb. 6, 2006. You can not imagine how good it feels to hear the daily reports! Words can not express my appreciation to each and every one of you who will be remembering me on Feb 6, 2006, the 30th year of my false imprisonment for the illegal means used to extradite me from Canada, and the unjust fraudulent methods used by the United States Department of Justice and its agency the FBI to falsely convict and maintain my imprisonment. Everyday as I hear the daily updates from the LPDC, I go back to my cell and share with my brothers, that I have not been forgotten, that the past thirty years have not been in vain.I thank you! I also want to thank you for contacting the LPDC and offering your support and coordinating the events with the team at the LPDC. The LPDC is the center of communication between me and you, my supporters I ask that you continue to provide your support and continue to contact the LPDC, for I am in constant communication with the LPDC.
I recently sent a message via American Indian Movement Today on World Talk Radio, by my LPDC staff. For those of you who did not hear the broadcast I will repeat my message. "I send each and every one of you my regards. The past thirty years have been a difficult battle. I ask that you bring me home and work in Unity!" I could elaborate on how difficult the past thirty years have been, the hardships, the torture, the lost of love ones who have gone to the spirit world but that is not my style and again must tell you that your support and unity brings me much strength and hope.
I do however feel the need to address the emotional hardships that I have experienced when people I have given my loyalty have made false allegations about me and have caused not only great emotional pain, but who have also organized benefits in my name and yet the funding is never sent to the LPDC to assist in the struggle. At this time I must publicly announce that I, Leonard Pettier and the Leonard Pettier Defense Committee are not affiliated with Dennis Banks and or The Sacred Run that is being organized by Dennis Banks. I have been notified that an event and/ or prayer circle is being held in my honor on Feb 6 at The Federal Building 13th, Street at Clay Oakland and at 6pm at the Unitarian Hall in Berkeley, California. For reasons well known to Dennis Banks, I will not be affiliated with him nor his prayer circle, and or any of his future projects. Further I demand that he not speak my name when promoting his projects and/or himself.
The time has come to take a stand against those who use my struggle for their own motives and profit. This behavior only hurts me and my struggle for freedom. To all of you who have sincere intentions in your heart and will be honoring me on Feb. 6, I send to you a warrior's embrace and say pilamaya (thank you).
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Leonard Peltier
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Leonard Peltier Support Group of New Eagleland
Will meet in honor of Leonard, sharing films, discussions
At the Community Meeting Room upstairs at the
Green Fields Market, 144 Main St. Greenfield, MA
Monday, February 6, 2006 from 5:00 to 8pm
WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON FEB 6, 2006?
For a world wide list of events on Feb. 6th, see:
www.leonardpeltier.org/worldevents.htm
For more information, you can call the LPDC @ 915-533-6655
Email info@leonardpeltier.org and share your plans and ideas.
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
leonardpeltier.org
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
Also from FN archives, see:
Free Leonard Peltier
- - Pieces of the Economic Puzzle - Amherst, Feb. 9th
What's The Connection?
Globalization - Iraq War - Wal-Mart - Healthcare Crisis - Privatization
Educational Program Faciliated by Emily Kawano,
Executive Director of the Center for popular Economics
Thursday, February 9th, 2006 at 7:00 p.m.
Grace Church - Parish Hall, Amherst, MA
(Near Town Common, use side door on Spring St.)
Sponsored by SAGE; more info, call: 413-253-2161
Flyby News will have resources at event, with other activist groups.
Flyby News Support
To support actions and campaigns please consider sending a check
of any amount made payable to Flyby News. {For donations of $10
or more ~ we will send you a flybynews.com art decal }
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading and supporting independent news.
FN's wish list:
Inexpensive reliable car;
Computer system, 2-line telephone,
Campaign funds, bumper stickers.
Networking, posting flyers, etc.
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes FNs' use of copyrighted material is posted at FlybyNews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Iraq Unembedded * Breaking Silence * Bush Law
17 January 2006
"Our lives begin to end the day
we become silent on things that matter."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
1) Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence
2) Iraq Unembedded
- - U.S. Military Called On to Compensate Iraqi Civilians
- - National Security Whistleblowers "Call to Patriotic Duty"
- - Gore: Bush 'Repeatedly and Persistently' Broke the Law
3) NASA Debates Public Safety Of Pluto Launch
Editor's Notes:
The first item is from a speech by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., when he spoke out against the Vietnam War on the day one year from his assassination. His speech reads like a deja-vu of the current US inhumane-quagmire-policy in Iraq. Item two begins with a powerful review on a new book featuring 'gripping war photos from four independent photojournalists' revealing a key lesson on reality and war. Also in this section is more from Sibel Edmonds, and the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition. The third item covers a mainstream article reviewing NASA's safety concerns in launching 24 pounds of radioactive Plutonium on a rocket ship from Florida, expected lift-off, today.
"I'm very much in favor of the space program,
but I think the use of plutonium in space
is a manifestation of organized insanity"
John Gofman, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Molecular and Cell Biology
1) Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence
By Rev. Martin Luther King
4 April 1967
Speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1967,
meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church. NYC
[EXCERPT]
I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join with you in this meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. The recent statement of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: "A time comes when silence is betrayal." That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.
And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond to compassion my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the junta in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them too because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution there until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries.
They must see Americans as strange liberators. The Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence in 1945 after a combined French and Japanese occupation, and before the Communist revolution in China. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. Even though they quoted the American Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. Instead, we decided to support France in its reconquest of her former colony.
Our government felt then that the Vietnamese people were not "ready" for independence, and we again fell victim to the deadly Western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long. With that tragic decision we rejected a revolutionary government seeking self-determination, and a government that had been established not by China (for whom the Vietnamese have no great love) but by clearly indigenous forces that included some Communists. For the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives.
For nine years following 1945 we denied the people of Vietnam the right of independence. For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their abortive effort to recolonize Vietnam.
Before the end of the war we were meeting eighty percent of the French war costs. Even before the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu, they began to despair of the reckless action, but we did not. We encouraged them with our huge financial and military supplies to continue the war even after they had lost the will. Soon we would be paying almost the full costs of this tragic attempt at recolonization.
After the French were defeated it looked as if independence and land reform would come again through the Geneva agreements. But instead there came the United States, determined that Ho should not unify the temporarily divided nation, and the peasants watched again as we supported one of the most vicious modern dictators -- our chosen man, Premier Diem. The peasants watched and cringed as Diem ruthlessly routed out all opposition, supported their extortionist landlords and refused even to discuss reunification with the north. The peasants watched as all this was presided over by U.S. influence and then by increasing numbers of U.S. troops who came to help quell the insurgency that Diem's methods had aroused. When Diem was overthrown they may have been happy, but the long line of military dictatorships seemed to offer no real change -- especially in terms of their need for land and peace.
The only change came from America as we increased our troop commitments in support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept and without popular support. All the while the people read our leaflets and received regular promises of peace and democracy -- and land reform. Now they languish under our bombs and consider us -- not their fellow Vietnamese --the real enemy. They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs are rarely met. They know they must move or be destroyed by our bombs. So they go -- primarily women and children and the aged.
They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. They wander into the hospitals, with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for onE "Vietcong"-inflicted injury. So far we may have killed a million of them -- mostly children. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. They see the children, degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers.
What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? What do they think as we test our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe? Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? Is it among these voiceless ones?
We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops. We have cooperated in the crushing of the nation's only non-Communist revolutionary political force -- the unified Buddhist church. We have supported the enemies of the peasants of Saigon. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. What liberators?
..Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence when it helps us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.
For the complete speech transcript, see:
www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/058.html
or
http://academic.udayton.edu/race/06hrights/WaronTerrorism/war01.htm
or
www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm
2) Iraq Unembedded
- - U.S. Military Called On to Compensate Iraqi Civilians
- - National Security Whistleblowers "Call to Patriotic Duty"
- - Gore: Bush 'Repeatedly and Persistently' Broke the Law
Iraq Unembedded
A new book featuring gripping war photos from four independent photojournalists
tells the story an embedded US press corps couldn't tell.
by James Heflin -
Published by the Valley Advocate
January 5, 2006
Just before the war in Iraq began, I happened upon a protest in downtown Northampton. The main intersection was blocked by the protesters, several of whom were splayed out on the concrete as fake war casualties. I went up close. I've thought of war, of organized killing, as a failure of reason for a long time. Those who would seek war, as our commander-in-chief seems to, first have to manage to dispense with the bother, the irritation of the deaths of innocents that mars any military action, no matter how noble.
But those deaths mostly still bother the rest of us. I stood in the intersection, and the utter reality of the abstraction--war--that I had been fighting in print since Bush's first obvious lies, became in the next moments more tangible. It all came down to what was being enacted there: death. I believed that soon, despite all of us who could see that Bush was hyping cobbled-together, well-spun intelligence, real and innocent people would be lying on the streets of Baghdad, blood blooming from some terrible wound. You've got to have a really good reason to do that to someone, even someone who opposes you. Somehow, standing there surrounded by others who felt as I did, seeing their passion on display, and seeing their enactment of Iraqi casualties, I felt, viscerally, a sense of loss and despair, and I imagined all too well the death that would come, no matter how many of us thought Bush's trumped-up scare tactics weren't sufficient reason to fight.
I knew, too, that the sense of horror at lost life, at helpless victims shattered by our bombs, bombs with all our names attached, whether we like it or not--was precisely what warmongers never want us to feel. These are the people who think the lesson of Vietnam was that images of war, not the moral cost of killing, are bad for you. It must be necessary to remain a naif or to harden oneself against the humanity of an enemy to hold such a position. Bush has worked hard to make sure most Americans remain nave, remain in a starry-eyed state where "freedom" and "liberation" and "democracy" stir the proper fervor, unsullied by the knowledge that acting on abstractions still carries un-abstract costs.
The photos in the book Unembedded (from Chelsea Green publishers) are the work of four photojournalists--Kael Alford (American), Thorne Anderson (American), Rita Leistner (Canadian) and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad (Iraqi)--who put the acquisition of these important images above all else, braving whatever they would find beyond the borders of Iraq. This is the real version of what I could only imagine in Northampton; this is a tiny bit of what happened in Iraq, the real faces of loss and despair. The images they brought back are absorbing and fascinating, but more than that, they are complicated--complicated in that the reactions they elicit are not readily file-able for someone trying to impose a lefty or righty filter on the world. Something, one imagines, like the reality of life in Iraq.
There is happiness on one page, utter despair on the next. The photographers write lengthy captions about most of their shots, and each offers a longer essay as well. In one image (by Thorne Anderson), a boy urinates on a fallen statue of Saddam. In another (by Kael Alford), a young boy sits staring on a hospital floor beside his mother, who's bleeding and has been given up for dead by doctors. The former may provide vindication for those who hang onto turning out Saddam as the ultimate war rationale.
The latter may well be the most important image in the book.
The boy is clearly deep in thought, and he seems strangely calm. His is a look of cold calculation, not fear or sadness. He seems oblivious to his own injuries. Of such moments, repeated countless times as bombs fall on the Muslim world, terrorists are made. What Alford froze with her lens is surely a moment of traumatic change for just one of the thousands of victims of our war. Our justifications--"freedom is on the march"--can't change the fact that a boy's mother is dying at our hands. It's all too clear that, with every one of those moments, anti-American sentiment is seared into young brains, and we are seeing to the certain creation of another generation of terrorism and conflict. This boy may never take up arms against the United States, but whatever he does, thanks to this war, he must grapple for the rest of his life with the horror of his mother's death at our hands. It may be difficult for him to think of those hands as benevolent.
That's not something that Bush and all his illegal wiretapping can prevent. If we do not look unflinchingly at such moments, understand them and seek to prevent the damage they do, we will be doomed to ceaselessly pursue the "war on terror." We must realize that one can declare war on an emotion--terror--but one can only do battle with the non-abstract, with real people, and dealing with them poorly often makes them willing to take up arms against us and employ terrorism as a tactic.
Unembedded , though at first it appears to be but a slender volume of modest import, is a truly hard-won book, and it should be required viewing. This depiction of events that befell (and still befall) Iraqis, this, for better or ill, is a slice of the real results of our invading Iraq. It may be bad from a strictly military point of view to humanize the enemy--it's hard even for the well-trained to kill someone they see as a real person--but it's vastly important to understanding the causes of terrorism and actually dealing with them. And that, in the end, is the only way out of Bush's war.
For complete original article, with photos and reference-links, see:
http://valleyadvocate.com/gbase/News/content.html?oid=oid:138707
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - U.S. Military Called On to Compensate Iraqi Civilians
Published on Monday, January 16, 2006 by OneWorld.net
U.S. Military Called On to Compensate Iraqi Civilians
by Haider Rizvi
NEW YORK - U.S.-based humanitarian groups are urging the administration of President George W. Bush to compensate the families of innocent Iraqi citizens killed as a result of aerial bombings by the U.S. military.
The call comes after U.S. military officials admitted that they had mistakenly bombed a civilian residence in the northern Iraqi town of Baiji over a week ago. The air raid that killed at least six people in their home prompted widespread anger among local communities.
"When mistakes happen, we have a responsibility to help the victims and their loved ones," said Sarah Holewinsky, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign for Innocent Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC).
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0116-04.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - National Security Whistleblowers "Call to Patriotic Duty"
By Sibel Edmonds & William Weaver
December 29, 2005
NSWBC Call to Patriotic Duty
By Sibel Edmonds & William Weaver
Without whistleblowers the public would never know of the many abuses of constitutional rights by the government. Whistleblowers, Truth Tellers, are responsible for the disclosure that President George W. Bush ordered unconstitutional surveillance of American citizens. These constitutional lifeguard take their patriotic oaths to heart and soul: Rather than complying with classification and secrecy orders designed to protect officials engaging in criminal conduct, whistleblowers chose to risk their livelihoods and the wrath of their agencies to get the truth out. But will they be listened to by those who are charged with accountability?
[EXCERPT]
Accountability, in the end, always comes down to the public's right to know, the right to have the most basic knowledge about what its servants are doing with its money and its authority. Ambassador Maxwell Taylor, when asked what he thought about the public's right to know of what the government is doing on its behalf, infamously responded the he did not "believe in that as a general rule." Fortunately, that is not a general rule that comports with our system of government. Citizens cannot make informed choices if they do not have the facts. Public servants should not be forced to choose between career and conscience, between commitment to oath and commitment to colleagues, and if we live by our words, laws, and principles they will not have to. Protecting all employees of the People are that:
o Their higher loyalty is to the Constitution and the rule of law;
o Information may never be classified as secret merely because it is embarrassing or incriminating, or to cover up criminal and unlawful conduct;
o There is no agreement that public servants may sign that will require them lie to the Congress or courts;
o The United States' Code of Ethics for Government Service explains carefully and clearly in an assured voice that "Any person in government service should put loyalty to the highest moral principles and to the Country above loyalty to persons, party, or Government department."
Contact:
Sibel Edmonds-Director, National Security Whistleblowers Coalition,
sedmonds@nswbc.org
Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI language specialist, was terminated from the bureau after reporting security breaches, cover-up, and blocking of intelligence with national security implications. Since that time, court proceedings in her whistleblower case have been blocked by the imposition of "State Secret Privilege," and Congress has been prevented from discussion of her case through retroactive reclassification by the Department of Justice. Edmonds, fluent in Turkish, Farsi and Azerbaijani; holds an MA in Public Policy and International Commerce from George Mason University, and a BA in Criminal Justice and Psychology from George Washington University.
Professor William Weaver, NSWBC Senior Advisor, wweaver@nswbc.org
Bill Weaver served in U.S. Army signals intelligence for eight years in Berlin and Augsburg, Germany, in the late 1970s and 1980s. He holds a law degree and Ph.D. in politics from the University of Virginia. He currently is an associate professor and associate director of faculty for the Institute for Policy and Economic Development and an Associate in the Center for Law and Border Studies at the University of Texas at El Paso. He specializes in executive branch secrecy policy, governmental abuse, and law and bureaucracy.
About National Security Whistleblowers Coalition
National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), founded in August 2004, is an independent and nonpartisan alliance of whistleblowers who have come forward to address our nation's security weaknesses; to inform authorities of security vulnerabilities in our intelligence agencies, at nuclear power plants and weapon facilities, in airports, and at our nation's borders and ports; to uncover government waste, fraud, abuse, and in some cases criminal conduct. The NSWBC is dedicated to aiding national security whistleblowers through a variety of methods, including advocacy of governmental and legal reform, educating the public concerning whistleblowing activity, provision of comfort and fellowship to national security whistleblowers suffering retaliation and other harms, and working with other public interest organizations to affect goals defined in the NSWBC mission statement. For more on NSWBC visit nswbc.org
For the complete article, see:
www.opednews.com/maxwrite/print_friendly.php?p=opedne_sibel_ed_051229_nswbc_call_to_patrio.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Gore: Bush 'Repeatedly and Persistently' Broke the Law
Published on Monday, January 16, 2006 by the Associated Press
Gore: Bush 'Repeatedly and Persistently' Broke the Law
by Larry Margasak
WASHINGTON - Former Vice President Al Gore called Monday for an independent investigation of President Bush's domestic spying program, contending the president "repeatedly and persistently" broke the law by eavesdropping on Americans without court approval.
www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0116-08.htm
- - For transcript of speech, see:
Read whole speech here:
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Text_of_Gore_speech_0116.html
3) NASA Debates Public Safety Of Pluto Launch
POSTED: 6:22 pm EST January 10, 2006
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA's leaders debated on Tuesday whether it's safe to launch the first mission to the planet Pluto -- a mission powered by radioactive plutonium.
The launch is scheduled for next Tuesday [1/17/06], and extraordinary safety precautions are being taken at Cape Canaveral, WESH 2 space specialist Dan Billow reported.
The mission needs clearance from the White House and from NASA's administrator in Washington. The safety debate was under way all afternoon Tuesday, even as teams of radiation specialists make their way to Brevard County to be ready in case of an accident.
Across Brevard County, 16 teams of radiation specialists and two radiological control centers will deploy before Tuesday's launch.
"They've got aircraft, they've got manpower, they've got the vehicles, they've got the most modern sensors probably available in the world today," Bob Lay, Brevard County's emergency operations manager.
The Pluto probe carries 24 pounds of plutonium, which is needed to generate electricity for its cameras and transmitters. The probe will be launched on an Atlas 5 rocket, a new and more powerful version of t he rocket never launched before.
If it explodes during liftoff, there is a very small chance the ground could be contaminated with cancer-causing radioactive particles. In fact, a test version of one of the rocket's fuel tanks has ruptured, which could cause just such an explosion.
"So, we're trying to understand why that tank ruptured," said Kennedy Space Center director Jim Kennedy.
Not much time is left. Launch is scheduled for next Tuesday, and the probe must get off the ground by mid-February while Pluto, its target, is within range.
"We do not play games with the public's health and safety. We recognize the importance of that, and it's a part of our charter to make sure that we protect the public," Kennedy said.
NASA has not yet announced any conclusion from Tuesday's top-level safety review, but earlier, Kennedy said it appears experts are leaning toward clearing the rocket for launch.
For original article posting, see:
www.wesh.com/news/5984374/detail.html
Flyby News Support
To support actions and campaigns please consider sending a check
of any amount made payable to Flyby News. {For donations of $10
or more ~ we will send you a flybynews.com art decal }
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading and supporting independent news.
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Impeachment * Peak Oil * LFAS * Peltier-30
12 January 2006
"This government is not only more criminal and corrupt
than we imagine-it is more criminal and illicit than we
can imagine. Bush and company make the mafia look
like boy scouts.. The collection of thugs and criminals
now running the country are the greatest and most
dangerous organized crime syndicate in the world.
And they possess the greatest arsenal of weapons,
many of them nuclear, that the world has ever
seen. They have an unparalleled propensity
for violence. They are not who you think
they are; and they are not doing what
you think they are doing."
- Charles Sullivan
"Peak Oil And The End Of Empire"
1) Impeachment chances loom for Bush
- - Peak Oil And The End Of Empire
- - September 11 Attacks Revisited
- - NSA Whistleblower Alleges Illegal Spying
- - Abramoff Scandal Threatens to Derail Reed's Political Ambitions
2) Protect Whales and other Marine Life from Navy's Sonar
3) Thirty Years of Injustice for Leonard Peltier, February 6th
- - Community Action Amherst, MA, January 25
Editor's Notes:
February 6, 2006 marks the thirtieth year of US imprisonment for Leonard Peltier. Unfortunately the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee lost another Chair recently, and one must wonder what's behind all the quick and chaotic turnarounds. The first item contains hopeful and disturbing information. It would make sense for progressive candidates to work together to represent the majority to safeguard our mutual interests. Item two covers a call for help to stop the Navy's experimental use of mammal head-splitting Low Frequency Active Sonar. Item three is on Leonard Peltier and events in western Massachusetts, and time for rememberence of a caged innocent human in the clutches of unjust law.
"A deeply moving and very disturbing story of a gross miscarriage
of justice and an eloquent cri de coeur of Native Americans for redress
and to be regarded as human beings with inalienable rights guaranteed
under the United States Constitution as any other citizens. We pray
that it does not fall on deaf ears. America owes it to herself."
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Statement regarding Leonard Peltier's
Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance
1) Impeachment chances loom for Bush
- - Peak Oil And The End Of Empire
- - September 11 Attacks Revisited
- - NSA Whistleblower Alleges Illegal Spying
- - Abramoff Scandal Threatens to Derail Reed's Political Ambitions
Impeachment chances loom for Bush
Published on January 6, 2005, InfoWars.net
by ROSA BROOKS
It's history.
You know, the Clinton impeachment thing. Remember that?
When the Associated Press reported last week that the impeachment of President Clinton had made it into major high school history textbooks, it seemed only fitting. Most adults forgot about the impeachment the instant it was over. Now high school kids can read the story, and as soon as their exams are over, they too can forget it.
So, someday, 2005 might be recalled as the year the Clinton impeachment was relegated to the dustbin of history. But it also might be recalled as the year that paved the way for George W. Bush's impeachment.
Article Truncated, for complete article, see:
http://infowars.net/articles/january2006/060106Impeachment_chances.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Peak Oil And The End Of Empire
By Charles Sullivan
[EXCERPT]
Peak oil is most likely a term most readers have not heard before. That is about to change. The concept is slowly making its way onto the mainstream stage. It is intruding into the fringes of the public conscience and soon it may occupy the greater part. When that time comes, as it inevitably will, and probably sooner than you think, the world as we know it will end.
All of the oil that exists is the product of complex ecological processes: the decomposition of prehistoric plants and animals over eons of time. There will never be any more oil than there is now. There will only be less; and eventually there will be none. Peak oil refers to the time when the rate of extraction from a specific location (or the whole world) is at a maximum. Beyond the peak of extraction follows a steady and continuous decline. In the U.S. peak oil was reached in the early seventies of the last century. Since that time extraction of all U.S. oil reserves has been steadily declining, while demand has gradually increased. As more of the world becomes industrialized and taps into the world's oil pipeline, the more rapidly it is depleted. Once it's gone, it's gone. There will never be any more..
Peak oil is a concept that is well understood by most governments. The end of cheap oil means the collapse not only of the U.S. economy but also the global economy. Alarm over peak oil is almost certainly the hidden reason that the U.S. invaded Iraq. It is the reason we are building fourteen permanent military bases in that country. The U.S. has no intentions of ever leaving Iraq as long as one drop of our precious oil lies beneath their sand. How our oil got beneath their sand must have some cryptogamous connection to the ideology of manifest destiny that has driven this nation to unthinkable crimes against nature and humanity. It is the basis for World War Three, which we may already have initiated with the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Widespread resource wars will be the very predictable result of the rush to extract the world's last remaining and dwindling oil reserves.
Peak oil is almost certainly the underlying cause for the events of 9/11. The American people are not being told the truth. There is a high probability that Oil men in high places of the U.S. government orchestrated those events in order to get the American People behind the invasion of first Afghanistan, then Iraq; and probably Iran, Syria or North Korea will be next. Dick Cheney appears to be a likely suspect, perhaps with the aid of Poppy Bush and his CIA connections. They intend to get average American's used to the idea of war that will not end in our lifetimes. The age of cheap oil is nearing an end and the financiers of war and empire are scared stiff. They will do anything to have access to the last dregs of oil that can be sucked out of the earth, no matter which nations sit atop them. The second largest reserves of oil happen to lie beneath Iraq. The U.S. connections to the House of Saud are too well documented to warrant discussion here.
We must wake up to what kind of people we are dealing with. This government is not only more criminal and corrupt than we imagine-it is more criminal and illicit than we can imagine. Bush and company make the mafia look like boy scouts. Let me try to convey some idea of what I mean. The collection of thugs and criminals now running the country are the greatest and most dangerous organized crime syndicate in the world. And they possess the greatest arsenal of weapons, many of them nuclear, that the world has ever seen. They have an unparalleled propensity for violence. They are not who you think they are; and they are not doing what you think they are doing.
It has been said that the truth will set us free. If so, and I believe it will, it would behoove us to come to an honest reckoning with the history we have chosen as a nation to create. Any truth is better than make believe.
Charles Sullivan is a furniture maker, photographer, and free lance writer residing in the eastern panhandle of West Virgina. He welcomes your comments at earthdog@highstream.net
For the complete article, see:
www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_charles__060103_peak_oil_and_the_end.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - September 11 Attacks Revisited
By Vincent L Guarisco
www.oldamericancentury.org/vince_004.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - NSA Whistleblower Alleges Illegal Spying
Published on Wednesday, January 11, 2006 by ABC News
NSA Whistleblower Alleges Illegal Spying
Former Employee Admits to Being a Source for the New York Times
by Brian Ross
Russell Tice, a longtime insider at the National Security Agency, is now a whistleblower the agency would like to keep quiet.
For 20 years, Tice worked in the shadows as he helped the United States spy on other people's conversations around the world.
"I specialized in what's called special access programs," Tice said of his job. "We called them 'black world' programs and operations."
But now, Tice tells ABC News that some of those secret "black world" operations run by the NSA were operated in ways that he believes violated the law. He is prepared to tell Congress all he knows about the alleged wrongdoing in these programs run by the Defense Department and the NSA in the post-9/11 efforts to go after terrorists.
"The mentality was we need to get these guys, and we're going to do whatever it takes to get them," he said.
Article truncated, for complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0111-01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Abramoff Scandal Threatens to Derail Reed's Political Ambitions
Published January 11, 2006 by Bloomberg.com
Abramoff Scandal Threatens to Derail Reed's Political Ambitions
by Kristin Jensen and Laurence Viele Davidson
[EXCERPT]
The Washington scandal over lobbyist Jack Abramoff may claim a casualty outside the nation's capital: Ralph Reed, a former presidential-campaign adviser who once headed one of the U.S.'s largest Christian activist groups.
Disclosures that Reed once ran an anti-gambling campaign that was secretly financed by casino-owning clients of his friend Abramoff have damaged his ability to raise funds for a bid to become Georgia's next lieutenant governor, other Republicans say.
That may undercut his chances of winning an office that he could use as a steppingstone to national political ambitions, they say..
Connections
Reed and Abramoff have known each other since the early 1980s, when they were leaders of the College Republicans along with another now-powerful Washington player, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist. They made an odd trio: Abramoff, an orthodox Jew who went to high school in Beverly Hills, California; Reed, a Christian southerner with boyish looks; and Norquist, a Massachusetts native with a penchant for dramatic monologues in his tax-cut crusade.
The three continued to work together until word broke that Abramoff may have defrauded his tribal clients. One, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, in 1999 donated money to Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform, which then wrote checks to Reed's anti-gambling coalition.
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0111-08.htm
2) Protect Whales and other Marine Life from Navy's Sonar
From Natural Resources Defense Council
There is an emerging threat to whales that demands your immediate action.
The U.S. Navy wants to put a testing ground for lethal mid-frequency sonar along the migratory path of highly endangered northern right whales, off the coast of North Carolina.
Please act today to protect the whales and other marine life of this offshore refuge from a year-round barrage of deadly, ear-splitting noise.
Go to www.savebiogems.org/whales/takeaction.asp?step=2&item=53246
and urge the Navy to consider less sensitive locations for its sonar training range.
As the site of more than 160 exercises annually, the Navy's proposed testing range would create a 500-square-mile hub of year-round sonar activity and other intense underwater noise. The range would lie along the migratory route of endangered right whales, fewer than 400 of which are believed to exist today.
Just one year ago, 37 whales of three different species beached themselves on the shores of the Outer Banks, near the proposed testing range, following Navy sonar exercises in the area. Scientists have linked the use of high-intensity sonar to numerous other mass strandings of whales around the globe, from the Bahamas to the Canary Islands to Japan. Yet, incredibly, the Navy's analysis of its proposed testing range does not even mention, much less thoroughly examine, this stranding.
Beached whales have been found bleeding around their brains and ears after encounters with this lethal technology.
Military sonar may also be interfering with the ability of these majestic creatures to locate food, avoid predators and mate.
Please go to www.savebiogems.org/whales/takeaction.asp?step=2&item=53246
and tell the Navy to carefully consider all the alternatives before proceeding with sonar exercises in this spectacular whale habitat.
Or, to make an even bigger impact, compose your own letter -- using the points in our standard letter -- and mail or fax it no later than January 30 to:
Keith Jenkins
Naval Facilities Engineering Command Atlantic
Mail Code EV21KJ
6506 Hampton Boulevard
Norfolk, VA 23508
Fax: 757-322-4894
Thank you for helping to protect endangered whales from the lethal effects of military sonar.
Sincerely,
Frances Beinecke
President
Natural Resources Defense Council
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For FN's archive-resources, see:
The harmful impact on Whales and Dolphins
by the U.S. Navy's experimental use of active sonar systems.
3) Thirty Years of Injustice for Leonard Peltier, February 6th
- - Community Action Amherst, MA, January 25
Leonard Peltier's Thirtieth Anniversary!
February 6, 2006 marks the thirtieth anniversary of Leonard Peltier's illegal extradition to the United States from Canada using coerced and fraudulent testimony. This was the beginning of his odyssey that resulted in his false conviction for the June 1975 murder of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in Federal Court in Fargo, North Dakota in 1977.
During his thirty years imprisonment Leonard, has won acclaim and support across the globe. Amnesty International, the leading human rights in the world, considers Leonard a "prisoner of conscious" and calls for his "immediate release." His prison writings "My Life is My Sun Dance" has been called by one America's leading historians -Howard Zinn- "An accusation against monstrous injustice, a beautiful expression of a man's soul, demanding release." South African human rights activist Archbishop Desmond Tutu called it "A deeply moving and very disturbing story of a gross miscarriage of justice."
Recent revelations of the Bush administration's widespread spying of the American people should remind many of similar activities by the federal government in the 1960s and 1970s against members of the civil right and anti-war movements and the American Indian Movement, of which, Leonard Peltier was an active member.
On February 6, 2006, supporters of Leonard Peltier around the globe will hold rallies, public forums and film showings to protest his thirty years in prison.
For more information please contact:
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee:
Email info@leonardpeltier.org
Phone - 915 - 533-6655
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Leonard Peltier Support Group of New Eagleland
Will meet in honor of Leonard, sharing films, discussions
At the Community Meeting Room upstairs at the
Green Fields Market, 144 Main St. Gfld, MA
Monday, February 6, 2006 from 5:00 to 8pm
WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON FEB 6, 2006?
Call the LPDC @ 915-533-6655
Email info@leonardpeltier.org and share your plans and ideas.
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
leonardpeltier.org
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
For more online resources, see:
http://users.skynet.be/kola/index.htm
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
Also from FN archives:
Free Leonard Peltier!
- - Community Action Amherst, MA January 25
Please join us for a cozy winter evening of music, hilarious
storytelling and political satire by performance poet and
musician, CHRIS CHANDLER with David Roe on piano.
Plus political theatre by the valleys new Belly-Up Theater Troupe.
Amherst Unitarian Meetinghouse
121 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
7: 30 pm, doors open 7:00 pm
$8.00 Adults / $5.00 Students / Children 12 and under free
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to rural Mayan Guatemalan
villages & farms devastated by mudslides & floods in 2005.
Visit behrhorst.org to learn about relief efforts.
Also featured will be informational tables from some of the valley's leading peace and justice
activist groups---Traprock Peace Center, AFSC, Arise for Social Justice, SAGE, and Flyby News.
Call Mary or Keith at 413-253-3562 for more information
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
FearDestroys * IndigenousRising * Pu-Launch
29 December 2005
"The liberty of a democracy is not safe
if the people tolerate the growth of private power
to the point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state
itself. That in its essence is fascism ownership of government
by an individual, by a group or any controlling private power."
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
1) Fear destroys what bin Laden could not
2) Tehran Times on Bolivia - Indigenous Intifada
- - Chavez film discussion forum on democracy, January 5th
3) Plutonium Launch-Protest Cape Canaveral, January 7th
4) Racing Toward Climate Disaster
Editor's Notes:
This year ends with mixed blessings. While southern hemisphere nations of America and freedom-loving people celebrate independence and democracy, especially in light of the victory in Bolivia, electing its first indigenous President in over 500 years, the turmoil in the Mid East continues by the treacherous policies of the Clinton-Bush administrations. And while NASA has yet to conduct another flyby of Earth with plutonium on board, on January 7 it is launching a rocket ship with 24 pounds of plutonium on board from Cape Canaveral. Planned are protests and prayers. The last item includes an overview of the accelerating rise in temperature and impending worsening of conditions from climate change.
Flyby News next film-discussion forum on democracy, features the film::
THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED
at Greenfield Community Television
393 Main Street, Greenfield, MA
January 5th, 2006 ~ 7:00 pm
For more on this and other programs, see:
Films that Make a Difference!
1) Fear destroys what bin Laden could not
Fear destroys what bin Laden could not
One wonders if Osama bin Laden didn't win after all.
He ruined the America that existed on 9/11. But he had help.
By Robert Steinback
12/27/05 "Miami Herald" -- -- If, back in 2001, anyone had told me that four years after bin Laden's attack our president would admit that he broke U.S. law against domestic spying and ignored the Constitution -- and then expect the American people to congratulate him for it -- I would have presumed the girders of our very Republic had crumbled.
Had anyone said our president would invade a country and kill 30,000 of its people claiming a threat that never, in fact, existed, then admit he would have invaded even if he had known there was no threat -- and expect America to be pleased by this -- I would have thought our nation's sensibilities and honor had been eviscerated.
If I had been informed that our nation's leaders would embrace torture as a legitimate tool of warfare, hold prisoners for years without charges and operate secret prisons overseas -- and call such procedures necessary for the nation's security -- I would have laughed at the folly of protecting human rights by destroying them.
If someone had predicted the president's staff would out a CIA agent as revenge against a critic, defy a law against domestic propaganda by bankrolling supposedly independent journalists and commentators, and ridicule a 37-year Marie Corps veteran for questioning U.S. military policy -- and that the populace would be more interested in whether Angelina is about to make Brad a daddy -- I would have called the prediction an absurd fantasy.
That's no America I know, I would have argued. We're too strong, and we've been through too much, to be led down such a twisted path. What is there to say now?
All of these things have happened. And yet a large portion of this country appears more concerned that saying ''Happy Holidays'' could be a disguised attack on Christianity.
I evidently have a lot poorer insight regarding America's character than I once believed, because I would have expected such actions to provoke -- speaking metaphorically now -- mobs with pitchforks and torches at the White House gate. I would have expected proud defiance of anyone who would suggest that a mere terrorist threat could send this country into spasms of despair and fright so profound that we'd follow a leader who considers the law a nuisance and perfidy a privilege.
Never would I have expected this nation -- which emerged stronger from a civil war and a civil rights movement, won two world wars, endured the Depression, recovered from a disastrous campaign in Southeast Asia and still managed to lead the world in the principles of liberty -- would cower behind anyone just for promising to ``protect us.''
President Bush recently confirmed that he has authorized wiretaps against U.S. citizens on at least 30 occasions and said he'll continue doing it. His justification? He, as president -- or is that king? -- has a right to disregard any law, constitutional tenet or congressional mandate to protect the American people.
Is that America's highest goal -- preventing another terrorist attack? Are there no principles of law and liberty more important than this? Who would have remembered Patrick Henry had he written, ``What's wrong with giving up a little liberty if it protects me from death?''
Bush would have us excuse his administration's excesses in deference to the ''war on terror'' -- a war, it should be pointed out, that can never end. Terrorism is a tactic, an eventuality, not an opposition army or rogue nation. If we caught every person guilty of a terrorist act, we still wouldn't know where tomorrow's first-time terrorist will strike. Fighting terrorism is a bit like fighting infection -- even when it's beaten, you must continue the fight or it will strike again.
Are we agreeing, then, to give the king unfettered privilege to defy the law forever? It's time for every member of Congress to weigh in: Do they believe the president is above the law, or bound by it?
Bush stokes our fears, implying that the only alternative to doing things his extralegal way is to sit by fitfully waiting for terrorists to harm us. We are neither weak nor helpless. A proud, confident republic can hunt down its enemies without trampling legitimate human and constitutional rights.
Ultimately, our best defense against attack -- any attack, of any sort -- is holding fast and fearlessly to the ideals upon which this nation was built.
Bush clearly doesn't understand or respect that. Do we?
ROBERT STEINBACK - rsteinback@MiamiHerald.com
For original source for article, see:
www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/13487511.htm
also posted:
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11388.htm
2) Tehran Times on Bolivia - Indigenous Intifada
- - Chavez film discussion forum on democracy, January 5th
Tehran Times Opinion Column
Dec. 25, 2005
By Hamid Golpira
Indigenous Intifada in Bolivia
TEHRAN, Dec. 25 (MNA) -- The final results are in, and Evo Morales has received a clear majority of the vote in the Bolivian presidential election. When he is inaugurated in January, he will be the first indigenous leader to take power in Bolivia in 500 years.
The struggle against 500 years of oppression at the hands of European conquistadors and settlers was a major theme of the election campaign of Morales, who is an Aymara Indian. Morales and his party, the Movement Towards Socialism, have pledged to lift the masses of Bolivia out of poverty through opposition to the neoliberal economic model advocated by the industrialized countries.
The masses of South America are opposed to the Free Trade Area of the Americas because they know that the FTAA and other neoliberal plans for the continent will not improve their standard of living. Morales, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have given voice to the masses' opposition to neoliberalism and a U.S.-dominated FTAA and are advocating the establishment of a South American bloc.
South America is definitely taking a turn to the left. The anti-globalization forces, spearheaded by Hugo Chavez, are sweeping to power in elections across the continent. Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, and Uruguay all have left-leaning governments, and socialist Michelle Bachelet won almost 46 percent of the vote in the first round of the presidential election in Chile earlier this month and now faces a run-off in January.
Morales has said that he will nationalize the oil and natural gas industries and enforce legislation to revise the contracts with foreign multinational corporations that have actually robbed the country of its vast hydrocarbon reserves at an unacceptably low price. He also plans to rewrite the constitution in order to enshrine indigenous people's rights in the supreme law of the land.
In addition, Morales has said he will legalize the cultivation of coca, which is the raw material for the production of cocaine. The Indians of Bolivia chew the coca leaf, which is a mild stimulant, but they do not use cocaine. In response to U.S. officials' complaints that his plan would exacerbate the drug abuse problem in the United States, Morales said that the cocaine problem in the U.S. must be addressed by demand-side solutions not supply-side approaches, and he is right.
Most Latin American countries are mestizo majority, but Bolivia is over 50 percent pure-blood Indian, with the Quechua and the Aymara being the largest groups. Peru, Ecuador, and Guatemala are also indigenous majority.
Whereas the progressive movements in most of the other Latin American countries are leftist, the popular movement in Bolivia is leftist and indigenous, with the emphasis on the indigenous dimension.
However, respect for the rights of the indigenous people and commitment to redress the five centuries of wrongs against them are the common points of all the popular movements in Latin America.
In a strange twist of fate reminiscent of South America's own magical realism, the leftist Christian Liberation Theology is fading and being replaced by an indigenous movement in Latin America.
In the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, "Enough is enough" is one of the slogans of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, who are also known by their Spanish acronym EZLN.
The Zapatistas, who are mostly Maya Indians, began their uprising on January 1, 1994, the day the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) officially came into effect. Thus, they illustrated that it was both an indigenous and an anti-globalization uprising.
The Zapatistas are aware that they are involved in a cultural struggle.
At the Plenary of the Indigenous National Forum in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico on January 7, 1996, Subcomandante Marcos, one of the leaders of the Zapatistas, told the Story of the Rainbow, which an old Indian taught him in 1986.
"7 times 7 they will walk the 7 because that is how the number came out which reminds us that not everything comes in pairs and that there is always room for another," is one part of the Story of the Rainbow that he recited for the plenary participants on that day.
At the end of his speech, Marcos said, "So we need only 7 times 7 to walk the 7, to say and tell ourselves that we have finished the 7 tasks that give birth to the good world, to the one that makes us new."
The American Indians believe that history is cyclical. On October 12, 1992, the 500th anniversary of the European invasion of the Americas, Indigenous People's Day was established to replace the hated Columbus Day, which Indians have always viewed as one of the worst symbols of their oppression. Indigenous People's Day 1992 was observed all across North America and South America. It was the first time in history that all the indigenous peoples of the Americas had acted in harmony. At the time, many American Indians said that the symbolic act of unity was a sign of the beginning of the end of the 500-year cycle of oppression.
Yes, the indigenous movement has even reached North America, and it is set to become stronger.
Leonard Peltier of the American Indian Movement (AIM) has served nearly 30 years in prison in the U.S. for a crime he did not commit. He is accused of killing two FBI agents in 1975, but has always maintained his innocence. Many Indians say he is a political prisoner and has been imprisoned for being a member of AIM, a group which has always stood up for the rights of Native Americans, and because U.S. government officials wanted to punish an Indian for the deaths of the two FBI agents, even though they knew he was innocent.
Demonstrations are planned for February 6, 2006, which will be the 30th anniversary of his arrest. Something is likely to happen on February 6. The cycle of oppression is ending.
Perhaps Subcomandante Marcos best summed up the indigenous Intifada of the Americas in the EZLN communique of January 6, 1994, where he said: "Here we are, the dead of always, dead again, but now to live."
MS/HG
End
MNA
2003-2005 Mehr News Agency
www.mehrnews.ir/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=270137
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Chavez film discussion forum on democracy, January 5th
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Film Discussion Forum on Democracy - January 5th, 2006
Greenfield Community Television {Screening Room}
393 Main Street, Greenfield, MA -
Sponsored by FlybyNews.com
Contact: Jonathan Mark -
Info@flybynews.com
Film Discussion Forum on Democracy - January 5th, 2006
Greenfield Community Television {Screening Room}
393 Main Street, Greenfield, MA -
Sponsored by FlybyNews.com
Contact: Jonathan Mark -
info@flybynews.com
"THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED"
Directed and Photographed by Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Briain
Running time: 74 minutes {in Spanish with English subtitles}
The Film, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" will be shown at Greenfield Community Television, screening room, Thursday, January 5th, 2006 at 7:00 P.M. The film and following discussion is free and open to the public.
.
This film concerns events surrounding the short-lived coup d'etat of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela on April 12th 2002. "What had in fact taken place was the first Latin American coup of the 21st century, and the world's first media coup."
* Sometimes, a good documentary is all about being in the right place at the right time. It does not get much better for Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Briain, who, in late 2001 began filming a documentary about Hugo Chavez, the controversial President of Venezuela. As they worked on their documentary, events in Venezuela reached a fever pitch and the duo was able to capture on film a coup from the perspective of the Chavez government. The footage is remarkable, especially given that actual events were so clouded by propaganda on both sides. What is clear is that this was a coup orchestrated with the crucial help of the media. Without their support, it would not have been successful..
"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" was first broadcast in Europe in February 2003 and since then has been aired on a variety of national TV stations including the BBC, ZDF (Germany), Arte ( France), and NPS ( Holland) as well as at numerous international film festivals. In Venezuela the film had its first airing on national TV in April 2003. For the web site on this film, see: chavezthefilm.com
"In February 2002, Chavez announced his plan to shake up the state oil company and to put his own people on the Management board. The war had begun.." Yet more than about war, this film is about popular movements and about democracy, and the communications revolution trumping corporate-tied media interests.
The organization sponsoring this event, Flyby News, has been an active news resource on the Internet since NASA's Cassini flyby of Earth in 1999. The web site features issues related to reclaiming a lost USA democracy, 9/11 investigative reports, human rights, environment, and other areas critical for life's survival in the 21st Century.
* For a review on the film, see: www.haro-online.com/movies/revolution_will_not_be_televised.html
Democracy Now! featured a report on the film on November 6th, 2003:
Why is Amnesty Not Screening a New Documentary About the Failed 2002 Coup in Venezuela?
Statement in Support of the Documentary Film by Venezuelananlysis.com and others..
Read and Sign the Petition in Support of the Film, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"
For more on this and other programs, see:
Films that Make a Difference!
3) Plutonium Launch-Protest Cape Canaveral, January 7th
JANUARY 7 PROTEST OF NEW HORIZONS
PLUTONIUM LAUNCH AT CAPE CANAVERAL
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space has announced a demonstration at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on January 7 from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. The protest will highlight opposition to NASA's planned New Horizons launch that will carry 24 pounds of radioactive plutonium on board.
NASA acknowledges in their Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the New Horizons mission that there is a 1 in 300 chance of an accident resulting in release of the plutonium. In the event of such an accident the EIS states that the deadly plutonium could be carried by winds for a 60-mile radius throughout Central Florida. Clean-up costs for a plutonium accident would range from $241 million to $1.3 billion per square mile.
NASA has big plans to expand the numbers of nuclear launches in the coming years. The DoE is now planning a $300 million expansion of their laboratory in Idaho just to make more plutonium for space missions.
According to Global Network Coordinator Bruce Gagnon, "As people in the U.S. and around the world learn about NASA's plan to launch plutonium into space they become angry with the space agency. People say we don't want our tax dollars used to launch nuclear power into space. The public understands the threat to the planet and to our children's future. NASA is destroying their credibility with the very people who pay for these missions. We might have escaped Cassini, we might escape New Horizons, but with plans to put nuclear reactors on the moon to power bases there in the coming years NASA will be launching a host of these missions. One thing we have learned is that sooner or later, space technology can fail."
The protest is being co-sponsored by the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice. For more information check the Global Network website at: www.space4peace.org
CONTACTS:
Bruce Gagnon (207) 729-0517
Maria Telesca (Florida) (321) 632-5977
4) Racing Toward Climate Disaster
Published December 28, 2005 by Inter Press Service
Racing Toward Climate Disaster
by Stephen Leahy
[EXCEPTS]
BROOKLIN, Canada - With 2005 the warmest year in modern times and new research confirming scientists' worst fears, most experts agree that urgent and innovative international action on climate change is needed.
But neither action nor urgency was in evidence earlier this month in Montreal, Canada when 189 nations spent two weeks attempting to deal with climate change. Although the United Nations sponsored-talks were widely seen as an international success, they accomplished little beyond supporting the Kyoto Protocol and an agreement for more talks.
"As usual, national self-interest dominated, but at least the whole process wasn't derailed," said Dale Marshall, a climate change policy analyst.."
Meanwhile, several climate research studies released in December show that the impacts of climate change are coming faster than predicted. This suggests that the worst case disaster scenarios may be the most likely unless there is concerted global action to reduce emissions.
Satellite photos taken this year revealed that there was 20 percent less Arctic sea ice compared to the first pictures taken in 1978, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado.
The loss of ice is not too surprising given the four degrees C rise in average winter temperatures in the Arctic. However, the extent and speed with which the Arctic ice is melting is unprecedented.
And that's not just bad news for polar bears and native people of the North.
"The Arctic is a major driver for Earth's weather cycle. [The melting] we see is going to be very profound in terms of global weather change," said Ted Scambos, a research scientist at the NSIDC.
Those changes are impossible to predict with precision, but Scambos believes that the sea ice will continue to melt. The loss of sea ice appears to have triggered a major feedback loop because there is less ice and snow to reflect the sun's energy, making the region ever warmer.
"We think that these feedbacks are starting to take hold and that we're going to see an accelerated decline in sea ice," Scambos said in a release.
Warmer temperatures are also thawing the top three metres of permafrost beneath the western Siberian peatlands, creating giant lakes and swelling rivers. Permafrost is also melting in Alaska and northern Canada. A new study predicts that over half of the northern hemisphere's permafrost could thaw by 2050.
The melting of millions of square kilometres of permafrost will unleash billions of tonnes of methane, the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) reported in the Dec. 17 issue of Geophysical Research Letters.
Methane is a greenhouse gas that is 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, and will dramatically accelerate global warming. A major permafrost meltdown will have a major impact on climate, NCAR scientists said.
That "perfect storm" may come over the next two years as thousands of climate scientists finalise a series of studies and reports that will become the next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate synthesis report. The IPCC's 2007 report will be the authoritative and complete assessment of climate change and its impacts.
And it's unlikely to have much in the way of good news.
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1228-04.htm
For FN's resource page, see:
Mounting Evidence of Global Warming!
Flyby News Support
To support actions and campaigns please consider sending a check
of any amount made payable to Flyby News. {For donations of $10
or more ~ we will send you a flybynews.com bumper sticker }
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading and supporting independent news.
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Bolivia * BushSpy * EcoDisasters * Nukes
21 December 2005
"This isn't just about Bolivia;
this is happening across Latin America.
There is now a wave of popular movements
sweeping across the region, not only in Bolivia
but also in Uruguay, Brazil and other countries."
Gustavo Fernandez
Former Bolivian Foreign Minister
1) Leftist Morales Claims Victory in Bolivia
2) Bush spying claim causes US storm
- - Kucinich Introduces Bill To Abolish Federal Death Penalty Bill
3) Ecosystems Plunge as Carbon Rise - Drilling in ANWR?
- - Republicans Add Alaska Oil Drilling to Defense Bill
- - How America Plotted to Stop Kyoto Deal
- - Great Lakes Headed for Catastrophic 'Ecological Collapse'
- - Scientists: Greenland Glaciers Retreating
4) Israel readies forces for strike on Iran
- - Nuclear power's dirty secret
~Solstice ~
21 December 2005
18:35 Greenwich Mean Time (1:35 PM EST)
Seven years before completion of a 25,800 Mayan calendar cycle!
Editor's Notes:
This issue has been delayed due to a computer problem. The exploding breaking news these days is difficult enough to keep up with without technical problems. Item one is on the exciting victory for the people and real democracy in the Bolivian Elections. Congratulations to Evo Morales, and to the other countries where people are demanding less corruption in governments.
Item 2 is on another critical development exposing the hypocrisy in the oath taken by George W. Bush to defend and uphold the US Constitution. The New York Times revealed that the National Security Agency was allowed to spy on hundreds of people without warrants. However, the leaked information, which took the NY Times about a year to print, was in time to help the Senate reject 'extensions to spying provisions in the Patriot Act.' The second part of this section is on Congressman Dennis Kucinich's introduction to a Bill to abolish the Federal Death Penalty.
Item 3 may require your taking immediate action to stop Republicans from adding Alaska Oil Drilling to the US Defense Bill. Please call your Senator to make sure they understand the treachery of exploiting one of our last remaining wilderness areas with dirty oil. The Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121.
Item 4 is more on the dangers of nuclear power and government insanity. Please note that this item, and my following poem, are related to that of the work of Bart Jordan. His update, expected this month, has been delayed again, but will be posted in January, 2006.
Awakening Earth in time, color, light, and sound,
a singer's soul transmits graceful measure;
while Haley keeps pace with human traffic survival
and a Cesium number points to trinity-defense-denial;
As madness mixed its gin into toxins
and the deep burning sensation remains to this day.
1) Leftist Morales Claims Victory in Bolivia
By FIONA SMITH, Associated Press Writer
December 19, 2005
The Socialist firebrand who claimed victory in Bolivia's presidential race repeated his promise to end a U.S.-backed crusade against coca plants, but said Monday his government would respect private property.
Unofficial results showed Evo Morales - himself a coca farmer - with a decisive lead over seven opponents that would make him the first Indian president in the 180-year history of independent Bolivia and solidify a continental leftward shift.
Morales was congratulated by Venezuela's self-proclaimed revolutionary leader Hugo Chavez and by the more centrist Socialist president of Chile, Ricardo Lagos. No early call came from the United States, and Morales said, "neither was I expecting one."
A State Department spokeswoman, Jan Edmondson, later said in Washington that "while official results have not yet been released, we congratulate Evo Morales on his apparent victory."
She said the U.S. has had good relations with Bolivia in the past and "we're prepared to work to build the same relationship with the next government."
Apparently trying to reassure foreign investors, Morales said his government would respect private property even as it asserts state ownership over Bolivia's natural gas reserves. Multinational companies would be paid to help in exploration and to develop the industry, he said.
Morales has been an irritant for Washington for years while he has built close ties with Cuban President Fidel Castro and Chavez. A State Department report earlier this year referred to him as an "illegal-coca agitator."
On Monday, Morales said a governing Movement Toward Socialism party "is not only going to respect, but is going to protect private property," although "vacant, unproductive land" would be turned over to farmers with no land or very little. His comments echoed policies already in place in Venezuela to grant the poor title to land owned by big companies or individuals that has been deemed unproductive by the government.
The site of the news conference - the offices of the coca growers union where he rose to political prominence - showed that his apparent victory did not mellow his crusade against U.S. coca-eradication efforts.
"We are betting on an effective fight against narco-trafficking because neither cocaine nor drug trafficking is part of Bolivian culture," Morales said.
He has not said how he will stop illegal drug exports, complaining instead that "the fight against drug trafficking has been a pretext for the U.S. government to install military bases ... and these policies will be revised."
Morales also defended coca - the raw material for cocaine - as an integral part of Bolivian culture.
Complete official returns were not expected before Tuesday, but three independent vote counts sponsored by Bolivian news media showed Morales at or above the clear majority he would need to win outright. If he falls short, Bolivia's congress would decide the winner, but it would be under enormous pressure to choose the clear front-runner.
No candidate in decades has won by such a landslide, marking a turning point in a country traditionally governed by the non-Indian elite. Like most Bolivians, Morales grew up in extreme poverty; only two of his six brothers and sisters survived childhood in Bolivia's bleak Andean highlands.
"The people have dealt him a very strong mandate," said Former Foreign Minister Gustavo Fernandez. He said congressional confirmation would be a "mere formality" if Morales falls short of a straight majority.
Fernandez considers the election a dramatic triumph for South America's leftists: After years of strikes, protests and barricade-building, the people are finally in the position to demand more power from entrenched ruling classes.
"This isn't just about Bolivia; this is happening across Latin America," Fernandez said. "There is now a wave of popular movements sweeping across the region, not only in Bolivia but also in Uruguay, Brazil and other countries."
___
Associated Press Writer Bill Cormier in La Paz contributed to this report.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press
Originally posted at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051219/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/bolivia_election
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - Leftist claims victory in Bolivia
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/4539454.stm
2) Bush spying claim causes US storm
- - Kucinich Introduces Bill To Abolish Federal Death Penalty Bill
Bush spying claim causes US storm
Published by the BBC NEWS
December 16, 2005
[EXCERPTS]
Allegations that President George Bush authorised security agents to eavesdrop on people inside the US have caused a storm of protest.
The New York Times says the National Security Agency was allowed to spy on hundreds of people without warrants.
The NSA is normally barred from eavesdropping within the US.
"There is no doubt that this is inappropriate," said Mr Specter, also a Republican, adding that Senate hearings would be held early next year as "a very, very high priority".
The allegations coincided with a setback for the Bush administration, as the Senate rejected extensions to spying provisions in the Patriot Act.
'Attacks foiled'
The New York Times said Mr Bush signed a secret presidential order following the attacks on 11 September 2001, allowing the NSA, based at Fort Meade, Maryland, to track the international telephone calls and e-mails of hundreds of people without referral to the courts.
American law usually requires a secret court, known as a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, to give permission before intelligence officers can conduct surveillance on US soil.
'Sea change'
Administration officials refused to confirm or deny details of the New York Times report, but issued a robust defence of anti-terrorist operations, saying they had prevented several attacks - including one on targets in Britain.
In an interview with US TV, Mr Bush said the administration did not discuss ongoing intelligence operations to protect the country.
A former senior official who specialises in national security law told the paper that Mr Bush's move represented a "sea change".
"It's almost a mainstay of this country that the NSA only does foreign searches," said the anonymous source.
"This is Big Brother run amok," was the reaction of Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy, while his colleague Russell Feingold called it a "shocking revelation" that "ought to send a chill down the spine of every senator and every American".
Intense concern
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said eavesdropping in the US without a court order and without complying with the procedures of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was "both illegal and unconstitutional".
"The administration is claiming extraordinary presidential powers at the expense of civil liberties and is putting the president above the law," director Caroline Fredrickson said.
To opponents of the Bush administration, the alleged bugging programme is reminiscent of the widespread abuse of power by the security services during the Vietnam War when anti-war activists were monitored illegally, says BBC Washington correspondent Justin Webb.
That activity prompted tougher regulation of bugging.
In a separate development on Friday, the Senate refused to reauthorise provisions of the Patriot Act, extending government surveillance rights.
It is a sign of intense concern about infringements of civil liberties in the name of security, our correspondent says.
The White House is having a tough time convincing even its Republican supporters that the things it does in the name of the war on terrorism are always justified, he adds.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/4536310.stm
or
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4536310.stm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich Introduces Bill To Abolish Federal Death Penalty Bill
Introduced December 14, 2005,
Co-Sponsored By 39 Members Of Congress
Washington, Dec 14 -
Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH), today, introduced legislation to abolish the federal death penalty. The Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act of 2005, currently co-sponsored by 39 Members of Congress, will put an immediate halt to executions and forbid the imposition of the death penalty as a sentence for violations of federal law.
For the complete article, see:
http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=37726
3) Ecosystems Plunge as Carbon Rise - Drilling in ANWR?
- - Republicans Add Alaska Oil Drilling to Defense Bill
- - How America Plotted to Stop Kyoto Deal
- - Great Lakes Headed for Catastrophic 'Ecological Collapse'
- - Scientists: Greenland Glaciers Retreating
Republicans Add Alaska Oil Drilling to Defense Bill
by Richard Cowan
Published by Planet Ark
December 19, 2005
[EXCERPT]
WASHINGTON - Congressional Republicans Sunday agreed to try to win passage of a controversial proposal to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, to oil drilling, with a vote in the US House of Representatives..
The ANWR legislation, vigorously, opposed by environmentalists and many Democrats, was attached by House and Senate negotiators to an unrelated defense spending bill.
While the measure is expected to have an easier time in the House, it faces a tougher fight in the Senate, where a coalition of Democrats and some Republicans are expected to try to block it using special procedures not available in the House.
The ANWR proposal was coupled with the defense spending bill in a tactical move by Republican leaders, who hope enough lawmakers will be afraid to cast a vote against the bill for military funding, including money for the war in Iraq.
Republicans have tried for decades to let oil companies drill in the Alaskan refuge, which sits on Alaska's Northeastern coast and is roughly the same size as the state of South Carolina.
The Bush administration believes ANWR oil production could eventually reach 1 million barrels a day. However, drilling opponents say that raising US fuel standards for new cars, mini-vans and sport utility vehicles could save roughly the same amount of oil.
ANWR is home to caribou, polar bears, migratory birds and other wildlife. About 1.5 million acres of the refuge's coastal plain would be opened to drilling under the current congressional plan.
If Congress opened ANWR to drilling, the refuge's oil would not flow into the US market for an estimated 10 years, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
Once the refuge reached peak production in about 2025, its oil would shave about 2 percentage points off the share that oil imports would have in meeting domestic demand, the EIA recently said. That would moderate US oil imports to a forecast 58 percent of total demand in 2025, equal to current import levels.
For the complete article, see:
www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/34112/story.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
CHRONOLOGY - Congress Wrestles With ANWR Oil Drilling, see:
www.planetark.com/avantgo/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=34139
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Please consider taking immediate action to respond
to 'Republicans adding Alaska Oil Drilling to Defense Bill'.
Please call your Senator to make sure they understand the
treachery of exploiting remaining wilderness preserves.
The Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - How America Plotted to Stop Kyoto Deal
Published December 8, 2005 by the Independent / UK
by Andrew Buncombe
A detailed and disturbing strategy document has revealed an extraordinary American plan to destroy Europe's support for the Kyoto treaty on climate change.
The ambitious, behind-the-scenes plan was passed to The Independent this week, just as 189 countries are painfully trying to agree the second stage of Kyoto at the UN climate conference in Montreal. It was pitched to companies such as Ford Europe, Lufthansa and the German utility giant RWE.
Put together by a lobbyist who is a senior official at a group partly funded by ExxonMobil, the world's biggest oil company and a fierce opponent of anti-global warming measures, the plan seeks to draw together major international companies, academics, think-tanks, commentators, journalists and lobbyists from across Europe into a powerful grouping to destroy further EU support for the treaty.
It details just how the so-called "European Sound Climate Policy Coalition" would work. Based in Brussels, the plan would have anti-Kyoto position papers, expert spokesmen, detailed advice and networking instantly available to any politician or company who wanted to question the wisdom of proceeding with Kyoto and its demanding cuts in carbon dioxide emissions.
It has been drawn up by Chris Horner, a senior official with the Washington-based Competitive Enterprise Institute and a veteran campaigner against Kyoto and against the evidence of climate change. One of his colleagues _ who describes himself as an adviser to President George Bush _ was the subject of a censure motion by the Commons last year after he attacked the Government's chief scientist.
Mr Horner, whose CEI group has received almost $1.5m (865,000) from ExxonMobil, is convinced that Europe could be successfully influenced by such a policy coalition just as the US government has been.
He thinks Europe's weakening economies are likely to be increasingly ill at ease with the costs of meeting Kyoto. And in particular, he has spotted something he thinks most of Europe has not yet woken up to. Most of the original 15 EU Kyoto signatories _ Britain is an exception _ are on course to miss their 2010 CO2 reduction targets. But under the terms of the treaty, they will face large fines for doing so, in terms of much bigger reduction targets in any second phase.
ARTICLE TRUNCATED
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1208-03.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Great Lakes Headed for Catastrophic 'Ecological Collapse'
Published on Friday, December 9, 2005 by the Associated Press
Great Lakes Headed for Catastrophic 'Ecological Collapse': Report
TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan - As wetlands disappear and shorelines are degraded, the Great Lakes are losing their ability to cope with environmental stress and ward off a catastrophic breakdown, scientists said Thursday."The immune system of the Great Lakes is weakened and it needs to be restored to prevent the ecological collapse of the lakes," said Andy Buchsbaum, director of the National Wildlife Federation's Great Lakes office.
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1209-05.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Scientists: Greenland Glaciers Retreating
Published December 8, 2005 by the Associated Press
by Alicia Chang
SAN FRANCISCO - Two of Greenland's largest glaciers are retreating at an alarming pace, most likely because of climate warming, scientists said Wednesday. The other glacier, Helheim, is retreating at about 7 miles a year - up from 4 miles a year during the same period.
For complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1208-01.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For FN's resource page, see:
Mounting Evidence of Global Warming!
4) Israel readies forces for strike on Iran
- - Nuclear power's dirty secret
Israel readies forces for strike on Iran
By Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv, and Sarah Baxter, Washington
ISRAEL'S armed forces have been ordered by Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, to be ready by the end of March for possible strikes on secret uranium enrichment sites in Iran, military sources have revealed.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11279.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Nuclear power's dirty secret
Published by The Independent,
a weekly publication in the Raleigh-Durham area.
New federal research shows that there's no safe level of exposure
to routine radiation coming out of nuclear power plants.
Why aren't regulators taking that into account
as utilities begin a campaign to restart the industry?
By Sue Sturgis
We the people of North Carolina and other states across the nation face a decision that will affect not only our own well-being and that of our children, but the well-being of countless future generations. Our choice is whether to allow utilities to meet our energy needs by building new nuclear power plants that routinely emit long-lived radioactive pollution to our already-contaminated environment.
November 30, 2005
C O V E R F E A T U R E
The decision comes as a federal science panel has found that there is no safe level of radiation exposure--a fact not accounted for in current nuclear plant regulations.
[EXCERPT]
It's true that reactors don't emit heat-trapping carbon dioxide as do facilities burning fossil fuels (although that doesn't make them a good solution to climate change, since they're about the slowest option to deploy and cost far more than other alternatives such as wind power and cogeneration, as Rocky Mountain Institute Director Amory Lovins detailed in a talk last month in Chapel Hill). But it's not true that nuclear plants are emissions-free. In fact, they routinely release radioactivity through leaks in the fuel rods, pipes, tanks and valves, according to NIRS. They also routinely release contaminated water in order to limit the presence of radioactive and corrosive chemicals that damage reactor parts. Entering the outside environment through plants' stacks and water discharge pipes, the radioactive pollution includes more than 100 different chemicals produced only in reactors and atomic bombs--substances including cesium-137, iodine-131, strontium-90 and tritium, an isotope of helium.
By breathing radiation-contaminated air, drinking contaminated water or eating contaminated food, humans ingest these chemicals. They in turn release fast-moving subatomic particles into our bodies that smash into and break molecules, leading to cancer, birth defects and genetic mutations. Some of these substances seek out specific targets. Radioactive iodine, for example, aims for the thyroid. Strontium mimics calcium and goes for the bones. Tritium behaves like water, dispersing throughout the body and entering cells where it can disrupt DNA.
"The thing about radiation is that you can't see it and you can't smell it, so when the nuclear industry says they do not pollute, people can't provide evidence through their senses to challenge that," says Olson, who suffered health problems after being accidentally exposed to radiation while working in a medical school laboratory. "Yet all nuclear power reactors release radioactivity to the air and to the water."
And make no mistake about it--nuclear power is a choice, not a necessity. The choice is between spending $13 billion for more polluting nuclear power plants or aggressively pursuing energy conservation along with cleaner, more economically efficient sources of power such as solar, wind and biomass.
"The question is what additional exposures do we want to live with by choosing to produce electricity in nuclear reactors?" Wing asks. "What additional risks do we want to leave for literally hundreds of generations in the future?"
For the complete article, see:
http://indyweek.com/durham/2005-11-30/cover.html
Flyby News Support
To support actions and campaigns please consider sending a check
of any amount made payable to Flyby News. {For donations of $10
or more ~ we will send you a flybynews.com bumper sticker }
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading and supporting independent news.
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Cheney Torture * Death Row * Lori * Woody
01 December 2005
"And for anyone to think that murder can be resolved by murdering,
it's ridiculous. I mean, we look at all of the wars that we have
throughout other countries and other nations, and all it does is –
this violence, all it does is engender violence. There seems to be
no end, but a continuous cycle, an incessant process of blood and gore
that doesn't end. And through violence, you can't possibly obtain peace."
Stanley "Tookie" Williams
Death Row Prisoner
Scheduled to die December 13, 2005
1) Vice-president Cheney accused of backing torture by BBC Insider
2) Death Row Prisoner Stanley Tookie Williams
- - NY Parole Reform - article by Jehan Abdur-Raheem
3) Lori Berenson 10 years in jail - How much longer?
4) Remember Woody--and Visualize Justice--on 4-year Anniversary
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,
tied in a single garment of destiny.
Whatever affects one directly,
effects all indirectly.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Editor's Notes:
Without justice how can there be peace? Without compassion, how can suffering, truth, or innocence, be recognized? This issue is focused on anniversaries of injustices, and a planned killing that should never be allowed. Those on the path working for justice have a long ways to go. Will Cheney and the Bush administration be responsible for the torture they enabled? Will Stan Tookie Williams be put to death on December 13? Lori Berenson has been in prison for ten long years! She is innocent, and the trial was one misdirected by institutional terrorism. December 2nd marks four years to the day when my friend, Robert "Woody" Woodward was shot by Brattleboro, VT police in a Church while seeking political asylum. Will justice and compassion survive; will parole for those deserving be given? When will Leonard Peltier be released from prison?
Please take the time to read this issue, and take actions on initiatives. Let those fighting for their lives or justice know we are in this together. Peace and justice are related; the time for humankind to evolve is in this moment of your actions, thoughts, and consideration. Give Peace A Chance!
Internal peace is an essential first step to achieving peace in the world.
How do you cultivate it? It's very simple. In the first place by realizing
clearly that all mankind is one, that human beings in every country are
members of one and the same family.
-His Holiness the Dalai Lama
1) Vice-president Cheney accused of backing torture by BBC Insider
Published November 30, 2005 by the Guardian / UK
Cheney 'May Be Guilty of War Crime'
Vice-president accused of backing torture
Claims on BBC by former insider add to Bush's woes
by Julian Borger
[EXCERPT]
WASHINGTON - Vice-president Dick Cheney's burden on the Bush administration grew heavier yesterday after a former senior US state department official said he could be guilty of a war crime over the abuse of prisoners.
Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as chief of staff to secretary of state Colin Powell from 2002 to 2005, singled out Mr Cheney in a wide-ranging political assault on the BBC's Today programme.
Mr Wilkerson said that in an internal administration debate over whether to abide by the Geneva conventions in the treatment of detainees, Mr Cheney led the argument "that essentially wanted to do away with all restrictions".
Asked whether the vice-president was guilty of a war crime, Mr Wilkerson replied: "Well, that's an interesting question - it was certainly a domestic crime to advocate terror and I would suspect that it is ... an international crime as well." In the context of other remarks it appeared he was using the word "terror" to apply to the systematic abuse of prisoners.
The Washington Post last month called Mr Cheney the "vice-president for torture" for his demand that the CIA be exempted from a ban on "cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment of detainees.
Mr Wilkerson, a former army colonel, also said he had seen increasing evidence that the White House had manipulated pre-war intelligence on Iraq to make its case for the invasion. He said: "You begin to wonder was this intelligence spun? Was it politicised? Was it cherry-picked? Did, in fact, the American people get fooled? I am beginning to have my concerns."
Mr Cheney has been under fire for his role in assembling evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Mr Wilkerson told the Associated Press that the vice-president must have sincerely believed Iraq could be a spawning ground for terrorism because "otherwise I have to declare him a moron, an idiot or a nefarious bastard"..
..One technique allegedly used by the CIA in questioning suspects is "waterboarding" (strapping a detainee to a board and submerging it until the prisoner believes he or she is drowning). The White House is accused of defining "torture" so narrowly as to exclude such methods. But James Ross, a legal expert at Human Rights Watch said such a narrow definition was at odds with international norms.
"Waterboarding is clearly a form of torture. It has been used since the Inquisition. It was a well-known torture technique in Latin America," Mr Ross said.
Human Rights Watch this year called for a special counsel to investigate any US officials - no matter their rank or position - who took part in, "ordered, or had command responsibility for war crimes or torture, or other prohibited ill-treatment against detainees in US custody".
The report focused on the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, for his alleged command responsibility for abuses at Abu Ghraib, but Mr Wilkerson argued Mr Cheney was ultimately responsible.
The US is a signatory to the 1984 UN Convention Against Torture, which bans inflicting "severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental". Such practices are also a crime under US federal law.
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1130-04.htm
2) Death Row Prisoner Stanley Tookie Williams
- - NY Parole Reform - article by Jehan Abdur-Raheem
A Conversation with Death Row Prisoner
Stanley Tookie Williams from his San Quentin Cell
In a half-hour interview, death row prisoner Stanley Tookie Williams speaks to "Democracy Now!" from his cell in San Quentin about his case, his life and his redemption. He helped start the Crips street gang - his greatest regret - but behind bars he has become a leading advocate for the end of gang violence. He has written nine books and has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize. He is scheduled to die on Dec. 13 unless Governor Schwarzenegger grants him clemency. Actions are planned across the world today in what has been described as International Save Tookie Day. [includes rush transcript] For interview, see: www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/30/153247
"And for anyone to think that murder can be resolved by murdering,
it's ridiculous. I mean, we look at all of the wars that we have
throughout other countries and other nations, and all it does is –
this violence, all it does is engender violence. There seems to be
no end, but a continuous cycle, an incessant process of blood and gore
that doesn't end. And through violence, you can't possibly obtain peace."
Stanley "Tookie" Williams
Death Row Prisoner
Scheduled to die December 13, 2005
The U.S. Supreme Court, on October 11, 2005, ruled against Tookie on his final appeal and set his execution date for December 13. Thus they disregarded 9 of the 24 Ninth Circuit Court judges' assertion that the District Attorney at Tookie's trial employed "reprehensible and unconstitutional" racist tactics, using animal-in-a-jungle metaphors to refer to Tookie and to the South Central environment in which he lived. This landmark ruling means that minorities can now legally be rejected from juries based on race. This is now the law of the land. (download fact sheet about Tookie's case). On this and for more information, see: Tookie.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - NY Parole Reform - article by Jehan Abdur-Raheem
Over the last 30 years a new class of American has been born. One who will live out his or her life within the confines of the country's maximum security prisons, and most with no chance of ever being released.
The average citizen who considers that offenders are permanently incarcerated may opine that this is a good thing: as there is no better place for a criminal than in prison, but only the naive harbor such opinions.
A recent survey found that 132,000 of this nation's prisoners are serving life sentences. That is approximately 1 out of every 10 persons housed in American prisons. The number of men and women sentenced to life in prison has doubled over the last ten years.
Although most of this number are incarcerated for murder, it is important to consider that most are first time offenders. Some were merely participants in a crime in which a murder took place, and never actually murdered anyone themselves. Some are women who killed a brutal husband after years of abuse. Many were teenagers at the time of of their crimes, and never understood the gravity of their actions: crimes committed with no malice or fore-thought. Psychological pleas by desperate and callow minds. Many people serving life murdered no one at all, but are merely repeat offenders in states like California, where shoplifting can result in a life sentence if the offender has a proor record of felony offenses. Many committed no crimes at all, as evidenced by the many men and women freed from this country's ‘Death Rows/ after newly instituted DNA testing proved them to be innocent - without a shadow of a doubt - of the crimes of which they were convicted because of false testimony of witnesses; false evidence of over-zealous police or simply mis-identifications by well meaning, but misguided citizens.
According to a survey by "The New York Times", fewer than two-thirds of the 70,000 people sentenced to life from 1988 to 2001 were incarcerated for murder. The United States of America incarcerates more of its own citizens than any other industrialized country in the world.
In New York State it costs roughly $35,000 per year to house a single offender. A person serving life costs approximately one million dollars, and that assumes the person is healthy. After 20 years of living in a cage with a poor diet, the average prisoner is in poor of failing health. Medical costs to incarcerate that person becomes astronomical when procedures such as heart surgery, back surgery, and chemo-therapeutic programs for various cancers are considered. Most elderly prisoners pose no threat or danger to society..
New York's Governor (G.E. Pataki) makes no secret of keeping men and women in prison long after their being eligible for parole because he received funds under the Federally promoted sentencing program. As of the 2005 fiscal year, New York is expected to receive 33% of these funds which have increased to $5 million to date. The tax payer does not see relief from these funds; taxes in some areas have actually increased. The monies are used to simply balance the state's budge, which politicians regularly abuse with ‘pork projects' and special interest. Everyone loses except the politicians, and Pataki's unwritten parole policies have created yet another American sub-class hidden behind the walls of prisons.
It is no secret that Africn-Americans and Latinos continue to make up the majority of prison populations in NY. Poor and uneducated men and women who could not afford legal representation, are now warehoused in state correctional facilities. When they are young, they labor in prison factories making approximately 45 cents to $1.45 per day. The state reaps millions each year from products they produce. The results are slavery and human rights abuses of our own less fortunate citizenry.
Recently NY Senate Bill A.3230 was introduced and promoted by several conscious and concerned senators, including Ms. V. Montgomery. This Bill promotes programs that gives incentives and encourages sincere evaluation of parole qualified prisoners who served their sentences and present no threat to society. Senators Dilan, Clark, Duane, Parker, Sampson, and M. Smith also added their weight to the Bill, but opposition remains strong because of the ‘dollar and cents' such reforms would cost the politicians who honor the status quo.
No nation can afford to continue to abuse its people. The cost of doing so is always too expensive. This Bill should be supported by all right thinking Americans. If our Criminal Justice System is to have any real value, it must work to improve problem segments of our society; not destroy them.
-- Jehan Abdur-Raheem
For more information on prison parole reform, please write to:
Jehan Abdur-Raheem
77A1180
Elmira Correctional Facility
P.O. Box 500
Elmira, NY 14902-0500
FN archive link to: ==>: A Nation Behind Bars
3) Lori Berenson 10 years in jail - How much longer?
On November 30, 1995, Lori was pulled off of a public bus in Lima, Per. Like thousands of Peruvians, she was detained by the anti-terrorist police, tried for treason by a hooded military tribunal under draconian anti-terrorism laws and condemned to life in prison. On the 10th anniversary of her arrest, Lori releases a commentary.
Lori Berenson Commentary
10th Anniversary
30 November 2005
My name is Lori Berenson. I am a New York born and raised political prisoner in Per. I have spent many years in Central and South America, trying to contribute to the efforts of those who seek social justice for all. I continue this work from prison.
On November 30, 1995, I was pulled off of a public bus in Lima, Per. Like thousands of Peruvians, I was detained by the anti-terrorist police, tried for treason by a hooded military tribunal under draconian anti-terrorism laws and condemned to life in prison.
This all occurred in the context of an internal conflict in Per that began in the early 1980's with the armed insurgence of the Peruvian Communist Party, also known as the Shining Path, and later with the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement - the MRTA. This conflict had parallels with other conflicts that occurred in much of Latin America.
When I was arrested, Peruvian President Fujimori made me a symbol for his anti-terrorist campaign. His ability to use the media for his own publicity purposes led to my case being very high profile.
Because of the tireless efforts of my family, friends and many others in the US and elsewhere in the world, the Fujimori regime was forced to bring my case to a civilian anti-terrorist court in 2000. During the period of the falling of the Fujimori regime and the formation of a transitional government in 2001, I received a new trial and was sentenced to 20 years for collaboration with terrorism. A year and a half later, the anti-terrorism legislation was modified slightly and those incarcerated under it began to receive new trials. In 2004, in light of the international anti-terrorism campaign in our post 9/11 world and under extreme pressure from Per's political class, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ratified my sentence.
The details of what happened to me are irrelevant in the broader picture of the thousands of Peruvians who have been killed, disappeared, tortured and detained during the internal conflict. Since history has always been re-written by those who have the upper-hand, the issue of subversion became the scapegoat for all of Per's problems.
In all parts of the world, symbolic culprits are used to obscure the root causes of social discontent, to distract attention and distort realities when any group of people questions the existing order.
The world order, especially in this era of globalized capitalism is designed to benefit a powerful few at the expense of the majority of our world's peoples. This system is unjust, immoral, terrifying, and just plain insane. We must change it.
People all over the world are imprisoned today and suffering tremendous injustices for challenging this order. I express my solidarity with all of those prisoners, and in particular my admiration for those whose courage we can hear in the voice of Mumia Abu Jamal, in the writings about Leonard Peltier, in the struggle for the liberation of Puerto Rico, and many others. The dignity demonstrated throughout long years of struggle and resistance under one of the harshest jail regimes on earth is an example for all prisoners and for human beings in general.
For prisoners, the struggle for basic dignity is a daily plight. Prisons are just a smaller version of the general system that operates in this world, and that is what is wrong. The desire to change it is why many of us are here in the first place. It is a worthy cause to be behind bars for.
www.freelori.org/herownwords/05nov30_commentary.html
For more information, visit: FreeLori.org
4) Remember Woody--and Visualize Justice--on 4-year Anniversary
by Mary Rives
On December 2nd, 2001, Woody entered the Unitarian Church in Brattleboro, Vermont, in fear for his life, and desperately seeking sanctuary. He stated to the congregants of the church that he had been visited by federal agents the night before who threatened his life and the safety of his loved ones---a reality later confirmed by Woody's neighbors. (Since the dust has settled significantly, as his close friends we now feel that we can reveal that Woody had knowledge--and possibly proof--of some government wrongdoing/s, thus we strongly suspect this is why the feds made a sneak and peek visit to his apartment that Saturday night after a freshly enacted Patriot Act). Woody returned home from a party where he had been his usual fine and happy self, playing with kids and having a great time, to 2 FBI agents rummaging through his apartment. That is enough to put the sanest person (such as Woody) right over the edge, especially after the threats the agents allegedly made that terrified him to his core.
As this sad story goes, the next morning Woody turned to the Unitarians for support and protection. As a back-up plan when people began to leave the church, he threatened to kill himself with a small knife if he was left alone, as his request was for people to bear witness. Eighteen kind and caring people remained with him and attempted to assuage his fears and help calm him down. Meanwhile, people who had left the room called 911 and alerted the police, giving misleading information about Woody and the situation at hand. At the time of that call, Woody was seated calmly with several people and was trying to call us on a cell phone to have us vouch for him and his claims. Tragically, due to post-9/11 bravado and out of excessive and unnecessary fear, the police burst into the church and riddled Woody's body with 7 bullets within 60 seconds of entering the room. 17 of 18 eyewitnesses all claim to this day that he never threatened anyone but himself. It was on our answering machine that we actually heard Woody yell for help, struggling in pain as he lay bleeding from seven gunshot wounds (one of which lodged in Woody's back after he was down). The shots were fired while he waited to leave us a message. Immediate medical care that could have saved his life was denied and then delayed.
Since that fateful afternoon four years ago, our lives, and many others who were touched by Woody's life, will never be the same. The world is not the same without this benevolent being's laughter, kindness and altruistic generosity.
The officers who so brutally took Woody's life were completely exonerated of any wrong-doing. There have been no apologies made for this horrible tragedy and unnecessary loss of a precious life. There was also no grand jury and no civil trial yet allowed. Thus, along with other friends of Woody in the wake of this tragedy and travesties of justice, we helped form a citizens' group called "Justice for Woody" in order to call for justice and to align with other organizations to stop the excessive use of force by police and other abuses of power by American law enforcement. Our four-year struggle for justice--and path of recovery and healing--has been a long, arduous and lonely one, wrought with consistent obstructions of justice from our legal system, deep community divisiveness in Brattleboro, and little support from activist organizations. Yet, many individuals have generously given their support, compassion and time to this cause, often in the worst of New England weather conditions, many of whom didn't even know Woody. To you all, we give thanks!
Update: In 2004, a civil suit against the town of Brattleboro by Woody's family was thrown out of court by a conservative federal district judge, Judge Murtha, in Brattleboro, Vermont. The case was appealed to the United States 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City where a panel of judges heard arguments regarding the need for a civil trial by jury. This hearing took place a few months ago and the judges threw the case back to Judge Murtha in Brattleboro to more thoroughly investigate the case. Murtha's second decision is still pending as we wait in hopes for the Woodward family to have their day in court.
In these past two years, we have become more internal in our struggle for justice as opposed to our more vocal and visible opposition and protest for the first two years since this avoidable tragedy. When a person experiences a sudden preventable death such as Woody's, healing is what the grieving person may need first—then justice. Perhaps justice can only be requested in the midst of healing. As we continue to heal from the trauma and move on with our lives, perhaps there will be justice for Woody after all (which really means justice for all). The pending civil suit WON would bring positive changes to a deeply misguided and troubled police department, especially in the form of increased training, community partnership building and higher salaries for police officers. More lives will be spared, less people will suffer, the community may finally feel safe to call on its police who, through mandatory training and continued practice, may courageously utilize options other than the use of excessive and lethal force on citizens in need of help.
During this holiday season, while Woody's physical absence in our lives is still palpable and we miss him terribly, we are grateful for the time we did have together. Woody's spirit lives on and we carry him in our hearts forever. He remains a constant presence in our lives, and it is a source of solace that our relationship with him is not ended; only changed. I invite you to visit
www.justiceforwoody.org to learn more about Woody and our ongoing quest for justice. Even though nothing will ever bring Woody back in the same form, hopes sail high for the Woodward family to have their day in civil court. May our collective vision, prayers and hopes for justice eventually prevail.
Blessings all around!
In solidarity,
Mary Rives
justiceforwoody.org
For Keith's Weblog on Woody, see: http://digitaldoorway.blogspot.com/
For Flyby News archives, see:
Friend Shot Dead by Police in a Church in Brattleboro, Vermont.
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
HighDisaster * DowningAssault * ArcticBoom
29 November 2005
"This is America's war. This is Bill Clinton's war.
This is the Congress of the United States' war.
This is an indifferent American public's war.
This is our war. We're to blame. We're responsible.
We're the ones that facilitated this mad rush to
insanity that has occurred in Iraq today."
Scott Ritter
1) Higher Ground US Disaster Pending In Iraq
- - US may use planes as substitute for troops in Iraq
- - Where is the Iraq war headed next?
- - Sunnis Accuse Iraqi Military of Kidnappings and Slayings
- - America's War
- - Russ Feingold: A Timeframe in Iraq - Makes America Safer
2) An Explosive Downing Street Memo
- - So What Have They To Hide - About the Assault on Fallujah?
3) Arctic Booms as Climate Change Melts Polar Ice Cap
It's the eternal question:
Are They STUPID or LYING
"..When David Brooks suggests that it is Tinfoil-Hat
LUNACY to believe that the Bush administration
manipulated pre-war intelligence..
‘Crazy conspiracy theorists! ha ha! Next thing you know,
they'll suggest that REPUBLICAN TALKING POINTS
are some how Coordinated...'"
For the complete cartoon, text and drawing, see:
This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow:
Stupid or lying?
Editor's Notes:
With the intention of being ‘Masters of Space', as the US Space Command announced around the turn of the Millennium, the first item warns us about the coming days in Iraq. As troops are pulled out, (unless there is a draft, or John McCain gets his way..), US air strikes may take the place of US Troops on the ground. This will likely lead to more innocent civilians' harmed, and more chaos, while the US wrestles to maintain access for Iraq's oil reserves and an inserted military alliance, which actually destabilizes the region. This past Sunday on ABC TV's "This Week," Senator Russ Feingold was interviewed by George Stephanopoulos. This Senator from Wisconsin is the first candidate to announce interest in running for US President in 2008 that voted NO on the Bush preemptive war resolution! Feingold said that he was simply not fooled by the administration's propaganda on what it was to be patriotic, and saw no evidence that Saddam's Iraq was in alliance with those of al-Qaida that attacked the US on 9/11/01, and on overdone claims of the threat of weapons of mass destruction. The evidence showed that to attack Iraq was a diversion for special interests, which played into the hands of terrorism. Senator Feingold also declared his position for a US universal health care system, and energy independence. The real war is within US; Feingold's leadership, now, and for a 2008 Presidential campaign, can be helpful, if people unite with a candidate of substance, record, and vision.
Item two is another explosive revelation from Downing Street. "The British attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, ‘threatened newspapers with the Official Secrets Act if they revealed the contents' of the document which allegedly contains Bush's threat to bomb al-Jazeera.'"
The third item is about raping the Arctic as the ice melts, and gaining access to resources known to be causing climate change, hastening an end to life's biodiversity on Earth.
"Only two things are infinite,
the universe and human stupidity,
and I'm not sure about the former."
~ Albert Einstein
1) Higher Ground US Disaster Pending In Iraq
- - US may use planes as substitute for troops in Iraq
- - Where is the Iraq war headed next?
- - Sunnis Accuse Iraqi Military of Kidnappings and Slayings
- - America's War
- - Russ Feingold: A Timeframe in Iraq - Makes America Safer
US may use planes as substitute for troops in Iraq
Jamie Wilson in Washington
Monday November 28, 2005
The Guardian
The Bush administration is considering a plan to put America's awesome airpower at the disposal of Iraqi commanders, as a way of reducing the number of US troops on the ground. The plan is causing consternation among commanders in US air force, who say it could lead to increased civilian casualties and lead to airstrikes being used as means of settling old scores.
According to an article in the New Yorker magazine by Seymour Hersh, the possibility of using airpower as a substitute for American troops on the ground has caused unease in the military, with air force commanders objecting to the possibility that Iraqis will eventually be responsible for target selection.
"Will the Iraqis call in air strikes in order to snuff rivals, or other warlords, or to snuff members of your own sect and blame it on someone else?" a senior military planner told the magazine. "Will some Iraqis be targeting on behalf of al-Qaida, or the insurgency, or the Iranians?"
With the White House under increasing pressure over its handling of the war in Iraq, senior administration figures are for the first time signalling the possibility of significant troop reductions. In a departure from previous statements the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, said last week that the training of Iraqi soldiers had advanced so far that the current number of US troops in the country probably would not be needed much longer.
However, there remains scepticism about the ability of Iraqi forces to take over from the 160,000 US troops in the country. Under the plans reported in the New Yorker, air power will be used to try to fill the gap left by troop reductions. But with the insurgency operating mostly within urban environments, and planes relying on laser-guided bombs directed from the ground to try to avoid collateral damage, there are fears that turning the process over the Iraqis could lead to increased civilian casualties.
"The guy with the laser is the targeteer. Not the pilot ... The people on the ground are calling in targets that the pilots can't verify. And we're going to turn this process over to the Iraqis?" a former high-level intelligence official said.
www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1652244,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Where is the Iraq war headed next?
By Seymour M. Hersh
The covert war in Iraq has expanded in recent months to Syria. A composite American Special Forces team, known as an S.M.U., for "special-mission unit," has been ordered, under stringent cover, to target suspected supporters of the Iraqi insurgency across the border.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11162.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Sunnis Accuse Iraqi Military of Kidnappings and Slayings
By Dexter Filkins
Published on November 29, 2005 by the New York Times -
Evidence has begun to mount suggesting that Iraqi forces are carrying out executions in predominantly Sunni neighborhoods.
For article, see:
www.nytimes.com/2005/11/29/international/middleeast/29securityhtml?th&emc=th
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - America's War
by Scott Ritter
This is America's war. This is Bill Clinton's war. This is the Congress of the United States' war. This is an indifferent American public's war. This is our war. We're to blame. We're responsible. We're the ones that facilitated this mad rush to insanity that has occurred in Iraq today.
MP3 and transcript.
www.traprockpeace.org/podcasts_transcripts/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Russ Feingold: A Timeframe in Iraq - Makes America Safer
Feingold: "A Timeframe To Finish The Military Mission In Iraq
Makes America Safer"
A Timetable Will Encourage Iraqis to Take Ownership of Their
Political Process and Their Country's Future
October 25, 2005
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Russ Feingold today, in the fourth in a series of speeches he has given on our nation's national security and the Administration's flawed policy in Iraq, spoke from the Senate floor on the need to develop a flexible timetable and strategy to finish the military mission in Iraq.
In June, Feingold introduced a resolution, the first of its kind in the Senate, that calls for the President to clarify the military mission in Iraq, lay out a plan and timeframe for accomplishing that mission, and publicly articulate a plan to withdraw American troops from Iraq. In August, Feingold again jumpstarted the discussion about Iraq by becoming the first member of the U.S. Senate to propose a target date to finish the military mission in Iraq – December 31, 2006. Because of the Administration's conflicting signals about the duration of U.S. troop deployments, Feingold said he felt obligated to propose a specific goal for bringing U.S. forces home from Iraq.
"The President is one of an ever-narrowing group of people who believe that a timetable works against our goals in Iraq, Feingold said. "Military experts, people I talked to in Iraq, the American people increasingly agree that the Administration's refusal to even suggest a timetable for meeting our military goals in Iraq is feeding the insurgency. And not only does the lack of a timetable feed the insurgency, it also discourages Iraqi ownership of their own political process. By making it clear that the U.S. will not be there indefinitely, we will help the Iraqis move toward the real political independence they need and dispel some of the cynicism about American intentions that empowers some of the more extreme elements of Iraqi society."
Today's remarks by Feingold are available here: www.feingold.senate.gov/~feingold/statements/05/10/20051025IQ.html
His July 27 speech, "The Lack of a Coherent Policy in Iraq," can be found at: http://feingold.senate.gov/~feingold/statements/05/07/2005728344.html.
The transcript of his August 23 speech, "American National Security and Finishing the Mission in Iraq," is available at:
http://feingold.senate.gov/~feingold/statements/05/08/2005823.html.
His September 29 speech, "The President's Policies in Iraq are Breaking the U.S. Army," is available here:
http://feingold.senate.gov/~feingold/statements/05/09/2005928.html.
Feingold has also debunked several myths the Administration and others have put forth about U.S. policy in Iraq. That is available here:
http://feingold.senate.gov/~feingold/releases/05/09/2005909346.html.
"A timetable is important because it enables us to devote more resources to the other national security issues that demand our attention," Feingold said. "To fight the global terrorist networks that threaten the U.S., we need to focus energy and resources on countering emerging terrorist tactics, dealing with the threat of "loose nukes," and repairing the damage to our Army, to name just a few urgent priorities. Drawing down U.S. troops in Iraq will allow us to focus on these priorities. It's time to make sure that our Iraq policy is advancing, not undermining, our national security goals."
Senator Russ Feingold's web site::
http://feingold.senate.gov/index.html
Washington, DC
506 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-4904
(202) 224-5323
TDD (202) 224-1280
Fax (202) 224-2725
2) An Explosive Downing Street Memo
- - So What Have They To Hide - About the Assault on Fallujah?
An Explosive Downing Street Memo
From: AmericanProgressAction.org
Last Tuesday, the British tabloid the Daily Mirror reported President Bush revealed a plan "to bomb Arab TV station al-Jazeera in friendly Qatar...at a White House face-to-face with [Prime Minister Tony] Blair on April 16 last year." (At the time "the administration was infuriated with the al-Jazeera coverage of [a] battle [in Fallujah], and the way the station focused on the deaths of hundreds of people, including civilians, rather than the necessity of ridding the town of dangerous terrorists.") According to the Mirror, Blair talked him out of it. The details of the conversation are allegedly contained in "a 'Top Secret' No 10 [Downing St.] memo." One source cited by the Mirror said Bush's threat to bomb al-Jazeera was "humorous, not serious." Another claimed, "Bush was deadly serious, as was Blair. That much is absolutely clear from the language used by both men." Although the report remains largely uncorroborated and unconfirmed, both the Bush administration and the British government have reacted to the news as if they have something to hide.
BRITISH GOVERNMENT THREATENS TO PROSECUTE
NEWSPAPERS THAT PUBLISH THE MEMO:
The British attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, "threatened newspapers with the Official Secrets Act if they revealed the contents" of the document which allegedly contains Bush's threat to bomb al-Jazeera. Under that Act, it "is an offense to have come into the possession of government information, or a document from a crown servant, if that person discloses it without lawful authority." The Guardian reports that it is "the first time the Blair government has threatened newspapers in this way." Previously, the British government had "never prosecuted editors for publishing the contents of leaked documents, including highly sensitive ones about the run-up to the invasion of Iraq." (Goldsmith claims he was "not attempting to gag newspapers but merely pointing out the legal position.") Leo O'Conner, a former researcher for a British MP, and David Keogh, a former Cabinet Office official, have already been charged under the Official Secrets Act for receiving and passing the document.
TORY MP OFFERS TO GO TO JAIL TO GET THE TRUTH OUT:
Boris Johnson, a Tory MP, wrote in the Daily Telegraph that he was "quite prepared to believe that the Daily Mirror is wrong." But Johnson noted "if there is one thing that would seem to confirm the essential accuracy of the story, it is that the Attorney General has announced that he will prosecute anyone printing the exact facts." At the end of his column Johnson makes a generous offer: "If someone passes me the document within the next few days I will be very happy to publish it in The Spectator, and risk a jail sentence. The public needs to judge for themselves. Sunlight is the best disinfectant."
For complete report, and references, see:
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=914257&ct=1634747
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"I'll go to jail to print the truth about Bush and al-Jazeera"
Posted from: http://legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
Bush and Al-Jazeera
By Boris Johnson, MP and Editor, The Spectator 24 Nov 2005
"The Attorney General's ban is ridiculous, untenable, and redolent of guilt. I do not like people to break the Official Secrets Act ....we now have allegations of such severity, against the US President and his motives, that we need to clear them up. If someone passes me the document within the next few days I will be very happy to publish it in The Spectator, and risk a jail sentence. ...Sunlight is the best disinfectant. If we suppress the truth, we forget what we are fighting for. I'll go to jail to print the truth about Bush and al-Jazeera."
Article posted: www.boris-johnson.com/archives/2005/11/bush_and_al-jaz.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - So What Have They To Hide - About the Assault on Fallujah?
Published November 27, 2005 by the Independent
So What Have They To Hide? Official Secrets, Lies,
and the Truth About the Assault on Fallujah
The trial of two Whitehall workers this week could reveal
Britain's role in one of the Iraq war's darkest episodes.
by Raymond Whitaker and Marie Woolf
Posted: www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1127-05.htm
3) Arctic Booms as Climate Change Melts Polar Ice Cap
Published November 27, 2005 by the Observer/UK
Arctic Booms as Climate Change Melts Polar Ice Cap
The global hunger for oil is fueling a new gold rush.
by Alex Duval-Smith
Giant snowflakes tumble down outside the Kaikanten bar. Inside, Mustafa Mirreh from Somalia stares down his pool cue, trying to pot the black. His opponent, Italian engineer Pier Luigi Poletto, has turned to the slot machine. The Kilkenny beer has run out. There is only canned Guinness. This could be grounds for a fight, but French fishermen J-P and Max have been distracted by the rare sight of a woman crossing the floor.
These are the Klondikers of global warming: men from all over the world who have come to Hammerfest, gateway to the Barents Sea, to make their fortune from new resources - oil, gas, fish and diamonds - made accessible by the receding ice.
For this article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1127-03.htm
For FN's updated resource page, see:
Mounting Evidence of Global Warming!
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
FastWarming * AbleDanger * Oil * Atonement
22 November 2005
Greenland's glaciers have begun to race towards the ocean..
the most alarming manifestations of climate change to date -
suggest that the ice cap is melting far more rapidly than scientists
had thought, with immense consequences for civilisation and the planet.
Geoffrey Lean
1) Global Disaster Will Follow If the Ice Cap on Greenland Melts
2) Able Danger: Uncovering the 9/11 Cover-up
- - More Than Half of House Reps. Wants Hearings on Able Danger
3) Iraq's Oil: The Spoils of War
- - Former Delay Aide Pleads Guilty To Conspiracy
- - Kucinich Calls For Congressional Hearings On Vice President
4) Give Thanks No More: It's Time for a National Day of Atonement
- - National Day of Mourning in Plymouth dedicated to Peltier
Editor's Notes:
This issue opens with an another alarming item on global warming. "Greenland's glaciers have begun to race towards the ocean.." Item two is on Able Danger, and on a US government cover-up on 9/11. U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), vice chairman of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees, has sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld signed by over half of the House of Representatives requesting that he allow "former participants in the intelligence program known as ABLE DANGER to testify in an open hearing before the United States Congress." The letter has 246 signatures, including senior members and leadership on both sides of the isle.. Item three is a brilliant article exposing the deceit in wrestling resources from Iraq. "Iraqis face the dire prospect of losing up to $200bn (116bn) of the wealth of their country if an American-inspired plan to hand over development of its oil reserves to US and British multinationals comes into force next year." The old colonial rule trick is evident, to destroy and make a country pay for its rebuilding, as the rich get richer, and the hatred of the West grows bigger, too. Turning around such actions and policies are critical for any chance for peace and freedom from terrorism to exist. The fourth item, also, is on ending the destructive habits of the US empire, and raising a greater consciousness for a national holiday.
1) Global Disaster Will Follow If the Ice Cap on Greenland Melts
Published November 20, 2005 by the lndependent/UK
The Big Thaw:
Global Disaster Will Follow If the Ice Cap on Greenland Melts
Now scientists say it is vanishing far faster than even they expected.
by Geoffrey Lean
Greenland's glaciers have begun to race towards the ocean, leading scientists to predict that the vast island's ice cap is approaching irreversible meltdown, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.
Research to be published in a few days' time shows how glaciers that have been stable for centuries have started to shrink dramatically as temperatures in the Arctic have soared with global warming. On top of this, record amounts of the ice cap's surface turned to water this summer.
The two developments - the most alarming manifestations of climate change to date - suggest that the ice cap is melting far more rapidly than scientists had thought, with immense consequences for civilisation and the planet. Its complete disappearance would raise the levels of the world's seas by 20 feet, spelling inundation for London and other coastal cities around the globe, along with much of low-lying countries such as Bangladesh.
More immediately, the vast amount of fresh water discharged into the ocean as the ice melts threatens to shut down the Gulf Stream, which protects Britain and the rest of northern Europe from a freezing climate like that of Labrador.
The revelations, which follow the announcement that the melting of sea ice in the Arctic also reached record levels this summer, come as the world's governments are about to embark on new negotiations about how to combat global warming.
This week they will meet in Montreal for the first formal talks on whether there should be a new international treaty on cutting the pollution that causes climate change after the Kyoto protocol expires in seven years' time. Writing in The Independent yesterday, Tony Blair called the meeting "crucial", adding that it "must start to shape an inclusive global solution". But little progress is expected, largely because of continued obstruction from President George Bush.
The new evidence from Greenland, to be published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, shows a sudden decline in the giant Helheim glacier, a river of ice that grinds down from the inland ice cap to the sea through a narrow rift in the mountain range on the island's east coast.
Professor Slawek Tulaczyk, of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told the IoS that the glacier had dropped 100 feet this summer.
Over the past four years, the research adds, the front of the glacier - which has remained in the same place since records began - has retreated four and a half miles. As it has retreated and thinned, the effects have spread inland "very fast indeed", says Professor Tulaczyk. As the centre of the Greenland ice cap is only 150 miles away, the researchers fear that it, too, will soon be affected.
The research echoes disturbing studies on the opposite side of Greenland: the giant Jakobshavn glacier - at four miles wide and 1,000 feet thick the biggest on the landmass - is now moving towards the sea at a rate of 113 feet a year; the normal annual speed of a glacier is just one foot.
The studies have found that water from melted ice on the surface is percolating down through holes on the glacier until it forms a layer between it and the rock below, slightly lifting it and moving it toward the sea as if on a conveyor belt. This one glacier alone is reckoned now to be responsible for 3 per cent of the annual rise of sea levels worldwide.
"We may be very close to the threshold where the Greenland ice cap will melt irreversibly," says Tavi Murray, professor of glaciology at the University of Wales. Professor Tulaczyk adds: "The observations that we are seeing now point in that direction."
Until now, scientists believed the ice cap would take 1,000 years to melt entirely, but Ian Howat, who is working with Professor Tulaczyk, says the new developments could "easily" cut this time "in half".
There is also a more immediate danger as the melting ice threatens to disrupt the Gulf Stream, responsible for Britain's mild climate. The current, which brings us as much heat in winter as we get from the sun, is driven by very salty water sinking off Greenland. This drives a deep current of cold ocean southwards, in turn forcing the warm water north.
Research at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts has shown, that even before the glaciers started accelerating, the water in the North Atlantic was getting fresher in what it describes as "the largest and most dramatic oceanic change ever measured in the era of modern instruments".
Even before these discoveries, scientists had shortened to evens the odds on the Gulf Stream failing this century. When it failed before, 12,700 years ago, Britain was covered in permafrost for 1,300 years.
2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.
###
This article is posted:
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article328217.ece
and
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1120-03.htm
For FN's resource page, see:
Mounting Evidence of Global Warming!
2) Able Danger: Uncovering the 9/11 Cover-up
- - More Than Half of House Reps. Wants Hearings on Able Danger
Able Danger: Uncovering the Cover-Up
by Barbara Anderson
November 21, 2005 - Writing for the Wall Street Journal's opinion page, former FBI Director Louis Freeh has become the most recent critic of the 9/11 Commission's investigation into the terrorist attacks that killed 3,000 Americans. He also leveled criticism at the 9/11 Commission Report, which he says is flawed because it is incomplete.
Able Danger, a relatively small data-mining operation, claims it identified several terrorist cells in this country and elsewhere before the 9/11 attacks. It also claims that members identified Mohammed Atta and three other 9/11 hijackers in mid-2000. They further claim that they warned defense officials about activity in Aden, Yemen. They advised against entering the Port of Aden two days before the attack on the U.S.S. Cole on October 12, 2000, which left seventeen American sailors dead.
According to Able Danger participants, this vital information about terrorists in our midst was never allowed to get to those who may have used it to thwart the 9/11 terrorist attacks. They claim they tried three separate times to present it to the FBI and were barred three separate times from doing so by attorneys for the Clinton administration.
When LTC Anthony Shaffer of Able Danger went public with his allegations, appearing on talk shows, retaliation was swift. Representative Curt Weldon, who has gone to bat for Shaffer, relates: "They have gagged the military officers. They have prevented them from talking to any member of Congress. They have prevented them from talking to the media. And the Defense Intelligence Agency has began a process to destroy the career and the life of Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer." In other action, according to Representative Weldon, one day before the Lieutenant Colonel was to testify before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, in uniform, they permanently removed his security clearance. The Defense Intelligence Agency told LTC Shaffer's attorney they planned to seek a permanent removal of his pay and his health care benefits for him and his two children. Reports are that this punishment has been lightened somewhat, but we still may not hear from LTC Shaffer. He has been effectively muzzled.
Why did this information never get to the FBI? Former Director Freeh has remarked that the Able Danger information was the kind of intelligence that could have prevented the hijackings. What the 9/11 Commission did show was the lack of communication between the different agencies because of a "firewall" set up to hinder such communication. It has been charged that the person responsible for that wall was none other than Jamie Gorelick, who was part of the Clinton administration, and who was the lead Democrat on the 9/11 Commission.
Congressman Weldon has called for a criminal investigation into what he says is the most important story of our lifetime. He says he has support from 202 fellow lawmakers from both parties, noting on Thursday, November 17, that their goal was to force Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to allow "former participants in the intelligence program-known as Able Danger-to testify in an open hearing before the United States Congress." However, Congressman Weldon has encountered resistance for such a criminal investigation from some on the 9/11 Commission. Slade Gorton appeared on Lou Dobbs Tonight to say there is nothing to the reports about Able Danger and they are not important enough to consider further action. Tim Roemer has chimed in that Able Danger presented no helpful information for the 9/11 Commission to consider.
Former FBI Director Louis Freeh disagrees. He charged that the 9/11 Commission ignored or "summarily rejected" the most critical evidence that could have prevented the horrible deaths of 3,000 of our fellow citizens. Evidence collected by Able Danger, if true, is "undoubtedly the most relevant fact of the entire post-9/11 inquiry" However, the 9/11 Commission concluded, and members have publicly stated, that it was "not historically significant". Thus was valuable information dismissed. Thus was Able Danger rendered irrelevant.
In righteous anger Congressman Weldon has noted that "in two weeks with two staffers, I've uncovered more in this regard than they did with 80 staffers and $15 million of taxpayers' money!" He also claimed that "there's something very sinister that's going on here that really troubles me."
Freeh says that new revelations point out that it is "a good time for the country to make some assessments of the 9/11 Commission itself." Freeh has commended the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Republican Arlen Specter, for examining some of these matters. Able Danger was not mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report. Weldon has claimed, "There's a cover-up here. It's clear and unequivocal". Freeh makes a good case for an investigation, saying "The Joint Intelligence Committees should reconvene and, in addition to Able Danger team members, we should have the 9/11 commissioners appear as witnesses so the families can hear their explanation why this doesn't matter." Many other Americans would like to hear that explanation, also.
For article source, see:
www.therant.us/staff/guest/anderson/11212005.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - More Than Half of House Reps. Wants Hearings on Able Danger
MORE THAN HALF OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WANTS OPEN HEARINGS ON ABLE DANGER
WASHINGTON, Nov 18 - U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), vice chairman of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees, has sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld signed by over half of the House of Representatives requesting that he allow "former participants in the intelligence program known as ABLE DANGER to testify in an open hearing before the United States Congress." The letter has 246 signatures (144 Republicans, 101 Democrats, and one Independent), including senior members and leadership on both sides of the isle.
"The full story of ABLE DANGER deserves to be heard by the American people," said Weldon. "Secretary Rumsfeld must understand that the will of Congress is behind allowing members of the ABLE DANGER effort to testify in an open hearing about the work they were doing prior to 9-11 to track the linkages and relationships of al-Qaeda worldwide.
--- For a full text version of the letter and list of signatories, see following URL:
http://curtweldon.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=37076
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For updated resources on this issue, see:
www.abledangerblog.com
www.911citizenswatch.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=index&catid=&topic=8
www.911truth.org
For FN's updated resources, see:
The Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports,
looking into the unanswered questions.
3) Iraq's Oil: The Spoils of War
- - Former Delay Aide Pleads Guilty To Conspiracy
- - Kucinich Calls For Congressional Hearings On Vice President
Iraq's Oil: The Spoils of War
Published November 22, 2005 by the Independent / UK
Iraq's Oil: The Spoils of War
by Philip Thornton
Iraqis face the dire prospect of losing up to $200bn (116bn) of the wealth of their country if an American-inspired plan to hand over development of its oil reserves to US and British multinationals comes into force next year. A report produced by American and British pressure groups warns Iraq will be caught in an "old colonial trap" if it allows foreign companies to take a share of its vast energy reserves. The report is certain to reawaken fears that the real purpose of the 2003 war on Iraq was to ensure its oil came under Western control.
The Iraqi government has announced plans to seek foreign investment to exploit its oil reserves after the general election, which will be held next month. Iraq has 115 billion barrels of proved oil reserves, the third largest in the world.
According to the report, from groups including War on Want and the New Economics Foundation (NEF), the new Iraqi constitution opened the way for greater foreign investment. Negotiations with oil companies are already under way ahead of next month's election and before legislation is passed, it said.
The groups said they had amassed details of high-level pressure from the US and UK governments on Iraq to look to foreign companies to rebuild its oil industry. It said a Foreign Office code of practice issued in summer last year said at least $4bn would be needed to restore production to the levels before the 1990-91 Gulf War. "Given Iraq's needs it is not realistic to cut government spending in other areas and Iraq would need to engage with the international oil companies to provide appropriate levels of foreign direct investment to do this," it said.
Yesterday's report said the use of production sharing agreements (PSAs) was proposed by the US State Department before the invasion and adopted by the Coalition Provisional Authority. "The current government is fast-tracking the process. It is already negotiating contracts with oil companies in parallel with the constitutional process, elections and passage of a Petroleum Law," the report, Crude Designs, said.
Earlier this year a BBC Newsnight report claimed to have uncovered documents showing the Bush administration made plans to secure Iraqi oil even before the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US. Based on its analysis of PSAs in seven countries, it said multinationals would seek rates of return on their investment from 42 to 162 per cent, far in excess of typical 12 per cent rates.
Taking an assumption of $40 a barrel, below the current price of almost $60, and a likely contract term of 25 to 40 years, it said that Iraq stood to lose between 74bn and $194bn. Andrew Simms, the NEF's policy director, said: "Over the last century, Britain and the US left a global trail of conflict, social upheaval and environmental damage as they sought to capture and control a disproportionate share of the world's oil reserves. Now it seems they are determined to increase their ecological debts at Iraq's expense. Instead of a new beginning, Iraq is caught in a very old colonial trap."
ARTICLE TRUNCATED
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1122-03.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Former Delay Aide Pleads Guilty To Conspiracy
Published November 22, 2005 by the Associated Press
Former DeLay Aide Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy
by Pete Yost
WASHINGTON - Michael Scanlon, a former aide to Rep. Tom DeLay, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to bribe public officials and agreed to cooperate in a widening criminal investigation of members of Congress.
He has been cooperating with the Justice Department since June, one of his attorneys, Plato Cacheris, said after the plea.
For the complete text of this article, see:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1122-09.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich Calls For Congressional Hearings On Vice President
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NOVEMBER 21, 2005
CONTACT: Congressman Dennis Kucinich
Doug Gordon 202/225-5871(o); 202/494-5141(c)
Kucinich Calls For Congressional Hearings On Vice President
Cheney's False Statements On The War
Sends Letter To Chairman Of House Government Reform Committee
For letter and press release, see:
http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=37221
4) Give Thanks No More: It's Time for a National Day of Atonement
- - National Day of Mourning in Plymouth dedicated to Peltier
Give Thanks No More: It's Time for a National Day of Atonement
Published November 21, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
Give Thanks No More: It's Time for a National Day of Atonement
by Robert Jensen
One indication of moral progress in the United States would be the replacement of Thanksgiving Day and its self-indulgent family feasting with a National Day of Atonement accompanied by a self-reflective collective fasting.
In fact, indigenous people have offered such a model; since 1970 they have marked the fourth Thursday of November as a Day of Mourning in a spiritual/political ceremony on Coles Hill overlooking Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, one of the early sites of the European invasion of the Americas.
Not only is the thought of such a change in this white-supremacist holiday impossible to imagine, but the very mention of the idea sends most Americans into apoplectic fits -- which speaks volumes about our historical hypocrisy and its relation to the contemporary politics of empire in the United States.
That the world's great powers achieved "greatness" through criminal brutality on a grand scale is not news, of course. That those same societies are reluctant to highlight this history of barbarism also is predictable.
But in the United States, this reluctance to acknowledge our original sin -- the genocide of indigenous people -- is of special importance today. It's now routine -- even among conservative commentators -- to describe the United States as an empire, so long as everyone understands we are an inherently benevolent one. Because all our history contradicts that claim, history must be twisted and tortured to serve the purposes of the powerful.
One vehicle for taming history is various patriotic holidays, with Thanksgiving at the heart of U.S. myth-building. From an early age, we Americans hear a story about the hearty Pilgrims, whose search for freedom took them from England to Massachusetts. There, aided by the friendly Wampanoag Indians, they survived in a new and harsh environment, leading to a harvest feast in 1621 following the Pilgrims first winter.
Some aspects of the conventional story are true enough. But it's also true that by 1637 Massachusetts Gov. John Winthrop was proclaiming a thanksgiving for the successful massacre of hundreds of Pequot Indian men, women and children, part of the long and bloody process of opening up additional land to the English invaders. The pattern would repeat itself across the continent until between 95 and 99 percent of American Indians had been exterminated and the rest were left to assimilate into white society or die off on reservations, out of the view of polite society.
Simply put: Thanksgiving is the day when the dominant white culture (and, sadly, most of the rest of the non-white but non-indigenous population) celebrates the beginning of a genocide that was, in fact, blessed by the men we hold up as our heroic founding fathers.
Article Truncated, for the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/views05/1121-22.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - National Day of Mourning in Plymouth dedicated to Peltier
36th NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING
Thursday, November 24, 2005
12 Noon - Coles Hill
(The hill above Plymouth Rock)
Plymouth, Massachusetts
The 36th National Day of Mourning
is dedicated this year again to support
Native political prisoner Leonard Peltier..
For More Information Contact:
United American Indians of New England/LPSG
Phone: (617) 232-5135
E-mail: uainendom@earthlink.net
Website: http://home.earthlink.net/~uainendom
Updated @ FlybyNews.com - Free Leonard Peltier -
"Amnesty International considers Leonard Peltier to be a political prisoner whose avenues of redress have long been exhausted....Amnesty International recognizes that a retrial is no longer a feasible option and believes that Leonard Peltier should be immediately and unconditionally released." Documents show that although the prosecution and government pointed the finger at Peltier for shooting FBI agents at close range during the trial in 1976, for three years the prosecution withheld critical ballistic test results proving that the fatal bullets could not have come from the gun tied to Leonard Peltier. This trial also denied evidence of self defense. The U.S. Prosecutor, during subsequent oral arguments, stated: "we can't prove who shot those agents". The Eighth Circuit found that "There is a possibility that the jury would have acquitted Leonard Peltier had the records and data improperly withheld from the defense been available to him in order to better exploit and reinforce the inconsistencies casting strong doubts upon the government's case." Yet, a new trial was denied. Judge Heaney, who authored the denial now supports Mr. Peltier's release, stating that the FBI used improper tactics to gain Mr. Peltier's conviction. A good way to learn about Leonard Peltier is to read his book: Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance. For excerpts under item 2: Time for Human Rights on Native Ground.
For FN resource links:
Free Leonard Peltier!
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
War Uproar * 9/11 Challenge * Assess Nuke
20 November 2005
"The war in Iraq . . . is a flawed policy wrapped in illusion..
Our military has done everything that has been asked of them,
the U.S. can not accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily.
IT IS TIME TO BRING THEM HOME."
Congressman John Murtha (D-PA)
1) Uproar in House as Parties Clash on Iraq Pullout
- - Rep. Martin Meehan: "You guys are pathetic, pathetic."
- - Defense official: Rumsfeld given Iraq withdrawal plan
- - CIA leak probe extended
- - Cheney oversaw torture: former CIA director
- - The fools believe, but torture does not work
- - Bush 'an assassin, crazy man'
- - 20 Amazing Facts About Voting in the USA
- - Over a Century of US Military Interventions
2) 9/11 Revealed: Challenging the Facts behind the War on Terror
- - A State Department's Critique
3) Vermont Yankee's Nuclear Danger to ALL
Editor's Notes:
Last Thursday when attending the Scott Ritter presentation in Amherst, I learned from that the petition drive failed to collect 100,000 signatures before the deadline, which could have enabled Massachusetts voters to keep their national guard home and out of Iraq. Only 20,000 signatures were collected. Nevertheless, efforts to end the war are heating up. Item one covers recent events, actions, and key resources on the clash for an Iraq-US military pullout. Item 2 reviews a book called: "9/11 Revealed: Challenging the Facts behind the War on Terror," and a State Department's critique. Item 3 has information and a link to a petition (and sample letter) to act before its too late to prevent a nuclear power accident or an act of terrorism at the aging Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant.
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism"
Thomas Jefferson
1) Uproar in House as Parties Clash on Iraq Pullout
- - Rep. Martin Meehan: You guys are pathetic, pathetic."
- - Defense official: Rumsfeld given Iraq withdrawal plan
- - CIA leak probe extended
- - Cheney oversaw torture: former CIA director
- - The fools believe, but torture does not work
- - Bush 'an assassin, crazy man'
- - 20 Amazing Facts About Voting in the USA
- - Over a Century of US Military Interventions
Uproar in House as Parties Clash on Iraq Pullout
Published November 19, 2005 by the New York Times
Uproar in House as Parties Clash on Iraq Pullout
by Eric Schmitt
WASHINGTON - Republicans and Democrats shouted, howled and slung insults on the House floor on Friday as a debate over whether to withdraw American troops from Iraq descended into a fury over President Bush's handling of the war and a leading Democrat's call to bring the troops home.
The battle boiled over when Representative Jean Schmidt, an Ohio Republican who is the most junior member of the House, told of a phone call she had just received from a Marine colonel back home.
"He asked me to send Congress a message: stay the course," Ms. Schmidt said. "He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message: that cowards cut and run, Marines never do."
Democrats booed in protest and shouted Ms. Schmidt down in her attack on Representative John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, a Vietnam combat veteran and one of the House's most respected members on military matters. They caused the House to come to an abrupt standstill, and moments later, Representative Harold Ford, Democrat of Tennessee, charged across the chamber's center aisle to the Republican side screaming that Ms. Schmidt's attack had been unwarranted.
Article Truncated
For the complete article, see:
www.nytimes.com/2005/11/19/national/19military.html
or
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1119-04.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Rep. Martin Meehan: You guys are pathetic, pathetic."
18 Nov 2005 - The Republican-controlled Congress helped itself to a $3,100 pay raise on Friday, then postponed work on bills to curb spending on social programs and cut taxes in favor of a two-week vacation. In the final hours of a tumultuous week in the Capitol, Democrats erupted in fury when House GOP leaders maneuvered toward a politically-charged vote _ and swift rejection _ of one war critic's call for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. "You guys are pathetic, pathetic," Massachusetts Rep. Martin Meehan yelled across a noisy hall at Republicans.
For this article, see:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/18/AR2005111802165.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Defense official: Rumsfeld given Iraq withdrawal plan
Plan calls for troops to begin pulling out after December elections
Friday, November 18, 2005; Posted: 11:34 p.m. EST (04:34 GMT)
[EXCERPT]
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The top U.S. commander in Iraq has submitted a plan to the Pentagon for withdrawing troops in Iraq, according to a senior defense official.
Gen. George Casey submitted the plan to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. It includes numerous options and recommends that brigades – usually made up of about 2,000 soldiers each – begin pulling out of Iraq early next year.
The proposal comes as tension grows in both Washington and Baghdad following a call by a senior House Democrat to bring U.S. troops home and the deaths of scores of people by suicide bombers in two Iraqi cities.
House Republicans were looking for a showdown Friday after Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat and well-respected Vietnam veteran, presented a resolution that would force the president to withdraw the nearly 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq "at the earliest predictable date."
Murtha on Thursday called the administration's management of the conflict "a flawed policy wrapped in illusion" that is "uniting the enemy against us."
"It's time to bring the troops home," he said.
For the complete article, see:
www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/11/18/iraq.plan/index.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - CIA leak probe extended
18 Nov 2005 Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said in court filings that the ongoing CIA leak investigation will involve proceedings before a new grand jury, a possible sign he could seek new charges in the case.
For a Reuters news article on this extenstion, see:
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-11-18T171225Z_01_BAU860612_RTRUKOC_0_UK-BUSH-LEAK-FITZGERALD.xml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Cheney oversaw torture: former CIA director
18 Nov 2005 Admiral Stansfield Turner, a former CIA director, accused US Vice President Dick Cheney of overseeing policies of torturing terrorist suspects and damaging the nation's reputation, in a television interview. "We have crossed the line into dangerous territory," Turner said on ITV news.
For article, see:
www.smh.com.au/news/world/cheney-oversaw-torture-former-cia-director/2005/11/18/1132016963907.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The fools believe, but torture does not work
50 Percent of American Cretins Think Torture Works
By Kurt Nimmo 18 Nov 2005
"If we can believe the Pew Research Center in Washington, nearly fifty percent of all Americans not only believe torture is justified against 'suspected terrorists' (i.e., Pakistani and Afghan cab drivers and dirt farmers kidnapped and then sold to the CIA), but also that it works. Here's a clue for Bubba in Palookaville: torture does not work."
http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=130
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush 'an assassin, crazy man'
18 Nov 2005 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, extending his war of words with Washington, on Thursday called US President George W Bush "an assassin" and accused the United States of meddling in his country's affairs. Chavez said: "The people of the US are governed by an assassin ... a crazy man! I think the people of the US are more aware of this situation every day."
For article, see:
www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1836589,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 20 Amazing Facts About Voting in the USA
DECEMBER 2004 GALLUP POLLS
1 in 5 Americans believe the elections were fraudulent.
That's over 41 Million Americans.
You are NOT alone!
For list of 20 amazing voting facts in the US, and linked references, see:
http://nightweed.com/usavotefacts.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Over a Century of US Military Interventions
U.S. Threatened To Use Nuclear Weapons 17 Times
Comment by Larry Ross Nov 17, 2005
The following article documents 134 U.S. military interventions from 1890 to 1999, including 16 threats to use nuclear weapons. It includes the nuclear bombing in WW II of mainly civilian targets - the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on June 6 and 9, in 1945. George Bush threatened a 17th nuclear weapons use against Iraq in 2003, if the US judged that Iraq had used chemical weapons as a defence against the illegal U.S.-U.K. invasion, even though the U.S. and U.K. both lied to justify this invasion.
Recently, under the Bush Administration, the U.S. has decreed that it may actually use nuclear weapons, not as a last resort, but in conventional military campaigns as they judge necessary.
Also, George Bush decreed he might unilaterally launch a pre-emptive nuclear war against nations that the Bush Administration judges may be enemies who might, someday, make weapons of mass destruction, or nuclear weapons, and attack the U.S. or it's allies. The Bush Administration reserves the right to make the judgements.
There are 8 or 9 nuclear weapon states. Any nuclear weapons use can expand into a global nuclear war. This could end life on earth. Nuclear weapons use is gambling with millions of lives, if not the fate of humanity.
The Bush Administration made a judgement to launch a pre-emptive war against Iraq in 2003, threatening to use nuclear weapons. This was an illegal war, not approved by the United Nations. At the time, and since, there has been a massive amount of testimony and evidence that George Bush and members of his Administration deliberately, and repeatedly lied to the American people, the Senate and to the world to justify the war. They are unrepentant, and continue to slaughter, imprison and torture thousands of Iraqis and use radioactive D.U. weapons in Iraq. The residue, microscopic DU particles, poison the land and infect and kill anyone who inhales them for generations to come.
The next U.S. pre-emptive war could be against Iran, and/or Syria. Both have been mentioned as potential targets by Bush, and North Korea..
A CENTURY OF U.S. MILITARY INTERVENTIONS:
From Wounded Knee to Afghanistan
Compiled by Zoltan Grossman
For list, see: www.zmag.org/CrisesCurEvts/interventions.htm
2) 9/11 Revealed: Challenging the Facts behind the War on Terror
- - A State Department's Critique
9/11 Revealed: Challenging the Facts behind the War on Terror
The Sunday Times September 04, 2005
by Nick Fielding
Terrorism: 9/11 Revealed:
Challenging the Facts behind the War on Terror
by Ian Henshall and Rowland Morgan
Robinson 8.99 pp224
Scarcely a day had passed before the first conspiracy theories about the 9/11 attacks began to emerge. The "miraculous" recovery of lead hijacker Mohammed Atta's passport from the ruins of the World Trade Center, the spotting of a team of Israelis who cheered as they filmed the incident in New York, the odd behaviour of George W Bush, who continued to read a story about goats to children for an hour after he had been informed about the attacks — all of these events were grist to the conspiracy theorists' mill.
One of the strongest (and unsubstantiated) theories to emerge suggested that millions of dollars had been made by speculators on the New York stock exchange who had advance knowledge of the campaign. The passing of four years has diminished neither the breadth and intricacy of 9/11 conspiracy theories nor, it would appear, the public appetite for them. Like JFK and Martin Luther King's assassinations, it is an event destined to be the subject of intense speculation for generations to come.
Dozens of sceptical accounts have emerged including theories that the attacks were a coup d'etat carried out from within the American administration itself. There are, say supporters of this line of argument, parallels with the continuing debate over whether or not America knew in advance of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
By allowing the attacks to happen — or in the case of the most extreme theories, by organising them under a "false flag" — the military-industrial complex in America, headed by Dick Cheney and his neocon supporters in the Project for a New American Century, guaranteed that America would stay at war and that profits would stay high. Supporters of this and similar theories point to previous occasions where America has invented incidents to justify continuing hostilities, such as during the Spanish-American conflict or the Gulf of Tonkin incident in the Vietnam war.
A recent DVD from the Blackpool 9/11 Truth Group, for example, states the following: "The two planes which flew into the towers are American KC737 in-flight refuel tankers fitted with missile pods and not passenger airliners." Similar speculation surrounds the attack on the Pentagon, where the mystery of how a jetliner with a 124-ft wingspan could leave a hole only 14ft wide in the outer wall continues to baffle all who examine the incident.
The behaviour of the Bush administration has not helped those who wish to see a full explanation of 9/11. At first, Bush was determined there should be no inquiry into the biggest attack ever launched on American soil. Then he tried to appoint Henry Kissinger to head a limited inquiry. Following a storm of protest, Kissinger was forced to withdraw when he refused to reveal his sensitive client list.
The authors of Revealed, both radical journalists, have subjected the official version of what happened to intense scrutiny and found huge gaps. Recalling that most of what we know about what happened on the planes comes from alleged calls made by passengers on mobile phones, they point out that most experts say that, for technical reasons, this contact would have been impossible to make. No billing advice has ever been made public to show the calls were made. They highlight the absence of Mayday distress signals, the failure to find the black-box flight recorders for the WTC aircraft, the apparent disappearance of the wreckage, the failure to carry out a full engineering investigation into why the towers collapsed so fast and the failure to scramble military aircraft to intercept the hijacked aircraft.
Even more intriguing is the role of Hani Hanjour, the pilot of Flight 77 that hit the Pentagon. Anyone who examines the route taken by Hanjour will see that it required a complex manoeuvre by an experienced pilot. Yet in 2001, when Hanjour tried to fly down the Hudson air corridor in a light aircraft, his trainer was so unnerved that he denied him a second run.
You don't have to be a conspiracy nut to see that the official account published by the 9/11 Commission is full of gaps. The interesting question is whether or not all such incidents are, ultimately, unknowable or whether the public has been misled. Take your pick.
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2102-1757744,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 911 Revealed – A State Department's Critique
Distribution via the Unanswered Questions Wire
unansweredquestions.org/ .
PRESS RELEASE
911 Revealed ACHIEVES NEW FIRST.
[EXCERPT]
The explosive book 911 Revealed has achieved another first: it has been allocated a special page in The US State Department's global "misinformation" section, where an unknown writer denounces the book as "putting forth bizarre conspiracy theories about the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States" and giving "credence to a hodgepodge of sinister, unfounded allegations".
* http://usinfo.state.gov/media/Archive/2005/Sep/16-241966.html
But the book's authors say that the State Department's allegations against the book are themselves misinformation.
In September the book was first in the Independent on Sunday's political Book chart (18 September, chart supplied by Amazon UK) and in August number 6 in the Daily Telegraph/Nielsen top ten non-fiction best-sellers (August 27). It even reached Amazon UK's top 30 titles, beating mass pulp fiction books and hyped TV tie-ins. The top selling national mid market Daily Mail gave the book a massive 3 page spread in August, the top national quality seller the Sunday Times gave it a headline review.
Co-author Ian Henshall said today:
"The Bush administration is unable to understand the difference between a book which examines sceptic theories and a book which espouses such theories. We hope that the lies and distortions in this review are not having the effect of persuading TV studios to operate an embargo on an important book.. ..No-one has signed the State Department's highly misleading review, no-one has asked us for a comment and of course no-one has given us the opportunity to make a rebuttal.
In the book we take pains to present the evidence for readers to make up their own minds, and endorse no theories ourselves, only calling for a genuinely independent criminal inquiry to clear up the many questions that remain unanswered. These include allegations that a culture of "just let the next attack happen" shaded into outright complicity in the attacks and possibly spawned add-ons, like the anthrax attacks which purported to come from Islamic terrorists, or the suspected demolition of WTC7 which was neither hit by a plane nor destroyed by a major fire.
Ex-Treasury secretary Paul O'Neill has revealed that the Bush "gang" (as he put it in The Price of Loyalty) intended to occupy Iraq, not after but before 911. It is legitimate to ask if the 911 attacks somehow fitted into this plan. Broadcast editors should have the courage to ask whether they were fooled, not once over the WMD affair, but twice.
The State website ignores these important strategic issues. It also offers no justification for the failure of the Kean/Zelikow 911 Commission to release the evidence that should - if the official story is true - be able to scotch widespread "conspiracy theories".
..They ignore dozens of other issues that we raise, including the almost complete silence of eight hijacked pilots on the day, the failure of the USAF to intervene in any effective way, the suspicious nature of Atta's connecting flight from Portland, Maine, the contradictory reports of Mrs Olson's apparent phone call from Flight 77, the assertion that air traffic controllers failed to consider the possibility that Flight 77 was hijacked, and the FBI's claim refuted by pictures we publish that negligible amounts of plane debris were recovered from the Twin Towers site.
Given the refusal of the US government to release even the most basic evidence (eg the photos that sould prove that Flight 77 indeed hit the Pentagon) no-one can be sure of what really lay behind the 911 attacks, and it is a cheap smear to suggest that we claim to know.
The evidence so far produced is consistent with government complicity in the attacks and indeed 48% of New Yorkers polled in 2004 said that they thought that the Bush White House "consciously allowed" the attacks to take place (Zogby). It amounts to disinformation for the State Department to pick on a few of the questions raised in the book in order to try to discredit us.
The US government's refusal to allow an open and independent criminal inquiry, with all possibilities considered, has encouraged an atmosphere of distrust. Rather than misrepresenting us, the Bush administration ought to accept that it has a serious case to answer, release files and video evidence it has unaccountably kept secret, and stop acting as if it had something to hide.
Some of the individual claims of skeptics might be wrong, but the State Department's clumsy attempt to frighten editors and destroy our reputation only underlines the central issue. The official story is not adequately supported by the evidence and depends on the uncritical acceptance of claims made by an administration that, since the Iraq WMD falsehoods, is widely distrusted.
A more detailed rebuttal of the State Department's review of our book is available at www.911dossier.co.uk/rebuttal.html from 12.00 Thursday UK time.
contacts:
Anne Sullivan Publicity Manager Nation Books anne.sullivan@avalonpub.com
00 646-437-1222
Ian Henshall can be reached through his shop
Coffee Plant in London's Portobello Road 00 44 7221 8137
The complete article is posted at: www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0511/S00127.htm
3) Vermont Yankee's Nuclear Danger to ALL
62 cracks found at Vt. Yankee
Published by the Brattleboro Reformer on 11 November 2005
By Kristi Ceccarossi
Reformer Staff
BRATTLEBORO -- There are 62 cracks in an important piece of equipment at Vermont Yankee, but plant officials and federal regulators say that's not a problem.
The hairline, surface cracks in the plant's steam dryer were found this month during a routine shutdown. Entergy Nuclear, owners of the plant, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the cracks pose no safety threat.
The cracks are not structurally significant and they are probably from the plant's early years of operation, according to Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the NRC. They "appear to be old," he said.
However, nuclear watchdogs say the cracks are one more reason why the NRC should put the brakes on Entergy's plans to boost power at the plant to 120 percent. A so-called "uprate" at Vermont Yankee is pending final review by the NRC.
In other nuclear plants that have been uprated, cracks in the steam dryer have been a persistent concern.
Vermont's congressional delegation has identified the cracks as a problem, too. The state's senators and sole representative wrote to the NRC on Thursday, urging the agency to evaluate the steam dryer issue before approving the uprate.
The Vernon reactor has been off line for re-fueling since Oct. 22. During the outage, plant engineers looked at the reactor and the steam dryer, located at the top of the reactor. They found 42 cracks, ranging from 1 inch to 5 inches in length, said Rob Williams, spokesman for the plant.
The other 16 cracks were discovered in March 2004, during the last refueling outage.
The cracks could have been on the steam dryer more than 20 years, but they've only been discovered now because engineers are using cameras with higher resolutions than ever before.
The images show the cracks have been reviewed by Entergy officials, as well as the NRC and General Electric.
Vermont Yankee is a boiling water reactor that started running in 1972.
When the reactor heats up, it produces steam which, eventually, produces power. Before the steam hits the plant's turbines, it passes through the steam dryer, where any traces of water are removed.
The Quad Cities Generating Station in Illinois, also a boiling water reactor that went on line in 1972, was granted a 17.5 percent uprate by the NRC in 2002.
Since then, the steam dryer has failed twice because of cracking. In one instance, a piece of the dryer broke off and damaged other components of the reactor. The plant has been shut down a number of times to try to fix the problem.
The NRC is scrutinizing the steam dryer issue at Vermont Yankee as a result. This fall, it told plant officials that in order to have their uprate approved, they'd have to adhere to more stringent maintenance of the steam dryer. Entergy agreed to the condition.
Ray Shadis, technical advisor for the nuclear watchdog New England Coalition, said the added oversight amounts to "an experiment on the banks of the Connecticut River."
"They are now making the assertion that because these are surface cracks, they will go no further."
And particularly in light of a 20 percent boost in power output at the plant, Shadis said, "that's preposterous."
Article Truncated,
for the complete article, see:
www.reformer.com/Stories/0,1413,102%257E8860%257E3126276,00.html
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Entergy Corporation of Louisiana is the current owners of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant (VY), located in Vernon, Vermont, which borders Massachusetts and New Hampshire. VY is one of the oldest Nuke Plants in the country, and is currently scheduled for decommissioning in 2012. If Entergy and the nuclear industry gets its way, VY will receive a twenty-year extension on its operating life, and is currently being engineered for an additional 20% electrical output than it was originally designed to handle. Meanwhile, with the waste problem, with potential terrorist problem, with the brittle nature of old atomic nuclear power plants, one would think such uprate is a bad idea. However, recently the NRC staff has given preliminary approval to Entergy for a 20% increase in electrical output, which will increase operating temperatures, water and steam pressures, which will place more stress on mechanical equipment, and lead to greater radioactive emissions!
Please consider helping stop a trend for uprating and extending licenses for dangerous nuclear power plants. The following is a sample letter we hope you will copy and send to newspapers, your government representatives, and to the Vermont Public Service Board < clerk@psb.state.vt.us >
Dear
I am writing to ask for your help in stopping a proposed 20% increase in output (and re-licensing) of the nuclear power reactor in Vernon, Vermont. This nuclear power plant built in 1971 is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2012. However, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported that "there is reasonable assurance that the health and safety of the public will not be endangered by operation in the proposed manner.." This assumption is preposterous and dangerous. The reactor power boost would increase the likelihood of an accident, increase the amount of radioactivity produced and released from the plant, increase radiation exposure to workers and site boundaries, and increase the rate at which high-level and low-level nuclear waste is produced.
Please support a full independent safety assessment of Vermont Yankee on the conformance of VY to its design and licensing bases (including appropriate reviews at the site and corporate offices); independently assess operational safety performance giving risk perspectives where appropriate; evaluate the effectiveness of license self-assessments, corrective actions, and improvement plans; and determine safety-significant findings and draw conclusions on overall performance.
Generating electricity with nuclear power was proved to be dangerous by the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island nuclear accidents, and especially in this era of high explosives and terrorism. Such plants could be converted to non-nuclear sources of electricity. The sooner, the better, in my opinion, but please, help us gain an independent review and assessment on the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been shown to be untrustworthy in reviewing an industry that threatens human life for many generations.
Signed
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For an online petition on this issue, see:
www.petitiononline.com/necnp2/petition.html
For more information, visit the New England Coalition
Translate this Page!
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
GuardHome * 9/11Physics * Aid * VYCrankin
14 November 2005
"A yes vote on this initiative will not only prevent more
National Guard troops from being deployed to Iraq, but
will also send a very strong message to our elected
leaders that we want them to end the war and
bring all of our troops home immediately."
HomeFromIraqNow.org
Editor's Update - November 18, 2005 -
Yesterday at an event with Traprock Peace Center with Scott Ritter,
Flyby News learned that the organization, "Home From Iraq Now"
only collected about 20,000 signatures for the petition, and has
called off the signature campaign drive in Massachussetts.
1) State Ballot to Prevent Guard from going to Iraq
- - US Criticised for Use of Phosphorous in Fallujah Raids
- - U.S. 'can't maintain Iraq troop levels'
- - McCain urges more US forces for Iraq:
2) Physicist Challenges 9/11 Tower Collapse Explanation
3) Aide to Guatemala Request
4) Oldest Nuke Plant - Vermont Yankee - Put to the Stress Test
- - Scott Ritter in Amherst, MA, November 17
Editor's Notes:
Item one is time sensitive, if 100,000 Massachusetts voters sign and turn in a petition by November 18th, then next year there would be a statewide ballot that could prevent the Governor from continuing to send National Guard Troops to Iraq. If this initiative is successful, it could spread across the country, pressuring the US government to bring troops home for America's defense, and shorten a war perpetuating, not ending, terrorism. Item two is on information from a BYU physicist, Steven E. Jones, claiming that the towers that fell on 9/11/01 were likely due to pre-positioned explosives' in all three buildings at ground zero. Item three is on Hurricane Stan's devastation in Guatemala, and what we can do to alleviate some of the suffering. Item 4 is on Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant pushing the envelope for higher output rates that would endanger those sharing a home and land in the three state area of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.
"Power concedes nothing without a demand.
It never did and it never will."
~ Frederick Douglass
1) State Ballot to Prevent Guard from going to Iraq
- - US Criticised for Use of Phosphorous in Fallujah Raids
- - U.S. 'can't maintain Iraq troop levels'
- - McCain urges more US forces for Iraq:
Time Sensitive:
Binding State Ballot Initiative to Prevent Guard from going to Iraq
HomeFromIraqNow.org is a national campaign to end the war in Iraq by using binding statewide ballot initiatives around the country to pressure the administration to bring our troops home now.
This grassroots organization is currently working to place an initiative on the November 2006 ballot in Massachusetts to prevent the Governor from sending any more National Guard troops to Iraq, and it is exploring similar initiatives in other states.
A yes vote on this initiative will not only prevent more National Guard troops from being deployed to Iraq, but will also send a very strong message to our elected leaders that we want them to end the war and bring all of our troops home immediately.
To get this initiative on the ballot in Massachusetts for November 2006, we need your help to collect 100,000 signatures of Massachusetts voters by November 18, 2005.
Click here to download the petition. (It comes with instructions).
Sign it (and have your friends and family members who are registered Massachusetts voters sign it too!)
Send it to the address below right away.
HomeFromIraqNow.org
Petition C
PO Box 431
Brookline, MA 02446-0004
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - US Criticised for Use of Phosphorous in Fallujah Raids
Published on November 9, 2005 by the Independent / UK
US Criticised for Use of Phosphorous in Fallujah Raids
by Andrew Buncombe
A leading campaign group has demanded an urgent inquiry into a report that US troops indiscriminately used a controversial incendiary weapon during the battle for Fallujah. Photographic evidence gathered from the aftermath of the battle suggests that women and children were killed by horrific burns caused by the white phosphorus shells dropped by US forces.
The 1980 UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons bans the use of weapons such as napalm and white phosphorus against civilian - but not military - targets. The US did not sign the treaty and has continued to use white phosphorus and an updated version of napalm...
The Pentagon has always admitted it used phosphorus during last year's assault on the city, which US commanders said was an insurgent stronghold. But they claimed they used the brightly burning shells "very sparingly" and only to illuminate combat areas.
But the documentary Fallujah: the Hidden Massacre, broadcast yesterday by the Italian state broadcaster, RAI, suggested the shells were commonly used and killed an unspecified number of civilians.
Photographs obtained by RAI from the Studies Centre of Human Rights in Fallujah, show the bodies of dozens of Fallujah residents whose skin has been dissolved or caramelised by the effects of the phosphorus shells. The use of incendiary weapons against civilian targets is banned by treaty.
Last night Robert Musil, director of the group Physicians for Social Responsibility, called for an investigation. He told The Independent: "When there is clear testimony that use of such weapons has done this, it demands a full investigation. From Vietnam onwards there has been a general condemnation of [the use of white phosphorus] and concern about the injuries and consequences."
The 1980 UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons bans the use of weapons such as napalm and white phosphorus against civilian - but not military - targets. The US did not sign the treaty and has continued to use white phosphorus and an updated version of napalm, called Mark 77 firebombs, which use kerosene rather than petrol. A senior US commander previously has confirmed that 510lb napalm bombs had been used in Iraq and said that "the generals love napalm. It has a big psychological effect."
John Pike, director of the Washington-based military studies group GlobalSecurity.Org, said the smoke caused by the bombs could confuse or blind the enemy or mark a target. "If it hits your clothes it will burn your clothes and if it hits your skin it will just keep on burning," he said.
Experts said that, if not removed, white phosphorus - known as Willy Pete - can burn to the bone. The fumes from phosphorus cause severe eye irritation.
2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd
Posted at:
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1109-07.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - U.S. 'can't maintain Iraq troop levels'
www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20051110-125019-8225r
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - McCain urges more US forces for Iraq
Senator John McCain has called on the Bush administration to send more troops to Iraq, warning that the stakes for the US are higher than they were in Vietnam.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10968.htm
2) Physicist Challenges 9/11 Tower Collapse Explanation
ELAINE JARVIK DESERET MORNING NEWS -
The physics of 9/11 - including how fast and symmetrically one of the World Trade Center buildings fell - prove that official explanations of the collapses are wrong, says a Brigham Young University physics professor. In fact, it's likely that there were "pre-positioned explosives" in all three buildings at ground zero, says Steven E. Jones. In a paper posted online Tuesday and accepted for peer-reviewed publication next year, Jones adds his voice to those of previous skeptics. . .
Jones, who conducts research in fusion and solar energy at BYU, is calling for an independent, international scientific investigation "guided not by politicized notions and constraints but rather by observations and calculations. "It is quite plausible that explosives were pre-planted in all three buildings and set off after the two plane crashes - which were actually a diversion tactic," he writes. "Muslims are (probably) not to blame for bringing down the WTC buildings after all," Jones writes.
As for speculation about who might have planted the explosives, Jones said, "I don't usually go there. There's no point in doing that until we do the scientific investigation." Previous investigations, including those of FEMA, the 9/11 Commission and NIST (the National Institutes of Standards and Technology), ignore the physics and chemistry of what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, to the Twin Towers and the 47-story building known as WTC 7, he says. The official explanation - that fires caused structural damage that caused the buildings to collapse - can't be backed up by either testing or history, he says. Jones acknowledges that there have been "junk science" conspiracy theories about what happened on 9/11, but "the explosive demolition hypothesis better satisfies tests of repeatability and parsimony and therefore is not 'junk science.' " In a 9,000-word article that Jones says will be published in the book "The Hidden History of 9/11," by Elsevier, Jones offers these arguments:
- The three buildings collapsed nearly symmetrically, falling down into their footprints, a phenomenon associated with "controlled demolition" - and even then it's very difficult, he says. "Why would terrorists undertake straight-down collapses of WTC-7 and the Towers when 'toppling over' falls would require much less work and would do much more damage in downtown Manhattan?" Jones asks. . .
- No steel-frame building, before or after the WTC buildings, has ever collapsed due to fire. But explosives can effectively sever steel columns, he says.
- WTC 7, which was not hit by hijacked planes, collapsed in 6.6 seconds, just .6 of a second longer than it would take an object dropped from the roof to hit the ground. "Where is the delay that must be expected due to conservation of momentum, one of the foundational laws of physics?" he asks. "That is, as upper-falling floors strike lower floors - and intact steel support columns - the fall must be significantly impeded by the impacted mass. . . . How do the upper floors fall so quickly, then, and still conserve momentum in the collapsing buildings?" The paradox, he says, "is easily resolved by the explosive demolition hypothesis, whereby explosives quickly removed lower-floor material, including steel support columns, and allow near free-fall-speed collapses." . . .
- Horizontal puffs of smoke, known as squibs, were observed proceeding up the side the building, a phenomenon common when pre-positioned explosives are used to demolish buildings, he says.
- Steel supports were "partly evaporated," but it would require temperatures near 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit to evaporate steel - and neither office materials nor diesel fuel can generate temperatures that hot. Fires caused by jet fuel from the hijacked planes lasted at most a few minutes, and office material fires would burn out within about 20 minutes in any given location, he says.
- Multiple loud explosions in rapid sequence were reported by numerous observers in and near the towers, and these explosions occurred far below the region where the planes struck, he says.
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,635160132,00.html
For FN's updated resources, see:
The Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports,
looking into the unanswered questions.
3) Aide to Guatemala Request
by Frank Taylor < frankmt50@yahoo.com >
Dearest Friends and those who may not know me, I have lived in Guatemala and Chiapas Mexico for the last 28 years working with Mayan communities on the regeneration of organic farming methods and on traditional healing.
In this letter I want to let you know about the effects of hurricane Stan on Guatemala and the prospects for recovery and reconstruction. Following this explanation are descriptions of different non-governmental organization's efforts to provide relief to different areas of Guatemala. Please take time to consider if you might be able to contribute in some way to these efforts.
In early October hurricane Stan brought rains day and night without stop for between 5 to 9 days, depending on the area, that caused flooding, mud slides and avalanches and the soil to literally split apart and slide down mountain sides. All of these effects carried away and covered over families, homes, animals, fields and the impending harvests. The Pacific coast and the Western highlands were areas that were hardest hit.
Official government data report the following;
-1,176 Communities Affected
-669 Dead
-386 Hurt
-844 Disappeared
-474, 928 Affected
-25,832 Homes Damaged
-9,136 Homes Destroyed
A study by the International Organization for Immigrants estimates 69% of Guatemala's population was severely affected (approximately 401,840 families). This population they calculate contribute to 90% of the national production (PIB). The IOI expressed that with such widespread destruction of homes, crops and work places is the loss of the means of production leading to further impoverishment. desperation, chaos, family and community disintegration and violence.
The government was slow to respond, demonstrating indifference and helplessness and finally admitted their incapacity and eventually requested international aid.
After one month the government ended the State of Emergency claiming that the country was returning to normal and that the government would continue reconstructing the damaged infrastructure- bridges, schools and roads.
The Catholic Church and the Guatemalan Red Cross responded with a vigorous rebuttal, calling for continued efforts to provide food and reconstruction efforts that would enable the population to remove themselves from the precarious conditions that contribute to disasters. And finally they emphasize the need for trauma therapy to enable the population to recover emotionally. Fortunately the Guatemalan Congress today decided to continue the State of Emergency 30 days more.
The progressive forces here see the reconstruction as an opportunity to change the conditions that have long marginalized the majority of Guatemalans who increasingly suffer from a lack of basic resources and services. What is obvious is the disastrous effect of a lack of structural reforms that would provide for land reform taking the plantation land that is abandoned or underutilized(and once belonged to the Maya) and turning it over to those living on marginal lands and to the landless.
The steep mountainsides where most of the population, who are indigenous Maya live, suffered massive devastation- for centuries they have been relegated to these precarious areas due to the theft of their lands. This area of the country is exceedingly mountainous and people live and farm on hillsides in many cases so steep that if they fall while working they often are killed, tumbling down- hills or off precipices.
The force of water, mud and debris carried the road systems that wind their way along these mountains away. In many places roads and bridges continue to collapsed due to the of the accumulated weight from the heavy rains in the soils combined by the steepness of hill sides deforested and farmed out of desperation.
Traveling for the first time after the hurricane into the highlands and seeing the widespread destruction of land where I have work with communities to conserve and regenerate their soils was shocking and painful. Many communities lost their subsistence crops, which they cannot replant until next years rainy season- meaning they will need 10 months of food aid.
Entire communities were buried under mud and those who escaped lost their homes, land, crops, and animals and in many cases potable water systems.
The worst and best-known case is Santiago Atitlan where 2 communities are buried under 5 meters of mud. They have uncovered 65 bodies- the estimates the total in Santiago would reach 1,000 and now the papers speak of 2,000 dead. They have recently ordered an end to the search for bodies, due to their state of putrification and the danger of provoking epidemics that the authorities are unprepared or unwilling to handle.
For the Maya it is not just such a precipitous loss of family, where in some cases whole families perished, but their cultural and spiritual values demand reverence and respect for their ancestors and proper burials for the dead where families can commune with their spirits.
Throughout Maya history the remote mountainous geography has served to buffer communities- allowing them to protect their traditions from the excesses of the national government and yet has prevented their access to necessary services- along with the government's negligence in reaching them. As a consequence weeks after the hurricane, the effects of the hurricane on much of the population are only vaguely known and the reporting is very poor.
The non-governmental organizations since their inception after the earthquake of '76, done the lion's share of support to the population are moving to do so. Food, Clothes and medicine are being trucked in over circuitous routes due the destruction of so many bridges and roads. Given the government's ineptitude and the decentralized efforts the relief work is not well coordinated and there is duplication of efforts.
THE MEANS FOR US TO CONTRIBUTE TO RELIEF EFFORTS
Relationship with Guatemalans brings deep rewards. When people ask me why I have stayed here so long my answer is to experience and learn from people here about how to suffer and to share in their great joy for life.
So much suffering and hardship has developed a culture of survival, resistance and solidarity and living in the moment. Knowing how to suffer seems to keep them in the moment while generating a profound appreciation for life and a capacity to experience joy- and knowing such suffering and being in the now they know or are reminded that their survival depends on their unity.
1.Here are some suggestions and the first is to enter into relationship with Guatemalans and their natural world by contributing in some way. Volunteers- many foreigners- have been working for the last month digging out communities and if you would like to come and work here please let me know and we can discuss what you might do for the relief effort and reconstruction- with justice. I would deeply appreciate hearing yours suggestions, too;
Perhaps the easiest avenue for sending material contributions is thru Rights Action an organization that works with progressive Guatemalan organizations and funds many of the organizations I have worked with for years. I would suggest you read the description of the different organizations they support and ear mark your funds for that organization. Am sending their bulletins in the following e-mail so that you can have a sense of their values and work in Guatemala.
HOW TO DONATE tax-charitable donations (in the USA and Canada):
* For credit card donations, go to www.rightsaction.org and click-on "groundspring" (Make donation on behalf of "Hurricane Stan").
* To mail a check, make it to "Rights Action" (write "Hurricane Stan" on memo-line) and mail to:
- UNITED STATES: Rights Action, Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887,
- CANADA: Rights Action, 509 St. Clair Av. W., box73527, Toronto ON, M6C-1C0.
For bank to bank wire transfers, contact: info@rightsaction.org.
4) Oldest Nuke Plant - Vermont Yankee - Put to the Stress Test
- - Scott Ritter in Amherst, MA November 17
From TraprockPeace.org
[EXCERPT]
PUBLIC MEETING on PROPOSED VERNON REACTOR UPRATE
Tuesday, Wednesday, Nov. 15 & 16
Call now to speak. Technical issues considered by
Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards at a
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards will hold a public meeting on Entergy Nuclear's proposal to increase electrical output, along with profits and radioactive waste output, at New Englands oldest operating nuclear reactor in Vernon, Vermont. The Committee will hear public comment in the Grand Ballroom at the Quality Inn and Suites, 1380 Putney Road, Brattleboro, Vermont, for two days, on Tuesday and Wednesday, November 15-16, 2005.
No evening hours are scheduled at this time. We urge the ACRS to add evening hours in the following weeks.
WHAT'S the PROBLEM?
Increased operating temperatures and loss of a back-up cooling pump, increased water and steam pressure and velocity, increased speed of the rotors, excess vibration, and containment overpressure are some of the concerns bound to be addressed.
This meeting is announced as the final opportunity the public to comment before a recommendation is made to allow or NOT allow the increases. Entergy Corporation of Louisiana, the owners of the Vernon reactor which began operation in 1971, have been pushing for a 20 percent reactor power boost before the Vermont Public Service Board and the NRC since February of 2003. Their effort has been stalled because the questions being asked by regulators, interveners, legislators, town select board members, and citizens about the suitability of the uprate have still not been answered.
Phone: 301-415-8065
Note: Last weekend the NRC staff has given preliminary approval to Entergy, moving along the process towards possible approval of an uprate entailing a 20% increase in electrical output, increased operating temperatures, increased water and steam pressures, intensified mechanical stresses and increased radioactive emissions!
Related Event on Human Rights Day,
Saturday, Dec. 10, 2005; 1-6pm
Greenfield Community College Cafeteria, Greenfield, MA,
Keynote speaker Ernest Sternglass will present graphs on downwind
health effects following nuclear testing and reactor operations, 1pm.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Scott Ritter in Amherst, MA November 17
Scott Ritter, Iraq Confidential -- Dual Deception
6:30 pm; Nov. 17, 2005
Grace Episcopal Church Parish Hall,
*** Amherst, Massachusetts ***
Scott Ritter, UN Weapons Inspector for seven years, was right. Disarmament worked. Veterans, students, pacifists are invited to confer at a discussion & reception to follow. For more information, visit: traprockpeace.org
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Plame Exposure * Home-Grown-Terrorism
01 November 2005
You have people who have no regard for the rule of law.
These aren't people who appreciate the Constitution,
to them the Constitution is an impediment, it's an obstacle,
it's something in the way, it's something to be avoided.
They are married to an ideology of global domination, of
global imperialism and they're not going to deviate from this.
-- Scott Ritter
1) The White House Exposure Of Valerie Plame
- - Has anyone noticed that the coverup worked?
- - Howard Dean: Indict Dick Cheney
- - Scott Ritter - "Don't Rule Out Staged Government Terror"
2) Guantanamo Desperation Seen in Suicide Attempts
- - Rumsfeld's growing stake in Tamiflu
3) U.S. Military Wants to Own the Weather
- - Has anyone noticed that the coverup worked?
Editor's Notes:
As most expected, 22 Indictments was too much of a good thing to come true. Yet much has been accomplished with one Indictment. Most likely, (speculatively reasoning), a deal was made to reign in the Neocons. Even moderate Republicans are alarmed at the accelerating rate of the depleting below-zero national treasury, and unprecedented environmental damage, and a war with no end. Perhaps they alluded to 22 Indictments, but would settle for less, if the Neocons exit without incident by 2008. But this won't stop the bought-politicians from making the same mistakes over and over again. That is one reason why FN is supporting a conventional and grassroots political coalition to find a consensus for a candidate that voted NO for the Bush War Resolution in 2002.
The first item is the transcript of last Sunday's CBS-TV program, Sixty-Minutes, which included an interview of Joe Wilson on the harm from the administration's CIA-outing of his wife, Valerie Plame. By a CIA colleague she was noted as an expert on weapons of mass destruction. So, not only do we have the Downing Street Memo that describes the fraud connected to nonexistent weapons of mass destruction to attack Iraq, but now we also have a White House CIA-outing, nullifying a specialist, defending the US from where such weapons do exist. This fight for reclaiming a democracy in the US is not over, not by a long shot.
1) The White House Exposure Of Valerie Plame
- - Has anyone noticed that the coverup worked?
- - Howard Dean: Indict Dick Cheney
- - Scott Ritter - "Don't Rule Out Staged Government Terror
The Exposure Of Valerie Plame
"Sixty Minutes"
NEW YORK, Oct. 30, 2005
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(CBS) For 18 years as an undercover agent for the CIA, Valerie Plame Wilson kept her occupation and her identity a secret, even to her own friends and family, to avoid compromising her work as a spy.
When she was exposed two years ago, it led to a federal investigation and raised questions about what would motivate such a betrayal. Would someone in the government go that far, leak her name to the press, in retaliation for her husband's public criticism of the war in Iraq?
The special prosecutor in the case, Patrick Fitzgerald, did not answer that question on Friday when he charged the vice president's Chief of Staff Lewis Libby with lying to the investigators who were trying to find out how it could have happened.
But 60 Minutes wanted to know how serious was the damage done by the leak.
The woman at the center isn't talking. But 60 Minutes Correspondent Ed Bradley did hear from her husband, her friends and fellow agents who knew her work, and helped us understand what happens when an agent for the CIA is exposed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
"It's a spy agency. And you don't expose people working for a spy agency. And no one knew that she was working for a spy agency until she was exposed," says Jim Marcinkowski, a deputy city attorney in Royal Oak, Mich. In the late 1980's, he was a covert CIA agent spying in Central America. Like all recruits, he was sent to the agency's top-secret training facility in Virginia known simply as "the farm."
That's where he first met a 22-year-old graduate of Penn State University named Valerie. Marcinkowski says he knew her simply as Val P., since recruits went by the initial of their last name. And he says she was a natural.
"Did all of you have firearms training?" Bradley asked. "Yes," he replied.
Marcinkowski says she was good. "Some people had never fired weapons before, and some of us had. And it's always interesting when someone that has never fired a weapon kind of beats everybody else that did."
He says the three dozen members of his CIA class were a close-knit group that continued to see each other at class reunions.
Two years ago, when columnist Robert Novak put the name "Valerie Plame" into the public debate over the war in Iraq, Marcinkowski says it took him a few weeks to determine that it was "Val P." who had been compromised. "I found that particularly outrageous. It became very personal."
Marcinkowski was so angry, he went public, something former CIA agents rarely do, blaming the White House, even though nobody has been charged with the actual leak.
"We kept that trust in protecting her identity. So we held a particular trust for 18 years and never gave each other up. And when the White House did that, it was particularly outrageous, because if I have to keep those secrets, they should be held to that same kind of standard," he explains.
As the investigation into who leaked her name got underway in Washington, more details about Valerie Plame's life emerged. She spent her early years in the CIA in Europe, where she received advanced degrees from the London School of Economics and the College of Europe, in Bruges, Belgium.
In recent years, she told people she worked at an energy consulting firm called "Brewster-Jennings & Associates."
Robert Novak, the columnist who first printed her name, revealed that, too. "And she listed herself as an employee of Brewster-Jennings & Associates. There is no such firm, I'm convinced," Novak said on CNN.
He was right. Even though the business directory Dun & Bradstreet had a listing for the firm in a Boston office building, Brewster-Jennings & Associates was a CIA fiction, created to provide cover for agents like Valerie Plame.
The problem, says Marcinkowski, is that exposing Brewster-Jennings could lead foreign intelligence agencies to other spies. "There is a possibility that there were other agents that would use that same kind of a cover. So they may have been using Brewster-Jennings just like her."
Valerie Plame was also exposed as a "NOC," an agent working under non-official cover. That means she wasn't attached to a U.S. Embassy or any other government agency when she worked overseas, which would have provided her protection if she was caught spying. In other words, she had no diplomatic immunity.
Working overseas as an NOC, without official cover, was a dangerous assignment, says Marcinkowski. "With diplomatic immunity, the worst that can happen is you get kicked out of the country. You don't have that kind of a protection when you're a NOC. You're out there, what they would call naked."
"Out there" like Hugh Redmond, a NOC who was caught spying in Shanghai in 1951 and died after 19 years in a Chinese prison. To this day, the CIA denies he was an agent.
"We give our most sensitive cases to those officers serving under non-official cover," explains Melissa Mahle, who spent 14 years in the Middle East as a covert CIA operative maintaining a series of fictitious "legends," or cover stories, created by her superiors.
"I conducted espionage. I went overseas, I recruited agents," says Mahle.
She left the agency three years ago, and recently struck up a friendship with a woman whose career ran parallel to her own: Valerie Plame Wilson.
"People have said, ‘Oh, well, Valerie wasn't serving in a sensitive position. So it's not really that serious.' Well, I would say that's a very fallacious way of looking at this because a cover is for a clandestine officer can be different things at different times. We change cover. We modify cover based on how we need it," says Mahle. "If you start to unravel one part of that, you can unravel the whole thing."
Mahle says Valerie was working on important national security issues, like keeping tabs on nuclear material and the world's top nuclear scientists. "She is an expert on weapons of mass destruction. These are the kind of people that don't grow on trees."
What do agents in that division do? "They're trying to figure out, really, the hard questions of who has the capability obtaining and deploying a biological weapon. Or a chemical weapon. Who's doing it? What are those networks? What are the financial trails?" says Mahle.
The CIA has yet to conduct a formal damage assessment. The agency wanted to wait until the investigation by the special prosecutor was over.
But agency representatives have come to Capitol Hill to brief the intelligence committees about steps they've taken to "mitigate the effects of the leak."
"I think any time the identity of a covert agent is released, there is some damage. And it's serious," says Congressman Rush Holt, a Democrat from New Jersey and a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
Rep. Holt says some people Valerie Wilson came into contact with overseas, even those who didn't know she was a covert operative, could be in danger.
"Have you had assurances that the agency is handling the fallout from this leak?" Bradley asked.
"They have taken the usual procedures to protect the damage from spreading," Rep. Holt replied.
"Is it possible that someone overseas, someone is going to jail because of this?" Bradley asked Holt. "Sure, it's possible."
"Is it possible that somebody lost their life?" Bradley asked. "It's possible. I don't know," the congressman said.
Rep. Holt pointed out there has not yet been a formal assessment. "If there were, and I had been briefed on it, I couldn't talk about it."
"This was a crime against the national security of the country," says Joseph Wilson, Valerie Wilson's husband. He's a career diplomat who served in Iraq for the first President Bush, and on the National Security Council as an expert on Africa for President Clinton.
In February, 2002, he was sent by the CIA to investigate claims that Iraq was trying to buy uranium ore from Niger, a country in Africa where he had once been posted. When he returned, he told the agency such a sale was "highly unlikely."
But when the president said in his January 2003 State of the Union Address that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa, Wilson accused the administration of lying to make a better case for war. And that, he says, is why people in the administration came after his wife.
Bradley sat down with Wilson when Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald announced the results of his two-year investigation, not charging the vice president's Chief of Staff Lewis Libby with leaking the name, but with lying and obstructing justice.
Joe Wilson says he believes someone in the White House was responsible for the leak. "It was the White House that decided they were going to go after me, and the tactic they decided to use was to go after my wife."
"Do you think that the prosecutor has gotten to or is getting to the bottom of it?" Bradley asked.
"I don't know. It's hard for me to say. This was done to silence others. This was a shot across the bow to others. The message was if you do to us what Wilson did to us, we'll do to you what we just did to Wilson's family," said Wilson.
And the damage to Valerie Plame Wilson was serious, as spelled out by the special prosecutor. "Valerie Wilson's friends, neighbors, college classmates had no idea she had another life," Fitzgerald said.
When they first met, Wilson says Plame told him she was a risk analyst for an international firm.
"But, once you were married, you had to join this cover. I mean, you couldn't tell your family, your friends," Bradley asked.
"No. The day that Mr. Novak's article appeared, my sister-in-law turned to my brother and said, ‘Do you think Joe knew?' So, not even my brother or my sister-in-law or any of my immediate family knew," Wilson recalled.
"So, no one said, ‘I sort of suspected this all the time?'" Bradley asked.
"No," Wilson replied.
Wilson says that did not surprise him at all. "As Valerie points out, most people are interested in talking about themselves and, therefore, it was very easy for a professional to shift the conversation away from her and onto other people."
When she saw Novak's column, he says, it came as a complete shock. Eighteen years of a meticulously-crafted cover, exposed in an instant.
"She felt like she had been hit in the stomach. It took her breath away. She recovered quickly because, of course, you don't do what she did for a living without understanding stress. And she became very matter of fact right afterwards. And started making lists of what she had to do to ensure that her assets, her projects, her programs and her operations were protected," Wilson said.
"Did she realize then that her career as an undercover agent for the CIA was over?" Bradley asked.
"Absolutely. Sure. There was no doubt about it in her mind. And she wondered for what," Wilson said.
"Novak also published the name of the front company that your wife used for cover, Brewster-Jennings & Associates. How would you characterize that disclosure?" Bradley asked.
"I think it was abominable. But when he published her name, it was very easy to unravel everything about her, her entire cover. You live your cover. And so you live Brewster-Jennings. So, she would have had business cards that said Brewster-Jennings on them. So, that was just insult to injury. And it was just Mr. Novak taking a second bite of the apple," says Wilson.
Wilson confirmed that as a CIA agent, his wife was working to uncover information about weapons of mass destruction. Since she is still an agency employee, Valerie Wilson has been silent. Despite the fact it has been two years since she was exposed, the CIA still won't comment on the record about the damage.
"Did your wife ask for protection from the agency?" Bradley asked.
"I don't go into security matters. But, you can be sure that we discussed security at great length with various agencies," Wilson said.
And Wilson says there have been specific threats. "There have been specific threats. Beyond that, I just can't go."
Former agent Jim Marcinkowski says one of the worst things about the leak is that it gives America's enemies clues about how the CIA operates. "She is the wife of an ambassador, for example. Now, since this happened, every wife of an ambassador is going to be suspected. Or they'll know there's a possibility that the wife of a U.S. ambassador is a CIA agent."
"I get the impression you get really angry about what happened," Bradley asked Melissa Mahle.
"Of course I do, because we're talking about lives and we're talking about capabilities. We do our work. We risk our own lives. We risk lives of our agents in order to protect our country. And when something like this happens, it cuts to the very core of what we do. We're not being undermined by the North Koreans. We're not being undermined by the Russians. We're being undermined by officials in our own government. That I find galling," Mahle said.
Valerie Wilson still reports to work every day at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. Friends say her status as America's most famous spy makes it impossible for her to remain in the clandestine service of the CIA, a place where she's spent her entire working life.
"Have you been in contact with her recently?" Bradley asked Marcinkowski. "Yes," he replied.
"What has this done to her? How's she handling it?" Bradley asked.
"Well, first of all, CIA people don't like cameras. We don't like publicity. We operate in the background as much as possible. So she's in a very, very uncomfortable spot," Marcinkowski replied.
"So her career is then definitely been damaged by this?" Bradley asked.
"Her career has been ended," he said.
MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/28/60minutes/printable994753.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Has anyone noticed that the coverup worked?
What the 'Shield' Covered Up
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Tuesday, November 1, 2005; A25
Has anyone noticed that the coverup worked?
[EXCERPT]
In his impressive presentation of the indictment of Lewis "Scooter" Libby last week, Patrick Fitzgerald expressed the wish that witnesses had testified when subpoenas were issued in August 2004, and "we would have been here in October 2004 instead of October 2005."
Note the significance of the two dates: October 2004, before President Bush was reelected, and October 2005, after the president was reelected. Those dates make clear why Libby threw sand in the eyes of prosecutors, in the special counsel's apt metaphor, and helped drag out the investigation.
As long as Bush still faced the voters, the White House wanted Americans to think that officials such as Libby, Karl Rove and Vice President Cheney had nothing to do with the leak campaign to discredit its arch-critic on Iraq, former ambassador Joseph Wilson.
And Libby, the good soldier, pursued a brilliant strategy to slow the inquiry down. As long as he was claiming that journalists were responsible for spreading around the name and past CIA employment of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, Libby knew that at least some news organizations would resist having reporters testify. The journalistic "shield" was converted into a shield for the Bush administration's coverup..
..Fitzgerald has made clear that he wants to keep this case going if doing so will bring us closer to the truth. Lawyers not involved in the case suggest that the indictment was written in a way that could encourage Libby, facing up to 30 years in prison, to cooperate in that effort.
But there is a catch. If Libby, through nods and winks, knows that at the end of Bush's term, the president will issue an unconditional pardon, he will have no interest in helping Fitzgerald, and every interest in shutting up. If Bush truly wants the public to know all the facts in the leak case, as he has claimed in the past, he will announce now that he will not pardon Libby. That would let Fitzgerald finish his work unimpeded, and we would all have a chance, at last, to learn how and why this sad affair came to pass.
postchat@aol.com
2005 The Washington Post Company
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/31/AR2005103101386.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Howard Dean: Indict Dick Cheney
31 Oct 2005 Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean is urging Leakgate Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to indict Vice President Dick Cheney if he had anything to do with the decision of his chief of staff, Lewis Libby, to leak CIA employee Valerie Plame's identity to the media.
For this article, see:
www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/10/31/222608.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Scott Ritter - "Don't Rule Out Staged Government Terror"
Former UN Weapons Inspector:
Don't Rule Out Staged Government Terror
Ritter says Neo-Cons are embattled, surrounded, could
resort to desperate measures to further global domination
Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones | October 24 2005
Former United Nations weapons inspector and Marine Scott Ritter appeared on The Alex Jones Show and stated that he wouldn't rule out the possibility of the Bush administration staging a terror attack in order to jolt a wavering foreign policy agenda back on track.
Ritter compared the atmosphere within the administration to that during the time of Watergate, where Nixon considered utilizing America's nuclear arsenal to create a devastating diversion from domestic calamity.
"Nothing this administration would do would surprise me, they're desperate right now."
"If you go back and take a look at the Nixon administration during the height of Watergate Nixon was talking about using nuclear weapons against the Soviets in the Middle East, insanity of this nature."
"When you have an irresponsible administration like the Nixon administration, like this current administration, and they start to feel embattled, surrounded, they take on a fortress like mentality where everybody becomes the enemy."
Asked if he thought a staged terror attack was possible, a scenario previously considered by former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, Ritter responded,
"Yeah, you have people who have no regard for the rule of law. These aren't people who appreciate the Constitution, to them the Constitution is an impediment, it's an obstacle, it's something in the way, it's something to be avoided. They are married to an ideology of global domination, of global imperialism and they're not going to deviate from this."
Regarding the issue of imminent indictments of top Bush administration officials, Ritter stated,
"I think the President should be investigated to determine whether he's committed a crime and if a crime has been committed then the President must be held accountable, fully accountable, to the rule of law."
Ritter dispelled any potential charges of partisanship by stating, "If we're going to go after Bush then we have to go after Clinton."
"We've got to make sure that we set the record straight that this isn't about partisan bashing, Bush bashing. This is about reasserting the rule of law as set forth by the Constitution and reasserting the power of the people."
On the subject of which country will be subject to the next Neo-Con invasion, Ritter commented,
"There are elements within the Bush administration, especially Donald Rumsfeld's associates, Doug Feith, Wolfowitz and others whose long goal crossed the line of serving America and they started serving another country out there, Israel."
"This administration wants to go to Syria, wants to go to Iran. Iran has turned into a little more difficult of a proposition both diplomatically and militarily, and financially. So Iran may be pushed to the back-burner right now, doesn't mean it's going away, we should never forget that."
"We're going to go small first and I think that with Syria the feeling in the Bush administration is that this is a very easy target, it's one that would make Israel very happy if we took out this regime."
"I'm not sure it's going to be as easy as they think it's going to be."
Ritter's claims have continually been proven to be accurate even in the face of numerous establishment media and government attempts to defame his character.
Ritter is the latest of a rash of credible people both inside and outside of government to voice concerns that a staged terror attack blamed on Iran or Syria could be used as the pretext to instigate pre-planned invasions and further entrench a police state in the US.
Former CIA analyst and Bush 41 staffer Ray McGovern gave similar sentiments as well as British Member of Parliament George Galloway .
Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones | October 24 2005
www.prisonplanet.com/articles/october2005/241005weaponsinspector.htm
For items of Part 2 of this issue, 01 November 2005:
2) Guantanamo Desperation Seen in Suicide Attempts
- - Rumsfeld's growing stake in Tamiflu
3) U.S. Military Wants to Own the Weather
- - Has anyone noticed that the coverup worked?
See: GuantanamoPain * Rum'sFlu * MilitaryWeather
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
GuantanamoPain * Rum'sFlu * MilitaryWeather
01 November 2005 - Part 2
"Cowardice asks the question: is it safe?
Expediency asks the question: is it politic?
Vanity asks the question: is it popular?
But conscience asks the question: is it right?
And there comes a time when one must take a position
that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular-
but one must take it simply because it is right"
-- Martin Luther King Jr.
2) Guantanamo Desperation Seen in Suicide Attempts
- - Rumsfeld's growing stake in Tamiflu
3) U.S. Military Wants to Own the Weather
2) Guantanamo Desperation Seen in Suicide Attempts
- - Rumsfeld's growing stake in Tamiflu
Guantanamo Desperation Seen in Suicide Attempts
One Incident Was During Lawyer's Visit
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 1, 2005; A01
Jumah Dossari had to visit the restroom, so the detainee made a quick joke with his American lawyer before military police guards escorted him to a nearby cell with a toilet. The U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had taken quite a toll on Dossari over the past four years, but his attorney, who was there to discuss Dossari's federal court case, noted his good spirits and thought nothing of his bathroom break.
Minutes later, when Dossari did not return, Joshua Colangelo-Bryan knocked on the cell door, calling out his client's name. When he did not hear a response, Colangelo-Bryan stepped inside and saw a three-foot pool of blood on the floor. Numb, the lawyer looked up to see Dossari hanging unconscious from a noose tied to the ceiling, his eyes rolled back, his tongue and lips bulging, blood pouring from a gash in his right arm.
Dossari's suicide attempt two weeks ago is believed to be the first such event witnessed by an outsider at the prison, and one of several signs that lawyers and human rights advocates contend point to growing desperation among the more than 500 detainees there. Lawyers believe Dossari, who has been in solitary confinement for nearly two years, timed his suicide attempt so that someone other than his guards would witness it, a cry for help meant to reach beyond the base's walls.
Two dozen Guantanamo Bay detainees are currently being force-fed in response to a lengthy hunger strike, and the detainees' lawyers estimate there are dozens more who have not eaten since August. Military officials say there are 27 hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay, all of whom are clinically stable, closely monitored by medical personnel and receiving proper nutrition.
The hunger strikers are protesting their lengthy confinements in the island prison, where some have been kept for nearly four years and most have never been charged with a crime. The most recent hunger strike came after detention officials allegedly failed to honor promises made during a previous hunger strike.
Military authorities do not publicly discuss individual detainees and declined to comment on Dossari. Lt. Col. Jeremy Martin, spokesman for Joint Task Force Guantanamo, said yesterday that there have been a total of 36 suicide attempts by 22 different detainees, including three in the past 20 months. Martin said all detainees are treated humanely and "any threat of injury or suicide" is taken seriously.
He added that rapid intervention in suicide attempts has prevented deaths. No detainee has died at the military prison, he said.
The protests come amid rising international concern about the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Human rights organizations and the United Nations have complained about the lack of access to the detainees and voiced concern about allegations of physical and psychological abuse, including prolonged solitary confinement.
U.S. officials are trying to return many of the detainees to their home countries, but the process has been fraught with delays and diplomatic wrangling.
Three U.N. experts said yesterday that they would not accept a U.S. government invitation to tour Guantanamo unless they are granted private access to detainees, a concession the U.S. has not been willing to make, citing the ongoing war on terror and security concerns. Last week, the United States invited the U.N. representatives on torture and arbitrary detention to the facility, and the experts said yesterday that they hope to visit in early December. But they described their demand for access to the detainees as "non-negotiable."
"They said they have nothing to hide," Manfred Nowak, U.N. special rapporteur on torture, said yesterday at a news conference in New York. "If they have nothing to hide, why should we not be able to talk to detainees in private?"
Colangelo-Bryan said he fears that many detainees would rather die than be held indefinitely. He said he was shocked but not surprised by Dossari's Oct. 15 suicide attempt, given his "horrible ordeal."
He said he knows only that medical personnel apparently were able to revive Dossari, he had surgery and is in stable condition.
Detainees "see it as the only means they have of exercising control over their lives," Colangelo-Bryan said in publicly describing the incident for the first time. "Their only means of effective protest are to harm themselves, either by hunger strike or doing something like this."
Martin said claims that hunger strikers are near death are "absolutely false." He said the latest protest began on Aug. 8 and at one point had 131 participants but is now much smaller.
"This technique, hunger striking, is consistent with the al Qaeda training, and reflects the detainees' attempts to elicit media attention and bring pressure on the United States government," Martin said. The military also has long argued that terrorist groups have instructed fighters to invent claims of abuse if incarcerated.
Dossari has told Colangelo-Bryan that he has endured abuse and mistreatment on par with some of the worst offenses discovered at any U.S. detention facility over the past four years. In declassified notes recording the meetings, Dossari describes abuse and torture that stretches back to his arrest in Pakistan in December 2001, through the time he was turned over to U.S. forces in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and ultimately to his stay in Guantanamo Bay.
Dossari, 26, said U.S. troops have put out cigarettes on his skin, threatened to kill him and severely beat him. He told his lawyer that he saw U.S. Marines at Kandahar "using pages of the Koran to shine their boots," and was brutalized at Guantanamo Bay by Immediate Response Force guards who videotaped themselves attacking him.
The military says the IRF squads are sent into cells to quell disturbances.
Dossari told his lawyers that he had been wrapped in Israeli and U.S. flags during interrogations -- a tactic recounted in FBI allegations of abuse at Guantanamo -- and said interrogators threatened to send him to countries where he would be tortured.
Dossari maintains that he is not connected to terrorism and does not hate the United States. A fellow detainee said that he saw Dossari at an al Qaeda training camp, his lawyer said.
Colangelo-Bryan is a private New York lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents some of the detainees. The group plans a "Fast for Justice" rally today in Washington to bring attention to the Guantanamo Bay hunger strike.
Colangelo-Bryan said Dossari has tried to commit suicide before. Prolonged solitary confinement has given him almost no contact with others and access to only a Koran and his legal papers.
"In March, he looked at me in the eye and said, 'How can I keep myself from going crazy?'" Colangelo-Bryan said.
Researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
2005 The Washington Post Company
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/31/AR2005103101987.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Rumsfeld's growing stake in Tamiflu
Defense Secretary, ex-chairman of flu treatment rights holder, sees portfolio value growing. 31 Oct 2005 The prospect of a bird flu outbreak is proving to be very good news for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu, the influenza remedy that's now the most-sought after drug in the world. Rumsfeld served as Gilead's chairman from 1997 until he joined the Bush regime in 2001, and he still holds a Gilead stake valued at between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal financial disclosures filed by Rumsfeld. The forms don't reveal the exact number of shares Rumsfeld owns, but in the past six months fears of a pandemic and the ensuing scramble for Tamiflu have sent Gilead's stock from $35 to $47. [See: Citizens for a Legitimate Government's Flu 'Oddities' page.]
For this article, see:
http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/31/news/newsmakers/fortune_rumsfeld/
3) U.S. Military Wants to Own the Weather
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer - Space.com
posted: 31 October 2005
The one-two hurricane punch from Katrina and Wilma along with predictions of more severe weather in the future has scientists pondering ways to save lives, protect property and possibly even control the weather.
While efforts to tame storms have so far been clouded by failure, some researchers aren't willing to give up the fight. And even if changing the weather proves overly challenging, residents and disaster officials can do a better job planning and reacting.
In fact, military officials and weather modification experts could be on the verge of joining forces to better gauge, react to, and possibly nullify future hostile forces churned out by Mother Nature.
While some consider the idea farfetched, some military tacticians have already pondered ways to turn weather into a weapon.
Harbinger of things to come?
Article Truncated
For the complete article, see:
http://space.com/scienceastronomy/051031_mystery_monday.html
For FN archives on this subject, see: Military Weather Experiments, ChemTrails, and Psychotronic Warfare.
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Fitzgerald Delivers * Sitcha's Cross * DeNuked
27 October 2005
"..someone created fake documents related to Niger and Iraq
and used them as a false pretense to launch America into an invasion
of Iraq. And when a former diplomat made an honest effort to find out
the facts, a plan was hatched to both discredit and punish him by
revealing the identity of his undercover CIA agent wife."
- James Moore
1) Fitzgerald Indictments deliver most important case
2) Richard Sitcha - "My Way of the Cross"
3) Bush Admin. Drops 'Bunker-Buster' Plan
Editor's Notes:
Quite honestly, I am at wits'edge in anticipation on the Fitzgerald Indictments due tomorrow. The Plame-CIA outing can be a perfect political-legal-storm to rescue a lost US democracy, and injustice as the rule of law. Item 2 is one of those stories of a personal holocaust for a political-asylum-refugee from Cameroon, and his treatment in the claws of US injustice post 9/11/01. Please take time to read this powerful story by Richard Sitcha. And item three ends this issue on a positive note on the termination of the Bush Nuke Bunker Buster proposal. Thank Goodness - and go for it - Patrick J. Fitzgerald!
Keep posted to FlybyNews.com for updates!
1) Fitzgerald Indictments deliver most important case
The Most Important Criminal Case in American History
by James Moore
Published by the Huffington Post; 19 October 2005
If special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald delivers indictments of a few functionaries of the vice president's office or the White House, we are likely to have on our hands a constitutional crisis. The evidence of widespread wrongdoing and conspiracy is before every American with a cheap laptop and a cable television subscription. And we do not have the same powers of subpoena granted to Fitzgerald.
We know, however, based upon what we have read and seen and heard that someone created fake documents related to Niger and Iraq and used them as a false pretense to launch America into an invasion of Iraq. And when a former diplomat made an honest effort to find out the facts, a plan was hatched to both discredit and punish him by revealing the identity of his undercover CIA agent wife.
Patrick Fitzgerald has before him the most important criminal case in American history. Watergate, by comparison, was a random burglary in an age of innocence. The investigator's prosecutorial authority in this present case is not constrained by any regulation. If he finds a thread connecting the leak to something greater, Fitzgerald has the legal power to follow it to the web in search of the spider. It seems unlikely, then, that he would simply go after the leakers and the people who sought to cover up the leak when it was merely a secondary consequence of the much greater crime of forging evidence to foment war. Fitzgerald did not earn his reputation as an Irish alligator by going after the little guy. Presumably, he is trying to find evidence that Karl Rove launched a covert operation to create the forged documents and then conspired to out Valerie Plame when he learned the fraud was being uncovered by Plame's husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson. As much as this sounds like the plot of a John le Carre novel, it also comports with the profile of the Karl Rove I have known, watched, traveled with and written about for the past 25 years.
We may stand witness to a definitive American moment of democracy. The son of a New York doorman probably has in his hands, in many ways, the fate of the republic. Because far too many of us know and are aware of the crimes committed by our government in our name, we are unlikely to settle for a handful of minor indictments of bureaucrats. The last thing most of us believe in is the rule of law. We do not trust our government or the people we have elected but our constitution is still very much alive and we choose to believe that destiny has placed Patrick Fitzgerald at this time and this place in our history to save us from the people we elected. If the law cannot get to the truth of what has happened to the American people under the Bush administration, then we all may begin to hear the early death rattles of history's greatest democracy.
Fortunately, there are good signs. Fitzgerald has reportedly asked for a copy of the Italian government's investigation into the break-in of the Niger embassy in Rome and the source of the forged documents. The blatantly fake papers, which purported to show that Saddam Hussein had cut a deal to get yellowcake uranium from Niger, turned up after a December 2001 meeting in Rome involving neo-con Michael Ledeen, Larry Franklin, Harold Rhodes, and Niccolo Pollari, the head of Italy's intelligence agency SISMI, and Antonio Martino, the Italian defense minister.
If Fitzgerald is examining the possibility that Ledeen was executing a plan to help his friend Karl Rove build a case for invading Iraq? Ledeen has long ties to Italian intelligence agency operatives and has spanned the globe to bring the world the constant variety of what he calls "creative destruction" to build democracies. He makes the other neo-cons appear passive. He brought the Reagan administration together with the Iranian arms dealer who dragged the country through Iran-Contra and shares with his close friend Karl Rove a personal obsession with Machiavelli. Ledeen, who is almost rabidly anti-Arab, famously told the Washington Post that Karl Rove told him, "Any time you have a good idea, tell me."
The federal grand jury has to at least consider whether Ledeen called Rove with an idea to use his contacts with the Italian CIA to hatch a plan to create the rationale for war. Ledeen told radio interviewer Ian Masters and his producer Louis Vandenberg, "I have absolutely no connection to the Niger documents, have never even seen them. I did not work on them, never handled them, know virtually nothing about them, don't think I ever wrote or said anything about the subject." It is strictly coincidence then that some months after he and his neo-con consorts and Italian intelligence officers met in Rome that the Niger embassy was illegally entered and nothing was stolen other than letterhead and seals. And equally coincident that forged papers under those letterheads were slipped to Elisabetta Burba, a writer for an Italian glossy owned by Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister, and a backer of the Bush invasion scheme. Unfortunately for the pro-war neo-cons, even an Italian tabloid would not publish the fake documents and turned them over to the CIA and US government in Rome.
The other American attendees at Ledeen's Roman Holiday are also worthy of scrutiny. Larry Franklin was recently arrested for leaking classified US government information to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Ledeen sprang quickly to his defense but Franklin faces prosecution next year and is most probably cooperating with prosecutor Fitzgerald. Harold Rhode, the other American actor in this tragicomic affair, worked the Office of Special Plans (OSP) at the Department of Defense for Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Characterized as a "counter-intelligence shop," OSP simply interpreted intelligence in a manner that fit the need for evidence that Iraq had WMD. If the CIA gathered data that said otherwise, OSP analyzed it differently or ignored the facts and then reported to the vice president precisely what he wanted to hear. Rhode also was the liaison between Ahmed Chalabi, the convicted embezzler the Bush administration was using to feed information to them and Judy Miller about the distortions and lies required to fuel the rush to war.
No great extrapolation is necessary to assume that OSP, sitting inside the CIA, got early word that Joseph Wilson was being dispatched to Niger to investigate the sale of low-grade uranium to Iraq. Rhode needed only to pick up the phone and call the vice president's chief of staff Scooter Libby, who would tell his boss and Karl Rove. How hard is it for even Republicans to believe, at this point, that Rove is capable of launching a plan to discredit Wilson and punish him by exposing his wife? Rove and his boss were not simply in danger of losing the prime cause for the war; they faced an even graver political wound of being discovered as covert agents who defrauded the government and the public.
I have seen the spawn of Rove's tortured mind and watched a hundred of his political scams unfold and I am confident I know how this one played out. Rove might have brought it up with his fellow big brains in the White House Iraq Group, a propaganda organization set up to disseminate information supporting the war. There was likely a consensus to move the plan to smack down Wilson out of the White House. Rove always keeps a layer of operatives between himself and the person he gets to pull the trigger. Libby was probably told to manage it out of the VP's office to protect the president because Karl always takes care of his most prized assets. Libby then likely ordered John Hannah and possibly David Wurmser to call the ever-friendly Judy Miller at the New York Times and columnist Robert Novak to give them Valerie Plame's identity. Rove knew that Miller would call Libby of Aspen for confirmation and his old friend Novak was certain to call Rove who, as an unidentified senior White House official, would confirm the identity on background only. Because Novak is a partisan gunslinger, he wrote more quickly than Miller and when she saw the firestorm his story created, she backed off and has since been trying to cover for herself and Libby. Miller's later claim that she cannot remember who gave her the "Valerie Flame" name is as much dissembling as Rove's unconvincing argument that he "forgot" he met with Time reporter Matt Cooper. Karl Rove can remember precinct results from 19th century presidential elections. He neither forgets nor forgives.
There you have it, Mr. Prosecutor. To quote an unreconstructed former Republican presidential candidate, "You know it. I know it. And the American people know it." We expect you also to have sufficient evidence to prove all of this. There are many of us who are on the verge of losing faith in our democracy. We are convinced that there are people within the highest ramparts of American government who are willing to put our country at great risk to advance their geo-political vision. We want our country back. And all we have left is the power of the law. From what we know, you are the right man come forth at the right time.
Prove to us we still live in a democracy and a nation of laws.
Posted:
www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-moore/the-most-important-crimin_b_9183.html
- - - - - - - - - -
[For latest updates and links to Fitzgerald and related sites, see: FlybyNews.com]
2) Richard Sitcha - "My Way of the Cross"
My Way of the Cross
by Richard Sitcha
I am a 43-year-old man from Cameroon (coastal Central Africa) who fled my native country fearing for my life after helping to see the truth of the disappearance of 9 young Cameroonians (the Bepanda Nine ), killed by paramilitary governmental forces. I am married and father of 2 boys, have worked as assistant bailiff in a bailiff office. I was granted asylum in the U.S. in January 2003. I was working, peacefully awaiting my family to join me. But 9 months later, without having committed any crime, I was called again to the immigration court. The judge who d granted me asylum now revoked it because he did not believe my story any more. Despite an appeal pending, I was arrested in the courtroom and immediately sent to jail.
After ten days in Hartford County Jail, I was transferred to Osborn Correctional Facility, where I passed 7 months locked up 22 hours a day and sharing a cell with drug dealers and criminals, some sentenced to 25 years for murder. I was assaulted by one of them and spent three days in the psychiatric hospital. I was then transferred to Franklin County Jail in Greenfield MA. After one year, on March 31, 2005, I was transferred, along with 29 other immigrant detainees, to Plymouth County Correctional Facility. Upon arrival I was forced to spend a night, naked and without blanket, on the floor of a cold (AC) room. (It seemed I was being punished for responding to a booking officer that I did not know my size; actually I do not know the conversion of my size, height, weight, etc. from French into American.) The next day I was sent to the hole for refusing to cooperate . Although I was not found guilty after my hearing in front of the captain, I spent three weeks in the hole, locked up 23 hours a day. Fortunately, since mid-April, some of my supporters have been able to visit me from far away, one of them faithfully twice a week over this long time.
I was transferred several times, and then spent 5 months in one unit of general population. I never received my possessions (Bible, books, papers, documents, etc.) from Franklin (allegedly shipped to storage in Boston), but eventually was given a Bible and was able to attend Mass on Saturdays, I also initiated mid-day prayer gatherings with other detainees, each in his own language.
On September 24, 2005, for a second time, a criminal inmate (awaiting trial) came into my cell, punched me in the stomach, and threatened me, because I had asked him to give me back what he had borrowed from me two days earlier. I was saved because my cellmate called for a guard. Both my cellmate and I were moved to the hole for our security because other inmates might retaliate for our snitching. After three days in the hole, my cellmate was sent to another unit, while I received from a lieutenant a disciplinary report accusing me of threatening and fighting with another inmate. My cellmate who'd witnessed the entire scene, was gone . I went to the disciplinary hearing and was found not guilty. After three days I was released from the hole and sent to another unit, where I met again my former cellmate. As he is Haitian and speaks French, I was explaining to him in French what had happened to me after he left the hole. Another criminal inmate (also awaiting trial) told us he doesn't want us to speak any French because we are in America and must speak English. What will be the next step with my life being threatened by criminals?
I have already spent 25 months of my life in jail without having committed a crime. I am not a threat to national security nor a danger to any community. Rather I have done my best to help communities during my (previous) two years living and working in the United States.
I was a member of Saint Anne/Immaculate Conception Church in Hartford, where I was a leader, reader and singer in the French Mass. Beside my weekly contribution for church activities, I was contributing $50 a year for the Archbishop Annual Appeal of Hartford and $50 a year to the Fund for Retired Priests. I contributed $100 annually to Florida Foods Service Inc. to help nourish poor children in Central and South America.
I held a lecture in the French Department of Wesleyan University in Middletown CT to help students willing to do research about Africa. I helped one of them to achieve his thesis for graduation, which was very appreciated by his professors.
While in prison, I watched on TV the suffering of the victims of the tsunami and of Hurricane Katrina. I sent donations of $100 to UNICEF-USA (for tsunami victims) and $100 to the American Red Cross (for Katrina relief).
Shall my loving kindness be repaid with hatred?
I am responsible to my family; I miss them and haven t spoken to them for over two years. My father passed away while I was in prison. I understand that by US law, since I am not accused of any crime on American soil, and I entered legally and filed for asylum appropriately, the government is supposed to give me a reasonable amount of time to leave the country ( voluntary departure ). I have filed three motions for that -- so that I might be able to pack my belongings and go elsewhere, since my life would be in danger if I go back to my country -- but I never got an answer.
I want to take this opportunity to express my thanks and my gratitude to my church community and supporters in Hartford; parents, students and staff of the French Department, Wesleyan University, Middletown CT; churches and all my supporters of western Massachusetts, especially in the Greenfield area; all others in New York, California, Minnesota, Chicago IL, Maryland, Florida, etc. Your letters of comfort and encouragement, your signatures on my behalf, your financial support, your birthday cards, books you have sent to me, and especially your daily prayers have been an unprecedented thing during this crucial time in my life. I have felt and lived the hospitality, the heartfelt love of many American people. You are holding the spirit of the Founding Fathers of your nation. It is God's grace that I have known such wonderful people like you. You have filled up the emptiness of my family in America. Indeed we are today members of one family, the human family, God s family. I am not worthy to reward you, but God will do it.
May God bless all of you.
Love and Peace in Christ.
To contact Richard Sitcha, write to:
Sitcha Richard
#39823; DN1, #405;
Plymouth County Correctional Facility;
26 Long Pond Road; Plymouth, MA 02360
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - From the Sitcha Defense Committee
[Excerpts from its meeting on] October 2005 in Worcester.
Suzanne Carlson (Greenfield MA), Carl Doerner (Conway MA), Andrew Cohen (Cambridge MA),
Lorena Dutelle (E. Windsor CT), Albert Marceau (Hartford CT).
LEGAL UPDATE: In Fed. District Court in Hartford CT, the Government had moved to lift/vacate the Stay of Deportation (to clear RS for deportation). Even though Malik said the motion was "frivolous" (since the Real ID Act passed in May, they should maintain the stay for pending "habeas" cases), Malik and RS filed a motion to maintain the Stay of Deportation.
FLAG: Their motion indicates the Govt. has travel documents from Cameroon which would be valid to use for deportation.
The Real ID Act requires all habeas motions to be filed in the district where the case was decided - i.e. for RS that means Hartford, where we (with Malik, Carl and Albert) filed the habeas motion for Richard , pro se, in mid-May. The First Circuit (to which we had appealed Judge Ponsor's dismissal of RS's habeas petition in April) recently agreed to release the case, which leaves us only in the (more promising) Second Circuit, which is what we've been wanting and striving for since May. This means the Second Circuit Court of Appeal (actually in NY) would review the record on its legal merits (e.g. RS should have been, but was not given opportunity to cross-examine the government witness in the hearing that resulted in revocation of his asylum status).The tough news is that the courts are backed up and months more will pass before a decision is rendered. There will be no public appearances in this venue.
A petition to the Court of Appeals for a re-hearing of the case could end in rejection of his bid, with the next appeal to the Supreme Court. That court would almost certainly not set his case for argument. Most are rejected. If RS has a favorable result in Ist District appellate court, this would be a remanding of the case back down to BIA (Bureau of Immigration Appeals), then to the immigration court, at which time the merits of his case would again be argued in open court in Hartford. We would want and could likely find and hire an attorney, have one appointed by the court, or find one pro bono to handle these arguments. (The reason for hope the appellate court will so rule, and the BIA grant him asylum, is that his asylum was reversed on the basis of hearsay.)
For more information or to get involved, contact:
Sitcha Defense Committee
P.O. Box 1263; Greenfield MA 01302
Suzanne Carlson, (413) 774-2112, suzannec@crocker.com; Lorena Dutelle, lorenadutelle@yahoo.com;
Andrew Cohen, acohen@wesleyan.edu; Carl Doerner, cdoerner@surfglobal.net; Albert Marceau, marceauaj@studentsccsu.edu
3) Bush Admin. Drops 'Bunker-Buster' Plan
By H. JOSEF HEBERT
The Associated Press
Tuesday, October 25, 2005; 10:58 PM
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has abandoned research into a nuclear "bunker-buster" warhead, deciding instead to pursue a similar device using conventional weaponry, a key Republican senator said Tuesday.
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said funding for the nuclear bunker-buster as part of the Energy Department's fiscal 2006 budget has been dropped at the department's request.
The nuclear bunker-buster had been the focus of intense debate in Congress, with opponents arguing that its development as a tactical nuclear weapon could add to nuclear proliferation.
An administration official, speaking on condition on anonymity because negotiations on the department's spending bill have not yet been completed, confirmed that a decision had been made to concentrate on a nonnuclear bunker-buster.
Administration officials have contended the country must try to develop a nuclear warhead that could destroy deeply buried targets including bunkers tunneled into solid rock. Potential adversaries increasingly are building hardened retreats deep beneath the earth, immune to conventional weapons, the officials said.
But Congress has been cool to the idea of a new nuclear warhead. The House blocked funding for the program, even though the Energy Department had requested only $4 million, scaling back earlier requests.
The Senate approved the $4 million, but a final decision was up to lawmakers working out a compromise between the House and Senate on the department's budget.
Domenici, chairman of the subcommittee that oversees DOE's budget, said the conferees had agreed to drop funding for the program at the request of the department's National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency that oversees nuclear weapons programs.
"The focus will now be with the Defense Department and its research into earth penetrating technology using conventional weaponry," Domenici said in a statement. The NNSA "indicated that this research should evolve around more conventional weapons rather than tactical nuclear devices," the senator said.
"This is a true victory for a more rational nuclear policy," said Stephen Young, a senior analyst for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nuclear nonproliferation advocacy group. "The proposed weapon, more than 70 times the size of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, would have caused unparalleled collateral damage."
Last April, a National Academy of Sciences panel concluded that an earth-penetrating nuclear device would likely cause the same casualties as a surface burst if the weapons are of the same size. Such a bomb could cause from several thousand to 1 million casualties, depending on its yield and location, according to the report requested by Congress.
At a congressional hearing earlier this year, NNSA chief Linton Brooks acknowledged there is no way to avoid significant fallout of radioactive debris from use of a bunker-buster warhead.
He said the administration never intended to suggest "that it was possible to have a bomb that penetrated far enough to trap all fallout. I don't believe the laws of physics will ever let that be true."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., one of Congress' most vocal opponents of the bunker-buster, has said the nuclear bunker-buster "sends the wrong signals to the rest of the world by reopening the nuclear door and beginning the testing and development of a new generation of nuclear weapons."
---------------------------------------------------------------
For a link to this article published by the Washington Post, see:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/25/AR2005102501712.html
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
HURRICANE Fitzgerald * Controlled Demolition
24 October 2005
"They that can give up essential liberty
to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin
1) The Coming HURRICANE Fitzgerald
- - Fitzgerald Launches Web Site
2) Griffin Seals Case for 9/11 WTC Demolition
Editor's Notes:
Item 1 is very important to understand, and to support the campaign for impeaching George W. Bush. More wars can continue, or we could have justice and peace. Likely the NY Times had one part of their chosen "quote of the day" correct. The assassination of Rafik al-Hariri, former Lebanese prime minister, was politically motivated, but then, the lies keep getting in the way of the full truth. The amassing of US troops on the Iraq/Syrian border, and how the assassination of this leader forced Syria to remove its troops from Lebanon, you can follow which countries benefits from this assassination. And now there are reports of fraud in the UN's sources for its investigation. But trumping all these circumstantial evidence of corruption is the case before the U.S. right now in the hands of Patrick J. Fitzgerald.. and you, who can unite to help impeach Bush
Following is the text of that NY Times 'quote of the day' Saturday, October 22nd:
'"The report strongly suggests that the politically motivated assassination could not have taken place without Syrian involvement." PRESIDENT BUSH, on a United Nations report on the assassination of Rafik al-Hariri, former Lebanese prime minister.'
Item 2 is an article following up on the thorough inquiry work of David Ray Griffin, and his astonishing but reasonable conclusion that the WTC buildings on 9/11/01 were brought down from the inside as a controlled demolition!
1) The Coming HURRICANE Fitzgerald
- - Fitzgerald Launches Web Site
The Coming HURRICANE Fitzgerald
From: "thepen_cc" < thepen_cc@yahoo.com >
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005
Subject: IMPEACH BUSH
AND ENTER THE "GUESS HOW MANY INDICTMENTS" POOL
As always we feature the action link first, this one to call for impeachment of George Bush
http://www.millionphonemarch.com/impeach.htm
There is a storm of historic proportions headed for the United States, one that will make Hurricane Wilma (also en route) look like a small splash in the pond by comparison. It's been building and gathering strength in the increasingly hot waters of the Special Counsel's office for almost two years, and in a matter of days it may lay waste to the entire political infrastructure of Washington, D.C., from one end to the other.
We start with the understanding that the crime of the century (so far) has taken place in Iraq. Lies and forged evidence duped the American people into waging preemptive war against a country that posed no threat to us -- all for the cynical and greedy purpose of enriching a handful of the Bush administration's closest cronies. In the process, over 100,000 people have been senselessly murdered and maimed, including many thousands of our own service people. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been looted from the treasuries of two countries, mostly our own. Even worse, many believe that the attack of 9/11 was not only foreseen by the inner circle of our government, but that orders for a deliberate "stand-down" allowed it to occur. Why? So that the horrific resulting tragedy would justify all that followed.
The magnitude of these crimes is so monumental that their perpetrators were obsessed with suppressing any evidence of it. They ruthlessly smeared all critics, purging and intimidating any dissenting voices. For them the treasonous acts of exposing (and thereby destroying) one of our most critical intelligence assets (a front company secretly working to prevent the spread of WMDs), were just another day's collateral damage. Having lied successfully for so long, having corrupted their mainstream corporate media lap dogs, and having made eunuchs of many in the "opposition" party, they considered themselves unassailable. Such arrogance has seldom been equaled. What they did not count on was Patrick Fitzgerald. The letter which appointed him as Special Counsel granted to him the "authority of the Attorney General . . . independent of the supervision or control of any officer of the Department."
Careful to confirm the extent of his mandate, he further inquired and was advised that "[It] is plenary and includes the authority to investigate and prosecute violations of any federal criminal laws related to the underlying alleged unauthorized disclosure, as well as federal crimes committed in the course of, and with intent to interfere with, your investigation, such as perjury, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, and intimidation of witnesses; to conduct appeals arising out of the matter being investigated and/or prosecuted . . ."
"Plenary" means "absolute and unqualified." In a word, Fitzgerald has all the power of the attorney general, the top law enforcement officer of the federal government himself, to pursue the facts wherever they may lead. It therefore appears he now possesses his own authority, and cannot be legally removed from his position, even by Bush. He has his own operating budget too, direct from the GAO. For the criminal purposes of the Bush administration, Patrick Fitzgerald is their worst nightmare come true. He is a career prosecutor with a reputation for being not only "frighteningly" brilliant but fearless, and with a driving passion for determining the truth, their most mortal enemy. Indeed, the fastest way to get Fitzgerald's fur up is to try to lie to him as a witness. See, he's a workaholic already, and liars just make him work harder. And if you've committed a federal crime like maybe . . . oh gee, maybe like perjury . . . says an old attorney friend, "Pat Fitzgerald's gonna get ya." Oh, and did we mention that he always goes for the person at the top of the conspiracy?
For those who are still trying to get their minds around the possible indictment of Rove and Libby, now a near certainty, consider that no one in the Bush camp is capable of telling the truth under any circumstances. As for Bush himself, one of his Harvard Business School professors said that Dubya was "famous" in his class for being a "pathological" liar. Bush has known all along who the leakers were, and he's been lying all along.
Fitzgerald interviewed Bush for over an hour, and it's unlikely that he told the truth in any respect. Bad move, George. Fitzie don't play that.
But wait, you say; that interview wasn't under oath. Try telling that to Martha Stewart who just got out of prison from her conviction for deceiving an investigator. Likewise with Dick Cheney. Even if two of his bag men had not cut deals with Fitzgerald already. And as for those who did testify untruthfully to the grand jury under oath, ask Li'l Kim what heinous lie she told to keep her in federal prison for a year. All she did was deny that she knew somebody that she did, in fact, know.
So let's put it together. We have a president who seems unable to tell the truth. We have an independent prosecutor of immaculate integrity who will not tolerate a lie. The INESCAPABLE conclusion is that Bush will be indicted, along with each and every member of his administration who participated in this. There has been talk on the web of 22 indictments. Rove and Libby -- (that's two), add two for Hannah and Wurmser (already cooperating but not given immunity), plus Bush and Cheney -- that gets us up to six . . . why don't we just say conservatively for the purposes of the pool that 12 people will be indicted.
Besides perjury (and false statements), Fitzgerald has conspiracy and obstruction of justice to pick from as well, and those are just a couple of the technical crimes. Remember that he has the authority to pursue this investigation wherever it leads, and he is driven to do just that. He was born for this. Among other things, he requested from the Italian authorities the files on the forging of the Niger documents themselves. That was what Joe Wilson's trip was all about. And why they were so compelled to "out" his wife in the first place in their clumsy attempt to discredit him. What do you think the chances are that the most zealous prosecutor they could have appointed won't get to the bottom of that one, too? He may even expose what really happened on 9/11. Wouldn't that be the "coup de grace"?
So what happens next? What happens if Bush tries to preemptively pardon everyone, INCLUDING himself? Even Nixon wasn't that shameless. But don't put it past Bush to trigger the greatest constitutional crisis of all time. There are a couple of wrinkles involved here, beyond even the public outroar that would result. The constitution states that the president has the power to pardon "except in Cases of Impeachment." That's why it is important that you act now to demand the impeachment of Bush for all the high crimes and misdemeanors that he has committed already. In the end it may be the only way to restrain him.
TAKE ACTION NOW AT
http://www.millionphonemarch.com/impeach.htm
If Bush tries to pardon himself AND cling to power, expect winds of historic intensity for change. And in the center of it all there will be a vacuum of power. For those politicians who have shown no courage so far, this will be their last chance! Don't be surprised to see the conspirators running to Roberts, their latest crony appointment, to try to find a way out. And eternal shame on any member of the senate who lets that one slide without demanding each and every document that could help reveal the truth.
Forward this to everyone you know, and encourage its posting
on blogs and websites.
originally posted by The Pen to FlybyNews
Posted also at Opednews:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_thepen_051022_the_coming_hurricane.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Fitzgerald Launches Web Site
For an October 21st Washington Post article, see:
Fitzgerald LaunchesWeb Site
For a direct link to the new web site, see:
US Department of Justice - Patrick J. Fitzgerald - Office of Special Counsel
2) Griffin Seals Case for 9/11 WTC Demolition
Calls on NY Times to End Coverup
Theologian Says Controlled Demolition is Now a Fact, Not a Theory
In two speeches to overflow crowds in New York last weekend, notable theologian David Ray Griffin argued that recently revealed evidence seals the case that the Twin Towers and WTC-7 were destroyed by controlled demolition with explosives. Despite the many enduring mysteries of the 9/11 attacks, Dr. Griffin concluded, "It is already possible to know, beyond a reasonable doubt, one very important thing: the destruction of the World Trade Center was an inside job, orchestrated by terrorists within our own government."
On Oct. 15th and 16th, New Yorkers filled two venues to hear the prominent theologian and author of two books on 9/11 give a presentation entitled "The Destruction of the Trade Towers: A Christian Theologian Speaks Out." Dr. Griffin has continued to blaze a trail of courage, leading where most media and elected officials have feared to tread. His presentation went straight to the core of one of the most powerful indictments of the official story, the collapse of the towers and WTC 7.
Dr. Griffin included excerpts from the firemen's tapes which were recently released as a result of a prolonged court battle led by victim's families represented by attorney Norman Siegel and reported in the NY Times. He also included statements by many witnesses. These sources gave ample testimony giving evidence of explosions going off in the buildings. A 12 minute film was shown for the audiences, who saw for themselves the undeniable evidence for controlled demolition.
Dr. Griffin listed ten characteristics of the collapses which all indicate that the buildings did not fall due to being struck by planes or the ensuing fires. He explained the buildings fell suddenly without any indication of collapse. They fell straight into their own footprint at free-fall speed, meeting virtually no resistance as they fell--a physical impossibility unless all vertical support was being progressively removed by explosives severing the core columns. The towers were built to withstand the impact of a Boeing 707 and 160 mile per hour winds, and nothing about the plane crashes or ensuing fires gave any indication of causing the kind of damage that would be necessary to trigger even a partial or progressive collapse, much less the shredding of the buildings into dust and fragments that could drop at free-fall speed.
The massive core columns--the most significant structural feature of the buildings, whose very existence is denied in the official 9/11 Commission Report--were severed into uniform 30 foot sections, just right for the 30-foot trucks used to remove them quickly before a real investigation could transpire. There was a volcanic-like dust cloud from the concrete being pulverized, and no physical mechanism other than explosives can begin to explain how so much of the buildings' concrete was rendered into extremely fine dust.
The debris was ejected horizontally several hundred feet in huge fan shaped plumes stretching in all directions, with telltale "squibs" following the path of the explosives downward. These are all facts that have been avoided by mainstream and even most of the alternative media. Again, these are characteristics of the kind of controlled demolitions that news people and firefighters were describing on the morning of 9/11. Those multiple first-person descriptions of controlled demolition were hidden away for almost four years by the City of New York until a lawsuit finally forced the city to release them. Dr. Griffin's study of these accounts has led him beyond his earlier questioning of the official story of the collapses, to his above-quoted conclusion: The destruction of the three WTC buildings with explosives by US government terrorists is no longer a hypothesis, but a fact that has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
It's important to note that Dr. Griffin is one of many prominent intellectuals--including the likes of Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn, Peter Dale Scott, Richard Falk, Paul Craig Roberts, Morgan Reynolds and Peter Phillips--who have seen through the major discrepancies of the official explanation of 9/11 and have risen to challenge it. These brave individuals represent the tip of an ever-growing iceberg of discreet 9/11 skeptics. Indeed, 9/11 skepticism appears to be almost universal among intellectuals who have examined the evidence, since there has not yet been a single serious attempt to refute the case developed by Dr. Griffin and such like-minded thinkers as Nafeez Ahmed and Mike Ruppert. As for the general public, polls have shown that a strong majority of Canadians (63%, Toronto Star, May '04) and half of New Yorkers (Zogby, August 2004) agree that top US leaders conspired to murder nearly 3,000 Americans on 9/11/01.
How, then, can the mainstream US media continue to ignore the story of the century? Perhaps the best answer was given by Dr. Griffin himself in the conclusion of his talk, and is worth quoting at length:
"The evidence for this conclusion (that 9/11 was an inside job) has thus far been largely ignored by the mainstream press, perhaps under the guise of obeying President Bush's advice not to tolerate "outrageous conspiracy theories." We have seen, however, that it is the Bush administration's conspiracy theory that is the outrageous one, because it is violently contradicted by numerous facts, including some basic laws of physics.
"There is, of course, another reason why the mainstream press has not pointed out these contradictions. As a recent letter to the Los Angeles Times said:
"'The number of contradictions in the official version of . . . 9/11 is so overwhelming that . . . it simply cannot be believed. Yet . . . the official version cannot be abandoned because the implication of rejecting it is far too disturbing: that we are subject to a government conspiracy of X-Files' proportions and insidiousness.'
"The implications are indeed disturbing. Many people who know or at least suspect the truth about 9/11 probably believe that revealing it would be so disturbing to the American psyche, the American form of government, and global stability that it is better to pretend to believe the official version. I would suggest, however, that any merit this argument may have had earlier has been overcome by more recent events and realizations. Far more devastating to the American psyche, the American form of government, and the world as a whole will be the continued rule of those who brought us 9/11, because the values reflected in that horrendous event have been reflected in the Bush administration's lies to justify the attack on Iraq, its disregard for environmental science and the Bill of Rights, its criminal negligence both before and after Katrina, and now its apparent plan not only to weaponize space but also to authorize the use of nuclear weapons in a preemptive strike.
" In light of this situation and the facts discussed in this lecture---as well as dozens of more problems in the official account of 9/11 discussed elsewhere---I call on the New York Times to take the lead in finally exposing to the American people and the world the truth about 9/11. Taking the lead on such a story will, of course, involve enormous risks. But if there is any news organization with the power, the prestige, and the credibility to break this story, it is the Times. It performed yeoman service in getting the 9/11 oral histories released. But now the welfare of our republic and perhaps even the survival of our civilization depend on getting the truth about 9/11 exposed. I am calling on the Times to rise to the occasion.
Dr. Griffin's speech given at the University of Wisconsin earlier this year, entitled "9/11 and the American Empire," was broadcast twice on C-SPAN. In late September Dr. Griffin was asked to give expert testimony at hearings sponsored by Cynthia McKinney and the Congressional Black Caucus investigating the 9/11 Commission Report. He is currently Professor Emeritus at Claremont College in California.
Kevin Barrett
Coordinator, MUJCA-NET: http://mujca.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Truth Behind 9/11 and American Empire:
A Christian Theologian Speaks Out
For a recommended DVD film
to present, share, raise consciousness,
and for transcript of the April, 18, 2005
address by David Ray Griffin, broadcast
by C-span cable TV on April 30, 2005), see:
9/11 and the American Empire:
How Should Religious People Respond?
For more on this subject from FN Archives, see:
"The Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports"
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Leak Cover-up * 9/11 WhistleBlowers * Sonar Suit
21 October 2005
"In order to rally people, governments need enemies.
They want us to be afraid, to hate, so we will rally behind them.
And if they do not have a real enemy, they will invent one in order to mobilize us."
Thich Nhat Hanh
Vietnamese monk, activist and writer
1) Cover-Up Issue Is Seen as Focus in Leak Inquiry
- - Secrets, Evasions and Classified Reports
- - Cheney 'Cabal' hijacked foreign policy
- - Attack Syria? Invade Iran?: What Gives Them the Right?
- - U.S. intelligence reports Miers as deep-cover' foreign operative
2) The 9/11 Whistle-Blowers and the Cover-Up
- - 9-11 crash victim Barbara Olson arrested in Europe?
- - Peak Oil is a Corrupt Globalist Scam
3) US Navy sued over dolphin-stranding sonar!
Editor's Notes:
This issue covers ground in exposing cover-ups that make Iran-Contra look mellow. The turnaround of rapid pulse earth shaking unprecedented news is almost becoming routine, yet human treachery is at the root of causing the biggest problems. Yet the schemers are losing ground in keeping everyone in the dark. I know denial is pretty big these days, but eventually it can only go so far in the late hours of such a charade and madness of planet killing. The Internet has become the best ally to counter the government-media-military complex dis-ease.
In the second item, I wonder, is Barbara Olson a ghost? What times we are living through. Note the good news in item 3: "The US Navy is facing legal action from environmentalists over its use of sonar in routine training.. The Natural Defense Resources Council argues in a federal lawsuit that the sonar can cause injury and death to many marine mammals, and that the Navy is violating environmental law with its sonar use."
The benefit for Flyby News was a success on many levels, especially in the convergence of beautiful music, artists and friends, uniting and supporting Flyby News. Yet the audience numbers was dampened by intense rain storms, and heavy world news, and high fuel prices.. Yet, the venue and publicity generated made the event worthwhile in our long term goals of being a news resource and offering perspective for another seven years. And, as a recent feature about the benefit noted: "(Of course, now and then, wingnuttery becomes revolutionary science.)" Please support our campaigns and resources for independent news in the post Cassini flyby era.
Bumper Stickers for Flyby News
for the mainstream education drive
Free Independent News
www.FlybyNews.com
For Life's Survival In the 21st Century
To see a copy of the sunset 3-color sticker design, send an email to:
info@flybynews.com
We are seeking advance orders or commitments at $1 per sticker to raise $500
to print 1,000 of them; all proceeds for stickers used only for printing costs.
Please consider sending a check for $100 or any amount to:
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380; USA
{Please write in memo of check, if donation is for bumper stickers.}
Join discussions regarding information posted at Flyby News
(and view files, photos, and bumper sticker designs:}
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FlybyNews
(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/))(\o/)
The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction
is the first and only legitimate object of good government.
Thomas Jefferson
1) Cover-Up Issue Is Seen as Focus in Leak Inquiry
- - Secrets, Evasions and Classified Reports
- - Cheney 'Cabal' hijacked foreign policy
- - Attack Syria? Invade Iran?: What Gives Them the (Constitutional) Right?
- - U.S. intelligence reports Miers as deep-cover' foreign operative
Cover-Up Issue Is Seen as Focus in Leak Inquiry
By DAVID JOHNSTON
Published by the NY Times - October 21, 2005
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 - As he weighs whether to bring criminal charges in the C.I.A. leak case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special counsel, is focusing on whether Karl Rove, the senior White House adviser, and I. Lewis Libby Jr., chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, sought to conceal their actions and mislead prosecutors, lawyers involved in the case said Thursday.
Among the charges that Mr. Fitzgerald is considering are perjury, obstruction of justice and false statement - counts that suggest the prosecutor may believe the evidence presented in a 22-month grand jury inquiry shows that the two White House aides sought to cover up their actions, the lawyers said.
Mr. Rove and Mr. Libby have been advised that they may be in serious legal jeopardy, the lawyers said, but only this week has Mr. Fitzgerald begun to narrow the possible charges. The prosecutor has said he will not make up his mind about any charges until next week, government officials say.
With the term of the grand jury expiring in one week, though, some lawyers in the case said they were persuaded that Mr. Fitzgerald had all but made up his mind to seek indictments. None of the lawyers would speak on the record, citing the prosecutor's requests not to talk about the case.
Associates of Mr. Rove and Mr. Libby continued to express hope that the prosecutor would conclude that the evidence was too fragmentary and that it would be difficult to prove Mr. Rove or Mr. Libby had a clear-cut intention to misinform the grand jury. Lawyers for the two men declined to comment on their legal status.
The case has cast a cloud over the White House, as has the Congressional criticism over the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet E. Miers. On Thursday, responding to a reporter's question, Mr. Bush said: "There's some background noise here, a lot of chatter, a lot of speculation and opining. But the American people expect me to do my job, and I'm going to."
The possible violations under consideration by Mr. Fitzgerald are peripheral to the issue he was appointed in December 2003 to investigate: whether anyone in the administration broke a federal law that makes it a crime, under certain circumstances, to reveal the identity of a covert intelligence officer.
But Mr. Rove and Mr. Libby may not be the only people at risk. There may be others in the government who could be charged for violations of the disclosure law or of other statutes, like the espionage act, which makes it a crime to transmit classified information to people not authorized to receive it.
It is still not publicly known who first told the columnist Robert D. Novak the identity of the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson. Mr. Novak identified her in a column on July 14, 2003, using her maiden name, Valerie Plame. Mr. Fitzgerald knows the identity of this source, a person who is not believed to work at the White House, the lawyers said.
Article truncated, for the complete article, see:
www.nytimes.com/2005/10/21/politics/21leak.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Secrets, Evasions and Classified Reports
The CIA leak case isn't just about whether top officials will be indicted. A larger issue is what Judith Miller's evidence says about White House manipulation of the media
By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball
The lengthy account by New York Times reporter Judy Miller about her grand jury testimony in the CIA leak case inadvertently provides a revealing window into how the Bush administration manipulated journalists about intelligence on Iraq's nonexistent weapons of mass destruction.
For the complete article, see:
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10692.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Cheney 'Cabal' hijacked foreign policy
By Edward Alden in Washington
Vice-President Dick Cheney and a handful of others had hijacked the government's foreign policy apparatus, deciding in secret to carry out policies that had left the US weaker and more isolated in the world, the top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell claimed on Wednesday.
For this article, see:
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10684.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Attack Syria? Invade Iran?: What Gives Them the Right?
Attack Syria? Invade Iran?: What Gives Them the (Constitutional) Right?
By JEREMY BRECHER and BRENDAN SMITH
We've been here before. President Bush used trumped-up fears (like mushroom clouds over American cities) and frauds (like imaginary "yellowcake" uranium) to fool the American people into attacking Iraq. Now we and the Iraqi people are paying the price.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10694.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - U.S. intelligence reports Miers as deep-cover' foreign operative
by Tom Flocco
For this article, see:
www.tomflocco.com/fs/UsIntellReportsMiers.htm
2) The 9/11 Whistle-Blowers and the Cover-Up
- - 9-11 crash victim Barbara Olson arrested in Europe?
- - Peak Oil is a Corrupt Globalist Scam
The Big Wedding: 9/11, the Whistle-Blowers and the Cover-Up
Published by the Baltimore Chronicle on October 7, 2005
BOOK REVIEW:
Review by Russ Wellen
The Big Wedding: 9/11, the Whistle-Blowers and the Cover-Up
by Sander Hicks
Vox Pop, 2005
180 pages, $14.00
ISBN: 09752763
Includes Index, Over 100 Footnotes, and Bibliography
The term "conspiracy theory," with the image it invokes of a cabal of black-hearted men who convene on a regular basis to consolidate their power, reduces alternate history to a cartoon. By using it to discredit, however, journalists only reveal how inadequate their inability to untangle webs the powerful weave makes them feel.
One who's undaunted by the degree of difficulty is Sander Hicks, who endeavors to shed new light on events leading up to 9/11 mostly through meetings with, if not remarkable men, remarkable maniacs. In fact, his book, The Big Wedding, named after Al Qaeda code for 9/11, could just as easily be called "My Adventures Covering the Terror Beat."
The first portrait in his rogues' gallery is Randy Glass, an informant for an ATF/FBI terrorist sting. Pre-9/11, he dined out in Manhattan with a Pakistani arms dealer, who, gesturing toward the World Trade Center, exclaimed, "Those towers are coming down."
"The 9/11 Commission Report," Hicks concludes, "has topped the Warren Report...as the greatest cover-up of all time."
A State Department official told Glass they were aware of bin Laden's plans. But to keep Pakistani President Musharraf and his nuclear arsenal in their corner, they were banking on his guarantee that he could stop the attack. After all, as Hicks maintains, where Al Qaeda ends, Pakistan's ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) begins.
..After 9/11, Congress established the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund and appointed Kenneth Feinberg its special master. One of the few who opted out of the fund was 9/11 widow Ellen Mariani, who, instead, sued the entire administration.
For a story on her, Hicks conducted an interview with Feinberg that turned ugly. Perhaps, he thinks, there might be some truth to Mariani's claim that Feinberg's role was "to ensure all 9/11 families joined the fund to prevent any questions of....negligence on the part of [the] administration."
After then taking on Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff, he dissects the 9/11 Commission report. First he skewers each member of the panel, and then he details how the Commission either gave short shrift to 9/11's central questions or outright lied. For instance, the mujahadeens in Afghanistan "received little or no assistance from the United States."
Regarding one of the central questions of 9/11--how the terrorists knew to strike on the morning that NORAD, NEADS, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff were preoccupied with three different air defense drills--the Commission mentions only one of these exercises as an afterthought. "The 9/11 Commission Report," Hicks concludes, "has topped the Warren Report...as the greatest cover-up of all time."
As The Big Wedding nears its conclusion, Hicks shares his feelings about the 9/11 Truth Movement. Its tendency to become bogged down on issues like what struck the Pentagon, he posits, explains how "the term 'conspiracy theories' came to be shorthand for 'discredited whacko' in the invisible guidebook of mainstream media."
Meanwhile, he maintains, the idea that "terrorists with box cutters were able to defeat a $400 billion-a-year war machine" is as "kooky" a theory as any. Ending on a hopeful note, however, he calls for a whistle-blowers' conference.
In The Big Wedding, Sander Hicks has not only told some rollicking tales, but gone a long way to sorting out 9/11 alternate history. If more clear-eyed reporters like him pitched in, independent investigations into 9/11 would no longer be tarred with the conspiracy theory brush.
For the complete review, see:
http://baltimorechronicle.com/2005/100705Wellen.shtml
Russ Wellen 2005. Russ Wellen is an editor at Freezerbox.com.
Sander Hicks, an investigative journalist and independent publisher who started Soft Skull Press and Vox Pop/DKMC, has done reporting on 9/11 for the Long Island Press, INN World Report Television, and Guerrilla News Network.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 9-11 crash victim Barbara Olson arrested in Europe
For this article by Tom Flocco, see:
www.tomflocco.com/fs/OlsenArrested.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Peak Oil is a Corrupt Globalist Scam
by Steve Watson, Alex Jones & Paul Watson
October 04 2005
[EXCERPT]
They make the profits on creating artificial scarcity.
"Peak oil" is pure military-industrial-complex propaganda.
Publicly available CFR and Club of Rome strategy manuals from 30 years ago say that a global government needs to control the world population through neo-feudalism by creating artificial scarcity. Now that the social architects have de-industrialized the United States, they are going to blame our economic disintegration on lack of energy supplies.
Globalization is all about consolidation. Now that the world economy has become so centralized through the Globalists operations, they are going to continue to consolidate and blame it on the West's "evil" over-consumption of fossil fuels, while at the same time blocking the development and integration of renewable clean technologies.
In other words, Peak oil is a scam to create artificial scarcity and drive prices up. Meanwhile, alternative fuel technologies which have been around for decades are intentionally suppressed.
Peak oil is just another weapon the globalists have in their arsenal to move towards a new world order where the elite get richer and everyone else falls into line.
For the complete article, see:
http://prisonplanet.com/Pages/Oct05/041005oil.htm
3) US Navy sued over dolphin-stranding sonar!
US Navy sued over dolphin-stranding sonar
By Lucy Sherriff (lucy.sherriff at theregister.co.uk)
Published Thursday 20th October 2005 16:05 GMT
The US Navy is facing legal action from environmentalists over its use of sonar in routine training, according to reports. The Natural Defense Resources Council (NRDC) argues in a federal lawsuit that the sonar can cause injury and death to many marine mammals, and that the Navy is violating environmental law with its sonar use.
The NRDC says that mid-frequency sonar is behind mass strandings of whales and dolphins, and can cause internal bleeding in these mammals, Reuters reports. It also accuses the Navy of failing to take proper precautions to prevent injuring these animals.
The Navy, while not commenting specifically on the lawsuit, says its sonar use is critical to national defence, and is a vital part of its training programme. It added that it employs "scientifically-based protective measures" as part of a "comprehensive strategy for assessing the potential effects of its use of mid-range active sonar on marine mammals".
But the coalition of environmental groups would like the Navy to be more judicious in its use of the technology. In the suit, it asks the court to force the Navy to avoid migration routes, and to gradually increase the volume of radar, which it says would give animals in the area time to swim away.
"Military sonar needlessly threatens whole populations of whales and other marine animals," NRDC lawyer Joel Reynolds told Reuters. "In violation of our environmental laws, the Navy refuses to take basic precautions that could spare these majestic creatures. Now we're asking the courts to enforce those laws."
Source:
www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/20/dolphin_sonar/
Related stories
Dolphin assassins menace Gulf of Mexico (26 September 2005)
www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/26/dolphin_assassins_run_amok/
Greenies want limits on ocean sonar (9 June 2005)
www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/09/noise_pollution_slammed/
Cetacean community thwarted in Dubya sonar suit (21 October 2004)
www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/21/cetacean_suit_fails/
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For more resources from FN archives, see:
The harmful impact on Whales and Dolphins by the
U.S. Navy's experimental use of active sonar systems.
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Plame-Iraq-gate * Impeach * DU doctor * E-Vote?
14 October 2005
"To safeguard democracy the people must have a keen sense
of independence, self-respect, and their oneness."
- Mohandas K. Gandhi
1) Wall Street Journal - Plamegate Probe Widens
- - Poll: Americans Favor Bush's Impeachment If He Lied about Iraq
- - Ike Was Right About War Machine by Andy Rooney
2) The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium, and the Dying Children
- - Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant seeks 20-year extension
- - Radiation and Public Health Action and Organizations
3) Invisible Ballots, Confirming Democracy in Decline
- - The Police State Is Closer Than You Think
Editor's Notes:
Last Tuesday David Ray Griffin spoke before a capacity audience in a Church on Main Street. The "official" 9/11 Commission Report was exposed for what it is.. a sham. The Griffin talk was recorded by Brattleboro Community TV station.. David Griffin expects his next book will be ready for distribution in February, 2006. It's called: "The American Empire and a Better Possibility: A Political-Economic-Religious Statement."
This issue begins with a powerhouse article, which was published in the Wall Street Journal. This is another step from a rumor to actuality. Prosecutor Fitzgerald is taking real issues about justice into account. The article suggested that the CIA-Plame outing investigation will be expanded to what was behind it; an administration cooking up policy to make a war.. for oil and privatization-military interests. Following is on a poll where a growing majority would welcome Bush's Impeachment if he lied about Iraq. And, next, Andy Rooney hits a home run.. an essay about President Eisenhower's farewell-warning address on the military-industrial complex. Go for it, Andy!
Item two opens with a film I saw last Friday: "The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium, and the Dying Children." And yet it was not only sad, and horrific, but a human touch guided the movie for this doctor is a real human caring being. Next, be ready, Entergy Nuclear wants to keep Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant running for another 20 years after its current license expires in 2012. Can you imagine? The last subsection in this item contains resources and organizations to unite with to stop this threat.
Item 3 is a review on a film on vote fraud. And then an article on the groundwork for a Police State. Yet in the moment the future is born, and Friday night Flyby News will be rocking or sifting through the desert sand with MAWWAL, Jeff Martell, and John Coster and The Medicine Band. It is time to celebrate and support campaigns for integrity and freedom before it is too late! Check FlybyNews.com for details.
Choices are the hinges of destiny!
1) Wall Street Journal - Plamegate Probe Widens
- - Americans Favor Bush's Impeachment If He Lied about Iraq
- - Ike Was Right About War Machine by Andy Rooney
Wall Street Journal - Plamegate Probe Widens
Focus of CIA Leak Probe Appears to Widen
By JOHN D. MCKINNON, JOE HAGAN and ANNE MARIE SQUEO
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
October 12, 2005; Page A3
The New York Times reporter who went to jail to avoid testifying in the CIA leak case was quizzed by the special prosecutor again yesterday and has agreed to return to the grand jury today.
Judith Miller's additional testimony comes as the endgame is intensifying in the legal chess match that threatens to damage the Bush administration.
There are signs that prosecutors now are looking into contacts between administration officials and journalists that took place much earlier than previously thought. Earlier conversations are potentially significant, because that suggests the special prosecutor leading the investigation is exploring whether there was an effort within the administration at an early stage to develop and disseminate confidential information to the press that could undercut former Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife, Central Intelligence Agency official Valerie Plame.
Mr. Wilson had become a thorn in the Bush administration's side, as he sought to undermine the administration's claims that Iraq had sought to buy materials for building nuclear weapons from other countries, such as uranium "yellowcake" from Niger. Ultimately, his wife's name and identity were disclosed in a newspaper column, prompting the investigation into whether someone in the administration broke the law by revealing the identity of an undercover agent.
Ms. Miller, the Times reporter, was interviewed again yesterday to discuss conversations she had with I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the vice president's chief of staff. She testified on Sept. 30 before a grand jury about conversations she had with Mr. Libby in July 2003.
Since then, her lawyers have told Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor investigating the leak of the CIA agent's identity, that Ms. Miller's notes show that she also spoke with Mr. Libby in late June, information that was not previously given to the grand jury.
Mr. Fitzgerald's pursuit now suggests he might be investigating not a narrow case on the leaking of the agent's name, but perhaps a broader conspiracy.
Mr. Wilson's initial complaints were made privately to reporters. He went public in a July 6 op-ed in the New York Times and in an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press." After that, White House officials, who were attempting to discredit Mr. Wilson's claims, confirmed to some reporters that Mr. Wilson was married to a CIA official. Columnist Robert Novak published Mr. Wilson's wife's name and association with the agency in a column that suggested she had played a role in having him sent on a mission to Niger to investigate the administration's claims.
Until now, Mr. Fitzgerald appeared to be focusing on conversations between White House officials such as Mr. Libby and Karl Rove, President Bush's senior political adviser, after Mr. Wilson wrote his op-ed. The defense by Republican operatives has been that White House officials didn't name Ms. Plame, and that any discussion of her was in response to reporters' questions about Mr. Wilson, the kind of casual banter that occurs between sources and reporters.
Mr. Rove, who has already testified three times before the grand jury and was identified by a Time magazine reporter as a source for his story on Mr. Wilson, is expected to go back to the grand jury, potentially as early as today, to clarify earlier answers.
Lawyers familiar with the investigation believe that at least part of the outcome likely hangs on the inner workings of what has been dubbed the White House Iraq Group. Formed in August 2002, the group, which included Messrs. Rove and Libby, worked on setting strategy for selling the war in Iraq to the public in the months leading up to the March 2003 invasion. The group likely would have played a significant role in responding to Mr. Wilson's claims.
Given that the grand jury is set to expire on Oct. 28, it is possible charges in this case could come as early as next week. Former federal prosecutors say it is traditional not to wait for the last minute and run the risk of not having enough jurors to reach a quorum. There are 23 members of a grand jury, and 16 are needed for a quorum before any indictments could be voted on. This grand jury has traditionally met on Wednesdays and Fridays.
Since Ms. Miller first testified to the grand jury on Sept. 30, she has not published an article about her conversations with Mr. Libby in the New York Times, though she has given interviews to the paper and other media outlets. She hasn't publicly disclosed what she told the prosecutor.
In a memo to staffers yesterday, New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller confirmed that Ms. Miller would return to the grand jury "to supplement her earlier testimony," and noted that this means Ms. Miller is "not yet clear of legal jeopardy."
Mr. Keller had earlier said the paper would publish a full account of everything Ms. Miller knew, but her continuing legal exposure has prevented the Times from doing so. Mr. Keller said yesterday in his memo that once Ms. Miller's "obligations to the grand jury are fulfilled, we intend to write the most thorough story we can of her entanglement with the White House leak investigation."
URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB112907415441266084.html
Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Write to John D. McKinnon at john.mckinnon@wsj.com1, Joe Hagan at joe.hagan@wsj.com, Anne Marie Squeo at annemarie.squeo@wsj.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Americans Favor Bush's Impeachment If He Lied about Iraq
From AfterDowningStreet.org
For Immediate Release: October 11, 2005
Poll: Americans Favor Bush's Impeachment If He Lied about Iraq
By a margin of 50% to 44%, Americans say that President Bush should be impeached if he lied about the war in Iraq, according to a new poll commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org, a grassroots coalition that supports a Congressional investigation of President Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003.
The poll was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs, the highly-regarded non-partisan polling company. The poll interviewed 1,001 U.S. adults on October 8-9.
The poll found that 50% agreed with the statement:
"If President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him accountable by impeaching him."
44% disagreed, and 6% said they didn't know or declined to answer. The poll has a +/- 3.1% margin of error.
Those who agreed with the statement were also more passionate: 39% strongly agreed, while 30% strongly disagreed.
"The results of this poll are truly astonishing," said AfterDowningStreet.org co-founder Bob Fertik. "Bush's record-low approval ratings tell just half of the story, which is how much Americans oppose Bush's policies on Iraq and other issues. But this poll tells the other half of the story - that a solid plurality of Americans want Congress to consider removing Bush from the White House."
Impeachment Supported by Majorities of Many Groups
Responses varied by political party affiliation: 72% of Democrats favored impeachment, compared to 56% of Independents and 20% of Republicans.
Responses also varied by age and income. Solid majorities of those under age 55 (54%), as well as those with household incomes below $50,000 (57%), support impeachment.
Majorities favored impeachment in the Northeast (53%), West (51%), and even the South (50%).
For the entire press release, see:
www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3528
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Ike Was Right About War Machine by Andy Rooney
Oct. 2, 2005
(CBS) The following is a weekly 60 Minutes commentary by CBS News correspondent Andy Rooney.
I'm not really clear how much a billion dollars is but the United States our United States is spending $5.6 billion a month fighting this war in Iraq that we never should have gotten into.
We still have 139,000 soldiers in Iraq today.
Almost 2,000 Americans have died there. For what?
Now we have the hurricanes to pay for. One way our government pays for a lot of things is by borrowing from countries like China.
Another way the government is planning to pay for the war and the hurricane damage is by cutting spending for things like Medicare prescriptions, highway construction, farm payments, AMTRAK, National Public Radio and loans to graduate students. Do these sound like the things you'd like to cut back on to pay for Iraq?
I'll tell you where we ought to start saving: on our bloated military establishment.
We're paying for weapons we'll never use.
No other Country spends the kind of money we spend on our military. Last year Japan spent $42 billion. Italy spent $28 billion, Russia spent only $19 billion. The United States spent $455 billion.
We have 8,000 tanks for example. One Abrams tank costs 150 times as much as a Ford station wagon.
We have more than 10,000 nuclear weapons enough to destroy all of mankind.
We're spending $200 million a year on bullets alone. That's a lot of target practice. We have 1,155,000 enlisted men and women and 225,000 officers. One officer to tell every five enlisted soldier what to do. We have 40,000 colonels alone and 870 generals.
We had a great commander in WWII, Dwight Eisenhower. He became President and on leaving the White House in 1961, he said this: "We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. "
Well, Ike was right. That's just what's happened.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Andy Rooney MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/30/60minutes/main892398.shtml
2) The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium, and the Dying Children
- - Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant seeks 20-year extension
- - Radiation and Public Health Action and Organizations
The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium, and the Dying Children
"The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium, and the Dying Children" is a documentary film by Freider Wagner and Valentin Thurn. This new, video just released by Ochoa-Wagner Produktion in 2004 in Germany, documents uranium contamination in Iraq following aerial bombardment and armored tank assaults by U.S. and allied forces. The story is told by citizens of many nations and opens with comments by two British vets, Kenny Duncan and Jenny Moore, describing their exposure to radioactive, so-called ?depleted? uranium (DU), weapons and the congenital abnormalities of their children."
International sales as well as television and theatrical showings are arranged through the international distributors. Contact Carlos Hertel, hertel@telepool.de at Telepool in Munich, Germany. www.telepool.de/mainweb/index.htm
This video is available for purchase (online or by mail) in the US
for private, home use only in VHS (ntsc) format. $30 includes shipping cost.
Traprock Peace Center has exclusive rights in the US for public,
non-theatrical showings. Contact Sunny Miller - 413-773-7427 -
To learn more, visit TraprockPeace.org: "The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium, and the Dying Children".
For more on this and other recommended FN films, see:
Films that Make a Difference!
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant seeks 20-year extension
It's official: Entergy Nuclear wants to keep Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant running for another 20 years after its current license expires.
In a brief, formal letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, reactor owner Entergy Nuclear said it would file an application for a license extension in January 2006 for Vermont Yankee and its larger sister plant, Pilgrim Nuclear in Massachusetts.
Vermont Yankee started operating in November 1972 with a federal, 40-year license. Its license expires in March 2012..
For the complete article, published by the Rutland Herald on October 12, see:
www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051012/NEWS/510120395/1003
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Radiation and Public Health Action and Organizations
The Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP) was established by scientists and physicians dedicated to understanding the relationships between low-level, nuclear radiation and public health. The RPHP "Tooth Fairy Project" "..grew out of the work of Dr. Jay Gould, Director of the Radiation and Public Health Project and author of The Enemy Within: The High Cost of Living Near Nuclear Reactors. By analyzing 50 years of US National Cancer Institute data, Dr. Gould proved that.of the 3,000-odd counties in the United States, women living in about 1,300 nuclear counties (located within 100 miles of a reactor) are at the greatest risk of dying of breast cancer.." Back in the days of the pre-Cassini-Earth flyby, a Letter of Concern by Dr. John W. Gofman provided ample evidence showing why there is no safe dose for alpha particles emitted by the radioactive decay of plutonium.. This concern has also been realized by the impact from the use of Depleted Uranium missile shells, which has caused much harm to soldiers and civilians, but especially to the young. For more on these issues, actions, and campaigns, visit these web sites: Nuclear Information and Resource Service, New England Coalition, Citizens Awareness Network, Traprock Peace Center, and The Radiation and Public Health Project
3) Invisible Ballots, Confirming Democracy in Decline
- - The Police State Is Closer Than You Think
Invisible Ballots, Confirming Our Worst Fears About Democracy in Decline
by Anthony Wade
opednews.com -
Re: invisibleballots.com
October 8, 2005
No matter how honest and forthright you or I may be, history has proven one inescapable truth about the human condition. Given motive and opportunity, many people will choose to take whatever short cut is available, to achieve their objectives. Translation, they will cheat. One of the hallmarks of our democracy has always been free and fair elections. That hallmark is in grave danger as we enter into a cyberspace method of voting. The documentary, "Invisible Ballots" investigates this growing crisis.
The history of these changes to our voting systems was birthed during the "pregnant chad" debacle following the 2000 presidential election. Images of people holding up punch cards to the light to interpret the intent of the voter frightened the electorate and the push toward computerized ballots was on. Invisible Ballots correctly points out however that Florida was an aberration, not a microcosm of our voting system. Nonetheless, soon an unholy alliance was born between voting machine companies and governmental officials, where ridiculously expensive voting machines were now being mandated in the country through the Help America Vote Act, which unfortunately does very little to actually protect America's votes. Thus, in just five years, we have gone from being unable to divine our votes, to being unable to trust them.
The people interviewed in the documentary are not partisan operatives, nor unreliable alarmists. They are real people, experts, PhDs, and computer programmers, who have lived these problems for years now, trying desperately to get the word out. They weave a compelling story about vote fraud and the vulnerability of our current systems.
Essentially there are two problems that can occur in any election. The first is error, as people are inherently human, and prone to mistakes. The second problem is fraud and as history has shown, it is a realistic concern. To not admit these two problems can and do exist in every election is simply inane.
..Do you want voting machines that accidentally lose 16,000 votes? Well, Diebold has now admitted that is exactly what happened to Al Gore in Florida in the 2000 election. Those 16,000 votes would mean this country would never have seen the Bush administration.
Article Truncated, for the complete review, see:
www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_by_antho_051008_invisible_ballots__c.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Police State Is Closer Than You Think
By Paul Craig Roberts
The hysterical aftermath of September 11 has put into place the main components of a police state.
Habeas corpus is the greatest protection Americans have against a police state. Habeas corpus ensures that Americans can only be detained by law. They must be charged with offenses, given access to attorneys, and brought to trial. Habeas corpus prevents the despotic practice of picking up a person and holding him indefinitely.
President Bush claims the power to set aside habeas corpus and to dispense with warrants for arrest and with procedures that guarantee court appearance and trial without undue delay. Today in the US, the executive branch claims the power to arrest a citizen on its own initiative and hold the citizen indefinitely. Thus, Americans are no longer protected from arbitrary arrest and indefinite detention.
These new "seize and hold" powers strip the accused of the protective aspects of law and give rein to selectivity and arbitrariness. No warrant is required for arrest, no charges have to be presented before a judge, and no case has to be put before a jury. As the police are unaccountable, whoever is selected for arrest is at the mercy of arbitrariness.
Article truncated, for the complete article, see:
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10564.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Dr. Roberts paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com is John M. Olin Fellow at the Institute for Political Economy and Research Fellow at the Independent Institute. He is a former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, former contributing editor for National Review, and a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury. He is the co-author of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.
Flyby News Support
To support actions and campaigns please consider sending a check
of any amount made payable to Flyby News. {For donations of $10
or more ~ we will send you a flybynews.com bumper sticker }
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading and supporting independent news.
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
US/UK-terror-link * Kucinich-Sitcha * Celebration
09 October 2005
"Peace cannot be achieved through violence;
it can only be attained through understanding."
-- Albert Einstein
1) British and American leaders likened to Nazi war criminals
- - ‘MI6 recruited Muslim Extremists for Terror'
- - Plamegate Noose Tightens at the White House
- - Bush claimed God told him to invade Iraq, Afghanistan
- - US Senate okays $50-billion more for wars
2) Noam Chomsky - Gatekeeper of Political Left?
3) Dennis J. Kucinich and the Richard Sitcha Connection
4) A Night of Celebration for Independent Flyby News
Editor's Notes:
Top in today's notes is a reminder on this Tuesday's David Ray Griffin talk on 9/11 and the American Empire. This will be at four locations in Vermont, beginning in Brattleboro. Please note that Bart Jordan will not be attending the Griffin presentation due a physical problem. This will delay his paper on an advanced unified mathematical system, which he deciphered from ancient languages. The timing for the distribution of this new posting (that will knock the socks off the scientific community) will be in November-December, 2005.
The first item in this issue is an article about Scott Ritter's statements that British and American leaders can be likened to Nazi war criminals. The subsections give additional references for such an opinion. Item two takes a critical look at Noam Chomsky. Item three is a letter from Dennis Kucinich regarding Richard Sitcha. Last September 18th marked the second year that Richard has had to endure prison for no crime committed, except from the vantage point of post 9/11 abusive lawmaking. My last letter and enclosures to Richard Sitcha were returned - no explanation. We will keep you informed on the case of this human-rights-defender.
Item four is on the music dance celebration event at the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton MA. This will be a special night. John Coster was interviewed on Valley Folk (October 8) on WFCR in Amherst, MA. Such support from John Coster and The Medicine Band, MAWWAL, Jeff Martell, and others, is in itself a powerful message uniting with independent news outside of corporate-fear-political control.
"We must ensure that the Internet remains open and accessible
to all citizens without any limitation on the ability of
individuals to choose the content . . . We cannot take this
future for granted. We must be prepared to fight for it
because some of the same forces of corporate consolidation
and control that have distorted the television marketplace
have an interest in controlling the Internet marketplace as
well. Far too much is at stake to ever allow that to happen."
- Al Gore
06 October 2005
at Media Conference
1) British and American leaders likened to Nazi war criminals
- - ‘MI6 recruited Muslim Extremists for Terror'
- - Plamegate Noose Tightens at the White House
- - Bush claimed God told him to invade Iraq, Afghanistan
- - US Senate okays $50-billion more for wars
British and American leaders likened to Nazi war criminals
By Andrew Sparrow, Political Correspondent
10/08/05 "The Telegraph" -- -- Tony Blair and George Bush were compared to Nazi war criminals yesterday by Scott Ritter, the former UN chief weapons inspector.
"Both these men could be pulled up as war criminals for engaging in actions that we condemned Germany in 1946 for doing," he said.
He said the Prime Minister and the US President were "guilty of the crime of planning and committing aggressive warfare". Speaking in London at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Mr Ritter said the two leaders would have been in a much stronger position if they had got a UN resolution explicitly authorising the invasion.
He also said Britain gained very little from the "special relationship". "Britain gets nothing, other than to say they are America's closest ally in Europe," he said.
Mr Ritter, who was a UN weapons inspector in Iraq between 1991 and 1998, said intelligence services had been correct to say that Iraq's missile programme had been destroyed soon after the first Gulf conflict of 1991.
He recalled how he delivered a report in 1992 stating that the programme had been eliminated. It was met with "stony silence" and he was told that Iraq still possessed 200 missiles.
The inspectors returned to track down the weapons, which never materialised.
Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/10/08/nazi08.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/10/08/ixworld.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - ‘MI6 recruited Muslim Extremists for Terror'
Michael Meacher's claim that MI6 recruited Muslim Extremists for Terror Training
Commentary From: "John Spritzler" < spritzler@comcast.net >
Dear Friends, There's a standing argument over whether the Bush administration merely knew in advance about the 9/11 attack and failed to take action to protect Americans, or whether they actually planned the attack. The premise of this argument is, implicitly, that the Bush administration had no connection with Muslim terrorists so that if the latter planned 9/11 then the Bush administration did not, and vice versa.
But articles like the one below suggest that the relationship - between Muslim terrorists and US/UK intelligence agencies - is so close and intimate that they may both have been jointly involved in orchestrating 9/11.
In Profits of War, former Israeli Military Intelligence agent Ari Ben-Menashe describes how Israeli MI orchestrated the 1985 "Palestinian" attack on the cruise ship Achille Lauro (killing an elderly Jewish man in a wheelchair and throwing him overboard) by using middle men to convince the actual perpetrators that they were working for a Palestinian group.
These guys are devious as hell.
John
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Britain recruited terrorists, Meacher claims
Published: 30th September 2005 The Asian News .co.uk
AN astonishing claim that M16 recruited Muslim extremists in Britain for terror training abroad has been made by Oldham MP and former cabinet minister Michael Meacher.
Mr Meacher also suggest that a British Muslim held under sentenced of death in Pakistan for beheading a US journalist is being kept alive because he was a British double agent.
The Oldham West and Royton MP makes these sensational claims in an article for Asian News' sister paper, The Guardian.
The former Environment Secretary claims that Britain's 'overseas' security organisation, M16, set about recruiting UK Muslims directing them to support US efforts to overthrow communist governments in Afghanistan and Yugoslavia. He highlights a Delhi-based research foundation that estimates anything up to 200 UK Muslims could have undergone training in overseas terrorist camps under the protection of the Pakistani secret service, the ISI, who were backing the armed Islamic insurrection against the Afghan communist regime and its Soviet backers.
First published by the Asian News
www.theasiannews.co.uk/news/s/204/204612_britain__recruited_terrorists_meacher_claims.html
also posted:
www.rense.com/general67/MPmichaelmeecher.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Plamegate Noose Tightens at the White House
Remember the Memo
By Michael Tomasky
The Prospect
Monday 03 October 2005
As the noose tightens at the White House, the State Department memo may be the key piece of Plame evidence.
Think it's fair to say that the combination Sunday of the Walter Pincus-Jim VandeHei piece in The Washington Post and George Stephanopoulos' bombshell on television's This Week felt like a tug on the noose around the White House's neck?
The Post article noted that Patrick Fitzgerald, the prosecutor looking into the Valerie Plame investigation, could bring conspiracy indictments against Karl Rove and Scooter Libby - even if he fails to pin down evidence that they violated the Intelligence Identities Protection Act.
Stephanopoulos did them one better: He said to George Will on This Week that a source told him that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney "were actually involved in some of the discussions" about how the White House should deal with Joe Wilson and Plame, his wife.
OK, before we go any further, let's pinch ourselves: I still think it will be awfully difficult for Fitzgerald to bring indictments against high-level officials. Bureaucratic layering is such that high officials typically have five or six degrees of separation from controversial actions, so that they can say "my hands were clean" and some underling the media have never heard of can take the fall.
But the argument against all my buts is the memo.
You are probably familiar with the memo story, which The New York Times broke in mid-July. The Times published Joe Wilson's op-ed on July 6, 2003. By the next day, as he was getting aboard Air Force One to travel with the president to Africa, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell had the key memo in his hand.
The memo, prepared the previous month, was chiefly about the State Department's skepticism that Saddam Hussein had obtained uranium from Niger. But one paragraph, marked "S" for secret, included Plame's name, although it did not specifically identify her as a covert operative. (For the record, Rove's attorney has maintained that Rove never saw the memo until Fitzgerald's office showed it to him.)
To quote from a Washington Post piece by VandeHei and Mike Allen from July 16: "A key mystery in the leak case is how senior administration officials first learned of Plame's identity and her relationship to a key critic of President Bush's Iraq policy, before her name appeared in news reports." One of Fitzgerald's earliest moves was to subpoena phone records from that Air Force One trip.
Bush, of course, was on that plane. It hardly stretches credulity to think that Powell showed his boss the memo - if not because of the Plame mention then because the memo stated his department's view that Wilson's trip had been unnecessary to begin with because the State Department's internal probe had already shown that the Iraq-Niger connection was a fabrication.
And this, I suspect, is where Stephanopoulos' source circles back in to the story. If Bush saw that memo seven days before Novak's story appeared, might Bush himself have been involved in discussions about Wilson and Plame?
Again, there's usually insulation built in between higher-ups, especially the president, and any decision or action that might remotely be considered controversial. And, again, I still think the likelihood of high-level prosecutions is less than 50 percent. But if those prosecutions come, the State Department memo will likely be a key document.
For the complete article, see
www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10375
also posted:
www.truthout.org/docs_2005/100505Y.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush claimed God told him to invade Iraq, Afghanistan
BBC Thu Oct 6, 6:05 PM ET
US President George W. Bush allegedly said God told him to invade Iraq
and Afghanistan, a new BBC documentary will reveal, according to details.
Bush made the claim when he met Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and then foreign minister Nabil Shaath in June 2003, the ministers told the documentary series to be broadcast in Britain later this month.
The US leader also told them he had been ordered by God to create a Palestinian state, the ministers said.
Shaath, now the Palestinian information minister, said: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God.
'God would tell me, 'George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan'.'
"And I did, and then God would tell me, 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq...' And I did.
"'And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, 'Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.' And by God I'm gonna do it'," said Shaath.
Abbas, who was also at the meeting in the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh, recalled how the president told him: "I have a moral and religious obligation.
"So I will get you a Palestinian state."
A BBC spokesman said the content of the programme had been put to the White House but it had refused to comment on a private conversation.
The three-part series, "Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs", charts the attempts to bring peace to the Middle East, from former US president Bill Clinton's peace talks in 1999-2000 to Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza strip.
The programme speaks to presidents and prime ministers, their generals and ministers, about what happened behind closed doors as the peace talks failed and the intifada grew.
The series is due to be screened in Britain on October 10, 17 and 24.
Copyright 2005 Agence France Presse
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051006/ts_alt_afp/mideastbritainusiraq_051006214432
- - - - - - - - - - -
For a related article, see: "Bush: God Told Me to Invade Iraq"
Published October 7, 2005 by The Independent
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - US Senate okays $50-billion more for wars
The U.S. Senate voted Friday to give U.S. $50-billion more for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and U.S. military efforts against [for] terrorism, money that would push total spending for the operations beyond $350-billion.
www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051007.wspend1007/BNStory/International/
2) Noam Chomsky - Gatekeeper of Political Left?
NOAM CHOMSKY:
CONTROLLED ASSET OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER
by "anonymous"
"Resistance is feasible even for those who are not heroes by nature,
and it is an obligation, I believe, for those who fear the consequences
and detest the reality of the attempt to impose American hegemony."
Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky is often hailed as America's premier dissident intellectual, a fearless purveyor of truth fighting against media propaganda, murderous U.S. foreign policy, and the crimes of profit-hungry transnational corporations.
He enjoys a slavish cult-like following from millions leftist students, journalists, and activists worldwide who fawn over his dense books as if they were scripture. To them, Chomsky is the supreme deity, a priestly master whose logic cannot be questioned.
However as one begins to examine the interviews and writings of Chomsky, a different picture emerges. His books, so vociferously lauded in leftist circles, appear to be calculated disinformation designed to distract and confuse honest activists. Since the 1960's, Chomsky has acted as the premier Left gatekeeper, using his elevated status to cover up the major crimes of the global elite.
His formula over the years has stayed consistent: blame "America" and "corporations" while failing to examine the hidden Globalist overclass which pulls the strings, using the U.S. as an engine of creation and destruction. Then after pinning all the worlds ills on American imperialism, Chomsky offers the solution of world government under the United Nations.
In his book "The Conspirator's Hierarchy," Dr. John Coleman named Chomsky as a deep cover CIA agent working to undermine social protest groups. Certainly Dr. Coleman's claims appear validated by an honest review of Chomsky's role as a Left gatekeeper.
Since 9-11, he has steadfastly refused to discuss the evidence of government complicity and prior knowledge. Furthermore he claims that the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Bilderberg Committee, and Trilateral Commission are "nothing organizations." When critiquing poverty, he never mentions the Federal Reserve and their role in manipulating the cycle of debt.
Similarly, he claims the CIA was never a rogue organization and is an innocent scapegoat; that JFK was killed by the lone assassin Lee Harvey Oswald; that the obvious vote fraud in 2004 did not occur; and that peak oil is real and good for humanity.
What he does advocate is population control, gun control, support for U.N.E.S.C.O., and the end of national sovereignty in favor of a one-world government under the UN. In other words, the major goals of the New World Order.
Chomsky's role in propaganda paradigm is much like that of Karl Marx: to present a false liberation ideology which actually supports the desired solutions of the elite. Marx pointed out the inequalities and brutality of capitalism and then advocated a one world bank, army, and government with the abolition of private property and religion; in other words, the major goals known of the New World Order.
Article Truncated, was originally posted at Rense but removed.
3) Dennis J. Kucinich and the Richard Sitcha Connection
From Dennis J. Kucinich
Congress of the United States
House of Representatives
1730 Longworth Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
29 August 2005
Dear Mr. Mark:
Thank you for contacting me regarding the case of Richard Sitcha. I appreciated hearing from you.
Richard Sitcha is a paralegal from Cameroon who worked on a controversial case, the "Bepanda 9," in which he assisted the families of nine youths who were disappeared by the secret police of Cameroon. It was discovered that the nine youths were executed based on orders from the government. For his work on this case, Sitcha was tortured and threatened with death by the secret police. Richard fled Cameroon for Hartford, Connecticut in early 2001.
On January 16, 2003, he was granted asylum in the United States. Then on September 18, 2003, he was summoned to court where his asylum was revoked on grounds that his information from Cameroon could not be corroborated. The U.S. government then endeavored to have Sitcha deported to Cameroon, where he may face more torture and possibly death. According to documents now on file, the inquiry into information from Cmeroon was made with either the wrong persons or witnesses under too much duress to freely speak.
Under former law, Sitcha would have been released pending appeal, but under post-9/11 regulations he was immediately jailed. Moreover, he was sent to the Connecticut maximum-security prison, where he was housed with hardened criminals. Sitcha ended up being beaten so badly by his cellmate that he was hospitalized and put on suicide watch.
Please be assured that I will continue to monitor this situation and keep your thoughts in mind. Furthermore, please be assured that I have voted against legislation that harms genuine refugees from gaining asylum in the United States. For example, I voted against H.R. 418, the Real ID Act, offered by Rep. Sensenbrenner, because it would place an enormous and unnecessary burden on refugees to prove with unrealistic precision the exact reasons for their persecution.
Thank you again for contacting me. Please do not hesitate to contact me again in the future regarding this or any other issue of concern to you.
Sincerely,
[signed] Dennis J. Kucinich
Member of Congress
www.kucinich.house.gov
Flyby News Presents
A Night of Music & Celebration for Independent News
Friday ~ October 14th, 2005 ~ 9:30 pm
Iron Horse Music Hall; Northampton, MA
featuring
John Coster and The Medicine Band
MAWWAL
Jeff Martell
Advance Tickets $10; $15 at the door
~ For the Mainstream Education Drive ~
This benefit will help print FlybyNews.com bumper stickers
On Friday night, October 14th, at the acoustic friendly Iron Horse Music Hall,
there will be a night of music and celebration for independent news. Doors will
open at 9:30 and the music begins at 10:00 p.m. with MAWWAL, performing
original world fusion and arrangements of traditional Middle Eastern music.
Inventive vocal arrangements in English and Arabic weave through a Laouto
(Greek lute) and violin, augmented by traditional percussion (tabla, dumbek,
frame drum, riq) in what has been called a "new genre" by Progression Magazine.
Dancing is invited!
Publisher of Flyby News, Jonathan Mark will MC the event, and likely tell tales
not in the mainstream, but the main focus of this night is music and celebration.
Following an hour-long set with MAWWAL, singer/songwriter, Jeffrey Martell will perform
original tunes with driving guitar, harmonica and deep-down penetrating vocals and lyrics.
By around 11:30, be ready for the music of John Coster and The Medicine Band,
with original music outpouring a deep creativity, wonder, and journey into feelings.
John Coster and The Medicine Band will showcase music of the traditions of Cape
Breton, Irish, Scottish and American fiddling. John Coster has been an innovative
force in music in the Northeast for decades. The music will go to 1: 00 a.m.
Since the 1999 Cassini-Earth flyby, Flyby News has posted and distributed published
information over the Internet, and perspective. Reports have included on efforts for reclaiming
a lost USA democracy, responding to global warming, human rights violations, and exclusive
reports from Bart Jordan and evidence of technologically advanced ancient human civilizations..
This night will be like none other..
Flyby News Support
To support actions and campaigns please consider sending a check
of any amount made payable to Flyby News. {For donations of $10
or more ~ we will send you a flybynews.com art decal }
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading and supporting independent news.
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
HotStorms * EcoHit * BakerCarter * Chavez
27 September 2005
"The increased intensity of these kinds of extreme storms
is very likely to be due to global warming."
Referring to the arrival of Hurricane Rita: "If this makes
the climate loonies in the States realise we've got a problem,
some good will come out of a truly awful situation."
Sir John Lawton
chairman of the Royal Commission
on Environmental Pollution
1) This is Global Warming, Says Environmental Chief
- - Wes Clark Blog Invite - national security and global warming
2) The Economic Hit Man Story ~ John Perkins
- - An Ode to George Galloway
3) What Baker-Carter Got Right
- - PBS TV NewsHour interview with Carter-Baker
4) UN Speech by Venezuelan President Chavez
- - New Accounts of Torture by U.S. Troops
- - FBI Shots Dead Puerto Rican Nationalist Leader
- - Leonard Peltier Appeals Ruling
Editor's Notes:
You would think the climate loonies' would wake up and face the facts by now, but I guess that is what makes them so looney. Thank you Sir John Lawton for being direct. In the subsection of the first item, Wes Clark weighs in on the warming crisis, inviting you to participate in his blog. Item 2 is on John Perkins, a former economic hit man sharing his story with a purpose. In this item, too, an Ode to George Galloway. marks the refusal of the Senate to enter the Galloway Testimony into the Congressional Public Record.
Item 3 is on the Baker-Carter Commission on Election Reform. Maybe Jim Baker is backing a voter verifiable paper trail since he knows Bush will not really go for it. I am not alone in my skepticism, but check the transcript of the PBS NewsHour interview yourself. Note that Carter refers to the positive example of the voting system in Venezuela and Mexico.
Item 4 is on the UN Speech by Venezuelan President Chavez. Subsections include more accounts of torture by U.S. troops, a Democracy Now segment on the FBI shooting-death of a leader of the Puerto Rican Nationalist, and on the legal appeal of Leonard Peltier, seeking sovereignty, justice, human rights.
"Now is the time to not allow our hands to be idle
or our souls to rest until we save humanity."
-- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
September 15, 2005 ~ speech at UN
1) This is Global Warming, Says Environmental Chief
- - Wes Clark Blog Invite - national security and global warming
This is Global Warming, Says Environmental Chief
Published on September 23, 2005 by The Independent/UK
As Hurricane Rita Threatens Devastation, Scientist Blames Climate Change
by Michael McCarthy
Super-powerful hurricanes now hitting the United States are the "smoking gun" of global warming, one of Britain's leading scientists believes.
The growing violence of storms such as Katrina, which wrecked New Orleans, and Rita, now threatening Texas, is very probably caused by climate change, said Sir John Lawton, chairman of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. Hurricanes were getting more intense, just as computer models predicted they would, because of the rising temperature of the sea, he said. "The increased intensity of these kinds of extreme storms is very likely to be due to global warming."
In a series of outspoken comments - a thinly veiled attack on the Bush administration, Sir John hit out at neoconservatives in the US who still deny the reality of climate change.
Referring to the arrival of Hurricane Rita he said: "If this makes the climate loonies in the States realise we've got a problem, some good will come out of a truly awful situation." As he spoke, more than a million people were fleeing north away from the coast of Texas as Rita, one of the most intense storms on record, roared through the Gulf of Mexico. It will probably make landfall tonight or early tomorrow near Houston, America's fourth largest city and the centre of its oil industry. Highways leading inland from Houston were clogged with traffic for up to 100 miles north.
Asked what conclusion the Bush administration should draw from two hurricanes of such high intensity hitting the US in quick succession, Sir John said: "If what looks like is going to be a horrible mess causes the extreme sceptics about climate change in the US to reconsider their opinion, that would be an extremely valuable outcome."
Asked about characterizing them as "loonies", he said: "There are a group of people in various parts of the world ... who simply don't want to accept human activities can change climate and are changing the climate."
"I'd liken them to the people who denied that smoking causes lung cancer."
"It's a fair conclusion to draw that global warming, caused to a substantial extent by people, is driving increased sea surface temperatures and increasing the violence of hurricanes."
For the complete article originally published by The Independent/UK
see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0923-01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Wes Clark Blog Invite - national security and global warming
From Wes Clark:
In my view, global warming's impact will affect human populations in three key ways: displacement, disaster and political tensions. Global warming will displace millions of people. It will bring unusually destructive weather conditions -- more powerful hurricanes like Katrina and Rita, more tornadoes, and extensive droughts. And finally, it will create regional tensions associated with migration, disease, and lower agricultural output, which could spark conflict.
Therefore, nations must not only take action environmentally to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, but equally important, they must be prepared to deal with the consequences of global warming -- consequences so severe that they deserve national security consideration.
It is crucial that we begin exercising real leadership now to slow down and begin to confront the effects global warming will have on our national security. So how can you help?
I hope you'll join my online community on the WesPAC blog. Every day we work the major issues like global warming that are facing our country and brainstorm new solutions to our problems. In a vast nation like the United States, online communities offer critical new ways for like-minded people to join together and press for action in our democracy. So I hope you'll become an active participant on the WesPAC blog.
Serious new problems like global warming call for leadership, hard work, and creativity. I ask you to be a part of that effort. Only by working together can we ensure that the United States remains the great nation that it is today.
Sincerely,
Wes Clark
Link to: Wes Clark Blog
For FN's resource page, see:
Mounting Evidence of Global Warming!
2) The Economic Hit Man Story ~ John Perkins
- - An Ode to George Galloway
The Economic Hit Man Story ~ John Perkins
John Perkins spent three decades as an Economic Hit Man, business executive, author, and lecturer. He lived and worked in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and North America. Then he made a decision: he would use these experiences to change the world; he would devote himself to making the planet a better place for his daughter's generation. Today he teaches about the importance of rising to higher levels of consciousness, to waking up -- in both spiritual and physical realms.
His newest book, The New York Times Bestseller: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man,
tells the story of his remarkable life.
John Perkin's web site is: johnperkins.org/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Confessions Of A Hit Man
John Perkins' book "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man"
explains American foreign policy better than any of the
academic tomes you might read on the subject.
By Charley Reese
In a nutshell, the game is played this way: People like Perkins work for consulting firms, and their job is to entice a foreign head of state to go deeply in debt. They do this by greatly exaggerating the economic returns on big projects such as dams and electrification systems.
The payoff comes in two ways. The foreign country hires American contractors to build the systems, and they make big profits. Then, mired in debt, the head of state will do what the United States government tells him to do. If he proves too independent or too honest to accept bribes, then he will be removed from power, either in a coup or in an accident.
For the complete article, see:
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10398.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - An Ode to George Galloway
George Galloway's testimony before the Senate is not
to be made part of the Congressional Public Record
AN ODE TO GEORGE GALLOWAY
On May 17, 2005 to this country came
A man, a hero who would not act out of shame;
He came and faced his tainted accusers, these liars and more
And laid to waste their verbal innuendo, these war profiteers and whores;
No one who saw, heard or felt his passion fueled as it was by his heat
Could but for a moment believe the words these cowards untiringly would bleat;
They were no match for Galloway, his courage, wit and ire
He told the truth about the food, the oil the liars;
Who send children to war to kill other children of mothers
Who sit and wait for their return - from this war, like all the others;
Not knowing the meaning as to what it is all for
Of all the madness, the countless deaths and senseless gore;
Could not have been for want of more
Than our country is blessed with from shore to shore;
Was Mr. Bush's "Call To War" only for the very oil
That traps forever our children's blood within yet another country's soil?
tpb
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed people can change the world. Indeed,
it is the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Click to:
Hear George Galloway's Sobering
Yet Sometimes Humorous Message
from Chicago, IL
3) What Baker-Carter Got Right
- - PBS TV NewsHour interview with Carter-Baker
What Baker-Carter Got Right
Many liberals are condemning last week's report on election reform --
and missing the bigger picture.
What Baker-Carter Got Right
Rob Richie and Steven Hill
Published by TomPaine.com; September 27, 2005
Rob Richie is executive director of FairVote.
Steven Hill is an Irvine Senior Fellow with
New America Foundation and author of Fixing Elections:
The Failure of America's Winner Take All Politics.
[EXCERPT]
Last week's release of the report of the election reform commission headed by Jimmy Carter and James Baker has drawn fierce fire from civil rights and electoral reform organizations for recommending that voters be required to present photo identification at the polls. Because the ID recommendations in isolation would shrink the electorate, many reformers have pronounced the Baker-Carter recommendations DOA.
We believe it a mistake to condemn the entire report because of the understandable voter ID objections. Dominated by aging politicians of the creaky two-party duopoly, the Commission on Federal Election Reform certainly was less than bold in many important areas. But building on his vast experience observing elections around the world and experiencing elections in the South, Carter earned bipartisan support for several forward-looking recommendations.
The commission's boldest call is for universal voter registration, a practice used by many democracies around the world in which all eligible voters are automatically registered to vote. Universal registration would add more than 50 million nregistered Americansnearly three in 10 eligible votersto the voter rolls. These potential voters are disproportionately under 25, low-income and people of color. Their absence from the voter rolls helps to explain the shocking disparities in our voter turnout based on traditional measures of class status: income, education and race.
Of course, the devil is in the details, and the commission fails to outline a clear plan for how the government would ensure that all eligible voters are registered. But if implemented fully, this would be one of the single most important government civil rights actions since the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Remarkably, James Baker, architect of the Bush campaign's post-election strategy in Florida in 2000, joined Carter in a New York Times oped on September 23rd calling for universal registration. They wrote that the government should "assume the responsibility to seek out citizens to both register voters and provide them with free ID's that meet federal standards. States should open new offices, use social service agencies and deploy mobile offices to register voters." Once registered, people would stay registered; the report's goal is that "people would need to register only once in their lifetime."
Other commission recommendations respond directly to problems in our recent elections. They include:
Nonpartisan election officials.
National elections assistance.
A revamped presidential primary schedule.
For the complete article:
www.tompaine.com/articles/20050927/what_bakercarter_got_right.php
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
- - PBS TV NewsHour interview with Carter-Baker
www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/ju...eform_9-19.html
[EXCERPTS]
MARGARET WARNER: President Carter, Secretary Baker thanks for joining us. After the election debacle in Florida in 2000, there was a new law enacted to try to correct a lot of the problems. Why are further changes needed now, President Carter?
JIMMY CARTER: Well, back four years ago I served on a similar commission in chairmanship with President Gerald Ford, and we made recommendations that the Congress didn't receive with much enthusiasm. But as you know, two years later in 2002 they passed a Help America Vote Act -- and after the 2004 election, we saw that there were still a lot of omissions or needs in the overall election process in this country to make things more uniform, to encourage voter registration, to make sure that election officials were nonpartisan as much as possible, and to deal with the plethora of electronic voting machines in which the people have some doubt about if their votes are going to be counted accurately.
MARGARET WARNER: Do you agree, Secretary Baker, that even after the reforms from that 2002 Act that Americans don't have full confidence in the elections?
JAMES BAKER: Yes I do. These recommendations all will move us in the direction of enhancing the American people's confidence in our voting system.
MARGARET WARNER: Well, what's your evidence that the American people don't have confidence in it now?
JAMES BAKER: Well, just look at polls. There's still a lot of questions out there on the part of the people. As the president indicated, a lot of people don't think their votes are going to be adequately counted or accurately counted. Many people fear fraud on the other side and many people fear there's a denial of access.
And what this report does, frankly, in our opinion, is to hopefully eliminate the sterile debate that we have had in this country for so many years between the advocates of ballot integrity on the one hand and the advocates of ballot, greater access on the other.
MARGARET WARNER: President Carter, in your post presidency, you have spent a lot of time as an election monitor all around the world, looking at elections in all kinds of emergent democracies. How does the U.S. system stack up internationally?
JIMMY CARTER: Some of those countries are still in the embryonic stage of becoming democracies and having free and fair elections. Others have made tremendous progress and have election systems that I would say are much clearer than ours.
But there's one prevailing improvement in their countries compared to ours, and that is almost invariably around the world, there's a bipartisan or nonpartisan central election commission that sets uniform standards for voting all over the country.
As you know, in our nation, we still have secretaries of state and also campaign managers and we have other abuses of the system that's not nonpartisan.
Also, there are countries like Mexico or Venezuela that have long had electronic voting machines. And at the same time the people vote a paper ballot comes out. They compare the paper ballot with the way the electronic machine says before they approve it. And then later, if there is a question, you've got a paper trail following up on the electronic machine. That's a recommendation that our group is making.
So, in general, of course, America's got a long history of democracy and freedom of which we are very proud; many of them have learned from our country. I think now in some cases we can learn from them.
MARGARET WARNER: Now, you presented this to President Bush.
JIMMY CARTER: Yes.
MARGARET WARNER: And you presented it to Congress. Did you get any commitment from either of them to push these reforms forward, and what are the consequences if it doesn't happen?
JIMMY CARTER: Well, it wouldn't be appropriate for us to quote the president. He will make a statement of his own. We hope that the president will, you know, give his approval for the report with maybe some caveat -- specific things he doesn't approve -- and we hope this will be the same way in Congress.
MARGARET WARNER: Then a final question. You're a Democrat. You are not only a Republican, Secretary Baker, but you led the Republican legal challenge in Florida in 2000. Did that create any awkwardness working together?
JAMES BAKER: None whatsoever for me. There are issues in here that President Carter might not completely agree with; there are issues in here that I don't completely agree with but there's been a lot of compromise in pulling this report together. President Carter deserves a lot of the credit for making sure that this was done on a nonpartisan -- or bipartisan basis.
MARGARET WARNER: President Carter and Secretary Baker, thank you both.
For complete transcript, see:
www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec05/reform_9-19.html
For another link to transcript, and comments, see:
www.jregrassroots.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=16383&st=0&p=84439&
4) UN Speech by Venezuelan President Chavez
- - New Accounts of Torture by U.S. Troops
- - FBI Shots Dead Puerto Rican Nationalist Leader
- - Leonard Peltier Appeals Ruling
UN Speech by Venezuelan President Chavez
General Assembly, September 15, 2005
[EXCERPTS]
Your Excellencies, friends, good afternoon:
The original purpose of this meeting has been completely distorted. The imposed center of debate has been a so-called reform process that overshadows the most urgent issues, what the peoples of the world claim with urgency: the adoption of measures that deal with the real problems that block and sabotage the efforts made by our countries for real development and life.
Five years after the Millennium Summit, the harsh reality is that the great majority of estimated goals- which were very modest indeed- will not be met.
We pretended reducing by half the 842 million hungry people by the year 2015. At the current rate that goal will be achieved by the year 2215. Who in this audience will be there to celebrate it? That is only if the human race is able to survive the destruction that threats our natural environment.
We had claimed the aspiration of achieving universal primary education by the year 2015. At the current rate that goal will be reached after the year 2100. Let us prepare, then, to celebrate it.
Friends of the world, this takes us to a sad conclusion: The United Nations has exhausted its model, and it is not all about reform. The XXI century claims deep changes that will only be possible if a new organization is founded.
This UN does not work. We have to say it. It is the truth. These transformations " the ones Venezuela is referring to- have, according to us, two phases: The immediate phase and the aspiration phase, a utopia. The first is framed by the agreements that were signed in the old system. We do not run away from them. We even bring concrete proposals in that model for the short term. But the dream of an ever-lasting world peace, the dream of a world not ashamed by hunger, disease, illiteracy, extreme necessity, needs-apart from roots- to spread its wings to fly.
We need to spread our wings and fly.
We are aware of a frightening neoliberal globalization, but there is also the reality of an interconnected world that we have to face not as a problem but as a challenge.
We could, on the basis of national realities, exchange knowledge, integrate markets, interconnect, but at the same time we must understand that there are problems that do not have a national solution: radioactive clouds, world oil prices, diseases, warming of the planet or the hole in the ozone layer.
These are not domestic problems. As we stride toward a new United Nations model that includes all of us when they talk about the people, we are bringing four indispensable and urgent reform proposals to this Assembly: the first; the expansion of the Security Council in its permanent categories as well as the non permanent categories, thus allowing new developed and developing countries as new permanent and non permanent categories. The second; we need to assure the necessary improvement of the work methodology in order to increase transparency, not to diminish it. The third; we need to immediately suppress- we have said this repeatedly in Venezuela for the past six years- the veto in the decisions taken by the Security Council, that elitist trace is incompatible with democracy, incompatible with the principles of equality and democracy.
And the fourth; we need to strengthen the role of the Secretary General; his/her political functions regarding preventive diplomacy, that role must be consolidated. The seriousness of all problems calls for deep transformations.
Now is the time to not allow our hands to be idle
or our souls to rest until we save humanity.
For the complete article, see:
www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1555
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - New Accounts of Torture by U.S. Troops
23 Sep 2005 22:05:31 GMT
Source: Human Rights Watch
www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/bbc29fb371b02011e16942345387f497.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - FBI Shots Dead Puerto Rican Nationalist Leader
From Democracy Now!
Longtime Puerto Rican nationalist leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios has died after being shot by FBI agents. The 72-year-old Ojeda Rios had been living underground for 15 years. The FBI claimed Ojeda Rios fired first but independence activists accused the FBI of assassinating him. The shooting occurred Friday after FBI agents surrounded a house where he was staying. According to an autoposy, Rios bled to death after being shot with a single bullet. Officials didn't enter his home until Saturday, many hours after he was shot. Ojeda Rios was wanted in connection with a $7 million bank robbery in 1983 in Connecticut. For the past four decades Ojeda Rios had been a leading figure in the fight for Puerto Rican independence and against U.S. colonial rule. The shooting occurred on the national holiday of "Grito de Lares" which commemorates an1868 Puerto Rican uprising against Spanish colonial rule. For this and more information, see:
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/26/1433233
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Leonard Peltier Appeals Ruling
That Wrongly Endorsed Federal Jurisdiction Over Indian Territory
Appeal Seeks To Revise Sentence Of Native American Political Prisoner
Olympia, WA - On Friday, September 23rd, the legal defense team for Leonard Peltier, the Internationally-known Native American Political Prisoner, filed an appeal to a U.S. District Court decision which wrongly endorsed federal jurisdiction over Indian Territory.
The appeal seeks to overturn the denial of Peltier's Motion to correct the illegal sentence imposed upon him by the federal courts.
In July, the U.S. District Court of North Dakota wrongly ruled that the alleged crimes did not have to occur within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States to be prosecuted under federal law. However, Indian Country is sovereign land and the U.S. has no jurisdiction under the statutes with which Leonard was charged unless acts occur "within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States."
"We feel that the Court blatantly ignored jurisdiction laws when it denied Leonard's original motion," said Leonard Peltier Defense Committee lead counsel Barry Bachrach. "We hope that this appeal will convince the Court that it had no jurisdiction to convict Mr. Peltier under the crimes for which he was convicted, those convictions must be set aside as a matter of law. The history of the constitution, and the statutes implicated, unequivocally establish that Mr. Peltier was not convicted under the Indian Crimes Act, which is the only possible authority under which the government could have tried and convicted Mr.Peltier."
Following a fraudulent trial featuring withheld documents, witnesses intimidation, and false testimony, among other irregularities, Peltier was tried, convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for the deaths of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation on June 26, 1975.
Peltier was falsely convicted on a two-count indictment for first-degree murder, even though the acts at issue all occurred on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
"As it has countless times in the past, the federal government has trampled over indigenous sovereignty," Wanbli Watakpe (aka Russ Redner), Director of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. "This precedent does not just affect Leonard Peltier but the Lakota Nation and all sovereign nations that have a relationship with the US."
Press Release from the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
Official Website: leonardpeltier.org
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Chavez * Preempt Nukes * Warming Crisis
September 19, 2005 - Part 1
"Peace is not merely the absence of tension,
it is the presence of justice."
- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
1) Chavez Takes Bush to Task on World Stage Over War in Iraq
- - Summit Failure Blamed on US
- - US-Preemptive New Nuclear Attack Plan
- - Nuclear Power Hearing in Brattleboro, VT, Tuesday
2) US WAR on Iraq and Opposition, Continues
- - Iraq Invasion Radicalized Saudi Fighters: Report
- - Guantanamo protest fast continuing
- - Jose Padilla and The Death of Liberty
3) Global Warming 'Past the Point of No Return'
- - Government Email Plays in the Katrina Blame Game
- - Katrina Relief: It's Iraq Deja vu All Over Again
- - Toxic Waters 'Will Make New Orleans Unsafe for a Decade'
- - Global Warming Hits New Orleans
Editor's Notes:
The world has turned upside down. Whereas, before, the US was a democracy, now a dictatorhip closes its ears to the democratically elected leader of Venezuela, who is taking the fuel-energy crisis seriously, and seeks to benefit people he represents, not those with the most money. Thank you President Chavez! Item 2 deals with Iraq, the suffering and human rights violations at Guantanamo Bay under seige by the US.. And things are ugly in the Katrina world.. not a hurricane once in a lifetime, but another era of rising sea temperatures and more storms to come. Is crisis an opportunity to make change.. or to hide in the lies, deceit, and denial?
"The greatest crime since World War II
has been US foreign policy."
– Ramsey Clark
1) Chavez Takes Bush to Task on World Stage Over War in Iraq
by Kim Gamel
Published on Friday, September 16, 2005 by the Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took President Bush to task in front of a global summit for waging war in Iraq without U.N. consent and won rousing applause for his critique.
CHAVEZ GOT THE LOUDEST APPLAUSE OF THE SUMMIT
President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela displays a note calling him to terminate his speech after his five-minute allotment expired, at the 2005 World Summit during the 60th session of the General Assembly at the United Nations. Chavez called the United States a 'terrorist state' and said the United Nations headquarters should be moved away from New York. (AFP/Jeff Haynes)
The leftist leader told a U.N. summit on Thursday that fighting the war without U.N. authorization showed Washington did not respect the world body. He recommended moving U.N. headquarters to a country that has more regard for the organization.
"There were never weapons of mass destruction but Iraq was bombed, and over U.N. objections, (it was) occupied and continues being occupied," Chavez said. Bush alleged that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction but none have been found, shattering one of his main arguments for going to war.
"That's why we propose to this assembly that the United Nations leave this country, which is not respectful of the very resolutions of this assembly," Chavez said.
Chavez, a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, suggested moving U.N. headquarters New York to an international city "outside the sovereignty of any state" and said some have mentioned Jerusalem as one possibility. But the Venezuelan leader said the new headquarters has to be in the South, home to most developing countries.
Bush was not in the audience when Chavez spoke to the world representatives. But the U.S. president did address the summit's the opening session on Wednesday morning, then returned to Washington later that day.
World leaders at the summit had been asked to speak for five minutes but Chavez ran long and when the presiding diplomat passed him a note saying his time was up, he threw it on the floor.
He said if Bush could speak for 20 minutes, so could he. When he finally stopped, he got what observers said was the loudest applause of the summit.
Relations between Chavez and Washington have become increasingly strained, though the United States remains the top buyer of Venezuelan oil. Chavez repeatedly has accused the U.S. government of backing plots against him, and recently alleged Washington was preparing to invade his country.
American religious broadcaster Pat Robertson recently suggested the United States assassinate Chavez because he poses a threat. Chavez responded that Robertson had clearly "expressed the wish of the elite that govern the United States." Robertson has since apologized. U.S. officials strongly deny the Venezuelan leader's claims but have expressed concerns about the health of the country's democracy under Chavez, who was first elected in 1998 pledging a social "revolution" for the poor majority.
The two leaders have clashed over a host of other issues as well. Bush criticized Venezuela's government earlier Thursday, saying the South American nation had "failed demonstrably" to make a concerted effort to block shipments of illicit narcotics to the United States and Europe last year. Venezuela could have been subjected to a cutoff of U.S. assistance, but Bush decided to waive the provision because of national security interests. In early August, Chavez accused the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration of using its agents in Venezuela for espionage, and said Venezuela was suspending cooperation with the agency. The Bush administration denied the espionage charge.
Chavez, whose country is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, also warned the world is facing an unprecedented energy crisis. He told reporters later the crisis will keep growing, "not because we the producers want it but because we are running out of oil."
Chavez singled out the United States as the most wasteful country, saying he was shocked when a quarter of all the cars he counted Thursday morning on New York streets had one person in them. "That's crazy, one person with a huge car ... that is using up gas and polluting the atmosphere," he said at a news conference. "The world cannot tolerate this model of development called the American way of life."
In a form of energy diplomacy, Chavez has extended a preferential oil trade deal called PetroCaribe to 13 Caribbean countries in what he says is part of a plan to challenge U.S. economic domination of the region. Under the plan, Venezuela will soon sell up to 190,000 barrels of fuel a day to countries from Jamaica to St. Lucia, offering favorable financing while shipping fuel directly to reduce costs. It is expected to help those countries save millions of dollars.
Associated Press writer Ian James in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press
Article also posted at www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0916-03.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Summit Failure Blamed on US
by Mark Townsend in New York
Published on Sunday, September 18, 2005 by the Observer/UK
The failure of last week's United Nations summit to deliver an agreement designed to prevent terrorists acquiring 'weapons of mass destruction' was sabotaged by the US, senior diplomats have told The Observer.
For the complete article see:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1572824,00.html
or
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0918-03.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - US-Preemptive New Nuclear Attack Plan
Draft US Defense Paper Outlines Preventive Nuclear Strikes
Published September 11, 2005 by Agence France Presse
A new draft US defense paper calls for preventive nuclear strikes against state and non-state adversaries in order to deter them from using weapons of mass destruction and urges US troops to "prepare to use nuclear weapons effectively."
Archive picture of a US nuclear bomb exploding over Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945. A new draft US defense paper calls for preventive nuclear strikes against state and non-state adversaries in order to deter them from using weapons of mass destruction and urges US troops to 'prepare to use nuclear weapons effectively.' (AFP/File)
The document, titled "Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations" and dated March 15, was put together by the Pentagon's Joint Staff in at attempt to adapt current procedures to the fast-changing world after the September 11, 2001, attacks, said a defense official.
But the official, who spoke to AFP late Saturday on condition of anonymity, said it has not yet been signed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and thus has not been made official policy.
"It's in the process of being considered," the official said.
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0911-02.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Pentagon Revises Nuclear Plan
--Proposal advocates use of nuclear weapons to preempt attack by a nation or a terrorist group. Strategy includes preemptive use against banned weapons 11 Sep 2005 The Pentagon has drafted a revised doctrine for the use of nuclear weapons that envisions commanders requesting presidential approval to use them to preempt an attack by a nation or a terrorist group using weapons of mass destruction. The draft also includes the option of using nuclear arms to destroy known enemy stockpiles of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/10/AR2005091001053.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Nuclear Power Hearing in Brattleboro, VT, Tuesday
Vermont Public Service Board will hold a PUBLIC HEARING on Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant's "dry cask nuclear waste storage on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 at 7 PM in the Auditorium of the Brattleboro Union High School.
Entergy, a $14 billion dollar corporation which owns VY calls the proposed facility, " temporary, passive storage." It is neither. It is not temporary. Once high level nuclear waste is canned and put in place, no one can say when it will be removed. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) opposing Yucca Mtn., told reporters this week that nuclear waste should stay where it is made; that is why, he says, he and Senator Ensign have introduced legislation to (permanently?) leave waste at reactors.
It is not passive.
It is, in fact, self-energized and powered by radioactivity. The proposed "casks" are actually constructed of two layers; a sealed stainless steel cannister of high level waste fuel and an outer cask of concrete in a carbon steel shell. There is space between the two through which air , heated by 36,000 watts of heat emitted by radioactive decay of the waste nuclear fuel , rises. As the air rises, it is expelled from vents near the top of the two story structure; even as cooler air is drawn in at the bottom.
Each proposed storage cannister will contain up to 36 fuel assemblies; each holding about 800 pounds of irradiated nuclear fuel, or, in total for each cask, about 28,800 pounds. Each cannister will contain over 1000 pounds of deadly fission products, such as Cesium 137 and Strontium 90. Each cask will contain more than 145 pounds of Plutonium 239 which will remain lethal for 240,000 years and sufficient to make about 20 nuclear bombs.
It is, as Maine's State Nuclear Safety Advisor said of that state's dry cask facility, "Yucca Mountain...without the mountain."
Raymond Shadis
Staff Technical Advisor
New England Coalition
Post Office Box 98
Edgecomb, Maine 04556
207-882-7801
shadis@prexar.com
2) US WAR on Iraq and Opposition, Continues
- - "End the War on Iraq" Sept. 24th in Washington, DC
From MoveOn:
A solid majority of Americans now believe we should begin to bring troops home from Iraq. And, despite continued calls across party lines for an exit plan from Iraq, President Bush continues to insist on "staying the course." The war has drained the federal budget - forcing us to face Hurricane Katrina with a $352 billion budget deficit, a degraded and de-funded Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and a third of the National Guard in affected areas deployed overseas. To date, nearly 1,900 American and countless Iraqi lives have been lost, with thousands more maimed and injured.
Next weekend on Saturday, September 24, there is a massive "End the War on Iraq" peace march and rally in Washington, DC organized by United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ). The weekend of activities will make it unmistakably clear to President Bush and Congress that the American people want an exit plan with a timeline to end the war in Iraq. Join United for Peace and Justice next weekend.
Saturday, September 24, 2005 :: Washington, DC
10:00 AM All-Day Peace & Justice Festival Begins,
Washington Monument Grounds on the National Mall
Learn more about the March and rally here: www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?i%64=3091 .
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Iraq Invasion Radicalized Saudi Fighters: Report
by Dominic Evans
Published September 18, 2005 by Reuters
RIYADH - Hundreds of Saudi fighters who joined the insurgency in Iraq showed few signs of militancy before the U.S.-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein, according to a detailed study based on Saudi intelligence reports.
The study by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), obtained by Reuters on Sunday, also said Saudis made up just 350 of the 3,000-strong foreign insurgents in Iraq -- fewer than many officials have assumed.
"Analysts and government officials in the U.S. and Iraq have overstated the size of the foreign element in the Iraqi insurgency, especially that of the Saudi contingent," it said.
Article truncated, for complete story, see:.
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0918-01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Guantanamo protest fast continuing
9 September 2005 (Agence France-Presse)
Some 87 detainees held by the US military at Guantanamo Bay have begun the second month of hunger strikes to pressure authorities into adhering to Geneva Convention standards.
Military spokesman Sergeant Justin Behrens told journalists on Friday that the number of prisoners on strike was decreasing, though ten prisoners had to be fed through nose tubes but were in "stable" condition.
"Ninety-two was the max on hunger strike but it has now dropped down to 87," Behrens said. "Ten of them are being fed through medical assist."
The hunger strike began on 8 August, when the military initially said 76 inmates were refusing food.
The Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR) said the strike was set off in part by alleged beatings of prisoners, denial of basic needs, and lack of fair trials.
Access difficult
It maintained that lawyers have found that 210 prisoners were taking part in the strike. CCR also said lawyers for prisoners who were on strike were blocked from meeting with their clients.
A federal court late last month ordered the Defence Department to grant attorneys for the firm of Sherman and Sterling access to its clients, it said.
The strike is the latest in a series that have broken out since 2002 amid protests over the treatment of prisoners at the detention centre.
The prison, long a source of international controversy, is located on a remote US naval base forcibly leased from Cuba.
The military has given the International Committee of the Red Cross access to the prison and hosted tours for visiting journalists and lawmakers. But it remains tightly controlled and largely shut off from the outside world.
Previous hunger strike
The most recent previous hunger strike was from late June through to 28 July, according to the CCR, which maintains that up to 200 prisoners participated, almost four times more than reported by the military.
"In fact, from early July through [to] 25 July 2005, the hunger strike became so severe that the [Pentagon] was forced to place approximately 50 men on IV's," or intravenous feeding, the centre's report said.
"Medics could not manage the detention centre's need and elected to stop making their regular medical calls. The prisoners spent 26 days without food," it said.
"The breadth and severity of the June-July 2005 hunger strike forced the [Pentagon] to permit the creation of a prisoners' representative committee to negotiate with prison officials concerning the protesters' demands," it said.
AFP
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Jose Padilla and The Death of Liberty
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10223.htm
3) Global Warming 'Past the Point of No Return'
by Steve Connor
Published September 16, 2005 by The Independent / UK
A record loss of sea ice in the Arctic this summer has convinced scientists that the northern hemisphere may have crossed a critical threshold beyond which the climate may never recover. Scientists fear that the Arctic has now entered an irreversible phase of warming which will accelerate the loss of the polar sea ice that has helped to keep the climate stable for thousands of years.
They believe global warming is melting Arctic ice so rapidly that the region is beginning to absorb more heat from the sun, causing the ice to melt still further and so reinforcing a vicious cycle of melting and heating.
The greatest fear is that the Arctic has reached a "tipping point" beyond which nothing can reverse the continual loss of sea ice and with it the massive land glaciers of Greenland, which will raise sea levels dramatically.
Satellites monitoring the Arctic have found that the extent of the sea ice this August has reached its lowest monthly point on record, dipping an unprecedented 18.2 per cent below the long-term average.
Experts believe that such a loss of Arctic sea ice in summer has not occurred in hundreds and possibly thousands of years. It is the fourth year in a row that the sea ice in August has fallen below the monthly downward trend - a clear sign that melting has accelerated.
Scientists are now preparing to report a record loss of Arctic sea ice for September, when the surface area covered by the ice traditionally reaches its minimum extent at the end of the summer melting period.
Sea ice naturally melts in summer and reforms in winter but for the first time on record this annual rebound did not occur last winter when the ice of the Arctic failed to recover significantly.
Arctic specialists at the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre at Colorado University, who have documented the gradual loss of polar sea ice since 1978, believe that a more dramatic melt began about four years ago.
In September 2002 the sea ice coverage of the Arctic reached its lowest level in recorded history. Such lows have normally been followed the next year by a rebound to more normal levels, but this did not occur in the summers of either 2003 or 2004. This summer has been even worse. The surface area covered by sea ice was at a record monthly minimum for each of the summer months - June, July and now August.
Scientists analysing the latest satellite data for September - the traditional minimum extent for each summer - are preparing to announce a significant shift in the stability of the Arctic sea ice, the northern hemisphere's major "heat sink" that moderates climatic extremes.
"The changes we've seen in the Arctic over the past few decades are nothing short of remarkable," said Mark Serreze, one of the scientists at the Snow and Ice Data Centre who monitor Arctic sea ice.
Scientists at the data centre are bracing themselves for the 2005 annual minimum, which is expected to be reached in mid-September, when another record loss is forecast. A major announcement is scheduled for 20 September. "It looks like we're going to exceed it or be real close one way or the other. It is probably going to be at least as comparable to September 2002," Dr Serreze said.
"This will be four Septembers in a row that we've seen a downward trend. The feeling is we are reaching a tipping point or threshold beyond which sea ice will not recover."
The extent of the sea ice in September is the most valuable indicator of its health. This year's record melt means that more of the long-term ice formed over many winters - so called multi-year ice - has disappeared than at any time in recorded history.
Sea ice floats on the surface of the Arctic Ocean and its neighbouring seas and normally covers an area of some 7 million square kilometres (2.4 million square miles) during September - about the size of Australia. However, in September 2002, this dwindled to about 2 million square miles - 16 per cent below average.
Sea ice data for August closely mirrors that for September and last month's record low - 18.2 per cent below the monthly average - strongly suggests that this September will see the smallest coverage of Arctic sea ice ever recorded.
As more and more sea ice is lost during the summer, greater expanses of open ocean are exposed to the sun which increases the rate at which heat is absorbed in the Arctic region, Dr Serreze said.
Sea ice reflects up to 80 per cent of sunlight hitting it but this "albedo effect" is mostly lost when the sea is uncovered. "We've exposed all this dark ocean to the sun's heat so that the overall heat content increases," he explained.
Current computer models suggest that the Arctic will be entirely ice-free during summer by the year 2070 but some scientists now believe that even this dire prediction may be over-optimistic, said Professor Peter Wadhams, an Arctic ice specialist at Cambridge University.
"When the ice becomes so thin it breaks up mechanically rather than thermodynamically. So these predictions may well be on the over-optimistic side," he said.
As the sea ice melts, and more of the sun's energy is absorbed by the exposed ocean, a positive feedback is created leading to the loss of yet more ice, Professor Wadhams said.
"If anything we may be underestimating the dangers. The computer models may not take into account collaborative positive feedback," he said.
Sea ice keeps a cap on frigid water, keeping it cold and protecting it from heating up. Losing the sea ice of the Arctic is likely to have major repercussions for the climate, he said. "There could be dramatic changes to the climate of the northern region due to the creation of a vast expanse of open water where there was once effectively land," Professor Wadhams said. "You're essentially changing land into ocean and the creation of a huge area of open ocean where there was once land will have a very big impact on other climate parameters," he said.
2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.
###
www.independent.co.uk/
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0916-09.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Government Email Plays in the Katrina Blame Game
E-mail Suggests Government Seeking to Blame Groups
by Jerry Mitchell
Published September 16, 2005 by The Clarion-Ledger (Mississippi)
Federal officials appear to be seeking proof to blame the flood of New Orleans on environmental groups, documents show.
The Clarion-Ledger has obtained a copy of an internal e-mail the U.S. Department of Justice sent out this week to various U.S. attorneys' offices: "Has your district defended any cases on behalf of the (U.S.) Army Corps of Engineers against claims brought by environmental groups seeking to block or otherwise impede the Corps work on the levees protecting New Orleans? If so, please describe the case and the outcome of the litigation."
For complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0916-10.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Katrina Relief: It's Iraq Deja vu All Over Again
by Arianna Huffington
www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/katrina-relief-its-iraq_b_7481.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Toxic Waters 'Will Make New Orleans Unsafe for a Decade'
From American Progress Action ~ Under the Radar
KATRINA -- FLOODED SUPERFUND SITES POSE LONG-TERM HEALTH RISK: "Overlooked in many news reports about the unfolding storm disaster in the southern United States, especially in the City of New Orleans, in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, is a potentially dramatic pollution issue related to a toxic landfill that sits under the flood waters right in the city's downtown." The Agriculture Street Landfill is one of three Superfund toxic waste sites in the Gulf Coast region that is posing a significant long-term health threat. "The flooded Superfund sites in Louisiana and Mississippi contain a range of contaminants that include heavy metals linked to increased cancer risk and developmental problems and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are carcinogens." So far, tests conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency have found "raw sewage, traces of weed killers and toxic lead taint the floodwaters inundating New Orleans."
www.americanprogressaction.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=252022&ct=1403219
- - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Cover-Up: Toxic Waters 'Will Make New Orleans Unsafe for a Decade'
by Geoffrey Lean
Published September 11, 2005 by the lndependent/UK
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article311818.ece
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Global Warming Hits New Orleans:
The Controversy After the Storm
by Jeremy Rifkin
Published on Tuesday, September 6, 2005 by The Chosun (Korea)
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200509/200509060008.html
For FN's resource page, see:
Mounting Evidence of Global Warming!
Translate this Page!
Flyby News can now be translated into most any language.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Griffin News * Limon * Flares * Bush Quote
19 September 2005 - Part 2
"Evil will succeed only if enough good people do nothing."
- Edmund Burke
4) Where David Ray Griffin and Flyby News Meet
- - Diebold Insider now Speaking - Election Fraud 2004
5) Limon film by Malachi Roth at MET this weekend
6) Earth Changes TV and Six X-Class Solar Flares
7) Quote - "..what we Bushes have done to this nation.."
Editor's Notes:
The second part of this day's issue begins with an article I wrote for my local food co-op, which is in the hills of Leverett, Massachusetts. It was from their bulletin board that I initially learned about NASA's Cassini space mission, leading to Flyby News. I decided to write this article from the inspirational work and efforts of David Ray Griffin. He is coming to speak within an hour of the co-op, in Brattleboro Vermont on October 11, 2005, high noon and on main street. Griffin will be drawing various people very interested in giving NASA and the US government a new direction, toward a more peaceful and productive use of time and space.
Bart Jordan will meet with me and others after the Griffin presentation to informally share about his paper, which will first be published by Flyby News. One individual planning to join with me there is my business partner and inventor of a 200kW Stirling engine. This engine is designed for commercial/industrial conversion of biomass and waste-heat-gas for cleaner electrical power generation. It would conserve existing resources and make use of emissions that contribute to global warming.
Item 5 is about Malachi Roth, director of the film-short, The Peace Candidate. Roth's prior film, "Limon, a life beyond words" is featured at the MET September 24th, and will be aired on PBS TV at various times and stations across the country.
Item 6 is on intense Solar Flares happening now. (Is it the full moon, solar flares, hurricanes, or Bart Jordan working through the night, I don't know.. but something is stirring and keeping me awake.)
Item 7 covers an interesting (alleged) quote by George H. Bush; did he say:
"Sarah, if the people had ever known the truth
about what we Bushes have done to this nation,
we would be chased down in the streets and lynched."
-- Bush 41 to reporter Sarah McClendon, June 1992
Who knows the full truth, but one thing is apparent, fact can be stranger than fiction.
So, to leave you pondering, I am including a poem written two days ago during one of those sleepless moments.
Shy composure undisturbed
by a lifetime of impropriety
Challenged by the swift currents
of a collective madness
Suitable, intolerable,
left alone
only to know a subject between
what is here and not here --
Silence splatters the
dispute
Within oneself
only to acknowledge
such imperfection
desire waiting
on the call
while such storms as Katrina
reach a boiling point
as ice heaves melt
pouring into obvious
misdirection leadership
tango for ultimate self
centerness & destruction
Only again to be left
alone contemplating
the challenge
or insight
4) Where David Ray Griffin and Flyby News Meet
by Jonathan Mark - "Village Register"
Something unusual caught my eye on the co-op bulletin board in the 1990's, a short article describing a NASA space mission that could kill a lot of people from radioactive plutonium. It was bizarre reading this in the Rattlesnake Gutter setting. Yet this story became more real when Karl Grossman gave a presentation on his investigative news reporting on the Cassini space mission, about what it was, and what was behind it. His presentation came only weeks before the launch in 1997. There was little I could do to stop the launch, but the greatest risk from Cassini was more than a year and a half later, since it was first sent to Venus (on its way to Saturn) for two flybys that accelerated the craft to about 10 miles per second when it came back for an Earth-flyby on August 18, 1999.
Fortunately the craft did not inadvertently re-enter our atmosphere, but it did reveal the hubris of NASA and the ability of US military to take over the civilian space program for global domination and weaponization of space interests. The NoFlyby campaign led to Flyby News, using the military-conceived Internet to expose such plans, and to cover other related justice, human rights, and environmental areas of concern.
Cassini was only the starting place for accelerating life-threatening news. In 2000 we reported on the US Supreme Court-ruling for George W. Bush to be president. This resulted in political prisoner Leonard Peltier remaining behind bars; the anti-ballistic missile treaty terminated, which expanded the arms race; the worsening of global warming, and much more. But, the biggest story by far was from the so-called "terrorist" attacks on September 11, 2001, which led to the US military attack on Iraq with hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians killed.
For many these issues seem far away or too big, or too scary to consider. Yet as things continue to worsen, we must respond before it is too late. An unofficial 9/11 truth community has indeed responded and has, thanks to a growing number of intellectuals in the movement, been gaining ever-increasing credibility. One of those intellectuals is David Ray Griffin, a renowned Christian theologian, who has written, co-authored, and produced 24 books and numerous articles on theology. He has taught philosophy of religion and theology at the Claremont School of Theology for more than 30 years. He is not your typical investigative reporter, but his reasoning, his way of communicating, his ethics, is perhaps just what we need to survive in today's world.
Professor Griffin wrote "The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11," which summarized evidence revealed by various researchers over the Internet. His conclusion was that such evidence provided a "strong prima facie case for official complicity." His next book, "The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions," revealed evidence of a cover-up by the Bush administration. Griffin showed how the 9/11 Commission simply ignored most of the evidence of government complicity, and distorted the rest. Last spring, David Ray Griffin spoke at a forum sponsored by a Muslim-Jewish group for peace at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, which was broadcast on cable TV. His talk was entitled "9/11 and the American Empire: How Should Religious People Respond?"
Professor Griffin has responded in a big way and is working on another book called "The American Empire and a Better Possibility: A Political-Economic-Religious Statement." He will be speaking in Vermont at four locations this October. Closest to our area is on Tuesday October 11 at noon at the Centre Congregational Church in Brattleboro, (on Main Street across from the post office). These events are free and sponsored by Southern Vermonters for a Fair Economy and Environmental Protection. Of course you can check the bulletin board for the flyer, or at FlybyNews.com; but you can also get DVDs of David Ray Griffin's presentations (filmed by Ken Jenkins, with added graphics and video clips), at our friendly co-op. Thinking globally and acting locally is a good place where change can begin to grow.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For more on presentations of David Ray Griffin,
see Flyby News recommended Films that Make a Difference
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Diebold Insider now Speaking - Election Fraud 2004
In exclusive stunning admissions to The BRAD BLOG some 11 months after the 2004 Presidential Election, a "Diebold Insider" is now finally speaking out for the first time about the alarming security flaws within Diebold, Inc's electronic voting systems, software and machinery. The source is acknowledging that the company's "upper management" -- as well as "top government officials" -- were keenly aware of the "undocumented backdoor" in Diebold's main "GEM Central Tabulator" software well prior to the 2004 election. A branch of the Federal Government even posted a security warning on the Internet.
For more on this story, see: Radio News America
5) Limon film by Malachi Roth at MET this weekend
For Immediate Release:
LIMON FILM TO BE SCREENED AT METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART..
2:00 pm on Saturday, September 24th, 2005 (Admission Free)
..AND AIR ON PUBLIC TELEVISION STATIONS NATIONWIDE
Air-dates to be announced (see WWW.LIMON.TV)
Directed by Malachi Roth
Produced by Ann Vachon & Jeffrey Levy-Hinte
SUMMARY
Narrated by Uta Hagen and Isaiah Sheffer, "Limn: A Life Beyond Words" offers a compelling look at revolutionary modern dancer and choreographer Jos Limn (1908-1972) who was described by the New York Times as the "best male dancer of his own, or any other time." The film follows Limn's life chronologically beginning with his birth in Mexico and his family's flight from the violence of the Mexican revolution which took his uncle's life. After emigrating to the United States Limn lost his mother due to complications stemming from her thirteenth pregnancy.
Devastated, Limn became radicalized by left wing culture and decided to move to New York to become an artist during the height of the depression. Once there however, Limn lost all interest in painting and hit a low point in his life until being reborn by the discovery of modern dance. Though he was already much older than most dancers and did not have a typical dancer's body, Limn's passion, persistence and unflinching dedication to his art, allowed him to rise through the ranks of the Humphrey Weidman company and eventually to become one of the most respected choreographers in the world. The film peaks with the successive triumphs of his robust career and closes with his final years, his later works and his tragic untimely death.
During the first half of the film Limn's own words in the form of his unfinished memoir (recently published) tell the story, while stock footage, family photos and interviews provide the texture. Short interludes from Limn's dances during these early sections foreshadow his later artistic interpretation of these events. About half way through the film, when Limn's dance company is formed and starts to take off, the dances themselves become the primary force propelling the narrative, as they illustrate through gesture and movement the extent to which Jos used dance to re-examine his early life. Major themes such as colonialism, religion, race, loyalty and betrayal are grappled with through a choreographic form that is far more accessible to general audiences than the avant-garde trends that would follow. Limn's major goal was to "speak of the dignity of man," which he does with such skill and compassion that few are capable of resisting the emotional impact of his great works.
AWARDS
Best Film Made for Television / Montreal Festival of Films on Art
Best Documentary / Ajijic Festival Internacionale de Cine in Mexico
Best Documentary on the Arts / Wine Country Film Festival in California.
PRESS QUOTES
"Roth's social conscience gives [the film] a strong
sense of context and he's adept at linking Limn's
works to the era of their creation or the man's
own story."
LEWIS SEGAL, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
"...this poetic film enriches our experience and
understanding of this great artist"
ROSE ANN THOM, DANCE MAGAZINE
To receive a DVD of Limn: A Life Beyond Words
for reviews or other screening considerations please contact Ann Vachon
at: AVachon@limon.org or 908.240.2792 or visit on the web: LIMON.TV
Malachi Roth has also produced a film on Dennis Kucinich,
called The Peace Candidate. You can learn more on this
and his current film project at BrookTroutFilms.com
6) Earth Changes TV and Six X-Class Solar Flares
EARTH CHANGES TV NEWSLETTER - September 10th, 2005
Now Up To Six X-Class Flares and Counting
by Mitch Battros ECTV
Due to so many large solar flares, this may be the last newsletter related to solar storms. So instead, simply go to the ECTV website for the latest posting and updates.
Within the last two hours a new X-Class flare has fired away. But there is one very important difference; now sunspot region 808 has rotated into position to cause Earth Directed flares and CME s (coronal mass ejections). From this point on, and for the next 23 days, each and every flare has the potential for a glancing or direct hit to Earth.
When the charged particles hit our protective magnetic field, the magnetic field shifts as if cranking tightly on a jar top. When this occurs, it in turn, causes a shift in the jet stream, often causing it to drop down low enough to disturb weather patterns. And when this occurs, it causes ocean currents to shift.
Sun-Earth Diagram: www.earthchangestv.net/images/sunearth_01G.gif
Today s X-Class Flare: www.sec.noaa.gov/rt_plots/xray_5mBL.html
Kp Index: www.sec.noaa.gov/rt_plots/kp_3d.html
7) Quote - "..what we Bushes have done to this nation.."
"Sarah, if the people had ever known the truth
about what we Bushes have done to this nation,
we would be chased down in the streets and lynched."
-- Bush 41 to reporter Sarah McClendon, June 1992
Re: Sheila Samples: 'The mothers are coming!' (Score: 1)
by Sheep on Wednesday, August 31 @ 13:39:30 EDT
An interesting interview with Sarah McClendon is at http://pdxnorml.org/MCCLENDN on a variety of subjects. At the bottom, there is an interview with retired Lt. Cdr Al Martin by Tom Valentine and was aired on Valentine's Radio Free America July 10, 1995. Martin quotes from McClendon's June 1992 newsletter. (Note: "Q" is Valentine, and "A" is Martin)...
Q: Only 3 percent? That means 97 percent went somewhere else.
A: It went into people's pockets. General Secord certainly profited handsomely. General John Singlaub and a host of others did likewise.However, would it have been possible for these men to carry out such an enormous conspiracy, to traffic in such enormous quantities of illegal items, without the duplicity and complicity of the United States government?
Q: I don't see how it would have been possible.
A: It would not have been possible, and it was not possible at the time to do so. I think George Bush said it very well in an interview with Sarah McClendon, the grand dame of the Washington press corps. When Bush consented to an interview with Mrs. McClendon in June of 1992, he said on record, which she printed in her newsletter that month, when she asked him about Iran-contra and he said, (and I'm quoting from her newsletter): "If the people were to ever find out what we have done, we would be chased down the streets and lynched." This was a public comment by George Bush.
Q: George Bush actually admitted that?
A: He said it and it was printed in Mrs. McClendon's newsletter in June of 1992.
_____________________________________________
You can Google "Sarah McClendon June 1992 newsletter" and click away until you're "google-eyed" if you like, or you can take my word for it.
_____________________________________________
Poppy had a tendency to just "blurt" out the truth because he was too damn stupid to do otherwise when asked a direct question. Also in 1992, he was asked what Iran-Contra was all about. He replied:
"The continuous consolidation of money and power into higher, tighter and righter hands."
Republicans are a constant source of amusement, dismay, and horror. Check these babies out:
"I was provided with additional input that was radically different from the truth. I assisted in furthering that version." Oliver North from his Iran-Contra testimony.
"If we let our vision of the world go forth, and we embrace it entirely, and we don't try to piece together clever diplomacy but just wage total war, our children will sing great songs about us years from now." Richard Perle, known since his Reagan years as the Prince of Darkness, with his fantastical vision of the upcoming shock and awe liberation strike on Iraq.
"For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction, because it was the one reason everyone could agree on." Paul Wolfowitz, Vanity Fair interview, May 28, 2003, on the justification given by the Bush administration for invading Iraq.
And -- my favorite quote of all time...
"So many minority youths had volunteered for the well-paying military positions to escape poverty and the ghetto that there was literally no room for patriotic folks." Rep. Tom Delay during the 1988 Republican National Convention, explaining his own lack of service in Vietnam.
On second thought, the DeLay quote is tied with the Wolfowitz quote for "say, whut?" honors...LOL
Sheila
Source: www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=22563&mode=nested
- - - - - - - -
That quote is also posted:
www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_sheila_s_050830_the_mothers_are_comi.htm
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Katrina: Apathy Blown Away * Stormy Future
06 September 2005
"Unfortunately, the war in Iraq is directly related to the devastation
left by the hurricane. About 35 percent of Louisiana's National Guard is now
serving in Iraq, where four out of every 10 soldiers are guardsmen. Recruiting
for the Guard is also down significantly because people are afraid of being sent
to Iraq if they join, leaving the Guard even more short-handed. "
-- Molly Ivins
1) How the Free Market Killed New Orleans
- - Bush Team Tries to Pin Blame on Local Officials
- - Aaron Broussard - Meet the Press transcript
2) "Katrina blows away political apathy" by Molly Ivins
- - Has Katrina Saved US Media?
3) Impact of CO2-Induced Warming on Hurricane Intensity
Editor's Notes:
The first two items cover Katrina with insight and eloquence, from the writing by Molly Ivins and Michael Parenti. The third item is on a study showing the correlation between global warming and increasing storm intensity:
"In the Sept. 15 issue of the Journal of Climate,
Knutson and colleague Robert Tuleya of Old Dominion
University published a study of 1,300 simulated hurricanes,
using conditions of higher temperatures and carbon-dioxide levels,
like those potentially caused by global warming. The result was a
6-percent increase in maximum surface-wind speed, and an 18-percent
increase in average precipitation in areas within 60 miles of the storm
center. If the number of hurricanes remains consistent, Knutson writes,
"greenhouse gas-induced warming may lead to a gradually increasing
risk in the occurrence of highly destructive category-5 storms.'"
1) How the Free Market Killed New Orleans
- - Bush Team Tries to Pin Blame on Local Officials
- - Aaron Broussard - Meet the Press transcript
How the Free Market Killed New Orleans
by Michael Parenti
The free market played a crucial role in the destruction of New Orleans and the death of thousands of its residents. Forewarned that a momentous (force 5) hurricane was going to hit that city and surrounding areas, what did officials do? They played the free market.
They announced that everyone should evacuate. Everyone was expected to devise their own way out of the disaster area by private means, just like people do when disaster hits free-market Third World countries.
It is a beautiful thing this free market in which every individual pursues his or her own personal interests and thereby effects an optimal outcome for the entire society. Thus does the invisible hand work its wonders in mysterious ways.
In New Orleans there would be none of the collectivistic regimented evacuation as occurred in Cuba. When an especially powerful hurricane hit that island in 2004, the Castro government, abetted by neighborhood citizen committees and local Communist party cadres, evacuated 1.5 million people, more than 10 percent of the country s population. The Cubans lost 20,000 homes to that hurricane---but not a single life was lost, a heartening feat that went largely unmentioned in the U.S. press.
On Day One of the disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina, it was already clear that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Americans had perished in New Orleans. Many people had refused to evacuate, media reporters explained, because they were just plain stubborn.
It was not until Day Three that the relatively affluent telecasters began to realize that tens of thousands of people had failed to flee because they had nowhere to go and no means of getting there. With hardly any cash at hand or no motor vehicle to call their own, they had to sit tight and hope for the best. In the end, the free market did not work so well for them.
Many of these people were low-income African Americans, along with fewer numbers of poor whites. It should be remembered that most of them had jobs before Katrina s lethal visit. That s what most poor people do in this country: they work, usually quite hard at dismally paying jobs, sometimes more than one job at a time. They are poor not because they re lazy but because they have a hard time surviving on poverty wages while burdened by high prices, high rents, and regressive taxes.
The free market played a role in other ways. Bush s agenda is to cut government services to the bone and make people rely on the private sector for the things they might need. So he sliced $71.2 million from the budget of the New Orleans Corps of Engineers, a 44 percent reduction. Plans to fortify New Orleans levees and upgrade the system of pumping out water had to be shelved.
Army Corps of Engineer personnel had started work to build new levees several years ago but many of them were taken off such projects and sent to Iraq. In addition, the president cut $30 million in flood control appropriations.
Bush took to the airways ( Good Morning America 1 September 2005) and said I don t think anyone anticipated that breach of the levees. Just another untruth tumbling from his lips. The catastrophic flooding of New Orleans had been foreseen by storm experts, engineers, Louisiana journalists and state officials, and even some federal agencies. All sorts of people had been predicting disaster for years, pointing to the danger of rising water levels and the need to strengthen the levees and pumps, and fortify the entire coastland.
In their campaign to starve out the public sector, the Bushite reactionaries also allowed developers to drain vast areas of wetlands. Again, that old invisible hand of the free market would take care of things. The developers, pursuing their own private profit, would devise outcomes that would benefit us all.
But wetlands served as a natural absorbent and barrier between New Orleans and the storms riding in from across the sea. And for some years now, the wetlands have been disappearing at a frightening pace on the Gulf coast. All this was of no concern to the reactionaries in the White House.
As for the rescue operation, the free-marketeers like to say that relief to the more unfortunate among us should be left to private charity. It was a favorite preachment of President Ronald Reagan that private charity can do the job. And for the first few days that indeed seemed to be the policy with the disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina.
The federal government was nowhere in sight but the Red Cross went into action. Its message: Don t send food or blankets; send money. The Salvation Army also began to muster up its aging troops. Meanwhile Pat Robertson and the Christian Broadcasting Network---taking a moment off from God s work of pushing John Roberts nomination to the Supreme Court---called for donations and announced Operation Blessing which consisted of a highly-publicized but totally inadequate shipment of canned goods and bibles.
By Day Three even the myopic media began to realize the immense failure of the rescue operation. People were dying because relief had not arrived. The authorities seemed more concerned with the looting than with rescuing people, more concerned with crowd control, which consisted of corralling thousands into barren open lots devoid of decent shelter, and not allowing them to leave.
Questions arose that the free market seem incapable of answering: Who was in charge of the rescue operation? Why so few helicopters and just a scattering of Coast Guard rescuers? Why did it take helicopters five hours to lift six people out of one hospital? When would the rescue operation gather some steam? Where were the feds? The state troopers? The National Guard? Where were the buses and trucks? the shelters and portable toilets? The medical supplies and water?
And where was Homeland Security? What has Homeland Security done with the $33.8 billions allocated to it in fiscal 2005? By Day Four, almost all the major media were reporting that the federal government s response was a national disgrace. Meanwhile George Bush finally made his photo-op appearance in a few well-chosen disaster areas---before romping off to play golf.
In a moment of delicious (and perhaps mischievous) irony, offers of foreign aid were tendered by France, Germany, Venezuela, and several other nations. Russia offered to send two plane loads of food and other materials for the victims. Cuba--which has a record of sending doctors to dozens of countries, including a thankful Sri Lanka during the tsunami disaster---offered 1,100 doctors. Predictably, all these proposals were sharply declined by the U.S. State Department.
America the Beautiful and Powerful, America the Supreme Rescuer and World Leader, America the Purveyor of Global Prosperity could not accept foreign aid from others. That would be a most deflating and insulting role reversal. Were the French looking for another punch in the nose? Were the Cubans up to their old subversive tricks?
Besides, to have accepted foreign aid would have been to admit the truth---that the Bushite reactionaries had neither the desire nor the decency to provide for ordinary citizens, not even those in the most extreme straits.
I recently heard someone complain, Bush is trying to save the world when he can t even take care of his own people here at home. Not quite true. He certainly does take very good care of his own people, that tiny fraction of one percent, the superrich. It s just that the working people of New Orleans do not number among them.
-------
Michael Parenti's recent books include Superpatriotism (City Lights) and
The Assassination of Julius Caesar (New Press), both available in paperback.
His forthcoming The Culture Struggle (Seven Stories Press) will be published
in the fall. For more information visit: MichaelParenti.org .
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush Team Tries to Pin Blame on Local Officials
by Julian Borger in Washington
Published September 5, 2005 by the Guardian/UK
Bush administration officials yesterday blamed state and local officials for the delays in bringing relief to New Orleans, as the president struggled to fend off the most serious political crisis of his presidency.
His top officials continued to be pilloried on television talk shows by liberals and conservatives alike, but the White House began to show signs of an evolving strategy to prevent the relief fiasco from eclipsing the president's second term.
The outrage over the government's relief effort has hit Mr Bush at a time when he is already weakened by the grueling war in Iraq. The threat is not only to his place in history; it could also cripple his second-term agenda, undermining his plans to privative the social security system and to end inheritance tax.
Mr Bush also faces a much more difficult task in appointing an ideological conservative to take the supreme court seat of William Rehnquist, who died on Saturday.
The White House drew encouragement from an initial poll suggesting most Republican voters were sticking by him, and his supporters also pointed to Mr Bush's track record of recovering from mistakes. His initial response to the September 11 attacks was also sharply criticized. With that in mind, the first plank in the political recovery strategy has been to try to make up for lost time. On Saturday Mr Bush ordered 7,000 more troops to the Gulf coast.
As important as the content of the speech was its somber tone. It was clear the White House realized that making a joke about his young hell-raising days in New Orleans in the course of a flying visit to the flooded city on Friday, was a mistake that reinforced allegations he had failed to take the disaster seriously enough.
The White House also announced yesterday that the president had canceled public engagements, including a meeting with the Chinese president, Hu Jintao. Instead, he was due to return to the scene of the devastation.
The second element of the White House plan is to insist, in an echo of the September 11 attacks, that the scale of the disaster, the combination of a hurricane and the collapse of the levee system around New Orleans, could not have been foreseen.
Mr Bush was castigated for saying on Wednesday: "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees". It was pointed out that there had been a string of investigations and reports in recent years which had predicted the disaster almost exactly.
Nevertheless, administration officials stuck to the line yesterday. In a string of television interviews, Michael Chertoff, the head of the homeland security department, called the situation an "ultra-catastrophe", as if the hurricane and flood were unrelated events. "That 'perfect storm' of a combination of catastrophes exceeded the foresight of the planners, and maybe anybody's foresight," he said.
The third element in the administration's political response has been to counter-attack against the blame directed at the federal authorities, particularly the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its parent body, the homeland security department.
In his weekend radio address, Mr Bush implied many of the problems had been caused by lower levels of government. The scale of the crisis "has created tremendous problems that have strained state and local capabilities. The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orleans. And that is unacceptable."
Unnamed White House officials, quoted in the Washington Post, directed blame at the Louisiana governor, Kathleen Blanco, a Democrat, for being slow to call for outside help and to declare a state of emergency. Ms Blanco, meanwhile, resisted a federal attempt to take over control of local police and national guard units - an attempt some Louisiana officials saw as a political maneuver that would help blame the weak response in the first week on the state.
The depth of America's polarization could prove a bulwark preventing Mr Bush's political support from collapsing altogether. A poll by the Washington Post and ABC News on Friday night, showed that, of those questioned, 46% approved of the way the president had handled the relief efforts while 47% disapproved.
The spotlight began to turn yesterday on Michael Brown, the head of FEMA, who had minimal emergency management experience before joining the agency in 2001, and had spent the previous 10 years organizing horse shows for the International Arabian Horse Association. Press reports claimed he had had to leave that job because of questions about his performance.
Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5277736-103681,00.html
also posted
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0905-02.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Aaron Broussard - Meet the Press transcript
Aaron Broussard's comments on NBC's 'Meet the Press' --Tim Russert interviews Jefferson Parish President, Aaron Broussard 04 Sep 2005 "AARON BROUSSARD: We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn't need them. This was a week ago. FEMA--we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, 'Come get the fuel right away.' When we got there with our trucks, they got a word. 'FEMA says don't give you the fuel.' Yesterday--yesterday--FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards on our line and says, 'No one is getting near these lines.'"
Transcript posted at Legitgov.org - A must read! http://legitgov.org/transcript_russert_broussard_segment_040905.html
For MSNBC transcript:
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9179790/
2) "Katrina blows away political apathy" by Molly Ivins
- - Has Katrina Saved US Media?
"Katrina blows away political apathy" by Molly Ivins
AUSTIN, Texas -- Like many of you who love New Orleans, I find myself taking short mental walks there today, turning a familiar corner, glimpsing a favorite scene, square or vista. And worrying about the beloved friends and the city, and how they are now.
To use a fine Southern word, it's tacky to start playing the blame game before the dead are even counted. It is not too soon, however, to make a point that needs to be hammered home again and again, and that is that government policies have real consequences in people's lives.
This is not "just politics" or blaming for political advantage. This is about the real consequences of what governments do and do not do about their responsibilities. And about who winds up paying the price for those policies.
This is a column for everyone in the path of Hurricane Katrina who ever said, "I'm sorry, I'm just not interested in politics," or, "There's nothing I can do about it," or, "Eh, they're all crooks anyway."
Nothing to do with me, nothing to do with my life, nothing I can do about any of it. Look around you this morning. I suppose the NRA would argue, "Government policies don't kill people, hurricanes kill people." Actually, hurricanes plus government policies kill people.
One of the main reasons New Orleans is so vulnerable to hurricanes is the gradual disappearance of the wetlands on the Gulf Coast that once stood as a natural buffer between the city and storms coming in from the water. The disappearance of those wetlands does not have the name of a political party or a particular administration attached to it. No one wants to play, "The Democrats did it," or, "It's all Reagan's fault." Many environmentalists will tell you more than a century's interference with the natural flow of the Mississippi is the root cause of the problem, cutting off the movement of alluvial soil to the river's great delta.
But in addition to long-range consequences of long-term policies like letting the Corps of Engineers try to build a better river than God, there are real short-term consequences, as well. It is a fact that the Clinton administration set some tough policies on wetlands, and it is a fact that the Bush administration repealed those policies -- ordering federal agencies to stop protecting as many as 20 million acres of wetlands.
Last year, four environmental groups cooperated on a joint report showing the Bush administration's policies had allowed developers to drain thousands of acres of wetlands.
Does this mean we should blame Bush for the fact that New Orleans is underwater? No, but it means we can blame Bush when a Class 3 or Class 2 hurricane puts New Orleans under. At this point, it is a matter of making a bad situation worse, of failing to observe the First Rule of Holes (when you're in one, stop digging).
Had a storm the size of Katrina just had the grace to hold off for a while, it's quite likely no one would even remember what the Bush administration did two months ago. The national press corps has the attention span of a gnat, and trying to get anyone in Washington to remember longer than a year ago is like asking them what happened in Iznik, Turkey, in A.D. 325.
Just plain political bad luck that, in June, Bush took his little ax and chopped $71.2 million from the budget of the New Orleans Corps of Engineers, a 44 percent reduction. As was reported in New Orleans CityBusiness at the time, that meant "major hurricane and flood projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for now."
The commander of the Corps' New Orleans district also immediately instituted a hiring freeze and cancelled the annual Corps picnic.
Our friends at the Center for American Progress note the Office of Technology Assessment used to produce forward-thinking plans such as "Floods: A National Policy Concern" and "A Framework for Flood Hazards Management." Unfortunately, the office was targeted by Newt Gingrich and the Republican right, and gutted years ago.
In fact, there is now a government-wide movement away from basing policy on science, expertise and professionalism, and in favor of choices based on ideology. If you're wondering what the ideological position on flood management might be, look at the pictures of New Orleans -- it seems to consist of gutting the programs that do anything.
Unfortunately, the war in Iraq is directly related to the devastation left by the hurricane. About 35 percent of Louisiana's National Guard is now serving in Iraq, where four out of every 10 soldiers are guardsmen. Recruiting for the Guard is also down significantly because people are afraid of being sent to Iraq if they join, leaving the Guard even more short-handed.
The Louisiana National Guard also notes that dozens of its high-water vehicles, humvees, refuelers and generators have also been sent abroad. (I hate to be picky, but why do they need high-water vehicles in Iraq?)
This, in turn, goes back to the original policy decision to go into Iraq without enough soldiers and the subsequent failure to admit that mistake and to rectify it by instituting a draft.
The levees of New Orleans, two of which are now broken and flooding the city, were also victims of Iraq war spending. Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, said on June 8, 2004, "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq."
This, friends, is why we need to pay attention to government policies, not political personalities, and to know whereon we vote. It is about our lives.
To find out more about Molly Ivins and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2005 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
Originally Published on Thursday September 1, 2005
www.creators.com/opinion_show.cfm?columnsName=miv
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Has Katrina Saved US Media?
Published on September 5, 2005 by the BBC
Has Katrina Saved US Media?
by Matt Wells - BBC News, Los Angeles
As President Bush scurries back to the Gulf Coast, it is clear that this is the greatest challenge to politics-as-usual in America since the fall of Richard Nixon in the 1970s.
Then as now, good reporting lies at the heart of what is changing.
But unlike Watergate, "Katrinagate" was public service journalism ruthlessly exposing the truth on a live and continuous basis.
Article Truncated ~ for the complete BBC article, see
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4214516.stm
also posted:
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0905-01.htm
3) Impact of CO2-Induced Warming on Hurricane Intensity
From Princeton.edu:
Stormy Future
This year's hurricane season has been devastating, but according to Thomas Knutson of Princeton's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, worse weather may be on the horizon. Changing climate factors in the next 80 years, he says, could make hurricanes stronger. In the Sept. 15 issue of the Journal of Climate, Knutson and colleague Robert Tuleya of Old Dominion University published a study of 1,300 simulated hurricanes, using conditions of higher temperatures and carbon-dioxide levels, like those potentially caused by global warming. The result was a 6-percent increase in maximum surface-wind speed, and an 18-percent increase in average precipitation in areas within 60 miles of the storm center. If the number of hurricanes remains consistent, Knutson writes, "greenhouse gas-induced warming may lead to a gradually increasing risk in the occurrence of highly destructive category-5 storms."
Source:
www.princeton.edu/~paw/archive_new/PAW04-05/05-1117/notebook.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Impact of CO2-Induced Warming on Simulated Hurricane Intensity and Precipitation: Sensitivity to the Choice of Climate Model and Convective Parameterization
Issn: 1520-0442 Journal: Journal of Climate Volume: 17 Issue: 18 Pages: 3477-3495
Authors: Knutson, Thomas R., Tuleya, Robert E.
Article ID:10.1175/1520-0442(2004)017<3477:IOCWOS>2.0.CO;2
For the abstract and information on above paper, see:
http://ams.allenpress.com/amsonline/?request=get-document&doi=10.1175%2F1520-0442(2004)017%3C3477:IOCWOS%3E2.0.CO%3B2
For Flyby News updated resource, see:
Mounting Evidence of Global Warming
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Katrina Warming * Peltier * Woody * Patriot
01 September 2005
THE HURRICANE that struck Louisiana..
was nicknamed Katrina..
Its real name is global warming.
1) Katrina's real name is Global Warming
2) Court room eyewitness: Peltier is a political prisoner
- - Justice for Woody and family within a year?
3) ACLU needs help to amend Patriot Act
- - Kerry and Edwards to Stay in Recount Case
Editor's Notes:
It is time to face up to the facts, unprecedented tragedy is upon us. The big question from those in Louisiana and Mississippi is why is it taking so long for help. Media people are outnumbering rescuers. Could it be that using national guardsmen and funds for the war in Iraq is having repercussions back home? Besides exhausting resources, an undeclared war is an abomination to the founding principles of the US Constitution. If we are fighting for justice and freedom, then the next few items should be resolved, sooner rather than later.
"I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet imagined by man,
by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution."
Thomas Jefferson
1) Katrina's real name is Global Warming
Katrina's real name
By Ross Gelbspan
The Boston Globe
August 30, 2005
THE HURRICANE that struck Louisiana yesterday was nicknamed Katrina by the National Weather Service. Its real name is global warming.
When the year began with a two-foot snowfall in Los Angeles, the cause was global warming.
When 124-mile-an-hour winds shut down nuclear plants in Scandinavia and cut power to hundreds of thousands of people in Ireland and the United Kingdom, the driver was global warming.
When a severe drought in the Midwest dropped water levels in the Missouri River to their lowest on record earlier this summer, the reason was global warming.
In July, when the worst drought on record triggered wildfires in Spain and Portugal and left water levels in France at their lowest in 30 years, the explanation was global warming.
When a lethal heat wave in Arizona kept temperatures above 110 degrees and killed more than 20 people in one week, the culprit was global warming.
And when the Indian city of Bombay (Mumbai) received 37 inches of rain in one day - killing 1,000 people and disrupting the lives of 20 million others - the villain was global warming.
As the atmosphere warms, it generates longer droughts, more-intense downpours, more-frequent heat waves, and more-severe storms.
Although Katrina began as a relatively small hurricane that glanced off south Florida, it was supercharged with extraordinary intensity by the relatively blistering sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico.
The consequences are as heartbreaking as they are terrifying.
Unfortunately, very few people in America know the real name of Hurricane Katrina because the coal and oil industries have spent millions of dollars to keep the public in doubt about the issue.
The reason is simple: To allow the climate to stabilize requires humanity to cut its use of coal and oil by 70 percent. That, of course, threatens the survival of one of the largest commercial enterprises in history.
In 1995, public utility hearings in Minnesota found that the coal industry had paid more than $1 million to four scientists who were public dissenters on global warming. And ExxonMobil has spent more than $13 million since 1998 on an anti-global warming public relations and lobbying campaign.
In 2000, big oil and big coal scored their biggest electoral victory yet when President George W. Bush was elected president - and subsequently took suggestions from the industry for his climate and energy policies.
As the pace of climate change accelerates, many researchers fear we have already entered a period of irreversible runaway climate change.
Against this background, the ignorance of the American public about global warming stands out as an indictment of the US media.
When the US press has bothered to cover the subject of global warming, it has focused almost exclusively on its political and diplomatic aspects and not on what the warming is doing to our agriculture, water supplies, plant and animal life, public health, and weather.
For years, the fossil fuel industry has lobbied the media to accord the same weight to a handful of global warming skeptics that it accords the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - more than 2,000 scientists from 100 countries reporting to the United Nations.
Today, with the science having become even more robust - and the impacts as visible as the megastorm that covered much of the Gulf of Mexico - the press bears a share of the guilt for our self-induced destruction with the oil and coal industries.
As a Bostonian, I am afraid that the coming winter will - like last winter - be unusually short and devastatingly severe. At the beginning of 2005, a deadly ice storm knocked out power to thousands of people in New England and dropped a record-setting 42.2 inches of snow on Boston.
The conventional name of the month was January. Its real name is global warming.
Ross Gelbspan is author of "The Heat Is On" and "Boiling Point."
This article was published by The Boston Globe:
www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/08/30/katrinas_real_name/
For FN's resource page, see:
Mounting Evidence of Global Warming!
2) Court room eyewitness: Peltier is a political prisoner
- - Justice for Woody and family within a year?
Court room eyewitness: Peltier is a political prisoner
Re: Article against Leonard in Smoke Signals Newspaper
Leonard Peltier Defense Committe
The latest attack against Leonard is again coming from Indian Country and the strategy and style are too reminiscent of Paul DeMain's. Judge for yourselves (you can find it at grandronde.org ; then click on the Smoke Signals newspaper picture) and if you feel so inspired, I encourage you to respond. Below is the response letter by long time supporter David Givers:
August 30, 2005
Dear Editors,
Ron Kartens description of the trial of Leonard Peltier leaves out an important perspective. Someone like me who was in the court room for the entire trial.
In 1976, I had never heard of Leonard Peltier nor gave very much attention to media coverage of the shoot out in which FBI agents Williams and Coler were killed. Shortly before the Peltier trial started in Fargo, some Indian women, with children in hand, knocked on my door asking for help to find housing in our neighborhood. It was a random event that led me to attend the trial. They were part of the Peltier legal defense team that was coming to Fargo to help defend Mr. Peltier.
The women came back after we helped them and I heard from them accusations against the FBI, and the courts, that I simply could not believe at the time. I am someone who believes that the right to a fair trial is deeply embedded in our freedoms, is guaranteed by our Constitution, and that our system of law should always pursue the truth. I felt an obligation to be a public spectator at the trial and to form my own conclusion. I was able to sit in the court room every day there were hearings in Fargo.
It took years of legal labor by the Peltier defense committee to uncover the evidence to convince Amnesty International that Leonard Peltier is a political prisoner and they did declare him a political prisoner. That evidence is contained in the FBI documents that have been forced into disclosure via the Freedom of Information Act. The best example of the many government lies that occurred in our court is the murder weapon alleged to have been used by Mr. Peltier.
That day in court is indelibly etched in my memory. Agent Evan Hodge testified that the AR 15 linked directly to Leonard Peltier was the exact weapon used to kill Agents Williams and Coler. However, there was something wrong about that mans testimony. He was visibly nervous.
As an FBI forensic expert, he undoubtedly provided expert testimony numerous times. He should have been impeccable in his composure and testimony. He simply was not. Shortly after leaving the witness stand, Prosecutor Lynn Crooks recalled Hodge back for rephrasing. That was the coverup designed to prevent future perjury charges.
That fact is that the so called murder weapon tested by Agent Hodge did not match the ballistic evidence. That weapon, alleged by the government used by Leonard Peltier, did not kill the agents. This truth was discovered years later through the Freedom of Information Act. However, Mr. Crooks paraded that weapon all around the court room many times stating how Mr. Peltier at point blank range cold bloodedly killed the agents. That is another lie and it undoubtedly had an indelible impact on the jury.
Of course this is not just my belief or accusation. It is an actual appeals court ruling. In November 2003, the United States Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged that
Much of the governments behavior at the Pine Ridge Reservation and in its prosecution of Mr. Peltier is to be condemned. The government withheld evidence. It intimidated witnesses. These facts are not disputed."
Virtually every time the defense challenged the government, and every attempt the defense made to present its own case, Judge Paul Benson had the jury removed from the court room. The jury never heard the defense. I saw this happen. No wonder the jury convicted. It is a false conviction because of false testimony by the government, and use of false and intimidated witnesses.
Please re read the findings by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.
I don't know how you feel about our court system, but when we allow our officials to falsely imprison through suppression of the truth and repression of witnesses, then you and I have let our Constitution and Bill of Rights become meaningless pieces of paper and not a sacred agreement between we the people and our elected and appointed officials.
Yet Leonard Peltier remains in prison because he is a political prisoner. He is in prison because the unwritten rule is that when a law man goes down, someone pays the price with prison or death. At the time of the trial, there were no other persons to charge with the killings. Thus, Mr. Peltier had to pay the price no matter what the cost has been to the integrity of our courts and the sacred honor of our Constitution.
There is a question that remains unanswered by Mr. Kartens article. If the FBI had all these witnesses and informants when the trial was going on, why didn't they produce them? Suddenly they are once again falling silently and anonymously like Autumn leaves to confess that they know Leonard is guilty. The lies must continue to protect themselves and to prejudice the parole board and the general public, who in your story, are Grand Ronde people.
Many years have passed and it is long past time to heal these wounds. Mr. Peltier must be released from prison. As for the individuals who perpetrated this injustice and created a political prisoner, they have to live with their own guilty consciences. I bear them no grudge. I simply want the honor of our Constitution, with the right to a fair trial, restored through the release of Leonard Peltier.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For FN's updated resource: Free Leonard Peltier
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Justice for Woody and family within a year?
Published by the Valley Advocate
Justice for Woody
Years after they shot him dead in church,
the police who killed Robert Woodward may face a jury--soon.
by Eesha Williams
- September 1, 2005 [See link at end for PHOTO]
Robert Woodward: Justice delayed, perhaps not denied.
"I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet imagined by man,
by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution."
Thomas Jefferson
For decades, the percentage of all court decisions that are made by juries has been going down sharply in the United States, making the justice system more reliant on professional judges.
Why does that matter?
For one thing, judges and prosecutors work with police on a daily basis. So when it's time for a prosecutor to try to persuade a judge to send a cop to jail for unjustified murder or assault, the outcome is often predictable. Until August 24 it looked as if the case of the Woodward family versus the Brattleboro Police Department would be another example of that phenomenon.
On Dec. 2, 2001, a local man, Robert "Woody" Woodward, walked into a Brattleboro church, interrupting Sunday morning services. Woodward, who was 37 and had no criminal record, held a small knife and threatened to cut himself. A member of the congregation called 911. Brattleboro police officers Terrance Parker and Marshall Holbrook quickly arrived. Within minutes, in full view of the congregation, they had shot and killed Woodward.
The Woodward family filed a wrongful death suit. But over the next three years, decisions by a federal judge in Brattleboro, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Vermont Attorney General all went against Woodward's family's attempts to make the officers accountable for Woody's killing. But on Aug. 24, a federal appeals court in New York City said it was wrong for the Brattleboro judge to reject the Woodward family's request for a jury trial. The two-page ruling by judges Rosemary Pooler, Sonia Sotomayor and Edward Korman is available at www.uscourts.gov. It reads in part, "Four witnesses gave sworn statements that Woodward made no advances or threatening moves toward the officers or any bystanders before he was shot. ... Some witnesses who claim to have seen Woodward advance on the officers gave conflicting statements..." The judges note that some witnesses estimated that Woodward--armed only with a small knife--was 20 feet from the cops when they shot him. Others said he was closer. Officer Parker worked 97 hours of overtime in the month before he shot Woodward.
"There's no guarantee that a jury will decide differently than a judge in a police wrongful death case. But it is better to have people who live in the community with the police every day decide," says Jeffrey Abramson, author of We the Jury, published by Harvard University Press.
The mood of the Brattleboro community was revealed when residents here voted 1,566 to 933 last year in favor of creating a civilian board to investigate complaints against the police.
Protests organized by the group JusticeforWoody.org have called for Brattleboro to train its police in the use of non-lethal weapons and other means of dealing with mentally ill people.
The Woodward family's lawyer, Brattleboro native Joel Faxon, sounded jubilant after the ruling. "During the jury trial the Brattleboro Police Department's improper procedures will come to light," he predicted. "When the public becomes aware, they will demand reforms. People in Brattleboro need to know that what happened to Robert Woodward won't happen again."
Faxon said he expects a jury will consider the case within six months. If the jury rules in favor of the Woodwards, they will likely get money from the town. The earlier decisions meant that no one would even have to pay a fine for killing Robert Woodward.
For the original posting of this article, see:
http://valleyadvocate.com/gbase/News/content.html?oid=oid:124255
For FN's resource page, see:
Friend Shot Dead by Police.
3) ACLU needs help to amend Patriot Act
- - Kerry and Edwards to Stay in Recount Case
ACLU requests your help to amend Patriot Act
The ACLU has filed an important lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a Patriot Act provision allowing the use of "national security letters." We recently disclosed that the FBI used this controversial power to demand records from our client. Because of a gag order, I can't provide details on the case, but I can tell you that our client is a member of the American Library Association in Connecticut.
This is just the latest concrete evidence that Patriot Act reforms are necessary to protect our privacy and all our civil liberties. Right now, both the Senate and the House are considering changes to the act. That's why we need your help.
Fortunately, the Senate bill takes some steps to add protections against abuse in its reauthorization of the expiring sections of the Patriot Act and is better than the House bill, although more reforms are needed. Unfortunately, because of the gag order, our client cannot participate in the public debate as Congress prepares to reauthorize or amend it in September. We are fighting the gag order, and hope the court will soon lift it.
With your help, we can ensure that the Senate changes prevail. We need as many people as possible to send a strong message to Washington. That's why I'm asking you and other ACLU supporters to urge your friends to contact Congress in order to protect gains made on the Patriot Act by adopting the Senate version.
In appreciation of your pro-freedom work, we will send you a free DVD of "Beyond the Patriot Act," the premiere episode in our new TV series, The ACLU Freedom Files. Just use this form to ask five friends to join our fight against the Patriot Act. We'll send you the DVD.
Thank you for your important role in preserving and defending our civil liberties.
Sincerely,
Anthony D. Romero
Executive Director
American Civil Liberties Union
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kerry and Edwards to Stay in Recount Case
Trial to Start in August 2006
August 31, 2005
Don McTigue, attorney for John Kerry and John Edwards, appeared in federal court in Toledo, before Judge Carr, on August 30th, and told the Court that Kerry and Edwards intend to remain in the case.
Judge Carr set an August 22, 2006 trial date.
Additionally he consolidated the two recount cases, Rios v. Blackwell and Yost v. Cobb & Badnarik. He gave the plaintiffs until September 15th to file amended pleadings (plaintiff's counsel had requested an opportunity to streamline their claims).
Judge Carr set a discovery cut-off of May 1, 2006, and ruled that any summary judgment motions must be made by May 15, 2006.
Reference URL: http://fairnessbybeckerman.blogspot.com/2005/08/kerry-and-edwards-to-stay-in-recount.html
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
911-Truth * Chavez & oil kings * Bush poll drop
30 August 2005
"America will never be destroyed from the outside.
If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
-- Abraham Lincoln
1) Getting Agnostic About 9/11 - David Ray Griffin & LA Times
- - C-SPAN to air McKinney congressional Briefing on 9/11
2) Chavez challenges the oil kings
- - Jamaica signs on to Venezuela's oil plan
- - Thanks to Pat Robertson..
3) Bush Polls Continue to Wobble Downward
- - Swami Beyondananda: ‘at the junction of love and fear'
"You can fool some of the people all of the time,
and those are the ones you want to concentrate on."
– George W. Bush,
joking? at a Gridiron Club dinner,
Washington, D.C., March 2001.
Editor's Notes:
This issue begins with another special David Ray Griffin interview; this one published by the LA Times. David Ray Griffin must worry the Bush administration since his moral character, background, and investigative arguments are near impossible to discredit. David Ray Griffin and 9/11 Truth are allies. Another profile in courage, Cynthia McKinney, this Wednesday August 31st on C-SPAN, is being featured in a two-part series on the McKinney congressional Briefing on 9/11. Part 2 will be aired on 02 September 2005.
The second item is on Venezuela, about independence and unity spreading in Central and South America. US Bush administration plans for Peak Oil and "Vision 20/20" for raping the world with peak oil and nuclear military domination is not what it's cranked out to be, as George W must be learning (or totally crazed by a fear-greed disillusionment). A future for humankind is questionable. And while the Bush agenda could not convince the Sunni Iraqis to sign on the dotted line for a Constitution, how can anyone blame them for not trusting a conquering nation, killing more than 100,000 civilians, and a nation that dishonors its own Constitution for global domination and oil-greed-fear interests? So, to wind up this issue, we link to the wise words of Swami Beyondananda on 'love and fear.'
"History, we don't know. We'll all be dead."
George W. Bush
[For quote source,
see link-item 1.]
1) Getting Agnostic About 9/11 - David Ray Griffin & LA Times
- - C-SPAN to air McKinney congressional Briefing on 9/11
Getting Agnostic About 9/11
A society of nonbelievers questions the official version
MARK EHRMAN
August 28, 2005
Anyone who types the words "9/11" and "conspiracy" into an online search engine soon learns that not everybody buys the official narrative of what took place on Sept. 11, 2001. As a professor emeritus at the Claremont School of Theology, 66-year-old David Ray Griffin would seem to have more affinity for leather elbow patches than tin hats, yet after friends and colleagues prodded him into sifting through the evidence, he experienced a conversion. Now he's spreading the bad news. Griffin compiled a summary of material arguing against the accepted story that 19 hijackers sent by Osama bin Laden took the aviation system and the U.S. military by surprise that awful day in his 2004 book "The New Pearl Harbor" (published by Interlink, a Massachusetts-based independent publisher covering areas including travel, cooking, world fiction, current events, politics, children's literature and other subjects). He recently followed up with the book "The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions" (Interlink), a critique of the Kean commission document in which he suggests that a chunk of the blame for the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil lies closer to home than the caves of Afghanistan. We contacted him at his Santa Barbara-area home for a report on his journey from mild-mannered scholar to doubting Thomas.
How did you join the ranks of those questioning the official account of the 9/11 events?
I was rather slow getting on board. For the first year and a half I just accepted the conventional view, really the blowback thesis, that this was blowback for our foreign policy. When a colleague suggested to me about a year after 9/11 that he was convinced our own government or forces within our own government had arranged it, I didn't accept that. Then several months later another colleague sent me [a link to] a website that had a timeline. Once I started reading that and saw all those stories drawn from mainstream sources that contradicted the official account, I decided I needed to look into it more carefully, and the more I looked, the worse it got. I considered it an obligation to kind of organize, compile the evidence and put it out there for the public.
The Internet is full of 9/11 conspiracy theories. What have you contributed to the discussion?
My main contribution has been the second book, [showing] that the 9/11 commission report is not worthy of belief, and the implication of that is that they were covering up the government's own guilt.
What would constitute a "smoking gun" against the official 9/11 account?
There are many. By just ignoring them, the 9/11 commission implicitly admitted they couldn't answer them. The towers coming down into a pile only a few stories high is a smoking gun. Many laws of physics had to be violated if the official story about the collapses is true. [The collapses] had all the earmarks of a controlled demolition by explosives. One of those is total collapse into a small pile of rubble. The fact that Building 7 [a skyscraper near the towers] collapsed when it had not been hit by an airplane, and collapsed in seven or eight seconds, that's a smoking gun. The fact that standard operating procedures were not followed that morning, and we've gotten three different stories now by the U.S. military as to why they did not intercept the planes, that's a smoking gun. The Secret Service leaving the president and themselves wide open to being attacked by [not responding immediately], that's a smoking gun. I can't say one is bigger than the other. You've got six or seven that are equally big.
Critics of the official 9/11 account seem to draw sinister inferences from instances where people, buildings or physical objects didn't react or behave as one might expect in theory. For example, if the hijackers were devout Muslims, why were some drinking, eating pork chops and cavorting with lap dancers? Doesn't real life unfold inconsistently, even bizarrely?
That's true, but the 9/11 commission simply ignored those questions. They're creating this image of fanatics who were so devout and convinced of the truth of their religion that they were ready to meet their maker, yet here's all this evidence that suggests they were not devout at all. [The commission] simply ignored evidence.
Dissenters also seem to find it suspect that in a dire emergency, individuals and agencies bumbled, fumbled, delayed, dropped the ball or choked. Won't that occur in any emergency?
Well, of course, that is the official theory. It's a coincidence theory that just happened to be that on those days, everybody became terribly incompetent. Take the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration]. They've got these standard procedures: If a plane goes off course, if you lose radio contact or lose the transponder, you call the military. On this day we're told these FAA officials hit the trifecta. They got all three of these things, and yet they would stand around debating, "Should we call the military? No, I don't think so." And when they finally call, the people at headquarters won't accept their calls because they were in conference or wouldn't pass the call on. They have roughly about 100 hijack warnings a year where planes have to be scrambled, but suddenly they become just all thumbs. The whole thing is just implausible. The other thing is, if you've got accidents, screw-ups, some ought to go one way and the others the other way. Here everything goes the same way. Everybody fails to do their jobs in relation to something to do with 9/11.
With others, you have alleged that inconsistencies, omissions or lies in the 9/11 record point to a cover-up, or even collusion or orchestration, by the American government. What would motivate such a scenario?
You've got liberal Democrats and Republicans and Independents who are appalled by what Andrew Bacevich [a professor of international relations at Boston University] called "the new American militarism" in the book "American Empire." New meaning, qualitatively different than before. This post-9/11 push to a new level has made the world an enormously more dangerous place. Many people apart from thinking about 9/11 as an inside job have decided that the United States is doing what [Princeton University emeritus international law professor] Richard Falk calls a "global domination project." Chalmers Johnson [Japan Policy Research Institute president], a previous conservative, now says that we have become a military juggernaut intent on world domination.
Have you followed polls on what the public believes about 9/11?
There was a Zogby poll in New York. The question asked was, do you believe the government had advance knowledge of the attacks and consciously let them happen? Forty-nine percent in New York City said yes. I believe it was 43% statewide. That is a pretty remarkable figure. In this country there has not been a poll that asked, do you believe the government actually planned and orchestrated the attacks? The question has been raised in Europe and Canada and has gotten to somewhere around 20%. It would be interesting to have such a poll in the United States.
Conspiracy theorists are often dismissed as marginal types. Where do your views on 9/11 place you in the eyes of your peers in academia?
One thing to point out is, the official account itself is a conspiracy theory. It says that 19 Arab Muslims under the influence of Osama bin Laden conspired to pull off this operation. The question is not whether one is a conspiracy theorist about 9/11. It's which conspiracy theory do you find most supported by the evidence?
Does your role as a 9/11 dissenter depart from your life's work as a scholar and theologian?
At first glance it may seem strange, but the task of a theologian is to look at the world from what we would imagine the divine perspective, [which] would care about the good of the whole and would love all the parts. [So] 9/11, if it was brought about by forces within our own government for imperial reasons, is antithetical to the general good.
Evil has been a subject of your academic writing. It's also been a recurring theme in administration rhetoric. Is that strange?
In these politicians' mouths, it's used to describe certain groups and organizations when it's politically convenient to do so, and then to overlook even greater evil when it's politically convenient to do so. If you understand the divine as an all-powerful and wrathful creator who seeks vengeance, and uses overwhelming power to destroy its enemies, why then, if you've got the political power, you're probably going to think you're acting like God if you do that. The [Christian] church during the early centuries was anti-empire. Rome was the enemy. With Constantine, the empire accepted Christianity, and Christianity started accepting empire and all that entailed. There has been a long history of support for militarism, so from that perspective, it's not so strange.
For the entire Los Angeles Times article, see:
http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/magazine/la-tm-crgriffin35aug28,1,3835884.story?coll=la-headlines-magazine
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - C-SPAN to air McKinney congressional Briefing on 9/11
August 31 - Part 1
8:00 pm to 11:30 pm on Wednesday, August 31
Friday, September 2 - Part 2
8:00 pm to 1:00 am.
The two-part, nine-hour Congressional 9/11 briefing with Rep. Cynthia McKinney concerning remaining issues about 9/11 and the Commission's report, and will be broadcast on the main C-SPAN channel.
Details from the C-SPAN website follow:
*C-SPAN to broadcast the entirety of the McKinney congressional Briefing on 9/11*
Date: Aug 14, 2005 - 08:06 PM Representative Cynthia McKinney organized a day-long briefing on July 22 to address the 9/11 Commission's Final Report one year later. The event included leading victims' family members, former government and intelligence workers, academics and authors speaking on the flaws and weaknesses of the 9/11 Commission's investigation, assumptions, omissions, conclusions and recommendations. It was filmed in entirety by C-SPAN.
C-SPAN has now set some times and dates for airing the event.
August 31st from 8:00 pm to 11:30 pm
And on Friday, September 2 from 8:00 pm to 1:00 am.
Part I
Forum
September 11 Commission Report Results, Pt. 1
U.S. House of Representatives, McKinney, C. (D-GA)
Washington, District of Columbia (United States)
ID: 187857 - 07/22/2005 - 3:30 - No Sale
Daugherty, Rebecca, Director, Freedom of Info. Service Center
Smith, Wayne, Member, Center for International Policy
Gage, Kit, National Coordinator, National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom
Kleinberg, Mindy, Relative
Judge, John, Co-Founder, 9/11 CitizensWatch
McKinney, Cynthia, U.S. Representative, D, Georgia (State)
Families of victims, former intelligence officials, and authors speak at a day-long forum on the September 11 Commission Report, focusing on the methodology of the investigation, recommendations made by the
commission, causes of the attacks, and government responses to the attacks.
Part II
Forum
September 11 Commission Report Results, Pt. 2
U.S. House of Representatives, McKinney, C. (D-GA)
Washington, District of Columbia (United States)
ID: 187857 - 2 - 07/22/2005 - 5:00 - No Sale
McKinney, Cynthia, U.S. Representative, D, Georgia (State)
Families of victims, former intelligence officials, and authors speak at a day-long forum on the September 11 Commission Report, focusing on the methodology of the investigation, recommendations made by the commission, causes of the attacks, and government responses to the attacks.
For full details on these see: http://www.c-span.org and click the "TV Schedules" link at the top right of the lead page, just above the flashing ad for C-SPAN pod-casting.
2) Chavez challenges the oil kings
- - Jamaica signs on to Venezuela's oil plan
- - Thanks to Pat Robertson..
Chavez challenges the oil kings
28 August 2005 By Michael Smith and Peter Wilson
On July 14 in the western city of Maracaibo, Venezuelan government tax auditors and a prosecutor went to the offices of Chevron, the second-largest US oil company.
They seized boxes of records to build a case that San Ramon, California-based Chevron and 21 other energy companies owe Venezuela ‚2.4 billion in back taxes.
The raid is part of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez's push to squeeze more money out of foreign companies that want to pump oil from the world's fifth-largest petroleum exporter.
Since last October, he has raised heavy-oil royalty fees to as much as 30 per cent from 1 per cent, begun paying for some services in nonconvertible bolivares instead of US dollars, and ordered oil well contracts converted into government-controlled joint ventures.
Chavez wants to use the revenue to pay for homes, clinics and schools for the 58 per cent of Venezuelan families who live on less than $200 a month.
Since taking office in February 1999, Chavez has embarked on a socialist revolution, seizing ranches to hand over to the poor and starting a TV news network with promotional ads featuring a swastika painted on a US flag.
Chavez says he's using oil money to bankroll a quest to become Latin America's leader against US-style capitalism.
In a May 4 speech, he said: "Being rich is bad˜ and "Jesus Christ was a socialist".
Chavez, a close friend of Cuban president Fidel Castro, sends crude oil to Cuba in exchange for doctors to staff 3,000 neighbourhood clinics.
In June, he pledged subsidised oil for poor Caribbean nations, such as Grenada.
But Chevron and its competitors haven't been scared off, because Venezuela has the largest reserves in the western hemisphere. The oil companies want to invest $30 billion in Venezuela, which is the fourth-largest supplier of crude to the US, according to the Venezuelan Hydrocarbons Association.
Chavez says all companies are welcome in his country.
"Foreign companies have been here for the last century exploiting oil and gas, and they'll have all the space they've been able to have so far," he says.
"It's just that they will have to pay the royalties, they will have to pay the income tax. If they don't, we will go after them."
Venezuela's tax agency stated on August 11 that it was seeking to attach more than 280 billion bolivares (‚106million) in assets from Royal Dutch Shell in a dispute over what the country says is unpaid back taxes.
The prize in Venezuela is the tropical flatlands north of the Orinoco river, beneath which, according to Chavez, lie 230 billion barrels of heavy crude, one of the largest oil deposits in the world.
Chavez, who has used his clout as leader of the third-largest member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) to curb Venezuela's output by 20 per cent since taking office, now says he wants to boost production.
Most of the decline came from the state-owned producer, Petroleos de Venezuela, where Chavez fired half the workforce to break a 2002-2003 strike aimed at ousting him. Daily output at PDVSA has tumbled to about 2million barrels from 2.92 million barrels in 1998.
Foreign oil companies took up the slack, doubling their production to about 1.12 million barrels a day last year.
Now, Chavez says he wants to attract 8 billion more from foreign oil companies to help boost Venezuela's total oil production to 5 million barrels a day by 2009.
"This government is your ally," Chavez told foreign oil executives in March.
"We are not chasing anyone away from Venezuela."
At the same time, Chavez claimed that the Bush administration was trying to force him to commit suicide and he threatened that exports to the US would be cut off if he were to meet an untimely death.
Chavez, who refers to US president George Bush as ‘Mr Danger', said on June 5 that the US was trying to install a global dictatorship. US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice described Chavez as a ‘negative force'˜ in the region.
Last Monday, television evangelist Pat Robertson told viewers of his 700 Club TV programme that the US should assassinate Chavez to stop him from becoming a "launching pad for communists".
Venezuelan vice president Jose Vicente Rangel responded by saying Robertson's remarks were ‘criminal'. US state department spokesman Sean McCormack said at a press briefing that Robertson's views did not "represent the policy of the United States".
Unless new reserves are tapped in countries like Venezuela in the next 15 years, global oil output won't keep pace with demand, according to a report by New York securities firm Sanford C Bernstein.
The report forecasts that demand for oil will grow by 1.8 per cent a year until 2020 to 102.7 million barrels a day.
Global oil production capacity will be 102.1 million barrels a day, the report says.
Concern about future supply has helped to push crude oil prices up more than fivefold to a record $67.10 a barrel on August 12 from $12.28 on February 2, 1999, when Chavez was sworn in as president.
Venezuela is one of the few major oil producers that allow foreign investment. Saudi Arabia allows only its state oil company to pump crude.
And Venezuela has been more open than other countries in Latin America such as Mexico, which bars foreign companies from exploiting the second-biggest oil reserves in Latin America.
Oil companies such as Shell have acquiesced to Chavez's demands. On July 14, the government ordered Shell, whose 90 years of working in Venezuela includes having its wells nationalised in 1975, to pay $131 million of back taxes.
Shell says it has paid all of its taxes.
Norway's state-run Statoil, Paris-based Total and Chevron have been hardest hit by Chavez's new rules, because they manage wells for PDVSA and are shareholders in the four heavy-crude production ventures in the Orinoco belt.
Statoil, Total and Conoco-Phillips may have to pay ‚260 million in back taxes for their heavy-oil ventures in the Orinoco belt, according to oil minister Ramirez.
Chavez is also considering a reduction in Venezuela's dependence on oil sales to the US, which accounts for about 60 per cent of the nation's crude exports. He signed agreements to boost oil sales to Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Paraguay and Uruguay.
He also proposed building a pipeline to Pacific Oceanports in Colombia to ship more crude to China.
The US imports 15 per cent of its crude oil from Venezuela, which is just a four to five-day tanker trip from Texas refineries.
Oil is a pervasive part of life in Venezuela, where petrol stations don't even post the price, because it is fixed at 18 cents per gallon. Revenue from crude exports funds half the government's budget, and oil prices have driven Venezuela's economy since the 1920s.
Last year, as crude prices soared again, Venezuela's economy grew a record 17 per cent.
In 1998 Chavez won a landslide election victory by pledging a revolution that would use oil revenue to spread equality. Since taking office, he has taken advantage of surging oil prices by boosting spending on programmes for the poor to a projected ‚10.6 billion this year - almost half the national budget. This has helped him to survive an attempted coup and recall referendum.
PDVSA dispenses ‚3.2 billion a year for everything from cooperatives that make the red T-shirts Chavez supporters wear to monthly stipends for 700,000 people enrolled on adult education courses.
On some days, PDVSA's 13-floor concrete headquarters in Caracas draws scores of people seeking funds for social programmes, known as missions.
"For a long time, our oil went to the rich, but as you can see, here that's changed," says Wuikelman Angel, 35, who manages workshops, a youth centre and a clinic that PDVSA built last year on a three-hectare shuttered gasoline depot in Caracas's Catia slum.
Article Truncated, for the complete article see:
www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqid=7421-qqqx=1.asp
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Jamaica signs on to Venezuela's oil plan
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thursday, August 25, 2005
MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica - Jamaica became the first Caribbean nation to finalize an agreement with Venezuela on a new plan for the South American nation to supply oil to countries throughout the region under below-market terms.
Prime Minister P.J. Patterson emerged from a private meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chvez late Tuesday to announce the details of Jamaica's participation in the Petrocaribe initiative - a plan to offer oil at flexible terms to 13 Caribbean nations.
Chvez announced the Petrocaribe project in June, though he disclosed few of the details. He and Cuban leader Fidel Castro, a close ally, have said the plan would lead toward greater solidarity for small nations as oil prices continue to rise.
[Article Truncated]
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Thanks to Pat Robertson..
Published on Monday, August 29, 2005 by The Nation
In Defense of Pat Robertson
by Richard Kim
Ladies and gentlemen, though it pains me to do so, I rise in defense of Pat Robertson. Pat's been taking a lot of heat lately for saying on The 700 Club that the US government should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chvez. "I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war," Robertson mused on an August 22 broadcast. And then, with unanimous contempt, the establishment press whipped out their razor blades.
"Wacky," the Chicago Tribune exclaimed in an editorial christening him "the new Terminator." The LA Times pronounced Robertson "notorious for remarks of questionable sense or even sanity." "Unchristian" and "outlandish," declared the Houston Chronicle. "Just a garden-variety crackpot with friends in high places," the New York Times dissed. The Miami Herald opined that Pat's "gangster rhetoric has no place in a public forum" and that his views "do not reflect US policy at any level." But it was the folks at the Washington Post who got into a real swivet. "We won't even pretend to have given television evangelist Pat Robertson's latest obnoxious utterance much thought," they began before doing exactly that for the next 500 words: "Witless," "an act of stupidity only he could outdo," "ill-advised," "moronic," "callow" and "downright loopy," they bitched. "We would have preferred to allow the Christian Coalition's founder to continue his slide from America's mainstream into the obscurity he has so richly earned." Even Pat's friends like the World Evangelical Alliance and right-wing radio host G. Gordon Liddy repudiated him.
What's all the fuss about? In my estimation, Robertson's done us all a service in at least two regards. First, if there is a US plot to assassinate Chvez--as Chvez has long maintained--Robertson has unwittingly scuttled it for the time being. "Our department doesn't do that kind of thing," Donald Rumsfeld insisted, noting that political assassinations are "against the law." Now, legality hasn't exactly been much of a barrier for this administration, but I'd like to think even the spooks at Langley are smart enough to realize that any "accidents" that might befall Chvez would be "untimely," to say the least.
But more important, the gaffer's coughed up a breath of fresh air on a wartime media disturbingly oblivious to US atrocities, and he should be commended at least for his honesty.
[ARTICLE TRUNCATED]
For the complete article published in The Nation:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050912/kim
this article was also posted at:
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0829-28.htm
3) Bush Polls Continue to Wobble Downward
- - Swami Beyondananda: ‘at the junction of love and fear'
Bush Suffers Ratings Tumble as Sunnis Reject Iraq Charter
Published on Monday, August 29, 2005 by The Independent (UK)
By David Usborne
President George Bush's exit strategy from Iraq suffered a severe setback yesterday when Sunni negotiators rejected a new constitution, increasing the chances of outright civil war.
For this article, see:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0829-04.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Swami Beyondananda: ‘at the junction of love and fear'
"Do We Go for ABunDance or Stay Stuck in ScareCity?"
By Swami Beyondananda
A great Yogi -- I think it was Yogi Berra -- once said, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." Well, here we are at the junction of love and fear..
For this chuckle-wisdom peace, see:
www.wakeuplaughing.com/news.html
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Warming Suit * Woody Appeal * Teeth&Rads
27 August 2005
1) Federal Judge OKs Global Warming Lawsuit
- - US States Bypass Bush to Tackle Greenhouse Gas Emissions
2) CIA, Military Men Agree with Pat Robertson
- - We're paying for this ugly mentality
- - Military laser brings 'Star Wars' reality closer
3) Justice for Woody Remains Open
4) Baby teeth sought for radiation study
5) Making Sense of the Senseless - Holler Political Guide
Editor's Notes:
Okay, finally, an Issue with some good news.. of course, mixed with the bad.
To gain a perspective of how such bad things go on, seemingly, unnoticed, or distorted in the minds of much of the US general public, check out this cartoon link by Tom Tomorrow: This Modern World ~ Averting their eyes
In item 3 we have good news for family, friends, and fans of real justice, in the case of Robert "Woody" Woodward. I guess four witnesses in conflict with police reports was enough not to throw the case out. There is still a chance for justice.. Item 2 is ugly news, but exposes a killing mentality based on ego and brainwashed forces, and it is scary. Instead, patriotic US citizens owe President Chavez and the democratic country of Venezuela our appreciation for showing the US what a country of, by, and for the people is all about during these dangerous times.
Item 4 is on baby teeth and learning what is being absorbed in the human body from nuclear reactors. Item 5 is deep, but readers of Flyby News will appreciate this Holler Political Guide.
Thanks for all contributions and interest in news fit to transmit..
News Quotes: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
A federal judge here said environmental groups
and four U.S. cities can sue federal development
agencies on allegations the overseas projects
they financially back contribute to global warming.
America's north-eastern states are on the brink of
a declaration of environmental independence with the
introduction of mandatory controls on greenhouse gas
emissions of the kind rejected by the Bush administration.
"Chavez is a dangerous guy," retired Col. David Hunt
told Bill Bennett's "Morning in America" fill-in
host Steve Malzberg on Wednesday. "We helped to
elect the son of a gun [and] after 9/11 you don't
get to threaten us."
The issue of assassination "should be on the table,"
Hunt said. "I'm suggesting that we use it as a tool
to get those guys nervous."
A federal appeals court has ordered a judge to rethink
his reasons for throwing out a lawsuit against police in
the shooting death of Robert Woodward.
"The average Sr-90 levels found in these nine baby teeth
raises a little red flag," said Reynolds, and indicate
the need for further analysis
1) Federal Judge OKs Global Warming Lawsuit
Published on August 25, 2005 by the Associated Press
Federal Judge OKs Global Warming Lawsuit
By David Kravets
A federal judge here said environmental groups and four U.S. cities can sue federal development agencies on allegations the overseas projects they financially back contribute to global warming.
The decision Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White is the first to say that groups alleging global warming have a right to sue.
"This is the first decision in the country to say that climate change causes sufficient injury to give a plaintiff standing, to open the courthouse door," said Ronald Shems, a Vermont attorney representing Friends of the Earth.
That group, in addition to Greenpeace and the cities of Boulder, Colo., Santa Monica, Oakland and Arcata, Calif., sued Overseas Private Investment Corp. and the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Those government agencies provide loans and insure billions of dollars of U.S. investors' money for development projects overseas. Many of the projects are power plants that emit greenhouses gases that the groups allege cause global warming.
The coalition argues that the National Environmental Policy Act, the law requiring environmental assessments of proposed development projects in the United States, should apply to the U.S.-backed projects overseas. The U.S. law should apply, they say, because those developments are contributing to the degradation of the U.S. environment via global warming.
The two government agencies claimed that U.S. environmental regulations do not apply to overseas projects, and that the courts have no right to intervene in those agencies' affairs.
Still, the judge's ruling was narrow. White did not rule whether those agencies must perform environmental assessments of projects they help fund, but simply said the groups have a right to sue. If White's decision stands, the issue of whether U.S. environmental rules apply to the projects backed by the agencies likely will be litigated, Shems said.
Shems noted that, even if he ultimately wins the case, that doesn't mean a given project would be blocked even if an environmental analysis is performed and highlights severe environmental damage it would cause.
"The first step in getting a handle on climate change is to find out what the sources are and get an inventory," he said.
The suit claims 8 percent of the world's greenhouse gases come from projects supported by the two agencies.
Linda Formella, a spokeswoman with Export-Import Bank, said the agency, which supported nearly $18 billion in exports last year, does not comment on pending litigation. The Overseas Private Investment Corp. did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
The case is Friends of the Earth v. Watson, 02-4106.
2005 Associated Press
Also posted:
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0825-09.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - US States Bypass Bush to Tackle Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Published on August 25, 2005 by The Guardian / UK
US States Bypass Bush to Tackle Greenhouse Gas Emissions
By Julian Borger
America's north-eastern states are on the brink of a declaration of environmental independence with the introduction of mandatory controls on greenhouse gas emissions of the kind rejected by the Bush administration.
In the first regional agreement of its kind in the US, nine states are expected to announce a plan next month to freeze carbon dioxide emissions from big power stations by 2009 and then reduce them by 10% by 2020.
The region stretches from New Jersey to Maine and generates roughly the same volume of emissions as Germany.
Pennsylvania and Maryland have signed on as observers to the regional initiative and are considering joining it at a later date.
On the other side of the continent, California, Oregon, Washington, New Mexico and Arizona are exploring similar agreements, representing a clear break between state governments and Washington over global warming.
The outline of the north-eastern states' draft agreement was published yesterday in the New York Times, and its main features were confirmed by Dale Bryk, a lawyer at the Natural Resources Defence Council, who has been monitoring progress of the regional initiative. The 2009 freeze and the 10% reduction by 2020 were "a done deal", Ms Bryk said. "They plan to have a memorandum of understanding by the end of September."
She added: "It's huge. It's a drumbeat, and more and more states and regions are heading down this road. It's going to change the discussion at the federal level ... It's going to take the argument off the table [that] we can't do this because it's too expensive, there are too many obstacles."
The Bush administration withdrew from the Kyoto protocol on climate change in 2001, and restated its opposition at the G8 summit at Gleneagles in July, arguing that its mandatory emissions targets would devastate the US economy.
In July, Washington signed a separate pact with Australia, Japan, China, India and South Korea, which did not fix emissions targets but instead set out to encourage the private sector of green technologies and their transfer to industrialising countries.
"We welcome all efforts to help meet the president's goal for reducing greenhouse gas intensity by investing in new, more efficient technologies," Michele St Martin, a spokeswoman for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, told the Guardian.
"We believe it is a better approach than regulatory mandates that would increase already high energy bills for consumers, put people out of work or achieve reductions simply by buying more energy from, and shifting emissions to, other states and other countries."
The American response to global warming has split the Republican party. Two powerful Republican state governors, Arnold Schwarzenegger in California and George Pataki in New York, have played leading roles in the regional initiatives.
Andrew Rush, Mr Pataki's spokesman, said yesterday he could not comment on the nine-state agreement as it was still in draft form. But he added: "I know we've made a lot of progress and we're still working hard on it."
The regional greenhouse gas initiative, as the north-eastern plan is titled, will allow for emissions trading, so that power stations in one state with lower emissions than their mandatory ceiling could sell the rest of their allowance in other states. The same system, pioneered in sulphur dioxide control in the US, is currently being used to curb greenhouse gases in Europe.
The north-eastern pact is less ambitious than the Kyoto accord, which freezes emissions at the 1990 level and imposes a 7% reduction by 2012.
The plan will initially only apply to power stations with an output of more than 25 megawatts, of which there are about 600 across the region, but it could later be extended to large manufacturing plants. The states are New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island and Delaware. Some states will need to ratify the agreement in their state legislatures, but that is not expected to be a significant obstacle.
The scheme is expected initially to raise energy prices in the states involved.
In a separate initiative, the mayors of more than 130 cities, including New York and Los Angeles, agreed earlier this year to meet the emissions reductions envisaged in the Kyoto accord, independent of federal policy decided in Washington.
2005 Guardian Newspapers Ltd.
###
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0825-06.htm
2) CIA, Military Men Agree with Pat Robertson
- - We're paying for this ugly mentality
- - Military laser brings 'Star Wars' reality closer
CIA, Military Men Agree with Pat Robertson
Published Aug. 25, 2005 1:08 p.m. EDT
CIA, Military Men Agree with Pat Robertson
While televangelist Pat Robertson has apologized for suggesting that Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez be assassinated, a former military man and an ex-CIA operative have stepped forward to say that his concerns about Chavez aren't exactly unwarranted.
"Chavez is a dangerous guy," retired Col. David Hunt told Bill Bennett's "Morning in America" fill-in host Steve Malzberg on Wednesday. "We helped to elect the son of a gun [and] after 9/11 you don't get to threaten us."
The issue of assassination "should be on the table," Hunt said. "I'm suggesting that we use it as a tool to get those guys nervous."
Former CIA operative Wayne Simmons agreed, tellingFox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes," that Chavez has "threatened not only the United States and the west, but [has] armed himself with the revolutionary armed forces of Colombia, which is the oldest, most well-trained terrorist organization in Latin America."
"He should have been killed a long time ago," Simmons said.
This article was posted by NewsMax.com.
www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/8/25/131236.shtml?et=y
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
-- We're paying for this ugly mentality
Just the Iraq War alone has cost $11,000 per US Family
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Military laser brings 'Star Wars' reality closer
3) Justice for Woody Remains Open
Woodward case to get second look
By MIKE KALIL
Reformer Staff
BRATTLEBORO -- A federal appeals court has ordered a judge to rethink his reasons for throwing out a lawsuit against police in the shooting death of Robert Woodward.
A three-judge panel in New York City ruled that U.S. District Court Judge J. Garvan Murtha discounted accounts by four eyewitnesses who claimed Woodward wasn't a threat to anyone but himself when police shot him in December 2001. The panel said Murtha's reasoning was "unconvincing."
"Here, four witnesses gave sworn statements that Woodward made no advances or threatening moves toward the officers or any bystanders before he was shot," the judges wrote. "The district court discounted these witnesses' accounts for unconvincing reasons."
Woodward, 37, of Bellows Falls, was shot to death by police in a West Brattleboro church on Dec. 2, 2001. He was armed with a 3 1/2-inch knife when he interrupted church services; he pulled out his knife, ranted of conspiracies and threatened to kill himself.
After responding to the disturbance, Brattleboro police officers Terrance Parker and Marshall Holbrook shot Woodward seven times. He was pronounced dead later that day at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. Parker remains on the police force and is Vernon's fire chief; Holbrook relocated out-of-state after the shooting.
Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell later said the shooting was a tragic, but justifiable homicide. This touched off an uproar among Woodward's family and friends who said his life was cut short without reason. His family then sued the town and the police, claiming officers used excessive force. The case has never gone to trial.
Judge Murtha dismissed the lawsuit July 1, 2004, saying there was no evidence that Woodward's rights were violated and no evidence that the officers weren't properly trained or that they used excessive force. Woodward's family quickly appealed the decision and asked the appeals court for a jury trial.
The 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision was released Wednesday. The court said "some witnesses who claim to have seen Woodward advance" at the officers gave "conflicting statements at the time of the shooting." Therefore, the judges wrote, Murtha may have been "improvident" when he ignored the statements.
It's unclear how quickly Murtha will have to respond to the appeals ruling.
"It's a positive outcome and it's really the first positive outcome that's occurred in this case," said Stephen Monroe Tomczak of Wallingford, Conn., a longtime friend of Woodward's.
What happened in the moments before Woodward was shot is disputed. Police maintain that Woodward lunged toward police with the blade, giving them the right to use deadly force. Other witnesses said he did no such thing.
William F. Ellis, one of the Burlington lawyers representing the town and the officers, said he believes Judge Murtha will again dismiss the suit when given the chance to re-examine the case. He said he believes issuing a summary judgment in the case is still appropriate because the facts, as he sees them, are undisputed.
"We're confident that when Judge Murtha has the opportunity to clarify his reasoning that is based upon undisputed facts ... the same result will apply," he said.
Mary Rives, an Amherst, Mass., resident and one of Justice for Woody's founders, said she wanted the appeals court to grant a jury trial instead of throwing the case back to Murtha. She said she had "mixed feelings" about the ruling.
"At every turn, justice has been derailed up to this point, so the outcome of the (panel's) decision provides a glimmer of hope," she said.
She said the move gives Murtha a second chance to "do his homework and do it right." She encouraged him not to give in to political pressures and consider the testimony from the four witnesses.
"What we got was unacceptable to the federal judges, so he has a very important decision to make," she said. "And it needs to come from a well-informed place, rather than a political one."
Tomczak said he is being "cautiously optimistic" until the case is resolved. He said a jury trial is the best way to get the truth out.
Joel Faxon, a New Haven, Conn., lawyer representing the Woodward family did not return a phone call seeking comment Wednesday. Thomas Costello, a Brattleboro lawyer who is on the family's legal team, is on vacation until next week and could not be reached for comment. Brattleboro Police Chief John Martin is also on vacation.
www.reformer.com/Stories/0,1413,102%257E8860%257E3025520,00.html
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For Flyby News archive links on this case, see:
Friend Shot Dead by Police
4) Baby teeth sought for radiation study
By Kathryn Casa | Vermont Guardian
BRATTLEBORO High levels of a cancer-causing radionuclide found in nine baby teeth collected from children who live near the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant have prompted anti-nuclear activists to seek at least 100 more teeth for further testing.
Preliminary findings of a study by the Radiation and Public Health Project show the average Strontium-90 (Sr-90) concentration in baby teeth collected from Windham County in Vermont and Cheshire County in New Hampshire to be 61 percent higher than 17 baby teeth from other counties in Vermont and New Hampshire, according to Agnes Reynolds, a nurse and RPHP volunteer from Hartford, CT. RHRP is a New York-based nonprofit group of scientists and medical professionals that examines links between low-level radiation and public health.
The teeth from counties surrounding Vermont Yankee showed an average of 4.2 picocuries per gram of calcium, compared to 2.65 picocuries in teeth from other areas in Vermont, Reynolds said at a press conference Tuesday in Brattleboro.
A spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that agency has no acceptable radiation levels for specific body parts. The NRC calculates radiation based on whole-body doses, he said.
Acknowledging that nine teeth is not a significant sampling, Reynolds said "100 teeth will produce meaningful results."
RPHP will focus their "Tooth Fairy Project" on the Vermont Yankee region because VY is the 11th oldest reactor in the country; it's owner, Entergy Corp., is seeking to increase power there by 20 percent; and boiling water reactors typically release higher levels of radioactivity than pressurized water reactors, according to a press release from the group.
The results of a several RPHP studies of more than 4,000 baby teeth, mostly from areas near seven nuclear power plants around the country, showed Strontium-90 levels 30-50 percent higher than average, Reynolds said. She added that the results have been published in four environmental and medical journals.
"There are different levels of scientific journals," said NRC Region I spokesman Neil Sheehan. He said the NRC monitors the radiation releases at all of the nation's nuclear power plants, and Vermont Yankee's levels consistently comply with NRC standards.
"We raise concerns about the methodologies used by the Tooth Fairy Project," said Sheehan. Among the agency's questions about the project, he said, are that the group has failed to establish control populations for their studies; they have not examined other risk factors such as background radiation levels; they have used small sample sizes to draw general conclusions and have not submitted the data for rigorous peer review."
Anti-nuclear activists on Tuesday acknowledged the shortcomings of their studies, and said they are hampered by the high cost of the lab work. It costs $72 to analyze each tooth, noted Sunny Miller, executive director of the Traprock Peace Center in Deerfield, MA.
"The average Sr-90 levels found in these nine baby teeth raises a little red flag," said Reynolds, and indicate the need for further analysis
Vermont State Sen. Jeanette White, D-Windham County, who was present in the audience at the press conference, said she would look into the state's role in monitoring the levels through the Department of Health, which oversees both the radiation protection program and early childhood services.
Deb Katz, executive director of the Citizens Awareness Network based in Shelburne Falls, MA, said it's very difficult to get government agencies involved, noting that even after the Massachusetts Health Department agreed to conduct three studies to investigate high rates of cancer and other diseases around three nuclear power plants, state officials never pinpointed radiation from the reactors as the cause of the cancers.
"But you can ask the people suffering in nuclear communities whether the reactor has affected them and you will hear time and again that they believe it has," Katz said.
Those interested in collecting teeth or donating a baby tooth should contact the RPHP's outreach coordinator, Joseph Mangano, at (610) 666-2985 or Odiejoe@aol.com. Requests for envelopes or information on where to send teeth can be made by calling 800-582-3716 or by e-mail to bill@radiation.org.
http://www.vermontguardian.com/local/0105/BabyTeeth.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Radiation and Public Health Awareness --
The Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP) was established by scientists and physicians dedicated to understanding the relationships between low-level, nuclear radiation and public health.
The RPHP "Tooth Fairy Project" "..grew out of the work of Dr. Jay Gould, Director of the Radiation and Public Health Project and author of The Enemy Within: The High Cost of Living Near Nuclear Reactors. By analyzing 50 years of US National Cancer Institute data, Dr. Gould proved that.of the 3,000-odd counties in the United States, women living in about 1,300 nuclear counties (located within 100 miles of a reactor) are at the greatest risk of dying of breast cancer.."
Back in the days of the pre-Cassini-Earth flyby, a Letter of Concern by Dr. John W. Gofman provided ample evidence showing why there is no safe dose for alpha particles emitted by the radioactive decay of plutonium..
This concern has also been realized by the impact from the use of Depleted Uranium missile shells, which has caused much harm to soldiers and civilians, but especially to the young.
For more on these issues, actions, and campaigns, visit these web sites: Nuclear Information and Resource Service, New England Coalition, Citizens Awareness Network, Traprock Peace Center, and The Radiation and Public Health Project
5) Making Sense of the Senseless - Holler Political Guide
HOLLER POLITICAL GUIDE
Holler folk are generally shy of allowing any single political label attached their them. That doesn't mean they don't have an opinion, it's just that political labels are too damn confusing. And so, with the help of Harry, the Saponifying Boy Wonder at Vermont Soapworks, Here is a Handy Holler Guide to political labels:
Progressives want to go forward, to move things along. They want to Progress, and move into the future. But many Holler Folk consistently advocate for a step backwards to a smaller and more sustainable scale. This definitely makes them Regressives.
Conservative should mean they want to conserve more. Conserve our ecological and financial resources. Be prudent and thoughtful in all actions. That would make them Regressives too. But Conservatives want to Liberalize the laws controlling big business and big government. That is why they are in fact, Progressive Liberals.
Liberals think want to live out on their land and let everyone else live pretty much as they wish (no fighting no biting!), that makes them Regressive Conservatives too. They want Government to make sure the playing field is level for everyone, whether you need it or not. This makes them Socialists. But they also want less direct government control in their lives. This makes the Right Wingers. Go Left enough, and you find a closet Righty.
Democrats imagine the represent the Sensible Middle Road (in the status quo). This makes the boring. Wake me up if they have an original thought. Democrats have an amazing way of promoting the same Globalization agenda as the Republicans. That makes them, well, Republicans.
Republicans used to represent Main Street America, Work hard, pay your taxes, help your neighbor. Now Republicanism just scares me. Unless you are White, Upper Middle Class, and believe that Christian America has a God given right to world domination and exploitation of the people and resources of our planet; What are you doing with these bums?
I just don't get how it is we only have two real political parties in this country. Since they are one with Corporate America now, that makes them Businesscrats. Businesscrats want to eat up the world. That makes them Eco-cancer.
Now neither my officially Democrat nor professed Republican friends consider themselves Eco-cancer. And yet, aren't all of us, this writer included part of the problem by participating in the Consumer Culture, and accepting current fashions of Excess Everything?
Larry Plesent is founder of Vermont Soapworks
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
OsamaUSA * Lori * Peltier * MS-herb * Woody
19 August 2005
"Internal peace is an essential first step to achieving peace in the world.
How do you cultivate it? It's very simple. In the first place by realizing
clearly that all mankind is one, that human beings in every country
are members of one and the same family."
-- His Holiness the Dalai Lama
1) CIA Commander: U.S. Let bin Laden Slip Away
- - New Abuse Photos Could Spark Riots, US General Warns
- - Get Ready for World War III
- - Democrats embrace tough military stance
- - D.C. Peace March - September 24th
2) Lori Berenson update from Peru Prison
3) Note from Leonard Peltier, transferred to Lewisburg, PA
4) Montel Williams fighting MS supports medical marijuana
5) Robert Woodward's family seeks justice
Editor's Notes:
Six years ago yesterday, Cassini was speeding toward and away from Earth at phenomenal speeds, 10 miles per second, with 72.3 pounds of highly radioactive Plutonium on board. You can imagine where Earth was headed at this time at the end of the 20th Century, a brave new world. The post Cassini flyby era doesn't promise to be long, unlike the Mayan 25,800-year calendar cycle where their fifth world age begins when their current calendar ends, December 21, 2012. By then we should have a pretty good idea if humanity will survive this 21st Century.
Item 1 gives hope for the integrity of US service personnel to uphold their sworn oath to defend principles of the US Constitution. Newsweek reported that "..in a forthcoming book, the CIA field commander for the agency's Jawbreaker team at Tora Bora, Gary Berntsen, says he and other U.S. commanders did know that bin Laden was among the hundreds of fleeing Qaeda and Taliban members. Berntsen says he had definitive intelligence that bin Laden was holed up at Tora Bora—intelligence operatives had tracked him—and could have been caught.." Sub-items also tell the story of the Democratic Party merging into the Republican Party, with fear, manipulation, power, greed, as the driving forces. Could World War III be far behind? In this item, too, note link and information on Washington, D.C. and hometown march on September 24th for a new policy, perhaps one that is more attuned with the message in the above quote by the Dalai Lama.
Item 2 is a long overdue update on Lori Berenson, held up in Peru for much too long. Please send Lori this issue of Flyby News, let her know we are thinking of her; as her communication stated, our plights are connected. Item 3 updates on the whereabouts of Leonard Peltier, after almost 30 years he deserves to be home with family and friends. My friend, too, Malik Abdullah Akili is seeking a voice beyond the bars of injustice. All communications helps these brothers and sisters immensely. This is the reason to download issues of Flyby News, since after reading you can pass on the information to others not on the Internet. Anyone going to D.C. and want hand-outs for Flyby News, please write and send your snail mail address to info@flybynews.com.
Item 4 is on Montel Williams, TV Host - who has endorsed medical marijuana in his treatment of pain from multiple sclerosis. He also prescribes snow boarding or skiing to help focus on the bottoms of your feet, which greatly improves his mobility, and walking. Montel's book is called "Climbing Higher." Item 5 is long overdue, too. Justice is still waiting. It is simply a sad situation when parents must go to NYC to appeal for justice to be heard in a community where police gun down a young friend in a Church while seeking political asylum. Mainstream news is uncovering the police killing of an innocent man in the UK, who was thought to have been a terrorist. In Vermont USA, December 2001, while Howard Dean was Governor, they simply swept the story under a mat for years. But, hopefully, justice for Woody's family will be heard in a Court of Law. Please stay aware.., no matter how painful... Thanks to Keith Carlson for his blog on the appeal, and others for getting down to NYC for a friend in spirit forever with us.
Please note that David Ray Griffin will be speaking in Brattleboro, Manchester, VT on October 11; and Montpelier and Burlington on October 12th. Details will be posted at FlybyNews.com . [Please note, too, on a music celebration to benefit FN at the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, MA on October 14th.] For a recommended DVD film to present, share, raise consciousness, and for transcript of the April, 18, 2005 address by David Ray Griffin (first broadcast by C-span cable TV on April 30, 2005), see: 9/11 and the American Empire: How Should Religious People Respond?
You cannot serve two masters at the same time.
1) CIA Commander: U.S. Let bin Laden Slip Away
- - New Abuse Photos Could Spark Riots, US General Warns
- - Get Ready for World War III
- - Democrats embrace tough military stance
- - D.C. Peace March - September 24th
CIA Commander: U.S. Let bin Laden Slip Away
August 15, 2005 Issue, Newsweek
MSNBC.com
Exclusive: CIA Commander: U.S. Let bin Laden Slip Away
Newsweek
Aug. 15, 2005 issue - During the 2004 presidential campaign, George W. Bush and John Kerry battled about whether Osama bin Laden had escaped from Tora Bora in the final days of the war in Afghanistan. Bush, Kerry charged, "didn't choose to use American forces to hunt down and kill" the leader of Al Qaeda. The president called his opponent's allegation "the worst kind of Monday-morning quarterbacking." Bush asserted that U.S. commanders on the ground did not know if bin Laden was at the mountain hideaway along the Afghan border.
But in a forthcoming book, the CIA field commander for the agency's Jawbreaker team at Tora Bora, Gary Berntsen, says he and other U.S. commanders did know that bin Laden was among the hundreds of fleeing Qaeda and Taliban members. Berntsen says he had definitive intelligence that bin Laden was holed up at Tora Bora—intelligence operatives had tracked him—and could have been caught. "He was there," Berntsen tells NEWSWEEK. Asked to comment on Berntsen's remarks, National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones passed on 2004 statements from former CENTCOM commander Gen. Tommy Franks. "We don't know to this day whether Mr. bin Laden was at Tora Bora in December 2001," Franks wrote in an Oct. 19 New York Times op-ed. "Bin Laden was never within our grasp." Berntsen says Franks is "a great American. But he was not on the ground out there. I was."
In his book—titled "Jawbreaker"—the decorated career CIA officer criticizes Donald Rumsfeld's Defense Department for not providing enough support to the CIA and the Pentagon's own Special Forces teams in the final hours of Tora Bora, says Berntsen's lawyer, Roy Krieger. (Berntsen would not divulge the book's specifics, saying he's awaiting CIA clearance.) That backs up other recent accounts, including that of military author Sean Naylor, who calls Tora Bora a "strategic disaster" because the Pentagon refused to deploy a cordon of conventional forces to cut off escaping Qaeda and Taliban members. Maj. Todd Vician, a Defense Department spokesman, says the problem at Tora Bora "was not necessarily just the number of troops."
Berntsen's book gives, by contrast, a heroic portrayal of CIA activities at Tora Bora and in the war on terror. Ironically, he has sued the agency over what he calls unacceptable delays in approving his book—a standard process for ex-agency employees describing classified matters. "They're just holding the book," which is scheduled for October release, he says. "CIA officers, Special Forces and U.S. air power drove the Taliban out in 70 days. The CIA has taken roughly 80 days to clear my book." Jennifer Millerwise, a CIA spokeswoman, says Berntsen's "timeline is not accurate," adding that he submitted his book as an ex-employee only in mid-June. "We take seriously our goal of responding quickly."
—Michael Hirsh
2005 Newsweek, Inc.
2005 MSNBC.com
URL: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8853000/site/newsweek/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - New Abuse Photos Could Spark Riots, US General Warns
By William Fisher
08/16/05 'IPS"-- -- NEW YORK, Civil libertarians and the Pentagon appear headed for yet another trainwreck in the ongoing dispute over the so-called second batch of photos from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
In response to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR), and a number of medical and veterans groups demanding release of 87 new videos and photographs depicting detainee abuse at the now infamous prison, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, said the release would result in "riots, violence and attacks by insurgents."
For the complete article, see:
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=29916
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Get Ready for World War III
Bush can ignore the American public, because the Democrats, have completely collapsed as an opposition party.
By Paul Craig Roberts
Israel's Likud government is Bush's last remaining ally in his war against "Islamic terrorism." Israel, which is loaded with nuclear weapons and is not a signatory to the nuclear pacts, is the accuser against Iran, asserting that Iran's nuclear energy program is just a veil behind which to produce weapons.
For a posting of the complete article, see:
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9824.htm
or
www.antiwar.com/roberts/?articleid=6936
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Dr. Roberts < paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com > is John M. Olin Fellow at the Institute for Political Economy and Research Fellow at the Independent Institute. He is a former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, former contributing editor for National Review, and a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury. He is the co-author of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Democrats embrace tough military stance
Sharpen message on foreign policy
By Rick Klein,
Globe Staff
Published by the Boston; August 14, 2005
[EXCERPTS]
WASHINGTON -- After months of internal debate and closed-door discussions, Democrats have begun to develop a more aggressive foreign policy that focuses heavily on threats they say are being neglected by the Bush administration, while avoiding taking a contentious stance on Iraq.
Even Democrats who have been associated with liberal positions on international affairs are calling for more troops in uniform, proposing that threats of force be used to stop nuclear weapons programs in Iran and North Korea, and pressing for potential military intervention to ease famine and oppression around the world.
''Having the strongest military in the world is the first step, but we also have to have a strong commitment to using our military in smart ways that further peace, stability, and security around the world," Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, said at the Democratic Leadership Council in Columbus, Ohio, last month.
For the complete Boston Globe article, see:
www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/08/14/democrats_embrace_tough_military_stance/
For the article posted, and discussion, see:
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2008393
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - D.C. Peace March - September 24th
Join the
March on Washington
September 24
Washington DC
END THE WAR ON IRAQ
TROOPS OUT NOW!
{Gather 11:00AM at the Washington Monument}
For more information, see:
www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?list=type&type=91
2) Lori Berenson update from Peru Prison
Message by Rhoda and Mark Berenson
July 15, 2005
Lori [sent] the following letter to update you on what is going on in Peru and neighboring countries. She refers to corruption in Peru that has been front-page news for several weeks. To put her comments in context, it must be mentioned that the Peruvian Congress had passed a law, now rescinded, enabling those awaiting trials or sentencing for other than terrorism-related charges to serve their time under house arrest instead of spending that time under harsh prison conditions. In addition, despite Peru joining the US in the global war on terrorism and on narco-trafficking and despite Peru recently being authorized to receive over $100 million dollars from the US Congress to fight drugs, President Toledo recently decided to commute the six-year eight-month sentence of a young woman after she had served only one year following her conviction for drug trafficking - trying to leave Peru with 10 pounds of cocaine. President Toledo then gave this young woman a humanitarian release. She happens to be the daughter of an ambassador from a country allied with Peru.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
July 1, 2005
Dear friends,
Thank you so much for your continued interest in my situation here in Peru.
Since the years are most certainly passing by, the certain monotony of prison life is not really that fundamental an issue, albeit everything you can see in jails and the judicial system (abuses, injustices) is a mere reflection of how the society is doing in general.
These have been times of turmoil - massive protests in neighboring Latin-American countries Ecuador and Bolivia. The ruling classes of each of these countries found a way to temporarily calm the situations through the calling of new elections, putting in transitional governments.
However, the real social demands, which had more to do with social and economic policies, weren't touched at all; thus the time-bomb keeps ticking away.
In Peru, although there have continued to be a lot of protests by certain sectors (including important mobilizations against foreign-owned mining companies), there has been no national movement to oust the present government, perhaps since no one thinks its replacement would do anything differently. However, things are not going well. The economic and political crisis is quite serious; the percentage of Peruvians that don't have stable, formal employment is well over 50% of the economically active population. Corruption scandals of this and former governments continue to come to light. Polls show that people have little or no faith in the political class.
As I said earlier, jails mirror society. Constructed and constricted with a limited budget, they've been converted into warehouses that house humans. The judicial system does not treat equally.
There's a huge backlog and the courts are overwhelmed with cases. That is reflected in jails which are filled with people who are "unsentenced." The laws that govern the processes are established by political conveniences; thus there are those who are practically denied prison benefits while new laws are equalizing house arrest with time served in jail, which only benefit the corrupt. There are apparently special considerations given in the reducing of sentences through presidential "humanitarian" decrees. However, I doubt they are truly humanitarian, they appear to be mere and pure politics. Where was "humanity" when the government doesn't pardon the terminally ill? Or when it refuses to look at completely disproportionate sentences? It's not "humanity," it's political interests.
This is reality here and in many places. I much doubt it will change for the better if society doesn't change in a big way, but these are all part of social processes that move on their own time lines.
I am again grateful for your continued interest in this situation over the years. It's a big help for me and my family.
Sincerely,
Lori Berenson
Huacariz Prison
Cajamarca, Peru
Rhoda and Mark Berenson
English Website: FreeLori.org
Spanish Website: LoriLibre.org
3) Note from Leonard Peltier, transferred to Lewisburg, PA
LEONARD HAS BEEN TRANSFERRED TO USP LEWISBURG
from the LPDC Blog, posted August 16, 2005
Aho My Relations,
On August 15, 2005 I was transferred to USP Lewisburg in Pennsylvania. Life has been extra difficult for me since I was transferred from Leavenworth. This system is designed to make one feel very powerless, and what they are doing with me now is definitely aimed to erode my body and spirit even more. My loved ones, and all of you, my friends and allies who continue to support me, keep me sane and hopeful..
For the complete post, see:
http://lpdcinc.blogspot.com
* * *
Leonard Peltier # 89637-132
USP LEWISBURG
U.S. PENITENTIARY
P.O. BOX 1000
LEWISBURG, PA 17837
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee web site: LeonardPeltier.org
For more from Flyby News, see: Free Leonard Peltier
4) Montel Williams fighting MS supports medical marijuana
Transcript: Montel Williams' Battle With M.S.
Hannity & Colmes
Source: FoxNews.com
[EXCERPTS]
ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Television veteran -- .. -- Montel Williams -- ..since 1999 he's also been fighting constant pain and depression from multiple sclerosis. In his new book, "Climbing Higher," he talks how he almost took his own life and why his love for his children gave him the strength to go on living.
[EXCERPT]
HANNITY: All right. We continue now with Montel Williams. His new book is called "Climbing Higher." This is the phrase you use at the beginning of every speech, because you give speeches over the years.
WILLIAMS: My speech used to start with "Mountain, get out of my way." And my first book was called, "Mountain Get Out of My Way." And I decided to think about this. Climbing higher is really what it's all about. That's what I'm doing now, because I've really have got to try to climb above what I have to deal with every single day.
HANNITY: Explain -- I actually said this the other day on my radio show. I don't understand depression because I have never been there, but my friends have gone through it and I've watched it. It's a hard thing to understand. But when you wake up, what is the pain? Explain it.
WILLIAMS: Several things. Depression is a psychological thing that takes place within -- some of it is chemically induced by the drugs we take..
COLMES: You're taking medical marijuana.
WILLIAMS: Yes. I have a prescription, and ...
COLMES: And this is a bit controversial. People have not really recognized how this can be a valuable commodity.
WILLIAMS: It is a huge controversy in this country, and I think it's been so for a long time for the wrong reason. And we have to start telling the truth. That's what that book is about to me. It's about the truth.
One truth is that marijuana has been made illegal and not by any test that has ever, ever validated that it should be.
COLMES: They stopped you in Detroit in the airport. They found residue?
WILLIAMS: They didn't. They found a brand-new, clean pipe. Clean.
COLMES: Yes.
WILLIAMS: No residue at all. The police stopped me, because they have a paraphernalia law in the state of Michigan.
COLMES: Michigan.
WILLIAMS: And so they stopped me. And I got a $100 ticket and moved on.
But the truth of the matter is, I take it for -- I could right now ask any doctor that I see to write me a prescription for medicine morphine, for medicinal -- there's a drug called talon, Oxycontin , you name it. I could be addicted to anything on the planet and none of those drugs work for me.
Now, I can eat and consume another thing that grows out of the ground and it makes -- it does me good.
HANNITY: It's called "Climbing Higher." All right. Thanks so much. I appreciate it. Thanks so much for being with us.
For a posting of the complete article, transcript, see:
www.cannabisworld.org/vbportal/forums/showthread.php?s=0f53da7d68b82992bf0b416e96242116&threadid=58075
Source: FoxNews.com (US)
Show: Hannity & Colmes
Published: Wednesday, January 14, 2004
Copyright: 2004 FOX News Network, LLC
Website: foxnews.com
Contact: comments@foxnews.com
Related Web Site:
Montel Williams
www.montelshow.com/
For a letter from Montel Williams to MS community, see:
www.spotlighthealth.com/common/SG/topics.asp?m=2&sb=12
www.montelms.org
5) Robert Woodward's family seeks justice
Family of man in Vermont church shooting wants case before jury
Published by Newsday.com on August 4, 2005
NEW YORK -- The family of a Vermont man who brandished a knife before a church congregation and was fatally shot by police asked a federal appeals court on Thursday to overrule a lower judge and let a jury decide whether the shooting was justified.
The lower judge ruled last year that it was reasonable for police to believe their lives or the lives of others were in danger when they confronted Robert Woodward at the church on a December Sunday in 2001.
But Joel Faxon, a lawyer for the family, told a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that critical facts about the shooting were unsettled and a jury should be allowed to hear the case.
"There's substantial evidence in the record suggesting no threat, no charge, no advance" on the officers by Woodward, Faxon told the judges. He said the lower judge disregarded some accounts by witnesses.
Article truncated, for complete Newday.com posting, see:
www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--churchshooting0804aug04,0,4719953.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - From JusticeForWoody.org
On December 2, 2001, Woody suffered a terrible injustice. .
‘..Within less than a minute of the police entering, two of the three policemen shot seven rounds into Woody. A fusillade of shots followed the first two shots, so rapid that to some witnesses it sounded like a single shot. One detailed account describes the police firing the fusillade of rounds into Woody as he was lying on the floor, curled up in a fetal position, and holding the knife to his face. The police had made no attempt to use negotiation or nonlethal restraint such as their pepper spray to subdue Woody.
While Woody lay on the floor bleeding heavily and with a shattered elbow, the police proceeded to handcuff his wrists behind his back, forcing him to his stomach. The police refused repeated requests from a physician present that the handcuffs be removed so she could access his wounds to stop the bleeding.
43 minutes elapsed between the time of the shooting and the time Woody arrived in the emergency room of the local hospital 3 miles away. It took over three and one half hours to move Woody to the Dartmouth-Hitchcock hospital which had the facilities needed to treat his heart trauma. He died shortly after arriving there around 2 PM.
Every one of the witnesses who has been willing to talk publicly has maintained that Woody never threatened anyone but himself.."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
From blog of friend of Woody and FN editor, Jonathan Mark
Posted by Keith Carlson @ 8/05/2005 07:16:00 PM
Well, we're back from New York City and the long-anticipated hearing at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The building itself is an imposing structure, supported in front by massive columns (Ionic style, I believe), looking out on a large open area dominated by a large fountain, one block from City Hall Park and several blocks from the site of the World Trade Center---or "Ground Zero" as it is popularly known For us, the church where Woody was killed is our "ground zero", and this hearing was yet another event in the course of this long battle for some semblance of justice and recognition that he was wrongfully killed while begging for asylum. Anyway, on with the story.
For the complete blog, article, visit:
http://digitaldoorway.blogspot.com/2005/08/trials-and-tribulations.html
For more from FN, see:
personal accounts on a friend shot dead by police
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
WarmingTip * PetroEra * Iraq * Mom&General
13 August 2005
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,
tied in a single garment of destiny.
Whatever affects one directly, effects all indirectly.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
1) Warming Hits 'Tipping Point'
2) The Twilight Era of Petroleum
3) No End in Sight in Iraq
4) Mother's Protest at Bush's Doorstep Raises the Stakes
5) Four Star General Fired For Organizing Coup Against Neo-Cons?
Editor's Notes:
The warming issue is heating up in reality, if not appropriately in the mainstream news. The first item is on research discovering that "the world's largest frozen peat bog" is thawing for the first time in 11,000 years (since it was formed at the end of the last ice age). This bog in western Siberia, the size of France and Germany combined, could release "billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas."
The exponential acceleration for global warming was predicted by Bart Jordan, who modeled global warming back in the 1950's while in the US military service. But even if Earth is headed toward the same CO2 atmospheric concentrations as Venus and Mars (both above 95%,), still, what we do is critical for generations now living on Earth. My company, Stirling Advantage is still seeking to raise about $500,000 to develop a 200kW Stirling engine prototype. With rising fuel costs, and the fuel-versatility of the Stirling heat (external combustion) engine, i.e. biomass, methane, waste and other heat sources, it should receive funding soon.
"The Twilight Era of Petroleum" essay by Michael Klare is item 2. Item 3 covers a realistic overview of the current crisis war in Iraq. Item 4 covers the Cindy Sheehan effort in Crawford Texas, challenging the status quo on the senseless killing of innocent life for dirty-oil politics. Item 5 is a controversial piece from Prison Planet; was a Four Star General fired for organizing a Coup against the Neo-Cons?
"The earth is not dying, she is being killed...
and the people killing her have names and addresses."
Utah Philips
1) Warming Hits 'Tipping Point'
Published on August 11, 2005
by the Guardian/UK
Siberia feels the heat: A frozen peat bog the size of France and Germany combined contains billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas, and for the first time since the ice age, it is melting.
By Ian Sample
A vast expanse of western Siberia is undergoing an unprecedented thaw that could dramatically increase the rate of global warming, climate scientists warn today.
Researchers who have recently returned from the region found that an area of permafrost spanning a million square kilometers - the size of France and Germany combined - has started to melt for the first time since it formed 11,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age.
The area, which covers the entire sub-Arctic region of western Siberia, is the world's largest frozen peat bog and scientists fear that as it thaws, it will release billions of tonnes of methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere.
It is a scenario climate scientists have feared since first identifying "tipping points" - delicate thresholds where a slight rise in the Earth's temperature can cause a dramatic change in the environment that itself triggers a far greater increase in global temperatures.
The discovery was made by Sergei Kirpotin at Tomsk State University in western Siberia and Judith Marquand at Oxford University and is reported in New Scientist today.
The researchers found that what was until recently a barren expanse of frozen peat is turning into a broken landscape of mud and lakes, some more than a kilometer across.
Dr Kirpotin told the magazine the situation was an "ecological landslide that is probably irreversible and is undoubtedly connected to climatic warming". He added that the thaw had probably begun in the past three or four years.
Climate scientists yesterday reacted with alarm to the finding, and warned that predictions of future global temperatures would have to be revised upwards.
"When you start messing around with these natural systems, you can end up in situations where it's unstoppable. There are no brakes you can apply," said David Viner, a senior scientist at the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia.
"This is a big deal because you can't put the permafrost back once it's gone. The causal effect is human activity and it will ramp up temperatures even more than our emissions are doing."
In its last major report in 2001, the intergovernmental panel on climate change predicted a rise in global temperatures of 1.4C-5.8C between 1990 and 2100, but the estimate only takes account of global warming driven by known greenhouse gas emissions.
"These positive feedbacks with landmasses weren't known about then. They had no idea how much they would add to global warming," said Dr Viner.
Western Siberia is heating up faster than anywhere else in the world, having experienced a rise of some 3C in the past 40 years. Scientists are particularly concerned about the permafrost, because as it thaws, it reveals bare ground which warms up more quickly than ice and snow, and so accelerates the rate at which the permafrost thaws.
Siberia's peat bogs have been producing methane since they formed at the end of the last ice age, but most of the gas had been trapped in the permafrost. According to Larry Smith, a hydrologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, the west Siberian peat bog could hold some 70bn tons of methane, a quarter of all of the methane stored in the ground around the world.
The permafrost is likely to take many decades at least to thaw, so the methane locked within it will not be released into the atmosphere in one burst, said Stephen Sitch, a climate scientist at the Met Office's Hadley Center in Exeter.
But calculations by Dr Sitch and his colleagues show that even if methane seeped from the permafrost over the next 100 years, it would add around 700m tons of carbon into the atmosphere each year, roughly the same amount that is released annually from the world's wetlands and agriculture.
It would effectively double atmospheric levels of the gas, leading to a 10% to 25% increase in global warming, he said.
Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth, said the finding was a stark message to politicians to take concerted action on climate change. "We knew at some point we'd get these feedbacks happening that exacerbate global warming, but this could lead to a massive injection of greenhouse gases.
"If we don't take action very soon, we could unleash runaway global warming that will be beyond our control and it will lead to social, economic and environmental devastation worldwide," he said. "There's still time to take action, but not much.
"The assumption has been that we wouldn't see these kinds of changes until the world is a little warmer, but this suggests we're running out of time."
In May this year, another group of researchers reported signs that global warming was damaging the permafrost. Katey Walter of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, told a meeting of the Arctic Research Consortium of the US that her team had found methane hotspots in eastern Siberia. At the hotspots, methane was bubbling to the surface of the permafrost so quickly that it was preventing the surface from freezing over.
Last month, some of the world's worst air polluters, including the US and Australia, announced a partnership to cut greenhouse gas emissions through the use of new technologies.
The deal came after Tony Blair struggled at the G8 summit to get the US president, George Bush, to commit to any concerted action on climate change and has been heavily criticized for setting no targets for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
2005 Guardian Newspapers Ltd. UK
The article is also posted at:
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0811-03.htm
For FN's resource page, see:
Mounting Evidence of Global Warming!
2) The Twilight Era of Petroleum
Published on Friday, August 5, 2005 by TomDispatch.com
The Twilight Era of Petroleum
by Michael T. Klare
Several recent developments -- persistently high gasoline prices, unprecedented warnings from the Secretary of Energy and the major oil companies, China's brief pursuit of the American Unocal Corporation -- suggest that we are just about to enter the Twilight Era of Petroleum, a time of chronic energy shortages and economic stagnation as well as recurring crisis and conflict. Petroleum will not exactly disappear during this period -- it will still be available at the neighborhood gas pump, for those who can afford it -- but it will not be cheap and abundant, as it has been for the past 30 years. The culture and lifestyles we associate with the heyday of the Petroleum Age -– large, gas-guzzling cars and SUVs, low-density suburban sprawl, strip malls and mega-malls, cross-country driving vacations, and so on -- will give way to more constrained patterns of living based on a tight gasoline diet. While Americans will still consume the lion's share of global petroleum stocks on a daily basis, we will have to compete far more vigorously with consumers from other countries, including China and India, for access to an ever-diminishing pool of supply.
The concept of a "twilight" of petroleum derives from what is known about the global supply and demand equation. Energy experts have long acknowledged that the global production of oil will someday reach a moment of maximum (or "peak") daily output, followed by an increasingly sharp drop in supply. But while the basic concept of peak oil has gained substantial worldwide acceptance, there is still much confusion about its actual character. Many people who express familiarity with the concept tend to view peak oil as a sharp pinnacle, with global output rising to the summit one month and dropping sharply the next; and looking back from a hundred years hence, things might actually appear this way. But for those of us embedded in this moment of time, peak oil will be experienced as something more like a rocky plateau -- an extended period of time, perhaps several decades in length, during which global oil production will remain at or near current levels but will fail to achieve the elevated output deemed necessary to satisfy future world demand. The result will be perennially high prices, intense international competition for available supplies, and periodic shortages caused by political and social unrest in the producing countries.
The Era of Easy Oil Is Over
The Twilight Era of oil, as I term it, is likely to be characterized by the growing politicization of oil policy and the recurring use of military force to gain control over valuable supplies. This is so because oil, alone among all major trading commodities, is viewed as a strategic material; something so vital to a nation's economic well-being, that is, as to justify the use of force in assuring its availability. That nations are prepared to go to war over petroleum is not exactly a new phenomenon. The pursuit of foreign oil was a significant factor in World War II and the 1991 Gulf War, to offer only two examples; but it is likely to become ever more a part of our everyday world in a period of increased competition and diminishing supplies.
This new era will not begin with a single, clearly defined incident, but rather with a series of events suggesting the transition from a period of relative abundance to a time of persistent scarcity. These events will take both economic and political form: on the one hand, rising energy prices and contracting supplies; on the other, more diplomatic crises and military assertiveness. Recently, we have witnessed significant examples of both.
On the economic side, the most important signals have been provided by rising crude oil prices and warnings of diminished output in the future. A barrel of crude now costs just over $60 -- approximately twice the figure for this time a year ago -- and many experts believe that the price could rise much higher if the supply situation continues to deteriorate. "We've entered a new era of oil prices," said energy expert Daniel Yergin in an April interview with Time Magazine. If markets remain as tight as they are at present, "you'll see a lot more volatility, and you could see prices spike up as high as $65 to $80."
Analysts at Goldman Sachs are even more pessimistic, suggesting that oil could reach as high as $105 a barrel in the near future. "We believe that oil markets may have entered the early stages of what we have referred to as a ‘super-spike' period," they reported in April, with elevated prices prevailing for a "multi-year" stretch of time.
Article Truncated, for the complete article, see:
www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=10216
also posted:
www.commondreams.org/views05/0805-30.htm
Michael T. Klare is the Professor of Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College and the author, most recently, of Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependence on Imported Petroleum (Owl Books) as well as Resource Wars, The New Landscape of Global Conflict.
3) No End in Sight in Iraq
by Bob Herbert
[EXCERPT]
The news coming out of Iraq yesterday was that several more American soldiers had been killed. August's toll so far has been mind-numbing. For American troops, it's been one of the worst periods of the war. And yet there's still no sense of urgency within the Bush administration.
The president is on vacation. He's down at the ranch riding his bicycle and clearing brush. The death toll for Americans has streaked past the 1,800 mark. The Iraqi dead are counted by the tens of thousands. But if Mr. Bush has experienced any regret about the carnage he set in motion when he launched the war, he's not showing it.
Writing about Vietnam in the foreword to David Halberstam's book "The Best and the Brightest," Senator John McCain said:
"It was a shameful thing to ask men to suffer and die, to persevere through god-awful afflictions and heartache, to endure the dehumanizing experiences that are unavoidable in combat, for a cause that the country wouldn't support over time and that our leaders so wrongly believed could be achieved at a smaller cost than our enemy was prepared to make us pay."
That point is no less relevant now. The administration is not willing to commit to an all-out effort to defeat the insurgents in Iraq, and is equally unwilling to reverse course and bring the troops home. Most Americans are abandoning the idea that the war can be "won." Polls are showing that they're tired of the conflict and its relentlessly mounting toll. It's hard to imagine that the population at large will be willing to sacrifice thousands of additional American lives over several more years in pursuit of goals that remain as murky as ever.
Ask a thousand different suits in Washington why we're in Iraq and you'll get a thousand different answers. Ask how we plan to win the war, and you'll get a blank stare.
..George W. Bush has no strategy, no real plan, for winning the war in Iraq. So we're stuck in a murderous quagmire without even the suggestion of an end in sight.
The administration has never been straight with the public about the war, and there's no reason to believe it will start being honest now. There is a desperate need for a serious national conversation about alternatives to the Bush approach in Iraq, which is tantamount to a permanent American military presence in that country.
The president, ensconced in a long vacation, exemplifies the vacuum of leadership on this crucial issue, which demands nothing less than the sustained attention of the wisest men and women the U.S. has to offer. They could be politicians, academics, civic or religious leaders, corporate executives - whoever. The longer they remain on the sidelines, the longer the carnage in Iraq will continue.
For the complete NY Times article, see:
www.nytimes.com/2005/08/10/opinion/11herbert.done.html
E-mail: bobherb@nytimes.com
and also posted:
www.truthout.org/docs_2005/081105L.shtml
4) Mother's Protest at Bush's Doorstep Raises the Stakes
By Edwin Chen and Dana Calvo, Times Staff Writers
CRAWFORD, Texas — For more than a year, a modest bungalow known as "Peace House," located a few miles from President Bush's ranch, has served as a headquarters for antiwar activists. It is lonely work, with little more than a skeleton crew on hand much of the time.
But then Cindy Sheehan hit town.
The 48-year-old mother of Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, who was killed in an ambush in Baghdad last year, is consumed by the kind of grief that turns into a furious determination to do something — in her case, to confront the president and force him to explain why her son died.
Now, in the space of just a few days, what started out as a seemingly quixotic personal mission has become something of a phenomenon — with media swarming around Sheehan, leading liberal and antiwar activists parachuting in to try to make her their long-sought voice, and political experts in both parties working to assess what role she may have in galvanizing the public's gathering unhappiness with the increasing American casualties in Iraq.
Antiwar leaders hope that putting the spotlight on Sheehan will motivate Americans who oppose the war, creating a political force strong enough to compel the Bush administration to change course.
Article truncated, for the complete Los Angeles article, see:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-warmom11aug11,0,6888551.story?coll=la-tot-promo&track=pacifictime
Cindy Sheehan of Gold Star Families for Peace - web site: GSFP.org
5) Four Star General Fired For Organizing Coup Against Neo-Cons?
Reporter suggests Brynes discovered plan to turn nuke exercise into staged terror attack
Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones | August 10 2005
The head of Fort Monroe's Training and Doctrine Command, four star general Kevin P. Byrnes, was fired Tuesday apparently for sexual misconduct according to official sources.
Other sources however have offered a different explanation for Byrnes' dismissal which ties in with the Bush administration's unpopular plan to attack Iran and the staged nuclear attack in the US which would provide the pretext to do so.
According to reporter Greg Szymanski, anonymous military sources said that Brynes was the leader of a faction that was preparing to instigate a coup against the neo-con hawks in an attempt to prevent further global conflict.
Indications are that, much like popular opinion amongst the general public, half the military oppose the neo-con's agenda and half support it.
Further revelations were imparted by journalist Leland Lehrman who appeared today on The Alex Jones Show.
Lehrman's army sources, including a former Captain in intelligence, became outraged when they learned that the official story behind 9/11 was impossible.
They told Lehrman that the imminent Northcom nuclear terror exercise based in Charleston, S.C, where a nuclear warhead is smuggled off a ship and detonated, was originally intended to 'go live' - as in the drill would be used as the cover for a real false flag staged attack.
This website has relentlessly discussed similar style drills which took place on the morning of 9/11 and on the morning of 7/7 in London.
"Speculation exists that he had potentially discovered the fact that it was gonna go live and that he was trying to put a stop to it or also speculation indicates that he may be part of a military coup designed to prevent the ridiculous idea of doing a nuclear war with Iran, " said Lehrman.
Lehrman said that other sources had told him all army leave had been canceled from September 7th onwards, opening the possibility for war to be declared within that time frame.
Northcom officials also admitted to Lehrman that CNN had been using its situation room as a studio.
Earlier this week, Washington Post reported that the Pentagon has developed its first ever war plans for operations within the continental United States, in which terrorist attacks would be used as the justification for imposing martial law on cities, regions or the entire country.
American Conservative Magazine recently reported that Dick Cheney had given orders to immediately invade Iran after the next terror attack in the US, even if there was no evidence Iran was involved.
Government and media mouthpieces have been fear-mongering for weeks about how a nuclear attack within the US is imminent.
Now would be the most opportune time for the Globalists to stage a major attack, as it would head off any potential indictments against the Bush administration for their involvement in illegally outing CIA agent Valerie Plame.
While rumors circulating about indictments having already taken place against Bush and Cheney should rightly be treated very carefully, the fact that there is an ongoing criminal investigation into the matter is something that's admitted and shouldn't be viewed as speculation.
Source:
www.prisonplanet.com/articles/august2005/100805fourstargeneral.htm
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
9/11 ON TRIAL - about the world's worst
10 August 2005
"..far from lessening my suspicions about official complicity,
[the 9/11 Commission Report] has served to confirm them.
Why would the minds in charge of this final report engage in
such deception if they were not trying to cover up very high crimes?"
– David Ray Griffin
{"The 9/11 Commission Report: A 571-Page Lie"}
Editor's Notes:
The general information in item one is significant, especially in light of what yesterday's NY Times article disclosed: "Four in 9/11 Plot Are Called Tied to Qaeda in '00." David Ray Griffin sent FN the "Daily Mail" (UK) aticle "9/11 ON TRIAL" with his comments. At the end we link to an FN posting of Griffin's article: "The 9/11 Commission Report: A 571-Page Lie."
1) The Daily Mail - 9/11 ON TRIAL - World's Worst
The following article was received by email
from David Ray Griffin on August 9, 2005,
with the following note:
The Daily Mail has done it again. Thus far, the only review of either of my 9/11 books by a mainstream newspaper (or magazine) has been a review of The New Pearl Harbor in the Daily Mail by Sue Reid in June of 2004. Now this very conservative newspaper has published an extensive and apparently accurate review of a just-released book by Ian Henshall and Rowland Morgan, 9/11 Revealed: Challenging Facts behind the War on Terror (published in the USA as 9/11 Revealed: The Unanswered Questions, by Rowland Morgan and Ian Henshall, now available on Amazon for $10.17). It remains to be seen whether this time the more liberal and middle-of-the-road newspapers will pick up the story.
-- David Ray Griffin
9/11 ON TRIAL
about the world's worst
By Tony Rennell
Daily Mail, Saturday 6th August, 2005
The plot by America s military bosses was devilish in both design and intent to fabricate an outrage against innocent civilians, fool the world and provide a pretext for war. In the pentagon, a top secret team drew up a plan to simultaneously send up two airliners painted and numbered exactly the same, one from a civil airport in America, the other from a secret military airbase nearby.
The one from the airport would have military personnel on board who had checked in as ordinary passengers under false names. The one from the airbase would be an empty drone, a remote-controlled unmanned aircraft.
Somewhere along their joint flight paths, the passenger-carrying plane would drop below radar height, and disappear, landing back at the airbase and unloading its occupants in secret.
Meanwhile, the drone would have taken up the other plane's designated course. High over the island of Cuba, it would be exploded in mid-air after broadcasting an international distress call that it was under attack from enemy fighters.
The world would be told that a plane load of blameless American holiday-makers had been deliberately shot down by Fidel Castro's Communists and that the US had no choice but to declare war and topple his regime.
This agent provocateur plan code named OPERATION NORTHWOODS and revealed in official archives dates from 1962 when the Cold War was at its height.
Four decades later, there are a growing number of people who look back at this proto-conspiracy and then to the events of 9/11 and see uncanny and frightening modern parallels.
For Cuba, read Iraq, say these skeptics. For the dummy airliner, read the Twin Towers in New York.
The Northwoods plan is crucial to the argument presented in a hugely provocative many would say fantastical yet, at times, genuinely disturbing new analysis of 9/11 by two radical British based journalists, Ian Henshall and Rowland Morgan.
Did the CIA actively help the hijackers?
In it, they examine various conspiracy theories that suggest the Bush administration connived in the devastating aerial attacks on New York and Washington four years ago.
The reason? To give Bush the excuse he wanted to push ahead with his secret, long-held plane to invade Iraq and capture its oilfields.
As we shall see. Many of the theories they raise are outlandish in the extreme. It would be easy to dismiss them as hokum, the invention of over-active imaginations among those whose instinct is always to find some way to blame America for the world s ills.
Are we really supposed to believe that the CIA actively helped the hijackers succeed or even that the US government staged the whole attack and itself murdered thousands of its own citizens?
Some would say that even in discussing such notions, we are lending comfort to terrorists and doing a disservice to the dead.
However, much of evidence the authors present is undeniably compelling and their arguments sound rather less preposterous in the light of OPERATION NORTHWOODS all those years ago. That plan was proposed in all seriousness by America s Joint Chiefs of Staff in a memo to the Secretary of Defence. It got as far as the Attorney General Robert Kennedy, brother of the president, John Kennedy, before being vetoed.
It is proof, says Henshall and Morgan, that forces at the top of the US Government are capable of conceiving a deadly, devious and fraudulent plan to further their own secret ends even under such a supposedly nice guy president as JFK.
In which case, can the idea of a 9/11 plot by those who serve the deeply mistrusted Bush really be ruled out with total certainty, without at least considering the arguments?
Of course, the official explanation for 9/11 is that Al Qaeda just got lucky that sunny morning in September 2001.
The terrorists conducted their attacks without outside help, by this account, and intelligence and other blunders by the US authorities that contributed to their terrible success for example, ignored warnings that an attack involving aeroplanes was likely, or issuing US entry visas to 19 Islamic fanatics set on murder were just that: blunders.
This is the White House s version and it was endorsed by a Washington commission of inquiry under Thomas Kean published last year.
But, according to Henshall and Morgan, the story is full of gaping holes and unanswered questions. And the most startling question, which remains unresolved, they say, is why the hijackers principal target, the two 110-storey towers at the World Trade Centre in New York crumbled so easily.
No-one who watched each building suddenly cascade into dust and debris in just 20 seconds will ever forget the slow-motion horror. But now the question is asked: was it all too pat, too neat?
Though 30 years old, the towers had expressly been built to survive the impact of a Boeing 707, a plane the same size and carrying as much fuel as the ones that struck. That they collapsed after being hit and fell at such speed was unprecedented in the history of architecture.
It astonished many engineers.
The official explanation is known as the Pancake Effect steel supports melting in the intense fireball, causing the floors to tumble down on each other.
The problem here is that the heat from the explosions was probably not nearly as great as people tend to assume.
There was indeed a lot of kerosene from the aircraft fuel tanks when flight 11 from Boston hit the North Tower between the 94th and the 98th floors but pictures show that most of this fireballed outwards. Experts have questioned whether the fire ever got hot enough to melt the buildings steel frames.
Oddly, too, original estimates by firefighters after the second plane, Flight 175, hit the South Tower, were that the blaze was containable.
Two firefighters actually reached the crash zone on the 78th floor and a tape exists of them radioing down that just two hoses would be enough to get the fire under control in which case the situation should have been little different from a normal office fire, and no steel tower ever collapsed as the result of such a blaze.
The fire wasn't hot enough to cause a collapse :
Kevin R Ryan, laboratory director at a US underwriting firm specializing in product safety, was sacked from his job last year after questioning the official explanation.
The buildings should have easily withstood the thermal stress caused by the burning jet fuel , he said. If steel did soften or melt, this was certainly not due to jet fuel fires of any kind, let alone the briefly burning fires in those towers. That fact should be of great concern to all Americans.
Intriguingly, Ryan claimed that his firm had checked and approved the steel used in the towers when they were built. This was later vehemently denied by the bosses who sacked him.
To add to the mystery, the tape of the two firemen was kept secret and when relatives were finally allowed to listen to it, they had to sign strict confidentiality agreements.
If the Pancake Effect theory is wrong, there s one obvious alternative: that the towers were brought down by the sheer impact of the planes hitting them. But this, according to the skeptics, ignores basic physics.
The initial hit on the North Tower, for example, destroyed 33 of the 59 columns in its north face. This meant the damage was asymmetrical, so any resulting collapse would surely have been lopsided.
In fact, the building fell evenly. The TV aerial on the summit sank vertically, in a straight line.
There were other strange anomalies. According to the Kean Commission, when the first plane struck: A jet fuel fireball erupted and shot down a bank of elevators, bursting into numerous lower floors, including the lobby level, and the basement four storeys below ground.
Unlikely, say Henshall and Morgan. A firm by a French documentary crew, who by chance were following a New York firefighting team that day, shows the first men arriving. The lobby was covered in fine debris and the windows were shattered but there was none of the soot or oily residue that burning jet fuel would have left behind.
Meanwhile down in the basement, a 50-ton hydraulic press was reduced to rubble and a steel and concrete fire door demolished. Witnesses there said the destruction was less like that from a fireball flash and more like that from a bomb.
Some firefighters told reporters that day that they thought there had been bombs in the building before apparently being silenced by their chiefs. So had Al Qaeda cleverly placed explosives inside the rowers as well as attacking them from the air?
Or, as conspiracy theorists would have it, had some homegrown agency mined the towers to make sure they fell but neatly without collapsing over the rest of Manhattan, America s financial and business heartland?
The authors quote an expert demolition contractor from Pennsylvania, Michael Taylor, who said the fall of the buildings looked like a controlled demolition.
Another expert, Van Romero, vice-president for research at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, reached the same opinion after studying videos of the disaster, and concluded that explosive devices inside the buildings caused them to collapse.
Strangely and without explanation, he recanted that view just ten days after going public with it. Might he possibly have been leaned on?
Even stranger, say Henshall and Morgan, was the collapse of a third building on the World Trade Centre site, a smaller 47-storey block known as WTC7, which was largely ignored by the world s media.
It had not been hit by a plane yet it, too, mysteriously fell many hours after the Towers had gone.
The official explanation for this was that fuel stores caught fire as a result of debris from the burning towers, the building began to bulge in one corner, and after that it was unsalvageable.
But remember that, according to Henshall and Morgan, a steel-framed building had never collapsed as a result of a fire before this day. And, again according to the authors, WTC7 appears almost untouched by fire in photographs taken at the time.
The landlord of the World Trade Centre site, Larry Silverstein, explicitly suggested at one point that WTC7 was deliberately demolished. He told a US TV documentary that a decision was taken to pull the building rather than risk loss of life, though this was later denied.
Certainly, according to Henshall and Morgan, the building's fall in seven seconds was just as textbook-tidy and suspicious as the collapse of the Twin Towers. Given that it also housed offices of the US Secret Service, the CIA and the Defence Department, this has led conspiracy theorists to give it a key role in the supposed 9/11 plot as we will see shortly.
Part of the whole problem, according to Henshall and Morgan, is that vital evidence about what happened was destroyed or muddied in the wake of the atrocity.
One expert said there were bombs inside the towers
Ground Zero, the base of the towers, was fiercely protected by the authorities understandably so because it not only contained human remains but a cache of seized drugs held in an FBI office and more than $1 billion of gold from bank vaults in the Buildings.
Yet what went on behind all the heavy security?
After most air disasters, the wreckage of the planes is meticulously gathered up and pieced together in search of clues.
Extraordinarily, in the course of removing the rubble from the Twin Towers to a nearby landfill site, the 9/11 salvage operation seems to have lost four six-ton aircraft engines, besides failing to find the black box flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders from either of the planes.
These data boxes which could have revealed exactly what happened in the doomed jets are deliberately designed to withstand heavy impacts and exceptionally high temperatures. It is, according to experts, very rare for them not to be recovered after an accident.
Unfortunately, according Henshall and Morgan, there was a singular lack of official zeal even to establish the very basic fact that the aircraft that hit the Twin Towers were the same as those that took off from Boston.
Perhaps, with almost the entire world watching the attacks on TV, it hardly seemed necessary to prove the glaringly obvious. But this failure to follow standard procedures for accident investigation once again gave encouragement to the conspiracy theorists.
And then there was the oddity of the single passport. The black boxes may have been destroyed and steel girders melted yet somehow one of the hijackers passports avoided this inferno and was found intact in a nearby street by a passer-by .
To Henshall and Morgan, that seems absurd, as does the almost instant identification of this person as a hijacker rather than a passenger or a Twin Towers office worker. Conspiracy theorists suspect the passport was planted to help establish the official story in the first, critical hours after the disaster.
Why didn't fighter planes intercept the hijackers?
Still more unanswered questions surround what happened at the Pentagon in Washington, in the third successful terrorist attack that day.
After taking off from Dulles Airport, Washington, American Airlines Flight 77 dropped off the radar screens for 36 minutes when its transponders sending signals back to air traffic control were switched off.
When the blip reappeared, it was closing on the city but where precisely the aircraft had been for the past half an hour was a mystery. Nor could anyone in air traffic control figure out what it was.
Experienced officials apparently watched its speed and maneuverability and thought it must be a military plane. Conspiracy theorists maintain this is precisely what it was.
In a repeat of New York, no evidence has ever been produced from the wreckage to prove that it was Flight 77 that hurtled into the side of the Pentagon at 350mph.
Photographs show that the hole it made was large enough for the fuselage of a Boeing 757 but not for the wings and the tail, though these supposedly disappeared through the gap and then vapourised.
For the conspiracy theorists, this points to a conclusion that what hit was not Flight 77, and not even a jetliner.
Some witnesses claim the plane they say hit the Pentagon was a small one, an eight or 12-seater, and that it did not have the roar of an airliner but the shrill whine of a fighter plane, One witness is convinced it was a missile.
The authors say the matter could be cleared up by CCTV footage of the crash from a nearby filling station, a hotel and traffic surveillance cameras. Unfortunately, the FBI seized all three videos within minutes of the crash and they have never been released.
The hole in the Pentagon was too small for a Boeing
If they were produced, they might lay to rest the theory that what hit the Pentagon was a military drone painted in airline livery and that just before impact it fired a missile to enable a clean entry which would explain the lack of debris. But until they are, the skeptics will continue to have a field day.
In essence, to the extreme conspiracy theorists, what took place on 9/11 was a repeat of the aborted OPERATION NORTHWOODS.
Far from being an attack by Islamic terrorists, they say, the events were a complete hoax, a conjuring trick by the US government in just the same way that Kennedy s generals wanted to fool the world over Cuba.
Planes were swapped, drones slammed into the World Trade Centre (which was mined with explosives as well) and the Pentagon, and the identities of alleged hijackers from the Middle East were stolen or invented to put the blame on Al Qaeda.
Along with the passengers who apparently boarded the planes, the suicide hijackers are now either dead or living under different identities, just as the pentagon planned fro the military personnel it was going to use back in 1962.
The theory seizes on the fact that, like the plane that apparently hit the Pentagon, both Flight 11 and Flight 175 switched off their transponders on their way to the Twin Towers and disappeared from Radar screens. According to the skeptics, this gave them time and opportunity to land at the handily located Griffiss Air Force Base, a Pentagon command center which also houses research laboratories into advanced computers and radar. There, they were supposedly replaced by remote-controlled substitutes.
In technical terms, this is not as far fetched as it sounds. The US military experimented with unmanned aircraft as far back as World War II and there have been successful jet models since. Well-connected conspirators, so the theory goes, would have little difficulty getting their hands on a system to fit in an airliner.
The switch would supposedly be foolproof because, as we have seen, the aircraft in the ruins would not be properly identified.
Then there was the smaller building known as WTC7. It was the obvious point from which to run the New York end of the scam, guiding the planes into their target. Afterwards, of course, the evidence had to be destroyed, hence its demolition.
Taken as a rush, and without looking at the detail this might seem vaguely plausible. But could we really have been so totally and utterly conned?
Common sense says no. An operation of such intricacy and complexity would require the co-operation and the silence until death of thousands of people. Everything we have read about the victims on the planes, and their heartbroken relatives, would be a carefully constructed sham.
It might just be possible in a totalitarian society but surely not in a flawed yet robust democracy like America. And with four missions (the hijackers of the fourth plane, Flight 93, were overthrown by its passengers), not just one as in OPERATION NORTHWOODS? No.
To be fair to Henshall and Morgan, they make it clear that they themselves are not advocating such an extreme theory of empty planes and hoax attacks.
They admit the Pentagon's radar reconstructions suggest the planes were not switched, and that alleged Al Qaeda ringleaders are said by their interrogators to have confirmed the official account.
Instead of retreating into fantasy, they simply insist that something is being held back that we have not been told the full story. And it s hard to discount all their arguments.
Why, they ask, were air traffic controllers so slow to report suspected hijackings to the military that day in breach of standard procedures, with the result that fighter planes arrived too late to intercept?
Flight controllers in four separate incidents were unaccountably slow to realize that something was wrong and alert the military authorities. Even after one plane was definitely known to have been hijacked, they failed to respond promptly when others went missing.
The air force scrambled from the wrong base
For some reason, too, when fighter planes eventually were scrambled to New York, they were from an airbase 150 miles away, rather than the much closer one in New Jersey. The Twin Towers were ablaze before they got there.
All the while the local TV channels were smoothly getting eye-in-the-sky helicopters into the air over the World Trade Centre. In the words of the authors: Their routine mobilizations stand in stark contrast to the apparent impotence and indecisiveness of the $350-billion-a-year US military.
Yet for all the shortcomings of the Federal Aviation Authority and the US Air Force that day, no-one was ever fired or reprimanded.
One explanation for this paralysis is that there was, as fate would have it, an air defence exercise going on in US airspace that same day, codenamed Vigilant Guardian. The air traffic controllers were confused by this, thinking the planes disappearing from their screens might be part of the exercise.
Coincidence? No say the 9/11 sceptics. This was exactly the sort of smokescreen operation that anyone wanting to make life easier for the hijackers would launch to paralyse any authorities that might get in the way.
When the first evidence came that hijackings were taking place, traffic control officials wasted valuable time wondering whether or not this was part of the Vigilant Guardian exercise.
Such a smokescreen fits well with two types of government-inspired plot postulated by 9/11 sceptics popularly known as LIHOP and MIHOP .
LIHOP Let It Happen On Purpose holds that since the turn of the new century, radical right-wingers in Washington (the so-called new-cons) had been keen to get a US military presence in the Middle East oilfields and were also desperate to do something about Al Qaeda, which had been targeting US interests overseas.
When evidence came in of an impending terrorist attack, they decided to ignore it. They intended that it should succeed. It would act at the very least as a wake-up call to their apathetic fellow countrymen and at best as an excuse for war.
In the much the same way, some historians believe, President Roosevelt knew in advance from broken codes about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941 but let it happen, at the cost of 2,400 lives, because he wanted an excuse to join World War II.
MIHOP takes a step on from this Make it Happen On Purpose . This theory has the same motivation but the active involvement of US agents. Planted in Al Qaeda, they helped organize the plot, or at the very least cleared a path for the hijackers.
These agents may even have tried to keep down casualty figures, which some think were suspiciously small in the circumstances.
The plane that hit the Pentagon was seen to swerve at the last minute and hit an area of the building that was largely unoccupied and which had just been fitted with reinforced external walls and blast-resistant windows. A crash into the other side would have killed and maimed many thousands instead of just 125.
In New York, too, more than 50,000 inhabitants of the Towers were targeted but just 2,600 killed not least because of the orderly way in which the buildings collapsed, after most of the occupants had been evacuated. Was this an example of a managed atrocity?
For most observers, the idea of US involvement in the attacks still strains credulity beyond breaking point. Yet that catalogue of unanswered questions remains troubling.
Some are very basic. How, for example, did the hijackers manage to slip past airport security with weapons?
The White House explanation is plastic knives, but there has never been any independent confirmation of how the men were armed. Some passengers who made phone calls from the doomed planes said they witnessed stabbings but others spoke of bombs and even guns being used.
To some, the official recourse to plastic knives smacks of a cover-up to conceal security lapses or worse, a deliberate turning of blind eyes.
So how did the passengers make those phone calls?
Another problem here is those very phone calls from the planes. Experts in Henshall and Morgan s book say it is all but impossible to make a mobile phone call above 8,000 feet let alone four times that altitude, as the jet passengers are alleged to have done.
So how were these calls on which so much of the 9/11 narrative has been built ever made? Could they possibly have been invented?
The authors write: Few issues cause as much controversy amongst 9/11 sceptics as these, not least because they were cited by Tony Blair among others as eyewitness reports and proof positive the official narrative was true.
Doubts are even raised over the gung-ho story of Flight 93, the fourth plane in the attacks, which passengers apparently seized back from the hijackers, causing it to crash into a field but miss Washington.
The legend of the heroic cockpit-storming, launched to cries of Let s Roll , was a product of tapes that have never been authenticated or released to anyone other than the victims relatives, who were sworn to secrecy.
Henshall and Morgan say the matter could be cleared up if recordings or billing evidence from phone companies were produced but they never have been.
This call for transparency is the thrust of their whole argument. It is time, they say, for a full and truly independent inquiry into 9/11 that will reveal all the facts and silence the rumours.
One thing it could consider would be the anthrax attack on America three weeks after 9/11. Five recipients of contaminated letters died, postal facilities were closed, as were office buildings on Capitol Hill where hundreds of lawmakers and staff were tested and given an antibiotic.
At the time, this was seized on by the Washington power-brokers pressing for action against Iraq. Who but Saddam Hussein could have supplied Arab terrorists with anthrax, they asked.
By contrast, skeptics about 9/11 see this as this finishing touch to the grand plot an attempt to distract attention from any doubts about the atrocities and the lessons to be learned from them.
They may have a case. The letters mysteriously stopped and the anthrax spores were identified by scientists as a particular strain stemming only from the government s own labs in Maryland.
But by then the scare had shut down congress at a crucial time, when questions about 9/11 were beginning to surface, and helped deepen the mood of fear and paranoia among ordinary Americans.
It was those fears, say the skeptics, that Bush exploited to get his way on Iraq. Had he plotted it that way all along? Henshall and Morgan raise enough awkward points to make it a thought that cannot simply be laughed out of court.
After all, Bush and Blair, took us to war assuring us that the Iraq regime continues to possess some of the most lethal weapons ever devised . Yet those weapons of mass destruction have not been found and many doubt they existed.
With public trust one of the major casualties of the war, can any of us be absolutely sure we have not been caught up in a lie and perhaps a bigger one even than we ever though possible?
In their inquiries Henshall and Morgan may have discover no smoking guns but they have certainly left a whiff of something sinister in the air.
# # # # #
9/11 Revealed: Challenging The
Facts Behind The War On Terror,
by Ian Henshall and Rowland Morgan
is published by Robinson
on August 25 at 8.99.
To order a copy (P&P free),
Telephone 0870 161 0870
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
This Tony Rennell Daily Mail, Saturday 6th August, 2005 article is also posted at
www.financialoutrage.org.uk/911_mainstream_media.htm
The above linked article includes the actual pictures in the Daily Mail Article
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For an excellent resource article on what is missing in the
9/11 Commission Report, see item 1 at following FN link:
The 9/11 Commission Report: A 571-Page Lie"
For FN's updated resources, see:
The Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports,
looking into the unanswered questions.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
DU-WMD * Indict * 9/11 Omission * MeetCindy
09 August 2005
In my humble opinion, non-cooperation with evil
is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.
Mahatma Gandhi
1) Depleted Uranium is WMD
- - A-Bomb Survivors for 2005 Nobel Peace Prize
- - Radiation and Public Health Awareness
2) Federal Indictment of AIPAC and DoD staff on Spying Charges
3)Four in 9/11 Plot Are Called Tied to Qaeda in '00
4) Cindy Sheehan is every son's mother
Editor's Notes:
Please note that FN's online issues of August 02 and 07 have been updated regarding recent misleading posts via TomFlocco.com. So while the great crimes still go unnoticed by the mainstream media and government, record heat temperatures continue to soar, polar ice and glaciers melt, and life is being overtaken by clouds of accumulating exhaust, while a moral-less US energy policy was signed into law this week.
Item 1 covers the corrupt military pollution-denial issue in harming ecosystems for generations for penetrating-insanity weapons. DU dust is real and causing real cancers and harm to innocent life. Please, note, too, that in the prior issue, it includes a new article link from NPR on the Pu-238-Idaho production facility. Enough is enough. Lets halt production, and give funds to Idaho, elsewhere to clean up the mess already created
Sixty years ago the US government dropped an atomic bomb on one city, Hiroshima, and three days later, Nagasaki. What a human tragedy, loss for humanity! The Nihon Hidankyo is an organization of Hibakusha, survivors of the A-bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the subsequent H-bomb testing in the Bikini Atoll, showing a better way for abolishing such weapons with compassion, understanding, and forgiveness. We are very much indebted to this organization for showing what it takes for peace to be realized. Hopefully the Nihon Hidankyo will receive the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.
Item 2 is on the US-Israel spy connection that goes high up, with federal indictments. Such an entanglement have been reported back to when Israel first got the atomic bomb, and before, when the Israeli nuclear development program was opposed by President John Kennedy, and after his assassination.., this connection still haunts our precarious existence. Controlling the US government is stealth business, which got a boost when President Harry Truman in 1947 signed the "National Security Act", enabling secret agencies to supercede principles (or restrictions) in the US Constitution.
Item 3 is an article today by The New York Times about a key 9/11 omission. "More than a year before the Sept. 11 attacks, a small, highly classified military intelligence unit identified Mohammed Atta and three other future hijackers as likely members of a cell of Al Qaeda operating in the United States, according to a former defense intelligence official and a Republican member of Congress."
Item 4 is the heart and soul of America, motherhood at its finest; Cindy Sheehan is a compassion-driven human with an awakening consciousness. Thanks Cindy, and William Rivers Pitt for writing that article, and anyone helping campaigns for reclaiming a lost USA democracy.
"All it takes for evil to rule a land
is for good men to remain silent."
Daniel Webster
1) Depleted Uranium is WMD
- - A-Bomb Survivors for 2005 Nobel Peace Prize
- - Radiation and Public Health Awareness
Depleted Uranium is WMD
by Leuren Moret
Published August 9, 2005 by the
Battle Creek Enquirer (Michigan)
My grandfather, U.S. Army Col. Edwin Joseph McAllister, was born in Battle Creek in 1895. He does not know that his first grandchild is an international expert on depleted uranium. I have worked in two U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories, and in 1991 I became a whistleblower at the Livermore lab. Depleted uranium is very, very, very nasty stuff:
Depleted uranium (DU) weaponry meets the definition of weapon of mass destruction in two out of three categories under U.S. Federal Code Title 50 Chapter 40 Section 2302.
DU weaponry violates all international treaties and agreements, Hague and Geneva war conventions, the 1925 Geneva gas protocol, U.S. laws and U.S. military law.
Since 1991, the U.S. has released the radioactive atomicity equivalent of at least 400,000 Nagasaki bombs into the global atmosphere. That is 10 times the amount released during atmospheric testing which was the equivalent of 40,000 Hiroshima bombs. The U.S. has permanently contaminated the global atmosphere with radioactive pollution having a half-life of 2.5 billion years.
The U.S. has illegally conducted four nuclear wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and twice in Iraq since 1991, calling DU "conventional" weapons when in fact they are nuclear weapons.
DU on the battlefield has three effects on living systems: it is a heavy metal "chemical" poison, a "radioactive" poison and has a "particulate" effect due to the very tiny size of the particles that are 0.1 microns and smaller.
The blueprint for DU weaponry is a 1943 Manhattan Project memo to Gen. L. Groves that recommended development of radioactive materials as poison gas weapons - dirty bombs, dirty missiles and dirty bullets.
DU weapons are very effective kinetic energy penetrators, but even more effective bioweapons since uranium has a strong chemical affinity for phosphate structures concentrated in DNA.
DU is the Trojan Horse of nuclear war - it keeps giving and keeps killing. There is no way to clean it up, and no way to turn it off because it continues to decay into other radioactive isotopes in over 20 steps.
Terry Jemison at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs stated in August 2004 that over 518,000 Gulf-era veterans (14-year period) are now on medical disability, and that 7,039 were wounded on the battlefield in that same period. Over 500,000 U.S. veterans are homeless.
In some studies of soldiers who had normal babies before the war, 67 percent of the post-war babies are born with severe birth defects - missing brains, eyes, organs, legs and arms, and blood diseases.
In southern Iraq, scientists are reporting five times higher levels of gamma radiation in the air, which increases the radioactive body burden daily of inhabitants. In fact, Iraq, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan are uninhabitable.
Cancer starts with one alpha particle under the right conditions. One gram of DU is the size of a period in this sentence and releases 12,000 alpha particles per second.
Before my grandfather died, he told me that his generation had made a mess of this planet. I wonder what he would say to me now I would tell him to see "Beyond Treason" (www.beyondtreason.com), a new documentary about the history of treason by the U.S. government against our own troops: Atomic veterans, MK-Ultra, Agent Orange and DU. After Vietnam, Henry Kissinger said, "Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy. . ." (from Chapter 5 in the "Final Days" by Woodward and Bernstein).
Leuren Moret is an international radiation specialist, with a B.S. degree in geology from University of California at Davis, a M.A. degree in Near Eastern studies from University of California at Berkeley and has done post-graduate work in the geosciences at UC-Davis. She is environmental commissioner for the City of Berkeley, Calif.
2005 Battle Creek Enquirer
www.battlecreekenquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050809/OPINION02/508090332/1014/OPINION
www.commondreams.org/views05/0809-33.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - A-Bomb Survivors for 2005 Nobel Peace Prize
The Nihon Hidankyo is an organization of Hibakusha — survivors of the A-bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the subsequent H-bomb testing in the Bikini Atoll. Flyby News is one of many Organizations supporting their receiving the Nobel Peace Prize award in 2005, which is the 60th Anniversary of the dropped Atomic Bombs on Japan. The focus of this group is for healing, the abolition of atomic bombs, for a peace-justice future for all. Please, if you know of anyone influential, please help us support such a choice for PEACE to honor the release of a negative past for an honorable future.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Radiation and Public Health Awareness
The Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP) was established by scientists and physicians dedicated to understanding the relationships between low-level, nuclear radiation and public health. The RPHP "Tooth Fairy Project" grew out of the work of Dr. Jay Gould, Director of the Radiation and Public Health Project and author of The Enemy Within: The High Cost of Living Near Nuclear Reactors. By analyzing 50 years of US National Cancer Institute data, Dr. Gould proved that.of the 3,000-odd counties in the United States, women living in about 1,300 nuclear counties (located within 100 miles of a reactor) are at the greatest risk of dying of breast cancer. Back in the days of the pre-Cassini-Earth flyby, a Letter of Concern by Dr. John W. Gofman provided ample evidence showing why there is no safe dose for alpha particles emitted by the radioactive decay of plutonium. This concern has also been realized by the impact from the use of Depleted Uranium missile shells, which has caused much harm to soldiers and civilians, but especially to the young. For more on these issues, actions, and campaigns, visit these web sites: Nuclear Information and Resource Service, New England Coalition, Citizens Awareness Network, Traprock Peace Center, and The Radiation and Public Health Project
2) Federal Indictment of AIPAC and DoD staff on Spying Charges
Bigger Than AIPAC
by Robert Dreyfuss, TomPaine.com
TomPaine.com
( A Project of The Institute for America's Future )
Last week's federal indictment of AIPAC and DoD staff on spying charges could unravel the neocon policy machine and damage the Bush administration.
Bigger Than AIPAC
Robert Dreyfuss
August 09, 2005
Important new details of the U.S.-Israeli espionage case involving Larry Franklin, the alleged Pentagon spy, two officials of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, and an intelligence official at the Embassy of Israel emerged last week. Two AIPAC officials—who have left the organization—were indicted along with Franklin on charges of "communicat[ing] national defense information to persons not entitled to receive it." In plain English, if not legal-speak, that means spying.
But as the full text of the indictment makes clear, the conspiracy involved not just Franklin and the AIPAC officials, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, but at least several other Pentagon officials who played intermediary roles, at least two other Israeli officials, and one official at a "Washington, D.C. think tank." It's an old-fashioned spy story involving the passing of secret documents, hush-hush meetings and outright espionage, along with good-old-boy networking.
But the network tied to the "Franklin case"—which ought to be called the "AIPAC case," since it was AIPAC that was really under investigation by the FBI—provides an important window into a shadowy world.
It is clear that by probing the details of the case, the FBI has got hold of a dangerous loose end of much larger story. By pulling on that string hard enough, the FBI and the Justice Department might just unravel that larger story, which is beginning to look more and more like it involves the same nexus of Pentagon civilians, White House functionaries, and American Enterprise Institute officials who thumped the drums for war in Iraq in 2001-2003 and who are now trying to whip up an anti-Iranian frenzy as well.
Needless to say, all of this got short shrift from the mainstream media when it was revealed last week.
The basic facts of the case have been known for a while. Lawrence Anthony Franklin, a Department of Defense official, was caught red-handed giving highly classified papers to two officials, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, of AIPAC—in part, concerning U.S. policy toward the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq and the war on terrorism. But from the carefully worded indictment, it is clear that a lot more may have been going on. All in all, along with revealing tantalizing new information, the indictment raises more questions than it answers.
To wit:
First, the indictment says that from "about April 1999 and continuing until on or about August 27, 2004" Franklin, Rosen and Weissman "did unlawfully, knowingly and willfully conspire" in criminal activity against the United States. So far, no one has explained what triggered an investigation that began more than six years ago. But it reveals how long the three indicted conspirators and "others, known and unknown to the Grand Jury," engaged in such criminal activity. In any case, what appeared at first to be a brief dalliance between Franklin and the two AIPAC officials now—according to the latest indictment, at least—spans more than five years and involves at least several other individuals, at least some of whom are known to the investigation. What triggered the investigation in 1999, and how much information has FBI surveillance, wiretaps and other investigative efforts collected?
Second, the indictment makes it absolutely clear that the investigation was aimed at AIPAC, not at Franklin. The document charges that Rosen and Weissman met repeatedly with officials from a foreign government (Israel, though not named in the indictment) beginning in 1999, to provide them with classified information. In other words, the FBI was looking into the Israel lobby, not Franklin and the Defense Department, at the start, and Franklin was simply caught up in the net when he made contact with the AIPACers. Rosen and Weissman were observed making illicit contact with several other U.S. officials between 1999 and 2004, although those officials are left unnamed (and unindicted). Might there be more to come? Who are these officials, cited merely as United States Government Official 1, USGO 2, etc.?
Third, Franklin was introduced to Rosen-Weissman when the two AIPACers "called a Department of Defense employee (DOD employee A) at the Pentagon and asked for the name of someone in OSD ISA [Office of the Secretary of Defense, International Security Affairs] with an expertise on Iran" and got Franklin's name. Who was "DOD employee A"? Was it Douglas Feith, the undersecretary for policy? Harold Rhode, the ghost-like neocon official who helped Feith assemble the secretive Office of Special Plans, where Franklin worked? The indictment doesn't say. But this reporter observed Franklin, Rhode and Michael Rubin, a former AEI official who served in the Pentagon during this period and then returned to AEI, sitting together side by side, often in the front row, at American Enterprise Institute meetings during 2002-2003. Later in the indictment, we learn that Franklin, Rosen and Weissman hobnobbed with "DOD employee B," too.
Fourth, Rosen and Weissman told Franklin that they would try to get him a job at the White House, on the National Security Council staff. Who did they talk to at the White House, if they followed through? What happened?
Fifth, the charging document refers to "Foreign Official 1," also known as FO-1, obviously referring to an Israeli embassy official or an Israeli intelligence officer. It also refers later to FO-2, FO-3, etc., meaning that other Israeli officials were involved as well. How many Israeli officials are implicated in this, and who are they?
Sixth, was AEI itself involved? The indictment says that "on or about March 13, 2003, Rosen disclosed to a senior fellow at a Washington, D.C., think tank the information relating to the classified draft internal policy document" about Iran. The indictment says that the think tank official agreed "to follow up and see what he could do." Which think tank, and who was involved?
The indictment is rich with other detail, including specific instances in which the indicted parties lied to the FBI about their activities. It describes how Franklin eventually set up a regular liaison with an Israeli official ("FO-3") and met him in Virginia "and elsewhere" to communicate U.S. secrets.
It is an important story, arguably one that has greater implications for national security than the scandal involving the churlish outing of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame. So far, at least, the media frenzy attending to the Plame affair is matched by nearly total silence about the Franklin-AIPAC affair? Can it be true that reporters are more courageous about pursuing a story that involves the White House than they are about plunging into a scandal that involves Israel, our No. 1 Middle East ally?
This article is posted at:
www.tompaine.com/articles/20050809/bigger_than_aipac.php
Robert Dreyfuss is a freelance writer based in Alexandria, Va., who specializes in politics and national security issues. He is a contributing editor at The Nation, a contributing writer at Mother Jones, a senior correspondent for The American Prospect, and a frequent contributor to Rolling Stone. His book, Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam, will be published by Henry Holt/Metropolitan Books in the fall.
3) Four in 9/11 Plot Are Called Tied to Qaeda in '00
By Douglas Jehl
The New York Times
[EXCERPT]
Tuesday 09 August 2005
Washington - More than a year before the Sept. 11 attacks, a small, highly classified military intelligence unit identified Mohammed Atta and three other future hijackers as likely members of a cell of Al Qaeda operating in the United States, according to a former defense intelligence official and a Republican member of Congress.
In the summer of 2000, the military team, known as Able Danger, prepared a chart that included visa photographs of the four men and recommended to the military's Special Operations Command that the information be shared with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the congressman, Representative Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania, and the former intelligence official said Monday.
The recommendation was rejected and the information was not shared, they said, apparently at least in part because Mr. Atta, and the others were in the United States on valid entry visas. Under American law, United States citizens and green-card holders may not be singled out in intelligence-collection operations by the military or intelligence agencies. That protection does not extend to visa holders, but Mr. Weldon and the former intelligence official said it might have reinforced a sense of discomfort common before Sept. 11 about sharing intelligence information with a law enforcement agency.
A former spokesman for the Sept. 11 commission, Al Felzenberg, confirmed that members of its staff, including Philip Zelikow, the executive director, were told about the program on an overseas trip in October 2003 that included stops in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But Mr. Felzenberg said the briefers did not mention Mr. Atta's name.
The report produced by the commission last year does not mention the episode.
..Mr. Weldon is an outspoken figure who is a vice chairman of both the House Armed Services Committee and the House Homeland Security Committee. He said he had recognized the significance of the episode only recently, when he contacted members of the military intelligence team as part of research for his book, "Countdown to Terror: The Top-Secret Information That Could Prevent the Next Terrorist Attack on America and How the C.I.A. Has Ignored It."
Mr. Weldon's book prompted one veteran C.I.A. case officer to strongly dispute the reliability of one Iranian source cited in the book, saying the Iranian "was a waste of my time and resources."
Mr. Weldon said that he had discussed the Able Danger episode with Representative Peter Hoekstra, the Michigan Republican who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and that at least two Congressional committees were looking into the episode.
For the complete article, see:
www.nytimes.com/2005/08/09/politics/09intel.html?hp&ex=1123646400&en=8cdd39c879100274&ei=5094&partner=homepage
or
www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080905I.shtml
For FN's resource, see:
The Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports,
looking into the unanswered questions.
4) Cindy Sheehan is every son's mother
Every Mother's Son
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Monday 08 August 2005
[Excerpt]
George W. Bush hauled stakes for Texas and a vacation a few days ago. Cindy Sheehan followed. She got off a bus Saturday afternoon and started walking to the Crawford ranch. She wanted some answers and was going to get them.
Sheehan had met Mr. Bush once before. On April 4, 2004, just shy of a year after Bush stood on an aircraft carrier beneath a banner that read "Mission Accomplished," Cindy Sheehan's son, Army Specialist Casey A. Sheehan, was killed in Iraq when his unit was attacked by rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire. He was 24 years old.
After Casey's death, Cindy Sheehan was invited to the White House for a visit with Mr. Bush in June of 2004. Her first memory of Bush's appearance that day was when he walked into the room and said in a loud, bluff voice, "Who we'all honorin' today?"
"His mouth kept moving," Sheehan later recalled of her meeting with Bush, "but there was nothing in his eyes or anything else about him that showed me he really cared or had any real compassion at all. This is a human being totally disconnected from humanity and reality. His eyes were empty, hollow shells." Bush called her "Ma" or "Mom" throughout the whole meeting, and never got around to learning her name.
"The whole meeting was simply bizarre and disgusting," Sheehan said later. "designed to intimidate instead of providing compassion. He didn't even know our names. I just couldn't believe this was happening. It was so surreal and bizarre. Later I met with some of the other fifteen or sixteen families who were at the White House the same day and, sure enough, they all felt the same way I did."
That was it. Cindy Sheehan, who had never been politically active in her life, became an activist. She traveled the country to speak to whomever would listen, she told the story of Casey's life and death, and she threw fire at George W. Bush with the passionate anguish of a mother who was forced to bury her son.
..In June of 2005, Cindy Sheehan testified at a hearing in Washington DC about the Downing Street Minutes, the recently leaked British intelligence documents which exposed the fact that Bush intended to invade Iraq almost from the beginning of his first term, and that "Intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy" of invasion.
"I believed before our leaders invaded Iraq in March, 2003," said Sheehan in her testimony, "and I am even more convinced now, that this aggression on Iraq was based on a lie of historic proportions and was blatantly unnecessary. The so-called Downing Street Memo dated 23 July, 2003, only confirms what I already suspected: the leadership of this country rushed us into an illegal invasion of another sovereign country on prefabricated and cherry picked intelligence. It appears that my boy Casey was given a death sentence even before he joined the Army in May of 2000."
And so it came to pass that George W. Bush hauled stakes for Texas and a vacation a few days ago, and Cindy Sheehan followed. She got off a bus Saturday afternoon and started walking to the Crawford ranch. She wanted some answers and was going to get them. She got as far as a police checkpoint, and has gotten no further. She is still there, waiting to speak to Mr. Bush so she can get an answer to her question. Why did her son die?
The folks on the Crawford ranch sent out some important people to speak to her. They sent Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser. They sent Joe Hagin, a deputy White House chief of staff. Cindy Sheehan sent them both packing.
By Sunday, a media frenzy had erupted around her. On Sunday night, the New York Times published a story about Sheehan's Texas standoff. "Her success in drawing so much attention to her message - and leaving the White House in a face-off with an opponent who had to be treated very gently even as she aggressively attacked the president and his policies - seemed to stem from the confluence of several forces," wrote the Times. "The deaths last week of 20 Marines from a single battalion has focused public attention on the unremitting pace of casualties in Iraq, providing her an opening to deliver her message that no more lives should be given to the war."
"At the same time," continued the article, "polls that show falling approval for Mr. Bush's handling of the war have left him open to challenge in a way that he was not when the nation appeared to be more strongly behind him. It did not hurt her cause that she staged her protest, which she said was more or less spontaneous, at the doorstep of the White House press corps, which spends each August in Crawford with little to do, minimal access to Mr. Bush and his aides, and an eagerness for any new story."
Casey Sheehan was every mother's son. Cindy Sheehan is every son's mother. She loved him with every cell in her body and every breath in her soul, and mourns his absence in every second of every day, and will have some answers for her pain and loss, or will know the reason why. She is down in Crawford, right now, waiting for George W. Bush to stop sending lackeys to placate her. She wants to speak to the man who sent her son to die. She is waiting.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080805I.shtml
For more information, visit MeetWithCindy.org
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Hiroshima Exposed ~ Cable TV * Pu-238 Idaho
07 August 2005
When I despair, I remember that all through history
the way of truth and love have always won.
There have been tyrants, and murderers,
and for a time they can seem invincible,
but in the end they always fall.
Think of it...always.
Mahatma Gandhi
1) Suppressed Footage of Hiroshima After the Bomb on Cable TV
- - We Must Act Now to Prevent Another Hiroshima - or Worse
2) DOE Plans to Resume Plutonium Production at Idaho National Lab
- - All Things Considered? - U.S. Plans to Produce Plutonium-238 in Idaho
Editor's Notes:
Item 1 had originally been an update from Tom Flocco,
but his story was retracted. From his re-constructed web site,
Tom Flocco posted:
"A rough draft story about the Chicago prosecutor being fired, including many paragraphs and a title that had long since been removed over the last 24 hours was placed online by a new webmaster who was collecting all the files from our previous website. He placed the rough draft file online by mistake and feels very badly about it. This was only a working draft and should never have been placed online. So we retract the rough draft post in its entirety.."
Mistakes will happen, which is a human trait
and another reason why we should never trust human choices
for the development of dangerous nuclear and other weapons
and techbnologies capable of the mass destruction to life.
Item 1 in this revised issue is on the suppression of information and on the horrors of the Hiroshima~Nagasaki atomic-bomb attacks. Finally, released suppressed-footage of the aftermath will be aired on cable television this month by the Sundance station. Item 2 is more on the crazy nuclear direction this world is headed.. Cassini had Plutonium 238 on board. Russia pulled out on the deal to manufacture the isotope for the US for world domination purposes. The poor Idaho potato may take a rough beating on this planned Pu-238 production facility, and neighbors. We all live under one sky.
1) Suppressed Footage of Hiroshima After the Bomb on Cable TV
- - We Must Act Now to Prevent Another Hiroshima - or Worse
Suppressed Footage of Hiroshima After the Bomb to Air on Cable TV
by Sadia Latifi
Published on August 6, 2005 by Knight Ridder
WASHINGTON - Sixty years after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, a film documenting the aftermath is reminding Americans about the horrors of nuclear war.
Footage from a U.S. government-produced film, which was labeled top secret and kept out of public view for decades, is included in "Original Child Bomb," a documentary that will air on many cable stations Saturday, the 60th anniversary of the day that Hiroshima became the first city to suffer atomic attack.
Its release on the Sundance Channel is the culmination of years of effort to bring the government footage before a large American audience. It's the most extensive exposure yet of this long-suppressed footage in the United States. Some anti-war activists see the film's appearance on cable television as a crucial step toward an open discussion about the controversial bombings that ended World War II.
The young soldiers who shot the film in Hiroshima and Nagasaki less than a month after the dawn of the atomic age were unprepared for what they found.
"It was to me the most horrendous, terrifying thing I had ever seen," camera operator Herbert Sussan, who's now deceased, said in a 1983 interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. "I finally convinced myself and some of these people that there was some value for the rest of the people of the world to see what had happened in this first bombing."
Showing their work to the rest of the world was no easy task. The nine hours of film, shot in color, captured horrifying scenes of destruction and human suffering, including a woman with the pattern of her dress burned onto her back and the shadows of vaporized civilians burned into walls.
U.S. government officials deemed it too sensitive to release. They also confiscated black-and-white footage that a Japanese film crew shot before the Americans arrived.
When Lt. Col. Daniel McGovern, the head of the U.S. film crew, learned about the Japanese crew's earlier effort to document the carnage, he was able to obtain their film and lobby successfully to hire some of them for his project.
"I felt there was a need to tell this story," McGovern told the BBC for a 1983 report that used footage from the American film project. "If it were not captured and shown to people, no one would ever know what happened."
McGovern and Sussan were appalled when their footage was kept from public view and used only for military-training videos. Over the years, Sussan repeatedly asked for its public release, appealing as high as President Truman and Robert F. Kennedy.
"Every time I sought to obtain the footage, I came up against a brick wall," he told the BBC.
Sussan, who was 24 when he went to Japan, paid a personal price for his involvement in the project. Like many of the people he filmed, he developed lymphoma, a form of cancer, and died in 1985. He wanted his ashes to be spread at ground zero in Hiroshima, but when his daughter traveled there a year later to fulfill his wish, she was told that it would be illegal.
The Japanese government continually asked the United States for its footage, which had been transferred to the National Archives in Washington by September 1967. After negotiations with the State Department, a copy of the black-and-white newsreel was shipped to Japan in the summer of 1968.
Erik Barnouw, a film historian, created a moving 16-minute montage from the Japanese footage that screened in New York for the news media; all three major TV networks rejected it. Editorials criticized the move, and on Aug. 3, 1970, a public broadcast station aired the short to mark the 25th anniversary of the bomb. It would be nearly 10 more years before the American footage would emerge.
Greg Mitchell, who detailed the story behind the Hiroshima footage in a recent issue of Editor & Publisher magazine, said the postwar movie should be part of any debate about nuclear war.
"These guys weren't anti-nuclear, they were for frank showing of what the truth was," he said of Sussan and McGovern. "It's the right of people to see what's done in their name."
---
"Original Child Bomb" will premiere on the Sundance Channel this weekend, along with two other movies related to nuclear power, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the bombing in Japan.
Airtimes according to the channel's Web site
:
Saturday at 8 p.m.
Tuesday, August 9th at 4:30 p.m.
Aug. 14 at 3:30 p.m.
Aug. 19 at 2 p.m.
Aug. 24 at noon.
Check your local listings for more up-to-date information. The Sundance Channel is available via satellite television and cable television. To find out if your provider offers Sundance Channel, call (800) SUN-FILM.
Copyright 2005 Knight Ridder
www.realcities.com
###
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0806-01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - We Must Act Now to Prevent Another Hiroshima - or Worse
by Noam Chomsky
The explosions in London are a reminder of how the cycle of attack and response could escalate.
Published on Saturday, August 6, 2005 by the lndependent/UK:
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article303965.ece
and posted at:
www.commondreams.org/views05/0806-25.htm
2) DOE Plans to Resume Plutonium Production at Idaho National Lab
- - All Things Considered? - U.S. Plans to Produce Plutonium-238 in Idaho
DOE Plans to Resume Plutonium Production at Idaho National Lab
The Department of Energy (DOE) released a draft environmental impact study on 28 June 2005 that endorses its long-discussed decision to resume production of Plutonium-238 (Pu-238) at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). In addition to Pu-238 production, INL would also become the new home for processes of Pu-238 manufacture and purification that previously took place at the Los Alamos, New Mexico, and Oak Ridge, Tennessee, National Laboratories.
The Pu-238 produced at INL would be used to create space batteries, ostensibly for "national security" purposes and to power NASA space crafts. Construction of a new Pu-238 complex to accommodate the consolidation would, if approved, be finished by 2009 and cost up to $300 million.
Proponents of consolidating the plutonium battery production at INL say the move would significantly increase the safety of dealing with radioactive nuclear materials. If the processes of plutonium isolation and its manufacture into pellets are moved from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to INL, the materials would not have to be transported across the country.
Although it discontinued Pu-238 production in the late ‘80s, the DOE has planned to resume production for many years due to an expected shortfall that will occur in 2010. The DOE is also proposing to build a second, smaller Pu-238 production facility at Oak Ridge laboratory.
Pu-238 has a half-life of 88 years, which is much shorter than the 24,000-year half-life of Plutonium-239 used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons, but it is much more radioactive than Pu-239. In August 2003, a Pu-238 spill took place at the LANL's Plutonium facility, which the DOE has been trying unsuccessfully to decontaminate ever since. Employees have accidentally been exposed to plutonium on three different occasions at LANL
The final decision on whether the INL will take on the program will take place later in the summer. A DOE public hearing concerning the decision will likely be held in Idaho in late July. Public comments to the DOE will be accepted at consolidationeis@nuclear.energy.gov.
According to Jeremy Maxand, Executive Director of the Snake River Alliance, it is highly probable that the new Pu-238 production would be used as part of the US' ongoing drive to weaponize space. According to Maxand, "Though we've been told the plutonium batteries aren't used in nuclear weapons, missile defense, or earth-orbiting satellites, we've also been told that the national security mission could change. We'd never know, of course. It would be a secret change to a secret."
In addition, the INL's Naval Reactors Facility may soon be outfitted to design and ultimately manufacture nuclear reactors for space missions – including a possible manned mission to Mars – that need more energy than that provided by the batteries.
O'Neil, Kathleen, " Idaho Could Be Hub for Plutonium, Space Work," Idaho Register, 11 June 2005; Maxand, Jeremy, "Proposed Plutonium Factory Has High Potential for Harm to Idahoans," Idaho Statesman, 28 June 2005; " Idaho lab may begin plutonium production," Idaho State Journal, 28 June 2005.
Resource: http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/07_sunflower.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - All Things Considered? - U.S. Plans to Produce Plutonium-238 in Idaho
NPR - All Things Considered
U.S. Plans to Produce Plutonium-238 in Idaho
by Martin Kaste
August 4, 2005 Fifteen years ago, the United States stopped making plutonium-238, one of the most toxic substances known to man. It can be fatal to inhale so much as a speck of the radioactive isotope. But now, citing national security needs, the government is preparing to start making it again at a federally owned site in the Idaho desert.
Plutonium-238 is far more radioactive than its cousin, plutonium-239, which is used in bombs. It's so radioactive, it stays hot to the touch for decades. It is useless for commercial nuclear power plants, but ideal to make small, long-lasting batteries for devices such as space probes and espionage equipment.
For the complete article, see:
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4780813
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Vanity Fair - Edmonds * 911 Empire * Human Rights
05 August 2005
"War paralyzes your courage and deadens the spirit of true manhood.
It degrades and stupefies with the sense that you are not responsible,
that 'tis not yours to think and reason why, but to do and die,'
like the hundred thousand others doomed like yourself.
War means blind obedience, unthinking stupidity,
brutish callousness, wanton destruction,
and irresponsible murder."
Alexander Berkman
1) Vanity Fair floats allegations GOP chief Hastert took Turkish bribes
- - Vanity Fair - Sibel Edmonds - 9/11 CitizensWatch
- - ACLU Urges Supreme Court to Review Case of FBI Whistleblower
- - 9/11 and the American Empire - a film by Ken Jenkins
2) "What Have We Done?" by Dahr Jamail
3) Electromagnetic Weapons - The Technology of Political Control
4) Leonard Peltier's Plight
Editor's Notes:
It has been quite a commotion, stirred up by Tom Flocco's article on indictment. Sooner or later, perhaps.. TomFlocco.com was down when I last checked, or "under construction." In any case, the story, credible or incredible, was newsworthy due to the substance of our concern. There were crimes committed like misleading the US into an unwinnable war .Yet the increase in recent fatalities is only making hawks rise up the call for greater battles, and the doves in seeking an uncertain disengagement from the policies of past mistakes.. or fraudulent manipulations. Item one features the September 2005's Vanity Fair article on 9/11 FBI whistleblower, Sibel Edmonds. Besides linking to read the article online, subsections include an ACLU press release on Edmonds' behalf, and new information on a film by Ken Jenkins, covering David Ray Griffin's presentation, which was broadcast on C-Span: "9/11 and the American Empire."
Item 2 is by Dahr Jamail, a telling of the empire story from a human questioning perspective. Meanwhile item 3 visits the warped reality of Electromagnetic Weapons, technologies for political control. .This Monday, August 8, 2005, a radio program will cover this topic - at Noon 1 PM Pacific Time. Coop Radio, with host, Alfred Lambremont Webre, is interviewing Leuren Moret, Environmental Commissioner, City of Berkeley, CA.
Item 4 is from Leonard Peltier, via his Defense Committee's blog, updating his case, struggles, and reveals the endless game of a system, which is not about justice or fairness.
This August 6 and 9th represent the 60th year anniversary date
of the US use of atomic weapons over civilian areas.
Two free films will be shown in Northampton, MA:
at the Media Education Foundation - Aug. 5th - 7pm
THE FORGOTTEN FOOTAGE OF HIROSHIMA
A month after the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, the Japanese Education Ministry filmed the
aftermath. The film was confiscated by occupation
forces, but a secret copy was hidden, forgotten, then
discovered in 1993. It is now available as a short video.
"WHY THE BOMB WAS DROPPED
The 1996 ABC News documentary "Why the Bomb Was Dropped,"
hosted by Peter Jennings, calls into question the widely held
assumption that the attacks were militarily necessary. Instead, it
argues, the bombings may have been undertaken as a show of
force to establish post-war military dominance by the United States.
For more information on these films and actions to stop the war, visit:
The Northampton Committee to Stop the War in Iraq
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
~ A-Bomb Survivors for 2005 Nobel Peace Prize ~
Flyby News is one of many Organizations supporting
the Nihon Hidankyo, an organization of Hibakusha
survivors of the A-bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
and the subsequent H-bomb testing in the Bikini Atoll,
for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize award in 2005,
the 60th anniversary of the dropped Atomic Bombs.
The focus of this group is for healing, and
for the abolition of atomic bombs for all.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Peace cannot be achieved through violence;
it can only be attained through understanding.
Albert Einstein
1) Vanity Fair floats allegations GOP chief Hastert took Turkish bribes
- - Vanity Fair - Sibel Edmonds - 9/11 CitizensWatch
- - ACLU Urges Supreme Court to Review Case of FBI Whistleblower
- - 9/11 and the American Empire - a film by Ken Jenkins
Vanity Fair floats allegations GOP chief Hastert took Turkish bribes
RAW STORY
Vanity Fair's September edition, now out in New York but yet to hit national newsstands, packs a punch with an article about Sibel Edmonds, the FBI translator who has been gagged by the Bush Administration from revealing information about conversations she translated surrounding a seemingly major corruption scandal involving Turkish nationals and U.S. lawmakers,
RAW STORY acquired a copy of the article by David Rose Wednesday evening. The following are some brief excerpts surrounding the meatier allegations Edmonds has made-some of which the FBI has confirmed-about the specifics surrounding her case. According to those briefed on the case, Edmonds says she has heard classified wiretaps which indicate Turkish nationals tried to bribe both Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Chicago and Washington.
Edmonds was fired from the FBI after trying to persuade her bosses to investigate a Turkish family, the Dickersons, she said was trying to trade on her status as an FBI operative. She suspected that the American Turkish Council, which the family tried to persuade her to join, was a front group for criminal activity.
[Article Truncated]
For the complete RAW Story, see:
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Vanity_Fair_floats_allegations_GOP_chief_Hastert_took_Turkish__0803.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Vanity Fair - Sibel Edmonds - 9/11 CitizensWatch
For more on Vanity Fair, Sibel Edmonds, see:
National Security Watch: FBI whistle-blower petitions high court Sibel Edmonds
and
http://911citizenswatch.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=609
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - ACLU Urges Supreme Court to Review Case of FBI Whistleblower
Press Releases:
ACLU Urges Supreme Court to Review Case of
FBI Whistleblower Thursday, August 04, 2005 -
NEW YORK -- The American Civil Liberties Union today urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower court's dismissal of the case of Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI translator who was fired in retaliation for reporting security breaches and possible espionage within the Bureau. Lower courts dismissed the case when former Attorney General John Ashcroft invoked the rarely used "state secrets" privilege.
Vanity Fair Profile Reveals New Facts About FBI's
Termination of Former Translator Sibel Edmonds
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media@aclu.org
NEW YORK -- The American Civil Liberties Union today urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower court's dismissal of the case of Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI translator who was fired in retaliation for reporting security breaches and possible espionage within the Bureau. Lower courts dismissed the case when former Attorney General John Ashcroft invoked the rarely used "state secrets" privilege.
The Court created the so-called state secrets privilege more than 50 years ago but has not considered it since. The need for clarification of the doctrine is acute, the ACLU said, because the government is increasingly using the privilege to cover up its own wrongdoing and to keep legitimate cases out of court.
"Edmonds' case is not an isolated incident," said ACLU Associate Legal Director Ann Beeson. "The federal government is routinely retaliating against government employees who uncover weaknesses in our ability to prevent terrorist attacks or protect public safety."
The states secrets privilege, Beeson said, "should be used a shield for sensitive evidence, not a sword the government can use at will to cut off argument in a case before the evidence can be presented. We are urging the Supreme Court, which has not directly addressed this issue in 50 years, to rein in the government's misuse of this privilege."
The ACLU is also asking the Supreme Court to reverse the D.C. appeals court's decision to exclude the press and public from the court hearing of Edmonds' case in April. The appeals court closed the hearing at the eleventh hour without any specific findings that secrecy was necessary. In fact, the government had agreed to argue the case in public. A media consortium that included The New York Times , The Washington Post , and CNN intervened in the case to object to the closure.
Edmonds, a former Middle Eastern language specialist hired by the FBI shortly after 9/11, was fired in 2002 and filed a lawsuit later that year challenging the retaliatory dismissal.
Her ordeal is highlighted in a 10-page article about whistleblowers in the September 2005 issue of Vanity Fair which links Edmonds' allegations and the subsequent retaliation to possible "illicit activity involving Turkish nationals" and a high-level member of Congress. The ACLU said the article, titled "An Inconvenient Patriot," further undercuts the government's claim that the case can't be litigated because certain information is secret.
In addition, a report by the Inspector General, made public in January 2005, contains a tremendous amount of detail about Edmonds' job, the structure of the FBI translation unit , and the substance of her allegations. The report concluded that Edmonds' whistleblower allegations were "the most significant factor" in the FBI's decision to terminate her.
The outcome in Edmonds' case could significantly impact the government's ability to rely on secrecy to avoid accountability in future cases, the ACLU said, including one pending case charging the government with "rendering" detainees to be tortured.
In the 1953 Supreme Court case that was the basis for today's state secrets privilege doctrine, United States v. Reynolds, the government claimed that disclosing a military flight accident report would jeopardize secret military equipment and harm national security. Nearly 50 years later, in 2004, the truth came out: the accident report contained no state secrets, but instead confirmed that the cause of the crash was faulty maintenance of the B-29 fleet.
Fourteen 9/11 family member advocacy groups and public interest organizations filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of Edmonds ' case before the District Court, and many are expected to join an amicus brief next month supporting Supreme Court review of the case, including the National Security Archive.
Edmonds is represented by Beeson, Melissa Goodman, and Ben Wizner of the national ACLU; Art Spitzer of the ACLU of the National Capital Area; and Mark Zaid, of Krieger and Zaid, PLLC.
The ACLU's Supreme Court cert petition is online at: www.aclu.org/NationalSecurity/NationalSecurity.cfm?ID=18870&c=24
For this press release with additional links, see:
www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=18880&c=206
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 9/11 and the American Empire - a film by Ken Jenkins
The new graphically enhanced David Ray Griffin DVD,
now at quantity discount prices.
Announcing special wholesale pricing on newly replicated DVDs of David Ray Griffin's C-SPAN talk. I have just received a large shipment of DVD's of my edit of Griffin's Madison presentation. Unlike the C-SPAN broadcast, this version is extensively illustrated and enhanced with graphics and video clips. I am now offering boxes of 30 at a new low wholesale price of $200 a box (plus shipping), which works out to $6.67 per DVD. The normal wholesale is $10/per DVD. These discs are replicated, not duplicated (meaning high compatibility with most players), packaged in a shrink wrapped, Amaray box with full color cover graphics and disc printing. A Deception Dollar is inside every box.
Many agree that Griffin's C-SPAN talk is the best introductory 9/11 DVD currently available. It is one of the strongest assets we have for sharing 9/11 truth; it is especially suitable for a wide audience. Griffin's superlative credentials and approachable presentation style combined with the perceived increase in legitimacy of having been broadcast on a national network is an unbeatable combination for reaching outside "the choir" to those still ignorant of and/or in denial of 9/11 truth. Please respond by sending an email to Ken Jenkins < kenjenkins@aol.com > to order.
Thanks!
Ken Jenkins
911TV
9/11 and the American Empire
David Ray Griffin
DVD (VHS also available)
83 minutes
This talk by David Ray Griffin at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, was first broadcast by C-SPAN on April 30, 2005. Griffin starts by establishing the American Empire as real and not benign, quoting numerous authors on the left and right. Then, following the reasoning put forth in his highly acclaimed book The New Pearl Harbor and his more recent book The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions, he gives abundant evidence that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated by the Bush administration, for the purpose of expanding this empire. The talk concludes with suggestions of what we can do about this situation. A question-and-answer period follows.
This talk is aimed particularly at religious people who take seriously the moral principles that their religion has in common with the other religions of the world.
David Ray Griffin, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of Religion and Theology at the Claremont School of Theology, has published over 25 books and 150 articles.
Video Producer Ken Jenkins worked as a video professional for over 30 years and a 9/11 activist for nearly 4 years.
Truth and Politics:
Unanswered Questions about 9/11
DVD or VHS
59 minutes + 40 minute interview.
For another source to get films and support 9/11 Visibility Project, see:
www.septembereleventh.org/donations.php
For other links see FN's:
Films that Make a Difference!
2) "What Have We Done?" by Dahr Jamail
Iraq Dispatches
August 05, 2005
"What Have We Done?"
As the blood of US soldiers continues to drain into the hot sands of Iraq over the last several days with at least 27 US soldiers killed and the approval rating for his handling of the debacle in Iraq dropping to an all-time low of 38%, Mr. Bush commented from the comforts of his ranch in Crawford, Texas today, "We will stay the course, we will complete the job in Iraq."
Just a two hour drive away in Dallas, at the Veterans for Peace National Convention in Dallas, I'm sitting with a roomful of veterans from the current quagmire.
When asked what he would say to Mr. Bush if he had the chance to speak to him, Abdul Henderson, a corporal in the Marines who served in Iraq from March until May, 2003, took a deep breath and said, "It would be two hits-me hitting him and him hitting the floor. I see this guy in the most prestigious office in the world, and this guy says bring it on.' A guy who ain't never been shot at, never seen anyone suffering, saying bring it on?' He gets to act like a cowboy in a western movieit's sickening to me."
The other vets with him nod in agreement as he speaks somberlyhis anger seething.
One of them, Alex Ryabov, a corporal in an artillery unit which was in Iraq the first three months of the invasion, asked for some time to formulate his response to the same question.
"I don't think Bush will ever realize how many millions of lives he and his lackeys have ruined on their quest for money, greed and power," he says, "To take the patriotism of the American people for grantedthe fact that people (his administration) are willing to lie and make excuses for you while you continue to kill and maim the youth of America and ruin countless familiesand still manage to do so with a smile on your face."
Taking a deep breath to steady himself he continues as if addressing Bush first-hand; "You needs to resign, take the billions of dollars you've made off the blood and sweat of US service members.all the suffering you've caused us, and put those billions of dollars into the VA to take care of the men and women you sent to be slaughtered. Yet all those billions aren't enough to even try to compensate all the people who have been affected by this."
These new additions to Veterans for Peace are actively living the statement of purpose of the organization, having pledged to work with others towards increasing public awareness of the costs of war, to work to restrain their government from intervening, overtly and covertly, in the internal affairs of other nations and to see justice for veterans and victims of war, among other goals.
I type furiously for three hours, trying to keep up with the stories each of the men shared.about the atrocities of what they saw, and committed, while in Iraq.
Camilo Mejia, an army staff sergeant who was sentenced to a year in military prison in May, 2004 for refusing to return to Iraq after being home on leave, talks openly about what he did there:
"What it all comes down to is redemption for what was done there. I was turning ambulances away from going to hospitals, I killed civilians, I tortured guysand I'm ashamed of that. Once you are there, it has nothing to do with politicsit has to do with you as an individual being there and killing people for no reason. There is no purpose, and now I'm sick at myself for doing these things. I kept telling myself I was there for my buddies. It was a weak reasoningbecause I still shut my mouth and did my job."
Mejia then spoke candidly about why he refused to return:
"It wasn't until I came home that I felt it-how wrong it all was and that I was a coward for pushing my principles aside. I'm trying to buy my way back into heavenand it's not so much what I did, but what I didn't do to stop it when I was there. So now it's a way of trying to undo the evil that we did over there. This is why I'm speaking out, and not going back. This is a painful process and we're going through it."
Camilo Mejia was then quick to point towards the success of his organization and his colleagues. "When I went back to Iraq in October of 2003, the Pentagon said there were 22 AWOL's. Five months later it was 500, and when I got out of jail that number was 5,000. These are the Pentagons' numbers for the military. Two things are significant here-the number went from 500-5,000 in 11 months, and these are the numbers from the Pentagon."
While the military is falling short of its recruitment goals across the board and the disaster in Iraq spiraling deeper into chaos with each passing day, these are little consolation for these men who have paid the price they've had to pay to be at this convention. They continue to pay, but at the same time stand firm in their resolve to bring an end to the occupation of Iraq and to help their fellow soldiers.
ARTICLE TRUNCATED
For the complete article posting by Dahr Jamail, see:
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/dispatches/000271.php#more
3) Electromagnetic Weapons - The Technology of Political Control
Coop Radio: Electromagnetic Weapons - The Technology of Political Control
When: Monday August 8, 2005 at Noon 1 PM Pacific Time
Where: Coop Radio: CFRO 102.7 FM Vancouver, B.C.
LISTEN LIVE: coopradio.org
Host: Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, MEd
Guest: Leuren Moret, Environmental Commissioner, City of Berkeley, CA
http://peaceinspace.blogs.com/peaceinspaceorg/2005/06/leuren_moret_wa.html
International Movement for the Global Ban of Weapons
which Manipulate the Human Nervous System
http://home.comcast.net/~jmontemayor10/
For MORE on this post, the EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT:
"Banning HAARP/EMF WEAPONS" - Minutes 28/01/1999
See::
http://peaceinspace.blogs.com/peaceinspaceorg/2005/08/coop_radio_elec.html
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For FN archives on this topic, see:
Military Weather Experiments, ChemTrails, and Psychotronic Warfare
4) Leonard Peltier's Plight
Update from Leonard Peltier, from the LPDC Blog @
http://lpdcinc.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
UPDATE FROM LEONARD PELTIER
July 30, 2005
Aho my relations,
As I sit here in my solitary confinement cell at USP Terre Haute, and reflect over the past month's events, I can't help but feel an overwhelming sense of love and gratitude for each and every one of you who have so diligently stood by me in this time of crisis. As you already know by now, on June 30, 2005, I was transferred from Leavenworth Facility, to Terre Haute USP. The reason for my transfer, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons Administrative staff was that the Leavenworth Facility was downgraded from maximum security level to medium, and therefore I could not remain at Leavenworth due to my illegal sentencing and consequent maximum security rank.
I was transferred without notification to my attorney, Barry Bachrach, and my family. Upon my arrival to Terre Haute I was placed in solitary confinement and was told that I would remain in solitary confinement until my personal file arrived. My personal file arrived, but I remain in solitary confinement allegedly for security reasons. I am confined to a cell that is 8'X 8', it has a window that is covered from the outside with an elaborate shield that allows me to see 2-3 inches of the sky out of the top and 2-3 inches of the ground. All prisoners are supposed to get at least one hour of sunlight or outdoors and so I am taken from my cell to what is called a Recreation Room (Rec Cage), and the only sun or outdoors that I see is from some windows high up in this large room with a few air holes in them. I am able to walk up and down and this fulfills the one hour of sunlight or outdoors recreation time.
Whatever the system's logic is, it seems that I won't stay in Terre Haute for much longer and will be transferred again. I do not know when and where, nor do I know if this cruel game will be over after another transfer. After all, removal and relocation have been used to break our people from the beginning of this country's history. This keeps my Defense Committee from taking the necessary steps to re-establish an office, but they are doing everything they can to help me in this most precarious and uncertain situation.
Before this situation developed, I asked Russ Redner to be the National/International Executive Director of the LPDC. Russ is a brother from our original Northwest AIM crew, a long time ally, and one of the original founders of the LPDC. I have trusted Russ with my life many times and he's proven himself at every turn. I want him to be the last person I ever have to ask to guide the LPDC, and as such I have given him full authority to do whatever is necessary to prevent problems that have plagued us in the past from ever surfacing again. He and his wife, Paula, bring a renewed energy to the LPDC. It is essential that Russ, Barry Bachrach, Mike Kuzma, and the new team at the LPDC be supported so they can work most effectively to achieve my freedom and accomplish the things that need to be done for my people. I have confidence that all of you who truly support me will extend your vote of confidence to Russ and my new team.
A month in solitary is beginning to take a toll on me but your letters give me much hope and encouragement. Many of you have written, e-mailed and called USP Terre Haute, and other organizations. This has brought some improvement to my solitary confinement. I am now getting my medications on a daily basis, I can write out, I am receiving my mail, and I am allowed one phone call a month. I am allowed contact visits for those persons authorized on my visiting list. The contact visit is restricted to a two hour period, and is conducted through a glass pane and a phone. I am allowed to visit with my attorney without those restrictions.
At this time I am asking that you continue to call/write/e-mail contacts requesting that my security level be downgraded to medium due to my health, age and good behavior and that I be transferred to a medium security institution with all my hard earned prisoner privileges restored. In case I am transferred please add the new facility (keep checking our official website: leonardpeltier.org) to your contact list and ask them to respect my human rights and prisoner privileges. Again, I thank you for your support and prayers and hope that I may one day soon be among you.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Leonard Peltier
*-*-*-*
ONLINE PETITION FOR PAROLE
http://campaign-pyramid.com/kola/leonard/
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For FN's updated resource: Free Leonard Peltier
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Griffin: 9/11 and Press * Bush/Cheney Indicted
02 August 2005
It does not require a majority to prevail,
but rather an irate, tireless minority
keen to set brush fires in people's minds.
Samuel Adams
1) David Ray Griffin at the National Press Club
- - Bush installs Bolton as U.S. ambassador to U.N.
2) Bush and Cheney Indicted?
Fear is not in the habit of speaking truth
Publius Cornelius Tacitus
Editor's Notes:
This issue highlights item 1, which is from David Ray Griffin called "9/11 AND THE MAINSTREAM PRESS", which he presented at the National Press Club. Item 1 had originally been an update from Tom Flocco, but his story was retracted, but for archival purposes, we leave this article posted in item 2.
If there is one principle more deeply rooted
in the mind of every American,
it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest
Thomas Jefferson
1) David Ray Griffin at the National Press Club
- - Bush installs Bolton as U.S. ambassador to U.N.
9/11 AND THE MAINSTREAM PRESS
by David Ray Griffin
Address at the National Press Club
June 22, 2005
After the attacks of 9/11, I accepted the blowback thesis, according to which the attacks were payback for US foreign policy. About a year later, a colleague suggested that the attacks were orchestrated by our own government. My response was that I didn't think the Bush administrationeven the Bush administrationwould do such a thing.
A few months later, another colleague suggested that I look at a website containing the massive 9/11 timeline created by Paul Thompson. This timeline, I found, contained an enormous number of reports, all from mainstream sources, that contradicted the official account. This started a process that led me to publish The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11, which summarized much of the evidence that had been discovered by previous researchersevidence, I concluded, that provided a "strong prima facie case for official complicity."
In a criminal trial, once the prosecution has presented its initial case, the defense asks the judge for a dismissal on the grounds that a prima facie case for guilt has not been presented. However, if the judge declares that such a case has been made, then the defense must rebut the various elements in the prosecution's case. The defense cannot simply ignore the prosecution's case by stating that it is "too outrageous to be dignified by a response." If the defense fails to offer a convincing rebuttal, the prima facie case is presumed to be conclusive.
The Bush administration responded to the charges against it as a defense attorney would, declaring them too outrageous to be taken seriously. President Bush himself advised people, perhaps especially reporters, not to tolerate "outrageous conspiracy theories." What the president really meant is that people should not tolerate any outrageous conspiracy theories except his own, according to which 19 Arab Muslims defeated the most powerful and sophisticated defense system in history and also defeated the laws of physics, bringing down three steelframe building in a way that perfectly mimicked controlled demolition.
In any case, what was needed at that stage was someone to play the role of the judge, determining, from an impartial perspective, whether a prima facie case for the guilt of the Bush administration had been made.
This role should have been played by the press. But the mainstream press instead offered itself as a mouthpiece for the administration's conspiracy theory.
The role of the impartial judge has, nevertheless, been played by civil society, in which tens of millions of people in this country and around the world now accept the 9/11 truth movement's contention that the Bush administration was complicit in the attacks.
The fact that the president was finally forced to appoint a 9/11 commission provided an opportunity for the Bush administration to rebut the allegations made against it. You might assume that the 9/11 Commission would have played the role of an impartial jury, simply evaluating the evidence for the competing conspiracy theories and deciding which one was more strongly supported.
The Commission's investigative work, however, was carried out by its staff, and this staff was directed by the White House's man inside the Commission, Philip Zelikow, a fact that the mainstream press has not emphasized. Under Zelikow's leadership, the Commission took the role of the prosecution for the Bush administration's brief against alQaeda. In doing so, it implicitly took the role of the defense for the Bush administration. Accordingly, an important question to ask about The 9/11 Commission Report, especially since we know that the Commission had many copies of The New Pearl Harbor, is how well the Commission rebutted the prima facie case against the BushCheney administration, which was summarized in that book.
In a second book, The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions, I showed that the Commission simply ignored most of that evidence and distorted the rest. I will summarize a few of the 115 sins of omission and distortion that I identified.
The New Pearl Harbor reported evidence that at least six of the alleged hijackers are still alive. David Harrison of the Telegraph interviewed two of the men who supposedly died on Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania, one of whom said that he "had never even heard of Pennsylvania," let alone died there. The Associated Press reported that Waleed alShehri, supposedly on Flight 11, contacted the U.S. embassy in Morocco about two weeks after 9/11. The 9/11 Commission Report, nevertheless, suggested that alShehri was responsible for stabbing one of the flight attendants shortly before Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower.
The New Pearl Harbor cited reports that although Mohamed Atta, the supposed ringleader, had been portrayed as a devout Muslim ready to meet his maker, he actually loved alcohol, pork, and lap dances. Zelikow's commission, however, said that Atta had become "fanatically" religious.
They also claimed that they could find no credible explanation as to why Atta and the other hijackers went to Las Vegas. The mainstream press has let the Commission get away with these obvious contradictions.
People who have seen Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 know that President Bush was in a classroom in Sarasota when he was told that a second plane had struck the World Trade Center, a sign that the country was suffering an unprecedented terrorist attack. And yet the president just sat there.
Many critics have asked why he did not immediately assume the role of commanderinchief, but the more important question is why the highly trained Secret Service agents did not immediately rush him to safety. Bush's location had been highly publicized. They should have worried that a hijacked airliner was bearing down on them at that very moment. And yet they allowed the president to remain at the school another half hour, thereby implying that they knew the president was not a target.
The 9/11 Commission's only response was to report that "[t]he Secret Service told us they . . . did not think it imperative for [the President] to run out the door." The Commissioners evidently accepted the implied suggestion that maintaining presidential decorum was more important than protecting the president's life. The mainstream press has had no comment on this remarkable response to that remarkable incident.
Another big question created by the official story is how the hijackers, by crashing planes into the Twin Towers, caused them and Building 7 to collapse. One problem is that Building 7 was not struck by an airplane, and steelframe buildings had never before been caused to collapse by fire alone, even when the fires had been much bigger, hotter, and longerlasting. The Commission avoided this problem by simply not mentioning this fact or even, incredibly, that Building 7 collapsed.
Another problem, which I mentioned earlier, is that the collapses had all the standard features of controlled demolitions. For example, all three buildings came down at virtually freefall speed. The Commission even alluded to this feature, saying that the "South Tower collapsed in 10 seconds." But it never explained how fire plus the impact of an airplane could have produced such a collapse.
Controlled demolition was also suggested by the fact that the collapses were total, with the 110story Twin Towers collapsing into a pile of rubble only a few stories high. The core of each tower had consisted of 47 massive steel columns, which extended from the basements through the roofs. Even if we ignore all the other problems in the official "pancake" theory of the collapses, those massive steel columns should have still been sticking up a thousand feet in the air. Zelikow's commission handled this problem with the audacious claim that "[t]he interior core of the buildings was a hollow steel shaft."
James Glanz, a science writer for the New York Times, coauthored a book in 2003 entitled The Rise and Fall of the World Trade Center. This book contains an extensive discussion of the construction of the towers around the 47 interior columns. And yet when the Commission in 2004 published its incredible denial that these columns existed, the Times did not protest.
Another example: Breaking those massive steel columns would have required very powerful explosives. Many survivors of the towers have reported hearing and feeling explosions. But the 9/11 Commission failed to mention any of these reports. William Rodriguez told the 9/11 Commission behind closed doors about feeling and hearing a huge explosion in the subbasement of the North Tower, then rescuing people from its effects, but neither his name nor any of his testimony is found in Zelikow's final report.
The mainstream press has also refused to report Rodriguez's story, even though NBC News spent a day at his home taping it.
The Commission also failed to address the many reasons to conclude that the Pentagon was not struck by Flight 77. The Commission in particular failed to subpoena the film from the video cameras, confiscated by the FBI immediately after the attacks, which could at least clear up one of the questionswhether the attacking aircraft was a Boeing 757.
The Commission did allude to one problemthe fact that Hani Hanjour, the alleged pilot, was known to be completely incompetent, incapable of flying a Boeing 757, let alone performing the remarkable maneuver reportedly executed by the aircraft that hit the Pentagon. The Commission handled this problem simply by saying in one place that Hanjour was considered a "terrible pilot" while saying elsewhere that he was given the assignment to hit the Pentagon because he was "the operation's most experienced pilot." The mainstream press has not pointed out this contradiction.
The Commission also failed to discuss the considerable evidence that Flight 93 was shot down by the US military, perhaps when passengers were about to wrest control of it. The Commission dealt with this problem only indirectly, by claiming that Vice President Cheney did not give the shootdown order until 10:10, which was at least four minutes after Flight 93 crashed. In support of this claim, the Commission said that Cheney did not enter the Operations Center under the White House until almost 10:00 that morning. To make this claim, however, the Commission had to contradict all prior reports. It also had to delete Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta's testimony, given during the Commission's public hearings, that when he got down there at 9:20, Cheney was already in charge. Even such an obvious lie, supported by such blatant suppression of evidence, has elicited no murmur from our mainstream press.
There are dozens of other omissions and distortions the press has allowed the Commission to get away with. For example, the Commission's endorsement of the claim by General Richard Myers that he was on Capitol Hill that morning ignores Richard Clarke's report, in Against All Enemies, that Myers was in the Pentagon, participating in Clarke's video conference. Also, the Commission's account of why the hijacked airliners were not intercepted contradicts the account that had been told since shortly after 9/11 not only by the U.S. military but also by the press, in thousands of stories. But the press now, like Gilda Radnor, says "Never Mind."
In any case, as these illustrations show, the 9/11 Commission, which had the opportunity to rebut the prima facie case against the Bush administration, failed to do so. This means that the publication of The 9/11 Commission Report needs to be recognized as a decisive event, because it was the moment at which the prima facie case against the Bush administration became a conclusive case.
What we need now is a press that will let the American people in on this developmentwhich is most important, given the fact that the official story about 9/11 has provided the pretext for virtually every other horrible thing this administration has done.
# # #
Received via email from Emanuel Sferios
Webmaster, SeptemberEleventh.org
For an online version of Dr. Griffin's address below:
www.septembereleventh.org/newsarchive/20050729pressclub.php
For DVDs of Dr. Griffin's CSpan talk and other 9/11 truth DVDs:
www.septembereleventh.org/donations.php
For photos of last weekend's 9/11 truth event in DC, with images of Dr.
Ray Griffin, Nafeez Ahmed, Paul Thompson, Ray McGovern, Danny Schecter,
Jenna Orkin, Charles Key, Gael Murphy, Peter Phillips and many others
(photos by Jan Hoyer, John Gannon, Chris Emery, Jonathan Gold):
http://truthemergency.us/PhotoAlbum/EmergencyTruthConvergence%20version%201/index.html
For Flyby News updated resource see:
The Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports,
looking into the unanswered questions.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush installs Bolton as U.S. ambassador to U.N.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&e=1&u=/nm/20050801/pl_nm/bush_
bolton_dc
2) Bush and Cheney Indicted?
First here is a part of the retraction statement from Tom Flocco,
after August 2nd from Tom Flocco, posted from his re-constructed web site,
Tom Flocco posted:
"A rough draft story about the Chicago prosecutor being fired, including many paragraphs and a title that had long since been removed over the last 24 hours was placed online by a new webmaster who was collecting all the files from our previous website. He placed the rough draft file online by mistake and feels very badly about it. This was only a working draft and should never have been placed online. So we retract the rough draft post in its entirety.."
From TomFlocco.com
A Chicago grand jury has indicted the President and VicePresident of the United States along with multiple high officials in the Bush administration
Chicago August 2, 2005 TomFlocco.com U.S. federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's Chicago grand jury has issued perjury and obstruction of justice indictments to the following members of the Bush Administration: President George W. Bush, VicePresident Richard Cheney, Bush Chief of Staff Andrew Card, Cheney Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, former Attorney General John Ashcroft, imprisoned New York Times reporter Judith Miller and former Senior Cheney advisor Mary Matalin.
There were no indications given as to whether the President and his top staff members would appear publicly before cameras at the grand jury proceedings, given the gravity of the charges.
Besides the Valerie Plame CIA leak case, the Fitzgerald probe is reportedly farreaching and expanding much deeper into past White House criminal acts involving BushClinton drug money laundering in Mena, Arkansas to White House involvement in 9.11; but also for sending America's young people to their deaths or to be maimed in Iraq and Afghanistan under false pretenses.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair was indicted for obstruction of justice and is reportedly consulting with members of Parliament and legal aides regarding how to avoid appearing in the U.S.A. for interrogation before Fitzgerald in Chicago.
The revelations emanated from sources close to the grand jury who spoke with federal whistleblower Thomas Heneghen in California who said White House Senior Advisor to the President Karl Rove was also indicted for perjury and was reportedly involved with Mary Matalin in a major Bush administration document shredding operation to coverup evidence.
Heneghen had reported over ten days ago on a TruthRadio.com broadcast [Every Monday and Tuesday evening from 89 pm EST truthradio.com special briefing on Wednesday evening August 3 at 8 pm EST]] that his sources close to the grand jury said former Secretary of State Colin Powell had been subpoenaed and had testified against President Bush, telling the citizen panel that the President had taken the United States to war based upon liesa capital crime involving treason under the United States Code.
Heneghen also reported a week ago that Gonzalez and Card had been subpoened and that Tony Blair had defied his subpoena after the response time limit had expired.
Sources close to the investigation report that members of the House, Senate, 9.11 Commission and other members of the media are also under investigation as potential targets by a grand jury regarding obstruction of justice and other oversight failures linked to the 9.11 attacksindicating that citizen panelists working with Fitzgerald may be seeking a wholesale cleansing of what many have said is a crimewracked White House and Congress.
Also last Monday, the whistleblower reported that Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts was planning to obstruct justice by calling Fitzgerald for Senate hearings to question the prosecutor's motives for the farreaching investigation.
This, giving rise to questions as to whether Roberts and other Republican legislatorssome now under secret investigationwould join President Bush in seeking to fire Fitzgerald in the same manner that President Nixon had fired Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox in order to obstruct justice and cut off further investigations into White House crimes.
Two weeks ago Heneghen said he had talked to sources just ten minutes prior to French and U.S. intelligence agents intercepting British intelligence agents who were attempting to bomb the subway underneath the Dirksen Federal Building where Fitzgerald was presiding over grand jury hearings.
Serious questions can also be raised as to whether intelligence forces linked to President Bush and Tony Blair had participated in a failed attempt to scuttle the Fitzgerald probe by literally blowing it upat a time when UK reports reveal that militarygrade explosives were used to blow up the London subway on July 7.
Sources say the alleged Chicago subway bombing attempt has been attributed to an underground and closeted enmity involving warring intelligence and military factions within the United States government.
Moreover, reports indicate that the disturbance occurred at the same time that the Chicago Tribune and local web blogs had reported that the subway had been evacuated for 4550 minutes regarding a "suspicious package" late on Monday afternoon, July 18.
Also confirming the undertheradarscreen hostilities involving agents loyal to the administration and others who are disturbed about the coverup of government involvement in the 9.11 attacks was a recent contact made with this writer by a major New York media outlet which called seeking "names of those who could confirm its own reports of warring factions within the government which were threatening the safety of U.S. citizens."
developing.....please link or copyand distribute widely.
_________________
TomFlocco
Last edited by TomFlocco on Tue Aug 02, 2005 12:26 pm; edited 6 times in total [which was posted at following URL:
http://tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=3143&sid=858006e33ca7ff30486f1256862a07e0#3143
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
911 * Ohio2004 * Torture * Nuke Wasteland
27 July 2005
"Just as the heart beats in the darkness of the body,
so I, despite this cage, continue to beat with life.
Those who have no courage or honor consider
themselves free, but they are slaves. I am flying
on the wings of thought, and so, even in this cage,
I know a greater freedom."
-- Abdul Rahim Muslim
{2001 - 2004 was imprisoned at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba by US}
1) C-Span to air Nafeez Ahmed 9/11 lecture this weekend
2) (N)one Dare Call It Stolen - Harper Mag - 2004 election fraud
- - Plame, Iraq, Rove: the main players
- - Democratic Senators Press CIA Leak Probe
3) Pentagon Defies Order to Release Photos
- - The Reality of the War in Iraq
4) Nuclear Waste on Native Land
- - Judge: Peltier not above federal laws
Editor's Notes:
The last posting on July 13 on "The Secret Government" was a good place to jump off the net for a while and join with SolarFest to share in arts and energy awareness. This year's festival (for only $20, including camping) brought an abundant crowd to learn more about sustainable ideas and products, and celebrated community in Vermont at a farm called Forget-Me-Not. Thanks to Dar Williams for her contributing her performance to benefit the festival. Regarding another festival-related item, my daughter met Ani DiFranco while jumping off a middle-place-cliff at Bash Bish falls around the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in Hillsdale, NY last weekend. Not knowing this.. And being touched by Ani's song to her father.. I left her a note with someone backstage with information on Flyby News, and on our upcoming music benefit at the Iron Horse in Northampton, MA October 14, 2005. [If anyone wants a pdf attachment on the flyer for this performance with John Coster and Medicine Band - MAWWAL - plus - please write to info@flybynews.com] , and/or if you wish to register at the yahoogroups for feedback and discussions {and you can control how much email you receive} check files at left sidebar at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FlybyNews
You will find not only the flyer for upcoming benefit, but also FN bumper sticker designs, which hopefully the benefit will finance for printing "for the mainstream education drive" - but also there are files for other flyers, for film showings, ads in Green Living eco-journal, items to post in your community, and soon there will be photos of demonstrations in NYC and D.C. for Leonard Peltier, and photography I had taken during the 1998 Cassini-NoFlyby UN Press Club conference with Karl Grossman, Michio Kaku, and Ernest Sternglass." There was a rally outside that day, exactly a year before the second Cassini-Venus flyby. This was the project that launched Flyby News ~ and to this day, NASA dares not risk another flyby exposure of Earth with radioactive plutonium on board.
I'm very much in favor of the space program,
but I think the use of plutonium in space is
a manifestation of organized insanity..
John Gofman
August 18, 1999
1) C-Span to air Nafeez Ahmed 9/11 lecture this weekend
Just in from 911citizenswatch.org ...
C-SPAN's BookTV will broadcast the Beyond Downing Street Town Hall meeting
featuring Nafeez M. Ahmed, author of The War on Truth:
9/11, Disinformation and the Anatomy of Terrorism,
on Saturday, July 30 at 8PM EST,
Sunday, July 31 at 1PM EST and
1:15 AM Monday, August 1st (late Sunday night).
This presentation by eminent researcher Ahmed was recorded at the American University during the Washington, D.C.
Emergency Truth Convergence last Saturday, July 23 from 4-5:30 PM.
For schedule of various showings of the program, see:
www.booktv.org/General/index.asp?segID=6059&schedID=367
For more information about The War on Truth visit:
www.interlinkbooks.com/BooksW/war_on_truth.html
For Flyby News updated resource - see:
The Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports,
looking into the unanswered questions.
2) (N)one Dare Call It Stolen - Harper Mag - 2004 election fraud
- - Plame, Iraq, Rove: the main players
- - Democratic Senators Press CIA Leak Probe
"We need a major scandal." Harper's and 2004 election fraud
Published by Prairie Weather
July 24, 2005
[EXCERPT]
Mark Crispin Miller, in "None Dare Call It Stolen," (Harpers August 2005) puts together an indictment of the process which gave George Bush the 2004 election and asks why so little attention was given to it in the mainstream media. How, for starters, could so many have gotten election predictions so wrong?
..Miller takes a hard look at what the press hasn't done. Take, for example, the moment in Congress when the Ohio vote was challenged by an Ohio representative, backed by Senator Barbara Boxer:
It was a story perfect for TV a rare event, like the return of Halley's comet; a scene of high contention in the nation's capital; a heroine resolved to make things right, both for the public and herself. Such big news would highlight Conyers's report, whose findings, having spurred the challenge in the first place, would now inform the great congressional debate on the election in Ohio. As you may recall, this didn't happen the challenge was rejected by a vote of 267-31 in the House and 74-1 in the Senate. The Boston Globe gave the report 118 words (page 3); the Los Angeles Times, 60 words (page 18). It made no news in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Newsweek, Time, or U.S. News & World Report. It made no news on CBS, NBC, ABC, or PBS. Nor did NPR report it (though Talk of the Nation dealt with it on January 6). CNN did not report it, though Donna Brazile pointedly affirmed its copious "evidence" on Inside Politics on January 6. (Judy Woodruff failed to pause for an elaboration.) Also on that date, the Fox News Channel briefly showed Conyers himself discussing "irregularities" in Franklin County, though it did not mention the report. He was followed by Tom DeLay, who assailed the Democrats for their "assault against the institutions of our representative democracy." The New York Times negated both the challenge and the document in a brief item headlined "Election Results to Be Certified, with Little Fuss from Kerry," which ran on page 16 and ended with this quote from Dennis Hastert's office, vis-a-vis the Democrats: "They are really just trying to stir up their loony left."
In this nation's epic struggle on behalf of freedom, reason, and democracy, the press has unilaterally disarmed and therefore many good Americans, both liberal and conservative, have lost faith in the promise of self-government. That vast surrender is demoralizing, certainly, but if we face it, and endeavor to reverse it, it will not prove fatal. This democracy can survive a plot to hijack an election. What it cannot survive is our indifference to, or unawareness of, the evidence that such a plot has succeeded.
For the complete article, see:
http://prairieweather.typepad.com/big_blue_stem/2005/07/we_need_a_major.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Plame, Iraq, Rove: the main players
The road which led to the invasion of Iraq was also one of the roads which led to Bush's alleged* reelection in 2004 and to what may be his downfall, the Valerie Plame "outing." The Plame matter, serious though it is, is also a thread which leads us to an administration which grabbed onto a theology (constructed by neo-cons, not fundamentalist churches) and a strategy for getting and maintaining power well outside the democratic framework and antithetical to it, both in the US and in countries we seek to "democratize."
This fungal bloom didn't get its start thanks to Karl Rove and other Bush/Cheney lackeys. Some of the same people who engineered the Iraq invasion had been players in the Reagan-Bush's Iran-Contra affair. We can find the foundation for the military-industrial complex which made the Bush/Cheney power structure possible, financially and politically, before World War II. Sixty or seventy years ago some of the same players or their fathers, mentors, and colleagues were making deals with Hitler.
Let's look at that pin-up of the military-industrial complex, the Carlyle Group. Its founders weren't just well-known corporate leaders -- former Nextel and IBM CEO's -- but "public servants" like Frank Carlucci who served in the State Department, CIA, Defense, Defense Intelligence, and even Health, Education and Welfare; Richard Darman, whose government service began in the Nixon administration, then Ford and Bush 1, at Treasury and the OMB; and Arthur Leavitt who headed up the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In many respects, Carlyle is just a big old investment machine of the smoothest and best-connected variety. It's very powerful and has strong ties to the Bush family -- the Bushes being most visible in a group of extremely polished and relentless political operatives that includes Cheney and James Baker.
Carlyle is only one of many interests in the US which depend on the close collaboration of civilian government, foreign policy, a huge, ambitious military bureaucracy and the industries which make enormous profits from being members of the club. Given these resources, we'd have to concede that the Bush 2 administration can do pretty much what they want.
There are a lot of very rich people around who don't care much about power, but not this gang. Power is the main consideration, and once you have it you could well believe that nothing will stop you. When we wonder how in hell this administration can get away with what it gets away with, we're being a little obtuse! These are people for whom the norm is to live "above" the law.
Article truncated, for the complete posting, see:
http://prairieweather.typepad.com/big_blue_stem/2005/07/plame_iraq_rove.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Democratic Senators Press CIA Leak Probe
by Donna de la Cruz
Published on July 26, 2005 by Associated Press
WASHINGTON - More than two dozen Democratic senators on Monday asked Congress to investigate the leak of a CIA officer's identity.
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0726-06.htm
3) Pentagon Defies Order to Release Photos
- - The Reality of the War in Iraq
Pentagon Defies Order to Release Photos;
2,000 Veterans Call for Independent Investigation
Distribution Source : U.S. Newswire
Date : Monday, July 25, 2005
To: National Desk
Contact: Charles Sheehan-Miles of Veterans for Common Sense, 202-558-4553 or charles@veteransforcommonsense.org
WASHINGTON, July 25 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Veterans for Common Sense (VCS), a nonpartisan veterans' organization with 12,000 members, called for a commission to investigate torture allegations today, in response to the Pentagon refusal to release photos and videos from Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.
In an open letter, signed by more than 2,000 veterans and supporters (including 5 flag-rank officers and more than 200 commissioned officers), the veterans urged Congress and the President to "commit -- immediately and publicly -- to support the creation of an independent commission to investigate and report on the detention and interrogation practices of U.S. military and intelligence agencies deployed in the war on terror."
Charles Sheehan-Miles, a 1991 Gulf War veteran and the group's executive director, said, "Once again the administration is fighting to prevent any possible public accountability for its policies, instead choosing to blame it all on the troops. To court-martial privates while high ranking officials get promoted is damaging to the very principle of command responsibility and undermines the U.S. military."
Veterans for Common Sense is co-plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by a coalition of human rights and civil liberties groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights. The lawsuit has generated thousands of pages of documents in the last year documenting torture, abuse and in some cases murder in U.S. detention centers.
Individuals who have seen the photos and videos, including some members of Congress and journalist Seymour Hersh, have reported they include scenes far worse than anything released from Abu Ghraib thus far, including rape and the videotaped beating of a prisoner. The courts had ordered the Pentagon to release the photos by Friday, July 22, but the Pentagon filed a last minute brief attempting to block their release.
Sheehan-Miles said, "The Pentagon is doing everything it can to prevent the release of these graphic images, because they know that if the U.S. public were to see the true scope of the abuses, the demands for an independent investigation would be too strong to be ignored."
The full text of the letter and list of signers is available at veteransforcommonsense.org
Article posted at:
http://press.arrivenet.com/pol/article.php/673805.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Reality of the War in Iraq
From: "John McCarthy"
Re: http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com/id362.html
Warning:
The above link includes multiple pictures, most of which have obviously been taken by Americans because of the proximity of the camera to the subject. I do not believe the photographers would put this material on the net. And yet, somehow, this information supposedly made it into the hands of the resistance. Some pictures have been posted on other sites. Some are unique in this presentation. Some are of a graphic nature.
Question arises, how did this material get into the hands of the folks that supposedly made the slide presentation?
The possibilities include: This is a 'black' psychological effort, to enflame Americans, placing the blame for this production on the 'resistance'.
Or, the 'resistance' is so sophisticated they can acquire, edit and produce such a presentation, with music, in the midst of a shooting war and distribute the finished product to those who have spread it around the globe. If this is the case, as it appears to be, especially if you are prone not to consider the black psy ops potential, then we really are in deep trouble and don't recognize that yet!
In either event, it shows what the US media is NOT showing the families and friends of the boyz and girlz they are sending off to war.
Some would call it propaganda. I'd say it was probably a fat slap in the face of the idiot who said, "Bring it on!" Boy, did they ever.
I truly believe those eligible for military service deserve to know what they are getting into BEFORE signing the bottom line, BEFORE that fateful day. Only a combat veteran can be this emphatic.
Tell the kids! They will know what to do. They will pass it on to fellow students and others. You may wish to assist.
Thank God for the Internet.
Bests,
John
http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com
***************************************************************
4) Nuclear Waste on Native Land
- - Judge: Peltier not above federal laws
Nuclear Waste on Native Land
* The Case Against Hauling 44 Thousand Metric Tons of Nuclear Waste Through 45 States and Storing it Above Ground on Native American Land, Against the Tribe's Sovereign Will and Next to an Air Force Bombing Ground, Without a Single Hearing or Safety Investigation
Or
How to Lobby Congress With a Hammer
By David Swanson, Board Member of Progressive Democrats of America, pdamerica.org
[EXCERPTS]
Over 100 people, few if any of them employed by the corporate media, filled a press conference room in the US Capitol on Monday to hear artists, advocates, and experts speak against the current energy bill and against a proposal to dump the nation's nuclear waste on the land of a native American tribe in Utah.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich opened the proceedings, welcomed the speakers, and began by denouncing the activities of the Private Fuel Storage Limited Liability Consortium (PFS), which has proposed this latest "solution" to the problem of nuclear waste. Did you know these matters were being handled by a private organization AND that it conveniently has LIMITED liability?
Kucinich called PFS's plan "unjust, dangerous, and unnecessary." He said it violates the rights of the tribe whose land is thus ruined, and puts the whole country at risk of a catastrophe in the transportation of the waste to Utah. He said that 60 members of Congress had written to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about this, and have yet to receive any response.
Kucinich spoke also of this country's long history of abusing the rights of native Americans and urged those listening to move beyond that history.
Navin Nayak of the US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) spoke next and MC'd the event. "The U.S. Congress," he said, "stands on the precipice of passing an energy bill that would reproduce the mistakes of the past 50 years." From 1950 to 1997, he said, the federal government has spent $500 billion subsidizing fossil fuels and nuclear power, but only $25 billion on renewables.
Despite that, Nayak pointed out, wind power is the fastest growing power globally, and the cost of it has fallen by 80 percent in recent years.
The energy bill now under consideration would give billions to nuclear energy and subsidize the building of new plants, something we haven't done for 30 years, Nayak said.
The first speaker Nayak introduced set a tone of serious dedication and sacrifice. He was actor and activist James Cromwell, and he said that if anyone tries to move 44 thousand metric tons of nuclear waste across the country, "It's going to be blocked, the same way it was in Germany. But in this country, to stand in front of those trains, as I will be doing, is a violation of the PATRIOT Act and it is an act of terrorism and punishable by life in prison."
Cromwell seemed confident that others, young and old, would stand with him in front of the trains. He said that young people would not allow the country's future to be put at risk by nuclear waste. "It's our children and our children's children who will be affected by this technology, and it is up to us to stop it. I hope you will join us."
..The last to speak was musician, singer, song-writer Ani DiFranco.
The job of a poet or a singer, DiFranco said, is to draw connections. She was compelled, she said, "to speak one word: cancer." Cancer, she said, "is the physiological reaction to toxicity in our environment."
There is no barrel, DiFranco said, that can be guaranteed safely sealed. There is no safe way to ship nuclear waste. "We all know there's a bit of a farce in this policy."
"This week," DiFranco urged those in attendance, "rather than writing a check to the Leukemia Foundation, we can stop the Skull Valley dump and stop this energy bill. And we can invest in renewable energy that is out there waiting for us to use it.
"Radioactive waste is not clean. Therefore, anyone who is trying to tell me that nuclear power is clean is lying to me. And subsidizing nuclear power is absolutely a deal breaker in a twenty-first century energy policy."
DiFranco probably received the most applause of all the speakers, with the exception of Congressman Kucinich's closing remarks see below.
"The American people," he said, "are waiting to be inspired and moved. Will $2 per gallon move them? Maybe not. Will $3? $4? Probably not.
"But if people make connections between a war against innocent people in Iraq and our energy policy, between moving tons of nuclear waste and our so-called energy policy, between the production of nuclear weapons and our failed energy policy.
"We're not just talking about protecting sacred land. The whole earth is sacred. The whole earth is sacred! We're talking about reclaiming our humanity.
"Jamie Cromwell talked about people putting themselves on the line. We have to shake the conscience of this country! WAKE UP! That's what we ought to be telling this country, and we are the ones. We are the messengers. We are the messengers."
For the complete article, see:
www.pdamerica.org/articles/events/ani-on-hill.php
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Judge: Peltier not above federal laws
Article in the Argus Leader:
*-*-*
Activist's appeal of sentencing fails
Judge: Peltier not above federal laws
by DAVE KOLPACK
Associated Press
July 23, 2005
[EXCERPT]
FARGO - A federal judge has rejected an appeal by imprisoned Native American activist Leonard Peltier, who said the government did not have right to sentence him for killing two federal agents in 1975.
Peltier's lawyer, Barry Bachrach, said federal laws did not apply to Peltier because FBI agents Ronald Williams and Jack Coler were killed in Indian Country. Peltier was convicted in Fargo in 1977, and was sentenced to two consecutive life terms.
For the complete article, see:
www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050723/NEWS02/507230341/1001/ARCHIVE
To learn more on Leonard Peltier, see this link for the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
THE SECRET GOVERNMENT ~ Bill Moyers
13 July 2005
"Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States
as our Fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are the rightful
masters of both Congress and the Courts, not to overthrow the Constitution,
but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."
-- Abraham Lincoln
1) THE SECRET GOVERNMENT - Bill Moyers
- - WantToKnow.info ~ The Secret Government
- - Films that Make a Difference
2) SolarFest and Peace Action
Editor's Notes:
This issue highlights the powerful 1987-PBS TV program called, "The Secret Government: The Constitution In Crisis." Unfortunately, this segment had to be removed from Frank Dorrel's film compilation: "What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World." However, this film is very valuable, and timely anyway. Item 1 provides the transcript of the Moyers PBS program, and links to additional film and other resources. The Secret Government documents the history of US foreign policy since WW II, and the devastation to democracy, especially since Harry S. Truman signed into Law the 1947 National Security Act. With the nuclear bomb and other weapons of mass destruction developed, a secret government was created with no oversight, with secret agencies that could decide to supercede citizens' rights and corrode a Constitution based on fear justifying means. Yet building awareness and posting information on the Secret Government keeps it from hiding in the shadows, but never before has such an atrocious agenda play havoc on the lives of people in the US and around our world.
Item 2 covers this weekend's SolarFest . Flyby News will be there and have DVDs of Frank Dorrel's film compilation on US Foreign Policy and David Ray Griffin's presentation, exposing 9/11 cover-up, available.
Now is not the time to lose faith in what seems almost impossible.
Please join Flyby News, make a commitment to at least 2012,
support campaigns for reclaiming a lost USA democracy."
"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government
owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.
To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance
between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task
of the statesmanship of the day."
Theodore Roosevelt
(April 19, 1906)
1) THE SECRET GOVERNMENT - Bill Moyers
- - WantToKnow.info ~ The Secret Government
- - Films that Make a Difference
- - THE SECRET GOVERNMENT
The following is a transcript of a 1987 PBS TV program, narrated by Bill Moyers:
THE SECRET GOVERNMENT The Constitution In Crisis
Bill Moyers: "The Secret Government is an interlocking network of official functionaries, spies, mercenaries, ex-generals, profiteers and superpatriots, who, for a variety of motives, operate outside the legitimate institutions of government. Presidents have turned to them when they can't win the support of the Congress or the people, creating that unsupervised power so feared by the framers of our Constitution. Just imagine that William Casey's dream came true. Suppose the enterprise grew into a super-secret, self-financing, self-perpetuating organization. Suppose they decided on their own to assassinate Gorbachev or the leader of white South Africa. Could a President control them and what if he became the enterprise's public enemy Number One? Who would know? Who would say no?"
"The history of our secret government."
"World War II was over. Europe lay devastated. The United States emerged as the most powerful nation on earth. But from the rubble rose a strange new world, a peace that was not peace and a war that was not war. We saw it emerging when the Soviets occupied Eastern Europe. The Cold War had begun."
Winston Churchill: "An Iron Curtain has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe."
Moyers: "The Russians had been our ally against the Nazis, an expedient alliance for the sake of war. Now they were our enemy. To fight them we turned to some of the very men who had inflicted on humanity the horrors of Hitler's madness. We hired Nazis' as American spies. We struck a secret bargain with the devil."
Erhard Dabringhaus: "One that I know real well is Klaus Barbie. He was wanted by the French as their number one war criminal and somehow we employed a man like that as a very secretive informant."
Moyers: "Erhard Dabringhaus was employed in the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps and assigned to work with Nazi informants spying on the Russians. One of them was Klaus Barbie, the ‘Butcher of Lyon', who had tortured and murdered thousands of Jews and resistance fighters. The Americans did not turn Barbie over to the French when they finished with him. They helped him escape to Bolivia. Other top Nazis were smuggled into the United States to cooperate in the war against the new enemy." "So began the morality of the Cold War. Anything goes. The struggle required a mentality of permanent war, a perpetual state of emergency. It had met a vast new apparatus of power that radically transformed our government. Its foundations were laid when President Truman signed into law the National Security Act of 1947."
Admiral Gene La Rocque: "Now that National Security Act of 1947 changed dramatically the direction of this great nation. It established the framework for a national security state."
Moyers: "Admiral Gene La Rocque rose through the ranks from Ensign to become a Strategic Planner for the Pentagon and now heads the Center of Defense Information, a public interest group."
Admiral Gene La Rocque: "The National Security Act of ‘47 gave us the National Security Council. Never have we had a National Security Council so concerned about the nation's security that we're always looking for threats and looking how to orchestrate our society to oppose those threats. National Security was invented, almost, in 1947, and now it has become the prime mover of everything we do as measured against something we invented in 1947. The National Security Act also gave us the Central Intelligence Agency."
Moyers: "This is the house the Cold War built the CIA. The core of the new secret government. Its chief legitimate duty was to gather foreign intelligence for America's new role as a world power. Soon it was taking on covert operations, abroad and at home. As its mission expanded, the CIA recruited adventuresome young men like Notre Dame's "All American", Ralph McGehee."
Ralph McGehee: "I look back to the individual that I was when I joined the agency. I was a dedicated Cold Warrior who felt the agency was out there fighting for liberty, justice and democracy and religion around the world. And I believed wholeheartedly in this. I just felt proud every day that I went to work because I was out at the vanguard of the battle against the international evil empire international Communist evil empire."
Moyers: "Iran, 1953: the CIA mounted its first major covert operation to overthrow a foreign government. The target was the Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammed Mosaddeq. He held power legitimately, through his country's parliamentary process and he was popular. Washington had once looked to him as the man to prevent a Communist takeover. But that was before Mosaddeq decided that the Iranian state, not British companies, ought to own and control the oil within Iran's own borders. When he nationalized the British run oil fields, Washington saw red." "The Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles and his brother Alan, Director of the CIA, decided with Eisenhower's approval, to overthrow Mosaddeq and reinstate the Shah of Iran. The mobs paid by the CIA, and the police and soldiers bribed by the CIA, drove Mosaddeq from office."
Newscaster: "Crown Prince Abdullah greets the Shah as he lands at Baghdad airport after a 7-hour flight from Rome."
Moyers: The King of Kings was back in control and more pliable than Mosaddeq. American oil companies took over almost half of Iran's production. U.S. arms merchants moved in with $18 billion of weapons sales over the next 20 years. But there were losers."
Kenneth Love (former New York Times reporter): "Nearly everybody in Iran of any importance has had a brother, or a mother, or a sister, or a son, or a father, tortured, jailed, deprived of property without due process. I mean an absolutely buccaneering dictatorship in our name that we supported. SAVAK was created by the CIA!"
Bill Moyers: "SAVAK, the Shah's Secret Police, tortured and murdered thousands of his opponents. General Richard Secord and Albert Hakim, whom we met earlier, were among those who helped supply the Shah's insatiable appetite for the technology of control. But the weapons and flattery heaped by America on the Shah blinded us to the growing opposition of his own people. They rose up in 1979 against him. "Death to the Shah!" they shouted. "Death to the American Satan."
Kenneth Love: "Khomeni, is a direct consequence and the hostage crisis is a direct consequence, and the resurgence of the Shi'a is a direct consequence of the CIA's overthrow of Mosaddeq in 1953."
Moyers: "Guatemala 1954. Flushed with success America's Secret Government decided another troublesome leader must go. This time it was Jacobo Arbenz, the democratically elected president of Guatemala. Philip Rettinger was recruited from the Marines to join the CIA team."
Colonel Philip Roettinger (Ret.) U.S. Marine Corps: "It was explained to me that it was very important for the security of the United States that we were going to prevent a Soviet beach-head in this hemisphere, which we have heard about very recently of course, and that the Guatemalan government was Communist and we had to do something about it."
Moyers: "President Arbenz had admired Franklin D. Roosevelt and his government voted often with the American position at the United Nations. But in trying to bring a new deal to Guatemala, Arbenz committed two sins in the eyes of the Eisenhower administration. First, when he opened the system to all political parties he recognized the Communists too."
Roettinger: "Well, of course there was not even a hint of Communism in his government. He had no Communists in his Cabinet. He did permit the existence of a very small Communist party."
Moyers: "Arbenz also embarked on a massive land reform program. Less than 3 per cent of the land owners held more than 70 per cent of the land. So Arbenz nationalized more than 1 million acres, including land owned by his own family and turned it over to peasants. Much of that land belonged to the United Fruit Company, the giant American firm that was intent on keeping Guatemala, quite literally, a Banana Republic. United Fruit appealed to its close friends in Washington, including the Dulles brothers, who said that Arbenz was openly playing the Communist game. He had to go."
Roettinger: "This was sudden death for him. There was no chance of him winning this fight because of the fact that he had done this to the United Fruit Company. Plus the fact, that he was overthrowing the hegemony of the United States over this area. And this was dangerous, it not be tolerated. We couldn't tolerate that."
Moyers: "From Honduras, the same country that today is the Contra staging base, the CIA launched a small band of mercenaries against Guatemala. They were easily turned back. So with its own planes and pilots the CIA then bombed the capital. Arbenz fled and was immediately replaced by an American puppet, Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas."
Roettinger: "He overturned all of the reformist activities of President Arbenz. He gave the land back to the United Fruit Company that had been confiscated. He took land from the peasants and gave it back to the land owners."
Bill Moyers: "The CIA had called its covert action against Guatemala, Operation Success. Military dictators ruled the country for the next 30 years. The United States provided them with weapons and trained their officers. The Communists we saved them from would have been hard pressed to do it better. Peasants were slaughtered. Political opponents were tortured. Suspected insurgents were shot, stabbed, burned alive or strangled. There were so many deaths at one point that coroners complained they couldn't keep up with the work load. Operation Success."
Rettinger: "What we did has caused a succession of repressive military dictatorships in that country and has been responsible for the deaths over 100,000 of their citizens."
Moyers: "Success breeds success, sometimes with dreary repetition. Mario Sandoval Alarcon began his career in the CIA's adventure in Guatemala. Today he's known as the Godfather of the Death Squads. In 1981, after lobbying Ronald Reagan's advisors for military aid to Guatemala, Sandoval Alarcon danced at the Inaugural Ball."
Moyers: "Richard Bissell, another veteran of the Guatemalan coup, went on to become the CIA's Chief of Covert Operations. I looked him up several years ago for a CBS documentary. Cuba, 1961, seven years after Operation Success in Guatemala, Bissell was planning another CIA covert operation."
Newscaster: "The assault has begun on the dictatorship of Fidel Castro."
Moyers: "On April 17, 1961, Cuban exiles trained by the CIA at a base in friendly Guatemala landed on the southern coast of Cuba, at the Bay of Pigs. The U.S. had promised air support, but President Kennedy cancelled it. The invaders left defenseless, surrendered. Seven months after the disastrous invasion, Kennedy delivered a major foreign policy address."
President John F. Kennedy: "We cannot, as a free nation, compete with our adversaries in tactics of terror, assassination, false promises, counterfeit mobs and crisis."
Moyers: "The President was not telling the truth. Even as he spoke, his administration was planning a new covert war on Cuba. It would include some of the dirty tricks the President said we were above. The Secret Government was prepared for anything."
Moyers interview with Richard Bissel: "At one time, the CIA organized a small department known as Executive Action, which was a permanent assassination capability."
Bissel: "Well, it wasn't just an assassination capability it was a capability to discredit or get rid of people, but it could have included assassination."
Moyers: "And it did. There were at least eight documented attempts to kill Castro. He says there were two dozen. And there was even one effort to put LSD in his cigars. To help us get rid of the Cuban leader, our Secret Government turned to the Mafia just as we once made use of Nazis. The gangsters included the Las Vegas Mafioso John Roselli, the Don of Chicago, Sam Giancana, and the Boss of Tampa, Santo Traficante."
Moyers: "If I read you correctly you are saying it is the involvement in the Mafia that disturbed you and not the need or decision to assassinate a foreign leader."
Bissel: "Correct."
Moyers: "It is a chilling thought made more chilling by the assassination of John Kennedy. The accusations linger. In some minds, the suspicions persist of a dark unsolved conspiracy behind his murder. You can dismiss them, as many of us do. But knowing now what our Secret Government planned for Castro, the possibility remains. Once we decide that anything goes, anything can come home to haunt us."
"Vietnam, 1968: American soldiers are fighting and dying in the jungles of Southeast Asia. But the Vietnam War didn't start this way. It started secretly off the books like so many of these ventures that have ended disastrously. The CIA got there early, soon after the Vietnamese won their independence from the French in 1954. Eisenhower warned that the nations of Southeast Asia would fall like dominoes if the Communists, led by Ho Chi Min, took over all Vietnam. To hold the line, we installed in Saigon, a puppet regime under Ngo Dinh Diem. American-trained commandoes were used to sabotage bus and rail lines and contaminate North Vietnam's oil supply."
"President Kennedy sent the Green Berets to Vietnam and turned to full scale counter-insurgency. He had once said that Vietnam was the ultimate test of our will to stem the tide of world communism. By the time of his death, there were 15,000 Americans there. They were called "Advisors." The secret war was leading only to deeper involvement and more deception."
President Lyndon Johnson: "It is my duty to the American people to report that renewed hostile actions against United States ships on the high seas in the Gulf of Tonkin have today required me to order the military forces of the United States, to take action and reply."
Moyers: "This President was not telling the truth either. The action at the Gulf of Tonkin was not unprovoked. South Vietnam had been conducting secret raids in the area against the North and the American destroyer, ordered into the battle zone, had advanced warning it could be attacked. But Johnson seized the incident to stampede Congress into passing the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. He then used it as a blank check for the massive build up of American forces."
"April, 1965: Two battalions of Marines land in South Vietnam. The first of more than 2 million Americans to fight there with no Congressional declaration of war. The dirty little war that began in secret, is reaching full roar. Free-fire zones, defoliation, the massacre at My Lai, napalm, and the CIA's Operation Phoenix to round up, torture and kill suspected Viet Cong."
Ralph McGehee: "We were murdering these people, incinerating them."
Moyers: "Ralph McGehee was there for the CIA and helped set up South Vietnam's secret police."
McGehee (Notre Dame "All American"): "My efforts had resulted in the deaths of many people and I just for me it was a period when I guess I was I considered myself nearly insane I just couldn't reconcile what I had been and what I was at the time becoming."
Moyers: "Many of the secret warriors in Southeast Asia had no such doubts or regrets. Some of the team that later joined the Iran-Contra enterprise, helped to run the secret war in Laos. As General Richard Secord later put it, "Laos belonged to the CIA." Looking back, it is stunning how easily the Cold War enticed us into surrendering popular control of government to the National Security State. We've never come closer to bestowing absolute authority on the President. Setting up White House groups that secretly decide to fight dirty little wars, is a direct assumption of the war powers expressly forbidden by the Constitution."
"Not since December, 1941, has Congress declared war. Since then, we've had a police action in Korea, advisors in Vietnam, covert operations in Central America, peacekeeping in Lebanon and low intensity conflicts going on right now from Angola to Cambodia. We've turned the war powers of the United States over to, well we are never really sure who, or what they're doing, or what it costs, or who is paying for it. The one thing that we are sure of is that this largely secret global war carried on with less and less accountability to democratic institutions, has become a way of life. And now we are faced with a question brand new in our history. Can we have the permanent warfare state and democracy too?"
Congressional hearings: "A shellfish toxin
Moyers: "In 1975 as the war in Vietnam came to an end, Congress took its first public look at the Secret Government. Senator Frank Church chaired the Select Committee to study government operations. The hearings opened the books on a string of lethal activities. From the use of electric pistols and poison pellets, to Mafia connections and drug experiments. And they gave us a detailed account of assassination plots against foreign leaders and the overthrowing of sovereign governments. We learned, for example, how the Nixon administration had waged a covert war against the government of Chile's president, Salvador Allende who was ultimately overthrown by a military coup and assassinated."
Senator Church: "Like Caesar peering into the colonies from distant Rome, Nixon said the choice of government by the Chileans was unacceptable to the President of the United States. The attitude in the White House seemed to be if in the wake of Vietnam, I can no longer send in the Marines, then, I will send in the CIA."
Moyers: "This remains for me the heart of the matter. The men who wrote our Constitution, our basic book of rules, were concerned that power be held accountable. No party of government and no person in government, not even the President, was to pick or choose among the laws to be obeyed. But how does one branch of government blow the whistle on another? Or how do the people cry foul when their liberties are imperiled, if public officials can break the rules, lie to us about it, and then wave the wand of national security to silence us?" "Can it happen again? You bet it can. The apparatus of secret power remains intact in a huge White House staff operating in the sanctuary of presidential privilege. George Bush has already told the National Security Council to take more responsibility for foreign policy which can of course be exercised beyond public scrutiny. And a lot of people in Washington are calling for more secrecy, not less, including more covert actions. This is a system easily corrupted as the public grows indifferent again, and the press is seduced or distracted. So one day, sadly, we are likely to discover once again that while freedom does have enemies in the world it can also be undermined here at home, in the dark, by those posing as its friends. I'm Bill Moyers. Good night."
For another source for posted transcript, and to view this program, see:
THE SECRET GOVERNMENT: The Constitution In Crisis
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - WantToKnow.info ~ The Secret Government
For another powerful, highly revealing documentary on the manipulations of the secret government produced by BBC, see
www.WantToKnow.info/powerofnightmares
(view free at link provided).
The intrepid BBC team clearly shows how the War on Terror is largely a fabrication. For those interested in very detailed information on the composition of the shadow or secret government from a less well-known source, I recommend the thorough summary at: www.drboylan.com/shadgovt2
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Films that Make a Difference
What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World."
a film compilation by Frank Dorrel:
www.addictedtowar.com/dorrel.html
The Moyers segment was removed, but later in an appropriate place, those minutes are replaced with an interview of Philip Agee, former CIA Case Officer. Philip Agee spent 13 years as a case officer in the CIA, resigning in 1969. His book "Inside the Company: CIA Diary" was first published in 1975 and has been translated into 27 languages. It was a best seller worldwide. His autobiography "On The Run" was published in 1987.
In this speech given in 1991 after the first Gulf War, Agee analyzes why the U.S. invaded Iraq. He also describes "the war against the third world" as being fought for the natural resources, the labor and the markets of these third world countries the United States has invaded either overtly or covertly since the end of World War II.
For transcript of speech by Philip Agee:
www.addictedtowar.com/agee.htm
For the FN resource make sure you check out: Films that Make a Difference!
2) SolarFest and Peace Action
On July 16-17, NHPA, along with 25 other activist groups, will participate in the 11th annual SolarFest in Tinmouth VT. SolarFest is a two day music and renewable energy festival that is powered 100% by renewable energy (solar, wind, biodiesel). SolarFest combines Music (acts such as Dar Williams, the Duks), Workshops (such as On-the-Grid Solar, Green Living), a Kids Korner, and of course the above mentioned Activist Alley (groups such as NHPA, Veterans for Peace, the New England Coalition, Plymouth Area Energy Initiative, and Flyby News.
As a part of the organizing committee, I am most excited by the connecting of the dots between renewable energy and the issues of peace, justice, economic equity, human rights and the environment. This is truly an opportunity to share ideas and visions of the possibility of a better and more just world.
Please come to this amazing festival. Weekend passes are only $20 and there is plenty of room on the festival grounds (Forget-Me-Not-Farm) for camping (free for tent camping). Check out www.solarfest.org for a complete listing of acts and workshops and for directions and camping information.
I would love to see my old NHPA friends at this festival. What a lovely way to spend a July weekend!!
Peace
Carol
[via list serve for NH Peace Action]
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Bush Obstacle * Nuke-Truth * Rove Factor * CAFTA
05 July 2005
"Believe nothing on the faith of traditions, even though they have been held in honor
for many generations and in diverse places. Do not believe what you yourself have
imagined persuading yourself a god inspires you. Believe nothing on the authority
of your masters or priests. After examination believe that which you yourself
have tested and found to be reasonable and conform your conduct thereto."
-- The Buddha
1) Bush, the Obstacle to a Deal on Global Warming
2) All Levels of Radiation Confirmed to Cause Cancer
- - Senate Defeats Move to Stop Nuclear Bomb Study
- - Bush's Nuclear Nonsense
3) The Rove Factor?
- - US Slaughters Afghan Civilians - Apparently Without Care
4) Fight CAFTA ~ Health and other Freedoms at Risk
Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women.
When it dies there, no constitution,
no law, no court can save it."
Editor's Notes:
Yes it is hot, summer time in the north, but should we forget sixty years from this August 6 and 9, and the US government's dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? This is the time to support the Hidankyo Nihon organization for this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Now, more than ever, the facts are in -- there is no safe dose for internal radiation exposure; simultaneously, Bush is pushing for Nuclear bunker buster bomb development, while neglecting proper clean-up from the mess of exploded Depleted Uranium munition shells. Note, item 2, confirmation: no safe dose, as stated in a 1999 Letter of Concern by Dr. John W. Gofman.
Item 3 goes along the same lines as the high Bush crimes stated so succinctly in last issue's top quote by Mark Morford. The subsection in this item is a story published by Aljazeera.com on the recent US admission of causing civilian deaths in Afghanistan. This toted endless war continues; the sad fact is that freedom and security is being lost globally. Yet truth is on the side that perseveres, while time shrinks, truth becomes more and more apparent.
While Blair performs for financing expensive hydrogen fuel cells, a nineteenth Century invention is sitting idly by. The company that I am involved with as a founder, Stirling Advantage, Inc., has designed a 200+kW Stirling engine, which can apply waste heat and gases for cost-effective onsite electrical power generation, which could benefit businesses and the economy, and our environment, too. Learning from our past, and utilizing innovative ideas for a sustainable future only makes sense, in what appears to be a senseless world hastening its own destruction.
"Only two things are infinite,
the universe and human stupidity,
and I'm not sure about the former."
-- Albert Einstein
(1879 - 1955)
1) Bush, the Obstacle to a Deal on Global Warming
by Michael McCarthy
Published on Tuesday, July 5, 2005 by the Independent/UK
[EXCERPT]
Can America prevent the rich countries agreeing what to do about climate change? That's the other vital question at Gleneagles alongside Africa and its poverty and, last night, the omens did not look good.
President George Bush made anything but reassuring noises in a pre-summit television interview with Trevor McDonald, rejecting outright any suggestion that the US might join the Kyoto protocol on global warming, or consider any binding agreements to cut US emissions of greenhouse gases.
But Mr Bush's blunt stance - "I go to the G8 with an agenda that I think is best for our country" - was clearly aimed at opinion back home, and may not prevent Tony Blair putting climate change on top of the G8 agenda. Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, insisted last night a deal was still possible..
Global warming was not mentioned in the global triumph of goodwill for Africa that was Live8. They did not sing about the warming atmosphere from the stage in Hyde Park, or in Philadelphia, Berlin or Rome. But if the unforgettable coalition of singers and performers could have looked into Africa's future rather than at the haunting images of its past and present, they surely would have done.
For everything that makes Africa hard to inhabit today will be made harder by global warming. Hunger will be made more acute; shortage of clean water will be more degrading; disease will be more painful, crippling and deadly; natural disasters will be more overwhelming. Climate change threatens to vitiate all the efforts to help Africa that the rich world can possibly come up with, all the debt cancellation, the aid increases and the trade liberalization.
Two weeks ago, a group of British aid agencies and environmental groups, from Oxfam to Greenpeace, forcefully pointed out this awkward truth. Their report, Africa - Up In Smoke? insisted the issues of African poverty and climate change are inseparably linked, and the first cannot be solved without dealing with the second. It was a direct challenge to the simple Live8 theme, that if only the economic basis of Africa's future can be sorted by a properly responsible rich world, the continent will come good. It will not, the report said, if we do not tackle the warming atmosphere..
The scientific consensus that climate change is real and happening is now overwhelming. But that is to reckon without the astonishing attempts by the Bush administration in its second term to deny the science. Yesterday, however, there were reports that summit "sherpas" had managed to agree a text all G8 leaders could agree to, which, although not stating that global warming was happening, did state that scientists said it was. On such subtleties are summits sometimes rescued..
In all the righteous, clamorous protest about aid, trade, and debt in Hyde Park, amid the Geldof-inspired, rock'n'roll-fuelled euphoria, it was easy to forget that Africa can be ruined by the atmosphere as well as by economics. But in that luxury golfing hotel on the edge of the Scottish Highlands, it is going to be forcefully remembered.
For a posting of the complete original version, see:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/article296921.ece
also posted at:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0705-02.htm
2) All Levels of Radiation Confirmed to Cause Cancer
- - Senate Defeats Move to Stop Nuclear Bomb Study
- - Bush's Nuclear Nonsense
All Levels of Radiation Confirmed to Cause Cancer
From a study at the National Academy of Sciences
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Nuclear Information and Resource Service
June 30, 2005
CONTACT
Diane D'Arrigo, NIRS 202-328-0002
Cindy Folkers, NIRS 202-328-0002
All Levels of Radiation Confirmed to Cause Cancer.
Washington, DC July 30, 2005 The National Academies of Science released an over 700-page report yesterday on the risks from ionizing radiation. The BEIR VII or seventh Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation report on "Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation" reconfirmed the previous knowledge that there is no safe level of exposure to radiation—that even very low doses can cause cancer. Risks from low dose radiation are equal or greater than previously thought. The committee reviewed some additional ways that radiation causes damage to cells.
Among the reports conclusions are:
There is no safe level or threshold of ionizing radiation exposure.
Even exposure to background radiation causes some cancers. Additional exposures cause additional risks.
Radiation causes other health effects such as heart disease and stroke, and further study is needed to predict the doses that result in these non-cancer health effects.
It is possible that children born to parents that have been exposed to radiation could be affected by those exposures.
The "bystander effect" is an additional, newly recognized method by which radiation injures cells that were not directly hit but are in the vicinity of those that were. "Genomic instability" can be caused by exposure to low doses of radiation and according to the report "might contribute significantly to radiation cancer risk." These new mechanisms for radiation damage were not included in the risk estimates reported by the BEIR VII report, but were recommended for further study.
The Linear-No-Threshold model (LNT) for predicting health effects from radiation (dose-response) is retained, meaning that every exposure causes some risk and that risks are generally proportional to dose. The Dose and Dose-Rate Effectiveness Factor or DDREF which had been suggested in the 1990 BEIR V report to be applied at low doses, has been reduced from 2 to 1.5. That means the projected number of health effects at low doses are greater than previously thought. RADIATION RISKIER THAN THOUGHT-- RISKS TO PUBLIC and NUCLEAR WORKERS
The BEIR VII risk numbers indicate that about 1 in 100 members of the public would get cancer if exposed to 100 millirads (1milliGray) per year for a 70-year lifetime. [1] This is essentially the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's allowable radiation dose for members of the public.
In addition, 1 in about 5 workers [2] would get cancer if exposed to the legally allowable occupational doses [3] over their 50 years in the workforce. These risks are much higher than permitted for other carcinogens.
Specifically, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission allows members of the public to get 100 millirems or mr (1 milliSievert or mSv) per year of radiation in addition to background. The BEIR VII report (page 500, Table 12-9) estimates that this level will result in approximately 1 (1.142) cancer in every 100 people exposed at 100 mr/yr which includes 1 fatal cancer in every 175 people so exposed (5.7 in 1000).[4]
The risk of getting cancer from radiation (in BEIR VII) is increased by about a third from current government risk figures (FGR13): BEIR VII estimates that 11.42 people will get cancer if 10,000 are each exposed to a rem (1,000 millirems or 10 mSv). The US Environmental Protection Agency Federal Guidance Report 13 estimates that 8.46 people will get cancer if 10,000 are each exposed to a rem.
The Nuclear Information and Resource Service interprets this as further evidence that unnecessary radiation exposures should be avoided.
"This means that the government is not justified in deregulating nuclear power and weapons waste—releasing it to regular trash or "recycling" it into everyday household items as proposed by 5 US federal agencies at the behest of nuclear waste generators hoping to save money," stated Diane D'Arrigo, Radioactive Waste Project Director at Nuclear Information and Resource Service Radioactive (NIRS). "This also means that remediation of radioactive sites should be done to cleaner levels and that nuclear transport standards should be strengthened."
Cindy Folkers, NIRS Energy and Health Project Director stated "These findings confirm that all levels of radiation are harmful. Since nuclear power routinely releases long-lasting radiation into the air, water and soil, we must avoid a new generation of nuclear power to prevent unnecessary exposures."
For the complete article and references, see:
http://www.nirs.org/press/06-30-2005/1
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Senate Defeats Move to Stop Nuclear Bomb Study
Reuters
Friday 01 July 2005
Washington - Senate Democrats on Friday failed to stop the Energy Department from studying the feasibility of a "bunker buster" nuclear bomb the Bush administration is considering in funds to study the experimental weapon that would penetrate the earth and explode to demolish buried enemy targets.
The funds were included in a bill that would fund Energy Department activities in the fiscal year starting on Oct. 1. A House of Representatives version of the bill does not contain funds to study the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator.
"We're talking about a study. What's the harm in getting the study?" asked Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, a Virginia Republican.
Democrats said it would send a dangerous signal to other countries that the United States was headed toward development of a new class of nuclear weapons, thus encouraging them to develop their own arsenal.
"What moral authority do we have to ask others to give up their nukes if we're determined to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons of our own?" asked Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Democrat.
Besides the $4 million for the Energy Department study, the administration has asked Congress for $4.5 million to fund Pentagon research into the bunker buster. The Pentagon funding was not included in House legislation and the Senate has not yet considered it.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, cited scientists' beliefs that a bunker buster, if ever used, would spread deadly radiation.
"There is no way you can drive a missile casing deep enough to prevent radioactive spewing," Feinstein said.
The Pentagon has estimated that 70 countries are trying to protect key military assets, such as weapons of mass destruction or command and control facilities, from aerial bombing by hiding them in deep underground bunkers.
The fate of the Energy Department's bunker-buster study will be in the hands of House and Senate negotiators on this funding bill.
-------
Originally posted at:
http://nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-usa-congress-nukes.html
and also at
www.truthout.org/docs_2005/070205C.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush's Nuclear Nonsense
by Mark Hertsgaard,
TomPaine.com
When Bush goes to the G8 Summit this week, he'll be trying to sell a nuclear power agenda that is all subsidies, no substance.
For the complete article, see:
www.tompaine.com/articles/20050705/bushs_nuclear_nonsense.php
3) The Rove Factor?
- - US Slaughters Afghan Civilians - Apparently Without Care
The Rove Factor?
By Michael Isikoff
Newsweek
[EXCERPT]
11 July issue
July 11 issue - Its legal appeals exhausted, Time magazine agreed last week to turn over reporter Matthew Cooper's e-mails and computer notes to a special prosecutor investigating the leak of an undercover CIA agent's identity. The case has been the subject of press controversy for two years. Saying "we are not above the law," Time Inc. Editor in Chief Norman Pearlstine decided to comply with a grand-jury subpoena to turn over documents related to the leak. But Cooper (and a New York Times reporter, Judith Miller) is still refusing to testify and faces jail this week.
At issue is the story of a CIA-sponsored trip taken by former ambassador (and White House critic) Joseph Wilson to investigate reports that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium from the African country of Niger. "Some government officials have noted to Time in interviews... that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, is a CIA official who monitors the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," said Cooper's July 2003 Time online article.
Now the story may be about to take another turn. The e-mails surrendered by Time Inc., which are largely between Cooper and his editors, show that one of Cooper's sources was White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, according to two lawyers who asked not to be identified because they are representing witnesses sympathetic to the White House. Cooper and a Time spokeswoman declined to comment. But in an interview with NEWSWEEK, Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, confirmed that Rove had been interviewed by Cooper for the article. It is unclear, however, what passed between Cooper and Rove.
The controversy began three days before the Time piece appeared, when columnist Robert Novak, writing about Wilson's trip, reported that Wilson had been sent at the suggestion of his wife, who was identified by name as a CIA operative. The leak to Novak, apparently intended to discredit Wilson's mission, caused a furor when it turned out that Plame was an undercover agent. It is a crime to knowingly reveal the identity of an undercover CIA official. A special prosecutor was appointed and began subpoenaing reporters to find the source of the leak.
Article Truncated
-------
For the complete article, see:
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8445696/site/newsweek/
or
www.truthout.org/docs_2005/070305A.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - US Slaughters Afghan Civilians - Apparently Without Care
U.S. admits civilian deaths in Afghan airstrikes
Published by Aljazeera.com
7/4/2005 4:00:00 PM GMT
17 Afghan civilians including women and children were killed by last weeks U.S. airstrikes.
Last week's U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan killed 17 villagers, including women and children, a provincial governor said Monday. The U.S. military confirmed some civilians were killed in the attack on what it said was a "known rebel compound".
The bombing occurred in the Kunar province last Friday, three days after an elite U.S. military team disappeared in the mountainous area.
"Seventeen civilians were killed during the bombing, including women and children," Kunar Gov. Asadullah Wafa said after leaving a mosque in the capital, Kabul. He did not say whether any rebels also were believed to be in the compound.
The U.S. military confirmed civilians were killed but didn't say how many.
The attack was "with precision-guided munitions that resulted in the deaths of an unknown number of (rebels) and 'noncombatants'," the military said in a statement.
The statement went on to state that U.S. forces "regret the loss of innocent lives and follow stringent rules of engagement specifically to ensure that noncombatants are safeguarded. However, when enemy forces move their families into the locations where they conduct operations, they put these innocent civilians at risk."
But according to one media source, it's possible that the decision was taken to go ahead despite the likely risk of civilian casualties.
So far more than 500 people, most of them suspected rebels, are now estimated to have lost their lives in bloodshed in the south and east in the past three months.
Violence has been escalating in Afghanistan ahead of parliamentary elections due in September.
A high-ranking Afghan security official in the province, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there had been two separate bombing runs on Chechal village.
He said 25 people had been killed.
Villagers who went to help those killed and injured in the first raid were hit by the second strike, he said.
New offensive
An Afghan official told the BBC U.S. planes started fresh raids on Sunday in the Nangalam valley in the province.
The unnamed official added that Afghan troops on the ground were facing serious resistance.
However a spokesman at the U.S. military headquarters at Bagram near Kabul said he had no information about the operation.
www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=8783
4) Fight CAFTA ~ Health and other Freedoms at Risk
CAFTA stands for Central American Free Trade Agreement. If this "treaty" is signed, the United States (a member of the international World Trade Organization) will be forced to revise our food and nutritional supplement laws according to international standards.
CAFTA was passed the Senate in a 54-to-45 vote on July 1st, 2005. It will be voted on by the House of Representatives when they reconvene on July 11th, 2005.
This may be your final chance to defend your right to choose your own health protocol!
Are these "international standards" beneficial?
NO!!
But the "international standards" are not only for food. They also include vitamins and minerals!
For information, though legalese, read more at www.ustr.gov/Trade_Agreements/Bilateral/CAFTA/CAFTA-DR_Final_Texts/Section_Index.html
YOUR LETTERS WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Government officials rate each email, phone call, fax, and letter that they get as representing 13,000 opinions. (They figure that each person who gives an opinion stands for 12,999 others who don't bother to write or call.) So your opinion counts tremendously!
The voting in the House will be close. WE HAVE ONE WEEK TO FLOOD THEIR OFFICES WITH CAFTA OPPOSITION LETTERS.
You can find out who your representative is, and contact him or her, at www.house.gov/writerep/
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Here is a sample letter, which you can cut and paste once you get to the above site:
Re: Please vote AGAINST CAFTA
Dear Honorable _____________,
Please vote AGAINST CAFTA. If the United States signs this treaty, this will mean disaster for millions of United States citizens such as myself who value the freedom to choose our own health care in the form of nutritional supplements. If the U.S. joins CAFTA, access to such a vital part of my health protocol will no longer be available to me.
I value your sincere fight for real freedom.
Thank You,
[NOTE: The above is from an email, and following reply is from another list serve.]
..The real danger of CAFTA, is the same as NAFTA, as it is something that removes tarrifs on a lot of goods, duplicates extremist intellectual copyright law, and opens local governments to being sued by international corporations if they are not allowed to do their business. The last is the real danger...it turns the disaster of corporate personhood in the US...into corporate kingdom for the entire North and Central America. An example of this from NAFTA is a corporation of Mexico wanted to produce MBTA (a highly toxic gas additive) in California. California had outlawed MBTA. The corporation sued California via NAFTA and that dispute gets handled in private by a tribunal process of NAFTA. State and local governments should not be at the mercy of deeply pocketed corporations, we should be allowed to make laws and have everyone, people AND corporations, follow those laws.
:) Its time for people to stand up and demand "Free People not 'Free' Trade". Oppose CAFTA and ask for the repeal of NAFTA!
And, as far as making your voice known to Congress regarding vitamin and dietary supplement issues is a good one. The drum has been beating for a while to put these items, along with herbal medicines, under stricter regulation. So far there has been no regulation that has gotten very far, but that does not mean it will not come again. In the long term trade agreements like CAFTA have the potential to effect this realm, especially if some corporation feels its business is threatened by our regulations of any kind and sues US to make that change.
in cooperation,
charles
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Coalition * Downing Liars * Election Assessment
23 June 2005
"BushCo survived the illegal sanctioning of inhumane torture. They survived a
gay male prostitute acting as a journalist. They survived Enron and Diebold
and the rigging of the first election and they will survive Downing Street
simply because all the people who should be on the attack about
these atrocities all work for the guys who committed them."
-- Mark Morford
1) PDA and Congressional Caucus Build Coalition Alternative to Bush
- - Conyers At the Gate
- - U.S. Moral Authority in 'Free Fall', Senators Warn
- - They Died So Republicans Could Take the Senate
- - Downing Street Is for Liars
- - The US war with Iran has already begun
- - Scott Ritter - "Iran: Where do we go from here?"
2) FBI & 9/11 by Sibel Edmonds
3) US Election Assessment Texas Forum
- - Election Fraud and Irregularity ~ 2000 US Coup D'etat
Editor's Notes:
These days the news is not that good, or can that even be considered "news?" The top Morford quote is direct and to the point, but that doesn't mean we're about to roll over and play dead. Winter solstice 2005 marks 7 years to the end of a major Mayan cycle on December 21, 2012. It will be at this time that Flyby News will assess the situation, and likely know if humankind can survive beyond this Century. These next seven years will make a difference, since we are at the edge of fascism or freedom, environmental disaster, or innovative attempts for balance and understanding, Now is the time to surpass the death threat of a fascist regime, wielding power with energy and weapon systems gone mad or in the rapture of twisted belief, deceit, and hypocrisy. For all the ugly truth that exists, hope remains. This issue gives both sides with a growing majority seeking to preserve a union in principle, compassion, and caring. Please note the Scott Ritter address today in Deerfield, MA, which will be broadcast over the Internet. Also, learn more from an article of FBI-9/11 whistle blower, Sibel Edmonds, and check out my paper on election assessment and on an upcoming forum in Texas on June 29.
1) PDA and Congressional Caucus Build Coalition Alternative to Bush
- - Conyers At the Gate
- - U.S. Moral Authority in 'Free Fall', Senators Warn
- - They Died So Republicans Could Take the Senate
- - Downing Street Is for Liars
- - The US war with Iran has already begun
- - Scott Ritter - "Iran: Where do we go from here?"
PDA and Congressional Caucus Build Coalition Alternative to Bush
PDA and The Congressional Progressive Caucus request the pleasure of your company as we launch the "Progressive Promise," an alternative to President Bush's "Ownership Society"
What: Reception to introduce Progressive Caucus Co-Chairwomen Lynn Woolsey and Barbara Lee, other Caucus Members, new Executive Director, and to present the core principles of the Caucus and their agenda to get America back on the right track. (Open to the media.)
Who: Democratic Leadership, Progressive Caucus Leaders, Members, and new Executive Director, and representatives of progressive organizations...PDA invited! Tim Carpenter, PDA Director, and Kevin Spidel, PDA National Political Director, will speak at the reception.
When: June 28, 2005 from 5-7:00 P.M.
Where: B-369 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Conyers At the Gate
By William Rivers Pitt
Monday 20 June 2005
[EXCERPT]
..With the suddenness of a windstorm at sea, this nation's capitol was swept up in a large, loud and defiant chorus of demands on Thursday, June 16th, that the Bush-maintained status quo of violence, disinformation and despair in Iraq must change, and must change now.
Several things happened at once. Rep. Maxine Waters formed an 'Out-of-Iraq' Caucus, made up of 50 House members, whose sole purpose was to push the Bush administration to plan and execute a withdrawal of American forces of Iraq. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, joined by Republican Rep. Walter Jones, offered legislation demanding a timetable for that withdrawal.
By far and away, however, the most important events took place in a small room in the Capitol Building, in a small park across the city, and before a long, black gate.
In that small room, Rep. John Conyers and a roomful of House allies listened to compelling, factual testimony from four individuals - Ambassador Joseph Wilson, retired CIA analyst Ray McGovern, constitutional attorney John Bonifaz, and a Gold Star Mother named Cindy Sheehan - who described in searing detail the import and consequences of the Downing Street Minutes.
As this hearing was concluding, a large gathering of protesters gathered in Lafayette Park across from the White House. There, the crowd was exhorted by Medea Benjamin, PDA Director Tim Carpenter, the mothers of fallen soldiers and many others to stay the course, to continue pounding on the Minutes, to continue to demand that the occupation of Iraq be brought to an immediate conclusion.
As the Lafayette rally grew in size and volume, a small group of people walked with deliberation towards the black White House gate. In their arms were stacks of paper - tens and tens and tens of thousands of signatures from ordinary Americans who want the bloodshed in Iraq to stop.
For the complete article, see:
http://pdamerica.org/articles/events/dsm-hearing-rally.php
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - U.S. Moral Authority in 'Free Fall', Senators Warn
by William Fisher
Published on June 21, 2005 by the Inter Press Service
[EXCERPT]
NEW YORK - As Amnesty International urged the George W. Bush administration to "close Guantnamo and disclose the situation in the USA's shadowy network of detention centers around the globe", a subsidiary of Halliburton, the oil services group once led by U.S. Vice Pres. Dick Cheney, won a 30-million-dollar contract to help build a new permanent prison for terror suspects at the U.S. Navy's controversial detention center in Cuba.
The Pentagon said that Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root would be building a two-story jail with air conditioning and exercise and medical facilities.
The plan is seen as a sign that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld plans to keep the jail in operation, despite a growing chorus of criticism and mixed signals from the White House.
Amnesty said the Bush administration "plans to memorialize in bricks and mortar its decision to operate outside of the law," according to Curt Goering, senior deputy executive director.
The group called for "an independent investigation into U.S. policies and practices on detention and interrogation, including torture and ill-treatment, (which) would reassure the world that the U.S. administration has nothing to hide."
For the complete article, see
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0621-01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - They Died So Republicans Could Take the Senate
Freedom wasn't the goal of George W. Bush or his neoconservative Republican colleagues. It was political power. And they were willing to lie us into a war to achieve it.
by Thom Hartmann
[EXCERPT]
It was a war for political power. That had to be first. Everything else - oil, profits, ongoing PATRIOT Act powers, easy manipulation of the media - all could only come if political power was seized and held through at least two decisive election cycles. The Bush administration lied us into an invasion to get and keep political power.
..The real scandal of the Downing Street Memos, with the greatest potential to leave the Bush presidency in permanent disgrace, is their implication that lies may have been put forward to help Bush, Republicans, and Blair politically. If Bush lied to gain and keep political power, precedent suggests he and his collaborators in the administration may even be vulnerable to impeachment.
For the complete article, see:
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9217.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Downing Street Is for Liars
By Mark Morford
The San Francisco Chronicle
Wednesday 22 June 2005
Why isn't the media screaming about the latest proofs of Bush's war scams?
Don't you know?
BushCo survived the illegal sanctioning of inhumane torture. They survived a gay male prostitute acting as a journalist. They survived Enron and Diebold and the rigging of the first election and they will survive Downing Street simply because all the people who should be on the attack about these atrocities all work for the guys who committed them.
For the complete article, see:
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2005/06/22/notes062205.DTL&feed=rss.morford
or
www.truthout.org/docs_2005/062205M.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The US war with Iran has already begun
by Scott Ritter
Sunday 19 June 2005 12:06 PM GMT
Americans, along with the rest of the world, are starting to wake up to the uncomfortable fact that President George Bush not only lied to them about the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (the ostensible excuse for the March 2003 invasion and occupation of that country by US forces), but also about the very process that led to war.
On 16 October 2002, President Bush told the American people that "I have not ordered the use of force. I hope that the use of force will not become necessary."
We know now that this statement was itself a lie, that the president, by late August 2002, had, in fact, signed off on the 'execute' orders authorising the US military to begin active military operations inside Iraq, and that these orders were being implemented as early as September 2002, when the US Air Force, assisted by the British Royal Air Force, began expanding its bombardment of targets inside and outside the so-called no-fly zone in Iraq.
These operations were designed to degrade Iraqi air defence and command and control capabilities. They also paved the way for the insertion of US Special Operations units, who were conducting strategic reconnaissance, and later direct action, operations against specific targets inside Iraq, prior to the 19 March 2003 commencement of hostilities.
President Bush had signed a covert finding in late spring 2002, which authorised the CIA and US Special Operations forces to dispatch clandestine units into Iraq for the purpose of removing Saddam Hussein from power.
The fact is that the Iraq war had begun by the beginning of summer 2002, if not earlier.
The violation of a sovereign nation's airspace is an act of war in and of itself. But the war with Iran has gone far beyond the intelligence gathering phase..
..President Bush has taken advantage of the sweeping powers granted to him in the aftermath of 11 September 2001, to wage a global war against terror and to initiate several covert offensive operations inside Iran.
The most visible of these is the CIA-backed actions recently undertaken by the Mujahadeen el-Khalq, or MEK, an Iranian opposition group, once run by Saddam Hussein's dreaded intelligence services, but now working exclusively for the CIA's Directorate of Operations.
It is bitter irony that the CIA is using a group still labeled as a terrorist organisation, a group trained in the art of explosive assassination by the same intelligence units of the former regime of Saddam Hussein, who are slaughtering American soldiers in Iraq today, to carry out remote bombings in Iran of the sort that the Bush administration condemns on a daily basis inside Iraq.
Perhaps the adage of "one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist" has finally been embraced by the White House, exposing as utter hypocrisy the entire underlying notions governing the ongoing global war on terror.
But the CIA-backed campaign of MEK terror bombings in Iran are not the only action ongoing against Iran.
To the north, in neighbouring Azerbaijan, the US military is preparing a base of operations for a massive military presence that will foretell a major land-based campaign designed to capture Tehran.
Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld's interest in Azerbaijan may have escaped the blinkered Western media, but Russia and the Caucasus nations understand only too well that the die has been cast regarding Azerbaijan's role in the upcoming war with Iran.
For the complete article, seet:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7896BBD4-28AB-48BA-A949-2096A02F864D.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Scott Ritter - "Iran: Where do we go from here?"
Former U.N. Weapons inspector in Iraq, Scott Ritter will give a public address on Thursday, June 23, in Deerfield, MA, at Woolman Hill's restored Quaker meeting house. Guests are invited to put heads together with other thoughtful neighbors at a public address at 7:30. Reservations are being accepted online for a dinner and reception at 5:30, at the Woolman Hill Conference Center. Charlie Jenks, Traprock's Advisory Board Chair, expects that more than 4,000 visitors daily will hear or read Ritter's comments on the prospects of launching or preventing war with Iran, at TraprockPeace.org
2) FBI & 9/11 by Sibel Edmonds
Just a Citizen.com
Monday 20 June 2005
[EXCERPT]
Over four years ago, more than four months prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks, in April 2001, a long-term FBI informant/asset who had been providing the bureau with information since 1990 provided two FBI agents and a translator with specific information regarding a terrorist attack being planned by Osama bin Laden. This asset/informant was previously a high-level intelligence officer in Iran in charge of intelligence from Afghanistan. Through his contacts in Afghanistan, he received information that:
1) Osama bin Laden was planning a major terrorist attack in the United States targeting 4-5 major cities,
2) the attack was going to involve airplanes,
3) some of the individuals in charge of carrying out this attack were already in place in the United States,
4) the attack was going to be carried out soon, in a few months.
..For almost four years since September 11, officials refused to admit to having specific information regarding the terrorists' plans to attack the United States. The Phoenix Memo, received months prior to the 9/11 attacks, specifically warned FBI HQ of pilot training and their possible link to terrorist activities against the United States. Four months prior to the terrorist attacks, the Iranian asset provided the FBI with specific information regarding the "use of airplanes," "major US cities as targets," and "Osama bin Laden issuing the order." Coleen Rowley likewise reported that specific information had been provided to FBI HQ. All this information went to the same place: FBI Headquarters in Washington, DC, and the FBI Washington Field Office, in Washington, DC..
Today, after nearly four years since 9/11, the American people still do not know that thousands of lives can be jeopardized under the unspoken policy of "protecting certain foreign business relations." The victims' family members still do not realize that information and answers they have sought relentlessly for almost four years has been blocked due to the unspoken decisions made and disguised under "safeguarding certain diplomatic relations."
Where is the so-called Congressional oversight? Why has the 9/11 Commission intentionally omitted this information, although they've had it all along? Where is accountability?
For the complete article, see:
http://justacitizen.com/articles_documents/FBI%20&%20911.htm
3) US Election Assessment Texas Forum
- - Election Fraud and Irregularity ~ 2000 US Coup D'etat
Election Assessment Hearing this June 29th in Houston, Texas.
Some of those presenting research, analyses and evidence under topics, include:
Issues Identified in Electoral Processes:
* Rev. Bill Moss, Plaintiff, Moss v. Bush
* Bob Fitrakis, Editor, Free Press
* Richard Hayes Phillips, Legal Statistician
* Richard Winger, Ballot Access Expert
Impact of Digital Voting Systems on Electoral Processes:
* Bev Harris, Black Box Voting
* Stanley Klein, Reliability and Security Consultant
* Ted Selker, Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project
Causes for Electoral Process Issues and Recommended Solutions:
* David Cobb, Green Party Presidential Candidate
* Linda Curtis, Independent Texans
* Heleni Thayre, Citizens for Voting Integrity
* Sharona Merel, National Ballot Integrity Project
* David Wager, Verifiable Votes Coalition of Houston
For complete list of presenters and details of forum, see: ElectionAssessment.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Election Fraud and Irregularity ~ 2000 US Coup D'etat
Election Assessment by Jonathan Mark of Flyby News
The following was submitted on June 22, 2005
"The right of voting for representatives is the primary right
by which all other rights are protected.
To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery..."
—Thomas Paine
Election Assessment Hearing
Thursday. June 29th, 2005 at the Garden Center at Hermann Park
1500 Hermann Drive, Houston, Texas 77004
Election Fraud and Irregularity ~ 2000 US Coup D'etat
Flyby News first published and linked to resources on election irregularity and questions of fraud during the 2000 US Presidential Election. This was when democracy was put on hold. Supreme Court judges ruled and not the people. George W. Bush was appointed President of the US.
Flyby News first surfaced following the successful campaign to expose the ultra-high-risk-flyby of NASA's Cassini space probe, which was carrying 72.3 pounds of highly radioactive plutonium on board. On August 17/18, 1999 Cassini was sling-shot toward Earth at record speeds from two Venus-flybys. The space craft was traveling around 10 miles per second, which was too fast for any containment of radioactive plutonium in the event of an inadvertent reentry into Earth's atmosphere. Why would anyone risk radioactively polluting Earth to speed to Saturn on a civilian space mission?
Karl Grossman, author, investigative reporter, professor, filmmaker, inspired me to organize the Action Site to Stop Cassini Earth Flyby. Karl Grossman is president of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. The US Space Command posted their plans on the Internet. Clearly, the culprits behind Cassini was the military-industrial complex, initiating a plan to dominate Earth from the heavens.
It seemed that almost to throw America off balance, the government began emphasizing concern of major planet disruption by computer failure to occur after the stroke of midnight on January 1st 2000. How could they have gotten this so wrong? Then with chaos ensuing and conflicting media reports, the election in Florida was decided by Supreme Court Judges. This should have been a red flag, but then came September 11, 2001; a suspiciously unprotected USA had airplanes plunging into the World Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon. This caused people to respond in such confusion and fear that instead of wondering why the US was so unprotected, the war-cry president, George W. Bush, seemed like a hero. Yet instead of protecting America, he plunged the US into an unprovoked war, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people with no evidence of Iraq's participation in the attacks of 9/11/01. However, Iraq was of major strategic military importance with oil resources. Recently, Downing Street Memos showed a president that led Intelligence to fit a policy for occupying-controlling Iraq; (in the name of freedom?)
Anyone who questioned the President during this time of crisis was declared unpatriotic, and new laws suspended America's civil liberties. People could be jailed based under a suspicion, and torture tactics were used to create more problems than solutions. The world seemed to be going insane, and election theft could go barely noticed by the mainstream media and the US Senate, except for the lone Senator to contest Election 2004, Barbara Boxer.
How did this come about. Was it just a coincidence that George W. Bush came to office and excited Evangelical Christians to vote for him, while threatening nuclear pollution in the skies, the rise of global warming, and other conditions that made it seem that the end was near? Election 2004 proved once again that voting in the US is not simple, free, or fair. The presenters at the June 29th forum will show evidence of this beyond a doubt.
The most accurate resource during elections with faulty or no auditing procedures is that of exit polls. According to a report issued March 31, 2004 by US Count Votes, a group that claims it's made up of about two dozen statisticians, there's a one-in-959,000 chance that exit polls could have been so wrong in predicting the outcome of the 2004 presidential election. Such election problems existed in Germany in the 1930's. So, why hasn't the media properly reported that George W. Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, had funds frozen for investing in NAZI Germany during World War II? Is the mainstream media under the control of the ruling elite? George W., his father, and Prescott Bush all belong to the controversial Skull and Bones club while at Yale. Now, before the trick-word "conspiracy" comes into play, I suggest reading Michael Hasty's article called "Paranoid Shift." In it he explains how people are programmed to ridicule anything sounding like "conspiracy" - even if it is true.
Religion and the Nuclear Age
Frank Dorrel's film compilation: "What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World" illustrates a policy born in so-called "Intelligence." Signed into law in 1947, President Harry Truman gave power to the formation of a secret US government, when "national security" is concerned, no law, including the principles of the US Constitution, could stand in the way. This was the nuclear age and the potential of disastrous weapons of mass destruction. But what about corruption? Can't "national security" be interpreted anyway for any purpose, especially when there is no oversight of secret "intelligence?"
Michael Hasty's "Paranoid Shift" chronicles his awakening of conspiracy from the events of 9/11, for many it was JFK's assassination, or Iran-Contra, or Vietnam, or Iraq, or evidence of election fraud in 2000 and 2004. The signs of our loss of democracy are apparent, but many keep holding on, waiting for CNN to wake up. The film, (www.chavezthefilm.com), "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" shows how the media can be used to turn democracy upside down, to use the word like democracy, but having a very different meaning. However, the outcome in Venezuela, so far, is a representation of a government elected by its people. Isn't it ironic that the US is withholding a suspect to protect him from going to trial for a terrorist attack on a Cuban airplane in1976 that killed 73 people.
Counting votes properly in the US in 2006 and especially 2008 is crucial for reclaiming a lost democracy in this hemisphere. Keeping the process simple and fair, with a verified vote-receipt, could help the US return to its principles stated in the Constitution. Until then, our responsibility for controlling our government from acts of terror is out of control, while the media spins the truth, people must unite on what the truth is, and not what we are told.
"Our people are dying all over the world ... to bring democracy
to the far corners of the world. Let's fix it here."
Senator Barbara Boxer
Thank you for considering this election assessment forum -
which gives information for an appropriate future for US citizens and world.
A paper trail is key to counting votes, a free press, and international observers.
"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate
the growth of private power to the point where it becomes stronger
than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism — ownership
of government by an individual, by a group or any controlling private power."
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
IraqShift * DowningDirty * 9/11 * G8-Heat * Fraud
15 June 2005
"..I just feel that the reason of going in for weapons of mass destruction,
the ability of the Iraqis to make a nuclear weapon,
that's all been proven that it was never there..'
- - Walter B. Jones, Republican Congressman (NC)
1) Republican lawmakers urge shift in Iraq plans
- - Will Introduce Legislation For Troop Withdrawal Timetable
2) Downing Street Story ~ Down and Dirty
- - Downing Street Hearings Set for 1:00 pm Thursday, June 16
- - Iraq war planned two years before 9/11
- - Ministers Were Told of Need for Gulf War 'Excuse'
- - Kerry is seeking Senators to Co-sign Downing Street Letter
- - Resources on a Bleak US Operation in Iraq
3) Global Warming: The US Contribution in Figures
4) Ex-Bush official: 9/11 was an inside job
5) Election Assessment Hearing in Houston June 29
- - Test shows voter fraud is possible
Editor's Notes:
Yes, for all of us, it is difficult to keep up with all the devastation happening to our planet. Besides the stories in this issue, this week the US Senate will be voting on an US energy plan. The lying forces in power want more nukes, and are continuing to deny any real commitment to sustainable clean power sources, or even fuel efficient automobiles. Meanwhile the earth is shaking in California, people are dying everyday in Iraq, which is why the news in item 1 is big. North Carolina Republican Congressman, Walter B. Jones, realized that his so-called patriotic renaming of the French Fry to "Freedom Fries," (when France wanted to enable the completion of the work of the weapons inspectors before supporting an attack on Iraq) was based on misleading intelligence. Now this member of Congress is introducing legislation for a timetable to get US Troops out of Iraq. Such a turnaround within a segment of the Republican Party is most welcome. Jones named the neoconservatives as responsible for the misleading information.
Item 2 is more on the big happenings with the Downing Street Memos.., which provides evidence as to the real reason why the Intelligence on Iraq was incorrect. This was a pre-planned war by an administration betraying the US, its Constitution, and world community. Forget about sperm on an intern's dress. This issue has killed and maimed tens of thousands of Americans and more than 100,000 Iraqis . . . for a campaign resulting in more hatred against the US!
Item 3 is more on global warming.. And why impeachment of those now in power is critical, and getting rid of those continuing to fuel the corrupt nuclear-oil-military-industrial-academic-media complex. Much appreciation goes especially to Congressman John Conyers. Though global warming appears out of control, it will never be too late for us to stand up to the cut throats of life. Item 4 is another piece of the puzzle, provided by a Bush insider "..voicing serious doubts about the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9-11." Item 5 is more on the analysis of the potential of US electronic vote fraud.
"We have guided missiles and misguided men."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
1) Republican lawmakers urge shift in Iraq plans
- - Will Introduce Legislation For Troop Withdrawal Timetable
Republican lawmakers urge shift in Iraq plans
By Vicki Allen
Reuters
Sunday, June 12, 2005; 11:59 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Republican congressman called for a deadline to pull U.S. troops from Iraq, while some other members of President Bush's party urged on Sunday that his administration come to grips with a persistent insurgency and revamp Iraq policy.
Rep. Walter Jones, a North Carolina conservative, said on ABC's "This Week" that he would offer legislation this week setting a timetable for the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.
"I voted for the resolution to commit the troops, and I feel that we've done about as much as we can do," said Jones, who coined the phrase "freedom fries" to lash out at the French for opposing the Iraq invasion.
[EXCERPT]
Jones, a member of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, said "primarily the neoconservatives" in the administration were to blame for flawed war planning.
"The reason of going in for weapons of mass destruction, the ability of the Iraqis to make a nuclear weapon, that's all been proven that it was never there," he said.
Jones joins some of Congress' most liberal Democrats in demanding a deadline to withdraw troops from a conflict they said has been too costly in U.S. lives and money.
According to a new Gallup Poll, nearly six in 10 Americans say the United States should withdraw some or all of its troops from Iraq, up from 49 percent who held that view in February, USA Today reported in its Monday edition.
[ARTICLE TRUNCATED]
For the complete article, see:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/12/AR2005061201048.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Will Introduce Legislation For Troop Withdrawal Timetable
CBS4 Denver | news4colorado.com
Will Introduce Legislation For Troop Withdrawal Timetable
Jun 12, 2005 4:02 pm US/Mountain
A Republican congressman who voted for the Iraq war said Sunday that "we've done about as much as we can do" in the country and that the reason for invading Iraq has proven false.
Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina will be among the lawmakers introducing legislation this week calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops in Iraq.
"When I look at the number of men and women who have been killed — it's almost 1,700 now, in addition to close to 12,000 have been severely wounded — and I just feel that the reason of going in for weapons of mass destruction, the ability of the Iraqis to make a nuclear weapon, that's all been proven that it was never there," Jones said on a network news program.
President Bush has said any timetable for withdrawal would encourage insurgents to wait for the foreign troops to leave, but Jones said he believed Iraqis can defend their own country.
His stance leaves Jones sided with Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, the most prominent Democrat calling for a timetable to leave Iraq. Jones said he had not discussed the issue with Kennedy.
Two years ago, Jones helped lead an effort to make sure Capitol Hill cafeterias retooled their menus to advertise "freedom fries" instead of french fries to protest France's opposition to the war.
Jones said he began changing his mind about the war after attending the funeral in April 2003 for Sgt. Michael Bitz, 31, who was killed in the southern city of Nasiriyah. He recalled that Bitz's widow read the last letter she received from her husband.
"And that really has been on my mind and my heart ever since," he said.
Jones, whose district includes Camp Lejeune and Cherry Point, has written condolence letters to the families of more than 1,300 service people killed in Iraq, and posters outside his congressional office show the faces of those killed.
2005 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
http://news4colorado.com/topstories/topstories_story_163195740.html
2) Downing Street Story ~ Down and Dirty
- - Downing Street Hearings Set for 1 pm Thursday, June 16
- - Iraq war planned two years before 9/11
- - Ministers Were Told of Need for Gulf War 'Excuse'
- - Kerry seeking Senators to Co-sign Downing Street Letter
- - Resources on a Bleak US Operation in Iraq
"Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action,
justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD.
But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."
From After Downing Street Dot Org
BREAKING NEWS
Later today RawStory.com [1] will be posting an article that they have been researching for several days. Six new secret British documents have been leaked and made widely available on the internet. These were retyped from the originals to protect the source, but RawStory.com has verified the authenticity and will be reporting on that research, on the significance of the documents, and on the timeline of the events illuminated by this information, known to the British media but new on this side of the pond.
For the complete posting of this article After Downing Street Dot Org, see
www.afterdowningstreet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=205
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Downing Street Hearings Set for Thursday, June 16
Update from AfterDowningStreet.org
HEARINGS ON DOWNING STREET MINUTES SET FOR 2;30 PM THURSDAY
June 16, 2005, from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Room HC-9 of the U.S. Capitol, Rep. John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, and other Congress Members will hold a hearing on the Downing Street Minutes and related evidence of efforts to cook the books on pre-war intelligence
The hearings had been scheduled at the Democratic National Committee, because the Republicans controlling the House Judiciary Committee refused to permit the ranking Democratic Member to use a room on the Hill. Nonetheless, Republicans are welcome to attend.
Among those speaking at the hearings will be: Joe Wilson, Former Ambassador and WMD Expert; Ray McGovern, 27-year CIA analyst who prepared regular Presidential briefings during the Reagan administration; Cindy Sheehan, mother of fallen American soldier; John Bonifaz, renowned constitutional lawyer and co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org.
Members of the media will be welcome, but citizens in town for the 5 p.m. rally at the White House will have difficulty getting into the 2:30 hearings.
The DNC will serve as an overflow room, so people can still go there: the Wasserman Room at 430 S Capitol St. SE.
Later on the same day at 5:00 p.m. ET in Lafayette Square Park, in front of the White House, a large rally will support Congressman Conyers who plans to deliver to the White House a letter addressed to President Bush and signed by over 500,000 Americans and at least 94 Congress Members. The letter asks the President to respond to questions raised by the Downing Street Minutes.
Among those speaking at the rally will be: Congressman Conyers and various other Congress Members, Cindy Sheehan of Gold Star Families for Peace, John Bonifaz of AfterDowningStreet.org, Ray McGovern former CIA analyst, Medea Benjamin of Global Exchange, Rev. Lennox Yearwood of Progressive Democrats of America, Stephen Cleghorn of Military Families Speak Out, Kevin Zeese, Director of Democracy Rising. More information, and flyers promoting the rally, are available at www.afterdowningstreet.org
Flyers to print, copy, and distribute widely: www.afterdowningstreet.org/downloads/rally.pdf
LOCAL RALLIES PLANNED AROUND COUNTRY
Supporters of this campaign are independently organizing rallies on Thursday at locations around the country.
www.afterdowningstreet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=211
AfterDowningStreet.org is a rapidly growing coalition of veterans' groups, peace groups, and political activist groups, which launched on May 26, 2005, a campaign to urge the U.S. Congress to begin a formal investigation into whether President Bush has committed impeachable offenses in connection with the Iraq war.
Contacts:
David Swanson david@davidswanson.org 202-329-7847
Jonathan Schwarz jonathan_schwarz@sbcglobal.net 773-296-0838
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Iraq war planned two years before 9/11
According to author and journalist Mickey Herskowitz, then presidential candidate George W. Bush was already talking privately about the political benefits of attacking Iraq two years before September 11 occurred.
"He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999," said President [sic] Bush's former ghost writer.
"It was on his mind. He said to me: 'One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.' And he said, 'My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.' He said, 'If I have a chance to invade, if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency."
[EXCERPTS]
According to Herskowitz, George W. Bush's beliefs on Iraq were based in part on a notion dating back to the Reagan White House - ascribed in part to now-vice president Dick Cheney, Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee under Reagan. "Start a small war. Pick a country where there is justification you can jump on, go ahead and invade."
The notion that President Bush held unrealistic or naive views about the consequences of war was further advanced recently by a Bush supporter, the evangelist Pat Robertson, who revealed that Bush had told him the Iraq invasion would yield no casualties.
In the end, campaign officials decided not to go with Herskowitz's account, and, moreover, demanded everything back. "The lawyer called me and said, 'Delete it. Shred it. Just do it.' "
Source: http://globalnewsmatrix.com
The complete article is posted at:
www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/conspiracy_theory/fullstory.asp?id=233
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Ministers Were Told of Need for Gulf War 'Excuse'
"The briefing paper, for participants at a meeting of Blair's inner circle on July 23, 2002, said that since regime change was illegal it was 'necessary to create the conditions' which would make it legal."
By Michael Smith
The Sunday Times UK
Sunday 12 June 2005
[EXCERPTS]
Ministers were warned in July 2002 that Britain was committed to taking part in an American-led invasion of Iraq and they had no choice but to find a way of making it legal.
The warning, in a leaked Cabinet Office briefing paper, said Tony Blair had already agreed to back military action to get rid of Saddam Hussein at a summit at the Texas ranch of President George W Bush three months earlier.
The briefing paper, for participants at a meeting of Blair's inner circle on July 23, 2002, said that since regime change was illegal it was "necessary to create the conditions" which would make it legal..
John Conyers, the Democratic congressman who drafted the letter to Bush, has now written to Dearlove asking him to say whether or not it was accurate that he believed the intelligence was being "fixed" around the policy. He also asked the former MI6 chief precisely when Bush and Blair had agreed to invade Iraq and whether it is true they agreed to "manufacture" the UN ultimatum in order to justify the war.
He and other Democratic congressmen plan to hold their own inquiry this Thursday with witnesses including Joe Wilson, the American former ambassador who went to Niger to investigate claims that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium ore for its nuclear weapons programme.
Frustrated at the refusal by the White House to respond to their letter, the congressmen have set up a website - www.downingstreetmemo.com - to collect signatures on a petition demanding the same answers.
Conyers promised to deliver it to Bush once it reached 250,000 signatures. By Friday morning it already had more than 500,000 with as many as 1m expected to have been obtained when he delivers it to the White House on Thursday.
AfterDowningStreet.org, another website set up as a result of the memo, is calling for a congressional committee to consider whether Bush's actions as depicted in the memo constitute grounds for impeachment.
It has been flooded with visits from people angry at what they see as media self-censorship in ignoring the memo. It claims to have attracted more than 1m hits a day.
The complaints of media self-censorship have been backed up by the ombudsmen of The Washington Post, The New York Times and National Public Radio, who have questioned the lack of attention the minutes have received from their organisations.
For the complete article, see original posting:
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1650822,00.html
or
www.truthout.org/docs_2005/061205Z.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kerry seeking Senators to Co-sign Downing Street Letter
This is a developing story, for more info: rawstory.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Resources on a Bleak US Operation in Iraq
"Poll: USA Is Losing Patience on Iraq"
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0613-03.htm
"Officers, Military Can't End Insurgency,"
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0613-01.htm
"As Iraqi Army Trains, Word in the Field Is It May Take Years"
www.nytimes.com/2005/06/13/international/middleeast/13training.html?pagewanted=print
"Building Iraq's Army: Mission Improbable"
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/09/AR2005060902245_pf.html
"Militia Backed by Iraqi Leaders Accused in Attacks"
www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/breaking_news/11858216.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
"Insurgency Seen Forcing Change in Iraq Strategy"
www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/06/10/insurgency_seen_forcing_change_in_iraq_strategy?mode=PF"
"Sunni-Shiite Quarrel Edges Closer to Political Stalemate"
www.nytimes.com/2005/06/13/international/middleeast/13iraq.html?pagewanted=print
3) Global Warming: The US Contribution in Figures
Published on Monday, June 13, 2005 by the lndependent/UK
Beckett Exposes G8 Rift on Global Warming
Global Warming: The US Contribution in Figures
by Marie Woolf in London and Colin Brown in Moscow
[EXCERPTS]
The British Government is deeply disappointed that President George Bush has not made a greater commitment to tackling climate change before the G8 summit, the Environment Secretary has disclosed. In a rare, outspoken critique of the US position on global warming, Margaret Beckett told The Independent of the Government's frustration at the lack of "common ground" with Washington on the need for action on the environment. The US has consistently blocked attempts by Britain to put progress on tackling climate change alongside G8's moves to scrap African debt at the Gleneagles meeting of the leading industrialized nations next month.
The differences between the US and Britain were starkly illustrated in a leaked G8 document seen by The Independent. President Bush said last week that he wanted more international co-operation on "clean nuke." But a draft of a G8 communiqu shows disagreement over the US's wish for separate section on the role of nuclear power. The draft, Powering a Cleaner Future, says a "UK red line" - area not for negotiation - was the US's singling out of nuclear power as a clean energy source.
It said: "UK red line: Avoid US suggestion for a separate nuclear heading. This would be quite a serious jump in political attention from previous ... texts. Any statement should be couched in language that leaves it up to individual governments to decide whether nuclear is a suitable part of their energy mix."
Mrs Beckett gave a strong indication that she did not support the revival of nuclear power, and construction of new plants, believed to be favored by Mr Blair, to tackle global warming.
She said new power stations were not the answer to meeting the goal of a 20 per cent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2010 or a 60 per cent cut by 2050.
She admitted CO2 emissions were rising in Britain, along with the rest of the Northern hemisphere, and said she was "very" disappointed that the UK was in danger of missing those targets.
2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.
For the complete article, search at above link, or: www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0613-02.htm
For FN's extensive resources, see: The Mounting Evidence of Global Warming!
4) Ex-Bush official: 9/11 was an inside job
By John Daly
UPI International Correspondent
A former Bush team member during his first administration is now voicing serious doubts about the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9-11.
Former chief economist for the Department of Labor during President George W. Bush's first term Morgan Reynolds comments that the official story about the collapse of the WTC is "bogus" and that it is more likely that a controlled demolition destroyed the Twin Towers and adjacent Building No. 7. Reynolds, who also served as director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas and is now professor emeritus at Texas A&M University said, "If demolition destroyed three steel skyscrapers at the World Trade Center on 9/11, then the case for an 'inside job' and a government attack on America would be compelling."
Reynolds commented from his Texas A&M office, "It is hard to exaggerate the importance of a scientific debate over the cause of the collapse of the twin towers and building 7. If the official wisdom on the collapses is wrong, as I believe it is, then policy based on such erroneous engineering analysis is not likely to be correct either. The government's collapse theory is highly vulnerable on its own terms. Only professional demolition appears to account for the full range of facts associated with the collapse of the three buildings."
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050613-102755-6408r.htm
5) Election Assessment Hearing in Houston June 29
- - Test shows voter fraud is possible
- - Election Assessment Hearing in Houston June 29
The Election Assessment Hearing is an initial step in an effort to help assure sustainable election reform through the application of proven quality analysis, improvement and control methods which provide an effective framework that encompasses election processes as a whole.
A summary statement of findings from this hearing will be issued to government agencies and other stewards of election processes, and will also be made available for public review. This statement will be submitted to the Commission on Federal Election Reform, which is holding their final hearing at the James Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston, Texas on June 30th. The Commission is slated to issue a report in September and has not yet received crucial testimony from many election process observers.
Please support our efforts and participate in making the Election Assessment Hearing a valuable contributor to assuring the reliability of our election processes.
Press Announcement (6/9/05):
www.electionassessment.org/downloads/eah_press_announcement_6_9_05.pdf
Call For Submissions:
www.electionassessment.org/downloads/eah_call_for_submissions.doc
What: Election Assessment Hearing
When: Wednesday, June 29 2005
Where: The Garden Center at Hermann Park
1500 Hermann Drive
Houston, Texas 77004
For more information, see:
ElectionAssessment.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Test shows voter fraud is possible
Machines are vulnerable to manipulation
04 June 2005
With the right access, an election worker could manipulate voting results in the computers that read paper ballots - without leaving any digital fingerprints. That was the verdict after Leon County Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho invited a team of researchers to look for holes in election software.
For article, see:
www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/11811936.htm
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
MemoGate ~ PeltierHearings * ElectionRotten * JustUS
10 June 2005
"Government without the consent of the governed
is the very definition of Slavery."
-- Jonathan Swift
1) Memogate Hearings Scheduled for June 16
2) Something Rotten in Ohio by Gore Vidal
3) Peltier Hearing ~ June 15 ~ Lakota Sovereignty at Stake
4) Castro Strikes a Nerve on US Criminal Justice System
Editor's Notes:
This issue is about justice, not about JUST US. The first item is a June 10 press release from David Swanson and AfterDowningStreet.org The second item is a new article by Gore Vidal about election fraud in the US. For a while the big lies -- TOO BIG TO BE TRUE -- can work - but not never ending.. Item 3 is on Leonard Peltier, and a new hearing that will test sovereignty of the Lakota Nation. Item 4 brings the words of a dictator, Fidel Castro, striking a nerve in the US, exposing its corrupt criminal justice system, ‘which incarcerates more people per capita than any other developed nation..'
Flyby News friends Prison Update -- The news on Malik Abdullah Akili is not so good. He was hit with two more years before his next parole hearing. He had won an appeal to have his parole hearing re-addressed, since there is evidence that he has been targeted for his political involvement in the past as a Black Panther Party member. This is still likely the case. For more background on Malik's case, see: A Nation Behind Bars: the buried talents of a population
Where is the Christian moral right when you need them? A criminal justice system that does not embody compassion and equitable fairness is not about justice, but oppression. And the oppressor turns right inside out until they can only fool oneself.
"You can fool some of the people all of the time,
and those are the ones you want to concentrate on."
– George W. Bush
(joking?) at a Gridiron Club dinner,
Washington, D.C., March 2001.
Jehan Abdur Raheem, who also got another two-year-hit at his parole hearing, and stated in a letter:
".. I accept that there are many things in life that we are powerless to change, but there are many things we can. What we do with our powers, talents and abilities show what our character are. I have both contempt and pity for those who can easily co-exist with evil. They watch entire nations starved by greedy power-brokers; They watch entire species hunted into extinction; They sit through Corporate piracy, institutionalized slavery and party politic oppression and say nothing while laying claim to some moral high-ground.
We must never become such hypocrites.. True spirituality doesn't cling to the physical or worship the material. True spirituality seeks to be in harmony with itself ~ and not finding harmony - creates it."
Richard Sitcha has written recently too. He is in prison for no crime. After being granted political asylum in the US from Cameroon, where he defended the disappeared Bepanda 9, now, for more than 20 months, he is waiting with a death threat hanging if he is returned to his former country. In calling my Senators' offices, they requested a direct letter from Richard and/or his attorney representing him. Richard has not yet received legal counsel at this latest stage, but has written to both Senators directly. We will keep you updated on these cases. I realize I am blessed to know such diverse, special, and united people. This following is from Richard, dated June 2nd 2005:
Dear Jonathan,
Thank you so much for your recent letter with the Flyby News, which was so rich in information. I enjoyed reading it and other INS detainees read that also. The news was about London Times concerning the pack of lies upon Iraq War, CITGO, Venezuela, President Chavez, etc.. I also received via Sister Gladys the other Flyby News where my letter to you was published. I will not stop being thankful to GOD for having all of you in my life; People who knows the value of Human being, people full of love, understanding and compassion. Your struggle for justice, peace, and nonviolence could not be recognized by this wrongful society, but GOD is aware of your job and that is what matters. Thank you for all.
Richard
For more on Richard's case, and address to write him, visit FreeRichard.com
If you wish to help FN cover expenses for sending downloaded issues into prisons, please send any financial contribution to Flyby News (and any toner cartridges for HP5 laser jet printer). Thanks for reading and interest in independent news.
Flyby News; P.O. Box 1999; Wendell Depot, MA 01380
Doing time creates a
demented darkness of my
own imagination. . . .
Doing time does this thing
to you. But, of course, you
don't do time.
You do without it. Or
rather, time does you.
Time is a cannibal that
devours the flesh of your
years
day by day, bite by bite.
Leonard Peltier
{Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance}
1) Memogate Hearings Scheduled for June 16
For Immediate Release: June 10, 2005
Memogate Hearings Scheduled for June 16
On Thursday June 16, 2005, Rep. John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of House Judiciary Committee, and other Democratic Members will hold a Democratic hearing to hear testimony concerning the Downing Street Minutes and the efforts to cook the books on pre-war intelligence.
On May 1, 2005 a Sunday London Times article disclosed the details of a classified memo, also known as the Downing Street Minutes, recounting the minutes of a July 2002 meeting of Prime Minister Tony Blair that describes an American President already committed to going to war in the summer of 2002, despite contrary assertions to the public and the Congress. The minutes also describe apparent efforts by the Administration to manipulate intelligence data to justify the war. The June 16th hearing will attempt to answer the serious constitutional questions raised by these revelations and will further investigate the Administration's actions in the lead up to war with new documents that further corroborate the Downing Street memo.
Directly following the hearing, Rep. Conyers, Members of Congress, and concerned citizens plan to hand deliver to the White House the petition and signatures of over a half million Americans that have joined Rep. Conyers in demanding that President Bush answer questions about his secret plan for the Iraq war.
WHAT: Democratic hearing on Downing Street Minutes and Pre-war intelligence
WHEN: Thursday, June 16, 2005, TIME TBD
WHERE: LOCATION TBD
WITNESSES: Joe Wilson, Former Ambassador and WMD Expert; Ray McGovern, 27-year CIA analyst who prepared regular Presidential briefings during the Reagan administration; Cindy Sheehan, mother of fallen American soldier; John Bonifaz, renowned constitutional lawyer and co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org.
For details on time and place and for downloadable flyers promoting the rally, please watch the top of this website: www.afterdowningstreet.org
AfterDowningStreet.org is a rapidly growing coalition of veterans' groups, peace groups, and political activist groups, which launched on May 26, 2005, a campaign to urge the U.S. Congress to begin a formal investigation into whether President Bush has committed impeachable offenses in connection with the Iraq war.
Contact: David Swanson david@davidswanson.org 202-329-7847
2) Something Rotten in Ohio by Gore Vidal
Published June 9, 2005 by The Nation
Something Rotten in Ohio
by Gore Vidal
Outside the oil and gas junta that controls two and a half branches of our government (the half soon to be whole is the judiciary), there was a good deal of envy at the late British election among those Americans who are serious about politics. Little money was spent by the three parties and none for TV advertising. Results were achieved swiftly and cheaply. Best of all, the three party leaders were quizzed sharply and intelligently by ordinary citizens known quaintly as subjects, thanks to the ubiquitous phantom crown so unlike our nuclear-taloned predatory eagle. Although news of foreign countries seldom appears in our tightly censored media (and good news, never), those of us who are addicted to C-SPAN and find it the one truly, if unconsciously, subversive media outlet in these United States are able to observe British politics in full cry.
[EXCERPT]
Asked to predict who would win in '04, I said that, again, Bush would lose, but I was confident that in the four years between 2000 and 2004 creative propaganda and the fixing of election officials might very well be so perfected as to insure an official victory for Mr. Bush. As Representative Conyers's report, Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio (www.house.gov/conyers), shows in great detail, the swing state of Ohio was carefully set up to deliver an apparent victory for Bush even though Kerry appears to have been the popular winner as well as the valedictorian-that-never-was of the Electoral College.
I urge would-be reformers of our politics as well as of such anachronisms as the Electoral College to read Conyers's valuable guide on how to steal an election once you have in place the supervisor of the state's electoral process: In this case, Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, who orchestrated a famous victory for those who hate democracy (a permanent but passionate minority). The Conyers Report states categorically, "With regard to our factual findings, in brief, we find that there were massive and unprecedented voter irregularities and anomalies in Ohio. In many cases these irregularities were caused by intentional misconduct and illegal behavior, much of it involving Secretary of State Kenneth J. Blackwell, the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio." In other words, the Florida 2000 scenario redux, when the chair for Bush/Cheney was also the Secretary of State. Lesson? Always plan ahead for at least four more years.
It is well-known in the United States of Amnesia that not only did Ohio have a considerable number of first-time voters but that Blackwell and his gang, through "the misallocation of voting machines, led to unprecedented long lines that disenfranchised scores, if not hundreds of thousands, of predominantly minority and Democratic voters."
For the past few years many of us have been warning about the electronic voting machines, first publicized on the Internet by investigator Bev Harris, for which she was much reviled by the officers of such companies as Diebold, Sequoia, Es & S, Triad; this last voting computer company "has essentially admitted that it engaged in a course of behavior during the recount in numerous counties to provide ‘cheat sheets' to those counting the ballots. The cheat sheets informed election officials how many votes they should find for each candidate, and how many over and under votes they should calculate to match the machine count. In that way, they could avoid doing a full county-wide hand count mandated by state law."
Yet despite all this manpower and money power, exit polls showed that Kerry would win Ohio. So, what happened?
I have told more than enough of this mystery story so thoroughly investigated by Conyers and his Congressional colleagues and their staffers. Not only were the crimes against democracy investigated, but the report on What Went Wrong in Ohio comes up with quite a number of ways to set things right.
Needless to say, this report was ignored when the Electoral College produced its unexamined tally of the votes state by state. Needless to say, no joint committee of the two houses of Congress was convened to consider the various crimes committed and to find ways and means to avoid their repetition in 2008, should we be allowed to hold an election once we have unilaterally, yet again, engaged in a war—this time with Iran. Anyway, thanks to Conyers, the writing is now high up there on the wall for us all to see clearly: "Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin." Students of the Good Book will know what these words of God meant to Belshazzar and his cronies in old Babylon.
Gore Vidal's 'Imperial America' will be out in paperback this September.
This article will run in the July 4, 2005 issue of The Nation magazine
and posted at:
www.commondreams.org/views05/0609-21.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For related news from FN archives, see link for
The Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports,
looking into the unanswered questions.
3) Peltier Hearing ~ June 15 ~ Lakota Sovereignty at Stake
June 3, 2005
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PELTIER HEARING TO ADDRESS LAKOTA NATION SOVEREIGNTY
As Mark Felt, one of the main responsible FBI officers overseeing illegal counterintelligence programs targeting the American Indian Movement and other groups in the 60s and 70's, is hailed as a hero for catalyzing the toppling of the Nixon administration, Leonard Peltier approaches his fourth decade of unjust imprisonment.
Today, from the perspective of the U.S. government, everything is excusable in the war theatre, even as the world questions U.S. policies and actions that point unequivocally to human rights abuses. A puppet government, people murdered and terrorized, that was the climate in the Pine Ridge reservation in 1975 when two FBI agents were killed in a shootout. Leonard Peltier and fellow warriors responded to the call for protection from the Oglala Lakota people, but he was blamed for the deaths of the agents and is serving two consecutive life terms for that.
However, his defense team has been granted a hearing to correct his illegal sentencing. The basis for this motion is that the United States District Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction under the statutes upon which Mr. Peltier was convicted and sentenced. The statutes in question require that the crime take place "within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States". Since the deaths of the agents occurred on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation which is neither "within the special maritime [or] territorial jurisdiction of the United States", the Peltier defense team is asking the Court to grant Mr. Peltier's motion and vacate the illegal sentences imposed upon him.
If the Court does not recognize the Pine Ridge Reservation as sovereign "then one must wonder, what does sovereignty mean?" stated Barry Bachrach, attorney for Leonard Peltier. "Sovereignty seems to be a concept that is given merely lip service. It is raised when the government does not want to get involved, and infringed when the government wants to take action." As Bachrach further stated, "This hearing is important because Mr. Peltier was never charged with crimes over which the United States had jurisdiction. The history of the constitution, and the statutes implicated, unequivocally establish that Mr. Peltier was not convicted under the Indian Crimes Act, which is the only possible authority under which the government could have tried and convicted Mr. Peltier. Whereas here, the court had no jurisdiction to convict Mr. Peltier under the crimes for which he was convicted, those convictions must be set aside as a matter of law."
The hearing will take place on Wednesday June 15th, 2005 at 2:00 PM at the Quentin N. Burdick U.S. Courthouse in Fargo, North Dakota (655 1st Ave. North - 4th Floor, Courtroom 1).
For more information contact:
Russ Redner, LPDC Director, 915-533-6655 or TOLL FREE 866-534-6151
Barry Bachrach, LPDC ATTORNEY, 508-926-3403
Raquel Robles Burnet, LPDC Headquerters 785-842-5774
The Court Documents will be available for viewing at:
freeleonard.org
and
www.leonardpeltier.org
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Note:
For a new book on Leonard Peltier by Harvey Arden
visit www.HaveYouThought.com
also
For FN's archive issues on Leonard Peltier and background, see:
Leonard Peltier and FBI Misconduct - & What You Can Do About It!
4) Castro Strikes a Nerve on US Criminal Justice System
Castro Strikes a Nerve
By Jill Soffiyah Elijah, AlterNet.
Posted June 3, 2005.
By aiming the spotlight on the criminal justice system in the U.S., which incarcerates more people per capita than any other developed nation, President Castro exposed a tender nerve for Washington.
In April 2005 the international community began to take a closer look at the United States justice system as its government attempted to explain and or deny the presence of admitted terrorist, Luis Posada Carriles. As news stories sprouted from even mainstream media calling for the extradition of Posada to Venezuela, a country with which the U.S. has had a longstanding extradition treaty, Washington went into a frenzy.
After some false starts concerning what it was going to do about Posada, Washington "defended" its position by hurling barbs at Cuban President Fidel Castro about the political asylum granted to Assata Shakur by the Cuban government. President Castro retorted that Ms. Shakur had not received justice in the United States and that she, like many other political prisoners, had been persecuted and denied a fair trial.
The United States incarcerates more people per capita than any other developed nation on earth. The population of the United States comprises 5% of the world's population but its incarcerated population is equal to more than 25% of the world's prisoners.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, based on current rates of first incarceration, an estimated 32% of black males will enter state or federal prison during their lifetime, compared to 17% of Hispanic males and 5.9% of white males. In other words, one third of black men can expect to be incarcerated during their life times if they live in the United States.
Incarceration in the U.S. is a growing industry. . . Sentencing decisions regarding probation and incarceration reflect the same racial overtones as the earlier stages of the system. The racist practices of prosecutors was so prevalent that in 1986 the United States Supreme Court finally outlawed the practice of routinely removing blacks from the jury in Batson v. Kentucky (476 U.S. 79).
..The millions who have had their lives interrupted by the criminal "justice" system know that fairness is usually an illusion discussed widely in classrooms but not mentioned in courtrooms. They know it's unjust. Castro's pronouncements bear witness to the fact that "justice" in the United States, isn't justice at all.
Jill Soffiyah Elijah, Esq. is deputy director of the
Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School.
The complete article is posted:
www.alternet.org/rights/22155
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
NuclearDangers * DUfilms * LosAlamosBeating
08 June 2005
"Nuclear power, apart from nuclear war,
is the greatest medical threat posed to life on this planet.
In fact, 95% of the total nuclear waste in the United States
has been generated by nuclear power plants. Nuclear waste will
last for 500,000 years, and there is no safe means to prevent these
radioactive elements from entering and concentrating in the food chain."
-- Helen Caldicott
1) New Nuclear Dangers - Caldicott, McNamara, Rokke
- - The New Nuclear Danger. interview with Helen Caldicott
- - McNamara Denounced Nuclear Weapons
- - Doug Rokke - Depleted Uranium Situation Requires Action'
- - New Film - "Beyond Treason" -
- - "The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium and the Dying children"
- - Los Alamos Lab Whistleblower Beaten
Editor's Notes:
This issue concentrates on the nuclear issue, as Dr. Helen Caldicott recent book disloses, new dangers are upon us. Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War era, agrees: "If I were to characterize US and NATO nuclear policies in one sentence, I would say they are immoral, illegal and militarily unnecessary." This issue also includes a press release and films regarding the campaign of Major Doug Rokke. "I am amazed that fourteen years after I was asked to clean up the initial DU mess from Gulf War 1 and almost ten years since I finished the depleted uranium project that United States Department of Defense officials and many others still attempt to justify uranium munitions use while ignoring mandatory requirements. But beyond the ignored mandatory actions that the willful dispersal of tons of solid radioactive and chemically toxic waste in the form of uranium munitions just does not even pass the common sense test."
So what is new? It all is getting worse and more inevitable for disastrous consequences. But instead of dealing with science gone mad, they are now fiddling with the weather. The US Senate recently passed legislation S.517 to establish the Weather Modification Operations and Research Board, and for other purposes. As noted in Flyby News, the military has a lot of interest in weather modification, but, they don't know what they are really doing. This new funding-oversight operation is scheduled to take effect on October 1, 2005.
Please keep your thoughts, prayers, and support for Tommy Hook, a Los Alamos lab whistleblower scheduled to testify before Congress soon about alleged financial irregularities, who was severely beaten this past week.
1) New Nuclear Dangers - Caldicott, McNamara, Rokke
- - The New Nuclear Danger. interview with Helen Caldicott
- - McNamara Denounced Nuclear Weapons
- - Doug Rokke - Depleted Uranium Situation Requires Action'
- - New Film - "Beyond Treason" -
- - "The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium and the Dying children"
- - Los Alamos Lab Whistleblower Beaten
- - The New Nuclear Danger - an interview with Helen Caldicott
An Interview with Helen Caldicott, M.D. Author of The New Nuclear Danger
By Dennis Hughes, (Share Guide Publisher).
Dr. Helen Caldicott is the founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, and a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. She is the author of several books, including Nuclear Madness, Missile Envy, A Desperate Passion and her latest, The New Nuclear Danger. She divides her time between Australia and the United States, where she has devoted the last 30 years to an international campaign to educate the public about the medical hazards of the nuclear age.
The Share Guide: Tell us how you first became aware of the nuclear weapons problem and nuclear power?
Dr. Helen Caldicott: I first became aware of the threat of nuclear war when I read Neville Shute's book On The Beach when I was 15 years old and living in Melbourne, where the book was set. The book was about an accidental nuclear war that triggers the end of human life. This scenario branded my soul. When I grew up, I led the movement in Australia against the French atmospheric tests in the Pacific and Australian uranium mining. Later I came to the United States as a member of the faculty of the Harvard Medical School specializing in Cystic Fibrosis in the mid 1970s, and founded Physicians for Social Responsibility--which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 for educating the public about the medical effects of nuclear war. I have written several books on the subject.
The Share Guide: Can you give a brief overview of your most recent book, The New Nuclear Danger, and why you wrote it at this time?
Dr. Caldicott: This book describes the internal, corporate related dynamics of the Bush administration, and the reason it is totally focused upon war, is violating all the international nuclear arms control treaties, and is now prepared in a cavalier way to use nuclear weapons on any non-nuclear nation it so chooses. This is antithetical to the nuclear policies of any previous U.S. administration. The nuclear weapons labs are also engaged in a new Manhattan project: a huge nuclear buildup, which includes designing, testing and building new nuclear weapons. In addition, the Bush administration is engaged in a massive, five-layered Star Wars project which will never work, and which will trigger a new nuclear arms race with Russia and China. This is costing four times as much money as the U.S. is currently spending on the State Department, and could trigger a nuclear war. The danger is new because the hydrogen bombs of Russia and America are still on hair trigger alert as they were in the 1980s, but everybody thinks the nuclear threat of global annihilation has been resolved because the cold war ended. In fact, because of the public's ignorance, the nuclear threat is much greater than before.
The Share Guide: In a recent talk you gave, you mentioned the Heritage Foundation. Please explain what they have to do with the energy policies of President Bush and his administration.
Dr. Caldicott: The Heritage Foundation and other Washington, DC based so called "think tanks" are omnipresent right-wing advertising agencies for corporations such as Lockheed Martin and other military corporations and oil companies. The Heritage Foundation has either peopled the Bush administration with employees of corporations or with their own specially trained fellows. They are determining the policies of this administration, much as they determined those of the Reagan years. The Cheney energy policy was determined after consultation with oil and energy companies--with absolutely no input from knowledgeable academics or environmental groups who are deeply concerned about the rapid progress of global warming and its devastating ecological and economic consequences.
The Share Guide: What specifically are the negative effects of nuclear power, and aren't there adequate renewable sources of energy that we could use instead?
Dr. Caldicott: Nuclear power, apart from nuclear war, is the greatest medical threat posed to life on this planet. In fact, 95% of the total nuclear waste in the United States has been generated by nuclear power plants. Nuclear waste will last for 500,000 years, and there is no safe means to prevent these radioactive elements from entering and concentrating in the food chain. These elements, which are tasteless, odorless and invisible, are highly carcinogenic and mutagenic. Over time, they will induce epidemics of cancer and leukemia. This is particularly true for children, who are 10 to 20 times more radiosensitive than adults, and are therefore much more susceptible to cancer. The nuclear waste will also induce epidemics of genetic diseases and congenital abnormalities in humans (as well as in animals and plants) for the rest of time. This is rather like a process of random compulsory genetic engineering. Because of the quantity of fossil fuel used to mine, separate and enrich uranium, and to build the massive reactor, a nuclear power plant has to operate for 18 years before one net calorie of energy is realized! And the CO2 produced from the fossil fuel adds significantly to global warming. Uranium enrichment also produces 88% of the CFC gases emitted from the U.S., a potent global warming gas and a significant ozone depleter in the upper atmosphere. The production and release of CFCs has been internationally banned in the Montreal Protocol, but the U.S. nuclear industry openly flouts this international treaty. So nuclear power causes global warming, ozone depletion, epidemics of malignancy and the destruction of the delicate process of evolution. Of course there are alternatives. Solar power is ubiquitous but almost untapped because of the political power of the oil companies. There is also enough wind west of the Missisippi to provide the whole of the U.S. with energy. It's worth noting that Europeans use half as much energy as Americans, but have the same standard of living because they practice pragmatic conservation.
The Share Guide: Most people are psychically numbed by the nuclear problem. How can we deal with our feelings of fear, complacency, anger, depression, etc, and take constructive action?
Dr. Caldicott: The only effective way I have found to deal with peoples' fears is through a process of responsible education. That is why I wrote The New Nuclear Danger, and that is why I travel the world talking to large numbers of people about these facts. As a physician, I am obliged to practice global preventive medicine, and my experience has validated the admonition of Thomas Jefferson when he said "An informed democracy will behave in a responsible fashion."
The Share Guide: I have heard the environmental effects of nuclear war referred to as "collateral damage," but nuclear winter could in fact end life on earth as we know it. What actions can we as responsible citizens take in the face of the new nuclear danger? What can we say to people who are in denial of the problem?
Dr. Caldicott: This is the ultimate spiritual and religious issue ever to face the human race. For what is our responsibility to God to preserve the creation and evolution? We are the curators of possibly the only life in the universe and our responsibility is enormous. We must therefore dedicate every waking and sleeping moment to the preservation of creation. But first, action must be preceded by education. We are all physicians to a planet that is in the intensive care unit. The New Nuclear Danger is now the Grays Anatomy for a new breed of global physicians. Learn it and you will become ultimately powerful and equipped with the necessary knowledge that will drive our new crusade for global preservation.
The Share Guide: You have said "We are the rudder that can steer the whole ship." But our tax dollars are being stolen by the corporate robber barons, currently at the level of 400 billion dollars annually. What can we do to change this?
Dr. Caldicott: 400 billion dollars is almost half a trillion dollars, and if one spent $1,000 a minute since Jesus was born, one would have just spent one trillion dollars. Therefore, the amount of money being stolen from the American people by this corporate administration for death, mayhem and destruction is enough to solve ALL the problems in U.S. society--plus feed, clothe, educate and house all the children of the planet, reverse global warming, save all the threatened species, save the tropical rain forests and save the Earth. So the money is there, but the will is not. We must remove the men in charge of the world! For the health of the planet and all of us, we must replace them with wise prophetic men and women who will implement life-giving and life-preserving policies. Millions of people in the United States were involved in the anti-nuclear movement of the 1980s. They watched The Day After with dread. Now the people need to be reawakened to the impending threat of nuclear war, and like the tiny trim tab rudder built into the large rudder of a ship, as it turns and they move, the whole ship of state will turn towards life and not death.
The Share Guide: What is your opinion of the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository? And what do you think we should do with nuclear waste?
Dr. Caldicott: Yucca Mountain stands on 30 earthquake faults. It is a very unstable area and will not prevent the disbursement of lethal radioactive elements to the environment. Nuclear waste should be retained in the cooling pools of the nuclear reactors, meaning that all nuclear power plants would then have to close because their cooling pools are full. This also means that there would be no more electricity generated from nuclear power. As the spent fuel rods cool, they can then be stored in above ground casks until the brilliant American scientists who are currently so hard at work designing new nuclear weapons are redeployed, inventing ingenious and currently unthought of ways to store their radioactive garbage safely for the next 500,000 years.
The Share Guide: Discuss the attitude in Japan and other nations toward nuclear weapons and nuclear power, as compared to the attitude here in America.
Dr. Caldicott: The Japanese politicians and corporations are pretty keen about nuclear power, even though Japan is the only country ever to have experienced the horrors of a nuclear holocaust. The Japanese are forbidden in their constitution from developing their own nuclear weapons. However, because they maintain huge stockpiles of reprocessed plutonium, they could within several weeks if they so decided build their own nuclear weapons. The Japanese people, on the other hand, are very allergic to anything nuclear, particularly after they experienced several very dangerous nuclear accidents in the last several years in their own nuclear facilities.
The Share Guide: You mentioned earlier that you founded Physicians for Social Responsibility. What are the goals of this organization?
Dr. Caldicott: Physicians for Social Responsibility was founded in 1978, to teach the American people about the medical effects of nuclear power and nuclear war. I, along with my colleagues, recruited 23,000 physicians during the 1980s to join this massive educational campaign. We were very successful in these efforts, and the organization still continues to this day. For more information about the nuclear threat, please visit NuclearPolicy.org
This article's original posting is at: www.shareguide.com/Caldicott.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - McNamara Denounced Nuclear Weapons
Published June 5, 2005 by The Sunday Times/UK
Champion of the Bomb Recants
by Michael Evans
THE American defense secretary of the Vietnam War era denounced nuclear weapons yesterday and urged the British Government not to develop a new system after the present Trident submarines are taken out of service.
Robert McNamara who played a major role in the formulation of America's nuclear strategy in the 1960s, said in London that the development of new nuclear weapons was "insane and a waste of money".
As The Times reported last week, the Government is reviewing possible options for replacing Trident, which is scheduled to remain in service with the Royal Navy until about 2025. Tony Blair has said he believes that Britain needs to retain an independent nuclear deterrent.
Mr McNamara, 88, whose regrets about the bombing of Vietnam featured in a recent documentary, The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, has recanted his former hawkish position on nuclear weapons.
Speaking at a conference, he said: "Despite the end of the Cold War 15 years ago, the US nuclear weapons policies are today essentially what they were when I was Secretary of Defense 40 years ago.
"If I were to characterize US and NATO nuclear policies in one sentence, I would say they are immoral, illegal and militarily unnecessary."
He also described nuclear weapons as "very, very dangerous in terms of the risk of inadvertent or accidental launch, and destructive of the non-proliferation regime that has served us so well over the 40 years".
Mr McNamara, the US Defense Secretary from 1961 to 1968, speeded up the modernization and expansion of America's nuclear weapons and delivery systems to deter the Soviet Union from mounting a surprise attack on the West.
However, in the post-Cold War world, he said that it was important for the US, Russia and other nuclear weapons states, such as Britain, to stop the development of new systems and to speed up reductions in nuclear forces.
Nuclear proliferation, Mr McNamara said, posed the greatest threat to humankind. "North Korea states that it has produced a nuclear weapon and that it will continue to proceed on that path," he said. "Iran seems to be moving in the same direction. If proliferation proceeds, it will adversely affect the security of nations across the globe."
If North Korea and Iran continued with their present programs, Mr McNamara predicted that in Asia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan would follow suit and in the Middle East, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria would also go nuclear.
He said that the five declared nuclear powers should be required to remove their nuclear forces from hair-trigger alert. Of the 6,000 strategic nuclear warheads deployed by the US, 2,000 were on hair-trigger alert, to be launched on 15 minutes' warning "by the decision of one man", the former Defense Secretary said.
In The Fog of War, he admitted that America had exaggerated the dangers it faced from the Communists of North Vietnam.
He also acknowledged that the US had underestimated the power of nationalism to motivate a people to fight and die for their beliefs; and had failed then, and since, to recognize the limitations of modern, high-technology weapons.
Mr McNamara became disillusioned by the lack of progress in the Vietnam War when he was still Defense Secretary after failing to persuade President Johnson to stop the bombing of North Vietnam. He left office in February 1968 and became the President of the World Bank.
Copyright 2005 Times Newspapers Ltd.
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1640132,00.html
###
also posted at www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0605-07.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Doug Rokke - Depleted Uranium Situation Requires Action'
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Depleted Uranium Situation Requires Action By President Bush and
Prime Minister Blair & U.S. Congress
FROM: Dr. Doug Rokke, Ph.D.,
Former Director of U.S. Army Depleted Uranium Project,
Former Gulf War 1 DU assessment team health physicist,
Confirmed DU casualty
June 2, 2005
[EXCERPT]
While U.S. and British military personnel continue using uranium munitions- America's and England's own "dirty bombs" U.S. Army, U.S. Department of Energy, and U.S. Department of Defense officials continue to deny that there are any adverse health and environmental effects as a consequence of the manufacture, testing, and/or use of uranium munitions to avoid liability for the willful and illegal dispersal of a radioactive toxic material - depleted uranium. They arrogantly refuse to comply with their own regulations, orders, and directives that require United States Department of Defense officials to provide prompt and effective medical care "all" exposed individuals [Medical Management of Unusual Depleted Uranium Casualties, DOD, Pentagon, 10/14/93, Medical Management of Army personnel Exposed to Depleted Uranium (DU) Headquarters, U.S. Army Medical Command 29 April 2004), and section 2-5 of AR 70-48].
They also refuse to clean up dispersed radioactive Contamination as required by Army Regulation- AR 700-48: "Management of Equipment Contaminated With Depleted Uranium or Radioactive Commodities" (Headquarters, Department Of The Army, Washington, D.C., September 2002) and U.S. Army Technical Bulletin- TB 9-1300-278: "Guidelines For Safe Response To Handling, Storage, And Transportation Accidents Involving Army Tank Munitions Or Armor Which Contain Depleted Uranium" (Headquarters, Department Of The Army, Washington, D.C., JULY 1996)..
..Therefore medical care must be provided by the United States Department of Defense officials to all individuals affected by the manufacturing, testing, and/or use of uranium munitions.
Thorough environmental remediation also must be completed without further delay.
I am amazed that fourteen years after I was asked to clean up the initial DU mess from Gulf War 1 and almost ten years since I finished the depleted uranium project that United States Department of Defense officials and many others still attempt to justify uranium munitions use while ignoring mandatory requirements. But beyond the ignored mandatory actions that the willful dispersal of tons of solid radioactive and chemically toxic waste in the form of uranium munitions just does not even pass the common sense test.
The President of the United States- George W. Bush and The Prime Minister of Great Britain-Tony Blair & U.S. Congress must acknowledge and accept responsibility for willful use of illegal uranium munitions- their own "dirty bombs"- resulting in adverse health and environmental effects.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - New Film - "Beyond Treason" -
Government Experimentation On Military & Civilian Populations
This film, 105 minutes reveals the U.S. Government's long history of experimenting on military troops and their own documents that prove it.
* Depleted Uranium Exposure
* Chemical & Biological Exposure
* Experimental Vaccinations
FEATURING:
Dr. Doug Rokke
Director of the U.S. Army
Depleted Uranium Project
Leuren Moret
Geological Scientist and
International Radiation Expert
Dennis Kyne
NBC Medical Specialist
Veteran's Advocate
Joyce Riley, RN BSN
Spokesperson, American Gulf
War Veterans Association
Bob Jones, SSGT RET.
Veteran - Op. Desert Storm
Mark Zeller, SSGT
Veteran - Op. Desert Storm
What causes Gulf War Illness?
(a.k.a. Gulf War Syndrome; Persian Gulf Illness)
Some believe these illnesses are caused by exposure to depleted uranium munitions used on the battlefield. Others believe chemical and biological exposures are the prime suspect. While yet an even larger group argue that experimental vaccines given to our troops, without their knowledge or consent, may have lead to the demise of many of these soldiers.
Is it a combination of overlapping exposures?
A growing number of scientists and respected experts in their fields have been coming forward to share their research and first-hand knowledge of official betrayal.
As ailing Gulf War Heroes from all 27 coalition countries slowly die of "unknown causes," they wait for answers from their respective governments but no satisfying or even credible answers have come forth from the military establishment. Records that span over a decade point to negligence and even culpability on the part of the U.S. Department of Defense and their "disposable army" mentality.
The VA has determined that 250,000 troops are now permanently disabled, 15,000 troops are dead and over 425,000 are ill and slowly dying from what the Department of Defense still calls a "mystery disease." How many more will have to die before action is taken?
This 105 minute film presents comprehensive and compelling documentation from United States Government archives of a massive cover-up lasting over two generations
Additional bonus CD-Rom contains thousands of pages of supporting documentation, which can be viewed from most any computer via an internet browser (Internet Explorer Recommended)
Hear the testimony of experts and of United States military veterans who demand answers to questions that the Department of Defense will not address
Produced & Written by
Joyce Riley & William Lewis
BEYOND TREASON
Directed by
William Lewis
TOTAL RUNNING TIME
WITH BONUS MATERIAL: 114 MINUTES
Theatrical trailer:
beyondtreason.com/media/beyond_treason.wmv
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - "The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium and the Dying children"
Another film on DU
by Freider Wagner and Valentin Thurn --
Produced by Ochowa-Film for WDR, 2004
This award-winning, 54-minute, German Public television documentary exposes uranium contamination on the streets of Baghdad. It documents and analyzes the use and health effects of uranium weapons in Gulf Wars I and II. Filmmakers followed on-the-scene investigations in Iraq by Dr. Siegwart Horst-Gunther, the German physician who first brought out hard evidence of the US use of so-called 'depleted' uranium (DU) weapons during the Gulf War, with Tedd Weyman, head of field investigations for the Uranium Medical Research Center. Filmmakers also interviewed the German researcher Axel Gerdes, who found DU contamination in the New York reservists tested by the NY Daily News, as reported in April and September, 2004.
This film will be presented on: June 14th. from 7:00 to 9:30, at the Unitarian Church on West Street in Rutland, VT. For more information see: www.uvpeaceandjustice.org
For more on this film and issue of DU, visit: traprockpeace.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Los Alamos Lab Whistleblower Beaten
By Deborah Baker
The Associated Press
Monday 06 June 2005
Santa Fe, NM - A Los Alamos lab whistleblower scheduled to testify before Congress about alleged financial irregularities was badly beaten outside a bar - an attack his wife and lawyer believe was designed to silence him.
Police and the FBI said that they were investigating the circumstances of the incident which, according to his wife, left Tommy Hook hospitalized Monday with a broken jaw and other injuries.
Police Deputy Chief Eric Johnson said officers found Hook after responding to a reported assault at the Cheeks Night Club about 2 a.m. Sunday. He provided few other details.
"We are working jointly with the FBI, trying to determine what may have happened and what the assault may have stemmed from," Johnson said. FBI spokesman Bill Elwell described the agency's inquiry as preliminary.
Hook's wife, Susan, alleged the assailants told her husband during the attack: "If you know what's good for you, you'll keep your mouth shut."
Tommy Hook and another whistleblower sued the University of California in March, alleging that after they uncovered management failures, university and lab managers tried to make their jobs miserable so they would quit.
Hook, a former internal auditor who now works at another job at the lab, had been scheduled to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee later this month.
According to Susan Hook, her husband received a call late Saturday from someone wanting to meet with him at a bar. She said her husband told her the man never showed up, but that as he was leaving the parking lot, a group of men pulled him from his car and beat him.
"They left him in the parking lot for dead," said Tommy Hook's lawyer, Robert Rothstein.
Rothstein said the assailants didn't take Hook's wallet, other personal belongings or car. Without any other motive, it appears the beating was related to his whistleblowing, Rothstein contended.
Susan Hook said her husband did not frequent bars.
Los Alamos lab spokesman Kevin Roark called the beating a "senseless and brutal act and should not be tolerated."
The lab and UC also issued a joint statement decrying the violence. "Director (Robert) Kuckuck, the University of California and the laboratory believe that any form of physical violence toward an individual is unacceptable," the statement read.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/06/AR2005060601717.html
also posted
www.truthout.org/docs_2005/060705Z.shtml
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Downing Impeachment Memo * Bolivia Indigenous
07 June 2005
"It's amazing to me the way it [Downing Street memo]
escaped major media discussion. It's not being missed
on the Internet, I can tell you that."
Senator John Kerry
1) Downing Street Minutes Squeezes in Meet the Press
- - False freedom is very expensive
- - Kerry Touts Bush Impeachment Memo
- - John BOLTON and the Downing Street memo scandal
- - Take Back America 2005 with Bill Moyers
- - Late Friday Media Trick: Pentagon Admits Koran Abuse
- - Shut Down Guantnamo
- - US running "archipelago" of prisoners around the world
2) Indigenous Mass Protest for Bolivia democracy
Editor's Notes:
A backlog is beginning - too much news to absorb and act on - yet we must continue to connect the dots. Even if humankind doesn't survive into this Century, we can go down with some integrity left. This issue is on the best hard evidence yet for impeachment of George W. Bush. Okay, let's not hold our breath, but inevitably,.. with evidence on 9/11 and other issues pending, the truth will set us all free. The second item is a mass upising in Bolivia, trying to keep resources in the care of its people, and not the IMF-Oil-terrorist-producing-suppressing policies!
In forthcoming issues we will return to the nuclear question, and on the American justice system where US tyranny doesn't just reign abroad, but in our very communities, especially that of minority races. Also, forthcoming, will be an update from Bart Jordan. After six years of researching this unique gem of a human being, his claims continue to stand up to scrutiny of his deciphering ancient languages that reveal advanced humans more than 100,000 years ago. Bart Jordan had been secretly working with NASA and the US government in sharing this knowledge, but not really until the Cassini Earth flyby has he had surfaced publically, and in his next posting, expected within a month, he will add more credibility to his claims. For now, please keep refreshed, visit FN's updated page for links, references, and resources on Bart Jordan and evidence of technologically advanced ancient civilizations.
Please note - Flyby News will be tabling at the following festivals:
Better World Festival - Northampton, MA - June 18 - 19, 2005 at the Three County Fairgrounds, please join the launch of a new, national event tour. Better World Productions, a company dedicated to celebrating the people, products and ideas that are improving our lives and changing the world, will kick-off their national eight city tour in Northampton. For people of all ages that are interested in making a positive impact on the world and creating personally fulfilling lives, Better World Festival will feature four stages with 60 live performances, lectures and workshop and over 100 vendors. Approximately 15,000 people are expected to attend this inaugural event. For more information, visit - BetterWorldFestival.com
SolarFest 2005 -- New England Renewable Energy Festival - July 16, and 17 - From Middletown Springs to Green Mountain College and back...almost. SolarFest's new home is on Forget-Me-Not Farm in Tinmouth, Vermont, as beautiful and Green a place as you might hope to find. SolarFest is a nonprofit organization with 501(c)(3) status. Its mission is to educate people about renewable energy by engaging the community through the performing arts. Since its inception in 1995, SolarFest has built a reputation for promoting artistic excellence and community-building, and has raised more than a few eyebrows when people realize that our entire weekend festival is run on solar energy. For details and updated information, visit SolarFest.org
If you can't make these events, please consider helping Flyby News post flyers, send your snail mail address to info@flybynews.com and please contact us if you are a performer and can contribute a performance to helps raise funds and awareness. And of course, any financial donation will be greatly appreciated; and used on expenses for maintaining FlybyNews.com and Campaigns!
Thanks for any support for independent news!
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380
{For donations of $10 ~ we will send you a FlybyNews art decal.}
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought,
but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
Albert Einstein
1) Downing Street Minutes Squeezes in Meet the Press
- - False freedom is very expensive.
- - Kerry Touts Bush Impeachment Memo
- - John BOLTON and the Downing Street memo scandal
- - Take Back America 2005 with Bill Moyers
- - Late Friday Media Trick: Pentagon Admits Koran Abuse
- - Shut Down Guantnamo
- - US running "archipelago" of prisoners around the world
- - Chair of Republican Party Put at a Loss by Downing Street Minutes
By David Swanson, www.afterdowningstreet.org
On June 5, 2005, Ken Mehlman, Chairman of the Republican Party, was asked about the Downing Street Minutes on "NBC News' Meet the Press."
To my knowledge, this was the first serious treatment of the matter on any U.S. network news show. It still remains for a news program to report on the matter on its own behalf, as opposed to asking a Republican guest to comment on it.
The transcript is here: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8062380 and below with commentary:
MR. RUSSERT: Let me turn to the now-famous Downing Street memo. This was a memo, July 23, 2002, from the head of British intelligence to Prime Minister Blair; in effect, notes taken from a briefing that was given to Prime Minister Blair after the head of British intelligence came back from a trip to Washington. It says this: "[The head of British Intelligence] reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, though military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."
This is July of 2002. We didn't invade until March of 2003. And the prime minister of Great Britain is being told by the head of his intelligence that he went to Washington and believes that a decision had already been made and that the administration was fixing or manipulating the intelligence to support the policy.
MR. MEHLMAN: Tim, that report has been discredited by everyone else who's looked at it since then. Whether it's the 911 Commission, whether it's the Senate, whoever's looked at this has said there was no effort to change the intelligence at all.
[Mehlman is pretending to claim that these bodies have investigated the Downing Street Minutes and discredited them, while really claiming that these bodies discredited the idea that the Bush administration cooked the intelligence to fit its desired policy. This amounts to claiming that a new piece of evidence can be dismissed on the grounds of what authorities allegedly concluded PRIOR TO discovering the new evidence. This is absurd.]
The fact is that the intelligence of this country, the intelligence of Britain, the intelligence of the United Nations, the intelligence all over the world said that there were weapons of mass destruction present in Iraq.
[With regard to the United States and Britain, the whole point is to determine whether their "intelligence" was dishonest. The United Nations certainly never agreed with it; nor did "the world." The United Nations rejected the evidence presented by the United States, and worldwide opposition to the war was more powerful than ever before in history much of it focused on the belief that the Bush Administration was lying.]
We knew that Saddam Hussein had used weapons of mass destruction before.
[Because we sold them to him.]
We still know that there was a weapons of mass destruction program.
[When? Just before the war? Or a program in some past year that had long since been dismantled? The former claim would be a lie, the latter an irrelevance.]
He was evading the sanctions, and he had plans to reconstitute the program.
[Actually, of course, he had complied with the sanctions and informed the world of that fact, and complied with investigations.]
We also knew that Saddam Hussein had uniquely invaded his neighbors, had uniquely supported terrorists and we all know today that we are safer because he's been removed from power.
[Actually, there is nothing unique about invading one's neighbors. Just ask Haiti. Hussein did not support Al Quaeda in any way. That lie has been endlessly debunked. And terrorist incidents have increased since the war started which more of us would know if the Bush Administration had not ceased releasing annual statistics on the matter. In any event, the over 1600 US soldiers and 100,000 Iraqis who have been killed are not safer they're not anything.]
So I believe that that individual report not only has been discredited
[by whom? when? where? on what grounds?]
but that the overall reasons for removing Saddam Hussein were broader than that, they were correct, and we're now safer and certainly the people of Iraq are safer now that Saddam Hussein has been removed from power.
[For the points of view of some actual Iraqis on this, see www.uslaboragainstwar.org ]
MR. RUSSERT: I don't believe that the authenticity of this report has been discredited.
MR. MEHLMAN: I believe that the findings of the report, the fact that the intelligence was somehow fixed have been totally discredited by everyone who's looked at it.
[Again, he means PRIOR TO emergence of this piece of evidence a dubious assertion in itself.]
MR. RUSSERT: There--let me go back to another sentence from that report. "There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action." Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, now head of the World Bank, said the other day, "The war never ended," and the concern many Americans have, Mr. Mehlman, is that we now have 1,669 Americans who've died bravely in Iraq, 1,532 of those after the president said major combat operations were over. We have 12,762 Americans wounded or injured, 12,000 of those after the president said major combat was over. This memo seems to suggest that the head of British Intelligence told Prime Minister Blair that there was little discussion in Washington to plan for the aftermath of military action.
MR. MEHLMAN: I would respectfully disagree with that finding. I think that there was clearly planning that occurred, planning that occurred to deal with the results of the war. If you remember after the first Gulf War, whether it was the breaching of the dams that we saw all over Iraq, that didn't happen. Whether it was the fires that we saw, that didn't happen this past time. Plans were made for after the war. There's no question that there has been an insurgency. The insurgents understand the stakes of the situation in Iraq. They understand that if we're successful, their efforts to promote terrorism around the world, their efforts to defeat democracy and freedom will be hurt. And there's no question-- therefore, we need to deal with these insurgents.
[Plans were clearly made to safeguard the oil, but that hardly addresses Russert's citation of figures of deaths. Nor does Mehlman give any explanation of what in the heck he means by suggesting that Iraqis resisting the occupation are trying to "promote terrorism around the world."]
But the president has mentioned repeatedly that he thinks every day about it and meets with the families of the men and women who have given their lives in Iraq.
[Meets with them every day? How many families has he met with? More than one? Clearly he has not met with members of Gold Star Families for Peace or Iraqi Veterans Against the War or Military Families Speak Out or Military Families Against the War or Veterans for Peace. These organizations are working to end the war and are almost certainly not comforted to hear that Bush thinks about "it."]
They've given their lives for an incredibly noble cause.
[Oil?]
We did plan for the future. There are some things you can plan for. There are some things that are harder to plan for, but I believe we're doing a very important mission in Iraq, which is defeating the terrorists, promoting democracy and you've seen throughout this spring what the effects of that democracy have been in other Arab nations.
[Again, the reference to "terrorists" appears to be an attempt to dishonestly connect Iraq to 9-11. Saudi Arabia, the home of most of the 9-11 terrorists, is a US ally and the furthest thing from a democracy.]
MR. RUSSERT: The primary rationale given for the war, however, was the elimination of weapons of mass destruction. And again I refer you to the memo of the prime minister's meeting. "It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than half that of Libya, North Korea and Iran."
MR. MEHLMAN: Well, the president, I think, was responsible in saying we need to simultaneously prepare for war and also try to avoid that war.
[But we now have official government minutes showing that he was not doing that. He was only telling us that he was doing that. He was lying to the American people and to Congress.]
There were simultaneous efforts at the diplomatic stages that were made and yet at the same time it would have been irresponsible for us to say we're going to wait and then plan for war later because we wouldn't have had as effective an effort as we did to remove Saddam Hussein from power, so we needed to do both at the same time.
[The point is not that the Pentagon was planning how it would fight a war if it had to do so, but that Bush had already determined to go to war and to lie about why it was necessary.]
I would also, though, disagree, as I said a moment ago, with the notion that Iraq was somehow less of a threat. Iran and North Korea hadn't invaded their neighbors. Iran and North Korea hadn't used weapons of mass destruction. Iran and North Korea hadn't, in the same way that Saddam Hussein had, been paying off suicide bombers in Israel and in the Palestinian territories. Iran and North Korea are serious challenges. So was Saddam Hussein, and removing him makes the world safer, makes America safer.
[So, the chairman of the Republican Party is better qualified than top intelligence officials to rank the members of the "axis of evil"? Why, then was the bogus justification for attacking Iraq its fictional pursuit of nuclear weapons? Meanwhile North Korea's actual possession of such weapons was not considered a danger? Please. And the comments about Iraq invading neighbors are out of place. Iraq was not threatening to invade anyone. The United States invaded Iraq while pretending that Iraq was threatening the United States. In the past, if the past is relevant, the United States has invaded far more countries than Iraq has.]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The URL for this story is: www.afterdowningstreet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=50
David Swanson
AfterDowningStreet.org
david@davidswanson.org
202-329-7847
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - False freedom is very expensive
The criminals foisted a Lie of Historic Proportions on the world.
By Cindy Sheehan
The evidence is overwhelming, compelling, and alarming
that George and his indecent bandits traitorously had
intelligence fabricated to fit their goal of invading Iraq.
For the complete article, see:
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9069.htm
or snipurl.com/fedx
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kerry Touts Bush Impeachment Memo
Published by NewsMax.com
Friday, June 3, 2005 12:02 a.m. EDT
Failed presidential candidate John Kerry said Thursday that he intends to confront Congress with a document touted by critics of President Bush as evidence that he committed impeachable crimes by falsifying evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
"When I go back [to Washington] on Monday, I am going to raise the issue," Kerry said, referring to the Downing Street Memo in an interview with Massachusetts' Standard Times newspaper.
"I think it's a stunning, unbelievably simple and understandable statement of the truth and a profoundly important document that raises stunning issues here at home," the top Democrat added. The Downing Street Memo, first reported on May 1 by the London Times, was drafted by a Matthew Rycroft, a foreign policy aide to Prime Minister Tony Blair. It is said to be minutes of a July 2002 meeting where Blair allegedly admitted that the Bush administration "fixed" Iraq intelligence to manufacture a rationale for war.
Citing the Downing Street Memo, former presidential candidate Ralph Nader called for an impeachment investigation on Tuesday in an op-ed piece published by the Boston Globe.
"It is time for Congress to investigate the illegal Iraq war as we move toward the third year of the endless quagmire that many security experts believe jeopardizes US safety by recruiting and training more terrorists," wrote Nader with co-author Kevin Zeese. "A Resolution of Impeachment would be a first step."
The British memo, however, contains no quotes from either Bush or Blair, and is notably slim on evidence implicating Bush in a WMD cover-up.
Though largely ignored in the U.S. outside of rabid anti-Bush Web sites like MichaelMoore.com, the Downing Street Memo won Sen. Kerry's endorsement in the Standard Times interview:
"It's amazing to me," the top Democrat said, "the way it escaped major media discussion. It's not being missed on the Internet, I can tell you that."
www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/6/3/00901.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - John BOLTON and the Downing Street memo scandal
From: "The Pen"
STOP JOHN BOLTON AND HIS IRAQ WAR LIES
By now you know from The Downing Street memo that the very highest officials of the British government said there was no just cause for war against Iraq, and that "the facts and intelligence" were "being fixed around the policy" by the U.S. to force it to happen anyway. That was 1600 American deaths, over 10,000 grievously wounded, and 300 billion missing from our treasury ago.
But now also consider that in the run up to the Iraq it was John Bolton who was PERSONALLY responsible for creating a fact sheet for the U.N. and the media containing known lies about Iraq seeking yellow cake uranium from Niger. And of course, we also know from the Senate hearings that John Bolton repeatedly manipulated intelligence, intimidating his own staffers to do so.
Put it all together and you see Bolton was one of the key players who put in the very intelligence "fix" referred to in the Downing Street memo. Then tell your senators again that this standing alone must preclude his confirmation as U.N. ambassador.
www.usalone.com/bolton.htm -
Please take action at above link, let others know, fight back!
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Take Back America 2005 with Bill Moyers
'Writing the History of the Revolution is Now Up to You'
by Bill Moyers
Take Back America: The Conference for America's Future,
sponsored by the Institute for America's Future, in Washington, D.C.
Friday, June 3, 2005
It's good to be with you again. Your passion for democracy is inspiring and your enthusiasm contagious. I can't imagine a more exuberant gathering today except possibly at the K Street branch of the Masters of the Universe where they are celebrating their coup at the Securities and Exchange Commission
The complete transcript of the speech delivered, see
on June can be found at www.ourfuure.org/projects/national_conference/2005/index.cfw
For the text published by CommonDreams.org of the prepared text, see:
www.commondreams.org/views05/0606-21.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Late Friday Media Trick: Pentagon Admits Koran Abuse
The Old Late Friday Media Trick: Pentagon Admits Koran Abuse
Published on Saturday, June 4, 2005 by the Associated Press
[Excerpts]
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon on Friday released new details about mishandling of the Quran at the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects, confirming that a soldier deliberately kicked the Muslim holy book and that an interrogator stepped on a Quran and was later fired for "a pattern of unacceptable behavior."
In other confirmed incidents, a guard's urine came through an air vent and splashed on a detainee and his Quran; water balloons thrown by prison guards caused an unspecified number of Qurans to get wet; and in a confirmed but ambiguous case, a two-word obscenity was written in English on the inside cover of a Quran.
The findings, released after normal business hours Friday evening, are among the results of an investigation last month by Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, the commander of the detention center in Cuba, that was triggered by a Newsweek magazine report--later retracted--that a U.S. soldier had flushed one Guantanamo Bay detainee's Quran down a toilet.
There are about 540 detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Some have been there more than three years without being charged with a crime. Most were captured on the battlefields of Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002 and were sent to Guantanamo Bay in hope of extracting useful intelligence about the al-Qaida terrorist network.
Both President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld have denounced an Amnesty International report that called the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay "the gulag of our time."
The president told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday that the report by the human-rights group was "absurd."
On Wednesday, Rumsfeld called the characterization "reprehensible" and said the U.S. military had taken care to ensure that detainees were free to practice their religion. However, he also acknowledged that some detainees had been mistreated, even "grievously" at times.
The complete article is posted:
www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000946520
or
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0604-01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Shut Down Guantnamo
From center for constitutional rights < ccr@democracyinaction.org >
It's time to shut down the prison camp at Guantnamo Bay once and for all. Guantnamo has become a symbol world-wide of the Bush Administration's arrogant disregard for the most basic of human rights. In a hard-hitting editorial on Sunday, June 5, The New York Times wrote: "The best thing Washington can now do about this national shame is to shut it down. It is a propaganda gift to America's enemies; an embarrassment to our allies; a damaging repudiation of the American justice system; and a highly effective recruiting tool for Islamic radicals, including future terrorists."*
Please write your representatives in Congress and the members of the Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees and tell them to shut down Guantnamo and either try the remaining 540 detainees in a court of law or release them.
The Center for Constitutional Rights has led the fight against the detentions at Guantnamo Bay.
To find out more about this and other issues and actions, visit ccr-ny.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - US running " archipelago" of prisoners around the world
Amnesty official says US running " archipelago" of prisoners around the world:
"The United States is maintaining an archipelago of prisons around the world, many of them secret prisons into which people are being literally disappeared and in some cases, at least, we know that they are being mistreated, abused, tortured and even killed," he said.
For the complete article, see:
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9063.htm
snipurl.com/fdmw
2) Indigenous Mass Protest for Bolivia democracy
Mass Protests Continue in Bolivia
Democracy Now! - Headlines for June 3, 2005
Mass Protests Continue in Bolivia Massive protests continue to spread across Latin America's poorest country, Bolivia. Late yesterday, the embattled US-backed president, Carlos Mesa, signed an emergency decree ordering a referendum on greater autonomy for the richest area of the country and a vote in mid-October to elect members for an assembly to rewrite the constitution. Mesa made the announcement late yesterday after the country's Congress failed to reach a consensus for the third day in a row and with indigenous-led protests raging in the streets of La Paz, bringing the capital to a standstill.
The protests have cut off the capital from the airport and blockades have shut down two-thirds of the country's highways.
Meanwhile, the Bolivian Foreign Ministry rejected what it called "international mediation" after the US State Department said Bolivia would be discussed at the Organization of American States general assembly next week. Riot police armed with tear gas continue to guard Congress and protests have spread to other areas in the country. Jim Shultz of the Democracy Center in Cochabamba reports that there are rumors of a coup in the air and said the protests "show all the signs of growing more intense and bold in their willingness to shut the country down."
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/03/1337216=
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - Why is Bolivia in turmoil?
By James Painter
BBC regional analyst
Published by BBC NEWS: 2005/06/03 09:33:07 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/4604173.stm
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
9/11 Lies Uncovered * Phil Berg - European Tour
25 May 2005
"..far from lessening my suspicions about official complicity,
[the 9/11 Commission Report] has served to confirm them.
Why would the minds in charge of this final report engage in
such deception if they were not trying to cover up very high crimes?"
David Ray Griffin
{"The 9/11 Commission Report: A 571-Page Lie"}
1) The 9/11 Commission Report: A 571-Page Lie -- David Ray Griffin
2) European Tour: Re-Open 911 Investigations Campaign
Editor's Notes:
Item one is a new article by Dr. David Ray Griffin, which lists over 100 lies in the official 9/11 Commission report. This is based on the information uncovered in Dr. Griffin's newest book, The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions. The second item includes a press release regarding Attorney Phillip Berg, who has joined forces with "..multi-millionaire Jimmy Walter, an American currently living in Europe, for a seven country/eight city tour, after conducting research with a team of experts on the attacks on the Pentagon and the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. The research team uncovered some very disturbing facts that cannot be reconciled with the information provided by the U.S. government and media. Berg has a RICO [Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations] Act lawsuit pending against President Bush, Vice President Cheney and 54 other defendants for: 1) foreknowledge of 911; 2) failure to warn; 3) failure to prevent; and cover- up."
1) The 9/11 Commission Report: A 571-Page Lie -- David Ray Griffin
The 9/11 Commission Report: A 571-Page Lie
by Dr. David Ray Griffin
In discussing my second 9/11 book, The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions, I have often said, only half in jest, that a better title might have been "a 571-page lie." (Actually, I was saying "a 567-page lie," because I was forgetting to count the four pages of the Preface.) In making this statement, one of my points has been that the entire Report is constructed in support of one big lie: that the official story about 9/11 is true.
Another point, however, is that in the process of telling this overall lie, The 9/11 Commission Report tells many lies about particular issues. This point is implied by my critique's subtitle, "Omissions and Distortions." It might be thought, to be sure, that of the two types of problems signaled by those two terms, only those designated "distortions" can be considered lies.
It is better, however, to understand the two terms as referring to two types of lies: implicit and explicit. We have an explicit lie when the Report claims that the core of each of the Twin Towers consisted of a hollow steel shaft or when it claims that Vice President Cheney did not give the shoot-down order until after 10:10 that morning. But we have an implicit lie when the Commission, in its discussion of the 19 alleged suicide hijackers, omits the fact that at least six of them have credibly been reported to be still alive, or when it fails to mention the fact that Building 7 of the World Trade Center collapsed. Such omissions are implicit lies partly because they show that the Commission did not honor its stated intention "to provide the fullest possible account of the events surrounding 9/11." They are also lies insofar as the Commission could avoid telling an explicit lie about the issue in question only by not mentioning it, which, I believe, was the case in at least most instances.
Given these two types of lies, it might be wondered how many lies are contained in The 9/11 Commission Report. I do not know. But, deciding to see how many lies I had discussed in my book, I found that I had identified over 100 of them. Once I had made the list, it occurred to me that others might find this summary helpful. Hence this article.
One caveat: Although in some of the cases it is obvious that the Commission has lied, in other cases I would say, as I make clear in the book, that it appears that the Commission has lied. However, in the interests of simply giving a brief listing of claims that I consider to be lies, I will ignore this distinction between obvious and probable lies, leaving it to readers, if they wish, to look up the discussion in The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions. For ease in doing this, I have parenthetically indicated the pages of the book on which the various issues are discussed.
Given this clarification, I now list the omissions and claims of The 9/11 Commission Report that I, in my critique of that report, portrayed as lies:
1. The omission of evidence that at least six of the alleged hijackers---including Waleed al-Shehri, said by the Commission probably to have stabbed a flight attendant on Flight 11 before it crashed into the North Tower of the WTC---are still alive (19-20).
2. The omission of evidence about Mohamed Atta---such as his reported fondness for alcohol, pork, and lap dances---that is in tension with the Commission's claim that he had become fanatically religious (20-21).
3. The obfuscation of the evidence that Hani Hanjour was too poor a pilot to have flown an airliner into the Pentagon (21-22).
4. The omission of the fact that the publicly released flight manifests contain no Arab names (23).
5. The omission of the fact that fire has never, before or after 9/11, caused steel-frame buildings to collapse (25).
6. The omission of the fact that the fires in the Twin Towers were not very big, very hot, or very long-lasting compared with fires in several steel-frame buildings that did not collapse (25-26).
7. The omission of the fact that, given the hypothesis that the collapses were caused by fire, the South Tower, which was struck later than the North Tower and also had smaller fires, should not have collapsed first (26).
8. The omission of the fact that WTC 7 (which was not hit by an airplane and which had only small, localized fires) also collapsed---an occurrence that FEMA admitted it could not explain (26).
9. The omission of the fact that the collapse of the Twin Towers (like that of Building 7) exemplified at least 10 features suggestive of controlled demolition (26-27).
10. The claim that the core of each of the Twin Towers was "a hollow steel shaft"---a claim that denied the existence of the 47 massive steel columns that in reality constituted the core of each tower and that, given the "pancake theory" of the collapses, should have still been sticking up many hundreds of feet in the air (27-28).
11. The omission of Larry Silverstein's statement that he and the fire department commander decided to "pull" Building 7 (28).
12. The omission of the fact that the steel from the WTC buildings was quickly removed from the crime scene and shipped overseas before it could be analyzed for evidence of explosives (30).
13. The omission of the fact that because Building 7 had been evacuated before it collapsed, the official reason for the rapid removal of the steel---that some people might still be alive in the rubble under the steel---made no sense in this case (30).
14. The omission of Mayor Giuliani's statement that he had received word that the World Trade Center was going to collapse (30-31).
15. The omission of the fact that President Bush's brother Marvin and his cousin Wirt Walker III were both principals in the company in charge of security for the WTC (31-32).
16. The omission of the fact that the west wing of the Pentagon would have been the least likely spot to be targeted by al-Qaeda terrorists, for several reasons (33-34).
17. The omission of any discussion of whether the damage done to the Pentagon was consistent with the impact of a Boeing 757 going several hundred miles per hour (34).
18. The omission of the fact that there are photos showing that the west wing's faade did not collapse until 30 minutes after the strike and also that the entrance hole appears too small for a Boeing 757 to have entered (34).
19. The omission of all testimony that has been used to cast doubt on whether remains of a Boeing 757 were visible either inside or outside the Pentagon (34-36).
20. The omission of any discussion of whether the Pentagon has a anti-missile defense system that would have brought down a commercial airliner---even though the Commission suggested that the al-Qaeda terrorists did not attack a nuclear power plant because they assumed that it would be thus defended (36).
21. The omission of the fact that pictures from various security cameras---including the camera at the gas station across from the Pentagon, the film from which was reportedly confiscated by the FBI immediately after the strike---could presumably answer the question of what really hit the Pentagon (37-38).
22. The omission of Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld's reference to "the missile [used] to damage [the Pentagon]" (39).
23. The apparent endorsement of a wholly unsatisfactory answer to the question of why the Secret Service agents allowed President Bush to remain at the Sarasota school at a time when, given the official story, they should have assumed that a hijacked airliner might be about to crash into the school (41-44).
24. The failure to explore why the Secret Service did not summon fighter jets to provide air cover for Air Force One (43-46).
25. The claims that when the presidential party arrived at the school, no one in the party knew that several planes had been hijacked (47-48).
26. The omission of the report that Attorney General Ashcroft was warned to stop using commercial airlines prior to 9/11 (50).
27. The omission of David Schippers' claim that he had, on the basis of information provided by FBI agents about upcoming attacks in lower Manhattan, tried unsuccessfully to convey this information to Attorney General Ashcroft during the six weeks prior to 9/11 (51).
28. The omission of any mention of the FBI agents who reportedly claimed to have known the targets and dates of the attacks well in advance (51-52).
29. The claim, by means of a circular, question-begging rebuttal, that the unusual purchases of put options prior to 9/11 did not imply advance knowledge of the attacks on the part of the buyers (52-57).
30. The omission of reports that both Mayor Willie Brown and some Pentagon officials received warnings about flying on 9/11 (57).
31. The omission of the report that Osama bin Laden, who already was America's "most wanted" criminal, was treated in July 2001 by an American doctor in the American Hospital in Dubai and visited by the local CIA agent (59).
32. The omission of news stories suggesting that after 9/11 the US military in Afghanistan deliberately allowed Osama bin Laden to escape (60).
33. The omission of reports, including the report of a visit to Osama bin Laden at the hospital in Dubai by the head of Saudi intelligence, that were in tension with the official portrayal of Osama as disowned by his family and his country (60-61).
34. The omission of Gerald Posner's account of Abu Zubaydah's testimony, according to which three members of the Saudi royal family---all of whom later died mysteriously within an eight-day period---were funding al-Qaeda and had advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks (61-65).
35. The Commission's denial that it found any evidence of Saudi funding of al-Qaeda (65-68).
36. The Commission's denial in particular that it found any evidence that money from Prince Bandar's wife, Princess Haifa, went to al-Qaeda operatives (69-70).
37. The denial, by means of simply ignoring the distinction between private and commercial flights, that the private flight carrying Saudis from Tampa to Lexington on September 13 violated the rules for US airspace in effect at the time (71-76).
38. The denial that any Saudis were allowed to leave the United States shortly after 9/11 without being adequately investigated (76-82).
39. The omission of evidence that Prince Bandar obtained special permission from the White House for the Saudi flights (82-86).
40. The omission of Coleen Rowley's claim that some officials at FBI headquarters did see the memo from Phoenix agent Kenneth Williams (89-90).
41. The omission of Chicago FBI agent Robert Wright's charge that FBI headquarters closed his case on a terrorist cell, then used intimidation to prevent him from publishing a book reporting his experiences (91).
42. The omission of evidence that FBI headquarters sabotaged the attempt by Coleen Rowley and other Minneapolis agents to obtain a warrant to search Zacarias Moussaoui's computer (91-94).
43. The omission of the 3.5 hours of testimony to the Commission by former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds-testimony that, according to her later public letter to Chairman Kean, revealed serious 9/11-related cover-ups by officials at FBI headquarters (94-101).
44. The omission of the fact that General Mahmoud Ahmad, the head of Pakistan's intelligence agency (the ISI), was in Washington the week prior to 9/11, meeting with CIA chief George Tenet and other US officials (103-04).
45. The omission of evidence that ISI chief Ahmad had ordered $100,000 to be sent to Mohamed Atta prior to 9/11 (104-07).
46. The Commission's claim that it found no evidence that any foreign government, including Pakistan, had provided funding for the al-Qaeda operatives (106).
47. The omission of the report that the Bush administration pressured Pakistan to dismiss Ahmad as ISI chief after the appearance of the story that he had ordered ISI money sent to Atta (107-09).
48. The omission of evidence that the ISI (and not merely al-Qaeda) was behind the assassination of Ahmad Shah Masood (the leader of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance), which occurred just after the week-long meeting between the heads of the CIA and the ISI (110-112).
49. The omission of evidence of ISI involvement in the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Reporter Daniel Pearl (113).
50. The omission of Gerald Posner's report that Abu Zubaydah claimed that a Pakistani military officer, Mushaf Ali Mir, was closely connected to both the ISI and al-Qaeda and had advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks (114).
51. The omission of the 1999 prediction by ISI agent Rajaa Gulum Abbas that the Twin Towers would be "coming down" (114).
52. The omission of the fact that President Bush and other members of his administration repeatedly spoke of the 9/11 attacks as "opportunities" (116-17).
53. The omission of the fact that The Project for the New American Century, many members of which became key figures in the Bush administration, published a document in 2000 saying that "a new Pearl Harbor" would aid its goal of obtaining funding for a rapid technological transformation of the US military (117-18).
54. The omission of the fact that Donald Rumsfeld, who as head of the commission on the US Space Command had recommended increased funding for it, used the attacks of 9/11 on that very evening to secure such funding (119-22).
55. The failure to mention the fact that three of the men who presided over the failure to prevent the 9/11 attacks-Secretary Rumsfeld, General Richard Myers, and General Ralph Eberhart---were also three of the strongest advocates for the US Space Command (122).
[For numbers 56 - 114, see complete article link at end]
115. The failure of the Commission, while bragging that it presented its final report "without dissent," to point out that this was probably possible only because Max Cleland, the commissioner who was most critical of the White House and swore that he would not be part of "looking at information only partially," had to resign in order to accept a position with the Export-Import Bank, and that the White House forwarded his nomination for this position only after he was becoming quite outspoken in his criticisms (290-291).
I will close by pointing out that I concluded my study of what I came to call "the Kean-Zelikow Report" by writing that it, "far from lessening my suspicions about official complicity, has served to confirm them. Why would the minds in charge of this final report engage in such deception if they were not trying to cover up very high crimes?" (291)
-- David Ray Griffin
Link to the complete article and original posting:
www.septembereleventh.org/newsarchive/2005-05-22-571pglie.php
For a DVD of Dr. Griffin's C-Span appearance:
www.septembereleventh.org/donations
2) European Tour: Re-Open 911 Investigations Campaign
Posting to International Wire of Scoop
Press Release: UnansweredQuestions.org
Date: Friday, 20 May 2005
European Tour: Re-Open 911 Investigations Campaign
Lafayette Hill Attorney Joins 7 European Country Tour
With Multi Millionaire As They Start the Re-Open
9-11 Investigations Campaign
AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, May 19, 2005
PHILIP J. BERG, Esquire, a Lafayette Hill, PA attorney, joined multi-millionaire Jimmy Walter, an American currently living in Europe, for a seven country/eight city tour, after conducting research with a team of experts on the attacks on the Pentagon and the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. The research team uncovered some very disturbing facts that cannot be reconciled with the information provided by the U.S. government and media.
Berg has a RICO [Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations] Act lawsuit pending against President Bush, Vice President Cheney and 54 other defendants for: 1) foreknowledge of 911; 2) failure to warn; 3) failure to prevent; and cover- up. (Recall that Nixon went down on cover-up alone.) Federal Judge Robreno just issued an Order transferring the case [Rodriguez vs. Bush, 04-cv-4952] from Philadelphia to Federal Court in New York.
Berg's client, William Rodriguez, is also on the tour. Rodriguez is a 911 hero who rescued many victims from the WTC, where he was a janitor in the North Tower; he accompanied firemen up the fire tower and let them onto the floors with a master key. For his acts of heroism, President Bush honored Rodriguez at the White House. Later, however, he realized that the 'official' story is a lie. Rodriguez heard 'explosions' in the North Tower before the building fell, confirming the 2+ Richter scale seismic recordings prior to the fall of each tower. Rodriguez was the last person out of the North Tower and is alive today because he dove under a fire truck. Like thousands of others, he still suffers from health problems brought on by the unhealthy conditions at the WTC (disproving another Bush administration claim: EPA Administrator Christy Todd Whitman came to the WTC site on 9/13/01 and said all was well).
At a Press Conference in Amsterdam on May 18th, attorney Berg stated, 'Bush and his cronies either made 911 happen or let it happen. If they let it happen, then they made it happen; and they must he held accountable.'
Berg continued, 'It is very difficult for many to believe that the U.S. government could be involved. However, I draw your attention to 'Operation Northwoods,' a 1962 documented plan that has now been declassified, in which the joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. military called for the military to destroy American property and to injure and kill American citizens, blaming it on Cuba, in order to win support for a war against Cuba. President John F. Kennedy said No.' If you change the words from Cuba to Iraq, you have the same situation.'
Berg concluded: 'I know many of you recall Golfer Payne Stewart. His plane was off course and fighter jets were called out to check on Stewart's plane -- as fighter jets did 62 times in the year prior to 911. They saw no evidence of life and followed it to South Dakota, where it crashed. Likewise just a week ago, on May 11, 2005, when a small plane wandered off course toward the White House, it was intercepted within minutes by fighter planes. Now, question Where were the fighter jets on 911? They had about an hour to intercept an airliner that had left its flight path and was heading for Washington D.C. But they never even made it into the air before the Pentagon crash.'
Together with a panel of scientists and journalists who support the investigation, Jimmy Walter will tour through major cities in Europe for panel discussions. The aim of the tour is to point out new non-truths with regard to the investigation as spread by the media directly after the attacks, and to raise awareness about the topic and plan to launch a 'true' 911 investigation. The tour will begin in Amsterdam on May 20th.
Philip J. Berg, Esquire, Jimmy Walter and William Rodriguez are available for radio and TV appearances and interviews. Two tours will be conducted, with William Rodriguez on RED team, Philip J. Berg, Esq. on BLUE team, and Jimmy Walter on both tours.
Check for the schedule and details of tour for speaking engagements in: Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, London, Madrid, Vienna, Manchester and Rome.
www.reopen911.org
www.911forthetruth.com
For further information, please call
Marlies van Kasteel: tel +31-(0) 6-14-54-39-52
or
Absolutely Independent on:
+31-(0) 20-4905-200 or e-mail: info@absolutely.nl
When applicable, travel costs for Press can be reimbursed upon request
# # #
For Further Information, contact:
Philip J. Berg, Esquire
706 Ridge Pike
Lafayette Hill, PA 19444
(610) 825-3134
or by e-mail at:
pjblaw@aol.com or philjberg@aol.com
as Phil is now on tour.
The entire article (with tour dates and details) is posted at
www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0505/S00326.htm
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Iraq Coming Apart * Galloway * Actions 4 Peace
24 May 2005
"Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out
to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American
soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded,
many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies.."
-- British MP George Galloway
17 May 2005 - Statement to US Senate
1) Escalating Violence Threatens To Throw IRAQ Into Civil War
- - "It's coming apart at the seams now in Iraq." -- Dahr Jamail
- - Galloway vs. The US Senate: Transcript of Statement
- - U.S. Plans To Build Four New Bases In Iraq
- - National Call-In Week - Withdrawal of US Troops from Iraq
2) Filibuster remains ~ Compromise on Judges
3) Chavez Considers Breaking US Ties Over Terror Suspect
- - The CIA Was Involved In the Coup Against Venezuela's Chavez
- - Buy Your Gas at Citgo: Join the BUY-cott!
4) Open Letter to Kucinich for Reclaiming a Lost USA Democracy
Editor's Notes:
This week brings another overload, a scurry of breaking news. The first item contains information on a national call-in action (from May 31 to June 3) to urge your member of Congress to support withdrawal of troops from Iraq. We need to change course before our presence makes a birth place of civilization any more intolerable.
Item 2 is on the Filibuster deal. It will be around, but also with growing threats to our Constitutional civil liberties.
Item 3 is on story of a twist of fate. Here, an unquestionably majority-elected President of Venezuela is challenging the US government for the extradition of a terror suspect over the 1976 bombing of a Cuban plane that killed 73 people. "Mr Chavez says Washington would be guilty of protecting international terrorism if it refused extradition." This article also reveals that the suspect, Mr Posada Carriles, was a former CIA employee. Who are the terrorists? .
Item 4 is an open letter to Congressman Dennis Kucinich. The impetus of writing this letter was with the encouragement of Irene Michaud, who asked that I forward her letter and information that asks Congressman Kucinich to write a letter of support for the Nihon Hidankyo to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee. But besides this, and that of the plight of Richard Sitcha, I wrote to Congressman Kucinich to request his support for a campaign to unite a coalition of politicians to help reclaim a lost USA democracy.
War:
first, one hopes to win;
then one expects the enemy to lose;
then, one is satisfied that he too is suffering;
in the end, one is surprised that everyone has lost.
-- Karl Kraus
(1874 1936)
1) Escalating Violence Threatens To Throw IRAQ Into Civil War
- - "It's coming apart at the seams now in Iraq." -- Dahr Jamail
- - Galloway vs. The US Senate: Transcript of Statement
- - U.S. Plans To Build Four New Bases In Iraq
- - National Call-In Week - Withdrawal of US Troops from Iraq
- - A Violent Cycle in Iraq
Published May 23, 2005 by the New York News Day / Long Island
Retaliatory Killings, Mainly Involving Shias and Sunnis,
Threaten to Throw Country into Deadly Civil War
by Mohamad Bazzi
[EXCERPTS]
BEIRUT, LEBANON -- The signs of sectarian warfare are everywhere in Iraq these days: clerics assassinated outside their mosques, dozens of execution victims turning up in ditches and car bombers inflicting heavy casualties on the country's Shia Muslim majority..
"We are at a moment of extreme danger," said Hazem Shammari, a political science professor at Baghdad University. "There is a level of sectarian tension that is unrivaled in Iraq's modern history."
Many Iraqis argue that the best way to avert sectarian fighting is to bring more Sunnis into politics, and especially the drafting of Iraq's new constitution. "The terrorists are raising the specter of Sunni disenfranchisement," said Sheik Hussein Shaalan, a member of parliament and leader of a Shia tribe in southern Iraq. "We must involve more Sunnis in the process."
..By becoming so heavily involved in the new government, some clerics say, al-Sistani risks losing some of his authority and ability to keep the Shia masses from retaliating.
"The Shia religious leadership has entered the political game," Ghitta said. "Before becoming a political actor, it had more legitimacy....The danger now is that some young Shias will no longer heed al-Sistani's call to stay calm."
A wave of violence
For the complete Newsday Inc. article, see:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-wosect224272672may23,0,5314425,print.story?coll=ny-worldnews-headlines
or
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0523-02.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - "It's coming apart at the seams now in Iraq." -- Dahr Jamail
Dahr Jamail on Living in Two Worlds
May 22, 2005 Daily Life in Baghdad, from Afar 20-22 May 2005
It's coming apart at the seams now in Iraq. We saw on the news today that members of the Mehdi Army in the south, the militia of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, exchanged gunfire with members of the ING (Iraqi National Guard) who in the south are primarily, if not entirely composed of members of the Badr Army, also a Shia group. So now we have Shia fighting Shia.
For the complete article, see:
dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/dispatches/000248.php#more
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Galloway vs. The US Senate: Transcript of Statement
George Galloway, Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, delivered this statement to US Senators today who have accused him of corruption
British MP George Galloway has told US senators who accused him of profiting from Iraq oil dealings their claims were the "mother of all smokescreens".
Published on Tuesday, May 17, 2005 by the Times Online (UK)
[EXCERPT]
"Now, Senator, I gave my heart and soul to oppose the policy that you promoted. I gave my political life's blood to try to stop the mass killing of Iraqis by the sanctions on Iraq which killed one million Iraqis, most of them children, most of them died before they even knew that they were Iraqis, but they died for no other reason other than that they were Iraqis with the misfortune to born at that time. I gave my heart and soul to stop you committing the disaster that you did commit in invading Iraq. And I told the world that your case for the war was a pack of lies.
"I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims did not have weapons of mass destruction. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11/2001. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.
"Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies.
If the world had listened to Kofi Annan, whose dismissal you demanded, if the world had listened to President Chirac who you want to paint as some kind of corrupt traitor, if the world had listened to me and the anti-war movement in Britain, we would not be in the disaster that we are in today. Senator, this is the mother of all smokescreens. You are trying to divert attention from the crimes that you supported, from the theft of billions of dollars of Iraq's wealth.
"Have a look at the real Oil-for-Food scandal. Have a look at the 14 months you were in charge of Baghdad, the first 14 months when $8.8 billion of Iraq's wealth went missing on your watch. Have a look at Halliburton and other American corporations that stole not only Iraq's money, but the money of the American taxpayer.
"Have a look at the oil that you didn't even meter, that you were shipping out of the country and selling, the proceeds of which went who knows where? Have a look at the $800 million you gave to American military commanders to hand out around the country without even counting it or weighing it.
"Have a look at the real scandal breaking in the newspapers today, revealed in the earlier testimony in this committee. That the biggest sanctions busters were not me or Russian politicians or French politicians. The real sanctions busters were your own companies with the connivance of your own Government."
2005 Times Newspapers
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1616578,00.html
The complete transcript is also available at:
www.commondreams.org/views05/0517-35.htm
Video ~ HERE ~ not to be missed!
Full testimony 47 Minutes
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - U.S. Plans To Build Four New Bases In Iraq
Democracy Now! Headlines for May 23, 2005
Report: U.S. Plans To Build Four New Bases In Iraq
More signs are emerging that the U.S. intends to stay in Iraq for years to come. The Washington Post is reporting the US plans to build four new giant military bases inside Iraq. Under the plan, the US would station most of its troops in these heavily fortified bases designed to withstand mortar fire. Currently the US is operating out of more than 100 bases throughout the country. A spokesman for the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party warned the U.S. about the plan. He said "They appear to be settling in a for the long run, and that will only give fuel for the terrorists."
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/23/1339215
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - National Call-In Week - Withdrawal of US Troops from Iraq
May 31 to June 3 - Urge your member of Congress to support legislation for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
Beginning of National Call-In Week - Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), Code Pink, Peace Action, United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), and others - will ask members of the House to co-sponsor (H.Con.Res.35 in expressing the will of Congress that the President develop and implement a plan for immediate withdrawal of U.S. armed forces from Iraq.
Representative Lynn Woolsey's (D-CA) House Resolution (H.Con.Res.35) calls for the President to: (1) develop and implement a plan to begin the immediate withdrawal of U.S. Armed Forces from Iraq; (2) develop and implement a plan for reconstructing Iraq's civil and economic infrastructure; (3) convene an emergency meeting of Iraq's leadership, Iraq's neighbors, the United Nations, and the Arab League to create an international peacekeeping force in Iraq and to replace U.S. Armed Forces in Iraq with Iraqi police and Iraqi National Guard forces; and (4) provide the Iraqi people the opportunity to completely control their internal affairs.
Urge your member of Congress to support this legislation!
Please distribute this call far and wide!
2) Filibusters remain ~ Compromise on Judges
Deal Averts Filibuster Showdown
MSNBC
Monday 23 May 2005
[EXCERPTS]
Agreement preserves Senate rules, clears way for nominee votes.
Washington - Averting a showdown, 14 centrists from both parties in the Senate reached agreement Monday night on a compromise that clears the way for confirmation votes on many of President Bush's stalled judicial nominees, leaves others in limbo and preserves venerable Senate filibuster rules.
"In a Senate that is increasingly polarized, the bipartisan center held," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.
"The Senate is back in business," echoed Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
"We have reached an agreement ... to pull the institution back from a precipice … that would have had damaging impact on the institution," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., at a news conference where the agreement was announced.
Officials from both parties said the agreement would clear the way for yes or no votes on some of Bush's nominees but make no guarantee.
Under the agreement, Democrats would pledge not to filibuster any of Bush's future appeals court or Supreme Court nominees except in "extraordinary circumstances."
For their part, Republicans agreed not to support an attempt to strip Democrats of their right to block votes.
The two-page memorandum of agreement said it is "based upon mutual trust and confidence."
Under the terms, Democrats would agree to oppose any attempt to filibuster — and thus block final votes — on the confirmation of Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown and William Pryor. There is "no commitment to vote for or against" the filibuster against two other conservative nominees, Henry Saad and William Myers.
Under the signed agreement, the senators vowed that the filibuster on judicial nominees will only be used in the future "under extraordinary circumstances."
"And each signatory must use his or her own discretion and judgment in determining whether the circumstances exist," they wrote.
Democrats defend the filibuster as a check on the power of the majority.
For the entire article, plus Statement of Democratic Leader Harry Reid, see:
www.truthout.org/docs_2005/052305W.shtml
3) Chavez Considers Breaking US Ties Over Terror Suspect
- - The CIA Was Involved In the Coup Against Venezuela's Chavez
- - Buy Your Gas at Citgo: Join the BUY-cott!
- - Chavez Considers Breaking US Ties
Published May 23, 2005 by the BBC News
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he will consider breaking diplomatic ties with the US if it fails to hand over a Cuban-born terror suspect.
Venezuela says Luis Posada Carriles must stand trial over the 1976 bombing of Cuba's plane that killed 73 people.
Mr Chavez says Washington would be guilty of protecting international terrorism if it refused extradition.
Mr Posada Carriles - the 77-year-old former CIA employee - was charged last week with illegal entry into the US.
US immigration officials said that he would be held in custody until an immigration court hearing on 13 June.
Washington has up to 60 days to consider Venezuela's extradition request under a 1922 treaty between the two countries.
'Wasting money'
"If they don't extradite him (Mr Posada Carriles) in the time allowed in our agreement, we will review our relations with the United States," Mr Chavez said in his regular Sunday TV program.
He said Caracas would decide "if it worth having an embassy in the United States, wasting money, or for the United States to have an embassy here".
"It is difficult, very difficult, to maintain ties with a government that so shamelessly hides and protects international terrorism," Mr Chavez said.
The president last week described Mr Posada Carriles as "a self-confessed terrorist".
Washington stance
Mr Posada Carriles - who was born in Cuba but now holds Venezuelan nationality - has denied involvement in the attack on the Cuban airline passenger plane on a flight from Caracas to Havana.
Mr Posada Carriles escaped a Venezuelan prison in 1985 while awaiting a trial on appeal.
He was twice acquitted by Venezuelan courts of plotting to bomb the plane.
The US says it will not deport Mr Posada Carriles to any country that would hand him over to Fidel Castro's regime in Cuba.
Venezuela has said it will not hand Mr Posada Carriles over, and Mr Castro has insisted he will be happy to see him tried there.
For the original article, see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4571957.stm
or
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0523-05.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The CIA Was Involved In the Coup Against Venezuela's Chavez
by Eva Golinger [Published by Venezuela Analysis - Nov 22, 2004]
www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1321
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Buy Your Gas at Citgo: Join the BUY-cott!
by Jeff Cohen
Published May 16, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
Looking for an easy way to protest Bush foreign policy week after week? And an easy way to help alleviate global poverty? Buy your gasoline at Citgo stations. And tell your friends.
Of the top oil producing countries in the world, only one is a democracy with a president who was elected on a platform of using his nation's oil revenue to benefit the poor. The country is Venezuela. The President is Hugo Chavez. Call him "the Anti-Bush."
Citgo is a U.S. refining and marketing firm that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company. Money you pay to Citgo goes primarily to Venezuela -- not Saudi Arabia or the Middle East. There are 14,000 Citgo gas stations in the US. (Click here www.citgo.com/CITGOLocator/StoreLocator.jsp to find one near you.) By buying your gasoline at Citgo, you are contributing to the billions of dollars that Venezuela's democratic government is using to provide health care, literacy and education, and subsidized food for the majority of Venezuelans.
Instead of using government to help the rich and the corporate, as Bush does, Chavez is using the resources and oil revenue of his government to help the poor in Venezuela. A country with so much oil wealth shouldn't have 60 percent of its people living in poverty, earning less than $2 per day. With a mass movement behind him, Chavez is confronting poverty in Venezuela. That's why large majorities have consistently backed him in democratic elections. And why the Bush administration supported an attempted military coup in 2002 that sought to overthrow Chavez.
So this is the opposite of a boycott. Call it a BUYcott. Spread the word.
Of course, if you can take mass transit or bike or walk to your job, you should do so. And we should all work for political changes that move our country toward a cleaner environment based on renewable energy. The BUYcott is for those of us who don't have a practical alternative to filling up our cars.
So get your gas at Citgo. And help fuel a democratic revolution in Venezuela.
Jeff Cohen is an author and media critic (www.jeffcohen.org)
###
This article is posted at:
www.commondreams.org/views05/0516-25.htm
4) Open Letter to Kucinich for Reclaiming a Lost USA Democracy
by Jonathan Mark
Dear Congressman Kucinich:
It has been a while since I have written. Are you still receiving, reading Flyby News?
Via regular postal mail on May 20th, I sent you information on the Hidankyo Organization, which is a group of survivors and visionaries that came out of the horrors of the use of atomic weapons that can help guide us toward peace and abolition of such weapons.
Dennis, you and I first united our efforts for such a direction after the Cassini flyby from your leadership to help maintain the ABM Treaty, and advance the "Preservation of Space" Treaties, 2001 and 2002. Since those efforts, we have seen US policy lead us into the weaponization of space, an illegal war for energy and power, loss of civil/human liberties and depletion of our national treasury. All this and global warming is getting more obvious, while the current Bush administration is making matters worse. How do we turn this around?
Well, looking ahead and back 60 years.. the Hidankyo group has given us a look into hell, and a way out of it.. Irene Michaud asked if I would forward her letter and information on this campaign for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. Could you write a letter of support for this effort? I know this is short notice, but your efforts on this would be welcome, and in harmony with many of your inspiring projects, i.e., ending occupation/war in Iraq, Preservation of Space Bill, Department of Peace, campaign for President.
I left a voice message with your press secretary on this, and two other issues. Another current concern that I hope you will address is in the case of Richard Sitcha from Cameroon, now in US jail. I transcribed his letter in the 18 May 2005 Flyby News. Can you encourage anyone to help stop his deportation to a Country where he was likely tortured? Can you help him get out of jail? He has committed no crime.. And should be given the right to leave the USA for a Country where he can live free and be safe.
The last call-for-help idea that I want to share with you is on a plan that I believe would be most effective in reclaiming our lost USA democracy. Can you engage the Progressive Caucus, and unite with other politicians, to gather a group to choose the best candidate that meets certain "peace-trust" criteria-record for grassroots and majority support for the elected President of the US? You may recall my encouraging you to manage the campaign much differently, especially in NH. We missed the boat.. partly due to a late entry into the race, so we were not able to make clear distinctions between you and Howard Dean, and GW by a grassroots effort to engage the citizenry of this State. I believe we could have converted many Dean, Independent, Republicans votes to support your campaign and platform for the USA.
We never communicated in a dialog about the campaign, and loss of nomination and election, but I hope we can learn from the past to look ahead and turn around the tide of fascism sweeping across our beloved country. More than 100,000 innocent dead, but that is only the beginning of a heinous policy threatening all life. We need a team, a group of politicians, united, which has a succession plan to best enable a survival or reclamation of democracy. Politicians must be able to bring into the open the majority of Americans wanting to save our land, our air, water, our human integrity. Have you talked with Senator Boxer on this idea? Are politicians able to work together, rather than individually, where the mainstream media can best divide and conquer us?
I am sending this letter by fax and regular mail. Irene Michaud mentioned that your response by June 1st to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee could be most helpful in our campaign for the Hidankyo organization.
I hope our friendship is still strong in light of the lapse of our communicating.. and our communicating in only one way, from me to you, since your announcement of seeking the Office of President. I sense there is much more to you, and what happens around you, than I realize.. So, please trust, beyond any criticism, remains my utmost appreciation of your efforts for all.
In the spirit of truth, and peace,
Jonathan Mark.
[This letter was sent by fax and by snail mail with enclosures to Congressman Kucinich's Lakewood, Ohio District Office.]
For more information on this and other related topics, see Campaigns for Reclaiming a lost USA democracy
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
MemoLiesApathy * InsideSitcha * MediaReform
18 May 2005
"Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam,
through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD.
But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."
Matthew Rycroft
23 July 2002 -
{Downy Street Memo}
1) Do We Care About Lies? British Memo Reopens War Claim
- - Conyers Looks for News in the Wrong Place
- - Anger as US Backs Regime in Uzbekistan
- - Sibel Edmonds - Gagged, But Not Dead
2) Inside [Plymouth, MA] Richard Sitcha Calling Out
3) Bill Moyers on Media Reform
- - Take Public Broadcasting Back
"An unconscious people, an indoctrinated people, a people fed only partisan information
and opinion that confirm their own bias, a people made morbidly obese in mind and spirit by
the junk food of propaganda is less inclined to put up a fight - ask questions and be skeptical."
Bill Moyers
Editor's Notes:
The British memo leak on the "staged" war against Iraq revealed what I had expected, it was a planned event, using intelligence to fit policy objectives, but the unexpected level of apathy in response to such evidence of a manufactured war killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people, is/was a bit unnerving. It is like living in the twilight zone, a parallel universe where independent news reads the evidence and the mainstream media lives in a Disneyland-pseudo-democracy. Please note the article by Sibel Edmonds. Item 3 includes an article by Bill Moyers on the state of media reform. Item 2 is an update and plea for reasonable justice from Richard Sitcha. Is anyone listening?
Please check the end of this issue to consider supporting Flyby News. A little will go a long ways in extending peace-justice-truth resources for life's survival in the 21st Century.
"We must be prepared to make heroic sacrifices for the cause of peace
that we make ungrudgingly for the cause of war."
-- Albert Einstein
1) Do We Care About Lies? British Memo Reopens War Claim
- - Conyers Looks for News in the Wrong Place
- - Anger as US Backs Regime in Uzbekistan
- - Sibel Edmonds - Gagged, But Not Dead
Do We Care About Lies?
by Clay Evans
Published May 15, 2005 by the Boulder Daily Camera / Colorado
They came to the Daily Camera editorial board in early autumn 2002, as our leaders in Washington were fueling fears that a small, oil-rich Arab nation run by one of America's former "sons of bitches" posed an imminent yes, they used that word threat to America.
They were mostly older, except for a Catholic priest, soft-spoken and grave. And as many Americans were deaf to the war drums being pounded daily by the Pentagon and White House, they were convinced that the Bush administration was going to attack Iraq.
Tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis would die, they predicted, as would thousands of U.S. soldiers. The occupation would be anything but a "cakewalk." The Iraqis would not see us as liberators, and our presence would inflame them as long as we remained. The war would cost hundreds of billions of dollars. It would further alienate the world's Muslims, and increase, not decrease, terrorism.
Nearly three years later, their predictions have proved correct, while the cocky pronouncements of our leaders have been almost uniformly wrong. A bunch of peaceniks in Boulder along with millions of sensible grandmothers and teens, liberals and conservatives around the nation knew better than the best minds of the world's only superpower. How can that be? They simply paid attention, sought information and ultimately trusted their own judgment over that of agenda-driven government officials. They suspected that the war was already a done deal, and all that was to follow Colin Powell spewing what he privately called "bulls**t" before the United Nations; revolving door self-defense rationalizations from al-Qaida-Saddam connections to nukes raining down on London was a staged distraction. President Bush chiseled his war of choice in stone even as he misled his people into believing it might yet be averted.
And now we have the memo to prove it. In a story that remains little known on our side of the pond, the London Times published a top-secret memo from a foreign policy aide to British cabinet officials that reveals that the war was already set in motion by July 2002.
You can find the three-page memo online by searching the name of the author, Matthew Rycroft. But here's a small sample (italics mine): "Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."
"There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action."
"It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action ... But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran."
Now, even if you supported the Iraq invasion, are you pleased that you were misled by an administration hell-bent on war? If the president had made a truthful case Saddam is a monster, we want regime change, and a U.S. presence between the Tigris and Euphrates will help guarantee future flows of oil instead of horse-hockey about Iraqi assaults on America, would you have said, "go for it"? If so, what cost in lives, hundreds of billions of dollars, and shattered relations with most of the world would have changed your mind? Should we simply salute if (when?) we're told we must attack Iran or Syria?
I'm angry, not just at being misled into a bloody, cynical war, but that this kind of lying call a spade a spade, folks is so accepted, when Bill Clinton's foolish dalliances and lies were kindling for an endless media conflagration.
But not everyone is so afraid that they believe everything they're told; the continuing misery in Iraq there were other approaches to the Saddam problem was foreseen by millions, and not just "activists." Those millions who had their patriotism questioned simply because they opposed a unnecessary war; those believers in the humanity of all humanity they were right, while our leaders have repeatedly borne false witness.
Copyright 2005, The Daily Camera and the E.W. Scripps Company www.dailycamera.com/bdc/insight/article/0,1713,BDC_2494_3776272,00.html
also posted at:
www.commondreams.org/views05/0515-26.htm
Text of the Downy Street Memo
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - British Memo Reopens War Claim
By Stephen J. Hedges and Mark Silva
The Chicago Tribune
Tuesday 17 May 2005
Leaked briefing says US intelligence facts `fixed' around policy.
Washington - A British official's report that the Bush administration appeared intent on invading Iraq long before it acknowledged as much or sought Congress' approval--and that it "fixed" intelligence to fit its intention--has caused a stir in Britain.
But the potentially explosive revelation has proven to be something of a dud in the United States. The White House has denied the premise of the memo, the American media have reacted slowly to it and the public generally seems indifferent to the issue or unwilling to rehash the bitter prewar debate over the reasons for the war.
All of this has contributed to something less than a robust discussion of a memo that would seem to bolster the strongest assertions of the war's critics.
Frustrated at the lack of attention to the memo, Democrats and war critics are working to make sure it gets a wider hearing, doing everything from writing letters to the White House to launching online petitions.
The memo was written by British national security aide Matthew Rycroft, based on notes he took during a July 2002 meeting of British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his advisers, including Richard Dearlove, the head of Britain's MI-6 intelligence service who had recently met with Bush administration officials.
Since being leaked to a British newspaper, the memo has raised questions anew about whether the Bush administration misrepresented prewar intelligence about suspected weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to justify military action against Saddam Hussein's regime.
"Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD," the memo said. "But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening, his ability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran."
Blair's office has not disputed the authenticity of the memo, but the White House categorically denies the assertions in it. And on Capitol Hill, where investigations already have denounced prewar intelligence about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as "deeply flawed," there appears to be little appetite for reopening the question of why the U.S. went to war.
"I suppose it hasn't played there because, basically, didn't everyone know that Bush decided early on to get rid of Saddam?" asked Philip Stephens, a Blair biographer and associate editor of the Financial Times of London.
Stephens argues that there was a basic difference in the argument over the invasion of Iraq in Britain and the U.S.
"The contexts of the debates have always been different," Stephens said. "There was never really a question [in the U.S.] about whether it was justified or not to go for regime change. This was the administration's objective. People either agreed with it or disagreed with it. There really wasn't a disagreement about the legal basis for it."
Dubbed "the Downing Street Memo," the report of the July 23, 2002, meeting of Blair and his aides purported to recount the Bush administration's approach to Iraq at that point. The memo asserted that Bush had decided to remove Hussein nearly eight months before U.S. and British troops invaded Iraq.
Summarizing the view of intelligence chief Dearlove after consulting with U.S. officials, the memo said: "Military action was now seen as inevitable."
Public Told Another Story
At the time, the Bush administration was assuring the public that a decision to go to war had not been made and that Iraq could prevent military action by complying with existing United Nations resolutions that were intended to curtail its chemical, nuclear, biological and missile weapons programs.
The memo was divulged earlier this month by the Sunday Times of London, four days before Blair's re-election. It caused a stir in Britain, where the war in Iraq has been deeply unpopular.
In the U.S., however, the account has drawn only passing attention, even in Washington, where the debate over prewar intelligence on Iraq once dogged the White House. No weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq, and Iraqi scientists have told U.S. inspectors that any weapons Iraq did possess were destroyed years ago.
Opponents of the war and administration have launched e-mail campaigns to elevate the issue. One Web site, http://DowningStreetMemo.com , encourages visitors to sign a petition and "take action." Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) wrote a letter earlier this month to the White House, signed by 89 House Democrats, that expressed concern about the memo's revelations.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan, asked Monday about the memo's implication that intelligence was being "fixed" on Iraq, said, "The suggestion is just flat-out wrong.
[EXCERPTS]
Critics of the Bush administration have long argued that Bush appeared intent on invading Iraq long before Congress voted to authorize military action in October 2002 if Hussein didn't abandon his alleged illegal weapons programs.
Former Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, who was chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee when Democrats ruled, has written in his book, "Intelligence Matters," about his visit to MacDill Air Force Base, home of the U.S. Central Command, on Feb. 19, 2002. He was going for a status report on Afghanistan, Graham wrote, but CENTCOM'S Gen. Tommy Franks called him aside to tell him, "Senator, we are not engaged in a war in Afghanistan."
"Excuse me?"' Graham replied.
"Military and intelligence personnel are being redeployed to prepare for an action in Iraq," Graham quoted Franks as saying.
Graham wrote: "I was stunned. This was the first time I had been informed that the decision to go to war with Iraq had not only been made but was being implemented, to the substantial disadvantage of the war in Afghanistan."
For the complete article, see the original:
www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0505170052may17,1,5984426.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
or
www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051705Y.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Conyers Looks for News in the Wrong Place
by Sylvester Brown Jr.
Published May 15, 2005 by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch / Missouri
Rep. John Conyers, a Democrat from Michigan, is peeved. He can't understand why an explosive story published early this month in England hasn't received more attention here.
On May 1, The Sunday Times of London reported the British government and the United States government secretly conspired to attack Iraq in 2002 - a year before the war started. In one meeting, an official suggested Britain and America "create" conditions to justify the war, the Times reported.
Conyers and 88 fellow congressional members sent a letter to President George W. Bush on May 5 asking about the "troubling allegations." They asked Bush several questions, including whether there was a "coordinated effort to fix intelligence" to justify the invasion.
In the letter sent to colleagues for their support, Conyers took a potshot at the media.
"Unfortunately, the mainstream media in the United States was too busy ... to cover a bombshell report out of the British newspapers," Conyers wrote. "This should not be allowed to fall down the memory hole during wall-to-wall coverage of the Michael Jackson trial and a runaway bride."
As of Friday, neither the president nor anyone representing the mainstream media (or "MSM" as Red Staters refer to it), responded to Conyers' letter.
With 17 years of experience with the Fourth Estate, I feel compelled and at least somewhat qualified to answer Mr. Conyers' charge against the media:
Dear Congressman:
Thank you for your letter. The issues you've raised are of dire importance to the public interest and all of us constituting the "mainstream media." However, due to our changing demographics, evolving technology and the rapid growth of our industry, it is not an advantageous time to pursue "real news." With all due respect, the genre has changed. In your day, news was just news. Guys like Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite and Bob Woodward worked for news organizations that focused solely on ... well, news. Today, the same organizations that deliver information also deliver music, books, coffee, refrigerators, ball games, concerts, fun parks and weapons of mass destruction. Viacom owns CBS and MTV. NBC is owned by GE (a huge defense contractor). And ABC is the property of Disney. In a very real sense, Mr. Conyers, Disneyland is today's news.
Article Truncated, for the complete article, see original:
www.stltoday.com/stltoday/emaf.nsf/Popup?ReadForm&db=stltoday%5Cnews%5Ccolumnists.nsf&docid=B0259EF0FBA1541986257001001ED2DF
or
www.commondreams.org/views05/0515-24.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Anger as US Backs Regime in Uzbekistan
Anger as US Backs Regime
by Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow and Paul Harris in New York
Published May 15, 2005 by the Observer/UK
Human rights concerns as troops put down uprising in Uzbekistan
Heated criticism was growing last night over 'double standards' by Washington over human rights, democracy and 'freedom' as fresh evidence emerged of just how brutally Uzbekistan, a US ally in the 'war on terror', put down Friday's unrest in the east of the country.
For this article, see original: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1484251,00.html
or
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0515-03.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Sibel Edmonds - Gagged, But Not Dead
Gagged, But Not Dead
By Sibel Edmonds May 14 2005
justacitizen.org
The Appeal Court's decision on Sibel Edmonds' Case is out: Case Dismissed;' no opinion cited; no reason provided. The Court's decision, issued on Friday, May 6, has generated a string of
obituaries; 'another major blow, maybe the last one, to Sibel Edmonds, a woman who has faced an unprecedented level of government secrecy, gag orders, and classification.' Well, dear friends and supporters, Sibel Edmonds may be gagged, but she's not dead.
On October 18, 2002; three months after I filed my suit against the Department of Justice for unlawful termination of my employment caused by my reporting criminal activities committed by government officials and employees, John Ashcroft, the then Attorney General, invoked a rarely invoked privilege, the State Secrets Privilege.
According to Ashcroft, everything involving my case and my allegations were considered state secrets, and whether or not I was right in my allegations, the United States District Court had to dismiss my entire case without any questions, hearings or oral argument; period. According to Ashcroft, the court had to grant his order and dismiss the entire case with no hearings solely based on the fact that he, Ashcroft, said so. After all, our government knew best. As of that day, my case came to be gagged; but I continued on.
In April 2004, after attorneys for a large group of 9/11 family members subpoenaed my deposition, the then Attorney General, John Ashcroft, made his next move: He invoked the state secrets privilege for the second time, and this time, he designated my place of birth, date of birth, my mother tongue, my father tongue, my university background, and my previous employments all State Secrets, Top Secret Classified, and matters of the highest level national security.
[EXCERPTS]
In the past three years, I have been threatened; I have been gagged several times; I have continuously been prevented from pursuing my due process; all reports and investigations looking into my case have been classified; and every governmental or investigative authority dealing with my case has been shut up.
According to legal experts familiar with my case, the level of secrecy and classification in my court case and the attitudes and handling of the court system in dealing with my case is unprecedented in the entire U.S. court history. According to other experts I am one of the most, if not the most, gagged woman anybody knows of or has heard of. Why?
Those of you who still think this case, my case, is about covering up some administrative blunder or bureaucratic mismanagement, please think again.
Those of you who may think that my Kafkaesque case, the unprecedented secrecy, is due to some justified and official higher reasons, please think again.
Those of you who may think that our government, our entrusted leaders, may have an ongoing investigation of criminals involved, please think again.
The Office of Inspector General for the Department of Justice, in its unclassified report,' has confirmed my core allegations. What were those core allegations, and who did they involve? Not only some low-level terrorist or terrorist organization; not only some maybe' critical foreign entities. No; trust me; they would not go to this length to protect some nobody criminal or terrorist.
It is way past time for a little bit of critical thinking. The Attorney General cites two reasons to justify the unconstitutional and panic driven assault on me and my case. Reason one: To protect
certain diplomatic relations - not named since obviously our officials are ashamed of admitting to these relations. Reason two: To protect certain U.S. foreign business relations..
..And lastly, for those of you who may think that since I have been gagged and stopped by almost all available official channels, I must be ready to vaporize into thin air, please think again. I am gagged, but not dead; not yet.
For the complete original article, see:
www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0505/S00188.htm
and related information, visit
www.UnansweredQuestions.org
For more information on this topic, see FN's archives:
The Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports,
looking into the unanswered questions
2) Inside [Plymouth, MA] Richard Sitcha Calling Out
[Editor's Note: The following is from a letter from Richard Sitcha to Jonathan Mark and Flyby News, in reply to letters and FN issues sent to him. Thank you for any help in helping a man who is being persecuted for no crime committed.]
Dear Jonathan,
Please do not think that the long silence in replying to your letter is a sign of discouragement or laziness. I guess you have been informed about everything that happened to me when I was transferred to Plymouth. All my stuff was taken away from me, I was moved from a unit to another, I wasn't stable. I didn't have any pen, paper, envelopes or stamps.. I'm now stable and could write to every one of you. Thank you very much for asking friends to bring their support on my behalf. With all this I can tell you that I'm stronger than ever. .. I'm just asking for justice.. I have been granted Asylum, then saw my Asylum Revoked, and sent into Prison where I continue to suffer for now 20 months. I never committed any crime. I'm not a threat for national security, in my 2 years on the street in America I was useful for the communities in different ways. I never broke any law. Even though my Asylum was revoked, as the law required, I should have been given time to leave the Country to seek Asylum somewhere else. I should have not been sent to prison with efforts to deport me to where I'm fearing for my life in my Country. I asked for time to leave, but never got any answer. A Seeker of Asylum is deport-able only if he remains in the Country after time given to leave. I just want justice in my case. I continue to believe that America is a country of moral values. A country of freedom, a country of justice, different than our third [world] countries with many types of injustice and abuse. I continue to trust and believe in America Justice.
I want to take this opportunity, too, to hail all those wonderful people GOD sent on my way..
Justice, Peace and Love in the Earth,
Richard
Sitcha, Richard
ID# 39823
Unit: FSB; Rm. A07
Plymouth County Correctional Facility
26 Long Pond Road
Plymouth, MA 02360
Web site for more information: FreeRichard.com
3) Bill Moyers on Media Reform
- - Take Public Broadcasting Back
Published May 16, 2005 by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri)
Speech at Conference Assails Right Wing
by Michael Sorkin
Bill Moyers denounced on Sunday the right wing and top officials at the White House, saying they are trying to silence their critics by controlling the news media.
He also took aim at reporters who become little more than willing government "stenographers." And he said the public increasingly is content with just enough news to confirm its own biases.
Moyers spoke in St. Louis at a conference on media reform.
For the complete original article, see
www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/BBB15FFD38DCFFFB86257003001B326B?OpenDocument
or
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0516-01.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Full Text of Bill Moyers' speech to the
National Conference on Media Reform:
Take Public Broadcasting Back
St. Louis, Missouri 5/15/2005
www.commondreams.org/views05/0516-34.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Muting The Conversation Of Democracy by Bill Moyers
www.tompaine.com/articles/20050517/muting_the_conversation_of_democracy.php
Flyby News Support
To support actions and campaigns please consider sending a check
of any amount made payable to Flyby News. {For donations of $10
or more ~ we will send you a flybynews.com art decal }
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading and supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Internal Peace * Sitcha * Malik * Hidankyo * LFAS
10 May 2005
"Internal peace is an essential first step to achieving peace in the world.
How do you cultivate it? It's very simple. In the first place by
realizing clearly that all mankind is one, that human beings in
every country are members of one and the same family."
-- His Holiness the Dalai Lama
1) Update to Free Richard Sitcha
2) Native Burial/Dumping Ground Under Siege
3) Malik Akili ~ Appeal for Parole ~ "Predetermined"
4) A-Bomb Survivors for 2005 Nobel Peace Prize
5) Sign on to UN Ocean Noise Petition
Editor's Notes:
The top Dalai Lama quote is as complicated as it gets for achieving peace in our world today. And with that in mind this issue begins with an update on Richard Sitcha, seeking your supportive actions. Item 2 is local to the people living around Greenfield, MA, and an issue that should be important to all. Human Indian remains are being mistreated in a place known for a massacre of a village by Captain Turners on May 19th, 1676. The majority of the 300 Native American victims of the attack were women, children, and elders. The Town of Greenfield's Conservation Commission is holding a public meeting May 24th (7:00pm - Gfld Police Station) on the issue of 10 acres of land where Native American bones are believed to have been dumped. Item 3 is an update from my dear friend, Malik Abdullah Akili. This item contains news of his winning an appeal on the recent denial for his parole, based on his being "targeted" by corrupt law enforcement. Item 4 is on an issue about the human spirit, like the phoenix, rising from the ashes of darkness. The Nihon Hidankyo is an organization of Hibakusha — survivors of the A-bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the subsequent H-bomb testing in the Bikini Atoll. Flyby News is one of many Organizations supporting their receiving the Nobel Peace Prize award in 2005, which is the 60th Anniversary of the dropped Atomic Bombs on Japan. The focus of this group is for healing, the abolition of atomic bombs, for a peace-justice future for all. Please, if you know of anyone influential, please help us support such a choice for PEACE to honor the release of a negative past for an honorable future. Item 5 is on actions you can take to have your Oranization sign on to Stop Underwater Noise Pollution, which will be presented at the U.N. in June.
A fragrance uncovered by earth in extreme times
motions an empty stillness to watch and listen,
and bathe within the radiance of an unscathed vision
where peace triangles inner dimensions where joy
bounces about, effortlessly, and love yearns to play..
Imagine wholeness watching, waiting, participating,
truth glistening into an embrace, awakening justice and
a dove's descent to prove beyond measure a child's journey
beyond the rainbow, beyond the comet, into a time- kept
mystery revealed, inner guidance, knowing what to do next
after the clamor of making / using atomic weapons.
Abolition ~ the time is Now!
Jonathan Mark
05-10-05
1) Update to Free Richard Sitcha
This following is from Carl Doerner < cdoerner@surfglobal.net >
"..As Suzanne and four others of us were settling down to preview Fidel Castro (the recent PBS production) for inclusion (exclusion, it turned out) in our June Cuban On Film Festival in Shelburne Falls, we received a call from one of our Reel World committee members, Ellen Kaufmann. She was at Logan preparing to fly west when she spotted John Kerry.
In proper paparazzi form, she dashed after him and tapped on the window of the car which he had entered. Kerry spooled the window down. As she describes the scene, she told Kerry about Richard's circumstances and all the while his driver was making notes about what she said on his hand.
This being the second time one of us has addressed him directly about Richard, it may be sinking in, and may be dawning on his people that we are ubiquitous.
Yesterday I CC'd a toughened letter to Kennedy's aid Tom Crohan, and today I will send ( and forward) a similar, hard-edged letter to Kerry's aide Roger Lau.
Let's be inspired by this chance encounter and Ellen's persistence and continue to call/e-mail sentiments to these offices (Kennedy's Tom Crohan @ 617-565-3170, Kerry's Roger Lau @ 617-565-8519). As we try to introduce a habeas motion in Hartford, we need to expand this contact list to include Senator Dodd (in this mode I have only DC number 202-224-2823). Albert, could you send a detailed account to Dodd's CT office, including the erroneous filing in the First District.
Albert's persistent research points to House International Relations Committee concern about human rights in Cameroon, and down that committee member list is Congressman William Delahunt who represents Mass 10th District, including Plymouth. So Delahunt should be a target of calls and e-mails (www.house.gov/house/memeberWWW.shtml) for contact information.
Here the focus should be on instances of abusive treatment at the jail, denial of Bible to a devout Catholic and request to urge Kerry to be involved. Call Olver with the same message.
Carry on, all.........C
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The following overvirew and links is also posted under Campaigns @ FlybyNews.com
Free Richard Sitcha -- In April 2001, Richard Sitcha fled Cameroon after being imprisoned and tortured by the government’s security forces due to his involvement with the political protests against the Bepanda Nine killings. Fearing for his life, Richard applied for political asylum as soon as he arrived in the United States. The United States government granted Richard asylum in January 2003. Life was looking up for Richard—he could now realize his dreams of going back to school and bringing his wife and two children to the US. On September 18, 2003, however, the US government revoked Richard’s asylum and arrested him in the courtroom. He has been in jail, without charge, ever since that date. For more on the case of Richard Sitcha see FreeRichard.com and Traprock Peace Center's page to help free US detainee, Richard Sitcha.
2) Native Burial/Dumping Ground Under Siege
From: Friends of the Wissatinnewag
"Monique Fordham" < maf@nativenewengland.org >
Subject: Meeting on the 10 acres postponed 'till Tues. 5/24/05
Date: Sat, 7 May 2005
Dear Friends,
The Town of Greenfield has scheduled the Conservation Commission meeting on the 10 acres for Tuesday, May 24th, beginning at 7pm at the Greenfield (MA) Police Station.
This is a very important meeting due to the fact that the Conservation Commission has jurisdiction over the fate of the wetlands.
To recap, the town paid for a wetland delineation study last December that determined that 80% of the 10 acres are wetlands, but the filled area in the center of the parcel, where sworn eyewitness reports say Native American skeletal remains removed from Wissatinnewag (right across the street) were dumped and bulldozed is not.
Last winter, the owner of the 10 acres allowed multiple dumpings of contaminated snow scraped from roadways and parking lots to be dumped on the 10 acres. These huge piles, blackened with road oil and gasoline, then melt and the contaminated water flows into the surrounding wetlands, which is in violation of the State Department of Environmental Projection's guidelines.
Recent reports indicate that the Conservation Commission will allow this sort of polluting of the area to continue as long as the contaminants are dumped on the filled area where the burials were dumped. Aside from the obvious fact that is desecrating the burial area, allowing dumping onto a filled "island" surrounded by wetlands ignores the fact that the contaminants will spill over into the wetland area. Is our town Conservation Commission, as many have asserted, now comprised primarily of people who either don't know or don't actually care about conservation?
The Friends of Wissatinnewag need you to be there with us on Tues, May 24th, 7pm at the Greenfield Police Department, to show the town that people are concerned about the fate of this 10 acre area - for both the wetlands and the burials.
Oliwini!
Monique Fordham
Friends of the Wissatinnewag
3) Malik Akili ~ Appeal for Parole ~ "Predetermined"
From Malik Abdullah Akili
via letter to Jonathan Mark
"..Received yours of 3-30-05, along with the latest flyby. Thank you for both. I appreciate the information concerning myself in the flyby. It's been such a long time since you have printed anything regarding me. So, I was taken back. It's nice to be remembered. How can I thank you enough?
I believe it was Camus who wrote that "real generosity" toward the future lies in giving all to the present. This, he says, grows out of an intense love for the earth, for our brothers/sisters, for justice. I embrace this principle. By giving all to the present we reject fear, despair and defeat.. We work to repair the breaches of the past. We strive to carry out the principle of transformation, and through long struggle, in Camus' words, "to remake the soul of our time."
Finally, after a long struggle, I have some good news that may mean something or may not.
I appealed my last parole board's decision to hold me for another 24 months - based on the fact that the decision was "predetermined." In other words, I was "targeted," because of my political history as a former member of teh Black Panther Party.
My case is living proof of that. I didn't do anything on April 9, 1994, when they came to kill me, not arrest. What messed them up in 1994 when they came out there armed for war, had planned to exterminate me, but because the house was full of people, they failed.
Therefore, I was a target then, as I am today and was when I appeared before the parole board in October, 2004.
Going back before the parole board will only give them some other reason to give me another two-year-hit. It's all apart of a game and I am being used as a tool in their game... I specifically charge that the People, who hold me Captive, is practicing practicing a form of genocide against me and so many other Afrikan Male Prisoners of Social Consciousness, through behavior modification and counterinsurgency and low intensity warfare techniques throughout its penal system, i.e., the State and Federal prisons.
I charge the Amerikkkan government with genocide. In clear unequivocal terms, I charge the Amerikkkan government with genocide against the Captive Afrikan Black People in Amerikkka who are perpetually under siege.
I'll be going back before the parole board in April. I'll let you hear the outcome.. Take Care.
I am in struggle,
Malik
[Editor's Note; This following is from Malik dated April 19th.]
Dear Jonathan --
I received your 4-13-05 letter, along with the flyby with Geronimo's message: "Johnnie was a beautiful brother -- which I felt was quite heart touching for me. Is it possible for you to send me the full context?
Yes, I want you to publish the things I wrote concerning my last parole hearing about my being targeted by the police and the parole board. I think that People need to know the truth!
And though they may not truly understand or relate to what all this means.. Still.. At least.. They'll have a better idea from my point of view.
You know, when I was first arrested, I was real bitter. I didn't come in touch with this bitterness until recently. It was extremely difficult for me to let go of that bitterness. Why?...most of us haven't been educated to understanding what hate and bitterness do to us.. It not only tears our body down, but also the damage it does to our general outlook to life, its surroundings and the people of the world.
Since letting go of this emotion of hate/bitterness, I have come to feel a greater sense of freedom -- NOT in the sense of physical freedom, but internal freedom -- which brings about the highest form of liberation any human being can reach!
Again, thanks for the letter and the powerful flyby newsletter..
- - - - - - - -
For FN archives on Malik Abdullah Akili, see:
A Nation Behind Bars: the buried talents of a population
4) A-Bomb Survivors for 2005 Nobel Peace Prize
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker humanitarian service organization, has nominated an organization in Japan that represents Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. Nihon Hidankyo is an organization of Hibakusha — survivors of the A-bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the subsequent H-bomb testing in the Bikini Atoll.
Founded in 1956, Nihon Hidankyo has worked for the abolition of nuclear weapons and the care and compensation of Hibakusha by the Japanese government. With chapters in all 47 prefectures (administrative districts) of Japan, one of Nihon Hidankyo's objectives is to improve current policies and measures on the protection and assistance for survivors. Its officers and members are all atomic bomb survivors.
Over the years, Nihon Hidankyo has help build the worldwide nuclear abolition movement and has testified at numerous United Nations sessions on nuclear test bans, nuclear non-proliferation, and disarmament. In recent years, Nihon Hidankyo has worked with a range of Japanese and other nongovernmental organizations to organize citizens' conferences focusing attention on the consequences of nuclear war and advocating for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
In its Hibakusha Declaration for the 21st Century, adopted at its annual conference in 2001, Nihon Hidankyo states: "We want to open the "door to peace" before our lives end, to a Japan where the constitutional ideals prevail and a 21st century without war or nuclear weapons. The Door should lead to a Japanese Government that will acknowledge its responsibility for war, provide State compensation for the A-bomb damage and establish the country as a nation rejecting nuclear weapons and war. And it should lead to a U.S. that will apologize for dropping the atomic bombs and embark on the abolition of nuclear weapons."
August 6 will mark the sixtieth anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. To commemorate the anniversary and underscore the dangers of nuclear weapons Nihon Hidankyo is planning an international conference that month.
There are Hibakusha in countries around the world, including: Korea, Russia, Pacific Islands, China, India, Pakistan, and the United States. Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba of Hiroshima identifies three major contributions of the Hibakusha: first, "they were able to transcend the infernal pain and despair that the bombings sowed and to opt for life;" second, by telling their story they have "effectively prevented a third use of nuclear weapons;" and third, "they have rejected the path of revenge and animosity that lead to extinction for all humankind" and have, instead, worked to create a future of hope.
For additional information about Nihon Hidankyo: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hidankyo/nihon/english
For the original AFSC press release, see:
www.commondreams.org/news2005/0127-02.htm
= = = = = = = = = =
HIDANKYO is playing a major role in the movement against A and H bombs. Not only taking part in a number of peace events during summer, HIDANKYO sends its representatives all over Japan, who bear witness to their A-bomb experiences, helping to promote the public opinion for a ban and the elimination of nuclear weapons. Internationally, HIDANKYO sends many Hibakusha to other countries, who appeal the prevention of nuclear war and the abolition of nuclear arms, and inform people around the world of the damage caused by the A-bomb damage, thus helping to develop peace movement everywhere in the world. By these contributions, HIDANKYO was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1985 and 1994.
For more information on the HIDANKYO Organization, visit:
www.ne.jp/asahi/hidankyo/nihon/english/index.html
5) Sign on to UN Ocean Noise Petition
STOP THE NAVY NOISE!
Activist E-Mail Alert for Navy LFA Sonar Campaign
International Marine Mammal Project, Earth Island Institute
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Posted on behalf of the NGO coalition working to constrain human noise in the oceans
[EXCERPTS]
If you represent an organization with concern for human noise in the ocean we need your support on the Ocean Noise Petition to the UN. Please forward this call to all Organizations you know.
OceanCare
******************
To All NGOs
Call for Support on Deadly Ocean Noise
Dear Friends,
The issue of intense, human-produced underwater Ocean Noise has rapidly been emerging as a critical new area of environmental and political debate.
Over the past two decades, a dismaying sequence of marine mammal strandings has occurred in almost every region of the world's oceans. Whales of multiple species, as well as dolphins, have stranded and usually died in Greece [1996]; the Bahamas [2000]; Madeira, Spain [2000]; Vieques, Puerto Rico [1998, 2002]; Mexico [2002]; the Canary Islands [1985, 1988, 1989, 2002, 2004]; the northwest U.S. [2003]; Hawaii [2004]; Australia and New Zealand [2004]; and North Carolina, U.S. [2005]. This year on the 2nd of March, 80 rough-toothed dolphins stranded in the Florida Keys, all on the same day.
Each of these mass-strandings has now been correlated with naval maneuvers, the confirmed use of high intensity military sonar, or the use of high-powered "air guns." These technologies produce a source level of up to 235 decibels, or one trillion times louder than the sounds whales have been shown to avoid.
The Causes
The primary focus of attention in the cetacean strandings is the extremely loud noise generated by intense Low-Frequency [LFAS] and Mid-Frequency Active Sonar now increasingly utilized by the Naval military forces of several nations. Other extreme noise sources also suspected of causing harm, include the sonic blasts produced by commercial "Air Guns" used for oil and gas exploration, and used for geological surveys.
The sound produced by the intense Naval sonar is extraordinarily loud. This is not the gentle 'ping... ping... ping...' of the old sonar that we all heard in Hollywood movies. Instead, it's a massive blast of noise that that can continue up to 60 seconds and reach 235 decibels. That's the equivalent of the sound that would be heard by a person standing 10 feet away from a Saturn V rocket blasting off -- or 10 billion (!) times the noise level at which human hearing is considered at risk.
Call for Action
Clearly, this will be an intense political battle, against forces that have significant economic and political strength. The NGOs working on ocean noise request your organization's support in communicating with governments and the public. They ask if you can
Sign your organization onto the Petition to the United Nations and its Member States for Action on Underwater Noise Pollution which will be presented at the U.N. in June.
www.asms-swiss.org/deutsch/lfas/pdf/ECSO-Pet-02-E.pdf
available at: www.oceancare.org/
Contact the Coalitions
For those interested, the NGOs active on Ocean Noise invite you to consider joining one of their coalitions as they continue to push governments and plan public campaigns. Feel free to ask any of them for additional information:
The North American Ocean Noise Coalition [NAONC]
contact: Marsha L. Green, PhD
marshagreen@oceanmammalinst.org
tel. + 1 610 670-7386
www.oceannoisecoalition.org
The European Coalition for Silent Oceans [ ECSO]
contact: Sigrid Lˆber
slueber@oceancare.org
tel. + 41 01 780 66 88
www.oceancare.org
The South American Marine Working Group [SAMWG]
[El Grupo de Trabajo Marino de Amˆrica del Sur]
contact: Elsa Cabrera
yayais@ccc-chile.org
www.ccc-chile.org/
We Can All Take a Stand
Standing up to the forces that are producing deadly ocean noise technologies will be complex battle. But it's a battle worth fighting for many reasons. At a time when many governments are under intense pressure to retreat from democratic intergovernmental negotiations, and too many critical decisions are being taken out of the public view, it's vital that all governments be reminded that its citizens care about issues and have a right to be heard.
Thanks for your attention, and for your support in helping protect ocean ecosystems and the beautiful and intelligent creatures who peacefully live in them.
Best wishes,
Michael Strauss
Executive Director
E A R T H M E D I A
320 East 54th Street, 3H tel + 1 212 355-2122
New York, N.Y . 10022 fax + 1 212 421-3395
www.earthmedia.org-summit earthmedia@igc.org
Visit FN's resources on the U.S. Navy's experimental use of active sonar systems and its impact on sea life.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Bush High Crime * Left Gatekeepers * 911 Truth
08 May 2005
When I despair, I remember that all through history
the way of truth and love have always won.
There have been tyrants, and murderers,
and for a time they can seem invincible,
but in the end they always fall.
Think of it...always.
--Mahatma Gandhi
1) Proof Bush Fixed The Facts
- - Eighty-eight members of Congress Challenge Bush Secret War
- - Palast: "Impeachment Time: ‘"Facts Were Fixed.'"
2) Media ‘Gatekeepers of the So-Called Left
- - C-Span2 Breakthrough for 9/11 Truth
Editor's Notes:
This issue begins with the good news that truth has been uncovered regarding a policy for a secret war on Iraq, which was developed purportely between the US and UK secret governments. The bad news is in item 2 - the control of the media and what that says regarding truth-exposing impotency. This is not only true with progressive media outlets, but according to the article in item 2, Michael Novick of the Anti-Racist Action network claims that 501(c)3 - NGO - the not-for-profit corporate model ‘has been the death of popular movements and authentic resistance.‘ Yet it isn't time to give up ~ with the proof of high crimes and treason by the Bush administration that was recently uncovered, and the re-showing of David Ray Griffin's presentation via C-span.
It's better to light one candle
than to curse the darkness"
-- Emily Dickinson
1) Proof Bush Fixed The Facts
- - Eighty-eight members of Congress Challenge Bush Secret War
- - Palast: "Impeachment Time: ‘"Facts Were Fixed.'"
- - Proof Bush Fixed The Facts
By Ray McGovern
TomPaine.com
Wednesday 04 May 2005
"Intelligence and facts are being fixed around the policy."
[EXCERPT]
Never in our wildest dreams did we think we would see those words in black and white - and beneath a SECRET stamp, no less. For three years now, we in Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) have been saying that the CIA and its British counterpart, MI-6, were ordered by their countries' leaders to "fix facts" to "justify" an unprovoked war on Iraq. More often than not, we have been greeted with stares of incredulity.
It has been a hard learning - that folks tend to believe what they want to believe. As long as our evidence, however abundant and persuasive, remained circumstantial, it could not compel belief. It simply is much easier on the psyche to assent to the White House spin machine blaming the Iraq fiasco on bad intelligence than to entertain the notion that we were sold a bill of goods.
Well, you can forget circumstantial. Thanks to an unauthorized disclosure by a courageous whistleblower, the evidence now leaps from official documents - this time authentic, not forged.
Whether prompted by the open appeal of the international Truth-Telling Coalition or not, some brave soul has made the most explosive "patriotic leak" of the war by giving London's Sunday Times the official minutes of a briefing by Richard Dearlove, then head of Britain's CIA equivalent, MI-6. Fresh back in London from consultations in Washington, Dearlove briefed Prime Minister Blair and his top national security officials on July 23, 2002, on the Bush administration's plans to make war on Iraq.
Blair does not dispute the authenticity of the document, which immortalizes a discussion that is chillingly amoral. Apparently no one felt free to ask the obvious questions. Or, worse still, the obvious questions did not occur.
..In its formal appeal of Sept. 9, 2004 to current U.S. government officials, the Truth-Telling Coalition said this:
We know how misplaced loyalty to bosses, agencies, and careers can obscure the higher allegiance all government officials owe the Constitution, the sovereign public, and the young men and women put in harm's way. We urge you to act on those higher loyalties ... Truth-telling is a patriotic and effective way to serve the nation. The time for speaking out is now.
If persons with access to wrongly concealed facts and analyses bring them to light, the chances become less that a president could launch another unprovoked war - against, say, Iran.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/proof_bush_fixed_the_facts.php
or
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/050505K.shtml
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ray McGovern served 27 years as a CIA analyst and is now on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. He works for Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Eighty-eight members of Congress Challenge Bush Secret War
"This should not be allowed to fall down the memory hole
during wall-to-wall coverage of the Michael Jackson trial
and a runaway bride."
-- Rep. John Conyers
Eighty-eight members of Congress call on Bush for answers on secret Iraq plan
SECRET PLANS
Eighty-eight members of Congress call on Bush for answers on secret Iraq plan
RAW STORY
Eighty-eight members of Congress have signed a letter authored by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) calling on President Bush to answer questions about a secret U.S.-UK agreement to attack Iraq, RAW STORY has learned.
In a letter, Conyers and other members say they are disappointed the mainstream media has not touched the revelations. "Unfortunately, the mainstream media in the United States was too busy with wall-to-wall coverage of a "runaway bride" to cover a bombshell report out of the British newspapers," Conyers writes. "The London Times reports that the British government and the United States government had secretly agreed to attack Iraq in 2002, before authorization was sought for such an attack in Congress, and had discussed creating pretextual justifications for doing so."
"The Times reports, based on a newly discovered document, that in 2002 British Prime Minister Tony Blair chaired a meeting in which he expressed his support for "regime change" through the use of force in Iraq and was warned by the nation's top lawyer that such an action would be illegal," he adds. "Blair also discussed the need for America to "create" conditions to justify the war."
The members say they are seeking an inquiry. "This should not be allowed to fall down the memory hole during wall-to-wall coverage of the Michael Jackson trial and a runaway bride," he remarks. "To prevent that from occurring, I am circulating the following letter among my House colleagues and asking them to sign on to it."
The letter follows. ###
May 5, 2005 The Honorable George W. Bush President of the United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President:
We write because of troubling revelations in the Sunday London Times apparently confirming that the United States and Great Britain had secretly agreed to attack Iraq in the summer of 2002, well before the invasion and before you even sought Congressional authority to engage in military action. While various individuals have asserted this to be the case before, including Paul O'Neill, former U.S. Treasury Secretary, and Richard Clarke, a former National Security Council official, they have been previously dismissed by your Administration. However, when this story was divulged last weekend, Prime Minister Blair's representative claimed the document contained "nothing new." If the disclosure is accurate, it raises troubling new questions regarding the legal justifications for the war as well as the integrity of your own Administration.
The Sunday Times obtained a leaked document with the minutes of a secret meeting from highly placed sources inside the British Government. Among other things, the document revealed:
* Prime Minister Tony Blair chaired a July 2002 meeting, at which he discussed military options, having already committed himself to supporting President Bush's plans for invading Iraq.
* British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw acknowledged that the case for war was "thin" as "Saddam was not threatening his neighbours and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea, or Iran."
* A separate secret briefing for the meeting said that Britain and America had to "create" conditions to justify a war.
* A British official "reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."
As a result of this recent disclosure, we would like to know the following:
1) Do you or anyone in your Administration dispute the accuracy of the leaked document?
2) Were arrangements being made, including the recruitment of allies, before you sought Congressional authorization go to war? Did you or anyone in your Administration obtain Britain's commitment to invade prior to this time?
3) Was there an effort to create an ultimatum about weapons inspectors in order to help with the justification for the war as the minutes indicate?
4) At what point in time did you and Prime Minister Blair first agree it was necessary to invade Iraq?
5) Was there a coordinated effort with the U.S. intelligence community and/or British officials to "fix" the intelligence and facts around the policy as the leaked document states? We have of course known for some time that subsequent to the invasion there have been a variety of varying reasons proffered to justify the invasion, particularly since the time it became evident that weapons of mass destruction would not be found. This leaked document - essentially acknowledged by the Blair government - is the first confirmation that the rationales were shifting well before the invasion as well.
Given the importance of this matter, we would ask that you respond to this inquiry as promptly as possible.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
For the posted article and list of
Members who have already signed letter:
See: http://www.rawstory.com/aexternal/conyers_iraq_letter_502
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Palast: "Impeachment Time: ‘"Facts Were Fixed.'"
IMPEACHMENT TIME: "FACTS WERE FIXED."
Special to BuzzFlash
May 5, 2005
By Greg Palast
Here it is. The smoking gun. The memo that has "IMPEACH HIM" written all over it.
The top-level government memo marked "SECRET AND STRICTLY PERSONAL," dated eight months before Bush sent us into Iraq, following a closed meeting with the President, reads, "Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam through military action justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."
Read that again: "The intelligence and facts were being fixed...."
For years, after each damning report on BBC TV, viewers inevitably ask me, "Isn't this grounds for impeachment?" -- vote rigging, a blind eye to terror and the bin Ladens before 9-11, and so on. Evil, stupidity and self-dealing are shameful but not impeachable. What's needed is a "high crime or misdemeanor."
And if this ain't it, nothing is.
Article truncated, for complete article, see:
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=426&row=0
2) Media ‘Gatekeepers of the So-Called Left
- - C-Span2 Breakthrough for 9/11 Truth
- - The Gatekeepers of the So-Called Left
From: Scoop Outgoing News
UQ Wire: The Gatekeepers of the So-Called Left
Posting to Headlines Wire of Scoop
Opinion: www.UnansweredQuestions.org
Date: Wednesday, 4 May 2005
Regulated Resistance: Pt. 2 -
The Gatekeepers of the So-Called Left
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
By Charles Shaw
[EXCERPTS]
Last February United for Peace and Justice, the largest representative coalition within the American "anti-war movement", emerged from their second annual Assembly with a 2005 "action plan" that effectively caged the "anti-war" debate exclusively within the Iraq conflict to achieve partisan ends on behalf of the pro-war Democratic Party and their Neoliberal corporate benefactors. Their "action plan" refused to address any of the core issues of US Foreign and Defense policy, which are the root causes of a pervading culture of war and militarism that has taken over the nation in the years since WWII.
These decisions are part of a larger pattern of "regulated resistance", a system by which dissent is carefully managed and constrained by self, overt, or covert censorship; denial-based-psychology; fear of personal or professional criticism and reprisal; and pressure from powers above including elected officials and those establishment foundations which flood millions into the not-for-profit activist sector.
This establishment money, and the access it grants, has caused many ostensible resistance leaders to suddenly and dramatically abandon long-held ideological positions and shift their behavior towards doing what can clearly be seen as the bidding of those in power whose views and values are in direct contravention to the established mores of peace and justice movements throughout history.
These "resistance leaders" of the "Left" act as "Gatekeepers"—influential "progressive" figures who use their resources and visibility to regulate the debate, tactics, and rhetoric of the "anti-war" and other "progressive" movements.
The Gatekeepers of the So-Called "Left"
"The press is the hired agent of a moneyed system, set up for no other reason than to tell us lies where their interests are concerned." — Henry Adams
In his shocking investigative report "The Left Gatekeepers", journalist Bob Feldman researched purportedly "Left" activist and media organizations that receive substantial funding from large establishment foundations with known ties to the CIA, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, and even the much-maligned Carlyle Group, the arms dealing "investment fund" featured in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, of which GHW Bush, the Saudi royal family, and, at one time, the Bin Laden family, are all equity partners.
The Foundation structure is used by these organizations to funnel corporate and personal wealth into the policy-making process. Foundations are tax-free, and contributions to foundations are deductible from federal corporate and individual income taxes. The Foundations themselves are not subject to federal income taxation, and they control hundreds of billions of dollars of money that would normally go to pay these necessary taxes.
Feldman asks, "Are the interests of the people being served by 'dissidents' who are being subsidized by the agencies of the ruling class whom they should be exposing? What does this say about the motivations behind the Left establishment's ideological warfare against conspiracy researchers, and their adoption of an increasingly watered-down analytical view which fails to look closely at the inner power structures and conspiracies of the ruling elite?" ..
What outrages many of those within the activist community who are aware of these funding sources is that these so-called "dissidents" would consent to take money from these foundations given the long and voluminous history they have as part of the war-making establishment.
In his book Trading with the Enemy, Charles Hingham documents how both the Rockefeller and Ford fortunes were enhanced in part through collaboration with Nazi Germany, the Rockefellers by selling the Nazis oil through the Standard Oil Company, and the Fords by selling the Nazis tanks through subsidiary corporations (note: the only industrial infrastructure spared in the Allied bombing of Germany was the Ford Motors plant near Cologne). Both Standard Oil (eventually Amoco) and the Ford Motor Co. made huge profits from Defense contracts following WWII. Since 1950 a Rockefeller has held a prominent leadership position in the Council on Foreign Relations, and David Rockefeller was cofounder of the Trilateral Commission. Both organizations helped craft the "Carter Doctrine" of the late 1970s which stated that the US would heretofore intervene militarily to protect its oil supply from the Middle East.
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has been the historical driving force behind such bedrock institutions of corporate globalization as the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Word Trade Organization, and NATO, and which Esquire magazine referred to in 1962 as "that part of the Establishment that guides our destiny as a nation." In 1950, the Chicago Tribune published a story on the CFR in which they stated, "[the members] have used the prestige that their wealth, their social position, and their education have given them to lead their country towards bankruptcy and military debacle. They should look at their hands. There is blood on them—the dried blood of the last war and the fresh blood of the present one."
The Failed Obligations and Inexcusable Denials of the "Left" Media
To offer a clear portrait of how "regulated resistance" works within the "Left" or "progressive" media, consider their steadfast refusal to report on or organize around two of the most important incidents in modern American history as pertains to our present situation—possible US government involvement in 9/11, and the relationship between the Bush family and the Nazi regime in Germany.
Sins of Omission and Distortion9/11, and the Rubber Stamp
As mentioned throughout this article, the first and perhaps greatest failure of the "anti-war movement" is the shameful irresponsibility the "Left" has shown by their refusal to challenge the "official" story behind 9/11.
Bob Feldman writes
Not surprisingly, the rank and file didn't buy into the hype—nor were many convinced by the gatekeepers' offhand, passionless calls for an official investigation. Interest in alternative 9/11 reporting continued to grow, and by the time that members of 9/11 victim's families began publicly demanding an end to the government cover-up and even mainstream media outlets such as the New York Times were admitting that the lack of an independent investigatory commission was "extraordinary," the Left media gatekeepers backed down and adopted a new tactic of silent stonewalling and tacit support for the official story.
..The 9/11 Truth movement got a fledgling chance to make its case to the "Left" on May 26th, 2004, when, Amy Goodman, host of the flagship Progressive news source Democracy NOW!, agreed to host prominent theologian David Ray Griffin, author of The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11. Her decision followed a long and relentless "Waking Amy" campaign organized by Emanuel Sferios of the 9/11 Visibility Project.
However, at the last minute, Goodman abruptly and without explanation changed the format of the show from an interview to a "debate,"and brought in long-time "anti-conspiracist" Chip Berlet. Berlet is not an expert on 9/11 research, and his group, Political Research Associates, is an alleged "Left" organization that is funded in part by the Ford Foundation. (It is interesting to note that "Chip" Berlet's full name is John Foster Berlet. He was named after John Foster Dulles who, with his brother Allen, designed the CIA for Harry Truman in 1947, and played a prominent role in smuggling Nazis into America to help build the post-WWII American "Defense" and Intelligence apparatus).
Despite their being a virtual laundry list of inconsistencies to the "official" story, and documented proof of government cover-up activity, the final product, "The New Pearl Harbor" A Debate On A New Book That Alleges The Bush Administration Was Behind The 9/11 Attacks," focused almost exclusively on a handful of weak speculations made by French researcher Thierry Meyssan, not Griffin, about aspects of the Pentagon strike. This well-worn tactic known as the "straw man argument" is used by detractors to attack and undermine the weakest part of an alternative theory in order to dismiss it and alienate the public from the larger issue..
Griffin did end up writing a lengthy response to Berlet's misleading critique, but the damage had already been done. Goodman never really inquired beyond the "straw man" arguments Berlet kept pounding, and no other "Left" media outlet with the audience of Democracy NOW! has touched the story since. [article was written before C-span coverage of David Ray Griffin's lecture in Madison, Wisconsin]
It is important to note that Democracy NOW! was awarded a $75,000 Ford Foundation grant in 2002 "to continue incorporating the aftermath of the September 11th attack into future broadcasts," and received a further $150,000 from Ford in 2004.
Emanuel Sferios says the Ford Foundation does not have to explicitly tell Democracy NOW! how they want 9/11 to be covered. He explains that "Democracy NOW! will simply self-censor, because they want future money from the Ford Foundation. It's also important to note that Amy Goodman coined a new, pejorative phrase to dismiss the 9/11 Truth Movement. She is the first in history, as far as I know, to refer to us as a "conspiracy theory movement."
The most glaring irony in all of this is that it was Goodman herself who uttered these words
"I think the media has reached an all-time low in this country. And that is a terrible violation of what our profession is supposed to do. We are supposed to hold those in power accountable. We're not supposed to cozy up to those in power, not supposed get the perks of the powerful. We are supposed to be there to, if not keep the politicians honest, show what's going on. And it is very serious now because we're talking about wartime... And when the media acts as a conveyer belt for the lies of the administration, we not only are violating our responsibility, but those lies take lives."
A Story That Would Outrage Anyone—But No One Knows About
The "Left" has also consistently refused, on any level, to report or act on the established connection between the Bush Family and the Nazi Party during the 1930's, 40's, and early 50's.
John Buchanan, the charismatic, relentless independent journalist from Miami wrote about his inability to get any mainstream media source to pick up his New Hampshire Gazette story, "Bush—Nazi Dealings Continued Until 1951" in his 2004 book, Fixing America: Breaking the Stranglehold of Corporate Rule, Big Media, and the Religious Right.
Even though Buchanan's reporting was based on facts that came directly from declassified official documents currently in the National Archives, not one single mainstream news source agreed to even look at the government documents, which chronicled the long history of collaboration between Bush's grandfathers Prescott Bush and George Herbert Walker.
Prescott Bush's employer A. Averell Harriman of Brown Brothers Harriman, and Nazi industrialist and financier Fritz Thyssen. Between 1942 and 1951, under the "Trading with the Enemy Act," the US Government seized 33 Bush-Harriman-Nazi businesses and client assets. But instead of facing a firing squad for treason during war time, Prescott Bush pocketed $1.5 Million from the liquidation of the first and largest of the 33 businesses, the Union Banking Corporation, principle investor in the Silesian-American Corporation which used slave-labor from the Auschwitz concentration camp for mining in Poland. None of the principles in the deal were ever brought to justice.
This story should have resurfaced every time one of the Bush men ran for or was appointed to public office. Instead, it was spun relentlessly, and eventually buried. Only The Guardian of London eventually picked up on this story in one subsequent article nearly a year later titled, "How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power".
CONCLUSION: The Death of Authentic Resistance
Michael Novick of the Anti-Racist Action network has been around a long time, and has a list of bona fides pages long. He has seen many an organization come and go, and he believes that the 501(c)3/NGO/not-for-profit corporate model has been the death of popular movements and authentic resistance.
=================================================================
Charles Shaw is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Newtopia,
and has been deeply involved in the anti-war movement since the
bombing of Afghanistan. Newtopia Magazine is a member group of
United for Peace and Justice.
=================================================================
This Story is at http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0505/S00043.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - C-Span2 Breakthrough for 9/11 Truth
Noted Theologian, David Ray Griffin
Reveals Major 9/11 Cover-up on C-SPAN
This is a phenomenal development !
The truth about 911, and how we know it was planned and perpetrated by the forces within our own government, has taken a GIANT leap forward with this national exposure, on C-SPAN by conservative theologian, David Ray Griffin.
Every Machiavellian act this government has taken since that infamous day is based on a claimed (by them) "attack by Arab terrorists" against our nation.
Only that claim turns out to be the MOTHER OF ALL LIES, and David tells you very clearly how we know that to be the case. If you don't have video capability do as I did at first, listen to the audio here, on the below link.
True, we still don't know exactly HOW and by whom specifically 911 was pulled of; only that it was OUR PEOPLE who pulled it off. That's all we need to know to set a genuine investigation off, with testimony under oath, where people involved will have to reveal the specific roles they played, and under who's orders.
Listen or watch; it's only an hour and twenty minutes. You'll be relieved to know what we all now know. We are safe from everyone BUT those who hijacked our government five and a half years ago. A government we'll have to take back and make into a democracy where people, not corporations, run our government.
Ken Reiner
Re-run of Griffin 9/11 Talk on C-Span Sat 5/7
http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=34027
David Ray Griffin Reveals Major 9/11 Cover-up on C-SPAN
http://www.wanttoknow.info/050504davidraygriffin
Links and article posted from
http://www.unobserver.com/layout5.php?id=2091&blz=2
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The David Ray Griffin C-Span talk
is available HERE on DVD!
Following are mainstream news coverage:
Speaker Says Bush Knew Of Sept. 11 Plans
and
Theologian calls for response to 9/11
Also, recommended, is another presentation by David Ray Griffin,
speaking in Santa Rosa, California, about his newest book,
The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions.
These are must see films, which include visuals of actual events illustrating what
Dr. Griffin is talking about, like free-falling (controlled-demolition) Towers.
And, what was that about a third building collapsing, inexplicably..
or an airplane disappearing into the Pentagon via undersized hole?
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
NuclearStrikes * GitmoCoverUp * HowarDean
04 May 2005
"If I had only known,
I would have been a locksmith."
-- Albert Einstein
1) Regional Commanders May Get OK to Request Nuclear Strikes
- - Bush administration and Sudan
- - Sudan: Beyond the Corporate Media
2) ‘Torture, Cover-Up' - Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - US Prison Camps
- - Amnesty International Blasts US for Abu Ghraib Failings
- - Tom Hayden responds to Howard Dean
- - Cindy Sheehan's letter to Howard Dean
- - An Open Letter to Howard Dean Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich
Editor's Notes:
I appreciate your reading such concentrated news for interests of not getting blind-sided too many times.. Time is shrinking for an integrity in humanity to survive. Hot in this issue are the flames of hell promoted by the Bush administration push for tactical nuclear weapons, poised to strike preemptively, possibly. This atrocious report released by the US on the ides of March is called: "Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations." What a way to basically sabotage the agenda of United Nation's convening for the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty. And finally, grassroots' reporting on the Sudan, and potential US treachery in this region for oil-military gain.
And yet, the media can resist, but, inevitably, truth will rise to the surface. In item 2 learn of CBS TV News revelations of Guantanamo Bay abuse of prisoners, which was reported long ago by FN and world media. Sgt. Erik Saar, 'a soldier who spent three months in the interrogation rooms at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba' has written a book called: "Inside the Wire." This item include excerpts and links to the transcript of the interview of Sgt. Saar that reveal: ‘bizarre, even sadistic, treatment of detainees in the American prison camp' Also, in this item, please consider letting Howard Dean know, too, how you feel about his supporting a laissez-faire policy for the Bush administration in its policies in Iraq.
Upcoming Events - IMPORTANT - Time Sensitive
C-Span has decided to air David Ray Griffin's lecture presentation
in Madison, Wisconsin again, this Saturday,
May 7th, at 2:30 PM EST (11:30 AM West Coast).
One viewer who saw this program stated that he was "stunned."
This was a first for a mainstream network, and they are repeating it at a better time-slot.
Please share and copy this program.
Here is the announcement directly from C-span's website.
Or watch the
C-span program Online (WMV video)
Or listen to the audio here (mp3)
Also, recommended, is another presentation by David Ray Griffin on film, which includes visuals,
inserted to illustrate the actual events of what Dr. Griffin is talking about, like free-falling
(controlled-demolition) Towers. And, what was that about a third building collapsing,
inexplicably.. or an airplane disappearing into the Pentagon via an undersized hole?
Another time-sensitive event
is for the freedom of Leonard Peltier
Monday, May 9th, Washington, D.C.
in Front of the U.S. Supreme Court Building; 20543
For carpooling information, visit:
http://washingtongathering.croweagle.com/
For more information visit:
FN's Archives on Leoanrd Peltier.
Don't compromise yourself,
it's all you've got.
-- Janis Joplin
1) Regional Commanders May Get OK to Request Nuclear Strikes
- - Bush administration and Sudan
- - Sudan: Beyond the Corporate Media
- - Regional Commanders May Get OK to Request Nuclear Strikes
"Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations"
Japan Times Online
U.S. may allow nuke strikes over WMD
Proposal would reverse 10-year policy
WASHINGTON (Kyodo) The U.S. military is considering allowing regional combatant commanders to request presidential approval for pre-emptive nuclear strikes against possible attacks with weapons of mass destruction on the United States or its allies, according to a draft nuclear operations paper.
The March 15 paper, drafted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is titled "Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations," providing "guidelines for the joint employment of forces in nuclear operations . . . for the employment of U.S. nuclear forces, command and control relationships, and weapons effect considerations."
"There are numerous nonstate organizations (terrorist, criminal) and about 30 nations with WMD programs, including many regional states," the paper says in recommending that commanders in the Pacific and other theaters be given an option of pre-emptive strikes against "rogue" states and terrorists and "request presidential approval for use of nuclear weapons" under set conditions.
The paper identifies nuclear, biological and chemical weapons as requiring pre-emptive strikes to prevent their use. Allowing pre-emptive nuclear strikes against possible biological and chemical attacks would effectively contradict a "negative security assurance" policy declared 10 years ago by the Clinton administration during an international conference to review the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Creating a treaty committing nuclear powers not to use nuclear weapons against countries without nuclear weapons remains one of the most contentious issues for the 35-year-old NPT regime. A Pentagon official said the paper "is still a draft which has to be finalized" but indicated that it is aimed at guiding "cross-spectrum" combatant commanders how to jointly carry out operations based on the Nuclear Posture Review report adopted three years ago by the Bush administration.
Citing North Korea, Iran and some other countries as threats, the report sets out contingencies for which U.S. nuclear strikes must be prepared. It calls for developing earth-penetrating nuclear bombs to destroy hidden underground military facilities, including those for storing WMD and ballistic missiles.
"The nature (of the paper) is to explain not details but cross spectrum for how to conduct operations," the official said, noting that it "means for all services -- army, navy, air force and marine."
In 1991 after the end of the Cold War, the United States removed its ground-based nuclear weapons in Asia and Europe as well as strategic nuclear warheads on warships and submarines. But the paper says the U.S. has the capability of reviving sea-based nuclear arms.
The Japan Times: May 2, 2005
(C) All rights reserved.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050502a3.htm
---
also posted:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8718.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush administration and Sudan
From Democracy Now!:
* Bush Administration Allied With Sudan Despite Role in Darfur Genocide *
The Los Angeles Times has revealed that the U.S. has quietly forged a close intelligence partnership with Sudan despite the government's role in the mass killings in Darfur.
For the interview with Ken Silverstein, the reporter who broke the story, Salih Booker, the director of Africa Action as well as Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ).
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/03/1357228
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Sudan: Beyond the Corporate Media
A Forum on May 5 with Phil Taylor, Journalist & Defence Research Consultant to the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda in Arusha
Day: May 5, 2005 Time: 8:00 pm Location: McMaster University Medical Centre, Ewart Angus Centre, HS1A5
The media, concurrent with their sudden interest in the occurrences in Rwanda ten years ago, has presented an image of a genocide in Darfur that must be stopped. We are told that in order to 'prevent' "another Rwanda," the West must intervene - but that right now, our leaders are immorally silent. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The main backers of an intervention into Sudan are Colin Powell and Tony Blair, the same people who sold us the Iraq war. Internationally, the U.S., Britain, and Israel form the core of invasion proponents. Does George Bush truly care about the people of Sudan, or does he have other motives in this oil-rich country? And why is the corporate media now so active on this particular issue? Have George Bush and Tony Blair developed a sudden sympathy for the plight of Africans? Does a country with a record towards its African citizens like the United States have the moral authority to intervene in African affairs? Days ago, U.S.-ousted former Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide accused the U.S. of assisting in a Western "holocaust" against blacks in Haiti. So why should we believe that the West can help blacks in Sudan?
Don't believe the anti-Arab propaganda surrounding this issue, and start asking yourself where the money for the well-equipped anti-government guerilla army in the Sudan is coming from. This is not ethnic warfare so much as a continuation of the "great game." To learn more, come to the May 5 lecture with Journalist & Defense Research Consultant to the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda in Arusha
Phil Taylor.
2) ‘Torture, Cover-Up' - Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - US Prison Camps
- - One Year On, Amnesty International Blasts US for Abu Ghraib Failings
- - Tom Hayden responds to Howard Dean
- - Cindy Sheehan's letter to Howard Dean
- - An Open Letter to Howard Dean Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich
- - ‘Torture, Cover-Up' - Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - US Prison Camp
[Yes.. Old news but a new book shines new light and solid evidence of a breakdown in US Intelligence regarding the facade War on Terror.- but rather - War for Terror.]
Torture, Cover-Up At Gitmo?
CBSnews.com "Sixty Minutes"
May 1, 2005
The story that Sgt. Erik Saar, a soldier who spent three months in the interrogation rooms at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, tells Correspondent Scott Pelley paints a picture of bizarre, even sadistic, treatment of detainees in the American prison camp.
Experts in intelligence tell 60 Minutes that if what Saar says is true, some soldiers at Guantanamo have undermined the war on terror, bungling the interrogation of important prisoners.
60 Minutes also reveals previously secret emails from FBI agents at Guantanamo that warn FBI headquarters that prisoners are being tortured.
"I think the harm we are doing there far outweighs the good, and I believe it's inconsistent with American values," says Saar. "In fact, I think it's fair to say that it's the moral antithesis of what we want to stand for as a country."
Saar volunteered for Guantanamo Bay in 2002. He was a U.S. Army linguist, an expert in Arabic, with a top-secret security clearance. He was assigned to translate during interrogations. The prisoners, about 600 in all, were mostly from the battlefields of Afghanistan. And Saar couldn't wait to get at them after what the administration said: the men were "among the most dangerous, best-trained, vicious killers on the face of the earth."
With that in mind, Saar went to work, but he was surprised by what he found.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
How many prisoners did he think were the worst of the worst – real terrorists?
"At best, I would say there were a few dozen," says Saar. "A few dozen [out of 600]."
Who were the rest of the guys? "Some of them were conscripts who actually were forced to fight for the Taliban, so actually had taken up arms against us, but had little or no choice in the matter," says Saar. "Some of them were individuals who were picked up by the Northern Alliance, and we have no idea why they were there, and we didn't know exactly what their connections were to terrorism."
However they got there, Saar and the rest of Guantanamo's intelligence personnel were told that the captives were not prisoners of war, and therefore, were not protected by the Geneva Convention.
"Your training in intelligence had told you what about the Geneva Conventions?" asks Pelley.
"That they were never to be violated," says Saar. "As a matter of fact, the training for interrogators themselves, their entire coursework falls under the umbrella of you never violate the Geneva Conventions."
"If the rules of the Geneva Convention did not apply, what rules did apply?" asks Pelley.
"I don't think anybody knew that," says Saar.
And so, Saar said, some U.S. military intelligence personnel used cruelty, and even bizarre sexual tactics against the prisoners. Saar has written a book, "Inside the Wire," about his experiences at Guantanamo. Penguin Press will release it on Tuesday.
He told 60 Minutes about one interrogation in particular, in which he translated for a female interrogator who was trying to break a high-priority prisoner — a Saudi who had been in flight school in the United States.
"As she stood in front of him, she slowly started to unbutton her Army blouse. She had on underneath the Army blouse a tight brown Army T-shirt, touched her breasts, and said, 'Don't you like these big American breasts?'" says Saar. "She wanted to create a barrier between this detainee and his faith, and if she could somehow sexually entice him, he would feel unclean in an Islamic way, he would not be able to pray and go before his God and gain that strength, so the next day, maybe he would be able to start cooperating, start talking to her."
But the prisoner wasn't talking, so Saar said the interrogator increased the pressure.
"She started to unbutton her pants and reached and put her hands in her pants and then started to circle around the detainee. And when she had her hands in her pants, apparently she used something to put what appeared to be menstrual blood on her hand, but in fact was ink," says Saar.
"When she circled around the detainee, she pulled out her hand, which was red, and said, 'I'm actually menstruating right now, and I'm touching you. Does that please your God? Does that please Allah?' And then he kind of got pent up and shied away from her, and she then took the ink and wiped it on his face, and said, 'How do you like that?'" Then, the interrogator sent the prisoner back to his cell with a message.
"She said, 'Have fun trying to pray tonight while there's no water in your cell,' meaning that she was gonna have the water turned off in his cell, so that he then could not go back and become ritually clean. So he then therefore could not pray," says Saar.
"I know that the individual that we were talking that night was a bad individual. Someone who I hope never -- I hope he's in captivity forever, I hope he never goes anywhere. But I felt awful that night. I felt dirty and disgusting."
"What you have here is a Saudi training at an American flight school, just like the 9/11 hijackers," says Pelley. "You know, there are people at home watching this right now, saying, 'Hey, you've got to do what you've got to do.'"
"I do understand that, and the fact is No. 1, it's ineffective," says Saar. "There are much better methods that were being employed at Guantanamo Bay, that yielded the little bit of intelligence that we did receive, and it wasn't methods like those."
60 Minutes talked to three interrogators who were at Guantanamo at the same time that Saar was there. And they told us the sexual tactics were well known, and even had a name they called it the "sex-up" approach.
Did it work?
"It did not work, and from what I later learned, the detainee remained uncooperative," says Saar. "It's impossible to try to build a connection and establish trust. We were now relying solely on fear to get the detainee to cooperate, and I think that's an enormous mistake. I think many of the FBI agents on the base felt as though that was a mistake also."
The FBI does its own questioning of prisoners at Guantanamo, and those agents have been writing emails, classified secret, to FBI headquarters. They detail abuse by military interrogators. The agents wrote of finding prisoners "chained hand and foot in a fetal position" for up to 24 hours at a time, and of prisoners who had "urinated or defecated on themselves."
Another FBI document says an interrogator grabbed a detainee's thumbs and "bent them backwards" and "grabbed his genitals." One FBI agent reported that he saw a detainee had been "gagged with duct tape that covered much of his head." The interrogator explained that the prisoner had been "chanting the Koran and would not stop."
60 Minutes ran the emails and Saar's story past one of the nation's most experienced military intelligence experts.
"Unimaginable to me, I just can not imagine what people think they were doing," says Army Col. Patrick Lang, who was head of human intelligence gathering at the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency.
Lang, who's now retired, wrote the Arabic and Middle-East studies curricula for West Point. "I mean, what is this?" asks Lang. "A scene from Dante's Inferno? I mean, what level of hell are we on to? Imagine that we could do such things to people? This is just absolutely wrong."
[EXCERPT]
If all this was well known on the base, how could it have been kept largely under wraps for three years, especially when congressmen and senators often inspected the camp? Well, Saar said it may be in part because those inspections were rigged to fool the visiting VIPs.
"Interrogations were set up so the VIPs could come and witness an interrogation, and in fact the interrogation would be a mock interrogation, basically," says Saar.
"They would find a detainee that they knew to have been cooperative. They would ask the interrogator to go back over the same information that they reviewed on whatever date they had previously interrogated the detainee," says Saar. "And they would sit across a table and talk as though you and I are talking, and this was a fictitious world that they would create for these VIP visits, because in fact, it's not what generally took place in Guantanamo Bay."
"They staged the interrogations?" asks Pelley.
"Yes," says Saar. "They staged the interrogations."
60 Minutes asked the Army to comment on Saar's story, or provide someone to talk about Guantanamo Bay. The Army declined.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/04/28/60minutes/main691602.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Amnesty International Blasts US for Abu Ghraib Failings
Published April 28, 2005
by the Agence France Presse
One Year On, Amnesty International Blasts US for Abu Ghraib Failings
Amnesty International blasted the United States for failing to launch an independent probe into Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison scandal, a year after images of abused detainees first shocked the world. The London-based human rights organization also condemned signs of fresh torture and sexual abuse in the country by the Iraqi prison authorities.
{EXCERPT]
Amnesty International called for the anniversary of the publication of the photographs from Abu Ghraib "to be marked by the strongest condemnation of all forms of torture by the US and Iraqi governments. "One year on, the US authorities must establish an independent investigation into the abuses and bring the perpetrators to justice."
For the complete article, see:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0428-09.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Tom Hayden responds to Howard Dean
Published on Friday, April 29, 2005 by The Nation
Open Letter to Howard Dean
by Katrina vanden Heuvel
[EXCERPT]
For those who believe that America needs to change course, Tom Hayden's open letter to Howard Dean appealing to him not to take the antiwar majority of the Democratic Party for granted is an eloquent and important document. Read it, share it. - Katrina vanden Heuvel
April 26, 2005
Dear Chairman Dean,
The anti-war movement must lead and hopefully, the Democratic Party will follow. But there is much the Democratic Party can do:
First, stop marginalizing those Democrats who are calling for immediate withdrawal or a one-year timetable. Encourage pubic hearings in Congressional districts on the ongoing costs of war and occupation, with comparisons to alternative spending priorities for the one billion dollars per week.
Second, call for peace talks between Iraqi political parties and the Iraqi resistance. Hold hearings demand to know why the Bush Administration is trying to squash any such Iraqi peace initiatives. (Bush Administration officials are hoping the new Iraqi government will "settle for a schedule based on the military situation, not the calendar." New York Times, Jan. 19, 2005).
Third, as an incentive to those Iraqi peace initiatives, the US needs to offer to end the occupation and withdraw our troops by a near-term date. The Bush policy, supported by the Democrats, is to train and arm Iraqis to fight Iraqis--a civil war with fewer American casualties.
Fourth, to further promote peace initiatives, the US needs to specify that a multi-billion dollar peace dividend will be earmarked for Iraqi-led reconstruction, not for the Halliburtons and Bechtels, without discrimination as to Iraqi political allegiances.
Fifth, Democrats could unite behind Senator Rockefeller's persistent calls for public hearings on responsibility for the torture scandals. If Republicans refuse to permit such hearings, Democrats should hold them independently. "No taxes for torture" is a demand most Democrats should be able to support. The Democratic Senate unity against the Bolton appointment is a bright but isolated example of how public hearings can keep media and public attention focused on the fabricated reasons for going to war.
Instead of such initiatives, the national Democratic Party is either committed to the Iraq War, or to avoiding blame for losing the Iraq War, at the expense of the social programs for which it historically stands. The Democrats' stance on the war cannot be separated from the Democrats' stance on health care, social security, inner city investment, and education, all programs gradually being defunded by a war which costs $100 billion yearly, billed to future generations.
This is a familiar pattern for those of us who suffered through the Vietnam War. Today it is conventional wisdom among Washington insiders, including even the liberal media, that the Democratic Party must distance itself from its antiwar past, and must embrace a position of military toughness.
The truth is quite the opposite. What the Democratic Party should distance itself from is its immoral and self-destructive pro-war positions in the 1960s which led to unprecedented polarization, the collapse of funds for the War on Poverty, a schism in the presidential primaries, and the destruction of the Lyndon Johnson presidency. Thirty years after our forced withdrawal from Vietnam, the US government has stable diplomatic and commercial relations with its former Communist enemy. The same future is possible in Iraq.
I appeal to you, Mr. Chairman, not to take the anti-war majority of this Party for granted. May I suggest that you initiate a serious reappraisal of how the Democratic Party has become trapped in the illusions which you yourself questioned so cogently when you ran for president. I believe that an immediate commencement of dialogue is necessary to fix the credibility gap in the Party's position on the Iraq War. Surely if the war was a mistake based on a fabrication, there is a better approach than simply becoming accessories to the perpetrators of the deceit. And surely there is a greater role for Party leadership than permanently squandering the immense good will, grass roots funding, and new volunteer energy that was generated by your visionary campaign.
Tom Hayden
For the complete letter, see:
http://www.thenation.com/edcut/index.mhtml?bid=7&pid=2356
also posted:
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0429-23.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Cindy Sheehan's letter to Howard Dean
Cindy Sheehan's words follow:
(My response to Howard Dean after he advocated for the continued occupation of Iraq)
This is the article I am referencing
http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5360513.html
http://www.dnc.org To send a letter of your own.
April 24, 2005
Mr. Dean,
My son was KIA in Iraq on 04/04/04.
I have in the past admired you for your steadfast efforts for truth and for your integrity. However, I seriously have to disagree with you when you say that the US can't leave Iraq now. I think that our mere presence in that country is fueling the insurgency that killed my son.
For the complete letter, see:
http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/what/latest.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - An Open Letter to Howard Dean Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich
Dear Chairman Dean,
Speaking before an ACLU crowd last week in Minnesota, the home state of Paul Wellstone, the only senator to vote against the war, you were quoted as saying, "Now that we're there [in Iraq], we're there and we can't get out.... I hope the President is incredibly successful with his policy now." Did these words really come from the same man who claimed to represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, and who had recently campaigned on the antiwar theme? What's changed?
For the complete Open Letter to Howard Dean from Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, see:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/thenation/20050503/cm_thenation/20050516kucinich_1
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
C-Span DRG * ArcticDrilling * Sitcha * MayDay
29 April 2005
You can no more win a war,
than you can win an earthquake.
-- Jeanette Rankin
1) C-Span Broadcast: David Ray Griffin April 30, 10:30 AM ET
2) Stop Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil drilling today!
3) Richard Sitcha Alert ~ Update ~ Reminder
4) NYC March and Rally Against the Iraq War & for Nuclear Disarmament
Editor's Notes:
David Ray Griffin's Wisconsin lecture, "9/11 and the American Empire," is now scheduled to be aired on C-Span2 (Book TV) this Saturday, April 30th, at 10:30 AM Eastern time.
Item 2 is an urgent action request by BioGems. They have recently learned that the House and Senate could vote by Friday on a final budget resolution that would pave the way for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Please call the Capitol Hill switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for the office of your representative: "Vote against any budget resolution that includes reconciliation instructions that could lead to Arctic Refuge oil drilling." Then call your two senators and leave them the same message.
Item 3 is a reminder and update on Richard Sitcha.
Item 4 is on the NYC March and Rally for Peace in Iraq and Disarmament Worldwide
1) C-Span Broadcast: David Ray Griffin April 30, 10:30 AM ET
The following is forwarded from the webmaster of SeptemberEleventh.org
Dear 9/11 Truth Activists and concerned citizens,
We have a date!
David Ray Griffin's Wisconsin lecture, "9/11 and the American Empire," is now scheduled to be aired on C-Span2 (Book TV) this Saturday, April 30th, at 10:30 AM Eastern time (7:30 AM PDT), right after Andrew Bacevich on "The New American Militarism" (9:00 AM EDT), which also should not be missed.
So set your alarm clocks (especially if you live on the West Coast) and get your VCRs ready. Also, forward this email to EVERYONE you know!
And much appreciation goes out to Kevin Barrett and the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth (www.mujca.com), who organized the lecture.
Blurb below directly from C-Span's website.
Towards peace and truth,
Emanuel Sferios
Webmaster, SeptemberEleventh.org
-----
www.booktv.org/General/index.asp?segID=5677&schedID=343
Saturday, April 30 at 10:30 am
The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions
David Ray Griffin
Description: David Ray Griffin takes a critical look at the official 9/11 Commission Report put out by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. Professor Griffin argues that the "omissions and distortions" in the report amount to a cover-up by government officials and says that the available evidence suggests that the Bush administration was complicit in the 9/11 attacks (either by ignoring known threats or through actual participation in the planning of the attacks). Professor Griffin asks a series of questions which he says have been either inadequately answered or completely ignored by the commission. These include questions surrounding the attack on the Pentagon, the way in which the World Trade Center towers collapsed, and the behavior of President Bush and his Secret Service detail following notification that a second plane had hit the WTC. The talk was hosted by the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth (mujca.com) and took place at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Includes Q&A.
Author Bio: David Ray Griffin is professor emeritus at the Claremont School of Theology, where he taught for over 30 years (retiring in 2004). He has authored or edited over two dozen books, including "God and Religion in the Postmodern World," "Religion and Scientific Naturalism," and "The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11."
2) Stop Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil drilling today!
Dear NRDC BioGems Defender,
We have just learned that the House and Senate could vote by Friday on a final budget resolution that would pave the way for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.
No matter how many times you've contacted your senators and representative on this issue before, it is critical that you call them again right now.
Please call the Capitol Hill switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for the office of your representative. The operator can give you his or her name if you don't know it. You'll be forwarded to a staff member or an answering machine. Leave a message urging your representative to:
"Vote against any budget resolution that includes reconciliation instructions that could lead to Arctic Refuge oil drilling."
Then call your two senators and leave them the same message.
The wording of your message is important because the budget resolution may not even mention the words "Arctic Refuge." It is more likely to contain "reconciliation instructions" to the House Resources Committee and the Senate Energy Committee requiring them to find budget savings of $1.4 billion or more. The pro-drilling chairmen of these committees would then be free to say they will generate new revenue by allowing drilling in the Arctic Refuge.
Remember: if your representative or senators vote for a budget resolution with these reconciliation instructions, they are voting to drill the Arctic Refuge!
Your phone call will have the biggest impact, but if you are unable to call, then please send electronic messages to your representative and senators by going to
www.nrdcactionfund.org/redfordarctic/action.asp?step=2&item=52387
Please stand up for America's Arctic Refuge in its hour of greatest need!
Sincerely,
John H. Adams
NRDC Action Fund
3) Richard Sitcha Alert ~ Update ~ Reminder
This is both a reminder of the significance of your participation in our struggle and a brief update on developments over the past week or so. If you have not yet called the offices of both Senator Kennedy (617-565-3170) and Senator Kerry (617-565-8519) please do so very soon! Kennedy is a member of the Judiciary Committee and, as such, feels bound not to approach the legal aspects of the case. Ask him to respond to the conditions under which Sitcha has been held these past 20 months, to facilitate my being allowed to interview him for print/TV, and to urge Kerry to examine all the circumstances of Sitcha's extraordinary experience in this country. As Kerry knows all the facts, we're simply asking him to become involved.
***
Background: Trained in law, Richard Sitcha, now 43, fled Cameroon in April 2001 with the help of a priest after he had been arrested and tortured for revealing the government's role in the murders of nine youth (the Bepanda Nine). He was granted asylum here January 16, 2003.
Following telephone calls to Cameroon which failed to verify Sitcha's involvement, the INS summoned him to court September 18 of that year and made him a part of Homeland Security's "Pilot Program" of incarceration during adjudication. This "person's" first lock-down, incredibly, was with hardened criminals at Connecticut's maximum security prison Osborn. There he was beaten so badly he had to be hospitalized, a circumstance that - along with language obstacles - contributed to failure of his habeas corpus appeal of the asylum reversal.
Recent developments: The government has pressed hard to have him deported. His motion was filed in the wrong district, nonetheless rejected on March 31. Judge Ponsor this week did deny the government's motion for deportation, thus allowing his defense committee until the end of May to file an appeal. Being explored are apparent flaws throughout his legal proceedings.
Near the end of his year at Greenfield's jail he was denied the right to make phone calls for his defense to Cameroon and when, on April 1, he and the 29 other INS prisoners locked up there were transferred (for the second time away from a strong community of support) he was placed in a cell overnight, naked and without a blanket. Since then he has been kept in solitary confinement.
Those of us who have known him, variously as a member of Saint Ann's, advisor to students on African affairs at Wesleyan University, or through visitations, know him to be warm and gentle, a devout Catholic, and model prisoner - at the same time one whose idealist's view of America has been demolished.
Perspectives: The interest of Cameroon in the return of one who "revealed state secrets," and the eagerness of our government to deliver him, we suspect, is intimately connected to Cameroon's offshore oil and its natural gas reserves, oil company construction of pipelines through Cameroon from Chad, and the Pentagon's desire to establish a US military base in that country. Our State Department consistently reports the 22-year rule of President Biya violates human rights. All communications in the country are monitored by the government. These dots are rather easy to connect.
The legal process will have to play itself out, but the 887 people in the Greenfield area who petitioned members of Congress now seek these congressmen's personal involvement addressing the serious issues of repeated constitutional violations, assault and cruel and unusual punishment, the government's failure to provide materials during discovery, interference with Sitcha's defense, denial of press interviews, blocking Sitcha's acceptance in a third country and, should he be deported, allowing one of us to accompany him back to Cameroon to seek guarantees for his safety there. Please forward to your lists.
Carl Doerner
Email: cdoerner@surfglobal.net
4) NYC March and Rally Against the Iraq War & for Nuclear Disarmament
SUNDAY, MAY 1: END THE WAR! ABOLISH NUKES!
NYC March and Rally Against the Iraq War & for Nuclear Disarmament
Assemble 11AM, 1st Ave North of 50th Street, NYC
March by the United Nations
Rally 2PM at Heckscher Ballfields in Central Park (near Columbus Circle)
Visit unitedforpeace.org for details
We are just days away from the demonstration in New York City on May 1. On the day before the U.N. reviews the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, tens of thousands will march and rally for global nuclear disarmament and an immediate end to the Iraq War. There is still time to make your plans to be part of the important event, and to help get the word out to others.
People from around the U.S. and delegations from around the world will be joining us for this mobilization, including at least 1,000 people from Japan. Survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 60 years ago will march with us, dramatizing the stakes in the global struggle to abolish all nuclear weapons.
============================================
MAY 1: END THE WAR! ABOLISH NUKES!
NYC March and Rally for Peace in Iraq and Disarmament Worldwide
Visit unitedforpeace.org for leaflets and more information
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Bush Lies, America Cries * Hell of an Earth Day
24 April 2005 - Part 1
Choices are the hinges of destiny
1) Bush Lies, America Cries
- - Rice changed terrorism report
- - Top Brass Cleared Over Iraq Abuse
- - Colin Powell puts down John Bolton as UN ambassador
- - Psychological resistance to facing election fraud
- - Chairman of Voting Reform Panel Resigns
2) Hell of an Earth Day - House Energy Bill - Take Action for Senate
- - On Eve of Earth Day, House Passes Energy Bill that Allows ANWR Drilling
3) Oil production could peak next year
- - Stirling Solution for Earth-friendly Onsite Power Generation
- - On Line Film - The War for Oil
4) 9/11 'Smoking Gun,' Proving Gov't Complicity?
- - Wisconsin newspaper (and C-Span?) covering David Ray Griffin!
Editor's Notes:
The intensity of the news doesn't seem to be lessening these days. This issue begins with "Bush Lies, America Cries" by Mark Morford. The second item is on the atrocious Energy Bill passed at the US House of (sic) Representatives. This item includes ideas on what you can do to stop the environmentally-destructive Bill at the Senate.
Item 3 begins with an article by John Vidal: "Oil production could peak next year." Following that is an innovative earth-friendly solution for meeting growing demands for electrical power generation with sustainable fuels. The Stirling engine requires only heat to power its operation, so it can use many fuels, conventional and alternative, and can be designed to turn waste heat and gases for cost-effective distributed electrical power generation.
Item 4 is promising, not just because of possible smoking gun evidence to prove a 9/11 hoax, but also because it's about a "conservative who once 'rubbed shoulders' with the Washington neo-cons also says America is now under a fascist rule and Bush must be impeached." The last article is from a Madison Wisconsin newspaper reporting on David Ray Griffin's presentation there, which was also taped for a forthcoming C-Span broadcast. Another lecture by David Ray Griffin is now available on film in both DVD and VHS formats. For information see FN's listing of Films that Make a Difference, number 3: "Truth and Politics: Unanswered Questions About 911"
Save the Filibuster
A show-down between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate is expected soon, too, on the Nuclear Judicial Option.. The Republican-controlled Judiciary Committee recently endorsed two of Bush's most controversial nominees Democrats vowed once again to use the filibuster to block their confirmation. If denied the Filibuster, Democrats plan to shut down operations in the Senate.
Senator Ted Kennedy's website is hosting a
petition against Myers' confirmation..
You can also use this following electronic pen link to VOTE:
Should we defend the right to Filibuster?
Common sense Republicans and Democrats understand that it is important to preserve our system of checks and balances.
If you are one of those people, we encourage you to get in touch with your Senator before there's a vote on the rule changes.
The Congressional telephone switchboard # is 202-224-3121.
To learn more about the filibuster and sign a petition, go to:
SaveTheFilbuster.org
"Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution
of the United States as our Fathers made it inviolate. The people
of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and
the Courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the
men who pervert the Constitution."
-- Abraham Lincoln
1) Bush Lies, America Cries
- - Rice changed terrorism report
- - Top Brass Cleared Over Iraq Abuse
- - Colin Powell puts down John Bolton as UN ambassador
- - Psychological resistance to facing election fraud
- - Chairman of Voting Reform Panel Resigns
Bush Lies, America Cries
This just in: Global terrorism rates are higher than any time since 1985. Thanks, Dubya!
by Mark Morford,
SF Gate Columnist ~ www.sfgate.com
Friday, April 22, 2005
Oh my God I feel so much safer. Don't you?
I mean, don't you feel so much more secure in your all-American gun-totin' oil-happy lifestyle now that we have wasted upward of $300 billion worth of your child's future education budget, along with 1,600 disposable young American lives and over 20,000 innocent Iraqi lives and about 10,000 severed American limbs and untold wads of our spiritual and moral currency, all to protect America from terrorism that is, by every account, only getting worse? Nastier? More nebulous? More anti-American?
Here's something funny, in a rip-your-patriotic-heart-out-and-spit-on-it sort of way: Just last week, BushCo's State Department decided to kill the publication of an annual report on international terrorism. Why? Well, because the government's top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985. Isn't that hilarious? Isn't that heartwarming? Your tax dollars at work, sweetheart..
[Excerpt]
..Here, then, is the warped, convoluted irony: We went to war under the lie of a Saddam-fueled terrorism threat that never existed. We are at war, instead, to protect our oil and to establish regional control, an act that, in turn, has destabilized the Middle East even further and is actually inciting much of the very terrorism we were ostensibly there to battle in the first place, thus producing a level of anti-U.S. hatred not even a (still alive and apparently very chipper) Osama bin Laden could have wet dreamed. Isn't democracy fun?
We are not "spreading democracy" by invading Iraq. We are not giving a gift of a more peaceable Iraq to a grateful world. That is merely insidious Republican PR spin. Right now, the U.S. military is, in short, protecting your right to a $3 gallon of gas, which will soon be $4 and then maybe $5 and $6 as we are running out of the stuff faster than anyone thought and the fight for that which remains will only turn uglier and more violent and so I have to ask again, do you feel safer?
Because if you say yes, you are, quite simply, lying. Or delusional. Or you have had your brain edited by BushCo. Or those are some mighty powerful drugs you are obviously taking and you might wish to consider switching to aspirin and wine and Fleshbot.com.
They say that violence is the last refuge of a desperate nation. And violence under the guise of secrecy and outright lie such as BushCo has foisted upon the nation is the last refuge of a nation of thugs. Yes, I'm looking at you, Rummy. I'm looking at you, Cheney. I'm not looking at you, Karl Rove, because looking at you makes my colon clench and looking at you makes birds die and looking at you makes small children feel hopeless and lost, like the world is full of black venomous hate and bilious condescension that is aimed squarely at their heads, like a gun.
It's true. We are living in a nation run by overprivileged alcoholic frat boys and power-mad thugs. This much we know. This much we need to be reminded of, over and over again, until we finally wake up.
Ah, but there is good news. There is always good news. The good news is, they are now confiscating all cigarette lighters at the airport. In the name of safety. In the name of homeland security. In the name of America, apple pie, babies, puppies, Jesus and guns. Lighters are now forbidden on all air travel. I mean, thank God. I feel safer already.
Mark Morford's Notes & Errata column appears every Wednesday and Friday on SF Gate.
For a posting of the entire original article, see:
www.sfgate.com/columnists/morford/
and also posted at:
www.truthout.org/docs_2005/042305G.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Rice changed terrorism report
A state department report which showed an increase in terrorism incidents around the world in 2004 was altered to strip it of its pessimistic statistics, it emerged yesterday.
For the entire 4/23/2005 article, published by The Guardian, see:
www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1468541,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Top Brass Cleared Over Iraq Abuse
"A new inquiry found no evidence of wrongdoing by Gen Sanchez and three of his top aides, US officials say."
Article published April 23, 2005 by the BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4475657.stm
and posted at:
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0423-01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Colin Powell puts down John Bolton as UN ambassador
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has emerged as a behind-the-scenes force against John Bolton's nomination as U.N. ambassador, privately telling key lawmakers that Bolton "is a smart but very problematic government official."
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7896-2005Apr21.html
{Thanks to AmericanProgressAction.org for article link.}
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Psychological resistance to facing election fraud
Silence of the Scams - Psychological resistance to facing election fraud
By Diane Perlman, Newtopia Magazine
[Excerpt]
"..Though we are not certain of the actual outcome, statistically impossible discrepancies exist between results of exit polls and official counts in counties without paper trails. Also documented are patterns of anecdotes about corrupted procedures and accounts of strange behaviors, phenomena and illegal interventions in Ohio as well as other places. Many say there is fraud in every election, but there was far more in 2004 than in any previous year, and if the errors were random, about half would go in Kerry's favor. Virtually all went in Bush's favor.
But rather than demanding a thorough investigation, the American people seem eager to forget the incidents and put the election behind them, thus implicitly supporting such corruption.."
For the entire article, see:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=20738
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Chairman of Voting Reform Panel Resigns
The first chairman of a federal voting agency created after the 2000 election dispute is resigning, saying the government has not shown enough commitment to reform. DeForest Soaries said in an interview Friday that his resignation would take effect next week.
www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4956689,00.html
2) Hell of an Earth Day - House Energy Bill - Take Action for Senate
On Eve of Earth Day, House Passes Energy Bill that Allows ANWR Drilling
by H. Josef Hebert
Published April 21, 2005 by the Associated Press
[Excerpt]
WASHINGTON -- The House voted late yesterday to allow oil drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge as part of a broad energy bill that Democrats said would funnel billions of dollars to highly profitable energy companies while doing little to promote conservation or ease gasoline prices.
The bill's sponsors said oil from Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as much as a million barrels a day, will be needed to help curtail the country's growing dependence on oil imports. Opponents argued the oil wouldn't be available for a decade and even then at levels that would not significantly affect oil prices or imports.
The bill also calls for $8.1 billion in tax breaks over 10 years, most of it going to promote the coal, nuclear, oil and natural-gas industries.
The House bill also would make it easier to build liquefied natural-gas import terminals, even if states or local communities oppose the project, and require refiners to use more corn-based ethanol in gasoline. It also would extend daylight-saving time and protect makers of the gasoline additive MTBE from product-liability lawsuits stemming to the chemical's contamination of drinking water.
2005 The Associated Press ###
For complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0421-06.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - House passes Energy Bill, Take Action for Senate
by Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
Dear Friends:
It is ironic that on Earth Day we note that the U.S. House of Representatives voted 249-183 yesterday to pass the Bush administration's energy billa bill that gives some $12 Billion in taxpayer money to the polluting nuclear power and fossil fuel industries while doing almost nothing to improve energy efficiency and renewable energy sources. In addition, as Bush himself admitted, the bill will not help reduce high gasoline prices. By refusing to increase vehicle mileage standards, the House would actually ensure that prices will remain high and "energy independence" will never be achieved.
The real battleground always has been the Senate, and that is where we must all now turn our attention.
TAKE ACTION!
Even though an energy bill has yet to be introduced in the Senate (and when it is, it will be somewhat different from the House bill), we encourage you to start calling your Senate offices now (Capitol Switchboard: 1-800-839-5276 or 202-224-3121) and tell them you do not want an energy bill that gives more of your money to the nuclear power and fossil fuel industries. Any energy bill should support clean, sustainable forms of energy production and energy efficiency measures.
And we encourage you to begin the necessary organizing and groundwork to make the outreach efforts we will need when the Senate finally does consider the bill. Grassroots groups (and even individuals!) should begin setting up phone trees, holding community forums, educating your neighbors and colleagues and community groups about the energy bill.
Write letters to the editor of your local newspapers. You can "thank or spank" your Representative and encourage your Senators to vote to defeat this bill. We'll need the involvement of everyone possible to stop the nuclear/fossil industries this year! Let us know how we can help your efforts.
Finally, if you haven't already: don't forget to sign the Petition for a Sustainable Energy Future at nirs.org and ask your friends and colleagues to sign it as well!
For a sustainable energy future,
Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
202-328-0002
nirsnet@nirs.org
For items 3 and 4, see Part 2:
Peak Oil 2006 * Stirling Solution * 9/11 Smoking Gun
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Peak Oil 2006 * Stirling Solution * 9/11 Smoking Gun
24 April 2005 - Part 2
"We not only inherit our past from our ancestors,
we borrow the present from our Grandchildren!"
1) Bush Lies, America Cries
- - Rice changed terrorism report
- - Top Brass Cleared Over Iraq Abuse
- - Colin Powell puts down John Bolton as UN ambassador
- - Psychological resistance to facing election fraud
- - Chairman of Voting Reform Panel Resigns
2) Hell of an Earth Day - House Energy Bill - Take Action for Senate
3) Oil production could peak next year
- - Stirling Solution for Earth-friendly Onsite Power Generation
- - On Line Film - The War for Oil
4) 9/11 'Smoking Gun,' Proving Gov't Complicity?
- - Wisconsin newspaper (and C-Span?) covering David Ray Griffin!
Editor's Notes:
The quote at the top of this issue is from an old Indian saying on Turtle Island, [also found at thehungersite]. The intensity of the news doesn't seem to be lessening these days. Part 1 of this double issue begins with "Bush Lies, America Cries" by Mark Morford. The second item is on the atrocious Energy Bill passed at the US House of (sic) Representatives. This item includes ideas on what you can do to stop the environmentally-destructive Bill at the Senate.
Item 3 begins with an article by John Vidal: "Oil production could peak next year." Following that is an innovative earth-friendly solution for meeting growing demands for electrical power generation with sustainable fuels. The Stirling engine requires only heat to power its operation, so it can use many fuels, conventional and alternative, and can be designed to turn waste heat and gases for cost-effective distributed electrical power generation.
Item 4 is promising, not just because of possible smoking gun evidence to prove a 9/11 hoax, but also because it's about a "conservative who once 'rubbed shoulders' with the Washington neo-cons also says America is now under a fascist rule and Bush must be impeached." The last article is from a Madison Wisconsin newspaper reporting on David Ray Griffin's presentation there, which was also taped for a forthcoming C-Span broadcast. Another lecture by David Ray Griffin is now available on film in both DVD and VHS formats. For information see FN's listing of Films that Make a Difference, number 3: "Truth and Politics: Unanswered Questions About 911"
People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life.
I don't think that's what we're really seeking.
I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive,
so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances within
our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.
Joseph Cambell
"The Power of Myth"
For the first two items, see:
Bush Lies, America Cries * Hell of an Earth Day
3) Oil production could peak next year
- - Stirling Solution for Earth-friendly Onsite Power Generation
- - On Line Film - The War for Oil
- - Oil production could peak next year, reports John Vidal
The end of oil is closer than you think
Just kiss your lifestyle goodbye
John Vidal
Thursday April 21, 2005
Guardian
[Excerpt]
The one thing that international bankers don't want to hear is that the second Great Depression may be round the corner. But last week, a group of ultra-conservative Swiss financiers asked a retired English petroleum geologist living in Ireland to tell them about the beginning of the end of the oil age.
They called Colin Campbell, who helped to found the London-based Oil Depletion Analysis Centre because he is an industry man through and through, has no financial agenda and has spent most of a lifetime on the front line of oil exploration on three continents. He was chief geologist for Amoco, a vice-president of Fina, and has worked for BP, Texaco, Shell, ChevronTexaco and Exxon in a dozen different countries.
"Don't worry about oil running out; it won't for very many years," the Oxford PhD told the bankers in a message that he will repeat to businessmen, academics and investment analysts at a conference in Edinburgh next week. "The issue is the long downward slope that opens on the other side of peak production. Oil and gas dominate our lives, and their decline will change the world in radical and unpredictable ways," he says.
Campbell reckons global peak production of conventional oil - the kind associated with gushing oil wells - is approaching fast, perhaps even next year. His calculations are based on historical and present production data, published reserves and discoveries of companies and governments, estimates of reserves lodged with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, speeches by oil chiefs and a deep knowledge of how the industry works.
"About 944bn barrels of oil has so far been extracted, some 764bn remains extractable in known fields, or reserves, and a further 142bn of reserves are classed as 'yet-to-find', meaning what oil is expected to be discovered. If this is so, then the overall oil peak arrives next year," he says.
If he is correct, then global oil production can be expected to decline steadily at about 2-3% a year, the cost of everything from travel, heating, agriculture, trade, and anything made of plastic rises. And the scramble to control oil resources intensifies. As one US analyst said this week"Just kiss your lifestyle goodbye."
But the Campbell analysis is way off the much more optimistic official figures. The US Geological Survey (USGS) states that reserves in 2000 (its latest figures) of recoverable oil were about three trillion barrels and that peak production will not come for about 30 years. The International Energy Agency (IEA) believes that oil will peak between "2013 and 2037" and Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq and Iran, four countries with much of the world's known reserves, report little if any depletion of reserves. Meanwhile, the oil companies - which do not make public estimates of their own "peak oil" - say there is no shortage of oil and gas for the long term. "The world holds enough proved reserves for 40 years of supply and at least 60 years of gas supply at current consumption rates," said BP this week.
Indeed, almost every year for 150 years, the oil industry has produced more than it did the year before, and predictions of oil running out or peaking have always been proved wrong. Today, the industry is producing about 83m barrels a day, with big new fields in Azerbaijan, Angola, Algeria, the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere soon expected on stream.
But the business of estimating oil reserves is contentious and political. According to Campbell, companies seldom report their true findings for commercial reasons, and governments - which own 90% of the reserves - often lie. Most official figures, he says, are grossly unreliable: "Estimating reserves is a scientific business. There is a range of uncertainty but it is not impossible to get a good idea of what a field contains. Reporting [reserves], however, is a political act."
According to Campbell and other oil industry sources, the two most widely used estimates of world oil reserves, drawn up by the Oil and Gas Journal and the BP Statistical Review, both rely on reserve estimates provided to them by governments and industry and do not question their accuracy.
Companies, says Campbell, "under-report their new discoveries to comply with strict US stock exchange rules, but then revise them upwards over time", partly to boost their share prices with "good news" results. "I do not think that I ever told the truth about the size of a prospect. That was not the game we were in," he says. "As we were competing for funds with other subsidiaries around the world, we had to exaggerate."
Most serious of all, he and other oil depletion analysts and petroleum geologists, most of whom have been in the industry for years, accuse the US of using questionable statistical probability models to calculate global reserves and Opec countries of drastically revising upwards their reserves in the 1980s.
"The estimates for the Opec countries were systematically exaggerated in the late 1980s to win a greater slice of the allocation cake. Middle East official reserves jumped 43% in just three years despite no new major finds," he says.
The study of "peak oil" - the point at which half the total oil known to have existed in a field or a country has been consumed, beyond which extraction goes into irreversible decline - used to be back-of-the envelope guesswork. It was not taken seriously by business or governments, mainly because oil has always been cheap and plentiful.
In the wake of the Iraq war, the rapid economic rise of China, global warming and recent record oil prices, the debate has shifted from "if" there is a global peak to "when".
The US government knows that conventional oil is running out fast. According to a report on oil shales and unconventional oil supplies prepared by the US office of petroleum reserves last year, "world oil reserves are being depleted three times as fast as they are being discovered. Oil is being produced from past discoveries, but the re-serves are not being fully replaced. Remaining oil reserves of individual oil companies must continue to shrink. The disparity between increasing production and declining discoveries can only have one outcome: a practical supply limit will be reached and future supply to meet conventional oil demand will not be available."
It continues"Although there is no agreement about the date that world oil production will peak, forecasts presented by USGS geologist Les Magoon, the Oil and Gas Journal, and others expect the peak will occur between 2003 and 2020. What is notable ... is that none extend beyond the year 2020, suggesting that the world may be facing shortfalls much sooner than expected."
For the complete article, see:
www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,1464050,00.html
[What did you think of this article? You can mail your responses to
life@guardian.co.uk and include your name and address.]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
FN received the above article from a list serve on bioenergy.
For their archive resources see: http://lists.iatp.org/listarchive
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Stirling Solution for Earth-friendly Onsite Power Generation
One potential earth-friendly solution for meeting the growing demands for electrical power generation could be in the development of a commercial/industrial Stirling engine. The Stirling cycle requires only heat for its operation, so it can use many varieties of earth-friendly sustainable fuels, such as waste heat and gases, biomass, solar, and other sources.
To learn more, see: Stirling Solution for Onsite Power Generation
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - On Line Film - The War for Oil
This is the story of the hidden agenda behind the invasion of Iraq. How much has this war really been about control over a dwindling resource? This is a must watch documentary. Real Video: http://informationclearinghouse.info/article8582.htm
http://snipurl.com/e555
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For links to such films as "The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror," US foreign policy, 9/11 truth investigations, see:
Films that Make a Difference
4) 9/11 'Smoking Gun,' Proving Gov't Complicity?
- - Wisconsin newspaper (and C-Span?) covering David Ray Griffin!
Former RNC Insider and Bush Strategist Says He Has
9/11 'Smoking Gun,' Proving Government Complicity
Published by "The Arctic Beacon" - April 16, 2005
A conservative who once 'rubbed shoulders' with the Washington neo-cons also says America is now under a fascist rule and Bush must be impeached
By Greg Szymanski
A former Republican Party insider turned Bush basher thinks he has "stumbled across" what may be the "smoking gun," proving the U.S. government's official story about the WTC attacks is an "unequivocal lie."
Karl Schwarz of Little Rock, Ark., who several years ago began exposing corruption amongst the neo-conservative movement in a book entitled "A One Way Ticket to Crawford, Texas," now has set his sights on proving government complicity in 9/11.
For years, the successful business entrepreneur and conservative republican, once asked by the RNC to run against President Clinton for Arkansas governor, has been using his inside political and business clout to expose corruption among the neo-cons in the Bush administration.
He strayed away from the Bush agenda two years after being one of the lead orchestrators in the Republican Party takeover of Congress during the Clinton administration.
"I designed the strategy that took the House and Senate from Clinton," recalls Schwarz, also a strong supporter and strategist for President George H. Bush. "I designed that takeover two years before I realized the Republican "Contract with America" was actually a "Contract on America."
After his political reawakening, he began blasting the neo conservatives where it hurt most in their pocketbooks coming forward with shocking evidence regarding shady oil deals and government involvement with the Taliban and Pakistan.
In his book and his ongoing seven-part series of articles entitled "Pop Goes the Bush Mythology Bubble," he provides inside information about countless financial scams, essentially revealing the Bush motive behind the Middle East invasion was more about oil profits than the war on terrorism.
Saying the neo-cons within the government are destroying America for their own corporate-global benefits, Schwarz doesn't mince words and is calling for the outright impeachment of President Bush, as well as removal of any member of Congress who aids and abets the corrupt powers within the executive branch.
Now, moving away from financial corruption, he has turned his attention to the 9/11 truth movement, saying he has found a piece of obscure video footage which will conclusively show that the government lied about what type of plane struck the South Tower of the WTC.
As most detectives and investigators will readily attest, uncovering incriminating evidence involves 90 percent perseverance and 10 percent luck, Schwarz admits he had a "whole lot" of the later when running across the video footage in a French foreign film entitled "The Barbarian Invasion."
Contained in the film unrelated to 9/11, is a 1:52 second video segment, shot by an unknown amateur photographer at the WTC, which Schwartz says clearly shows a 737 airliner striking the south Tower, not a 767 Boeing jet as previously reported by the government.
"We tracked down the filmmaker and he acquired the original WTC segment from the Canadian News Service," said Schwarz, adding that he has had the tape analyzed by experts proving it's not a fake. "We are tracking down the original photographer and want to get to him before the government does in order to prove its authenticity.
"This segment, however, conclusively shows a 737 hit the South Tower, not the 767 like previously reported. This in itself should be the smoking gun, which proves the whole story given to us by the government about 9/11 is untrue."
Originally, the government claimed the second jetliner en route to Los Angeles was a 767 Boeing. However, Schwarz said the video will not only show the airline dimensions to be that of a 737, but that he also has evidence that the engine recovered in the WTC wreckage was a model type CFM56, which propels a 737 not a 767.
"Not even two CFM56's could get a 767 off the ground," added Schwartz.
Besides 9/11, Schwartz said the three major areas that need to be thoroughly investigated regarding the Bush administration's present policies, include:
The administration ties with Afghanistan, the Taliban and the Bridas Corp. Schwarz claims a high ranking Bridas executive is one of his main sources, implicating the Bush administration with corruption involving the Taliban and the Afghan invasion, involving numerous breaches of contract due to military invasions.
Information implicating 9/11 Commission members with direct and indirect financial benefits due to the Bush policies in the Middle East.
The Bush administration's creation of financial, social and military chaos in order to undermine the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution.
"Whistleblowers Sibel Edmonds, Karen Kwiatkowski and others that I cannot disclose without jeopardizing their safety, including many members of the Armed Services have acted as my main sources," said Schwarz. "I've also had my own investigators working on issues regarding corporate fraud and that, in turn, uncovered the 9/11 related fraud on the part of the Bush administration."
Asked how he would describe himself, since many critics may consider him a disgruntled Republican with an axe to grind, he said:
"I am conservative, fiscally responsible, an ecumenical Christian and an American Patriot that clearly understands fascism and clearly sees this is exactly what is going on within the Bush administration.
"To answer my critics, they can say whatever. However, those that read my book will clearly see that the main problem now facing America has been caused and amplified by the last three Presidential administrations, Bush I, Clinton and Bush II."
Greg Szymanski
Published by The Arctic Beacon, and posted at:
www.arcticbeacon.citymaker.com/articles/article/1518131/24248.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The above article and following comments were posted at FN's discussion list serve:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FlybyNews
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"..it's one thing when a Democrat comes out with this kind of stuff - but when a former Southern Christian Republican insider says these things? Man, you know we're onto something HUGE.
I've had the opportunity to meet Karl Schwarz and do have to say that I believe that he is honest and sincere. He spoke to me from the heart about the anguish he feels about what's going on in our nation these days. He might be a conservative, but in person he comes across as a man who is genuine and who simply has had enough of what's going on. In short, I sense he wants his country back.
You can read more about his thoughts and articles at: karlschwarz.com
Cathy"
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Wisconsin newspaper (and C-Span?) covering David Ray Griffin!
Theologian calls for response to 9/11
By Samara Kalk Derby
April 19, 2005
David Ray Griffin asks the tough questions about Sept. 11, contending U.S. officials had some knowledge of what was coming and possibly orchestrated the attacks.
Griffin, whose book, "The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11," came out a year ago, drew an enthusiastic standing ovation from the majority of the 400 or so people who packed his lecture Monday night at Bascom Hall.
A retired Christian theologian, Griffin, 65, taught for more than 30 years at the Claremont School of Theology in California.
His comments Monday night were directed at religious people, who he said need to respond to Sept. 11 - and the American empire that has ensued - based on the moral principles of their religious traditions.
Drawing laughter from the crowd, Griffin said he had in mind principles like: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors' oil" and "Thou shalt not murder thy neighbors in order to steal their oil."
While Griffin noted that his books and talks have not received attention from the mainstream media, C-SPAN had a cameraman at the event and plans to air the lecture at a future date. Madison's public access cable television station, WYOU-TV/Channel 4, meanwhile, will air the talk at 7 p.m. Thursday.
Americans interpret the events of Sept. 11 in one of four ways, Griffin said:
A first group accepts the official interpretation that Sept. 11 was a surprise attack by Islamic terrorists. It is easy for these people "to think of America's so-called War on Terror as a just war," Griffin said.
A second group accepts the official line but thinks Sept. 11 has been used opportunistically by the Bush administration to extend the American empire. People who hold this view often believe that America's response to Sept. 11, which has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, is far worse than the attacks themselves, he said.
A third group believes the Bush administration knew the attacks were coming and let them happen. It shows the government as "deliberate and cold-blooded," advancing its imperial designs while hypocritically portraying itself as promoting a "culture of life," Griffin said.
Although there has been no national survey, a Zogby poll taken last year indicated that almost half of the residents of New York City share this view, he said.
A fourth group believes that the government orchestrated the attacks. While no poll shows how many Americans believe this, polls in Canada and Germany have found as many as 20 percent of those populations do, Griffin said.
In his follow-up book, "The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions," Griffin examines the questions that he and others in the "9/11 Truth Movement" charge were never examined by the federal government's 9/11 Commission.
Evidence to support the theory that U.S. officials had at least had some foreknowledge of the attacks comes from David Schippers, the chief prosecutor for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, who reportedly received warnings from FBI agents about the attacks six weeks earlier, Griffin said.
Other government officials, including Attorney General John Ashcroft, would not respond to the warnings, he added.
There was the extraordinarily high volume of "put options" purchased in the three days before the attacks, Griffin said, with investors betting that stock in United and American Airlines - the two airlines used in the attacks - would go down. There were also a suspiciously high number of put options for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, which occupied 22 stories of the World Trade Center.
"U.S. intelligence agencies monitor the market, partly to look for signs of impending attacks," Griffin said. "One wonders how information could be much more specific than this."
Griffin then made a case that government officials planned and executed the attacks.
For one, the United States military neglected to send fighter jets to intercept the hijacked planes. Such interceptions usually occur within 10 to 20 minutes after the first signs of trouble and are routine, happening about 100 times a year, Griffin said.
It seems implausible, he said, that the Pentagon was struck by Flight 77, since it is "surely the best defended building on the planet." The U.S. military has the best radar systems in the world and "does not miss anything occurring in North American airspace," he added.
Griffin also made a case that the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings was brought on by thousands of explosives placed throughout each of the buildings. They went straight down, at free-fall speed, as in controlled demolitions, and many people in the buildings reported that they heard or felt explosions, he added.
"High-rise steel-frame buildings have never - before or after 9/11- been caused to collapse by fire," he said.
Sue Adams, 50, introduced herself to Griffin after the talk, calling him heroic. "I think some day we may really know the truth," she said, adding that it will likely be after the Bush administration is gone.
Orion Litzau, a UW freshman studying engineering, agrees that the answers the government put out through the 9/11 Commission were more than a simple deception.
"They were not only partly false but a complete, bold face lie," he said. "David Ray Griffin brings out interesting points about what could be the true story behind the 9/11 attack."
Jim Goulding, 67, who teaches religious studies at Edgewood College, admitted at first he wondered whether Griffin was a crackpot, but instead found he had a "tremendous reputation as a theologian."
Goulding has read both of Griffin's Sept. 11 books.
"I think he makes a convincing case - well documented, well footnoted," he said.
This article is posted at:
www.madison.com/tct/mad/local//index.php?ntid=36617
E-mail: skalk@madison.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Thanks to 9-11 Visibility Project for sending FN this article.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For more information on this issue, visit FN's archives for:
The Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports,
looking into the unanswered questions.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Sitcha Alert Action * Nuclear Option One-Party-Rule
18 April 2005 - Part 1
"We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,
tied in a single garment of destiny.
Whatever affects one directly,
effects all indirectly."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
1) Countdown to Deportation - Richard Sitcha Update
- - Richard Sitcha grassroots campaign update
2) Nuclear Option for One Party Control
3) "Our Country Has Been Overtaken By Murderous Thugs"
- - Negroponte Confirmed By Senate Committee
- - Bush Eliminating 19-year-old International Terrorism Report
- - A Most Dangerous Message
- - Space Peace Abolition NYC April 29-May 1st
- - Iraq's Oilworkers Unionize to Defend the Country's Oil
4) Monday C-Span Covering David Ray Griffin 9/11 Report Omissions
Editor's Notes:
Item 1 opens with a critical update on the case of Richard Sitcha. I met with Richard twice at the Franklin County Jail. He pleaded with me to understand why the USA would do this to him. To arrest him with no crime involved, and after his being granted political asylum. Why is he being treated this way? I hope you will take part in calling Senator John Kerry this week to help find a safe and honorable land for Richard Sitcha to live. A community is arising for this man. Please take part, and make a difference in "..an inescapable network of mutuality.."
Item 2 is super critical. If the judicial nuclear option destroys the filibuster, it would enable the Republicans to further aid the occupation of the White House with hoodlums. If you read item 3 you will understand a mom's criticism. "Our Country Has Been Overtaken By Murderous Thugs" is the transcript of a passionate and eleoquent speech by Cindy Sheehan, co-founder of Gold Star Families For Peace. The brutal honesty of this mother-protecting-spirit is something to behold. Please note peace and disarmament events in NYC April 29-May 1st listed in a subsection of this item. Item 4 is about C-Span covering David Ray Griffin and 9/11 Truth Talk at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, which will be taped this Monday, 18 April 2005. And on a related note, a 9/11 questions group is meeting to screen the film: "The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror" and discuss issues regarding 9/11 this Tuesday, 19 April 2005 at the Media Education Foundation on Masonic Street in Northampton, MA, at 7:00 pm.
Please take time and support Richard Sitcha by calling Senator Kerry and others for their assistance in this emergency situation. (The US Congressional telephone switchboard # is 202-224-3121.) Thank You!
"Call and Answer" by Robert Bly
Tell me why it is we don't lift our voices these days
And cry over what is happening. Have you noticed
The plans are made for Iraq and the ice cap is melting?
I say to myself: "Go on, cry. What's the sense
Of being an adult and having no voice? Cry out!
See who will answer! This is Call and Answer!"
We will have to call especially loud to reach
Our angels, who are hard of hearing; they are hiding
In the jugs of silence filled during our wars.
Have we agreed to so many wars that we can't
Escape from silence? If we don't lift our voices, we allow
Others (who are ourselves) to rob the house.
How come we've listened to the great criers–Neruda,
Akhmatova, Thoreau, Frederick Douglass–and now
We're silent as sparrows in the little bushes?
Some masters say our life lasts only seven days.
Where are we in the week? Is it Thursday Yet?
Hurry, cry now! Soon Sunday night will come.
1) Countdown to Deportation - Richard Sitcha Update
- - Richard Sitcha grassroots campaign update
- - Countdown to Deportation
Published by the Valley Advocate - April 14, 2005
The court pushes a Cameroonian refugee closer to a dangerous repatriation.
by Maureen Turner -
ADVOCATE FILE PHOTO and ARTICLE:
www.valleyadvocate.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:107826
Richard Sitcha: Would deportation be a death sentence for him?
Time might be running out for Richard Sitcha, a political refugee from Cameroon whom the U.S. government has targeted for deportation. On March 31, U.S. District Court Justice Michael Ponsor dismissed a petition filed by Sitcha that sought to overturn the deportation order. The Department of Homeland Security is now preparing to send Sitcha back to Cameroon. That, he and his friends fear, would amount to a death sentence at the hands of the Cameroonian government, whose human rights violations are well documented, including by the U.S. State Department.
Sitcha fled to the U.S. in 2001-- after being arrested and tortured, he says, for his role in organizing protests after government security forces murdered nine young men in his native village of Bepanda (see "No Safe Haven," July 22, 2004, www.valleyadvocate.com).
Sitcha settled in Hartford, found a job and applied for political asylum, which was granted in 2003. A few months later, however, the government reopened the case, saying new evidence raised doubts about the credibility of his story. An immigration judge revoked his asylum and, under a new, post-September 11 policy, he was immediately arrested.
Sitcha spent time in a Connecticut prison, where he was attacked by a cellmate, and eventually landed in the Franklin County jail in Greenfield. After failing to meet an earlier deadline to appeal -- due, in part, to a dispute with his then-attorney -- Sitcha filed the petition recently rejected by Ponsor. In his ruling, Ponsor said that the court could not allow Sitcha's petition, which was filed after he'd missed his appeal deadline, because it would essentially create an alternate appeals route for any alien facing deportation.
"It is not possible to conclude this memorandum, however, without recognizing the painful human reality behind this litigation and the possible serious consequences of today's decisions," Ponsor wrote. "The petitioner appears to be an intelligent, law abiding and sympathetic man, with many well wishers who passionately desire to support him here, and who fear the consequences for him if he returns to Cameroon."
Those well-wishers aren't giving up without a fight.
Sitcha -- who earlier this month was moved from Greenfield to Plymouth Correctional Facility -- has 30 days from the date of Ponsor's ruling to file an appeal. His allies, including Valley activists and friends from his church in Hartford, are now seeking an attorney to represent him. They're also asking supporters to call Sens. John Kerry and Ted Kennedy to ask them to intervene on his behalf. For more information, see freerichard.com or hartfordimc.org.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Richard Sitcha grassroots campaign update
by Andrew Cohen ~ freerichard.com
Some new information:
1) We have more information about the alleged prisoner abuse that occurred when Richard was being transferred to Plymouth County House of Correction. [email apcohen@wisc.edu to request file for account of the abuse as reported by Richard to Lorena Dutelle, one of Richard's best friends (and most ardent supporters) in the United States. We plan on filing an abuse claim with Bruce Chadbourne, the regional director of BICE (Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in New England.
2) We are still looking for a lawyer to pursue Richard's appeal of Judge Ponsor's decision.
TIME IS RUNNING OUT.
3) Please write to Richard in Plymouth:
Richard Sitcha
B51 RM 101
ID # 39823
Plymouth County Correctional Facility
26 Long Pond Rd.
Plymouth, MA 02360
Despite everything that is going on at this moment, Richard has remained in relatively good spirits. Still, I am certain that he would love to receive letters of support.
Also, please call the offices your Massachusetts Senators and congress-people to apply political leverage. Tell them that you are a supporter of Richard Sitcha, a political refugee who is in imminent danger of being deported back to Cameroon. If he is returned to Cameroon, Richard will most certainly be killed by Cameroon's repressive government.
Ask them to please do something to halt the deportation process, or at least deport him to a different country…If he is deported to Cameron, the United States government will have Richard's blood on its hands.
Telephone numbers for MA senators:
John Kerry: 617-565-8519
Ted Kennedy: 617-565-3170
***
Calling the offices of Senators/congress-people from other states might also help out. Do not hesitate to call!!! Whenever I call the political offices, I always receive surprisingly warm responses—they are almost always willing to speak with constituents.
Sincerely,
Andrew Cohen
Note: The Congressional telephone switchboard # is 202-224-3121
2) Nuclear Option for One Party Control
- - SaveTheFilibuster.org:
The filibuster is a tool created by Senate rules that allows senators to block a nominee or a piece of legislation until 60 Senators agree to end debate. It is an important part of our system of checks and balances. It prevents any one party from having too much power.
Both parties have used the filibuster to prevent action on bills or block nominations that generate strong opposition. On important issues, it encourages compromises that can get broad support from senators from both parties. But now Senate leaders are threatening to misuse their majority power and change the rules to weaken the Senate's checks and balances. They are angry that Democratic Senators have used the filibuster to block a handful of President Bush's most controversial judicial nominees – even though more than 95 percent of President Bush's judges have been approved by the Senate.
As you can imagine, some folks are glad to see these judges denied lifetime seats on powerful federal courts; others want these judges confirmed. But the threat to do away with the filibuster is a bigger issue – it would change the role of the Senate and leave the country open to abuse of power by whoever happens to be in the majority.
Fortunately, common sense Republicans and Democrats understand that it is important to preserve our system of checks and balances. If you are one of those people, we encourage you to get in touch with your Senator before there's a vote on the rule changes.
Link to sign the petition, and to learn more about the filibuster.
savethefilibuster.org
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - From AmericanProgressAction.org - "Progress Report"
JUDICIARY - No Nukes! The battle over judicial nominations is heating up, with the Senate right wing getting louder about detonating the "nuclear option" in order to push through President Bush's radical, activist judicial nominations. In the latest furor, conservatives are trying to overturn the tactic known as the filibuster, which has been in the Senate rules since the early 1800s. The filibuster has a long history in the Senate. As John Dean writes, the filibuster exists "to ensure that the majority party's nominees have sufficient bipartisan appeal." Even Orrin Hatch, the former chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has said the filibuster is "one of the few tools that the minority has to protect itself and those the minority represents." It's also designed to force compromise. Going nuclear is dangerous maneuver which would overturn the basic power of checks and balances.
GOING NUCLEAR: If at least 41 senators strongly oppose a bill or nominee, they can decide to indefinitely extend debate, blocking a final vote on the issue. That's a filibuster. All it takes is 60 senators to vote the debate is over, and the bill/nominee is sent to the floor. What's the "nuclear option"? Right-wing senators want to change the long-standing rule so a simple majority can end the debate (meaning they could easily stop all filibusters). To change Senate rules, however, you have to have two-thirds of your colleagues behind you. (This ensures one party can't politicize Senate procedure.) In this case, the right wing doesn't have the required 67 senators on its side. Thus, it's time for procedural trickery known as the "nuclear option." Once the next filibuster is set in motion, probably over one of the more extremist judicial nominees, a right-wing senator wanting to activate the "nuclear option" would object, "claiming that the filibuster cannot be used on a judicial nomination." The Senate leader would rule in his favor. That ruling would be appealed, and only a simple majority would be needed to uphold that ruling which, in effect, would change the rule itself. Procedure averted, rule changed, and it all happens without needing two-thirds on your side. (Thanks to People For The American Way for the explanation.)
IT'S ADVISE *AND* CONSENT: The Constitution says the president "shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate shall appoint" judges. The right wing is looking to strip the "consent" from that process. President Bush is already complicit in this attempt: when the Senate fails to confirm his nominees, he simply renominates them. Even worse, he has a history of bypassing the Senate altogether and simply installing judges on the bench during a recess.
Conservatives in the Senate would strip their role in checks and balances. Claims that moderates and liberals in the Senate are being obstructionists, however, are belied by the record: the Senate has confirmed 204 of the president's 214 trial and appellate judicial nominees.
THE FIRST PRECEDENT: Many conservatives claim using a filibuster to block a judicial nominee is unprecedented. They may need to consult their history books. In fact, as the Los Angeles Times points out, "In fact, in 1968, Senate Republicans used a filibuster to block President Johnson's nomination of Abe Fortas to be Supreme Court chief justice."
THE FRIST PRECEDENT: Speaking of precedents, Senate Leader Bill Frist himself took part in an attempt to filibuster a judicial nominee. On 3/9/00, Frist took part in a filibuster of Richard Paez, President Clinton's nominee to the Ninth Circuit. (He tried to spin this vote last year, claiming the filibuster was for "scheduling" purposes, but a press release by former Senator Bob Smith titled "Smith Leads Effort to Block Activist Judicial Nominees" exposed his disingenuousness.) In reality, conservatives led at least six filibusters during the Clinton years.
For posted article and linked resources, see:
AmericanProgressAction.org
For items 3 and 4, see: MurderousThugs * NuclearAbolition * C-Span911
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
MurderousThugs * NuclearAbolition * C-Span911
18 April 2005 - Part 2
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,
tied in a single garment of destiny.
Whatever affects one directly,
effects all indirectly."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
3) "Our Country Has Been Overtaken By Murderous Thugs"
- - Negroponte Confirmed By Senate Committee
- - Bush Eliminating 19-year-old International Terrorism Report
- - A Most Dangerous Message
- - Space Peace Abolition NYC April 29-May 1st
- - Iraq's Oilworkers Unionize to Defend the Country's Oil
4) Monday C-Span Covering David Ray Griffin 9/11 Report Omissions
Editor's Notes:
Item 3 is an article by Cindy Sheehan, co-founder of Gold Star Families For Peace, "Our Country Has Been Overtaken By Murderous Thugs." The brutal honesty of this mother-protecting-spirit is something to behold. Please note peace and disarmament events in NYC April 29-May 1st, listed in a subsection of this item, too. Item 4 is about C-Span covering David Ray Griffin and 9/11 Truth Talk at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, which will be taped this Monday, 18 April 2005. A 9/11 questions group is meeting to screen the film: "The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror" and discuss issues regarding 9/11 this Tuesday, 19 April 2005 at the Media Education Foundation on Masonic Street in Northampton, MA, beginning at 7:00 pm.
For part 1, see: Sitcha Alert Action * Nuclear Option One-Party-Rule
3) "Our Country Has Been Overtaken By Murderous Thugs"
- - Negroponte Confirmed By Senate Committee
- - Bush Eliminating 19-year-old International Terrorism Report
- - A Most Dangerous Message
- - Space Peace Abolition NYC April 29-May 1st
- - Iraq's Oilworkers Unionize to Defend the Country's Oil
- - "Our Country Has Been Overtaken By Murderous Thugs"
A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION - April 11, 2005
Our Country Has Been Overtaken By Murderous Thugs
by Cindy Sheehan, co-founder of Gold Star Families For Peace
(This is the speech Cindy Sheehan made at Riverside Church -- where Martin Luther King gave his "Beloved Community" speech -- during the groundbreaking of the "Break the Silence: Building the Beloved Community" tour. You can read about the tour and Dr. King's speech at the DriveDemocracy.org web site.)
I've been asked to speak to you for 5 minutes or so. Please forgive me, but I'm going to take a little more than 8 minutes. The additional time that I'm going to steal from you is dedicated to my son, Casey, whose entire future was stolen from him.
My son was killed in Iraq on this day one year ago, the same day of April on which Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. From a jail in Birmingham, on April 16 1963 Dr. King wrote these words: "We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence.......of the good people." ...end of quote. And the Apostle Paul said this: " ...those who desire to be rich fall into temptation...into a snare that plunges men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all evil."
Thirty years ago, 1975, Gerald Ford was President of the United Sates. His Chief of Staff was Dick Cheney. His Secretary of Defense was Donald Rumsfeld. Paul Wolfowitz was heading-up the international arms-control end of things. All of these positions related directly to national security. While these men were looking after the nation's safety, they and President Ford concluded that Iran needed to supplement its energy system by adding nuclear power. The nuclear energy project that these men approved would have netted certain US corporations billions of dollars. Had the Shah of Iran...a blood-bought servant of US corporate interests...not soon been overthrown by his own countrymen, the big-wigs at Westinghouse or General Electric...or perhaps both...would have amassed personal fortunes from this one project, alone. Some of the stockholders would have also made bundles on the deal.
In 1975 my son had not yet been born. Today he is in his grave. Dick Cheney, on the other hand, is now Vice President of the United States, and he is materially wealthy beyond what any of us would ever pray to be. This is the same Dick Cheney who during the months leading-up to the invasion of Iraq said that Saddam Hussein not only has stockpiles of Weapons of Mass Destruction...more than a hundred metric tons of the deadly stuff...but he also said that Saddam Hussein was well-advanced in developing nuclear weapons and that therefore the US must invade Iraq and dethrone Saddam Hussein. Clean, quick, and simple according to Dick Cheney. Yet for some time now he has changed his tune. He now says...as if he had said it all along...that the US occupation of Iraq will require years of difficult and sometimes bloody conflict before it will be stable enough to bring our loved ones home. And too, rather than speak of Weapons of Mass Destruction, he now uses the word "democracy" a lot.
Is there yet an American who can not clearly see that Dick Cheney...whether it be 1975 or 2005...will say whatever he thinks is required to ultimately cause wealth and power to move to himself and to his friends? ...need I defile this holy place with words like "Halliburton" and "Kellog, Brown & Root" and "torture" and "US weapons industry"? Indeed, the Apostle Paul is correct in saying that, ultimately, the love of money leads to ruin and destruction.
Donald Rumsfeld is again Secretary of Defense. Only yesterday, it seems, he told the whole world that Saddam Hussein has stockpiles of Weapons of Mass Destruction. He even announced to the world that he and his generals know where Saddam's feared weapons are hidden. He announced this only days before our loved ones risked their lives searching those very areas where he so confidently said the weapons were hidden. Tell me, isn't it entirely reasonable for us to assume that those very places were being surveilled every second of every day and night until the very moment when our loved ones reached those areas and began their search? Donald Rumsfeld told us that the search would net more than a hundred metric tons. Are we to believe that Saddam quickly assembled a caravan of 18 wheelers and loaded all this stuff up and hauled it away to some new hiding place...and that US surveillance...the best in the world....didn't notice any of this happening? Are we to believe that this administration was, once again, asleep at the wheel...just as they would also have us to believe that they were innocently caught off-guard on the morning of September 11, 2001?
I implore you to read some of Scott Ritter...write the name down if you need to: Scott Ritter. R..I..T..T..E..R. I'm certain that many of you have already read his work. His work can be found in book stores, or go to Amazon.com. Read him and you will finally begin to understand that the horrid price we and the people of Iraq have paid to discover that Saddam's Weapons Of Mass Destruction had already been destroyed is not due to any failure at the U.S. intelligence agencies, it is in fact a validation of U.S. intelligence agencies. Ritter will explain to you exactly how is was that Rumsfeld was well-informed, by knowledgeable people within the Intelligence community, that Saddam had been stripped clean of such weapons, that Saddam's ability to reconstitute such weapons' programs had also been destroyed, and that any moves Saddam might have made in that direction would have been observed and stopped, forthwith.
Is there anyone in America who cannot yet see that Donald Rumsfeld is a liar...that he, as with Hitler and Stalin....will say anything so long as he thinks it will help shape the world to his own liking? Is there even one, sane adult among us who cannot see that Donald Rumsfeld is a threat to our nation's security and to peace on our beloved earth?
Paul Wolfowitz, after months of not finding any Weapons of Mass Destruction....and after hundreds of US soldiers were killed....my son amongst them....and after tens of thousands of innocent Iraq citizens were killed....this same Paul Wolfowitz casually explained....with his kindly charade and his ever so soft voice...that a decision was made to put forth "Weapons of Mass Destruction" as the need for the invasion. Essentially, Paul Wolfowitz admitted that he and his fellow conspirators had decided amongst themselves "...let's just go with the bit about Weapons of Mass Destruction. It's the one thing that will scare the American people enough so as to cause them to get behind this invasion."
As soft-spoken and sincere-sounding as Paul Wolfowitz is, is there yet any sane adult in this country who's skin does not crawl when this murderous liar opens his mouth and speaks? Am I the only person in this room who clearly sees that Paul Wolfowitz is a threat to our nation's security...and to peace on our beloved earth?"
30 years ago these 3 men gave the green light to Iran so that Iran could hire US companies to go there and build a 6.4 billion dollar nuclear power facility. ...no doubt the final bill would have been at least three times that much. Yet Dick Cheney recently said this of Iran's current intentions to add nuclear power to their energy system: Quote...."They are already sitting on an awful lot of oil and gas. Nobody can figure why they need nuclear to generate energy"....end of quote. Did these men not notice, 30 years ago, while they and their cohorts were being wined and dined by the Shah, that his opulent surroundings were bought and paid for with oil and gas that was being taken from the ground beneath their feet? Yet these men agreed, clear back then, that Iran needed to add nuclear power to their energy system. It is now 30 years and God only knows how many tens of millions of barrels of oil, later. Why should we believe these men....who we know are liars....when they now say that Iran's primary motive for wanting nuclear power is so that they can make nuclear weapons with which to destroy us and our allies? Even now, the International Atomic Energy Agency reports that there is no evidence that Iran has a nuclear weapons program. The Bush administrations response? They are trying to oust the agency's lead inspector, Mohammed al-Baradei. But who can forget that it was Mr. al-Baradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency who, during the months prior to the invasion of Iraq, reported that Saddam no longer had a nuclear weapons programs.
Our country has been overtaken by murderous thugs....gangsters who lust after fortunes and power; never caring that their addictions are at the expense of our loved ones, and the blood of innocent people near and far. We've watched these thugs parade themselves before the whole world as if they are courageous advocates for Christian moral values....and for the spread of democracy. Yet we all know that they are now putting in place, all across this country, a system of voting that provides no way to validate the accuracy of the counting of the votes. Our loved ones have been buried in early graves even as these arrogant thugs parade themselves before the entire world, insisting that democracy is worth dying for, killing for, and destroying entire cities for, all the while they are busy here at home overseeing the emplacement of an electronic voting system that invites fraud at every turn, an electronic vote-counting system that provides no way to validate the votes cast, and that, by it's very design, prohibits recounting the votes.
For these men to not see to it that our own system of voting and vote-counting is accurate, understandable and verifiable...all the while sending our loved ones to kill and to die so as to establish a democracy in some far away place......this is just one more staggering piece of evidence that the US government is now ruled by murderous hypocrites...criminals who should be arrested, charged appropriately, confined behind bars, and then tried in a court of law...not only here in our own country, but also in all the other countries which have suffered their incomprehensible greed. In their secret hiding places, while celebrating newly won fortunes with their fellow brass, there men must surely congratulate themselves with orgies of carnal pleasure as they mock the multitudes who are yet so blind as to mistake them for God's devoted servants.
Thank you.
Cindy Sheehan
Gold Star Families For Peace
For the original posting of this article, see:
www.buzzflash.com/contributors/05/04/con05131.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Negroponte Confirmed By Senate Committee
From Democracy Now! - Headlines for April 15, 2005
Meanwhile, the Senate Intelligence Committee has put the man who coordinated the bloody Contra War of the 1980s one step closer to being in charge of US intelligence gathering. John Negroponte was approved yesterday in a closed-door vote, clearing the way for the full Senate to vote on his nomination as the country's first Director of national Intelligence. The Committee also approved Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden as deputy director.
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/15/1337219
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush Eliminating 19-year-old International Terrorism Report
By Jonathan S. Landay
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Friday 15 April 2005
Washington - The State Department decided to stop publishing an annual report on international terrorism after the government's top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985, the first year the publication covered.
For the complete article, see:
www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/11407689.htm
or
www.truthout.org/docs_2005/041605A.shtml
----------------------------------------------------------------
"Patterns of Global Terrorism" to read past reports:
www.mipt.org/Patterns-of-Global-Terrorism.asp
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - A Most Dangerous Message
By Richard Norton-Taylor
The Guardian UK
Wednesday 13 April 2005
Contradictory US and British nuclear proliferation policies will lead other states to conclude that nuclear weapons earn respect and deter attack.
On May 2, representatives of 189 countries will gather in New York to discuss how to stop them spreading further. The nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) review conference comes at time when Iran is widely suspected of trying to acquire nuclear weapons, North Korea says it has nuclear weapons, western governments are warning about the threat of nuclear terrorism and the US administration is toying with the idea of building a new generation of "usable" mini-nukes.
..the purpose of the NPT, it points out, is "the prevention of the wider dissemination of nuclear weapons". It also commits its signatories to work in good faith towards nuclear disarmament.
Yet what is happening? The US is developing new nuclear warheads that don't need testing and can be stored much longer than existing ones. The Bush administration is not discouraging US nuclear scientists from asking Congress for money to develop a relatively low-yield bomb designed to attack underground bunkers - hiding places, in its view, for terrorists or the arsenals of "rogue states".
For the complete article, see:
www.guardian.co.uk/analysis/story/0,3604,1458141,00.html
or
www.truthout.org/docs_2005/041305N.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Space Peace Abolition NYC April 29-May 1st
No Nukes No Wars
March by the United Nations
Rally in Central Park
Sunday, May 1, 2005
For more information, see abolitionnow.org and
unitedforpeace.org
Full Spectrum Resistance
an International Space Organizing Conference
April 29-30 New York City
Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
More info: space4peace.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Iraq's Oilworkers Unionize to Defend the Country's Oil
www.truthout.org/issues_05/040705LA.shtml
4) Monday C-Span Covering David Ray Griffin 9/11 Report Omissions
- - Space Peace Abolition NYC April 29-May 1st
Story from Milwaukee IndyMedia site:
C-Span to Cover 9/11 Truth Talk at UW-Madison Monday!
C-Span will challenge the official version of the 9/11 "terrorist attacks" with a nationwide delayed broadcast of a talk by David Ray Griffin at U.W.-Madison Monday 4/18/05, 7:30 p.m., in 272 Bascom Hall. The public is invited to attend, and admission is free.
The nationwide news network C-span has broken the blackout on the 9/11 truth movement, raising hopes that other media outlets will follow, by deciding to broadcast a lecture by David Ray Griffin in Madison Monday night. An acclaimed philosopher-theologian and author of the 9/11 truth blockbusters The New Pearl Harbor and The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions, Dr. Griffin will be making a rare public appearance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Monday night, April 18th. at 7:30 p.m. in 272 Bascom Hall. His brand-new talk, entitled "9/11 and the American Empire: How Should Religious People Respond?" will focus on the ethical and spiritual dimension of facing the overwhelming evidence that the Bush Administration was complicit in the attacks of September 11th, 2001. His Madison appearance celebrates the founding of the new group MUJCA-NET: Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth: http://mujca.com.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Editor's note: A 9/11 questions group is meeting to screen the film: "The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror" and discuss issues regarding 9/11 this Tuesday, 19 April 2005 at the Media Education Foundation on Masonic Street in Northampton, MA, beginning at 7:00 pm.
More on this and other recommended films, see: Films that Make a Difference
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Sitcha Human Rights * geronimo * Iraq Civil War
07 April 2005
"Our military action in Iraq
is more a catalyst for terrorists than a cure."
-- General Wesley Clark
April 6, 2005
1) Richard Sitcha + 9/11 + Oil vs Justice and Human Rights = ?
2) geronimo ji Jaga: "Johnnie was a beautiful brother"
3) General Clark to House Armed Services on Iraq
- - Violence in Iraq could slide towards Civil War
Editor's Notes:
I cannot overuse such a clear argument as contained in the above quote by General Wesley Clark; the Pope would have agreed. However, item 1 begins this issue on the case of one individual struggling for life at the bottom of the US prison-deportation chain game. Where once Richard Sitcha was granted political asylum in the US, (even a social security card & working permit), suddenly, with no crime involved, his rights were taken away, and he remains in prison with the threat of being returned to a Country where he had been tortured. Item 2 is a message from geronimo ji Jaga for a memorial service for Johnnie Cochran. The insight and story from ji Jaga is well worth reading and researching, as well as the information at the end of this item on the case of Leonard Peltier. Item 3 takes us back to General Wesley Clark's opening statement to the US House Armed Services Committee on the miserable failure of the US attack on Iraq -- for overall US security, and in its relationship with other nations around the world.
The state has, in order to control us, introduced division into our thinking,
so that we come to distrust others and look to the state for protection!
But the roots of our individualism remind us that what we are
is inseparable from the source from which all others derive;
that coercive practices that threaten our neighbor also threaten us.
-Butler Shaffer
1) Richard Sitcha + 9/11 + Oil vs Justice and Human Rights = ?
HUMAN RIGHTS ALERT
On Friday March 31, 2005, Judge Ponsor granted the U.S. Attorney's motion to dismiss Richard Sitcha's Habeas Corpus Petition, leaving him with a thirty day window to appeal this decision. Also, the US Attorney's office has filed a motion to remove Richard Sitcha's stay of deportation that was granted by Judge Ponsor. Richard's current lawyer, John McKenna, cannot represent him at the appellate level. So, currently, Richard Sitcha is not represented by legal counsel (in a strange land), and his life and well being would be in danger by being returned to Cameroon.
Pasted below is a link to the text of Judge Ponsor's decision on Richard's case:
http://pacer.mad.uscourts.gov/dc/cgi-bin/recentops.pl?filename=ponsor/pdf/sitcha.pdf
Richard Sitcha has been moved. Here is his new address:
Sitcha, Richard
Unit BS1, Room 101
Plymouth Correctional Facility
26 Long Pond Road
Plymouth, MA 02360
Please contact Richard Sitcha directly if you can help, and you can also contact Andrew Cohen by email < acohen@wesleyan.edu > -- FreeRichard.com
The following is more details on the background behind this important human rights case.
Richard Sitcha
by Carl Doerner
Richard Sitcha is a poster-man for the thousands of men and women incarcerated in the aftermath of 9/11. This is his story. A native of Cameroon in Western Africa, he studied and was a practicing bailiff when he came into conflict with his government. Young people (later termed the Bepanda Nine) had disappeared and their families came to him for assistance. He learned that the captives had been taken to a naval base near Douala. At the base he learned the youths had been executed. As a result of Sitcha's further attentions to the needs of the families of the victims, he says, he was arrested and tortured (beating the bottoms of his feet with a machete). The same political connections that allowed him to gather information helped him to flee Cameroon before being further charged. By all accounts, Cameroon is less than a "free" society and was, at the time, under martial law. He is 42, married, and has two children. His wife is in France and his two boys remain in Cameroon. A devout Catholic, he became an active member of St. Ann's Church of the Immaculate Conception, Hartford, where he was a resourceful, well-regarded member of the community. Arriving in the US April 27, 2001, Sitcha followed the law in applying for political refuge. He was granted asylum on January 16, 2003. He also received a social security card and work permit, and he was employed. Then, Immigration and Naturalization Services asked to reopen his case and, at a September 18, 2003,hearing, the judge said contacts had been made in Cameroon, where his story could not be verified, revoked the previously granted asylum status and, without his having committed or been charged with any crime, he was jailed. He was lodged at Osborn, Connecticut's maximum security facility, which is surrounded by hundreds of acres of jails built on what was once a Shaker farm. At Osborn he was assaulted and so badly beaten by a cell mate that he had to be hospitalized and was put on suicide watch.
Article Truncated, for the complete article, see
in pdf format:
http://traprockpeace.org/doerner_sitcha.pdf
or html:
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:uiFuEidOsAwJ:traprockpeace.org/doerner_sitcha.pdf+sitcha,+richard,+doerner&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For other resources on Richard, see:
http://traprockpeace.org/richard_sitcha.html
&
FreeRichard.com
2) geronimo ji Jaga: "Johnnie was a beautiful brother"
"..It's not easy to try and put into words one's feelings at a time like this. So many words and pictures come to mind that it is very hard to put them in order and transcribe them. What i can say is this: Johnnie was a beautiful brother, who even after becoming well versed in the ugly reality of Cointelpro, always remained a calming influence for me, encouraging forgiveness for all those puppets that were being exploited by the system. Despite the sick, sadistic practices of the government and its stooges, as documented in their own records, Johnnie continued to believe in the goodness of everyday people, who were being used as he used to say, "For they know not what they do." Johnnie would want us all to keep forgiveness in our hearts, but to remain vigilant of these rats, who are now going to come out of the woodwork and claim friendships with Johnnie and sing his praises just to promote themselves and their egos. Johnnie never bought into the ego trip, and was always willing to give his time and energy to represent the most under represented in society. He was a man with a heart as big as Yogi Pinell's.
Johnnie and i connected long before he began defending members of the Black Panther Party against police repression in Los Angeles. We both came out of the Mississippi Delta and the great tradition of struggle by Africans in the south to liberate ourselves from oppression. We were born into this glorious history of resistance to the slavocracy, from the Bras Coupee Uprising and many other insurrections, to the Afrikan Blood Brotherhood and the Garvey Legionnaires in the 1920s to the Deacons for Defense during the civil rights movement. Johnnie and i were comrades in struggle, sometimes employing different methods but fighting for similar goals, the freedom and self-determination of Afrikan people in particular and all oppressed people in general. The tradition of struggle continued in Los Angeles where Johnnie "Chief" Cochran Sr. was one of the first men in Los Angeles to support the Free Breakfast for Children's program of the Black Panther Party at the Second Baptist Church with Rev. Kilgore. Soon after, his son, Johnnie Cochran Jr. began defending the members of the Black Panther Party in court against the racist police and other agencies who set out to destroy our movement as part of the federal government's illegal Cointelpro pogrom. People were surprised, but not us, that Johnnie was willing to come to the fore of our struggle for Reparations. In 1975, while i was imprisoned on san quentin's death row, he and i began to dialogue via mail about the legal predicates regarding the money owed the descendants of African slaves. Johnnie was impressed with the arguments being made under international law, and the legitimacy of our right to reparations as was being taught by the great legal minds of Imari Obadele and Chokwe Lumumba. His commitment to our struggle and his eager willingness to begin to engage in the struggle for reparations for Mama Afrika, who was raped first by colonialism and slavery, makes me suspicious of the suddenness and speed in which this healthy, picture perfect man, was taken from us by this strange illness. Johnnie also recognized that there were many other political prisoners in the United States such as Sundiata Acoli, Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Mutulu Shakur, Marilyn Buck, and too many others to list here. Johnnie was just as supportive of them as well. He would agree that we needed to go beyond domestic law, which is inherently racist, and use international law to escape the many racist trappings of domestic law that have been instituted since the early days of the slavocracy.
We had spoken about him joining me in Afrika to work on some of the issues facing our people here, and he had told me it was his next quest. He was anxious to address the problems of orphans, HIV/Aids, poverty, genocidal sorties, and patterns of economic exploitation that have continued since the days of colonialism. Johnnie wanted to come and pay homage at the Altar of Mt. Kilimanjaro, but he also wanted to meet two of our greatest heroes, Pete and Charlotte O'Neal. Johnnie was amazed at contradictions surrounding Pete's case, and the fact that he ,Assata, Don Con and Cetewayo had to remain in political exile clearly and only because of the FBI's war against the Black Liberation Movement.
Many of Johnnie's detractors like to claim he played the race card in the OJ trial by exposing the misconduct, racism and ineptitude of the Los Angeles police. But those critics fail to accept the truth that Johnnie knew all to well; the Cointelpro card. This dirty, pernicious, secret, illegal war, that victimized even Johnnie when the police pulled him out of his car and had him prostrate on the ground in front of his children. His past experiences on my case and many others having shown him how deliberately and shamelessly the police would manufacture evidence, lie on the stand, and generally use all sorts of nefarious tactics to get a conviction. Johnnie stood up and refused to blindly accept the testimony of police or other government agents. Unfortunately too many people still refuse to acknowledge the corruption and injustice that is rampant within the so-called justice system in America. But Johnnie knew it, and fought against it at every opportunity.
But Johnnie is home now. Another great son of Afrika has returned to the Ancestors. He has been a great son. A father, a brother, a friend and a comrade. We can all feel a little more secure knowing that while our brother is no longer able to look after us individually in the courtroom, he now watches over us collectively alongside Bunchy, Red, Toure and all the other Freedom Fighters who have gone before him. Johnnie fought not only for justice, but also for peace. And he has finally found his. I could talk all day about my beautiful brother, but I know he didn't wake me up for that this morning. I can hear him calling me now, telling me to get up, get out, and continue to "Fight the Good Fight!"'
Pamberi ne Chimurenga!
(Ever Onward to Liberation)
geronimo ji Jaga
Tanzania, East Afrika
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
The full text was posted by jsmooth995 (April 1, 2005):
www.hiphopmusic.com/archives/000927.html
For a book on geronimo: Last Man Standing :
The Tragedy and Triumph of Geronimo Pratt
by JACK OLSEN
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385493681/ref%3Dase%5Fhiphopmusicco-20/002-1207354-2550434
Please Note:
Leonard Peltier's prison sentence has recently surpassed geronimo ji Jaga's long 27-year unjust prison stay. Isn't it time for Leonard Peltier to breathe the air of freedom?
Learn more at the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee website:
LeonardPeltier.org
3) General Clark to House Armed Services on Iraq
- - Violence in Iraq could slide towards Civil War
- - Opening Statement of General Wesley Clark
House Armed Services Committee Hearing
April 6, 2005
[EXCERPT]
.. After a Congressional Resolution and an aborted U.N. inspection effort, the U.S. invaded Iraq. We did not use the U.N. process effectively to enhance our legitimacy or build our coalition. The Administration did not heed the warnings of General Shinseki and others who warned of the force strength necessary to win the war and win the peace. In short, the Administration did not give our military adequate planning or sufficient resources to handle the post-conflict situation in Iraq. These errors were compounded by weak strategic decisions, including dissolving the Iraqi army and outlawing Baathist participation in new governmental structures. The prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib has provided our enemies with a propaganda bonanza resulting in a recruiting windfall in Iraq and throughout the Arab world.
More fundamentally, with its armed occupation of Iraq, the Administration lost focus, and was substantially distracted from worldwide efforts against Al Qaeda. Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda network are still at large, terrorist incidents have continued to take innocent life, and U.S. military actions in Iraq have provided a magnet for recruiting and training large numbers of extremist youth in continuing warfare. If Iraq is today the center of the war against terrorism, as some in the Administration have contended, it is not because the terrorists were there originally, but because they have been recruited there to the fight against us. Our military action in Iraq is more a catalyst for terrorists than a cure. Whatever results may ultimately come from removing Saddam Hussein from power, ending the terrorist threat against the United States of America is not likely to be one of them.
To read General Clark's complete statement and more, visit: SecuringAmerica.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Violence in Iraq could slide towards Civil War
Political Instability in Iraq Causes Some to Form Militias
by Tom Lasseter
Published on Wednesday, April 6, 2005 by Knight Ridder
BAGHDAD, IRAQ --
The rumors spread quickly last month around the central Baghdad neighborhood of Sab'ah Nisan that Salem Khudair's nephew had insulted the name of Imam Hussein, one of the most important historical figures in the Shiite branch of Islam. It fell to Khudair, the eldest son of a family from the Sunni branch, to meet with local Shiites and explain that his 26-year-old nephew had said no such thing.
A day later Khudair's family received a note insulting them as Sunni Muslims, calling them sons of whores. On March 27, Khudair was kidnapped.
What came next has become typical for Iraq as sectarian tension and violence rise. Khudair's family formed an armed group of more than 20 relatives and neighbors who demanded Khudair's release and vowed to kill those responsible. "If something happened to my brother, no Shiite would be safe," Khudair's brother, Sameer, said at the time, convinced that Shiite militia members were behind the kidnapping.
Khudair's body was found on Saturday, dumped in the street. He'd been shot in the face, and there was evidence of torture. At the family home later that day, Sameer Khudair said there would be no funeral celebration until his brother's death was avenged. Young men stood on the rooftop with AK-47s, and others stuffed their guns into bags.
The political instability in Iraq and the ethnic divides behind it are pushing Iraqis toward gang-like violence that many worry could start a slide toward civil war..
[EXCERPT]
..There is talk, he said, of starting a militia.
A special correspondent who cannot be named for security reasons contributed to this report from Fallujah.
For the original published article link, see
www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/11318266.htm
###
also posted:
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0406-10.htm
Flyby News Support
To support actions and campaigns, please consider sending a check
of any amount made payable to Flyby News. {For donations of $10
or more ~ we will send you a flybynews.com art decal }
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading and supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Intel Dead Wrong * Exit Polls * Missile Defense Gap
03 April 2005
"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government
owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.
To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance
between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task
of the statesmanship of the day."
Theodore Roosevelt
(April 19, 1906)
1) Intel Dead Wrong ~ the facade of dishonesty
- - "Honest Intelligence Needed" by Ray McGovern
- - Dahr Jamail: "Life in Falluja is a horror story"
- - Will US apply Army Regulations on DU?
- - Bolton Faces Stiff Fight Over UN Nomination
2) Chance of Exit Polls Wrong in '04 Vote is One-in-959,000
- - Relaunching kucinich.us by Congressman Dennis Kucinich
3) The Real Missile Defense Gap
- - Join the campaign to Stop New Nuclear Weapons
- - Earth's Health in Sharp Decline, Massive Study Finds
Editor's Notes:
The news is going so fast that I can hardly keep up. Confirmations for the crazy positions of the Bush-appointed administration is like a blurr. Negroponte had hardly any opposition for taking over the direction of US Intelligence. That is BAD NEWS. Before the significance of this appointment, confirmation could be absorbed, Bush received the confirmation of Wolfowitz as President of the World Bank. Is the wolf guarding the hen house too obvious of a comparison? And now in this issue, thinking people are wondering how in the world did John Bolton get nominated for US ambassador to the United Nations, and what we can do about it.
The above Theodore Roosevelt quote was stated about 100 years ago. Now, with little united opposition to overcome a more entrenched intelligence-controlling corrupt political-corporate facade of democracy, I wonder will there be a united effort to effectively win back a democracy in our life times.
Besides the actions contained in the items, please consider contacting your representative to vote against the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (HR 685). The bill was written for credit card companies, which made $30 billion in profits in 2004. The bill will prevent you from declaring bankruptcy under Chapter 7, which pays off your debts by liquidating your assets, and giving you a fresh start financially. Instead, it would force you into a rigid 5-year repayment plan. "Simply put, you would become a debt slave to the credit card companies."
Learn more ==> DebtSlavery.org
Take Action ==> Tell your congress member to vote against the Bankruptcy Bill now!
The state has, in order to control us, introduced division into our thinking,
so that we come to distrust others and look to the state for protection!
But the roots of our individualism remind us that what we are
is inseparable from the source from which all others derive;
that coercive practices that threaten our neighbor also threaten us.
-Butler Shaffer
1) Intel Dead Wrong ~ the facade of dishonesty
- - "Honest Intelligence Needed" by Ray McGovern
- - Dahr Jamail: "Life in Falluja is a horror story"
- - Will US apply Army Regulations on DU?
- - Bolton Faces Stiff Fight Over UN Nomination
- - Oppose John Bolton for US ambassador to the United Nations
- - Intelligence Analysts Whiffed on a 'Curveball'
Published on Friday, April 1, 2005 by the Los Angeles Times
Intelligence Analysts Whiffed on a 'Curveball'
Report says one Iraqi defector singlehandedly corrupted prewar weapons estimates.
by Greg Miller and Bob Drogin
WASHINGTON Prewar claims by the United States that Iraq was producing biological weapons were based almost entirely on accounts from a defector who was described as "crazy" by his intelligence handlers and a "congenital liar" by his friends.
The defector, code-named "Curveball," spoke with alarming specificity about Iraq's alleged biological weapons programs and fleet of mobile labs. But postwar investigations showed that he wasn't even in the country at times when he claimed to have taken part in illicit weapons work.
Despite persistent doubts about his credibility, Curveball's claims were included in the Bush administration's case for war without so much as a caveat. And when CIA analysts argued after the war that the agency needed to admit it had been duped, they were forced out of their jobs.
The disclosures about Curveball and the extensive role he played in corrupting U.S. intelligence estimates on Iraq were included in a devastating report released Thursday by a commission established by President Bush to evaluate U.S. intelligence on weapons of mass destruction.
The 601-page document is a sweeping assessment of U.S. intelligence failures that identifies breakdowns in dozens of cases involving multiple countries and terrorist organizations.
But in many ways, Curveball's story is the centerpiece of the report, a cautionary tale told in excruciating detail to highlight failures that plagued U.S. spy agencies at almost every step in the intelligence process from collection to analysis to presentation to policymakers..
[Excerpt]
..Curveball's claims were crucial to the case for war. An October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate that concluded Iraq "has" biological weapons was "based almost exclusively on information obtained" from Curveball, according to the report.
Four months later, when then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell made a presentation to the United Nations, he showed illustrations of Iraq's alleged bioweapons labs and described an accident in which 12 Iraqis had died operating one of the vehicles. Curveball was the main source for both assertions. Concerns about Curveball's credibility were never conveyed to Powell or other administration officials, the commission found.
But there were problems with Curveball's claims at an early stage. Some CIA officials noted that Curveball's memory showed significant "improvement" as he pursued a European immigration deal and deteriorated when it was granted.
In May 2000, a Defense Department official assigned to the CIA was allowed to meet with Curveball, apparently to examine the source physically to see whether he bore signs of having survived a biological weapons accident or had been vaccinated for exposure to such agents.
The evaluation was "inconclusive," according to the commission. But the official expressed concern that Curveball had a "hangover" during their meeting and "might be an alcoholic." Further, the official was surprised that Curveball spoke excellent English because the Germans had said he didn't speak the language.
By early 2001, the CIA was getting messages from German intelligence that Curveball was "out of control" and could not be located. Some of Curveball's information was contradicted by other intelligence. His description of a depot for the weapons labs didn't match surveillance images, which showed a wall where Curveball said vehicles were entering and exiting.
As war approached, new problems surfaced. Before Powell's presentation, the CIA pressed for permission to speak directly with Curveball. The head of one of the agency's divisions arranged a lunch with a German intelligence official.
Finally, about midnight before the day of Powell's U.N. presentation, an agency officer described a telephone conversation with then-CIA Director George J. Tenet in which the officer warned against relying on Curveball. "Tenet replied with words to the effect of 'yeah, yeah,' and that he was 'exhausted,' " the commission's report said. Pavitt told the commission he was aware of "handling problems" with Curveball but did not know Curveball was the dominant source for biological weapons assessments. McLaughlin and Tenet told the panel that they did not recall receiving those warnings about Curveball.
Tenet, McLaughlin and Pavitt all left the CIA last year.
The commission report revealed details about problems with other prominent prewar claims. The CIA asserted that Iraq was importing aluminum tubes to be used as centrifuges in a nuclear weapons program, although authorities have since concluded they were for conventional rockets.
An allegation that Iraq was seeking to acquire uranium from Niger was based on "transparently forged documents" purporting to show a contract between the countries, the commission concluded. There were "flaws in the letterhead, forged signatures, misspelled words, incorrect titles for individuals and government entities," the report said.
The contract document also referred to an alleged meeting "that took place on 'Wednesday, July 7, 2000,' even though July 7, 2000, was a Friday," the report said.
All of these assertions unraveled, but none in more embarrassing fashion than the case built on Curveball's accounts.
After the invasion, intelligence officials tracked down Iraqis who Curveball had claimed were his co-workers in the biological weapons program. All denied there was a mobile biological weapons program, and none "even knew who Curveball was," the commission found.
When CIA officers finally got direct access to Curveball in May 2004, he was "unwilling or unable" to explain discrepancies in his account, and any remaining questions about his lack of reliability "were removed," the commission said.
The panel challenged one persistent suspicion about Curveball: that his deception was the result of coaching by the Iraqi National Congress, an organization led by Ahmad Chalabi that had spent years urging the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime. The panel found that at least two national congress defectors were fabricators, but said it was "unable to uncover any evidence that the INC or any other organization was directing Curveball."
The agency rescinded all of its intelligence reports that were based on Curveball in May 2004.
For the complete copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times article, see:
www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-curveball1apr01,1,6941547,print.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage
and also posted at:
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0401-10.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - "Honest Intelligence Needed" by Ray McGovern
Published on Friday, April 1, 2005 by the Miami Herald
Honest Intelligence Needed
by Ray McGovern
The latest commission looking into intelligence failures on Iraq reports a certain consistency in the performance of the intelligence community. We are informed that we also ''know disturbingly little about the weapons programs'' of other countries -- such as Iran. One might think this would counsel caution for a Pentagon planning to ''take out'' Iran's fledgling nuclear capability.
Think again. The recent reassertion of administration policy on preemptive war in the ''National Defense Strategy'' just promulgated by Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, together with his well-known insistence that ''the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence'' suggest that Iran may well be the next target -- intelligence or no. The more so, since many of the malleable analysts who, according to the commission, were ''dead wrong'' about Iraq's ''weapons of mass destruction'' are now putting the finishing touches to a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran.
I find myself wondering if it is also the case that Vice President Dick Cheney has resumed his frequent visits to CIA headquarters -- this time to help the analysts come to the right conclusions on Iran?
For the complete article, "Honest Intelligence Needed" by Ray McGovern
published by the Miami Herald, see:
www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/11283036.htm
###
and posted also at:
www.commondreams.org/views05/0401-22.htm
Ray McGovern (rrmcgovern@aol.com), a 27-year veteran of CIA's intelligence analysis directorate,
serves on the steering group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Dahr Jamail: "Life in Falluja is a horror story"
Interview with ERIC RUDER, Socialist Worker Magazine
Independent journalist Dahr Jamail:
"Life in Falluja is a horror story"
April 01, 2005
April 1, 2005 - DAHR JAMAIL spent eight months working as an independent journalist in Iraq. As one of the few journalists not "embedded" with U.S. forces, his reports earned a reputation for being an uncompromising look at life under occupation.
Currently, Jamail is back in the U.S. on a speaking tour that will take him to several West Coast cities. He spoke to Socialist Worker's ERIC RUDER about the destruction unleashed on Iraq by the U.S. during two years of occupation.
Continue reading "Independent journalist Dahr Jamail:"Life in Falluja is a horror story""
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/interviews/000229.php#more
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Will US apply Army Regulations on DU?
From: Charles Jenks < charles@mtdata.com >
Date: Fri, 01 Apr 2005
Subject: Will US apply Army regs on DU?
The US military has recently 'recognized' its own Army regulations on uranium weapons (DU) in two publications. But will it now comply with its environmental and health care mandates? Or will Iraq be left to deal with this radioactive and toxic mess on its own?
While the military continues to claim that DU is virtually harmless, its own documents admit to its serious health risks to soldiers and civilians alike.
This article cites numerous resources, and asks people to take action.
For url link for article and resources, visit:
www.traprockpeace.org/depleted_uranium_regs.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bolton Faces Stiff Fight Over UN Nomination
By Paul Richter
The Los Angeles Times
Thursday 31 March 2005
Democrats on panel might all vote against Bolton.
Washington - Democrats are likely to vote unanimously against John Bolton when his nomination to be US ambassador to the United Nations comes before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee next week, according to Democratic and Republican lawmakers and aides.
It would mark the first time committee Democrats unanimously opposed a Bush diplomatic nominee and would put the nomination in peril if Republicans defected to vote against him.
But Republicans say they believe the outspoken conservative will win solid GOP backing in the committee, including from moderate Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.), who has voiced reservations about Bolton's nomination to be UN ambassador.
The split on the panel is one of several signs that the proceedings, set for April 7, will be acrimonious. Advocates have organized letter-writing and ad campaigns for and against Bolton.
For the complete article, published by Chicago Tribune, see:
www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0503310297mar31,1,5263524.story
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - Oppose John Bolton for US ambassador to the United Nations
To sign a petition, and send a letter to your Senators
urging them to oppose Bolton's nomination, visit:
http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/issues/alert/?alertid=7322176&type=TA
"Bolton's nomination is a serious threat to America's time-honored tradition of working with other nations to solve global problems. His obvious and well-known contempt for global cooperation could prove disastrous to U.S. national security. Sign this petition today to tell your Senators to oppose Bolton's nomination to the United Nations. Please act now - confirmation hearings start on April 7th, just days away! ....."
* Read and sign this petition to send, too:
www.care2.com/go/z/22701
2) Chance of Exit Polls Wrong in '04 Vote is One-in-959,000
- - Relaunching kucinich.us by Congressman Dennis Kucinich
- - Chance of Exit Polls Wrong in '04 Vote is One-in-959,000
Published on Friday, April 1, 2005 by the Akron Beacon Journal / Ohio
Analysis Points to Election 'Corruption'
Group Says Chance of Exit Polls Being So Wrong in '04 Vote is One-in-959,000
by Stephen Dyer
There's a one-in-959,000 chance that exit polls could have been so wrong in predicting the outcome of the 2004 presidential election, according to a statistical analysis released Thursday.
Exit polls in the November election showed Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., winning by 3 percent, but President George W. Bush won the vote count by 2.5 percent.
The explanation for the discrepancy that was offered by the exit polling firm -- that Kerry voters were more likely to participate in the exit polling -- is an ``implausible theory,'' according to the report issued Thursday by US Count Votes, a group that claims it's made up of about two dozen statisticians.
Twelve -- including a Case Western Reserve University mathematics instructor -- signed the report.
Instead, the data support the idea that ``corruption of the vote count occurred more freely in districts that were overwhelmingly Bush strongholds.''
The report dismisses chance and inaccurate exit polling as the reasons for their discrepancy with the results.
They found that the one hypothesis that can't be ruled out is inaccurate election results.
``The hypothesis that the voters' intent was not accurately recorded or counted... needs further investigation,'' it said.
The conclusion drew a yawn from Ohio election officials, who repeated that the discrepancy issue was settled when the polling firms Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International disavowed its polls because Kerry voters were more likely to answer exit polls -- the theory Thursday's report deemed ``implausible.''
Ohio has been at the center of a voter disenfranchisement debate since the election.
``What are you going to do except laugh at it?'' said Carlo LoParo, spokesman for Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, who's responsible for administering Ohio's elections and is a Republican candidate for governor. ``We're not particularly interested in (the report's findings). We wish them luck, but hope they find something more interesting to do.''
The statistical analysis, though, shows that the discrepancy between polls and results was especially high in precincts that voted for Bush -- as high as a 10 percent difference.
The report says if the official explanation -- that Bush voters were more shy about filling out exit polls in precincts with more Kerry voters -- is true, then the precincts with large Bush votes should be more accurate, not less accurate as the data indicate.
The report also called into question new voting machine technologies.
``All voting equipment technologies except paper ballots were associated with large unexplained exit poll discrepancies all favoring the same party, (which) certainly warrants further inquiry,'' the report concludes.
However, LoParo remained unimpressed.
``These (Bush) voters have been much maligned by outside political forces who didn't like the way they voted,'' he said. ``The weather's turning nice. There are more interesting things to do than beat a dead horse.''
2005 Beacon Journal and wire service sources
www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/11284237.htm
###
also posted at:
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0401-06.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Relaunching kucinich.us by Congressman Dennis Kucinich
A message from Congressman Dennis Kucinich:
In seven days, on Tuesday, April 5, I will relaunch kucinich.us, the Web site originally used for my 2004 Presidential campaign. Dedicated to empowering activists nationwide, Kucinich.us will be a platform for educating and organizing around the issues that brought millions of people together to create a politics with heart and intelligence, celebrating our highest capabilities and enabling the triumph of hope over fear.
The theme of the new Kucinich.us will be "Insight and Action." To aid in the education and empowerment of activists everywhere, I will share my insights on a range of critical issues. I'll give calls to specific action and provide specific tools to help engage supporters in working to change the world, starting in your own communities.
In a new feature, Report from Washington, I will provide my inside view of late-breaking events from right inside the Capitol. Updated frequently, even several times a day if issues warrant, this report will be your link to what's happening, as it happens.
In a new streaming video presentation, I challenge the Administration's plan for privatization of Social Security. This presentation also will be available for purchase on disk and tape, and in a downloadable slide show, suitable for use in grassroots organizing. Those who are prepared to take organizing to a new level and wish to hold Town Hall meetings in their communities will be able to sign up through the website to arrange to have me call in to answer questions after the presentation of this video.
This is just the beginning of a new series of Town Hall videos, starting with Social Security and extending to a range of other critical topics. With these insights and tools, you'll be empowered to discuss the issues confidently, to organize, and to carry the message to others.
Spring is here. We're back. Together, we'll create a new beginning.
Sincerely,
Dennis Kucinich
3) The Real Missile Defense Gap
- - Join the campaign to Stop New Nuclear Weapons
- - The Real Missile Defense Gap
By David Ignatius
davidignatius@washpost.com
Published by the Washington Post
Wednesday, March 23, 2005; Page A15
Here's a macabre defense quiz for the post-Sept. 11 world: Which kind of attack on the United States is more likely over the next 20 years -- a ballistic missile launched from another continent, or a low-flying cruise missile or rocket fired by terrorists from a ship off the U.S. coast?
For me, the answer unfortunately is a no-brainer. The more plausible threat is the short-range cruise missile or rocket attack, not the distant ICBM. The ICBM is the old Cold War paradigm of what could get Americans killed; the short-range threat is an all-too-believable image of what terrorists could do today, using missiles bought on the black market and homemade chemical or biological warheads.
Okay, now let's test how U.S. defense dollars are actually being spent: For the current fiscal year, Congress has appropriated $9 billion for the Missile Defense Agency to develop an exotic system based on land, at sea, in air and in space that, in theory, will be able to destroy ICBMs with airborne lasers and kinetic "kill vehicles" traveling at more than 7,000 miles per hour. Meanwhile, the amount being spent specifically for homeland defense against a close-in cruise missile or rocket attack is, as near as I can discover, zero.
That mismatch bothers me. We're spending billions to fight a version of the last war with costly space-based weapons. Meanwhile, we are all but ignoring the real-world weapons that could be used in the next war. I can testify personally to this threat because I was in Kuwait in March 2003 when an Iraqi cruise missile slammed into a shopping center in the middle of town. It was not detected by radar.
[Excerpt]
But it makes no sense that the United States is spending $9 billion a year to defend against an ICBM threat that, for now, is well in the future -- and nothing to protect against real and present dangers. The United States may face threats from Iran or North Korea down the road, but we're at war with al Qaeda today. If the Bush administration is serious about missile defense, then surely it ought to think harder about stopping the missiles that might actually be used, right now, by America's known enemies.
For the complete article, see:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58463-2005Mar22.html?sub=AR
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For learning about campaigns to stop weapons and nuclear power in space, visit:
space4peace.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Join the campaign to Stop New Nuclear Weapons
The Bush administration this year is reviving its proposal for a new generation of "usable" nuclear weapons, often described as "bunker busters." Your actions and the efforts of thousands of others helped support efforts by Rep. David Hobson (OH) to eliminate funding for these weapons in 2004. Now we need to mobilize again to slam the door shut on these new nuclear weapons before the administration proposal gains momentum.
ACT NOW!
To learn more, visit the resource web site,
Friends Committee on National Legislation:
http://www.fcnl.org/nuclear/index.htm
To contact your representative, go to:
http://capwiz.com/fconl/issues/alert/?alertid=7330336&type=CO
Urge him or her to eliminate funds for the bunker buster in the defense authorization bill and the energy and water appropriations bill.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Earth's Health in Sharp Decline, Massive Study Finds
Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News
March 31, 2005
The report card has arrived from the largest ever scientific Earth analysis, and many of the planet's ecosystems are simply not making the grade.
The UN-backed Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Synthesis Report found that nearly two-thirds of Earth's life-supporting ecosystems, including clean water, pure air, and stable climate, are being degraded by unsustainable use.
Humans have caused much of this damage during the past half century. Soaring demand for food, fresh water, timber, fiber, and fuel have led to dramatic environmental changes, from deforestation to chemical pollution, the report says.
The already grim situation may worsen dramatically during the first half of the 21st century, the report's authors warn.
Over 1,300 governmental and private-sector contributors from 95 countries collaborated to create the landmark study. For four years they examined the planet's many habitats and species and the systems that bind them together.
The United Nations Environment Programme compiled the report and released the results yesterday in Beijing, China.
"Only by understanding the environment and how it works, can we make the necessary decisions to protect it," UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a press statement accompanying the report's release. "Only by valuing all our precious natural and human resources, can we hope to build a sustainable future."
Read the rest of the article here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/03/0331_050330_unenvironment.html
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Election Education * OIL politics * Inside Unity
28 March 2005
"We have been conditioned to honor a system of values
built on contempt and disrespect for who we are
as a community of people."
-- Tyanla Vanzant
1) The Alleged Impossibility of Moving the Democrats Left
- - Fitrakis video: "Who got glitched: Election Reform Teach-in"
- - OhioElection2004.com - awesome Election-fraud Resources
2) More than Just Oil Behind War On Terror
- - The Empire Isn't In Afghanistan For The Oil!
- - Greg Palast: Harper's Baghdad Coup D'etat for Big Oil
- -The Long Emergency' - Cheap Gas No More
- - New Details on F.B.I. Aid for Saudis after 9/11
- - U.S. Troops Tortured Iraqis in Mosul, Documents Show
3) A Call for Unity ~ from Inside ~ Jehan Abdur-Raheem
Editor's Notes:
The big issue in this issue has to do with unity, or will we keep responding with conditioned responses of being manipulated, divided and conquered? Item 1 is an article by David Swanson of the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) [pdamerica.org] Swanson refers to ..a March 25th article in Socialist Worker predicting that we in PDA will not manage to move the Democratic Party to the left..' This remains a question, but thank goodness a grassroots organization is trying. In subsections, make sure you check out the resources from those still active in election reform, and investigating irregularities in the last election, especially in Ohio.
Item 2 is packed with contrasting arguments and reasons in what is behind the war on terror. It is certainly more than Oil, and includes the agenda of US military dominance. The shadows of fear, control, and greed does this crazy dance that leads to forgetting interconnections with truth, and the distortions of the mind can corrupt oneself. We are in real trouble if those half-sane can not unite effectively to demand a more sustainable direction. Item 3 offers inspiration in a recent letter from inside the belly of the beast to understanding what it takes to bringing light into a new day, Jehan Abdur-Raheem..
"All that is required for evil to triumph
is for good men to remain silent."
-- Edmund Burke
1) The Alleged Impossibility of Moving the Democrats Left
- - Fitrakis video: "Who got glitched: Election Reform Teach-in"
- - OhioElection2004.com - awesome Election-fraud Resources
- - The Alleged Impossibility of Moving the Democrats Left
By David Swanson
I think Progressive Democrats of America owes a thanks to Lance Selfa for his March 25th article in Socialist Worker predicting that we in PDA will not manage to move the Democratic Party to the left.
http://www.socialistworker.org/2005-1/536/536_07_PDA.shtml
The warning of the difficulty, and of where we can easily go wrong, is helpful.
Selfa began his article with these words: "In a recent fundraising appeal on behalf of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), Global Exchange and Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin urged support for the PDA's effort to 'take over and transform the Democratic Party.' But this is only the latest in a long line of attempts to 'take over and transform the Democratic Party.' If history is any guide, the PDA's attempt will end like all the others--in failure."
But for every new development in history, history was not "any guide." New achievements are, by definition, new, and their possibility cannot be ruled out by past failures. Of course, the Democratic Party has never been what we want it to be though at times it's been much, much closer to it. We and those who have come before us have tried to reform it and failed again and again. But the organization for which Selfa writes advocates the overthrow of capitalism, and we haven't managed that yet either. If history is "any guide," we won't.
Luckily for progressive Democrats and socialists, and for those of us who sympathize with both, there's as much wisdom in Ford and Joyce as in Santayana. We don't want to repeat historical mistakes, but we do want to awaken from history's nightmares and recognize history, ultimately, as bunk.
The right wing announced that September 11th "changed everything," and then proceeded to change quite a few things. We can, if we choose, announce that George W. Bush changed everything, or that the pathetic failure of John Kerry changed everything. These are not empirical claims. They're commitments. We make them true and give them meaning afterwards.
In reforming the Democrats, the trick, as Selfa points out, lies in maintaining a working relationship with the Democratic Party without selling out to it, without being co-opted, without falling victim to the allure of petty power. The same danger lies in working with large funding sources, of course.
I cannot predict with any certainty that PDA will manage to take over the Democratic Party for progressive popular positions, but I am convinced that PDA is going into this with its eyes wide open. PDA's approach to Democrats, even progressive Democrats, is not one of subservience but of useful pressure. A fair number of elected representatives want to move left on various issues but are reluctant to do so in the absence of public pressure. PDA intends to provide it when they want it and when they don't.
PDA's support in primary elections will be for progressive candidates, whether incumbents or challengers. A progressive challenger sometimes has more strength as a Democrat than as the candidate of another party, because she or he is able to draw on the support of the party even while pulling the party away from its corrupting corporate influence. But Greens and Socialists and other party candidates may also gain PDA support. When their election advances the public good and advances both efforts to reform the Democrats and efforts to build another party, then we need to act, not stop and argue over our long-term visions. PDA will work for instant runoff voting and for fusion, the strategy that the Working Families Party is using to build progressive power.
We in PDA need socialists with us. But we also need with us many for whom "socialism" is a poorly understood and greatly feared word. Part of what is required of us is reshaping our public discourse so that majority opinions are not marginalized. The majority of Americans want single-payer health care, serious investment in education, fair and clean elections, democratic media, an aggressive response to global warming, an end to the war, fair trade policies, and numerous other policies that are not acceptable in the corporate media. When Dennis Kucinich brought up single-payer health care in a presidential candidates debate, Larry King cut him off and told him it was socialism. Well, we either need to make it not be socialism or make socialism be acceptable (or take our airwaves away from the likes of Larry King), but one way or the other we need to recognize our own status and strength as a majority.
Our strength will be greater not just if we all work together, but if we concentrate only on supporting candidates who are fully behind our platform. PDA has no intention of wasting energy on lesser evil candidates. Our work, rather, will go into developing good candidates at the local, state, and national levels, and into holding our elected officials accountable.
We'll put on coats and ties and meet with them. We'll flood their mailboxes, fax machines, and telephones. And we'll protest their actions through nonviolent civil disobedience. We'll do what it takes to take back our country from robber barons, war profiteers, and gangsters, whatever party they try to call their own. We'll succeed if you help us.
David Swanson is a board member of Progressive Democrats of America. His website is davidswanson.org
Link to this column - www.davidswanson.org/columns/alleged.htm
The Progressive Democrats of America's web site is: pdamerica.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Fitrakis video: "Who got glitched: Election Reform Teach-in"
March 27, 2005
Video pre-release - Bob Fitrakis "Who got glitched: Election Reform Teach-in"
(video pre-release #1)
Speaker: Bob Fitrakis
Recorded: 2/27 in Santa Monica, CA
Length: 12:10
Size: about 20MB
Bob Fitrakis of the Columbus Free Press and attorney (Moss vs. Bush/Cheney/Blackwell) speaks about the stolen 2004 Presidential election in Ohio. He talks about the Bush family history of stealing elections, problems in the 2004 election, legal cases surrounding the 2004 election, exit polls and much more.
This is just the first video in a series of speakers from the Election Reform Teach-in conducted in Santa Monica, CA. Within 2 weeks, videos all of the speakers will be available as a DVD and for internet broadcast at citizensact.org
Steve Brown has done a wonderful job creating these videos. You will notice that these are high quality digital videos with multiple camera angles and produced by professionals.
Broadband video in Windows Media format:
www.edwardsdavid.com/teachin/BobFitrakis.wmv
Broadband video in QuickTime format:
www.edwardsdavid.com/teachin/BobFitrakis.mov
Here is a screen-shot image if you need to post it anywhere:
www.edwardsdavid.com/images/teachin_bob_fritrakis_title-01.jpg
Over the next few weeks, pre-release videos of all of the speakers will be published to the Democratic Underground Election Forum:
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=203
or
http://tinyurl.com/62obf
New videos will also be posted at http://VelvetRevolusion.us
You can see the original announcement for this teach-in at this DU thread:
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=329512
or
http://tinyurl.com/427vb
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - OhioElection2004.com - awesome Election-fraud Resources
The purpose of the web site: ohioelection2004.com is to collect, organize, and make available to investigators, scholars, and interested citizens information relating to (a) evidence and (b) legal events concerning the Ohio election of 2004, especially relating to issues of fraud, disenfranchisement, voter suppression, vote machine tampering, and recount obstruction. This web site has been prepared by Ray Beckerman, author of the blog "Ohio Election Fraud".
2) More than Just Oil Behind War On Terror
- - The Empire Isn't In Afghanistan For The Oil!
- - Greg Palast: Harper's Baghdad Coup D'etat for Big Oil
- -The Long Emergency' - Cheap Gas No More
- - New Details on F.B.I. Aid for Saudis after 9/11
- - U.S. Troops Tortured Iraqis in Mosul, Documents Show
- - The Empire Isn't In Afghanistan For The Oil!
By Jared Israel
The Empire Isn't In Afghanistan For The Oil!
By Jared Israel
[Posted 17 May 2002]
URL for this article: http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/oil-1.htm
=======================================
Louie [Claude Raines]: "And what in heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?"
Rick [Humphrey Bogart]: "My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters."
Louie: "The waters? What waters? We're in the desert!"
Rick: "I was misinformed."
-- From the Film, 'Casablanca'
We recently published an article entitled, "U.S. Won't "Abandon" Central Asia ...Central Asians, Be Warned!" (1)
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/bbc1219.htm
The article dealt with the Senate testimony last December by US Undersecretary of State for Eurasian Affairs, Elizabeth Jones.
In her testimony, Ms. Jones mentioned Caspian Sea energy resources as one of the areas of interest to the US government regarding Central Asia.
Since posting my commentary on the report of what Elizabeth Jones said about Central Asia, we received the actual transcript of her remarks. Thus you can now read the full transcript at
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/alljones.htm
excerpt summary from the Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency:
"...assistance was conditional on economic and democratic reforms and the observance of human rights. Jones outlined US priorities in the region: combating terrorism; reform; the rule of law; Caspian Sea energy resources."
Having posted the quotes from Ms. Jones, I noted that people who oppose the war against Afghanistan might see the familiar phrase, "Caspian Sea energy resources," and think, "Aha! This proves it!"
The 'it' in question is the widespread theory that "the reason for US policy in Afghanistan [and elsewhere] is oil."
The 'they-do-it-for-oil' theory relies on two assumed facts:
1) We are told that the US is running out of oil and therefore the US establishment is desperate to control the area around the oil-rich Caspian Sea; and -
2) Negotiations between the Unocal oil company and the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan to build an oil pipeline in the area were supposedly going on before September 11th. The Taliban was negotiating in bad faith or simply refused to allow a pipeline and the US government, beholden to greedy administration members connected with Unocal, and also worried about running out of oil, went to war to get Unocal its pipeline.
There are several problems with this theory.
First, there is no evidence the US had to go to war to guarantee an adequate oil supply. Fidel Castro spoke about this. Some of our readers may admire Mr. Castro and some may not but surely all will concede he is a shrewd observer. Commenting on the theory that oil was "behind" the war in Afghanistan, Mr. Castro said:
"I do not share the view that the United States' main pursuit in Afghanistan was oil. I rather see it as part of a geo-strategic concept. No one would make such a mistake simply to go after oil, least of all a country with access to any oil in the world, including all the Russian oil and gas it wishes. It would be sufficient for the U.S. to invest, to buy and to pay." (2)
- For full text of Fidel Castro's remarks, see
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/castro.htm
Mr. Castro is right. Before 9-11 the US was in a powerful position as regards Caspian basin energy resources - indeed, according to an earlier report from Secretary Jones, the main concern of the U.S. was not getting oil but using oil-development projects to orient local States in a way that favored US geopolitical interests..
In other words, rather than being interested in Central Asia "because of oil," the U.S. was interested in oil "because of Central Asia."
This follows an age-old truth: the poor seek security. The rich seek more money. But the real rulers seek power, because power gets them control of *everything* that human beings seek.
Second, the theory that the U.S. went to war because the Taliban were being intransigent regarding an oil pipeline falsely assumes the Taliban were the independent rulers of Afghanistan.
Actually the Taliban were under active control of the Pakistani army and secret police, and were funded by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, both of which, especially Saudi Arabia, are part of the U.S. Empire. Indeed there is substantial evidence that the US covert apparatus supported the Taliban for a long time. or more on this, see "Congressman: U.S. Set Up Anti-Taliban to be Slaughtered'" at
http://emperors-clothes.com/misc/rohr.htm
So if the Taliban were being difficult in some important oil pipeline negotiations, why wouldn't the U.S. government simply put pressure on them to 'get with the program'? Why bomb the place to smithereens?
And what is the hard evidence that the Taliban did *not* want a pipeline?
That evidence better be pretty good because it does not make sense for the Taliban to have opposed a pipeline. Pipelines bring in lots of cash. A pipeline would have decreased the Taliban's financial dependence on Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. The Taliban were extremists but they weren't fools. Moreover, we have strong evidence the Taliban did *not* resist building a pipeline. Quite the contrary.
According to the Petroleum Economist of February 11, 2002, it was the Taliban which tried to get a trans-Afghan pipeline, and it was the U.S. and Unocal which jinxed the project.
Proponents of the theory that the U.S. attacked Afghanistan "because of the Afghan oil pipeline" must explain why the US establishment first took the action which made it *impossible* to build a pipeline and then attacked Afghanistan to make it *possible* to build a pipeline.
Having killed the pipeline project, if the United States establishment subsequently changed its mind and decided it wanted a pipeline built after all, and if Unocal changed its mind and decided now that it wanted to build the pipeline, why wouldn't the US simply remove the sanctions which were what was preventing investors from putting up the cash to build the pipeline?
Pipelines are vulnerable to attack, so going to war is the worst thing for building a pipeline. Nobody will invest money in building a pipeline in a country that is engulfed in war. But wars are tricky business. Once you start a war, especially in an area like Central Asia, it is difficult to say for sure when it will end. Afghanistan is a maze of difficult terrains, literally and figuratively.
Thus the Petroleum Economist notes, in its dry way, that the war is not helping the pipeline project one bit:
"But the reservations of the international investment community, wary of becoming involved in a still-volatile area, suggest enthusiasm about pipeline projects in the country may be premature."
- Petroleum Economist, see footnote (3)
I do not wish to be unkind but really, what is left of the "they-did-it-for-the-oil" theory?
It is apparently based on wrong information, asserting that the Taliban was the obstacle to an Afghan pipeline, when common sense and facts from a reliable source tell us the Taliban wanted the pipeline.
It fails to consider that war is the worst thing for pipelines.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For the complete article, link resources, and to
subscribe to the Emperor's Clothes' articles, see:
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/oil-1.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Greg Palast: Harper's Baghdad Coup D'etat for Big Oil
From the April Issue of Harper's Magazine
Friday, March 25, 2005
Harper's Magazine investigation reveals how Big Oil vanquished the neo-cons - and OPEC is the winner.
"For months, the State Department officially denied the existence of this 323-page plan for Iraq's oil ."
Some conspiracy nuts believe the Bush Administration had a secret plan to control Iraq's oil. In fact, there were TWO plans. In a joint investigation with BBC Television Newsnight, Harper's Magazine has uncovered a hidden battle over Iraq's oil. It began right after Mr. Bush took office - with a previously unreported plot to invade Iraq.
For the entire article, see:
http://gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=418&row=0
You can read the full story in the April edition of Harper's Magazine, out this week:
"OPEC ON THE MARCH: Why Iraq Still Sells Its Oil la Cartel," by Greg Palast.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- -The Long Emergency' - Cheap Gas No More
"The Long Emergency"
By James Howard Kunstler
The Rolling Stone
Thursday 24 March 2005
[EXCERPTS]
What's going to happen as we start running out of cheap gas to guzzle?
A few weeks ago, the price of oil ratcheted above fifty-five dollars a barrel, which is about twenty dollars a barrel more than a year ago. The next day, the oil story was buried on page six of the New York Times business section. Apparently, the price of oil is not considered significant news, even when it goes up five bucks a barrel in the span of ten days. That same day, the stock market shot up more than a hundred points because, CNN said, government data showed no signs of inflation. Note to clueless nation: Call planet Earth.
..The few Americans who are even aware that there is a gathering global-energy predicament usually misunderstand the core of the argument. That argument states that we don't have to run out of oil to start having severe problems with industrial civilization and its dependent systems. We only have to slip over the all-time production peak and begin a slide down the arc of steady depletion.
For the complete article, see:
www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/7203633?rnd=1111927944936&has-player=false
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - New Details on F.B.I. Aid for Saudis after 9/11
By Eric Lichtblau
The New York Times
Sunday 27 March 2005
"..Now, newly released government records show previously undisclosed flights from Las Vegas and elsewhere and point to a more active role by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in aiding some of the Saudis in their departure.."
For the complete article see:
www.nytimes.com/2005/03/27/politics/27exodus.html?
also posted:
www.truthout.org/docs_2005/032705Z.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - U.S. Troops Tortured Iraqis in Mosul, Documents Show
Published on Saturday, March 26, 2005 by Reuters
U.S. Troops Tortured Iraqis in Mosul, Documents Show
by Andrew Marshall
BAGHDAD - American soldiers tortured Iraqi prisoners at a military base in Mosul but nobody was court martialed over the abuse, U.S. army documents say.
The documents show that mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners was not confined to the Abu Ghraib jail, where abuse and sexual humiliation of inmates caused worldwide outrage last year.
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0326-01.htm
3) A Call for Unity ~ from Inside ~ Jehan Abdur-Raheem
[FN's editor note: The following quote and letter is from Jehan Abdur-Raheem, now in prison, and who, besides seeking his freedom, is seeking a publisher for his manuscript-novel, CAIN'S LEGACY. I was introduced to Jehan by a friend for more than thirty years, Malik Abdullah Akili. So, now, in two NY State prisons, and a Franklin County (MA) Jail one may find an issue of Flyby News in circulation.].
From Jehan Abdur-Raheem
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"To win battles you do not need weapons;
you beat the soul of the enemy."
-- Gen. George Patton
March 13,, 2005
Peace & Salutations, Brother Jonathan,
As soon as I got the response out to your last letter I received yet another, as well as a recent copy of the FLYBY ...I'm feeling' the bond that we are establishing, and would like to take a minute to let you know that I acknowledge the importance of bonding with other conscious minds and brave hearts determined to improve man's lot by uplifting the level of consciousness of those with whom we share this planet. We must continue to call on everyone to join us in eliminating hatred and greed; eradicating racism and prejudice; preserving our environment and respecting other life-forms on the planet with us, and learning that crime and vic spring from poverty and ignorance.
This is a monumental undertaking,, but in truth, it is an effort that should be made naturally by all right-thinking people. Like many others, I spent many years in the darkness of negative social indoctrination, promoted by government sponsored media and institutions. Greed and the thirst for inordinate wealth was fostered, and I embraced the concepts; however,, knowledge has dispelled the myths I accepted as truth, and now I desire to share that knowledge with others, just as you obviously do, so I am pleased that we are becoming comrades-in-arms'. The thing is that we avoid the traditional battlefields...there can be no victory there for us; as we are simply out-numbered and overwhelming lacking in resources. Our mission must be to defeat the soul' of our enemies, and that can only be done by applying truth and logic in heavy doses. We simply have to wake people up, and encourage them to make this world the type of place it could and should be.
The FLYBY is a big deal' in this battle. The written word is a powerful tool, so I salute our efforts. I m still attempting to have my own book published, but in our society, truth always takes a back seat to profit. If I succeed on any level, I'll be sure to inform you of my progress, as for now, my more immediate task is to get out of prison. Too many conscious' men remain confined. Many of those who struggled in the ranks of the Panthers, the BLA, the Weathermen, and other like organization of the 60's and 70's remain incarcerated ...a virtual army of principled minds anxious to venture forth in the pursuit of sanity' in a world going insane. We must find a way to open the gates for these people.
But I've gone on long enough for now.. ..In the meantime, stay strong, and keep up the fight. There can be no victory without effort. Apathy, inactivity and procrastination will only advance our defeat.
In The Struggle!
(signed)
You can write to:
Jehan Abdur-Raheem
DIN: 77A1180
Elmira Correctional Facility
P.O. Box 500
Elmira, NY 14902-0500
= = = = = = = = = = =
Malik Abdullah-Akili
DIN: 94A5238
Collins Correctional Facility
P.O. Box 340
Collins, NY 14034-0340
For FN archives on Malik Abdullah Akili, see:
A Nation Behind Bars: the buried talents of a population
= = = = = = = = = = =
Richard Sitcha has been moved April 2005. Here is his new address:
Sitcha, Richard
39823
DN1 (205)
Plymouth Correctional Facility
26 Long Pond Road
Plymouth, MA 02360
For more on the case of Richard Sitcha see FreeRichard.com and
Traprock Peace Center resource links for Richard Sitcha. He needs legal representation and justice.
Flyby News Support
To support actions and campaigns please consider sending a check
of any amount made payable to Flyby News. {For donations of $10
or more ~ we will send you a flybynews.com art decal }
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading and supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
MilitaryUSDomination * 911 Strategy * SitchaJustice
21 March 2005
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims
may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber
barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's
cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated;
but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end,
for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
C. S. Lewis
1) America's Agenda for Global Military Domination
- - Rumsfeld details big military shift in new document
- - Petition To Ban Weapons and Warfare In Space
- - Democracy vs the Bush Agenda - Michael Parenti
2) Senate Nod to Arctic Oil Drilling Stiffens Opposition
3) International Tribunal - 9/11 Omission - David Ray Griffin
4) Richard Sitcha - Bound for No Crime
Editor's Notes:
The new world order takes shape in the Rumsfeld restructuring of the US Department of Defense for a "proactive" war model. That should make us all feel secure. For an appropriate response, please make sure to check out a "Petition To Ban Weapons and Warfare In Space."
Item 2 offers more on the response to the Senate vote to drill in one of the last remaining wildlife sanctuaries in the US. There has to be a point when people draw the line. Senator John Kerry's point for "inventing" rather "drilling" out of the energy crisis is well taken, but actions are key. For new readers, make sure you check out the designed (sustainable-fueled) external combustion engine-generator for distributed power at StirlingAdvantage.com. Also, for more on this, check out FN's updated page on a "STIRLING Solution for Onsite Power Production"
Item 3 is utterly fascinating. Emanuel Sferios of the 9/11 truth community, shares with us a correspondence reply from David Ray Griffin, March 19, 2005. I saw the DVD of his talk recently in Northampton. It was well produced, and excellent in understanding an overview on the 9/11 issue. But this following letter confirms a critical strategy proposed by David Ray Griffin for an international tribunal on the unanswered questions, and where to best focus our attention, on the pitfalls of the misleading 9/11 Commission's Report.
Item 4 is another human story, trapped by the indecency that came after 9/11, robbing Richard Sitcha, a Lawyer in Cameroon, granted US Asylum, and then whisked away by fierce bureaucratic claws, overcoming the reality of a situation, reasonableness, and the human rights of Richard Sitcha. This treatment of Sitcha is a disgrace to the principles advocated in the US Constitution. This item links to background on this case @ freerichard.com and includes a recent letter from Richard to yours truly. Any support for justice and humanity in the Sitcha case, please consider. Help us find legal representation to represent a new lawsuit filed by Sitcha to overcome his arrest for more than eighteen months to this day, and counting, for no crime committed; just a bureaucratic manipulation of his granted Asylum in double-talk cruelty and injustice for a human.
(\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/)
Please mark your calendars ~ join Flyby News (booth) at
SolarFest 2005 -- solarfest.org
New England Renewable Energy Festival
- July 16, and 17 -
SolarFest's new home is on Forget-Me-Not Farm in Tinmouth, Vermont.
SolarFest is a nonprofit organization with 501(c)(3) status. Its mission is to
educate people about renewable energy by engaging the community through
the performing arts. Since its inception in 1995, SolarFest has built a reputation
for promoting artistic excellence and community-building, and has raised more
than a few eyebrows when people realize that our entire weekend festival is run
on solar energy. For details and updated information, visit SolarFest.org
(\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/)
"We are not afraid to entrust the American people
with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies,
and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people
judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people."
John F. Kennedy
1) America's Agenda for Global Military Domination
- - Rumsfeld details big military shift in new document
- - Petition To Ban Weapons and Warfare In Space
- - Democracy vs the Bush Agenda - Michael Parenti
America's Agenda for Global Military Domination
by Michel Chossudovsky
03/17/05 "CRG " - - The Pentagon has released the summary of a top secret Pentagon document, which sketches America's agenda for global military domination.
This redirection of America's military strategy seems to have passed virtually unnoticed. With the exception of The Wall Street Journal (see below in annex), not a word has been mentioned in the US media.
There has been no press coverage concerning this mysterious military blueprint. The latter outlines, according to the Wall Street Journal, America's global military design which consists in "enhancing U.S. influence around the world", through increased troop deployments and a massive buildup of America's advanced weapons systems.
While the document follows in the footsteps of the administration's "preemptive" war doctrine as detailed by the Neocons' Project of the New American Century (PNAC), it goes much further in setting the contours of Washington's global military agenda.
It calls for a more "proactive" approach to warfare, beyond the weaker notion of "preemptive" and defensive actions, where military operations are launched against a "declared enemy" with a view to "preserving the peace" and "defending America".
The document explicitly acknowledges America's global military mandate, beyond regional war theaters. This mandate also includes military operations directed against countries, which are not hostile to America, but which are considered strategic from the point of view of US interests.
From a broad military and foreign policy perspective, the March 2005 Pentagon document constitutes an imperial design, which supports US corporate interests Worldwide.
"At its heart, the document is driven by the belief that the U.S. is engaged in a continuous global struggle that extends far beyond specific battlegrounds, such as Iraq and Afghanistan. The vision is for a military that is far more proactive, focused on changing the world instead of just responding to conflicts such as a North Korean attack on South Korea, and assuming greater prominence in countries in which the U.S. isn't at war. (WSJ, 11 March 2005)
The document suggests that its objective also consists in "offensive" rather than run of the mill "preemptive" operations. There is, in this regard, a subtle nuance in relation to earlier post-911 national security statements:
"[The document presents] 'four core' problems, none of them involving traditional military confrontations. The services are told to develop forces that can: build partnerships with failing states to defeat internal terrorist threats; defend the homeland, including offensive strikes against terrorist groups planning attacks; influence the choices of countries at a strategic crossroads, such as China and Russia; and prevent the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction by hostile states and terrorist groups." (Ibid)
The emphasis is no longer solely on waging major theater wars as outlined in the PNAC's Rebuilding America's Defenses, Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century" , the March 2005 military blueprint points to shifts in weapons systems as well as the need for a global deployment of US forces in acts of Worldwide military policing and intervention. The PNAC in its September 2000 Report had described these non-theater military operations as "constabulary functions":
The Pentagon must retain forces to preserve the current peace in ways that fall short of conduction major theater campaigns. . . These duties are today's most frequent missions, requiring forces configured for combat but capable of long-term, independent constabulary operations."
Project for the New American Century
Recruitment of Troops to Police the Empire
The underlying emphasis is on the development and recruitment of specialized military manpower required to control and pacify indigenous forces and factions in different regions of the World:
"the classified guidance urges the military to come up with less doctrinaire solutions that include sending in smaller teams of culturally savvy soldiers to train and mentor indigenous forces." (Ibid)
- - Rumsfeld details big military shift in new document
by Greg Jaffe,
The Wall Street Journal
11 March 2005
[Excerpts]
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld outlines in a new, classified planning document a vision for remaking the military to be far more engaged in heading off threats prior to hostilities and serve a larger purpose of enhancing U.S. influence around the world...
Mr. Rumsfeld's goals, laid out in the document, mark a significant departure from recent reviews. Deeply informed by both the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and by the military's bloody struggle in Iraq, the document emphasizes newer problems, such as battling terrorists and insurgents, over conventional military challenges.
Mr. Rumsfeld's approach likely will trigger major shifts in the weapons systems that the Pentagon buys, and even more fundamental changes in the training and deployment of U.S. troops throughout the world, said defense officials who have played a role in crafting the document or are involved in the review...
At its heart, the document is driven by the belief that the U.S. is engaged in a continuous global struggle that extends far beyond specific battlegrounds, such as Iraq and Afghanistan. The vision is for a military that is far more proactive, focused on changing the world instead of just responding to conflicts such as a North Korean attack on South Korea, and assuming greater prominence in countries in which the U.S.isn't at war.
The document comes early in the review process, which is conducted at the behest of Congress. Each of the military services already has assembled a large staff to craft plans for attacking the key problem areas identified by Mr. Rumsfeld..
..The U.S. would seek to deploy these troops far earlier in a looming conflict than they traditionally have been to help a tottering government's armed forces confront guerrillas before an insurgency is able to take root and build popular support. Officials said the plan envisions many such teams operating around the world.
That represents a challenge for a military already stretched thin by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There aren't currently enough of these specially trained soldiers and Marines to make the strategy work.
..At the same time the U.S. military re-equips itself to deal with low-tech insurgent threats, it also is seeking to dissuade rising powers, such as China, from challenging U.S. military dominance. Although weapons systems designed to fight guerrillas tend to be fairly cheap and low-tech, the review makes clear that to dissuade those countries from trying to compete, the U.S. military must retain its dominance in key high-tech areas, such as stealth technology, precision weaponry and manned and unmanned surveillance systems.
Copyright the WSJ, 2005. The complete version of this article is available in the print edition
Copyright MICHEL CHOSSUDOVSKY, GLOBAL RESEARCH 2005.
For the complete Michel Chossudovsky article:
America's War for Global Domination, see:
www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO312A.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Petition To Ban Weapons and Warfare In Space
www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/832338563
Suggested Resources:
* Campaign for Cooperation in Space
* Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Democracy vs the Bush Agenda - Michael Parenti
Dr. Michael Parenti
Democracy vs. the Bush Agenda
The forces behind capitalist globalization are rapidly making the rich richer and the poor poorer. Far from being immune to it, common Americans are under attack as well. Bush's "privatization" of social security is an overt effort at economic warfare on all but the ultra-rich. Unions are under rapid assault. Basic democratic processes, such as voting, are increasingly corrupt. In the post-9/11 world the global political reality is looking more and more like fascism. This reality is not an aberration of or an imbalance of the system; it is the fate that has been long-planned by the global elite.
Very few voices are calling out the severity of what is taking place. Many say the system simply needs some fine tuning, or corporations need to be reigned in a little bit. None tackle the historical reality and the economics as directly and powerfully as Dr. Michael Parenti. Few reach the same conclusions about the nature of the change we need to create.
From: Adam Hurter < ahurter@wesleyan.edu >
Acclaimed author & lecturer MICHAEL PARENTI
is coming to the Pioneer Valley!!
Dr. Michael Parenti - "Democracy vs the Bush Agenda"
Friday, April 8th at 7pm
Main Lecture Hall, Franklin Patterson Hall
Hampshire College, Rte 116 in Amherst, MA USA
For more information: (413) 268-9001
For more on Micheal Parenti, see: michaelparenti.org
2) Senate Nod to Arctic Oil Drilling Stiffens Opposition
Published on Friday, March 18, 2005 by OneWorld.net
Senate Nod to Arctic Oil Drilling Stiffens Opposition
by Abid Aslam
WASHINGTON -- Environmental and public interest groups are girding for renewed battle over oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge after the Senate endorsed the idea, handing a key victory to President George W. Bush and proponents of exploration.
Senators voted 51-49 Wednesday in favor of a budget resolution that assumes drilling fees would generate $5 billion in revenues over the next decade. The federal government and state of Alaska, the site of the refuge, would split the money.
''This razor-thin vote is by no means a mandate to drill in the arctic refuge,'' said Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club. ''A strong, bipartisan coalition of Senators, backed by the will of the American people, will press on with a vigilant campaign to keep the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge where it belongs: wild and free and out of the budget.''
The vote dealt a body blow to activists who had lobbied long and hard to block any move toward drilling in one of the last unspoiled regions of wilderness in North America.
At issue is about 1.5 million acres of coastal plain within the refuge, which covers 19 million acres in total. Oil industry representatives have said that drilling would be limited to about 2,000 acres within the 1.5 million acres, and that it could be done with minimal environmental damage.
For drilling to take place, the senators would have to pass a separate measure explicitly authorizing drilling in the refuge. Then the House of Representatives would have to explicitly authorize drilling. The House has endorsed arctic drilling in previous years and is expected to do so again this year so advocates from both sides saw this week's Senate vote as crucial.
The narrow margin by which supporters of drilling prevailed could portend intense debate, however, and lobbyists geared up Thursday and Friday to add as many votes as possible to their camp.
A vote on the same matter last year defeated drilling 52-48 but the Republican party picked up four Senate seats in November, changing the chamber's voting arithmetic.
Seven Republicans and the Senate's lone independent sided with Democrats in opposing drilling this week. Three Democrats crossed party lines to give Republicans their two-vote victory.
Congress has failed to approve a final budget each of the last two years, largely because of add-ons promoting specific positions on abortion, creationism, or other politically prickly issues.
This week's vote ''only succeeded in adding more controversy to an already controversial and difficult budget process,'' said Buck Parker, executive director of Earthjustice, a California-based public interest law firm.
A failure to pass a budget this year would nullify the Senate approval and require a drilling bill to get not just 50 votes but rather the 60 votes necessary to spare it from a filibuster, a procedural tactic in which lengthy speeches are used to stall a vote on a given measure.
Bush, in a statement, applauded the Senate vote. ''A reliable domestic supply of energy is important to America's security and prosperity,'' he said, adding that the refuge eventually could yield up to one million barrels of oil a day.
The United States uses about 20.8 million barrels of oil a day. If the refuge were opened to drilling, its oil would take about a decade to come online, Senate Democrats said, adding that conservation efforts and tighter fuel standards could make a greater impact much sooner.
''Drilling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge won't make a dent in gas prices at the pump or break our dependence on Middle East oil,'' said Karen Wayland, legislative director at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration has estimated that Americans' energy demand could increase by about 30 percent over the next 20 years. Democrats said that if Americans somehow managed to hold their oil consumption at today's levels, the refuge might hold a total of six months' worth of the fuel.
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0318-08.htm
Copyright 2005 OneWorld.net
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
In case you missed you missed the link in last issue, or please consider joining Senator Barbara Boxer . . . and SEND an email to the CEOs of ExxonMobil, BP, ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch/Shell, and ChevronTexaco and tell them to "stay out of ANWR!"
3) International Tribunal - 9/11 Omission - David Ray Griffin
From: webmaster@septembereleventh.org
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 22:26:46 -0800 (PST)
To: announce@lists.911visibilityproject.org
Subject: A message from David Ray Griffin
Dear 9/11 truth activists and concerned citizens,
Below is an email exchange from earlier today between Dr. David Ray Griffin and myself, where Dr. Griffin suggests a strategy for the 9/11 truth movement. I found it thoughtful as well as inspiring, and so I asked him if I could share it publically. He said yes, and so here it is. I hope it inspires you as much as it does me. If so, please consider buying his new book, The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions. It is unquestionably the best book to open people's eyes--even better than his first book. This is definitely the one to give to your relatives and co-workers. Here's the link:
www.interlinkbooks.com/Books_/911CommRep.html
Also, we still have available the new 1-hour DVD of Dr. Griffin speaking in Santa Rosa, California. We are offering these as a complimentary gift for a donation of $20 or more. (No extra shipping costs.) Like the book, this DVD is an excellent gift for someone new to 9/11 truth. We particularly encourage you to get both of them and send them to people you know in other countries, for as Dr. Griffin states in his email below, "the best hope is for an international tribunal." Here is the link for the DVD:
www.septembereleventh.org/donations.php
Thanks, and may peace and truth prevail.
Emanuel Sferios
Webmaster, SeptemberEleventh.org
-----
A message from David Ray Griffin, March 19, 2005
- - - - - - - -
Hi David,
What are your feelings about the 9/11 truth movement these days? How do you think we've done? Are you frustrated like so many others? (I'm not doing much these days. Just occasional action alerts.)
Emanuel
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Response from Dr. Griffin:
Emanuel,
I have been afraid that your response is widespread. It's certainly understandable. People like you (I was a Johnny Come Lately) worked so long and hard to try to expose the lies about 9/11 clearly and widely enough to make a difference in the election, and then all this work apparently went for nought. (I say "apparently" because it's quite possible that the exposure was great enough--as suggested by the Zogby poll---to tip the balance, but then the election was stolen through voting machines and other types of fraud.)
My own view, however, is that it is precisely at times of apparent failure that it is most important for a core group to keep working away and even intensify their efforts. I myself, at least, have not slowed down. I still do one or 2 radio interviews per week. I've agreed to do a couple lectures (which I hope will be good enough to be published). I will probably go to Europe for the publication of the French translation of my 2nd book. I am willing to do this, even though I don't enjoy travel, because I think the best hope is for an international tribunal and want to support this movement.
So my hope is that after a period in which people who were working so hard needed a rest, partly out of fatigue and partly because of the great disappointment, the movement will recover and even exceed its previous energy. For one thing, I agree with those who think that the hit pieces in the Washington Post and Popular Mechanics and on CNN are a good sign, because they suggest that at least part of the complicit establishment believes that the movement was generating enough steam that the strategy of simply ignoring it was no longer sufficient.
In terms of strategy, I think---and I hope I'm not just biased because I've written the major book on this thus far---that the best strategy now would be to focus the attack on The 9/11 Commission Report. I say this for three reasons: First, the news media and the general public (as witnessed by the overwhelming majority of the reviews on Amazon) have accepted this Report as definitive. As long as that impression stands, then all radical critiques of the official story will seem to have been disproved and thereby relegated to the category of "conspiracy theories." With the audience we need to reach, therefore, it does no good to continue to refine our accounts of what really happened (e.g., war games, what really hit the Pentagon). Before people will be ready to pay any attention, we need to show---not merely say---that The 9/11 Commission Report is basically false.
Second, it may be easier to get mainstream reporters to cover this angle, because the criticisms can less easily be dismissed as "conspiracy theories," since the focus, rather than being on the question of whether the Bush administration is responsible for mass murder to advance its agenda, is simply on the factual question of whether the Commission has written untrue things. For example, if a reporter focused on the question of whether the core of each of the Twin Towers consisted of 47 massive steel columns or a "hollow steel shaft," he or she might be able to get it published. The same with the question of whether Cheney didnt go to the PEOC until 9:58, or whether he was already there, as all previous reports said and as Norman Mineta said to the Commission itself, by 9:20. Likewise why the Commission didn't probe the contradiction between Myers account of his whereabouts that morning and Richard Clarke's account. I would think we could get some reporter to point out these contradictions.
The 3rd reason I think this would be the best approach would be that, although this approach seems less threatening at first glance, its results could be very telling. That is, if it would become widely known that the Commission had told even a few such whoppers, this awareness would rather clearly suggest that they trying to cover up something. In this regard, I have been studying the way in which the public came to reject the official story about the JFK assassination. The main factor in the early years was the concerted attack on the Warren Report leveled by people such as Mark Lane, Vincent Salandria, and Sylvia Meagher. One can point out, of course, that even turning public opinion was to no avail. But the perpetrators of that crime and cover-up did a much better job, by quickly destroying and fabricating evidence (falsifying the autopsy report, photographs, and x-rays and replacing the brain), so that most of the physical evidence seemed to support the official story. The perpetrators of 9/11 were not nearly as clever and thorough. So the result might be quite different with this case.
Those are my thoughts, for what they are worth. Thanks for asking.
DG
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Thanks for everyone working to help effect such strategies as outlined above by David Ray Griffin.
For an updated resource, see link for FN's 9/11 investigative reports: looking into unanswered questions.
4) Richard Sitcha - Bound for No Crime
Editor's Note:
I am transcribing excerpts, (with minor edits inserted) from a handwritten letter I received from Richard Sitcha, who is in the clutches of the bureaucratic claws of US injustice. Richard Sitcha's first language is from his village in Cameroon, Africa, he also speaks French. English is his third language, so please listen closely. Any support for his case brings honor to the side of humanity.
For background on the case of Richard Sitcha see FreeRichard.com
and @ Traprock Peace Center's page to help Free Richard Sitcha
March 13, 2005
Dear Jonathan,
I thank you very much for your care about what solution we can get for my situation. ..I decided to file a lawsuit for my illegal detention. If the Judge is allowed to grant, to deny or revoke someone's Asylum, it is not right to send him to prison for a civil matter while he didn't commit any crime. The guy in Boston, who's Asylum was denied had never been in jail; he was just asked to leave the Country. In my file they are trying to justify my illegal detention by saying that I was arrested for being illegal in USA, then I asked for Asylum, but I have proof that this is not true. I was never arrested for a crime in the USA. I sent one copy of my lawsuit to ACLU and asked for a lawyer to handle this case for a civil matter. I was also sent in prison with criminals, who beat me, and I was locked up 22 hours a day while I didn't commit any crime. Please, if you know of any good lawyer who can handle this case, let me know.. I would like to meet Bill Newman so that I can let him understand my case.. And furthermore, show proof that everything they are trying to do is fake, to justify my illegal detention.. I can prove this.
One more time.. thank you for all.
Sitcha, Richard
Franklin County Jail
160 Elm Street
Greenfield, MA 01301
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
SecretIraqOilPlan * DrillingArctic * JusticeVision
17 March 2005
War Is A Racket.
A racket is best described,
I believe, as something that is not what it seems
to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside"
group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit
of the very few, at the expense of the very many.
Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.
Major General Smedley Butler
(US Marine Corps, Retired)
1) "Secret US Plans for Iraq's Oil" by Greg Palast
- - 43 Reps Vote Against $81 Billion To Continue War in Iraq
- - Bush taps defence hawk for helm of World Bank
- - Nomination Shocks, Worries Europeans -- Why Wolfowitz?
2) Senate approves drilling in the Arctic Refuge
- - TAKE ACTION -- League of Conservation Voters
- - Barbara Boxer in Wonderland and Fighting Back
- - The Arctic Refuge and Public Are About to Get Drilled
- - Democracy Now! - Headlines for March 17, 2005
3) Justice Vision resources for alternative media
Editor's Notes:
The first item contains another potent investigative article by Greg Palast on the "Secret US Plans for Iraq's Oil." Fascinating reading. And from a positive perspective, please note that 43 US Representatives voted against $81 Billion to continue war in Iraq. And in your face, following the Negroponte nomination for US Intelligence, Bush has nominated Paul Wolfowitz to take the lead for the World Bank. What's next? Say it is not so in item 2: "Senate approves drilling in the Arctic Refuge." This includes suggested actions you can take in response, including a plea by Senator Barbara Boxer for you to send an email to the CEOs of ExxonMobil, BP, ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch/Shell, and ChevronTexaco and tell them to "stay out of ANWR!"
The third item provides information on an alternative media resource: JusticeVision.org
A free screening of the film:
THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED
will be presented at the Keene Public Library
- Auditorium - 60 Winter Street; Keene, NH -
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2005
7:00 P.M. - 9:00 P.M.
Live as if you were to die tomorrow
Learn as if you were to live forever.
Mahatma Gandhi
1) "Secret US Plans for Iraq's Oil" by Greg Palast
- - 43 Reps Vote Against $81 Billion To Continue War in Iraq
- - Bush taps defence hawk for helm of World Bank
- - Nomination Shocks, Worries Europeans -- Why Wolfowitz?
- - SECRET U.S. PLANS FOR IRAQ'S OIL
By Greg Palast
Reporting for BBC Newsnight
17 March 2005
The Bush administration made plans for war and for Iraq's oil before the 9/11 attacks sparking a policy battle between neo-cons and Big Oil, BBC's Newsnight has revealed.
Two years ago today - when President George Bush announced US, British and Allied forces would begin to bomb Baghdad - protestors claimed the US had a secret plan for Iraq's oil once Saddam had been conquered.
In fact there were two conflicting plans, setting off a hidden policy war between neo-conservatives at the Pentagon, on one side, versus a combination of "Big Oil" executives and US State Department "pragmatists."
"Big Oil" appears to have won. The latest plan, obtained by Newsnight from the US State Department was, we learned, drafted with the help of American oil industry consultants.
Insiders told Newsnight that planning began "within weeks" of Bush's first taking office in 2001, long before the September 11th attack on the US.
An Iraqi-born oil industry consultant Falah Aljibury says he took part in the secret meetings in California, Washington and the Middle East. He described a State Department plan for a forced coup d'etat.
Mr Aljibury himself told Newsnight that he interviewed potential successors to Saddam Hussein on behalf of the Bush administration.
Secret sell-off plan
The industry-favored plan was pushed aside by yet another secret plan, drafted just before the invasion in 2003, which called for the sell-off of all of Iraq's oil fields. The new plan, crafted by neo-conservatives intent on using Iraq's oil to destroy the Opec cartel through massive increases in production above Opec quotas.
The sell-off was given the green light in a secret meeting in London headed by Ahmed Chalabi shortly after the US entered Baghdad, according to Robert Ebel. Mr. Ebel, a former Energy and CIA oil analyst, now a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, flew to the London meeting, he told Newsnight, at the request of the State Department.
Mr Aljibury, once Ronald Reagan's "back-channel" to Saddam, claims that plans to sell off Iraq's oil, pushed by the US-installed Governing Council in 2003, helped instigate the insurgency and attacks on US and British occupying forces.
"Insurgents used this, saying, 'Look, you're losing your country, your losing your resources to a bunch of wealthy billionaires who want to take you over and make your life miserable," said Mr Aljibury from his home near San Francisco.
"We saw an increase in the bombing of oil facilities, pipelines, built on the premise that privatization is coming."
Privatization blocked by industry
Philip Carroll, the former CEO of Shell Oil USA who took control of Iraq's oil production for the US Government a month after the invasion, stalled the sell-off scheme.
Mr Carroll told us he made it clear to Paul Bremer, the US occupation chief who arrived in Iraq in May 2003, that: "There was to be no privatization of Iraqi oil resources or facilities while I was involved."
The chosen successor to Mr Carroll, a Conoco Oil executive, ordered up a new plan for a state oil company preferred by the industry.
Ari Cohen, of the neo-conservative Heritage Foundation, told Newsnight that an opportunity had been missed to privatize Iraq's oil fields. He advocated the plan as a means to help the US defeat Opec, and said America should have gone ahead with what he called a "no-brainer" decision.
Mr Carroll hit back, telling Newsnight, "I would agree with that statement. To privatize would be a no-brainer. It would only be thought about by someone with no brain."
New plans, obtained from the State Department by Newsnight and Harper's Magazine under the US Freedom of Information Act, called for creation of a state-owned oil company favored by the US oil industry. It was completed in January 2004, Harper's discovered, under the guidance of Amy Jaffe of the James Baker Institute in Texas. Former US Secretary of State Baker is now an attorney. His law firm, Baker Botts, is representing ExxonMobil and the Saudi Arabian government.
View segments of Iraq oil plans at
www.GregPalast.com/opeconthemarch.html
Questioned by Newsnight, Ms Jaffe said the oil industry prefers state control of Iraq's oil over a sell-off because it fears a repeat of Russia's energy privatization. In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, US oil companies were barred from bidding for the reserves.
Jaffe said "There is no question that an American oil company ... would not be enthusiastic about a plan that would privatize all the assets with Iraq companies and they (US companies) might be left out of the transaction."
In addition, Ms. Jaffe says US oil companies are not warm to any plan that would undermine Opec, "They [oil companies] have to worry about the price of oil."
"I'm not sure that if I'm the chair of an American company, and you put me on a lie detector test, I would say high oil prices are bad for me or my company."
The former Shell oil boss agrees. In Houston, he told Newsnight, "Many neo-conservatives are people who have certain ideological beliefs about markets, about democracy, about this that and the other. International oil companies without exception are very pragmatic commercial organizations. They don't have a theology."
Greg Palast's film - the result of a joint investigation by BBC Newsnight and
Harper's Magazine - will broadcast on Thursday, 17 March, 2005.
You can watch the program online - available Thursday, March 17 after 7pm EST for 24hrs - from the Newsnight website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm
You can also read the story in greater detail in the latest issue of Harper's magazine - now available at your local newsstand.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 43 Reps Vote Against $81 Billion To Continue War in Iraq
From Progressive Democrats of America
U.S. Representatives Vote Against $81 Billion To Continue War in Iraq
On March 16, 2005, the U.S. House of Represenatives voted 388-43 to provide another $81.4 billion for continued U.S. occupation of Iraq. While the margin has been described as "lopsided" in the press, we know that the Congressional anti-war movement is, in fact, growing fast thanks in part to YOUR e-mails and phone calls!
Now is the time to join with PDA in congratulating and thanking the fearless forty-three who voted against this funding. They are:
Abercrombie (D-HI), Baldwin (D-MN), Blumenauer (D-OR), Capuano (D-MA), Clay (D-MO), Coble (R-NC), Danny Davis (D-IL), Duncan (R-TN), Farr (D-CA), Filner (D-CA), Frank (D-MA), Grijalva (D-AZ), Hastings (D-FL), Hinchey (D-NY), Holt (D-NJ), Jackson-Lee (D-TX), Kucinich (D-OH), Lee (D-CA), Lewis (D-GA), Maloney (D-NY), Markey (D-MA), McCollum (D-MN), McDermott (D-WA), McGovern (D-MA), McKinney (D-GA), Meehan (D-MA), George Miller (D-CA), Owens (D-NY), Pallone (D-NJ), Paul (R-TX), Payne (D-NJ), Rangel (D-NY), Sanders (I-VT), Schakowsky (D-IL), Serrano (D-NY), Stark (D-CA), Thompson (D-CA), Tierney (D-MA), Towns (D-NY), Velzquez (D-NY), Waters (D-CA), Weiner (D-NY) and Woolsey (D-CA).
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush taps defence hawk for helm of World Bank
Published by Globe and Mail
He helped craft the Bush regime's bold plan to 'democratize' [privatize] the Middle East, and now George W. Bush wants Paul Wolfowitz to shake up the venerable World Bank
www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050317/WOLFOWITZ17/TPInternational/Americas
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Nomination Shocks, Worries Europeans -- Why Wolfowitz?
By Keith B. Richburg and Glenn Frankel
The Washington Post
Thursday 17 March 2005
and Why Wolfowitz? By Farhad Manjoo
Published originally by Salon.com
for text and links to original postings, see:
www.truthout.org/docs_2005/031705B.shtml
2) Senate approves drilling in the Arctic Refuge
- - TAKE ACTION -- League of Conservation Voters
- - Barbara Boxer in Wonderland and Fighting Back
- - The Arctic Refuge and Public Are About to Get Drilled
- - Democracy Now! - Headlines for March 17, 2005
- - Senate approves drilling in the Arctic Refuge
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 01:25:56 -0500 (EST)
From: "John Adams, NRDC President" < biogemsdefenders@savebiogems.org >
Subject: Senate approves drilling in the Arctic Refuge
Dear NRDC BioGems Defender,
As you may already know, our campaign to save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge suffered a major setback in the U.S. Senate today.
The Senate is about to pass a budget resolution that calls for oil development in the refuge. An amendment that would have stripped the Arctic drilling provision from the budget bill was defeated by only two votes, 49-51.
This fight is far from over, however. To become law, the Senate budget bill must still be "reconciled" with the House budget bill -- something Congress has been unable to do the past few years. You can be sure that we will be battling at every opportunity -- and there will be several -- to remove Arctic drilling from any budget that actually winds up on President Bush's desk.
[Excerpt]
We gave it everything we had. But in today's vote we just could not overcome a White House that was shamelessly trumpeting the need to sacrifice the Arctic Refuge for the sake of America's energy security and national security -- an argument that is as erroneous as it is destructive to our natural heritage.
Congress must still pass two different budget measures to complete its assault on the refuge, and I can assure you that we will battle every step of the way as these bills play out over the months to come. That's why, in the wake of this most recent setback, I would urge you to convert your outrage and sorrow into action. We're going to need your redoubled commitment to our cause in the fight ahead. I know we can count on you.
Thank you for all you've done.
Sincerely,
John H. Adams
President
Natural Resources Defense Council
P.S. If you would like to learn how your own senators voted on this issue, link or copy and paste into your web browser the following URL::
www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00052
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - TAKE ACTION -- League of Conservation Voters
Click at following URL to write to your Senators and tell them how you feel about their vote. Let them hear from you before the Senate votes again.
http://capwiz.com/lcv/issues/alert/?alertid=7233336&type=CO
Although this vote is a setback, this battle is far from over. The vote was 51-49, so we can turn this around. The most important thing you can do today is let your Senators know you are watching their every move on this and other important environmental issues.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Barbara Boxer in Wonderland and Fighting Back
From: Barbara Boxer
Every day on the Senate floor is more and more like "Barbara in Wonderland." Sometimes the Senate seems so foreign to me, I wonder if I'm living in some kind of bad dream. And just when I thought it couldn't get worse, it has.Read on to learn more about this week's Senate Republican scheme to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling -- and then reject these radical efforts by signing my petition to Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist http://ga4.org/campaign/boxer_anwr/d57esxryjk7b8k .
..Now we face the ultimate special interest issue: Drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. For six months of oil, not to be realized for ten years, my colleagues seem bent on handing over this most pristine land to the big oil companies. Never mind that we can save the equivalent of an infinite number of ANWR fields by simply raising fuel economy a modest amount -- that doesn't matter. The Republicans don't care about the native peoples whose lives will be ruined; they don't care that President Eisenhower set this land aside; they don't care about the more than one hundred species of wildlife that depend on this refuge.
What they do care about is the precedent. If they open up ANWR, they'll think they can do anything to the environment -- anything at all. Drilling in Yosemite? In the Grand Canyon? What's next? Stand with me and reject any attempts to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling -- sign my petition today!
Please stand with me on this critical issue.
In Friendship,
Barbara Boxer
U.S. Senator
P.S. Thanks to the more than 14,000 of you who contacted your Members of Congress in support of the Count Every Vote Act last month! I'll keep you posted on our progress with this important election reform legislation in the coming weeks.
Invite your friends and family to join Barbara Boxer's PAC for a Change! Tell-a-friend!
If interested, - you can sign up with Barbara Boxer - PAC for a Change .
The fight for ANWR continues
Update from "Barbara Boxer" < info@pacforachange.com >
Send an email to the CEOs of ExxonMobil, BP, ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch/Shell, and ChevronTexaco now and - :
tell them to stay out of ANWR!
I'm planning to organize a consumer boycott of any oil company that decides to drill in this pristine Alaskan wilderness area. If, through our pocketbooks, we can convince these companies to do the right thing, we can still save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from the destruction that would be wrought by the oil drilling rigs.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Arctic Refuge and Public Are About to Get Drilled
Published March 16, 2005 by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The Arctic Refuge and Public Are About to Get Drilled
by Joel Connelly
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41350-2005Mar16.html
also posted:
www.commondreams.org/views05/0316-32.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Democracy Now! - Headlines for March 17, 2005
- Bush Nominates Wolfowitz to Head World Bank
- Senate Oks Oil Drilling in Arctic by 51-49 Vote
- Kevin Martin Named New FCC Chairman
- Bomb Kills Five in Afghanistan; Election Delayed
- House Oks Spending $82B in New War Spending
- Navy Expressed Concern Over Guantanamo Interrogation Techniques
- Bush Defends Practice of Extraordinary Rendition
- European Nations Investigate CIA Abductions
- UN Warns of Humanitarian Crisis in Congo
To read, listen, or watch, visit:
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/17/1442207
3) Justice Vision resources for alternative media
JusticeVision - Ralph Cole - DemocracyU
Ralph Cole, founder of JusticeVision, is offering a video program series for democracy in action. Check out these following program titles, and with a price at $2.50 per DVD, he is reaching out to the progressive community in a big way with a focused JusticeVision.
DVDs available (since 2/2005)
Democracy Digest Volume 64:
"Solving the 9/11 Crime: A Citizens' Grand Jury"
Bob Hope Patriotic Hall, Los Angeles, California; October 23, 2004
Democracy Digest Volume 65:
"Crack & the CIA: 4 Events, with Gary Webb, Norman Solomon, Maxine Waters, and Dick Gregory"
Democracy Digest Volume 66:
"City Repair," Asra'a Mizyad, Dennis Kucinich and others
Democracy Digest Volume 67:
"Southern California ADA's 2004 Book Fair: Democracy & Truth: Regime Change 2004"
Democracy Digest Volume 68:
"Human Rights Abuses in Our Hemisphere," 4 Events with Dennis Banks, Jennifer Harbury, Charlie Clements, and Kevin Pina
Democracy Digest Special Edition: 3 Events with Gary Webb
Democracy Digest Special Edition: UUSC's 2004 Encuentro with Jennifer Harbury
"U.S. / Corporate Empire in Our Hemisphere: The People's Response"
For more information visit:
JusticeVision.org
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
9-11 Truth Resources * The Einstein File * VTnuke
08 March 2005
A large part of history is . . . replete with the struggle for . . . human rights,
an eternal struggle in which a final victory can never be won.
But to tire in that struggle would mean the ruin of society.
-- Albert Einstein
February 20th, 1954
{about one year before his death.}
1) Truth and Politics: Unanswered Questions About 911
- - Threshold Fears and Unanswered Questions about 9/11
- - Bush Lied Thousands Died
2) The Einstein File
- - VT Yankee - Public weighs in on dry cask storage
Editor's Notes:
"Truth and Politics: Unanswered Questions About 911" -- is a DVD recorded program with a one hour discussion by David Ray Griffin and 40 minute interview by Dennis Bernstein of Flashpoints Radio Show. Griffin, a professor of philosophy and religion at the Claremont School of Theology, has written over 20 books, two of which are on top of the list in importance for learning about the truth about 9/11, and bogus investigations: The New Pearl Harbor (Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11) and The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions. Among other films, a DVD at a forum entitled "Truth and Politics: Unanswered Questions About 911" is now available at SnowShoeFilms.com, of David Ray Griffin speaking about his latest 9-11 book in California on October 3, 2004.
The DVD, "Truth and Politics: Unanswered Questions About 911," will be presented at a Northampton, MA "9-11 Questions" Meetup; Tuesday, March 15th, 7:00 pm., free and open to the public at the Media Education Foundation
Additional information in the first item deals with the 9-11 issue, which was ultimately the trigger-mechanism that Supreme Court-appointed President Bush used for his "war on terror," which just happened to result in the losing of Osama bin Laden and the attacking of a sovereign nation that cost the people of Iraq more than 100,000 civilian lives for questionable reasons, and negative results in deterring terrorism.
"I have no hope of clearing my conscience.
The things we are working on are so terrible
that no amount of protesting or fiddling
with politics will save our souls."
Edward Teller
July 1945
1) Truth and Politics: Unanswered Questions About 911
- - Threshold Fears and Unanswered Questions about 9/11
- - Bush Lied Thousands Died
Truth and Politics: Unanswered Questions About 911
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Truth and Politics: Unanswered Questions About 911" -- is a DVD recorded program with a one hour discussion by David Ray Griffin and 40 minute interview by Dennis Bernstein of Flashpoints Radio Show.
DAVID RAY GRIFFIN - Professor of philosophy and religion at the Claremont School of Theology, California for over 30 years, Griffin has written over 20 books, two of which are perhaps the most important in the US in the effort to expose the 9-11 hoax. In his first book, The New Pearl Harbor (Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11). The topic of this above talk is taken from Prof. Griffin's second book on the subject, The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions. He spoke in Santa Rosa, California, October 3, 2004. Video produced by friends and colleagues hummux, ken jenkins, jim terrell et al is accessible to a wider audience (i.e., public access TV, fundraisers, whatever). For more on this and other films, see: SnowShoeFilms.com
FN editor's note - Thanks to hummux - we will be presenting "Truth and Politics: Unanswered Questions About 911" at a Northampton, MA "9-11 Questions" Meetup; Tuesday, March 15th, 7:00 pm., free and open to the public at the Media Education Foundation.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Threshold Fears and Unanswered Questions about 9/11
By Peter Phillips
Published by CommonDreams.org
March 6, 2005
The intrepid director of Project Censored cuts to heart of the 9/11 truth dilemma, which is not the absence of evidence but the public's fear to know. It is perhaps time for some of us in the movement to rest the factual case, and address the jury's fear. It's still by far the biggest hurdle we face and Phillips starts to help us surmount it here. - Editor - [ http://www.911truth.org ]
For many Americans, there is a deep psychological desire for the 9/11 tragedy to be over. The shock of the day is well remembered and terrorist alerts from Homeland Security serve to maintain lasting tensions and fears. The 9/11 Commission report gave many a sense of partial healing and completion - especially given the corporate media's high praise of the report. There is a natural resistance to naysayers who continue to question the US government's version of what happened on September 11, 2001. This resistance is rooted in our tendency towards the inability to conceive of people we know as evil; instead evil ones must be others, very unlike ourselves.
For the complete article, see:
www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20050307174111734
and
www.commondreams.org/views05/0306-23.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush Lied Thousands Died
From: "Joseph Martin" < martin55@fastmail.fm >
Date: Sat, 05 Mar 2005 08:53:13 -0800
Subject: America's Congress Has No Conscience.
Full Story
http://bush_is_evil.tripod.com/index.bush.lied.html
Bush Lied Thousands Died
Remember back just after the World Trade Center was hit the Bush administration stated that Americans were being murdered by Osama bin Laden with the use of the anthrax virus. It was all over the news. This created a panic. People were terrorized into believing that they too would be murdered by this terrible virus and that we needed to combat terrorism in the Middle East. Well, it turned out that the anthrax that was used to murder our people belonged to our own government. We know this because this particular type of anthrax was of its own kind. The spores were very small. It was an inhalation anthrax. The same strain of anthrax used in vaccine testing and biochemical weaponry research by our government. (Only by our government.) When this became known the Government turned around and said it was stolen. This was like dropping a registered gun at the seen of a murder and when the weapon was traced to them they reported it stolen. How convenient. Shortly after that there were no more terrorist scares implemented with anthrax. Their cover was blown.
Now think back during the 2004 elections. The Bush administration and especially Heather Wilson found a new terrorist weapon called Ricin. Again, they made it appear that we were under attack by terrorists and we needed their protection. When the elections were over we didn't hear anything else about it. Why?
Collin Powell under George Bush's direction lied to the United Nations and the American people, and anyone else that would listen about weapons of mass destruction being in Iraq. They presented to the United Nations as CIA evidence a plagiarized student's thesis that was written 10 years previously. They even were audacious enough to displayed picture of the facilities and vehicles where these weapons were being stored, hidden, and transported. Bush lied. None of this was true. Bush had plans to invade Iraq from the very beginning. He wanted the oil.
Bush lied to us about his drug habit.
He lied about his military records and going AWOL.
He lied about his arrest records.
What I'm getting at is: The Bush administration told lie after lie and they murdered their own people for Bush's political aspirations and the oil in Iraq, and we speculate that he may do it again. His administration is stepping up the terrorist propaganda as of 2/28/05 with the news media and we feel that it won't be long before he tries something else because everyone is starting to loose their trust in him. Even members of his own administration are running like rats from the sinking ship. No one trusts him or his administration anymore he has lied so much. Bush is a traitor and a murderer to us, the American people, and he needs to be brought to justice soon.
Below is a list of websites where you can learn more about his administration and his family's involvement in crime, corruption, and murder, along with information on the Kennedy assassination.
Former German Defense Minister
Confirms CIA Involvement in 9/11
www.prisonplanet.com/jones_report.html
Some of Bush's Involvement in 9/11
http://bush_is_evil.tripod.com/index.saudi.html
War Crimes
www.ericblumrich.com/PD.html
America's Plans to Kill Americans
http://grahams.book.tripod.com/index.u.s.plans.html
Depleted Uranium
www.chugoku-np.co.jp/abom/uran/index_e.html
Results of Depleted Uranium
www.einswine.com/atrocities/du/
E-mail From Joe Wilson
http://bush_is_evil.tripod.com/index.joe.wilson.html
Bush and Saudi Connection
www.sumeria.net/politics/bushknew/followmoney.html
www.truthout.org/docs_01/12.17C.Saudi.Friends.htm
Letter to Bush
http://bush_is_evil.tripod.com/index.email_html
Bogus Terror Threats And Bush's Police State
www.rense.com/general46/bvoh.html
Similarities Between Bush and Hitler
www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/Bush_Hitler.html
Torture at Abu Ghraib
www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040510fa_fact
www.guardian.co.uk/gall/0,8542,1211872,00.html
John Kerry's & George Bush's Military Records
www.awolbush.com/kerry-vs-bush.asp
Hail to the Thief
www.knowthecandidates.org/ktc/bush.htm
911 for the Truth
www.911forthetruth.com/
Bush Resistance
www.sinisterswing.com/resistance.htm
Vets for Justice
www.vetsforjustice.com/
War Pictures of Afghanistan
www.robert-fisk.com/pictures_civilian_casualities.htm
War Pictures of Iraq
http://mindprod.com/iraq.html
Afghanistan Massacre
http://tv.oneworld.net/tapestry?link=3319&window=full
911 Cover Up
www.wanttoknow.info/9-11cover-up
Kennedy Assassination
www.jfkmurdersolved.com/bush.htm
The Tragedy of Bill Clinton
www.wethepeople.la/clinton2.htm
Bush Lied
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/09/60minutes/main592330.shtml
Murder for Oil
www.chavezthefilm.com/index_ex.htm
State Corruption and Sex Crimes
http://perverts_15.tripod.com/index.in_Government.html
Bush is Evil
http://bush_is_evil.tripod.com/index.htm
Bush's Drug Use
http://www.bushwatch.com/bushcoke.htm
Bush's Arrest Record in Maine
www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/bushdui1.html
The Bush Family Values Center
www.buzzflash.com/perspectives/bushvalues.html
We as a people must stop living in a fantasy world and avoid the propaganda machine created by our government. We need to form a coalition and find some way to make the Bush administration answerable for their actions as we are. Good luck in what ever decision you may make. Thank you for your time.
--
Joseph Martin
martin55@fastmail.fm
For Flyby News updated resource page, see:
"The Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports,
looking into the unanswered questions"
2) The Einstein File
- - VT Yankee - Public weighs in on dry cask storage
- - The Einstein File
by Fred Jerome
It's widely believed that Einstein was the "father of the atom bomb." In fact, readers of Fred Jerome's book The Einstein File will discover that the scientist was barred from working on the bomb, as a security risk by J. Edgar Hoover's FBI and US Army officials.
It was part of Hoover's secret, 23-year campaign to undermine Einstein's influence, a campaign that included illegally opening the scientist's mail, monitoring his phone, trying to link him to Soviet spies, and trying to take away his American citizenship - a campaign detailed for the first time in The Einstein File. The book, published in May by St. Martin's Press, also brings to light evidence that Hoover was working with or duped by pro-Nazi elements in Germany and the US. After three years of FOIA efforts, Jerome succeeded in obtaining virtually the full FBI file on the world's most famous scientist. (In a 1983 version released by the FBI more than 25% of the file was withheld or blacked out.)
From the Book Jacket:
..The story that emerges not only reveals a little-known aspect of Einstein's considerable social and humanitarian concerns, but underscores the dangers that can arise to the American republic and the rule of law in times of obsession with national security.
"A convincing portrayal of Albert Einstein as a purposeful and discriminating political activist who helped turn the tide against McCarthyism during the 1950's."
-- Priscilla Johnson McMillan
"Fred Jerome's investigative gem details the other life of Albert Einstein, a life most of us have never knew about, but which made him a prime target of Hoover-McCarthy Gestapoism. Yet despite those hysterical times, and the ominous parallels between then and now, readers of this breakthrough book will draw hope in discovering the strength and courage that complemented Einstein's genius."
-- Paul Delaney
Learn more ==> TheEinsteinFile.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - VT Yankee - Public weighs in on dry cask storage
Public weighs in on dry cask storage at VY
By CAROLYN LORI [clorie@reformer.com]
Reformer Staff
BRATTLEBORO -- Approximately 70 people attended a Windham Regional Commission meeting Thursday night to weigh in on spent fuel storage at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power station.
And the message they sent was clear: Either don't allow it, or allow it with strict conditions.
Officials at the plant submitted an application to the commission in early February for dry cask storage. Thursday's meeting was an opportunity for members of the public to comment on the matter.
While the commission is not the deciding body on the issue, it will make a recommendation to the Public Service Board. The commission can also be a party in the hearing process that Entergy will have to go through before the quasi-judicial board.
Dry casks are specially made steel canisters that can hold spent nuclear fuel after it has cooled in the spent fuel pool. The steel canisters are contained inside thick concrete tube-like structures and are then placed on a concrete pad, surrounded by barbed wire fence.
Many at the meeting voiced concern that allowing an unrestricted number of casks at the plant would pave the way for Entergy to renew its operating license. The current license expires in 2012, but the company can apply to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a 20-year extension.
The only way the plant can operate beyond 2012 is by creating more storage space, as the fuel pool is almost full.
Ed Anthes of Nuclear Free Vermont noted that while dry cask storage has its own risks -- the cluster of casks can be easily seen by potential terrorists -- it would be safer than Vermont's fuel pool.
But, he added, license extension would leave Vermonters with a pad full of dry casks and a full fuel pool.
"What Entergy offers us is the worst of both worlds," said Anthes.
The threat of terrorism was a commonly voiced concern, as was the likelihood that the dry casks would not be a temporary storage.
Article truncated, for the complete article, see:
http://www.reformer.com/Stories/0,1413,102~8860~2744073,00.html
Radiation and Public Health Awareness -- The Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP) was established by scientists and physicians dedicated to understanding the relationships between low-level, nuclear radiation and public health. The RPHP "Tooth Fairy Project" "..grew out of the work of Dr. Jay Gould, Director of the Radiation and Public Health Project and author of The Enemy Within: The High Cost of Living Near Nuclear Reactors. By analyzing 50 years of US National Cancer Institute data, Dr. Gould proved that.of the 3,000-odd counties in the United States, women living in about 1,300 nuclear counties (located within 100 miles of a reactor) are at the greatest risk of dying of breast cancer.." Back in the days of the pre-Cassini-Earth flyby, a Letter of Concern by Dr. John W. Gofman provided ample evidence showing why there is no safe dose for alpha particles emitted by the radioactive decay of plutonium.. This concern has also been realized by the impact from the use of Depleted Uranium missile shells, which has caused much harm to soldiers and civilians, but especially to the young. For more on these issues, actions, and campaigns, visit these web sites: Nuclear Information and Resource Service, New England Coalition, Citizens Awareness Network, Traprock Peace Center, and The Radiation and Public Health Project
Flyby News Support
To support actions and campaigns please consider sending a check
of any amount made payable to Flyby News. {For donations of $10
or more ~ we will send you a flybynews.com art decal }
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for support for independent news and actions in care for our Earth.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
SonarSeaDeath * HorrorNewsBreaking * ChavezUS
06 March 2005
"In more than a dozen instances dating back to the 1960s,
whales have stranded themselves on the beaches and
sometimes died at the time of naval training exercises
miles away using midfrequency active sonar. An unprecedented
stranding of 16 beaked and minke whales in the Bahamas in 2000
brought worldwide attention to military sonar. A NOAA investigation
concluded that a Navy testing maneuver using midfrequency sonar was
the likely cause. Necropsies found signs of brain hemorrhaging,
which is consistent with injury from sound."
-- San Francisco Chronicle, 12/13/04, front page
1) Whales, dolphins, now under attack - LFAS sonar blasts!
2) World News Crashing - late breaking details
- - Rule Change Lets C.I.A. Freely Send Suspects Abroad to Jails
- - Bush Gave CIA Expansive Interrogation Power-Paper
- - U.S. Adopts Preemptive Counterintelligence Strategy
- - Why did Eason Jordan 'resign?'
- - Outrage as US soldiers kill hostage rescue hero
- - Member Of Congress Calls for Nuking Syria
- - Nuking Free Speech
- - Senate skids have been greased for John Negroponte to be confirmed..'
3) Venezuela's Chavez Says U.S. Plotting His Murder
Editor's Notes:
I welcome and deplore having to send this issue with more evidence of the Navy's brutality of sea life, with ear hemorrhaging sounds to dominate a cruelly-treated world for what? This, star wars, the world nuclear disorder, terror reigns, and we have inherited a mess, what are we to do? For one thing, you can check out this following link to a BioGems' campaign to help stop NATO from using LFAS sonar systems.
In item 2, if you look, you will discover more on how inbalanced the US government is over normalcy and principles in the US Constitution, human rights, and how that is impacting our world. The third item is on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's claims that the US is behind an assassination attempt on his life.
Flyby News is sponsoring a free public screening of the film:
THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED
Keene NH Public Library - March 22nd, 2005 - 7:00 P.M
1) Whales, dolphins, now under attack - LFAS sonar blasts!
Navy's Use of New Sonar Suspected in Mass Killings of Whales - Washington Post
In more than a dozen instances dating back to the 1960s, whales have stranded themselves on the beaches and sometimes died at the time of naval training exercises miles away using midfrequency active sonar. An unprecedented stranding of 16 beaked and minke whales in the Bahamas in 2000 brought worldwide attention to military sonar. A NOAA investigation concluded that a Navy testing maneuver using midfrequency sonar was the likely cause. Necropsies found signs of brain hemorrhaging, which is consistent with injury from sound.
-- San Francisco Chronicle, 12/13/04, front page
MSNBC.com
Nearly 20 stranded dolphins die
Rescuers to move 30 animals floundering in Fla. Keys
The Associated Press
Updated: 11:16 p.m. ET March 4, 2005
MARATHON, Fla. - Nineteen dolphins that became stranded off the Florida Keys have died, including 13 who were euthanized, officials said Friday.
More than 30 others will be moved to rehabilitation facilities Saturday.
The dolphins were euthanized after blood tests showed 13 of them were "not likely to recover at all and that they are suffering," said Laura Engleby, a biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service.
"Some were still not swimming on their own, and they couldn't hold themselves up," Denise Jackson of the Marine Mammal Rescue Team said.
More than 60 rough-tooth dolphins beached themselves Wednesday on flats and sandbars about a quarter mile off Marathon. Rescue teams moved the dolphins to a nearby canal where veterinarians have been conducting medical tests.
The remaining 31 live dolphins were being given Pedialyte a drink normally given to dehydrated human babies and fresh water, Jackson said.
Teams planned to move them by Saturday morning to rehabilitation facilities along the Keys or on the mainland, officials said.
Marine mammals may become stranded when they are sick, injured or disoriented, Engleby said. Scientists performing necropsies will take genetic samples to determine whether the dolphins all came from the same population.
Rough-tooth dolphins normally inhabit deep waters in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.
Marathon, in the middle of the Florida Keys, is about 46 miles east of Key West.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7076315/
= = = = = = = = =
TAKE ACTION!
We're taking our campaign to protect whales from deadly naval sonar to the doorstep of NATO -- and we need your help.
Please go to
http://www.savebiogems.org/whales/takeaction.asp
and send a message to the secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and to NATO ambassadors, urging their member countries to stop deploying high-powered sonar systems in sensitive whale habitats around the world.
Last month we began making our case directly to NATO officials. Now it's critically important that they hear a worldwide outcry from concerned citizens in support of our cause.
As the military alliance of 26 nations -- including the United States -- NATO includes the world's biggest users of lethal military sonar. In fact, several mass strandings of whales have been linked directly to joint NATO exercises, including strandings in the Canary Islands and along the coast of Greece.
There is no dispute that intense bursts of high-powered sonar can and do kill whales. The scientists of the International Whaling Commission have stated that the evidence linking such naval sonar to whale strandings appears "overwhelming."
The scientific journal "Nature" has reported that intense, active sonar may kill marine mammals by causing their internal organs to hemorrhage.
In the face of this alarming evidence, it's simply cruel and wrong to use high-powered sonar in routine training exercises without taking common-sense steps to protect whales, dolphins and other marine life. That's why a worldwide coalition of environmental groups, including NRDC, is pressuring NATO and its member countries to stop inflicting this needless suffering on marine mammals.
Please make your own voice heard in defense of whales
right now. Go to http://www.savebiogems.org/whales/takeaction.asp
and call on NATO to take immediate steps to protect marine mammals from deadly sonar.
Thank you for taking action.
Sincerely,
John H. Adams
President
Natural Resources Defense Council
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
FLORIDA KEYS - Dolphins' beaching closely followed sub's exercises
The Miami Herald
Posted on Sat, Mar. 05, 2005
FLORIDA KEYS
Dolphins' beaching closely followed sub's exercises
The U.S. Navy is looking into whether the activities of a submarine
using sonar off the Keys may have played a part in a massive dolphin
stranding this week off Marathon.
BY JENNIFER BABSON
jbabson@herald.com
KEY WEST - The U.S. Navy is investigating whether sonar used in the training activities of a submarine off the Florida Keys this week may have contributed to the mass stranding of more than 80 deep-water dolphins, at least 19 of which have died.
Groups of rough-toothed dolphins mysteriously began beaching off Marathon on Wednesday afternoon -- within 24 hours, and perhaps less, of exercises conducted off Key West by the USS Philadelphia, a submarine based in Connecticut.
A Navy spokeswoman said Friday she did not know if the sub was still in the area the day of the stranding or if the vessel was using active sonar -- considered by some scientists to be potentially harmful to marine mammals -- during its mission.
''This is absolutely high priority. We are looking into this. We want to be good stewards of the environment and anytime there are strandings of marine mammals, we look into the operations and locations of any ships that might have been operating in that area,'' said Lt. Cdr. Jensin Sommer, spokeswoman for Naval Submarine Forces, based in Virginia.
EVIDENCE
There's a growing body of evidence that active sonar sound waves may harm marine mammals such as dolphins and whales, injuring them in the ears and around the brain, disorienting them, and prompting them in some cases to strand. Marine mammals use sound for just about everything, from feeding to navigating to finding a mate.
Scientists surmise that sonars may disorient or scare the marine mammals, causing them to surface too quickly and creating the equivalent of what divers know as the bends -- when nitrogen is formed in tissue by sudden decompression, leading to hemorrhaging.
After a whale stranding in 2000 in the Bahamas, the Navy acknowledged in a report some marine mammal sensitivity to sonars, but has also argued at times that the extent of any cause-and-effect is scientifically vague.
Active sonar allows submarines and ships to spot targets and other vessels by emitting sound waves that bounce off objects, revealing distance and location.
Necropsies already underway on the dead dolphins in Marathon may shed some light on whether the animals suffered any damage to acoustic brain tissue, a potentially key indicator of sonar damage. But test results could take months.
NOTHING RULED OUT
''It's fair to say we will be looking at any potential contributing factors, and that's everything,'' said Laura Engleby, a biologist with NOAA Fisheries, which is coordinating the stranding response. ``We aren't ruling anything out.''
The Natural Resources Defense Council, a nonprofit environmental group, successfully sued the military in 2002 to limit use of new, low-frequency sonar believed by some to be particularly damaging because of its ability to travel extremely long distances. Some types of sonar can be extremely loud -- as much as 235 decibels at close quarters, equivalent to the noise made by a rocket on takeoff -- according to the council.
''Whenever naval exercises coincide with a mass stranding of marine mammals, the government has a responsibility to investigate the connection. We call on them to do that now,'' Michael Jasny, a senior policy consultant with the council, said Friday.
SOME RETURN TO SEA
About 20 of the initial group of stranded Keys dolphins made their way back to sea by early Thursday, while 14 were euthanized Friday because of their poor condition. More than 30 others remained in care of biologists and volunteers in a makeshift pen late Friday, from where they were expected to be transferred to rehabilitation facilities.
Whale and dolphin strandings are not uncommon in Florida and elsewhere. Various factors have been blamed -- from a few sick animals luring an entire pod toward land, to pollution and algae blooms.
But renewed attention has been focused lately on sonar as a potential cause.
''The more we look now, the more incidents we see,'' Jasny said. ''In recent years attention has been increasingly paid to the effect sonar is having on other species'' besides whales. ``We are only beginning to understand the impact.''
2005 Herald.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miami.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more resources at flybynews.com see from homepage, or link to.
The harmful impact on Whales and Dolphins
by the U.S. Navy's experimental use of active sonar systems
2) World News Crashing - late breaking details
- - Rule Change Lets C.I.A. Freely Send Suspects Abroad to Jails
- - Bush Gave CIA Expansive Interrogation Power-Paper
- - U.S. Adopts Preemptive Counterintelligence Strategy
- - Why did Eason Jordan 'resign?'
- - Outrage as US soldiers kill hostage rescue hero
- - Member Of Congress Calls for Nuking Syria
- - Nuking Free Speech
- - Senate skids have been greased for John Negroponte to be confirmed..'
- - World News Crashing - late breaking details
Warning! Information will prove madness is in control, chaos following..
{Thanks to Citizens for A Legitimate Government for update digest links on breaking news.
http://legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
And other key resource links posted @ FlybyNews.com.
- - Rule Change Lets C.I.A. Freely Send Suspects Abroad to Jails
The Bush regime's secret program to transfer suspected terrorists to foreign countries for interrogation has been carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency under broad authority that has allowed it to act without case-by-case approval from the White House or the State or Justice Departments, according to current and former government officials.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/06/politics/06intel.html
- - Bush Gave CIA Expansive Interrogation Power-Paper
The Bush regime gave the CIA extensive authority to send terrorism suspects to foreign countries for interrogation just days after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions. [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/06/politics/06intel.html]
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=7816923&src=rss/domesticNews
- - U.S. Adopts Preemptive Counterintelligence Strategy
The Bush regime has adopted a new counterintelligence strategy that calls for preemptive action against foreign intelligence services viewed as threats to national security, officials said Saturday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10397-2005Mar5.html
- - Why did Eason Jordan 'resign?'
US attack against Italians in Baghdad was deliberate: companion -- http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=38029
The companion of freed Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena on Saturday leveled serious accusations at US troops who fired at her convoy as it was nearing Baghdad airport, saying the shooting had been deliberate. "The Americans and Italians knew about (her) car coming," Pier Scolari said on leaving Rome's Celio military hospital where Sgrena is to undergo surgery following her return home. "They were 700 meters (yards) from the airport, which means that they had passed all checkpoints." The shooting late Friday was witnessed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's office which was on the phone with one of the secret service agents, said Scolari. "Then the US military silenced the cellphones," he charged. "Giuliana had information, and the US military did not want her to survive," he added.
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=38029
- - Outrage as US soldiers kill hostage rescue hero
The Italian journalist kidnapped in Iraq arrived back in Rome yesterday as fury and confusion grew over the circumstances in which she was shot and one of her rescuers was killed by American soldiers... Italian reconstruction of the incident is significantly different. Giuliana Sgrena told colleagues the vehicle was not travelling fast and had already passed several checkpoints on its way to the airport. The Americans shone a flashlight at the car and then fired between 300 and 400 bullets at if from an armoured vehicle. Rather than calling immediately for assistance for the wounded Italians, the soldiers' first move was to confiscate their weapons and mobile phones and they were prevented from resuming contact with Rome for more than an hour.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1431436,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Member Of Congress Calls for Nuking Syria
By ADC
03/02/05 Washington, DC -- Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX) has advocated for attacking Syria with nuclear weapons. Rep. Johnson was quoted telling a recent church gathering, "Syria is the problem. Syria is where those weapons of mass destruction are, in my view. You know, I can fly an F-15, put two nukes on 'em and I'll make one pass. We won't have to worry about Syria anymore." The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is outraged at Rep. Johnson's statement advocating for mass destruction and genocide and views this as a sad day in our country's tradition when an elected member of the United States Congress openly advocates for attacking another country with nuclear weapons.
http://207.44.245.159/article8194.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Nuking Free Speech
by Sen. Robert Byrd, The Washington Post
The firebrand from West Virginia stands up for free speech and minority rights in Congress.
http://tompaine.com/opinion/#003964
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Senate skids have been greased for John Negroponte to be confirmed..'
Who Now Will Read to the President in the Morning?
By Ray McGovern
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Saturday 05 March 2005
Senate skids have been greased for John Negroponte to be confirmed as the first director of national intelligence. Never mind that he deliberately misled Congress about serious human rights abuses in Honduras where he was ambassador from 1981 to 1985.
That dissembling enabled the White House to circumvent the congressional restrictions that would have denied use of Honduras as the primary base for the "Contras"-the counterrevolutionaries organized and armed by the US to overthrow the government of Nicaragua.
Negroponte's opposite number in Washington during those rogue-elephant, Iran-Contra days, then-Assistant Secretary of State Elliot Abrams, was convicted for lying to Congress but then promptly pardoned by George H. W. Bush, who explained that Abrams was motivated by "patriotism." No less "patriotic," Negroponte had simply been luckier, in that he was not required to testify as frequently to Congress.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/030505A.shtml
3) Venezuela's Chavez Says U.S. Plotting His Murder
Published March 5, 2005 by Reuters
Venezuela's Chavez Says U.S. Plotting His Murder
NEW DELHI - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday he had evidence that the United States was planning to assassinate him, an allegation the U.S. government earlier dismissed as "wild."
"We have enough evidence ... If anything happens to me, the person responsible will be the president of the United States," Chavez told reporters in New Delhi. He did not elaborate.
The exchange of accusations between the left-wing Chavez and U.S. officials has reached fever pitch in recent weeks, raising questions whether the multibillion-dollar energy relationship between Washington and one of its top oil suppliers is at risk.
Chavez said on Feb. 20 the United States was plotting to kill him, and his foreign minister said three days later that U.S. accusations against Chavez were a sign of an impending attack. Washington dismissed what it termed Chavez's "wild charges."
U.S. officials portray the former paratrooper, a virulent critic of President Bush, as an authoritarian menace. Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice has singled out self-proclaimed socialist Chavez as a "destabilizing influence" in Latin America.
They have also renewed charges that Chavez, a firebrand nationalist, shelters Colombian Marxist rebels and recently criticized Venezuelan purchases of Russian automatic rifles.
Chavez said in New Delhi he had no quarrel with the people of United States, only with its government. He cited U.S. action in Iraq and said the U.S. government was a threat to the entire world.
Venezuela's relations with the United States have been strained since leftist Chavez was elected in 1998. He has bolstered ties with anti-U.S. countries such as Cuba and alleged Washington was involved in a failed coup against him in 2002.
Many analysts see the rhetoric aimed at domestic political audiences and do not believe it heralds any imminent diplomatic or commercial rift. Although Chavez is exploring new oil markets like China, U.S. oil companies continue to negotiate major investments in Venezuela.
On Friday, Chavez said his country would not stop supplying oil to the United States unless "the U.S. government gets a little bit crazy and tries to hurt us."
2005 Reuters Ltd
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0305-04.htm
Flyby News is sponsoring a free public screening of the film:
THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED
Keene NH Public Library - March 22nd, 2005 - 7:00 P.M
Flyby News Support
To support actions and campaigns please consider sending a check
of any amount made payable to Flyby News. {For donations of $10
or more ~ we will send you a flybynews.com art decal }
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for support for independent news and actions in care for our Earth.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
PutinBush * NuclearLies * SibelHouse * democracy?
03 March 2005
"Whatever you do, you need courage.
Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong.
There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right.
To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage
that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
1) Putin and Bush -- a McLaughlin group perspective
- - US Death Toll Reaches 1,500 in Iraq
- - 48 Vermont Towns Vote Against Iraq War
2) Nuclear Survivors Say They Were Fed Lies in Government Cover-Ups
3) Two courageous women continue the fight for 9/11 truth!
- - No Plane Hit the Pentagon
- - Rumsfeld Sued over Prisoner Torture
- - Negroponte's Sins...On Film
4) Conyers Forces Election Reform on House Floor
- - Support National Election Reform! -- The VOTER Act (H.R. 533)
Editor's Notes:
Flyby News is actually a conglomerate blog that began from a mind-set to resist the Cassini flyby, the weaponization of space, and world domination by US military and special interests, and at the time of the phenomena of world Internet news.
Item one opens with a McLaughlin Group discussion on the Putin-Bush dance-meeting in Europe recently. And while we ponder at all the various spins imagined, the reality of a death toll goes up another notch, 1500+ US soldiers dead in Iraq.. The people are arising: "48 Vermont Towns Vote Against Iraq War - Call for State's National Guard to Come Home."
The second item is about survival of nuclear contamination in the Marshall Islands. At the 51st anniversary of the first US hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll, two survivors accused authorities of lying about the effects of radiation.'
Item 3 is highlighted by a powerful testimony by Sibel Edmonds before the House Committee on Government Reform, (Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and Internal Relations). Sibel Edmonds speaks on behalf for true national security, and deserves our attention, respect, and appreciation. Subsections in this item includes documentation that "No Plane Hit the Pentagon", an article about US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld sued over prisoner torture, and an article by David Corn: Negroponte's Sins...On Film'.
Stop the BUSH appointment of John Negroponte
as director of National Intelligence
Demand a Congressional Filibuster!
E-mail the Senate Intelligence Committee to do their homework on Negroponte
or call the Congressional Switchboard - the telephone number is 202-224-3121
or link for US Congress contact information
Standing against this appointment is an important step for any leader in the Democratic Party to reclaim an integrity since the disastrous Congressional resolution that supposedly authorized President Bush to be able to conduct war as a preemptive judgement decision. This decision is contrary to principles clearly stated in the US Constitution. Let's hope Senator Barbara Boxer keeps leading a way out of this darkness for a brighter future.
Item 4 is on Rep. John Conyers forcing the issue of Election Reform on the House Floor.
Contact Congess today in support of the VOTER Act!.
A free screening of the film:
THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED
will be presented at the Keene NH Public Library
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2005
1) Putin and Bush -- a McLaughlin group perspective
- - US Death Toll Reaches 1,500 in Iraq
- - 48 Vermont Towns Vote Against Iraq War
- - Putin and Bush -- a McLaughlin group perspective
The following are EXCERPTS
For the complete transcript of:
THE MCLAUGHLIN GROUP
HOST: JOHN MCLAUGHLIN
PANEL:
PATRICK BUCHANAN, MSNBC;
ELEANOR CLIFT, NEWSWEEK;
TONY BLANKLEY, THE WASHINGTON TIMES;
JAMES HARDING, FINANCIAL TIMES
DATE: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2005
SEE: www.mclaughlin.com/library/transcript.asp?id=455
[EXCERPT]
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Issue One: Stop Criticizing Russia.
RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN: (From videotape.) Russia has made its choice in favor of democracy 14 years ago. Independently, without any pressure from outside, it made that decision in the interest of itself, in the interest of its people, of its citizens. This is our final choice, and we have no way back.
But I believe -- and a lot of people will agree with me -- the implementation of the principles and norms of democracy should not be accompanied by the collapse of the state and the impoverishment of the people. If we talk about where we have more or where we have less democracy is not the right thing to do. But if we talk about how the fundamental principles of democracy are implemented in this or that historic soil, in this or that country, is an option. It's possible.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Question: Pat Buchanan, what is Putin's point? And is it persuasive?
MR. BUCHANAN: Putin's point is "Get off my case and get out of my face." What he is saying is, "Look, we have our own problems in Russia. We're trying to deal with them as best we can. We've had a lot of crises. And we really do not like the idea of this public hectoring and badgering." It goes all the way back to Gladstone, where you put moral preachments above national interest.
I don't believe the United States or President Bush should be doing this, John. If we've got some problem with him that's serious about Khodorkovsky, you do it behind closed doors. You don't do it in public, because it tends to humiliate a great power.
Now, Russia has been a friend of this country ever since the end of the Cold War. It is a vital interest of ours. We maintain good relations with him. Putin has been a friend to the president. We've got disagreements. But I think the president ought to keep this type of hectoring and badgering really for when he goes behind closed doors.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: What he said was the implementation of the principles and norms of democracy should not be accompanied by the collapse of the state and the impoverishment of the people. He's saying there that you have to rein in the oligarchs or it could lead to their taking over the government and the collapse of the government. Correct?
MR. HARDING: Yeah, that's right.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: I want to know whether his essential point is a valid point, that democracy takes many forms or several forms.
MR. HARDING: Well, personally I don't. And I don't agree with Pat either. I think that --
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: And you were there.
MR. HARDING: I was there, yeah. One of the great missions of the U.S. and of the West in the second half of the 20th century was, of course, advancing democracy, pressing for the institution of democracy in the Soviet Union. And this is no time to abandon that mission. And it seems to me as though the president, in an artful way, in a very delicate way, made clear that democracy should not come with any qualifications, that there are certain things that are fundamental about it.
And I thought that Mr. Putin's defense of Russian-style democracy, of Putin-style democracy, was actually very alarming, because I think that quote that you picked up on, the collapse of the state and the impoverishment of the people, essentially said, "We must have democracy, but as long as it defends the power of the Kremlin." And that's precisely the problem today.
MR. BUCHANAN: But why is that a problem of the United States of America? Khodorkovsky and these other guys stole that place, robbed it blind. So he locked him up like we locked up Martha Stewart. But why is whether the governors of Russia are appointed or elected any business of the United States of America?
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Let's move on, because Bush responded; President Bush responded to this, quote/unquote, "question." Quote: "I live in a transparent country. I live in a country where decisions made by government are wide open. Every decision we have made is within the Constitution of the United States. So I'm perfectly comfortable in telling you our country is one that safeguards human rights and human dignity, and we resolve our disputes in a peaceful way."
It's wide open. This government is wide open. The press believes it's wide open, right?
..Yeah, and the press has no difficulty getting information out of Don Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney -- or George Bush. They're all very forthcoming, aren't they?
MR. HARDING: I have to say one thing. At some point you stop and you think, this was an extraordinarily adroit performance by two great politicians. But at some level it's disappointing on both sides, that actually Bush is not making a real defense of the U.S., and more importantly, he's not really drawing attention to the issues in Russia...
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: The human toll: U.S. military dead in Iraq, including suicides, 1,480; U.S. military amputee, wounded, injured, mentally ill, all now out of Iraq, 35,500; Iraqi civilians dead, 106,900.
Issue Two: Transatlantic Unity.
..MS. CLIFT: Bush's rhetoric rarely has anything to do with reality. He said all the things that he thought people expected him to say. But I wouldn't count on a weak Europe. First of all, he is uniting them. Second of all, our finances are so compromised in this country and the Euro is doing real well. And we don't have the military might to go plundering over there, and the Europeans know that.
..: So I think Bush has his preemptive war, and that's it..
The above was excerpted; for the complete transcript, see:
www.mclaughlin.com/library/transcript.asp?id=455
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - US Death Toll Reaches 1,500 in Iraq
Military Families Speak Out
as Death Toll Reaches 1,500 in Iraq
www.truthout.org/docs_2005/030305Z.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 48 Vermont Towns Vote Against Iraq War
Call for State's National Guard to Come Home
Posted by Democracy Now! - March 2nd, 2005
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/02/154235
2) Nuclear Survivors Say They Were Fed Lies in Government Cover-Ups
Published on Tuesday, March 1, 2005
by the Agence France Presse
Nuclear Survivors Say They Were Fed Lies in Government Cover-Ups
MAJURO -- Survivors of two severe cases of nuclear contamination met in the Marshall Islands to mark the 51st anniversary of the first US hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll, and accused authorities of lying about the effects of radiation.
"The reason the exposure was so bad is that we were lied to all the time," Dr Lyudmyla Porokhnyak, a survivor of the world's worst nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in 1986, told a conference on raising awareness of radiation dangers.
Marshall Islanders nodded in agreement, confirming what they saw as the similarities between the two experiences.
While Porokhnyak recounted how authorities in the then-Soviet Union initially tried to cover up the Chernobyl reactor meltdown and downwind contamination, Marshall Islanders described similar efforts by the United States in 1954 to downplay the impact of the Bravo test.
Bikini Islanders were not evacuated for two to three days after the Bravo test, even though their land was covered by snow-like radioactive fallout.
Although many islanders developed severe radiation burns and had their hair fall out, the US Atomic Energy Commission issued a statement saying "there were no burns" and islanders were in good health.
US officials later allowed islanders to return home to live in radioactive environments without any clean up.
Rayon William, a Rongelap Islander, said she returned home with other islanders when US authorities said it was safe in 1957. But she said the food she ate then was laced with radioactivity from the test three years earlier.
"I've experienced many illnesses as a result of living in a contaminated island," she said.
It was not until after Rongelap residents evacuated themselves in 1985 that the US Congress funded scientific studies which confirmed islanders' fears that their home atoll was still contaminated.
Subsequently Congress funded a 45 million dollar trust fund that is now paying for a clean up and resettlement program.
The conference was sponsored by a survivors' group known as ERUB -- an acronym for the four most heavily exposed islands Enewetak, Rongelap, Utrik and Bikini, and which also means "broken" or "damaged" in Marshallese.
Delegates expressed concern that even today, studies and reports on the US nuclear testing program in the Marshall Islands remain classified.
Copyright 2005 Agence France Presse
###
This article is posted at:
www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/headlines05/0301-02.htm
and
www.afp.com/english/afp/
3) Two courageous women continue the fight for 9/11 truth!
- - No Plane Hit the Pentagon
- - Rumsfeld Sued over Prisoner Torture
- - Negroponte's Sins...On Film
Received via email Wed, 2 Mar 2005 20:16:41 -0800 (PST)
From: webmaster@septembereleventh.org
To: announce@lists.911visibilityproject.org
Subject: Two courageous women continue the fight for 9/11 truth!
Dear 9/11 truth activists and concerned citizens,
Below is a transcript of FBI whistle-blower Sibel Edmonds' testimony today before the House Committee on Government reform. And here is a link to an article and video of congresswoman Cynthia McKinney challenging Donald Rumsfeld on the 9/11 wargames at the Feb 16th House Armed Services Committee meeting (reported by Michael Kane):
www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/030105_mckinney_question.shtml
Thank you Sibel and Cynthia!
Towards peace and truth,
Emanuel Sferios
Webmaster, SeptemberEleventh.org
-----
Statement of Sibel Edmonds
Before the House Committee on Government Reform,
Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and Internal Relations
March 2, 2005
Emerging Threats: Overclassification and Pseudo-classification
Good afternoon, my name is Sibel Edmonds. I have been invited to provide you with testimony today regarding my direct experience with the use of excessive secrecy, rare privileges, and over-classification by the Department of Justice against me during the past three years. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I believe that my case clearly illustrates how the government uses secrecy laws and classification to avoid accountability, to cover up problems and wrongdoing, and to gain unfair legal advantage in court.
I began working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as a language specialist for several Middle Eastern languages starting shortly after 9/11, and was granted Top Secret Clearance. During my work, I became aware of problems within the translation unit involving criminal conduct against our national interests, potential espionage, serious security breaches threatening our intelligence, intentional mistranslation, and blocking of intelligence. I was asked, and later ordered, to refrain from reporting these allegations. I reported them, together with evidence, to higher management within the bureau. They refused to take any action, and again, they asked me not to pursue them. I then took these issues and evidence to the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General and to the Senate Judiciary Committee, because I believed that according to our laws these were the appropriate steps to take in this situation. As a result, I was retaliated against, was ordered to submit to a polygraph, and had my home computer confiscated. Finally, in March 2002 I was fired. The only explanation I received for getting fired was 'for the convenience of the government.'
In March 2002, the Senate Judiciary Committee began investigating my case and allegations, and in June and July 2002, during two unclassified briefings with the staff of Senators Grassley and Senator Leahy, the FBI publicly confirmed all of my core allegations. These two Senators issued public statements and letters regarding these confirmations and my case, demanding expedited investigation by the Inspector General and response from the FBI. These letters and statements were widely disseminated in the media and on the Internet; including on the Senators' own websites. When the judge overseeing my legal cases asked the government to produce any unclassified materials that was relevant to the substance of my allegations, the government took a truly extraordinary step: it moved to retroactively classify these letters, statements, and news releases that had been public for almost two years. It is quite clear that the government's motivation was not to protect national security, but rather to protect itself from embarrassment and accountability. Senator Grassley characterized this retroactive classification as 'ludicrous,' and 'gagging the congress.'
However, the Congress complied. Only after this highly unusual retroactive classification was challenged in court by POGO, a government watchdog organization, did the Department of Justice reverse itself and declare that this information was not considered classified and a danger to national security after all. I would like to request that these letters from Senators Grassley and Leahy be included in the record of today's hearing.
In March 2002, the Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General began investigating my allegations, and in July 2004, after almost two years delay, completed its investigation. The Department of Justice immediately moved to classify the entire report and its findings. Six months later, they allowed the Inspector General to release only an unclassified version of its executive summary. This unclassified version confirmed my core allegations; concluded that I was fired for reporting misconduct; and stated that the FBI had failed to investigate the reported espionage, even though other facts, witnesses and evidence supported my allegations. I would like to request that the Inspector General's report also be included in the record of today's hearing.
In the summer of 2002 I also began to pursue legal remedies to challenge my unjust dismissal, and filed cases under First Amendment and Privacy Act, and the Freedom of Information Act. Rather than respond to the merits of my claim, in October 2002, Attorney General Ashcroft asserted a rarely invoked 'State Secrets Privilege', arguing that the entire case must be dismissed in the name of national security, even if my allegations were correct. The Department of Justice asked the courts to throw out the case without any hearings, depositions, or discovery. Even though the Department of Justice's own Inspector General has confirmed the seriousness of my allegations and concluded that I was fired for raising them, the DOJ has continued to insist that my case cannot go forward because it would jeopardize national security. So far, the DOJ has been successful in this effort to silence me. In June 2004, the court ruled in favor of this far-reaching assertion of the "state secrets privilege".Currently I am appealing my case, and the Department of Justice is still invoking the "state secrets privilege" and arguing that everything about my issues is covered by classification.
The government invoked the state secrets privilege a second time in an attempt to block me from being deposed in a case brought by families of those killed on September 11 against Saudi individuals and entities alleged to have financed al-Qaeda. The government insisted that almost every single question that the families wished to ask me would require the disclosure of classified information.
The problems I have reported have serious consequences to our national security; and have already been confirmed by the Inspector General's report and the inquiry of Senators Grassley and Leahy. Translation units are the frontline in gathering, translating, and disseminating intelligence. A warning in advance of the next terrorist attack may, and probably will, come in the form of a message or document in a foreign language that will have to be translated. If an attack then occurs, which could have been prevented by acting on information in such a message, who will tell family members of the new terrorist attack victims that nothing more could have been done? There will be no excuse that we did not know, because we do know.
Yet, knowing full well the seriousness of these confirmed issues and problems, rather than addressing them the FBI and the Department of Justice spend time and effort to cover them up by over use of secrecy and excessive classification. Contrary to their claims, they seem to be far more concerned with avoiding accountability than protecting our national security. I believe that my case clearly illustrates the federal government's capricious use of secrecy laws and classification to cover up problems and wrongdoing, and to avoid accountability, regardless of the damage to our national security. It demonstrates as well how excessive secrecy and pseudo classification can be used as retaliation tactics against national security whistleblowers.
This type of excessive classification and the effort to expand the "statesecrets privilege" does not increase our national security but actually makes us less safe and it impedes oversight of the executive branch, as part of the checks and balances demanded by our Constitution.
Thank you again for inviting me to testify today. You are the first Congressional Committee after three years to request my testimony and hear my story. I believe this testimony is a good first step in examining this situation but what is really needed is an actual Congressional investigation. Therefore, with respect for your critical role in our Constitution's system of checks and balances, I request that you be the first Congressional Committee to investigate not just my case but what is going on over at the FBI and the Justice Department regarding the very serious problem of over-classification and the abuse of secrecy. Thank you.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - No Plane Hit the Pentagon
thewebfairy.com/911/pentagon/index.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Rumsfeld Sued over Prisoner Torture
www.truthout.org/docs_2005/030105A.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Negroponte's Sins...On Film
Published March 2, 2005 by The Nation
Negroponte's Sins...On Film
by David Corn
www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=2229
also posted:
www.commondreams.org/views05/0302-26.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For FN's resources to Stop John Negroponte's Confirmation
as Director of US Intelligence, see:
www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1108913627,6876,
4) Conyers Forces Election Reform on House Floor
- - Support National Election Reform! -- The VOTER Act (H.R. 533)
Conyers Forces Election Reform on House Floor
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Thursday 03 March 2005
Rep. John Conyers forced the issue of election reform on the House floor this afternoon.
The House is now considering a bill to provide continuity in congressional representation. In plain english, the bill attempts to address the problem of what would happen should a significant portion of congress get wiped out by a terrorist attack. Basically, it establishes a new system of deadlines and special elections in that event.
Rep. Conyers finds it ridiculous that the House is spending so much energy (and acting with such speed) to solve a hypothetical problem, about a hypothetical election, when there are so many real problems with our real elections.
In a surprise maneuver, which is called a 'Motion to Recommit' (basically an amendment offered at the end of consideration of a bill; the GOP generally do not get more than five minutes notice of it, and the debate is five minutes per side), Conyers forced the issue.
His official statement reads as follows:
Mr. Speaker, for a measure that purports to protect our democracy, I have to admit the manner by which this legislation has been brought before us today considerably undermines those very principles.
On the substance, this bill - the subject of so much concern - falls for short of fixing what is wrong with our democracy.
When it comes to elections, this is not even close to our biggest concern. Why are we worrying so much about hypothetical problems about a hypothetical election when we have had two consecutive elections in this country where ACTUAL VOTERS were disenfranchised?
On those issues, this House remains silent. It remains silent about the ten hour lines that disenfranchised minority voters in Ohio. It remains silent about the 4,000 votes lost in North Carolina because of a faulty voting machines. It remains silent about the intimidating tactics, fake letters and fliers, and other illegal acts designed to disenfranchise minority voters that have been used by one political party to bolster their electoral fortunes..
Article truncated,
the complete article is posted at:
www.truthout.org/docs_2005/030305Y.shtml
--------
Discussion of this development is taking place on the truthout FYI blog.
forum.truthout.org/blog/story/2005/3/3/113728/5055
- - Support National Election Reform! -- The VOTER Act (H.R. 533)
Contact Congress today in support of the VOTER Act!.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Canada: NoMD * US/Iran * Dollar * ElectionReform
25 February 2005
"America will never be destroyed from the outside.
If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
-- Abraham Lincoln
1) Canada opts out of U.S. defense shield
- - U.S. Says 'Thousands' of Missiles Missing
2) Scott Ritter: US attack on Iran planned for June
3) The Dollar - The Warning
4) Tackling Election Reform
- - Invitation by Howard Dean, DNC. Chair
Editor's Notes:
Finally, a real victory for the peace movement and the sovereignty of Canada. This Country, with much pressure from the US, stated unequivocally that they will not participate with the US on its missile defense, since it engages the "weaponization" of outer space and expands the arms race. This is a critical step for real peace and security. Meanwhile, Canada will focus its attention on more productive measures for security on the ground. The second part of this item makes clear sense that this would be a better approach for the US, which admits to "Thousands' of Missiles Missing."
The second item includes an article with startling claims by Scott Ritter that the US has plans to attack Iran. Item 3 is about the warning shot of the dollar's demise, and item 4 is more on election reform and the democratic process in the US. Your participation is invited, and essential for reclaiming a lost USA democracy.
**********************************
Flyby News related events & campaigns:
A free screening of the film:
THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED
will be presented at the Keene Public Library
- Auditorium - 60 Winter Street; Keene, NH -
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2005
7:00 P.M. - 9:00 P.M.
For feedback, discussions, and strategies,
regarding information posted at Flyby News, visit:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FlybyNews
Contact US Congress - Demand a Congressional Filibuster!
Stop the BUSH appointment of John Negroponte
as director of National Intelligence
The Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121
**********************************
Wild animals never kill for sport.
Man is the only one to whom the torture
and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself.
-- James Anthony Froude
1) Canada opts out of U.S. defense shield
- - U.S. Says 'Thousands' of Missiles Missing
- - Canada opts out of U.S. defense shield
Posted on Thu, Feb. 24, 2005
BETH DUFF-BROWN
Associated Press
TORONTO - Prime Minister Paul Martin said Thursday that Canada would not join the contentious U.S. missile defense program, a decision that will further strain brittle relations between the neighbors but please Canadians who fear it could lead to an international arms race.
Martin, ending nearly two years of debate over whether Canada should participate in the development or operation of the multibillion-dollar program, said Ottawa would remain a close ally of Washington in the fight against global terrorism and continental security.
He said he intended to talk to President Bush later Thursday and that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had been informed of the decision earlier this week.
A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States had been informed beforehand of the decision, adding that Washington expects that cooperation with Canada will continue on a wide variety of issues.
Talking to reporters several minutes after his foreign minister first announced the move in the House of Commons, Martin said Canada would instead focus on strengthening its own military and defense in proposals laid out Wednesday in the federal budget.
"Canada recognizes the enormous burden that the United States shoulders, when it comes to international peace and security," Martin said. "The substantial increases made yesterday to our defense budget are a tangible indication that Canada intends to carry its full share of that responsibility."
The federal budget presented to the House of Commons calls for $10.5 billion in the next five years to increase the country's beleaguered armed forces - including an additional 5,000 soldiers and 3,000 reservists - the largest commitment to defense in two decades. It also called for another $807,950 to improve Canada's anti-terrorism efforts and security along the unarmed, 4,000-mile border with the United States.
When Bush visited Canada in December, he surprised Ottawa by making several unsolicited pitches for support of the defense shield, which is in the midst of testing interceptors capable of destroying incoming missiles targeted at North America.
Martin, who leads a tenuous minority government, has said Ottawa would not support what he called the "weaponization of space." Though he initially supported joining the program when he was a candidate for the Liberal leadership, Martin has retreated, since polls indicate that a majority of Canadians oppose it. Many believe that the umbrella, when fully implemented, could lead to an international arms race.
The Bush administration has tried to make a public show of understanding that Martin heads up a minority government that could fall over such a contentious debate. A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Thursday the U.S. had hoped Canada would remain, but the decision to drop out of the missile defense scheme was their government's.
But U.S. Ambassador Paul Cellucci told reporters he was perplexed over Canada's apparent decision, which he said effectively would allow Washington to decide what to do if a missile was headed toward Canada.
"We simply cannot understand why Canada would in effect give up its sovereignty - its seat at the table - to decide what to do about a missile that might be coming towards Canada," the outgoing ambassador, who had vigorously urged Canada to sign on the plan, told reporters in Ottawa immediately after Martin's announcement.
Martin insisted his decision had not relinquished Canada's sovereignty and that Ottawa would expect to be consulted what to do about any missile passing over Canada.
Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew, however, indicated the ultimate decision had always been in U.S. hands.
"Would it have been otherwise?" he replied when asked whether Canada's refusal to join means the country now officially relies on the United States for protection.
www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/10974310.htm?1c
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - U.S. Says 'Thousands' of Missiles Missing
Posted: Thu Feb 24, 5:37 PM ET - Politics - AP
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
WASHINGTON - It has been known for years that thousands of light and lethal shoulder-fired missiles are in black-market circulation. What is not known is exactly who has them and whether many have fallen into the hands of terrorists or criminals.
A worrisome puzzle, it explains why the United States and Russia signed an agreement Thursday to cooperate in destroying surplus Soviet-era SA-7s and other portable anti-aircraft missiles. The smallest of these are durable, relatively cheap and easy to smuggle.
The United States also has understandings with several other countries, including Nicaragua, Bosnia, Cambodia and Liberia (news - web sites), for Washington to provide technical assistance or money to destroy anti-aircraft missiles.
The State Department estimates that about 1 million shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles have been produced worldwide since the 1950s. The number believed to be in the hands of "nonstate actors," such as terrorist groups, is "in the thousands," the department says..
[Article Truncated]
For this complete AP article and link-resources, see:
story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&ncid=536&e=3&u=/ap/20050224/ap_on_re_us/missile_threat
2) Scott Ritter: US attack on Iran planned for June
Scott Ritter says US attack on Iran planned for June
Written by Mark Jensen
Saturday, 19 February 2005
On Friday evening in Olympia, former UNSCOM weapons inspector Scott Ritter appeared with journalist Dahr Jamail. -- Ritter made two shocking claims: George W. Bush has "signed off" on plans to bomb Iran in June 2005, and the U.S. manipulated the results of the Jan. 30 elections in Iraq....
[Excerpt]
United for Peace of Pierce County (WA)
February 19, 2005
Scott Ritter, appearing with journalist Dahr Jamail yesterday in Washington State, dropped two shocking bombshells in a talk delivered to a packed house in Olympia's Capitol Theater. The ex-Marine turned UNSCOM weapons inspector said that George W. Bush has "signed off" on plans to bomb Iran in June 2005, and claimed the U.S. manipulated the results of the recent Jan. 30 elections in Iraq.
Olympians like to call the Capitol Theater "historic," but it's doubtful whether the eighty-year-old edifice has ever been the scene of more portentous revelations.
The principal theme of Scott Ritter's talk was Americans' duty to protect the U.S. Constitution by taking action to bring an end to the illegal war in Iraq. But in passing, the former UNSCOM weapons inspector stunned his listeners with two pronouncements. Ritter said plans for a June attack on Iran have been submitted to President George W. Bush, and that the president has approved them. He also asserted that knowledgeable sources say U.S. officials "cooked" the results of the Jan. 30 elections in Iraq.
On Iran, Ritter said that President George W. Bush has received and signed off on orders for an aerial attack on Iran planned for June 2005. Its purported goal is the destruction of Iran's alleged program to develop nuclear weapons, but Ritter said neoconservatives in the administration also expected that the attack would set in motion a chain of events leading to regime change in the oil-rich nation of 70 million -- a possibility Ritter regards with the greatest skepticism.
The former Marine also said that the Jan. 30 elections, which George W. Bush has called "a turning point in the history of Iraq, a milestone in the advance of freedom," were not so free after all. Ritter said that U.S. authorities in Iraq had manipulated the results in order to reduce the percentage of the vote received by the United Iraqi Alliance from 56% to 48%.
Asked by UFPPC's Ted Nation about this shocker, Ritter said an official involved in the manipulation was the source, and that this would soon be reported by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist in a major metropolitan magazine -- an obvious allusion to New Yorker reporter Seymour M. Hersh.
On Jan. 17, the New Yorker posted an article by Hersh entitled The Coming Wars (New Yorker, January 24-31, 2005). In it, the well-known investigative journalist claimed that for the Bush administration, "The next strategic target [is] Iran." Hersh also reported that "The Administration has been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran at least since last summer." According to Hersh, "Defense Department civilians, under the leadership of Douglas Feith, have been working with Israeli planners and consultants to develop and refine potential nuclear, chemical-weapons, and missile targets inside Iran. . . . Strategists at the headquarters of the U.S. Central Command, in Tampa, Florida, have been asked to revise the military's war plan, providing for a maximum ground and air invasion of Iran. . . . The hawks in the Administration believe that it will soon become clear that the Europeans' negotiated approach [to Iran] cannot succeed, and that at that time the Administration will act."
Scott Ritter said that although the peace movement failed to stop the war in Iraq, it had a chance to stop the expansion of the war to other nations like Iran and Syria. He held up the specter of a day when the Iraq war might be remembered as a relatively minor event that preceded an even greater conflagration.
Scott Ritter's talk was the culmination of a long evening devoted to discussion of Iraq and U.S. foreign policy. Before Ritter spoke, Dahr Jamail narrated a slide show on Iraq focusing on Fallujah. He showed more than a hundred vivid photographs taken in Iraq, mostly by himself. Many of them showed the horrific slaughter of civilians.
Dahr Jamail argued that U.S. mainstream media sources are complicit in the war and help sustain support for it by deliberately downplaying the truth about the devastation and death it is causing.
Jamail was, until recently, one of the few unembedded journalists in Iraq and one of the only independent ones. His reports have gained a substantial following and are available online at dahrjamailiraq.com.
Friday evening's event in Olympia was sponsored by South Puget Sound Community College's Student Activities Board, Veterans for Peace, 100 Thousand and Counting, Olympia Movement for Justice & Peace, and United for Peace of Pierce County.
--Mark Jensen is a member of United for Peace of Pierce County.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
For the complete posting, updated ( Saturday, 19 February 2005 ):
www.ufppc.org/content/view/2295/2/
3) The Dollar - The Warning
Dollar: The Warning
By Philippe Reclus
Le Figaro
Thursday 24 February 2005
A rumor, refuted several hours later, was enough to raise a fever on the foreign exchange planet. By allowing the idea to gain currency that it could reduce its dollar reserves, the Central Bank of South Korea has just provoked a good shake-up on the foreign exchange markets. In itself, the episode could be considered purely marginal. In the background, the spectacular plunge in the greenback this rumor occasioned resonates like a brutal revelation.
For those who were in doubt, it came to say that the period of calm observed in the markets since the beginning of the year was only a parenthesis. A remission.
Far from having killed their old demons, trading rooms have, in fact, spent two months with their weapons loaded and at the ready while they waited to understand Bush Administration declarations of intention on the political economic front. The pause is over. The feverishness currency traders have demonstrated the last few days with regard to the dollar confirms the end of the truce. The same phenomenon reveals their doubts about the White House commitment to restore order to an American economy that, with its abysmal budgetary and trade deficits, puts the equilibrium of the entire global economy in danger.
At the moment, no other news appears to be capable of drawing the markets out of this obsession. Not the transatlantic economy's tonus, which should push investors into massive dollar purchases. Nor the progressive increases in interest rates offering a more generous remuneration on United States' currency.
The markets stick to single warning signals. Nothing says that George W. Bush's commitments to deficit reduction will be ratified by Congress. The reductions in taxes have been made permanent. The bill for the war in Iraq should grow still heavier. Add to that the bill for oil which can only aggravate the deficits more, given the new surge in crude prices.
The market's apparent calm was deceptive. It was, in any case, no guarantee that the dollar would interrupt its fall. Nothing has been settled as of today. In fact, there is every indication that the greenback could be the number one problem for the world economy in 2005.
This warning shot intervenes at the very moment George W. Bush is visiting Europe. Given their divisions, Europeans, moreover, have few resources and little legitimacy with which to induce their American partner to wrestle down its financial problems. Unless they should demonstrate their own determination to make their own economies more competitive, to be in a better position to confront the great disorder in the currency markets. And to play a full role in the dialogue of the big world economies in which Asia weighs ever more heavily opposite the American giant. On these conditions, Europe will be able to participate in rather than submit to what, on the level of currencies, is also a competition for global leadership.
www.lefigaro.com/debats/20050224.FIG0330.html
4) Tackling Election Reform
- - Invitation by Howard Dean, DNC. Chair
- - Tackling Election Reform
The New York Times | Editorial
Tuesday 22 February 2005
After a second consecutive presidential election marred by significant flaws in the mechanics of voting, it's time for Congress to take a hard look at fixing the system. Two Senate bills aim to do that. A Republican-sponsored bill is narrowly tailored around making electronic voting more reliable. A more ambitious bill, sponsored by the Democrats, would take on a broad array of problems, from long lines at the polls to odious maneuvers aimed at keeping people from voting. Both bills would greatly improve the functioning of American democracy.
The Republican bill, introduced by Senator John Ensign of Nevada, would focus on the most critical weakness in the system by requiring that electronic voting machines produce voter-verifiable paper records of the votes cast. The paper records would take precedence when there were inconsistencies.
Mr. Ensign's bill does not go as far as another paper-trail bill that has been introduced in the House by Representative Rush Holt, a New Jersey Democrat. That bill is preferable because it includes other safeguards, like requiring an audit of some paper records as a spot-check for the electronic totals. Still, Mr. Ensign's bill would be a good step, and its Republican sponsorship and narrow focus could give it real momentum in this Congress.
The Democratic Senate bill, introduced last week by Senators Hillary Clinton, Barbara Boxer, John Kerry and Frank Lautenberg, is now the gold standard for election reform. It would require not only paper records, but recounts in 2 percent of all polling places or precincts, and restrictions on political activity by voting machine manufacturers.
The bill would also take on lines at the polls - which stretched up to 10 hours this year - by requiring standards for the minimum number of voting machines per precinct. It would limit the states' ability to throw out voter registration forms and provisional ballots on technicalities, and prevent them from using onerous identification requirements to turn away eligible voters. And it would strike a blow against vote suppression by outlawing the use of deception - like fliers giving the wrong date for a election - to keep people from voting.
Some important big-picture reforms would also be made by that Democratic Senate bill. It would make Election Day a holiday, freeing up people to vote and serve as poll workers, and it would require states to allow early voting. It would bar chief election officials, including secretaries of state, from engaging in partisan politics. And it would require states to restore the vote to felons who have paid their debts to society; many of them are now barred from voting.
Election reform should not be a partisan issue. No member of Congress should be satisfied with a system in which voters are forced to wait in line for hours or to vote on unreliable machines. Americans from across the political spectrum were moved to see Iraqi voters going to the polls last month. Congress should take that idealism and direct it toward making our own election system the best it can be.
www.nytimes.com/2005/02/22/opinion/22tues1.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Contact Congress today in support of the VOTER Act!
For information and to take action, visit:
www.pdamerica.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Invitation by Howard Dean, DNC. Chair
Dear Fellow Democrat,
Tell me what you think about the plan for the future of our Party:
http://www.democrats.org/plan
The staff and I have been reading through thousands upon thousands of replies to my letter last week, and I wanted to report back to you on what people are saying about the plan for the future of our party:
Two things struck me as I read what grassroots Democrats like you have to say.
One was the honesty I heard about your very practical concerns at the local level -- many wrote about starting a local party organization, or living in a heavily Republican area where it has been hard to get the resources to make a difference.
But we will meet those challenges -- because what stood out even more was the overwhelming energy and excitement at the grassroots of our party. So many Democrats can't wait to get started -- they want to grow our party from the ground up.
And that's exactly what we're going to do.
I've included below a few of the messages from people like you. Please take the time to read them, and to become part of this conversation yourself:
I'm traveling this week and next week -- to exactly the kind of places where we need to start building. I'm just leaving upstate New York, where folks concerned about jobs and fiscal responsibility are learning that you can't trust Republicans with your money.
And I'm on my way to Kansas and Mississippi to talk to Democrats about how to take our agenda and values out into their communities.
But our party will only succeed if you work to build it in your community. Your commitment can make it happen.
Thank you.
Governor Howard Dean, M.D.
Chairman, Democratic National Committee
You can read the plan and offer your feedback at:
www.democrats.org/plan
A poetic story called Warrior of the Wind was presented by Jonathan Mark
at the open mike segment of the Wendell Full Moon Coffee House to benefit
Friends of the Wissatinnewag on Saturday, February 26th; 7:30 pm.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Negroponte-Filibuster * VoteReform * HeatDisaster
Originally posted 20 February 2005
(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)
Stop the BUSH appointment of John Negroponte
as director of National Intelligence
Demand a Congressional Filibuster!
E-mail the Senate Intelligence Committee to do their homework on Negroponte
or call the Congressional Switchboard - the telephone number is 202-224-3121
or link for US Congress contact information
(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)
{Resources on the concerns of the John Negroponte nomination follows:}
1) Bush Nominates 'Ambassador of Torture' for Intel Czar
- - Ray McGovern: "Hail, Hail The Gang's All Here"
- - About John Negroponte ~ from Wikipedia
- - Senator Dodd's Comments - Congressional Record
- - Stop Human Rights Obstructer John Negroponte
- - Ambassador to Death Squads: "Who is John Negroponte?
- - Democracy Now! / "Promoting the 'Ambassador of Torture'"
2) Support National Election Reform
3) Final Proof: Global Warming is a Man-Made Disaster
- - US Citizens' Ratification of the Kyoto Protocol
Editor's Notes:
The first item chronicles the fall of human intelligence and compassion. "The appointment of John Negroponte to be director of National Intelligence is the latest evidence that President Bush is strengthening his cabinet's capacity to mislead Congress and trample civil liberties." Who will stand up to resist this latest assault on freedom?
For other resources, posted after this issue was sent for email distribution, see:
"The Case Against John Negroponte"
and
"The Atrocities of a Pale Rider"
and
"Negroponte's Sins...On Film"
Item 2 is an important action in support of Vote Reform. Please take action to prevent systems of voting fraud and deception. Item 3 is an article with definitive proof that Global Warming is a Man-Made Disaster,' and what you can do in response to the current refusal to participate in the Kyoto Protocol by the US government.
A free screening of the film:
THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED
will be presented at the Keene Public Library
- Auditorium - 60 Winter Street; Keene, NH -
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2005
7:00 P.M. - 9:00 P.M.
For feedback, discussions, and strategies,
regarding information posted at Flyby News, visit:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FlybyNews
"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate,
tireless minority keen to set brush fires in People's mind..."
-- Samuel Adams
1) Bush Nominates 'Ambassador of Torture' for Intel Czar
- - Ray McGovern: "Hail, Hail The Gang's All Here"
- - About John Negroponte ~ from Wikipedia
- - Senator Dodd's Comments - Congressional Record
- - Stop Human Rights Obstructer John Negroponte
- - Ambassador to Death Squads: "Who is John Negroponte?
- - Democracy Now! / "Promoting the 'Ambassador of Torture'"
- - Ray McGovern: "Hail, Hail The Gang's All Here"
Published February 18, 2005 by TomPaine.com
Hail, Hail The Gang's All Here
by Ray McGovern
The appointment of John Negroponte to be director of National Intelligence is the latest evidence that President Bush is strengthening his cabinet's capacity to mislead Congress and trample civil liberties. Ray McGovern, 27-year veteran of the CIA, examines the meaning of the Negroponte appointment and the dark trend it confirms.
The nomination of John Negroponte to the new post of director of National Intelligence (DNI) caps a remarkable parade of Bush administration senior nominees. Among the most recent:
Alberto Gonzales, confirmed as attorney general: the lawyer who advised the president he could ignore the US War Crimes Act and the Geneva Conventions on torture and create a "reasonable basis in law...which would provide a solid defense to any future prosecution."
Michael Chertoff, confirmed as Secretary of Homeland Security: the lawyer who looked the other way when 762 innocent immigrants (mostly of Arab and South Asian descent) were swept up in a post-9/11 dragnet and held as "terrorism suspects" for several months. The dictates of PR trumped habeas corpus; the detentions fostered an image of quick progress in the "war on terrorism."
John Negroponte: the congenial, consummate diplomat now welcomed back into the brotherhood. Presently our ambassador in Baghdad, Negroponte is best known to many of us as the ambassador to Honduras with the uncanny ability to ignore human rights abuses so as not to endanger congressional support for the attempt to overthrow the duly elected government of Nicaragua in the '80s. Negroponte's job was to hold up the Central American end of the Reagan administration's support for the Contra counterrevolutionaries, keeping Congress in the dark, as necessary.
For the complete article, see:
www.tompaine.com/articles/hail_hail_the_gangs_all_here.php
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - About John Negroponte ~ from Wikipedia
[Excerpt]
THE appointment of an intelligence czar in the Bush administration is about as futile as it naming a secretary of decency. . .
MEET YOUR NEW CZAR, BUILDER OF OUR FIRST MAJOR TORTURE CENTER
WIKIPEDIA - Negroponte was born in London. His father was a Greek shipping magnate. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1956 and Yale University in 1960. He later served at eight different Foreign Service posts in Asia, Europe and Latin America; and he also held important positions at the State Department and the White House. . .
From 1981 to 1985 Negroponte was US ambassador to Honduras. During his tenure, he oversaw the growth of military aid to Honduras from $4 million to $77 million a year. At the time, Honduras was ruled by an elected but heavily militarily-influenced government. .
Negroponte supervised the construction of the El Aguacate air base where Nicaraguan Contras were trained by the US, and which critics say was used as a secret detention and torture center during the 1980s. In August 2001, excavations at the base discovered 185 corpses, including two Americans, who are thought to have been killed and buried at the site.
Records also show that a special intelligence unit (commonly referred to as a "death squad") of the Honduran armed forces, Battalion 3-16, trained by the CIA and Argentine military, kidnapped, tortured and killed hundreds of people, including US missionaries. Critics charge that Negroponte knew about these human rights violations and yet continued to collaborate with the Honduran military while lying to Congress.
In May 1982, a nun, Sister Laetitia Bordes, who had worked for ten years in El Salvador, went on a fact-finding delegation to Honduras to investigate the whereabouts of thirty Salvadoran nuns and women of faith who fled to Honduras in 1981 after Archbishop scar Romero's assassination. Negroponte claimed the embassy knew nothing. But in a 1996 interview with the Baltimore Sun, Negroponte's predecessor, Jack Binns, said that a group of Salvadorans, among whom were the women Bordes had been looking for, were captured on April 22, 1981, and savagely tortured by the DNI, the Honduran Secret Police, and then later thrown out of helicopters alive.
In early 1984, two American mercenaries, Thomas Posey and Dana Parker, contacted Negroponte, stating they wanted to supply arms to the Contras after the U.S. Congress had banned further military aid. Documents show that Negroponte brought the two with a contact in the Honduran armed forces The operation was exposed nine months later, at which point the Reagan administration denied any US involvement, despite Negroponte's participation in the scheme. Other documents uncovered a plan of Negroponte and then-Vice President George H. W. Bush to funnel Contra aid money through the Honduran government.
During his tenure as US ambassador to Honduras, Binns, who was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, made numerous complaints about human rights abuses by the Honduran military and he claimed he fully briefed Negroponte on the situation before leaving the post. When the Reagan administration came to power, Binns was replaced by Negroponte, who has consistently denied having knowledge of any wrongdoing. Later, the Honduras Commission on Human Rights accused Negroponte himself of human rights violations.
Speaking of Negroponte and other senior US officials, an ex-Honduran congressman, Efrain Diaz, told the Baltimore Sun, which in 1995 published an extensive investigation of US activities in Honduras: "Their attitude was one of tolerance and silence. They needed Honduras to loan its territory more than they were concerned about innocent people being killed."
The Sun's investigation found that the CIA and US embassy knew of numerous abuses but continued to support Battalion 3-16 and ensured that the embassy's annual human rights report did not contain the full story.
The question of what John Negroponte knew about human rights abuses in Honduras will probably never be answered definitively, but there is a large body of circumstantial evidence supporting the view that Negroponte was aware that serious violations of human rights were carried out by the Honduran government with the support of the CIA.
For the complete article, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Negroponte#Ambassador_to_Honduras
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Senator Dodd's Comments - Congressional Record
September 14, 2001 (Senate)
Page S9431-S9433; see:
www.fas.org/irp/congress/2001_cr/s091401.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Stop Human Rights Obstructer John Negroponte
MARYKNOLL GLOBAL CONCERNS - In addition to his work with the Nicaraguan Contra army, Negroponte helped conceal from Congress the murder, kidnapping and torture abuses of a CIA-equipped and -trained Honduran military unit, Battalion 3-16.
No mention of these human rights violations ever appeared in State Department Human Rights reports for Honduras. The Baltimore Sun reports that Efrain Diaz Arrivillaga, then a delegate in the Honduran Congress and a voice of dissent, told the Sun that he complained to Negroponte on numerous occasions about the Honduran military's human rights abuses..
For the complete article, and for action links, see: www.maryknoll.org/GLOBAL/ALERTS/no_negroponte.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Ambassador to Death Squads: "Who is John Negroponte?
GHALI HASSAN, COUNTERPUNCH, 2004 - At the time Mr. Negroponte was in Honduras, Honduras was a military dictatorship. Kidnapping, rape, torture and executions of dissidents was rampant. The military top and middle ranks were U.S-trained at the School of the Americas, the Harvard version of the CIA, based in Fort Benning, Georgia. According to Human Rights Watch, graduates of the SOA are responsible for the worst human rights abuses and torture of dissidents in Latin America. Some of its 60,000 graduates are notorious Manuel Noriega and Omar Torrijos of Panama. . .
For the complete article, see:
counterpunch.org/hassan06042004.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Democracy Now! / "Promoting the 'Ambassador of Torture'"
Bush Nominates Negroponte for Intel Czar
"Promoting the 'Ambassador of Torture'"
As President Bush nominates Ambassador John Negroponte, current U.S. ambassador to Iraq, as the first Director of National Intelligence, we look back at Negroponte's bloody history in Central America in the 1980s.
DemocracyNow.org - Friday, February 18th, 2005
Promoting the 'Ambassador of Torture': Bush Nominates Negroponte for Intel Czar
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/18/157206
For other resources, posted after this issue was sent for email distribution, see:
The Case Against John Negroponte
and
"The Atrocities of a Pale Rider"
Demand a Congressional Filibuster!
US Congress Contact Information
The Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121
2) Support National Election Reform
Contact Congress today in support of the VOTER Act!
Put Families First, Stop Health Care Cuts
President Bush has proposed $60 billion in Medicaid cuts that will make our health care crisis even worse.
For information and to take action, visit the Progressive Democrats for America
Support National Election Reform!
Contact Congess today in support of the VOTER Act!
Read about this bill
The VOTER Act bill (H.R. 533) is fully supported by Progressive Democrats of America, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the AFL-CIO, People for the American Way, the NAACP, the NAACP National Voter Fund, the UAW, Rainbow Push, the Black Leadership Forum, and the National Voting Rights Institute.
The VOTER Act (H.R. 533) would permit all citizens to register to vote on election day; require early voting for the two weeks prior to election day; require a defined minimum number of voting machines present at each precinct; ensure that those who manufacture and service voting machines and software do not have conflicts of interest; strengthen the powers of the EAC (Election Assistance Commission) to create national standards for elections - so that every vote WILL count, regardless of what state it is cast in; require the source code of voting machines to be public; and require the option of a voter-verified paper ballot so that voters can verify their selection and results can be audited when discrepancies occur.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The following was sent to Congressman John W. Olver
by his constituent, Jonathan Mark on February 19, 2005
Via Progressive Democrats of America' online system
"Progressive Democrats of America" < info@pdamerica.org >
Subject: Support Comprehensive Voting Reform!
Dear Congressman Olver:
Due to the numerous recent well-documented cases of voter suppression, ballot fraud, conflict of interest, and antiquated voter registration procedures, many millions of Americans have come to believe our voting and elections systems are badly damaged. Ironically, this loss of confidence is occurring precisely when our nation is aggressively attempting to foster democracy in another part of the world, thus undermining that effort.
I am writing to you today to encourage you to support strong legislative action to correct these problems. Specifically, I urge you to advocate H.R. 533, "The Voter Act," introduced by Congressman John Conyers, Jr. and Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones.
I, personally, support H.R. 533 because it would permit all citizens to register to vote on election day; require early voting for the two weeks prior to election day; require a defined minimum number of voting machines present at each precinct; ensure that those who manufacture and service voting machines and software do not have conflicts of interest; strengthen the powers of the EAC (Election Assistance Commission) to create national standards for elections - so that every vote WILL count, regardless of what state it is cast in; require the source code of voting machines to be public; and require the option of a voter-verified paper ballot so that voters can verify their selection and results can be audited when discrepancies occur.
I believe that America must lead the world toward true democracy by example, not force. I hope and trust you, too, will support these urgently-needed reforms!
Please act like our democracy depends on it!
Thanks - more resources on campaigns for reclaiming a lost USA democracy, visit my web site - www.FlybyNews.com
Sincerely,
Jonathan Mark
Online Publisher - FlybyNews.com
Flyby News
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
To take immediate action for Vote Reform, link to:
http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/issues/alert/?alertid=6942056&type=CO
3) Final Proof: Global Warming is a Man-Made Disaster
- - US Citizens' Ratification of the Kyoto Protocol
Published on Saturday, February 19, 2005 by the lndependent/UK
The Final Proof: Global Warming is a Man-Made Disaster
by Steve Connor
Scientists have found the first unequivocal link between man-made greenhouse gases and a dramatic heating of the Earth's oceans. The researchers - many funded by the US government - have seen what they describe as a "stunning" correlation between a rise in ocean temperature over the past 40 years and pollution of the atmosphere.
The study destroys a central argument of global warming skeptics within the Bush administration - that climate change could be a natural phenomenon. It should convince George Bush to drop his objections to the Kyoto treaty on climate change, the scientists say.
Tim Barnett, a marine physicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego and a leading member of the team, said: "We've got a serious problem. The debate is no longer: 'Is there a global warming signal?' The debate now is what are we going to do about it?"
The findings are crucial because much of the evidence of a warmer world has until now been from air temperatures, but it is the oceans that are the driving force behind the Earth's climate. Dr Barnett said: "Over the past 40 years there has been considerable warming of the planetary system and approximately 90 per cent of that warming has gone directly into the oceans."
He told the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington: "We defined a 'fingerprint' of ocean warming. Each of the oceans warmed differently at different depths and constitutes a fingerprint which you can look for. We had several computer simulations, for instance one for natural variability: could the climate system just do this on its own? The answer was no.
"We looked at the possibility that solar changes or volcanic effects could have caused the warming - not a chance. What just absolutely nailed it was greenhouse warming."
America produces a quarter of the world's greenhouse gases, yet under President Bush it is one of the few developed nations not to have signed the Kyoto treaty to limit emissions. The President's advisers have argued that the science of global warming is full of uncertainties and change might be a natural phenomenon.
Dr Barnett said that position was untenable because it was now clear from the latest study, which is yet to be published, that man-made greenhouse gases had caused vast amounts of heat to be soaked up by the oceans. "It's a good time for nations that are not part of Kyoto to re-evaluate their positions and see if it would be to their advantage to join," he said.
The study involved scientists from the US Department of Energy, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as the Met Office's Hadley Center.
They analyzed more than 7 million recordings of ocean temperature from around the world, along with about 2 million readings of sea salinity, and compared the rise in temperatures at different depths to predictions made by two computer simulations of global warming.
"Two models, one from here and one from England, got the observed warming almost exactly. In fact we were stunned by the degree of similarity," Dr Barnett said. "The models are right. So when a politician stands up and says 'the uncertainty in all these simulations start to question whether we can believe in these models', that argument is no longer tenable." Typical ocean temperatures have increased since 1960 by between 0.5C and 1C, depending largely on depth. DR Barnett said: "The real key is the amount of energy that has gone into the oceans. If we could mine the energy that has gone in over the past 40 years we could run the state of California for 200,000 years... It's come from greenhouse warming."
Because the global climate is largely driven by the heat locked up in the oceans, a rise in sea temperatures could have devastating effects for many parts of the world.
Ruth Curry, from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said that warming could alter important warm-water currents such as the Gulf Stream, as melting glaciers poured massive volumes of fresh water into the North Atlantic. "These changes are happening and they are expected to amplify. It's a certainty that these changes will put serious strains on the ecosystems of the planet," DR Curry said.
2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd
###
For the orignal posting of above article, see:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=612506
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - US Citizens' Ratification of the Kyoto Protocol
The People's Ratification is a nationwide petition drive designed to give thousands of citizens a chance to respond in a way that we now cannot. We are telling our local officials, our nation's leaders and the international community that we do not go along with the Washington party line. We want to set a good example and be responsible stewards. We care deeply about the future viability of the planet. And, we are ready to commit ourselves to a clean energy future.
Sign Here to Save the Planet
www.kyotoandbeyond.org/petition.html
When faced with a grave threat to a livable future for ourselves, our children and future generations, it is our duty as Americans to respond.
To date, some 140 nations have ratified the Kyoto Protocol, which enters into force in February 2005, in order to arrest the intensifying destructiveness of global climate change.
In contrast, the United States, which generates 25 percent of the world's polluting carbon emissions with only 5 percent of its population, refuses to join in this worldwide effort to keep this planet hospitable to civilization.
We recognize the current goals of the Protocol are too low and its timetable too long -- to effectively halt the escalating instability of the global climate.
We also recognize the Kyoto Protocol is the only existing diplomatic framework through which the entire global community can address this unprecedented challenge.
We further recognize that the Constitution of the United States grants us the ultimate authority of government.
Therefore, as citizens of the United States, we hereby ratify the Kyoto Protocol and demand that our elected representatives follow suit.
Additionally, we pledge to support subsequent phases of the Kyoto Protocol to reduce worldwide greenhouse emissions by 70 percent. This global transition to clean energy would address nature's demand for a stable climate even as it generates millions of clean energy jobs.
Finally, we declare, through this act of ratification, our allegiance to the democratic process, our fundamental and mortal relationship with this Earth and our essential solidarity with every other member of the human family.
Join a people's campaign to ratify the Kyoto Protocol
http://www.kyotoandbeyond.org/petition.html
[Not all the signatures have to be gathered electronically! We encourage you to print paper copies for gathering signatures at meetings, events, and among friends and coworkers. You will need to send the sheets back to us via US mail. (The address is on each sheet.) - See above link!]
For an article on this petition by Ross Gelbspan, a former editor and reporter at the Philadelphia Bulletin, Washington Post, and Boston Globe, author of Boiling Point and The Heat Is On, see:
www.grist.org/comments/soapbox/2005/02/16/gelbspan
Ross Gelbspan maintains the website heatisonline.org
For more Flyby News resources, see:
The Mounting Evidence of Global Warming!!!.
For information on a technology to reduce CO2 pollution emissions, see:
STIRLING Solution for Onsite Power Production
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Apocalypse Now: Sleepwalking to End of the Earth
08 February 2005 - Part 1
"Then the biggest-ever study of climate change . . . reported that it could prove to be twice
as catastrophic as the IPCC's worst predictions. And an international task force - also
reporting to Tony Blair, and co-chaired by his close ally, Stephen Byers -
concluded that we could reach "the point of no return" in a decade."
Geoffrey Lean
Apocalypse Now:
How Mankind is Sleepwalking to the End of the Earth"
Editor's Notes:
"How Mankind is Sleepwalking to the End of the Earth" is an appropriate wake-up call! Please read this article thoroughly, and link at end for more resources on Global Warming, and on a technology to significantly reduce CO2 emissions in generating electrical power. Let's do something for seven generations, for those here now and for the future. The consideration that nuclear power could be used to lessen the threat of global warming is ludicrous. This would only make matters worse, by the emissions released by truckloads of shipments to build and care for the operation, never mind the threat of nuclear harm by an accident, sabotage, terrorism, and Earth-climate changes.
1) How Mankind is Sleepwalking to the End of the Earth
Apocalypse Now: How Mankind is Sleepwalking to the End of the Earth
Published on Sunday, February 6, 2005 by the lndependent/UK
Floods, storms and droughts. Melting Arctic ice, shrinking glaciers, oceans turning to acid. The world's top scientists warned last week that dangerous climate change is taking place today, not the day after tomorrow. You don't believe it? Then, says Geoffrey Lean, read this...
by Geoffrey Lean
Future historians, looking back from a much hotter and less hospitable world, are likely to play special attention to the first few weeks of 2005. As they puzzle over how a whole generation could have sleepwalked into disaster - destroying the climate that has allowed human civilization to flourish over the past 11,000 years - they may well identify the past weeks as the time when the last alarms sounded.
Last week, 200 of the world's leading climate scientists - meeting at Tony Blair's request at the Met Office's new headquarters at Exeter - issued the most urgent warning to date that dangerous climate change is taking place, and that time is running out.
Next week the Kyoto Protocol, the international treaty that tries to control global warming, comes into force after a seven-year delay. But it is clear that the protocol does not go nearly far enough.
The alarms have been going off since the beginning of one of the warmest Januaries on record. First, Dr Rajendra Pachauri - chairman of the official Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - told a UN conference in Mauritius that the pollution which causes global warming has reached "dangerous" levels.
Then the biggest-ever study of climate change, based at Oxford University, reported that it could prove to be twice as catastrophic as the IPCC's worst predictions. And an international task force - also reporting to Tony Blair, and co-chaired by his close ally, Stephen Byers - concluded that we could reach "the point of no return" in a decade.
Finally, the UK head of Shell, Lord Oxburgh, took time out - just before his company reported record profits mainly achieved by selling oil, one of the main causes of the problem - to warn that unless governments take urgent action there "will be a disaster".
But it was last week at the Met Office's futuristic glass headquarters, incongruously set in a dreary industrial estate on the outskirts of Exeter, that it all came together. The conference had been called by the Prime Minister to advise him on how to "avoid dangerous climate change". He needed help in persuading the world to prioritize the issue this year during Britain's presidencies of the EU and the G8 group of economic powers.
The conference opened with the Secretary of State for the Environment, Margaret Beckett, warning that "a significant impact" from global warming "is already inevitable". It continued with presentations from top scientists and economists from every continent. These showed that some dangerous climate change was already taking place and that catastrophic events once thought highly improbable were now seen as likely (see panel). Avoiding the worst was technically simple and economically cheap, they said, provided that governments could be persuaded to take immediate action.
About halfway through I realized that I had been here before. In the summer of 1986 the world's leading nuclear experts gathered in Vienna for an inquest into the accident at Chernobyl. The head of the Russian delegation showed a film shot from a helicopter, and we suddenly found ourselves gazing down on the red-hot exposed reactor core.
It was all, of course, much less dramatic at Exeter. But as paper followed learned paper, once again a group of world authorities were staring at a crisis they had devoted their lives to trying to avoid.
I am willing to bet there were few in the room who did not sense their children or grandchildren standing invisibly at their shoulders. The conference formally concluded that climate change was "already occurring" and that "in many cases the risks are more serious than previously thought". But the cautious scientific language scarcely does justice to the sense of the meeting.
We learned that glaciers are shrinking around the world. Arctic sea ice has lost almost half its thickness in recent decades. Natural disasters are increasing rapidly around the world. Those caused by the weather - such as droughts, storms, and floods - are rising three times faster than those - such as earthquakes - that are not.
We learned that bird populations in the North Sea collapsed last year, after the sand eels on which they feed left its warmer waters - and how the number of scientific papers recording changes in ecosystems due to global warming has escalated from 14 to more than a thousand in five years.
Worse, leading scientists warned of catastrophic changes that once they had dismissed as "improbable". The meeting was particularly alarmed by powerful evidence, first reported in The Independent on Sunday last July, that the oceans are slowly turning acid, threatening all marine life.
Professor Chris Rapley, director of the British Antarctic Survey, presented new evidence that the West Antarctic ice sheet is beginning to melt, threatening eventually to raise sea levels by 15ft: 90 per cent of the world's people live near current sea levels. Recalling that the IPCC's last report had called Antarctica "a slumbering giant", he said: "I would say that this is now an awakened giant."
Professor Mike Schlesinger, of the University of Illinois, reported that the shutdown of the Gulf Stream, once seen as a "low probability event", was now 45 per cent likely this century, and 70 per cent probable by 2200. If it comes sooner rather than later it will be catastrophic for Britain and northern Europe, giving us a climate like Labrador (which shares our latitude) even as the rest of the world heats up: if it comes later it could be beneficial, moderating the worst of the warming.
The experts at Exeter were virtually unanimous about the danger, mirroring the attitude of the climate science community as a whole: humanity is to blame. There were a few skeptics at Exeter, including Andrei Illarionov, an adviser to Russia's President Putin, who last year called the Kyoto Protocol "an interstate Auschwitz". But in truth it is much easier to find skeptics among media pundits in London or neo-cons in Washington than among climate scientists. Even the few contrarian climatalogists publish little research to support their views, concentrating on questioning the work of others.
Now a new scientific consensus is emerging - that the warming must be kept below an average increase of two degrees centigrade if catastrophe is to be avoided. This almost certainly involves keeping concentrations of carbon dioxide, the main cause of climate change, below 400 parts per million.
Unfortunately we are almost there, with concentrations exceeding 370ppm and rising, but experts at the conference concluded that we could go briefly above the danger level so long as we brought it down rapidly afterwards. They added that this would involve the world reducing emissions by 50 per cent by 2050 - and rich countries cutting theirs by 30 per cent by 2020.
Economists stressed there is little time for delay. If action is put off for a decade, it will need to be twice as radical; if it has to wait 20 years, it will cost between three and seven times as much.
The good news is that it can be done with existing technology, by cutting energy waste, expanding the use of renewable sources, growing trees and crops (which remove carbon dioxide from the air) to turn into fuel, capturing the gas before it is released from power stations, and - maybe - using more nuclear energy.
The better news is that it would not cost much: one estimate suggested the cost would be about 1 per cent of Europe's GNP spread over 20 years; another suggested it meant postponing an expected fivefold increase in world wealth by just two years. Many experts believe combating global warming would increase prosperity, by bringing in new technologies.
The big question is whether governments will act. President Bush's opposition to international action remains the greatest obstacle. Tony Blair, by almost universal agreement, remains the leader with the best chance of persuading him to change his mind.
But so far the Prime Minister has been more influenced by the President than the other way round. He appears to be moving away from fighting for the pollution reductions needed in favor of agreeing on a vague pledge to bring in new technologies sometime in the future.
By then it will be too late. And our children and grandchildren will wonder - as we do in surveying, for example, the drift into the First World War - "how on earth could they be so blind?"
WATER WARS
What could happen? Wars break out over diminishing water resources as populations grow and rains fail.
How would this come about? Over 25 per cent more people than at present are expected to live in countries where water is scarce in the future, and global warming will make it worse.
How likely is it? Former UN chief Boutros Boutros-Ghali has long said that the next Middle East war will be fought for water, not oil.
DISAPPEARING NATIONS
What could happen? Low-lying island such as the Maldives and Tuvalu - with highest points only a few feet above sea-level - will disappear off the face of the Earth.
How would this come about? As the world heats up, sea levels are rising, partly because glaciers are melting, and partly because the water in the oceans expands as it gets warmer.
How likely is it? Inevitable. Even if global warming stopped today, the seas would continue to rise for centuries. Some small islands have already sunk for ever. A year ago, Tuvalu was briefly submerged.
FLOODING
What could happen? London, New York, Tokyo, Bombay, many other cities and vast areas of countries from Britain to Bangladesh disappear under tens of feet of water, as the seas rise dramatically.
How would this come about? Ice caps in Greenland and Antarctica melt. The Greenland ice sheet would raise sea levels by more than 20ft, the West Antarctic ice sheet by another 15ft.
How likely is it? Scientists used to think it unlikely, but this year reported that the melting of both ice caps had begun. It will take hundreds of years, however, for the seas to rise that much.
UNINHABITABLE EARTH
What could happen? Global warming escalates to the point where the world's whole climate abruptly switches, turning it permanently into a much hotter and less hospitable planet.
How would this come about? A process involving "positive feedback" causes the warming to fuel itself, until it reaches a point that finally tips the climate pattern over.
How likely is it? Abrupt flips have happened in the prehistoric past. Scientists believe this is unlikely, at least in the foreseeable future, but increasingly they are refusing to rule it out.
RAINFOREST FIRES
What could happen? Famously wet tropical forests, such as those in the Amazon, go up in flames, destroying the world's richest wildlife habitats and releasing vast amounts of carbon dioxide to speed global warming.
How would this come about? Britain's Met Office predicted in 1999 that much of the Amazon will dry out and die within 50 years, making it ready for sparks - from humans or lightning - to set it ablaze.
How likely is it? Very, if the predictions turn out to be right. Already there have been massive forest fires in Borneo and Amazonia, casting palls of highly polluting smoke over vast areas.
THE BIG FREEZE
What could happen? Britain and northern Europe get much colder because the Gulf Stream, which provides as much heat as the sun in winter, fails.
How would this come about? Melting polar ice sends fresh water into the North Atlantic. The less salty water fails to generate the underwater current which the Gulf Stream needs.
How likely is it? About evens for a Gulf Steam failure this century, said scientists last week.
STARVATION
What could happen? Food production collapses in Africa, for example, as rainfall dries up and droughts increase. As farmland turns to desert, people flee in their millions in search of food.
How would this come about? Rainfall is expected to decrease by up to 60 per cent in winter and 30 per cent in summer in southern Africa this century. By some estimates, Zambia could lose almost all its farms.
How likely is it? Pretty likely unless the world tackles both global warming and Africa's decline. Scientists agree that droughts will increase in a warmer world.
ACID OCEANS
What could happen? The seas will gradually turn more and more acid. Coral reefs, shellfish and plankton, on which all life depends, will die off. Much of the life of the oceans will become extinct.
How would this come about? The oceans have absorbed half the carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming, so far emitted by humanity. This forms dilute carbonic acid, which attacks corals and shells.
How likely is it? It is already starting. Scientists warn that the chemistry of the oceans is changing in ways unprecedented for 20 million years. Some predict that the world's coral reefs will die within 35 years.
DISEASE
What could happen? Malaria - which kills two million people worldwide every year - reaches Britain with foreign travelers, gets picked up by British mosquitos and becomes endemic in the warmer climate.
How would this come about? Four of our 40 mosquito species can carry the disease, and hundreds of travelers return with it annually. The insects breed faster, and feed more, in warmer temperatures.
How likely is it? A Department of Health study has suggested it may happen by 2050: the Environment Agency has mentioned 2020. Some experts say it is miraculous that it has not happened already.
HURRICANES
What could happen? Hurricanes, typhoons and violent storms proliferate, grow even fiercer, and hit new areas. Last September's repeated battering of Florida and the Caribbean may be just a foretaste of what is to come, say scientists.
How would this come about? The storms gather their energy from warm seas, and so, as oceans heat up, fiercer ones occur and threaten areas where at present the seas are too cool for such weather.
How likely is it? Scientists are divided over whether storms will get more frequent and whether the process has already begun.
2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.
----------
Also in Environment by the lndependent/UK
Greenhouse gas 'threatens marine life'
The ultimate high-pressure job: surviving on the seabed
Global warming: scientists reveal timetable
Dramatic change in West Antarctic ice could produce
For original posting with above links, see: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=608209
For more Flyby News resources, see:
The Mounting Evidence of Global Warming!!!.
For information on a technology to reduce CO2 pollution emissions, see:
STIRLING Solution for Onsite Power Production
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
US Withdrawal * NuclearJusticeOption * Dean-DNC
08 February 2005 - Part 2
"If we make peaceful revolution impossible,
we make violent revolution inevitable."
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
1) Kennedy vs. Rumsfeld on US withdrawal from Iraq
- - New Bush Budget Boosts Pentagon, Slashes Domestic Programs
- - Stop "Nuclear Option" to Kill Filibusters in the US Senate!
- - ACLU action for real security and protection of Immigrants
- - The Outsiders: Howard Dean's Bid For DNC Chair
Editor's Notes:
This issue begins with transcript-excerpts from last Sunday's "Meet the Press" TV program. Tim Russert first interviewed Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld, and then Senator Ted Kennedy. The Senator challenged the current US administration to expedite a schedule to get US troops out of Iraq. Senator Kennedy was eloquent and to the point. Also, about saving social security, he explained that it could be accomplished by rolling back 1/3 of the Bush permanent tax cut plan. Meanwhile, projects like Star Wars, world domination, and the excuse for endless war continue, and not surprisingly, Bush has introduced a budget proposal that slashes domestic programs.
Following the first item is information on campaigns for taking action in defense of US civil liberties. I was able to visit Richard Sitcha twice, who is housed in the Franklin County Jail in Greenfield, MA. He is there because government officials revoked his political asylum. He was an attorney in a controversial case in Cameroon, Africa. He lived in Connecticut for more than two years, only doing good deeds for our society before arrested, no crime committed. Richard has given me documents that shows how his legal status had changed four times since granted political asylum by the US. All the while, he remains behind bars for eighteen months! Richard would welcome being free in Canada. Why should the US keep him behind bars while an asylum decision is reviewed? His record, and the support he has received from his community proves that he is trustworthy? It would not be safe for Ricard to be returned to Cameroon. One can wonder how this country in Africa can pull the strings on justice in Richard's case. Could it be connected to Cameroon oil resources, dirty politics as usual? For more information on this case, visit: FreeRichard.com
The last subsection has a link to "The Outsiders: Howard Dean's Bid For DNC Chair." It looks like he will be elected for that position, since the other leading candidate stepped out of the race. Hopefully, Dean will be an effective catalyst for the Democrat Party's platform for a responsible foreign policy, and for reclaiming a lost USA democracy. Howard Dean endorsed Instant Runoff Voting when he was a candidate for President, and stood against the rush for the Bush-Iraq war.
By the way – the new posting expected from Bart Jordan had been delayed. Please stay tune and ready for such information. I will let Bart explain the delay, but these are dangerous times, especially for someone that can provide evidence that ancient civilizations knew all about certain dangerous radioactive isotopes, and that we are descending, not ascending from accomplishment in humankind's ancient past. For some background, references, publications, and music of Bart Jordan, see: flybynews.com/bartjordan; and this next link for updated information.
A free screening of the film:
THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED
will be presented at the Keene Public Library
- Auditorium - 60 Winter Street; Keene, NH -
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2005
7:00 P.M. - 9:00 P.M.
For feedback, discussions, and strategies,
regarding information posted at Flyby News, visit:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FlybyNews
"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate,
tireless minority keen to set brush fires in People's mind..."
-- Samuel Adams
1) Kennedy vs. Rumsfeld on US withdrawal from Iraq
- - New Bush Budget Boosts Pentagon, Slashes Domestic Programs
- - Stop "Nuclear Option" to Kill Filibusters in the US Senate!
- - ACLU action for real security and protection of Immigrants
- - The Outsiders: Howard Dean's Bid For DNC Chair
- - Kennedy vs. Rumsfeld on US withdrawal from Iraq
TRANSCRIPT - MSNBC.com
MEET THE PRESS - NBC NEWS
Transcript for Feb. 6
Guests: Secretary of Defense Donald RumsfeldSen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.
MODERATOR/PANELIST: Tim Russert - NBC News
MR. TIM RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday: Iraq. The president pledges to stay the course.
(Videotape, February 2, 2005):
PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH: We will not set an artificial timetable for leaving Iraq, because that would embolden the terrorists and make them believe they can wait us out.
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: The leading liberal in the U.S. Senate disagrees.
(Videotape):
SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY, (D-MA): President Bush should immediately announce his intention to negotiate a timetable for a drawdown of American combat forces.
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: What now? With us: for the Bush administration, the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld; for the Democrats, the senior senator from Massachusetts, Edward M. Kennedy. But first, joining us now on MEET THE PRESS is the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld. Welcome back.
SEC'Y DONALD RUMSFELD: Thank you, sir.
[EXCERPTS]
MR. RUSSERT: ..But when they say that they would like to have a constitution which says that daughters would get half the inheritance of sons, do you find that troubling for all the bloodshed we have spilled for Iraq?
SEC'Y RUMSFELD: The first thing we have to begin with is that Iraq belongs to the Iraqis. And the Iraqis are going to have a solution for Iraq that's Iraqi solution. They're not going to have an American solution or an Afghan solution
Look at our Constitution when it was first fashioned. Look what it did with respect to women not voting. Look what it did with respect to blacks and the way they were counted in the population. So you don't get from where they were to where they're going on a feather bed, as Thomas Jefferson said. You get there through tough discussion, trials, error, mistakes, good things, and they're on that path. And I think people ought to step back and say, "Isn't that amazing? Isn't that a wonderful thing for that region?"
MR. RUSSERT: ..So you're confident that we will not have an Islamic fundamentalist state in Iraq?
SEC'Y RUMSFELD: I think it would be just an enormous mistake for that country to think that it could succeed with all of its opportunity, with its oil, its water, its intelligent population--to deny half of their population, women, the opportunity to participate fully, I think, just would be a terrible mistake.
MR. RUSSERT: Our next guest, Senator Kennedy, has said now that the elections are over, we should have a specific timetable...
SEC'Y RUMSFELD: Mm-hmm.
MR. RUSSERT: ...for the withdrawal of American troops. The president said that would embolden the terrorists. Why?
SEC'Y RUMSFELD: Well, first of all, let's point out the truth. The president and I and anyone would dearly love to be smart enough and wise enough to know precisely when our troops could leave. It would be such a relief for people to know that. It's not knowable. . . And it seems to me that the answer as to when our troops can come out is dependent upon the conditions on the ground and whether or not the Iraqis are capable of managing the security situation there. We're working very hard to see that they can.
MR. RUSSERT: In hindsight, do you wish we had sent more troops on the ground in Iraq initially?
SEC'Y RUMSFELD: I wish that we could have gotten the 4th Infantry Division in from the north, so that it would have been able to put more pressure on the Baathist regime and probably capture more of the Baathists that today are part of the insurgency. But in terms of the total numbers of troops that went in, we finally got the 4th ID in, but it had to come in from the south. So it was not as effective as had it come in through Turkey. The answer to your other question is no. I think that General Franks and General Abizaid have been correct in calculating the number of troops that we need on the ground in Iraq..
MR. RUSSERT: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, as always, we thank you for your views.
SEC'Y RUMSFELD: Thank you.
MR. RUSSERT: Coming next: Iraq, Social Security and more through the eyes of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy. He is next right here, only on MEET THE PRESS.
(Announcements)
MR. RUSSERT: Senator, John Kerry, your colleague from Massachusetts, has called on the secretary of defense to resign. Do you agree with Senator Kerry?
SEN. KENNEDY: Well, I had asked for his resignation previously at the time of Abu Ghraib. But the issue really isn't his resignation. It's about changing of policy. And I think what we just heard in the last half-hour is why we need a strategy and why we need a policy that is going to permit the American to bring our troops home with honor. During the last half-hour, we heard a policy that was "make it up as you go along." We need a strategy. We need a program. We need to establish goals. We need to be able to ensure that not only the political institutions are going to work in Iraq--all of us were very hopeful, all of us were impressed by the voting--but we also ought to be able to have the development of a strong security in Iraq.
When we send over Americans that have had 12 weeks of training, like the nephew of my wife, and is a tail gunner on a Striker--12 weeks--and we have the best-trained American servicemen and the best soldiers in the world, there's no reason in the world that we can't expect Iraqis to be trained with four months, eight months, 12 months so that they are going to fight for their country and they're going to be willing to die for it. And I think that is what is missing when we hear these numbers batted around like we did today.
MR. RUSSERT: You made a very specific proposal which I asked Senator Kerry, your colleague, about last week. Let's watch.
(Videotape, January 30):
MR. RUSSERT: Specifically, do you agree with Senator Kennedy that 12,000 American troops should leave at once?
SEN. JOHN KERRY, (D-MA): No.
MR. RUSSERT: Do you believe there should be a specific timetable of a withdrawal of American troops?
SEN. KERRY: No.
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: Senator Bill Nelson, Senator Joe Lieberman, The New York Times have all editorialized, saying, "No, no, do not set timetables." The president says you are emboldening terrorists because they'll simply wait us out. We're going to be out in a year, sure, we'll sit back and wait. Why would you advocate such a policy before the Iraqis even voted?
SEN. KENNEDY: Well, there's about three aspects of that question. First of all, there really isn't a difference between Senator Kerry and myself. Senator Kerry understands that the insurgency is part of the problem. And he also understands that this administration hasn't had a policy towards Iraq. It had a policy in order to win the war but not to win the peace. There really isn't a difference. There is a difference in terms of the goals that I established. Now, there is--the administration...
MR. RUSSERT: But, Senator, there is a difference. I asked him, "Do you agree with Senator Kennedy..."
SEN. KENNEDY: That's right.
MR. RUSSERT: "...on a fixed timetable?" He said no.
SEN. KENNEDY: I agree that he doesn't agree with my call for the immediate troop withdrawals, although we've had, as we saw in the Armed Services Committee just this last week, that--General Myers effectively announcing the withdrawal of some 15,000 troops, like I had suggested. The fact remains, those that have been critical of this idea say that we should not set the date because somehow the insurgents are going to wait. They're going to wait for 18 months or two years. And then after we train these Iraqi troops, they're going to somehow come back in and take over Iraq? What I'm talking about is a strong, secure, democratic Iraq that has democratic institutions, and then in the next four months, eight months, 12 months, 15 months, able to train their troops to be able to provide security. The best way that you're going to see resistance to the insurgency is a strong and secure and independent Iraq. That's what I'm for. That can be achieved with this.
The problem is at the present time the Iraqis do not believe that they own the country. The elections were an important down-payment on that, but still they ought to be able to have the kind of security and that ought to be trained--they ought to be trained. We ought to get about the business of doing it. Why can't they defend their own country? How long do we have to have Americans fighting and dying? How long do we have to ask the taxpayers to continue to pay out? Why can't we expect that we can train their troops in four months, eight months, 12 months, 15 months? I think we can, and I think we should. And we ought to establish as a goal--not as a requirement, as a goal--that we are going to negotiate that time frame with the new Iraqi government, but as a goal that we want our troops out by 2006.
MR. RUSSERT: Some observers, Senator, have said that you simply opposed the war from day one and that's your agenda. They point to a comment you made back in September of 2003. "This was made up in Texas, announced in January to the Republican leadership that war was going to take place and was going to be good politically. This whole thing was a fraud." Fourteen hundred and forty-five Americans dead, 10,770 injured or wounded. All that blood for a political fraud? Is that your view?
SEN. KENNEDY: Listen, my view is that we honor. We honor, deeply, deeply honor every one of the servicemen and women who have lost their lives. We've lost 32 in Massachusetts. I've talked to the parents and have attended a number of the funerals out at Arlington. They are heroes. And you know something, Mr. Russert? Our responsibility to those fighting men and women is to get it right, to get the right policy. That is the best way to honor them. And when I hear the secretary of defense say this morning that he was somewhat puzzled by the level of the insurgency, the rise of the insurgency, I remember being on the Armed Services Committee when we listened to the generals that testified before that Armed Services Committee and they all predicted an insurgency.
General Hoar, a former Marine, said, "If we get into Iraq, we fight the Iraq, we will win and you will have an insurgency that'll make the last five, seven minutes of `Private Ryan' look like a church picnic." They were absolutely correct. This is what the problem is. We're making it up as we go along. We heard it this morning. We've got to establish a policy. We have to establish a plan in order to get the Americans out with honor. And that plan that I put forward, I think, can achieve it.
MR. RUSSERT: But do you still believe that the war is a fraud and was begun for political reasons?
SEN. KENNEDY: What I believe is that this administration took their eye off the ball in fighting against terror. It was al-Qaeda that saw the loss of American lives. It was Osama bin Laden that we had on the run in Afghanistan. We had him on the run, and we took our eye off that and we went to war that we never should have fought in Iraq. And I don't think--and the reasons that we fought the war were weapons of mass destruction and because the tie with al-Qaeda.
Now, we found there's no weapons of mass destruction. The 9-11 Commission said there's no tie-in with al-Qaeda. Now, we're talking about we're leaving Americans in there till we democratize the country. You talk about mission creep. When did that ever get--do you possibly think that the Senate of the United States would have ratified going to war because we just want a democracy? We have stood for democracy and we haven't gone to war. We saw the restoration of democracy in Chile when Pinochet collapsed. We saw it in Argentina. We saw it in Paraguay. We saw it come in South Africa and we didn't go to war.
MR. RUSSERT: You also said "The war in Iraq has made the mushroom cloud more likely, not less likely, and it should never have happened." How has the war in Iraq made nuclear war more likely?
SEN. KENNEDY: Well, the--my own sense is--I'm not sure what the whole kind of context--I thought you were quoting the administration officials that use that as part of a justification and to go to war...
MR. RUSSERT: No, this is your speech at George Washington University. "The war in Iraq has made the mushroom cloud more likely, not less likely."
SEN. KENNEDY: Well, I think the principle reason is because now with al-Qaeda, we have the chance, I think, to decapitate al-Qaeda, to catch Osama bin Laden. What has happened with al-Qaeda is like taking mercury and pounding it and it's gone into a thousand different kinds of cells and those cells are extremely kind of dangerous. And they understand the potential uses of nuclear weapons as well as bioterrorist weapons. And they are out there searching to, in various places around, areas where you don't have careful kind of protection for nuclear weapons and searching for it. And I think that is the absolute result.
MR. RUSSERT: ..But, Senator, many observers will say we have a chance to have a democratic Iraqi state, no Saddam Hussein, a chance to remake the entire Middle East, and you want to cut and run and pull Americans out.
SEN. KENNEDY: It isn't--I'm offering the right way to do it. I'm offering the best way to do it. The program I offer is the best way to achieve an independent and a democratic Iraq. What is the wrong way is to continue along where the occupation is spurring the resistance, as we have seen just earlier in your program, with Secretary Rumsfeld saying that it is constantly growing, the insurgency is constantly growing. We don't know where it is going to go, and that's going to continue. I want to take the target off the backs of the American servicemen and women. And I want to let the Iraqis fight for their own security. And if they do, I think they'll be a stronger country to resist insurgency.
MR. RUSSERT: Let me turn to Social Security. The president said that we have an impending crisis with Social Security and you said he was wrong. We went up on your Web site, which was interesting reading, and found the things that you have labeled crises.
SEN. KENNEDY: Ah.
MR. RUSSERT: This is pretty revealing. "Iraq, national literacy, medical research, refugee program, mental illness, steel, nursing, higher education, youth violence, fish industry, AIDS, flu vaccine supply, hunger, teacher recruitment, unemployment, Medicare, health care, North Korea, Section 8 vouchers, gas prices, gun violence"; you said they were all crises.
We have a situation where the number on people in Social Security is going to double. People, rather than spending 15 months, are going to spend 15 years. In 2018, the Social Security Trust Fund will begin to draw down, and in 2042 run a deficit, according to the trustees of the fund. What is your plan? What will you do? If the president's wrong, what would you do specifically to fix Social Security?
SEN. KENNEDY: Well, first of all, all the facts that you mention are correct, and we have a problem beyond the 2049, a problem. As you saw in those figures this morning, the C.B.O. estimates they'll still- -if we do nothing at all, we'll still be able to pay 81 percent of the budget to the--let me tell you one thing. The president's program to make his tax cuts permanent is three times what's necessary to fix the national--to fix Social Security. Let's start with that.
MR. RUSSERT: But we have...
SEN. KENNEDY: Let's start with that. You've asked the question and I'm giving you an answer.
MR. RUSSERT: But, Senator, with Social Security, with Medicare, we have $5 trillion of unfunded mandates, and we are sitting here saying we simply roll back the tax cut on the top 1 percent or grow our way out of it?
SEN. KENNEDY: Well, wait a second now. You asked about Social Security. Now do you want to know on the Medicare how we ought to go to deal with the Medicare? I've given you a very good way to resolve the...
MR. RUSSERT: So you would roll back the president's tax cuts.
SEN. KENNEDY: That's a possible--for one-third, he wants to make it permanent. You can roll back just one-third of it and solve the Social Security problem. I think that ought to be on the table. It's interesting, when the president spoke the other night, Tim, he never mentioned what his answer was. He never told us what his solution was for the out years.
MR. RUSSERT: Would you agree with him that age eligibility should be on the table?
SEN. KENNEDY: Not at this time because I don't think we have a crisis.
MR. RUSSERT: Cost of living increases?
SEN. KENNEDY: I'm giving you my--one of the ways that we ought to do it. That's what your question...
MR. RUSSERT: Raise taxes?
SEN. KENNEDY: Roll back--or he wants to make permanent, and I say you can take a third of that part, at least solve--that is one of the alternatives.
MR. RUSSERT: But that's raising taxes.
SEN. KENNEDY: OK. That's rolling back.
MR. RUSSERT: That's honest.
SEN. KENNEDY: Whatever way. But we have one, but he hasn't offered it. I can tell you where we're going with the Medicare and the rest if you want to know. I think you can make a down--a very important--we spend 33 cents out of every health dollar is non-clinic. The president's talked about information technology. The Veterans Administration uses information technology and has seen a reduction in the cost per patient bed over the last five years by 7 percent while the rest of the beds have gone up 65 percent. If we put in place information technology and reduce from 33 cents to 27, it's $150 billion a year. We could cover all the uninsured and deal with many of the president's priorities in health care. I'm looking forward to try and work with him on this. We can take each of these items and find common ground. That's what I hope we can do with this administration.
For the complete transcript of this program, see:
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6923245/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - New Bush Budget Boosts Pentagon, Slashes Domestic Programs
Democracy Now! - Tuesday, February 8th, 2005
Bush's New $2.5 Trillion Budget Boosts Pentagon Spending, Slashes Domestic Programs
President Bush sent Congress a federal budget yesterday that some say reads like a hit list against almost every social program paid for by US taxpayers. It calls for the elimination of some 150 government programs. One out of every three of the targeted programs concerns education.
Bush's plan would slash aid to cities by one-third, eliminate health insurance for thousands of low-income families, reduce veterans' medical benefits, cut funding for city cops and county sheriffs, wipe out child care subsidies for 300,000 families, trim funding for clean water and soil conservation and shutter dozens of programs for preschool children and at-risk youth. The budget also targets public housing, Medicaid and farmers.
In addition Bush is proposing to cut the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency by $450 million; to cut $100 million from a Bureau of Indian Affairs program that helps build schools and to cut $200 million for home-heating aid for the poor.
But Bush isn't cutting back on all federal programs. The budget calls for a $19 billion increase in Pentagon spending. At a news conference in Washington, Bush spoke to reporters about his budget plan.
democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/08/1458256
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Stop "Nuclear Option" to Kill Filibusters in the US Senate!
From Common Cause
Help Us Preserve the Integrity of the U.S. Senate
The Senate leadership is considering implementation of a rarely used procedure known as the "nuclear option" to get around a potential filibuster of federal judicial appointments. This maneuver could limit Senate debate on President George W. Bush's expected nominees to the Supreme Court, and other federal courts, and silence voices of dissent.
This so called "nuclear option" will give Vice President Dick Cheney, who serves as the Senate's presiding officer, the power to declare unconstitutional the use of filibusters in judicial nominations. This rule change will allow a simple majority of 51 votes, rather than 60 votes, to affirm judges for lifetime appointments. The Senate minority - the Democrats - will not be able to filibuster Cheney's rulings under this option.
This is wrong. It is wrong to jettison a longtime Senate procedure simply because it is inconvenient to one party's goals. It is an abuse of power to strip the Senate minority of a tool designed to protect its rights - rights both parties have vociferously defended throughout the Senate's history. Sign our petition today, and let the senators know that we oppose the changing long-standing Senate rules to blatantly advance one party's goals:
It is especially wrong to arbitrarily oppose a filibuster only in the instance of judicial nominations, which are among the most important and long-lasting decisions made by the Senate. So, let your senators know that we expect them to preserve the integrity of deliberations in the Senate, which is based on the ideals of compromise and curbing of extremism:
Save the Integrity of the U.S. Senate
commoncause.org/SaveSenatesIntegrity
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - ACLU action for real security and protection of Immigrants
Tell Congress You Want Real Security Reforms, Not a War on Immigrants
Urge your Representative to oppose an unnecessary assault on immigrants that would undermine our national commitment to freedom and liberty.
The United States is a nation of immigrants with a long, proud history of granting asylum to those fleeing from religious or political persecution. But "security reform" legislation introduced in Congress threatens to make a mockery of that tradition with a requirement that would force many asylum seekers to get supporting evidence from the very governments they are fleeing.
This proposed bill would also expand the PATRIOT Act to make it possible to deport long-term permanent residents for providing non-violent, humanitarian support to organizations later labeled as "terrorist" by the government, even where such support was completely legal at the time it was provided. For example, people could be deported if they gave money to a tsunami relief organization and -- years from now -- the government decided the organization was involved in terrorism-related activities.
Take Action! Urge your Representative to oppose this unnecessary assault on immigrants that would undermine our national commitment to freedom and liberty.
Another provision of the bill would exacerbate already troubling driver's license provisions in the intelligence reform legislation by forcing state motor vehicle departments to implement complex immigrant laws without training or additional funds.
Several of the bill's controversial provisions were pulled from last year's intelligence reform legislation in part because of action by concerned individuals like you, and we need to ensure they do not pass this time either.
Click here for more information and to take action:
aclu.org/ImmigrantsRights/ImmigrantsRights.cfm?ID=17407&c=22
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Outsiders: Howard Dean's Bid For DNC Chair
The Outsiders
by Ryan Lizza, The New Republic
A fascinating look at the insider-outsider battle behind Howard Dean's bid for DNC chair.
tompaine.com/opinion/#003631
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
GovernmentCult * DUcensored * Unconstitutional
02 February 2005
"This so-called ill treatment and torture in detention centers,
stories of which were spread everywhere among the people, and later
by the prisoners who were freed … were not, as some assumed, inflicted
methodically, but were excesses committed by individual prison guards,
their deputies, and men who laid violent hands on the detainees."
– Rudolf Hoess
SS commandant at Auschwitz
1) We've Been Taken Over By a Cult
- - Iraq Dispatches: Dahr's personal log from Iraq
- - Debate on Alberto Gonzales Continues
- - "Standing for the Founding Principles of the Republic"
- - Gore Vidal on Bush's Inaugural Address
2) High Uranium Levels Found in Troops and Civilians
3) "Unconstitutional" -- Peltier -- Sitcha -- new FN list serve
"Freedom is when the people can speak,
democracy is when the government listens."
– Alastair Farrugia
1) We've Been Taken Over By a Cult
- - Iraq Dispatches: Dahr's personal log from Iraq
- - Debate on Alberto Gonzales Continues
- - "Standing for the Founding Principles of the Republic"
- - Gore Vidal on Bush's Inaugural Address
- - We've Been Taken Over By a Cult
The Military is Nowhere; the Press is Nowhere; the Congress is Nowhere...
We've Been Taken Over By a Cult
By SEYMOUR HERSH
About what's going on in terms of the President is that as virtuous as I feel, you know, at The New Yorker, writing an alternative history more or less of what's been going on in the last three years, George Bush feels just as virtuous in what he is doing. He is absolutely committed -- I don't know whether he thinks he's doing God's will or what his father didn't do, or whether it's some mandate from -- you know, I just don't know, but George Bush thinks this is the right thing. He is going to continue doing what he has been doing in Iraq. He's going to expand it, I think, if he can. I think that the number of body bags that come back will make no difference to him. The body bags are rolling in. It makes no difference to him, because he will see it as a price he has to pay to put America where he thinks it should be. So, he's inured in a very strange way to people like me, to the politicians, most of them who are too cowardly anyway to do much. So, the day-to-day anxiety that all of us have, and believe me, though he got 58 million votes, many of people who voted for him weren't voting for continued warfare, but I think that's what we're going to have.
Editors' Note: For the complete transcript of remarks by Seymour Hersh at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York, see: www.counterpunch.org/hersh01272005.html
Seymour Hersh's latest book is Chain of Command: The Road to Abu Ghraib.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Iraq Dispatches: Dahr's personal log from Iraq
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
----------------------------------------------------------------
February 01, 2005
What They're Not Telling You About the "Election"
The day of blood and elections has passed, and the blaring trumpets of corporate media hailing it as a successful show of "democracy" have subsided to a dull roar.
After a day which left 50 people dead in Iraq, both civilians and soldiers, the death toll was hailed as a figure that was "lower than expected." Thus…acceptable, by Bush Administration/corporate media standards. After all, only of them was an American, the rest were Iraqis civilians and British soldiers.
To continue reading "What They're Not Telling You About the "Election"" and view intros to other journal writing in Iraq by Dahr_Jamail, see: dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog
The above link is posted @ Flyby News homepage with other featured resources for breaking news!.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Debate on Alberto Gonzales Continues
Democrats Lash Out At His Role in Approving Torture
Democracy Now!
Wednesday, February 2nd, 2005
For DN transcript, (and audio-video links) see:
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/02/1519221
Take Action to Oppose Alberto Gonzales for US Attorney General
www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=16842&action=1516
To call your Senators, call the Congressional
Switchboard telephone number: Tel. 202-224-3121
For US Congress Contact Information, see:
www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - "Standing for the Founding Principles of the Republic"
"Standing for the Founding Principles of the Republic"
by US Senator Robert C. Byrd
Remarks delivered Tuesday as the Senate debated the nomination of Dr. Condoleezza Rice to be Secretary of State.
[EXCERPT]
..That view of America is one which encourages our Nation to flex its muscles without being bound by any calls for restraint. The most forceful explanation of this idea can be found in "The National Security Strategy of the United States," a report which was issued by the White House in September 2002. Under this strategy, the President lays claim to an expansive power to use our military to strike other nations first, even if we have not been threatened or provoked.
There is no question that the President has the inherent authority to repel attacks against our country, but this National Security Strategy is unconstitutional on its face. It takes the checks and balances established in the Constitution that limit the President's ability to use our military at his pleasure, and throws them out the window.
This doctrine of preemptive strikes places the sole decision of war and peace in the hands of the President and undermines the Constitutional power of Congress to declare war. The Founding Fathers required that such an important issue of war be debated by the elected representatives of the people in the Legislative Branch precisely because no single man could be trusted with such an awesome power as bringing a nation to war by his decision alone. And yet, that it exactly what the National Security Strategy proposes.
Not only does this pernicious doctrine of preemptive war contradict the Constitution, it barely acknowledges its existence. The National Security Strategy makes only one passing reference to the Constitution: it states that "America's constitution" -- that is "constitution" with a small C -- "has served us well." As if the Constitution does not still serve this country well! One might ask if that reference to the Constitution was intended to be a compliment or an obituary?
As National Security Advisor, Dr. Rice was in charge of developing the National Security Strategy. She also spoke out forcefully in support of the dangerous doctrine of preemptive war. In one speech, she argues that there need not be an imminent threat before the United States attacks another nation: "So as a matter of common sense," said Dr. Rice on October 1, 2002, "the United States must be prepared to take action, when necessary, before threats have fully materialized."
But that "matter of common sense" is nowhere to be found in the Constitution. For that matter, isn't it possible to disagree with this "matter of common sense?" What is common sense to one might not be shared by another. What's more, matters of common sense can lead people to the wrong conclusions. John Dickinson, the chief author of the Articles of Confederation, said in 1787, "Experience must be our only guide; reason may mislead us." As for me, I will heed the experience of Founding Fathers, as enshrined in the Constitution, over the reason and "common sense" of the Administration's National Security Strategy.
We can all agree that the President, any President, has the inherent duty and power to repel an attack on the United States. But where in the Constitution can the President claim the right to strike at another nation before it has even threatened our country, as Dr. Rice asserted in that speech? To put it plainly, Dr. Rice has asserted that the President holds far more of the war power than the Constitution grants him.
###
For the complete transcript of Senator Byrd's speech, see the following link:
www.commondreams.org/views05/0125-34.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Gore Vidal on Bush's Inaugural Address
Democracy Now!
Tuesday, January 25th, 2005
Gore Vidal on Bush's Inaugural Address: "The Most Un-American Speech I've Ever Heard"
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/25/1458238
2) High Uranium Levels Found in Troops and Civilians
The following excerpts # 4 of Project Censored's most censored story in 2005. "The Mission of Project Censored is to educate people about the role of independent journalism in a democratic society and to tell The News That Didn't Make the News and why. Project Censored is a media research group out of Sonoma State University which tracks the news published in independent journals and newsletters. From these, Project Censored compiles an annual list of 25 news stories of social significance that have been overlooked, under-reported or self-censored by the country's major national news media."
Project Censored - Sonoma State University
1801 East Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park, CA 94928
(707) 664-2500
censored@sonoma.edu
ProjectCensored.org
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(#4) High Uranium Levels Found in Troops and Civilians
URANIUM MEDICAL RESEARCH CENTER, January 2003
Title: "UMRC's Preliminary Findings from Afghanistan & Operation Enduring Freedom"
and "Afghan Field Trip #2 Report: Precision Destruction- Indiscriminate Effects"
Author: Tedd Weyman, UMRC Research Team
AWAKENED WOMAN, January 2004
Title: "Scientists Uncover Radioactive Trail in Afghanistan"
Author: Stephanie Hiller
DISSIDENT VOICE, March 2004
Title: "There Are No Words…Radiation in Iraq Equals 250,000 Nagasaki Bombs"
Author: Bob Nichols
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, April 5,2004
Title: "Poisoned?"
Author: Juan Gonzalez
INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE, March 2004
Title: "International Criminal Tribune For Afghanistan At Tokyo, The People vs. George Bush"
Author: Professor Ms Niloufer Bhagwat J.
Evaluator: Jennifer Lillig, Ph.D.
Student Researcher: Kenny Crosbie
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Civilian populations in Afghanistan and Iraq and occupying troops have been contaminated with astounding levels of radioactive depleted and non-depleted uranium as a result of post-9/11 United States' use of tons of uranium munitions. Researchers say surrounding countries are bound to feel the effects as well.
In 2003 scientists from the Uranium Medical Research Center (UMRC) studied urine samples of Afghan civilians and found that 100% of the samples taken had levels of non-depleted uranium (NDU) 400% to 2000% higher than normal levels. The UMRC research team studied six sites, two in Kabul and others in the Jalalabad area. The civilians were tested four months after the attacks in Afghanistan by the United States and its allies.
NDU is more radioactive than depleted uranium (DU), which itself is charged with causing many cancers and severe birth defects in the Iraqi population–especially children–over the past ten years. Four million pounds of radioactive uranium was dropped on Iraq in 2003 alone. Uranium dust will be in the bodies of our returning armed forces. Nine soldiers from the 442nd Military Police serving in Iraq were tested for DU contamination in December 2003. Conducted at the request of The News, as the U.S. government considers the cost of $1,000 per affected soldier prohibitive, the test found that four of the nine men were contaminated with high levels of DU, likely caused by inhaling dust from depleted uranium shells fired by U.S. troops. Several of the men had traces of another uranium isotope, U-236, that are produced only in a nuclear reaction process.
Most American weapons (missiles, smart bombs, dumb bombs, bullets, tank shells, cruise missiles, etc.) contain high amounts of radioactive uranium. Depleted or non-depleted, these types of weapons, on detonation, release a radioactive dust which, when inhaled, goes into the body and stays there. It has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. Basically, it's a permanently available contaminant, distributed in the environment, where dust storms or any water nearby can disperse it. Once ingested, it releases subatomic particles that slice through DNA.
UMRC's Field Team found several hundred Afghan civilians with acute symptoms of radiation poisoning along with chronic symptoms of internal uranium contamination, including congenital problems in newborns. Local civilians reported large, dense dust clouds and smoke plumes rising from the point of impact, an acrid smell, followed by burning of the nasal passages, throat and upper respiratory tract. Subjects in all locations presented identical symptom profiles and chronologies. The victims reported symptoms including pain in the cervical column, upper shoulders and basal area of the skull, lower back/kidney pain, joint and muscle weakness, sleeping difficulties, headaches, memory problems and disorientation.
At the Uranium Weapons Conference held October 2003 in Hamburg, Germany, independent scientists from around the world testified to a huge increase in birth deformities and cancers wherever NDU and DU had been used. Professor Katsuma Yagasaki, a scientist at the Ryukyus University, Okinawa calculated that the 800 tons of DU used in Afghanistan is the radioactive equivalent of 83,000 Nagasaki bombs. The amount of DU used in Iraq is equivalent to 250,000 Nagasaki bombs.
At the Uranium Weapons Conference, a demonstration by British-trained oncologist Dr. Jawad Al-Ali showed photographs of the kinds of birth deformities and tumors he had observed at the Saddam Teaching Hospital in Basra just before the 2003 war. Cancer rates had increased dramatically over the previous fifteen years. In 1989 there were 11 abnormalities per 100,000 births; in 2001 there were 116 per 100,000—an increase of over a thousand percent. In 1989 34 people died of cancer; in 2001 there were 603 cancer deaths. The 2003 war has increased these figures exponentially.
At a meeting of the International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan held December 2003 in Tokyo, the U.S. was indicted for multiple war crimes in Afghanistan, among them the use of DU. Leuren Moret, President of Scientists for Indigenous People and Environmental Commissioner for the City of Berkeley, testified that because radioactive contaminants from uranium weapons travel through air, water, and food sources, the effects of U.S. deployment in Afghanistan will be felt in Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China and India. Countries affected by the use of uranium weapons in Iraq include Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Turkey, and Iran.
UPDATE BY BOB NICHOLS: (Oklahoma City) Throughout the world people are familiar with the "smoking gun" solution so prized by murder mystery writers. Many think that once the smoking gun in any mystery is discovered, it is time for the "bad guys" to give up. Wish it were only so.
The smoking guns are Sgt. Hector Vega, Sgt. Ray Ramos, Sgt. Agustin Matos and Cpl. Anthony Yonnone from New York's 442nd Guard Unit—they are the first confirmed cases of inhaled uranium oxide exposure from the current Iraq conflict. Dr. Asaf Durokovic, professor of Nuclear Medicine at the Uranium Medical Research Centre www.umrc.net conducted the diagnostic tests. The story was released April 3, 2004 in the New York Daily News. There is no treatment and there is no cure. www.nydailynews.com/front/story/180333p-156685c.html
Leuren Moret reports, "In my research on depleted uranium during the past 5 years, the most disturbing information concerns the impact on the unborn children and future generations for both soldiers serving in the depleted uranium wars, and for the civilians who must live in the permanently radioactive contaminated regions. Today, more than 240,000 Gulf War veterans are on permanent medical disability and more than 11,000 are dead. They have been denied testing, medical care, and compensation for depleted uranium exposure and related illnesses since 1991."
Moret continues "Even worse, they brought it home in their bodies. In some families, the children born before the Gulf War are the only healthy members. Wives and female partners of Gulf War veterans have reported a condition known as burning semen syndrome, and are now internally contaminated from depleted uranium carried in the semen of exposed veterans. Many are reporting reproductive illnesses such as endometriosis. In a U.S. government study, conducted by the Department of Veterans Affairs on post-Gulf War babies, 67% were found to have serious birth defects or serious illnesses. They were born without eyes (anophthalmos), ears, had missing organs, missing legs and arms, fused fingers, thyroid or other organ malformations."
"LIFE Photoessay:"
www.life.com/Life/essay/gulfwar/gulf01.html
Moret concludes, "In Iraq it is even worse where babies are born without brains, organs are outside the body, or women give birth to pieces of flesh. In babies born in Iraq in 2002, the incidence of anophthalmos was 250,000 times greater (20 cases in 4,000 births) than the natural occurrence, one in 50 million births. Takashi MORIZUMI's photos: in www.savewarchildren.org/ record the tragedy in Iraq."
For more information on the American President's continuing campaign of contaminating the land, check the World Uranium Weapons Conference, www.uraniumweaponsconference.de/ ,
Check the Uranium Medical Research Center and Dr. Asaf Durakovic at www.umrc.net/ ,
and for updates on the related Nuclear Power Plants see Russell Hoffman's website at: www.animatedsoftware.com/hotwords/index.htm .
Write Leuren Moret, Independent Scientist and radiation specialist, City of Berkeley Environmental Commissioner, Past President, Association for Women Geoscientists: leurenmoret@yahoo.com
"Depleted Uranium: The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War" by Leuren Moret, World Affairs Journal, July, 2004. www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Trojan-Horse1jul04.htm
Read Bob Nichols at: www.dissidentvoice.org.
For complete article, which includes updates by Tedd Weyman and Stephanie Hiller, see:
www.projectcensored.org/publications/2005/4.html
3) "Unconstitutional" -- Peltier -- Sitcha -- new FN list serve
The following was sent to subscribers of a New England area alerts list –
To: Flyby News Alerts < info@flybynews.com >
Subject: "Unconstitutional" -- Peltier -- Sitcha -- new FN list serve
[All email addresses confidentially maintained -
to subscribe, send an email to flyby@mtdata.com with "subscribe flyby alerts" in subject.]
The following information is on a film called, "Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties", which will be shown in Amherst this Thursday (2/3) in Amherst, MA and Wednesday, Feb. 16 in Shelburne Falls, MA. Also at bottom is information on an event in Antrim, NH on the legal case of native amercian political prisoner, Leonard Peltier.
Also, be on alert that I soon plan to also send you an invite to join a new email list serve for feedback, discussions, and strategies regarding information posted at FlybyNews.com . Please consider joining this list serve. I realize we are all max-out with email, but you could register a new yahoo email address to sign up for this list.. You can also set email to receive them individually, or in digest format, or even get no email from this list, but have the ability to read messages at FlybyNews (@ yahoogroups) home page:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FlybyNews
I had planned to attend the film this Thursday, but still in search for a vehicle. If you know of any cheap and fairly reliable, please let me know.. thanks.. Please note, too, that the case of Richard Sitcha may be discussed at this film program. I visited Richard at the Greenfield jail last week. This is another crime of 9/11 craziness, to take away the political asylum and freedom of this former Cameroon attorney, and keep him locked in a cage, already, for about 15 months, for no crime committed. . . [we have turned the world upside in such craziness and needless suffering. Richard simply wants to be out of jail. He would welcome going to Canada, or elsewhere, but would not be safe returning to his home in Cameroon.]
For more, see: FreeRichard.com
======
Film: "Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties", written and produced by Nonny de la Pena, is about the shocking story of how our civil liberties have been infringed upon since 9/11 and the USA Patriot Act.
Thursday 2/3, 7pm, Jones Library, Amherst
also:
Reel World Film Series: Unconstitutional - the War on our Civil Liberties
Wednesday 2/16, 7pm, Shelburne Falls Library
For more information on the film, see: www.publicinterestpictures.org/unconstitutional
Please note, too:
in New Hampshire - February 17th 2005
COMMUNITY DISCUSSION ON LEONARD PELTIER
>>>>>
Featuring: > Barry Bachrach, Peltier Attorney
Joshua Rubenstein, Amnesty International
Display of Peltier's artwork
>>>>>
February 17, 2005 at 7:00 PM
Antrim Baptist Church
Main & Concord Streets, Antrim, NH
>>>>>
Information: Shelley Nelkens - 603/588-2916
>>>>>
Refreshments served. Donations welcome.
Proceeds benefit the Peltier Legal Team.
By special arrangement, selected Peltier paintings will be on display.
>>>>>
=+=+=+=+= FREE LEONARD PELTIER NOW! =+=+=+=+=
Flyby News Support
If you care to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses
for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc.,
you can send donations to:
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
InauguralShuffle * BabylonAssault * Out of Darkness
21 January 2005
"..We've launched a hideous war for no good reason in Iraq.
And we're about to elevate to the highest law enforcement
position in the land a man who helped choreograph the
American effort to evade the international prohibitions against torture.."
– Bob Herbert
1) Inaugural Shuffles ~ white man speaks with forked tongue
- - Mock Coffins and Jeers as Bush Sworn In
- - The 34 Scandals of George W. Bush
- - Babylon Wrecked by War
- - ‘The Battle for Iraq May Never Be Won'
2) Election Protection Legal Team Under Attack
- - Take action with Black Box Voting and Common Cause
3) Out of the Darkness - "Speak Truth to Power"
4) U.S. Gathering Nuclear Intelligence Inside Iran for Possible Strike
- - Cheney: Israel May Attack Iran
Editor's Notes:
Can we listen and learn in the US from the people in Ukraine, in Venezuela? But these countries had strong leaders, hands clean. The media manipulated the Democratic Party to choose a leader that made the choice to give G.W. authority to attack Iraq. We must stay united and choose our leaders that have demonstrated integrity, like that of Senator Barbara Boxer, who stood alone in the Senate to confront irregularities in Election 2004.
O' Eons of darkness, eternal night
you are only a backdrop for wondrous light..
And here i might find through the core of self..
the entrance to illuminate, to perceive.. to flow with atoms
expelling light as a river of purity in the deepness of night
1) Inaugural Shuffles ~ white man speaks with forked tongue
- - Mock Coffins and Jeers as Bush Sworn In
- - The 34 Scandals of George W. Bush
- - Babylon Wrecked by War
- - Bush's Energy Secretary ‘Top Five Worst Polluters'
- - ‘The Battle for Iraq May Never Be Won'
As the actual presidential swearing-in began, a small group
in the crowd outside the Capitol could be heard chanting, "Stop the war."
One lone protester was heard during President Bush's speech.
Security personnel were seen taking people away.
- - Mock Coffins and Jeers as Bush Sworn In
By Andy Sullivan
Reuters
Friday 21 January 2005
Washington - Flag-draped coffins and jeering anti-war protesters competed with pomp and circumstance on Thursday at the inauguration of President Bush along the snow-dusted, barricaded streets of central Washington.
For the complete article see the original post.
www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7389282
or
www.truthout.org/docs_05/012205Z.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The 34 Scandals of George W. Bush
The Scandal Sheet
By Peter Dizikes
Salon.com
Tuesday 18 January 2005
"Print it out, send it to Harry Reid, or just read it and weep. Here are 34 scandals from the first four years of George W. Bush's presidency - every one of them worse than Whitewater.."
For original posting of complete article, see:
www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/01/18/scandal/index.html
For a Truthout.org print format of article, see:
www.truthout.org/docs_05/printer_011905D.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Babylon Wrecked by War
Published by the Guardian/UK
Saturday, January 15, 2004
Babylon Wrecked by War
Troops from the US-led force in Iraq have caused widespread damage and severe contamination to the remains of the ancient city of Babylon, according to a damning report released today by The British Museum.
For this article, see:
www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1391011,00.html
or
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0115-07.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush's Energy Secretary ‘Top Five Worst Polluters'
Bush's Choice for Energy Secretary Was One of Texas' Top Five Worst Polluters
by Jason Leopold
Published by CommonDreams.org
January 16, 2005
In the bizarro world that President Bush lives in, it pays—literally—to be a miserable failure, a criminal and a corporate con man.
For this complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/views05/0116-09.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - ‘The Battle for Iraq May Never Be Won'
Coalition Admits on Eve of Election: ‘The Battle for Iraq May Never Be Won'
Run-up to vote sees mounting violence as US commanders finally concede they underestimated the resistance
Published January 16, 2005 by The Sunday Herald (Scotland)
For the article see original posting:
www.sundayherald.com/47185
or
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0116-04.htm
2) Election Protection Legal Team Under Attack
- - Take action with Black Box Voting and Common Cause
Election Protection Legal Team Under Attack
Ohio's GOP Attorney-General Launches Revenge Attack on Election Protection Legal Team
Published by the Columbus Free Press (Ohio)
January, 19, 2005
by Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman
Departments
Election 2004
Ohio's GOP Attorney General launches revenge attack on Election Protection legal team
by Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman
January 19, 2005
COLUMBUS -- In a stunning legal attack, Ohio's Republican Attorney General has moved for sanctions against the four attorneys who sued George W. Bush et. al. in an attempt to investigate the Buckeye State's bitterly contested November 2 election.
Robert Fitrakis, Susan Truitt, Cliff Arnebeck and Peter Peckarsky were named by Attorney General James Petro in a filing with the Ohio Supreme Court. Petro charges the November Moss v Bush and Moss v. Moyer filings by the Election Protection legal team were "frivolous." Petro is demanding court sanctions and fines.
For the entire article, see:
www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1102
or
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0119-12.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Take action with Black Box Voting and Common Cause
For actions and resources from Bev Harris and Black Box Voting, see: BlackBoxVoting.ORG
also
Help Common Cause Amplify Election Reform
3) Out of the Darkness - "Speak Truth to Power"
Out of the Darkness
by Bob Herbert
Published by the New York Times
on January 17, 2005
.."Speak Truth to Power" is about the emergence of courage and moral leadership in those bleak periods when free expression, religious liberty, human rights and even our very humanity are threatened by destructive forces that range from indifference to murderous brutality. The leadership often comes from unexpected sources, like Bobby Muller, an American Marine lieutenant whose spinal cord was severed when he was shot in the back in Vietnam. He became a champion of veterans' rights and years later, as a co-founder of the Campaign to Ban Land Mines, shared the Nobel Peace Prize.
Mr. Muller, in a wheelchair, was also in the audience at Ebenezer on Friday night.
"Courage begins with one voice," said Oscar Arias Sanchez, the former president of Costa Rica, who won the Nobel Prize in 1987 for developing a Central American peace plan.
Both the play and the book are made up of passages from interviews of men and women who, in a wide variety of ways, defended human rights in countries that span the globe. Dianna Ortiz is an Ursuline nun from New Mexico who went to Guatemala in the 1980's as a missionary. She was abducted, gang raped and tortured by government agents. She said one of the men overseeing the torture appeared to be American. At one point she was lowered into a pit filled with the bodies of men, women and children who had been murdered.
"To this day," said Sister Ortiz, "I can smell the decomposing of bodies disposed of in an open pit. I can hear the piercing screams of other people being tortured."
In a short introduction to Sister Ortiz's interview in the book, Ms. Kennedy wrote:
"Ortiz's ordeal did not end with her escape. Her torment continued as she sought answers from the U.S. government about the identity of her torturers in her unrelenting quest for justice. Ortiz's raw honesty and capacity to articulate the agony she suffered compelled the United States to declassify long-secret files on Guatemala, and shed light on some of the darkest moments of Guatemalan history and American foreign policy."
Sister Ortiz now runs a center for survivors of torture.
The most hopeful thing to be drawn from Mr. Dorfman's play and Ms. Kennedy's book is that effective leadership can come from anywhere, at any time. From my perspective, this is a dark moment in American history. The Treasury has been raided and the loot is being turned over by the trainload to those who are already the richest citizens in the land. We've launched a hideous war for no good reason in Iraq. And we're about to elevate to the highest law enforcement position in the land a man who helped choreograph the American effort to evade the international prohibitions against torture.
Never since his assassination in 1968 have I felt the absence of Martin Luther King more acutely. Where are today's voices of moral outrage? Where is the leadership willing to stand up and say: Enough! We've sullied ourselves enough.
I'm convinced, without being able to prove it, that those voices will emerge. There was a time when no one had heard of Dr. King. Or Oscar Arias Sanchez. Or Martin O'Brien, who founded the foremost human rights organization in Northern Ireland, and who tells us: "The worst thing is apathy - to sit idly by in the face of injustice and to do nothing about it."
2005 New York Times Company
www.nytimes.com/2005/01/17/opinion/17herbert.html?oref=login&oref=login&oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
also posted at
www.commondreams.org/views05/0117-27.htm
4) U.S. Gathering Nuclear Intelligence Inside Iran for Possible Strike
- - Cheney: Israel May Attack Iran
U.S. Gathering Nuclear Intelligence Inside Iran for Possible Strike
Published on Monday, January 17, 2004 by the Associated Press
New Yorker
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran said Sunday that environmental samples taken from a military complex this weekend by UN nuclear inspectors will prove that the country's atomic program is for peaceful purposes and not for making weapons as the United States alleges.
Meanwhile, the New Yorker magazine reported Monday that Washington has been conducting secret reconnaissance of Iranian nuclear installations inside that country for several months as a possible prelude to a military strike.
The report, written by Seymour Hersh, who broke the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal, said Washington has been "conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran at least since last summer" for the purpose of gathering intelligence and for targeting information.
Hersh wrote that he had been repeatedly told by intelligence and military officials, on condition of anonymity that, "the next strategic target was Iran."
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0117-10.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Cheney: Israel May Attack Iran
As reported by Democracy Now! Headlines for January 21, 2005
Hours before the inauguration, Vice President Cheney warned that Iran had become the top threat to world peace. He accused Iran of building a "fairly robust new nuclear program." Cheney didn't rule out a U.S. attack but suggested that Israel might strike Iran first.
He said "Given the fact that Iran has a stated policy that their objective is the destruction of Israel, the Israelis might well decide to act first, and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterwards." Israel has carried out such attacks before. In 1981, Israeli warplanes bombed an Iraqi nuclear reactor.
For more on this story and following:
- Bush: Spreading Liberty Is The "Calling Of Our Time"
- Bush Praises Liberty But Not Human Rights
- Over 10,000 Protest Inauguration
- Cheney: Israel May Attack Iran
- Cheney Surprised By Slow Recovery in Iraq
- Report: Hundreds of Pre-Election Attacks Expected in Iraq
See:
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/21/1530248
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
ElectionDebased * NotOneRedCent * RevolutionTV
09 January 2005
"Our people are dying all over the world ... to bring democracy
to the far corners of the world. Let's fix it here."
Senator Barbara Boxer
1) Democrats Force Debate on Election Mishaps
- - In the Clearing Stands a Boxer... a letter from Michael Moore
- - Members of Congress who voted for challenge of Ohio results
- - Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich On Ohio Electoral Vote
2) Terrorism Expands by coming new US policy?
- - The Salvador Option
- - The Other Tsunami by John Pilger
- - Advise and Rubber Stamp ~ Gonzales Attorney General?
3) "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" ~ the film
4) "Not One Red Cent" Boycott Bush's inauguration
Editor's Notes:
It appears on every issue there are many spins to what may be true or not, but on one issue one thing appears certain, a free and democratic Republic in the United States is in question. Item 1 gives an overview on events of January 6. Yet it still begs the question: How or when will we reclaim a lost USA democracy? A list serve colleague wrote: "It would be better to support genuine liberals and progressives people in the democratic party than to form a new one. It would take years and years for a new party to be recognized." I, in part, agree, but would certainly consider a third party candidate if a real progressive Democrat cannot win in the Primaries. Something about a Barbara Boxer - Dennis Kucinich ticket is appealing. However, if we get compromising candidates, they will end up compromising our freedom, and their sworn duty to defend and protect the US Constitution.
Item 2 is very disturbing. In desperation, the Pentagon may overtly put "Special-Forces-led assassination or kidnapping teams in Iraq." This is in part the result of last November's election theft and world domination plan for chaos. The plan for world domination may not succeed, but their plans for world chaos may. Yet in resistance and hope, item 3 suggests our learning from the failed coup attempt against the presidency of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Last Friday I watched the film, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." Thanks to Frances Crowe and the Northampton Committee to Stop the War in Iraq and the Media Education Foundation for the free screening. Frances has offered Flyby News a copy for an upcoming screening in Keene, NH. Item 4 is on an action in response to election theft 2000 and 2004, and to the terror-producing strategies of George W. Bush. On January 20, 2005, the day of Bush's inauguration, many conscientious citizens will boycott all commerce.
"NOT ONE RED CENT"
Don't spend a dime on January 20, 2005.
1) Democrats Force Debate on Election Mishaps
- - In the Clearing Stands a Boxer... a letter from Michael Moore
- - Members of Congress who voted for challenge of Ohio results
- - Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich On Ohio Electoral Vote
- - In the Clearing Stands a Boxer... a letter from Michael Moore
Dear Friends,
Something historic happened yesterday. For the first time since 1877 a member of the House and a member of the Senate stood up together to object to a state's electoral college votes.
This is the first step on a necessary road toward making sure that everyone is allowed to vote and that every vote is counted (something we did not see in 2000 or 2004) so the next time around ALL of us can be confident, when the election results come in, that they reflect the will of the people, not the whim of mechanical error and human obstruction.
Unlike the 2000 election, when the black members of Congress were told to sit down and shut up, this time a senator had the courage to stand with them, as the law requires, to force Congress to go back to their separate chambers to discuss and debate the issues surrounding the vote count. Senator Barbara Boxer rose to the occasion and stood with Ohio Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones and 30 other Representatives "to cast the light of truth on a flawed system which must be fixed now." The ensuing debate, at times, became a debate over me and all of you and the fact that we would dare make the attempt to protect our democracy.
For the complete article, and links for video clips and transcripts, see:
http://michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=180
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Members of Congress who voted for challenge of Ohio results
From BuzzFlash ~ January 7, 2005
BuzzFlash has received a number of requests to make it easier for people to thank Senator Boxer, Congresswoman Tubbs Jones and all the Democrats who stood up for our democracy by calling attention to the problems with the 2004 election and the need for open and fair elections.
Excerpts from "Democrats Force Debate on Election Mishaps":
Boxer, Tubbs Jones and several other Democrats, including many black lawmakers, tried using the sessions to underscore the missing voting machines, unusually long lines and other problems that plagued some Ohio districts, many in minority neighborhoods, on Nov. 2.
"If they were willing to stand in polls for countless hours in the rain, as many did in Ohio, than I can surely stand up for them here in the halls of Congress," Tubbs Jones said.
"Our people are dying all over the world ...
to bring democracy to the far corners of the world.
Let's fix it here."
Boxer said.
You can thank Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones by visiting their web sites (linked). We should also thank Rep. John Conyers, Jr. for his tireless efforts to bring the 2004 voting problems to light and thoroughly exposing Ohio Sec. of State Ken Blackwell as the catalyst of the major voting problems in that state.
If you're still in the thanking mood, below are the 31 Congressmen and women who voted to support the objection by Rep. Tubbs Jones. Let them know their efforts will not be forgotten.
Corrine Brown (FL)
Julia Carson (IN)
William "Lacy" Clay Jr. (MO)
James Clyburn (IN)
John Conyers Jr. (MI)
Danny Davis (IL)
Lane Evans (IL)
Sam Farr (CA)
Bob Filner (CA)
Raul Grijalva (AZ)
Alcee Hastings (FL)
Maurice Hinchey (NY)
Jesse Jackson Jr. (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
E. B. Johnson (TX)
Stephanie Tubbs Jones (OH)
Carolyn Kilpatrick (MI)
Dennis Kucinich (OH)
Barbara Lee (CA)
John Lewis (GA)
Ed Markey (MA)
Cynthia McKinney (GA)
John Olver (MA)
Major Owens (NY)
Frank Pallone Jr. (NJ)
Donald Payne (NJ)
Jan Schakowsky (IL)
Bennie Thompson (MS)
Maxine Waters (CA)
Diane Watson (CA)
Lynn Woolsey (CA)
BuzzFlash thanks all the above, and the dedicated activists that helped bring this issue to a vote.
For links and article, see:
http://www.buzzflash.com/alerts/05/01/ale05006.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich On Ohio Electoral Vote
Floor Speech Of Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich
On The Challenge To The Ohio Electoral College Vote
For Immediate Release Contact: Doug Gordon
Thursday, January 06, 2005 (202) 225-5871 (w)
Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) gave the following speech today on the House floor during consideration of an objection to the certification of the Electoral College votes from Ohio:
"Let us not denigrate factual concerns about the Ohio election by dismissing them as simply partisan. This is not about Democrat or Republican votes. It is not about red or blue or black or white. It is not about wrong and right. It is not about winners or losers. It is about protecting voting rights in our democracy against corruption.
"Let us review just one of the very serious concerns with the Ohio election. Voting machines were misallocated causing some voters to stand in line for 10 hours. That denies voters equal protection of the law. In the states' capitol, a shortage of machines in predominately African American communities was created. Even though the Secretary of State knew far in advance that 102,000 voters were registered in that county alone. The misallocation of machines was estimate to have denied at least 15,000 people the opportunity to vote.
"Furthermore the Secretary of State, who, under Ohio law has a constitutional duty to ensure election laws are upheld, failed to issue guidelines under the Help American Vote Act (HAVA) for two years. Contrary to the spirit of HAVA (which is to encourage voting and to have every vote count), Ohio's top election official conducted the activities of his office in a most partisan manner, undermining public trust in the election. He sharply restricted the ability of voters to use provisional ballots. He endeavored to make it more difficult for lower income people, who are more likely to move, to vote.
"We know who won the election. But what the American people do not know is the extend to which voting irregularities in the State of Ohio deprived tens of thousands of my fellow citizens of their Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection of the law and their constitutionally protected right to vote.
"The right to vote is expressly protected by the Fifteenth Amendment, the Nineteenth, the Twenty-Fourth and the Twenty-Sixth Amendments to the United States constitution.
"It is that right which has produced our very presence in this chamber. It is that right which binds us as a nation, which creates the unity of states, which legitimizes the government, which enfranchises not just a people, but in which reposes the treasure of the American people: A Government of the people, by the people and for the people. People have marched for that right, have put in their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor on the line for that right, and the least we can do is show our commitment to protecting that right.
"The outcome of the election will remain unchanged. But what we must change is a system which denied citizens of a great state their opportunity to change the outcome. Election reform is our solemn duty. Out statements today show is we intend to do our duty."
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/oh10_kucinich/050106electoralcollege.html
2) Terrorism Expands by coming new US policy?
- - The Salvador Option
- - The Other Tsunami by John Pilger
- - Advise and Rubber Stamp ~ Gonzales Attorney General?
- - The Salvador Option
Newsweek Editor's Note | While this may very well be an escalation of current U.S. policy, it is an extension of a disturbing pattern of using excessive force against detainees at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere in Iraq. -smg
The Salvador Option
By Michael Hirsh and John Barry
Newsweek
Saturday 08 January 2005
The Pentagon may put Special-Forces-led assassination or kidnapping teams in Iraq.
What to do about the deepening quagmire of Iraq?
The Pentagon's latest approach is being called "the Salvador option"-and the fact that it is being discussed at all is a measure of just how worried Donald Rumsfeld really is. "What everyone agrees is that we can't just go on as we are," one senior military officer told Newsweek. "We have to find a way to take the offensive against the insurgents. Right now, we are playing defense. And we are losing." Last November's operation in Fallujah, most analysts agree, succeeded less in breaking "the back" of the insurgency-as Marine Gen. John Sattler optimistically declared at the time-than in spreading it out.
Now, Newsweek has learned, the Pentagon is intensively debating an option that dates back to a still-secret strategy in the Reagan administration's battle against the leftist guerrilla insurgency in El Salvador in the early 1980s. Then, faced with a losing war against Salvadoran rebels, the U.S. government funded or supported "nationalist" forces that allegedly included so-called death squads directed to hunt down and kill rebel leaders and sympathizers. Eventually the insurgency was quelled, and many U.S. conservatives consider the policy to have been a success-despite the deaths of innocent civilians and the subsequent Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages scandal. (Among the current administration officials who dealt with Central America back then is John Negroponte, who is today the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Under Reagan, he was ambassador to Honduras.)
Following that model, one Pentagon proposal would send Special Forces teams to advise, support and possibly train Iraqi squads, most likely hand-picked Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shiite militiamen, to target Sunni insurgents and their sympathizers, even across the border into Syria, according to military insiders familiar with the discussions. It remains unclear, however, whether this would be a policy of assassination or so-called "snatch" operations, in which the targets are sent to secret facilities for interrogation. The current thinking is that while U.S. Special Forces would lead operations in, say, Syria, activities inside Iraq itself would be carried out by Iraqi paramilitaries, officials tell Newsweek.
Also being debated is which agency within the U.S. government-the Defense department or CIA-would take responsibility for such an operation. Rumsfeld's Pentagon has aggressively sought to build up its own intelligence-gathering and clandestine capability with an operation run by Defense Undersecretary Stephen Cambone. But since the Abu Ghraib interrogations scandal, some military officials are ultra-wary of any operations that could run afoul of the ethics codified in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. That, they argue, is the reason why such covert operations have always been run by the CIA and authorized by a special presidential finding. (In "covert" activity, U.S. personnel operate under cover and the U.S. government will not confirm that it instigated or ordered them into action if they are captured or killed.)
Meanwhile, intensive discussions are taking place inside the Senate Intelligence Committee over the Defense department's efforts to expand the involvement of U.S. Special Forces personnel in intelligence-gathering missions. Historically, Special Forces' intelligence gathering has been limited to objectives directly related to upcoming military operations-"preparation of the battlefield," in military lingo. But, according to intelligence and defense officials, some Pentagon civilians for years have sought to expand the use of Special Forces for other intelligence missions.
Pentagon civilians and some Special Forces personnel believe CIA civilian managers have traditionally been too conservative in planning and executing the kind of undercover missions that Special Forces soldiers believe they can effectively conduct. CIA traditionalists are believed to be adamantly opposed to ceding any authority to the Pentagon. Until now, Pentagon proposals for a capability to send soldiers out on intelligence missions without direct CIA approval or participation have been shot down. But counter-terrorist strike squads, even operating covertly, could be deemed to fall within the Defense department's orbit.
The interim government of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi is said to be among the most forthright proponents of the Salvador option. Maj. Gen.Muhammad Abdallah al-Shahwani, director of Iraq's National Intelligence Service, may have been laying the groundwork for the idea with a series of interviews during the past ten days. Shahwani told the London-based Arabic daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat that the insurgent leadership-he named three former senior figures in the Saddam regime, including Saddam Hussein's half-brother-were essentially safe across the border in a Syrian sanctuary. "We are certain that they are in Syria and move easily between Syrian and Iraqi territories," he said, adding that efforts to extradite them "have not borne fruit so far."
Shahwani also said that the U.S. occupation has failed to crack the problem of broad support for the insurgency. The insurgents, he said, "are mostly in the Sunni areas where the population there, almost 200,000, is sympathetic to them." He said most Iraqi people do not actively support the insurgents or provide them with material or logistical help, but at the same time they won't turn them in. One military source involved in the Pentagon debate agrees that this is the crux of the problem, and he suggests that new offensive operations are needed that would create a fear of aiding the insurgency. "The Sunni population is paying no price for the support it is giving to the terrorists," he said. "From their point of view, it is cost-free. We have to change that equation."
Pentagon sources emphasize there has been no decision yet to launch the Salvador option. Last week, Rumsfeld decided to send a retired four-star general, Gary Luck, to Iraq on an open-ended mission to review the entire military strategy there. But with the U.S. Army strained to the breaking point, military strategists note that a dramatic new approach might be needed-perhaps one as potentially explosive as the Salvador option.
-------
Original posting, see:
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6802629/site/newsweek/
also:
www.truthout.org/docs_05/010905V.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Other Tsunami by John Pilger
The Other Tsunami
By John Pilger
The New Statesman
10 January 2005 Issue
While the sea may have killed tens of thousands, western policies kill millions every year. Yet even amid disaster, a new politics of community and morality is emerging.
The west's crusaders, the United States and Britain, are giving less to help the tsunami victims than the cost of a Stealth bomber or a week's bloody occupation of Iraq. The bill for George Bush's coming inauguration party would rebuild much of the coastline of Sri Lanka..
For the entire article, see:
www.newstatesman.com/nscoverstory.htm
also, posted at:
www.truthout.org/docs_05/010905Z.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Advise and Rubber Stamp ~ Gonzales Attorney General?
Published January 8, 2005 by CBS News
Advise and Rubber Stamp
by Dick Meyer
When John Ashcroft was up for confirmation as attorney general, the Democrat on the job, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., cautioned that the Constitutional role for the Senate was to "advise and consent" not "advise and rubber stamp." Four years later comes the nomination of Alberto Gonzales and the cowed Democrats are poised for a policy of "advise, snarl, bombast and then rubber stamp."
I am shocked (not "shocked, shocked" but sincerely shocked) that Gonzales will get a single Democratic vote, much a relatively less easy confirmation. And I would have expected that some Republicans -- the ones who profess deep belief in the American mission of fostering Arab democracy, the ones who have renounced Secretary Rumsfeld, like McCain, Hagel, Lugar would be struggling with their votes, too. But no.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0108-23.htm
3) "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" ~ the film
The film, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" was directed and photographed by Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Briain in 2003. Its running time is 74 minutes and in Spanish with English subtitles.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised ~ a review
Sometimes, a good documentary is all about being in the right place at the right time. It does not get much better for Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Briain, who, in late 2001 began filming a documentary about Hugo Chavez, the controversial President of Venezuela. As they worked on their documentary, events in Venezuela reached a fever pitch and the duo was able to capture on film a coup from the perspective of the Chavez government. The footage is remarkable, especially given that actual events were so clouded by propaganda on both sides. What is clear is that this was a coup orchestrated with the crucial help of the media. Without their support, it would not have been successful..
For the complete review, see:
www.haro-online.com/movies/revolution_will_not_be_televised.html
The following is from the web site of the film:
chavezthefilm.com
HUGO CHAVEZ ELECTED PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA IN 1998, IS A COLORFUL,
UNPREDICTABLE FOLK HERO, beloved by his nation's working class and a tough-as-nails, quixotic opponent to the power structure that would see him deposed. Two independent filmmakers were inside the presidential palace on April 11, 2002, when he was forcibly removed from office. They were also present 48 hours later when, remarkably, he returned to power amid cheering aides. Their film records what was probably history's shortest-lived coup d'tat. It's a unique document about political muscle and an extraordinary portrait of the man The Wall Street Journal credits with making Venezuela "Washingtons biggest Latin American headache after the old standby, Cuba."
Distributor:
Deckert Distribution GmbH
Peterssteinweg 13
D-04107 Leipzig
Germany
Tel +49 (0) 341 215 66 38
Fax +49 (0) 341 215 66 39
Email: info@deckert-distribution.com
Web: www.deckert-distribution.com
"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" - deals with the events surrounding the short-lived coup detat against President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela in April 2002 - was first broadcast in Europe in February 2003 and since then has been aired on a variety of national TV stations including the BBC, ZDF ( Germany), Arte ( France), and NPS ( Holland) as well as at numerous international film festivals. In Venezuela the film had its first airing on national TV in April 2003.
On April 12th 2002 the world awoke to the news that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had been removed from office and had been replaced by a new interim government. What had in fact taken place was the first Latin American coup of the 21st century, and the world's first media coup...
The Politics of Oil
www.chavezthefilm.com/html/backgrd/oil.htm
For a clip or transcript from the film, see this special featured on Democracy Now!
Thursday, November 6th, 2003
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised - Why is Amnesty Not Screening a New Documentary About the Failed 2002 Coup in Venezuela?
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/11/06/1558221
"In February 2002, Chavez announced his plan to shake up the state oil company and to put his own people on the Management board. The war had begun.."
also info posted at:
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5168.htm
4) "Not One Red Cent" Boycott Bush's inauguration
Not One Red Cent Day ~ January 20, 2005
Boycott Bush's inauguration by not spending any money on inauguration day!
Since our religious leaders will not speak out against the war in Iraq, since our political leaders don't have the moral courage to oppose it, Inauguration Day, Thursday, January 20th, 2005 is 'Not One Red Cent Day' in America.
On 'Not One Red Cent Day' those who oppose what is happening in our name in Iraq can speak up with a 24-hour national boycott of all forms of consumer spending.
During 'Not One Red Cent Day' please don't spend money, and don't use your credit card. Not one red cent for gasoline. Not one red cent for necessities or for impulse purchases. Nor toll/cab/bus or train ride money exchanges. Not one red cent for anything for 24 hours.
On 'Not One Red Cent Day,' please boycott Walmart, KMart and Target. Please don't go to the mall or the local convenience store. Please don't buy any fast food (or any groceries at all for that matter).
For 24 hours, please do what you can to shut the retail economy down. The object is simple. Remind the people in power that the war in Iraq is immoral and illegal; that they are responsible for starting it and that it is their responsibility to stop it.
'Not One Red Cent Day' is to remind them, too, that they work for the people of the United States of America, not for the international corporations and K Street lobbyists who represent the corporations and funnel cash into American politics.
'Not One Red Cent Day' is about supporting the troops. The politicians put the troops in harm's way. Now 1,200 brave young Americans and (some estimate) 100,000 Iraqis have died. The politicians owe our troops a plan -- a way to come home.
There's no rally to attend. No marching to do. No left or right wing agenda to rant about. On 'Not One Red Cent Day' you take action by doing nothing. You open your mouth by keeping your wallet closed.
For 24 hours, nothing gets spent, not one red cent, to remind our religious leaders and our politicians of their moral responsibility to end the war in Iraq and give America back to the people.
Please share this as an email with as many people as possible, and please express your opinion at NotOneRedCent.com .
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
January6DemoAction * EconomicHitman * Quagmire
04 January 2005
Dear Senator:
You took an oath to defend and protect the Constitution
of the United States from its enemies both foreign and domestic.
On January 6th your sincerity and commitment to that oath will be tested.
And history will judge you by your actions..
The people who cast the votes decide nothing.
The people who count the votes decide everything.
– Joseph Stalin
1) Thursday January 6 ~ Official or Contested 2004 US Election
- - Election Update on pivotal day for a US democracy?
- - Dear Senator to defend and protect the Constitution
- - Dialing In For Democracy - Now Is Critical - by Thom Hartmann
2) Return of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
3) Robert Fisk Looks Back at 2004
Editor's Notes:
This Thursday is the big day for a joint session of Congress to certify or to investigate the election of George W. Bush. Please join thousands of conscious human beings realizing what is at stake - US democracy itself, and the lives of many people in other nations, threatened by an administration with a foreign and domestic policy gone haywire. The first item provides an update and resources for actions from now to January 6th. This action is time-sensitive. Please do not delay. Our voices are critical. Item 2 is on a Democracy Now interview with John Perkins, author of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions." Perkins will also be speaking at the Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley, MA, on January 11 at 7 PM. And item 3 links to a recent article by Robert Fisk looking back at 2004: "Over the past year, there has been evidence enough that our whole project in Iraq is hopelessly flawed, that our Western armies - when they are not torturing prisoners, killing innocents and destroying one of the largest cities in Iraq - are being vanquished by a ferocious guerrilla army, the like of which we have not seen before in the Middle East." Yet, if there is a chance for a turnaround from horrendous US policies, this Thursday will tell us if the US government is ready for democracy in action, or will authorize a dictatorship. Now's the time to contact your Senator and John Kerry to defend and protect the US Constitution.
Call the U.S. capitol switchboard 1-800-839-5276 or 1-202-224-3121
Then call back two more times and urge Senators to stand up beside Representative John Conyers, Jr. He needs just one Senator's support.
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent
about things that matter.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
1) Thursday January 6 ~ Official or Contested 2004 US Election
- - Election Update on pivotal day for a US democracy?
- - Dear Senator to defend and protect the Constitution
- - Dialing In For Democracy - Now Is Critical - by Thom Hartmann
- - Election Update on pivotal day for a US democracy?
We are approaching a pivotal day in the history of our Democracy. This Thursday, the electors will meet in a joint session of Congress to certify the election of George W. Bush. As you know, Congressman John Conyers has been leading an investigation into voting irregularities in Ohio. Last week he stated that he will contest the Ohio electors because of "numerous unexplained irregularities in the Ohio presidential vote, many of which appear to violate both federal and state law." Conyers sent a letter to all Senators asking for their support. If only one agrees, we will see something that has never happened before in the history of our country. In a nutshell, the Constitution states that if one Senator and one Congressman contest the electors from a particular state, then the entire Congress must debate the issue..
Conyers has stated on two different radio programs that he believes he will have a Senator, or even more than one, join him in contesting the election. However he has not specifically named any anyone, and no Senator has publicly stated that they will. For now, we know that many Senators are hearing from their constituents, asking them to do it. And many of these Senators are considering it while they weigh the facts.
This is why it is vital that we all contact our Senators (and Congresspeople) to show our support and encourage them to contest the election.
Remember, this is not about Kerry vs. Bush, and it's not about Democrat vs. Republican. It's about our Democracy.
It will all happen at 1pm on Thursday and it will be televised on CSPAN. Be sure to watch, but consider this: the price of admission is a phone call to each of your representatives.
Meanwhile, more details about what happened on November 2nd continue to surface.
A new report states that the media was given improper (and possibly illegal) direct access to the machines that count the votes.
And those pesky exit polls just won't go away. A new report on the National Exit poll shows a very high probability that Kerry actually won the popular vote.
It's all on Solar Bus:
http://election.solarbus.org
Peace to all,
Gary Beckwith
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Dear Senator to defend and protect the Constitution
Dear Senator:
You took an oath to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States from its enemies both foreign and domestic. On January 6th your sincerity and commitment to that oath will be tested. And history will judge you by your actions.
There is abundant evidence of election irregularities that bring into question whether the electors from Ohio were lawfully chosen and lawfully seated, based on numerous errors, improprieties and voter complaints.
Evidence continues to mount indicating that even the Ohio recount is being thwarted by election officials brazenly engaged in a cover-up designed to destroy the random nature of the recount, as well as its accuracy, reliability and trustworthiness.
If a President can be selected in this country as a result of unlawful conduct, then the rule of law, and with it the root of our democracy, has ceased to exist.
It is your duty to challenge the vote of the Ohio (and Florida) electors for President or Vice President of the United States, and to accept the vote of the electors who were lawfully chosen by the voters of the State of Ohio, who are committed to voting for John F. Kerry and John Edwards as President and Vice President of the United States respectively.
History will judge you by whether you honor your duty. This is something for which you will have to answer not only to the people of the United States, and to your constituents, but to your own families, your children and grandchildren, and to your own conscience.
I implore you to do your duty in defense of democracy. Do not allow our "government of the people, by the people, and for the people" to perish from the Earth. Stand up to defend our great nation which introduced democracy to the modern world.
Sincerely,
YOUR NAME
ADDRESS
PLEASE GET THIS MESSAGE TO YOUR SENATORS AND SENATOR JOHN KERRY!
Call the U.S. capitol switchboard 1-800-839-5276 or 1-202-224-3121
Then call back two more times and urge each of your Senators to stand up beside Representative John Conyers, Jr., the ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee. He needs just one Senator's support.
Let's flood the Senate with calls leading up to and by noon on January 6th.
To send faxes to Senators by email, see:
http://miamedia.com/news/2004-12-28.efax.your.senator.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Dialing In For Democracy - Now Is Critical - by Thom Hartmann
Published January 3, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
Dialing In For Democracy - Now Is Critical
by Thom Hartmann
[Excerpt]
Jeff Taylor is one of Vermont's three electors - representatives elected by the citizens of Vermont to vote for President of the United States. He and his two peers have joined the electors of several other states in signing resolutions asking their state's congressional delegation to protest the Ohio slate of electors.
"If they can have fair elections in Kiev," Taylor told me, "why not in Cleveland?"
Here's what troubles Taylor:
If you flip a coin a hundred times, odds are that around fifty times it will come up heads and fifty times tails. In reality, it may be 49-51 or even 47-53, but it will always pretty much evenly split. That's the nature of random events, including random errors and mistakes.
So if the tens of thousands of election "irregularities" being reported all across the nation - but particularly in Ohio, Florida, New Mexico, and North Carolina - showed "irregularities" worked randomly to the benefit of both parties, it would be easy to say that we have a broken, but not a stolen or hacked, election system. But that was not the case.
In nearly every case now documented, producing odds not of 50:50 but, according to credible statisticians, sometimes rising to 1:250,000,000, "irregularities" seem always to favor George W. Bush or other Republican candidates. These include:
- machine errors
- misplaced machines
- unmailed absentee ballots
- certification of more votes than registered voters in some areas, and dramatically low voter turnouts in other areas
- modem-connected voting machines and tabulators
- different standards for provisional ballot recounts in different areas
- phony companies registering voters and then tearing up the registrations of people who checked one party but not the other
- voting machines defaulting to a particular candidate or 'jumping' by recording a vote for one candidate when another's button was pushed
- exit polls not corresponding with reported votes
- voting elections officials creating what look like phony election machine poll tapes and tossing original, signed tabulations in the garbage.
And while the vast majority of the "irregularities" in 2004 are breaking to the benefit of George W. Bush, they also did so in 2000, and for Republicans generally in 2002.
It's time to start using the "F" word. George W. Bush was made President of the United States in 2000 by fraud, and apparently has done it again.
First, 2000.
As The New York Times reported on November 12, 2001, in an article titled "Examining The Vote: The Overview" by Ford Fessenden and John M. Broder, a media consortium was pulled together to actually count every questionable ballot in the 2000 Florida election.
The media consortium included The Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Tribune Company, The Washington Post, The Associated Press, The St. Petersburg Times, The Palm Beach Post and CNN. The group hired the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago in January to examine the ballots. The research group employed teams of three workers they called coders to examine each undervoted ballot and mark down what they saw in detail. Three coders provided a bulwark against inaccuracy or bias in the coding. For overvotes, one coder was used because there was seldom disagreement among examiners in a trial run using three coders.
The data produced by the ballot review allows scrutiny of the disputed Florida vote under a large number of situations and using a variety of different standards that might have applied in a hand recount, including the appearance of a dimple, a chad dangling by one or more corners and a cleanly punched card.
The result clearly demonstrated that Al Gore won the 2000 Florida vote. But the Supreme Court, in the lawsuit initiated by George W. Bush against Al Gore now known as 'Bush v. Gore', ruled that "irreparable harm" might be done to candidate Bush if such a recount was performed in Florida by Florida authorities. Justice Antonin Scalia, in his concurring majority opinion in Bush v. Gore, wrote that "The counting of votes that are of questionable legality does in my view threaten irreparable harm to petitioner [George W. Bush], and to the country, by casting a cloud upon what he claims to be the legitimacy of his election."
And Scalia was right, if "irreparable harm" means that counting all the votes may lead to the petitioner [Bush] "losing an election." When the Consortium examined all the ballots statewide, noted the Times, "The findings indicate that Mr. Gore might have eked out a victory if he had pursued in court a course like the one he publicly advocated when he called on the state to 'count all the votes.'"
..And now, in 2004, we are again visited by a Stalinesque fusion of cronies funding and controlling the election apparatus, national media intimidated into silence, and a populace so preoccupied with daily survival concerns - and uneasy about being identified as "troublemakers" by a new, highly centralized state security apparatus - that they don't have the means or time to react.
Yet react we must.
Congressman John Conyers has conducted hearings in Ohio, which uncovered sufficient evidence to call into question - at least in the mind of the Congressman himself and many associated with him - the validity of the Ohio vote.
The Electoral College was modeled after a form of governance used by the British before the Norman invasion in 1066, as documented in The History of England As Well Ecclesiastical As Civil by Paul de Rapin Thoyras, one of the two books that Thomas Jefferson repeatedly cited as the most important histories every written.
It's been out of print for two centuries, but in my copy, printed in London in 1728, Thoyras writes, presaging language later re-used in the U.S. Constitution, "Now in order to preserve a perfect Union, it was necessary some way of communication and intercourse between them [the people in remote locations and their government] shou'd be established. This was done by the means of a Wittena-Gemot or Assembly of Wise Men, who were the Representatives of the whole Nation. This Method the Saxons brought with them from Germany, where all publick affairs were transacted in such like conventions...[including their] Presidents." (Italics from the original.)
Section II, Article 2 of the Constitution, amended by the Twelfth Amendment in 1804, create and define the Electoral College, modeled by the Framers after the Saxon Wittena-Gemot. Each state chooses its own electors any way it wants, although all today do so by election of the people.
Electors have already met in the various states to vote, but that vote will not be opened until Thursday, January 6th. If Conyers' protest is matched by the protest of at least one single senator, then the House and Senate retire to their respective chambers for a maximum of two hours to debate the legitimacy of the Ohio (and, possibly, other) electoral slates. After two hours, with a maximum of 5 minutes for any member to speak, a vote is taken. If both the House and the Senate vote by majority to sustain the challenge, then the presidential vote goes to the House of Representatives, where each state has a single vote.
Given that Republicans control both the House and Senate, and a majority of states were "red" in this past election, even if a senator joins Conyers it won't change the outcome of this election, unless between now and Thursday such massive, credible evidence of election-changing vote fraud is presented that even Republicans will agree that the election was stolen. Given how often Republicans in the House and Senate have placed the interest of their party's power above the needs and interests of democracy or the nation in the past few decades, it's extremely unlikely that a challenge will result in a change in the election.
But - vitally - it will put the issues of vote fraud in America on the table in a way that even the mainstream media can no longer ignore. And it may lead to getting private, Republican-affiliated corporations out of handling our votes in secret, and to other electoral reforms such as IRV and public financing of elections. It could be a huge step in pulling us back from the brink of the Stalinist state the Bush administration seems determined to lead us into.
Rallies are being held in Columbus, Ohio and Washington, DC, and news stories of them are easily found on this and other progressive news sites. But for those who can't travel, perhaps the most important step you can take today is to call your two senators at 1-202-224-3121 or 1-800-839-5276 and ask them to join Conyers in his protest of the Ohio electors. This is particularly important if you live in California, West Virginia, Minnesota, Iowa, Vermont, Massachusetts, Michigan, Maryland, Illinois, or Maine, as those state have senators who may be more inclined to join Conyers than most.
Make your call now. It's one of the last ways we can still reach our elected representatives without a Republican corporation in the middle.
Thom Hartmann (thom at thomhartmann.com) is a Project Censored Award-winning best-selling author and host of a nationally syndicated daily progressive talk show. www.thomhartmann.com His most recent books are "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight," "Unequal Protection," "We The People," "The Edison Gene", and "What Would Jefferson Do?."
For the complete article, see:
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0103-32.htm
2) Return of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
John Perkins was recently featured on the entire Democracy Now! program on December 31, 2004. In his book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man he describes how as a highly paid professional, he helped the U.S. cheat poor countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than they could possibly repay and then taking over their economies.
For the Democracy Now! transcript, audio, video links for program -
Friday, December 31st, 2004 - Confessions of an Economic Hit Man:
How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions
See: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/31/1546207
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Author John Perkins will be speaking at the Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley on January 11 at 7 PM. To find out more about the book and read an excerpt, click: http://www.bkconnection.com/ProdDetails.asp?ID=1576753018
3) Robert Fisk Looks Back at 2004
A Mire of Death, Lies and Atrocities
The Ghosts of Vietnam
by Robert Fisk
The Mire of Death, Lies and Atrocities:
Robert Fisk says, "Over the past year, there has been evidence enough that our whole project in Iraq is hopelessly flawed, that our Western armies - when they are not torturing prisoners, killing innocents and destroying one of the largest cities in Iraq - are being vanquished by a ferocious guerrilla army, the like of which we have not seen before in the Middle East."
For the complete article, see:
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=6952
or
http://207.44.245.159/article7602.htm
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Tsunami * Iraq-BushChaos * ElectionContest
29 December 2004
"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people
tolerate the growth of private power to the point
where it becomes stronger than the democratic
state itself. That in its essence is fascism
– ownership of government by an individual,
by a group or any controlling private power."
– President Franklin D. Roosevelt
1) Race to Bury Asia's Dead as Toll Nears 70,000
2) Chaos Iraq Bush US Policy
- - CIA Resists Request for Abuse Data
- - Trail of torture leads to Washington
- - U.S., Britain Holding 10,000 Prisoners in Iraq
- - Ramsey Clark To Represent Saddam Hussein
3) Deadline Actions to Contest 2004 Election
- - Kerry Files Motion to Protect Ohio Vote Evidence
- - Election Officials Ducking Subpoenas
- - Actions for January 6 Contesting the VOTE
Editor's Notes:
A Reuter's article on the massive Tsunami begins this issue. The number of dead is expected to rise above 70,000, about one third - children. And as disastrous as this appears, it may only be the beginning. A more active and destructive earthquake pattern is expected due to Global Warming, the increase of human population, and abundance of nuclear and other toxic materials in harm's way of people and other living beings. Meanwhile US President-select George Bush vacations at his ranch. Item 2 continues on the coverage of the chaos created by the illegal actions of the US-coalition governments' war and occupation of Iraq. This tragedy of more than 100,000 dead civilians and thousands of US and Iraqi soldiers is unnecessary, and can only add to the dangers and incentive for terrorism. This is why item 3 is so important. Right now it looks like on January 6 "Election 2004" will be contested. Your action on this issue is requested. It will either be now or never.. possibly, for a democracy in the US and for turning around the terrorism and warming running rampant across the globe.
"The world is a dangerous place,
not because of those who do evil,
but because of those who look on and do nothing"
-- Albert Einstein
1) Race to Bury Asia's Dead as Toll Nears 70,000
By Tomi Soetjipto and Dean Yates
[Excerpt]
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (Reuters) - Thousands of corpses rotted in the sun from India to Indonesia on Wednesday as many who escaped death in the worst tsunami in recorded history faced a fight for survival against hunger and disease.
Rescuers scoured remote coastlines across the Indian Ocean for survivors of Sunday's giant waves that killed more than 67,000. The United Nations mobilized what it called the biggest relief operation in its history.
David Nabarro, who heads the World Health Organization's health crisis team, said up to five million people lacked the basic essentials to survive.
The ocean surge was triggered by a magnitude 9.0 undersea earthquake, the biggest in 40 years, off the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It spread in an arc of death across the Indian Ocean, striking from Indonesia to Sri Lanka and beyond to Africa.
U.S. scientists said the quake that set off the wall of water had moved tectonic plates beneath the Indian Ocean by up to 30 meters (98 ft), causing the Earth to wobble on its axis and permanently shortening the day by a fraction of a second.
Survivors told harrowing tales of the moment the tsunami, up to 10 meters (33 feet) high, struck towns and resorts, sucking holidaymakers into the sea, surging through buildings, sweeping cars from roads and smashing a train off its rails.
"The water was just too strong," said Surya Darmar, lying on an army cot outside the emergency ward of a military hospital in Banda Aceh on Wednesday, covered in cuts and with a broken leg.
"I held my children for as long as I could, but they were swept away."
UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy said children could account for up to a third of the dead.
Indonesia has suffered the biggest number of victims, with 36,268 known to be dead, although the toll could rise to 80,000 in Aceh alone, the province closest to the quake's epicenter.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono spoke of "frightening reports" from outlying parts of Aceh province, on the northern tip of Sumatra.
Troops and rescue crews reached the town of Meulaboh on Aceh's west coast, about 150 km (90 miles) from the epicenter, to find dead bodies and rubble.
"Today so far 3,400 bodies have been found in Meulaboh. Eighty percent of the buildings are wrecked," Chief Security Minister Widodo Adi Sutjipto told reporters.
But a senior UN official in Indonesia said the toll in Meulaboh could reach 40,000.
Soldiers and volunteers were collecting scattered corpses for mass burial.
..The region has seen huge killer waves before, including one when Krakatoa erupted off southern Sumatra in 1883, but Indian Ocean countries have no tsunami warning system.
For the complete article, including photos and resource links, see:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20041229/ts_nm/quake_dc
2) Chaos Iraq Bush US Policy
- - CIA Resists Request for Abuse Data
- - Trail of torture leads to Washington
- - U.S., Britain Holding 10,000 Prisoners in Iraq
- - Ramsey Clark To Represent Saddam Hussein
- - Bush Sending the Wrong Message as Chaos Smolders in Iraq
by Ronald Brownstein
Published December 27, 2004 by the Los Angeles Times
Millions of Americans probably learned about last week's horrific attack on U.S. troops in Mosul while wrapping Christmas presents or stuffing packages into the SUV after a last-minute shopping blitz at the mall.
That jarring juxtaposition may be the perfect symbol for the Iraq war. This grueling, grinding conflict is skittering through American life like a tornado that tears one house to the ground in every neighborhood, while leaving all those around it unscratched.
Bush is leaving a dangerous impression that on Iraq he values loyalty more than performance.
For the military personnel on the front lines — and their families and friends — the war is exacting bitter costs. For all other Americans, even for the officials whose decisions sent the troops into battle and shaped the conditions under which they are fighting and dying, the war is imposing no discernible consequences.
For the complete article, see
www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-outlook27dec27,1,1837756,print.column?coll=la-news-a_section
or
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1227-02.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - CIA Resists Request for Abuse Data
Published December 27, 2004 by the Boston Globe
by Charlie Savage
[Excerpt]
WASHINGTON -- The CIA is refusing to disclose any information about abuse of detainees in Afghanistan and at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, invoking a legal precedent that involved a secret project by billionaire Howard Hughes to recover a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine in the 1970s.
Megan Lewis, a lawyer for the ACLU, said she would file an objection in early January to the CIA's efforts to avoid scrutiny.
The CIA asserts that it is protected according to the submarine case, in which a judge allowed the agency to neither confirm nor deny that it possessed records of a deep-sea mining project thought to be a front to recover a sunken Soviet submarine. The CIA has refused to acknowledge whether it has documents and photographs related to abuse of detainees.
"They're just using [Glomar] to withhold these documents and to protect themselves. And it's very hard for anyone on the outside to pierce that veil. They just said, 'We can't confirm or deny it exists.' "
For the complete article see:
www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/12/27/cia_resists_request_for_abuse_data?mode=PF
or
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1227-01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Trail of torture leads to Washington
The Virginian-Pilot (December 26, 2004)
For this article, see:
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=79771&ran=226291
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - U.S., Britain Holding 10,000 Prisoners in Iraq
Agence France Presse
Tuesday 28 December 2004
Over 350 foreigners are among about 10,000 detainees being held in U.S.-run prisons in Iraq, Iraq's Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin Over says..
For the article, see:
www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200412/s1273053.htm
or
www.truthout.org/docs_04/122904Z.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Ramsey Clark To Represent Saddam Hussein
From Democracy Now! Headlines for December 29, 2004
In other Iraq news, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark has joined the legal defense team for former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. On Tuesday he flew to Jordan to meet with other attorneys representing Hussein. Clark said, "In international law, anyone accused of a crime has the right to be tried by a confident, independent and impartial court." He went on to say "The special court in Iraq was created by the Iraqi governing council, which is nothing more than a creation of the US military occupation and has no authority in law as a criminal court."
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/29/161210
3) Deadline Actions to Contest 2004 Election
- - Kerry Files Motion to Protect Ohio Vote Evidence
- - Election Officials Ducking Subpoenas
- - Actions for January 6 Contesting the VOTE
- - Kerry Files Motion to Protect Ohio Vote Evidence
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Report
Monday 27 December 2004
[Excerpt]
This afternoon, an attorney representing the Kerry/Edwards presidential campaign filed two important motions to preserve and augment evidence of alleged election fraud in the November election. The motions were filed in the matter titled Yost et al. v. Delaware County Board of Elections and J. Kenneth Blackwell (Civil Action No. C2-04-1139) with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. The document is titled "Motion Of Intervenor-Defendant Kerry-Edwards 2004, Inc. For A Preservation Order And For A Leave To Take Limited Expedited Discovery."
The purpose of the motions is twofold: A) To preserve all ballots and voting machines pertaining to the Yost matter for investigation and analysis; and B) To make available for sworn deposition testimony a technician for Triad Systems, the company that produced and maintained many of the voting machines used in the Ohio election. The technician has been accused of tampering with the recount process in Hocking County, Ohio, though other counties are believed to have also been involved. Any officers of Triad Systems who have information pertaining to said tampering are likewise subject to subpoena for sworn deposition testimony.
If the judge in this case allows these motions, and these individuals are served with subpoenas for deposition, the information disclosed under oath could have a major effect on the case. Likewise, judicial approval of these motions will open the door to forensic analysis of both the ballots cast and the machines they were counted on. If tampering took place, such an analysis could reveal it..
..The filing by the Kerry/Edwards campaign is significant. The Yost matter deals with a recount of the votes cast in Ohio during the election. In order for a judge to consider such a motion, the plaintiff must be able to prove irreparable harm in the matter at hand, and must also be able to prove a significant chance that the case will succeed on the merits. The stumbling point for the Green Party and Libertarian Party in this matter has been the ability to prove that potential for success, because no recount would deliver an Ohio victory to them. A recount could very well deliver Ohio to Kerry, thus fulfilling the success on the merits requirement.
In the end, this filing amounts to a "Me, too" from the Kerry/Edwards campaign. This case would not exist in any form without the dedicated efforts of Green Party candidate David Cobb and Libertarian Party candidate Michael Badnarik. Though the inclusion of Kerry into this matter strengthens the case significantly, Cobb and Badnarik deserve the lion's share of credit for carrying the matter to this point.
Attorney John Bonifaz serves as general counsel for the National Voting Rights Institute, and is co-counsel for Cobb and Badnarik in this matter. Reached for comment on this Kerry filing, Bonifaz said, "We are pleased that the Kerry Edwards campaign has joined our motion to preserve all of the ballots and election machinery in the presidential election in Ohio and to investigate the potential tampering of voting machines by Triad Governmental Systems, Inc, prior to the start of the recount. We welcome the Bush Cheney campaign joining our motion as well. The integrity of this recount is at stake. All candidates ought to join together in ensuring the proper counting of every citizen's vote."
For the complete article, see:
www.truthout.org/docs_04/122804V.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Election Officials Ducking Subpoenas
Ohio GOP Election Officials Ducking Subpoenas as Kerry Enters Stolen Vote Fray
by Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman
Published December 28, 2004 by the Columbus Free Press (Ohio)
[Excerpt]
COLUMBUS -- Ohio Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell refused to appear at a deposition on Monday, December 27. The deposition was part of an election challenge lawsuit filed at the Ohio Supreme Court. Meanwhile John Kerry is reported to have filed a federal legal action aimed at preserving crucial recount evidence, which has been under GOP assault throughout the state.
Richard Conglianese, Ohio Assistant Attorney General, is seeking a court order to protect Blackwell from testifying under oath about how the election was run. Blackwell, who administered Ohio's November 2 balloting, served as co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign.
James R. Dicks, Miami County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, filed a motion to block a subpoena in his county while Conglianese filed to block subpoenas in ten key Ohio counties.
President George Bush, Vice-President Richard Cheney and White House Political Advisor Karl Rove received notice that they will be deposed Tuesday and Wednesday, December 28 and 29. The trio's Ohio attorney, Kurt Tunnell, so far claims his clients have not been properly served. Under Ohio law, the Republican-dominated Ohio Supreme Court is responsible for serving the three with subpoenas.
Meanwhile, the Election Protection legal team has collected new statements under oath describing more voting and vote-counting problems on November 2.
Voters in Trumbull County have testified that on Election Day they received punch-card ballots where holes were already punched for Bush. Meanwhile, a notarized affidavit signed by Angela Greene, who voted at Whitehall Yearling High School in central Ohio's Franklin County, stated that one of the malfunctioning electronic voting machines at her polling place was delivered without a cartridge – meaning votes cast might have gone uncounted.
In Miami County, Blackwell certified a 98.6% turnout in the Concord Southwest precinct, comprised of 520 votes for Bush and 157 for Kerry. This statistically improbable turnout has all but 10 of the 689 registered voters casting their ballots on Election Day. A preliminary canvas by The Free Press of less than half the precinct found 25 registered voters admitting they had not voted, meaning the official tally was almost certainly fraudulent.
The nearby Concord South precinct certified a 94.27% voter turnout, with 468 alleged votes for Bush versus 182 for Kerry. Miami County is included in the election challenge since it somehow reported nearly 19,000 additional votes after 100% of the precincts had reported on Election Day.
In Madison County, where public records requests were filed to obtain voting records, the voting results provided by the Madison County Board of Elections came directly from a private company, Triad Governmental Systems, Inc. An email dated November 29, 2004 from Brandon Sandlin of Triad reads as follows: "Hello to all in Madison County! Attached you will find the cumulative report (oh49unov.pdf) with over and under votes reported as well as the official abstract (oh49abs.pdf). These reports may be printed for your records and then mailed to the state along with your other certification reports." Coming from a private corporation, Triad's letter underscores the barriers to making a reliable independent public assessment and recount of Ohio's presidential tally.
In Mahoning County, the Washington Post reported new affidavits documenting electronic "vote hopping" from Kerry to Bush. This means voting machines highlighted the choice for Bush before the voter recorded a choice of his or her own. The legal team has been told by a computer expert that this may mean the machines were pre-set on a Bush vote as a default. The Free Press has obtained dozens such sworn statements of vote hopping.
The legal team is also exploring new evidence that in Coshocton, Ohio, write-in votes wrongly defaulted to Bush when run through the voting machine.
On December 23, U.S. Representative John Conyers, Jr. of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter to Triad President Brett A. Rapp inquiring whether or not Triad possessed remote access capabilities for any of the 41 counties where its election tabulation software or computers are in use.
Article Truncated - for the complete article, see:
www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/1046
or
www.truthout.org/docs_04/122904E.shtml
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1228-01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Actions for January 6 Contesting the VOTE
US Citizens - Contact your Senators in support of contesting the 2004 Vote
Please call both your Senators now and pass this along AS WIDELY AS POSSIBLE. If you don't know who your Senators are see: senate.gov Fax#s can be obtained either through www.senate.gov and by calling their offices. Demand that your Senators take a legal stand and challenge what is most likely a second consecutive coup de etat. Call irrespective of weather your Senators are Dems and/or Repubs & remember to please PASS THIS ALONG AS WIDELY as possible, asking others to do so likewise.
To contact your Senators by telephone, call:
877-762-8762 or 202-224-3121
or visit www.senate.gov
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Vigil at Senator John Kerry's home in Boston
There will be a daily vigil from 12:30-1:30 p.m. at Senator John Kerry's house at Louisburg Square on Beacon Hill in Boston, starting Tuesday, December 28 - Wednesday, January 5. On New Year's Eve only the vigil will be from 4:00-5:00 p.m.
* We are asking Senator Kerry to OBJECT to the certification of the electoral college vote on January 6, 2005 and to encourage other Senators to object to certification.
* We are asking Senator Kerry to support any other Senators and Representatives who are planning to object to certification.
The mis-allocation of voting machines (especially in Ohio), the abuse of provisional balloting in numerous states, and the refusal and/or inability to conduct the recount in an open and auditable manner in Ohio, in Florida, and in so many other key states, should be cause enough to object pending review to the seating of certified electors.
SUGGESTIONS FOR SIGNS
* Senator Kerry, Object to Certification
* Senator Kerry, Do Not Certify The Electoral Vote
For more info on the issues, visit Coalition Against Election Fraud
or Contact: Sheila Parks, Tel. 617-524-2223; cell: 617-512-5529
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Security * OilEndgame * ElectionFraudAction
22 December 2004
"What we ought to be spending more money on . . .
is a major government program to make us less hated around the world.."
– Andy Rooney
1) Andy Rooney on Homeland Security
2) The Inuit peoples of the Arctic demand right to exist
- - OilEndgame.org
- - Sudan Government Campaign of Genocide
3) Proof of Ohio Election Fraud Exposed
- - Compulsive Gamblers Keep On Playing in a Rigged Game
- - Desperately Seeking Senators
Editor's Notes:
"If men can develop weapons that are so terrifying as to make
the thought of global war include almost a sentence for suicide,
you would think that man's intelligence and his comprehension...
would include also his ability to find a peaceful solution."
- - Dwight D. Eisenhower
"you would think" is a key phrase in the above Eisenhower quote. But now what has evolved from the depth of fears reached in the Cold War is a "secret government" dictatorship, which has infiltrated and overtaken principles in the US Constitution. Yet the key for freedom was never in the hands of someone else. It's always our choice. If people cannot guarantee their right for a fair vote, what is the point in voting, or in any way supporting a corrupt and international lawless regime?
Tim Carpenter of the Progressive Democrats for America, stated: "We all remember that early scene from Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 911", where one African American after another stands up in the well of the House to challenge the Florida vote from 2000, only to be ruled out of order due to the lack of a single signature from a single Senator. Not this time. On January 6, 2005, the House and Senate will once again meet to consider the electoral vote count. And once again, that vote count is likely to be challenged by a group of progressive House members, who will make the case that the mis-allocation of voting machines (especially in Ohio), the abuse of provisional balloting in numerous states, and the refusal and/or inability to conduct the recount in an open and auditable manner in Ohio, in Florida, and in so many other key states, mean that the certified electors should not be seated.
* Urge Your Senator to Contest The Vote -- On January 6, 2005, the House and Senate will meet to consider the electoral vote count. Progressive members of the House Representatives will challenge the vote count based on the voting irregularities and recount efforts still underway. Urge your Senator to stand with the Representatives. To avoid a repeat of the 2000 silence from the Senate. This action also targets potential Senators whom are allies on this cause.
Take action by writing to your Senators!
(action-link sponsored by the Progressive Democrats for America).
Yet, right now, the crisis continues for hundreds of thousands of families from the ruthless US-invasion and occupation of Iraq. Item 1 of this issue links to a commentary with a better idea by Andy Rooney, of CBS TV's Sixty Minutes, for protecting US homeland security.
Item two is on increasing signs of the end of time for many. The first article is on the Inuit peoples of the Arctic demand for their right to exist, as they are now directly under threat from the impact of human-induced Global Warming. On a positive note in this item, we link to OilEndgame.org, where one can access resources for a better road map from the fossil-fuel-focus in the current US Energy Policy. In this item, too, is an update on the horrendous campaign of government-sponsored terrorism in the Sudan.
The third item includes articles and updates on US government vote fraud, with abundant resources and actions.
"The right of voting for representatives is the primary right
by which all other rights are protected.
To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery..."
—Thomas Paine
1) Andy Rooney on Homeland Security
Rooney: Don't Be Afraid
Dec. 19, 2004
The following is a weekly 60 Minutes commentary by correspondent Andy Rooney.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't normally take seriously what anyone called "Tommy" says. Of course, that's true of anyone called "Andy," too.
But I was interested in what Tommy Thompson, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, said recently: "I, for the life of me, cannot understand why the terrorists have not, you know, attacked our food supply, because it is so easy to do."
That seemed like such a dumb thing for an important person to say, but important people are always saying dumb things.
It just didn't seem necessary for him to remind our enemies of how easy it would be to kill a lot of us. It makes sense to have government agencies looking into the threats to our safety, and being scared is a useful human emotion, because it gets us to do something about the danger.
But there are hundreds of ways we could be attacked in the United States, and we shouldn't spend full time being scared about them.
This isn't the first time people in this country have been nervous, either.
When our kids were growing up in our small town in Connecticut, we had neighbors who were so worried about the Russians that they dug shelters in their backyards to be safe from atomic bombs. They stocked their shelters with water and canned food and planned to stay down there until the nuclear cloud disappeared.
Just two years ago, we had the great duct tape fiasco.
REPORTER: Homeland Security officials recommend citizens prepare disaster supply kits to include a three-day supply of water and food, flashlights, batteries and radios – even plastic sheeting and duct tape.
We all worry occasionally in the middle of the night about dying, but we still get up and enjoy breakfast in the morning. There's no sense being so afraid of dying that you commit suicide.
Relaxing is important, too. In World War II, I saw dog-tired GIs dug in no more than 100 yards from where the Germans were. It was dangerous, but at night, they fell asleep in their foxholes while one of the other guys kept watch. We ought to keep watch, but we shouldn't lose too much sleep.
What we ought to be spending more money on than bomb shelters is a major government program to make us less hated around the world.
We aren't bad people, and the rest of the world thinks we are bad. We ought to come up out of our bomb shelters and spend less money on weapons, and more on trying to change the minds of the people who hate us. That's the best way to keep them from trying to poison our food.
No one's funny all the time.
By Andy Rooney MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/15/60minutes/rooney/main661225.shtml
2) The Inuit peoples of the Arctic demand right to exist
- - OilEndgame.org
- - Sudan Government Campaign of Genocide
- - The Inuit peoples of the Arctic demand right to exist
A nation demands the right to exist
The Inuit peoples of the Arctic have launched a dramatic legal action
against America. The charge? That US emissions of greenhouse gases
have made their very survival impossible
By Rupert Cornwell
16 December 2004
Published by The Independent (UK)
[EXCERPT]
Their ancient way of life is in unprecedented peril. Their very land is melting beneath their feet. Even the endless night of the Arctic winter, which should be one of nature's most immutable constants, may be changing. It too appears to have fallen victim of the abrupt warming of the global climate which almost every one on earth - apart from the government of the United States - believes is exacerbated by the polluting industries of the modern world.
But now the 155,000 Inuit, also known as Eskimoes, scattered along the northern rim of Canada, Greenland, Alaska and Siberia, say the climate change that threatens their existence is also a violation of their human rights, and that the US, responsible for 25 per cent of the planet's greenhouse gases, is largely responsible.
The human rights, say the Inuit are the most basic ones, the rights to life, health and property. "We're an adaptable people, but adaptability has its limits," says Sheila Watt-Cloutier, the head of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, the group recognised by the United Nations as representing the Inuit people. "Something is bound to give, and it's starting to give in the Arctic, and we're sending that early warning signal to the rest of the world."
Yesterday, at the international climate change conference in Buenos Aires, the Inuit were to make their move by announcing they would demand a ruling from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that as the prime source of greenhouse gas pollution, is in violation of the commission's own norms.
The prospects for success are unclear. A Washington environmental lawyer here close to the case, says: "The question is, does what the US government is doing, or rather what it is not doing, constitutes a deprivation of human rights for the Inuit. You can argue that these deprivations are already occurring because of global warming, the loss of sea ice, the erosion of coast-lines, and the loss of hunting grounds. That raises the issue of whether there is a causal link with the activities of the US, responsible for 25 per cent of the emissions held to blame for climate change."
The feasibility of anyone suing over global warming was raised this month by scientists who made a fresh analysis of the summer heatwave of 2003, when there was 20,000 extra deaths across Europe, many from heat-stroke and heart attacks. In a study in the journal Nature, scientists from Oxford University and the Met Office's Hadley Centre estimated that such a heatwave is now four times more likely as a result of man-made influences on the climate. They also calculated that these human influences - carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels - were to blame for 75 per cent of the increased risk of a repeat of such a heatwave..
Nowhere on earth is feeling the impact of global warming more directly than the Arctic. One study found that the Arctic is warming at a rate eight times faster than at any time in the past century. In Alaska, western Canada and eastern Russia, average winter temperatures have risen by 3C or 4C in the past 50 years, and they are projected to increase to between 7C and 13C over the next 100 years.
The area of the Arctic sea covered by ice naturally expands and retreats with the seasons but all the evidence indicates this floating cap of ice has gone into permanent retreat. A warmer climate has extended the period of summer melting by an extra five days every decade. Average temperatures in the Arctic are rising at 1.2C each decade. On present trends, the Arctic will have ice-free summers by the end of the century.
Measurements of the sea ice taken by sonar instruments on British and American submarines between the 1950s and 1990s have shown it has thinned by more than 40 per cent in that period. The latest estimates suggest the Arctic sea-ice has reduced from an average thickness of four metres to about 2.7 metres in just 30 years.
Satellite pictures show the surface area covered by Arctic sea ice has reduced by 4 per cent per decade. Much of the ice that remains is far thinner than it was and is liable to disappear more rapidly as temperatures rise.
Five years ago, at a conference on the Arctic organised by Greenpeace, Inuit elders told of problems caused by retreating ice and the difficulty of finding seals to hunt for food and clothing.
Benjamin Neakok, who lives in the northern Alaskan outpost of Point Lay, said the end of summer was a difficult time. "It makes it hard to hunt in fall time when the ice starts forming," he says. "It's kind of dangerous to be out. It's not really sturdy. And after it freezes there's always some open spots. Sometimes it doesn't freeze up until January."
Chief Gary Harrison of the Arctic Athabaskan Council, said: "Our homes are threatened by storms and melting permafrost, our livelihoods are threatened by changes to the plants and animals we harvest. Even our lives are threatened, as traditional travel routes become more dangerous."
..And global warming has raised the prospect of developing the Arctic's vast resources of oil and natural gas. It threatens to make a reality of the ancient dream of a north-west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. By 2100, scientists have warned, species including the polar bear could be extinct.
news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=593660
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - OilEndgame.org
For an excellent Amory Lovins' resource to change US Energy Policy, visit: OilEndgame.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Sudan Government Campaign of Genocide
Sudanese Liberation Army Rebel Asks the World
For Help Against Government Campaign of "Genocide"
For the Democracy Now - December 20th transcript, (audio, video links), see:
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/20/154253
3) Proof of Ohio Election Fraud Exposed
- - Election Fraud 2004 - A Powerpoint Presentation
- - Compulsive Gamblers Keep On Playing in a Rigged Game
- - Desperately Seeking Senators
Proof of Ohio Election Fraud Exposed
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Report
Wednesday 15 December 2004
Among activists and investigators looking into allegations of vote fraud in the 2004 Presidential election, the company always mentioned was Diebold and its suspicious electronic touch-screen voting machines. It is Diebold that has multiple avowed Republicans on its Board of Directors. It was Diebold that gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to Bush's election campaign. It was Diebold CEO Walden O'Dell who vowed to deliver Ohio's electoral votes to Bush.
As it turns out, everyone was looking the wrong way. The company that requires immediate and penetrating scrutiny is Triad Systems.
Triad is owned by a man named Tod Rapp, who has also donated money to both the Republican Party and the election campaign of George W. Bush. Triad manufactures punch-card voting systems, and also wrote the computer program that tallied the punch-card votes cast in 41 Ohio counties last November. Given the ubiquity of the Triad voting systems in Ohio, the allegations that have been leveled against this company strike to the heart of the assumed result of the 2004 election.
Earlier this week, the allegations against triad were first raised by Green Party candidate David Cobb, who testified at a hearing held in Columbus, Ohio by Rep. John Conyers of the House Judiciary Committee. In his testimony, Cobb stated:
Mr. Chairman, though our time is limited, I must bring to the committee's attention the most recent and perhaps most troubling incident that was related to my campaign on Sunday, December 12, about a shocking event that occurred last Friday, December 10.
A representative from Triad Systems came into a county board of elections office un-announced. He said he was just stopping by to see if they had any questions about the up-coming recount. He then headed into the back room where the Triad supplied Tabulator (a card reader and older PC with custom software) is kept. He told them there was a problem and the system had a bad battery and had "lost all of its data". He then took the computer apart and started swapping parts in and out of it and another "spare" tower type PC also in the room. He may have had spare parts in his coat as one of the BOE people moved it and remarked as to how very heavy it was. He finally re-assembled everything and said it was working but to not turn it off.
He then asked which precinct would be counted for the 3% recount test, and the one which had been selected as it had the right number of votes, was relayed to him. He then went back and did something else to the tabulator computer.
[Article Truncated]
For the complete article, see:
www.truthout.org/docs_04/121604Z.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Election Fraud 2004 - A Powerpoint Presentation
by Peter Dreckmeier & Amy Adams
www.electionfraud2004.org/presentation/index.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Compulsive Gamblers Keep On Playing in a Rigged Game
AGAINST THE HOUSE
Only Chumps and Compulsive Gamblers Keep On Playing in a Rigged Game
By James Heddle
As the Bush Machine rolls on -- through Orwellian "Patriot" Acts, Intelligence "Reforms" and "Clear Skies" Initiatives, adding treason to treason, felony to felony, unconstitutional domestic acts to violations of international law, "crimes against all humankind" to crimes against the biosphere; as it authorizes torture, domestic surveillance, and terms the Geneva Convention "quaint" -- progressive pundits waffle on with exhortations to hopefulness, ideological mea culpas, adjurations to linguistic reframing, advocating emulations of the right, and statistical analyses based on flawed polling and fraudulent vote counts, I find myself wondering: How long are these people going to keep on playing in a rigged game?
The grassroots democratic drama of the 21st century is unfolding in Ohio (not to mention New Mexico, Nevada, and oh yes, the Ukraine), blacked out by the same pusillanimous establishment media that went along with alleged Iraqi WMDs and al qaeda links; blacked out the CIA's role in bringing crack cocaine to the country's ghettos (and apparently drove rare honest journalist Gary Webb to an alleged "two-shot suicide"); and ignored by the flaccid, complicit and supine DNC, Kerry/Edwards camp and Congress. They're all acting exactly like the collusive wife in an abusive relationship.
The progressive strategists and operatives prattle on about the "White Elephant" of the "race factor" in the 2004 election (duh!), but no one seems to notice the gaggle of 500-pound gorillas sitting in the corner of the national living room. Please, look at the data, citizens. The election was stolen -- just like in 2000, 2002 and so many more before.
The system is rigged. Don't get over it; get with it! You can't win in a rigged game. Stop playing.. Change the game.
As that great American political sage, W. C. Fields put it, "There comes a time when we must seize the bull firmly by the tail and stare the situation squarely in the face." There's not enough space here to do more than summarize the growing mountain of evidence that supports the rigged game conclusion. The historic Conyers Committee is piling it up as we speak.
It's easy to find. If you haven't already, google "vote fraud," citizen.
Read it and weep. The incriminating facts are readily available all over the internet and the "alternative media."
Please, don't be like my friend, a staunch Kerry volunteer, who hasn't looked at the Ohio story because he reads the New York Times, watches the News Hour and dismisses all contrary data a priori as the delusions of the "chattering class," "paranoid conspiracy theorists" and "whining losers." ..There's a "Block Bush Constitutional Insurrection" rally and demo being organized by RedefeatBush.com from 10am - 4pm, January 6, at Upper Senate Park, Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. when the electoral college vote is delivered to Congress. The Ohio recount will be done by then. We should have learned enough from the lawsuits and investigations to know the truth.
Got democracy? See you there.
==================================
( For more info on the Block Bush, click: a Constitutional Insurrection on January 6, 2005 Not to be confused with the events being organized by www.answercoalition.org and www.VoterMarch.org/j20hq/index.html on January 20th. Methinks Coronation Day is too late to protest.)
James Heddle is a documentary filmmaker: eon3@earthlink.net
The above excerpts were take from the article posted in its entirety at:
www.miamedia.com/news/2004-12-19.against.the.house.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Desperately Seeking Senators
We all remember that early scene from Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 911", where one African American after another stands up in the well of the House to challenge the Florida vote from 2000, only to be ruled out of order due to the lack of a single signature from a single Senator.
Not this time.
On January 6, 2005, the House and Senate will once again meet to consider the electoral vote count. And once again, that vote count is likely to be challenged by a group of progressive House members, who will make the case that the misallocation of voting machines (especially in Ohio), the abuse of provisional balloting in numerous states, and the refusal and/or inability to conduct the recount in an open and auditable manner in Ohio, in Florida, and in so many other key states, mean that the certified electors should not be seated.
This time, we want several U.S. Senators to join with them, to make a serious voting rights challenge that the entire world will hear. This time, we want so much polite-but-firm grassroots contact from progressive voters beforehand that a whole group of Senators will choose to stand up and fight for the voting rights of African-Americans, Latinos, and youth voters that the Republican Party targeted for disruption and disenfranchisement in the 2004 election.
Some who need to hear from us are new, such as Barak Obama of Illinois and Ken Salazar of Colorado. These new Senators could use cover from the new leadership of the Senate, especially Dick Durbin, who also hails from Obama's home state.
Some Senators depend on African American and Latino votes to be elected, and thus could be expected to stand up tall when voting rights issues are on the line, including Joe Biden of Delaware, Carl Levin of Michigan, Bill Nelson of Florida, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Barbara Mikulski and Paul Sarbanes of Maryland, Jon Corzine and Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey.
Senator Byrd of West Virginia was once a Klansman; but his eloquent leadership against the Iraq War has inspired us all, and he has the courage and fortitude to cap his career with an outspoken battle on behalf of abused African American voters. Senator Lieberman of Connecticut rightfully brags about his youthful efforts to register voters in the Old South in the 1960s; on 1/6/05, he will have the chance to demonstrate that his youthful idealism still survives.
There are Senators who are safe, and could do the right thing--like Chris Dodd of Connecticut, Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, Charles Schumer of New York, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, and Herb Kohl of Wisconsin.
There is Jim Jeffords of Vermont, an Independent who was brave enough to stand up to the Bush White House once before. There is Senator Lincoln Chafee, a Republican in a solid Democratic state, the namesake of Lincoln, a moderate caught in a far right party. And, of course, there is John Kerry.
To remind them why they're in Washington, ask them to stand for every American's right to vote (and have it counted.) Go to http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=6770366 to take action. Thank you for forwarding this action alert to your networks.
Standing tall in solidarity,
Tim Carpenter
Progressive Democrats of America
email: info@pdamerica.org
phone: (877) 368-9221
www.pdamerica.org
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
ElectionProbe * PearlHarborReview * MasterWar
14 December 2004
"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice
of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of
increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror
to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear."
– Harry S Truman
1) Will Kerry fund real probe as House member seeks Ohio elector challenge?
- - Kerry lawyer to see ballots * 62,000 phantom absentees?
- - People's Email Network - Kerry starting to do something
- - Revelations highlight rare Congressional hearings on Ohio vote
- - Law suit contesting 2004 elections?
- - Democracy Now! | Was The 2004 Election Legitimate?
- - Conyers Hearings - A Blog by William Rivers Pitt
2) 9/11 News - Vancouver Sun reviews The New Pearl Harbor
3) MIT's Role in Missile Test Fraud by Theodore A. Postol
4) "Masters of War" - lyrics by Bob Dylan
Editor's Notes:
The big question is where is John Kerry and what will he do to contest the election. Is Kerry lining up his ducks to really contest this issue of Election fraud, or is he in hiding? There is no doubt about it – it is dangerous to confront desperate men with nuclear ambitions, and with deadly corrupted interior government controls. Yet one would think that he opposed the war after returning from Vietnam, and his and ours soldiers are dying each day, and the oath that military personnel, intelligence agencies, and the President take is to uphold and defend the principles in the US Constitution – Yet it seems that it is rare when something is written in stone, and we can only wonder and maintain a growing awareness about a dictatorship that has seized USA democracy. The second item is an excerpt and link to a review of The New Pearl Harbor book that was recently published by a Vancouver newspaper. It sums it up in clear language questions still remaining on the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Item 3 is a recent article in the Boston Globe written by Theodore A. Postol on MIT's role in missile test fraud. The corruption goes deep and way up.. Yet – change, one way or another, [in a big way], is on the verge of happening. Stay Tuned ~ Take Action ~ for more ideas, see Campaigns, Actions, & Events @ FlybyNews.com
"The universe is always in a state of balance.
A problem cannot exist without its solution existing at the same time."
- William Rand
1) Will Kerry fund real probe as House member seeks Ohio elector challenge?
- - Kerry lawyer to see ballots * 62,000 phantom absentees?
- - People's Email Network - Kerry starting to do something
- - Revelations highlight rare Congressional hearings on Ohio vote
- - Law suit contesting 2004 elections?
- - Democracy Now! | Was The 2004 Election Legitimate?
- - Conyers Hearings - A Blog by William Rivers Pitt
Will Kerry fund real probe as House member seeks Ohio elector challenge?
by Tom Flocco
[EXCERPT]
Washington -- December 13, 2004 -- TomFlocco.com -- After listening to unofficial but stunning testimony concerning evidence of state-wide vote fraud during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on 2004 election irregularities in Ohio, ranking Democrat John Conyers (D-14-MI) was asked whether he would consider challenging the seating of Buckeye state electors on January 6 when Congress opens the presidential electoral college vote certifying the election of George W. Bush.
Conyers, a Michigan Democrat and senior committee member who convened the Ohio voting aberrations hearing held last Wednesday in the House Rayburn office building, replied, "We are now."
Many Democrats now consider John Kerry's premature concession to George Bush a costly mistake which constitutional scholars say could ultimately affect the rigor, intensity and thoroughness of state and federal judges adjudicating the ongoing Ohio election litigation--a series of unpublicized lawsuits which could augur potential criminal prosecutions.
Except for some post-election reporting by MSNBC Countdown cable TV host Keith Olbermann--who has ceased covering the story in recent days--there has been a curious mainstream television and radio news black-out regarding the state's explosive and expanding electoral conundrum since November 2.
Conyers had expressed concern to Olbermann that "evidence can be moved or changed if it's not kept properly until we can get the Government Accounting Office to investigate," referring specifically to Canton, Ohio's Diebold Corporation--a major flashpoint in the vote scandal, while further emphasizing the necessity for proper and immediate impounding of Ohio machines.
Stanford computer science professor David Dill also told Olbermann "I know there are a lot of different ways to hack the machines, and the auditing we ought to be doing to catch it is...not being done," adding "...those exit poll companies owe an explanation to the American people. And they owe us the release of the data, so that independent experts can check their claims.
The allegations in Ohio but also in Florida are significant because a change in the election results in either state would cause a new slate of Democrat electors to shift the final electoral college count in Kerry's favor; and there is still time for a full recount before Congress certifies the electoral results on January 6, 2005.
When the righteous triumph, there is great elation; but when the wicked rise to power, men go into hiding. Proverbs 28:12
Will Kerry fund real probe if House member seeks Ohio elector challenge?
by Tom Flocco
Washington -- December 13, 2004 -- TomFlocco.com -- After listening to unofficial but stunning testimony concerning evidence of state-wide vote fraud during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on 2004 election irregularities in Ohio, ranking Democrat John Conyers (D-14-MI) was asked whether he would consider challenging the seating of Buckeye state electors on January 6 when Congress opens the presidential electoral college vote certifying the election of George W. Bush.
Conyers, a Michigan Democrat and senior committee member who convened the Ohio voting aberrations hearing held last Wednesday in the House Rayburn office building, replied, "We are now."
Many Democrats now consider John Kerry's premature concession to George Bush a costly mistake which constitutional scholars say could ultimately affect the rigor, intensity and thoroughness of state and federal judges adjudicating the ongoing Ohio election litigation--a series of unpublicized lawsuits which could augur potential criminal prosecutions.
Except for some post-election reporting by MSNBC Countdown cable TV host Keith Olbermann--who has ceased covering the story in recent days--there has been a curious mainstream television and radio news black-out regarding the state's explosive and expanding electoral conundrum since November 2.
Conyers had expressed concern to Olbermann that "evidence can be moved or changed if it's not kept properly until we can get the Government Accounting Office to investigate," referring specifically to Canton, Ohio's Diebold Corporation--a major flashpoint in the vote scandal, while further emphasizing the necessity for proper and immediate impounding of Ohio machines.
Stanford computer science professor David Dill also told Olbermann "I know there are a lot of different ways to hack the machines, and the auditing we ought to be doing to catch it is...not being done," adding "...those exit poll companies owe an explanation to the American people. And they owe us the release of the data, so that independent experts can check their claims.
Kerry's recount cash
The allegations in Ohio but also in Florida are significant because a change in the election results in either state would cause a new slate of Democrat electors to shift the final electoral college count in Kerry's favor; and there is still time for a full recount before Congress certifies the electoral results on January 6, 2005.
"Evidence can be moved or changed if it's not kept properly until we can get the Government Accounting Office to investigate" Rep. John Conyers
According to pre-General Election filings and the Center for Public Integrity (11-1-2004), the Kerry Campaign has $51.6 million cash-on-hand--more than enough for recounts, legal battles, voting machine tabulator analysis and other investigations in Ohio in order to make a clear-cut case for vote fraud.
But the senator's failure to forcefully seek legal redress to investigate the allegations will make Conyers' position that much more problematic in front of the House and the Senate in January.
According to George Washington University constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley, "On December 7, the electors are certified under federal law and on December 13, the electors actually vote...but those votes are not opened by Congress until January 6. Now, if there are controversies such as some disclosure that a state actually went for Kerry, there is the ability of members of Congress to challenge."
Turley continued: "It requires a written objection from one House member and one senator. If that objection is recorded, then both Houses separate again and they vote by majority vote as to whether to accept the slate of electoral votes from the state in question."
Turley said "over 70% of Ohio's votes were done with punch cards. We know that when you challenge those, they tend to turn over. So there is still room for challenge in Ohio...but without the [major] candidate [the one who suffers the most irreparable harm], judges don't really work that hard."
A post-election Associated Press (AP) report provided evidence that Kerry did not intend to fully use his massive campaign war-chest, as an inner-circle campaign aide said the cash should have been spent in late July to build political organizations in Ohio and Florida--the key states where voting irregularities may have been employed to win enough electoral votes to tip the balance.
Other senior campaign aides told AP reporter Ron Fournier that Kerry wanted to save the money in the event of a recount, legal challenges or other unforeseen bills. Investigative analysis of electronic voting machines and central tabulators was not mentioned by the AP.
In Cleveland's Cayahoga County alone, 29 separate voting precincts show 93,000 more votes than registered voters
The testimony Conyers heard represented more disputed votes than Bush's 136,000 margin and the House Ranking Member promised to hold congressional hearings in Ohio to question the election's legitimacy and whether President Bush was entitled to the state's 20 electoral votes from 5.8 million ballots cast--the closest winning margin by a sitting president since Woodrow Wilson
Kerry also declined to forcefully promulgate state-wide evidence of vote fraud before the American people which would have magnified the importance of a full and thorough Buckeye recount while also forcing television coverage, thus convincing Ohio judges--but also Supreme Court Justices watching from the sidelines--that Kerry was dead serious about exposing voting machine technical secrecy and corporate privatization of the American election process.
Kerry's curious recalcitrance
The Democrat standard-bearer has also received much criticism from party faithful for allowing independent candidates to struggle to accumulate a few hundred thousand dollars in small contributions for state-wide recounts from many of the same voters who originally financed the Kerry-Edwards campaign.
With substantial evidence pointing to stolen Buckeye electoral votes, Kerry has failed to marshal his substantial election recount war-chest for the purpose of financing battleground state lawsuits, impounding electronic voting machines and county-wide central tabulators, employing computer experts for forensic analysis of computer hard-drives and software, hiring expert courtroom witnesses, researchers and investigators, and seeking the initiation of a criminal investigation for credible evidence of vote fraud and denial of equal protection under the law.
One (Cleveland) precinct with 558 registered voters cast nearly 9,000 ballots Zogby.com
Voter turnout exceeds number of registered voters
In Cuyahoga County, home of Cleveland, Ohio's huge minority population, 30 precincts recorded over 100,000 more votes cast than the County's 251,946 registrations--equaling a 39% over-vote, an incredibly shocking statistic deserving a serious investigation for fraud by any fair-minded legislator. In a few of the precincts the over-vote was 100%, as one precinct with 558 registered voters cast nearly 9,000 ballots, according to Zogby.com.
The evidence of fraud is so obvious--so blatant, one would think that if Kerry and Democratic legislators refuse to press for a criminal investigation, they would at least divert some of the senator's enormous sock of leftover campaign cash toward a down payment to purchase their own electronic voting machine corporation.
They could start to compete with machines and software owned or controlled by Republican backers, Bush "Ranger" and "Pioneer" contributors--and incredibly, U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel.
[Excerpt]
To read the complete article, see:
tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=103
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kerry lawyer to see ballots * 62,000 phantom absentees?
[EXCERPT]
From danielpwelch.com
Three interesting items: First, Kerry's lawyer asks for visual inspection of the 92,000 spoiled ballots; Werner Lange's study provides an ominous pattern if widespread; and last, Blackwell doesn't help himself by locking out volunteers, removing ballots from public view, etc.
FROM: Ohio News Network
www.onnnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=2682767
Kerry lawyer asks for visual inspection of some Ohio ballots
-snip-
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Democrat John Kerry is asking county elections officials to allow his witnesses to visually inspect the 92,000 ballots cast in Ohio in which no vote for president was recorded, a Kerry lawyer said Sunday night.
The request is one of 11 items that Kerry is asking for as part of the recount that Ohio's 88 county boards of election will begin this week, according to a letter sent to the boards over the weekend.
"We're trying to increase the transparency of the election process," said Donald McTigue, the lawyer handling the recount for the Kerry campaign.
-snip-
McTigue said the visual inspection is allowed under state law. The goal is to look for potential votes that were not registered by the tabulating equipment.
Other requests include the use of independent experts to check the programming and calibration of the election equipment, something McTigue said has never been allowed.
McTigue also asked that counties accept the help of a group called Votewatch to determine which precincts will be chosen for that part of the vote that will be counted by hand. McTigue said using the group will ensure that the ballots are selected using a valid random sampling method.
(\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/)
62,000 Fraudulent Absentee Ballots in Ohio?
democrats.com/ohio-absentee
(\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/)
--PLUS--
Suspicious Behavior by Ohio Sec. State Blackwell
www.elitestv.com/pub/2004/Dec/EEN41bcaddeb20b7.html
(\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/) (\o/)
The above reference links came via
danielpwelch.com
Editor's Note: Daniel Welch was also an active participant in the former campaign to nominate Dennis J. Kucinich for US President. Like many progressives, and unlike Michael Moore, Danny is delving into the critical next step for democracy, which is really about its first steps, counting votes accurately. ! ! !
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - People's Email Network - Kerry starting to do something
Some of you may have already participated in an issue question on The People's Email Network. We had 12,000 submissions to the Kerry campaign, the DNC, and the GAO on election fraud and as to whether he should join the recount effort.
Now Kerry is starting to take the initiative. Did our 12,000 voices speaking together have an impact? The fact is that he is acting.
But the electoral college has already voted and the recount is just starting. Are your representatives standing up for your rights the way you want them to? If there was ever a time to speak out, this is it. Members of congress are calling for your emails now in the millions to tell them what you want them to do. Here is a new one click page that looks up your senators and house representative and sends your personal message to them and the minority House Judiciary Committee, all at the same time.
www.thepen.us/contest.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Revelations highlight rare Congressional hearings on Ohio vote
Startling new revelations highlight rare Congressional hearings on Ohio vote
by Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman
December 13, 2004
[Excerpt]
Startling new revelations about Ohio's presidential vote have been uncovered as Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee join Rev. Jesse Jackson in Columbus, the state capital, on Monday, Dec. 13, to hold a rare field hearing into election malfeasance and manipulation in the 2004 vote. The Congressional delegation will include Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, and others.
On Sunday, John Kerry spoke with Rev. Jesse Jackson and urged him to take an more active role in investigating the irregularities and ensuring a fair and impartial recount. Kerry said there were three areas of inquiry that should be addressed: 92,000 ballots that recorded no vote for president; qualifying and counting provisional ballots; and supported an independent analysis of the software and set-up of the optical scan voting machines.
What follows are excerpts from some of the affidavits for the election challenge.
For the complete article, see:
freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/985
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Democracy Now! | Was The 2004 Election Legitimate?
Friday, December 10th, 2004
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/10/1450216
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Conyers Hearings - A Blog by William Rivers Pitt
Conyers Hearings on Ohio Vote Fraud Coverage
A Blog by William Rivers Pitt
www.truthout.org/cblog.shtml
2) 9/11 News - Vancouver Sun reviews The New Pearl Harbor
A Theologian Asks the Hard Questions About 9/11
By Douglas Todd
The Vancouver Sun
Dec 11, 2004
David Ray Griffin is one of the most respected philosophers of religion in North America. He is the author or editor of more than 24 academic books, including works co-written with the deans of world religions, Huston Smith and Martin Marty. He has lectured around the world, including at UBC.
Griffin is one of those profiled in the prestigious volume, A Handbook of Christian Theologians. He's painstakingly probed countless philosophical challenges, from the question of why there is evil to the relationship between science and religion, for which he's won numerous awards.
So why did this soft-spoken professor from the high-ranking Methodist-rooted School of Theology at Claremont, Calif., feel it necessary to risk his hard-earned reputation as a religion scholar to write one of the most incredible -- in all senses of the word -- political books of 2004?
Because no one else in mainstream America seemed prepared to do it...
The result? Griffin's book, The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11 (Interlink Publishing, $22.50) has already sold an astonishing 80,000 copies.
Griffin's unflinching analysis of the unanswered questions surrounding the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington has made Amazon.com's bestseller list despite receiving virtually no reviews in North America's mainstream media. That's unlike in Britain, where he's had solid coverage, including a three-page spread in London's mass-circulation Daily Mail.
Personally, when people ask how a group of Muslim extremists could have pulled off the devastating suicide attacks against the U.S., in spite of the country's global intelligence network and massive defence arsenal, I tend to side with the German philosopher, Goethe, who once said: "Why look for conspiracy when stupidity can explain so much?"
But when Griffin, who's known for his careful approach to philosophical problems, poses a series of questions suggesting the administration of George W. Bush had been warned about the terrorist attacks and did nothing, it's enough to make you shudder. The implications would make the Watergate scandal look like a Sunday brunch.
In effect, The New Pearl Harbor fleshes out in 214 pages the question asked in the final moment of Michael Moore's Academy-award-winning documentary, Fahrenheit 911. That's when the filmmaker wonders aloud: What exactly was Bush thinking as he sat in front of a bunch of school children reading a book titled My Pet Goat, knowing two jetliners had been flown into the World Trade Center?
Griffin's book is titled The New Pearl Harbor for two reasons. One, because that's what Bush wrote in his diary on the evening of Sept. 11: "The Pearl Harbor of the 21st century took place today." But also because members of the Bush administration in 2000 helped author the document, Project for the New American Century, which opined it would be difficult to galvanize Americans to support military expansion in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere unless a "new Pearl Harbor" occurred.
Here are a few of the questions Griffin looks into:
* Why did the Bush administration say it didn't anticipate the Sept. 11 attacks when the CIA and FBI had repeatedly told it al-Qaida was planning to hijack planes and fly them into U.S. targets, including the World Trade Center and the Pentagon?
* Why were standard procedures that could have prevented the tragedy not followed when the four hijacked planes went off course, including immediately sending up jet fighters to shoot down passenger planes that fail to obey orders?
* Why has there been no physical evidence a jet plane crashed into the Pentagon? Independent onlookers say they saw a missile fly into the building. Video evidence shot by a nearby gas station's security cameras was confiscated by government officials.
* Why did Bush, despite knowing about first one, then two, World Trade Center crashes, delay his response to them for up to 30 minutes and instead continue to read a children's book? Why was he not whisked away by his security agents, who are trained to believe he's a logical target of terrorists?
* Who made tens of millions of dollars by betting on the stock market in the weeks before Sept. 11 that shares in the two airlines that owned the hijacked planes were about to plummet?
The Bush administration has brushed off all such questions. For his part, Griffin doesn't argue the Bush administration was actually complicit in the attacks. Some of the professor's fans have regretted his cautiousness, because he won't compile a grand theory about why the attacks may have been allowed to happen. He consistently avoids inflammatory rhetoric.
For the complete Vancouver Sun review, click the following link for a septembereleventh.org posting:
~ The New Pearl Harbor ~
3) MIT's Role in Missile Test Fraud by Theodore A. Postol
Published in the Boston Globe, Monday, December 13, 2004.
MIT's Role in Missile Test Fraud
by Theodore A. Postol
[EXCERPT]
After more than 3 1/2 years of foot-dragging, excuses, and violations of federal regulations, MIT announced last week that it could not investigate credible evidence of possible scientific fraud in fundamental National Missile Defense research being done at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory. The reason outgoing president Charles M. Vest gave is that the Pentagon had classified everything about the investigation.
The allegations of fraud involve the critically important Integrated Flight Test 1A, or IFT-1A, in June 1997. Its purpose was to determine if the currently deployed National Missile Defense could tell the difference between warheads flying through space and simple balloons designed to look like warheads. If the IFT-1A experiment could not demonstrate that the weapon could perform this task, the weapon could never have a realistic chance of working in combat.
In May 2000 I sent evidence to the White House that, despite the claims of unqualified success by the Pentagon, the IFT-1A had in fact been a total failure.
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/views04/1213-27.htm
Theodore A. Postol is professor of science, technology, and national security policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
4) "Masters of War" - lyrics by Bob Dylan
Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly
Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain
You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud
You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins
How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do
Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul
And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
ElectionNotOver * NoSafeDose * WarCriminal
04 December 2004
"In the counsels of Government, we must guard against the acquisition
of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the Military Industrial Complex.
The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination
endanger our liberties or democratic processes."
-- Dwight Eisenhower
1) Why We Must Not "Get Over It"
- - NY Daily News ~ "Ohio tally fit for Ukraine"
- - Kerry files support brief in Ohio
- - Something's Fishy in Ohio by Jesse Jackson
- - Did Bush Get Lucky? Or Were the Odds Stacked in His Favor?
2) More on the buying of electoral fraud by the Bush campaign
3) Whistle-blower Sibel Edmonds needs your support!
4) Scalia To Synagogue - Jews Are Safer With Christians In Charge
5) More Lies - U.S. Generals in Iraq Were Told of Abuse Early
- - Human rights group sues Rumsfeld for war crimes
Editor's Notes:
In "The Optimism of Uncertainty," Howard Zinn states that: "We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world." We can celebrate this optimism with a democratic ruling for a re-vote in the Ukraine, where it looks like the majority, not the minority, will choose their Country's leadership. In the first item you will read "Why We Must Not Get Over It.'" And there is good reason to believe Kerry will honestly fight for an honest vote, especially in dedication for those fighting for democracy and misled by an illegitimate war and President.
Link and Download a
Stolen Election Flyer
to post in your community
You can also receive it by postal mail ~ send your snail mail address to info@flybynews.com
This flyer makes it easy to understand key points of vote fraud evidence.
Also, recently updated @ FlybyNews.com
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Public Meeting ~ Thursday (6pm) ~ December 16 ~ Brattleboro, VT --
Hosted by the VT State Nuclear Advisory Panel, the NRC will be present to hear public comments on the Extended Power "Uprate" and the NRC Review Process. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission states that the low levels of certain nuclear radioactive isotopes emitted by the plant has no harmful impact; but this stands in sharp contrast to what has been proved by scientists. Dated May 11, 1999, a Letter of Concern by Dr. John W. Gofman provides information as to why there is "no safe dose" for certain radioactive isotopes inside our bodies. This safety concern has also been realized by the impact from the use of Depleted Uranium missile shells. See FlybyNews.com for this and other updated links and resources.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you,
then they fight you, then you win."
-- Mahatma Gandhi
1) Why We Must Not "Get Over It"
- - NY Daily News ~ "Ohio tally fit for Ukraine"
- - Kerry files support brief in Ohio
- - Something's Fishy in Ohio by Jesse Jackson
- - Did Bush Get Lucky? Or Were the Odds Stacked in His Favor?
- - Why We Must Not "Get Over It"
By Ernest Partridge, The Crisis Papers
December 2, 2004
Hand over the tin foil hat: I'm a believer!
I strongly suspect that if everyone who went to the polls on November 2 voted, and if all the votes were tallied as the voters intended, then John Kerry would now be the President-Elect - by a landslide. Even if we disregard the intended votes of the discouraged voters who were unwilling or unable to remain in line at the polls or whose registration was "lost," Kerry still would have won.
Notice that I said "suspect." I am less than fully convinced.
New evidence of electoral fraud is coming in each day, so I will not attempt to cover even the most prominent new indicators that there has been a horrendous crime against our republic and its citizens. Instead, I would like to offer a fresh perspective on some of the evidence at hand.
Serious consideration of the possibility that George Bush may, for the second time, have acquired his office through fraud and manipulation, has been effectively banished from the mainstream media. The issue has been kept alive by the progressive internet and, occasionally, the foreign press. When, in rare instances, the charge of election fraud is mentioned by the media, it is routinely dismissed with contempt and ridicule.
The rebuttal argument? "Shut up!" "Get over it!" "Conspiracy nuts." "Not worthy of serious consideration." "Move along folks, nothing to see here." This dismissive headline from the New York Times is typical: "Vote Fraud Theories, Spread by Blogs, are Quickly Buried." (See also the Washington Post and the Boston Globe). In fact, prominent among the debunkers are such liberal supporters of John Kerry as Al Franken, Arianna Huffington, and Farad Manjoo (Salon.com).
To be sure, there are reputable scholarly studies that defend the legitimacy of the 2004 Presidential election. Prominent among these are the analyses of the Florida election by Jasjeet Sekhon and Walter Mebane, and by the CalTech-MIT Voting Technology Project (This study is criticized by Peter Caithamer of the University of Indiana).
Soon to follow, however, were disturbing statistical analyses by Steven Freeman of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California-Berkeley's Quantitative Research Team.
Freeman examined the discrepancies between the exit polls and the final tallies in Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania. He concluded that "The odds against all three occurring together are 662,000-to-one. As much as we can say in social science that something is impossible, it is impossible that the discrepancies between predicted and actual vote counts in the three critical battleground states of the 2004 election could have been due to chance or random error."
The UC-Berkeley team concluded that "irregularities associated with electronic voting machines may have awarded 130,000-260,000 or more excess votes to President George W. Bush in Florida in the 2004 presidential election."
Critics of the UC-Berkeley study have pointed out that even if the study were correct, these "excesses" were not sufficient to alter the outcome of the Florida election. However, these were not the only anomalies in Florida. In view of additional irregularities such as "lost" absentee and provisional ballots, an "honest" Florida election might well have gone to John Kerry, and with it the Presidency. As in 2000, the Florida exit polls indicated a victory for the Democrat.
SOME UNDISPUTED FACTS
- The following essential facts about direct-recording electronic (DRE) "touch-screen" voting machines are acknowledged by both sides of the dispute:
- The machines produce no paper or other independently auditable record of the votes.
- The software that records the votes is "proprietary" - i.e., secret.
- It follows that there are no direct and independent means for a citizen or a government agency to verify that a vote has been correctly counted and recorded. As the UC-Berkeley group pointed out, statistical analysis is "the sole method available to monitor the accuracy of e- voting." Accordingly, the only possible answer that a company official can give to a demand for
verification is "trust us."
- DRE machines can be easily "hacked" - vote totals changed, leaving no evidence of the tampering. This is not speculative. Several demonstration "hackings" have been performed.
- The owners and senior officers of the three major companies that manufacture and program the machines are supporters of and contributors to the Republican Party and the Bush Campaign.
Observers abroad are astonished at the willingness of the American people to tolerate the privatization of their elections, and the use of non-auditable polling machines. They should be astonished. American elections are absurdly insecure, as they offer an open invitation for political allies of the DRE manufacturers (i.e., Republicans) to steal elections with little fear of
discovery.
In the 2004 presidential election, about thirty percent of the votes were cast with "paperless" touch-screen voting machines, manufactured by Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia. (Diebold, the largest of these, also manufactures ATM machines and checkout scanners which, of course, print out paper receipts of all transactions).
Diebold and ES&S, both founded by Republican Bob Urosevich, are responsible for the central tallying of about 80% of all votes cast in the United States. (C. D. Sludge and Bob Fitrakis) Recall that Diebold CEO Wally O'Dell announced that he was committed "to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President."
THE "WARRENIZATION" OF THE FRAUD ISSUE
In view of all this, why has there not been a public outcry and a demand for electoral reform?
Because the corporate media have succeeded in "Warrenizing" those who insist that this election may have been stolen by Bush and the Republicans. The critics have been as effectively marginalized as were those who would not accept the "official version" Warren Report on the Kennedy assassination. To this date, critics of the "official version" of the election have had little impact upon the general public, not because their arguments are weak or the rebuttals conclusive, but, far worse for their case, because they are regarded as "unfashionable," and "out of the mainstream."
This is not the place to revive the Warren Report controversy, except to say that even believers, if they are honest and informed, must concede that the skeptics have a plausible case, even if the believers are unconvinced by the skeptics' arguments. To this day, polls show that a majority of the public doubts the Warren Report, nor have most of the public believed it since its publication in September, 1964. Still, it is the "official version" and those who publicly express skepticism are promptly dismissed by the mainstream media.
This might be the fate in store for those who insist that the presidential election of 2004 was stolen by the Bush campaign. Not that they don't have a compelling case, but rather that their accusations are "unfashionable," "out of the mainstream," "grassy knoll conspiracy bunk."
Nonetheless, however much the skeptics are dismissed by the media as "conspiracy nuts," the evidence is what it is. Fashion and the mainstream have nothing to do with it.
"THEY WOULDN'T DARE!"
The crime of stealing a presidential election is so portentous - in effect, it is nothing less than treason - that the public appears unable to seriously consider the thought that Bush and his associates could contemplate, much less accomplish, such an offense against the body politic. "They wouldn't dare!" we are told.
Oh, wouldn't they?
Reflect for a moment: who would have imagined, four years ago, that the Bush administration would dare to implement the following:
- For the first time in our history, an American president launched an aggressive war against a sovereign nation that posed no threat to the United States. Moreover, the justifications for this war have all proven to be without foundation. The war is illegal according to international law.
- In retaliation for the Joseph Wilson's offense of truth-telling, Wilson's wife, CIA operative Valerie Plame, was "outed" by a still-unidentified and unindicted official in Bush Administration. Plame was coordinating counter-terrorist activities.
- American citizens Yassir Hamdi and Jose Padilla were incarcerated indefinitely, without charge, without access to legal counsel, without trial, all this in violation of four articles of the Bill of Rights.
- Torture of prisoners took place at Abu Ghraib and Guantnamo in violation of the Geneva Conventions, which have the force of United States law. Attorney-General designate Alberto Gonzales drew up a memo sanctioning torture, and describing the Geneva Conventions against torture as "quaint."
- "Tax reforms" benefited the wealthiest two percent of the population at the expense of the middle class and the poor, while support of public institutions such as research, education, infrastructure and health care was severely curtailed. The federal deficit has put severe financial burdens upon future generations.
There is much more, of course, but this much makes the point: George Bush and his associates have perpetrated offenses against the American people, the Constitution, and the world community that were scarcely imaginable when they took office four years ago.
In addition, the public has learned of numerous instances of GOP ballot manipulation and voter suppression, including "lost" absentee and provisional ballots, purge lists that disenfranchised tens of thousands of qualified voters (Florida 2000), the closing and unannounced relocation of polling precincts, insufficient numbers of voting machines in heavily Democratic districts
(Ohio, 2004). Why then is it such a "stretch" to suspect that, given the opportunity and little chance of discovery, the same political operatives might not engage in direct alteration of voting totals via software in the voting machines and the vote compiling centers?
Not only might the GOP "fix" an election with paperless e-voting machines, there is compelling statistical evidence that e-voting manipulation and fraud were at work in the 2002 mid-term elections..
..There is not, and cannot be, independent confirmation that they did not fix the election. Such a degree of trust in individuals in high public office should be totally unacceptable to a free people. In fact, the founders of our republic did not believe that morality, goodwill, and a sense of responsibility sufficed to constrain the ambition, greed and power lust of those in public
office. And so, in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the founders instituted the separation of powers, the rule of law and the guarantee of fundamental human rights - safeguards which have been profoundly eroded by the Bush Administration.
WHY NOT "GET OVER IT"?
"Wait 'till next time!," say the leaders of the Democratic Party. "We'll try a different approach, we will sharpen and focus our message." "The 2004 election is over, we lost, now let's move on!" To skeptics such as myself, such talk is profoundly disheartening. For missing from all this is serious consideration that the problem was not the message or the candidate's poor performance - that in fact, the intended votes in this election were sufficient to put John Kerry in the Oval Office, and perhaps even to allow the Democrats to regain control of the Senate.
The Democrats too readily forget that 2004 was "next time." Why believe that 2006 and 2008 will be different? If in fact GOP control of the mechanisms of the election allowed them to steal this election, they will do so next time, and the time after that. Issues, messages, tactics, attractive candidates will all be unavailing. Republican control of all branches of the government
and of the media will be permanent, and independent of the consent of the governed.
Perhaps this election was scrupulously honest. Perhaps George Bush in fact received 59 million authentic votes, and 51% of the popular vote. But dare we accept this on faith, without reflection, without careful examination of the abundant evidence to the contrary? If the election was fair, then no harm will result from a scrupulous assessment of the contrary evidence. The facts will compel that the assessment will come up short. But can we afford the luxury of blind acceptance of the "official" tally? Must we ignore the accumulating evidence of foul play? I submit that we must not. The fate of our democracy is at stake.
Make no mistake: The task ahead will be arduous and for some even dangerous. Some of us will suffer for it. But if we truly love our country, and the principles of morality and justice that ennobled its founding, then we have no honorable choice but to take on this burden.
If the task ahead appears daunting, remember this: in November, 1972, Richard Nixon was re-elected in an unprecedented electoral vote landslide, carrying forty-nine states and gathering 60% of the popular vote. Less than two years later, on August 9, 1974, Nixon resigned in disgrace from the presidency.
As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice."
Dr. Ernest Partridge is a consultant, writer and lecturer in the fields of Environmental Ethics and Moral philosophy. He publishes the website, The Online Gadfly and co-edits the progressive website The Crisis Papers.
[The above were EXCERPTS, for the complete article, see:
http://www.crisispapers.org/essays/get-over-it.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - NY Daily News ~ "Ohio tally fit for Ukraine"
Voter fraud in the Ukraine? Give me a break.
It has been a month now and we still don't have a clear count of the votes for our own presidential race from the state of Ohio.
For those who may have forgotten, Ohio supposedly assured George W. Bush a second term in the White House - only the most important job on the planet.
For the entire article, see:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/story/257365p-220441c.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kerry files support brief in Ohio
The Kerry/Edwards campaign has now filed a brief in Delaware County Ohio in support of the Cobb/Badnarik demand for a recount. Delaware county had issued a restraining order seeking to stop the recount in that county.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/11/30/183635/38
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Something's Fishy in Ohio by Jesse Jackson
The Chicago Sun-Times
Tuesday 30 November 2004
For article see:
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/956
or
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/120304C.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Did Bush Get Lucky? Or Were the Odds Stacked in His Favor?
http://valleyadvocate.com/gbase/archives/index?date=oid:91517
2) More on the buying of electoral fraud by the Bush campaign
More on the buying of electoral fraud by the Bush campaign
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer
November 26, 2004Additional information on the buying of vote riggers with Saudi and former Enron funds has been obtained. The epicenter for the vote rigging operation is Dallas, Texas, and the operation may involve retired FBI agents who used a well-established "good ole boy" network to arrange for access to polling precincts by electronic voting machine technicians who took advantage of various November 2 security "lockdowns" to illegally alter the tabulation of votes in favor of Bush. Some of the retired agents may have used courtesy credentials issued upon retirement to fool unsuspecting polling place workers.
The cost of the operation was estimated at $29 million with the money sent via a circuitous network of offshore trust companies and shell activities. This reporter has obtained a copy of a bank check for $29,600,000 that was allegedly sent to cover the cost of the Texas-based vote rigging operation. The check is dated October 22, 2004, and was made payable to "Five Star Investment Ltd.," a trust said to have long connections to Saudi-funded operations in Texas and around the world. The payer is identified as "Equity Financial Trust," a Houston-based "brass plate" and post office box entity tied to offshore Cook Islands "folding tent" accounts used to hide away profits amassed by the former Enron as well as Saudi financiers.
On October 6, 2004, some two weeks before Equity Financial Trust transferred the money to Five Star Investment Ltd., the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions for Canada listed Equity Financial Trust, along with Bankers Financial and Security Trust, Falcon Financial and Trust, and Unity Virtual Trust Group as "unauthorized financial institutions." In fact, the check for $29.6 million, which is marked "Not to exceed fifty million dollars," is drawn on the Laurentian Bank of Canada's Toronto branch. Its serial number is 317675450 3 and the bank number is 23-97/1020. The bank instrument is issued by Integrated Payment Systems, Inc. of Englewood, Colorado, and Bank One, NA, Denver, Colorado.
It is noteworthy that a number of companies operated by past Bush campaign contributor Pierre Falcone, under criminal investigation in France for weapons smuggling in Angola, are called "Falcon." Several non-governmental organizations, including Global Witness, have tied Falcone to questionable Halliburton activities when Vice President Dick Cheney headed the firm.
Some of the vote riggers who were guaranteed a minimum payment for their services have started talking about the operation because they did not receive the money they were promised.
This is a follow-up to Saudis, Enron money helped pay for US rigged election.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/112504Madsen/112504madsen.html
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist, author and syndicated columnist who previously served in the National Security Agency during the Reagan administration. He concentrates on national security and intelligence issues.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/112604Madsen/112604madsen.html
3) Whistle-blower Sibel Edmonds needs your support!
To: 9/11 Truth activists and concerned citizens,
FBI whistle-blower, Sibel Edmonds, has launched a petition to declassify the Justice Department's Inspector General report concerning her allegations of misconduct and incompetence at FBI translation unit. Please support her and sign the petition here:
http://www.petitiononline.com/deniz18/petition.html
Also, thousands of people have signed the petition of solidarity in support of the Citizens' Complaint submitted to New York State Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer. The complaint cites probable cause for an independent grand jury investigation to examine unsolved crimes committed in connection with the events of September 11, 2001. If you haven't yet signed this petition, here's the link:
http://www.justicefor911.org
Lastly, David Ray Griffin's new book reviewing the 9/11 Commission Report is out. Here is a review written by the author himself:
http://www.septembereleventh.org/newsarchive/2004-11-25-disgrace.php
Towards peace and truth,
Emanuel Sferios
Webmaster, http://SeptemberEleventh.org
4) Scalia To Synagogue - Jews Are Safer With Christians In Charge
Published on Thursday, December 2, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
Scalia To Synagogue - Jews Are Safer With Christians In Charge
by Thom Hartmann
Antonin Scalia, the man most likely to be our next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, turned history on its head recently when he attended an Orthodox synagogue in New York and claimed that the Founders intended for their Christianity to play a part in government. Scalia then went so far as to suggest that the reason Hitler was able to initiate the Holocaust was because of German separation of church and state.
For this article, see:
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1202-33.htm
5) More Lies - U.S. Generals in Iraq Were Told of Abuse Early
- - Human rights group sues Rumsfeld for war crimes
- - U.S. Generals in Iraq Were Told of Abuse Early, Inquiry Finds
By Josh White
The Washington Post
Wednesday 01 December 2004
A confidential report to Army generals in Iraq in December 2003 warned that members of an elite military and CIA task force were abusing detainees, a finding delivered more than a month before Army investigators received the photographs from Abu Ghraib prison that touched off investigations into prisoner mistreatment.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/120204C.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Human rights group sues Rumsfeld for war crimes
[EXCERPT]
A U.S. human rights group has filed a criminal complaint in Germany against U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, accusing him and other senior U.S. officials of war crimes and torture at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison.
On Tuesday, the New York-based U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), Berlin's Republican Lawyers' Association, and four Iraqi civilians, who have been subjected to various forms of torture and abuse by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison, filed a criminal complaint with Germany's Federal Prosecutors.
CCR said it has chosen Germany because of its Code of Crimes Against International Law, introduced in 2002, which grants German courts universal jurisdiction in cases involving war crimes or crimes against humanity.
The CCR accused Rumsfeld, former CIA Director George Tenet, a senior defense official and seven U.S. military officers, including the former top U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, of being responsible for all forms of torture and abuses that the Iraqi civilians were subjected to at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.
"We filed these cases here because there is simply no other place to go," CCR vice president Peter Weiss said in a statement.
"It is clear that the U.S. government is not willing to open an investigation into these allegations against these officials," he added.
The human rights group, moreover, said that this move was the last resort after the U.S. Congress failed to conduct a proper investigation into Abu Ghraib scandal.
"I don't know where this will lead but certainly if war crimes have been committed it should lead to significant jail sentences for people," he added.
CCR vice president Peter Weiss said that U.S. government's failure to pursue those responsible and its justification of various forms of violations due to "extraordinary circumstances" had set a dangerous example.
"This authorization that has come from the highest levels... gives a green light for those kinds of violations throughout the world," he said.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.islamonline.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=5850
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
2004-Vote-Fraud - Saudis, Enron Involved
27 November 2004 - Part 1
1) Evidence 2004 - Not Official - Evidence of Fraud
- - Bev Harris: Summary of irregularities in Volusia
- - Kerry clutches to hopes of recount victory
- - NY Times- Republican Challenges Election Results from Exit Polls
- - More 2004-Vote-Fraud Resources
2) Saudis, Enron money helped pay for US rigged election
Editor's Notes
Okay.. there is still hope the so-called "official election results" will be overturned. The second item sounds like an episode of a TV hit series, "Alias." Yet, the author of the article is real, Wayne Madsen, a Washington, DC-based investigative reporter. His article shows how the 'Saudis, Enron money helped pay for US rigged election.'
1) Evidence 2004 - Not Official - Evidence of Fraud
- - Bev Harris: Summary of irregularities in Volusia
- - Kerry clutches to hopes of recount victory
- - NY Times- Republican Challenges Election Results from Exit Polls
- - More 2004-Vote-Fraud Resources
Bev Harris: Summary of irregularities in Volusia
From BlackBoxVoting.org
Citizens take action to clean up elections
NOV 23 2004: -- Volusia County resident Susan Pynchon, with the help of Volusia County attorney Daniel R. Vaughen, P.A., filed a lawsuit on Tuesday, Nov. 23, seeking to set aside the Nov. 2, 2004 Volusia County election due to irregularities.
Summary of irregularities in Volusia: www.blackboxvoting.org/#lawsuit
Full text of lawsuit www.blackboxvoting.org/volusia-lawsuit.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kerry clutches to hopes of recount victory
White House calls on nation to 'come together'
by Adam Stone
[EXCERPT]
A White House spokeswoman told North County News last Friday that citizens should embrace the Election Day results and dismiss recount efforts in Ohio that could hand Democratic Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts the presidency.
"The election has ended, and now is the time for the country to come together to address the challenges our nation faces," the spokeswoman, Suzy DeFrancis, remarked.
Bush won Ohio by a vote of 2,796,147 to John Kerry's 2,659,664, according to the official tally.
In a series of e-mail interviews with North County News two weeks ago, Kerry spokesman David Wade spoke about recount efforts led by a team of 17,000 lawyers that could trigger the removal of President George W. Bush from office.
Since then, under mounting pressure from alternative media outlets as well as progressive voices outside the Democratic Party, Kerry issued a statement to his supporters that left open the possibility that he could obtain--through a recount--the requisite electoral votes to seize the White House.
"Regardless of the outcome of this election, once all the votes are counted--and they will be counted--we will continue to challenge this administration," Kerry said through a web-exclusive statement and video Friday, which, curiously, was not distributed to the press.
The usage of the word 'regardless' in the carefully parsed statement was the first indication Kerry has offered that, in his mind, the official election results might be inaccurate enough to tilt the election in his favor.
Wade was e-mailed the remarks from the White House spokeswoman.
"Any president of the United States should make it a priority to count every vote in our country because every citizen's full faith in the democratic process is critical," Wade responded yesterday (Tuesday). "That's why John Kerry and John Edwards built a voter protection team of lawyers around the country, lawyers who are today monitoring recounts and the counting of provisional ballots including Ohio and New Mexico. Every vote will be counted, and we Democrats aren't afraid to fight to protect voters' rights."
A Kerry victory in Ohio would give the senator enough electoral votes to seize the White House.
In another signal the Kerry/Edwards team is increasing its involvement in the recount effort, a note was posted on the campaign website yesterday that called on supporters to contribute to the Kerry-Edwards 2004 General Election Legal and Accounting Compliance Fund.
"The Federal Election Commission has just granted our request to raise funds now to cover recount expenses," the website states. "Your contribution to Kerry-Edwards 2004 GELAC will provide the resources to make sure we are prepared to win the post election day battles."
Other than alleged voting irregularities, some have called into question the reversal of the exit polls (surveys of individuals who have just cast ballots), which early on predicted a Kerry victory.
Based on the full set of the 4 p.m. Election Day exit poll data Dr. Stephen F. Freeman from the University of Pennsylvania calculated that "the odds of just three of the major swing states, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania all swinging as far as they did against their respective exit polls were 250 million to one."
The Ohio Election Protection Coalition's public hearings have documented insufficient voting machines in black Democratic precincts resulting in five-to-seven hour waits, voter intimidation, machine malfunctions and other irregularities.
Another significant development this week was the Democratic Party breaking its silence on the matter.
Ohio Chairman Dennis White distributed a press release on Monday afternoon that ran the headline: "Kerry/Edwards Campaign Joins Ohio Recount."
It stated "assuring Ohioans receive an accurate count of all votes cast for president has prompted the Democratic Party to join the initiative to recount the results of the November 2 presidential election."
The White House was asked to respond specifically to Wade's statements in last week's North County News article and also address the Ohio recount and reports of voting irregularities.
DeFrancis declined to comment on the particulars.
The article sparked dozens of impassioned e-mail responses from readers outside of North County News' northern Westchester coverage area, with the piece being picked up by assorted alternative media news outlets.
With the recount controversy spreading through the Web universe at a feverish pace, the article ranked as the top hit on the Yahoo search engine for basic research entries about what is being dubbed as "Votergate."
The article buoyed the spirits of a New York-based activist group that was formed to pressure the mainstream media into covering the stories chronicling voting irregularities and the Ohio recount effort commissioned by the Libertarian and Green parties.
"Democracy is at stake and this needs major media attention," remarked Ellen Frank, an East Hampton, New York resident.
"There is an unofficial lockdown by the mainstream press," said Frank, whose brother, Dr. Justin Frank, published a book in June named "Bush on the Couch: Inside the mind of the president."
"When I read the article, I said: '17,000 lawyers. Is this really true? Are they really working on this?,'" remembered Frank, who distributed the article at a MoveOn.org party.
"We're trying to get enough major media attention to challenge the election," said Frank, who filed a complaint with the U.S. Supreme Court during the 2000 election, citing herself as a disenfranchised voter.
Two minor-party presidential candidates raised enough money to file for an official recount of the vote in Ohio.
The Green Party has been working with the Libertarian Party--both parties were on the ballot in Ohio--in securing a recount. Green Party candidate David Cobb and Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik say they've demanded that Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican who co-chaired this year's Bush campaign in Ohio, recuse himself from the recount process.
Cobb Media Director Blair Bobier said, "The Ohio presidential election was marred by numerous press and independent reports of mismarked and discarded ballots, problems with electronic voting machines and the targeted disenfranchisement of African-American voters."
"Due to widespread reports of irregularities in Ohio's voting process, we are compelled to demand a recount of the Ohio presidential vote," Badnarik and Cobb said in a joint statement. "Voting is at the heart of the American political process and its integrity must be preserved. When Americans stand in line for hours to exercise their right to vote, they need to know that their votes will be counted fairly and accurately."
The Ohio vote will be certified on December 3 at the latest, Bobier said. The Electoral College votes on December 13, so it is unclear whether or not a recount would be completed by then.
The minor-party presidential candidates filed a federal lawsuit Monday to force a recount of Ohio ballots, and a spokesman for the state Democratic Party said it intended to join the suit.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Toledo, Bobier said.
Dan Trevas, spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Party, said the party would join the recount request after the secretary of state certified the results, or sooner if an early recount is ordered by a court..
According to a November 5 article by the Associated Press, election officials in Ohio admitted that an error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in a Gahanna precinct. Franklin County reported Bush with 4,258 votes and John Kerry with 260, even though only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct.
Bev Harris of BlackBoxVoting, along with people from Florida Fair Elections, showed up at Florida's Volusia County Elections Office on the afternoon of Tuesday, November 16 and asked to see, under a public records request, each of the poll tapes for the 100-plus optical scanners in the precincts in that county. The election workers, having been notified in advance of her request, handed her a set of printouts dated November 15 and lacking signatures.
Harris pointed out that the printouts given to her were not the original poll tapes and had no signatures, and thus were not what she had requested.
Reportedly, they told her that the originals were held in another location, the election office's warehouse, and that, since it was the end of the day, they should meet her the following morning to show them to her. The next day she started searching the garbage bags outside, finding public record tapes in the trash. Disparities between the November 15 tape and November 2 tape emerged--all reportedly favoring President Bush.
Harris could not be reached for comment by press time.
..Olbermann posted an entry on his blog on Monday evening, after that night's Countdown telecast.
"As Kerry himself calculated early on November 3, the provisional ballots alone obviously could not provide anything close to enough bona fide Democratic votes to overcome President Bush's 135,000 vote plurality in the Ohio election night tally," he wrote. "But as Howard also pointed out - and my colleague David Shuster so thoroughly extrapolated in a previous post on Hardblogger - the provisionals plus the 'undercount' could make things very close indeed. The punch-card ballots 'where it looks like nobody marked anything' when read by an optical scanning machine, might produce thousands of legitimate votes if hand-counted and judged by Ohio's strict laws defining how many corners of the proverbial chads have to be detached to make a vote valid."
Fineman's analysis, Olbermann writes, "(puts) it in terms that the mainstream can't ignore."
That's heartening to the likes of Ellen Frank.
"There is something very wrong here with the press," said Frank, who suspects, like other recount activists, that top level producers and editors in the mainstream press have barred their talent from covering the story extensively, as to avoid the appearance of partisanship.
"We believe democracy itself is at risk," said Frank, whose ad hoc group of philanthropists, writers and other activists are, among other things, mounting letter-writing campaigns about the recount to newspapers across the nation.
"We believe this was a fraudulent election," she said. ".We are fearful that 'major' media is intimidated. We are fearful we are abandoned by our own Democratic Party. We are working to hold the administration and our party accountable."
astone@northcountynews.com .
The above was excerpts, for the complete article, see:
www.northcountynews.com/view.asp?s=11-24-04/news5.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - NY Times- Republican Challenges Election Results from Exit Polls
REPUBLICAN CHALLENGES PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION BASED ON EXIT POLLS
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
from the New York Times
An international election observer mission - from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the European Parliament, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and the Council of Europe - released a preliminary report on Monday declaring that the election did not meet democratic standards.
The observers' findings were seconded by Republican Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Citing the disturbing fact that official results diverged sharply from a range of surveys of voters at polling places, Lugar said, "A concerted and forceful program of election-day fraud and abuse was enacted with either the leadership or cooperation of governmental authorities."
For the complete article, see:
www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=396&row=0
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - More 2004-Vote-Fraud Resources
Evidence of widespread voter suppression,
machine malfunctions, glitches, irregularities,
and fraud in Swing States
Florida www.flcv.com/flavi04.html
Ohio www.flcv.com/ohiov04.html
Swing States www.flcv.com/votefrau.html
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
New Ohio voter transcripts feed floodtide of
doubt about Republican election manipulation
by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
November 25, 2004
COLUMBUS -- A floodtide of evidence of questionable practices in the 2004 election is mounting fast against Ohio Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell and Republican Franklin County Board of Elections (BOE) Director Matt Damschroder. New transcriptions of sworn voter testimony, presented below for the first time, confirm growing suspicions of widespread use of rigged machines. Voters experienced hostility from poll workers, refusal of Republican election officials to follow the law, and discriminatory manipulation of voting machine placement, driving significant numbers of Democrats away from the polls.
For more on these transcripts and article, see:
www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/930
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Voter map of Widespread Election Problems in Ohio
http://www.votersunite.org/info/mapflyerohio2004.pdf
www.votersunite.org/electionproblems.asp?sort=date&selectstate=OH&selectproblemtype=ALL
Lawsuits, etc.
shadowbox.i8.com//stolen.htm
Stolen Election Flyer
(To download and post in your community)
img8.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img8&image=bush-stole-it.png
2) Saudis, Enron money helped pay for US rigged election
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer
[EXCERPTS]
November 25, 2004According to informed sources in Washington and Houston, the Bush campaign spent some $29 million to pay polling place operatives around the country to rig the election for Bush. The operatives were posing as Homeland Security and FBI agents but were actually technicians familiar with Diebold, Sequoia, ES&S, Triad, Unilect, and Danaher Controls voting machines. These technicians reportedly hacked the systems to skew the results in favor of Bush.
The leak about the money and the rigged election apparently came from technicians who were promised to be paid a certain amount for their work but the Bush campaign interlocutors reneged and some of the technicians are revealing the nature of the vote rigging program.
There have been media reports from around the country concerning the locking down of precincts while votes were being tallied. In one unprecedented action in Warren County, Ohio, election officials locked down the facility where votes were being counted. The officials said this was in response to a Level 10 high-threat terrorist warning being issued by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI for Warren County. George Bush won 72 percent of the vote in Warren County, much larger than his percentage of victory statewide.
The money to rig the election in favor of Bush reportedly came from an entity called Five Star Trust, largely based in Houston but a worldwide entity that is directly tied to the Saudi Royal Family. Five Star Trust was termed "a well-protected vehicle" that has been used to support both Bush and Osama bin Laden in the US and around the world.
Other money used to fund the election rigging was from siphoned Enron money stored away in accounts in the Cook Islands, which was once the base of one of the more questionable and Saudi-linked BCCI subsidiaries..
..As detailed in the book "The Paradise Conspiracy" by New Zealand journalist Ian Wishart, the Cook Islands scheme also involved several CIA operatives, including Lawrence John Fahey, who had an interest in InterAir of Nevada, one of the airlines used by Ollie North to funnel arms to Iran. It also involved William Raupe, a CIA officer stationed under cover as a USAID employee at the US embassy in Suva. Raupe had once worked for Air America in South East Asia. Another CIA agent active in the Cooks was Robert C. Allen, known to New Zealand authorities as a US agent who was formerly with the CIA proprietary firm Bishop, Baldwin, Dillingham, Wong Ltd.
In addition, along with the late former Treasury Secretary William Simon, Gerald Parsky was also involved in the European Pacific Bank's Cook Islands operations. Parsky is George W. Bush's chief fundraiser and adviser in California (he led Bush's 2000 California campaign) and supported Simon's son's unsuccessful bid for the governorship of California against Gray Davis and then again in the recall of Davis. Enron was involved early on with Arnold Schwarzenegger at a meeting in 2001 at the Beverly Hills Hotel at the same time Enron was bilking California utility customers with increases as high as 1000 percent This scheme eventually led to Davis's recall and his replacement by Schwarzenegger.
The Cook Islands-Citibank-European Pacific fraud appeared to have been cooked up to take the place of other "outed" CIA banking activities, including Nugan Hand Bank in Australia. European Pacific also involved assets of BCCI, in particular the Commercial Bank of Commerce in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, a BCCI subsidiary. MIchael Hand, a former Green Beret who reportedly served with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in Laos (and whose partner, Frank Nugan, was found shot to death in 1980 in Australia) later turned up associated with Euromac (European Manufacturing Center) Ltd., a British company that tried to sell nuclear trigger krytrons to Saddam Hussein before the first Gulf War. Nugan Hand's chief counsel, William Colby, a former CIA Director, was found floating in the Chesapeake in 1996.
The sale of nuclear material to Iraq was funded through Saudi operations in Houston, including those associated with George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, James R. Bath, and Saudis Abdullah Taha Baksh, and Kamal Adham, as well as Lebanese businessman Ghaith Pharaon (who was also involved in the collapse of Miami's CenTrust S&L, a bank that had ties to Jeb Bush). This gang, along with Salem Bin Laden, the older brother of Osama, funneled over $1 million into failed Bush ventures, including Arbusto, Spectrum 7, and Harken Energy. Some of the Saudi money also financed Enron Oil and Gas Resources (later EOG Resources) in the Belspec Fusselman Field in Midland, Texas, a deal in which George W. Bush had a financial stake. In fact, Saudi planes in the 1980s landed in Houston with mountains of cash used to buy nuclear material for Saddam to possibly use against the Iranians. The money was laundered through Houston's Main Bank, a bank close to the Bush family. Skyway Aircraft of Houston, owned by Bath, was invested in by Abu Dhabi's ruler (the main owner of BCCI) and whose parent company in the Cayman Islands was used by Ollie North to collect foreign money for his Iran-contra enterprise..
For the complete article, see:
onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/112504Madsen/112504madsen.html
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative reporter.
He was also the Operations Officer at Naval Facility Coos Head,
Oregon from 1980 to 1982 and assisted the FBI and NIS in the
investigation as a temporary special agent.
For Part 2 of November 27, 2004 - see:
WorthlessIntelligenceAgency * FallujaTorture
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
WorthlessIntelligenceAgency * FallujaTorture
27 November 2004 - Part 2
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it,
misdiagnosing it and then misapplying the wrong remedies.
-- Groucho Marx
1) How to Create a WIA -- Worthless Intelligence Agency
- - Where's the intelligence? - - Depleted uranium:
- - FBI Interviews Halliburton Whistleblower
- - CIA Knew of Plot Against Venezuela's Chavez
- - International Criminal Court confronted by US Lawmakers
2) Unusual Weapons' Used in Fallujah
- - Falluja: The 21st Century Guernica
Editor's Notes
In this second of today's 2-part issue of FN, we open with an article detailing what Bush and Congress are trying to accomplish by re-arranging the intelligence community. Talk about the fox guarding the hen house. More on the intelligence fiasco are in subsections, including confirmation that the 'CIA Knew of Plot Against Venezuela's Chavez.' Perhaps if John F. Kerry is elected as US President, (see part one), then a re-structuring of the intelligence community would be appropriate. Holding Bush back from getting his way on the "Intelligence Bill" were some Republican Conservative members of Congress. Real patriots can cover the spectrum of progressive-conservative ideologies, united behind principles of the US Constitution. The second item in this part reveals more on the horrendous assault on Falluja, proving the un-intelligence of actions not to thwart terrorism, but that actually promotes it.
The statesmen will invent cheap lies,
putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked,
and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities,
and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them;
and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just,
and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process
of grotesque self-deception.
– Mark Twain
"The Mysterious Stranger" (1910)
1) How to Create a WIA -- Worthless Intelligence Agency
- - Where's the intelligence? - - Depleted uranium:
- - FBI Interviews Halliburton Whistleblower
- - CIA Knew of Plot Against Venezuela's Chavez
- - International Criminal Court confronted by US Lawmakers
How to Create a WIA -- Worthless Intelligence Agency
Published November 24, 2004 by TomDispatch.com
How to Create a WIA -- Worthless Intelligence Agency
by Chalmers Johnson
Two weeks after George Bush's reelection, Porter J. Goss, the newly appointed Director of Central Intelligence, wrote an internal memorandum to all employees of his agency telling them, "[Our job is to] support the administration and its policies in our work. As agency employees, we do not identify with, support, or champion opposition to the administration or its policies."[1] Translated from bureaucrat-speak, this directive says, "You now work for the Republican Party. The intelligence you produce must first and foremost protect the President from being held accountable for the delusions he has concerning Iraq, Osama bin Laden, preventive war, torturing captives, democracy growing from the barrel of a gun, and the 'war on terror.'"
The term "intelligence" has always rested uneasily in the name of the Central Intelligence Agency. There is no question that the agency was created in 1947 on the orders of President Truman for the sole purpose of collecting, evaluating, and coordinating -- through espionage and from the public record -- information related to the national security of the United States. Truman was concerned to prevent another surprise attack on the U.S. like Pearl Harbor and to ensure that all information available to the government was compiled and presented to him in a timely and usable form. The National Security Act of 1947 placed the CIA under the explicit direction of the National Security Council (NSC), the president's chief staff unit for making decisions about war and peace, and gave it five functions. Four of them concern the collection, coordination, and dissemination of intelligence. It is the fifth -- which allows the CIA to "perform such other functions and duties related to intelligence affecting the national security as the National Security Council may from time to time direct" -- that has turned the CIA into a personal, secret, unaccountable army any president can order into battle without first having to ask Congress to declare war, as the Constitution requires.
Clandestine operations, although nowhere mentioned in the CIA's enabling statutes, quickly became the Agency's main activity and as one of its most impartial Congressional analysts, Loch K. Johnson, has put the matter, "The covert action shop had become a place for rapid promotion within the agency."[6] The Directorate of Operations (DO) soon absorbed two-thirds of the CIA's budget and personnel, while the Directorate of Intelligence limped along writing National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs) -- summaries of intelligence produced by all the various intelligence agencies, including those in the Department of Defense -- for the White House.
Meanwhile, CIA covert operations subverted domestic journalism, planted false information in foreign newspapers, and covertly fed large amounts of money to members of the Christian Democratic Party in Italy, to King Hussein of Jordan, and to clients in Greece, West Germany, Egypt, Sudan, Suriname, Mauritius, the Philippines, Iran, Ecuador, and Chile. Clandestine agents devoted themselves to such tasks as depressing the global prices of agricultural products in order to damage uncooperative Third World countries, and sponsoring guerrilla wars or miscellaneous insurgencies in places as diverse as the Ukraine, Poland, Albania, Hungary, Indonesia, China, Tibet, Oman, Malaysia, Iraq, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, North Korea, Bolivia, Thailand, Haiti, Guatemala, Cuba, Greece, Turkey, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Angola, and Nicaragua, to name only a few of those on the public record. All this was justified by the Cold War, and no one beyond a very small group inside the government knew anything about it. The Central Intelligence Act of 1949 modified the National Security Act of 1947 with a series of amendments that, in the words of that pioneer scholar of the CIA Harry Howe Ransom, "were introduced to permit [the CIA] a secrecy so absolute that accountability might be impossible."[7]
How to Misuse Intelligence..
..When it comes to ignoring accurate CIA intelligence, the preeminent example in the Bush administration was National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice's indifference to al-Qaeda and her failure to ensure that the president read and understood the explicit warnings of an imminent surprise attack that the agency delivered to her. As the Washington Post's Steve Coll has summarized the matter in his book Ghost Wars, "BIN LADEN DETERMINED TO STRIKE IN U.S. was the headline on the President's Daily Brief presented to Bush at his Crawford, Texas, ranch on August 6 [2001]. The report included the possibility that bin Laden operatives would seek to hijack airplanes. The hijacking threat, mentioned twice, was one of several possibilities outlined. There was no specific information about when or where such an attack might occur."[14]
Slaying the Messenger
After the extent of its failure became known, and under extreme pressure from the public and families of the victims of 9/11, the Bush administration reluctantly authorized the creation of a National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States and permitted National Security Adviser Rice to testify before it in public. But the fix was in: The Commission was to concentrate on "intelligence failures," not on the failure of policymakers to heed the intelligence, and on the need to "reform" the CIA but not to such an extent as to damage the president's ability to blame it for his mistakes.
On November 20, 2004, right-wing members of the House of Representatives scuttled the major recommendation of the 9/11 Commission -- namely, to provide the leader of the American intelligence community with greater authority to direct and coordinate the analyses of all 15 intelligence agencies. Reflecting the Pentagon's interests in maintaining control over 80% of the $40 billion annual intelligence budget, Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and an ally of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, withdrew his support.
..After the 9/11 attacks and the Bush administration's decision to go to war with Iraq, the focus shifted from ignoring unwanted intelligence to actively creating false intelligence. The critical item was the NIE of October 1, 2002, entitled "Iraq's Continuing Program for Weapons of Mass Destruction," which became known inside the CIA as the "whore of Babylon."[15] It explicitly endorsed Vice President Cheney's contention of August 26, 2002 -- "We know that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons" -- and was signed by DCI George Tenet with "high confidence." "The intelligence process," writes CIA veteran Ray McGovern, "was not the only thing undermined. So was the Constitution. Various drafts of the NIE, reinforced with heavy doses of 'mushroom-cloud' rhetoric, were used to deceive congressmen and senators into ceding to the executive their prerogative to declare war -- the all-important prerogative that the framers of the Constitution took great care to reserve exclusively to our elected representatives in Congress."
In succeeding months numerous review commissions revealed that the October NIE was only one of numerous failures by the truth-tellers to do what the people of the United States pay them to do. The Senate Intelligence Committee, the 9/11 Commission, and the CIA's Iraq Survey Group under Charles Duelfer all reported that the CIA's so-called intelligence on Iraqi WMD was fictitious. Even more dangerously for the White House, these reports suggested that its so-called war on terrorism and its attack on Iraq rather than on the true perpetrators of 9/11 were based on false intelligence, much of it manufactured in the Pentagon.
..The new head of the CIA, Porter Goss, is now setting about knocking off all such messengers and their supporters still inside the CIA because the agency, despite its frequent co-option and misuse by presidents, still retains a vestigial role as a truth-teller. Goss had been ordered to make it appear that the agency misled the President (rather than the other way round, as actually happened). He is then supposed to shake up what he calls a "dysfunctional" organization. After George Tenet resigned as DCI in July 2004 and went on the lecture circuit at $35,000 a pop -- he had earned well over a half-million dollars by November -- Bush appointed Goss to control further truth-telling at Langley and to head off efforts by Congress to create a powerful intelligence czar, as the 9/11 Commission has recommended.[17] The Senate confirmed Goss by a vote of 77 to 17 (six senators did not vote), strongly suggesting the increasing worthlessness of Senate oversight of the executive branch.
Goss represented the 14th district of Florida for some sixteen years in the House of Representatives, but before that, between 1962 and 1971, he worked in the CIA's Directorate of Operations (DO). He was stationed primarily in Latin America, and rumors persist that he left the agency under a cloud. In 1995, he was appointed to the House's Intelligence Oversight Committee and in 1997 became its chairman. There is no evidence that he did anything at all in this position, including investigating the intelligence lapses that preceded 9/11 or the failure of the CIA to have placed a single spy anywhere within Saddam Hussein's regime. Admiral Stansfield Turner, DCI under President Carter, has said that Goss was the worst appointment ever made to the position of director of the CIA.
How to Create a Worthless Intelligence Agency
..Nonetheless, the CIA still retains its statutory role of compiling and transmitting to the president objective intelligence on matters it deems relevant to the nation's security. The Agency may have become little more than a speed-bump for an imperial president who also dominates the Congress and the courts, but it is still part of the checks and balances of power within the executive branch of our government that make the U.S. a democratic republic and protect us from an imperial usurpation of power. With the reelection of President Bush and the appointment of Porter Goss to bring the CIA under White House control, it becomes increasingly hard to see how the republic will survive.
Chalmers Johnson's latest books Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire (Metropolitan, 2000) and The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (Metropolitan, 2004) are the first two volumes in a trilogy on American imperial policies. The final volume is now being written. Between 1967 and 1973 Johnson served as a consultant to the CIA's Office of National Estimates.
2004 Chalmers Johnson
Published November 24, 2004 by TomDispatch.com
The above was an EXCERPT,
For the complete article and footnote links, see:
www.commondreams.org/views04/1124-10.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Where's the intelligence? - - Depleted uranium:
Dirty bombs, dirty missiles, dirty bullets
A death sentence here and abroad
by Leuren Moret
www.sfbayview.com/081804/Depleteduranium081804.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - FBI Interviews Halliburton Whistleblower
By John Solomon
The Associated Press
Wednesday 24 November 2004
WASHINGTON, An Army whistleblower who raised concerns that the Pentagon improperly awarded business to Vice President Dick Cheney's former company has been interviewed extensively by the FBI and is gathering documents to help agents.
For this article, see:
www.truthout.org/docs_04/112604Q.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - CIA Knew of Plot Against Venezuela's Chavez
Leader Not Warned, Documents Reveal
Published by the Long Island, NY Newsday
by Bart Jones and Letta Tayler
CIA PAPERS ON VENEZUELA COUP
U.S. kept quiet on Chvez plot
[EXCERPT]
November 24, 2004
The U.S. government knew of an imminent plot to oust Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chvez, in the weeks prior to a 2002 military coup that briefly unseated him, newly released CIA documents show, despite White House claims to the contrary a week after the putsch.
Yet the United States, which depends on Venezuela for nearly one-sixth of its oil, never warned the Chvez government, Venezuelan officials said.
The Bush administration has denied it was involved in the coup or knew one was being planned. At a White House briefing on April 17, 2002, just days after the 47-hour coup, a senior administration official who did not want to be named said, "The United States did not know that there was going to be an attempt of this kind to overthrow - or to get Chvez out of power."
Yet based on the newly released CIA briefs, an analyst said yesterday that did not appear to be the case.
"This is substantive evidence that the CIA knew in advance about the coup, and it is clear that this intelligence was distributed to dozens of members of the Bush administration, giving them knowledge of coup plotting," said Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst at the National Security Archive in Washington.
For the complete article published by Newsday.com, see: www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-wovene244053424nov24,0,66950,print.story?coll=ny-worldnews-headlines
also posted: www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1124-02.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - International Criminal Court confronted by US Lawmakers
U.S. Threatens to Cut Aid over Court
Published November 26, 2004
by the San Francisco Chronicle
Congress Wants Immunity Accords for Americans
by Colum Lynch
UNITED NATIONS -- The Republican-controlled Congress has stepped up its campaign to curtail the power of the International Criminal Court, threatening to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in economic aid to governments that refuse to sign immunity accords shielding U.S. personnel from being surrendered to the tribunal.
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1126-02.htm
2) Unusual Weapons Used in Fallujah
- - Falluja: The 21st Century Guernica
Unusual Weapons' Used in Fallujah
by Dahr Jamail
Published November 26, 2004 by the Inter Press Service
BAGHDAD, Nov 26 (IPS) - The U.S. military has used poison gas and other non-conventional weapons against civilians in Fallujah, eyewitnesses report..
"Poisonous gases have been used in Fallujah," 35-year-old trader from Fallujah Abu Hammad told IPS. "They used everything -- tanks, artillery, infantry, poison gas. Fallujah has been bombed to the ground."
Hammad is from the Julan district of Fallujah where some of the heaviest fighting occurred. Other residents of that area report the use of illegal weapons.
"They used these weird bombs that put up smoke like a mushroom cloud," Abu Sabah, another Fallujah refugee from the Julan area told IPS. "Then small pieces fall from the air with long tails of smoke behind them."
He said pieces of these bombs exploded into large fires that burnt the skin even when water was thrown on the burns. Phosphorous weapons as well as napalm are known to cause such effects. "People suffered so much from these," he said.
Macabre accounts of killing of civilians are emerging through the cordon U.S. forces are still maintaining around Fallujah.
"Doctors in Fallujah are reporting to me that there are patients in the hospital there who were forced out by the Americans," said Mehdi Abdulla, a 33-year-old ambulance driver at a hospital in Baghdad. "Some doctors there told me they had a major operation going, but the soldiers took the doctors away and left the patient to die."
Spokesman for the Iraqi Red Crescent in Baghdad Abdel Hamid Salim told IPS that none of their relief teams had been allowed into Fallujah, and that the military had said it would be at least two more weeks before any refugees would be allowed back into the city.
"There is still heavy fighting in Fallujah," said Salim. "And the Americans won't let us in so we can help people."
In many camps around Fallujah and throughout Baghdad, refugees are living without enough food, clothing and shelter. Relief groups estimate there are at least 15,000 refugee families in temporary shelters outside Fallujah.
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1126-01.htm
The above article was first published by Inter Press Service
IPS.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Falluja: The 21st Century Guernica
Where's Picasso?
By Saul Landau
Progreso Weekly
25 November to 01 December 2004 Issue
On November 12, as U.S. jets bombed Falluja for the ninth straight day, a Redwood City California jury found Scott Peterson guilty of murdering his wife and unborn child. That macabre theme captured the headlines and dominated conversation throughout workplaces and homes.
Indeed, Peterson "news" all but drowned out the U.S. military's claim that successful bombing and shelling of a city of 300,000 residents had struck only sites where "insurgents" had holed up. On November 15, the BBC embedded newsman with a marine detachment claimed that the unofficial death toll estimate had risen to well over 2,000, many of them civilians.
As Iraqi eyewitnesses told BBC reporters he had seen bombs hitting residential targets, Americans exchanged viewpoints and kinky jokes about Peterson. One photographer captured a Falluja man holding his dead son, one of two kids he lost to U.S. bombers. He could not get medical help to stop the bleeding.
A November 14 Reuters reporter wrote that residents told him that "U.S. bombardments hit a clinic inside the Sunni Muslim city, killing doctors, nurses and patients." The U.S. military denied the reports. Such stories did not make headlines. Civilian casualties in aggressive U.S. wars don't sell media space.
But editors love shots of anguished GI Joes. The November 12 Los Angeles Times ran a front page shot of a soldier with mud smeared face and cigarette dangling from his lips. This image captured the "suffering" of Falluja. The GI complained he was out of "smokes."
The young man doing his "duty to free Falluja," stands in stark contrast to the nightmare of Falluja. "Smoke is everywhere," an Iraqi told the BBC (Nov 11). "The house some doors from mine was hit during the bombardment on Wednesday night. A 13-year-old boy was killed. His name was Ghazi. A row of palm trees used to run along the street outside my house now only the trunks are left There are more and more dead bodies on the streets and the stench is unbearable."
For the complete article published first by Progreso Weekly, Inc.
See: www.progresoweekly.com/index.php?progreso=Landau&otherweek=1101362400
also posted:
www.truthout.org/docs_04/112604I.shtml
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
KerryCounting * FallujaKilling * FloridaVotes?
20 November 2004
"We follow the law of armed conflict and
hold ourselves to a high standard of accountability,"
Lt. Gen. John Sattler
* * * * * * * * * *
"The result has been a bloodbath. According to one recent study
appearing in the British medical magazine The Lancet, the US
invasion has resulted in 100,000 additional violent deaths in
the space of barely 20 months. This is the equivalent of a
September 11 every week-and-a-half in a country with
less than one-tenth the population of the US."
Bill Van Auken
(From "The siege of Fallujah
America on a killing spree" item 3)
1) The Next Step - a letter from John Kerry
- - Confirmation That Kerry Is On The Voting Problem Case
2) Progressive Democrats - breaking the silence on war in Iraq
3) "The siege of Fallujah - America on a killing spree"
4) Something stinks with voting machines in Florida - Experts Confirm!
- - University researchers challenge Bush win in Florida
Editor's Notes:
Over 48,000 Americans have signed this following online petition to Congress
requesting an investigation into vote fraud. To read and sign, see:
A Petition to Congress requesting an investigation into the Presidential Election of 2004
On this issue, John Kerry reappears, and supposedly at work in making sure all the votes are counted. It isn't easy keeping a slim hope alive, but what is happening in Fallujah is reason enough to do everything possible to make sure a democracy is still alive in the U.S. What would Kerry do if finding out he won? Gore did nothing, but one can hope, and give support where possible. More on evidence of vote fraud is in item 4. Thanks for reading, sharing the information.. Keep the faith - Get rid of the dictator.
1) The Next Step - a letter from John Kerry
- - Confirmation That Kerry Is On The Voting Problem Case
The Next Step - a letter from John Kerry
November 20th, 2004 3:37 am
Dear Supporter,
I want to thank you personally for what you did in the election -- you rewrote the book on grassroots politics, taking control of campaigns away from big donors. No campaign will ever be the same.
You moved voters, helped hold George Bush accountable, and countered the attacks from big news organizations such as Fox, Sinclair Broadcasting, and conservative talk radio.
And your efforts count now more than ever. Despite the words of cooperation and moderate sounding promises, this administration is planning a right wing assault on values and ideals we hold most deeply. Healthy debate and diverse opinion are being eliminated from the State Department and CIA, and the cabinet is being remade to rubber stamp policies that will undermine Social Security, balloon the deficit, avoid real reforms in health care and education, weaken homeland security, and walk away from critical allies around the world.
Regardless of the outcome of this election, once all the votes are counted -- and they will be counted -- we will continue to challenge this administration. This is not a time for Democrats to retreat and accommodate extremists on critical principles -- it is a time to stand firm.
I will fight for a national standard for federal elections that has both transparency and accountability in our voting system. It's unacceptable in the United States that people still don't have full confidence in the integrity of the voting process.
I ask you to join me in this cause.
And we must fight not only against George Bush's extreme policies -- we must also uphold our own values. This is why on the first day Congress is in session next year, I will introduce a bill to provide every child in America with health insurance. And, with your help, that legislation will be accompanied by the support of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
There are more than eight million uninsured children in our nation.
That's eight million reasons for us to stay together and fight for a new direction. It is a disgrace that in the wealthiest nation on earth, eight million children go without health insurance.
Normally, a member of the Senate will first approach other senators and ask them to co-sponsor a bill before it is introduced -- instead, I am turning to you. Imagine the power of a bill co-sponsored by hundreds of thousands of Americans being presented on the floor of the United States Senate. You can make it happen. Sign our "Every Child Protected" pledge today and forward it to your family, friends, and neighbors:
http://johnkerry.com/EveryChild
This is the beginning of a second term effort to hold the Bush administration accountable and to stand up and fight for our principles and our values. They want you to disappear; they are counting on that. I'm confident you will prove them wrong, and you will rewrite history again.
Here is what I want you to know. I understand the strength, commitment, and passion that are at the core of what we built together -- and I am determined to make our collective energy and organization a force to be reckoned with in the weeks and months ahead.
Let's roll up our sleeves and get back to work for our country.
Thank you,
John Kerry
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Confirmation That Kerry Is On The Voting Problem Case
And Some More Info
by Samuel A. Stanson
www.moderateindependent.com/v2i21update.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Democrats take up fight over ballots
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Bill Sloat
Plain Dealer Reporter
www.cleveland.com/election/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/isvot/1100782534290590.xml
2) Progressive Democrats - breaking the silence on war in Iraq
Progressive Democrats for America
Progressive Wing of the Democratic Party
Announces First Policy Statement and Ongoing Mission
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Organization Pledges to hold Democrats and Republicans Responsible to 57 Million Voters
Washington, DC--Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) announced its first policy initiative today in its drive to influence the platform and agenda of the national Democratic Party. Citing the slim 2.6% majority vote achieved in the recent election, the new statement released by PDA asserts, "We do not believe that the November election was a mandate to destroy Iraq while saving it nor an endorsement of the President's management of the conflict."
"Our objective is to demonstrate that the progressive movement is alive and growing both inside and outside the Party," said PDA director, Tim Carpenter. PDA was established as a counterbalance to the Democratic Leadership Council. Many rank-and-file Party members feel the DLC appeased conservatives and allowed a policy shift to the political right.
High profile thought leaders like writer and journalist Tom Hayden, have endorsed the PDA position statement. "It is George Bush's mistake now," said Hayden, "The role of all Democrats and concerned Americans is to make him end his denial, accept responsibility and take significant steps to end the American occupation and leave Iraq to the Iraqis."
PDA currently has 11 state caucuses with 15,000 registered members. The group has begun to work with its 22 other allied progressive organizations to launch a grassroots effort to influence the Democrats and put pressure on the current administration. In the wake of the November general election, this effort indicates the resilience of the grassroots movement established during the 2003-2004 Democratic Primary is still alive and represents the heartbeat of the Democratic Party.
The new PDA policy statement on Iraq reads as follows:
A Time To Break the Democrats' Silence on Falluja and the Escalation of the War in Iraq
As Progressive Democrats we call on our Democratic Party leadership to break the public silence on the bloodbath in Falluja. Sixteen hundred Iraqi insurgents are said to have been killed and countless others maimed, crippled or injured in a single week. Over thirty American soldiers are dead and several hundred are wounded. Over eighty major attacks have been launched on American positions in several other uprisings from Mosul to Baghdad. Despite military and administration public relations, the US-trained Iraqi forces cannot or will not stand on their own.
America is creating a slaughterhouse in the name of democratic elections. As foreigners, we are dividing Sunni from Shiite and Kurd in the name of a fragmented Iraqi unity. We are ominously alone, abandoned by fifteen of our Coalition allies - so far - and by the United Nations.
This military strike was timed to occur after the American presidential election. While the main responsibility lies with President Bush, the national Democratic Party leadership has supported and encouraged the military offensive in Falluja as well. Both parties have bloody hands.
It is time for the bipartisan collusion in this war to end. It is time for the Democratic Party to become faithful to its faithful rank-and-file through becoming the party of opposition. It is time to declare clearly that this war is a mistake. The conduct of the war is a mistake. America is squandering the lives of its soldiers, the revenues of its taxpayers, and the trust of its people for a mistake.
When will our party leaders join in asking who will be the last American to die for this mistake?
Progressive Democrats will neither wait nor be silent. We will organize locally as voices and voters for peace. We will hold our Congressional representatives accountable if they support a $75 billion blood-stained check for the Iraq war. We will point out the daily cost of the war to our deficits, our cities, health care, housing and anti-poverty programs. We will demand greater candor and respect for our combat soldiers while also honoring those troops and their families who choose to oppose the war in the tradition of the young John Kerry.
During the presidential campaign, we gave one hundred percent for a Democratic ticket that felt compelled to defend a mistake. We do not believe that the November election was a mandate to destroy Iraq while saving it nor an endorsement of the President's management of the conflict. It is George Bush's mistake now, and the role of all Democrats and concerned Americans is to make him end his denial, accept responsibility and take significant steps to end the American occupation and leave Iraq to the Iraqis.
###
MEDIA CONTACT:
Tim Carpenter
877-368-9221
Press Release URL: pdamerica.org/press/pr-2004-11-18.php
Progressive Democrats for America - Web Site: pdamerica.org
3) "The siege of Fallujah - America on a killing spree"
The siege of Fallujah
America on a killing spree
By Bill Van Auken
18 November 2004
The televised broadcast of videotape showing a US marine executing a wounded, unarmed Iraqi at point-blank range inside a Fallujah mosque has provoked outrage throughout the Middle East, while creating a fresh crisis for the American military.
The marine has been suspended from his command, as the Pentagon initiates an official investigation into whether the killing constituted a war crime. "We follow the law of armed conflict and hold ourselves to a high standard of accountability," said Lt. Gen. John Sattler, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.
Please, general, spare us. This killing was noteworthy only because it happened to be captured on camera by an "embedded" reporter. Similar actions have taken place throughout the siege of Fallujah, where the rules of engagement essentially amounted to "kill anything that moves."
Once again-as in the crisis over the torture of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib-the Pentagon will go through the motions of turning a young enlisted man into a scapegoat. The exposure of this one shooting will be used to obscure the reality that the entire operation in Fallujah constitutes a massive war crime carried out on the orders of the White House, with the active or tacit support of every segment of the American ruling establishment.
The razing of Fallujah has exposed the ugly face of US militarism to the world, while posing disturbing questions about the nature of American society itself.
The operation combined the Bush administration's lust for vengeance over the killing of four US mercenaries in the city last April with a cold-blooded exercise in exemplary punishment aimed at intimidating all those who oppose the continued US occupation of Iraq.
Fallujah now lies in ruins. While the US military claims to have killed up to 2,000 "insurgents," the number and identity of the dead are not so easily discerned. US forces have responded to small arms fire from houses and other structures by calling in artillery barrages, air strikes with 2,000-pound bombs and air-to-surface missiles together with volleys of tank fire. Homes, apartment buildings and nearly half of the city's 120 mosques have been destroyed or severely damaged in this fashion.
Eyewitnesses report human corpses littering the city's streets, gnawed at by starving dogs. Parents have been forced to watch their wounded children die and then bury their bodies in their gardens. According to one credible account, US troops machine-gunned an entire family of five to death when they tried to escape the fighting by swimming across the Euphrates River.
Civilians remaining in Fallujah were ordered to stay in their homes under a round-the-clock curfew or risk near-certain death at the hands of US troops. What was the fate of those who stayed inside? With the media reporting at least one out of every ten buildings flattened by the US bombardment, there is no way of knowing how many bodies lie beneath the rubble. It is also reported that US troops were equipped with thermal sights capable of detecting body heat inside houses. Any such detection was assumed to indicate the presence of "insurgents," prompting a lethal barrage.
Those wounded by US bombs, rockets and shells have been left to die. The first targets of the siege were the city's medical facilities. The city's main hospital was seized by Special Forces troops, while a clinic in the city was bombed, killing dozens of medical staff and patients.
A humanitarian catastrophe
The city's remaining population has gone over a week without electricity or water, and food has run out. In short, Fallujah faces a humanitarian catastrophe. There has been an effective blackout of any reporting on these conditions in the American mass media. The US military onslaught has turned an estimated 200,000 people into homeless refugees. The suffering of these people-the supposed beneficiaries of US "liberation"-evokes even less media interest.
What have the people of Fallujah and the rest of Iraq done to deserve such homicidal cruelty? What could conceivably justify the US military killing Iraqis for the "crime" of living in their own country?
The US troops sent into the city are indoctrinated with the lie that the invasion of Iraq is part of a "war on terrorism," and, on a more visceral level, that the violence inflicted upon the country's population can somehow be justified as revenge for the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York City and Washington.
The result has been a bloodbath. According to one recent study appearing in the British medical magazine The Lancet, the US invasion has resulted in 100,000 additional violent deaths in the space of barely 20 months. This is the equivalent of a September 11 every week-and-a-half in a country with less than one-tenth the population of the US.
That the Iraqis had nothing whatsoever to do with September 11 has been officially confirmed by multiple US government reports and investigations. Even putting aside the lies about Iraq, the "war on terrorism" is itself a fraud, invented by Washington as a pretext for carrying out long-planned military actions. The September 11 plot emerged not out of Baghdad, but from within the murky world of American intelligence and its sponsorship of Islamic fundamentalist movements in the war against the Soviet forces in Afghanistan.
While US troops are being told to kill Iraqis to avenge terrorism, state sponsors of those who carried out the 9/11 attacks are well ensconced in the regimes of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan-Washington's close allies in the "war on terrorism"-and, in all likelihood, in the Bush administration itself.
The supposedly omnipresent threat of terrorism has been used as a pretext by Washington to justify its use of military power to pursue US geo-strategic interests through the domination of key global oil reserves. This imperialist motivation is clearly recognized the world over.
However, there is a peculiar and malevolent element within the conduct of this US policy. It is the sense, communicated from Washington, that America is motivated by a generalized anger against the rest of the world, and is using its violence in Iraq to teach everyone a lesson. The US doctrine of preventive war means what it says: we can do the same thing to any of you whenever we please.
US television news reports-once again dominated by retired military commanders and "embedded" reporters who speak as cheerleaders for the combat units they have joined-convey the sense that translating this anger into overwhelming violence is not only justified, but feels good too.
That the massacre of an innocent people more than 5,000 miles away can be promoted as a means of boosting public morale and fostering national unity is an indication of a society suffering from protracted and profound degeneration.
Historians investigating Hitler's Germany have spent some 60 years trying to fathom what made it possible for such a regime to arise in what was the most technically and culturally advanced country on the European continent. For all but the most facile "bad Hitler" theorists, the question arose: what were the deep contradictions within German society that gave rise to the murderous fury that Nazism unleashed against Europe?
While the atrocities carried out by Hitler's regime were on a different scale than those now being committed by the Bush administration, there are undeniable parallels. For the first time since the Wehrmacht swept through Europe, the world is witness to a major imperialist power launching an unprovoked war of aggression, placing an entire people under military occupation and carrying out acts of collective and exemplary punishment against civilian populations. Such heinous acts must be rooted in America's own social contradictions.
Article Truncated, for the complete article, see:
www.wsws.org/articles/2004/nov2004/kill-n18.shtml
4) Something stinks with voting machines in Florida - Experts Confirm!
- - University researchers challenge Bush win in Florida
University professors and statistical experts something went wrong with Florida's electronic voting machines
11/18: University professors and statistical experts are sure something went wrong with Florida's electronic voting machines; call for investigation [Computer World]
University researchers challenge Bush win in Florida
'Something went awry with electronic voting in Florida,' says the lead researcher
News Story by Dan Verton
NOVEMBER 18, 2004 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, said today that they have uncovered statistical irregularities associated with electronic voting machines in three Florida counties that may have given President George W. Bush 130,000 or more excess votes. The researchers are now calling on state and federal authorities to look into the problems.
The study, "The Effect of Electronic Voting Machines on Change in Support for Bush in the 2004 Florida Elections," was conducted by doctoral students and faculty from the university's sociology department and led by sociology professor Michael Hout.
Hout is an expert on statistical methods at the Berkeley Survey Research Center and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
According to the study, counties with electronic voting machines were significantly more likely to show increases in support for Bush between 2000 and 2004 compared to counties with paper ballots or optical scan equipment. This change cannot be explained by differences between counties in income, number of voters, change in voter turnout, or size of the Hispanic/Latino population, said Hout.
For the complete article, see:
www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/story/0,10801,97614,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 'Stinking Evidence' of Possible Election Fraud Found in Florida
by Thom Hartmann
November 18, 2004
There was something odd about the poll tapes.
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/views04/1118-22.htm
also by Thom Hartmann - Restoring Trust in the Vote
Published November 15, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
www.commondreams.org/views04/1115-24.htm
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Diving4Votes * FallujaMath * SpaceNukes
17 November 2004
"The means of defense against foreign danger historically
have become the instruments of tyranny at home."
James Madison
1) "Dumpster Diving for Votes" by Bev Harris
- - Rhino's Blog & Election Recount Latest Developments
2) Why Would The President Fix The Election?
3) Falluja Arithmetic Lesson by Prof. Greg Palast
4) Russia joins US in Space Nuclear War Preparations
"When once a republic is corrupted,
there is no possibility of remedying
any of the growing evils but by removing
the corruption and restoring its lost principles;
every other correction is either useless or a new evil."
- Thomas Jefferson
Editor's Notes:
In the parallel universe of independent news, election-theft, the 9/11 saga, the Iraq invasion.. remain unresolved, and very active. Thank goodness for parallel universes. Item one opens with an eye popping account from Bev Harris, "dumpster diving for votes." It seems that this dark era makes the bright light people really shine. Thanks Bev and the grass roots, too, active in demanding recounts, and vote-fraud related investigations. The Election is not over until it is over. Item 2 explains the desperate motivation that could likely be behind the Bush administration illegally keeping control over the US Government. Item 3 is a math lesson by Professor Greg Palast in the assault on Fallujah. Item 4 is on the Nuclear Space War, Russia joins US in such preparations. Don't you feel safe and cozy by how much George Bush has accomplished for national security?
By the way, via the list serve of my town, Steve sent another recommended news resource to keep up to speed on recounts and other electoral-vote issues. electoral-vote.com
And this link just came in from Common Cause - Help Make Every Vote Count In Ohio
"They that can give up essential liberty
to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin
1) "Dumpster Diving for Votes" by Bev Harris
- - Rhino's Blog & Election Recount Latest Developments
"Dumpster Diving for Votes" by Bev Harris
Executive Director
Black Box Voting
www.blackboxvoting.org
(Volusia County) - November 16, 2004 - Dueling lawyers, election officials gnashing teeth, Votergate.tv film crew catching it all.
Here's what happened so far:
Friday Black Box Voting investigators Andy Stephenson and Kathleen Wynne popped in to ask for some records. They were rebuffed by an elections official named Denise. Bev Harris called on the cell phone from investigations in downstate Florida, and told Volusia County Elections Supervisor Deanie Lowe that Black Box Voting would be in to pick up our Nov. 2 Freedom of Information request, or would file for a hand recount. "No, Bev, please don't do that!" she exclaimed. But this is the way it has to be, folks. We didn't back down.
Monday Bev, Andy and Kathleen came in with a film crew and asked for the FOIA request. Deanie Lowe gave it to us with a smile, but I noticed that one item, the polling place tapes, were not copies of the real ones, but instead were new printouts, done on Nov. 15, and not signed by anyone.
I asked to see the real ones, and they told us for "privacy" reasons we can't have copies of the signed ones. I insisted on at least viewing them (although refusing to give us copies of the signatures is not legally defensible, according to our attorney). They said the real ones were in the County Elections warehouse. It was quittin' time and we arranged to come back this morning to review them.
Lana Hires, an employee who gained some notoriety in a Diebold memo, where she asked for an explanation of minus 16,022 votes for Gore, so she wouldn't have to stand there "looking dumb" when the auditor came in, was particularly unhappy about seeing us in the office. She vigorously shook her head when Deanie Lowe suggested we go to the warehouse.
Kathleen Wynne and I showed up at the warehouse at 8:15 this morning. There was Lana Hires looking especially gruff, yet surprised. She ordered us out. Well, we couldn't see why because there she was, with a couple other people, handling the original poll tapes. You know, the ones with the signatures on them. We stepped out and they promptly shut the door behind us.
There was a trash bag on the porch outside the door. I looked into it and what do you know, but there were poll tapes in there. They came out and glared at us. We drove away a small bit, and then videotaped the license plates of the two vehicles marked 'City Council' member. Others came out to glare and soon all doors were slammed.
So, we went and parked behind a bus to see what they would do next. They pulled out some large pylons, which blocked the door. I decided to go look at the garbage some more. Kathleen videotaped this. A man came out and I immediately wrote a public records request for the contents of the garbage bag, which also contained ballots -- real ones, but not filled out.
A brief tug of war occurred, tearing the garbage bag open. We then looked through it, as Pete looked on. He was quite friendly.
We collected various poll tapes and other information and asked if they could copy it for us, for our public records request. "You won't be going anywhere," said Pete. "The deputy is on his way."
Yes, not one but two police cars came up and then two county elections officials, and we all stood around discussing the merits of my public records request.
They finally let us go, about the time our film crew arrived, and we all trooped off to the elections office. There, the plot thickened.
We began to compare the special printouts given to us with the signed polling tapes from election night. Lo and behold, some were missing. We also found some that didn't match. In fact, in one location, precinct 215, an African-American precinct, the votes were off by hundreds, in favor of George W. Bush and other Republicans.
Hmm. Which was right? Our polling tape, specially printed on Nov. 15, without signatures, or theirs, printed on Nov. 2, with up to 8 signatures per tape?
Well, then it became even more interesting. Lana Hires took it upon herself to box up some items from an office, which appeared to contain -- you guessed it -- polling place tapes. She took them to the back of the building and disappeared.
Then, voting integrity advocates from Volusia and Broward, decided now would be a good time to go through the trash at the elections office. Lo and behold, they found all kinds of memos and some polling place tapes, fresh from Volusia elections office.
So, we compared these with the Nov. 2 signed ones and the "special' ones from Nov. 15 given to us, unsigned, and we found several of the MISSING poll tapes. There they were: In the garbage.
So, Kathleen went to the car and got the polling place tapes we had pulled from the warehouse garbage. My my my. There were not only discrepancies, but a polling place tape that was signed by six officials.
This was a bit disturbing, since the employees there told us that bag was destined for the shredder.
By now, a county lawyer had appeared on the scene, suddenly threatening to charge us extra for the time we took looking at the real stuff they had withheld from us in our FOIA. Other lawyers appeared, phoned, people had meetings, Lana glowered at everyone, and someone shut the door in the office holding the GEMS server.
Andy then went to get the GEMS server locked down. He also got the memory cards locked down and secured, much to the dismay of Lana. They were scattered around unsecured in any way before that.
We then all agreed to convene tomorrow morning, to further audit, discuss the hand count that Black Box Voting will require of Volusia County, and of course, it is time to talk about contesting the election in Volusia.
Bev Harris
Executive Director
BlackBoxVoting.org
This article is posted also:
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2704906
Join the Resistance!
Do Something. Distribute this article far and wide. Then do something else. You decide and write in about your action.
This is a live account of the important work from the trenches of Bev Harris, Executive Director of Black Box Voting.org. This true life account is from November 16, 2004. Way to go, Bev!
The election was clearly stolen. Even at that, fully 61% of Oklahoma's so-called Democrats either stayed home or voted for Bush.
What are you going to do about this?
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Rhino's Blog & Election Recount Latest Developments
Received via RHINO'S BLOG 11/17/04 - Election recount latest developments
RHINO SEZ: In spite of the shrub gang, in spite of the ignorance (root word being ignore) of the major media, the votes are being counted in Ohio. For an update, read the article below, and/or monitor these web sites:
Voters Unite: www.votersunite.org
Black Box Voting at: www.blackboxvoting.org
Vote Scam at: www.votescam.com
Want To Know: www.wanttoknow.info/electronicvotin
ELECTION RECOUNT LATEST DEVELOPMENTS -
PROVISIONAL BALLOT COUNT BEGINS
by Samuel A. Stanson,
The Moderate Independent, NOVEMBER 14, 2004
...the provisional ballots have begun, at last, to be counted in Ohio. County by county, the vast majority of the 155,000 provisional ballots are being accepted as legitimate, in percentages ranging from 75% to 90%, according to The Plain Dealer out of Cleveland. Just to make things seem as much like Florida last time as possible, overseas ballots were still coming in up until Friday, which means they may well have been filled out and sent after the election ended. In any case, the counting of the provisionals has begun, but rather than being the final word, this will only be the beginning, as, according to the now-combined website of Green Party candidate Cobb and Libertarian candidate Badnarik, where you can go to make a donation in support of the recount, already 1,500 people have donated. Our buddy Keith Olbermann at MSNBC reports that they have already raised about $110,000 dollars. Cobb/Badnarik say they need about $113,000 total, while Olbermann states it at about $150,000. Whichever is more accurate, it seems they are pretty certain to get it (you can make sure by dropping them a few bucks at the site above.) Once that recount is official, that will mean not only will we get to the bottom of the districts in which cute things like over 1000% of registered voters casting ballots occurred, but an additional 92,672 "spoiled" ballots - ballots which were made using that familiar old punch card technology, and so which may be valid votes but just have had a hanging chad issue - will be reviewed and, when appropriate, counted...
MORE: www.moderateindependent.com/v2i21ballot.htm
(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)
So General Ashcroft is on his way out. Rhino sez, in unison with millions of other Americans, "Good Riddance!" But meanwhile, the shrub wants one Alberto Gonzales to be the new Attorney General. And what is the reaction of the American public? And of our representatives? This is the man who justifies torture and calls the Geneva Accords quaint & obsolete. With his nomination as A.G., the shrub has thrown down the gauntlet. Some say let's save our ammunition for the most important battles. Rhino sez, "Call your reps & tell them to passionately oppose this man who would justify torture.
For more about Alberto Gonzales, read:
Alberto Gonzales: A Record of Injustice Center For American Progress www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=246536
(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)
Rhino's Blog is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. Feedback & requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. (rhino@kifaru.com) See The Latest Greatest Political Cartoons While You Read Rhino's Blog AT : www.rhinosblog.info
Rhino's Other Web Sites: www.dreamcatchers.org (Indigenous Assistance & Intercultural Dialog) www.kifaru.com (Native American Relations Video Documentaries)
2) Why Would The President Fix The Election?
[Editor's Note: The following note and article received via email]
If you wonder why a President would fix an election, how about it would be too likely to produce jail time if anybody else got in. If you're wondering why the CIA is being purged, you're going to be finding out in upcoming news bulletins.
==========================================
This following is for anyone wondering
WHY WOULD THE PRESIDENT FIX THE ELECTION?
What is his motivation?
==========================================
The one word that Congress, their donors, the President and
the Vice President should have learned from the Constitution
==========================================
emolument---
Function: noun
A return arising from office or employment usually in
the form of compensation or perquisites, ex:
the President shall, at stated times, receive for his
services, a compensation and he shall not receive
within that period any other emolument."
- U.S. Constitution article II
Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Law, 1996
Merriam-Webster, Inc.
EMOLUMENT---
n : compensation received by virtue of holding an
office or having employment (usually in the form of
wages or fees); "clauses in the U.S. constitution
prohibit sitting Presidents, Vice Presidents, justices
and legislators from receiving emoluments from their
office OTHER THAN THE SALARY THAT THEY ARE GIVEN."
=======================================
9/11 COMMISSION PACKED WITH BUSH ILLEGAL EMOLUMENTERS
Who Was Getting What From Whom and
How it Impacted the 9/11 Commission Findings
FROM: KARL SCHWARZ, AUTHOR OF "ONE TRIP TO CRAWFORD"
[Excerpt]
The 9-11 Commission is a travesty to put it simply and bluntly. 8 of the 10 individuals seated on that commission are directly or indirectly benefitting from Bush War, Homeland Security and Energy policy.
Specifically Chairman Kean (Amerada Hess Oil, needed the removal of Taliban / Bridas Corporation so the TAP {Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline} from Turkmenistan to Pakistan; Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton unduly influenced by major contributors to The Wilson Center that he also chairs and influence peddlers like Jock Covey, Director of External Communications for Bechtel Corporation, also a company that is benefitting by Bush Policy. Such connections trace to Kissinger, AIG and others.
Jamie Gorelick sits on the board of a defensecontractor (United Technologies) and an oil services company raking in huge increases in revenues via Schlumberger. She was also the General Counsel for DoD while the mugging of Argentina based Bridas Corporation was in progress in Turkmenistan and Pakistan and on 9-11 only the Taliban / Bridas contract was the remaining obstacle. Ms. Gorelick was also on the board of Fannie Mae, the US government mortgage insurer and that entity is now under SEC investigation for wrongdoing that happened while she was sitting on that board. Our president's gay "boy toy" Victor Ashe, former mayor Knoxville was also at Fannie Mae during that period of time and is now the Bush appointee as Ambassador to Poland.
Richard Ben Veniste, senior partner of law firm Mayer Brown, Rowe and Maw. That company has and still does represent virtually every oil company and electrical generation plant manufacturer (GE) in Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the latter country also sharing an office with ENRON. Mayer Brown, Rowe & Maw was the key law firm to ENRON and while the Bridas Corporation v. Turkmenneft $500 million arbitration award was on appeal to 5th Circuit US Court of Appeals [decided September 9, 2003] and US Supreme Court [certiorari denied March 22, 2004, Case 03-1018, Turkmenneft v Bridas where Mayer Brown and Turkmenneft tried to reverse the 5th Circuit decision unsuccessfully], Mayer Brown represented Turkmenneft to keep Bridas tied up on court and not out in front of the eyes of America.
Tim Roemer, whose past contributors include SAIC, Carlyle Group, Citigroup, Van Scoyoc & Associates, and others, all firms benefiting from Bush policy.
James R. Thompson, former Republican governor of Illinois, current board member of FMC, which has an oil and gas equipment division that is now raking in significant new revenues in the Caspian Basin. Chairman of Winston Strawn law firm and according to Sen Reid of Nevada, should be facing criminal charges in that state over energy related contracts including Yucca Mountain.
John F. Lehman, J.F. Lehman & Company, a private equity investment company specializing in investments into homeland security and defense related industries. Also was involved in Racal Corporation along with Thomas Weisel Capital Partners and sold that Racal entity for $105 million and $25 million of 2005 revenues. An aborted takeover attempt in Canada has resulted in information being provided to our group and Eliot Spitzer's office as to a possible participant in 9-11.
Fred Fielding was on Bush transition team and sits on a board with wife Diane Allbaugh, husband Joe Allbaugh now heads Newbridge Strategies, LLC, an Iraq investment consultant for the elite few allowed into that financial plundering of American taxpayers. Mr. Allbaugh was Bush Cheney 2000 campaign manager, and Neil Bush is currently with Crest Investments as 4 hour per week, $60,000 a year advisor to Mr. Allbaugh's Newbridge Strategies. Mr. Allbaugh left as head of FEMA right before the invasion of Iraq and some readers will recall that FEMA has operatives in NYC the night before 9-11, were first on the scene according to some sources, including FEMA sources.
There are 8 people who have little if any interest in finding the truth regarding 9-11 and should have never been on that 9-11 Commission. One also has to ask if participation on that Commission by Ms. Gorelick and Mr. Thompson also is the reason there is "no traction" on the possible civil or criminal charges they might have faced on Nevada DOE matters {Thompson} and Fannie Mae matters {Gorelick}.
One also cannot underestimate that Amerada Hess board had Nicholas Brady, a strong proponent of the Grand Caspian Chess Game and a former aide to GHWB sits on that board too.
It will all come out in the Wash - after American citizens take the matter over and get the "Whitewash" out of the 9-11 Commission Report.
As for the book the 9-11 Omission Commission produced, is a good "FICTION" read.
They also left out the key parts of what FBI translator Sibel D. Edmonds had to say, that being she found "drug trafficking, money laundering, foreign names and AMERICAN NAMES involved in the financing of 9-11". That is entirely consistent with our findings and has been delivered to Mr. Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General of the State of New York for criminal prosecution.
**********************************************
They also left out that apparently, three Americans
put insurance riders on the WTC towers in June or July
2001 and that paid off handsomely to them - but of
course, NO AMERICAN knew anything about 9-11.
**********************************************
The 9-11 Commission was a scam, their report a travesty.
END---PART ONE
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Also by Karl W. B. Schwarz
{Online Journal Contributing Writer}; See:
"Beware: the GOP has become a fascist cult"
www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/102304Schwarz/102304schwarz.html
3) Falluja Arithmetic Lesson by Prof. Greg Palast
Monday's New York Times, page 1:
"American commanders said 38 service members had been killed and 275 wounded in the Falluja assault."
Monday's New York Times, page 11:
"The American military hospital here reported that it had treated 419 American soldiers since the siege of Falluja began."
Questions for the class:
1. If 275 soldiers were wounded in Falluja and 419 are treated for wounds, how many were shot on the plane ride to Germany?
2. We're told only 275 soldiers were wounded but 419 treated for wounds; and we're told that 38 soldiers died. So how many will be buried?
3. How long have these Times reporters been embedded with the military? Bonus question: When will they get out of bed with the military?
Monday's New York Times, page 1:
"The commanders estimated that 1,200 to 1,600 insurgents had been killed."
Monday's New York Times, page 11:
"Nowhere to be found: the remains of the insurgents that the tanks had been sent in to destroy. ...The absence of insurgent bodies in Falluja has remained an enduring mystery."
NOT in the New York Times:
"Every time I hear the news
That old feeling comes back on;
We're waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the Big Fool says to push on."
- Pete Seeger, 1967
-----
Greg Palast is author of the Best Democracy Money Can Buy. The New Deal: "Joker's Wild: Dubya's House of Cards" - regime change deck from 7 Stories Press available @ www.GregPalast.com
4) Russia joins US in Space Nuclear War Preparations
From: S p a c e W a r
WAR.WIRE
Russia to acquire new nuclear weapons systems Putin
MOSCOW (AFP) Nov 17, 2004
President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Russia would in the coming years acquire new nuclear weapon systems which other nuclear powers do not yet have and are unlikely to develop in the near future.
"We have not only conducted tests of the latest nuclear rocket systems," Putin said in televised remarks to a meeting of generals representing the various branches of Russia's armed forces. "I am sure that in the coming years we will acquire them.
"Moreover, these will be things which do not exist and are unlikely to exist in other nuclear powers," he added.
Putin failed to specify what type of complex he was referring to but Russia has been seeking to upgrade its nuclear arsenal after the United States announced plans in 2001 to develop a missile defense shield in abrogation of its 1972 ABM Treaty with Moscow.
Washington argues its shield would only be capable of defending the United States from attacks from so-called "rogue states" and could not stand up to Russia's massive Soviet-era nuclear arsenal.
However Putin has since mentioned plans for Russia to also develop a similar system along with new types of intercontinental missiles that Moscow claims could penetrate any space shield put up by the United States.
The ITAR-TASS news agency speculated that Putin was referring to the mobile Topol-M missile which is analogous to an US Minuteman-3 and is meant to form the backbone of Russia's future nuclear arsenal.
The Topol-M is the first intercontinental missile developed by Russia following the Soviet Union's collapse but its deployment -- initially set for the end of 2002 -- has been repeatedly delayed because of severe cash constraints.
The ITAR-TASS report quoted the missile's Moscow producer as saying that mass production of the Topol-M will be included in the military's 2005 procurement budget.
This would mean they would be issued to the armed forces in 2006.
The shift in attention to nuclear deterrence came unexpectedly because Putin has for months said that terrorism posed the major threat to Russia's national security amid a wave of deadly suicide attacks from guerrillas in rebel Chechnya.
Putin said Wednesday that Russia still viewed terrorism as the greatest threat to its national security but should also not forget about the nuclear threat.
"We understand that the moment we turn our attention from such elements of our defenses as a nuclear missile shield, then we will be facing new threats," Putin said.
"That is why we will continue to persistently develop our armed forces on the whole, including its nuclear arsenal potential," Putin said.
All rights reserved. 2004 Agence France-Presse
www.spacewar.com/2004/041117115908.2cnix5bh.html
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
US Vote Crashed on Falluja * Humanity Dims
16 November 2004
"The right of voting for representatives is the primary right
by which all other rights are protected.
To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery..."
Thomas Paine
1) Most voters in Ohio chose Kerry. Here's how the votes vanished
- - Inside the Election Fraud Battle
- - Vote Fraud Coverage Puts Anchorman's Job at Risk
- - Kucinich Note On The Presidential Election in Ohio
- - What You Can Do About Election Fraud
- - Official Results Not Official until January 6, 2005
2) Fallujah - a city lies in ruins
- - NYTimes and Pitt's Fallujah Perspective Collide
- - Rules of War Broken in Falluja Assault - Amnesty Intl
- - U.S. Marine Executes Wounded Unarmed Iraqi
- - Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
- - Democracy Now! - US Fallujah attack, and more
3) White House Orders CIA Shakeup
- - Election Over, McCain Criticizes Bush on Climate Change
4) Web Abuzz With Vote-Rigging Tales
- - More Vote-Truth Resources
Editor's Notes:
I pledge to boycott any vote that cannot be verified. This Alice in Wonderland propaganda machine is trying pull over a fast one.. with much greater sophistication and versatility than Election Theft 2000. In hopeful terms, the web is abuzz, deepening its resources for investigating the vote, and, it is not officially "official" until January 6, 2005. There is time for a miracle, or re-insurgence of a democracy in honor of principles in the US Constitution.
1) Most voters in Ohio chose Kerry. Here's how the votes vanished
- - Inside the Election Fraud Battle
- - Vote Fraud Coverage Puts Anchorman's Job at Risk
- - Kucinich Note On The Presidential Election in Ohio
- - What You Can Do About Election Fraud
- - Official Results Not Official until January 6, 2005
Most voters in Ohio chose Kerry. Here's how the votes vanished.
KERRY WON OHIO
JUST COUNT THE BALLOTS AT THE BACK OF THE BUS
In These Times
Friday, November 12, 2004
By Greg Palast
This February, Ken Blackwell, Ohio's Secretary of State, told his State Senate President, "The possibility of a close election with punch cards as the state's primary voting device invites a Florida-like calamity." Blackwell, co-chair of Bush-Cheney reelection campaign, wasn't warning his fellow Republican of disaster, but boasting of an opportunity to bring in Ohio for Team Bush no matter what the voters wanted. And most voters in Ohio wanted JFK, not GWB. But their choice won't count because their votes won't be counted.
The ballots that add up to a majority for John Kerry in Ohio -- and in New Mexico -- are locked up in two Republican hidey-holes: "spoiled" ballots and "provisional" ballots.
OHIO SPOILED ROTTEN
American democracy has a dark little secret. In a typical presidential election, two million ballots are simply chucked in the garbage, marked "spoiled" and not counted. A dive into the electoral dumpster reveals something special about these votes left to rot. In a careful county-by-county, precinct-by-precinct analysis of the Florida 2000 race, the US Civil Rights Commission discovered that 54% of the votes in the spoilage bin were cast by African-Americans. And Florida, Heaven help us, is typical. Nationwide, the number of Black votes "disappeared" into the spoiled pile is approximately one million. The other million in the no-count pit come mainly from Hispanic, Native-American and poor white precincts, a decidedly Democratic demographic.
Ohio Republicans, simultaneously in charge of both the Bush-Cheney get-out-the-vote drive and the state's vote-counting rules, doggedly and systematically insured the spoilage pile would be as high as the White House.
Vote spoilage comes in two flavors. There are "overvotes" -- too many punches in the cards -- and "undervotes." Here we find the hanging, dimpled and "pregnant" chads created by old, dysfunctional punch card machines, in which the bit of paper covering the hole doesn't fall out, but hangs on. Machines can't read these, but we humans, who know a hole when we see one, have no problem reading these cards ... if allowed to. This is how Katherine Harris defeated Al Gore, by halting the hand count of the spoiled punch cards not, as is generally believed, by halting a "recount."
Whose chads are left hanging? In Florida in 2000 federal investigators determined that Black voters' ballots spoiled 900% more often than white voters, mainly due to punch card error. Ohio Republicans found those racial odds quite attractive. The state was the only one of fifty to refuse to eliminate or fix these vote-eating machines, even in the face of a lawsuit by the ACLU.
Apparently, the Ohio Republicans like what the ACLU found. The civil rights group's expert testimony concluded that Ohio's cussed insistence on forcing 73% of its electorate to use punch card machines had an "overwhelming" racial bias, voiding votes mostly in Black precincts. Blackwell doesn't disagree; and he hopes to fix the machinery ... sometime after George Bush's next inauguration. In the meantime, the state's Attorney General Jim Petro, a Republican, strategically postponed the trial date of the ACLU case until after the election.
Fixing a punch card machine is cheap and easy. If Ohio simply placed a card-reading machine in each polling station, as Michigan did this year, voters could have checked to ensure their vote would tally. If not, they would have gotten another card.
Blackwell knows that. He also knows that if those reading machines had been installed, almost all the 93,000 spoiled votes, overwhelmingly Democratic, would have closed the gap on George Bush's lead of 136,000 votes.
JIM CROW'S PROVISIONAL BALLOT
Add to the spoiled ballots a second group of uncounted votes, the 'provisional' ballots, and -- voila! -- the White House would have turned Democrat blue.
But that won't happen because of the peculiar way provisional ballots are counted or, more often, not counted. Introduced by federal law in 2002, the provisional ballot was designed especially for voters of color. Proposed by the Congressional Black Caucus to save the rights of those wrongly scrubbed from voter rolls, it was, in Republican-controlled swing states, twisted into a back-of-the-bus ballot unlikely to be tallied.
Unlike the real thing, these ballots are counted only by the whimsy and rules of a state's top elections official; and in Ohio, that gives a virtually ballot veto to Secretary of State Blackwell.
Mr. Blackwell has a few rules to make sure a large proportion of provisional ballots won't be counted. For the first time in memory, the Secretary of State has banned counting ballots cast in the "wrong" precinct, though all neighborhoods share the same President.
Over 155,000 Ohio voters were shunted to these second-class ballots. The election-shifting bulge in provisional ballots (more than 3% of the electorate) was the direct result of the national Republican strategy that targeted African-American precincts for mass challenges on election day.
This is the first time in four decades that a political party has systematically barred -- in this case successfully -- hundreds of thousands of Black voters from access to the voting booth. While investigating for BBC Television, we obtained three dozen of the Republican Party's confidential "caging" lists, their title for spreadsheets listing names and addresses of voters they intended to block on any pretext.
We found that every single address of the thousands on these Republican hit lists was located in Black-majority precincts. You might find that nasty and racist. It may also be a crime.
Before 1965, Jim Crow laws in the Deep South did not bar Blacks from voting. Rather, the segregationist game was played by applying minor technical voting requirements only to African-Americans. That year, Congress voted to make profiling and impeding minority voters, even with a legal pretext, a criminal offence under the Voting Rights Act.
But that didn't stop the Republicans of '04. Their legally questionable mass challenge to Black voters is not some low-level dirty tricks operation of local party hacks. Emails we obtained show the lists were copied directly to the Republican National Committee's chief of research and to the director of a state campaign.
Many challenges center on changes of address. On one Republican caging list, 50 addresses changed from Jacksonville to overseas, African-American soldiers shipped Over There.
You don't have to guess the preferences registered on the provisional ballots. Republicans went on a challenging rampage, while Democrats pledged to hold to the tradition of letting voters vote.
Blackwell has said he will count all the "valid" provisional ballots. However, his rigid regulations, like the new guess-your-precinct rule, are rigged to knock out enough voters to keep Bush's skinny lead alive. Other pre-election maneuvers by Republican officials -- late and improbably large purges of voter rolls, rejection of registrations -- maximized the use of provisional ballots which will never be counted. For example, a voter wrongly tagged an ineligible "felon" voter (and there's plenty in that category, mostly African-Americans), will lose their ballot even though they are wrongly identified.
Article truncated, for the complete article, see:
gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=393&row=1
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Inside the Election Fraud Battle
Think Kerry Is Not Involved In This Fight? Think Again.
Also: Fallujah = Operation Distract From Fixed Election.
by Betsy R. Vasquez
www.moderateindependent.com/v2i21election.htm
also
smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=18651
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Vote Fraud Coverage Puts Anchorman's Job at Risk
Keith Obermann, the anchorman of MSNBC's "The Countdown", has been covering the election fraud story for 5 days now. He is covering it in a fair and balance way... presenting the facts, interviewing people from not only both sides, but also unbiased parties. He has not been painting those of us who question the results as fringe conspiracy nuts. He has sorted through what is fact and fiction, as well as investigated with expects the many theories presented by those who question the election results. He was the first mainstream media person to cover the story.
There is a rumor that his job is at stake. I do not know whether it is true, but let's make sure that he stays on the air investigating this. View the original story and send letters of express your desire to see that he continues to cover and investigate the election fraud stories to the contacts listed in the forwarded message below.
View all five of Keith's Election Fraud Blogs "Bloggerman" at: msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/
His show's web site is at countdown.msnbc.com. His election fraud coverage is really good, you should check it out. The show comes on at 8:00 pm est weeknights. Scroll down to the bottom right side of the page to see link to video of one of his election fraud stories.
Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Keith Olbermann Keith.Olbermann@msnbc.com
Richard Kaplan, MSNBC President Richard.Kaplan@msnbc.com
David Verdi, Executive News Director david.verdi@nbc.com
Meghan Schaefer, Executive Producer Maghan.Schaefer@msnbc.com
Mail to feedback emails in case the direct emails are disabled
countdown@msnbc.com
viewerservices@msnbc.com
letters@msnbc.com
feedback@msnbc.com
MSNBC
1 MSNBC Plz, Secaucus, NJ 07094
Phone: (201) 583-5000
Fax: (201) 583-5584
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich Note On The Presidential Election in Ohio
A Note On The Presidential Election in Ohio
by Congressman Dennis Kucinich
Published November 10, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
See:
www.commondreams.org/views04/1110-31.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - What You Can Do About Election Fraud
by Susan Truitt, Co-founder, CASE Ohio, Citizens' Alliance for Secure
See: www.neohioact.org/electionaudit/WhatYouCanDoSusan.htm
Also - Investigate the VOTE
Tell Congress to Investigate the 2004 Election
www.moveon.org/investigatethevote/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Official Results Not Official until January 6, 2005
The Fat Lady Hasn't Even Entered The Building, notes Paul V. Rafferty
2004-11-09 | If the U.S. Constitution is still in effect, the results of the 2004 Presidential Election are not yet official ! No one really knows who will be the next President of the United States !
Despite what the major media may say, the OFFICIAL results will not be OFFICIAL until January 6, 2005 !
The presidential election system in the United States is somewhat complex. American voters do not DIRECTLY elect the president and vice-president. Instead, there is an intermediary stage, whereby the vast electorate votes for "Electors" who are pledged to certain candidates and who then vote for them, in accordance with the popular vote.
While there is much valid criticism of the Electoral College system in the United States, in this instance, it may prove to be a welcome asset. There is still time for Courts to hear all the legal cases challenging voting procedures.
For more: "The Fat Lady Hasn't Even Entered The Building, notes Paul V. Rafferty"
See: www.unobserver.com/layout5.php?id=2001&blz=1
2) Fallujah - a city lies in ruins
- - NYTimes and Pitt's Fallujah Perspective Collide
- - Rules of War Broken in Falluja Assault - Amnesty Intl
- - U.S. Marine Executes Wounded Unarmed Iraqi
- - Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
- - Democracy Now! - US Fallujah attack, and more
Fallujah - a city lies in ruins
A City Lies in Ruins, Along with the Lives of the Wretched Survivors
by Michael Georgy in Fallujah and Kim Sengupta
Published on Monday, November 15, 2004 by the lndependent/UK
After six days of intense combat against the Fallujah insurgents, US warplanes, tanks and mortars have left a shattered landscape of gutted buildings, crushed cars and charred bodies.
A drive through the city revealed a picture of utter destruction, with concrete houses flattened, mosques in ruins, telegraph poles down, power and phone lines hanging slack and rubble and human remains littering the empty streets. The north-west Jolan district, once an insurgent stronghold, looked like a ghost town, the only sound the rumbling of tank tracks.
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1115-01.htm
The second article at above URL page includes a related article:
THE CIVILIAN DEATH TOLL
By Harvey McGavin
US military officials were last night counting the cost of their week long assault on Fallujah in which they claim to have killed some 1,200 insurgents and some 44 servicemen lost their lives.
But in the city which was once home to 300,000 people there were few reports of the number of civilians killed.
Many are thought to have fled the fighting, but reports from the city say it is impossible to tell how many of the bodies that litter its rubble-strewn streets are those of ordinary citizens.
Last week a report collated by the UN said 20 doctors had died during a US air strike on a clinic and there have been numerous reports of the US dropping huge bombs.
In addition to the 38 Americans and six Iraqis killed in the assault, more than 200 US soldiers were injured. About 400 suspected insurgents have been arrested in Fallujah including "some" foreigners, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said.
For the complete article, see second one at this url:
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1115-01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - NYTimes and Pitt's Fallujah Perspective Collide
His Red Right Hand
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Tuesday 16 November 2004
[Excerpt]
The top story on the New York Times website on Monday morning read, "Rebels Routed in Fallujah." It's a good thing, too, because we need to be fighting the terrorists over there in Iraq instead of over here in America. Who were these Fallujan terrorists, anyway? They really must have been the hardest of the hard-core to have gotten the kind of military reaction we have seen from U.S. forces in the last week. This is what I've been told, anyway.
As for American casualties, 67 soldiers have died in the last fifteen days. The total number of American soldiers killed in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion stands at 1,188. The total number of 'Coalition' troops killed to date stands at 1,334. There is no accurate count of the number of wounded from these first two weeks of November.
Thanks to the competent yet generous leadership of George W. Bush, the military invasion of Fallujah will certainly cure what ails us in Iraq. To be sure, the deaths of thousands of civilians will further inflame the Iraqi populace. To be sure, the number of 'insurgents' killed in Fallujah will be immediately replaced by fresh recruits. To be sure, fierce battles have erupted in Mosul, Tal Afar, Ramadi, Beiji, Baquba, Buhriz, Khabbaza, Baghdad, and indeed all across the country. To be sure, we will have to grind all these cities to powder, along with all the residents of these cities, to make sure no one thwarts our aforementioned God-given right to bomb and shoot and burn and smash whomever and whatever we please.
Fear not, however. All is well. "The objective," said John Ashcroft in his resignation letter last week, "of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved." This is what I've been told, anyway.
Mission accomplished.
For the complete article, see:
www.truthout.org/docs_04/111604A.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Rules of War Broken in Falluja Assault - Amnesty Intl
Published on Monday, November 15, 2004 by Reuters
Rules of War Broken in Falluja Assault - Amnesty Intl
LONDON - The rules of war protecting civilians and wounded combatants have been broken by both sides in the week-long assault on the Iraqi city of Falluja, the human rights group, Amnesty International said on Monday.
[Excerpts]
Not only had the attacking U.S. and Iraqi troops failed to take the necessary steps to ensure that non-combatants did not come under fire, but insurgents had also abused flags of truce and fired indiscriminately.
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1115-02.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - U.S. Marine Executes Wounded Unarmed Iraqi
War Crime Caught on Tape:
U.S. Marine Executes Wounded Unarmed Iraqi
An NBC cameraman caught on tape video of a US Marine executing an unarmed and wounded Iraqi prisoner in a mosque in Fallujah. Democracy Now! speaks with Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Listen/Watch/Read
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/16/1611204
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
Dahr's personal log and hard news stories from Iraq
Following are some blog titles:
November 15, 2004
Dogs Eating Bodies in the Streets of Fallujah
November 12, 2004
"Iraq is burning with wrath, anger and sadness"
November 11, 2004
Prayers for Vengeance, More Death
November 09, 2004
The Fire is Spreading
The Siege Begins, Outrage in Baghdad
November 07, 2004
Carnage and Martial Law
November 05, 2004
Spiraling Into Occupied Iraq
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Democracy Now! - US Fallujah attack, and more..
Democracy Now! Headlines for November 15, 2004
- U.S. Attack Devastates Fallujah
- U.S. Blocks Humanitarian Workers Access to Fallujah
- U.S. Accused of War Crimes in Fallujah
- Gunmen Assassinate Iraq Nat'l Council Member in Kirkuk
- Iraq Deputy PM: Elections May Be Postponed
- Haiti To Issue Arrest Warrant for Aristide
- Presbyterians Moves Forward on Israeli Divestment
- Miami Police Fires Taser Guns At Children
Link to:
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/15/1447256
3) White House Orders CIA Shakeup
- - Election Over, McCain Criticizes Bush on Climate Change
White House Orders CIA Shakeup
to Get Rid of "Soft Leakers and Liberal Democrats"
Monday, November 15th, 2004
Reports have emerged over the weekend that the White House has ordered the new CIA director, Porter Goss, to purge the agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to President George W. Bush or of leaking damaging information to the media about the conduct of the Iraq war and the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
For the complete Democracy Now! story, see, listen, or read::
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/15/1448214
For the Newsday post:
www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uscia1114,0,707331.story?coll=ny-top-headlines
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Election Over, McCain Criticizes Bush on Climate Change
Wasting no time distancing on an issue that has long divided them, Senator John McCain yesterday called the White House stance on climate change "terribly disappointing" and said inaction in the face of mounting scientific data was unjustified.
www.nytimes.com/2004/11/16/politics/16mccain.html?oref=login
4) Web Abuzz With Vote-Rigging Tales
- - More Vote-Truth Resources
Web Abuzz With Vote-Rigging Tales
by Antonia Zerbisias
Published on Sunday, November 14, 2004 by the Toronto Star
John Kerry may have conceded the White House to George W. Bush,
but millions of Americans have not.
Of course, driving all these charges of election hijacking is a healthy dose of paranoia based on the all-too-real 2000 election mess. Mix in bewilderment over how so many Americans swallowed the Bush administration lies about 9/11 and Iraq with a generous helping of sore loserdom and you have the perfect recipe for a conspiracy theory.
But this is one cow pie that stinks to high heaven. You have to wonder why the media aren't sniffing around it.
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/views04/1114-22.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - More Vote-Truth Resources
www.stolenelection.net
www.votersunite.org
www.pissedoffvoters.net
"The right of voting for representatives is the primary right
by which all other rights are protected.
To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery..."
Thomas Paine
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
StolenElection * Arctic * Wissatinnewag * Sitcha
10 November 2004
"ETERNAL VIGILANCE IS THE PRICE OF LIBERTY!"
{The Home Book of Quotations, notes that It has been said that Mr. [Wendell] Phillips was
quoting Thomas Jefferson in 1852, but in a letter dated 14 April, 1879, Mr. Phillips wrote:
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty has been attributed to Jefferson, but no one has
yet found it in his works or elsewhere. It has also been attributed to Patrick Henry.}
1) Stolen Election of 2004
- - The stolen election of 2004: welcome back to hell
- - Election Fraud Resources - Stolen Election2004.com
- - From Bev Harris, Executive Director of Black Box Voting
- - Bush's 'Incredible' Vote Tallies
- - Graphs of Exit Polls and Machine Tallies
- - A Brief History of Computerized Election Fraud in America
- - White House argues to deny voting-rights lawsuits to public
- - Presidential Votes Miscast on E-Voting Machines Across the Country
- - Evidence Mounts That The Vote May Have Been Hacked
- - This is a Game Where Principles are the Stake
- - Keith Olbermann Breaks Votergate on Mainstream Media
- - Indiana TV : Will your vote count?
2) Will John F. Kerry Unconcede?
3) New Scientific Consensus: Arctic Is Warming Rapidly
- - Fast Arctic Thaw Threatens People, Polar Bears
4) Friends of Wissatinnewag - November 16 - Vote for Respect
5) Richard Sitcha, 9/11 prisoner in Greenfield, MA
Editor's Notes:
Like you, I am overwhelmed by the pace of the loss of democracy in the US and that of Global Warming, threatening all life as we now know it!
Last night I watched the "World News" with Peter Jennings on ABC TV. One segment sought to expose some of the "conspiracy theories" on the theft of Election 2004. This network missed to mention the key element - - that there is really no way of verifying if a vote is counted or if fraud had occurred. The spin is - "Just Trust US! - Why would we lie to you?" In his classic article, "Paranoid Shift, Michael Hasty highlighted what William Blum wrote in his book, "Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only superpower." Blum wrote on how the media will make anything that smacks of "conspiracy theory" an immediate "object of ridicule." But how can the media and Congressional representatives stand by when such silence betrays principles in the US Constitution? The Secret US Government seems to be calling the shots in mad-naked behaviors, ripped in between fear, greed, and suicidal self-destructive tendencies.
"..Eventually more people will realize that the Republican morality
has no more depth than Bush's intellectual curiosity. Then new ayatollahs
will spring up and try to claim the mantle of the demolished majority, but they
will also fail. Eventually the people will figure out that taxes are the price we pay
for a safe and just society and that morality, like democracy, has to spring from
within rather than be imposed from above.
Dennis Jett
From his article, "The Curse of Bush II"
Please note that two "time-sensitive" alerts are in this issue, more on the "Wissatinnewag" big vote in Greenfield, November 16. Iitem 5 covers the issue of Richard Sitcha, now in his 14th month of captivity in a Greenfield prison, without committing a crime. This Friday night there's a benefit in support of his freedom in Shelburne Falls.
Yet, it is the topsy turvy fraudulent elections in the US that is overshadowing alomost everything else, including the crisis from Global Warming. FN reports on this in item 3, and recently updated our Global Warming resource page. We are very concerned of the recent Volcano Eruptions in Iceland, which may significantly accelerate the rise in ocean temperatures that can interfere with Gulf Stream currents. For a clear picture of the currents, see: "Ocean Forces Threaten Our Climate"
This shows the "present state of the 'ocean conveyor belt' that transfers warm, less salty water from the Pacific to the Atlantic as a shallow current, and returns cold, more salty water from the Atlantic to the Pacific as a deep current flowing further south. This flow is threatened by melting ice in the Arctic, and disruptions off the Antarctic coast."
The recent volcanic eruptions in Iceland is near the top of this cycle loop in the Atlantic Ocean.
These are dangerous and strange times, indeed!
Gary Rhine of Rhino's Blog is responsible for sending FN some of the resources at the end of item 1, and the following quote by Arundhati Roy. Rhine also recommends the movie entitled, "What The Bleep Do We Know!?" which is about the quantum physics nature of God, and the human potential. It's in theatres now. Gary says it is well worth seeing on the big screen, and will be available in DVD. For more on the film, see: whatthebleep.com
And this following URL story link just came in from Information Clearinghouse:
"Eyewitness Report From Fallujah: 'Watching tragedy engulf my city' "
The BBC News website spoke by phone to Fadhil Badrani, a journalist in Falluja
who reports for the BBC World Service in Arabic.
"Another world is not only possible, she is on her way.
On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing."
Arundhati Roy
1) Stolen Election of 2004
- - The stolen election of 2004: welcome back to hell
- - Election Fraud Resources - Stolen Election2004.com
- - From Bev Harris, Executive Director of Black Box Voting
- - Bush's 'Incredible' Vote Tallies
- - Graphs of Exit Polls and Machine Tallies
- - A Brief History of Computerized Election Fraud in America
- - White House argues to deny voting-rights lawsuits to public
- - Presidential Votes Miscast on E-Voting Machines Across the Country
- - Evidence Mounts That The Vote May Have Been Hacked
- - This is a Game Where Principles are the Stake
- - Keith Olbermann Breaks Votergate on Mainstream Media
- - Indiana TV : Will your vote count?
- - The stolen election of 2004: welcome back to hell
Stolen Election of 2004
by Larry Chin
Online Journal, 5 November 2004
The stolen election of 2004: welcome back to hell
Using a variety of criminal methods that they have perfected over the past four years, the George W. Bush-Dick Cheney-Karl Rove syndicate stole another election, and extended their illegal occupation of the White House.
Experienced, informed and unblinking observers were not fooled by any aspect of this utterly predictable goose-step towards full dictatorship.
But to those who are "shocked" as they watched the election night numbers mysteriously slip away amidst controversy; those who are struggling to understand "what happened" let this cold realization serve as bracing edification.
Welcome to hell. Welcome to the horrifying reality that whistleblowers have suffered and fought through every day, over lifetimes. No more illusions. This is reality
www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHI411B.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Election Fraud Resources - Stolen Election2004.com
In Election 2000, the Bush regime stole the election and got away with it.
Now, in Election 2004, there is new evidence that Bush and the Republicans
have stolen the 2004 election by electronic voting fraud in states with
E-Voting without paper trails, scrubbing the voter rolls of Democratic voters,
and destruction of paper ballots in heavily Democratic areas.
Post any evidence of election fraud at our new Stolen Election 2004 Blog.
See the following articles and posts:
stolenelection2004.com/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - From Bev Harris, Executive Director of Black Box Voting
Our organization has taken the position that fraud took place in the
2004 election through electronic voting machines. We base this on hard
evidence, documents obtained in public records requests, inside
information, and other data indicative of manipulation of electronic
voting systems. What we do not know is the specific scope of the fraud.
We are working now to compile the proof, based not on soft evidence --
red flags, exit polls -- but core documents obtained by Black Box Voting
in the most massive Freedom of Information action in history.
We need: Lawyers to enforce public records laws. Some counties have
already notified us that they plan to stonewall by delaying delivery of the records.
We need citizen volunteers for a number of specific actions.
We need computer security professionals willing to GO PUBLIC with
formal opinions on the evidence we provide, whether or not it involves
DMCA complications. We need funds to pay for copies of the evidence.
There are certainly indications that a sting, or
at least an investigation, is in play right now.
Strong indications that both Florida and Ohio would be flipped if election manipulations
are rolled back. Some indication that fraud mayhave occurred in at least 30 states.
It's okay to use the "F" word. Fraud. You can say it in public. Pretty soon, they'll be
saying it on TV. If no one else does it first, I'll be saying the "F" word on TV shortly.
Fraud.
Use the word.
It's okay, you can say it.
Bev Harris, Executive Director
Black Box Voting
blackboxvoting.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush's 'Incredible' Vote Tallies
By Sam Parry
Consortium News
[Excerpt]
Tuesday 09 November 2004
George W. Bush's vote tallies, especially in the key state of Florida, are so statistically stunning that they border on the unbelievable.
While it's extraordinary for a candidate to get a vote total that exceeds his party's registration in any voting jurisdiction - because of non-voters - Bush racked up more votes than registered Republicans in 47 out of 67 counties in Florida. In 15 of those counties, his vote total more than doubled the number of registered Republicans and in four counties, Bush more than tripled the number.
Statewide, Bush earned about 20,000 more votes than registered Republicans.
By comparison, in 2000, Bush's Florida total represented about 85 percent of the total number of registered Republicans, about 2.9 million votes compared with 3.4 million registered Republicans.
Bush achieved these totals although exit polls showed him winning only about 14 percent of the Democratic vote statewide - statistically the same as in 2000 when he won 13 percent of the Democratic vote - and losing Florida's independent voters to Kerry by a 57 percent to 41 percent margin. In 2000, Gore won the independent vote by a much narrower margin of 47 to 46 percent.
..But, even if one were to estimate that 100 percent of these Evangelical voters turned out for Bush in 2004 and that 100 percent of Bush's 2000 supporters turned out again for him, this still leaves about 5 million new Bush voters unaccounted for.
Altogether, Bush's new 9 million votes came mainly from the largest states in the country. But nowhere was Bush's performance more incredible than in Florida, where Bush found roughly 1 million new voters, about 11 percent all new Bush voters nationwide and more than twice the number of new voters than in any other state other than Texas.
For the complete article, see:
www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110904.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Graphs of Exit Polls and Machine Tallies
The following link are to graphs of the exit polls & final machine tallies of states with paper ballots, compared with those of states with electronic voting machines:
news.globalfreepress.com/ewing/images/exit_poll.gif
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - A Brief History of Computerized Election Fraud in America
www.truthout.com/docs_03/102503C.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - White House argues to deny voting-rights lawsuits to public
By David G. Savage and Richard B. Schmitt,
Los Angeles Times,
Oct. 29, 2004 Bush administration lawyers argued in three closely contested states last week that only the Justice Department, and not voters themselves, may sue to enforce the voting rights set out in the Help America Vote Act, which was passed in the aftermath of the disputed 2000 election... www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/10045248.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Presidential Votes Miscast on E-Voting Machines Across the Country
Kansas City Infozine, November 3, 2004 Voters from at least half a dozen states reported that touch-screen voting machines had incorrectly recorded their choices, including for president. Voters discovered the problems when checking the review screen at the end of the voting process. .... www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/4154
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Evidence Mounts That The Vote May Have Been Hacked
by Thom Hartmann
www.commondreams.org/views04/1106-30.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - This is a Game Where Principles are the Stake
by Thom Hartmann
[Excerpt]
..Take heart. Democracy has come under assault in America before, we've survived, and the nation actually became stronger for the struggle.
The year 1798, for example, was a crisis year for democracy and those who, like Thomas Jefferson, believed the United States of America was a shining light of liberty, a principled republic in a world of cynical kingdoms, feudal fiefdoms, and theocracies.
That year President John Adams pushed through Congress - by a single vote - the Alien and Sedition Acts, and was aggressively putting into jail newspaper editors who disagreed with him..
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1108-05.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Keith Olbermann Breaks Votergate on Mainstream Media
by Anthony Wade November 8, 2004
www.opednews.com/wade_110904_olbermann.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Indiana TV : Will your vote count?
An I-Team 8 Investigation
Part One: Will Your Vote Count?
By Rick Dawson and Loni Smith McKown
I-Team 8
An I-Team 8 investigation reveals recent changes in voting technology have raised the risk of fraud and miscounting.
The investigation finds serious questions about security and troubling concerns on both how the technology is sold, and who is getting rich on public money. It's an investigation into the heart and soul of our way of government: your ability to vote.
You can [begin to] blame all of this on the fiasco of the 2000 presidential election. It prompted the most change since the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965. But after billions have been spent we have to ask: will your vote count?
The curtain is closing on the lever machines of yesterday, but new voting technology has new worries.
"It opens the possibility for a very quiet and subtle alteration of the vote nationally, by someone who wished to do that," said Eugene Spafford, Purdue computer expert. That someone could be an insider or hacker who could electronically rig an election.
Another concern: testing of voting machines isn't tough enough and could miss problems. There's always the possibility of equipment failure.
The complete article was posted:
www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886&nav=0Ra7JXq2
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Other resources, check
www.donotconcede.com
and most recommended for exposing the Voting Fraud Issue
blackboxvoting.org
EVOTING FRAUD RESOURCE CENTER
www.independentmediasource.com/evotingfraud.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Citizens for a Legitimate Government:
legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
Electronic Voting Angst --by Keith Olbermann
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6368819
Ohio County: More Votes Than Voters
pages.ivillage.com/americans4america/id20.html
In one precinct, Bush's tally was supersized by a computer glitch --
www.columbusdispatch.com/election/election-president.php?story=dispatch/2004/11/05/20041105-A6-01.html
Nebraska County: More Votes Than Voters --
www.wowt.com/news/headlines/1161971.html
2) Will John F. Kerry Unconcede?
Email from DC Lawyer, Cynthia Butler:
I am angry and getting emails and recrimination from people wondering why KERRY just caved and is not fighting this before the final count in Ohio, before any of the fraud was challenged, before New Mexico and Iowa even came in.
There is widespread feeling that he did not lose the election and that it was taken from him.
There is enough here to warrant investigation and enough to challenge the results. It's coming from all corners.
I understand that he has until the official count certification in Ohio to Un Concede which is several days from now.
Anyone who thinks that he should unconcede should give reasons why -
whatever they noticed, particularly in Red Republican Governed States using electronic machines- and send them directly to Cameron KERRY, John Kerry's brother..*
They should inform us if they were not allowed to vote provisionally (for whatever reason- they lost forms, ran out of forms, etc.) I personally witnessed a number of things as I reported in Texas with the DCCC. (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee)
If you know anyone in particular in Ohio who tried to vote and was turned away at the polls please get their information and notify the campaign.
They should be notified if they experienced lines longer than four hours - particularly elderly or infirm people (we call that torture when they do it to political prisoners) . They should be notified if people were told as has been reported that due to too many people showing up in African American precincts, particularly in Ohio where there were too few booths (some only had two or three for the entire precinct) and told because of heavy turn out they could vote on Wednesday. If the n umbers of these sorts of incidents creates a percentage margin that exceeds the margin of victory- Un Concession has to be made to challenge the count.
If people wanted to and tried to vote and were prevented or actively
discouraged from doing so, that is a Civil Rights matter and must be dealt with in terms of the ultimate count.
This is the last email that I am writing on this subject in this venue. I am taking it up in other venues.
Please pass along this to your listservs so that we may make Democracy Work in America. We are not a country where he who cheats best wins.
Cynthia L. Butler
BUTLER LAW FIRM, P.C.
1717 K St. NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
This letter is from: Cameron Kerry
Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2004 3:00 PM
Subject: Election Day 2004
I am grateful to the many people who have contacted me to express their deep concern about questions of miscounting, fraud, vote suppression, and other problems on election day, especially in Florida and Ohio. Their concern reflects how much people care about the outcome of this election.
I want to you to know we are not ignoring it. Election protection lawyers are still on the job in Ohio and Florida and in DC making sure all the votes are counted accurately. I have been conferring with lawyers involved and have made them aware of the information and concerns people have given me.
Even if the facts don't provide a basis to change the outcome, the information will inform the continuing effort to protect the integrity of our elections.
If you have specific factual information about voting problems that could be helpful to the lawyers doing their job, please send it to vri@dnc.org rather than to me.
The election protection effort has been important to me personally, and I am proud of the 17,000 lawyers around the country who helped.
It's obvious that we have a way to go still, but their efforts helped make a difference. Their work goes on.
Thank you,
Cam Kerry
3) New Scientific Consensus: Arctic Is Warming Rapidly
- - Fast Arctic Thaw Threatens People, Polar Bears
New Scientific Consensus: Arctic Is Warming Rapidly
Source: Arctic Climate Impact Assessment
Date: 2004-11-08
URL: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/11/041108213307.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = == = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Fast Arctic Thaw Threatens People, Polar Bears
Published on Monday, November 8, 2004 by Reuters
Fast Arctic Thaw Threatens People, Polar Bears
by Alister Doyle
OSLO - Global warming is heating the Arctic almost twice as fast as the rest of the planet in a thaw that threatens millions of livelihoods and could wipe out polar bears by 2100, an eight-nation report said on Monday.
The biggest survey to date of the Arctic climate, by 250 scientists, said the accelerating melt could be a foretaste of wider disruptions from a build-up of human emissions of heat-trapping gases in the earth's atmosphere.
The "Arctic climate is now warming rapidly and much larger changes are projected," according to the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA), funded by the United States, Canada, Russia, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Norway and Finland.
Arctic temperatures are rising at almost twice the global average and could leap 4-7 Celsius (7-13 Fahrenheit) by 2100, roughly twice the global average projected by U.N. reports. Siberia and Alaska have already warmed by 2-3 C since the 1950s.
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1108-05.htm
4) Friends of Wissatinnewag - November 16 - Vote for Respect
PRESS RELEASE
September 22, 2004, Greenfield, MA:
The Greenfield Town Council has rejected Native American pleas to remove 10 acres of wetlands from the new French King Highway commercial zoning strip. The non-profit Native American historic preservation organization, Friends of Wissatinnewag, asserts that those 10 acres contain Native burials.
While rescinding the rezoning vote would have allowed the Council to remove the 10 acres from the threat of imminent commercial development, and then to re-vote to keep the remaining 35 acres commercially zoned without costing the town any money, the unabashedly pro-development Council majority instead refused, and moved to force a costly special election on the re-zoning question to be held November 16th.
In 2001, the non-profit Friends purchased and protected the ancient Indian village and burial ground known as Wissatinnewag, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Fordham says sand and gravel excavation on the Wissatinnewag site in 1964 hit numerous burials, which were dumped and bulldozed into the nearby 10 acre White Ash Swamp. In July of this year, the Greenfield Town Council re-zoned this wetland as part of a new 45 acre commercial area on French King Highway, designed to pave the way for a big box superstore.
A ballot question committee has been formed in preparation of the November 16th vote.
On November 11, the committee, named Citizens for Native American Grave Protection, has taken out a full-page ad in the Greenfield newspaper, The Recorder. Help us get out the vote in Greenfield, MA to "Protect Native Graves - Vote Yes on One" campaign.
For more information, visit the homepage of FriendsofWissatinnewag.org
5) Richard Sitcha, 9/11 prisoner in Greenfield, MA
Overview:
In April 2001, Richard Sitcha fled Cameroon after being imprisoned and tortured by the government's security forces due to his involvement with the political protests against the Bepanda Nine killings. Fearing for his life, Richard applied for political asylum as soon as he arrived in the United States. The United States government granted Richard asylum in January 2003, while I was working with him on my thesis project. Life was looking up for Richardhe could now realize his dreams of going back to school and bringing his wife and two children to the US. On September 18, 2003, however, the US government revoked Richard's asylum and arrested him in the courtroom. He has been in jail, without charge, ever since that date. Although he is innocent of committing a crime, Richard was incarcerated for 6 months in the Osborn Connecticut Correctional Institution, a maximum security prison. One of his cellmates was a convicted murderer prone to violent outbursts. On February 2, 2004 a different cellmate attacked and brutalized Richard, who was hospitalized under psychiatric care for two days after the incident. On March 29, 2004, Richard was transferred to Franklin County House of Correction in Greenfield, MA. He has since remained in Franklin County Jail.
For more on this case, contacting Richard, etc., see:
www.mainstreamist.com/freerichard
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
BushManDate * KERRY WON * IcelandMelting
06 November 2004
"Seven counties in Ohio have electronic voting machines
and none of them have paper trails. That alone raises issues
of accuracy and integrity as to how we can verify the count.
A recount without a paper trail is meaningless; you just get
a regurgitation of the data. Last year, Blackwell tried to
get the entire state to buy new machines without a paper trail.
The exit polls, virtually the only check we have against
tampering with a vote without a paper trail, had shown Kerry
with a lead. ... A poll worker told me this morning that there
were no tapes of the results posted on some machines;
on other machines the posted count was zero,
which obviously shouldn't be the case."
– Susan Truitt
Co-founder of the Citizens Alliance for Secure Elections,
Quote from the Institute for Public Accuracy
1) "Kerry Won" - investigative reporter, Greg Palast
- - Outrage in Ohio: Angry Residents Storm State House!
- - The Ultimate Felony Against Democracy
- - 3rd Party Challenge Electronic Voting Results in NH
- - Presidential Election Was Hacked By FLA Tech School
2) Speak Out Against Assault on Falluja
- - U.N.'s Annan Seeks to Prevent an Assault on Fallouja
- - "Democracy Now!" - Headlines for November 5, 2004
3) Awesome power of Iceland volcano
- - Iceland Volcano Eruption Photo Links
Editor's Notes:
Is suspicions of electronic voting fraud a lot to swallow? It can't be more incredible than having an unauditable voting system, and with that in place, fraud is not farfetched at all, but likely. So what to do? Number uno.. keep the faith, keep communicating, networking, challenging the media for democracy and to stop the carnage from spreading further in Falluja and other places. Go to Black Box Voting and learn how to help demand a real election, a real democracy. The only way to honor those harmed by a renegade US dictatorial government is to fight for truth. The truth is likely that the majority of Americans and the electoral college voted for John Kerry for US President. Bush is now on a high speed chase for Armageddon, and millions have been duped by an unscrupulous group of extreme right wing neocons. Now Bush wants to revamp the intelligence community, and the Secret Government.. As Thom Hartmann put it in his title on the case of voting-fraud-2004: "The Ultimate Felony Against Democracy."
"..exit polls that showed Kerry carrying Florida and Ohio
(among other states) weren't erroneous at all -
it was the numbers produced by paperless voting machines
that were wrong, and Kerry actually won."
– Thom Hartmann
Item 3 updates the issue on the volcano eruption under a glacier in Iceland. The Gulf Stream current is noted as a fluke of nature.. How this pumping rotation of currents got started is beyond science's ability to comprehend, which brings heat to the equator and coolness to the poles, but the forces now at work are destroying it. How empty their lives are becoming, and we each affect all of us, now realized more than ever..
"The volcano was maintained under pressure by the weight of a lake above it.
As the lake drained, this pressure was released, allowing magma to rise to the surface."
- Dr Matthew J Roberts,
Icelandic Meteorological Office.
1) "Kerry Won" - investigative reporter, Greg Palast
- - Outrage in Ohio: Angry Residents Storm State House!
- - The Ultimate Felony Against Democracy
- - 3rd Party Challenge Electronic Voting Results in NH
- - Presidential Election Was Hacked By FLA Tech School
Kerry Won...
Greg Palast
November 04, 2004
Excerpted from TomPaine.com
---Kerry won. Here are the facts.---
I know you don't want to hear it. You can't face one more hung chad. But I don't have a choice. As a journalist examining that messy sausage called American democracy, it's my job to tell you who got the most votes in the deciding states. Tuesday, in Ohio and New Mexico, it was John Kerry.
Most voters in Ohio thought they were voting for Kerry. CNN's exit poll showed Kerry beating Bush among Ohio women by 53 percent to 47 percent. Kerry also defeated Bush among Ohio's male voters 51 percent to 49 percent. Unless a third gender voted in Ohio, Kerry took the state.
So what's going on here? Answer: the exit polls are accurate.
Pollsters ask, "Who did you vote for?" Unfortunately, they don't ask the crucial, question, "Was your vote counted?" The voters don't know.
Here's why. Although the exit polls show that most voters in Ohio punched cards for Kerry-Edwards, thousands of these votes were simply not recorded. This was predictable and it was predicted. [See TomPaine.com, "An Election Spoiled Rotten," November 1.]
---Whose Votes Are Discarded?---
And not all votes spoil equally. Most of those votes, say every official report, come from African-American and minority precincts. (To learn more see link from article.)
We saw this in Florida in 2000. Exit polls showed Gore with a plurality of at least 50,000, but it didn't match the official count. That's because the official, Secretary of State Katherine Harris, excluded 179,855 spoiled votes. In Florida, as in Ohio, most of these votes lost were cast on punch cards where the hole wasn't punched through completely-leaving a 'hanging chad,'-or was punched extra times. Whose cards were discarded? Expert statisticians investigating spoilage for the government calculated that 54 percent of the ballots thrown in the dumpster were cast by black folks. (To read the report from the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, see article link .)
And here's the key: Florida is terribly typical. The majority of ballots thrown out (there will be nearly 2 million tossed out from Tuesday's election) will have been cast by African American and other minority citizens.
---The Impact Of Challenges---
First and foremost, Kerry was had by chads. But the Democrat wasn't punched out by punch cards alone. There were also the 'challenges.' That's a polite word for the Republican Party of Ohio's use of an old Ku Klux Klan technique: the attempt to block thousands of voters of color at the polls. In Ohio, Wisconsin and Florida, the GOP laid plans for poll workers to ambush citizens under arcane laws-almost never used-allowing party-designated poll watchers to finger individual voters and demand they be denied a ballot. The Ohio courts were horrified and federal law prohibits targeting of voters where race is a factor in the challenge. But our Supreme Court was prepared to let Republicans stand in the voting booth door.
---Enchanted State's Enchanted Vote---
Now, on to New Mexico, where a Kerry plurality-if all votes are counted-is more obvious still. Before the election, in TomPaine.com, I wrote, "John Kerry is down by several thousand votes in New Mexico, though not one ballot has yet been counted."
How did that happen? It's the spoilage, stupid; and the provisional ballots.
CNN said George Bush took New Mexico by 11,620 votes. Again, the network total added up to that miraculous, and non-existent, '100 percent' of ballots cast.
New Mexico reported in the last race a spoilage rate of 2.68 percent, votes lost almost entirely in Hispanic, Native American and poor precincts-Democratic turf. From Tuesday's vote, assuming the same ballot-loss rate, we can expect to see 18,000 ballots in the spoilage bin.
Spoilage has a very Democratic look in New Mexico. Hispanic voters in the Enchanted State, who voted more than two to one for Kerry, are five times as likely to have their vote spoil as a white voter. Counting these uncounted votes would easily overtake the Bush 'plurality.'
To read the article in full, click here:
tompaine.com/articles/kerry_won_.php
---
Contact: media@gregpalast.com
To receive Greg's investigative reports click here:
gregpalast.com/contact.cfm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Outrage in Ohio: Angry Residents Storm State House!
Massive Voter Suppression and Corruption – Democracy Failure
By David Solnit
November 3, Toledo Ohio -- Hundreds of angry Ohio residents marched
through the streets of Columbus, Ohio's Capital, this evening and stormed
the Ohio State House, defying orders and arrest threats from Ohio State
Troopers. "O-H-I-O, Suppressed democracy has got to go," they chanted.
For more on this story see: "Outrage in Ohio:
Angry residents storm State House in response to massive voter suppression and corruption"
David Solnit volunteered with the Mobilization for Democracy Not
Disenfranchisement and local anti-bush groups in NW Ohio in late
October/early November and is the editor of Globalize Liberation:
How to Uproot the System and Build a Better World
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Ultimate Felony Against Democracy
Published November 4, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
The Ultimate Felony Against Democracy
by Thom Hartmann
The hot story in the Blogosphere is that the "erroneous" exit polls that showed Kerry carrying Florida and Ohio (among other states) weren't erroneous at all - it was the numbers produced by paperless voting machines that were wrong, and Kerry actually won. As more and more analysis is done of what may (or may not) be the most massive election fraud in the history of the world, however, it's critical that we keep the largest issue at the forefront at all time: Why are We The People allowing private, for-profit corporations, answerable only to their officers and boards of directors, and loyal only to agendas and politicians that will enhance their profitability, to handle our votes?
Maybe Florida went for Kerry, maybe for Bush. Over time - and through the efforts of some very motivated investigative reporters - we may well find out (Bev Harris of www.blackboxvoting.org just filed what may be the largest Freedom of Information Act [FOIA} filing in history), and bloggers and investigative reporters are discovering an odd discrepancy in exit polls being largely accurate in paper-ballot states and oddly inaccurate in touch-screen electronic voting states Even raw voter analyses are showing extreme oddities in touch-screen-run Florida, and eagle-eyed bloggers are finding that news organizations are retroactively altering their exit polls to coincide with what the machines ultimately said.
But in all the discussion about voting machines, let's never forget the concept of the commons, because this usurpation is the ultimate felony committed by conservatives this year.
At the founding of this nation, we decided that there were important places to invest our tax (then tariff) dollars, and those were the things that had to do with the overall "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" of all of us. Over time, these commons - in which we all make tax investments and for which we all hold ultimate responsibility - have come to include our police and fire services; our military and defense; our roads and skyways; our air, waters and national parks; and the safety of our food and drugs.
But the most important of all the commons in which we've invested our hard-earned tax dollars is our government itself. It's owned by us, run by us (through our elected representatives), answerable to us, and most directly responsible for stewardship of our commons.
And the commons through which we regulate the commons of our government is our vote.
About two years ago, I wrote a story for these pages, "If You Want To Win An Election, Just Control The Voting Machines," that exposed how Senator Chuck Hagel had, before stepping down and running for the U.S. Senate in Nebraska, been the head of the voting machine company (now ES&S) that had just computerized Nebraska's vote. The Washington Post (1/13/1997) said Hagel's "Senate victory against an incumbent Democratic governor was the major Republican upset in the November election." According to Bev Harris, Hagel won virtually every demographic group, including many largely black communities that had never before voted Republican. Hagel was the first Republican in 24 years to win a Senate seat in Nebraska, nearly all on unauditable machines he had just sold the state. And in all probability, Hagel run for President in 2008.
In another, later article I wrote at the request of MoveOn.org and which they mailed to their millions of members, I noted that in Georgia - another state that went all-electronic - "USA Today reported on Nov. 3, 2002, 'In Georgia, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll shows Democratic Sen. Max Cleland with a 49%-to-44% lead over Republican Rep. Saxby Chambliss. 'Cox News Service, based in Atlanta, reported just after the election (Nov. 7) that, "Pollsters may have goofed" because 'Republican Rep. Saxby Chambliss defeated incumbent Democratic Sen. Max Cleland by a margin of 53 to 46 percent. The Hotline, a political news service, recalled a series of polls Wednesday showing that Chambliss had been ahead in none of them.'" Nearly every vote in the state was on an electronic machine with no audit trail.
Article Truncated, for the complete article, see:
commondreams.org/views04/1104-38.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 3rd Party Challenge Electronic Voting Results in NH
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 5, 2004 – For Further Information:
Kevin Zeese 202.265.4000
Nader/Camejo Challenge Electronic Voting Results in New Hampshire
Washington, DC: The Nader/Camejo campaign has filed a challenge to the
voting results in New Hampshire after receiving numerous complaints from voting rights activits. Below is Nader's letter to New Hampshire requesting a recount. Also, below is Nader's view on electronic voting without a paper trial. In addition, the Nader/Camejo campaign offered our campaign to poll watchers who wanted to be credentialed to be inside to monitor electronic voting. Hundreds of democracy activists in Maryland working with TrueVoteMD.org were credentialed to monitor polling through the Populist Party which was created by Nader-Camejo supporters in Maryland.
For posted press release, see:
votenader.org/media_press/index.php?cid=400
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Presidential Election Was Hacked By FLA Tech School
Received from Jeff Fisher < jefffisherinflorida@yahoo.com >
Press Release : Presidential Election Was Hacked By Florida Tech School
Election Fraud Connected To Katherine Harris' Attorney
Contact: Jeff Fisher 561-865-9548
Bay Point School is a juvenile correctional facility in the Miami area. Information has been given to the Washington Post that the Miami school is a suspected training ground in computer science and programming for juvenile delinquents who have trained in the art of manipulating electronic voting, without a true audit trail. It is believed that this activity is taking place not only there but in several schools like the aforementioned one nationwide. If true, then Bay Point School could be the Florida connection." It is possible as many as 6 states elections results have been altered by recruits from this school. www.rense.com
Jeff Fisher through a confidential informant alleges that the school has direct connections with Joseph Klock, and that Blass informed him that his loyalty to Klock is more important than the truth about how the 2000 election was manipulated, and how it is possible for a repeat to occur in the upcoming November general election. Mel Sembler, a powerful fundraiser for the Bush Campaign in Florida, is someone who has knowledge of the activities at Bay Point College. We are sure the talented people of the Washington Post will release additional details in the upcoming days. Mel Sembler is Ambassador to Italy and a principal in several drug treatment facilities that are under investigation for gross mismanagement.
Joseph Klock, an attorney who facilitated the release of Dr. Blass' son from an abusive treatment center. Mr. Klock was, coincidentally, the attorney for former congresswoman Katherine Harris who was the Secretary of State during the contested 2000 Florida recount which helped put George W. Bush in the White House.
Details about this on going investigation can be had by contacting Mr. Fisher.
We have reported previously on protests of Ambassador Melvin Sembler by the Uhurus and by the anti-Straight crowd. More recently BayWalk, Sembler's multi-million dollar shopping center complex in St. Petersburg, has been protested by StPeteforPeace, a group that feels the war in Iraq is illegal. What BayWalk came up with was an attempt to create a no protest zone to stop them. That plan backfired when the biggest protest ever took place at BayWalk recently, hampering businesses. StPeteforPeace was joined by the ACLU, the Green Party, the Uhurus, Coalition for Free Thought in Media, and many others, including two members of the city council. Even the St. Pete Times editorialized over Sembler's attempt to limit free-speech. The city council buckled under the pressure and dropped its hearing to create the illegal zones.
For more resources, see:
VoteFraud.org
BlackBoxVoting.org
2) Speak Out Against Assault on Falluja
- - U.N.'s Annan Seeks to Prevent an Assault on Fallouja
- - "Democracy Now!" - Headlines for November 5, 2004
- - Speak Out Against Assault on Falluja!
ACTION ALERT * UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE -- 212-868-5545
============================================
Speak Out Against the Imminent Assault on Falluja!
* contact your local media outlets to denounce the planned attack
* get ready for street protests should the full-scale assault begin
============================================
Does the Bush administration plan to destroy Falluja in order to save it?
News reports indicate that the Bush administration will soon launch a major military assault on Falluja. More than 10,000 U.S. soldiers are amassing on Fallujah's outskirts, and U.S. warplanes are already bombing neighborhoods around the city.
If the U.S. carries out this assault, it will dramatically increase violence and chaos in Iraq. It will not bring about the peace and security that Iraqis greatly desire. The military occupation has already fueled anger and resentment against the U.S. and swelled the ranks of terrorist groups. We need to bring the troops home now and adopt a new approach that will move us toward peace, sovereignty, and security.
Military officials believe Falluja is the home of the nation-wide insurgency. Their goal in this assault is to induce other insurgent-held cities to capitulate before scheduled elections in January, and send a message to all Iraqis that opposition to the occupation has a high price.
U.S. officials and U.S.-installed Prime Minister Allawi say their only goal is "to liberate the people and to bring the rule of law to Falluja." But when the U.S. military besieged Falluja last April, at least 600 Iraqis were killed, most of them civilians. Given the scale of the threatened assault, far more Iraqi civilians could be killed this time around, as well as many U.S. and Iraqi soldiers.
We will be sending you more information, resources, and calls to action should Falluja in fact suffer a major attack. But in the meantime, we urge you to begin raising a loud public outcry against the Bush administration's planned assault.
TAKE ACTION!
* CONTACT YOUR LOCAL MEDIA OUTLETS
Flood your local media outlets with messages of opposition to the impending assault on Falluja. Write letters to the editor and send in opinion pieces. Call in to your local talk radio stations. Ask reporters if they would like to interview an anti-war activist.
* GET READY FOR STREET ACTION
If the assault on Falluja or any other major military escalation takes place in Iraq, we will need to be as visible and vocal as possible with our antiwar message. Make sure your group or organization is aware of what's happening; start planning local protest activities and post them on our calendar
If you are not already in a group, visit the UFPJ web site: to locate an organization near you
* KEEP ABREAST OF DEVELOPMENTS IN IRAQ
Get up-to-date news from Iraq at occupationwatch.org/ .
Be sure to join Occupation Watch's email list.
For more information on the Falluja build-up, see these articles:
www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7608
www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7534
===========================================
ACTION ALERT * UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - U.N.'s Annan Seeks to Prevent an Assault on Fallouja
Published November 5, 2004 by the Los Angeles Times
U.N.'s Annan Seeks to Prevent an Assault on Fallouja
His letter to U.S., British and Iraqi leaders
warns of increasing hostility and election boycott.
by Maggie Farley
UNITED NATIONS — U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned leaders of the United States, Britain and Iraq that another full-scale assault on the rebel-held city of Fallouja would further alienate Iraqis and disrupt elections planned for January.
Annan's warning, contained in a letter sent Sunday, has angered some officials here.
A wounded Iraqi woman lies in a hospital bed next to her 16 month-old child who lost a leg when their house was hit during a U.S. overnight air-raid conducted over the western city of Falluja, November 4, 2004, according to Iraqi hospital officials. REUTERS/Omar Khodor
"This is an issue for the government of Iraq," said British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry. "It's easy for those not in Iraq to underestimate the overwhelming concern the Iraqis have for security. There cannot be an area as big as Fallouja which is allowed to be a base for terrorism."
Some diplomats said Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was "furious" when he received the letter. Iraq's new U.N. ambassador immediately sought to meet with Annan to argue that the U.N. was interfering. Allawi recently criticized Annan for not doing enough to help Iraq prepare for elections. The world body's officials say Iraq is not secure enough for more U.N. workers to help organize the nationwide vote.
Annan's letter underscores a fundamental disagreement between the U.S.-led coalition and the U.N. about how best to bring stability to Iraq.
For the complete article, see:
commondreams.org/headlines04/1105-01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - "Democracy Now!" - Headlines for November 5, 2004
For the following headlines:
- Bush Calls for Social Security & Tax Code Reforms
- Arafat Reportedly in Coma, Near Death
- Three UK Troops Killed Near Baghdad
- U.S. Expecting Casualty Rate in Fallujah Not Seen Since Vietnam
- U.S. Soldiers Admit Explosives Were Looted in Iraq
- 700 Immigrants in Pre-Election Round-Up
- Black Box Voting Seeks Electronic Voting Records
- Fighter Plane Accidentally Hits NJ School
See:
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/05/1521207
3) Awesome power of Iceland volcano
- - Iceland Volcano Eruption Photo Links
Awesome power of Iceland volcano
Published by the BBC
A spectacular volcanic eruption under
an Iceland glacier has forced airlines
to divert flights to avoid flying through
gas emissions from the blast.
The volcano first erupted on Monday, sending thick black smoke and ash
heading towards continental Europe.
Since then, Grmsvtn volcano has produced a steady stream of ash and lava, with explosions sending ash up to 12,000m (40,000 feet) in the air.
It is thought to have been caused by drainage of a lake under the glacier.
"As the lake drained, this pressure was released,
allowing magma to rise to the surface.
It was like lifting the lid off a pressure cooker,"
- Dr Matthew J Roberts, Icelandic Meteorological Office
Officials say people or homes are not at risk from the eruption of Grmsvtn, which is in an unpopulated area of the island.
But ash from the eruption under Vatnajkull glacier - Iceland's biggest - has landed in Norway, Sweden and Finland. The eruption was also violent enough to set off earth tremors.
The ashfall in Iceland has caused some problems for wildlife in the area. For instance, farmers have brought their sheep inside to prevent them from grazing on land covered with shards of abrasive "glass-like" material deposited by the eruption.
Oli Thor Arnarsson of the Icelandic Meteorological Office said a change in the wind could send the cloud toward central Europe.
"We are speculating that the eruption should be clear tomorrow. But if there are more eruptions, we may have ash over central Europe," he said.
Cancelled flights
Trans-Atlantic flights had been diverted south of Iceland to avoid the ash cloud, and domestic flights to the northeast of Iceland were cancelled.
Dutch airline KLM said it had cancelled 59 flights, stranding hundreds of passengers at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, because of the cloud of ash hanging above Europe.
"Because of company rules we can't fly below it and we can't fly above it," said airport spokesman Frank Houben.
In addition to visibility problems, abrasive particles released into the air by the volcano can get inside aircraft engines.
"It's the equivalent of sandblasting an aircraft engine with grit," Dr Matthew J Roberts of the Icelandic Meteorological Office in Reykjavik, Iceland, told the BBC News website.
"As the aeroplane draws in large quantities of air, suspended particles cause abrasion inside the engine that can result in the aircraft stalling."
This happened once in 1989, when a 747 flew through an ash cloud from an eruption of the Redoubt volcano in Alaska, US. The engines stopped, causing the plane to lose several hundred feet in altitude.
Luckily, the pilots managed to restart the engines after several attempts, averting a catastrophe.
Warning issued
Over the last few weeks, increased earthquake activity below the Vatnajkull ice cap warned scientists that an eruption was likely.
At 2010 GMT on Monday evening, scientists detected a series of earthquakes from the Grmsvtn volcano beneath Vatnajkull, prompting monitors to issue a public warning.
The earthquakes were followed at 2150 GMT by a sequence of volcanic tremors that confirmed an eruption was underway. Shortly after, doppler radar detected the first volcanic plume breaking through the ice.
"The volcano was maintained under pressure by the weight of a lake above it. As the lake drained, this pressure was released, allowing magma to rise to the surface," Dr Roberts explained.
"It was like lifting the lid off a pressure cooker."
Grmsvtn last erupted six years ago and before that in 1995 and 1993, causing flooding.
The volcano lies on the Atlantic Rift, the meeting of the Euro and American continental plates.
The three major volcanoes of Iceland - Hekla, Katla and Grmsvtn - lie on the same fault line.
During the late 18th century, continuous volcanic eruptions in Iceland heavily damaged a quarter of the island nation, and blotted out the sun's light for several years.
Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2004/11/04 13:02:35 GMT
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3982273.stm
BBC MMIV
news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/3982273.stm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Iceland Volcano Eruption Photo Links
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
More:
FN Archives - Updated:
Mounting Evidence of Global Warming
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
VotingSludge * TerrorReigns * VolcanoGlacierErupts
04 November 2004
"..But we all are moral cowards when it comes to Iraq.
Our collective inability to summon the requisite shame and rage
when confronted by an estimate of 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians
in the prosecution of an illegal and unjust war not only condemns us,
but adds credibility to those who oppose us.."
– Scott Ritter
1) Voting without auditing. (Are we insane?)
2) The War on Iraq Has Made Moral Cowards of Us All
- - Bush Victory Bad News for Fallujah
3) Volcano Erupts in Isolated Iceland Area
Editor's Notes:
Reflecting on our campaigns from a half-empty perspective, we failed to stop the Cassini Earth flyby. We didn't succeed to get Al Gore elected for US President, we failed to stop George Bush from terminating the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Inspired by Dennis Kucinich, i.e. his participation in a law suit against the Bush administration to end the ABM, and introduction for legislation for a US Department of Peace, and ban on space-based weapons, FN endorsed Dennis a year before his announcement to run for US President. Our latest campaign was unsuccessful in ousting George W. from office. On one level this is very discouraging, but we helped expose the Cassini Earth (plutonium) flyby, we were discovered by Bart Jordan, we joined with millions of others who care about democracy and human decency. The turn of the US toward fascism under the banner of democracy is very irritating. But the deceit, and the existence of truth, give hope for a possible outcome favorable for human dignity and integrity. Having George Bush lead my country is simply embarrassing and a horrendous incident for humankind.
As shown in this issue, Global Warming Climate Change and the Greed-driven Oil Wars are well on their way. It is not time to give in to our fears. FN will continue sharing resources, inspired by Bev Harris, Scott Ritter, Greg Palast, Michael Moore, Bart Jordan, and countless others working for integrity and human dignity during the time we have left on Earth.
POST ELECTION
M U S I C ~ P O E T R Y
FLYBY NEWS BENEFIT
Saturday, November 6, 2004 - 7 ~ 10:00 pm
at
THE BLACK SHEEP DELI
{South Main Street, Amherst, MA}
featuring:
Tom Neilson
Annie Hassett & Friends
Julia Burrough - Karen Copeland
Diana Allen - - - Jonathan Mark
plus surprise guests - music jam - bring instruments
{Suggested donation $5 - $20}
Can't make the gig, and want to support FN?
You can contribute funds to:
Flyby News - P.O. Box 1999 - Wendell Depot, MA 01380
Thanks for reading, and sharing resources for
life's survival in the 21st Century.
1) Voting without auditing. (Are we insane?)
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON Nov 3 2004 --
Did the voting machines trump exit polls? There's a way to find out.
Black Box Voting (.ORG) is conducting the largest Freedom of Information action in history. At 8:30 p.m. Election Night, Black Box Voting blanketed the U.S. with the first in a series of public records requests, to obtain internal computer logs and other documents from 3,000 individual counties and townships. Networks called the election before anyone bothered to perform even the most rudimentary audit.
America: We have permission to say No to this. It is our right.
We call on every candidate not to concede. Don't play along. It is your right.
Among the first requests sent to counties (with all kinds of voting systems -- optical scan, touch-screen, and punch card) is a formal records request for internal audit logs, polling place results slips, modem transmission logs, and computer trouble slips.
Such a request filed in King County, Washington on Sept. 15, following the primary election six weeks ago, uncovered an internal audit log containing a three-hour deletion on election night; "trouble slips" revealing suspicious modem activity; and profound problems with security, including accidental disclosure of critically sensitive remote access information to poll workers, office personnel, and even, in a shocking blunder, to Black Box Voting activists.
Black Box Voting is a nonpartisan, nonprofit consumer protection group for elections.
Responses from public officials will be posted in the forum, is organized by state and county, so that any news organization or citizens group has access to the information. Black Box Voting will assist in analysis, by providing expertise in evaluating the records. Watch for the records online; Black Box Voting will be posting the results as they come in. And by the way, these are not free. The more donations we get, the more FOIAs we are empowered to do. Time's a'wasting.
We look forward to seeing you participate in this process. Join us in evaluating the previously undisclosed inside information about how our voting system works.
Play a part in reclaiming transparency. It's the only way.
BlackBoxVoting.org
2) The War on Iraq Has Made Moral Cowards of Us All
- - Bush Victory Bad News for Fallujah
The War on Iraq Has Made Moral Cowards of Us All
By Scott Ritter
The Guardian U.K.
Monday 01 November 2004
More than 100,000 Iraqis have died - and where is our shame and rage?
The full scale of the human cost already paid for the war on Iraq is only now becoming clear. Last week's estimate by investigators, using credible methodology, that more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians - most of them women and children - have died since the US-led invasion is a profound moral indictment of our countries. The US and British governments quickly moved to cast doubt on the Lancet medical journal findings, citing other studies. These mainly media-based reports put the number of Iraqi civilian deaths at about 15,000 - although the basis for such an endorsement is unclear, since neither the US nor the UK admits to collecting data on Iraqi civilian casualties.
Civilian deaths have always been a tragic reality of modern war. But the conflict in Iraq was supposed to be different - US and British forces were dispatched to liberate the Iraqi people, not impose their own tyranny of violence.
Reading accounts of the US-led invasion, one is struck by the constant, almost casual, reference to civilian deaths. Soldiers and marines speak of destroying hundreds, if not thousands, of vehicles that turned out to be crammed with civilians. US marines acknowledged in the aftermath of the early, bloody battle for Nassiriya that their artillery and air power had pounded civilian areas in a blind effort to suppress insurgents thought to be holed up in the city. The infamous "shock and awe" bombing of Baghdad produced hundreds of deaths, as did the 3rd Infantry Division's "Thunder Run", an armored thrust in Baghdad that slaughtered everyone in its path.
It is true that, with only a few exceptions, civilians who died as a result of ground combat were not deliberately targeted, but were caught up in the machinery of modern warfare. But when the same claim is made about civilians killed in aerial attacks (the Lancet study estimates that most of civilian deaths were the result of air attacks), the comparison quickly falls apart. Helicopter engagements apart, most aerial bombardment is deliberate and pre-planned. US and British military officials like to brag about the accuracy of the "precision" munitions used in these strikes, claiming this makes the kind of modern warfare practiced by the coalition in Iraq the most humanitarian in history.
But there is nothing humanitarian about explosives once they detonate near civilians, or about a bomb guided to the wrong target. Dozens of civilians were killed during the vain effort to eliminate Saddam Hussein with "pinpoint" air strikes, and hundreds have perished in the campaign to eliminate alleged terrorist targets in Falluja. A "smart bomb" is only as good as the data used to direct it. And the abysmal quality of the intelligence used has made the smartest of bombs just as dumb and indiscriminate as those, for example, dropped during the second world war.
The fact that most bombing missions in Iraq today are pre-planned, with targets allegedly carefully vetted, further indicts those who wage this war in the name of freedom. If these targets are so precise, then those selecting them cannot escape the fact that they are deliberately targeting innocent civilians at the same time as they seek to destroy their intended foe. Some would dismiss these civilians as "collateral damage". But we must keep in mind that the British and US governments made a deliberate decision to enter into a conflict of their choosing, not one that was thrust upon them. We invaded Iraq to free Iraqis from a dictator who, by some accounts, oversaw the killing of about 300,000 of his subjects - although no one has been able to verify more than a small fraction of the figure. If it is correct, it took Saddam decades to reach such a horrific statistic. The US and UK have, it seems, reached a third of that total in just 18 months.
Meanwhile, the latest scandal over missing nuclear-related high explosives in Iraq (traced and controlled under the UN inspections regime) only underscores the utter deceitfulness of the Bush-Blair argument for the war. Having claimed the uncertainty surrounding Iraq's WMD capability constituted a threat that could not go unchallenged in a post-9/11 world, one would have expected the two leaders to insist on a military course of action that brought under immediate coalition control any aspect of potential WMD capability, especially relating to any possible nuclear threat. That the US military did not have a dedicated force to locate and neutralize these explosives underscores the fact that both Bush and Blair knew that there was no threat from Iraq, nuclear or otherwise.
Of course, the US and Britain have a history of turning a blind eye to Iraqi suffering when it suits their political purposes. During the 1990s, hundreds of thousands are estimated by the UN to have died as a result of sanctions. Throughout that time, the US and the UK maintained the fiction that this was the fault of Saddam Hussein, who refused to give up his WMD. We now know that Saddam had disarmed and those deaths were the responsibility of the US and Britain, which refused to lift sanctions.
There are many culpable individuals and organizations history will hold to account for the war - from deceitful politicians and journalists to acquiescent military professionals and silent citizens of the world's democracies. As the evidence has piled up confirming what I and others had reported - that Iraq was already disarmed by the late 1990s - my personal vote for one of the most culpable individuals would go to Hans Blix, who headed the UN weapons inspection team in the run-up to war. He had the power if not to prevent, at least to forestall a war with Iraq. Blix knew that Iraq was disarmed, but in his mealy-mouthed testimony to the UN security council helped provide fodder for war. His failure to stand up to the lies used by Bush and Blair to sell the Iraq war must brand him a moral and intellectual coward.
But we all are moral cowards when it comes to Iraq. Our collective inability to summon the requisite shame and rage when confronted by an estimate of 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians in the prosecution of an illegal and unjust war not only condemns us, but adds credibility to those who oppose us. The fact that a criminal such as Osama bin Laden can broadcast a videotape on the eve of the US presidential election in which his message is viewed by many around the world as a sober argument in support of his cause is the harshest indictment of the failure of the US and Britain to implement sound policy in the aftermath of 9/11. The death of 3,000 civilians on that horrible day represented a tragedy of huge proportions. Our continued indifference to a war that has slaughtered so many Iraqi civilians, and will continue to kill more, is in many ways an even greater tragedy: not only in terms of scale, but also because these deaths were inflicted by our own hand in the course of an action that has no defense.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Scott Ritter was a senior UN weapons inspector in Iraq between 1991 and 1998 and is the author of "Frontier Justice: Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Bushwhacking of America".
This original article was posted:
www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1340562,00.html
and also posted at
www.truthout.org/docs_04/110304F.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush Victory Bad News for Fallujah
As Republicans prepare for a second term, the world is braced for more violence
Published November 3, 2004 by The Age (Australia)
by Paul McGeough
The people of Fallujah can expect to be the first in the Middle East to whom a reaffirmed President George Bush reaches out - it will be with guns and bombs.
An unlikely win by the Democrat John Kerry would be a line in the sand, a chance to put aside the debilitating blame game over the mess that Iraq has become. Instead, the US in a second Bush term will have to soldier on, with much of the world continuing to refuse the meaningful assistance that might dig the President out of a hole he dug for himself.
A win is a win is a win. But as a referendum on Iraq and the war on terror, Bush's margin in the popular vote is narrow, particularly when compared to the levels of support he enjoyed in the days after September 11.
That will not stop Bush and the neo-conservatives claiming vindication - and probably it will fuel even more zealous efforts to shape outcomes according to their unilateralist, America-knows-best view of a terror-stressed world.
The massive explosives theft in Iraq, the bulk of which may be in the hands of insurgents and terrorists now; and of the revelation by Bush's Christian supporter Pat Robertson that the President had predicted before the Iraq invasion that he would not lose a single American life, had me thinking Kerry might fall over the line.
That went out the window when Osama bin Laden voted for the enemy he wants - President Bush - with his very deliberate and calculated intervention in the campaign. On the strength of Bush's claim of victory last night, Fallujah needs to brace itself; Tehran should tread carefully.
[Article Truncated]
For the complete article, see:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1103-01.htm
3) Volcano Erupts in Isolated Iceland Area
(Article Posted - November 2, 2004 - 01:05:11 GMT)
REYKAJVIK, Iceland (AP) - A volcano erupted in a remote area of Iceland on Monday, setting off tremors across the area and prompting officials to warn pilots to avoid flying through gasses being emitted by the blast.
No evacuations were needed in the unpopulated area around Grimsvotn mountain in eastern Iceland, the Meteorological Office said, but visual confirmation of the damage being done was impossible because heavy winds and rains reduced visibility in the area.
The eruption was believed to have been caused by expansion of a lake underneath the Vatnajokull glacier.
"The water is under extreme pressure from the glacier. We believe it could open a part of the Grimsvotn mountain, causing the release of some magma, though this cannot be confirmed without visual identification," said Oli Thor Arnarsson at the Meteorological Office.
His office issued the warning to pilots on Monday evening.
Grimsvotn last erupted six years ago. It also erupted in 1995 and 1993, causing flooding.
The mountain lies on the Atlantic Rift, the meeting of the Euro and American continental plates. The three major volcanoes of Iceland - Hekla, Katla and Grimsvotn - lie on the same fault line. Hekla last erupted in 2000.
Copyright 2004
The Associated Press All Rights Reserved
news.lp.findlaw.com/ap_stories/i/1103/11-1-2004/20041101171501_09.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Vatnajkull, Iceland: Click here to view full image (3190 kb)
earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10851
Image provided by the USGS EROS Data Center Satellite Systems Branch.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
More:
Ocean Forces Threaten Our Climate
www.firstscience.com/site/articles/gribbin.asp
FN Archives - Updated:
Mounting Evidence of Global Warming
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
DemocracyOnLine * DU-Iraq * 911Haunting * Native
02 November 2004
"America's leadership and prestige depend,
not merely upon our unmatched material progress,
riches and military strength, but on how we use our power
in the interests of world peace and human betterment."
Dwight D. Eisenhower
1) US Democracy on the Line
- - From MoveOn.org - election day resources
- - Documents reveal 3-hours missing from electronic vote
- - Voters claim abuse of electoral rolls
- - One Day Left by Michael Moore
2) DU Weapons Dust Worries Iraqis
3) Unanswered 9/11/01 Questions - Day of the Dead
4) Journey to Wissatinnewag, Sacred Run, 911 Questions Group
Editor's Notes:
This election day issue comes with great uncertainty about how far Bush & Company will go to steal another US Election. This time the country, the lawyers, the Democratic Party, seem more ready. And the people, will show up in record numbers in the vast majority for John Kerry to end the Bush coup d'etat and dictatorship of the last four years. Let's do all we can to make this happen.. and never give up!
1) US Democracy on the Line
- - From MoveOn.org - election day resources
- - Documents reveal 3-hours missing from electronic vote
- - Voters claim abuse of electoral rolls
- - One Day Left by Michael Moore
- - From MoveOn.org - election day resources
This is it. If you haven't voted yet, now is the time. Voting is always easier in the morning. You can look up your polling place here.
Even if you're not in a swing state, it's crucial that you vote. John Kerry must win both the electoral and the popular vote to prevent the right wing from challenging his legitimacy.
If you have questions about voting, go to the MoveOnPAC.org website for a list of Frequently Asked Questions. If you have any trouble voting, make a report to the Common Cause hotline at 1-866-MYVOTE1.
Another hotline has been set up by a coalition of nonpartisan groups to deal with the most serious problems on Election Day. 1-866-OUR-VOTE is the "911" of voter suppression hotlines. Please don't call unless your problem is serious enough that you have to talk to a lawyer immediately.
If you're working all day today to get folks out to vote, as part of our Leave No Voter Behind program or otherwise, bless you. Across the nation, millions of us are working around the clock to remove the worst American administration in the last hundred years.
The energy and commitment we are seeing is absolutely awe inspiring. Millions of phone calls. Tens of thousands of volunteers working their neighborhoods to turn out more than a half-million new voters. Thousands of volunteers traveling across the nation to work in swing states. Member-sponsored ads that have reached tens of millions of voters. And more than 500,000 MoveOn members who have contributed to these efforts in just the last few months. It's phenomenal.
As we fight, voter by voter, it's important to step back for a moment and draw strength from our place in history. Because no matter what happens today, this fight is more than a fight against one man. It's a fight for the spirit of democracy in America. And it's a fight we will win.
Once your work this day is done, and you're waiting for the results to come in, we suggest turning off the silly pundits for a few minutes, and taking in the speech we've attached to this email. Last year, Bill Moyers gave this speech at the Take Back America conference. We've found it to be a touchstone. For a moment of inspiration, read his speech below, or listen to the audio stream here:
Bill Moyer's MP3 Audio -- High Quality (for high speed connections)
cdn.moveonpac.org/content/audio/moyer.mp3
Bill Moyer's MP3 Audio -- Lower Quality (for dialup connections)
cdn.moveonpac.org/content/audio/small_moyer.mp3
Thanks for everything you are doing -- for the election today and for the days and years to come.
--Wes Boyd and the whole MoveOn PAC team
Tuesday, November 2nd, 2004
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Documents reveal 3-hours missing from electronic vote
Documents reveal 3-hours missing from e-vote election night audit log
Philadelphia -- November 2, 2004 -- TomFlocco.com -- Smoking gun evidence of election night tampering just 6-weeks ago in King County, Washington's September 14 primary was discovered in a response to a public records request by the founder and the associate director of Black Box Voting (BBV), a non-profit election watch-dog and research group.
READ MORE:
tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=101&mode=&order=0&thold=0
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Voters claim abuse of electoral rolls
The Observer, London
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Voters claim abuse of electoral rolls
Students say they were conned into registering twice
Greg Palast in New York
Sunday October 31, 2004
An Observer investigation in the United States has uncovered widespread allegations of electoral abuse, many of them going uninvestigated despite complaints of what would appear to be criminal attempts to manipulate voter lists.
The allegations, which come just two days before Americans go to the polls in one of the most tightly contested elections in a generation, threaten to plunge Tuesday's count into a legal minefield and overshadow even the elections of 2000.
For the complete article, see:
www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1340190,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - One Day Left by Michael Moore
Final words by Michael Moore prior to US 2004 elections
Posted November 1, 2004 @ MichaelMoore.com
www.commondreams.org/views04/1101-30.htm
2) DU Weapons Dust Worries Iraqis
Weapons Dust Worries Iraqis
Provisional Government Seeks Cleanup; U.S. Downplays Risks
by Thomas D. Williams
Despite assurances from the U.S. military that depleted uranium from exploded munitions does not pose a significant health threat, Iraq's provisional government is asking the United Nations for help cleaning up the low-level radioactive, metal dust spread across local battlefields by U.S. and British forces during the Persian Gulf wars.
The request comes as the United States continues to defend depleted uranium weaponry - prized for its tank-piercing and bunker- or cave-smashing ability - against strong opposition by other countries, scientists and veterans organizations.
Great Britain, a major partner in the coalition now fighting in Iraq, has provided the U.N. with the coordinates where its forces used depleted uranium, also known as DU, in southern Iraq, but the United States has not. Britain and Germany are supplying money to train Iraqis in environmental science. The United Nations plans to survey for DU hot spots from both wars in Iraq and says it needs the coordinates for an effective survey.
Neither British nor U.S. authorities have offered to augment the $4.7 million donated mainly by Japan to the United Nations to evaluate sites of wartime contamination that health experts say threaten the well-being of Iraqi civilians.
For the complete article, (published in the Hartford Courant), November 1, 2004, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1101-01.htm
3) Unanswered 9/11/01 Questions - Day of the Dead
Day of the Dead: The Haunting of the White House
By Cynthia McKinney and Catherine Austin Fitts
November 1, 2004
Something is rising from the ashes of September 11: the spectre of questions that will haunt our country until answered.
Months after the release of the official 9/11 Commission Report - even as Congress moves to implement its proposals for a radical centralization of security forces - growing numbers of Americans are doubting their own government's account of what really happened on September 11, and how.
>From the first, the Bush Administration resisted investigation and disclosure. Families of September 11 victims were forced to lobby the administration and Congress for a full and independent inquiry. They fought for 14 months, blocked every step of the way by the White House.
The political games reached such a point that the survivors of the worst attack ever on American soil were forced to hold a candlelight vigil in front of the White House. A vigil for the truth.
The White House finally assented in December 2002 to the establishment of an independent commission, under former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean. Still, the administration pushed for a hand-picked panel, with a narrow focus on intelligence failures and recommendations.
The families demanded a full investigation, posing nearly 400 questions to the Kean Commission. The commissioners said they welcomed these queries. But their final report ignored most of the unanswered questions. Still posted on the website of the September 11 Family Steering Committee, these questions are a stark reminder of the Kean Commission's failures.
Now these same questions have been submitted to the New York Attorney General. Last week, the New York City office of Eliot Spitzer received a citizens' complaint to open a legal inquiry into crimes still unsolved, more than three years later.
So begins the haunting of the White House.
Driven by survivor families, independent researchers, journalists, and a growing number of ordinary citizens, an emergent "9/11 truth movement" has organized several public inquiries into the events of September 11 during the past year. As co-chairs of the first 9/11 Citizens' Commission, held in New York City in September, we were entrusted with answering questions the Kean Commission ignored.
What did we hear? We heard evidence of specific advance warnings about the 9/11 attacks from overseas. We heard about the spiking of FBI terrorism investigations and the lack of response during the attacks by high officials, including George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and the acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard Myers.
We heard about air toxicity at Ground Zero still afflicting firefighters, first responders, and New York residents - and how, in the days after September 11, the White House intervened to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from issuing a strong warning that the air in Lower Manhattan was unsafe to breathe.
We also learned that, although there was a stunning abandonment of standard procedure for hijackings and air defense on September 11, the 9/11 Commission Report fails to issue a call for official accountability.As Kean Commission members travel the country to promote the findings of their report, we know many people are standing up to ask them tough questions about these and many other open issues. But ordinary people lack the subpeona powers necessary for a full discovery of the facts. Citizens' investigations can only go so far.
Some of those who testified before us in New York therefore explored the case for a grand-jury investigation. Possible charges included criminal negligence, failure to perform official duties, criminal facilitation, liability for accessorial conduct, conspiracy and obstruction of justice by high-ranking U.S. government officials.
These charges, now raised in the petition to the New York State Attorney General, may sound extreme. But they reflect a growing concern within the public. A Zogby International poll of New York City residents last August showed that 49 percent believe some high officials knew about the attacks in advance and "consciously failed" to take preventive action. 41 percent of state residents overall shared that view.
A full 66 percent of New York City residents in the survey agreed the case of 9/11 should be reopened by Congress - or by Eliot Spitzer. A Congressional inquiry that respects the pressing nature of these questions is long overdue.
And so now we have no recourse but to stand vigil in front of Eliot Spitzer's office. Until the unanswered questions about 9/11 are laid to rest, by a truly independent investigation that does not declare legitimate avenues of inquiry off-limits, they will continue to haunt our country - and whoever sits in the White House next year.
------------
Cynthia McKinney, a five-term U.S. Congresswoman from Georgia's fourth district from 1993 to 2003, won this year's primary as the Democratic nominee for her former seat and is favored in tomorrow's election. Catherine Austin Fitts is a former Assistant Secretary of Housing under President George Bush Sr. and a former managing director and board member of Dillon, Read & Co. Inc.
The questions of the Family Steering Committee are online at: www.911independentcommission.org/questions.html
The Complaint and Petition to Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is online at www.Justicefor911.org
------------
The above is cleared for free non-commercial republication and distribution by e-mail, if no changes are made and the following link to the original is included.
www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20041101130426916
4) Journey to Wissatinnewag, Sacred Run, 911 Questions Group
The following was sent to the Flyby Local Alerts list -
You can subscribe for occasional alerts on actions and events in the mid New England area by sending an email to flyby@mtdata.com and insert "subscribe local alerts," and you can add anything else in your message.
Date: Mon, 01 Nov 2004 08:47:12 -0500
To: Flyby Local Alerts
From: Jonathan Mark
Subject: Sacred Run, Wissatinnewag, 911 questions group
Bcc: (list maintained confidentially)
[Excerpt]
Friends,
I hope we all remain concentrated on our actions during this critical election.. Our work, no matter what, will not end November 3rd. Please note that we will gather on November 6th for a FN benefit with music, art, and perspective, in Amherst. More information on this event is posted at FlybyNews.com . Please reply if we want me to send you a PDF email of flyer.
I predict a landslide for Kerry.. with new voters knowing the scoop. How far will Bush push to steal it? I don't know, but he will back down eventually, in the power of the wave of decency and a reality .. 100,000 Iraqi civilians dead is a war of terror.
"Journey to Wissatinnewag" was videotaped at the fall harvest celebration on the Wissatinnewag land near Route 2 in Greenfield, Massachusetts, this 26-minute documentary's soundtrack is accompanied with Native American voices, and the sounds of drumming, singing, and flute music. In the narrative the film tells of the 10,000-12,000 year history of the original inhabitants of this ancient and sacred land where the village of Wissatinnewag was known as a place of peace, trade, common ceremonies, and harvest celebrations for many indigenous nations throughout the Northeast. Native Americans and residents of Greenfield gather together to acknowledge, honor, and give thanks to this long, enduring story of those who lived and died before us. This November 16 there is a vote for "zoning laws" that will again endanger the peace of this land with international commerce that could place more shame on our respect and honor of those here before us. It is now time to join together and protect the burials removed from the Wissatinnewag site 40 years ago. The human, native remains were deposited in the 10-acre parcel known as the White Ash Swamp across the street. What a life-giving opportunity to right some wrongs of the past and lead to an honorable future.
This film will also be shown at the Green Fields Market (Co-op) Friday Nov. 5th at 6:30pm.
It is also shown at various community TV cable stations.
For more information, contact:
Info@NativeNewEngland.org,
MFordham@NativeNewEngland.org
Web Site: friendsofwissatinnewag.org
This place of Earth, these burial grounds, are sacred..
We will have more info on this campaign in a forthcoming FN issue.
Also, check these events!
From: Sirius Community < sirius@siriuscommunity.org >
Hi all,
On November 3, 2004 at 8pm in the Octagon at Sirius Community, there will be shown a film by Andrea Sadler and Dragonfly Films called "Sacred Run". Admission is by donation and there may be a Native American elder present to share at the showing. For further questions, call Saeta at 259-2508.
FWD. Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004
From: Michael Richardson:
To: info@flybynews.com
Subject: Springfield 9/11 truth group: Let's meet
Your Organizer, Michael Richardson, sent the following message
to the members of Springfield 9/11 Questions Meetup Group.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Howdy folks,
I've volunteered to be the Springfield (Western Mass) group
"organizer." I'm curious who's out there, where people live,
and therefore where and when we should "meet up." Have people
already met on 9/16?
I've been involved with "9/11 truth" since April, when I read
David Ray Griffin's "The New Pearl Harbor," and have since done
a lot of web work for 911truth.org, helped organize a few
events in Northampton and NYC, and am part of the production
team for a documentary.
I think it'd be excellent to structure meetings around reading
books, and to start, I'd like to propose that we read and
discuss Peter Lance's book "COVER UP: What the government is
still hiding about the war on terror" (Regan Books) It's an
excellent primer on the background of the failures and
corruption of the FBI, and is probably the best piece of
investigative journalism so far on 911. (Lance also wrote the
excellent "1000 Years for Revenge." It's still in hardback,
but you can get copies from amazon for under $20.
We could discuss the book, the implications, and, of course,
the 911 situation vis a vis the election. By the time we meet,
there'll be a rats next of legal battles going on ---- But good
news: Elliot Spitzer's office (NY Atty. General) has agreed to
pursue a new, criminal investigation of 9/11 with a focus on
the possible complicity/criminal negligence of U.S. gov't
officials.
Drop me a line and let me know who's out there, and let's meet.
I could come down to Springfield, or, if most people are north
of there, we could meet here in Northampton -- wherever is most
convenient for the quorum.
Best,
Michael Richardson
Northampton
michael@handeyedesign.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To visit Springfield 9/11 Questions Meetup Group, go here:
9-11.meetup.com/69/
If you'd like to sign up in your area for a 9-11 meetup, see:
9-11.meetup.com
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
MissingExplosives * TaxBill * VotingFraudProtection
28 October 2004
1) Kerry Slams Bush Over Missing Iraq Explosives
2) Adventure Capitalism - The Hidden 2001 Plan to Carve-up Iraq
3) Bush Signs $136B Corporate Tax Bill
- - Administration Misleads on Cost of War
4) The Voting Trip Threat Against Democracy
- - Greg Palast in Harper's Magazine November Voting Issue
- - Storm Clouds Gathering Over the Legitimacy of This Election
- - What to do if having troubles at the polls
Editor's Notes:
Hope is alive. Within days US citizens will have the opportunity to remove George W. Bush from the office of the US President by January 20th 2005. This won't stop George from doing more damage until then, but a light is at the end of the tunnel, if we unite and demand our right for a fair election. Item 1 begins with another Bush administration blunder in Iraq. It was bad enough to have seven nuclear sites looted after the US-coalition forces entered Iraq, but now, it was discovered that "nearly 350 tons of lethal explosives - which could be used to trigger nuclear weapons - have vanished from a military facility in Iraq supposed to have been guarded by US troops."
Last Tuesday about 30 people came to see Greg Palast's new movie at the Keene NH public library. Those who came were concerned about voter fraud, and was already planning to vote against Bush, but the event, sponsored by Flyby News, was not just for those who attended that night. This was a campaign strategy, with a listing in the Keene newspaper, and flyers posted throughout the town. The film's title, "Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" and that dark picture of G.W., was effective to help get out the vote and for a return to some sanity in US foreign and domestic affairs. The second item reveals what I believe is the most poignant statement in the Palast's film, revealing the real intentions and focus of the Bush war in Iraq, diving up the country for the privatization of Iraq's oil resources.
Item 3 is more on the glut, passed by Congress and signed into Law by President Bush, $136 Billion "massive giveaway that will add to the complexity of the tax system and end up rewarding multinational companies that move jobs overseas."
Item 4 is more on the concerns of this coming Tuesday's Election, and what you can do to assure your vote is counted. But the key to a successful election is to unite with an overwhelming majority for a regime change in the US. Please check out this following alert, and take actions for this final week for US Election 2004 Campaign!
"Those who cast the votes decide nothing.
Those who count the votes decide everything."
– Josef Stalin
Action Alert! – HELP GET THE VOTE OUT!
From MoveOn - - [Excerpt]
Every day, the tragedy in Iraq deepens. On Sunday, newspapers reported the execution of 49 members of the Iraqi National Guard, who were lined up and executed at the hands of insurgents. And yesterday, the New York Times reported that hundreds of thousands of pounds of deadly explosives in Iraq have gone missing, looted from a facility that was left unprotected by the U.S. Army. Yet George Bush says everything's going fine.
We can't afford to have a President who's so out of touch with reality. It's time to hold Bush accountable for the deception and catastrophic mistakes that got us into this mess. We have a chance to do just that on November 2nd -- to signal to the world that Bush's policies don't represent the American people. But we have to build that accountability one vote at a time.
We're working as hard as we can to get every last swing state voter out for Kerry, but to win this thing we need your help. Do you have a couple hours this week to call Kerry voters who often don't vote and make sure they get to the polls? It's rewarding work, and it's one of the best ways to help ensure that the tragedy in Iraq never happens again.
Making these calls is easy -- our online phone bank tool will lead you through it step by step. Click here to try out the tool, then start making calls whenever you like:
www.moveonpac.org/lnvb/pp/index2.html
This year, every vote counts. And this weekend, we have the opportunity to show people their power.
The situation in Iraq isn't hopeless. You can make these phone calls on your own schedule, anytime between 9 AM and 9 PM in your time zone, anytime this week. But don't put it off: next week at this time, we'll be voting.
You'll need the capability to be on the Internet and the phone at the same time -- either at your house or a friend's. Get familiar with our easy online phone bank tool at the link below. You can start making calls immediately or later today.
www.moveonpac.org/lnvb/pp/index2.html
Thank you, for all you do.
Sincerely,
--Adam, Eli, Hannah, James, Laura, and the whole MoveOn PAC Team
1) Kerry Slams Bush Over Missing Iraq Explosives
Published on Monday, October 25, 2004 by the Agence France Presse
Kerry Slams Bush Over Missing Iraq Explosives
DOVER, New Hampshire - Democratic hopeful John Kerry Monday branded President George W. Bush's administration arrogant, blind, incompetent and guilty of "great blunders" after the disappearance of 380 tonnes of high explosives in Iraq.
"The incredible incompetence of this president and this administration has put our troops at risk and our country at greater risk than we ought to be."
Kerry pounced on reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency that the explosives that could be used in conventional or nuclear bombs had disappeared, as proof Bush had failed as US commander in chief.
"George W. Bush, who talks tough, talks tough, and brags about making America safer has once again failed to deliver," Kerry said.
"After being warned about the danger of major stockpiles of explosives in Iraq this president failed to guard those stockpiles.
"Terrorists could use this material to kill our troops, our people, blow up airplanes and level buildings," Kerry said.
"Now we know our country and our troops are less safe because this president failed to do the basics, this is one of the great blunders of Iraq one of the great blunders of this administration.
"The incredible incompetence of this president and this administration has put our troops at risk and our country at greater risk than we ought to be."
"The unbelievable blindness, stubbornness, arrogance of this administration to do the basics has now allowed this President to once again fail the test of being Commander in Chief.
Nearly 400 tons of powerful explosives that could be used in conventional or nuclear missiles disappeared from an unguarded military installation in Iraq, the IAEA said Monday.
The Iraqi ministry of science and technology informed the IAEA of the disappearance of nearly 380 tons of mainly HMX and RDX explosive materiel on October 10, agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told AFP, confirming a report in The New York Times.
"It can be used in a nuclear explosion device, for the explosion," she said, adding: "That's why it was under IAEA verification and monitoring" before the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
The New York Times said the materiel "could produce bombs strong enough to shatter airplanes or tear apart buildings."
Copyright 2004 AFP
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1025-08.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bombshell for Bush: 350 tons of explosives go missing in Iraq
news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=576048
2) Adventure Capitalism - The Hidden 2001 Plan to Carve-up Iraq
TomPaine.com
by Greg Palast
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Why were Iraqi elections delayed? Why was Jay Garner fired? Why are our troops still there? Investigative reporter Greg Palast uncovers new documents that answer these questions and more about the Bush administration's grand designs on Iraq. Like everything else issued during this administration, the plan to overhaul the Iraqi economy has corporate lobbyist fingerprints all over it.
---
In February 2003, a month before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a 101-page document came my way from somewhere within the U.S. State Department. Titled pleasantly, "Moving the Iraqi Economy from Recovery to Growth," it was part of a larger under-wraps program called "The Iraq Strategy."
The Economy Plan goes boldly where no invasion plan has gone before: the complete rewrite, it says, of a conquered state's "policies, laws and regulations." Here's what you'll find in the Plan: A highly detailed program, begun years before the tanks rolled, for imposing a new regime of low taxes on big business, and quick sales of Iraq's banks and bridges—in fact, "ALL state enterprises"—to foreign operators. There's more in the Plan, part of which became public when the State Department hired consulting firm to track the progress of the Iraq makeover. Example: This is likely history's first military assault plan appended to a program for toughening the target nation's copyright laws.
And when it comes to oil, the Plan leaves nothing to chance—or to the Iraqis. Beginning on page 73, the secret drafters emphasized that Iraq would have to "privatize" (i.e., sell off) its "oil and supporting industries." The Plan makes it clear that—even if we didn't go in for the oil—we certainly won't leave without it.
If the Economy Plan reads like a Christmas wishlist drafted by U.S. corporate lobbyists, that's because it was.
>From slashing taxes to wiping away Iraq's tariffs (taxes on imports of U.S. and other foreign goods), the package carries the unmistakable fingerprints of the small, soft hands of Grover Norquist.
Norquist is the capo di capi of the lobbyist army of the right. In Washington every Wednesday, he hosts a pow-wow of big business political operatives and right-wing muscle groups—including the Christian Coalition and National Rifle Association—where Norquist quarterbacks their media and legislative offensive for the week.
Once registered as a lobbyist for Microsoft and American Express, Norquist today directs Americans for Tax Reform, a kind of trade union for billionaires unnamed, pushing a regressive "flat tax" scheme.
Acting on a tip, I dropped by the super-lobbyist's L-Street office. Below a huge framed poster of his idol ("NIXON— NOW MORE THAN EVER"), Norquist could not wait to boast of moving freely at the Treasury, Defense and State Departments, and, in the White House, shaping the post-conquest economic plans—from taxes to tariffs to the "intellectual property rights" that I pointed to in the Plan.
Norquist wasn't the only corporate front man getting a piece of the Iraq cash cow. Norquist suggested the change in copyright laws after seeking the guidance of the Recording Industry Association of America.
And then there's the oil. Iraq-born Falah Aljibury was in on the drafting of administration blueprints for the post-Saddam Iraq. According to Aljibury, the administration began coveting its Mideast neighbor's oil within weeks of the Bush-Cheney inauguration, when the White House convened a closed committee under the direction of the State Department's Pam Wainwright. The group included banking and chemical industry men, and the range of topics over what to do with a post-conquest Iraq was wide. In short order, said Aljibury, "It became an oil group."
This was not surprising as the membership list had a strong smell of petroleum. Besides Aljibury, an oil industry consultant, the secret team included executives from Royal-Dutch Shell and ChevronTexaco. These and other oil industry bigs would, in 2003, direct the drafting of a 300-page addendum to the Economy Plan solely about Iraq's oil assets. The oil section of the Plan, obtained after a year of wrestling with the administration over the Freedom of Information Act, calls for Iraqis to sell off to "IOCs" (international oil companies) the nation's "downstream" assets—that is, the refineries, pipelines and ports that, unless under armed occupation, a Mideast nation would be loathe to give up.
---The General Versus Annex D---
One thing stood in the way of rewriting Iraq's laws and selling off Iraq's assets: the Iraqis. An insider working on the plans put it coldly: "They have [Deputy Defense Secretary Paul] Wolfowitz coming out saying it's going to be a democratic country … but we're going to do something that 99 percent of the people of Iraq wouldn't vote for."
In this looming battle between what Iraqis wanted and what the Bush administration planned for them, the Iraqis had an unexpected ally, Gen. Jay Garner, the man appointed by our president just before the invasion as a kind of temporary Pasha to run the soon-to-be conquered nation.
Garner's an old Iraq hand who performed the benevolent autocratic function in the Kurdish zone after the first Gulf War. But in March 2003, the general made his big career mistake. In Kuwait City, fresh off the plane from the United States, he promised Iraqis they would have free and fair elections as soon as Saddam was toppled, preferably within 90 days.
Garner's 90-days-to-democracy pledge ran into a hard object: The Economy Plan's 'Annex D.' Disposing of a nation's oil industry—let alone redrafting trade and tax laws—can't be done in a weekend, nor in 90 days. Annex D lays out a strict 360-day schedule for the free-market makeover of Iraq. And there's the rub: It was simply inconceivable that any popularly elected government would let America write its laws and auction off the nation's crown jewel, its petroleum industry.
Elections would have to wait. As lobbyist Norquist explained when I asked him about the Annex D timetable, "The right to trade, property rights, these things are not to be determined by some democratic election." Our troops would simply have to stay in Mesopotamia a bit longer.
---New World Orders 12, 37, 81 and 83---
Gen. Garner resisted—which was one of the reasons for his swift sacking by Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld on the very night he arrived in Baghdad last April. Rummy had a perfect replacement ready to wing it in Iraq to replace the recalcitrant general. Paul Bremer may not have had Garner's experience on the ground in Iraq, but no one would question the qualifications of a man who served as managing director of Kissinger Associates.
Pausing only to install himself in Saddam's old palace—and adding an extra ring of barbed wire—"Jerry" Bremer cancelled Garner's scheduled meeting of Iraq's tribal leaders called to plan national elections. Instead, Bremer appointed the entire government himself. National elections, Bremer pronounced, would have to wait until 2005. The extended occupation would require our forces to linger.
The delay would, incidentally, provide time needed to lock in the laws, regulations and irreversible sales of assets in accordance with the Economy Plan.
On that, Bremer wasted no time. Altogether, the leader of the Coalition Provisional Authority issued exactly 100 orders that remade Iraq in the image of the Economy Plan. In May, for example, Bremer—only a month from escaping out Baghdad's back door—took time from fighting the burgeoning insurrection to sign orders 81—"Patents,"and 83, "Copyrights." Here, Grover Norquist's hard work paid off. Fifty years of royalties would now be conferred on music recording. And 20 years on Windows code.
Order number 37, "Tax Strategy for 2003," was Norquist's dream come true: taxes capped at 15 percent on corporate and individual income (as suggested in the Economy Plan, page 8). The U.S. Congress had rejected a similar flat-tax plan for America, but in Iraq, with an electorate of one—Jerry Bremer—the public's will was not an issue.
Not everyone felt the pain of this reckless rush to a free market. Order 12, "Trade Liberalization," permitted the tax- and tariff-free import of foreign products. One big winner was Cargill, the world's largest grain merchant, which flooded Iraq with hundreds of thousands of tons of wheat. For Iraqi farmers, already wounded by sanctions and war, this was devastating. They could not compete with the U.S. and Australian surplusses dumped on them. But the import plan carried out the letter of the Economy Plan.
This trade windfall for the West was enforced by the occupation's agriculture chief, Dan Amstutz, himself an import from the United States. Prior to George Bush taking office, Amstutz chaired a company funded by Cargill.
There's no sense cutting taxes on big business, ordering 20 years of copyright payments for Bill Gates' operating system or killing off protections for Iraqi farmers if some out-of-control Iraqi government is going to take it away after an election. The shadow governors of Iraq back in Washington thought of that, too. Bremer fled, but he's left behind him nearly 200 American "experts," assigned to baby-sit each new Iraqi minister—functionaries also approved by the U.S. State Department.
---The Price---
The free market paradise in Iraq is not free.
After General Garner was deposed, I met with him in Washington. He had little regard for the Economy Plan handed to him three months before the tanks rolled. He especially feared its designs on Iraq's oil assets and the delay in handing Iraq back to Iraqis. "That's one fight you don't want to take on," he told me.
But we have. After a month in Saddam's palace, Bremer cancelled municipal elections, including the crucial vote about to take place in Najaf. Denied the ballot, Najaf's Shi'ites voted with bullets. This April, insurgent leader Moqtada Al Sadr's militia killed 21 U.S. soldiers and, for a month, seized the holy city.
"They shouldn't have to follow our plan," the general said. "It's their country, their oil." Maybe, but not according to the Plan. And until it does become their country, the 82nd Airborne will have to remain to keep it from them.
For the interview with Jay Garner and more details of The Plan, see "Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy," out this month on DVD. Watch a segment: gregpalast.com/bff-dvd.htm
3) Bush Signs $136B Corporate Tax Bill
- - Administration Misleads on Cost of War
Bush Inks $136B Corporate Tax Bill
WASHINGTON, Oct. 22, 2004
With no fanfare, President George W. Bush on Friday signed the most sweeping rewrite of U.S. corporate tax law in nearly two decades, showering $136 billion in new tax breaks on businesses, farmers and other groups.
Intended to end a bitter trade war with Europe, the election-year measure was described by supporters as critically necessary to aid beleaguered manufacturers who have suffered 2.7 million lost jobs over the past four years.
But opponents charged that the tax package had grown into a massive giveaway that will add to the complexity of the tax system and end up rewarding multinational companies that move jobs overseas.
There was no ceremony for the bill-signing. White House press secretary Scott McClellan announced the signing on Air Force One as Mr. Bush flew to a campaign appearance in Pennsylvania.
For the complete article, see
cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/11/politics/main648480.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Administration Misleads on Cost of War
Before the invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration told the American people that it could be fought on the cheap. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz said "We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon."[1] Budget Director Mitch Daniels said Iraq will be "an affordable endeavor,"[2] "that will not require sustained aid"[3] and cost "in the range of $50 billion to $60 billion."[4] Defense Policy Board Member Richard Perle said, "Iraq is a very wealthy country...They can finance, largely finance, the reconstruction of their own country."[5] They were all wrong.
The Washington Post reports "the Bush administration intends to seek about $70 billion in emergency funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan early next year, pushing total war costs close to $225 billion since the invasion of Iraq early last year."[6]
For sources of information and to learn more about Bush Administration distortion, visit: Misleader.org
4) The Voting Trip Threat Against Democracy
- - Greg Palast in Harper's Magazine November Voting Issue
- - Storm Clouds Gathering Over the Legitimacy of This Election
- - What to do if having troubles at the polls
- - Greg Palast in Harper's Magazine November Voting Issue
Excerpted from the current (November) issue of Harper's Magazine
by Greg Palast
Before one vote was cast in early voting this week in Florida, the new touch-screen computer voting machines of Florida started out with a several-thousand vote lead for George W. Bush. That is, the mechanics of the new digital democracy boxes "spoil" votes at a predictably high rate in African-American precincts, effectively voiding enough votes cast for John Kerry to in a tight race, keep the White House safe from the will of the voters.
Florida's computerization had its first mass test in 2002, in Broward County. The ES&S machines appeared to work well in white Ft. Lauderdale precincts, but in black communities, such as Lauderhill and Pompano Beach, there was wholesale disaster. Poll workers were untrained, and many places opened late. Black voters were held up in lines for hours. No one doubts that hundreds of Black votes were lost before they were cast.
Broward county commissioners had purchased the touch-screen machines from ES&S over the objection of Elections Supervisor Miriam Oliphant; notably, one commissioner's campaign treasurer was an ES&S lobbyist. Governor Bush responded to the Broward fiasco by firing Oliphant, an African-American, for "misfeasance."
Even when computers work, they don't work well for African-Americans. A July 2001 Congressional study found that computers spoiled votes in minority districts at three times the rate of votes lost in white districts.
Based on the measured differential in vote loss between paper and computer systems, the fifteen counties in Florida, can expect to lose at least 29,000 votes to spoilage-some 27,000 more than if the counties had used paper ballots with scanners.
Given the demographics of spoilage, this translates into a net lead of thousands for Bush before a single ballot is cast.
---
For the full story, read "Another Florida" in the November issue of Harper's, out now. Mr. Palast, a contributing editor to the magazine, is author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Storm Clouds Gathering Over the Legitimacy of This Election
by Ronald Brownstein
[Published October 25, 2004 by the Los Angeles Times]
In a presidential campaign that's grown increasingly bitter, maybe the one thing both sides can wish for is a decisive result.
If the race between President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry stays close, the risk is growing that, as in 2000, millions of Americans — and millions of people around the world — will see the result as tainted or even illegitimate.
For the complete article, see:
commondreams.org/headlines04/1025-05.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - What to do if having troubles at the polls
From MoveOn pac
They're doing it again. In Nevada, a Republican contractor has allegedly ripped up thousands of Democratic registration forms.(1) In Florida, Jeb Bush has purged tens of thousands of legitimate voters -- mostly black, mostly Democratic -- from the rolls because their names are similar to a felon's.(2) In Ohio, the Republican Secretary of State has been so uncooperative that a federal judge said that he "apparently seeks to accomplish the same result in Ohio in 2004 that occurred in Florida in 2000."(3)
But there's one big difference between the election of 2000 and the election of 2004: this time, a number of powerful, well-staffed groups will be aggressively responding to each and every instance of voter intimidation, suppression, and fraud. Messing with our right to vote is a felony, and with your help we'll make sure that anyone who does is prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
We've put together a wallet-sized card that has all the numbers and information you need if someone tries to stop you from exercising your right to vote. You can download it now at:
cdn.moveonpac.org/content/pdfs/ep_card.pdf
In a great majority of polling places, of course, voting will be very efficient -- even fun. Poll workers will guide you through the process. They're non-partisan, and they are there to help.
But it's likely that some precincts will be targeted for vote suppression, and that's what we have to be on the look-out for. Since one key suppression tactic is slowing down the voting process, we have to be careful not to fall into that trap. Don't obstruct: just demand that whoever is giving you trouble step aside with you and let the voting continue..
So, what if something does go wrong?
First, document it. If there are specific individuals involved who are challenging your right to vote, intimidating voters, or interfering with the process, try to get their names. Write down exactly what happened, including the time of day, descriptions of the people involved, and any other details you can remember.
Then, report it. There are lots of organizations that will be working to respond quickly to complaints of voter intimidation, suppression, and fraud. Here's who to call:
MoveOn PAC: Go to moveonpac.org/. On election day, our website will host a form where you can post your problem and get help.
Common Cause: Call 1-866-MYVOTE1. Common Cause has set up a hotline that you can call to report any problems you have voting. They'll document where problems are occurring, watch for wide-spread voter suppression, and provide real-time legal help to the hot spots.
1-866-OUR-VOTE. This hotline has been set up by a coalition of nonpartisan groups to deal with the most serious problems on election day. They have hundreds of lawyers standing by to immediately respond to the most egregious problems. 1-866-OUR-VOTE is the "911" of voter suppression hotlines. Please don't call unless your problem is serious enough that you have to talk to a lawyer immediately.
Again, to download a wallet-sized card with all of this information that you can bring with you to the polls, go to:
cdn.moveonpac.org/content/pdfs/ep_card.pdf
As Bill Clinton said at a rally with John Kerry on Monday, "They're trying to scare the voters away from the polls. It worked so well in Florida, they seem to be trying it elsewhere." We're not going to let them get away with it. And with your help, we'll make sure that anyone who tries to stop people from exercising their right to vote ends up behind bars.
Thanks for everything,
--Adam, Eli, Hannah, James, Laura, and the whole MoveOn PAC Team
October 27th, 2004
P.S.: If you have any questions, you can find your Secretary of State's office online at:
www.sec.state.ma.us/ele
Or try reaching their office by phone, at:
617-727-2828
Footnotes:
1. www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2421595&nav=168XRvNe
2. Greg Palast, Harper's Magazine, October 2004.
3. www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/politics/9992999.htm
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
World4Kerry * DemRegistrationsTrashed * Feedback
17 October 2004
"My kind of loyalty was to one's country,
not to its institutions or its officeholders.
The country is the real thing,
the substantial thing, the eternal thing;
it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to;
institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and
clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable,
cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death."
– Mark Twain
1) World wants Kerry to beat Bush
- - Platoon defies orders in Iraq
- - The Human Hell and the Demons of War
2) Voter Registrations Trashed by Fraudulent Repubs
- - Progress Report: Republicans Running Scared
- - Block the Vote
- - NO STOLEN ELECTIONS PLEDGE OF ACTION
3) NaderFactor Feedback
Deja-vu
If there was a morning star and I found a path
to a mountain reservoir
and viewed the past in moments of today
I must say, I have found a way..
Chosen, because I choose to do what I came here for,
realizing I have seen it all before,
A deja-vu from a morning star
Reawakening love to a planet
which has strayed much too far.
Editor's Notes:
One of the best things about a deja-vu is that it gives you a feeling of being multidimensional in terms of time and space. Now, as time approaches an end of a cycle, the coming US Presidential Election will either spawn a possible new direction back toward a greater democracy [of, by, for the people].. or lead toward a more rapid withdrawal and deeper slide into fascist-based policies. We would then expect more US Government lies, energy and economic wars, Armageddon.. and Supreme Court dangers limiting an individual's freedoms.
Please take actions in "Swing States" these coming weeks Be a part of a wave, and join with a mainstream majority in support of a regime change in the US that gives us a chance for reasonably dealing with the greater problems at hand, than what we have experienced by an administration making matters worse.
"Being lectured by the President on fiscal responsibility
is a little bit like Tony Soprano talking to me about law and order."
– John Kerry*
* Kerry guns down Bush with zinger --The face-off in Tempe, Arizona, produced the best one-liner of the debates when Democrat challenger John Kerry defended his economic credentials. Trying to paint the Massachusetts senator as a big-spending, high-taxing liberal, George W. Bush said there was a "mainstream in American politics and you sit right on the left bank". But Senator Kerry returned fire with a genuine zinger: "Being lectured by the President on fiscal responsibility is a little bit like Tony Soprano talking to me about law and order."
Story posted:
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,11078479%255E401,00.html
* Thanks to Citizens for a Legitimate Government for this and other breaking news alerts.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Action Alerts!
Link to download a campaign flyer you can use:
Why Vote FOR John Kerry and AGAINST George Bush
by Rob Kall (editor of OpEdNews)
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Also, major media corporation will air anti-Kerry movie
just before election...learn more from AlterNet.org and take action:
www.alternet.org/mediaculture/20151/
1) World wants Kerry to beat Bush
- - Platoon defies orders in Iraq
- - The Human Hell and the Demons of War
- - World wants Kerry to beat Bush
Published in the Sydney Morning Herald Online
October 15, 2004
The US President, George Bush, is encountering growing international hostility to his campaign for a second term in the White House.
A remarkable collaborative polling exercise, undertaken by leading newspapers in 10 countries across the globe, has highlighted strong opposition to the Bush re-election campaign.
While the findings have no direct impact on the US election - the poll excludes the Americans whose vote really counts - they show the Bush Administration is struggling to secure popular support for its policies outside American borders.
The hostility is directed not only at the White House: the image of the US itself appears to have suffered collateral damage. This is despite the fact that most of those polled believe in the US alliance and declare they are not anti-American.
The ambitious exercise, initiated by Canada's Quebec-based La Presse, required the 10 project partners to run identical polls in mid- to late September to gauge public attitudes towards the US election on November 2.
The Herald, which commissioned its regular pollster ACNielsen for the exercise, is the first paper to appear with the results in print under Friday's co-ordinated publication date.
Across most of the countries surveyed, including Australia, opinions towards the US had deteriorated over the first Bush term.
Only Israel, lockstep with the US in terms of foreign policy objectives and delivery, ran against the trend. Forty per cent of Israelis surveyed said their attitude towards the US had improved over the past two or three years. Twenty-six per cent said their view had soured.
This contrasts with the response elsewhere. In Canada, 64 per cent said their attitude had worsened, France 70 per cent, Britain 45 per cent, Japan 74 per cent, South Korea 67 per cent and Australia 54 per cent.
The souring view is directly linked to public dissatisfaction with Mr Bush, mainly over his prosecution of the Iraq war.
In all countries except for Israel, majority opinion remains firmly against the US-led war. (No specific question on Iraq was asked in the Australian exercise.) In July, a majority of Australians (55 per cent) said the war was not justified, down eight points since May.
The strongest opposition to the war was in South Korea, Mexico, Spain and France.
This anti-war mood appears to feed directly into an international preference for John Kerry, the Democrat challenging Mr Bush for the presidency.
In eight of the 10 countries taking part in the poll, Senator Kerry is rated the preferred winner, with huge margins in France, Canada and Spain. Only in Russia (52-48) and Israel (a more decisive 50-24) is Mr Bush the preferred winner..
{Truncated]
For the complete article, see
www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/15/1097784013044.html?oneclick=true
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Platoon defies orders in Iraq
Miss. soldier calls home, cites safety concerns
[Excerpt]
A 17-member Army Reserve platoon with troops from Jackson and around the Southeast deployed to Iraq is under arrest for refusing a "suicide mission" to deliver fuel, the troops' relatives said Thursday.
The soldiers refused an order on Wednesday to go to Taji, Iraq - north of Baghdad - because their vehicles were considered "deadlined" or extremely unsafe, said Patricia McCook of Jackson, wife of Sgt. Larry O. McCook.
Sgt. McCook, a deputy at the Hinds County Detention Center, and the 16 other members of the 343rd Quartermaster Company from Rock Hill, S.C., were read their rights and moved from the military barracks into tents, Patricia McCook said her husband told her during a panicked phone call about 5 a.m. Thursday.
The platoon could be charged with the willful disobeying of orders, punishable by dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of pay and up to five years confinement, said military law expert Mark Stevens, an associate professor of justice studies at Wesleyan College in Rocky Mount, N.C.
No military officials were able to confirm or deny the detainment of the platoon Thursday.
But today, Sgt. Salju Thomas of the Combined Press Information Center in Baghdad issued a statement saying that an investigation has begun.
"The Commander General of the 13 Corps Support Group has appointed a deputy commander to lead an investigation into allegations that members of the 343 Quartermaster Company refused to participate in theri assigned convoy mission on Oct. 13," Thomas' statement said.
The investigation team is currently in Tallil taking statements and interviewing those involved, Thomas said in the statement.
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson said he plans to submit a congressional inquiry today on behalf of the Mississippi soldiers to launch an investigation into whether they are being treated improperly.
"I would not want any member of the military to be put in a dangerous situation ill-equipped," said Thompson, who was contacted by families. "I have had similar complaints from military families about vehicles that weren't armor-plated, or bullet-proof vests that are outdated. It concerns me because we made over $150 billion in funds available to equip our forces in Iraq.
"President Bush takes the position that the troops are well-armed, but if this situation is true, it calls into question how honest he has been with the country," Thompson said.
For the article, see:
www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041015/NEWS01/410150366/1002
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Human Hell and the Demons of War
Manuel Valenzuela
We are inseparable from death and destruction, suffering and violence, having become creatures addicted to the malice inherent in human evil. Turning the pages of the little we know of our own past, one thing becomes quite apparent: Throughout time, in all corners of the world, mankind has lived side by side with war, destruction and death..
For the complete article, see:
http://207.44.245.159/article7079.htm
2) Voter Registrations Trashed by Fraudulent Repubs
- - Progress Report: Republicans Running Scared
- - Block the Vote
- - NO STOLEN ELECTIONS PLEDGE OF ACTION
- - Voter Registrations Possibly Trashed
By George Knapp
KLAS TV, 12 October 2004
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA | Employees of a private voter registration company allege that hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters who may think they are registered will be rudely surprised on election day. The company claims hundreds of registration forms were thrown in the trash.
Anyone who has recently registered or re-registered to vote outside a mall or grocery store or even government building may be affected.
The I-Team has obtained information about an alleged widespread pattern of potential registration fraud aimed at democrats. The focus of the story is a private registration company called Voters Outreach of America, AKA America Votes.
The out-of-state firm has been in Las Vegas for the past few months, registering voters. It employed up to 300 part-time workers and collected hundreds of registrations per day, but former employees of the company say that Voters Outreach of America only wanted Republican registrations.
Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms sig ned by Democrats.
"We caught her taking Democrats out of my pile, handed them to her assistant and he ripped them up right in front of us. I grabbed some of them out of the garbage and she tells her assisatnt to get those from me," said Eric Russell, former Voters Outreach employee.
Eric Russell managed to retrieve a pile of shredded paperwork including signed voter registration forms, all from Democrats. We took them to the Clark County Election Department and confirmed that they had not, in fact, been filed with the county as required by law.
So the people on those forms who think they will be able to vote on Election Day are sadly mistaken. We attempted to speak to Voters Outreach but found that its office has been rented out to someone else.
The landlord says Voters Outreach was evicted for non-payment of rent. Another source said the company has now moved on to Oregon where it is once again registering voters. It's unknown how many registrations may have been tossed out, but another ex-employee told Eyewitness News she had the same suspicions when she worked there.
It's going to take a while to sort all of this out, but the immediate concern for voters is to make sure you really are registered.
Call the Clark County Election Department at 455-VOTE or click here to see if you are registered.
The company has been largely, if not entirely funded, by the Republican National Committee. Similar complaints have been received in Reno where the registrar has asked the FBI to investigate.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Progress Report: Republicans Running Scared
As the election gets closer, the Republican Party has turned to voter suppression efforts to try to sway the election, by keeping voters "off of the rolls and away from the polls." (Paul Krugman has the latest rundown on Republican efforts to block the vote.) The Center for American Progress joined 23 concerned parties in a joint statement on how to protect the vote and uphold democracy in the upcoming election.
For linked resources, see this originally posted report:
www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=100480#2
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Voters should not be intimidated by fears of a stolen election. If voters don't get out and vote, the election will not be stolen but given away. Instead, everyone should get out and vote, vote early, and – to be safe – bring an I.D. Also, any voter experiencing problems on Election Day should call the Election Protection hotline, at (866) OUR-VOTE.
SPROUL'S REGISTRATION MALFEASANCE: This week, explosive new evidence emerged of direct ties between the RNC and a Republican consulting firm being investigated by Oregon and Nevada for perpetrating widespread voter fraud.
Sproul & Associates, paid $500,000 by the Republican National Committee, created a voter registration front group in several states. Some of the canvassers the company hired say they were told they wouldn't be paid for registering Democrats. Employees in the two western states have accused the firm of destroying, dumping or shredding the forms of Democrats who thought they were registered to vote. Also, an employee in West Virginia quit after she was told to only register individuals who would confirm they were planning to vote for President Bush. The head of Sproul & Associates, Nathan Sproul, has long ties to the GOP: he was the former executive director of the Arizona Republican Committee. Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Ted Kennedy (D-MA) have asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to launch an immediate investigation on the federal level. (The New Yorker provides a look at how Ashcroft's Justice Department itself has politicized the voting process.)
CHECK THIS BOX IF YOU DON'T WANT YOUR RIGHTS SUPPRESSED:
Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood – appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush in 2003 – recommended trashing any registration forms on which voters did not check a box at the top to indicate they were U.S. citizens, even though they had already signed an oath at the bottom of the form swearing that they were. Even after the problem was realized, election officials did not process some of the fixed forms in time. Other registrants weren't even told their forms were flawed. The San Francisco Chronicle reports, "labor unions and voting-rights groups sued to stop the disqualification of more than 10,000 incomplete registration forms in Florida, accusing the state of overly restrictive rules that disproportionately hurt minority voters." And according to a suit filed by People for the American Way, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the AFL-CIO, "more than a third of the incomplete forms in Broward and Miami-Dade counties came from African American registrants, even though African Americans make up only 17 percent of the electorate in Broward and 20 percent in Miami-Dade."
For the complete American Progress article, see:
www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=100480#2
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Block the Vote
Excerpted from 'Block The Vote'
By Paul Krugman, New York Times Op-Ed Columnist
15 October 2004
The case of Florida's felon list - used by state officials, as in 2000, to try to wrongly disenfranchise thousands of blacks - has been widely reported. Less widely reported has been overwhelming evidence that the errors were deliberate.
In an article coming next week in Harper's, Greg Palast, who originally reported the story of the 2000 felon list, reveals that few of those wrongly purged from the voting rolls in 2000 are back on the voter lists. State officials have imposed Kafkaesque hurdles for voters trying to get back on the rolls. Depending on the county, those attempting to get their votes back have been required to seek clemency for crimes committed by others, or to go through quasi-judicial proceedings to prove that they are not felons with similar names.
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
The BBC documentary of Palast's report on Florida and more - "Bush Family Fortunes"
- premiers in New York this Sunday, in Washington Monday and in LA on October 24th.
For info go to GregPalast.com
[The film will premiere in Keene, NH on Oct. 26th - see FlybyNews.com
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
And officials appear to be doing their best to make voting difficult for those blacks who do manage to register. Florida law requires local election officials to provide polling places where voters can cast early ballots. Duval County is providing only one such location, when other counties with similar voting populations are providing multiple sites. And in Duval and other counties the early voting sites are miles away from precincts with black majorities.
Next week, I'll address the question of whether the votes of Floridians with the wrong color skin will be fully counted if they are cast. Mr. Palast notes that in the 2000 election, almost 180,000 Florida votes were rejected because they were either blank or contained overvotes.
Demographers from the U.S. Civil Rights Commission estimate that 54 percent of the spoiled ballots were cast by blacks. And there's strong evidence that this spoilage didn't reflect voters' incompetence: it was caused mainly by defective voting machines and may also reflect deliberate vote-tampering.
The important point to realize is that these abuses aren't aberrations. They're the inevitable result of a Republican Party culture in which dirty tricks that distort the vote are rewarded, not punished. It's a culture that will persist until voters - whose will still does count, if expressed strongly enough - hold that party accountable.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - NO STOLEN ELECTIONS PLEDGE OF ACTION
"I remember the stolen presidential election of 2000 and I am willing to take action in 2004 if the election is stolen again. I support efforts to protect the right to vote leading up to and on Election Day, November 2nd. If that right is systematically violated, I pledge to join nationwide protests starting on November 3rd, either in my community, in the states where the fraud occurred, or in Washington DC."
Please sign the pledge now at www.Nov3.US
INITIAL SIGNATORIES:
Stewart Acuff, Organizing Director, AFL-CIO
Fred Azcarate, Jobs with Justice
Patrick Barrett, RadFest: Midwest Social Forum
Brian Benford, Madison Common Council
Medea Benjamin, CodePink
Adrienne Maree Brown, League of Pissed Off Voters
Mike Brune, Executive Director, Rainforest Action Network
Dennis Brutus, poet
Andrea Buffa, Global Exchange
Linda Burnham, Women of Color Resource Center
Leslie Cagan, United for Peace and Justice
John Cavanagh, Institute for Policy Studies
David Cobb, Green Presidential Nominee
Steve B. Cobble, political strategist
Rev. James Demus, III, Director, NAACP, Chicago Southside
Charlie Derber, Professor of Sociology, Boston College
Karen Dolan, Institute for Policy Studies & Cities for Peace
Theresa El-Amin, Southern Anti-Racism Network (SARN)
Daniel Ellsberg, author
Larry Fahn, President, Sierra Club
Lisa Fithian, Root Activist Network of Trainers
Arun Gandhi, M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence
Ed Garvey, Fighting Bob Fest
Greg Gerritt, Executive Director, Friends of the Moshassuck
Ted Glick, National Coordinator, IPPN
Jim Goodman, Family Farm Defenders
Rev. Graylan Hagler, Ministers for Racial, Social and Economic Justice
Jody Grage Haug, Green Peace Action (GPAX)
Andy Heidt, Madison Common Council
Dolores Huerta, United Farm Workers
Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rainbow/PUSH
Reverend James Lawson, civil rights leader
Natalie Johnson Lee, Minneapolis City Council
Van Jones, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
Rabbi Michael Lerner, Tikkun
Pete Karas, Racine Common Council
Brenda Konkel, President, Madison Common Council
Doug La Follette, Wisconsin Secretary of State
Barbara Lubin, Middle East Children's Alliance
Ben Manski, Foundation for the Democratic Revolution
Jessica Marshall, National Youth and Student Peace Coalition
Elizabeth Martinez, Institute for Multiracial Justice
Mike McCabe, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign
Robert McChesney, Free Press
Michael Moore, Filmmaker
Holly Near, singer-songwriter
Maya O'Connor, Labor Greens Network
Jamala Rogers, Organization for Black Struggle, St. Louis
Rebecca Rotzler, Alder, New Paltz
Marc Sanson, Co-Chair, Green Party of the United States
Renee Saucedo, La Raza Centro Legal
John Sellers, Ruckus Society
Charles Shaw, Newtopia Magazine
Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes
Eleanor Smeal, Feminist Majority
Damu Smith, founder, Black Voices for Peace
Starhawk, activist and writer
Ajita Talwalker, United States Students Association
Chuck Turner, Boston City Council
Chris Vaeth, This Time We're Watching
Jason West, Mayor, New Patlz, New York
Bob Wing, War Times
Dean Zimmerman, Minneapolis City Council
Howard Zinn, historian
Please join us by signing the pledge now at www.nov3.us
3) NaderFactor Feedback
From the editor, Jonathan Mark:
This is an email reply to a letter from an individual over the following list serves, regarding FN's last issue on Bush-funding for Nader in key States.
To: NH_for_Kucinich@yahoogroups.com,
Cc: < Minnesota4Kucinich@yahoogroups.com >, < texans4Kucinich@yahoogroups.com >, < Kucinich4President@yahoogroups.com >
Subject: Re: [NH_for_Kucinich] BehindWar * CO2 RiseSurprise * Peace *
[jm, from previous email]
>"In the platform, yes, I agree, Kerry is much closer to Bush, but in the factor of there being either Kerry or Bush as US president, Nader has more in common for the Bush ticket."
[David wrote:]
>Could you please speak more clearly? Please expand on what you are thinking and apply some logic to your words. What are the commonalities Nader/Bush?
this is what i wrote originally:
"..in the factor of there being either Kerry or Bush as US president, Nader has more in common for the Bush ticket."
that is all i basically wrote.. and your claims of my being libelous is absurd.. if nader was as good of a leader as you make him to be.. his actions would be more [connected] with our situation on the ground.. i was endorsing the nader platform with the greens in 2000, but if nader had the leadership to effectively challenge al gore to support IRV's for his support in swing states.. we could have had al gore for the past 4 years and with 3rd party unity pressure.. to push the dems to adopt IRVs in 2004.. and then voting for ralph nader for president would not have the spoiler factor.. and a real chance of a progressive platform adopted by the u.s. govtment..
in any case.. my reporting on the report posted at
thenaderfactor.com/press/072304/
remains.. and there you will find the details of their claims that bush money and support is behind nader in various states..
also.. before you attack FN for reporting the news.. remember our
disclaimer at the bottom of each issue:
"The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News."
but as far as appropriate news for FN in our campaign to remove GW from office.. and the nader record.. and ineffectiveness to adopt the practical realities for winning IRVs for the country in support of all third party candidates.. nader will be used by the bushites to their advantage.. and the platform of nader, like his support for leonard peltier in 2000 with the greens platform.. remains as empty words.. without the effectiveness and unity and priority of deeds accomplished to back up the rhetoric..
i am not praising or comparing kerry with nader.. but the difference of kerry and bush under our current circumstances.. hope this is clear..
jonathan
[David wrote:]
>You have alleged collusion, and you haven't backed it up. That is libel. What is more you did not respond to the clear evidence of collusion between Bush and Kerry. It seems that you are open to lying, to back up a false argument. If you are going to break the law, you should think of a better excuse or alibi..
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
BehindWar * CO2 RiseSurprise * Peace * NaderBush
11 October 2004
"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."
Voltaire
1) Behind the War on Terror
- - "Inspection Process Rigged for War" -- Scott Ritter
- - The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror
- - "Fahrenheit 9/11" available for raising consciousness
- - Bush Puts Off Major Assault On Iraq Until After US Vote
- - Our Cheating President
- - Nonproliferation Politics
- - Daughter of Soldier Contaminated with Depleted Uranium
2) [NO] Surprise CO2 rise may speed up global warming
3) Peltier Support for 2004 Nobel Peace Prize
4) The Nader Factor - "Alliances with Bush in Key States"
"We've got a couple of surprises that we intend to spring."
- - Karl Rove
(9/29/04 - On ABC Radio to Sean Hannity)
Editor's Notes:
It must be for you, too, a good peaceful feeling getting a break from issues of Flyby News. What is happening these days is mind blowing enough, and then to get published resources. It is a lot to absorb, and to keep in balance. But the natural world is giving, and inspiring, full of grace and color these days.
Item 1 is on factors behind the war on terror, which may really be a war on democracy, and against life itself. These are the resources to absorb and utilize, especially in US swing states! Item 2 returns our attention on the exponential increase of carbon dioxide emissions, and acceleration of Global Warming climate changes overcoming former natural processes for effective carbon sinks. Our planet, without a miraculous turnaround, is leaning toward catastrophic consequences. As Bart Jordan pointed out years ago, we are headed toward the carbon atmospheric concentrations as exists around Venus and Mars. Yet anything is possible, but hopefully not another four years with George W. Bush as US President.
Item 3 is a statement from the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee congratulating Wangari Maathai on receiving the honor of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. "It was for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace."
Item 4 is press release on a report showing where Bush Republicans are supporting the Nader campaign.
I hope you make October a productive month, and support John F. Kerry for US President on November 2nd, 2004!
FN received the above quote and following from Rhino's Blog, also this historic landmark note:
OCT 12, 1992 -- Rallies, protests & arrests throughout the Western Hemisphere mark the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the European invasion of the Americas & genocide of its native peoples. "
Flyby News supports replacing "Columbus Day" for a holiday to honor "Indigenous Peoples Day." It is time to look back, and remember, and carry lessons with less mistakes, for a possible future. No matter how brief, time may appear. This Election presents an opportunity for the people to rise up and replace a misaligned pResident representing interests contrary to peace, democracy, and humanitarianism.
If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American,
it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest."
-- Thomas Jefferson
1) Behind the War on Terror
- - "Inspection Process Rigged for War" -- Scott Ritter
- - The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror
- - "Fahrenheit 9/11" available for raising consciousness
- - Bush Puts Off Major Assault On Iraq Until After US Vote
- - Our Cheating President
- - Nonproliferation Politics
- - Daughter of Soldier Contaminated with Depleted Uranium
- - "Inspection Process Rigged for War" -- Scott Ritter
If You Had Seen What I Have Seen
The Inspection Process was Rigged to
Create Uncertainty Over WMD to
Bolster the US and UK's Case for War
by Scott Ritter
Published on Sunday, October 10, 2004 by the lndependent/UK
[Excerpts]
It appears that the last vestiges of perceived legitimacy regarding the decision of President George Bush and Tony Blair to invade Iraq have been eliminated with the release this week of the Iraq Survey Group's final report on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The report's author, Charles Duelfer, underscored the finality of what the world had come to accept in the 18 months since the invasion of Iraq - that there were no stockpiles of WMD, or programs to produce WMD. Despite public statements made before the war by Bush, Blair and officials and pundits on both sides of the Atlantic to the contrary, the ISG report concludes that all of Iraq's WMD stockpiles had been destroyed in 1991, and WMD programs and facilities dismantled by 1996.
Duelfer's report does speak of Saddam Hussein's "intent" to acquire WMD once economic sanctions were lifted and UN inspections ended (although this conclusion is acknowledged to be derived from fragmentary and speculative sources). This judgement has been seized by Bush and Blair as they scramble to re-justify their respective decisions to wage war..
..When one examines the reality of the situation on the ground in Iraq today, it seems hard to draw any conclusion that postulates a scenario built around the notion of an improved environment of stability and security. Indeed, many Iraqis hold that life under Saddam was a better option than the life they re facing under an increasingly violent and destabilizing US-led occupation.
..We now know that Iraq's WMD were destroyed in 1991. The problem wasn't the weapons, but verification of Iraq's declarations. The standards of verification set by Duelfer-Blix were impossible for Iraq to meet, thus making closure on the "cluster" issues also an unattainable goal.
This situation answers the second point as well. Since the inspection process was pre-programmed to fail, there would be no way the US or the UK would accept any finding of compliance from the UN weapons inspectors. The inspection process was rigged to create uncertainty regarding Iraq's WMD, which was used by the US and the UK to bolster their case for war.
..The main reason for this was that the issue wasn't WMD per se, but Saddam. The true goal wasn't disarmament, but regime change. This, of course, clashed with the principles of international law set forth in the Security Council resolutions, voted on by the US and UK, and to which Saddam was ostensibly held to account. Economic sanctions, put in place by the UN in 1990 after Saddam's invasion of Iraq and continued in 1991, linked to Saddam's obligation to disarm, were designed to compel Iraq to comply with the Security Council's requirements.
Saddam did disarm, but since two members of that Security Council - the US and the UK - were implementing unilateral policies of regime change as opposed to disarmament, this compliance could never be recognised. Sadly, when one speaks of threats to international peace and security, history will show that it was the US and Britain that consistently operated outside the spirit and letter of international law in their approach towards dealing with Saddam.
..Saddam is gone, and the world is far worse for it - not because his regime posed no threat, perceived or otherwise, but because the threat to international peace and security resulting from the decisions made by Bush and Blair to invade Iraq in violation of international law make any threat emanating from an Iraq ruled by Saddam pale in comparison.
Scott Ritter is a former UN weapons inspector in Iraq (1991-1998) and the author of 'Frontier Justice: Weapons of Mass Destruction and theBushwhacking of America', published by Context Books
2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=570477
also posted: www.commondreams.org/views04/1010-01.htm
== = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror
From the makers of
Hidden Wars of Desert Storm & Plan Colombia: Cashing-in on the Drug-War Failure
THE OIL FACTOR : Behind the War on Terror (90 min)
Everybody with common sense knows that George Bush invaded Iraq for its oil !
NOW do you know that:
* at the current production rate, North America and Western Europe will run out of oil in 2010 ?
* One million U.S. military personnel are deployed overseas near oil fields and oil routes ?
* U.S. military deployment in Afghanistan and Central Asia blocks China and Russia from accessing oil and natural gas they desperately need for their economies ?
Is invading foreign countries the solution to reducing terrorist threats against the United States ? Since George Bush's invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, Islamic fundamentalists are recruiting more than ever and acts of terrorism have multiplied around the world. Now Dick Cheney claims that "the American way of life is not negotiable". The real question becomes: is invading foreign countries the acceptable way to ensure that Joe Blow can go on driving his 8-mile-to-the-gallon Hummer or that the average American can go on consuming 4 times more energy that the average European or 32 times more energy than the average African?
After spending three months between Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, Free-Will assesses the catastrophic results of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and George Bush Jr.’s attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan. THE OIL FACTOR looks at both the human cost and the greater geo-strategic picture of these invasions that may precipitate the world toward the next global conflict.
Filled with solid facts and figures, easy-to-understand maps, original footage shot in Iraq and Afghanistan and interviews of such personalities as Zbigniew Brzezinski, Noam Chomsky, The Project for the New American Century Director Gary Schmitt, best-seller "Taliban" author Ahmed Rashid or Pentagon's Karen Kwiatkowski, THE OIL FACTOR is a must-see for anyone who wants to understand what is really at stake with today's "war-on-terror". It is a must-see also for anyone who wants to convince friends and family that another four years of such war may NOT be in the best interest of our nation and the world.
For more information, see: www.TheOilFactor.com
[From justicevision.org
Note: Take advantage now of a SPECIAL PRE-ELECTION RATE OF $ 10. VHS/DVD + $ 3. S&H instead of our regular $ 25. for VHS and $ 28. for DVD. This is an exclusive offer to Justice Vision's subscribers. Checks for $ 13. must be made out to GERARD UNGERMAN and mailed to: P.O. Box 5476 - N. Hollywood, CA 91616
Please, check for other specials at www.TheOilFactor.com]
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - "Fahrenheit 9/11" available for raising consciousness
From Michael Moore
10/5/04
Dear Friends,
Today's the day! You can now own your own copy of "Fahrenheit 9/11." Or, you can rent it. It is now available in thousands of stores across the country for you to take into your possession and use as your own personal weapon of George Bush's mass defeat. You can also just have a nice movie night at home with the kids.
Nothing would make me happier than to have you share it with everyone you know. All surveys have shown that, the more people who see it -- especially those still sitting on the fence -- the more likely we will have regime change come November 2nd. As the critic from the New York Times wrote, "Mr. Bush is under no obligation to answer Mr. Moore's charges, but he will have to answer to Mrs. Lipscomb." In other words, it is impossible for any good American with a heart and a conscience to survive a viewing of "Fahrenheit 9/11" and not be profoundly moved by the grief of the mother from Flint who lost her son, Michael, in Iraq. What do we say to her when she asks us what exactly was it that her son died for? Mr. Bush can't tell her the real reason because the truth is so appalling that, if we were to stop and consider the true level of his deceit, it might cause more than just his defeat in November. They used to hold trials for crimes like his and Cheney's and Rumsfeld's and Wolfowitz's.
A few months ago I asked our film's distributor if they would shorten the time "Fahrenheit" would spend in the theaters and make it available on home video to everyone before the election -- and they agreed.
They also agreed to let me include an additional 90 new minutes worth of material on the DVD. These extras include never-before-seen footage outside Abu Ghraib prison, plus footage which we shot in Iraq just weeks before the invasion that clearly showed what we were in for ("Please tell America that Iraq will be their cemetery"), more words of truth from our soldiers in Iraq, and footage of Bush and Condoleezza Rice that is so frightening you will understand why the networks never showed it to you.
May I suggest that you take this DVD and run with it? Use it as a way to energize people of like-mind or convince recovering Republicans that this may be the most important election of our lifetime. Here is what you can do:
1. Hold Your Own Neighborhood Premiere of "Fahrenheit 9/11." Do it this week. Get the DVD, break out the biggest TV screen you have, pop the corn and invite over your friends, family, classmates, coworkers and neighbors for a couple of hours of laughter and tears. When it's over, take a few minutes to decide what everyone is going to do between now and November 2nd.
2. Become Your Own Fahrenheit Video Store. Buy a copy of the film and then just start lending it for free to everyone you know for a night at a time. Become known as "The Fahrenheit Connection" to those with whom you work or go to school.
3. Sponsor Large Community or School Screenings. You have my permission. Don't charge money (unless everyone has to chip in for the union hall or church basement). Invite everyone; pack the place. Have something for people to do afterwards, like volunteering for a "get out the vote" drive between now and November 2nd.
4. Give It Away. The politics and economics of the video business mean that those in poorer communities often have to resort to bootlegging. While I'm happy for people to see my movie by any means necessary, I would love for them to see it the way I made it and under the best possible conditions. If you have the wherewithal, donate copies of the DVD and VHS to your local library or to your school library. Get multiple copies and pass them out, especially to groups and people who can't afford to buy it. In a free society, which only survives if it has an enlightened electorate, information should be shared, not privately owned.
There you go. Let's flood the country with this movie. It's the Republicans' worst nightmare, should this happen. You know what to do; I don't need to say any more.
Thanks for your help in this. I think we can make a huge difference.
Yours,Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush Puts Off Major Assault On Iraq Until After US Vote
Published on Monday, October 11, 2004 by the Los Angeles Times
Major Assaults on Hold Until After U.S. Vote
Attacks on Iraq's rebel-held cities will be delayed, officials say.
But that could make it harder to allow wider, and more legitimate, Iraqi voting in January.
by Mark Mazzetti
WASHINGTON The Bush administration plans to delay major assaults on rebel-held cities in Iraq until after U.S. elections in November, say administration officials, mindful that large-scale military offensives could affect the U.S. presidential race.
For the complete article, see:
commondreams.org/headlines04/1011-02.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Our Cheating President
Our Cheating President
By Wilson Ray, Southern Daily News, 10/10/04
The evidence is now overwhelming. The president who likes to make people think he is the biggest Christian to ever inhabit the White House is a liar and a cheat. His information comes to him in his ear from a radio transmitter device he wears on his back under his suit jacket. This is against the rules of using props set forth by the debate commission. The irony is, the photos that prove it were taken in violation of the rules by a Fox news pool camera operator. The rules prohibit photos from being taken from the rear of the candidates. The other irony is, we didn't learn this from the New York Times or the Washington Post or even CBS News. Independent Web sites, called Web logs or blogs for short, have been buzzing about this for days. My question is this: Is there a member of the debate commission or the national media with the guts to raise this question before the next debate? Would somebody in the White House press corps at least ask the damn question? And while you are at it, ask who is on the other end of the line? Karl Rove?...
PICTURES OF THE BUMP ON SHRUB'S BACK & MORE AT: www.southerner.net/blog/weeklyblog045.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Nonproliferation Politics
by MICHAEL T. KLARE
Published in the October 11, 2004 issue of The Nation
Nonproliferation--the global campaign to prevent the further spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons--must be applied in a nondiscriminatory fashion to be effective. But the Bush Administration has been using nonproliferation policy to demonize foreign governments it doesn't like and to manipulate US public opinion. The most egregious example was the totally discredited claim that Saddam Hussein was on the verge of manufacturing nuclear weapons--a claim used to manufacture support for the US invasion of Iraq.
For the article, see:
www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041011&s=klare
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Daughter of Soldier Contaminated with Depleted Uranium
From DemocracyNow.org
www.democracynow.org
* Daughter of Soldier Contaminated with Depleted Uranium in Iraq Born with Deformities *
In a major expose in the New York Daily News, Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez uncovered the story of how a new-born baby may have suffered deformities because her father was exposed to depleted uranium while deployed as a soldier in Iraq. We are joined in our studio by Guardsman Gerard Darren Matthew and Sgt. Ray Ramos, one of the first confirmed cases of inhaled depleted uranium exposure from the current Iraq conflict.
Listen/Watch/Read
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/30/1411222
2) [NO] Surprise CO2 rise may speed up global warming
Surprise CO2 rise may speed up global warming
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
11 October 2004
Surprise CO2 rise may speed up global warming
How 'feedback' can suppress the earth's ability to remove greenhouse gases
The rate at which global warming gases are accumulating in the atmosphere has taken a sharp leap upwards, leading to fears that the devastating effects of climate change may hit the world even sooner than has been predicted.
Atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2 ), the principal greenhouse gas, have made a sudden jump that cannot be explained by any corresponding jump in terrestrial emissions of CO2 from power stations and motor vehicles - because there has been none.
Some scientists think instead that the abrupt speed-up may be evidence of the long-feared climate change "feedback" mechanism, by which global warming causes alterations to the earth's natural systems and then, in turn, causes the warming to increase even more rapidly than before.
Such a development would mean the worldwide droughts, agricultural failure, sea-level rise, increased weather turbulence and flooding all predicted as consequences of climate change would arrive on much shorter time-scales than present scenarios suggest, and the world would have much less time to co-ordinate its response.
Only last month, Tony Blair expressed anxiety that global warming's dire effects would arrive not just in his children's lifetime, but in his own, and would "radically alter human existence".
The feedback phenomenon has already been predicted in the supercomputer models of the global climate on which the current forecasts of warming are based. A key aspect is the weakening, caused by the warming itself, of the earth's ability to remove huge amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere by absorbing it annually in its forests and oceans, in the so-called carbon cycle. (The forests and oceans are referred to as carbon "sinks".)
Hitherto, however, that weakening has been put decades into the future.
The possibility that it may be occurring now is suggested in the long run of atmospheric CO2 measurements that have been made since 1958 at the observatory on the top of Mauna Loa, an 11,000ft volcano in Hawaii, by the American physicist Charles Keeling, from the University of California at San Diego.
When he began, Dr Keeling, who is still in charge of the project and who might be said to be the Grand Old Man of CO2 , found the amount of the gas present in the atmosphere to be 315 parts per million by volume (ppm); today, after the remorseless increase in emissions from power stations and motor vehicles over the past four and a half decades, the figure stands at 376ppm.
This growth is what most scientists believe is causing the earth's atmosphere to warm up, as the increasing CO2 retains more and more of the sun's heat in the atmosphere, like the panes of a greenhouse. But the worry now is not merely the swelling volume of CO2 but the sudden leap in its increase rate. Across all 46 years of Dr Keeling's measurements, the average annual CO2 rise has been 1.3ppm, although in recent decades it has gone up to about 1.6ppm.
There have been several peaks, all associated with El Nio, the disruption of th atmosphere-ocean system in the tropical Pacific Ocean that causes changes to global weather patterns. In 1988, for example, the annual increase was 2.45ppm; in 1998, 2.74ppm; both were El
Nio years.
Throughout the series those peaks have been followed by troughs, and there has been no annual increase in CO2 above 2ppm that has been sustained for more than a year. Until now.
From 2001 to 2002, the increase was 2.08ppm (from 371.02 to 373.10); and from 2002 to 2003 the increase was 2.54ppm (from 373.10 to 375.64). Neither of these were El Nio years, and there has been no sudden leap in emissions.
The greater-than-two rise is also visible in two separate sets of CO2 measurements made by America's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, at Mauna Loa and other stations around the world.
At the weekend, Dr Keeling told The Independent the rise was real and worrying as it might indeed represent the beginnings of a feedback.
He said it might be associated with the Southern Oscillation, a pattern of high and low atmospheric pressure previously always associated with El Nios, or it might be something new.
"The rise in the annual rate of CO2 increase to above two parts per million for two consecutive years is a real phenomenon," Dr Keeling said.
"It is possible this is merely a reflection of the Southern Oscillation, like previous peaks in the rate, but it is possible it is the beginning of a natural process unprecedented in records.
"This could be a decoupling of the Southern Oscillation from El Nio events, which itself could be caused by increased CO2 in the atmosphere; or it could be a weakening of the earth's carbon sinks. It is a cause for concern."
Leading British scientists and environmentalists agree. "If this is a rate change [in the CO2 rise], of course it will be very significant," said Dr Piers Forster of the meteorology department of the University of Reading. "It will be of enormous concern, because it will imply that all our global warming predictions for the next 100 years or so will have to be redone. If the higher rate of increase continues, things will get very much worse. It will makes our predicament even more catastrophic."
Tom Burke, a former government adviser on green issues who is now an academic and environmental adviser to business, said: "This series of CO2 measurements is the world's climate clock, and it looks as if it may be ticking faster,"
"That means we are running out of time to stabilise the climate. Governments and business will both have to invest dramatically more if we are to avoid the global warming catastrophe that Tony Blair has warned against."
For article and links to resources, see:
news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=570734
3) Peltier Support for 2004 Nobel Peace Prize
From the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2004 to Wangari Maathai for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.
The Nobel Committee has chosen wisely and acknowledged that peace on earth depends on our ability to protect our living environment.
"Maathai stands at the front of the fight to promote ecologically viable social, economic and cultural development in Kenya and in Africa. She has taken a holistic approach to sustainable development that embraces democracy, human rights and women's rights in particular. She thinks globally and acts locally. Maathai stood up courageously against the former oppressive regime in Kenya. Her unique forms of action have contributed to drawing attention to political oppression - nationally and internationally."
Protecting forests against desertification is a vital factor in the struggle to strengthen and protect our Mother Earth. Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement where, for nearly thirty years, she has mobilized poor women to plant 30 million trees. Through education, family planning, nutrition and the fight against corruption, the Green Belt Movement has prepared the way for grass-root action and been a "strong voice speaking for the best forces in Africa to promote peace and good living conditions on that continent".
Wangari Maathai is the first woman from Africa to be honored with the Nobel Peace Prize. She represents "an example and a source of inspiration for everyone in Africa fighting for sustainable development, democracy and peace".
Leonard Peltier and his Defense Committee wish to congratulate Wangari Maathai on receiving this great honor.
We also wish to thank those who nominated Leonard for the Prize and the supporters worldwide who wrote to the Nobel Committee to support Leonard's nomination.
Mitakuye Oyasin.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
www.leonardpeltier.org
4) The Nader Factor - "Alliances with Bush in Key States"
From the NaderFactor.com:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 7, 2004
CONTACT: David Jones
202-347-5607
NEW REPORT: "ALLIANCE BETWEEN NADER & BUSH IN KEY STATES"
Read the report: www.thenaderfactor.com/press/072304/
WASHINGTON, DC - TheNaderFactor.com today released a comprehensive, documented report detailing one of the strangest alliances in American political history - Ralph Nader & George W. Bush. This report is the first to document, in one place, the extensive political support given to Ralph Nader by supporters of his alleged opponent, George W. Bush.
A four month review has revealed a disturbing pattern of Bush supporters providing organized assistance to the struggling campaign of Ralph Nader, almost entirely in key "battleground" states, including AZ, CO, FL, IA, NV, NH, NM, MI, OH, OR, VA, WV, and WI.
The report also detailed instances, in Florida and Arizona, where Mr. Nader has actually hired Bush supporters to lead his efforts. Nader is accepting this support despite months of public commitments to turn back cynical Bush assistance intended to use him to siphon votes from John Kerry.
For a copy of the report, click the link below:
www.thenaderfactor.com/press/072304
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Kerry-Bush Debate * KucinichMooreAction * SpaceWar
03 October 2004
"We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression,
while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace."
George W. Bush
UN Speech Sept 2004
1) Kerry-Bush September 28, 2004 Debate
2) Kucinich: "It's Time to Close Ranks"
- - 5 Easy things to do to dump Bush as US President
- - Kerry Film ~ "Going Upriver"
3) All's Fair in Space War
Editor's Notes:
There is no current campaign as important for world security than ending the reign of George W. Bush. Item 1 begins with excerpts of the debate last Thursday night. This was the first time for many to listen to John Kerry besides from sound bites. And for many, finally, differences between the two major US Presidential Candidates could be witnessed. John Kerry is offering some possibility for hope, for peace in the Mid East by removing the US-corporate claws from the Iraq region:
"I will make a flat statement. The United States of America has no long-term designs on
staying in Iraq. And our goal, in my administration, would be to get all of the troops out
of there with the minimal amount you need for training and logistics, as we do in some
other countries in the world after a war, to be able to sustain the peace."
– John Kerry
(Sept. 28, 2004)
Too many innocent people are dying:
"More Than 100 Killed As U.S. Forces Storm Iraqi Town: Doctors at Samarra's hospital said 47 bodies were brought in, including 11 women, five children and seven old men. Staff could cope with no more wounded and bodies lay in the streets.
MORE IRAQI CIVILIANS KILLED BY U.S. FORCES THAN BY INSURGENTS
Too many new insurgents are created by a ruthless and inhumane behavior.
Too many sacrificing brave soldiers of the US are being put into harm's way by a misleading administration, lost in its own rhetoric in a strange brew of fear, greed, and religion. All this while pushing the arms race and carbon dioxide into our atmosphere beyond reason.
Item 2 is an article by Dennis Kucinich, Michael Moore on actions you can take to make a difference, and a review and link on John Kerry's Vietnam War/Peace documentary film, "Going Upriver." Item 3 is on the US plan to dominate space. To counter this particular issue has been a focus for Flyby News since NASA's high risk Cassini-Earth Flyby in 1999. It is time to look to the higher ground in terms of peace and democracy, rather than accelerating economic and environmental plunder.
******************************************************************
Please note, updated @ FlybyNews.com
under Campaigns * Actions * Events
The next FN-sponsored program features Greg Palast's new film:
BUSH FAMILY FORTUNES - The Best Democracy Money Can Buy
This 70 minute long documentary follows award-winning reporter-sleuth Greg Palast on the trail of the Bush family, from Florida election finagling, to the Saudi connection, to the Bush team’s spiking the FBI investigation of the bin Laden family and the secret State Department plans for post-war Iraq. And more..
BUSH FAMILY FORTUNES - The Best Democracy Money Can Buy
Will be presented at the Keene (NH) Public Library ~ Auditorium
Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - 7:00 to 9:00 pm
POST ELECTION FLYBY NEWS MUSIC~POETRY BENEFIT
Saturday, November 6, 2004 - 7 ~ 10:00 pm
at
THE BLACK SHEEP DELI
{South Main Street, Amherst, MA}
featuring:
Annie Hassett
Diana Allen
Jonathan Mark
plus surprise guests - music jam - bring instruments
{Suggested donation $5 - $20}
1) Kerry-Bush September 28, 2004 Debate
Part I: Securing America in a Post-9/11 World
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/vote2004/debates/1stdebate/part1.html
[Excerpt]
MR. LEHRER: New question. Mr. President, two minutes. Do you believe the election of Senator Kerry on November the 2nd would increase the chances of the U.S. being hit by another 9/11-type terrorist attack?
PRESIDENT BUSH: I don't believe it's going to happen. I believe I'm going to win, because the American people know I know how to lead. I've shown the American people I know how to lead. I have -- I understand everybody in this country doesn't agree with the decisions that I've made. And I've made some tough decisions.
But people know where I stand. People out there listening know what I believe, and that's how best it is to keep the peace.
This nation of ours has got a solemn duty to defeat this ideology of hate. And that's what they are; this is a group of killers who will not only kill here, but kill children in Russia; that will attack unmercifully in Iraq hoping to shake our will. We have a duty to defeat this enemy. We have a duty to protect our children and grandchildren. The best way to defeat them is to never waver, to be strong, to use every asset at our disposal; is to constantly stay on the offensive, and at the same time spread liberty. And that's what people are seeing now is happening in Afghanistan. Ten million citizens have registered to vote. It's a phenomenal statistic; that if given a chance to be free, they will show up at the polls. Forty-one percent of those 10 million are women.
In Iraq, no doubt about it, it's tough. It's hard work. It's incredibly hard. You know why? Because an enemy realizes the stakes. The enemy understands a free Iraq will be a major defeat in their ideology of hatred. That's why they're fighting so vociferously.
They showed up in Afghanistan when they were there because they tried to beat us and they didn't, and they're showing up in Iraq for the same reason. They're trying to defeat us. And if we lose our will, we lose; but if we remain strong and resolute, we will defeat this enemy.
MR. LEHRER: Ninety-second response, Senator Kerry.
SEN. KERRY: I believe in being strong and resolute and determined, and I will hunt down and kill the terrorists wherever they are. But we also have to be smart, Jim. And smart means not diverting your attention from the real war on terror in Afghanistan against Osama bin Laden and taking it off to Iraq, where the 9/11 commission confirms there was no connection to 9/11 itself and Saddam Hussein, and where the reason for going to war was weapons of mass destruction, not the removal of Saddam Hussein.
This president has made, I regret to say, a colossal error of judgment, and judgment is what we look for in the president of the United States of America. I'm proud that important military figures are supporting me in this race. Former chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili. Just yesterday, General Eisenhower's son, General John Eisenhower, endorsed me. General -- Admiral William Crowe, General Tony McPeak, who ran the Air Force war so effectively for his father, all believe I would make a stronger commander in chief.
And they believe it because they know I would not take my eye off of the goal: Osama bin Laden. Unfortunately, he escaped in the mountains of Tora Bora. We had him surrounded. But we didn't use American forces, the best-trained in the world to go kill him. The president relied on Afghan warlords that he outsourced that job to.
That's wrong.
MR. LEHRER: New question. Two minutes, Senator Kerry. Colossal misjudgments. What colossal misjudgments, in your opinion, has President Bush made in these areas?
SEN. KERRY: Well, where do you want me to begin?
First of all, he made the misjudgment of saying to America that he was going to build a true alliance, that he would exhaust the remedies of the United Nations and go through with the inspections. In fact, he first didn't even want to do that. And it wasn't until former Secretary of State Jim Baker and General Scowcroft and others pushed publicly and said, You got to go to the U.N., that the president finally changed his mind -- his campaign has a word for that -- and went to the United Nations.
Now, once there, we could have continued those inspections. We had Saddam Hussein trapped.
He also promised America that he would go to war as a last resort. Those words mean something to me, as somebody who's been in combat: last resort. You've got to be able to look in the eyes of families and say to those parents, "I tried to do everything in my power to prevent the loss of your son and daughter." I don't believe the United States did that. And we pushed our allies aside. And so, today, we are 90 percent of the casualties and 90 percent of the cost -- $200 billion -- $200 billion that could have been used for health care, for schools, for construction, for prescription drugs for seniors. And it's in Iraq.
And Iraq is not even the center of the focus of the war on terror; the center is Afghanistan, where, incidentally, there were more Americans killed last year than the year before; where the opium production is 75 percent of the world's opium production; where 40 to 60 percent of the economy of Afghanistan is based on opium; where the elections have been postponed three times. The president moved the troops so he's got ten times the number of troops in Iraq than he has in Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden is. Does that mean that Saddam Hussein was ten times more important than Osama bin -- than -- excuse me -- Saddam Hussein more important that Osama bin Laden? I don't think so.
Part II: Homeland Security
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/vote2004/debates/1stdebate/part2.html
Part III: Winning the Peace in Iraq, the Case for War and Pre-war Diplomacy
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/vote2004/debates/1stdebate/part3.html
[Excerpt]
SEN. KERRY: What I think troubles a lot of people in our country is that the president has just sort of described one kind of mistake, but what he has said is that even knowing there were no weapons of mass destruction, even knowing there was no imminent threat, even knowing there was no connection of al Qaeda, he would still have done everything the same way. Those are his words.
Now I would not. So what I'm trying to do is just talk the truth to the American people and to the world. The truth is what good policy is based on. It's what leadership is based on.
The president says that I'm denigrating these troops. I -- I have nothing but respect for the British and for Tony Blair and for what they've been willing to do. But you can't tell me that when the most troops any other country has on the ground is Great Britain with 8,300, and below that the four others are below 4,000, and below that there isn't anybody out of the hundreds that we have a genuine coalition to get this job done. You can't tell me that on the day that we went into that war and it started it was principally the United States of the America and Great Britain and one or two others. That's it. And today we are 90 percent of the casualties and 90 percent of the costs.
And meanwhile, North Korea has gotten nuclear weapons. Talk about mixed messages! The president is the one who said we can't allow countries to get nuclear weapons. They have. I'll change that.
JIM LEHRER: New question. Mr. President, two minutes. Has the war in Iraq been worth the cost in American lives, 10,052 -- I mean, 1,052 as of today?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Now every life's precious. Every life matters. You know, my hardest -- the hardest part of the job is to know that I committed the troops in harm's way and then do the best I can to provide comfort for the loved ones who lost a son or a daughter or a husband and wife.
And you know, I think about -- Missy Johnson's a fantastic young lady I met in Charlotte, North Carolina, she and her son, Bryan. They came to see me. Her husband, P.J., got killed. He'd been in Afghanistan, went to Iraq. You know, it's hard work to try to love her as best as I can, knowing full well that the decision I made caused her -- her loved one to be in harm's way.
I told her after we prayed and teared up and laughed some that I thought her husband's sacrifice was noble and worthy because I understand the stakes of this war on terror. I understand that we must find al Qaeda wherever they hide; we must deal with threats before they fully materialize, and Saddam Hussein was a threat; and that we must spread liberty because, in the long run, the way to defeat hatred and tyranny and oppression is to spread freedom.
Missy understood that. That's what she told me her husband
understood.
So you say, was it worth it? This wasn't -- it's -- it's -- every life is precious. That's what distinguishes us from the enemy.
Everybody matters. But I think it's worth it, Jim. I think it's worth it because I think -- I know in the long term a free Iraq, a free Afghanistan will set such a powerful example in a part of the world that's desperate for freedom. They will help change the world, that we can look back and say we did our duty.
MR. LEHRER: ..Senator Kerry, can you give us specifics in terms of a scenario, a timeline, et cetera, for ending U.S. -- major U.S. military involvement in Iraq?
SEN. KERRY: The timeline that I've set out -- and again, I want to correct the president because he's misled again this evening on what I've said.
I didn't say I would bring troops out in six months, I said if we do the things that I've set out and we are successful, we could begin to draw the troops down in six months. And I think a critical component of success in Iraq is being able to convince the Iraqis and the Arab world that the United States doesn't have long-term designs on it. As I understand it, we're building some 14 military bases there now, and some people say they've got a rather permanent concept to them. When you guard the Oil Ministry but you don't guard the nuclear facilities, the message to a lot of people is maybe -- well, maybe they're interested in our oil.
Now, the problem is that they didn't think these things through properly, and these are the things you have to think through.
What I want to do is change the dynamics on the ground. And you have to do that by beginning to not back off of Fallujahs and other places and send the wrong message to the terrorists. You have to close the borders. You've got to show you're serious in that regard. But you've also got to show that you're prepared to bring the rest of the world in and share the stakes.
I will make a flat statement. The United States of America has no long-term designs on staying in Iraq. And our goal, in my administration, would be to get all of the troops out of there with the minimal amount you need for training and logistics, as we do in some other countries in the world after a war, to be able to sustain the peace.
Part IV: Pre-emption, North Korea and International Alliances
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/vote2004/debates/1stdebate/part4.html
[Excerpt]
MR. LEHRER: Mr. President, does the Iraq experience make it more likely or less likely that you would take the United States into another preemptive military action?
PRESIDENT BUSH: I would hope I'd never have to. I understand how hard it is to commit troops. I never wanted to commit troops. I never -- when I was running -- when we had the debate in 2000, I never dreamt I'd be doing that. But the enemy attacked us, Jim, and -- ah -- I have a solemn duty to protect the American people, to do everything I can to protect us. I think that by speaking clearly and doing what we say and not sending mixed messages, it is less likely we'll ever have to use troops. But a president must always be willing to use troops and must -- as a last resort. The, ah --
I was hopeful diplomacy would work in Iraq. It was falling apart. There was no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein was hoping that the world would turn a blind eye. And if he had been in power -- in other words, if he said let's let the inspectors work or let's, you know, hope to talk him out, maybe that the 18th resolution would work, he would have been stronger and tougher, and the world would have been a lot worse off. There's just no doubt in my mind. We would rue the day had we -- if Saddam Hussein had been in power.
So we use diplomacy every chance we get, believe me. And I -- I would hope to never have to use force. But by speaking clearly and sending messages that we mean what we say we've affected the world in a positive way. Look at Libya. Libya was a threat. Libya is now peacefully dismantling its weapons programs. Libya understood that America and others will enforce doctrine, and the world is better for it.
So in answer to your question, I would hope we'd never have to. I think by acting firmly and decisively, it'll mean it's less likely we use -- less likely we have to use force.
MR. LEHRER: Senator Kerry, 90 seconds.
SEN. KERRY: Jim, the president just said something extraordinarily revealing and, frankly, very important in this debate. In answer to your question about Iraq and sending people into Iraq, he just said the enemy attacked us. Saddam Hussein didn't attack us; Osama bin Laden attacked us. Al Qaeda attacked us. And when we had Osama bin Laden cornered in the mountains of Tora Bora, 1,000 of his cohorts with him in those mountains, with American military forces nearby and in the field, we didn't use the best-trained troops in the world to go kill the world's number one criminal and terrorist. They outsourced the job to Afghan warlords who only a week earlier had been on the other side, fighting against us, neither of whom trusted each other. That's the enemy that is now in 60 countries with stronger recruits.
He also said Saddam Hussein would have been stronger. That is just factually incorrect. Two-thirds of the country was a no-fly zone when we started this war. We would have had sanctions. We would have had the U.N. inspectors. Saddam Hussein would have been continually weakening. If the president had shown the patience to go through another round of resolution, to sit down with those leaders say, "What do you need? What do you need now? How much more will it take to get you to join us?" -- we'd be in a stronger place today.
PRESIDENT BUSH: First, listen --
MR. LEHRER: Thirty seconds.
PRESIDENT BUSH: -- of course I know Osama bin Laden attacked us. I know that.
And secondly, to think that another round of resolutions would have caused Saddam Hussein to disarm, disclose, is ludicrous, in my judgment. It just shows a significant difference of opinion. We tried diplomacy. We did our best. He was hoping to turn a blind eye. And yes, he would have been stronger had we not dealt with him. He had the capability of making weapons and he would have made weapons.
MR. LEHRER: Thirty seconds, Senator.
SEN. KERRY: Thirty-five to 40 countries in the world had a greater capability of making weapons at the moment the president invaded than Saddam Hussein. And while he's been diverted with nine out of 10 active duty divisions of our Army either going to Iraq, coming back from Iraq, or getting ready to go, North Korea has got nuclear weapons and the world is more dangerous. Iran is moving towards nuclear weapons and the world is more dangerous. Darfur has a genocide. The world is more dangerous. I'd have made a better choice.
Part V: Character, Critical Issues and Russia
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/vote2004/debates/1stdebate/part5.html
[Excerpt]
If you are elected president, what will you take to that office thinking is the single-most serious threat to the national security of the United States?
SEN. KERRY: Nuclear proliferation. Nuclear proliferation. There are some 600-plus tons of unsecured material still in the former Soviet Union and Russia. At the rate that the president is currently securing that, it will take 13 years to get it.
I did a lot of work on this. I wrote a book about it several years ago, maybe six or seven years ago, called, "The New War," which saw the difficulties of this international criminal network. And back then, we intercepted a suitcase in a Middle Eastern country with nuclear materials in it, and the black market sale price was about $250 million.
Now, there are terrorists trying to get their hands on that stuff today. And this president, I regret to say, has secured less nuclear material in the last two years since 9/11 than we did in the two years preceding 9/11. We have to do this job, and to do the job, you can't cut the money for it. The president actually cut the money for it. You have to put the money into it and the funding and the leadership. And part of that leadership is sending the right message to places like North Korea.
Right now, the president is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to research bunker-busting nuclear weapons. The United States is pursuing a new set of nuclear weapons. It doesn't make sense. You talk about mixed messages, we're telling other people, you can't have nuclear weapons, but we're pursuing a new nuclear weapon that we might even contemplate using. Not this president. I'm going to shut that program down, and we're going to make it clear to the world, we're serious about containing nuclear proliferation. And we're going to get the job of containing all of that nuclear material in Russia done in four years. And we're going to build the strongest international network to prevent nuclear proliferation -- this is the scale of what President Kennedy set out to do with the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. It's our generation's equivalent. And I intend to get it done.
MR. LEHRER: Ninety second, Mr. President.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Actually, we've increased funding for dealing with nuclear proliferation, about 35 percent since I've been the president.
Secondly, we've set up what's called the -- well, first of all, I agree with my opponent that the biggest threat facing this country is weapons of mass destruction in the hands of a terrorist network. And that's why we've put proliferation as the -- one of the centerpieces of a multi-prong strategy to make the country safer. My administration started what's called the Proliferation Security Initiative, over 60 nations involved with disrupting the transshipment of information and/or weapons of mass destruction materials. And we've been effective.
We busted the A.Q. Khan network. This was a proliferator out of Pakistan that was selling secrets to places like North Korea and Libya. We convinced Libya to disarm, an essential part of dealing with weapons of mass destruction and proliferation.
I'll tell you another way to help protect America in the long run is to continue to with missile defenses. And we've got a robust research-and-development program that has been ongoing during my administration.
We'll be implementing a missile defense system relatively quickly.
And that is another way to help deal with the threats that we face in the 21st century. My opponent is opposed to the missile defenses.
Part VI: Closing Statements
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/vote2004/debates/1stdebate/part6.html
2) Kucinich: "It's Time to Close Ranks"
- - 5 Easy things to do to dump Bush as US President
- - Kerry Film ~ "Going Upriver"
It's Time to Close Ranks
by Dennis Kucinich
September 25, 2004
Good morning! Welcome to breakfast in my back yard. I want to thank you for the help that you gave me over the last few years, and now with 40 days to go before the general election I want to talk to you this morning about how urgent it is that we close ranks and help John Kerry get elected the next President of the United States.
Oh, there's a lot of people throwing up their hands right now and saying, "Well the campaign isn't strong enough...the candidate this...the candidate that..." Know what? The time's over for those discussions. We have to close ranks. We have to get out there -- knock on doors, put up signs, and make phone calls, and rally people because there is a profound difference between John Kerry and George Bush.
John Kerry has an exemplary record of 19 years in the United States Senate. He served this country honorably in every way. He's someone who has integrity. He's someone who cares about people. We need to close ranks behind him. Do we have differences of opinion? Yes. But the time is over to continue talking about those. We need to focus on what we need to do in the next few weeks to make it certain that John Kerry will be elected.
Now, can he win? You bet he can. This election has been volatile right from the beginning. The bottom line is that George Bush took us into a war we didn't need to be in, he's going to keep us in it, and we'll never have an opportunity for a domestic agenda. Any hopes that we have for changing health care in America, improving education, protecting workers' rights, protecting social security are going to be lost if this President gets re-elected.
We have to recognize that we have a good candidate. He's not perfect, but look, none of us are. And so we have to realize - this is the time to close ranks and after we get John Kerry elected, then we have plenty of time to get to work to try to move him in the direction that we want to create progress in this country.
But now's the time we need to close ranks.
Now's the time we need to come together. This isn't even a close question. This is not the time for temporizing about, you know, "What should we do?", "What can we do?", "Can we win?" Of course we can win!
Let me give you an example. In Ohio, four years ago, I was contacted by the Presidential campaign of our candidate then who told me they were pulling out of Ohio because they had a poll that showed them 14 points down. Said they couldn't win. You know what? We said, "We have to stay in this anyway because of what we believe in. We're gonna keep pushing." And we persisted. And you know what happened? A 14 point gap closed to within three points in Ohio. We could've won Ohio if only we'd had a campaign that would've stayed with us. John Kerry's staying with us in Ohio, and we're staying with him. And we're going to help him win Ohio, and you can help him win not only Ohio, but every state that's represented right now.
So, it's not just a matter of "hanging together", but it's a matter of unifying, so that we create a new force in American politics to take an upward path. John Kerry's the beginning of that, and we're the continuation of it.
So thank you. Thank you for a moment of your time to consider what I'm saying. This is a moment when we're called upon to stand up for everything we believe in. It's not about just John Kerry, it's about us, it's about our future, it's about our children's future. It's about what we hope for in America, and it's what we hope to have a chance to continue.
So please join with me. Join with me in taking a strong stand for a good candidate, for a decent man, for someone who'll make a good president with our help.
Thank you very much. Let's close ranks and let's elect John Kerry the next President of the United States.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 5 Easy things to do to dump Bush as US President
With One Month Left, 5 Easy things to do From Michael Moore
Dear Friends,
is it: One month to D-Day! That's "Dump Bush Day," November 2nd.
It's now time to roll up our sleeves -- each and every one of us -- and get to work. There will be nearly 10 million of you who will read this letter either on my list or on my site. An army of ten million cannot be defeated! The time for hitting the snooze button has passed, voter registration deadlines start Monday and we only get one shot at this!!!
My plan is simple. Will you join me in the following?
1. REGISTER FIVE PEOPLE TO VOTE THIS WEEKEND. There are only a few days left in most states before voter registration is cut off. Keep asking like-minded people you know if they are registered. If they are not, take them to this website where you can show them where they need to go to get registered. Offer to take them there yourself.
Nothing is more critical in the next 48 to 72 hours than to get our people registered. The wealthy and the conservatives are already registered -- the poor, the single moms, the recent transplants to your town are not. And neither are students and young adults (check local and state laws, some of which make it very hard for college students to register and vote). VOTER REGISTRATION ENDS ON MONDAY IN Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia. Make no mistake, if you live in any of these states – realize now that WHAT YOU DO OR DON'T DO THIS WEEKEND will have an effect on this election!!!
2. CALL AND VOLUNTEER NOW. There is nothing more important in the next 31 days than spending whatever free time you have working to remove George W. Bush from the White House. Again, call the local Democratic Party HQ or the local Kerry HQ or the ACT office and say you want to help. They will put you to work making calls, going door to door, putting up yard signs, lining up rides on Election Day for senior citizens, etc. Removing Bush and electing Kerry will require physical labor on all our parts. We just can't sit home and wish it to happen. (A Warning: Some local Dem HQs are not always as organized as you would hope them to be. If you call and they don't have it together, don't get discouraged. Just move on to my next point, #3...)
3. START YOUR OWN KERRY CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS! If the Dems don't have it together in your area, don't complain, just take matters into your own hands and run your own campaign for Kerry. Or, even if there is a strong Kerry presence in your county seat, there still may not be in the outlying areas where you live. There's nothing wrong with you and your friends saying, "OK, today we inaugurate the Kerry HQ here in Hooterville...or Kurt Cobain High...or Dorm Building 5!" If you can't get signs or leaflets, make your own! Don't wait for someone to do it, otherwise it won't get done. Send me pictures of your own renegade Elect Kerry/Dump Bush HQ and I will put them up on my site!
4. IF YOU DON'T LIVE IN A SWING STATE, GO THERE AND START SWINGING. Virtually everyone in this country lives within driving distance of one of the 20 battleground states where the election will be close. Pick one weekend this month and go on a fall color tour to dump Bush. Pack up the kids or the neighbors, pick a town -- any town -- in your nearest swing state, reserve a room at the local Motel 6 and hit the road! Volunteer online or call ahead to the local party HQ to say you are coming and you want them to put you to work (again, if there is no one there to put you to work, make your own handbills, print out a thousand of them, and just show up in Anywhere, Ohio and start going door to door). There are other groups doing work in the swing states that you can hook-up with, like ACT and Driving Votes who could really use your help getting out the vote. You don't have to feel left out of this election just because you live in New York or California or Illinois or any of the other 29 states the candidates won't be visiting. Take matters into your own hands. Think of what a great educational experience it will be for your kids -- or yourself. JUST ONE WEEKEND THIS MONTH -- PLAN IT NOW!
5. TAKE OFF WORK OR SCHOOL NOVEMBER 2. We need everyone working the polls, the phones, the neighborhoods from dawn to dusk. Poll watchers are needed to make sure there is no cheating. Help is needed in all 50 states and you can do it from home or you can park yourself in a swing state for the day.
There you have it. Five Simple Steps. I'll be doing my part as I travel the country to the 20 swing states. Please join with me in this effort..
This is about that mother from Flint, Michigan -- and all the other mothers from all the other towns in America -- who have lost and WILL LOSE their sons and daughters in Bush's never-ending war in Iraq.
Please, put aside whatever keeps you from jumping in to do the necessary work to remove George W. Bush from office.
Thanks so much...
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
http://www.michaelmoore.com
http://www.michaelmoore.com/takeaction/vote/
P.S. If you are having trouble registering or voting, call 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
P.P.S. If you have a chance to see Going Upriver, the great new documentary about John Kerry in theaters this week, do so!
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kerry Film ~ "Going Upriver"
"Going Upriver" [a documentary film] tells the story of John Kerry's transformation from a thoughtful and enthusiastic student, to an heroic Swift Boat commander, and finally to a passionate and articulate leader of the anti-war movement.
"Going Upriver" is powerful because it is a vivid account of a remarkable man's life, set in a remarkable time. But it is especially powerful because for the past two months, America has been subjected to a relentless and vicious assault on the character of this remarkable man..
"Going Upriver" is opening this weekend in hundreds of theaters around the country.
For more information, visit:
http://keepitgoing.org/
3) All's Fair in Space War
All's Fair in Space War
By Noah Shachtman
Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/space/0,2697,65151,00.html
Posted: Oct. 01, 2004 PT
[Excerpt]
The American military has begun planning for combat in space, an Air Force report reveals. And commercial spacecraft, neutral countries' launching pads -- even weather satellites -- are all on the potential target list.
"Air Force Doctrine Document 2-2.1: Counterspace Operations" is an apparent first cut at detailing how U.S. forces might take out an enemy's space capabilities -- and protect America's eyes and ears in orbit. Signed by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper, the unclassified report sketches out who would be in command during a space fight, what American weapons would be used and which targets might be attacked.
In that way, the report is similar to hundreds of others in the Pentagon's archives. But buried in the report's acronyms and org charts are two striking sentiments, analysts say. First, the document declares that the U.S. Air Force is duty-bound to slap down other countries' space efforts, should the need arise. Then, Counterspace Operations (.pdf) declares that a satellite or ground-control station doesn't have to belong to one of America's enemies in order to get hit.
"You could be inflicting large costs on a company or country that has no role in a war. And that introduces great possibilities for backlash and political fallout," warned Theresea Hitchens, vice president of the Center for Defense Information. "You could wind up damaging the capabilities of our allies -- or even ourselves."
But the Air Force may not have much of a choice, really. Nearly all the world's militaries -- including America's -- rely on private companies' satellites for relaying messages, taking pictures or guiding bombs. During the Iraq invasion, for example, commercial orbiters carried 80 percent of U.S. forces' satellite communications.
In the opening pages of Counterspace Operations, the Air Force announces that it has a new job: to maintain America's "space superiority" -- the "freedom to attack as well as the freedom from attack" in orbit. This emerging mission has become just as important to American forces as control of the skies, the report states. And together, the two form "crucial first steps in any military operation."
Keeping this "space superiority" is really three jobs in one, the Air Force argues. The service needs to know what's happening in space, from solar flares to hostile satellites to orbiting debris. It has to defend against attacks on its space-related systems; last year, Iraqis tried to jam the Global Positioning System, and the Air Force expects similar moves in the years to come.
Finally, the Air Force has to be ready to break down opponents' ability to use space at any time. These opponents aren't just the few countries sophisticated enough to be called "space-faring," the document makes clear. Smaller states now routinely rely on larger countries' satellites to take pictures and route calls from above. Even low-tech terrorist cells have used satellite phones to make calls. So the Air Force sees nearly every nation, and every insurgent group, as a potential adversary in space..
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For the remainder and complete article, see:
http://www.wired.com/news/space/0,2697,65151,00.html
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
G-Insider 9/11 * GlacierMelt! * SlackerTour
25 September 2004
Fear is not in the habit of speaking truth.
– Publius Cornelius Tacitus
1) Government Insider Says Bush Authorized 911 Attacks
- - 9/11 Families sue Bush, Rich, Cheney, Rumseld, Tenet, Ashcroft et. al.
- - Former CIA Agent Says Bush to Blame for 9/11
- - Ray McGovern in New Hampshire this week
2) Study: "Antarctic Glaciers Melting Faster"
3) "The Slacker Uprising Tour"
- - Bush Family Fortunes DVD Extravaganza
- - NOW with Bill Moyers
- - Campaigns for Reclaiming a Lost USA Democracy
Editor's Notes:
The 9/11 plot thickens with the testimony of Attorney Stanley Hilton, who was a senior advisor to Senator Bob Dole "and has personally known Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz for decades. This courageous man has risked his professional reputation, and possibly his life, to get this information out to people." This and related information is in item 1. Item 2 is hot on the trail of item as one of the most sizzling topic and breaking news item - - on Glacier meltdown. A new study was reported by Reuters. These are not the times to fall asleep, or be overtaken by the immensity of it all. We need each of us to dig deep down for that unbelievable courage to awaken the nonvoter, and some of the borderline walking-dead, which could nearly be about one half of those in the US, caught up in denial and fear, and not seeing the treachery and harm caused by the Bush administration.. FN has posted a new resource link in item 3 for campaigns for reclaiming a lost USA democracy. Please take actions and help transform an accelerating destruction-tendency by the rule of those of greed and corruption for a better way for peace, safety, and democracy.
"Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States
as our Fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are
the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts, not to
overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who
pervert the Constitution."
-- Abraham Lincoln
1) Government Insider Says Bush Authorized 911 Attacks
- - 9/11 Families sue Bush, Rich, Cheney, Rumseld, Tenet, Ashcroft et. al.
- - Former CIA Agent Says Bush to Blame for 9/11
- - Ray McGovern in New Hampshire this week
- - Government Insider Says Bush Authorized 911 Attacks
from Thomas Buyea posted at Rense.com 9-17-04
Keep in mind when reading this, that the man being interviewed is no two-bit internet conspiracy buff.
Stanley Hilton was a senior advisor to Sen Bob Dole (R) and has personally known Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz for decades. This courageous man has risked his professional reputation, and possibly his life, to get this information out to people.
The following is from his latest visit to Alex Jones' radio show.
Alex Jones Radio Show
September 10, 2004
Transcript of interview
AJ: He is back with us. He is former Bob Dole's chief of staff, very successful counselor, lawyer. He represents hundreds of the victims families of 9/11. He is suing Bush for involvement in 9/11. Now a major Zogby poll out half of New Yorkers think the government was involved in 9/11. And joining us for the next 35 minutes, into the next hour, is Stanley Hilton. Stanley, it's great to have you on with us.
SH: Glad to be on.
AJ: We'll have to recap this when we start the next hour, but just in a nutshell, you have a lawsuit going, you've deposed a lot of military officers. You know the truth of 9/11. Just in a nutshell, what is your case alleging?
SH: Our case is alleging that Bush and his puppets Rice and Cheney and Mueller and Rumsfeld and so forth, Tenet, were all involved not only in aiding and abetting and allowing 9/11 to happen but in actually ordering it to happen. Bush personally ordered it to happen. We have some very incriminating documents as well as eye-witnesses, that Bush personally ordered this event to happen in order to gain political advantage, to pursue a bogus political agenda on behalf of the neocons and their deluded thinking in the Middle East. I also wanted to point out that, just quickly, I went to school with some of these neocons. At the University of Chicago, in the late 60s with Wolfowitz and Feith and several of the others and so I know these people personally. And we used to talk about this stuff all of the time. And I did my senior thesis on this very subject [on] how to turn the U.S. into a presidential dictatorship by manufacturing a bogus Pearl Harbor event. So, technically this has been in the planning at least 35 years.
AJ: That's right. They were all Straussian followers of a Nazi-like professor. And now they are setting it up here in America. Stanley, I know you deposed a lot of people and you've got your $7 million dollar lawsuit with hundreds of the victim's families involved...
SH: 7 billion, 7 billion
AJ: Yeah, 7 billion. Can you go over some of the new and incriminating evidence you've got of them ordering the attack?
SH: Yes, let me just say that this is a taxpayers' class action lawsuit as well as a suit on behalf of the families and the basic three arguments are they violated the Constitution by ordering this event. And secondly that they [garbled] fraudulent Federal Claims Act, Title 31 of the U.S. Code in which Bush presented false and fraudulent evidence to Congress to get the Iraq war authorization. And, of course, he related it to 9/11 and claimed that Saddam was involved with that, and all these lies.
AJ: Tell you what, stay there. Stanley, we've got to break. Let's come back and get into the evidence.
> BREAK
AJ: Alright my friends, second hour, September 10th, 2004, the anniversary of the globalist attack coming up tomorrow. Its an amazing individual we have on the line. Bob Dole's former chief of staff, political scientist, a lawyer, he went to school with Rumsfeld and others, he wrote his thesis about how to turn America into a dictatorship using a fake Pearl Harbor attack. He's suing the U.S. government for carrying out 9/11. He has hundreds of the victims' families signing onto it. It's a $7 billion lawsuit. And he is Stanley Hilton. I know that a lot of stations just joined us in Los Angeles and Rhode Island and Missouri and Florida and all over. Please sir, recap what you were just stating and then let's get into the new evidence. And then we'll get into why you are being harassed by the FBI, as other FBI people are being harassed who have been blowing the whistle on this. So, this is really getting serious. Stanley, tell us all about it.
For the rest of the transcript of this interview, see:
www.rense.com/general57/aale.htm
Radio Interview with 9/11 Families Attorney:
www.prisonplanet.tv/audio/091204hilton.htm
Radio Audio: www.prisonplanet.tv/audio/091004hilton.mp3
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 9/11 Families sue Bush, Rich, Cheney, Rumseld, Tenet, Ashcroft et. al.
for Ordering and Carrying Out the 9/11 Attacks
Lawsuit info: suetheterrorists.net &
www.deprogram.info/page2.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Former CIA Agent Says Bush to Blame for 9/11
by Chris Gardner
Published September 22, 2004 by the University of South Florida Oracle
Former CIA agent Ray McGovern went over what he considers the failures of the intelligence community and current administration over the past few years. He has 27 years of experience as a CIA analyst to draw upon and has dealt with every administration from Kennedy to Bush Sr.
Original posting by the University of South Florida
www.usforacle.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/09/22/41516bdd9fc94
also posted at
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0922-01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Ray McGovern in New Hampshire this week
"Are We Safer?
An Ex-CIA Analyst's Perspective on
Intelligence and the War on Terror,"
with Ray McGovern.
A 27 year veteran of the CIA, Ray's responsibilities under presidents from John F. Kennedy to George H.W. Bush included chairing National Intelligence Estimates, preparing the President's Daily Brief, and conducting one-on-one briefings of the most senior U.S. officials. In January 2003, as doubt grew regarding the intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq, Ray co-founded Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.
Wednesday September 29th, 7-9pm, 105 Hanover Hall, Dartmouth College, Hanover
Thursday September 30th, 7-9pm, Governors Inn, 78 Wakefield Street, Rochester
Friday October 1st, 7-9pm, South Congregational Church, 29 Pleasant Street, Concord
All events are free and open to the public; donations are appreciated. Refreshments to be served following lecture. For more information contact Anne Miller at NH Peace Action, phone 603-228-0559 or e-mail anne@nhpeaceaction.org
For more information, see FN updated page on Campaigns for Reclaiming a Lost USA Democracy
2) Study: "Antarctic Glaciers Melting Faster"
Antarctic Glaciers Melting Faster -Study
Published September 22, 2004 by Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Glaciers once held up by a floating ice shelf off Antarctica are now sliding off into the sea -- and they are going fast, scientists said on Tuesday.
Two separate studies from climate researchers and the space agency NASA show the glaciers are flowing into Antarctica's Weddell Sea, freed by the 2002 breakup of the Larsen B ice shelf.
Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the researchers said their satellite measurements suggest climate warming can lead to rapid sea level rise.
The teams at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said the findings also prove that ice shelves hold back glaciers.
Many teams of researchers are keeping a close eye on parts of Antarctica that are steadily melting.
Large ice shelves in the Antarctic Peninsula disintegrated in 1995 and 2002 as a result of climate warming. But these floating ice shelves did not affect sea level as they melted.
Glaciers, however, are another story. They rest on land and when they slide off into the water they instantly affect sea level.
It was not clear how the loss of the Larsen B ice shelf would affect nearby glaciers.
But soon after its collapse, researchers saw nearby glaciers flowing up to eight times faster than before.
"If anyone was waiting to find out whether Antarctica would respond quickly to climate warming, I think the answer is yes," said Theodore Scambos, a University of Colorado glacier expert who worked on one study.
"We've seen 150 miles of coastline change drastically in just 15 years."
The affected area is at the far northern tip of the Antarctic, just south of Chile and Argentina. Temperatures there have risen by up to 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit (2.5 degrees C) in the past 60 years -- faster than almost any region in the world.
In the past 30 years, ice shelves in the region have lost more than 5,200 square miles of area.
"The Larsen area can be looked at as a miniature experiment, showing how warming can dramatically change the ice sheets, and how fast it can happen," Scambos said in a statement. "At every step in the process, things have occurred more rapidly than we expected."
But not all the melting in the Antarctic can be seen as a "miniature experiment."
The Ross ice shelf, for example, is the main outlet for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, with several large glaciers that could, if they melted completely, raise sea levels by 16 feet.
"While the consequences of this area are small compared to other parts of the Antarctic, it is a harbinger of what will happen when the large ice sheets begin to warm," Scambos said. "The much larger ice shelves in other parts of Antarctica could have much greater effects on the rate of sea level rise."
Published by Reuters Posted, and posted at:
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0922-02.htm
and
www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2004/2004-09-23-09.asp
For FN resources, see:
The Mounting Evidence of Global Warming!!!
3) "The Slacker Uprising Tour"
- - Bush Family Fortunes DVD Extravaganza
- - NOW with Bill Moyers
- - Campaigns for Reclaiming a Lost USA Democracy
- - "The Slacker Uprising Tour"
by Michael Moore
9/25/04
Dear Friends,
Tomorrow I begin a little 20-state, 60-city tour to try and convince the fed-up, the burned-out, and the Nader-impaired to leave the house for just a half-hour on November 2nd and mark an "X" in a box (or punch a chad or touch a screen) so that America and the world can be saved. (I don't mean "saved" as in all workers will henceforth control the means of production. That's, um, going to take a few more years.)
What I'm asking is that our fellow Americans, as the collective landlord of a public housing project at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., take just a few minutes to evict the tenant who is currently wrecking the place (not to mention what he's doing to the rest of the neighborhood). After all, isn't this one of the coolest things about a democracy, getting to give some payback to those in power? "YOU'RE FIRED!" Oooh, that feels good -- especially if the recipient of the pink slip is someone who wants to send your kid off to war.
So, having nothing better to do for the next month (and eager to visit such swinging states as Iowa! Ohio! Arkansas!), I have decided to go to every battleground state in the country and do whatever it takes to get out the vote. I will do your laundry, I will clean your house, I will give you a year's supply of beer nuts if you will commit to me to go to the polls on Tuesday, November 2.
I'm calling it "The Slacker Uprising Tour," a coast-to-coast effort to bring the non-voting majority out of hibernation and kick some political butt. My goal is to get as many of the 100 million non-voters in America as I can to give voting a try -- just this once. I want at least 56% of all eligible voters to vote and thus set a modern-day turnout record.
I'm putting out the red alert call to slackers everywhere to help me lead this revolt. I want everyone in their teens and twenties who exist from one packet of Ramen noodles to the next bag of Tostitos to take your fully-justified cynicism and toss it like a Molotov right into the middle of this election. As "non-voters" you have been written off. But if only a few thousand of you vote, it could make all the difference. You literally hold all the power in your hands. That's even cooler than holding a TV remote.
I, the original slacker -- I, who have endured all sorts of attacks for my slacker demeanor -- yes I am coming to an arena or stadium just outside your dorm room (or that little space off the furnace room where your parents still let you stay, rent-free). Why arenas and stadiums? Because there are so many of us -- AND they serve beer and chips. From the Sun Dome to the Key Arena, from the Patriot Center to the Del Mar Race Track, I will be there and I will bring prizes and presents and clean underwear for all in need.
Before I arrive, I have arranged for free screenings of "Fahrenheit 9/11" in each city. When I get there I will have with me dozens of voter registrars who will register new (or recently transplanted) voters (please check this link for voter registration deadlines -- they are fast approaching in most states in the next 10 days!).
Absentee ballot applications will also be available. And the good people of Move-On, ACT and other groups will be present at each of my appearances to sign up volunteers to get out the vote on election day.
Details of where I will be appearing will be available in your local media. Many venues, due to advance word already out there, have "sold out" (at most stops, students get in for free and community people pay a nominal fee -- usually $5 -- to cover costs). Again, check your local media to find out the times and dates and how to get advance tickets.
A partial list of the cities I'm visiting includes: Seattle, Big Rapids (MI), Mt. Pleasant (MI), Tucson, Dearborn, Phoenix, East Lansing, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Albuquerque, Toledo, Columbus (OH), Ames (IA), Cleveland, Fairmont (WV), Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Bethlehem (PA), Fairfax (VA), Carlyle (PA), State College (PA), Minneapolis, Gainesville, Nashville, Miami, Memphis, Orlando, Salem (OR), Jacksonville, Tampa, Kansas City, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Madison, Green Bay, Las Vegas, Reno, Denver, and, of course, Tallahassee, Florida. Others will be posted later.
While on the road, I will try to keep my blog up-to-date and post some pictures we take in each city. The three campuses on the tour which register the most students to vote (or who have the most non-voters committing to me to vote) will receive a special scholarship from us at the end of the tour.
Thanks, in advance, to everyone out there who is working hard during this election. I know it will make a difference.
Let's leave no non-voter behind.
Yours,
Michael Moore
MichaelMoore.com
michaelmoore.com/vote
mmflint@aol.com
P.S. Good news! This current weekend our distributor has added an astounding 600 new theaters to the list of those still showing "Fahrenheit 9/11." This is highly unusual for a film entering it's fourth month of release, but the demand has been strong to bring it back in many areas and our wonderful distributors have responded. This is a perfect time to either see it again on the big screen or take a friend who hasn't seen it, as it won't be around in theaters for long. The DVD and home video come out October 5!
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush Family Fortunes DVD Extravaganza
Another recommended action, especially before the election, is to watch and show Greg Palast's investigative work - "Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" - DVD screenings, house parties, individual and bulk order purchase information is posted at:
www.takeyourcountryback.com/BUSHFAMILYFORTUNES/
An activist rate of about $6.50 per DVD is available. You can also make individual orders for the DVD at www.gregpalast.com/bff-dvd.htm
For more on Greg Palast, see GregPalast.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - NOW with Bill Moyers
www.pbs.org/NOW
Last Friday's program was excellent on the DEBT and rigged election debate procedures.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Campaigns for Reclaiming a Lost USA Democracy
or check for updated link when visiting FlybyNews.com.
Flyby News Support
Please join with Flyby News and help cover expenses
for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc.;
You can send donations to:
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
-- or you can donate via online --
see FlybyNews.com [near bottom of page] for link
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Resources for Reclaiming a Lost USA Republic
"Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution
of the United States as our Fathers made it inviolate. The people
of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress
and the Courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to
overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."
-- Abraham Lincoln
Democracy is vital for reclaiming a lost integrity and accountability in the US government. Flyby News (FN) came out of the campaign to stop or expose the high risk Cassini (plutonium) Earth flyby. The NASA space probe was launched into space in October 1997. Destined for a Saturn orbit, Cassini was first directed in the opposite direction for two gravity-accelerated assists around Venus, and then came back for an Earth-flyby in 1999. According to the Environmental Impact Statement, it could have exposed five billion people to 99% or more of the radiation.
Activists Stand Their Ground as Cassini Sails Away
Inspired by investigative reporter, author, filmmaker, Karl Grossman, FN learned not only about the dangers of Cassini, but what was behind the development of nuclear technology and the military's overtaking the US civilian space agency to dominate the planet. So, the first campaign for Flyby News at the turn of the millennium was to prevent the expansion of the arms race and US domination of the planet by banning space-based weapons. Yet the theft of democracy in the US 2000 election, the Supreme Court appointment of George W. Bush as US President, led to the termination of the 1972 Ballistic Missile Treaty, the exploitation and cover-up of September 11, 2001, and energy policies accelerating Global Warming that will hasten environmental and fiscal downfalls, and loss of freedom, challenging human integrity.
Space for Peace and September 11
Connecting dots to real democracy or real genocide
<><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Citizen Journalism for New Era
by Kelsey Flynn
Published in Springfield MA newspaper,
The Republican, Sunday 14 January 2007
<><><><><><><><><><><><><>
On February 17, 2002, Dennis Kucinich presented the inspirational speech, A Prayer for America. Recognizing his efforts for the Preservation of Space Treaties, and a Department of Peace, Flyby News encouraged Congressman Dennis Kucinich to run for US President in 2004. Yet his late entry into the race, mismanagement of campaign, division with other anti-war candidates, Howard Dean and Wesley Clark, (Michael Moore), handed the Democratic Party's nomination to a supporter for the Congressional authorization for the Bush-US war on Iraq, John Kerry. However, Senator Kerry was challenging the Bush-Iraq foreign policy, and actually won the election, but due to election fraud and suppression, the vote tally in Ohio (as happened in 2000 in Florida) was manipulated to give another term for George W. Bush as (p)resident of the democracy-failing United States of America. Like Gore, Kerry backed away from contesting all the irregularities of the election.
Yet the problem goes beyond just the election thefts as documented in the film, UNCOUNTED: The New Math of American Elections. The bigger problem for millions of innocent people in Iraq and for people around the world was an unjustifiable war that used the events of September 11, 2001 for a NAZI-style preemptive attack based on lies. All the while, investigations on what really happened on 9/11 was distorted like the election thefts, with media and Congressional complicity, which is treason. Likely the most effective way to reclaim a lost USA democracy is by grassroots movement exposing the 9/11 crime cover-up, which has resulted in an assault on the US Constitution, environment, and world war destabilization. FN is promoting films that provide visual and scientific evidence that the World Trade Center Towers were toppled by controlled demolition (including building # 7, untouched by the airplanes). There were obvious evidence of poisonous air, though the authorities stated it was "safe to breathe.' Why was evidence at the scene of a crime destroyed?
In first 3 minutes, watch
9/11 - WTC-7 - Exposed!
Video clip produced by Robert Bowman
National Commander, ThePatriots.US
10 September, 2014 - Youtube - Flyby News
Dark Legacy 9-11
Condensed Compilation - 0:14:39 running time
11 September 2011 - VIDEO - Corbett Report
9/11: A Conspiracy Theory
Everything you ever wanted to know about
9/11 conspiracy theory in under 5 minutes.
Flyby News supports direct democracy to nonviolently deal
with the betrayal of human rights and the US Constitution
in a cover-up and misuse of what really happened on 9/11/01.
Theologian and scholar, David Ray Griffin stated: "It is already
possible to know, beyond a reasonable doubt, one very
important thing: the destruction of the World Trade
Center was an inside job, orchestrated by
terrorists within our own government."
1,600+ Architects and Engineers
Call for New 9/11 Investigation
16 August 2011 - Youtube
Architects & Engineers
Solving the Mystery of WTC 7
25 July 2011 - 911cc.org - Byron Belitsos
Why Lobbying Congress Is a Dead End
"Congress will never mount a new 9/11 investigation
I've tried that. Our courts and our district attorneys
won't do it either; that, too, has been attempted un-
successfully. Only the citizens themselves can get
a real investigation. The best path remaining is
that which Senator Gravel has spent part of his
life working on: the citizens' initiative."
- Cynthia McKinney,
six-term U.S. Congressperson (D-Georgia),
2008 Presidential Candidate (Green Party)
9/11 Initiative Campaign - Senator Mike Gravel
Citizens 9/11 Commission
This is a new initiative that uses the prevailing ballot
box, to establish a truly independent commission to
pursue justice regarding the events of September 11.
An Actionable Plan for 9/11 Truth and Justice
Join with Flyby News and Valley 9/11 Truth
Download article and support the campaign!
20 September 2011 - Flyby News - Jonathan Mark
Senator Mike Gravel Interview
Part 1 of 8 - Watch on Youtube - at above link
Full 88-minute program is available in high
resolution at Greenfield Community Television
More information at FN-wordpress link!
09 February 2012 - Flyby News - Mike Gravel
Report on Citizens 9/11 Commission Campaign
28 January 2012 - WordPress - Scott Creighton
Mike Gravel is under attack
Ongoing - Vote.org - Sen. Mike Gravel
The National Initiative for Democracy
03 February 2012 - NI4D.US - Mike Gravel
What is the National Initiative for Democracy?
29 February 2012 - Flyby News - Jonathan Mark
Controlled Opposition * 9-11 Truth Attacks
10 September, 2016 - Valley 9-11 Truth - Gfld, MA
10th Anniversary Event
September 11 and War On Terror
"As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression.
In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains
seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all
must be most aware of change in the air - however slight -
lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."
-- William O Douglas
9/11 DVD ~ Letter-to-Editor Campaign
In response to 9/11 Investigation Cover-up
and the lies perpetrated by the Bush administration,
please consider donating films on 9/11 awareness to
libraries, community access TV stations, and then,
notify your neighbors by sending a letter to be
published by your local newspaper.
Following is a sample letter to editor:
Dear Editor:
Recently I donated a DVD film called "9/11: Press for Truth" to our library. This film features family members of victims of that tragic day, and looks into the workings of the 'official' 9/11 Commission Report, while examining Paul Thompson's definitive "Complete 9/11 Timeline." The film brings to view rare overlooked news clips, buried stories, and government press conferences, revealing a pattern of official lies, deception and spin.
The next film I plan to donate is a new film by Michael Berger called: "Improbable Collapse: The Demolition of our Republic." This film reviews evidence for WTC controlled-demolitions from a scientific perspective. Most people do not know that a third building, WTC-7 collapsed at 5:20 that same evening. It collapsed at nearly free-fall speeds, imploding in the exact manner of a professionally engineered demolition.
Historically fire has never brought down a steel structured building. Film viewers are presented with visual evidence, which has been censored by major media outlets. Not only can you watch WTC-7 collapse, but the film also includes an interview with Steven Jones PhD (physicist), showing hard evidence that explosives were used.
Ray McGovern, who was responsible for Presidents Daily Brief (PDB) for Ronald Reagan and George H. Bush, a 27-year CIA veteran, and Former U.S. Army Intelligence Officer, said: "The 9/11 Report is a joke. The question is: Whats being covered up? Is it gross malfeasance, gross negligence? "
For more information and resources on what really happened on September 11, 2001, check on the web - FlybyNews.com or 911truth.org
(Signed or sent by email, (include your address and telephone number).
Links to newspapers and TV stations in the United States.
700 Public or Community Television sites worldwide!
"9/11 Truth is a very important issue with the
power to bring lasting change to our country."
- William Sloane Coffin
For resources to get the truth out, see:
Films that Make a Difference!
Campaigns - Archives - Resources
07 April, 2016 - FN Youtube - 07:30 - PSA
INCONTROVERTIBLE
Public Service Announcement - May 21 New England screening
New 9/11 Documentary by Tony Rooke
Incontrovertible 9-11 Evidence
INCONTROVERTIBLE is the first and only feature length documentary,
which portrays the frank and candid views of Police Officers,
Firefighters and Soldiers as they express their grave concerns
about the official explanation for the events of 9/11. The
film is intended to act as a practical aid in combating
the mainstream media's propaganda and outright lies
concerning the attacks on September 11th 2001.
Help get this DVD distributed!
Go Fund US
Incontrovertible
9-11 Evidence
12 January, 2016 - AE911truth - James McDowell
Seeing Through the Miracles of 9/11
From its artful cinematography to its rich underscore,
Incontrovertible is an inspired and well-researched
documentary that reaches its viewers on multiple
levels, with layered messages.
18 January, 2017 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Activists Call on Obama to Pardon Leonard Peltier,
Warning He'll Die in Prison Otherwise
21 December, 2016 - Democracy Now!
Free Leonard Peltier: Obama Urged to
Grant Clemency to Native American
Activist Jailed for 40 Years
04 January, 2017
American Univ. Removes Leonard Peltier Statue
After FBI Letter Amid Urgent Push for Clemency
Time is running short
Contact President Obama Online
December, 2016 - Youtube - 50:00 - Flyby News
Mars Viking & Bart Jordan Update
04 December, 2016 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
Obama Administration Halts Dakota Access
Pipeline Construction after Months of Resistance
02 December, 2016 - Common Dreams - Nika Knight
Veterans Arrive at Standing Rock to Act
as 'Human Shields' for Water Protectors
21 November, 2016 - Democracy Now - Jeremy Scahill
TigerSwan Security, Linked to Blackwater,
Now Coordinates Intel for Dakota Access
22 November, 2016 - Democracy Now - Wayne Wilansky
Father of Activist Injured at Standing Rock Calls
on Obama to Stop Dakota Access Pipeline Drilling
11 November, 2016 - CBS News - Morning
CEO: Dakota Access Pipeline will be
completed under Trump presidency
This video clearly shows fascism in such an obvious way.
Some will choose ego-fear-greed-power to become ignorant
over what sustains life. These are dark times in deed.
01 December, 2016 - RSN - Greg Palast
The No-BS Inside Guide to
the Presidential Recount
01 December, 2016 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
Cornel West on Donald Trump:
This is What Neo-Fascism Looks Like
01 December, 2016 - Pravda.Ru
US loses Syria for good
21 November, 2016 - Democracy Now - Jeremy Scahill
Neocons, War Criminals & White Nationalists:
On Trump's Incoming Advisers & Cabinet
"..these guys are going to combine the worst aspects of
what Obama has done, and using his credibility to legitimize
it with liberals, and the worst aspects of the Bush-Cheney
doctrine. It really is kind of unprecedented that this kind
of a cabal has this much power, controlling both houses of
Congress, the White House and an ability to run the deck
in making a Supreme Court that is extraordinarily,
almost unprecedented in its right-wing nature."
- Jeremy Scahill
24 June, 2016 - PressTV - Paul Craig Roberts
Brexit could break up EU,
prevent World War III
16 September, 2016 - Youtube - 3:01 - Dahboo77
Alabama, Georgia Declare
'State of Emergency' After
Massive Pipeline Spill
04 September, 2016 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
VIDEO: Dakota Access Pipeline Company
Attacks Native American Protesters
with Dogs and Pepper Spray
03 September, 2016 - CNN Money - Jackie Wattles and Matt Egan
Oklahoma orders shutdown of
37 wells after earthquake
24 August, 2016 - Youtube - 2:41 - Telesur
Historic Resistance to Dakota Pipeline
27 August, 2016 - Youtube - 11:26 - dutchsinse
Yellowstone hit by FRACKING 𝔼𝕒𝕣𝕥𝕙𝕢𝕦𝕒𝕜𝕖
24 August, 2016 - Common Dreams - Nika Knight
As Court Hears Arguments in Dakota Pipeline
Suit, Protesters Say 'Protect Our Water'
16 August, 2016 - Common Dreams - Lauren McCauley
NASA Study Nails Fracking as Source
of Massive Methane 'Hot Spot'
05 February, 2016 - Youtube - 1:08 - Telesur
Free Leonard Peltier!
07 February, 2016 - FN wordpress - Jonathan Mark
Pardon Leonard Peltier
Opportunity for Obama, our nation
Published in Recorder, 06 February, 2016
Call the White House Comment Line
202-456-1111 or 202-456-1112
Monday thru Friday - 9am to 5pm
For more information, Regarding Clemency:
International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
Free Leonard Peltier
12 August, 2016 - The Sleuth Journal - Bart Sibrel
TRUTH is now ILLEGAL (VIDEO)
16 August, 2016 - Democracy Now - Amy Goodman
Writer Jesse Washington & Olympian Anthony Ervin
on Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali & Race at Olympics
15 August, 2016
African-American Women Make Olympic History by
Winning Gold in Swimming, Gymnastics & Shot Put
11 August, 2016 - TruthDig - Sonali Kolhatkar
The Olympics Are a Colossal Waste
and a Shameful Distraction
10 August, 2016 - NY Post - Daniel Halper
Julian Assange suggests DNC staffer
was shot dead for being a source
29 July, 2016 - Daily Kos - Joynter
Election Justice USA Study Finds
that Without Election Fraud Sanders
Would Have Won by Landslide
01 August, 2016 - The Duran - Alex Christoforou
Julian Assange says "1,700 emails in
Hillary Clinton's collection" proves
she sold weapons to ISIS in Syria [Video]
23 May, 2016 - Youtube - AJ+
Jill Stein: The Two-Party System Is Broken
26 July, 2016 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Jill Stein vs. Ben Jealous: Should Progressives
Reject Hillary Clinton & Vote Green?
26 July, 2016
Who Should Bernie Voters Support Now?
Robert Reich vs. Chris Hedges on
Tackling the Neoliberal Order
26 July, 2016 - Youtube - Ben Grosscup
"Bernie's Ring of Fire"
A parody by Ben Grosscup based on the original song,
"Ring of Fire" by June Carter Cash and Merle Kilgore
and recorded by Johnny Cash in 1963.
22 July, 2016 - Observer Politics - Michael Sainato
Wikileaks Proves Primary Was Rigged:
DNC Undermined Democracy
18 July, 2016 - Democracy Now! - Cornel West
Why I Endorse Green Party's Jill Stein
Over "Neoliberal Disaster" Hillary Clinton
For the same reasons as stated by Cornel West:
Flyby News also supports Jill Stein for POTUS
01 August, 2016 - AFP - Exclusive from Chris
Prominent AFP Clinton Researcher Found Dead
31 July, 2016 - MadCowNews - Daniel Hopsicker
Tim Kaine's Unlikely Biography
13 June, 2016 - RT - Julian Assange
Wikileaks will publish 'enough evidence'
to indict Hillary Clinton, warns Assange
07 June, 2016 - Justice Gazette - Bart Sibrel
Bernie Sanders Wins California Landslide
But 2/3 of his Votes Arent Counted (VIDEO)
FIGHTS ON
07 June, 2016 - Youtube - DNC - 2:55 - NBC
Bernie Sanders Interview with Lester Holt
22 May, 2016 - Breitbart - Deborah Danan
Saudi Press: U.S. Blew Up World Trade
Center To Create 'War On Terror'
23 May, 2016 - Democracy Now! - John Crane
Exclusive: Source Reveals How Pentagon
Ruined Whistleblower's Life and Set
Stage for Snowden's Leaks
23 May, 2016 - The Guardian - Ewen MacAskill and Spencer Ackerman
Future of national security whistleblowing
at stake in US inquiry
Skyhorse Publishing - Mark Hertsgaard
Bravehearts
Whistle-Blowing in the Age of Snowden
19 May, 2016 - Flyby News - Wordpress
INCONTROVERTIBLE - 28 pages - 9-11 Truth
02 May, 2016 - Off Guardian - Eric Zuesse
Seymour Hersh Says Hillary Approved
Sending Libya's Sarin to Syrian Rebels
03 May, 2016 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
"The Assassination Complex":
Jeremy Scahill & Glenn Greenwald Probe
Secret US Drone Wars in New Book
03 May, 2016
Jeremy Scahill Remembers His Longtime Friend,
Daniel Berrigan: "The Man was a Moral Giant"
20 April, 2016 - Sputnik News - Pepe Escobar
Fear and Loathing
in the Arabian Nights
US President Barack Obama landed in Saudi Arabia
for a GCC petrodollar summit and to proverbially
"reassure Gulf allies" amidst the oiliest of storms.
21 April, 2016 - Activist Post - Brianna Blaschke
Devastating Radioactive Leak In Washington's
Hanford Nuclear Facility Sparks Outrage
21 April, 2016 - Common Dreams - Nika Knight
Victory: Kinder Morgan Nixes
New England Pipeline Plan
14 March, 2016 - Youtube - 4:00 - Br Luck
Deeply Moving Message from Bernie Sanders
13 April, 2016 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Hear Hillary Clinton Defend Her Role in Honduras
Coup When Questioned by Juan Gonzlez
13 April, 2016
"She's Baldly Lying": Dana Frank Responds
to Hillary Clinton's Defense of Her Role
in Honduras Coup
04 May, 2016 - NY Daily News - Shaun King
Bernie Sanders would be Donald Trump's
worst nightmare; Hillary, not so much
28 April, 2016 - John Laurits
This is What Will Happen at
the Democratic Convention
Math vs. Media: Part One
Flyby News Endorsed Feeling the Bern!
Bernie Sanders for President!
Flyby News updated resource:
Reclaiming A Lost USA Republic
07 April, 2016 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
A Torturer's Confession: Former
Abu Ghraib Interrogator Speaks Out
04 April, 2016 - Moon of Alabama
Selective Leaks Of The PanamaPapers
Create Huge Blackmail Potential
01 April, 2016 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Human Rights Advocates: U.S.-Backed Saudi Offensive
in Yemen a "Dark Mark" on Obama's Presidency
"The greatest purveyor of violence in the world:
My own Government, I can not be Silent."
- Martin Luther King
03 January, 2014 - Media Roots
How Opium is Keeping US in Afghanistan:
CIA's Shady History of Drug Trafficking
23 March, 2016 - Global Research News Selected Articles
Belgium Bombings.
Who is Behind the Attacks?
19 March, 2016 - SOTT - Brandon Martinez
Wikileaks 2012 Killary email:
Secure Israeli hegemony, destroy Syria
13 March, 2016 - PressTV - Ray McGovern
Militants carried out 2013 sarin
attack in Syria: Ex-CIA analyst
Flyby News Archive Updated Resource:
Syria and false flag operations
27 April, 2016 - We Are Change - Youtube - 08:59
Biggest Chemical Attack On American
Citizens By Their Own Government
Luke Rudkowski reports on WTC Asbestos
16 April, 2016 - Truth Frequency Radio - Sean Caron
Interview with Jonathan Mark
Connect the dots, JFK, Apollo Hoax and NWO Truth
Available now on Youtube!
05 April, 2013 - Youtube - 19:49 David Knight
Tony Rooke Interview on Info Wars
08 April, 2016 - The Con Trail - Peter Drew
Scotland firefighter resigns
in protest to 9/11 cover up
07 February, 2016 - FN wordpress - Jonathan Mark
Pardon Leonard Peltier
Opportunity for Obama, our nation
Published in Recorder, 06 February, 2016
01 February, 2016 - FN wordpress - Louise Erdich
Time for Human Rights on Native Ground
06 February, 2016 - Day of International Protest
40 years Incarcerated
Clemency Event and Film
Free Leonard Peltier
12 January, 2016 - Washingtons Blog - Carl Herman
Martin Luther King assassinated by US
Govt: King Family civil trial verdict
18 January, 2016 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Newly Discovered 1964 MLK Speech
on Civil Rights, Segregation &
Apartheid South Africa
01 February, 2016 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Bernie Sanders Says No to Fracked Oil Pipeline
in Iowa, Will It Help Him in Today's Caucus?
11 December, 2015 - FreeThoughtProject - Jay Syrmopoulos
Julian Assange: They Won
Mass Surveillance and Illegal
Spying is 'Here to Stay'
04 December, 2015 - Free Thought Project - William N. Grigg
Attorney for Family in San Bernardino Shooting:
Official Story "Implausible" & "Doesn't Add Up"
Quite simply based on all the proven evidence of prior
false flag attacks, and how the evidence doesn't add up,
it is much more likely that the real devils were behind it..
the same ones pushing the lever on 9-11.. and much more..
But people are too scared to deal with such a reality..
which shows how fear controls a public preferring
to make believe than uphold what is true..
02 December, 2015 - CNN - San Bernardino
Source: 3 men left California
mass shooting scene in SUV
05 December, 2015 - Facebook - Jerry Jack
Why do people say the story of the
California shooting doesnt add up?
15 December, 2015 - Revolution TV - Len Horowitz
The Paris Attacks Video:
From Chaos to Global Governance
29 June, 2015 - CounterPunch - Robert Hunziker
Is Fukushima Getting Worse?
30 June, 2015 - ICH - Brandon Turbeville
US Admits Paying Terrorists
For Services Rendered In Syria
26 June, 2015 - ICH - Tony Cartalucci
US To Begin Invasion of Syria
26 June, 2015 - Mother Jones - David Corn
This Is Bernie Sanders' Plan
to Beat Hillary Clinton
BernieSanders.com
The official campaign website for the presidential
campaign of United States Senator Bernie Sanders.
23 June, 2015 - Common Dreams - Deirdre Fulton
'A Great Day for Corporate America':
US Senate Passes Fast Track
15 June, 2015 - WhoWhatWhy - Klaus Marre
Magna Carta Celebrates 800th Birthday
How Far Has Liberty Come?
10 June, 2015 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
War for Decades to Come?
One Year After ISIL Advance,
U.S. Could Send Hundreds
More Troops to Iraq
15 June, 2015
What Do 800-Year-Old Magna Carta
& Black Lives Matter Have in Common?
A People's Historian Explains
"The Magna Carta is not just the foundation of our liberties
in restricting sovereignty, but its also a place where, if
we read it carefully, we can see a principle for our future.
And that principle is the principle of the commons, which
you will find in a little charter, the Charter of the Forest.
The common principle is that subsistence is available for all.
The common principle is that of mutuality. The common
principle is not of competition, but is of cooperation."
19 June, 2015 - Justice for Assange
3 Years in Embassy
Julian Assange in embassy of Ecuador
Rest in Peace Habeas Corpus
The following is on some decent news out of Congress,
received on facebook via Peter Dale Scott with his comment:
"For a second time (as on Fast Track) the House has shown more
moral sense than the Administration and the governing media.
In my recent books I have been skeptical about looking for
change from the U.S. Congress. But there are more and more
signs -- driven partly by irreversible increases of awareness
about climate change -- that a new political consensus may be
emerging within the system. Let us hope so, and help!"
12 June, 2015 - Cconsortium News - Robert Parry
U.S. House Admits Nazi
Role in Ukraine
"The U.S. House of Representatives has admitted an ugly truth that
the U.S. mainstream media has tried to hide from the American people
that the post-coup regime in Ukraine has relied heavily on Nazi
storm troopers to carry out its bloody war against ethnic Russians."
25 September, 2004 - The Guardian - Aris, Campbell
How Bush's grandfather helped
Hitler's rise to power
25 May, 2015 - The Telegraph - Danielle Demetriou
Fukushima leak at nuclear plant
'could cause hydrogen explosion'
19 May, 2015 - PBS - Frontline- 0:54:30
Secrets, Politics, and Torture
The secret history of the CIA's controversial
"enhanced interrogation" methods
12 February, 2015 - Global Research - Mark Taliano
Truth Beneath The Lies: The West
Finances, Organizes, Trains
Fundamentalist Proxy Forces
in its Illegal Wars
10 February, 2015 - Common Dreams - Pat Mooney
Why we shouldn't fund geoengineering experiments,
and what we still need to learn about the climate
30 January, 2015 - We Are Change - Youtube
The Highest Ranking Politician
That Believes In Aliens
In the above video Luke Rudkowski interviews the first
and only cabinet-ranking official from a G8 nation
to publicly state a belief in extraterrestrials.
09 February, 2015 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
Exclusive: Freed CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou
Says "I Would Do It All Again" to Expose Torture
07 February, 2015 - Fusion - Daniel Rivero
In his first interview since leaving prison,
CIA torture whistleblower says it was 'worth it'
06 February, 2015 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Exclusive: Deported Palestinian Scholar Sami
Al-Arian on His Chilling Post-9/11 Prosecution
03 February, 2015
Is Ukraine a Proxy Western-Russia War?
U.S. Weighs Arming Kiev as Violence Soars
03 February, 2015
The New Arab Cold War: U.S. Policy Sows Conflict,
Unrest Across the Middle East and North Africa
04 February, 2015
Johann Hari: Everything We Know About
the Drug War & Addiction is Wrong
06 February, 2015 - WantToKnow - Fred Burks
Media Articles Reveal Hidden
Risks, Dangers of Vaccines
04 February, 2015 - Global Research - Washington's Blog
New Saudi King Tied to Al Qaeda,
Bin Laden and Islamic Terrorism
28 January, 2015 - MoveOn - Jo Comerford
TPP = NAFTA on steroids
Youtube - 0:02:26
Robert Reich takes on the
Trans-Pacific Partnership
28 January, 2015 - Gasland - Josh Fox
Video of the Week
Are The Government Fracking Us Over?
Russell Brand The Trews
27 January, 2015
Published on Youtube
22 January, 2015 - WhoWhatWhy - Douglas Lucas
Barrett Brown Sentenced to 5 Years,
After Facing More Than a Century
A feisty, confrontational journalist who exposed
explosive details about the machinations of
the national security apparatus has been
sentenced to 5 years and 3 months.
22 January, 2015 - WND - Jerome R. Corsi
Admiral: U.S. could have
ousted Gadhafi peacefully
Brokered deal but Obama chose
to arm al-Qaida-linked 'rebels'
22 January, 2015 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Inside the U.S. Torture Chambers:
Prisoners Guantnamo Diary Details
Twelve Years of Abuse, Terror
15 January, 2015 -Democracy Now! - Joseph Hickman
Did Gitmo "Suicides" Cover Up Murder?
U.S. Sgt. Speaks Out on Deaths
& Prison's Secret CIA Site
13 January, 2015 - Common Dreams - Nadia Prupis
'Failure of Conscience': Groups Urge Congress
to Fund Social Well-Being, Not Fossil Fuel Industry
22 November 2014 - WarIsCrime - Francis Richard Conolly
Everything Is A Rich Man's Trick
The Documentary
Watch on Youtube - 3:27:55
Posted 19 November, 2014
04 January, 2015 - Global Research - Carla Stea
The UN Anti-Nazi Resolution, the
Prague Declaration and the History of
"US Accommodation with Nazism"
31 December, 2014 - Global Research - Rodrigue Tremblay
2015: "Year of the Militaristic Neocons":
Looming Global Financial Crisis and Wars?
04 October, 2012 - Youtube - RealEconTV
The Shale Gas Shell Game
BrassCheckTV:
Short sighted, short lived wells
18 December, 2014 - Boston Globe - Andrew Ba Tran
Where communities have banned fracking
16 December, 2014 - Wordpress - Flyby News
Stop the Pipeline Referendum in Mass
on Facebook too
Campaign to explore Referendum in Mass
Top 25 Most Censored Stories of 2013-2014
16 December 2014 - McClatchyDC - Jonathan S. Landay
Did CIA torture violate Nuremberg
ban on human experimentation?
09 December 2014 - ThinkProgress - CAP Action
The Torture Report
Senate Releases Damning Report
On CIA's Use Of Torture After 9/11
12 December 2014 - Guardian - Rowena Mason, Ian Cobain
US hid UK links in CIA torture report
at request of British spy agencies
10 December, 2014 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
"These Are Crimes": New Calls
to Prosecute Bush Admin as Senate
Report Reveals Brutal CIA Torture
05 May 2006 - MSNBC - Youtube
Ray McGovern Confronts Rumsfeld
December, 2014 - ICH - Mike Whitney
Ukraine War Driven by Gas-Dollar
Link Defending Dollar Imperialism
18 September, 2014 - Impact Lab
$100B invested in wind or solar
will produce more energy than oil
04 December, 2014 - Sleuth Journal - Bart Sibrel
What is the REAL Purpose
of the Orion Mission?
26 February, 2014 - Flyby News - Wordpress
Five years & Dark Legacy Apollo
27 October, 2014 - Volcania Radio - Richie Allen
Bart Sibrel: Moon landings faked
and Stanley Kubrick directed it
20 July, 2014 - Sleuth Journal - Bart Sibrel
45 Years Ago: Crappy Anniversary!
Did We Walk on the Moon
with 1960′s Technology?
18 August, 2014 - Flyby News - Wordpress
15 years and the Cassini-Earth flyby
03 December, 2014 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
A "Precise" U.S. Drone War?
New report finds U.S. drone strikes
kill 28 unidentified people for
every intended target
03 December, 2014
Peace Activist Faces Up to Two Years in Prison
for Protest at Drone Base Near Syracuse, NY
20 November, 2014 - Health Impact News
CDC Admits Flu Vaccine Does Not Work
Influenza Outbreak on Vaccinated Navy Ship
07 November, 2014 - Paul Craig Roberts
Another Fake Bin Laden Story
Anyone who believes anything the US government
says is gullible beyond the meaning of the word.
15 January, 2014 - Youtube 0:57:40 - Academic Freedom Conference
9/11: Why do Bill Moyers and
Robert Parry Accept Miracles?
[Note: Comment by Jonathan Mark under video.]
11 November, 2015 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Terror in Little Saigon: New Doc Ties
US-Allied Kill Squad to Unsolved Murders
of Vietnamese Journos in the United States
In honor of Veterans for Peace and Truth
Bob Bowman Tribute Connection
26 October, 2015 - Common Dreams - Sarah Lazare
Evidence Mounts that US Military Knew
They Were Bombing Active Hospital
Reporting raises new questions about potential war crimes in U.S.
bombing of Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan
22 October, 2015 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
After 5,000 Days of Torment,
Shaker Aamer
Last British Prisoner at Guantanamo
is Set for Release
20 October, 2015 - Schiff Gold - Samuel Bryan
China Calls for New Global Reserve
Currency to Replace Dollar
18 October, 2015 - Flyby News - Wordpress
Resource For Truth & Transformation
18 October, 2015 - Glen Owen & William Lowther
Smoking gun emails prove Tony Blair's 'deal
in blood' with George Bush over Iraq war
Leaked document shows Blair preparing to act
as spin doctor for President Bush, who was
told 'the UK will follow our lead'.
October, 2015 - The Intercept
The Drone Papers
The Intercept has obtained a cache of secret documents
detailing the inner workings of the U.S. militarys assas-
sination program in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia.
The documents, provided by a whistleblower, offer an
unprecedented glimpse into Obama's drone wars.
15 October, 2015 - The Intercept - Jeremy Scahill
The Assassination Complex
Secret military documents expose the
inner workings of Obama's drone wars
16 October, 2015 - Democracy Now! - Jeremy Scahill
Drone War Exposed: Scahill on U.S. Kill Program's
Secrets & the Whistleblower Who Leaked Them
17 August, 2015 - Consortium News - Ray McGovern
Propaganda, Intelligence and MH-17
"..and at the risk of sounding like former Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld it seems high time to
address what we know, what we dont know, and why
it may be that we dont know what we dont know."
16 August, 2015 - RT - Youtube - 0:06:12
Ray McGovern talks to RT International
on Tariq Ba Odah case
Guantanamo forced feeding (torture)
23 November, 2015 - Dark Moon - Paul Craig Roberts
'We are the terrorists!'
22 November, 2015 - TruthInMedia - Ben Swann
Reality Check: Proof U.S. Government
Wanted ISIS To Emerge In Syria
17 November, 2015 - Democracy Now! - Lydia Wilson
What I Discovered from Interviewing
Imprisoned Islamic State Fighters
17 November, 2015
We are Angry over Death of My Cousin in Paris,
As Well As the Deaths of Children in Iraq & Syria
14 November, 2015 - Huffington Post - Jason Linkins
Bernie Sanders Pins The Rise Of ISIS
On 'Disastrous' Invasion Of Iraq
15 November, 2015 - Global Research - Daniel DeLafe
Selective Empathy: Terrorist Attacks Rock Paris,
Response to Tragedy Is Typically Disproportionate
15 October, 2015 - Global Research - F. William Engdahl
Putin is Defeating More than ISIS in Syria.
"The Hypocritical Obama Administration
Mask has been Blown Off?
08 October, 2015 - Storm Clouds Gathering
WWIII - Syria, Russia &
Iran - The New Equation
06 October, 2015 - Veterans Today - Kevin Barrett
Brzezinski to Putin: Stop hitting
OUR al-Qaeda or its World War III
01 October, 2015 - Global Research - Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Obama Accuses Russia of Going After
America's: Good Guy Terrorists"
If the US and Russia are united in wanting to stop ISIL,
then Putin has the better approach by stabilizing and
working with the current government in Syria rather than
trying for regime change, which started the mess in the
first place with the misuse of the so-called Arab spring.
28 September, 2015 - CBS News - Video
Charlie Rose interviews Vladimir Putin
25 September, 2015 - LobeLog - Paul R. Pillar
Russian Involvement and a
Redirection of Policy on Syria
28 September, 2015 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Journalism is Not a Crime: Freed Al Jazeera
Reporter Peter Greste Seeks Pardon from Egypt
28 September, 2015
400 Days Locked Up: Journalist Peter Greste
on Surviving Egyptian Prison Term
28 September, 2015
Journalist Peter Greste Calls on Australia to End
Secrecy over Offshore Asylum Detention Centers
27 September, 2015 - Dig Within - Kevin Ryan
Why Saudi Ties to 9/11
Mean U.S. Ties to 9/11
15 September, 2015 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Operation Naked King: Secret DEA Sting in Bolivia
Confirms Evo Morales' Fears About U.S. Meddling
15 September, 2015
Man Who Filmed Freddie Grays Arrest:
Power of a Copwatch Camera is
"Almost Like Live Bullets"
14 September, 2015 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
"A Political Insurrection in Britain":
Tariq Ali on Election of Jeremy Corbyn
as New Labour Leader
14 September, 2015
Is Oklahoma Set to Execute an Innocent Man?
Inside the Case of Richard Glossip
12 September, 2015 - The City Sentinel - Darla Shelden
New Evidence in Glossip case will be presented
September 14 by Legal Defense Don Knight
UPDATED - FN Resource:
Human Rights and A Nation
Behind Bars: the buried
talents of a population.
Including a new letter and press
release from Zolo Agona Azania
11 September, 2015 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
In Victory for Obama and "Stinging Defeat" for
Israel Lobby, Iran Nuclear Deal Survives Senate Vote
11 September, 2015
Military Curfews, Firebombings, Airstrikes & Shattered
Peace Deal: Is Turkey on Brink of Civil War?
11 September, 2015
"I Saw with My Own Eyes That They Killed People":
Afghan Speaks Out as U.S. Reopens War Crimes Probe
10 September, 2015 - Daily Mail - Sara Malm
Thousands evacuated and hundreds of homes
destroyed after a tropical storm causes a river
to burst its banks in Japan, flushing radiation
water from Fukushima into the sea
04 September, 2015 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
A Watershed Moment for Guatemala: Nobel Laureate
Rigoberta Mench Celebrates Jailing of Ex-President
04 September, 2015
Allan Nairn: U.S. Backers of Guatemalan Death
Squads Should Be Jailed Alongside Ex-President
04 September, 2015
Chicago Hunger Strikers Enter Day 19 Challenging
Rahm Emanuels Push to Privatize Public Schools
28 August, 2015 - Natural News - Ethan A. Huff
Watch as amazing GcMAF treatment
kills cancer cells in real time...
holistic doctors 'suicided' over
this stunning breakthrough
25 August, 2015 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
"Casino Capitalism": Economist Michael Hudson on
What's Behind the Stock Market's Rollercoaster Ride
25 August, 2015 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
As Peace Talks Collapse in South Sudan, Film Shows
"Pathology of Colonialism" Tearing Apart Nation
We Come As Friends
A FILM BY HUBERT SAUPER
06 May, 2015 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
"Kill Anything": Israeli Soldiers Say
Gaza Atrocities Came from Orders
for Indiscriminate Fire
05 May
Emails Show American Psychological Association
Secretly Worked with Bush Admin to Enable Torture
05 May
Human Rights Watch: Saudi-Led Coalition Bombing
Yemen with Banned U.S.-Made Cluster Munitions
03 May, 2015 - Common Dreams - Lauren McCauley
Candidate Sanders Calls for 'Political
Revolution' Against Billionaire Class
24 April, 2015 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Watch: Explosive Footage from Inside Rikers Jail
Shows Guard Beating Teen Accused of Backpack Theft
22 April, 2015 - WhoWhatWhy - Roger Charles
Exclusive: Oklahoma City
Bombing Breakthrough,
Part 1 of 2
17 April, 2015 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Did NBC Cover Up Role of U.S.
-Backed Free Syrian Army in 2012
Kidnapping of Richard Engel?
12 April, 2015 - Consortium News - Ray McGovern
The Nasty Blowback
from America's Wars
11 April, 2015 - Global Research - Joachim Hagopian
Boston Marathon Bombings' Guilty Verdict
Exposed as a Gross Travesty of Justice
09 April, 2015 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
As Video Exposes Walter Scott Police Killing, Why
Is the Man Who Filmed Eric Garner's Death in Jail?
09 April, 2015
Is U.S. Abandoning Americans in Yemen?
U.S. Citizen Recounts Harrowing Trip
to Escape Saudi Attacks
07 April, 2015 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
Cowspiracy: As California Faces Drought,
Film Links Meat Industry to Water
Scarcity & Climate Change
07 April, 2015
"From Bad to Worse": Hundreds Dead
& 100,000 Displaced as Saudi Led-
Strikes Push Yemen to the Brink
07 April, 2015
Are Obama's Record Arms Sales to Saudi
Arabia, Yemen, Egypt and Iraq Fueling
Unrest in Middle East?
07 April, 2015 - The Guardian - Jon Boone
Pakistan court says former CIA station chief
will face charges over drone strike
06 April, 2015 - Global Research - Eric Zuesse
Thousands of Ukrainians Protest
against the US Embassy.
Media Blackout
13 March, 2015 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Should McDonald's & Monsanto
Have the Same Rights as People?
A Debate on Corporate Personhoods
12 March, 2015
Ex-U.S. Official: With Iran Letter, "Reckless"
GOP Places Middle East Hegemony over Security
24 February, 2015
As Netanyahu Tries to Stop U.S.-Iran Deal,
Leaked Cables Show Israeli Spies Reject Claims
February, 2015 - Democracy Now!
Black History Month
Black Lives Matter
24 February, 2015
50 Years After Murder, Malcolm X Remembered
by Daughter Ilyasah Shabazz & Friend A. Peter Bailey
26 February, 2015 - Global Research - Rachael Boothroyd
Venezuelan Opposition Mayor,
Alias "The Vampire," Arrested
for Role in Blue Coup Plot
16 February, 2015 - Stephen Lendman
Britain and Canada Involved in
Foiled US Venezuelan Coup Plot
19 February, 2015 - Global Research - Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Obama's "Fake War" against the Islamic State
The Islamic State is Protected by the US and its Allies
30 January, 2015 - Global Research - Stephen Lendman
The Forbidden Truth: Islamic State (ISIS)
recruiter admits getting funds from America
23 August, 2014 - Youtube - Real News
The Powers Behind The Islamic State
Investigative journalist Nafeez Ahmed gives specific
examples of how Saudi, Qatari, and American interests
have supported the group formerly known as ISIS..0:21:18
26 January, 2015 - Common Dreams - Jon Queally
As European Left Cheers, Syriza Vows to
Move Swiftly To End Greek 'Nightmare'
27 January, 2015 - Global Research - Paul Craig Roberts
Russia In The Cross Hairs. Washington's
Threats have moved Into the Realm of Insanity
22 January, 2015 - Global Research - George Eliason
"Je Suis Donetsk": Ukraine Army Attacks
Bus and Trolley in Center of Donetsk.
13 Killed including Children
18 January, 2015 - Global Research - Michel Chossudovsky
State Sponsored Terrorism: Who Was
Behind the Charlie Hebdo Paris Attacks?
With Bonnie Faulkner and Guns and Butter on KPFA
08 January, 2015 - Global Research - Joachim Hagopian
Just As The Islamic State (ISIL)
Gets Exposed As A Fake US Enemy, A
"Wag the Dog" Terrorist Attack in Paris?
17 January, 2015 - SCG
Charlie Hebdo - The
Hidden Agenda Exposed
We don't have to speculate as to how this event
is going to be used. It has already started.
09 January, 2015 - Storm Clouds Gathering
2015 - The Dangers Ahead
16 December, 2014 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Mike Gravel to Senator Mark Udall:
Make Full Torture Probe Public
Like I Did with Pentagon Papers
02 December 2014 - Project Censored - Pacifica
THE AMERICAN DEEP STATE:
An Interview with Peter Dale Scott
with Mickey Huff and Peter Phillips
05 December, 2014 - Global Research - Michel Chossudovsky
America is on a "Hot War Footing":
House Legislation Paves the Way
for War with Russia?
17 December, 2014 - Democracy Now! - William Bastone
"Witness 40": Exposing A Fraud In Ferguson
Was Key Grand Jury Witness in Michael Brown
Case a Racist, Mentally Ill, Lying Ex-Felon?
11 December, 2010 - SVT - Youtube - 0:50:55
The Wikileaks Documentary -- Full Version
19 December, 2014 - Democracy Now!
16 December, 2014
Should Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld &
CIA Officials Be Tried for Torture?
War Crimes Case Filed in Germany
13 August, 2014 - Global Research - Prof Michel Chossudovsky
America's "War on Terrorism"
The Truth will Prevail
September 11
The New Pearl Harbor
A film by Massimo Mazzucco
Flyby News & Valley 9-11 Truth present:
September 11 - The New Pearl Harbor
At the Garden Cinema in Greenfield, MA
On September 11, 2014; 7:00 - 9pm
27 December, 2014 - Global Research - Larry Chin
False Flagging the World towards War.
The CIA Weaponizes Hollywood
23 December, 2014 - Democracy Now! - Lawrence Wilkerson
Ex-Bush Official: U.S. Tortured Prisoners to
Produce False Intel that Built Case for Iraq War
23 December, 2014
Bush & Cheney Should Be Charged with War Crimes
Says Col. Wilkerson, Former Aide to Colin Powell
23 December, 2014
Weaponizing Health Workers: How Medical Pros
Were a Top Instrument in U.S. Torture Program
23 December, 2014
"The War to Start All Wars": Did US Invasion of
Panama 25 Years Ago Set Stage for Future Wars?
25 December, 2014
Saul Landau on the Cuban Revolution and How
the U.S. Directly Aided Anti-Castro Militants
25 December, 2014
Ren Gonzlez, First Freed Member
of Cuban 5, Speaks Out from Havana
23 October, 2014 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
Citizenfour: Inside Story of NSA Leaker
Ed Snowden in New Film by Laura Poitras
23 October, 2014 Jeremy Scahill
Blackwater Execs Remain Free as Guards
Convicted for Killing 14 Iraqis in Massacre
17 October, 2014 - SilentCrowNews - Timothy Alexander Guzman
U.S. is Responsible for the Ebola Out-
break in West Africa: Liberian Scientist
16 October, 2014 - PressTV - Scott Rickard
Coordinated deceit
and destruction
across Iraq and Syria
14 October, 2014 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
James Risen Prepared to "Pay Any Price"
to Report on War on Terror Amid
Crackdown on Whistleblowers
05 October, 2014 - WhoWhatWhy - Peter Dale Scott
The Hidden Government Group Linking
JFK, Watergate, Iran-Contra and 9/11
08 September, 2014 - CNN - Jake Tapper
28 pages of a 9/11 report
you can't see
16 September, 2014 - CounterPunch - James Ridgeway
9/11: the Saudi Connection
The Bush Cover-Up Begins to Unravel?
05 October, 2014 - Global Research - Larry Chin
The Anglo-American Empire's War of Conquest.
The War on the Islamic State (ISIL) is a Lie
There is no reasoning with an empire
waging a world war of deception
06 September, 2014 - Global Research - Julie Lvesque
Israel Steals Gaza's Offshore Gas:
$15 Billion Deal with Jordan
Join the event on Facebook and
let us know your plans this 9-11
18 October, 2013 - Global Research - David Ray Griffin
The Unspoken Truth on 9/11:
"September 11 The New Pearl Harbor"
Review of documentary by Massimo Mazzucco.
16 October, 2013 - Paul Craig Roberts
Original Pakistani TV Bashir Interview and
Massimo Mazzucco's 9/11 Documentary
01 August, 2014 - Youtube - CSPAN
Richard Gage: Architects
and Engineers for 9/11 Truth
24 November, 2014 - Daily Targum - Erin Petenko
Rutgers alumnus transitions from
police force to political activism
28 November, 2014 - AE911truth - Christopher
Cognitive Dissonance at Thanksgiving:
A Message for 9/11 Activists
16 November, 2014 - JohnPilger.com
The siege of Julian Assange is a farce
- a special investigation -
14 November, 2014 - Global Research - Eric Zuesse
Media Blackout as U.S. Sponsors
Genocide in Southeastern Ukraine
12 November, 2014 - Global Research - Federico Pieraccini
Ukrainian Neo-Nazi Commander:
"The US is Training and Funding Us"
14 November, 2014 - Global Research - Nicola Nasser
The Endgame of the U.S.
"Islamic State" Strategy
13 November, 2014 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Are Mexicos Missing Students the
Victims of U.S.-Backed Drug War?
10 November, 2014
On Eve of Veterans Day, a Former Soldier Speaks
Out on Hidden Costs of War from PTSD to Suicide
07 November, 2014
Matt Taibbi and Bank Whistleblower on How JPMorgan
Chase Helped Wreck the Economy, Avoid Prosecution
07 November, 2014
New GOP Majority Backs Amnesty for Corporate Tax
Dodgers, But Not Undocumented Immigrant Workers
02 October, 2014 - Democracy Now! - Sinan Antoon
After U.S. Sanctions & Wars Tore Iraq Apart,
Can American-Led Strikes Be Expected to Save It?
29 September, 2014 - Democracy Now! - Murtaza Hussain
How the U.S. Concocted a Terror
Threat to Justify Syria Strikes, and
the Corporate Media Went Along
29 September, 2014 - The Intercept - Glenn Greenwald, Murtaza Hussain
The Fake Terror Threat Used
To Justify Bombing Syria
23 September, 2014 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
Expanding U.S. Strikes to ISIS in Syria,
Has Obama Opened New Phase of "Perpetual War"?
AARON MAT: And, Vijay Prashad, these strikes in Syria
coming after six weeks of U.S. bombings inside of Iraq,
can you talk about what is happening there and the
effect of these attacks on ISIS inside Iraq?
VIJAY PRASHAD: Well, ISIS inside Iraq, as you saw,
from September onward, moved much of their
heavy machinery into Syria. I mean, that's
been their strategy, is theyre not going to
wait around for the bombing, you know, in the
same way in Raqqa they had abandoned much of
the central part of the city. And so, what the
United states bombed in Raqqa were largely empty
buildings. You know, they have been moving their
heavy machinery around, their arms around. They
are currently, as I said, attacking in northern Syria.
So where the strikes happened were not exactly
where their main fighting forces are right now based.
[Excerpt from transcript]
23 September, 2014 - Democracy Now!
Flood Wall Street: 100 Arrested at Sit-In
Targeting Financial Giants Role in Global Warming
04 September, 2014 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
A Victory over Justice System's Failure:
Wrongly Convicted Brothers Freed
After 31 Years in Prison
"..Over the years, death penalty supporters
have cited the brothers case in order to
back capital punishment. In 2010, the
North Carolina Republican Party pasted
McCollums mug shot on campaign mailers.
In 1994, Supreme Court Justice Antonin
Scalia pointed to McCollum as an example
of why the death penalty is just.."
24 August, 2014 - EcoWatch - Sandra Steingraber
What the Anti-Fracking Movement
Brings to the Climate Movement
18 August, 2014 - Natural News - Ethan A. Huff
How California's extreme drought
will lead to a wave of earthquakes
07 August, 2014 - Natural News - Mike Adams
Gaia's psychic scream: why ecological
destruction leads to human conflict
05 August, 2014 - Boiling Frogs Post - William Engdahl
Stench of Corruption a Ukraine Oligarch
Shale Gas Civil War & Baby Biden
07 June, 2014 - Global Research - Washington's Blog
NSA Whistleblower: Snowden Never Had Access
to the "Juiciest" Intelligence Documents
NSA Spying On Congress,
Admirals, Lawyers Content
As Well As Metadata
Cheney Was Running the Show
04 June, 2014 - Global Research - Kevin Ryan
Profiting from 9/11: The Private Company
that Played a Major Role in the "War on Terror"
04 June, 2014 - Climate Progress - Ryan Koronowski
Former Navy Seal Commander Says Keystone XL
'Extremely Vulnerable To Terrorist Attack'
Nukes and pipelines can become like ammunition
for the madness to keep spreading.. our energy
policies are linked or controlled by military
policies.. That is why this is such sad news..
(remember the missing peace dividend).
'President Barack Obama has announced plans
for a $1bn (600m) fund to increase US military
deployments to Europe, during a visit to Poland.'
26 May, 2014 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
Remembering Vincent Harding,
the Civil Rights Activist Who Wrote
MLKs Speech Against Vietnam War
21 May, 2014 - Global Research - James F. Tracy
Cracking The "Conspiracy Theories'"
Psycholinguistic Code: The Witch Hunt
against Independent Research and Analysis
2014 - ReThink911.org
This September: New Billboard
to Rock The New York Times
08 March, 2014 - Common Dreams - Robert Freeman
Ukraine is About Oil.
So Was World War I
12 September, 2014 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
James Foley on the Dehumanization of War:
Acclaimed Filmmaker Haskell Wexler
Shares 2012 Interview
AMY GOODMAN: This is interesting also because
the spokesperson for the family of the other beheaded
journalist, Steven Sotloff,spoke to CNN on Wednesday,
Barak Barfi, and said Sotloff was sold to ISIL by
other so-called moderate Syrian rebels.
BARAK BARFI: For the first time, we can say Steven
was sold at the border. Steven's name was on a list that
he had been responsible for the bombing of a hospital.
This was false. Activists spread his name around.
ANDERSON COOPER: He was sold at the border?
BARFI: Yes. We believe that the so-called moderate
rebels that people want our administration to support,
one of them sold him probably for something between
$25,000 and $50,000 to ISIS. And that was the
reason that he was captured.
03 September, 2014 - SCGnews
The Covert Origins of ISIS
04 September, 2014 - Global Research - Jason Kissner
Vanishing Airliners, "ISIS", and 9/11.
"Timing is Crucial in Politics"
02 September, 2014 - TomDispatch - Tom Engelhardt
How America Made ISIS
30 August, Updated - WP - FlybyNews
Syria and false flag operations
12 September, 2014 - Democracy Now! - Eran Efrati
The Untold Story of the Shejaiya Massacre
in Gaza: A Former Israel Soldier Speaks Out
"I went through seven months of boot camp, getting ready for a war,
getting ready to stop the second Holocaust from happening. But in
the end of these seven months, I'm not finding myself in a war;
I'm finding myself in al-Khalil, or Hebron, in the middle of the
West Bank, a city counting 180,000 Palestinians, and in the
middle of the city a Jewish settlement of 800 settlers,
Jewish settlers, that I need to protect. And very fast,
I will understand that my job here is to control the
Palestinian lives. My job here is to control their life for
the arm trade that's going on, for testing weapons on the
ground, for workers' rights in Israel, for Palestinian
workers that we need for mines, for fuel. All of this stuff,
I'm doing daily, not for protection of anybody, but for
protection of the rich government in Israel."
20 July, 2014 - Sleuth Journal - Bart Sibrel
45 Years Ago: Crappy Anniversary!
Did We Walk on the Moon
with 1960′s Technology?
16 July, 2014 - Legal Legacy - rhapsodyinbooks
July 16, 1945 First
Atomic Bomb Explosion
A less known element of this test
was the involvement of a child prodigy.
Just about 69 years later he shares an
amazing story that could help awaken us
to a distant and ancient harmonic past.
10 July, 2014 - Youtube - Flyby News
Bart Jordan Timesinger
and Manhattan Project
Jonathan Mark interviews Bart Jordan
25 June, 2014 ~ video running time 02:41:22
31 July, 2014 - Common Dreams - Jon Queally
Yes, Admits CIA Chief, We Spied on
Senate Panel Investigating Torture
Head of the CIA John Brennan has admitted
to his agency spying on the work of the US
Senate Intelligence Committee panel in-
vestigating Bush-era torture tactics.
12 March, 2014 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
"Giving Hypocrisy a Bad Name" - NSA-Backing Senate
Intel Chair Blasts CIA for Spying on Torture Probe
12 August, 2013 - SOTT.net - Kimberly Dvorak
CIA Director Brennan Confirmed as
Reporter Michael Hastings Next Target
19 June, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Michael Hastings Dies at 33; Fearless Journalist
Challenged Power & Exposed Myths of Afghan War
24 June, 2013 - KTLA - CLG
Hastings sent email stating 'need to
go off the radar' hours before death
Updated - Democracy Now! - GAZA
Find latest reports on what
is happening inside Gaza
05 August, 2014 - Global Research - Steve Chovanec
Crimes against Humanity.
Israel's "Own Words": "We Must Expel Arabs
We Struck Civilians Because They Deserved It
17 July, 2014 - Boiling Frog - Peter B Collins
Processing Distortion: Corporate
Media's Clear Pro-Israel Bias
16 July, 2014 - RT
'Shells were chasing them':
Four Palestinian children killed
on beach by Israeli rockets
15 July, 2014 - SCG News
The Gaza Bombardment -
What You're Not Being Told
'The corporate media isn't just distorting
the facts on the Gaza assault, they're
flat out covering them up.'
10 July, 2014 - Forward - J.J. Goldberg
How Politics and Lies Triggered
an Unintended War in Gaza
23 July, 2014 - Who What Why - Sylvia Todorova
Gaspipe Diplomacy: How Ukraine Opened
the Door to New U.S.-Russian Energy Fight
17 July, 2014 - Global Research - Soraya Ulrich
MH17 versus Iran Air 655:
Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777
Downed over Ukraine. Kiev
Regime Accuses Putin of
Sponsoring "Terrorists"
21 July, 2014 - The Guardian - Spencer Ackerman
Government agents 'directly involved'
in most high-profile US terror plots
30 June, 2014 - ICH - Video
'US Fighting Alongside ISIS':
Direct American Role in
Strengthening Jihadists?
28 June, 2014 - Global Research - Nicola Nasser
Iraqi Hydrocarbon Prize of
U.S. Invasion in Danger?
28 June, 2014 - Global Research - Sam Muhho
America's "Nonconventional War" against Syria:
Western Media Narrative Enters into Comedy Act
24 June, 2014 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
Can the President Strike an American Anywhere
in the World?: Drone Memo Raises Troubling Questions
11 June, 2014 - SCG News
Iraq - City of Mosul falls to
Extremists Flowing in From Syria
The fall of Mosul is a direct consequence
of U.S. regime change policy in Syria.
11 June, 2014 - Facebook - Pepe Escobar
The Empire's Shock Troops Do Iraq
13 June, 2014 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
Report from Iraq: U.S. Invasion in 2003
Helped . . . Crisis Pulling Nation Apart
12 June, 2014
Iraq in Crisis: Militant Advance
Sparks Mass Displacement as "Failed"
U.S. Experiment Disintegrates
31 May, 2014 - ZeroHedge - Tyler Durden
Edward Snowden's Unaired Remarks About September 11
"It's really disingenuous for the government to invoke and
scandalize our memories to sort of exploit the national
trauma that we all suffered together and worked so hard
to come through to justify programs that have never
been shown to keep us safe, but cost us liberties
and freedoms that we dont need to give up and
our Constitution says we dont need to give up."
29 May, 2014 - Youtube - NBC News
Edward Snowden Censored 9/11 Segment
'Had All Info Needed To Detect Plot'
09 June, 2014 - Flyby News - Wordpress
Van Allen belts research,
Moon, and A-Bombs
27 May, 2014 - RT - Pepe Escobar
Europe and Ukraine:
A tale of two elections
26 May, 2014 - Global Research - Alexander Clackson
Russia-China Counter-Alliance
to US-NATO Aggression?
21 May, 2014 - Democracy Now! - Scott Horton
The Guantnamo "Suicides" Revisited:
Did CIA Hide Deaths of Tortured
Prisoners at Secret Site?
19 May, 2014
"The Most Important Journalist Youve Never Heard
Of": Remembering William Worthy (1921-2014)
20 May, 2014 - RT - Pepe Escobar
The birth of a Eurasian century:
Russia and China do Pipelineistan
17 May, 2014 - Global Research - Timothy Alexander Guzman
Chaos in Libya: How the US-NATO War
Destabilized North Africa and
Now Threatens Europe
12 November, 2014 - Amazon - Peter Dale Scott
The American Deep State: Wall Street,
Big Oil, and the Attack on U.S. Democracy
13 May, 2014 - Global Research - Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Ukraine and America's "Global War on Terrorism"
Is US-NATO Applying the "Syria Model" in Ukraine?
08 May, 2014 - Youtube - Святослав Хоробрый
9 facts that 'show' the U S
is behind Ukraine crisis
14 May, 2014 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
"Right Out of a Spy Movie": Glenn Greenwald
on Meeting with NSA Leaker Edward Snowden
14 May, 2014
Glenn Greenwald: U.S. Corporate Media
is "Neutered, Impotent and Obsolete"
Glenn Greewald - Book Excerpt
No Place To Hide
27 May, 2014 - Disasters - Michael Janitch
Colorado 4 MILE LONG Landslide
[Hushed Up] @ FRACKING operation
08 May, 2014 - Ohio Public Radio
Driller Causes Fracking Liquid Spill..
06 May, 2014 - RT
Oklahoma at risk for damaging
earthquake, but is fracking to blame?
'The magnitude 5.7 quake that hit Prague, Oklahoma
on Nov. 6, 2011 was, in fact, linked to fracking
operations, the USGS said in March.
Mounting scientific evidence has linked an uptick
in seismic activity in states like Oklahoma to fracking
developments amid the current domestic energy boom.'
23 April, 2014 - Common Dreams - Lauren McCauley
Family Wins Fracking Suit
in Legal Blow to Industry
21 May, 2014 - Valley Advocate - Maureen Turner
An Ironic Proposal
Mass Audubon denies pipeline
developers access to sanctuary lands.
11 June, 2014 - TheEdge - Judy Eddy
Eye on the Pipelines: Opposition gathers
to network of natural gas pipelines
from the 'fracking' fields
Union of Concerned Scientists
Climate Risks of Overreliance
on Natural Gas for Electricity
Through the heart of New England?
No Fracked Gas In Mass
10 March, 2014 - PDF - Camille Cosby
Ignorance is not bliss
30 July, 2014 - GCTV - Video
Making Their Voices Heard
Full video of 30 July, 2014 rally in Boston
against the proposed Tennessee Gas Pipeline.
30 July, 2014 - Recorder - Richie Davis
Rally reaches Statehouse - Gas pipeline
protesters meet with Governor Patrick
15 June, 2014 - Youtube - Flyby News
Moss Brook and TGP
No Fracking Way!
Produced through the facilities of
Greenfield Community Television
16 June, 2014 - GCTV Feature Short - 0:05:00
A Man And His Land
Also posted on Youtube
8 July, 2014 - Phys.org - Sean Nealon
Sand-based lithium ion batteries that
outperform standard by three times
Updated
Energy Pollution's Impact On Environment
The Anatomy of a Great Deception
A 2014 soon to be released Film
YOUTUBE - 0:02:11 TRAILER
JFK Vigil - Youtube - 0:22:49 - Karl Golovin
JFK Vigil - Operation Nutcracker - 5/29/14
May 29 - JFK's birthday - people will assemble in
communities across the U.S. and world, but especially
12:30pm on the public terraces of The Kennedy Center,
Washington, D.C., petitioning by your presence for:
1) Immediate release, in full, of all still
secret assassination-related records;
2) Reining in of the CIA to its original,
intelligence-only mandate;
3) Establishment of a specific date for
annual, global recognition of Kennedy's
life by vigilance in ending intimidation
of government secrecy and the violence it
perpetuates, and supporting transparency
in governments everywhere. Info - JFKvigil
05 May, 2014 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Imprisoned Al Jazeera Journalist
Details Abu Ghraib Torture & Why
He's Suing U.S. Contractor CACI
04 May, 2014 - RT
Dozens of FBI, CIA agents in Kiev
'assisting Ukraine security'
07 March, 2014 - Youtube - TPV
Wiliam Engdahl on the Ukraine
01 May, 2014 - Global Research - James F. Tracy
Psychological Warfare and
the "False Flag" Meme
17 April, 2014 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
"We Are Not Beginning a New Cold War,
We are Well into It": Stephen Cohen
on Russia-Ukraine Crisis
17 April, 2014
Former Drone Operators Reveal Air Force Plays
Key Role in Secret CIA Assassination Campaign
02 May, 2014
"You Might Get Hit by a Car":
On Secret Tape, FBI Threatens
American Muslim Refusing to be Informant
27 March, 2014 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
The Unknown Known: Errol Morris' New Doc Tackles
Unrepentant Iraq War Architect Donald Rumsfeld
26 March, 2014 - Democracy Now! - Patrick Cockburn
Obama to Visit Saudi Arabia,
Key Source of Funding for Growing
Jihadi Militarism in Middle East
28 March, 2014 - Voice of Russia - TASS
Ukrainian leadership to hire US mercenaries
to suppress eastern regions - source
20 March, 2014 - Democracy Now - Jack Matlock
Former U.S. Ambassador: Behind Crimea Crisis,
Russia Responding to Years of "Hostile" U.S. Policy
12 March, 2014 - SCG News
The Ukraine Crisis
What You're Not Being Told
06 March, 2014
Russia Threatens to Drop The Dollar and Crash
The U.S. Economy if Sanctions Are Imposed
- Obama Signs Sanctions Anyway
05 March, 2014
Leaked Phone Call Reveals New Coalition Government
Was Behind Sniper Shootings in Ukraine
25 February, 2014
Washington's Role in the Ukrainian Coup
And How it May Spin Out of Control
03 March, 2014 - PressTV - Ray McGovern
US 'plotted' ouster of Ukraine president
13 March, 2014 - Information Clearing House
Kiev Snipers Shooting From Bldg
Controlled By Maidan Forces
Ex-Ukraine Security Chief
25 February, 2014 - Global Research - Eric Draitser
Ukraine's Sickness and Europe's Cure:
Neo-Liberalism and Neo-Fascism Join Hands
20 February, 2014 - Democracy Now - Stephen Cohen
A New Cold War? Ukraine Violence Escalates,
Leaked Tape Suggests U.S. Was Plotting Coup
18 March, 2014 - Friends Of Lebanon - Les Bloug
Venezuela: Defeating the Coup
with Patience, Peace and Love
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
The Film
21 March, 2014 - Democracy Now! - Ashkan Soltani
As Surveillance Costs Fall, Could the NSA Gain
Ability to Record & Replay Every Call, Everywhere?
March, 2014 - TED - Edward Snowden
Here's how we take back the Internet
12 March, 2014 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
"Giving Hypocrisy a Bad Name": NSA-Backing Senate
Intel Chair Blasts CIA for Spying on Torture Probe
12 August, 2013 - San Diego 6 - Kimberly Dvorak
CIA Director Brennan Confirmed as
Reporter Michael Hastings Next Target
19 June, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Michael Hastings Dies at 33; Fearless Journalist
Challenged Power & Exposed Myths of Afghan War
24 June, 2013 - KTLA - CLG
Hastings sent email stating 'need to
go off the radar' hours before death
10 March, 2014 - Democracy Now - Amy Goodman
War Workers: Vulnerable Foreign Laborers Swindled
and Exploited to Toil on U.S. Bases in Afghanistan
20 February, 2014 - Storm Clouds Gathering - S.C.G.
The REAL Target of Obama's
Next Extrajudicial Assassination
10 February, 2014 - Boston Globe - Stephen Braun
Email shows effort to
shield bin Laden photos
15 March, 2012 - AP - WantToKnow
Pentagon says it has no records of bin Laden's
death; CIA hasn't answered open records request
02 May, 2012 - Flyby News - Jonathan Mark
Obama, Dead Osama bin
Laden, and fake photos
26 September, 2013 - VNN - Paul Craig Roberts
Osama Bin Laden raid exposed as a
complete lie by Pakistani National TV
18 February, 2014 - Democracy Now - Amy Goodman
Julian Assange on Being Placed on NSA
"Manhunting" List & Secret Targeting
of WikiLeaks Supporters
18 February, 2014
Attorney for Edward Snowden
Interrogated at U.K. Airport,
Placed on "Inhibited Persons List"
12 February, 2014 - Youtube - Cenk Uygur
Raymond McGovern interviewed
Whistleblowers, Intelligence, Media
24 January, 2014 - TheIntercept - First Look Media
The NSA's Secret Role in the
U.S. Assassination Program
By Jeremy Scahill and Glenn Greenwald
2013 - Agora Productions - Morgan Freeman
JFK: A President Betrayed
Film that 'uncovers new evidence that reveals how
President John F. Kennedy boldly reversed deeply
entrenched pro-war government policy to embark on
secret back-channel peace efforts with Russian President
Nikita Khrushchev, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and other
"enemies" of the United States. The film raises many
questions as to whom his real enemies were.'
Watch on Youtube ~ 01:54:00
13 February, 2014 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Meteorologist Jeff Masters: Climate Change
Affecting Weather Patterns Regardless of Season
13 February, 2014
"This Should Not Come as a Surprise": Bill McKibben
on Global Extreme Weather from U.S. to Sochi
18 January, 2014 - Natural News - Youtube
Geoengineering Whistleblower ~ Kristen Meghan
07 March, 2013 - GeoEngineering Watch - Youtube
Chemtrails connected to UN 2013 Report?
Earth in a Mass Extinction of Life?
17 December, 2013 - Common Dreams - Dahr Jamail
Considering Extinction: Are We
Falling Off the Climate Precipice?
FN's updated resource page:
Energy Pollution's Impact On Environment
25 February, 2014 - 21st Century Wire
Snowden: 'Training Guide' for GCHQ, NSA Agents
Infiltrating and Disrupting Alternative Media Online
Thanks to Ed Snowden, the public as well as moral
individuals within government and the judiciary,
might fully realise just how these sort of
underhanded, and unlawful operations
have sunk to lowest possible levels.
02 May, 2014 - NBC News - Elizabeth Chuck
Missing Jet Recordings May
Have Been 'Edited': Experts
This news is sadly probably not shocking enough
to place awareness on a military black operation
that most likely made this airplane 'disappear'.
02 May, 2014 - Before Its News - Deborah Dupre
Most Damning MH370 Criminal
Evidence: Audio Recording Crisis
Actors Not In Plane (Video)
24 April, 2014 - Democracy Now!
In Landmark Ruling, U.S. Ordered
to Release Memo Behind Targeted
Killings of U.S. Citizens
24 April, 2014
"Silenced" Film Explores Human Toll . .
on National Security Whistleblowers
SILENCED - Naked Edge Films
15 April, 2014 - The Telegraph - Henry Samuel
Vials of deadly SARS virus
'go missing' in France
15 April, 2014 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
Who Goes to Jail? Matt Taibbi on American
Injustice Gap from Wall Street to Main Street
14 April, 2014 - WhoWhatWhy - Russ Baker
Does New Boston Bombing Report
Hint at Hidden Global Intrigue?
14 April, 2014 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
"This Award is for Snowden":
Greenwald, Poitras Accept Polk
Honor for Exposing NSA Surveillance
Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras
back in US to receive a George Polk
Award for national security reporting.
12 April AP Story
14 April, 2014 - Democracy Now! - Matthieu Aikins
Polk Winner on Afghanistan:
Slain Journalists, Ghost Polls &
Unresolved U.S. Ties to Deaths, Torture
'The torture and extrajudicial killing that I wrote
about in the story is routine among the Afghan
security forces that weve trained. Were
leaving behind a gangster state that preside
over the largest narco-state in the world.'
11 April, 2014 - Democracy Now! - Headlines
Senate Report Finds CIA Exceeded Legal
Authority, Misled Media on Torture
10 April, 2014 - The Telegraph - Peter Foster
British gave 'full co-operation' for CIA
black jail on Diego Garcia, report claims
10 April, 2014 - The Guardian - Lewis and Oltermann
Angela Merkel denied access to her NSA file
01 April, 2014 - CPR News - Cynthia McKinney
Exclusive Interview with Top Aide to Former
Malaysian Prime Minister: What is the U.S.
Hiding Regarding Malaysian Flight 370?
02 April, 2014 - Dr. Leonard Coldwell
Malaysian government admits altering MH370
pilot transcript, hiding evidence and mis-
leading the public in massive cover up
31 March, 2014 - Jim Stone Freelance Journalist
Hijacked IBM Engineer Philip Wood
Successfully Dialed Out Of Diego Garcia?
02 April, 2014 - ForbiddenKnowledgeTV
Philip Wood Caught as a CIA
Prop-Crisis Actor in this Photo?
02 December, 2013 - The President and Provocateur - Alex Cox
The Sixth Decade begins
31 December, 2013 - WantToKnow - Fred Burks
Forbes: Federal Reserve Failed,
Government Hacking Bank Accounts,
Marijuana Stops Seizures
24 December, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Behind Plan Colombia: Covert CIA Program
Reveals Critical U.S. Role in Killings of Rebel Leaders
23 December, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Time for Compassion? Aging Political Prisoners
Suffer From Illness, Decades in Solitary Confinement
19 December, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Vindication for Snowden? Obama Panel
Backs Major Curbs on NSA Surveillance,
Phone Record Data Mining
19 December, 2013
NSA Whistleblower Kirk Wiebe Details
Gov't Retaliation After Helping
Expose "Gross Mismanagement"
04 December, 2013 - Rolling Stone - Janet Reitman
Snowden and Greenwald: The
Men Who Leaked the Secrets
15 December, 2013 - AP - CNSnews
Navy expands sonar testing
despite troubling signs
For FN's archive resource, see:
Is Low Frequency Sonar Blowing
Away Dolphins and Whales?
13 December, 2013 - Democracy Now - Headlines
Yemen: U.S. Drone Kills 17
People Traveling to Wedding
11 December, 2013 - Free Press - Harvey Wasserman
Japan's deadly new 'Fukushima Fascism'
15 November, 2013 - ABC News - Youtube
West Coast Evacuation Due To
Fukishima Radiation Possible
03 December, 2013 - Mainichi - Fukushima
Radiation 36,000 times permissible level
found in water at Fukushima plant
30 January, 2014 - RT - Youtube
US intelligence agencies detail global threats
And Liz Wahl talks to former CIA analyst Ray McGovern
24 January, 2014 - The Real News - Jessica Desvarieux
Federal Oversight Board: NSA
Program Ineffective & Illegal
NSA whistleblower Kirk Wiebe and
former CIA analyst Ray McGovern
Discussion of the implications of the Privacy
& Civil Liberties Oversight Board's assessment,
considering report commissioned by Congress.
"As I watch the reactions of the president, people like
Feinstein and Rogers, the more I begin to entertain the
idea that none of this is truly about national security
in terms of worrying about the American people being
attacked by another terrorist organization or something
like that, the more it makes me suspicious that there's
something else at stake that people in positions of power
value very much, and that's inside information about
people that they can use for their own purposes."
- Kirk Wiebe
08 January, 2014 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
"It Was Time to Do More Than Protest":
Activists Admit to 1971 FBI Burglary
That Exposed COINTELPRO
30 December, 2013
Orwellian or a Blunt Tool?:
Conflicting Rulings on NSA Spying Set
Up Likely Supreme Court Showdown
"When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold
gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will
seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic."
- Dresden James
17 December, 2013 - Democracy Now - Sascha Meinrath
As Judge Rules NSA Surveillance
"Almost Orwellian," Obama Prepares
to Leave Spying Program Intact
16 December, 2013 - Rolling Stone - Tom Dickinson
Everything You Need to Know About
Today's Court Ruling on NSA Spying
See why a federal judge slammed the government's
surveillance program as 'almost-Orwellian'
05 December, 2013 - Newsweek Staff
Mandela in 2002:
'America Is a Threat to World Peace'
08 December, 2013 - RT - Pepe Escobar
The hijacking of Mandela's legacy
12 December, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
From Marxism to Neoliberalism: Ronnie Kasrils
on How Mandela & ANC Shifted Economic Views
06 December, 2013 - Flyby News - Wordpress
Leonard Peltier's Statement on
the passing of Nelson Mandela
28 November, 2013 - LPDOC - Flyby News
Day of Mourning Statement
from Leonard Peltier
25 November, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Historic Deal Curbs Iran's Nuclear Program While
Easing U.S.-Led Devastating Economic Sanctions
16 April, 2013 - Youtube - Flyby News
JFK and The FED
Running time - 28 minutes
21 November, 2013 - Forbes - Mary Claire Kendall
JFK's Assassination, 50 Years
Later: A Still Unfolding Mystery
February, 2011 - Youtube - Jonathan Mark
President John F. Kennedy
Excerpt from speeches to UN and Media
11 November, 2013 - Youtube - 0:02:00
JFK - Commemoration Events - PSA
November 22, 21; Greenfield, MA
21 November, 2013 - Greenfield Garden Cinemas - FN
Dark Legacy: George Bush and
the Murder of John F. Kennedy
Plus remix of film compilation
Dark Legacy - JFK and FED
Federal Reserve - 100 - Dec. 23rd
22 November, 2013 - Greenfield Community Television
JFK 50th Anniversary and Commemoration
What did his assassination mean to you?
22 November, 2013 - WRSI - Monte Belmonte
JFK: The Last American President?
18 November, 2013 - Wolf Spirit Radio - 10pm to 12am
Phil Restino and Larry Pinkney
Interview Jonathan Mark
A Youtube link of program will be posted soon
11 November, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
"Unimaginable" Devastation as Philippines
Hit With One of Worst Storms in History
11 November, 2013 Ann Jones
The Untold Story of War: U.S. Veterans
Face Staggering Epidemic of
Unemployment, Trauma & Suicide
07 November, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
War Crimes in Afghanistan?
10 Bodies of Abducted Villagers Found
Outside U.S. Special Forces Base
04 November, 2013
"Wounds of Waziristan": Exclusive Broadcast of
New Film on Pakistanis Haunted by U.S. Drone War
04 November, 2013
Inside the "Electronic Omnivore": New Leaks Show
NSA Spying on U.N., Climate Summit, Text Messaging
28 October, 2013
"Stop Watching Us": As Diplomatic Fallout Grows,
Thousands Protest NSA Surveillance in D.C.
28 October, 2013 - Glenn Greenwald
United States Spying on Allies Shows
"Institutional Obsession" with Surveillance
28 October, 2013 - Glenn Greenwald
Media Venture Will Empower Adversarial
Journalism to Hold the Powerful Accountable
25 October, 2013
U.S. Faces New Scrutiny on Drones,
U.N. Report Finds Hundreds of
Civilian Deaths in Pakistan
25 October, 2013
A Drone Warrior's Torment: Ex-Air Force Pilot
Brandon Bryant on His Trauma from Remote Killing
29 October, 2013 - Popular Resistance - AlJazeera
Congress Disgraces United States
Fails To Show For Drone Hearing
31 October, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
"These Drones Attack Us and the Whole World
is Silent": New Film Exposes Secret U.S. War
31 October, 2013
"Too Scared to Go Outside": Family of Pakistani
Grandmother Killed in U.S. Drone Strike Speaks Out
24 October, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Ren Gonzlez, Lone Cuban 5 Member Freed
from U.S. Prison, Speaks Out from Havana
24 October, 2013
Ex-Cuban Foreign Minister on Threats by Militant
Exiles & Why Obama Should "Free the 5"
06 October, 2013 - Global Research - Michael Snyder
World Bank Whistleblower Reveals
How The Global Elite Rule The World
09 October, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Taking on Capitalism, U.S. Torture & Dictatorships,
Costa-Gavras on Decades of Political Filmmaking
08 October, 2013
From Caspian Sea to Arctic to Middle East,
How Oil Pipelines Threaten Democracy & Planet's Survival
04 October, 2013
"A Corporate Trojan Horse": Obama Pushes Secretive
TPP Trade Pact, Would Rewrite Swath of U.S. Laws
04 October, 2013
Max Blumenthal on "Goliath: Life
and Loathing in Greater Israel"
03 October, 2013
"Imperialism & Fundamentalism
Have Joined Hands": Malalai Joya
on 12 Years of U.S.-Led Afghan War
Project Censored
Top 25 Censored Stories from 2012-2013
01 October, 2013 - Common Dreams - Edward Snowden
The Work of a Generation
Edward Snowden's testimony to European
Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee.
28 September, 2013 - AP - Jenny Barchfield
Glenn Greenwald working
on new NSA revelations
Two American journalists known for their investigations
of the United States' government said Saturday they've
teamed up to report on the National Security Agency's
role in what one called a "U.S. assassination program."
14 October, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Edward Snowden Speaks Out Against NSA
"Dragnet Mass Surveillance"
14 October, 2013
"Edward Snowden is a Patriot": Ex-NSA CIA, FBI
and Justice Whistleblowers Meet Leaker in Moscow
15 October, 2013
Another U.S. Whistleblower Behind Bars?
Investor Jailed After Exposing Corrupt
Azerbaijani Oil Deal
17 July, 2013 - NYTimes - Nasser al-Awlaki
The Drone That Killed My Grandson
Rest in peace, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki
(September 15, 1995 - October 14, 2011)
10 October, 2013 - Spectrum IEEE - Eliza Strickland
Former NRC Chairman Says U.S.
Nuclear Industry is "Going Away"
09 October, 2013 - Common Dreams - Sarah Lazare
US Whistleblowers Converge in Moscow
to Honor Snowden as Truth-Teller
10 October, 2013
Libyan Captive Faces Interrogation
Aboard Floating US 'Black Site'
09 October, 2013 - Global Research - Stephen Lendman
US Globalized Torture Black Sites
27 September, 2013 - Democracy Now - Headlines
Deal Reached on United Nation's
Resolution for Syria Disarmament
According to The Washington Post, a confidential
assessment by U.S. and Russian officials has found
Syria's entire arsenal could be destroyed in roughly
nine months, with most of its stores consisting
of "unweaponized" precursors.
25 September, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Obama and Rouhani Welcome New Talks,
Offering Hope to Iranians Suffering
Under U.S.-Led Sanctions
25 September, 2013 - Jeremy Scahill
Al-Shabab's Nairobi Mall Rampage Tied
to "Disastrous" US Meddling in Somalia
25 September, 2013 - Jeremy Scahill
The Empire President - On Obamas "Neo-Con"
Doctrine of Military Force in U.N. Speech
24 September, 2013 - AntiWar.com - Jason Ditz
Obama: America's 'Exceptional' Because of Wars!
Demands UN Resolution Calling for Syria Attack
abomination obama nation
27 September, 2013 - The Guardian - Lisa O'Carroll
Seymour Hersh on Obama, NSA
and the 'pathetic' American media
18 September, 2013 - BBC News - Debbie Siegelbaum
Navy Yard: Swat team
'stood down'
at mass shooting scene
'One of the first teams of heavily armed police
to respond to Monday's shooting in Washington DC
was ordered to stand down by superiors..'
17 September, 2013 - Patriot Net Daily
SEAL Team 6 Families' Suspicions Of Obama Administration
Grow: 'We Believe Someone Made A Deal With The Enemy'
09 September, 2013 - RT - Pat Dollard
Former Hostages Say Syria 'Rebels' Committed
Chemical Attack Being Blamed On Assad
11 September, 2013 - NY Times - Vladimir Putin
A Plea for Caution From Russia
What Putin Has to Say to Americans About Syria
02 September, 2013 - VNN - Finian Cunningham
Criminal insanity of US regime
"In short, criminal insanity seems to be the condition of US
rulers and their puppets, including those in the mass media."
06 September, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Iran-Contra Redux? Prince Bandar Heads
Secret Saudi-CIA Effort to Aid Syrian Rebels..
28 August, 2013 - Youtube - DeceptionsUSA - 0:01:26
Syrian Nerve Gas
23 September, 2013 - Iran Review - Kaveh L Afrasiabi
Zarif Turbocharges Iran's Diplomacy
Interview with Mohammad Javad Zarif
23 September, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Spilling the NSA's Secrets:
Guardian Editor Alan Rusbridger
on the Inside Story of Snowden Leaks
02 September, 2013 - VNN - Finian Cunningham
Criminal insanity of US regime
"In short, criminal insanity seems to be the condition of US
rulers and their puppets, including those in the mass media."
11 September, 2013 - NY Times - Vladimir Putin
A Plea for Caution From Russia
What Putin Has to Say to Americans About Syria
06 September, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Iran-Contra Redux? Prince Bandar Heads
Secret Saudi-CIA Effort to Aid Syrian Rebels..
12 January, 2013 - 9/11 Truth Seattle - Barbara Honegger
Behind the Smoke Curtain
What happened and what didn't happen
at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
Individual chapters now posted!
Recommended Chapter 12/14 - 0:14:47
9/11 Masterminds and the Source of Their Evil
27 May, 2013 - MP3 Player - Tom Neilson
No Plane at the Pentagon
28 August, 2013 - Youtube - DeceptionsUSA - 0:01:26
Syrian Nerve Gas
abomination obama nation
30 August & Updated - WP - FlybyNews
Syria and false flag operations
10 September, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
As Assad Regime Accepts Russian Plan
on Chemical Weapons, A Debate
on Syrias Path Forward
10 September, 2013
40 Years After Chilean Coup,
Allende Aide Juan Garcs on
How He Brought Pinochet to Justice
09 September, 2013 - Video - CBS
Assad to Charlie Rose: If U.S. strikes,
there will be a response
What Assad was saying is that karma exists..
cause and effect.. and that transparency is
key for coming to terms with any proof
that exists.. rather than.. 'trust US'
with a record full of lies..
04 September, 2013 - PolicyMic - Wesley Messamor
10 Chemical Weapons Attacks Washington
Doesn't Want You to Talk About
03 September, 2013 - InfoWars - Anthony Gucciardi & Alex Jones
Exclusive: High Level Source Confirms
Secret US Nuclear Warhead Transfer
DontAttackSyria.com
Tell Congress: Don't Attack Syria
06 September, 2013
58738 people have signed our petition -
59% toward our goal of 100000!
05 September, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Rep. Alan Grayson on Syria: Congress
Should Reject "War Mongering"
and Focus on Problems at Home
01 September, 2013 - Veterans Today - Stew Webb
Hands off Syria! Not another war!
September 7 Demonstrations
Kucinich Action - Take the Pledge
Tell Congress: Stand for America
Vote No To Any Attack On Syria
30 August, 2013 - Agonist - Michael Collins
'Insider Threats' Sabotage
Obama's Syria Attack
29 August, 2013 - Paul Craig Roberts
Syria: Another Western War
Crime In The Making
29 August, 2013 - BBC - Tom Geoghegan
Shadow of Iraq looms over Syria
MoveOn - Petition
Say "No!" to US strikes on Syria!
31 August, 2013 - BBC
Full text: Obama statement on Syria
This means that we may have another opportunity
to stress the importance of peace and nonviolence.
It sounds arrogant or misleading to express that in such
simple terms toward one who received the Nobel Peace
Award, which may be why there may be still some hope
left that Congress and/or Obama will awaken and come
to its senses or consensus for a diplomatic course
to stop the military-intel policies of U.S. and
Israel in the last 50 years. The tyranny
and deceptions must end.
29 August, 2013 - 9/11 Free Fall - Andy Steele
Listen Thursday Bob Bowman Tribute Program
29 August, 2013 - DemocracyNow - Tariq Ali
Syria Debate: Does U.S. Have the Evidence and
Authority to Hit Assad for Alleged Chemical Attack?
28 August, 2013 - Phyllis Bennis
As Strikes on Syria Loom, Is U.S. Ignoring
a Diplomatic Track That Could Prevent
More Violence?
28 August, 2013 - Common Dreams - Norman Soloman
What the Assault on Whistleblowers
Has to Do With War on Syria
27 August, 2013 - Veterans Today - Gordon Duff
US Contractors Cited for
Syrian Chem Attacks (video)
27 August, 2013 - Jim W. Dean
US Indicts Itself in Anti-Syrian Chemical Plot
"Deep within every one of us lies a natural
understanding of good and evil. That is why
one man can tell the truth convincingly
but it takes the entire apparatus of the
state to peddle a lie, and propagate
that lie to new generations."
- Gandhi
26 August, 2013 - Foreign Policy - Shane Harris, Matthew M. Aid
Exclusive: CIA Files Prove America
Helped Saddam as He Gassed Iran
29 January, 2013 - Mail Online - Louise Boyle
U.S. 'backed plan to launch chemical weapon
attack on Syria and blame it on Assad's regime'
23 August, 2013 - Common Dreams - Patrick Cockburn
The evidence of chemical attack seems compelling
- but remember - there's a propaganda war on
Petition
No U.S. Military Intervention in Syria!
13 August, 2013 - Youtube - Concord, NH
"We're building a domestic army"
Marine Corps Colonel speaks out!
14 August, 2013 - DemocracyNow - Amy Goodman
Dozens Dead as Egyptian Forces Commit 3rd
Mass Killing of Pro-Morsi Demonstrators
09 August, 2013 - Common Dreams - Sarah Lazare
Israel Launches First Deadly Drone
Strike Within Egypt's Borders
07 August, 2013 - DemocracyNow - Amy Goodman
How The Washington Post's New Owner Aided the CIA,
Blocked WikiLeaks & Decimated the Book Industry
05 August, 2013 - Global Research - Peter Dale Scott
US Government "Protection" of Al-Qaeda
Terrorists and the US-Saudi "Black Hole"
05 August, 2013 - DemocracyNow - Glenn Greenwald
Snowden "Doing Very Well" in Russia
"Extraordinary Debate" on NSA, Spying
04 August, 2013 - The Guardian - Glenn Greenwald
Members of Congress denied access
to basic information about NSA
04 August, 2013 - Story Leak - Anthony Gucciardi
US Govt In Turmoil Over
'Big New Al-Qaeda Plot'
While Obama Funds Them
03 August, 2013 - The Japan Times
Huge leak of tritium feared in Fukushima
05 August, 2013 - Press TV
6.0-magnitude quake hits northern Japan
01 August, 2013 - The Bureau - Chris Woods
Investigation finds fresh evidence
of CIA drone strikes on rescuers
02 August, 2013 - WSWS - Nick Barrickman
Florida law enforcement agencies refuse to probe
killing of Boston Marathon bombing witness
01 August, 2013 - CounterPunch - Vijay Prashad
Death Sentences and the International Criminal Court
Report Card on Lybia
01 August, 2013 - DemocracyNow - Amy Goodman
As Edward Snowden Wins 1-Year Asylum in Russia,
NSA Program Tracking Real-Time Internet Exposed
31 July, 2013 - ProPublica - Cora Currier
White House Closes Inquiry Into Afghan
Massacre - and Will Release No Details
Pepe Escobar wrote: "I was in Kabul at the time.
There WAS a massacre. Panjshiris were volunteering
to supply the gory details. Over 3,000 suffocated
or shot. The CIA WAS there. Every villager around
Mazar-e-Sharif knows the story. This was a war crime,
period. That's why the White House will be forever mum."
22 July, 2013 - Who What Why - Russ Baker
Monday Morning Skeptic: Is Snowden
the Criminalor is it the System?
31 July, 2013 - Boiling Frogs - Sibel Edmonds
Indeed, Whistleblowers Are
Traitors to the Traitors
31 July, 2013 - DemocracyNow - Amy Goodman
"Bradley Manning Has Become a Martyr"
WikiLeaks' Julian Assange on Guilty Verdict
27 July, 2013 - FN - Rebecca Solnit
Prometheus Among the Cannibals
A Letter to Edward Snowden
26 July, 2013 - Video - Today NBC
Edward Snowden's dad:
'This story is far from done'
Lon Snowden, father of Edward Snowden,
talks about his son, saying he's thankful
for anyone "providing him with assistance"
and that "Americans don't know the full truth,
but the truth is coming."
29 July, 2013 - Asia-Pacific - Peter Dale Scott
US Government Protection of Al-Qaeda
Terrorists and the US-Saudi Black Hole
25 July, 2013 - Youtube - 0:48:54
Revealed; The Men Who Own
and Run the U S Government
23 July, 2013 - PeakProsperity - Chris Martenson
Bankers Own the World
and Run the US Government
12 July, 2013 - Democracy Now - Amy Goodman
Josh Fox on Gasland Part 2,
the Fracking-Earthquake Link
& Industry's Use of PSYOPs
21 July, 2013 - The Independent - Rob Williams
CIA backs $630,000 study into how to control
global weather through geoengineering
FN's updated resource page:
Energy Pollution's Impact On Environment
07 August, 2013 - Global Research - Gary G. Kohls
The Bombing of Nagasaki August 9,
1945: The Un-Censored Version
07 August, 2011 - DemocracyNow - Amy Goodman
Atomic Cover-Up: The Hidden Story Behind
the U.S. Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
09 August, 2013
Onondaga Leader Oren Lyons, Pete Seeger on
World's Indigenous Peoples Anniversary
13 August, 2011
Owner of Snowden's Email Service on Why He
Closed Lavabit Rather Than Comply With Govt
23 July, 2013 - Paul Craig Roberts
Role Reversal: How the
US Became the USSR
15 May, 2013 - Veterans Today - James Norwood, Jim Fetzer
The JFK War: The Case of
Federal Judge John Tunheim
23 July, 2013 - DemocracyNow - Chris Woods
First Leaked Pakistani Report on U.S. Drone
War Undermines Claims of Low Civilian Toll
22 July, 2013 - The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
Get the Data: The Pakistan
government's secret document
25 July, 2013 - DemocracyNow - Amy Goodman
Yemeni Reporter Who Exposed U.S. Drone Strike
Freed from Prison After Jailing at Obama's Request
23 July, 2013 - Huffington Post - Media News
Abdulelah Haider Shaye,
Yemeni Journalist, Freed From Prison
Flyby News recommends watching
Dirty Wars
From acclaimed writer, Jeremy Scahill
Winner Sundance Film Festival
18 July, 2013 - Russia Today
Obama wins back the right to
indefinitely detain under NDAA
13 July, 2013 - Paul Craig Roberts
Coup d'etat
19 July, 2013 - DemocracyNow - Joshua Oppenheimer
"The Act of Killing": New Film Shows
U.S.-Backed Indonesian Death Squad
Leaders Re-enacting Massacres
18 July, 2013 - Glenn Greenwald
Growing Backlash Against NSA Spying Shows
Why U.S. Wants to Silence Edward Snowden
17 July, 2013 - DN - Michelle Alexander
"Zimmerman Mindset" Endangers Young
Black Lives with Poverty, Prison & Murder
15 July, 2013 - Guardian - Glenn Greenwald
The crux of the NSA story in
one phrase: 'collect it all'
04 July, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
NSA Leaker Edward Snowden In His
Own Words: "Youre Being Watched"
04 July, 2013
How the Pentagon Papers Came to be Published
By the Beacon Press Told by Daniel Ellsberg,
Senator Mike Gravel, and Robert West
30 July, 2013 - Petition - Causes
Sign the petition to stand with Bradley Manning
and demand that this military hero walk free!
21 June, 2013 - Flyby News - Wordpress
JFK-50 * Obama's Humanitarianism * 9-11 Suspects
24 June, 2013 - >Democracy Now - War and Peace
Glenn Greenwald on Asylum Request,
Espionage Charge; More Leaks to Come
24 June, 2013
WikiLeaks Attorney Praises Ecuador for Considering
Snowden Asylum Request Despite U.S. Pressure
19 June, 2013
Michael Hastings Dies at 33; Fearless Journalist
Challenged Power & Exposed Myths of Afghan War
24 June, 2013 - KTLA - CLG
Hastings sent email stating 'need to
go off the radar' hours before death
24 June, 2013 - IntelliHub - Video
Michael Hastings Car Crash
22 June, 2013 - Youtube - Mark Dice
Michael Hastings Car Hacked & Remotely
Driven into a Tree to Murder Him?
18 June, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
A Medical Ethics-free Zone? Guantnamo Doctors
Urged to Stop Force Feeding Hunger Striking Prisoners
18 June, 2013 - Glenn Greenwald
As Obama Makes "False" Surveillance Claims,
Snowden Risks Life to Spark NSA Debate
20 June, 2013 - Kristina Borjesson
Did U.S. Govt Lie about TWA Flight 800 Crash?
Ex-Investigators Probe as New Evidence Emerges
17 June, 2013 - VT - Paul Craig Roberts
Washington is Insane
10 July, 2013 - Truthquake Radio - Track 5
Robert Barron Interviews Jonathan Mark
0:51:28 - Edward Snowden + FN topics
12 July, 2013 - FN - Wordpress
Snowden chooses asylum in Russia
<>
12 July, 2013 - WikiLeaks
Statement by Edward Snowden to human rights
groups at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport
09 July, 2013 - Russia Today
Russian inquiry to UN: Rebels, not Army,
behind Syria Aleppo sarin attack
10 July, 2013 - Russia Today
Inquiry on Aleppo chemical attack met
int'l standards, unlike Wests - Lavrov
14 June, 2013 - Russia Today
Syria chemical weapons accusations
'a means of justifying further military action'
05 May, 2013 - Reuters - Stephanie Nebehay
U.N. has testimony that Syrian rebels
used sarin gas: investigator
It sure seems obvious to FN that when threats are made
that a line would be crossed if poisonous gas was used,
the ones most benefiting from it would be the rebels,
not the government trying to end a civil war. The
US-coalition partners and Israeli governments are
aggressively supporting another regime change in
an area they want to control.. or manage.. or destroy.
14 June, 2013 - Al Jazeera - Russia
United States military assistance to rebels
will hinder proposed peace conference
31 May, 2013 - Gallup Politics - Poll
Americans Oppose U.S. Military Involvement in Syria
14 June, 2013 - WashingtonsBlog
Americans on Both Sides of the
Aisle Oppose War In Syria
09 July, 2013 - Democracy Now - Headlines
Report: NSA Surveillance
Covers All of Latin America
09 July, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Edward Snowden on Why He Stood Up to the NSA:
Mass Spying "Not Something Im Willing
to Live Under"
09 July, 2013 - Glenn Greenwald
Snowden Encouraged by Global Outrage
over NSA Spying, Support for His Plight
19 July, 2013 - Huffington Post - Nick Wing
Jimmy Carter Defends Edward Snowden,
Says NSA Spying Has Compromised
Nation's Democracy
13 June, 2013 - Lou Dobbs - Judge Napolitano
I Still Think Snowden's An American Hero
16 July, 2013 - Democracy Now - Kevin Gosztola
Behind scenes at the Bradley Manning
Trial, Ignored by Corporate Media
03 July, 2013 - The Guardian - Ed Pilkington
Edward Snowden's digital 'misuse' has
created problems, says Ban Ki-moon
Ban makes remarks in Reykjavik but MP Birgitta Jnsdttir
says it was 'wrong for Ban to condemn Snowden personally'
Pepe Escobar posted this on facebook:
THE SPY WHO LOVED ME
It IS getting better and better. Anna Chapman,
foxy Russian spy. Deported from the US in 2010.
Now a TV anchor in Moscow. Tweets a marriage
proposal to Edward Snowden. Voice of Russia
says he loves the idea. What if in the end
he gets the girl, saves the world AND
ends up with his own talk show?
10 June, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
"You're Being Watched": Edward Snowden Emerges as
Source Behind Explosive Revelations of NSA Spying
10 June, 2013
Glenn Greenwald on How NSA Leaker Edward Snowden
Helped Expose a "Massive Surveillance Apparatus"
12 June, 2013
Is Edward Snowden a Hero? A Debate
with Chris Hedges & Geoffrey Stone
12 June, 2013
Medgar Evers' Murder, 50 Years Later:
Widow Myrlie Evers-Williams Remembers
"A Man for All Time"
07 June, 2013 - Jeremy Scahill
Dirty Wars
Winner Sundance Film Festival
07 June, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Inside the U.S. Dirty War in Yemen with
Jeremy Scahill, Nasser al-Awlaki, Sheikh Fareed
07 June, 2013 - Exclusive
Nasser al-Awlaki to Obama: Why Did You Kill
My U.S.-Born Son, Grandson in Drone Strikes?
05 June, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
As U.S. Deploys Patriot Missiles, F-16s to Jordan,
Could Syrian Conflict Engulf the Middle East?
07 June, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
"A Massive Surveillance State": Glenn Greenwald
Exposes NSA Program Collecting Calls, Emails
04 June, 2013 - WantToKnow - Fred Burks
World Bank Whistleblower Crushed,
Monsanto Opposition Flourishing,
Chilling Leak Probe
28 May, 2013 - Democracy Now - Amy Goodman
Poet, Author Alice Walker Meets the Inner Journey
With Global Activism in "The Cushion in the Road"
25 May, 2013 - Global Research - Paul Craig Roberts
Why Disinformation Works. In America "Truth
has no Relevance. Only Agendas are Important"
24 May, 2013 - Global Research
GMOs: Power, Profit and the Patenting of Life
23 May, 2013 - Mondoweiss - Adam Horowitz
Video: Medea Benjamin interrupts
Obama speech on US drone policy
23 May, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Killing Americans: Jeremy Scahill on Obama Admin's
Admission 4 U.S. Citizens Died in Drone Strikes
14 May, 2013 - Common Dreams - Glenn Greenwald
Justice Department's Pursuit of AP's Phone
Records Is Both Extreme and Dangerous
14 May, 2013 - Democracy Now - Headlines
Obama Admin Secretly Obtains Trove of Associated
Press Phone Records in "Unprecedented Intrusion"
13 May, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Ros Montt Guilty of Genocide:
Are Guatemalan President Prez Molina,
and United States Officials Next?
12 May, 2013 - Truthdig - Chris Hedges
Murder Is Our National Sport
11 May, 2013 - Washingtons Blog
US Currently Fighting 74 Different Wars
- That It Will Publicly Admit -
One day after the exiled former Black Panther
Assata Shakur became the first woman named to
the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list:
Angela Davis and Assata Shakur's Lawyer Denounce
FBI's Adding of Exiled Activist to Terrorists List
03 May, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
04 May, 2013 - Veterans Today - Jim Fetzer
Man of the Year: Stella Trimblay, NH Legislator
Questioning Authority
01 May, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Obama Vows to Seek Guantnamo Closure,
But Immediate Action Could Prevent
Hunger Strikers' Deaths
29 April, 2013
A Desperate Situation at Guantnamo:
Over 130 Prisoners on Hunger Strike,
Dozens Being Force-Fed
29 April, 2013
Forgotten Women of the War on Terror:
Author Victoria Brittain on the Wives
and Families Left Behind
29 April, 2013
Country Musician Willie Nelson Turns 80:
"One Person Carrying a Message Can Change the World"
29 April, 2013 - Boiling Frogs - Ron Unz
Our American Pravda
and Sibel Edmonds Case
28 April, 2013 - InfoWars - Sibel Edmonds
CIA, Caucasus & Tsarnaev Brothers
Video Interview - 47 minutes
24 April, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
As Obama Shuns Hearing, Yemeni Says U.S. Drone
War Terrifying Civilians, Empowering Militants
23 April, 2013
Jeremy Scahill: The Secret Story Behind Obama's
Assassination of Two Americans in Yemen
22 April, 2013 - ICH - Dave Lindorff
Something's Rotten in Boston
Who's Investigating the FBI Investigators?
16 April, 2013 - NY Times - Scott Shane
U.S. Engaged in Torture
After 9/11, Review Concludes
No matter the facts behind the Boston bombing,
it is being used as a psy-ops. Brian Williams (NBC)
said it himself that the following story would have
been given greater attention, except for Boston..
17 April, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
After Obama Shuns Probe, Bipartisan Panel Finds
"Indisputable" Evidence U.S. Tortured Under Bush
20 May, 2013 -Democracy Now - Clive Hamilton
Geoengineering:
Can We Save the Planet by Messing with Nature?
19 April, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Genocide Trial of Former Dictator Ros Montt Suspended
After Intervention by Guatemalan President
19 April, 2013
Allan Nairn Exposes Role of U.S. and New
Guatemalan President in Indigenous Massacres
16 April, 2013 - Natural News - Mike Adams
Official story unraveling for Boston marathon bombing;
clear evidence points to bomb squad's prior knowledge
04 April, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
On 45th Anniversary of His Death,
Martin Luther King Jr. on the Power
of Media and the Horror of War
15 January 2012 - FN - Wordpress
Martin Luther King & Masters of War
03 April, 2013 - RSN - Carl Gibson
How the Government Killed
Martin Luther King, Jr.
20 March, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Dahr Jamail Returns to Iraq to Find
Rampant Torture and a Failed State
Living in "Utter Devastation"
18 March, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Arundhati Roy on Iraq War's 10th:
Bush May Be Gone, But "Psychosis"
of U.S. Foreign Policy Prevails
09 March, 2013 - Corbett Report - video-audio
International Law?
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
The Film
01 March, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
WikiLeaks Whistleblower Bradley Manning Says He
Wanted to Show the Public the "True Costs of War"
28 February, 2013 - Providence Inquiry - Alexa O'Brien
Bradley Manning's Statement for the Inquiry
05 March, 2013 - Democracy Now - Glenn Greenwald
Bradley Manning: Prosecutor Overreach Could
Turn All Whistleblowing into Treason
09 April, 2013 - FN - Jonathan Mark
Peter Janney, Mary's Mosaic, Introduction
11 April, 2013 - FN - Northampton, MA
Peter Janney and Mary's Mosaic
24 April, 2013 - NCTV - Brad Andrews
Author Speaks on JFK, Mary Pinchot Conspiracies
78-minute presentation by Peter Janney
18 March, 2013 - The Guardian - Richard Norton-Taylor
MI6 and CIA were told that Iraq
had no active WMD before invasion
15 March, 2013 - Common Dreams - Jacob Chamberlain
Court: CIA's Defense of Drone Secrecy
'Neither Logical Nor Plausible'
13 March, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Over 100 Guantnamo Prisoners on Hunger Strike,
Citing Threat of Return to "Darkest Days Under Bush"
12 March, 2013 - Aljazeera - Inside Story
The failing state of Guantanamo Bay
25 March, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
A People's Revolt in Cyprus:
Richard Wolff on Protests Against
EU Plan to Seize Bank Savings
22 March, 2013 - Democracy Now - Maggie O'Kane
BBC-Guardian Expos Uses WikiLeaks
to Link Iraq Torture Centers to U.S.
Col. Steele & Gen. Petraeus
15 March, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
On Uprising's Anniversary, a Syrian Opposition Voice
Says Country is Victim of a Global Proxy War
19 March, 2013 - Global Research - James F. Tracy
False Flags, Fake Media Reporting,
Deceiving the Public: Social Engineering
and the 21st Century "Truth Emergency"
28 March, 2013 - Jones Library - Amherst, MA
Dark Legacy and Thrive
15 March, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
On Uprising's Anniversary, a Syrian Opposition Voice
Says Country is Victim of a Global Proxy War
15 March, 2013 - Headline News - Study
Use of GMO Crops Fueling Historic
Decline of Monarch Butterflies
15 March, 2013 - Global Research - F. William Engdahl
Seeds of Destruction: The Diabolical
World of Genetic Manipulation
22 February, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Torture at Guantnamo: Lt. Col. Stuart Couch
on His Refusal to Prosecute Abused Prisoner
22 February, 2013
"The Terror Courts": An Inside Look at
Rough Justice, Torture at Guantnamo Bay
22 February, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Torture at Guantnamo: Lt. Col. Stuart Couch
on His Refusal to Prosecute Abused Prisoner
22 February, 2013
"The Terror Courts": An Inside Look at
Rough Justice, Torture at Guantnamo Bay
21 February, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Bowman v. Monsanto: Indiana Farmer's Supreme Court
Challenge to Corporate Control of Food Supply
21 February, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Bowman v. Monsanto: Indiana Farmer's Supreme Court
Challenge to Corporate Control of Food Supply
21 February, 2013
Sequestration: What do the Automatic Spending
Cuts Mean for the Poor, Unemployed and Children?
11 February, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Michael Moore, Chris Hedges on Challenging NDAA
Indefinite Detention and the "Corporate Coup dtat"
05 February, 2013
Kill List Exposed: Assassination of
US Citizens "Has No Geographic Limit"
05 Februuary, 2013
Daniel Ellsberg: NDAA Indefinite Detention,
Part of "Systematic Assault on Constitution"
30 January, 2013
Ex-CIA Agent, Whistleblower John Kiriakou
Sentenced to Prison While Torturers Walk Free
29 January, 2013
The Gatekeepers: Ex-Shin Bet Chiefs Denounce
Occupation, Compare Israel to Nazi Germany
22 January, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Dirty Wars New Film Exposes
Truths of Covert U.S. Warfare
By Jeremy Scahill and Rick Rowley
24 January, 2013
At Sundance, Documentaries Shine Light
on Overlooked Stories of Global Injustice
08 January, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
4 Years After Vow to Close Gitmo,
Why Has Obama Signed NDAA Bill
Barring Transfer of Its Prisoners?
08 January, 2013 - Exclusive
As Gitmo Turns 11, Al Jazeeras Sami al-Hajj
on 6-Year Ordeal of U.S. Detention, Torture
04 January, 2013 - GlobalResearch - Michel Chossudovsky
Terrorism with a "Human Face":
History of America's Death Squads
The Historical Roots of US-NATO's War on Syria
08 January, 2013 - BoilingFrogsPost - James Corbett
Rings Within Rings: How Secret
Societies Direct World Politics
10 March, 2011 - Youtube - Kay Griggs
Colonel's Wife Tell-All Interview
10 December, 2012 - AtlanteanConspiracy - Eric Dubay
Mollygate Alex Jones Stratfor Scandal
04 January, 2013 - BrassCheckTV
Propaganda - North Korean Documentary
Also can be viewed on
Youtube
31 December, 2012 - Boiling Frog - Paul Craig Roberts
Agenda Prevails Over Truth
28 December, 2012 - WantToKnow - Fred Burks
Leading Journalists Expose
Major Corruption in Mass Media
21 December, 2012
CIA Mind Control Experiments
Declassified Documents Reveal Sex Abuse, More
18 December, 2012 - Youtube - TruTV
Jesse Ventura Conspiracy Theory
Brain Invaders - season 3; episode 7
16 November, 2012 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Oliver Stone on the Untold U.S. History
from the Atomic Age to Vietnam
to Obamas Drone Wars
27 December, 2012 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
The Other Bradley Manning: Jeremy Hammond
Faces Life Term for WikiLeaks and
Hacked Stratfor Emails
28 December, 2012
Dennis Kucinich on the "Fiscal Cliff":
Why Are We Sacrificing American Jobs
for Corporate Profits?
28 December, 2012
The Wilmington 10: North Carolina Urged
to Pardon Civil Rights Activists
Falsely Jailed 40 Years Ago
13 December, 2012 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Matt Taibbi: After Laundering $800 Million in
Drug Money, How Did HSBC Executives Avoid Jail?
13 December, 2012 - DN Exclusive
Native American Activist Leonard Peltier's
Jailhouse Plea for Long-Denied Clemency
13 December, 2012
After Rebuff by Clinton, Actor Peter Coyote Joins New
Push to Sway Obama on Leonard Peltier Clemency
14 December, 2012 - NYC - Beacon Theatre
Bring Leonard Peltier Home 2012 Concert
Jackson Browne, P. Seeger, H. Belafonte, B. Cockburn +
11 December, 2012 - WantToKnow.info
AP's Iran Hoax, Israel's Underground Site
Built by US, First Trading Transaction Tax
07 November, 2012 - Underground - Mark Crispin Miller
Score one (at last) for the
Election Integrity movement!
Regarding 2012 U.S. Presidential Election:
The forces in power care most about having a united front,
more than an occasional coup d'etat by those desperate and
powerful enough to pull off such an event and cover-up;
meanwhile abuses from the 9-11 false flag op. continue.
06 November, 2012 - Wordpress - Flyby News
Election (fix) Update Dark Legacy
27 September, 2012 - WikiLeaks
Julian Assange - Address to the UN
27 September, 2012 - Common Dreams - staff
US Designates Wikileaks "Enemy of the State"
"Truth is treason in an empire of lies"
- Ron Paul
27 September, 2012 - Democracy Now! Bill Moyers:
The United States of ALEC
Secretive Corporate-Legislative Body Writing Our Laws
27 September, 2012 - Link TV - Special
Dennis Kucinich - Redefining America
16 May, 2006 - ICH - Robert Kane Pappas
Orwell Rolls in His Grave
"Could a media system, controlled by a few
global corporations with the ability to
overwhelm all competing voices, be
able to turn lies into truth?..."
26 September, 2012 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Study Finds U.S. Drone Strikes in Pakistan
Miss Militant Targets and "Terrorize" Civilians
26 September, 2012
Thousands Surround Spanish Parliament in Bid
to "Occupy Congress" and Stop Austerity
01 October, 2012 - ICH - David Swanson
Nothing More Evil
01 October, 2012 - The Guardian - Harriet Sherwood
US warns European governments against
supporting Palestinians at UN
28 September, 2012 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Alice Walker on 30th Anniv. of "The Color Purple":
Racism, Violence Against Women Are Global Issues
05 November, 2012 - Salon - Brad Friedman
Is the GOP stealing Ohio?
The fix seems to be in place...
and the Obama 9-11 truth denier..
would not have the spine to contest
another election theft..
Life in the USA..
05 November, 2012 - Truthout - Ben Ptashnik
Why Democrats and Media
Deny Election Rigging
31 October, 2012 - Toldedo - Greg Palast
UAW Files Charges Against Romney
on his Auto Bail-out Profiteering
Top 25 - Project Censored - 2013
Signs of an Emerging Police State
14 October, 2012 - Common Dreams - B. Fitrakis, H. Wasserman
Will E-Voting Machines Owned by His Buddies
Give Mitt Romney the White House?
26 October, 2012 - Examiner - Deborah Dupre
White House hiding dead Gulf
wildlife in garbage bags
20 October, 2012 - The Mail - David Rose
CIA chiefs face arrest over horrific evidence
of bloody 'video-game' sorties by drone pilots
The Mail reveals shocking new evidence of the full
horrific impact of US drone attacks in Pakistan.
24 September, 2012 - Greek USA Reporter
The Prosecution of Ex CIA Agent John
Kiriakou for Americas Torture Policy
23 October, 2012 - Democracy Now - Headlines
Ex-CIA Agent to Be Sentenced for Disclosing Torture
18 October, 2012 - Democracy Now - Greg Palast
"Mitt Romney's Bailout Bonanza:
How He Made Millions from the
Rescue of Detroit"
17 October, 2012 - Examiner - Deborah Dupre
Fukushima dirty bomb stories leaked,
300,000 children radiated daily
21 October, 2012 - Truthdig - Chris Hedges
McGovern: He Never Sold His Soul
19 October, 2012 - Democracy Now - Amy Goodman
As Senator George McGovern Nears Death,
How the Antiwar Candidate Challenged
Vietnam and Inspired a Generation
10 October, 2012 - ICH - Paul Craig Roberts
America's Moral Degeneracy
07 October, 2012 - The Guardian - Jonathan Watts and Virginia Lopez
Hugo Chvez is re-elected in Venezuela
Venezuelan president retains power after 14 years in office,
recording 54.5% of the vote against rival Henrique Capriles
15 October, 2012 - Democracy Now - Amy Goodman
Texas Landowners Join Environmentalists
for Historic Blockade of Keystone
XL Tar Sands Pipeline
15 October, 2012
Koch Brothers Among U.S. Billionaires Pressuring
Thousands of Employees to Vote GOP on Election Day
21 October, 2012 - Global Research - Tony Cartalucci
Lebanon Bombing: Impetus for
US-NATO Planned Sectarian War
03 October, 2012 - Global Research - Tony Cartalucci
NATO Terrorists Mass Slaughter
Civilians in Aleppo, Syria
01 October, 2012 - RT - Lisa Martino-Taylor
US military secretly sprayed radioactive
particles in St. Louis and Texas
01 October, 2012 - Democracy Now - Amy Goodman
Virginia Residents Fight Back Against Nuclear
Industry Effort to Lift Ban on Uranium Mining
01 October, 2012 - Examiner - Deborah Dupre
Senator: Louisiana sinkhole a catastrophic
Lake Peigneur genocide in progress
24 October, 2012 - Valley911truth - Northampton
Paul Wellstone, martyr for truth?
October 25th, 2012 marks 10th anniversary
22 October, 2012 - WordPress - 'real' truth?
On the 10th Anniversary of the
Strange Death of Paul Wellstone
24 May 2012 - Truth Jihad Radio - Kevin Barrett
9/11 whistleblower special with
Sibel Edmonds and Susan Lindauer
Sibel Edmonds new book:
Classified Woman
05 May 2012 - Corbett Report Radio - Corbett
Blowing the Whistle on the FBI
30 April 2012 - War Is A Crime - David Swanson
Sibel Edmonds Finally Wins
25 May 2012 - Reuters - Basil Katz
U.S. asks judge to undo ruling
against military detention law
17 May 2012 - Examiner - Deborah Dupre
Federal judge blocks NDAA
Demand Progress
- Petition -
End Indefinite Detention!
21 May 2012 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
"No NATO, No War": U.S. Veterans of Iraq and
Afghanistan Return War Medals at NATO Summit
29 April 2012 - 60 Minutes - Jose Rodriguez
Hard Measures: Ex-CIA
head defends post-9/11 tactics
Twisted intelligence, forced confessions,
supporting 9-11 cover and wars for terror
05 May 2012 - Associated Press - Ben Fox
5 charged in 9/11 attack
resist Gitmo hearing
08 May 2012 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Justice Cheated: Human Rights Watch, Kenneth
Roth, on Failures of Guantnamo Military Tribunals
03 September 2011 - AmpedStatus Report - David DeGraw
Full-Blown Civil War Erupts On Wall Street:
As Reality Finally Hits The Financial Elite,
They Start Turning On Each Other
26 September, 2012 - Common Dreams - staff
Striking Greeks Retake Streets:
'We Are Bleeding!'
Hundreds of thousands demonstrate
against latest proposed of cuts
24 September, 2012 - CounterPunch - Bruce Levin
To Vote or Not to Vote?
24 September, 2012 - The Guardian - Glenn Greenwald
State department attacks CNN
for doing basic journalism
Obama officials hide behind Ambassador Stevens' family
to delegitimize reporting that reflects poorly on them
23 September, 2012 - Natural News - Mike Adams
The evil of Monsanto and GMOs explained:
Bad technology, endless greed and
the destruction of humanity
21 September, 2012 - Natural News - Mike Adams
The GMO debate is over; GM crops must be immediately
outlawed; Monsanto halted from threatening humanity
21 September, 2012 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
As Italy Sentences 23 CIA Agents in
Rendition Case, Obama Refuses to
Prosecute Anyone for Torture
UW Press - Torture and Impunity:
The U.S. Doctrine of Coercive Interrogation
by Alfred W. McCoy
18 September, 2012 - RT - Habeas Corpus R.I.P.
Obama wins right to indefinitely
detain Americans under NDAA
21 September, 2012 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Troy Davis One Year Later: Execution Fuels
National Movement to Abolish Death Penalty
14 September, 2012 - The Independent - Kim Sengupta
Revealed: inside story of US envoy's assassination
America 'was warned of embassy attack but did nothing'
14 September, 2012 - Citizens for Legitimate Government
Oil contracts 'gone missing'
from consulate in Benghazi
16 September, 2012 - Citizens for Legitimate Government
'Muslims' Movie Producer
Was Federal Informant
15 September, 2012 - Common Dreams -
US on Attack in Libya:
Send in the Drones
16 September, 2012 - CBS TV - 60 Minutes
The Spymaster: Meir Dagan
on Iran's threat
September, 2012 - Link TV - Ray McGovern
Israel and Iran:
Fact vs. Fear
04 September 2012 - Common Dreams - Noam Chomsky
The US and Israel, Not Iran, Threaten Peace
28 August 2012 - Common Dreams - Alice Slater
Iran Call for Nuclear Abolition by 2025
is Unreported by the New York Times
21 August 2012 - Times of Israel - ICH
Netanyahu 'determined to attack Iran'
before US elections, claims
Israel's Channel 10
14 September, 2012 - Digital Journal - Chris Hedges
The Assault on Civil Liberties Under Obama
More Egregious Than Under Bush + Carl Mayer:
They Can't Chill Your Freedom of Speech
10 September 2012 - The Reporter - AP
Memos show US hushed up Soviet crime
07 September 2012 - Examiner - Deborah Dupre
Rights advocates cheer ruling against U.S.
government Guantanamo abuses, secrets
03 September 2012 - Truthdig - Chris Hedges
Life Is Sacred
10 August 2012 - Global Research - Prof. James F. Tracy
False Flag Terror and Conspiracies of Silence
13 August 2012 - UPI - ICH
CIA Allegedly Overseeing Arms Into Syria
03 June 2012 - Global Research - Prof. James F. Tracy
Police State USA: The Paranoid
Style of American Governance
14 August 2011 - Youtube - Darrell Anderson
American soldier tells how they were
ordered to kill innocent civilians
21 June 2012 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Torture in U.S. Prisons? Historic Senate Hearing
Takes Up Solitary Confinements Devastating Toll
21 June 2012
From Death Row to Exoneration: Fmr. Texas Prisoner
Anthony Graves on Surviving Solitary Confinement
30 August 2012 - Common Dreams - B. Moyers, B. Weisberger
Money in Politics: Where Is the Outrage?
30 August 2012 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Daughter of Billionaire GOP Donor
Sheldon Adelson Pushes Democracy Now!..
30 August 2012
Matt Taibbi: The Secret to Mitt Romney's Fortune?
Greed, Debt and Forcing Others to Foot the Bill
28 August 2012
Rachel Corrie's Parents Denounce
Israeli Military Exoneration
for 2003 Killing in Gaza
27 August 2012 - Truthout - Greg Palast
RNC to Open With Politician
Who "Should Be in Jail"
20 August 2012 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
End the WikiLeaks Witch Hunt:
Julian Assange's Full Address
from the Ecuadorean Embassy
20 August 2012
Tariq Ali, Ex-U.K. Ambassador Craig Murray Praise
Ecuador for Granting Asylum to Julian Assange
19 August 2012 - Common Dreams - Julian Assange:
'The US War on Whistleblowers Must End'
"Im grateful to the Ecuadorean people, President Rafael Correa and
his government. It was not Britain or my home country, Australia,
that stood up to protect me from persecution, but a courageous,
independent Latin American nation. While today is a historic
victory, our struggles have just begun. The unprecedented
U.S. investigation against WikiLeaks must be stopped --
While today much of the focus will be on the decision of
the Ecuadorean government, it is just as important that we
remember Bradley Manning has been detained without trial
for over 800 days. The task of protecting WikiLeaks, its
staff, its supporters and its alleged sources continue."
Democracy Now! covers Julian Assange
24 August 2012 - The Guardian - Damien Pearse
Julian Assange arrest plan
revealed accidentally
21 August 2012 - Associated Press - Alison Mutler
Court ruling lets Romania
president return to post
{Romania has visited FN over 4000 pages,
more than any other nation in August, 2012}
24 August 2012 - The Guardian - Damien Pearse
Julian Assange arrest plan
revealed accidentally
20 August 2012 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Solidarity Protests Held Worldwide After Russian
Court Sentences Pussy Riot Members to 2-Year Term
20 June 2012 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Julian Assange of WikiLeaks Seeks Asylum
in Ecuador to Avoid Extradition to U.S.
Justice for Assange
19 July 2012 - ICH - Patrick Seale
What Is Really Happening in Syria?
13 July 2012 - The Guardian - ICH
The Syrian Opposition:
Who's Doing The Talking?
16 July 2012 - Democracy Now - Greg Muttit
"Fuel on the Fire" On Oil and Politics
in Occupied Iraq and in the Arab Spring
05 July 2012 - Democracy Now - Glenn Greenwald
As WikiLeaks Reveals Syria Files, Assange
Remains in Ecuador Embassy Seeking Asylum
05 July 2012
"Zero Accountability": Obama's Refusal
to Prosecute Wall Street Crimes
05 July 2012
In Win for M15 Movement, Spain Opens Criminal
Probe of Ex-IMF and Bankia Chief Rodrigo Rato
05 July 2012
"Something Is Starting to Happen": Spain's M15,
Precursor to Occupy, Hails Probe of Ex-IMF Chief
21 August 2012 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
The Invisible Wounds of War:
Number of Soldiers Committing
Suicide Reaches Record High
When he returned from the war
they called him a killer.
He was not a murderer.
He befriended a child, gathered
the limbs of his fellow soldier
who was blown up beside him,
lost some of his hearing from the blast,
obeyed his colonel's orders to gun down
a man driving into the Green Zone
who turned out to be a physician.
When he came home, the weight
of his guilt, displacement and pain
was invisible. He didnt come home.
He was still in Iraq. The people
in his town couldn't hear the nightmares
that haunted him or his heart
pounding at sudden noises.
They couldn't understand how he left his house
to protect his parents and sisters
from his anger, closed the door of his apartment
to release his sorrow. Then one night
he drove to the mine dumps
near his favorite fishing spot
wrote "Freedom isn't Free"
on the dashboard of his truck
beside the nine medals of honor
closing yet another door
to liberate his own life.
02 July 2012 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Kenneth Chamberlain's Family Files Suit
After Police Evade Charges for Slaying..
02 July 2012
After Election, Mexico Poised for Return of PRI
And Continuation of Deadly U.S.-Fueled Drug War
16 August 2012 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Mexican Poet, Activist Javier Sicilia
Brings Peace Caravan Into US
to Condemn Deadly Drug War
26 August 2012 - Reuters - Alex Dobuzinskis
Colorado, Washington on Track to Legalize Marijuana
16 August 2012 - Memory Gap - James F. Tracy
Censored Tehran Peace Conference
and Media Disinformation
09 August 2012 - Huff Post - Ryan Grim and Cole Stangler
Mitt Romney Started Bain Capital With
Money From Families Tied To Death Squads
09 August 2012 - Reuters - David Ingram and Aruna Viswanatha
U.S. Justice Department drops
Goldman financial crisis probe
09 August 2012 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Former DHS Analyst Daryl Johnson on
How He Was Silenced for Warning
of Far-Right Militants in US
03 August 2012 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Gore Vidal Remembered: 2003 Interview [Re: 9-11]
With Late Writer & Longtime Critic of U.S. Empire
01 August 2012 - CounterPunch - Morris Berman
Rule by Sociopaths
Stealing the American Dream
02 August 2012 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Obama Admin Helps Undermine U.N.
Arms Treaty Talks While Touting
Record-High Weapons Sales Abroad
02 August 2012
Climate Skeptic, Koch-Funded Scientist Richard Muller
Admits Global Warming Real & Humans The Cause
02 August 2012
Bill McKibben: Even Industry-Funded Climate
Change Deniers Cant Ignore Planets Warming
25 June 2012 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Coup in Paraguay: Will U.S. Join Latin America
in Condemning Ouster of President Fernando Lugo?
25 June 2012
David Suzuki on Rio+20, "Green Economy" & Why
Survival Requires Undoing Its Economic Model
21 June 2012 - LA Times - Henry Chu
Poland shaken by case alleging an illicit CIA prison there
05 June 2012 - The Guardian - Paul Harris
Drone attacks create terrorist safe
havens, warns former CIA official
05 June 2012 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
US Escalates Pakistan Drone Strikes,
Expansive "Kill List" Stirs Fears
of Worse Civilian Toll
04 June 2012
Norm Finkelstein: Waning Jewish American
Support for Israel Boosts Chances
for Middle East Peace
31 May 2012 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Out of Jail, Bahraini Activists Nabeel Rajab and
Zainab Alkhawaja Urge End to US-Backed Crackdown
31 May 2012
Who Will Benefit From Haiti's Gold Rush?
Haitian Government Embraces U.S.,
Canadian Mining Firms
28 May 2012 - ICH - Michel Chossudovsky
"The Salvador Option For Syria"
US-NATO Sponsored Death Squads
Integrate "Opposition Forces"
25 May 2012 - WSWS - Chris Marsden
US prepares multi-front
proxy war against Syria
30 May 2012 - Democracy Now! - Glenn Greenwald
Obama's Secret Kill List
"The Most Radical Power
a Government Can Seize"
30 May 2012 - AP - Raphael Satter
UK's top court backs extradition
of WikiLeaks boss, Julian Assange
20 May 2012 - The Guardian - Paul Harris
The ex-FBI informant with a change of heart:
'There is no real hunt. It's fixed'
29 May 2012 - ZeroHedge - Tyler Durden
The Buyers Have Left The House
20 May 2012 - The Guardian - Charles Ferguson
Heist of the century: Wall Street's
role in the financial crisis
15 May 2012 - GlobalResearch - Julie Lvesque
Iran Accused of Being Behind 9/11 Attacks
14 May 2012 - BigNewsNetwork
Symbolic court finds Bush
guilty of war crimes
21 May 2012 - AP - Kimberly Dozier
Who will drones target?
Who in the US will decide?
12 June 2012 - PressTV - Webster Tarpley
Russia Reportedly Preparing 2 Divisions,
Spetsnaz Brigade for Deployment to Syria
12 June 2012 - Boiling Frogs - Sibel Edmonds
Libya: New AFRICOM and
NATO Beachhead in Africa
15 June 2012 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
A Judicial Coup in Egypt:
Muslim Brotherhood-Controlled Parliament
Dissolved, Military Gains Power
14 June 2012
After Unprecedented Attack on Whistleblowers,
Obama Accused of Leaking for Political Gain
12 June 2012 - WantToKnow - Fred Burks
Protesting Bilderberg Secrecy,
Child Vaccines Mishandled,
False Accounts on 9/11
13 June 2012 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Military Suicide Epidemic: More U.S. Soldiers Have
Killed Themselves Than Died on Battlefield in 2012
12 June 2012
Supreme Court Rejects Gitmo Appeals,
Spelling Potential End to Prisoners'
Legal Fight for Release
Habeas Corpus
Loss in USA
11 June 2012 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up:
Saul Landau on U.S.-Aided Anti-Castro
Militants & the Cuban 5
11 June 2012
Mariela Castro on Ending the Embargo & Swapping
Cuban Five for Jailed U.S. Contractor Alan Gross
+
Mariela Castro, Daughter of Cuban President, Helps
Lead Struggle for LGBTQ Rights in Changing Cuba
17 May 2012 - Examiner - Deborah Dupre
Federal judge blocks NDAA
Demand Progress
- Petition -
End Indefinite Detention!
16 May 2012 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
"What Have We Been Doing?"
Decorated U.S. Veteran Aaron Hughes to
Return War Medals at Anti-NATO Protest
15 May 2012 - Democracy Now - Dr. Nabeel Hameed
As Obama OKs Weapons to Bahrain,
Neurosurgeon Tortured by Regime
Faces Trial for Treating Protesters
15 May 2012 - Democracy Now - William Black
Austerity is Sinking Economies
from Europe to United States
09 May 2012 - Truth Jihad - Kevin Barrett
Return of Son of Underwear Bomber:
The Terrible, Horrible Truth
16 May 2012 - ABC News - Jason Ryan
FBI Investigates Media
Leaks in Yemen Bomb Plot
09 May 2012 - ICH - Stephen Lendman
Another Foiled False Flag
09 May 2012 - Miami Herald - Pete Yost
Feds investigate leak in terrorism case
20 March 2012 - VOA - Brian Padden
Pakistan Parliament Demands
End to US Drone Strikes
20 March 2012 - VOA - Michael Bowman
US Lawmakers Reject Pakistani
Calls to End Drone Strikes
02 May 2012 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Obama Touts War's End in Afghanistan,
But Critics See Prolonged Occupation
01 May 2012
"No Work, No Shopping, Occupy Everywhere":
May Day on OWS, Immigration, Labor Protests
01 May 2012 - Boiling Frogs Post - James Corbett
Fahrenheit 2012: Suppressing
Dissent in the 21st Century
27 April 2012 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
As Obama Expands Drone War, Activists & Victims'
Advocates Join D.C. Summit on Growing Civilian Toll
25 April 2012
Mumia Abu-Jamal Speaks from Prison on Life
After Death Row and His Quest for Freedom
24 April 2012
Death on the Border: Shocking Video Shows Mexican
Immigrant Beaten and Tased by Border Patrol Agents
23 April 2012 - Democracy Now! - War & Peace
More Secrets on Growing State Surveillance:
With NSA Whistleblower, Targeted Hacker
19 April 2012
Back from Syria, Journalist Anand Gopal Warns
Protesters "Face Slaughter" by Assad Regime
16 April 2012
Latin America v. Obama: U.S. Policy on Cuba,
Drug War, Economy Under Fire at Colombian Summit
16 April 2012
Obama Refuses To Back Call For Drug Legalization
To Stem Spreading Violence in Latin America
16 April 2012 - Natural News - Mike Adams
Obama betrays the left; cheers continued expansion
of drug war, criminalization of plant-based medicine
12 April 2012 - Brasscheck TV - Jason Leopold
Guidebook to False Confessions
Anti War Radio and Truthout contributed to report
11 April 2012 - Democracy Now! - War & Peace
Active-Duty Army Whistleblower
Lt. Col. Daniel Davis:
U.S. Deceiving Public on Afghan War
11 April 2012
Grand Jury Probes Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain
Sr. Amidst Broad Allegations of Police Misconduct
12 April 2012
Grand Jury Hears Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. Case
as Autopsy Casts Further Doubt on Police Claims
21 March 2012 - Democracy Now! - War & Peace
NSA Whistleblower Thomas Drake Prevails
in Unprecedented Obama Admin Crackdown
06 April 2012 - AP - Daily Mail
CIA agent who publicly opposed waterboarding
charged leaking classified secrets to journalists
01 April 2012 - The Independent - Jonathan Owen
Man whose WMD lies led to
100,000 deaths confesses all
Defector tells how US officials sexed up his
fictions to make the case for 2003 invasion.
27 March 2012 - ICH - James Petras
The Massacre of the Afghan 17
and the Obama Cover-Up
16 March 2012 - Democracy Now! - War & Peace
Afghan Massacre Sheds Light on Culture of Mania
and Aggression in U.S. Troops in Afghanistan
16 March 2012
Afghan Women's Activist Rangina Hamidi:
Worsening Conditions Should Hasten U.S. Withdrawal
16 March 2012
State Dept. Seeks Firing of Peter Van Buren,
Whistleblower Who Exposed Wasteful Iraq Projects
26 March 2012 - Democracy Now! - War & Peace
Former NSA Employee Thomas Drake and Jesselyn
Radack on Obama Admin. Whistleblower Crackdown
+
Boycotting Israel: Mustafa Barghouti vs. Rabbi Arthur
Waskow on BDS Movement, Palestinian Solidarity
26 March 2012 - Natural News - Mike Adams
A hundred Trayvons a day - Why the real murder
of blacks is carried out by pharmaceutical
companies, vaccines and cancer clinics
25 March 2012 - Natural News - Ethan A. Huff
Monsanto wants to brainwash your children
with 'Biotechnology Basics Activity Book'
22 March 2012 - Democracy Now! - War & Peace
"Too Crooked to Fail": Matt Taibbi Says Bailouts,
Fraud are the Secrets to Bank of America's Success
+
Matt Taibbi on the Explosive Resignation
of Goldman Sachs Executive Greg Smith
20 March 2012 - WanttoKnow - Fred Burks
Goldman Sachs Exec Quits in Disgust,
Bill Gates Wrong on GM Crops,
Doctors Admit to Lying
16 March 2012 - WantToKnow.info - Fred Burks
Derivatives Market Bubble
Financial Derivatives Time Bomb
15 March 2012 - Democracy Now! - War & Peace
Jeremy Scahill: Why is President Obama Keeping
Yemeni Journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye in Prison?
14 March 2012 - Tom Dispatch - Michael T. Klare
A Tough-Oil World
Why Twenty-First Century Oil Will
Break the Bank -- and the Planet
14 March 2012 - Salon - Glenn Greenwald
Washington's High-powered Terrorist Supporters
15 February 2012 - CounterPunch - Paul Craig Roberts
Obama, the Human Rights Hypocrite
12 March 2012 - Common Dreams - The Guardian
UN Torture Chief Slams Bradley Manning's
Treatment as Cruel, Inhuman
Treatment violates U.N. Convention against
Torture, says Special Rapporteur on torture
12 March 2012 - The Nation - Robert Dreyfuss
Burning Babies - Afghanistan's Haditha:
An Atrocity to End the War
09 March 2012 - Democracy Now! - War & Peace
Kathy Kelly on Afghan Humanitarian Crisis,
Civilian Casualties and Drone Warfare
12 March 2012
Nuclear Engineer Arnie Gundersen:
Fukushima Meltdown Could Result
in 1 Million Cases of Cancer
12 March 2012 - ICH - UPI
Yemen says U.S. attack killed 64 people
09 March 2012 - Mercola - Dr. Mercola
Is This Medical Fraud Too
Big Even For 60 Minutes?
09 March 2012 - Democracy Now! - War & Peace
U.S. Faces Challenge to "Drug War"
as Latin American Countries Mull
Decriminalization, Legalization
09 March 2012
"Beautiful Souls": Ayal Press on the Whistleblowers
Who Risk All to "Heed the Voice of Conscience"
20 February 2012 - MadCow News - Daniel Hopsicker
America's NarcoBank: Wachovia
Bank was BCCI with a drawl
27 December 2010 - TruthDig - 911blogger - Chris Hedges
2011: A Brave New Dystopia
Combining two great visions of future dystopia,
Orwell's "1984" and Huxley's "Brave New World"
15 February 2011 - Democracy Now! - David House
Friend of Suspected WikiLeaks Source Alleges Torture
03 December 2010 - Info Wars - Jesse Ventura
"Police State" episode of hit Ventura show
covering FEMA camps pulled from air
Watch from above link, and take action!
14 January, 2011 - Chris Floyd
Speech Pathology:
Rain Puddles in Heaven,
Hellfire on Earth
Special film short - 9 minutes - Chris Pratt
Operation Checkmate: the pawns fight back
Challenge politicians to take:
The PLEDGE
Watch a 58-minute video-discussion with
Jonathan Mark & filmmaker Chris Pratt
Link to Flyby News Productions at GCTV
Video On Demand for best Online viewing
For a Four minute clip of above interview:
Jonathan Mark & filmmaker Chris Pratt
You can also watch interviews by
Jonathan Mark at his Youtube Channel
"When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds
of despair, and when our nights become darker than a
thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a
creative force in this universe, working to pull down
the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able
to make a way out of no way and transform dark
yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize
the arc of the moral universe is long
but it bends toward justice."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
05 April 2011 - 911blogger - 63 Documents
Jesse Ventura talks about 9/11
on CNN American Morning
Perspective -- Resources -- Archives
New 9/11 Investigation vs New World Order
07 March 2012 - ICH - Jonathan Turley
Obama's Kill Doctrine
06 March 2012 - Democracy Now! - Hina Shamsi
Attorney General Eric Holder Defends Legality
of Targeted Killings of U.S. Citizens Overseas
06 March 2012
Anti-Nuclear Groups in Georgia Seek To Block
First New Nuclear Plants in U.S. in Decades
05 March 2012 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
Debate: Attacking Iran, AIPAC, Israel-Palestine
and Obama with Rashid Khalidi and Jonathan Tobin
05 March 2012
BP to Pay $7.8B to Settle Deepwater Horizon Oil
Spill Lawsuit. Is it a Bad Deal for Gulf Residents?
Investigative journalists Greg Palast and Antonia Juhasz
examine who wins and who loses in BP's settlement.
29 February 2012 - Democracy Now! - Michael Ratner
Leaked Stratfor Email Suggests Secret U.S.
Indictment of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange
17 January 2012 - Democracy Now! - NDAA
Journalist Chris Hedges Sues Obama Admin
over Indefinite Detention of U.S. Citizens..
I think theyre worried about the Occupy movement
expanding. And I think that, in the end--and this is a
supposition--they don't trust the police to protect
them, and they want to be able to call in the Army.
And if this bill goes into law, and its slated to go
into law in March, they will be able to do that.
06 Jan., 2012 - Progressive Avenues - Marti Hiken and Luke Hiken
Why The NDAA Now?
New 9/11 Investigation vs New World Order
06 February 2012 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
West Memphis 3: Freed Death Row Prisoner Makes
Film about 18-Year Battle to Prove His Innocence
07 July 2011 - FREE PELTIER - LPDOC
Leonard Peltier in "the Hole" at Lewisburg Prison
10 July 2011 - Flyby News - Wordpress
Help Leonard Peltier Updated news links
12 February 2012 - RT-youtube - Webster Tarpley
Mossad & CIA death squads
behind Syria bloodbath
21 June 2011 - The Hidden Evil - Mark Rich
Was Aaron Russo Murdered?
27 February 2012 - WikiLeaks - Stratfor
The Global Intelligence Files
27 February 2012 - Dissenter - Kevin Gosztola
The Release of Stratfor Emails
by WikiLeaks & Its Significance
29 February 2012 - The Age (AU) - Report
Charges against Assange drawn up in US
17 February 2012 - The Guardian - Chris McGreal
US officials believe Iran sanctions
will fail, making military action likely
16 February 2012 - Democracy Now! - War & Peace
Iran Tensions Rise With Diplomat Bombings,
Scientist Killings, Nuke Claims and Media War-Mongering
16 February 2012
Jeremy Scahill: U.S. Has Ignited Islamist
Uprising in Impoverished, Divided Yemen
16 February 2012
Deadly Fire at Overcrowded Prison Adds
to Worsening Toll in Post-Coup Honduras
15 February 2012 - Democracy Now! - Michael Hastings
Army Whistleblower Army Lt. Col. Daniel Davis
Says Pentagon Deceiving Public on Afghan War
26 January 2012 - ValleyAdvocate - Stephanie Kraft
Judge Overturns Vermont Nuke Law
25 February 2012 - Telegraph - Adrian Blomfield
U.S. planning to boost sea and land
defences in Gulf as Iran war fears grow
21 February 2012 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
As Calls For Intervention in Syria Grow,
Vijay Prashad Urges Re-Evaluation of
NATO Attack on Libya
22 February 2012 - Democracy Now! - Headlines
Appeals Court Rejects Suit
over Guantnamo Deaths
12 February 2012 - RT-youtube - Webster Tarpley
Mossad & CIA death squads
behind Syria bloodbath
24 February 2012 - Examiner - Deborah Dupre
Secret 3rd Gulf of Mexico well
evidence as BP trial to begin
02 Febuary 2012 - Examiner - Deborah Dupre
Rights groups sue Gulf oil company
06 February 2012 - Democracy Now - Chris Woods
U.S. Accused of Using Drones to Target
Rescue Workers and Funerals in Pakistan
06 February 2012
West Memphis 3: Freed Death Row Prisoner Makes
Film about 18-Year Battle to Prove His Innocence
10 February 2012 - Democracy Now! - Reed Brody
Spanish Judge Garzn Disbarred in Trial Seen as
Retaliation for Trailblazing Human Rights Work
01 February 2012 - Democracy Now! - Reed Brody
Baltasar Garzn, Trailblazing Judge Who Pursued
War Criminals, Faces Trial of His Own in Spain
03 January 2012 - World Socialist - Patrick Martin
Obama signs police state legislation
16 December 2011 - Graham Nash and James Raymond - Common Dreams
Almost Gone - Graham Nash & James Raymond
Video-Song in Support of Bradley Manning
16 September 2009 - Youtube - samueltube1
Masters Of War
Written By Bob Dylan
Performed by Sam Bradley
16 January 2012 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Martin Luther King, Jr. in His Own Words
20 January 2012 - WantToKnow - Jonathan Turley
Land of the Free's Erosion of Freedoms
Washington Post on whether America is still land of the free
19 January 2012 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Tariq Ali: Obama's Expansion of Af-Pak War
"Has Blown Up in His Face"
19 January 2012 - McClatchy - Rachel Roubein
U.N. asked to probe U.S. efforts
to squelch Spain torture probe
19 January 2012 - Miami Herald - Carol Rosenberg
Report: French judge wants to
probe Guantanamo torture claims
18 January 2012 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
"The Operators": Michael Hastings on the
Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan
18 January 2012
Expansion of Indefinite Detention under NDAA
Compounds Extradition Fears of WikiLeaks' Assange
10 January 2012 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Guantnamo Exclusive: Former Chief Prosecutor,
Ex-Prisoner Call on Obama to Close Prison
10 January 2012
NDAA: Obama Signs Law Restricting Transfer
of Prisoners and Expands Indefinite Detention
09 January 2012 - Democracy Now! - William Hartung
Drones, Asia and Cyber War: Pentagon Shifts
Priorities; Budget Still Exceeds Bush Era
07 January 2012 - Youtube - LedaOhio5
Warning Graphic Footage!
13 January 2012 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Two Years After Devastating Earthquake, Haiti's Re-
building Weighed Down by Legacy of Foreign Meddling
13 January 2012
On Eve of MLK Day, Michelle Alexander & Randall
Robinson on the Mass Incarceration of Black America
11 January 2012 - Youtube - MsNoworldorder
NASA, Hypocrisy & the Military Industrial Complex
13 December 2011 - Democracy Now! - War & Peace
Ex-Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson,
Former Democrat, Launches Third Party
Presidential Bid Against Obama, GOP
02 January 2012 - The Hill - Common Dreams
White House, GOP Battle for
Supremacy on Tar Sands Pipeline
21 December 2011 - AE911truth - Wayne Coste
Occupy Building 7 Impacts Manhattan:
Police, OWS Protesters Informed About
Explosive 9/11 Evidence
10 November 2011 - Youtube - Max Keiser
Senator Mike Gravel
On Occupy and Direct Democracy Evolution!
21 October 2011 - Initiative for Democracy - PDF
A Message from Senator Mike Gravel
to the Occupy Wall Street Movement
03 January 2012 - YouTube - CNN
CNN Cuts Off Soldier Who Voted For
Paul and Spoke Out Against More War!
03 January 2012 - YouTube - CNN
Ron Paul Brings Back Silenced Soldier
03 January 2012 - WantToKnow - Fred Burks
Major Vaccine Failure, FBI Labels Civil
Disobedience Terrorism, Killer Drones
30 December 2011 - WantToKnow - Project Censored
Top Censored Press Stories of 2011
Top Censored Story
More US Soldiers Committed Suicide Than Died in Combat
30 December 2011 - Democracy Now - War & Peace
Scott Olsen, U.S. Vet Wounded at Occupy Oakland,
on Recovery, Protests, Iraq, and Bradley Manning
20 December 2011 - Washington Post - Common Dreams
Secrecy Defines Obama's Drone War
20 December 2011 - The Guardian/UK - Common Dreams
Prosecutors Claim Bradley Manning
Wanted to Remove 'the Fog of War'
04 November 2011 - Flyby News - Wordpress
Gravel Campaign Update Financial Fascism
29 August 2011 - Common Dreams - Glenn Greenwald
The Decade's Biggest Scam
27 November 2011 - Bloomberg - Bob Ivry, Bradley Keoun and Phil Kuntz
Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks $13 Billion
Undisclosed to Congress
16 November 2011 - Natural News - Ethan A. Huff
War on drugs revealed as total hoax
US military admits to guarding, assisting
lucrative opium trade in Afghanistan
20 September 2011 - Veterans Today - Kevin Barrett
Zelikow: 9/11 Master Criminal Appointed By Obama
15 November 2011 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Inside Occupy Wall Street Raid:
Eyewitnesses Describe Arrests,
Beatings as Police Dismantle Camp
07 November 2011 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
U.S. Drone Kills 16-Year-Old Pakistani Boy
Days After He Attends Anti-Drone Organizing Meeting
04 November 2011 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Drones on Trial: 38 Protesters Face Charges for
Disrupting Syracuse Base Used in Overseas Attacks
28 October 2011 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
"Blood on the Tracks": Brian Willson's Memoir of
Transformation from Vietnam Vet to Radical Pacifist
16 December 2011 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Bradley Manning Hearing: Alleged Wiki-
Leaks Whistleblower in Military Court,
19 Months After Arrest
16 December 2011
Adrian Lamo, Bradley Manning Informant, Defends
Role in Turning in Alleged WikiLeaks Whistleblower
Glenn Greenwald
Bradley Manning Faces Life Sentence,
While Criminals WikiLeaks Exposed
Have Suffered No Consequences
Glenn Greenwald
Obama Prepares to Authorize Indefinite Detention
of U.S. Citizens for First Time Since McCarthy Era
16 December, 2011
Egyptian Military Kills 14 Protesters, Attacks
Journalists in Brutal Crackdown in Tahrir Square
16 December 2011 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
U.S. Withdrawal from Iraq: "In Terms of
Destroying Iraq, It's 'Mission Accomplished'"
13 December 2011 - RT - Gregg Carlstrom
'US to control Iraq oil always'
15 December 2011 - Information Clearing House - Ralph Nader
Congressional Tyranny, White House Surrender
03 November 2011 - Citizens 9/11 Commission Campaign
Initiative Now In Colorado and North Dakota
06 December 2011 - WantToKnow - Fred Burks
Fukushima Reactor Cores in Full Meltdown,
US Military to Arrest Citizens,
Bailout Corruption
06 December 2011 - Raw Story - Eric W. Dolan
Los Angeles votes to end corporate personhood
14 December 2011 - AlJazeera - Gregg Carlstrom
Uncertainty looms large
in Iraq as U.S. leaves
16 December 2011 - Democracy Now! - War & Peace
Bradley Manning: Famed Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg
on Alleged WikiLeaks Soldiers 1st Day in Court
06 December 2011 - The Guardian/UK - Common Dreams
Austerity Powers Would Usurp
Sovereignty of EU Nations
30 November 2011 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
State Dept. Veteran Peter Van Buren Defies U.S.
Censors to Recount Failed Reconstruction in Iraq
30 November 2011
Occupy Wall Street Camps in Los Angeles,
Philadelphia Dismantled in Massive Police Raids
29 November 2011 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Battlefield America: U.S. Citizens Face Indefinite
Military Detention in Defense Bill Before Senate
23 November 2011 - PressTV - Malaysia
Bush, Blair found guilty of war crimes
21 November 2011 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Seymour Hersh: Propaganda Used Ahead of Iraq War
Is Now Being Reused over Iran's Nuke Program
21 November 2011
Tahrir Square Under Attack: 32 Egyptians Killed,
1,750 Injured in Protests Against Military Rule
21 November 2011
UC Davis Student Describes Pepper Spray
Attack on Occupy Campus Protesters
Occupy Student Debt Campaign
November 19th and 20th, 2011
Occupy Building 7
In front of the rebuilt World Trade Center Building 7
DEMAND an investigation into the collapses of
World Trade Center Building 7 and the Twin Towers
24 October 2011 - ICH - Paul Craig Roberts
Totally Corrupt America
February, 2011 - History Channel - PEER
The Men Who Killed Kennedy - Part 9
Banned video shows LBJ involvement in JFK's assassination
03 November 2011 - Democracy Now! - Michael Hudson
Wall Street vs. Greece: G20 Opens as Greek PM Pushes
for Referendum on Bailout and Austerity Measures
03 November 2011
Jon Corzine's MF Global Firm Collapses in Biggest
Wall Street Failure Since Lehman Brothers
03 November 2011
Video Report from Streets of Oakland: First General
Strike in City Since 1946 Shuts Down Major Port
25 August 2011 -Examiner - Deborah Dupre
Hit-listed human rights reporters
in Libya need public support
23 August 2011 - Information Clearinghouse - Brian Becker
The Truth About the Situation in Libya
22 August 2011 - Examiner - Deborah Dupre
Order: Kill non-mainstream reporters
in Libya, What U.S. is hiding
23 August 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
As Fighting Continues in Tripoli, A Look at Role
of the U.S., NATO and Oil Firms in Libya Uprising
23 August 2011
Over 160 Arrested in Ongoing Civil Disobedience
Against Keystone XL Tar Sands Oil Pipeline
23 August 2011
Covering Up Wall Street Crimes: Matt Taibbi Exposes
How SEC Shredded Thousands of Investigations
24 August 2011 - The Nation - Robert Scheer
Obama's Deal for the Bankers:
Amnesty for the Indefensible
03 October 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Mourners Call For Abolishing Death Penalty
at Funeral for Troy Davis in Georgia
03 October 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
700 Arrested on Bklyn Bridge as Occupy Wall Street
Enters Third Week, Protests Grows Nationwide
03 September 2011
Settlement Reached Over Arrest of Amy Goodman,
Democracy Now! Producers at 2008 GOP Convention
26 September 2011 - Reader Supported News
Occupy Wall Street: Take the Bull by the Horns
20 September 2011 - The Independent - Robert Fisk
Why the Middle East will never be the same again
The Palestinians won't achieve statehood, but
they will consign the 'peace process' to history.
06 September 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Video of U.N. Peacekeepers' Sexual Assault
of Haitian Prompts Calls to Focus
on Post-Quake Rebuilding
17 October 2011 - Boiling Frogs - Joe Lauria
The Alleged Iranian Plot:
Turning U.N. into a Courtroom
25 October 2011 - Globe and Mail - Catherine McLean
It's True, Bankers Really Do
Control the World: Study
27 October 2011 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Iraq War Vet Hospitalized with Fractured Skull
After Being Shot by Police at Occupy Oakland Protest
26 October 2011
Police Fire Tear Gas, Flash Grenades as Protesters
Try to Retake Occupy Oakland After Predawn Raid
26 October 2011
Glenn Greenwald on Two-Tiered U.S. Justice System,
Obama's Assassination Program & the Arab Spring
26 October 2011
Glenn Greenwald on Occupy Wall Street, Banks
Too Big to Jail and the Attack on WikiLeaks
27 October 2011 - VIDEO - The Daily Bail
Marine Scott Olsen Moments Before He Was Shot
by Oakland Police, Now In 'Critical' Condition
13 October 2011 - Salon-ICH - Glenn Greenwald
The "Very Scary" Iranian Terror Plot
The most difficult challenge in writing about the Iranian Terror Plot
unveiled yesterday is to take it seriously enough to analyze it.
13 October 2011 - Al-Jazeera-ICH - Pepe Escobar
The Fast and Furious Plot to Occupy Iran
05 October 2011 - Reuters - Mark Hosenball
Secret panel can put Americans on 'Kill list'
30 September 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
With Death of Anwar al-Awlaki, Has
U.S. Launched New Era of Killing
U.S. Citizens Without Charge?
"To say that the President has the right to kill citizens
without due process is really to take the constitution
and to tear it up into as many little pieces as
you can and then burn it and step on it."
- Glenn Greenwald
03 October 2011 - ICH - Paul Craig Roberts
The Day America Died
"It's better to light one candle
than to curse the darkness."
- Emily Dickinson
14 October 2011 - Wordpress - Flyby News
Fast and Furious Crazy US-Iran Terror Plot
20 October 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Former Guantnamo Prisoner Speaks Out on
Lawsuit Seeking Bush's Arrest in Canada for Torture
17 October 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Danny Glover, Cornel West Speak Out at Occupy
Protests as MLK Memorial is Dedicated in D.C.
14 October 2011 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Alleged Inhumane Conditions for Post-9/11 Suspects
Sparks Global Scrutiny of U.S. Detention Policies
07 October 2011 - Corbett Report - James Corbett
Afghanistan: Ten Years of War
24 October 2011 - ICH - Paul Craig Roberts
Totally Corrupt America
03 October 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Mourners Call For Abolishing Death Penalty
at Funeral for Troy Davis in Georgia
03 October 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
700 Arrested on Bklyn Bridge as Occupy Wall Street
Enters Third Week, Protests Grows Nationwide
03 September 2011
Settlement Reached Over Arrest of Amy Goodman,
Democracy Now! Producers at 2008 GOP Convention
26 September 2011 - Reader Supported News
Occupy Wall Street: Take the Bull by the Horns
20 September 2011 - The Independent - Robert Fisk
Why the Middle East will never be the same again
The Palestinians won't achieve statehood, but
they will consign the 'peace process' to history.
06 September 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Video of U.N. Peacekeepers' Sexual Assault
of Haitian Prompts Calls to Focus
on Post-Quake Rebuilding
02 September 2011 - VIDEO - Josh Fox
Protecting the Sacred
Oscar nominated director Josh Fox (Gasland)
gives powerful support to Tar Sands Action!
02 September 2011 - Examiner - Deborah Dupre
First Nation Peoples powered
Pipeline Protest at White House
Friday (video)
29 August 2011 - Common Dreams - Glenn Greenwald
The Decade's Biggest Scam
25 August 2011 -Examiner - Deborah Dupre
Hit-listed human rights reporters
in Libya need public support
23 August 2011 - Information Clearinghouse - Brian Becker
The Truth About the Situation in Libya
22 August 2011 - Examiner - Deborah Dupre
Order: Kill non-mainstream reporters
in Libya, What U.S. is hiding
23 August 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
As Fighting Continues in Tripoli, A Look at Role
of the U.S., NATO and Oil Firms in Libya Uprising
23 August 2011
Over 160 Arrested in Ongoing Civil Disobedience
Against Keystone XL Tar Sands Oil Pipeline
23 August 2011
Covering Up Wall Street Crimes: Matt Taibbi Exposes
How SEC Shredded Thousands of Investigations
24 August 2011 - The Nation - Robert Scheer
Obama's Deal for the Bankers:
Amnesty for the Indefensible
02 August 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
After Months of Partisan Wrangling,
Wall Street & Pentagon Emerge
Victorious on Debt Deal
31 July 2011 - The Observer - Terry Macalister
BP 'has gained stranglehold over Iraq'
after oilfield deal is rewritten
13 July 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Jeremy Scahill Reveals CIA Facility, Prison in Somalia
as U.S. Expands Covert Operations in Stricken Nation
13 July 2011
"The Murdoch Empire Could Be Undone":
British Phone Hacking Scandal May
Prompt U.S. Criminal Probe
05 July 2011 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
Conversation With WikiLeaks Julian Assange
and Slovenian Philosopher Slavoj iek
01 July 2011 - Boiling Frogs - Sibel Edmonds
The Tentacles of Megas:
Reaching from the Government
to the Emasculated Watchdogs
03 August 2011 - AlJazeera - Mark LeVine
Anders Breivik's twisted time machine
With so much speculation surrounding the issue,
what were the real motives behind Breivik's attacks?
03 August 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Economist Dean Baker Predicts A
"Really Bad Deal or No Deal"
from Deficit "Super Committee"
28 June 2011 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
It Takes People on the Outside:
Prestigious Author Alice Walker
to Confront Israeli Naval Blockade
of Gaza on United States Aid Ship
24 June 2011 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
HAITI: Leaked Cables Expose U.S. Suppression of
Min. Wage, Election Doubts and Elite's Private Army
+
Feeding Resistance: Food Not Bombs Members Arrested
in Orlando, Florida, for Serving Meals Without a Permit
23 June 2011 - Democracy Now! - Gareth Porter
Obama Plan for Afghan War Withdrawal
Will Leave Troop Size at Pre-Surge Levels
20 June 2011 - Boiling Frogs Show - James Corbett
FBI Storage to Shield Evidence from FOIA?
16 June 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Is U.S. Attack on Libya Legal?
Congressman Dennis Kucinich Debates
Former Reagan Attorney Robert Turner
15 June 2011 - Information Clearinghouse - Hakim Almasmari
US Kills 130 People In Yemen
US makes a drone attack a day in Yemen
27 May 2011 - Associated Press - 911blogger
Patriot Act Extension Signed By Obama
25 May 2011 - US Congress - Ron Paul
The Last Nail - Floor Speech
The last nail is being driven into
the coffin of the American Republic.
08 July 2010 - Youtube - music-video - SRange
John Kay & Steppenwolf - "MONSTER"
28 July 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Rep. Luis Gutierrez Arrested Outside White House
Protesting Record Deportations Under Obamas Watch
27 July 2011 - Democracy Now - Richard Wolff
Debt Showdown is "Political Theater"
Burdening Society's Most Vulnerable
25 July 2011 - Common Dreams - Robert Reich
Why Washington is About to Make the Jobs Crisis Worse
19 July 2011 - LPDOC - Sal Rodriguez
Native American Activist Leonard Peltier
"in the Hellhole" of Solitary Confinement
26 July 2011 - Examiner - Deborah Dupre
America's 100,000 tortured inmates:
Most pressing, ignored human rights issue
Transforming Health-care and Criminal Justice
Not-for-Profit Healthcare and Prisons good for USA!
FN Resource:
Human Rights and A Nation
Behind Bars: the buried
talents of a population.
18 July 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Horn of Africa Famine: Millions At Risk
from War, Climate Change, Neoliberalism
+
Pushing Crisis: GOP Cries Wolf on Debt Ceiling
In Order To Impose Radical Pro-Rich Agenda
13 June 2011 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Maher Arar: My Rendition & Torture in Syrian
Prison Highlights U.S. Reliance on Syria as an Ally
+
Syrian Troops Pursue Scorched Earth Policy;
Videos Document Children Tortured to Death
+
Former Miss USA, Ralph Nader, Privacy Advocates
On Full Body Airport Scanners & Invasive Pat-Downs
09 June 2011 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Obama Hides Meeting with Top Bahraini Leader
And Mutes Criticism of Ongoing Crackdown
+
Critics Dub Planned Puerto Rico Pipeline the
"Death Route" for Alleged Threat to Environment
06 June 2011 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Former Black Panther Leader, Geronimo Ji-Jaga Pratt,
Wrongfully Imprisoned for 27 Years, Dies in Tanzania
+
Dr. Gabor Mat: Obama Admin Should Heed Global
Panel's Call to End "Failed" U.S.-Led Drug War
31 May 2011 - Democracy Now - Amy Goodman
Exclusive Interview with Manuel Zelaya
on the U.S. Role in Honduran Coup,
WikiLeaks and Why He Was Ousted
18 May 2011 - Agence France Presse - Common Dreams
Medvedev Warns of Cold War Over Missile Defense
Space for Peace & September 11
Connecting dots to democracy or to genocide
17 May 2011 - WantToKnow.info - Revealing News
Elites Caused Economic Disaster,
Japan Backs Off Nuclear Power,
US Payments to Autism Families
14 May 2011 - The Economic Collapse
50 Things Every American Should Know
About The Collapse Of The Economy
21 May 2011 - Boiling Frogs - Sibel Edmonds
Pepe Escobar unplugged interview on US raid
that allegedly killed bin Laden and much more.
21 May 2011 - VDARE - Paul Craig Roberts
How Many SEALs Died?
Report from a Pakistani News Agency interview
with an eye witness to the US attack on the
alleged compound of Osama bin Laden
18 May 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater Founder Erik Prince's
Private Army of "Christian Crusaders" in the UAE
18 May
Inside Obama's "Orwellian World" Where
Whistleblowing Has Become Espionage:
The Case of Thomas Drake
16 May 2011 - Boiling Frogs - Sibel Edmonds
When It Comes To Whistleblowers Obama
Worse Than Nixon & Far Worse Than Bush
25 April 2011 - The Guardian - Common Dreams
WIKILEAKS Lift Lid on
Gitmo's Nefarious History
27 April 2011 - Cageprisoners - Andy Worthington
The Hidden Horrors of WikiLeaks' Guantnamo Files
25 April 2011 - Veterans for Peace - Press Release
Obama Declares Manning Guilty Before Trial
28 April 2011 - Democracy Now - Ray McGovern
Petraeus Will Expand Pro-War
Agenda as New CIA Director
05 May 2011 - WordPress - Flyby News
9/11 Whistleblower * DRG * Bahrain non-Human Rights
09 February 2011 - Rep. Ron Paul - Dr. Mercola
One of the Biggest Scams in World History Exposed
$16 trillion in secret backdoor bailouts of
US Federal Reserve funds to global banks
Awakening In Peace - World Reports - Christopher Story
30 July 2010
CHRISTOPHER STORY FRSA
10 July 2010 - [Removed]
Worst Financial Terrorism Sabotage In History
01 July 2010
Big US Banks Confirmed As Criminal Enterprises
Youtube - October 2009 - Video
Christopher Story - EU Corruption
31 July 2010 - 12160.org - Comments
Was Christopher Story Assassinated?
Comments - 10 July - World Reports
02 August 2010 - Flyby News - Gordon Duff
'Christopher Story Was Poisoned'
Intelligence Report On Assassination
18 November 2010 - Foreign Policy Journal - Kevin Ryan
Evidence for Informed Trading
on the Attacks of September 11
24 January 2011 - WantToKnow - Fred Burks
WikiLeaks Release of Rich Tax-Cheaters' Data,
Vatican Secrecy on Child Abuse, Private CIA
18 January 2011 - Democracy Now - Amy Goodman
Former Banker Hands Offshore
Account Data to WikiLeaks
20 January 2011 - NDTV - Zurich
Whistleblower Swiss banker
Rudolf Elmer arrested in Zurich
19 November 2010 - Online Journal - Jerry Mazza
Why has Viktor Bout been extradited to the US?
24 November 2010
The plot thickens over Viktor Bout's US extradition
12 November 2010 - Independent Media Institute - Information Clearinghouse
Bank of America Is in Deep Trouble
There May Be Financial Disaster on the Horizon
05 November 2010 - Democracy Now! - Michael Hudson
New $600B Fed Stimulus
Fuels
Fears of US Currency War
28 September 2010 - Global Research - David DeGraw
The Road to World War III - The Global
Banking Cartel Has One Card Left to Play
"If the American people ever allow private banks
to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation
and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will
grow up around them will deprive the people of all their
property until their children will wake up homeless
on the continent their fathers conquered."
- Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826), 3rd US President
13 April 2011 - Boiling Frog - Sibel Edmonds
The Danger of Tranquilized & Docile Youth
14 April 2011 - Democracy Now! - Rep. Ral Grijalva
While Obama Touts Compromise with GOP,
Progressive Lawmakers Unveil "People's Budget"
Roundtable
Assessing Obama's Budget Plan & State of U.S. Economy with
Author Thomas Frank, Rev. Jim Wallis, and Grace Lee Boggs
07 April 2011 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Nobel Economist Joseph Stiglitz: Assault on Social Spending,
Pro-Rich Tax Cuts Turning U.S. into Nation "Of the 1 Percent,
by the 1 Percent, for the 1 Percent" - Freefall: America,
Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy
18 April 2011 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
On 8th Day of Hunger Strike, Bahraini Activist
Zainab Alkhawaja Urges for Family's Release
16 April 2011 - Press TV - ICH
'US To Recoup Libya Oil From China'
Interview with Dr. Paul Craig Roberts,
former assistant secretary of US Treasury
16 April 2011 - ICH - Glenn Greenwald
Mission Transformation in Libya
15 April 2011 - 12160 - Susan Lindauer
Oil War: Putting Out Fire
with Gasoline in Libya
12 April 2011 - Democracy Now - Anjali Kamat
The Army vs. the People?:
Special Report from Egypt
30 March 2011 - 911blogger - Joseph Culp
AWAKE IN A WORLD THAT ENCOURAGES SLEEP
New play opening in NYC encouraging awareness
31 March 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Jeremy Scahill and Ex-DIA Analyst Joshua Foust
on "The Dangerous U.S. Game in Yemen"
& CIA Ops in Libya
27 March 2011 - Press TV - Stop War Coaltion
'US drops uranium bombs on Libya'
For a critical FN resource, see:
Uranium Munitions ~ harm for generations
15 February 2011 - Democracy Now! - David House
Friend of Suspected WikiLeaks Source Alleges Torture
17 December 2010 - Rap News 6 - Youtube
WikiLeaks' Cablegate: The Truth Is Out There
26 November 2010 - War Is A Crime - Harvey Wasserman
Afghanistan is About Perpetual War
19 November 2010 - The Nation - Common Dreams
America's Failed War of Attrition in Afghanistan
By Jeremy Scahill
19 November 2010 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
National Outcry Over TSA Body
Scanners and Invasive Pat-Downs
18 November 2010 - Democracy Now - War and Peace Report
Gitmo Prisoner Acquitted of All But
One Charge in Embassy Bombings
A federal jury has acquitted former Guantnamo prisoner
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani on all but one charge in the 1998
U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. After five days
of deliberations, the jury found Ghailani not guilty on 284 of
285 counts. Although the lone guilty verdict came on a minor
conspiracy charge, he still faces a minimum sentence of
20 years in prison and a maximum of life.
17 November 2010 - Press TV
UN urges full US torture investigation
08 December 2010 - RSN - Institute for Public Accuracy
Ex-Intelligence Officers, Others See Plusses
in WikiLeaks Disclosures - sign petition!
Daniel Ellsberg, Frank Grevil, Katharine Gun, David MacMichael,
Ray McGovern, Craig Murray, Coleen Rowley and Larry Wilkerson..
23 December 2010 - Democracy Now - War and Peace Report
WikiLeaks Cables Reveal US Sought to Retaliate
Against Europe over Monsanto GM Crops
02 December 2010 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
UN Special Rapporteur Juan Mndez:
Instead of Focusing on Assange,
U.S. Should Address WikiLeaks'
Disclosures of Torture
02 December 2010 - Democracy Now! - Jeremy Scahill
WikiLeaks Cables Confirm Secret U.S. War Ops in Pakistan
01 December 2010 - Democracy Now! - Scott Horton
WikiLeaks Cables Reveal U.S. Tried to Thwart
Spanish Probes of Gitmo Torture and CIA Rendition
01 December 2010
Leaked Cables Reveal U.S. Pressured Spain
to Drop Case of Cameraman Killed in 2003
Attack on Journalists in Baghdad
10 December 2010 - Democracy Now - War and Peace Report
Bolivian President Evo Morales at Cancn Summit:
WikiLeaks Cables Reveal "Diplomacy of Empire"
30 November 2010 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
Noam Chomsky: WikiLeaks Cables Reveal
"Profound Hatred for Democracy on the
Part of Our Political Leadership"
06 November 2010 - Word Press - Scott Creighton
Chomsky: No Evidence That Al Qaeda
or bin Laden Carried Out 9/11 Attack
25 May 2010 - The Guardian (UK) - 911blogger
Afghans believe US is funding Taliban
International Law Professor Launches
World BUSH TO HAGUE Campaign
26 January 2010 * Pravda * 911blogger
Hague acknowledges Professor of International Law,
Francis A. Boyle, on his filing against Bush et al
for the war-crime "Extraordinary Rendition"
04 March 2010 - BBC News - CommonDreams
The Cost of War:
Disturbing Story of Fallujah's Birth Defects
For a critical FN resource, see:
Uranium Munitions ~ harm for generations
29 October 2010 - Democracy Now! - Jeremy Scahill and Rick Rowley
Killing Reconciliation: Military Raids, Backing of Corrupt
Government Undermining Stated US Goals in Afghanistan
28 October 2010 - This Can't Be Happening - Common Dreams
What Are They Hiding? Obama Administration
Defending Black Site Prison at Bagram Airbase
New 9/11 Investigation vs New World Order
P e r s p e c t i v e - R e s o u r c e s - A r c h i v e s
24 March 2011 - Democracy Now - Allan Nairn
As Obama Completes First Latin America Tour,
Anniversary of Slain Salvadoran Archbishop Romero
Evokes Legacy of U.S.-Backed Crimes
21 March 2011 - The Guardian (UK) - Jon Boone
US Army 'kill team' in Afghanistan
posed for photos of murdered civilians
21 March 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace Report
Former President Aristide On His Party's Exclusion from Haiti's
Election: "Exclusion is the Problem, Inclusion is the Solution"
21 March 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace Report
Libyan Citizen Journalist Mohammed Nabbous Killed
by Gunfire While Reporting on the Battle for Benghazi
17 March 2011 - Anjali Kamat
Libyan Rebels Maintain Benghazi Media Center to
Battle Gaddafi through the Internet and Airwaves
22 March 2011 - Common Dreams - Medea Benjamin and Charles Davis
Instead of Bombing Dictators, Stop Selling Them Bombs
18 March 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace Report
Ellsberg on Bradley Manning's Solitary Confinement:
"The Conditions Clearly Violate the Constitution"
16 March 2011 - Veterans Today - Gordon Duff
Raymond Davis Release - Imran Kahn and
Ijazul Haq Interviews - The Inside Story
07 March 2011 - Intrepid Report - Jerry Mazza
The Fed's war on America's people
05 March 2011 - Youtube - 911blogger
America Is NOT Broke: Michael Moore
Speaks in Madison, WI - March 5, 2011
22 February 2011 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
Judge Convicted in Pennsylvania Kids-for-Cash Scheme,
Faces Long Prison Term and Class-Action Lawsuit
06 March 2011 - Examiner.com - Alfred Lambremont Webre
Chemtrails are global covert operation
for total control, detecting UFOs - Part 3
For FN's resource, see:
Military Weather - Chem/Nukes in Space
24 February 2011 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace Report
Glenn Greenwald on the Assange Extradition Ruling,
the Jailing of Bradley Manning, and the Campaign
to Target WikiLeaks Supporters
24 February 2011
Billionaire Right-Wing Koch Brothers Fund
Wisconsin Governor Campaign and Anti-Union Push
Citizens Campaign For 2009 9-11 Year Of Truth
abomination obama nation
07 February 2011 - WantToKnow - Tod Fletcher and Fred Burks
JP Morgan Abetted Madoff, Goldman Bonuses,
FBI Law Violations, and much more
03 December 2010 - Info Wars - Jesse Ventura
"Police State" episode of hit Ventura show
covering FEMA camps pulled from air
Watch online at above link, and take action!
29 January 2011 - 911bloger - David Swanson
Govt-Funded Reporter Urged Lynching of
Black Congresswoman - Cynthia McKinney
"The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone
of any significance in the major media."
-William Colby,
former CIA Director,
quoted by Dave Mcgowan, Derailing Democracy
The CIA and the Media
27 December 2010 - TruthDig - 911blogger - Chris Hedges
2011:
A Brave New Dystopia
Combining two great visions of future dystopia,
Orwell's "1984" and Huxley's "Brave New World"
21 January 2011 - 911blogger - Stephen C. Webste
Seymour Hersh's new book to detail "how eight
or nine neoconservative, radicals if you will,
overthrew the American government."
21 January 2011 - Natural News - Mike Adams
USDA found to be poisoning bird populations,
causing mass die-offs involving millions of birds
13 January 2011 - Democracy Now - Amy Goodman
Tavis Smiley on Obama's AZ Memorial Speech,
Martin Luther King and Hate in America
11 January 2011 - 911blogger - Oskar Mosquito
In honor of Dr. King, fellow truth-seeker
13 January 2011 - Democracy Now - Amy Goodman
Icelandic Parliamentarian Calls U.S. Subpoena of Her
Twitter Account over WikiLeaks Involvement "Disturbing"
13 January 2011 - New Statesman - John Pilger
Julian Assange on Murdoch, Manning
and the threat from China
06 April 2010 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
Massacre Caught on Tape:
US Military Confirms Authenticity
of Their Own Chilling Video
Showing Killing of Journalists
Children and innocent civilians harmed!
Collateral Murder
WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video
depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people
in a suburb of New Baghdad - including 2 Reuters news staff.
31 December 2010 - Democracy Now - War and Peace Report
Julian Assange on WikiLeaks, War
and Resisting Government Crackdown
31 December 2010
Pentagon Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg:
Julian Assange is Not a Terrorist
06 January 2011 - Common Dreams - Ann Wright
Obama: No Whistleblowing on My Watch
US Military Should Be Ashamed of Its Treatment of Pfc. Bradley Manning
Help end the inhumane treatment of Bradley Manning
15 January 2011 - Veterans Today - Gordon Duff
The Wheeler Murder,
Just Another Dead Veteran?
Steve Alten's thriller, GRIM REAPER: End of Days,
like Dante's Inferno is an allegory of the soul's journey;
at the same time the book reveals secrets about 9/11,
the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, (Iran?), and source of
2001 anthrax attacks. Learn more at SteveAlten.com
Stop Spraying California!
Spraying Biological and Chemical
Agents on U. S. Citizens is Illegal!
Flyby News Resource:
Military Weather - Chemicals in Space
01 January 2011 - The Anti-Empire Report - William Blum
Wikileaks, the U.S., Sweden, and Devil's Island
05 January 2011 - AFP - Information Clearinghouse
Wikileaks: Israel Deliberately Choked Gaza
16 December 2010 - Raw Story - 911blogger
Pulitzer-winner, ex-CIA analyst, FBI whistleblower
among those arrested outside White House
03 January 2011 - Healthy World Message - Sherri Kane
Journalist Bloodied by Obama "Protectors"
+
Link Here for Youtube of News Report!
28 December 2010 - Democracy Now - Amy Goodman
Indian Human Rights Activist Dr. Binayak Sen
Sentenced to Life in Prison in Widely Criticized Ruling
17 November 2010 - Veterans Today - Gordon Duff
The "California Mystery Missile"
09 November 2010 - Los Angeles Times - Tony Barboza and W.J. Hennigan
Bird, Plane, Contrail, Chemtrail or 'mystery missile'
10 November 2010 - Press Release - Amnesty International
US must begin criminal investigation
of torture following Bush admission
09 November 2010 - DemocracyNow - Allan Nairn
As Obama Arrives in Jakarta, Secret Docs Show
U.S.-Backed Indonesian Special Forces Unit
Targets Papuan Churches, Civilians
09 November 2010
Widow of Murdered Indonesian Human Rights Activist Munir
Calls on Indonesia to Hold His Govt. Killers Responsible
10 November 2010 - Democracy Now! - Jon Alpert and Matt O'Neill
"Wartorn 1861-2010" New Doc Chronicles Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder from Civil War to Iraq & Afghanistan
03 December 2010 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Is WikiLeaks' Julian Assange a Hero?:
Glenn Greenwald Debates Steven Aftergood of Secrecy News
03 December 2010
Abandoning "Net Neutrality," FCC Chair
Backs Two-Tiered Internet Fees
13 October 2010 - Veterans Today - L. Wolfe
Suppressed History: When Wall Street
Tried To Bring The Holocaust To America
12 October 2010 - Kent State Truth Tribunal - Common Dreams
Tribunal Hears New Forensic Evidence of Clear Order to Fire
at Kent State, Backs US Rep Kucinich in Call to Open Inquiry
06 August 2010 - DemocracyNow! - War and Peace Report
Verizon & Google Enter Reported Deal
for Tiered Internet Use, Is Net Neutrality in Jeopardy?
Sign Petition to Get Google to Protect Net Neutrality!
06 August 2010 - DemocracyNow! - Robert Jay Lifton
US Attending Hiroshima Memorial
Enormously Important
18 October 2010 - Veterans Today - Gordon Duff
How Drug Money Is Buying Our New Congress
04 October 2010 - WantToKnow.info - PEERS
CIA Army of Assassins, Feds to Wiretap Internet,
Obama Claims Right to Assassinate US Citizens, more
26 September 2010 - Reuters - LA Times
U.S. should be able to shut Internet,
former CIA chief says
21 September 2010 - Electronic Frontier - Richard Esguerra
Censorship of the Internet Takes Center
Stage in "Online Infringement" Bill
13 October 2010 - Veterans Today - General Hamid Gul
A Retrospective Analysis of the "Wiklileaks Crisis"
07 October 2010 - Consortium News -Peter Dale Scott and Robert Parry
A Long History of America's Dark Side
September 30th to October 6, 2010 - 911blogger
James Douglass speaking tour:
"JFK, Obama, and the Unspeakable"
02 September 2010 - Truthout
Another False Ending:
Contracting Out the Iraq Occupation
As president, Obama pretends the occupation of Iraq is ending
with the withdrawal of combat troops while he and Secretary
of State Clinton quietly hire a shadow Army to replace them.
03 September 2010 - Information Clearinghouse
Blair Memoir Reveals Support for
George W. Bush and Guantanamo Bay
War Criminal Admires War Criminal
09 April 2010 - TimesOnline (UK) - 911blogger
George W. Bush knew
Guantnamo prisoners were innocent!
George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld
covered up that hundreds of innocent men were sent to
the Guantnamo Bay prison camp because they feared
that releasing them would harm the push for war in Iraq.
07 June 2010 - Raw Story - John Byrne
Doctors group says Bush Administration
conducted medical experiments on detainees
"Everything is backwards; everything is upside down.
Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice,
universities destroy knowledge, governments
destroy freedom, the major media destroy
information, and religions destroy spirituality."
- Michael Ellner
16 March 2010 - NoLiesRadio - Kevin Barrett
Richard Gage AIA & Jonathan Mark
Update on AE911truth & Misprision of treason campaigns
- 911blogger -
9/11 Crime - Misprision - Citizens Action
Click following for most recent PDF file copy
A Call for Truth Over Treason
Stop War by exposing the 9/11 Cover-up
NYC Coalition for Accountability Now
Channel Your Voice
Investigate the collapse of WTC 7
7ProblemsWithBuilding7.info
September 11, 12, 2010 in NYC and via Internet
How The World Changed After 9/11
After 9/11 - A Symposium of Critical Thinkers
September 7, 2010 - 911blogger - WeAreChange
Everything you need to know
about 9/11/2010 events in NYC
Films and Discussions - Northampton, MA
Valley 9/11 Truth - September 11, 2010
Valley 9/11 Truth & Flyby News presented two films:
PHARMAWHORES: The Showtime
Sting of Penn & Teller at 7:00 PM
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
And at 6pm on same date screened:
An interview of Robert Bowman
"Patriots Question 9/11"
At the Media Education's community meeting space
60 Masonic Street, Northampton, MA
"The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone
of any significance in the major media."
- William Colby,
former CIA Director
quoted by Dave Mcgowan, Derailing Democracy
The CIA and the Media
Valley 9/11 Truth & Flyby News
presented films and discussions:
"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"
&
"A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Moon"
Wednesday, April 14, 2010; Meeting at 6:00 PM
Media Education Foundation, Northampton, MA
On April 13th Dr. Robert Bowman presented
Take Back America for Space and Security
Monadnock 9/11 Truth Alliance
presented
Daniel Sunjata
Addressing 9/11 and the state of our nation
February 27, 2010; 7:00 PM
Keene High School Auditorium, Keene, NH
Saturday, January 30, 2010 * MIT, Cambridge, MA
New England AntiWar Conference
Presenters include: Peter Dale Scott,
Barrie Zwicker, and Paul Zarembka
Also, SUNDAY, January 31, 2010 * 10:00am4pm
Northeast 9/11 Truth Conference
33 Harrison Avenue, 5th floor, Boston, MA 02111
25 December 2009 - VIDEO - 911blogger
Dr. Graeme MacQueen on "9/11 Truth:
the Challenge to the Peace Movement"
Valley 9/11 Truth
Presented:
Loose Change 9/11
An American Coup
Tuesday, November 10, 2009; 7:00 PM
Media Ed. Foundation, Northampton, MA
Valley 9/11 Truth
presented:
Richard Gage, AIA
9/11 Blueprint for Truth
Saturday, October 10, 2009; 7:00 PM
First Churches of Northampton, MA
Richard Gage also presented in
Portmouth, NH - Oct. 9th
Cambridge, MA Oct. 11th
969 Architects and Engineers
Call for New 9/11 Investigation
10 November 2009 * SCOOP NZ
Architect: evidence undermines official 9/11 story
27 November 2009 - Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Fifth Estate on AE 9/11 Truth
*
Imperium Watch:
Flying Girders, Falling Towers
22 October 2009 - Valley Advocate - Stephanie Kraft
10 September 2009
City of New York Concedes 9/11 Coalition
Has 30,000 Valid Signatures To Put Referendum
For 9/11 Investigation on November Ballot
March For Answers
For A New 9/11 Investigation
From Battery Park to City Hall
via Ground Zero, The City Clerk
September 27, 2009 - 2:00 PM
Speakers Include:
Bob McIlvaine - 9/11 Family Member
Manny Badillo - 9/11 Family Member
Daniel Sunjata - Star of "Rescue Me"
Download Flier- Color, or Black and White
NYC CAN - VIDEO - 21 September 2009:
Van Jones Petitions For Peace
September 23, 2009 - By Jerry Mazza:
The March for Answers
Valley 9/11 Truth
Presented:
Dark Legacy
George Bush and the Assassination of JFK
Wednesday, September 23, 2009; 7:00 PM
Media Ed. Foundation, Northampton, MA
For Independent Investigations
NYC CAN
NYC Coalition for Accountability Now
Petition for 2009 Referendum Vote
(\o/)(\o/))(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)
CONSEQUENCES OF 9/11
{pdf flowchart}
We Demand Transparency
A Conference for Peace, Truth, & New Economics
New York City <> September 11 - 13, 2009
Political Leaders For 9/11 Truth Web Site!
WE ARE CHANGE - members arrested
Mayor Bloomberg Escapes 9/11 Interview!
Financial Analysis - World Reports - Christopher Story
30 July 2010
CHRISTOPHER STORY FRSA
10 July 2010 - [Removed]
Worst Financial Terrorism Sabotage In History
01 July 2010
Big US Banks Confirmed As Criminal Enterprises
Youtube - October 2009 - Video
Christopher Story - EU Corruption
02 July 2010 - DemocracyNow! - War and Peace Report
Feingold Maintains Opposition to Financial Reform Bill as
"Too Weak" in Face of Wall St. Recklessness
&
Maude Barlow: "The World Has Divided into
Rich and Poor as at No Time in History"
15 February 2009
Catastrophic Banker's Ramp to Continue Under Obama
ROOT CAUSE OF THE GLOBAL CRISIS:
THE CIA FUNDS ITSELF BY FRAUD
22 May 2009 - The Public Record
The CIA's History of Bamboozling The Congress
04 June 2010 - Chris Floyd - Blog
War on the World: Obama's Surge in State Terror
The "people at the top" are indeed well aware that the stated objectives
of the ever-expanding drone program and the ever-expanding Terror War
are not going to be achieved. They are not meant to be achieved.
They are meant only to give the illusion "that we're winning," to keep
the great game going, to keep the money and the power rolling in.
28 June 2010 - DemocracyNow! - War and Peace Report
Toronto Police Arrest Over 600
in Crackdown Outside G20 Summit
28 June 2010
Naomi Klein: The Real Crime
Scene Was Inside the G20 Summit
28 June 2010
Journalist Describes Being Beaten, Arrested
by Canadian Police While Covering G20 Protest
16 June 2010 - Online Journal - Jerry Mazza
The Afghanistan coincidence
The Congress ponders pouring in $30 billion more
into a failing war in Afghanistan, coincidentally the
DOD discovers $1 trillion in natural minerals there.
12 May 2010 - Raw Story - Information Clearinghouse
US Troops Executing Prisoners
in Afghanistan: Seymour Hersh
Obama Signs Financial Bill, Creating Investigative Panel
But after signing, president reserves right to claim executive privilege.
22 May 2009
Obama's Detention Plans Face Scrutiny
21 May 2009
Indefinite Detention? Shame on you... President Obama
Don't miss this 7 minute video with Rachel Maddow!
21 May 2009 - The Independent (UK)
Exclusive: How MI5 blackmails British Muslims
25 June 2009
'If I didn't confess to 7/7 bombings MI5 officers
would rape my wife,' claims torture victim
28 June 2009
CIA Crucified Captive In Abu Ghraib Prison
18 May 2009 - pdf
41 U.S. Counter-Terrorism & Intelligence Agency
Veterans Challenge the Official Account of 9/11
11 May 2009
CIA and ISI together created Taliban
12 May 2009
Obama threatens to limit US intel
with UK over Guantanamo torture
18 June 2008
General Accuses WH of War Crimes
16 May 2009
Rumsfeld's renegade unit
blamed for Afghan deaths
9/11 Truther and Sustainable Earth Retreat @
SolarFest
July 10 - July 12, 2009 - Tinmouth, VT
Valley 9/11 Truth & Flyby News
presented the film:
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Tuesday, April 14, 2009; 7:00 PM
Special April '09 presentations with
David Ray Griffin
9/11: Time For A Second Look
Boston, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Brussels
Valley 9/11 Truth
presented a film screening:
9/11: Blueprint for Truth
The Architecture of Destruction
Wednesday, March 11th, 2009; 7:00 PM
Architectural Integrity vs. Official Lies
FLYBY NEWS
presented a film screening/discussion
A Funny Thing Happened
On The Way To The Moon
By Bart Sibrel - (47-minutes)
Monday, February 9, 2009; 6:00 pm
On the full moon at the Green Fields Market,
144 Main Street, (meeting rm); Greenfield, MA
Valley 9/11 Truth
supported an event with
Cynthia McKinney
Honoring the life and work of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
I Have A Dream Of Unity: A Change Embraced
January 19, 2009; First Churches; Northampton, MA
Also screened:
Fabled Enemies
January 21st at Green Fields Market; Greenfield, MA
and
The Secret Government
The Constitution in Crisis
February 11th; Media Ed. Foundation; Northampton, MA
Valley 9/11 Truth
presented
The Elephant In The Room
a film about the 9/11 Truth Movement
in Greenfield, Massachusetts
December 18, 2008; 5:30 PM
and
Northampton, Massachusetts
December 9, 2008; 7:00 PM
Flyby News
presented:
MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE:
The Secret Birth of the Federal Reserve
A timely film by Daniel Hopsicker.
Green Fields Market, Greenfield, Massachusetts
Tuesday, November 18, 2008; 5:30 PM
November 22nd - 45th anniversary of JFK assassination
Protest Planned in 39 American Cities to END THE FED
Valley 9/11 Truth
presented
Fabled Enemies
A film by Jason Burmas
in Northampton, Massachusetts
November 11, 2008; 7:00 PM
ZERO, an investigation into the events of 9/11
Italian film shown in European Parliament 26 February 2008,
Also broadcast on Russian State Television 12 September 2008
and with Valley 9/11 Truth in Greenfield, MA; November 5, 2008
Valley 9/11 Truth
PRESENTED
The Reflecting Pool
An investigative dramatic film that
challenges the official version of 9/11
Watch the Jonathan Mark interview:
Jarek Kupsc and Joseph Culp
For more on this film, check out this reply by Jarek Kupsc to
Nathan Lee, the NY Times movie critic of The Reflecting Pool.
UNCOUNTED:
The New Math of American Elections
October 22, 2008, Greenfield, MA
Martial Law 9/11:
Rise Of The Police State
Northampton, MA; Oct. 14, 2008
ZERO, an investigation into the events of 9/11
with Valley 9/11 Truth, Northampton, MA; Sept. 11, '08
Northeast 2007 9/11 Truth Tour
Improbable Collapse:
The Demolition of our Republic
Directed by:
Michael Berger
Media Coordinator for 911Truth.org
- 10 April to 23 April, 2007 ~
4/10 - University of Hartford, CT; 4/11 - First Churches, Northampton, MA;
4/11 Holyoke Community College; 4/12 - Keene State College, Putnam Theater, NH;
4/13 Greenfield Community TV, MA; 4/14 Hooker-Dunham Theater, Brattleboro, VT;
4/15 Berkshire Community College, MA; 4/15 Unitarian Universalists, Springfield, MA;
4/16 University At Albany, New York; 4/17 Bennington Free Library, Bennington VT;
4/18 Best Western . . Concord, NH; 4/19 Dover Friends Meeting House, Dover, NH;
4/20 UMASS Edu.., New Bedford, MA; 4/21 Democracy Center, Cambridge, MA;
4/22 Wilton Town Hall Theater, NH; April 23rd Hampshire College, Amherst, MA
Flyby News presented a special free screening of the film:
THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED
In celebration of the failed coup d'etat of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
Valley 9/11 Truth
presented:
"9/11: The Myth and the Reality"
Featuring an extraordinarily powerful lecture of
David Ray Griffin
Film produced by Ken Jenkins - {98 min}
Film Resources Available Here!,
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
For worldwide 9/11 events, see:
911Truth.org -- Calendar
THE SECRET GOVERNMENT:
The Constitution In Crisis
"The Secret Government is an interlocking network of official functionaries, spies,
mercenaries, ex-generals, profiteers and superpatriots, who, for a variety of motives,
operate outside the legitimate institutions of government. Presidents have turned to them
when they can't win the support of the Congress or the people, creating that unsupervised
power so feared by the framers of our Constitution. Just imagine that William Casey's
dream came true. Suppose the enterprise grew into a super-secret, self-financing, self-
perpetuating organization. Suppose they decided on their own to assassinate Gorbachev
or the leader of white South Africa. Could a President control them and what if he became
the enterprise's public enemy Number One? Who would know? Who would say no?"
-- Bill Moyers
From opening narration for a 1987 PBS TV program:
THE SECRET GOVERNMENT: The Constitution In Crisis
Goldstone dares US on Gaza report
Richard Goldstone, the jurist who authored a UN report
accusing Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity
during its war on Gaza, has challenged the US to justify
its claims that his findings are flawed and biased.
Support the Goldstone Report
Navy Vet Honored, Foiled Israeli Attack
By Ray McGovern - 02 June 2009
Middle East Peace ~ initiatives & information
The Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121
"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people
tolerate the growth of private power to the point where
it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That
in its essence is fascism - ownership of government by an
individual, by a group or any controlling private power."
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Black Box Voting -- This is a democracy-driven grassroots organization that has developed safeguards to prevent tampering with ballots. They've figured out ways to impede tampering with the voters themselves. But DO NOT YET have adequate safeguards to prevent the most dangerous election-rigging of all: Tampering with programmers, vendors and technicians! Why has everything changed, and what are the dangers to Democracy? To get involved and for more information, visit BlackBoxVoting.org.
Electronic Voting Threatens Democracy -- How will you know if your vote is counted correctly? You Won't! The new electronic voting machines in use in at least 38 states provide No Paper Trail!. Join efforts for the use of voter-verified paper ballots (VVPBs) for all elections in the United States, so voters can inspect individual permanent records of their ballots before they are cast and so meaningful recounts may be conducted. Also, insist that electronic voting equipment and software be open to public scrutiny and that random, surprise recounts be conducted on a regular basis to audit election equipment. To learn more, visit: VerifiedVoting.org
"The right of voting for representatives is the primary right
by which all other rights are protected.
To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery..."
- Thomas Paine
INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING (IRV) -- Instant runoff voting (IRV) is a voting reform that asks the voter to rank the candidates in order of preference. It is simple, common-sense reform that will greatly improve our democratic process. It has many benefits including giving voters a wider range of choices, eliminating the spoiler factor with third-party candidates, saving taxpayer money, and decreasing negative campaigning. POTUSpoll.com - President of the United States poll uses Instant Runoff Voting. We need to continue educating more Americans about this simple, practical reform. To learn more about IRVs, see: InstantRunoff.com.
"Our people are dying all over the world ... to bring democracy
to the far corners of the world. Let's fix it here."
Senator Barbara Boxer
Barbara Boxer in Wonderland and Fighting Back
From: US Senator Barbara Boxer
[Excerpt]
Every day on the Senate floor is more and more like "Barbara in Wonderland." Sometimes the Senate seems so foreign to me, I wonder if I'm living in some kind of bad dream. And just when I thought it couldn't get worse, it has.Read on to learn more about this week's Senate Republican scheme to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling -- and then reject these radical efforts by signing my petition to Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist. .
..Now we face the ultimate special interest issue: Drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. For six months of oil, not to be realized for ten years, my colleagues seem bent on handing over this most pristine land to the big oil companies. Never mind that we can save the equivalent of an infinite number of ANWR fields by simply raising fuel economy a modest amount -- that doesn't matter. The Republicans don't care about the native peoples whose lives will be ruined; they don't care that President Eisenhower set this land aside; they don't care about the more than one hundred species of wildlife that depend on this refuge.
What they do care about is the precedent. If they open up ANWR, they'll think they can do anything to the environment -- anything at all. Drilling in Yosemite? In the Grand Canyon? What's next? Please stand with me on this critical issue..
..I'm planning to organize a consumer boycott of any oil company that decides to drill in this pristine Alaskan wilderness area. If, through our pocketbooks, we can convince these companies to do the right thing, we can still save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from the destruction that would be wrought by the oil drilling rigs.
Please join me and send an email to the CEOs of ExxonMobil, BP, ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch/Shell, and ChevronTexaco and tell them to "stay out of ANWR!"
In Friendship,
Barbara Boxer
U.S. Senator
You can contact Senator Barbara Boxer (D- CA) by telephone - 202-224-3553
Fax - 415-956-6701 and by email: http://boxer.senate.gov/contact/webform.cfm
Sign up for updates from Barbara Boxer's . "PAC for a Change"
"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned
an invisible government owing no allegiance and
acknowledging no responsibility to the people.
To destroy this invisible government, to befoul
the unholy alliance between corrupt business
and corrupt politics is the first task
of the statesmanship of the day."
Theodore Roosevelt
April 19, 1906
The Truth Behind 9/11 and American Empire:
A Christian Theologian Speaks Out
For a recommended DVD film
to present, share, raise consciousness,
and for transcript of the April, 18, 2005
address by David Ray Griffin, broadcast
by C-span cable TV on April 30, 2005), see:
9/11 and the American Empire:
How Should Religious People Respond?
For more on this subject from FN Archives, see:
"The Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports"
"They that can give up essential liberty
to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin
"The statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation
that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities,
and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus
he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God
for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception."
– Mark Twain
"The Mysterious Stranger" (1910)
Other resource links for democracy-reclaiming campaigns:
ReclaimDemocracy.org
ThomHartmann.com
Greg Palast
NOW with Bill Moyers
At your local bookstore or library:
"Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency"
by Senator Robert Byrd
MEET THE PRESS - - Transcript for July 18
with Senator Robert Byrd
Moderator/Panelist: Tim Russert, NBC News
MR. TIM RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday: The longest-serving current member of the United States Senate has written a blistering critique of George W. Bush, "Losing America: Confronting A Reckless And Arrogant Presidency." With us, Senator Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia. . . Robert C. Byrd has been a senator for 45 years, serving with 11 presidents and now says our current president is "...a dangerous leader in a dangerous time."
For the transcript, see: MEET THE PRESS - - Transcript
or
FN Archives - Sen. Byrd on Meet the Press and on "Losing America"
For more resources check these FN archive issues:
February 18, 2008 -
9/11 Ballot * Parliament * Griffin & Moyers
September 30, 2007 - Item 1
A Coup Has Occurred
September 2, 2007 - Item 2
Peace, Injustice and Ron Paul
- - In reply to David Swanson's article by Jonathan Mark
June 7, 2006 - Item 2
Politics for Regime Change in the USA
- - Letter handed to Senator Feingold by Jonathan Mark
March 27, 2006 - Editor's Notes
9/11 Quest
March 16, 2006 - Editor's Notes and Item 2
Support Resolution to Censure President George W. Bush
February 27, 2006 - Editor's Notes and Item 1
9/11 Truth--Will Americans Be the Last to Know?
June 23, 2005 - Item 3
US Election Assessment Texas Forum
- - Election Fraud and Irregularity ~ 2000 US Coup D'etat
Election Assessment by Jonathan Mark of Flyby News
May 24, 2005 - Item 4
Open Letter to Kucinich for Reclaiming a Lost USA Democracy
"A standing army is one of the greatest mischief that can possibly happen."
– James Madison
(US fourth president, 1751-1836)
"MemoGate" Hearing - June 16, 2005 -- Rep. John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of House Judiciary Committee, and other Democratic Members held a Democratic hearing to hear testimony concerning the Downing Street Minutes and the efforts to cook the books on pre-war intelligence. For more information on this and related issues, visit: afterdowningstreet.org.
BRING THEM HOME NOW! -- This is a campaign of military families, veterans, active duty personnel, reservists and others opposed to the ongoing war in Iraq and galvanized to action by George W. Bush's inane and reckless challenge to armed Iraqis resisting occupation to "Bring 'em on." Their mission is to mobilize military families, veterans, and GIs themselves to demand: an end to the occupation of Iraq and other misguided military adventures; and an immediate return of all US troops to their home duty stations. For more information on this effort, visit BringThemHomeNow.org.
Buy Citgo gas to Fuel Democracy -- Citgo is a company is owned by PDV America, Inc., an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A., the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Citgo is the US refining and marketing arm of Venezuela's state oil company. Revenue from this oil at the current high market price that has enabled Hugo Chavez to carry out social investments and democracy-building. A success for that democratic economic experiment in Latin America is a threat to the corporate control everywhere. The social spending of the state-owned oil company has made him the target of an Old Guard that is trying to oust him. That Old Guard is supported by the international oil corporations that do not want to see a state-run oil company funneling profits into social spending for the poor. A simple, painless way for American progressives to continue social change in Venezuela is to fill up at Citgo stations. You can click following link to locate Citgo gas stations: www.citgo.com/CITGOLocator.jsp.
"Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious
to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty."
– George W. Washington
"The love of liberty is the love of others;
the love of power is the love of ourselves."
– William Hazlitt
"What kind of moral schizophrenia is it that allows us to shout
at the top of our national voice for all the world to hear that we
live up to our commitment when every page of history and when all
the thirsty, starving, humiliating days and nights of the last 100
years in the lives of the American Indian contradict that voice?"
– Marlon Brando
"We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,
tied in a single garment of destiny.
Whatever affects one directly,
effects all indirectly."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
"The world is a dangerous place,
not because of those who do evil,
but because of those who look on and do nothing"
-- Albert Einstein
KEY NEWS & RESOURCES
Space for Peace & September 11
Energy Pollution's Impact On Our Environment
Credible Witness - UFO - Disclosure
Flyby News Health and Spiritual Blog
And don't miss out on
Reports on Bart Jordan and evidence
of advanced pre-ice-age civilizations
The views expressed herein are writers' own and not necessarily of Flyby News.
Fair Use Policy that describes use of copyrighted material is at FlybyNews.com.
Feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News is appreciated.
You can write to the editor by email: - flybynews(at}hughes{dot)net-
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus,
and has supported critical campaigns for a healthy
environment, human rights, justice, and nonviolence,
since the launch of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era
= = = www.FlybyNews.com = = =
WorseThanYouThink * ProtectVote * FreeCamilo
14 September 2004
"One of the reasons I did not refuse the war from the beginning was
that I was afraid of losing my freedom. Today, as I sit behind bars
I realize that there are many types of freedom, and that in spite
of my confinement I remain free in many important ways."
– Camilo Mejia
August 8, 2004
U.S. Army Conscientious Objector
1) Newsweek: "It's Worse Than You Think"
- - The Real Reason We're In Iraq
- - Bush Team 'Knew of Abuse' at Guantnamo
- - US troops face new torture claims
- - House Republicans and Democrats Unite in Linking Iraq with 9/11
- - Democracy Now!- Headlines for September 13, 2004
2) Protect the Vote - 1-866-OUR VOTE
3) Prisoner of Conscience – Camilo Mejia
Editor's Notes:
This active hurricane season could be likely generated from higher sea temperatures. Yet common sense can be debated, as we have discovered by the flag-waving fear-toting elements of the Bush administration. Their strategies in many polls seem to be working quite well on those willing to be controlled by tactics of fear and threats. We need to keep tirelessly working to convince those in denial about the truth of which administration will lead to greater harm and terror. Item 1 covers this issue that is in our face based on the weapons of deception. "It's Worse Than You Think." Item 2 is on a hotline for reporting unfair actions to stop anyone from voting. Item 3 provides an update on Camilo Meija, someone serving his country of choice right now as a U.S. Army Conscientious Objector.
Please note that updated at FlybyNews.com are links on events coming up this Saturday in Cummington, MA, "One World Fair," which features speakers such as Amy Goodman and Carol Mosely Braun, and a lot more. And on the following weekend, September 25 and 26th, the World Unity Festival, held at Inwood Hill Park in New York City. This festival will highlight various styles of music, visual arts, appropriate technology, social organizations, and workshops. This summit will also host a spectrum of Indigenous & religious leaders, educators and political activists. I was invited to table and speak at this event, but with schedule conflicts, will have to bail out and send FN flyers and address hand-outs for resource links since the Cassini-Earth flyby. NASA not only inspired the genesis of "news fit to transmit in the post Cassini flyby era," but the Earth-flyby plutonium radiation risk also surfaced a man with the most intriguing story of the millenniums. Make sure you check from FlybyNews.com - Exclusive reports on Bart Jordan, evidence of technologically advanced ancient civilizations. and then hold on to your seats for an update on his work, coming soon, perhaps revealing more on Bart's open-ended question: "How many coincidences make a fact?"
1) Newsweek: "It's Worse Than You Think"
- - The Real Reason We're In Iraq
- - Bush Team 'Knew of Abuse' at Guantnamo
- - US troops face new torture claims
- - House Republicans and Democrats Unite in Linking Iraq with 9/11
- - Democracy Now!- Headlines for September 13, 2004
- - It's Worse Than You Think
By Scott Johnson and Babak Dehghanpisheh
Newsweek - Monday September 20 2004 Issue
As Americans debate Vietnam, the U.S. death toll tops 1,000 in Iraq.
And the insurgents are still getting stronger.
Iraqis don't shock easily these days, but eyewitnesses could only blink in disbelief as they recounted last Tuesday's broad-daylight kidnappings in central Baghdad. At about 5 in the afternoon, on a quiet side street outside the Ibn Haitham hospital, a gang armed with pistols, AK-47s and pump-action shotguns raided a small house used by three Italian aid groups. The gunmen, none of them wearing masks, took orders from a smooth-shaven man in a gray suit; they called him "sir." When they drove off, the gunmen had four hostages: two local NGO employees - one of them a woman who was dragged out of the house by her headscarf - and two 29-year-old Italians, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, both members of the antiwar group A Bridge to Baghdad. The whole job took less than 10 minutes. Not a shot was fired. About 15 minutes afterward, an American Humvee convoy passed hardly a block away - headed in the opposite direction.
Sixteen months after the war's supposed end, Iraq's insurgency is spreading. Each successful demand by kidnappers has spawned more hostage-takings - to make Philippine troops go home, to stop Turkish truckers from hauling supplies into Iraq, to extort fat ransom payments from Kuwaitis. The few relief groups that remain in Iraq are talking seriously about leaving. U.S. forces have effectively ceded entire cities to the insurgents, and much of the country elsewhere is a battleground. Last week the total number of U.S. war dead in Iraq passed the 1,000 mark, reaching 1,007 by the end of Saturday.
U.S. forces are working frantically to train Iraqis for the thankless job of maintaining public order. The aim is to boost Iraqi security forces from 95,000 to 200,000 by sometime next year. Then, using a mixture of force and diplomacy, the Americans plan to retake cities and install credible local forces. That's the hope, anyway. But the quality of new recruits is debatable. During recent street demonstrations in Najaf, police opened fire on crowds, killing and injuring dozens. The insurgents, meanwhile, are recruiting, too. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld once referred to America's foes in Iraq as "dead-enders," then the Pentagon maintained they probably numbered 5,000, and now senior military officials talk about "dozens of regional cells" that could call upon as many as 20,000 fighters.
Yet U.S. officials publicly insist that Iraq will somehow hold national elections before the end of January. The appointed council currently acting as Iraq's government under interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi is to be replaced by an elected constitutional assembly - if the vote takes place. "I presume the election will be delayed," says the Iraqi Interior Ministry's chief spokesman, Sabah Kadhim. A senior Iraqi official sees no chance of January elections: "I'm convinced that it's not going to happen. It's just not realistic. How is it going to happen?" Some Iraqis worry that America will stick to its schedule despite all obstacles. "The Americans have created a series of fictional dates and events in order to delude themselves," says Ghassan Atiyya, director of the independent Iraq Foundation for Development and Democracy, who recently met with Allawi and American representatives to discuss the January agenda. "Badly prepared elections, rather than healing wounds, will open them."
America has its own Election Day to worry about. For U.S. troops in Iraq, one especially sore point is the stateside public's obsession with the candidates' decades-old military service. "Stop talking about Vietnam," says one U.S. official who has spent time in the Sunni Triangle. "People should be debating this war, not that one." His point was not that America ought to walk away from Iraq. Hardly any U.S. personnel would call that a sane suggestion. But there's widespread agreement that Washington needs to rethink its objectives, and quickly. "We're dealing with a population that hovers between bare tolerance and outright hostility," says a senior U.S. diplomat in Baghdad. "This idea of a functioning democracy here is crazy. We thought that there would be a reprieve after sovereignty, but all hell is breaking loose."
It's not only that U.S. casualty figures keep climbing. American counterinsurgency experts are noticing some disturbing trends in those statistics. The Defense Department counted 87 attacks per day on U.S. forces in August - the worst monthly average since Bush's flight-suited visit to the USS Abraham Lincoln in May 2003. Preliminary analysis of the July and August numbers also suggests that U.S. troops are being attacked across a wider area of Iraq than ever before. And the number of gunshot casualties apparently took a huge jump in August. Until then, explosive devices and shrapnel were the primary cause of combat injuries, typical of a "phase two" insurgency, where sudden ambushes are the rule. (Phase one is the recruitment phase, with most actions confined to sabotage. That's how things started in Iraq.) Bullet wounds would mean the insurgents are standing and fighting - a step up to phase three.
Another ominous sign is the growing number of towns that U.S. troops simply avoid. A senior Defense official objects to calling them "no-go areas." "We could go into them any time we wanted," he argues. The preferred term is "insurgent enclaves." They're spreading. Counterinsurgency experts call it the "inkblot strategy": take control of several towns or villages and expand outward until the areas merge. The first city lost to the insurgents was Fallujah, in April. Now the list includes the Sunni Triangle cities of Ar Ramadi, Baqubah and Samarra, where power shifted back and forth between the insurgents and American-backed leaders last week. "There is no security force there [in Fallujah], no local government," says a senior U.S. military official in Baghdad. "We would get attacked constantly. Forget about it."
U.S. military planners only wish they could. "What we see is a classic progression," says Andrew Krepinevich, author of the highly respected study "The Army and Vietnam." "What we also see is that the U.S. military is not trained or organized to fight insurgencies. That was the deliberate choice after Vietnam. Now we look to be paying the price." Americans aren't safe even on the outskirts of a city like Fallujah. Early last week a suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into two U.S. Humvees nine miles north of town on the four-lane concrete bypass called Highway 10. Seven Americans died. It was one of the deadliest blows against U.S. forces since June, when Iraqis formally resumed control of their government.
As much as ordinary Iraqis may hate the insurgents, they blame the Americans for creating the whole mess. Three months ago Iraqi troops and U.S.-dominated "multinational forces" pulled out of Samarra, and insurgents took over the place immediately. "The day the MNF left, people celebrated in the streets," says Kadhim, the Interior spokesman. "But that same day, vans arrived in town and started shooting. They came from Fallujah and other places and they started blowing up houses." Local elders begged Allawi's government to send help. "The leaders of the tribes come to see us and they say, 'Really, we are scared, we don't like these people'," Kadhim continues. "But we just don't have the forces at the moment to help them." Last week negotiators reached a tentative peace deal, but it's not likely to survive long. The Iraqi National Guard is the only homegrown security force that people respect, and all available ING personnel are deployed elsewhere.
Will Iraq's troubles get even worse? "The insurgency can certainly sustain what it's doing for a while," says a senior U.S. military official. Many educated Iraqis aren't waiting to find out. Applicants mobbed the courtyard of the Baghdad passport office last week, desperate for a chance to escape. Police fired shots in the air, trying to control the crowd. "Every day there is shooting, gunfire, people killed, headaches for lack of sleep," said Huda Hussein, 34, a Ph.D. in computer science who has spent the past year and a half looking for work. "I want to go to a calm place for a while." It's too bad for Iraq - and for America - that the insurgents don't share that wish.
For original article, see:
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5973272/site/newsweek
also posted at: www.truthout.org/docs_04/091404V.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Real Reason We're In Iraq
by Harley Sorensen
September 13, 2004
San Francisco Chronicle
The Real Reason We're In Iraq
by Harley Sorensen
We should get out of Iraq immediately. Let me explain ...
But, first, bear in mind why we're in Iraq. It has nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction, and it has nothing to do with the brutal dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.
It has a lot to do with ambition.
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/views04/0913-03.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush Team 'Knew of Abuse' at Guantnamo
by Oliver Burkeman
Published, September 13, 2004 by the Guardian/UK
WASHINGTON - Evidence of prisoner abuse and possible war crimes at Guantnamo Bay reached the highest levels of the Bush administration as early as autumn 2002, but Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, chose to do nothing about it, according to a new investigation published exclusively in the Guardian today.
The investigation, by the veteran journalist Seymour Hersh, quotes one former marine at the camp recalling sessions in which guards would "fuck with [detainees] as much as we could" by inflicting pain on them.
The Bush administration repeatedly assured critics that inmates were granted recreation periods, but one Pentagon adviser told Hersh how, for some prisoners, they consisted of being left in straitjackets in intense sunlight with hoods over their heads.
Hersh provides details of how President George Bush signed off on the establishment of a secret unit that was given advance approval to kill or capture and interrogate "high-value" suspects - considered by many to be in defiance of international law - an officially "unacknowledged" programme that was eventually transferred wholesale from Guantnamo to the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Hersh, who broke the story of the My Lai massacre in the Vietnam war, makes his revelations in a new book, Chain of Command, which leaves senior figures in the Bush administration far more seriously implicated in the torture scandal than had been previously apparent.
A CIA analyst visited Guantnamo in summer 2002 and returned "convinced that we were committing war crimes" and that "more than half the people there didn't belong there. He found people lying in their own faeces," a CIA source told Hersh.
The analyst submitted a report to General John Gordon, an aide to Condoleezza Rice, Mr Bush's national security adviser.
Gen Gordon was troubled, and, one former administration official told Hersh "that if the actions at Guantnamo ever became public, it'd be damaging to the president".
Ms Rice saw the document by autumn of the same year, and called a high-level meeting at which she asked Mr Rumsfeld, to deal with the problem.
But after he vowed to act, "the Pentagon went into a full-court stall", a former White House official is quoted as saying. "Why didn't Condi do more? She made the same mistake I made. She got the secretary of defence to say he's going to take care of it."
The investigation further suggests that CIA and FBI staff had already witnessed incidents at Guantnamo just as extreme as those that would subsequently be alleged by freed inmates.
A senior intelligence official told Hersh: "I was told [by FBI agents] that the military guards were slapping prisoners, stripping them, pouring cold water over them and making them stand until they got hypothermia."
The secret "special access programme" facilitating much of the mistreatment of prisoners, widely held to have contravened the Geneva convention, was established following a direct order from the president.
Hersh reports that a secret document signed by Mr Bush in February 2002 stated: "I determine that none of the provisions of Geneva apply to our conflict with al-Qaida in Afghanistan or elsewhere throughout the world."
Hersh's book reports that an army officer communicated concerns over abuses at Abu Ghraib both to General John Abizaid, the US central command (Centcom) chief at the time, and his deputy, General Lance Smith.
The officer told Hersh: "I said there are systematic abuses going on in the prisons. Abizaid didn't say a thing. He looked at me - beyond me, as if to say, 'Move on. I don't want to touch this.'" Centcom has disputed the allegation.
In an interview with the Guardian, Hersh provided evidence that the administration sought to evade the issue: he said codenames of some programmes were changed within hours of his original story appearing, presumably to maintain their secrecy.
In a statement, the Pentagon said Hersh's investigation "apparently contains many of the numerous unsubstantiated allegations and inaccuracies which he has made in the past based upon unnamed sources ... Thus far ... investigations have determined that no responsible official of the Department of Defence approved any programme that could conceivably have authorised or condoned the abuses seen at Abu Ghraib. If any of Mr Hersh's anonymous sources wish to come forward and offer evidence to the contrary, the department welcomes them to do so."
Pressure has been building on the Pentagon over its detention policies after it emerged at a Congressional hearing last week that the administration is being accused of concealing up to 100 "ghost detainees" from the Red Cross, which must be granted access to prisoners of war and other detainees under the Geneva convention.
Mr Rumsfeld told reporters on Friday he had approved the use of harsh interrogation measures, but that they had only been meant for Guantnamo. He said the measures ought to be contrasted with those of terrorists. "Does it rank up there with chopping someone's head off on television?" he asked. "It doesn't."
Guardian Newspapers Limited
www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1303064,00.html
also posted
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0913-21.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - US troops face new torture claims
by Richard Norton-Taylor
Tuesday September 14, 2004
The Guardian
Allegations that American soldiers routinely tortured and maltreated detainees have emerged from a third Iraqi city, renewing fears that abuse similar to that inflicted in Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad has been systematic and widespread.
American soldiers in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul beat and stripped detainees, threatened sexual abuse and forced them to listen to loud western music, according to statements seen by the Guardian.
Lawyers investigating the claims have sent details to the Pentagon and the British Ministry of Defence and have demanded an inquiry.
Though the abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib jail and in Basra has been well-documented, this is the first time claims of abuse have been made from the north of the country.
Two statements have been taken from Iraqis detained in Mosul and more are expected.
In one, an Iraqi lawyer says he was hooded and stripped naked in a building known as the "disco".
Yasir Rubaii Saeed al-Qutaji describes how loud western music was played and cold water poured over his body; he said he was also threatened with sexual abuse.
"For the next 15 hours they tried to break me down by taking me frequently inside and repeating the stripping, cold water and loud music sequence," he says.
"Due to the very loud music," he adds, "they would talk to me via a loudspeaker that was placed next to my ears."
The beatings did not leave a mark on his body because his attackers wore special gloves, he says.
Mr al-Qutaji says he was a founder member of the Islamic Organisation for Human Rights. He claims that other prisoners were treated even worse. "Some were burnt with fire, others [had] bandaged broken arms."
In a separate statement, Haitham Saeed al-Mallah, a Mosul-born engineering graduate, says his house was raided by seven American soldiers in January. "I was handcuffed and hooded and was then taken to an unknown place which they call 'the disco', where they played very loud music as one of their means of torture."
He adds: "They left me standing for hours, handcuffed and hooded, which made me quite disorientated. Then I was kicked very hard on my stomach, which was fol lowed by continuous beating with a stick and with their boots until I fell unconscious. I only woke up after they poured over my head very cold water, which caused me great suffering."
Mr al-Mallah says he was taken to a room where there was a "group torture".
He adds: "I heard nothing but screaming and suffering of detained Iraqis. The usage of cold water along with beating seemed to be a standard procedure. We were then asked to perform exhausting exercises of squatting while they were playing extremely loud (and dirty) music.
"Whoever fell to the ground out of exhaustion would receive painful beating and cold water. We were prevented from going to the toilets despite our pleas, which made many of us soil ourselves."
He says detainees were allowed to sleep for about two hours, after which the cycle of torture continued.
"The new thing this time was ordering us to shout, 'Long live the United States'. We were also made to shout obscenities (sentences that had the word 'fuck' in them)."
Mr al-Mallah says the next day, he saw "a young man of 14 years of age bleeding from his anus and lying on the floor.
"He was Kurdish and his name was Hama. I heard the soldiers talking to each other about this guy, they mentioned that the reason for this bleeding was inserting a metal object in his anus."
Mr al-Qutaji, who was detained in March, says he and other Iraqi lawyers have been unable to stop abuses because US forces have been given immunity from prosecution.
He says Paul Bremer, former head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, dismissed 120 of Iraq's senior judges, 45 of them in Mosul, on the grounds that they were supporters of Saddam's regime.
Phil Shiner, of the Birmingham-based law firm Public Interest Lawyers, is trying to get the cases raised in the British courts. He is working with American lawyers to get them raised there.
"The British public needs to know the full implications of the decision to get into this war," he said.
A US army spokesman in Baghdad said yesterday that he was surprised by the allegations, which would be investigated.
The MoD in London said it had not yet been made aware of the allegations.
Guardian Unlimited Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1304042,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - House Republicans and Democrats Unite in Linking Iraq with 9/11
by Stephen Zunes
September 13, 2004
Published by CommonDreams.org
On the eve of the third anniversary of 9/11, the U.S. House of Representatives – by an overwhelming bipartisan majority of 406-16 – passed a resolution linking Iraq to the Al Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. This comes despite conclusions reached by the bipartisan 9/11 Commission and the consensus of independent strategic analysis familiar with the region that no such links ever existed.
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/views04/0913-14.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Democracy Now!- Headlines for September 13, 2004
- "I'm a journalist. I'm dying, I'm dying": Arab Reporter Killed in U.S. Attack
- Fate of Four Aid Workers Kidnapped in Iraq Remains Unclear
- US Soldier Sentenced for Abu Ghraib Torture
- Rumsfeld Confuses Saddam and Bin Laden Twice in Speech
- 9/11 Pollution 'Could Cause More Deaths Than Attack'
- Assault Weapons Ban Ends Today: AK-47s, Uzis, TEC-9s Legal.
Monday, September 13th, 2004
..One of the most terrifying incidents of the weekend came Sunday when a US helicopter opened fire on a crowd milling around an abandoned Bradley armored vehicle that the Pentagon says had been attacked. At least 13 people were killed in the US helicopter attack on the crowd and children are among the dead. The US strikes also killed a journalist from the Arab TV network al Arabiya. The network broadcast harrowing footage of its correspondent, Mazen al-Tumeisi, reporting from the scene when he is hit by shrapnel. He doubles over and his blood splatters on the camera lens as he screams, "I'm a journalist. I'm dying, I'm dying."
For the complete transcript, see:
Headlines for September 13, 2004
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/13/1428225
2) Protect the Vote - 1-866-OUR VOTE
Protect the Vote
By Bob Herbert
The New York Times
Monday 13 September 2004
[Excerpt]
..The attempt to prevent blacks from voting has been a staple of America's political history, like long-winded speeches and balloons. I wrote three columns last month about a situation in Orlando, Fla., in which armed state police officers went into the homes of elderly black voters to question them as part of a so-called criminal investigation involving absentee ballots. This tactic sent a definite chill through voters who were old enough to remember the torment inflicted on Southern blacks who tried to vote in the 1950's and 60's.
A new study by the People for the American Way Foundation and the N.A.A.C.P. describes many recent examples of voter harassment and intimidation - the latest entries in the long and sordid history of disenfranchisement in the U.S. The study, called "The Long Shadow of Jim Crow," noted:
"Voter intimidation and suppression efforts have not been limited to a single party, but have in fact shifted over time as voting allegiances have shifted. In recent decades, African-American voters have largely been loyal to the Democratic Party, resulting in the prevalence of Republican efforts to suppress minority turnout."
In Texas, students at the predominantly black Prairie View A&M University were threatened with arrest by the local district attorney, a Republican, who suggested they were not eligible to vote in the county in which the school was located. This was nonsense. Students can vote in their college towns if they designate the campus as their home address. The whole point, of course, was intimidation. The threat of arrest is an excellent way of deterring someone from voting.
There are endless stories of attempts to discourage blacks from voting. Few get substantial publicity, so this is not seen as a big national problem. It deserves a brighter spotlight. When duly registered blacks are improperly challenged at the polls, or Florida tries to use a patently discriminatory voter felons list, or black votes are criminally tampered with or simply not counted at all - something should be done.
The number to call is 1-866-OUR VOTE.
www.truthout.org/docs_04/091404I.shtml
or the original was posted:
www.nytimes.com/2004/09/13/opinion/13herbert.html
3) Prisoner of Conscience – Camilo Mejia
"Behind these bars I sit a free man
because I listened to a higher power,
the voice of my conscience".
On May 21, 2004, 28-year-old Sgt. Camilo Mejia was sentenced to one year in prison for refusing to return to fight in Iraq. Camilo spent six months in combat in Iraq, then returned for a 2-week furlough to the US. There he reflected on what he had seen, including the abuse of prisoners and the killing of civilians. He concluded that the war was illegal and immoral, and decided that he would not return. In March 2004 he turned himself in to the US military and filed an application for conscientious objector status.
A great resource on Camilo Mejia, and suggestions for how you can support his efforts for nonviolence and conscience, see:
freecamilo.org
Latest News - Monday, Sept. 13, 2004 - Camilo has been given the Courageous Resister Award.
Read his moving statement here. This is his first statement written from prison:
freecamilo.org/words.htm
For how you can support and contact Camilo, see: freecamilo.org/support.htm
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
BushFamilyFortunes * Lawsuit * Un-Convention
08 September 2004
"When shall it be said in any country of the world, my poor are happy,
neither ignorance or distress is to be found among them; my jails are
empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want,
the taxes not oppressive; the rational world is my friend because I am
friend of its happiness. When these things can be said, then may that
country boast of its constitution and government ."
- Thomas Paine
1) "Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy"
2) Lawsuit Uncovers New Bush Guard Records
- - Globe: Bush Didn't Meet Guard Commitments
- - Flip-Flopper In Chief
- - US troops death toll mounts as Iraq danger persists
- - Video: Bush's Words... The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
- - Video: 9/11 In Plane Sight
- - Bush Family Wounds America Below The Belt Line
- - Neocons Preparing the Sequel to Plan of Attack
- - The Unwinnable War
3) Post Republican Convention Notes
- - Why Democrats shouldn't be scared
- - A Father Gets Anti-War Message to the Floor
From CBSNEWS.com -- Sad Milestone For Iraq War -
"U.S. warplanes swooped over Fallujah, a day after a recent spike in violence pushed the U.S. death toll in Iraq past 1,000. Conservative estimates by private groups put the number of Iraqi deaths at 10 times that number."
Editor's Notes:
The above marker of fatalities in Iraq is proof enough of the failure of the Bush administration's policies. The former Texas House Speaker and Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes,"the man who says he got George W. Bush into the National Guard, tells his story for the first time to Dan Rather, Wednesday (September 8) at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
For more information, see:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1999/05/24/60II/main48284.shtml
Item 1 begins with information on a new tool to dethrone George Bush from office. The new film, "Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" "..follows reporter sleuth Greg Palast on the trail for BBC television, from Florida election rigging, to the hard-core info on the Saudi-Bush family connection, to the Bush team's spiking the investigation of the bin Ladens before September 11. Palast reveals documents from deep inside the US State Department on pre-war plans to divide up the oil fields of Iraq. Plus the real story of the fix to get little Georgie out of 'Nam. Fast, at times funny, always infuriating ... if you liked Fahrenheit 9-11, get ready for the investigative journalism on which it was based." You can get this film for yourself and join affiliate members of Howard Dean's Democracy For America in pre-release screenings of the blistering 70-minute documentary.
In item 2 is more on the truth and repercussions on a Lawsuit uncovering new Bush Guard Records. Sub-items in this item cover quite a varied perspective on the Bush and US against Iraq fiasco. And item 3 covers post-Republican Convention notes, on an article by Michael Moore, "Why Democrats shouldn't be scared" and a special father reporting in civil disobedience to get a message to the floor of the Convention.
As proof of the destructive nature of violence: "At least 322 people, including 155 children, died during the bloody end to a hostage-taking at a school in southern Russia, a senior prosecutor said on Saturday. [ http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6150734 ]
There is already talk of this tragic event inspiring the Russians to join in on a new level of preemptive attacks to act against terrorism, which will only inspire more.
Now is the time to wake up for the role of peace and the strength of a nation to be considered in such terms to actually reduce or end violence.
"You can no more win a war,
than you can win an earthquake."
-- Jeanette Rankin
1) "Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy"
Palast Film Premieres ... Join Democracy For America Affiliates
"Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy"
September 7, 2004
Bush Family Fortunes follows reporter sleuth Palast on the trail for BBC television, from Florida election rigging, to the hard-core info on the Saudi-Bush family connection, to the Bush team's spiking the investigation of the bin Ladens before September 11. Palast reveals documents from deep inside the US State Department on pre-war plans to divide up the oil fields of Iraq. Plus the real story of the fix to get little Georgie out of 'Nam. Fast, at times funny, always infuriating ... if you liked Fahrenheit 9-11, get ready for the investigative journalism on which it was based.
Join affiliate members of Howard Dean's Democracy For America in pre-release screenings of the blistering 70-minute documentary, "Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy". Beginning this week, DFA's affiliates will show the film woven from Palast's original award-winning investigative reports for BBC television.
The Philadelphia Weekly had this to say of the film's underground premier at Philadelphia's Lost Film Fest:
"Greg Palast's Bush Family Fortunes appears to be the big find, being that Fahrenheit 9/11 was inspired by its fevered take-down of the seated president."
"Stunning ... disturbing ... important."
- Sen. John Edwards
"Courageous reporting."
- Michael Moore
Locations and dates below and at:
http://www.takeyourcountryback.com/BUSHFAMILYFORTUNES/screenings.htm
Sept. 10th
Gainesville, Florida
Sept. 11th
Cincinnati, Ohio
Spokane, Washington
Brooklyn, New York
Sept. 12th
Davis, California
Atlanta, Georgia
Decatur, Georgia
St. Augustine, Florida
Dallas, Texas
Middlebury, Vermont
Spokane, Washington
Sept. 13th
Spokane, Washington
Sept. 14th
Spokane, Washington
Sept. 16th
Taos, New Mexico
Sept. 17th
Greenbank, Washington
Sept. 19th
Santa Rosa, California
Amherst, New Hampshire ((PENDING))
Sept. 25th
Little Rock, Arkansas
Oct. 2nd
Chicago, Illinois ((PENDING))
Oct. 4th, 6th, & 7th
Madison, Wisconsin ((PENDING))
October 15th
Austin, Texas
Oct. 22-24th
New Orleans, Louisiana ((PENDING))
Oct. 28th
Seattle, Washington
Watch the trailer and buy your own copy at:
http://www.gregpalast.com/bff-dvd.htm
For more from Greg Palast, see:
http://www.gregpalast.com
2) Lawsuit Uncovers New Bush Guard Records
- - Globe: Bush Didn't Meet Guard Commitments
- - Flip-Flopper In Chief
- - US troops death toll mounts as Iraq danger persists
- - Video: Bush's Words... The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
- - Video: 9/11 In Plane Sight
- - Neocons Preparing the Sequel to Plan of Attack
- - The Unwinnable War
- - Lawsuit Uncovers New Bush Guard Records
By MATT KELLEY, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - President Bush ranked in the middle of his Air National Guard flight class and flew 336 hours in a fighter jet before letting his pilot status lapse and missing a key readiness drill in 1972, according to his flight records belatedly uncovered Tuesday under the Freedom of Information Act.
The Pentagon and Bush's campaign have claimed for months that all records detailing his fighter pilot career have been made public, but defense officials said they found two dozen new records detailing his training and flight logs after The Associated Press filed a lawsuit and submitted new requests under the public records law.
"Previous requests from other requesters for President Bush's Individual Flight Records did not lead to the discovery of these records because at the time President Bush left the service, flight
records were subject to retention for only 24 months and we understood that neither the Air Force nor the Texas Air National Guard retained such records thereafter," the Pentagon told the AP.
"Out of an abundance of caution," the government "searched a file that had been preserved in spite of this policy" and found the Bush records, the letter said. "The Department of Defense regrets this oversight during the previous search efforts."
Bush's Vietnam-era service in the Texas Air National Guard has become an issue in the presidential campaign as the candidates spar over who would make the best commander in chief. Supporters of Democratic nominee John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam combat veteran, have
criticized Bush for serving stateside in the National Guard. Kerry's Republican critics claim Kerry did not deserve some of his five medals.
Bush has repeatedly said he is proud of his Air National Guard service. White House spokesmen said as late as last week the administration knew of no other records of Bush's military service.
"These documents confirm that the president served honorably in the National Guard," White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said Tuesday night.
Democratic National Committee communications director Jano Cabrera disagreed. "For months George Bush (news - web sites) told the nation that all his military records were public," he said. "Now we know why Bush was trying so hard to withhold these records. When his nation asked him to be on call against possible surprise attacks, Bush wasn't there."
The newly released records show Bush, a lieutenant in the Texas Air National Guard, ranked No. 22 in a class of 53 pilots when he finished his flight training at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia in 1969.
Over the next three years, he logged 326.4 hours as a pilot and an additional 9.9 hours as a co-pilot, mostly in his the F-102A jet used to intercept enemy aircraft. Of the 278 hours he flew in the interceptor, about 77 hours were in the TF-102A, the two-seat trainer version of the one-seat fighter jet.
The records show his last flight was in April 1972, which is consistent with pay records indicating Bush had a large lapse of duty between April and October of that year. Bush has said he went to Alabama in 1972 to work on an unsuccessful Republican Senate campaign. Bush skipped a required medical exam that cost him his pilot's status in August of that year.
Bush's 2000 campaign suggested the future president skipped his medical exam in part because the F-102A was nearly obsolete. Records show Bush's Texas unit flew the F-102A until 1974 and used the jets as part of an air defense drill during 1972.
A six-month historical record of his 147th Fighter Interceptor Group, also turned over to the AP on Tuesday, shows some of the training Bush missed with his colleagues during that time.
Significantly, it showed the unit joined a "24-hour active alert mission to safeguard against surprise attack" in the southern United State beginning on Oct. 6, 1972, a time when Bush did not report for duty, according to his pay records.
Bush's lone service in October was outside Texas, presumably with an Alabama unit he had permission to train with in September, October and November 1972.
As part of the mission, the 147th kept two F-102a jets the same Bush flew before he was grounded on ready alert to be launched within five minutes' warning.
The records also show Bush made a grade of 88 on total airmanship and a perfect 100 for flying without navigational instruments, operating a T-38 System and studying applied aerodynamics. Other scores ranged from 89 in flight planning to 98 in aviation physiology.
The newly released records do not include any from five categories of documents Bush's commanders had been required to keep in response to the gaps in Bush's training in 1972 and 1973. For example, National Guard commanders were required to perform an investigation whenever any pilot skipped a medical exam and forward the results up the Air Force chain of command. No such documents have surfaced.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Globe: Bush Didn't Meet Guard Commitments
President Bush fell well short of meeting his military obligation in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War, the BOSTON GLOBE is planning to front on Wednesday, newsroom sources tell DRUDGE.
The 1,500 word expose on Bush's records comes just hours ahead of an exclusive CBSNEWS interview set to air Wednesday night with a man who secured for the 22-year-old Yale graduate Bush a coveted place in the Guard -- a man who now claims he regrets helping Bush.
The GLOBE claims: "Twice during his Guard service - first when he joined in May 1968, and again before he transferred out of his unit in mid-1973 to attend Harvard Business School - Bush signed documents pledging to meet training commitments or face a punitive call-up to active duty.
"He didn't meet the commitments, or face the punishment, the records show."
After laying dormant for most of the summer, big media picks up where it left off on the Bush national guard issue in a post-Labor Day filing frenzy.
In the next hours and days, the ASSOCIATED PRESS, CBSNEWS, BOSTON GLOBE and NBCNEWS [who will host Bush author Kitty Kelley on Monday] will revisit Bush National Guard.
The upcoming reexamination of Bush's records by the GLOBE show that Bush's attendance at required training drills "was so irregular that his superiors could have disciplined him or ordered him to active duty in 1972, 1973, or 1974. But they did neither. In fact, Bush's unit certified in late 1973 that his service had been "satisfactory" - just four months after Bush's commanding officer wrote that Bush had not been seen at his unit for the previous 12 months."
Developing...
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Flip-Flopper In Chief
David Brock, Jamison Foser, AlterNet
George Bush's image as a strong and decisive leader is a
creation of journalists too lazy to notice that the
president has a long history of changing his positions to
suit his political needs.
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/19800/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - US troops death toll mounts as Iraq danger persists
http://www.deepikaglobal.com/latestnews.asp?ncode=19768
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Video: Bush's Words... The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
http://nyc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/113414/index.php
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Video: 9/11 In Plane Sight
The controversial September 11 video.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6847.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush Family Wounds America Below The Belt Line
by Thom Hartmann
Published on Tuesday, September 7, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0907-15.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Neocons Preparing the Sequel to Plan of Attack
by Gordon Prather:
http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=3506
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Unwinnable War
by James Carroll
Published September 7, 2004 by the Boston Globe
GEORGE W. BUSH finally told the truth. It happened last week when he said of the war on terrorism, "I don't think you can win it."
We know it was the truth because of the way it embarrassed him, because of the way his handlers immediately required him to repudiate it ("I probably need to be more articulate"), and because the mass of Republicans were deaf to it. Just as Bush had inadvertently spoken the exact truth about the war on terrorism at its onset ("This crusade, this war on terrorism"), he had inadvertently done so again.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0907-01.htm
3) Post Republican Convention Notes
- - Why Democrats shouldn't be scared
- - A Father Gets Anti-War Message to the Floor
Why Democrats shouldn't be scared
By Michael Moore
[Excerpts]
NEW YORK If I've heard it once, I've heard it a hundred times from discouraged Democrats and liberals as the Republican convention here wrapped up this week. Their shoulders hunched, their eyes at a droop, they lower their voice to a whisper hoping that if they don't say it too loud it may not come true: "I...I...I think Bush is going to win."
Clearly, they're watching too much TV. Too much of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Zell Miller, Dick Cheney and Rudy Giuliani. Too much of swift boat veterans and Fox News commentators. (Related item: Moore index page)
Action heroes always look good on TV. On Wednesday night, the GOP even made an action-hero video and showed it at the convention. There was White House political czar Karl Rove and other administration officials dressed up for "war" and going through boot camp on the National Mall in Washington..
..Exactly what moment was it during the convention that convinced them that the Republicans had now "connected" with the majority of Americans and that it was all over? Arnold praising Richard Nixon? Ooooh, that's a real crowd-pleaser. Elizabeth Dole decrying the removal of the Ten Commandments from a courthouse wall in Alabama? Yes, that's a big topic of conversation in the unemployment line in Akron, Ohio. Georgia Sen. Miller, a Democratic turncoat, looking like Freddy Krueger at an all-girls camp? His speech and the look on what you could see of his strangely lit face was enough for parents to send small children to their bedrooms.
My friends and I include all Democrats, independents and recovering Republicans in this salutation do not be afraid. Yes, the Bush Republicans huff and they puff, but they blow their own house down.
As many polls confirm, a majority of your fellow Americans believe in your agenda. They want stronger environmental laws, are strong supporters of women's rights, favor gun control and want the war in Iraq to end.
Rejoice. You're already more than halfway there when you have the public on board. Just imagine if you had to go out and do the work to convince the majority of Americans that women shouldn't be paid the same as men. All they ask is that you put up a candidate for president who believes in something and fights for those beliefs.
Is that too much to ask?
The Republicans have no idea how much harm they have done to themselves.
Kerry supporters and Bush-bashers should not despair. These Republicans have not made a permanent dent in Kerry's armor. The only person who can do that is John Kerry. And by coming out swinging as he did just minutes after Bush finished his speech Thursday night, Kerry proved he knows that the only way to win this fight is to fight and fight hard.
He must realize that he faces Al Gore's fate only if he fails to stand up like the hero he is, only if he sits on the fence and keeps justifying his vote for the Iraq war instead of just saying, "Look, I was for it just like 70% of America until we learned the truth, and now I'm against it, like the majority of Americans are now."
Kerry needs to trust that his victory is only going to happen by inspiring the natural base of the Democratic Party blacks, working people, women, the poor and young people. Women and people of color make up 62% of this country. That's a big majority. Give them a reason to come out on Nov. 2.
For the complete USA Today article, see:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/columnist/2004-09-02-moore_x.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - A Father Gets Anti-War Message to the Floor
Escondido resident cracks GOP security
by David Washburn
NEW YORK Thousands voiced their anger toward President Bush in the streets on Tuesday, but peace activist Fernando Suarez del Solar of Escondido took his message to the floor of the Republican National Convention.
Fernando Suarez del Solar, left, of Escondido, Calif., carries a sign with a picture of his son Jesus Suarez Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2004 in New York outside a hotel where former President Bush was speaking to the Hispanic Alliance for Progress Institute as part of their 'Celebrating Hispanic Progress & Opportunity' reception in conjunction with the Republican National Convention being held this week in New York. Jesus Suarez was a lance corporal who became the first Marine killed in the Iraq war when he died in March of 2003 seven days after the U.S.-led invasion began. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
As first lady Laura Bush was delivering her prime-time speech in Madison Square Garden, Suarez, standing near the Texas delegation, held a banner that read, "Bush Lied. My Son Died." Suarez, who had made it through security on a borrowed credential and hid the banner under his clothes, was quickly escorted out. Yesterday, the father of 20-year-old Marine Lance Cpl. Jesus Suarez del Solar, who died in Iraq, said he welcomed the opportunity to perform his act of civil disobedience. "A friend told me, 'Now is your chance,' so I took it," Suarez said. He was surprised by and thankful for the responses of a few Republican delegates who expressed sympathy and understanding as he was being led out of the convention hall. "They said, 'I agree with you. I'm sorry,' " he said. Suarez was not arrested and said he was treated well by security personnel. The Tijuana-born Suarez has been active in a peace organization, Military Families Speak Out, since his son's death in March 2003. He walked at the head of Sunday's United for Peace and Justice march through midtown Manhattan. Suarez was one of several protesters who made it to the convention floor in the past two days. Not long after Suarez was escorted out, Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink, an anti-war women's group, got within 30 feet of Vice President Dick Cheney during Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's speech. "How much money has Halliburton made in Iraq?" she yelled at Cheney, the former CEO of Halliburton. She held a banner reading: "Be Pro Life. Stop Killing in Iraq." And yesterday morning, demonstrators from ACT UP, the AIDS activist group, crashed a Republican youth gathering on the convention floor just after Bush's twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara, introduced White House chief of staff Andrew Card. Although multiple levels of security checkpoints make it virtually impossible to smuggle a weapon into the convention, many credentials do not have photos and can be swapped freely. Suarez said he got his credential from friends who had radio and television credentials, but he would not say who they were.
2004 Copyright Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Vote4Kerry * Top25Censored * NOW * FreePeltier
05 September 2004
"Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come
through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false."
Bertrand Russell
1) 16 solid reasons to vote for John Kerry & John Edwards
- - Get Ready for Democratic Emergency
- - Defend Our Wild Forests - Sign the Petition
2) Censored 2005, The Top 25 Censored News Stories
3) NOW with Bill Moyers, featuring Phillip Robertson, 9/11 next Friday
- - "60 Minutes" Alert this Sunday - Ben Barnes Bush-Ashamed
- - 9/11 Citizens' Commission: "The Omission Hearings" NYC 9/9/04
4) Leonard Peltier and Yorie Von Kahl sue government for illegal imprisonment
- - What are YOU doing on September 12, 2004?
- - September 4 and 5th - Remembering - Geronimo & Crazy Horse
The first step in a fascist movement is the combination
under an energetic leader of a number of men who possess
more than the average share of leisure, brutality, and stupidity.
The next step is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent,
by emotional excitement on the one hand and terrorism on the other.
Bertrand Russell
{Freedom, Harcourt Brace, 1940}
Editor's Notes:
This issue opens with "16 solid reasons to vote for John Kerry & John Edwards" from Gary Rhine of Rhino's blog. In this item too is an article by Ronnie Dugger, "Get Ready for Democratic Emergency." Another segment in this item is for an online petition to "Defend Our Wild Forests." Item 2 lists the top 25 for most censored news stories." Item 3 links with Bill Moyers and the PBS program, NOW, with background on a wonderful interview on last week's show with Phillip Robertson, a journalist covering the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001 for Salon.com. In item 3 too is information from Citizens for Honest Fighter Pilots, expecting big news this Sunday from "60 Minutes," on the confession from Ben Barnes about being ashamed for asking "..the head of the Texan Air National Guard, General James Rose, to give Bush a spot in the pilot-training program which would automatically excuse him from the draft and allow him to avoid service in Vietnam." Another important segment in this item is on a 9/11 Citizens' Commission: "The Omission Hearings", which will take place in NYC on September 9, 2004. "The Omission Hearings, co-chaired by Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and former Bush Sr. official Catherine Austin Fitts, will hear testimony from Ashcroft-gagged whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, Paul Thompson, author of The Terror Timeline (Harper-Collins), Michael Ruppert (author, Crossing the Rubicon, publisher, From The Wilderness) and 9/11 victim family members. The hearings are a response to citizen concerns such as those raised in a new Zogby poll (zogby.com/news) that shows that 49.3% of New York City residents believe some government leaders "consciously failed" on 9/11."
Doing time creates a
demented darkness of my
own imagination. . . .
Doing time does this thing
to you. But, of course, you
don't do time.
You do without it. Or
rather, time does you.
Time is a cannibal that
devours the flesh of your
years
day by day, bite by bite.
The above poem by Leonard Peltier is printed prior to the contents page for his book, "Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance." Leonard's 60th birthday is September 12. But the big news item 4 is on a new law suit representing Leonard Peltier and Yorie Von Kahl for their denial of Parole and illegal imprisonment.
War ... should only be declared by the authority of the people,
whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens,
instead of the government which is to reap its fruits.
James Madison
(17511836)
1) 16 solid reasons to vote for John Kerry & John Edwards
- - Get Ready for Democratic Emergency
- - Defend Our Wild Forests - Sign the Petition
The following was received from Rhino's Blog, which is the responsibility of Gary Rhine.
Today I offer 16 solid reasons to vote for John Kerry & John Edwards. The first reason is described in the article below from Intervention Magazine. It concerns what the Bush 2 Coup has deemed, "The New Freedom Initiative" wherein, the U.S. Government seeks to test all Americans, school kids 1st, for "disruptive behaviors and emotional disorders" and then initiate drug regimens, eventually using "emerging treatments" like a capsule implanted within the body that delivers doses of medication without the patient having to swallow pills or take injections."
Line up kids. This won't hurt a bit. (Cue the Twilight Zone music)
Bush Wants To Be Your Shrink -- Now Bush Wants to Test Every American for Mental Illness--Including you! And guess who will create the tests?
By Jordanne Graham, Intervention Magazine, August 8, 2004
http://tinyurl.com/4dm9k
The other 15 reasons to vote for John Kerry were created by a couple of politically progressive Americans who struggle trying to convince their progressive friends & relatives not to vote for Ralph Nader [or to register to VOTE!]. Sound familiar? Rhino thinks they' make a lot of sense while staying concise. Since it hasn't been published as yet on the web, I hereby post it in full.
Why Vote for Kerry?
Greg Woods & Taigen Dan Leighton
1. During the Bush Administration, there has been unprecedented fraud and corruption that has moved the country from a balanced budget to its greatest debt level in history. This will affect social services, social security, environmental protection, education, and medical practices for generations to come.
2. The Bush Administration is more secretive and lacking in democratic transparency than any administration in modern history.
3. The Bush Administration has lied more and lied more blatantly about the effect and intent of its own policies than any other Administration in modern history. Bush, at best, was asleep to warnings of the impending 9/11 tragedy, and thereafter he stonewalled its investigation. The Bush Administration lied about the reasons for invading Iraq, and violated international and domestic law to do so.
4. There has been a deliberate and concerted attack against civil liberties, the Balance of Powers and Rule of Law. Bush Administration policies have introduced measures that have not been new law so much as the erosion of law. This has amounted to attacks on the Constitution itself in its very foundations and upon the American people in their most fundamental Rights as citizens. Privacy, Due Process Rights and equal protection of law are all affected. John Ashcroft, the misnamed "Patriot Act" and "Homeland Security" measures have undermined American Rights in ways the public has not even begun to imagine collectively.
5. It has now been well established by Seymour Hersh, The Wall Street Journal, and the International Red Cross, among many reports, that torture was investigated planned and approved by the Bush Administration in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay. Torture, bare in mind, is the ultimate expression of the corruption of power. Rationalizations of torture in public -- also planned by Bush and his propagandists -- pervert the very notions of civil behavior, law, and government responsibility.
6. Nader's campaign and his presence on the ballot in many states has been very highly financed by Republicans and specific Bush operatives. Nader's presence in the election confuses theory and practice, substituting credible ideology for devastating real consequences. Should Bush be re-elected something near martial law will be the result. Kerry, certainly, does not represent that.
7. Just on the effect of the Supreme Court for the next 2-3 decades, the next president will appoint at least 3 new Supreme Court Justices, including probably the Chief Justice. Bush will appoint more right-wing anti-Constitutional ideologues opposed to women's rights, environmental protection, and corporate regulation. Kerry will appoint respectable liberal justices.
8. John Kerry's promise to shut down the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump, condemned as unsafe by scientific studies, is reason in and of itself to strongly work for Kerry over Bush, who promotes massive government subsidies to the nuclear energy industry, and development of "usable" nuclear weapons. Kerry also says he will oppose any central nuclear waste dump until we get scientific opinions on the best available approach to nuclear waste safety. Bush and company disdains all science.
9. John Kerry has an overall excellent record on the environment. Bush, as fast as he can, often secretly, has been handing over public lands to oil drilling, and logging, mining, and grazing corporations. He has plans to set up oil drilling up and down the California coast.
10. The Bush government denies the scientific reality of global warming and has actively distorted or suppressed scientific fact to suit its political purposes and influence pedaling.
11. Kerry was the only Senator to work to expose the Iran-Contra scam.
12. Kerry opposes the Death Penalty. Bush bragged about his Texas executions as Governor, and continues sponsoring mass killings of civilians in Iraq, and death of American soldiers in Iraq.
13. Bush will make his massive tax cuts for billionaires permanent. Kerry will repeal them immediately.
14. The Bush War in Iraq is using radioactive weapons. These appalling weapons are polluting the Iraqi ecosystem, it people and American soldiers alike with the most grotesque consequences for all. So called "Depleted" Uranium munitions, in fact, produce active and deadly uranium contamination that is like a radioactive plague effecting soldiers, their wives and children, for the rest of their lives. The consequences are so severe and far reaching that this may very well be the most cynical and shortsighted policy in the history of government.
15. All in all, the Bush government cannot be called an "American" government in any real sense. It is, in fact and in deed, the most anti-American, anti-democratic and divisive government in American History. VOTE FOR KERRY. Appeal to friends. REGISTER VOTERS if you can. Your vote may be the last best chance to preserve and protect American liberty and democracy.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Get Ready for Democratic Emergency
By Ronnie Dugger
We are in an American emergency. It is the emergency of all our American emergencies. Along with the Civil War, this is our second crisis of legitimacy, but more, it is the culminative crisis of our identity. Are we a democracy, or have we irreversibly degenerated into a presidential-corporate-military dictatorship? Are we still a good country, or are we becoming a bad country? Can we understand and act in the emergency well and fast enough, or will we lose the United States as we know it? But as we approach the national election three months away, we have slowly awakened to realize, too, that this quite general American emergency is focusing down into an historic democratic emergency.
For the complete article, see:
www.populist.com/04.16.dugger.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Defend Our Wild Forests - Sign the Petition
Please take a moment to let the Forest Service know you want to protect wilderness areas in our national forests from logging and road-building, by preserving Bill Clinton's Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
Defend Our Wild Forests - Sign the Petition
http://democrats.com/forests
Bob Fertik, co-founder
Democrats.com
p.s. For each signature we collect, the sponsor will contribute $1 to Democrats.com to help us build a powerful progressive majority for change. So sign the petition - and pass it along to your friends!
2) Censored 2005, The Top 25 Censored News Stories
For Immediate Release
September 3, 2004
Project Censored Announces Release of Censored 2005,
The Top 25 Censored News Stories
Media Democracy in Action
Sonoma State University's student run media research group Project Censored announces the release of its annual publication, Censored 2005, a compilation of the year's 25 most significant news stories that were overlooked or under-reported by the country's major national news media, as well as chapters on the grass roots media democracy, media ownership maps, real news about US involvement in Palestine, Haiti, Iraq, and more.
With introduction by Greg Palast and the political cartoon commentary of Tom Tomorrow throughout, this year's book covers critical issues facing the American public this election year. In Chapter 1's list of top 25 stories focus on politics, economics, foreign policy, food and health, the environment, energy, domestic policy, and the military.
"We define censorship as interference with the free flow of information," states Peter Phillips, Director of the Project, "Corporate media in the United States is interested primarily in entertainment news to feed their bottom-line priorities. Very important news stories that should reach the American public often fall on the cutting room floor to be replaced by sex-scandals and celebrity updates."
The Sonoma State University research group is composed of nearly 200 faculty, students and community experts who review about 1000 story submissions for coverage, content, reliability of sources and national significance. The top 25 stories are submitted to a panel of judges who then rank them in order of importance. Current judges include, Norman Solomon, Michael Parenti, Cynthia McKinney, Howard Zinn, and 20 other national journalists, scholars and writers. Censored 2005, from Seven Stories Press is now available in bookstores nationwide, can also be purchased on the project's website at www.projectcensored.org
For more information, contact:
Project Censored
Trish Boreta
707-664-2500
censored@sonoma.edu
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Top Most Censored News Stories
#1 Wealth Inequity in 21st Century Threatens Economy and Democracy
#2 Ashcroft vs. the Human Rights Law that Holds Corporations Accountable
#3 Bush Administration Manipulates Science and Censors Scientists
# 4 High Uranium Levels Found in Troops and Civilians
#5 The Wholesale Giveaway of Our Natural Resources
#6 The Sale of Electoral Politics
#7 Conservative Organization Drives Judicial Appointments
#8 Secrets of Cheney's Energy Task Force Come to Light
#9 Widow Brings RICO Case Against U.S. Government for 9/11
#10 New Nuke Plants: Taxpayers Support, Industry Profits
#11 The Media Can Legally Lie
#12 The Destabilization of Haiti
#13 Schwarzenegger Met with Enron's Ken Lay Before the California Recall
#14 New Bill Threatens Intellectual Freedom
#15 US Develops Lethal New Bio-weapon Viruses
# 16 Law Enforcement Agencies Spy on Innocent Citizens
#17 U.S. Government Represses Labor Unions in Iraq in Quest for Business Privatization
#18 Media and Government Ignore Dwindling Oil Supplies
#19 Global Food Cartel Fast Becoming the World's Supermarket
#20 Extreme Weather Prompts New Warning from UN
#21 Forcing a World Market for GMOs
#22 Exporting Censorship to Iraq
#23 Brazil Opposes US-style FTAA agreements,
But Provides Little Comfort for the Poor of South America
#24 Reinstating the
#25 Wal-Mart Brings Inequity and Low Prices to the World --
For more on this information, with publications and links posted, see:
ProjectCensored.org
3) NOW with Bill Moyers, featuring Phillip Robertson, 9/11 next Friday
- - "60 Minutes" Alert this Sunday - Ben Barnes Bush-Ashamed
- - 9/11 Citizens' Commission: "The Omission Hearings" NYC 9/9/04
NOW Phillip Robertson
Republican speakers have made a case for war in many of this week's speeches. But, few people could give us better insight into the war in Iraq than journalist Phillip Robertson, who has been on the frontlines since April. Just a couple of weeks ago, Robertson was one of the first Western journalists to make it into Najaf during heavy fighting between the insurgent forces of Moktada al-Sadr and the U.S. Bill Moyers interviews Robertson via satellite to get the view from Baghdad and find out what he's been experiencing on the ground.
Biography
Since 2001, Phillip Robertson has been covering the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for the American news and culture website, Salon.com. He has also reported for Time magazine, BBC World Service Radio, National Public Radio in the United States and CBC radio in Canada. Over the past three years, he has published fifty feature articles in Salon, relying upon first person narrative to communicate the effects of conflict on ordinary people. In 2003, Robertson was a finalist for the USC/Annenberg award for online journalism in the breaking news category.
During the August siege of Najaf, he collaborated with photojournalist Thorne Anderson to document the devastating course of the war in the Shia holy city. After crossing through the US cordon and Mahdi Army forward positions on foot, Anderson and Robertson remained in the Shrine of Imam Ali for three days, interviewing and photographing the Mahdi Army fighters as their lines collapsed under the American offensive.
For the video of the program aired last Friday with Bill Moyers interviewing Phillip Robertson, or to find the scheduling of PBS stations airing NOW with Bill Moyers for next week's program on 9/11/01 and unanswered questions regarding the attacks of that day, see: hwww.pbs.org/now/
For the article by Phillip Robertson, "Into the Heart of Najaf,"
TIME Online, August 24, 2004, see:
www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,687251,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - "60 Minutes" Alert this Sunday - Ben Barnes Bush-Ashamed
A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION by Evelyn Pringle
Citizens For Honest Fighter Pilots Looks Forward To Seeing
Ben Barnes on Upcoming 60 Minutes Program
September 3, 2004
I now understand why the Bush camp went to such extreme lengths to smear Kerry's military service record. It was an attempt to overshadow the scandal that was set to be revealed about Bush and the Air National Guard. It now appears that the release this week of a video of Ben Barnes talking about being ashamed of helping Bush get into the Guard was a mere prelude of things to come.
Citizens for Honest Fighter Pilots has learned that 60 Minutes is set to reveal how in 1968, Bush got Ben Barnes to ask the head of the Texan Air National Guard, General James Rose, to give Bush a spot in the pilot-training program which would automatically excuse him from the draft and allow him to avoid service in Vietnam.
This alone is not necessarily new information. The real scandal comes from the revelation that Bush later allowed a company to keep a lucrative Texas state contract in exchange for Barnes' remaining silent about helping Jr get into the guard. Like in Bribe with a capital B. To many of us this is not necessarily a new story. However, I predict that new details will be revealed. Basically because I don't believe 60 Minutes would feature an old worn-out story without some new and interesting details of proof to back it up..
Evelyn Pringle,
Founder of Citizens for Honest Fighter Pilots
Miamisburg, OH
The Citizens for Honest Fighter Pilots Compendium
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 9/11 Citizens' Commission: "The Omission Hearings" NYC 9/9/04
If you're in New York, don't miss this event on September 9th!
-----
9/11 Citizens' Commission: "The Omission Hearings"
The Symphony Space, Peter Jay Sharp Theater; 2537 Broadway at 95th St,
New York, New York, Thursday, September 9, 1-7 pm
The Omission Hearings, co-chaired by Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and former Bush Sr. official Catherine Austin Fitts, will hear testimony from Ashcroft-gagged whistleblower Sibel Edmonds recently featured on 60 Minutes, Paul Thompson, author of The Terror Timeline (Harper-Collins), Michael Ruppert (author, Crossing the Rubicon, publisher, From The Wilderness) and 9/11 victim family members.
The hearings are a response to citizen concerns such as those raised in a new Zogby poll (www.zogby.com/news) that shows that 49.3% of New York City residents believe some government leaders "consciously failed" on 9/11.
Two/thirds (66%) call for a re-opening of the investigation. Given the pivotal historical significance of 9/11, citizens, scholars, and whistleblowers are taking this into our own hands to document the basis for investigation and accountability.
Press Conference to precede event at 11:30 am.
Commission hearings to be followed at 8:00 pm by
premiere of 9/11 documentary by Barrie Zwicker
at 8:00 PM & 9:30 PM Thursday evening.
For press inquiries:
Kyle Hence, 212-243-7787; kfh@911citizenswatch.org
9/11 CitizensWatch
911citizenswatch.org
4) Leonard Peltier and Yorie Von Kahl sue government for illegal imprisonment
- - What are YOU doing on September 12, 2004?
- - September 4 and 5th - Remembering - Geronimo & Crazy Horse
Federal inmates sue government for illegal imprisonment
In a major law suit filed this week in Washington, DC, two federal prisoners claim that United States Department of Justice officials knowingly violated the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 (& its amendments) & illegally extended the inmates' prison terms for over a decade.
The defendants named in the law suit include the U.S. Parole Commission & individuals who have served on the Commission during the past two decades; Attorney General John Ashcroft & former Attorneys General Edwin Meese, Richard Thornburgh, William Barr, & Janet Reno; & the current Director of the Bureau of Prisons, Harley Lappin, as well as former directors J. Michael Quinlan & Kathleen Hawk Sawyer.
The law suit was brought by Leonard Peltier, now serving consecutive life sentences for the alleged killing of two FBI agents on June 26, 1975; & Yorie Von Kahl, serving life plus 15 years for the alleged killing of two U.S. Marshals on February 13, 1983. After trial, undisputed evidence of government misconduct was uncovered in each of these controversial cases.
The Sentencing Reform Act (SRA) was passed to address what Congress thought were inconsistent sentences imposed by different judges on different individuals convicted of the same crimes, as well as arbitrary parole decisions. A new system - one of determinate sentences - was born & the Parole Commission was abolished.
At the heart of the suit is the refusal of the government to enforce Title II, Chapter II, Section 235(b)(3) of the Sentencing Reform Act. Effective on October 12, 1984, this part of the law ordered that parole dates "consistent with the applicable parole guideline" be issued to all "old system" prisoners within the following five-year period, at the end of which time (on October 11, 1989) the commission would cease to exist.
On December 7, 1987, Congress enacted Public Law 100-182 which amended the SRA; repealed, in Section 2, the release criteria established by the original section 235(b)(3); & restored the release criteria under 18 U.S.C. 4206. This amendment did not restore the Parole Commission or remove its obligation to establish mandatory release dates, with sufficient time for appeal, by October 11, 1989. These changes to the law also applied only to crimes committed after the law was amended on December 7, 1987. The amendment simply did not apply to the plaintiffs or to the some 6,000 other "old system" prisoners still held by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons today.
After it had technically ceased to exist, the Parole Commission claimed it needed more time to complete its work. Congress inexplicably granted a number of after-the-fact extensions, the first in 1990 & the latest in 2002. The suit claims these extensions were legally invalid & therefore inapplicable because, at the time they were made, the Parole Commission had already been abolished.
The plaintiffs should have been given their release dates by October 11, 1989, minus sufficient time to exhaust appeals. Had the Parole Commission followed the congressional mandate, Peltier would have been released over 12 years ago. Lacking in any statutory authority, the U.S. Parole Commission in fact illegally extended the terms of imprisonment of both men. The failure of the Parole Commission to give release dates to Peltier & Von Kahl violated the ex post facto, Bill of Attainder, & Due Process clauses of the U.S. Constitution.
The plaintiffs have demanded a permanent injunction preventing further misapplication of the SRA & its amendments by the government; enforcement of the rights created by the original section 235(b)(3); and, due to irreparable injuries suffered by Peltier & Von Kahl, compensatory & punitive damages as determined by a jury.
Contact: Barry Bachrach, Esquire; Bowditch & Dewey,
311 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01615; (508) 926-3403
or bbachrach@bowditch.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - What are YOU doing on September 12, 2004?
From the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee -
On February 6, 1976 Leonard Peltier was arrested by the RCMP at Smallboy's Reserve in southwest Alberta for the deaths of two FBI agents. Thus began Leonard's life in prison. For the next 9 years, Leonard was moved from prison to prison, from Calgary to Kansas where he still resides today, at Leavenworth United States Penitentiary-Maximum Security.
Over the last 30 years, document after document, admission after admission, fact after fact has been brought to light clearly proclaiming Leonard's innocence. Every single complaint filed by Leonard's attorneys has been filled with constitutional violations on the part of the U.S. Government, yet insofar, to no avail.
September 12, 2004 is Leonard's 60th Birthday. There will be no parties for him. No cake, no presents, no friends or family. This man, who has spent half of his life behind bars, warrior for his people, deserves our attention on that day of all days.
-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-
You can write to Leonard
Leonard Peltier
#89637-132
PO Box 1000
Leavenworth, KS 66048
-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044-0583
www.leonardpeltier.org
-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=
- - September 4 and 5th - Remembering - Geronimo & Crazy Horse
From Rhino's Blog
THE HISTORY:
September 4th, 1886 -- Legendary Apache leader, Geronimo surrenders to General Nelson A. Miles at Skeleton Canyon, Arizona, ending the last major US-Indian conflict. Geronimo had led a small band of men, women & children out of forced internment on the San Carlos reservation, successfully evading thousands of US & Mexican troops, regiments of Indian auxiliaries, & an unknown number of civilians, for over 18 months in the Southwest wilderness. In 1918, it's alleged that the shrub's grandfather, Prescott Bush, stole Geronimo's skull from his grave at Fort Sill, Oklahoma as part of his "Skull & Bones" initiation. (no joke folks) "Of skulls and bones: More secrets of the tomb Native Americans groups fight to recover lost skulls of Geronimo"
by Noam Rudnick, 10/23/03, Yale Herald
www.yaleherald.com/article.php?Article=2523
-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=
September 5th, 1882 -- Oglala Lakota (Sioux) warrior, Crazy Horse, assassinated while in custody at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, bayoneted by a U.S. soldier after allegedly resisting confinement in a jail cell.
www.indians.org/welker/crazyhor.htm
(There's a picture at this site - but the tale is told that Crazy Horse never let his photo be taken)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For Flyby News' resource page on Leonard Peltier, see
Leonard Peltier and FBI Misconduct - & What You Can Do About It!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
SOS Lake Wobegon * Diebold Hole * Bush Payoff
30 August 2004
How did the Party of Lincoln and Liberty transmogrify
into the party of Newt Gingrich's evil spawn and their
Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man, whose
philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk?
-- Garrison Keillor
1) We're Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore
2) Diebold GEMS central tabulator contains a stunning security hole'
- - Machines might be the Real Swing Voters this November
3) Still Unreported: The Pay-off in Bush Air Guard Fix
- - US fires accused soldiers to avoid abuse trials
- - 80 percent of US-led Iraqi security forces desert
4) Depleted uranium: Dirty bombs, dirty missiles, dirty bullets
5) Homeland Security whistleblower removed for exposing terrorist threats
6) "Fahrenheit 9/11" film for America to survive'
The hottest place in Hell
is reserved for those who
in time of crisis remain neutral'
Dante
Editor's Notes:
The above quote by Dante was used in eloquence by Garrison Keillor in item 1, "We're Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore". The well-known host and writer of "A Prairie Home Companion" aired on NPR radio, will hopefully appeal to USA citizens to come to terms with reality. Please join Garrison and others and take action. Let your fingers do the walking into the homes of our swing state neighbors. Please help people unite and make this a one-term selected-President.
Click following URL for one national campaign!
www.moveonpac.org/pledge
In item 2 Bev Harris explains why we cannot afford a close election. In her article, Diebold GEMS central tabulator contains a stunning security hole', Bev Harris writes -- The central tabulator is far more vulnerable than the touch screen terminals. Think about it: If you were going to tamper with an election, would you rather tamper with 4,500 individual voting machines, or with just one machine, the central tabulator which receives votes from all the machines? Of course, the central tabulator is the most desirable target..
It is the overt nature of fascism that some use as an excuse not to vote - but can we supersede the brainwashing and explain why voting is our best choice to reclaim democracy, to make each vote count!
Item 3 features another great article by Greg Palast - "This week, former Lt. Governor Ben Barnes of Texas 'fessed up to pulling the strings to keep Little George out of the jungle. "I got a young man named George W. Bush into the Texas Air Guard - and I'm ashamed."' Following article are other article links received by News Insider: US fires accused soldiers to avoid abuse trials' and 80 percent of US-led Iraqi security forces desert.'
Item 4 is a well researched article on the catastrophe happening now by Depleted Uranium, which is mixed in the dust, sand, air, water, food, in Iraq as radioactive elements from exploded in military shells.
Item 5 is an investigative article by Tom Flocco about the apparent repercussions for Homeland Security whistleblower Mary Schneider.
In item 6, John Berger writes: "Fahrenheit 9/11 has touched millions of viewers across the world. But could it actually change the course of civilisation?" This article came via Michael Moore who may deserve to be honored by the Nobel Peace Prize for reasons described in this article. To help Farenheit 9/11' make its magic, when out in DVD and VHS, we need everyone working together to make sure this film is available to anyone in a swing State. We need to arouse, especially, the nonvoter to help us make stealing the election in 2004 a non-issue. Let's make that a self-fulfilling prophecy!
Or the Armageddon world domination plan may get into a full swing!!
"I think George Bush is going to win in a walk.
I really believe I'm hearing from the Lord
it's going to be like a blowout election in 2004.
The Lord has just blessed him....
It doesn't make any difference what he does, good or bad."
Pat Robertson
[AP/Fox News, January 2, 2004]
1) We're Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore
By Garrison Keillor
In These Times
Thursday 26 August 2004
How did the Party of Lincoln and Liberty transmogrify
into the party of Newt Gingrich's evil spawn and their
Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man, whose
philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk?
Something has gone seriously haywire with the Republican Party. Once, it was the party of pragmatic Main Street businessmen in steel-rimmed spectacles who decried profligacy and waste, were devoted to their communities and supported the sort of prosperity that raises all ships. They were good-hearted people who vanquished the gnarlier elements of their party, the paranoid Roosevelt-haters, the flat Earthers and Prohibitionists, the antipapist antiforeigner element. The genial Eisenhower was their man, a genuine American hero of D-Day, who made it OK for reasonable people to vote Republican. He brought the Korean War to a stalemate, produced the Interstate Highway System, declined to rescue the French colonial army in Vietnam, and gave us a period of peace and prosperity, in which (oddly) American arts and letters flourished and higher education burgeoned - and there was a degree of plain decency in the country. Fifties Republicans were giants compared to today's. Richard Nixon was the last Republican leader to feel a Christian obligation toward the poor.
In the years between Nixon and Newt Gingrich, the party migrated southward down the Twisting Trail of Rhetoric and sneered at the idea of public service and became the Scourge of Liberalism, the Great Crusade Against the Sixties, the Death Star of Government, a gang of pirates that diverted and fascinated the media by their sheer chutzpah, such as the misty-eyed flag-waving of Ronald Reagan who, while George McGovern flew bombers in World War II, took a pass and made training films in Long Beach. The Nixon moderate vanished like the passenger pigeon, purged by a legion of angry white men who rose to power on pure punk politics. 'Bipartisanship is another term of date rape,' says Grover Norquist, the Sid Vicious of the GOP. 'I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.' The boy has Oedipal problems and government is his daddy.
The party of Lincoln and Liberty was transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, misanthropic frat boys, shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, nihilists in golf pants, brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, hacks, fakirs, aggressive dorks, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil Armstrong's moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, New Mexico, little honkers out to diminish the rest of us, Newt's evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man suspicious of the free flow of information and of secular institutions, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk. Republicans: The No.1 reason the rest of the world thinks we're deaf, dumb and dangerous.
Rich ironies abound! Lies pop up like toadstools in the forest! Wild swine crowd round the public trough! Outrageous gerrymandering! Pocket lining on a massive scale! Paid lobbyists sit in committee rooms and write legislation to alleviate the suffering of billionaires!
Hypocrisies shine like cat turds in the moonlight! O Mark Twain, where art thou at this hour? Arise and behold the Gilded Age reincarnated gaudier than ever, upholding great wealth as the sure sign of Divine Grace.
Here in 2004, George W. Bush is running for reelection on a platform of tragedy - the single greatest failure of national defense in our history, the attacks of 9/11 in which 19 men with box cutters put this nation into a tailspin, a failure the details of which the White House fought to keep secret even as it ran the country into hock up to the hubcaps, thanks to generous tax cuts for the well-fixed, hoping to lead us into a box canyon of debt that will render government impotent, even as we engage in a war against a small country that was undertaken for the president's personal satisfaction but sold to the American public on the basis of brazen misinformation, a war whose purpose is to distract us from an enormous transfer of wealth taking place in this country, flowing upward, and the deception is working beautifully.
The concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the few is the death knell of democracy. No republic in the history of humanity has survived this. The election of 2004 will say something about what happens to ours. The omens are not good.
Our beloved land has been fogged with fear - fear, the greatest political strategy ever. An ominous silence, distant sirens, a drumbeat of whispered warnings and alarms to keep the public uneasy and silence the opposition. And in a time of vague fear, you can appoint bullet-brained judges, strip the bark off the Constitution, eviscerate federal regulatory agencies, bring public education to a standstill, stupefy the press, lavish gorgeous tax breaks on the rich.
There is a stink drifting through this election year. It isn't the Florida recount or the Supreme Court decision. No, it's 9/11 that we keep coming back to. It wasn't the 'end of innocence,' or a turning point in our history, or a cosmic occurrence, it was an event, a lapse of security. And patriotism shouldn't prevent people from asking hard questions of the man who was purportedly in charge of national security at the time.
Whenever I think of those New Yorkers hurrying along Park Place or getting off the No.1 Broadway local, hustling toward their office on the 90th floor, the morning paper under their arms, I think of that non-reader George W. Bush and how he hopes to exploit those people with a little economic uptick, maybe the capture of Osama, cruise to victory in November and proceed to get some serious nation-changing done in his second term.
This year, as in the past, Republicans will portray us Democrats as embittered academics, desiccated Unitarians, whacked-out hippies and communards, people who talk to telephone poles, the party of the Deadheads. They will wave enormous flags and wow over and over the footage of firemen in the wreckage of the World Trade Center and bodies being carried out and they will lie about their economic policies with astonishing enthusiasm.
The Union is what needs defending this year. Government of Enron and by Halliburton and for the Southern Baptists is not the same as what Lincoln spoke of. This gang of Pithecanthropus Republicanii has humbugged us to death on terrorism and tax cuts for the comfy and school prayer and flag burning and claimed the right to know what books we read and to dump their sewage upstream from the town and clear-cut the forests and gut the IRS and mark up the constitution on behalf of intolerance and promote the corporate takeover of the public airwaves and to hell with anybody who opposes them.
This is a great country, and it wasn't made so by angry people. We have a sacred duty to bequeath it to our grandchildren in better shape than however we found it. We have a long way to go and we're not getting any younger.
Dante said that the hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who in time of crisis remain neutral, so I have spoken my piece, and thank you, dear reader. It's a beautiful world, rain or shine, and there is more to life than winning.
-------
Garrison Keillor is the host and writer of A Prairie Home Companion, now in its 25th year on the air. This adapted excerpted from Keillor's new book, Homegrown Democrat ( 2004) is reprinted by arrangement with Viking, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
-------
also posted at:
www.truthout.org/docs_04/083004F.shtml
2) Diebold GEMS central tabulator contains a stunning security hole'
- - Machines might be the Real Swing Voters this November
Consumer Report Part 1:
Look at this -- the Diebold GEMS central tabulator contains a stunning security hole
Submitted by Bev Harris on Thu, 08/26/2004 - 11:43.
Investigations Issue: Manipulation technique found in the Diebold central tabulator -- 1,000 of these systems are in place, and they count up to two million votes at a time.
By entering a 2-digit code in a hidden location, a second set of votes is created. This set of votes can be changed, so that it no longer matches the correct votes. The voting system will then read the totals from the bogus vote set. It takes only seconds to change the votes, and to date not a single location in the U.S. has implemented security measures to fully mitigate the risks.
This program is not "stupidity" or sloppiness. It was designed and tested over a series of a dozen version adjustments.
Public officials: If you are in a county that uses GEMS 1.18.18, GEMS 1.18.19, or GEMS 1.18.23, your secretary or state may not have told you about this. You're the one who'll be blamed if your election is tampered with. Find out for yourself if you have this problem: Black Box Voting will be happy to walk you through a diagnostic procedure over the phone. E-mail Bev Harris or Andy Stephenson to set up a time to do this.
For the media: Harris and Stephenson will be in New York City on Aug. 30, 31, Sep.1, to demonstrate this built-in election tampering technique.
Members of congress and Washington correspondents: Harris and Stephenson will be in Washington D.C. on Sept. 22 to demonstrate this problem for you.
Whether you vote absentee, on touch-screens, or on paper ballot (fill in the bubble) optical scan machines, all votes are ultimately brought to the "mother ship," the central tabulator at the county which adds them all up and creates the results report.
These systems are used in over 30 states and each counts up to two million votes at once.
[see following URL link to "read more" for the rest of this section]
The central tabulator is far more vulnerable than the touch screen terminals. Think about it: If you were going to tamper with an election, would you rather tamper with 4,500 individual voting machines, or with just one machine, the central tabulator which receives votes from all the machines? Of course, the central tabulator is the most desirable target.
Findings: The GEMS central tabulator program is incorrectly designed and highly vulnerable to fraud. Election results can be changed in a matter of seconds. Part of the program we examined appears to be designed with election tampering in mind. We have also learned that election officials maintain inadequate controls over access to the central tabulator. We need to beef up procedures to mitigate risks.
Much of this information, originally published on July 8, 2003, has since been corroborated by formal studies (RABA) and by Diebold's own internal memos written by its programmers.
Not a single location has yet implemented the security measures needed to mitigate the risk. Yet, it is not too late. We need to tackle this one, folks, roll up our sleeves, and implement corrective measures.
In Nov. 2003, Black Box Voting founder Bev Harris, and director Jim March, filed a Qui Tam lawsuit in California citing fraudulent claims by Diebold, seeking restitution for the taxpayer. Diebold claimed its voting system was secure. It is, in fact, highly vulnerable to and appears to be designed for fraud.
The California Attorney General was made aware of this problem nearly a year ago. Harris and Black Box Voting Associate Director Andy Stephenson visited the Washington Attorney General's office in Feb. 2004 to inform them of the problem. Yet, nothing has been done to inform election officials who are using the system, nor have appropriate security safeguards been implemented.
On April 21, 2004, Harris appeared before the California Voting Systems Panel, and presented the smoking gun document showing that Diebold had not corrected the GEMS flaws, even though it had updated and upgraded the GEMS program.
On Aug. 8, 2004, Harris demonstrated to Howard Dean how easy it is to change votes in GEMS, on CNBC TV.
On Aug. 11, 2004, Jim March formally requested that the Calfornia Voting Systems Panel watch the demonstration of the double set of books in GEMS. They were already convened, and the time for Harris was already allotted. Though the demonstration takes only 3 minutes, the panel refused to allow it and would not look. They did, however, meet privately with Diebold afterwards, without informing the public or issuing any report of what transpired.
On Aug. 18, 2004, Harris and Stephenson, together with computer security expert Dr. Hugh Thompson, and former King County Elections Supervisor Julie Anne Kempf, met with members of the California Voting Systems Panel and the California Secretary of State's office to demonstrate the double set of books. The officials declined to allow a camera crew from 60 Minutes to film or attend.
The Secretary of State's office halted the meeting, called in the general counsel for their office, and a defense attorney from the California Attorney General's office. They refused to allow Black Box Voting to videotape its own demonstration. They prohibited any audiotape and specified that no notes of the meeting could be requested in public records requests.
The undersecretary of state, Mark Kyle, left the meeting early, and one voting panel member, John Mott Smith, appeared to sleep through the presentation.
On Aug. 23, 2004, CBC TV came to California and filmed the demonstration.
On Aug 30 and 31, Harris and Stephenson will be in New York City to demonstrate the double set of books for any public official and any TV crews who wish to see it.
On Sept. 1, another event is planned in New York City, and on Sept. 21, Harris and Stephenson intend to demonstrate the problem for members and congress and the press in Washington D.C.
Diebold has known of the problem, or should have known, because it did a cease and desist on the web site when Harris originally reported the problem in 2003. On Aug. 11, 2004, Harris also offered to show the problem to Marvin Singleton, Diebold's damage control expert, and to other Diebold execs. They refused to look.
Why don't people want to look? Suppose you are formally informed that the gas tank tends to explode on the car you are telling people to use. If you KNOW about it, but do nothing, you are liable.
LET US HOLD DIEBOLD, AND OUR PUBLIC OFFICIALS, ACCOUNTABLE.
1) Let there be no one who can say "I didn't know."
2) Let there be no election jurisdiction using GEMS that fails to implement all of the proper corrective procedures, this fall, to mitigate risk.
www.blackboxvoting.org/?q=node/view/78
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = ==
- - Machines might be the Real Swing Voters this November
Sum of a Glitch
Evidence Shows that Machines might be the Real Swing Voters this November
by Bev Harris
[Published August 25, 2004 by In These Times]
In the Alabama 2002 general election, machines made by Election Systems and Software (ES&S) flipped the governor's race. Six thousand three hundred Baldwin County electronic votes mysteriously disappeared after the polls had closed and everyone had gone home.
Democrat Don Siegelman's victory was handed to Republican Bob Riley, and the recount Siegelman requested was denied. Three months after the election, the vendor shrugged. "Something happened. I don't have enough intelligence to say exactly what," said Mark Kelley of ES&S.
When I began researching this story in October 2002, the media was reporting that electronic voting machines are fun and speedy, but I looked in vain for articles reporting that they are accurate. I discovered four magic words, "voting machines and glitch," which, when entered into a search engine, yielded a shocking result: A staggering pile of miscounts was accumulating. These were reported locally but had never been compiled in a single place, so reporters were missing a disturbing pattern. I published a compendium of 56 documented cases in which voting machines got it wrong.
How do voting-machine makers respond to these reports? With shrugs. They indicate that their miscounts are nothing to be concerned about. One of their favorite phrases is: "It didn't change the result."
Except, of course, when it did:.
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/views04/0825-11.htm
3) Still Unreported: The Pay-off in Bush Air Guard Fix
- - US fires accused soldiers to avoid abuse trials
- - 80 percent of US-led Iraqi security forces desert
STILL UNREPORTED: THE PAY-OFF IN BUSH AIR GUARD FIX
Saturday, August 28, 2004
by Greg Palast
In 1968, former Congressman George Herbert Walker Bush of Texas, fresh from voting to send other men's sons to Vietnam, enlisted his own son in a very special affirmative action program, the 'champagne' unit of the Texas Air National Guard. There, Top Gun fighter pilot George Dubya was assigned the dangerous job of protecting Houston from Vietcong air attack.
This week, former Lt. Governor Ben Barnes of Texas 'fessed up to pulling the strings to keep Little George out of the jungle. "I got a young man named George W. Bush into the Texas Air Guard - and I'm ashamed."
For this complete article, "Still Unreported: The Pay-off in Bush Air Guard Fix" see:
gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=365&row=0
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - US fires accused soldiers to avoid abuse trials
Four Army police officers faced criminal charges last year for kicking and punching seven Iraqi prisoners at Camp Bucca, assaults that resulted in broken bones. Instead of sending them to trial, however, commanders booted them from the service. Army Spec. Juba Martino-Poole avoided trial on a manslaughter charge for fatally shooting an Iraqi prisoner. His punishment was the same: turn in the uniform. Another specialist accused of raping a fellow soldier in Iraq last year was discharged without being prosecuted.
For the complete article published by The Denver Post [US], 22 August 2004, see:
www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%7E6439%7E2350815,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 80 percent of US-led Iraqi security forces desert
Iraq's security forces, ordered to prepare for an offensive against the Mahdi Army in Najaf, have been plagued by a desertion rate that exceeded 80 percent. A US report warned that Iraqi Interior Ministry troops remain unprepared to fight Shi'ite or Sunni insurgents and could not be deemed reliable.
For the complete article published by MENL [US], 21 August 2004, see:
www.menewsline.com/stories/2004/august/08_22_2.html
For items 4, 5, 6, see:
DU Reaction * 9/11 Whistleblower Fired * FilmMiracle
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
DU Reaction * 9/11 Whistleblower Fired * FilmMiracle
30 August 2004
[Depleted Uranium is]
the perfect weapon for killing lots of people
-- Marion Fulk,
a nuclear physical chemist retired
from the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab
"Military men are just dumb stupid animals
to be used as pawns in foreign policy."
- Henry Kissinger
Quoted in "Kiss the Boys Goodbye:
How the United States Betrayed Its Own POW's in Vietnam"
4) Depleted uranium: Dirty bombs, dirty missiles, dirty bullets
5) Homeland Security whistleblower removed for exposing terrorist threats
6) "Fahrenheit 9/11" film for America to survive'
Editor's Notes:
Item 4 is a well researched article on the catastrophe happening now by Depleted Uranium, which is mixed in the dust, sand, air, water, food, in Iraq as radioactive elements from exploded in military shells.
Item 5 is an investigative article by Tom Flocco about the apparent repercussions for Homeland Security whistleblower Mary Schneider.
In item 6, John Berger writes: "Fahrenheit 9/11 has touched millions of viewers across the world. But could it actually change the course of civilisation?" This article came via Michael Moore who may deserve to be honored by the Nobel Peace Prize for reasons described in this article. To help Farenheit 9/11' make its magic, when out in DVD and VHS, we need everyone working together to make sure this film is available to anyone in a swing State. We need to arouse, especially, the nonvoter to help us make stealing the election in 2004 a non-issue. Let's make that a self-fulfilling prophecy!
For items 1, 2, and 3, see:
SOS Lake Wobegon * Diebold Hole * Bush Payoff
4) Depleted uranium: Dirty bombs, dirty missiles, dirty bullets
A death sentence here and abroad
by Leuren Moret
[Exzcerpts]
"Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy." - Henry Kissinger, quoted in "Kiss the Boys Goodbye: How the United States Betrayed Its Own POW's in Vietnam"
Vietnam was a chemical war for oil, permanently contaminating large regions and countries downriver with Agent Orange, and environmentally the most devastating war in world history. But since 1991, the U.S. has staged four nuclear wars using depleted uranium weaponry, which, like Agent Orange, meets the U.S. government definition of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Vast regions in the Middle East and Central Asia have been permanently contaminated with radiation.
And what about our soldiers? Terry Jemison of the Department of Veterans Affairs reported this week to the American Free Press that "Gulf-era veterans" now on medical disability since 1991 number 518,739, with only 7,035 reported wounded in Iraq in that same 14-year period.
This week the American Free Press dropped a "dirty bomb" on the Pentagon by reporting that eight out of 20 men who served in one unit in the 2003 U.S. military offensive in Iraq now have malignancies. That means that 40 percent of the soldiers in that unit have developed malignancies in just 16 months.
Since these soldiers were exposed to vaccines and depleted uranium (DU) only, this is strong evidence for researchers and scientists working on this issue, that DU is the definitive cause of Gulf War Syndrome. Vaccines are not known to cause cancer. One of the first published researchers on Gulf War Syndrome, who also served in 1991 in Iraq, Dr. Andras Kornyi-Both, is in agreement with Barbara Goodno from the Department of Defense's Deployment Health Support Directorate, that in this war soldiers were not exposed to chemicals, pesticides, bioagents or other suspect causes this time to confuse the issue.
This powerful new evidence is blowing holes in the cover-up perpetrated by the Pentagon and three presidential administrations ever since DU was first used in 1991 in the Persian Gulf War. Fourteen years after the introduction of DU on the battlefield in 1991, the long-term effects have revealed that DU is a death sentence and very nasty stuff.
Scientists studying the biological effects of uranium in the 1960s reported that it targets the DNA. Marion Fulk, a nuclear physical chemist retired from the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab and formerly involved with the Manhattan Project, interprets the new and rapid malignancies in soldiers from the 2003 war as "spectacular and a matter of concern."
This evidence shows that of the three effects which DU has on biological systems - radiation, chemical and particulate the particulate effect from nano-size particles is the most dominant one immediately after exposure and targets the Master Code in the DNA. This is bad news, but it explains why DU causes a myriad of diseases which are difficult to define.
In simple words, DU "trashes the body." When asked if the main purpose for using it was for destroying things and killing people, Fulk was more specific: "I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people."
Soldiers developing malignancies so quickly since 2003 can be expected to develop multiple cancers from independent causes. This phenomenon has been reported by doctors in hospitals treating civilians following NATO bombing with DU in Yugoslavia in 1998-1999 and the U.S. military invasion of Iraq using DU for the first time in 1991. Medical experts report that this phenomenon of multiple malignancies from unrelated causes has been unknown until now and is a new syndrome associated with internal DU exposure.
Just 467 U.S. personnel were wounded in the three-week Persian Gulf War in 1990-1991. Out of 580,400 soldiers who served in Gulf War I, 11,000 are dead, and by 2000 there were 325,000 on permanent medical disability. This astounding number of disabled vets means that a decade later, 56 percent of those soldiers who served now have medical problems.
The number of disabled vets reported up to 2000 has been increasing by 43,000 every year. Brad Flohr of the Department of Veterans Affairs told American Free Press that he believes there are more disabled vets now than even after World War II.
They brought it home
Not only were soldiers exposed to DU on and off the battlefields, but they brought it home. DU in the semen of soldiers internally contaminated their wives, partners and girlfriends. Tragically, some women in their 20s and 30s who were sexual partners of exposed soldiers developed endometriosis and were forced to have hysterectomies because of health problems.
In a group of 251 soldiers from a study group in Mississippi who had all had normal babies before the Gulf War, 67 percent of their post-war babies were born with severe birth defects. They were born with missing legs, arms, organs or eyes or had immune system and blood diseases. In some veterans' families now, the only normal or healthy members of the family are the children born before the war.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has stated that they do not keep records of birth defects occurring in families of veterans.
How did they hide it?
Before a new weapons system can be used, it must be fully tested. The blueprint for depleted uranium weapons is a 1943 declassified document from the Manhattan Project.
Harvard President and physicist James B. Conant, who developed poison gas in World War I, was brought into the Manhattan Project by the father of presidential candidate John Kerry. Kerry's father served at a high level in the Manhattan Project and was a CIA agent.
Conant was chair of the S-1 Poison Gas Committee, which recommended developing poison gas weapons from the radioactive trash of the atomic bomb project in World War II. At that time, it was known that radioactive materials dispersed in bombs from the air, from land vehicles or on the battlefield produced very fine radioactive dust which would penetrate all protective clothing, any gas mask or filter or the skin. By contaminating the lungs and blood, it could kill or cause illness very quickly.
They also recommended it as a permanent terrain contaminant, which could be used to destroy populations by contaminating water supplies and agricultural land with the radioactive dust.
The first DU weapons system was developed for the Navy in 1968, and DU weapons were given to and used by Israel in 1973 under U.S. supervision in the Yom Kippur war against the Arabs.
The Phalanx weapons system, using DU, was tested on the USS Bigelow out of Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in 1977, and DU weapons have been sold by the U.S. to 29 countries.
Military research report summaries detail the testing of DU from 1974-1999 at military testing grounds, bombing and gunnery ranges and at civilian labs under contract. Today 42 states are contaminated with DU from manufacture, testing and deployment.
Women living around these facilities have reported increases in endometriosis, birth defects in babies, leukemia in children and cancers and other diseases in adults. Thousands of tons of DU weapons tested for decades by the Navy on four bombing and gunnery ranges around Fallon, Nevada, is no doubt the cause of the fastest growing leukemia cluster in the U.S. over the past decade. The military denies that DU is the cause.
The medical profession has been active in the cover-up - just as they were in hiding the effects from the American public - of low level radiation from atmospheric testing and nuclear power plants. A medical doctor in Northern California reported being trained by the Pentagon with other doctors, months before the 2003 war started, to diagnose and treat soldiers returning from the 2003 war for mental problems only.
Medical professionals in hospitals and facilities treating returning soldiers were threatened with $10,000 fines if they talked about the soldiers or their medical problems. They were also threatened with jail.
Reporters have also been prevented access to more than 14,000 medically evacuated soldiers flown nightly since the 2003 war in C-150s from Germany who are brought to Walter Reed Hospital near Washington, D.C.
Dr. Robert Gould, former president of the Bay Area chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), has contacted three medical doctors since February 2004, after I had been invited to speak about DU. Dr. Katharine Thomasson, president of the Oregon chapter of the PSR, informed me that Dr. Gould had contacted her and tried to convince her to cancel her invitation for me to speak about DU at Portland State University on April 12. Although I was able to do a presentation, Dr. Thomasson told me I could only talk about DU in Oregon "and nothing overseas nothing political."
Dr. Gould also contacted and discouraged Dr. Ross Wilcox in Toronto, Canada, from inviting me to speak to Physicians for Global Survival (PGS), the Canadian equivalent of PSR, several months later. When that didn't work, he contacted Dr. Allan Connoly, the Canadian national president of PGS, who was able to cancel my invitation and nearly succeeded in preventing Dr. Wilcox, his own member, from showing photos and presenting details on civilians suffering from DU exposure and cancer provided to him by doctors in southern Iraq.
Dr. Janette Sherman, a former and long-standing member of PSR, reported that she finally quit some time after being invited to lunch by a new PSR executive administrator. After the woman had pumped Dr. Sherman for information all through lunch about her position on key issues, the woman informed Dr. Sherman that her last job had been with the CIA.
How was the truth about DU hidden from military personnel serving in successive DU wars? Before his tragic death, Sen. Paul Wellstone informed Joyce Riley, R.N., B.S.N., executive director of the American Gulf War Veterans Association, that 95 percent of Gulf War veterans had been recycled out of the military by 1995. Any of those continuing in military service were isolated from each other, preventing critical information being transferred to new troops. The "next DU war" had already been planned, and those planning it wanted "no skunk at the garden party."
The US has a dirty (DU) little (CIA) secret
A new book just published at the American Free Press by Michael Collins Piper, "The High Priests of War: The Secret History of How America's Neo-Conservative Trotskyites Came to Power and Orchestrated the War Against Iraq as the First Step in Their Drive for Global Empire," details the early plans for a war against the Arab world by Henry Kissinger and the neo-cons in the late 1960s and early 1970s. That just happens to coincide with getting the DU "show on the road" and the oil crisis in the Middle East, which caused concern not only to President Nixon. The British had been plotting and scheming for control of the oil in Iraq for decades since first using poison gas on the Iraqis and Kurds in 1912.
The book details the creation of the neo-cons by their "godfather" and Trotsky lover Irving Kristol, who pushed for a "war against terrorism" long before 9/11 and was lavishly funded for years by the CIA. His son, William Kristol, is one of the most influential men in the United States.
Both are public relations men for the Israeli lobby's neo-conservative network, with strong ties to Rupert Murdoch. Kissinger also has ties to this network and the Carlyle Group, who, one could say, have facilitated these omnicidal wars beginning from the time former President Bush took office. It would be easy to say that we are recycling World Wars I and II, with the same faces.
When I asked Vietnam Special Ops Green Beret Capt. John McCarthy, who could have devised this omnicidal plan to use DU to destroy the genetic code and genetic future of large populations of Arabs and Moslems in the Middle East and Central Asia - just coincidentally the areas where most of the world's oil deposits are located - he replied: "It has all the handprints of Henry Kissinger." In Zbignew Brzezinski's book "The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives," the map of the Eurasian chessboard includes four regions strategic to U.S. foreign policy. The "South" region corresponds precisely to the regions now contaminated permanently with radiation from U.S. bombs, missiles and bullets made with thousands of tons of DU.
A Japanese professor, Dr. K. Yagasaki, has calculated that 800 tons of DU is the atomicity equivalent of 83,000 Nagasaki bombs. The U.S. has used more DU since 1991 than the atomicity equivalent of 400,000 Nagasaki bombs. Four nuclear wars indeed, and 10 times the amount of radiation released into the atmosphere from atmospheric testing!
No wonder our soldiers, their families and the people of the Middle East, Yugoslavia and Central Asia are sick. But as Henry Kissinger said after Vietnam when our soldiers came home ill from Agent Orange, "Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used for foreign policy."
Unfortunately, more and more of those soldiers are men and women with brown skin. And unfortunately, the DU radioactive dust will be carried around the world and deposited in our environments just as the "smog of war" from the 1991 Gulf War was found in deposits in South America, the Himalayas and Hawaii.
In June 2003, the World Health Organization announced in a press release that global cancer rates will increase 50 percent by 2020. What else do they know that they aren't telling us? I know that depleted uranium is a death sentence for all of us. We will all die in silent ways.
To learn more
Sources used in this story that readers are encouraged to consult:
American Free Press four-part series on DU by Christopher Bollyn. Part I: "Depleted Uranium: U.S. Commits War Crime Against Iraq, Humanity,"
www.americanfreepress.net/depleted_uranium.html; Part II: "Cancer Epidemic Caused by U.S. WMD: MD Says Depleted Uranium Definitively Linked,"
www.americanfreepress.net/html/cancer_epidemic_.html
August 2004 World Affairs Journal. Leuren Moret: "Depleted Uranium: The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War,"
www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Trojan-Horse1jul04.htm
August 2004 Coastal Post Online. Carol Sterrit: "Marin Depleted Uranium Resolution Heats Up GI's Will Come Home To A Slow Death,"
www.coastalpost.com/04/08/01
World Depleted Uranium Weapons Conference, Hamburg, Germany, October 16-19, 2004:
www.worlduraniumweaponsconference.de/speakers/speakers.htm
International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan. Written opinion of Judge Niloufer Baghwat:
www.mindfully.org/Reform/2004/Afghanistan-Criminal-Tribunal10mar04.htm
"Discounted Casualties: The Human Cost of Nuclear War" by Akira Tashiro, foreword by Leuren Moret,
www.chugoku-np.co.jp/abom/uran/index_e.html
Leuren Moret is a geoscientist who has worked around the world on radiation issues, educating citizens, the media, members of parliaments and Congress and other officials. She became a whistleblower in 1991 at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab after experiencing major science fraud on the Yucca Mountain Project. An environmental commissioner in the City of Berkeley, she can be reached at leurenmoret@yahoo.com.
For original article, links, etc., see:
www.sfbayview.com/081804/Depleteduranium081804.shtml
5) Homeland Security whistleblower removed for exposing terrorist threats
Tom Flocco.com - New Story Alert!
Exclusive: 9-11 Immigration Scandal
Homeland Security whistleblower removed for exposing terrorist threats
by Tom Flocco
Orlando, FL -- August 30, 2004 -- TomFlocco.com -- After warning American citizens via her website about bribery of U.S. immigration officials by illegal Muslims using sham marriages to secure green cards and citizenship, one of whom was reportedly linked to lead 9-11 hijacker Mohamed Atta and Khalil bin Laden, Homeland Security whistleblower Mary Schneider was removed last Thursday from her duties as an adjudications officer and directed to remain off the premises of the Orlando Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Schneider, who interviews aliens for immigration benefits, was told by outside informant Christine Sharrit that her former illegal Moroccan Muslim husband Lyazid Abad had lived with Atta in a central Florida apartment sometime prior to 1997--providing evidence that Atta had lived surreptitiously in this country with or without FBI knowledge for a substantial period of time before allegedly flying an American Airlines passenger jet into the World Trade Center.
Read More
www.tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=71
6) "Fahrenheit 9/11" film for America to survive'
The Impact of "Fahrenheit 9/11"'
Michael Moore:
"Dear friends,
I came across this article about "Fahrenheit 9/11" in Britain's Guardian newspaper today (the Guardian is one of the U.K.'s largest and most respected daily newspapers). It was written by the acclaimed author John Berger (winner of the Booker Prize) and I thought you might like to see how our fellow "Coalition of the Willing" members are responding to the movie.
Hope you haven't been wondering where I've been. All is well. Just making plans for the fall adventure."
Michael Moore
------------------------------------------------------
THE BEGINNING OF HISTORY
Fahrenheit 9/11 has touched millions of viewers across the world. But could it actually change the course of civilisation?
by John Berger
Tuesday August 24, 2004
Fahrenheit 9/11 is astounding. Not so much as a film - although it is cunning and moving - but as an event. Most commentators try to dismiss the event and disparage the film. We will see why later.
The artists on the Cannes film festival jury apparently voted unanimously to award Michael Moore's film the Palme d'Or. Since then it has touched many millions across the world. In the US, its box-office takings for the first six weeks amounted to more than $100m, which is, astoundingly, about half of what Harry Potter made during a comparable period. Only the so-called opinion-makers in the media appear to have been put out by it.
The film, considered as a political act, may be a historical landmark. Yet to have a sense of this, a certain perspective for the future is required. Living only close-up to the latest news, as most opinion-makers do, reduces one's perspectives. The film is trying to make a small contribution towards the changing of world history. It is a work inspired by hope.
What makes it an event is the fact that it is an effective and independent intervention into immediate world politics. Today it is rare for an artist to succeed in making such an intervention, and in interrupting the prepared, prevaricating statements of politicians. Its immediate aim is to make it less likely that President Bush will be re-elected next November.
To denigrate this as propaganda is either naive or perverse, forgetting (deliberately?) what the last century taught us. Propaganda requires a permanent network of communication so that it can systematically stifle reflection with emotive or utopian slogans. Its pace is usually fast. Propaganda invariably serves the long-term interests of some elite.
This single maverick movie is often reflectively slow and is not afraid of silence. It appeals to people to think for themselves and make connections. And it identifies with, and pleads for, those who are normally unlistened to. Making a strong case is not the same thing as saturating with propaganda. Fox TV does the latter; Michael Moore the former.
Ever since the Greek tragedies, artists have, from time to time, asked themselves how they might influence ongoing political events. It's a tricky question because two very different types of power are involved. Many theories of aesthetics and ethics revolve round this question. For those living under political tyrannies, art has frequently been a form of hidden resistance, and tyrants habitually look for ways to control art. All this, however, is in general terms and over a large terrain. Fahrenheit 9/11 is something different. It has succeeded in intervening in a political programme on the programme's own ground.
For this to happen a convergence of factors were needed. The Cannes award and the misjudged attempt to prevent the film being distributed played a significant part in creating the event.
To point this out in no way implies that the film as such doesn't deserve the attention it is receiving. It's simply to remind ourselves that within the realm of the mass media, a breakthrough (a smashing down of the daily wall of lies and half-truths) is bound to be rare. And it is this rarity which has made the film exemplary. It is setting an example to millions - as if they'd been waiting for it.
The film proposes that the White House and Pentagon were taken over in the first year of the millennium by a gang of thugs so that US power should henceforth serve the global interests of the corporations: a stark scenario which is closer to the truth than most nuanced editorials. Yet more important than the scenario is the way the movie speaks out. It demonstrates that - despite all the manipulative power of communications experts, lying presidential speeches and vapid press conferences - a single independent voice, pointing out certain home truths which countless Americans are already discovering for themselves, can break through the conspiracy of silence, the atmosphere of fear and the solitude of feeling politically impotent.
It's a movie that speaks of obstinate faraway desires in a period of disillusion. A movie that tells jokes while the band plays the apocalypse. A movie in which millions of Americans recognise themselves and the precise ways in which they are being cheated. A movie about surprises, mostly bad but some good, being discussed together. Fahrenheit 9/11 reminds the spectator that when courage is shared one can fight against the odds.
In more than a thousand cinemas across the country, Michael Moore becomes with this film a people's tribune. And what do we see? Bush is visibly a political cretin, as ignorant of the world as he is indifferent to it; while the tribune, informed by popular experience, acquires political credibility, not as a politician himself, but as the voice of the anger of a multitude and its will to resist.
There is something else which is astounding. The aim of Fahrenheit 9/11 is to stop Bush fixing the next election as he fixed the last. Its focus is on the totally unjustified war in Iraq. Yet its conclusion is larger than either of these issues. It declares that a political economy which creates colossally increasing wealth surrounded by disastrously increasing poverty, needs - in order to survive - a continual war with some invented foreign enemy to maintain its own internal order and security. It requires ceaseless war.
Thus, 15 years after the fall of communism, a decade after the declared end of history, one of the main theses of Marx's interpretation of history again becomes a debating point and a possible explanation of the catastrophes being lived.
It is always the poor who make the most sacrifices, Fahrenheit 9/11 announces quietly during its last minutes. For how much longer?
There is no future for any civilisation anywhere in the world today which ignores this question. And this is why the film was made and became what it became. It's a film that deeply wants America to survive.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
ChavezVictory * US-Iraq Mishaps * MatrixPolitics
18 August 2004
"Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear
-kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor-with the cry
of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil
at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up
if we did not blindly rally behind it ..."
~~ General Douglas MacArthur, 1957
1) Dick Cheney, Hugo Chavez and Bill Clinton's Band
- - Chavez garners world support with big referendum victory
- - Why Hugo Chavez Won a Landslide Victory
- - Buy Citgo gas to Fuel Democracy
- - Afghan Vote Threatens Bush's Credibility
2) US-Iraq and Global Mishaps
- - Army will withhold payment to Halliburton due to suspicious bills
- - 'Boiling Point': Who's to Blame for Global Warming?
- - Was our son murdered by the CIA?
- - Taken at Gunpoint, U.S. Journalist and Interpreter Missing in Iraq
- - Police fire at reporters as US tanks roll up to shrine
3) Living the Matrix -- Can You Believe It?
- - Olympics: Parade of Nations, Parade of Ignorance
Editor's Notes:
There are lots of insights in this 5th year anniversary issue of Flyby News and the Cassini-Earth flyby. Congratulations on our survival, (up to this point). Flyby News is planning a fund raiser and music extravaganza in Amherst-Northampton, MA area, for after the elections in November to help cover expenses. So far some great performers are showing interest. More on this later. Till the election, Flyby News is committed to helping the nonviolent removal of George W. Bush from US office. It won't come a moment too soon, and will require a unifying spirit. Get ready to help distribute or promote Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" film for voters in US Swing States and help convince nonvoters to register and vote in 2004, for the rapid demise of our survival is on the line.
VIVA Chavez & VIVA Flyby News
from point of origin thru transformation..
8/18/1999 -- 12/21/2012 -- and beyond..?
1) Dick Cheney, Hugo Chavez and Bill Clinton's Band
- - Chavez garners world support with big referendum victory
- - Why Hugo Chavez Won a Landslide Victory
- - Buy Citgo gas to Fuel Democracy
- - Afghan Vote Threatens Bush's Credibility
DICK CHENEY, HUGO CHAVEZ AND BILL CLINTON'S BAND
Why Venezuela has Voted Again for Their 'Negro e Indio' President
Monday Aug 16, 2004
by Greg Palast
[Excerpt]
There's so much BS and baloney thrown around about Venezuela that I may be violating some rule of US journalism by providing some facts. Let's begin with this: 77% of Venezuela's farmland is owned by 3% of the population, the 'hacendados.' I met one of these farmlords in Caracas at an anti-Chavez protest march. Oddest demonstration I've ever seen: frosted blondes in high heels clutching designer bags, screeching, "Chavez - dic-ta-dor!" The plantation owner griped about the "socialismo" of Chavez, then jumped into his Jaguar convertible.
That week, Chavez himself handed me a copy of the "socialist" manifesto that so rattled the man in the Jag. It was a new law passed by Venezuela's Congress which gave land to the landless. The Chavez law transferred only fields from the giant haciendas which had been left unused and abandoned.
This land reform, by the way, was promoted to Venezuela in the 1960s by that Lefty radical, John F. Kennedy. Venezuela's dictator of the time agreed to hand out land, but forgot to give peasants title to their property.
But Chavez won't forget, because the mirror reminds him. What the affable president sees in his reflection, beyond the ribbons of office, is a "negro e indio" -- a "Black and Indian" man, dark as a cola nut, same as the landless and, until now, the hopeless. For the first time in Venezuela's history, the 80% Black-Indian population elected a man with skin darker than the man in the Jaguar.
So why, with a huge majority of the electorate behind him, twice in elections and today in a referendum, is Hugo Chavez in hot water with our democracy-promoting White House?
Maybe it's the oil. Lots of it. Chavez sits atop a reserve of crude that rivals Iraq's. And it's not his presidency of Venezuela that drives the White House bananas, it was his presidency of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC. While in control of the OPEC secretariat, Chavez cut a deal with our maximum leader of the time, Bill Clinton, on the price of oil. It was a 'Goldilocks' plan. The price would not be too low, not too high; just right, kept between $20 and $30 a barrel.
But Dick Cheney does not like Clinton nor Chavez nor their band. To him, the oil industry's (and Saudi Arabia's) freedom to set oil prices is as sacred as freedom of speech is to the ACLU. I got this info, by the way, from three top oil industry lobbyists.
Why should Chavez worry about what Dick thinks? Because, said one of the oil men, the Veep in his bunker, not the pretzel-chewer in the White House, "runs energy policy in the United States."
And what seems to have gotten our Veep's knickers in a twist is not the price of oil, but who keeps the loot from the current band-busting spurt in prices. Chavez had his Congress pass another oil law, the "Law of Hydrocarbons," which changes the split. Right now, the oil majors - like Phillips-Conoco - keep 84% of the proceeds of the sale of Venezuela oil; the nation gets only 16%.
Chavez wanted to double his Treasury's take to 30%. And for good reason. Landless, hungry peasants have, over decades, drifted into Caracas and other cities, building million-person ghettos of cardboard shacks and open sewers. Chavez promised to do something about that.
And he did. "Chavez gives them bread and bricks," one Venezuelan TV reporter told me. The blonde TV newscaster, in the middle of a publicity shoot, said the words "pan y ladrillos" with disdain, making it clear that she never touched bricks and certainly never waited in a bread line.
But to feed and house the darker folk in those bread and brick lines, Chavez would need funds, and the 16% slice of the oil pie wouldn't do it. So the President of Venezuela demanded 30%, leaving Big Oil only 70%. Suddenly, Bill Clinton's ally in Caracas became Mr. Cheney's -- and therefore, Mr. Bush's -- enemy..
..Even under Chavez, land redistribution remains more a promise than an accomplishment. But today, the landless and homeless voted their hopes, knowing that their man may not, against the armed axis of local oligarchs and Dick Cheney, succeed for them. But they are convinced he will never forget them.
And that's a fact.
---
The complete article is posted at:
www.gregpalast.com/printerfriendly.cfm?artid=361
For more information, visit: GregPalast.com.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Chavez garners world support with big referendum victory
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez won international approval from supporters and detractors alike Monday on his decisive referendum victory over opponents trying to oust him. Cuba's communist government and Spain's left-leaning parties said the triumph confirmed the legitimacy of Chavez's government, arguing that it could jumpstart leftist movements across the region. With the victory, which was endorsed by international monitors, Chavez converted one of the biggest challenges of his presidency into an even broader mandate to carry on his "revolution for the poor."
For the National Post [Canada], 17 August 2004, article, see:
www.canada.com/news/world/story.html?id=aace5d49-60ce-407a-9d18-2430370c55eb
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Why Hugo Chavez Won a Landslide Victory
by Medea Benjamin
Published on August 17, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
www.commondreams.org/views04/0817-01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Buy Citgo gas to Fuel Democracy
Citgo is a company is owned by PDV America, Inc., an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A., the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Citgo is the US refining and marketing arm of Venezuela's state oil company. Revenue from this oil at the current high market price that has enabled Hugo Chavez to carry out social investments and democracy-building. A success for that democratic economic experiment in Latin America is a threat to the corporate control everywhere. The social spending of the state-owned oil company has made him the target of an Old Guard that is trying to oust him. That Old Guard is supported by the international oil corporations that do not want to see a state-run oil company funneling profits into social spending for the poor. A simple, painless way for American progressives to continue social change in Venezuela is to fill up at Citgo stations. You can click following link to locate Citgo gas stations: www.citgo.com/CITGOLocator.jsp
Please forward this information widely!
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Afghan Vote Threatens Bush's Credibility
by Carol Harrington and Jared Ferrie
KABUL—With evidence mounting of plans for widespread vote-rigging in Afghanistan's upcoming elections, U.S. experts say the controversy could emerge as a serious liability for U.S. President George W. Bush's re-election campaign.
Published on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 by the Toronto Star :
www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=1092694222919&call_pageid=968332188854
or
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0817-01.htm
2) US-Iraq and Global Mishaps
- - Army will withhold payment to Halliburton due to suspicious bills
- - 'Boiling Point': Who's to Blame for Global Warming?
- - Was our son murdered by the CIA?
- - Taken at Gunpoint, U.S. Journalist and Interpreter Missing in Iraq
- - Police fire at reporters as US tanks roll up to shrine
- - Army will withhold payment to Halliburton due to suspicious bills
17 Aug. 2004
WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 (HalliburtonWatch.org) -- The U.S. Army has decided to withhold 15 percent of future payments to Halliburton because the company apparently billed taxpayers for work that was never undertaken or completed, Reuters reports. Halliburton had said yesterday that the Army would give it more time to explain the suspicious bills, but today's news indicates that was not the case. The company told Reuters that its claim yesterday that Army officials had given it more time to explain the suspicious bills "were accurate at the time based on clear oral assurances from senior Pentagon representatives."
The Pentagon last week told Halliburton's KBR subsidiary that $1.8 billion in bills from the company's work in the the Middle East are not verifiable. The $1.8 billion represents 43 percent of Halliburton's total bills submitted to the Pentagon for reimbursement. The company was given until Aug. 15 to justify those bills, but failed to meet that deadline. It also failed to meet two previous deadlines that had been extended, Reuters reported.
If Halliburton fails to justify its expenses, the Pentagon can withhold up to 15 percent of requested reimbursements. The Army estimated that KBR work orders with a future value of $8.2 billion could be affected by a 15 percent withholding, or $60 million per month. So far, Halliburton has received $4.3 billion from the Pentagon for its work under the Army's LOGCAP contract. Under LOGCAP, Halliburton's KBR subsidiary is charged with feeding the troops, transporting military supplies and personnel, and constructing military housing -- mostly in Iraq and Kuwait.
The withholding of payments will affect future, not past, invoices submitted by Halliburton.
"At the end of the day, we do not expect this will have a significant or sustained impact on liquidity," said Cris Gaut, chief financial officer, in a news release. "There are very few companies in the world that could or would adapt this quickly while, at the same time, financing an operation of this magnitude."
Halliburton will take legal action against the Pentagon over the dispute, CBS News MarketWatch reports. The company wants a judge to rule that the 15 percent withholding does not apply to its LOGCAP and Restore Iraqi Oil I and II contracts with the Army, which constitute the bulk of its work in the Middle East.
For related link from HalliburtonWatch.org:
Pentagon says 43% of Halliburton's Iraq expenses are not verifiable
Halliburton overcharged for meals by $186 million
Two reports explain how Halliburton took taxpayers for a ride in Iraq
Gasoline Overcharges
Government widens criminal probe of Halliburton's gas overcharges
For article and links see:
www.halliburtonwatch.org/news/withhold_payment.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 'Boiling Point': Who's to Blame for Global Warming?
How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists, and Activists Are Fueling the Climate Crisis -- and What We Can Do to Avert Disaster.
By Ross Gelbspan.
254 pp. Basic Books. $22.
NY Times book review by Al Gore
'Boiling Point': Who's to Blame for Global Warming?
By AL GORE
Published in the NY Times: August 15, 2004
THE blend of passionate advocacy and lucid analysis that Ross Gelbspan brings to this, his second book about global warming, is extremely readable because the author's voice is so authentic. When Gelbspan first encountered the issue as a reporter nine years ago, he writes, he had no inkling of how it would change his life. But as he put together the evidence of the global climate crisis he describes in this book, he found himself pulled inexorably to do more than simply write about it. So he now feels called to a kind of mission: to describe what is happening, to single out the specific failures and misdeeds of politicians, energy companies, environmental activists and journalists who share responsibility for our predicament, and then propose bold solutions that -- unlike more timid blueprints already on the public agenda -- would in his view actually solve the problem.
Gelbspan's first book, ''The Heat Is On'' (1997), remains the best, and virtually only, study of how the coal and oil industry has provided financing to a small group of contrarian scientists who began to make themselves available for mass media interviews as so-called skeptics on the subject of global warming. In fact, these scientists played a key role in Gelbspan's personal journey on this issue. When he got letters disputing the facts in his very first article, he was at first chastened -- until he realized the letters were merely citing the industry-funded scientists. He accuses this group of ''stealing our reality.''
In this new book, Gelbspan focuses his toughest language by far on the coal and oil industries. After documenting the largely successful efforts of companies like ExxonMobil to paralyze the policy process, confuse the American people and cynically '' 'reposition global warming as theory rather than fact,' '' as one strategy paper put it, he concludes that ''what began as a normal business response by the fossil fuel lobby -- denial and delay -- has now attained the status of a crime against humanity.''..
Search at nytimes.com for complete article.
{Al Gore, formerly vice president of the United States, is the author of ''Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit.''}
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"..There may be no more splendidly ruthless moment
in a movie this year than when Senator Shaw explains
the facts of life to her son. 'The assassin always dies,
baby,' she says. 'It's necessary for the national healing.'"
– John Powers
{From review of recently released version of the movie: "The Manchurian Candidate."}
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Was our son murdered by the CIA?
by Jenny Shields
Sat 17 July 2004 - The Scotsman
It has been a difficult month for Robin and Daphne Wild. In July last year, their son Richard was murdered in Iraq, shot in the back of the head as he crossed the road in Baghdad. Since then, the parents of the Cambridge University graduate have tried to piece together the events of that day. Mr and Mrs Wild - who feel they have been hindered, rather than helped, by the Foreign Office at every turn - have come to a startling conclusion; they believe their son's murder was ordered by the CIA. The Wilds are intelligent, educated people, not generally given to conspiracy theories or flights of fancy. The tale of their horrendous year is told in simple, moving terms, with a constant air of disbelief at what has happened. "We are not naive, we know unpalatable things are done," says Mrs Wild. "But when you are drawn into it, it is terrifying." She is shivering as she speaks, as a squally wind and heavy mist casts a summer chill over the Wilds' baronial home in the shadow of the Eildon hills in the Scottish Borders..
For the complete article, see:
news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=815622004
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = == = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Taken at Gunpoint, U.S. Journalist and Interpreter Missing in Iraq
Micah Garen, an American journalist who was investigating the looting of ancient artifacts in Iraq, was missing along with his Iraqi interpreter on Monday after the two were led at gunpoint on Friday from a shop in the southern city of Nasiriya, according to news reports and the men's families.
www.nytimes.com/2004/08/17/international/middleeast/17journalist.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = == = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Police fire at reporters as US tanks roll up to shrine
The bullet that whistled through the lobby of the Sea Hotel in Najaf yesterday, embedding shards of glass into a foreign reporter's cheek before lodging itself in an air-conditioning unit, carried an unmistakable message: "Get out." In Najaf... the Iraqi police threaten journalists, and the insurgents welcome them.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/08/16/wirq216.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/08/16/ixnewstop.html
3) Living the Matrix -- Can You Believe It?
- - Olympics: Parade of Nations, Parade of Ignorance
- - Living the Matrix -- Can You Believe It?
August 16 by Vincent L. Guarisco
"Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear-kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor-with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it ..."
~~ General Douglas MacArthur, 1957
Ever since we fell into this dark, gloomy abyss shortly after the thievish 2000 (s)election, many of us felt stranded -- forced to live in fear and confusion above the transitory rabbit hole. More times than not, I felt I was locked in an alternate universe -- playing out the movie character "Neo" like in the 1999 cyber-thriller, "The Matrix."
The last four years have been surreal. A dreadful and draining experience -- one hell of a hawkish, bloody four-year "Nebuchadnezzar" ride! However, Americans have an amazing resilience for truth and compassion. You can fool them once, twice -- even more -- but once they realize their freedom, their democracy, is in danger, they become an irresistible force.
In case you haven't noticed, many of our misinformed, behavior-modified citizens have already wised-up. And, every day, countless more are choking down Morpheus' symbolic, mystic "red pill" serum to receive their long-overdue wake-up call..
For the complete article, see:
thomasmc.com/0816vg.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Olympics: Parade of Nations, Parade of Ignorance
Parade of Nations, Parade of Ignorance
One Fan's Disillusionment with the TV Games
by Daniel Patrick Welch
The author tells of his infatuation with the Olympic games from early childhood--a spell unfortunately broken by ruminating on current events, US policy, and the mind-numbing chatter of American talking head celebrity commentators.
See: Parade of Nations, Parade of Ignorance
danielpwelch.com/0408poi.htm
Spanish translations of prior columns available at:
danielpwelch.com/articles-s.htm
Flyby News Support
If you care to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses
for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc.,
you can send donations to:
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
-- or you can donate via online --
see FlybyNews.com [near bottom of page] for link
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
ChavezSupport * DemsWinningFL * GamblingPeace
14 August 2004
"Here is Venezuela in the spirit of the Liberator Simon Bolivar to say
NO to Yanqui interventionism, to say no to Mr. Bush, to his invading,
imperialist and colonial regime ... and we will tell him that here is the
people of Simon Bolivar and we will keep on telling him."
- - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias
1) Jackson, Kucinich,.. Announce Support for Chavez
- - Big Test for Embattled Populist
- - CIA Contingency Plot to Overthrow Chavez?
- - Kucinich Launches Progressive Dems of America
- - Biography of Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich
2) Democrats outhustling GOP in Florida
- - Bush-Colin joke received via Rhino's Blog
- - Iraq: U.S. Keeps Winning Battles, Losing Wars
- - Editorial - Bush blew it the morning of 9/11
3) Israel-Palestinian Peace Action Alert
A fragrance uncovered by earth in extreme times
motions an empty stillness to watch and listen
and bathe within the radiance of unscathed vision,
for peace triangles inner dimensions
and joy bounces about.. where love yearns to play,
and wholeness is watching..
Jonathan Mark
8/12/2004
Editor's Notes:
This issue contains some inspirational news, and about a progressive agenda to transform the USA, and help maintain and expand freedom and democracy in Venezuela and around the world. Take note: the Democrats are registering more new voters in Florida than Republicans in recent days, showing a trend. This is before the Michael Moore video/DVD release of "Fahrenheit 9/11" and who knows what else may happen? It is time to maintain and increase actions to make sure a clear majority is present to stop another stolen election. Meanwhile, the critical election in Venezuela is set for tomorrow, Sunday. [Late Note: 8/16/04 CHAVEZ WINS!] Item 1 includes a letter of support from Former Democratic Presidential Candidates Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rep. Dennis Kucinich for Venezuelan President Chavez, which includes their apologies for the US governments' attempts for a coup d'etat of this democratically elected leader.
The last item is on an action alert for a peace process for Israel-Palestine Peace. Settlements in the middle of an occupied territory, where Palestinians are denied basic freedoms, is only a recipe for more terrorism and injustice for everyone. This alert has to do with a BINGO Hall financing such operations, and what you can do before a vote to extend a gambling licence on August 19th, which has been used to finance "strategically placed Palestinian real estate for Jewish settlers and supporting militant anti-peace organizations." Flyby New endorses all efforts in support of a peaceful co-existing Israeli and Palestinian state, which would do more to end world-wide terrorism than any of the Bush past, ongoing, or planned wars.
"War paralyzes your courage and deadens the spirit of true manhood.
It degrades and stupefies with the sense that you are not responsible,
that 'tis not yours to think and reason why, but to do and die,'
like the hundred thousand others doomed like yourself.
War means blind obedience, unthinking stupidity, brutish callousness,
wanton destruction, and irresponsible murder."
Alexander Berkman
1) Jackson, Kucinich,.. Announce Support for Chavez
- - Big Test for Embattled Populist
- - CIA Contingency Plot to Overthrow Chavez?
- - Kucinich Launches Progressive Dems of America
- - Biography of Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich
Politics - U.S. Newswire Press Releases
Former Democratic Presidential Candidates Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rep. Dennis Kucinich Announce Support for Venezuelan President Chavez; Political Leader
Thu Aug 12,12:27 PM ET
To: National and International Desks
Contact: Eric Wingerter of the Venezuelan Information Office, 202-347-8081
WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Jesse Jackson and Dennis Kucinich (news - web sites) were joined by actors, historians and others in sending their support to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, just days before he faces a historic vote on the future of his administration.
Noting the accomplishments of the Chavez administration to improve the lives of Venezuela's impoverished majority, the joint letter expressed the signers' "hope and expectation that, on August 15, you will once again win an electoral mandate from the Venezuelan people to be their president."
Signed by a diverse sampling of well known Americans, including the Reverend Jesse Jackson and Congressman Dennis Kucinich, television star Edward Asner, and best-selling author Howard Zinn, the letter decried the role of the United States government in financing the opposition movement in Venezuela, including participants of a 2002 coup d'etat that briefly ousted the democratically-elected president from power. The signers pledged to heal the strained relationships between the United States and Venezuela.
Despite Venezuela's vast oil wealth, nearly 80 percent of the country lives below the poverty level. President Chavez has expanded opportunities for all Venezuelans by using oil revenues to finance new schools, health clinics and national nutrition programs catering to the poor majority. In the past year alone, more than one million adults have been taught to read.
The president's term has been marked by fierce opposition from Venezuela's former ruling powers, including the 2002 coup and a national management-led oil strike that crippled the country's economy. This Sunday, the Venezuelan people will vote whether to allow the president to finish his term. Recent polls indicate that the majority of Venezuelans will once again vote in favor of their president.
The American letter is the latest in a series of solidarity statements from well-known figures around the world. In July, a group of 69 Latin American intellectuals, artists, and Nobel laureates signed a letter titled, "If I were a Venezuelan, I would vote for Hugo Chavez."
------
August 12, 2004
Dear President Chavez,
We are writing to express our solidarity during this important moment in Venezuela's history. It is our hope and expectation that, on August 15, you will once again win an electoral mandate from the Venezuelan people to be their president.
The world knows that you are achieving something remarkable in Venezuela: you are investing your country's vast oil wealth in ways that benefit everyone, not just small minority of well- connected elites. Over the last year your government's literacy campaign taught one million Venezuelans to read. And today, millions of others are benefitting from the governments investment in job training, small businesses and health care.
We are disturbed by our own government's interference in your internal affairs. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a group funded by the U.S. Congress, has financed radical opposition leaders in their efforts to cut short your term. Some of the individuals funded by the NED participated in the April 2002 coup attempt against you.
Polling done by both the Venezuelan government and its opposition shows that you will defeat the recall referendum on August 15. We have every expectation that on August 16 Venezuelan relations with the U.S. government will begin to improve.
We are committed to doing what we can, as U.S. citizens, to heal those relationships and encourage Congress and the White House to see Venezuela not only as a model democracy but also as a model of how a country's oil wealth can be used to benefit all of its people.
Sincerely,
Reverend Jesse Jackson, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Dr. Howard Zinn, Edward Asner, Dr. Saul Landau, Naomi Klein, Doug Henwood, Dr. Blase Bonpane, Liza Featherstone
------
Biographies of Signers
Reverend Jesse Jackson, Civil rights leader and former US Presidential Candidate
Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Represents Ohio's Ohio's 10th District in Congress. Ran for president in 2003-04.
Dr. Howard Zinn, Historian and Playwright. His A People's History of the United States is an international bestseller.
Edward Asner, An accomplished television and movie actor whose career has spanned more than 3 decades, Asner has also been a long-time activist.
Dr. Saul Landau, Internationally known scholar, author, commentator, and filmmaker. Winner of the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award, and an Emmy Award for "Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang."
Naomi Klein, Award-winning journalist and author of the international best- seller No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies.
Doug Henwood, Editor and Publisher of the Left Business Observer, and author of After the New Economy and the best-selling Wall Street.
Dr. Blase Bonpane, A journalist and author, Dr. Bonpane is the director of the Office of the Americas.
Liza Featherstone, Journalist and author of Students Against Sweatshops: The Making of A Movement.
------
www.usnewswire.com/
2004 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/
story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=669&ncid=669&e=1&u=/usnw/20040812/pl_usnw/former_democratic_presidential_candidates_rev__jesse_jackson__rep__dennis_kucinich_announce_support_for_venezuelan_president_ch
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Big Test for Embattled Populist
by Juan Gonzalez, New York Daily News, August 12, 2004
commondreams.org/views04/0812-15.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - CIA Contingency Plot to Overthrow Chavez?
CIA executives Gathered in Santiago de Chile
Revealed in Contingency Plot to Overthrow Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez Frias
Venezuela Headline News, August 9, 2004
Venezuela state-owned news agency VENPRES is quoting an El Mundo de Madrid (Spain) report that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is set to put a contingency plan in motion in the (likely) event that President Hugo Chavez Frias wins next weekend's Recall Referendum.
The Madrid newspaper says that the White House strategy is to avoid a regional expansion of the President Hugo Chavez Frias 'Bolivarian Revolution' which is seen by Washington D.C. as a direct step into the kind of socialism espoused by many European nations and envisaged in the United States if John Kerry wrests control of the White House from the Bush 2 administration this coming fall.
El Mundo says the CIA plan appears to concede a Chavez Frias victory next weekend "for good or bad" and that Langley spooks are already working on a strategy to "neutralize" Chavez Frias by fair means or foul. CIA under secretary for southern hemispherical affairs, William Spencer, has been drafted to Santiago de Chile to analyze the "Venezuelan situation" with CIA country directors from Colombia, Ecuador, Brasil and Peru. Spencer is reportedly convinced that Chavez Frias intends (no matter how fanciful) to create two centers of "revolutionary focus" in South America in preparation to overthrow Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez and Bolivia's Head of State, Carlos Mesa.
MORE: www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=22356
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich Launches Progressive Dems of America
"what America will become"
Berkeley Daily Planet
Edition Date: Friday, August 13, 2004
[Excerpt]
Kucinich Can't Stop Campaigning, Launches Progressive Dems of America
By CHRISTOPHER KROHN Special to the Planet (07-27-04)
BOSTON — The air inside St. Paul's Church next to Boston Common was sultry on Monday, laden with east coast humidity and heat from national progressive politics. United States Rep. Dennis Kucinich from Ohio and several featured speakers including Reverend Jesse Jackson, James Zogby, President of the Arab-American Institute, Margaret Prescod of Pacifica's KPFK and co-coordinator of the Global Women's Strike and actors Mimi Kennedy and James Cromwell kicked off four days of political dialogue.
The presidential aspirations for one Dennis Kucinich have ended—he endorsed John Kerry last Thursday night in Detroit—but the campaign lives on. Kucinich joins dozens of national figures this week in a series of "social forums" discussing almost everything: bringing the troops home, restoring Jean Bertrand Aristide to the presidency of Haiti, creating a universal healthcare plan, endorsing gay marriage, supporting Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. The agenda goes all the way to defining, in the words of Zogby, "what America will become." This new organization is called PDA, or Progressive Democrats of America, and most of the issues raised by the progressives in Monday's two-hour opening forum aren't in the Democratic Party platform.
This was the first of nine such events during this convention week for Kucinich and the 300 supporter-entourage he has brought with him to Boston. The list of scheduled speakers for the week reads like a national progressive who's who all-star team: Prof. Angela Davis, former California State Sen. and ‘60s icon Tom Hayden, U.S. Rep. John Conyers from Michigan, Sen. Dick Durban from Illinois, Actor Sean Penn, Global Exchange Executive Director Medea Benjamin, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., new-age author Marianne Williamson, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, and former LBJ press secretary and television personality Bill Moyers. It has become an ambitious project, to say the least..
..When Kucinich came to the podium he and the crowd were already in a frenzied state. It didn't take long for him to get the crowd standing again. "This is a country that fled an empire, but we didn't flee an empire to become an empire," he said. He also talked about civil liberties.. The progressive choir was back on its feet again when Kucinich jabbed the air with his finger saying, "What better place to talk about the Patriot Act than in Boston." Another standing ovation. Dennis then laid down the gauntlet:"It is so essential that we stand up. ..the Patriot Act was passed it was passed in the middle of the night and most members of Congress did not know what was in it."
In a press conference following the first forum Kucinich was asked by this reporter about the war: Why is there no timetable in the Democratic Party platform concerning the number one issue for Democrats? Kucinich immediately cited the morning's New York Times poll of Democratic delegates: "Nine out of 10 are opposed to this war." Then why is it not in the party platform? "Progressives are going to elect John Kerry," he said. "We hold the balance right now…progressives want to hold onto their identity then merge into the Democratic Party." But where are the teeth? What assurances will Democrats have? "The platform is insufficient. The platform is not to be taken as a finished product. We're going to unite behind John Kerry and we will continue to become stronger after the election," said Kucinich.
For the complete article, see:
www.berkeleydaily.org/text/article.cfm?issue=07-27-04&storyID=19327
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Biography of Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich
www.house.gov/kucinich/info/bio.htm
2) Democrats outhustling GOP in Florida
- - Bush-Colin joke received via Rhino's Blog
- - Iraq: U.S. Keeps Winning Battles, Losing Wars
- - Editorial - Bush blew it the morning of 9/11
- - Democrats outhustling GOP in Florida
Democrats are making a must-win state tough territory for the president.
By ADAM C. SMITH, Times Political Editor
Published August 13, 2004
[Excerpt]
President Bush's prospects in Florida are looking increasingly shaky.
Barely 80 days before election day, signs abound that Democrats are outperforming Republicans in the state Bush virtually has to win to gain another term in the White House.
Republicans had vowed an unprecedented voter registration program, but Democrats are far outpacing them in registration gains.
Democrats have far more operatives on the ground, thanks largely to well-funded liberal organizations aggressively working to mobilize John Kerry supporters.
The past two statewide polls show the Massachusetts senator leading by 6 or 7 percentage points, and, along with other recent polls, point to a number of other ominous signs for the president.
Though the Bush-Cheney campaign boasts an unprecedented grass-roots effort, some Republicans are quietly fretting. Not only does Bush look vulnerable in must-win Florida, they say, at the very least he could be forced to divert resources here that may be needed elsewhere.
"Not only is Florida becoming a problem for the campaign but it could make some Southern border states that are usually safely Republican slip into competitive mode in the last two to three weeks of the campaign," said InsiderAdvantage pollster Matt Towery, a former strategist for Newt Gingrich. "If Bush loses Florida, it's lights out."
Should Florida's 27 electoral votes move to the Democratic column, the electoral math would look bleak for Bush. He would have to win several states he lost in 2000.
An Aug. 5-10 Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday showed 47 percent of Florida voters backed Kerry, 41 percent Bush and 4 percent independent candidate Ralph Nader. The same poll had Bush and Kerry tied in Florida six weeks ago. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Other Quinnipiac findings suggest potentially more problems for Bush: 54 percent of voters disapproved of the president's job performance; only one in three independent voters backed Bush; among women, Kerry led by 14 percentage points; among men Bush led by 2 percentage points.
In the virtually tied Florida election of 2000, exit polls showed Bush enjoyed a 26 point advantage over Al Gore among male Florida voters; they essentially tied among independent voters.
At this point in 2000, Gore was just beginning to focus on Florida. This year, Democrats have been pouring money into the state for months. Kerry has spent 13 days in the state since March; Bush has spent eight since January.
The Kerry campaign and state and national Democratic parties have some 45 paid staffers in the state; by next week they will have about 60. By the end of next month they will have 125.
Seven Kerry campaign offices are now open - including in Tampa and Pinellas Park - and four more will be open within two weeks.
Arguably the most crucial piece of the Kerry Florida operation, though, is not even working with the campaign.
Every day across the state, a host of independent groups legally barred from coordinating with the Kerry campaign are paying hundreds of people to register, target and mobilize anti-Bush voters. One group, Tampa-based America Coming Together, has about 300 paid staffers working in Florida. By Nov. 2, they will have spent an estimated $10-million here.
Their work has produced tangible results: Through June, Democrats added 129,423 voters to their roll, compared to 75,132 for Republicans and 122,769 registered to neither party..
For the complete article, see:
www.sptimes.com/2004/08/13/Decision2004/Democrats_outhustling.shtml
Staff writer Joni James contributed to this report.
Adam C. Smith can be reached at adam@sptimes.com or 727 893-8241.
Copyright 2003 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush-Colin joke received via Rhino's Blog
rhinosblog.info
THE JOKE:
President Bush and Colin Powell are sitting in a bar. A guy walks in and asks the barman,"Isn't that Bush and Powell sitting over there?" The barman says,"Yep, that's them." So the guy walks over and says, "Wow, this is a real honor.
What are you guys doing in here?'
Bush says, "We're planning WW III." And the guy says, "Really? What's going to happen?"
Bush says, "Well, we're going to kill 140 million Iraqis this time and one blonde with big tits."
The guy exclaimed, "A blonde with big tits? Why kill a blonde with big tits?"
Bush turns to Powell, punches him on the shoulder and says...
"See, smart ass?! I told you no one would worry about the 140 million Iraqis."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Iraq: U.S. Keeps Winning Battles, Losing Wars
Published on Friday, August 13, 2004 by the Inter Press Service
Iraq: U.S. Keeps Winning Battles, Losing Wars
by Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - Once again, U.S. armed forces appear on the verge of winning a decisive military victory in Iraq -- this time in the holy city of Najaf. And once again, they appear closer to losing the larger wars for a stable and friendly Iraq and for an Islamic world that will cease producing anti-U.S. terrorism.
That is the rapidly growing concern of Middle East and Islamic specialists as U.S. Marines, after a week of fighting, captured virtually all of central Najaf on Thursday, including the home of Mahdi Army leader Moqtada al-Sadr, and launched a final siege of the Imam Ali mosque, which is considered the world's holiest shrine by some 120 million Shiite Muslims.
Even as the military commanders and Iraq's interim president, Iyad Allawi, debate whether to wait out Sadr and his armed followers, who are believed to be inside the shrine, or to invade its precincts -- preferably with Iraqi troops -- the end result is not likely to work in Washington's favor, according to most experts here.
Shiites ''worldwide are shocked and outraged over what is going on in Najaf'', Imam Moustafa Al-Qazwini, a prominent Shiite leader based in California, told the 'Los Angeles Times' on Thursday. ''They consider it an assault on the sanctity of Islam and in particular Shia Islam''.
''Any attack on that city will destroy America's future in Iraq completely'', said al-Qazwini, who supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 but became disillusioned with the occupation after several months of traveling to the occupied nation earlier this year.
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0813-01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Editorial - Bush blew it the morning of 9/11 www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/story/221433p-190107c.html
3) Israel-Palestinian Peace Action Alert
URGENT ACTION ALERT!
Coalition launches letter-writing campaign for a "no" vote on Moskowitz's casino license application, scheduled for a vote on August 19th
----- Original Message -----
From: Gila Svirsky
Sent: 8/10/04 9:40:20 AM
Subject: Send a fax that can make a direct difference
[Excerpt]
Friends,
Your fax can significant reduce the funding to settlements in Israel. How?
Irving Moskowitz is a Miami resident who makes millions of dollars off the poor in California by running "non-profit" bingo parlors in low-income neighborhoods. His money is used to support the most extremist right-wing elements in Israel – settler homes in Silwan, the Old City, Ras al-Ammud, and other Palestinian communities. I have been at many actions trying to prevent these settlements from being constructed, and once arrested trying to prevent Moskowitz himself from driving up to survey his new property.
Right now there is a singular opportunity to cut off Moskowitz's corrupt gambling operations in Hawaiian Gardens. A flood of faxes can influence the regulatory agency not to renew Moskowitz's gambling license, and thereby cut off this major flow of money into the settlements.
Please print out and fax the sample letter below (also attached). It is written to address the concerns of the Gambling Commission – the rampant corruption accompanying these casinos and the neglect of the local community, on which the license is premised.
This campaign is being organized by Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak and Jan Hunter, so contact them if you have questions (news@stopmoskowitz.org).
It's good to work together from Israel & the U.S., each in our own way, on this.
Gila Svirsky
Jerusalem
= = = = = =
PLEASE WRITE GAMBLING COMMISSION URGING DENIAL OF SETTLER-FUNDER MOSKOWITZ'S GAMBLING LICENSE
Dear Friends,
..Please copy the following text and paste it into your outgoing email or your letterhead, modify it if you'd like, and sign your name. Addressing information follows the model letter text.
Model Text for Fax:
Dear Commissioner,
I respectfully urge you to vote NO on Irving Moskowitz's application for a permanent license to operate the Hawaiian Gardens Casino. Moskowitz's actions both in Hawaiian Gardens and the Middle East provide numerous justifications to deny him the privilege of a gambling license.
Moskowitz employed street-gang "muscle" to win the referendum authorizing casino gambling in Hawaiian Gardens. Then he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars recalling City Councilmembers who opposed his casino-and his use of millions of dollars of Hawaiian Gardens' public funds to develop it. Moskowitz controls the predominantly Latino city so completely that no one filed to run against his hand-picked City Council in the last election.
Moskowitz's political and economic control of Hawaiian Gardens, which is supposed to regulate his gambling businesses, is precisely the "corruptive influence" that the gambling code rules out for a license applicant. Moreover, a drive through Hawaiian Gardens shows that Moskowitz and the government he controls have done nothing to alleviate the blight and poverty of the City, one of Los Angeles County's poorest.
In the Middle East, Moskowitz has gone far beyond exercising his freedoms of speech and association. He has funded settler activities that, predictably, resulted in violence. Even though these deeds occur half a world away, I urge you to take note of them because they show that Moskowitz does not have the good character that the gambling code requires for the privilege of a license.
In 1996 riots sparked by the opening of a Moskowitz-sponsored tunnel near Jerusalem's Temple Mount took over 70 Israeli and Palestinian lives. Moskowitz has given millions of dollars from his Hawaiian Gardens bingo to the militant settler group Ateret Cohanim which is preparing for the rebuilding of the ancient Jewish temple on the Temple Mount in the place of two revered mosques.
In a deliberate effort to thwart peace, Moskowitz has purchased Palestinian properties in areas of Jerusalem designated for Palestinian sovereignty. Violence has often accompanied his colonizing of these properties with settlers. He is a leading funder of the settlers in Hebron, who are notorious for their vigilante-style attacks on that city's Palestinian majority. Even as the vote on his license application approaches, Moskowitz is generously funding the settlers resisting Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, according to an Israeli newspaper.
I hope that, after considering all of the above, you will agree that Moskowitz should not be rewarded with the privilege of a gambling license and that you will use the power the legislature gave you in the Gambling Control Act to vote against granting the license.
Thank you very much for your attention.
Sincerely yours,
Commissioners' Contact Information
Fax Numbers:
You can fax to each of the commissioners at the Gambling Control Commission at 916-263-0499
Email Addresses:
Chairman Dean Shelton
Dshelton@cgcc.ca.gov
Commissioner Michael Palmer
Mpalmer@cgcc.ca.gov
Commissioner J.K. Sasaki
Jsasaki@cgcc.ca.gov
Commissioner Arlo Smith
Asmith@cgcc.ca.gov
Thank you very much for taking the time for this important correspondence. We hope you will take another moment to forward this email to friends who will want to take this quick action on behalf of Israel-Palestinian peace and the people of Hawaiian Gardens, who deserve to get back control of their government.
Lastly, w e invite you to visit our website: www.stopmoskowitz.org
We appreciate your support and continuing interest.
Haim Dov Beliak and Jane Hunter
Co-directors
Coalition for Justice
in Hawaiian Gardens and Jerusalem
P.O. Box 67903
Los Angeles CA 90067
310-553-1146
www.stopmoskowitz.org
Email: news@stopmoskowitz.org
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
CronkitePeace * DemocracyThreat * OutFoxed * DU-film
12 August 2004
"The necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for
our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude, and perseverance.
Let us remember that `if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty,
we encourage it, and involve others in our doom.' it is a very serious consideration...
that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event."
-- Samuel Adams
Boston, 1771
1).Walter Cronkite: A Department Of Peace?
2) Is the Bush War on Terror or on Democracy?
- - Venezuela Floridated
- - How They Could Steal the Election This Time
- - Democrats cry fraud in Nader drive
3) AlterNet vs Fox News - Fair and Balanced?
4) "The Doctors, the Depleted Uranium, and the Dying Children"
Editor's Notes:
Walter Cronkite never ceases to amaze me with his intelligence, compassion, and insight. Where the mainstream media acts as if Dennis Kucinich is practically invisible, Cronkite gives him credibility, and simply and deliberately explains the wisdom of the Kucinich-introduced legislation for a cabinet-level U.S. Department of Peace. Perhaps John Kerry will listen to such wisdom. We know George Bush won't, as he continues to respond to a religiously distorted viewpoint of neocons stripping away our civil liberties. I much prefer to have a chance for the next President to go in a new direction; yet, as the second item details, the set-up for the theft of the 2004 election is practically in place, and even worse, headed south across the border in Venezuela. Greg Palast writes: "Will The Gang That Fixed Florida Fix the Vote in Caracas this Sunday?" Also in item 2 is an article which will be published in the August 16 issue in The Nation by Ronnie Dugger: "How They Could Steal the Election This Time." A warning for all to be prepared, and work like heck to make the upcoming election a landslide victory for John F. Kerry. Item 3 is an offer to join with AlterNet to challenge Fox News' claim for "Fair and Balanced" reporting, and at the same time, to receive a DVD or video of the new film, "OUTFOXED: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism." Item 4 is on the availability of another recently produced film that was aired on German television called "The Doctors, the Depleted Uranium, and the Dying Children." Both these films can help expose and protect a rapidly disappearing democracy in the US and world. We must stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the destruction of democracy, supported and promoted by the Bush administration and tax dollars provided by US citizens.
"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil,
but because of those who look on and do nothing"
-- Albert Einstein
"Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution
of the United States as our Fathers made it inviolate. The people of
the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts, not
to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."
-- Abraham Lincoln
1).Walter Cronkite: A Department Of Peace?
King Features Syndicate
A Department Of Peace?
BY WALTER CRONKITE
With this nation embroiled in what threatens to be an interminable "War on Terrorism," an idea put forward last year by Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich has, for me, considerable appeal. Kucinich, who was the one candidate in the Democratic primaries to unfailingly promote the party's traditional Franklin Roosevelt liberalism, proposed the establishment of a Department of Peace.
Now he has introduced in the House HR 2459, a bill that would establish a Peace Department, adding a new cabinet post to the executive branch of government. The Department of Peace would "advise the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State on all matters relating to national security, including the protection of human rights and the prevention of, amelioration of, and de-escalation of unarmed and armed international conflict."
The secretary of peace would serve as a delegate to the National Security Council and also would "provide training of all United States personnel who administer post-conflict reconstruction and demobilization in war-torn societies." In other words, the Department of Peace, with a highly trained and dedicated staff, would be a constant, working counterpoint to the Defense Department and its expenditure of billions of dollars to perfect the weapons of war.
The department would act not only in an international context, but also in those areas of domestic policy that endanger the nation's well-being: the proliferation of automatic weapons and the violence in our schools, our homes and in our streets, where the intolerant prey on those whose lifestyles they find offensive. It might well come up with some new strategies for turning around our losing war on drugs, and it might also lobby Congress to put an end to the cruel and unusual punishment of small-time drug offenders called "mandatory sentencing." It would also advise the attorney general on matters of civil rights and labor law. But its primary importance, it seems to me, would be in international affairs, demonstrating to the rest of the world, to borrow the old motto of the Strategic Air Command, that "peace is our profession."
Now, to some, this is going to sound terribly naive, given the current state of things and the very real, hard-edged dangers that face us. But the naivet just might lie on the other side with those who believe that military force and our policy of pre-emption are alone sufficient to make us safe. The fact is that there is nothing in this proposal that would weaken our military posture or our ability to strike terrorists and their havens and to do whatever is necessary for the defense of the United States. But wouldn't it be an advantage to have a peer of the secretaries of defense and state whose primary responsibility it was to develop the methods and means of peaceful conflict resolution and to offer peaceful alternatives in the councils of war?
Wouldn't it have been an advantage in the run-up to the Iraq War to have had a cabinet officer whose department was responsible for training U.S. personnel in human rights, conflict resolution, reconstruction and the detailed planning necessary to restoring a durable peace; in short, to do what was so disastrously absent when our forces rolled into Baghdad?
Kucinich's bill is more elaborate and specific than I can spell out here. Right now it is a long way from realization, with only a few dozen congressional sponsors. It needs a lot more to move another step along the legislative process. Actually, there is an urgency to its adoption. In this dangerous world, where the strength of the United States is needed to keep the peace, we need a visible manifestation of our intention to play that role, without the arrogance that cost us friends and allies among the nations and peoples of the world.
But no matter how far off it might be, it is an idea that deserves our attention. We can hope that Kucinich and those who are pioneers in supporting his bill stay the course and redouble their efforts.
You can write to Walter Cronkite c/o King Features Syndicate, 888 Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10019, or e-mail him at mail@cronkitecolumn.com.
www.yankton.net/stories/081204/opE_20040812035.shtml
2) Is the Bush War on Terror or on Democracy?
- - Venezuela Floridated
- - How They Could Steal the Election This Time
- - Democrats cry fraud in Nader drive
VENEZUELA FLORIDATED
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Will The Gang That Fixed Florida Fix the Vote in Caracas this Sunday?
by Greg Palast
Hugo Chavez drives George Bush crazy. Maybe it's jealousy: Unlike Mr. Bush, Chavez, in Venezuela, won his Presidency by a majority of the vote.
Or maybe it's the oil: Venezuela sits atop a reserve rivaling Iraq's. And Hugo thinks the US and British oil companies that pump the crude ought to pay more than a 16% royalty to his nation for the stuff. Hey, sixteen percent isn't even acceptable as a tip at a New York diner.
Whatever it is, OUR President has decided that THEIR president has to go. This is none too easy given that Chavez is backed by Venezuela's poor. And the US oil industry, joined with local oligarchs, has made sure a vast majority of Venezuelans remain poor.
Therefore, Chavez is expected to win this coming Sunday's recall vote. That is, if the elections are free and fair.
They won't be. Some months ago, a little birdie faxed to me what appeared to be confidential pages from a contract between John Ashcroft's Justice Department and a company called ChoicePoint, Inc., of Atlanta. The deal is part of the War on Terror.
Justice offered up to $67 million, of our taxpayer money, to ChoicePoint in a no-bid deal, for computer profiles with private information on every citizen of half a dozen nations. The choice of which nation's citizens to spy on caught my eye. While the September 11th highjackers came from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon and the Arab Emirates, ChoicePoint's menu offered records on Venezuelans, Brazilians, Nicaraguans, Mexicans and Argentines. How odd. Had the CIA uncovered a Latin plot to sneak suicide tango dancers across the border with exploding enchiladas?
What do these nations have in common besides a lack of involvement in the September 11th attacks? Coincidentally, each is in the throes of major electoral contests in which the leading candidates -- presidents Lula Ignacio da Silva of Brazil, Nestor Kirschner of Argentina, Mexico City mayor Andres Lopez Obrador and Venezuela's Chavez -- have the nerve to challenge the globalization demands of George W. Bush.
The last time ChoicePoint sold voter files to our government it was to help Governor Jeb Bush locate and purge felons on Florida voter rolls. Turns out ChoicePoint's felons were merely Democrats guilty only of V.W.B., Voting While Black. That little 'error' cost Al Gore the White House.
It looks like the Bush Administration is taking the Florida show for a tour south of the border.
However, when Mexico discovered ChoicePoint had its citizen files, the nation threatened company executives with criminal charges. ChoicePoint protested its innocence and offered to destroy the files of any nation that requests it.
But ChoicePoint, apparently, presented no such offer to the government of Venezuela's Chavez.
In Caracas, I showed Congressman Nicolas Maduro the ChoicePoint-Ashcroft agreement. Maduro, a leader of Chavez' political party, was unaware that his nation's citizen files were for sale to U.S. intelligence. But he understood their value to make mischief.
If the lists somehow fell into the hands of the Venezuelan opposition, it could immeasurably help their computer-aided drive to recall and remove Chavez. A ChoicePoint flak said the Bush administration told the company they haven't used the lists that way. The PR man didn't say if the Bush spooks laughed when they said it.
Our team located a $53,000 payment from our government to Chavez' recall organizers, who claim to be armed with computer lists of the registered. How did they get those lists? The fix that was practiced in Florida, with ChoicePoint's help, deliberate or not, appears to be retooled for Venezuela, then Brazil, Mexico and who knows where else.
Here's what it comes down to: The Justice Department averts it's gaze from Saudi Arabia but shoplifts voter records in Venezuela. So it's only fair to ask: Is Mr. Bush fighting a war on terror -- or a war on democracy?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Greg Palast is author of the New York Times bestseller, 'The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.' This commentary is based on 'Tango Terrorists,' in the new chapter of the book's Expanded Election Edition (Penguin 2004). For Palast's reports on Venezuela for the Guardian of Britain and his exclusive interview for BBC Television with President Hugo Chavez, go to
GregPalast.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - How They Could Steal the Election This Time
by Ronnie Dugger
The Nation [from the August 16, 2004 issue]
[Excerpts]
On November 2 millions of Americans will cast their votes for President in computerized voting systems that can be rigged by corporate or local-election insiders. Some 98 million citizens, five out of every six of the roughly 115 million who will go to the polls, will consign their votes into computers that unidentified computer programmers, working in the main for four private corporations and the officials of 10,500 election jurisdictions, could program to invisibly falsify the outcomes.
The result could be the failure of an American presidential election and its collapse into suspicions, accusations and a civic fury that will make Florida 2000 seem like a family spat in the kitchen. Robert Reich, Bill Clinton's Labor Secretary, has written, "Automated voting machines will be easily rigged, with no paper trails to document abuses." Senator John Kerry told Florida Democrats last March, "I don't think we ought to have any vote cast in America that cannot be traced and properly recounted." Pointing out in a recent speech at the NAACP convention that "a million African-Americans were disenfranchised in the last election," Kerry says his campaign is readying 2,000 lawyers to "challenge any place in America where you cannot trace the vote and count the votes" [see Greg Palast, "Vanishing Votes," May 17].
The potential for fraud and error is daunting. About 61 million of the votes in November, more than half the total, will be counted in the computers of one company, the privately held Election Systems and Software (ES&S) of Omaha, Nebraska. Altogether, nearly 100 million votes will be counted in computers provided and programmed by ES&S and three other private corporations: British-owned Sequoia Voting Systems of Oakland, California, whose touch-screen voting equipment was rejected as insecure against fraud by New York City in the 1990s; the Republican-identified company Diebold Election Systems of McKinney, Texas, whose machines malfunctioned this year in a California election; and Hart InterCivic of Austin, one of whose principal investors is Tom Hicks, who helped make George W. Bush a millionaire.
..According to Dr. David Dill, professor of computer science at Stanford, all elections conducted on DREs "are open to question." Challenging those who belittle the danger of fraud, Dill says that with trillions of dollars at stake in the battle for control of Congress and the presidency, potential attackers who might seek to fix elections include "hackers, candidates, zealots, foreign governments and criminal organizations," and "local officials can't stop it."
Last fall during a public talk on "The Voting Machine War" for advanced computer-science students at Stanford, Dill asked, "Why am I always being asked to prove these systems aren't secure? The burden of proof ought to be on the vendor. You ask about the hardware. 'Secret.' The software? 'Secret.' What's the cryptography? 'Can't tell you because that'll compromise the secrecy of the machines.'... Federal testing procedures? 'Secret'! Results of the tests? 'Secret'! Basically we are required to have blind faith."
"The system is much more out of control than anyone here may be willing to admit," Dr. Michael Shamos, a computer scientist at Carnegie-Mellon University and for many years an examiner of voting machines for Texas and Pennsylvania, told a House panel on June 24. "There's virtually no control over how software enters a voting machine." Shamos told another House panel on July 20, "There are no adequate standards for voting machines, nor any effective testing protocols."
Torment in Washington
..In the US Senate seven Democrats and the one Independent are co-sponsoring a bill by Senators Bob Graham and Hillary Clinton to require paper trails on DREs by November, with a loophole for jurisdictions whose officials deem it to be technologically impossible. Clinton told the press that without a voter-verified paper trail GOP-leaning corporations might program voting machines to help Republicans steal elections. In an interview in his hideaway office in the Capitol, Graham told me that he regards his and Clinton's bill as so obviously needed that it's "a no-brainer." The absence of a paper trail on the DREs could endanger "the legitimacy" of November's election, Graham said.
New Jersey Democrat Rush Holt introduced a House bill more than a year ago requiring a paper trail on DREs. It has 149 co-sponsors, including a few prominent Republicans. Holt says, "The verification has to be something that the voter herself or himself has to do"; without that, "we will never have a truly secure election." Holt's bill has opened up a partisan divide in the House. The chairman of the committee to which his bill is assigned, Ohio Republican Bob Ney, informed Holt that he is against the bill and would not allow a hearing on it. A few days later Graham and Holt wrote their fellow members of Congress that "without an independent, voter-verified paper trail, we will be able only to guess whether votes are accurately counted." Last month Ney relented and scheduled two hearings. Holt plans to offer his bill as an amendment to the Treasury appropriation after Congress returns from its August recess. Graham is still mulling his strategy..
"What are we going to do if there's a close race?" Wexler asked in the Orlando Sentinel. "The voting records of these machines will have disappeared in cyberspace." He told me angrily: "Apparently their motives are to suppress the vote in Florida in a number of different ways. They are refusing a paper trail on a computerized voting machine. They are again preparing on the felons--they've got a new and improved process. I don't trust 'em to do the right thing." This summer, Representative Alcee Hastings, whose district includes Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, exclaimed, "Any way we cut it, these people are going to try to steal this election."
..A paper trail will not assure that elections won't be stolen in the DREs. "The only thing the VVPAT will do is give us the ability to prove that it happened," says Roxanne Jekot of Cumming, Georgia, a self-taught computer specialist who has become one of the most effective activists against paperless computerized voting. "There is nothing to deter that single outsourced information-technology worker [from manipulating the machine]. Nobody can prove that he did it."
The Kids Prick Open a Scandal
Some kids who are "really interested in computers" were playing around last year, spidering through the links on various websites, when they discovered that Diebold had an unsecured FTP site (the same one Behler had used). One of the boys noted the fact on his website. Some other material on that site--not the stuff about Diebold--attracted a lot of hits, and that automatically led Google, the cyberspace search engine, to position it among the early-listed sites for many searches. One day Bev Harris, a literary publicist in Washington who was doing research for a book on vote-counting in computers, fed Google the right search words and the FTP site itself popped up. Knowing little about computers, she turned to David Allen, who was publishing her book, and he recognized the openly posted source codes and much other data concerning Diebold voting machines.
A small group of activists in Georgia worked with Harris. One of them, Roxanne Jekot, who runs a software consulting firm, analyzed "almost every line" of the Diebold source code and found many ways to change vote totals there and also in the Microsoft operating code. "The software is totally junk," she says. "They sold vaporware." Determined to get peer review of what she was finding, Jekot approached David Dill, the Stanford computer science professor.
"Both Roxanne and Bev were very courageous and determined to lift the veil of secrecy on the code," Dill says. "I think most academics would be much more cautious, especially about publishing the fact that they looked at the code. I certainly was, and I wasn't about to get other people in trouble by asking them to help me. A number of us would be inclined to talk to lawyers before doing anything too bold. So it made a huge difference that Bev posted the code in New Zealand for everyone to download. That reduced but didn't eliminate the legal risks of the Johns Hopkins/Rice University people looking at the code. If Bev and whoever else was involved in releasing this code had not been so brave, people [with strong professional reputations] might not have been able to speak out so freely."
What You Can Do
..Douglas Kellner, the New York City election expert, believes the best practical remedy for the dangers of computerized vote-counting is voting on optical-scan systems, posting the election results in the precincts and keeping the ballots with the machines in which they were counted. In all computerized vote-counting situations the precinct results should be publicly distributed and posted in the precincts before they are transmitted to the center for final counting, Kellner says. Once they are sent from the precinct the audit trail is lost.
Citizens can stay current on election developments via several websites: electionline.org, a reliable and up-to-date source; VerifiedVoting.org, Dill's group; notablesoftware.com, Mercuri's site; blackboxvoting.org, Bev Harris's site; countthevote.org, the site of the Georgia group led by Jekot; and these will key into many others. For a steady flow of news stories on this subject (and a few others) from around the country, get on the e-mail list of resist@best.com. Official information concerning each state is available online at each state's website for its secretary of state.
..Much of this would be unnecessary if Congress enacted either the Graham-Clinton or the Holt bill, which would empower voters to verify their own votes and create a paper trail.
The computerized voting companies have precipitated a crisis for the integrity of democracy. Three months to go.
The complete article can be found on the web at
www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040816&s=dugger
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Democrats cry fraud in Nader drive
Meanwhile, workers say they will sue to get paid.
By Michael Currie Schaffer
Inquirer Staff Writer
Up to 90 percent of the nominating petitions circulated in Philadelphia by Ralph Nader's presidential campaign were marred by forgeries and other improprieties, according to a group of Democrats that plans to file a legal challenge in Commonwealth Court today to keep the independent candidate off the state's general election ballot.
Separately, a Philadelphia lawyer said yesterday that he would file a lawsuit against Nader this morning on behalf of dozens of petition circulators, many of them homeless, who he said had not been paid for their work.
For the complete article, see:
www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/politics/9355449.htm
and
www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/nation/9355449.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp&1c
3) AlterNet vs Fox News - Fair and Balanced?
From AlterNet.org:
Wish us luck (and maybe a bit more). We've just walked up to the biggest bully on the block and punched him in the nose. AlterNet has launched a national legal challenge against the Fox News Channel. We are suing to cancel its trademark on "Fair and Balanced" on the grounds that it is misleading, deceptive, and "notoriously mis-descriptive."
Rupert Murdoch is livid, and has $7.8 billion to fight us with. AlterNet has ... well, let's just say that AlterNet has quite a bit less. So we're asking for your help to win this historic David-and-Goliath battle for the soul of honest and responsible journalism.
We'll gladly send you a DVD copy of the powerful new documentary "OUTFOXED: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism" as our thanks for your help. OUTFOXED blows the lid off the Fox Network's cynical campaign to spin, slant, and manipulate the news in favor of the Republican Party.
Filled with whistle-blowing (and mind-blowing) internal emails, memos, and "confessions" from Rupert Murdoch's own former staff members, the film is being angrily denounced by the right-wing media. As a result (naturally), the film has shot to the very top of Amazon.com's bestseller list. So you can imagine how hot it is.
OUTFOXED has just opened to huge acclaim in movie theaters in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, and San Francisco, with 6 more cities tomorrow, and many more as soon as 35 mm prints can be made. In New York, "OUTFOXED broke the weekend gross for the Quad Cinema, making it the best opening ever in its 30-year existence."
Meanwhile, Howard Dean, while appearing on the Fox program Hannity and Colmes, told Sean Hannity that he should watch the film. We hope he does. The film should give Fox and Rupert Murdoch the same kind of stomach ache that Fahrenheit 9/11 is giving to George Bush and Dick Cheney.
By special arrangement with the producer and director, Robert Greenwald, AlterNet will gratefully send you a free DVD copy of OUTFOXED as a gift in return for a donation of $30 or more to its "Fight Fox" legal fund. We need the money as much as you need to see this documentary - which we hope you will want to share with friends and everyone you know.
Please make a donation to AlterNet and receive your free DVD copy of OUTFOXED today!
https://www.alternet.org/donate/fightfox
For the full story of our legal proceeding against Fox, our ad that was just published in The Nation magazine, press releases and lots of ways to get involved, visit our campaign site.
http://www.fightfox.com
Regards,
Don Hazen, Executive Editor
AlterNet
http://alternet.org
4) "The Doctors, the Depleted Uranium, and the Dying Children"
New German film exposes current radioactive warfare in Iraq.
Veterans, military families, activists and interested individuals can now order an English version of a documentary film produced for German television by Freider Wagner and Valentin Thurn.
This stunning new video, has just been released by Ochoa-Wagner Produktion in 2004 in Germany and is available through Traprock Peace Center.
"The Doctors, the Depleted Uranium, and the Dying Children" exposes the use and impact of radioactive weapons during the current war against Iraq. The story is told by citizens of many nations and opens with comments by two British veterans, Kenny Duncan and Jenny Moore, describing their exposure to radioactive, so-called Depleted Uranium (DU), weapons and the congenital abnormalities of their children..
To purchase "The Doctors, the Depleted Uranium, and the Dying Children"
(VHS NTSC format) go to
www.traprockpeace.org/depleted_uranium_iraq.html
The purchase price is $25.00 for non-commercial, non-institutional use and includes normal shipping - first class mail within the US. (If you require expedited shipping, please call Traprock at 413-773-7427 as the shipping rates will vary.)
For an exclusive article on this film by Tedd Weyman, leader of Uranium Medical Research Centre investigative team that gathered samples for analysis, go to www.traprockpeace.org/tedd_weyman_10aug04.html
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
NaderBeware * KerryEnergy * Peltier60 * Nagasaki
10 August 2004
"What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man!
Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment & death itself
in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment ... inflict
on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more
misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose."
Thomas Jefferson
1) Ralph Nader: Let The Voter Beware
2) Springsteen Editorial: Vote for Change Concert Tour
- - Kerry stands by vote authorizing force in Iraq
- - Why Progressives Need to Back the Kerry/Edwards Ticket
- - Kerry Promotes Energy Independence Plan
3) Share Birthday Wishes for Leonard Peltier
4) The Bombing of Nagasaki, The Untold Story
Editor's Notes:
It is with great gratitude that I post the article by Thom Hartmann in item 1. Thom is a Project Censored Award-winning best-selling author and host of a nationally syndicated daily progressive talk His most recent books are "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight," "Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights," "We The People: A Call To Take Back America," and "What Would Jefferson Do?: A Return To Democracy." This man is a prominent expert on democracy. In the editor's notes of February 24, 2004, on Nader's announcement for his campaign for President in 2004, FN, too, was aware of Nader's neglecting to mention about Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), and the need for such a system to enable a multi-party democracy. Hartmann in his article wrote: "The simple solution is to institute IRV in the United States, a step that many communities across the country have already taken. But to do this at the national level will require the agreement and participation of at least one of the two major parties - which is why many Progressives are supporting the Greens and, at the same time, infiltrating and becoming active in the Democratic Party." Is this too obvious for Ralph Nader to realize, prioritizing, or is there deceit behind his push for power? But others see the need to come to the rescue to help remove Bush from the Office of US President. Item 2 has information from a NY Times editorial by Bruce Springsteen, and this item contains some hopeful ideas of Kerry to promote peace in Iraq by bringing in the world community, and committing to be energy independence with renewable resources that is good for the environment, good for peace, and for new job opportunities.
Item 3 is a link to send and/or to read birthday greetings for Leonard Peltier. Leonard is turning sixty years old this September 12th. He represents the road towards healing or the incarceration for justice to die on this land; so bitterly conquered at a time when manifest destiny was the lure of delusional thinking that remains to this day. Item 4 is an article on the US bombing of Nagasaki. When Leonard was one year old, the US American planes, in 3 days apart, dropped 2 atomic bombs on Japan that gave birth to a war crime beyond most people's comprehension. Such a killing of innocent civilians without seeking all other ways for peace is unacceptable, and yet it is still going on today. When will all this madness end? It is time for progressives, third parties, Republicans and Democrats to unite, to vote for change, to end the terror of weapons of mass destruction, and policies of imperialism and greed, and justification by claiming God is on our side when we make mockery of those commandments inherent in all religions.
Please help Flyby News resources reach into your community. We can snail mail or email an attachment of the latest Flyby News flyer to post. You can write to Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
"The history of John Adams' failed presidency gives hope
and encouragement to those committed to real democracy
and genuine freedom. History shows that when enough people
become politically active, they can rescue the soul of America
from sliding into a corrupt, abusive police state."
Thom Hartmann
1) Ralph Nader: Let The Voter Beware
by Thom Hartmann
The frauds and deceptions of the Bush administration are legion and, sadly, to be expected, based on the Bush family's past (from sweetheart business deals going back to WWII, to smearing John McCain in South Carolina in 2000, to lying to the American people just before the election of 2002 about the threats Iraq posed).
But few people expected Ralph Nader - one of America's finest defenders of the public interest and the commons - to employ deception in an election.
Specifically, Nader has gone to great lengths to exploit the lack of knowledge most Americans have about how other democracies around the world work, and thus deceive people about both the history and present reality of our electoral system and the role of third parties in it.
When the Founders and the Framers of the Constitution put together American democracy in 1787, it had never been tried before in the way they visualized. In ancient Athens, it took 6001 citizens to turn out and agree to pass a law; Rome was a republic, but not of, by, or for "the people"; and the Iroquois Confederacy had no "executive branch" to elect, a remnant from the days of kings that the Framers were unwilling to give up. Thus, the Framers of the Constitution had no "truly democratic" model to work from.
So they created a flawed constitution.
The major flaw was that national elections are held on a first-past-the-post, winner-takes-all basis. Which means that if three or more candidates compete in a race, it's virtually guaranteed that somebody with less than a majority of the vote will end up winning political power. The result of this flaw is non-democratic minority rule, instead of the democratic ideal of majority rule.
A good example of this happened in the 2002 election in my state of Vermont, where the Republican candidates became Governor and Lieutenant Governor with 45 percent and 41 percent of the vote respectively because each had more votes than his Democratic or Progressive opponents alone. (Example: Republican Brian Dubie - 41%; Democrat Peter Shumlin - 32%; Progressive Anthony Pollina - 25%. The Republican "won.") The majority of Vermont voters selected liberal or progressive candidates, but conservatives are in charge of the state - the exact anti-democratic result that gave some of the Framers nightmares.
James Madison was the most outspokenly worried about this. In the 1787 Federalist #10, he goes into a lengthy discussion of the danger of "factions" - one aspect of what we today call political parties - emerging. First he puts a good face on the problem, suggesting that the new Constitution will solve the "violence" done to democracy by factions. But in the next sentence, he admits his fear that he and the other Framers had not truly solved the problem of what would happen if "factions" were to emerge.
"Among the numerous advantages promised by a well constructed Union [based on the Constitution], none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction," wrote Madison. "The friend of popular governments never finds himself so much alarmed for their character and fate, as when he contemplates their propensity to this dangerous vice. ... The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public councils, have, in truth, been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have everywhere perished..."
The problem was that if factions were to emerge as political parties, it would mean there could only be two of them, for if more than two parties emerged then the majority of people would almost always remain unrepresented, while the most well-organized minority would end up ruling.
Madison concluded by saying he felt the Constitution he and Hamilton were promoting with the Federalist Papers was the best solution they could come up with to solve the problem of factions.
But, as he noted, the constitution wasn't perfect"The valuable improvements made by the American constitutions on the popular models, both ancient and modern, cannot certainly be too much admired; but it would be an unwarrantable partiality, to contend that they have as effectually obviated the danger [of factions] on this side, as was wished and expected." His only solution was to beg Americans not to form factions.
Although George Washington was soon thereafter elected unanimously and by acclimation, America's second presidential election (won by John Adams) almost immediately led to the creation of Madison's feared "factions" in the form of Vice-President Thomas Jefferson's "Democratic-Republican" party (today called the "Democratic Party"). Ever since then, we've largely been a two-party nation - because our Constitution is written in a way that causes anything else to result in the least democratic outcome to an election.
Most of the rest of the world, however, has learned from our mistake and taken a different path.
Of the 86 other "fully democratic" nations in the world (according to the UN), only a few like Greece and Australia had repeated our mistake, although Australia solved the problem with a national variation on what in America is called Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), where you select your first, second, third, etc., preference among candidates, and if there's no majority winner, the "instant runoff" is instantly recalculated.
Had this been in place in the US in 2000, for example, and had most of Nader's voters chosen Gore as their second choice (as most polls indicate was the case), then when neither Gore nor Bush received more than 50 percent of the vote, Nader's first-choice votes (he being the lowest of the vote-drawers) would have reverted to their second-choice and Gore would have been elected by the majority of the people (as he was anyway, but that's a different rant).
Few other democracies are locked into a two-party system like ours because most emerged in their current forms after 1861, when John Stuart Mill proposed the idea of proportional representation in his book "Considerations on Representational Government." It solved, once and for all, the problem of Madison's factions making a nation less democratic.
Under proportional representation - in use in virtually all the other democracies of the world - the percent of the vote a party gets determines the percent of seats they have in Congress or Parliament. It's far more democratic than our system, and if Madison were alive today he'd be wishing he'd thought of it in 1787 when he helped write and sell the Constitution.
While many local governments in America are becoming more democratic by instituting IRV (mostly at the urging of the Green Party), we still have a federal system that is purely winner-take-all, and thus "most democratic" when only two parties compete. (And even then only partially as "democratic" as IRV or proportional representation nations.)
Which brings us back to Ralph Nader.
In a February 2004 appearance on Meet The Press, Nader said to Tim Russert, "You'd never find that type of thing [resistance to a third party] in Canada or Western democracies in Europe. It is an offense to deny millions of people who might want to vote for our candidacy an opportunity to vote for our candidacy. Instead, they [the Republicans and Democrats] want to say, 'No, we're not going to let you have an opportunity to vote,' for our candidacy."
Nader added, "There's a tremendous bias in state laws against third parties and independent candidates bred by the two major parties, who passed these laws. They don't like competition."
Amazingly, many people are taken in by this argument, as they don't understand the difference between our system and those of most European nations, and don't realize that our election system was developed before there were any political parties whatsoever. Tragically, Nader's argument is most readily believed on college campuses, where study of American history and political science in both high school and college is at an all-time low.
Why would Ralph Nader try so hard to mislead his audiences? He is no fool, and as an attorney he certainly knows the history and content of the US Constitution. Many progressives are baffled as to why he would work so hard to perpetuate ignorance - particularly among young voters - about the crucial issue of how democracies work and how our republic can be made more democratic.
Unfortunately, at the moment, third parties mean less, not more democracy when it comes to voting in most elections in the US (because they cause minority-supported candidates to be elected and majorities of voters are thus unrepresented). Yet third (and fourth and fifth, etc.) parties are also critical to bringing out issues that the two big parties don't or won't address.
The simple solution is to institute IRV in the United States, a step that many communities across the country have already taken. But to do this at the national level will require the agreement and participation of at least one of the two major parties - which is why many Progressives are supporting the Greens and, at the same time, infiltrating and becoming active in the Democratic Party.
It's similar to the strategy conservatives successfully used in the 1970s after the 1964 defeat of Barry Goldwater, when they proceeded to infiltrate and ultimately take control of the Republican Party and then bring Reagan to power. As progressives do the same with the Democratic Party - while still helping keep the Green Party and other progressive movements strong - we can then use the Democratic Party to push for IRV, re-enforcement of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, an end to "corporate personhood," and other progressive and truly democratic reforms.
As Franklin D. Roosevelt proved, only by influencing (both from without and from within) the power of one of the two national parties can progressives truly make the United States of America a more democratic and egalitarian nation. As more and more progressives join the Democratic Party, participate in meetings and caucuses, and present themselves as delegates, we will gain enough power to bring about changes (such as IRV) that will result in a renewal and reinvigoration of this great democracy, and pave the way for third, fourth, and fifth parties to participate in a truly democratic fashion in America.
But first we must correct the misperception Nader is pushing that the problem third parties face is purely the fault of the existing two parties. While it's true they resist third parties as a challenge to their power, the real problem is a flawed electoral system left over from 1787.
And, as Australia demonstrated, a two-party system can be changed to a multiparty system - but only when the nation's citizens realize the true source of the problem.
For Thom Hartmann's web site, see: thomhartmann.com
2) Springsteen Editorial: Vote for Change Concert Tour
- - Kerry stands by vote authorizing force in Iraq
- - Why Progressives Need to Back the Kerry/Edwards Ticket
- - Kerry Promotes Energy Independence Plan
- - Chords for Change
By BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Published in the NY Times - August 5, 2004
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
A nation's artists and musicians have a particular place in its social and political life. Over the years I've tried to think long and hard about what it means to be American: about the distinctive identity and position we have in the world, and how that position is best carried. I've tried to write songs that speak to our pride and criticize our failures.
These questions are at the heart of this election: who we are, what we stand for, why we fight. Personally, for the last 25 years I have always stayed one step away from partisan politics. Instead, I have been partisan about a set of ideals: economic justice, civil rights, a humane foreign policy, freedom and a decent life for all of our citizens. This year, however, for many of us the stakes have risen too high to sit this election out.
Through my work, I've always tried to ask hard questions. Why is it that the wealthiest nation in the world finds it so hard to keep its promise and faith with its weakest citizens? Why do we continue to find it so difficult to see beyond the veil of race? How do we conduct ourselves during difficult times without killing the things we hold dear? Why does the fulfillment of our promise as a people always seem to be just within grasp yet forever out of reach?
I don't think John Kerry and John Edwards have all the answers. I do believe they are sincerely interested in asking the right questions and working their way toward honest solutions. They understand that we need an administration that places a priority on fairness, curiosity, openness, humility, concern for all America's citizens, courage and faith.
People have different notions of these values, and they live them out in different ways. I've tried to sing about some of them in my songs. But I have my own ideas about what they mean, too. That is why I plan to join with many fellow artists, including the Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., the Dixie Chicks, Jurassic 5, James Taylor and Jackson Browne, in touring the country this October. We will be performing under the umbrella of a new group called Vote for Change. Our goal is to change the direction of the government and change the current administration come November.
Like many others, in the aftermath of 9/11, I felt the country's unity. I don't remember anything quite like it. I supported the decision to enter Afghanistan and I hoped that the seriousness of the times would bring forth strength, humility and wisdom in our leaders. Instead, we dived headlong into an unnecessary war in Iraq, offering up the lives of our young men and women under circumstances that are now discredited. We ran record deficits, while simultaneously cutting and squeezing services like after-school programs. We granted tax cuts to the richest 1 percent (corporate bigwigs, well-to-do guitar players), increasing the division of wealth that threatens to destroy our social contract with one another and render mute the promise of "one nation indivisible."
It is through the truthful exercising of the best of human qualities - respect for others, honesty about ourselves, faith in our ideals - that we come to life in God's eyes. It is how our soul, as a nation and as individuals, is revealed. Our American government has strayed too far from American values. It is time to move forward. The country we carry in our hearts is waiting.
Bruce Springsteen is a writer and performer.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
www.nytimes.com/2004/08/05/opinion/05bruce.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kerry stands by vote authorizing force in Iraq
August 9, 2004
GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. (AP)
[Excerpt]
Responding to President Bush's question with several of his own, Sen. John Kerry said Monday he would have voted to authorize the war in Iraq knowing what he does now, but said he would have used the power more effectively than the current commander in chief.
The Democratic presidential nominee said he hoped to begin reducing the number of U.S. forces in Iraq within six months of talking office if he is elected. "It is an appropriate goal to have," he said, but added that achieving it would depend on broader international assistance, better stability within Iraq and other related factors..
..Last Friday, Bush challenged Kerry to answer yes-or-know to the question of whether he would have supported the invasion of Iraq "knowing what we know now" about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction.
"I have given my answer. We did the right thing and the world is better off for it," the president said.
In response, Kerry said, "Yes, I would have voted for the authority. I believe it was the right authority for a president to have."
Then he had a few barbed questions for Bush.
"Why did we rush to war without a plan to win the peace? Why did you rush to war on faulty intelligence and not do the hard work necessary to give America the truth?
"Why did he mislead America about how he would go to war. Why has he not brought other countries to the table in order to support American troops in the way they deserve it and relieve the pressure on the American people?"
Kerry said in an interview last week his goal was to begin reducing the number of troops in Iraq within the next year. Asked about his plans, he said he would use diplomacy to help build stronger international alliances.
The feasibility of that goal, he said, would hinge on "the stability of Iraq, the ability to have the elections, and the training and transformation of the Iraqi security force itself."
For the complete article, see:
http://www.phoenix360.com/news/index.asp?did=11985
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Why Progressives Need to Back the Kerry/Edwards Ticket
www.ericblumrich.com/index.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kerry Promotes Energy Independence Plan
By J.R. Pegg
[Excerpt]
WASHINGTON, DC, August 9, 2004 (ENS) - Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry outlined a 10 year, $30 billion energy plan on Friday and said the proposal will "put America on the path to energy independence and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs at the same time."
Kerry's plan centers on increased support for renewable energy and for alternative motor fuels made from corn and soybeans, as well as incentives for clean coal technology and for more fuel efficient cars and trucks.
"We can control our own destiny, we can create the jobs of tomorrow and we can make sure that no young American in uniform will ever be held hostage to our dependence on oil from the Middle East," Kerry told supporters in Kansas City, Missouri.
Kerry's remarks came at the end of a week that saw oil prices soar to a near record high of almost $45 a barrel.
The Democratic presidential nominee blamed the Bush administration for making the nation more dependent on foreign oil and for not taking action to aid consumers and business feeling the pinch from rising oil prices.
The nation's reliance on foreign oil has risen from 58.2 percent in 2000 to 61.7 percent today, according to the Kerry campaign, with roughly a quarter of America's oil supply coming from the Middle East.
The proposal calls for the creation of a $20 billion Energy Security and Conservation Trust fund, capitalized with existing federal offshore oil and gas revenues, in order to provide a guaranteed funding stream for energy.
The trust fund would be used to meet dual goals, to be met by 2020, of ensuring 20 percent of the nation's motor fuel and electricity come from renewable energy sources.
The proposal earmarks $5 billion for a clean fuels partnership to research fuels from agricultural waste and includes support for increased production of ethanol, a fuel made from corn, that is 85 percent ethanol. 1999. It provides $10 billion to help U.S. automakers develop and manufacture more fuel efficient vehicles, as well as $5 billion in consumer tax credits, including $5,000 tax credits to buy cars and trucks that guzzle less gas.
"We will put in place the tax incentives and joint venture efforts that help us build an independent fuel base for America," Kerry said.
For the complete article, see:
www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2004/2004-08-09-10.asp
3) Share Birthday Wishes for Leonard Peltier
On September 12th, 2004, Leonard Peltier will celebrate his 60th birthday.
Please let him know that you support him, and add your birthday wishes to this URL web site listed below.
They will print it out and send it to Leonard.
Deadline is August 31st, because we want him to receive this birthday card in time!
http://users.skynet.be/kola/lp-bd.htm
or send a card or letter directly to:
Leonard Peltier
#89637-132
PO Box 1000
Leavenworth, KS 66048
The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee's web site is:
www.leonardpeltier.org
4) The Bombing of Nagasaki, The Untold Story
August 9 1945
[Excerpt]
56 years ago this week, on August 9th, 1945, the second of the only 2 atomic bombs ever used as instruments of aggressive war (and against essentially defenseless civilian populations, at that) was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan by an all-Christian bomb crew. The well-trained American soldiers were only "doing their job"and they did it well.
It had been 3 days since the first bomb, a uranium bomb, had decimated Hiroshima, with chaos and confusion in Tokyo, where the fascist military government and the Emperor had been searching for months for a way to honorably end the war. (The only obstacle to surrender had been the United States' insistence on unconditional surrender, which meant that the Emperor Hirohito, whom the Japanese regarded as a deity, would be removed from his figurehead position in Japan, an intolerable demand for the Japanese.)
The Russian army was advancing across Manchuria with the stated aim of entering the war against Japan on August 8, so there were extra incentives to end the war quickly. The US did not want to divide any spoils or share power after Japan was defeated.
The US bomber command had for months spared Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Kokura from the conventional bombing that had leveled and burned 60+ other major Japanese cities during the first half of 1945. One of the reasons for targeting relatively undamaged cities was scientific: to see what would happen to intact buildings--and their living creatures--when atomic weapons were exploded over them.
Early in the morning of August 9, 1945, a B-29 Superfortress called Bock's Car, took off from Tinian Island, with the prayers and blessings of its Lutheran and Catholic chaplains, and headed for Kokura, the primary target (its plutonium bomb was code-named "Fat Man", after Winston Churchill). The only field test of a nuclear weapon, blasphemously named "Trinity", had occurred just three weeks earlier, on July 16, 1945 at Alamogordo, New Mexico. The molten lavarock that resulted, still found at the site today, is called trinitite.
With instructions to only drop the bomb on visual sighting, Bock's Car arrived at Kokura, which was clouded-over. So, after circling three times, looking for a break in the clouds, and using up a tremendous amount of valuable fuel in the process, it headed for its secondary target, Nagasaki.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.nuclearfiles.org/etreligiouspers/nagasaki.htm
August 9, 2001, Gary G. Kohls, MD, 1306 E.8th St., Duluth, MN 55805, for
Every Church A Peace Church www.ecapc.org
Flyby News Support
If you care to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses
for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc.,
you can send donations to:
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
-- or you can donate via online --
see FlybyNews.com [near bottom of page] for link
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
G.B. Catastrophe * KerryIraq * DailyNews * SeaHeat
31 July 2004
"I will immediately reform the intelligence system;
so policy is guided by facts, and facts are never distorted by politics.
And as President, I will bring back this nation's time-honored tradition:
the United States of America never goes to war because we want to,
we only go to war because we have to. "
John F. Kerry
DNC speech - July 29, 2004
1) The Case Against George W. Bush by Ron Reagan
- - The Unbearable Costs of Empire
- - Whistle-Blowing Said to Be Factor in an F.B.I. Firing
- - U.S. General Witnessed Abuses, Iraqi Says
- - Canadian Sent to Syrian Prison Disputes US Claims Against Torture
- - Did Iraq's Prime Minister Iyad Allawi shoot seven restrained prisoners?
2) John Kerry and Iraq
- - Senator John Kerry's speech to the Democratic National Convention
- - Sharpton answers Bush in speech
- - Jeb Bush integrity and touch screen voting
- - Michael Moore: I Will Bring Cameras to Florida to Monitor November Election
3) Jon Stewart and Ted Koppel, and the dancing monkey
4) Disaster at sea: global warming hits UK birds
Editor's Notes:
Last night I had the honor and pleasure of meeting Ellen Mariani, the wife of Louis Neil Mariani, who died when United Air Lines flight 175 was flown into the South Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11. Ms Mariani spoke in Northampton, MA about her groundbreaking RICO lawsuit against members of the Bush administration, charging that they deliberately allowed 9/11 to occur. At this event over a speaker phone, her attorney, Philip J. Berg, a former Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania and former candidate for Governor and U.S. Senate, spoke about the case and encouraged the audience to support Ms. Mariani's efforts, especially by signing an online petition , and to forward it widely for others to join the effort. Ms. Mariani is a special individual, who passed up about a $1M of "hush money" (while on a Social Security income), because of her love for her husband and truth. To date, Phil Berg has paid for the prosecution of this case, largely out of his own pocket. Please support Phil and Ellen's legal battle for 9/11 accountability and justice.
The Mariani vs Bush web site is 911forthetruth.com
Flyby News will be staying on top of this story in future issues
and from our resource page on "The Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports."
Item 1 in this issue continues to show the catastrophe building by the Bush administration's policies, and its acceleration in a fascist direction. Item 2 is an editorial published in the NY Times, questioning John Kerry's position on US policies in Iraq. Kerry's statements to increase the military budget could make any peace activist nervous, and make independent voters skeptical on how he plans to reduce the budget and create his proposed social programs. Yet, the Rev. Al Sharpton was not ambiguous in his DNC speech, which extended over his allotted time period. This was true, too, of many other speakers in the Democratic Party. One member of the Kucinich4President list serve wrote in the debate of supporting Kerry for President: "..But it's hard to settle for a tiny step out from under Monsters Inc., when what you'd dreamed of was a President Kucinich and the reclamation of the Democratic Party and the United States of America. Goodsister replied: "Well, let's get the car out of the ditch first. Then we can think about where we might try to drive it." Item 3 includes a transcript of an enlightening interview with political comedian Jon Stewart and ABC News Nightline anchorman, Ted Koppel. And item 4 is not from the movie, "The Day After Tomorrow," but is showing a similar script with evidence of global warming, and species of sea birds in the UK going extinct, a warning for humankind.
1) The Case Against George W. Bush by Ron Reagan
- - The Unbearable Costs of Empire
- - Whistle-Blowing Said to Be Factor in an F.B.I. Firing
- - U.S. General Witnessed Abuses, Iraqi Says
- - Canadian Sent to Syrian Prison Disputes US Claims Against Torture
- - Did Iraq's Prime Minister Iyad Allawi shoot seven restrained prisoners?
- - The Case Against George W. Bush
By Ron Reagan
Published in "Esquire"
September 2004,
Volume 142, Issue 3
The son of the fortieth president of the United States takes a hard look
at the son of the forty-first and does not like what he sees.
For the complete text of this article, see:
www.esquire.com/features/articles/2004/040729_mfe_reagan_1.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Unbearable Costs of Empire
Establishment types are trumpeting America's role as global police force.
Too bad the U.S. just can't afford the job
by Mark Weisbrot
Published by Business Week - July 29, 2004
For the article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0729-02.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Whistle-Blowing Said to Be Factor in an F.B.I. Firing
The New York Times
29 July 2004
Whistle-Blowing Said to Be Factor in an F.B.I. Firing
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
WASHINGTON, July 28 - A classified Justice Department investigation has concluded that a former F.B.I. translator at the center of a growing controversy was dismissed in part because she accused the bureau of ineptitude, and it found that the F.B.I. did not aggressively investigate her claims of espionage against a co-worker.
The Justice Department's inspector general concluded that the allegations by the translator, Sibel Edmonds, "were at least a contributing factor in why the F.B.I. terminated her services," and the F.B.I. is considering disciplinary action against some employees as a result, Robert S. Mueller III, director of the bureau, said in a letter last week to lawmakers. A copy of the letter was obtained by The New York Times.
www.nytimes.com/2004/07/29/politics/29fbi.final.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - U.S. General Witnessed Abuses, Iraqi Says
Associated Press
Wednesday 28 July 2004
The American general who headed the U.S. military prison at Abu Ghraib personally witnessed abuses there, an Iraqi man alleged in a federal lawsuit protesting his treatment.
In a videotaped deposition from Iraq played yesterday, Saddam "Sam" Saleh Aboud said he endured beatings at the prison. During one session, he said, his hood was removed and he saw Army Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski.
Aboud identified Karpinski in a news magazine photograph that his lawyer, Michael Hourigan, showed him.
"He was adamant that there was an occasion when he was being tortured, in Tier 1A, when she was present and watching and laughing as he was being tortured," Hourigan said. He said Aboud did not know Karpinski's identity until he told him.
"He knew she was a supervisor, because she had a star on her hat and she was in an American uniform," Hourigan said. "He said the other soldiers would defer to her."
Neither Karpinski nor her lawyer returned several telephone calls and e-mail messages seeking comment.
A Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Joseph Yoswa, said it would be inappropriate for him to comment on the pending litigation.
Karpinski, who was suspended by the Pentagon in May, has denied knowing about any abuses at the prison until photographs surfaced at the end of April. U.S. investigators have not implicated Karpinski directly in any of the abuses.
Aboud's assertions were presented as supporting evidence in a federal lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The lawsuit against military contractors Titan Corp. of San Diego and CACI International Inc. of Arlington was filed on behalf of Aboud, three other alleged victims and the family of a fifth man who died at the prison. It seeks unspecified damages.
For this above and related article,
"Iraqi Prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Widow Sue U.S. Contractors<
Published in Agence France Presse - 28 July 2004
is posted at Truthout.org:
See: www.truthout.org/docs_04/073004B.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Canadian Sent to Syrian Prison Disputes US Claims Against Torture
by Shannon McCaffrey
Published by Knight-Ridder, July 29, 2004
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0729-01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Did Iraq's Prime Minister Iyad Allawi shoot seven restrained prisoners?
Published on Thursday, July 29, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
"Prime Minister Iyad Allawi shot seven restrained prisoners"
Greetings From the Memory Hole
Our Media kills a Troubling Story that the Rest of the World Saw
by Joshua Holland
The allegation that Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi shot seven restrained prisoners (killing six) in a fit of anger—with a number of witnesses present—is certainly newsworthy.
But, remarkably, the U.S. media has chosen not to cover it, preferring to accept official denials. The foreign press is not so trusting. The disconcerting result is that we simply aren't getting the same picture of Iraq that citizens of every other English-speaking country see.
If you haven't caught the story, here's how Australia's leading daily, the Sydney Morning Herald broke it on July 17th:
"Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq, pulled a pistol and executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington handed control of the country to his interim government, according to two people who allege they witnessed the killings.
They say the prisoners – handcuffed and blindfolded – were lined up against a wall in a courtyard adjacent to the maximum- security cell block in which they were held at the Al-Amariyah security center…
The Prime Minister's office has denied the entirety of the witness accounts in a written statement to the Sydney Morning Herald in Australia, saying Dr Allawi had never visited the center and he did not carry a gun. But the informants told the newspaper that Dr Allawi shot each young man in the head as about a dozen Iraqi policemen and four Americans from the Prime Minister's personal security team watched in stunned silence…"
For the complete article and links to reference articles, see:
www.commondreams.org/views04/0729-11.htm
2) John Kerry and Iraq
- - Senator John Kerry's speech to the Democratic National Convention
- - Sharpton answers Bush in speech
- - Jeb Bush on integrity and touch screen voting
- - Michael Moore: I Will Bring Cameras to Florida to Monitor November Election
- - John Kerry and Iraq
New York Times Editorial - July 30, 2004
John Kerry needs to give America a clearer idea of how his choices would have differed from President George W. Bush's - particularly when it comes to the war in Iraq. The nation should be told whether Kerry would have voted to authorize the invasion if he had known that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction.
Kerry, as the world already knows, is not a black-and-white kind of thinker, especially when it comes to foreign policy. That's good - it should give voters a real sense of choice this fall, given Bush's tendency to view the world in absolutes. But it's not an excuse for fudging every issue. Kerry's history on the critical Iraq question has been impossibly opaque.
He voted to authorize Bush to go to war. He voted against $87 billion to pay for extra costs - after offering an amendment to raise the money by increasing taxes on the wealthy. That produced the infamous explanation, "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it." Kerry is very, very sorry for that phrasing. His campaign is well aware that if he had simply said, "I voted to spend the money - I just opposed increasing the deficit," the Republicans would have been deprived of one of their most effective commercials.
Kerry and his running mate, John Edwards, have said that they voted to give the president the power to go to war to strengthen Bush's hand with the United Nations. They also had been given alarming intelligence reports, which they believed were accurate, showing that Saddam was stockpiling biological and chemical weapons and at least attempting to develop nuclear bombs.
We can appreciate Kerry's complaints that he was misled on both counts. But he and Edwards have refused to say whether they would have acted differently if they had known then what they know now. That's unfair. When it comes to using force abroad, voters need a clear idea of how high Kerry would raise the bar from where Bush lowered it.
We know that Kerry does not rule out pre-emptive strikes if a country poses a clear and serious danger to the United States or its allies - that's longstanding American policy, and it's in the UN charter.
But voters need to know whether Kerry agrees with Bush that even though no weapons of mass destruction have been uncovered in Iraq, the war was justified because of Saddam's military ambitions and because Iraq is better off without him. Or would Kerry have held back on invading Iraq and chosen instead to pursue the hunt for Osama bin Laden and the destruction of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and to focus diplomatic resources on places like North Korea and Iran?
Kerry's advisers don't want more accusations of flip-flopping, and they've told him to avoid hypotheticals. But while voters are certainly prepared to accept a candidate with a complex worldview, they also value the courage that comes with occasionally taking a leap and giving an answer that's straight and simple.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Senator John Kerry's speech to the Democratic National Convention
Boston, July 29, 2004
legitgov.org/speech_kerry_dem_convention_072904.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Sharpton answers Bush in speech
Thursday, July 29, 2004
BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- The Rev. Al Sharpton brought down the house with a passionate speech to Democratic National Convention delegates about what's wrong with the Bush administration and how Sen. John Kerry will help fulfill America's promise. This is a transcript of his remarks:
"..Mr. President, the reason we are fighting so hard, the reason we took Florida so seriously, is our right to vote wasn't gained because of our age. Our vote was soaked in the blood of martyrs, soaked in the blood of Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner, soaked in the blood of four little girls in Birmingham. This vote is sacred to us. This vote can't be bargained away. This vote can't be given away. Mr. President, in all due respect, Mr. President, read my lips: Our vote is not for sale.."
For the complete transcript of this speech, see:
www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/28/dems.sharpton.transcript/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Jeb Bush integrity and touch screen voting
While Gov. Jeb Bush reassures Floridians that touch screen voting
machines are reliable, the Republican Party is sending the opposite
message to some voters.
www.sptimes.com/2004/07/29/State/GOP_flier_questions_n.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Michael Moore: I Will Bring Cameras to Florida to Monitor November Election
Filmmaker Michael Moore announces he is bringing his cameras to Florida in November to make sure there is what he called a "huge spotlight" on state election officials when voters go to the polls. From his press conference in Boston, via Democracy Now!
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/29/140248
3) Jon Stewart and Ted Koppel, and the dancing monkey
In Boston at the DNC, Jon Stewart accused the media of being "stage managed." Ted Koppel of ABC News program, "Nightline" asks Stewart some probing questions about his role on "The Daily Show." What follows is a partial transcript of a deeply profound interview:
KOPPEL: Back 40 years ago, we would actually come to these events with the expectation that something unexpected was going to happen.
STEWART: But unexpected things used to happen in the world. They don't happen anymore.
KOPPEL: Oh, sure they do.
STEWART: Very rarely. Very rarely is an event not parsed prior to when it happens. And when it happens unexpectedly, it's only because the speculation was off cue.
KOPPEL: When there were only three of us [networks], we were not that easy to manipulate because you could only play A off against B off against C.
STEWART: Ok, that I agree with.
KOPPEL: Right? Now you got 200 of us. You don't like what Jon Stewart is doing? Go to...
STEWART: But we're separate. We're a peripheral, we're a Sunday bar. We're reactive and not actual news, so if you don't like Jon Stewart, you'll have to go to another comedy program, not a news program.
KOPPEL: You're refreshing honest about that, and I appreciate that, but the reality of it is -- and it's no joke anymore -- there are a lot of people out there who do turn to you for...
STEWART: Not for news.
KOPPEL: Well...
STEWART: For an interpretation. A comedic interpretation.
KOPPEL: To be informed. They actually think they're coming closer to the truth with your...
STEWART: Now that's a different thing. That's credibility. That's a different animal.
KOPPEL: That's what I want you to get into a little bit. This notion of... for example, people who listen to Sean Hannity also are looking for...
STEWART: Want a narrative.
KOPPEL: Al Frankin...
STEWART: Gives a narrative.
KOPPEL: A different group of people, different narrative.
STEWART: Right.
KOPPEL: That's the slice. So what I'm trying to get to here, is what is going on now with these literally -- I don't even if there are even hundreds anymore -- there may be close to a thousand outlets here.
STEWART: It's that the partisan mobilization has become part of the media process. That they realize that, this real estate that you possess, television, is the most valuable real estate known to rulers. If Alexander the Great had TV, believe me, he would have had his spin guys dealing. Napoleon would have had people working. The key to leadership is to have that mouthpiece to the people. And that's what this is. You guys are... This is the battle for the airwaves. And that's what we watch, and I think that's what is so dispiriting to those at home who believe that... I think, there's a sense here that you're not participating in that battle, and there's a sense at home that you're ABSOLUTELY participating and complicit in that battle.
KOPPEL: Go a little further on that.
STEWART: I'm a news anchor. Remember this is bizarro world. And I say, the issue is health care and insurance, and why 40 million American kids don't have insurance -- 40 million Americans are uninsured. Is this health insurance program being debated in Congress good for the country? Let's debate it. I have with me Donna Brazile and Bay Buchanan. Let's go. Donna. "I think the Democrats really have it right here. I think that this is a pain for the insurance companies and the drug companies and this is wrong for America." Bay. "Oh no, what it is..." And then she throws out her figures from the Heritage Foundation, and she throws out her figures from the Brookings Institute, and the anchor -- who should be the arbiter of the truth -- says, "Thank you both very much, that was very interesting." No it wasn't! That was Coke and Pepsi talking about beverage truth. And that game has, I think, caused people to think, "I'm not watching this."
KOPPEL: Alright, so you have found an answer through humor...
STEWART: No. It's not an answer.
KOPPEL: Well, an answer that...
STEWART: I found an outlet. I found a catharsis. A sneeze, if you will.
KOPPEL: It's not just a catharsis for you, it's a catharsis for your viewers. Those who watch say, at least when I'm watching Jon, he can use humor to say BS, that's a crock.
STEWART: But that's always been the case. Satire has always been...
KOPPEL: Ok, but I can't do that.
STEWART: No, but you CAN say that's BS. You don't need humor to do that because you have what I wish I had which is credibility and gravitas. This is interesting stuff, and it's all part of the discussion and I think it's a good discussion to have, but I think it's important to take a more critical look. You know, don't you think?
KOPPEL: No.
STEWART: And certainly not from me.
KOPPEL: No, not from you. I've had enough of you.
STEWART: I know my role, I'm the dancing monkey.
KOPPEL: You're finished. (Smiles)
(Shake hands.)
This above transcript was received from::
www.lostremote.com/archives/001905.html
4) Disaster at sea: global warming hits UK birds
By Michael McCarthy Environment Editor
30 July 2004
Disaster at sea: global warming hits UK birds
Leading article: A disaster that should serve as a global warning
Hundreds of thousands of Scottish seabirds have failed to breed this summer in a wildlife catastrophe which is being linked by scientists directly to global warming.
The massive unprecedented collapse of nesting attempts by several seabird species in Orkney and Shetland is likely to prove the first major impact of climate change on Britain.
In what could be a sub-plot from the recent disaster movie, The Day After Tomorrow, a rise in sea temperature is believed to have led to the mysterious disappearance of a key part of the marine food chain - the sandeel, the small fish whose great teeming shoals have hitherto sustained larger fish, marine mammals and seabirds in their millions.
In Orkney and Shetland, the sandeel stocks have been shrinking for several years, and this summer they have disappeared: the result for seabirds has been mass starvation. The figures for breeding failure, for Shetland in particular, almost defy belief.
More than 172,000 breeding pairs of guillemots were recorded in the islands in the last national census, Seabird 2000, whose results were published this year; this summer the birds have produced almost no young, according to Peter Ellis, Shetland area manager for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).
Martin Heubeck of Aberdeen University, who has monitored Shetland seabirds for 30 years, said: "The breeding failure of the guillemots is unprecedented in Europe." More than 6,800 pairs of great skuas were recorded in Shetland in the same census; this year they have produced a handful of chicks - perhaps fewer than 10 - while the arctic skuas (1,120 pairs in the census) have failed to produce any surviving young.
The 24,000 pairs of arctic terns, and the 16,700 pairs of Shetland kittiwakes - small gulls - have "probably suffered complete failure", said Mr Ellis.
In Orkney the picture is very similar, although detailed figures are not yet available. "It looks very bad," said the RSPB's warden on Orkney mainland, Andy Knight. "Very few of the birds have raised any chicks at all."
The counting and monitoring is still going on and the figures are by no means complete: it is likely that puffins, for example, will also have suffered massive breeding failure but because they nest deep in burrows, this is not immediately obvious.
But the astonishing scale of what has taken place is already clear - and the link to climate change is being openly made by scientists. It is believed that the microscopic plankton on which tiny sandeel larvae feed are moving northwards as the sea water warms, leaving the baby fish with nothing to feed on.
This is being seen in the North Sea in particular, where the water temperature has risen by 2C in the past 20 years, and where the whole ecosystem is thought to be undergoing a "regime shift", or a fundamental alteration in the interaction of its component species. "Think of the North Sea as an engine, and plankton as the fuel driving it," said Euan Dunn of the RSPB, one of the world's leading experts on the interaction of fish and seabirds. "The fuel mix has changed so radically in the past 20 years, as a result of climate change, that the whole engine is now spluttering and starting to malfunction. All of the animals in the food web above the plankton, first the sandeels, then the larger fish like cod, and ultimately the seabirds, are starting to be affected."
Research last year clearly showed that the higher the temperature, the less sandeels could maintain their population level, said Dr Dunn. "The young sandeels are simply not surviving."
Although over-fishing of sandeels has caused breeding failures in the past, the present situation could not be blamed on fishing, he said. The Shetland sandeel fishery was catching so few fish that it was closed as a precautionary measure earlier this year. "Climate change is a far more likely explanation."
The spectacular seabird populations of the Northern Isles have a double importance. They are of great value scientifically, holding, for example, the world's biggest populations of great skuas. And they are of enormous value to Orkney and Shetland tourism, being the principal draw for many visitors. The national and international significance of what has happened is only just beginning to dawn on the wider political and scientific community, but some leading figures are already taking it on board.
"This is an incredible event," said Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth. "The catastrophe [of these] seabirds is just a foretaste of what lies ahead.
"It shows that climate change is happening now, [with] devastating consequences here in Britain, and it shows that reducing the pollution causing changes to the earth's climate should now be the global number one political priority."
Also in Environment
Disaster at sea: global warming hits UK birds
A giant ecosystem that has functioned for millions of years has begun to break down
Fragile habitats in chalk rivers under threat
Anglers urge cull of cormorants for eating too many fish
Pesticides found in 43% of fruit and vegetables traces of pesticide
For article and links, see:
news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=546138
For Flyby News archives, see:
"Mounting Evidence of Global Warming"
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Convention * 9/11 Analyzed * Sonar Whale Deaths
26 July 2004
The statesmen will invent cheap lies,
putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked,
and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities,
and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them;
and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just,
and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process
of grotesque self-deception.
Mark Twain
"The Mysterious Stranger" (1910)
1) Convention News - Kucinich, Kerry Together
- - Convention Demonstration Zone is a Dark, Shadowy Place
- - Poll: DNC Delegates much more Progressive than Kerry
2) CIA Analyst and FBI Whistleblower Dissect Final 9/11 Report
- - Support Sibel Edmonds!
- - No Safe Haven - Homeland Security
- - Israel plant a second Chernobyl?
3) Death of whales linked to NATO navy exercise
Editor's Notes:
This issue begins on another update on the Kucinich endorsement of Kerry. Dennis will speak at the Convention floor Wednesday. Item 2 is on "Homeland Security." In simple terms, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern gives the scoop on how to wipe out terrorism, by finding the root of the problem. Obviously, going to war under false pretenses, preemptively, that killed more than 10,000 innocent Iraqis, Arab people, is not the most effective way to end the threats realized by 9/11/01. Item 3 is on a recent article on whale deaths by NATO exercises near Spain. "Apparently disoriented by the sonar, the whales rose to the surface too quickly, triggering the formation of small nitrogen bubbles in their blood which then damage tissue and clog blood vessels, according to a study published in Nature."
Questions
What if we crush against the pit of war
and out bursts its bitter counterpart, destruction?
What if tears and pains unbearable are curses
because of lack of food?
What if death won't unlock the door
and we stay alive in misery?
Could we comprehend the meaning of existence?
Did it mean much before the war?
Could it mean more now in these days of
panic-stricken homes?
O' the emotions lose control,
Who the fuck cares who wins the war;
who's on the side of fate,
can nuclear radiation wipe out hate?
What if we lean against each other's shoulder
and profess a liberty that can't be beat?
What if our hearts melt openly in the sun
and declare a unity that makes all one?
Can the bleeding call for mass hysteria conquer simple trust?
Can innocence bow down below an inferior lust?
1) Convention News - Kucinich, Kerry Together
- - Convention Demonstration Zone is a Dark, Shadowy Place
- - Poll: DNC Delegates much more Progressive than Kerry
- - Kucinich, Kerry Together
Monday, July 26, 2004
Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, whose dogged determination and intensely loyal grassroots support carried him through every primary and every caucus in the nation, has endorsed Sen. John Kerry and pledged to "do everything possible" to help elect him as President.
"Unity is essential to bring change in November," said Kucinich. "Unity is essential to repair America. Unity is essential to set America on a new path."
"With the same passion and commitment I demonstrated in my own campaign for President, I intend reach out on behalf of the Kerry-Edwards ticket to unite our Party with all those who may have felt left out. I will let them know that the time has come to unite in a common effort for change which is essential, not only for America but for the world."
In a joint appearance Thursday in Detroit, Kerry responded by saying, "I'm proud to have his help."
"Dennis brings a passion," Kerry continued, "not just to the Party and to the unity that he spoke of, but to our country. He loves this country. He loves the ideals that we're founded on, and he loves the dream that we're still chasing."
Kerry also said he agreed with Kucinich's assessment that many Americans feel left out.
"He spoke the truth when he said there are many people from different parts of our Party who want to feel comfortable that they can find the kind of honesty and decency that they want in their government. And I think that Dennis' coming on board with some of those who've been the most disaffected and the most disappointed is a sign that our Party is going to be unified as never before. We are going to be focused as we've never been before. We are gong to restore America 's sense of right and wrong and its commitment to the average people who are struggling to make ends meet and make this country live up to its dreams."
Stressing the linkage between unity and victory in November, Kucinich said, "John Kerry can win because there is a place within the Democratic Party for everyone, including those who may be thinking of supporting Ralph Nader." Kucinich pointed out, "Most people know I have many of the same commitments that Ralph has." But he added, "If there is room for me in the Party and in the Kerry-Edwards campaign, there is certainly room for Ralph and for his supporters."
Both men acknowledged that they have had differences on some issues. "When we disagreed," Kerry noted, "which we did do on a number of different issues, we agreed to do it agreeably."
Kucinich, said Kerry, "is a man who knows what the middle class is struggling with today, and his fight has been a fight for justice and for fairness. It has also been a fight for peace."
Kucinich described Kerry as "a good friend and a decent man."
"He has a lifelong commitment of honorable service to our nation as a military officer and as a Senator. He can be trusted with power. He will help heal America ."
Kucinich is scheduled to speak at the Democratic Convention Wednesday night.
www.kucinich.us/insideout/072604/kucinich_kerry.php
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Convention Demonstration Zone is a Dark, Shadowy Place
by Mark Jewell
Published on Monday, July 26, 2004 by the Associated Press
BOSTON - While thousands of delegates, journalists and dignitaries stream into the Fleet Center, a shadowy, closed-off piece of urban streetscape just over a block away will be the place protesters call home for the next several days. ..
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0726-04.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Poll: DNC Delegates much more Progressive than Kerry
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0726-01.htm
2) CIA Analyst and FBI Whistleblower Dissect Final 9/11 Report
- - Support Sibel Edmonds!
- - No Safe Haven - Homeland Security
- - Israel plant a second Chernobyl?
- - Former CIA Analyst and FBI Whistleblower Dissect Final 9/11 Commission Report
As the bipartisan Commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks releases its much-anticipated final report, Democracy Now take an in-depth look at what it says and what it doesn't say with former CIA analyst Ray McGovern and FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds.
Democracy Now!
Friday, July 23rd, 2004
Fmr. CIA Analyst and FBI Whistleblower Dissect
Final 9/11 Commission Report
As the bipartisan Commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks releases its much-anticipated final report, Democracy Now! took an in-depth look at what it says and what it doesn't say with former CIA analyst Ray McGovern and FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds.
The bipartisan commission of ex-government officials investigating the Sept. 11 attacks published its much-anticipated final report July 22, 2004.
The commission concluded that "The 9/11 attacks were a shock, but they should not have come as a surprise" and warned that without a historic restructuring of the nation's intelligence agencies and a new emphasis on diplomacy, the United States would leave itself open to an even more catastrophic attack. The Washington Post reports that the panel was much gentler on the Bush administration than many Republicans and the White House had feared.
The panel said it could not determine whether the attacks could reasonably have been prevented. However, it identifies 10 "operational opportunities" to detect the 9/11 plot that were missed and identifies nine major vulnerabilities that enabled the attacks to move forward.
In a package of recommendations for overhauling intelligence operations, the commission called for a cabinet-level national intelligence director within the White House who would control the budgets of all 15 federal intelligence agencies. The intelligence director's office would take substantial power away from the C.I.A., the F.B.I. and the Pentagon, and it would essentially strip the National Security Council of its role in coordinating the actions of intelligence agencies.
The panel also advocates encoding U.S. passports with personal information and recommends standardized driver's licenses nationwide. Both ideas were met with immediate criticism from civil liberties advocates.
In addition, the report recommended adherence to the Geneva Conventions in its treatment of alleged combatants saying "America should be able to reconcile its views of how to balance humanity and security with our nation's commitment to these same goals."
The panel finds that Iraq and al Qaeda had no "collaborative operational relationship "but outlines a deeper alliance between the terrorist group and Iran. The report alleges that as many as 10 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were able to freely pass through Iran, although there is no evidence that Tehran was aware of the plot.
The report also outlines how senior administration officials turned their attention to Iraq soon after the attacks. In the most glaring example, at 2:40 p.m. on Sept. 11, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard Myers that his instinct was to hit Saddam Hussein at the same time as Osama bin Laden. Four days later, when Bush convened a meeting of his senior advisers at Camp David to decide retaliatory steps, the Defense Department submitted a paper that depicted Iraq, the Taliban and al Qaeda as priority targets in the first stage of action. The report goes on to note that a failed Iraq in the wake of the U.S. invasion could become "breeding grounds for attacks against Americans at home."
The panel also concluded that there was no evidence that the Saudi government or Saudi officials knew of or supported the plot to attack the United States.
President Bush and former President Clinton, who were both interviewed by the commission, disagreed in their recollection of a two-hour meeting on national security and foreign policy issues in December 2000. Clinton recalls telling Bush that "by far your biggest threat is Bin Ladin and the al Qaeda" and that he regretted not capturing or killing the al Qaeda leader.
Bush told the commission. "that he felt sure President Clinton had mentioned terrorism, but did not remember much being said about al Qaeda." Bush said Clinton emphasized other issues such as North Korea and the Israeli peace process.
The panel also found that 36 presidential intelligence briefings given Bush before the attacks that mentioned al Qaeda or bin Laden.
The 567-page report was based on 2.5 million pages of documents and testimony from more than 1,000 witnesses and is on sale in bookstores across the country.
RUSH TRANSCRIPT
AMY GOODMAN: We're joined right now by two guests in the Washington studio. We're joined by Ray McGovern, who is a 27-year career analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency, co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. And we're also joined by Sibel Edmonds, she's the former F.B.I. Translator who was hired shortly after September 11 to translate intelligence gathered over the previous time related to the 9/11 attacks. She speaks fluent Farsi and Turkish. Let's begin with Ray McGovern. Your response to the report?
RAY MCGOVERN: Well it's clear, Amy, that the establishment has spoken here. The name of the game is reflected in the "Washington Post" headlines for today which says, "Final Report Faults Two Administrations." So, the implication being that Clinton and Bush are equally to blame for overseeing this or, you know, exercising oversight in the second sense over this terrorist threat. It's really interesting to see how this thing has played out. The report deals with the symptoms. The analogy with malaria that I think you may have heard me use before. Defeating terrorism is like defeating malaria. Everyone knows to defeat malaria you need to set up sharp shooters around the swamp and try to kill as many mosquitoes as you can as they leave the swamp. Well, obviously, what you do to defeat malaria is to drain the swamp. That's what you need to do with respect to terrorism, to get at the root causes of terrorism. This report, all 567 pages of it except two, deal with the symptoms, the mosquitoes, how to shoot the mosquitoes as they leave the swamp, how to set up the equivalent of radar so, when they come where they could hurt somebody, the radar will detect them and the equivalent of more easily and more protective mosquito nets to protect the possible victims of the mosquitoes. It doesn't get to the root cause except well into it around page 400, which we can discuss later, but which very briefly talks about the root causes. Our policy toward Israel and our invasion and occupation of Iraq. That got in there to the credit of the drafters.
AMY GOODMAN: We're joined by Ray McGovern, who is a former C.I.A. Analyst, with the agency for more than a quarter of a century, and F.B.I. whistleblower, Sibel Edmonds, who also joins us in our Washington studio. Sibel, your response overall to the commission's report?
SIBEL EDMONDS: Well, Amy, I spent my day yesterday reading most of the report, and my first reaction was, okay, it explains why the report received a blessing from the administration and from the agencies, considering just in my case alone you have so much kicking and screaming and classification of by the Department of Justice, and talking about the sensitivity and talking about certain diplomatic relations, and we didn't have these types of responses to this report, which explains a lot alone by itself. Also, in reading the report, I just did not come across anything that in any way would establish any specific accountability. That also explains the lack of kick and screaming and lack of that type of a response from the administration. And also I was not that surprised to see that many incidents in their time-lines were not mentioned, although two days ago, "Chicago Tribune" had an article regarding the incident of a long term F.B.I. Asset who provided specific information in April, 2001, to the Bureau talking about major cities being targeted and airplanes being used, and the order being issued by Bin Laden. There's no mentioning of this. Although as you would see on this article, it has been already confirmed by the F.B.I. Authorities. So, I was not surprised, considering the fact that I attended these hearings, and I did not hear most questions being asked during the hearings, but I must say that I was still disappointed.
AMY GOODMAN: Sibel Edmonds, for people who are not familiar with your case, clearly, you have information the government is very concerned about, based on your translations after September 11, before September 11 wiretaps, because the Justice Department has attempted to reclassify information that you put out in a public hearing.
SIBEL EDMONDS: Correct. The commission has had this information since February, 2004, and there was only one reference to it without any specifics saying that, please refer to the I.G. Report. Well, the I.G. Report, after two years of delay, came out and is entirely classified. So, the public cannot refer to the I.G. Report. As you know, the investigations by the Congress have been stopped and the only reasons cited by the Attorney General have been certain diplomatic relations, certain foreign relations. So, people cannot refer to the congressional investigations or findings, and obviously, the report by the commission does not contain this information. So, basically, that there you have it.
For the entire report and transcript from Democracy Now!, see:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/23/1336253
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = == = == = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Support Sibel Edmonds!
Support Sibel Edmonds! Now is the time to rally in support of Sibel Edmonds, former FBI translator and 9/11 whistle-blower who stumbled upon the nexus point where drug trafficking, money laundering and 9/11 meet in a shadowy global financial network that she claims is being protected by the DOJ and State Department. If she's mistaken, why has John Ashcroft filed a gag order against her?
For links and resources, see:
http://septembereleventh.org/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - No Safe Haven - Homeland Security
No Safe Haven -
Homeland Security granted an African refugee political asylum --
then threw him in jail. [Now in Greenfield, Massachusetts.]
For the complete article, see:
http://valleyadvocate.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:74792
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Israel plant a second Chernobyl?
Israel's nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu has warned that the Middle East is at risk of a "second Chernobyl" in the event of an accident at the Jewish state's aged Dimona plant, a newspaper reported
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6550.htm
3) Death of whales linked to NATO navy exercise
SPAIN - The Canary Islands regional government demanded an official enquiry by the Spanish defence ministry after two dead beaked whales were washed ashore the islands days after NATO conducted a naval exercise in the area. It is the second such incident in two years, as 14 of the species measuring between four and six metres in length were found dead after a NATO exercise
in the area September 2002.
Besides the two whales found dead on the coasts of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, fishermen reported they had seen what resembled another dead whale in the area.
Scientists suspect that the use of naval sonar could trigger the deaths, as investigations of the whale cadavers after the 2002 incident had shown that the whales suffered from decompression sickness normally only known from divers.
Apparently disoriented by the sonar, the whales rose to the surface too quickly, triggering the formation of small nitrogen bubbles in their blood which then damage tissue and clog blood vessels, according to a study published in Nature.
Experts had demanded a change in environmental regulations in order to protect the animals after the 2002 incidents in which mid-frequency sonar had been used.
In August of last year, a judge in San Francisco, California, had banned sonar tests planned by the US Navy for several of the world's oceans.
The project were in violation of animal protection laws as they would endanger whales, dolphins and fish, she ruled.
Copyright 2004 Brunei Press Sdn Bhd. All right reserved.
http://www.brunei-online.com/bb/mon/jul26w35.htm
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Losing America * MoorePraise * Kerry&Kucinich
21 July 2004
"A standing army is one of the greatest mischief that can possibly happen."
James Madison
(US fourth president, 1751-1836)
"Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious
to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty."
George W. Washington
"The love of liberty is the love of others;
the love of power is the love of ourselves."
William Hazlitt
1) Sen. Byrd on Meet the Press and on "Losing America"
- - Progress Report: More Proof They Knew
- - Iraq is not improving, it's a disaster
- - Torturing Children [in Iraq]
- - Is Iraq's new Prime Minster a war criminal?
- - Halliburton Iran deals under fire
- - Coup D'Etat in America?
2) Even Republicans and military members applaud Fahrenheit 9/11'
- - Linda Ronstadt, Las Vegas, and Michael Moore - Desperadoes
3) Kucinich ~ On the Wings of a Dove
"I hate it when they say, 'He gave his life for his country.'
Nobody gives their life for anything. We steal the lives of these kids.
We take it away from them. They don't die for the honor and glory
of their country. We kill them."
- Admiral Gene LaRocque
Editor's Notes:
We are quickly approaching the 5th anniversary since the Cassini-Earth flyby, 17/18 August 2004. In 1999 the planet just missed a horrendous collision with a speeding NASA probe with 400,000 curies of plutonium radiation. But instead of cooling off, things keep heating up in respect to threats of life and democracy. Item 1 contains powerful excerpts in the Meet the Press interview with Senator Robert Byrd on his book: "Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency." Senator Byrd said he wrote it to help save the US Constitution. The consequences of the bastardization of our Constitution is happening now in Iraq. See subtitles in item 1 for links and resources that expose a war for terror, not against terror. The second item returns to a story that won't go away -- Michael Moore. And while Linda Ronstadt gets thrown out in Las Vegas for praising Moore's 9/11 movie, two skull and bones members are running for president, and all this is suppose to make sense?. Some find it too much to vote for Kerry, but let's put efforts to convincing them otherwise four years of a corporate-representative is much better than four more years of Bush NeoCon agenda.
Flyby News (FN) has tried to stay ahead of the curve of destruction since about a year and a half before the Cassini-Earth flyby. FN posted an endorsement for Dennis Kucinich for US President 2004 nine months before his announcement. Kucinich missed an opportunity in 2004 to win in New Hampshire. Yet any great leader must learn from one's mistakes, and his work has exemplified the qualities of a great leader. If Kerry doesn't deliver peace and justice, then we must be ready to win New Hampshire in the Primaries in 2008, and with Kucinich it's possible, as well as his current efforts to steer the Democratic Party for peace and a just resolution in the needless-bloody conflict in Iraq. Fear has too long led us down a path of deceit and ignorance, degrading life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Happiness
Happiness comes from a large garden
full of the fruits of the most sacred things..
The delicate flowers unfold a fragrance
to behold the image worth living.
O' purple majesty, violet rays of God's tranquility,
tell us about compassion, and the green depth of grass and pines do heal,
swirling leaves in the wind say, "Come out into the sun and feel."
And air currents carry the moisture, in its core the life force,
absolutely pure, and we bathe in light and color and learn to see
the positive behind everything.. and the backdrop of blue, blue sky,
brings the heavens closer to the real world of dreams and visions that one can fly..
and to understand the shapes of clouds creates an artistic eye . . .
to know the spiritual wonders of illumination, to be on Earth and reach out ever so high!
I wrote this above poem on 24 July 1980.
Many thanks to Information Clearinghouse
for supplying many of the quotes used above in this issue.
United We Stand - Divided We Fall
1) Sen. Byrd on Meet the Press and on "Losing America"
- - Progress Report: More Proof They Knew
- - Iraq is not improving, it's a disaster :
- - Torturing Children [in Iraq]
- - Is Iraq's new Prime Minster a war criminal?
- - Halliburton Iran deals under fire:
- - Coup D'Etat in America?
MEET THE PRESS - - Transcript for July 18
Guest: Senator Robert Byrd, D-WVA, Author,
"Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency"
Please credit any quotes or excerpts to:
"NBC NEWS' MEET THE PRESS"
Moderator/Panelist: Tim Russert, NBC News
[Excerpts]
MR. TIM RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday: The longest-serving current member of the United States Senate has written a blistering critique of George W. Bush, "Losing America: Confronting A Reckless And Arrogant Presidency." With us, Senator Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia. . . Robert C. Byrd has been a senator for 45 years, serving with 11 presidents and now says our current president is "...a dangerous leader in a dangerous time."
Senator Byrd, welcome.
SEN. ROBERT BYRD, (D-WV)
Thank you.
MR. RUSSERT: In the midst of the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, what message do you think it sends to the world when someone like you says that President Bush is dangerous, reckless and arrogant?
SEN. BYRD: I hope that the world will listen. This book constitutes a wake-up call, a wake-up call not only to our own people but to the world.
MR. RUSSERT: Let me show you what you also say in the book. Back in October of 2002, only 23 senators opposed a resolution authorizing the president to go to war. "In the end, only 22 other members voted to oppose this despicable grant of authority. ...Never in my half century of congressional service had the United States Senate proved unworthy of its great name. What would the framers have thought? In this terrible show of weakness, the Senate left an indelible stain upon its own escutcheon. Having revered the Senate during my service for more than forty years, I was never pained so much."
You say that the 22 senators who joined with you were profiles in courage, and those who didn't vote that way had shown weakness. John Kerry, candidate for president, John Edwards, candidate for vice president, your Democratic Party, voted for the war. Are they weak?
SEN. BYRD: They were misled. I'm confident of that. And I have a feeling that that is why they voted as they did.
MR. RUSSERT: Misled by whom?
SEN. BYRD: Misled by this administration, misled by this president, misled by Mr. Rumsfeld, misled by the CIA. Mostly, though, however...
MR. RUSSERT: Intentional?
SEN. BYRD: I can't say it was the intention, but it was what caused many senators, I'm sure, to vote as they did. And we have to remember that this was in an atmosphere where to vote against it and to speak out against this administration took courage. And many senators were fearful that they would be called unpatriotic if they did not vote with the administration.
MR. RUSSERT: Let me show you another excerpt from your book: "We keep hearing the refrain, `Stay the course.' What is the course? Is it that we continue sending American troops to be used as sitting ducks in an Iraqi shooting gallery? How long are we going to be fed the pap that fighting the terrorists on the streets of Baghdad saves us from fighting terrorists on the streets of New York City or Washington, D.C.?" What would you do, pull all the American troops out immediately?
SEN. BYRD: No. No, we made a mistake. It was wrong to enter this war. There were two wars going on: one in Afghanistan, which I fully supported. That was a war that was begun by the--those who destructed the world towers. That was an attack on America. I was 100 percent behind the president in his reaction to that war.
But then a second war has come along, in which another country did not attack us, there was not an imminent danger from Iraq. This was Mr. Bush's war. I was against it. It was a mistake, I said at the time. I say now that it is a mistake. I'd never say that we should pull our troops out. I think we should work, having entered into this, to bring about an honorable way to bring our troops home.
MR. RUSSERT: Would that, however, make Iraq a haven for terrorists if we were to abandon it?
SEN. BYRD: It is already a haven for terrorists. It was not before Mr. Bush attacked this country that had not provoked this country by an attack. We attacked Iraq. We've never done that. This was part of the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive attack. It was wrong. That's a dangerous doctrine. And I simply say that we have to do what we have to do, and we have to have a plan to bring our men home with honor, but it's very hard because the Bush administration insulted some of our friends and referred to old Europe, and they turned the back of their hands to the U.N. And so we have to go it alone, almost, because we're losing the support that we have over there with other countries.
MR. RUSSERT: Let me show you another excerpt from the book: "Bush's power has been wielded with arrogance, calculation, and disdain for dissenting views. The Constitution's careful separation of powers has been breached, and its checks and balances circumvented. Behind closed doors, schemes have been hatched, with information denied to the legislative branch and policy makers shielded from informing the people or Congress. In fact, there appears to be little respect for the role of Congress. There is virtually no attempt to build consensus through the hard work of reaching across the aisle to find common ground. Real consultation does not exist."
You've worked with 11 presidents. Is that any different than with the previous 10 presidents?
SEN. BYRD: It's very different. I have never seen such secrecy. I've not--I have never experienced such a feeling of disdain for the Congress by this administration. And this is what I've been talking about. We saw it--I see it in the Appropriations Committee, where the administration continues to try to seek more power, grasp more power. This administration does not like oversight by the Congress. And it is exceedingly dangerous. I've never seen anything like that in my experience.
MR. RUSSERT: Nixon had secrecy.
SEN. BYRD...had secrecy. And some of his people are in this administration: the vice president, the secretary of defense, former secretary of the Treasury, Mr. O'Neill.
MR. RUSSERT: And this is worse?
SEN. BYRD: Far worse. I've never experienced anything like this. I've never felt as afraid of what-- where we're headed as I feel now.
MR. RUSSERT: Aren't the Democrats also responsible, however, for the gridlock and for the excessive partisanship?
SEN. BYRD: There's no question about it. It isn't the president and this administration alone. Our own Congress lost its backbone when it voted to shift the constitutional power to declare war to this president, to this one man. The framers must have been spinning in their graves because they intended for such a decision to be cast by--not just by one house of Congress but by both houses of Congress. And now we have--we shifted. Congress was weak, and I was ashamed of the Senate for the first time in my 45 years, that it would shift this power and remove itself and take away its voice. It turned over to this one man the decision to use our military forces as he would, when he would, where he would, and there's no sunset provision in that. There was at least a sunset provision in Tonkin Gulf resolution. There's no sunset provision in this power. I said to myself and to my colleagues, "Look, if we're going to be silly enough and unsensible enough to shift this power to this president, let's at least put a sunset provision in it." I offered an amendment, got 31 votes, including my own. I could hardly believe it. I was ashamed. But not only has the Congress failed, the American people have been unthinking and they've not asked questions. And finally, the press, the media itself, bought into this once the president's drums of war started. I call it his drums and I don't mean his individually alone, but his administration. But in particular, this leader, when he loosed the dogs of war, the press fell in line and the press failed to ask the questions that it should have asked. So there are a lot of people at fault here.
MR. RUSSERT: Before you go, West Virginia, five electoral votes, went for George W. Bush in 2000 rather than Al Gore. You had advised Al Gore to temper some of his environmental comments so as to not lose West Virginia. On the John Kerry for President Web site, he refers to coal as a dirty energy source, which President Bush alluded to when he was in West Virginia recently. Can John Kerry carry West Virginia if he continues to call coal a dirty energy source?
SEN. BYRD: Look, I'm the son of a coal miner. I married a coal miner's daughter. I know a lot about coal. I know a lot about the Depression. Yes, coal is a dirty energy source. But look what we're trying to do. We're trying to clean it up. I've appropriated moneys over the years for coal research to make it cleaner. So, yes, he can carry West Virginia. He will carry West Virginia if he continues to stand up for the liberties of the people. And we've got to remember that, it's the people back home who are to be remembered. And this Constitution, John Kerry believes in this Constitution. I've talked with him. I've told him he should go to West Virginia. He should shake hands with the people. He should be at their level and get a little coal dust on his hands, get some of that dirty dust on his hands and on his face and live in spirit with the working people of this country, the coal miners, and always remember that sovereignty rests, John Kerry, sovereignty rests with the people of this country. And it's this book here--why I wrote "Losing America" was to help save this book, the Constitution.
MR. RUSSERT: Senator Robert C. Byrd, we thank you for sharing your views.
SEN. BYRD: Thank you.
For the complete transcript, see:
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5458209
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Progress Report: More Proof They Knew
July 15, 2004
INTELLIGENCE
This morning's Los Angeles Times uncovers an explosive document buried at the end of the recent Senate Intelligence report. It shows that before Colin Powell's now-discredited U.N. speech justifying war in Iraq, State Department analysts told Powell and top administration officials about "dozens of factual problems" in the address (which was written by Vice President Cheney's staff). According to the Jan. 31, 2003 memo, there were problems with 38 of the claims made in the speech draft, which was crafted at the behest of the White House. (It was "intended to be the Bush administration's most compelling case" for war in Iraq.) In response, 28 were either "removed from the draft or altered" but the others were left in. Powell was reportedly irate when first given the speech: According to the 9/3/03 U.S. News & World Report, Powell threw the speech in the air, yelling, "I'm not reading this. This is bulls--t." This past May, he reiterated his displeasure with the speech, saying, "It turned out that the sourcing was inaccurate and wrong, and in some cases deliberately misleading."
For more information on The Progress Report, see:
americanprogressaction.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Iraq is not improving, it's a disaster
Attacks on US troops are running at dozens a day, frequently accompanied by looting, burning and stoning. It is generally believed in Baghdad that around 1,000 Iraqis leave the country every day for Jordan and Syria because the security situation is intolerable.
www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1264789,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Torturing Children [in Iraq]
by William Rivers Pitt
The biggest story of the Iraq war has not enjoyed any coverage in America, though it has been exploding across the international news media for several weeks now.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/072004A.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Is Iraq's new Prime Minster a war criminal?
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported Monday that Iraq's Human Rights Minister Bakhtiyar Amin said he will investigate claims that Iraq's new Prime Minister Iyad Allawi killed six prisoners just days before he took office. The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age of Melbourne, two of Australia's top newspapers, ran the story about the alleged incident on Saturday, prompting a furious round of denials from Mr. Allawi's office.
For the complete Christian Science Monitor [US] article of 19 July 2004, see:
www.csmonitor.com/2004/0719/dailyUpdate.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Halliburton Iran deals under fire
Halliburton, in trouble over alleged over-charging for Iraq contracts, is being probed for its deals in Iran.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3908753.stm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Coup D'Etat in America?
by Michel Chossudovsky
13 July 2004
[This article is a follow-up on an earlier text entitled:
Bush Administration "Guidelines" for Postponing or Canceling
the November Presidential Elections, by Michel Chossudovsky
For this recent article, Coup d'Etat in America?, see:
globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO407B.html
2) Even Republicans and military members applaud Fahrenheit 9/11'
- - Linda Ronstadt, Las Vegas, and Michael Moore - Desperadoes
Even Republicans and military members applaud Fahrenheit 9/11'
By Kevin J. Shay / OpEdNews
[Excerpts]
"There's a warnin' sign on the road ahead,
There's a lot of people sayin' we'd be better off dead,
Don't feel like Satan, but I am to them,
So I try to forget it, any way I can."
- Neil Young, "Rockin' in the Free World"
I recently saw Michael Moore's film, "Fahrenheit 9/11," which even reviewers for conservative media outlets like Fox News have praised. I knew I would like the documentary, based on reviews I read. But still, I can't remember seeing a movie that has affected me as much. I can't remember ever seeing a movie where the audience gave it a standing ovation when it ended, which occurred in many more theaters across the country than just the Maryland one I attended.
"Fahrenheit 9/11" made me laugh, made me sad, made me angry, made me optimistic. But most of all, it made me think and want to do even more than I am doing to help get Bush-Cheney out of the White House.
Before you dismiss Moore's latest film as one that only appeals to people who didn't like Bush-Cheney much in the first place, consider the reaction of some Bush-Cheney supporters, military veterans and family members who saw it.
Natalie Sorton, a 25-year-old moderate Republican and wife of an infantryman who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, told The Fayetteville Observer in North Carolina, where Fort Bragg is, that the movie changed her opinion of the war in Iraq. "All this movie did was open my eyes a little more to what's really going on," she said. "I think this is definitely going to have an impact on the election. I'm glad I'm a voter."
"We got a thousand points of light for the homeless man,
We got a kinder, gentler, machine gun hand.
Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world."
Kevin J. Shay, a Washington, D.C.-area writer, won a 2002 International Peacewriting Award for Walking Through the Wall, an electronic book about a transcontinental march for peace and justice he joined. The latest book to which he contributed, Big Bush Lies, was recently released by RiverWood Books and is available in bookstores across the country.
The complete article is posted at:
opednews.com/shay_071404_fahrenheit911.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Linda Ronstadt, Las Vegas, and Michael Moore - Desperadoes
Desperadoes
July 21st, 2004 2:04 pm
Desperadoes
New York Times
Something went awry at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas last Saturday night. Linda Ronstadt did what she has done at several concerts across the country this summer. She dedicated the song "Desperado"- an encore - to Michael Moore and urged members of the audience to go see his new movie, "Fahrenheit 9/11."
Elsewhere, audiences have reacted to the mention of Mr. Moore by cheering, booing, walking out and sometimes glaring at one another in parking lots. At the Aladdin, a few audience members tore down posters, threw drinks and demanded their money back. According to one person who was present - William Timmins, the Aladdin's president - it was "a very ugly scene." Mr. Timmins promptly made it even uglier. He had Ms. Ronstadt ejected from the premises.
This behavior assumes that Ms. Ronstadt had no right to express a political opinion from the stage. It implies - for some members of the audience at least - that there is a philosophical contract that says an artist must entertain an audience only in the ways that audience sees fit. It argues, in fact, that an artist like Ms. Ronstadt does not have the same rights as everyone else.
Perhaps her praise for Mr. Moore, even at the very end of her show, did ruin the performance for some people. They have a right to voice their disapproval - to express their opinion as Ms. Ronstadt expressed hers and to ask for a refund. But if their intemperate behavior began to worry the management, then they were the ones who should have been thrown out and told never to return, not Ms. Ronstadt, who threatened, after all, only to sing.
This article was posted: www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php
3) Kucinich ~ On the Wings of a Dove
On the Wings of a Dove
Village Voice, 7/14/04
Mondo Washington
by James Ridgeway
On the Wings of a Dove
Kucinich fights the good anti-fight
July 14th, 2004 4:50
WASHINGTON, D.C.Cleveland Democratic congressman Dennis Kucinich, the last standing opponent of John Kerry for the Democratic presidential nomination, is going to Boston next week with high hopes that Kerry will ask him to address the party's convention later this month. In the meantime, Kucinich is planning a full week of alternative events for his supporters. The question is whether Kerry will be willing to stomach Kucinich's flat-out campaign to get the U.S. to leave Iraq when Kerry's own position is so nuanced you need an interpreter to figure out what's going on.
"I'm going to continue my opposition to the war and occupation," Kucinich told the "Voice" in an interview this morning.
Howard Dean has already been asked to speak the first night of the convention (July 26), along with former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. In all likelihood, Dean's speech will have to go through a Kerry cleansing process before the former Vermont governor will be allowed on stage. Despite the antagonism of the primaries, Dean has been campaigning hard for Kerry and recently took on the thankless job of debating Ralph Nader.
Kucinich, while technically still an opponent of Kerry, announced last spring his intention to back Kerry, and he came out for John Edwards on July 6, saying, "John Edwards is a friend and a colleague. He is an excellent choice and will be a tremendous asset to Democrats from the top of the ticket on down."
Despite that show of harmony, there's no doubt that Kucinich and Kerry are far apart on Iraq. According to published reports, the party adopted a platform amendment last week calling for the U.S. to reduce its military presence in Iraq and push for NATO and other countries to take on more duties there. Depending on where you are coming from, this might be taken to indicate a slight softening of Kerry's hawkish position on Iraq, a stance that on paper isn't all that different from that of President Bush. Kucinich said his forces at the platform meetings couldn't get enough votes to put out a minority report that certainly would've been more dovish; his website reports that he could only count eight hard votes for the Kucinich position. Fifteen were needed for a debate and 38 to write a minority report.
Kucinich said his main goal in running for president was to create an "alternative" core within the party. In his campaign, he said, people were mostly interested in health care, (he's for universal health care), trade (he's against NAFTA), the Patriot Act (against), and the war, which he has been against from the beginning.
Kucinich won 31 percent of the delegate vote in Hawaii and 26.5 percent in Alaska. States in which he got 10 percent or more of the vote include Colorado, Oregon, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, North Carolina, and Kansas, as well as America Samoa.
The Cleveland congressman is in the enviable position of having established a national political organization as the result of his presidential run. When it comes to Kerry's campaign, Kucinich, as the former mayor of Cleveland, should be of considerable help in a crucial state like Ohio.
To print Village Voice article, URL link:
www.villagevoice.com/print/issues/0428/mondo5.php
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
More on Moore * Cheney Indictments * Iraq Gift
14 July 2004
"We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,
tied in a single garment of destiny.
Whatever affects one directly,
effects all indirectly."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
1) Michael Moore: My First Wild Week with Fahrenheit'"
- - Moore's Fahrenheit 9-11 opens in UK, breaks records there too
- - New Documentary Aims to Demonstrate Bias on Fox News
2) Cheney faces Criminal Indictments
- - Advocates of War Now Profit From Iraq's Reconstruction
- - Feds knew about 9-11 bribery conspiracy before attacks
- - Iraq war 'a gift' to bin Laden, says CIA veteran
- - The CIA and Iraq
- - Death toll for U.S.-led coalition in Iraq tops 1,000
- - Congressman Charles Rangle Arrested at Sudanese Embassy
Editor's Notes:
Last weekends SolarFest was another wonderful celebration of community, sustainable living, and the creative arts. It was gratifying to meet some appreciative Flyby News readers, and taking someone by surprise with an offer for a free independent online news resource ticket. One of the buzz words to pick up a conversation with anyone lately, most anywhere, is on the new Michael Moore movie. I met someone at the festival on the opening weekend who watched the movie in the same theater with Senator Jim Jeffords. Always after the movie people would gather, shake heads, feel some anger, and regain hope by knowing Moore is reaching into the mainstream public. And who better to give accounts of the week after Fahrenheit 9/11' than its creator, Michael Moore?
Item two of this double-day issue covers charges that could make Dick Cheney face Criminal Indictments. Also, in this item, is a story that will surprise no one reading Flyby News: Advocates of War Now Profit From Iraq's Reconstruction.
But how deep does the story go about the FBI knowing about a 9/11 bribery conspiracy before the terrorists' 2001 attacks had occurred? A whistle blower has named Louis Freeh. But in this era one gets use to a lot of bizarre news, so ones like this one is a bit common place: a CIA veteran admits the Iraq war was and is 'a gift' to bin Laden. However, the man most, perhaps, successfully fighting a war against terror is the Congressman, Charles Rangle. He was led away in handcuffs after being arrested outside the Embassy of the Republic of Sudan. Rep. Rangel was protesting the crisis in Darfur, Sudan, where Janjaweed militiamen with government support are reportedly killing thousands of civilians.
"The earth is not dying, she is being killed...
and the people killing her have names and addresses."
Utah Philips
1) Michael Moore: My First Wild Week with Fahrenheit'"
- - Moore's Fahrenheit 9-11 opens in UK, breaks records there too
- - New Documentary Aims to Demonstrate Bias on Fox News
- - My First Wild Week with "Fahrenheit 9/11"...
By Michael Moore -
http://www.michaelmoore.com
Sunday, July 4th, 2004
[Excerpt]
Friends,
Where do I begin? This past week has knocked me for a loop. "Fahrenheit 9/11," the #1 movie in the country, the largest grossing documentary ever. My head is spinning. Didn't we just lose our distributor 8 weeks ago? Did Karl Rove really fail to stop this? Is Bush packing?
Each day this week I was given a new piece of information from the press that covers Hollywood, and I barely had time to recover from the last tidbit before the next one smacked me upside the head:
-- More people saw "Fahrenheit 9/11" in one weekend than all the people who saw "Bowling for Columbine" in 9 months.
-- "Fahrenheit 9/11" broke "Rocky's" record for the biggest box office opening weekend ever for any film that opened in less than a thousand theaters.
-- "Fahrenheit 9/11" beat the opening weekend of "Return of the Jedi."
-- "Fahrenheit 9/11" instantly went to #2 on the all-time list for largest per-theater average ever for a film that opened in wide-release.
How can I ever thank all of you who went to see it? These records are mind-blowing. They have sent shock waves through Hollywood and, more importantly, through the White House.
But it didn't just stop there. The response to the movie then went into the Twilight Zone. Surfing through the dial I landed on the Fox broadcasting network which was airing the NASCAR race live last Sunday to an audience of millions of Americans -- and suddenly the announcers were talking about how NASCAR champ Dale Earnhardt, Jr. took his crew to see "Fahrenheit 9/11" the night before. FOX sportscaster Chris Myers delivered Earnhardt's review straight out of his mouth and into the heartland of America: He said hey, it'll be a good bonding experience no matter what your political belief. It's a good thing as an American to go see. Whoa! NASCAR fans, you can't go deeper into George Bush territory than that! White House moving vans START YOUR ENGINES!
Then there was Roger Friedman from the Fox News Channel giving our film an absolutely glowing review, calling it "..a really brilliant piece of work, and a film that members of all political parties should see without fail."
Richard Goldstein of the Village Voice surmised that Bush is already considered a goner so Rupert Murdoch might be starting to curry favor with the new administration. I don't know about that, but Ive never heard a decent word toward me from Fox. So, after I was revived, I wondered if a love note to me from Sean Hannity was next.
How about Letterman's Top Ten List:
Top Ten George W. Bush Complaints About 'Fahrenheit 9/11'":
10. That actor who played the President was totally unconvincing
9. It oversimplified the way I stole the election
8. Too many of them fancy college-boy words
7. If Michael Moore had waited a few months, he could have included the part where I get him deported
6. Didn't have one of them hilarious monkeys who smoke cigarettes and gives people the finger
5. Of all Michael Moore's accusations, only 97% are true
4. Not sure - - I passed out after a piece of popcorn lodged in my windpipe
3. Where the hell was Spider-man?
2. Couldn't hear most of the movie over Cheney's foul mouth
1. I thought this was supposed to be about dodgeball
But it was the reactions and reports we received from theaters around the country that really sent me over the edge. One theatre manager after another phoned in to say that the movie was getting standing ovations as the credits rolled ~ in places like Greensboro, NC and Oklahoma City -- and that they were having a hard time clearing the theater afterwards because people were either too stunned or they wanted to sit and talk to their neighbors about what they had just seen. In Trumbull, CT, one woman got up on her seat after the movie and shouted "Let's go have a meeting!" A man in San Francisco took his shoe off and threw it at the screen when Bush appeared at the end. Ladies' church groups in Tulsa were going to see it, and weeping afterwards.
It was this last group that gave lie to all the yakking pundits who, before the movie opened, declared that only the hard-core "choir" would go to see "Fahrenheit 9/11." They couldn't have been more wrong. Theaters in the Deep South and the Midwest set house records for any film they'd ever shown. Yes, it even sold out in Peoria. And Lubbock, Texas. And Anchorage, Alaska!
Newspaper after newspaper wrote stories in tones of breathless disbelief about people who called themselves "Independents" and "Republicans" walking out of the movie theater shaken and in tears, proclaiming that they could not, in good conscience, vote for George W. Bush. The New York Times wrote of a conservative Republican woman in her 20s in Pensacola, Florida who cried through the film, and told the reporter: "It really makes me question what I feel about the president... it makes me question his motives."
Newsday reported on a self-described "ardent Bush/Cheney supporter" who went to see the film on Long Island, and his quiet reaction afterwards. He said, "It's really given me pause to think about what's really going on. There was just too much - too much to discount." The man then bought three more tickets for another showing of the film..
..May the farce be with you, but not for long,
Michael Moore
michaelmoore.com
mmflint@aol.com
For the full message by Michael Moore, see:
www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php
For the Michael Moore blog, see:
www.michaelmoore.com/words/diary/index.php
Mike in the news:
www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/breakingnews/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Moore's Fahrenheit 9-11 opens in UK, breaks records there too
The Daily Telegraph [UK], 12 July 2004
Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/11, which makes a scathing attack on President George W Bush, has broken the box office record for a documentary in Britain.
For this article, click on following URL link:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/12/umoor.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/07/12/ixportaltop.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - New Documentary Aims to Demonstrate Bias on Fox News
by Frazier Moore
Published July 13, 2004 by the Associated Press
NEW YORK -- A new documentary backed by liberal political groups aims to document that the Fox News Channel is anything but ``fair and balanced,'' despite the cable-news network's motto.
The film, ``Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism,'' draws on clips compiled during weeks of round-the-clock taping of the network to demonstrate what the filmmakers believe is a pattern of right-wing bias and support for the Republican agenda.
For the entire article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0713-04.htm
2) Cheney faces Criminal Indictments
- - Advocates of War Now Profit From Iraq's Reconstruction
- - Feds knew about 9-11 bribery conspiracy before attacks
- - Iraq war 'a gift' to bin Laden, says CIA veteran
- - The CIA and Iraq
- - Death toll for U.S.-led coalition in Iraq tops 1,000
- - Congressman Charles Rangle Arrested at Sudanese Embassy
- - Cheney Faces Criminal Indictments;
Other Illegal Actions Raise Warning Flags at White House
From Capitol Hill Blue - Bush Leagues
By TERESA HAMPTON
Editor, Capitol Hill Blue
Jul 8, 2004, 04:59
Vice President Dick Cheney faces criminal indictments for illegal activities while CEO of energy giant Halliburton and also illegally intervened to secure a $7 billion no-bid contract for his former employer after his election to office, an analysis by the White House counsel's office concludes.
The Vice President is currently under investigation by French authorities for bribery, money laundering and misuse of corporate assets while at Halliburton and also faces a U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission probe of a $180 million "slush fund" that may have been used to pay bribes.
Although the White House Counsel analysis is not available to the public because of the secrecy of "attorney-client privilege," it has generated speculation among senior White House aides who suggest the Vice President should step down as President George W. Bush's running mate for the November Presidential elections. Such talk has increased in GOP circles lately with former New York Senator Alfonse D'Amato Wednesday calling on Bush to dump Cheney.
Vice President Cheney
Those who have read the analysis say it presents a "devastating" case against the Vice President and concludes Cheney has violated both the "spirit and intent" of federal laws on conflict of interest.. . . Although Cheney left his position at Halliburton before becoming Vice President, his financial disclosure statements show he continues to receive dividends from stock as well as deferred compensation from the company. At least $5 million in payments to Stanley from the fund were wired to a secret numbered bank account in Zurich which Judge Ruymbeke discovered belonged to the KBR President. Tesler also testified he paid another $350,000 to another KBR executive, William Chaudran, through another secret bank account on the isle of Jersey.
Cheney served as CEO of Halliburton from 1995 until 2000 and approved the Nigerian contract in 1999. Halliburton publicly announced on June 18 it was "severing all ties" with Stanley, admitting he had received "improper personal benefits" while serving as President of KBR. Sources within Halliburton say the company's internal investigation clearly implicates Vice President Cheney but acknowledge the investigation will remain sealed in light of the company's $7 billion sweetheart contract with the Pentagon for work in Iraq.
French Judge Ruymbeke, however, is said to be offering Stanley a deal if he implicates Cheney and sources within the French legal system say the judge has more than enough to indict the Vice President on charges of bribery, money laundering and misuse of corporate assets.
The assessment of the White House counsel's office agrees that Cheney faces "serious legal implications" from the pending French indictments and add that the Vice President's illegal and unethical lobbying on behalf of Halliburton for the no-bid contract "raises additional questions."
Cheney, however, is standing firm and recently told Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont to "fuck off" when the Senator questioned him on the Halliburton matters.
According to White House sources, President George W. Bush laughed the matter off at a recent cabinet meeting.
"Fuck em all," Bush said.
The President's bravado, however, is not shared by worried White House aides. Some point to the last vice president to step down because of fraud and corruption Spiro T. Agnew, who served under President Richard M. Nixon, another Republican forced to leave office because of scandal.
Copyright 2004 Capitol Hill Blue
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Advocates of War Now Profit From Iraq's Reconstruction
Published - July 14, 2004 - by the Los Angeles Times
Advocates of War Now Profit From Iraq's Reconstruction
Lobbyists, aides to senior officials and others encouraged invasion and now help firms pursue contracts. They see no conflict.
by Walter F. Roche Jr. and Ken Silverstein
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0714-01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Feds knew about 9-11 bribery conspiracy before attacks
Tom Flocco.com - New Story Alert!
Exclusive: Breaking 9-11 scandal
Feds knew about 9-11 bribery conspiracy before attacks
by Tom Flocco
ORLANDO, FL -- Tuesday, July 13, 2004 Posted 1:30 PM EDT -- TomFlocco.com --
Homeland Security whistleblower Mary Schneider is naming names, revealing that former FBI Director Louis Freeh, Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller and numerous U.S. senators and congressmen knew before the September 11 attacks that U.S. immigration officials were bribed by an illegal Moroccan Muslim allegedly linked to Osama bin Laden's half-brother. This according to Schneider, who was told about the illegal alien's ties to terrorism by outside informant Bonnie Sharrit.
Khalil bin Laden was allowed to leave the country after 9-11 via a documented 140-person multi-flight Saudi airlift through the auspices of the White House who declined to hold Khalid as a material witness despite his suspicious connections to the Tri-Border frontier region of Brazil--known for evidence of terrorism--but also Khalil's inquiries to informants Bonnie and Ed Sharrit about bringing in Arabs from Saudi Arabia and Brazil to attend a Florida flight school.
The Sharrit's informant daughter Christine later revealed that a Muslim named Lyazid Abad had previously lived with alleged hijacker Mohamed Atta--a fact not lost on the Department of Defense Criminal Investigation Division (DOD-CID) who questioned Christine Sharrit--Abad's wife--immediately after 9-11, indicating U.S. officials knew about Abad's and Atta's movements prior to the attacks. But the government now wants Lyazid Abad immediately deported from the U.S. and away from a potential grand jury.
For the complete article, see:
tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=68
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Iraq war 'a gift' to bin Laden, says CIA veteran
July 14, 2004 - 11:31AM
A CIA official who has written a book claiming the West is losing the global war on terrorism said in an interview on British television today that the US-led war in Iraq was a gift to Osama bin Laden.
The unidentified 23-year veteran of the CIA, who also has spoken with the US media, condemned America's counterterrorism policies, arguing that the war against al-Qaeda is failing.
"Iraq was a gift of epic proportions to Osama bin Laden and those who think like him," the man said, his face hidden by darkness on BBC's Newsnight show to conceal his identity.
His book, Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror, is to be released next month in the United States by an author identified only as Anonymous.
For the complete article, see:
www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/14/1089694397063.html?oneclick=true
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The CIA and Iraq
An Intelligence Debacle...and Worse
By RAY McGOVERN
Former CIA analyst
www.counterpunch.com/mcgovern07132004.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Death toll for U.S.-led coalition in Iraq tops 1,000
Friday, July 9, 2004 Posted: 5:15 PM EDT (2115 GMT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- In a grim milestone, the number of deaths in the American-led coalition in Iraq surpassed 1,000 this week. The latest reported deaths include a U.S. soldier who died from wounds in fighting Thursday in Baghdad, an American soldier killed in a Samarra attack Wednesday and another who died in a nonbattle-related incident Thursday.
The deaths bring multinational fatalities -- both in combat and "nonhostile" situations -- to 1,002 since the start of the war in March 2003. U.S. military deaths now total 881.
For complete story, see:
www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/07/09/iraq.main/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Congressman Charles Rangle Arrested at Sudanese Embassy
Rep. Charles Rangel is led away in handcuffs after being arrested outside the Embassy of the Republic of Sudan. Rangel was protesting the crisis in Darfur, Sudan where Janjaweed militiamen are reportedly killing thousands of civilians.
For the complete article, see:
www.truthout.org/docs_04/071404Z.shtml
Flyby News Support
If you care to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses
for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc.,
you can send donations to:
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
-- or you can donate via online --
see FlybyNews.com [near bottom of page] for link
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
ConventionPolitics * NukeDumping - NativeAmerica
14 July 2004
"What kind of moral schizophrenia is it that allows us to shout
at the top of our national voice for all the world to hear that we
live up to our commitment when every page of history and when all
the thirsty, starving, humiliating days and nights of the last 100
years in the lives of the American Indian contradict that voice?"
Marlon Brando
[Quote source: Rhino's Blog ]
1) The Ins and Outs of Progressive Democratic Party Politics
- - Compromised Language Withdrawal/Reduction "War On Iraq"
- - Democracy Now: "Did Dennis Kucinich Sell Out..?"
- - From Miami - Notes from Danielle Feris
- - On Platform Committee Strategy by Tim Carpenter
- - Boston Social Forum and Convention - July 23 to 29
2) Bush-US Dumping on Yucca Mountain
Editor's Notes:
The first part of todays Flyby News' notes summarizes the ins and outs of progressive Democratic Party national politics. There is more to it than anyone can understand. Many progressive activists against the war are aggravated that the Kucinich team backed off on the tough opposition to the Kerry pro-War stance, and continued occupation of Iraq. The Kucinich team in Miami with the Platform Committee did make some progress, but compromise was the name of the game. According to those working the floor, the progressive voices did not have enough votes to impact the Party as they anticipated. Politics is not only about ideals, but at times about compromise, too. Something Al Gore and Ralph Nader neglected to understand in 2000. Due to a record of notable accomplishments deserving trust, our judgement is withheld on if Kucinich has sold out, as questioned in todays Democracy Now! program. The initial vision of democracy is an ideal, but in needing to work with other humans to attain the truth of such an ideal, you need a majority of votes, which is difficult when the money is stacked up against you, and the purist idealist gravitates to the protest vote, almost hoping to accelerate the systems collapse - - But, when a world-wide system fails a lot of people can get squashed and harmed in the process. So, compromise is not all that bad, as long as it is headed in a direction whole with ones ideals and aspirations. It isnt easy when the medias voice-purse strings are pulled in accordance by Corporate players self-interests. Thankfully the mainstream media with all its wealth and power cant control Michael Moore, or citizens that can make an election count! This is where our staying united is essential. Purists have even gotten on the case of Michael Moore, saying he did not get into this or that. It just goes to show that you cant please all the people, but what Moore has accomplished should entitle him to an honor as grand as the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. More on the Michael Moore phenomena is in this day's issue, which includes an article on Cheney facing criminal indictments, and other tales of high crimes and treason. It was just this past week that the human death toll for U.S.led coalition members in Iraq topped 1,000.
Item 2 is an article from London with an overall clear perspective on the perverse nature of our governments, and especially on the continued theft of Native land for more nuclear pollution, death / cell-mutation by the crazed-harnessing of waste and tests for nuclear assaults at home and elsewhere. The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee is trying to meet with progressive Democrats to join together to influence John Kerry on stopping the nuclear star wars madness. Meanwhile, Russia will counter the US expansion of the arms race. Kucinich was a lead plaintiff in the legal action to stop Bush from withdrawing from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Perhaps he will see the wisdom to unite with those with an Indigenous perspective for caring for the Earth, and to help influence a John Kerry administration to stop nuclear terrorism and injustice. This is the time to be united, not just for our ideals, but for the process that will enable us to reach them.
1) The Ins and Outs of Progressive Democratic Party Politics
- - Compromised Language Withdrawal/Reduction "War On Iraq"
- - Democracy Now: "Did Dennis Kucinich Sell Out..?"
- - From Miami - Notes from Danielle Feris
- - On Platform Committee Strategy by Tim Carpenter
- - Boston Social Forum and Convention - July 23 to 29
- - Compromised Language Withdrawal/Reduction "War On Iraq"
From Dennis Kucinich -- http://www.Kucinich.us
Dennis: Platform shows progress, but the dialogue has only just begun
July 12, 2004
In January of 2002, a full year before I became a candidate for President, I began to publicly challenge the basis for the Administration's upcoming war in Iraq: that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, with Al Qaeda's role in 9/11, or with the anthrax attack. I went out front early and often, in the face of great criticism. In many ways, my Presidential campaign emerged from my leadership in challenging the war. Now, almost two and a half years later, each and every observation I made about Iraq has proven to be true. But being right about something does not necessarily equate, in a timely manner, to votes.
It is telling that our campaign did better towards the end of the presidential primary and caucus season, as a greater awareness began to take hold about the true nature of the Iraq war. However, the majority of delegates were chosen early, and those delegates went to Sen. Kerry. We have worked mightily during the platform-drafting process to influence committee members, delegates, and the leadership of the Party, while making every effort not to create a split which could cost Democrats the White House.
The result was a compromise over Iraq language at the Platform Committee meetings in Miami. Media reports, including the New York Times, pointed out that the Democrats escaped divisions like the ones that occurred in 1948 over civil rights and in 1968 over Vietnam. Working inside the party is not always convenient. We made a responsible choice to push as far as we could, with all the resources we had, to get as much as we could, without tearing the party apart.
Strong differences still exist within our party over Iraq. I will continue to advocate a U.S. withdrawal, just as we advocated at the Platform Committee. In the end, we had to decide whether to come to some kind of an agreement, or stand apart from the proceedings, detach ourselves from further engagement, and create such a disruption at the Platform Committee and the Convention that we put the election itself at risk.
Our party, though deficient it is, cannot fracture and open up the possibility of four more years of lies, four more years of war, four more years of the destruction of the democratic process. We must shore up the party and continue to work within it to influence the American public towards change. We can do this through unifying across all the ideological perspectives within our party. We must continue to work to get out of Iraq. We need new leadership which is open to this position. We can't get there with the present Administration. We can't get there through division within our own ranks. The essence of the advocacy of a Department of Peace is a practice of nonviolence in conflict resolution. It doesn't follow that you necessarily get your way; but you keep the conversation open towards influencing it in your direction.
Our representatives to the Democratic Platform Committee hearings in Miami over the weekend did an outstanding job of extracting a concession in language from a majority of Democrats who achieved their delegate status under conditions where people knew full well their candidate's support for the war.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Democracy Now: "Did Dennis Kucinich Sell Out..?"
From Democracy Now! - Wednesday, July 14
* Did Dennis Kucinich Sell Out Anti-War Democrats? *
Democratic Party delegates supporting presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich struck a deal this weekend with representatives of John Kerry over the Democratic Party's stance on the Iraq war. We'll speak with the Ohio Congressmember about why his delegates withdrew their proposal for a quick withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and about the upcoming Democratic convention in Boston.
Listen/Watch/Read
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/14/1410234
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - From Miami - Notes from Danielle Feris
Received July 12, 2004
From Danielle Feris:
I went into the Platform Committee meeting with the understanding that we would probably get no new language in the Platform that Kerry ultimately uses. We needed 15 members to second an amendment to even get it discussed, and then we would need 37 members to vote affirmatively to bring an amendment as a Minority Plank to the Convention. It was highly unlikely that we would get this far. Even if we did get this far, it is very likely that the 4000+ Delegates to the National Convention would not have voted this minority plank into the Platform.
This is all true despite the amazing efforts of Kucinich representatives reaching out to Platform Committee members and other delegates. This is all true despite the awesome presence that progressive Democrats had at the Platform Committee in Miami (literature, signs, meetings, covnersations). The DNC and the Kerry campaign were feeling the pressure, and they did not want a ruckus on the public floor of the Platform Committee meeting.
So, instead of going the "normal" route the process for a minority plank that would be discussed at the Convention -- the Kucinich representatives worked to achieve something different. And we did: language in the actual, official platform that will be there when Kerry runs against Bush. This language is about reducing the troops in Iraq and recognizing that the present "sovereign" Iraqi government is seen still as U.S. occupation. Some people will understand this as a huge victory, given Kerry's statements in the past.
For me, the debate is this: should we have gotten language in the platform, or pushed a debate no matter what the ends would be? Having been "inside" the Party for one weekend, I must say that had we pushed for debate on the floor of the Platform Committee meeting, we would not have succeeded. The Kerry Campaign and the DNC would have made sure we could not move forward because we and they fundamentally disagree about what makes the Party strategically strong to win in November. They believe that we cannot "push the envelope" and have to buy into the language provided us by the Right. I think, strategically to win in November, we must support open debate and provide people with something to vote for, not just something to vote against.
For those of us who have not been involved in the Democratic Party for a long time and have not accepted the way this organization functions, it is difficult to embrace our victory. For one, we did not achieve substantial success for our other amendments for Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Universal Healthcare, etc etc Despite some progressive victories -- the Draft, the Environment, and the unabashedly pro-choice stance -- most progressive amendments brought to the floor were withdrawn (due to behind the scenes "negotiations") or defeated time and time again.
Should we outline explicitely that the part of the Patriot Act that deprives due process is unjust? Should we include gender identity as a category that deserves recognition? To me these questions are no-brainers for a DEMOCRATIC Party. And it is my belief that most of the Committee members know this, but cannot and/or will not make it a part of the platform we use as our political and ethical guide. I left the meeting mid-way and walked down the hall to an area by myself. And there, tears streamed down my face for what I was witnessing. Not just the platform but the entire situation. We were in a fancy hotel that Committee members were expected to pay for. Groups bringing legitimate concerns were squelched by being offered "top level" meetings with the Kerry Campaign to "educate" them from their ignorance; political signs were not allowed in the meeting and hand-written signs were not allowed in hallway. I was reminded that some elements of this party are Classist, Heterosexist and un-democratic. And I, to some degree, am complicit.
So, what did we achieve? Progressive activists put pressure on the DNC and Kerry Campaign this weekend. No Committee member entered the meeting without knowing that we want to end the occupation in Iraq (and wanted peace and justice in other areas). This pressure was felt and indeed, at least partially, it succeeded. Progressive Democrats achieved open dialogue with the DNC and the Kerry Campaign this weekend. And herein lies the difference between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party the Democrats did listen and attempted (at least in their PR) to achieve unity. Some would say we achieved good will. I say we achieved leverage. We will not stop here. The pressure is on, and we have the "in". We will continue this dialogue, and we will continue to push this Party for progressive change, despite the obstacles.
Next stop Convention, where we will make noise inside and outside to let everyone know that most of the country wants peace and justice. And while we seek unity, we are not satisfied yet.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - On Platform Committee Strategy by Tim Carpenter
Jul 12, 2004 5:06 pm
From Tim Carpenter:
Our strategy going in to the Platform Committee was to push our peace issues as hard as possible, and also to lobby for a dozen other resolutions and amendments regarding health care, the Patriot Act, NAFTA and the WTO, education, gender equality, and other social and economic justice issues. In discussions with representatives of other allied groups and with members of the Committee itself, it was clear that others were well prepared and highly motivated to lobby members of the Committee and to try to get the necessary votes for a debate on the floor. They faced the same numerical obstacles that we did, but their willingness to take up those battles allowed us to focus our resources on the crucially important platform language regarding the Iraq war, the occupation, withdrawal of our forces, an increased role for U.N. peacekeepers, and related issues. We made a strategic decision to hand off those important issues to our friends, allowing us to concentrate on war and peace.
I remain convinced we would not have made the 15 vote cut off for the debate on any peace issue based on my count on the floor. Working the floor, I counted 8 hard votes and two very soft votes and the Kerry folks were working very hard to pull them off. Without the 15, no platform debate. Absolutely no way would we make the 38 needed to approve a minority plank. Given that I realized we would get nothing. Yet, we continued to push on the floor and in the room. The Kerry whips were not happy that we continued to work the floor. It was Charles Lenchner (the Kucinich Campaign's appointment to the Platform Committee) and I against the 14 Kerry representatives working the floor (that I could count).
Then the door opened after six meetings with the Kerry folks out in the hall way when they showed us the managers' amendment. John Sherman (one of our Platform Committee members), Charles and I read that it had, "the reduce troop language," I felt ******- over when they delayed giving us the language typed in the context of the platform until after lunch.
Hearing Laura and other folks talking at that moment I felt it important to rally the supporters to make the case why we did what we did. I think Charles did a wonderful speech at that moment to help hold it together. If I had it to do over again, I would have waited until we had the typed version like we read at the 5:30 pm gathering. It was clear to me after reading the typed version with supporters and Dennis' call we did the right thing. We pushed hard to get "withdrawal" language, and they finally gave us "reduction" language.
I realized a very long time ago that you never win at this level of the struggle. Working in the political process is a marathon, not a spirit. We made the best compromise, and we will continue to fight for our principles. Supporters who understand what we did in Miami will see that Kucinich campaign has moved from being dismissed from within the party leadership to being taken very, very seriously. The work we do in Boston will be easier as a result of Miami fight.
We showed we were organized, disciplined and the spokesperson for a portion of the progressive wing of the Democratic party. For the supporters who want to remain in the party and to continue fighting for the soul and heart of the party, Miami was a good weekend. The night we gathered for the reception was wonderful. The two platform chairs, Alice a nd even Peter had good things to say. All during the day as I worked the floor, Kerry spokespeople like the Gov of Iowa and the former Gov. of New Hampshire had good things to say about us.
I close with the note Kucinich political strategist Steve Cobble wrote to me: Quote:
"Tim just wanted to congratulate for your great work with the platformI know how hard it is to move them even an inch or two way to go, dude!"
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Boston Social Forum and Convention - July 23 to 29
Prior to the 2004 Democratic National Convention, the Boston Social Forum will provide a platform for free and open discussions for progressive alternatives and organizing strategies to respond to the dominant undemocratic global political and economic order. A regional forum within the World Social Forum process will happen in Boston from July 23 to 25 (www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/home.asp). Its slogan will be "Another World is Possible." Its goal will be to present democratic possibilities for the future of the planet in the arenas of politics, economics, science and technology, faith, and culture to its participants and to the public at large.
Info: Boston Social Forum, 33 Harrison Av, 4th floor, Boston 02111; 617-338-9966; Email: info@bostonsocialforum.org; Web Site: bostonsocialforum.org
Among the speakers will be Dennis Kucinich, Jim Hightower, Winona LaDuke, Harry Belafonte, Angela Davis, Danny Glover, Medea Benjamin, Manning Marable, and Walden Bello. There will be 30 parallel workshop tracks. A demonstration on the Commons will take place on Saturday evening.
[Transportation from Northampton, MA and housing in Boston is being arranged. For details contact Sara Conz; conzy22@yahoo.com, or Chris Holme, 413-549-445; csholme@yahoo.com.
Or learn more or make arrangements for the Forum and Convention @ kucinich.us
For Western Mass regional information for the Democratic Party National Convention in Boston, July 26 to 29, for peace and justice events, see: blackteasociety.org and American Friends Service Committee - 413-584-8975 - afsc@crocker.com - WesternMassAFSC.org
2) Bush-US Dumping on Yucca Mountain
Dumping on Yucca Mountain
Native Americans lose their land as our presidential
hero revives old-time nuclear tensions with Moscow
by AL Kennedy
Wednesday July 14, 2004
The Guardian
So glad that our Tony has now slithered himself a plucky and important millimetre away from Bush - "I now feel I can only agree absolutely with 99% of what the lovely president thinks and does". Sturdy chap, our premier. But if he's looking to improve his personal popularity - we can hardly expect him to be acting out of conscience - he still has to deal with the difficulty that if Bush and Blair together are the Laurel and Hardy of demonic foreign policy, Bush and Blair apart are quite evil enough to provoke spontaneous vomiting in small children.
Now, like many British citizens, I'd rather not think about our ghastly leader, but Bush is rather harder to blot out. It's that whole terror thing. I've been waking up screaming since I was five, so I find I am slightly susceptible to terror. Not the $60bn-earmarked-for-next-year, civil-rights-dissolving, Orange Alert type of terror - I mean real terror. And it's not as if the genuine terror of Bush is hard to notice. Within hours of coming into office, he'd started approving oil exploration in national parks, cutting support for disadvantaged children, raising the levels of arsenic in drinking water... Being an utter bastard with numbing consistency is his only speciality beyond mangling his native language and playing golf like an unhinged Muppet in times of crisis.
But Team Bush could never be happy just tormenting its own (non-millionaire) citizens - the misery must spread. So we in the rest of the world get to be alarmed by the whole sabotaging Kyoto thing, the murdering strangers for fun and profit thing and the screwing the Middle East in hopes of Armageddon thing. But what gets slightly less attention is the reviving the cold war arms race thing. It seemed momentarily puzzling when the US withdrew from the anti-ballistic missile treaty and started developing cuter, smaller types of "battlefield" nukes when there didn't seem to be a cold war any more. These things were of little or no help against mobile terror cells and the Pentagon had proved itself completely unable to protect even its own troops from the radiation produced by existing DU weapons. But, of course, all this lucrative US nuclear development was bound to alarm the Russians and therefore justify itself retrospectively. Hence, Mr Putin's obliging announcement that his scientists have developed a vigorous response to America's ballistic missile defence. The fact that BMD won't work as advertised is, of course, balanced by the fact that it gets nukes very close to Russia and is supposed to be pre-emptive not defensive. Don't worry if this doesn't make sense - it makes money, which is much more important.
And the new cold war is why US military nuclear facilities (which have been closed down as unsafe by the FBI in the past) are now immune from environmental legislation. Better yet, plans for the Nevada test site now include sexy, actual testing of nuclear weapons. Needless to say this is really pleasing everyone in Las Vegas, which is only 65 miles away, and everyone in Utah - soon to be renamed Downwind, the Malignantly Mutating State. Naturally, attempts to amend the relevant Defence Authorisation Act failed.
But the Bushies' joy doesn't end there, because the Nevada test site isn't even on United States land - it's on territory which belongs to the Western Shoshone nation and is protected by treaty (should you feel that treaties between the US and indigenous peoples are in any way binding). The Yucca Mountain site earmarked for America's nuclear waste depository is also on Western Shoshone land, as is the planned Federal Counterterrorism Facility. And what is probably the world's third largest gold-producing area. Which is why Karl Rove and George W have both visited Nevada lately and why seizures of Shoshone livestock have already started. Despite formal opposition from 80% of the Shoshone population, Amnesty International and the National Congress of American Indians, Congress has just passed the Western Shoshone distribution bill - which distributes 15 cents on the acre for huge tracts of land in four states, whether the owners intended to sell or not.
So with one bill, the neo-cons can ensure cancer misery on an epidemic scale, mindlessly polluting mineral extraction, increased efficiency in the belligerent surveillance of an entire population, world war three and one in the eye for them pesky redskins. Recent Irish revelations suggest that George is in his jimjams by 5pm and now we know why. His days are full of such knee-trembling thrills that it's a miracle he ever gets up off his back.
Talking of miracles, Bush was recently quizzed about his special relationship with Jesus and carefully assured his questioner that it "doesn't make me a better person than you". His delivery didn't convince. When he can do whatever he wants, whatever the consequences, surely that makes him better than all of us.
More on the Shoshone defence of their territory can be found at
www.wsdp.org
Flyby News Support
If you care to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses
for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc.,
you can send donations to:
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
-- or you can donate via online --
see FlybyNews.com [near bottom of page] for link
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Moore'sMagicRocks * BushIndictments * SudanTerrorism
04 July 2004
"Michael Moore leaves no turn unstoned.
There are multitudes of shattering, seminal moments
in his brilliant Bush-whacking documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11,
that reveal more about the cynicism, greed and ineptitude in
the U.S. government than you will ever learn from any sound bite
on the right-wing late-night cable-channel blabfests,.."
Rex Reed
1) Michael Moore's Movie Rocks the Vote
- - Moore's Magic: 9/11 Electrifies
- - Fahrenheit 9/11 Movie a Hit in Military Town
- - Thank You, Michael Moore
- - Fahrenheit 9-11 Censored In PA Republican Voter Stronghold?
- - Hand-Out Flyby News strips for an online ticket!
- - Cheney booed, picture taken down, at Yankee Stadium
- - Congressman suggests Bush hiding bin Laden
- - 'What law, what resolution formed this court?' Hussein transcript
- - Congressman suggests Bush hiding bin Laden
- - Dem Convention - take action with Kucinich
2) Grand Jury Will Soon Issue Explosive Indictments'
- - Shallow Throat: Why Bush Is Going Down, Big Time
3) Sudan - the place to stop a war of terror
Editor's Notes:
May this be a good fourth of July for all people wanting freedom from tyranny and injustice. The Revolution in the 1700's was a violent one. The freedom conceived was and is a work in progress. Following WW II, due to the rationalization of the existence of weapons of mass destruction, and the unleashing of atomic power, the US government turned a new phase in ending the authority of the principles expressed in the US Constitution with the signing of the National Security Act of 1947. This allowed a secret government to form under the auspicious nature of intelligence agencies, shrouded by the fears they produced, and the hidden agendas that most of us could not even imagine, in darkness fear feeds on itself. This issue is truly inspired by the efforts of one man, Michael Moore, a patriot and a universal citizen. "Fahrenheit 9/11" went beyond most peoples' expectations in its power to deliver revealing revelations of the Bush administration since the election theft of 2000. And it exposed Al Gore and each Senator in Congress, in a poignant segment chronicling the Black Caucus from the House of Representatives seeking just one Senator who would make legal legitimacy for their contesting the election fraud in Florida! Not one Senator! The Coup d'etat had its way. Not only did this impact Clinton's decision not to grant executive clemency to parole the UN-recognized human rights defender' Leonard Peltier, but it engaged an administration waiting for a 9/11 to happen for the agenda of world domination and the stripping away of freedoms for US citizens.
People are awakening to what is happening. At Yankee Stadium when Dick Cheney's image was projected on the scoreboard during the 7th inning's singing of God Bless America, fans stopped singing and booed loudly. Cheney's picture was quickly taken off the screen.' Also, included in this first item is a link to an article on a member of Congressman suggesting Bush is hiding bin Laden for political purposes. Moore's movie can counter-act such betrayals.
Item 2 includes reports suggesting that a Grand Jury will soon issue explosive indictments' for high crimes by those in the Bush administration. Item 3 goes to where the war against terror should be... not in Iraq, but in Sudan. Taking actions to stop the genocide of the Muslim people -- there -- would help deter terrorism around our world, instead of engaging it such as an unjustified war and occupation in Iraq.
Please note actions you can take to help network Flyby News in the first item. Also, please consider sending a financial donation. Any help you can afford in such endeavors could be of immense value.
For a Revolutionary 4th of July - 2004.. Thanks for reading..
1) Michael Moore's Movie Rocks the Vote
- - Moore's Magic: 9/11 Electrifies
- - Fahrenheit 9/11 Movie a Hit in Military Town
- - Thank You, Michael Moore
- - Fahrenheit 9-11 Censored In PA Republican Voter Stronghold?
- - Hand-Out Flyby News strips for an online ticket!
- - Cheney booed, picture taken down, at Yankee Stadium
- - Congressman suggests Bush hiding bin Laden
- - 'What law, what resolution formed this court?' Hussein transcript
- - Dem Convention - take action with Kucinich
- - Moore's Magic: 9/11 Electrifies
by Rex Reed
[Excerpt]
Michael Moore leaves no turn unstoned. There are multitudes of shattering, seminal moments in his brilliant Bush-whacking documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11, that reveal more about the cynicism, greed and ineptitude in the U.S. government than you will ever learn from any sound bite on the right-wing late-night cable-channel blabfests,.. There are other moments that will impact some viewers and polarize others. So many, in fact, that you watch Fahrenheit 9/11 with disbelief, and leave shaking with rage. Sometimes sarcastic, always funny, Mr. Moore is armed with facts, and he presents them accurately and succinctly.
Mr. Moore, who has tackled corporate greed (Roger & > Me) and gun control ( Bowling for Columbine), now feels driven and obligated to strip the facade from a swaggering, bow-legged, grammatically challenged bully and a cabinet that is beginning to look more like the Third Reich every day. He accuses them of lying about their motivations for declaring war against Iraq, a country that never threatened America in the first place, killing thousands of innocent civilians in retaliation for the acts of 9/11 aggression, although not one of the terrorists was from Iraq, and killing more than 800 of our own American kids (all from ethnic or working-class families).
Nobody denies that Saddam Hussein was a monster, but not the Iraqi women and children who have been "saved" from one villain only to be burned and shot and maimed for life without arms and legs by villains in a different uniform. At the same time, Mr. Moore shows Mr. Bush justifying American atrocities against Saddam Hussein by actually saying to the camera, "He tried to kill my daddy." Like his daddy, he knows he might also get kicked out of the White House after serving only one term. Still, he pursues a war that is losing the "hearts and minds" of even the boys who fight it (the interviews with our soldiers on the front lines will make you weep) while earning the U.S. unprecedented heights of global hatred and distrust, even from long-standing allies..
The movie begins with the awesome night in 2000 when the U. S. Supreme Court decided the election, not the American voters, then unveils footage that was never reported on TV of the Bush inauguration limousine being pelted with raw eggs. Instead of the traditional walk to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, he was so afraid to leave the car that he became the first President in history who was forced to sneak into the White House through a back door.
The complete review/article is posted:
www.observer.com/pages/onthetown.asp
and ran on page 22 in the 6/28/2004 edition of The New York Observer.
The email address of the author, Rex Reed is < rreed@observer.com >
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Fahrenheit 9/11 Movie a Hit in Military Town
"Almost all the crowds at the Cameo have applauded the film at the end,
with some people giving standing ovations, Kuenzel said.
Many have tears in their eyes as they leave the theater."
For the complete article, "Fahrenheit 9/11' sets record" by Matt Leclercq,
published in the Fayetteville Observer (June 29, 2004), see:
www.fayettevillenc.com/story.php?Template=local&Story=6429101
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Thank You, Michael Moore
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Friday 25 June 2004
[Excerpt]
"The light at the end of the tunnel could be the bulb in a film projector."
- Jeanette Castillo
Screens in Bartlett, Chattanooga, Jackson, Knoxville and Memphis, Tennessee will be showing it. Screens in Layton and West Jordan, Utah will be showing it. If you find yourself in Leawood, Merriam, Shawnee or Wichita, Kansas, you can see it. The same goes for Centerville, Fairfax and Abington, Virginia. If you happen to be in Akron, Bexley, Dublin or Elyria, Ohio, you're all set. Hoover, Montgomery and Mobile, Alabama will not be left out.
With a single stroke, Michael Moore has undone three years of poor, slanted, biased, factually bereft, compromised television journalism. This, in the end, is the final greatness of 'Fahrenheit 9/11.' Not only will Americans get a sense of the depth of the deception they have endured, but 'journalists' all across the country will be forced to endure the humiliation they so richly deserve.
I was privileged to see this film in the company of three groups - Military Families Speak Out, September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows and Veterans for Peace - which have stood against this disastrous war from day one. Many in the theater had family in Iraq, or had lost family in Iraq, or had lost family on 9/11 and seen their beloved dead used as an excuse for unwarranted war, and there was not a dry eye in the house.
'Fahrenheit 9/11' is not a victory for anyone. We the People should have known better, We the People should have been given the facts before sending 851 of our children to die. We the People have been betrayed, by our leaders and by a media that profited, and profits still, from the daily sale of lies. This film drove that horrid fact home with a mallet, and it hurt.
..Many of us were not hypnotized. Millions of us took to the streets in this country and around the world, to try and stop this madness before it was unleashed. The people in that theater with me had done this, had never stopped doing this, though their President and their media named them traitor. They were right. They were right. They were right.
Michael Moore has unleashed a wolf within Mr. Bush's fences. There is no getting around it. Perhaps, now that it is far too late, we as a nation will wake up. On the day of that awakening, those of us who never stopped standing, never stopped marching, learned to live without sleep, learned to live in a nation that scorned truth for televised fantasy, those patriots I was with tonight in that theater can pause for breath. We can sit upon the grass on a bright day, strip our sleeves, and show our scars.
William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and international bestseller of two books - 'War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You To Know' and 'The Greatest Sedition is Silence.'
This complete article is posted at:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/0625041.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Fahrenheit 9-11 Censored In PA Republican Voter Stronghold?
By Tom Flocco
tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=67
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Hand-Out Flyby News strips for an online ticket for vital resources!
Take action on line at Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11'
Many of the Kucinich democracy campaign are giving people the opportunity to sign petitions to move the Democratic Party in the way of peace. Some are mobilizing to remove the Supreme Court-appointed US President from office this November. Some are seeking justice for Leonard Peltier, to stop Yucca Mountain, the Congressional land theft of the Western Shoshone. There is an easy way to help all these causes with a small piece of card stock that measures about "x 2" which reads:
>=== Free Independent News ====>
= = = www.FlybyNews.com = = =
for life's survival in the 21st century
Most people appreciate receiving this small paper-trail for
online news resources, and for the Moore movie you can mention the link for:
"The Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports,
looking into the unanswered questions."
If wanting to help distribute Flyby News strips, send me your snail mail address
and i will mail them to you, or send your email address and I will send an attached
file to print with 33 per 8x11" page to copy on card stock paper. Then you will need
to use a paper cutter to produce a cost effective link for progressive news resources.
You can write to Flyby News via email: info@flybynews.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Cheney booed, picture taken down, at Yankee Stadium
June 30, 2004
Yankees Fans Boo Cheney
"Though their team's fiercest rivals were in town, Yankees fans' loudest boos last night were not for the Red Sox but for Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney watched the game with New York Gov. George Pataki (R) and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) and when his image was shown on the scoreboard during the 7th inning's singing of God Bless America, fans stopped singing and booed loudly. Cheney's picture was quickly taken off the screen. "
http://www.politicalwire.com/archives/2004/06/30/yankees_fans_boo_cheney.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Congressman suggests Bush hiding bin Laden
'They are trying to decide what day they should bring him out'
Posted: July 3, 2004 by WorldNetDaily.com
n a speech to business leaders in India, Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., gave credence to a rumor that the U.S. has captured Osama bin Laden and for political reasons is waiting for the right moment to reveal it, according to the Indo-Asian News Service.
www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39263
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 'What law, what resolution formed this court?' Hussein transcript
02 July 2004
The following is an edited transcript of the translators' words as Saddam Hussein answered questions from judge Ra'id Juhi. Some parts of the conversation are missing, as the microphone failed to pick up everything the translators said.
news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=537293
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Dem Convention - take action with Kucinich
On July 10th, the Kucinich campaign will present an estimated 300,000 petitions at the final Platform Committee meeting in Miami, Florida. At the request of supporters, we have extended the deadline for signatures so petition gatherers across the country can take advantage of large crowds at Fourth of July celebrations for one final push to increase our signature total. You can sign the petitions online or download petition forms for collecting at http://www.kucinich.us/petitions
In addition to circulating petitions, we are asking supporters to lobby the Platform Committee by writing letters to Platform Committee Chairwoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones (contact information posted below) explaining where they would like the Democratic Party to stand on the issues. Due to the limited time, fax and email works best. Click here to see talking points for your letters www.kucinich.us/platform/tubbs_jones.php
Stephanie Tubbs Jones
Platform Committee Chairwoman
Fax: 216-751-8241
Email: stjcampaign@aol.com
3645 Warrensville Center Rd.
Suite 323
Shaker Heights, OH 44122
2) Grand Jury Will Soon Issue Explosive Indictments'
- - Shallow Throat: Why Bush Is Going Down, Big Time
"Dick Cheney is the President of the Senate, on whose hallowed floor he has just told Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) to fuck off. This regime is losing control of itself."
GRAND JURY WILL SOON ISSUE EXPLOSIVE INDICTMENTS
by Wayne Madsen
[Excerpt]
June 25, 2004 1600 PDT (FTW Washington, DC. Well-placed U.S. government sources have revealed that the secret grand jury, led by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, will soon issue explosive indictments in the criminal investigation of who leaked the name of Valerie E. Plame, a CIA clandestine agent and wife of former U.S. Ambassador Joe Wilson, to members of the media. On June 24, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald interviewed President Bush at the White House for 70 minutes, an indication that Fitzgerald's investigation is nearing completion and that indictments may be imminent. Bush was seated with his recently-hired criminal defense attorney, Jim Sharp, during the interview.
U.S. intelligence sources have also said that Fitzgerald's investigation has gone far beyond the mere leaking of Plame's name, itself a violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, but has expanded to look into the exposure of Plame's colleagues who worked under the cover of a CIA firm called Brewster, Jennings & Associates. The "brass plate" CIA proprietary had offices in Boston and Washington, DC. Active since 1994, Brewster-Jennings was instrumental in tracking the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and had agents or correspondents in a number of countries including Iraq, North Korea, Belarus, Russia, South Africa, Iran, Israel, China, Pakistan, Congo (Kinshasa), India, Taiwan, Libya, Syria, Serbia, and Malaysia. By releasing Valerie Plames name, other agents' non-official covers were blown and the lives of U.S. operatives within foreign governments and businesses may have been placed in danger. Therefore, Fitzgerald's investigation has reportedly been expanded to include the issue of whether members of the staffs of President Bush and Vice President Cheney, Cheney and Bush themselves, the National Security Council, and the Departments of Defense and State, may have violated more serious espionage laws.
In July 2003, the covert operations of Plame and her Brewster-Jennings colleagues were rolled up as a result of the White House leak to columnist Robert Novak and other journalists. Observers believe the White House was retaliating for the report by Wilson that the administration was incorrect when it stated that Iraq was shopping for "yellow cake" uranium in Niger. On behalf of the CIA, Wilson visited Niger prior to the Iraq war and determined that the administration's evidence was based on erroneous information and falsified documents.
For summary and information for complete article, see:
64.239.13.64/free/ww3/062504_grand_jury_summary.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Shallow Throat: Why Bush Is Going Down, Big Time
By Bernard Weiner
www.bushwatch.net/weiner.htm#time
3) Sudan - the place to stop a war of terror
Understanding Sudan -- NOW with Bill Moyers
http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/sudan.html
"The countryside is empty.
There's nobody there.
It has been ethnically cleansed."
- Julie Flint
Julie Flint speaks with David Brancaccio about the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of western Sudan.
For transcript interview, see:
www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript325_full.html#flint
NY Times
EDITORIAL DESK | June 16, 2004, Wednesday
Dare We Call It Genocide?
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF (NYT) Op-Ed words
Late Edition - Final , Section A , Page 21 , Column 6
query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70A13FB35540C758DDDAF0894DC404482
From MoveOn.org - Call now to stop genocide in Sudan
June 28, 2004
A major human tragedy is unfolding in Sudan, one that has reportedly claimed at least 30,000 lives, and could claim hundreds of thousands more unless the world community works together, starting immediately, to end it.
Please make a call to Secretary of State Colin Powell today at:
Secretary of State Colin Powell
202-647-4000 or 202-647-6607
Urge him to:
- Immediately declare the atrocities in Sudan to be "Genocide"; and
- Publicly condemn them.
Please also get in touch with your representative in Congress through this non-partisan site.
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
Urge them to demand that the United States recognize the genocide and condemn it.
For more info, see: www.moveon.org/news/sudan.html
Flyby News Support
If you care to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses
for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc.,
you can send donations to:
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
-- or you can donate via online --
see FlybyNews.com [near bottom of page] for link
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Fiery Hell On Earth * Shoshone Payoff Theft * Sniper
03 July 2004
"Indeed, the Bush administration is actively engaged
in spreading nuclear technology and know-how into
the hands of potentially-unstable nations."
Peter Montague
(Rachel's News)
1) "Fiery Hell On Earth" environmental research
- - Rev. Moon holds coronation at Capitol
2) NASA-Nukes Comments Requested
- - Western Shoshone Payoff Bill Passes, Fight Continues
3) Flyby Feedback from "Sniper"
Editor's Notes:
Item 1, "Fiery Hell On Earth," begins where our last issue left off on Nuclear Hypocrisy'. This article by Peter Montague of Rachel's News offers a sweeping intelligent analysis of why the Bush administration is actively engaged in spreading nuclear technology and know-how into the hands of potentially-unstable nations.' Montague offers 5 hypotheses for what may be behind such madness. It comes down (in the last hypothesis) to religion. This warped mentality has thrived in chaos throughout the ages, and was the cause of the ending of the Renaissance era. And yet, while there is still a separation of Church and State, as declared in the US Constitution, one must wonder why: "More than a dozen lawmakers attended a congressional reception this year honoring the Rev. Sun Myung Moon where Moon declared himself the Messiah and said his teachings have helped Hitler and Stalin be "reborn as new persons.."'? This article is linked after the first item in this issue. Item 2 contains information on a request for comments by NASA to actively engage or expand their nuclear space program. Yes, it is cool getting nifty pictures from the Cassini space probe, which has recently entered into the orbit of Saturn. Yet the launch, 7 years ago, threatened Florida with contamination, and our entire Earth in 1999 during the Cassini Earth flyby. NASA powers the instrument panel with more than 72 pounds of highly radioactive plutonium for some 740 watts of electricity. How brilliant? Now they want to use nuclear power for more speed? Where are we going with all this madness, and with the nuclear waste and pollution? How important is it to travel in our solar system if we are harming our home base? In the second part of this item, it tells about the nuclear-gold theft of the indigenous peoples' land again by the US government. Please take actions and support the Western Shoshone. The Congressional Payoff Bill passed both houses, and the nuclear dumping at Yucca Mountain will threaten all. The Shoshone are not giving up, they never have. The Treaty they signed with the US Government will remain the basis to reveal their honor and dedication as caretakers of Mother Earth. Item 3 is feedback to a recent issue of Flyby News regarding the Bush proclamation for torture, and comes with advice for me to read the Bible, from someone who signs their name as "Sniper." Is this to be intimating? Yet this individual is not that different from the righteous political left that can only smear efforts to positively influence Senator John Kerry in his candidacy for US President. It is time, even for a corporate representative to be elected again. This Bush dictatorship is a bad influence, and causing such harm that we must rise to the task of making our votes count, for peace, for justice, and the evolving principles of the US Constitution. Be ready, another issue is about to be posted, with more resources and inspiration on the Michael Moore 'Fahrenheit 9/11' impact. It also includes information on Sudan, and an article on possible indictments on those of the Bush administration, which is why we must be so concerned about the nuclear agenda that could harm us beyond belief.
1) "Fiery Hell On Earth" environmental research
- - Rev. Moon holds coronation at Capitol
FIERY HELL ON EARTH, Pt. 3
By Peter Montague
In this series, we are searching for answers to the question,
"Why is the U.S. failing to stop, and in some cases actually
promoting, the spread of nuclear weapons worldwide?"
(See Rachel's #792 and #793
Answers to this question will help us understand President Bush's philosophy of environmental protection -- or perhaps the philosophy of his core supporters in the Republican Party on whom he is depending in the 2004 election.
President Bush has made it clear that he understands the threat posed by nuclear weapons, materials and know-how in the wrong hands. He has said, "We will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes and terrorists to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons."[1]
This was not an isolated statement. In two key White House policy documents published in 2002, the Bush administration concluded that, "The threat of weapons of mass destruction is the highest priority for the United States and should be for other countries."[2,3]
The President has spoken out strongly and repeatedly on the matter and has even said that failure on this issue will be judged "harshly" by history.
When the White House published its National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction in Dec., 2002, the President said, "The gravest danger facing the Nation lies at the crossroads of radicalism and technology. Our enemies have openly declared that they are seeking weapons of mass destruction, and evidence indicates that they are doing so with determination. The United States will not allow these efforts to succeed.... History will judge harshly those who saw this coming danger but failed to act."[3]
Yet the evidence is overwhelming that the U.S. is failing to act on this growing threat. (See Rachel's #792, #793.) Indeed, the Bush administration is actively engaged in spreading nuclear technology and know-how into the hands of potentially-unstable nations.
On June 20, 2004, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published a 96-page report agreeing with the Bush administration that, "Terrorist acquisition of nuclear weapons poses the greatest single threat to the United States."[4, pg. 25].
However, the Carnegie report points out, "The [Bush] administration has not put money or significant political effort behind [its] proposals."[4, pg. 13]
According to the Carnegie report, the President's proposed budget for 2005 actually reduces the funds available for U.S. efforts to curb the spread of weapons-grade plutonium and uranium world-wide, and reduces the U.S. financial contribution to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) "whose responsibilities have greatly increased while its budget has stayed flat."[4, pg. 13]
Nuclear-armed terrorists are the No. 1 threat to the U.S., and the No. 2 threat is nuclear-armed states like Pakistan and North Korea. As the Carnegie report says, "National instability or a radical change in government could lead to the collapse of state control over weapons and nuclear materials and the migration of nuclear scientists to other nations or to the service of other groups."
However, instead of trying to keep nuclear technology and know-how out of the hands of such states, the Bush administration is actively encouraging U.S. corporations to sell their nuclear hardware and know-how abroad. On a recent trip to China, Vice-President Cheney was peddling Westinghouse nuclear power plants, even though China has announced that it intends to transfer nuclear technology to Pakistan.[5]
These contradictory facts are deeply perplexing. I have been reviewing the available literature on this subject for the past two years, trying to answer the question, "Why is the Bush administration promoting nuclear weapons, materials and know-how world-wide?"
Naturally, all my answers are merely hypotheses because I have no special knowledge of what motivates the President, the Vice-President, their core supporters in the House and Senate, and their advisors in the Pentagon. I only know what's in the public record.
So let us begin. In the remainder of this series, I will examine the following hypotheses:
Hypothesis #1: Simple incompetence and confusion among the nation's defense agencies. Perhaps they actually want to curb the spread of nuclear technologies but just can't manage the task.
Hypothesis #2: Perfectly normal corporate profit goals combined with the ever-pressing need for re-election campaign contributions. Perhaps the administration is promoting nuclear power to reward potential campaign contributors in the nuclear business, such as Westinghouse, General Electric, Framatone (formerly Babcock & Wilcox), Bechtel, Halliburton, Brown & Root, and other large-scale construction firms that build nuclear power plants and the infrastructure they require (roads, power lines, special docks at seaports, fuel processing plants, security apparatus and training, and so forth.)
Hypothesis #3: Nuclear power is needed now to prevent nations and regions from "going solar." Because each nuclear power plant requires an investment measured in billions of dollars, and because nuclear power plants are dangerous, they require (and thus maintain) the highly-centralized, top-down, quasi-military social structure that modern transnational corporations provide. The "military-industrial" complex that President Eisenhower warned us about in 1961 is epitomized by nuclear technologies.
Solar power on the other hand can be small-scale, locally-controlled, definitely not dangerous, much less subject to terrorist disruption,[6] and therefore much more compatible with an open, democratic social structure that might, as time passes, erode corporate control. Therefore, in a sense, solar power is dangerous and even subversive because it could subvert "business as usual."
Hypothesis #4: Just as nuclear power plants require and promote a centralized, quasi-military, corporatized social structure, so also does a world awash in weapons-grade uranium and plutonium.
So long as a there is a thriving black market in weapons-grade nuclear materials. then we can more easily justify a $450 billion annual military budget, a network of U.S. espionage agencies active now in 80 countries,[7] and pre-emptive wars such as the one now in Iraq (and others reportedly being readied now by the Pentagon against Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia, and Sudan[8]).
Whether your job is military, civilian, or somewhere in between, if you're in the business of fighting the nation's perceived enemies, and your want your business to thrive, then enemies armed with small nuclear weapons may be the best kind of enemies to have. Everyone will support your work against such enemies. They will even follow you into war against such enemies.
Hypothesis #5: Now we enter the realm of realpolitik, the kind of world that Henry Kissinger inhabits, where thinking the unthinkable is routine.[9]
Is it possible that some people within the Bush administration, (or among groups whom the Bush administration considers essential to its electoral success in 2004), might imagine benefits from a rogue nation or group detonating a small nuclear weapon in Jerusalem or even New York?
Here are some crackpot speculations perhaps worth considering:
a) Maybe detonation of a small nuclear weapon would serve to remind the current generation how dangerous nuclear technology really is. A rogue nuclear detonation would quickly bring the civilian nuclear power industry to an end. It might also spur the international community to quickly sweep up the tons of weapons-grade plutonium and enriched uranium lying about in 40-or-so nations.
b) A rogue nuclear detonation would almost certainly spell the end of democracy as we know it. Major portions of the bill of rights would probably be canceled within hours.
Recall that the Bush administration saw the mass murders on 9/11 as sufficient reason to scrap the legal doctrine of habeas corpus which was formalized in English law in 1679 and was embodied a century later in the U.S. Constitution.
The U.S. Supreme Court has "recognized the fact that `[t]he writ of habeas corpus is the fundamental instrument for safeguarding individual freedom against arbitrary and lawless state action.'[10]
A writ of habeas corpus is a judge's mandate to a prison official ordering that an inmate be brought before the court so the court can determine whether or not that person is imprisoned lawfully and whether or not he or she should be released from custody. Without habeas corpus, people can be imprisoned forever without any recourse whatsoever. Even the fact of their imprisonment can be kept secret. This is what the Bush administration has said it aims to do at Guantanamo Bay and perhaps at other quasi-military prisons the U.S. maintains around the world.
Seeing the right of habeas corpus repealed in response to the mass murders of 9/11, everyone has to be impressed by the fragility of what seemed like the immutable underpinnings of democracy and indeed civilization itself. The enemies of democracy -- inside the U.S. and outside -- can see as well as anyone that a nuclear detonation in New York would almost surely end the American experiment in self-rule.
c) There is a growing movement in the U.S. to erase the barrier that separates church and state, to replace our secular government with a religious government.[11] We can see the beginnings of such thinking in the Texas State Republican Party Platform for 2004, which says, "The Republican Party of Texas affirms that the United States of American is a Christian nation." And: "The Party understands that the Ten Commandments are the basis of our basic freedoms and the cornerstone of Western legal tradition." And: "Our Party pledges to exert its influence to restore the original intent of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and dispel the myth of the separation of Church and State."[12]
By removing the Constitutional wall that separates church and state, some people merely hope to get a free handout from Washington for their religious group (the President's "faith-based initiative" gave $1.1 billion of taxpayer funds to religious organizations during 2003).[13]
Others have much larger goals, hoping to institute a fully theocratic order in which their idea of Christian Biblical law replaces our secular democracy, essentially repealing the enlightenment and returning the world to the 17th century.[11]
d) There is a different, and much larger, group of Christians who say they believe that their personal salvation depends upon the return of Christ to Earth and that this second coming of Christ requires a specific series of events to unfold in the Middle East, including the battle of Armageddon, which many interpret to mean a nuclear World War III.
These believers in Armageddon theology include the Reverend Billy Graham, the Reverend Pat Robertson, the singer Pat Boone, the Reverend Jerry Falwell, Ralph Reed, Jr., Gary Bauer, Republican strategist Ed McAteer, advice columnist Laura Schlessinger, writer Hal Lindsey ("The Late, Great Planet Earth"), the Reverend Tim LaHaye (co-author of the 11-volume "Left Behind" series), House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-Tex.), U.S. Senator James N. Inhofe (R-Ok., Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works), Attorney General John Ashcroft, and many others in top leadership positions within the Bush administration.
Author Grace Halsell -- herself a born-again Christian from Texas -- toured the Holy Land in the Middle East twice with followers of the Reverend Jerry Falwell. Halsell then wrote a book about her experiences. In "Prophecy and Politics," which she subtitled, "Militant Evangelists on the Road to Nuclear War," Halsell wrote, "I have heard Falwell preach on nuclear Armageddon, and I saw his face turn radiant at the thought." [14, pg. 197]
--Peter Montague
[To be continued.]
For article link with reference sources, see:
rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?St=1
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH NEWS
Environmental Research Foundation
P.O. Box 160
New Brunswick, N.J. 08903
Fax (732) 791-4603; E-mail: erf@rachel.org
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Subscriptions are free. To subscribe, send E-mail
to listserv@lists.rachel.org with the words
SUBSCRIBE RACHEL-NEWS YOUR FULL NAME
in the message.
SPANISH EDITION
The Rachel newsletter is also available in Spanish; to learn
how to subscribe in Spanish, send the word AYUDA in an E-mail
message to info@rachel.org.
BACK ISSUES IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH
All back issues are on the web at: rachel.org in
text and PDF formats.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Permission to reprint Rachel's is hereby granted to everyone,
though we ask that you not change the contents and we ask that
you provide proper attribution.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Rev. Moon holds coronation at Capitol
Religious leader says he's here to 'save the world's 6 billion people'
www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38947
2) NASA-Nukes Comments Requested
- - Western Shoshone Payoff Bill Passes, Fight Continues
NASA SEEKS PUBLIC COMMENT ON EXPANDING SPACE NUKES PLAN
NASA, in cooperation with the Department of Energy (DoE), is seeking public comment by July 30, 2004 on their plan to expand the development and testing of nuclear powered devices called Radioisotope Power Systems (RPSs) for space missions.
NASA is now preparing a major expansion of nuclear powered launches to the outer planets and Mars. Radioactive fuel processing and fabrication would likely occur at Los Alamos Nat'l Lab in New Mexico. Advanced RPS assembly and testing would likely be performed at Argonne Nat'l Lab - West in Idaho Falls, ID. Additional safety testing of advanced RPS could be performed at: Sandia Nat'l Lab (Albuquerque, NM) and Army Aberdeen Proving Grounds (Aberdeen, MD). Activities associated with the development, testing, and verification of the power conversion systems could be performed at: NASA's Glenn Center (Cleveland, OH); Jet Propulsion Lab (Pasadena, CA); Boeing Rocketdyne (Canoga Park, CA); Teledyne Energy Systems (Hunt Valley, MD); Stirling Technology Corp (Kennewick, WA); and Lockheed Martin (Valley Forge, PA). Eventual launch of these new nuclear space devices would be performed at: Kennedy Space Center (Florida).
Please send your comments to NASA opposing this expanded program of nuclear power in space by July 30, 2004. Comments from people outside the U.S. are also encouraged.
Send comments to:
Dr. George Schmidt
NASA HQ
Office of Space Science, Code S
Washington DC 20546
rpseis@nasa.gov
Suggested comments:
The increase in plutonium production for space missions at Los Alamos laboratory, where DoE already has a bad health and safety track record, will lead to more contaminated workers and groundwater.
The expanded numbers of launches of nuclear devices, on rockets with a historic 10% failure rate, guarantee an accident at some point of catastrophic proportions.
Alternative power sources for deep space missions could be developed if NASA and the DoE put effort and investment into the task.
The Pentagon has long sought to institutionalize nuclear power in space, which would then be available for military purposes.
This information is forwarded from an email by:
Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 729-0517
(207) 319-2017 (Cell Phone)
space4peace.org
globalnet@mindspring.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Western Shoshone Payoff Bill Passes, Fight Continues
Congress Passes Bill to Force Payment on Western Shoshone Land Struggle -- A Sad Day for the Rule of Law in the United States, but the Fight s not Over Say the Western Shoshone.
June 25, 2004. Crescent Valley, NV. -- As of this morning, the Western Shoshone Distribution Bill has passed both houses of Congress and is on its way to the Bush Administration for signature. The bill would authorize an alleged payoff of approximately 15 cents an acres for tens of millions of acres of disputed lands in Nevada, Idaho, Utah and California. A majority of tribal councils, representing approximately 80% of the population, the Western Shoshone National Council and all the traditional people strongly oppose the bill, they are supported by the National Congress of American Indians and Amnesty International. This formal opposition was apparently ignored however and an undocumented, unverified straw poll was used instead by the Bush Administration and Nevada legislators to justify the legislation.
The land base at issue is the third largest gold producing area in the world and cited by a 1999 Interior report as the number one investment opportunity for extraction companies. It is also the site where the nation s nuclear waste repository would be located, Yucca Mountain, and the home to the Nevada Test Site and Federal Counterterrorism Facility where the Bush Administration has talked of reopening nuclear testing. Both Bush and his political advisor Karl Rove, have made personal visits to Nevada in the last thirty days.
The fight is not over. A fraud is a fraud - Individuals cannot sell out a nation and the bill, although a threat politically, does nothing to change our inherent rights or our Treaty rights. Congress was informed of all the facts that touch upon this issue. We will use the Treaty of Ruby Valley to stop Yucca Mountain and to protect our lands. Our title is still intact. Stated Raymond Yowell, Western Shoshone National Council.
For additional information, contact:
Western Shoshone Defense Project
P.O. Box 211308
Crescent Valley, NV 89821
Tel. (775) 468-0230
Fax: (775) 468-0237
www.wsdp.org
3) Flyby Feedback from "Sniper"
This feedback is via email, apparently from:
david reed < the_original_sniper@yahoo.com >
Subject: Re:
At 06:55 AM 6/29/2004 -0700, you wrote:
HOW PATHETIC! To call what was done to the prisoners in Iraq as "torture" is nothing but ignorant. You refer to the interogation methods used, well, give us an example of some methods you approve of. Seriously, let's pretend you are in charge of interrogating someone who you are pretty sure has information that could lead to the death of your children. Now, what are you going to do to get that information. Are you going to respect their "rights"? Or are you going to do what you can, short of cutting off their head, to get that information? You see, it is people like you that hurt this country. Tell us what you would do differently. Give some ideas. Don't just sit there and moan and groan and complain about the government, a pro active government. The cowardly, murderous terrorists will NEVER leave this great nation alone, so realize now that we must go after them before they attack us again.
And to call this a war for oil really captures your ignorance. What do you do, ride a bike to school? Gas is more expensive than ever and the Great President wants to tap into our OWN oil reserves but no, the do nothing democrats want to keep buying it from those wonderful countries that support terrorism.
Have a good day and read your Bible.
Sniper
Flyby News Support
If you care to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses
for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc.,
you can send donations to:
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
-- or you can donate via online --
see FlybyNews.com [near bottom of page] for link
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
NuclearHypocrisy * BushTorture * MooreVOTES
23 June 2004
"I have never ordered torture."
George W. Bush
(22 June 2004)
1) "World's Nuclear Powers Decried as Hypocrites"
2) "Bush Claimed Right to Waive Torture Laws"
- - Pentagon Memo Undermines the U.S. Constitution
- - Support for Bush's War on Terror Slips, Poll Shows
- - Will the 9/11 Commissioners Cave?
3) Democracy Now! -- Headlines for June 21, 2004
- U..S. Exaggerated Danger of Gitmo Detainees
- U.S. Running Two Dozens Secret Detention Centers
- Al Qaeda Says Saudi Officials Helped Abduct U.S. worker
- NLG: Bush Should Be Prosecuted for War Crimes
- Hersh: Israeli Mossad Operating in Iraq, Iran & Syria
4) Register Voters at Fahrenheit 9/11
- - "Breaking The Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror"
5) Rhino Blog's bottom line - Gambling on Voting
- - Black Box Backlash
- - One Million Black Votes Didn't Count in the 2000 Presidential Election
6) Kucinich: Amazing Results from Texas
- - Kucinich visits Browning and Montana's Indian reservations
7) Leonard Peltier - eagle soars in the circle for freedom
- - Message from Leonard
- - Leonard Peltier: America's Political Prisoner
- - Oglala and other June 26 Commemoration Events
- - Amherst MA Peltier Circle June 26 gathering
- - Now to the opposition for a pseudo reasoning of justice
- - Leonard Peltier for the Nobel Peace Prize
Editor's Notes:
Originally heard Election Day 2000 the Democracy Now! interview with then-sitting president was recently re-broadcast.".. They discussed many topics you won't likely hear raised this week: Leonard Peltier, racial profiling, the Iraqi sanctions, Ralph Nader and the Israeli-Palestinian situation. At one point Clinton accused Amy of being "hostile and combative." On the next day the president's aides threatened to ban Amy from the White House. Amy and her brother David Goodman wrote about the interview in their new book, The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them."
For excerpts see this link to part of the Chapter titled: "Not On Bended Knee."
Following is the segment regarding Amy's question on Leonard Peltier -
Amy Goodman Interviews Bill Clinton
GOODMAN: President Clinton, what is your position on granting Leonard Peltier, the Native American activist, executive clemency?
CLINTON: I know it's very important to a lot of people, maybe on both sides of the issue. And I think I owe it to them to give it an honest look-see. . . . And I pledge to do that.
GOODMAN: And you will give an answer in his case?
CLINTON: Oh, yeah, I'll decide one way or the other.*
[*Clinton did not act on Peltier's application for clemency. The
Native American activist, who is serving two life sentences for
the shooting death of two FBI agents, has been imprisoned
since 1977. Peltier continues to maintain his innocence.
Amnesty International has appealed for his release.]
People don't realize the significance of Bill Clinton's mentioning the name "Leonard Peltier" in public. Leonard was the only one named, too, for executive clemency consideration prior to his granting the last wave of about 100 pardons in his last day in office. Clinton wanted to give Clemency to Leonard Peltier and sought the public and activists' support for this decision. We had 3,000 marching in the streets of NYC, with little media, the FBI had 500 agents march to the White House to encourage Clinton's consideration of their serious feelings on this case. This march by law enforcement, though they said they were off-duty, was praised by superior FBI members as a good deed. Well, how else will you know who to promote to continue a load of scandalous hidden-affairs? This distortion of national security interests goes against the heart of the US Constitution. This is why Leonard Peltier being free is so important he represents a turnaround from the current state of illicit affairs, which have many of their roots in COINTELpro and the National Security Act of 1947. It was on the day of Lord Bush's inauguration that President Clinton signed an agreement for four conditions to avoid possible prosecution for lying under the oath in the Clinton-Lewinsky affair. The FBI and "Justice Department" had plenty of leverage to get what they wanted out of Clinton before the Bush Neocons took over. Based on the evidence this group is more than just ruthless, but reckless, and connected to the nuclear weapon oil congress media pharmaceutical industry which leads in to our first item on this issue of nuclear hypocrisy and the danger it represents.
Please note events on June 26 in commemoration for Leonard Peltier - and update on Congressman Dennis Kucinich congratulations, too, to the Texas Democratic legislature - that chose to endorse the Department of Peace Department as a Plank in the Party's Platform for the 2004 Presidential Election. If all the good people unite, we can lead John Kerry in the direction of peace, and in the importance to free Leonard Peltier. Kudos to Michael Moore and John Pilger for their flicks please note the important drive to help your neighbors and friends register to vote at the movies. Don't let them be cynical. We are aware of the vote fraud, but it is time to call them on it! We can join in such great numbers that no one will dare question the majority of real votes - - increasing the nonvoter turnout is critical and Michael Moore's movie may be just the best ticket to amass the multitudes. Take Action!
"The world is a dangerous place,
not because of those who do evil,
but because of those who look on and do nothing"
-- Albert Einstein
Thank goodness for Bev Harris!
Thanks for everyone contributing to such critical campaigns.
Let's find the way to END THE WAR.
"A very great vision is needed and the [one] who
has it must follow it as the eagle seeks the
deepest blue of the sky."
Crazy Horse
1) "World's Nuclear Powers Decried as Hypocrites"
Published by the Boston Globe
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
World's Nuclear Powers Decried as Hypocrites
UN agency chief says reliance cripples push to halt proliferation
by Bryan Bender
WASHINGTON -- The world's nuclear powers have failed to reduce their reliance on atomic weapons, creating a double standard that plagues international efforts to reduce their spread, the United Nations top nuclear watchdog said yesterday.
With the growing availability of weapons of mass destruction materials and expertise to states and terrorist groups, one of the largest obstacles to countering nuclear proliferation is the hypocrisy at the heart of global nuclear policy, said Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The nuclear powers pressuring countries like Iran and North Korea to forgo nuclear arms are clinging to the weapons as the centerpiece of their own security, despite pledges more than 30 years ago to reduce their dependence on them, he said.
The time is long overdue to "abandon the unworkable notion that it is morally reprehensible for some countries to pursue nuclear weapons but morally acceptable for others to rely on them," ElBaradei said in a speech to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
For the complete article, see:
commondreams.org/headlines04/0622-01.htm
2) "Bush Claimed Right to Waive Torture Laws"
- - Pentagon Memo Undermines the U.S. Constitution
- - Support for Bush's War on Terror Slips, Poll Shows
- - Will the 9/11 Commissioners Cave?
"Bush Claimed Right to Waive Torture Laws"
From Citizens for Legitimate Government
Bush Claimed Right to Waive Torture Laws --Bush claimed the right to waive anti-torture laws and treaties covering prisoners of war after the invasion of Afghanistan, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized guards to strip detainees and threaten them with dogs, according to documents released Tuesday.
For AP news article, see:
story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&e=1&u=/ap/20040623/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_prisoner_abuse
[Excerpts]
"I have never ordered torture."
George W. Bush
22 June 2004
"..But critics said the developments left unresolved some questions about the administration's current guidelines for interrogating prisoners in Iraq [link] and around the world. For example, a 2002 order signed by Bush says the president reserves the right to suspend the Geneva Conventions on treatment of prisoners of war at any time.
"These documents raise more questions than they answer," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "The White House is better off coming clean and releasing all relevant and non-classified documents."'
For complete article with links, see:
story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&e=1&u=/ap/20040623/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_prisoner_abuse
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Pentagon Memo Undermines the U.S. Constitution
By Alia Malek
The Toronto Daily Star
June 22, 2004
truthout.org/docs_04/062304B.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Support for Bush's War on Terror Slips, Poll Shows
By Richard Morin and Dan Balz
Washington Post
21 June 2004
Public anxiety over mounting casualties in Iraq and the doubts about long-term consequences of the war continue to rise and have helped to erase President Bush's once-formidable advantage over Sen. John F. Kerry on who is best able to deal with terrorist threats, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Exactly half the country now approves of the way Bush is managing the U.S. war on terrorism, down 13 points since April, according to the poll. Barely two months ago, Bush comfortably led Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee, by 21 percentage points when voters were asked which man they trusted to deal with the terrorist threat. Today the country is evenly divided, with 48 percent preferring Kerry and 47 percent favoring Bush.
truthout.org/docs_04/062304D.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Will the 9/11 Commissioners Cave?
By Ray McGovern
Will the Sept. 11 Commission follow the example set by Congress and the Intelligence Community and let itself be intimidated by Vice President Dick Cheney?
Now that the commission's staff report has pulled the rug out from under the notion so successfully fostered by the administration that Iraq played a role in the attacks of 9/11, no one should be surprised if the commissioners pull the rug out from under the staff. There are disquieting signs that this has already begun to happen.
truthout.org/docs_04/062304A.shtml
3) Democracy Now! -- Headlines for June 21, 2004
- U.S. Exaggerated Danger of Gitmo Detainees
- U.S. Running Two Dozens Secret Detention Centers
- Al Qaeda Says Saudi Officials Helped Abduct U.S. worker
- NLG: Bush Should Be Prosecuted for War Crimes
- Hersh: Israeli Mossad Operating in Iraq, Iran & Syria
U.S. Exaggerated Danger & Importance of Guantanamo Bay Detainees
The New York Times is reporting today that the detainees held in isolation at Guantanamo Bay have produced little useful intelligence and that maybe no more than a dozen of the 600 detainees are sworn members of Al Qaeda. The Times concludes "government and military officials have repeatedly exaggerated both the danger the detainees posed and the intelligence they have provided. The Supreme Court is expected to rule soon whether the US government can legally detain the men there indefinitely without ever pressing charges.
Report: U.S. Running Two Dozens Secret Detention Centers
While Guantanamo Bay is the most publicized U.S.-run detention center, the Washington-based group Human Rights First has issued a new report on how the U.S. is now running two dozen secret detention centers around the world. The report concluded "The U.S. government is holding prisoners in a secret system of off-shore prisons beyond the reach of adequate supervision and accountability of law." Some of the detention centers are believed to be located in Pakistan along the Afghan border; on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia and in Jordan.
U.S. Military Judge: Abu Ghraib Is Crime Scene'
Meanwhile a U.S. military judge has ordered the Abu Ghraib prison not be torn down because it is a crime scene.
Hersh: Israeli Mossad Operating in Iraq, Iran & Syria Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh has revealed in the pages of the New Yorker that hundreds of Israeli agents, including members of Mossad, are now operating in the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq. In addition Mossad is now conducting covert operations in Kurdish areas of Iran and Syria. One former Israeli intelligence officer told Hersh "It's Realpolitik. By aligning with the Kurds Israel gains eyes and ears in Iran, Iraq and Syria." In other news from northern Iraq, the New York Times is reporting mass numbers of Kurds are ignoring US orders and reclaiming land in the area that had been seized by Iraqi Arabs during Saddam Hussein's reign.
Iraqi PM Allawi: Martial Law May Soon Be Imposed
The appointed prime minister of Iraq Iyad Allawi announced Sunday the new unelected government may soon impose martial law and ban all public demonstrations. Other Iraqi officials said the government may set up more checkpoints, issue curfews and change the existing law to make it easier for police to search homes.
U.S. Attacks Kills 22 In Fallujah
In addition, Allawi defended the U.S. military attack in Fallujah that killed 22 people. The U.S. said it was attempting to kill Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian man who has been blamed for leading the Iraqi resistance. The U.S. claimed it hit a safehouse and that close associates of Zarqawi died but a member of the US-backed Fallujah Brigade told USA Today that the house contained ordinary families with women, children and elders.
Cheney Faces Possible Indictment in Halliburton Bribery Case
The Observer of London is reporting Vice President Dick Cheney could be indicted in a $180 million bribery investigation in Nigeria involving Halliburtion, the company that he headed before becoming the Vice President.
Kerry: Raise Minimum Wage To $7/hour
In campaign news, John Kerry has called for the minimum wage to be increased from $5.15 an hour to $7 an hour by 2007.
Enron's Ken Lay Could Soon Be Indicted
And sources close to the grand jury probing the collapse of Enron report the company's founder Kenneth Lay could be indicted on charges by the end of the month. Lay is a close friend of President Bush and was one of his top campaign backers during the 2000 election.
For more on these headlines see:
democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/21/1410218
or for today's show, see:
DemocracyNow.org
4) Register Voters at Fahrenheit 9/11
- - "Breaking The Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror"
When voters walk out Fahrenheit 9/11 they will be ready to vote George Bush out of office. We recommend that you be waiting outside the theatre with voter registration cards. Hand them out, if someone wants 10 give them 10, people will be motivated to register their family and friends after this movie. Voice4Change is in contact with Lions Gate one of the distributors of the movie, and we are asking them to suggest to theatres to allow groups to set up voter registration tables inside the lobby or outside the theatre.
For more information, see:
voice4change.org/stories/showstory.asp?file=040621~v4c.asp
[ Also, please consider sending your snail mail address to info@flybynews.com for FlybyNews.com address-strips to share such resources as on "The Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports, looking into the unanswered questions." ]
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - "Breaking The Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror"
Flyby News recommends getting this film from the distributor:
bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/break.html
But this movie is truly worth seeing, even online, thanks to Information Clearinghouse
Watch -- John Pilger's "Breaking The Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror."
Online linked from following URL:
informationclearinghouse.info/pilger_breaking_the_silence_35mb.htm
Better yet, host a Flyby News co-sponsored presentation of Pilger's film followed by the 18-minute "A Prayer for America" speech by Dennis Kucinich of February 17, 2002.
{We can send you a PDF file for a flyer on such an event.}
These and other film programs are linked for: Films that Make a Difference!
For items 5-7
5) Rhino Blog's bottom line - Gambling on Voting
- - Black Box Backlash
- - One Million Black Votes Didn't Count in the 2000 Presidential Election
6) Kucinich: Amazing Results from Texas
- - Kucinich visits Browning and Montana's Indian reservations
7) Leonard Peltier - eagle soars in the circle for freedom
- - Message from Leonard
- - Leonard Peltier: America's Political Prisoner
- - Oglala and other June 26 Commemoration Events
- - Amherst MA Peltier Circle June 26 gathering
- - Now to the opposition for a pseudo reasoning of justice
- - Leonard Peltier for the Nobel Peace Prize
See: ==> VoteGamble * KucinTexasPeace. * PeltierJustice
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
VoteGamble * KucinTexasPeace. * PeltierJustice
23 June 2004
"I have never ordered torture."
George W. Bush
(22 June 2004)
5) Rhino Blog's bottom line - Gambling on Voting
- - Black Box Backlash
- - One Million Black Votes Didn't Count in the 2000 Presidential Election
6) Kucinich: Amazing Results from Texas
- - Kucinich visits Browning and Montana's Indian reservations
7) Leonard Peltier - eagle soars in the circle for freedom
- - Message from Leonard
- - Leonard Peltier: America's Political Prisoner
- - Oglala and other June 26 Commemoration Events
- - Amherst MA Peltier Circle June 26 gathering
- - Now to the opposition for a pseudo reasoning of justice
- - Leonard Peltier for the Nobel Peace Prize
Editor's Notes:
Originally heard Election Day 2000 the Democracy Now! interview with then-sitting president was recently re-broadcast.".. They discussed many topics you won't likely hear raised this week: Leonard Peltier, racial profiling, the Iraqi sanctions, Ralph Nader and the Israeli-Palestinian situation. At one point Clinton accused Amy of being "hostile and combative." On the next day the president's aides threatened to ban Amy from the White House. Amy and her brother David Goodman wrote about the interview in their new book, The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them."
For excerpts see this link to part of the Chapter titled: "Not On Bended Knee."
Following is the segment regarding Amy's question on Leonard Peltier -
Amy Goodman Interviews Bill Clinton
GOODMAN: President Clinton, what is your position on granting Leonard Peltier, the Native American activist, executive clemency?
CLINTON: I know it's very important to a lot of people, maybe on both sides of the issue. And I think I owe it to them to give it an honest look-see. . . . And I pledge to do that.
GOODMAN: And you will give an answer in his case?
CLINTON: Oh, yeah, I'll decide one way or the other.*
[*Clinton did not act on Peltier's application for clemency. The
Native American activist, who is serving two life sentences for
the shooting death of two FBI agents, has been imprisoned
since 1977. Peltier continues to maintain his innocence.
Amnesty International has appealed for his release.]
People don't realize the significance of Bill Clinton's mentioning the name "Leonard Peltier" in public. Leonard was the only one named, too, for executive clemency consideration prior to his granting the last wave of about 100 pardons in his last day in office. Clinton wanted to give Clemency to Leonard Peltier and sought the public and activists' support for this decision. We had 3,000 marching in the streets of NYC, with little media, the FBI had 500 agents march to the White House to encourage Clinton's consideration of their serious feelings on this case. This march by law enforcement, though they said they were off-duty, was praised by superior FBI members as a good deed. Well, how else will you know who to promote to continue a load of scandalous hidden-affairs? This distortion of national security interests goes against the heart of the US Constitution. This is why Leonard Peltier being free is so important he represents a turnaround from the current state of illicit affairs, which have many of their roots in COINTELpro and the National Security Act of 1947. It was on the day of Lord Bush's inauguration that President Clinton signed an agreement for four conditions to avoid possible prosecution for lying under the oath in the Clinton-Lewinsky affair. The FBI and "Justice Department" had plenty of leverage to get what they wanted out of Clinton before the Bush Neocons took over. Based on the evidence this group is more than just ruthless, but reckless, and connected to the nuclear weapon oil congress media pharmaceutical industry which leads in to our first item on this issue of nuclear hypocrisy and the danger it represents.
Please note events on June 26 in commemoration for Leonard Peltier - and update on Congressman Dennis Kucinich congratulations, too, to the Texas Democratic legislature - that chose to endorse the Department of Peace Department as a Plank in the Party's Platform for the 2004 Presidential Election. If all the good people unite, we can lead John Kerry in the direction of peace, and in the importance to free Leonard Peltier. Kudos to Michael Moore and John Pilger for their flicks please note the important drive to help your neighbors and friends register to vote at the movies. Don't let them be cynical. We are aware of the vote fraud, but it is time to call them on it! We can join in such great numbers that no one will dare question the majority of real votes - - increasing the nonvoter turnout is critical and Michael Moore's movie may be just the best ticket to amass the multitudes. Take Action!
"The world is a dangerous place,
not because of those who do evil,
but because of those who look on and do nothing"
-- Albert Einstein
Thank goodness for Bev Harris!
Thanks for everyone contributing to such critical campaigns.
Remember, too, about Flyby News, if you can afford to help us catch up and advance news resources for life's survival in the 21st Century. Check the bottom of our homepage for making any contributions. Thank you too for reading and networking too.
In the solstice to free Leonard Peltier and all our relations..
Let's find the way to END THE WAR.
"A very great vision is needed and the [one] who
has it must follow it as the eagle seeks the
deepest blue of the sky."
Crazy Horse
5) Rhino Blog's bottom line - Gambling on Voting
- - Black Box Backlash
- - One Million Black Votes Didn't Count in the 2000 Presidential Election
Gambling on Voting
The New York Times, June 13, 2004
If election officials want to convince voters that electronic voting can be trusted, they should be willing to make it at least as secure as slot machines. To appreciate how poor the oversight on voting systems is, it's useful to look at the way Nevada systematically ensures that electronic gambling machines in Las Vegas operate honestly and accurately. Electronic voting, by comparison, is rife with lax procedures, security risks and conflicts of interest.
For the complete article, see: nytimes.com/2004/06/13/opinion/13SUN1.html?ex=1088124814&ei=1&en=aa202ef340a7bdb4
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Black Box Backlash
by George Howland Jr., Seattle Weekly, 3/10/04
Bev Harris of Renton created a firestorm with her national Internet campaign against electronic voting. Now she's trying to persuade people in the real world that their democracy is on the line... Since September 2002, Harris has battled a U.S. senator, large corporations, and election officials across the country in her effort to ensure our votes are counted fairly and accurately. At first, she focused on the problems with computer voting. Since then, the name of her Web site (blackboxvoting.org) and her book devoted to the subject-Black Box Voting-have become shorthand for concerns about computers and elections. Moreover, her astounding discoveries on the subject have resulted in damning research by distinguished computer-science professors and numerous articles in major newspapers across the country. Secretaries of state, including Republican Sam Reed of Washington and Democrat Kevin Shelley of California, have responded by proposing key changes in how we will cast our ballots in the future...
MORE: seattleweekly.com/features/0410/040310_news_blackbox.php
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - One Million Black Votes Didn't Count in the 2000 Presidential Election
It's not too hard to get your vote lost --
if some politicians want it to be lost
by Greg Palast, GregPalast.com, June 21, 2004
In the 2000 presidential election, 1.9 million Americans cast ballots that no one counted. "Spoiled votes" is the technical term. The pile of ballots left to rot has a distinctly dark hue: About 1 million of them -- half of the rejected ballots -- were cast by African Americans although black voters make up only 12 percent of the electorate. This year, it could get worse. These ugly racial statistics are hidden away in the mathematical thickets of the appendices to official reports coming out of the investigation of ballot-box monkey business in Florida from the last go-'round. How do you spoil 2 million ballots? Not by leaving them out of the fridge too long. A stray mark, a jammed machine, a punch card punched twice will do it. It's easy to lose your vote, especially when some politicians want your vote lost...
MORE: commondreams.org/views04/0621-11.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Indians Face Obstacles Between the Reservation and the Ballot Box
By ADAM COHEN, NY Times, June 21, 2004
...South Dakota has a long history of anti-Indian voting rights violations, involving many of the same tactics that were employed against blacks in the pre-civil-rights-era South: county officials who try to prevent Indians from registering, district lines deliberately drawn to keep Indians from being elected to public office, and harassment and intimidation of Indian voters and candidates. These battles have traditionally been local, but they have begun to reverberate beyond South Dakota. The state's roughly 16,000 Indian voters, who lean heavily Democratic, have become an improbable national political force. Tim Johnson was elected to the United States Senate in 2002 by 524 votes, on the strength of late returns from Pine Ridge. Another Democrat, Stephanie Herseth, won a hard-fought battle for the state's at-large Congressional seat this month by less than 3,000 votes. This fall, when the re-election battle of Tom Daschle, the Senate minority leader, will likely be the highest-profile Senate race in the country, the Indian vote will again be pivotal.
The Indians' struggle for voting rights in many ways parallels the experience of black Americans. In the Dakota Territories, the law originally restricted the franchise to white men. After the 15th Amendment was passed, removing racial barriers to voting, the Dakotas still regarded most Indians as noncitizens, and therefore ineligible to vote. As late as 1939, South Dakota law prohibited Indians from voting or holding office. Even when the laws changed, South Dakota still found ways to deny Indians political rights...
READ IT ALL AT: nytimes.com/2004/06/21/opinion/21MON4.html
-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=
These above links compiled by "RHINO'S BLOG" - rhinosblog.info
which is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com)
Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged.
RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES:
www.dreamcatchers.org (Indigenous assistance & Intercultural Dialog)
www.kifaru.com (Native American Relations Video Documentaries)
6) Kucinich: Amazing Results from Texas
- - Kucinich visits Browning and Montana's Indian reservations
Kucinich: Amazing Results from Texas
The following is the transcript of a recording by Dennis Kucinich on June 22, 2004
We've had an extraordinary weekend and I want to share what's happened. In Texas, the Texas State Democratic Party has included in its platform the Department of Peace.
It was a major development brought about by the work of hundreds of our volunteers on the floor of the state convention in Texas, and it's a real credit to their work and also to the rising sentiment across this country that America MUST take a new direction - that it's no longer adequate to just approach these problems with the same mind-set with which the problems were created.
That is, that we have to get out of Iraq. We have to bring our troops home. And we have to take a new direction in our society that turns away from violence as an instrument of policy, that works to make non-violence inevitable, that works to make war a thing of the past.
And so, when Texas stood up and approved the Department of Peace in the Texas State Democratic Platform it marked a milestone in our efforts. Texas has joined Oregon, Washington and Colorado in passing resolutions in favor of the Department of Peace.
And it's significant that it comes at a time when this great debate is still going on in America about the direction our Democratic party should take. You know and I know that it's been our efforts that have kept alive the debate. And you know that it's just a little more than a month to the Convention.
I want you to know that your efforts have been so important in helping us guide this entire campaign. As we move towards the Convention we're hearing from people all over the country who are expressing their appreciation for our continuing in the race.
So what I'm asking you to do is this: help us send more people to Boston. Help us to get volunteers from all across the country to participate in a week of rallies and workshops so that we can keep organizing, so that we can help our Democratic Party be strong for peace. Help us get ready for the hearings in Miami on the 9th and 10th of July.
You know, we still need to raise about $300,000 from now through the end of the Convention. And you can help us do that. So whatever you've given before, please continue to help us to complete our work here. I'm so proud of everything that each of you has done to help make this campaign possible. And as you know my ongoing commitment is steadfast. I'm there for you. I need you there for me. Please continue your efforts. As you go to the web site now, go to that part that discusses contributions, and please make a contribution. Help us continue our efforts.
I'm ready to continue to stand up and speak out, not just all the way through to the Convention, and at the Convention, but afterwards, and long into the future. But let's continue our successful efforts here.
Texas should be congratulated. Let's show our appreciation for the great work that everyone there has done. And my thanks to Oregon, Washington, Colorado and all the other states where people have strived to have the Democratic Party stand for something that is not just meaningful, but presents a broad vision of a future that can be.
So I thank you. I'm in Washington [D.C.] right now. I've got a week of activity on a number of issues. I'll be reporting to you a little bit later. But I wanted to make sure that you knew about the great success that we've had in Texas.
I want you to know that these continuing efforts are resulting in the changing direction in this country. Keep making it happen, keep helping us and keep helping America.
So thank you! Have a wonderful day, and I'll look forward to speaking with you very soon.
This is Dennis, from Washington.
Thank you so much! Bye!
kucinich.us
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
PETITIONS DUE IN 8 DAYS!
kucinich.us/petitions/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich visits Browning and Montana's Indian reservations
Kucinich visits Browning and Montana's Indian reservations for Presidential votes
By John McGill Glacier Reporter Editor
It was a whirlwind tour of Montana and its Indian reservations, but Dennis Kucinich, Democratic candidate for President of the United States, still found time to visit Browning at Blackfeet Tribal Headquarters Monday, June 7, just hours before primary elections were slated to begin the following day. Kucinich's entourage flew into Starr School from Salish-Kootenai College and arrived at the Tribal Conference Room around 5 p.m., to be greeted by an assembly of Tribal Councilmen, singers and candidates for Glacier County Commission and the BTBC.
For the complete article and related resource links, see:
goldentrianglenews.com/articles/2004/06/09/glacier_reporter/news/news2.txt
7) Leonard Peltier - eagle soars in the circle for freedom
- - Message from Leonard
- - Leonard Peltier: America's Political Prisoner
- - Oglala and other June 26 Commemoration Events
- - Amherst MA Peltier Circle June 26 gathering
- - Now to the opposition for a pseudo reasoning of justice
- - Leonard Peltier for the Nobel Peace Prize
- - Message from Leonard
Leonard Peltier #89637-132
USP-Leavenworth
PO Box 1000
Leavenworth, KS 66048-1000
May 6, 2004
Hello friends and supporters,
As I sit here writing and rewriting this response to the Supreme Court denial of my appeal, I can't help but remember you, my supporters, friends and allies.
Many people have come and gone in my life, some I may never see again in this lifetime and some have left and come back again. I have come to recognize that true relatives aren't always related by the blood that flows in your veins, but by the blood, sweat and tears that is given for the common good of all.
It is never easy to deal with these setbacks and as you get older and the realities of mortality set in, time becomes increasingly important. It goes so exceeding slow waiting for justice and so fast when you look at what's left.
From inside this prison I have done my best to help raise my kids and grandkids and yet maintain a level of commitment to raising awareness to the plight of my people and all Indigenous Peoples who face on a daily basis the cruel realties of a technological world where might makes right and morality be damned.
I want you to know that whether we win this battle for me or not, you my relatives have my heart always. I am almost 60 years old, but I'll tell you now the oppressors will know we're here. They'll know they are challenged at every turn. Sometimes it's not up to us to decide whether we are winning or losing; it rests within the will of the Creator. What is up to us is our will to continue the battle. The battle will never be over so long as one person is a victim of this oppressive, exploitive mind-set that has engulfed so much of the world.
I'm a realist; I know that I'm not the cause; I'm only a focal point of the cause. The cause is the cause of all, and with the latest turmoil in government you will soon become acutely aware of the ramifications of these illegal decisions in Washington for as they have done to me, they'll do to others and have done to others. There are other prisoners that you haven't heard of because the misdeeds of the FBI and other governmental entities aren't as well documented. This government has literally passed retroactive laws that have prevented the legal release of myself and others, but I also want you to know that we have other strategies that we are working on. We have a Habeas Corpus filed in Washington that will soon be in litigation regarding these constitutional violations.
I want to encourage you to help in whatever way that you can. We need funds for the preparation of legal briefs, legal research, filing fees, attorneys and travel expenses as well as for the ongoing cost of maintaining our committee and info center.
Those that can't contribute on a monetary basis can pass out pamphlets, hold meetings, and help the staff organize events. Any and all help is so much appreciated.
My relatives - stay strong and remember: for the sickness of the world, we are the antidote.
In The Spirit Of Crazy Horse,
Mitakuye Oyasin
(signed)Leonard peltier
LeonardPeltier.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Leonard Peltier: America's Political Prisoner
By David R. Hoffman *
PRAVDA.Ru
July 18, 2003
[Excerpt]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
In America, is there justice for all? In a special editorial written for Pravda.ru, David R. Hoffman explains how the American legal system works and does not work.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
America's criminal justice system is built upon many myths. Among the most prominent are that justice is blind; that America is a nation of laws, not men; that nobody is above the law; and that political prisoners do not exist in the United States. But such myths are obliterated when one examines the abuses committed under the auspices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) infamous COINTELPRO operation during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Individuals who held "unpopular" political opinions during this era (particularly those seeking social change) were targeted for "neutralization" through a variety of methods..
..There are undoubtedly some in a self-centered world who will ask, "What does the Leonard Peltier case have to do with me?" The answer is simple. Peltier's case demonstrates that there are agencies in America with the power to corrupt, manipulate or intimidate the legal system, and thus all the erudite law books, treatises and journals simply camouflage the frightening reality that people's futures, fortunes, freedoms and very existence are governed not by law, but by the arbitrariness of a power structure that is largely unaccountable for its actions. Perhaps most disturbingly, the extent of this arbitrariness, under the patronage of the ludicrously named "Patriot Act," is now being enhanced with little more than verbal assurances that past abuses will not be repeated. And considering that Peltier was convicted and remains in prison despite having access to all the alleged "processes" and "protections" of the civilian criminal justice system, one must wonder how many injustices the "military tribunals" of the Bush administration will produce.
David R. Hoffman
An attorney and university instructor in the United States
The complete article with following links can be viewed at:
www.freepeltier.org/pravda_ru_editorial.htm
Links:
(1) Read Book Online: "The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars Against Domestic Dissent," by Ward Churchill, James Vander Wall
(2) COINTELPRO: The Untold American Story
Compilation by Paul Wolf with contributions from Robert Boyle, Bob Brown, Tom Burghardt, Noam Chomsky, Ward Churchill, Kathleen Cleaver, Bruce Ellison, Cynthia McKinney, Nkechi Taifa, Laura Whitehorn, Nicholas Wilson, and Howard Zinn.
Presented to U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson at the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa by the members of the Congressional Black Caucus attending the conference: Donna Christianson, John Conyers, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Barbara Lee, Sheila Jackson Lee, Cynthia McKinney, and Diane Watson, September 1, 2001.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Oglala and other June 26 Commemoration Events
2004 OGLALA COMMEMORATION EVENT SCHEDULED FOR JUNE 26.
OglalaThe 5th Annual Oglala Commemoration Event is set to begin on June 26, 2004 at the Jumping Bull Property south of Oglala South Dakota.
Annually, normal activities scheduled for this event include a prayer service near the gravesites of Jun Little and Joe Stuntz. A memorial walk for justice follows from the gravesites to the Jumping Bull Property. This is followed by a special memorial and giveaway for deceased relatives, sponsored by the Jumping Bull Family. Finally, a concert for youth awareness is held, concluding this special day.
The Lakota Student Alliance and Oglala Commemoration Committee jointly sponsor the event to honor and remember the lives lost during the 1970s civil conflict on the reservation and to also raise awareness toward the unjust imprisonment of AIM member Leonard Peltier, currently jailed in Leavenworth Kansas. Peltier's imprisonment resulted from a Shooting battle between AIM members and Federal Agents at the Jumping Bull property which was precipitated by numerous unjust deaths of AIM supporters during the tumultuous 1970s on Pine Ridge Reservation.
This year's event focuses on Indian Voting Issues for Native Youth and Grassroots people. The upcoming 2004 National elections require the active participation of Native voters.
Speakers for the 2004 event include important figures that played a vital role in the justice movement for Peltier's freedom. They include: Thomas Doxtater, Leonard Peltier Defense Committee Chairman; Bruce Ellison, Peltier Attorney; Vernon Bellecourt, principal spokesperson for American Indian Movement; Alfred Bone Shirt of DLN Coalition; Tom Poor Bear, of Camp Justice; and Rosalyn Jumping Bull of Oglala.
Musical Guests Include: Nammy Award Winner Wayquay, Nammy Nominated Steel River Band from Pine Ridge Reservation; Oglala Lakota Hiphop artists Native Era and Storm; Folksingers Jim Page and Dale Alan; Indian Contemporary artist Robbie Romero of Red Thunder and more to be announced as they arrive.
We invite the public to this free event. For more information on this event you can visit the website at www.geocities.com/oglala_commemoration/index.html.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Amherst MA Peltier Circle June 26 gathering
The public is invited to join with the Leonard Peltier Support Group of New Eagleland at the south end of Amherst Common on Saturday, June 26th, from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pmt.
For more information, contact: Chris Groden, (413)549-4882
by email: < cgroden@hotmail.com >
The Boston Area Leonard Peltier Support Group will mark June 26th, 2004 with a meeting perhaps also in Amherst, MA. Attorney Barry Bachrach will update us on the work the legal team is engaged in on behalf of Leonard Peltier. A discussion will follow.
If you are interested in attending this meeting please email peltiersupport@riseup.net
For more on this and other international events in solidarity with Leonard Peltier, see:
www.peltiersupport.org/Events/June262004.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Now to the opposition for a pseudo reasoning of justice
Welcome to the Official NPPA Web site
No Parole Peltier Association (NPPA)
The stated purpose of the NPPA is to respond to the erroneous statements and allegations made by the International Office of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC)* The NPPA opposes parole or clemency for Leonard Peltier.
noparolepeltier.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Leonard Peltier for the Nobel Peace Prize
Please consider taking the time to write a letter on Leonard's behalf recommending Leonard Peltier for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize
You can send a brief, poignant, personal letter via snail-mail to:
The Norwegian Nobel Institute (not to the Committee !!!)
Drammensveien 19
NO-0255 OSLO
Norway
And please email a copy to Ward Dossche at wd@skynet.be , info@leonardpeltier.org , psgsuisse@yahoo.com
For more info on Leonard, visit:
leonardpeltier.org
&
haveyouthought.com
&
Flyby News archives on Leonard Peltier
For items 1-4, see: NuclearHypocrisy * BushTorture * MooreVOTES
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
9-11 Lies * Bush-Torture * Orwell * Nuke-Chems
17 June 2004
What we have seen, topped by that legalistic treatise on torture,
shows clearly that Mr. Bush set the tone for this dreadful situation
by pasting a false "war on terrorism" label on the invasion of Iraq.
From a New York Times editorial - 9 June 2004
1) US ally Pakistan, not Iraq, helped al-Qaeda, says 9-11 commission
- - Cheney-Halliburton White House Lies
- - Coup D'etat: The reason Tenet and Pavitt Resigned
- - Tenet's Perjury and Resignation
- - Enron tapes expose blatant criminality of corporate America
- - Rogue Bush Backers Prepare Super 9-11 False Flag Terror Attacks
- - Chemtrails And Terror In The Age Of Nuclear War
2) Lawyers Ascribed Broad Power to Bush on Torture
- - Iraq Abuse 'Ordered From the Top'
- - Gen. Sanchez: Hid Prisoner From Red Cross
- - The Roots of Abu Ghraib
- - Iraqis Fear New Gov't is a CIA Front
- - Only 2% of Iraqis see occupation forces as liberators
3) George Orwell meet Franz Kafka
- - Oil chief fears for planet
4) "The Fight of Our Lives" Bill Moyers
5) George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - The Hitler Project
"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth
of private power to the point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself.
That in its essence is fascism ownership of government by an individual,
by a group or any controlling private power."
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Editor's Notes:
Waking up one day not long ago, I found history turned upside down. Ronald Reagan became the media's symbol of the great president. Is dementia contagious or something? Did someone forget the Iran-Contra scandal, the depletion of the national treasury, the fool-hearty nature of Star Wars? 1984 has arrived 20 years later. It is 2004 and the media hypnotizes the masses at a funeral for a sneaky fascist war-like-greed agenda. Yet perhaps this issue is best summed up by Kirk Anderson's editorial cartoon-link ~ on the bright side of the Ronald Reagan presidency!
Like most people, I would like to keep things in life relatively simple, but as you skim through the items of the day ... yikes! it is anything but simple. Whereas the 9/11 commission discovered al-Qaeda ties with Pakistan, not Iraq, figuring out who is fighting with whom and for what purpose is tricky stuff. In this first group in item 1, you will find Michael Ruppert relatively optimistic on the demise of the Bush Neocon network - before the election. Yet the policies in Iraq continue on its path in twisted judgment and harming inocent people. Item 2 takes a hard look at the leaked memo and confessions showing how the responsibility for the torture-commending US-policy goes to the top. Item 3 takes a visit to a sensible review of the flick, "The Day After Tomorrow." Item 4 is an excerpt from Bill Moyers address in a forum on inequality. Item 5 links to the unauthorized biography of George Bush, detailing this family's connection with the Hitler Project.
For another important site for the day, see:
DumpBush.bravehost.com/
1) US ally Pakistan, not Iraq, helped al-Qaeda, says 9-11 commission
- - Cheney-Halliburton White House Lies
- - Coup D'etat: The reason Tenet and Pavitt Resigned
- - Tenet's Perjury and Resignation
- - Enron tapes expose blatant criminality of corporate America
- - Rogue Bush Backers Prepare Super 9-11 False Flag Terror Attacks
- - Chemtrails And Terror In The Age Of Nuclear War
- - US ally Pakistan, not Iraq, helped al-Qaeda, says 9-11 commission
Published on Monday, June 14, 2004 by the New York Times
An official report the September 11, 2001 attacks said on Wednesday that Pakistan helped the Taliban regime in Afghanistan provide a haven to al-Qaeda in the face of international pressure. However the report said that there was no "credible evidence" that Iraq helped al-Qaeda in any attacks against the United States.
The Daily Telegraph [UK], 17 June 2004; click for article
www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_17-6-2004_pg1_2
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Cheney-Halliburton White House Lies
White House Officials and Cheney Aide
Approved Halliburton Contract in Iraq,
Pentagon Says
by Erik Eckholm
In the fall of 2002, in the preparations for possible war with Iraq, the Pentagon sought and received the assent of senior Bush administration officials, including the vice president's chief of staff, before hiring the Halliburton Company to develop secret plans for restoring Iraq's oil facilities, Pentagon officials have told Congressional investigators.
Article posted at:
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0614-01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Coup D'etat: The reason Tenet and Pavitt Resigned
COUP D'ETAT:
The Real Reason Tenet and Pavitt Resigned from the
CIA on June 3rd and 4th
Bush, Cheney Indictments in Plame Case Looming
by
Michael C. Ruppert
additional reporting by
Wayne Madsen from Washington
The complete article is posted at
www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/060804_coup_detat.html
[Excerpts]
JUNE 8, 2004 1600 PDT (FTW) - Why did DCI George Tenet suddenly resign on June 3rd, only to be followed a day later by James Pavitt, the CIA's Deputy Director of Operations (DDO)?
The real reasons, contrary to the saturation spin being put out by major news outlets, have nothing to do with Tenet's role as taking the fall for alleged 9/11 and Iraqi intelligence "failures" before the upcoming presidential election.
Both resignations, perhaps soon to be followed by resignations from Colin Powell and his deputy Richard Armitage, are about the imminent and extremely messy demise of George W. Bush and his Neocon administration in a coup d'etat being executed by the Central Intelligence Agency. The coup, in the planning for at least two years, has apparently become an urgent priority as a number of deepening crises threaten a global meltdown.
Based upon recent developments, it appears that long-standing plans and preparations leading to indictments and impeachment of Bush, Cheney and even some senior cabinet members have been accelerated, possibly with the intent of removing or replacing the entire Bush regime prior to the Republican National Convention this August.
FTW has been documenting this Watergate-like coup for more than fifteen months and almost everything we will discuss about recent events was predicted by us in the following pages: Please see our stories "The Perfect Storm - Part I" (March 2003); "Blood in the Water" (July 2003); "Beyond Bush - Part I" (July 2003); "Waxman Ties Evidentiary Noose Around Rice and Cheney" (July 2003); and "Beyond Bush - Part II" (October 2003).
There were two things we didn't get right. One was the timing. We predicted the developments taking place now as likely to happen after the November election, not before. Secondly, we did not foresee the sudden resignations of Tenet and Pavitt. Understanding the resignations is the key to understanding a deteriorating world scene and that America is on the precipice of a presidential and constitutional crisis that will ultimately dwarf the removal of Richard Nixon in 1974.
So why did Tenet and Pavitt resign? We'll explain why and we will provide many clues along the way as we make our case....
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/060804_coup_detat.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Tenet's Perjury and Resignation
UQ Wire: Tenet's Perjury And Resignation
Distribution via the Unanswered Questions Wire
TENET'S PERJURY AND RESIGNATION:
Door Now Open to Question,
'What Did Bush Know, and When Did He Know it?"
by Mark G. Levey
leveymg@aol.com
Washington, DC, June 10, 2004 - Reporters for the major papers
may have missed the first page of the biggest story since the
9/11 attacks. When his resignation becomes effective July 11,
2004, CIA Director George Tenet will no longer be covered by
Executive Privilege. He may then be compelled to testify about
what he as a Director of Central Intelligence told the President
regarding several matters about which both he and Bush have thus
far displayed a startling lack of candor.
For links to article and commentary, see
Unanswered Questions Wire
www.scoop.co.nz/mason/archive/scoop/stories/cd/3c/200406091337.77a48bed.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Enron tapes expose blatant criminality of corporate America
By Rafael Azul
15 June 2004
wsws.org/articles/2004/jun2004/enro-j15.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Rogue Bush Backers Prepare Super 9-11 False Flag Terror Attacks
www.911review.org/Wiki/RogueUSOwnGoal.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Chemtrails And Terror In The Age Of Nuclear War
By Amy Worthington
Idaho Observer
Published on June 3, 2004
North America is now suffering its seventh year of conspicuous and
dangerous aerosol and electromagnetic operations conducted by the U.S.
government under the guise of national security. Concerned citizens watch
in fear as military tankers discolor the skies with toxic chemicals that morph into synthetic clouds.
For the complete article, see:
www.rense.com/general53/chemsd.htm
2) Lawyers Ascribed Broad Power to Bush on Torture
- - Iraq Abuse 'Ordered From the Top'
- - Gen. Sanchez: Hid Prisoner From Red Cross
- - The Roots of Abu Ghraib
- - Iraqis Fear New Gov't is a CIA Front
- - Only 2% of Iraqis see occupation forces as liberators
- - Lawyers Ascribed Broad Power to Bush on Torture
The Los Angeles Times
10 June 2004
Lawyers Ascribed Broad Power to Bush on Torture
In a memo dated weeks after the invasion of Iraq, administration counsel said the president's authority superceded Congress'.
By David G. Savage and Richard B. Schmitt
WASHINGTON - On the eve of the war in Iraq, Bush administration lawyers spelled out a strikingly broad view of the president's power that freed the commander in chief and U.S. military from the federal law and international treaties that barred the use of torture.
In past wars, presidents have claimed special powers. During the Civil War, President Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and allowed accused traitors to be tried before military courts. Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an order authorizing the military to intern thousands of Japanese Americans.
In those instances, however, the president acted with the approval of Congress. Rarely, if ever, have the president's advisors claimed an authority to ignore the law as written by Congress.
The legal memo, written last year for the Defense Department and disclosed this week, did not speak for President Bush, but it claimed an extraordinary power for him. It said that as the commander in chief, he had a "constitutionally superior position" to Congress and an "inherent authority" to prosecute the war, even if it meant defying the will of Congress.
Congress adopted an anti-torture law in 1994 that barred Americans abroad acting under U.S. authority from inflicting "severe physical or mental pain." But the 56-page memo on "Detainee Interrogation in the Global War on Terrorism" maintains that the president and his military commander cannot be restrained in this way.
"Congress lacks authority to set the terms and conditions under which the president may exercise his authority as commander in chief to control the conduct of operations during a war," the memo asserts. "Congress may no more regulate the president's ability to detain and interrogate enemy combatants than it may regulate his ability to direct troop movements on the battlefield. Accordingly, we would construe [the law] to avoid this difficulty and conclude that it does not apply to the president's detention and interrogation of enemy combatants."
The memo was dated March 6, 2003, two weeks before the start of the war in Iraq. In earlier memos, administration lawyers said the president could designate even American citizens arrested within the United States as "enemy combatants," and thus theoretically subject them to torture.
But according to several mainstream legal scholars, this turns the Constitution on its head. The 18th century document says Congress makes the laws, and the president has the duty to carry them out. "He shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed," the Constitution says of the president.
Moreover, the Constitution grants Congress specific powers to set the rules in war and peace, including for captives.
"Congress shall have the power to declare war and make rules concerning captures on land and water to define offenses against the law of nations [and] to make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces."
A broad range of legal experts, including specialists in military law, say they were taken aback by this bald assertion of presidential supremacy.
"It is an extraordinary claim. It is as broad an assertion of presidential authority as I have ever seen," said Michael Glennon, a war law expert at Tufts University. "This is a claim of unlimited executive power. There is no reason to read the commander-in-chief power as trumping the clear power of Congress."
University of Texas law professor Douglas Laycock added, "It can't be right. It is just wrong to say the president can do whatever he wants, even if it is against the law."
Veteran military lawyers also said they were surprised and dismayed by the memo.
"It's an argument I have never seen made before that the commander in chief's war-fighting powers trump the restrictions in the Geneva Convention," said Grant Lattin, a former judge advocate for the Marines who practices military law in Virginia. "I am having a difficult time even following the logic, that somehow because this is a new type of war that these military commanders' authority has somehow grown larger than the restrictions that we have accepted in the Geneva Convention."
For the complete article, see:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-torture10jun10,1,657234
5.story
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Leaked Torture Memo:
Full Text
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/061104C.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Iraq Abuse 'Ordered From the Top'
General Karpinski:
Iraq Abuse 'Ordered From the Top'
BBC
Tuesday 15 June 2004
He said they are like dogs and if you allow them to believe at any point that they are more than a dog then you've lost control of them.
-- General Karpinski
The US commander at the centre of the Iraqi prisoner scandal says she was told to treat detainees like dogs.
Brig Gen Janis Karpinski told the BBC she was being made a "convenient scapegoat" for abuse ordered by others.
For the complete article, see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3806713.stm
or
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/061604B.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Gen. Sanchez: Hid Prisoner From Red Cross
War Crimes: Gen. Sanchez
Hid Prisoner From Red Cross
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/061404B.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Roots of Abu Ghraib
The New York Times
9 June 2004
Editorial: The Roots of Abu Ghraib
In response to the outrages at Abu Ghraib, the Bush administration has repeatedly assured Americans that the president and his top officials did not say or do anything that could possibly be seen as approving the abuse or outright torture of prisoners. But disturbing disclosures keep coming. This week it's a legal argument by government lawyers who said the president was not bound by laws or treaties prohibiting torture.
Each new revelation makes it more clear that the inhumanity at Abu Ghraib grew out of a morally dubious culture of legal expediency and a disregard for normal behavior fostered at the top of this administration. It is part of the price the nation must pay for President Bush's decision to take the extraordinary mandate to fight terrorism that he was granted by a grieving nation after 9/11 and apply it without justification to Iraq..
..What we have seen, topped by that legalistic treatise on torture, shows clearly that Mr. Bush set the tone for this dreadful situation by pasting a false "war on terrorism" label on the invasion of Iraq.
For the complete article, see:
The Roots of Abu Ghraib
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Iraqis Fear New Gov't is a CIA Front
Ex-C.I.A. Aides Say Iraq Leader Helped Agency in 90's Attacks
The New York Times
June 9, 2004
By JOEL BRINKLEY
WASHINGTON, June 8 - Iyad Allawi, now the designated prime minister of Iraq, ran an exile organization intent on deposing Saddam Hussein that sent agents into Baghdad in the early 1990's to plant bombs and sabotage government facilities under the direction of the C.I.A., several former intelligence officials say.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/09/politics/09ALLA.html?hp
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Only 2% of Iraqis see occupation forces as liberators
The Bush administration's last remaining justification for the invasion of Iraq has been demolished by a private poll revealing that only 2 per cent of Iraqis regard the occupying forces as liberators. The poll was commissioned by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) last month and which was leaked yesterday. It reveals that only 2 per cent of the Iraqis polled in mid-May see coalition troops as liberators, while 92 per cent said they were occupiers.
The Independent [UK], 17 June 2004: click for article:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=532337
3) George Orwell meet Franz Kafka
- - Oil chief fears for planet
George Orwell meet Franz Kafka
www.nationinstitute.org/tomdispatch/
by Tom Engelhardt
[Excerpts]
With nature there are no special effects
Over Memorial Day weekend, with my family elsewhere, I drove to a multiplex to catch Roland Emmerich's global warming disaster flick The Day After Tomorrow. This was the film for which Bush administration officials briefly forbid NASA scientists to field press queries, lest perhaps the administration find itself in cold storage. It's kind of touching, really, that the Bush folks retain such faith in the power of Hollywood..
"The Day After Tomorrow has one of the most absurd and implausible plot turns I've seen in a movie, ever. Global warming melts the polar ice caps, which makes the oceans rise and disrupts the Gulf Stream. There are lethal hailstones in Tokyo and ravaging tornadoes in L.A.; and after New York City is flooded by seawater, the temperature plunges at a rate of 10 degrees per second, so that people are transformed into ice statues where they stand. Tens of millions are dead and the upper United States has become uninhabitable. Now here's the implausible part. The vice president -- closely modeled on Dick Cheney -- who has pooh-poohed all evidence of global warming, goes on TV and says, 'I was wrong.'"
..call it the miracle of the movies, which sometimes have a way of smash-mouthing through every sophisticated defense you've built up over a long life: The very fatuousness of the film set against a final vision of our planet from space locked in a new ice-age, gave me the total creeps. I drove off into a foggy night in an old clunker of a stick-shift car with lousy lights, all alone, and just a little unsure of my way through the ill-lit haze. I didn't think then about Al Gore's Moveon.org send-off for the film, or about the hyped-up dispute over its scientific accuracy, or about its inability to offer even the simplest explanation of global warming itself, or about the endless media babble over whether this film would fill the sails of the environmental movement or sink it beneath the waves; I just felt a chill. The pure willies. For that uncertain drive home in a car burning gas, and so sending carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to join the thickening blanket of pollution circling and warming our planet, I was haunted by a sense of the fragility of Earth and of human life itself.
For the complete dispatch, see:
www.nationinstitute.org/tomdispatch/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Oil chief fears for planet
Published on Thursday, June 17, 2004 by the Guardian/UK
Oil chief: my fears for planet
Shell boss's 'confession' shocks industry
David Adam, science correspondent
Thursday June 17, 2004
The Guardian
The head of one of the world's biggest oil companies has admitted that the threat of climate change makes him "really very worried for the planet".
In an interview in today's Guardian Life section, Ron Oxburgh, chairman of Shell, says we urgently need to capture emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which scientists think contribute to global warming, and store them underground - a technique called carbon sequestration.
"Sequestration is difficult, but if we don't have sequestration then I see very little hope for the world," said Lord Oxburgh. "No one can be comfortable at the prospect of continuing to pump out the amounts of carbon dioxide that we are pumping out at present ... with consequences that we really can't predict but are probably not good."
His comments will enrage many in the oil industry, which is targeted by climate change campaigners because the use of its products spews out huge quantities of carbon dioxide, most visibly from vehicle exhausts.
His words follow those of the government's chief science adviser, David King, who said in January that climate change posed a bigger threat to the world than terrorism.
For the complete article, see:
www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4949299-103690,00.html
or
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0617-01.htm
For items 4 and 5
4) "The Fight of Our Lives" Bill Moyers
5) George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - The Hitler Project
See: Fight of Our Lives * BushHitlerProject
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Fight of Our Lives * BushHitlerProject
17 June 2004
4) "The Fight of Our Lives" Bill Moyers
5) George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - The Hitler Project
Editor's Notes:
Item 4 is an excerpt from Bill Moyers address in a forum on inequality.
Item 5 links to the unauthorized biography of George Bush, which details this family's connections with the Hitler Project.
For a site of the day, check out
DumpBush.bravehost.com
4) "The Fight of Our Lives" Bill Moyers
The following are excerpts from a speech given by Bill Moyers
at the Inequality Matters Forum on June 3, 2004
at New York University; posted by Inequality.org on June 16, 2004.
[Excerpts]
It is important from time to time to remember that some things are worth getting mad about.
..this, too, is something to get mad about. Nothing seems to embarrass the political class in Washington today. Not the fact that more children are growing up in poverty in America than in any other industrial nation; not the fact that millions of workers are actually making less money today in real dollars than they did twenty years ago; not the fact that working people are putting in longer and longer hours and still falling behind; not the fact that while we have the most advanced medical care in the world, nearly 44 million Americans -- eight out of ten of them in working families -- are uninsured and cannot get the basic care they need.
Astonishing as it seems, no one in official Washington seems embarrassed by the fact that the gap between rich and poor is greater than it's been in 50 years -- the worst inequality among all western nations. Or that we are experiencing a shift in poverty. For years it was said those people down there at the bottom were single, jobless mothers. For years they were told work, education, and marriage is how they move up the economic ladder. But poverty is showing up where we didn't expect it -- among families that include two parents, a worker, and a head of the household with more than a high school education. These are the newly poor. Our political, financial and business class expects them to climb out of poverty on an escalator moving downward.
..Until now. I don't have to tell you that a profound transformation is occurring in America: the balance between wealth and the commonwealth is being upended. By design. Deliberately. We have been subjected to what the Commonwealth Foundation calls "a fanatical drive to dismantle the political institutions, the legal and statutory canons, and the intellectual and cultural frameworks that have shaped public responsibility for social harms arising from the excesses of private power." From land, water and other natural resources, to media and the broadcast and digital spectrums, to scientific discovery and medical breakthroughs, and to politics itself, a broad range of the American commons is undergoing a powerful shift toward private and corporate control. And with little public debate. Indeed, what passes for 'political debate' in this country has become a cynical charade behind which the real business goes on -- the not-so-scrupulous business of getting and keeping power in order to divide up the spoils.
We could have seen this coming if we had followed the money. The veteran Washington reporter, Elizabeth Drew, says "the greatest change in Washington over the past 25 years -- in its culture, in the way it does business and the ever-burgeoning amount of business transactions that go on here -- has been in the preoccupation with money." Jeffrey Birnbaum, who covered Washington for nearly twenty years for the Wall Street Journal, put it more strongly: "[campaign cash] has flooded over the gunwales of the ship of state and threatens to sink the entire vessel. Political donations determine the course and speed of many government actions that deeply affect our daily lives." Politics is suffocating from the stranglehold of money. During his brief campaign in 2000, before he was ambushed by the dirty tricks of the religious right in South Carolina and big money from George W. Bush's wealthy elites, John McCain said elections today are nothing less than an "influence peddling scheme in which both parties compete to stay in office by selling the country to the highest bidder."
Small wonder that with the exception of people like John McCain and Russ Feingold, official Washington no longer finds anything wrong with a democracy dominated by the people with money. Hit the pause button here, and recall Roger Tamraz. He's the wealthy oilman who paid $300,000 to get a private meeting in the White House with President Clinton; he wanted help in securing a big pipeline in central Asia. This got him called before congressional hearings on the financial excesses of the 1996 campaign. If you watched the hearings on C-Span you heard him say he didn't think he had done anything out of the ordinary. When they pressed him he told the senators: "Look, when it comes to money and politics, you make the rules. I'm just playing by your rules." One senator then asked if Tamraz had registered and voted. And he was blunt in his reply: "No, senator, I think money's a bit more (important) than the vote."
..The middle class and working poor are told that what's happening to them is the consequence of Adam Smith's "Invisible Hand." This is a lie. What's happening to them is the direct consequence of corporate activism, intellectual propaganda, the rise of a religious orthodoxy that in its hunger for government subsidies has made an idol of power, and a string of political decisions favoring the powerful and the privileged who bought the political system right out from under us.
To create the intellectual framework for this takeover of public policy they funded conservative think tanks -- The Heritage Foundation, the Hoover Institution, and the American Enterprise Institute -- that churned out study after study advocating their agenda.
To put political muscle behind these ideas they created a formidable political machine. One of the few journalists to cover the issues of class -- Thomas Edsall of The Washington Post -- wrote: "During the 1970s, business refined its ability to act as a class, submerging competitive instincts in favor of joint, cooperate action in the legislative area." Big business political action committees flooded the political arena with a deluge of dollars. And they built alliances with the religious right -- Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority and Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition -- who mounted a cultural war providing a smokescreen for the class war, hiding the economic plunder of the very people who were enlisted as foot soldiers in the cause of privilege.
In a book to be published this summer, Daniel Altman describes what he calls the "neo-economy -- a place without taxes, without a social safety net, where rich and poor live in different financial worlds -- and [said Altman] it's coming to America." He's a little late. It's here. Says Warren Buffett, the savviest investor of them all: "My class won."
Look at the spoils of victory:
Over the past three years, they've pushed through $2 trillion dollars in tax cuts -- almost all tilted towards the wealthiest people in the country.
Cuts in taxes on the largest incomes.
Cuts in taxes on investment income.
And cuts in taxes on huge inheritances.
More than half of the benefits are going to the wealthiest one percent. You could call it trickle-down economics, except that the only thing that trickled down was a sea of red ink in our state and local governments, forcing them to cut services for and raise taxes on middle class working America.
Now the Congressional Budget Office forecasts deficits totaling $2.75 trillion over the next ten years.
These deficits have been part of their strategy. Some of you will remember that Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan tried to warn us 20 years ago, when he predicted that President Ronald Reagan's real strategy was to force the government to cut domestic social programs by fostering federal deficits of historic dimensions. Reagan's own budget director, David Stockman, admitted as such. Now the leading rightwing political strategist, Grover Norquist, says the goal is to "starve the beast" -- with trillions of dollars in deficits resulting from trillions of dollars in tax cuts, until the United States Government is so anemic and anorexic it can be drowned in the bathtub.
There's no question about it: The corporate conservatives and their allies in the political and religious right are achieving a vast transformation of American life that only they understand because they are its advocates, its architects, and its beneficiaries. In creating the greatest economic inequality in the advanced world, they have saddled our nation, our states, and our cities and counties with structural deficits that will last until our children's children are ready for retirement, and they are systematically stripping government of all its functions except rewarding the rich and waging war.
And they are proud of what they have done to our economy and our society. If instead of practicing journalism I was writing for Saturday Night Live, I couldn't have made up the things that this crew have been saying. The president's chief economic adviser says shipping technical and professional jobs overseas is good for the economy. The president's Council of Economic Advisers report that hamburger chefs in fast food restaurants can be considered manufacturing workers. The president's Federal Reserve Chairman says that the tax cuts may force cutbacks in social security - but hey, we should make the tax cuts permanent anyway. The president's Labor Secretary says it doesn't matter if job growth has stalled because "the stock market is the ultimate arbiter."
You just can't make this stuff up. You have to hear it to believe it. This may be the first class war in history where the victims will die laughing.
But what they are doing to middle class and working Americans -- and to the workings of American democracy -- is no laughing matter. Go online and read the transcripts of Enron traders in the energy crisis four years ago, discussing how they were manipulating the California power market in telephone calls in which they gloat about ripping off "those poor grandmothers." Read how they talk about political contributions to politicians like "Kenny Boy" Lay's best friend George W. Bush. Go on line and read how Citigroup has been fined $70 Million for abuses in loans to low-income, high risk borrowers - the largest penalty ever imposed by the Federal Reserve. A few clicks later, you can find the story of how a subsidiary of the corporate computer giant NEC has been fined over $20 million after pleading guilty to corruption in a federal plan to bring Internet access to poor schools and libraries. And this, the story says, is just one piece of a nationwide scheme to rip off the government and the poor.
Let's face the reality: If ripping off the public trust; if distributing tax breaks to the wealthy at the expense of the poor; if driving the country into deficits deliberately to starve social benefits; if requiring states to balance their budgets on the backs of the poor; if squeezing the wages of workers until the labor force resembles a nation of serfs -- if this isn't class war, what is?
It's un-American. It's unpatriotic. And it's wrong.
But I don't need to tell you this. You wouldn't be here if you didn't know it. Your presence at this gathering confirms that while an America with liberty and justice for all is a broken promise, it is not a lost cause. Once upon a time I thought the mass media -- my industry -- would help mend this broken promise and save this cause. After all, the sight of police dogs attacking peaceful demonstrators forced America to recognize the reality of racial injustice. The sight of carnage in Vietnam forced us to recognize the war was unwinnable. The sight of terrorists striking the World Trade Center woke us from a long slumber of denial and distraction. I thought the mass media might awaken Americans to the reality that this ideology of winner-take-all is working against them and not for them. I was wrong. With honorable exceptions, we can't count on the mass media.
What we need is a mass movement of people like you. Get mad, yes -- there's plenty to be mad about. Then get organized and get busy. This is the fight of our lives.
2004 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.alternet.org/story/18954/
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0616-09.htm
For links to manuscript and video of this speech and conference, see:
http://www.inequality.org/conferencematerials.html
5) George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - The Hitler Project
George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography --- by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin
http://www.tarpley.net/bush2.htm
Chapter - II - The Hitler Project
Bush Property Seized--Trading with the Enemy
In October 1942, ten months after entering World War II, America was preparing its first assault against Nazi military forces. Prescott Bush was managing partner of Brown Brothers Harriman. His 18-year-old son George, the future U.S. President, had just begun training to become a naval pilot. On Oct. 20, 1942, the U.S. government ordered the seizure of Nazi German banking operations in New York City which were being conducted by Prescott Bush.
Under the Trading with the Enemy Act, the government took over the Union Banking Corporation, in which Bush was a director. The U.S. Alien Property Custodian seized Union Banking Corp.'s stock shares, all of which were owned by Prescott Bush, E. Roland `` Bunny '' Harriman, three Nazi executives, and two other associates of Bush.
The facts presented here must be known, and their implications reflected upon, for a proper understanding of President George Herbert Walker Bush and of the danger to mankind that he represents. The President's family fortune was largely a result of the Hitler project. The powerful Anglo-American family associations, which later boosted him into the Central Intelligence Agency and up to the White House, were his father's partners in the Hitler project.
..By deciding that Prescott Bush and the other directors of the Union Banking Corp. were legally front men for the Nazis, the government avoided the more important historical issue: In what way were Hitler's Nazis themselves hired, armed and instructed by the New York and London clique of which Prescott Bush was an executive manager? Let us examine the Harriman-Bush Hitler project from the 1920s until it was partially broken up, to seek an answer for that question.
..For his part in the Hitler revolution, Prescott Bush was paid a fortune.
This is the legacy he left to his son, President George Bush.
For the complete chapter and more on this book, see:
http://www.tarpley.net/bush2.htm
Flyby News Support
If you care to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses
for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc.,
you can send donations to:
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
-- or you can donate via online --
see FlybyNews.com [near bottom of page] for link
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
WarTime * Fahrenheit * DirtyBomb * BushKnew
05 June 2004
"My worst fears about the Bush administration
have been confirmed, and then some."
Sen. Jim Jeffords, I-Vt
"The greatest crime since World War II
has been US foreign policy."
Ramsey Clark
1) Message To Kerry: Time To Protest War Again by Helen Thomas
- - United for Peace - Bring Our Troops Home Now
- - Soldiers, families speak out about war
- - Kerry: Bush Army Plan Is 'Backdoor Draft'
- - Kerry's support for Israel repels Arab voters
- - Kucinich hopes to influence party platform
- - Walter Cronkite's 2004 Commencement Address
- - US frantic to soften harsh language in UN rights report on Iraq
- - Pro-war US newspaper admits: Bush is a liar
- - Bush's Erratic Behavior Worries White House Aides
2) "Fahrenheit 9/11" Wins Top Prize in Cannes by Michael Moore
3) Dirty bomb attack a matter of time, say experts
- - Bush Knew About Leak of CIA Operative's Name
- - George Tenet Goes Down
- - From Democracy Now Tenet, Lies, & Oil Politics
4) U.S. Told Saudis to Let Al-Qaida Gunmen Escape
5) Bilderberg Meeting June 4th in Italy
"We never sought to reach a consensus on the big issues at Bilderberg."
"It's simply a place for discussion."
UK's Lord Denis Healey,
{one of the four founders of Bilderberg}
"The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know,
that a financial element in the large centers has owned
the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson."
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Editor's Notes:
Often, as time lapses from the last issue, I wonder where to begin. I wonder about folks reading this, or are they being blown away from all that is happening in our world today. The war on Iraq was built on lies, and still, G.W. Bush seems intent on fooling US in stealing another election. John F. Kerry continues in his elitist role in the traditions of the politics of deceit and betrayal. Why? What justification can endorse this war or stay on its course? Only madness can consume an ideology where stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and proliferation of terror are used in the rationalization and illusion of control, fear, power, and greed.
Item 1 begins with a reporter of integrity, in a most polite way encouraging Senator Kerry to come to grips and join the protest of an illegal occupation and war not only against a foreign people, but one that is causing irreparable harm to thousands of innocent people in service to protect the USA. We have seen the enemy and learned it is oneself. The rest of the items are more resources on the madness consuming our lives, and on the little time left to take a different path to avert extraordinary circumstances and unprecedented harm. Please note the article especially on "Dirty bomb attack a matter of time.."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"The United States is the most powerful among the technically
advanced countries in the world today. Its' influence on the
shaping of international relations is absolutely incalculable.
But America is a large country, and its people have so far not
shown much interest in great international problems,
among which the problem of disarmament
occupies first place today.
This must be changed, if only in America's own interest.
The last war has shown that there are no longer any barriers
between the continents and that the destinies of all countries
are closely interwoven. The people of this country must realize
that they have a great responsibility in the sphere of
international politics. The part of passive spectator is unworthy
of this country and is bound in the end
to lead to disaster all round."
Albert Einstein
(from an interview in the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, 1921)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Please note, too, the article: "Bush Knew About Leak of CIA Operative's Name," which has been little discussed by mainstream media. Yet it answers why Bush might have sought legal counsel. Many thanks to Michael Moore, who is doing more than most in not letting Bush off the hook for betraying our Country. John Kerry, we must ask, where are you coming from? Skull and Bones, or are you also convinced, like Bush, by the corruption of the elitists that believe they must control a democracy from the dangers they have placed into our lives?
To update you on the Western Shoshone Distribution Bill alert in the last issue, we have a bit of good news. Likely due to strong citizens' responses, the bill continues to be held off from a House Floor vote. However, legislative staffers said that the bill was pulled for technical reasons, and could be put back up at any time, but probably not within the next two weeks. So stay alert. Western Shoshone grandmother Carrie Dann will speak at the June 9, 2004 Press Conference for the launch of International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defender's Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in the U.S. The event will begin at 9:15 am at the Capitol Building. For more information see frontlinedefenders.org or wsdp.org.
On another related issues, please keep in touch with the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
"To love life, is to love everything that lives"
Author unknown
1) Message To Kerry: Time To Protest War Again
- - United for Peace - Bring Our Troops Home Now
- - Soldiers, families speak out about war
- - Kerry: Bush Army Plan Is 'Backdoor Draft'
- - Kerry's support for Israel repels Arab voters
- - Kucinich hopes to influence party platform
- - Walter Cronkite's 2004 Commencement Address
- - US frantic to soften harsh language in UN rights report on Iraq
- - Pro-war US newspaper admits: Bush is a liar
- - Bush's Erratic Behavior Worries White House Aides
- - Message To Kerry: Time To Protest War Again by Helen Thomas
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, is doing better in the polls and has a slight edge over President George W. Bush.
But one step he should take to dramatically frame his candidacy would be to make a total break with Bush's failing policy in Iraq.
Kerry, who first came to the national political scene with his anti-Vietnam war mission in the 1970s, should concede he made a big mistake in supporting the invasion of Iraq and blame it on Bush for giving him false information about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction.
Kerry has a great opportunity coming up to make that break -- on June 30 when a U.N.-created caretaker Iraqi government takes over sovereignty of its country.
That would be the time for Kerry to acknowledge the truth that Congress and he -- and the entire nation -- were misled by the administration's claims that Saddam has both weapons of mass destruction and ties to the al-Qaida terrorists. The facts show that these claims were false.
The only question is whether the CIA made a good-faith mistake on those points -- or whether high Bush administration officials pressured the CIA to fabricate those findings and thus provide an excuse for Bush to order an attack on Iraq.
Kerry should declare that if he were elected president, he would set a timetable for gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, with the pullout complete by January when Iraqi elections are to be held.
Such a bold move by Kerry would show courage and it would blunt any political appeal that Ralph Nader's tough anti-war rhetoric may attract.
How long does Kerry want to subject American troops to a no-win war in Iraq?
While there is no way to "win" this war, we can salvage some honor by leaving gracefully.
There is growing evidence that the American people are getting fed up with the administration's shifting rationale for keeping U.S. troops in the hostile nation.
The world won't soon forget the disgrace of the Iraqi prisoner abuse and the shameful detentions of many innocent Iraqis.
The tragedy of a war of "choice" resulting in hundreds of Americans and thousands of Iraqis dead surely has dawned on Kerry. Public support for this war is becoming fainter, with even some hawks eager to find a way out.
Kerry's Vietnam experience should serve as a model for him.
Along with most of his Senate colleagues, Kerry supported the congressional resolution that gave Bush a green light for his ill-advised and unprovoked war. Few lawmakers asked questions at the time.
That resolution is along the same lines as the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin resolution that gave President Lyndon B. Johnson the green light to go into the Vietnam debacle.
In both cases -- Iraq and Vietnam -- the president was permitted to do what is "necessary" to protect the United States.
Kerry came home from Vietnam as a Navy officer with three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star for combat.
Disillusioned with the war, he organized the Vietnam Veterans against the War and testified in 1971 before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee against further U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia.
That's when he said famously, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam?"
Some 30-plus years later, he has become establishment, cautious and self-protective, in contrast to his forthright youth.
During the primary season, some anti-war Democrats taunted Kerry and accused him of giving Bush a blank check to wage war. Indeed, Kerry's foreign policy is hardly distinguishable from Bush.
After 18 comfortable years in the Senate, Kerry has lost the persona that had set him apart back in the Vietnam era.
On the Middle East, Kerry is simply a "me too" echo of Bush when it comes to endorsing Israel's illegal land grab on the Palestinian-occupied West Bank.
Kerry also has yet to make a strong clear difference with Bush on domestic issues.
The presidential election should be a referendum on Bush's unpopular decision to take this country into a costly and unnecessary war that has lost us respect around the world.
It's time for Kerry to split with the administration on this ill-conceived war. Otherwise, disaffected voters may decide to sit this one out.
commondreams.org/views04/0520-13.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - United for Peace - Bring Our Troops Home Now
The occupation of Iraq is sliding into war crimes and deepening violence against civilians. Send a message to both John Kerry and George W. Bush: bring our troops home, now.
To sign the "Two Letters from the Unsilent Majority," go to unitedforpeace.org/UnsilentMajority
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Soldiers, families speak out about war
www.pulsetc.com/article.php?sid=1118
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"My son's Death is NOT ok! This war is NOT ok."
This following link is to a transcript of a statement by a grieving father who lost his son in the US war against the people of Iraq, presented at the Fresno River Park this past Memorial Day.
www.sunmt.org/june2chron04.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kerry: Bush Army Plan Is 'Backdoor Draft'
John Kerry said Thursday that the Bush administration has instituted a "backdoor draft" by requiring thousands of soldiers to stay in the military if their units are ordered to Iraq or Afghanistan
http://tinyurl.com/2osxl
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kerry's support for Israel repels Arab voters
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=4729
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich hopes to influence party platform
www.mtstandard.com/articles/2004/05/25/newsstate/hjjfjehejbjdeh.txt
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Walter Cronkite's 2004 Commencement Address
www.pomona.edu/ADWR/President/04speech.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - US frantic to soften harsh language in UN rights report on Iraq
The United States is scrambling to soften allegedly harsh and inflammatory criticism of the US-led coalition in Iraq that is expected to be contained in a UN human rights report to be released this week
sg.news.yahoo.com/040602/1/3ksdw.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Pro-war US newspaper admits: Bush is a liar
By Patrick Martin; 3 June 2004
www.wsws.org/articles/2004/jun2004/bush-j03.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush's Erratic Behavior Worries White House Aides
www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/printer_4636.shtml
2) "Fahrenheit 9/11" Wins Top Prize in Cannes by Michael Moore
May 23, 2004
Friends,
Hello from Cannes! I'm sure by now many of you have heard the good news"Fahrenheit 9/11" has won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival. It is the first time in nearly 50 years a documentary has won the Palme d'Or (the Golden Palm).
Myself and twenty-six members of our crew are here in Cannes and we are in a state of shock. None of us expected this. First came the critics' reviews on Monday (The New York Times called it my best film ever), then the audience reaction at our premiere (a 20-minute standing ovation, a new all-time record for the festival), the International Federation of Film Critics Award on Friday, and then the best film prize last night. It's all been an incredible week for us and I can't wait to get back home and show you all this wonderfully powerful film we've made.
No, we still don't have a distributor in America as I write this but after winning the world's top film prize I'd give it about one more day (if that) before we have someone brave enough (and smart enough) to show Americans what the world can already see (Albania, this week, became the final countryother than the U.S.to sign on with a distributor).
I am still hoping for a July release (4th of July weekend?) both in the U.S. and around the world.
I fully expect the right wing and the Republican Party to come at me and this film with everything they've got. They will try, as they have unsuccessfully in the past, to attack me personally because they cannot win the debate on the issues the film raisesnamely, that they are a pack of liars and the American people are on to them. And, if the early screenings of "Fahrenheit 9/11" are any indication, those who see this movie will never view the Bush administration in the same way again. Even if you already can't stomach George W. Bush & Co., I think this movie will take you to places you haven't gone before, with laughter and with tears.
I will let you all knowas soon as we have a distributorthe date the film is opening. Until then, check out some of the articles that have been written, and check out the awards ceremony from Cannes.
Thanks everyone for your support.
Yours,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com
P.S. When you hear the wackos on Fox News and elsewhere refer to this prize as coming from "the French," please know that of the nine members of the Festival jury, only ONE was French. Nearly half the jury (four) were Americans and the President of the jury was an American (Quentin Tarantino). But this fact won't stop the O'Reillys or the Lenos or the Limbaughs from attacking the French and me because, well, that's how their simple minds function.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
'Fahrenheit' has elder Bush boiling
www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/198634p-171525c.html
3) Dirty bomb attack a matter of time, say experts
- - Bush Knew About Leak of CIA Operative's Name
- - George Tenet Goes Down
- - From Democracy Now Tenet, Lies, & Oil Politics
- - Dirty bomb attack a matter of time, say experts
Experts believe it is only a question of time before terrorists use a "dirty bomb," a device that would spew radioactive debris over a city, making parts of it uninhabitable for years, New Scientist magazine says. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) records point to "a dramatic rise" in the smuggling of radiological substances, the raw material for this bomb, the British science weekly says. Since 1993, there have been 300 confirmed cases of illicit trafficking in radiological materials, 215 of them in the past five years. But, according to the IAEA documents, the true figure may be far higher.
Published in "News 24" [South Africa],
3 June 2004; see:
www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,6119,2-10-1462_1536811,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush Knew About Leak of CIA Operative's Name
Witnesses told a federal grand jury President George W. Bush knew about, and took no action to stop, the release of a covert CIA operative's name to a journalist in an attempt to discredit her husband, a critic of administration policy in Iraq.
www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4629.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - George Tenet Goes Down
William Rivers Pitt | Down Goes Tenet
www.truthout.org/docs_04/060404A.shtml
The TO Overview
William Rivers Pitt: 'George Tenet, Judas Goat
Extraordinaire'
www.truthout.org/overview.htm
Is Tenet the Fall Guy?
www.truthout.org/docs_04/060504A.shtml
Second Top Official Quits CIA
www.truthout.org/docs_04/060504B.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - From Democracy Now Tenet, Lies, & Oil Politics
Program aired on June 3, 2004
27-Year CIA Vet Ray McGovern discusses Tenet's resignation minutes after the announcement.
Listen/Watch/Read
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/03/1626202
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Secrets and Lies: Author Dilip Hiro on Chalabi, the CIA and the Battle for Iraq *
Listen/Watch/Read
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/03/142244
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
As the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meets in Beirut, Democracy Now! takes a look at global oil politics with Jim Paul, executive director of the Global Policy Forum.
Listen/Watch/Read
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/03/142249
4) U.S. Told Saudis to Let Al-Qaida Gunmen Escape
Published in The Scotsman [UK],
3 June 2004
U.S. Told Saudis to Let Al-Qaida Gunmen Escape Says Official
Saudi authorities gave safe passage to three al-Qaida gunmen after the they killed 10 of the hostages they were holding at a hotel in the oil hub of Khobar, a senior security official said.
The Saudi official said upon hearing hostages had been killed, US officials advised the Saudis that letting the militants go would avert a bigger catastrophe.
The US embassy in Riyadh did not have immediate comment on the Saudi official's account, which dovetailed with witness accounts.
Officially, the Saudi Interior Ministry has said the three used hostages as human shields to escape Saudi commandos on Sunday and a fourth attacker, said to be the ringleader, was captured.
The official said the three walked away at about 220 a.m. on Sunday, hours before 80 commandoes landed on the roof of the hotel by helicopter and began knocking on the hostages' doors to tell them they were free to leave.
At 220 a.m., reporters less than a block away from the Oasis Compound housing the hotel saw bullets streaking over their heads from the direction of the complex. The official said that was machine gun fire from one of two accomplices who were in a car not far from the site and were covering the three men's escape.
The attackers walked across the compound, stole a van and fled Khobar to nearby Dammam, the official said. They then abandoned the vehicle for a car commandeered at gunpoint from a Saudi driver and drove off with police in pursuit.
The three left behind a fourth militant because they thought he was dead, the official said. Saudi authorities had reported the gunman they had in custody was wounded.
The escape of the three gunmen, who killed 22 people, including a Briton, in a shooting rampage that began at two oil industry office compounds and ended 25 hours later, has stunned Saudis and expatriates.
Many are wondering how the militants could have slipped away in an area bristling with hundreds of troops.
One reason the Saudi government has given a sketchy account of what happened is that it does not want to be seen as negotiating with terrorists.
The official said Saudi authorities at first turned down the gunmen's request for safe passage. But then the militants started killing hostages, the official said. He said the Americans, who were in consultation with the Saudis, advised them to let the men go.
Other Saudi officials have said four Americans who were staying at the hotel had taken refuge on the roof without the knowledge of the gunmen and were rescued a few hours before dawn.
He said the hostages were in contact with security forces by telephone, and the main concern was keeping their presence a secret from the militants.
The above article was posted at
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3014134
5) Bilderberg Meeting June 4th in Italy
Guess who's at super-secret Bilderberg meeting today
Italy hosts 50th-anniversary confab of
mysterious society of world leaders
Posted: June 4, 2004 -- 1:00 a.m. Eastern
2004 WorldNetDaily.com
The 50th anniversary conference of the elite Bilderberg group which many believe conspires semi-annually to foster global government is under way in Stresa, Italy.
The conference, which began yesterday and will run through Sunday, is being hosted at the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees.
Since 1953, the Bilderberg group has convened government, business, academic and journalistic representatives from the U.S., Canada and Europe with the express purpose of exploring the future of the North Atlantic community.
According to sources that have penetrated the high-security meetings in the past, the Bilderberg meetings emphasize a globalist agenda and promote the idea that the notion of national sovereignty is antiquated and regressive.
'Shadowy aura'
"It's officially described as a private gathering," noted a BBC report last year, "but with a guest list including the heads of European and American corporations, political leaders and a few intellectuals, it's one of the most influential organizations on the planet."
And according to a current BBC report on the conference in Stresa: "Not a word of what is said at Bilderberg meetings can be breathed outside. No reporters are invited in and while confidential minutes of meetings are taken, names are not noted. The shadowy aura extends further the anonymous answer-phone message, for example; the fact that conference venues are kept secret. The group, which includes luminaries such as Henry Kissinger and former UK chancellor Kenneth Clarke, does not even have a website."
But, counter participants, the secrecy is not evidence of a grand conspiracy, but only an opportunity to speak frankly with other world leaders out of the limelight of press coverage and its inevitable repercussions.
"There's absolutely nothing in it," argues the UK's Lord Denis Healey, one of the four founders of Bilderberg. "We never sought to reach a consensus on the big issues at Bilderberg," he told the BBC. "It's simply a place for discussion."
Here is the partial guest list of the current meeting obtained by WorldNetDaily which includes Senators John Edwards, D-N.C. and Jon Corzine, D-N.J., Henry Kissinger, Richard Perle, Melinda Gates (wife of Bill Gates), David Rockefeller, Timothy F. Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Donald Graham, chairman and CEO of the Washington Post Company, and even Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition:
For the posted article with more on the "guest list," see:
worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38783
"We're not a democracy. It's a terrible misunderstanding
and a slander to the idea of democracy to call us that.
In reality, we're a plutocracy: a government by the wealthy."
Ramsey Clark,
former U.S. Attorney General
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
ShoshoneAlert * AlGore * Out of Iraq * Deception
29 May 2004
"Dominance is not really a strategic policy or political philosophy at all.
It is a seductive illusion that tempts the powerful to satiate their hunger
for more power still by striking a Faustian bargain. And as always happens
-- sooner or later -- to those who shake hands with the devil,
they find out too late that what they have given up in the bargain is their soul."
Al Gore,
{former Vice President and last elected President of US}
1) Western Shoshone Defense Project Needs Your Help
2) Al Gore Speaks on the Bush-US Disgrace
- - Information Clearinghouse News Summary Links
3) America's Only Decent Way Out Of Iraq
- - Kerry's New/Old World Order
- - Tell the Democratic Party: We Want U.S. Troops out of Iraq
4) Expose the Deception - the coming Nuke
- - Democracy Now! debates Bush behind 9/11 Attacks
Editor's Notes:
Please be ready to call Congress this Tuesday and Wednesday, following the Memorial Day holiday, in support of the Western Shoshone Defense Project. Updated information on this action is linked in item 1. The second item begins with a powerhouse speech by former US vice president Al Gore. Is he compensating for his lackadaisical approach in his debates and election of 2000. Whatever, truth is truth, and his call for outing the Bush administration is appropriate for the time being. In the second section of this item is links to news summaries from Information Clearinghouse. Item 3 begins with an article on a sound plan for a solution in the crisis in Iraq by General Anthony Zinni. Then, for contrast, comes Senator Kerry's waffling plan for a new/old world order. Then, Congressman Kucinich's steadfast work for peace in our world. This item includes a link to the petition and powerful efforts to influence the Democratic Party's plank for a peace resolution regarding the US out of Iraq! Item 4 begins with a piece from the editor of 911review.org, and then links to the debate aired on Democracy Now! regarding some of the information in the new book by theologian David Ray Griffin that alleges the Pentagon may have been hit by a missile on Sept. 11 and that the Twin Towers collapsed from a controlled explosion.
"There shall be no harm for harm,
no revenge for revenge."
- The Prophet Muhammad
1) Western Shoshone Defense Project Needs Your Help
Action Alert - May 27, 2004
Current legislation before the United States Congress, entitled the Western Shoshone Distribution Bill (HR 884/S 618), is an attempt to strip away U.S. treaty obligations and Western Shoshone connections to their homeland by a mere one time payment of cents on the acre. Last week we received information that under the guise of bi-partisanship, Senator Harry Reid and Congressman Jim Gibbons are once again gearing up to force this one time payment on the Western Shoshone people for 24 million acres of land at approximately 15 cents an acre. The bill is HR 884/S 618, entitled the "Western Shoshone Claims Distribution Act". The bill could come up for a vote on the suspension calendar in the full House as early as this week or shortly after the Memorial Day recess on June 2nd. If you want to express your concerns please contact your local representatives and the key congressional contacts listed below on Tuesday and Wednesday, on June 1st and June 2nd, 2004!
The fear of many Western Shoshone people and the majority of Councils is that the forced distribution of these monies by Congress will be used to silence Western Shoshone concerns regarding U.S. violations of the Treaty of Ruby Valley and ongoing violations against Western Shoshone rights to property, due process and equality under the law. This push is being made at the same time that the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste repository is being pushed along and Congressman Gibbons' is sponsoring other legislation, HR 2869 and HR 2772, which would open up Shoshone lands to privatization by multinational mining companies and massive geothermal energy development with no provision for Western Shoshone interests or concerns. Additionally, in the last two weeks, Notices of Intent to Impound livestock have again been received by Western Shoshone grandmothers Mary and Carrie Dann and other Western Shoshone ranchers. The Western Shoshone Nation needs your help now. What affects one community affects us all.
"As Western Shoshone, we have been fighting for many years to simply remain who we are - Western Shoshone. The earth is our mother and land provides us with life, like the water and the air. To take this land from us will be to lead us into a spiritual death. Please help us to stop this unconstitutional, unjust and unwanted payment." Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone grandmother.
"The elders before us stood up for life and their understanding of the Treaty and this elder and others still stand for the Treaty and life. Our Indian children are over in Iraq supposedly fighting for their country. And yet our Nevada Congressional leaders through the Western Shoshone Distribution Act are trying to take away the Western Shoshone homeland. What are our Shoshone kids going to come back to - What are they fighting for? If the war on terrorism is about protecting this country then why is our own government trying to take away our homelands?" Mary McCloud, Western Shoshone elder.
For key members of Congress to contact, key issues and for sample letters, see:
wsdp.org/alerts.htm
2) Al Gore on the Bush-US Disgrace
- - Information Clearinghouse News Summary Links
- - MilitaryCorruption.com - Fire Rumsfeld Now!
MoveOn: Gore Speaks on Bush's Policy of Domination
MoveOn, a grassroots political organization, sponsored a powerful speech by former Vice President Al Gore on the fallout from the war in Iraq. In the speech, Mr. Gore took on the Bush administration, arguing that the "abuse of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib flowed directly from the abuse of the truth that characterized the Administration's march to war and the abuse of the trust that had been placed in President Bush by the American people in the aftermath of September 11th." To sustained applause, he then called for the architects of the Bush foreign policy Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, George Tenet, Paul Wolfowitz, and others -- to resign, arguing that "the current team is making things worse with each passing day."
You can read a full transcript of the speech and watch a five-minute video of the highlights at: http://www.moveonpac.org/gore/
In his speech, Al Gore clearly stated that the Bush-Neocon policy has made us less safe as a country:
"The unpleasant truth is that President Bush's utter incompetence has made the world a far more dangerous place and dramatically increased the threat of terrorism against the United States. Just yesterday, the International Institute of Strategic Studies reported that the Iraq conflict " has arguable focused the energies and resources of Al Qaeda and its followers while diluting those of the global counterterrorism coalition." The ISS said that in the wake of the war in Iraq Al Qaeda now has more than 18,000 potential terrorists scattered around the world and the war in Iraq is swelling its ranks."
To sustained applause, he then called for the resignation of the Bush foreign policy team:
"One of the strengths of democracy is the ability of the people to regularly demand changes in leadership and to fire a failing leader and hire a new one with the promise of hopeful change. That is the real solution to America's quagmire in Iraq. But, I am keenly aware that we have seven months and twenty five days remaining in this president's current term of office and that represents a time of dangerous vulnerability for our country because of the demonstrated incompetence and recklessness of the current administration."
"It is therefore essential that even as we focus on the fateful choice, the voters must make this November that we simultaneously search for ways to sharply reduce the extraordinary danger that we face with the current leadership team in place. It is for that reason that I am calling today for Republicans as well as Democrats to join me in asking for the immediate resignations of those immediately below George Bush and Dick Cheney who are most responsible for creating the catastrophe that we are facing in Iraq."
"We desperately need a national security team with at least minimal competence because the current team is making things worse with each passing day. They are endangering the lives of our soldiers, and sharply increasing the danger faced by American citizens everywhere in the world, including here at home. They are enraging hundreds of millions of people and embittering an entire generation of anti-Americans whose rage is already near the boiling point."
"We simply cannot afford to further increase the risk to our country with more blunders by this team. Donald Rumsfeld, as the chief architect of the war plan, should resign today. His deputies Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith and his intelligence chief Stephen Cambone should also resign. The nation is especially at risk every single day that Rumsfeld remains as Secretary of Defense. Condoleezza Rice, who has badly mishandled the coordination of national security policy, should also resign immediately." And, at the end, he called for us to hold Bush accountable in November:
"I want to speak on behalf of those Americans who feel that President Bush has betrayed our nation's trust, those who are horrified at what has been done in our name, and all those who want the rest of the world to know that we Americans see the abuses that occurred in the prisons of Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo and secret locations as yet undisclosed as completely out of keeping with the character and basic nature of the American people and at odds with the principles on which America stands."
"I believe we have a duty to hold President Bush accountable -- and I believe we will. As Lincoln said at our time of greatest trial, 'We -- even we here -- hold the power, and bear the responsibility.'"
To read the whole speech and watch video highlights of the best moments, go to:
moveonpac.org/gore/
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Related article from the Washington Post:
[Excerpt]
GORE CALLS FOR TOP OFFICIALS TO RESIGN
DEMOCRAT ASSAILS BUSH'S WAR CABINET
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 27, 2004; Page A03
Former vice president Al Gore accused President Bush's war cabinet of reckless incompetence yesterday and called for the resignations of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and CIA Director George J. Tenet.
"George W. Bush promised us a foreign policy with humility. Instead, he has brought us humiliation in the eyes of the world," Gore said at a speech in New York sponsored by the liberal MoveOn PAC. "We simply cannot afford to further increase the risk to our country with more blunders by this team."
Gore, jabbing his fingers and raising his voice to a shout, called the horrors of the Abu Ghraib prison "the predictable consequence of policy choices that flowed directly from this administration's contempt for the rule of law." His broad critique of that policy ranged from its aims to its vocabulary, and he complained about Bush aides' "frequent use of the word 'dominance' to describe their strategic goal."
To read the complete article, see:
washingtonpost.com/wp.dyn/articles/A57543-2004May26.htm
- - MilitaryCorruption.com - Fire Rumsfeld Now!
Megalomaniac Defense Secretary Must Go! Failure to inform Bush of Iraqi Prisoner Abuse and refusal to obey law on probe into murder of Marine Col. Jimmy Sabow are enough reasons for "Rummie's" ouster. When will Senators McCain and Warner call for Rumsfeld's resignation?
MilitaryCorruption.com
- - Information Clearinghouse News Summary Links
President Bush and Congress have so far provided $191 billion for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and defensive military operations at home, and about two-thirds of the money has been spent or is owed, White House figures show.
sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/breaking_news/8767404.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Bush Plan Eyes Cuts for Schools, Veterans
The Bush administration has told officials who oversee federal education, domestic security, veterans and other programs to prepare preliminary 2006 budgets that would cut spending after the presidential election, according to White House documents.
guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4139732,00.html
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Bush administration was accused yesterday of undermining the work of the UN envoy attempting to put together an interim Iraqi government
news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=525308
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Bush orthodoxy is in shreds
At a conservative thinktank in downtown Washington, and across the Potomac at the Pentagon, FBI agents have begun paying quiet calls on prominent neoconservatives, who are being interviewed in an investigation of potential espionage, according to intelligence sources. Who gave Ahmed Chalabi classified information about the plans of the US government and military?
informationclearinghouse.info/article6255.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Iraqi dissidents: Down, far from out
US friend-to-foe Ahmad Chalabi is now being blamed for Washington's poor intelligence leading up to the Iraq war. This overlooks the fact that the leading candidate for Iraq's premiership, Hussain al-Shahristani, should also shoulder some blame.
atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FE28Ak02.html
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The price of empire
What began on the wings of lofty moral tones is crashing into the mountain of war's hideous debris, much of it -- from the deaths of yet uncounted civilians and soldiers to the abuse of prisoners -- singularly immoral.
ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2004b/052804/052804y.php
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Rape at Abu Ghraib
Practically ignored in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal are the Iraqi female prisoners who have told their attorneys they were raped by U.S. soldiers.
villagevoice.com/issues/0421/mondo2.php
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Bush calls for Saddam execution
"I mean, he is a torturer, a murderer, they had rape rooms. This is a disgusting tyrant who deserves justice, the ultimate justice."
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3326311.stm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Thirty-five percent of Americans say torture is acceptable
50% believe the U.S. government, uses torture as a matter of policy
dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pub&dt=040527&cat=frontpage&st=frontpagetorture_poll_040527&src=abc
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Kissinger records offer parallels to war in Iraq
Transcripts reveal effort to suppress atrocities by U.S. News had just broken of an unimaginable atrocity committed by U.S. soldiers, and the secretary of defense and the national security adviser debated whether there was any way to stop newspapers and TV news programs from showing graphic photos of the victims.
chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2594306
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"The Bright Side of War"
It is certainly nice to know that even though people are being killed, maimed, and made to act out scenes from porn videos, American workers in small towns are prospering making vehicles, equipment, and clothing for the troops.
baltimorechronicle.com/052604FalseReasoning.shtml
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Soldier left brain damaged after playing unruly prisoner at Guantnamo
A UNITED States soldier claims he was left brain damaged by a beating he received while posing as an un-cooperative prisoner at the Guantnamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.
thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=602732004
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Ashcroft: al Qaeda 90 percent ready to attack
Terrorists will 'Hit the United States hard'
abclocal.go.com/wjrt/news/052604_AP_r2_impending_terror_attack.html?DCMP=EMC-wjrt
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Al-Qaeda's strength highlights urgent need for changes in US policy
Before the United States invaded Iraq, wise heads warned that far from being a decisive blow in the US-led global "war on terror," this latest adventure would only fuel international terrorism.
dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&article_id=4484&categ_id=17
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
More "Washington whispers" about possible pre-election terrorist attack
Two pieces published in the press in recent days point to a continuing discussion within the political elite in the US about the electoral consequences of a pre-election terrorist attack. Top officials ponder how such an attack would affect the outcome of the elections.
informationclearinghouse.info/article6256.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Information Clearinghouse represents the effort of one person.
Tom needs your help to offset the costs associated with site hosting and bandwidth usage. To learn how you can support such efforts, go to this following URL link:
informationclearinghouse.info/support.htm
3) America's Only Decent Way Out Of Iraq
- - Kerry's New/Old World Order
- - Tell the Democratic Party: We Want U.S. Troops out of Iraq
America's Only Decent Way Out Of Iraq
by Sam Hamod
05/27/04
All kinds of alleged American experts on world affairs, including most of our senate and both Bush and Kerry have been saying that "America must stay the course." But, as General Anthony Zinni pointed out, "The course is skrewed up. It's like going over Niagra Falls." But I believe America can get out of Iraq and save face at the same time; it's not that difficult, but Bush and his minions will probably not take my advice.
Here is my plan:
First, we must make an agreement with others at the UN and nations in the Arab and Muslim world to pull all U.S. troops out of Iraq after June 30. We must also bring in a truly international force, headed by Arab and Muslim commanders and troops, with some support from other UN members who are seriously interested in peace in the Middle East. Having spoken with various Muslim and Arab ambassadors, and knowing how willing their nations are to help the Iraqi people regain their freedom and dignity, I know they will cooperate fully in order to get the American troops out of Iraq.
Secondly, all contracts made by the Bremer and Garner administrations must be voided so that the new Iraqi government can make its own contracts, rather than be forced to accept the sweetheart contracts that have been made to cheat Iraq out of its wealth for the next 20 years. These contracts have been made illegally, by U.S. administrators and by a puppet "Iraqi Governing Council," that actually had, and have, no legal authority to speak for the nation of Iraqa nation under occupation.
Thirdly, there should be discussions among the leaders of all factions and major tribal units in Iraq so that they may discuss what type of government they want. It may not be a Western type democracy, but as Ayatollah Sistani made clear in several speeches and in discussions with the UN's Lakhdar Brahimi, "We understand democracy and we want a democracy, with a truly democratic election. We do not want a theocratic state like Iran; we prefer a state based on Islamic principles, but that is democratic and run by the rule of law and by elected officials, not run by Imams and Ayatollahs." I am sure most Iraqis feel this way. But, if America stays on, it will lead to more fundamentalist forces gaining more power in Iraq, and this could destroy any hope for a non-theocratic Iraq. Time is running out in this arena.
Fourth, after the Iraqis decide what type of government they want, then the UN, can help set up a proper democratic and fair election, with assistance and monitors from all over the world in order to elect their government. This also means that Iraq will remain united with their representative government of their own making.
There have been some who have talked about cutting Iraq into three parts, for the Kurds, Sunni and Shi'abut this would lead to more problems than good. In the present world, there are many countries that have different ethnic or racial majorities and minoritiesthey function well. As one friend of mine said, "If they want to cut Iraq up, then we in the South should be allowed to secede, since we don't really like being run by New York and Washington." If we divide nations by preference and ethnic groups, then we'll have to divide over 80 nations of the world in Africa, Asia and in the Americasnot a good idea.
The government of Iraq may then enter into agreements, work with other Muslim and Arab governments to get on its feet, and decide when they feel the nation is secure enough to have the troops leave. They will have had help training police, but there is already a nucleus of police and military left over from the Saddam Hussein regime. These people would most certainly focus on helping Iraq now that the dictator has been overthrown. They will function in Iraq, under Iraqis, but most of them will never be loyal to any American commanders, as the Americans found out in Fallujah and now in Baghdad. The American dream to have the Iraqis work with the Americans to dominate the country is just that, a dream that has nothing to do with reality.
If America does this, it will show that it is truly interested in freedom and DEMOCRACY. If America doesn't and tries to run Iraq through Ambassador John Negroponte or the newly appointed General Casey, we will lose thousands more troops, the fighting and bloodshed will not stop, costing the lives of Iraqis, treasure from both America and Iraq and America will find that it will make more enemies in the Arab and Muslim worlds. America will find that in order to truly dominate Iraq, they will have to kill off most of the Iraq population because since the torture at Abu Ghraib has become more widely known, no Iraqi will surrender. Most would rather die than to have those obscene acts performed on them.
My plan is feasible, but I fear that Bush and his greedy friends in the Pentagon, with their macho fanaticism and mistaken values and misunderstanding of Iraq and Iraqis will put us into a quagmire that will be worse than Viet Nam.
I fear if they don't adopt a plan such as mine, Andy Rooney's recent prophecy will come true-- when he warned America that other great empires lost their sense of decency and values, their greed for wealth, power and empire finally led to their collapse. As Rooney and others have pointed out, we're not far from collapse morally, financially and militarilythough it appears that President Bush is not aware of how dangerously precarious things are at this time.
Sam Hamod writes on world affairs, especially on the Middle East and Islam; he is the former editor of 3rd World News (D.C.), a former advisor to the State Depatment and is the retired Director of The Islamic Center of Washington, DC; he may be reached at shamod@cox.net Hamod also taught at Princeton, Michigan, Howard and Iowa.
C. Sam Hamod, May 25, 2004
This article is also posted at:
informationclearinghouse.info/article6258.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kerry's New/Old World Order
Remarks of Senator John F. Kerry
National Security address delivered in Seattle
Thursday 27 May 2004
"Security and Strength for a New World"
See:
truthout.org/docs_04/052804E.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Tell the Democratic Party: We Want U.S. Troops out of Iraq
Over the past three years, the American government has engaged itself in aggressive and arrogant foreign policies that have not only alienated us from the world community, but have made us less safe from the threats of terrorism. George Bush's foreign policies have made us new foreign enemies. George Bush's defense policies have weakened our defenses. George Bush's responses to 9/11 have made future 9/11s far more likely to occur. It was wrong to go into Iraq, and it is wrong to stay in Iraq. It is time to bring in UN peacekeepers, and bring our U.S. troops home.
Please sign, download, and network the Online Petition, sponsored by the campaign of Dennis Kucinich, for the UN in, U.S. out of Iraq. This will support policies to increase U.S. security at home and abroad. Tell the Democratic Party: We Want U.S. Troops out of Iraq:
kucinich.us/petition_iraq1.php
Join Dennis Kucinich in Boston at the Democratic Party's National Convention - July 23 - 29, 2004 - to ensure that your voice is not silenced.
For more information, visit:
kucinich.us/convention/
4) Expose the Deception - the coming Nuke
- - Democracy Now! debates Bush behind 9/11 Attacks
Expose the Deception - the coming Nuke
From: "Editor 911review.org" < editor@911review.org >
Attorney-General Ashcroft and Director of the FBI Mueller say another attack by Al-CiaDuh! is coming soon. They should know, as they are the lead agencies in covering up the last one.
After having deconstructed the physics of the Ali BinLaden and the ninteen Hijackers fairy tale, 9/11 Truth investigators went on to do a brilliant job of deconstructing the media story that went along with it; see
911review.org/Wiki/TruthLiesLegend.shtml
In January of this year, all of the researchers associated with 911review.org began seeing signs in the McMedia of another fairy tale being constructed, about What's Next and as the US "election" draws nearer, the shills are getting louder:
911review.org/Wiki/TheComingNuke.shtml
Looks like it will be sooner rather than later, instead Osama as an October Surprise, and instead of an "election".
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Democracy Now! debates Bush behind 9/11 Attacks
The following introduction is from Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!
In a new book, well known theologian David Ray Griffin, alleges the Pentagon may have been hit by a missile on Sept. 11 and that the Twin Towers collapsed from a controlled explosion. The book has been hailed by many who question the official record of what happened on Sept. 11. But Chip Berlet of the Political Research Associates, who has studied conspiracy theory movements, charges Griffin's book doesn't hold up because it is based on faulty premises and unreliable sources. Today (Wednesday, May 26th, 2004) we have a debate on the book and what happened on 9/11.
To listen, read, or watch this program, see:
democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/26/150221
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Madness * MejiaCourt * 911-Harbor * DemPolitics
21 May 2004
"The U.S. invasion was based on lies:
Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11
or with al-Qaeda's role in it. Iraq didn't have the intention
or capability of attacking America. It did not try to get uranium
from Niger. It had no weapons of mass destruction.
It was wrong to go in. It is wrong to stay in.
This is the time for a peace plan for Iraq
and an exit strategy for the U.S.
The world community will not make a commitment
absent a change of direction in U.S. policy."
Dennis J. Kucinich
{From editorial in USA Today 19 May 2004}
1) 'In the mouth of madness'
- - Berg murder politically motivated?
- - U.S. strike kills 40 at Iraqi wedding party
- - 33 killed in Israel's bloodiest raid in Gaza in years
- - 22 Palestinians killed in Rafah raid
- - Israelis massacre kids
- - 10 Killed As Israeli Occupation Forces Fire On Palestinian Protestors
- - Palestinian Brother and sister gunned down as they collected washing
- - New horrific details of prison abuse provided by Iraqis
2) Democracy Now! Camilo Mejia Witnessed Torture of Iraqi
3) The New Pearl Harbor
- - International Citizens' Inquiry Into 9/11
4) Kucinich and Supporters for a Sane Democratic Party Platform
- - "Dear California Democratic Newsletter'
- - Guardian article on Skull and Bones
- - Nader & Kerry Discuss White House Bids
- - Kucinich: Get U.S. military out of Iraq
Editor's Notes:
Thanks to John Kaminski for doing opposite of what he writes in the subheading of his latest article: "As mass insanity grips the world, people of principle remain silent." His article, 'In the mouth of madness' is brilliant and heartfelt. Among the walking dead there are a minority of awakened souls traumatized by the absolute madness of these times, and the ruthless betrayal of those with truth and honor. One with honor is facing court martial today, Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia, for refusing to return to Iraq. Item 2 is the Democracy Now!'s interview with Camilo Mejia's aunt, Norma Castillo en route to the court martial proceedings in Fort Stewart, Georgia. This Friday, 21 May, Amy Goodman will be interviewing David Ray Griffin, author of "The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11." The full-hour segment will also feature 9/11 widow Ellen Mariani, who turned down $1.8 million from the government compensation fund in order to file a RICO Act lawsuit against the Bush Administration for complicity in 9/11. The second section of item 3 includes information on an International Citizens' Inquiry Into 9/11, and a upcoming conference in Toronto. Item 4 touches on politics: Nader, Kerry, and Kucinich. The two articles on Kerry and Nader's meeting is disgustingly void of substance, which reminded me of the Gore-Bush-Nader menagerie. Yet the one with the most substance, Dennis Kucinich, is still treated as an outsider. Kucinich got double digits in the Oregon Primary, around 16%, and added to his delegate pool to bring to the Convention. Yet the increase in the death-rate in Palestine and Iraq is skyrocketing, and time is of the essence. Please take action wherever you can, the silent majority can remain silent no more unless madness becomes the only option.
Please note that Flyby News links to Information Clearing House, Democracy Now!, Truthout, Common Dreams, News Insider, Citizens for a Legitimate Government, and other key resources that are used in this and other issues from near the bottom of FlybyNews.com. This page has recently been updated, so feel welcome to visit and help support key resources for independent late breaking news and perspective. Bill Moyers recently stated that such independent online news sources resemble those of the early days of the independent press publications during the US American Revolution period. Though created by the Department of Advanced Research Projects Agency, (DoD), the Internet could become a tool for the transformation of madness of current US foreign policies and betrayal of the US Constitution. Please help network Flyby News and support such critical resources for life and integrity's survival in the 21st Century.
"More than an end to war,
we want an end to the beginning of all wars - yes,
an end to this brutal, inhuman and thoroughly impractical
method of settling the differences between governments. "
Franklin D. Roosevelt
1) 'In the mouth of madness'
- - Berg murder politically motivated?
- - U.S. strike kills 40 at Iraqi wedding party
- - 33 killed in Israel's bloodiest raid in Gaza in years
- - 22 Palestinians killed in Rafah raid
- - Israelis massacre kids
- - 10 Killed As Israeli Occupation Forces Fire On Palestinian Protestors
- - Palestinian Brother and sister gunned down as they collected washing
- - New horrific details of prison abuse provided by Iraqis
'In the mouth of madness'
As mass insanity grips the world,
people of principle remain silent
By John Kaminski
skylax@comcast.net
[Excerpt]
A lot of you have been asking why I haven't written anything lately. My jaw dropped about three weeks ago and damn few words have come out of my mouth ever since. Mostly I've been asking for food, lots of food. And watching a lot of movies, the black and white ones, film noir, trying to pretend I don't live in this world of 2004. I think this is what many people do when they reach a certain age, when current events overtake them and they can't cope with it, and try to take refuge in the past. But let's face it. I can't cope with this reality. It's more than I can handle. The best phrase to describe it? Incredulous stupefaction. My head just wags back and forth involuntarily these days.
Some of my friends say I simply read too much bad news. Since the 9/11 deception, there's been anthrax, Afghanistan, Patriot Act, and Iraq, to list the major chapters that go along with perhaps the worst of all the atrocities, that neverending story about the mass murder of the Palestinians that the world seems so good at ignoring. And I've been writing about all this ceaselessly for the past couple of years. And I don't mean to demean all those wonderful people who have written to me in appreciative support, but hell, there are six billion people in the world, and most of them are not listening, or doing anything constructive to stop this juggernaut of carnage that is really the world's dominant moneymaking operation. Strife makes money for the rich losers who foment it. And it's getting me down to the point of speechlessness. What hope exists if people who profess to adhere to the principles of the good life remain silent?
For me, this recent paralysis really began with the Abu Ghairab prison revelations. Attaching that poor Iraqi man to electrical wires. That's a photograph that ranks with Jack Ruby plugging Lee Harvey Oswald, with the Challenger explosion, with that little naked Vietnamese girl running screaming from napalm in the ranks of the most famous pictures in American history. Any American that doesn't feel an overwhelming sense of shame is a complete sociopath.
Unfortunately, it would seem that a majority of the American populace as well as virtually all its leaders are exactly that: mealymouthed chickenshit perverted immoral sadistic sociopaths. And many of them carry holy books and insist these atrocities are justified.
If the objective of the great Zionist Illuminati Masonic conspiracy is to completely demoralize Americans, the prison scandal was the thing that did it for me. And I'm not one who has exactly tried to hide his head in the sand over time. I've tried to deal with all the facts in a forthright way.
9/11 was an inside job covered up by politicians we elected and media we read every day. The anthrax attacks came from our own government, but no one was prosecuted. The Patriot Act was a clearly provable act of treason in which virtually all of our Congress participated. Afghanistan was target practice on hapless nomads to reestablish the drug trade that is run by the CIA. And Iraq. Poor Iraq. The American presence in Iraq is what? What do you want to call it?
A deliberate attempt to show the world what will happen to it if it opposes American financial totalitarianism? Your residents will be shot down in cold blood. Those who survive will be stripped naked and raped if they're female, humiliated if they're male. Ghoulish American soldiers will trifle with the corpses of your relatives and make photographs to send home to their friends to prove they're insane.
America robbed Iraq of everything it had, its riches, its dignity, its health, its future. This is the real message America is sending to the world. If the rest of the world doesn't stop America in its tracks, right now, the world has no future. Or, the future it has will be the rubble of the Gaza strip and the makeshift cemeteries of Fallujah.
Imagine. Turning Yankee Stadium into a giant makeshift cemetery. That's what real people husbands and moms and orphaned children are contemplating today in Fallujah. The brave people of Fallujah who repulsed the great American war machine. And then the images of Abu Ghraib and the new American gulag that stretches around the world return. These prisoners have no rights and face torture, even though their captors know they are innocent. This is the new (?) American way, a disgusting reality that most Americans refuse to face.
It is one thing to pretend you don't know American prosperity has been gained by the exploitation of millions of Third World peasants. It is quite another thing to know that the American military practices a policy of torture and indiscriminate murder everywhere in the world. And so, like me, Americans turn away from the psychotic spectacle, unable to cope with it.
But we all ought to think twice about doing this, about not facing the reality of what is happening now. Because if we turn away from this, we're only inviting the same sick thugs to do the same sick stuff to us.
If we leave George W. Bush in charge or for that matter, if we elect John Kerry we guarantee that we all will be prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison, in one stark form or another.
The paradigm is, of course, Nick Berg. There are so many questions about that sorry beheading episode that an accurate analysis of the whole event remains impossible. But what is obvious is American involvement. The powers that be had this man killed to create a public relations episode to take the media focus off its appalling torture and murder of imprisoned Iraqi innocents.
Do you realize what this means? It means that it is now OK for the U.S. federal government to come into your home and kill you because they then will tell a story to the public explaining what a threat you were to Homeland Security. If you think this is farfetched, I suggest you watch the Nick Berg carefully video and contemplate your own future. (Hint: you have none.)
Who will be held responsible for this horrific act? We know the policy of emotionally devastating prisoners of the U.S. war machine came from the very top of the organizational chart. We know that this stunt was ordered by the same power freaks who staged 9/11 to cram a state of permanent war down our throats.
And yet we accede to it. What can we DO about it? we ask. We pretend we are powerless. In my mind, George W. Bush is already guilty of mass murder and treason for what he did or didn't do about 9/11. As commander in chief of the war machine, he must also take responsibility for Nick Berg, a deliberate murder for propaganda purposes. I wonder if God told him to do it, just like God told him to invade Afghanistan. Doesn't it chill you to know that the life of an American citizen can be squandered in this way, so cynically, with all the public facts about so twisted? Please contemplate the chances that something like this could happen to you.
And continue to ask the question: who is to be held responsible for all these murders, these endless murders? Who do you think? In my need to escape this bleak news-scape these days, I contemplate a movie made more than a decade ago that, like all good movies do, reflects what is happening now. It was called "In the Mouth of Madness," made by that controversial Grade-B horror movie guru John Carpenter. And it depicts a progressively horrific sequence of inexplicable murders woven into a tale about some psycho and his holy book.
The astonishing punchline at the end reveals that the people who are watching the movie in horror are actually the same people who are IN the movie committing the bloody murders. You can imagine the wide-eyed hysterical laughter when the main character realizes he is the person in the movie doing the killing.
In fact, if you watch the evening news tonight, and then go into your bathroom and stare into the mirror, you can probably re-create the scene yourself.
John Kaminski is the author of "America's Autopsy Report," a collection of his Internet essays that have appeared on hundreds of websites around the world, and "The Day America Died: Why You Shouldn't Believe the Official Version of What Happened on September 11, 2001," a booklet designed to be read by those who continue to trust what the U.S. government is saying. For information about both, go to johnkaminski.com/ Or, to read some more of
his essays at: rudemacedon.ca/kaminski/kam-index.html
This complete article, 'In the mouth of madness' posted at:
rense.com/general53/gr.htm
"As mass insanity grips the world,
people of principle remain silent"
John Kaminski
johnkaminski.com/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Berg murder politically motivated?
By Margie Burns
Online Journal Contributing Writer
onlinejournal.com/Commentary/051704Burns/051704burns.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - U.S. strike kills 40 at Iraqi wedding party
A U.S. helicopter fired on a wedding party early Wednesday in western Iraq, killing more than 40 people, Iraqi officials said. The U.S. military said it could not confirm the report and was investigating.
newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-wowedd0520,0,6828667.story?coll=ny-nation-big-pix
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 33 killed in Israel's bloodiest raid in Gaza in years
Israeli media said at least 22 bodies, most of them school children, had been counted after the strike in the Rafah camp
forbes.com/home/newswire/2004/05/19/rtr1377078.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 22 Palestinians killed in Rafah raid
At least 22 Palestinians are reported killed and around 50 injured in an Israeli helicopter strike on a demonstration in the southern Gaza refugee camp of Rafah.
rte.ie/news/2004/0519/mideast01.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Israelis massacre kids
The hospital stairs and floors were drenched in blood and staff treated the wounded on the floors after running out of beds.
thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004231101,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 10 Killed As Israeli Occupation Forces Fire On Palestinian Protestors
Forces fired tank shells, helicopter missiles and machine-guns Wednesday on a large crowd of Palestinians demonstrating against an Israeli invasion of a neighboring refugee camp, killing at least 10 people, the majority of them children
msnbc.msn.com/id/5004007/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Palestinian Brother and sister gunned down as they collected washing
A Palestinian brother and sister, aged 13 and 16, were killed by Israeli fire in a Gaza refugee camp today as they took down the washing from a rooftop clothesline, their family said.
212.2.162.45/news/story.asp?j=104603078&p=yx46x3784&n=104603838
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - New horrific details of prison abuse provided by Iraqis
Previously secret sworn statements by detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq describe in raw detail abuse that goes well beyond what has been made public, adding allegations of prisoners being ridden like animals, sexually fondled by female soldiers and forced to retrieve their food from toilets. Some of the detainees said they were pressed to denounce Islam or were force-fed pork and liquor. Many provided graphic details of how they were sexually humiliated and assaulted, threatened with rape, and forced to masturbate in front of female soldiers.
The Washington Post [US], 21 May 2004 click for article
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43783-2004May20.html
2) Democracy Now! Camilo Mejia Witnessed Torture of Iraqi
Army Conscientious Objector Camilo Mejia
Witnessed Torture of Iraqi Detainees in May 2003
Wednesday, May 19th, 2004
Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia faces court martial today for refusing to return to Iraq. He eventually applied for conscientious objector status in part because of the abuse of detainees he witnessed in Iraq, not in Abu Gharib but in another facility - Al Assad. We speak with his aunt Norma Castillo en route to the court martial proceedings in Fort Stewart, Georgia. [includes rush transcript]
In Baghdad, Specialist Jeremy Sivitsm pleaded guilty today to three counts of abuse during a court martial proceeding stemming from the Iraqi prison abuse scandal.
In a less covered court martial case, Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia is facing court martial today at Fort Stewart in Georgia for going AWOL for several months after he returned from Iraq. He eventually applied for conscientious objector status in part because of the abuse of detainees he witnessed in Iraq.
When he surrendered at Ft. Stewart on March 16, 2003, Mejia submitted a formal application for discharge as a conscientious objector to Major General William G. Webster, Jr., Commanding General of the base. On pages 29-32 of this application, Mejia provides details of the torture and abuse of detainees which he witnessed at Al Assad, in early May, 2003. Apparently, no one from General Webster's staff has investigated these serious allegations during the six week period since they received the CO application.
Norma Castillo, Camilo Mejia's aunt. She is en route to Fort Stewart in Georgia to attend her nephew's court martial proceedings.
Re: Democracy Now!: Army Deserter Witnessed Torture;
Listen/Watch/Read
democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/19/1449235
".. he decided that he didn't want to go back to be part of this war. Like he has said before, he didn't want to continue to be an instrument of violence, and be an instrument of peace, and these are his reasons why he decided not to go back to the war in Iraq. It's an illegal war and it's based on lies." -- Norma Castillo
For the complete interview, listen, watch or read, see:
democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/19/1449235
3) The New Pearl Harbor on Democracy Now!
- - International Citizens' Inquiry Into 9/11
- - The New Pearl Habor on Democracy Now!
David Ray Griffin, author of "The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11," will be Amy Goodman's guest on Democracy Now. The full-hour segment also scheduled this Friday, 21 May, features 9/11 widow Ellen Mariani, who turned down $1.8 million from the government compensation fund in order to file a RICO Act lawsuit against the Bush Administration for complicity in 9/11.
To find out what radio/TV station in your city airs Democracy Now, and at what times:
democracynow.org/stations.shtml
To watch or listen to the show on the web on Friday (available after noon EDT):
democracynow.org
Amazon link for "The New Pearl Harbor":
amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1566565529/qid=1085038117
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - International Citizens' Inquiry Into 9/11
International Citizens' Inquiry Into 9/11 to be Held in Toronto The International Citizens' Inquiry Into 9/11 will be held in Toronto May 25-30. This is Phase 2 of a series of such Inquiries, which launched in San Francisco in March. Phase 3 opens September 12, 2004 in New York City.
The Toronto Citizens' Inquiry will be the most ambitious such inquiry held in the world to date. It is anticipated that more than 1000 people will attend over the scheduled six-day event. The Inquiry will be held at the Ukrainian Cultural Centre and at Convocation Hall, University of Toronto. 9/11 widow Ellen Mariani, who is suing George W. Bush for the loss of her husband on September 11th, will address the Inquiry, as will her lawyer, Phil Berg.
Other leading 9/11 skeptics that will be speaking include: Michael C. Ruppert former Los Angeles police detective; Thomas Kimmel retired FBI Agent and US Navy officer; Michel Chossudovsky author of War and Globalization, the Truth behind 9/11; Thierry Meyssan author of 9/11 The Big Lie; Mathias Broeckers best-selling German author/journalist Conspiracy, Conspiracy Theories, and the Secrets of September 11 There are more than 20 other presenters confirmed. Please check our web-site for more details The San Francisco Inquiry (Phase 1), held March 26-28, was attended by more than 1,500 people and was front-page news in California.
The Toronto Inquiry is open to members of the public and the news media. Anyone interested in attending can register by calling (416) 963-5562 or toll-free 1-866-234-7438, or by logging onto the Inquiry website at 911inquiry.org
4) Kucinich and Supporters for a Sane Democratic Party Platform
- - "Dear California Democratic Newsletter'
- - Guardian article on Skull and Bones
- - Nader & Kerry Discuss White House Bids
- - Kucinich: Get U.S. military out of Iraq
- - "Dear California Democratic Newsletter'
From: "goodsister95476"
"Amazingly, I've just received a short reply to my habitual and cranky response to one of the Democratic Party's email pitches. I show below the back & forth, with their message heavily edited for space. Notice the reasoning, or lack thereof, in the editor's answer. He skips right over the fact that Kerry's been forced and foisted on us, and heads straight to 'can't afford four more Bush years'.
Goodsister
* * * * * *
From: California Democratic Party
Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2004 5:29 PM
Subject: California Democrat Newsletter
Letter from the Chairman
Dear California Democrat:
I am writing to you after an exciting weekend Executive Board
meeting, held in beautiful San Diego, where we had caucuses,
workshops and committee meetings....
There was definitely a sense of excitement at this meeting. It's so
clear that we absolutely must elect John Kerry President in November
and make sure Barbara Boxer returns to the U.S. Senate, so I think
people really feel energized about the challenges ahead....
I came away from this three-day conference full of hope and ready
for what lies ahead. Together we will take back the White House, re-
elect Senator Boxer and make sure that the voices of California
Democrats are heard!
Senator Art Torres (Ret.)
Chairman, California Democratic Party
* * * * *
Sent: Wed 5/5/2004 8:26 PM
To: Editor
Subject: Re: California Democrat Newsletter
I've been a Democrat all my life, but I am so disheartened and disgusted with the party now, I'm ready to leave. The Democratic Party is not listening to us, the people. We want the Kucinich platform, and I believe most Americans would, if they were allowed to hear it. Kucinich is the only candidate offering real solutions to issues we care most about, and even now, you're pretending he isn't even running.
Nobody is for Kerry. He's got voters, but no real supporters. You're pushing him on us, and that's not the way this is supposed to work.
* * * * *
I understand your frustration. We believe, though, that now is the time for us to close ranks and ensure that Bush is removed from the White House. Four more years would be disastrous.
Editor
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Guardian article on Skull and Bones
Skeletons in the closet
While at Yale University, both John Kerry and George Bush joined an elite secret society, the Order of Skull and Bones. How might their lifelong allegiance to the club affect their relationship - and political decisions? Suzanne Goldenberg tracks down other Bonesmen to find out
Skeletons in the closet
guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1220758,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Nader & Kerry Discuss White House Bids
Excerpt:
"..Kerry's aides say he's still committed to keeping American troops in Iraq until democratic elections are held. If that's his position in November, Nader will indeed offer antiwar Americans a real choice. They may well vote for him, registering their protest in large enough numbers to reelect the president who led the country into Iraq in the first place."
For the complete article, see:
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40592-2004May19.html
Another article was poted NY Times.com
nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Kerry-Nader.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich: Get U.S. military out of Iraq
May 20, 2004
In an op-ed published in today's edition of USA TODAY, Kucinich reiterated the need for the U.S. to get out of Iraq. Kucinich expressed concern that if the United States insists on staying the course in Iraq, "it will damage America's security and lead to a longer war, more troop losses and civilian casualties, hundreds of billions of tax dollars wasted and, inevitably, a draft."
Kucinich stressed "this is the time for a peace plan for Iraq and an exit strategy for the U.S. The world community will not make a commitment absent a change of direction in U.S. policy."
For the complete article, see:
usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2004-05-19-oppose_x.htm
or link from kucinich.us
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
GrayZone * WMDplant * KnotOut * MexUFOs
18 May 2004
"You can fool some of the people all of the time,
and those are the ones you want to concentrate on."
George W. Bush,
(joking?) at a Gridiron Club dinner,
Washington, D.C., March 2001.
1) The Gray Zone by Seymour Hersh
- - Secret operation approved by Rumsfeld leads to abuse
- - Legal Foundation Clearing Way for Abuse Scandal
- - U.S. Denies Rumsfeld Approved Iraq Interrogations Methods
- - US guards 'filmed beatings' at Guantanamo
- - Precondition for Peace in the Middle East
2) New Reports on U.S. Planting WMDs in Iraq
- - 'Sarin bomb attack' on US troops :
- - Powell: Intelligence by CIA Wrong
- - Suicide Car Bomb Kills Iraq Governing Council Head
- - From the White House, a nightmare scenario
3) Down but Not Out, Kucinich Keeps On Fighting
- - State Rep. Joe Smith on Voting for Kucinich in Oregon Primary
- - Paper Trail: The Ohio Vote matters in 2004
4) UFOs In Mexico
Editor's Notes:
In Seymour Hersh's breakthrough article, published by The New Yorker magazine, Hersh wrote that - - "The abuses at Abu Ghraib were exposed on January 13th, when Joseph Darby, a young military policeman assigned to Abu Ghraib, reported the wrongdoing to the Army's Criminal Investigations Division. He also turned over a CD full of photographs. Within three days, a report made its way to Donald Rumsfeld, who informed President Bush." And so begins the investigation that the Pentagon could not make go away.. They could, perhaps, if there were no photos, but images of torture by US-Occupying forces in Iraq are too vividly felt to ever be dismissed. So what's next? The last article in item 1 has the best idea, which unfortunately has not dawned on the modern-day John Kerry. After serving with honor to help end the Vietnam War, Kerry is hiding behind the politics of shame and dishonor. Perhaps we can each send him this article by Ruth Rosen, "End the Occupation."
But the war-oil mongers will likely not stop at anything. Even after hundreds and thousands of US service personnel are dead and maimed, while billions are being poured into a lost cause for a greedy misguided few. So, what is next? Perhaps we will discover, as item 2 reports, there will be the planting of WMDs to pursue the ungodly cause of deception and lies. Yet what is most disturbing is the White House counting on terrorist attacks in the US before the November election.
Item 3 features a NY Times articles, "Down but Not Out, Kucinich Keeps On Fighting." Keep an eye on the Oregon State Primary results, which is on 18 May. A vote for Kucinich is still sending a message for peace and honor. Also in this item is a link to a petition you can sign to protect the vote in Ohio, where electronic voting machines are set to be in place in 31 counties without a paper trail verification. The 2004 election is going to be very close - and could come down to just a handful of votes in this key state. Item 4 is a special UFO report released by the Mexican air force. These are very interesting times, but the reports of widespread abuse of prisoners by US forces is most troubling, and the cover-ups of truth by the distorted face of evil looking at oneself in the mirror of terrorism, and the downgrading of the human spirit and the US military.
Please note that Flyby News will again show the films of John Pilger and Dennis Kucinich in a program called: The Indecent War On Freedom. Please request, if interested, for an attached PDF file for the flyer of this program, which will be presented Wednesday 16 June 2004 at the Greenfield, MA, public library, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. The featured film by London-based, Australian journalist John Pilger, "Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror," has recently won the gold award in the political category at the prestigious 2004 WorldMedia Festival.
War: first, one hopes to win;
then one expects the enemy to lose;
then, one is satisfied that he too is suffering;
in the end, one is surprised that everyone has lost.
-- Karl Kraus
(1874 1936)
1) The Gray Zone by Seymour Hersh
- - Secret operation approved by Rumsfeld leads to abuse
- - Legal Foundation Clearing Way for Abuse Scandal
- - U.S. Denies Rumsfeld Approved Iraq Interrogations Methods
- - US guards 'filmed beatings' at Guantanamo
THE GRAY ZONE
by Seymour Hersh
How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib
by Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker,
Issue of 2004-05-24, Posted 2004-05-15
The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision, approved last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation, which had been focused on the hunt for Al Qaeda, to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq. Rumsfeld's decision embittered the American intelligence community, damaged the effectiveness of elite combat units, and hurt America's prospects in the war on terror.
According to interviews with several past and present American intelligence officials, the Pentagon's operation, known inside the intelligence community by several code words, including Copper Green, encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq. A senior C.I.A. official, in confirming the details of this account last week, said that the operation stemmed from Rumsfeld's long-standing desire to wrest control of America's clandestine and paramilitary operations from the C.I.A...
For this article, see:
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040524fa_fact
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Secret operation approved by Rumsfeld leads to abuse
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved a secret operation last year that expanded interrogation methods used in Afghanistan to the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-05/16/content_1472182.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Legal Foundation Clearing Way for Abuse Scandal
Did Administration Construct Legal Foundation Clearing Way for Abuse Scandal?
By Pete Yost
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Iraq prisoner abuse scandal shifted on Sunday to the question of whether the Bush administration set up a legal foundation that opened the door for the mistreatment.
Within months of the Sept. 11 attacks, White House counsel Alberto Gonzales reportedly wrote President Bush a memo about the terrorism fight and prisoners' rights under the Geneva Conventions.
"In my judgment, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions," Newsweek magazine reported. Secretary of State Colin Powell "hit the roof" when he read the memo, according to the account.
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA3OO8JBUD.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - U.S. Denies Rumsfeld Approved Iraq Interrogations Methods
The denial was made in response to an article on the New Yorker magazine, which said Rumsfeld had approved expanding an interrogation program, which had been used in Afghanistan to hunt for al-Qaeda.
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aQW2Wz0HMv3Q&refer=us
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - US guards 'filmed beatings' at Guantanamo
Dozens of videotapes of American guards allegedly engaged in brutal attacks on Guantanamo Bay detainees have been stored and catalogued at the camp, an investigation by The Observer has revealed
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1217973,00.html
'They tied me up like a beast and began kicking me' :
As America struggles to come to terms with military abuse in Iraq, similar stories are emerging from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Tarek Dergoul, a Briton released from the camp in March, talks here for the first time about his two-year ordeal.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6196.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Precondition for Peace in the Middle East
End the Occupation
by Ruth Rosen
Published on Monday, May 17, 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle
[Excerpt]
..For democracy to have a chance, the United States must withdraw its troops, leave no military base in Iraq and not try to control that nation's oil policy. The United States must also pressure Israel to commit to a clear timetable to create a coherent Palestinian state. This is a precondition for peace in the Middle East.
It's an act of patriotism to call for an end to the occupation. President Bush has damaged our national reputation and undermined our democratic ideals and traditions. To paraphrase a poignant question posed by a young John Kerry: How do you ask a soldier to be the last person to die in Iraq?
For the complete article, see:
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0517-02.htm
2) New Reports on U.S. Planting WMDs in Iraq
- - 'Sarin bomb attack' on US troops :
- - Powell: Intelligence by CIA Wrong
- - Suicide Car Bomb Kills Iraq Governing Council Head
- - From the White House, a nightmare scenario
- - New Reports on U.S. Planting WMDs in Iraq
Published on Tuesday, April 13, 2004
by the Mehr News Agency (Tehran, Iran)
BASRA - Fifty days after the first reports that the U.S. forces were unloading weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in southern Iraq, new reports about the movement of these weapons have been disclosed.
Sources in Iraq speculate that occupation forces are using the recent unrest in Iraq to divert attention from their surreptitious shipments of WMD into the country.
An Iraqi source close to the Basra Governor's Office told the MNA that new information shows that a large part of the WMD, which was secretly brought to southern and western Iraq over the past month, are in containers falsely labeled as containers of the Maeresk shipping company and some consignments bearing the labels of organizations such as the Red Cross or the USAID in order to disguise them as relief shipments.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0413-02.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 'Sarin bomb attack' on US troops
A roadside bomb containing a small amount of the nerve agent sarin has exploded near a US military convoy in Iraq, the US military announced today.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1218878,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Powell: Intelligence by CIA Wrong
US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said that intelligence provided by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) about mobile biological weapons labs in Iraq before the war was wrong.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-05/17/content_1474804.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Suicide Car Bomb Kills Iraq Governing Council Head
A suicide car bomb killed the head of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council and at least eight other people Monday at a checkpoint outside the main Baghdad headquarters of the U.S.-led administration.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5161942
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - From the White House, a nightmare scenario
White House officials say they've got a "working premise" about terrorism and the presidential election: It's going to happen. "We assume," says a top administration official, "an attack will happen leading up to the election." And, he added, "it will happen here." There are two worst-case scenarios, the official says. The first posits an attack on Washington, possibly the Capitol, which was believed to be the target of the 9/11 jet that crashed in Pennsylvania. Theory 2: smaller but more frequent attacks in Washington and other major cities leading up to the election. To prepare, the administration has been holding secret antiterrorism drills to make sure top officials know what to do. "There was a sense," says one official involved in the drills, "of mass confusion on 9/11. Now we have a sense of order." Unclear is the political impact, though most Bushies think the nation would rally around the president. "I can tell you one thing," adds the official sternly, "we won't be like Spain," which tossed its government days after the Madrid train bombings.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/040524/whispers/24whisplead.htm
3) Down but Not Out, Kucinich Keeps On Fighting
- - State Rep. Joe Smith on Voting for Kucinich in Oregon Primary
- - Paper Trail: The Ohio Vote matters in 2004
Down but Not Out, Kucinich Keeps On Fighting
By RICK LYMAN
Published: May 17, 2004
NYTimes.com > Washington > Campaign 2004
PORTLAND, Ore., May 16 - Before Americans get too engrossed in a general election contest between President Bush and Senator John Kerry, Dennis J. Kucinich would like to remind them of something: He's still out here, working hard every day, slogging from town to town, the second-to-last person still standing in the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination.
"Math is not my major, but I can count," the Ohio congressman said as his car wound along the dripping, piney woods of the central Oregon coast, a glowering sky flecking the windshield with pin-sized raindrops. "I understand that Kerry has enough delegates to be nominated. I can count, but I can also figure."
Dennis J. Kucinich is still campaigning, hoping to influence his party to take an unambiguous stance against the war. Peter DaSilva for The New York Times
And this is how Dennis Kucinich - the former boy mayor of Cleveland whose half-forgotten, dead-but-still-twitching presidential campaign is now focusing on Tuesday's Oregon primary - figures it:
"The reason I have not dropped out of the race is that we may have a nominee, but the future direction of the Democratic Party has not yet been determined."
And what he wants Mr. Kerry, and the Democratic Party, to do is to take an unambiguous stand not only against the war in Iraq but against "the very idea that war is inevitable." The nation's whole political mindset must be changed, Mr. Kucinich said.
"We are at the unusual juncture where what is morally right and politically efficacious are in confluence," he said. "My presence in the race provides a persistent reminder of the necessity of taking a new direction, the first step of which is to bring our troops home now."
O.K. But isn't that pretty big talk for a guy who has won exactly zero primaries - in fact, who performed poorly in most of them?
Mr. Kucinich recognizes this, and knows that much of the country has pretty much forgotten that he is still running. "At this point, I am not suffering from the overwhelming burden of high expectations," he said.
However, he said, the war in Iraq is turning out to be just the disaster he had predicted, and if he can just keep accumulating delegates here and there, he might be able to go into the Democratic convention in Boston this summer with enough juice to nudge the party toward his way of thinking.
That's all he wants now.
"I guess you can say I am saving the Democratic Party from itself," Mr. Kucinich said. "And I can possibly prevent some people from jumping into the arms of a third-party candidate. I mean, why is Ralph Nader even an issue this year? What is to stop us from stealing his playbook?"
At the moment, Mr. Kucinich is focusing on Oregon. He has spent 30 days here in the last two months, and he is using some of his precious reserve of campaign funds on last-minute television advertisements.
He takes heart that Mr. Kerry, whose campaign has paid little attention to the primary calendar in recent weeks, feels compelled to come to Portland on Monday, with no less than former Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont in tow.
"What's happening," Mr. Kucinich insisted, "is that events are starting to prove that I was right. When all else fails, truth has a way of protecting its own."
At the public library in Florence, on a leafy street between Highway 101 and the sea, more than 100 Kucinich supporters spilled from a small meeting room at 7:30 Saturday morning. He was due any minute for the first of six stops that day.
"I figure we have to have someone for those of us who are against the war," said Don Norton, 71, a retired corrections official wearing a "No War" button. "If it wasn't for Kucinich, there wouldn't be anyone speaking for us."
Howard Shapiro, 70, a retired schoolteacher sporting two buttons ("Dissent Is Patriotic" and "Re-Defeat Bush"), said that like many in the room, he expected to vote for Mr. Kerry in November. But on Tuesday he goes Kucinich, if only to send Mr. Kerry a message.
A microphone was passed through the crowd so people could explain what brought them there.
"I'm just getting tired of being embarrassed to be an American," one woman said.
"I really like to be in a place where my ideas are not superfluous," said another.
The crowd rose and cheered when Mr. Kucinich arrived in a blue blazer over a red shirt and blue jeans.
"How many of us have had that feeling, that we can't believe what this country has become?" Mr. Kucinich asked. "I know that many of us feel a sense of disconnection from our country, and that this produces in us a kind of grief. We grieve for the America that was, the America that cared for civil liberties."
American politics, apparently, have gone completely topsy-turvy: conservatives crank up deficits and get bogged down in foreign wars while progressives pine wistfully for a golden-hued past.
Normally, Mr. Kucinich speaks in a calm, reassuring way, though every now and then his voice rises in a passionate crescendo. The effect is less that of a lonely political crusade than a religious revival, and his language has echoes of the pulpit.
"What is the way out of this?" he asked. "It is reminding us where we came from."
At a rally later in Lincoln City, nearly 200 people packed the Bijou Cinema, where Mr. Kucinich was presented with a quilt bearing the logo "Dept. of Peace." This referred to his proposal to create such a cabinet-level agency to promote harmony and conflict resolution, a notion much ridiculed on conservative talk radio shows as emblematic of the sort of fuzzy-headed thinking common among this particular strain of liberal.
"We can change the whole debate in this country, and we've got to do it," Mr. Kucinich said. "It's about the party standing for something, something other than the next check from the corporate interests."
In an almost hushed voice, he continued: "This is a spiritual matter, not just a practical political matter."
The entire time he spoke, an angelic young woman stood at the side of the auditorium with her arms raised above her head, sometimes shaking them gently, as though sending waves through the air.
The young woman, Eden Sky, 27, said she was "focusing," which she described as a kind of praying, a blessing. And she seemed almost puzzled when asked why she chose to focus on Mr. Kucinich. "Because he is the only one worth focusing on," she said.
If he continues to win a few here and a few there, Mr. Kucinich said, he expects to go to Boston with about 50 delegates, and to bring along an additional 2,000 supporters. "We will help shape the external environment of the convention as well," he said.
What he really must do, he said, is to have a serious conversation with Mr. Kerry, with whom he has a friendly relationship, to try to persuade him that a troops-out-now platform is the way to beat President Bush and unlock the door to the nation's progressive yearnings.
"Up until now, I have been his opponent in the primaries and it wouldn't be appropriate," Mr. Kucinich said. "But the time to have that discussion is probably very close."
He reached into one of his traveling bags and pulled out a thick stack of newspaper pages, each one with articles meticulously underlined, nuggets of information that he found interesting or appalling, more grist for his mill.
"We've been out here campaigning for 15 months," he said. "It's a long time."
But it will be worth it, he said, if he can just inch his party toward justice.
"In a way, I feel like Johnny Appleseed," Mr. Kucinich said. "I'm planting seeds all over this country: seeds of peace, seeds of hope. At some point, maybe years from now, there will be orchards. So in a sense, it's about more than this election. It's about more than politics. It really is about envisioning a new America."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/17/politics/campaign/17kucinich.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - State Rep. Joe Smith on Voting for Kucinich in Oregon Primary
Former Chairman of the Oregon Democratic Party State Rep R.P. Joe Smith on Voting for Kucinich in Oregon Primary
In a letter to the Oregonian today, [Oregon] State Representative R.P. Joe Smith of Northeast Portland explains why he's voting for Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich in Tuesday's primary election. Said Smith: "This summer and fall I will enthusiastically be doing everything I can to help elect John Kerry But today I mailed in my ballot, having voted for Dennis Kucinich.
"My reason: the issues Rep. Kucinich, D-Ohio, has raised, and the goals he has urged us to look at, demand attention in the coming national debate, and we can assure that by sending a few Kucinich delegates to the Democratic National Convention who will see to it those issues and goals are clearly on the table.
"I hope enough of my fellow Oregonians will join in voting for Kucinich to make that happen. And then I urge my fellow Oregonians to wholeheartedly join together and elect Kerry."
R.P. Joe Smith is a State Representative from Northeast Portland and former Chairman of the Oregon Democratic Party.
---------------------------------
For information about the Kucinich National campaign, visit:
http://www.kucinich.us
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Paper Trail: The Ohio Vote matters in 2004
In November 2nd, this historic election could come down to just a few votes here in Ohio. But will those precious few votes count?
Last week, Governor Bob Taft signed a bill authorizing up to 31 Ohio counties to install election voting machines in time for the November election. The bill, passed by the Ohio legislature, delayed mandated paper verification of all votes until 2006. The Ohio Controlling Board is expected to approve the appropriations bill in a matter of days.
The Ohio Vote matters in 2004
Today I've taken action to protect the vote in Ohio, where electronic voting machines are set to be in place in 31 counties without a paper trail verification of each votes. The 2004 election is going to be very close - and could come down to just a handful of votes in this key state.
Please join me in signing the Paper Trail Petition today and pass it on to everyone you know.
http://actforvictory.org/act.php/home/petitions/diebold_ohio
4) UFOs In Mexico
Mexican DoD Acknowledges UFOs In Mexico
By Santiago Yturria
syturria@intercable.net
Images courtesy of Mr. Jaime Maussan
5-11-4
`It is one of the most important film documents we have been able to access, especially because it comes from an official source,'' said Jaime Mausan, a journalist who has been tracking the UFO phenomenon for more than 25 years.
For photos and the article, see:
http://www.rense.com/general52/deff.htm
Flyby News Support
If you care to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses
for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc.,
you can send donations to:
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
-- or you can donate via online --
see FlybyNews.com [near bottom of page] for link
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
ChainOfCommand * 9/11CoverUp * ThroughLight
10 May 2004
"Why is this man in the White House?
The majority of Americans did not vote for him.
Why is he there? And I tell you this morning
that he's in the White House because God put him there
for a time such as this."
Lt Gen William Boykin,
speaking of G. W. Bush,
New York Times, 17 October 2003
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"God gave the savior to the German people.
We have faith, deep and unshakeable faith,
that he was sent to us by God to save Germany."
Hermann Goering,
speaking of Hitler
1) Chain of Command - Horrible Abuse
- - U.S. Knew of Rampant Abuse in Iraqi Prisons Months Ago
- - Chain of Command
- - An Illegal and Immoral War
- - Sen. Levin: Removing Rumsfeld not necessarily the answer
- - Chomsky Blasts Negroponte Appointment to Iraq Embassy
- - 'US soldiers abused young girl at Iraqi prison'
- - Photos show women, children raped in US prisons in Iraq
- - Stadium of Death
- - A Progressive Response to the Nader Campaign
- - Kucinich still running his campaign hard
- - Threat of 'Dirty Bomb' Growing, Officials Say
- - Mr. Bush and Chaos
2) 911 Stand Down Orders Destroyed
- - 9/11: Reported Bombs Both Within the Towers and on the Planes!
- - Lawyers Try to Gag FBI Worker over 9/11
- - We're all terrorists now
- - Heat on Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" Rising
3) Woody Case Hearing Report
4) The Near-Death Experience of Mellen-Thomas Benedict
"The price of greatness is responsibility."
Sir Winston Churchill
Editor's Notes:
The horrid images of "systematic" abuse to Iraqi prisoners by US/UK-occupiers is more than unbelievable; it is degrading and terror-producing. As Rumsfeld said, hearing about abuse is one thing, seeing it is another. Yet Rumsfeld and the Bush administration that killed thousands of innocent people under false premises for going to war, with the consent of Congress, is still seeking to distort truth for economic and military self-interest, and they have caused an ungodly terror beyond most could even imagine. When will it end?
With all the craziness going on in Iraq, probably many have missed the recent critical report on 9/11 investigations. "Six air traffic controllers provided accounts of their communications with hijacked planes on Sept. 11, 2001, on a tape recording that was later destroyed by Federal Aviation Administration managers," according to a government investigative report issued May 6, 2004. Can distortions to truth, cover-up, and criminal behavior be any more obvious?
Item 3 is an update on the Hearing I attended in Brattleboro, VT last Thursday about a motion to dismiss the civil case for justice for Robert (Woody) Woodward. Item 4 is a stretch for many to believe, but the depth of esoteric philosophy or spirituality revealed in this linked article is worth reading, and considering, on the near-death experience of Mellen-Thomas Benedict.
For those visiting FlybyNews.com over the weekend, you may have noticed the revised and updated page on Bart Jordan and evidence of technologically advanced ancient civilizations. In 2005 Bart Jordan not only plans to publish an article showing how he derived measurements from ancient alphabets, and the sound frequencies they produce, but he also plans to post via Flyby News information showing that the 1976-NASA photos of the Cydonia Region and "Face On Mars" was no fluke. I encourage you to research the information from Bart Jordan, and to keep an open mind.
This Wednesday, May 12th, at 7:00 p.m. the Citizens Awareness Network will be showing of the film, "The Reach of Chernobyl" at the Media Education Center (60 Masonic Street) in Northampton, MA. This precedes a demonstration on May 15 to shut down the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Greenfield MA at 11:00 a.m. at the Greenfield Common. For more information, call 413-339-5781 or 802-387-4050.
"If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier -
just so long as I'm the dictator."
George W. Bush,
18 December 2000
1) Chain of Command - Horrible Abuse
- - U.S. Knew of Rampant Abuse in Iraqi Prisons Months Ago
- - Chain of Command
- - An Illegal and Immoral War
- - Sen. Levin: Removing Rumsfeld not necessarily the answer
- - Chomsky Blasts Negroponte Appointment to Iraq Embassy
- - 'US soldiers abused young girl at Iraqi prison'
- - Photos show women, children raped in US prisons in Iraq
- - Stadium of Death
- - A Progressive Response to the Nader Campaign
- - Kucinich still running his campaign hard
- - Threat of 'Dirty Bomb' Growing, Officials Say
- - Mr. Bush and Chaos
- - U.S. Knew of Rampant Abuse in Iraqi Prisons Months Ago
Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! interviews Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Seymour Hersh about a classified internal U.S. army report he obtained that reveals systematic torture of at least 20 Iraqi prisoners who were subjected to "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses" by their U.S. jailers at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/03/1411207
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Chain of Command
By Seymour M. Hersh
Published in The New Yorker
Sunday 09 May 2004
How the Department of Defense mishandled the disaster at Abu Ghraib.
http://truthout.org/docs_04/051004B.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - An Illegal and Immoral War
Betrayed by Images of Our Own Racism
By ROBERT FISK
May 7, 2004
http://www.counterpunch.org/fisk05072004.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Sen. Levin: Removing Rumsfeld not necessarily the answer
The following is from "Meet the Press" NBC TV, May 9, 2004
with moderator - Mr. Tim Russert and Senator Carl Levin, (D-Mich.),
Ranking Member, Armed Services Committee
MR. RUSSERT: Senator Levin, The Washington Post yesterday said, "We believe that Mr. Rumsfeld bears much of the responsibility for creating the legal and political climate in which the prison abuses occurred and that his failure to respond to previous reports of abuses or appeals for reforms made possible the catastrophe of Abu Ghraib."
What's your reaction to that?
SEN. CARL LEVIN, (D-MI): I think that's true. I think responsibility lies partly on his doorstep but partly on the doorstep of a lot of other people and I think the role of the military intelligence here is really critical. They were in charge of the interrogation. This is much more systemic than just a few guards abusing prisoners. This was part of an effort--a systemic effort, according to General Taguba, to extract information from these prisoners. And this was part of a new intelligence policy which goes right on up to the Pentagon and perhaps even beyond. I think some of the environment here was actually set at the White House when they said it was a bunch of legalisms to discuss whether or not the Geneva Conventions would apply to prisoners directly or whether they would be treated consistent with the Geneva Conventions or in the same way but not precisely according--they were splitting legal hairs about the application of Geneva Conventions and it seems to me that sent exactly the wrong message to the intelligence people and to the guards themselves.
MR. RUSSERT: You believe the president then is ultimately responsible?
SEN. LEVIN: I think he helped to create the atmosphere by the way in which he called the Geneva Convention discussion relative to Afghanistan a matter of legalism. It's not legalism. It goes right to the heart of this matter.
MR. RUSSERT: Senator Levin, what's your sense of Secretary Rumsfeld? Can he continue to be effective as secretary of defense or should he step down?
SEN. LEVIN: If I thought there'd be a policy change as a result of his stepping down, I'd call for it. But that to me is the underlying issue, as to whether or not we can change course here. The president has laid out two stark alternatives: either staying the course or cutting and run. And there's a third alternative which is to correct our course. And if I thought that Secretary Rumsfeld's departure would correct our course and make this less of a unilateral, American effort, if there were a much greater effort to internationalize this, to truly reach out to other countries to help us give advice to a new government, not just to be the sole adviser after June 30 to that new government, I would be in favor of that resignation. But I don't see that that is what would happen. Instead, we have found a course which, it seems to me, is full of errors, full of mismanagement right from the beginning of this war. So I'm not calling for Rumsfeld's removal because I think that would not represent a change in the direction in reaching out to other countries and a correction of the many errors of mismanagement that have taken place during this war.
MR. RUSSERT: Senator Levin, when you hear "win in Iraq," what does that mean to you?
SEN. LEVIN: It means that trying to help the Iraqi people achieve some kind of a stable and democratic country, but what it means is changing course. We've got to now proceed with the June 30 assumption of sovereignty by some kind of an entity that the U.N. will help to create hopefully. But General Clark is absolutely right; in proceeding to that date, which we are, in order to make it work, you've got to have some kind of a broader international entity to support that transfer and that new grouping there. It cannot just be an American ambassador running that place with just the appearance of an Iraqi sovereign government. There's got to be some reality to that government, and that means an international grouping of nations supporting it, not just the United States running the show there.
And we've failed so far to rally the international community. It was one of the grave errors that was made right at the beginning. There's been a series of errors ever since, but if there's any chance of this working, it seems to me it's to now attempt to rally the international community, not just in helping to identify an entity to assume sovereignty, but in then after June 30, helping to advise that entity to help it succeed. It's going to take more than an American ambassador dominating that country.
For the complete transcript, see:
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4938258/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Chomsky Blasts Negroponte Appointment to Iraq Embassy
The Senate voted 95 to 3 Thursday to approve UN ambassador John Negroponte as the head of the new US embassy in Iraq. Democracy Now! interviewed MIT professor Noam Chomsky discussing Negroponte's role in supporting widespread campaigns of terror and human rights abuses as ambassador to Honduras.
Listen/Watch/Read
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/07/1450219
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 'US soldiers abused young girl at Iraqi prison'
The US military has said it will investigate claims by a former inmate of Abu Ghraib prison that a girl as young as 12 was stripped and beaten by military personnel.
www.itv.com/news/623337.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Photos show women, children raped in US prisons in Iraq
The Bush administration is bracing itself for the release of new pictures and video footage from Abu Ghraib, which show US soldiers having sex with an Iraqi woman prisoner, troops almost beating a prisoner to death, and the rape of young boys by Iraqi guards at the jail. NBC News has quoted military officials as saying that the new photographs also show US soldiers "acting inappropriately with a dead body". There are even suggestions that the murder of a prisoner has been recorded.
For the article published in The Independent [UK], 9 May 2004, see:
news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=519448
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Stadium of Death
Fallujah Residents Bury Their Dead In Aftermath of Bloody U.S. Siege
U.S. forces pull out of Fallujah following a brutal U.S. siege which killed some 600 Iraqis, wounded 1,000 and left some 60,000 people displaced. We go to Fallujah to get a report from Free Speech Radio News' Aaron Glantz who describes dozens of bodies buried in the city's soccer stadium after US forces blocked roads heading toward the cemetery.
Listen/Watch/Read
democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/03/1411212
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Mr. Bush and Chaos
Le Monde Editorial
Thursday 06 May 2004
truthout.org/docs_04/050704H.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Threat of 'Dirty Bomb' Growing, Officials Say
Radioactive material is common and often not secured.
Al Qaeda is said to be planning an attack.
By Douglas Frantz
Times Staff Writer
May 9, 2004
VIENNA Concerns are growing that Al Qaeda or a related group could detonate a "dirty bomb" that would spew radioactive fallout across an American or European city, according to intelligence analysts, diplomats and independent nuclear experts.
The complete article was posted at the following URL:
latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-dirtybomb9may09,1,3417461.story?coll=la-home-headlines
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich still running his campaign hard
Published in the Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, MA
News and information for Saturday, May 08, 2004
U.S. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, has not abandoned his presidential campaign. He's picked up 38 delegates in primary races, so far, and on Monday he is opening a Democratic National Convention headquarters near the Boston Common from which he'll launch an ambitious series of events.
Tim Carpenter, of Northampton, who will head Kucinich's convention team, said supporters will demonstrate in several different locations in Boston during the Convention on themes including the Patriot Act, biotechnology laws and a single payer health system. On the last night of the Convention, they plan to hold a candlelight vigil on the Convention floor to prompt Kerry to take a stronger stance on withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.
Carpenter said he met with Jesse Jackson and other Democratic leaders in Washington D.C. last week on the subject of what progressives can do to influence the party's platform at the Convention and in the months leading up to the presidential election.
''We've got agreement on a nominee right now. But we don't have agreement on a platform,'' Carpenter said. Kerry does not need the progressive wing of the party to win the Democratic nomination. But to win the election in November, he needs our support, and he has got to do better on the war issue.''
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For the Kucinich-Peace campaign web site, see:
kucinich.us
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - A Progressive Response to the Nader Campaign
by Jeff Cohen
Published May 7, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
commondreams.org/views04/0507-15.htm
"..This election is not about Kerry. Nor Nader. It's about putting Bush out to pasture before he does any more damage."
2) 911 Stand Down Orders Destroyed
- - 9/11: Reported Bombs Both Within the Towers and on the Planes!
- - Lawyers Try to Gag FBI Worker over 9/11
- - We're all terrorists now
- - Heat on Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" Rising
911 Stand Down Orders Destroyed
FAA Managers Destroyed 9/11 Tapes
Recordings Contained Accounts Of Communications With Hijacked Planes
by Sara Kehaulani Goo
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 6, 2004; 6:16 PM
Six air traffic controllers provided accounts of their communications with hijacked planes on Sept. 11, 2001, on a tape recording that was later destroyed by Federal Aviation Administration managers, according to a government investigative report issued today.
It is unclear what information was on the tape because no one ever listened to, transcribed or duplicated it, the report by the Department of Transportation inspector general said.
.."The destruction of evidence in the Government's possession, in this case an audiotape -- particularly during times of national crisis -- has the effect of fostering an appearance that information is being withheld from the public."
For the complete article, see:
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6632-2004May6.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 9/11: Reported Bombs Both Within the Towers and on the Planes!
NBC "TODAY" SHOW ON 9-11:
Fire Dept New York Chief of Safety Reported Bombs
Both Within the Towers and on the Planes!
FDNY Chief of Safety Reported Bombs Both Within the Towers and on the Planes on 9/11!
prisonplanet.tv/articles/may2004/050504bombsinwtc.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Lawyers Try to Gag FBI Worker over 9/11
By Andrew Buncombe
Independent UK.
truthout.org/docs_04/042704A.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - We're all terrorists now
From: "Editor 911review.org" < editor@911review.org >
Date: 09 May 2004
In the name of the fake War on Terror, Canada, the US and the EU are building huge Big Brother databases on all people who travel: see new page:
www.911review.org/Wiki/CappsII.shtml
and
www.911review.org/Wiki/CappsForCanadians.shtml
But even according to the American Justice Department's version of events, all of the "hijackers" who were alleged to have been responsible for 9/11 had been previously granted visas by US Immigration (including the 7 of them that have since been found to have not even been in the US at the time). So it is clear that nothing in these police state measures enhance anyone's security against the kinds of attacks that were perpetrated on September 11.
It is now clear that the Hijackers/Patsies entered the US under a rather special visa programme; we have been provided copies of official complaints filed prior to 9/11 by the former head of the Consular Section, US Embassy, Jeddah, that document how the visa programme at that embassy, where 15 of the 19 supposed "hijackers" are reported to have obtained their visas, was being run by the CIA.
www.911review.org/Wiki/SpringmanInterview.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Heat on Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" Rising
For links to following articles and latest news, see:
michaelmoore.com
Thursday, May 6th, 2004
Today's NY Times Editorial: "Disney's Craven Behavior"
Wednesday, May 5th, 2004
Disney Forbidding Distribution of Film That Criticizes Bush
Wednesday, May 5th, 2004
Disney Has Blocked the Distribution of My New Film... by Michael Moore
April 21, 2004
Cannes Picks Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11"
MichaelMoore.com
3) Woody Case Hearing Report
by Keith Carlson
Here is a brief synopsis of how things transpired today: Present at the hearing were the Woodward's two lawyers, the two lawyers for the town of Brattleboro, Paul and Joanne Woodward, Jill Woodward, approximately twenty supporters of the Woodwards, various members of the media, and sundry court personnel. Each side was given time to present their case. The defense (Town of Brattleboro) made a presentation obviously riddled with holes, detailing the reasons why the case should be summarily thrown out and discarded in the judicial dust-bin. As I understand it, the case now enters around two issues: whether Woody's Constitutional rights were violated by the use of excessive force, and also whether inadequate training on the part of the Brattleboro Police Department contributed to the situation and its outcome. (Sort of a narrow focus in my view, but I'm not a lawyer.)
It was painful to listen to the blatant lies and distortions put forth during the defense's diatribe, but we then had the satisfaction of listening to Joel Faxon, Esq., present the Woodward's case in a succinct, concise, and very compelling manner. The judge questioned both sides at various times, and each side then had time for a brief rebuttal. After approximately two hours, the court was adjourned, and we were informed that Judge Murtha will issue his decision in writing within 90 days, but most likely much sooner.
There are several ways that this can go:
1) The judge rules in favor of the Woodwards and we can proceed to trial by jury, however......
a) This decision can be appealed by the defendants to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City, wherein they would ask the Appellate Court to overrule Judge Murtha's decision. The Woodwards' lawyers can then actually try to appeal this appeal and have the appeal itself thrown out.
2) The judge rules in favor of the Town of Brattleboro, throwing the case out of court. The Woodwards' lawyers then have the option to appeal to the 2nd Circuit...you get the picture.
If it is finally decided that we can proceed to trial, there will probably be attempts by the town to settle out of court. It will be the prerogative of the Woodwards and their lawyers to accept or reject these offers. We assume they will reject any attempt to settle out of court in favor of actually seeing justice as well as change within the Brattleboro Police Department.
For more information on this case and how you can help, visit: justiceforwoody.net
4) The Near-Death Experience of Mellen-Thomas Benedict
by Dr. P. M. H. Atwater
[Excerpt]
Mellen-Thomas Benedict's case is part of my original near-death research; a brief version of it appears in my book, BEYOND THE LIGHT. I can attest that his case is genuine and his claims about the brain tumor and the conditions of his death are true. I have met his mother and step-father, been in his and their homes, and have followed his life since - his struggles and his accomplishments - as he sought to find a way to integrate his experience into his daily life while still honoring the mission he felt guided to fulfill. What you are about to read has a hint of mystery to it, and this is the mystery: this version of his story (which reads like an article) is actually a transcription of a tape made of a talk he gave about a decade ago.
Mellen-Thomas Benedict is an artist who survived a near-death experience in 1982. He died extremely discouraged about the nuclear and ecology crisis on our planet. He was dead for over an hour and a half and during that time, he rose up out of his body and went into the Light. Curious about the universe, he was taken far into the remote depths of existence, and even beyond, into the energetic Void of Nothingness behind the Big Bang. During his experience, he was able to learn a great deal of information concerning reincarnation. Because of his near-death experience, he was able to bring back scientific discoveries. Mellen has been closely involved in the mechanics of cellular communication and research dealing with the relationship of light to life called Quantum Biology. This research is providing dramatic new perspectives on how biological systems work. Mellen has found that living cells can respond very quickly to light stimulation resulting in, among other things, high speed healing. He is a researcher, inventor and lecturer who holds six U.S. patents.
He brought back deep and fascinating insights into scientific and spiritual questions. Now full of faith and healed of his illness, he lives in California, helping heal others and working with university scientists to explore theoretical frontiers..
For the complete "Through the Light" article, see:
www.subtleenergies.com/ormus/tw/mtb-nde.htm
Flyby News Support
If you care to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses
for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc.,
you can send any donations to:
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
-- or you can donate via online --
see FlybyNews.com [near bottom of page] for link
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Bart Jordan
Evidence of Technologically Advanced Ancient Civilizations
Bart Jordan
The BIG Surprise out of the Cassini-Earth flyby
The Cassini Earth flyby was preceded by the launching of the NASA space probe in October 1997, which included a record load of Plutonium on board. The probe was directed toward Venus to conduct two flybys that increased the speed through gravity assist (slingshot!), and then the Cassini space probe was directed toward Earth traveling around 10 miles per second. It had the potential to release 400,000 curies of radioactive plutonium into our atmosphere in a breathable and ingest-able form.
It wasn't just that NASA or the US military would take such a risk that was the big surprise, the big one came from Bart Jordan. After learning from one of our press releases about the Plutonium content on board Cassini, Bart Jordan wanted to post a commentary on how ancient civilizations knew all about development of such isotopes, and how this development was like pushing death into our corner.
21 April, 2015 - Youtube - 0:07:09
A Flyby News Perspective
on Bart Jordan
Until Cassini, Bart Jordan worked anonymously, supplying scientists in U.S. government agencies with measurements he discovered as a child that were passed on by ancient civilizations such as the ancient Greek, Hebrew and Aramaean. Most notable of his contributions to science is his measurement of the velocity of Light at 299792.5 km per second & 186281.3 mi per second and the Cesium Second at 9192631770 Hz frequency, which regulates atomic clocks all over the world.
PDF file:bart 08 08 (1)
This was just the tip of almost unbelievable information. Bart Jordan is either simply honest and astonishing, or a total impostor. There seemed little other option for someone saying that he received these numbers (when only five years old) through a Homeric SAMAN-NAMAS channel, i.e. shamanic, and in the following year used an ancient cosmic numbering system based on alphabetic tone frequencies (Hellenic, Germanic, & Semitic). Bart Jordan explained that after reading Gullivers Travels, in which Jonathan Swift had accorded two moons to Mars, named Phobos and Deimos by the ancient Greeks, he sought to determine their exact revolutions and distances from Mars.
In 1942 when he was just five years of age, he determined the distances and these four measures appeared in the statistical box of Encyclopaedia Britannica's article on Mars, running from 1966 to 1973. To date there has been no other explanation for how these figures were derived prior to NASA's ability to measure and confirm.
For Flyby News original posting on Bart Jordan
including published articles, music, and more:
www.FlybyNews.com/BartJordan
08 February, 2015 - Wordpress - Flyby News
Update on Bart Jordan and
Satellites of Mars Table
- Britannica Archive -
Jordan's article, "The Moons of Mars," published by QUEST For Knowledge (a British science publication) in 1997, was excerpted from his paper of 1944 and provided mathematical evidence that the moons of Mars were placed into orbit by a pre-ice age advanced civilization. Jordan also predicted the fifth moon of Uranus, which was known to the Homeric Greeks as Harmonia, and gave these calculations to Dr. Gerard Kuiper, who then identified the moon in 1948 (which he called Miranda after a heroine of Shakespeare). Miranda has a very interesting mark on its surface, which was witnessed by NASA's Voyager 2 space mission, guided by Jordan. Check out this photo from NASA of a "chevron". It looks like "7", with new and old terrain.
Crossing the Mind-Barrier
17 August,2018 FN Youtube - 58:00 Bart Jordan
Manhattan Project NASA Whistleblower
Recorded 09 August 2018 - Introduction by Jonathan Mark
16 January, 2018 - Flyby News - Youtube 1:52:25
Bart Jordan and Mars Viking 1
Mars Viking 1 - 35th Orbit - 72nd frame:
35 Orbits later this photo was taken:
<
span style="font-size: medium;">Bart Jordan has proved that the chief design of the NASA
Mars Viking 1 Mission for the central Cydonia region
depended on the bookend frames 35A72 and 70A13,
wherein one foot would equal one Hertz cycle:
totaling 486776 divided by 100
(the complete tetrachord system of 24 notes).
The Rise & Fall of Man;
The War of Wars;
The Impending Ending of Father Sky & Mother Earth;
The Near-Dead Trees of Life & Knowledge.
Wake-Up and Make-Up World!
Our future is in Our Past with No Escape Present.
10 April, 2017 - FN Wordpress - Bart Jordan
NASA's Long Hidden Warning From Mars
Synodic Period - Time that elapse between two successive identical configurations as seen from EarthSidereal Period - True orbital period of a planet, the time it takes the planet to complete one full orbit of the Sun.
| Planet | Synodic Period (days) | Sidereal Period |
|---|
Mercury |
116 |
88 days |
Venus |
584 |
225 days |
Earth |
- |
1.0 year |
Mars |
780 |
1.9 years |
Jupiter |
399 |
11.9 years |
Saturn |
378 |
29.5 years |
Uranus |
370 |
84.0 years |
Neptune |
368 |
164.8 years |
Pluto |
367 |
248.5 years |
On Mars there is a designated point received by Bart Jordan of 40.87 North, which is marked at the apex of a 5-sided pyramid in the Cydonia region. Multiply 4087 times 5 = 20,435 (miles), which equals the designated distances of the two satellites published in the Encyclopedia Britannica in 1966 to the center of Mars. Phobos 5,820 miles plus Deimos 14,615 miles, = 20,435 miles!
Also note 4087 plus 280 plus 280 (human birth twice, male and female), plus 7,804 equals 12,451, which is half of earths circumference at the equator in miles! More proof of a human-oriented message from long ago.
In the September, 2016 interview Bart Jordan noted that 7804 (4087 in reverse) was like a license plate for Mars. 780 is the Synodic day count it takes Mars to orbit the sun from Earths perspective, and it is the 4th planet from the sun.
Cydonia or Signature Site 10 and the moons of Mars prove that we have received an important communication from a technologically advanced ancient human civilization. Bart Jordan says our future is in the past with no escape present, which may be a blessing in disguise. Will humankind care or continue to ignore truth versus deceptions? Only truth will set us free.
10 July, 2014 - Youtube - Flyby News
Bart Jordan Timesinger
and Manhattan Project
Jonathan Mark interviews Bart Jordan
25 June, 2014 ~ video running time 02:41:22
- Trinity, 16 ms after detonation
31 August, 2017 - Flyby News - Youtube (28:00)
Bart Jordan Speaks - Ancient Measure
Pi - Denali - Abuse of light
Video available for public airing
08 December, 2016 - Youtube - 50:00 - Flyby News
Mars Viking & Bart Jordan Update
08 December, 2016 - Youtube - 07:57 - Flyby News
Bart Jordan Rescue at Sea Estrellita
08 August, 2017 - Flyby News - Wordpress -Bart Jordan
The Cesium Frequency Connection
28 October, 2016 - Youtube - 30:00 - Flyby News
Albert Einstein & Bart Jordan, 1947
15 July, 2013 - Flyby News - Wordpress
Deciphering the distant past
by Bart Jordan ~ originally published, 1974
21 December, 2015 - FN Wordpress - Bart Jordan
A look inside Phobos and
Deimos: the moons of Mars
Originally published in Le Mot Juste
Dover Times (NH) March 20, 1997
02 December, 2015 - FN Wordpress - Robert Kinnison
Man behind the Martian moon theory
Originally published in 1997.
01 April, 2015 - Flyby News - Wordpress
"Old Measures New Ideas"
by Bart Jordan +
Above article was published in the New England Antiquities
Research Association's Journal Volume XXII, No 3 & 4
Winter/Spring 1988. Plus I added some photos and
images by Bart. This article will be discussed
in forthcoming interviews with Bart and Harry
Jordan regarding what was placed on and
around Mars for us to understand a
"Harmony of Spheres."
16 April, 2015 - Flyby News - Wordpress
Bart Jordan's Performance Program
@ Lincoln Center, 28 May, 1975
07 July, 2015 - Flyby News - Wordpress
Ice Age Art and Science
By Bart Jordan
A Review for the
American Museum of Natural History (NY)
Ice Age Art
Originally published in Parabola -
VOL. 03:3 Inner Alchemy - Fall 1978
14 May, 2015 - Flyby News Youtube Channel
Harry Jordan on Bart Jordan
and Mars Viking
- Part 1 & Part 2
Also more information at this
Flyby News Wordpress Link!
09 September, 2013 Youtube Disclosure Project
"Strange Contact on the Roosevelt"
Harry Allen Jordan Testimony
Local teacher believes Mars
had ancient civilization!
Harry Jordan will be finally proving Bart Jordan's
precise measurements used by NASA during the 1976
Mars Viking 1 mission revealing the Cydonia region.
For Flyby News original posting on Bart Jordan
including published articles, music, and more:
www.FlybyNews.com/BartJordan
Measure Man's Mind and Mind Man's Measure
~
by Bart Jordan
~
The following is the final statement in an article Bart Jordan wrote,
Measure Man's Mind and Mind Man's Measure"
published in the journal of the
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"..Patient reader: we all know that musicians are supposed to emote and not think. However, before leaving you with this minor statement of major systems, this truncated report inviting a thousand queries, allow this musician some emotive thoughts about Man's personal measure. From my former articles and foregoing account, it can be seen that much of what we are now may be measured against what we were then. And it is just this matter of measure that must be understood the "we" of then and now.
We are historic; we were prehistoric. How do we measure ourselves? Our intellectual present versus our intuitive past? Originality versus aboriginality? Such notions as present Man is matchless and past Man is witless have little validity and less virtue. There is a difference between hidden harmony and apparent harmony, between mentality and ornamentality, between a thinking individual and a thoughtless society. In mindful time past, we honoured our grandparents; in mindless time present, we threaten our grandchildren.
Where are the measures of yesteryear? Blue Winter Mother, Green Spring Daughter, Yellow Year Person, Orange Autumn Son, Red Summer Father a bow has been set in the cloud, a covenant made with the Earth. There be a message in these measures for a man's family and for the Family of Man:
Love Creation and Created
Honour Moon, Sun, and Planet
Obey Time and Space
Obey Sound and Light
Honour Earth, Star, and Comet
Love Finite and Infinite
We have inherited more than the wind.
We have a measure of Man's mind.
Bulletin Board Shuttle
~ Light-years ahead of NASA ~
By Jonathan Mark
You never know where a bulletin board will lead you. A blurb in the mid-1990's, initiated my journey to respond to NASA's Cassini mission, which had 72.3 pounds of Plutonium on board. Destined for a Saturn orbit, Cassini was first directed in the opposite direction for two gravity-accelerated assists around Venus, and then came back for an Earth-flyby. According to the Environmental Impact Statement, it could have exposed five billion people to 99% or more of the radiation.
Just before the launch I attended a program with author, filmmaker, Karl Grossman, who outlined the high-risk perspective, but also presented documents showing the US military's plan to dominate the planet. For many this is old news, but what came out of this campaign could be known as one of the top US government secrets since the development of the atomic bomb, and reveal the reality of technologically-advanced ancient human civilizations.
Who Is Bart Jordan?
Bart Jordan contacted me a few months before the 1999 flyby, responding to a press release. He seemed genuinely upset about the plutonium, and claimed that ancient civilizations knew all about the development of such isotopes. His story was shocking, but Jordan had a record of accomplishments. To list two: he lectured at five different Departments at the University of NH; and was a classical guitarist, who studied with the renowned Andre Segovia.
But there was more. Bart Jordan worked anonymously, supplying scientists in U.S. government agencies with measurements he discovered as a child. He derived these measures from ancient sources, such as the Hellenic, Germanic, and Semitic peoples. Using an ancient alphabet-frequency-number system, he calculated the distances of moons from the center of Mars. These four measures appeared in the statistical box of Encyclopaedia Britannica's article on Mars, running from 1966 to 1973.
There are whole universes in hiding from the actions of the US government, which created an atomic bomb that was carelessly and purposely misused, and caused untold suffering from its proliferation. Perhaps by learning what our remote ancestors have passed down, humankind will, once again, unite with integrity, and put away the bomb technology before it is too late.
This article was published by the Village Register,
Winter/2006 issue for the
Village Coop (Leverett, MA) newsletter
Articles by or about the work of Bart Jordan
Books
Music
The Rendlesham Forest Incident
also known as 'Britain's Roswell', is undoubtedly one
of the best documented and most significant military
encounters with a Craft of Unknown Origin or UFO.
The Rendlesham Forest Incident
Above web site dedicated to preserving information regarding
this historic encounter, with a Craft of Unknown Origin in the
Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England - December 1980.
1980 Rendlesham Forest Incident Binary Code
Youtube - Audio - Mar 12, 2016 - Lost Origins Episode 6
Joe Luciano - UFO Contact and
The Rendlesham Forest Incident
Flyby News updated resource:
Credible Witness - UFO/ET - Testimony
And there is now a Connection!
Stay tuned for updates from Bart Jordan
26 April, 2017 - NY Times - Carl Zimmer
Humans Lived in North America
130,000 Years Ago, Study Claims
27 April, 2017 - Nature
130,000-year-old archaeological
site in southern California, USA
25 May, 2016 - The Guardian - Ian Sample
Neanderthals built mysterious cave
structures 175,000 years ago
10 May, 2016 - The British Journal
Canadian schoolboy William Gadoury
discovers long-lost ancient Mayan city
11 October, 2012 - NTDTV - Youtube - 0:02:23
Naquatica: Bosnia Pyramid
Carbon dated 25,000 years old
Credit: Sam Semir Osmanagich
08 November, 2012 - Youtube - Dr. Semir Osmanagić
The Underground Tour Of
Bosnian Pyramid Tunnels
Running time 0:23:31
09 September, 2014 - Science Channel - Dr. Semir Osmanagich
The Unexplained Files (Season 2):
Mystery of the Bosnian Pyramids
The Bosnia Pyramid was covered by
the science channel recently, and will re-broadcast
Tuesday, 09 Sept., 2014, at 9:00 PM. The above
video only shows a little of it. It is well worth watching.
The energy measured at the top of the pyramid, K-2,
monoliths, stone work, show it is authentic, and
supports the reality of advanced civilizations
in pre-ice age times.
12 April, 2014 - Nat Geo - Youtube
The Forgotten Ruins of Gbekli Tepe
30 June, 2014 - Archeological Park - Jock Doubleday
The Mysterious Anti-Scientific
Agenda of Robert Schoch
30 June, 2014 - Archeological Park - Press Team
30,000 Year Old Bosnian Pyramids
Built With Man Made Cement
20 March 2012 - WantToKnow - Fred Burks
Forbidden Archeology, Suppressed History
Media Articles Reveal Suppressed History and Archeology
Additional resources on Bart Jordan
January 1, 2013 - Article by Steve Carter
A Jazz Musician's Wisdom on Listening:
Lessons for Us in Healthcare
October 10, 2013 - Published by Epoch Times
Shen Yun's Blend of Instruments
'A Credit Beyond Measure' Says Musician
February 11, 2009 - Examiner - Harry Jordan
"Local teacher believes Mars had ancient civilization!"
November 10, 2000 - The Millennium Group - Harry Jordan
"Mars Theory Falls on Its Face ?"
Flyby News archives:
October 30, 2016 - Bart Jordan: Music, Mars, and Manhattan Project Scars
July 4, 2014 - Bart Jordan Timesinger & Manhattan Project
Bart Jordan opens up on his work on the Manhattan Project and on the nature of his connecting many disciplines, as a gifted interpreter, who listens to our distant past and cry of our present time. Jonathan Mark's interview with Bart Jordan has a video running time of 02:41:11 and it will also be broadcast over community television stations.
February 19, 2008 - Item 1
NASA Dark Mission Face on Mars Moon-landing Hoax
- - Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA
- - Face it; its a Face - (The Sequel)
- - Mars, NASA Cover-up - YouTube Video
- - Mars Theory Falls on Its Face
- - Bart Jordan & Technologically Advanced Ancient Civilizations
- - Evidence of a Moon-landing Hoax
- - Dark Side of the Moon
December 29, 2006 - Editor's Notes and item 3
Science - Ancient computer was ahead of its time
December 17, 2002 - Item 1
Bart Jordan's Moons of Mars
This Item contains links to NASA photos of the moons and the Cydonia region of Mars, as well as Miranda."
March 24, 2002 - Editors Notes
Bart Jordan's mathematical modeling on Global Warming concerns in the 1950's.
June 15, 2002 - Editor's Notes:
Warming World on Thin Ice - Bush Manifesto: Death by Carbon Dioxide
For Flyby News original posting on Bart Jordan
including published articles, music, and more:
www.FlybyNews.com/BartJordan
15 July, 2013 - Flyby News - Wordpress
Deciphering the distant past
by Bart Jordan ~ originally published, 1974
"Our future is in the past
with no escape present."
- Bart Jordan
To contact us, write to: - flybynews.com(at}gmail{dot)com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus,
and has supported critical campaigns for a healthy
environment, human rights, justice, and nonviolence,
since the launch of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
Original posting at FlybyNews.com
The Cassini Earth flyby was preceded by the launching of the NASA space probe in October 1997, which included a record load of Plutonium on board. The probe was directed toward Venus to conduct two flybys that increased the speed significantly, and then the Cassini space probe was directed toward Earth traveling around 10 miles per second. It had the potential to release 400,000 curies of radioactive plutonium into our atmosphere in a breathable and ingest-able form. On August 17/18, 1999, Cassini was less than minutes away from unprecedented tragedy, which could have impact life on Earth for thousands of years. But it wasn't just that NASA or the US military would take such a risk that was the big surprise, the big one came from Bart Jordan. After learning from one of our press releases about the Plutonium content on board Cassini, Bart Jordan wanted to post a commentary on how ancient civilizations knew all about development of such isotopes, and how this development was like pushing death into our corner.
This was just the tip of almost unbelievable information. Bart Jordan is either simply honest and astonishing, or a total impostor. There seemed little other option for someone claiming to have understood Hellenic (Greek), Germanic, and Semitic languages when only five years old and deciphering a code revealing advanced measures from our ancient past. Bart explained that after reading Gulliver's Travels, in which Jonathan Swift had accorded two moons to Mars, named Phobos and Deimos by the ancient Greeks, young Jordan sought to determine their exact revolutions and distances from Mars. In 1944 when he was just seven years of age, using an ancient alphabet-frequency-number system, he calculated the distances of moons from the center of Mars. These four measures appeared in the statistical box of Encyclopaedia Britannica's article on Mars, running from 1966 to 1973. To date there has been no other explanation for this published account, which was prior to NASA's ability to measure and confirm.
Jordan's article, "The Moons of Mars," published by QUEST For Knowledge (a British science publication) in 1997, was excerpted from his paper of 1944 and provided mathematical evidence that the moons of Mars were culled from the Asteroid Belt between Jupiter and Mars. Jordan also predicted the fifth moon of Uranus, which was known to the Homeric Greeks as Harmonia, and gave these calculations to Dr. Gerard Kuiper, who then identified the moon in 1948 (which he called Miranda after a heroine of Shakespeare). This moon renamed Miranda has a very interesting mark on its surface, which was witnessed by NASA's Voyager 2 space mission, guided by Jordan. Check out this photo from NASA of a "chevron". It looks like a big number 7, with new and old terrain.
Crossing the Mind-Barrier
Bart Jordan plans to publish additional articles, images, and interviews showing the significance of the measurements derived from the remote alphabets and the sound frequencies they produce. We will also post more on the work of Harry Jordan, who claims that he can prove beyond any doubt of Bart Jordan's involvement with NASA's Mars Viking 1 mission in 1976, which revealed the Cydonia region that he deciphered from the ancient Greek, Basque, and Haidia (NW America Indian) language. According to Jordan, these measures relate in exact proportion and direction to the satellite measurements (taken by the Canadian Government) of Queen Charlotte's Isle, (located off the coast of British Columbia, Canada), known as Aphrodite's Isle to ancient civilizations. Bart Jordan is preparing to put forth a series of papers confirming evidence of technologically advanced ancient civilizations and their message-measure for our present time.
10 July, 2014 - Youtube - Flyby News
Bart Jordan Timesinger
and Manhattan Project
Jonathan Mark interviews Bart Jordan
25 June, 2014 ~ video running time 02:41:22
15 July, 2013 - Flyby News - Wordpress
Deciphering the distant past
by Bart Jordan ~ originally published, 1974
Updated - Flyby News - Wordpress
Evidence of Technologically Advanced Ancient Civilizations
Following article was recently added to above resource.
11 February, 2009 - Examiner - Harry Jordan
Local teacher believes Mars
had ancient civilization!
Harry Jordan will be finally proving Bart Jordan's
precise measurements used by NASA during the 1976
Mars Viking 1 mission revealing the Cydonia region.
For Flyby News original posting on Bart Jordan
including published articles, music, and more:
www.FlybyNews.com/BartJordan
Measure Man's Mind and Mind Man's Measure
by Bart Jordan
The following is the final statement in an article Bart Jordan wrote,
Measure Man's Mind and Mind Man's Measure" published in the journal
of the New England Antiquities Research Association Volume # 14, Spring 1985.
"..Patient reader: we all know that musicians are supposed to emote and not think. However, before leaving you with this minor statement of major systems, this truncated report inviting a thousand queries, allow this musician some emotive thoughts about Man's personal measure. From my former articles and foregoing account, it can be seen that much of what we are now may be measured against what we were then. And it is just this matter of measure that must be understood the "we" of then and now.
We are historic; we were prehistoric. How do we measure ourselves? Our intellectual present versus our intuitive past? Originality versus aboriginality? Such notions as present Man is matchless and past Man is witless have little validity and less virtue. There is a difference between hidden harmony and apparent harmony, between mentality and ornamentality, between a thinking individual and a thoughtless society. In mindful time past, we honoured our grandparents; in mindless time present, we threaten our grandchildren.
Where are the measures of yesteryear? Blue Winter Mother, Green Spring Daughter, Yellow Year Person, Orange Autumn Son, Red Summer Father a bow has been set in the cloud, a covenant made with the Earth. There be a message in these measures for a man's family and for the Family of Man:
Love Creation and Created
Honour Moon, Sun, and Planet
Obey Time and Space
Obey Sound and Light
Honour Earth, Star, and Comet
Love Finite and Infinite
We have inherited more than the wind.
We have a measure of Man's mind.
Bulletin Board Shuttle
~ Light-years ahead of NASA ~
By Jonathan Mark
You never know where a bulletin board will lead you. A blurb in the mid-1990's, initiated my journey to respond to NASA's Cassini mission, which had 72.3 pounds of Plutonium on board. Destined for a Saturn orbit, Cassini was first directed in the opposite direction for two gravity-accelerated assists around Venus, and then came back for an Earth-flyby. According to the Environmental Impact Statement, it could have exposed five billion people to 99% or more of the radiation.
Just before the launch I attended a program with author, filmmaker, Karl Grossman, who outlined the high-risk perspective, but also presented documents showing the US military's plan to dominate the planet. For many this is old news, but what came out of this campaign could be known as one of the top US government secrets since the development of the atomic bomb, and reveal the reality of technologically-advanced ancient human civilizations.
Who Is Bart Jordan?
Bart Jordan contacted me a few months before the 1999 flyby, responding to a press release. He seemed genuinely upset about the plutonium, and claimed that ancient civilizations knew all about the development of such isotopes. His story was shocking, but Jordan had a record of accomplishments. To list two: he lectured at five different Departments at the University of NH; and was a classical guitarist, who studied with the renowned Andre Segovia.
But there was more. Bart Jordan worked anonymously, supplying scientists in U.S. government agencies with measurements he discovered as a child. He derived these measures from ancient sources, such as the Hellenic, Germanic, and Semitic peoples. Using an ancient alphabet-frequency-number system, he calculated the distances of moons from the center of Mars. These four measures appeared in the statistical box of Encyclopaedia Britannica's article on Mars, running from 1966 to 1973.
There are whole universes in hiding from the actions of the US government, which created an atomic bomb that was carelessly and purposely misused, and caused untold suffering from its proliferation. Perhaps by learning what our remote ancestors have passed down, humankind will, once again, unite with integrity, and put away the bomb technology before it is too late.
This article was published by the Village Register,
Winter/2006 issue for the Village Coop (Leverett, MA) newsletter
11 October, 2012 - NTDTV - Youtube - 0:02:23
Naquatica: Bosnia Pyramid
Carbon dated 25,000 years old
08 November, 2012 - Youtube - Dr. Semir Osmanagić
The Underground Tour Of
Bosnian Pyramid Tunnels
Running time 0:23:31
09 September, 2014 - Science Channel - Dr. Semir Osmanagich
The Unexplained Files (Season 2):
Mystery of the Bosnian Pyramids
The Bosnia Pyramid was covered by
the science channel recently, and will re-broadcast
Tuesday, 09 Sept., 2014, at 9:00 PM. The above
video only shows a little of it. It is well worth watching.
The energy measured at the top of the pyramid, K-2,
monoliths, stone work, show it is authentic, and
supports the reality of advanced civilizations
in pre-ice age times..
12 April, 2014 - Nat Geo - Youtube
The Forgotten Ruins of Gbekli Tepe
September, 2010) - New Dawn Magazine - Robert M. Schoch
The Mystery of Gbekli Tepe
and Its Message to Us
30 June, 2014 - Archeological Park - Jock Doubleday
The Mysterious Anti-Scientific
Agenda of Robert Schoch
30 June, 2014 - Archeological Park - Press Team
30,000 Year Old Bosnian Pyramids
Built With Man Made Cement
20 March 2012 - WantToKnow - Fred Burks
Forbidden Archeology, Suppressed History
Media Articles Reveal Suppressed History and Archeology
Additional resources on Bart Jordan
January 1, 2013 - Article by Steve Carter
A Jazz Musician's Wisdom on Listening:
Lessons for Us in Healthcare
October 10, 2013 - Published by Epoch Times
Shen Yun's Blend of Instruments
'A Credit Beyond Measure' Says Musician
February 11, 2009 - Examiner - Harry Jordan
"Local teacher believes Mars had ancient civilization!"
November 10, 2000 - The Millennium Group - Harry Jordan
"Mars Theory Falls on Its Face ?"
Flyby News archives:
July 4, 2014 - Bart Jordan Timesinger & Manhattan Project
Bart Jordan opens up on his work on the Manhattan Project and on the nature of his connecting many disciplines, as a gifted interpreter, who listens to our distant past and cry of our present time. Jonathan Mark's interview with Bart Jordan has a video running time of 02:41:11 and it will also be broadcast over community television stations.
February 19, 2008 - Item 1
NASA Dark Mission Face on Mars Moon-landing Hoax
- - Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA
- - Face it; its a Face - (The Sequel)
- - Mars, NASA Cover-up - YouTube Video
- - Mars Theory Falls on Its Face
- - Bart Jordan & Technologically Advanced Ancient Civilizations
- - Evidence of a Moon-landing Hoax
- - Dark Side of the Moon
December 29, 2006 - Editor's Notes and item 3
Science - Ancient computer was ahead of its time
December 17, 2002 - Item 1
Bart Jordan's Moons of Mars
This Item contains links to NASA photos of the moons and the Cydonia region of Mars, as well as Miranda."
March 24, 2002 - Editors Notes
Bart Jordan's mathematical modeling on Global Warming concerns in the 1950's.
June 15, 2002 - Editor's Notes:
Warming World on Thin Ice - Bush Manifesto: Death by Carbon Dioxide
For Flyby News original posting on Bart Jordan
including published articles, music, and more:
www.FlybyNews.com/BartJordan
15 July, 2013 - Flyby News - Wordpress
Deciphering the distant past
by Bart Jordan ~ originally published, 1974
For another posting of this page, see:
FlybyNews @ WordPress
"Our future is in the past
with no escape present."
The views expressed herein are writers' own and not necessarily of Flyby News.
Fair Use Policy that describes use of copyrighted material is at FlybyNews.com
Feedback on this page and networking Flyby News is appreciated.
You can write to the editor by email: - noflyby (at}yahoo{dot)com -
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus,
and has supported critical campaigns for a healthy
environment, human rights, justice, and nonviolence,
since the launch of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era
= = = www.FlybyNews.com = = =
TortureSeen * OilSlick * WoodyCaseHeard?
01 May 2004
"Now those who seek absolute power,
even though they seek it to do what they regard as good,
are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version
of heaven on earth, and let me remind you they are the very ones
who always create the most hellish tyranny."
Barry Goldwater
1) US military in Iraq torture scandal
- - Court-marshal in Iraq - Ill-Treatment of POW's
- - World outraged by U.S. torture of Iraqi prisoners
- - Writings of accused soldier who helped run Baghdad prison
- - Torture photos 'the end' for US in Iraq
- - US military in torture scandal
- - Amnesty International on Iraq 'Torture'
2) What's Happening in Iraq?
- - A Look at April 2004
- - Fallujah accord leaves US policy in disarray
- - Laptop Report From Fullujah, Iraq Battlefield
- - Bush League Diplomacy
- - Oil-Slick Jim Baker Moves In
3) Dangerous Time for Justice in "Woody" Police-Shooting Case
Editor's Notes:
Now that there are graphic photos to depict and describe the gruesome nature of this preemptive employment for war, there is a chance it can be ended. And if neither Kerry nor Bush remove the corporate immoral siege in Iraq, and let go entirely, it would be time to endorse a unifier for those non-represented; it would be the time for a Kucinich green party candidacy.. For now the mantra is not only in defeating Bush, but to get the hell out of Iraq, and pay for some of compensation for damages, for the damage is beyond total compensation, but we must try..
Please note the Greg Palast article, "Oil-Slick Jim Moves In" in item 2. This article connects many dots since the theft of the US election in 2000.
Item 3 is on a court hearing this Thursday in Brattleboro Vermont, where a Judge will rule on if the case of the police shooting of Robert Woodward will be heard as a family civil suit against the town and two police officers. This is on a case of a friend of mine, who was shot fatally seven times while seeking political sanctuary in a Church. More information is linked from FlybyNews.com and JusticeForWoody.org
"We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth...
For my part, I am willing to know the whole truth;
to know the worst; and to provide for it."
Patrick Henry
1) US military in Iraq torture scandal
- - Court-marshal in Iraq - Ill-Treatment of POW's
- - World outraged by U.S. torture of Iraqi prisoners
- - Writings of accused soldier who helped run Baghdad prison
- - Torture photos 'the end' for US in Iraq
- - US military in torture scandal
- - Amnesty International on Iraq 'Torture'
Graphic photographs showing the torture and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners in a US-run prison outside Baghdad emerged yesterday from a military inquiry which has left six soldiers facing a possible court martial and a general under investigation. The scandal has also brought to light the growing and largely unregulated role of private contractors in the interrogation of detainees. US military investigators discovered the photographs, which include images of a hooded prisoner with wires fixed to his body, and nude inmates piled in a human pyramid.
For the article published in The Guardian [UK], 30 April 2004, see:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1206725,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Court-marshal in Iraq - Ill-Treatment of POW's
60 minutes ll Court-marshal in Iraq
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/27/60II/main614063.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - World outraged by U.S. torture of Iraqi prisoners
Video and pictures
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6106.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Excerpts from writings of accused soldier who helped run Baghdad prison
``Chip'' Frederick wrote an account of how the prison he helped run treated inmates. The writings were given to The Associated Press on Thursday by the soldier's uncle
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6108.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Torture photos 'the end' for US in Iraq
Chilling pictures of Iraqi prisoners being tortured by US soldiers will damage Britain and signal the "end of the story" for America in Iraq, it was claimed today.
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5026096.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - US military in torture scandal
According to lawyers for some of the soldiers, they claimed to be acting in part under the instruction of mercenary interrogators hired by the Pentagon.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1206725,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Amnesty International on Iraq 'Torture'
"Our extensive research in Iraq suggests that this is not an isolated incident. It is not enough for the USA to react only once images have hit the television screens."
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/deliver/document/15339.html
Information House Archives
War Crimes: The Evidence File
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3450.htm
Take No Prisoners : Another proud moment in U.S. Military History
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5365.htm
US soldiers are seen as 'uncaring, dangerous and lacking in respect.':
An overwhelming majority of Iraqis, 71 percent (and that figure rises to 81 percent if the Kurdish areas in the north are excluded), see the US-led coalition as an occupying force and not as liberators.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0429/dailyUpdate.html
2) What's Happening in Iraq?
- - A Look at April 2004
- - Fallujah accord leaves US policy in disarray
- - Laptop Report From Fullujah, Iraq Battlefield
- - Bush League Diplomacy
- - Oil-Slick Jim Baker Moves In
What's Happening in Iraq? - A Look at April 2004
Fallujah - More than 720 U.S. military people and an estimated 10,000 Iraqis have been killed since the war began, 1,200 Iraqis in April alone. The current siege and destruction of Fallujah began a year ago when U.S. forces fired into an unarmed crowd and killed 13 Iraqis who were demonstrating against U.S. military occupation of a local school. Iraqi citizens retaliated, and for the next year the cycle of violence escalated with the U.S. using increasing force, including the use of F-15 and F-16 fighter jets and the detention of hundreds of people. The situation deteriorated further on March 26, 2004 when U.S. soldiers killed 16 more people, including an Iraqi cameraman. In response, Sunni resistance fighters killed and mutilated the bodies of 4 mercenaries employed by the U.S. private security company, Blackwater. Several days later, the U.S. launched a major offensive against the city. By April 12, the civilian death toll had reached 600 with over 1,000 injured; 60,000 women and children were forced to flee the city. Journalist Pratap Chatterjee of http://CorpWatch.org, who has been traveling with U.S. troops during the past week has characterized the continued U.S. siege as "a massacre, a Holocaust" Plans for U.S. troops to pull out are being counter-balanced by plans to install a surrogate U.S. trained Iraqi force.
Roots of the current Shiite rebellion in central/southern Iraq
As the situation in Fallujah deteriorated, U.S. envoy to Iraq Paul Bremer shut down the Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr's newspaper because, Bremer claimed, the paper was inciting violence against U.S. troops. (The paper had accused Bremer of ruling the country and mistreating the Shiite population "like Saddam.") Bremer's blatant disregard for Iraqi freedom of the press, combined with ongoing Iraqi displeasure about U.S. failure to restore basic services, security, and self-determination, resulted in the armed uprising of al-Sadr's Madhi Army in several major Iraqi cities including Basra, Najaf and Baghdad. The uprising-the most serious confrontation between the occupation forces and members of Iraq's Shiite majority signaled the beginning of a second phase of the war in Iraq, in which the U.S. is fighting on two fronts against both Sunni radicals in the center-north and Shiite militias in the south. The U.S. issued an arrest warrant for al-Sadr for the murder of a rival cleric a year earlier; al-Sadr responded by saying, "It is those that attacked civilians in Fallujah and innocent protesters that must be put on trial. I address the agents of the West...they say that we are delaying the handover of power and the formation of government, but I tell them that we have delayed selling Iraq and creating a government of agents." Shiites say that they want peace, not war; democracy and elections in short, for the right to determine their own future.
Does the U.S. government care about our troops?
Depleted Uranium: U.S. soldiers are coming home sick from contamination with depleted uranium. A New York Daily News special investigation of April 2004 found the first confirmed cases of inhaled DU exposure. The Daily News paid for the testing because the U.S. military has balked at screening returning soldiers for DU contamination. (DU is made from radioactive waste; the word "depleted" is misleading -- DU is radioactive. DU is used in artillery shells; on impact these shells disintegrate and the DU is reduced to microscopic, inhalable particles.)
Suicides: U.S. military officials acknowledge the suicides of 24 U.S. service people, but the military isn't counting soldiers who take their lives after returning home. The huge scale of mental health problems is becoming apparent: 10% of military casualties have been evacuated with mental health problems. Many are seeking their own help. Wayne Smith, an adviser to Vietnam Veterans of America, says as many as 4,500 soldiers returning from Iraq or Afghanistan have sought counseling from veterans' centers rather than through regular military channels.
Total Casualties as of April 30, 2004: 722 U.S. Soldiers Dead, 11,700 wounded. These statistics don't reflect the economic and emotional costs that have affected the families of dead or wounded soldiers.
U.S. Cost of Iraq War: $125 billion has been spent for the war, occupation and reconstruction in Iraq to date. Unlike the first Gulf War, the U.S. unilaterally and pre-emptively invaded Iraq in 2003, therefore the U.S. is paying for approximately 90% of the cost of this war.
Sources: The Independent, Common Dreams, Democracy Now!, BBC, United Press International, National Priorities Project, The Guardian
[FN Received this info via email.]
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Fallujah accord leaves US policy in disarray
The United States' policy on Iraq is in disarray, following the Pentagon's admission that it is unaware of a breakthrough agreement to end the siege of Fallujah announced by its troops on the ground. While a new poll showed a majority of Iraqis want US and British troops to leave in the next few months, an American marine commander revealed that his troops were preparing to withdraw from the outskirts of Fallujah, a major U-turn in US policy. It was a deal few of his superiors seemed aware of.
The Scotsman [UK], 30 April 2004 click for article
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=488292004
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Laptop Report From Fullujah, Iraq Battlefield
IRAQ--April 29, 2004--Tom Flocco.com--The following battlefield report was just made available to us. It is introduced by the individual who received it; however, we have redacted certain portions of the email to protect the identity of the Marine who made the information available.
Click on Full Story to read the laptop email.
http://tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=61&mode=&order=0&thold=0
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush League Diplomacy
How the Neoconservatives Are Putting the World at Risk
Thursday, April 29th, 2004
[Excerpt]
AMY GOODMAN: John Negroponte. He looks like he's about to be confirmed, now US ambassador to the United Nations, more importantly, before that, ambassador to Honduras. We have done a lot on this with people have appealed to him 20 year ago, as Honduras was the staging ground for the illegal Contra War, to deal with the victims in Honduras of a CIA-trained battalion 316. What do you know about this?
MEL GOODMAN: The very simple thing about John Negroponte, that has to be known, is that he was part of the cover-up of the human rights disasters and murders and civil rights abuses that took [place] in Honduras during the time that he was ambassador. Part of this was part of the Contra War, but the cover-up is something that never should have been tolerated. So, if you look around the administration and you say Elliot Abrams in the White House who is supposed to be in control of Middle East policy, even though he has no knowledge whatsoever of the Middle East, and if he had not been pardoned, he would have been in jail. Negroponte was involved in a cover-up. John Poindexter, who is no longer in the administration, also had to be pardoned, or he would have been in jail. The abuses of this administration and the politicization of every department and agency of this government is on another scale. That's why I strongly believe that no president has reduced America's international stature the way this president has.
Listen, watch, read show at Democracy Now!
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/29/1513213
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Oil-Slick Jim Baker Moves In
"Oil-Slick Jim Moves In"
by Greg Palast
April 26, 2004
Editor's Note: This piece is excerpted from the new edition of "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" (Plume), by Greg Palast.
[Excerpt!]
..So where is Secretary Baker today? On the lam, hiding in deserved shame? Doing penance by nursing the victims of Gulf War Syndrome? No, Mr. Baker is a successful lawyer, founder of Baker Botts of Houston, Riyadh, Kazakhstan. Among his glittering client roster is Exxon-Mobil oil and the defense minister of Saudi Arabia. Baker's firm is protecting the Saudi royal from a lawsuit by the families of the victims of September 11 over evidence suggesting that Saudi money ended up in the pockets of the terrorists.
And Baker has just opened a new office ... at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. This is a White House first: the first time a lobbyist for the oil industry will have a desk right next to the President's. Baker's job, to "restructure" Iraq's debt. How lucky for his clients in Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom claims $30.7 billion due from Iraq.
If you remember, Henry Kissinger ran away from appointment to the September 11 Commission with his consulting firm tucked between his legs after the U.S. Senate demanded he reveal his client list. In the case of Jim Baker, our elected Congress had no chance to ask him who is paying his firm nor even require him to get off conflicting payrolls.
To get around the wee issue of conflicts galore, the White House crafted a neat little subterfuge. The official press release says the President has not appointed Mr. Baker. Rather Mr. Bush is "responding to a request from the Iraqi Governing Council." That is, Bush is acting on the authority of the puppet government he imposed on Iraqis at gunpoint.
Why is our President so concerned with the wishes of Mr. Baker's clientele? What does Bush owe Baker?
It was Baker, as consigliore to the Bush family, who came up with the strategy of maneuvering the 2000 Florida vote count into a Supreme Court packed with politicos.
Over the years, Jim Baker has taken responsibility for putting bread on the Bush family table. As Senior Counsel to Carlyle, the arms-dealing investment group, Baker arranged for the firm to hire both President Bush 41 after he was booted from the White House and President Bush 43 while his daddy was still in office.
We know why Jim Baker is in the White House. But what was Private Dervishi doing in harm's way in Iraq? Saddam was already in the slammer and Iraq "liberated" nearly a year.
The answer came to me in a confidential document that oozed out of Foggy Bottom, 100 pages from the State Department's secret "Iraq Strategy." It's all about the "post-conflict" economy of Iraq written well before Americans were told we would have a conflict there.
There's nothing in the Iraq Strategy about democracy or voting. But there's plenty of detail about creating a free-market Disneyland in Mesopotamia, with "all" state assets -- and that's just about everything in that nation -- to be sold off to corporate powers. The Bush team secret program ordered: "... asset sales, concessions, leases and management contracts, especially those in the oil and supporting industries."
The Strategy lays out a detailed 270-day schedule for the asset grab. And that's why PFC Dervishi was kept there: to prevent or forestall elections. Because no democratically elected government of Iraq could ever sell off its oil. Democracy would have to wait, at the point of a gun, for the "assets sales, concessions, leases" to Bush's corporate buck-buddies.
There you have it. The secret Strategy tells us that, if Bush didn't go into Iraq for the oil, he sure as hell ain't leaving without it.
For this complete article, see:
www.alternet.org/print.html?StoryID=18513
For more information on the journalism and film of Greg Palast, visit
GregPalast.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a resource, see this Palast article - BAKER TAKES THE LOAF
PRESIDENT'S BUSINESS PARTNER SLICES UP IRAQ
TomPaine.com
Monday Dec 8, 2003
This week came the payoff when President Bush appointed James Baker III to "restructure" the debts of the nation of Iraq.
www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=300&row=1
3) Dangerous Time for Justice in "Woody" Police-Shooting Case
Brattleboro Reformer
Shooting suit before judge Woodward's family claims officers used excessive force
By DANIEL BARLOW
dbarlow@reformer.com
Reformer Staff
Tuesday, April 27, 2004 -
BRATTLEBORO -- A judge will decide next week if a civil suit against the town and two police officers in the aftermath of a 2001 police shooting of a man in a church will go to trial.
Attorneys for the town hope to have the case brought by the family of Robert Woodward thrown out, while the plaintiffs hope that Judge J. Garvan Murtha sends the case to a jury trial.
A hearing on the town's motion for a summary judgment in the case has been scheduled for 10 a.m. on Thursday, May 6, at the U.S. District Court in Brattleboro.
Lawyers for the town and the two officers maintain that the police training received by officers with the Brattleboro Police Department is sufficient and that the two officers have governmental immunity and are exempt from liability.
"There is no basis to conclude that the training offered by the town ... demonstrated a 'deliberate indifference' to a citizen's constitutional rights," reads a Feb. 19 court filing by the town's attorney, Nancy Goss Sheahan of the law office McNeil, Leddy & Sheahan of Burlington.
Calls to Sheahan were not returned Monday.
Attorneys for Woodward's family contend that the officers used excessive force in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights and that the rules for governmental immunity in the shooting were not met.
Woodward, 37, was shot seven times by two Brattleboro Police officers in All Soul's Unitarian Church on Dec. 2, 2001. He had entered the church sometime around 10 a.m., claiming he was seeking sanctuary from government authorities. He was in possession of a small knife and threatening suicide.
Woodward later died and the Vermont Attorney General's Office declared the shooting tragic, but justified. A group that formed soon after the shooting -- Justice for Woody -- has released two reports suggesting inconsistencies and misinformation contained in Attorney General William Sorrell's report.
Less than a month after the shooting, Woodward's parents and sister filed a civil suit against the town and the two officers -- Marshall Holbrook and Terrance Parker -- seeking a jury trial and damages. Holbrook has since left the department.
The suit alleges that the officers used unreasonable force and were not trained properly in dealing with emotionally disturbed subjects along with four other alleged violations of Woodward's Constitutional rights.
The attorneys for the Woodward family fought the motion for summary judgment, arguing that the testimony from the witnesses in the church following the shooting do not match with the witness testimony taken later.
None of the nearly two dozen witnesses to the shooting reported that Woodward made any threatening movement toward the police officers, according to a Feb. 2 filing by Woodward's attorneys.
"The only witnesses who claimed a threat were the shooters themselves," the document states. "Since disputed issues of fact exist as to the course of events ... this court must deny the defendants' motions for summary judgment."
In subsequent interviews, witnesses began stating that Woodward made threatening moves, explained Joel Faxon, an attorney with Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder, a firm from Bridgeport, Conn. Faxon said the more credible statements are the ones made the day of the shooting.
"You look at the statements made to the state police, and you'll see that everyone said Woodward made no threatening gestures or movements toward the police," said Faxon. "Every single person said that."
The town's attorney contends in a Feb. 19 filing that the argument against summary judgment is based on "allegations and arguments that are immaterial to the legal grounds" and that Woodward's attorneys "editorialize and speculate without supporting evidence and they attempt to pawn off legal theories as facts."
"This is insufficient to create a genuine dispute regarding any material fact that might impede the granting of summary judgment," the Feb. 19 court document states.
On the Web:
justiceforwoody.net
brattleboropolice.com
reformer.com
Flyby News Support
If you care to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses
for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc.,
you can send donations to:
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
-- or you can donate via online --
see FlybyNews.com [near bottom of page] for link
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
FallujaNajaf * Nukes * KerrySpin * SkyLight
27 April 2004
"The release of atom power has changed everything
except our way of thinking... the solution to this problem
lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known,
I should have become a watchmaker."
- Albert Einstein
1) Falluja, Najaf and the First Law of Holes
- - Pressed to Improve Depleted Uranium Testing
- - How America Nukes Its Own Troops
2) Why Criticize Kerry Now?
3) Massive Protest Decries Bush Abortion Policies
4) 9/11 What They Knew and When They Knew It
5) Online Vice Presidential Primary
- - NH still close with Kerry leading by 2%
- - SwingTheVote.us
6) SolarFest Vermont July 10/11
- - New Reach for High Speed Internet
Editor's Notes:
According to an article by Rev. Lang, "George Bush and the Rise of Christian Fascism," the Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas said that George W. Bush told him: "God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East.." Meanwhile, as William Rivers Pitt in his article, "Falluja, Najaf and the First Law of Holes" describes: "Anyone who believes that April has been the cruelest month of this Iraq war - 111 Americans killed with the total dead now at 718, hundreds upon hundreds of Iraqi civilians killed - should gird themselves for the reality that the worst, the very worst, the unimaginably awful, is still yet to come."
Item 2 goes further to explain why we need to urge Democratic Party and Presidential politics to take a stand to bring the troops home from Iraq, to end the special privatization interests of corporations now in Iraq. Item 3 is on a very significant march in Washington D.C. the right for human freedom and choice. Bush may think he is acting from God's interest, but as Whoopi Goldberg eloquently stated, God has already given us humans the gift of choice of free will. What Bush is doing is demeaning the oath he had taken to defend and honor the US Constitution, and the separation of Church and State.
Item 4 has more on the review of 9/11 investigations. Item 5 is on the cyber-campaign trail featuring a vice president primary. I plan to cast my vote for Bob Graham. Not just because he is from Florida, but due to his candor and integrity regarding 9/11 investigations. The difference between Bush and Kerry is not just the difference of these two Skull and Bones veterans, but the administration and cabinet they bring into the US government. In this item, too, is an update on a campaign useful for swing-states to get the Bush administration out of office ASAP.
Item 6 is a link to SolarFest, an annual solar-music event in Vermont. This is a weekend for learning about sustainability, to be surrounded with decent community-minded people, music, innovation and natural in Vermont, inspired by nature. Meanwhile, at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, they seemed to have misplaced, or lost, a highly radioactive spent fuel rod. 2012 is set for the decommissioning date for this dangers power plant, but they are now trying to increase its output, while all sorts of technical or terrorist problems exist. How crazy are we humans. Please do Vermont a favor, contact your reps and contact the Vermont Governor. Tell him that the NRC can't safely monitor highly radioactive spent fuel for 25 years. They surely are not prepared to monitor it for 10,000 plus years. VT Gov - 802-828-3333. The second part of item 6 is regarding a new dish-satellite system for high speed internet service for those away from DSL or Cable. This new company has an interesting connection to the development of a Stirling engine for cleaner electrical power generation. Nuclear Power is a technology for mad people, designed for destruction and delusions.
Please note that a heroine in our midst is coming to Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA, on the evening of April 27. The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media that Love Them" is already on the New York Times best-seller list. Amy Goodman is breaking down the sound barrier for democracy, and compassion in the US. Keep checking updates and links from FlybyNews.com for more information on critical campaigns. Thanks for reading, sharing, and working for positive change in 2004.
"We are the ones we have been waiting for!"
1) Falluja, Najaf and the First Law of Holes
- - Pressed to Improve Depleted Uranium Testing
- - How America Nukes Its Own Troops
Falluja, Najaf and the First Law of Holes
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Monday 26 April 2004
Anyone who believes that April has been the cruelest month of this Iraq war - 111 Americans killed with the total dead now at 718, hundreds upon hundreds of Iraqi civilians killed - should gird themselves for the reality that the worst, the very worst, the unimaginably awful, is still yet to come.
..Bush has mobilized anti-American sentiment to such a staggering degree that Shi'ite and Sunni, enemies for generations past counting, have united to fight us. The invasion and occupation has spurred an al Qaeda recruitment drive that has swelled the ranks of that organization. A lot of people are dead, American and British and Spanish and Polish and Iraqi alike. Nine Americans and 28 Iraqis were killed this weekend alone. The light at the end of this tunnel is an oncoming freight train. That's not the worst part, however. The worst part is yet to come, in two cities called Falluja and Najaf. Americans paying attention to the spiral of violence in recent weeks will recognize those names, for they have been at the center of heavy combat since the month of April began. Bush administration officials, rocked back on their heels by the eruption of death there, were forced at one point to sue for a cease fire...
..The cease fire has failed, and American forces are at this moment surrounding Falluja and Najaf with the intention of invading these cities and routing the 'insurgents.' A showdown is coming, and nothing good will be made of it.
..The city of Falluja should be the first chapter in the urban combat strategy binder titled "Worst Terrain Imaginable." The city has nearly 300,000 residents and is made up of a dizzying maze of narrow streets, wide boulevards and back alleys. Most of the apartments have porches that will serve Iraqi snipers and RPG-toting helicopter hunters well. Every neighborhood has a mosque, a school, markets and clinics which, if struck by an errant American bomb, will deliver horrible numbers of civilian casualties.
..The religious aspect is easily the most explosive element in this matter. Falluja is a Sunni town. Through the almost mystical bungling of the Bush administration, it has become tied to the holy city of Najaf, a Shi'ite stronghold. This city, like Falluja, has been surrounded by American forces and faces imminent attack. If an attack against Najaf is indeed undertaken, the consequences for Iraq, and indeed for the entire Middle East, will be unimaginable.
Najaf is the site of the tomb of Ali, the most important Shi'ite saint. It is a holy city, like Mecca and Medina, and is the symbolic capital for Shi'ites all around the world. If American forces attack Najaf, every Shi'ite on the planet will have a dog in the fight. Iran, a Shi'ite-controlled nation, may well become involved. Shi'ite religious leaders will issue fatwas demanding massive numbers of suicide attacks against Americans.
..Anyone who thinks Iraq is a bad situation now should reserve judgment until the end of this week. George W. Bush and his crew have clearly forgotten the First Law of Holes: When you find yourself deep in a hole, stop digging. If this is what Bush meant when he talked about "changing the world" in his recent prime-time press conference, we are all in a great deal of trouble.
The complete article is posted:
truthout.org/docs_04/042604A.shtml
William Rivers Pitt is the senior editor and lead writer for t r u t h o u t. He is a New York Times and international best-selling author of two books - 'War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know' and 'The Greatest Sedition is Silence.'
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Pressed to Improve Depleted Uranium Testing
From Democracy Now!
Friday, April 23rd, 2004
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair
Pressed to Improve Depleted Uranium Testing
[Excerpt]
Earlier this month, a New York Daily News special investigation by Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez found the first confirmed cases of inhaled depleted uranium exposure from the current Iraq conflict. At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers was questioned by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) about depleted uranium testing policies .
At the hearing, Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton of New York pressed Myers about the issue of depleted uranium. She cited the Daily News investigation Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez conducted earlier this month.
For the complete transcript and link to listen, watch the program, see:
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/23/1448253
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - How America Nukes Its Own Troops
By Amy Worthington
Death By Slow Burn -
How America Nukes Its Own Troops
What 'Support Our Troops' Really Means
By Amy Worthington
The Idaho Observer
4-16-3
On March 30, an AP photo featured an American pro-war activist holding a sign: "Nuke the evil scum, it worked in 1945!" That's exactly what George Bush has done. America's mega-billion dollar war in Iraq has been indeed a NUCLEAR WAR.
Bush-Cheney have delivered upon 17 million Iraqis tons of depleted uranium (DU) weapons, a "liberation" gift that will keep on giving. Depleted uranium is a component of toxic nuclear waste, usually stored at secure sites. Handlers need radiation protection gear.
DU munitions are classified by a United Nations resolution as illegal weapons of mass destruction. Their use breaches all international laws, treaties and conventions forbidding poisoned weapons calculated to cause unnecessary suffering.
Ironically, support for our troops will extend well beyond the war in Iraq.
Americans will be supporting Gulf War II veterans for years as they slowly and painfully succumb to radiation poisoning. U.S. and British troops deployed to the area are the walking dead. Humans and animals, friends and foes in the fallout zone are destined to a long downhill spiral of chronic illness and disability. Kidney dysfunction, lung damage, bloody stools, extreme fatigue, joint pain, unsteady gait, memory loss and rashes and, ultimately, cancer and premature death await those exposed to DU.
..When a DU shell is fired, it ignites upon impact. Uranium, plus traces of plutonium and americium, vaporize into tiny, ceramic particles of radioactive dust. Once inhaled, uranium oxides lodge in the body and emit radiation indefinitely. A single particle of DU lodged in a lymph node can devastate the entire immune system according to British radiation expert Roger Coghill. (7)
The Royal Society of England published data showing that battlefield soldiers who inhale or swallow high levels of DU can suffer kidney failure within days. (8) Any soldier now in Iraq who has not inhaled lethal radioactive dust is not breathing. In the first two weeks of combat, 700 Tomahawks, at a cost of $1.3 million each, blasted Iraqi real estate into radioactive mushroom clouds. (9) Millions of DU tank rounds liter the terrain.
Cleanup is impossible because there is no place on the planet to put so much contaminated debris..
..Nothing compares to the astronomical cancer rates and birth defects suffered by the Iraqi people who have endured vicious nuclear chastisement for years.16 U.S. air attacks against Iraq since 1993 have undoubtedly employed nuclear munitions. Pictures of grotesquely deformed Iraqi infants born since 1991 are overwhelming. (17) Like those born to Gulf War I vets, many babies born to troops now in Iraq will also be afflicted with hideous deformities, neurological damage and/or blood and respiratory disorders. (18)
As an Army health physicist, Dr. Doug Rokke was dispatched to the Middle East to salvage DU-contaminated tanks after Gulf War I. His Geiger counters revealed that the war zones of Iraq and Kuwait were contaminated with up to 300 millirems an hour in beta and gamma radiation plus thousands to millions of counts per minute in alpha radiation.
Rokke recently told the media: "The whole area is still trashed. It is hotter than heck over there still. This stuff doesn't go away." (19)
DU remains "hot" for 4.5 billion years. Radiation expert Dr. Helen Caldicott confirms that the dust-laden winds of DU-contaminated war zones "will remain effectively radioactive for the rest of time."20 The murderous dust storms which ensnared coalition troops during the first few days of the current invasion are sure to have significant health consequences.
Rokke and his clean-up team were issued only flimsy dust masks for their dangerous work. Of the 100 people on Rokke's decontamination team, 30 have already "dropped dead." Rokke himself is ill with radiation damage to lungs and kidneys. He has brain lesions, skin pustules, chronic fatigue, continual wheezing and painful fibromyalgia. Rokke warns that anyone exposed to DU should have adequate respiratory protection and special coveralls to protect their clothing because, he says, you can't get uranium particles off your clothing.
The U.S. military insists that DU on the battlefield is not a problem.
Colonel James Naughton of the U.S. Army Material Command recently told the BBC that complaints about DU "had no medical basis." (21)
For pragmatic reasons, DOD chooses to lie and deny.
Dr. Rokke confirms that the Pentagon lies about DU dangers and is criminally negligent for neglecting medical attention needed by DU-contaminated vets. He predicts that the numbers of American troops to be sickened by DU from Gulf War II will be staggering. (26)
Dr. Rokke's candor has cost him his career.
George Bush's ongoing war in Afghanistan is also a nuclear war.. ..Drought-stricken Afghanistan's underground water supply is now contaminated by these nuclear weapons. (32) Experts with the Uranium Medical Research Center report that urine samples of Afghanis show the highest level of uranium ever recorded in a civilian population.
The solution? Americans must stop electing ruthless criminals to rule this nation.. . ..If America truly supports its troops, it must stop sending them into nuclear holocaust for the enrichment of thugs. Time is running out. If the DU-maniacs at the Pentagon and their coven of nuclear arms peddlers are not harnessed, America will have no able-bodied fighting forces left. All people of the earth will become grossly ill, hideously deformed and short-lived. We must succeed in the critical imperative to face reality and act decisively. Should we fail, there will be no place to hide from Bush-Cheney's merciless nuclear orgies yet to come or from the inevitable nuclear retaliation these orgies will surely breed.
For the complete article and references, see:
www.rense.com/general37/nukes.htm
2) Why Criticize Kerry Now?
Published in the May, 2004 issue of The Progressive
When Kerry Was Liberal
by Ruth Conniff
..But if the old John Kerry scored a lot of liberal points, the new John Kerry, the National Journal points out, was "especially moderate in his second term when it came to foreign policy issues." He voted for missile defense and intelligence spending legislation opposed by his Democratic colleagues. As Kerry likes to brag on the campaign trail, he endorsed sixteen out of nineteen military budget increases during his time in the Senate. Kerry's pro-military record is particularly galling to one of his constituents, John Bonifaz, the founder and director of the National Voting Rights Institute. Bonifaz even explored running against Kerry from the left in 2001, but decided not to when September 11 eclipsed his platform of economic and social justice.
Bonifaz was a young campaign staffer for Ted Kennedy in 1988. "I was not of the view that no one in the U.S. Senate was carrying the torch for progressive fights. There were some people, Senator Kennedy being one, Paul Wellstone being one." But Kerry, in Bonifaz's view, was no ally of progressives. His biggest beef with Kerry now is his support of the principle that Bush did not have to consult Congress again before invading Iraq--the subject of a lawsuit Bonifaz is pressing against the Administration.
Like most liberals and progressives, Bonifaz wants to see Kerry beat Bush. That raises the question: Why criticize him now?
"For starters, I'd like to see a debate at the Democratic National Convention on where the party stands about the process of going into war," he says. "Does the party embrace the [idea that] Presidents have inherent authority to invade other countries on their own volition, or does it embrace the view of the framers of the Constitution?"
Initially, Kerry explained his vote on the Iraq resolution by saying that the President had promised he'd go to war only with U.N. approval.
"Kerry made his own promise in a floor speech," says Bonifaz. "If the President didn't proceed to build a multilateral coalition, he'd be the first to speak out. He did not."
Instead, Bonifaz says, he stood by as the Administration blew off the international community and now endorses Bush on the war powers question.
Beyond that, says Bonifaz, a lot of people want to see a challenge to corporate politics. "That mobilized a lot of people behind Dean," he says. "Will Kerry embrace that message, or will he
move to the center and right?"
If he keeps on the way he has been going, 2004 may be the year Kerry finally loses the liberal label.
Ruth Conniff is Political Editor of The Progressive.
For the complete posting of this article:
commondreams.org/views04/0423-14.htm
3) Massive Protest Decries Bush Abortion Policies
Thousands March for Abortion Rights
By Elizabeth Wolfe
The Associated Press
[Excerpt]
WASHINGTON - Abortion-rights supporters marched in the hundreds of thousands Sunday, galvanized by what they see as an erosion of reproductive freedoms under President Bush and foreign policies that hurt women worldwide.
The rally on the National Mall stretched from the base of the U.S. Capitol about a mile back to the Washington Monument. Authorities no longer give formal crowd estimates, but various police sources informally estimated the throng at between 500,000 and 800,000 strong.
For this complete article, see:
truthout.org/docs_04/042604C.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
TO Live Reports From the
March for Women's Lives
Washington D.C.
truthout.org/docs_04/MarchWomensLives.shtml
"I hope John Ashcroft is listening because YOU are a direct threat to his vision of America. And Bush, you better beware. When women vote, Democrats win!" Cameron Mannheim
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Massive Protest Decries Bush Abortion Policies
by Deborah Zabarenko
(Published April 25, 2004 by Reuters)
WASHINGTON - Protesters crowded the National Mall on Sunday to show support for abortion rights and opposition to Bush administration policies on women's health issues in one of the biggest demonstrations in U.S. history.
There was no official crowd count, but organizers claimed more than 1 million people participated.
For this article, see:
commondreams.org/headlines04/0425-01.htm
4) 9/11 What They Knew and When They Knew It
Re: 9/11Bush-Cheney-Rice
What They Knew and When They Knew It
by Bob Zimmerman
[Excerpt]
Bush, Cheney and Rice knew 9/11 was imminent; they had intelligence warnings describing al Qaeda's plan to use our commercial jets to attack the World Trade Center and Washington, D.C. The highest levels of the Bush administration repeatedly and intentionally lied about what they knew and when they knew it. The Bush administration failed to take appropriate action on numerous actionable intelligence reports and briefings, including a highly classified presidential daily briefing memo (PDB) dated August 6, 2001 entitled Bin Laden Determined to Strike inside the U.S. That PDB contained much "actionable intelligence," including information about active al Qaeda cells in the U.S. and the training of prospective terrorists at military and commercial flight schoolshigh-level U.S. State Department permission is required for civilian pilot training at military flight schools. Why was such permission granted to the terrorists?
Bush, Cheney, and Rice chose to ignore the al Qaeda threat warnings; they failed to task and follow-up with the FBI and the CIA; and it is uncontested that they intentionally failed to warn and protect the American people. Prior to 9/11, only privileged government personnel like Attorney General Ashcroft were warned to avoid air travel; the AG canceled his air travel plans; but the American people were not alerted; the American people were left fully exposed to the al Qaeda attack and 3,000 people were murdered.
..The post-9/11 evidentiary record clearly shows presidential gross negligence, and perhaps even complicity in 9/11. The slowly unfolding tale of what really happened on and before 9/11 is an overwhelming tale of governmental dysfunction or worse. Why did Bush, Cheney, and Rice deliberately and repeatedly lie to us saying they had received no warnings that a 9/11-type attack was imminent? Why have they spent 2 years deliberately covering up what really happened on and before 9/11? Was it because high-level Bush policy formulators had previously prepared the infamous Project for a New American Century (PNAC) policy initiative suggesting that America needed another Pearl Harbor before it could launch a War of Terror on the world?
The Bush-Cheney-Rice cover-up of what really happened on 9/11 is steadily unraveling..
Conclusion: Many Americans and most of the world now view the Bush War on Terror as a War of Terror, an evolving global nightmare for everyone except for the few who personally reap vast profits from perpetual pre-emptive war. Bush's former director of counter-terrorism, Richard Clarke, has testified under oath and said that Bush failed to take speedy action against al Qaeda, and that Bush's invasion of Iraq has increased America's risk of future terrorist attacks, making the world far less safe. There are now more than enough connected dots to warrant either immediate indictments or the commencement of impeachment proceedings. Concerned Americans and the Congress should demand nothing less.
The crucial question is: Will the official 9/11 investigating commission continue the cover-up and merely accuse the Bush administration of gross negligence, or will their findings lead to official charges of treason?
For an email of the complete article, write the author, Bob Zimmerman: BobZimmerman@usa.com
5) Online Vice Presidential Primary
- - NH still close with Kerry leading by 2%
- - SwingTheVote.us
Announcing the Online Vice Presidential Primary
April 20, 2004
PoliticsNationwide.com announced today that it will conduct the first national online preference primary to select Democratic Party and Republican Party candidates for the office of Vice President of the United States.
In a process scheduled to begin at 9 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time on Tuesday, April 27, 2004, and end at midnight Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday, April 29, 2004, voters who log on to www.PoliticsNationwide.com to participate in the PoliticsNationwide.com preference primary will be asked:
(1) Who should Democratic U.S. Senator John Kerry select as his running mate for Vice President of the United States?
(2) Should Republican President George W. Bush keep Richard B. "Dick" Cheney as his running mate for Vice President of the United States?
(3) Who should Republican President George W. Bush select as his running mate for Vice President of the United States?
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - NH still close with Kerry leading by 2%
The Rasmussen poll has consistently shown Kerry running better than most other polls. This one shows him leading in NH with Bush running behind..
Survey of 500 Likely Voters April 21, 2004 New Hampshire Still Close
Kerry 47% Bush 45%
New Hampshire 2004
On a national basis this time around, the Rasmussen Reports Presidential Election Tracking Poll has found Bush and Kerry virtually even for weeks.
http://www.RasmussenReports.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - SwingTheVote.us
Help US Defeat Bush in 2004
The following web site was launched focused on defeating Bush in NH, but you can contact this group for coordinating efforts in other swing states, too!
SwingtheVote.us
*****************************************************************
6) SolarFest Vermont -- July 10/11
- - New Reach for High Speed Internet
SolarFest - New England Renewable Energy Festival
July 10 and July 11 at the Green Mountain College, Poultney, VT
SolarFest is a nonprofit organization with 501(c)(3) status. Its mission is to educate people about renewable energy by engaging the community through the performing arts. Since its inception in 1995, SolarFest has built a reputation for promoting artistic excellence and community building, and has raised more than a few eyebrows when people realize that our entire weekend festival is run on solar energy.
Flyby News will again participate with this event, and will have information table at the non-profit area. For more on workshops, performances, and other information, visit SolarFest.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - New Reach for High Speed Internet
Rural computer users have been left stranded for years from the range of affordable broadband Internet service. In higher density populations, DSL or Cable high speed Internet access have been around for years. But, now, hill folk, too, can receive high speed Internet without exorbitant costs.
In New England, SkyWay Installations has begun installing broadband Internet satellite service to rural homes and businesses that cable, DSL and wireless providers do not cover. This product from SkyWay USA includes a 28-inch dish, hardware and software packages. With professional installation, the system costs about $259.00, and a monthly service charge starting at $29.95. For those with a view to the southwest US sky, broadband internet access is reachable.
For more information, visit: SkyWayInstallations.com
or call 1-866-475-9787
Reference [ PRC # 1012 ]
Note: One of SkyWay Installations' founders is Ricardo Conde, who is business partners with Jonathan Mark in a company focused on developing a 200+kW Stirling engine for onsite commercial/industrial electrical power generation. Stirling engines can use waste heat and renewable fuels for cleaner electrical power generation and higher thermal efficiencies.
For more information see: STIRLING Solution for Onsite Power Production.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
WoodwardRevelations * KerryPress * BushOil
22 April 2004
"When the people fear the government,' that is tyranny.
When the government' fears the people, that is liberty."
- Thomas Jefferson
1) Woodward Shares War Secrets
2) Kerry and Meet the Press
3) Bush Secret Oil Deal With Saudis
- - Mordechai Vanunu released from prison after serving 18 years
4) Senator backs Draft to boost Iraq and Pandemonium
- - Privatization in Iraq: Contractors' With Guns
- - 'Unprecedented Hatred' for US
- - Time Line Path to Pandemonium
"History, we don't know.
We'll all be dead."
George W. Bush
[For quote source and background, see item 1.]
Editor's Notes:
Item 1 is from the transcript of "Sixty Minutes" of an interview with Bob Woodward about his book, "Plan of Attack". The revelations in this item are absolutely scary, a holier-than-thou oil-driven warrior, and dim viewpoint for a future. Item 2 is another look at the political dual-purpose candidate, John Kerry, and you can link to the entire NBC "Meet the Press" transcript. Kerry is as scary as Clinton, but not like Bush, our Armageddon-commander-in-chief. Items 3 and 4 contain articles and other resources. Please take action, check for petitions and campaigns at FlybyNews.com.
"You Cannot Break the Human Spirit"
Mordechai Vanunu
Israeli Nuclear Whistleblower
Free from Prison After 18 Years
1) Woodward Shares War Secrets
From: CBS News - "Sixty Minutes
Woodward Shares War Secrets
April 18, 2004
[Excerpts]
Journalist Bob Woodward calls his new book, "Plan of Attack," the first detailed, behind-the-scenes account of how and why the president decided to wage war in Iraq.
It's an insider's account written after Woodward spoke with 75 of the key decision makers, including President Bush himself.
The president permitted Woodward to quote him directly. Others spoke on the condition that Woodward not identify them as sources.
Woodward discusses the secret details of the White House's plans to attack Iraq for the first time on television with Correspondent Mike Wallace..
Woodward reports that just five days after Sept. 11, President Bush indicated to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice that while he had to do Afghanistan first, he was also determined to do something about Saddam Hussein.
.."And there's this low boil on Iraq until the day before Thanksgiving, Nov. 21, 2001. This is 72 days after 9/11. This is part of this secret history. President Bush, after a National Security Council meeting, takes Don Rumsfeld aside, collars him physically, and takes him into a little cubbyhole room and closes the door and says, What have you got in terms of plans for Iraq? What is the status of the war plan? I want you to get on it. I want you to keep it secret.'"
Woodward says immediately after that, Rumsfeld told Gen. Tommy Franks to develop a war plan to invade Iraq and remove Saddam - and that Rumsfeld gave Franks a blank check.
"Rumsfeld and Franks work out a deal essentially where Franks can spend any money he needs. And so he starts building runways and pipelines and doing all the preparations in Kuwait, specifically to make war possible," says Woodward.
"Gets to a point where in July, the end of July 2002, they need $700 million, a large amount of money for all these tasks. And the president approves it. But Congress doesn't know and it is done. They get the money from a supplemental appropriation for the Afghan War, which Congress has approved. Some people are gonna look at a document called the Constitution which says that no money will be drawn from the Treasury unless appropriated by Congress. Congress was totally in the dark on this."
Woodward says there was a lot happening that only key Bush people knew about.
"A year before the war started, three things are going on. Franks is secretly developing this war plan that he's briefing the president in detail on," says Woodward. "Franks simultaneously is publicly denying that he's ever been asked to do any plan."
For example, here's Gen. Franks' response to a question about invading Iraq, in May 2002, after he's been working on war plans for five months: "That's a great question and one for which I don't have an answer, because my boss has not yet asked me to put together a plan to do that."
But according to Woodward, the general had been perfecting his war plan, and Vice President Dick Cheney knew all about it. Woodward reports that Cheney was the driving force in the White House to get Saddam. Cheney had been Secretary of Defense during the first Gulf War, and to him, Saddam was unfinished business and a threat to the United States.
In his book, Woodward describes Cheney as a "powerful, steamrolling force obsessed with Saddam and taking him out."..
..Three months later, on Dec. 21, 2002, Woodward says CIA Director George Tenet brought his deputy, John McLaughlin, to the oval office to show the president and the vice president their best evidence that Saddam really had weapons of mass destruction.
"McLaughlin has access to all the satellite photos, and he goes in and he has flip charts in the oval office. The president listens to all of this and McLaughlin's done. And, and the president kind of, as he's inclined to do, says Nice try, but that isn't gonna sell Joe Public. That isn't gonna convince Joe Public,'" says Woodward.
In his book, Woodward writes: "The presentation was a flop. The photos were not gripping. The intercepts were less than compelling. And then George Bush turns to George Tenet and says, 'This is the best we've got?'"
Says Woodward: "George Tenet's sitting on the couch, stands up, and says, Don't worry, it's a slam dunk case.'" And the president challenges him again and Tenet says, The case, it's a slam dunk.' ...I asked the president about this and he said it was very important to have the CIA director Slam-dunk is as I interpreted is a sure thing, guaranteed. No possibility it won't go through the hoop.' Others present, Cheney, very impressed."
What did Woodward think of Tenet's statement? "It's a mistake," he says. "Now the significance of that mistake - that was the key rationale for war."
It was just two weeks later when the president decided to go to war.
..Woodward says he described Powell as semi-despondent "because he knew that this was a war that might have been avoided. That's why he spent so much time at the United Nations."
But, it turns out, two days before the president told Powell, Cheney and Rumsfeld had already briefed Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador.
"Saturday, Jan. 11, with the president's permission, Cheney and Rumsfeld call Bandar to Cheney's West Wing office, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Myers, is there with a top-secret map of the war plan. And it says, Top secret. No foreign.' No foreign means no foreigners are supposed to see this," says Woodward.
"They describe in detail the war plan for Bandar. And so Bandar, who's skeptical because he knows in the first Gulf War we didn't get Saddam out, so he says to Cheney and Rumsfeld, So Saddam this time is gonna be out, period?' And Cheney - who has said nothing - says the following: Prince Bandar, once we start, Saddam is toast.'"
After Bandar left, according to Woodward, Cheney said, "I wanted him to know that this is for real. We're really doing it."
But this wasn't enough for Prince Bandar, who Woodward says wanted confirmation from the president. "Then, two days later, Bandar is called to meet with the president and the president says, Their message is my message,'" says Woodward.
Prince Bandar enjoys easy access to the Oval Office. His family and the Bush family are close. And Woodward told 60 Minutes that Bandar has promised the president that Saudi Arabia will lower oil prices in the months before the election - to ensure the U.S. economy is strong on election day.
Woodward says that Bandar understood that economic conditions were key before a presidential election: "They're [oil prices] high. And they could go down very quickly. That's the Saudi pledge. Certainly over the summer, or as we get closer to the election, they could increase production several million barrels a day and the price would drop significantly."
For his book, Woodward interviewed 75 top military and Bush administration officials, including two long interviews with the president himself. Mr. Bush spoke on the record, but others talked to Woodward on condition that he not reveal their identities.
60 Minutes won't name those Woodward interviewed, but we've listened to the tapes and read the transcripts of his key interviews to verify that his accounts are based on recollections from people who took part in the meetings he describes, including a historic meeting on March 19, when Bush gives the order to go to war.
He's with the National Security Council, in the situation room. Says Woodward: "They have all these TV monitors. Gen. Franks, the commander, is up on one of them. And all nine commanders, and the president asks each one of them, Are you ready? Do you have what you need? Are you satisfied?' And they all say, Yes, sir.' and We're ready.'"
Then the president saluted and he rose suddenly from his chair. "People who were there said there were tears in his eyes, not coming down his cheeks but in his eyes," says Woodward. "And just kind of marched out of the room."
Having given the order, the president walked alone around the circle behind the White House. Months later, he told Woodward: "As I walked around the circle, I prayed that our troops be safe, be protected by the Almighty. Going into this period, I was praying for strength to do the Lord's will. I'm surely not going to justify war based upon God. Understand that. Nevertheless, in my case, I pray that I be as good a messenger of his will as possible. And then, of course, I pray for forgiveness."
Did Mr. Bush ask his father for any advice? "I asked the president about this. And President Bush said, Well, no,' and then he got defensive about it," says Woodward. "Then he said something that really struck me. He said of his father, He is the wrong father to appeal to for advice. The wrong father to go to, to appeal to in terms of strength.' And then he said, There's a higher Father that I appeal to.'"
Beyond not asking his father about going to war, Woodward was startled to learn that the president did not ask key cabinet members either.
"The president, in making the decision to go to war, did not ask his secretary of defense for an overall recommendation, did not ask his secretary of state, Colin Powell, for his recommendation," says Woodward..
..Today, while most doubt that Saddam still possessed any weapons of mass destruction, the president told Woodward he has no doubts at all about going to war.
"The president still believes with some conviction, that this was absolutely the right thing, that he has the duty to free people, to liberate people. And this was his moment," says Woodward.
But who gave President Bush the duty to free people around the world? "That's a really good question. The Constitution doesn't say that's part of the commander in chief's duties," says Woodward. "That's his stated purpose. It is far-reaching, and ambitious, and I think will cause many people to tremble."
..How does the president think history will judge him for going to war in Iraq?
"After the second interview with him on Dec. 11, we got up and walked over to one of the doors. There are all of these doors in the Oval Office that lead outside. And he had his hands in his pocket, and I just asked, Well, how is history likely to judge your Iraq war,'" says Woodward.
"And he said, History,' and then he took his hands out of his pocket and kind of shrugged and extended his hands as if this is a way off. And then he said, History, we don't know. We'll all be dead.'"
For the complete transcript of this "Sixty Minutes" CBS News program, see:
cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/15/60minutes/main612067.shtml
2) Kerry and Meet the Press
Transcript for Meet the Press TV program
Guest: Sen. John Kerry, D-MA, presidential candidate
Meet the Press (NBC News) - Sunday, April 18, 2004
with moderator, Tim Russert.
[Excerpt]
MR. RUSSERT: ..Do you believe the war in Iraq was a mistake?
SEN. KERRY: I think the way the president went to war is a mistake.
MR. RUSSERT: But do you have a plan to deal with Iraq? This is what you...
SEN. KERRY: Yes.
MR. RUSSERT: This is what you wrote in The Washington Post last Tuesday: "Our country has committed to help the Iraqis build a stable, peaceful and pluralistic society. No matter who is elected president in November, we will persevere in that mission."
SEN. KERRY: Yes, we will.
MR. RUSSERT: That sounds exactly like George Bush.
.KERRY: It's different. Let me explain the difference. You know, last night I got a phone call, Tim, from a great friend of mine from Vietnam, and he was agonized, as I think a lot of veterans are, as they see our young men and women over there trying to distinguish between friend and foe, being ambushed in convoys, not even safe on the airport road, from the airport to Baghdad. I mean, this is extraordinary where we find ourselves. This administration misled America. Nothing is more important than how a president takes a nation to war, how a president decides to put young men and women at risk for our nation. I believe this president broke faith with the rules of how a president does that. He even broke faith with his own promises to the country. He...
MR. RUSSERT: But what can you do now, Senator?
SEN. KERRY: I'll tell you exactly, but it's important to understand why so many countries are unwilling to come to the table now. It may well be that we need a new president, a breath of fresh air, to re-establish credibility with the rest of the world so that we can have a believable administration as to how we proceed. But here is the bottom line: Number one, you cannot bring other nations to the table through the back door. You cannot have America run the occupation, make all the reconstruction decisions, make the decisions of the kind of government that will emerge, and pretend to bring other nations to the table.
Now, finally, George Bush is doing what I and others have recommended for some period of time. Ambassador Brahimi is there. George Bush, astonishingly, said at his press conference the other day, "Brahimi will tell us who we'll turn the government over to." So, in effect, he's transferred to the U.N. now just the decision about what government we'll turn it over to, but he won't transfer to the U.N. the real authority for determining how the government emerges, how we will do the reconstruction of Iraq. I think that's a prerequisite to bringing other countries to the table. That simple. It's that simple.
MR. RUSSERT: Should George Bush convene a summit at Camp David with the head of the U.N., the Germans, the French, the Russians, the British?
SEN. KERRY: I think it takes more than a summit. I think this administration has proven, frankly stunningly, ineffective in diplomacy. Just even in the announcement in the last few days, I think there were Arab leaders who were taken by surprise by this announcement. I don't think that surprise evidences the kind of groundwork of diplomacy necessary.
Now, here's what I'll do. If I'm president, I will not only personally go to the U.N., I will go to other capitals and I will have my secretary of state legitimately empowered to be able to be a full secretary of state, speaking for the administration, which we now know from Bob Woodward's book is not the case. The war within this administration over who's in charge of what and whose voice is being listened to is unlike anything I've seen in modern days.
MR. RUSSERT: If you were elected one year from now, will there be 100,000 American troops in Iraq?
SEN. KERRY: It depends on what the situation is you find on the ground on January 20th of 2005. I will tell you this, Tim. I will immediately reach out to other nations in a very different way from this administration. Within weeks of being inaugurated, I will return to the U.N. and I will literally, formally rejoin the community of nations and turn over a proud new chapter in America's relationship with the world, which will do a number of things. Number one, change how we're approaching North Korea. Number two, change how we're dealing with AIDS globally. Number three, change how we're doing with proliferation with Russia and other countries. Number four, change our approach to global warming and the effort of 160 nations. And that will take some of the poison out of the well that this administration has put there.
MR. RUSSERT: You do not believe the war on terror is primarily a military operation, not a law enfor...
SEN. KERRY: No...
MR. RUSSERT: You don't.
SEN. KERRY: ...not primarily.
MR. RUSSERT: You do not.
SEN. KERRY: Not primarily. Tim, Iraq had nothing to do with al-Qaeda. America really needs to stop and focus on the truth again. This administration--and we now know it from Bob Woodward's book. I mean, you can go through the series of events in August when the president was at the ranch taking the longest vacation in presidential history. During that time, the president was talking about Iraq more than he was talking about al-Qaeda. Andy Card came back and made an announcement that they didn't introduce a new product in August because that's not what you do in August. They introduced it in September. They came back and started down the Iraq road. They kept looking for a connection. George Tenet kept saying no connection. The intelligence people said no connection.
MR. RUSSERT: This is the war on terror, Senator.
SEN. KERRY: But let me just finish.
MR. RUSSERT: The war on terror is a law enforcement, not military...
SEN. KERRY: No. I said "primarily." And here's why. If you don't know--if you're going to fight an intelligent war on terror, you don't want to fight it here in America. You do want to fight it abroad. You want to fight it where the cells are originating. And in order to know who they are, where they are, what they're planning and be able to go get them before they get us, you need the best intelligence, best law enforcement cooperation in the world. Now, I've always said once you know where they are, will you use the Delta Force or SEALs or Rangers or Special Forces of some kind? Absolutely. And I will not hesitate to use those forces effectively.
In fact, this administration--I was the one who pointed out they failed to use our forces effectively in Afghanistan. We had Osama bin Laden cornered in the mountains of Tora Bora. Rather than deploy the 10th Mountain Division or the 101st Airborne or the Marines, rather than use the best military in the world to go kill the world's number-one terrorist, what did we do? This administration held them back. They sent the Afghans up into the mountains who a week earlier had been on the other side, and they let him escape.
I think that I can fight a far more effective war on terror. I will build alliances and cooperation. I will make America safer. But I will use our military when necessary, but it is not primarily a military operation. It's an intelligence gathering, law enforcement, public diplomacy effort, and we're putting far more money into the war on the battlefield than we are into the war of ideas. We need to get it straight.
MR. RUSSERT: Before we leave, this was John Kerry on March 10:
(Videotape, March 10, 2004):
SEN. KERRY: We're going to keep pounding, let me tell you. Just beginning to fight, here. These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group that I've ever seen.
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: Who's crooked and lying? The president?
SEN. KERRY: I was talking about the attack machine. If you get on the Internet today, Tim, if you listen to what's on talk radio, and go out there and see the concerted, coordinated Republican attack machine, you will see an extraordinary level that demeans American politics. And I think most Americans--you know what Americans want, Tim? They want the truth. They want an honest vision for our country. I'm going to offer a real economic plan, unlike George Bush who's gone back on his promises on the war, back on his promises on children, broken his promises on the environment, broken his promises on job creation, broken his promises on health care, has no plan at all. I have a plan on each and every one of those. We're going to make this country stronger and safer, and we're going to take us to a better place.
MR. RUSSERT: Before we go, you and George Bush were both members of Skull & Bones, the secret society at Yale. The rule is, if someone mentions Skull & Bones, you walk out of the room. If you're both in a...
SEN. KERRY: You trying to get rid of me here?
MR. RUSSERT: You're both in a presidential debate and the moderator says "Skull & Bones," you both leave the podiums?
SEN. KERRY: I doubt it.
MR. RUSSERT: You'll hang in there.
MR. RUSSERT: Senator John Kerry, thank you for your views.
SEN. KERRY: Thank you.
For the complete transcript, see:
msnbc.msn.com/ID/4772030/
3) Bush Secret Oil Deal With Saudis
- - Mordechai Vanunu released from prison after serving 18 years
The following is from Democracy Now!
- - Did Bush Cut Secret Oil Deal With Saudis Ahead of 2004 Election? *
The White House and a top Saudi official are denying allegations that before the invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration made a secret deal with Saudi ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan involving oil price fixing ahead of the November presidential elections.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, I'm Amy Goodman. As we continue our "Exception to the Rulers" tour, broadcasting from Los Angeles. Now we are speaking with Jim Paul, back in our studio in New York. He is Director of Global Policy Forum. As we take on the explosive allegations of journalist Bob Woodward made on "60 Minutes" and in his book, "Plan of Attack." Jim Paul, I want to go to the point that you're making that he's not challenging the fundamental issues of oil companies, and their role in Iraq. Can you expand on that, please?
JIM PAUL: Sure, Amy. The oil companies were kicked out of Iraq, the big Western oil companies kicked out of Iraq in the nationalizations in 1972. Iraq's oil reserves are maybe the greatest in the world, or possibly the second greatest, somewhere around 400 billion barrels of oil there. There's an incredible amount of potential profits for the big companies. If you multiply 30, the price of oil approximately today, times 400 billion, you get something like $12 trillion worth of profits possible there. It's quite clear that those companies they're very keen to get back into a denationalized Iraqi oil scene. There was a tremendous conflict between the French companies, the Japanese and Chinese companies, the Russian companies. The war, if you look carefully at how the war developed, and the U.N. sanctions that preceded it, it was a battle over who was going to get into Iraq and who was going to exploit Iraqi oil. This is the eighth war now, the counter-insurgency that's going on now, the eighth war in Iraq since 1914. Imagine that, a war every decade and -- every one of those wars to one extent or another has been centered on the question of control of Iraq's oil reserves.
Listen/Watch/Read
democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/20/1410236
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Mordechai Vanunu released from prison after serving 18 years
Wednesday, April 21st, 2004
On the morning that Mordechai Vanunu is released from prison after serving 18 years for revealing to the world that Israel had a nuclear arsenal, we go to Ashkelon to speak with his adoptive parents and a coordinator of the US Campaign to Free Mordecai Vanunu.
democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/21/1538214
4) Senator backs Draft to boost Iraq and Pandemonium
- - Privatization in Iraq: Contractors' With Guns
- - 'Unprecedented Hatred' for US
- - Time Line Path to Pandemonium
- - Senator backs Military Draft to boost Iraq force
Senator says US may need compulsory service to boost Iraq force
Tue Apr 20, 1:24 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A senior Republican lawmaker said that deteriorating security in Iraq may force the United States to reintroduce the military draft.
"There's not an American ... that doesn't understand what we are engaged in today and what the prospects are for the future," Senator Chuck Hagel told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on post-occupation Iraq.
"Why shouldn't we ask all of our citizens to bear some responsibility and pay some price?" Hagel said, arguing that restoring compulsory military service would force "our citizens to understand the intensity and depth of challenges we face."
For the complete article, see:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1506&e=1&u=/afp/us_iraq_military_draft
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Privatization in Iraq: Contractors' With Guns
American news organizations are not doing the truth a favor when they call these hired guns "U.S. military contractors." Let's call these people what they are, even though Americans have yet to feel completely comfortable with the idea of killing for money.
For this article, see:
informationclearinghouse.info/article6069.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 'Unprecedented Hatred' for US
Published Wednesday, April 21, 2004 by the Guardian/UK
Arab Ally Snubs Bush Amid
'Unprecedented Hatred' for US
by Ewen MacAskill in Jerusalem and Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
A growing rift between America and the Arab world was exposed yesterday when two Middle Eastern allies delivered damaging rebuffs to President George Bush's policies in the region.
King Abdullah of Jordan flew home from the US after abruptly canceling a meeting planned for today with the president in Washington. The king's move came as the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, said there was more hatred of Americans in the Arab world today than ever before.
King Abdullah and Mr Mubarak are two of the most moderate leaders in the Middle East and the two normally closest to the US.
King Abdullah's cancellation was in retaliation for Mr Bush's support last week for a plan by the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, in which he offered to pull out of Gaza in return for US recognition of illegal settlements on the West Bank and an end of the right of 3.6 million Palestinians to return to Israel.
Mr Mubarak cited as reasons for the increased hatred Israel and the US occupation of Iraq. In an interview with Le Monde published yesterday, he said : "After what has happened in Iraq, there is an unprecedented hatred. What's more - they [Arabs] see Sharon act as he wants, without the Americans saying anything"..
For the complete posting of this article, see:
commondreams.org/headlines04/0421-02.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Time Line Path to Pandemonium
From The Wilderness Publications - Newest Feature Story:
April 20, 2004
TIME LINE: PATH TO PANDEMONIUM by Stan Goff
- The waste of life and limb in America's latest Iraq War has been escalating wildly under Paul Bremer's watch. A few minutes with any text of Roman history makes it all too clear that the job of a proconsul is to keep his assigned imperial province quiet but don't look to the Bush people for historical perspective. In this hard hitting and moving piece, Stan Goff, FTW Military and Veteran's Affairs Editor, reminds us that:"It is always important to ask why we start history when." When we do, "things take on a brand new aspect."
This is a chilling free story. Read now at:
fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/042004_goff_timeline.html
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
IraqCourse * 911Deceit * GoodmanException
16 April 2004
"We are going to be in such a fix when this war is over, or before this war is over.
Our grandchildren's grandchildren are going to be paying for this war.
I look at our future as, I'm sorry, being very, very dark."
- Walter Cronkite, March 19, 2003
1) Stay the Course in Iraq?
- - A message from Dennis Kucinich
- - For U.S. Troops the Deadliest Days of the War
- - Bush rips up the Middle East road map for Peace
- - Iraqi 'Beaten To Death' by US Troops
- - Fallujah Refugees Describe Horrors of U.S. Siege
2) More on 9/11 Investigations
- - The Man Who Knew
- - Bush Contradicts Self At His Own Press Conference
- - George and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamtie
- - Decoding the PDB
- - More 9/11 Questions - Yossef Bodansky's "Target America"
3) Amy Goodman - The Exception to the Rulers
Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
Editor's Notes:
Stay the course in Iraq? This issue begins with one Democrat leader with another plan, one for peace. Item 2 is more on 9/11 investigations, about those who knew about the threat, with alarms triggered by the attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. And item 3 is on "The Exception to the Rulers" Democracy Now! book (and consciousness-raising) tour with Amy Goodman, host of the National Radio/TV Program Democracy Now, with her brother, Journalist/Author David Goodman. "The Exception to the Rulers" subtitle is: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media that Love Them.
Amy Goodman has taken investigative journalism to new heights.
Noam Chomsky, author 9/11 and Hegemony or Survival
1) Stay the Course in Iraq?
- - A message from Dennis Kucinich
- - For U.S. Troops the Deadliest Days of the War
- - Bush rips up the Middle East road map for Peace
- - Iraqi 'Beaten To Death' by US Troops
- - Fallujah Refugees Describe Horrors of U.S. Siege
- - A message from Dennis Kucinich
There is a lot at stake at this moment. The President has said that he intends to stay the course in Iraq. That course is one which will increase the number of deaths and injuries, not only to our troops but to many innocent people in Iraq, ultimately making Americans less safe at home and less welcome around the world.
If we continue on this course, spending upwards of $200 billion in Iraq, America will continue to sacrifice a domestic agenda that is already failing to provide sufficient funding for education, health care, housing, job creation, veterans, and environmental protection. People ask me why I continue to run for president when the nomination's already been decided. Someone has to be offering alternatives to keep our troops in Iraq from an indefinite future. Someone has to say that the Democratic Party must offer a course of action which will enable America to connect with the world community, stop the waste of our precious tax resources, stabilize Iraq, and bring our troops home. Someone has to be the voice for universal, single-payer, not-for-profit health care so universally supported, and so desperately needed.
Someone has to say that NAFTA and the WTO must be replaced by trade structures which enshrine ethical principles of workers rights, human rights, and environmental protection. Someone has to say the PATRIOT Act must go.
The nomination's been decided. Now we must decide what we stand for as a party. If we offer real choices, real alternatives, show how people will really win something when they vote Democrat, we will win in November. I'm pledged to that outcome.
We cannot, and we must not, let our party sink into indecision and indifference on matters of war and peace, as we prepare for the November elections. That is why I will continue on this campaign, and that is why you are needed too. I can continue doing what I'm doing as long as I have your help.
Help keep alive the debate about Iraq. Help keep alive the hopes of people for a single-payer, national health care system. Help keep alive workers' rights, human rights, and environmental quality principles and trade agreements. Help keep alive the efforts to repeal the PATRIOT Act. Help keep alive the progressive movement inside the Democratic Party.
The next few weeks are crucial, as we wind up the primaries and caucuses, draft a Democratic Party platform, and prepare for the convention. There is a lot at stake in this moment. Please help us bring forth the best that is in all of us. Thank you so much.
Dennis Kucinich
http://www.kucinich.us
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - For U.S. Troops the Deadliest Days of the War
The Associated Press
Wednesday 14 April 2004
[Excerpt]
WASHINGTON - For American forces in Iraq, these are the deadliest days of the war. At least 87 U.S. troops have been killed in action so far this month, with the most recent death announced on Tuesday. Also this month, more than 560 have been wounded and two soldiers were declared missing. At least four American civilians were killed, one contractor was captured by gunmen and six others were missing and feared abducted.
The number wounded so far in April exceeds the total for any other full month of the war by more than 220..
Of the total, 540 have died since May 1, when President Bush declared that major combat was over. And 220 have died since Saddam Hussein was captured on Dec. 13, an event that many in the U.S. government had hoped would mark the beginning of the end of the anti-occupation insurgency.
For the complete article, see original posting at:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-US-Iraq-Casualties.html
or
http://truthout.org/docs_04/041604D.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush rips up the Middle East road map for Peace
Published on Thursday, April 15, 2004 by the Guardian/UK
Bush Rips Up the Road Map Sharon wins 'historic' backing for plan to evacuate Gaza -
but hold on to West Bank control
President George Bush swept aside decades of diplomatic tradition in the Middle East yesterday, saying it was "unrealistic" to expect a full Israeli withdrawal from lands occupied during the 1967 war or the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
In a significant policy shift, Mr Bush relaxed Washington's objections to Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and attempts by Israel to dictate the terms of a final settlement with the Palestinians.
He told a joint press conference with the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, that he was prepared to bless a plan to dismantle Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, while retaining Israeli control over substantial sections of the West Bank.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0415-01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Iraqi 'Beaten To Death' by US Troops
News Interactive Australia, April 14, 2004
AN Iraqi has died of his wounds after US troops beat him with truncheons because he refused to remove a picture of wanted Shiite Muslim leader Moqtada Sadr from his car, police said today... A spokesman for the US-led coalition could not confirm the incident...
For this article, see:
www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9282015%255E1702,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Fallujah Refugees Describe Horrors of U.S. Siege
Democracy Now! received a report from Baghdad with Free Speech Radio News' Aaron Glantz who spoke with Fallujah residents fleeing the besieged town. They describe digging mass graves, snipers and bombers killing people inside their homes, attacks on ambulances and the increasing anger and resentment towards U.S. occupying forces.
For the transcript of this report, see:
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/13/1443247
2) More on 9/11 Investigations
- - The Man Who Knew
- - Bush Contradicts Self At His Own Press Conference
- - George and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamtie
- - Decoding the PDB
- - More 9/11 Questions - Yossef Bodansky's "Target America"
- - The Man Who Knew
PBS TV had a special rebroadcast
"The Man Who Knew" {April 15, 2004)
on FBI special Agent John O'Neill
The original air date: October 3, 2002
[Excerpts]
As the 9/11 Commission examines the role the FBI played in the tragic events of September 11th, FRONTLINE rebroadcasts the extraordinary saga of FBI special Agent John O'Neill. As the bureau's top counterterrorism agent, O'Neill-who investigated the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Africa and the attack on the USS Cole..
For the transcript, see:
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/etc/script.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush Contradicts Self At His Own Press Conference
Daily Mislead Archive, April 14, 2004
During last night's prime time press conference, President Bush once again claimed that "there was nobody in our government, at least, and I don't think the prior government that could envision flying airplanes into buildings"1. But just minutes later at the same press conference the president proved he was not telling the truth. Specifically, Bush said the reason he supposedly requested intelligence briefings before 9/11 "had to do with the Genoa G-8 conference I was going to attend" in 2001. Bush was referring to the fact that, prior to that conference, he was warned that "Islamic terrorists might attempt to kill him and other leaders by crashing an airliner into the summit" meetings2...
For this article, see:
http://www.misleader.org/daily_mislead/Read.asp?fn=df04142004.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - George and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamtie
by William Rivers Pitt:
[Excerpts]
The first thing you got was the tie.
You lost the importance of the press conference. You lost the fact that Bush had only done two of these prime time gigs in his entire term, and that he hates them because he isn't good at them. You lost the fact that the 9/11 Commission had been punching him and his administration around the room for the last couple of weeks. You lost the fact that September 11 had been demystified, that the going wisdom now says it could have been stopped by an administration that was actually paying attention. You lost the fact that almost 80 American soldiers and something like 900 Iraqis had been killed in the last month of fighting, that almost 700 American soldiers have been killed since the invasion was undertaken, and that, oh by the way, there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
You lost all of that and were left with the tie around Bush's neck, the gray spotted tie that was flashing and heliographing in the camera's eye like something out of a Hunter S. Thompson fever dream, the mesmerizing swirl of reds and yellows and purples and blues that left the whole press conference behind in a hypnotizing, dazzling, inebriating swirl of flummoxed technology which almost certainly caused Americans from sea to shining sea to lean towards their televisions and exclaim, "Holy Christ, Marjorie, look at the man's necktie!"
The tie only worked for a minute. After that, the only thing hypnotizing on the television was this small fraction of a man playing at being Presidential while the world crashes down around his ears.
God help us all.
For the complete article, see:
http://truthout.org/docs_04/041504A.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Decoding the PDB
By Larry C. Johnson, TomPaine.com, April 12, 2004
Are George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice really as clueless as they are claiming to be? Bush and Rice are both on the record misstating what was in the 6 August 2001 PDB (Presidential Daily Briefing). They both insist the information was only "historical" and "not actionable." They apparently are not alone in their faux ignorance.
Republican partisans and even some members of the media are busy bolstering the spin that this was "an historical memo." Absolute nonsense! I wrote about 40 PDB's during my four-year tenure at the CIA. This particular PDB article was written in response to a presidential request. I am told that Bush's request was a reaction to the intelligence warnings he was hearing during the daily CIA morning briefings. Something caught his attention and awakened his curiosity. He reportedly asked the CIA to come back with its assessment of Bin Laden's intentions. The CIA answered the question - Bin Laden was targeting the United States...
For more on this article, see: www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18393
Note: Larry C. Johnson is a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. He served with the CIA from 1985 through 1989 and worked in the State Department's office of Counter Terrorism from 1989 through 1993. He also is a registered Republican who contributed financially to the Bush Campaign in 2000.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - More 9/11 Questions - Yossef Bodansky's "Target America"
BRASSCHECK - Into what deep, dark media hole has Yossef Bodansky fallen? Bodansky was (is?) director of the House Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare. Not a flake. Not an outsider.
In 1993, a book of his published in mass market paperback form "Target America: Terrorism Today" detailed the intentions of 'Islamists' to someday use hijacked planes as missiles. According to the book there were actual training programs in place to prepare people to accomplish this very exacting mission.
The disappearance of this book from the 9-11 discussion has been total. It started immediately after the attacks and continues up to today. As if that were not strange enough, Bodansky also wrote another book which, while it was briefly a New York Times bestseller, has also mysteriously gone missing in action.
Title: "Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America" Interesting title especially since the 'asleep at the wheel' crowd claims they [UTF-8?] didn't know we were at war with the guy. . . "The Man Who Declared War on America" was in the works long before the September 11 attacks. After a brief - and studiously superficial - flurry of press appearances, Bodansky, the book and his detailed research into matters you'd think the news media would be clamoring for became a grand non-issue..
The great 9-11 media mystery for me is why is this establishment guy who made very detailed predictions both about the practicalities of a plan attack and the intentions of 'Bin Laden' completely off the media radar?
My other favorite unanswered questions:
- Who warned Mayor Willie Brown not to fly the week of September 11th? Right after the attack, he said someone had, but now he won't name the name - and no one is pressing him too hard.
- Who authorized and coordinated the special flights of over 120 mostly unnamed Saudis from the US immediately after September 11th when US air space was closed to all commercial air traffic?
- Oh, and what happened to that multi-multi-billion dollar air defense system we all pay for. You know the one that normally challenges any jet or large plane that strays from its flight path and does not respond to inquiries. It's not like they don't know what to do when this happens, but on 9-11, they did nothing.
The following link is to Yossef Bodansky's "Target America" (1993)
edited into a question and answer format.
http://brasscheck.com/911/partone.html
3) Amy Goodman - The Exception to the Rulers
The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians,
War Profiteers, and the Media that Love Them
The above is to the title of the first book by Amy Goodman, Host of the National Radio/TV Program Democracy Now, with her brother, Journalist/Author David Goodman
Amy Goodman's The Exception to the Rulers, written with her brother David Goodman, chronicles the tireless efforts of an unembedded journalist and her colleagues to get to the truth and expose the lies, corruption and crimes of the power elite-an elite that is bolstered by large media conglomerates.
For years, award-winning journalist Amy Goodman has confronted the Washington establishment and its corporate cronies. She hosts the national radio and TV show Democracy Now! , now the largest public media collaboration in North America and a phenomenal grassroots movement. Her goal is "to go to where the silence is, to give voice the silenced majority."
Now, in her first book, Amy Goodman offers her no-holds-barred perspective on world events and the hidden motives behind those in power. On subjects ranging from the deceptions of the George W. Bush administration, war profiteering in Iraq, to the corruption of media monopolies and corporate influence over the government, Amy Goodman attacks and exposes the lies and hypocrisy that put democracy at risk.
"What journalism should be: beholden to the interests of people, not power and profit."
Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things
"At times when people are told to 'watch what they say,' Amy Goodman is not afraid
to speak truth to power. She does it every day."
Susan Sarandon, actress
"She gets up every morning of every day long before the rest of us! to be the only daily voice of truth on the radio in the United States of America. How sad that I even have to write those words! A nation of 300 million, a written guarantee of a free press, and no one will do the job that Amy Goodman does so simply, so profoundly. This book puts the pedal to the metal of all the lies we're told, day in and day out. Amy Goodman is a national treasure, and if you are unable to pick up her signal on the dial, you can now pick up this book, shake your head in disbelief and disgust as you read it, and then put it down so you can go raise some hell!"
Michael Moore,
director, Bowling for Columbine,
and author, Stupid White Men and Dude, Where's My Country?
Check the schedule -- Amy Goodman's national tour
Flyby News Support
If you care to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses
for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc.,
you can send donations to:
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
-- or you can donate via online --
see FlybyNews.com [near bottom of page] for link
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
TerrorNews * 911 * Election2004 * NixKerryBush
08 April 2004
"It isn't enough to talk about peace.
One must believe in it.
And it isn't enough to believe in it.
One must work at it."
Eleanor Roosevelt
1) US-Iraq War Terror News Digest
- - Iraq on the Brink of Anarchy
- - Blix: Iraq Worse Off Now Than With Saddam Hussein
- - Baghdad Sunnis, Shi'ites unite
- - Fierce Fighting With Sunnis and Shiites Spreads to 6 Iraqi Cities
- - A Call for an Exit Door from Iraq by Senator Robert Byrd
- - 200 dead in Iraq's bloodiest days
2) Where Was the Air Force on 9/11?
- - On 9/11, CIA Was Running Simulation of a Plane Crashing
3) 9/11 International Inquiry - Phase One
4) Will the 2004 Election Be Called Off?
- - John Kerry Is Not Like Bush - He's More Like Nixon
5) Presidential Election Talking Points for All Concerned Americans
Editor's Notes:
The war in Iraq has taken a turn for the worse. While Senator Byrd is calling for an exit strategy, as well as Kucinich, the majority in Congress and the controlled mass media insist upon continuing the foreign oil-terror-producing war-occupation policies. The second and third items delve into 9/11 inquiry. There is something really wrong, and the official 9/11 probe is avoiding critical questions about what happened that day. Where was the Air Force on 9/11? Ted Rall wrote: "The notion of a hijacked passenger jet meandering over the northeastern United States, unmolested for more than an hour before blasting away a chunk of the Pentagon, should appall anyone whose taxes contributed to the quarter of a trillion dollars spent on defense that year."
Yet one strange event can lead to another. Item 4 is on a report by Maureen Farrell on why three out of four experts predict a terrorist attack by November.' If not investigating conspiracy theories, one is not looking at the evidence. Why, as of Feb. 5, 2004, was CBS News still reporting that one of the hijackers' passports was "found on the street minutes after the plane he was aboard crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center." It makes the world trade center attacks appear like some bizarre movie scene, yet with the lives of innocent people in the balance, and our democracy. And while on the dangerous ground of concern for the hijacking of election 2004, the second part of this item links to an article showing how John Kerry's foreign policy statements is not like Bush, but more like that of Richard Nixon. However, I'd rather deal with the falsehoods of Nixon or Kerry than that of George W. Bush any day, and the final item lists points that explain why.
The true leader for the democratic arm of the Democratic Party, Dennis Kucinich, will be interviewed on Air America Radio on April 9. The interview will be broadcast Friday on "Majority Report with Janeane Garofalo and Sam Seder " at some point during the 10:00 pm hour of the show, and will be streaming online only during the 10:00 pm ET hour (7:00 pm PT).
FYI - April 8th marks the one-year anniversary of the introduction of the Department of Peace legislation (H.R. 1673) into the U.S. House of Representatives.
Kucinich has called upon the Democratic Party and its presumptive nominee Sen. John Kerry to take a position "in favor of saving American lives and join me in calling for a U.S. withdrawal" from Iraq. "How many more American lives have to be lost before the leaders of the Democratic Party are willing to acknowledge that this war and this occupation are a disaster?" Kucinich asked. "The Administration took us to war on claims that have been proven to be lies and exaggerations, but the ever-mounting losses of life and the prospect of ever-escalating violence are deadly real and can no longer be ignored."
Please contact Senator Kerry in support of stopping the war for oil, domination, and for reasons that go beyond my understanding, but which are destabilizing prospects for peace, cooperation, and survival. We need a united peace effort to confront this war for terror and exploitation.
Contact Senator John Kerry:
Campaign Headquarters:
General Commentary: info@johnkerry.com
John Kerry for President, Inc.
901 15th Street, NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20005
202-712-3000
202-712-3001 (fax)
1) US-Iraq War Terror News Digest
- - Iraq on the Brink of Anarchy
- - Blix: Iraq Worse Off Now Than With Saddam Hussein
- - Baghdad Sunnis, Shi'ites unite
- - Fierce Fighting With Sunnis and Shiites Spreads to 6 Iraqi Cities
- - A Call for an Exit Door from Iraq by Senator Robert Byrd
- - 200 dead in Iraq's bloodiest days
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For excellent sources for updated news, see:
legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
Truthout.org
commondreams.org
informationclearinghouse.info
newsinsider.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Iraq on the Brink of Anarchy
By Robert Fisk in Fallujah
Independent UK
Tuesday 06 April 2004
truthout.org/docs_04/040704E.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Blix: Iraq Worse Off Now Than With Saddam Hussein
Iraq is worse off now, after the U.S.-led invasion, than it was under Saddam Hussein,
Hans Blix told a Danish newspaper..
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Baghdad Sunnis, Shi'ites unite
Sunni and Shi'ite residents of two Baghdad suburbs, once fierce
enemies, said overnight they had put their differences aside to
unite in their fight to oust the US occupying force from Iraq.
["Well, as Dictator Bush has maintained... he is a 'uniter', not a divider."]
theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,9214701%5E1702,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Fierce Fighting With Sunnis and Shiites Spreads to 6 Iraqi Cities
American forces in Iraq came under fierce attack on Tuesday,
with as many as 12 marines killed in Ramadi, near Baghdad, and
with Shiite militiamen loyal to a rebel cleric stepping up a three-day-old
assault in the southern city of Najaf, American officials said.
nytimes.com/2004/04/07/international/middleeast/07IRAQ.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - A Call for an Exit Door from Iraq by Senator Robert Byrd
Senate Floor Remarks - April 7, 2004
...It is staggeringly clear that the Administration did not understand the consequences of invading Iraq a year ago, and it is staggeringly clear that the Administration has no effective plan to cope with the aftermath of the war and the functional collapse of Iraq. It is time -- past time -- for the President to remedy that omission and to level with the American people about the magnitude of mistakes made and lessons learned. America needs a roadmap out of Iraq, one that is orderly and astute, else more of our men and women in uniform will follow the fate of Tennyson's doomed Light Brigade.
commondreams.org/views04/0407-15.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - US Bombs Fallujah Mosque; More Than 40 Worshipers Killed
Published on Wednesday, April 7, 2004 by the Associated Press
Revolutionary violence engulfs Iraq
by Bassem Mroue and Abdul-Qader Saadi
FALLUJAH - U.S. Marines in a fierce battle for this Sunni Muslim stronghold fired rockets that hit a mosque compound filled with worshippers today, and witnesses said as many as 40 people were killed. Shiite-inspired violence spread to nearly all of the country.
commondreams.org/headlines04/0407-06.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 200 dead in Iraq's bloodiest days
FALLUJAH - April 08, 2004
..More than 200 people, including 170 Iraqis and about 30 coalition troops, have died in attacks in seven cities across the country, sparked by the killing and mutilation of four civilian contractors last week.
thewest.com.au/20040408/news/general/tw-news-general-home-sto122924.html
2) Where Was the Air Force on 9/11?
- - On 9/11, CIA Was Running Simulation of a Plane Crashing
WHERE WAS THE AIR FORCE?
Tue Mar 30, 8:01 PM ET
By Ted Rall
The Real Question on 9-11
NEW YORK--George W. Bush, writes former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke, "failed to act prior to September 11 on the threat from Al Qaeda despite repeated warnings and then harvested a political windfall for taking obvious yet insufficient steps after the attacks." That incendiary charge, coupled with his apologetic testimony before the commission investigating the attacks, has reignited a long-simmering debate: What did Bush know when and how quickly should he have done something about it?
But both the 9/11 commission and liberal opponents of the Bush Administration are focusing on the wrong question. Nothing has surfaced from the 2001 "summer of threat" beyond a bunch of vague they're-up-to-something caveats. The specific details intelligence agencies would have needed to stop the attacks before they happened--potential hijackers' names, dates and times, targets--were maddeningly elusive.
The really big unanswered question of September 11, 2001 is this: Once it became obvious that at least four passenger jets had been hijacked--at one point that Tuesday morning, Clarke says the FAA thought it had as many as "eleven aircraft off course or out of communications"--why didn't our government intercept them?
..The notion of a hijacked passenger jet meandering over the northeastern United States, unmolested for more than an hour before blasting away a chunk of the Pentagon, should appall anyone whose taxes contributed to the quarter of a trillion dollars spent on defense that year. And if you stop and think about it, there was actually two hours in which something could have been done.
Fifteen minutes after taking off from Boston at 7:58 am, American Airlines flight attendant Madeline Sweeney telephoned a flight services manager back at Logan airport to report that two of her colleagues had been stabbed and a passenger had had his throat cut by Middle Eastern men. "This flight has been hijacked," she concluded, maintaining her professional composure as Los Angeles-bound Flight 11 veered south toward Manhattan. Meanwhile, up in the cockpit, the pilot was frantically clicking his transmission button to tell air traffic controllers what was happening.
They figured it out at 8:13 am. The drama would end nearly two hours later with the crash in Pennsylvania. There was ample time for the airline to notify federal authorities and for the latter to order the Air Force to begin intercepting unresponsive or off-course planes--but slow-witted bureaucrats and years of doing domestic defense on the cheap whittled away precious minutes.
The North American Aerospace Command (NORAD) claims that it received FAA notification by 8:40 am, a dismaying 27 minutes after air traffic controllers determined that hijackings were in progress. According to the New York Times, only a dozen planes, all belonging to the weekend warriors of the Air National Guard, were assigned to protect the continental United States on the morning of 9/11. And not a single one was in the air..
For the entire article, see:
truthout.org/docs_04/040504E.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - On 9/11, CIA Was Running Simulation of a Plane Crashing
The Memory Hole
On 9/11, CIA Was Running Simulation of a Plane Crashing
March 24, 2004
thememoryhole.org/911/cia-simulation.htm
3) 9/11 International Inquiry - Phase One
Conspiracy Theory?
9/11 International Inquiry - Phase One
By Gregor Holland
[Excerpt]
..According to a growing group of skeptics who have been tracking the investigations and doing their own research the commission is not living up to the job. Indeed some have gone so far as to call it a whitewash. They are beginning to organize an independent investigation of their own. A gathering of hundreds of 9/11 activists met for two and a half days this past weekend at the "International Inquiry Into 9/11 - Phase One" at the Veterans War Memorial Herbst Theatre in San Francisco. Participants presented research, screened films, shared information, and strategized methods for informing a public which is only now beginning to become aware of the complex and largely unreported issues and unanswered questions surrounding the events of 9/11.
Presenters included well-known authors, scholars, career activists, as well as amateur researchers who presented detailed examinations into many of the unanswered mysteries surrounding the events of 9/11. A few of these include: the failure to scramble jets to intercept the hijacked airliners, the unprecedented WTC collapse of Building 7 as well as virtual disintegration of the North and South towers, the incredulous appearance of Mohammed Atta's passport on the pile of WTC rubble after an explosion that disintegrated everything else, the strange behavior of George Bush and his secret service on that day, including a failure to assume that Bush was in danger during an attack on the nation, the apparent failure of the events to catch the attention of top brass military leaders including the Secretary of Defense and the acting Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the failure to investigate anomalous spikes in 'put' options on American, United and several other stocks in the days before the attacks, the odd meeting between the money-man of the hijackers Mahmoud Ahmed of the Pakistani Intelligence Services and several Washington leaders the morning of 9/11 in Washington, connections between the CIA, the Pakistan Intelligence Service, and the funding of the Taliban and al Quaeda, statements from top officials including Condoleeza Rice immediately after 9/11 that no one ever imagined terrorists would use commercial airliners as missiles, the disappearance of the fuselage, wings, indeed the entire physical body of Flight 77 after striking the Pentagon, the existence prior to 9/11 of plans to invade Afghanistan, and many, many others. At a lunch break on Saturday, participants converged on San Francisco City Hall to hand deliver a letter to Mayor Daly requesting that he investigate statements made by former Mayor Brown that he was warned not to fly on the morning of 9/11.
Included among the presenters were Ellen Mariani, a 9/11 widow who has filed a RICO [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act] lawsuit against President Bush and other high level members of his administration based upon prior knowledge of 911, along with her attorney Phil Berg, Nafeez Ahmed, author of "The War on Freedom: How and Why America was Attacked", Michel Chossudovsky, author of "War and Globalization: The Truth Behind September 11", Mike Ruppert, publisher of From The Wilderness, Daniel Hopsicker, author of "Welcome to Terrorland", the only detailed investigation into Mohammed Atta and the Venice airfields where Atta and other hijackers trained, Jim Marrs, author of New York Times Bestsellers "Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy" (part of the basis of the Oliver Stone film 'JFK'), and "Rule by Secrecy".
..The activists agreed to converge peacefully and steadfastly on the streets, in homes and meeting places, and at websites worldwide including septembereleventh.org , the Ellen Mariani website at 911forthetruth.com , and the website of International Inquiry organizer Carol Brouillet at deceptiondollar.com , among many, many others. They resolved to compensate for the silence of a complicit press by 'becoming the press'. The Inquiry continues with Phase II in Toronto in June (911inquiry.org) and Phase III under discussion. March 30, 2004.
For the complete article, see:
unansweredquestions.org/headlines.php
Gregor Holland is a writer and producer living in Los Angeles.
E-mail: gkh@earthlink.net
4) Will the 2004 Election Be Called Off?
- - John Kerry Is Not Like Bush - He's More Like Nixon
Will the 2004 Election Be Called Off?
Why Three Out of Four Experts
Predict a Terrorist Attack by November
by Maureen Farrell
On Dec. 31, 2003, New York Times columnist and former Nixon speech writer William Safire offered his standard New Year's predictions. This time, however, one item stood out. In addition to speculating on everything from which country would next "feel the force of U.S. liberation" to who would win the best picture Oscar, Safire predicted that "the 'October surprise' affecting the U.S. election" would be "a major terror attack in the United States."
While such speculation is hardly worth a trip to the duct tape store, when combined with repeated assaults to our democratic process and troublesome assertions from noteworthy sources, it warrants further investigation.
In Nov. 2003, you might recall, Gen. Tommy Franks told Cigar Aficionado magazine that a major terrorist attack (even one that occurred elsewhere in the Western world), would likely result in a suspension of the U.S. Constitution and the installation of a military form of government. "
Right around the same time, former Clinton administration official David Rothkopf made similarly distressing observations. In a Washington Post op-ed entitled, "Terrorist Logic: Disrupt the 2004 Election," he described a meeting in which nearly 75 percent of the professional participants (characterized as "serious people, not prone to hysteria or panic") also foresaw another terrorist attack occurring on American soil before the next election. "Recently, I co-chaired a meeting hosted by CNBC of more than 200 senior business and government executives, many of whom are specialists in security and terrorism related issues," he wrote. "Almost three-quarters of them said it was likely the United States would see a major terrorist strike before the end of 2004."
..The New York Times also reported on the possibility that Al Qaeda would try to "influence the outcome of the election" by striking U.S. oil refineries. "The Federal Bureau of Investigation has warned the Texas oil industry of potential attacks by Al Qaeda on pipelines and refineries near the time of the November presidential election," the Times reported.
..In an article entitled, "When the War Hits Home: U.S. Plans for Martial Law, Tele-Governance and the Suspension of Elections," Madsen and Stanton delved into the more frightening aspects of what might be in store. "One incident, one aircraft hijacked, a 'dirty nuke' set off in a small town, may well prompt the Bush regime, let's say during the election campaign of 2003-2004, to suspend national elections for a year while his government ensures stability," they wrote. "Many closed door meetings have been held on these subjects and the notices for these meetings have been closely monitored by the definitive www.cryptome.org."
To make matters worse, if martial law is imposed, Air Force General Ralph E. Eberhart will be able to blast through Posse Comitatus and deploy troops to America's streets. Gen. Eberhart, you might recall, is the former Commander of NORAD, which was in charge of protecting America's skies on Sept. 11. But instead of being scrutinized for NORAD's massive failures, he was promoted and now heads the Pentagon's Northern Command. And, as military analyst William M. Arkin explained, "It is only in the case of 'extraordinary' domestic operations that would enable Gen. Eberhart to bring in "intelligence collectors, special operators and even full combat troops" to bear. What kind of situation would have to occur to grant Eberhart "the far-reaching authority that goes with 'extraordinary operations'"? Nothing. He already has that authority.
Which brings us to the inevitable (and most important) question. How primed is the American public to accept suspended elections, martial law, or whatever else the White House decides to "market"?
Consider, for a moment, what an invaluable propaganda conduit the media was during the lead up to war in Iraq -- and just how weird things have become since. Howard Stern insists he was targeted by Clear Channel and the FCC after speaking out against George Bush; former White House Aide Anna Perez (who worked under Condoleezza Rice and served as former first lady Barbara Bush's press secretary) is slated to become chief communications executive for NBC; and MSNBC featured a story entitled, "White House: Bush Misstated Report on Iraq" on its Web site only to have it disappear down the Memory Hole in the course of a few hours.
Moreover, last year's Clear Channel sponsorship of pro-war/pro-Bush rallies was so Orwellian, that former Federal Communications Commissioner Glen Robinson remarked, "I can't say that this violates any of a broadcaster's obligations, but it sounds like borderline manufacturing of the news."
..Need more proof that something is amiss? As of Feb. 5, 2004, CBS News was still reporting that one of the hijackers' passports was "found on the street minutes after the plane he was aboard crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center".. and for far too long, pundits have taken to spreading White House rumors without checking facts --while denying any White House connection once these rumors prove false.
Personally, I don't give much credence to predictions, but when this many people peer into the crystal ball and see Al Qaeda gearing up for our presidential election, I take note -- especially given what's transpired since the last stolen election.
So, what the heck. If others can do it, I can, too. So I'll go out on a limb a make a prediction of my own: If the truth continues to seep out about the way the Bush administration has failed us, suspending the election may be the only way Bush can win.
My darkest fear is that G.W.'s handlers believe this, too.
# # # # #
For the complete article with linked resources, see:
buzzflash.com/farrell/04/04/far04011.html#top
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - John Kerry Is Not Like Bush - He's More Like Nixon
John Kerry Is Not Like Bush
He's More Like Nixon By J. Stanton
24 March 2004
John Kerry recently chided the incoming Spanish government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero for promising to fulfill a campaign promise to bring back to Spain its troops and support personnel deployed in Iraq. Agence France Press reported that Kerry's view was that if Spain did bring its soldiers home at this point in the US occupation, "it would leave behind a failed state that inevitably would become a haven for terrorists."
With this statement, he seems to have some Richard Nixon in him. On the John Kerry for President website, a section outlines Kerry's plan for Winning the Peace in Post-Saddam Iraq which is eerily similar to phrasing used in Nixon's Cambodia Incursion Address delivered in 1970 to the American people. Nixon indicated that his plans to expand the war while ostensibly bringing US troops home would result in "winning the just peace we all desire". 'Winning the peace' would be a constant refrain of Nixon's as would 'Peace with honor'. The longer the US stays on Iraq, the closer its leaders will come to uttering such phrases.
Why would John Kerry want to prolong the misery of US troops in Iraq and their families here in the US with such a strangely Nixonesqe policy?
Fiasco
For the complete article, see:
newsinsider.org/madsta/john_kerry_is_not_like_bush.html
John Stanton and Wayne Madsen are authors of the book:
"America's Nightmare: The Presidency of George Bush II"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Contact and tell Kerry that his peace plan for Iraq is a policy of continued quagmire, and more like Nixon's. Encourage him to support a foreign policy such as proposed by Congressman Kucinich, and that he would receive more support if he takes a stand to reverse the policies of oil exploitation and illegal preemptive war under false pretenses.
Contact Kerry:
General Commentary: info@johnkerry.com
Campaign Headquarters:
John Kerry for President, Inc.
901 15th Street, NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20005
202-712-3000
202-712-3001 (fax)
5) Presidential Election Talking Points for All Concerned Americans
Received via email apparently from Bob Zimmerman
(Abbreviated Version, April 7, 2004)
The Bush Record Exposed: Nothing but Lies, Deceptions, and Crimes against Humanity
These Talking Points describe what every thinking American already knows:
The vast majority of the American people are suffering, and they are disgusted with the unjust, inept, corrupt, and often criminal activities of the Bush administration.
[Excerpts]
Bush decision to invade Iraq is dubbed a disastrous "strategic error."
Bush repeatedly lied to us about his reasons for invading Iraq.
Bush is intentionally driving middle-America into bankruptcy.
Bush tax cuts are nothing but an ugly scam on working families and retirees.
Bush is anti-choice, anti-women's rights, anti-civil rights, anti-human rights, anti-worker rights; his approach to the environment and gays is disdain.
Bush refuses to cooperate with the official 9/11 investigating commission.
Bush and Cheney claims about exporting democracy to Iraq are bogus.
Bush and Cheney are neocons with an anti-democratic, fascist agenda.
Bush wants to destroy Social Security, Medicare, and overtime pay.
Bush and Cheney's foreign policy is deliberately creating global instability.
Bush is deliberately rescinding the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Bush slashes soldiers and veterans pay and benefits.
Bush is highly antagonistic to working people and their unions.
Bush anti-science policies are retarding scientific research.
Bush stole one election; is he planning to steal another?
Bush war spending is counterproductive and bankrupting America.
Bush will say and do anything to avoid defeat in 2004.
Bush and Ashcroft seek to crush dissent in America
Bush sends U.S. reserve units into action without proper equipment.
Bush has appointed a cabinet of, by, and for the wealthy.
Bush wants full control of what is left of our free press.
Bush has set out to destroy the separation of church and state.
Bush has an energy bill that only energizes energy company profits.
Bush and Rove rigged the California gubernatorial recall election.
Bush friends stuff their pockets with staggering war profits.
For the fully-sourced, detailed, 30 page free version of these Talking Points
please email: UxorPress@usa.com.
A public service project initiated by Bob Zimmerman, author of:
The American Challenge: Twenty-One Winning Strategies for the 21st Century
TheAmericanChallenge.com , or BobZimmerman@usa.com.
Contact for queries and info: 415-383-8481.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
VotingCounts * BushBlair * Mejia * Hartmann * King
05 April 2004
1) Voter-Verified Paper Ballot
- - How Electronic Voting Threatens Democracy
- - Sludge Report - Sequoia Voting Code Released
- - Black Box Voting
2) Bush and Blair made secret pact for Iraq war 9 days after 9/11
3) Awol from Iraq - Interview With Sargent Mejia
4) Thom Hartmann: On Corporate Rule
5) John Dean - Worse Than Watergate
6) Air America Radio - Tune In and Turn Out
7) A Grassroots Report on Kucinich in Oregon
8) Martin Luther King Remembered - America Where Are You Now?
Editor's Notes:
This issue begins with updates on the electronic voting voodoo world. But there are some hopeful signs, and ways to take action in support for a paper trail. Item 2 is more late breaking news about the Bush/Blair agenda to go after Iraq with new evidence revealing they had such a conversation on this nine days after 9/11/01. Item 3 links to a US serviceman's interview with Dan Rather of Sixty Minutes, while AWOL and seeking to become a conscientious objector in response to his experience in the illegal US preemptive war and occupation of Iraq.
Item 4 is on Thom Hartmann. Last Friday I had the honor of attending a presentation by him in Keene, NH. The program was sponsored by the Monadnock Freedom Forum. Both the book and presentation tracked the history and loss of democracy in the United States of America. By pinpointing the one Supreme Court ruling that was used to justify courts treating corporations with rights as persons, but in essence as feudal warlords, Hartmann shows the solution to the puzzle, and how we can reclaim US democracy.
Item 5 links to the last NOW PBS TV program with Bill Moyers interviewing John Dean. Dean knows what its like for an abuse of power, and has written a book entitled: "Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush.
Item 6 is about Air America Radio, and item 7 is a grassroots report on Dennis Kucinich in Oregon and to Flyby News on depression. The final item is on Martin Luther King, Jr., and ties in with the current circumstances of betrayal, corruption, and conspiracy. April 4th is a time to remember Dr. King, especially due to the unresolved nature of the conspiracacy of his assassination, proven in civil court!
"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power.
We have guided missiles and misguided men."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
1) Voter-Verified Paper Ballot
- - How Electronic Voting Threatens Democracy
- - Sludge Report - Sequoia Voting Code Released
- - Black Box Voting
Electronic miscounts of votes is no longer a theory - it's a fact.
http://www.verifiedvoting.org/article.asp?id=997
What if the miscounts we know of are only the tip of an undetected iceberg of electronic miscounts? They might be.
We have no way of knowing.
To solve the problem before November 2004 let's pass
H.R.2239/S.1980.
Title: A bill to amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require a voter-verified permanent record or hardcopy under title III of such Act, and for other purposes.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:s.01980:
Demand A Voter-Verified Paper Ballot!
www.VerifiedVoting.org
[Democracy counts on it!]
At VerifiedVoting.org you can click on
"What's Happening in Your State"
CALL CONGRESS TOLL-FREE
1-800-839-5276
Tell your Senators and Reps to
Support and Co-Sponsor
H.R. 2239 in the House.
S.1980 in the Senate
-- Support Senator Graham's bill --
Demand A Voter-Verified Paper Ballot!
www.VerifiedVoting.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - How Electronic Voting Threatens Democracy
From: Wired News Daily [mailto:wiredmail-info@lists.wired.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2004 2:15 AM
To: Wired News Daily
Subject: Special Report: How Electronic Voting Threatens Democracy
Note: For specific feedback on this alert, please send it to: wiredpr@wired.com
Dear Readers,
Today Wired News is running a special report entitled,
Full story: "How Electronic Voting Threatens Democracy".
The story, an in-depth look at the growing controversy surrounding electronic voting machines and the companies that manufacture them, raises important questions about the security of our voting system in this presidential election year. I'm sending out this e-mail so you'll be sure to read the piece.
Electronic voting has been touted as the solution to the hanging chad debacle of the 2000 presidential race. With funding from Congress, voting officials across the country have been aggressively adopting e-voting in their districts. It's estimated that about 50 million people will vote on a paperless touch-screen voting machine this year; another 55 million will use optical scan machines that require voters to use a pen to mark a paper ballot, which the machine then scans.
Yet there's mounting evidence these machines are far from secure. In today's story, Senior Reporter Kim Zetter writes about how that evidence came to light over the past year. Zetter documents election glitches, including machines that sometimes fail to boot up, fail to record votes or even record them for the wrong candidates.
Her story also raises serious concerns about the people behind the machines, including the partisan loyalty of e-voting company executives. It's no wonder that computer scientists, election officials and activists are wondering whether electronic voting can be trusted.
You'll notice that Zetter's story, which took several months to produce, is longer than most you read on Wired News. That's because the topic is complex, involving many people, companies and details. Ultimately, however, it shines a light on one of the more important technology stories -- I might say stories, period -- of this election year.
Sincerely,
David Ian Miller,
Wired News managing editor
Note: For specific feedback on this alert, please send it to: wiredpr@wired.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Sludge Report - Sequoia Voting Code Released
Sequoia Vote Counting Code Released -
Why This Software Is Being Released In This Way
[Excerpted from] the Sludge Report #162
Sequoia Vote Counting Code Released
Scoop published a report from Blackboxvoting.org's Bev Harris about holes in the Sequoia vote tabulation software.
Arguably this is the biggest new development in the black box voting saga since this column announced the release into the wild of the full contents of the Diebold FTP website. The Diebold FTP site contained the source code tree for the Diebold touchscreen software, numerous installation versions of the GEMs vote counting software, and manuals for numerous Diebold Election Systems programs.
Bev Harris's latest report details not only how insecure the Sequoia vote tabulation software is - and it appears to be if anything worse than Diebold's offering - but also asks specific questions about the conduct of Sequoia staff and election officials in Riverside County California during the March 2 election this year.
This column contends that, like the Diebold software, the Sequoia WinEds software clearly requires extensive academic examination.
The download address for the file is:
www.blackboxvoting.org/WinEDS200.zip
This column does not know how long this address will remain live however. Therefore Look for other mirror URLs here - scoop.co.nz/mason/features/?s=usacoup.
And please send advice on any mirror URLs to editor@scoop.co.nz.
To read the story in full
Bev Harris: Inside Sequoia's Vote Counting Program
The story can also be read on Bev Harris's activist website:
- - BlackBoxVoting.org
At this above web site, check out Bev Harris's book, called:
"Black Box Voting: Ballot Tampering In The 21st Century"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For more background and live news links on this news subject
see also Scoop's Special Feature A Very American Coup
Antiopyright Sludge 2004
2) Bush and Blair made secret pact for Iraq war 9 days after 9/11
Published by Guardian Unlimited
Sunday April 4, 2004
The Observer
Bush and Blair made secret pact for Iraq war
by David Rose
According to Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British Ambassador to Washington, who was at the dinner when Blair became the first foreign leader to visit America after 11 September, Blair told Bush he should not get distracted from the initial goal on the war on terror - dealing with the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Bush, claims Meyer, replied by saying: 'I agree with you, Tony. We must deal with this first. But when we have dealt with Afghanistan, we must come back to Iraq.' Regime change was already US policy.
For this article, see:
www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1185438,00.html
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For links to this and other breaking news stories, see:
http://legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
3) Awol from Iraq - Interview With Sargent Mejia
CBS TV - Sixty Minutes 2
AWOL From Iraq
March 31, 2004
In the year since U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq, hundreds of American soldiers have broken the law and gone AWOL absent without
leave.
Correspondent Dan Rather talks to one soldier, Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia, who abandoned his unit in the middle of the war in one of the most dangerous parts of Iraq.
In his only on-camera interview while still in hiding, Mejia told 60 Minutes II that he went AWOL because he is morally opposed to a war that has killed or wounded nearly 4,000 U.S. soldiers.
Rather also talks to Mejia's commanding officer and fellow National Guardsmen who are furious that they were deserted by a squad leader they now call a coward.
For the complete transcript, see:
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/29/60II/main609216.shtml
4) Thom Hartmann: On Corporate Rule
"Unequal Protection:
The rise of corporate dominance and theft of human rights
a new book by Thom Hartmann
thomhartmann.com/unequalprotection.shtml
In Unequal Protection, author Thom Hartmann tells a compelling, can't-put-it-down story that tracks the history of the loss of democracy in America. . . To remedy the legal blunder of corporate personhood, Hartmann offers specific action steps that can be taken by citizens, courts, legislatures, and local communities.
"Unequal Protection is a blueprint
for revitalizing the spirit of American democracy.."
Marianne Williamson
You can link for his book and also listen
to Thom Hartmann on his radio program:
thomhartmann.com/
5) John Dean - Worse Than Watergate
The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush
NOW with Bill Moyers
Program April 2nd, 2004
John Dean is in the news again. Thirty years ago as counsel to Richard Nixon he mesmerized the country with his testimony in the Watergate hearings about "a cancer growing on the presidency." Eventually Nixon would resign and John Dean would go down in history for his role in the Watergate scandal. Now Dean has written a new book his sixth in which he concludes that the obsessive secrecy and deception in Washington today is "Worse Than Watergate." The conversation with Bill Moyers is Dean's first television interview on "the hidden agenda of a White House shrouded in secrecy and a presidency that seeks to remain unaccountable."
WORSE THAN WATERGATE:
The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush.
To link for transcript or program with Bill Moyers, see:
www.pbs.org/now/politics/dean.html
6) Air America Radio - Tune In and Turn Out
Al Franken and others are launching a major new progressive radio network this week.
If you're in LA, Portland, New York, or Chicago, you'll be able to hear Air America programming starting this minute. And the daily lineup is pretty juicy: three hours of Al Franken on "The O'Franken Factor," plus Janeane Garofalo, Chuck D, Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the weekends. Air America's got big plans for expansion, but for now if you're not in one of those areas, you can listen in on the web at:
airamericaradio.com
7) A Grassroots Report on Kucinich in Oregon
..Kucinich was in town here last week & I got to hear him twice. Truthfully I am cynical about ALL politicians. But he did get to me during the 2nd talk.
He was busy in Oregon because we have a late primary & there are many progressive people here. His message was that if Kucinich gets a high percentage in the Oregon primary, then his campaign has more leverage in determining the national Democratic platform, and that is why he is still running. Made sense to me. So I registered as a democrat & will vote in the primary & am encouraging all of my friends to do the same.
By the way, Oregon is the only state in the country that has mail-in voting. We don't even have voting machines any more. Your ballot comes in the mail, you fill it in with a pencil, and either mail it back or drop it off at a collection place in every town. No electronic voting machine fraud possible here.
I wanted to say something about what you wrote about depression and the current mess of a situation. I border on it myself. But what I have increasingly found over the last year is the more I wake up and see what is ACTUALLY going on, the more I realize that the validity/basis of any excuse I have ever given myself about why I am not 100% totally going for being my true, authentic self is now gone. Why hold back when the reality i am holding back for, trying to accommodate to, is clearly INSANE.
This is a testing time. Against the context of this mass psychosis, I have the perfect background to become authentically who I am and to stop giving two hoots about what anyone else thinks about it. It is a time when one has to CHOOSE what is important. That to me is why Richard Clarke chooses to tell the truth, and Jim Wilkinson and Condaleeza Rice choose to lie through their teeth. It's a matter of character, of moral fibre.
It is ONLY against such a background that the best (or worse) of a person can come out. Because otherwise most of us are wanting to play it safe. Based on human biological imperatives, there is a lot to say for playing it safe. But we are also wired with a survival mechanism, and when that is triggered, parts of self that were never even seen before have their moment to develop. And that builds character and courage.
That in fact was what Kucinich was saying over and over "Courage, America, courage". And in that he is right. He exhibits a great deal of courage. And that builds character.
I think it is highly likely that Life/God ALLOWS situations such as the one we are currently dealing with to exist BECAUSE it is only in such situations that we can truly find out who we really are, because we are forced to. I have read interviews with several soldiers awarded the purple heart for bravery. The gist of their spiel was "I didn't feel like any hero. I was scared to death. I only knew I couldn't leave my buddy lying out there wounded" and stuff like that.
Perhaps you can communicate to your readers that anyone who does not feel fear or depression in times like this is probably not someone any of us would want to spend time with - in other words, they would be delusional ideologues. Any sane, feeling person in touch with any sense of human dignity would be feeling fear and depression right now. The intention of the fear/depression is to cause us to CHOOSE, are we going to be stopped by all of this or are we going to act IN SPITE OF the fear/depression.
One thing is for certain. Most people want this to all go away so their lives can go back to the comfortable, normal ones they used to be. That includes progressive activist people also.
The intention of all of this is to push us OUT of anything we consider normal or comfortable. Life is forcing us to either roll over and die in fear, or to become ever more of who we truly are. The more I evolve the more I see that evolution (growth) is the ONLY aim in life. Everything else is secondary.
And growth by its nature implies moving from that which is known, familiar, and comfortable, into that which is unknown. What is unknown is perceived as scary, until we master it. As soon as we do, Life calls upon us to take even another step forward.
If we are going to be effective people, we have to not only challenge that which is wrong, unfair, and unjust in the world around us, we also have to continually challenge the places of complacency within our own being, the places that when they collectively manifest into the outer reality through millions of humans, CREATE the wrong, unfair, and unjust conditions that we are opposed to. We are ALL contributing to creating that reality in ways, small and large, that we are totally unaware of. We need to continually find those places of personal complacency within ourselves and challenge them every day. This is over and above any external efforts we may be making towards working for a "better" world.
OK, there is my ten cents.
Blessings to you and your work
love
steve
8) Martin Luther King Remembered - America Where Are You Now?
"If a lonely, bitter white man - who'd spent most of his adult life in prison - killed Martin Luther King because he hated black people - then America is one thing. If on the other hand - a conspiracy resulted in the death of Martin Luther King - a conspiracy that government at the local, state and federal level was involved with - took 30 years to try to prevent the truth from coming out - and still denies to this day that anything I have talked about is of any relevance to any of you - then America is something else...."
~ Rev. Mike Clark
Rev. Mike Clark, pastor of St. John's United Methodist Church in Watertown, MA, is a student of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for more than 30 years. He worked for the family of Dr. King during the historic civil trial in Memphis, Tennessee in 1999. Over the years, Dr. King's family had come to believe that James Earl Ray did not murder their husband and father. After Ray's death in prison in 1998, the family decided to bring a wrongful death action against an individual whom they did believe was involved in a conspiracy to kill Dr. King.
In a Memphis courtroom in November 1999, the family sued Loyd Jowers and other unnamed individuals, asking the jury to hold them liable in the death of Dr. King. After 70 witnesses and five weeks of testimony, the jury found that Jowers had been part of a conspiracy involving government agents. The jury's verdict was historic and reversed the official story that James Earl Ray had killed King alone and unaided. During the trial, Mike Clark worked as the media liaison for the family. He was present in the courtroom, met with the news media, and assisted the plaintiffs in the presentation of their case.
The Memphis trial revealed that government operatives at the local, state and federal level were involved in the conspiracy to kill Dr. King and worked together for 30 years to hide the truth in the case. At a time in which the US is moving toward war once again, it is vitally important to revisit the death of America's greatest 20th century prophet and to understand what he lived for and why he was killed. There are important lessons to be drawn from Dr. King's death and this historic trial for our current justice and peace work.
Rev. Mike Clark will be presenting
Monday, April 5th at 7 pm
First Churches
129 Main Street, Northampton
(corner of Center & Main, use Center Street entrance)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Free At Last
Can a seed wither into the dust of despair
and if truth than be neglected, then tell me, why?
Can a man speaking out with a righteousness really die,
was not Martin Luther King Jr. wise?
My life is inspired by a few and to these I congratulate and continue
to breathe the air and receive its gifts, nourishing the cells with a spiritual lift.
but when confusion enters into the night
we must go to the center of love not fright,
for in ideals of freedom we will last forever, in realms of wisdom,
loving one another.
Life is thus, a series of attitudes bringing peace war or feuds,
but by keeping the dignity of what is right,
we cannot be discouraged by a brother's soulful flight.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968
For a Flyby News archive article - April 4, 2002 - see item 2:
"Martin Luther King Assassination-Conspiracy Confirmed"
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
EnergyInvasion * GOP/NAZIS * WarmingSpirals
31 March 2004
"Terrorism is the war of the poor,
and war is the terrorism of the rich."
Peter Ustinov
1) This Isn't America
2) Cheney, energy and Iraq invasion
- - Electronic Ballots May Have Altered Race Outcome
- - New Russian weapon to make US missile defense system useless
3) The GOP and the Nazis
4) Global warming spiral upwards
Editor's Notes:
The last issue of Flyby News inspired a subscriber to respond by email asking, "..I look at the world and I wonder if there's any saving grace. I am Overwhelmed by sadness. What do YOU DO to overcome such despair and Depression?" This heartfelt question has stayed with me, knowing my responsibility in forwarding evidence showing the dictatorship over democracy for our nation and irreparable harm to our environment. We are in this together, and knowing that many people are seeking to learn and share the truth of our circumstances, provides a great incentive for me to continue with the mission of Flyby News, covering issues critical for life's survival in the 21st Century.
Kucinich in his "A Prayer for America" speech, said, "..that freedom stirs the human heart and fear stills it. With the belief that a free people cannot walk in fear and faith at the same time. With the understanding that there is a deeper truth expressed in the unity of the United States. That implicit in the union of our country is the union of all people. That all people are essentially one. That the world is interconnected through human consciousness, through the human heart, through the heart of the world, through the simply expressed impulse and yearning to be and to breathe free.."
So I encourage those overwhelmed by despair, fearing the worse of a dictatorship strangling democracy in the United States, for those knowing that tens of thousands of innocent lives were irreparably harmed by corporate greed interest, for those realizing that countless generations that could be harmed by exploded depleted Uranium missile shells, and for those discovering that Global Warming is accelerating exponentially that could impact all life on Earth.. I suggest keeping faith a bit longer, staying attuned to miracles in every day, and to drink in nature and appreciation as never before. There is time to hope, to work for significant changes, to survive an integrity, and to resist fear-induced controls of governments or terrorists, to link trust with the Creator within each and everyone of us. And since there is an ancient time marker for a new era by the Mayan calendar on December 21, 2012, and since there are too many observations and testimonies (with the Disclosure Project) of extraterrestrial intelligence, and with the ability of our scientists and civilization to reverse the hideous genius of the Manhattan Project for survival endeavors.. the time is not now to give in to despair and hopelessness.
O eons of darkness, eternal night
you are only a backdrop for wondrous light.
And here I might find through the core of self
the entrance to illuminate, to perceive,
to flow with atoms expelling light,
as a river of purity in the deepness of night
1) This Isn't America
New York Times
March 30, 2004
This Isn't America
by Paul Krugman
Last week an opinion piece in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz about the killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin said, "This isn't America; the government did not invent intelligence material nor exaggerate the description of the threat to justify their attack."
So even in Israel, George Bush's America has become a byword for deception and abuse of power. And the administration's reaction to Richard Clarke's "Against All Enemies" provides more evidence of something rotten in the state of our government.
The truth is that among experts, what Mr. Clarke says about Mr. Bush's terrorism policy isn't controversial. The facts that terrorism was placed on the back burner before 9/11 and that Mr. Bush blamed Iraq despite the lack of evidence are confirmed by many sources including "Bush at War," by Bob Woodward.
And new evidence keeps emerging for Mr. Clarke's main charge, that the Iraq obsession undermined the pursuit of Al Qaeda. From yesterday's USA Today: "In 2002, troops from the Fifth Special Forces Group who specialize in the Middle East were pulled out of the hunt for Osama bin Laden to prepare for their next assignment: Iraq. Their replacements were troops with expertise in Spanish cultures."
That's why the administration responded to Mr. Clarke the way it responds to anyone who reveals inconvenient facts: with a campaign of character assassination.
Some journalists seem, finally, to have caught on. Last week an Associated Press news analysis noted that such personal attacks were "standard operating procedure" for this administration and cited "a behind-the-scenes campaign to discredit Richard Foster," the Medicare actuary who revealed how the administration had deceived Congress about the cost of its prescription drug bill.
But other journalists apparently remain ready to be used. On CNN, Wolf Blitzer told his viewers that unnamed officials were saying that Mr. Clarke "wants to make a few bucks, and that [in] his own personal life, they're also suggesting that there are some weird aspects in his life as well."
This administration's reliance on smear tactics is unprecedented in modern U.S. politics even compared with Nixon's. Even more disturbing is its readiness to abuse power to use its control of the government to intimidate potential critics.
To be fair, Senator Bill Frist's suggestion that Mr. Clarke might be charged with perjury may have been his own idea. But his move reminded everyone of the White House's reaction to revelations by the former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill: an immediate investigation into whether he had revealed classified information. The alacrity with which this investigation was opened was, of course, in sharp contrast with the administration's evident lack of interest in finding out who leaked the identity of the C.I.A. operative Valerie Plame to Bob Novak.
And there are many other cases of apparent abuse of power by the administration and its Congressional allies..
..Where will it end? In his new book, "Worse Than Watergate," John Dean, of Watergate fame, says, "I've been watching all the elements fall into place for two possible political catastrophes, one that will take the air out of the Bush-Cheney balloon and the other, far more disquieting, that will take the air out of democracy."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5967.htm
2) Cheney, energy and Iraq invasion
- - Electronic Ballots May Have Altered Race Outcome
- - New Russian weapon to make US missile defense system useless
Cheney, energy and Iraq invasion
Supreme Court to rule on secrecy
Larry Everest
Sunday, March 21, 2004
2004 San Francisco Chronicle
The case Cheney vs. U.S. District Court is scheduled to be heard before the Supreme Court next month and could end up revealing more about the Bush administration's motives for the 2003 Iraq war than any conceivable investigation of U.S. intelligence concerning Iraq's purported weapons of mass destruction.
The plaintiffs, the Sierra Club and Judicial Watch, the conservative legal group based in Washington, argue that Vice President Cheney and his staff violated the open-government Federal Advisory Committee Act by meeting behind closed doors with energy industry executives, analysts and lobbyists.
The plaintiffs allege these discussions occurred during the formulation of the Bush administration's May 2001 "National Energy Policy."
For close to three years, Cheney and the administration have resisted demands that they reveal with whom they met and what they discussed.
Last year, a lower court ruled against Cheney and instructed him to turn over documents providing these details.
On Dec. 15, the Supreme Court announced it would hear Cheney's appeal. Three weeks later, Cheney and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia spent a weekend together duck hunting at a private resort in southern Louisiana, giving rise to calls for Scalia to recuse himself. So far, he has refused.
Why has the administration gone to such lengths to avoid disclosing how it developed its new energy policy?
Significant evidence points to the possibility that much more could be revealed than mere corporate cronyism: The national energy policy proceedings could open a window onto the Bush administration's decision-making process and motives for going to war on Iraq.
In July 2003, after two years of legal action through the Freedom of Information Act (and after the end of the war), Judicial Watch was finally able to obtain some documents from the Cheney-led National Energy Policy Development Group.
They included maps of Middle East and Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, refineries and terminals, two charts detailing various Iraqi oil and gas projects, and a March 2001 list of "Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts," detailing the status of their efforts. The documents are available at http://www.judicialwatch.org.
These documents are significant because during the 1990s, U.S. policy-makers were alarmed about oil deals potentially worth billions of dollars being signed between the Iraqi government and foreign competitors of the United States including France's Total and Russia's LukOil.
The New York Times reported the LukOil contracts alone could amount to more than 70 billion barrels of oil, more than half of Iraq's reserves. One oil executive said the volume of these deals was huge -- a "colossal amount."
As early as April 17, 1995, the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. petroleum giants realized that "Iraq is the biggie" in terms of future oil production, that the U.S. oil companies were "worried about being left out" of Iraq's oil dealings due to the antagonism between Washington and Baghdad, and that they feared that "the companies that win the rights to develop Iraqi fields could be on the road to becoming the most powerful multinationals of the next century."
U.N. sanctions against Iraq, maintained at the insistence of the United States and Britain, prevented these deals from being consummated.
Saddam Hussein's removal in 2003 has left the deals in a state of limbo, but the Bush administration's insistence that only countries supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom are eligible for postwar reconstruction does not bode well for French and Russian concerns.
An April 2001 report by the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations and the Baker Institute for Public Policy -- commissioned by Cheney to help shape the new energy policy -- also devoted serious attention to Iraq.
The report, "Strategic Energy Policy Challenges for the 21st Century," complained about Hussein's oil leverage:
"Tight markets have increased U.S. and global vulnerability to disruption and provided adversaries undue potential influence over the price of oil. Iraq has become a key 'swing' producer, posing a difficult situation for the U.S. government. ... Iraq remains a destabilizing influence to ... the flow of oil to international markets from the Middle East.
"Saddam Hussein has also demonstrated a willingness to threaten to use the oil weapon and to use his own export programme to manipulate oil markets."
Significantly, the report concluded that the United States should immediately review its Iraq policy, including its military options.
There are many other indications that, despite the Bush administration's repeated and insistent denials, petroleum politics may have played a crucial role in the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
For instance, both the State Department and the Pentagon had pre-war planning groups that included a focus on Iraq's oil industry; protecting the industry was an early U.S. objective in the war.
In October 2002, Oil and Gas International reported that U.S. planning was already under way to reorganize Iraq's oil and business relationships.
In January 2003, the Wall Street Journal reported that representatives from Exxon Mobil Corp., ChevronTexaco Corp., Conoco-Phillips and Halliburton, among others, were meeting with Vice President Cheney's staff to plan the post- war revival of Iraq's oil industry.
Cheney is said to have once remarked that the country that controls Middle East oil can exercise a "stranglehold" over the global economy.
One-time Bush speech writer David Frum wrote in "The Right Man," his 2003 biography of his boss, that the United States' "war on terror" was designed to "bring new freedom and new stability to the most vicious and violent quadrant of the Earth -- and new prosperity to us all, by securing the world's largest pool of oil."
Further records from Cheney's Energy Task Force could shed more light on the inner workings of the Bush administration's march to war in Iraq. The first question, though, is whether the Supreme Court will lift the Bush-Cheney veil of secrecy.
Larry Everest is a Bay Area journalist and author of "Oil, Power & Empire: Iraq and the U.S. Global Agenda" (Common Courage Press 2004). He is scheduled to address San Francisco's Commonwealth Club on that topic on May 5.
2004 San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/03/21/ING0H5LTDA
1.DTL
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Electronic Ballots May Have Altered Race Outcome
Orange County registrar says incorrect electronic ballots may have altered a race's outcome, but says results will be certified today. Although some Orange County voters cast the wrong electronic ballots in the March 2 primary, potentially altering the outcome of one race for a Democratic Party post, Registrar Steve Rodermund said he will certify the results of the election today. In a report circulated late Monday to the Board of Supervisors, Rodermund acknowledged for the first time that his office's failures could have affected a race and gave ammunition to critics of electronic voting.
For links to the above articles and other breaking news and
commentary from Citizens for Legitimate Government, see:
http://legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - New Russian weapon to make US missile defense system useless
[Excerpts]
New Russian weapon to make US missile defense system useless
The National Post [Canada], 29 March 2004
The official said the new weapon would be inexpensive, providing an "asymmetric answer" to U.S. missile defences, which are proving extremely costly to develop.
After years of vociferous protests, Russia reacted calmly when Washington withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002 in order to develop of a countrywide missile shield. But U.S.-Russian relations have soured again lately, and Moscow has complained about Washington's plans to build new low-yield nuclear weapons.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.canada.com/news/world/story.html?id=c486c971-1b1f-4fbf-affb-1cc41cb8f7c3
3) The GOP and the Nazis
The GOP and the Nazis
There are similarities and, no, I will not apologize
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer
March 10, 2004
[Excerpts]
In a number of columns written after George W. Bush's extra-constitutional seizure of powers post 9-11, I pointed out a number of similarities between Bush's GOP and Hitler's Nazi Party. The bombast from the usual suspect circles was swift and predictable. Writing in the neoconservative National Review, Byron York bemoaned the fact that "Wayne Madsen wrote that Bush is 'borrowing liberally from Hitler's play book.'"
Following the same line, The New York Post's editorial page editor, arch-neocon propagandist John Podhoretz, in his new book, Bush Country, whined that when I wrote about Hitler's oratory skills being light years ahead of Bush's, I was somehow praising Hitler. This is so typical of the right-wing attack dogs ignore the main point and fire off a broadside of false innuendo. No reasonable historian would deny that Hitler's speechmaking abilities were far ahead of the syllable-challenged Bush's. Contrasting the policies of Bush and Hitler following terrorist attacks in their countries is a legitimate area for historical comparative analysis. Although Hitler was behind the burning of the Reichstag, he and Bush virtually tore up their respective constitutions and began viciously denouncing their political enemies. Both Bush and Hitler failed in every business venture they started, until, of course, they became leaders of their countries in questionable elections.
The neocon spin machine continues to defend Bush against charges that he practices the same sort of reactionary politics embraced by Hitler. On Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, I was asked to defend my comparison. Guest Co-host Michael WolffBut you don't see a legitimate distinction between Adolf Hitler and George Bush?
Madsen: Well, look, if you look at some of the policies, preemptive warfare, we know that Hitler did that against Poland. He did it against France; he did it against the Soviet Union. Trashing the United Nations, that's what Hitler did to the League of Nations.
Sean Hannity: Don't you see how you're alienating the majority of the American people with your rhetoric?
Madsen: I don't think so. The way to combat terrorism isn't to take the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights and shred it like Mr. Hitler did after the Reichstag fire.
The exchange on Fox was prompted by two television advertisements likening Bush to Hitler that were submitted in a contest sponsored by MoveOn.org. Cathy Young, writing an op-ed on behalf of Reason, a so-called libertarian magazine whose motto is Free Minds and Free Markets, said comparisons between Bush and Hitler should be retired. It is interesting that a magazine like Reason would use the phrase "Free Minds and Free Markets." Considering that Reason champions the so-called rights of companies over the Lilliputians of the working class, that motto is not much different from the sign over the main gate of the Auschwitz concentration camp, "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Liberates).
Recently, radio shock jock Howard Stern said the real reason why the pro-Bush and Dallas-based Clear Channel dropped his nationally-syndicated morning program from its stations was not because the company was trying to placate the Federal Communications Commission over offensive material on the airwaves, but was in response to his attacking the Nazi and Taliban-like policies of Bush.
Stern also suggested that the fundamentalist right-wingers supporting Bush were organized into Nazi-like cells. Stern is just one more in a long list of people who have disagreed with Bush and have faced the wrath of the Bush storm troopers. Let us not forget what the creepy management of Clear Channel did when The Dixie Chicks spoke out against Bush. They banned their songs from their radio stations and sponsored compact disk smashing events in the same manner that Hitler's minions banned books and burned them in huge bonfires around Germany.
John Ashcroft's Gestapo-like Justice Department has engaged in definite selective prosecutions of those who have openly opposed Bush's policies or have contributed money to the Democratic Party's coffers. Take former Illinois Republican Governor George Ryan: Ashcroft's right-wing prosecutors indicted him after he commuted the death sentences of Illinois's death row population. Ryan cited police and prosecutorial misconduct in Chicago and the state capital of Springfield as a major reason for his decision. Ashcroft and Bush, both self-anointed born-again Christians, are in love with the death penalty and championed executions while serving as governors of their states of Missouri and Texas, respectively. In 2002, a Purim sermon at a Washington, DC, synagogue suggested Ashcroft was like Haman, the evil vizier of the Persian King Ahasuerus. Haman, like Hitler, plotted to annihilate the Jews and the two are often compared in Jewish liturgies.
And then there is Martha Stewart, a past generous contributor to Democratic candidates and causes. She was indicted by Ashcroft's New York feds after she lied about dumping her Imclone stock in an insider trading deal. Never mind the fact that Enron's former chairman, Kenneth Lay (affectionately called "Kenny Boy" by Bush) still walks free despite the fact that he ripped off billions of dollars from stockholders and employees. It was hallmark of the Hitler regime to accuse political opponents of the Nazis of committing economic crimes against the state. The Nazis charged a number of non-Nazi business leaders with contributing to Germany's hyper-inflation following World War I. Many were later arrested and had their property seized. The Nazis allowed only a few large corporations to flourish, particularly those that generously contributed to the Nazi cause. Arms manufacturer Gustav Krupp was won over to the Nazi cause in 1933 when the Nazis told him that they would increase defense spending to record levels. For his part, Krupp led an industrial fund called the Adolf Hitler Spende. The fund collected money for Hitler's election coffers in return for special treatment for German industries. Ken Lay, meet Gustav Krupp.
On the subject of Enron, it was Lay and his buddies in Houston who financially raped California in 2001 by conspiring to raise the state's electric utility rates to a usurious degree. Who paid the price when California was plunged into financial ruin? Democratic Governor Gray Davis, who was recalled in a right-wing financed election after having served less than a year of his second
term. And who replaced Davis? Self-described Hitler, Nazi, and Kurt Waldheim admirer Arnold Schwarzenegger, the new Republican Governor of California whose congressional soul mate, Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, wants to amend the US Constitution to allow an Austrian immigrant like Schwarzenegger to run for president. Where before have we seen national laws changed to allow a right-wing Austrian to run for political office in an adopted homeland?
But the neocons still continue to attack those who draw comparisons between Bush and Hitler. Shamefully, the neocons keep silent as Mel Gibson releases a big screen version of the Passion plays that were historically used throughout Europe to fan the flames of anti-Semitism. Many religious experts have pointed out that Gibson's The Passion of the Christ will only further exacerbate tense relations between Christians and non-Christians. Not so, say the evangelical Christians and their neocon allies, especially those affiliated with the Catholic right-wing secret society Opus Dei and the New American Century/American Enterprise Institute crowd. Shamefully, they mimic the capos of Nazi Germany's concentration camps and keep silent as Gibson's movie fans the flames of religious intolerance. Worse, the hallelujah chorus for the extreme right failed to urge Gibson to condemn his father Hutton's historical revisionist comments that Germany could not have killed 6 million Jews. "Do you know what it takes to get rid of a dead body? To cremate it? It takes a liter of petrol and 20 minutes. Now, six million of them? They [the Germans] did not have the gas to do it. That's why they lost the war," the elder Gibson told a New York radio show. He then suggested that many Jewish victims of the Holocaust had actually emigrated to the United States and Australia.
Yet, GOP radio and television mouthpieces like Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Rush Limbaugh defend Mel Gibson's movie while, at the same time, deride those who would compare what is happening in the United States now to what occurred in Germany in the early and mid 1930s. They feel we should just ignore Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hutton and Mel Gibson, and the foaming-at-the-mouth racists and xenophobes of evangelical Christendom and right-wing Catholicism. I, for one, will not ignore what are indisputable signs that the right wing in the United States has made a sharp turn into the netherworld of fascism and racial and religious xenophobia..
..During the 1930s, the famous writer H.G. Wells was rebuked by the conservatives of his day for comparing Hitler to Caesar and suggesting that Hitler was a "certifiable lunatic." Wells turned out to be right on the money. Those of us who see a creeping fascism with Bush and his cronies will, one day, be vindicated by the muses of history.
Wayne Madsen is the co-author of
America's Nightmare: The Presidency of George Bush II.
This article is Copyright by Online Journal, and posted in its entirety at:
http://onlinejournal.com/Commentary/031004Madsen/031004madsen.html
"And there is, I am certain,
among the Iraqi people a respect for the care
and the precision that went into the bombing campaign."
Donald Rumsfeld
(defenselink.mil, 04-09-03)
4) Global warming spiral upwards
Published by Independent.co.uk
Global warming spirals upwards
By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
28 March 2004
Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have jumped abruptly, raising fears that global warming may be accelerating out of control. Measurements by US government scientists show that concentrations of the gas, the main cause of the climate exchange, rose by a record amount over the past 12 months. It is the third successive year in which they have increased sharply, marking an unprecedented triennial surge.
Scientists are at a loss to explain why the rapid rise has taken place, but fear that it could show the first signs that global warming is feeding on itself, with rising temperatures causing increases in carbon dioxide, which then go on to drive the thermometer even higher. That would be a deeply alarming development, suggesting that this self-reinforcing heating could spiral upwards beyond the reach of any attempts to combat it..
For the entire article, see:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=505798
Flyby News Support
If you care to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses
for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc.,
you can send donations to:
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
-- or you can donate via online --
see FlybyNews.com [near bottom of page] for link
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
GatesofHell * 911Iraq * Soldier * KerryVenezuela
27 March 2004
"..O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers
to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their
smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead;
help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks
of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste
their humble homes with a hurricane of fire.."
- Mark Twain
from The War Prayer
1) "Opening the Gates of Hell" - Israel Assassinates Yassin
- - "The man who knew too much" by Robert Fisk
2) Bush 911-Iraq Debacle - Running Scared
- - FBI Translator: 'We Knew 9/11 Attacks Were Coming'
- - September 11 Should Have Been Stopped
- - Silent Genocide
- - Voting Paper Trail Advocate Dies In 'Tragic Accident'
3) US soldier refuses return to Iraq
- - Democracy Now! - The Peace Candidate: Kucinich
4) Why John Kerry Must Retract his Position on Venezuela
Editor's Notes:
The above Mark Twain quote is a scary reminder of the predominant belief that "God is on our side!" Item one is on the Israeli government's assassination of the Hamas spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin. This illegal institutional killing by the government of Israel can only make matters worse. The second part of this opening item is on Mordechai Vanunu, the whistleblower standing up to the test of time in declaring the danger of Israel's development of nuclear weapons. Vanunu is scheduled to be released from prison later this month. Item 2 is another place where Mark Twain would have a field day trying to make sense or satire on the Bush 9/11-Iraq connection, or manipulation. Thank goodness for Richard Clarke setting the record straight that these actions made the world less safe. Also in this item are tell-tale signs of the impending nature of September 11, 2001, known in advance. The "Silent Genocide" article in this item is on the use of depleted uranium shells and their after-affects. Could Mark Twain imagine such missile shell devastation in the warped mentality of humankind? In this second item, too, is a story on the untimely death of an effective advocate for a paper trail for electronic voting machines. The article in item 3 offers a powerful story of a soldier. He tells his story of what war is like in Iraq and why he has become a conscientious objector. Following that is a Democracy Now interview with Dennis Kucinich. This peace candidate addressed 100,000 activists in NYC on March 20. The final item is an analysis / article on why John Kerry should retract his position on Venezuela. Please check these resources, and consider signing the petition to lobby the Senator and presidential candidate. The people must stand united for real democracy, and not a foreign policy for big oil and US military interests.
I object to violence
because when it appears to do good,
the good is only temporary;
the evil it does is permanent.
Gandhi
1) "Opening the Gates of Hell" - Israel Assassinates Yassin
- - "The man who knew too much" by Robert Fisk
"Opening the Gates of Hell" - Israel Assassinates Hamas Leader Yassin
Monday, March 22nd, 2004 -- Democracy Now!
Israeli forces assassinated Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of the Palestinian group Hamas, as he was returning from a mosque in Gaza City. Tens of thousands of Palestinians took to the streets in response. The following are reports from Democracy Now! with Dr. Mustafa Barghouti of the Palestinian National Initiative and Neve Gordon of Ben Gurion University.
AMY GOODMAN: We go first to Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, President of the Palestinian Medical Relief Committee, joining us on the phone from Ramallah. Welcome to Democracy Now!.
MUSTAFA BARGHOUTHI: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: It's good to have you with us, your response to the assassination?
MUSTAFA BARGHOUTHI: I think this is a very serious attack in many ways. First of all, this is a consolidation of the assassination policy that Israel has been following, which is considered by international law as a crime. In this case, it's extra judicial killing in which the Israeli Prime Minister makes himself the prosecutor, the judge, and the executer at the same time and he imposes his own law, and he runs the assassination himself. In this particular case, it has been reported that he himself ran the operation of the assassination. If a Prime Minister in a country that claims to be a democracy gets himself involved in such an act of assassination, then what kind of democracy are we talking about? The other aspect is that with this attack, Israel has assassinated 325 Palestinians, half of them, 160, are civilian non-combatants who happened just to be bystanders, including about five of those who were killed this morning. The other aspect of this attack is the political aspect. This is a very dangerous move. It is like a serious provocation to prevent any possibility of cease-fire in the area, any possibility of any movement for real peace. It exposes the reality of what Sharon was speaking about when he spoke about withdrawal from Gaza. This means we are not heading for peace, but we are heading for more conflicts, more violence and one more time Sharon has proven that he is capable of undermining any possibility for making things better or quieter in this area. I think what has happened today will carry very serious impacts in the future, not only on the stability here in the occupied territories, but in the whole region, and it raises the big question, which is how can we have security or peace in this region without ending the Israeli military occupation, and without the international community making some effort to restrain the government of Sharon and making him understand that there is something called international law that must be respected.
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi is Secretary General of the Palestinian national Initiative. We are also joined by Neve Gordon at Ben Gurion University in Negev. Welcome to Democracy Now!. Professor Gordon, your response?
NEVE GORDON: Well, I walked into class this morning. It's the politics of human rights. I asked my students if anyone feels safer now that Sheikh Yassin has been assassinated. Not one of them raised their hand. In fact, most of them feel much less safe today than they felt yesterday. Because they know from past experience that after each active aggression by Israel, there is the likelihood that the Palestinian Hamas will retaliate. What I think -- I'd like to in a way connect with what Mustafa just said about the protests yesterday with the 31 people wounded, because I do think it's connected to the assassination of Yassin. What we have been seeing for the past month in the occupied territories is that the Palestinians have moved to grassroots non-violent resistance around the fence and the separation wall that Israel is building. The way Israel is reacting to this non-violent resistance is exactly what happened yesterday, people are coming and are lying down in front of the bulldozers, are lying down where the root of the fence will be built, Palestinians, international and a few Israelis and the military beats them, shoots at them and as Mustafa said, yesterday a person was wounded. So, we see an attempt to change the character of the intifada, which has been a violent intifada to a non-violent, grassroots popular mobilization. This act that happened early this morning of assassinating Sheikh Yassin is just one other way of Israel resisting this non-violent intifada, because what is clear will happen and has already happened today in Ramat Gan, with the lone Palestinian that managed that enter and to attack a few Israelis, that there will be retaliation. What Sharon is actually doing, what we see here, is basically the subjugation of the political to the military. Again, Barghouthi said that Sharon was authorized this killing. According to Israeli radio, he not only authorized this killing but he commanded over this killing. Sharon is seeing himself again as a soldier, and basically allowing the military values and the military way of seeing the world to control the Israeli political realm and the political has been relegated to a secondary status. So, there's no diplomacy, there's no negotiation, and there will be no way out of this bloody conflict, so long as the military option is the basic option, is the favored option.
AMY GOODMAN: The French Foreign Minister de Villepin has condemned the assassination. The United States has simply called for calm and restraint on all sides. Mustafa Barghouthi, what difference does it make how the U.S. responds?
MUSTAFA BARGHOUTHI: It is different. I don't think that Israel would have behaved in this manner in it didn't feel that it is protected by the United States. And that it has the heaven of being able to act and function and feel at the same time impunitive to international law and impunitive to all of these violations of human rights. It is the United States that is the government of States, the country that is capable of restraining Israel more than anybody else. And if the United States at least condemns these kinds of attacks and tells Israel they are not acceptable, then the whole situation -- the whole situation would be different, but this is not happening up to now. I totally agree with Neve Gordon when he said that when the Israeli army shoots even Israeli peace activists like Ethan Lewenski and attacks these non-violent actions, which we are trying to organize. We are trying to take the Palestinian struggle into the diction of non-violent, mass popular actions, when Israel does these kinds of attacks, it practically strengthens the extremism and pushes the area into violence. And when the international community fails to respond to Israeli attacks, it strengthens the opinions of those Palestinians who feel we are alone, we are isolated, where nobody is with us. There is no respect to international law and that by itself, of course, strengthens the extremists. But I am not pessimistic. I believe that there is a whole great change everywhere in the world, including in the United States. All people need is access to information. Access to the truth. They are entitled to knowing the truth. And your radio and other stations help people get the truth. If they get the true, I am sure that the United States like the Europeans will simply take the stance of supporting the right of the Palestinian people to be free, to be dignified, to get rid of this terrible occupation, which has cost so many lives on the Palestinian and Israeli side.
To purchase an audio or video copy of this entire program, call
1 (800) 881-2359.
Or link to the complete transcript via the web @ Democracy Now!
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/22/1536208
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - "The man who knew too much"
by Robert Fisk
Published by The Independent. UK.
He was drugged, kidnapped and locked up for 18 years
after revealing Israel's nuclear secrets to the world.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5938.htm
"On 21 April, when Vanunu is released,
we shall find out if the water is going to overflow -
and whether Vanunu will cross the red line painted
so ominously on the floor at the instruction of the authorities."
2) Bush 911-Iraq Debacle - Running Scared
- - FBI Translator: 'We Knew 9/11 Attacks Were Coming'
- - September 11 Should Have Been Stopped
- - Silent Genocide
- - Voting Paper Trail Advocate Dies In 'Tragic Accident'
"Running Scared:
The Bush Administration Fears Voters Will Believe Richard Clarke's Allegations"
by Philip James
The swiftness and ferocity of the Bush White House's attack on Richard Clarke tells you two things: his story may be largely true, and the Bush administration is terrified that the American people will believe it.
The central allegation - that Mr Bush was so obsessed with going after Saddam Hussein that he openly challenged his counter-terrorism adviser to find a link between September 11 and Iraq the day after the attacks took place - is serious.
It threatens the fundamental platform of the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign: that you are safer with them than you are with the Democrats.
The White House did not let a single news cycle go by before questioning that the alleged encounter between the president and Clarke had ever taken place, assigning dark motives to a man who has served four presidents, three of them Republicans.
But you don't have to be Bob Woodward to check Clarke's story out. There were other witnesses to this meeting, one of whom spoke to me.
"The conversation absolutely took place. I was there, but you can't name me," the witness said. "I was one of several people present. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that the president had Iraq on his mind, first and foremost."
This former national security council official was too terrified to go on the record - he knows how vengeful this administration can be.
He remembers the late night phone call former treasury secretary Paul O'Neill received just before he published The Price of Loyalty, his account of how the Bush White House set its sights on Iraq from day one. He was about to discover the price of disloyalty to this administration..
..Some have come forward, risking the ire of the Bushies. Many more are considering it, weighing their conscience alongside their sense of self-preservation. Several who are talking are doing so on the condition of anonymity.
But, as this campaign heats up, some will rethink and go on the record. It is becoming clear their silence might ensure that the Bush White House gets away with the central lie of its tenure - the blanket denial that it abandoned the war on terror to pursue an unrelated, pre-selected Iraq agenda.
The louder the Bush administration proclaims that it is the only qualified protector of national security, the more offensively that rings in the ears of those who know the truth. Sooner or later - and certainly before November - that truth will out.
For the complete article, see:
Running Scared by Philip James
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - FBI Translator: 'We Knew 9/11 Attacks Were Coming'
truthout.org/docs_04/032704A.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - September 11 Should Have Been Stopped
By William Rivers Pitt
truthout.org/docs_04/032504A.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Silent Genocide
[Excerpt]
"After the Americans destroyed our village and killed many of us, we also lost our houses and have nothing to eat. However, we would have endured these miseries and even accepted them, if the Americans had not sentenced us all to death."
"..We're waging war-plus in Afghanistan and Iraq - in effect, nuclear war, with our widespread use of depleted-uranium-tipped shells and missiles. This is no secret. DU, with its extraordinary penetrating power and explode-on-impact capability, helps assure our military dominance everywhere we go. But people like Jooma Khan and his grandson reap its toxic legacy.."
"The Pentagon's response to such charges is denial, denial, denial. And the American media is its moral co-conspirator."
For the article, see: "Silent Genocide" by Robert C. Koehler
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Voting Paper Trail Advocate Dies In 'Tragic Accident' onlinejournal.com/evoting/031904Fitrakis/031904fitrakis.html
3) US soldier refuses to return to Iraq
- - Democracy Now! - The Peace Candidate: Kucinich
US soldier refuses return to Iraq:
gives examples of what it's really like
"When I saw with my own eyes what war can do to people, a real change began to take place within me," he said in the statement to Citizen Soldier. "I have witnessed the suffering of a people whose country is in ruins and who are further humiliated by the raids, patrols, curfews of an occupying army. My experience of this war has changed me forever."
He continued: "I also learned that the fear of dying has the power to turn soldiers into real killing machines. In a combat environment it becomes almost impossible for us to consider things like acting strictly in self defense or using just enough force to stop an attack.... People would ask me about my war experiences, and answering them took me back to all the horrorsthe firefights, the ambushes, the time I saw a young Iraqi dragged by his shoulders through a pool of his own blood, the time a man was decapitated by our machine gun fire and the time my friend shot a child through the chest."
US soldier refuses to return to Iraq
By Jeff Riley
24 March 2004
A Florida National Guard soldier returned to his base of deployment at Fort Stewart, Georgia, to face charges for desertion after refusing to return to duty in Iraq to serve as, in his words, "an instrument of violence" in an "oil-driven war." The incident has provoked disquiet within the military establishment, feeding concern over the morale of US occupation troops.
Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia, a 28-year-old native of Nicaragua, turned himself in to military authorities at Hanscom Air Force Base, outside of Boston, on March 15, seeking conscientious objector status. He spent five months on the run after serving in Iraq from April 2003 until last October, when he came home on two-week's leave and refused to return for redeployment October 16. Among his reasons for going AWOL, he said, were his witnessing of incidents in which Iraqi civilians were killed by US troops.
Mejia is one of about 7,500 troops who fail to return to their units each year from a force of about 1.4 million. There have been about 600 soldiers who have gone AWOL from obligations in Iraq in particular, but he is believed to be the first to give himself up. Hours before handing himself over, Mejia gave a press conference at the Peace Abbey in Sherborn, Massachusetts.
He issued a statement to the press, in which he declared: "I'm saying no to war. I went to IraqI was an instrument of violence and now I've decided to be an instrument for peace. My conscienceI could not continue to do the things that I was doing in Iraq. This war, I'm completely against it because it's an oil-motivated war. I don't think that any soldier who ever signed to be in the military, signed to go halfway across the world to invade and occupy a nation to take their oil or any other natural resource.... We were all lied to when we were told that we were looking for weapons of mass destruction or we were going to fight terrorism."
Mejia is now awaiting a decision from commanding officers on the charges that he will face. If his application for CO status is denied, he faces a court-martial that could carry a sentence of five years imprisonment for desertion and an additional five years for "missing a movement to avoid hazardous duty." This would be followed by a dishonorable discharge that would end all benefits for the eight-year veteran and possible deportation.
Referring to the potential penalties for his action, Mejia stated, "I'm prepared to go to prison because I'll have a clear conscience.... Whatever sacrifice I have to make, I have to go there."
Camilo Mejia moved from Nicaragua to the US when he was 18 to live with his mother, Maria Castillo. He is the son of Carlos Mejia Godoy, the renowned singer from Managua and former cultural minister for the Sandinista government, whose music and poetry symbolized the struggle of the Nicaraguan people against US military intervention in that country.
Mejia joined the military one year after arriving in the US. He later explained that he did so because "I wanted to be part of this nation, and the military was at the very heart of the United States. I was very young and was just starting to form my identity, values and principles."
He served three years of active Army duty and was a National Guard infantryman for five years, which helped to pay his college tuition. He was entering his final semester as a psychology student at the University of Miami when his unit, C Company, 1-124 INF of the 53rd Infantry Brigade, was called up for pre-mobilization combat training in Fort Stewart.
Mejia described training at Fort Stewart, where he served as a squad leader, in terms of a sped-up assembly line "merely intended to make our unit deployable." He explained: "A soldier is not supposed to deploy if he or she doesn't pass a physical exam. I knew a soldier whose hearing had been impaired after many years' service in the artillery. But this didn't matter; they checked the `pass' box for hearing on his medical form. Another requirement was that we qualify with our rifles. After several attempts at the firing range, many soldiers still couldn't qualify but they were all judged to be qualified.."
..In turning himself in, Mejia was accompanied by both his mother and Private Oliver Perez, who served in the military with him in Iraq. Perez described Mejia as "a brave leader" and insisted that he should not be prosecuted. "I fought next to him in many battles," he said. "He is not a coward." Concern that Mejia's action may strike a chord with a wider layer of troops presently in Iraq presents the Pentagon with a quandary. As Tod Ensign of Citizen Soldier pointed out, Mejia's actions represent a "test case that will have broad impact on other objectors or potential objectors.... [T]hey risk him becoming some sort of martyr to the antiwar movement." On the other hand, if Mejia is treated with leniency and granted conscientious objector status, it could encourage other soldiers to follow suit. In the wake of Mejia's turning himself in, the US military command in Iraq reported that two US Army medics have applied for CO status. The two notified the army of their request on February 9. They asked to be honorably discharged from the military because the idea of killing is "revolting" to them, a US military spokesman said.
For the complete article, see: US soldier refuses to return to Iraq
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Democracy Now! - The Peace Candidate: Kucinich
Monday, March 22nd, 2004
Reported by Democracy Now!
Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich explains why is staying in the race for his party's nomination. He talks about the continuing war in Iraq, the 9-11 commission and Israel's assassination of Sheik Ahmed Yassin in Gaza.
Only one presidential candidate attended one of the mass protests marking the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the US invasion of Iraq. It wasn't George W Bush and it wasn't John Kerry. It was Ohio Congress member Dennis Kucinich. He addressed more than 100, 000 people at the large protest in New York City on Saturday. This weekend Kucinich issued a statement saying that he will not drop out of the race for the Democratic nomination. Kucinich said he is committed to ensuring that a peace platform is adopted by the Democrats ahead of November's elections.
For the article, audio, video and transcript, link:
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/22/1536217
4) Why John Kerry Must Retract his Position on Venezuela
by VenezuelAnalysis.com
The Democratic candidate for President of the United States, John Kerry, published a statement on his web site this past March 19, setting forth his position on the political situation in Venezuela.
johnkerry.com/pressroom/releases/pr_2004_0319d.html
In this declaration, Kerry relies on inaccurate information and repeats views identical to those of the Venezuelan opposition to democratically-elected President Hugo Chavez.
We examine below Kerry's statement in more detail:
Referendum
Kerry urges President Chavez to allow the recall referendum against his mandate to occur. The reality is that the President has no legal means, to either impede or permit a recall referendum. It can only be achieved if those requesting the referendum collect the number of valid signatures required by the regulations.
The Senator states that, "the international community cannot permit President Chvez to subvert this process, as he has tried to do up until now." Nevertheless, Kerry does not specify how the President has tried to subvert this process. Kerry conveniently omits the fact that it was President Chvez who proposed to include the possibility of these referenda in the new Constitution that was drafted by a Constitutional Assembly elected by popular vote. Chvez has called for a review of signatures collected by the opposition because, as per numerous credible reports, there appears to have been substantial fraud committed during the signature drive. What is so terrible about denouncing fraud and calling for an investigation of hundreds of thousands of petitions filled out by the same handwriting? Kerry surely would expect the same type of investigation to occur if there were evidence of fraud in any electoral process he was a part of.
As it stands, those whose signatures appear on petitions that were filled out by the same handwriting will soon have the chance to confirm their identity and intention to sign the petition requesting a recall referendum. It is the opposition that has opposed this process. Chvez has repeatedly stated that he will respect whatever decision is made by the nation's electoral authorities regarding a referendum.
Democratic Institutions
Kerry states that Chvez has undermined democratic institutions with extra-judicial measures that include politically-based arrests in order to consolidate his power. Kerry omits the fact that Chvez has won two presidential elections by large margins and that the political parties supporting Chvez control the National Assembly because voters overwhelmingly chose to elect those party representatives.
For the complete article, see: venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1140
Sign the petition asking Kerry to retract his statement at
www.petitiononline.com/kerryven/
Contact Kerry:
General Commentary: info@johnkerry.com
Campaign Headquarters:
John Kerry for President, Inc.
901 15th Street, NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20005
202-712-3000
202-712-3001 (fax)
Related Links:
Kerry Statement on Venezuela
Senator Kerry, You Are Wrong on Venezuela
A Rebuttal to Senator Kerry's Statement on Venezuela
Kerry says Bush is soft on Chvez
Kerry Attacks Venezuela's Chavez
Why John Kerry Must Retract his Position on Venezuela
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Iraq Targeted * Fear * DU * Swing States
22 March 2004
"I think the way he [G.W. Bush] has responded to al Qaeda,
both before 9/11 by doing nothing, and by what he's done
after 9/11 has made us less safe. Absolutely."
-- Richard Clarke
Anti-terrorism Advisor
1) Did Bush Press For Iraq-9/11 Link?
- - The Armageddon Plan
- - General Sacked by Bush Wanted Early Elections in Iraq
- - Worldwide Protests Demand Iraq Pullout
2) Kucinich on Fear in America
- - David Swanson | Politics of Fear vs. Democracy
- - "Three Days in Spain" By William Rivers Pitt
- - New Spanish Leader Lashes Out at Bush, Blair Over Iraq War
- - Bush's Iraq Coalition Falling Apart
3) Kucinich to reveal details of secret U.S. nuclear wars
- - Reverend Jesse Jackson in appreciation of Dennis J. Kucinich
- - VT Yankee Nuke Uprate Threat and Action
4) Indecent War on Freedom - Film/Discussion
- - Swing state campaign to defeat George W. Bush
Editor's Notes:
This past weekend's worldwide peace rally was good for the soul. A new momentum is taking shape, and to encourage us is in the information posted in item 1, from the interview broadcasted on CBS TV's Sixty Minutes this past Sunday. Richard Clarke was the top advisor on anti-terrorism for the US administrations of Bush Sr., Clinton, and Bush, Jr. This interview comes with the publication today of Clarke's book called: "Against All Enemies." Related articles in this item include "The Armageddon Plan," which was published by the Atlantic Monthly that tells about the Reagan era when Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were key players in a clandestine program designed to set aside the legal lines of succession and immediately install a new "President." This article partially helps explain the behavior of the Bush Administration on and after 9/11. Another relevant article discloses why a US General was removed from his position in Iraq because he wanted to help ensure early elections and non-privatization over Iraq's resources. And another article linked in this section describes the worldwide protests demand that the US pullout of Iraq.
Item 2 is a transcript of Kucinich speaking recently in Alaska about fear in America. Related articles tell about how this tactic can only go so far, and tells about Spain's resurgence for democracy. More is on the Bush's Iraq coalition falling apart
Item 3 is another significant press release by Dennis Kucinich with Major Doug Rokke, revealing details of secret U.S. nuclear wars by the use of Depleted Uranium, and steps for the US to respond to such a threat to life for generations. In this item, too, is support for Kucinich by Reverend Jesse Jackson. Finally, at the end of this item is critical information for the health near the home base of Flyby News, and needed actions to halt Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant's intent on increasing the power output and risk of one of the oldest nuclear plants in the country.
Item 4 is on an event this evening in Keene, NH called the Indecent War on Freedom. This can be replicated most anywhere in the world, easily. Flyby News will send anyone a PDF of a flyer for such an event, and check out the links at FlybyNews.com for other campaigns, forums, and Films that Make a Difference. In the second part of this item is the birth of a new grassroots effort to remove George W. Bush from office of US President in a critical swing state. Since the election was already stolen in 2000, we must not get complacent to accept another four years of an unprecedented destructive policy for peace and stability in our world. Take Action!
"Depleted uranium weapons are an unacceptable threat to life,
a violation of international law, and an assault on human dignity.
We have an obligation to do what is right for our servicemen and women,
for our children and our grandchildren, and for all citizens of the world.
We must ban the use of depleted uranium in our military and worldwide;
we must provide medical care to all DU casualties;
and we must clean up all the places where we've used this poison
that has the power to kill for countless generations, far into the future."
Dennis J. Kucinich
1) Did Bush Press For Iraq-9/11 Link?
- - The Armageddon Plan
- - General Sacked by Bush Wanted Early Elections in Iraq
- - Worldwide Protests Demand Iraq Pullout
Did Bush Press For Iraq-9/11 Link?
From CBSNEWS.com "Sixty Minutes"
March 21, 2004
In the aftermath of Sept. 11, President Bush ordered his then top anti-terrorism advisor to look for a link between Iraq and the attacks, despite being told there didn't seem to be one.
The charge comes from the advisor, Richard Clarke, in an exclusive interview on 60 Minutes.
The administration maintains that it cannot find any evidence that the conversation about an Iraq-9/11 tie-in ever took place.
Clarke also tells CBS News Correspondent Lesley Stahl that White House officials were tepid in their response when he urged them months before Sept. 11 to meet to discuss what he saw as a severe threat from al Qaeda.
"Frankly," he said, "I find it outrageous that the president is running for re-election on the grounds that he's done such great things about terrorism. He ignored it. He ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something to stop 9/11. Maybe. We'll never know."
Clarke went on to say, "I think he's done a terrible job on the war against terrorism."
[Excerpts]
Clarke says that as early as the day after the attacks, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was pushing for retaliatory strikes on Iraq, even though al Qaeda was based in Afghanistan.
Clarke suggests the idea took him so aback, he initially thought Rumsfeld was joking.
Clarke is due to testify this week before the special panel probing whether the attacks were preventable.
His allegations are also made in a book, "Against All Enemies," which is being published Monday by Free Press, a subsidiary of Simon & Schuster. Both CBSNews.com and Simon & Schuster are units of Viacom.
Clarke helped shape U.S. policy on terrorism under President Reagan and the first President Bush. He was held over by President Clinton to be his terrorism czar, then held over again by the current President Bush.
In the 60 Minutes interview and the book, Clarke tells what happened behind the scenes at the White House before, during and after Sept. 11.
..Clarke relates, "I began saying, 'We have to deal with bin Laden; we have to deal with al Qaeda.' Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, said, 'No, no, no. We don't have to deal with al Qaeda. Why are we talking about that little guy? We have to talk about Iraqi terrorism against the United States.'
"And I said, 'Paul, there hasn't been any Iraqi terrorism against the United States in eight years!' And I turned to the deputy director of the CIA and said, 'Isn't that right?' And he said, 'Yeah, that's right. There is no Iraqi terrorism against the United States."
Clarke went on to add, "There's absolutely no evidence that Iraq was supporting al Qaeda, ever."
When Stahl pointed out that some administration officials say it's still an open issue, Clarke responded, "Well, they'll say that until hell freezes over."
Does a person who works for the White House owe the president his loyalty? "Up to a point. When the president starts doing things that risk American lives, then loyalty to him has to be put aside," says Clarke. "I think the way he has responded to al Qaeda, both before 9/11 by doing nothing, and by what he's done after 9/11 has made us less safe. Absolutely."
For the complete article, see:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/19/60minutes/main607356.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Armageddon Plan
By James Mann
The Atlantic Monthly
March 2004
During the Reagan era Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were key players in a clandestine program designed to set aside the legal lines of succession and immediately install a new "President" in the event that a nuclear attack killed the country's leaders. The program helps explain the behavior of the Bush Administration on and after 9/11.
For this article, see: http://truthout.org/docs_04/032104J.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - General Sacked by Bush Wanted Early Elections in Iraq
THE GUARDIAN:
GENERAL SACKED BY BUSH SAYS HE WANTED EARLY ELECTIONS
BY DAVID LEIGH
Thursday Mar 18, 2004
London- Jay Garner, the US general abruptly dismissed as Iraq's first occupation administrator after a month in the job, says he fell out with the Bush circle [after he called for swift and] free
elections and rejected an imposed programme of privatisation.
For complete article, see:
http://www.GregPalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=320&row=0
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Worldwide Protests Demand Iraq Pullout
http://truthout.org/docs_04/032204C.shtml
2) Kucinich on Fear in America
- - David Swanson | Politics of Fear vs. Democracy
- - "Three Days in Spain" By William Rivers Pitt
- - New Spanish Leader Lashes Out at Bush, Blair Over Iraq War
- - Bush's Iraq Coalition Falling Apart
Kucinich on Fear in America
March 18, 2004
University of Alaska
Juneau, Alaska
I think that fear is a real factor in our politics today. I think the administration is beating the drums of fear. I think they have gained more control by promoting fear with these color-coded threat systems. It's like an Orwellian weather report. Think about it. What does it mean that today, it's orange?
Really, I wonder, what does it mean? We are being asked to accept now, and follow this. We're being asked to accept this as a convention of our lives. And after a while, you know, that's just part of our life. Why? We need to go back through this and ask some questions.
Yes, there's fear. The Patriot Act was passed out of fear. The Department of Homeland Security was passed out of fear. The war in Iraq was sanctioned out of fear. A four hundred and twenty-one billion dollar Pentagon budget was totally fear driven. We spend more than the rest of the world put together on the military.
Fear driven. Putting weapons in space. Fear driven. Putting up a missile shield. Fear driven. Building new nuclear weapons. Fear driven. Meanwhile, we separate ourselves with these policies from the rest of humanity and thereby bring to ourselves that which we fear - by the very actions which we claim are being executed in the name of meeting the fear.
Does anyone think we're safer because we bombed Iraq? Please. Really, think about that, who are the geniuses who came up with this one? There seems to be a - I don't know if it's a lack of sophistication, or just an addiction to war - on the part of leaders, who will use fear as a political commodity. If you scare the American people, you may get enough people to freeze.
All of us know what fear is. You may not have fear of 9/11 because of the distance from it, but all of us are familiar with fear of one kind or another. Fear has a paralyzing power. Fear has the ability to get anyone to do something that is adverse to your own interests. We've all had this happen. Fear has this chance to freeze us, to choke.
People who use fear to stay in power are not worthy of a democratic society. And this administration is using fear
To watch the video and listen to the audio of this and other speeches, link from:
http://www.kucinich.us/dennisontv.php
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - David Swanson | Politics of Fear vs. Democracy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/031604A.shtml
- - "Three Days in Spain" By William Rivers Pitt
http://www.alternet.org/members/story.html?StoryID=18122
- - New Spanish Leader Lashes Out at Bush, Blair Over Iraq War
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0315-02.htm
- - Bush's Iraq Coalition Falling Apart
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/031904A.shtml
3) Kucinich to reveal details of secret U.S. nuclear wars
- - Reverend Jesse Jackson in appreciation of Dennis J. Kucinich
- - VT Yankee Nuke Uprate Threat and Action
Kucinich to reveal details of secret U.S. nuclear wars
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 14, 2004
WHAT: Press conference
WHO: Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich and Dr. Doug Rokke, PhD
WHERE: University of Illinois, Champaign Campus, Illini Student Unit, Pine Room
WHEN: Monday, March 15th, 7:00 PM
Champaign, Ill. Democratic Congressman and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich will held a press conference Monday to detail little-known information about the nuclear content and life-threatening effects of U.S. munitions that are being used in Iraq and Afghanistan and which have been used in other military conflicts beginning with the 1991 Gulf War.
Joining Kucinich was Dr. Doug Rokke, PhD, retired Army combat officer, and one of the world's leading experts on the use of munitions containing radioactive depleted uranium (DU). He served as a member of the U.S. Army Medical Command's Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical (NBC) special operations and teaching team during the Gulf War. He is a confirmed casualty of poisoning by DU, which has a half life of 4.5 billion years.
Kucinich discussed the devastating health consequences suffered by American servicemen and women and their families and by civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Serbia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere because of DU munitions used by the U.S. and other nations.
Kucinich also outlined a plan to provide medical testing and care to all military personnel, veterans and others who have been exposed, as well as demand that the U.S. and other responsible governments perform complete environmental remediation wherever military forces have used DU munitions.
"Depleted uranium weapons are an unacceptable threat to life, a violation of international law, and an assault on human dignity," says Kucinich. "We have an obligation to do what is right for our servicemen and women, for our children and our grandchildren, and for all citizens of the world. We must ban the use of depleted uranium in our military and worldwide; we must provide medical care to all DU casualties; and we must clean up all the places where we've used this poison that has the power to kill for countless generations, far into the future."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Reverend Jesse Jackson in appreciation of Dennis J. Kucinich
Reverend Jesse Jackson:
I want you all to hear something real, real basic about this campaign: no matter what the polls say, no matter what the polls say, George Bush has the inside track. They stole the election without the White House; they can control it with the White House. We must overwhelm the machinery on Election Day, but I do not want to ever mislead you, because we can win and still lose unless we change assumptions. If you get the flipside of the same nickel, you have not won.
In slavery times there were liberals and conservatives. Conservatives said, "Treat the enslaved as you want; they are property." Liberals said, "Don't treat them bad; I want to go to heaven." But both liberals and conservatives were for slavery. Abolitionists was another coin. I have no interest in the liberal side of a right-wing coin. We need another coin. We need another proposition. Y'all hear what I'm saying?
I want to express my thanks to Dennis today for being in the race, and for assuming the burden of saying "you make the most sense, but you can't win". I heard that. Every now and then, sense ought to count in these campaigns. And even if sense is a minority it's going to let its light shine anyhow. You might go along with darkness -- darkness is popular -- but if this room was totally dark and someone lit one candle you would be saved by the power of the light, not by the size of the darkness. Can I get a witness here?
Somebody has got to make sense about Iraq, about Haiti, about the federal right to vote. See, no matter what the count is I hear somebody saying that no good thing will be lost if you do the Lord's work and do it right. And so, Dennis Kucinich, your work in this campaign has not been lost; keep speaking truth against the odds. A big hand for Dennis Kucinich from Cleveland, Ohio, the congressman! On your feet. Show your respect and your appreciation for Dennis Kucinich.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more from the Kucinich National campaign, visit: kucinich.us
For Rep. Kucinich's Schedule: kucinich.us/schedule
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - VT Yankee Nuke Uprate Threat and Action
The VT Public Service Board (in its recent conditional ruling in favor of the uprate) and the VT Senate (in a unanimous resolution on March 16) have called for an Independent Engineering Assessment to ensure the reliability of this 31-year-old reactor.
VT Yankees proposed 20% uprate means over 34% more radioactivity released in the event of an accident or a terrorist attack, additional overburden of deadly radioactive waste, and -- through daily operations--more than a 25% increase in direct radiation to local communities.
If the assessment is truly independent of the pro-industry NRC, the uprate is not going to happen.
Mar 31 - PUBLIC MEETING with NRC - Vernon VT
Wed, March 31 -- Vernon Elementary School cafeteria , 7pm --
PUBLIC MEETING with NRC on plans to increase power production at
Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor, which borders Massachusetts and NH.
We encourage concerned citizens to pack the room at Vernon Elementary School to show the NRC that we understand the importance of performing an Independent Engineering (safety) assessment at Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[EXCERPTS] published in the Keene (NH) Sentinel 2/24/04
"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is probably the poorest regulator of any regulator in the U.S. They are essentially run by the nuclear industry."
These are the words of Paul Blanch, a nuclear power expert, a one-time consultant to Entergy and an industry whistleblower.
At a forum organized by the New England Coalition, a nuclear power watchdog group, Blanch spoke to an audience of about 20 people at the School of International Training about the proposed "uprate" at Vermont Yankee.
For over an hour, Blanch explained why he believed the plant, the oldest of its type in the country, is not equipped with the necessary safety mechanisms to handle the 20 percent increase.
"This is not a doughnut factory down there. This is a nuclear power plant containing hundreds of millions of curies of radioactive material," said Blanch.
For more info: http://www.necnp.org
4) Indecent War on Freedom - Film/Discussion
- - Swing state campaign to defeat George W. Bush
Indecent War on Freedom - Film/Discussion
Keene State College, Keene, NH
Monday 7pm - March 22nd
A Grassroots Forum on the War on Terror
For this press release, see:
Under events and campaigns for a link to:
Films that Make a Difference
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Swing state campaign to defeat George W. Bush
DEFEAT BUSH IN NH
This swing state campaign will help defeat the Bush administration in November by focusing on one New Hampshire county: Cheshire County in southwest NH (County seat: Keene, NH). The project is gathering activists from Massachusetts and Vermont (two non-swing states) and linking them with Cheshire County, NH activists to mount a non-partisan, door-to-door campaign to defeat President Bush.
The project is planning to:
facilitate voter registration in Cheshire County;
develop anti-Bush print materials (at least 30,000 copies)
for door-to-door, literature table, and event use;
organize rock-the-vote' and register voters.
KICK-OFF MEETING: Sunday, March 28, 2004, 3-5 pm, Keene, NH.
Keene Unitarian Universalist Church, (69 Washington St.)
To volunteer for the project, or for more information, contact:
Mass. contact:
Rudy Perkins, rudyperkins@yahoo.com, ph. 978-249-0923
NH contact:
Chris Hansen, marcuschristian@hotmail.com; ph. 603-835-6190
Note: In the 2000 election, Bush won NH, and thus the national election, by just 7,211 NH votes. In Cheshire County alone about 20,000 people who could have voted didn't vote in 2000. In addition, 13,000+ people voted for the Republicans last time in Cheshire County, and some Republicans, at least, are sick of Bush's war and his other reckless policies. Over 2,000 voters in Cheshire County voted for four third-parties running last time. Bottom line: From these voting pool, Cheshire County alone has the potential for providing 7,000+ new votes against Bush in November, potentially enough to be decisive in NH and thereby the nation.
Even before the 3/28 joint kick-off meeting, more than 80 people from MA, NH and VT have signed up to volunteer for this swing state campaign, attended early organizing meetings, or called or emailed to offer to work on the project in some capacity.
If you don't live near NH, we suggest finding another swing state in your neighborhood and set up a similar grassroots movement. Flyby News offers resources for films, flyers and press releases for such campaigns. For more information, see Campaigns @ FlybyNews.com
Flyby News Support
If you care to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses
for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc.,
you can send donations to:
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
-- or you can donate via online --
see FlybyNews.com [near bottom of page] for link
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
X-RaySavagery * DrugFraud * AristideReturns
15 March 2004
"Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism."
-- George Washington
1) Camp X-Ray's Savagery Revealed
2) Prescription-drug bill fraud
3) Haiti - Venezuela - US Coup D'etat Updates
- - Breaking News: Reports on Aristide's Return to the Caribbean
- - U.S. Revealed to be Secretly Funding Opponents of Chavez
4) Kucinich still a factor in presidential race
- - Kucinich Still Wants To Influence Dems' Platform
- - March 20 Global Day of Action
- - U.S. Families Protest War
5) Indecent War on Freedom - Film/Discussion
"I think we all agree, the past is over."
"This is still a dangerous world."
"It's a world of madmen and uncertainty
and potential mental losses."
George W. Bush
For source of GWB quotes, see:
Snopes.com
Editor's Notes:
The above quote of GWB almost seems reasonable as an introduction for the madness revealed in this latest issue, especially on the first-hand report on life in Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay. The reality of violence begetting more violence just hasn't sunk into the psyche of many, but in Spain the people realize this, and voted out the administration supporting the preemptive oil-greed-driven preemptive illegal attack on Iraq. Item 2 is on a report on a deceitful action that was perpetrated to pass a prescription drug bill. Item 3 is late breaking word on Amy Goodman's heroics, who boarded an airplane with Haiti's elected President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his wife, attempting to return Haiti for Democracy Now! The second related section in this item offers confirmation on the US financing opposition to overthrow the elected President of Venezuela. These actions confirm the dictatorship now existing in the US, and this administration's contempt for the principles of the US Constitution and International Law. Item 4 is on attempts to reclaim US democracy, and updates on the role of Dennis Kucinich and election 2004. Item 5 is a press release for a film and discussions on the war on terror. This event is for March 22nd in Keene, NH, featuring the films: "Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror, A Special Report by John Pilger;" and a Dennis Kucinich speech, "A Prayer for America." Please use the resources of Flyby News and consider setting up a forum in your neighborhood. We can send you a flyer announcing your event.
This Saturday, Dennis Kucinich will be one of the speakers at a major peace rally in New York City.
For more information on March 20th Global Actions for Peace, visit:
United For Peace
or
International Action Center
We can have democracy in this country
or we can have great wealth in a few hands,
but we can't have both."
Louis D. Brandeis
1) Camp X-Ray's Savagery Revealed
MY HELL IN CAMP X-RAY
Mar 12 2004
WORLD EXCLUSIVE
By Rosa Prince and Gary Jones
A BRITISH captive freed from Guantanamo Bay today tells the world of its full horror - and reveals how prostitutes were taken into the camp to degrade Muslim inmates.
Jamal al-Harith, 37, who arrived home three days ago after two years of confinement, is the first detainee to lift the lid on the US regime in Cuba's Camp X-Ray and Camp Delta.
The father-of-three, from Manchester, told how he was assaulted with fists, feet and batons after refusing a mystery injection.
FREEDOM: Jamal yesterday... but he will never forget camp horror
He said detainees were shackled for up to 15 hours at a time in hand and leg cuffs with metal links which cut into the skin.
Their "cells" were wire cages with concrete floors and open to the elements - giving no privacy or protection from the rats, snakes and scorpions loose around the American base.
He claims punishment beatings were handed out by guards known as the Extreme Reaction Force. They waded into inmates in full riot-gear, raining blows on them.
Prisoners faced psychological torture and mind-games in attempts to make them confess to acts they had never committed. Even petty breaches of rules brought severe punishment.
Medical treatment was sparse and brutal and amputations of limbs were more drastic than required, claimed Jamal.
A diet of foul water and food up to 10 years out-of-date left inmates malnourished.
But Jamal's most shocking disclosure centred on the use of vice girls to torment the most religiously devout detainees.
Prisoners who had never seen an "unveiled" woman before would be forced to watch as the hookers touched their own naked bodies.
The men would return distraught. One said an American girl had smeared menstrual blood across his face in an act of humiliation.
Jamal said: "I knew of this happening about 10 times. It always seemed to be those who were very young or known to be particularly religious who would be taken away.
"I would joke with the other British lads, 'Bring them to us - we'll have them'. It made us laugh. But the Americans obviously knew we wouldn't be shocked by seeing Western women, so they didn't bother.
"It was a profoundly disturbing experience for these men. They would refuse to speak about what had happened. It would take perhaps four weeks for them to tell a friend - and we would shout it out around the whole block."
Jamal added: "The whole point of Guantanamo was to get to you psychologically. The beatings were not as nearly as bad as the psychological torture - bruises heal after a week - but the other stuff stays with you."
HE was talking from a secret location after being reunited with his family. The website designer, a convert to Islam, had gone to Pakistan in October 2001, a few weeks after September 11, to study Muslim culture.
He accidentally strayed into Afghanistan - believing he was being driven to Turkey - and was arrested as a spy, perhaps because of his British passport. He was held in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and fell into US hands.
Now Jamal bears the scars of Guantanamo. He stoops into a hunch as he walks because the shackles that bound him were too short.
As a punishment, inmates would be confined so tightly they would be forced to lie in a ball for hours. During lengthy interrogation, they would be tethered to a metal ring on the floor.
Jamal said: "Sometimes you would be chained up on the floor with your hands and feet actually bound together. One of my friends told me he was kept like that for 15 hours once.
"Recreation meant your legs were untied and you walked up and down a strip of gravel. In Camp X-Ray you only got five minutes but in Delta you walked for around 15 minutes."
Jamal said victims of the Extreme Reaction Force were paraded in front of cells. "It was a horrible sight and it was a frequent sight."
He said one unit used force-feeding to end a hunger strike by 70 per cent of the 600 inmates. The strike started after a guard deliberately kicked a copy of the Koran.
Rice and beans was the usual diet and the water was "filthy". Jamal added: "In Camp X-Ray it was yellow and in Delta it was black - the colour of Coca-Cola.
"We had it piped through with a tap in each 'cage' but they would often turn the water off as punishment.
"They would shut off the water before prayers so we couldn't wash ourselves according to our religion.
"The food was terrible as well, up to 10 years out-of-date. They would open a hatch and shove it through a section at a time.
"We had porridge and something they called 'like-milk', which was disgusting and 'like-tea' and a piece of fruit. The fruit had been frozen and pounded with chemicals. An apple might look red but there was waxy white stuff all over it and inside it would be black and brown.
"They would play tricks on people by denying them things - you might be the only person on your block who didn't get any bread. I prided myself on never asking them for anything. I would not beg." Jamal said they were told they had no rights. "They actually said that - 'You have no rights here'. After a while, we stopped asking for human rights - we wanted animal rights. In Camp X-Ray my cage was right next to a kennel housing an Alsatian dog.
"He had a wooden house with air conditioning and green grass to exercise on. I said to the guards, 'I want his rights' and they replied, 'That dog is member of the US army'.
"You would be punished for anything - for having six packets of salt in your cell rather than five, for hanging your towel through the cage if it wasn't wet, even for having your spoon and things lined up in the wrong order."
Being forced to use a bucket as a toilet in view of other inmates and guards was particularly embarrassing. Jamal said: "I never got used to it - we would all put our towels and clothes around us.
"But the Military Police up in the tower would see us and would shout to each other.
"We were only allowed a shower once a week at the beginning and none at all in solitary confinement.
"This was very tough because you are supposed to be clean when you pray.
"Gradually the number of showers rose to three a week. They were always cold.
"You would be chained by two MPs while you were still in the cage before being taken off for what they called 'rec and shower'.
"You could sometimes see the guards tampering with the shower heads to make water squirt all over the inmate's clothes if he had put them up to protect his privacy."
Inmates were issued with "comfort items" - known as CIs - like shampoo, towels, a washcloth and boxer shorts. CIs would be removed as a punishment.
Jamal defiantly refused "treats", such as watching a James Bond film in a room dubbed The Love Shack by inmates.
He added: "Some people were given pizzas, ice-cream and McDonald's, but they didn't offer them to me. I guess they knew bribery would work with some and not with others."
To pass the time, inmates would chat to each other, pray, read the Koran and sing Islamic songs. In Camp X-Ray, they were given Mills and Boon-style romance novels in Arabic, which they refused to read.
Describing medical treatment, Jamal said he knew of 11 men who had legs amputated and two who lost toes and fingers. He was told that the Americans had removed far more tissue than was necessary.
HE added: "The man in the cell next to me had frostbite in two fingers and two toes. He also had it in his big toe, but they didn't treat that for a year by which time they had to cut off much more than was needed.
"All the men who had lost limbs complained they would chop them off high up and not bother to try to save as much as possible."
Jamal added that he didn't have close friends in Guantanamo, saying: "When I did meet the other Brits, we would reminisce about home - particularly the food.
"We were all obsessed with Scottish Highland Shortbread - we wanted some so much.
"One of the Brits told me he was asked why he was a Muslim, because he ought to be praying to the Queen."
Jamal, who is divorced with daughters aged three and eight and a son of five, is convinced his refusal to succumb to mind-games gave him the will to come through.
He said: "It was very, very hard at times, but I tried to think about nothing but survival.
"I kept my thoughts from home as much as possible because it would drive me crazy.
"About a year into my time, I had a dream. A voice said, 'You will here for two years'.
"In my dream I said, 'Two years! You're joking'. But when I woke up, I was calmer because at least that meant I would be getting out one day.
"I was sent to Guantanamo on February 11, 2002 and left on March 9, 2004, so I was there for just over two years, just like the voice in the dream said."
For this original posting, including a photo and related links, see:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/content_objectid=14042696_method=full_siteid=50143_headline=-MY%2DHELL%2DIN%2DCAMP%2DX%2DRAY-name_page.html
2) Prescription-drug bill fraud
Medicare Analyst Confirms Muzzling
By Tony Pugh
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Saturday 13 March 2004
He said his boss told him he'd be fired if he gave lawmakers higher cost estimates for the prescription-drug bill.
WASHINGTON - The nation's top Medicare cost analyst confirmed yesterday that his former boss had ordered him to withhold from lawmakers unfavorable cost estimates about the Medicare prescription-drug bill. He said the estimates exceeded what Congress seemed willing to accept by more than $100 billion.
Richard Foster, chief actuary at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said that in early June he received a written note from Thomas Scully, then the centers' administrator, ordering him to ignore information requests from members of Congress who were drafting the drug bill.
The Inquirer Washington Bureau reported the episode in an exclusive published yesterday, but Foster's comments were his first on the matter. Yesterday, House and Senate leaders called for investigations into the alleged muzzling. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D., S.D.) said the allegations justified reopening the vote on the drug benefit. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D., Mass.) wrote President Bush demanding to know what cost estimates he used in pushing the new drug benefit, which Congress passed in November and which Bush signed into law Dec. 8.
Scully's note, Foster said, "was a direct order not to respond to certain requests and instead to provide the responses to him and warn about the consequences of insubordination."
The note was Scully's first threat in writing, according to Foster, and came after at least three less formal threats.
They "came in different forms," he said. "Sometimes he would make a comment that 'I think I need another chief actuary,' or, 'If you want to work for the Ways and Means Committee, I can arrange it.' It was that sort of thing." Ways and Means was drafting the bill.
Efforts to reach Scully at his office and home yesterday were unsuccessful. In a recent interview, he denied closing off Foster's lines of communication with Congress. On only one occasion, Scully said, did he block Foster's contacts with lawmakers, in this case Democrats, saying their motives were purely political.
Foster said Scully insisted on a pattern of withholding of information.
"Estimates that were supportive of the legislation were generally released, and estimates that could be used to criticize the legislation were generally not released," Foster said.
He said he believed that higher-ranking members of the administration than Scully knew of the higher cost estimates his office had computed.
"Did the President know? Did Secretary Tommy Thompson know? I don't know," Foster said Thompson heads the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Medicare office.
The White House press office did not respond to requests seeking comment.
The Inquirer reported yesterday that Foster's office had suggested that the drug benefit would cost at least $100 billion more than the $395 billion estimated by the Congressional Budget Office, whose job it is to project costs of legislation.
One projection prepared in early June by Foster's office and obtained by the Inquirer Washington Bureau concluded that a Senate version of the bill might cost as much as $551 billion.
At the time of the estimate, the House was sharply divided on the proposed new Medicare drug benefit, which the administration strongly backed. Ultimately, the House passed the measure, 216-215, on June 27. In November, it endorsed a House-Senate compromise version, 220-215; the yes votes included 13 Republican fiscal conservatives who had said they would vote against the bill if it cost more than $400 billion for its first 10 years.
When Bush signed the bill, the drug benefit was touted as costing $395 billion. In January, Bush's budget director, Joshua Bolten, raised the estimate to $534 billion.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R., Tenn.) noted yesterday that Foster's estimates were based on different and costlier assumptions than those of the Congressional Budget Office.
Frist spokesman Bob Stevenson added: "If an individual's job was threatened and if they were trying to shield information from Congress, that could be an issue of concern."
Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R., Iowa), chairman of the Finance Committee, said Foster's estimates "should not have been withheld. Government analysts with relevant information should never be muzzled."
In a floor speech yesterday, Daschle called for reopening the vote on the drug benefit. He also called for an investigation into the firing threat and assertions that the administration had withheld its cost estimates from Congress.
"Whether this is criminal or not is a matter we will certainly want to clarify," Daschle said. "But if not criminal, it was certainly unethical. And I think we need to know the facts."
A group of House Democrats concurred, asking that the HHS inspector general investigate.
Foster, a senior civil servant, remains on his job. He said he had new and strong support from Thompson and from Medicare's newly confirmed chief, Mark McClellan.
# # #
Contact reporter Tony Pugh at 202-383-6013 or tpugh@krwashington.com.
For the original posting of this article, see:
www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/8174963.htm
3) Haiti - Venezuela - US Coup D'etat Updates
- - Breaking News: Reports on Aristide's Return to the Caribbean
- - U.S. Revealed to be Secretly Funding Opponents of Chavez
- - Breaking News: Exclusive Reports on Aristide's Return to the Caribbean
by Democracy Now!
Sun, 14 Mar 2004
Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman is currently on board a plane en route to the Central African Republic. She is accompanying a delegation that will escort President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to Jamaica, which has offered to host him. The delegation includes Rep. Maxine Waters, Randall Robinson, an emmisary of the Jamaican prime minister as well as Aristide's lawyer, Ira Kurzban. The only other journalist accompanying the delegation is Peter Eisner of the Washington Post. The delegation is expected to arrive in the Central African Republic on Sunday, March 14, and is expected to arrive in Jamaica, along with the Aristides, on Monday March 15, 2004. Democracy Now! will be providing reports throughout the weekend.
Around 9 p.m. on Saturday night, Amy Goodman filed her first report shortly before the delegation left for the Central African Republic.
Read Transcript & Listen to MP3:
Check too at following URL for updates direct from Democracy Now!
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/13/1835255
*** This is a Democracy Now! broadcast exclusive.
-- Check the Democracy Now! website --
regularly for the latest news on this historic trip. ***
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - U.S. Revealed to be Secretly Funding Opponents of Chavez
By Andrew Buncombe
The Independent UK
Saturday 13 March 2004
Washington has been channelling hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund the political opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez - including those who briefly overthrew the democratically elected leader in a coup two years ago.
Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that, in 2002, America paid more than a million dollars to those political groups in what it claims is an ongoing effort to build democracy and "strengthen political parties". Mr Chavez has seized on the information, telling Washington to "get its hands off Venezuela".
For the complete article, see:
news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=500711
Also posted by Truthout.org:
truthout.org/docs_04/031404B.shtml
4) Kucinich still a factor in presidential race
- - Kucinich Still Wants To Influence Dems' Platform
- - March 20 Global Day of Action
- - U.S. Families Protest War
The Miami Herald
Posted Fri, Mar. 12, 2004
PERSPECTIVE: Kucinich still could be factor in presidential race
by Malia Rulon
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - A long shot in the presidential race, Rep. Dennis Kucinich may yet be a player in the Democratic Party's bid for the White House.
Ohio is widely seen as one of the most important battleground states for the 2004 election. Cuyahoga County, which includes Kucinich's hometown of Cleveland, is a must-win region because it boasts the state's highest percentage of Democratic voters.
That means if Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry wins the Democratic Party's nomination, which he is expected to do, he still may need Kucinich's help to win Ohio in November.
"Cleveland is key, and within Cleveland, Kucinich is key," said John Edgell, a former chief of staff for Kucinich who is now a Washington lobbyist.
The state's longest-serving Democratic member of Congress agreed.
"Turnout in Cleveland is critical and I think Dennis Kucinich and (Cleveland Congresswoman) Stephanie Tubbs Jones are essential in that," said Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Toledo.
Kerry asked the Ohio lawmakers to help his campaign in a closed-door meeting with members of the U.S. House on Thursday, Kaptur said.
"We as a delegation are committed to that," she said.
Kucinich still hasn't quit his own race in the presidential primary, but said his ultimate goal is helping the Democratic Party regain the White House.
"The issue now isn't of who the nominee is. The people have spoken. Now, the issue is what does the Democratic Party stand for?" Kucinich said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press.
Kucinich agreed that Cleveland will play an important role in November and pointed to Democrat Al Gore's strong showing in that area before the former vice president decided to pull out of the state in the 2000 race.
"Historically, you've got to come out of Cuyahoga County with a huge vote," Kucinich said. "That's my back yard. That's me. That's where I'm working."
Paul Beck, a political science professor from Ohio State University, said that if Kucinich can provide any kind of advantage to the Democratic nominee in Cleveland, they'll have to court him.
"They obviously would want to approach him and try to get his help," Beck said.
Fellow OSU political science professor Herb Asher, who has studied state politics for 30 years, said former Sen. John Glenn and Rep. Louis Stokes also could play important roles in helping Kerry win the state.
"Probably another critical element will be how active the mayors are since we have Democratic mayors in all the large Ohio cities," Asher said.
Beyond Ohio, Kucinich still could have a role in the race because he's able to attract the most liberal voters in the Democratic Party, including the ones who are most likely to splinter off and vote for independent candidate Ralph Nader.
Nader ran as a Green Party nominee in 2000 and has been widely criticized for siphoning votes away from Gore. Kucinich is ideologically similar to Nader on economic and social issues.
"His new prominence ... is going to help with those folks who are concerned that we've left those progressives behind," said Ohio Democratic Party spokesman Dan Trevas. "Dennis will be outstanding with that."
www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/politics/8165732.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich Still Wants To Influence Dems' Platform
"While the nomination may be a foregone conclusion, what we stand for as a Democratic Party is not a foregone conclusion," Kucinich said in a highly-charged speech at the Rainbow-PUSH weekly forum in Chicago yesterday. He was introduced by Jesse Jackson at the forum. [Read the report from WBBM Radio]
Kucinich Still Wants To Influence Dems' Platform
http://www.wbbm780.com/asp/ViewMoreDetails.asp?ID=35584
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - March 20 Global Day of Action
On Saturday, March 20, people all around the globe will take to the streets to say YES to peace and NO to pre-emptive war and occupation. A number of leading peace groups and coalitions have recognized this day as a Global Day of Action to protest against the invasion, occupation and corporate control of Iraq. Dennis Kucinich will speak at one of the largest of these rallies, in New York City.
Dennis Kucinich has been one of America's most outspoken opponents of the war in Iraq and the continuing occupation. He is the only national political leader representing the peace movement. Kucinich opposed the U.N. sanctions, led the opposition to the war in Congress before it officially started, and continued to actively speak out after America accelerated the war with overt attacks. Kucinich has a detailed ten-point plan to get the U.N. in and the U.S. out within ninety days.
At all times unequivocally supporting the service men and women deployed in Iraq, Kucinich knows the best way to support our troops is to bring them home, and to fulfill all our obligations to them for ongoing medical care and treatment.
The Kucinich for President campaign has endorsed the national action on March 20th in New York. We urge all supporters to rise up, be seen and be heard at this large event and at other events being held around the world on March 20th.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - U.S. Families Protest War
"Anyone who has been killed over there has died in vain," Niederer said. "What are we there for?
For the above article and other links for extensive heartfelt news, see:
www.informationclearinghouse.info/emaildigest.htm
5) Indecent War on Freedom - Film/Discussion
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Indecent War on Freedom
A Grassroots Forum on the War on Terror
For this press release, see link for Films that Make a Difference
Flyby News Support
If you care to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses
for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc.,
(even $5 would be helpful), send donations to:
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
ClimateDisaster * NukeMadness * Coup * Peace
11 March 2004
1) We Face Climate Disaster
- - Global Warming as a Weapon of Mass Destruction
2) Nuclear Madness Beyond Saturation
- - US has given weapons-grade uranium to 43 nations
- - Savannah River: An Effort on Atomic Waste Is Called a Failure
- - Silent WMDs: Effects of Depleted Uranium
- - Nuke bunker-buster budget puzzling
3) Mainstream Media Coverup and Aristide's Kidnapping
- - S. Florida TV host named premier of Haiti
- - Democracy Now! The Full Story of Aristide's Kidnapping
- - Aristide to file suit against U.S.
4) Peace, Candidate, Election, 911, News Updates
- - From the Kucinich for US President Campaign
- - Kucinich: The Most Unreported Story of 2004
- - The New Pentagon papers
- - Pentagon finance manager resigns
- - Rumsfeld Says Full Funding Needed to Continue Terror War
- - Election panel OKs Illegal software
- - Election Problems Stir Bad 2000 Memories
- - White House vs. 9/11 Panel: Resistance, Resolution
Editor's Notes:
I am not going to give much in the editor's since the items are enough. This didn't even touch today's news of the Madrid bombing, the threat of more terrorism, more killings in Iraq. If you aren't a bit depressed from all this news, I'd be worried.. But since most will get this news tomorrow, a new day always brings hope, and opportunities to do something about the madness. Perhaps there is time for a poem, a song, a knowing, encompassing all things growing, and like the river, flowing, to deeper meanings of love..
And we can take some measure in comfort knowing that all this information is making truth more evident. Awareness is increasing to awaken the masses. This may be our year to give peace a chance.
Please note more information on March 20th peace actions is in item 4.
Let's do what we can accomplish, and unite on common ground
for all our relations -- mitakuye oyasin --
1) We Face Climate Disaster
- - Global Warming as a Weapon of Mass Destruction
UK Chief Scientist: We Face Climate Disaster -- Bigger Threat than Terrorism
LONDON
10/03/04 - News and city section
'We face climate disaster'
By Ben Leapman, Evening Standard Political Reporter
The Government's chief scientist today set out an "apocalyptic vision" of global warming bringing back the conditions which drove the dinosaurs to extinction.
Professor Sir David King told a House of Lords committee that urgent action was needed "within the next few years" to avert the threat of sudden and severe climate change.
He claimed that last summer's heatwave was a man-made event and a warning sign of worse to come.
And he defied Downing Street by repeating his charges that global warming is a bigger threat than terrorism, and that Washington is failing to tackle the problem.
On a recent trip to America to talk about the threat of global warming, Sir David was warned by Downing Street to limit his contact with the media.
A memo from a No10 aide was leaked to a journalist in Seattle, where the scientist was delivering a lecture.
Today, Sir David told the peers that the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was probably the highest it had been for 65 million years, since the Palaeocene epoch when most dinosaurs became extinct.
He said the era saw a "massive reduction" in life on earth and added: "The Antarctic was the best place to be at that time. The rest of the world was virtually uninhabitable."
He also delivered a thinly-veiled attack on President George Bush by praising the effort which individual American states were making to curb their carbon dioxide emissions, in the absence of a ruling from Washington.
And he accused American oil giant Exxon of funding lobbyists who are trying to undermine the consensus on global warming by suggesting that scientists are divided on the nature of the problem.
Sir David said: "This is the biggest issue for us to face this century.
"It's man-made. The science is done. It's complete. It's a matter of political understanding. I personally have little doubt that unfortunately, as time moves on, the global warming events such as the very high temperatures in Europe over the past summer and the flooding two years before will occur more frequently, and the understanding of what's driving these will become more apparent.
"And I think nations across the world will understand... that action has to be taken."
In the past few centuries, carbon dioxide in the air has risen from 270 to 370 parts per million and is still on the increase, Sir David said.
He predicted that if the level reached 550 parts per million, the polar ice caps would melt and the Gulf Stream current would be reversed, plunging Europe into a new ice age while the rest of the globe overheated.
To avoid that threat, he said, the level needed to be stabilised at 450 parts per million.
The following URL link for original posting, see:
www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/9567967?version=1
2004 Associated New Media
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Global Warming as a Weapon of Mass Destruction
We are carbonizing the oceans with dire consequences
By Bruce E. Johansen
This related article is posted:
http://www.zmag.org/ZMagSite/Mar2004/johansen0304.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For Flyby News archives updated page, which also includes a link to
information on a novel invention to reduce CO2 emissions, see:
Mounting Evidence of Global Warming!
2) Nuclear Madness Beyond Saturation
- - US has given weapons-grade uranium to 43 nations
- - Savannah River: An Effort on Atomic Waste Is Called a Failure
- - Silent WMDs: Effects of Depleted Uranium
- - Nuke bunker-buster budget puzzling
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - US has given weapons-grade uranium to 43 nations
The US has given weapons-grade uranium to 43 countries including Pakistan since the 1950s under the Atoms for Peace program and is making little effort to get them back, a government department reported. The Department of Energy said in a report that among the countries which have refused to return the material are Pakistan, Iran, Israel, Mexico, Jamaica and South Africa.
For the article published by The Times of India, 7 March 2004, see:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/544522.cms
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Savannah River: An Effort on Atomic Waste Is Called a Failure
An Effort on Atomic Waste Is Called a Failure
By MATTHEW L. WALD
NY Times - Published: March 11, 2004
WASHINGTON, March 10 - A multibillion-dollar program to deal with millions of gallons of high-level radioactive waste at a nuclear weapons plant in South Carolina is failing because technicians cannot get the waste out of the tanks where it has been stored for the last half-century, an influential environmental group says.
The failure raises the likelihood that the wastes will cause further contamination of the Savannah River, which separates South Carolina from Georgia, and underground water supplies, says a report due to be issued Thursday by the group, the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research.
As one example of the problems cited by the institute, based here, its report says the amount of radioactive cesium that the Energy Department now plans to leave behind in a single tank is five times as large as the amount it planned two years ago to leave in all 51 tanks combined.
For the article, see: www.nytimes.com/2004/03/11/politics/11DUMP.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Silent WMDs: Effects of Depleted Uranium
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
"Dialogues With Decision Makers"
New Delhi, India, February 29, March 1-2, 2004
Conference hosted by Indian Doctors for Peace and Development
Contact: Dr. Arun Mitra < idpd2001@hotmail.com >
Article: Silent WMDs: Effects of Depleted Uranium
By Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat < vbhagwat@bom7.vsnl.net.in >
Former Chief of the Naval Staff, India
US Soldiers and Iraqi Citizens are now being exposed to US Depleted Uranium shells,
which have a 4.5 Billion year half life is being covered up by the US Government
For this article, see:
www.thepowerhour.com/articles/du_effects.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For Flyby News archives updated resources, see:
Depleted Uranium and the devestation and harm from the dust of exploded shells
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Nuke bunker-buster budget puzzling
A report by a nonpartisan congressional research group says sharp increases in the proposed budget to build a "bunker buster" nuclear bomb raises questions about whether the controversial program is only a study, as U.S. officials have contended.
For this article, see:
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~2010503,00.html
3) Mainstream Media Coverup and Aristide's Kidnapping
- - S. Florida TV host named premier of Haiti
- - Democracy Now! The Full Story of Aristide's Kidnapping
- - Aristide to file suit against U.S.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - S. Florida TV host named premier of Haiti
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES AND DAN DEVISE
jcharles@herald.com
PORT-AU-PRINCE -- A former Haitian foreign minister and popular South Florida television talk-show host was selected Tuesday to become Haiti's next prime minister.
Gerard Latortue, a critic of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was chosen after two days of painstaking deliberations by a U.S.-backed ''council of sages'' to fill the power vacuum created Feb. 29 when Aristide resigned. Latortue will lead a transitional government that will pave the way for presidential elections early next year..
For this article, apparently 2004 by The Miami Herald and wire service sources
Visit: http://www.miami.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Democracy Now! The Full Story of Aristide's Kidnapping
Thursday, March 11
Just back from the Central African Republic, Kim Ives, an editor of the Haitian newspaper Haiti-Progres, discusses the events surrounding President Aristide's overthrow. Ives spoke with Aristide in his native Creole and was able to piece together what is probably the most comprehensive picture of what Aristide says happened to him and his wife the morning they were forced out of Haiti.
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/11/1538244
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Aristide to file suit against U.S.
Ousted president illegally deposed, lawyer says
by OAKLAND ROSS
Haiti's ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide is launching criminal charges against at least four U.S. government officials, saying they plotted his overthrow late last month and then abducted both him and his wife.
The individuals named in the action include Secretary of State Colin Powell and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, as well as the United States' second-ranked diplomat in Haiti, Luis Moreno, and Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega.
Following his ouster on Feb. 29, Aristide has repeatedly said the U.S. government masterminded his overthrow and kidnapped him and his wife by forcing them on to a plane that flew them to Africa. They left Haiti as an armed rebellion swept through much of the troubled Caribbean country.
In a letter addressed to U.S. Attorney-General John Ashcroft, the deposed president's Miami-based lawyer is calling on the U.S. Justice Department to conduct an investigation into the events surrounding Aristide's hurried departure from Haiti. The lawyer, Ira Kurzban, said there is "a prima facie case" that Aristide and his wife Mildred, a U.S. citizen, were forced to leave Haiti against their will and that several U.S. criminal laws were broken by the officials named in the action.
For this complete article, see:
Aristide to file suit against U.S.
********************************************************************
4) Peace, Candidate, Election, 911, News Updates
- - From the Kucinich for US President Campaign
- - Kucinich: The Most Unreported Story of 2004
- - The New Pentagon papers
- - Pentagon finance manager resigns
- - Rumsfeld Says Full Funding Needed to Continue Terror War
- - Election panel OKs Illegal software
- - Election Problems Stir Bad 2000 Memories
- - White House vs. 9/11 Panel: Resistance, Resolution
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - From the Kucinich for US President Campaign
"Many of you are aware that March 20th marks the one-year anniversary of the pre-emptive war in Iraq. A number of leading peace groups and coalitions have recognized this day as a Global Day of Action to protest against the invasion, occupation and corporate control of Iraq. Rallies and marches will bring millions of people into the streets in cities around the world, to rally for peace and protest the effects of the Bush Administration's policies at home and abroad.
Dennis Kucinich is the only national political leader who represents the peace movement. Before the war began Dennis Kucinich saw through the lies that fueled the Bush Administration's climate of fear and violence. He led the opposition to the war in Congress, and he remains one of the most credible voices within the Democratic Party when speaking about the need to bring our troops home. His position - US out, UN in - remains the only credible alternative to the current reality.
For these reasons, and for others, Dennis Kucinich has been invited to speak at one of the largest March 20th rallies, in New York City. Supporters of the Kucinich Campaign will be on hand there, and all over the country, to bring home the message: US out, UN in.
Please locate peace activities taking place in your part of the country, and work with the Kucinich Campaign to make them a success. Look for events in your area at: www.unitedforpeace.org/calendar.php?caltype=17
Get Active!
1. For more information about what your local Kucinich for President Campaign is doing to support the March 20 peace rallies, contact your state coordinator. Find contact information for your state at http://www.kucinich.us/regionalupdates If your primary or caucus has passed and no state coordinator is listed online, contact the national office at (866) 413-3664.
2. Please forward this message within your networks, and
include information about activities in your community.
3. The staff coordinator at National for March 20 activities
is Charles Lenchner.
Email: movements@kucinich.us with your comments and ideas
for making the Global Day of Action a success.
4. Volunteer to serve as a contact person between your campaign
and the local committee(s) working on March 20 events.
5. Work with your local campaign to make us visible at your event.
Charles Lenchner
National Movements Coordinator
Kucinich for President 2004 - www.kucinich.us
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich: The Most Unreported Story of 2004
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The New Pentagon papers
A high-ranking military officer reveals how Defense Department extremists suppressed information and twisted the truth to drive the country to war.
http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news1/kwiatkowski.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Pentagon won't give war costs
Pressed to estimate the cost of future operations in Iraq, the Pentagon has repeatedly said it's just too hard to do. Now the ranks of disbelievers are growing -- in Congress and among private defense analysts.
www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=83526
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Pentagon finance manager resigns
A study by the Defense Department's inspector general found that the Pentagon couldn't properly account for more than a trillion dollars in monies spent.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/635B6007-9DD0-436C-BFF6-E6521520B1C7.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Rumsfeld Says Full Funding Needed to Continue Terror War
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld warned March 9 here that progress toward democracy in Iraq should not be interpreted as a sign that the terrorist threat is under control and that the military can now endure budget cuts.
www.emilitary.org/article.php?aid=354
# # # #
Some of these above summaries and link provided by Information Clearinghouse -
NOTE [from Tom]: www.informationclearinghouse
This web site was hacked and as a result I have been
unable to access the server to update the site.
Our web host is working on repairing the damage and
the site will be updated within the next 12 hours.
Peace & Joy - www.informationclearinghouse.info/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Election panel OKs Illegal software
The Indiana Election Commission voted late Wednesday to let four counties use illegal voting software after hearing desperate appeals by county clerks who feared primary election disasters if they didn't get help. The unanimous decision by the four commission members, though, belied the anger they felt at Election Systems & Software, the voting equipment vendor whose mistakes had created the potential mess for the state and Johnson, Vanderburgh, Wayne and Henry counties.
For this complete article, see:
www.indystar.com/articles/3/128267-9783-102.html
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - Election Problems Stir Bad 2000 Memories
Florida elections workers counted ballots by hand -- again -- on Wednesday after improperly coded ballots appeared to give former presidential candidate Rep. Dick Gephardt a decisive win in one Panhandle county. On the other end of the country, a report Wednesday found that a computer battery problem affected about 40 percent of polling stations in San Diego County, Calif., delaying and frustrating voters who lined up to cast electronic ballots in last week's primary.
For the complete article, see:
www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Voting-Problems.html
# # # # #
The two above summaries and links provided by
Citizens for Legitimate Government
for that and other breaking news, see:
http://legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - White House vs. 9/11 Panel: Resistance, Resolution
Just before Sen. John F. Kerry accused President Bush on Sunday of "stonewalling" an investigation into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the chairman of Bush's reelection campaign said the White House had been "entirely cooperative" with the independent commission conducting the probe.
Yet last week, Congress rushed to approve legislation extending the deadline for the Sept. 11 commission -- in large part because constant feuding with the White House had made it impossible for the panel to complete its work on time.
For the complete Washington Post article, see:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41468-2004Mar8.html
or
www.truthout.org/docs_04/031004C.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For Flyby News updated archive resources, see:
The Bush Conspiracy & 9/11 Investigative Reports
Flyby News Support
If you care to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses
for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc.,
you can send donations to :-o)
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Aristide Speaks * War Toll * 9/11 * Kucinich
08 March 2004
"It does not require a majority to prevail,
but rather an irate, tireless minority keen
to set brush fires in people's minds."
-- Samuel Adams
1) Democracy Now! - Jean-Bertrand Aristide in his own words
- - Kucinich to Call for Major Investigation Into US Role in Haiti
- - Kerry Condemns Bush For Failing to Back Aristide
- - Aristide's Final Hours
- - Aristide Maintains He Was Kidnapped From Haiti
2) Stop Hiding the Toll of War
- - Peace Action - send a message to Senator Kerry
3) 9/11 Visibility Project
4) Dennis J. Kucinich Day in Alice, Texas
Editor's Notes:
Top on the items is an exclusive powerhouse interview by Democracy Now! (Amy Goodman) with Haiti's elected President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. I am thankful that he is alive, and able to expose another coup d'etat by the US government. Item 2 is another main reason that the US voting public should make sure that Bush does not get another four years as the US commander-in-thief. The insensitivity and the cruelty of his positions, which are harming so many people, is difficult to bear. Yet, the progressives are attacking Senator John Kerry; even an eloquently-written John Pilger article claimed there was no difference between Bush or Kerry. But there are major differences, and especially between a Bush administration v a Kerry administration. There will be no Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and other neocons, for one thing. Yet many people get impatient and influenced by focusing on someone's faults. Many, even in the Kucinich4President email list, are getting into the act, stating that either its Kucinich and his platforms or not voting for the Democratic nominee. But Dennis is maintaining his commitment for a plan to unite the progressive movement with the mainstream US American public. Item 3 is on a campaign to make the unanswered questions of 9/11 visible. And item 4 is another part of a day in the life of Dennis Kucinich.
"You must be the change you want to see in the world."
-- Mahatma Gandhi
1) Democracy Now! - Jean-Bertrand Aristide in his own words
March 8, 2004
At approximately 7:20 am EST, Democracy Now! managed to reach exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide by cell phone in the Central African Republic. His comments represent the most extensive English-language interview Aristide has given since he was removed from office and his country.
Moments before the Democracy Now! interview, Aristide appeared publicly for the first time since he was forced out of Haiti in what he has called a US-backed coup. The authorities in the Central African Republic allowed Aristide to hold a news conference after a delegation of visiting US activists charged that the Haitian president was being held under lock and key like a prisoner. The delegation included one of Aristide's lawyers, Brian Concannon, as well as activists from the Haiti Support Network and the International Action Center, representatives of former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark. Shortly after they arrived in Bangui on Sunday, the delegation attempted to meet with Aristide at the palace of the Renaissance. The CAR government rebuked them.
Shortly after, the country's foreign minister held a press conference in Bangui. Armed men threatened journalists in the room, warning them not to record the minister's remarks. Mildred Aristide, the Haitian First lady, was brought into the room, but was not permitted to speak. The CAR foreign minister told the journalists that President Aristide would hold a news conference within 72 hours. Hours later, Aristide was allowed to address journalists.
In his interview on Democracy Now!, Aristide asserted that he is the legitimate president of Haiti and that he wants to return to the country as soon as possible. He details his last moments in Haiti, describing what he called his "kidnapping" and the coup d'etat against him. He responds to Vice President Dick Cheney's comment that Aristide had "worn out his welcome" in Haiti.
For a link to the transcript and audio, see:
http://www.democracynow.org/
or for alternative link, see:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5821.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich to Call for Major Investigation Into US Role in Haiti
For press release, see:
http://www.kucinich.us/pressreleases/pr_030704.php
- - Kerry Condemns Bush For Failing to Back Aristide
In Sweeping Critique, Kerry Condemns Bush For Failing to Back Aristide
By David E. Sanger and David M. Halbinger
The New York Times
Sunday 07 March 2004
- - Aristide's Final Hours
By David Pratt
The Sunday Herald
Sunday 07 March 2004
- - Aristide Maintains He Was Kidnapped From Haiti
Reuters
Sunday 07 March 2004
For the above 3 articles, see:
http://truthout.org/docs_04/030804B.shtml
2) Stop Hiding the Toll of War
By Nancy Lessin and Gordon Clark, AlterNet
March 4, 2004
President Bush's rationale for taking us to war in Iraq has crumbled. The truth about supposed Iraqi weapons of mass destruction is being told. At the same time, another truth remains hidden by the Bush administration: the 550 troops who have returned from Iraq in caskets and the thousands returning with severe physical and psychological damage.
The military planes carrying human remains fly into Dover Air Force Base in Delaware under cover of darkness. Unlike Vietnam, when Americans could see the consequences of war, the media are now banned from Dover Air Force Base by military order, reinforced for the Iraq war by an edict from Mr. Bush.
One does not need to be a historian to know that the image of dead Americans, returning day after day in body bags, helped turn America against the war in Vietnam. This administration has gone to great lengths to prevent a repeat by keeping images of lifeless and broken bodies away from the cameras and the consciousness of the American people. Mr. Bush has not yet attended a single funeral for anyone killed in Iraq not a single one. Spain and Italy held state funerals for their countrymen who died in Iraq, but the Bush Administration's policy for our own war dead is to hide them.
The media blackout extends to the legions of wounded who have returned from Iraq as well. Media stories on wounded troops often use Pentagon figures for those officially wounded in combat, numbering around 3,000. These numbers ignore the well over 7,000 troops who have been injured or made ill as a result of the war. According to Disabled American Veterans, an additional 6,891 troops were medically evacuated between March 19, 2003 and Oct. 30, 2003, for everything from vehicle accidents to attempted suicides.
The Bush administration is trying to hide the reality described by an Army Nurse Corps captain stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in a recent message to the Bring Them Home NOW! campaign: "[It is] so sad to see young wives cry over their honey who was in Iraq less than one month before losing both legs and having several abdominal surgeries leaving his belly crisscrossed with staples, and now he is fighting for his life from the infection that the injuries caused."
As hard as it may be, these are images the American people need to see, to make informed decisions about this war and its costs.
In their effort to keep this reality from the public, the Bush administration has gone so far as to restrict access of professionally trained and accredited representatives of Disabled American Veterans from military hospitals access that the DAV has had for more than six decades to
counsel and work with service members. The few visits that have been allowed are with pre-selected patients, and closely monitored.
An administration that was honest about the true cost of this war would have increased budget allocations to support the troops and their needs. Instead, in a continuing effort to deny the reality and consequences of the war in Iraq, Mr. Bush's priorities add insult to grave injury. Last year he proposed cutting $1.5 billion from military family housing, while the troops were at war, and also tried to roll back increases for combat pay for soldiers serving in combat zones. This year's budget shortchanges veterans' health care so egregiously that the Commander-In-Chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars called it a "disgrace and a sham."
The President is trying to hide damaging revelations about pre-war intelligence by postponing reports until after Election Day. He will try to hide the human costs of this war, if the American people let him.
On March 14 and 15, as we approach the first anniversary of this war, military families, including those who have lost loved ones in Iraq, veterans, clergy and peace activists will gather at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to begin a Memorial Procession for Mourning and Truth. We will pull back the veil, honor and mourn the dead and acknowledge the wounded both U.S. military personnel and the tens of thousands of Iraqi casualties.
The memory of these individuals will then be brought to the White House, along with the plea: Start telling the truth, stop hiding the toll, and bring an end to this war.
Nancy Lessin is co-founder of Military Families Speak Out;
Gordon Clark is coordinator of the Iraq Pledge of Resistance.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18030
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Peace Action - send a message to Senator Kerry
Our country needs a new foreign policy and with people like you taking action, we are going to make it happen. We believe that an engaged public can change the course of our country and that the time to do it is NOW. Between today and the next election, we have the power to demonstrate that millions of Americans demand a better relationship with the rest of the world.
Instead of leading the world in arms sales to dictatorships, let's lead a global effort to stop the arms trade. Instead of leading the world in producing nuclear weapons, let's lead a global campaign to dismantle them - including our own. Instead of ushering in a new era of international lawlessness, let's lead the world community in addressing real and serious transnational issues.
We need to tell Senator Kerry that we expect the next president of our country to institute a new foreign policy that will make us safer by reducing the nuclear threat, ending US weapons sales to dictators, and supporting international law and the world community.
Just go to:
http://www.peace-action.org/camp/cnfp/petition/petition.php
You can learn more about Peace Action and The Campaign for a New Foreign Policy at:
http://www.peace-action.org/camp/cnfp/cnfp.html
Peace Action
http://www.peace-action.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Contact info: John Kerry for President, Inc.
Campaign Phone: 202-548-6800 / Fax: 202-548-6801 / Email: info@johnkerry.com
D.C. Senate Office Phone: 202-224-2742 / Fax: 202-224-8525
Boston District Office: 617-565-8519
Springfield District Office: 413-785-4610
Worcester District Office: 508-831-7380
Fall River District Office: 508-677-0522
3) 9/11 Visibility Project
We request to know why President Bush is allowed to dictate to the 9-11 Commission whether he will testify, how long he will testify, to whom he will testify, and why he refuses to testify under oath.
To take action for 9/11 visibility, please see:
http://septembereleventh.org/
For the Family Steering Committee for the 9/11 Independent Commission, see:
http://www.911independentcommission.org/
9-11 NATIONAL COMMISSION CHAIRMAN THOMAS H. KEAN
President of Drew University, Thomas H. Kean
Phone: 973/408-3100 / Email: cadm@drew.edu / Fax: 973-408-3068
Fax: 973-408-3242 / Fax: 973-408-3242
9-11 Commission: Tel: (202) 331-4060 Fax: (202) 296-5545
Email: info@9-11Commission.gov
New York Office Tel: (212) 264-1505 Fax: (212) 264-1595
4) Dennis J. Kucinich Day in Alice, Texas
Congressman tours South Texas towns
March 8, 2004
On March 6 in Alice, Texas, Mayor Grace Saenz Lopez handed Kucinich a key to the city and proclaimed that Saturday as Dennis J. Kucinich Day. Dennis spoke in Spanish with the people of Alice, discussing his platform on amnesty for undocumented immigrants, universal health care, veterans' services, environmental protection and bilingual education to connect and celebrate cultures within the nation. Dennis also made stops in the South Texas towns of Hidalgo, Edinburg, Elsa and Corpus Christi.
See http://www.kucinich.us to link to the Caller-Times article with photo gallery, and to see a remarkable photo of Dennis in San Antonio in front of the mural, ''Spirit Of Healing' by Jesse Trevio, which covers 9 stories of Santa Rosa Hospital.
Dennis is taking a few days off from campaigning to rest and recover from an intestinal ailment. He will participate by telephone in several events scheduled for Monday and Tuesday in Florida. Dennis will resume a full campaign schedule later this week.
Kucinich for President 2004 - www.kucinich.us
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Haiti-Kidnap * Kucinich Crossroads * M.I.A.?
04 March 2004
1) US Mainstream Press Fails on Haiti
- - Send an Email to your congressperson
2) Liberal talk endorsing Dennis Kucinich
3) Kucinich Campaign at a Crossroads
4) A Transman Meets Dennis Kucinich
5) Newsinsider - Venezuela threatens to halt oil to US and more..
6) Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Mike Ruppert
Editor's Notes:
Even with the combination of mass media distortion and meaningful Kucinich-votes, the chances for a brokered convention got hit hardest by the pull-out and endorsement of Kerry by Edwards. Senator John Kerry will likely win the majority of the delegate votes with this turn of events. But who said that transforming the Democratic Party would be easy? Yet another opportunity for a turning around a corporate-controlled military-intelligence-media-dictatorship will come again. On to Florida, where delegates can send a message not to abandon a government of, by, and for, the people.
Top on the list of items for today's news is on the alleged kidnaping of Jean Bertrand Aristide from Haiti. The double-talk mainstream media is so proficient that my head got spinning, too.
What is going on?
Yet remember, "love stirs the heart and fear stills it." On this topic, make sure you read "A Transman Meets Dennis Kucinich." And item 6 is on the promotion of the team of Michael Ruppert and Cynthia McKinney in Los Angeles next week.
The showing of Pilger's film, Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror and then Dennis' speech, A Prayer for America, is a combination to remember. It turns heart wrenching feelings turn to hope and vision. As John Pilger said, there are two super powers now in contention for the control of our world. One is based in the administration in Washington, D.C., the other is that of world public opinion. This is a growing force that requires our united efforts to keep alive.
For more on films and programs for reclaiming a lost democracy, see: "Films that Make a Difference!"
post script:
An important investigative report on Kerry was published by the Village Voice:
"When John Kerry's Courage Went M.I.A.
"Senator Covered Up Evidence of P.O. W.'s Left Behind
www.villagevoice.com/issues/0408/schanberg.php
The weakest candidate for the Democrats is most like George Bush, but influences from Kucinich and others can inspire a new direction, and gain votes from previously nonvoting citizens. Please keep working to help transform the Democratic Party, which can then, most effectively, transform the US government. A protest vote, until IRVs is implemented, can only be used against one's self-interests! Now is the time for real thinking and acting, not just reacting, and being controlled by resisting formidable change, perseverence, and a united vision for peace, education, health-care, preservation of the natural environment, and fair employment opportunities, etc.. Remember..
in the moment the future is born!.
1) US Mainstream Press Fails on Haiti
Mainstream Media Fails Itself
By Peter Phillips
On February 29, Richard Boucher from the U.S. Department of State released a press release claiming that Jean Bertrand Aristide had resigned as president of Haiti and that the United State facilitated his safe departure. Within hours the major broadcast news stations in the United States including CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, and NPR were reporting that Aristide had fled Haiti. An Associated Press release that evening said "Aristide resigns, flees into exile." The next day headlines in the major newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, New York Times, and Atlanta Journal Constitution, all announced "Aristide Flees Haiti." The Baltimore sun reported, "Haiti's first democratically-elected president was forced to flee his country yesterday like despots before him."
However on Sunday afternoon February 29, Pacific News network with reporters live in Port-au-Prince Haiti were claiming that Aristide was forced to resign by the US and taken out of the Presidential Palace by armed US marines. On Monday morning Amy Goodman with Democracy Now! news show interviewed Congresswoman Maxine Waters. Waters said she had received a phone call from Aristide at 9:00 AM EST March 1 in which Aristide emphatically denied that he had resigned and said that he had been kidnapped by US and French forces. Aristide made calls to others including TransAfrica founder Randall Robinson, who verified congresswomen Waters' report.
Mainstream corporate media was faced with a dilemma. Confirmed contradictions to headlines reports were being openly revealed to hundreds of thousands of Pacifica listeners nationwide. By Monday afternoon mainstream corporate media began to respond to the charges. Tom Brokaw on NBC Nightly News, 6:30 PM voiced, "Haiti in crisis. Armed rebels sweep into the capital as Aristide claims US troops kidnapped him; forced him out. The US calls that nonsense." Fox News Network with Brit Hume reported Colin Powell's comments, "He was not kidnapped. We did not force him on to the airplane. He went on to the airplane willingly, and that's the truth. Mort Kondracke, executive editor of Roll Call added, "Aristide, was a thug and a leader of thugs and ran his country into the ground." The New York Times in a story buried on page 10 reported that "President Jean-Bertrand Aristide asserted Monday that he had been driven from power in Haiti by the United States in "a coup," an allegation dismissed by the White House as "complete nonsense."
Mainstream media had a credibility problem. Their original story was openly contradicted. The kidnap story could be ignored or back-paged as was done by many newspapers in the US. Or it can be framed within the context of a US denial and dismissed. Unfortunately, the corporate media seems not at all interested in conducting an investigation into the charges, seeking witnesses, or verifying contradictions. Nor is the mainstream media asking or answering the question of why they fully accept the State Department's version of the coup in the first place. Corporate media certainly had enough pre-warning to determine that Aristide was not going to willingly leave the country. Aristide had been saying exactly that for the past month during the armed attacks in the north of Haiti. Aristide was interviewed on CNN February 26. He explained that the terrorists, and criminal drug dealers were former members of the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH), which had led the coup in 1991 killing 5,000 people. Aristide believed that they would kill more people if a coup was allowed to happen. It was also well known in media circles that the US Undersecretary of State Roger Noriega for Latin America was a senior aide to former Senator Jesse Helms, who as chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs committee was a longtime backer of Haitian dictator Jean Claude Duvalier and an opponent of Aristide. These facts alone should have been a red flag regarding the State Department's version.
As a former priest and liberation theologist, Jean Bertrand Aristide stood for grassroots democracy, alleviation of poverty, and God's love for all human beings. He challenged the neo-liberal globalization efforts of the Haitian upper class and their US partners. For this he was targeted by the Bush administration. That the US waited until the day after Aristide was gone to send in troops to stabilize the country proves intent to remove him from office.
Mainstream media had every reason to question the State Department's version of the coup in Haiti, but choose instead to report a highly doubtful cover story. We deserve more from our media than their being stenographers for the government. Weapons of mass destruction aside, we need a media that looks for the truth and exposes the contradictions in the fabrications of the powerful.
Peter Phillips is a Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University
and Director of Project Censored a media research organization.
--
Peter Phillips Ph.D.
Sociology Department/Project Censored
Sonoma State University
1801 East Cotati Ave.
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
707-664-2588
http://www.projectcensored.org/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Send an Email to your congressperson calling for the following:
* President Aristide Should be given full access to the media and telephone communications restored.
* President Aristide should be free to go where he chooses, otherwise it is clear that this was a coup orchestrated by the United States and France.
* An immediate Congressional investigation should commence to determine the role that the U.S. played, directly and/or indirectly in Aristides removal from power, and in supporting the civilian and military opposition movement.
* A multilateral force, not controlled by the U.S., should be deployed to stabilize the situation and immediately disarm the military opposition..
For more info and to Email your Senators and Congressional Reps with one click:
http://capwiz.com/voice4change/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=5261001
Voice4Change * Uniting Our Voices
http://www.voice4change.org
March 03, 2004 * Urgent Alert: U.S. Led Coup in Haiti?
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more on late breaking news stories, check with
Truthout.org
and
Legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
and
Newsinsider.org
and
Commondreams.org
2) Liberal talk endorsing Dennis Kucinich
Bud Beck Show endorses Dennis Kucinich
in the Florida Primary March 9, 2004
The Bud Beck Show is the most successful Liberal Talk Radio Show in any market in America. Radio talk show host, Bud Beck, endorsed Dennis Kucinich in the Florida Primary, scheduled for Tuesday, March 9, 2004. The endorsement came last week on his radio show, which is heard daily throughout the Tampa Bay area from 8 am until 11 am on WWPR 1490 AM.
Beck startled his audience with the announcement. He has long been a supporter of candidates he considered "electable", and according to him, Kucinich was not one of those candidates. Today, Bud Beck interviewed Dennis Kucinich live on his show and announced to the candidate his support. Dennis Kucinich thanked Bud for his support and promised to call in daily to the show and speak to issues regarding his run for the presidency. Bud explained his departure to his listeners in the following manner:
"I will support any Democratic candidate who wins the nomination and today it looks like John Kerry has it in the bag. However, while this train has gained momentum, we need to keep on target and not betray our Progressive goals.
"Dennis Kucinich stands for peace and he stands for American jobs. We need to send a message to the platform committee at Democratic Convention in Boston this July. The best way for us to do that is to insure Dennis Kucinich has a place at that table. And the way for him to have that place is with delegates from Florida.
"Dennis needs to receive at least 15% of the vote in the Florida Primary in order to be awarded proportional delegates. For that reason I am urging everyone to vote for Dennis Kucinich. "This is not a wasted vote, nor is it a protest vote. This is a statement of who we are and what we expect the party to put forward. Dennis Kucinich will be our voice."
Bud plans to speak out asking his listeners to join with him and support Dennis Kucinich. He has likewise enlisted the aid of other radio talk show hosts around Florida and is embarking on an email campaign. The Bud Beck Show is the most successful Liberal Talk Radio Show in any market in America.
3) Kucinich Campaign at a Crossroads
Message from Dorothy J. Maver, National Campaign Manager
Dennis John Kucinich Campaign for President
There comes a moment when we look forward and backward, almost simultaneously, and decide either that everything we believe in is possible - or that our hopes and our dreams are unobtainable. Now is just such a moment.
This is a moment of historic choice in our campaign - a moment where the decisions we make will have effects that ripple forward through generations, decisions that will profoundly affect our lives as individuals, our relationships with other organizations, the future direction of our country, and indeed the future course of the world.
It is the day after Super Tuesday and there is much to report in the Kucinich for President campaign. First and foremost, I want to thank everyone who worked so hard over these many months to bring us to this point in our journey. We are now looking ahead to the remaining states and the Democratic convention in Boston in July, 2004. We must focus on states where Dennis can gain delegates, so that we go to the convention from a position of strength.
This morning the media declared Kerry to be the Democratic nominee. It's been reported that President Bush phoned John Kerry and offered hopes for a spirited debate, and that Kerry is looking for a running mate. That said, we all must remember that in order to be influential and win the election, the Democratic Party must honestly address issues such as single-payer universal health care, jobs, trade, education, the war in Iraq, and the need for a Department of Peace.
Congressman Kucinich has emerged as the voice of the progressive movement in the political debate. His campaign will continue to secure delegates on the way to the convention where, with our ongoing support, he will continue to be that voice. Thus we will focus on the upcoming primary/caucus states, purchase media time, operate a national campaign, and, with your help, make certain that the human values at the heart of this campaign/movement will be at the center of politics in our country.
Together, all of us will ensure that Dennis Kucinich continues to be heard and that the voice of the progressive movement in our country will be part of the transformation of politics and our world. Let us persevere with this vital work to create the world we all envision, the world that exists in our hearts, the world we want to give to our children and our grandchildren.
Dennis John Kucinich Campaign for President
866-413-3664
http://www.kucinich.us
For Congressman Kucinich's Schedule:
http://www.kucinich.us/schedule.htm.
4) A Transman Meets Dennis Kucinich
A Transman Meets Dennis Kucinich
by Bet Power Monday March 01, 2004 at 02:15 PM
Here is an article I wrote about what happened when I met Congressman Dennis Kucinich last week. Please vote for Kucinich for President.
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2004/03/1682007.php
5) Newsinsider - Venezuela threatens to halt oil to US and more..
Breaking news stories:
Venezuela threatens to halt all oil exports to US
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-03/01/content_1340090.htm
New Iraq bombings raise fear of religious civil war
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/02/1078191322847.html
For these other stories:
- British activists' trial could test legality of Iraq war
- Israeli settlement building grows by 35% in a year
- Cheney dismisses talk George Bush might drop him
- Russian liberals urge complete election boycott
See: The News Insider
6) Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Mike Ruppert
On March 13th Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Mike Ruppert are going to rock LA. They will appear together in a highly publicized event sponsored by Pacifica Radios' KPFK. More than 700 movie sized 24 X 36 inch posters have been printed and need to be posted all over Southern California. This event is timed to have an impact on the presidential campaign and just before McKinney officially announces that she's going to take back her Georgia House seat.
FTW needs volunteers to place posters throughout Southern California. Whether it's 10 or 50. You can make a difference. And we'll have the posters delivered to you!
To Post:
College Campuses
Shopping Malls
Public Recreational Areas
Sunset Blvd.
West Hollywood
Venice Santa Monica
Downtown LA
South Central
East LA
The Valley
Anywhere there's a high volume of foot traffic.
Please call 818-788-8791 and give your name and the geographic area you can cover. We'll take you name, address and phone number and have the poster delivered to you this week.
Thanks,
Mike Ruppert
http://www.fromthewilderness.com
Flyby News Support
If you care to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses
for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc.,
you can send donations to :-)
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Haiti-Kidnap * Kucinich Crossroads * M.I.A.?
04 March 2004
1) US Mainstream Press Fails on Haiti
- - Send an Email to your congressperson
2) Liberal talk endorsing Dennis Kucinich
3) Kucinich Campaign at a Crossroads
4) A Transman Meets Dennis Kucinich
5) Newsinsider - Venezuela threatens to halt oil to US and more..
6) Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Mike Ruppert
Editor's Notes:
Even with the combination of mass media distortion and meaningful Kucinich-votes, the closure of chances for a brokered convention got hit hardest by the pull-out and endorsement of Kerry by Edwards. Senator John Kerry will likely win the majority of the delegate votes with this turn of events. But who said that transforming the Democratic Party would be easy? Yet another opportunity for a turning around a corporate-controlled military-intelligence-media-dictatorship will come again. On to Florida, where delegates can send a message not to abandon a government of, by, and for, the people.
Top on the list of items for today's news is on the alleged kidnaping of Jean Bertrand Aristide from Haiti. The double-talk mainstream media is so proficient that my head got spinning, too.
What is going on?
Yet remember, "love stirs the heart and fear stills it." On this topic, make sure you read "A Transman Meets Dennis Kucinich." And item 5 is on the promotion of the team of Michael Ruppert and Cynthia McKinney in Los Angeles next week.
The showing of Pilger's film, Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror and then Dennis' speech, A Prayer for America, is a combination to remember. It turns heart wrenching feelings turn to hope and vision. As John Pilger said, there are two super powers now in contention for the control of our world. One is based in the administration in Washington, D.C., the other is that of world public opinion. This is a growing force that requires our united efforts to keep alive.
For more on films and programs for reclaiming a lost democracy, go to the "Films that Make a Difference!" link under campaigns at http://www.flybynews.com
post script:
An important investigative report on Kerry was published by the Village Voice:
"When John Kerry's Courage Went M.I.A.
"Senator Covered Up Evidence of P.O. W.'s Left Behind
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0408/schanberg.php
The weakest candidate for the Democrats is most like George Bush, but influences from Kucinich and others can inspire a new direction, and gain votes from previously nonvoting citizens. Please keep working to help transform the Democratic Party, which can then, most effectively, transform the US government. A protest vote, until IRVs is implemented, can only be used against one's self-interests! Now is the time for real thinking and acting, not just reacting, and being controlled by resisting formidable change, perseverence, and a united vision for peace, education, health-care, preservation of the natural environment, and fair employment opportunities, etc..
The moment will always be NOW.
1) US Mainstream Press Fails on Haiti
Mainstream Media Fails Itself
By Peter Phillips
On February 29, Richard Boucher from the U.S. Department of State
released a press release claiming that Jean Bertrand Aristide had
resigned as president of Haiti and that the United State facilitated
his safe departure. Within hours the major broadcast news stations in
the United States including CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, and NPR were
reporting that Aristide had fled Haiti. An Associated Press release
that evening said "Aristide resigns, flees into exile." The next day
headlines in the major newspapers across the country, including the
Washington Post, USA Today, New York Times, and Atlanta Journal
Constitution, all announced "Aristide Flees Haiti." The Baltimore sun
reported, "Haiti's first democratically-elected president was forced
to flee his country yesterday like despots before him."
However on Sunday afternoon February 29, Pacific News network with
reporters live in Port-au-Prince Haiti were claiming that Aristide
was forced to resign by the US and taken out of the Presidential
Palace by armed US marines. On Monday morning Amy Goodman with
Democracy Now! news show interviewed Congresswoman Maxine Waters.
Waters said she had received a phone call from Aristide at 9:00 AM
EST March 1 in which Aristide emphatically denied that he had
resigned and said that he had been kidnapped by US and French forces.
Aristide made calls to others including TransAfrica founder Randall
Robinson, who verified congresswomen Waters' report.
Mainstream corporate media was faced with a dilemma. Confirmed
contradictions to headlines reports were being openly revealed to
hundreds of thousands of Pacifica listeners nationwide. By Monday
afternoon mainstream corporate media began to respond to the charges.
Tom Brokaw on NBC Nightly News, 6:30 PM voiced, "Haiti in crisis.
Armed rebels sweep into the capital as Aristide claims US troops
kidnapped him; forced him out. The US calls that nonsense." Fox News
Network with Brit Hume reported Colin Powell's comments, "He was not
kidnapped. We did not force him on to the airplane. He went on to the
airplane willingly, and that's the truth. Mort Kondracke, executive
editor of Roll Call added, "Aristide, was a thug and a leader of
thugs and ran his country into the ground." The New York Times in a
story buried on page 10 reported that "President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide asserted Monday that he had been driven from power in Haiti
by the United States in "a coup," an allegation dismissed by the
White House as "complete nonsense."
Mainstream media had a credibility problem. Their original story was
openly contradicted. The kidnap story could be ignored or back-paged
as was done by many newspapers in the US. Or it can be framed within
the context of a US denial and dismissed. Unfortunately, the
corporate media seems not at all interested in conducting an
investigation into the charges, seeking witnesses, or verifying
contradictions. Nor is the mainstream media asking or answering the
question of why they fully accept the State Department's version of
the coup in the first place. Corporate media certainly had enough
pre-warning to determine that Aristide was not going to willingly
leave the country. Aristide had been saying exactly that for the past
month during the armed attacks in the north of Haiti. Aristide was
interviewed on CNN February 26. He explained that the terrorists, and
criminal drug dealers were former members of the Front for the
Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH), which had led the coup in
1991 killing 5,000 people. Aristide believed that they would kill
more people if a coup was allowed to happen. It was also well known
in media circles that the US Undersecretary of State Roger Noriega
for Latin America was a senior aide to former Senator Jesse Helms,
who as chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs committee was a
longtime backer of Haitian dictator Jean Claude Duvalier and an
opponent of Aristide. These facts alone should have been a red flag
regarding the State Department's version.
As a former priest and liberation theologist, Jean Bertrand Aristide
stood for grassroots democracy, alleviation of poverty, and God's
love for all human beings. He challenged the neo-liberal
globalization efforts of the Haitian upper class and their US
partners. For this he was targeted by the Bush administration. That
the US waited until the day after Aristide was gone to send in troops
to stabilize the country proves intent to remove him from office.
Mainstream media had every reason to question the State Department's
version of the coup in Haiti, but choose instead to report a highly
doubtful cover story. We deserve more from our media than their being
stenographers for the government. Weapons of mass destruction aside,
we need a media that looks for the truth and exposes the
contradictions in the fabrications of the powerful.
Peter Phillips is a Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University
and Director of Project Censored a media research organization.
--
Peter Phillips Ph.D.
Sociology Department/Project Censored
Sonoma State University
1801 East Cotati Ave.
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
707-664-2588
http://www.projectcensored.org/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Send an Email to your congressperson calling for the following:
* President Aristide Should be given full access to the media and telephone communications restored.
* President Aristide should be free to go where he chooses, otherwise it is clear that this was a coup orchestrated by the United States and France.
* An immediate Congressional investigation should commence to determine the role that the U.S. played, directly and/or indirectly in Aristides removal from power, and in supporting the civilian and military opposition movement.
* A multilateral force, not controlled by the U.S., should be deployed to stabilize the situation and immediately disarm the military opposition..
For more info and to Email your Senators and Congressional Reps with one click:
http://capwiz.com/voice4change/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=5261001
Voice4Change * Uniting Our Voices
http://www.voice4change.org
March 03, 2004 * Urgent Alert: U.S. Led Coup in Haiti?
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more on late breaking news stories, check with
http://www.truthout.org
and
http://legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
and
http://www.newsinsider.org
and
http://www.commondreams.org
2) Liberal talk endorsing Dennis Kucinich
Bud Beck Show endorses Dennis Kucinich
in the Florida Primary March 9, 2004
The Bud Beck Show is the most successful Liberal Talk Radio Show in any market in America. Radio talk show host, Bud Beck, endorsed Dennis Kucinich in the Florida Primary, scheduled for Tuesday, March 9, 2004. The endorsement came last week on his radio show, which is heard daily throughout the Tampa Bay area from 8 am until 11 am on WWPR 1490 AM.
Beck startled his audience with the announcement. He has long been a supporter of candidates he considered "electable", and according to him, Kucinich was not one of those candidates. Today, Bud Beck interviewed Dennis Kucinich live on his show and announced to the candidate his support. Dennis Kucinich thanked Bud for his support and promised to call in daily to the show and speak to issues regarding his run for the presidency. Bud explained his departure to his listeners in the following manner:
"I will support any Democratic candidate who wins the nomination and today it looks like John Kerry has it in the bag. However, while this train has gained momentum, we need to keep on target and not betray our Progressive goals.
"Dennis Kucinich stands for peace and he stands for American jobs. We need to send a message to the platform committee at Democratic Convention in Boston this July. The best way for us to do that is to insure Dennis Kucinich has a place at that table. And the way for him to have that place is with delegates from Florida.
"Dennis needs to receive at least 15% of the vote in the Florida Primary in order to be awarded proportional delegates. For that reason I am urging everyone to vote for Dennis Kucinich. "This is not a wasted vote, nor is it a protest vote. This is a statement of who we are and what we expect the party to put forward. Dennis Kucinich will be our voice."
Bud plans to speak out asking his listeners to join with him and support Dennis Kucinich. He has likewise enlisted the aid of other radio talk show hosts around Florida and is embarking on an email campaign. The Bud Beck Show is the most successful Liberal Talk Radio Show in any market in America. Web Site: http://thebudbeckshow.com/
3) Kucinich Campaign at a Crossroads
Message from Dorothy J. Maver, National Campaign Manager
Dennis John Kucinich Campaign for President
There comes a moment when we look forward and backward, almost simultaneously, and decide either that everything we believe in is possible - or that our hopes and our dreams are unobtainable. Now is just such a moment.
This is a moment of historic choice in our campaign - a moment where the decisions we make will have effects that ripple forward through generations, decisions that will profoundly affect our lives as individuals, our relationships with other organizations, the future direction of our country, and indeed the future course of the world.
It is the day after Super Tuesday and there is much to report in the Kucinich for President campaign. First and foremost, I want to thank everyone who worked so hard over these many months to bring us to this point in our journey. We are now looking ahead to the remaining states and the Democratic convention in Boston in July, 2004. We must focus on states where Dennis can gain delegates, so that we go to the convention from a position of strength.
This morning the media declared Kerry to be the Democratic nominee. It's been reported that President Bush phoned John Kerry and offered hopes for a spirited debate, and that Kerry is looking for a running mate. That said, we all must remember that in order to be influential and win the election, the Democratic Party must honestly address issues such as single-payer universal health care, jobs, trade, education, the war in Iraq, and the need for a Department of Peace.
Congressman Kucinich has emerged as the voice of the progressive movement in the political debate. His campaign will continue to secure delegates on the way to the convention where, with our ongoing support, he will continue to be that voice. Thus we will focus on the upcoming primary/caucus states, purchase media time, operate a national campaign, and, with your help, make certain that the human values at the heart of this campaign/movement will be at the center of politics in our country.
Together, all of us will ensure that Dennis Kucinich continues to be heard and that the voice of the progressive movement in our country will be part of the transformation of politics and our world. Let us persevere with this vital work to create the world we all envision, the world that exists in our hearts, the world we want to give to our children and our grandchildren.
Dennis John Kucinich Campaign for President
866-413-3664
http://www.kucinich.us
For Congressman Kucinich's Schedule:
http://www.kucinich.us/schedule.htm.
4) A Transman Meets Dennis Kucinich
A Transman Meets Dennis Kucinich
by Bet Power Monday March 01, 2004 at 02:15 PM
Here is an article I wrote about what happened when I met Congressman Dennis Kucinich last week. Please vote for Kucinich for President.
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2004/03/1682007.php
5) Newsinsider - Venezuela threatens to halt oil to US and more..
Breaking news stories:
Venezuela threatens to halt all oil exports to US
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-03/01/content_1340090.htm
New Iraq bombings raise fear of religious civil war
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/02/1078191322847.html
British activists' trial could test legality of Iraq war
Israeli settlement building grows by 35% in a year
Cheney dismisses talk George Bush might drop him
Russian liberals urge complete election boycott
For these and other story links, see:
The News Insider
http://www.newsinsider.org
5) Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Mike Ruppert
On March 13th Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Mike Ruppert are going to rock LA. They will appear together in a highly publicized event sponsored by Pacifica Radios' KPFK. More than 700 movie sized 24 X 36 inch posters have been printed and need to be posted all over Southern California. This event is timed to have an impact on the presidential campaign and just before McKinney officially announces that she's going to take back her Georgia House seat.
FTW needs volunteers to place posters throughout Southern California. Whether it's 10 or 50. You can make a difference. And we'll have the posters delivered to you!
To Post:
College Campuses
Shopping Malls
Public Recreational Areas
Sunset Blvd.
West Hollywood
Venice Santa Monica
Downtown LA
South Central
East LA
The Valley
Anywhere there's a high volume of foot traffic.
Please call 818-788-8791 and give your name and the geographic area you can cover. We'll take you name, address and phone number and have the poster delivered to you this week.
Thanks,
Mike Ruppert
http://www.fromthewilderness.com
Flyby News Support
If you care to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses
for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc.,
you can send donations:o)
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
JobChallenge * Brokered * 911TruthBeyonda
28 February 2004
"I am no longer ... feeling comfortable
that I'm going to be able to read and process
what I need in order to participate in writing a report
about how it was that 19 men defeated every single
defensive system the U.S. put up to kill 3,000
Americans on Sept. 11.."
-- Senator Bob Kerrey
1) Kucinich takes on Free Trade with the Heartland of America
- - 2nd in Hawaii!
- - What Ever Happened To Peace On Earth a song by Willie Nelson
- - "SURGING in many ways: we just broke $1 Million....."
- - A BROKERED CONVENTION
2) 9/11 panelist may quit over Bush secrecy
3) Truthout News
4) Beyonda-News
Editor's Notes:
Kucinich is the biggest best secret just itching to break loose. Super Tuesday is super important; so, let's build on the momentum. Need motivation? Read item 1 on a Kucinich press release on challenging the other candidates to fix the problem for real by canceling the free trade agreements, and starting over.. Otherwise, by trying to modify existing free trade agreements, the WTO can over-rule real change. Vote Kucinich. Don't be controlled by media manipulation..
Please note that I amended editor's notes in last issue sent to Flyby News subscribers and posted February 24 regarding Ralph Nader and the importance of Instant Runoff Voting in support of changing politics from within. Yet not all the blame is with Nader, Al Gore and other Democratic leaders played their role, too, enabling George W. Bush to steal the 2000 election.
Please help network especially for those in Super Tuesday states!
GET THE VOTE OUT TO RECLAIM A LOST DEMOCRACY!
"There's so many things going on in the world
Babies dying
Mothers crying
How much oil is one human life worth
And what ever happened to peace on earth"
-- Willie Nelson
1) Kucinich takes on Free Trade with the Heartland of America
- - 2nd in Hawaii!
- - What Ever Happened To Peace On Earth a song by Willie Nelson
- - "SURGING in many ways: we just broke $1 Million....."
- - A BROKERED CONVENTION
Kucinich takes on Free Trade with the Heartland of America
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 26, 2004
Kerry, Edwards Refuse to Join Kucinich in Protecting U.S. Jobs
Congressman Dennis Kucinich tonight challenged Senators John Edwards and John Kerry to save American jobs by joining him in his pledge to cancel the North American Free Trade Agreement. Both refused.
In a nationally televised debate on CNN, Kucinich said that because of NAFTA and the U.S.'s membership in the World Trade Organization, not only are American jobs being "out-sourced" to foreign countries, but the U.S. is powerless to stop foreign nations from unfair competitive practices. Kucinich cited an occasion when Congress was unable to protect American steel jobs from foreign competition because the WTO overruled the legislation.
Kucinich renewed his pledge to cancel NAFTA and the WTO by executive order as his first act in office.
Neither Kerry nor Edwards would commit to canceling NAFTA. Kerry voted for NAFTA and has consistently voted for other comparable trade agreements. Kerry and Edwards both voted for the China trade agreement.
Kucinich has been consistent in his opposition to so-called free trade.
Edwards and Kerry both discussed plans to "fix" the trade agreements. The fact is they cannot be altered. Any proposed change can be overruled by the WTO.
Free trade agreements have resulted in the loss of millions of American manufacturing jobs. Internationally, they have failed to uphold workers rights and environmental standards.
A Kucinich administration would return to bilateral trade conditioned on workers rights, human rights, and environmental quality principles.
Related Links:
Jobs: Putting America Back to Work IN America:
http://www.kucinich.us/issues/jobs.php
Dennis on Ohio jobs:
http://www.kucinich.us/jobstalk.php
For Congressman Kucinich's Schedule:
http://www.kucinich.us/schedule.htm.
Press Release URL:
http://www.kucinich.us/pressreleases/pr_022604.php
Kucinich for President homepage:
http://www.kucinich.us
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 2nd in Hawaii!
Reported on February 25, 2004
Dennis placed 2nd in the Hawaii primary
with 30% of the vote. This gives him 8
of Hawaii's 20 unpledged delegates,
who will go to the national convention
in Boston in July. In Maui, Dennis won
with 50% of the vote. In other primaries
yesterday, Dennis took 7% of the vote in Utah
and 6% in Idaho.
Maui Turns Out for Kucinich
http://www.mauinews.com/news/story/0225202004_new01maui0225.asp
- - What Ever Happened To Peace On Earth a song by Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson and his wife Annie are supporters of Dennis Kucinich
and strongest supporters in Hawaii. To celebrate Dennis' success
in Hawaii, Willie wants to you to hear the song he wrote about
Dennis on Christmas:
What Ever Happened To Peace On Earth
For transcript and audio access:
http://www.kucinich.us/nelson_poe_song.php
or for more on why Willie Nelson supports Dennis Kucinich:
http://www.kucinich.us/endorsements/endorsements/willie-nelson.php
- - "SURGING in many ways: we just broke $1 Million....."
From Daniel P. Welch
danielpwelch.com
Re: [Mass_for_Kucinich] SURGING in many ways: we just broke $1 Million.....
Check it out at kucinich.us, and keep the contributions flowing! At 3:30 the "lights" stood $110 beyond the $1 million mark. This has been a great week, with the surge in fundraising, Hawaii....just incredible! And don't forget about the primaries beyond Tuesday--Florida, Illinois, Texas, New Jersey, Pennsylvania....we will have all these Super Tuesday folks with nothing better to do but call EVERY SINGLE PERSON in those states...send them letters, road trip....whatever! That will be the true Kucinich Konvergence!
Please put my new flyer to good use: Why don't I see Dennis Kucinich on TV?
It will be posted soon on the site, I'm told,
and is also available in K4P group files at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Kucinich4President/files/Campaign%20Flyers/Kucinich%20is%20still%20running.doc
I can also send it to folks as a Word doc attachment. Let me know
Also, get in touch ( wpdanny@aol.com ) if you can help with calls to Mass and I'll email you a list and script right away--ONLY if you are not in a March 2 state!
Also get in touch if you want Spanish subtitled copies of This is the Moment.
Keep on keeping on, folks.
Peace,
Danny
__________
Sincerely,
Daniel P. Welch
interesting commentary in 19 languages, visit:
http://www.danielpwelch.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - A BROKERED CONVENTION
[Excerpt]
This week I met several people who came down from Seattle
to help get out the vote in California. I found out that
Kucinich got 25% of the vote in counties - whole counties!
-- where there was a strong door-to-door campaign -- and
in one woman's precinct, he got 48%! Note to self: One-on-one
discussion is the key to overcoming a media blackout.
..He knows it will probably be a brokered convention in July..
as Dennis says, this is the 135th mile of a 500-mile race.
A lot can happen between now and the July convention.
Jessica Flagg
NYS Volunteer Coordinator
Delegate Candidate for Dennis Kucinich
jessflagg@aol.com
2) 9/11 panelist may quit over Bush secrecy
Published in the New York Daily News - Thursday, February 26th, 2004
9/11 panelist may quit over Bush secrecy
Following summary from LegitGov.org - Breaking News:
9/11 panelist may quit over Bush secrecy -- Frustrated by Bush dictatorship restrictions, a former senator said yesterday he might quit the special commission investigating the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Ex-Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), now president of New York's New School University, told the Daily News that resigning is "on my list of possibilities" because the dictatorship continues to block the full panel's access to top intelligence officials and materials. "I am no longer ... feeling comfortable that I'm going to be able to read and process what I need in order to participate in writing a report about how it was that 19 men defeated every single defensive system the U.S. put up to kill 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11," said Kerrey.
The article, "9/11 panelist may quit over Bush secrecy" posted:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/story/168092p-146920c.html
print format:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/v-pfriendly/story/168092p-146920c.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Petition to Senate to Investigate Oddities of 9/11 -
http://www.petitiononline.com/11601TFS/petition.html
23,175+ signatures
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
LegitGov.org homepage:
http://www.LegitGov.org
3) Truthout News
William Rivers Pitt will resume the production
of truthout's audio Overview on Monday, March 1st.
t r u t h o u t | 02.27
William Rivers Pitt | 'The Passion' of the Americans
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/022704A.shtml
Hastert Poised to Shut Down 9/11 Probe
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/022704B.shtml
U.K. Spies 'Bugged U.N.'s Kofi Annan'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/022704C.shtml
Richard Perle Resigns From Defence Policy Board
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/022704D.shtml
Iraqi Cleric Calls for Elections by Year's End
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/022704E.shtml
Haiti's Lawyer: U.S. is Arming Anti-Aristide Paramilitaries
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/022704F.shtml
t r u t h o u t | 02.26
Shiite Leader Threatens Intifada Against U.S.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/022604A.shtml
Steve Weissman | Praising the President
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/022604B.shtml
The New Tork Times | Putting Bias in the Constitution
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/022604C.shtml
Hans Blix Says Iraq War Was Unfounded
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/022604D.shtml
Afghanistan: Now It's All-Out War
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/022604E.shtml
World Health Organization 'Suppressed' Study on Depleted Uranium
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/022604F.shtml
Public Deserves to Know What's Behind Energy Policy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/022604G.shtml
In South Africa, the Poor Could Win the Water Battle
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/022604H.shtml
Controversial Terror Research Ongoing
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/022604I.shtml
Background on Haiti: Some Questions and Answers
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/022604J.shtml
HomePage : http://www.truthout.org
4) Beyonda-News
Swami Beyondananda, Valentine's Day, 2004
[Excerpts]
"Wake Up, America!"
Wake Up Laughing,
and Wake Up Loving
Meanwhile back on earth, the cosmos are drawing us forth.
Even George Bush. He recently announced plans to have a
man on Mars by 2025, and he has a head start. Thanks to
the so-called Patriot Act, he can have someone on Uranus
by the end of the week.
As if we didn't have enough Mars energy these days. You
never hear them talking about putting a woman on Venus, do you?
Going to Mars. That is the George Bush answer to global warming
and environmental destruction. Well, we're just about done with
this planet. Time to mosey on to greener -- I mean redder --
pastures. The E.T.s are very concerned. Right after the Mars probe
landed, the headline in the Intergalactic Gazette was:
"There Goes the Neighborhood."
The best way to preserve our liberties is to take them away.
And maybe if we call it the Patriot Act, no one will notice
that it is the most unpatriotic and unconstitutional
legislation ever passed.
If a Speech Freely Falls in the Forest,
and There is No One There to Hear it --
is it Still Free Speech?
The War in Iraq is less than a year old,
and it has cost us over $90 billion.
That is $246,575,342 a day! Do the math.
And if you find the math difficult to fathom,
how about the aftermath?
Wake Up, America! So I say it's time to "Wake up, America!"
wake up laughing, and wake up loving!
Time for a New Precedent
We must choose a new precedent, because if we keep doing
what we've done we will only get what we've gotten.
Choose a new precedent ... and a new President will follow.
wakeuplaughing.com
Copyright 2004 by Steve Bhaerman. All rights reserved.
Flyby News Support
If you care to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses
for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc.,
you can send donations:o)
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
PentagonClimate * CIA Hijacked * Terror
24 February 2004
1) Now the Pentagon Tells Bush: Climate Change Will Destroy Us
- - "Peak Oil" Update
2) C.I.A. Was Given Data on Hijacker Long Before 9/11
3) Foreign Policy Atrocities
4) Kucinich Campaign Update
5) Grassroots Forums on the War On Terror
Editor's Notes:
Did Ralph Nader show his true colors when he announced his candidacy in the presidential race last Sunday on "Meet the Press", and though he made the rhetoric that he was supporting 3rd parties everywhere, he did not even mention Instant Runoff Voting (IRV's)? This voting method would end the debate of the 3rd party candidate in a spoiler role, but maybe Ralph likes the bad boy publicity. Norman Solomon in an article in TomPaine.com declared "..Ralph Nader appears to be politically tone deaf in a year when the crying need to defeat George W. Bush could hardly be louder or more urgent." But if Nader accomplishes anything, he does give more credibility and respect for the campaign of Dennis Kucinich, who shares many of the same platform issues for transforming the US government, but the big difference is the need for changing politics from within. Without the implementation of IRVs, a third party candidate cannot help but become a spoiler. So, instead of demanding IRVs in 2000, and the halt of the weaponization of space, Nader helped George W. steal the election, (with the support of Al Gore and Democratic Party leadership) and they, except for Dennis Kucinich and Howard Dean, don't even mention the solution for the 3rd party spoiler dilemma now in 2004!
Item 1 in this issue goes back to the concerns of Global Warming, and meanwhile the development of alternative sources of energy is crawling at a snail's pace. This makes the campaign of 2004 even more critical. Energy is plentiful when you look at renewable sources; and while a new patent was issued on an effective 200kW and higher output Stirling engine that can use most any fuel resource, including biomass, funding is still being delayed. In this item, too, you will find a summary on the Peak Oil [greed] issue by Ruppert's team. Item 2 includes a recent New York Times report that the C.I.A. was provided with information on a 9/11 accused hijacker long before the terrorist attacks. Item 3 contains updated information on foreign policy blunders, which feeds the emotional fuel for more terrorism. Item 4 is on a rare platform for a solution, with a link to Kucinich's peace plan for Iraq and the US. And item 5 is another update on grassroots forums on the war on terror and election 2004. I hope you will review these critical films and engage in forums in your communities. We need to keep united, educated, and working for effective solutions.
"The world is a dangerous place,
not because of those who do evil,
but because of those who look on and do nothing"
-- Albert Einstein
1) Now the Pentagon Tells Bush: Climate Change Will Destroy Us
The Observer
Secret report warns of rioting and nuclear war
Britain will be 'Siberian' in less than 20 years
Threat to the world is greater than terrorism
Now the Pentagon Tells Bush: Climate Change Will Destroy Us
By Mark Townsend and Paul Harris
Sunday 22 February 2004
Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters..
A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.
The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.
'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life.'
The findings will prove humiliating to the Bush administration, which has repeatedly denied that climate change even exists. Experts said that they will also make unsettling reading for a President who has insisted national defence is a priority.
The report was commissioned by influential Pentagon defence adviser Andrew Marshall, who has held considerable sway on US military thinking over the past three decades. He was the man behind a sweeping recent review aimed at transforming the American military under Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Climate change 'should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US national security concern', say the authors, Peter Schwartz, CIA consultant and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Doug Randall of the California-based Global Business Network.
An imminent scenario of catastrophic climate change is 'plausible and would challenge United States national security in ways that should be considered immediately', they conclude. As early as next year widespread flooding by a rise in sea levels will create major upheaval for millions.
Last week the Bush administration came under heavy fire from a large body of respected scientists who claimed that it cherry-picked science to suit its policy agenda and suppressed studies that it did not like. Jeremy Symons, a former whistleblower at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said that suppression of the report for four months was a further example of the White House trying to bury the threat of climate change.
Senior climatologists, however, believe that their verdicts could prove the catalyst in forcing Bush to accept climate change as a real and happening phenomenon. They also hope it will convince the United States to sign up to global treaties to reduce the rate of climatic change.
A group of eminent UK scientists recently visited the White House to voice their fears over global warming, part of an intensifying drive to get the US to treat the issue seriously. Sources have told The Observer that American officials appeared extremely sensitive about the issue when faced with complaints that America's public stance appeared increasingly out of touch.
One even alleged that the White House had written to complain about some of the comments attributed to Professor Sir David King, Tony Blair's chief scientific adviser, after he branded the President's position on the issue as indefensible.
Among those scientists present at the White House talks were Professor John Schellnhuber, former chief environmental adviser to the German government and head of the UK's leading group of climate scientists at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. He said that the Pentagon's internal fears should prove the 'tipping point' in persuading Bush to accept climatic change.
Sir John Houghton, former chief executive of the Meteorological Office - and the first senior figure to liken the threat of climate change to that of terrorism - said: 'If the Pentagon is sending out that sort of message, then this is an important document indeed.'
Bob Watson, chief scientist for the World Bank and former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, added that the Pentagon's dire warnings could no longer be ignored.
'Can Bush ignore the Pentagon? It's going be hard to blow off this sort of document. Its hugely embarrassing. After all, Bush's single highest priority is national defence. The Pentagon is no wacko, liberal group, generally speaking it is conservative. If climate change is a threat to national security and the economy, then he has to act. There are two groups the Bush Administration tend to listen to, the oil lobby and the Pentagon,' added Watson.
'You've got a President who says global warming is a hoax, and across the Potomac river you've got a Pentagon preparing for climate wars. It's pretty scary when Bush starts to ignore his own government on this issue,' said Rob Gueterbock of Greenpeace.
Already, according to Randall and Schwartz, the planet is carrying a higher population than it can sustain. By 2020 'catastrophic' shortages of water and energy supply will become increasingly harder to overcome, plunging the planet into war. They warn that 8,200 years ago climatic conditions brought widespread crop failure, famine, disease and mass migration of populations that could soon be repeated.
Randall told The Observer that the potential ramifications of rapid climate change would create global chaos. 'This is depressing stuff,' he said. 'It is a national security threat that is unique because there is no enemy to point your guns at and we have no control over the threat.'
Randall added that it was already possibly too late to prevent a disaster happening. 'We don't know exactly where we are in the process. It could start tomorrow and we would not know for another five years,' he said.
'The consequences for some nations of the climate change are unbelievable. It seems obvious that cutting the use of fossil fuels would be worthwhile.'
So dramatic are the report's scenarios, Watson said, that they may prove vital in the US elections. Democratic frontrunner John Kerry is known to accept climate change as a real problem. Scientists disillusioned with Bush's stance are threatening to make sure Kerry uses the Pentagon report in his campaign.
The fact that Marshall is behind its scathing findings will aid Kerry's cause. Marshall, 82, is a Pentagon legend who heads a secretive think-tank dedicated to weighing risks to national security called the Office of Net Assessment. Dubbed 'Yoda' by Pentagon insiders who respect his vast experience, he is credited with being behind the Department of Defence's push on ballistic-missile defence.
Symons, who left the EPA in protest at political interference, said that the suppression of the report was a further instance of the White House trying to bury evidence of climate change. 'It is yet another example of why this government should stop burying its head in the sand on this issue.'
Symons said the Bush administration's close links to high-powered energy and oil companies was vital in understanding why climate change was received sceptically in the Oval Office. 'This administration is ignoring the evidence in order to placate a handful of large energy and oil companies,' he added.
# # #
The original posting of this article was posted at URL:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1153513,00.html
Guardian Unlimited Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - "Peak Oil" Update
From the Wilderness Publication -
Why The Oil Markets May See Price Dips
Before The Collapse
and Why This Will Make the Outcomes Worse
by
Dale Allen Pfeiffer -- FTW Energy Editor
Suddenly, Peak Oil and Gas issues are everywhere. It's as if the light bulb is going on a day late and a tank or two short. ABC News, The Petroleum Review, BBC, Wall Street and many other "establishment" voices are beginning to sound the alarm. For North America, natural gas shortages are here now and can only worsen. The oil production numbers are bearing out that by 2007 demand will have permanently exceeded supply and production capacity. In both cases the outlook is not good. For natural gas the only solution is the importation of liquefied natural gas or LNG. The costs, dangers, political opposition and international competition for dwindling supplies create a complex calculus that will be exceptionally difficult to solve.
The picture for oil is worsened by the way the oil markets operate. Oil prices are driven only by very short-term criteria, essentially how much oil is in the pipeline for the next few months. The last so-called mega fields really only a few months supply in the global picture -- are scheduled to come on line in 2005 creating a short term glut even as the industry acknowledges that the cheap oil is gone forever. The result will be that the capital needed to build infrastructure or switch to alternatives will not be available as the last crucial window of opportunity for its use begins to close. Without that timely capital, there will be no brakes when petroleum civilization hits the wall.
Dale Allen Pfeiffer deconstructs the market forces
as mankind stands on the brink of a new dark age. MCR
For the complete story, see:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com
For information for a practical response to peak oil concerns, see link for a:
"STIRLING Solution for Onsite Power Production"
and for an updated page from Flyby News archives, see this link for:
"The Mounting Evidence of Global Warming!"
2) C.I.A. Was Given Data on Hijacker Long Before 9/11
New York Times - February 24, 2004
American investigators were given the first name and telephone number of one of the hijackers two and a half years before the attacks, officials say.
C.I.A. Was Given Data on Hijacker Long Before 9/11
By JAMES RISEN and ERIC LICHTBLAU
WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 American investigators were given the first name and telephone number of one of the Sept. 11 hijackers two and a half years before the attacks on New York and Washington, but the United States appears to have failed to pursue the lead aggressively, American and German officials say.
The information the earliest known signal that the United States received about any of the hijackers has now become an important element of an independent commission's investigation into the events of Sept. 11, 2001, officials said Monday. It is considered particularly significant because it may have represented a missed opportunity for American officials to penetrate the Qaeda terror cell in Germany that was at the heart of the plot. And it came roughly 16 months before the hijacker showed up at flight schools in the United States.
For the complete story, see:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/24/politics/24TERR.html?th
3) Foreign Policy Atrocities
- - Robert Fisk: Gunned down with abandon:
Iraqis who fail to see US military checkpoints, who overtake convoys under attack--or who merely pass the scene of an American raid--are being gunned down with abandon.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5743.htm
= = = = =
Soldiers accused of another fatal beating:
The family of an Iraqi headmaster who was seen being beaten with a rifle butt by British soldiers before they took him away, was told he had died in custody of a "sudden heart attack".
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=493880
= = = = =
Oil pipeline attacked in southern Iraq:
An oil pipeline was sabotaged in southern Iraq while deadly violence flared in the north, as the war-torn country awaited the release Monday of the UN's findings on the best way forward.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/72288/1/.html
= = = = =
Information Clearinghouse is a free service and an unpaid volunteer effort to allow alternative viewpoints to reach the public.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/emaildigest.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Breaking News from Legitgov.org
*News updated Tuesday, February 24, 2004 07:00 GMT
- - Pentagon Opens Halliburton Criminal Probe The Pentagon said on Monday it opened a criminal investigation of fraud allegations against a unit of [court appointed] Vice President Dick Cheney's old company Halliburton Co., including possible overpricing of fuel delivered to Iraq.
- - U.S. paying group that gave false leads The Bush dictatorship continues to pay millions to the group that provided some questionable prewar intelligence on Iraq. The Department of Defense is continuing to pay millions of dollars for information from the former Iraqi opposition group that produced some of the exaggerated and fabricated intelligence Dictator Bush used to argue his case for war.
- - Senator Levin Says Tenet Made False Statements on WMD A Democratic senator accused CIA Director George Tenet on Monday of making false statements when he said during public hearings that his agency gave the United Nations information about all the top suspected weapons of mass destruction sites in Iraq before the war. "All such sites were not shared, and Mr. Tenet's repeated statements were false," Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan said in a speech on the Senate floor.
For links to the articles of the above summaries, see:
http://www.legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
From the News Insider - - http://www.newsinsider.org/
- - New book claims Israel has 82 nuclear warheads
A book recently published in the US claims Israel has 82 nuclear warheads.
For the complete article, published in Ha'aretz [Israel],
24 February 2004, see:
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=397456&contrassID=1&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y
4) Kucinich Campaign Update
Campaign info
We need 300+ delegates to go to the convention and have the ability to play and broker there. There is just over 1100 delegates on super Tuesday chosen (roughly over a 1/3 of all delegates.) Kerry and Edwards will need to win states we need to begin courting Dean Delegates and supporters. We will build our base as time moves on.. the magic number 300 400 delegates. We have great plans at the conventions, and THAT is where the nominee will be chosen. With our strategy, we only need that many delegates. So THAT is why Dennis is still in the race, that is why this platform needs to be heard!
For the Kucinich Plan to Bring Our Troops Home, see:
http://www.kucinich.us/bringourtroopshome.php
5) Grassroots Forums on the War On Terror
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
INDECENT WAR ON FREEDOM
Grassroots Forums on the War On Terror
February 26, 28, 29, 2004
In Amherst, MA, White River Junction, Montpelier, and Brattleboro, VT
2/26 at the Bangs Community Center, Boltwood Walk; Amherst, MA;
- - - - Thursday; 7:00 pm < info@flybynews.com >
2/28 at the Hotel Coolidge in White River Junction, VT
- - - - Saturday 1:30 p.m. < brandonasny@yahoo.com >
2/28 Unitarian Church, Montpelier, VT, (130 Main St., Upstairs Chapel)
- - - - Saturday, 7:30 p.m. < yonashahar@pshift.com >
2/29 at the Brattleboro Savings and Loan Community Room
- - - - 221 Main Street -- Brattleboro, VT; Sunday, 4:00 pm < mwhitehorn@muses.ca >
All events are free and open to the public!
Featured Film:
"Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror
A Special Report by John Pilger"
Also included will be discussions and
Dennis Kucinich's speech, "A Prayer for America"
A grassroots forum presenting John Pilgers film, "Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror will be held in Amherst, MA on Thursday February 26, 2004, and in White River Junction, Montpelier, and Brattleboro, Vermont on February 28th and 29th. Besides the Pilger film, the program will include discussions on the war on terror, and a film (18 min.) of Dennis Kucinichs speech to the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action on February 17, 2002, called "A Prayer for America." Dennis Kucinich is the only 2004 presidential candidate that voted against the Patriot Act. His speech, about five months after 9/11/01, expresses his thoughts about the US governments response to 9/11 and the loss of civil liberties and US Constitutional rights. Kucinich rallied in the House of Representatives to get 2/3 of the Democrats to vote against giving George W. Bush the authority to preemptively attack Iraq.
Flyby News, one of the co-sponsors for the event, is a nonprofit news resource on the Internet since NASAs Cassini space probe's flyby of Earth. Flyby News resources include Films that Make a Difference. Jonathan Mark, editor, says hes governed by reporting on news for lifes survival in the 21st Century. This work began by his reporting on the high-speed high-risk Plutonium-laden Cassini-Earth-flyby. Flyby News discovered Dennis Kucinich when the Congressman from Ohio, and co-Chair of the Progressive Caucus, introduced legislation to ban space-based weapons. Yet, instead of halting the expansion of the arms race, Congress stood by while President Bush launched into a new platform for war, and unilaterally withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Now, the War on Terror is destabilizing our world, harming innocent life, taxing our economies, adding pollution, and accelerating unprecedented harm to our planet.
This program is not just to provide an awareness of the problems at hand, but also encourages grassroots potential solutions. Two days before the Bangs Community Center program, Dennis Kucinich will be speaking at John M. Greene Hall at Smith College in Northampton, MA, Feb. 24th; 7 p.m. and February 25th at UMASS, Amherst and Springfield. This week before Super Tuesday Primary Elections Flyby News is encouraging citizens to make voting count! This could be our last best chance for democracy to survive during a time of weapons of mass destruction, and distortions of truth and freedom.
# # #
For more information on these films and forums, see "Films that Make a Difference!"
Flyby News Support
If you care to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses
for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc. you can send donations to:
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Self Evident * Nuke Disarm * Campaign 2004
20 February 2004
"I am not a member any organized political party"
"I am a Democrat."
-- Will Rogers
1) William Rivers Pitt: "The One You've Been Waiting For"
2) USA Today Get rid of all nuclear arms
- - Kucinich Statement for Complete Nuclear Disarmament
3) Kucinich Campaign info excerpts and links
- - Wisconsin Primary
- - Crowd wowed by frankness from also-ran
- - Kucinich appeals to military families
- - Kucinich keys on jobs, Iraq, health care
- - The Nation article: "Progressives Should Vote Kucinich"
- - Press Release: INDECENT WAR ON FREEDOM
- - Super Tuesday and the anti-war movement
Editor's Notes:
The article that I have been waiting for is in item 1. The first article I read by William Rivers Pitt is called "Hell To Pay," which openned me up to his sincerity and talents for writing, which are in the finest of American traditions like that of Thomas Paine. "Hell to Pay," published in January 2002, included the unfathomable irony of FBI-Osama bin Ladin hunter, executive deputy, John O'Neill, who went down with thousands of others in the World Trade Center Towers; with innocence and conspiracy broken apart, and debris swept away in the crime of the Century. Instead of examining the crime scene, the US government used the event as a precursor for endless war and aim for world domination. Fear tried to conquer us. This newest article by William Rivers Pitt, "The One You've Been Waiting For" is a sequel in a new time, a new opportunity, to empower ourselves with a freedom in a pseudo democracy to make it work, and arise from the ashes of death to lay fear to rest. Item 2 is a USA Today article editorial with the only common sense direction for a world inundated with nuclear arms, and too many crazy people in high places. Item 3 is to catch you up on the Kucinich campaign, to counterbalance the censorship in the mainstream press; yet, this movement will not be denied. It is only a matter of time. Each candidate in the Democratic Party has contributed much for an opportunity to change directions. Only united will people succeed; and this spring there are signs for an american and universal awakening.
1) "The One You've Been Waiting For" by William Rivers Pitt
"The One You've Been Waiting For
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Thursday 19 February 2004
"Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival." - Winston Churchill
We hold these truths to be self-evident.
Nicole Frye and Bryan Spry are dead because of George W. Bush. Both died in Iraq. Both were 19 years old. William Ramirez was also 19 years old, as was Holly McGeogh. Luis Moreno and Nathan Nakis, Jeffrey Braun and Jason Wright, Joey Whitener and Steven Acosta and Rachel Bosveld, all were 19 years old when they died in Iraq. Ryan Thomas and Michael Mihalakis were 18 when they died in Iraq. They join the 544 American soldiers who have been killed there in less than a year.
They were lied to, as were we all, and now they are forever young in death. The lie they, and we, were fed still sits on the White House website. You can find the lie if you go to www.WhiteHouse.gov and do a search for the page titled Disarm Saddam Hussein.' The page is still there, in all its dishonest glory, even today. The page will tell you that Iraq possesses 26,000 liters of anthrax, 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin, and 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve
agent. 500 tons, for those without calculators, equals 1,000,000 pounds.
Hide that.
This White House page likewise claims Iraq is in possession of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering the 64,000 liters of anthrax and botulinum toxin no one can find, along with the 1,000,000 pounds of sarin, mustard and VX gas no one can find. Better still, the page claims a connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda that never existed and cannot be proven.
Best of all, the page claims that Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger for use in a nuclear weapons program. This was the lie that Bush used in his State of the Union address, to the humiliation of us all. This was the lie that motivated Ambassador Joseph Wilson to speak out on the pages of the New York Times. This was the lie that motivated White House staffers to take revenge against Wilson by exposing his CIA wife, Valerie Plame, thus sparking a federal investigation. This was the lie that might bring down the administration. It is still on the White House website.
We hold these truths to be self-evident.
The American people continue to be kept almost completely in the dark regarding the events of September 11. Very nearly a thousand days have passed since the attacks, and yet the best we have to work with is "Evildoers who hate our freedom." The best we have to work with is an unnecessary invasion of Iraq as a substitute for actual answers and actions. Had the Bush administration been given what it wanted, the best we would have had to work with was master secret-keeper Henry Kissinger chairing a hand-picked investigation committee that would have come armed with pens, paper and buckets of whitewash.
The families of the September 11 dead have published some questions they would like to see George W. Bush answer publicly. Among them are:
Beginning with the transition period between the Clinton administration and your own, and ending on 9/11/01, specifically what information (either verbal or written) about terrorists, possible attacks and targets, did you receive from any source? This would include briefings or communications from out-going Clinton officials, CIA, FBI, NSA, DoD and other intelligence agencies, foreign intelligence, governments, dignitaries or envoys, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, and/or Richard Clarke, former counter-terrorism czar.
Specifically, what did you learn from the August 6, 2001, PDB about the terrorist threat that was facing our nation? Did you request any follow-up action to take place? Did you request any further report be developed and/or prepared?
As Commander-in-Chief, from May 1, 2001 until September 11, 2001, did you receive any information from any intelligence agency official or agent that UBL was planning to attack this nation on its own soil using airplanes as weapons, targeting New York City landmarks during the week of September 11, 2001 or on the actual day of September 11, 2001?
Please explain why no one in any level of our government has yet been held accountable for the countless failures leading up to and on 9/11?
Do you continue to maintain that Saddam Hussein was linked to al Qaeda? What proof do you have of any connection between al-Qaeda and the Hussein regime?
No one on the entire earth has more moral authority on this issue than the wives, husbands, brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers of the men and women who were killed that day. To ignore their demand for answers is to slap them across the face. To ignore their demand is to kill their loved ones all over again. These questions must be answered in the broad light of day.
We hold these truths to be self-evident.
Since George W. Bush came to Washington DC, some 2.2 million jobs have evaporated. Last year, the administration promised to create 1.7 million new jobs, a promise that went laughably unfulfilled. Just last week, the administration promised to create either 2.6 million new jobs or 3.8 million new jobs, depending upon which administration official you chose to listen to.
These White House predictions are so off-the-scale ludicrous that the administration officials charged with shepherding the economy have refused to have anything to do with them. Both Treasury Secretary John Snow and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans have put as much distance as political physics will allow between themselves and these predictions. "Macroeconomic models are based on a lot of assumptions," said Secretary Snow, who further stated that such things are, "not without a range of error."
Indeed. The "range of error" may well be found in the fact that this administration has promised millions of new jobs while simultaneously and bysimultaneously' I mean within the pages of the same economic report claiming that the outsourcing of millions of American jobs to foreign countries is a good thing for the economy and the American people. Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich asked a pointed question about this which has gone unanswered: In which country will these jobs be created?" They won't be created in America, for Americans.
We hold these truths to be self-evident.
Seldom in the history of American politics has the Democratic Party fielded a more competent, patriotic, excellent group of candidates for the office of the Presidency than that which has been in the running to date. A case can be made, however, that each has bruises on their records as progressives; from voting for the Iraq War Resolution to voting for the PATRIOT Act to espousing right-leaning economic principles to questionable allegiance to a woman's right to choose, each and every candidate has failed the purity test somewhere along the line.
Yet held against the appalling record compiled by the Bush administration to date, of which the issues raised above comprise only a damnable fraction, the truth is as self-evident as the shining sun at noontime. Each and every one of the Democratic candidates represent a quantum leap forward for America, should any of them attain that high office. Each and every one of them can be pressured, cajoled, even attacked by the progressive community to act in a manner required by the people. No amount of pressure from the progressive community has moved the Bush administration one inch away from its extremist agenda to date, and no amount of pressure will move them should Bush win the 2004 election.
Is John Kerry the one you've been waiting for? Is John Edwards? Howard Dean? Dennis Kucinich? Al Sharpton? Were any of the candidates who have dropped out the one you've been waiting for? The answer to those questions will vary from person to person. At the end of the day, however, the final answer is no.
No, none of these candidates are the one you've been waiting for.
The one you've been waiting for has always been here. The one you've been waiting for pressured these candidates to fight the onslaught of the Bush administration. The one you've been waiting for took to the streets before the Iraq invasion, worked for the campaign which most inspired, agitated against the PATRIOT Act, spoke to friend and neighbor and family about what has gone wrong.
This final truth is self-evident. You are the one you've been waiting for. You drive the agenda. You make or break this political season. You are the hero. You've been here the whole time.
William Rivers Pitt is the senior editor and lead writer for truthout. He is a New York Times and international bestselling author of two books - 'War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know' and 'The Greatest Sedition is Silence.'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/021904A.shtml
Copyright 2004 by TruthOut.org
2) USA Today Get rid of all nuclear arms
- - Kucinich Statement for Complete Nuclear Disarmament
Get rid of all nuclear arms
By Adil Najam
Editorial/Opinion
Posted 2/18/2004 7:59 PM
USA Today
President Bush's Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) provides the right solution, but to the wrong problem. Nuclear proliferation is merely a symptom; the real issue is the nuclear weapons themselves. And, in this sense, the PSI is no more than a Band-Aid, and a quite small one at that.
The recent scandal in Pakistan, where a corrupt scientist sold nuclear secrets for profit, only demonstrates that such traffic is much too lucrative to be stopped by increased policing. For 60 years, ever since Hiroshima, the U.S. and the world have tried to control the spread of nuclear weapons. We've tried treaties, economic sanctions and moral persuasion. And we've failed.
We could not stop the Soviets from getting nukes. We chose not to resist, and actually ignored, Israel's nuclear program. We looked the other way when India went nuclear and, thus, could do little when Pakistan followed suit.And we merely fumed when North Korea flexed its nuclear muscles. In the meantime, we have built and maintained the world's largest nuclear stockpile.
Can we contain Pakistan's nuclear program? Yes, we can. But first we will need to contain India's. To do that, however, India will need to see China's program rolled back. How does that happen? For that, we will need to start looking at our own. As my grandmother used to say, "If you point one finger at someone, at least three will point back at you." No one said this was easy!
Are we really surprised that the rest of the world rolls its eyes when we pontificate about the dangers of nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction in general as when Bush referred to them as "the greatest threat to humanity today"? What other countries doubt is our sincerity. It is hypocritical to tell the rest of the world that nuclear weapons are good enough for us, but not for them. We can't have a world part nuclear and part not.
Perhaps the fathers of our own atom bomb Robert Oppenheimer and his colleagues from the Manhattan Project were correct in believing that the only real way of dealing with nuclear proliferation is to ban nuclear weapons altogether. Everywhere.
International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed ElBaradei understands this reality. He recently wrote: "We must abandon the unworkable notion that it is morally reprehensible for some countries to pursue weapons of mass destruction yet morally acceptable for others to rely on them and indeed to continue to refine their capacities and postulate plans for their use."
We must insist on a nuclear-free world. We must make a sincere commitment to it at home and demand it abroad. Rather than better mousetraps for proliferating nations, we need an approach to eliminate nuclear weapons. Some may argue this is unrealistic. But no more so than the misguided, even naive, hope that a feel-good Band-Aid called PSI will make the world a safer place.
Adil Najam is an associate professor of international negotiation and diplomacy at the Fletcher School at Tufts University.
You can also find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2004-02-18-oppose_x.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich Statement for Complete Nuclear Disarmament
The following is an excerpt and link to statement by Dennis Kucinich on Nuclear Weapons, the only candidate with a statement for "..complete nuclear disarmament."
"World Peace Initiative - - Part 1: Nuclear Weapons
As President, Dennis Kucinich will work to achieve the following steps to promote world peace:
1. Leading the way toward the complete elimination of nuclear weapons from the earth. Kucinich's goal as president will be a steady movement toward complete nuclear disarmament.
and for complete statement, see:
www.kucinich.us/issues/nuclear_weapons.php
- - Kucinich on Weapons and Non-Proliferation:
"We must demand that our nation and all nations:
Abide by the principles of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Stop the development of new nuclear weapons.
Take all nuclear weapons systems off alert.
Persist towards total, worldwide elimination of all nuclear weapons.
Our nation must:
Revive the Anti Ballistic Missile treaty.
Sign and enforce the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
Abandon plans to build a so-called missile shield.
Prohibit the introduction of weapons into outer space.
The complete statement is posted:
www.kucinich.us/issues/nuclearnp.php
3) Kucinich Campaign info excerpts and links
- - Wisconsin Primary
- - Crowd wowed by frankness from also-ran
- - Kucinich appeals to military families
- - Kucinich keys on jobs, Iraq, health care
- - The Nation article: "Progressives Should Vote Kucinich"
- - Press Release: INDECENT WAR ON FREEDOM
- - Super Tuesday and the anti-war movement
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Wisconsin Primary
February 18, 2004
Dennis extends his thanks to the 27,000+ people who voted for him in the Wisconsin Primary, where he earned 3% of the vote. Also, a special thanks to master guitarist Tim Reynolds for his special performances throughout the weekend. The Wisconsin Primary was February 17.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Crowd wowed by frankness from also-ran
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Crowd wowed by frankness from also-ran
By RAQUEL RUTLEDGE
rrutledge@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Feb. 15, 2004
Like a character in a Broadway play, Dennis Kucinich delivered his lines in Sunday's debate with confidence and conviction. He waved his arms, pointed his fingers and punched the right words.
Although Kucinich didn't get to speak until about 10 minutes into the debate, his answer to a question about negative campaigning drew the first applause of the night.
"If the debate ends up being about the president's service record, you know, we should be worried about the National Guardsmen and Guardswomen who are in Iraq right now who shouldn't be there.
"We should be worried about bringing them home, not worrying about what the president did or didn't do 30 years ago. We have to be concerned about what he's doing now. He sent those men and women there on a lie, and we have to bring them home."
The crowd cheered.
Kucinich later said his first act in office would be to repeal NAFTA.
"That's specific action that will regain real power for the American workers and for workers everywhere and to give the American people the ability to buy American-made goods."
For the complete article, see
http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/feb04/207907.asp
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich appeals to military families
Published in The Post-Crescent, 2/15/04
Kucinich appeals to military families
Long-shot candidate says he'll bring Iraq troops home quickly
By Nathan Phelps
.. "We can take the world in a different direction. We tell the U.N. we're not interested in oil, contracts, privatization or running the government of Iraq," Kucinich said. "This is the only way that we can be certain we'll achieve peace."
Although Kucinich badly trails other top contenders, including frontrunner John Kerry, who will be in Green Bay Monday, he says his opposition to the war will be the lynchpin to defeating President Bush.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/archive/local_14719240.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich keys on jobs, Iraq, health care
Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, 2/15/04
Kucinich keys on jobs, Iraq, health care
By Trudy Stewart
Central Wisconsin Sunday
http://www.wisinfo.com/dailytribune/wrdtlocal/279822304580588.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Nation article: "Progressives Should Vote Kucinich"
"Progressives Should Vote Kucinich"
by RONNIE DUGGER
The Nation, 2/17/04
Dennis Kucinich is the one candidate for President whose vision, eloquence and commitments on the issues can lead us to rise to and surmount the worldwide crises precipitated by the Bush Administration.
For the article link to The Nation, see:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=20040301&s=dugger
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Press Release: INDECENT WAR ON FREEDOM
Please note too that the next Flyby News free public forum
will be held in Amherst, MA on Thursday, February 26, 2004,
and in Vermont; February 28th & 29th! called:
INDECENT WAR ON FREEDOM
Grassroots Forums on the War On Terror
This program will include the film:
"Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror
A Special Report by John Pilger" and open discussions
and Dennis Kucinich's 18-minute powerhouse speech
"A Prayer for America"
For details and more information, see FlybyNews.com -
under campaigns and events and link to "Films that Make a Difference!"
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Super Tuesday and the anti-war movement
Stay with the Kucinich campaign for their latest breaking information http://www.kucinich.us
The best source of information about the Massachusetts (New England) campaign is the MASSforKucinich web site - http://www.massforkucinich.us - which has a regularly updated and detailed calendar section. Also see the national web site for Dennis world changing schedule: http://www.kucinich.us/schedule.htm
Flyby News Support
If you care to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses
for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc. you can send donations to:
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Kerry v Bush - Elite's Dream * DU Award
16 February 2004
"Kerry doesn't need Botox injections;
he needs a spinal transplant. "
Michael Colby
1) Wisconsin Democratic Presidential Debate 2004
2) Bush v. Kerry: The Power Elite's Dream Ballot
3) Kerry Tells Peace Movement to Get Over It'
4) March 4th Books Not Bombs Day of Action
5) Global Citizens Say Dennis Makes the Difference
6) First award for depleted uranium poisoning claim
Editor's Notes:
This issue of Flyby News questions the wisdom of a Kerry-Bush election ticket. Anything but Bush AT THIS TIME IN THE PRIMARY ELECTIONS points us to the edge of the abyss. But on top is the Wisconsin Debate. Listen to the substance of what is said, and avoid analysis with fears that covers over truth. The truth not of words, but of actions. The media has so effectively cut off Dennis Kucinich from serious national attention, it may be debated about his wisdom of joining a Jay Leno "Tonight Show" for a Dating Game. This, sadly, was on another day of death and turmoil in Iraq. Yet what many call a mistake is nothing compared to the mistake of trusting George W. Bush in authorizing him' to engage the US in a war against humanity and the principles of the Constitution of the United States of America.
The "coincidence" of the Bush family and Kerry in this same club is to obvious to overlook. Michael Colby, editor of Wild Matters, makes this clear in his article, "Bush v. Kerry: The Power Elite's Dream Ballot." In response to Tim Russert's question on this issue on "Meet the Press," George W. Bush responded vaguely that Kerry was not yet nominated. The "Anything But Bush" brainwashed crowd has got to wake up. It's time to end this self-fulfilling prophecy resulting in fuel for the power elite. Many people are being tricked and responding in fear, and not looking at the facts . This is the time to get beyond the grand illusion. This is time to see who has the best plan for peace and a domestic fair economy, and who can take on Corporations to demand a clean environment.. And for nuclear weapon disarmament.
Item 4 is on a Books Not Bombs Day of Action. The revolution will not be televised, so get out there and help, please. We need each of us to unite and spread the word for peace and not a direction of permanent war. Item 5 is a wonderful article on international citizens rallying behind Dennis. And item 6 is about the first award for a depleted uranium poisoning claim.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"Kerry and his comrades in the progressive internationalist movement
are as gung-ho about U.S. military action as their counterparts in the White House.
The only noteworthy difference between the two groups battling for power in Washington
is that the neocons are willing to pursue their imperial ambitions in full view of the
international community, while the progressive internationalists prefer to keep
their imperial agenda hidden behind the cloak of multilateralism."
Mark Hand
1) Wisconsin Democratic Presidential Debate 2004
Link to Excerpts edited by Flyby News
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1076963468,94719,
For the complete transcript of the 90-minute of the
Wisconsin [Democratic] Presidential Debate 2004
Sunday, Feb. 15 at Marquette University in Milwaukee.
See this following url link:
http://www.wisconsindebate.com/transcript.asp
2) Bush v. Kerry: The Power Elite's Dream Ballot
February 14/15, 2004
Bush v. Kerry
The Power Elite's Dream Ballot
By MICHAEL COLBY
If you hear gleeful giggling from behind the curtain shielding the political elites from the mere masses, you're not alone. There's a party going on and we haven't been invited. It's a presidential election party, where the puppeteers of our democracy are celebrating an upcoming election that they can't lose. It's a contest between two of their own.
George Bush versus John Kerry is a dream ballot for those whom C. Wright Mills called the "power elite," that tight little club of economic, political and military leaders who truly rule the nation. The power elite doesn't care about political party affiliations. That's child's play. In their view, fools line up to vote while the real players decide who's on the ballot. And for some reason we still refer to the whole charade as democracy. The joke's on you.
Bush v. Kerry is simply nirvana for the bluebloods. As they say in the business world: it's a win-win situation. From their perspective, whomever places his hand upon the Bible (yes, the Bible) on January 20, 2005 doesn't matter because with a Bush/Kerry contest they're already assured there will be no meaningful change in America for the next four years. None. Zero. Zippo.
Before the delusional Democrats out there start peppering me with hostile emails about the absolute necessity of getting "anybody but Bush" in the White House, just stop yourselves long enough to consider these facts: Kerry supported Bush's war on Iraq; Kerry supported Bush's tax cuts; Kerry hasn't proposed one major social or environmental initiative in over 20 years in the U.S. Senate; Kerry hasn't put forward any meaningful policy initiatives in his campaign for the presidency regarding jobs or healthcare. Kerry's campaign seems to be all about proving that he qualifies as "anybody but Bush." And all that takes is a pulse.
Bush and Kerry are also, of course, both proud military men. Bush took the easy way out of the Vietnam War by joining the National Guard - whether he showed up or not is another matter. Kerry, as he's so fond of telling us, served his country by running gunboats up and down the rivers of Vietnam. Brace yourselves, folks, because the Bush/Kerry contest will be filled with assertions and accusations about who loves the military more.
Kerry is really confusing on the issue of the military, too. Before pro-military audiences, Kerry trots out his military medals (three Purple Hearts!) and talks tough about his "duty and service" to the nation. But then he'll stand before the Dean Democrats and talk about how he led the anti-war movement when he got home. Well, John, what's it going to be: duty and service or conscientious objections?
It's this kind of double talk that has littered the political career of John Kerry. He's always hanging around talking out of both sides of his mouth until it's safe to actually pick a side - and then only if he's forced to. Kerry doesn't need Botox injections; he needs a spinal transplant.
Then consider Kerry's oft-quoted attacks on "special interests." Apparently, his special interests are holier than Bush's special interests. The truth, of course, is that they share many of the same special interests, all to the detriment of we, the non-special people.
While it pains me to invoke the words of David Brooks, a conservative columnist at The New York Times, he did sufficiently lampoon Kerry's rhetoric on special interests in a recently published column entitled "Kerry's Special Friends." After detailing many of Kerry's special favors to the high and mighty, Brooks concludes as follows:
"You just ask David Paul, one of the big figures in the savings and loan scandal, if Kerry didn't make him feel special. You just ask the high-tech executive Bob Majumder how special Kerry made him feel, at least until Majumder was charged with 40 counts of conspiracy, witness tampering, fraud, tax evasion and illegal campaign contributions. You just ask the law firms, the brokerage houses, the oil companies, the < H.M.O >.'s and the drug companies, which have donated tens of thousands of dollars to Kerry.
"Oh, he sometimes pretends that he doesn't care about our special interests. He puts on that callous populist facade. But deep down he cares. Maybe he cares too much. When he's out on the stump saying otherwise, he's just being a big old phony."
Of the many similarities between the patricians Bush and Kerry, there's nothing more disturbing than their membership in the super-secret and super-elite Skull & Bones club at Yale University. The fact that both men are members of this club and neither is willing to spill the beans on any of its internal secrets and favors should speak volumes about the apparent "choice" this nation is being offered on the November ballot.
"America is about to choose between two presidential candidates," writes Sam Smith, editor of the indispensable Progressive Review < http://www.prorev.com >, "who belonged to an organization whose values were infantile, elitist, misogynist, anti-democratic and secret and whose purposes include the mutual support and protection of its members as they make their into the upper ranks of American society and throughout their adult lives. Far from apologizing for this, the two candidates refuse to give open and honest answers about their participation. Further, at least one of the candidates, Kerry, has retained a close enough relationship to the organization to have sought new members from among his young acquaintances."
Michael Colby is the editor of Wild Matters
http://www.wildmatters.org/
He can be reached at:
mcolby@wildmatters.org
3) Kerry Tells Peace Movement to Get Over It'
February 09, 2004
'It's Time to Get Over It'
John Kerry Tells Antiwar Movement to Move On
By Mark Hand
[Excerpt]
..Kerry informs his reader that it's time we stop questioning U.S. foreign policy intentions:
"As a veteran of both the Vietnam War and the Vietnam protest movement, I say to both conservative and liberal misinterpretations of that war that it's time to get over it and recognize it as an exception, not as a ruling example, of the U.S. military engagements of the twentieth century. If those of us who carried the physical and emotional burdens of that conflict can regain perspective and move on, so can those whose involvement was vicarious or who knew nothing of the war other than ideology and legend."
This last passage is probably the most unsettling part of Kerry's book and one that every advocate of the Anyone-But-Bush 2004 election strategy should read before heading to the polling station in November.
In this one passage, Kerry seeks to justify the millions of people slaughtered by the U.S. military and its surrogates during the twentieth century, suggests that concern about U.S. war crimes in Vietnam is no longer necessary, and dismisses the antiwar movement as the work of know-nothings.
Kerry and his comrades in the progressive internationalist movement are as gung-ho about U.S. military action as their counterparts in the White House. The only noteworthy difference between the two groups battling for power in Washington is that the neocons are willing to pursue their imperial ambitions in full view of the international community, while the progressive internationalists prefer to keep their imperial agenda hidden behind the cloak of multilateralism.
http://www.pressaction.com/pablog/archives/001294.html#001294
4) March 4th Books Not Bombs Day of Action
United for Peace and Justice has officially endorsed and is actively supporting the March 4th Books Not Bombs Day of Action sponsored by the National Youth and Student Peace Coalition (NYSPC). We urge you and your organization or coalition to support the day of action and help mobilize youth and students in your community to stand up for peace and justice on March 4th. NYSPC is organizing this day in solidarity with and as a building block toward the March 20th Global Day of Action Against War & Occupation.
As the Bush administration steps up its efforts to silence dissent on campus and intimidate youth and students who stand up for peace and justice, it is now more important than ever that U.S. youth make our voices heard. At Drake University, Iowa last week federal prosecutors handed out subpoenas that would have required participants in a campus forum on non-violent protest to appear before a grand jury. Other subpoenas would have required the university to divulge membership records of the forum's sponsor (Drake chapter of the National Lawyers Guild), the names of those who attended the forum, and what was discussed at the forum.
These efforts were met with outrage as students, faculty and community members - along with people all over the country - stood up and said they weren't going to be intimidated, and they won! In a major victory for the anti-war movement, on Tuesday federal prosecutors withdrew both sets of subpoenas. What happened in Iowa is proof that if we stick together and refuse to be intimidated by aggressive attempts to scare us into silence, we can stop the Bush agenda, one step at a time. ( Read the news article at http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=2278 )
Nearly a year ago, on March 5th, 2003, thousands of young people in more than 450 high schools and colleges nationwide participated in a Student Strike for Books Not Bombs and against the impending war on Iraq. The strike was initiated by the National Youth & Student Peace Coalition, a broad coalition fighting back against the militarization of our lives and our world.
One year later, it has become even clearer that our generation will continue to be betrayed by this government's drive to make our country an empire. On March 4th join thousands of young people across our country as we stand up and let our voices be heard:
* EDUCATION - NOT EMPIRE!
* MILITARY OUT OF OUR SCHOOLS - STOP THE POVERTY DRAFT!
* PROTECT OUR CIVIL LIBERTIES!
* CAMPUSES FOR PEACE - NOT WAR!
* SCHOOLS - NOT JAILS!
Here are 3 things you can do to support the day of action:
1. SPREAD THE WORD.
Help us get the word out to youth and students in your community! You can download the Books not Bombs flyer, as well as an informational brochure about NYSPC, at http://www.nyspc.net
You can also check out http://www.campusactivism.org/booksnotbombs to see who else is already signed up to participate.
2. TAKE ACTION.
Encourage youth and students to:
* Draft and circulate a petition relating local issues important to youth and students to the struggle for peace and justice. Look at the list of demands for March 4th and pick one or more that relate to something going on in your area. Example: circulate a petition in your high school demanding that administrators take concrete action to achieve one of the Book Not Bombs demands.
* Use March 4th as a day to table and register young people to vote. Make sure you provide a sign up sheet to get involved or for more information on upcoming events. For a .PDF version of the Books Not Bombs Fliers, NYSPC brochure or other materials contact info@nyspc.net or check out http://www.nyspc.net
* Write an article or letter to the editor of your local newspaper and tell them why you are demanding Books Not Bombs on March 4th!
* Call an organizing meeting for youth and students for the March 20th Global Day of Action on the Anniversary of the War on Iraq and talk about how you can mobilize youth and students in your area.
* Host a Books Not Bombs house party or open mic and have a little fun for peace and justice!
3. LET US KNOW YOU'LL BE PARTICIPATING.
Endorse the day of action at http://www.campusactivism.org/booksnotbombs
This interactive website allows activists around the US to sign up to participate in actions, download resources, and connect with other folks in their region. Let the world know that you'll be joining us on March 4.
Founded in response to the September 11th attack and Bush's open-ended "war on terror", the National Youth and Student Peace Coalition ( http://www.nyspc.net ) represents youth and students from 18 national and regional organizations which empower young people to take action for peace and justice in their communities. To learn more about NYSPC, endorse Books Not Bombs, or to ask questions, email info@nyspc.net or call 215-222-4711.
=========================================
MARCH 20: The World STILL Says No to War!
Global Day of Protest on the
One-Year Anniversary of the Iraq War
Visit http://www.unitedforpeace.org/mar20
to endorse, download leaflets,
find a list of local protests, and more
===========================================
ACTION ALERT * UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
http://www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545
To subscribe, visit http://www.unitedforpeace.org/email
5) Global Citizens Say Dennis Makes the Difference
OpEdNews.com
They can't vote, but internationals
love Dennis Kucinich for U.S. president
Mobile, Global Citizens Say
Dennis Makes the Difference
by Amara Rose
There's a movement afoot that redefines the term "grassroots." Around the planet, non-U.S. citizens, ineligible to vote in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, are buzzing about a dark horse candidate who, like the famous thoroughbred Seabiscuit, seems destined to come from behind for a stunning finish. These global citizens share a common kinship: their faith that Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich spells "sea change" on a worldwide scale. Catalyzed by the tenor of the times, they're reaching out to support a spiritual voice with a practical purpose.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.opednews.com/rose0204_kucinich_international_support.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Kucinich tells Cal crowd he'll win Bay Area vote
by John Wildermuth,
Saturday, February 14, 2004
San Francisco Chronicle
http://tinyurl.com/2e46z
6) First award for depleted uranium poisoning claim
The Herald (Scotland)
February 4, 2004
First award for depleted uranium poisoning claim
MARTIN WILLIAMS
-Dr Schott's research formed part of a study of 16 British veterans of conflicts in the Gulf, Bosnia, and Kosovo, which found that they had 14 times the usual level of chromosome abnormalities in their genes, raising fears that they will pass cancers and genetic illnesses to their offspring.
A Scots ex-soldier has become the first veteran to win a pension appeal after being diagnosed with depleted uranium (DU) poisoning during the 1991 Gulf war.
A Pension Appeal Tribunal Service hearing in Edinburgh accepted medical evidence provided by Kenny Duncan, of Clackmannan, previously dismissed by the MoD, which revealed he had become ill after service in the Middle East.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/9272.html
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Wisconsin Democratic Presidential Debate 2004
The following excerpts (edited by Flyby News) is of the 90-minute
Wisconsin Presidential Debate 2004
Sunday, Feb. 15 at Marquette University in Milwaukee.
For complete transcript, see:
www.wisconsindebate.com/transcript.asp
Wisconsin [Democratic] Presidential Debate 2004
MIKE GOUSHA, MODERATOR: And welcome again to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the Marquette University campus for tonight's Wisconsin presidential debate.
Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts
Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich
North Carolina Senator John Edwards
Reverend Al Sharpton
former Vermont Governor Howard Dean.
LESTER HOLT, MSNBC: And my question is to Representative Kucinich. Good evening, sir.
Ed Gillespie, chairman of the RNC, says "Democrats are going to run the dirtiest campaign in history." John Kerry's Web site responds that "the Bush White House is going to run a gutter campaign." We've still got nine months to go here, gentlemen. Is anything political or personal off-limits in your view?
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH (D-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE:
I'm just hoping that Mr. Gillespie is not seeing the world in his own image. I'm hopeful that he has a desire to communicate to the American people what his party wants to do, to get people back to work, to get all the people in this country the health care they need, to enable our children to go to the public education schools that have the best education, and to enable us to bring our men and women back from Iraq.
LESTER HOLT, MSNBC: Reverend, thanks very much for being with us tonight. The president said he is going to meet with members of the 9/11 commission. If you were a member of the commission and not a candidate for office, what is the first question you would ask the president?
REV. AL SHARPTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE:
I would ask him, "Where is bin Laden?"
(APPLAUSE)
And I would ask him why we went to Iraq and did not put all of our energies behind finding bin Laden. And I am not just saying that as a quip..
CRAIG GILBERT [student]: Senator Kerry, a lot of people here blame trade policy for those job losses. And you voted for all of these -- a lot of these trade deals, NAFTA with Mexico and permanent trade relations with China.
Given all of the jobs that have fled to China and Mexico, would you vote the same way today?
KERRY: Let me make it very clear that in those trade agreements, we passed side-bar provisions, side agreements in NAFTA on labor and environment, central agreements in the China trade agreement on surge -- if there's a surge of imports, or if there's a dumping that takes place, we have things that we can do.
This administration refuses to do them, number one.
Number two, there's been a dramatic shift in the world and what has happened to jobs over the course of the last few years. Perhaps three or four years ago, I began talking about how it is critical that in any trade agreement, we now need to negotiate labor and trade, labor and environment standards.
..I have a $50 billion package that I'll make available for manufacturing incentives and for relief for the states in order to help create the jobs we need in America, as well as a $4,000 tuition tax credit for kids to be able to go to college..
GILBERT: But no regrets about those votes?
KERRY: I regret the way that they haven't been enforced, sure. I think...
GILBERT: Senator Edwards, let me just turn to you first. I mean, you said the other day that there are obvious differences between you and Senator Kerry on this issue.
What are they?
EDWARDS: This is one. This is -- the one you just asked about is an obvious example.
You know, Senator Kerry is entitled, as is Governor Dean, to support free trade, as they always have. The problem is there what we see happening, and it's NAFTA, which I opposed, plus a whole series of other trade agreements, have been devastating here in Wisconsin. Nobody has to tell me what the effect is of some of these bad trade agreements.
BORGER: Well, Congressman Kucinich, what do you say to people here in Wisconsin who want to keep paying lower prices at Wal-Mart and don't want to lose jobs?
KUCINICH: I want the people of Wisconsin to know that my first act in office as president of the United States will be to cancel NAFTA and the WTO and return to bilateral trade conditioned on workers' rights, human rights and environmental quality principles..
That's specific action that will regain real power for the American workers and for workers everywhere and to give the American people the ability to buy American-made goods.
I mean, let's face it. It's either we buy America or it's bye bye America. And I'm insisting that we have to provide a manufacturing base in this country so that people can have American- made goods to buy. They'll buy it if we make it here.
HOLT: Reverend Sharpton, we've heard about canceling NAFTA. We've heard about the need to protect jobs. Are those jobs that have been lost gone forever, or as president could you bring at least some, if not all, of them back?
SHARPTON: I think you can.
But let me say this: Not only would I cancel NAFTA, I've participated in those movements that opposed NAFTA in the beginning when Democrats were passing it and we raised the issue then that human rights was not part of what was being globalized.
..And I think that it is some kind of jaded proposition to say, "Should Americans want to pay more to not get products at a K-Mart from cheap labor, or even in some cases, slave labor abroad?"
That's, to me, as a descendent of slaves, like saying, "Well, let's not end slavery because the product will be where we can afford it better." It is immoral; it is against our interests; it is outright indecent to work people around the world at those wages to justify K-Mart prices.
(APPLAUSE)
GOUSHA: And welcome back, everyone. We've been talking about the economy, trade practices. And since we're from Wisconsin, we have to spend a little time on taxes, because Wisconsin is consistently ranked as one of the top 10 states in the country for the highest tax states.
Governor Dean, you want to repeal all of President Bush's tax cuts.
How do you think that's going to win you votes in Wisconsin?
DEAN: Well, because the middle-class people never got a tax cut. If you make a million dollars a year, you got $112,000 back from the president. Sixty percent of us got $304.
And my question to Wisconsinites is, did your property taxes go up more than $304 because the president cut higher education money?
How about your health care premiums? Did they go up more than $304 because the president cut half-a-million children off health care, and a million adults? Somebody had to pay that health care, so hospitals pass it to your insurance company and then right on to you.
How about your college tuition? Did that go way up because the president cut all that money out of the budget?
The middle-class people didn't get a tax cut in this country. There was no middle-class tax cut. And I believe that the majority of the people in this country would gladly pay the same taxes they paid when Bill Clinton was president if only we could have the economy that we had when Bill Clinton was president.
GOUSHA: So you're saying to repeal the Bush tax cuts is not a tax increase on the middle class?
DEAN: That's exactly right. Since the middle-class people never got a real tax cut -- they got increased college tuition, increased health care costs and increased property taxes -- if you repeal the Bush tax cut, you would be able to balance the budget in this country and have jobs again, and have enough money left over to have every man, woman and child in America have health insurance, and fully fund special education, which would lower your property taxes even further.
GILBERT: A lot of health care needs out there, seekers, prescription drugs, the uninsured kids, we've got a big budget deficit.
So let's talk a little bit about priorities, Congressman Kucinich. What would you do first? What health care need would you take care of first as president?
KUCINICH: As a member of Congress, I've introduced legislation, H.R. 676, to create a universal, single-payer, not-for-profit health care system. Do you know that Americans are already paying for a universal standard of care? We're not getting it -- $1.6 trillion in this country goes for health spending.
Of that $1.6 trillion, $400 billion a year goes for the activities of the for-profit sector -- corporate profits, stock options, executive salaries, advertising, marketing, lobbying, the cost of paperwork -- 15 to 30 percent.
I want to put all that money in the for-profit sector into health care so that everyone in America is covered for all medically necessary procedures, plus dental care, vision care, mental health care,
long-term care, a fully-paid prescription drug benefit.
The American people can have that if they have a president who is ready to show the leadership toward that, and I am, and I will be.
(APPLAUSE)
HOLT: Question to Senator Kerry and on the issue of education and regarding the No Child Left Behind Act. You voted for it. Now you are outspoken against it. Similar pattern on the Patriot Act and war.
Since the candidates seem to agree credibility is an issue, how should voters reconcile those inconsistencies, or what the chairman of the RNC called hypocrisies?
KERRY: Well, they are not inconsistent at all. The goals of the No Child Left Behind Act are worthy goals. We want to raise accountability in our schools. We want to raise standards. We want teachers to be highly certified.
But what we don't want is to have it implemented the way it is being implemented by George Bush. He's making it punitive. He's disrespecting teachers. And he's walked away from his own promise to fully fund No Child Left Behind..
..I will change the Patriot Act. And we have the good common sense, may I add, to put in the Patriot Act a sunset clause so it dies automatically at the end of this year and we'll change it.
But let me just say about the budget also, I have promised to not balance the budget in four years. I don't think anybody's going to do that. If they're telling you that, they can't.
I have promised to cut the deficit in half in four years, which is precisely what George Bush -- what Bill Clinton did. And the same people who helped Bill Clinton put together that plan, the very same people in the White House, the Treasury Department, the OMB, are the same people who are working with me right now to put my plan together. The numbers are real. It's a promise that can be kept.
And if Americans liked the eight years of Bill Clinton's economy, they're going to love the first four years of John Kerry's.
GOUSHA: Thank you.
Anybody else up there think he can balance the budget in less than four years? I'm curious.
Congressman Kucinich?
KUCINICH: Well, first of all, let's look at what's happening.
Over $1 trillion in tax cuts, most of it going to the wealthy, a war in Iraq that's trending toward $200 billion, a $400 billion a year Pentagon budget. What this administration is saying is, "Let them eat war."
And what I intend to say is this, the priorities of the country will be to do something about our trade deficit, to save our jobs -- that's why I have to cancel NAFTA and WTO, restart the American economy.
Reverend Sharpton and I agree on a massive public works program because the idea is you have to keep creating wealth. And you create more wealth by putting people back to work. We need to have a major energy initiative.
We can create 3 million new jobs just in changing America's economy to solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, green hydrogen. I mean, we have to start looking, how can we create new wealth in this country? At the same time, stop the waste.
A tax cut to the wealthy is waste. A war is waste. Expanded Pentagon budget is waste. I'm talking about a new direction for America. That's how you straighten out our budget.
GOUSHA: Reverend Sharpton, I'll give you a couple seconds and then I want to ask a question. Go ahead.
SHARPTON: OK, I think that the other thing that you must raise when you're discussing cutting the deficit -- and I agree with Senator Kerry. No one can do it in four years. But it's also what is your priorities while you are doing deficit spending?
If my family and I are in debt, it's one thing for me in debt to invest in my two daughters' college education. It's another thing in debt for me to go to Las Vegas and roll the dice and have a gambling weekend. What this administration is doing is not only bringing us deeper in debt, they are irresponsibly spending money while we're in debt.
And I think that we need to have the right priorities in terms of job development, in terms of health care, and in terms of public education, and in urban planning..
GOUSHA: ..We want to spend some time on the war in Iraq. Let's do that with the first question going to Craig Gilbert.
GILBERT: Governor Dean, you said in a recent debate about U.S. casualties in Iraq that those soldiers were sent there by the votes, in this case, of Senator Lieberman, Senator Edwards and Senator Kerry. Do you believe that because of the way they voted to authorize force in Iraq that they share some degree of responsibility for the war and its costs and casualties?
DEAN: ..So I think anybody who votes to send somebody to war, or in my case, ..I vigorously opposed the Iraq war, and I differ from Senator Edwards and Senator Kerry in that area. But I think any of us who support sending troops have a responsibility for what happens to those troops.
GILBERT: Let me turn to you, Senator Kerry, because you said your vote wasn't a vote for what the president ultimately did. But you did vote to give him the authority, so do you feel any degree, any degree of responsibility for the war and its costs and casualties?
KERRY: This is one of the reasons why I am so intent on beating George Bush and why I believe I will beat George Bush, because one of the lessons that I learned -- when I was an instrument of American foreign policy, I was that cutting-edge instrument. I carried that M-16.
I know what it's like to try to choose between friend and foe in a foreign country when you're carrying out the policy of your nation.
And I know what it's like when you lose the consent and the legitimacy of that war. And that is why I said specifically on the floor of the Senate that what I was voting for was the process the president promised..
GILBERT: But what about you? I mean, let me repeat the question. Do you have any degree of responsibility having voted to give him the authority to go to war?
KERRY: The president had the authority to do what he was going to do without the vote of the United States Congress. President Clinton went to Kosovo without the Congress. President Clinton went to Haiti without the Congress.
That's why we have a War Powers Act. What we did was vote with one voice of the United States Congress for a process. And remember, until the Congress asserted itself, this president wasn't intending to go to the United Nations. In fact, it was Jim Baker and Brent Scowcroft and others and the Congress who got him to agree to a specific process. The process was to build a legitimate international coalition, go through the inspections process and go to war as a last resort.
He didn't do it. My regret is not the vote. It was appropriate to stand up to Saddam Hussein. There was a right way to do it, a wrong way to do it.
My regret is this president chose the wrong way, rushed to war, is now spending billions of American taxpayers' dollars that we didn't need to spend this way had he built a legitimate coalition, and has put our troops at greater risk.
GILBERT: You cast the same vote, Senator Edwards, is that the way you see it?
EDWARDS: That's the longest answer I ever heard to a yes or no question. The answer to your question is of course.
We all accept responsibility for what we did. I did what I believed was right. I took it very, very seriously.
I also said at the same time that it was critical when we got to this stage that America not be doing this alone. The president is doing it alone. And the result is what we see happening to our young men and women right now. We need to take a dramatic course. We will take a dramatic course.
And by the way, Senator Kerry just said he will beat George Bush; not so fast, John Kerry. We're going to have an election here in Wisconsin this Tuesday. And we've got a whole group of primaries coming up. And I, for one, intend to fight with everything I've got for every one of those votes..
GLORIA BORGER: This is to Congressman Kucinich.
President Bush last week said that yes, he had expected to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, that he was using the same intelligence that had been provided to President Clinton, also the same intelligence that had been used by the heads of other nations.
Do you believe that the president knowingly lied to the American people? And if so, why would he do that?
KUCINICH: I think that this administration knew full well that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, with al Qaeda's role in 9/11, with the anthrax attack on this country, that Iraq had neither the capability nor the intention of attacking the United States, that Iraq was not trying to get uranium from Niger and that, in fact, Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction.
This is the singular issue upon which this election will turn. And I, as the only one up here who voted against the war and voted against the Patriot Act, as the ranking Democrat on a subcommittee that has jurisdiction over national security, an investigative subcommittee, I never saw any evidence that suggested that there was a reason for this country to go to war against Iraq.
It was wrong to go to in; it's wrong to stay in; it is time that we start talking about bringing our troops home, bringing those guardsmen, guardswomen, those reservists back home. Stop this war; get out of Iraq.
BORGER: So I take it the answer is yes that the president knowingly lied to the American people?
KUCINICH: The president lied to the American people.
BORGER: And why would he do that?
KUCINICH: Well, you know what, I can't speak for the president. But I can speak as the next president of the United States...
(LAUGHTER)
.. to say that I intend to bring those troops home by going to the U.N. and giving up control of the oil, letting the U.N. handle that on an interim basis on behalf of the Iraqi people, letting the U.N. handle the contracts. . . The United States must renounce privatization. We have to ask the U.N. for help in developing a constitution and new elections in Iraq. We must pay for what we destroyed, pay for a U.N. peacekeeping mission, and provide reparations for innocent civilian non-combatants who lost their lives.
This is the plan to get out of Iraq. We can get out of Iraq, and I'll lead the way.
HOLT: I'd actually like to let Reverend Sharpton follow up on that very question. Do you think that the president knowingly lied, and if so, why?
SHARPTON: Well, first of all, I think that if he didn't know he was lying and was lying, that's even worse.
(LAUGHTER)
Clearly, he lied. Now if he is an unconscious liar, and doesn't realize when he's lying, then we're really in trouble.
(LAUGHTER)
Because, absolutely, it was a lie. They said they knew the weapons were there. He had members of the administration say they knew where the weapons were. So we're not just talking about something passing here. We're talking about 500 lives. We're talking about billions of dollars.
So I hope he knew he was lying, because if he didn't, and just went in some kind of crazy, psychological breakdown, then we are really in trouble.
Clearly, you know, I'm a minister. Why do people lie? Because they're liars. He lied in Florida; he's lied several times. I believe he lied in Iraq.
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
HOLT: And Reverend, you'll recognize, obviously, calling someone a liar is a very serious charge. ..So it does lead to the question: Why would he lie?
SHARPTON: Well, first of all, Lester, let us look at the facts. The facts are that what they presented to the United Nations, what they presented to the world was not so. You can only assume that they had to know if they said that they knew where the weapons were, that they knew they didn't know where they were.
And now to come back and tell us that Saddam Hussein is a cruel, despicable person, which we all agree, but we believed him when he told us he had them. Can you imagine me telling you that I believe somebody that you should never believe, and I brought 500 people to their deaths believing in a man that was as despicable as Hussein, and this is who we're going to have over the troops' lives in this country?
I think that this is absolutely outrageous. Why he lied? I think we should give him the rest of his retirement to figure that out and explain to us.
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
CRAIG GILBERT: Senator Kerry, President Bush a week ago on "Meet the Press" described himself as a war president. He said he's got war on his mind as he considers these policies and decisions he has to make. If you were elected, would you see yourself as a war president?
KERRY: I'd see myself first of all as a jobs president, as a health care president, as an education president and also an environmental president. And add them all together, you can't be safe at home today unless you are also safe abroad. So I would see myself as a very different kind of global leader than George Bush..
I think there is an enormous agenda for us in fighting an effective war on terror. And part of it is by building a stronger intelligence organization, law enforcement, but most importantly, the war on terror is not going to be completely won until we have the greatest level of cooperation we've ever had globally.
The worst thing this president does is his lack of cooperation with other countries.
So I will lead in a different way, and I will not just sit there and talk about the war. I'll talk about all of the issues and provide solutions for America.
GOUSHA: Congressman Kucinich?
KUCINICH: As president, I will see myself as a peace president. And I think we have to change this metaphor of war in our society. We have to quit talking about addressing problems "a war on this, a war on that." We already see this last war was not necessary.
I think we're in a new era in the world where we can see the world as one, the world as interconnected and interdependent. The world's waiting for a United States president who's ready to create a sustainable structure for peace, and as president, I will do that.
I'll work to eliminate all nuclear weapons and confirm the Non-Proliferation Treaty. I'll sign the Biological Weapons Convention, the Chemical Weapons Convention, the small-arms treaty, the land mine treaty.
America will join the International Criminal Court. I'll sign the Kyoto Climate Change Treaty.
And furthermore, in getting rid of the Patriot Act, I'll call upon Americans to bring forth the essential courage which we have in our hearts.
My presidency will be about the end of fear and the beginning of hope, about a new hope in America for a nation that can work with the nations of the world so that we can achieve security here at home.
(APPLAUSE)
BORGER: This is a question I'm going to pose to Governor Dean and then to Senator Edwards. How do you believe that history will ultimately judge the war in Iraq?
DEAN: I think we don't know the answer to that question yet. I think we -- the first question is, does the means justify the end, or the ends justify the means? And I think it does not.
I do not think we were told the truth about why we went to war in Iraq, and I think that's a huge problem.. ..We simply don't know how history will judge the war in Iraq, but we do know that we're going to pay with a lot of lives and a lot of American money to find out.
BORGER: Senator Edwards, too early to say?
EDWARDS: I think it's impossible to know. It depends entirely on what course of action we take. If I'm president and we do the things that need to be done to internationalize the effort, get on a real time table for the Iraqis governing themselves and providing their own security, there is at least the potential for a foothold for democracy -- I think at a minimum, the presence of a pluralistic government that will move us in that direction..
GOUSHA: Senator Edwards, thanks.
Let's hear from another student from Marquette University.
LESTER HOLT: ..I'll ask this of Senator Kerry. You say you oppose gay marriage. As you know, the highest court in the state of Massachusetts has ruled against civil unions, which you support. If it were to come before you today for a vote, the issue of a constitutional amendment defining marriage as that between a man and a woman, would you vote yes or would you vote no?
KERRY: Well, it depends on the terminology, because it depends on what it does with respect to civil unions and partnership rights.
..And the question is whether or not that can be put in the Constitution. We will see what will happen. But my personal opinion has been -- is today that marriage is between a man and a woman. I'm for civil union. I'm for partnership rights and the full measure of nondiscrimination within those rights.
HOLT: So on a constitutional amendment defining marriage between a man and a woman, your vote would be?
KERRY: Well, it depends. Not a federal one. You're talking about federal or state? I mean, there's a difference between the two.
I believe the states have a right to make up their own mind, and it ought to be left up to each state individually, period.
GOUSHA: Craig Gilbert?
GILBERT: This is for Senator Edwards.
Senator Kerry, Governor Dean, and President Bush all grew up in pretty well-to-do families, went to prep school and Yale. You've put your working-class background at the center of your campaign. Are you saying that it's harder for them to understand the problems, the concerns of ordinary people than it is for you?
EDWARDS: No, what I am saying is if you have lived this, as I have --we talked earlier in this debate about the loss of jobs. See, I have seen up close what happens to a family, to a man or a woman who worked in a mill all their lives, 30, 35 years, supporting their family, doing what was right, when they lose their job.. ..So do I think it's relevant? Absolutely, I think it's relevant. I think it has to do with your own personal experience, what you've seen, what you'll get up every morning fighting for as president of the United States.
I think Howard Dean and John Kerry have good hearts. They want to do the right thing. They believe in many of the same things that I believe in. But I think it matters to have lived it, and I have lived it.
GOUSHA: Quickly, Reverend Sharpton.
SHARPTON: I think that people that have lived it can understand it. But I think bad people come from all economic backgrounds and all races, and good people are good people. I think that people can have a prep school background and be very compassionate. I think people can be poor and be very cold-hearted.
GOUSHA: ..The final question tonight -- a lot of people feel this and a lot of people talk about this -- that America is polarized today, that we are deeply divided as a nation. I'm wondering what role, if any, do you think that this nominating process has played in making us a divided nation?
KUCINICH: I think the nominating process can be a vehicle by which we can heal this country. And as president, I intend to address all the polarities in America, whether it's race, color, creed, sexual orientation, and show how the real strength in America is in its unity.
I mean, the first motto of this country, "e pluribus unum"-- out of many, one -- suggests the real power of America is when we unite.
And so, America needs a president who is ready to help unite along racial lines, recognizing what happened -- the injustices done to African-Americans hundreds of years ago, recognizing the injustices done to Native Americans, recognizing what we must do to lift up this country economically and socially, recognizing the very divide that's occurring today along sexual orientation.
I mean, why shouldn't people who happen to be gay, or lesbian, or bisexual, or transgendered have the same rights as all other Americans? I mean, for God's sake, this is America. Let's be America.
And as president, I'm going to remind the people of this country what America is about..
GOUSHA: Thanks to the candidates, the panelists and Marquette University.
The primary is Tuesday.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For the complete transcript, see:
www.wisconsindebate.com/transcript.asp
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
DelegatePeace * BushLies * IceAge * PakiNukes
07 February 2004
"My campaign is about the end of fear
and the beginning of hope.
When the lives of men and women who bravely serve this nation
are at risk in Iraq, our civil liberties are in peril
and the entire U.S. domestic agenda is being sacrificed,
we must have the courage
to see through the lies that sent us into Iraq.
We must reclaim our nation."
Dennis J. Kucinich
1) Caucuses a referendum on the war by Dennis Kucinich
2) Bush Panel to investigate WMD intelligence of far right
- - Demand Congress to Appoint a Truly Independent Commission
- - 8 Questions for Russert -- for George W. Bush
- - Scott Ritter: Not Everyone Got it Wrong on Iraq's Weapons
3) How Global Warming May Cause the Next Ice Age
4) Doubts over 'Confession' by Pakistani Nuclear Expert
Deep in the mid winter blues, a strange sight envelopes the mind
where one cannot see, silence strips the avenue,
and twilight settles in while kucinich stirs an imagination
and people prepare to not see, or shout from the mountaintops,
heralding spring where possibilities are inevitable
and ceaseless flinches of uncompromising behavior
has eroded the ineptitude to trust only the savage beast
where fears depart and challenges are welcome.
Editor's Notes:
Item 1 is crucial to understand to learn about strategic voting and uniting with a plan to get the US out of Iraq. Dennis Kucinich is gaining some momentum. In New Mexico he received about 6% of the vote. Former United States Marine and United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter, a leading critic of the Iraq war, (see article in item 2), announced his endorsement of Kucinich at a news conference on January 30 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The second item is on the Bush appointed panel to study the manipulation of lies and so-called intelligence about Iraq's nonexisting stockpiles of WMDs. This item includes numerous resources, and please note the reference on this Sunday's Meet the Press program with George W. Item 3 could explain the unusually cold winter in many parts of our world, and its relationship with Global Warming. And item 4 is on the foolishness of a potentially darker winter where humans are self-destructing from a contortion of lies, dominance, fear and ignorance.
On a positive note, keep checking the schedule for Dennis Kucinich.
He is appearing all over our nation, raising awareness of proposed policies for peace, integrity, prosperity, health, and truth. It is time for a change, and your vote can make a difference.
Vortex Network News
Jonathan Mark, editor of Flyby News, will be the guest on Aurora Ellegion's new radio program, which is aired out of Phoenix, AZ from 10:00pm-1:00am, this Monday, February 9th. 10pm is midnight on the east coast and 9pm PST. The show can be listened to anywhere over the Internet at 1100KFNX.com
You are invited to call in to the show toll-free 866-536-1100.
1) Caucuses a referendum on the war by Dennis Kucinich
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Caucuses a referendum on the war
Thursday, February 5, 2004
By DENNIS KUCINICH
DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
My campaign is about the end of fear and the beginning of hope. When the lives of men and women who bravely serve this nation are at risk in Iraq, our civil liberties are in peril and the entire U.S. domestic agenda is being sacrificed, we must have the courage to see through the lies that sent us into Iraq. We must reclaim our nation.
The Washington caucuses are a referendum on the Iraq war. Every other Democratic presidential candidate, except the Rev. Al Sharpton, would keep our troops in Iraq for years. I will bring our troops home quickly. I have a plan to work with the United Nations to replace U.S. troops with U.N. peacekeepers.
The United States must ask the United Nations to manage the oil assets of Iraq until the Iraqi people are self-governing. The United Nations must handle all contracts (no more Halliburton sweetheart deals). The United States must renounce any plans to privatize Iraq. The United States must ask the United Nations to handle the transition to Iraqi self-governance. The United States must agree to pay for what we blew up. The United States must pay reparations to the families of innocent Iraqi civilians killed and injured. The United States must contribute to the U.N. peacekeeping mission. The United Nations, through its member nations, will commit 130,000 peacekeepers to Iraq on a temporary basis until the Iraqi people can maintain their own security. U.N. troops will rotate into Iraq and all U.S. troops will come home. The United States will abandon policies of "pre-emption" and unilateralism and commit to strengthening the United Nations.
Five hundred American service men and women have already lost their lives in Iraq; $155 billion has already been spent. If we stay there for years, our troop casualties will go into the thousands. Tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis will die. More than a trillion dollars could be spent in Iraq, taking away money needed at home for health care, education and housing. Inevitably there will be a draft. The administration is already keeping our troops past their terms of service.
I am the only Democratic candidate with a plan to bring our troops home quickly. All the other candidates, except Sharpton, have unwittingly conceded this singularly important issue, saying "we're stuck there." Washington can make the end of the war in Iraq the defining issue. Your participation in the caucuses can say it's time to get the United Nations in and the United States out of Iraq.
I know that once the United States acts on my plan to get out of Iraq, we can focus the energy and resources of this country on taking care of things here. We will have the resources to provide quality education from pre-kindergarten through college. We can create universal single-payer health care. We can create a full-employment economy. But we must have a dramatic change in direction.
All the oil in Iraq is not worth another drop of blood. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Yet the administration is calling up more reserves. Existing troops are being retained against their will. Can a draft be far behind?
The men and women serving this country have a right to expect we will spare no effort in bringing them home quickly. We should not wait for more U.S. helicopters to be shot out of the sky. We should not wait for increasing mortar attacks to exact their toll on our brave troops.
Washington can save the day on Saturday by voting for my plan to bring our troops home by bringing U.N. peacekeepers into Iraq.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, a Democratic presidential candidate - kucinich.us
1998-2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Caucuses a referendum on the war
2) Bush Panel to investigate WMD intelligence of far right
- - Demand Congress to Appoint a Truly Independent Commission
- - 8 Questions for Russert -- for George W. Bush
- - Scott Ritter: Not Everyone Got it Wrong on Iraq's Weapons
Co-Chair of Bush Panel Part of Far Right Network
by Jim Lobe
Published on Friday, February 6, 2004 by Inter Press Service
WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush's choice to co-chair his commission to investigate intelligence failures prior to the Iraq War is a long-time, right wing political activist closely tied to the neo-conservative network that led the pro-war propaganda campaign.
Federal appeals court Judge Laurence Silberman, who will share the chairmanship with former Virginia Democratic Senator Charles Robb, also has some history in covert operations.
In 1980, when he served as part of former Republican president Ronald Reagan's senior campaign staff, he played a key role in setting up secret contacts between the Reagan-Bush campaign and the Islamic government in Tehran, in what became known as the ''October Surprise'' controversy..
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0206-10.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Let Congress Appoint a Truly Independent Commission
If the White House appoints the members of the panel to investigate intelligence failures we will never get answers to the right questions. Did members of the administration purposely exaggerate the case for war? Was intelligence cherry picked to make a case for war? We the people deserve to know what really went wrong. We don't need panel that will only point the figure at the CIA. The Administrations use of intelligence must also be probed. Demand a truly independent commission by writing letters to the editor or to your representative in government to tell the White House to allow a bipartisan congressional committee to appoint the panel.
Sample Letter
Dear Editor (or government representative),
I commend President Bush for recognizing the need for an independent commission to examine intelligence about Iraq, but believe it would be making a serious mistake if he were to establish this commission by executive order and personally appoint the members to head the commission.
The US chief weapons inspector David Kay stated last week that the Administration's prewar intelligence on Iraq was "all wrong." Other nonpartisan experts have reached similar conclusions about our intelligence and have also raised concerns about the accuracy of the Administration statements on this issue. Given these findings, a broad, thorough, nonpartisan review of both the intelligence community's assessments of the threats posed by Iraq and the Administration's use of this information is essential to restoring the trust of the American public and international community in the Administration and our intelligence system.
While I support the need for an independent commission, this commission should not be one whose members are appointed by and report to the White House. One of the major questions that needs to be addressed is whether senior Administration officials, including members of the Cabinet and senior White House officials, misled the Congress and the public about the nature of the threat from Iraq. President Bush's statements and those of Vice President Cheney need independent scrutiny. A commission appointed and controlled by the White House will not have the independence or credibility necessary to investigate these issues.
For these reasons, I urge you to call upon Congress to enact a truly independent commission to examine the collection, analysis, dissemination and use by policymakers of intelligence on Iraq. This commission should be given unrestricted access to all relevant information and its members should be appointed on a bipartisan basis by the congressional leadership.
Sincerely,
This letter was adapted from an alert by Voice4Change.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Additional resources for an independent truthful investigation:
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 8 Questions for Russert -- for George W. Bush
by David Corn
Tim Russert, the Grand Inquisitor of Sunday morning, is scheduled to have George W. Bush in the witness chair for a full hour on the next Meet the Press. He's a lucky man--Russert, that is. This will be high drama, as the nation's politerati--and millions of others--watch to see if Russert gives Bush the hot-seat treatment.
There is, of course, much to ask Bush about. Did he decide to use military force against Iraq before 9/11? Where are the WMDs he insisted were there? Why is he using phony budget numbers? Did he engage in less-than-proper business dealings before he entered politics? Why he has misled the public while promoting his policies on stem cells research, global warming, and missile defense? Why has he opposed certain homeland security measures and not adequately funded others? It's a long list, and I'm sure Russert is busy preparing his own queries. But in an unsolicited act of kindness, I have crafted eight questions for Russert--several on matters in the news, a few on issues that have received less attention. And, Tim, since you always like to display your source material when you ask the tough questions, feel free to call me, and I'll send you the citations or the clips. Unlike many of Bush's WMD assertions, these questions are based on real evidence.
For the complete article, see:
8 Questions for Russert -- for George W. Bush
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For information on a new book by David Corn
THE LIES OF GEORGE W. BUSH:
MASTERING THE POLITICS OF DECEPTION
See: BushLies.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Bush Watch for Bush Lies
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Scott Ritter: Not Everyone Got it Wrong on Iraq's Weapons
3) How Global Warming May Cause the Next Ice Age
Published on Friday, January 30, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
How Global Warming May Cause the Next Ice Age...
by Thom Hartmann
While global warming is being officially ignored by the political arm of the Bush administration, and Al Gore's recent conference on the topic during one of the coldest days of recent years provided joke fodder for conservative talk show hosts, the citizens of Europe and the Pentagon are taking a new look at the greatest danger such climate change could produce for the northern hemisphere - a sudden shift into a new ice age. What they're finding is not at all comforting.
In quick summary, if enough cold, fresh water coming from the melting polar ice caps and the melting glaciers of Greenland flows into the northern Atlantic, it will shut down the Gulf Stream, which keeps Europe and northeastern North America warm. The worst-case scenario would be a full-blown return of the last ice age - in a period as short as 2 to 3 years from its onset - and the mid-case scenario would be a period like the "little ice age" of a few centuries ago that disrupted worldwide weather patterns leading to extremely harsh winters, droughts, worldwide desertification, crop failures, and wars around the world.
Here's how it works.
If you look at a globe, you'll see that the latitude of much of Europe and Scandinavia is the same as that of Alaska and permafrost-locked parts of northern Canada and central Siberia. Yet Europe has a climate more similar to that of the United States than northern Canada or Siberia. Why?
It turns out that our warmth is the result of ocean currents that bring warm surface water up from the equator into northern regions that would otherwise be so cold that even in summer they'd be covered with ice. The current of greatest concern is often referred to as "The Great Conveyor Belt," which includes what we call the Gulf Stream.
The Great Conveyor Belt, while shaped by the Coriolis effect of the Earth's rotation, is mostly driven by the greater force created by differences in water temperatures and salinity. The North Atlantic Ocean is saltier and colder than the Pacific, the result of it being so much smaller and locked into place by the Northern and Southern American Hemispheres on the west and Europe and Africa on the east.
As a result, the warm water of the Great Conveyor Belt evaporates out of the North Atlantic leaving behind saltier waters, and the cold continental winds off the northern parts of North America cool the waters. Salty, cool waters settle to the bottom of the sea, most at a point a few hundred kilometers south of the southern tip of Greenland, producing a whirlpool of falling water that's 5 to 10 miles across. While the whirlpool rarely breaks the surface, during certain times of year it does produce an indentation and current in the ocean that can tilt ships and be seen from space (and may be what we see on the maps of ancient mariners). This falling column of cold, salt-laden water pours itself to the bottom of the Atlantic, where it forms an undersea river forty times larger than all the rivers on land combined, flowing south down to and around the southern tip of Africa, where it finally reaches the Pacific. Amazingly, the water is so deep and so dense (because of its cold and salinity) that it often doesn't surface in the Pacific for as much as a thousand years after it first sank in the North Atlantic off the coast of Greenland.
The out-flowing undersea river of cold, salty water makes the level of the Atlantic slightly lower than that of the Pacific, drawing in a strong surface current of warm, fresher water from the Pacific to replace the outflow of the undersea river. This warmer, fresher water slides up through the South Atlantic, loops around North America where it's known as the Gulf Stream, and ends up off the coast of Europe. By the time it arrives near Greenland, it's cooled off and evaporated enough water to become cold and salty and sink to the ocean floor, providing a continuous feed for that deep-sea river flowing to the Pacific.
These two flows - warm, fresher water in from the Pacific, which then grows salty and cools and sinks to form an exiting deep sea river - are known as the Great Conveyor Belt.
Amazingly, the Great Conveyor Belt is only thing between comfortable summers and a permanent ice age for Europe and the eastern coast of North America.
Much of this science was unknown as recently as twenty years ago. Then an international group of scientists went to Greenland and used newly developed drilling and sensing equipment to drill into some of the world's most ancient accessible glaciers. Their instruments were so sensitive that when they analyzed the ice core samples they brought up, they were able to look at individual years of snow. The results were shocking.
Prior to the last decades, it was thought that the periods between glaciation and warmer times in North America, Europe, and North Asia were gradual. We knew from the fossil record that the Great Ice Age period began a few million years ago, and during those years there were times where for hundreds or thousands of years North America, Europe, and Siberia were covered with thick sheets of ice year-round. In between these icy times, there were periods when the glaciers thawed, bare land was exposed, forests grew, and land animals (including early humans) moved into these northern regions.
Most scientists figured the transition time from icy to warm was gradual, lasting dozens to hundreds of years, and nobody was sure exactly what had caused it. (Variations in solar radiation were suspected, as were volcanic activity, along with early theories about the Great Conveyor Belt, which, until recently, was a poorly understood phenomenon.)
Looking at the ice cores, however, scientists were shocked to discover that the transitions from ice age-like weather to contemporary-type weather usually took only two or three years. Something was flipping the weather of the planet back and forth with a rapidity that was startling.
It turns out that the ice age versus temperate weather patterns weren't part of a smooth and linear process, like a dimmer slider for an overhead light bulb. They are part of a delicately balanced teeter-totter, which can exist in one state or the other, but transits through the middle stage almost overnight. They more resemble a light switch, which is off as you gradually and slowly lift it, until it hits a mid-point threshold or "breakover point" where suddenly the state is flipped from off to on and the light comes on..
..If the Great Conveyor Belt, which includes the Gulf Stream, were to stop flowing today, the result would be sudden and dramatic. Winter would set in for the eastern half of North America and all of Europe and Siberia, and never go away. Within three years, those regions would become uninhabitable and nearly two billion humans would starve, freeze to death, or have to relocate. Civilization as we know it probably couldn't withstand the impact of such a crushing blow.
And, incredibly, the Great Conveyor Belt has hesitated a few times in the past decade. As William H. Calvin points out in one of the best books available on this topic ("A Brain For All Seasons: human evolution & abrupt climate change"): ".the abrupt cooling in the last warm period shows that a flip can occur in situations much like the present one. What could possibly halt the salt-conveyor belt that brings tropical heat so much farther north and limits the formation of ice sheets? Oceanographers are busy studying present-day failures of annual flushing, which give some perspective on the catastrophic failures of the past. "In the Labrador Sea, flushing failed during the 1970s, was strong again by 1990, and is now declining. In the Greenland Sea over the 1980s salt sinking declined by 80 percent. Obviously, local failures can occur without catastrophe - it's a question of how often and how widespread the failures are - but the present state of decline is not very reassuring."
Most scientists involved in research on this topic agree that the culprit is global warming, melting the icebergs on Greenland and the Arctic icepack and thus flushing cold, fresh water down into the Greenland Sea from the north. When a critical threshold is reached, the climate will suddenly switch to an ice age that could last minimally 700 or so years, and maximally over 100,000 years.
And when might that threshold be reached? Nobody knows - the action of the Great Conveyor Belt in defining ice ages was discovered only in the last decade. Preliminary computer models and scientists willing to speculate suggest the switch could flip as early as next year, or it may be generations from now. It may be wobbling right now, producing the extremes of weather we've seen in the past few years.
What's almost certain is that if nothing is done about global warming, it will happen sooner rather than later.
This article was adapted from the new, updated edition of
"The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" by Thom Hartmann
due out from Random House/Three Rivers Press in March.
Copyright 2004 by Thom Hartmann
The complete article is posted at following url link:
commondreams.org/views04/0130-11.htm
4) Doubts over 'Confession' by Pakistani Nuclear Expert
Published on Friday, February 6, 2004 by the Christian Science Monitor
[Excerpts]
Doubts over 'Confession' by Pakistani Nuclear Expert
by Owais Tohid
KARACHI, PAKISTAN For millions of Pakistanis it was shocking to see the country's top nuclear scientist on national television Wednesday apologizing for selling nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran, and North Korea, and exonerating their country's political and military leadership. Thursday, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf granted Abdul Qadeer Khan clemency for his "unauthorized proliferation."
The prevailing view is that the US is willing to accept Khan's explanation, plus the dismantling of his global nuclear merchandising network, because it's preparing to launch an offensive against Al Qaeda and Taliban elements along the Afghan border, say US and Pakistan officials, in hopes of capturing Osama bin Laden. If Musharraf's government were to be connected to Khan's nuclear deals, the US might be forced under existing nonproliferation law to impose sanctions on Pakistan at a moment when it most needs the South Asian nation's help..
Musharraf said that Pakistan will not allow the UN to inspect its nuclear program. "We will cooperate with UN atomic agency, the IAEA, but will not hand over any documents," he said, "If the IAEA wanted to come to Pakistan and discuss the results of Pakistan's investigation, by all means, we are open." But he added, "This is a sovereign country.... This country will never roll back its nuclear assets and its missile program. This can never be done. This is my promise..
The complete article is posted at the following URL link:
Doubts over 'Confession' by Pakistani Nuclear Expert
Flyby News Support
If you care to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc. you can send donations to:
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Breaking the Silence * Sabotage * SoulMan
05 February 2004
"Only a free and unrestrained press
can effectively expose deception in government.
And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press
is the duty to prevent any part of the government
from deceiving the people."
Hugo L. Black
1) Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror
- - Intelligence chief's bombshell
- - British officers knew on eve of war that Iraq had no WMDs :
- - Bush Sabotages WMD Commission Before It Starts
2) Soul Man by Corinne McLaughlin
- - Dennis Kucinich Update on the Campaign Trail
3) Leonard Peltier Nominated for 2004 Nobel Peace Prize
- - Unfinished business in Indian country
4) Defense of Oil Exploitation by the Sarayaku State of Emergency
- - Dennis Kucinich Pledges Protection of Western Shoshone Lands
Editor's Notes:
Barely recovering from Flyby's last issue? Well, ready or not, here's another packed issue with critical news and resources. Election 2004 is quickly descending and the ABB theory of many Democrats (ABB = Anything But Bush), is the same old same old compromising politics and control from the corporate elite, which has given us GWB, Star Wars, communication monopolies, death and destruction. The old manipulation of worse and worse is continuing unless we make an impact. Besides the campaign of Dennis Kucinich, who is trying to give power back to the people, another resource is a powerful film by John Pilger and his team of investigative reporters and news producers. They are way ahead of the curve of destruction, and we need an audience to see the facts as they lay down in cold unethical brutality. Norman Solomon, Executive Director, Institute for Public Accuracy described John Pilger's film, "Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror" that "in 52 minutes, John Pilger succeeds brilliantly where the U.S. mass media have failed miserably -- to examine the "war on terror" with tough-minded humanism and uncompromising journalism. . . Breaking the Silence shatters some key myths that often prevent us from developing news media and political priorities to protect human life instead of destroying it." This issue begins with information on this film and updated reports on the lies of terror from the highest office of the US government.
Item 2 is a special article by my old friend, Corinne McLaughlin, which gives us an alternative look into the soul and experience of Dennis Kucinich. Following that is an update from Dennis himself on the campaign trail.
For items 3 and 4 see: Peltier Peace Prize * Sarayaku Emergency
1) Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror
- - Intelligence chief's bombshell
- - British officers knew on eve of war that Iraq had no WMDs :
- - Bush Sabotages WMD Commission Before It Starts
Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror
A Special Report by John Pilger
John Pilger dissects the truth and lies in the 'war on terror'.
52 minutes
Color / Stereo VHS
Grade Level10-12, College, Adult
US Release Date2003
Directed by Steve Connelly and John Pilger
Produced by Christopher Martin
Executive Producer: Richard Clemmow
Written and Presented by John Pilger
Award-winning journalist John Pilger investigates the discrepancies between American and British claims for the 'war on terror' and the facts on the ground as he finds them in Afghanistan and Washington, DC.
In 2001, as the bombs began to drop, George W. Bush promised Afghanistan "the generosity of America and its allies". Now, the familiar old warlords are regaining power, religious fundamentalism is renewing its grip and military skirmishes continue routinely. In "liberated" Afghanistan, America has its military base and pipeline access, while the people have the warlords who are, says one woman, "in many ways worse than the Taliban".
In Washington, Pilger conducts a series of remarkable interviews with William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, and leading Administration officials such as Douglas Feith, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and John Bolton, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. These people, and the other architects of the Project for the New American Century, were dismissed as 'the crazies' by the first Bush Administration in the early 90s when they first presented their ideas for pre-emptive strikes and world domination.
Pilger also interviews presidential candidate General Wesley Clark, and former intelligence officers, all the while raising searching questions about the real motives for the 'war on terror'.
While President Bush refers to the US attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq as two 'great victories', Pilger asks the question - victories over whom, and for what purpose? Pilger describes Afghanistan as a country "more devastated than anything I have seen since Pol Pot's Cambodia". He finds that Al-Qaida has not been defeated and that the Taliban is re-emerging. And of the "victory" in Iraq, he asks"Is this Bush's Vietnam?"
Reviews
"In 52 minutes, John Pilger succeeds brilliantly where the U.S. mass media have failed miserably -- to examine the "war on terror" with tough-minded humanism and uncompromising journalism. The result of Pilger's efforts is a powerful expose that demolishes the pretensions of George W. Bush and Tony Blair. In 2004, we need Pilger's documentary "Breaking the Silence" more than ever. From Afghanistan and Iraq to New York City and the insulated bastions of power in Washington, this film jolts us to consider the real human costs of flagrant lies still being told in high places. Whether you live in the United States, Britain or anywhere else on the planet, Breaking the Silence shatters some key myths that often prevent us from developing news media and political priorities to protect human life instead of destroying it."
Norman Solomon, Executive Director, Institute for Public Accuracy
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more information, see:
http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/break.html
or contact:
Bullfrog Films
P.O. Box 149
Oley, PA 19547
Tel. 610/779-8226
Fax.610/370-1978
Email: info@bullfrogfilms.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Click for a review by Mark Turner "Breaking The Silence:
Truth and Lies in the War on Terror -- A Special Report by John Pilger"
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Flyby News will be presenting "Breaking the Silence:
Truth and Lies in the War on Terror
A Special Report by John Pilger" with discussions
and Dennis Kucinich's 18-minute powerhouse freedom speech
"A Prayer for America"
at the Bangs Community Center, Amherst, MA
Thursday, February 26, 2004 @ 7:00 pm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The following is a recent update news digest from Information Clearinghouse
- - Intelligence chief's bombshell
'We were overruled on dossier': The intelligence official whose revelations stunned the Hutton inquiry has suggested that not a single defence intelligence expert backed Tony Blair's most contentious claims on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=487557
===
- - British officers knew on eve of war that Iraq had no WMDs :
UK intelligence learned just before war that Iraq had not assembled chemical weapons. Mossad "knew 45-minute claim was an old wives' tale" - but did not tell UK or US. US Secretary of State "does not know" if he would have recommended invasion if he had been told Iraq had no WMDs
http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=136082004
===
Brian Jones: 'There was a lack of substantive evidence...:
We were told there was intelligence we could not see'
http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=487515
===
How did we get it so wrong? :
Yes, the spies got it wrong, admits former CIA analyst Kenneth Pollack, but the politicians also moulded the evidence to fit the case for war
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1140548,00.html
===
To sign up for Information Clearinghouse's email digest, visit:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/emaildigest.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
THE DAILY MIS-LEAD
- - Bush Sabotages WMD Commission Before It Starts
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1835241&l=16923
2) Soul Man by Corinne McLaughlin
- - Dennis Kucinich Update on the Campaign Trail
Soul Man
By Corinne McLaughlin
Published in the Evergreen Monthly
formerly The New Times
I first met Congressman Dennis Kucinich four years ago when I was looking for a Democrat in Congress who was willing to speak about spirituality at our conference, "Re-Igniting the Spirit of America." His courage, vision and integrity inspired me.
Kucinich told me he loved the book I co-authored," Spiritual Politics: Changing the World from the Inside Out." After living in Washington, D.C. for 12 years, and working for the Clinton Administration, I found it quite refreshing a politician would appreciate this approach. He asked me to be his press secretary, and though I couldn't at the time, I later helped him write and promote a bill proposing a federal Department of Peace.
When Kucinich introduced his Peace bill, several of his speeches (with titles like "Prayer for America" and "Spirit and Stardust") spread around the Internet like wildfire. Thousands of Americans woke up and felt a new sense that a politician with a solid progressive recordand most significantlya new consciousness was finally running for President. Winner of the Gandhi Peace Award, Kucinich fearlessly voted against sending troops to Iraq when it wasn't popular to do so, and he introduced legislation to repeal the Homeland Security Act, ban weapons in space, ban genetic engineering, protect the environment and prevent the manipulation of voting machines.
Kucinich has spiritual depth, which is remarkable in politics today, and he talks openly about spirituality (rare for a Democrat.) His presidential campaign is unusual, in that it reflects the thinking of many internationally respected authors who have sold millions of books on spiritual themes. Among his supporters are Ram Dass, John Robbins, Jack Kornfield, Hazel Henderson, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Marianne Williamson, Sam Keen, Riane Eisler and Vicki Robin.
This past fall, I organized two advisory circle meetings for Kucinich with more than a dozen best-selling authors. The Democratic presidential candidate either attended or phoned from the campaign trail. Here are highlight excerpts from those rich, provocative sessions:
Dennis Kucinich: When I walked into this room and sat down, I immediately felt a unified field. The only other time I experienced something with this power was in a meeting with a group that came into my office in Washington. I felt a tangible, physical field that's created by you all here. In a sense we didn't even need to have this discussion! I walked in and within two seconds I'm thinking, "I got it"
I'm very grateful for your help and your guidance and for the truth you've communicated, as it makes it possible for the themes of this campaign to have the kind of depth that it does. My work in many ways is an extension of the work of so many of you.
Corinne McLaughlin: What surprised you most in running for President?
Kucinich: That there are 26 hours in a day.
Avon Mattison (author, "We the Peoples' Initiative" and founder, Pathways to Peace): If you could start your campaign over again, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?
Kucinich: I'd buy a newspaper, and maybe a television network.
Paul Ray (Co-author, "The Cultural Creatives"): I have some research for you on the "new political compass." There is a new political constituency emerging which I call New Progressives, representing 45 percent of likely voters. The easiest way to describe them is that they are at right angles to the dimension of Liberal Left and Social Conservative Right and they are directly opposed to Big Business Conservatism. These New Progressives are at the intersection of all the movement constituencies, and the marginal cost of mobilizing them should be small. If they are mobilized under a single banner, as a big political tent, they could wind up replacing one of the political parties.
What we should be doing is building in networks that can persist over time because that's the way people power actually worksit's very dense networks.
Dennis Kucinich: One thing I can tell youas someone who, for several Congresses sat in at all the leadership meetingsthe leadership of the Democratic Party is totally poll driven. No principle, no direction, just the moment, so it's a very limited, egocentric, unthoughtful approach to governance and public policy
Some Democrats voted for the war because the polls told them it would be the thing to do. It's sick They use the polls to raise money. There are no viable policies because there are no core beliefs.
Carolyn Shaffer (co-author, "Creating Community Anywhere"): I want to help you with long-term, community building that can inform politics, through the movement I'm connected with. We create village councils and other formats that can be put into practice to get more media coverage.
Kucinich: But as the poet said 30 years ago, "The revolution will not be televised."
Duane Elgin ("Voluntary Simplicity", "The Promise Ahead") As a non-partisan media activist, I've seen that power in a democracy is the power to communicate, and we don't have the power to communicate our vision and values to the public at large. The vehicle of that communication is essentially broadcast television. It uses the public airwaves that we, the public, own.
No one running in the [Democratic] primaries is holding the media accountable in the court of public opinion. You could powerfully distinguish yourself if you say that the unspoken elephant in this room is the mass media and what they're not telling usabout climate change, species extinction, the roots of terrorism in poverty, etc.
Kucinich: The FCC Act of 1934 says the electronic media must be responsible to the people or it can't operate. Now the media monopolies have created a situation where there is less of a democratic discussion than ever before.
I experience this as a candidate because the themes I raise challenge the status quo. I don't get the coverage the other candidates do.
The other day I talked about the media role in taking us into Iraq, and about their accountability. But the problem is we can't put a face on the media, personify it. It's amorphous. So for that reason, it's more vulnerable, but it's also more difficult to pin it down. It's a paradox. Your point is well taken, about demanding accountability.
The media is responsible in large part for the situation in Iraq. If the media had done its homework, Bush wouldn't have had the confidence to proceed. The media helped to build the Cold War. The media was a spear-carrier for the government.
Eisenhower talked about the military-industrial complex, but now its military-industrial-media complex, and their airwaves become marketing tools for war.
Anodea Judith (author, "Wheels of Life"): From a systems perspective, a system has four basic parts: input, transformation, output and feedback. Feedback is responsible for the evolution of the system. And in our culture, the media is actually the feedback mechanism.
But the feedback we're getting is actually a distorted funhouse mirror. We're not getting accurate information, and it's preventing evolution. People make the right decisions if they get the right information. Fortunately, we have the Internet or we'd be in worse shape.
Kucinich: That's very perceptive. When you go into a funhouse, you see your distorted image. If you didn't know what you really look like, you'd look at that image and think it is you.
Randy Hayes (Co-author, "Alternatives to Economic Globalization"; Founder of Rainforest Action Network): If you look systematically at the social and ecological crisis in this country and world-wide, big business is shredding the fabric of nature itself, usurping public governance and replacing what we used to call the free press with mass media.
As a society we know the functionality of the separation of church and state, but what would be the functionality of the separation of business and state? Can we talk about that in a way that is pro-commerce and unifying and can win elections?
Kucinich: The way we do it is to talk about a question of scale. As business grows and becomes larger, it inevitably crushes the aspiration of smaller businesses.
Laissez-faire capitalism is not analogous to a democratic society, as a democratic society has checks and balances. A laissez-faire economy says pursue economic freedom at any price. In a democracy there's a certain regulation of freedom.
The challenge that we face is the importance of protecting small business, of looking at issues of concentration of wealth that makes it much more difficult to uphold the principle of democracy. I think we have to create connections between democracy and commerce on a smaller scale that is more sustainable and creates more jobs.
Gordon Davidson (co-author, "Spiritual Politics"; co-founder, The Center for Visionary Leadership): The problem of takeover of government by big business is now deeply rooted in the legal system by giving corporations all the rights and few of the responsibilities of individuals. This is a fundamental distortion of our democracy, as originally all the rights resided only in the individual.
And because corporations are immortal and can amass immense wealth, their power quickly surpasses any individual or group of individuals. There are movements now to require regular renewal of corporate charters by studying their corporate performance to see if they satisfy social goals. If not, they should not have their charter renewed.
Kucinich: I favor that. We have to insist that the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission do their job.
Joe Kresse (Foundation for Global Community): We need to move from managers' capitalism to owners' capitalism. People who own corporate America have abdicated their responsibility, their boards have abdicated their responsibility. Even as Adam Smith said, watch out, if corporations are left to their own devices, people will rob, break and steal.
Kucinich: That's very useful. I have talked about this, but I'd like to explore this more as a theme in this campaign. It's also a way to connect with the constituency of people who've been cheated out of their investments.
Shakti Gawain (author, "Creative Visualization," "The Path of Transformation"): What's happening in the world is a reflection of what's going on individually within each of us. One way to do the healing externally is to do the healing internally, within us.
Kucinich: I read "Creative Visualization" 30 years ago, it was great. In the visualization you lead last night [during an advisory circle meeting], I saw a horse race, and at the last minute, I saw a horse break through across the finish line. I saw it clearly!
Sam Keen (author, "Faces of the Enemy," "Fire in the Belly"): You're the only Democratic candidate for President who seems to understand the radical changes we need to make to preserve the environment and move us away from a militarized future that will cost all of us
our social and political security.
Kucinich: We're at a point in the campaign, without mass media coverage of any kind, where we've grown the campaign to a 50-state campaign, we've built an organization around the country. We're at a critical point where we have to keep sustaining it.
If you have networks that you can tap, put in a favorable word about what we're doing. Let people know, to go to our website and make a contribution. It's critical to sustain the organization.
People need to be aware this is a real campaign, it's not just a message trip that I'm on. I believe this election and this campaign is wide open and gives us a shot at structural change. I chose a life in public life and I've been doing this my whole life. This is about whether we have the confidence in the authenticity of our own dreams and our own worldviewor whether we'll settle for half measures and wishful thinking.
For more information or to order Kucinich's new book, "A Prayer for America," contact the Kucinich Campaign toll-free at 866-413-3664 or visit http://www. kucinich .us.
Corinne McLaughlin can be reached at corinnemc@visonarylead .org.
For original posting of this article, see:
http://www.newtimes.org/issue/0402/kucinich.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Dennis Kucinich Update on the Campaign Trail
Here is Dennis' latest report from the campaign trail in both audio and text.
This report is also available at http://kucinich.us/dennis-campaigntrail-2.php
Audio Postcard:
Turn up your speakers, and click on this link, or paste this link into your web browser:
http://members.audiogenerator.com/postcards/?2392367
Transcript of Audio Postcard:
Evening of 2/3/04
Hi Everyone, this is Dennis.
Well, we finally popped our nose above the sidewalk today and came up with 2% in Arizona, 3% in North Dakota, and at last count (they're still counting) we're between 5 and 6% in New Mexico.
This clearly starts to show that our campaign has a heartbeat, and we're going to create some racing pulses across the country as we start to challenge the front runners on their position on Iraq, on health care, and on trade.
Your participation is urgent now. We need your help on the phones and in any other way possible for the contests ahead in Washington state, in Maine, and in Michigan. We need to you to help with the phones, we need some of you close by to help with canvassing, and to continue our efforts with fundraising.
With all the attention on the horse race, no one has paid any attention as to what's in the saddlebags of the front runners. And as we begin to focus attention on this war in Iraq, we're going to make it very clear that this campaign stands as the real alternative to President Bush, the only alternative which will bring our troops home. And so your participation is going to help change the debate in this election, on Iraq, and move this party in a direction to bring our troops home.
As we move towards the Super Tuesday, your participation is going to be essential because we're not just going to change the debate, but we're going to start moving up to causing Democrats everywhere to understand that the only way to be successful in defeating President Bush is to challenge him on the very issue that he expects to win the election on, and that's on Iraq. So I'm fully prepared to do that, but I need your help in making that happen.
With respect to health care, over and over again I've stood in those presidential forums and pointed out that we present the only alternative with a not-for-profit, universal, single-payer system. As I go around the country more and more people are desperate on health care issues. And here again, we're going to start to score not just points but more support from across the country.
On the issue of trade, with your help we've made the issue of trade one of the major issues in this campaign. But we still have more to do. Because if we cause others to focus on trade they see that we're the only ones talking about saving American jobs, and on challenging this corporate trade structure which is going for cheap labor and then bringing those goods back into this country and wiping out American manufacturing industry while lowering the standards of American families all over this country.
So there it is, Iraq, trade, and health care. That's the ticket, not just to the nomination but to a new America.
So help us organize, help us get ready for the upcoming primaries and caucuses, and let's get ready for the next step. We're finally starting to show that we've got some ability to gather votes, and we'll be showing it more and more with your help.
So thank you, let's keep things organized, let's keep it together, and let's keep it on.
Thanks everyone, bye now.
Dennis Kucinich
To get involved or for information on Dennis Kucinich
for US President 2004, see: http://www.kucinich.us
"Justice is not a flexible tool.
Unless we all do our part to ensure that justice is applied equally
to all human beings, we are a party to its abuse.
We must stand together to protect the rights of others."
Leonard Peltier
For part 2 see Peltier Peace Prize * Sarayaku Emergency
Flyby News Support
If you care to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc. you can send donations to:
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Peltier Peace Prize * Sarayaku Emergency
05 February 2004
"Justice is not a flexible tool.
Unless we all do our part to ensure that justice is applied equally
to all human beings, we are a party to its abuse.
We must stand together to protect the rights of others."
Leonard Peltier
3) Leonard Peltier Nominated for 2004 Nobel Peace Prize
- - Unfinished business in Indian country
4) Defense of Oil Exploitation by the Sarayaku State of Emergency
- - Dennis Kucinich Pledges Protection of Western Shoshone Lands
Editor's Notes:
Item 3 is big news: Leonard Peltier was nominated for 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, but also important is the international support revealed in the following BBC report called: "Unfinished business in Indian country." Will anybody but Bush give Peltier executive clemency? Will anybody but Bush give American democracy Instant Run-off Voting in support of more than two-in-one party system without the spoiler dilemma? Now is the time to make demands on all the candidates. Dean and Kucinich are the only two so far that have endorsed IRV's. Is Edwards on board? And what about support for a fair review for Presidential Executive Clemency to FREE LEONARD PELTIER?
Item 4 is on the current struggle of the Sarayaku, an indigenous people fighting in defense of their lands and communities against oil exploitation in the rainforests and pristine lands of Ecuador. This report and linked web site shows resistance to what Mike Ruppert describes as "peak oil" interests of the corporate power-hungry madmen. Our ecosystem is being ruined, and heroic tales speak of integrity and human resistance to total destruction. This is the good news. Also, too, is Dennis Kucinich's efforts to help protect the Western Shoshone lands from Yucca Mountain nuclear storage and destruction. Anything But Bush will not stop the course of destruction to life, but your efforts can challenge such a fate, or at least claim actions with an integrity in honor of our gift of life.
3) Leonard Peltier Nominated for 2004 Nobel Peace Prize
- - Unfinished business in Indian country
Last week we posted the call for support from Ward Dossche and Harvey Arden about nominating Leonard for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.
The deadline for the 2004 NPP nominations was February 1st. But even though there was little time left, Ward Dossche reports that three people - a university professor from Texas; another university professor from Belgium; and Bart Staes, member of the European Parliament and IPF signatory - sent in their nominations in time.
For more information, contact the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC),
LPDC, Inc.; P.O. Box 583 Lawrence, Kansas 66044-0583 USA
www.leonardpeltier.org
Phone: 785-842-5774
Fax: 785-842-5796
Email: info@leonardpeltier.org
[You can link from Flybynews.com for Leonard Peltier archived updates.]
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Unfinished business in Indian country
Monday, 2 February 2004
Unfinished business in Indian country
By CHRIS SUMMERS
BBC News
A revolutionary fighting oppression, killed with a bullet in the back of the head by her erstwhile comrades who suspected her of being an informant. Palestine ? Northern Ireland ? No, this was America's Midwest Anna Mae Aquash was an activist with the American Indian Movement (AIM), which was fighting for the rights of the indigenous people of the United States. This week one of her former AIM colleagues goes on trial in Rapid City, South Dakota charged with her murder. The trial of Arlo Looking Cloud, 49, is likely to reopen plenty of old wounds. A second man, John Boy Graham, who allegedly fired the fatal shot, is fighting extradition from Canada. The body of the 30-year-old Micmac Indian was found in a remote corner of the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota in February 1976. It is claimed she was killed because of rumours she was an FBI informant.
'Exploitation and persecution'
In the 1970s a new group was born which was determined to fight proactively for the rights of the Native American people who, it claimed, had been persecuted and exploited for so long by "white" America. AIM took on the mantle of legendary Indian leaders such as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. AIM grew rapidly and began to challenge the authority of the FBI, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the tame Indian tribal councils who, between them, had run things on the reservations for decades.
AIM wanted, among other things, to publicise the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty which ceded a vast swathe of South and North Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana to the Lakota (Sioux) people in perpetuity. The treaty was later torn up and Lakotas were given worthless scraps of land to live on. They were also evicted from the sacred Black Hills (Paha Sapa) in South Dakota, when the US Government realised they were a rich source of gold, coal, uranium and molybdenum.
Many Lakotas ended up on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota which, in the early 1970s, was run as a private fiefdom by a "half-breed" called Dick Wilson. Pine Ridge was the home of the Oglala - one of seven Lakota clans - who descended from Crazy Horse. In an attempt to highlight what they saw as the graft, nepotism and violence of Wilson's regime and to focus attention on the betrayal of the Fort Laramie Treaty, AIM activists occupied the town of Wounded Knee (scene of an infamous massacre of Indians in 1890) in 1973. For 71 days armed AIM supporters were besieged by FBI agents, BIA police and Wilson supporters. Eventually they surrendered after the US Government promised to investigate the corruption.
'Political prisoner'
Little was ever done and by the summer of 1975 violence against AIM activists on Pine Ridge was at record levels and the atmosphere was poisonous. On 26 June 1975 two FBI agents, Ron Williams and Jack Coler, were killed by AIM gunmen during a shootout near the town of Oglala. Two AIM men, Dino Butler and Bob Robideau, were acquitted but another, Leonard Peltier, was given two consecutive life sentences. He continues to protest his innocence from Leavenworth penitentiary in Kansas and is considered a political prisoner by AIM. He has also drawn support from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ann Robinson, the Dalai Lama and the Reverend Jesse Jackson.
'Like the Third world'
In September 1975 FBI agents investigating the murder of their colleagues at Oglala raided a property on the nearby Rosebud reservation. Anna Mae was one of several people picked up, although she was later bailed. She jumped bail and headed for California but only got as far as Denver. What happened to her after that remains uncertain. In the quarter of a century since the events on the Pine Ridge reservation life has changed little for the Oglala and the other 4.3 million fellow native Americans.
Frank King, publisher of the Native Voice newspaper, said: "Most reservations are run like Third World countries by tribal elders who act like dictators. Some of them don't even allow freedom of speech." Mr King, a Lakota who hails from the Rosebud reservation, said many Indians lived in a welfare culture and the Crow Creek reservation in South Dakota had the highest unemployment rate in the US. He said alcoholism and obesity were also endemic on most reservations and he blamed it on a "poverty of the mind". "Tribes have come to the point where they have created a business out of being poor and they are just looking for handouts," said Mr King. As for AIM, it has become fractured between different factions and Mr King said: "The main AIM is a federally-funded charity with a board of directors and they're always looking for money. It's just lost the spirit of the thing."
One of the founders of AIM, Russ Means, said the organisation was targeted by the FBI's Counter Intelligence Program, which was used to destroy groups like the Black Panthers and the Puerto Rican liberation movement. Speaking from his ranch on the Pine Ridge reservation he said: "The colonialism of the US Government has led to genocide. We now have the lowest life expectancy in the Western Hemisphere, despite sitting on some of the most valuable mineral-rich land in the world. The US Government has stolen $50bn of our money."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3406955.stm
4) Defense of Oil Exploitation by the Sarayaku State of Emergency
- - Dennis Kucinich Pledges Protection of Western Shoshone Lands
The Community of Sarayaku Declares State of Emergency
El Comercio
Sunday, January 25, 2004
Puyo
The community of Sarayaku (Pastaza)[in the Ecuadorian Amazon] has decided to declare a state of emergency to defend its territories against oil exploration. The decision was the result of a visit by President Lucio Gutierrez and Minister of Energy and Mines Carlos Arboleda to Pastaza on January 18. The two men ratified their decision to "respect the contract with the Compaa General de Combustibles (CGC), concessionary of Block 23", which implies seismic prospecting studies will be continued in order to determine if there is oil in the zone.
After Gutierrez's announcement, indigenous leaders returned to the community of Sarayaku to coordinate actions for the state of emergency that takes effect today.
Leader Mario Santi clarified that "2,000 inhabitants will mobilize along the boundary where CGC last carried out studies in February, 2003."
25 "Peace and Life Encampments", each with 150 inhabitants, will be established along the boundary to prevent the company from restarting the studies.
Each encampment will be organized to survive "until the government and CGC cease oil activities in this community," affirmed Santi.
While the majority of Sarayaku's inhabitants will be monitoring the community's territory, a group of women, children and elders will be responsible for organizing logistics in the community, preparing chicha (a traditional drink), manioc, and plantain, as well as tending to gardens.
Sarayaku will receive the support of other indigenous nations, such as the Achuar, Zapara, as well as indigenous groups from Arajuno, Santa Clara, and Villa Flora.
The emergency means that school classes, teacher training, a natural resource management project, and other events will all be suspended in Sarayaku.
The president of Sarayaku, Marlon Santi, denounced that militarization has already begun with the creation of a new encampment in Molino (a pro-oil community), and demanded the military's immediate withdrawal.
The company CGC is waiting for the government to provide guarantees for continuing oil exploration. "We are only requesting that the security of our workers be guaranteed," stated Ricardo Nicolas, the oil company's representative in Ecuador.
Other facts
The state of emergency will last as long as the government and CGC continue attempts to enter the territory of Sarayaku Association and its five communities.
For more information or to find out how you can help, go to:
http://www.sarayaku.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Dennis Kucinich Pledges Protection of Western Shoshone Lands
Statement from John Gallagher of the Leonard Peltier Support Group
It is my honor to inform you that Dennis Kucinich (in a conversation with him a few minutes ago) pledges his support for the protection of Western Shoshone lands, upholding the Ruby Valley Treaty, stopping the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste disposal facility, and ensuring that tribal sovereignty means the tribe will have complete control over natural resources and use of tribal lands.
For more information, please visit the official web site of the
Western Shoshone Defense Project -- http://www.wsdp.org
At this following url you can write to Dennis Kucinich to thank him for his support of the Western Shoshone, and to request his support for the executive clemency campaign to free Leonard Peltier, a 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Candidate.
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/letterslist/?id=468
Flyby News Support
If you care to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses
for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, etc. you can send donations to:
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading, forwarding, supporting independent news!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
ParanoidShift * BBC War * Reviving Draft/Suicide
30 January 2004 - Part 1
"By their fruits, you shall know them."
1) Paranoid shift
2) BBC At War by Greg Palast
3) Reviving the Draft
- - High Suicide Rate For Iraq War Gis
Editor's Notes
Item 1 sums up the war on terror and our current predicament better than any one article that I have read - "Paranoid Shift." Please consider downloading this article and spreading it around. The more awareness we can share, the greater the resistance to evil plans now underway. Item 2 is a scary second article on the media being controlled by Alice in Wonderland governments. And item 3 contains two stories that will hopefully motivate you to take actions against all odds for a peace campaign and candidate to resolve the current crises.
Please consider contacting MoveOn.org
for another vote for their/our endorsement
of a Peace Candidate for US President in 2004.
Ask them to support the winning candidate to overcome the media blockade for real change and peace in our world.
You can send MoveOn feedback @ this link
or send an email to info@moveonpac.org and cc to info@moveon.org
Thank you for any of your actions. Please, too, consider again in sending Flyby News your snail mail address to help us post flyers in your neighborhood. info@flybynews.com
1) Paranoid shift
OnlineJournal.com Commentary
Paranoid shift
By Michael Hasty
Online Journal Contributing Writer
January 10, 2004
[EXCERPT]
Just before his death, James Jesus Angleton, the legendary chief of counterintelligence at the Central Intelligence Agency, was a bitter man. He felt betrayed by the people he had worked for all his life. In the end, he had come to realize that they were never really interested in American ideals of "freedom" and "democracy." They really only wanted "absolute power."
Angleton told author Joseph Trento that the reason he had gotten the counterintelligence job in the first place was by agreeing not to submit "sixty of Allen Dulles' closest friends" to a polygraph test concerning their business deals with the Nazis. In his end-of-life despair, Angleton assumed that he would see all his old companions again "in hell."
The transformation of James Jesus Angleton from an enthusiastic, Ivy League cold warrior, to a bitter old man, is an extreme example of a phenomenon I call a "paranoid shift." I recognize the phenomenon, because something similar happened to me.
Although I don't remember ever meeting James Jesus Angleton, I worked at the CIA myself as a low-level clerk as a teenager in the '60s. This was at the same time I was beginning to question the government's actions in Vietnam. In fact, my personal "paranoid shift" probably began with the disillusionment I felt when I realized that the story of American foreign policy was, at the very least, more complicated and darker than I had hitherto been led to believe.
But for most of the next 30 years, even though I was a radical, I nevertheless held faith in the basic integrity of a system where power ultimately resided in the people, and whereby if enough people got together and voted, real and fundamental change could happen.
What constitutes my personal paranoid shift is that I no longer believe this to be necessarily true.
In his book, "Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower," William Blum warns of how the media will make anything that smacks of "conspiracy theory" an immediate "object of ridicule." This prevents the media from ever having to investigate the many strange interconnections among the ruling classfor example, the relationship between the boards of directors of media giants, and the energy, banking and defense industries. These unmentionable topics are usually treated with what Blum calls "the media's most effective toolsilence." But in case somebody's asking questions, all you have to do is say, "conspiracy theory," and any allegation instantly becomes too frivolous to merit serious attention.
On the other hand, since my paranoid shift, whenever I hear the words "conspiracy theory" (which seems more often, lately) it usually means someone is getting too close to the truth.
Take September 11which I identify as the date my paranoia actually shifted, though I didn't know it at the time.
..Years, even decades before 9/11, plans had been drawn up for American forces to take control of the oil interests of the Middle East, for various imperialist reasons. And these plans were only contingent upon "a catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbor," to gain the majority support of the American public to set the plans into motion. When the opportunity presented itself, the guards looked the other way . . . and presto, the path to global domination was open.
Simple, as long as the media played along. And there is voluminous evidence that the media play along. Number one on Project Censored's annual list of underreported stories in 2002 was the Project for a New American Century (now the infrastructure of the Bush Regime), whose report, published in 2000, contains the above "Pearl Harbor" quote.
Why is it so hard to believe serious people who have repeatedly warned us that powerful ruling elites are out to dominate "the masses?" Did we think Dwight Eisenhower was exaggerating when he warned of the extreme "danger" to democracy of "the military industrial complex?" Was Barry Goldwater just being a quaint old-fashioned John Bircher when he said that the Trilateral Commission was "David Rockefeller's latest scheme to take over the world, by taking over the government of the United States?" Were Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt or Joseph Kennedy just being class traitors when they talked about a small group of wealthy elites who operate as a hidden government behind the government? Especially after he died so mysteriously, why shouldn't we believe the late CIA Director William Colby, who bragged about how the CIA "owns everyone of any major significance in the major media?"
Why can't we believe James Jesus Angletona man staring eternal judgment in the facewhen he says that the founders of the Cold War national security state were only interested in "absolute power?" Especially when the descendant of a very good friend of Allen Dulles now holds power in the White House.
Prescott Bush, the late, aristocratic senator from Connecticut, and grandfather of George W Bush, was not only a good friend of Allen Dulles, CIA director, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, and international business lawyer. He was also a client of Dulles' law firm. As such, he was the beneficiary of Dulles' miraculous ability to scrub the story of Bush's treasonous investments in the Third Reich out of the news media, where it might have interfered with Bush's political career . . . not to mention the presidential careers of his son and grandson.
Recently declassified US government documents, unearthed last October by investigative journalist John Buchanan at the New Hampshire Gazette, reveal that Prescott Bush's involvement in financing and arming the Nazis was more extensive than previously known. Not only was Bush managing director of the Union Banking Corporation, the American branch of Hitler's chief financier's banking network; but among the other companies where Bush was a directorand which were seized by the American government in 1942, under the Trading With the Enemy Actwere a shipping line which imported German spies; an energy company that supplied the Luftwaffe with high-ethyl fuel; and a steel company that employed Jewish slave labor from the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Like all the other Bush scandals that have been swept under the rug in the privatized censorship of the corporate media, these revelations have been largely ignored, with the exception of a single article in the Associated Press. And there are those, even on the left, who question the current relevance of this information.
But Prescott Bush's dealings with the Nazis do more than illustrate a family pattern of genteel treason and war profiteeringfrom George Senior's sale of TOW missiles to Iran at the same time he was selling biological and chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein, to Junior's zany misadventures in crony capitalism in present-day Iraq.
More disturbing by far are the many eerie parallels between Adolph Hitler and George W. Bush:
A conservative, authoritarian style, with public appearances in military uniform (which no previous American president has ever done while in office). Government by secrecy, propaganda and deception. Open assaults on labor unions and workers' rights. Preemptive war and militant nationalism. Contempt for international law and treaties. Suspiciously convenient "terrorist" attacks, to justify a police state and the suspension of liberties. A carefully manufactured image of "The Leader," who's still just a "regular guy" and a "moderate." "Freedom" as the rationale for every action. Fantasy economic growth, based on unprecedented budget deficits and massive military spending.
And a cold, pragmatic ideology of fascismincluding the violent suppression of dissent and other human rights; the use of torture, assassination and concentration camps; and most important, Benito Mussolini's preferred definition of "fascism" as "corporatism, because it binds together the interests of corporations and the state."
By their fruits, you shall know them.
What perplexes me most is probably the same question that plagues most paranoiacs: why don't other people see these connections?
Oh, sure, there may be millions of us, lurking at websites like Online Journal, From the Wilderness, Center for Cooperative Research, and the Center for Research on Globalization, checking out right-wing conspiracists and the galaxy of 9/11 sites, and reading columnists like Chris Floyd at the Moscow Times, and Maureen Farrell at Buzzflash. But we know we are only a furtive minority, the human remnant among the pod people in the live-action, 21st-century version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."
And being paranoid, we have to figure out, with an answer that fits into our system, why more people don't see the connections we do. Fortunately, there are a number of possible explanations.
First on the list would have to be what Marshal McLuhan called the "cave art of the electronic age:" advertising. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Karl Rove, gave credit for most of his ideas on how to manipulate mass opinion to American commercial advertising, and to the then-new science of "public relations." But the public relations universe available to the corporate empire that rules the world today makes the Goebbels operation look primitive. The precision of communications technology and graphics; the century of research on human psychology and emotion; and the uniquely centralized control of triumphant post-Cold War monopoly capitalism, have combined to the point where "the manufacture of consent" can be set on automatic pilot.
A second major reason people won't make the paranoid shift is that they are too fundamentally decent. They can't believe that the elected leaders of our country, the people they've been taught through 12 years of public school to admire and trust, are capable of sending young American soldiers to their deaths and slaughtering tens of thousands of innocent civilians, just to satisfy their greedespecially when they're so rich in the first place. Besides, America is good, and the media are liberal and overly critical.
Third, people don't want to look like fools. Being a "conspiracy theorist" is like being a creationist. The educated opinion of eminent experts on every TV and radio network is that any discussion of "oil" being a motivation for the US invasion of Iraq is just out of bounds, and anyone who thinks otherwise is a "conspiracy theorist." We can trust the integrity of our 'no-bid" contracting in Iraq, and anyone who thinks otherwise is a "conspiracy theorist." Of course, people sometimes make mistakes, but our military and intelligence community did the best they could on and before September 11, and anybody who thinks otherwise is a "conspiracy theorist."
Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole assassin of JFK, and anyone who thinks otherwise is a "conspiracy theorist."
Perhaps the biggest hidden reason people don't make the paranoid shift is that knowledge brings responsibility. If we acknowledge that an inner circle of ruling elites controls the world's most powerful military and intelligence system; controls the international banking system; controls the most effective and far-reaching propaganda network in history; controls all three branches of government in the world's only superpower; and controls the technology that counts the people's votes, we might be then forced to conclude that we don't live in a particularly democratic system. And then voting and making contributions and trying to stay informed wouldn't be enough. Because then the duty of citizenship would go beyond serving as a loyal opposition, to serving as a "loyal resistance"like the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, except that in this case the resistance to fascism would be on the side of the national ideals, rather than the government; and a violent insurgency would not only play into the empire's hands, it would be doomed from the start.
It would be a lot of work. It would also require critical mass. A paradigm shift.
..But as a paranoid, I'm ready to join the resistance. And the main reason is I no longer think that the "conspiracy" is much of a "theory."
That the US House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that the murder of John Fitzgerald Kennedy was "probably" the result of "a conspiracy," and that 70 percent of Americans agree with this conclusion, is not a "theory." It's fact.
That the Bay of Pigs fiasco, "Operation Zapata," was organized by members of Skull and Bones, the ghoulish and powerful secret society at Yale University whose membership also included Prescott, George Herbert Walker and George W Bush; that two of the ships that carried the Cuban counterrevolutionaries to their appointment with absurdity were named the "Barbara" and the "Houston"George HW Bush's city of residence at the timeand that the oil company Bush owned, then operating in the Caribbean area, was named "Zapata," is not "theory." It's fact.
That George Bush was the CIA director who kept the names of what were estimated to be hundreds of American journalists, considered to be CIA "assets," from the Church Committee, the US Senate Intelligence Committee chaired by Senator Frank Church that investigated the CIA in the 1970s; that a 1971 University of Michigan study concluded that, in America, the more TV you watched, the less you knew; and that a recent survey by international scholars found that Americans were the most "ignorant" of world affairs out of all the populations they studied, is not a "theory." It's fact.
That the Council on Foreign Relations has a history of influence on official US government foreign policy; that the protection of US supplies of Middle East oil has been a central element of American foreign policy since the Second World War; and that global oil production has been in decline since its peak year, 2000, is not "theory." It's fact.
That, in the early 1970s, the newly-formed Trilateral Commission published a report which recommended that, in order for "globalization" to succeed, American manufacturing jobs had to be exported, and American wages had to decline, which is exactly what happened over the next three decades; and that, during that same period, the richest one percent of Americans doubled their share of the national wealth, is not "theory." It's fact.
That, beyond their quasi-public role as agents of the US Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve Banks are profit-making corporations, whose beneficiaries include some of America's wealthiest families; and that the United States has a virtual controlling interest in the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization, the three dominant global financial institutions, is not a "theory." It's fact.
Thatwhether it's heroin from Southeast Asia in the '60s and '70s, or cocaine from Central America and heroin from Afghanistan in the '80s, or cocaine from Colombia in the '90s, or heroin from Afghanistan todayno major CIA covert operation has ever lacked a drug smuggling component, and that the CIA has hired Nazis, fascists, drug dealers, arms smugglers, mass murderers, perverts, sadists, terrorists and the Mafia, is not "theory." It's fact.
That the international oil industry is the dominant player in the global economy; that the Bush family has a decades-long business relationship with the Saudi royal family, Saudi oil money, and the family of Osama bin Laden; that, as president, both George Bushes have favored the interests of oil companies over the public interest; that both George Bushes have personally profited financially from Middle East oil; and that American oil companies doubled their records for quarterly profits in the months just preceding the invasion of Iraq, is not "theory." It's fact.
That the 2000 presidential election was deliberately stolen; that the pro-Bush/anti-Gore bias in the corporate media had spiked markedly in the last three weeks of the campaign; that corporate media were then virtually silent about the Florida recount; and that the Bush 2000 team had planned to challenge the legitimacy of the election if George W had won the popular, but lost the electoral voteexactly what happened to Goreis not "theory." It's fact.
That the intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was deceptively "cooked" by the Bush administration; that anybody paying attention to people like former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, knew before the invasion that the weapons were a hoax; and that American forces in Iraq today are applying the same brutal counterinsurgency tactics pioneered in Central America in the 1980s, under the direct supervision of then-Vice President George HW Bush, is not a "theory." It's fact.
That "Rebuilding America's Defenses," the Project for a New American Century's 2000 report, and "The Grand Chessboard," a book published a few years earlier by Trilateral Commission co-founder Zbigniew Brzezinski, both recommended a more robust and imperial US military presence in the oil basin of the Middle East and the Caspian region; and that both also suggested that American public support for this energy crusade would depend on public response to a new "Pearl Harbor," is not "theory." It's fact.
That, in the 1960s, the Joint Chiefs of Staff unanimously approved a plan called "Operation Northwoods," to stage terrorist attacks on American soil that could be used to justify an invasion of Cuba; and that there is currently an office in the Pentagon whose function is to instigate terrorist attacks that could be used to justify future strategically-desired military responses, is not a "theory." It's fact.
That neither the accusation by former British Environmental Minister Michael Meacher, Tony Blair's longest-serving cabinet minister, that George W Bush allowed the 9/11 attacks to happen to justify an oil war in the Middle East; nor the RICO lawsuit filed by 9/11 widow Ellen Mariani against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the Council on Foreign Relations (among others), on the grounds that they conspired to let the attacks happen to cash in on the ensuing war profiteering, has captured the slightest attention from American corporate media is not a "theory." It's fact.
That the FBI has completely exoneratedthough never identifiedthe speculators who purchased, a few days before the attacks (through a bank whose previous director is now the CIA executive director), an unusual number of "put" options, and who made millions betting that the stocks in American and United Airlines would crash, is not a "theory." It's fact.
That the US intelligence community received numerous warnings, from multiple sources, throughout the summer of 2001, that a major terrorist attack on American interests was imminent; that, according to the chair of the "independent" 9/11 commission, the attacks "could have and should have been prevented," and according to a Senate Intelligence Committee member, "All the dots were connected;" that the White House has verified George W Bush's personal knowledge, as of August 6, 2001, that these terrorist attacks might be domestic and might involve hijacked airliners; that, in the summer of 2001, at the insistence of the American Secret Service, anti-aircraft ordnance was installed around the city of Genoa, Italy, to defend against a possible terrorist suicide attack, by aircraft, against George W Bush, who was attending the economic summit there; and that George W Bush has nevertheless regaled audiences with his first thought upon seeing the "first" plane hit the World Trade Center, which was: "What a terrible pilot," is not "theory." It's fact.
That, on the morning of September 11, 2001: standard procedures and policies at the nation's air defense and aviation bureaucracies were ignored, and communications were delayed; the black boxes of the planes that hit the WTC were destroyed, but hijacker Mohammed Atta's passport was found in pristine condition; high-ranking Pentagon officers had canceled their commercial flight plans for that morning; George H.W. Bush was meeting in Washington with representatives of Osama bin Laden's family, and other investors in the world's largest private equity firm, the Carlyle Group; the CIA was conducting a previously-scheduled mock exercise of an airliner hitting the Pentagon; the chairs of both the House and Senate Intelligence Committees were having breakfast with the chief of Pakistan's intelligence agency, who resigned a week later on suspicion of involvement in the 9/11 attacks; and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the United States sat in a second grade classroom for 20 minutes after hearing that a second plane had struck the towers, listening to children read a story about a goat, is not "theoretical." These are facts.
That the Bush administration has desperately fought every attempt to independently investigate the events of 9/11, is not a "theory."
Nor, finally, is it in any way a "theory" that the one, single name that can be directly linked to the Third Reich, the US military industrial complex, Skull and Bones, Eastern Establishment good ol' boys, the Illuminati, Big Texas Oil, the Bay of Pigs, the Miami Cubans, the Mafia, the FBI, the JFK assassination, the New World Order, Watergate, the Republican National Committee, Eastern European fascists, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the United Nations, CIA headquarters, the October Surprise, the Iran/Contra scandal, Inslaw, the Christic Institute, Manuel Noriega, drug-running "freedom fighters" and death squads, Iraqgate, Saddam Hussein, weapons of mass destruction, the blood of innocents, the savings and loan crash, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, the "Octopus," the "Enterprise," the Afghan mujaheddin, the War on Drugs, Mena (Arkansas), Whitewater, Sun Myung Moon, the Carlyle Group, Osama bin Laden and the Saudi royal family, David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, and the presidency and vice-presidency of the United States, is: George Herbert Walker Bush.
"Theory?" To the contrary.
It is a well-documented, tragic andespecially if you're paranoidterrifying fact.
# # # # # # #
Michael Hasty is a writer, activist, musician, carpenter and farmer. His award-winning column, "Thinking Locally," appeared for seven years in the Hampshire Review, West Virginia's oldest newspaper. His writing has also appeared in the Highlands Voice, the Washington Peace Letter, the Takoma Park Newsletter, the German magazine Generational Justice, and the Washington Post; and at the websites Common Dreams and Democrats.com. In January 1989, he was the media spokesperson for the counter-inaugural coalition at George Bush's Counter-Inaugural Banquet, which fed hundreds of DC's homeless in front of Union Station, where the official inaugural dinner was being held.
Permission to reprint is granted, provided it includes this autobiographical note, and credit for first publication to Online Journal.
For the original and complete article, see following URL link: http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/011004Hasty/011004hasty.html
Download a printable version.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/01-10-04_Hasty.pdf
2) BBC At War by Greg Palast
"And now the second invasion of the Iraq war proceeds: the conquest of the British Broadcasting Corporation." -Greg Palast
BBC At War
M'Lord Hutton Blesses Blair's Attack on BBC's Investigation of Iraq War Claims
By: Greg Palast
He did not say, "hello," or even his name, just left a one-word message: "Whitewash."
It came from an embattled journalist whispering from inside the bowels of a television and radio station under siege, on a small island off the coast of Ireland: from BBC London.
And another call, from a colleague at the Guardian: "The future of British journalism is very bleak."
However, the future for fake and farcical war propaganda is quite bright indeed. Today, Lord Hutton issued his report that followed an inquiry revealing the Blair government's manipulation of intelligence to claim that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass murder threatening immanent attack on London.
Based on the Blair government's claim, headlines pumped the war hysteria: SADDAM COULD HAVE NUCLEAR BOMB IN YEAR, screeched the London Times.
BRITS 45 MINS FROM DOOM, shrieked the Sun newspaper.
Given these facts only a sissy pacifist, a lunatic or a Saddam fellow traveler would fail to see that Prime Minister "Winston" Blair had no choice but to re-conquer it's former Mesopotamian colony.
But these headline were, in fact, false, and deadly so. Unlike America's press puppies, BBC reporters thought it their duty to check out these life or death claims. Reporters Andrew Gilligan and Susan Watts contacted a crucial source, Britain's and the United Nation's top weapons inspector. He told reporter Watts that the Weapons of Mass Destruction claims by Blair and our own President Bush were, "all spin." Gilligan went further, reporting that this spin, this "sexed p" version of intelligence, was the result of interventions by Blair's PR henchman, Alistair Campbell.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.GregPalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=311&row=0
3) Reviving the Draft
- - High Suicide Rate For Iraq War Gis
Reviving the Draft
by William Norman Grigg
With roughly half of our Army committed to the Iraq occupation, and additional geopolitical challenges looming on the horizon, the return of conscription is a very real possibility.
Should the Draft Be Reinstated"? asked the headline of a December 21, 2003 Time magazine story. Many National Guardsmen and Army Reservists men and women who believed they had signed limited contracts to serve as part-time soldiers are discovering that, in a very real sense, the draft has already been quietly revived.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/2004/01-26-2004/draft.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - High Suicide Rate For Iraq War GIs
The Pentagon counts at least 22 GI suicides in the Iraq conflict. CBS's Bob McNamara reports the number could be much higher. More than 600 U.S. soldiers have been evacuated from Iraq for psychiatric reasons. More...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/29/eveningnews/main596755.shtml
For 30 January 2004 - Part 2
See: Peace Candidate Campaign * Struggling Grassroots
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Peace Candidate Campaign * Struggling Grassroots
30 January 2004 - Part 2
4) Flyby News to Presidential Candidates
5) Inside the Kucinich Campaign and struggling grassroots
Editor's Notes:
This second part of today's Flyby News is about the campaign to elect a candidate for peace in 2004. Please consider contacting MoveOn.org for another vote for their/our endorsement of a Peace Candidate for US President in 2004.
Then, please ask them to support the winning candidate to overcome the media blockade for real change and peace in our world.
You can send MoveOn feedback @ this link
or send an email to info@moveonpac.org and cc to info@moveon.org
The reason for this above campaign is that the hour is late and the question in the last issue of Flyby News - "How much change are you ready for?" - has a negative or non-response from many, since change is scary, initially; but the alternative of keeping this war and carnage of American soldiers going, the war profiteering, and adding to the incentive for more terrorism, is not acceptable and a very good reason to overcome our fears.
Item 4 in this issue begins with a hand-delivered letter to Presidential candidates in NH from Flyby News. This package included a Space Policy document for Peace and Disarmament, Frank Dorell's film, "What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy," and Leonard Peltier's book, "Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance."
Item 5 is a good inside look into the grassroots network for the campaign for elect Dennis J. Kucinich for US President in 2004 or whenever.. We're not dead, yet, and with the concerns described in Part 1, we can't give up. As Dennis says, polls don't vote, television doesn't vote, and the Primaries are just beginning. There is time to take smart actions that care about life, and not controlled by fear.
Thank you for any of your actions. Please, too, consider again in sending Flyby News your snail mail address to help us post FN flyers in your neighborhood. For the person that sent their address, please resend. It got accidentally deleted. Many Thanks..info@flybynews.com
4) FlybyNews' to Presidential Candidates
From: Jonathan Mark
Publisher, Flyby News
[The following letter was written and give to Presidential Candidates with a copy of Frank Dorrel's film, ICIS Space Policy document, and Leonard Peltier's book in NH.]
Dear Presidential Candidate:
I hope to have an opportunity for interviewing you for my independent online news publication, Flyby News. FlybyNews.com began with the launching of NASA's high-risk (plutonium) Cassini space probe. It now has more than 1300 subscribing addresses with the web site averaging about 1,000 hits a day. Our readership is very concerned about the dangers of weapons of mass destruction being supported by such programs as Star Wars and the termination of the ABM Treaty. Our readers are also concerned about the obvious loopholes throughout the 9/11 investigation, the congressional war resolution vote and subsequent invasion of Iraq. Our news journal endorsed the campaign of Dennis Kucinich, but we are hoping that any Democrat nominated will support a transformation of the US government, and its unholy alliances with the military-industrial-media-academic-congressional complex. Yes, it is all interconnected, but so is real solutions for democracy-loving people who believe now is the time to really change and unite for peace and health in our world.
I hope to give you Frank Dorrel's film. It is a classic overview of CIA covert operations and country interventions since WW II to the mid eighties, and with much relevance on today's events. Once we get to see the pattern of what is really happening, then you can see past the crooked rationalizations and lies. On Monday January 26, the day before the primaries, we are showing the first three segments of this film with an open forum for many Presidential Campaigns on US foreign affairs in Keene, NH. Your input or representative(s) would be gratefully appreciated. Please check the enclosed flyer for this event. Also, please review the one-page document from the Institute for Cooperation in Space (ICIS) called "2004 Space Policy Position Paper & Talking Points." Ending the expansion of the arms race makes disarmament of nuclear weapons possible!
Also, Flyby News is interested in transforming the criminal justice system. As you must know, James Salvati, of Massachusetts, was innocently imprisoned for more than thirty years with knowledge of his innocence known by the Director of the FBI, Edgar Hoover. It is time for justice to take hold of such dangerous organizations threatening the ideals of the US Constitution. Another person that is innocent with documented FBI misconduct, is Leonard Peltier. Please help this individual get home with his people and family, and help change a justice system used for political purposes. The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee has given me a letter and Leonard's book to give to you. On the justice issue, Flyby News supports all nonviolent & non-victim crimes, such as personal drug use, to be considered as a health issue and not a criminal one. We believe Dennis Kucinich has the best platform for America and our world. Please consider his ideas for health care, Pentagon cutbacks, stopping Star Wars, bringing back the ABM, signing Kyoto, a Dept. of Peace, and for the US to join with our world community to take on the real dangers to life, especially that of global warming. Among other issues, you will find FlybyNews.com can offer you many resources. My company, Stirling Advantage, Inc., has received a patent on an engine for generating electricity in an environmentally-clean process.
I hope we will meet for an interview. I live in western Massachusetts, and hope this information will be helpful for a country we love.
Best Regards,
Jonathan Mark
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380
www.FlybyNews.com
5) Inside the Kucinich Campaign and struggling grassroots
Editor's Note: This following was received via a yahoogroups list for supporters of Dennis Kucinich in NH. This is real grassroots news, not sugar-coated campaign propaganda. Being critical of our own campaign is key to learning how to make the movement stronger, and to nourish the grassroots from the bottom up, rather than the conventional methods from the top down.. I didn't mention this before, but after my being critical of the campaign in a letter to a steering committee, I received false accusations from a coordinator in NH and actually told I was banned from this campaign, which I ignored, but unfortunately, too, many grassroots ideas have also been ignored, which many believe allowed only a small percentage of votes in NH when that is a state that a grassroots volunteer effort had the most chances in reaching a better percentage of those voting citizens. Yet all is not lost, the movement is still growing, and a new press secretary is on board, William Rivers Pitt, who wrote the item 1 article in last issue, Dennis Kucinich and the Question. Also, the disastrous war and occupation in Iraq, and only one candidate having a real plan for peace, makes this campaign far from over.. Following these emails, check our suggestion for contacting MoveOn.org to run another vote and for their support for a media campaign behind The Peace Candidate. The MoveOn anti-Bush ad was censored from CBS's Superbowl football game coverage this Sunday. Yet please consider contacting them for an even more powerful message Support the candidate with a plan to end the carnage ASAP!!
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Daniel P. Welch wrote:
Here is my NON-official statement--feel free to spread to friends, contacts and other groups where disenchanted Dean and other supporters may be found. You can also engage responses where it has been posted, etc. Pass it on. The subject line I used is "Kucinich committed to 50-state campaign." Peace, Danny
*****************
Far from throwing in the towel, Dennis Kucinich electrified his supporters in what many observers say was the best party in town Tuesday night. He announced that William Rivers Pitt, political writer and, until this weekend, managing editor of Truthout.org, will be coming on board as Press Secretary. "We've taken the first two steps in a long journey," said the candidate. The new press secretary had this to say, even before he took the job:
"Dennis Kucinich reminds people why they are Democrats, why they are progressives, in the first place. He is the soul and the spirit of those beliefs personified, he is Franklin Delano Roosevelt returned, walking and talking and preaching in the 21st century. Anyone who doubts this has not seen the man in action, has not met the people who surround and support him.
This run for the White House is about far more than winning that office. If you think the end of the primaries will spell the end of his run, think again. If the Democratic Party should win the White House in 2004, a powerful progressive network will have to be in place to push the new administration in the right direction, and against the tide that has been unleashed. This is what Dennis Kucinich is constructing, one brick at a time.
This tide has only just begun to rise. How much change are you ready for?"
In an online forum, Pitt denied that he had 'soured' on Kerry, whom he had been rumored to support. "But Dennis is Dennis," he elaborated. "He's the only one I would walk through fire for." Indeed, Pitt gave a brief, stirring talk at the gathering in Manchester on Tuesday, riling up an already boisterous crowd. "It's like we're glad to get through New Hampshire," one volunteer said. "We never expected much here, and now we're on to states where we have stronger organizations. It's a national grassroots campaign. People who want real change will join us." Here we go.
_________
Sincerely,
Daniel P. Welch
For interesting commentary in 19 languages visit
http://danielpwelch.com
check out Danny's new song at the url above: Who are they to tell us not to dream?
WE ARE THE ONES WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
From: James H. Romer
To: NH_for_Kucinich@yahoogroups.com ; Kucinich / NH / Steering
Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2004 1:51 AM
Subject: [NH_for_Kucinich] "We never expected much here,...."
Hello Daniel P. Welch:
Who is this "we" that never expected much from New Hampshire? Is it the same people who refused to listen to us when we tried to explain to them how the New Hampshire primary works? Is it the people who crippled our organizing efforts last summer by keeping Dennis out of the state for more than two months, while the Dean campaign was signing up the peace and justice community, Dennis's natural constituency? Is it the hot-shots, the "strategists" who never had the decency to explain to us what their wonderful strategy was and left us hanging for months with no answer to everybody's question, "When's he going to be here?"? Peace, Jim Romer
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
From: "Marcosa J. Santiago, M.D."
Mailing-List: list NH_for_Kucinich@yahoogroups.com;
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2004
Subject: Re: [NH_for_Kucinich] "We never expected much here,...."
Right On, Jim!
Most everyone we have met at the grass-roots level in this campaign has impressed us with their enthusiasm, understanding of the issues and therefore knowing why supporting Dennis is a "no-lose" proposition. But frankly, there have been a few people (particularly at or near the top) in another category altogether, almost as if they were working for another candidate, not Kucinich. This is, alas, the nature of the current US political process - which, even in progressive circles, tends to be top-down, both as to formation of platform and formulation of strategy. One soon feels that any attempt at criticism or negative feedback is regarded as disruptive. Generally speaking, all we are expected to do besides give and raise money is propagate to the electorate a prefabricated program prepared by someone else. This Jimmie Higgins work has to be done, we have all done it. But we must also help with setting the initial course and making the later corrections.
It would be good to have more front-end input, and more effective mechanisms for grassroots-driven midstream adjustments. If we all had more a part of the opening gambits, then we would feel that much more comfortable with the end game. There is no time like the present. We should be organizing for the 2008 campaigns now, before the current enthusiasm evaporates and while our experience with this campaign is still fresh in our mind.
David Ecklein
Marcosa J. Santiago, M.D.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For an article by Dennis Kucinich,
"State primary a chance to send a message on Iraq", see:
http://greenvilleonline.com/news/opinion/2004/01/12/2004011222574.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Please consider contacting MoveOn.org
for another vote for their/our endorsement of a
Peace Candidate for US President in 2004.
Then, please ask them to support the winning candidate
to overcome the media blockade for real change and peace in our world.
You can send MoveOn feedback @ this link
or send an email to info@moveonpac.org and cc to info@moveon.org
For 30 January 2004 - Part 1
See: ParanoidShift * BBC War * Reviving Draft/Suicide
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
PrimaryQuestion * Edwards * Clark * Kerry * Lies
27 January 2004
1) Dennis Kucinich and the Question
- - "I Love Kucinich But He Can't Win"...
- - Kucinich: This Will Go to Convention
2) John Edwards: Angry-About-the-War Candidate
3) "Democracy Now!" Confronts Wesley Clark
- - US judge rules part of Patriot Act unlawful
4) John F. Kerry and Skull and Bones
5) MI6's source on Iraqi WMD claim says it was untrue
- - US judge rules part of Patriot Act unlawful
Editor's Notes:
America is a Nation with a mission -- and that mission comes from our most basic beliefs. We have no desire to dominate, no ambitions of empire. Our aim is a democratic peace -- a peace founded upon the dignity and rights of every man and woman. This quote came from the lips of George W. Bush at The State of the Union Address on January 20, 2004. I believe that most Americans saw through these lies, based on realities of war profiteering and corruption, plans to attack Iraq at the beginnings of this administration, and based on the unmentioned deaths that continue to haunt the American psyche. When will this end?
The first item is about when fear ends and hope begins. This leading article by William Rivers Pitt offers a keen insight into the candidacy and direction of Dennis Kucinich for US President. This run for the White House is about far more than winning that office. If you think the end of the primaries will spell the end of his run, think again.. The work for transforming policies for unending war to unending peace has only just begun. The big question seems to be, how much change are people ready for now?
John Nichols is the author of the Nation article on John Edwards in item 2. I was wondering about the rise of this one-term-Senator becoming a serious contender for the Democratic nomination. Perhaps there is something to Edwards, (described by Nichols as ..a freshfaced and energetic contender who exudes awshucks optimism..) that reveals something deeper about the American electorate, and perhaps about the influence of appearances, or innocence? Edwards, who voted for the war, also voted against the Bush administration's request for $87 billion to maintain the occupation, and seems to be on a learning curve with the rest of America as fatalities to American armed service personnel has climbed over the 500 mark.
But where Edwards projects a possible innocence, Wesley Clark projects a darker side as the Commander of NATO when innocent people were killed needlessly, and depleted Uranium continues to pollute the environment in Europe. Following that item is more information on John Kerrys unholy alliance with the Bush administration, and partnership with the Skull and Bones society. I listened to John Kerry in Keene. He responded to a question for a US Department of Peace, as proposed by Dennis Kucinich in Congress. Kerry arrogantly chimed that the department of peace is the responsibility of the US President. Yet when a veteran questioned about his being fooled on the vote to authorize George W. Bush for a preemptive strike, he claimed he was misled by intelligence at that time. The intelligence of fear-induced activities can often be misleading. Item 5 gives more details on the revelations of lies and betrayal, and glimmer of hope as a US judge ruled that part of the Patriot Act is unlawful.
Flyby News has updated its main page and promotional flyer.
These are the updated stories now featured:
The Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports, looking into the unanswered questions
The campaign to elect Dennis J. Kucinich and Democrat Nominee for US President in 2004
Mid East Peace Initiatives and Nonviolent Resolutions
Updates to stop weapons and nuclear power in space
Exposing the harm by exposure to exploded depleted uranium shells
The harmful impact on Whales/Dolphins by the experimental use of active sonar systems
The mounting evidences of Global Warming & Sustainable Energy/Technology Development
Exclusive updates on Bart Jordan, evidences of technologically advanced ancient civilizations
News from inside the movements to free political prisoners, and other human rights issues
Personal Accounts on a Friend Shot Dead by Police in a Church in Brattleboro, Vermont
Please support this work. Contact us for flyers to post in your community, and please consider donating financial support. Our account due at the printers is close to $200. We also would like order 1,000 bumper stickers. We plan to continue working in support of our campaigns. through the year 2012. Thanks for reading and efforts for peace and justice.
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
1) Dennis Kucinich and the Question
- - "I Love Kucinich But He Can't Win"...
- - Kucinich: This Will Go to Convention
Dennis Kucinich and the Question
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Friday 23 January 2004
Cuz take away our Playstations
And we are a third world nation
Under the thumb of some blue blood royal son
Who stole the Oval Office and that phony election
I mean
It don't take a weatherman
To look around and see the weather
Jeb said he'd deliver Florida, folks
And boy did he ever
And we hold these truths to be self evident
#1: George W. Bush is not President
#2: America is not a true democracy
#3: the media is not fooling me
Cuz I am a poem heeding hyper-distillation
I've got no room for a lie so verbose
I'm looking out over my whole human family
And I'm raising my glass in a toast
- Ani DiFranco, "Self-Evident"
The three most powerful letters in American politics are FDR.' Franklin Roosevelt unleashed a political revolution so powerful and complete that it required the incredible extremism of the Bush administration to bring it to heel. That is not to say the revolution wasn't flagging before George took the Oval Office chair. Democratic Presidents and Presidential hopefuls have been running on Roosevelt rhetoric since the titan died in his fourth term, but the facts on the ground are clear. The country has been steadily retreating from the legacy of FDR for decades.
Enter Dennis Kucinich, Democratic congressman from Ohio, former Mayor of Cleveland, and candidate for President in 2004. There is not a single polling indicator that puts him above ten percent support at this point, and he managed only a 1% showing in the Iowa caucuses. Pragmatism dictates that he is merely tilting at windmills, but a closer look reveals something far different in play.
Kucinich came on next. It was clear that many in the crowd were not familiar with him. That was about to change.
"I come from Cleveland, Ohio," began Kucinich. "I'm the oldest of seven children. My parents never owned a home, and as the family grew, we kept moving because we outgrew the apartments that we lived in. During the 1950s, there used to be ads in the newspapers that would say No Children' or One Child Only.' If you had a large family and didn't own a home, you were out of luck. So our family kept moving from place to place. By the time I was 17 years old, we had lived in 21 different places, including a couple of cars."
"That experience," he continued, "growing up in the city of Cleveland, and living in so many different neighborhoods, and moving from place to place, that experience informs greatly my passion for public service, and my reasons for running for President of the United States. I know that it matters to people to have a job, to have a living wage, to have decent health care, that their kids can go to decent schools, that they live in decent neighborhoods, that they have a roof over their heads. I understand this. I understand it because these are the kinds of concerns that my parents had to deal with when we were growing up. These are the kinds of concerns that many families have to deal with today."
..This country is losing its connection with its people. My Presidency will be about reconnecting America with the practical aspirations of the American people."
By this time, the crowd had risen, somewhat surprised with itself, to its feet in approval several times. Dennis Kucinich? Rocking the house?
"I want you, the taxpayers, to think about this," said Kucinich after the applause had died down again. "If we're in Iraq for a few years, the cost will be over a half a trillion dollars. That's going to come out of our budget for housing, for education, for health care. Casualties are now over five hundred, and could go into the thousands. Why? When is enough enough? I say enough is enough right now, and that's why we need to get the troops out, and that's why I'm ready to lead in that direction."
.. "Ten years ago," he said in a rising voice, "the United States passed agreements called NAFTA and the WTO which created conditions where global corporations are setting all the rules for trade. You know what it is about? You know what it is about. It is about cheap labor. Wherever they can drive down wages, they do it. Wherever they can get someone to do a job for less than nothing, that's what they are looking for. They don't care about child labor, prison labor, slave labor, they don't care about crushing workers. What they care about is being able to make more and more of a profit. They don't care if they close down a community."
"They don't care if they crush small businesses," he said, now in full roar. "They don't care because they have the power, with NAFTA and the WTO, and all these trade agreements, to just move jobs out of this country, move out the manufacturing jobs, move out high-tech jobs, move out any kind of job that exists in this country that they can make a better buck off in another country by crushing workers rights. I've seen it. It is time to put an end to it."
The thunder of the audience shook the room..
..It comes down to this. Dennis Kucinich is running for President, but he is also formulating a national movement that will be in place long after the race is run. This movement, in all 50 states, will stand ready to defend the most basic American principles that have been lost for years. The movement stands for the workers. The movement stands for the families. The movement stands for the environment. The movement stands for health care. The movement stands for peace.
The movement stands for America. During his speech in Dubuque, Kucinich said, "My campaign is about bringing the end of fear in this country, the fear which keeps us from standing up for our own interests, the fear which causes people to take positions that are against the interests of the American people. The red in our flag stands for courage, not fear. The white in our flag stands for purity. The blue in our flag stands for loyalty. When Francis Scott Key wrote the Star-Spangled banner, he posed a riddle to all of us. He asked a question. Does that Star-Spangled banner yet wave in the land of the free and the home of the brave? He made the connection between freedom and bravery, between courage and democracy."
"My candidacy," he said in Dubuque, "is about calling forth the fearlessness that exists in the heart of every American, calling forth the courage to meet each day on its own terms. Without fear, with confidence, with hope, with the anticipation that we can meet the challenges, whether they be terrorism or poverty. This campaign is about a celebration of who we are as Americans, about the path of fearlessness that will lead us forward in the world, about the path of courage which will lead us to a country where we have health care for all, jobs for all, education for all, and peace in the world. We are capable of this. It is time to create a new America. The time is now. The time is now."
Dennis Kucinich reminds people why they are Democrats, why they are progressives, in the first place. He is the soul and the spirit of those beliefs personified, he is Franklin Delano Roosevelt returned, walking and talking and preaching in the 21st century. Anyone who doubts this has not seen the man in action, has not met the people who surround him and support him.
This run for the White House is about far more than winning that office. If you think the end of the primaries will spell the end of his run, think again. If the Democratic Party should win the White House in 2004, a powerful progressive network will have to be in place to push the new administration in the right direction, and against the tide that has been unleashed. This is what Dennis Kucinich is constructing, one brick at a time.
This tide has only just begun to rise. How much change are you ready for?
-------
[Excerpt]
For the complete article, see:
http://truthout.org/docs_04/012604A.shtml
William Rivers Pitt is the Managing Editor of truthout.org. He is a New York Times and international best-selling author of three books - "War On Iraq," available from Context Books, "The Greatest Sedition is Silence," available from Pluto Press, and "Our Flag, Too: The Paradox of Patriotism," available in August from Context Books.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - "I Love Kucinich But He Can't Win"...
Tad Daley: Top Ten Responses To --
Published on Monday, January 26, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0126-06.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich: This Will Go to Convention
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 19, 2004
[Excerpt]
"As part of my strategy in the Iowa caucuses, I worked out an arrangement with Senator Edwards that may have allowed each of us to pick up a few more delegates. Our supporters, of course, ultimately chose their own courses of action. But none were left with their only strategic choice being leaving their caucus and going home. John and I are friends and I wish him the best. But we have 49 states left to go, and we're each on our own."
For the complete press release, see:
Kucinich: This Will Go to Convention
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
How Much Change are YOU ready for?
www.Kucinich.us
2) John Edwards: Angry-About-the-War Candidate
Published on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 by The Nation
Angry-About-the-War Candidate
by John Nichols
John Edwards is not running for the Democratic nomination as an anti-war candidate. Even in a campaign that has been defined by nothing so much as a constant process of redefinition on the parts of the major candidates, that would be too much of a stretch. After all, Edwards voted with more enthusiasm than most Democrats for the October, 2002, resolution that authorized George W. Bush to use force against Iraq. And long after another senator who voted for the war resolution, John Kerry, began to grumble about Bush's deceptions and missteps, Edwards continued to defend his vote and the war.
But, while Edwards is not running as an anti-war candidate, he has begun to run as an angry-about-the-war candidate. And in the competition for the votes of Democratic caucus and primary voters, that anger is serving him well. The North Carolina senator ran a surprisingly strong second in last Monday night's caucuses Iowa -- a state where exit polls showed 75 percent of Democratic caucus goers were opposed to the war in Iraq. And polls suggest that he could ride a last-minute surge into a solid third-place finish in Tuesday's primary in New Hampshire, a New England state where anti-war sentiments seem to be only slightly less pronounced than in the Midwest.
How is it that Edwards is doing so well with voters who think of themselves as anti-war?
How was the senator able to elbow aside former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, who spoke out against the 2002 resolution before the vote was taken, in anti-war Iowa? How is it that he now seems to be elbowing aside retired General Wesley Clark, another critic of the rush-to-war resolution, in New Hampshire? And why did the most genuinely anti-war candidate in the race, Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Dennis Kucinich, urge his backers in Iowa to caucus with Edwards?
One line of analysis holds that the war isn't really that big an issue. Under this theory, Democratic caucus and primary voters are not all that interested in a war that has now cost more than 500 American lives, untold Iraqi lives, and tens of billions of U.S. tax dollars. But anyone who has followed the campaign knows that is not the case, as voters regularly question candidates about the war.
Another line of analysis holds that Democrats are so obsessed with beating Bush in 2004 that they are willing to overlook any flaw, even a disagreeable stance on so pivotal a concern as the war, in their search for the most electable candidate. That may explain the rise of Kerry, a four-term senator who also happens to be a decorated Vietnam War veteran. But it doesn't account for the rise of Edwards, a one-term senator who also happens to be a millionaire trial lawyer.
There is no question that Edwards works hard to presents himself as an "electable" contender. But that does not mean that he is eschewing appeals to anti-war Democrats. Indeed, while Edwards may not be an anti-war candidate, he has made complaints about the war central themes of his surging candidacy.
When Edwards and his aides gave their campaign a makeover toward the end of 2003, they radically retooled the candidate's message. At the heart of the new Edwards stump speech was an economic populist appeal designed to highlight the divide between "two Americas" -- one where the rich get all the breaks, another where working families can't get a break. New York Times columnist William Safire is right when he says that Edwards "has honed his 'two Americas' theme into the smoothest call for enforced leveling since Huey Long's 'every man a king.'" But don't assume that Edwards is only talking about domestic economics. That smooth speech also features an anti-war profiteering rap passionate enough to warm the hearts -- and perhaps win the votes -- of even some committed anti-warriors.
"We need to end the sweetheart deals for Halliburton and stop the war profiteering in Iraq," Edwards began telling the crowds, making pointed references to Vice President Dick Cheney's former firm but also to a list of other defense contractors that have contributed heavily to George w. Bush's campaigns and that have profited heavily from his war.
While Edwards does not echo the pure anti-war rhetoric of a Dean, a Clark or, particularly, a Kucinich or an Al Sharpton, the North Carolinian does toss red meat to anti-war Democrats -- highlighting the corruptions of empire that infuriate grassroots Democrats. It is easy, and quite possibly appropriate, to be cynical about the way in which Edwards now highlights criticism of a war that he has supported more consistently even than Kerry. But voters seem to be willing to forgive Edwards, a fresh-faced and energetic contender who exudes aw-shucks optimism on the trail, more than they do the other candidates.
The anti-war profiteering rhetoric helps to explain why Edwards ran almost as well as Dean did among Iowa Democrats who said the war was their top issue. It also helps to explain why the campaign of Dennis Kucinich, the most passionately anti-war of the Democratic presidential candidates, felt comfortable urging supporters of the Ohio congressman to form caucus-night alliance that aided Edwards.
In New Hampshire, Edwards has upped the ante. After President Bush used his State of the Union address to list 17 of the 34 nations that have committed troops to help the U.S. maintain the occupation of Iraq, Edwards went on New Hampshire Public Radio and condemned the president for claiming that he has assembled a genuine coalition to maintain the occupation of Iraq. For the most part, Edwards charged, the other countries provide little more than window dressing, while the toll of U.S. casualties rises and the cost to U.S. taxpayers mounts. (Like Kerry, Edwards votes against the Bush administration's fall 2003 request for $87 billion to maintain the occupation, as did Kucinich. Of the remaining contenders, only Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, the candidate of Democrats who don't really disagree all that much with Bush, voted for the spending bill.)
Over the weekend, as Tuesday's New Hampshire vote approached, Edwards was adding to his angry-about-the-war repertoire. Edwards leapt on statements made by David Kay, the man entrusted by the Bush administration to head the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. When Kay resigned Friday, he told the Reuters news agency that he had concluded there were no stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons to be found in Iraq. Edwards immediately called for an independent commission to investigate whether the Bush administration misled the Congress when the president and White House aides were making the case for preemptive war against Iraq.
"It's a serious issue and it's why I'm calling for an independent commission to investigate the discrepancy between what's been found there and what we were told before," Edwards said of the ongoing debate over Bush's claim that the U.S. needed to attack Iraqi weapons -- or, at the least, weapons that country was very close to developing -- posed a genuine threat. Edwards still stops short of saying that Bush lied to the Congress and the American people; rather, he says, "That's exactly why we need an independent commission to get to the bottom of this."
Even as he was calling for the investigation, Edwards was ramping up that razor-sharp rhetoric about war profiteering. When Halliburton agreed on Friday to pay $6.3 million to the U.S. Army to cover for overbilling by a Kuwaiti subcontractor supplying U.S. troops in Iraq, Edwards said, "The American people know there is something wrong going on with war profiteering and Halliburton and the contracts in Iraq."
"This has got to come to an end," the senator told a crowd of 700 cheering supporters in Rochester, New Hampshire. Edwards promised them that, if elected president, he would examine all the contracts handed out by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his aides "with a magnifying glass" in a hunt to halt "the fleecing of the American people."
Copyright 2004 The Nation
3) "Democracy Now!" Confronts Wesley Clark
EXCLUSIVE: DEMOCRACY NOW! Confronts Wesley Clark Over His Bombing Of Civilians, Use Of Cluster Bombs And Depleted Uranium And The Bombing Of Serb Television
In a Democracy Now! exclusive, General Wesley Clark responds for the first time to in-depth questions about his targeting of civilian infrastructure in Yugoslavia, his bombing of Radio Television Serbia, the use of cluster bombs and depleted uranium, the speeding-up of the cockpit video of a bombing of a passenger train to make it appear as though it was an accident and other decisions he made and orders he gave as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander.
Since the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia, General Wesley Clark has not answered any in-depth questions about his targeting of civilian infrastructure in Yugoslavia, his bombing of Radio Television Serbia, the use of cluster bombs and depleted uranium, the speeding-up of the cockpit video of a bombing of a passenger train to make it appear as though it was an accident and other decisions he made and orders he gave as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander.
With the New Hampshire primary just 24 hours away, the remaining Democratic candidates are in their final push to win votes in the key poll in the Granite state. Whether or not Howard Dean wins or loses, he set the tone very early for what has become a definitive issue in the race early on: opposition to the war in Iraq. Among the Democrats, Dennis Kucinich, Al Sharpton and Carol Moseley Braun held the most clear antiwar stances. But Braun has pulled out of the race, Al Sharpton is not in New Hampshire and Dennis Kucinich - well the media hardly gives him any airtime.
With the exception of Senator Joseph Lieberman, all of the candidates have sought to portray themselves as opponents of the war. But only Kucinich has announced a concrete plan for withdrawing US forces from Iraq. The theme of Iraq is the main issue on which General Wesley Clark is running his campaign.
Click here to read transcript and for link to video/audio of
Jeremy Scahill questioning General Wesley Clark
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/01/26/1632224#transcript
4) John F. Kerry and Skull and Bones
Kerry made his Bones in secret club - like Bush:[All Editions]
Andrew Miga. Boston Herald. Boston, Mass.: May 15, 2003. pg. 004
Section: NEWS - from the Boston Herald newspaper
Abstract (Article Summary)
Bonesmen already are buzzing over the prospect of the first Bones vs. Bones presidential race should Kerry win his party's nomination and face [Bush] in 2004. Kerry was tapped for the club in 1968, two years after Bush, whose father and grandfather were also Bonesmen. Kerry's brother-in- law from his first marriage, David Thorne, was Bones. So was the late husband of Kerry's current wife, ...
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more on this story about Skull and Bones, Bush and Kerry, see:
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/01/279250.shtml
and
http://www.bilderberg.org/skulbone.htm#skulls
5) MI6's source on Iraqi WMD claim says it was untrue
- - US judge rules part of Patriot Act unlawful
MI6's source on Iraqi WMD claim says it was untrue
The British government's dogged insistence that Saddam Hussein was able to deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes of the order being given suffered two serious blows yesterday as ministers braced themselves for the findings of the Hutton inquiry. The Iraqi exile group in London which claims to have supplied MI6 with the intelligence about Saddam's 45-minute capability admitted that the information might have been completely untrue.
The Guardian [UK], 27 January 2004 -- link to following URL click for article
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/kelly/story/0,13747,1131993,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - US judge rules part of Patriot Act unlawful
For the first time, a federal judge has declared unconstitutional a section of the USA Patriot Act that bars giving expert advice or assistance to groups designated foreign terrorist organizations. In a ruling handed down late Friday and made available Monday, US District Judge Audrey Collins said the ban is vague in its wording. David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor who argued the case on behalf of the Humanitarian Law Project, declared the ruling "a victory for everyone who believes the war on terrorism ought to be fought consistent with constitutional principles."
For the complete article from The National Post [Canada], 26 January 2004
click following URL:
http://www.canada.com/news/world/story.html?id=3BB0CD48-E137-4874-AAEF-4AF64A271E31
Links and summaries in this item via: The News Insider
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
DennisKucinich * PrimaryPalooza * Constitution
15 January 2004
1) Kucinich Campaign Update
2) PrimaryPalooza - Keene State Dems - Jan. 23rd
3) US Constitution In Crisis & Election 2004
Editor's Notes:
Flyby News is looking forward to the Iowa and NH primary events. Among other announcements, this issue includes a forum sponsored by Flyby News on the eve of the NH Primary, which features the first 3 segments of Frank Dorrel's film, "What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World." All candidates and supporters are invited to discuss your interests and policies regarding the points in the film and US foreign affairs. Election 2004 offers an opportunity for now or never for this experiment in an evolving democracy to live or die. Don't take it for granted!
Here is a link to one scenario from 911review.org
What's next? That's a good question, as we have no reason to believe that they will stop at the massacres of 9/11 and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. www.911review.org/Wiki/WhatsNext.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"Former Treasury Secretary Paul Oniell is the latest in a long line of U.S. officials saying publicly that the invasion Iraq was planned well before the Bush administration admits. See: Bush always planned invasion, says insider
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
New FTW story -- Britain's "The Guardian" is reporting that the US has just opened a new front in the war on terror. Guess where? West Africa, as we have been predicting for 18 months. Not much coverage in the US but a sure sign that where oil is, the US is heading. US Opens New Front in War on Terror
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
NarcoNews reports: Venezuela Decriminalizes Drug Possession
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
New Web Site of the Day -- RemoveBush.com
1) Kucinich Campaign Update
The following is excerpted from various sources. Check the schedule at kucinich.us or referenced resource contacts for further information.
Kucinich in NH this week:
Thursday - 15 January
9:00 am - Laura Knoy Show - NHPR interview
and live radio call in show. Call 1-800-892-6477! (Concord)
11:15 am - join us for lunch at the Tilton
Diner! 61 Laconia Rd., Tilton. Call 792-2004
12:30 pm - Discussion with High School
Seniors and Faculty,
Merrimack Valley High School, 106 Village
St.Penacook, NH. Call 792-2004
4:30 pm -Speech and question and answer session
with students, faculty & community members,
at Dartmouth College, 6082 Rockefeller Hall, Hanover.
Public welcome.
PRIMARY NIGHT - The Manchester Campaign Headquarters at 913
Elm Street is Kucinich primary central, and Dennis will be
there on Primary Day to meet and greet and be with his
supporters as the results come in. Free Speech TV has a
big bus that will be parked in front of the building and
the campaign is renting the storefront on the first floor
to celebrate with music and snacks for our campaign
workers. after the polls close.
Apparently there will be several radio stations set up
along Elm Street to interview passersby, and there are
supposed to be all kinds of TV and other media trucks
lining the street.sound like a circus? Well, if it's
anything like the debate events, it will look that way!!
So come and work and play with Kucitizens from all over
the country who will be in town to get our candidate
elected. Manchester office 888.700.2004
Portsmouth office: 603.766.4526
Keene office: 603.357.4724
CALL IOWA -there's still a little time to make calls to
Iowa voters to ask them to go to the caucus for
Dennis...go to www.kucinich.us and click on CALL IOWA
MARIANNE WILLIAMSON is coming to Western Mass on January
16, then to Keene Schedule for Marianne Williamson's
campaign trip to Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont
Fri., Jan. 16
11:30 am\tab Talk and book-signing Beyond Words Bookstore,
189 Main St.,
Northampton (413-586-6304
Lunch in either Northampton or Greenfield
1:30 pm Talk and Q & A Greenfield Public Library, 402 Main St.
4:00 pm Talk and Q & A Keene Public Library, 60 Winter St.,
7:30 pm House party (coffee and dessert, pot luck) at home
of Dr. Leonard Weldon and Margaret Foxweldon, 165 S.
Lincoln St.,Keene
Sat., Jan. 17
10:00 am\tab Talk and Q & A at Peterborough Town House, 1
Grove St.
12:20 pm\tab Lunch in Brattleboro, VT
1:00 pm\tab Talk and book-signing at Everyone's Books, 23
Elliot St., Brattleboro
For more information, contact Pat O'Brien
Coordinator, Massachusetts Kucinich for President 2004
patob777@hotmail.com
= = = = = = = = = =
Kucinich---44.5%
Dean--------32.4%
Clark--------14.6%
Kerry---------3.6%
Edwards----2.4%
Sharpton----0.9%
Gephardt---0.7%
Braun--------0.6%
Lieberman-0.3%
Total votes: 23804
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Make sure you visit another great independent resource
for free-minded people - Truthout.org/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The Village Voice
The Essay
by Stephen Elliott
The Dennis Kucinich Polka
What's so funny about peace, love, and the Dems' Great Ignored Candidate?
January 14 - 20, 2004
www.villagevoice.com/issues/0402/essay.php
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Follow the link to hear Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich's
legendary speech in his own voice: "A Prayer for America"
www.APrayerforAmerica.us
(No Download Necessary)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Dennis J. Kucinich for US President 2004
official web site: https://www.kucinich.us
To link to websites of each of the Candidates, see:
"Presidential Candidates on the Web"
http://pages.alexa.com/features/candidates.html
2) PrimaryPalooza - Keene State Dems - Jan. 23rd
"Primarypalooza", the KSC Dems first concert, is all set and ready to go --
Friday, January 23rd at the Maple Brown Auditorium,
Young Student Center - from 4:00 to 11:00pm.
-Bands-
Cars Can Be Blue
Metallicock (Metallica Cover Band)
Anger Management Seminar
Death To Tyrants
Blind Luck Music
T.I.P
-Speakers-
Dennis Kucinich
-Booths-
-Students for a Sensible Drug Policy(ssdp.org)
-New Hampshire Young Democrats
-Americans for Campaign Reform(just6dollars.org)
-Envirocitizen.org
-Every Campaign except Mosely Braun and Sharpton(pending), as well as people from the Lyndon LaRouche Campaign.
- Flyby News - independent news
For more information contact:
Andrew Sylvia < karmafist@aol.com >
President Pro Tem
Keene State Democrats
3) US Constitution In Crisis & Election 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
US Constitution In Crisis & Election 2004
Contact:
Jonathan Mark
www.FlybyNews.com
Email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is sponsoring a "Candidate and Supporters Forum" on the eve of the NH Primaries at the Keene Public Library -- Monday -- January 26 -- 6:00 to 9:00 pm - Ruth Huntress Auditorium. All candidates and supporters are welcomed to join this forum regarding US foreign policy. Flyby News has been independent and free news resource on the Internet since its earlier work in reporting on NASA's high risk flyby of Earth in 1999. You can find resources on this and other concerns 'for life's survival in the 21st Century' @ FlybyNews.com.
All candidates and supporters are welcomed to join this free event!
The following is an outline:
6:00 - 6:30 pm -- Introduction -- about forum
6:30 - 7:00 pm -- "What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy"
Excerpts of a film by Frank Dorrel documenting CIA-covert operations.
7:00 - 7:15 pm -- Form group meetings, each group representing support of a Candidate
7:15 - 8:15 pm -- Each group has a representative(s) to address the audience about the platform of Candidate regarding issues in the film or US foreign policy.
8:15 - 8:45 Conclusions?
We may also show a video speech by Dennis Kucinich, called "A Prayer for America" responding to the loss of civil liberties following September 11, 2001.
The Dorrel film begins with film clips of speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr., including his speaking against war in Vietnam. "an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." The second segment in the film is with John Stockwell, who was a former CIA Chief in Angola when George Bush, Sr was the Director, and the highest ranking CIA expert to go public. He estimated that more than 6 million lives have been terminated by US-CIA-supported covert operations. The third and final segment of this film is with Bill Moyers, which aired on PBS in 1987, called: "The Secret Government." This program give an overview and background of US-CIA covert operations and country interventions since World War II.
Following the film we hope for a respectful and lively debate on proposed policies and platforms of Candidates regarding US foreign policy and issues revealed in the Dorrel film. There is no turning back. We will either make democracy work in 2004, or enable an extreme right wing agenda to sever freedoms from America and threaten life everywhere. It is time for people to unite, and begin the process to transform government from the treacherous course it is now on.
For more information on the Dorrel Film and program, see under
Campaigns, Actions, & Events ==> http://www.FlybyNews.com
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Iraq High Cost * Physics911 * IMF * Kucinich
11 January 2004
1) Ignore US atrocities in Iraq at what cost?
- - U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq Approach 500
2) Physics911.org - a science-based inquiry
3) I.M.F. Says U.S. Debts Threaten World Economy
4) NASA-Prometheus in the heavens
5) Kucinich for and of the People
Editor's Notes:
Presence slips past an emotional past
while sublime reality steps in and
moments too soon forgotten regret not a thing..
while last time the unsurmountable tongue
lingered too long to satisfy
the intrinsic logic set in..;
perpetuated by angular expression and denial of chance..
Pieces all too quickly assembled
as an atmosphere on Mars
pushes away the envelope from Earth
and reason and measure, misbegotten to some,
springs back as an image from Cydonia staring back, fear or love,
truth or denial, destruction or creation.
I wrote the first draft of this poem at the John Wayne Airport lobby, January 6. I was three weeks in California. Someone involved in the Kucinich campaign gave me an article by John Kaminski. I didn't plan it this way, but during the descent to Hartford/Springfield with acting-up frigid windy conditions, I started reading "911 Was A HOAX!." What timing! Last time landing at this airport I finished Mari Sandoz's "Crazy Horse: Strange Man of the Oglalas." Now, rereading this Kaminski commentary, the bumpy plane landing was put into a perspective. Flyby News returns to see another day.
RUMI
"This being human is a guest house
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some monetary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond."
Item 1 is on the high price for a reckless and dangerous foreign invasion policy.
Item 2 gives links for an in-depth look into 9/11 investigations. Physics911.org is a wonderful consortium of scientists, engineers, measurers, taking on a role most needed, to investigate unexplained questions regarding the 9/11 terrorist attacks in NYC and Washington, D.C.
Item 3 is on the growing amounts of US Debt and its danger to the world economy.
Item 4 briefly touches on the Bush space mission.
Nukes Ahoy - the Bush Space Plan was announced.
Item 5 is articles on Dennis Kucinich. When people hear him speak, and learn of his ideas that would benefit most all Americans, they get excited, but then they wonder about poll numbers and possibly wasting a vote. But a primary is within the Party of your choice, and it is the best time to support those most closely associated with your interests. The leader of the Party will arise, but each delegate elected will have a say in this selection. You can not waste a vote in the Primaries, not by voting your conscience.
1) Ignore US atrocities in Iraq at what cost?
Much farther down the road to hell
Americans ignore U.S. atrocities in Iraq
By John Kaminski < skylax@comcast.net >
Maybe I'm only deluding myself, but I seem to remember stories during the Vietnam war when American reporters at least pretended to be outraged when U.S. troops were accused of sickening war crimes. I mean, the My Lai massacre was a big deal when it was revealed accidentally, as I recall. At least a couple of officers were prosecuted and sentenced to long prison terms in country club jails, and TV and newspapers reporters at least wagged their fingers while proclaiming this was not the way Americans were supposed to behave.
But on the other hand, we noticed that recent expos in the Toledo Blade newspaper in which it was revealed that many U.S. units in Vietnam were given carte blanche by their superiors to butcher women and children in a pathetic attempt to frighten the Vietnamese natives into supporting the froth-mouthed white-skinned invaders who were eviscerating their jungle paradise.
Wild as they were, the 1960s were a more innocent time in America Doing the right thing and treating foreigners with respect had not yet been eliminated from the social repertoire of American behavior.
But that was then and this is now.
Savage terrorists who hold nothing sacred, least of all the precious lives of innocent civilians, are now running roughshod over the obliterated dump once known as the prosperous nation of Iraq and they are wearing American uniforms.
But most Americans don't notice. They don't mention that stuff on TV anymore. The reporters are embedded with the troops, and those who try to report accurately from the battlefield and there are numerous instances of this nowadays wind up with an accidental bullet in their heads if they do. Another example of the new American way.
It isn't bad enough that no one in a position of authority in either the American government or practically all of American public life bothers to mention that the U.S. has absolutely no business being in Iraq, and that all these needless murders and corrupt business practices have created a 21st century America that makes Nazi Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union look humane by comparison. Just ask all those innocent people of Arab descent who remain in jail without access to their lawyers.
The stark fact is America has gone to war, demolished an entire nation, and squandered the lives of thousands of its own soldiers for reasons that are lies proven, documented, and deliberate perversions of the truth and nearly no one on the homefront in positions of authority has had the moxie to stand up and say America is now the most dangerous rogue nation in the world as it threatens to spread its economic coercion and radioactive rape to every country on the planet.
While the dapper Democratic candidates wax poetic in front of the TV cameras while gently chiding our demonstrably insane president for his bad manners and utter repression of government accountability, every day American soldiers are murdering innocent Iraqi families and for what? For corporate thievery and dictatorial hegemony over the entire planet.
Those who aren't paying attention to the continuing atrocities being committed in our names might say I'm exaggerating.
Well, as a good example, I bid you consider a mere one day's news from Iraq, as reported by our premier American daily e-newspaper, Information Clearing House. And today (Friday, 1/9/04) was as good a day as any, very typical of the past ten months' daily news from Iraq.
Just consider what the American "liberators" did to its hapless victims in Iraq just today, one single day.
A 55-year-old Iraqi man had been removed from his house in August after a search by American soldiers found no weapons there. His family had been desperately searching for him for months, and they finally found him, brain dead in a Tikrit hospital.
After performing diagnostic tests, doctors told his family he had suffered massive head trauma, electrocution, and other beatings on his arms. The family was told he would be in a coma for the rest of his life from the obvious trauma suffered from torture.
It turns out that American soldiers had dropped him off at the hospital, saying he had had a heart attack.
In a similar story, the Arab newspaper Al-Bawaba reported the presidential secretary of former leader Saddam Hussein died two days ago while in U.S. custody. He had been taken into custody in June. Reports in the Arabic press noted he was tortured by U.S. investigators to pressure him to provide information on weapons development programs.
The New York Times reported the Bush administration has quietly withdrawn from Iraq a 400-member military team whose job was to scour the country for military equipment. So much for the hunt for weapons of mass destruction. The Times said "some military officials" said the administration might have lowered its sights and no longer expected to uncover the caches of chemical and biological weapons that the White House cited as a principal reason for going to war last March.
The London Financial Times reported Bush administration officials "systematically misrepresented" the threat from Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to war, according to a new report to be published by a respected Washington think-tank, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. These distortions, combined with intelligence failures, exaggerated the risks posed by a country that presented no immediate threat to the US, Middle East or global security, the report says.
The London Financial Times also reported U.S. intelligence bowed to political pressures in assessing the threat posed by Iraq, undermining a critical element of the Bush administration's national security doctrine. That same think tank, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, concluded that U.S. intelligence was clearly unable to provide accurate information necessary for reliably acting in the absence of an obvious imminent threat.
Thursday's Information Clearing House report also included stories on a new investigation into a secret Pentagon intelligence unit that led the nation to war by pushing disinformation and faulty intelligence to produce wildly exaggerated threats posed by Iraq, quotes from Richard Perle's new book about how the U.S. should make a preemptive strike on North Korea, how nearly as many U.S. soldiers were wounded in Iraq last month as during the entire six-week period of major combat operations, an evocative piece on how an American father visited Iraq to mourn his dead son killed in combat, and a story on how a Spanish journalist was deliberately killed by coalition troops.
But the capper was this:
An Iraqi mother has written to President Bush and other top politicos around the world to ask them to explain why her son was deliberately murdered by U.S. troops. In her heart-wrenching letter, she explained that her 19-year-old son, who was soon to be married, was returning home with friends when their truck broke down. After being confronted by an American patrol, they were searched and handcuffed, and led three kilometers to a nearby dam, then ordered to jump into the raging waters.
One of the three boys survived to tell the tale, but her son, who could not swim, was never found, only his jacket. Then as a final signature, U.S. soldiers flattened the boys' vehicle by running over it with heavy equipment.
The distraught mother, wrote: "To document the incident, my son's name is Zaydun Ma'mun Fadhil Hassun Al-Samarrai, born in the 1st of June 1984...Yes, they killed him and they broke my heart, try to imagine that dear sirs and ask your wives how hard it is for a mother to see her fruit ripen only to be thrown by sinful hands and to be swept away without any mercy or humanity. Those soldiers have turned everything America has ever stood for into one big lie. I was a victim, and there are and will be many more."
( You need to read this whole story, and see the boy's photo, if you want to really cry:
http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/archives/2004_01_01_healingiraq_archive.html )
Two thoughts:
1. Americans are wretched people. We should be long out of Iraq because the reasons we are there have been proved to be lies. That we are still there says a lot about the American people, that we are much farther down the road to hell than we thought.
2. Information Clearing House, the prodigious and informative compendium compiled daily by a single high-integrity gentleman named Tom, is the single most valuable daily newspaper in America, in my humble opinion. It is the one e-mail that I never fail to read every day, and you can get it, too, just by signing up at
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
[Excerpted]
John Kaminski is the author of "America's Autopsy Report," a collection of his Internet essays posted on hundreds of websites around the world.
Web Site: http://www.johnkaminski.com/
Email: skylax@comcast.net
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq Approach 500
Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens for Legitimate Government
January 9, 2004
http://www.legitgov.org/
U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq Approach 500 --The number of American troops who have died in Iraq since the W-ar began last March is nearing 500, more than U.S. losses in many regional conflicts of the past several decades: the Gulf War, Lebanon, Somalia, Panama, Grenada, Kosovo and Afghanistan.
For articles of breaking news, see:
http://legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Senator: 'We Received False Security Briefing Prior to Iraq Vote'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/121803A.shtml
Pope: 'U.S. War on Iraq is Illegal'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/121803B.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
CBSNews.com & Sixty Minutes
Saddam's Ouster Planned In '01?
Jan. 10, 2004
The Bush Administration began laying plans for an invasion of Iraq, including the use of American troops, within days of President Bush's inauguration in January of 2001 -- not eight months later after the 9/11 attacks as has been previously reported.
That's what former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill says in his first interview about his time as a White House insider. O'Neill talks to Correspondent Lesley Stahl in the interview, to be broadcast on 60 Minutes, Sunday, Jan. 11 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
For more on this story, see:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/09/60minutes/main592330.shtml
MMIII, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved.
2) Physics911.org - a science-based inquiry
Physics911.org [on the Internet] has been set up to stimulate rational, science-based inquiry into the 9/11 mass murder
The scale of the mass murder on September 11th 2001 was unprecedented in American History. In view of the extent of public interest, it should have prompted the most vigorous, open and thorough murder inquiry ever.
Instead, the Bush Administration has been obstructing even the limited, secretive official inquiries set up so far. while overseeing willful destruction of forensic evidence
This website is one of many independent citizens' initiatives seeking the truth about 9/11
Physics911.org features the work of (S.P.I.N.E.),
the Scientific Panel for Investigating Nine Eleven
Physics911.org
Applying Science to Uncover the Truth
http://www.physics911.org/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Following is another resource on 9/11 investigations.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
9/11 Archive
http://www.questionsquestions.net/topics/archive/911archive.html
also check out Flyby News updated
"The Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports,
looking into the unanswered questions."
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1014738186,11057,
http://www.FlybyNews.com
3) I.M.F. Says U.S. Debts Threaten World Economy
I.M.F. Says U.S. Debts Threaten World Economy
By ELIZABETH BECKER
and EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published New York Times:
January 8, 2004
WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 - With its rising budget deficit and ballooning trade imbalance, the United States is running up a foreign debt of such record-breaking proportions that it threatens the financial stability of the global economy, according to a report released Wednesday by the International Monetary Fund..
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For the complete article, see following links:
http://www.nytimes.com
http://snipurl.com/3qew
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/08/business/08FUND.html
US Foreign Debt Threatens Global Financial Stability Says I.M.F.
********************************************************************
4) NASA-Prometheus in the heavens.
"NASA, flush with the spirit of success,
ignores the chance of failure -- full nukes ahead!"
Russell D. Hoffman
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The following is from:
Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
http://www.space4peace.org
Bush Plays with Fire: Launching a Dangerous Space Policy
George W. Bush is playing with fire. He is expected to soon make a major space policy announcement that could include a return mission to the moon, the establishment of permanent bases on the moon, and an aggressive program to take humans to Mars. Estimates for these space projects range from $50 - $150 billion. That is of course before cost overruns set in.
In order to make the trip to Mars feasible (the normal year-long trip would take a toll on any human being because of space radiation) Bush is expected to commit to using a nuclear rocket what is now known as "Project Prometheus," named after the God of Fire. The nuclear rocket would cut in half the amount of time it would take to get to Mars, and would have military applications as well. The Bush administration a year ago announced the Nuclear Systems Initiative, a $3 billion research and development effort to expand the number of launches of deadly nuclear powered systems into space.
NUCLEAR DANGERS
One scientist who has publicly expressed grave concern about the Nuclear Systems Initiative is Dr. Michio Kaku, Henry Semat Professor of Theoretical Physics at the CUNY Graduate Center. According to Dr. Kaku, "The exploration of outer space is indeed one of humanity's great adventures. Perhaps one of the greatest risks facing this ambitious program is the use of dangerous, unproven technologies which could backfire, eroding public confidence in the space program."
"One such dangerous technology is the nuclear rocket, which is now seriously being reconsidered after being rightly rejected for the past several decades. The recent disaster involving the Columbia shuttle crew was bad enough. If it had contained a nuclear rocket, it would have been the death blow to the space program. Having radioactive uranium reactor parts sprayed over Texas and much of the southwest would have doomed the entire space program. The nuclear booster rocket has gone through many stages of development in the past, and all of them have been canceled with good cause.."
5) Kucinich for and of the People
Kucinich: fervently unconventional
By Harry Bruinius | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
HOPKINTON, N.H. - Dressed in a long black overcoat, looking a little like a wizened wizard from the snowy New Hampshire woods, Dennis Kucinich strides confidently into a chilly toolshed at Derek Owen's 200-acre organic farm. As he stops to survey the 30 or so locals who have come to hear him speak, he grins: These are his people.
There's Mr. Owen - his gray mutton-chop beard still flecked with snow - holding dirty yellow work gloves as he extends his greeting. His green cap, stuck with a feather, reads, "Farm Here to Eternity." Over there, in the corner, is Mark Lathrop, the burly proprietor of the Monadnock Hemporium, wearing a broad-brimmed leather cowboy hat. He's a fierce advocate for the decriminalization of marijuana. Opposite him, near the door, stands Elizabeth Obelenus, smiling. She's the tall office manager for the Northeast Organic Farming Association, the informal sponsor of the talk tonight, and she's most worried about the unknown dangers of genetically modified organisms.
They're all applauding. "Good job last night!" says one of an older couple near the pegboard on the wall. "You were our hero!" the other adds. As the diminutive Cleveland congressman shakes their hands and nods, he tells them he's been hearing the same all day. He'd created a bit of a buzz the night before after lashing out at Ted Koppel, the moderator of the debate in nearby Concord, and scolding him for focusing on polls and endorsements rather than important issues.
Like his nonconformist audience this evening, Mr. Kucinich is a candidate with quirks. A strict vegan, he would hardly be the type to throw a Crawford, Texas, barbecue. A skilled ventriloquist, he keeps a dummy in his office to entertain school kids who visit him on field trips. Twice divorced, he recently went on an early-morning blind date with a woman who had beaten out 79 others in a "Who Wants to Be a First Lady" contest, put on by the website PoliticsNH.com.
And though he comes from the Rust Belt shores of Lake Erie, he often speaks more as a New England transcendentalist, straight from Walden Pond. "We need to be certain that we have agricultural policies that are rooted in a philosophy which connects us to the power of nature itself," Kucinich tells the bundled-up country folk gathered in the shed. "We need to recognize the important role agriculture plays - like Derek's cap says, 'Farm Here to Eternity.' "
One of his top priorities as president, he explains, would be to break up the big corporations that control the food supply and threaten the small farmers who have long been the foundation of American democracy. In the same 19th-century vein, Kucinich often urges his audiences to read Emerson's "Self-Reliance," an essay he says he's read at least once a year since he was a boy. "Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string," he often quotes. "To believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, - that is genius."
Nonconformists, however, are by definition few and far between, and Kucinich is near the bottom of the polls. Beyond this band of pastoral farmers, few have even heard of Dennis Kucinich - "Is he the one with the ears?"
Yet it's become a refrain as he travels the well-worn New Hampshire campaign trail: When people do hear him speak, many admire his passion and "spin free" fervor. As co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Kucinich has been one of the most outspoken liberal voices in the Democratic Party. Since he stakes out positions that a more cautious candidate might consider, well, politically eccentric, some voters find him both curious and refreshing - though they think he cannot win. "The others, they're all so boring - except for Kucinich," says Ms. Obelenus. "Sure, he's a long shot, but at first you've got to vote on principle, don't you?" But then, hesitating, she asks with a worried tone, "Do you think I'm throwing away my vote?"
As an unabashed liberal, Kucinich stands apart from the other candidates. Earnest as a prophet, he proclaims the need for a single-payer national healthcare system - as do Al Sharpton and Carol Moseley Braun. But he is the only to have offered a congressional bill, outlining a concrete plan. And while Howard Dean has been an outspoken opponent of the war in Iraq, Kucinich is the only candidate to have actually cast a vote against the resolution approving the US invasion. He also continues to call for the immediate withdrawal of US troops.
He also proclaims he would extend free public education all the way through college (which he implies would be paid for by reducing the Pentagon budget and repealing the Bush tax cuts), decriminalize marijuana, and ban genetically modified organisms. He also envisions a cabinet-level Department of Peace, which would, according to his platform, redirect 1 percent of the Pentagon budget to "establish non-violence as an organizing principle in both domestic and international affairs."
Though most find such ideas audacious, they rarely find Kucinich politically calculating or insincere, and this has won him a number of admirers.
Momentary boost
The next day, as Kucinich bounds up the steps of the Simon Center at New England College, Eleanor Kjellman stands beaming on the porch above him, waiting to shake his hand.
The blue campaign button on her coat is blazoned with CLARK04, but while watching the nine candidates debate, she, too, had been most impressed by the strength and poise of the Ohio congressman. Kjellman and her husband, John, both longtime residents in Henniker, were so thrilled they came to offer a show of support.
"We just wanted to thank you for speaking out the other night," she says as Kucinich hops up and clasps her outstretched hand. "You really took charge there and said what needed to be said." Still, while the Kjellmans smile and explain how the others lack his earnest, no-nonsense style, they later concede Kucinich "probably doesn't have a chance" - and that they don't intend to stop supporting Wesley Clark.
Call it voter sophistication or just a sympathetic respect for a futile, quixotic campaign, but so far, many of his new admirers haven't become actual supporters. Although he has raised about $5 million this year - a respectable amount for his type of campaign - this is far less than top-tier candidates like Dr. Dean, and Kucinich's poll numbers languish at 1 to 3 percent.
Still, he has overcome enormous obstacles throughout his life.
For the complete HTML version of this story which may include photos, graphics, and related links, see:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0102/p01s03-uspo.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Congressman Dennis Kucinich,
Candidate for the Democratic Presidential Nomination
A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW January 8, 2004
So why is BuzzFlash interviewing Dennis Kucinich?
The answer is simple: we sent out invitations for interviews to several of the candidates and Kucinich was the only one who responded -- and his staff was tenacious in ensuring that this interview took place. Hey, we like that kind of treatment!
Read Article Here:
www.buzzflash.com/interviews/04/01/int04002.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Presidential Candidates on the Web
http://pages.alexa.com/features/candidates.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
MUSICIANS FOR DENNIS KUCINICH
John Nichols, The Nation
While other Democratic candidates may be raising more money, the Ohio Congressman's candidacy is inspiring some of the finest campaign concerts in this election.
* In MediaCulture: http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more information on the Kucinich campaign, visit:
http://www.kucinich.us
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Wrong Guy * Pre-emption * NORML President
17 December 2003
"..This day's news does not lessen the danger
that the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive strike
poses to international peace and stability.."
Senator Robert C. Byrd
1) We Caught The Wrong Guy By William Rivers Pitt
2) Challenging Pre-emption' by Senator Robert C. Byrd
3) We Finally Got Our Frankenstein.. by Michael Moore
- - Michael Moore: "Dude, Where's My Country?"
4) The World is Better Off?
- - "Meanwhile, in Iraq the Slaughter Goes On"
- - US soldiers wrapping entire Iraqi villages in barbed wire
- - Argentine outrage at Britain's nuclear revelation
- - Dirty bomb warheads disappear in Moldova
5) 9-11 Widow Requests Saddam's Deposition in RICO Suit
6) Take Action - The Threat From Computerized Voting Machines
7) Dennis Kucinich and NORML
Editor's Notes:
The progressive independent news in this issue contradicts and confronts the political coup or praises of Saddam Hussein's capture. By now the public is finding out that the war is more than about regime change, but about the US unilateral interest in dominating our planet. William Rivers Pitt, Senator Robert Byrd, and Michael Moore communicate this point most eloquently for regime change in the US. Item 4 includes a link with Dianne Sawyer's interview with George Bush, who got close to roasting him about the costs of invading Iraq, the lost lives, and missing weapons of mass destruction. Bush started squirming and making the rhetoric that America is now more safe. Sawyer chickened out in confronting this untruth. If you read the other parts in this item 4, it shows the many failures in security, and how the US actions are making matters worse. In following up to the last issue's main story, item 5 is about a 9-11 widow requesting Saddam Hussein's deposition in the RICO law suit. Item 6 is on an action alert from True Majority and Martin Sheen on making your vote count; and item 7 is on a Dennis Kucinich-NORML connection.
Please keep working-uniting for peace and justice,
and forward and share this gift of independent news,
and for the Truth that will set US Free.
Peace and Light 2004 - 2008 - 2012 - & ad infinitum
1) We Caught The Wrong Guy By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Monday 15 December 2003
Saddam Hussein, former employee of the American federal government, was captured near a farmhouse in Tikrit in a raid performed by other employees of the American federal government. That sounds pretty deranged, right? Perhaps, but it is also accurate. The unifying thread binding together everyone assembled at that Tikrit farmhouse is the simple fact that all of them the soldiers as well as Hussein have received pay from the United States for services rendered.
It is no small irony that Hussein, the Butcher of Baghdad, the monster under your bed lo these last twelve years, was paid probably ten thousand times more during his time as an American employee than the soldiers who caught him on Saturday night. The boys in the Reagan White House were generous with your tax dollars, and Hussein was a recipient of their largesse for the better part of a decade.
If this were a Tom Clancy movie, we would be watching the dramatic capture of Hussein somewhere in the last ten minutes of the tale. The bedraggled dictator would be put on public trial for his crimes, sentenced to several thousand concurrent life sentences, and dragged off to prison in chains. The anti-American insurgents in Iraq, seeing the sudden futility of their fight to place Hussein back into power, would lay down their arms and melt back into the countryside. For dramatic effect, more than a few would be cornered by SEAL teams in black facepaint and discreetly shot in the back of the head. The President would speak with eloquence as the martial score swelled around him. Fade to black, roll credits, get off my plane.
The real-world version is certainly not lacking in drama. The streets of Baghdad were thronged on Sunday with mobs of Iraqi people celebrating the final removal of a despot who had haunted their lives since 1979. Their joy was utterly unfettered. Images on CNN of Hussein, looking for all the world like a Muslim version of Charles Manson while getting checked for head lice by an American medic, were as surreal as anything one might ever see on a television.
Unfortunately, the real-world script has a lot of pages left to be turned. Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter, reached at his home on Sunday, said, "It's great that they caught him. The man was a brutal dictator who committed terrible crimes against his people. But now we come to rest of story. We didn't go to war to capture Saddam Hussein. We went to war to get rid of weapons of mass destruction.
Those weapons have not been found." Ray McGovern, senior analyst and 27-year veteran of the CIA, echoed Ritter's perspective on Sunday. "It's wonderful that he was captured, because now we'll find out where the weapons of mass destruction are," said McGovern with tongue firmly planted in cheek. "We killed his sons before they could tell us."
Indeed, reality intrudes. The push for war before March was based upon Hussein's possession of 26,000 liters of anthrax, 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin, 1,000,000 pounds of sarin gas, mustard gas, and VX nerve gas, along with 30,000 munitions to deliver these agents, uranium from Niger to be used in nuclear bombs, and let us not forget the al Qaeda terrorists closely associated with Hussein who would take this stuff and use it against us on the main streets and back roads of the United States.
When they found Hussein hiding in that dirt hole in the ground, none of this stuff was down there with him. The full force of the American military has been likewise unable to locate it anywhere else. There is no evidence of al Qaeda agents working with Hussein, and Bush was forced some weeks ago to publicly acknowledge that Hussein had nothing to do with September 11. The Niger uranium story was debunked last summer.
Conventional wisdom now holds that none of this stuff was there to begin with, and all the clear statements from virtually everyone in the Bush administration squatting on the public record describing the existence of this stuff looks now like what it was then: A lot of overblown rhetoric and outright lies, designed to terrify the American people into supporting an unnecessary go-it-alone war. Said war made a few Bush cronies rich beyond the dreams of avarice while allowing some hawks in the Defense Department to play at empire-building, something they have been craving for more than ten years.
Of course, the rhetoric mutated as the weapons stubbornly refused to be found. By the time Bush did his little Mission Accomplished' strut across the aircraft carrier, the occupation was about the removal of Saddam Hussein and the liberation of the Iraqi people. No longer were we informed on a daily basis of the "sinister nexus between Hussein and al Qaeda," as described by Colin Powell before the United Nations in February. No longer were we fed the insinuations that Hussein was involved in the attacks of September 11. Certainly, any and all mention of weapons of mass destruction ceased completely. We were, instead, embarking on some noble democratic experiment..
[Article Truncated] - for the entire article, see:
http://truthout.org/docs_03/121503A.shtml
2) Challenging Pre-emption' by Senator Robert C. Byrd
Published on Monday, December 15, 2003 by The Nation
Challenging 'Pre-emption'
by Senator Robert C. Byrd
Remarks on the 138th Anniversary Celebration of The Nation Magazine, December 14, 2003, in New York City
The older I get, the more I become convinced that wisdom is enhanced by age, and I think the same can be said of The Nation magazine. It is more than a good read. It has become, over the years, an essential publication and a voice for the loyal opposition that is needed today as perhaps never before.
Tonight, I have been asked to speak about Iraq.
Early this morning came news of the capture of Saddam Hussein. That is good news. Despite his fall from power many months ago, the specter of a possible return to power had cast a constant shadow over Iraq and the Iraqi people. I applaud the tenacious work of the military and intelligence communities for their success today.
But that success does not diminish the challenges that remain in Iraq, and it certainly does not tamp the passions inflamed against the United States throughout the Muslim world by our actions in Iraq. The capture of Saddam Hussein will not be the keystone for peace in that volatile region. This day's news does not lessen the danger that the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive strike poses to international peace and stability.
In order to bring lasting stability to Iraq, that nation needs the help of the entire world, not just America and her fighting needs.
As each day passes and as more American soldiers are killed and wounded in Iraq, I become ever more convinced that the war in Iraq was the wrong war at the wrong time in the wrong place for the wrong reasons.
Contrary to the President's rosy predictions--and the predictions of others in the Bush Administration--the United States has not been universally greeted as a liberator in Iraq. The peace--if one can use the term "peace" to describe the chronic violence and instability that define Iraq today--the peace is far from being won. Iraqi citizens may be glad that Saddam Hussein is no longer in power, but they appear to be growing increasingly resentful that the United States continues to rule their country at the point of a gun.
What a huge price we are now paying for the President's bullheaded rush to invoke the unwise and unprecedented doctrine of pre-emption to invade Iraq, an invasion without provocation, an invasion without the support of the United Nations or the international community.
It would be tragic enough if the casualties of the Iraq war were confined to the battlefield, but they are not. The casualties of this war will have serious repercussions for generations to come. Truth is one casualty. Despite the best efforts of the White House to contort the invasion of Iraq into an extension of the war on terror, there was never a connection between Saddam Hussein and September 11. There was never a connection between Iraq and September 11. Not a single Iraqi was among the nineteen hijackers of those four planes. Despite dire warnings from the President, Saddam Hussein had at his fingertips neither the means nor the materiel to unleash deadly weapons of mass destruction on the world. Despite presidential rhetoric to the contrary, Iraq did not pose a grave and gathering menace to the security of the United States. The war in Iraq was nothing less than a manufactured war. It was a war served up to a deliberately misled and deluded American public to suit the neoconservative political agenda of the Bush White House.
A lasting casualty is the international credibility and reputation of the United States of America. We have squandered the good will that had rallied to our side after the attacks of 9/11, attacks that struck just a few short blocks from where we sit tonight. At the end of that fateful day, the world was with us. The French newspaper Le Monde proclaimed, "We Are All Americans." But we squandered that good will. We turned our sights on Iraq and turned our back on the United Nations. As a result, in some corners of the world, including some corners of Europe and Great Britain, our beloved nation is now viewed as the world bully.
Finally, and most disheartening to me, Congress allowed the Constitution to become a casualty of the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive strikes. Congress allowed its constitutional authority to declare war to fall victim to this irresponsible strategy. Just a little more than a year ago, in October 2002, the Senate obsequiously handed to the President the constitutional authority to declare war. It failed to debate; it failed to question; it failed to live up to the standards established by the Framers. Like a whipped dog, the Senate put its tail between its legs and slunk away into the shadows, slunk away from its responsibility. Congress--and I mean both houses--Congress delegated its constitutional authority to the President and effectively washed its hands of the fate of Iraq. It is a dark and despicable mark on the escutcheon of Congress.
The roots of this travesty can be traced directly back to the President's doctrine of pre-emption, that cockeyed notion that the United States can pre-emptively attack any nation that for whatever reason may--may!--appear to pose a threat in the future. Not only is the doctrine of pre-emption a radical departure from the traditional doctrine of self-defense but it is also a destabilizing influence on world affairs. The Bush doctrine of pre-emption is a dangerous precedent. The Bush doctrine of pre-emption is a reckless policy. The rising tide of anti-Americanism across the globe is directly attributable to the fear and distrust engendered by this Bush doctrine of pre-emption.
[Article Truncated] - for the entire article, see:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20031229&s=byrd
3) We Finally Got Our Frankenstein.. by Michael Moore
- - Michael Moore: "Dude, Where's My Country?"
We Finally Got Our Frankenstein... and He Was In a Spider Hole! --
by Michael Moore
For this insightful tongue-in-cheek Moore perception article, see:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php
The following was posted (12/14/03)
http://www.MichaelMoore.com
American Deaths in Iraq
Since war began: 458
Faces of the Fallen
Information supplied by antiwar.com and The Washington Post
http://www.antiwar.com/ewens/casualties.html
How Long Before Bill O'Reilly Apologizes to the Nation?
In the build up to the war with Iraq, Bill O'Reilly was on television every night backing up Bush's whoppers. Like the White House team, O'Reilly assured us that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. On March 18, 2003, O'Reilly was on ABC's "Good Morning America." He made the following promise about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction:
"If the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush Administration again, all right?"
It's time for Bill O'Reilly to apologize to the nation and tell us that he no longer trusts the Bush Administration. How long must we wait?
273 days and counting!
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Mike's Department of Homeland Security
Sunday, December 14th, 2003
ALERT STATUS:
Pregnant Chad
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Michael Moore: "Dude, Where's My Country?"
Yes, Michael Moore is the scourge of Stupid White Men everywhere. He's taken on fat cats, gun nuts, lying politicians. The Guardian describes him as "a wake-up call, a kick in the mental backside." And now he's back-daring to ask the most urgent question of these perilous times:
"Dude, Where's My Country?"
Michael Moore is on a mission in his new book: Regime Change. The man who slithered into the White House on tracks greased by his daddy's oil buddies is one of many targets in Mike's blistering follow-up to his smash #1 hit Stupid White Men, the biggest-selling nonfiction book of the year.
For more on another classic Michael Moore book,
"Dude, Where's My Country?" see:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/books-films/dudewheresmycountry/
4) The World is Better Off?
- - "Meanwhile, in Iraq the Slaughter Goes On"
- - US soldiers wrapping entire Iraqi villages in barbed wire
- - Argentine outrage at Britain's nuclear revelation
- - Dirty bomb warheads disappear in Moldova
World Is Better Off'
In his first interview since the capture of Saddam Hussein, President Bush tells Diane Sawyer that America is a safer country now that the Iraqi leader has been captured, but there is still much more work to be done in Iraq.
The interview was broadcast on ABC TV on 16 December at 8 p.m. ET.
Dianne Sawyer interview with President George W. Bush
Three days after Saddam Hussein's capture, President Bush talks exclusively to ABCNEWS' Diane Sawyer. (Eric Draper/White House)
Watch the video
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Primetime/US/president_bush_031216-1.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - "Meanwhile, in Iraq the Slaughter Goes On"
by Andrew Buncombe
Published on Tuesday, December 16, 2003 by the lndependent/UK
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1216-01.htm
24 Dead in Iraq Since Saddam Captured
The Capture of Saddam Hussein:
Statement of the Fellowship of Reconciliation
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The following links were provided by the NewsInsider.org
- - US soldiers wrapping entire Iraqi villages in barbed wire
In what is a new tactic for Iraq's occupation forces, American soldiers have begun wrapping entire villages in barbed wire. In Abu Hishma, encased in a razor-wire fence after repeated attacks on American troops, Iraqi civilians line up to go in and out, filing through an American-guarded checkpoint, each carrying an identification card printed in English only. Over to one side, an Iraqi man named Tariq muttered in anger: "I see no difference between us and the Palestinians," he said. "We didn't expect anything like this after Saddam fell."
The New York Times [US], 06 December 2003; click for article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/07/international/middleeast/07TACT.html?ex=1071742542&ei=1&en=902587f5d4e2808a
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - Argentine outrage at Britain's nuclear revelation
Argentina has demanded an apology from Britain after it admitted for the first time that Royal Navy ships carried nuclear weapons in the 1982 Falklands War. The disclosure from the Ministry of Defence came as the British Government was forced to concede that seven nuclear weapons containers were damaged during a series of wartime accidents. But many of the details of these accidents are still being kept secret.
Sydney Morning Herald [Australia], 07 December 2003; click for article:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/07/1070732072765.html
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - Dirty bomb warheads disappear in Moldova
In the ethnic conflicts that surrounded the collapse of the Soviet Union, fighters in several countries seized upon an unlikely new weapon: a small, thin rocket known as the Alazan. Originally built for weather experiments, the Alazan rockets were packed with explosives and lobbed into cities. These radioactive warheads are not known to have been used. But now, according to experts and officials, they have disappeared.
The Washington Post [US], 07 December 2003; click for article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A41921-2003Dec6¬Found=true
You can also link to these stories from
http://www.newsinsider.org/
5) 9-11 Widow Requests Saddam's Deposition in RICO Suit
(Lafayette Hill, PA - 12/14/03) - Philip J. Berg, Esquire, attorney for Ellen Mariani, wife of Louis Neil Mariani, who died when United Air Lines flight 175 was flown into the South Tower of the World Trade Center on 911 announced today, in the wake of the capture of Saddam Hussein, she will seek an extraordinary writ by the Honorable Court to immediately depose Saddam Hussein, a critical witness to support the merits of her RICO Act cause of action against Defendant George W. Bush, et. al.
COMPLETE PRESS RELEASE
http://www.tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=27
6) Take Action - The Threat From Computerized Voting Machines
by True Majority and Martin Sheen
The Threat From Computerized Voting Machines
I am writing to you as a fellow member of TrueMajority to ask for your help in preventing a scandal that could shake our nation to the roots of our democratic principles. Please take a moment to send a free fax to your Representative in Congress, and then to pass this letter on to your friends and family in the hope that they will help too.
We start with a principle so obvious it seems strange even to write it: For a democracy to work, the people must believe that balloting is conducted fairly and votes are counted accurately. Americans feel justifiable pride that our nation has created a system to ensure this, including provisions for recounts.
In the wake of the punch card voting mess in Florida, the federal government dedicated billions of dollars to help states purchase new voting machines. Some pioneering states have begun purchasing a new type of touch screen computerized voting machine. These machines register votes on a memory chip and then digitally transmit the results via telephone modem to election headquarters.
We can only hope that neither glitches nor tampering will change or erase any of our votes. We all know that computers sometimes crash and lose data. Power cords get pulled out of the wall. And what better trophy for a hacker--or over zealous campaign worker--than to skew the outcome of the actual election?
There is a simple solution to these problems. The California Secretary of State has ordered that these new computerized voting machines print out a paper copy of your vote for your approval before the vote is registered. These printouts would then be saved in case the machines malfunction or there is any question as to whether or not they have been tampered with. Without them we would just have to trust the companies that make the machines--companies like Diebold whose CEO, Walden W. O'Dell, recently wrote in a fundraising letter for the Republicans, "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President next year."
Without a paper trail, there is no way to reliably validate an election or conduct a reliable recount. It's that simple.
For a form letter and fax connection to send a letter to your Representative, see:
http://action.truemajority.com/index.asp?action=10109&ms=cvmm1&ref=351625
7) Dennis Kucinich and NORML
Presidential Candidate Promises to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol
With the 2004 Presidential election less than a year away, I am pleased to announce that for the first time in more than two decades, marijuana law reform has emerged as a prominent campaign issue. Among the nine Democratic Presidential candidates, several have publicly spoken out in
favor of the use of marijuana as a medicine, and three recently admitted in a live nationally televised debate to having smoked marijuana. Their admission was met with rousing applause from the audience! (NORML's report in this debate is available online at:
http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5810)
However, arguably the most significant development of the campaign so far is Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich's outspoken support for ending marijuana prohibition. Last week Kucinich (D-Ohio) announced on his campaign website that, if elected, he would end federal criminal prohibitions on the personal use of marijuana by adults, and would establish national guidelines to regulate it like alcohol. This is one of the strongest and most progressive endorsements of marijuana law reform ever uttered by a prominent Presidential candidate!
NORML'S SMOKE THE VOTE CAMPAIGN
"Smoke the Vote" is the largest 'get out the vote' campaign ever launched by NORML, and seeks to harness the more than 20 million marijuana smokers nationwide into a powerful, viable political constituency. And it's working! To date, more than 2,000 NORML supporters have used NORML's "Smoke the Vote" service to register to vote for marijuana law reform in the 2004 election! If you still need to register to vote or change your address, do so right now at
http://www.registrationbyworkingassets.com/norml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For Dennis Kucinich statement on "Marijuana Decriminalization" see:
http://www.kucinich.us/issues/marijuana_decrim.php
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
New Year New President Music Event
Dennis Kucinich will be joined at an Austin, Texas, fundraising concert by Willie Nelson, Tim Reynolds, and Michelle Shocked, all Kucinich endorsers, plus special guests Bonnie Raitt, and Tish Hinojosa.
The time is Saturday, January 3, 2004, doors open at 7:00 p.m. Central Time; concert starts at 8 p.m. The place is Austin Music Hall, 208 Nueces, Austin, Texas.
Tickets available only at www.startickets.com or by calling 512-469-SHOW (7469).
Artist Reception immediately following the concert at the La Zona Rosa, 612 West 4th street (at the intersection of 4th St. and Rio Grande in downtown Austin) Tickets are $75 available by phoning (512)472-5755.
For the official Kucinich web site listing of his schedule, see:
http://www.kucinich.us/schedule.htm
Flyby News Support
For anyone wanting to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, please send donations payable to:
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading and your support for independent news.
All donations strictly used ONLY toward defraying expenses.
Wish List -- toner cartridge for a Hewlett Packard LaserJet 5P printer.
Best wishes for all - seasons greetings - and a peaceful new year!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
BushTreason * KucinichPeaceIraq * Conspiracies
08 December 2003
1) Most Censored: 911 Widow's Bush Treason Suit Vanishes
2) 9/11 Commission - A Historical Whitewash?
3) Primary Importance -- How To Get Out Of Iraq
- - Deception by Omission
- - NY Times Magazine Vote Getters'
- - Gift Givers! "kringle boxes" & "The Peace Candidate"
4) Woodward Shooting: Evidence of a Dean Conspiracy?
5) Evidence indicates that Wellstone crash was no accident
6) The Public Execution Of John F. Kennedy
Editor's Notes:
First, let me extend my apologies for sending so much information in one issue. You will be challenged, but once in a while when an avalanche of news descends, digging out through what appears to be overwhelming can be an only choice. Yet the essence of Flyby News is the attempt to somehow get ahead of the curve of an accelerating destruction for humankind. Thus, the focus on the upcoming Democratic Primaries, the occupation in Iraq, and Dennis Kucinich to set a standard for excellence. Yet the first item shows us what sort of a mess we are really in with the ultimate control of mainstream media. Item 2 is a close second in this issue of media manipulation, and about how far away our government operates from the law and justice. But within item 3 and the Kucinich information, you will find an article that speaks of an individual transformation, and a great humility in recognizing the manipulation of smart people in the false pretense of claims that Kucinich is not electable.
Deception by Omission by Charley Cropley
The information in this issue in item 4 on the Robert Woodward shooting is critical and timely now to comprehend. The report by the organization, Justice for Woody, concluded: "..By refusing to pursue the evidence they possessed that Woodward was shot while down and then denied first aid, and instead putting forth a fraudulent homicide investigation, Governor Dean and William Sorrell conspired to obstruct the lawful application of justice in the matter of the police shooting of Robert Woodward."
Item 5 links to another bold article, which you will not find in the mainstream, regarding the "terminal accident" to Senator Paul Wellstone. Item 6 contains a couple of links regarding the evidence on a conspiracy that killed John F. Kennedy. The evidence is quite clear, unless one wants to believe the falsehoods promoted in the mainstream corporate-controlled media. These evidences and the information in Frank Dorrel's documentary film, "What I've Learned About U.S. Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World," show quite clearly that the government of the US is not truly a democracy, yet, but under the control of a corporate military [un]intelligence dictatorship.
I hope some of you watched or recorded NOW with Bill Moyers on PBS TV this week. The focus on military spending and endangerment is well worth researching, and Moyers cuts through the mustard for millions of people. You can see last Friday's program online from www.pbs.org/now/
Updated at FlybyNews.com under campaigns and events:
Black Box Voting -- This is a democracy-driven grassroots organization that has developed safeguards to prevent tampering with ballots. They've figured out ways to impede tampering with the voters themselves. But DO NOT YET have adequate safeguards to prevent the most dangerous election-rigging of all: Tampering with programmers, vendors and technicians! Why has everything changed, and what are the dangers to Democracy?
BlackBoxVoting.org reported -- Wednesday Nov 26, 2003
"Thanks, Rep. Kucinich: Diebold withdraws in the legal fight over the memos!
The EFF lawsuit could have gone either way, but there was no winning the battle against a powerful congressman, and presidential candidate, like the Honorable Rep. Dennis Kucinich.
To learn more visit BlackBoxVoting.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For Dennis Kucinich's schedule (in NH this week), see:
kucinich.us/schedule.php
Please Note:
ABC Presidential Candidate Debate moderated by Ted Koppel at UNH,
Johnson Theater, Durham, NH 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., will be covered by ABC TV in NH, C-span, and will be reported on Nightline 11:30 p.m. this Tuesday!
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
In last issue of Flyby News, we corrected information regarding the published report in Encyclopedia Britannica in the mid 1960's. Flyby News published that it was the tri-axial dimensions, but the corrected published measurement was for the distances of the two moons, Phobos and Deimos, in relationship with Mars. But the challenge still stands. Can anyone explain a better explanation than Bart Jordan's for the publication of these distances?
1) Most Censored: 911 Widow's Bush Treason Suit Vanishes
Mariani Lawsuit using RICO Act Disappears From Media!
911 Widow's Bush Treason Suit Vanishes
By W. David Kubiak
12-5-3
"The decision 'not to do the story' appears to be multiplying all over the nation." -- Fred Powledge, ACLU
"Whoever said 'no news is good news,' was BADLY misinformed."
-- Dan Rather
Think you're already amazed, alarmed or appalled enough by the state of US journalism today? Chew on this a while and think again.
Grieving New Hampshire widow who lost her man on 9/11 refuses the government's million dollar hush money payoff, studies the facts of the day for nearly two years, and comes to believe the White House "intentionally allowed 9/11 to happen" to launch a so-called "War on Terrorism" for personal and political gain.
She retains a prominent lawyer, a former Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania, who served with distinction under both Democrats and Republicans and was once a strong candidate for the governor's seat.
The attorney files a 62-page complaint in federal district court (including 40 pages of prima facie evidence) charging that "President Bush and officials including, but not limited to Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Ashcroft and Tenet"
1.) had adequate foreknowledge of 9-11 yet failed to warn the county
or attempt to prevent it;
2.) have since been covering up the truth of that day;
3.) have therefore abetted the murder of plaintiff's husband
and violated the Constitution and multiple laws of the United States;
4.) are thus being sued under the Civil RICO (Racketeering,
Influence, and Corrupt Organization) Act for malfeasant conspiracy,
obstruction of justice and wrongful death.
The suit text goes on to document the detailed fore-warnings from foreign governments and FBI agents; the unprecedented delinquency of our air defense; the inexplicable half hour dawdle of our Commander in Chief at a primary school after hearing the nation was under deadly attack; the incessant invocation of national security and executive privilege to suppress the facts; and the obstruction of all subsequent efforts to investigate the disaster. It concludes that "compelling evidence will be presented in this case through discovery, subpoena power, and testimony [that] Defendants failed to act and prevent 9/11 knowing the attacks would lead to??| an 'International War on Terror' which would benefit Defendants both financially and politically."
Press releases detailing these explosive allegations are sent out to 3000 journalists in the print and broadcast media, and a press conference to announce the filing is held in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia on November 26th commemorating the end of the first futile year of the independent National 9/11 Commission).
Imagine the world-churning implications of these charges. Imagine the furor if just one was proved true. Imagine the courage of this bribe-shunning widow and an eminent attorney with his rep on the line. Then imagine a press conference to which nobody came.
(Well, more precisely, imagine a press conference at which only FOX News appears, tapes for 40 minutes, and never airs an inch.)
Now imagine the air time, column inches and talk show hysteria that same night devoted to the legal hassles of Michael, Kobe, and Scott Peterson, and divide that by the attention paid to our little case of mass murder, war profiteering and treason. (OK, this is really a trick question because no number divided by zero yields any answers whatsoever, which evidently in this case is the result preferred.)
When you present documented charges of official treachery behind the greatest national security disaster in modern history and the press doesn't show, doesn't listen, doesn't write - just what in fact is really being communicated? That despite all the deaths, lies, wars, and bizarre official actions that flowed from 9/11 there's actually nothing there to be investigated at all? That addressing desperate victim families' still unanswered cries for truth is not a legitimate journalistic concern? That news will now be what the corporate media say it will be, so drink your infotainment Kool-Aid and kindly shut up?
(While the 9/11 blackout is the most flagrant sign of current media dysfunction, it hardly stands alone. Where, for example, was our free and fearless press when Pentagon power-broker Richard Perle confessed to a London audience last month that yes indeed, our war on Iraq was illegal as hell? He calmly explained that "in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing??| [it] would have required us to leave Saddam Hussein alone, and this would have been morally unacceptable."
(Guardian/UK, 11/20/03) And what news have we seen of the thousands of Depleted Uranium deaths and birth defects now desolating Afghani, Iraqis and our own Gulf War troops? And whose looking into the $1.2 trillion the Pentagon admits is "missing" or the half trillion in laundered funds now propping up our banks? And how many times have you seen it reported that unbid Iraq contracts have pushed the worth of VP Cheney's 433,333 Halliburton stock options to $26 million plus? But to return to 9/11, the funny business has just begun. If you thought press performance after JFK's death was a cynical farce, you ain't seen nothing yet.)
A few years back Harold Evans of the London Sunday Times, observed that the challenge facing American newspapers "is not to stay in business -- it is to stay in journalism.'' As corporations' authoritarian, profit-driven consciousness comes to dominate both media and governance, you can expect a lot more serial celebrity scandals and even less news on the way things work or anything that really counts.
There is a clear method and message in this obscurantist madness. All this media consolidation and tightening control is strategically aligned with deregulation, privatization, social program-gutting deficits and free trade regimes. They are all convergent tactics to enforce corporations' full spectrum dominance over democratic humankind. If your progressive or conservative instincts bid you to arise against this coup, standing with our 9/11 widow is a good place to start. Her name is Ellen Mariani, her lawyer is Phillip Berg and their complaint is now online at:
nancho.net/911/mariani.html
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
911 Victim Ellen Mariani Open Letter To The POTUS
Thursday, 27 November 2003, 136 pm
Press Release: Ellen Mariani Lawsuit
scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0311/S00262.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
News Conference Wednesday - 11/26/03 12 Noon
911 Victim's Wife, Ellen Mariani, files RICO Act
[Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act]
Federal Court Complaint against President Bush and Cabinet Members
scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0311/S00261.htm
2) 9/11 Commission - A Historical Whitewash?
Insight on the News - National
Issue: 12/09/03
A Historical Whitewash?
By Kelly Patricia O Meara
Receiving a subpoena in Washington is becoming as common as "credible but nonspecific" terrorist threats, and few are more likely to be issuing them than the bipartisan 10-member commission set up by Congress to investigate the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The problem for the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the 9/11 Commission) is that Nov. 27 marks its first anniversary and time is running out before the May deadline for filing its report. The 9/11 Commission was allotted 18 months and $14 million to investigate the circumstances that produced the Sept. 11 attacks, but commission insiders say the federal agencies with the most information haven't been cooperating.
For the complete article and reference links, see.
insightmag.com/news/565658.html
3) Primary Importance -- How To Get Out Of Iraq
- - Deception by Omission
- - NY Times Magazine Vote Getters'
- - Gift Givers! "kringle boxes" & "The Peace Candidate"
Democratic Hopeful Kucinich Promotes Candidacy As Chance To Get Out Of Iraq'
By MADISON J. GRAY
Associated Press Writer
December 2, 2003, 7:10 PM EST
NEW YORK -- Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich said Tuesday his candidacy represents the only opportunity voters will have to voice their support for a swift end to the United States' involvement in Iraq.
The Ohio representative, who ranks behind most democratic candidates in state and national polls, has been a consistent critic of President Bush's policy in Iraq and has accused other Democrats of wavering in their opposition to the war.
On Tuesday, he reiterated his position, saying the U.S. should withdraw from Iraq and let the United Nations administer and rebuild the country.
"Ending the occupation in Iraq is going to be the defining issue in the Democratic primaries," Kucinich said at a news conference. "And I'm standing alone right now with a plan to get out of Iraq within 90 days, but it involves going to the U.N. and taking a new approach."
"All this presence in Iraq is helping Al Qaeda," he said. "It's making the terrorists stronger, not weaker."
Speaking against the privatization of Iraq's oil industry, Kucinich said the United Nations should manage the country's oil reserves and distribute the oil wealth to the Iraqi people.
Kucinich also spoke about his plan to overhaul the nation's healthcare system and replace it with a universal healthcare program.
"Right now the insurance companies own us," Kucinich said. "They can raise copays and deductibles, they can limit your area of coverage.
"It doesn't matter who you are they have control. I'm talking about taking control away from the insurance companies and putting it in the hands of the American people."
Copyright 2003, The Associated Press
www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny--democrats-kucinic1202dec02,0,4422174,print.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Kucinich Alone Against an Occupation"
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 25, 2003
kucinich.us/pressreleases/pr_112503.php
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Deception by Omission
The following was posted by the NH Peace Action [nhpeaceaction@yahoogroups.com] list with the note:
"(challenging to the peace movement and worth reading)"
Deception by Omission
by Charley Cropley
Nov. 8, 2003
[Excerpt]
I am amazed and frightened to have discovered only days ago how successfully and subtly my perceptions and my sense of personal power are manipulated by our media. Until then I considered myself well aware of the media's motives and methods and therefore immune to their manipulation. However I have been more profoundly deceived and disempowered than I had thought possible. My deception runs deep; the consequences enormous.
I have come to recognize my deeper, more dangerous level of deception through a process of inquiring into why so many of my friends think Dennis Kucinich is not electable. Among my friends most say "Yes, nobody better represents me than Dennis Kucinich. But I don't think he's electable." I kept asking my friends "Why? Please explain to me why you think that." I have not heard a single answer that is even slightly satisfying, even from my more intelligent and politically informed friends.
I love those moments when I recognize that something doesn't make sense to me. When I see clearly that I simply do not understand something and I need to investigate it more thoroughly. I reached that place with regard to Dennis being "not electable." I realized that I did not understand what the term "not electable" actually means. "Why?" I asked myself. "Why is he "not electable"? What specifically makes him not electable?"
Only months ago I had never heard of Dennis Kucinich. Lila Sophia Tresemer was the first person that spoke to me of how genuinely moved she was by him. Although I highly respect Lila I thought to myself that somewhere, somehow this man must be another new age candidate without a chance. It was precisely because I'd never heard of him that caused me to assume he must lack something. I wasn't sure what it was, but there must be some reason that I'd not even heard of him. It was hard for me to imagine that someone whose name I'd never heard could be a serious candidate for president.
So I began to educate myself about Dennis' life and political history. What I learned about this man appeared to be anything other than "not electable". In fact he seemed almost heroic, possessing seemingly unimpeachable integrity. I felt gratitude and a rekindling of hope that somehow such a candidate actually existed within our political system; that there actually was an electable candidate who represented my longings as accurately as Dennis Kucinich. I became satisfied that the label "not electable" does not match with Dennis Kucinich nor anything he has ever said or done. It is inaccurate. It is a lie..
Dennis Kucinich is THE leading political spokesperson for the movements for global peace, environmental protection, economic justice, social justice, living wages, universal health care and education. Any other democratic candidate would be more acceptable to corporate America than Dennis Kucinich. In comparison to Dennis all the other "electable" candidates pale in the scope of reform they offer. The business of global war, environmental destruction and economic terrorism will carry on undisturbed under their presidencies.
His exclusion from coverage by major media is precisely because he is supremely electable. Dennis Kucinich is the single greatest threat to George Bush. He is the one candidate who when he is heard appeals to the intelligence, compassion and goodness of America. There is no one else even in his league. Listen to him and judge for yourself. You cannot understand who this man is through the media. Get a video and watch him. He will stir your heart to believe again in the possibility that our nation can change profoundly. You will feel the opportunity to make a difference in our government that had previously seemed impossible to you. You will want to get involved, and you would, except for one thing you know he's "not electable".
For the complete article, and please consider forwarding, see:
Deception by Omission by Charley Cropley
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - NY Times Magazine Vote Getters'
Re: Sunday November 30, 2003
New York Times Magazine
Vote Getters
Leading designers made a visual statement for candidates of their choice that were published in last Sunday's NY Times Magazine. The first poster was on Dennis Kucinich, and created by George Lois, who is responsible for the creation of "..many of Esquire's revolutionary magazine covers in the 1960's. He came up with the "I Want My MTV" campaign and the name Lean Cuisine. His previous campaign experience includes working for several senatorial campaigns, including Jacob Javits's in 1962 and Robert F. Kennedy's in 1964.
Morally I think Kucinich is incredible. He makes a point in saying forcefully that he does not believe the lies of the Bush administration. And his name presents possibilities. He has two i's in his name, which led me to think of the line, The eyes that see through the lies.' The subtext is, We have a blind president, and I am running against a bunch of other candidates who didn't understand that they were being conned. This is a very touch political statement for this time. As for the button, I think just saying Kucinich means courage' adds another element to what he is about. His name's hard to say, but you can use that to your advantage when you say Kucinich means something.'"
To see and download poster, see:
Vote Getters
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Gift Givers! "Kringle boxes" & "The Peace Candidate"
Send the folks on your xmas list a gift-wrapped package of 2 videos. We'll do the wrapping, packaging, and shipping for you! All for $15! See online order form below. (We'll try to help out anyone who is having financial difficulties.)
VHS tape of "This is the Moment" [Kucinich 30 minute campaign video.]
[www.kucinich.us]
DVD (or VHS tape) of
What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World
[www.addictedtowar.com/dorrel.html]
Volunteers are standing by to process your Kringle boxes
Orders will be ready to ship by Monday, 12/8 - at the latest. All packages will be shipped USPS Priority Mail, in heavy-duty cardboard boxes.
You submit your order and provide the name and mailing address of your recipient(s). We will gift-wrap and send off your order within 2 days of receiving it. We'll even include a note card.
To order and/or for more details, visit:
www.massforkucinich.us/whatworks/ww-cringle.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Help distribute the new Kucinich video, "The Peace Candidate"
(a film by Malachi Roth), on VHS
This video chronicles two days Kucinich spent in New York City during the opening weeks of the war as he spoke out on campus, at gatherings, and at the United Nations. The money from the purchase of this film, including shipping and handling, counts as a Kucinich for President campaign contribution. Also available at a discount in packs of ten for $100. Two ways you can help the Kucinich for President campaign end the occupation and bring the troops home: buy copies as gifts for friends, or use this video to host house parties.
To order your copy and download a flyer to distribute, see:
"The Peace Candidate"
4) Woodward Shooting: Evidence of a Dean Conspiracy?
The Robert Woodward Shooting:
Evidence of a Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice
Version 1: released November 26, 2003
[Excerpt - the conclusion of this detailed report reads]:
B. Governor Dean and Attorney General Sorrell Conspired to Obstruct Justice
The homicide investigation conducted by Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell consistently avoided collecting, analyzing, or pursuing the evidence that Woodward was shot after falling and then denied medical care.
Sorrell characterized his investigation as "competent" and "diligent," while carefully hiding compelling evidence of police wrongdoing.
Governor Dean was the only official above the Vermont Attorney General who was capable of initiating an independent, unbiased investigation.
Governor Dean stated that he was "comfortable with" Sorrell's investigation, and refused repeated calls for an investigation independent of Vermont law enforcement.
By refusing to pursue the evidence they possessed that Woodward was shot while down and then denied first aid, and instead putting forth a fraudulent homicide investigation, Governor Dean and William Sorrell conspired to obstruct the lawful application of justice in the matter of the police shooting of Robert Woodward. "
For the above complete report, see:
www.justiceforwoody.org/cases/obstruction/obstruction_v1.html
At following URL you can also find links to Woodwards' Civil Case, the State's (Non)Case, the (elusive) investigation by the FBI and Department of Justice, and more, see:
www.justiceforwoody.org/cases/obstruction/index.html
For general information visit Justice for Woody Homepage www.justiceforwoody.net
5) Evidence indicates that Wellstone crash was no accident
Posted on Thu, Nov. 20, 2003 by the DuluthNewsTribune.com
Evidence indicates that Wellstone crash was no accident
Point of View by JIM FETZER
One man's opinion: Evidence indicates that Wellstone crash was no accident
For nearly a year now, evidence has been accumulating about the event that ended the life of this magnificent human being. Whatever caused the crash was not the plane, the pilots or the weather. In spite of what you may have heard, the plane was exceptional, the pilots well-qualified and the weather posed no significant problems. Even the National Transportation Safety Board's own simulations of the plane, the pilots and the weather were unable to bring the plane down.
This means we have to consider other, less palatable, alternatives, such as small bombs, gas canisters or electromagnetic pulse, radio frequency or High Energy Radio Frequency weapons designed to overwhelm electrical circuitry with an intense electromagnetic field. An abrupt cessation of communication between the plane and the tower took place at about 10:18 a.m., the same time an odd cell phone phenomenon occurred with a driver in the immediate vicinity. This suggests to me the most likely explanation is that one of our new electromagnetic weapons was employed.
The politics of the situation were astonishing. The senator was pulling away from the hand-picked candidate of the Bush machine. Its opportunity to seize control of the U.S. Senate was slipping from its grasp. Its vaunted "invincibility" was being challenged by an outspoken critic of its most basic values. Targeted for elimination, he was going to survive. Here's one man's opinion: Under such conditions, the temptation to take him out may have been irresistible.
For the complete editorial, see:
Evidence indicates that Wellstone crash was no accident
or
http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2003/11/18649.php
JIM FETZER, a professor in the philosophy department at University of Minnesota Duluth, is the editor of three books on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy: "Assassination Science: Experts Speak Out on the Death of JFK" (October 1997); "Murder in Dealey Plaza: What We Know Now that We Didn't Know Then" (August 2000); "The Great Zapruder Film Hoax: Deceit and Deception in the Death of JFK" (September 2003).
= = = =
The official version recently attributed Wellstone's accident to pilot error, in not recognizing the plane excessively slowed down to a dangerous point!
Following is a November 18, 2003 report from CBS News:
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/18/national/main584299.shtml
6) The Public Execution Of John F. Kennedy
Skolnick: The Public Execution Of John F. Kennedy
www.rense.com/general44/overthrow.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
also see: "Conspiracy Dismissed: 40 Years Later"
Published on Saturday, November 22, 2003 by CommonDreams.org
Conspiracy Dismissed: 40 Years Later,
The Media Digs a Deeper Grave
by Andrew Christie
www.commondreams.org/views03/1122-08.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
From the Wilderness Publications
The Kennedys, Physical Evidence, and 9/11
by Michael C. Ruppert, see:
www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/112603_kennedy.html
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
CO2 Warning * Woody * Bart'sMeasure * AboutIraq
28 November 2003
1) Global Warming Gas Seen Increasing Dramatically
- - New View of Data Supports Human Link to Global Warming
2) Crimes Against Nature
3) Greenpeace Forest Campaign Urgent Update
4) Commemoration -- Woody -- December 2nd
5) Bart Jordan: "Measure Man's Mind and Mind Man's Measure"
6) December 7: "Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War"
Editor's Notes:
Item one points to new data on Global Warming. Now there is more data on the Global Warming gas CO2 is the increase, dramatically, and there is new data supporting the human link to the dangerous warming of Earth. Some of this information was received from another excellent news resource: TVNewsLies.org.
Item 2 is an article by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., critiquing the Bush administration's record of degrading our environment.
A recent urgent Green Peace alert is in item 3 on protecting rainforests, and the opposition threatening activists and the law in our best mutual interests.
Item four is a press release on a Silent March in commemoration on the second anniversary (police-shooting) death of my friend, Woody, Robert Woodward. There are too many questions left unresolved in this tragic case, including Howard Dean's participation in denying a fair investigation.
In item 5 this issue includes a final statement from a paper Bart Jordan called "Measure Man's Mind and Mind Man's Measure," published in the Journal of the New England Antiquities Research Association, Volume # 14, Spring 1985. Bart Jordan's information continues to stand as the best and perhaps only explanation for the source of the distances of the moons of Mars related to this planet. This information was published in the Encyclopedia Britannica in the mid 1960's, years before NASA could confirm. Within the next year and a half, Bart Jordan plans to publish a new paper showing how he derived numbers from alphabets that show advanced measures from ancient languages. It took a Cassini Earth flyby and an independent Flyby News to uncover someone like Bart Jordan. Keep attune for more on this unfolding story of lost eras coming out into the open.
Item six is from MoveOn.org for an event on December 7, this upcoming anniversary day of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. MoveOn is supporting a grassroots awareness and response to lies told to us by the Bush administration. Check the link from this item to find events and house parties perhaps near where you live. Catch a screening of the film, "Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War." .
"In mindful time past, we honoured our grandparents;
in mindless time present, we threaten our grandchildren."
Bart Jordan
1) Global Warming Gas Seen Increasing Dramatically
- - New View of Data Supports Human Link to Global Warming
Global Warming Gas Seen Increasing Dramatically
Wed November 19, 2003 09:18 PM ET
By Jeff Franks
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Worldwide emissions of carbon dioxide, considered a culprit in global warming, are expected to increase by 3.5 billion tonnes, or 50 percent, annually by the year 2020, an executive for ExxonMobil Corp said on Wednesday.
At the same time, global demand for energy will rise by 40 percent as the world population increases and economies grow, said Randy Broiles, global planning manager for Exxon's oil and gas production unit.
"Between now and 2020 we estimate increases of some 3.5 billion tonnes per year of additional carbon emissions, so it's definitely increasing," Broiles said at an energy conference sponsored by accounting and consulting firm Deloitte.
He said about 7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, which is a byproduct of burning fossil fuels, go into the earth's atmosphere each year from power plants, cars and other sources.
Experts say the United States, which has the world's largest economy and 4 percent of its population, is responsible for about 25 percent of so-called "greenhouse" gases now produced, but Broiles said most future growth in output will come from developing countries.
"Eighty percent of that number, 80 percent of 3.5 billion tonnes, is going to be driven by those developing countries, those economies that are growing at the 4 to 5 percent range, so that's where it's coming from," he said.
A huge increase in the number of cars will cause part of the pollution growth.
Broiles said there are now 15 cars for every 1,000 people in the world, but ExxonMobil expects that number to rise to 50 cars per 1,000 by 2020.
He said ExxonMobil foresees a 40 percent increase in energy demand even though humans are boosting their energy efficiency by about 1 percent a year. Despite advances in technology most energy will still come from fossil fuels, and in particular oil and gas, of which there remain very large reserves, he said.
"The oil resource base is huge -- it's huge -- and we expect it to satisfy world demand growth well beyond 2020," he said.
Copyright Reuters 2003.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=3856787&fromEmail=true
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - New View of Data Supports Human Link to Global Warming
"One of the last gaps in the evidence pointing to a human cause for global warming appears to be closing.- The result is more consensus than ever that emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases are noticeably altering climate."
Published in the New York Times
November 18, 2003
New View of Data Supports Human Link to Global Warming
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
For the URL link, see:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/18/science/earth/18CLIM.html?ex=1070205348&ei=1&en=f3c3ca17d85ff4ed
2) Crimes Against Nature
Crimes Against Nature
Bush is sabotaging the laws that have protected America's environment for more than thirty years
By Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
George W. Bush will go down in history as America's worst environmental president. In a ferocious three-year attack, the Bush administration has initiated more than 200 major rollbacks of America's environmental laws, weakening the protection of our country's air, water, public lands and wildlife. Cloaked in meticulously crafted language designed to deceive the public, the administration intends to eliminate the nation's most important environmental laws by the end of the year. Under the guidance of Republican pollster Frank Luntz, the Bush White House has actively hidden its anti-environmental program behind deceptive rhetoric, telegenic spokespeople, secrecy and the intimidation of scientists and bureaucrats. The Bush attack was not entirely unexpected. George W. Bush had the grimmest environmental record of any governor during his tenure in Texas. Texas became number one in air and water pollution and in the release of toxic chemicals. In his six years in Austin, he championed a short-term pollution-based prosperity, which enriched his political contributors and corporate cronies by lowering the quality of life for everyone else. Now President Bush is set to do the same to America. After three years, his policies are already bearing fruit, diminishing standards of living for millions of Americans.
http://www.rollingstone.com/features/nationalaffairs/featuregen.asp?pid=2154&reset=true
3) Greenpeace Forest Campaign Urgent Update
November 28, 2003
Three hundred loggers from Porto de Moz in the Amazon surrounded the Greenpeace vessel MV Arctic Sunrise earlier this week, and local forest activists were threatened with attacks that sent them fleeing for sanctuary. As of today the situation is still highly dangerous. We need your help to strengthen the support of Brazil's federal government.
The protest and threats were aimed not only against Greenpeace, which has been exposing illegal logging in the region, but against the Brazilian Environmental agency (IBAMA)'s attempt to enforce the laws of Brazil as well. In an action a few days ago our activists discovered a barge full of illegal logs in a remote riverside harbour. Activists painted "Crime" on 6,000 cubic metres of logs, and marked the area with yellow tape as a "Forest Crime" scene. Inspectors from IBAMA, the Brazilian Environmental agency, are currently active in the region. Inspectors working along the Transamazonian highway were trapped in their hotel last week when they were surrounded by 300 armed loggers.
Loggers were provoked to protest by a local radio station, saying they were "cowards" if they didn't chase Greenpeace out. The radio station is owned by the mayor of this small town, who also controls the largest logging operation in the region.
There are two things you can do to help with this extremely urgent and dangerous situation.
First, send a letter to Brazilian president Lula da Silva asking him to support his own government officials and local citizens:
http://act.greenpeace.org/ams/e?a=1087&s=gen
Second, make an urgent phone call or send a fax to your local Brazilian embassy. There is a list of Brazilian embassy information here:
http://guardians.greenpeace.org/posting/1070008692
To get more involved in the campaign, become a Greenpeace Forest Guardian:
http://guardians.greenpeace.org/m
You can read more about Forest Guardians here:
http://guardians.greenpeace.org/posting/1069082974
4) Commemoration -- Woody -- December 2nd
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Commemoration of the second anniversary of the death of Robert "Woody" Woodward to be held on December 2, 2003
(December 2, 2003): Two years ago Robert Woodward was brutally gunned down by Brattleboro police officers Marshall Holbrook and Terrance Parker while seeking political sanctuary in a church. Woodward spoke of threats against his life by federal agents, and held a small knife to his eye, threatening suicide if he was left alone. The police fired seven bullets into Woodward's body within 60 seconds of entering the church, most of which were fired after he was downed. Four months later, these police officers were exonerated in a fraudulent and biased investigation by state Attorney General William Sorrell. Howard Dean, at that time Governor of Vermont, refused to appoint an independent investigator, stating that he was "comfortable" with Sorrell's findings.
It is a widely known fact that William Sorrell's family was instrumental in the launching of Howard Dean's political career and the two are lifelong friends. To date, no criminal charges have been filed against either police officer, although 17 out of 18 church eyewitnesses questioned insist that Woody never threatened anyone but himself. A civil law suit against the town of Brattleboro is pending.
WHAT: Silent March through downtown Brattleboro that will commence at the Brattleboro Food Co-op parking lot and proceed to the police station/municipal center
WHEN: December 2, 2003, beginning at 12:00 noon until 2 p.m.
WHERE: Meet at the Brattleboro Food Co-op parking lot @ the intersection of Rts119 and Rt 5 (Main St.) We will march up Main St to the Police Station/Municipal Building
WHO: Justice for Woody, friends, and concerned citizens
P.O. Box 802; Amherst, Massachusetts 01004-0802
Press Contacts:
Paul Borneo Tel. 413-367-2444, Ellen Berrios: berriosfamily@comcast.net or Keith Carlson: maryandkeith@comcast.net
Justice for Woody was founded in the aftermath of Robert ("Woody") Woodward's unnecessary fatal shooting at the hands of Brattleboro police officers Marshall Holbrook and Terrance Parker. JFW seeks justice in the Woodward case and police reform in Brattleboro. JFW works alongside other organizations throughout the country seeking to end the use of excessive force, wrongful death, and racial profiling by police. JFW also works to preserve and restore civil rights.
For further information, please visit our website
www.justiceforwoody.net
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The following links to a letter by Mary Rives printed in the Valley Advocate on the first anniversary:
http://valleyadvocate.com/gbase/News/content.html?oid=oid:676
5) Bart Jordan: "Measure Man's Mind and Mind Man's Measure"
The following is the final statement from a paper Bart Jordan wrote called
"Measure Man's Mind and Mind Man's Measure"
published in the Journal of the New England Antiquities Research Association, Volume # 14, Spring 1985.
"Patient reader: we all know that musicians are supposed to emote and not think. However, before leaving you with this minor statement of major systems, this truncated report inviting a thousand queries, allow this musician some emotive thoughts about Man's personal measure. From my former articles and foregoing account, it can be seen that much of what we are now may be measured against what we were then. And it is just this matter of measure that must be understood the "we" of then and now.
We are historic; we were prehistoric. How do we measure ourselves? Our intellectual present versus our intuitive past? Originality versus aboriginality? Such notions as present Man is matchless and past Man is witless have little validity and less virtue. There is a difference between hidden harmony and apparent harmony, between mentality and ornamentality, between a thinking individual and a thoughtless society. In mindful time past, we honoured our grandparents; in mindless time present, we threaten our grandchildren.
Where are the measures of yesteryear? Blue Winter Mother, Green Spring Daughter, Yellow Year Person, Orange Autumn Son, Red Summer Father a bow has been set in the cloud, a covenant made with the Earth. There be a message in these measures for a man's family and for the Family of Man:
Love Creation and Created
Honour Moon, Sun, and Planet
Obey Time and Space
Obey Sound and Light
Honour Earth, Star, and Comet
Love Finite and Infinite
We have inherited more than the wind. We have a measure of Man's mind.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For information and resources on Bart Jordan, see:
www.flybynews.com/bartjordan/
For Flyby News updated page on Bart Jordan,
see under "Breaking News Stories" at FlybyNews.com
or following URL link:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1016656504,86884,
6) December 7: "Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War"
On the evening of December 7th, 2003, thousands of people around the country will gather to watch and discuss the new documentary: Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War.
www.truthuncovered.com/
Together, we'll strengthen the MoveOn community, get the truth out, and raise some money to make sure that people in key battleground states know the real story about how we went to war.
Interested in hosting a party? Click below, and we'll provide you with tools to manage your party and a guide to putting it together. You can just invite your friends and colleagues, or you can allow MoveOn members in your area to attend -- our software makes it easy to do either.
Host a party.
Find a party in your area:
Search within miles of your zip code:
See: http://action.moveon.org/meet/parties.html
For more on MoveOn: www.moveon.org
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
EnergyFlawed * JFK-Reserve * Edit911 * IranTrigger
21 November 2003
"Today, every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate
the day when this planet may no longer be habitable.
Every man, woman, and child lives
under a nuclear sword of Damocles,
hanging by the slenderest of threads,
capable of being cut at any moment by
accident or miscalculation or madness."
--John F. Kennedy
1) Candidates see energy bill as flawed
2) The Federal Reserve and JFK
3) Deal on 9/11 Briefings Lets White House Edit Papers
4) Richard Perle admits invasion was illegal
5) Gen. Franks Doubts Constitution Will Survive WMD Attack
6) Washington demands "triggers" for attack on Iran
Editor's Notes:
Candidates see energy bill as flawed' is item 1. Meanwhile the development of a 200kW Stirling engine gets stalled for lack of funding. Yet at least this technology exists that can one day significantly reduce pollution emissions. Item 2 is on subject of John F. Kennedy and the Federal Reserve. Saturday marks the 40th anniversary since JFK's assassination. Peter Jennings spent two hours spinning inconsistencies of the case and then supposedly proving that a conspiracy is nonexistent not for rational' people. The spin was almost laughable, if it were not quite so serious of an issue. The article in this item gives another incentive for a shadow government to want to off President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Kennedy signed an executive order that could take away the strangle-hold economic power of the US Federal Reserve. Item 3 is on the government getting editing rights over 9/11 documents? And for more news of the weirdest kind, in item 4, a London Guardian article reported on Richard Perle's admission that the US invasion was -- in deed -- illegal. But item 5 takes the cake -- General Tommy Franks doubts that the Constitution will survive a weapon of mass destruction attack. Time to wake up and do something, maybe to help register those non-registered to VOTE before it is too late. Time is growing short, as reported in the article in item 6 -- Washington demands "triggers" for attack on Iran. Watch out for those in power of the US government. They have been too quick on the trigger -- destabilizing the world for military and corporate totalitarianism.
Please note that updated at FlybyNews.com under Actions, Campaigns and Events' is a "Silent March for Woody" on December 2nd in Brattleboro, VT. Woody was a friend of mine that was gunned down by two police officers while seeking political asylum in a Church. We will be updating more on this 911-gone-mad case of police-over-reaction and a cover-up in dealing with a loss of life and integrity in a peaceful community. Justice was not served on December 2nd 2001 in Brattleboro, VT, with many unanswered questions. To learn more, visit justiceforwoody.org
On a side positive note, I am delighted to report that I heard from Bart Jordan. He will be sending us some more of his writings, and information to show how he correlated numbers from alphabets of ancient civilizations, providing advanced measurements in and beyond our planetary solar system. Flyby News first posted Bart Jordan's Commentary on the Cassini-Earth flyby on August 13, 1999. Bart Jordan's work with science: anthropology, astronomy, metrology (the art of measurement), his genius as a concert guitarist with Andres Segovia, his abilities with languages, beginning as a young child, brings together unimaginable unique features that behold a story about humankind and our solar system challenging us to awaken and see life and evolution in a whole new way.
For information that was posted by Bart Jordan, see:
flybynews.com/bartjordan/
"The problem is that such total, global American
military dominance would require a huge federal bureaucracy
And even worse:
It would require an essentially permanent state of war,
as well as a climate of fear at home --
leading to ever increasing levels of government power."
Congressman Bob Barr
August 7, 2002
1) Candidates see energy bill as flawed
"Kucinich is the only candidate so far to have voted against the bill."
Published in The Boston Globe
"Candidates see energy bill as flawed"
By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff, 11/21/2003
WASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential candidates are virtually united in their opposition to the energy bill before Congress, a position that could put the contenders on the defensive with Iowa farmers who stand to profit substantially from the legislation.
The complex mix of programs in the energy legislation pits different regions of the country against each other, including the competing interests of two early voting states, Iowa and New Hampshire.
Corn growers in Iowa like the bill, since it requires a doubling of the national use of ethanol, a gasoline additive made from corn.
Many political leaders in New Hampshire oppose a provision that protects producers of MTBE, another gasoline additive, from certain legal liability. New Hampshire and other jurisdictions have lawsuits pending against makers of MTBE, which has contaminated groundwater in the region; the pending bill would throw out those lawsuits.
''It's a terrible conundrum for them,'' said a Republican operative who asked not to be named. ''You cannot underestimate the importance of ethanol to the Midwest.''
Senators John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, John Edwards of North Carolina, and Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut have all announced their opposition to the bill. Former Vermont governor Howard Dean, retired Army General Wesley K. Clark, former senator Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, Representatives Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio, and Al Sharpton of New York are also opposed to the bill, although Gephardt missed the House vote on the bill because he was campaigning on Wednesday.
''It is a mistake,'' Dean said when asked in New Mexico about the energy bill. ''It's bad for the country and great for big corporations, which is the hallmark of the Bush administration.'' Dean said he was in favor of such renewable energies as ethanol and biodiesel, but said ''we can get [them] without having to give $20 billion to the oil and gas interests.''
Kucinich is the only candidate so far to have voted against the bill. Two of the three sitting senators, however, may not show up today for what is expected to be a very close vote to block a threatened filibuster of the bill. Kerry is scheduled to file his candidacy papers in New Hampshire, and an Edwards spokesman said he did not know if Edwards would be in Washington for the vote. Lieberman is taking a red-eye flight back from California for the roll call, a spokeswoman said last night. ''I am tired of them coming up here and telling us what they stand for, and then not going to vote,'' said Jan Pendlebury, New Hampshire director for the National Environmental Trust.
Technically, the three senators' votes would not be needed to uphold a filibuster, since the onus is on the bill's supporters to produce 60 votes to end debate, spokesmen for Kerry and Edwards said.
Ethanol use is an important issue for corn producers. Doubling production ''would raise corn prices, increase the cash to farmers, and create jobs,'' said Lucy Norton, an official with the Iowa Corn Growers Association.
Corn growers ''are an isolated sector of the economy'' and more Republican-leaning, said Dennis Goldford, chairman of the department of politics and international relations at Drake University in Iowa. ''Are these people the Democrats would expect to get votes from anyway?''
Sarah Schweitzer of the Globe staff contributed to this report from New Mexico.
This story ran on page A5 of the Boston Globe on 11/21/2003.
Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/articles/2003/11/21/candidates_see_energy_bill_as_flawed/
2) The Federal Reserve and JFK
President Kennedy, the Federal Reserve and Executive Order 11110
by Cedric X
From The Final Call, Vol15, No.6, on January 17, 1996 (USA)
On June 4, 1963, a little known attempt was made to strip the Federal Reserve Bank of its power to loan money to the government at interest. On that day President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order No. 11110 that returned to the U.S. government the power to issue currency, without going through the Federal Reserve. Mr. Kennedy's order gave the Treasury the power "to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury."
This meant that for every ounce of silver in the U.S. Treasury's vault, the government could introduce new money into circulation. In all, Kennedy brought nearly $4.3 billion in U.S. notes into circulation. The ramifications of this bill are enormous.
With the stroke of a pen, Mr. Kennedy was on his way to putting the Federal Reserve Bank of New York out of business. If enough of these silver certificates were to come into circulation they would have eliminated the demand for Federal Reserve notes. This is because the silver certificates are backed by silver and the Federal Reserve notes are not backed by anything.
Executive Order 11110 could have prevented the national debt from reaching its current level, because it would have given the government the ability to repay its debt without going to the Federal Reserve and being charged interest in order to create the new money. Executive Order 11110 gave the U.S. the ability to create its own money backed by silver.
After Mr. Kennedy was assassinated just five months later, no more silver certificates were issued. The Final Call has learned that the Executive Order was never repealed by any U.S. President through an Executive Order and is still valid. Why then has no president utilized it? Virtually all of the nearly $6 trillion in debt has been created since 1963, and if a U.S. president had utilized Executive Order 11110 the debt would be nowhere near the current level. Perhaps the assassination of JFK was a warning to future presidents who would think to eliminate the U.S. debt by eliminating the Federal Reserve's control over the creation of money. Mr. Kennedy challenged the government of money by challenging the two most successful vehicles that have ever been used to drive up debt - war and the creation of money by a privately-owned central bank. His efforts to have all troops out of Vietnam by 1965 and Executive Order 11110 would have severely cut into the profits and control of the New York banking establishment. As America's debt reaches unbearable levels and a conflict emerges in Bosnia that will further increase America's debt, one is force to ask, will President Clinton have the courage to consider utilizing Executive Order 11110 and, if so, is he willing to pay the ultimate price for doing so?
Executive Order 11110 AMENDMENT OF EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 10289
For the complete article, see:
http://www.john-f-kennedy.net/executiveorder11110.htm
3) Deal on 9/11 Briefings Lets White House Edit Papers
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/14/national/14TERR.html
November 14, 2003
Deal on 9/11 Briefings Lets White House Edit Papers
By PHILIP SHENON
WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 The commission investigating the Sept. 11 terror attacks said on Thursday that its deal with the White House for access to highly classified Oval Office intelligence reports would let the White House edit the documents before they were released to the commission's representatives.
The agreement, announced on Wednesday, has led to the first public split on the commission. Two Democrats on the 10-member panel say that the commission should have demanded full access to the intelligence summaries, known as the President's Daily Brief, and that the White House should not be allowed to determine what is relevant to the investigation.
An umbrella group of victims' families joined the criticism, saying the terms of the accord should be public.
While spokesmen for panel refused again to provide the terms, citing the sensitivity of the talks with the White House, its executive director acknowledged that the White House would be able to remove information from the reports unrelated to Al Qaeda and to the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
"An entire P.D.B. will have articles about China, South Africa, Venezuela," the executive director, Philip D. Zelikow, said in an interview. "The notion that the commission should want to read P.D.B. articles that have nothing to do with Al Qaeda would be a novel suggestion. The commission has not asked to see the country's most sensitive intelligence information on China or North Korea."
A Democrat on the panel who has criticized the accord, former Representative Timothy J. Roemer of Indiana, said in an interview that he believed that the panel had agreed to terms that would let the White House edit the reports to remove the contexts in which the intelligence was presented and to hide any "smoking guns."
"The President's Daily Brief can run 9 to 12 pages long," Mr. Roemer said. "But under this agreement, the commission will be allowed to see only specific articles or paragraphs within the P.D.B.'s. Our members may see only two or three paragraphs out of a nine-page report."
He said the commission should have insisted on access to the full reports, because "you need the context of how the P.D.B. was presented to the president in order to determine whether or not there were smoking guns."
The other Democratic critic on the panel, former Senator Max Cleland of Georgia, has described the agreement as unconscionable.
Administration officials have acknowledged that they are concerned that intelligence reports received by Mr. Bush in the weeks before 9/11 might be construed to suggest that the White House failed to respond to evidence suggesting that Al Qaeda was planning a catastrophic attack. The White House acknowledged last year in response to news reports that a copy of the Daily Brief in August 2001 noted that Al Qaeda might use hijacked planes in an attack.
Commission officials have said that under the agreement the panel will be able to designate four members to read the reports. They will be allowed to take notes on the documents, and the White House will be allowed to review and edit the notes to remove especially sensitive information.
In its statement, the victims' family group, the Family Steering Committee, said the agreement would "prevent a full uncovering of the truth and is unacceptable." The group is led by many advocates who were most responsible for pressuring Congress to create the commission last year over the initial objections of the White House.
"As it now stands, a limited number of commissioners will have restricted access to a limited number of P.D.B. documents," the group said. "The commission should issue a statement to the American public fully explaining why this agreement was chosen in lieu of issuing subpoenas to the C.I.A. and executive branch."
The group said, "All 10 commissioners should have full, unfettered and unrestricted access to all evidence, including but not limited to all Presidential Daily Briefings."
A spokesman for the group, Kristen Breitweiser, whose husband, Ronald, was killed at the World Trade Center, said the families were alarmed that the terms of the accord were kept secret.
`'I think this entire deal needs to be explained to the public," Ms. Breitweiser said. "This is an independent commission that is supposed to be transparent, that is supposed to be open."
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/14/national/14TERR.html
4) Richard Perle admits invasion was illegal
"War critics astonished as US hawk admits invasion was illegal"
Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger in Washington
Thursday November 20, 2003
The Guardian
International lawyers and anti-war campaigners reacted with astonishment yesterday after the influential Pentagon hawk Richard Perle conceded that the invasion of Iraq had been illegal.
In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told an audience in London: "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."
President George Bush has consistently argued that the war was legal either because of existing UN security council resolutions on Iraq - also the British government's publicly stated view - or as an act of self-defence permitted by international law.
But Mr Perle, a key member of the defence policy board, which advises the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that "international law ... would have required us to leave Saddam Hussein alone", and this would have been morally unacceptable.
French intransigence, he added, meant there had been "no practical mechanism consistent with the rules of the UN for dealing with Saddam Hussein".
Mr Perle, who was speaking at an event organised by the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, had argued loudly for the toppling of the Iraqi dictator since the end of the 1991 Gulf war.
"They're just not interested in international law, are they?" said Linda Hugl, a spokeswoman for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, which launched a high court challenge to the war's legality last year. "It's only when the law suits them that they want to use it."
Mr Perle's remarks bear little resemblance to official justifications for war, according to Rabinder Singh QC, who represented CND and also participated in Tuesday's event.
Certainly the British government, he said, "has never advanced the suggestion that it is entitled to act, or right to act, contrary to international law in relation to Iraq".
The Pentagon adviser's views, he added, underlined "a divergence of view between the British govern ment and some senior voices in American public life [who] have expressed the view that, well, if it's the case that international law doesn't permit unilateral pre-emptive action without the authority of the UN, then the defect is in international law"..
For the complete article, see:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1089158,00.html
Guardian Unlimited Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003
5) Gen. Franks Doubts Constitution Will Survive WMD Attack
Gen. Franks Doubts Constitution Will Survive WMD Attack
John O. Edwards, NewsMax.com
Friday, Nov. 21, 2003
Gen. Tommy Franks says that if the United States is hit with a weapon of mass destruction that inflicts large casualties, the Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of
government.
Franks, who successfully led the U.S. military operation to liberate Iraq, expressed his worries in an extensive interview he gave to the men's lifestyle magazine Cigar Aficionado.
In the magazine's December edition, the former commander of the military's Central Command warned that if terrorists succeeded in using a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) against the U.S. or one of our allies, it would likely have catastrophic consequences for our cherished republican form of government.
Discussing the hypothetical dangers posed to the U.S. in the wake of Sept. 11, Franks said that "the worst thing that could happen" is if terrorists acquire and then use a biological, chemical or nuclear weapon that inflicts heavy casualties.
If that happens, Franks said, "... the Western world, the free world, loses what it cherishes most, and that is freedom and liberty we've seen for a couple of hundred years in this grand experiment that we call democracy."
For the complete article, see:
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/11/20/185048.shtml
6) Washington demands "triggers" for attack on Iran
WSWS : News & Analysis : Middle East
Washington demands "triggers" for attack on Iran
By Mike Head
20 November 2003
Even as its occupation of Iraq plunges further into disarray, the Bush administration is stepping up its drive for similar "regime change" in neighbouring oil-rich Iran. Ever since President Bush named Iran, along with Iraq and North Korea, as an "axis of evil" in his January 2002 State of the Union address, the White House has maintained a barrage of allegations and threats against the Iranian regime, repeatedly accusing it of conducting a secret nuclear weapons program.
Washington's provocative campaign reached new heights this week, with US Secretary of State Colin Powell flatly rejecting as "deficient" a European draft resolution criticising Iran for allegedly concealing various nuclear activities. Briefing reporters after meeting European Union foreign ministers in Brussels, Powell condemned the British-French-German resolution for not having "trigger mechanisms" for intervention against Iran, a country with 65 million people.
Powell added a thinly-veiled threat of unilateral military action if Washington did not get its way at today's scheduled meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). "If a resolution [is] totally inadequate, then maybe we don't have a resolution right now," he said.
For the third time this year, the US has demanded that the 35-member IAEA board of governors declare the Islamic republic in "non-compliance" with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). It wants the IAEA to cite the breaches to the UN Security Council, paving the way for a UN resolution to justify punitive measures.
The resistance of the EU powers reflects definite economic and strategic conflicts. European companies, together with Russian, Japanese and Malaysian firms, have multi-billion dollar contracts for exploration and drilling in Iran, which has the fourth largest crude oil reserves and the second biggest natural gas reserves in the world.
These companies have substantially supplanted the US and British firms that effectively controlled Iran's oil and gas riches for 25 years under the Shah of Iran. The US and British contracts were revoked following the 1979 revolution that ousted the US-backed dictator. A US economic embargo on Iran since 1979 also allowed its European and Asian rivals to win large shares of the country's substantial internal market.
The aim of any US intervention would be to instal a puppet regime that would privatise the country's oil industry and turn it over to US-based transnationals. More broadly, along with the US occupation of Iraq and the stationing of thousands of US troops throughout the former Soviet central Asian republics, "regime change" in Iran would seek to establish unchallenged American hegemony over the Middle East and Central Asia..
IAEA report rejected
Despite the complete collapse of its "weapons of mass destruction" fabrications in Iraq, the White House is making equally unsubstantiated allegations against Iran, accusing it of secretly pursuing a massive nuclear munitions program. Last week, it rejected out of hand a draft IAEA report, which concluded that "no evidence" of such a program existed.
Instead, the Bush administration seized upon Iran's admissions of earlier minor failures to report nuclear-related activities to the IAEA. According to the IAEA report, which was widely leaked to the Western media, Iran has admitted producing small amounts of nuclear materials, including low-enriched uranium and plutonium..
For the complete article, see:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/nov2003/iran-n20.shtml
Flyby News Support
For anyone wanting to join with Flyby News and help cover expenses for printing, hosting, sponsoring events, please send donations payable to:
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading and any support for independent news.
FlybyNews.com is averaging more than 1,000 hits/visits per day, with more than 1300 addresses subscribed for email distribution.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
USAggression * DissidentonDean * Gore * BigK
13 November 2003
"First they ignored me. Then they laughed at me. Then they got angry. Then I won."
1) "US unleashes renewed bombing raids on Iraqi towns"
- - GNN interviews Naomi Klein
2) Dissident Voice on Howard Dean
- - Dean recommends ten more years of occupation
- - U.S. out of Iraq, Kucinich says - The Olympian
3) Gore issues warning over "Big Brother" regime in US
4) Kucinich remains undeterred as campaign lags
- - Kucinich with Lou Dobbs (CNN)
- - Dennis Kucinich "Talk of the Nation" NPR
- - "A Prayer for America" book review
- - Kucinich MeetUp - Vote Now for December 4
- - This Is The Moment' - Tapes are ready
Editor's Notes:
The terror threatening all happening now in Iraq is featured in the first item. Item 2 includes an email commenting on Howard Dean's stance in prolonging a US-controlled Iraqi Occupation; whereas, Dennis Kucinich has proposed a plan for a direct break from US to UN-control - with no privatization and a prompt return of the government to the Iraqi people. Kucinich's proposal empowers the best interests of an international community, and with a plan that alienates and isolates terrorism, rather than provokes it.
Item 3 is a good piece on Al Gore's recent speech warning about the "Big Brother" US regime. One can assume that he knows this from the inside. Item four is on the Kucinich campaign promoting a platform to transform the US government to reclaim a fast departing democracy. On the campaign front, Dennis is way behind in the polls. Most people in the streets of NH have rarely heard of Dennis Kucinich. Yet according to today's posting at www.kucinich.us, his national appearances are scheduled only until November 23rd, and nothing to date in NH. Something will be happening there, soon, we assume, but advance notice is imperative for a campaign to be most effective in booking and filling the best venues for the word on Dennis for President to get around. What's the delay? Perhaps the commitment of a member of Congress and Presidential candidate is too much for a grass roots campaign to handle? Yet as other stories and reports in Item 4 indicate, the process of exposure and the educational work continues, undaunted. Please note the individual initiative of Daniel Welch, making "This Is the Moment" Kucinich-campaign video available.
For your information, the quote at the top of this page was from an email source, Dennis quoting Gandhi.'
Reminder:
Monday, November 17, 2003
US Constitution In Crisis
"What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy:
The War Against the Third World"
Excerpts from this film compilation, by Frank Dorrel,
document CIA covert operations and
US interventions since World War II.
"A Prayer for America"
This is the speech presented by Dennis Kucinich to the
Southern California Americans for Democratic Action,
on February 17, 2002, in response to loss of civil liberties following September 11, 2001.
Keene State College (NH) Student Center, Madison Lounge
Monday 17 November 2003 -- 7:30 to 9:30 pm
Co-sponsored with the Keene State Democrats
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
See FlybyNews.com under Campaigns
for more on this and other events.
http://www.flybynews.com
For the official Kucinich schedule, see:
http://www.kucinich.us/schedule.htm
and for Kucinich-related events in New England:
http://www.massforkucinich.us/calendar.htm
1) "US unleashes renewed bombing raids on Iraqi towns"
- - GNN interviews Naomi Klein
"US unleashes renewed bombing raids on Iraqi towns"
World Socialist Web Site WSWS
News & Analysis Middle East Iraq:
[Excerpt]
By Richard Phillips
11 November 2003
The US military launched bombing strikes against Iraqi civilians last weekend for the first time since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1. The air campaign, involving F-16 bombers, targeted two towns, Tikrit and Fallujah, which have become centers of popular resistance to the US occupation. It was aimed at terrorizing the Iraqi people in response to the escalating number and sophistication of attacks on American troops in the last weeks.
While American officials, from President Bush down to senior military commanders, continue to claim that "progress" is being made, the reality on the ground is that the US is sinking into an ever-deepening quagmire. Washington's answer to growing popular hostility and increasingly well-organised resistance is to revive the methods used by US forces during the Vietnam war mass roundups, death squads and the wholesale destruction of villages and towns.
Lt. Col. George Krivo, a spokesman for the US command, told the media that military action was being intensified against all "noncompliant forces". The campaign, code-named "Operation Ivy Cyclone", began last Friday night with air bombing raids, coordinated ground-troop assaults and mass arrests. According to media reports, the US Army has so far admitted to killing five Iraqis and arresting 140 people.
A US officer speaking on condition of anonymity said the army was on "offensive operations" and that the attacks would continue for several days. "You can expect to see an increase in the level of intensity and the amount of activity," he said. In a chilling reminder of US terror in Vietnam, the officer continued"Part of warfare is coercion and affecting the hearts and minds of the enemy".
In the first week of November alone, 34 US troops were killed, the highest losses since the American-led occupation began on March 21, and more than the total fatalities in all of October. Over 150 American soldiers have been killed in combat since May 1.
Sixteen US soldiers lost their lives on November 2 when guerilla fighters downed a Chinook helicopter in Fallujah. This was followed by the death of six American troops on Friday November 7 when a Black Hawk helicopter was shot down in Tikrit.
Two of those killed on Friday were from the Department of the Army headquarters at the Pentagon and an American major general travelling in another helicopter narrowly escaped death. This was the third US helicopter hit in the last two weeks.
Washington responded to the Black Hawk crash with an extended assault on Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's home town, beginning at midnight and lasting until just before dawn on Saturday. US troops bombarded the area near the helicopter crash site with mortar fire and then attacked a warehouse and two houses with rockets, missiles and heavy-machine guns, claiming that anti-coalition forces were using the properties as hideouts. F-16 jets then dropped three 227-kilogram laser guided bombs to completely destroy the buildings.
Lt. Col. Steven Russell of the 4th Infantry Division who led the raid told Associated Press"We want to remind this town that we have teeth and claws and we will use them." According to the press agency, "soldiers yelled, knock, knock' and good morning' in celebration as the structure crumbled amid plumes of dust and smoke."
US military officials have attempted to blame the mounting resistance on "Saddam Hussein loyalists, criminals and foreign fighters". But claims about "foreign fighters" are beginning to wear thin. Russell admitted to the press last weekend that US forces are "yet to kill or capture a foreign fighter in Tikrit."
In fact, the US military, conscious of the widespread and popular character of the resistance, is increasingly directing its repression against the Iraqi population as a whole.
In Al Auja, a Tikrit suburb and the birthplace of Saddam Hussein, the US has established virtual concentration camp conditions. Surrounded by almost eight kilometres of razor wire the 3,000-strong community is permanently guarded and patrolled by heavily armed US troops. No one is allowed in or out of the area without US Army permission, and US troops have interrogated nearly every male in the suburb. Last Friday US soldiers poured into Al Auja before dawn and ordered all residents 18 years and older to register for identity cards..
..Sixty-year old farmer, Fakhri Fayadh, insisted that the US reprisals "will only increase our spite and hatred of them. If they think they will scare us, they are wrong. Day after day, Americans will be harmed and attacks against them will increase."
For the complete article, see:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/nov2003/tikr-n11.shtml
Copyright 1998-2003 - World Socialist Web Site - All rights reserved
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - GNN interviews Naomi Klein
Guerilla News Network interviews
famed globalization author Naomi Klein
Naomi: In Iraq, all that we hear is: it's a mess, it's a mess, it's a mess. It's a morass. It's a quagmire. It's a disaster. And that's true, on a military level. It's a disaster because people are dying and it's a disaster because it's deeply disorganized. But that whole discussion, that strategic military discussion, is covering over the broader question of: What were the goals of this war? And if we ask the question of what were the goals of this war, then we can ask the more serious question of: have those goals been achieved?
I believe that the goal of this war was to bomb, into being, a new free trade zone. Precisely because of the enormous backlash against these economic policies by countries that have already adopted them. Capitalism functions like a drug addict. The drug is growth. It needs growth to survive. It needs growth to expand..
For the complete interview, see:
http://www.guerrillanews.com/bunker/west/doc3366.html
2) Dissident Voice on Howard Dean
- - Dean recommends ten more years of occupation
- - U.S. out of Iraq, Kucinich says - The Olympian
"It's Business As Usual, Starring HOWARD DEAN"
Editors' Note About this Compilation: The curtain is raised, and standing in the spotlight alone is Presidential hopeful Howard Dean. A virtual nobody turned star attraction, Dean's ride to the top has been nothing short of remarkable. He has long held ambitions of one-day gazing out over the plush White House lawns in his royal bathrobe. And he may soon have his wish. The American Left has all but crowned this Democrat king of their Party -- buying his anti-war posture with superfluous ease. But how progressive is Dr. Dean? Is he worthy of such support?
The following collection of articles helps to expose the doctor for what he is -- a typical politician whose record is crammed full of sleaze and controversy. These articles -- ranging from his Israel position, to his qualms with the Bill of Rights -- prove that we should not have the illusion that Dean is a liberal savior, strong enough to pry the Right hand now strangling this country.
For the complete compilation by Dissident Voice:
"It's Business As Usual, Starring HOWARD DEAN", see:
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles9/DVNS_Howard-Dean.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Dean recommends ten more years of occupation
From: Jane
Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2003 09:59:20 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Dean recommends ten more years of occupation
..someone just e-mailed me that they went to see Howard Dean speak this weekend. What she said that he said -- I find it hard to believe he actually said this -- was that the US needs to occupy Iraq for TEN MORE YEARS. Why? Because, according to this report, Dean said that while there were no Al Qaeda ops in Iraq before the invasion, there are now. That was his reason. I think Bush would like that one too!
FYI, on KPFA this morning, an Iraqi woman said, "Iraq is now basically an open-air jail." The whole country has been turned into San Quentin? And that's going to make Iraqis stop resisting US occupation? The idiots who run this country are forgetting the basic rule of human psychology: THE MORE ONE PUNISHES, THE MORE ONE CREATES RESISTANCE. All the Bushies are doing is insuring that the entire Middle East will fight our troops to the death. And what's this about what that general said? "We will use EVERY weapon in Iraq." Now they plan to nuke the place?
I'm stressing out here. "We" need Dennis! The US government is NOT supposed to make me stress out. That is my teenage daughter's job!..
Regards, Jane
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - U.S. out of Iraq, Kucinich says - The Olympian
Democratic presidential hopeful U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio speaks Friday at the University of Washington.
Read full story at link below. (nice photo too)
http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20031108/frontpage/144104.shtml
3) Gore issues warning over "Big Brother" regime in US
Gore issues warning over "Big Brother" regime in US
By Bill Vann
12 November 2003
In his second major speech in three months, former vice president Al Gore criticized the Bush administration's "war on terrorism," accusing the White House of exploiting the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to assume quasi-dictatorial powers.
The one-hour speech, delivered November 9 in Washington DC, was cosponsored by MoveOn.org, a liberal Democratic activist group, and the American Constitution Society. Gore spoke before an audience of 3,000. The speech was also broadcast live on C-Span and over the Internet.
No less significant than the speech itself was the failure of the mass media to give it any serious attention. Major broadcast outlets ignored it, while, for the most part, it was buried in leading US dailies. No major national newspaper bothered to publish editorial comment on the issues raised by Gore.
The virtual silence of the media is extraordinary given both the content of Gore's remarks and the identity of the speaker. The former vice president won the popular vote in the 2000 election and was denied the presidency only by a politically rigged decision of a five-member majority of the US Supreme Court. He remains the nominal head of the Democratic Party.
No less deafening was the silence that greeted Gore's speech from the top echelons of his own party. No member of the Democratic congressional leadership commented on his charges.
"Where civil liberties are concerned, they [the Bush administration] have taken us much farther down the road toward an intrusive Big Brother' style governmenttoward the dangers prophesized by George Orwell in his book 1984than anyone ever thought would be possible in the United States of America," said Gore.
The administration, he added, "has opted to rule by secrecy and unquestioned authority," while carrying out "assaults on our core democratic principles."
The former vice president recounted the sweeping attacks on basic rights that have been carried out by the administration. "For the first time in our history, American citizens have been seized by the executive branch of government and put in prison without being charged with a crime, without having the right to a trial, without being able to see a lawyer and without even being able to contact their families," said Gore.
He continued: "President Bush is claiming the unilateral right to do that to any American citizen he believes is an enemy combatant.' Those are the magic words. If the President alone decides that those two words accurately describe someone, then that person can be immediately locked up and held incommunicado for as long as the President wants, with no court having the right to determine whether the facts actually justify his imprisonment."
Gore went on to cite the unprecedented powers of search and seizure assumed by the administration and codified in the USA Patriot Act. The government, he noted, now has "the right to monitor every web site you go to on the Internet, keep a list of everyone you send email to or receive email from and everyone who you call on the telephone or who calls youand they don't even have to show probable cause that you've done anything wrong."
Moreover, he pointed out, "federal agents ... can secretly enter your home with no warning whether you are there or not and they can wait for months before telling you they were there. And it doesn't have to have any relationship to terrorism whatsoever."
He further pointed to new federal powers to monitor attorney-client conversations and demand library records of any citizen to see what he or she is reading. He condemned the mass round-up two years ago of over 1,200 immigrants from Arab and Islamic countries for no more than minor visa violations. While, with few exceptions, no terrorism charges were brought, many of those who were jailed suffered vicious persecution and abuse while in custody.
In conclusion, Gore argued that "this administration has attempted to compromise the most precious rights that America has stood for all over the world for more than 200 years: due process, equal treatment under the law, the dignity of the individual, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, freedom from promiscuous government surveillance."
Remarks on September 11 blacked out
The subtext of the former vice president's speech was the Bush administration's exploitation of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to further its political aims and carry out its assault on democratic rights, as well as its policy of keeping the facts surrounding the 9/11 attacks shrouded in secrecy. This aspect of Gore's presentation was subjected to a near total blackout by the media.
The Bush administration, Gore noted, has stonewalled the national commission formed to investigate September 11, prompting the panel's Republican leadership to issue subpoenas seeking to pry information from the Pentagon and the Federal Aviation Administration, while threatening to do the same to the Bush White House. Similarly, he said, "the White House is also refusing to respond to repeated bipartisan congressional requests for information about 9/11."
He pointed to a Republican-orchestrated provocation over a leaked Democratic memo that was used to shut down the Senate Intelligence Committee last week. Gore commented: "Apparently the President is anxious to keep the Congress from seeing what are said to have been clear, strong and explicit warnings directly to him a few weeks before 9/11 that terrorists were planning to hijack commercial airliners and use them to attack us."
Gore went on to note that there existed "a great deal of specific information ... prior to 9/11 that probably could have been used to prevent the tragedy." He cited a recent analysis based on data collected by a software company that was funded by a CIA-connected firm..
For the complete article, see:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/nov2003/gore-n12.shtml
4) Kucinich remains undeterred as campaign lags
- - Kucinich with Lou Dobbs (CNN)
- - Dennis Kucinich "Talk of the Nation" NPR
- - "A Prayer for America" book review
- - Kucinich MeetUp - Vote Now for December 4
- - This Is The Moment' - Tapes are ready
Kucinich remains undeterred as campaign lags
He dismisses use of TV ads, focuses on grass-roots organizing
By LYNN OKAMOTO
Register Staff Writer
11/12/2003 Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich acknowledged Tuesday that he's a long shot in the 2004 race for president, but said he isn't planning any major changes in his campaign strategy or staff.
"Obviously, my campaign is seen as being way back in the pack right now," Kucinich, an Ohio congressman, said in a meeting with reporters and editors of The Des Moines Register.
"But you know what?" he said. "Some people are starting to say they like the fact that I'm a long shot, and that's why they're backing me. "They want to create a surprise, and I think my campaign is in a position to be the surprise of the 2004 primary in Iowa."
Campaigns for Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the Rev. Al Sharpton of New York and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman have had recent shake-ups as polls have shown them trailing such candidates as former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and Missouri Congressman Dick Gephardt.
A Register poll taken last week showed Kucinich has made no headway since July. He is supported by 3 percent of likely Iowa caucus participants.
But Kucinich was undeterred Tuesday, saying he just isn't getting enough media coverage. He repeated his calls for universal health care, canceling the North American Free Trade Agreement and withdrawing from the World Trade Organization.
"We keep expanding in Iowa," he said. "I'm in Iowa to stay. Unlike the other candidates, we've put all of our money into building a grass-roots organization, so that's what I've got. We have operations now in at least a half-dozen cities in this state. Our campaign's on the move."
Kucinich is one of four candidates who have yet to run any television ads, and he doesn't plan to. He said grass-roots organizing is the most productive use of campaign dollars.
Campaign finance records show Kucinich has raised $3.4 million this year, ranking third from last among nine candidates.
The Ohio congressman is seeking a fifth term in 2004, at the same time he's running for president.
Critics say he's alienated some of his Cleveland supporters with positions he's taken on the presidential campaign trail, such as switching his position on abortion. But Kucinich said he's confident of his hometown's support.
"My political career in Cleveland goes back 36 years," he said. "I take care of people in my district. My presence in Cleveland is felt in a way that perhaps no public official in the area is felt, at the neighborhood level."
Kucinich made several appearances Tuesday around Des Moines. He will return Thursday to campaign in Davenport and will be in Iowa City on Friday; Waterloo, Grinnell and Des Moines on Saturday; and Ames, Newton and Cedar Rapids on Sunday.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich with Lou Dobbs (CNN)
Aired November 12, 2003 - 18:00 ET
[Excerpt]
Here now, Lou Dobbs.
<...>
DOBBS: You're also calling for a withdrawal from NAFTA, from the World Trade Organization.
KUCINICH: Right.
DOBBS: Why?
KUCINICH: Well, both NAFTA and the WTO have meant a destructive undermining of our economy and of our manufacturing industries and of our hopes for the future. You know, NAFTA has meant a race to the bottom in wages. NAFTA has not allowed workers rights, human rights and environmental quality principles to be protected, and the WTO locks that system in. So I ve said, my first act in office as president will be to cancel NAFTA and the WTO and return to bilateral trade conditioned on workers' rights, human rights and environmental quality principles.
DOBBS: The president faces a decision whether or not to withdraw the tariffs that he imposed on steel imports, or face a trade war with Europe, at least to the tune of some $2.2 billion. What would Dennis Kucinich advise the president to do?
KUCINICH: Well, we have to protect our steel industry, but we have to actually -- I mean, what I intend to do as the next president is get out of both NAFTA and the WTO, and then we won't be in a position where we're being asked to choose between saving our steel industry or damaging our agricultural economy.
We have a right and an obligation to protect both. Now, Lester Thoreaux (ph) says there has to be some correspondence between what a company buys from you and what they sell to you. We don't have that here. We're driving a trade deficit close to $500 billion. As you point out, the trade deficit with China is approaching $130 billion. We're giving away our jobs for the future. And I intend to change that as the next president.
You can order a video 800-CNN-NEWS
or secure online order form at
http://www.fdch.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Dennis Kucinich "Talk of the Nation" NPR
Dennis Kucinich was recorded live November 12, 2003 on
"Talk of the Nation" -- National Public Radio.
You can listen to this program online at
http://www.npr.org/programs/totn/index.html.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - "A Prayer for America" book review
The following is a book review for
"A Prayer for America"
on the Barnes & Noble web site
by Stephanie Caruana
November 3, 2003
An Uncommon Man expresses America's Common Dreams with Uncommon Clarity
Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich is criss-crossing America delivering speeches as he runs for President on the Democratic ticket. The present slim but weighty paperback contains edited versions of 15 of his speeches, plus a spectacular preface by Studs Terkel, Doyen of the American worker. If you haven't seen or heard Kucinich in person, on TV, or on the Internet via videos, and are wondering what the fuss is about, this book will provide some answers. Even if you have, this book will deepen your appreciation for Kucinich's vision for America, a vision that is sorely needed today, and his tough and practical understanding of the problems we face as individuals and as a nation. In language as simple and as profound as Abraham Lincoln's, this native son of the American heartland discusses the war in Iraq, corporate corruption, problems of poverty, what happened to California's economy, what's wrong with the Patriot Act, loss of millions of manufacturing jobs which have vanished overseas, how a single payer health insurance program could provide all Americans with health insurance by taking the outlandish profit out of drugs, and many other issues that are uppermost in our thoughts today because they are shaping our lives, and in many cases, ruining our lives. I highly recommend this book.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
From Robert Silverstein < wewantkucinich@yahoo.com >
Last weekend Kucitizens made history. Dennis Kucinich's book, A Prayer For America reached #7 on the Amazon.com Bestseller List! The book flew off of bookstore bookshelves everywhere, and major bookstore chains and Independent Bookstores across the nation put in large orders, forcing the publisher to run a second printing of the book!
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich MeetUp - Vote Now for December 4
Kucinich Supporters can vote at following URL address on where to Meetup for next national Kucinich Meetup -- first Thursday of each month. The voting has begun for places to meet on December 4, 2003:
http://kucinich2004.meetup.com/
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - This Is The Moment' - Tapes are ready
From: Daniel P. Welch
To: kucinich2004@yahoogroups.com, pfs331@msn.com, tucson-kucinich@yahoogroups.com, iowansforkucinich@yahoogroups.com, Maine4Kucinich@yahoogroups.com, pghkucinich2004@yahoogroups.com, dcfordennis@yahoogroups.com, KucinichOK@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [kucinich2004] Tapes are ready
Yesterday I posted about making more use of the This is the Moment video and got a great response. I have cranked out 40 or 50 copies and sent them ALL! Once I have it set up it's fairly quick and easy to crank them out. My car is not too reliable these days, so it doesn't look like we're going away for the long weekend--I can easily keep churning them out if there is demand. Let me know--it's also impressively cheap to send them by media rate.
Some people have helped by covering postage and blanks, or by giving tapes (local people can pick them up, of course). It's a great tool, and from the response I can tell that others think so too. Through my set up I can make 6 or 8 an hour, and I keep the heads clean so the quality is ok--so don't be shy and spread the word! Keep fighting the good fight. Peace, Danny
__________
Sincerely,
Daniel P. Welch
Email: Wpdanny@aol.com
Web: http://www.danielpwelch.com
From a following email from Danny:
The response to the tape copying initiative has been phenomenal! I have sent out over 300 tapes to over a dozen states, and I'm out of tapes for the fourth time (getting more today--don't worry!) People seem very thirsty for copies of This is the Moment. Right now I have a great setup where I can crank out 5 at a time, so please let me know if you want any. Media rate is quite cheap for postage, and the blanks only cost me just under or over a buck apiece. I think (and many people seem to agree) that this video is a fantastic and underused tool for bringing people on board--not just for house parties. Get in touch--send me your address and how many you might put to use!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Ruppert's Bush II * NewDeal * SolarFlares
08 November 2003
"Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Knowledge is limited.
Imagination encircles the world."
Albert Einstein
1) Ruppert's Beyond Bush II
- - Diebold Sued Over Threats
- - Halliburton Contract Extension Canceled
- - Will U.S. Bring Back the Draft?
2) Kucinich New Deal for a New Century'
- - To Rock the Vote' you got to Rock the Boat'
3) Solar Flares Herald Harmonic Concordance
- - Gigantic solar flare was biggest recorded
- - Total Lunar Eclipse Saturday Should be Colorful
Editor's Notes:
Perhaps a chance still glimmers for a Kucinich 2004 administration. I can't imagine a more attractive platform -- an immediate peace dividend making nonviolence an organizing principle for government and humanity. Yet the Kucinich campaign is being held back. There are probably a number of factors why.. Michael Ruppert in item 1 offers one explanation, I am sure there are others, or combinations. But even Ruppert, with all his brilliance offers very little on ideas for actions to help transform current directions of what is behind the controlling forces of our government. Based on the past actions of the US Government and CIA operations since World War II, Ruppert's analysis on 'peak oil' and related circumstances are quite compelling. Yet where are his ideas to best actualize a unity to transform such predicted events. Yet, Ruppert's news was not all doom and gloom, and he had a few kind words regarding Kucinich and his fight with Muny Power. At Franklin Pierce College in Rindge, NH last Monday, Dennis described the path his life has taken, and why dreams are not easily denied to those willing to persist, and remain true. He predicted a sudden moment for an awakening. Is that moment beyond us to influence, or can everything we do be connected to encourage that dream to be realized? In truth time is of an essence for a collective awakening, where sooner is better than later to alleviate needless suffering, and the prolonging of a crooked US foreign policy scheme that creates much more harm than good. No matter what the media tells us - Truth Is Truth - and that will set us free.
On Monday, November 17, 2003, Flyby News' next film discussion program, called:
"US Constitution In Crisis"
co-sponsored with the Keene State Democrats
will take place in Keene, NH at Keene State College Student Center, Madison Lounge
Monday 17 November 2003 -- 7:30 to 9:30 pm
The films include:
"What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World"
Excerpts from this film compilation, by Frank Dorrel, document CIA covert operations
and US interventions since World War II.
"A Prayer for America"
This is the speech presented by Dennis Kucinich to the
Southern California Americans for Democratic Action,
on February 17, 2002, in response to loss of civil liberties following September 11, 2001.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Check the link from FlybyNews.com under campaigns for more on these films and programs.
Please email info@flybynews.com if you want a PDF file to post for upcoming event.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
On Wednesday November 19
Peace is Possible show'
to benefit the Kucinich for US President Campaign
7:00 - 10:00 pm
Oak Hill Middle School
130 Wheeler Rd, Newton, MA
This event includes: Jill Stein (local political activist), Jonathan Mark, (FlybyNews.com), INCA SON (popular music group from Peru), Crystal Johnson (poet), and Frankie J (reggae singer / songwriter), just to name a few.
For more details on this and other Kucinich New England or US events in support of Dennis Kucinich, see:
http://www.massforkucinich.us/calendar.htm
http://www.kucinich.us/schedule.htm
Item 3 in this issue is excerpts and links on solar flares and what is being called the Harmonic Concordance on a total lunar eclipse, November 8 9, 2003
1) Ruppert's Beyond Bush II
- - Diebold Sued Over Threats
- - Halliburton Contract Extension Canceled
- - Will U.S. Bring Back the Draft?
BEYOND BUSH II
by Michael C. Ruppert
10/20/03
Peak Oil Dominates --The Takedown of George Bush Continues - Wesley Clark Connected to Drug Money, Al Qeda, Waco and Another War Waged Over Fraudulent Evidence - Is Dan Sheehan Sabotaging the Kucinich Campaign? - Why Is Everyone After Howard Dean? A Look at the Democratic Challengers Who Will Bring Us More of the Same - Democracy Terminated in California Recall as Compromised Software Becomes Standard in US and Energy Looting Continues... The long-awaited sequel to Beyond Bush I is here! Read Now
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/102003_beyond_bush_2.html
[For complete report, see above URL.]
[Excerpts]
BEYOND BUSH II
- Media Mesmerism and "The Grand Show" - Wes Clark of Waco, Kosovo and Mena Drug Connections -- Dean Fades -- Kerry is the Sleeper - What is Dan Sheehan Doing to Dennis Kucinich? - California Recall Shows "Democracy Terminated"
by Michael C. Ruppert
Copyright 2003, From The Wilderness Publications, http://www.copvcia.com.
All Rights Reserved. May be reprinted, distributed or posted on an Internet web site for non-profit purposes only.
[Our July 1, 2003 publication of Part I of this series, with its analysis showing that the Neocons of the Bush administration were systematically being taken down at the direction of the real powers in control of the US economy created a huge demand for the promised follow-up article that would update developments and also look at the many Democratic presidential challengers. Work on that story was halted when this writer experienced a near-fatal encounter with a ruptured appendix and peritonitis in mid-July. (I am now fully recovered.) The delay may not have been a bad thing. One thing that is now apparent is that George W. Bush may have been set up - much as Lyndon Johnson was in Vietnam - to create an unwinnable war for the benefit of globalized monetary interests whose objective is the destruction of the US as a nation-state, while at the same time securing a top spot for US-based corporations in an increasingly globalized and energy-hungry economy..
..the primary objective laid out by Zbigniew Brzezinski in his 1997 book, The Grand Chessboard: The oil and many rebuilding contracts have been denied to any powers "that might seek to usurp the US on the world stage". Even as the US has gone hat-in-hand to the UN asking for help in Iraq (and been rebuffed), it has made it clear that it intends to retain absolute control of Iraqi resources. Europe and Russia will not play that game. Oil in the ground is oil in the bank and, at least for the moment, by tweaking supplies and conflicts around the world, the US can maintain enough supply from other sources to keep the house of cards from falling. Within three to five years, that may not be possible.
The race now is to stabilize Iraq in time to rebuild the infrastructure, and bring its 11% of proven world reserves online. The US majors won't invest there until it is safe. On October 11, The Arabic News reported on a recent World Bank report stating that the reconstruction of Iraqi infrastructure would require four years and more than $50 billion (US). This is another reason why the Bush junta is in jeopardy. There are few left anywhere who believe that they have the cachet to pull it off. The oil companies have lost confidence in the oil men.
Had the US not invaded Iraq, however, French, Russian and German companies would currently be working on billions of dollars of contracts to refurbish the oil infrastructure, thus increasing the amount of Iraqi oil (priced in Euros rather than dollars) reaching world markets by legal or extralegal means outside of UN sanctions.
The Madness of the People
It still remains unclear whether or not Bush will lose the 2004 election, steal it again, or be replaced via an impeachment effort after a win. There is a great deal to be learned from the Democratic Party side of the equation, and voters who eagerly participate in the election process are almost pathologically in denial about the compromise of the process that has occurred with proprietary electronic software that remains easily manipulated and immune from public scrutiny. As the 2000 election was stolen, the 2004 election may already be locked up (or encoded). No activist in their right mind should participate in the Democratic Party nomination process without addressing this key issue. If they do, they should have their head examined.
The most detailed work on this angle has been done by New Zealand's Scoop Media
(http://scoop.co.nz/mason/features/?s=usacoup) and author Bev Harris who has a new book out titled Black Box Voting: Ballot-tampering in the 21st Century. You will never think about voting the same way again after reading it.
TERMINATING DEMOCRACY
For months, now I have been hammered by readers who have wanted me to say something about the California recall. OK, here it is.
The California recall was a trial run for the rigged use of electronic software in the 2004 election, and further exploitation of coming energy shortages. The race was called just one minute after the polls closed even though electronic software was not used in six counties including Los Angeles County. And no one in the major press has raised a peep about it. Yet, within days, a few intrepid researchers were able to find indications of vote tampering on the proprietary Diebold machines used in many California counties. In an outrageous conflict with the public interest, Diebold CEO Walden O'Dell told Ohio Republicans this August that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." Even the BBC on October 8th, noted that Diebold and other systems used in California and elsewhere left the door wide open for tampering:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3169706.stm.
The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia reported on October 8th what Americans, and especially Californians were never told: that the electronic systems were "as flawed as chads."
Excellent background research on what appears to be rampant and overtly criminal behavior by Diebold can be found at the following web sites:
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
http://www.rense.com/general42/dieboldmachinesyield.htm
http://www.equalccw.com/liebold.html
Diebold is only one of many firms making voting software, and all of it seems have problems. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska ought to know. He used to chair a company, American Information Systems, which owns the largest company putting machines into US use, Election Systems and Software. But it's doubtful he's going to complain. Nebraska used his software in the 2002 election and he garnered 83% of the vote. An excellent over view of all the firms involved in electronic voting has been published by The Online Journal at:
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/100603Landes/100603landes.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For the complete report by Michael Ruppert, Beyond Bush II, see:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/102003_beyond_bush_2.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Diebold Sued Over Threats
In Related Information - Breaking News and Commentary
from Citizens for Legitimate Government
November 4, 2003
http://www.legitgov.org/
http://legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
Diebold Sued Over Threats
Free speech advocates sued Diebold, a manufacturer of electronic 'voting' machines Tuesday, demanding it stop sending legal threats to groups that publish company documents leaked by a hacker. Voting activists who have received the cease-and-desist orders, including students from at least 20 universities, claim the documents raise serious security concerns about Diebold Inc., which has more than 50,000 touchscreen 'voting' terminals nationwide.
MIT snared in dispute over Diebold 'voting' machines --Firm: Students posted stolen Diebold files --Two students have embroiled the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in a nationwide controversy about the reliability of Diebold's high-tech 'voting' machines.
Find article for above summary and other items by
Citizens for Legitimate Government:
http://legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
= = = = = = = = = = == = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Halliburton Contract Extension Canceled
From: THE DAILY MIS-LEAD
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1160953&l=8014
===============================
HALLIBURTON CONTRACT EXTENSION CANCELED
AMID ALLEGATIONS OF OVERCHARGING TAXPAYERS
The Army Corps of Engineers is "likely" to cancel the no-bid contract extension granted a week ago to Halliburton for delivery of oil-related services amid allegations that Halliburton is overcharging the federal government to import oil into Iraq. The decision to revisit the contract extension comes in part due to the assertions from inside the Pentagon that Halliburton's price for imported gasoline was "at least double what it should be."
Read the full Mis-Lead -->
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1160953&l=8013
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Will U.S. Bring Back the Draft?
Published on Wednesday, November 5, 2003 by the Toronto Star
Will U.S. Bring Back the Draft?
Defense Web Site Seeks Volunteers
Conscription Abolished in '73
by Tim Harper
WASHINGTONA call from the U.S. Defense Department for volunteers to sit on local draft boards has sparked debate here about whether a nationwide military draft could ultimately be needed to complete Washington's Iraq mission.
A number of analysts said yesterday that while any public suggestion of a draft would be politically suicidal for U.S. President George W. Bush in an election year, he could find himself with few other options if he is returned for a second term and the fighting in Iraq is still raging.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1105-01.htm
2) Kucinich New Deal for a New Century'
- - To Rock the Vote' you got to Rock the Boat'
Washington Post and The Concord Monitor hosted a series of live discussions with each Democratic candidate in the presidential race.
Following are excerpts from online conversations with Dennis Kucinich, November 4, 2003:
The complete transcript is posted from:.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17479-2003Oct25.html
Columbus, Ohio: You want the U.S. to withdraw from the WTO and return to bilateral trade agreements. If the U.S. withdraws from the WTO but no one else does, won't the U.S. still have to negotiate with the WTO? And what is to stop nations from imposing higher taxes on our exports until we rejoin the WTO? Won't withdrawing from the WTO cause the loss of MORE American jobs?
Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich The U.S. is not a beggar in international trade relations. The U.S. is the world's number one consumer market. The world wants to sell to American consumers. That ought to represent leverage. But the U.S. gave up its leverage when it joined the WTO. Withdrawal from the WTO will enable the U.S. to reclaim its leverage. What will we do with this leverage? We need it to solve a major economic crisis on the horizon, and that is the U.S. trade deficit. With this leverage, we will ask of our trading partners to buy from us approximately an equivalent amount of what we buy from them. Lester Thurow calls this the principle of correspondence. We can also promote workplace, human and environmental rights from around the world by simply telling our trading partners that we are not interested in buying their products when they are made with child labor, or by workers who are denied the right to bargain collectively or if the products are made in factories which show no regard for environmental protection. So my approach to trade will enhance the American economy while lifting up human rights, workers' and environmental quality standards world wide.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Allentown, PA: Congressman, you have many wonderful visions, but as a member of Congress you know as well as anyone that just because someone occupies the Oval Office does not mean that Congress will assist in passing legislation. If you were President how would you work with Congress?
Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich As a member of Congress I have had excellent relationships with both sides of the aisle. It is important for the President to work with Congress and I will use the relationships I have built through four terms to create a working partnership. I am also aware that my legislative agenda, which will include universal health care, medicare for all, a single payer system, will require support in the Congress which may not currently exist. As the nominee of our party, I will call upon the American people to support candidates for Congress who will take control of the health care system in the United States away from the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies and create a system which truly serves all the American people with guaranteed health care for all. When Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the nominee of the Democratic Party in 1932, he campaigned on broad economic reforms and asked the American people to give him a Congress which would help him do it. The people of America responded by electing 88 new members to the House of Representatives and 13 new members to the U.S. Senate. Those changes gave FDR the momentum he needed to craft the New Deal legislative agenda. I intend to rally the American people in this election to create a New Deal for a New Century.
The complete online discussions of that day is posted:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17479-2003Oct25.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - To Rock the Vote' you got to Rock the Boat'
If you missed ROCK THE VOTE on CNN last night where candidates held a forum
in Boston with young people, it will also be rebroadcast from 1:00 a.m. to 2:30
a.m. Eastern, and again on Sunday, Nov. 9 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
You can also vote on videos of the Candidates:
http://www.rockthevote.com/rtv_cnn.php
Here's another place to vote, a CNN poll
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/
3) Solar Flares Herald Harmonic Concordance
- - Gigantic solar flare was biggest recorded
- - Total Lunar Eclipse Saturday Should be Colorful
Solar Flares Herald Harmonic Concordance
by Karen Steen, Astrologer
posted 10/23/2003
Harmonic Concordance & Total Lunar Eclipse Nov. 8 9, 2003
A total lunar eclipse nested within a six-pointed solar system configuration, heralded by extraordinary solar flare activity and resulting geomagnetic storms on earth occurring together November 8 9, these celestial developments are being called the Harmonic Concordance. Even considering only the lunar eclipse and its paired solar eclipse later in November, these events have astrological significance for a period of months to years.
What is the nature and significance of the Harmonic Concordance? What distinguishes it from past newsworthy formations, like the 1987 Harmonic Convergence and the 2000 Taurus Alignment? There is a wealth of information and perspectives on the Harmonic Concordance with which to learn and perhaps align. Here, I'll briefly describe the Concordance, offer my view on its significance, and suggest a few choice resources for additional information.
Basics of the Harmonic Concordance
The Harmonic Concordance is defined by the positions in our sky of the Sun, Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the planetoid Chiron on November 8 9. Together these bodies form a Grand Sextile pattern a hexagon or six-pointed star formation around earth. Coincident with the formation of this Grand Sextile pattern are these celestial events:
A total lunar eclipse occurring within the Grand Sextile Jupiter, part of the Grand Sextile, in stressful square aspect to Pluto (90 degrees separation in celestial longitude) Extraordinary solar flare activity with resulting geomagnetic storms on earth.
The formation of a Grand Sextile, and Jupiter in square position to Pluto, are relatively rare events. The Grand Sextile, composed of two interlocking Grand Trines, is considered an exceptionally resourceful pattern that can be equally creative and productive. The square aspect of Jupiter to Pluto corresponds to critical sociopolitical developments within their twelve-year recurring cycle together - I regard their square as an external motivator to the Grand Sextile. Solar and Lunar eclipses each occur twice a year on average, usually in pairs by location and timing (eclipse season). When they occur, solar eclipses are associated with a New Moon, lunar eclipses with a Full Moon. Eclipses of both the Sun and Moon can be either partial or total, with total eclipses being more significant astrologically. Total solar eclipses occur only every second or third year, total lunar eclipses more frequently. Sun, Moon, and planetary positions during total eclipses correspond to significant individual and social developments lasting months to years. Solar eclipses correspond to overt or conscious developments or crises, lunar eclipses to more subtle or unconscious developments. Eclipse developments, which can begin a month or more before the actual eclipse, often shift a focus or balance of power, bring a long-simmering process to crises, or clear the way for new starts.
Solar flares result from Sunspot activity that averages a 12-year cycle. Sunspot activity has been peaking in the past 23 years. Recent huge solar flares are causing geomagnetic storms of extraordinary magnitude now and through the Full Moon eclipse / Harmonic Convergence on November 8 - 9. These storms are affecting global satellite transmissions, interrupting television, radio, and cell phone transmissions. Astrological correspondences for Sunspot and solar flare activity are just recently being observed, while their correspondence with planetary cycles has been recognized for decades.
For many, a picture is worth a thousand words:
- For a chart of the Harmonic Concordance as it will appear in the sky around you, go to
http://alabe.com/concordance.html.
- To view a brief movie of the huge solar flare on October 23, go to
http://science.nasa.gov/spaceweather/images2003/23oct03/cme2_c3_big.gif.
Both the 1987 Harmonic Convergence and the 2000 Taurus Alignment were characterized by a clustering of the Sun with planets and high solar flare activity, not with eclipses. The Harmonic Concordance of November 8 9 is unique in its dispersed, highly organized pattern, association with total eclipses of the Sun and Moon, and extraordinary solar flares.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.accessnewage.com/articles/astro/flares.HTM
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Gigantic solar flare was biggest recorded
Gigantic solar flare was biggest recorded
Fri Nov 7,11:26 AM ET
[Excerpts]
PARIS (AFP) - A massive flare disgorged by the Sun this week was the biggest ever recorded, although the Earth will luckily escape most of its blast of radiation, the European Space Agency (ESA) reported here.
"The massive solar X-ray which occurred on November 4 was, at best estimate, an X28," ESA said. "There is still a small chance this will be revised by a small amount, but it is now official. We have a new No. 1 X-ray flare for the record books, the most powerful in recorded observational history."
The previous biggest flare on record was rated an X20. Flares of that magnitude were recorded on August 16 1989 and again on April 2 2001.
Solar flares are a magnetic storm on the surface of the Sun that spew out gas into space.
This material is then heated to a super-high temperature, producing a burst of radiation that depending on its intensity and direction can cripple orbiting satellites and disrupt telecommunications on Earth.
For the complete article, see:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1539&ncid=1539&e=2&u=/afp/20031107/sc_afp/space_europe_sun_031107162616
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Total Lunar Eclipse Saturday Should be Colorful
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 07:00 am ET
07 November 2003
[Excerpts]
Astronomers expect a colorful show Saturday night when Earth's shadow falls on the Moon, creating a total lunar eclipse.
The visible portion of the eclipse will begin in the Americas just after 6 p.m. ET, but only for eastern residents. Along the western coast the eclipse will be underway as the Moon rises above the horizon at sunset. The visible portion of the eclipse will be over before 10:30 p.m. ET.
Europeans will have to stay up late. The eclipse begins there before midnight, and the heart of the event in Europe will occur early Sunday morning.
The Moon will go into total eclipse at 8:06 p.m. ET and emerge from totality 25 minutes later.
If you are out at sunset, there is another sight to look for. Venus is just emerging in the evening sky and appears as a bright dot just above the southwest horizon before full darkness sets in. It quickly follows the Sun down.
All evening in the southern sky, Mars shines brightly, an obvious beacon that typically has an orange or yellowish cast. Mars is brighter than any star in that part of the sky. Stretch your arm out and make a fist. Now count four fist-widths to the right of the Moon and you'll see Mars. That's about 40 degrees of separation, as astronomers count it.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.space.com/spacewatch/lunar_eclipse_3_031107.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more on the Harmonic Concordance, see:
http://www.harmonicconcordance.com
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
NH Greens-Kucinich * Big Week * Bush Wrong
02 November 2003
"To occupy Iraq would instantly shatter our coalition,
turning the whole Arab world against us
and make a broken tyrant into a latter-day hero ...
assigning young soldiers to a fruitless hunt for a
securely entrenched dictator and condemning them to fight
in what would be an un-winnable urban guerilla war.
It could only plunge that part of the world
into even greater instability."
George Bush Sr. --
A World Transformed (1998)
1) NH Greens Endorse Kucinich?
- - Greens Warn - Misleading News Story
- - Why aren't you running as a Green Party candidate?
- - Join Dennis at Franklin Pierce College, NH Nov. 3rd
2) A Heartland Maverick
- - The Case for Kucinich
3) Conversations with the Candidates Live Online November 3-7
- - Comparison Chart of all the Candidates, on 24 Progressive Issues
4) World's Farmers Stand in Solidarity Against WTO
5) The Revolution Was Not Televised
- - Kucinich: Mr. President, You Are Flat Wrong
Editor's Notes:
Item 1 begins on the subject of unity, or lack of it. Third parties are known to rise and fall in popularity based on the two-or-one-party system. The way through this problem is for IRVs - instant run-off voting that allows people to vote for their candidate of choice no matter what party affiliation, and not be placed in a spoiler role dilemma. But for hard core Party members, the voice for Party Loyalty could take a precedent over Platform Priorities! Many Greens support Dennis, but not the official group in the Green Party. This is the fast-approaching time for the Primaries, beginning in January, 2004. Unless a grassroots explosion gets beyond Party politics and voting for electability in the Primary - - we will lose an opportunity to further issues that go way beyond those in the US. Yet, no matter what, every vote for Kucinich in the 2004 Democratic Primary Election counts for a direction of sustainability, democracy, and integrity.
Dennis was interviewed by Alan Shartak on NPR's WAMC, Albany, NY radio station last Friday. This program highlighted the campaign's mainstream values, such as universal health care, peace in the Mid East and elsewhere, free education, employment and environmental preservation, and for general well being. This campaign can only grow, since the ideas are something you cannot easily give up for a despondent direction of military rule and blunders harming innocent life for greed and treachery for world dominion.
Recently, the Kucinich campaign announced a number of prominent Americans, including actor and activist Danny Glover, author Howard Zinn, Democratic leader and former Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate and former head of the NFL players' union Ed Garvey, Founder of the School of the Americas Watch Father Roy Bourgeois, Co-Founder of Global Exchange Kevin Danaher, the American Vegetarians, and Comedian Professor Irwin Corey. Danny Glover said: "I have watched Dennis Kucinich not only in the glory of a political campaign, but I have sat and dialogued with him and watched him learn from others, and of all the candidates he stands the closest to my conscience, and I must go with my conscience."
In the first Item, please note that you can join Dennis at Franklin Pierce College this Monday at 6:30 pm in Rindge, NH. Dennis will then be going to the Unitarian Church in Keene NH, Nov. 3rd. Please note too, in item 3, the link for an Online chat with the Candidates. Dennis' day is on Tuesday, November 4, where, also, he will be with all the Democratic Candidates on CNN's "Rock the Vote Presidential Forum" 7-8:30 p.m. Eastern Time. You can link for more information on this at www.kucinich.us . According to Robert Silverstein , "Dennis Kucinich's book, A Prayer For America' went to the top 100 books on Amazon.com. Bob offered this following link to buy the book http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1560255102/angels4peace (and pay only $9.56!)" and you can also receive this book from the Kucinich campaign: http://www.kucinich.us or your local bookstore..
Also, Reminder: the National MeetUp day for Kucinich is this next Thursday, November 6. This is a great time to connect and find the Kucinich family. I will be with a group sponsored by the Keene State College Democrats at the Student Center in Keene NH, room 307 beginning at 7:00 pm. To find a MeetUp around you, visit kucinich2004.meetup.com
"The significant problems we face cannot be solved
at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."
-- Albert Einstein
1) NH Greens Endorse Kucinich?
- - Greens Warn - Misleading News Story
- - Why aren't you running as a Green Party candidate?
- - Join Dennis at Franklin Pierce College, NH Nov. 3rd
Greens Endorse Kucinich
Published in The Telegraph Online - Nashua, NH
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
Greens endorse Kucinich
By DAVID TIRRELL-WYSOCKI, The Associated Press
CONCORD Dennis Kucinich is running near the bottom of the Democratic primary polls in New Hampshire, but he's tops for the state's Green Party.
"Dennis is one of us," party spokesman Guy Chichester declared Monday, as the party endorsed the Ohio congressman.
The party is based on peace, social justice and environmental concerns. Of the current candidates, Chichester said Kucinich is the most closely aligned with those principles. He said the endorsement to help Kucinich win the Democratic nomination will not affect the Green Party's own nominating convention in June.
"Your endorsement sends a signal to everyone in New Hampshire and throughout New England who is really concerned about those environmental issues that relate to protection of the environment, protection of the economy and protection of the natural world, that they have a candidate," Kucinich said.
Kucinich said the top priority in his career is protecting the environment. He said he will press that message, with the help of the Green Party, in the Democratic primary.
The Green Party is small in New Hampshire, and not considered an "official" political party. To vote for Kucinich in the primary, its members who are listed as Independents need only declare as Democrats on the way in to vote, and "undeclare" on the way out. Members who are Republicans must change their party affiliation to Democrat by Oct. 31.
The national party nominated Ralph Nader as its presidential candidate in 2000. He attracted 22,000 New Hampshire votes in the general election.
Chichester could not give an exact number of party members in the state, though he said the endorsement decision was made by six members of its state steering committee.
Kucinich said a candidate's stands on the issues is more important than a party title," because that will show you that a candidate may be able to identify with more than one party."
He hopes the Green endorsement will put more of a spotlight on his environmental record, especially in New Hampshire, which long has complained that coal-burning factories and power plants in the Midwest, Kucinich's home turf, help pollute the Northeast.
"I was thinking of what it would be like to be president to put a stop to those coal-burning plants that are poisoning the streams and the lakes, and are poisoning aquatic life and how we could help restore the economy of the Northeast, which depends on tourism and which depends on fisheries," Kucinich said.
Kucinich joked he was in the Democratic Party as a missionary for causes held dear by the Greens.
"I think it's possible to bring Green principles into the Democratic Party, and that's what my goal is: To make the Democrats more responsive on environmental issues, to protect our forests from clear-cutting, to protect our land from having poisons dumped into it, to protect our air and the quality of our water."
Content © 2003 Telegraph of Nashua
Software © 1998-2003 1up! Software, All Rights Reserved
http://nashuatelegraph.com/Main.asp?SectionID=25&SubSectionID=379&ArticleID=92206
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Greens Warn - Misleading News Story
The following email was received 04:14 PM 10/29/2003 +0000
GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
www.gp.org
For Immediate Release
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
Contacts: Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576, nallen@acadia.net Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, mclarty@greens.org
GREENS WARN ABOUT MISLEADING NEWS
STORY ON GREEN ENDORSEMENT OF KUCINICH
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Co-chairs of the Green Party of the Green Party of the United States are advising members of the news media and the general public today about a potentially misleading news story that indicates Green Party support for Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. According to the story, the New Hampshire Green Party recently announced its endorsement of Mr. Kucinich. The endorsement decision reportedly took place at a meeting in a coffee shop that was attended by six individuals. Green Party officials wish to clarify that the half-dozen individuals responsible for the news release in question are not affiliated with the Green Party of the United States. Furthermore, New Hampshire is one of five states which still do not have a functioning state Green Party. Reporters are advised to check stories about Green Party policies, campaigns, events, etc. with the national party (media contacts listed above, or check http://www.gp.org> or with affiliated state Green Parties (see the index at ). The Green Party of the United States, recognized by the FEC as the party's national committee, includes 43 accredited state Green Parties, and will hold the party's national convention in Milwaukee in June, 2004. The decision about whom, how, and whether to run in the 2004 national election will be made democratically by all the accredited state Green Parties at the Milwaukee convention. The Green Party of the United States held the 2000 national convention in Denver at which Ralph Nader was nominated.
MORE INFORMATION: The Green Party of the United States www.gp.org 1700 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 404 Washington, DC 20009. 202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN Fax 202-319-7193 Accredited member parties of the Green Party of the United States www.gp.org/statelist.html
- END -
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Why aren't you running as a Green Party candidate?
The following was posted in response to frequently asked questions of Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich at www.kucinich.us.
Why aren't you running as a Green Party candidate?
Will the Greens support you?
While I support much of the Green Party program, I am a Democrat. I am in the party to which millions of working people, minorities, environmentalists and people who want a just America owe their loyalty. I want to build a Democratic Party that deserves the loyalty of these groups. I am running not just to promote important ideas, but to use the progressive agenda to defeat George Bush for President in November 2004. Many Greens and Nader 2000 voters are supporting my candidacy and Ralph has praised our campaign. We are gaining support from new voters, disgruntled voters, and other "3rd-party" voters. Although I'm a Democrat, I firmly support the rights of parties other than the Democrats and Republicans to freely organize, have ballot access and take part in debates. I support Instant Runoff Voting and other election reforms that will open up our democracy to other parties and groups. I welcome the support of Greens while respecting their right to protect their party's interests and integrity. Still, I think it's critical we defeat Bush and his right-wing agenda in 2004, and the Democratic Party is the vehicle for that.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Join Dennis at Franklin Pierce College
Rindge / Keene, NH - Nov. 3rd
Fwd from - Geoffrey Caldwell
Fri, 31 Oct 2003 183613 -0500
Subject: [Mass_for_Kucinich]
JOIN DENNIS AT FRANKLIN PIERCE COLLEGE!!!
Hello Kucinich family!
This is Geoffrey from Franklin Pierce College, Rindge New Hampshire.
Presidential Candidate DENNIS J. KUCINICH
will meet, greet and speak at:
FRANKLIN PIERCE COLLEGE
on MONDAY, November 3, 6:30pm until 7:30
[when he will go to speak in Keene at the Unitarian Church.]
This is your invite to join Dennis and the FPC Community! Our goal is to have at least 100 people at this intimate event, with your support and attendance we will easily meet and surpass this goal! So please join us!
This event will be held in the Clubhouse of the Grimshaw-Gudewicz Activities Center (the Bubble) which is on the north end of Campus, and is open to all. This event has been organized by the FPC Campus Greens and is co-sponsored by the FPC Young Democrats. We have worked very hard to bring Dennis here, and our efforts have finally paid off! See you there! Get there early to ensure seats, and of course to hold signs and cheer Dennis on! This event will be phenomenal and will not be forgotten as long as we attend and be the best, loudest, most enthusiastic supporters ever!
Peace,
Geoffrey Caldwell
President, FPC Campus Greens
caldwellg@fpc.edu
(603) 899-4100 x2251
2) A Heartland Maverick
- - The Case for Kucinich
A Heartland Maverick
South Florida Sun Sentinel
October 29, 2003
By Stephen Goldstein
Dennis Kucinich should be the next president of the United States -- and you should help elect him. In fact, someone with his populist views should always be in the White House.
Last Thursday, during his campaign stop in Miami, I asked the Ohio congressman what special messages he had for South Floridians. His answers should appeal to Republicans, Greens, Independents, Democrats, rich and poor, voters of every age. He's the harbinger of a new Progressive era in America.
"People associate the sun with health; they follow it to Florida to have a better quality of life, but that's deteriorating," Kucinich laments. "I'm the only one running who has submitted a plan for universal health care -- including long-term care, prescription drugs, dental, vision and mental health coverage. When long-term care is needed, everyone -- rich and poor -- is put at risk."
As president, he said he would propose "Enhanced Medicare for All," a single-payer system that would eliminate for-profit insurers. "In their health-care costs, South Floridians are now paying for executive salaries, stock options, corporate profits, lobbying expenses," he contends. Kucinich likens America's health insurance system to a Las Vegas casino -- with naive gamblers' believing that "the house" doesn't always win. He's outraged that insurers have rigged things -- and it's "costing more to play." (He had just come from meeting with a group of supporters whose deductible has skyrocketed to $1,000.) "Health-care coverage shouldn't be a gamble, but a sure thing."
Retirement security, investment security, and pension security -- these are three other unique planks in Kucinich's platform. Keenly aware of the gutting of South Floridians' retirement funds after recent stock-market frauds, he would establish a Federal Bureau of Audit to "police" Wall Street.
"We need more regulation," he insists. "Public companies should not be able to lie to investors." He would change the bankruptcy law so that pensioners' claims had to be satisfied before those of banks, and would keep companies from "stealing pension funds." "The Social Security Trust Fund is rock solid until 2041," he adds, so he's against privatizing it, and "would roll back the age for collecting full benefits from 67 to 65."
Pick any issue and Kucinich has a principled perspective on it. He rallied opposition to the Iraq war, voted against it, and led the push to deny W.'s $87 billion funding request.
Contending that NAFTA and WTO have "spurred a $418 billion trade deficit, costing 525,000 U.S. jobs," he would replace them with "fair bilateral trade agreements conditioned on workers' rights, human rights and environmental protections." He opposes the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas.
The only presidential candidate who voted against the Patriot Act, he would repeal it: "The attorney general has been handed unfettered power to wiretap, search, jail and invade our most sacred right to privacy." He would protect a woman's right to choose. For his views on everything from the environment to Cuba, go to www.kucinich.us.
Kucinich represents the soul of America, a heartland maverick fighting for the public interest over corporate greed -- and he's got scars to prove it. He's lost battles, but won wars.
In 1978, a year after he was elected Cleveland's mayor at 31, he stopped an Enron-like takeover of the city's electric company. The city's banks pressured him to do it, because they had a financial interest in the private corporation that would have bagged a monopoly -- and zillions -- from the deal. So, when Kucinich refused, the banks retaliated by putting the city in default -- and helped throw him out of office. Ultimately, he was vindicated. In 1998, the Cleveland City Council honored him for "having the courage and foresight to refuse to sell the city's municipal electric system."
Kucinich is not a lesser-of-two-evils candidate. You don't have to hold your nose when you vote for him. I said he should be the next U.S. president; I didn't say he would be. That's up to you. To support his campaign, call ..toll-free 1-866-969-1530 or go to http://www.Kucinich.us. Menace Washington: Elect Dennis.
Stephen L. Goldstein's commentaries appear on alternate Wednesdays.
E-mail him at trendsman@aol.com.
Copyright 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Case for Kucinich
The Case for Kucinich
by John Turri, August 26, 2003
posted by Guerrilla News
http://www.guerrillanews.com/environment/doc2746.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
These two following two new excellent web sites were recently added to the growing under campaigns as FlybyNews.com for Kucinich for US President with video and audio access and for campaign resources.
http://KucinichWatch.com/
http://www.kucinichsightings.com/
3) Conversations with the Candidates Live Online November 3-7
- - Comparison Chart of all the Candidates, on 24 Progressive Issues
Conversations with the Candidates Live Online November 3-7
The first week of November, washingtonpost.com and The Concord Monitor will host a series of live discussions with each participating Democratic candidate in the presidential race. Bookmark this page for the upcoming full list of scheduled discussions.
For the week's schedule and more information on candidates, see:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/liveonline/politics/candidates/
Tuesday, Nov. 4th, 11 a.m. ET
Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich
Democratic candidate Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) takes your
questions on the campaign and his vision for the United States.
Kucinich, on Tuesday, November 4, will be with all the Democratic Candidates on CNN's "Rock the Vote Presidential Forum" 7-8:30 p.m. Eastern Time. You can link for more information on this at http://www.kucinich.us .
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Comparison Chart of all the Candidates, on 24 Progressive Issues
A comparison chart of all the Candidates, on 24 progressive issues (3 versions), is posted:
http://www.massforkucinich.us/flyers.htm
NOTES
Version 1 has a small background image of Dennis; his positions are in 1st column; 2-sided flyer
Version 2 has a small background image of a peace dove; all candidates are in alphabetic order; 2-sided flyer.
Version 3 is Eric's new version.* So you know: the text is awfully small. Fits on 1 page
FURTHER EXPLANATION
*Eric emailed me yesterday with this comment: Here's another version that replaces Roe v Wade, Medical Marijuana and Gay Marriage with "Would Ban Weapons in Space", "Would Rejoin Kyoto Treaty on Global Warming", and "Would ratify the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty." It's a version that is better for mainstream audiences that may not agree with Dennis's more progressive and controversial stands.
I went ahead and uploaded his new 'matrix' - as a replacement to 'Version 3', rather than as a separate option, which i discovered today is what he intended: 2 options (Version 3a, and Version 3b). I'll upload his first flyer, 3a, later today.
For MY 2 flyers (currently Versions 1 and 2), I ADDED IN the 3 new issues (for a total of 24 issues). However, I'm willing to customize this flyer if anyone wants the 3 'more controversial' issues deleted. If I get requests for this, I'll just go ahead and upload 'non-controversial" versions as separate download options.
Cheers, PF
http://www.massforkucinich.us/flyers.htm
4) World's Farmers Stand in Solidarity Against WTO
Published on Wednesday, October 29, 2003
by the Madison (WI) Capital Times
World's Farmers Stand in Solidarity Against WTO
by James Goodman
[Excerpts]
U.S. Trade Minister Robert Zoellick and European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy were both feeling rather miffed after the World Trade Organization ministerial meetings in Cancun, Mexico, collapsed last month. It was all supposed to go their way, after all. They had always had their way; the economic power of the United States and European Union were not to be challenged. But the bullies lost their grip; their best-laid plans swept aside by the "G-20 " - a group of developing nations that said, "No more; listen to our needs," and then walked out of the meetings..
..The WTO is an ugly creature, the lapdog of corporate greed, but the campesinos saw through it, saw what it was doing to farmers around the world. Workers and environmentalists saw through it as well. They all came together in Seattle in 1999 and stopped it; every time the WTO gathered, protesters confronted it and slowed it down. In Cancun we stopped it again. Until governments begin to value people more than corporate profit, the protests will continue, the struggle will survive.
James Goodman is a dairy farmer from Wonewoc who participated in the campesino march in Cancun, Mexico, on Sept. 10. E-mail: r.j.goodman@mwt.net
Copyright 2003 The Capital Times
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1029-12.htm
5) The Revolution Was Not Televised
- - Kucinich: Mr. President, You Are Flat Wrong
The Revolution Was Not Televised
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
[Excerpts]
Friday 31 October 2003
There was a large anti-war rally in Washington last week. The standard slogans were on display for all to see: Impeach Bush, Bring The Troops Home, No Blood For Oil. On the periphery of the protest stood a few dozen 'patriots' holding a counter-demonstration in support of Bush and the Iraq war. Among the signs carried by this crew was a banner that succinctly summed up the madness of the age, and the dangerous nature of the current ruling class.
Across the top of the banner, which was clearly professionally made and not hand-lettered, were the block-letter words "SUPPORT PRESIDENT BUSH." Through the center of the banner were black outlines of a fighter aircraft, a tank, an M-16 rifle, a .45 caliber pistol, an attack helicopter, a surface-to-air missile battery, and a thermonuclear bomb. Underneath these images were two more block-letter words: "TRUST JESUS."
The sentiment apparently finds resonance with Senator Trent Lott, Republican of Mississippi. The Wednesday edition of The Hill carried a story about GOP concerns over the manner in which the post-war war is unfolding. The trepidation is understandable; more American troops have been killed in the 'Mission Accomplished' phase of the war than in the war itself. Lott responded to the crisis in Iraq by saying, "If we have to, we just mow the whole place down, see what happens."
The Bush administration has tried to frame their wars as not being a religiously-based crusade against the Islamic world. This has been a hard-sell with Muslims, especially since Bush used the word "crusade" immediately after September 11. Norman Podhoretz, one of the ideological fathers of the cadre of hawks currently running our foreign policy, publicly described our conflict in the Mideast as being a process aimed at bringing about "the reformation and modernization of Islam." The religious overtones are difficult to miss..
..The banner carried by the 'patriot' in Washington should have had the black outline of an oil well alongside all those weapons. Trusting Jesus has been a lucrative business for some. The Center for Public Integrity released a report on Thursday which details how $8 billion in contracts to 'rebuild' Iraq and Afghanistan have gone exclusively to companies which donated piles of money to Bush's 2000 election campaign. These contracts were awarded without the usual bidding process; few beyond the friends of Bush were given the opportunity to cash in on the war..
..There has been a religiously fundamentalist revolution in the United States. The extremists have taken control of the White House, Congress, the courts, and the military. You did not see this on NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC or Fox, but it happened all the same.
U.S. Contractors Reap the Windfalls of Postwar Reconstruction Center for Public Integrity http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/
William Rivers Pitt is the Managing Editor of truthout.org. He is a New York Times and international best-selling author of three books - "War On Iraq," available from Context Books, "The Greatest Sedition is Silence," available from Pluto Press, and "Our Flag, Too: The Paradox of Patriotism," available in August from Context Books.
The complete Truthout article is posted:
http://truthout.org/docs_03/103103A.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich: Mr. President, You Are Flat Wrong
Kucinich Statement October 28, 2003
Mr. President, You Are Flat Wrong
"The assertion by the President that daily attacks on US troops and innocent Iraqi civilians is 'progress' is ridiculous and just as false and misleading as his prewar statements about the threat posed to the United States by Iraq.
"Mr. President, 353 dead American troops is not progress. Thousands of American soldiers injured is not progress. And, the daily attacks on U.S. troops and innocent Iraqi civilians is not progress.
"Today, at his press conference, the President had a chance to clarify his earlier remarks. Instead of taking advantage of the opportunity, the President did nothing more than continue his Administration's spin."
This above statement was originally posted: http://www.kucinich.us
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Unseen Movement * Debate * CLG News
28 October 2003
"The most powerful weapon in the hands of the oppressor
is the mind of the oppressed."
-- Stephen Biko
1) Evidence Of Things Unseen: The Rise of a New Movement
- - October 25 End the Occupation Protest
- - BRING HOME THE TROOPS - November 11 - Veteran's Day
2) Democratic Presidential Debate in Detroit
- - Kucinich Rolling Stone Interview
3) Breaking News from Citizens for Legitimate Government
Editor's Notes:
Item 1 begins with an optimistic viewpoint from a recent speech by Tom Hayden, called "Evidence Of Things Unseen: The Rise of a New Movement." It does seem like the collective intelligence of humanity is increasing in proportion with the increase of personal and global communications. Yet the rate of the assault on our ecosystem is extreme, and increasing its harm, too. Like out-of-control fires in southern Californian with warming winds pumping a devilish glance as feedback into the spiraling dance in a mad reasoning to exchange dense carbon from the earth for excessive green house gas pollution in the air. The warming, the ice melt, is beyond belief to most scientists. For a Flyby News perspective on the mounting evidence of global warming and the modeling to measure this man-made phenomena for the government in the 1950's, see the link from FlybyNews.com.
Item 2 begins with a different take at last Sunday's debate, excerpting those generally excluded in the mainstream's reportings. Dennis Kucinich is fighting for his time in the light, and our best chances for a legitimate government, of, by, and for, the people. Item 3 is late breaking news coverage, from Citizens for Legitimate Government.
"It comes down to recognizing the dignity in all things.
Dignity has intrinsic value,
it cannot be violated without a resistance.
It cannot be defeated.
Wherever there is life, dignity resists suffocation and oblivion.
That's the world we want. That's the world the world wants.
Not an empire, not even a world of great powers,
but a world of democracies based on dignity."
-- Tom Hayden --
1) Evidence Of Things Unseen: The Rise of a New Movement
- - October 25 End the Occupation Protest
- - BRING HOME THE TROOPS - November 11 - Veteran's Day
Evidence Of Things Unseen: The Rise of a New Movement
By Tom Hayden, AlterNet
October 21, 2003
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following piece is adapted from a speech Tom Hayden gave at the Bioneers Conference on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2003.
[EXCERPTS]
..The evidence of things unseen. There is rising a new movement in the world. It is bigger than the movement of the 1960s. Yet it is barely seen by the experts and analysts. They look only at the behavior of institutions and politicians, not the underlying forces that eventually burst into visibility.
The first strand of this new movement is the global opposition to the war in Iraq and to an American empire.
One year ago this month, when over 100,000 demonstrators hit the streets in Washington DC, the New York Times reported that surprisingly few attended the anti-war march, perhaps out of fear of the sniper. National Public Radio repeated the story. How could they not see the 100,000?
Apparently because such protests were not supposed to happen anymore. Both the Times and NPR were forced to apologize a few days later and report the huge turnout. Then, in another correction, the Times announced in February that there was a "second superpower" in the world in addition to the White House, which was world public opinion. By then 10 million people were demonstrating globally; two million in Rome, one million in London, 200,000 in Montreal in 20-degrees-below weather -- even a brave few in McMurdo Station in Antarctica.
The second strand is the global justice movement, which began with the Zapatistas on the day NAFTA took effect, then surfaced in Seattle in 1999. Those were called isolated events. Then came Genoa, Quebec City, Quito, Cancun, the world social forums in Porto Allegre. Far from isolated events, these were the historic battlegrounds of a new history being born.
Together these movements mount a challenge to an entire worldview. We are experiencing an enlargement of dignity, an enlargement of what we consider sacred and therefore off the table, not negotiable. The purported Masters of the Universe are becoming as obsolete as those who once claimed the divine right of kings. The earth and its people are not for sale; the environment is not just a storehouse of materials for utilitarian exploitation; and cultural identities can't be replaced as if they were commodities, whether the treasures of Babylon or the rainforests of the Amazon. This movement is saying that diversity will not be looted.
Why is this happening? No one really knows. Movements arise in mystery at the margins, eventually change the mainstream, are repressed or co-opted, and return to the oblivion we call official history..
.. Today the converging movements are in sync with the larger body of public opinion, and spilling over into the mainstream. We see this in the phenomenal growth of MoveOn.org, the grassroots support for Howard Dean, for Dennis Kucinich, in the growing fear and loathing of the Pentagon, the White House and Fox News.
Despite the spin, despite the play on our patriotic feelings, despite the legitimate worries about terror, a majority of Americans -- and a strong majority of Democrats -- are questioning the purpose of Iraq, the credibility of the administration, the needless deaths, the unexpected costs, and sacrifice of our domestic needs on the altar of empire. Dissent has even appeared among military families and GIs on the battlefield, angry about the callous manipulation of the body count to justify the President's pledge that the military mission is "accomplished." Dissent within the military is a sign that the end is beginning.
Because public opinion is moving, the Democratic presidential candidates are changing their themes in a positive direction. Just last year, the corporate centrists of the Democratic Party were counseling the candidates to support the President's war, to divorce themselves from any allegiances to the 60s, to wait for the Iraq war to end amidst cheering in Baghdad, and then somehow defeat the president on incremental issues like prescription drugs for the elderly. Talk about out of touch.
Now, in response to the public protests and plain questions of grassroots Democrats, all the Democratic candidates are questioning the president on Iraq, his trade agreements and jobs. Think of them as opportunists if you will, but I think of them as a huge speakers' bureau carrying our questions and themes to millions of middle Americans.
Each of us may decide to back an individual candidate, and that can expand our movement. But let's not let ourselves be swallowed in any single campaign. When the candidates ask for our time and money, let's also ask them to join our movement around a new vision of what America can be..
..Bush won the presidency with the help of his Supreme Court, but the same Court ruled in favor of the gay-lesbian community against sodomy laws after 40 years of struggle that began with riots in Greenwich Village. The recent Court decisions on medical marijuana show the formidable power of public opinion on the move.
It comes down to recognizing the dignity in all things. Dignity has intrinsic value, it cannot be violated without a resistance. It cannot be defeated. Wherever there is life, dignity resists suffocation and oblivion. That's the world we want. That's the world the world wants. Not an empire, not even a world of great powers, but a world of democracies based on dignity.
Tom Hayden is a progressive activist, author and former California elected official.
His most recent book is "Irish on the Inside."
2003 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
The above were excerpts, for the complete article see:
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17000
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - October 25 End the Occupation Protest
Organizers' estimate - 100,000; Police estimate - 50,000; and NY Times reports: 10,000
In another shameful example of biased reporting, the New York Times report of Oct. 25 gave a lower crowd estimate than even the Washington DC police by a factor of five. The October 25 demonstration had a record number of family members of soldiers, veterans and active duty soldiers; contingents from the Arab American and Muslim community; and many others. To read the A.N.S.W.E.R. report of October 25, go to
http://www.internationalanswer.org/news/update/102503report.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
DC rally - photos
From PF Soto < pfsoto@mynas.com >
Hi folks. FYI: today I put up my photos of DC rally, 10/25/03.
See: http://www.massforkucinich.us/pgallery/
More DC pics/news links at: http://www.internationalanswer.org/news/update/102603o25press.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - BRING HOME THE TROOPS - November 11 - Veteran's Day
From: Robert Silverstein
Subject: KUCINICH SAYS: Bring Home The Troops
Date: October 26, 2003
Yesterday, more than 100,000 people came together in Washington to support our troops by asking the Bush Administration to bring them home. Kucinich supporters were there in great numbers and Kucinich signs could be seen everywhere you looked. Many tens of thousands more rallied in San Francisco and in other cities across the nation. Let's help keep the momentum going by hosting BRING HOME THE TROOPS parties on November 11 - Veteran's Day. Please sign up for a FREE Kucinich House Party kit at www.KucinichParty.us and help raise funds and awareness for the Kucinich Campaign. Please urge all the veterans you know to support Dennis Kucinich - the candidate who really supports them, and ask them to endorse him at www.Veterans4Kucinich.us Let's help engage the millions of Americans who believe that peace is patriotic, to see that Dennis Kucinich is the Presidential candidate who will help to create a more peaceful, just and sustainable nation. Let's help everyone to know that Dennis Kucinich is the one who has been standing up in Congress to support our troops by calling for them to be brought home and by providing them with decent benefits rather than by cutting veterans' benefits by $25 billion as Bush's administration has proposed. DJK led the opposition to funding the occupation with another $87 billion and is the only candidate who has a plan that would bring all U.S. troops home by New Year's. UN IN and US OUT of IRAQ! Please help spread the idea of nationwide BRING HOME THE TROOPS parties on November 11 to every organization you know, such as Veterans For Peace, MoveOn.org, Working Assets. The war may be "over," but our troops and Iraqis are still dying. Let's keep speaking up until we're heard: BRING HOME THE TROOPS! May Peace Prevail On Earth, Bob Silverstein Director of Endorsements & House Parties Dennis John Kucinich, Campaign for President http://www.Kucinich.us/houseparties
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Suggestion: You can help the Kucinich campaign end the war in Iraq and educate the cause for freedom and dignity by purchasing Dennis new book: A PRAYER FOR AMERICA or the video by Malachi Roth THE PEACE CANDIDATE and support the unseen movement.
See: http://www.kucinich.us/ (upper right corner) to link for details, or call 1-866-413-3664.
2) Democratic Presidential Debate in Detroit
- - Kucinich Rolling Stone Interview
Following is a link to the complete transcript, but following are EXCERPTS of the Democratic presidential debate in Detroit, sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Institute and Fox News.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21551-2003Oct26.html?referrer=email
FDCH e-Media
Monday, October 27, 2003; 12:30 AM
SPEAKERS:
MODERATOR: Gwen Ifill, PBS
QUESTIONERS: Carl Cameron, Fox News Channel ,
Huel Perkins, Detroit WJBK TV Fox 2 News Anchor
CANDIDATES: General Wesley Clark (Ret.)
Former Governor Howard Dean (VT)
U.S. Senator John Edwards (NC)
U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt (MO)
U.S. Senator John F. Kerry (MA)
U.S. REP. Dennis Kucinich (OH)
U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman (CT)
Former U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun (IL)
The Reverend Al Sharpton
PERKINS: Ambassador Braun, a memo from the secretary of defense questions whether we are actually winning the war on terror, questions our intelligence. CIA Director George Tenet now under fire, a Clinton appointee.
Whose head should roll here?
And furthermore, everybody up here is going to say that the commander in chief needs to provide a plan, but what is your plan specifically for getting us out of this mess?
MOSELEY BRAUN: Well, I have been consistent from the beginning. I opposed this war, and I raised the question of how much it would cost the American people, even before our troops were committed there.
MOSELEY BRAUN: Having said that, I stand with the mothers of the young men and women who are there, and believe that, as Americans, we have to bring our troops home but we have to bring them home with honor. We blew the place up; we have to fix it back.
And at present, the United Nations and none of the -- happily, we're moving toward internationalizing the force, but even the United Nations won't put troops in the ground there because it's too dangerous.
I think we have to do what we can do to give our troops the support. Some of those young men and women are sitting out there in the desert without even basic supplies. It is an outrage the way we are treating our own service men and women in this effort.
And by the way, those who are injured, like Shoshanna Johnson, are not getting the kind of support they need when they come back home.
It's just wrong the way the Defense Department is handling this and this administration is handling our troops.
(APPLAUSE)
They're not supporting the troops, they're just supporting their friends with big contracts to rebuild Iraq and to make more money.
(APPLAUSE)
PERKINS: Congressman Kucinich, you have been consistent in your opposition to the war, but there are reports that you have also refused to sign the intelligence nondisclosure form, which means that you are not allowed to see all the information collected in secret by the CIA and FBI.
And the question is, how can you oppose something that you do not know?
KUCINICH: Well, actually, I knew enough not to vote for the war without having to sit in on briefings that were totally phony.
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
I mean, those briefings are designed to mislead members of Congress, so I thought I'd spare the time and work on things that were a little bit more important.
I could tell you that I've actually presented a plan -- it's on my Web site at Kucinich.us -- it's an exit strategy to get the U.N. in and the U.S. out of Iraq.
And that involves three points: First, to have the U.N. handle the oil with no privatization of Iraqi oil.
(APPLAUSE)
To have the U.N. handle the contracts with no more Halliburton sweetheart deals, no war profiteering.
(APPLAUSE)
And to have the U.N. handle the cause of new governance in Iraq on behalf of the Iraqi people until the Iraqi people can be self- determining.
We can get the U.N. in and the U.S. out, and it's time to bring our troops home.
(APPLAUSE)
Furthermore, you know, a number of us have opposed the war, but I'd have to say to Dr. Dean, you said in paid TV ads that only you opposed the war in Iraq, but that's not true.
Why forfeit the public trust? Why can't you just admit you made a mistake and take down the ad? I mean, you have Ambassador Braun, Mr. Sharpton, myself, we opposed the war. Why don't you take down those ads? They're not true.
IFILL: Governor Dean?
DEAN: Here's what the ad says, among other things: "130,000 troops in Iraq with no end in sight and a price tag that goes up daily. The best my opponents can do is ask questions today that they should have asked before they supported the war."
Now, that include -- that's those opponents who supported the war. Clearly, Ambassador Moseley Braun, Dennis Kucinich, Bob Graham, Al Sharpton and myself opposed the war right from the beginning.
Despite Wes's statements to the contrary, he did support the resolution. He told Katrina Swett in New Hampshire that she should support the resolution. These other folks voted for the war, too.
So don't think my ad is inaccurate at all. I'm talking about the people who supported the war, with whom I disagree.
IFILL: OK, that is the end...
KUCINICH: That ad is a misrepresentation.
IFILL: OK, Congressman.
KUCINICH: And anyone who reads it would understand that's a fair characterization.
IFILL: You have made your point.
That's the end of round one. Now we're going to go to our second round of questions, also on the war on terror and foreign policy.
= = = =
PERKINS: Congressman Kucinich...
(APPLAUSE)
... you have proposed changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of Peace, but in a world in which our enemies are willing to kill themselves to kill us, is it not better that we stand and fight? And is it not better that we wage that battle on foreign shores and not here in America?
KUCINICH: Well, first of all, my proposal was to create a separate, Cabinet-level position, a Department of Peace, which would work domestically to make nonviolence an organizing principal in our society..
..And I think we could take up on the work of Dr. King and others who have worked to make nonviolence an organizing principal, through making sure that we address the problems of violence in the homes -- domestic violence, spousal abuse, child abuse -- violence in the communities, gangs, violence in our schools.
When we contrast that with the purpose of the Department of Defense, that's to provide military force. Now, I think that we have to have a commitment to work with the nations of the world to make war archaic so we won't need to send our men and women abroad in search of wars or to fight wars that they never should have had to fight in the first place.
IFILL: Thank you, Congressman.
= = = = = = = =
CAMERON: Reverend Sharpton, quite recently, U.S. General Boykin stood in a church and characterized the war against terrorism as a battle between Christianity and Islam. As a public person who has not been afraid to bring politics to the pulpit, what's your reaction to that?
SHARPTON: Let me say three things, because I want to respond to some others as I get to your answer.
(LAUGHTER)
One, I think that it is very dangerous on the second anniversary of the PATRIOT Act to empower this attorney general in any way that can target people. Robert Kennedy, Jr. and labor leader Dennis Rivera and I went to jail over protesting the Navy bases in Vieques before the PATRIOT Act.
This administration wants to stifle and to stop dissent. And when we see, particularly when you are of color, rise to power -- this is a Congressional Black Caucus tonight -- when we see what they're doing to John Street, what they've tried to do to Kwame Kilpatrick here in Detroit...
(APPLAUSE)
... we cannot let this Justice Department have power where they can play politics with the judicial system in the name of the PATRIOT Act or any other act.
Secondly, in the Middle East, it's not a question of terrorists. Who defines terrorists? Today's terrorist is tomorrow's friend.
(APPLAUSE)
We were the ones that worked with Saddam Hussein. The United States worked with bin Laden. I went in 2001 and met with Arafat at the insistence of the Israeli foreign minister. Would anyone here meet with Arafat, in terms of trying to get peace in the Middle East?
Let's put the hard questions out, Senator Lieberman. Would you meet with the head of the Palestinian Authority?
(APPLAUSE)
SHARPTON: In answer to your question, I think that Boykin's statement is wrong. This is not about one religion against another. It's about right versus wrong.
I said it earlier when we were talking about right to choose, one of the reasons I'm glad to be in this race is we're going to have the battle between the Christian right and the right Christians.
= = = = = = = = =
CAMERON: Congressman Kucinich, when would you balance the budget?
And on tax cuts, there is a debate amongst you who are debating. Some would repeal all of the Bush tax cuts, others would repeal some but leave them in place. To repeal the Bush tax cuts, is that a tax hike on those who've seen a reduction?
KUCINICH: No, actually the tax cuts that go to people in the top brackets ought to be repealed and ought to be put into a fund to provide for universal college education, free tuition for the 12 million American students who are currently attending public colleges and universities.
(APPLAUSE)
Now, this administration, if it moves toward budget balancing, will inevitably balance it on the backs of the American people.
My economic strategy would be to fuel growth in the economy by having a full-employment economy, by working to rebuild our cities with a massive new WPA-type program.
My economic policies will work toward universal health care, which will inspire further growth in the economy; universal pre- kindergarten, which will enable parents to be able to have their children ages 3, 4 and 5 for a five-day-a-week child-care program, saving families between $5,000 and $7,000 per child.
KUCINICH: My economic program will include the cancellation of NAFTA and the WTO and return to bilateral trade, condition (ph) on workers' rights, human rights and the environment.
(APPLAUSE)
My economic program will address things like this: the sale of United States steel assets to foreign countries which are undermining our ability to defend our economy and to defend our national security.
= = = = = = =
Congressman Kucinich, we looked it up today, the last member of the House who was elected directly from the House to the presidency was Abraham Lincoln.
(LAUGHTER)
That was a long time ago. How do you plan to break that string of failure?
KUCINICH: Well, actually, that president, who was James Garfield, lived in the same county that I am from. So I'm looking to repeat history, in that regard.
(LAUGHTER)
KUCINICH: And I also will say that we have to -- I suppose all of us must believe this, but my presence here on this stage arises from growing up in the city of Cleveland and understanding the power of individuals to change the outcome, of being able to come from poverty, being able to come from living in a car and understanding that with hope and with courage you can create new possibilities.
And I think every American is waiting for a president who can relate to the aspirations of people who don't have jobs so that we can have a full-employment economy where the president understands the importance of jobs.
People today who don't have health care want a president who understands how important it is to have health care because maybe at some time in his life he didn't have the advantages.
I think people are looking for someone they can identify with and someone who has been able to achieve an American dream and cause all people to have the chance to reach and achieve that dream.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The above was excerpts take from the complete transcript, at URL link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21551-2003Oct26.html?referrer=email
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich Rolling Stone Interview
Waiting for Lefty
Dennis Kucinich is the new leader of Alternative America
By Will Dana - Rolling Stone October 22, 2003
"You're looking at a guy who believes he can beat a rigged game," says Rep. Dennis Kucinich.
For the article, see: http://www.rollingstone.com/features/featuregen.asp?pid=2016
3) Breaking News from Citizens for Legitimate Government
Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens for Legitimate Government
October 26, 2003
http://www.legitgov.org/
All articles, dates, and links from summaries below are here:
http://legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
US wants mini-nukes for smaller aggressors --Influential advisers at the Pentagon are backing the development of a new generation of 'low-yield' [?!?] nuclear weapons - so-called "mini-nukes" - in a controversial report to be published this autumn.
Two More Explosions in Central Baghdad --At least two explosions detonated Sunday evening in an area of Baghdad that includes the headquarters of Iraq's U.S.-led occupation, the U.S. military said.
Rockets Drive Wolfowitz From Baghdad Hotel --The U.S. occupation authority retreated from its headquarters Sunday after Iraqi insurgents, using a "science project" of a rocket launcher, attacked the heavily guarded hotel with a missile barrage that killed an American colonel, wounded 18 other people and sent the visiting deputy defense secretary scurrying for safety.
Grim tally underlines 'slog' in Iraq --Statistics on raids, deaths back up Rumsfeld memo The "long, hard slog" in Iraq that Donald H. Rumsfeld foresees from his third-floor office on the Potomac comes into even clearer focus along the Tigris and Euphrates in the tally of attacks, in the toll of American dead, in the cold eyes of many Iraqis.
Military families rally to bring troops home --They were near the front of the anti-war march in Washington on Saturday - dozens of parents, siblings and spouses of soldiers occupying Iraq.
Holy coincidence, Batman! Second soldier in Jessica Lynch's 'rescue team' dies mysteriously: Far >From Killing Fields, Death in U.S. Haven --Lance Cpl. Sok Khak Ung of the Marines was shot to death along with a friend in the driveway of his father's home last weekend. There are no suspects, although witnesses said a figure in a dark hooded sweatshirt rose up from behind a five-foot fence separating the Ung property from the apartment next door and fired a half-dozen shots from a handgun before running away. Corporal Ung took part in the diversionary attack to cover the rescue of Pfc. Jessica D. Lynch on the night of April 1.
Jury Awards $70M Against Halliburton --A jury has awarded $70 million to a Houston man who claimed that Halliburton and another oil company cheated him out of the chance to develop an oil field in Kazakhstan in the late 1990s.
Syria threatens retaliation if Israel strikes again: report --Syria has threatened to attack Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights if Israel launches another attack on its territory, Syria's Foreign Minister has warned.
White House Accused of Stalling 9-11 Panel --Members of both parties are accusing the White House of stonewalling the federal commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by blocking its demands for documents despite threats of a subpoena.
Bush team sees opportunity in California --Dictator Bush's political advisers have begun working to turn California Gov.-s-elect Arnold SchwarzeNazi's GOP California coup into support for Bush in the 2004 s-election. [And, with a little help from the vote fraud coupmeisters at Diebold, Bush is poised for coup 2004!]
Address to receive newsletter: clg_newsletter-subscribe@mlm.legitgov.org
The CLG Newsletter is edited by Lori Price, General Manager, Citizens for Legitimate Government.
http://www.legitgov.org/
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Electable? * Kucinich * Omaha Moore * Bush Reckless
19 October 2003
Kucinich is my candidate, and I will elect him!
I will not submit to the subtle induction of disempowerment.
I take back the question and ask it in a way that rallies our power as voting citizens.
-- Christina Baldwin
1) "Is he electable?" is the wrong question
2) "WHO IS DENNIS KUCINICH?"
3) Kucinich WINNING POLLS on the internet
4) Omaha responds to Michael Moore
5) Bush's War Mindless, Needless, Senseless, and Reckless
Editor's Notes:
Flyby News comes out sporadically, when time and news are fitting and available. The focus on this issue is to move on from the question of Dennis being electable. Item 1 is a superb article on this that came out of a Kucinich house party. Please use it for inspiration, and order your Kucinich house party kit, which includes the 30 minute video, "This Is The Moment." You can get this by calling toll-free 1-866-413-3664 or visit http://www.KucinichParty.us or write to houseparty@kucinich.us
The following items are other contributions about a movement and opportunity facing each of us to make a decision, based on the wonderful opportunity presented by Dennis Kucinich, and on our unified actions that can make a big difference.
Item 5 is a late addition to this issue, from Truthout.org, which includes a link to an article from Ted Kennedy stating, "Bush's War Mindless, Needless, Senseless, and Reckless." Though Bush got the US Senate by a vote of 87-12 for the US to spend another $87B in Iraq, the compilation of links and articles from Truthout.org tells of another way of thinking, which complements the initiative to transform and replace the corrupt administration with the real opposition leader to war and a perverse foreign policy.
"When you are talking about a huge social transformation
and the huge social struggle that precedes that transformation,
there must be a huge shift in the collective imagination
before any of that can take place.
We must imagine the possibility of a more just world
before the world may become more just."
-- Martin Espada --
1) "Is he electable?" is the wrong question
"Is he electable?" is the wrong question.
The question is- "Will we elect him?"!
by Christina Baldwin
Sitting in a circle of neighbors a few evenings ago we went through the social ritual of a Dialogue for Democracy Kucinich House Party. People came in from the autumn rain, poured a cup of coffee or tea, found a seat and chatted with familiar or new faces. There was a coffee table in our midst with a candle lit and our host read the agreements and principles of the dialogue process we would follow as we gathered around the central feature of the evening: Dennis' video, "This is the Moment."
As we introduced ourselves and spoke to why we had come, our responses ranged from heartfelt dreams for a more democratic America, to dedication for Dennis' campaign and vision, to skepticism about the viability of any campaign to stand for issues such as redistributing the military budget, universal health care and education, or canceling NAFTA and the WTO and survive. We listened to each other and then turned on the television.
And there was Dennis Kucinich in all his informed and fervent integrity, saying what we know in our hearts needs to be said. There was Dennis Kucinich, finally, a politician who has the courage to correct the course, to cast votes that challenge the status quo and challenge the rest of Congress to find their courage as well. There was Dennis Kucinich, a political leader whose primary concern is to see this nation fulfill its constitutional promises and develop a government that serves the common good.
And there we were, all those people in the video standing in for us, rising to our feet and shouting- YES! Rich and poor and multi-colored and young and old and fifty-something, standing with our brother who is speaking truth to power, and speaking powerful truth. Rising to our feet in honor of hearing what we need to hear if we are going to continue to live in democracy; if we are going to continue to live in the community of nations; if we are going to leave a legacy for our children's children.
After the video, our host invited us to go around the circle again, speaking our responses one at a time. "I'm hooked," one said. "I'm hooked to the absolute necessity for this man and this message to be part of our national dialogue. I will support Dennis."
Another said, "I can hardly believe that someone is speaking politically for the values I hold in my heart. And I realize I've been waiting my whole life to have to hear this. How can I help?"
And then someone asked- "Is he electable?"- and a light-bulb went off in my mind. This is the wrong question. The question is: WILL WE ELECT HIM? Will we create the conditions in America that make Dennis Kucinich the obvious candidate and the next President? Asking if he is electable is a manipulation of language that takes democracy out of our hands and places it in the control of some amorphous influence other than the will of the people. "Electable?" By whom? Under what terms? Kucinich is my candidate, and I will elect him! I will not submit to the subtle induction of disempowerment. I take back the question and ask it in a way that rallies our power as voting citizens.
Dennis Kucinich is electable ONLY by the people: that is exactly the point. That is why he is taking only citizen money. That is why he needs you and me to act and contribute. He has a few million dollars to face an outpouring of campaign money so vast that what is being spent to discourage him would pay for some of the social reforms he advocates. In the next few months, if everyone who believes in Dennis' message raised the maximum $2000/ contribution per person he would have what he needs to operate this campaign. We need to send him money: if we don't have money, we can hold a garage sale or a bake sale or a house party. We can get out on e-bay and sell some stuff. We take this kind of action for new school band uniforms or a family with a sick child, let's do it to get ourselves a real President!
Speak his name, talk about the real issues, open up the dialogue to include what he stands for, get involved in the nomination process where it counts. Most of the states use a precinct caucus process for deciding the delegates that attend the national party convention, and how those delegates are obligated to vote. Get informed now: the most crucial vote we have for Dennis is the first one: at the precinct or at the primary. Show up, and bring a dozen friends. Heck, bring 100 friends.
Two days after the house party I woke realizing how busy and creative we need to be! Get up America! It's time WE elect Dennis as our next President!
To me this means, I am wearing the button, the tee-shirt, the bumper-sticker. I am carrying a folder of handouts and anyone who asks will get information. I am practicing short, thought-provoking responses to comments such as, "But he doesn't support the troops" or "I'm against abortion and so is Bush" I am calling NPR and my local TV stations and newspapers and demanding over and over that coverage of this campaign be consistently featured. I am showing the video over and over. Can I get it air time in a local Church? Civic meeting? I am acting as a one-person precinct caucus education source. Wherever I go in the coming months, I am being Dennis' legs and arms and voice because Dennis is my legs and arms and voice. Together, we can create the conditions in America that elect him.
-- Christina Baldwin
http://www.peerspirit.com
a citizen in Washington state
2) "WHO IS DENNIS KUCINICH?"
Everyone wants to know.
It started slowly...with that first sign asking...
"Who Is Dennis KUCINICH?"...but now it is gaining momentum...
His name is showing up everywhere ... at car washes ... at book and bake sales ... in the classified ads ... at football and hockey games ... at October fest ... at yard sales ... on signs held at factory shift changes ... on tee shirts ... at every party and event ... on the screen at movie theaters during the previews ... at the end of every e-mail ... in store windows ... on voter registration tables ... at the malls ... on campuses ... on canvas bags in the grocery store ... in the bowling ally ... on caps ... on cardboard signs held by people as they walk by ... on the sides of pickup trucks and vans ... at flea markets ... in the back window of cars ... on every street corner ... in front of every house ... and even written in chalk on the sidewalks ...
Signs everywhere...
"Who Is Dennis KUCINICH?"
First, it started with a trickle in letters-to-the editor...then more as the question came into the local radio, television and newspapers...then starting on NOVEMBER 7, 2003...every media outlet in the country was flooded with phone calls, letters, faxes, e-mails and personal visits by people wanting to know...even sign after sign along the route as cameras covered the Coast-to-coast walk for Kucinich...at every public event where Kucinich spoke ... anywhere that the press was ... there was at least one sign...
"Who Is Dennis KUCINICH?"
Then the foreign press started being asked the question too ... and they started answering it with meaningful in-depth coverage of his views, record, and proposals...they like this guy...
Next thing you know...it will be in all the national media too...they will all be asking the question...and answering it with honest coverage...they are going to love this guy...
And what is the phrase that will continue to pop up everywhere you go...
"Who Is Dennis KUCINICH?"
Everyone will want to know!
IT COULD HAPPEN...
BECAUSE WE WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN...
AND WE WILL BE READY TO ANSWER THAT QUESTION...
STARTING NOW AND BUILDING UNTIL THE FINAL PUSH WHICH WILL START ON NOVEMBER 7TH...
"Who Is Dennis KUCINICH?"
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
This above email came to Flyby News via email from:
notjustanotherclone@yahoo.com
3) Kucinich WINNING POLLS on the internet
The following compilation was produced by Malachi Roth malachiroth@mindspring.com
received via email 15 Oct 2003 from: Adam Hurter < ahurter@wesleyan.edu>
Subject: [awarenessnow] Kucinich WINNING POLLS on the internet
Dennis Kucinich, the only non-corporate-funded presidential candidate-- "unelectable"?? Says who? The corporate media, of course. But don't WE elect the politicians?!
Multiple major polls on the internet are showing Kucinich literally in the lead or in second. Spread the word- if we elect him, Kucinich CAN win.
This site has many of the following polls as well as great Kucinich material:
http://kucinichwatch.com/
HERE ARE THE RESULTS:
Here is the MSNBC POLL THAT KUCINICH WON
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/CNBCTV/Promos/P61967.asp
Another he wins between Dean And Kucinich:
http://www.misterpoll.com/results.mpl?id=2591387123
Another which Dennis wins
http://freeinternetpress.com/pollBooth.pl?qid=4&aid=9
This one he comes in second
http://www.care2.com/polling/results/156
Here's a Spanish language poll which Dennis wins by a long shot
http://www.univision.com/content/content.jhtml;jsessionid=AY5MWPM4N4BX2CWIAAOSFEYKZAABUIWC?cid=256899#x
Another
http://www.cam.cornell.edu/~sharad/election/details.php
Another
http://www.demochoice.org/dcresults.php?poll=0310#Round1
4) Omaha responds to Michael Moore
This following open letter to Michael Moore was posted on the kucinich-on-public-access@yahoogroups.com
Received: Sat, 18 Oct 2003 081945 -0500
From"Chris & Joy*Reja* Green"
Subject: Omaha responds to Michael Moore
Michael Moore,
Thank you for doing your documentary "Bowling for Columbine" but NO THANKS for bashing Kucinich.
We're just ALL scratching our heads and asking ourselves what's going on??? Has Michael lost his mind?
When we listen to you now, it's as if we're hearing you speak out from the 'TWILIGHT ZONE".
Have you been duped too? Have they gotten to you? Is nothing sacred! LOL
This world gets more weird everyday, but your endorsement of Clark and your bashing of Kucinich is hard to fathom.
We thought, for a moment, that you were one of the sane voices in this looney world. Maybe not?.......
Well, if you check out our website, Omaha4Kucinich
http://members.cox.net/omaha4kucinich and go to the bottom and WATCH the video on the Carlyle group and check out the Kucinich video/audio links and THEN tell us how you feel, we'd
appreciate it!
Or go to Kucinich-on-public-access http://www.kucinich-on-public-access.org
and go to the MEDIA LINKS page, and do your homework, that would be good!
Maybe then you would re-think your take on Kucinich.
Thanks again, Michael, for your documentary and your courage to stand up and tell BUSH how we feel. But, Michael,....get a grip!
Omaha 4 Kucinich
"We are not victims of the world we see,"
"We are victims of the way we see the world!" ~Dennis Kucinich
http://www.kucinich.us
5) Bush's War Mindless, Needless, Senseless, and Reckless
t r u t h o u t | 10.18
Ted Kennedy | Bush's War Mindless, Needless, Senseless, and Reckless
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/101803A.shtml
Henry Waxman | Iraq Policy Grounded in Secrecy, Deceit, and Politics
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/101803B.shtml
Rumsfeld's $9 Billion Slush Fund
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/101803C.shtml
Four U.S. Military Police Killed in Iraq Attacks
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/101803D.shtml
Pentagon Expects to Call Up More Reserve Troops for Iraq Duty
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/101803E.shtml
Madeleine Albright: Bush's Foreign Policy "Not Good For the World"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/101803F.shtml
Clinton Officials Attack Bush on Environment
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/101803G.shtml
Paris Wanted an "Electroshock" and Finally Caved In
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/101803H.shtml
Paul Krugman | The Sweet Spot
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/101803I.shtml
Bob Herbert | An Ugly Game
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/101803J.shtml
Click to subscribe to Truthout.org updates -> https://www.truthout.org/membership/sub_mgmt.php
Go direct to our HomePage : http://www.truthout.org
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
PowellExposed * KucinichBegins * AshcroftRevealed
18 October 2003
* Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
* When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
* Follow the three Rs: Respect for self, respect for others and responsibility for all your actions.
* Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
* Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
* Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
* When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
* Spend some time alone every day.
* Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.
* Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
* Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.
* A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
* In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.
* Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.
* Be gentle with the earth.
* Once a year, go some place you've never been before.
* Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
* Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
* Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.
The Dalai Lama -- 01 January 2003
*The above was received via email
1) The Man Who Knew Powell Lied
2) Kucinich Formal Announcement - Light Up America
- - when the laws of the American Natives were excluded
3) FBI Agent speaks out against Ashcroft
Editor's Notes:
Truth is truth and lies are lies. How simple, and how tangled is the mess from all the lies and the influence of money and corruption, bringing death and sorrow to many true patriots, and innocent families. Item 1 is old news to most, but the source and timing is important. Last Wednesday, Sixty-Minutes 2 aired an interview with Greg Thielmann, who was a former expert on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Thielmann was a foreign-service officer for 25 years and stated that Secretary of State, Colin Powell changed course and his Feb. 5, 2003 UN speech presented questionable evidence against Saddam and Iraq. Thielmann said that he believes the decision to go to war was made first, and then the intelligence was interpreted to fit that conclusion. Well, what is new, and now Bush is going around the country to spin local media stations to his mentality of a shortened version of life's survival in the 21st Century. In item 2, if you haven't yet, please read this formal announcement of Dennis John Kucinich for US President in 2004. Please consider forwarding the URL link to the full transcript everywhere possible. This speech offers hope and an opportunity to choose light rather than hiding in the darkness. Following excerpts to this announcement is a piece by David Crockett Williams on Dennis' statement, "when the laws of the American Natives were excluded." What does this mean? David shares his thouhts, and some background on the Indigenous influence in the creating of the US Constitution. Yet the issue of Dennis is not just a national issue or continental issue. As this following letter by Kehla eloquently shares:
17 October 2003 035814 -0700 (PDT)
Posted via FriendsofKucinichInternational@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Rep. Dennis Kucinich and John McDonnell MP - UK
~*~
"..I am an Italian woman living in Berlin (Germany) and deeply involved in supporting Kucinich's Campaign for US-Presidency. I am sure, you'll agree, when I say that this Planet has never before reached such critical point, and that Kucinich is the *Only One* able and willing to save this Planet and all of us.
When I say "US" I mean not only my most beloved Friends in USA, but all of US (= United Souls), inclusive those people unfortunately still mentally trapped in the manipulation and machinations of World Leaders attempting to carry on their dark agenda.
We, the people of this Planet that went down to the streets saying NO to war and asking for Peace, we now Want Kucinich as US-President, and He still *IS* our President. And it is important that Kucinich - His own schedule permitting - travels around and visits other countries, so that more people might know, that what they hoped for has now become a reality.
Thank you, Mr. Gordon, I trust you will do your best concerning this meeting of Kucinich and McDonnell in the UK.
May God bless all of us,
Kehla*"
Item 3 is an article and links about the inspirational Coleen Rowley, "..the Minneapolis FBI agent who accused bureau headquarters of bungling chances to foil the Sept. 11 attacks, is criticizing the Bush administration for "whittling away our civil liberties."'
With people like Coleen Rowley and Dennis Kucinich around, America is made safer, and offers us a chance to unite with the world for peace and cooperation.
Please note that campaigns and events at FlybyNews.com is often updated, and now has a new link to a site for a live feed to the World Uranium Weapons conference, being held in Hamburg now.
http://www.uranwaffenkonferenz.de/internet.htm
Please, too, keep attentive to the October 31st deadline in New Hampshire to convince any Republicans, Greens, Libertarians, or other party members to change before Halloween to vote in the Democratic Primary for Dennis Kucinich. The can change back later, but now - Make A Difference! Join the telephone banking campaign for New Hamsphire and Dennis to lead the way for a nuclear free, safe, and healthier world.
1) The Man Who Knew Powell Lied
Sixty Minutes 2 - CBS News
The Man Who Knew
Oct. 15, 2003
[Excerpt]
In the run-up to the war in Iraq, one moment seemed to be a turning point: the day Secretary of State Colin Powell went to the United Nations to make the case for the invasion.
Millions of people watched as he laid out the evidence and reached a damning conclusion -- that Saddam Hussein was in possession of weapons of mass destruction.
Correspondent Scott Pelley has an interview with Greg Thielmann, a former expert on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Thielmann, a foreign-service officer for 25 years, now says that key evidence in the speech was misrepresented and the public was deceived..
..Thielmann's last job at the State Department was director of the Office of Strategic Proliferation and Military Affairs, which was responsible for analyzing the Iraqi weapons threat for Secretary Powell. He and his staff had the highest security clearances, and everything whether it came into the CIA or the Defense Department came through his office..
..On Feb. 5, 2003, Secretary Powell presented evidence against Saddam to the U.N., and the speech represented a change in Powell's thinking. Before 9/11, he said Saddam had "not developed any significant capability in weapons of mass destruction." But two years later, he warned that Saddam had stockpiled those very weapons.
"The gravity of this moment is matched by the gravity of the threat that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction pose to the world," said Powell.
At the time of Powell's speech, Thielmann says that Iraq didn't pose an imminent threat to anyone: "I think it didn't even constitute an imminent threat to its neighbors at the time we went to war."
But Thielmann also says that he believes the decision to go to war was made first, and then the intelligence was interpreted to fit that conclusion. For example, he points to the evidence behind Powell's charge that Iraq was importing aluminum tubes to use in a program to build nuclear weapons.
Powell said: "Saddam Hussein is determined to get his hands on a nuclear bomb. He is so determined that he has made repeated covert attempts to acquire high-specification aluminum tubes from 11 different countries even after inspections resumed."
"This is one of the most disturbing parts of Secretary Powell's speech for us," says Thielmann.
Intelligence agents intercepted the tubes in 2001, and the CIA said they were parts for a centrifuge to enrich uranium - fuel for an atom bomb. But Thielmann wasn't so sure. Experts at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the scientists who enriched uranium for American bombs, advised that the tubes were all wrong for a bomb program. At about the same time, Thielmann's office was working on another explanation. It turned out the tubes' dimensions perfectly matched an Iraqi conventional rocket.
"The aluminum was exactly, I think, what the Iraqis wanted for artillery," recalls Thielmann, who says he sent that word up to the Secretary of State months before..
..After the war, the White House said the African uranium claim was false and shouldn't have been in the address. But at the time, it was part of a campaign that painted the intelligence as irrefutable.
"There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us," said Cheney.
But if there was no doubt in public, Thielmann says there was plenty of doubt in the intelligence community. He says the administration took murky information out of the gray area and made it black and white..
..As for Greg Thielmann, he told 60 Minutes II that he's a reluctant witness. His decision to speak developed over time, and he says the president's address worried him because he knew the African uranium story was false. He said he watched Secretary Powell's speech with disappointment because, up until then, he had seen Powell bringing what he called "reason" to the administration's inner circle.
Today, Thielmann believes the decision to go to war was made -- and the intelligence was interpreted to fit that conclusion.
"There's plenty of blame to go around. The main problem was that the senior administration officials have what I call faith-based intelligence. They knew what they wanted the intelligence to show," says Thielmann.
"They were really blind and deaf to any kind of countervailing information the intelligence community would produce. I would assign some blame to the intelligence community, and most of the blame to the senior administration officials."
The administration wants to spend several hundred million dollars more to continue the search for evidence..
MMIII, CBS Worldwide Inc.
For the complete transcript, see:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/14/60II/main577975.shtml
2) Kucinich Formal Announcement - Light Up America
- - "when the laws of the American Natives were excluded"
Dennis John Kucinich Formal Announcement Speech
Cleveland, Ohio Monday, October 13, 2003
[Excerpt]
To link to complete transcript, download Word File and/or watch video, see: http://www.kucinich.us/announce-news.htm
Thank you for joining me for this important moment, not only for myself but for the Cleveland community. My brothers and sisters will remember this story. There is a fiery torch which lights the night skies over our beloved Cleveland. It rises from the furnace of a steel mill. I remember a time when that light played against the interior of our car. As a young child I pressed my face against the car window and watched as the flame reached up. It filled me with wonder, it gave me a spark of hope. It made me forget that my mom and dad, my brothers and sisters, all seven of us, were living in that car. Light has the power to enkindle dreams. And though we lived in 21 different places by the time I was 17, including a couple of cars, I breathed in the image of blazing light and I breathe it out at this very moment..
..This moment, this moment, which evolved as the dream of an inner city child who once lived in a car, to become President of the United States celebrates not my potential but the creative potential of each and every child to be somebody, to be loved, to serve, to lead, to be carried into the myth and magic of the express power of the American Dream and our responsibility to make each child's dreams come true..
..Our work for peace will be strengthened when we repair breaks within our own society. Today, is the day to remind ourselves of the necessity of healing the grief with Native Americans, who were dispossessed when exploration turned to exploitation, and when the laws of the American Natives were excluded in the cause of all Americans. I have joined Congressman John Conyer's call to study reparations for those whose African American ancestors suffered enslavement. And let me tell you why I've done that- because we must recognize the debilitating effects of slavery which are with us still, the debilitating effects of racism which still exist. We must recognize this because so many of our African American brothers and sisters are locked still in prisons of poverty, substandard housing, unemployment, run-down schools, without health care, without hope. I know this. And my brother Gary, my brother Frank, my brother Larry, my sister Terry, my sister Beth, my brother Perry- We know this, because often we were the only Caucasian family living in a community of color. We know this.
This is not only about repairing the breach for African Americans, this is about healing our world, this is about what is called in the Jewish faith tikkun olam. We must heal the breach.. We must begin this process of reconciliation and healing. We must be repairers of the breach, and we can help to repair the breach by having a nation which stands for jobs for all, health care for all, education for all. Let's use this as a moment to lift up America!..
..And I'm running for President to break the shackles of fear which have deprived our citizens of rights. The passage of the Patriot Act was an abomination and as President I intend to lead the effort to repeal it. We need to regain the trust of the American people and we need to have a government which trusts the American people. This war threatens our civil liberties, our civil freedoms, our economic freedoms. The rising budget deficit, at national and state levels, will continue to mount with the continued occupation. Meanwhile, absolutely no attention is being paid to a rising trade deficit which is now approaching 450 billion dollars.
Americans have lost 3 million manufacturing jobs since July of 2000. NAFTA and the WTO have facilitated the movement of jobs out of America. Because you know and I know: corporations move where they can pay workers less. Corporations move where workers don't have rights, where nations provide little legal protection. America can change that. America can set new rules for trade, but to do that you must set aside NAFTA and the WTO. I'm running for President to cancel NAFTA and the WTO. This is about fair trade. People ask: what will you do next? We return to bilateral trade. Everyone wants access to our market. We can help set the rules, and through setting the rules we can lift up the cause of all workers. And how can we do that specifically? We must put into our new bilateral trade agreements workers rights, the right to organize, the right to collective bargaining, the right to strike, the right to decent wages and benefits, the right to a safe workplace, the right to a secure retirement. We can put those into our trade agreements. We can protect American workers, and we can lift the cause of workers all over this world, and it is time to do that..
..And we can create new jobs, too, with a new approach to health care. We know how many places in America, where businesses are laying off employees because they can no longer afford the cost of health care, where employees are seeing cutbacks in their health care benefits, because of a health care system that is no longer about people. Last month, I introduced a bill which takes the profit out of health care, together with John Conyers and Jim McDermott. This proposal brings to the American people a universal, single-payer system, Medicare for all. It is time for health care for people, not for profit. You know. You know. You know and I know that insurance companies make money not providing health care. They make money by stopping people from getting the care they need. They make money by making insurance agents more powerful than doctors. They make money because they are interested only in profit..
..People ask me, "Oh, sounds great. How can you do this?" We are already paying for universal health care. We're not getting it. Why aren't we getting it? Because the health care dollar involves stock options, executive salaries, high profits, lobbying, marketing, advertising, the high cost of paper work! We want the health care dollar to go into caring for people and that is exactly what this proposal does. No more bankruptcies for health care. No more health care poverty in America. No more premiums, no more co-pays, no more deductibles. We are already paying for universal health care, we're not getting it.
It's time, America and it's time, too, to make corporations accountable to the American people; to require that they tell the truth to their shareholders; to require that they tell the truth to their investors; to require that they tell the truth to their employees, to their retirees; that they tell the truth. And I will bring to the Presidency of the United States, an independence to insist on a higher standard of conduct for Wall Street and its captains. It was a century ago when America had a president, Theodore Roosevelt, who took on the trusts of his era; who challenged the monopolies of his time. I say that now is the time to, once again, break up the monopolies and restore competition in our economy. And we must do so again on behalf of small businesses, and on behalf of family farmers. And as president, I will move to break up the monopolies in agriculture, which strangle the market from seed to shelf. And to make sure that our family farmers are able to get their product to market and get the price that they are entitled to.
Of course as Peter, and C.J., and Jay and others have pointed out, I have some experience in dealing with monopolies. It was here. It was here in this very Council Chambers, 25 years ago that I had the privilege of stopping the sale of Cleveland's municipal electric system. And stopping the takeover of our public power by a utility monopoly because I recognized then, as I recognize now, that it matters how much people pay for electricity. That's why I fought to make sure that the people of this community would be able to have access to cheaper power.
I'll share with you a story from that time 25 years ago. The very day that I said "no" to the sale of our municipal electric system- on December the 15th, 1978- I was thinking, brothers and sisters, Frank and Gary: I was thinking about when we lived above Martha's Delicatessen at 10712 St. Clair. And I was thinking about Mom and Dad sitting at the kitchen table counting the pennies so they would have money to pay the utility bill. I can still hear those pennies dropping -|click, click, click on that tabletop. I could hear that on that day when I was asked to sell Cleveland's municipal electric system. Oh, I want all of you to know that I remember where I came from. I want all of you to know that. Because, there are so many families in America, so many families struggling to hold on to their homes, to hold on to their health care, to hold on to their retirement security, to hold on to their education funds, that it matters how much people pay for electricity, for gas, for home heating oil, for food, for health care, for education. These kitchen-table issues always bring us "home" if we know where home is.
Cleveland is my home. Cleveland is where my heart resides. Cleveland is where my dreams started. Cleveland is where I've learned the lessons I want to share with every American: The lesson that one person can make a difference; the lesson that anyone can, and anyone should be able to rise from humble beginnings to lead a nation; the lesson that we can change the outcome; the lesson of the power of the human heart, and the power of the human spirit to transform the world. I have seen miracles. I have seen the people of Cleveland create miracles. During my career you have helped me to save a municipal electric system when it was already sold. You have helped me to keep hospitals open when they were already closed. You have helped me to save a steel mill, to help keep that bright light burning over the industrial valley when other communities' hopes were extinguished. Because of you, because of you, because of you, I know the power of hope, the power of optimism, the power of light!
Years ago, my grandfather, John Kucinich, now the name was spelled K-u-c-i-n-i-c. When he came over on the boat, they added the "h". A lot of names were changed there: K-u-c-i-n-i-c. When he came over, because he pronounced it "Kuchinich", they added the "h" on. So now, Gary, anytime somebody tells me to "get the h out of there," I think they're talking about my grandfather. And my grandfather, when he traveled from Croatia as a very young man, he traveled to Ellis Island, and he was welcomed by a light as well. He was welcomed by the light of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty that holds its lamp high, and on the base of the Statue of Liberty, there's that inscription by Emma Lazarus: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores. Send these tempest-tossed, to me. I lift my lamp, beside the golden door". The tens of millions who journeyed to this nation, from other lands, connect us in fact and in spirit to the entire world. And in this campaign they connect us to the highest aspirations of everyone who ever journeyed here. To become full partners, Peter Lawson Jones, full partners in the life of our nation.
So, by the lights which guided my grandfather to America; by the light still shining celebrating public power; by the lights which still emblazon the sky over Cleveland's steel valley, I stand here, ready to light up America. I am Dennis John Kucinich and I am running for President of the United States!
To link to complete transcript, download Word File and/or watch video, see:
http://www.kucinich.us/announce-news.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - "when the laws of the American Natives were excluded"
What did Rep. Kucinich mean by these words in his below address in the city council chambers in Cleveland Ohio where he served as mayor before election to Congress? He chose the October 13, 2003, Columbus Day Holiday, after eight months of campaigning for the Democratic Presidential nomination, to "formally announce" his candidacy for President of The United States. One will note in watching the video of this extemporaneous talk made with frequent glances at his notes, that when he speaks these few above words on this occasion, his demeanor is most unusual because these few words condense so much into them as they slowly "popped out of his mouth from somewhere" during what appears to be his struggle with a long "pregnant pause" for "the right words for the occasion".
The United States system of government was patterned in large part by its founding fathers, who had only known the system of monarchy in their personal lives, on their evaluation of the Haudenosaunee, the American Native Culture of Peace known to themselves as "The People of The Long House," to the French speakers as the Iroquois, and to the English speakers as The Six Nations Confederacy. http://www.sixnations.org
The Haudenosaunee Culture of Peace brought together many nations before they were "discovered" by Benjamin Franklin, et al, who tried to pattern the US system after this working model precedent of a culture of government "by the people and for the people" based on the sacred teachings of The Great Law of Peace, The Tree of Peace, and the Wampum as Objects of Veneration symbolizing these sacred teachings brought a millennium ago forming Haudenosaunee by the one known as The Peacemaker whose life story, like that of Jesus Christ, features the immaculate conception origin of his life. But the founding fathers did not understand the sanctity of the Wampum and saw it as just "Indian money". The saw that all the leaders were men, but they did not appreciate that these were each chosen by a council of women to whom they were responsible and at whose pleasure they served.. The founding fathers did not understand the principle of land as a sacred trust for human beings to keep in a sacred way for the benefit of all. Instead, "they" thought they "bought Manhattan for a handful of beads," while the native peoples thought these beads were Wampum of sacred trust of friendship and understanding among themselves for cooperation and mutual respect of one another and the land.
Yes, the United States of America "left out" The Great Law of Peace.
Now someone has come to bring humanity home to peace,"
"David Crockett Williams" gear2000@lightspeed.net
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 10:39:31 -0700
Organization: Silk Road Peace March
Re: Dennis John Kucinich - "The Light of America" - Formal Announcement Columbus Day 2003 - "when the laws of the American Natives were excluded"
3) FBI Agent speaks out against Ashcroft
FBI's Rowley pulls no punches in critique of Ashcroft
By Greg Gordon
[Excerpt] For complete article, see:
http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/4149222.html
Published October 12, 2003
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Coleen Rowley, the Minneapolis FBI agent who accused bureau headquarters of bungling chances to foil the Sept. 11 attacks, is criticizing the Bush administration for "whittling away our civil liberties."
In an opinion piece published in today's Star Tribune,
http://www.startribune.com/stories/562/4147904.html
Rowley takes issue with U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's assertion in a Twin Cities speech last month that America "is freer today than at any time in the history of human freedom."
"Well, this American disagrees!" Rowley wrote.
She contends that the administration's "us versus them" mentality in fighting terrorism is intimidating Americans and fueling anti-Arab feelings..
..But Rowley wrote: "The intimidation in this country that's been whipped up by this official fear and warmongering has been far more effective than any Patriot Act in whittling away our civil liberties."
She said Ashcroft "is not above using this technique to lump those who disagree with him in with the terrorists to thereby discourage debate." She cited his post-Sept. 11 comment that critics of expanded law enforcement powers "give ammunition to America's enemies."
In a brief phone conversation, Rowley said she received pre-publication clearance from FBI headquarters before submitting the op-ed piece to the Star Tribune's editorial page staff.
It is rare for an FBI agent to publicly criticize an attorney general, who serves as the nation's top law enforcement officer. But FBI spokesman Bill Carter stressed that "it's not unusual for agents to write pieces for either newspapers or publications. . . . FBI agents, just like other citizens, have the right to free speech and they can express their opinions."
Rowley was named one of Time magazine's three "Persons of the Year" in 2002 for her decision to criticize FBI headquarters' handling of the pre-Sept. 11 investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui. In a stinging letter to Mueller and in congressional testimony, she criticized bureau counter-terrorism supervisors for rejecting Minneapolis agents' requests for a national security warrant allowing a search of Moussaoui's possessions. A post-Sept. 11 search turned up clues linking Moussaoui to Al-Qaida operatives..
..While she has avoided disciplinary action for her speeches and writings to date, she notes in her opinion piece that "it's no secret that this administration has used its considerable power to fight giving any real legal protection to government whistleblowers."
She said she relies on the First Amendment, though "the official warnings along these lines that I've repeatedly received in the course of my attempts to speak on issues of public importance seem little more than veiled threats."
A mother of four who is her family's sole breadwinner, Rowley is a 22-year FBI veteran. She will not become eligible for a pension until she turns 50 in December 2004.
Greg Gordon's email address is: ggordon@mcclatchydc.com.
Also see:
Coleen Rowley: The wrong side of 'us vs. them'
http://www.startribune.com/stories/562/4147904.html
The above complete article is posted:
http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/4149222.html
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
PeacePlanCan * Debate * BushScam * SonarDeath
13 October 2003
"Our involvement in Iraq was based on lies.
This administration tried to tell the American people
that Iraq had something to do with 9/11, with al Qaeda's role in 9/11,
with the anthrax attack; that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction;
that Iraq had the intention and the ability to attack this nation.
All those things are not true.
So I think that the cause of defending this country
must, first and foremost,
be truth."
Dennis Kucinich October 9, 2003
CNN's Democratic presidential candidates' debate
1) Kucinich: "Bring US Troops Home!"
- - The Case for Kucinich
- - David and Goliath - A chat with Dennis Kucinich
- - Two Civilized Men Among the Barbarians
- - Dennis Kucinich: A Truly Progressive Voice?
2) CNN's Democratic presidential candidates' debate
- - How Many Minutes Each Candidate
- - Mike's Kucinich Korral Roundup
3) New Bush Scam
- - When in Trouble, Try to Spin Your Way Out
4) Study Says Sonar linked to death of whales
Editor's Notes:
This Monday Dennis Kucinich will formally announce his presidential campaign on a three-day tour of 11 States. It is good his campaign is just beginning. There is still time, and it is critical to amass volunteers to effectively reach the citizens in NH before that State's January 27, 2004 first primary-state election. This State and the nation's support of it will prove if we can reach the people with a grassroots independent movement that will free US from the corporate-media's control.
Remember:
In the Moment the Future Is Born
1) Kucinich: "Bring US Troops Home!"
- - The Case for Kucinich
- - David and Goliath - A chat with Dennis Kucinich
- - Two Civilized Men Among the Barbarians
- - Dennis Kucinich: A Truly Progressive Voice?
From the Kucinich for President Campaign
For Immediate Release October 10, 2003
Kucinich Releases Plan to Bring U.S. Troops Home from Iraq and End War Profiteering at Taxpayer Expense One year ago today, the United States House of Representatives passed the Iraq War resolution, despite the efforts led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich that persuaded two-thirds of the Democrats in the House to defy their party's leadership and vote No. Congressman Kucinich is the only presidential candidate in the race who voted No in the House or Senate. Since then, Kucinich has not wavered in his strong opposition to the Iraq War and Occupation. On the one year anniversary of the vote, Kucinich has issued a plan to replace US troops in Iraq with UN forces, a transfer of power that would be complete as early as New Year's Day.
Kucinich's statement begins:
"The war in Iraq is over and the occupation of Iraq has turned into a quagmire. The US troops have become the targets of criminals and terrorists who are flowing into Iraq for the chance to shoot Americans.
The cost of the occupation keeps rising: The President has already asked for more than $150 billion to pay for it. And there is no end in sight. The UN is now in an impossible situation, where most of the members view the war and occupation of Iraq to be a US folly. Under these circumstances, the UN can't help. The US is stuck, mostly alone, with a costly, unpopular and unending occupation of Iraq. If we stay the course, it will do damage to American security. Iraq was not and is not a threat to the US, yet the demands of an occupation will overstretch our armed forces. And the extended deployment of reserve forces make us vulnerable at home because the reserve call ups include large numbers of firemen, policemen and other first responders who are needed for the homeland defense mission.
"People are asking, is there a way out? I believe there is. I am writing to share with you a plan that will get the UN in Iraq and the US out. This plan could bring the troops home by New Year's day, it will cost much less than the President's, and it will increase American security."
Read Congressman Kucinich's plan at
http://www.kucinich.us/statements.htm#100903
PS. While this statement on withdrawal affirms Rep. Kucinich's consistent leadership in opposing the Iraq war and occupation, last night's debate exposed more vacillating from Gov. Dean (who is often called by the media the "leading anti-war candidate"). Where Dean had supported spending $87 billion more on war and occupation at the CNBC debate ("we have no choice," Sept. 25), he refused in yesterday's New York Times to say how he'd vote, if he were in Congress, on the $87 billion. Pressed by Rep. Kucinich last night, Dean said he would support the $87 billion if the money came from rescinding tax cuts -- raising the issue of how the merits of spending more money on a deepening quagmire in Iraq are settled by where the money comes from:
KUCINICH: I want to comment as the only person on this stage who actually voted against the war in Iraq. I want to say that Governor Dean's answer was incomplete before, because he told CNBC two weeks ago that we have no choice about funding the $87 billion. And this morning in the New York Times, he wouldn't take a position on the $87 billion, and the governor says that he's still for keeping 70,000 troops in Iraq...
...KUCINICH TO DEAN : I want to ask him, do you believe in spending $87 billion to keep our troops in Iraq? Because I don't. Do you?
DEAN: I get to answer the question?
WOODRUFF: Yes.
DEAN: I believe if the president is serious about supporting our troops in Iraq that he has to say where he's going to get the money from, and that means he's got to get rid of $87 billion worth of the tax cuts that went to Ken Lay and his friends at Enron.
KUCINICH: Would you fund to keep the troops in Iraq?
DEAN: Yes.
For more information: http://www.kucinich.us
For Rep. Kucinich's Schedule: http://www.kucinich.us/schedule.htm
Contact: David Swanson 202-329-7847 swanson@kucinich.us
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Case for Kucinich
By Max B. Sawicky
I detect a consensus that Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Rev. Al Sharpton are focused like laser beams on core progressive principles, compared to what are considered the more pragmatic choices of Dean, Kerry, Gephardt and Edwards. On this account they should enjoy the bulk of progressive support, but they don't. Of course, there is doubt that such principles would aid a Democrat bucking our emerging one-party state. So we have the old pragmatism vs. idealism quandary. Or do we?
The complete article is posted at:
http://www.populist.com/03.15.sawicky.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - David and Goliath - A chat with Dennis Kucinich
- - - - - - - - - - - -
by Charley Cropley (Editorial@boulderweekly.com)
Among the Democratic candidates for president, who's afraid of the big bad word "progressive"?
Everyoneexcept Dennis Kucinich.
For the complete Boulder Weekly article, see:
http://www.boulderweekly.com/coverstory.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Two Civilized Men Among the Barbarians
by Glen Ford and Peter Gamble,
The Black Commentator
Viewed on October 9, 2003
See: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16929
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Dennis Kucinich: A Truly Progressive Voice?
PrimaryBuzz Staff Writer
October 5, 2003
It's a funny, if unfair, world. The guy from Congress who opposed the war in Iraq and who talks peace with conviction doesn't seem to have won the heart of the anti-war voter. That's right, Dennis Kucinich, the runner-up winner of the MoveOn.org primary with 70,000 votes, seems to be sitting on the bench, as the pugnacious Governor Dean seems to have captured all the passion of the anti-war movement, and leveraged it into in a potent political coalition of the angry. Perhaps Kucinich is just too much of a peacenik to galvanize this new, aggressive, angry anti-war mob?
Luckily, Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive, hasn't missed Kucinich's message, and has done a great job covering the true peace candidate and pointing out that it's Kucinich is the candidate whose words against war are most consistent, and most outspoken. After the New York debate, Rothschild wrote on September 26th that "Dennis Kucinich proved once again Thursday that he's the most progressive candidate in the race by far."
Right "from the start, Kucinich didn't vacillate. His first time up, he was asked about Bush's $87 billion request for war and occupation: 'Will you vote yes or no on the $87 billion, and if the answer is no, what's the message you would send to the troops?' Kucinich responded: 'The answer is no. I will not vote for the $87 billion. I think we should support the troops, and I think we best support them by bringing them home. Our troops are at peril there because of this Administration's policy. . . . I say, bring the troops home unequivocally, bring them home, and stop this commitment for $87 billion, which is only going to get us in deeper. After a while, we're going to be sacrificing our education, our health care, our housing, and the future of this nation.'"
In contrast, Rothschild observes that "Howard Dean, the erstwhile peace candidate, said, 'We have no choice' but to support the $87 billion request. Carol Moseley Braun, Joe Lieberman, and John Edwards concurred. Clark fobbed it off as a hypothetical question before mouthing the apparently obligatory 'we need to support our troops.'"
Rothschild also notes that "Kucinich gave the best answer to the question about 'what would be the least popular but most right thing you would do' as President. Said Kucinich, succinctly this time: 'First, I would take action to stop the federal death penalty. Second, I would move to cut the Pentagon budget by 15 percent, which would in no way affect adversely our national defense and put the money into child care. Third, I would move to create a department of peace, which would seek to make nonviolence an organizing principle in our society and would work with the nations of the world to make war itself archaic.'"
For this complete article, see:
http://technologyreports.net/primarybuzz/?articleID=2076
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more information: kucinich.us
For Rep. Kucinich's Schedule: www.kucinich.us/schedule.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
See Campaigns and Events at FlybyNews.com
for actions to unite and make a difference
2) CNN's Democratic presidential candidates' debate
- - How Many Minutes Each Candidate
- - Mike's Kucinich Korral Roundup
Excerpts From the Debate -- October 9, 2003
John Edwards
On reaching out to the middle class
I want this president to explain to the American people why multimillionaires sitting by the swimming pool, getting a statement each month to see how much money he's making, is paying a lower tax rate than a schoolteacher, a firefighter, a secretary.
The second reason that this is wrong is because he is putting the burden on the very engine of our economy, which is working people and the middle class. Our economy grows when working people and the middle class grows.
It's happened historically. This president believes if you put more money in the pockets of people at the top, somehow we are all going to do better.
He's wrong. He's we are going to prove he's wrong in 2004, and the middle class needs to hear this message.
Howard Dean
On his positions on Social Security and Medicare
First of all, I've never said I didn't change. I'm a strong supporter of Medicare. I'm a strong supporter of Social Security. I think Medicare is a badly run program, and I've said so repeatedly. We are not going to take away Medicare or Social Security. That was part of the social contract passed with Lyndon Johnson and F.D.R.. What we are going to do, however, is change those
programs so they can do better.
John Kerry
On winning the election
I think there has been a problem in the last election, certainly, and part of it was not of the making of the party, it was the cleverness of the Republican administration and Karl Rove in exploiting national security. They brought the Iraq issue in September for a purpose. Andrew Card said you don't introduce a new product in August. And they introduced their product and they wiped other choices off the stage.
But that's one of the reasons why it's so important to have a nominee of our party who will have the ability to stand toe-to-toe with them.
They used to think their strong suit was national security. They can't find Osama bin Laden, they can't find Saddam Hussein, they can't find even find the leaker in the White House.
Joseph I. Lieberman
On Iraq
This is a very important discussion because each of the nine of us want to be the commander in chief of the United States military and protect the security of this country.
That requires a clarity of judgment and the courage to stick by the judgment you've made. Dennis Kucinich, Howard Dean, Al Sharpton, Carol Moseley Braun, they were clear and consistent against the war. I was for it, clearly and consistently. But I respect them for that clarity. I must say that I've been very disappointed, since Wes Clark came into this race, about the various positions he has taken on the war against Saddam Hussein.
Richard A. Gephardt
On Iraq
The president is failing in his responsibility to get us the help that we need. It is four months since he landed on the aircraft carrier in his flight suit and said the war was over. We've almost lost 800 soldiers to injuries since then. We've almost lost 100 who have been killed.
Wesley K. Clark
On Iraq
Let me tell you what my story is. I always supported taking the problem of Saddam Hussein to the United Nations and bringing international resolve to bear. I would never have voted for war. The Congress made a mistake in giving George Bush an open-ended resolution that enabled him to go to war without coming back to the Congress. And that's the simple answer to it.
Carol Moseley Braun
On Iraq
I wouldn't see sending in more troops than we have there already, but certainly to provide relief to those soldiers and provide them every support they need in the field, so that our men and women are not sitting ducks and so that they are not just out there without the kind of support they need to do the job they're there to do.
Dennis J. Kucinich
On Iraq
Unfortunately, in the case of Iraq, our involvement in Iraq was based on lies. This administration tried to tell the American people that Iraq had something to do with 9/11, with al Qaeda's role in 9/11, with the anthrax attack; that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction; that Iraq had the intention and the ability to attack this nation. All those things are not true. So I think that the cause of defending this country must, first and foremost, be truth.
Al Sharpton
On Iraq
The president went to the U.N. and said, "Help us on my terms." If I were president, I would go in and say, "We were wrong." Tony Blair and George Bush had a meeting; acted as though it was a world summit two guys in a phone booth, acting like the whole world had met. And they made a wrong move. I think if we were not inflexible, we could get more support in withdrawing.
Copyright 2003
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/10/politics/campaigns/10DBOX.html?pagewanted=print&position=
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/10/politics/campaigns/10DBOX.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - How Many Minutes Each Candidate
(Received via Kucinich Campaign)
For Immediate Release: October 10, 2003
CNN's Democratic presidential candidates' debate last night was held with the stated intention of providing the candidates equal time. According to the Hotline (National Journal), here are the results:
Candidate Amount Of Talk Time During the Debate
Dean 14 min 07 seconds
Kerry 12 min 31 seconds
Clark 10 min 36 seconds
Gephardt 10 min 02 seconds
Lieberman 9 min 26 seconds
Braun 8 min 39 seconds
Sharpton 8 min 28 seconds
Edwards 8 min 00 seconds
Kucinich 5 min 09 seconds
At the debate, Congressman Kucinich stood out, expressing some of the clearest and sharpest distinctions between himself and other candidates, and receiving applause for his comments. It is safe to assume that his impact would have been even greater had he been given more than 36 percent of the time given to Gov. Dean.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Mike's Kucinich Korral Roundup
Excerpted from: notjustanotherclone@yahoo.com
The soul of a nation and her brightest asset, her youth, cheered when Dennis Kucinich said he was the only member on stage who voted against the war. And the hopes of the world were lifted that there was at least one candidate with the resolve to change how America presents itself around the globe. Now let's work to spread these words of hope and wisdom to the voters. ~ Mike Price
Transcript of the Phoenix debate..
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0310/09/se.03.html
Poll on who addressed Arizona's issues best in the debate...link at top of page...
http://www.azcentral.com/#
3) New Bush Scam
- - When in Trouble, Try to Spin Your Way Out
Subject: new Bush scam
The following was received by Flyby News from Daniel P. Welch
Republicans are at it again: New Bush scam--"letters from Iraq" are mass-produced.....will the press give the administration the hounding it deserves?
Newspapers around U.S. get identical missives from Iraq
http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20031011/frontpage/121390.shtml
"WASHINGTON -- Letters from hometown soldiers describing their successes rebuilding Iraq have been appearing in newspapers across the country as U.S. public opinion on the mission sours. And all the letters are the same. A Gannett News Service search found identical letters from different soldiers with the 2nd Battalion of the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, also known as "The Rock," in 11 newspapers, including Snohomish, Wash. "
first saw The Olympian article linked at http://legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
Sincerely,
Daniel P. Welch
http://www.danielpwelch.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - When in Trouble, Try to Spin Your Way Out
By MICHAEL KIRKLAND - Oct 12, 2003, 08:30
The Justice Department investigation into alleged leaks from the Bush administration that compromised the identity of a CIA officer is in deep trouble.
You can tell, because this administration has begun to react the way it does to just about everything lately.
Not enough intelligence to invade Iraq? Spin what you have and even some of what you don't have.
So it's come as no surprise that the administration has begun to spin the leaks investigation. President George W. Bush spun the first serve into the ad court Tuesday.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_3252.shtml
or
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?disc=149495;article=45304;title=APFN
4) Study Says Sonar linked to death of whales
Sonar linked to death of whales, study says
Gas bubbles may cause illness like divers' bends
David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor Thursday, October 9, 2003
---------------------------------
Powerful underwater sonar creates tissue-destroying gas bubbles in the vital organs of whales and other marine mammals, causing a fatal sickness similar to the bends that deep-sea divers undergo when they surface too quickly, a new study contends.
For the first time, scientists say they have pinpointed the reason that whales mysteriously beach themselves and die after exposure to certain types of sonar.
The study was based on an international naval exercise in the Atlantic a year ago that caused the stranding of 14 beaked whales on beaches in the Canary Islands. Analysis of the whales within hours of their exposure revealed the cause, according to a team of British and Spanish researchers.
The group's solution to the long-standing mystery is published today in the scientific journal Nature.
In another incident more than three years ago, a group of 17 medium-sized beaked whales stranded themselves in the Bahamas when U.S. Navy ships were conducting sonar exercises nearby. Seven of the mammals died within hours.
That episode led to a major investigation by scientists from the Navy and the government's National Marine Fisheries Service. Although their report directly blamed the sonar signals for mass strandings, it concluded that more research was needed to explain why the sonar had disrupted the whales so severely.
Daniel Costa, a marine mammal expert at UC Santa Cruz, who has consulted with a project using low-frequency sonar signals to study deep-water temperature changes, said Wednesday that he and most of his colleagues agree that the far more powerful and relatively high frequency sonar waves used by naval vessels are in fact the cause of mass whale strandings.
However, he said he considers that the evidence proposed by the British and Spanish researchers provides only a "highly tenuous" explanation for the disorientation and death of the deep-diving whales.
Other California experts, uncertain about the proposed explanation, referred a reporter's inquiry to Robert Gisiner of the Office of Naval Research in Arlington, Va., who is a leading expert on what has long provoked a major controversy among environmental organizations. A spokesperson for the agency, however, would not allow Gisiner to speak to reporters.
The team of British and Spanish scientists proposing the explanation for last year's mass stranding was led by Paul Jepson of the Institute of Zoology in London.
He and his colleagues said there was no evidence of bacterial disease in the whales. Autopsies showed that their blood vessels, livers, hearts, kidneys and fatty tissues were filled with large and rapidly expanding gas-filled cavities caused by the sonar pulses, the scientists said.
The bubble damage, they said, was the same as the damage caused by nitrogen bubbles that divers experience in their tissues when they suffer decompression sickness, or the "bends."
"This is the best data we've ever seen from a sonar-related stranding," said Roger Gentry, coordinator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Acoustics Team. He told the Washington Post that NOAA will hold a workshop with the authors and others in the field later this year to assess the new information and try to reach some scientific conclusions.
Although the British and Spanish scientists proposed that the whales might have actually developed decompression sickness -- possibly by diving and surfacing in panic as sonar impulses reached them -- Costa maintained that deep-diving marine mammals cannot get the bends because their lungs collapse when they dive and expel the gases they have breathed at the surface.
The most likely explanation for the bubbles found in the beached whales, said the British and Spanish scientists, is that the sonar impulses created the bubbles directly in nitrogen molecules that were already suffusing their tissues.
E-mail David Perlman at dperlman@sfchronicle.com.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/10/09/MN177651.DTL
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Honest Den * Drugs & Dean * Protest Occupation
02 October 2003
"Right now, there are two truth-tellers among the Democrats -
Rev. Al Sharpton and Rep. Dennis Kucinich."
Ellen Ratner - 9/29/03
(News Analyst at the Fox News Channel)
1) American Politics - Honesty is a Rare Policy
- - Kucinich Shines in New York Democratic Debate
- - Why Dennis Kucinich is Electable - from a former Republican
- - Kucinich Grassroots Phone Bank into New Hampshire
2) Howard Dean on Drugs
3) Thousands in U.S. Protest Iraq Occupation
- - Just Another Day In Bush Land
Editor's Notes:
Flyby News is reporting extensively on the Kucinich campaign for US President due to the opportunity for resolving many issues of crises confronting the world today. Uniting on such efforts is simply exhilarating and full of potential. As mentioned in the first item, New Hampshire is key for a successful campaign in reclaiming democracy in the US. In New Hampshire registered Republicans, Greens, Libertarians, and other party members have only until October 31 to change their party affiliation to Democrat or un-enrolled to vote in the first-State-primary election January 27, 2004. A campaign begins October 6 to call US citizens living in NH. Right now, as the first item shows, sophisticated news analysts and insiders are awakening to the powerful Kucinich platform in opposition to the Bush regime and the play-along members of the Democrat Party. Yet the media is still keeping Dennis unknown to the mainstream consciousness. The time for a powerful grassroots action is just beginning, and time is of the essence. Please join this phone banking campaign to call into NH and expose the reality of a solution from the terror and harm US policy is creating for the world and itself. We need many individual actions, united, to make a difference. All for one, and one for all, which is the only way one person can truly make a difference!
Item 2 covers Howard Dean's take on the war on drugs. As Governor, Dean supported the mainstream direction on this issue, which has been shown to lead to more problems and a cycle of harm affecting millions of people. It is a time for resolving this and other issues. Later today I will be going to a public hearing on the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant's interests for an increased generation output, which would result in much greater risks. This nuke plant sits along the Connecticut River near the borders of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. A doctor keen on preventative issues for health would have ended this damaging legacy for corrupt power while Governor of Vermont. Yet Dean has proven to be in alliance with the nuclear power industry, who supported sending nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. Instead of decommissioning this aging nuclear generator, it is now threatening millions of people more than ever! Former Governor Howard Dean enabled this tremendous health risk.
Item 3 is on the US occupation of Iraq and Dennis Kucinich's statement regarding the refusal of spending $87 million dollars of US taxpayers for a continued policy harming the people of Iraq and America. As Kucinich stated, it's time for the US out and the UN in, and to stop the privatization of Iraq's oil resources. The use of fear as a policy can only do more harm than good no matter what sordid reality spin doctors try to convince us to believe.
1) American Politics - Honesty is a Rare Policy
Three cheers for the losers by Ellen Ratner
September 29, 2003
Honesty is a rare policy anywhere, but virtually unknown in that Fib-A-Thon we call American Politics. If the U.S. electorate is like some Capt. Ahab, in search of the Great White Whale of honest politicians, then it best start looking for them among the ... the losers. Yep, the only place you'll hear the genuine news are from politicians destined to lose the races they're in and, thus, have nothing left to lose by telling the truth.
Right now, there are two truth-tellers among the Democrats Rev. Al Sharpton and Rep. Dennis Kucinich. In the Democratic debate this week, these two colorful and I must say it losers carried the evening by making it clear the Democrats aren't running against themselves, but against George Bush, and if the American people are going to vote to return a Democrat to the White House, they need to be given a better reason than Howard Dean's latest faux pas on the Middle East or "gotcha'" tactics against Lieberman, Kerry, Gephardt, et al. As far as I'm concerned, the only candidates who made a compelling case against Bush were the Rev. Al and Kucinich.
It's important to make distinctions. Remember the last presidential election? By the end of the campaign, there wasn't a dime's bit of difference between Gore and Bush except that one knew Bill Clinton better than the other one. The press judged the candidate debates like it was a Ms. America pageant you know, Bush's poise, how Gore looked in a bathing suit, etc. and completely omitted any serious discussion of policy differences.
In fact, the press wasn't given many differences to highlight, except counting each candidate's beads of sweat, how many molars appeared in each phony smile, Bush's malapropisms and who seemed more "sincere." The election resembled that election you remember for president of your high school except your class president didn't have the authority to declare pre-emptive war, bankrupt the economy or give his friends hundreds of millions of dollars in "no-bid" contracts.
Let's face it: By the standards of the election of 2000, Washington with his bad teeth and Lincoln with his ugly looks couldn't have been elected dogcatcher.
But now it's 2004 and the stakes have changed. Thousands of Americans have been murdered by terrorists, Saddam and Mullah Omar have been dispatched to the dustbin of history and our domestic economy has lost over 3,000,000 jobs so a handful of Bush-O-Crats can keep 50 percent more of that 12-cent quarterly dividend.
In spite of this, most of the mainstream candidates you know, the "serious" guys, the "players," the guys "who can win" try to out-Bush by seizing a safe middle ground and thereby obliterate any serious differences with the president, and likely any chance to beat him.
But you better believe there are serious differences. Only don't listen to Kerry, Gephart or Dean if you want to hear them. Try spunky Dennis Kucinich. He proudly reminds everybody he didn't vote to give China most-favored-nation trading status, in return for which the Chinese have blessed us with a $100 billion trade deficit.
Just as proudly, he proclaims his vote against the North American Free Trade Agreement. If elected, he would repeal it the day he takes office, thereby closing a $435 billion dollar trade deficit and creating more U.S. jobs with the stroke of a pen than FDR did during the 1930s. He led the coalition in the House to stop the war in Iraq and lately, has begun to demand that we pull out and turn it over to the United Nations. He says the $87 billion is "just the beginning. We need to reorder our priorities. Support our troops by sending them home."
At the dinner following the debate, Al Sharpton earned the only standing ovation from the group of Democratic contributors. Rev. Al conceded he was a long-shot, but he likened the field of Democratic candidates to a choir. In a church choir, he said, you have tenors, baritones and sopranos and some who can't sing at all they just move their lips and pretend.
Out of 10 candidates, he went on, there were going to be nine losers, but everyone has a responsibility to make a vigorous case for opposition. Instead, the good reverend pointed out this crop of candidates amounted to a bunch of elephants running around in donkey suits. And he quoted his grandmother who once said that to get a donkey to move, you have to slap it!" His role was to slap that donkey and get it to move.
Abe Lincoln's homilies couldn't put it any better.
2003 WorldNetDaily.com
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34829
Ellen Ratner is a White House correspondent and bureau chief for the Talk Radio News service. She is also Washington bureau chief and political editor for Talkers Magazine. In addition, Ratner is a news analyst at the Fox News Channel.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich Shines in New York Democratic Debate
Kucinich Shines in New York Democratic Debate, Should Take On Clark
by Matthew Rothschild
http://www.progressive.org/webex03/wx092603.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
NYC Democrat Candidate Debate (Transcript)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A433-2003Sep25.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Which Democrat will face Bush in '04?
From CNBC - Squawk Box Poll -
Ten Democrats are running for president. Which do you think will win the party's nomination? Most Democrats are just now turning their attention to the field of 10 candidates vying to be the party's standard bearer in 2004.
Voters participating in the party's primaries will be looking for the candidate with the best chance of bouncing another President Bush out of the White House after a single term.
Which candidate do you think will emerge from the primaries? Squawk Box is asking who you think will represent the party in next year's election, not who you want to win the nomination.
This vote has been closed. The final results are below:
Total Votes 6200
Clark ---------- 27%
Sharpton ------ 04%
Dean ---------- 22%
Edwards ------ 02%
Gephardt ------ 03%
Graham -------- 01%
Kerry ---------- 06%
Kucinich ------- 30%
Lieberman ----- 03%
Mosely Bruan -- 01%
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/CNBCTV/Promos/P61967.asp
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For a monthly ongoing Presidential poll featuring
Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) to find the candidate
preferred by a majority in a multi-candidate race...
with one vote, one ballot, visit: http://www.potuspoll.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Why Dennis Kucinich is Electable - from a former Republican
More Reasons Why Congressman Dennis Kucinich is Electable and CAN Beat Bush
* Dennis can win all the states Gore did, Plus Ohio...
* With Ohio's 20 electoral votes, we don't even need Florida.
* Every Republican president elected, has won Ohio.
* Dennis defeated a Republican incumbent to win his congressional seat
* Dennis has been re-elected 3 times, the last two times with 74% of the votes
* Though Dennis tried hard, he couldn't carry Gore along on his coattails
* Only Dennis Kucinich can win Ohio....no other Democrat can
On the Presidential Election, itself
* Bush popularity will continue to erode as we move into 2004
* By election time...there will be tremendous dissatisfaction with Bush
* Almost any "reasonable" Democrat will be able to defeat Bush.
* Dennis stands apart from the pack as "the quality candidate", so a "reasonable" one won't bechosen.
* Dennis will have enough to money stay in the race, not the most, but he won't need the most.
* Money won't matter then.... Bush will spend $300 Million and it won't be enough.
* Without the support of top three newspapers, the president/prime minister of South Korea won, primarily because of the Internet.
* Dennis has a large and growing, enormously devoted, group of hard working grass roots supporters.
* Because of Dennis positions and actions, sooner or later he will begin getting media coverage, and he will snowball
* Dennis with supporters, with word of mouth and the Internet, will win the election!
~~~~~~~~~~~
*Contributed by Vince Scarich, Palo Alto, CA -- Former Republican
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - Kucinich Grassroots Phone Bank into New Hampshire
A Grassroots Happening !!! National Phone Bank into New Hampshire
New Hampshire, the First Presidential Primary-Election State is CRITICAL for Ending the Debate on Dennis Kucinich's Electability - and on getting major media coverage!!!
Dennis has asked us to take on a major telephone action in calling New Hampshire.
We need thousands of volunteers across the nation (and world) to participate in the first statewide phone bank into New Hampshire.
We need volunteers who will agree to make introductory calls to 100 New Hampshire voters beginning in the week of October 6-11.
Call or Email Donna Fox at the National Headquarters of Dennis Kucinich for US President at
1-866-413-3664 or donna@kucinich.us, when you know how many telephone numbers to request.
She'll send you a list of phone numbers by Email or fax in groups of 100 that you can distribute to volunteers. A script and instructions will come with each list. Each volunteer can make the calls on their own, or you can get together in groups to do a phone bank.
Callers will need to do some basic reporting on each call and send their report back to Donna Fox in the National Headquarters.
The New Hampshire campaign is taking off and this grassroots project will help us reach new heights. Please help join this effort, and find as many people as you can in your area who will make these calls. Thanks for your help! If you have any questions you can also call the New Hampshire Headquarters at 888-700-2004, or amy@kucinich.us; but for the voter list for 100 names and numbers with instructions, contact donna@kucinich.us
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Talking about grassroots activism, western Massachusetts volunteer, Carl Doerner, is willing to send a powerful video of Dennis Kucinich's opening presentation in NH for his 2004-Presidential campaign for public viewing in every town in NH. This includes Kucinich's opening speech and dialog at Memorial Hall in Manchester, NH on 30 May 2003. Can you help us? If so, contact Carl by email at cdoerner@surfglobal.net
Such activism can make all the difference. Please join the campaign. Help New Hampshire be the first to break the spell end the corporate-media's strangle hold and reclaim democracy in the US!
For more on Dennis Kucinich for President, visit: http://www.kucinich.us
Also to download and view critical Kucinich Resources, including Flyby News flyer for
Kucinich-Democracy Film/Discussion Program in Nashua, NH on 15 October, 2003,
see: www.massforkucinich.us/flyers.htm
2) Howard Dean on Drugs
[Thank you Tami for sending this to Flyby News]
"If you like the war on drugs, you'll love Howard Dean!"
More federal funding for all aspects of Drug War.
Dean adopted the National Governors Association policy:
To reduce the presence of illegal drugs, drug-related organized crime, and the adverse effects of drug and alcohol abuse in society requires a comprehensive strategy involving federal, state, and local governments. The Governors believe that one of the most severe public health threats is the recent rise in substance abuse among children.
The Federal Role
The profits from illicit drug trafficking can be effectively used to help state efforts to dry up the demand for these drugs. The nations Governors urge the President and Congress to fully fund drug and alcohol abuse education, drug courts, treatment, prevention, and law enforcement efforts, including the initiative to combat and clean up methamphetamine production laboratories, at the state and local levels of government.
Intensified Eradication and Interdiction
Federal funding for use of the National Guard in drug and border enforcement deserves continued support. The Governors urge the President and Congress to utilize the role of U.S. military forces in interdiction efforts.
High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program.
The HIDTA program provides additional federal funds to those areas to help federal, state, and local law enforcement organizations invest in infrastructure and joint initiatives to dismantle drug trafficking organizations. Governors support the HIDTA initiative and urge Congress to continue supporting the program.
The Federal Role in Reducing International Drug Trafficking.
The nation s Governors urge the Administration and Congress to significantly tighten procedures for certifying foreign countries for eligibility to receive U.S. aid based on their cooperation with U.S. surveillance, interdiction, and eradication efforts.
Drug Legalization
The nations Governors believe illicit drug legalization is not a viable alternative, either as a philosophy or as a practical reality.
http://www.issues2000.org/2004/Howard_Dean_Drugs.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For Kucinich's issue statement on the drug war, see:
http://www.kucinich.us/issues/issue_drugwar.htm
Support the candidate that would end the war on drugs, that would empty the prisons from the slave-work force and would treat use of drugs as a "health" and not a "criminal" issue.
3) Thousands in U.S. Protest Iraq Occupation
- - Just Another Day In Bush Land
Thousands in U.S. Protest Iraq Occupation
By PAUL CHAVEZ, Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES - Thousands took to the streets of Hollywood on Sunday to protest the occupation of Iraq in one of several weekend demonstrations around the world criticizing the Bush administration.
An estimated 3,000 people took part in the peaceful march and rally, some chanting, "George Bush, Uncle Sam, Iraq will be your Vietnam," while walking down Sunset Boulevard.
At the rally, Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich said U.S. troops should be pulled out of Iraq and replaced by international forces.
"We need to get the U.N. in and the U.S. out," Kucinich said. "There can be a way to extricate this nation from the quicksand of Iraq."
For the full article go here
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/iraq_protest
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Statement by Dennis Kucinich (9/28/03) BRING THE TROOPS HOME!
"My Fellow Americans: I ask you today to have hope that your voices can and will be heard. In great numbers, you and I opposed the build-up to this war and have opposed the war and the occupation. The President has asked for another $87 billion with which to sink us further into the quicksand of a U.S.-occupied Iraq, even though a majority of you oppose spending that money. I am with you, and we can win. It is time to demand 'U.N. in, U.S. out!' There must be no privatization of the oil that belongs to the Iraqi people.
This unjustified war has already cost thousands of Iraqi and American lives. U.S. soldiers are continuing to be killed and wounded. More Americans have died in Iraq since the President declared the mission accomplished than prior to that point.
Now is the time to raise your voices, Americans. Hold peaceful demonstrations. Do not be intimidated! And call your Congress members to tell them to vote against another $87 billion for this misadventure."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121
This following link goes to more information on contacting US Congress:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Just Another Day In Bush Land
Compiled on 30 September 2003 by Mary M. < XMJMac@optonline.net >
When Bush came to Washington, DC he said he would restore morals, integrity to the presidency. No, he just restored greed, oppression and elevated lying to new heights. And we are supposed to respect this man?
Below is just what happened on this day under Bush's watch. Oh, I can't wait to see what he has in store for us all in the future. I meant that using extreme sarcasm.
Mary!
AOL Poll:
How do you feel about the economy?
Bad -- I don't see signs of recovery -------- 57%
So-so -- it's still tough, but turning around -- 26%
Good -- things are improving -------------- 17%
How confident are you Bush can revive the economy?
Not at all - 62%
Very ------ 25%
Somewhat 13%
Total Votes: 202,875
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Millionaires on the rise
Stocks and diversification drive number of wealthy households, study finds.
September 30, 2003: 3:09 PM EDT
By Jeanne Sahadi, CNN/Money Senior Writer
(Snip)
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The number of millionaire households in the
United States by mid-year 2003 grew to the highest level in 20 years, a
study said Tuesday.
http://money.cnn.com/2003/09/29/pf/millionaire/q_millionairesmultiply/index.htm?cnn=yes
Personal Comment: Perhaps they can help the uninsured, the homeless, those without jobs, those without health care and help pay for the rebuilding of Iraq.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Consumer confidence stuck
Survey shows consumer confidence welcomes the fall the same blah way it spent most of the summer.
September 30, 2003: 6:39 PM EDT
(Snip)
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Consumer confidence showed no enthusiasm in the first week of autumn, the same way it spent most of the summer, according to the latest ABC News/Money magazine poll published Tuesday.
http://money.cnn.com/2003/09/30/news/economy/abc_money/index.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Paychecks feel the pinch
The prolonged job market slump has slowed wage growth, and surveys say the pain will linger.
September 24, 2003: 3:29 PM EDT
By Mark Gongloff, CNN/Money Staff Writer
(Snip)
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Even if you've managed to keep your job during the nation's longest labor market slump since World War II, you've probably felt some of the pain in your paycheck -- and there's a good chance you'll keep feeling it through 2004, according to recent surveys of employers.
http://money.cnn.com/2003/09/24/news/economy/wages/index.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Campaign account expected to hit roughly $82 million
(Snip)
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- President Bush pledged to finish what his administration had begun, both abroad and at home, as he raised $6 million more for his re-election campaign with visits to two electorally pivotal Midwestern industrial states.
Personal Comment: While the numbers of those without health insurance rise and those going without jobs rise; I am sure glad (NOT) that he has raised this amount for his re-seating campaign.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/09/30/elec04.prez.bush.trip.ap/index.html
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Time to flee America?
The United States might not be a very good place to put your money anymore.
September 30, 2003: 5:13 PM EDT
By Justin Lahart, CNN/Money Senior Writer
(Snip)
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Throughout the 1990s some of the worst advice you could give U.S. investors was to put their money anywhere but home.
http://money.cnn.com/2003/09/30/markets/overseas/index.htm?cnn=yes
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Appeals court backs "victim fund" in 9/11 lawsuit
Panel finds no bias in awarding compensation
>From Phil Hirschkorn
CNN
Tuesday, September 30, 2003 Posted: 8:36 PM EDT (0036 GMT)
(Snip)
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Families of the victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, lost another battle Tuesday as a federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of their lawsuits against the administrator of a government compensation fund.[Image]
A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the victim-compensation fund was being administered fairly and was not designed "to compensate each victim's full economic losses."
http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/09/30/sept11.compensation/index.html
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
More Americans lack health insurance
Census survey shows increase in those without coverage for second straight year.
September 30, 2003: 12:04 PM EDT
(Snip)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The ranks of Americans without health insurance grew by an estimated 2.4 million in 2002, the second consecutive yearly increase, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday.
http://money.cnn.com/2003/09/30/news/economy/health_insurance.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes
- - - - - - -
AOL Poll:
Did senior White House officials deliberately leak a CIA agent's identity?
Yes --------- 61%
No ---------- 24%
Not Sure ---- 15%
Total Votes: 84,858
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Patriot * WMD Poof * Censored * Arctic's Away
25 September 2003
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase
a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin
"Will we stand by as the Administration formulates
a second more dangerous "PATRIOT Act" because,
in the President's words, 'the first bill didn't go far enough'?
Or will we step back from this atmosphere of fear
and work to restore our basic freedoms and rights?
With the introduction of the True Patriot Act,
I say we take back our Constitution."
Dennis Kucinich
(September 25, 2003)
1) "Benjamin Franklin True Patriot Act"
- - "Kucinich puts nation's interests first"
2) Pilger's Proof of WMD Lies
- - Top Ten Surprises In Bush's Address To The United Nations
3) Top US Censored Stories of the Year
4) Flowers in the Granite State - to Michael Moore
5) Giant Arctic ice shelf breaks up
Editor's Notes:
Dennis Kucinich this week introduced the first comprehensive bill to repeal offensive sections of the misnamed "USA PATRIOT Act." What a delight to have positive things to report. Thank You Dennis!
Item 2 is an article on a television report by investigative journalist John Pilger who uncovered video footage of US Secretary of State Colin Powell in Cairo on February 24, 2001 -- stating that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction. In other words, the lies are adding up. The Bush administration days are marked, even if the US media are complicit in lengthening the time. Item 3 highlights this sad truth by providing the top four stories of 2002-2003 "most censored" by US media. Some day Flyby News may get some recognition for reporting on most censored stories omitted by the mainstream media, but even at a recent "progressive" event in Manchester, NH, at the Rolling Thunder Democracy Tour, Flyby News was the only press prevented from interviewing Michael Moore after his talk. Yet I wasn't alone in being shunned by the managers of this event. Dennis Kucinich was the only Presidential Candidate that responded to an invitation to speak at this event. However, Kucinich was refused the opportunity of speaking to the audience from the main stage. Yet this didn't stop Dennis from delivering another powerful in-depth presentation of what he would do as US President. It didn't stop the overwhelming interest and positive response and cheers of those listening. Why were the Rolling Thunder Manchester managers so disrespectful? They continued broadcasting their loud system from the main stage even while Dennis shared with the audience, squeezing close, to hear the candidate and chair of the Progressive Caucus share a vision on what we can accomplish together for all life on Earth. I sent the letter in item 4 to Michael Moore with all due respect, who spoke after Dennis and acknowledged much about this man, but the focus of his talk seemed somewhat defensive in his almost endorsing General Wesley Clark for President. I am hoping this letter will help Michael Moore lose the fear that stops him from endorsing the real progressive, the real peace candidate, the only non-corporate-connected candidate with the highest levels of qualifications to respond to the last four years of the Bush administration. Perhaps Michael Moore would appreciate your letters in support of Kucinich, who deserves our support especially in the Primaries, when the only thinking about voting should be about choosing the best individual for the job, not about corporate or media electability.
The last item may be the most significant for each of us, and most all life on Earth. Here again another unprecedented break-up of Arctic Ice. "The largest ice shelf in the Arctic, a solid feature for 3,000 years, has broken up, scientists in the United States and Canada said on Monday. . . A freshwater lake drained into the sea, the researchers reported."
This is another example of why we need drastic changes in the US government. Our lives are on the line. Please respond to a campaign that offers a commitment to reaching 20% of US energy needs from renewable sources by 2010. You will hear many promises from each of the candidates, so look at the record, on what each one has accomplished, and which one you can trust to be in alignment with the ideals of the US Constitution.
Right at press time I learned of the October 2003 release of a new book by Dennis Kucinich --
A Prayer for America
Dennis J. Kucinich, Foreword by Studs Terkel
Paperback, October 2003
Product Details:
ISBN: 1560255102
Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press
From the Publisher
When Congressman Dennis Kucinich delivered his speech, "A Prayer for America," to the Southern California chapter of Americans for Democratic Action, it electrified the whole country. In his speech, Kucinicha 2004 presidential candidatewarned against an America that had discarded the constitutional liberties integral to its identity: "Let us pray that our nation will remember that the unfolding of the promise of democracy in our nation paralleled the striving for civil rights. That is why we must challenge the rationale of the Patriot Act. We must ask why should America put aside guarantees of constitutional justice?" A Prayer for America collects Kucinich's essays and speeches. It represents his holistic worldview and carries with it a passionate commitment to public service, peace, human rights, workers' rights, and the environment. His advocacy of a Department of Peace seeks not only to make nonviolence an organizing principle in our society, but to make war a thing of the past. A Prayer for America includes an introductory essay from Kucinich that reflects on his political journey from his election as the youngest mayor of a major American city to his role as a dynamic, visionary leader of the Progressive Caucus of the Congressional Democrats.
1) "Benjamin Franklin True Patriot Act"
- - "Kucinich puts nation's interests first"
DEADLINE FOR THE "PATRIOT ACT"
Congressman Dennis Kucinich continued his leadership today on Capitol Hill today by introducing the first comprehensive bill to repeal offensive sections of the misnamed "USA PATRIOT Act." The Kucinich bill -- called the "Benjamin Franklin True Patriot Act" -- is already supported by the ACLU, NAACP, a Jewish group, an Islamic group, and 20 members of Congress.
Kucinich's bill would repeal sections of the original "PATRIOT Act," that authorize 'sneak and peak' searches; warrantees library, medical, educational, and financial record searches; and the detention and deportation of non-citizens without meaningful judicial review. Passage would be the final deadline-- or death -- for the "PATRIOT Act."
Rep. Kucinich is the only presidential candidate who voted against the "PATRIOT Act" in October, 2001. The other Democrats in Congress currently running for president all voted for it -- and Howard Dean has said, "I never criticize them for that" in view of the post-9/11 pressure. Congressman Kucinich stood up to the pressure then...and now.
At a news conference today, Kucinich invoked the words of Ben Franklin, "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Kucinich added: "Will we stand by as the Administration formulates a second more dangerous "PATRIOT Act" because, in the President's words, 'the first bill didn't go far enough'? Or will we step back from this atmosphere of fear and work to restore our basic freedoms and rights? With the introduction of the True Patriot Act, I say we take back our Constitution."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - "Kucinich puts nation's interests first"
by Richard Graham-Yooll
Published in Boston Globe (page A-14)
September 18, 2003
JAMES CARROLL'S Sept. 16 column, ''Saying 'no' to the war in Iraq,'' was bold and brilliant and stirs an outrage that demands greater redress than a tired political system can easily accommodate.
I almost lamented that Carroll is not a presidential candidate until I remembered that one Democratic candidate has adopted a consistent and uncompromising opposition to America's military presence in Iraq.
I, like many others, have been reluctant to throw support behind Dennis Kucinich, believing he compromises too little with the country's mainstream opinion. But when confronted by the outrageous, isn't outrage the right response?
Kucinich has an intellectually coherent platform fully in accord with a mainstream tradition of putting our country's interests first. Single-payer health care and a balanced budget become feasible once defense spending is targeted at defense alone rather than empire building.
James Carroll is right. Extremism demands resistance.
RICHARD GRAHAM-YOOLL
Marblehead
Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Following is a URL link to another poll=> http://tinyurl.com/o9v4
in which earlier today Dennis was leading with 55% of the vote.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
FYI. September 30th presents the quarterly fundraising deadline for presidential candidates. This is the time for true Patriots to support this unique candidate who is taking his battle against the "PATRIOT Act" and other key issues nationwide.
To donate go to following URL link:
https://www.kucinich.us/contribute.php
For more on Kucinich: http://www.kucinich.us
2) Pilger's Proof of WMD Lies
- - Top Ten Surprises In Bush's Address To The United Nations
Journo claims proof of WMD lies
By Paul Mulvey in London
September 23, 2003
AUSTRALIAN investigative journalist John Pilger says he has evidence the war against Iraq was based on a lie that could cost George W. Bush and Tony Blair their jobs and bring Prime Minister John Howard down with them.
A television report by Pilger aired on British screens overnight said US Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice confirmed in early 2001 that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had been disarmed and was no threat.
But after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11 that year, Pilger claimed Rice said the US "must move to take advantage of these new opportunities" to attack Iraq and claim control of its oil.
Pilger uncovered video footage of Powell in Cairo on February 24, 2001 saying, "He (Saddam Hussein) has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbours."
Two months later, Rice reportedly said, "We are able to keep his arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt." Powell boasted this was because America's policy of containment and its sanctions had effectively disarmed Saddam.
Pilger claims this confirms that the decision of US President George W Bush - with the full support of British Prime Minister Blair and Howard - to wage war on Saddam because he had weapons of mass destruction was a huge deception.
Pilger interviewed several leading US government figures in Washington but said he did not ask Powell or Rice to respond to his claims.
"I think it's very serious for Howard. Howard has followed the Americans and to a lesser degree Blair almost word for word," Pilger told AAP before his program was screened on ITV tonight.
"All Howard does is say `well it's not true' and never explains himself.
"I just don't believe you can be seen to be party to such a big lie, such a big deception and endure that politically.
"It simply can't be shrugged off and that's Howard's response.
"Blair has shrugged it off but Blair is deeply damaged. It's far from over here, there's a lot that is going to happen and much of it could wash onto Howard.
"And it's unravelling in America and Bush could lose the election next year.
"I've not seen political leaders survive when they've been complicit in such an open deception for so long."
Howard last week dismissed an accusation from Opposition Leader Simon Crean that he hid a warning from British intelligence that war against Iraq would heighten the terrorist threat to Australia.
In his report, Pilger interviews Ray McGovern, a former senior CIA officer and friend of Bush's father and ex-president, George Bush senior.
McGovern told Pilger that going to war because of weapons of mass destruction "was 95 per cent charade."
Pilger also claims that six hours after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he wanted to "hit" Iraq and allegedly said "Go Massive ... Sweep it all up. Things related and not."
He was allegedly talked down by Powell who said the American people would not accept an attack on Iraq without any evidence, so they opted to invade Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden had bases.
Pilger claimed war was set in train on September 17, 2001 when Bush signed a paper directing the Pentagon to explore the military options for an attack on Iraq.
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7350504%5E2,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Top Ten Surprises In Bush's Address To The United Nations
For another resource :-) check this following URL link for the
"Top Ten Surprises In President Bush's Address To The United Nations"
From the David Letterman Show 9/23/03
http://tinyurl.com/ola3
3) Top US Censored Stories of the Year
Project Censored [http://projectcensored.org] is an organization with its headquarters at Sonoma State University in California. Its primary objective: "..is to explore and publicize the extent of censorship in our society by locating stories about significant issues of which the public should be aware, but is not, for one reason or another. Thereby, the project hopes to stimulate responsible journalists to provide more mass media coverage of those issues and to encourage the general public to demand mass media coverage of those issues or to seek information from other sources."
Following are the top four of its list of 25 most censored stories for 2002-2003:
1. The Neoconservative Plan for Global Dominance
Sources: The Sunday Herald (9/15/02), Harper's Magazine (10/02), Mother Jones (3/03), Pilger.com (12/12/02)
Project Censored has decided that the incredible lack of public knowledge of the US plan for total global domination, represented by the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) represents the media's biggest failure over the past year. The PNAC plans advocated the attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan and other current foreign policy objectives, long before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Chillingly, one document published by the PNAC in 2000 actually describes the need for a "new Pearl Harbor" to persuade the American public to accept the acts of war and aggression the administration wants to carry out. "But most people in the country are totally unaware that the PNAC exists," said Peter Phillips, a professor at Sonoma State, "and that failure has aided and abetted this disaster in Iraq."
According to Project Censored authors. "In the 1970s, the United States and the Middle East were embroiled in a tug-of-war over oil. At the time, the prospect of seizing control of Arab oil fields by force was considered out of line. Still, the idea of Middle East dominance was very attractive to a group of hard-line Washington insiders that included Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, William Kristol and other operatives. During the Clinton years they were active in conservative think tanks like the PNAC. When Bush was elected they came roaring back into power.
In an update for the Project Censored Web site, Mother Jones writer Robert Dreyfuss notes "There was very little examination in the media of the role of oil in American policy towards Iraq and the Persian Gulf, and what coverage did exist tended to pooh-pooh or debunk the idea that the war had anything to do with it."
2. Homeland Security Threatens Civil Liberties
Sources: Global Outlook (Winter 2003), Rense.com (2-11-03 & Global Outlook, Volume 4), Center for Public Integrity (http://www.publicintegrity.org) Corporate Media partial coverage: Atlanta Journal-constitution (5/11/03/), The Tampa Tribune (3/28/03), Baltimore Sun (2/21/03)
While the media did cover the Patriot Act, and the so-called Patriot Act II, which was leaked to the press in February 2003, there wasn't sufficient analysis of some of the truly dangerous and precedent-setting components of both acts. This goes especially for the shocking provision in Patriot II that would allow even US citizens to be treated as enemy combatants and held without counsel, simply on suspicion of connections to terrorism.
3. US Illegally Removes Pages from Iraq UN Report
Source: The Humanist and ArtVoice (March/April 2003), first covered by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!
Story three is the shockingly under-reported fact that the Bush administration removed a whopping 8,000 of 11,800 pages from the report the Iraqi government submitted to the UN Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The pages included details on how the US had actually supplied Iraq with chemical and biological weapons and the building blocks for weapons of mass destruction. The pages reportedly implicate not only Reagan and Bush administration officials but also major corporations including Bechtel, Eastman Kodak and Dupont and the US Departments of Energy and Agriculture.
4. Rumsfeld's Plan to Provoke Terrorists
Source: CounterPunch (11/1/02)
Moscow Times columnist and CounterPunch contributor Chris Floyd developed this story off a small item in the LA Times in October 2002 about secret armies the Pentagon has been developing around the world. "The Pro-active, Preemptive Operations Group (or "Pee-Twos') will carry out secret missions designed to 'stimulate reactions' among terrorist groups, provoking them into committing violent acts which would then expose them to 'counterattack' by US forces," Floyd wrote. "The Pee-Twos will thus come in handy whenever the Regime hankers to add a little oil-laden real estate or a new military base to the Empire's burgeoning portfolio. Just find a nest of violent malcontents, stir 'em with a stick, and presto: instant justification for whatever level of intervention-conquest-raping that you might desire."
For the complete list and links of the "Top 25 Censored Stories," see:
http://projectcensored.org/publications/2004/index.html
4) Flowers in the Granite State - to Michael Moore
This following letter was sent to Michael Moore on September 21 and 22nd by email to mike@michaelmoore.com
Dear Michael,
Thanks for speaking in Manchester Saturday, 20 September. Your wisdom and caring has contributed significantly in the art of human endeavors. I am sorry I could not see you when you met with the Press. First the Rolling Thunder folks were questioning my PRESS PASS. It looked legitimate, with a logo of a missile surfer and poor earth getting bombarded. But then they said that I heckled you during your talk. I was communicating with you. I appreciate you too much to ever heckle you. You were so right in the Bowling movie, fear can become a dominating force in humanity.
Anyway, the issue with seeing you was resolved, somewhat, when the staff of Rolling Thunder, with a policeman beside her, offered to forward you information. Unfortunately, my business card with note fell off in all the confusion, so, "Voila!", [here it is], a whole letter. I hope you received the info, a couple of a hard copies of Flyby News, and flier on exciting film-discussion program for severing the corporate hold on democracy. Coming out of the Cassini flyby era we knew of "Vision 2020" and plans of the US military to take the higher ground for world domination. Only one leader will stop Star Wars and the insidious nature of our government. I hope you will stay open for endorsing Dennis in the Primaries and the Democratic Nominee for US President in 2004.
I know I responded while you were speaking, on a trade idea with Democrats to support Greens. I really feel IRV [instant run-off voting] is the most effective way to get a multi-party system in US government, and that wipes out the spoiler factor, so people are invited to choose the best candidate for the job. But IRVs won't happen either unless there is a powerhouse of a leader for real change in the White House. Though Howard Dean was the first candidate to endorse IRVs, I still can't trust him. While he was Governor of VT he endorsed a mirage of an investigation that prevented us from really know what the heck happened when two policemen unloaded 7 bullets into my friend's body, and who refused him medical treatment on the scene by a doctor. Did I mention that he was in a Church, and although apparently perturbed, he threatened no one but himself (with a pen knife), and fought for political sanctuary in a community space used as a Unitarian Church and Synagogue.
More on this is linked from FlybyNews.com, if interested, and you may be interested in an update of a patent for developing a new 200kW Stirling engine for waste heat to onsite power production. Flyby News tries to find solutions to problems, and not just to focus on the problems alone.
Thanks for all your work. I hope to have a chance to interview you the next time I have the honor of hearing your many pearls of wisdom of truth with humor and grace.
Please, if convenient, please pass on my deepest respect for Jim Hightower, and mutual loss, and for hope, that endings and beginnings are a part of our eternal nature.
Thanks Michael for your bright light in the Granite State and sharing in Veteran's Park.
Jonathan Mark
Publisher/Reporter
Flyby News
PS: Your description of wanting Dennis on your side in a fight was much appreciated and I am learning it to be true. Anyway, I hope we team up in any way possible, and help our world.
5) Giant Arctic ice shelf breaks up
CNN.com / Science & Space
Report: Giant Arctic ice shelf breaks up
Monday, September 22, 2003 Posted: 4:04 PM EDT (2004 GMT)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The largest ice shelf in the Arctic, a solid feature for 3,000 years, has broken up, scientists in the United States and Canada said on Monday.
They said the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, on the north coast of Ellesmere Island in Canada's Nunavut territory, broke into two main parts, themselves cut through with fissures. A freshwater lake drained into the sea, the researchers reported.
Large ice islands also calved off from the shelf and some are large enough to be dangerous to shipping and to drilling platforms in the Beaufort Sea.
Local warming of the climate is to blame, they said -- adding that they did not have the evidence needed to link the melting ice to the steady, planet-wide climate change known as global warming.
Warwick Vincent and Derek Mueller of Laval University in Quebec City, Canada, and Martin Jeffries of the University of Alaska Fairbanks lived at the site, flew over it and used radar satellite imaging for their study.
Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, Vincent's team said all of the fresh water poured out of the 20 mile (30 km) long Disraeli Fjord.
This in turn has affected communities of freshwater and marine species of plankton and algae, said Mueller, a graduate student who has studied the tiny creatures.
Only 100 years ago the whole northern coast of Ellesmere Island, which is the northernmost land mass of North America, was edged by a continuous ice shelf. About 90 percent of it is now gone, Vincent's team wrote.
The area has been getting warmer, they said. A similar trend in the Antarctic has caused the break-up of huge ice shelves there.
"There's a regional trend in warming that cycles back 150 years," Mueller said in a telephone interview. "I am not comfortable linking it to global warming. It is difficult to tease out what is due to global warming and what is due to regional warming."
Records indicate an increase of four-tenths of a degree centigrade every10 years since 1967. The average July temperature has been 1.3 degrees Celsius or 34 degrees F -- just above the freezing point -- since 1967.
Climate change has affected ocean temperature, salinity and flow patterns, which also influence the break-up of ice shelves in the Antarctic. "It's not just as simple as it gets x degrees warmer and the ice melts this much," Mueller said. Warmer temperatures weaken the ice, leaving it vulnerable to changed currents and other forces.
Copyright 2003 Reuters.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/09/22/arctic.ice.reut/index.html
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Peace Day * Kucinich Events * Mumia's Health
18 September 2003
"As a candidate for President, I offer a different vision for America, one which separates me from the other candidates. I am the only candidate who will take this country away from fear and war and tax giveaways, and use America's peace dividend for guaranteed health care for all, ending health care for profit. I am the only candidate who will stop the privatization of social security and bring the retirement age back to 65. As President, I will cancel NAFTA and the WTO, restore our manufacturing jobs, save our family farms, create full employment programs. I will repeal the Patriot Act to regain for all Americans the sacred right of privacy in our homes, our libraries, our schools."
Dennis J Kucinich
(Presidential Debate, ABC News, 5/3/03)
1) International Peace Day, Kucinich Events, & Platform
2) Wesley Clark Moore's Peace Candidate or Another Corporate Rep.
3) Alert on Mumia Abu Jamal's health
4) Can Kucinich Win?
Editor's Notes:
On September 4th Flyby News posted the speech by Dennis Kucinich for receiving the Gandhi Peace Award, which was presented by the world-renown organization, Promoting Enduring Peace (PEP). "Every year this award is given to an individual recognized as a "distinguished peacemaker" and "for contributions made in the promotion of international peace and good will." Past recipients include Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, Dr. Linus Pauling, Dr. Helen Caldicott, Cesar Chavez, Sen. George McGovern, and former Attorney Gen. Ramsey Clark. According to PEP, "Dennis Kucinich has been given this award because of his dedication to peace and improving social conditions for the workers and poor, which we feel is a prerequisite for peace. For his honesty and the good person he is, and for the good spirit which he is trying to instill."
With our country torn by war, Candidate Kucinich stands as a steady beacon of hope for change. Kucinich is the only candidate who has unwaveringly opposed the war with Iraq from the beginning. . . . The Gandhi Peace Award was conceived in the late 1940's by Dr. Jerome Davis, founder of the organization Promoting Enduring Peace (PEP). The yearly award was established in 1959 to honor persons outstanding in the work for world peace. Mr. Kucinich accepted the award at Amarantes SeaCliffs in New Haven, CT. on March 22."
The above information is posted at kucinich.us website, but I wanted to make note of the background on the September 4th issue of Flyby News. In this issue, Item 1 begins with information from the campaign to elect Dennis Kucinich for US President. The campaign is endorsing many events in honor of an International Day for Peace. Dick Cheney was asked: "In a recent poll many Americans believe Saddam was responsible for 9-11, does this surprise you?" Cheney's response: "No, I think it's not surprising that people make that connection." And for good reason. They have people running scared and they don't know what to believe. The time is now for an honest politician like Dennis Kucinich to take center stage. Please check item 1 for events on Peace Day and other events for the campaign to uphold Peace & Freedom as a sacred right. Life and beauty of Earth, our ancestors and generation yet to be born, deserve our greatest efforts for peace to flourish and prosper.
Meanwhile, new ways of confusing the qualities of a real peace candidate continue. Item 2 links to an open letter by Michael Moore asking General Wesley Clark to run for US President, and swift rebuttals of those looking at the record, and realities of what a commander for peace is -- or is not -- all about..
Item 3 is a report on the serious health condition of Mumia Abu Jamal. I learned of this from a letter of my friend still confined in the NY State prison system. Malik writes: "..I am in possession of all the Flyby News... Also, received all of your letters.. It was just great hearing from you. Your letters let me know that there are two of us fighting for my liberation... How can I ever thank you enough.
I want to pass word to all Flyby readers that it is being circulated that Mumia Abu Jamal is having health problems that may be extremely serious.. Mumia supporters must avalanche the prison holding him(sci Green; 175 Progress Drive, Waynesburg, PA 15370-8090) that he be given immediate attention by an outside doctor of his choice. Direct letters to Mumia can be sent through to the same prison address, beginning with Mumia's full name and his prison number: AM-8335!
This information was post on to me by a wonderful sista, Yuri..
There's nothing new to report concerning my case. The attorney just wrote me a letter telling me that everything will be ready for the end of October. We'll see! I am learning in my old age to be patient, have faith, and don't put any trust or faith in the Kourt system that what is gonna be is gonna be! The history of those in theses positions have shown us that they aren't to be trusted. They make me sick just thinking over how so many of us have given them such power over us. When we do this we aren't in any position to complain, but we can do is to try and correct what has happened, so that it won't ever take place again!!! Item 3 is a posting on Mumia's situation found from an Internet search after receiving this loving letter from Malik.
"An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
If you want to write to Malik, or to learn about his case, please check the updated link from FlybyNews.com.
Item 4 is from a published letter to the editor of a local newspaper in response to the big question on many minds, especially if you heard him speak or know of his policies: "Can Kucinich Win?"
In a day of peace he has already won.
In the balance of day and night equilibrium shadows,
a torch fired by blight can be extinguished nought in sorrow
where time is consumed by a nobler stance, or one has chosen to fallen
beneath the cracks where corrupt dwellers stain a white house
indistinguishable, for a dream to live or die as a worthless token.
1) International Peace Day, Kucinich Events, & Platform
A recent poll showed that roughly 2/3 of Americans cannot name a single Democratic presidential candidate. So, with the media censorship for its own corporate interests, it is no wonder that many people have not heard of Dennis Kucinich. Yet a grassroots moving is underway to help make people aware of an opportunity to vote for the most qualified PEACE candidate and reclaim American democracy from the military-industrial-academic-media complex. The monster will keep growing unless we do something, following are some proposals.
The General Assembly, in resolution 55/282 (PDF),* of 7 September 2001, decided that, beginning in 2002, the International Day of Peace should be observed on 21 September each year. The Assembly declared that the Day be observed as a day of global ceasefire and non-violence, an invitation to all nations and people to honour a cessation of hostilities during the Day. It invited all Member States, organizations of the United Nations system, regional and non-governmental organizations and individuals to commemorate the Day in an appropriate manner, including through education and public awareness, and to cooperate with the United Nations in establishing a global ceasefire.
Twenty-four hours: to give relief workers a safe interlude for the provision of vital services; to offer mediators a building block towards a wider truce; to allow all those engaged in conflict to reconsider the wisdom of further violence."
-- Kofi Annan --
United Nations Secretary-General
* http://www.un.org/events/peaceday/2003/a55r282.pdf
It's been less than 2 weeks since Dennis Kucinich invited his supporters to celebrate the International Day of Peace with him by holding Peace Day Parties on September 21. But more than 1000 Peace Day House Party kits were ordered by Kucinich supporters in all 50 states! What a statement for peace Kucitizens are making!
http://www.kucinich.us/houseparty.htm
Although it's too late to get a House Party Kit in time for September 21, you can still join tens of thousands of Kucinich supporters in celebrating our hope for peace. Here are some ways to join the Party:
* Have a Mini Peace Day Party! Invite your friend, your brother, your roommate, your pet. Dance and sing, think about the hundreds of millions of people who are sharing this day of peace with you, and send in your contribution to make your statement for peace! If you're planning a Mini Peace Day Party, please send an email to houseparty@kucinich.us with the city and state your Mini Party will be taking place. (For a Mini Party poster visit:
http://www.WeWantKucinich.com
* Set up a Virtual Peace Day Party Page - it's easy to do. Just click here to get started. ( Http://www.networks.kintera.org ) Set a fundraising goal for yourself, then write a message or send the prepared message out to all your friends and family inviting them to help you reach your goal. Every dollar they contribute is a dollar for peace, because Dennis Kucinich is the Peace Candidate with a plan for a more peaceful, just and sustainable nation working in harmony with our global community. Get creative for peace!
* Join the Peace Day party Live Online on September 21 at:
http://www.KucinichParty.us - see how each state is doing in raising funds for peace on Peace Day. (NOTE: This site will not be live until Sunday, September 21.)
September 21 is going to be a great day for peace - thanks to you!
May Peace Prevail On Earth!
Adrienne LarkinBob Silverstein
houseparty@kucinich.us
Work and Celebrate for Peace and support
Dennis Kucinich for US President in 2004
* Support the one candidate for US President that voted against the misnamed "Patriot Act" and plans to introduce legislation in Congress to repeal the "Patriot Act!"
* Kucinich is the One that has declared without hesitation that he will vote against the Bush request for $87 billion in additional funds to continue the quagmire in Iraq.
* Dennis Kucinich also submitted a bill to Congress that would establish genuine universal health coverage -- nonprofit national health insurance for all.
* President Kucinich will withdraw the US from corporate trade deals like NAFTA and the WTO, and replace them with fair trade agreements that include labor and environmental protections.
* As an independent non-corporate president, Kucinich would cut the bloated military budget by 15% ($60 billion annually) where those funds can be invested in social and real peace solution programs.
* Congressman Kucinich is the one candidate that sued George Bush to stop him from going to war in Iraq without a Congressional Declaration of War. He also led opposition in Congress to the War in Iraq.
* Kucinich has a plan to repeal Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and invest that money in a plan for universal public education, age 3-college.
* Dennis J. Kucinich has pledged to break up corporate monopolies in agriculture, energy, media and other sectors that are strangling farmers, the environment and the public.
* Kucinich has pledged not only to sign the Kyoto Treaty on global warming, but to lead our country to 20% renewable energy by the year 2010.
* Who else but Dennis had risked his political career by standing up to banks and a private utility company to save public electric power.
* Dennis Kucinich is the only candidate that has sponsored legislation establishing a cabinet-level Department of Peace to participate in policy discussions alongside representatives of the Departments of State and Defense, and legislation to ban space-based weapons. He is the only one candidate that has received the Gandhi Peace Award (2003).
* Kucinich has a 98% lifetime pro-union voting record -- highest of all candidates as ranked by the AFL-CIO.
* Kucinich has a plan to offer "living wages," not just minimum wages, and would put Americans back to work with major investment programs to rebuild schools, roads, bridges, ports, sewage, water and environmental systems.
* Kucinich is the one candidate that stands firm against the privatization of Social Security and he is for returning the Social Security retirement age to 65.
* Congressman Dennis Kucinich has introduced legislation to repeal the Federal death penalty.
* Who else but Dennis has been endorsed by Willie Nelson, Ani DiFranco, Studs Terkel, Ed Asner, Hector Elizondo, Barbara Ehrenreich, Arun Gandhi, Ben Cohen (of Ben and Jerry's), Granny D (who walked across the country for campaign reform at age 89) and many others?
There is more to this candidate than you may know..
Discover Dennis Kucinich for US President. An opportunity like this may come less than once in every four years, or just once in a lifetime. Make your vote and caring for the USA count.. visit and support ==> www.kucinich.us
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Dennis Kucinich Schedule
Thursday, September 18
7:30 8:30 pm
Washington, D.C.
Event: Rally - People Have the Power with Ralph Nader and Patti Smith
Location: Metropolitan African Methodist Church
Coordinator: Matthew Zawisky 202-277-9563
Friday, September 19
12:30 2:00 pm
Unity, Maine
Event: Common Ground Fair
Location: Unity, Maine
Coordinator: Dave Bright Phone 207-234-4226
Rally Friday, September 19 at 11 a.m.,
next to the Bangor Public Library and a
Walking Tour of the Common Ground Fair Friday,
September 19 from 12:30 until 2 p.m.
For reservations or more information call 234-4225 or 781-2527
or e-mail mehq@kucinich.us
September 19
8:30 - 10:30 p.m. updated info
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Event: Keynote address for Annual Convention
"Envisioning the Future"
Sponsors: Massachusetts Peace Action
Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church
1555 Mass Ave in Cambridge
(across from the north end of the Cambridge Common)
No reservations necessary.
For further information call: Adam Sacks at 781 674-2339
Directions: 617-547-2724; Coordinator: Pat O'Brien 617-576-0649
[Also, on Saturday morning, September 20th at 8:30;
Join Dennis for a special breakfast fundraiser in Cambridge.
Seating is limited to twenty-five people, secure your reservations now!
Call Adam Sacks at 781-674-2339.]
Saturday, September 20
Time (approximate) 2:30 - 3:45 pm
Manchester, New Hampshire
Event: New Hampshire Rolling Thunder Down Home Democracy Tour
Sponsor: New Hampshire Rolling Thunder Coalition
Location: Veterans Park, Manchester
Coordinator: Mo Baxley 603-225-2097
Check FlybyNews.com for links under Campaigns - Actions & Events
see link: "Rocking the Granite State!"
Join Democratic Presidential Candidate and US Congressman,
Dennis J. Kucinich when he speaks with students
at the University of New Hampshire (Durham)
Saturday, September 20, 2003 - 1:00 to 2:00 P.M.
Memorial Union Building Theater I
UNH (Durham)
ADMISSION IS FREE
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
This Saturday, September 20, the University of New Hampshire College Democrats will host Representative Kucinich on their campus. The event will feature a presentation by the Congressman and will be followed by a question and answer session with students. The event will run from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m.
For more information contact Benjamin@kucinich.us
Tel. 216-536-6575
= = = = = = = = = = = =
On September 20th in NH, the Ohio Congressman will begin his day with a fundraiser at 11 a.m. at Susty's, 159 1st NH Turnpike, Northwood, the Rte. 4 "must visit" spot for health food advocates. For a sliding scale price of between $15 and $50, attendees will have a chance to sample Susty's vegan fare, listen to the live music of Mama Gras, and talk with the candidate about local control of food products and production. Those wanting to make reservations should call Susty's owner Norma Koski at 603-942-5862.
For more information you can contact the NH Coordinator for the Kucinich Campaign:
Amy Hochadel at 603-792-2004 or amy@kucinich.us
- - - - - - - - - -
September 24th -
On Wednesday 24 September, Dennis Kucinich is making a return visit to Keene, NH and will join volunteers for the official opening of the new campaign office there at 12 West Street, Suite 6. Dennis will be meeting with students at Keene State College earlier in the day, and will address the public at 1:30 pm at the Gazebo in Central Square downtown Keene!
The new office at 12 West Street; Suite 6A, second floor, will be officially opened following his public address. For more on the Keene office, contact Alyssa@kucinich.us
This will be an excellent day to meet Congressman Kucinich and support the campaign to reclaim America from the military-industrial-academia-media complex.
= = = = = = =
Reminder:
September 23
The night before Dennis' return visit to Keene, Flyby News will be sponsoring another one of its Films & Discussion Program to sever the corporate hold on the US Constitution. Please feel welcomed to join us for this free event at the Keene NH Public Library (Auditorium) Tuesday September 23rd from 6:00 to 8:45 P.M. This program will begin with Frank Dorrel's film called "What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World." Excerpts from this film compilation document CIA covert operations and US interventions since World War II.." [30 minutes] The second film, following discussion, is "A Prayer for America," which is from a speech given by Dennis Kucinich to the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action on February 17, 2002. The last film scheduled to be shown is another Dennis Kucinich powerhouse speech, at the "Take Back America Conference" [26 min] June 5, 2003 in Washington, D.C.
Contact Jonathan Mark at info@flybynews.com or visit Flyby News for more information and find out how you can help sponsor such a film/discussion presentation near where you live!
= = = = = = = = = = = =
For additional scheduled events, see:
http://www.kucinich.us/schedule.htm
and check the calendar at
http://www.massforkucinich.org
2) Wesley Clark Moore's Peace Candidate or Another Corporate Rep.
Published on Saturday, September 13, 2003 by CommonDreams.org
A Citizen's Appeal to a General in a Time of War (at Home)
by Michael Moore
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0913-06.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
An Open Letter to Michael Moore
You Are Way Off Base About Wesley Clark
By TERRY LODGE
http://www.counterpunch.org/lodge09172003.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"If it is the objective of the peace movement to oppose and end the unjust occupation of Iraq, then how can it support a candidate that seeks to escalate the occupation? As for Michael Moore, sadly infatuation is indeed blind."
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=03/09/16/9803201
Infoshop News September 16, 2003
Michael Moore's Mad Love For Wesley Clark
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Wesley Clark's Ties To Muslim Terrorists
By Cliff Kincaid
September 17, 2003
http://www.aim.org/publications/weekly_column/2003/09/17.html
3) Alert on Mumia Abu Jamal's health
UNITED STATES: Alert on Abu Jamal's health
Supporters of imprisoned black revolutionary and journalist Mumia Abu Jamal are very concerned about his health. They report that he is suffering from swollen feet that could be the result of blood clots, a potentially serious condition. He wants to be able to take herbal medicines and be examined by a doctor from outside, since he has no confidence in the prison doctor.
Abu Jamal is still on death row in Pennsylvania after 21 years, even though a judge's ruling struck down his death sentence last year. His eloquent advocacy for the poor and oppressed has made him a target of the repressive state establishment.
The Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal is asking that people not only contact SCI Greene Prison at (724) 852-2902 about Abu Jamal's condition, but also urge elected officials supportive of him to put pressure on the prison and demand that his minimum requests be met.
These officials are
State Senator Vincent Hughes at < hughes@dem.pasen.gov >,
Representative Harold James at (215) 462-3308 or
http://www.hallwatch.org/profiles/pahouse/hjames/faxbank/write
From Green Left Weekly, September 3, 2003.
http://www.greenleft.org.au/current/552p14c.htm
4) Can Kucinich Win?
Congratulations to Keith Haworth of West Branch Wisconsin, who had this great letter published in his local paper!
Letter: Resident supports Kucinich and beliefs, not the horse race
By: Keith Haworth, West Branch
09/17/2003
I have a "Kucinich for President" bumper sticker on the back of my car. I don't generally use-or even like-bumper stickers. But sometimes, enough is enough and timidity is not what is needed.
I was filling my gas tank the other day and a fellow sufferer spotted my sticker. "I'd like to support Kucinich, but I don't think he can win, can he?" My answer was immediate, "Well, no, not as long as people think like that."
We talked a bit more and I explained that, to me, U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich seems to be the only presidential candidate who actually forms his positions based on his beliefs and not political expediency, popularity polls or behind-the-scenes deals. I like that. I also like his core philosophy: that government is not the "enemy" but the servant of the people-a power for good, if we so choose. He reminds me very much of the Kennedy brothers!
But can he win?
Well, that is the wrong question. This is not a casino game, or a horse race, or a team sport, where our only task is to guess the winner and then place our bet. American politics is not sports gambling-it's far more real and far more important. As a citizen in a democracy, my task is to identify the candidate whose philosophy and agenda represent the best possible future for my country and then support him or her.
It is possible that Dennis Kucinich will not be elected as our next president, but I will be the real loser if I do not support the best possible future for America. We can greatly improve the quality of American politics-and heaven knows it needs it-if we stop handicapping and stand up for the best way we know.
CWest Branch Times 2003
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1877&dept_id=134491&newsid=10177794&PAG=461&rfi=9
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
BogusNeoConWar * Vegetarian * NewsdayKucinichWin
08 September 2003
1) The War on Terrorism is Bogus
2) Israel seeks pipeline for Iraqi oil
3) Dennis Kucinich's speech at Animal Rights Conference
4) Astonishing Newsday Poll Kucinich leads All Combined
Editor's Notes:
For a news hound it is interesting to see how the "new" revelations of the "blunders" of US foreign and economic policies are being played out on television. This following is from the transcript concluding what Dan Rather would call "hard hitting" interview of US Secretary of State, Donald Rumsfeld.
Dan Rather: "Mr. Secretary, just this week there have been quotes in the paper, rank and file Americans, saying are we into a tar baby situation? Are we into quick sand? Is this going to be another quagmire? This is the way people talk around coffee in the morning. I want to give you an opportunity to respond to those deep concerns."
Donald Rumsfeld: (long pause) "Well, time will tell. The 23 million have been liberated in an important country, in an important part of the world and that was about five and a half months ago, not five and half years but five and a half months. Now is five and a half months a quagmire? Well everyone could look it up in the dictionary. I think that it's tough, but I am hopeful that we'll be successful and I think the American people have a very good center of gravity."*
This last sentence by Rumsfeld sounded like he is still thinking of the Cassini Earth flyby, center of gravity for what, an acceleration into the arms race? To get to higher ground, a pun not intended, Item 1 is a very worthwhile read for 9/11 analysis of documented evidences showing the bogus nature of the war on terror for US military domination interests and energy-controlling policies. Item 2 is an old story, but reeks of the stench of this unholy alliance of the neocons. The third item is simply another reason people will elect Dennis Kucinich, a man of true compassion and heart. I hope you check out this beautiful Kucinich speech delivered to an Animal Rights Conference in 2003 in Los Angeles.
I hope some of you will come to the Bangs Community Center for the next public showing of Kucinich-Democracy films with discussion on Tuesday September 9th from 6:00 to 9:00 P.M - For more on the films, see FlybyNews.com. This is an easy program for you to offer your community. Also note that September 21 is an international day for peace.
Contact 1-866-4 1 DENNIS for your Kucinich house party material, including a powerhouse film, "This Is The Moment," which covers the key platform of the Kucinich campaign. For online info, visit:
http://www.kucinich.us
*For the entire transcript of CBS Evening News' Rather/Rumsfeld Interview, see:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/05/eveningnews/main571901.shtml
1) The War on Terrorism is Bogus
THIS WAR ON TERRORISM IS BOGUS
The 9/11 attacks gave the US an ideal pretext
to use force to secure its global domination
=================================
Michael Meacher
Saturday September 6, 2003
The Guardian
Massive attention has now been given - and rightly so - to the reasons why Britain went to war against Iraq. But far too little attention has focused on why the US went to war, and that throws light on British motives too. The conventional explanation is that after the Twin Towers were hit, retaliation against al-Qaida bases in Afghanistan was a natural first step in launching a global war against terrorism. Then, because Saddam Hussein was alleged by the US and UK governments to retain weapons of mass destruction, the war could be extended to Iraq as well. However this theory does not fit all the facts. The truth may be a great deal murkier.
We now know that a blueprint for the creation of a global Pax Americana was drawn up for Dick Cheney (now vice-president), Donald Rumsfeld (defence secretary), Paul Wolfowitz (Rumsfeld's deputy), Jeb Bush (George Bush's younger brother) and Lewis Libby (Cheney's chief of staff). The document, entitled Rebuilding America's Defences, was written in September 2000 by the neoconservative think tank, Project for the New American Century (PNAC).
The plan shows Bush's cabinet intended to take military control of the Gulf region whether or not Saddam Hussein was in power. It says "while the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein."
The PNAC blueprint supports an earlier document attributed to Wolfowitz and Libby which said the US must "discourage advanced industrial nations from challenging our leadership or even aspiring to a larger regional or global role". It refers to key allies such as the UK as "the most effective and efficient means of exercising American global leadership". It describes peacekeeping missions as "demanding American political leadership rather than that of the UN". It says "even should Saddam pass from the scene", US bases in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will remain permanently... as "Iran may well prove as large a threat to US interests as Iraq has". It spotlights China for "regime change", saying "it is time to increase the presence of American forces in SE Asia".
The document also calls for the creation of "US space forces" to dominate space, and the total control of cyberspace to prevent "enemies" using the internet against the US. It also hints that the US may consider developing biological weapons "that can target specific genotypes [and] may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool".
Finally - written a year before 9/11 - it pinpoints North Korea, Syria and Iran as dangerous regimes, and says their existence justifies the creation of a "worldwide command and control system". This is a blueprint for US world domination. But before it is dismissed as an agenda for rightwing fantasists, it is clear it provides a much better explanation of what actually happened before, during and after 9/11 than the global war on terrorism thesis. This can be seen in several ways.
First, it is clear the US authorities did little or nothing to pre-empt the events of 9/11. It is known that at least 11 countries provided advance warning to the US of the 9/11 attacks. Two senior Mossad experts were sent to Washington in August 2001 to alert the CIA and FBI to a cell of 200 terrorists said to be preparing a big operation (Daily Telegraph, September 16 2001). The list they provided included the names of four of the 9/11 hijackers, none of whom was arrested.
It had been known as early as 1996 that there were plans to hit Washington targets with aeroplanes. Then in 1999 a US national intelligence council report noted that "al-Qaida suicide bombers could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the CIA, or the White House".
Fifteen of the 9/11 hijackers obtained their visas in Saudi Arabia Michael Springman, the former head of the American visa bureau in Jeddah, has stated that since 1987 the CIA had been illicitly issuing visas to unqualified applicants from the Middle East and bringing them to the US for training in terrorism for the Afghan war in collaboration with Bin Laden (BBC, November 6 2001). It seems this operation continued after the Afghan war for other purposes. It is also reported that five of the hijackers received training at secure US military installations in the 1990s (Newsweek, September 15 2001).
Instructive leads prior to 9/11 were not followed up. French Moroccan flight student Zacarias Moussaoui (now thought to be the 20th hijacker) was arrested in August 2001 after an instructor reported he showed a suspicious interest in learning how to steer large airliners. When US agents learned from French intelligence he had radical Islamist ties, they sought a warrant to search his computer, which contained clues to the September 11 mission (Times, November 3 2001). But they were turned down by the FBI. One agent wrote, a month before 9/11, that Moussaoui might be planning to crash into the Twin Towers (Newsweek, May 20 2002).
All of this makes it all the more astonishing - on the war on terrorism perspective - that there was such slow reaction on September 11 itself. The first hijacking was suspected at not later than 8.20am, and the last hijacked aircraft crashed in Pennsylvania at 10.06am. Not a single fighter plane was scrambled to investigate from the US Andrews airforce base, just 10 miles from Washington DC, until after the third plane had hit the Pentagon at 9.38 am. Why not? There were standard FAA intercept procedures for hijacked aircraft before 9/11. Between September 2000 and June 2001 the US military launched fighter aircraft on 67 occasions to chase suspicious aircraft (AP, August 13 2002). It is a US legal requirement that once an aircraft has moved significantly off its flight plan, fighter planes are sent up to investigate.
Was this inaction simply the result of key people disregarding, or being ignorant of, the evidence? Or could US air security operations have been deliberately stood down on September 11? If so, why, and on whose authority? The former US federal crimes prosecutor, John Loftus, has said: "The information provided by European intelligence services prior to 9/11 was so extensive that it is no longer possible for either the CIA or FBI to assert a defence of incompetence."
Nor is the US response after 9/11 any better. No serious attempt has ever been made to catch Bin Laden. In late September and early October 2001, leaders of Pakistan's two Islamist parties negotiated Bin Laden's extradition to Pakistan to stand trial for 9/11. However, a US official said, significantly, that "casting our objectives too narrowly" risked "a premature collapse of the international effort if by some lucky chance Mr Bin Laden was captured". The US chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Myers, went so far as to say that "the goal has never been to get Bin Laden" (AP, April 5 2002). The whistleblowing FBI agent Robert Wright told ABC News (December 19 2002) that FBI headquarters wanted no arrests. And in November 2001 the US airforce complained it had had al-Qaida and Taliban leaders in its sights as many as 10 times over the previous six weeks, but had been unable to attack because they did not receive permission quickly enough (Time Magazine, May 13 2002). None of this assembled evidence, all of which comes from sources already in the public domain, is compatible with the idea of a real, determined war on terrorism.
The catalogue of evidence does, however, fall into place when set against the PNAC blueprint. From this it seems that the so-called "war on terrorism" is being used largely as bogus cover for achieving wider US strategic geopolitical objectives. Indeed Tony Blair himself hinted at this when he said to the Commons liaison committee: "To be truthful about it, there was no way we could have got the public consent to have suddenly launched a campaign on Afghanistan but for what happened on September 11" (Times, July 17 2002). Similarly Rumsfeld was so determined to obtain a rationale for an attack on Iraq that on 10 separate occasions he asked the CIA to find evidence linking Iraq to 9/11; the CIA repeatedly came back empty-handed (Time Magazine, May 13 2002).
In fact, 9/11 offered an extremely convenient pretext to put the PNAC plan into action. The evidence again is quite clear that plans for military action against Afghanistan and Iraq were in hand well before 9/11. A report prepared for the US government from the Baker Institute of Public Policy stated in April 2001 that "the US remains a prisoner of its energy dilemma. Iraq remains a destabilising influence to... the flow of oil to international markets from the Middle East". Submitted to Vice-President Cheney's energy task group, the report recommended that because this was an unacceptable risk to the US, "military intervention" was necessary (Sunday Herald, October 6 2002).
Similar evidence exists in regard to Afghanistan. The BBC reported (September 18 2001) that Niaz Niak, a former Pakistan foreign secretary, was told by senior American officials at a meeting in Berlin in mid-July 2001 that "military action against Afghanistan would go ahead by the middle of October". Until July 2001 the US government saw the Taliban regime as a source of stability in Central Asia that would enable the construction of hydrocarbon pipelines from the oil and gas fields in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, through Afghanistan and Pakistan, to the Indian Ocean. But, confronted with the Taliban's refusal to accept US conditions, the US representatives told them "either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs" (Inter Press Service, November 15 2001).
Given this background, it is not surprising that some have seen the US failure to avert the 9/11 attacks as creating an invaluable pretext for attacking Afghanistan in a war that had clearly already been well planned in advance. There is a possible precedent for this. The US national archives reveal that President Roosevelt used exactly this approach in relation to Pearl Harbor on December 7 1941. Some advance warning of the attacks was received, but the information never reached the US fleet. The ensuing national outrage persuaded a reluctant US public to join the second world war. Similarly the PNAC blueprint of September 2000 states that the process of transforming the US into "tomorrow's dominant force" is likely to be a long one in the absence of "some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor". The 9/11 attacks allowed the US to press the "go" button for a strategy in accordance with the PNAC agenda which it would otherwise have been politically impossible to implement.
The overriding motivation for this political smokescreen is that the US and the UK are beginning to run out of secure hydrocarbon energy supplies. By 2010 the Muslim world will control as much as 60% of the world's oil production and, even more importantly, 95% of remaining global oil export capacity. As demand is increasing, so supply is decreasing, continually since the 1960s.
This is leading to increasing dependence on foreign oil supplies for both the US and the UK. The US, which in 1990 produced domestically 57% of its total energy demand, is predicted to produce only 39% of its needs by 2010. A DTI minister has admitted that the UK could be facing "severe" gas shortages by 2005. The UK government has confirmed that 70% of our electricity will come from gas by 2020, and 90% of that will be imported. In that context it should be noted that Iraq has 110 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves in addition to its oil.
A report from the commission on America's national interests in July 2000 noted that the most promising new source of world supplies was the Caspian region, and this would relieve US dependence on Saudi Arabia. To diversify supply routes from the Caspian, one pipeline would run westward via Azerbaijan and Georgia to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. Another would extend eastwards through Afghanistan and Pakistan and terminate near the Indian border. This would rescue Enron's beleaguered power plant at Dabhol on India's west coast, in which Enron had sunk $3bn investment and whose economic survival was dependent on access to cheap gas.
Nor has the UK been disinterested in this scramble for the remaining world supplies of hydrocarbons, and this may partly explain British participation in US military actions. Lord Browne, chief executive of BP, warned Washington not to carve up Iraq for its own oil companies in the aftermath of war (Guardian, October 30 2002). And when a British foreign minister met Gadaffi in his desert tent in August 2002, it was said that "the UK does not want to lose out to other European nations already jostling for advantage when it comes to potentially lucrative oil contracts" with Libya (BBC Online, August 10 2002).
The conclusion of all this analysis must surely be that the "global war on terrorism" has the hallmarks of a political myth propagated to pave the way for a wholly different agenda - the US goal of world hegemony, built around securing by force command over the oil supplies required to drive the whole project. Is collusion in this myth and junior participation in this project really a proper aspiration for British foreign policy? If there was ever need to justify a more objective British stance, driven by our own independent goals, this whole depressing saga surely provides all the evidence needed for a radical change of course.
Michael Meacher MP was environment minister from May 1997 to June 2003
meacherm@parliament.uk
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/attacks/comment/0,1320,1036772,00.html
2) Israel seeks pipeline for Iraqi oil
US discusses plan to pump fuel to its regional ally
and solve energy headache at a stroke
Ed Vuillamy in Washington
Sunday April 20, 2003
The Observer
Plans to build a pipeline to siphon oil from newly conquered Iraq to Israel are being discussed between Washington, Tel Aviv and potential future government figures in Baghdad. The plan envisages the reconstruction of an old pipeline, inactive since the end of the British mandate in Palestine in 1948, when the flow from Iraq's northern oilfields to Palestine was re-directed to
Syria.
Now, its resurrection would transform economic power in the region, bringing revenue to the new US-dominated Iraq, cutting out Syria and solving Israel's energy crisis at a stroke.
It would also create an end less and easily accessible source of cheap Iraqi oil for the US guaranteed by reliable allies other than Saudi Arabia - a keystone of US foreign policy for decades and especially since 11 September 2001.
Until 1948, the pipeline ran from the Kurdish-controlled city of Mosul to the Israeli port of Haifa, on its northern Mediterranean coast.
The revival of the pipeline was first discussed openly by the Israeli Minister for National Infrastructures, Joseph Paritzky, according to the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz .
The paper quotes Paritzky as saying that the pipeline would cut Israel's energy bill drastically - probably by more than 25 per cent - since the country is currently largely dependent on expensive imports from Russia.
US intelligence sources confirmed to The Observer that the project has been discussed. One former senior CIA official said: 'It has long been a dream of a powerful section of the people now driving this administration [of President George W. Bush] and the war in Iraq to safeguard Israel's energy supply as well as that of the United States.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,940250,00.html
3) Dennis Kucinich's speech at Animal Rights Conference
Dennis Kucinich's speech at Animal Rights 2003-West Conference in LA
We recognize that we are in a world which truly needs compassion, that we need to extend compassion to one another and to everything living. And that our cause can truly be to lift up this world from a condition of suffering and cruelty to all the creatures of this planet, and through elevating the cause of every creature, we elevate our own humanity.
We lift up the cause of humanity by reaching out and connecting with all things living. It is our sense of interconnection with all living things that brings us to respect the rights of animals, that we understand that animals are not to be lower than, that animals should not have less of a claim to existence, less of a claim to the possibility of survival, less of a claim to dignity.
And your commitment translates into specific action, in raising the questions that must be raised about the use of animals in research, in raising the questions that must be raised about the use of animals in testing, in looking at the conditions in which animals are placed on farms, in challenging a corporate ethic which sees animals as things to be exploited and not beings which in and of themselves have some basic rights.
Your presence here serves as a reminder to this country that our presence on this planet has a higher calling. That we can through our activism, make light in this world, that we can through our activism, lift up the cause of the humblest beings, that we can through our activism, open up not only our own hearts, but the hearts of people everywhere so that our society can become more compassionate, so that our society can be more loving, so that our society can create policies which are caring for animals.
Everyone of us knows a story of animal cruelty, everyone of us knows how in one way or another official policies have sanctioned cruelty to animals. I will work with you, to put compassion into action in our policies with respect to animals in this country and I will work with you to have America set a higher standard, not only for this country, but for the world, to make sure that all of God's creatures, that all animals are given a chance to have dignity in our society and are given a chance to experience the appreciation they should have as living beings."
# # #
Flyby Note: Received via email
Please send any additional URL link.
(Thanks Helen!)
4) Astonishing Newsday Poll Kucinich leads All Combined
No fooling, and I have been checking this mainstream news website for the last week, Dennis Kucinich has more than 50% of the vote for all Democrats and George W. Bush combined!
Check it out and vote:
http://tinyurl.com/luxi
As of on September 8, 2003, the following percentages were figured from a total of 11,769 responses
reported by Newsday.com:
George W. Bush........3.4%
Carol Moseley Braun 4.0%
Howard Dean..........35.5%
John Edwards............0.3%
Dick Gephardt...........2.0%
Bob Graham..............0.2%
John Kerry.................1.2%
Dennis Kucinich.......51.4%
Joe Lieberman...........0.4%
Al Sharpton...............1.5%
Bob Graham..............0.3%
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Kucinich-Gandhi Peace * Films * FBI 911 * No Nukes
04 September 2003
"Out on the edge of darkness there lies the peace train.
Peace train, take this country, come take me home again."
Cat Stevens
1) Kucinich's Speech for the 2003 Gandhi Peace Award
2) Kucinich-Democracy Film & Discussion Forums
3) International Terrorism and the FBI
4) No New Nukes: Tell Senate to Join the House
Editor's Notes:
The Kucinich Peace Train is set to take off in the late winter and spring of 2004, but to make it on time, there is a lot of grassroots work needed to expose the message of hope and opportunity for reclaiming a lost democracy in the US. See the first two items for ideas and inspiration for what you can do to get on board. Item 3 is an exposing new book on the FBI's mishandling of information that it could have and should have prevented the terrorist attacks in the US on September 11, 2001 and the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. Something is fishy in this apparent willful' act NOT to prevent terrorism in the US! Item four is an action for you to support the House of Representatives and stop Congress from supporting the development of more nuclear attack weapons of mass destruction. Please don't miss this peace train and awaken and help awaken your neighbors and friends to support the peace and nonviolent international movement.
1) Kucinich's Speech for the 2003 Gandhi Peace Award
The Ghandi Peace Award in 2003 was presented to Dennis Kucinich by the world-renown organization, Promoting Enduring Peace (PEP). "Every year this award is given to an individual recognized as a "distinguished peacemaker" and "for contributions made in the promotion of international peace and good will." Past recipients include Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, Dr. Linus Pauling, Dr. Helen Caldicott, Cesar Chavez, Sen. George McGovern, and former Attorney Gen. Ramsey Clark. According to PEP, "Dennis Kucinich has been given this award because of his dedication to peace and improving social conditions for the workers and poor, which we feel is a prerequisite for peace. For his honesty and the good person he is, and for the good spirit which he is trying to instill."
With our country torn by war, Candidate Kucinich stands as a steady beacon of hope for change. Kucinich is the only candidate who has unwaveringly opposed the war with Iraq from the beginning. . . . The Gandhi Peace Award was conceived in the late 1940's by Dr. Jerome Davis, founder of the organization Promoting Enduring Peace (PEP). The yearly award was established in 1959 to honor persons outstanding in the work for world peace.
Dennis Kucinich accepted the award at Amarantes SeaCliffs in New Haven, CT. on March 22, 2003:
"I'm glad to have this moment to be with you and to express first of all my gratitude for being the recipient of the 2003 Gandhi Peace Award. It's very humbling to have my name associated with the name of a true visionary, of someone whose life was a gift to the world, and whose life many of us in public careers try to emulate. And I want to thank all of you who work to keep this fine organization going. When I first arrived, I had the opportunity to speak to many of you about your own commitments, about your work. And it's especially humbling to have the opportunity to share this evening with you, because this is your life's work too. Your life's work is dedicated to the active work on behalf of peace. There are some who think that peace is somehow a static activity. Far from it. It's a dynamic _expression of the possibilities of human aspiration. For those of you who came in from New York today, who participated in the march, thank you. Please join me in thanking [much applause].
"Out on the edge of darkness there lies the peace train. Peace train, take this country, come take me home again." 30 years ago that song was written by Cat Stevens. And it's interesting how you can almost hear the rhythms come back at this moment: "Out on the edge of darkness." We look at the edge of darkness out across this water-I'm looking at the beautiful illumined gazebo, and I think of what we can do to send light to the Persian Gulf this evening.
The psalms have a phrase in Latin: "Emitte lucem tuam." Send forth your light. And we so need to do that at this moment, so that we can describe the entire Persian Gulf in light this evening, and to send the light of peace in that region. To take the light of peace which is in our hearts, and extend that light, and that love and that compassion. From my studies of the Scriptures and the Gospel of St. John, it begins, in the early verses, it speaks of the light shining in the darkness. "And the darkness grasp it not." Light always shines in the darkness. And [what with] darkness has dropped upon our country, upon our Constitution, upon our highest aspirations for America, upon our historic traditions-the light of truth will shine in that darkness, and the darkness will neither comprehend nor overwhelm it. So we are called upon at this moment, to be witnesses for peace, for truth, for light, for love, for compassion, and for the potential of humanity to evolve from a condition where some believe that war is inevitable, to a condition where our knowledge that peace is inevitable becomes the defining paradigm of a new century and a new world.
How do we get to that point. Today we're being offered a competing vision. One vision holds America as a nation involved in a Manichean struggle at war with the forces of evil. Gandhi of course said the only evil that exists in the world is that which is rattling around in our own hearts. Yet there are those who have described these images of evil, and have projected those images, as though on a large screen; and have tried to vivify them; have created enemies. That philosopher created by Walt Kelly named Pogo: "We have met the enemy and he is us!" And so this vision which is emerging from smoke and fire, digitized visions projected on our television screens today, phantasmagoria, garish phosphorescence projected into our psyches, into our hearts, creating despair, creating a vision of the world disintegrating. Not the first time this has happened in human experience, but the first time we've seen in coming from our nation waging an aggressive war. Almost a hundred years ago, William Butler Yeats described the Second Coming: "Turning and turning, in the widening gyre, the falcon cannot hear the falconer. All things fall apart. The center cannot hold." He wrote about an era that presaged disintegration, that presaged war, not only in Ireland but later on a world war. And today we're looking at a world where the center is not holding. Where this world view of America at war is becoming a doctrine, or reflects and derives from a doctrine, that paradoxically would be what we expect to secure our country. A national security strategy which calls for America to be the first to attack. To work preemptively. To work alone and apart from the world. To proceed unilaterally. Such a doctrine is the product of a world view, which is compartmentalized, the product of dichotomous thinking, of us versus them. And carries with it the ultimate consequence of war. Because then, "this town's not big enough for both of us." And so when might makes right, what of international law?
When might makes right, what of morality? When might makes right, then the sword shall be the only measure of justice. The nuclear [posture] review is a continuation of a national security strategy which calls for first strike use of nuclear weapons. Reversing 60 years of painstaking efforts toward nuclear disarmament-nearly 60 years. The doctrine of "Shock and Awe," which we're hearing so much about these days, was taken off the shelf of the National Defense University's war studies program, and represents a selection of military strategies, all under the title of "Shock and Awe," which celebrate the various glories and desirability of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, the Tokyo firebombing, the B-2 bombing of Vietnam, the idea being that-and I've read the doctrine and I would urge you all to read it-the idea being that if you can create so much damage to a civilian population, as the dropping of the atomic bomb did in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that people are just shocked-psychologically, physically shocked. And they're in awe. What kind of a world view or vision would want to create a doctrine which would bring fear to people all over the world. Which would raise fear to an almost biblical proportion. Which would make fear on the level of a deity.
Now we know from our studies of the Hindu religion, that the forces of destruction and the forces of creation exist simultaneously. Shiva and Vishnu exist simultaneously. We also know that we have the opportunity to be able to determine which of those forces [work through us]: the forces of destruction or the forces of creation. Granted, at any point in our lives, they may be working their way simultaneously. However, as a nation, America at this very moment has become an agency of destruction in the world. As a member of Congress, I've found it daunting and even heartbreaking to see this process that pulls people in as though it were some kind of a magnetic pulsation, and causes people to support war, either through their active participation or through their silence. We search for historical antecedents, and we sometimes find them in chilling ways. Lately I've been talking to many historians who draw comparisons to the 1930s. A world view is being offered, where will trumps love.
Where what the philosopher Eric Fromm called the anatomy of human destructiveness is working its way through official government policy. Where all of the work to celebrate the human condition is being trashed in favor of a doctrine of control. We know what the darkness looks like. And now lets talk about what the light that we wish to describe looks like.
The light of peace can be brought into this world and exist in this world through compassion, acceptance, tolerance that's shared. And it's shared through affirming international structures of cooperation and governance. The importance of a United Nations is so much more evident at this moment. We realize that we're all connected, that we're all one! My politics arises from an holistic world view: we're interconnected, we're interdependent. What affects me affects you. It goes beyond the I-thou of Martin Buber and goes to the connectivity of "we are all one" that informed Gandhi's essential philosophy. Because when you wage war under those circumstances, it is not an act merely of homicide-it is an act of suicide. Because we're attacking ourselves. Because our brothers and sisters in Iraq are receiving the bombs. The world of peace can be affirmed through going back to the work that so many of us have pursued over a lifetime for nuclear disarmament.
David [Cortwright] and others have made it a life's work to implement the non-proliferation treaty. The United States can once again take a leading role in the world, in working not only for nuclear non-proliferation, but in taking a leading role in getting rid of all nuclear weapons. We have an obligation to do that. We have an obligation to future generations to do that. We have an obligation to reimplement the anti-ballistic missile treaty which Vladimir Putin himself took office ready to support. We have an obligation to recommit to a test ban. To begin to build down and eliminate the production of nuclear weapons. We're going in an opposite direction at this very moment, but we can once again gain that moral authority in the world. The weapons of mass destruction begin in our consciousness. And [they're our/there are] projections and physical form. The splitting of the atom was a split in consciousness in this society. And we need to heal our nation and the world, through creating a vision of a world as one. And a vision of the world as one has no room for nuclear weapons. There are 12 nations which either possess or are trying to acquire nuclear weapons. 20 nations either possessing or trying to acquire biological weapons. 26 nations either possessing or trying to acquire chemical weapons. 20 nations either possessing or trying to acquire missile technologies to deliver those weapons. Pandora's box has been opened.
But there is a power greater than all of those weapons. And it's the power of love through which the human heart expresses itself. [applause] The advancing tide is toward human unity! We saw it reflected at the beginning of the new millennium which so many of us celebrated in the year 2000. Where despite the dire predictions, people gathered peacefully all around the world, without incidents! Celebrating our humanity! Proving that we can get together around the world peacefully!
The advancing tide is toward human unity, and the technology of our society has reflected that through the connectivity of the internet, through communications, through transportation, and through trade. Every one of us has had the opportunity to connect, in our lifetimes, with people so we realize that we truly are a global village. This thinking that separates us from other nations and other people is archaic! And so as we offer a competing vision for the world, that competing vision can seek to make war itself archaic. [applause] And that, my friends, is what has animated the idea of a Department of Peace. To take the work of Gandhi, and the work of Dr. King, and the work of other great religious leaders, and to work to make nonviolence an organizing principle in our society.
This competing vision, this alternative vision, this light-filled vision which we offer, looks at our own society with love and with the understanding that we can be more than we are and better than we are. We look at the pathologies in our society of domestic violence, of spousal abuse, of child abuse. Of violence in our schools, of gangs, of police-community relations challenges, of violence against gays and violence against all types of minorities. And we begin to develop structures within our society to teach children mutuality, reciprocity, sharing, peace-giving. Some communities are already doing that. To use the very power of government itself to institutionalize that type of an approach in a society. Think for a moment how a 400 billion dollar defense budget informs the consciousness of our nation. Think for a moment, how spending anywhere from 99 billion to 1.9 trillion dollars on a war in Iraq, plus occupation, plus reconstruction, how that would inform the consciousness of our nation.
Think for a moment how the agenda of America has been set. Through spending hundreds of billions in a cold war. Through spending hundreds of billions in hot wars. Through being prepared to spend up to one and a half trillion dollars on a missile defense system, which doesn't work, and even if it did, we wouldn't want it to. Think of, instead, offering the possibility of a structure within our government that would begin to offer another way, another path. That's what the Department of Peace seeks to do. On an international level, it looks at mediation, intervention nonviolently, it looks at issues of human scarcity, of poverty, and those conditions which give rise to the kind of despair which produces war. War is not inevitable! Peace is inevitable, but we have to insist on the power of our humanity to bring forth this new possibility. "Come, my friends! Tis not too late to seek a newer world!" said the poet Tennyson. "Come, my friends! Tis not too late to seek a newer world!"
So while the lights twinkle across this beautiful point, while the bombs drop, and missiles are launched into the city of our brothers and sisters, we realize that we have this moment in time and space where we can change the outcome! Where we are not stuck! Where we can use this power which is inside of us, this light inside of our hearts! And let that light shine, let it shine in this darkness! Let it shine in the chaos! Let it shine-and let that shine so that this alternative vision of peace, which is the vision of which our lives are made, that this alternative vision of peace, which can be the vision of which our country expresses itself, that this alternative vision of peace, that reflects the lives' work of so many who have come before us, that this shall be a vision through which the creativity, and through which the transformational energy that will bring us this new world, can be achieved.
Come my friends, tis not too late to seek a newer world."
This speech is also posted:
http://pepeace.org/current_reprints/06/Dennis%20Kucinich.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Please Note:
The United Nations has asked the world to observe a global ceasefire and day of nonviolence on Peace Day -- the International Day of Peace, September 21. Kucinich supporters have been asked to observe the call to peace in two ways:
1) Ask your Mayor to join other leaders all around the world in declaring a Proclamation of Peace for the International Peace Day, and
2) Host a Peace Day Party. Take pictures of your Peace Day event and share them with the campaign by emailing them to campaignwitness@kucinich.us
To learn more about this campaign visit:
http://us.denniskucinich.us/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=602
2) Kucinich-Democracy Film & Discussion Forums
For Immediate Release
Kucinich-Democracy Film & Discussion Forums -
Amherst, MA-Tuesday Sept. 9 and Keene, NH-Sept. 23
Campaigns for the nomination for the next election for US President are underway. Flyby News is sponsoring programs that support the only candidate that voted against the Patriot Act and was a major factor in organizing more than 120 members of Congress who voted against the apparent authorization for selected-US President George W. Bush to preemptively attack Iraq.
The best way to understand what Dennis Kucinich is all about is to see him in person. The second best is to witness a film of one of his speeches. Flyby News is sponsoring a program with three films at the Amherst Bangs Community Center on Tuesday September 9, 2003 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM, each film will be followed by discussions. The first film is with Malachi Roths' new film-short, The Peace Candidate" [20 minutes]. This film gives an intimate look, during the drum-beating for war, at one of the most qualified and inspirational American leader to emerge in decades. The second film will be an excerpt [30 minutes] from "What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World." This extraordinary film compilation by Frank Dorrel documents many CIA covert operations and US interventions since World War II, representing an overview of a corporate-controlled and secret shadow-government behind affairs of US foreign policy.
The final film in this forum is a response to the war on terror, which many believe adds incentives for more terrorism, called "A Prayer for America" [18 minutes]. This speech was presented by Dennis Kucinich to the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action on February 17, 2002 just 5 months following the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Congressman Dennis J Kucinich's eloquent words brought patriotism to the forefront in questioning the wisdom of the US administration's cut-back on US civil liberties. He begins his speech by singing a medley of patriotic songs. This speech was passed all around the Internet and initiated tens of thousands of responses, which was a catalyst in launching Kucinich's national grassroots campaign. Kucinich is not accepting any corporate funding, and has vowed to bring significant changes to the US Government in its domestic and international affairs.
The September 23rd film/discussion program in Keene, NH will take place at the Keene Public Library Auditorium from 6:00 to 8:45 PM. This program will open with excerpts from Frank Dorrel's "What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy," and after discussions, "A Prayer for America" and then another Dennis Kucinich powerhouse speech at the "Take Back America Conference" [26 min] delivered on June 5, 2003 in Washington, D.C.
You can learn more about Dennis Kucinich and these films at FlybyNews.com.
http://www.flybynews.com
or at the official website of Dennis Kucinich for President
http://www.kucinich.us
*Please note updated links section for independent web site resources on Dennis Kucinich for US President, under
"Campaigns, Actions, & Events from http://www.FlybyNews.com
Contact: Jonathan Mark
Email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380
>-----------------------Flyby News--------------------====>
News Fit to Transmit in the post Cassini flyby era
<<<>>> http//www.flybynews.com <<<>>>
-------------------------------------------------------
3) International Terrorism and the FBI
On the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, I learned of a new book, "1000 Years for Revenge: International Terrorism and the FBI--the Untold Story" by Peter Lance " This book contends that the FBI "could have and should have prevented the 9/11 attacks." According to Lance, "he uncovered evidence available to Federal Agents for what they never actually analyzed or acted upon. Lance said that he shows for the first time that the NY office of the FBI, the bin Laden office of origin, basically, was on to these guys, the same cell, as far back as 1989, and dropped the ball not just once, not just a dozen times, but dozens and dozens of times. . . Lance said that it was absolutely possible for the FBI to identify and stop Youssef in the fall of 1992 when he built the bomb used in a car under the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993 that killed six and injured a thousand innocent people. Though the FBI had an informant in place, that even took videos of this group meeting, and whispering plans for the attack, bomber Youssef got away by fleeing to the Phillippines where he began to lay the groundwork for 9/11."
I searched the web site for CBS, but found this report missing. Fortunately the above information was retrieved by my copying the news on my VCR. In a Google search on this program, I found this link:
3. CBS News | The Inside Scoop | September 2, 2003...
... Last Updated at 4:00 PM September 2, 2003 ... and then I'll have details of a new book that contends ... have prevente...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1999/10/04/broadcasts/main64925.shtml
After going to the link I discovered that the information on this segment was missing, most likely edited from the web on September 3rd.
This makes this book even more appealing. To get this book that was just released this week, check at your bookstore or at Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/006054354X/qid=1062685897/sr=2-1/102-9438896-5143337?v=glance&s=books
4) No New Nukes: Tell Senate to Join the House
House Voted Against Bush's Request for New Nukes
Tell Senate They Should Do the Same
President Bush has requested more than 20 million dollars for research on advanced nuclear weapons concepts. The Pentagon says they'd be more "usable" than our current nuclear weapons, the very reason arms control advocates urge that they be stopped. In July, the House of Representatives voted against (all but 5 million of) this request. The Senate is set to vote later this month.
TrueMajority members sent more than 50,000 messages to the House before they voted against the President. It's now time to urge the Senate also to stop America from embarking on a usable nuclear weapons program.
To send a free fax* to your Senators (text below) asking them to oppose funding for a new generation of nuclear weapons just REPLY to this email by clicking "Reply" and then "Send" in your email program. If you are not currently registered with TrueMajority or you would like to customize your message, click here:
http://www.truemajority.com/index.asp?action=10060&ms=nuksen1&ref=351625
Yours in opposing weapons of mass destruction,
Ben Cohen
President, TrueMajority.org
Co-Founder, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream+
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
KucinichNewFocus * BushVulnerable * DeanMakeover
27 August 2003
1) Kucinich changes focus from Iowa to New Hampshire
- - Keene crowd keen on Kucinich
2) Soul of the Democratic Party
3) Reuters ..'Perfect Storm' for Bush
- - Ad-Man Advice to Democrats - "Bring Em On!"
4) Howard Dean Gets Makeover: Says He's 'No Dove'
- - www.KucinichDeanCompare.com
5) Kucinich Events and Articles
Editor's Notes:
Flyby News began with my meeting investigative reporter, author, video producer, Karl Grossman when he gave a talk and slide presentation at UMASS, Amherst just before the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997. To get to Saturn NASA sent Cassini to Venus first for two flyby's of that planet to pick up speed, and then came hurtling back towards Earth at more than 40,000 mph, around 10 miles per second! The high risk factor is that Cassini had a tremendous amount of radioactive plutonium on board, if Cassini hit our atmosphere the radiation would have been atomized to small elements that would have been able to enter the bodies of millions of people. Karl Grossman fingered the cause of such a high risk mission to be the cocky military, planning to dominate Earth from the heavens, voila, Star Wars.
After the Cassini Earth flyby on August 17/18 ,1999, Flyby News changed its focus to stopping or exposing Star Wars directly. Dennis Kucinich became the champion in government on this critical effort, when he proposed legislation to ban space-based weapons in 2001 and 2002. Flyby News endorsed the campaign of Dennis Kucinich for US President in 2004 after George W. Bush terminated the 1972 ABM Treaty and began a new era of an arms race in space.
News fit to transmit in the post Cassini flyby era is about getting ahead of the curve of arrogance and destruction, with the difference of seeking solutions to our problems. Kucinich for President represents many solutions, and a possible reclamation of democracy since before my lifetime. I wanted to repeat this overview of Flyby News, since it might explain the strong focus on this campaign, and the opportunity it offers.
Thanks for reading this issue which contains time-related events and news for life's survival or integrity in the 21st Century.
1) Kucinich changes focus from Iowa to New Hampshire
Kucinich changes focus of campaign from Iowa to New Hampshire
By JAMES W. PINDELL
PoliticsNH.com
Aug. 24 - In a noticeable shift, Dennis Kucinich's presidential campaign will look to New Hampshire to give new energy to a campaign languishing in the polls nation-wide and in early primary states. Kucinich, the Ohio Congressman, visited the Southwestern towns Friday in the state. It was his fourth trip to the state since he announced his candidacy six months ago.
On Saturday he met privately with staff and supporters in Manchester mapping out his campaign plan in the next few months. In that time, aides say, he will be in the state in 15 days over the next two months and considerably increase the amount of staff in New Hampshire. Previously the campaign has put most of their energy in Iowa. It made sense to many that Kucinich would put most of his focus there, analysts say, given that the two huge constituencies of the Iowa Democratic precinct caucuses are peace activists and labor union members. Kucinich's platform is deeply rooted in his opposition to the war in Iraq and his support of labor.
But after 26 visits there Kucinich, at best, is only polling at four percent in Iowa. It was time to look to somewhere else. That somewhere is New Hampshire.
"We see a real opening in New Hampshire," said Trevor Elkins, Kucinich's New Hampshire state director. "The congressman was really energized by his trip to the state Friday and believes there is real potential here."
In the latest poll of likely New Hampshire Democratic primary voters Kucinich failed to even break one percent of a survey sample of 600 people. Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton also failed to receive one percent support in the same poll.
Currently Kucinich has only has two paid staff in New Hampshire and a corps of about 10 very dedicated regional volunteer coordinators, mainly from state peace organizations.
James W. Pindell can be reached at pindell@politicsnh.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Keene crowd keen on Kucinich
By PATRICK ARMSTRONG
Reformer Staff (Brattleboro VT Newspaper)
Saturday, August 23, 2003
KEENE, N.H. -- Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich brought his passionate message on renewable energy, universal single-payer health care and taking back government to the enthusiastic crowd of supporters and curiosity-seekers who packed The Pub to overflowing Friday afternoon.
For complete article, see:
http://www.reformer.com/Stories/0,1413,102~8862~1587184,00.html
2) Soul of the Democratic Party
Dennis Kucinich: the real soul of the Democratic Party?
Wednesday 20 August @ 12:33:52
an interview and profile by Lydia Howell
photos by Jonathan Miller
The best-kept secret on the Democratic presidential campaign trail ignited St. Paul's Central High School auditorium August 16, bringing the almost 1000-strong crowd repeatedly to its feet, cheering. Supporters of Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) defy definition, spanning independents, Greens, veterans, students, peace activists, consumers and environmentalists. Doubts about his "electability" are greatly exaggeratedKucinich won by 70 percent in 2001 in a traditionally Republican district. Willie Nelson is recording campaign ads for him and doing concert fundraisers with Ani DiFranco in Des Moines, Iowa, in early September. Grassroots campaign organizations are spreading like smoldering prairie fire across the country.
Lydia Howell interviews presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich on her show "Catalyst" which airs on KFAI Aug 26 @ 11 a.m.
"When the Founders of our country spoke of `forming a more perfect union,' it wasn't just about politics. It was also about being able to be more than we areabout consciously evolving," Kucinich evoked the recurring anthem of his St. Paul speech"It's not too late to seek a new world!"
Kucinich knows about transformation firsthand. Growing up poor, he had 21 addresses before age 17including a car. His ex-Marine father was a truck driver who Kucinich said "died with his first retirement check uncashed in his pocket." The oldest of seven, Kucinich was the first in his family to go to college. Degrees in communications took him from newsroom copy boy to radio, TV cameraman and lecturer, in between elected offices.
"First, you have to understand what Bush's presidency is about accelerating wealth upward. Its about putting the nation's wealth into fewer and fewer hands," Kucinich said in a KFAI interview in July, pointing to post-9/11 bailouts that gave airlines billions while their employees got massive layoffs. "The Bush economy is driven by the interests of a few at the expense of the many. That's what the war and the tax cuts are about."
Kucinich joined the anti-World Trade Organization (WTO) battle in Seattle. He'll use Executive Orders to withdraw from the WTO and repeal the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that's exported millions of American jobs to Mexican sweatshops.
"Labels like liberal, conservative, Democrat, Republican don't mean much when you look at these trade agreements. The real issue is: WHOOSE side are you on? Are you on the side of multinational corporations driving down wages, knocking out benefits, breaking unions and crushing communities when they move jobs out?" Kucinich gains momentum, not allowed in CSPAN 60-second sound-bites. "Or are you on the side of people struggling for workers' rights, human rights and environmental principles?"
Kucinich's legislation aimed to restore fairness between employees and management: enforcement of labor laws, anti-discrimination and collective bargaining. He salvaged Ohio's steel industry and kept public hospitals open. Democratic competitor, Rep. Richard Gephardt assumes entitlement to union endorsements, yet (like all the other candidates) refuses to take a stand against the obviously destructive NAFTA.
Challenging corporate power has been Kucinich's quest since he became the youngest (31) mayor of a major city (Cleveland) in the late 1970s. Inheriting financial crisis of misspent bonds, he faced a corporate power-play: pressure to privatize the public Muny Electric utility, backed up by banks threatening to call in city loans if Kucinich didn't capitulate. "It was extortion," he says. Kucinich refused, loans were pulled, resulting in Cleveland's bankruptcy and Kucinich's loss of his re-election bid. Now, even his detractors concede he was right, as California's power outages and rate hikes proved privatization failed [for more on this see "After the Blackout are We Still in the Dark?]. Kucinich noted in St. Paul the recent Northeast/Canada power shutdown (being traced to Ohio) was another example of "profits at the expense of public interest.". . . .
For the complete article, see:
http://www.pulsetc.com/article.php?sid=583
3) Reuters ..'Perfect Storm' for Bush
- - Ad-Man Advice to Democrats - "Bring Em On!"
Analysis: Is 'Perfect Storm' Brewing for Bush?
Reuters
Sunday 24 August 2003
WASHINGTON - As the 2004 election nears, President Bush could face an international "perfect storm" -- more attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan, an overextended deployment of U.S. troops eager to come home and blackening clouds over the Middle East, North Korea and Iran.
The confluence of world events will test Bush's foreign policy leadership even as he must concentrate on the U.S. economy and other domestic issues that could determine whether he wins a second term.
For the entire aticle, see:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/082603A.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Ad-Man Advice to Democrats - "Bring Em On!"
If I were hired by the Democrats to run the 2004 Presidential campaign, I know what I would recommend. Campaign suggestions from an Ad-Man.
Bye Bye Bush!
Bring 'Em On! by Gary North
For the complete article, see:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north203.html
4) Howard Dean Gets Makeover: Says He's 'No Dove'
Howard Dean Gets Makeover: Says He's 'No Dove,':
US Must Stay in Iraq for National Security,
Quintuple US Troops in Afghanistan
= = = = =
The above headline was posted on antiwar.com. with link to following 25 August article in the Washington Post.
Defining Dean
By Fred Hiatt
Monday, August 25, 2003; Page A17
Howard Dean seemed to be having a grand time, and who could blame him? As he jogged to the podium Saturday evening, a roar rose out of the large (the campaign claimed 4,000) and spirited crowd. Music thumped, navy-blue Dean placards pumped skyward, partisan spirits and late-summer sunshine suffused the Falls Church park. As the former Vermont governor brought his presidential campaign to the Washington suburbs, any rivals for the Democratic nomination hoping that he would soon implode -- through inexperience, or overconfidence or the weight of his supposed liberalism -- wouldn't have found much encouragement.
That last charge -- that he can't win because he's too liberal or dovish-- is obviously one he's giving thought to. "I don't even consider myself a dove," he told me and my colleague Ruth Marcus during a conversation before the rally. It's "not possible" to fix him on the liberal-conservative scale, he said. "Where I am on the political spectrum is a convenient way to avoid talking about issues."
It's true that he opposed the war in Iraq, he says, but he supported the 1991 Gulf War and the Bush campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan. More interesting, at a time when many politicians are shuddering at President Bush's ambitions to remake the Middle East -- conservatives, because they are skeptical of such grand reshaping ambitions; liberals, because they see resources being diverted from social causes at home -- Dean sounds if anything more committed than Condoleezza Rice to bringing democracy to Iraq.
"Now that we're there, we're stuck," he said. Bush took an "enormous risk" that through war the United States could replace Saddam Hussein and the "small danger" he presented to the United States with something better and safer. The gamble was "foolish" and "wrong." But whoever will be elected in 2004 has to live with it. "We have no choice. It's a matter of national security. If we leave and we don't get a democracy in Iraq, the result is very significant danger to the United States."
And "bringing democracy to Iraq is not a two-year proposition. Having elections alone doesn't guarantee democracy. You've got to have institutions and the rule of law, and in a country that hasn't had that in 3,000 years, it's unlikely to suddenly develop by having elections and getting the heck out." Dean would impose a "hybrid" constitution, "American with Iraqi, Arab characteristics. Iraqis have to play a major role in drafting this, but the Americans have to have the final say." Women's rights must be guaranteed at all levels.
Dean is almost as sweeping about Afghanistan, where "losing the peace is not an option" and "pulling out early would be a disaster." Five times the current level of troops are needed, he said. "Imagine making deals with warlords to promote democracy. What are these people thinking?"
If all this sounds like a recipe for a larger, even more imperial military, Dean says no; it's a recipe for better involving NATO and the United Nations. He would rebuild American diplomacy and recommit to multilateralism; in a nice bit of jujitsu on a Bush campaign 2000 theme, Dean says he would "restore honor and dignity to the United States' reputation around the world."
One multilateral institution that might not fare so well in a Dean administration, though, is the World Trade Organization. In what would be a radical departure, China and other countries could get trade deals with the United States only if they adopted "the same labor laws and labor standards and environmental standards" as the United States. Whether or not that demand was consistent with WTO rules? "That's right." With no concession to their relative level of development? "Why should there be? They have the right to have a middle class same as everyone else."
Dean says, "We've tried it" -- NAFTA, WTO -- "for 10 years, and has it succeeded? No. . . . What's the purpose of trade? If it's to create jobs, we haven't done that in America."
He speaks rapidly, as advertised, sometimes answering before a question is complete, seeming not to weigh his words with overly political caution -- his trademark distinction from the programmed Washington politicians running against him. Yet at times he speaks openly of the political calculations. Some positions seem aimed at the partisan primary audience, others to shore up his general-election credentials. Unlike Bush, he says, he would "stand up to the Saudis." But also unlike Bush, he would have talked long ago with Kim Jong Il. Whether there is a coherent worldview or a work in progress will be interesting to watch.
He allows that former treasury secretary Robert Rubin told him: "I can't sell you on Wall Street if this is your position" on trade. But the former governor apparently can live with that. "I said, 'Bob, tell me what your solution is.' He said, 'I'll have to get back to you.' I haven't heard from him."
With that, he adjusts his tie and heads out to his rally, the largest thus far of his campaign.
fredhiatt@washpost.com
2003 The Washington Post Company
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40299-2003Aug24.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - www.KucinichDeanCompare.com
A National Resource for Kucinich Supporter:
http://www.KucinichDeanCompare.com/
5) Kucinich Events and Articles
Dennis will be making a quick trip through Massachusetts this Thursday, August 28th. We are looking for people to join a motorcade from the Boston Globe (where Dennis will be meeting with the Globe editorial board) up to Portsmouth with a lunch stop in Beverly.
Pass this message on to everyone in your address book! Then call all your friends, tell your neighbors, and let's put on a news making motorcade! We need a big show of support for Dennis Kucinich, the next President of the United States of America.
We will meet at the Globe parking lot at 1215 to decorate cars, and at around 1240 head north to Beverly where Dennis will be having lunch at the Organic Garden restaurant. Unfortunately, the restaurant is small and can't accommodate more than Dennis and his entourage. However, we will be handing out flyers and generally making a big hoopla in downtown Beverly. After that we'll be heading to Portsmouth, NH.
Please call (508) 353-1599 - let us know that you will be joining the motorcade. Let's rock 'n' roll!!
Pat O'Brien
Adam Sacks
-----------====>>>>>
Directions to Globe
Take Columbia Road exit off Rte 93 (south of downtown Boston) Follow Rte 3A to 135 Morrissey Boulevard.
Directions to Organic Garden restaurant in Beverly
128 N toward PEABODY/GLOUCESTER 7.70 Miles
Take the RT-1A S exit- exit number 20B- toward BEVERLY. 0.12 Miles
Turn SLIGHT RIGHT onto DODGE ST/MA-1A. 0.12 Miles
Turn SLIGHT LEFT onto CABOT ST/MA-1A. Continue to follow CABOT ST. 1.65 Miles
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The Mass. technology team stands at the ready to provide websites for many states that wish to make use of their expertise to quickly get a website up and running. They could simply copy the Mass. website (http://www.massforkucinich.us), cosmetically change it, put the right contact info on it, etc. Once that has been done we can temporarily co-host it with ours until such time as the state organization is ready to sign up for their own hosting services. Alternatively we can sign up for additional hosting services here if the state org. doesn't have the resources to do that, or we can help you locate a local hosting service if that is preferred. Lastly we have an army of tech-savvy volunteers who can help with the maintenance and enhancements of the website. Of course our webmaster is very busy so it is essential that each site have their own webmaster, but we can provide one if a local one is not yet available. Lastly it was suggested at our core meeting that we may want to consider a NE regional website as well, which we can create and maintain should that be desirable. Please contact me at your earliest convenience to let me know what you would like us to do. We are here for you, because this is one campaign, nation wide!
http://www.massforkucinich.us
For a NH website on Dennis by David Pyles, see
http://www.acousticmusic.com/dave/kucinich.htm
And another for grass roots action, music, videos, see:
http://www.wewantkucinich.com/
For sharing links with Flyby News, please send all Kucinich website's URL's to info@flybynews.com with Flyby-Kucinich-Link in the subject. And please resend, some of these gems are lost in the my email's inbox. Thanks!
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For Immediate Release
Contact: Lynda Smith Cowan, (603) 352-2774
Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, will hold a town meeting in Portsmouth, N.H., this Thursday (Aug. 28) in his fifth visit to New Hampshire. His return appearance in the state after last week's appearances in the Monadnock Region marks the beginning of a vigorous campaign in the state before the Jan. 27 primary.
Kucinich will begin his day in Portsmouth with a 3 p.m. press conference at Crossroads House, a homeless shelter at 600 Lafayette Road. Following several private functions throughout the day, Kucinich will open the town meeting at 7 p.m. at South Church Unitarian Universalist, 292 State St.
To demonstrate his support of "Main Street, not Wall Street," the progressive Democrat will spend the night at the Sise Inn, 40 Court St., a locally owned Portsmouth bed and breakfast. The next morning (Aug. 29), Kucinich will greet breakfast diners at various downtown restaurants, followed by lunch with Portsmouth-area Democratic officials. A second press conference at the Dover, N.H., Amtrak station will highlight Kucinich's support of mass transit as an environmental necessity. He'll then board the train for Portland, Maine, where he will speak at a public rally at 4 p.m. at Post Office Park.
As head of the Progressive Caucus in the House of Representatives, Kucinich led the effort against the war in Iraq and now calls for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops, to be replaced by a United Nations peacekeeping force. Kucinich also is the only presidential candidate to call for single-payer, universal health care and free education from pre-kindergarten through college, to be financed by trimming the bloat in the Pentagon budget. To support local, sustainable agriculture, he calls for the breakup of agricultural monopolies, and to better protect workers and the environment, he would cancel the North America Free Trade Agreement.
For more information on the national campaign, visit http://www.kucinich.us.
Additional Contact: Christina Kraich-Rogers; Tel. 603-601-2033
Kucinich for President Committee Seacoast Campaign Coordinator
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Rally with Congressman Dennis Kucinich
Democratic Presidential Candidate
Friday, August 29th at 4:00 p.m.
Post Office Park
Exchange and Middle Streets
Portland, Maine
Reception following the rally at 4:45 p.m. (details to follow)
For reception reservations, call (207) 781-8918 or email barmar@maine.rr.com
Call (207)781-2527 or email to MEHQ@kucinich.us
"You can make a difference."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Kucinich's quest for presidency rooted in his past http://www.morningjournal.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10057135&BRD=1699&PAG=461&dept_id=46371&rfi=6
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
VOTE NOW ON SEPT. 4 MEETUP -- You have until this Thursday, Aug. 28, to vote on your favorite venue for the Sept. 4 MeetUp. Do so now at http://kucinich2004.meetup.com It's easy. There's no better way to meet like-minded neighbors. Already over 9,000 Kucitizens are signed up nationwide. In towns where you are just getting started, make sure that at least five people vote for a venue, or your MeetUp will not happen.
The Kucinich 2004 Meetup has new features, including prompts to join the campaign and links to this new page where you'll find helpful tips:
http://www.kucinich.us/meetup.htm
One item on the agenda for the Sept. 4 MeetUps will be making plans to form chapters at colleges. Why not forward this Email right now to all the college students you know and get this new campaign rolling? How many people can you forward this to?
To learn more about the growing Kucinich campaign: http://kucinich.us
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
One Election One Issue * Dean Hang-Up * MeetUp
19 August 2003
Indeed the wars we've been fighting are creating more "terrorists,"
and making Americans less secure both at home and abroad.
Enver Masud
1) The 2004 Election: One Issue, One Candidate
2) Dennis Kucinich Lights Up Democracy Now!
3) Howard Dean's Constitutional Hang-Up
4) Country getting hit by avalanche of mind-boggling events
5) News for Meeting, Laughing, Singing, & Winning Elections!
Editor's Notes:
The first item by Enver Masud is about the one issue that would benefit America and make peace work for all. Item 2 is another special "Democracy Now!" Amy Goodman interview with Dennis Kucinich. The timing impeccable; lights get turned-back on for WBAI and NYC and there's Amy with Dennis, the former Mayor of Cleveland and leading advocate for responsible public power. Following this article is a link to an essay by Dennis Kucinich on his historic battles to defend the public against energy corporations. Item 3 examines Howard Dean critically? I realize I do have a personal issues or reasons I cannot trust Howard Dean, beyond the points in this article. Governor Dean approved the VT Attorney General's report NOT to conduct independent investigations of the shooting death of my friend, Robert Woodward. Woody was shot by two policemen within a minute of their entering a Church where he sought political sanctuary. I have other questions regarding Dr. Dean that makes me question if he is trustworthy, like on his support for Yucca Mountain and nuclear radiation transport during a time of acts of terror. Why increase potentially dangerous targets? And what is this doctor's prognosis for making healthcare work? His choice counters thousands of medical doctors that want to take profit out of the healthcare system, and for universal coverage. Another question on my issues with Howard Dean is on his support of the death penalty while we live under a broken law enforcement justice system. That's why they call it "JUST US," but trust is created by walking the talk as Dennis so gently pointed out in his interview with Demcoracy Now! but I am biased, I live downwind from the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. What do I know?
Item 5 is ideas on getting involved with the campaign, MeetUp, and information to join Ani DiFranco and Willie Nelson at joint benefit concert performances; plus, a link to a story on George Soros' $10 million to beat Bush; and make sure you check out the story on Kucinich in Minnesota, invoking the legacy of Paul Wellstone.
For Friday's schedule of Dennis Kucinich in Keene NH, plus, new link to Rolling Thunder Democracy Tour "Rocks the Granite State, film and discussion forums, and other updated information, see: Campaigns, Actions, and Events
1) The 2004 Election: One Issue, One Candidate
The 2004 Election: One Issue, One Candidate
by Enver Masud
[Excerpted]
For the vast majority of Americans, there's only one issue in the 2004 election that has the potential for making their life significantly better than it is now: reducing defense spending.
We now have the highest defense budget in our history, it is breaking the national budget, and diverting resources from things Americans want: peace, security, jobs, lower taxes, health care, education, fixing social security, infrastructure development, social services, a better environment, etc. High defense spending is also responsible, indirectly, for increasing government intrusion into our lives. Our democracy itself is at risk..
..While spending on unnecesary weapons, and weapons that we know won't work -- such as missile defense systems -- crowd out $2 trillion, badly needed, capital improvements in the civilian economy, a study by the Defense Department's inspector general found that the Pentagon couldn't properly account for more than a trillion dollars it had spent.
Furthermore, missile defense systems, nuclear weapons, cruise missiles, and traditional armies are hardly the way to fight "terrorism" which many experts say is inspired by our foreign policies. Indeed the wars we've been fighting are creating more "terrorists," and making Americans less secure both at home and abroad.
To justify our massive spending on "defense" our government has to instill fear in Americans, find enemies on whom to focus our military might, and break international laws to attack other countries, thereby, throwing into chaos the entire system of international law without which no country can prosper in this interconnected world.
Now we're spending one billion dollars per week to sustain our occupation of Iraq. We have added 10,000 Iraqi civilians killed and
20,000 wounded to the hundreds of thousands already killed, maimed, or born with birth defects as a result of the first Gulf War, and the subsequent sanctions. This is not winning us many friends in the region, and President Bush has promised us a "war on terror" for years to come.
This "war on terror" will not eradicate "terrorism" -- often this "terrorism" is resistance to some misguided policy of ours. Rather than examine our policy, "terrorism" is used to justify greater defense spending, and to divert spending from those things which will improve Americans' lives.
In his 1961, farewell speech to the nation, President Dwight D. Eisenhower -- former Supreme Commander of the allied forces in France, President of Columbia University, commander of the new NATO forces being assembled in 1951 -- said:
"Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties."
President Eisenhower warned:
"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society."
"In the councils of government, we must guard against
the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought
or unsought, by the military industrial complex.
The potential for the disastrous rise of
misplaced power exists and will persist."
"We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
Only one candidate for president in 2004 has shown the courage to take on the issue of defense spending. He first came to national prominence in 1977 when he was elected mayor of Cleveland at age 31 -- the youngest person ever elected to lead a major American city. As a state senator, and as a U.S. Congressman from Ohio, he has stood for what's right at considerable risk to his own career. He was among a handful of lawmakers who filed suit to stop the Bush administration from going to war with Iraq.
There's only one candidate for president who has the potential to deliver what the vast majority of Americans want: peace, security, jobs, lower taxes, health care, education, fixing social security, infrastructure development, social services, a better environment. That candidate for president of the United States is Mr. Dennis J. Kucinich.
*For the complete article with reference links, see:
http://www.twf.org/News/Y2003/0808-OneIssue.html
# # #
Enver Masud received the Human Rights Foundation Gold Award for his book The War on Islam. He is the founder and CEO of The Wisdom Fund. Website: http://www.twf.org
2) Dennis Kucinich Lights Up Democracy Now!
Transcript
AMY GOODMAN: Here on Democracy Now, the War and Peace Report, I'm Amy Goodman and a very special welcome back to the listeners of WBAI, knocked off the air during the largest blackout in U.S. history. And a very special thank you to the staff of Democracy Now! who managed to make their way in on Friday morning by bike, by car, by foot. I'm not sure if someone took a boat in to broadcast Democracy Now! around the country despite the fact that we had to do it by candlelight and gas generator. Well, power has been restored to tens of millions of people in the northeast after the nation suffered the worst blackout in northeast history. New York City, Cleveland, Detroit, Toronto, Ottawa, among the cities to experience powerlessness. Many energy experts now believe the blackout began in Ohio, where a series of line failures and plant shutdowns spread rapidly across the country. Investigators examining the cause of Thursday's blackout are centering specifically on the company, First Energy, based in Akron, Ohio. The representatives from First Energy say it's too early to determine if its own plant was the problem. The energy firm has had a history of past problems when it formed from a merger of Ohio Edison, Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company and Toledo Edison. In 2001, it acquired General Public Utilities, which owned Pennsylvania Electric, Metropolitan Edison near Redding, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey Central Power and Light. We're going to start off today's program where we look at the problems and the recommendations for solutions with Cleveland Congress member, Dennis Kucinich, also democratic presidential candidate, who has taken on First Energy for years. Welcome to Democracy Now! Congress member Kucinich.
DENNIS KUCINICH: Good morning.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the history of First Energy.
DENNIS KUCINICH: Well, my familiarity comes with one of its predecessor companies, the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, which in the 1970's, according to records on file at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and in hearings before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, actually conducted a campaign, a tireless campaign, to knock Cleveland's own municipally owned electric system out of business. And they did it through many devious ways of stopping MUNI Light from being able to make repairs on its generator by interfering with the city council. By then, the MUNI Light couldn't buy power from other companies outside the state when they needed to do it. Leaving C.E.I. as being the only customer that MUNI could turn to where they then, in some cases, tripled the cost of power in order to run up the municipal system's debt. And the resistance of this campaign was when MUNI Light needed a transfer of power, C.E.I.'s engineers operated in such a way as to deliberately cause on outage on the MUNI system. I mean, this is a company that has operated a nuclear reactor knowing that it was defective. The reactor has a hole in the head, this is the one at port Clinton, Ohio. They have ignored safety precepts. They've basically had the regulators wink at them. And it's just kind of symptomatic to see them being involved in a massive blackout affecting 50 million people.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, they're saying, of course, it's too early to tell that this is where it took place. There was a lot of emphasis on lights out throughout the northeast, particularly New York. Cleveland suffered in many cases the worst situation because it was not only about electricity it was about water as well because of the pumping system, the electric pumping system that you have.
DENNIS KUCINICH: Well, Cleveland did suffer greatly once this outage occurred because the water pumps are run electrically. And every power expert who has looked at this massive blackout has determined that it occurred because of instabilities in the electric power in the First Energy service district. And First Energy has consistently failed to invest in upgrade of equipment. Their emphasis has been on holding onto their cash so that they maintain the fiscal stability of their company while Wall Street is looking at it. I can understand that on the one hand. On the other hand they have laid off personnel that have been involved in maintenance. They have not adequately repaired their transmission lines for the point of where they could hold up under any kind of changes in power. And so, we have a condition right now where a company that has already been under close scrutiny for mismanagement of a nuclear power plant located on Lake Erie, deficiencies in a power plant that came close to creating a breach in the reactor vessel, and which came close to contaminating our lake, Great Water Supply, fresh water for the whole Great Lakes region. This company is now, you know, once again, under scrutiny, and frankly, it ought to be. And in a larger sense, Amy, this is symptomatic of what happens with deregulation.
AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to Congress member Dennis Kucinich, who is now in Iowa, campaigning early for the Iowa primary, who really, you really made your name as both the mayor of Cleveland and recently as taking on utilities, this is one of your priority issues.
DENNIS KUCINICH: Right. Well, you know, the right of utility franchise is vested in the public. People don't always know that. They don't know that the utilities get their permission to operate by having a system set up at a state level, which gives them a permit to operate, franchise, in exchange for service and for a fair rate. Well, what's happened is, as utility monopolies have grown, they have been overcharging people for power and they haven't always had the best service. And we have a condition now where utility monopolies are gaining great power, no pun intended, politically, and are able to set the rules so they can keep growing, and, in effect, no public ability to be able to set the rules. I mean, the growth of Enron was a prime example, where Enron received help from the administration and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, being able to control wholesale markets and drive up the cost of electricity. I mean, what people pay for electricity is no small matter. And the government has a lot to do with whether the price is gonna be fair or not. And, you know, with this whole deregulation that happened ten years ago, we were told that this is going to decrease U.S. energy dependence through increased domestic production and conservation, while that hasn't-you know, we haven't seen the conservation. We were told that if they restructured the electric utility industry, it's going to spur competition. Exactly the opposite happened. And we were told that as they work to ease licensing for nuclear power plants that this is going to work to the American public's benefit. Well, actually, the easing of licensing for nuclear power plants at this point represents a threat to this country because the nuclear power plants that have been re-licensed, and it's more re-licensing than new licensing, have not necessarily been up to safety standard. So you have this whole energy system that needs to be transformed and it needs to be transformed towards renewable energy and sustainable energy and away from nuclear and away from all these non-renewables, where these energy companies right now are just trying to drain these systems, run them into the ground, not make improvements and as a result, you get the kind of exposure to blackouts which occurred last week.
AMY GOODMAN: As you take on the president of this country in your race for president, one of the things that "Newsday" points out in its coverage of the blackout is that the deregulation of the nation's energy industry in the 1990's added many more uncertainties for both traditional utilities and their customers. In the frenzied deregulation atmosphere of the past five years, private investors supported companies building highly efficient gas fired power plants, while traditional investments in the transmission lines and regulated equipment took a back seat. Also says, although Bush's original energy plan called for $6 billion in conservation-related tax breaks, critics say he's favored the needs of big business over conservation efforts. For instance, they say Bush officials in 2001 push to roll back energy efficiency standards for air conditioners, mandated by the year 2006, which would have reduced power demand by 14,000 megawatts, the equivalent of 50 medium sized power plants. The administration called the restrictions anti-competitive.
DENNIS KUCINICH: Well, you, know, here's a great example. When it comes time to conserve, the only thing they're interested in conserving are the profits of the utility industries. Then they will turn around and create a war in the Middle East for the purposes of serving oil interests. This is an administration which is typical of any administration that just serves corporate interests, and it doesn't matter about the future of America. It doesn't matter about the future of our planet. We need right now to take steps in directions of creating a sustainable energy portfolio of, I'd say, at least 20% by the year 2010. We need to move towards not only conservation, but we need to make sure that we [place] incentives [for] the production of wind, solar, hydrogen and geothermal biomass, all of these types of energies that take us away from non-sustainable sources. One of the things that I've learned, there are 23 Indian reservations where if we just harness the wind power that sweeps across the plains we could provide 330,000 megawatts of power that would be half of the U.S. demand. And that would be with wind power.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Congress member Kucinich, in a minute after the break we're going to go to a debate on the issue of deregulation, but I just wanted to ask you, as you're on the presidential campaign trail, you're in Iowa, right now as you for so long have represented the progressive wing of the democratic party, how it feels to be taking on Howard Dean, who is now seen as the major opposition candidate within the democratic party.
DENNIS KUCINICH: Well, you know, if you're going to talk the talk, you've got to walk the walk. And with all due respect to Dr. Dean, a doctor who turns his back on universal healthcare with 8,000 physicians out there favoring it, could hardly be considered progressive. And someone who has taken a position not to reform NAFTA and/or GATT through canceling it and re-instituting bilateral trade based on workers rights, human rights and the environment, you know, there's a question about being progressive. And there's a question about being progressive when you come into a campaign and you support public financing and you turn around and start to equivocate on it because you're worried about keeping pace with the president's fundraising, and that means you can only get your money from heavy corporate contributors. You know, I think as this campaign develops, it will be very clear that I'm offering a real progressive alternative for the American people. And again, if you're going to talk the talk, walk the walk. We'll see where our respective campaigns continue to walk and run as we move through these next few months of the campaign. And I'm quite confident that as that happens, I'm going to be gaining increased support, and this campaign will be there to provide a real alternative to the American people, not a series of head fakes in the direction of progressivism for the crowds, and then after that after the campaign events are over you go back to this kind of approach to centrism which only blurs the differences between the parties, causes people to become disillusioned, and results in people not turning out on election day.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Congress member, Dennis Kucinich, thank you for being with us. Congress member Kucinich is from Cleveland, which experienced some of, really, the worst affects of the blackout over the last days. Thanks for being with us.
The entire transcript is posted:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/18/1418203#transcript
To purchase an audio or video copy of this entire program,
call 1 (800) 881-2359.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
To read Dennis' essay on his historic battles
to defend the public against energy corporations, see:
http://kucinich.us/powertothepeople.htm
3) Howard Dean's Constitutional Hang-Up
Howard Dean's Constitutional Hang-Up
Dean Would Rather Execute an Innocent Man,
Than Let a Guilty One Walk Free
by Josh Frank
Dissident Voice
August 16, 2003
As Governor of Vermont, Howard Dean openly claimed that the legal system unfairly benefited criminal defendants over prosecutors. He even took measures to cut federal grant money aimed at helping mentally disabled defendants--as well as appointing state judges who were willing to undermine the Bill of Rights. In a 1997 interview with the Vermont News Bureau, Howard Dean admitted his desire to expedite the judicial process by using such justices to "quickly convict guilty criminals." He wanted individuals that would deem "common sense more important than legal technicalities." Constitutional protections (legal technicalities) apparently undermine Dean's yearning for speedy trials.
Perhaps he was looking to make Vermont more like George Bush's Texas, where defense lawyers are renowned for lacking the resources necessary to provide their clients a fair representation..
..If elected will Dean attempt to make the United State's a country in which citizens have access to neither a fair trial, nor adequate counsel? A country where constitutional rights are viewed as "technicalities," worthy of death?
Time to start asking some serious questions.
# # #
For the complete article, see:
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles7/Frank_Dean-Death-Penalty.htm
-----------------------------------------------------------
Josh Frank is a journalist living in New York City. His work appears frequently in Impact Press and online at Counterpunch. He can be reached at frank_joshua@hotmail.com.
4) Country getting hit by avalanche of mind-boggling events
What will they think of next?
Country getting hit by avalanche of mind-boggling events
Molly Ivins, Creators Syndicate.
Chicago Tribune
August 14, 2003
Molly Ivins is a syndicated columnist based in Austin, Texas
DUBLIN, N.H. -- What a summer for national credulity fitness. My credulity gets a lot of exercise, since I cover Texas politics. Like Alice in Wonderland's White Queen, years of practice have enabled me to believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast. But here we are with a perfect feast of mind-bogglers, everyone's credulity stretching and straining in a giant national workout session.
Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor of California. Well, sure, I can handle that one. Manna from heaven for political humorists of all stripes. I'm afraid the joke will begin to wear thin, however. I know we all like to make fun of California as the epicenter of nuttiness, but in fact that big, beautiful state is in terrible trouble. A $36 billion deficit is not amusing. Teachers are being fired, programs to help the most helpless--the oldest, the youngest, the most frail--are being cut..
For the complete article, see:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/oped/chi-0308140130aug14,1,7439936.story
5) News for Meeting, Laughing, Singing, & Winning Elections!
Dennis is the guest on Thursday night's "Daily Show with Jon Stewart"
on Comedy Central at 11pm (10pm central). Spread the word.
SING & DANCE
Join Ani DiFranco and Willie Nelson at benefit concerts for Kucinich:
Willie in Des Moines on Sept 1; Ani & Willie in Cleveland on Sept 6.
For details on the concerts or to buy your tickets or to learn how
your activism can make these concerts a success:
http://www.kucinich.us/willienelson.htm#tickets
MEETUP
Planning for the Sept 4th Kucinich MeetUp is underway. Sign up at
http://kucinich2004.meetup.com and meet fellow peace and justice
activists in your town on the first Thursday of every month.
Please promote your local MeetUp in community calendar sections of local newspapers, on radio stations and local websites, and contact friendly journalists to get coverage or feature stories on our MeetUp efforts. For tips on promotion and how MeetUp locations are chosen, see http://kucinich2004.meetup.com/notebook/1877
PS. The campaign suggests voting for the agenda item: "Make plans to promote the creation of chapters at colleges as soon as students return." That topic is key for Sept 4.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Billionaire Commits $10M to Defeat Bush
Billionaire Commits $10M to Defeat Bush
By SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press Writer
Fri Aug 8, 4:39 PM ET
WASHINGTON - Making a major foray into partisan politics, multi-billionaire George Soros is committing $10 million to a new Democratic-leaning group aimed at defeating President Bush next year.
For the complete article, see:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030808/ap_on_el_pr/soros_pac
In Minnesota Visit, Kucinich Invokes the Legacy of Wellstone
Despite 90 degree temperatures on a Saturday night, 800 people packed a hall in Saint Paul (MN) to bask in the warmth of Dennis Kucinich's vision for this nation and the world. "In a pre-rally news conference, Kucinich was quick to invoke the name of the late Paul Wellstone," the only Senator who was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, chaired by Kucinich. "Kucinich says he mentions Wellstone not out of opportunism, but because he's the only one running a true Wellstone-type progressive campaign." Kucinich clarified, "Paul Wellstone would support the 15-percent reduction in Pentagon spending that I've talked about. Paul Wellstone would support the repeal NAFTA and the WTO. Paul Wellstone stood for so many progressive ideas that are congenial to who I am."
For the complete article, see:
http://news.mpr.org/features/2003/08/16_helmsm_kucinich/
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
WMD Friendly Fire * Wolf&Dennis * Reality Check
12 August 2003
1) CIA and DoD Attempted To Plant WMDs in Iraq and Failed
2) CNN's Wolf Blitzer and Dennis Kucinich Transcript
- - A Political Reality Check for California's Political Circus
3) Bush Orders Iraqi Oil as Province' of US Corporations
- - American Troops in Iraq React to Big Brother
- - Articles from Truthout.org - Iraq War Overview
Editor's Notes:
Usually powerhouse and controversial articles such as the one posted in item 1, which is a real mind blower, gets forwarded widely over the Internet. Yet except for a posting on the kucinich4president list serve, [thanks Danny] I barely have seen this information. The author for the article, Al Martin, may be familiar with long term Flyby News readers. We posted his tongue in cheek keen perspective on "Double Take Missile Fraud" and have linked to his web site www.almartinraw.com . Al Martin is a retired US Navy Lt. Commander and former officer in the Office of Naval Intelligence, and is respected as one of America's foremost whistle-blower on government fraud and corruption. His book "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran-Contra Insider" explains the interaction of criminal corporate and government networks. In this item's July 2003 article, Al Martin gives an astonishing report on the CIA and DoD's attempt to plant weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which failed, due to "friendly fire!"
Item 2 is another crystal clear response by Dennis Kucinich in his interview with Wolf Blitzer last Sunday on CNN. Dennis responds to questions on his campaign, the deception and war in Iraq, and on the California recall election. His response on the latter issue concurs with the assessment of Michael Ruppert. In Ruppert's article, also posted this item, he recommends another resource, [web site: www.whereisthemoney.org ] which shows details on the Enron-style looting of the US Treasury and what it means to you personally.'
Item 3 is another whopper. This points out that George W. Bush, selected President of the US, has issued Executive Order 13303, which "..unilaterally declares Iraqi oil to be the unassailable province of U.S. corporations." The rest of this item summarizes the US soldier and Iraqi's situation in a hell created under false pretenses.
On August 11th I had the honor again of personally meeting Presidential Candidate, Dennis Kucinich. He came to the grand opening of his first campaign office in New England, in Manchester NH. The place was overflowing with enthusiasm, ideals, good people, love, creative directions for an answer to these dark times we are living through. Dennis pointed out the key components of his platform, and what makes him different from any other candidate. He is unafraid to stand up to the influences of corporate-military governments sucking away the life-essence for human rights and dignity. He repeated his message to confront and transform waste in the Pentagon's bloated budget to provide healthcare for all Americans, education, employment opportunities, and other practical measures to represent people before corporate or corrupt-fear-driven interests.
A Northeast Regional gathering for volunteers of Dennis Kucinich will be meeting in Manchester, NH at the campaign office (913 Elm Street, on Sunday August 24. Flyby News will be reporting more on this, and another Dennis Kucinich presentation in southwestern NH in the Monadnock region on August 22nd. The volunteers of Vermont, Maine, and Massachusetts are forming a keen collaboration in support of this first primary state for the nomination of Dennis Kucinich for President of the US. As Dennis said, he is right on time!
Please join this campaign for transformation from darkness to light, from hopelessness to hope, from corruption to a new day.
www.kucinich.us
1) CIA and DoD Attempted To Plant WMDs in Iraq and Failed
CIA and DoD Attempted To Plant WMDs in Iraq and Failed
July 2, 2003
Pentagon Whistleblower Reveals CIA/DoD Fiascos
According to a stunning report posted by a retired Navy Lt. Commander and 28-year veteran of the Defense Department, the Bush administration's assurance about finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was based on a CIA plan to "plant" WMDs inside the country. Nelda Rogers, the Pentagon whistleblower, claims the plan failed when the secret mission was mistakenly taken out by "friendly fire."
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2003/06/266752.shtml
A DoD whistleblower details an attempt by a covert US team to plant weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The team was later killed by friendly fire due to CIA incompetence. In a world exclusive, Al Martin Raw.com [ www.almartinraw.com/ ] has published a news story about a Department of Defense whistleblower who has revealed that a US covert-operations team had planted "Weapons of Mass Destruction" (WMDs) in Iraq, then "lost" them when the team was killed by so-called "friendly fire."
The Pentagon whistleblower, Nelda Rogers, is a 28-year veteran debriefer for the Defense Department. She has become so concerned for her safety that she decided to tell the story about this latest CIA-military fiasco in Iraq. According to Al Martin Raw.com, "Ms. Rogers is number two in the chain of command within this DoD special intelligence office. This is a ten-person debriefing unit within the central debriefing office for the Department of Defense."
The information that is being leaked out is information "obtained while she was in Germany heading up the debriefing of returning service personnel, involved in intelligence work in Iraq for the Department of Defense and/or the Central Intelligence Agency. "According to Ms. Rogers, there was a covert military operation that took place both preceding and during the hostilities in Iraq," reports Al Martin Raw.com, an online subscriber-based news/analysis service which provides "Political, Economic and Financial Intelligence."
Al Martin is a retired Lt. Commander (US Navy), the author of a memoir called "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran-Contra Insider, " and he is considered one of America's foremost experts on corporate and government fraud. Ms. Rogers reports that this particular covert operation team was manned by ex-military personnel and that "the unit was paid through the Department of Agriculture in order to hide it, which is also very commonplace."
According to Al Martin Raw.com, "the Ag Department has often been used as a paymaster on behalf of the CIA, DIA, and NSA and others." According to the Al Martin Raw.com story, another aspect of Ms. Rogers' report concerns a covert operation which was to locate the assets of Saddam Hussein and his family, including cash, gold bullion, jewelry and assorted valuable antiquities.
The problem became evident when "the operation in Iraq involved 100 people, all of whom apparently are now dead, having succumbed to so-called `friendly fire.' The scope of this operation included the penetration of the Central Bank of Iraq, other large commercial banks in Baghdad, the Iraqi National Museum and certain presidential palaces where monies and bullion were secreted."
"They identified about $2 billion of cash in US dollars, another $150 million in Euros, in physical banknotes, and about another $100 million in sundry foreign currencies ranging from Yen to British Pounds," reports Al Martin.
"These people died, mostly in the same place in Baghdad, supposedly from a stray cruise missile or a combination of missiles and bombs that went astray," Martin continues. "There were supposedly 76 who died there and the other 24 died through a variety of 'friendly fire,' 'mistaken identity,' and some of them---their whereabouts are simply unknown." Ms. Rogers' story sounds like an updated 21st-Century version of Treasure Island meets Ali Baba and the Bush Cabal Thieves, writes Martin.
"This was a contingent of CIA/ DoD operatives, but it was really the CIA that bungled it," Ms. Rogers said. "They were relying on the CIA's ability to organize an effort to seize these assets and to be able to extract these assets because the CIA claimed it had resources on the ground within the Iraqi army and the Iraqi government who had been paid. That turned out to be completely bogus. As usual."
"CIA people were supposed to be handling it," Martin continues. "They had a special `black (unmarked) aircraft to fly it out. But none of that happened because the regular US Army showed up, stumbled onto it and everyone involved had to scramble.
These new Iraqi "Asset Seizures" go directly to the New US Ruling Junta. The US Viceroy in Iraq Paul Bremer is reportedly drinking Saddam Hussein's $2000 a bottle Napoleon-era brandy, smoking his expensive Davidoff cigars and he has even furnished his Baghdad office with Saddam's Napoleon-era antique furniture.
The Iraq Debacle Du Jour has evidently been extensively documented by the DIA debriefing teams with "extensive tape recordings of interviews with the Iraqi returnees, the covert operatives (as well as their affidavits)." Al Martin Raw.com has dubbed this "Operation Skim Iraq."
www.almartinraw.com
www.envirosagainstwar.org/edit/index.php?op=view&itemid=331
2) CNN's Wolf Blitzer and Dennis Kucinich Transcript
- - A Political Reality Check for California's Political Circus
CNN - 10 August 2003 Wolf Blitzer - Dennis Kucinich Transcript
Congressman Kucinich, welcome to LATE EDITION.
Are you in enemy territory right now?
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH (D-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Not at all. I consider Texas very friendly territory, and Austin in particular. I expect to have a well-organized campaign in Texas, as well as 34 other states that we're now organizing in.
BLITZER: I want to talk about your campaign, but briefly, I'd like to get your assessment of what's happening in California, because, as you know, political trends that often start in California spread around the country, including Ohio, among other places.
What is your read on this recall? Do you hope that Governor Davis is going to be recalled?
KUCINICH: Well, I do not support the recall. I think the recall is destructive. It is going to cost California heavily. It is going to cost them not only in their bond rating but in the distraction from the major concerns which Californians have.
I mean, look at it this way. California got into economic trouble, among other reasons, because of the Bush-Enron corruption, which resulted in energy prices going through the roof. So Gray Davis, in effect, is paying for George Bush's sins.
We need to have some stability in all governments, and I think that we also need to know what the truth is about how California got into this situation in which it is. And I don't think that anyone can lay that squarely in Gray Davis's lap.
BLITZER: Well, when you say corruption, Bush-Cheney corruption, are you accusing the president and the vice president of the United States of being corrupt, in terms of the problems that Enron had?
KUCINICH: Absolutely I am. There's no question that this administration was in bed with Ken Lay. They've covered up all the meetings that deal with energy policy.
They allowed Enron, to in effect, run the energy policy of this country, to be able to grow and grow, to capture wholesale markets, to put the country in a position -- and California particularly -- where the cost of electricity went up by a factor of four and five. California hard to borrow money to pay the electric bill. California still remains in trouble because of Enron.
You know what? We never had a chance to talk about Enron in the last election because the administration knew it was in trouble, they shifted the discussion to war. And now we find out there was no basis to go to war.
BLITZER: Why is your campaign having such a struggle trying to get off the ground? I'll tell you -- I'll show you these numbers that we've had in one of our most recent polls, the CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll. If you look at all the nine declared Democratic presidential candidates, you are basically at the bottom right now, 2 percent, even below Al Sharpton.
It doesn't look like your campaign has generated any excitement, at least nationwide among registered Democrats.
KUCINICH: Well, let's start with Iowa, for example. I mean, I'm running ahead of Bob Graham in Iowa. I'm statistically tied with John Edwards in Iowa. So we're starting to move up.
The poll, I think, reflects national name recognition. I have some work to do, it's very clear. But with a 6-percent plus-or- minus margin of error, that means I'm either 8 percent nationally, or 4 percent of the people deny that I even exist.
So, at any rate, I think that our campaign, which is grassroots- oriented, is starting to percolate. We're gaining some excitement.
And the fact that I come from Ohio with 19 electoral votes and have shown a real ability to win votes in Republican areas in Ohio, I think is going to become increasingly attractive to people who want a real choice in this election.
BLITZER: But look at Howard Dean. He comes from Vermont, a much smaller state than Ohio. Virtually no name recognition. He has raised $10 million. You've raised but a fraction of that. Why has he managed to get himself on the cover of Newsweek and Time magazine, for example, and you're still struggling to break out from obscurity?
KUCINICH: Well, I think we have to, first of all, congratulate him for the success that he's had.
However, he's been out there more than a year ahead of my campaign. And I think that as my campaign begins to develop, we're going to be able to attract some of the people who now, currently, feel that Howard Dean is the only alternative.
I mean, my campaign offers a true progressive alternative on trade. I'm the only candidate willing to come forward and say I'll cancel NAFTA and the WTO. On health care, the only candidate who is willing to say, look, the private sector has failed, the market has failed, we've got to go to universal single-payer health care, Medicare for all.
The candidate who's ready to challenge the bloated Pentagon budget, which, as you may know, Wolf, there's a trillion dollars in accounts they can't reconcile in the Pentagon. I'll save the taxpayers money, cut the Pentagon budget by 15 percent. That's $60 billion we can put into education and other programs.
So, as I define the differences, it will be very clear to the American people that I'm offering a true alternative, a progressive alternative. And frankly, it's only that kind of alternative which will motivate people to come to vote not only in Democratic primaries, but to give the American people a real choice versus this administration in November of 2004.
BLITZER: You were one of the early opponents of a war against Iraq, going way back, many, many months. But even in the most recent CNN poll, CNN-USA Today-Gallup Poll, look at this, 63 percent of the American public still think it was worth going to war in Iraq. You're still way in the minority position, presumably not only nationwide, but even among Democrats.
Are you rethinking your stance, as far as getting rid of Saddam Hussein?
KUCINICH: Well, you know, we can't measure truth by polls, because the American people didn't have all the information back then when -- and still today, as they're giving their opinion.
The fact of the matter is that there is no evidence that ever linked Iraq to 9/11, to al Qaeda's role in 9/11, to the anthrax attack on this country. Iraq did not have any usable weapons of mass destruction, and it didn't have the intention or the capability of attacking this country.
Now what we're finding out is that the administration took steps to make the American people believe that Iraq constituted an imminent threat, and the administration hyped a nuclear threat, and there was no proof of it.
I think as the American people learn that, the spell of fear which is on this country will be broken, and it's that truth that will help break the fear.
And when that happens, my candidacy, which comes from not only the heartland in Ohio, but comes from the heart of this country, my candidacy will begin to emerge powerfully, because I've told the truth, because I've been able to let the American people know what's really going on. And they want a president who is not only going to be candid and direct, but a president who is going to lead away from unnecessary wars toward peace, toward prosperity.
That's what I represent, Wolf, and I'm confident people are going to respond to that kind of a campaign.
BLITZER: But don't you think the region is better off right now without Saddam Hussein in charge of Baghdad and Iraq than it was before the war?
KUCINICH: Well, no one's ever made a case for Saddam Hussein's staying, but the problem is, you know, does the end justify the means? I mean, this administration did not tell the American...
BLITZER: Well, that's the question. Does the end, getting rid of Saddam Hussein, his Baath Party, the Saddam Fedayeen, all the elements that tyrannized Iraq for so many decades, doesn't that justify the means?
KUCINICH: Is it worth 259 American lives? No. As a matter of fact, we have to recognize that this administration took this country to war saying that there was an imminent threat and that Iraq had nuclear capability. That has proven to be a lie.
They didn't take us into war in order to create regime change, because if that's the policy of this country, we're going to be very busy looking at regime change in North Korea, in Iran, in Syria and any place this administration feels it ought to.
We have to work with the world community in order to achieve international security, and that's where the mistake was made. We should have worked with the United Nations, we should have continued the weapons inspections.
And it's unfortunate, the administration took us into war, and now they're changing the reason why we went to war. They didn't take us into war so that we could get rid of Saddam Hussein, they took us in to get rid of nuclear weapons.
BLITZER: Let me ask you about a novel proposal you came up with the other day, a creation of a Department of Peace here in Washington. Among other things, you write this, you said, "Of peace, wherein we all may tap the infinite capabilities of humanity to transform consciousness and conditions that impel or compel violence at a personal, group or national level, toward creating understanding, compassion and love."
What are you proposing, actually, by calling for the creation of a department, a federal bureaucracy of peace?
KUCINICH: Well, the same thing that Martin Luther King was talking about years ago when he talked about making nonviolence an organizing principle in our society, to create programs where we teach our children peace-giving and peace-sharing and mutuality and identifying the other person as oneself, where we learn that violence isn't inevitable.
We look at the challenges of domestic violence, spousal abuse, child abuse, gangs in the schools, the problems that exist in racial violence, violence against gays.
I mean, our society has potential to evolve, and I think people want a leader who recognizes the power the American people have to continue this challenge we were given by our founders to create a more perfect union.
On an international level, the Department of Peace aspires to work with the world community to get away from war, to make war archaic. We have to believe in our capacity to create a world which has the ability to survive. And I'll tell you, Wolf, policies of unilateralism, preemption, of nuclear first-strike, building new nuclear weapons, putting weapons in space, building missile shields that contemplate World War III, take us away from the kind of peace which the American people are ready for.
We can achieve peace working with the world community, cooperating internationally. The Department of Peace built on a vision of people who for the longest time have believed that America has this great capacity to be able to not only improve itself, but to take us in a direction that's sustainable.
BLITZER: Congressman Dennis Kucinich wants to be president of the United States. We'll continue to cover your campaign.
Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.
KUCINICH: Thank you very much, Wolf.
www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/auto/epaper/editions/today/metro_state_f353de6c0662919600cd.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - A Political Reality Check for California's Political Circus
by Michael Ruppert
A New Interactive Web Site Hits You in the Face Over the Enron-Style Looting of the US Treasury and What It Means to You Personally
August 8, 2003, 1200 PDT, (FTW) -- Wholesale Enron-style looting of US taxpayer money on a scale that threatens the stability and safety of every American has prompted an historic alliance between activism, technology, and financial expertise. A new interactive web site, www.whereisthemoney.org now makes real, on a local level selected by each user, the enormous amounts of money that have been stolen from the US Treasury. It also makes clear that most of our current problems---from energy shortages, to federal, state and local budget deficits, to needed infrastructure changes---could be addressed if the US government and private corporations like Lockheed-Martin and CSC-DynCorp were held accountable for their mishandling of taxpayer money.
The web site is a collaborative project between three disciplines as represented by its creators:
Former Assistant Housing Secretary and past Managing Director of Dillon Read, Catherine Austin Fitts, http://www.solari.com
Henri Poole, President of Affero, Inc. http://www.affero.com and board member of The Free Software Foundation http://www.fsf.org
Brad De Graff of The Venture Collective http://www.venturecollective.com
The importance of the issue, and why it must be injected into every political debate from now on, is dramatically emphasized by the political circus unfolding in California which has been sparked by massive budget deficits, not all of which are attributable to political mismanagement. If such a belief were true, then California would be the only state facing such crises. Instead, we see a nation sinking under red ink while trillions of our dollars are missing.
Candidates in the California recall race (and every American political contest) must be held accountable for this unconscionable theft of taxpayer money. This new web site makes it possible for every American to relate cooked government books and stolen money to the quality of life in their home state and to translate that loss into what it means in terms of education, health care and energy issues. The site also includes an interactive electronic petition where the American people can put their feet down and demand accountability, which is both their right and obligation under the Constitution.
It is not a case where the people "can" make the politicians listen. It is a case where the people "must" make the politicians change.
The "whereisthemoney" web site makes a point of the cost of conversion of oil- powered vehicles to natural gas. FTW must emphasize that irreversible natural gas shortages in North America and worldwide make such a move both impossible and inadvisable. But, as a teaching point, the figures are astounding. This example highlights the money that might be available to develop biodiesel fuels or to facilitate the essential infrastructure changes required to develop, for example, hybrid and solar technologies that will soften the growing impact and reality of Peak Oil and Gas. These challenges are only going to get worse.
What is so amazing about this web site is that its head-spinning, rolling dollar counters, adjustable for all 50 states, focus on only about $1.5 trillion of missing taxpayer money and do not include an additional $2.3 trillion in money admittedly "missing" from the Pentagon for FY 1999.
Asked why the site did not include the additional $2.3 trillion in DoD funds, Fitts replied, "We wanted to use a number from an administration cross-over year where it was absolutely clear that this was a bi-partisan issue rather than something that could be dismissed or buried as the fault of only one party rather than a system. The figures, as presented, are amazing enough and they present a challenge to lawmakers at every level that cannot be dodged by pointing the finger at someone else."
Be prepared for an eye-opening experience when you visit:
http://www.whereisthemoney.org
Copyright 2003, From The Wilderness Publications,
http://www.copvcia.com.
All Rights Reserved. May be reprinted, distributed or posted on an Internet web site for non-profit purposes only.
3) Bush Orders Iraqi Oil as Province' of US Corporations
- - American Troops in Iraq React to Big Brother
- - Articles from Truthout.org - Iraq War Overview
Executive Order 13303:
Bush Orders Iraqi Oil as Province' of US Corporations
"Bush's order unilaterally declares Iraqi oil to be the unassailable province of U.S. corporations."
Executive Order 13303 states categorically that "any attachment, judgment, decree, lien, execution, garnishment, or other judicial process is prohibited, and shall be deemed null and void," with respect to the Development Fund for Iraq and "all Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products, and interests therein."
If ExxonMobil ChevronTexaco remove Iraqi oil, they will be immune from legal proceedings in the U.S.. Anything goes wrong where U.S. corporate oil operations are in play and they will be immune to any legal judgment. An oil tanker accident; an explosion at an oil refinery; pipelines destroyed, etc., "the President, with a stroke of the pen, signed away the rights of Saddam's victims, creditors and of the next true Iraqi government to be compensated through legal action. Bush's order unilaterally declares Iraqi oil to be the unassailable province of U.S. corporations. (Ibid.) In their closing argument the two authors make their point as well as I could ever have done:
In the short term, through the Development Fund and the Export-Import Bank programs, the Iraqi peoples' oil will finance U.S. corporate entrees into Iraq. In the long term, Executive Order 13303 protects anything those corporations do to seize control of Iraq's oil, from the point of production to the gas pump - and places oil companies above the rule of law.
It should be noted that Mr. Bush signed the EO less than three weeks after declaring a coalition victory and secession of all hostilities. We know he was dead wrong about the first; I would suggest this scam to protect U.S. monopoly corporate interests will be challenged not only in the courts, no matter that Bush has already declared all claims null and void, but challenged in blood for decades to come!
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Special%20Reports%20Hack.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=18&rnd=901.1670530075462
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - American Troops in Iraq React to Big Brother
"Rumsfeld is an arrogant asshole. That's a quote, by the way."
Colonel David Hackworth
"The soldiers know the traffic is being monitored by the Pentagon, that Big Brother is monitoring everything they write. But still my sources keep coming from Afghanistan and Iraq. I very seldom get direct sources -- remember before we deployed, they [soldiers] were at home and could send e-mail from personal Yahoo accounts, now they have to use military accounts and are paranoid that these are being read. The [direct] traffic I get now are from guys who don't give a fuck, who are not going to stay in [the military], who don't give a shit about the consequences of sounding off. But remember -- you can never outsmart a convict in prison or a soldier on the battlefield. They both live by their wits, so what they do is write home and say "Hey dad I love you, we are having a few problems with tanks, etc. If this letter should happen to find itself into the e-mail of Hackworth at www.Hackworth.com it wouldn't disappoint me." I am getting 30 to 40 of these letters.
American troops in Iraq are complaining of basics like clean clothes, hot food and mail from home. Is there anything wrong with the Pentagon's famous supply chain? This goes back to the shitty estimate on the part of Rumsfeld. He did not provide enough troops or the logistical backup, because his Army was not staying, it was coming home. So who needs a warehouse full of shit? "
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0805-09.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Articles from Truthout.org - Iraq War Overview
Soldiers Emails | Bring Us Home
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/081103A.shtml
Family Shot Dead by Panicking US Troops
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/081103B.shtml
For more resources see http://www.truthout.org
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Media Nix to Blix, Kucinich, and Dixie Chicks
09 August 2003
1) "MEDIA NIX TO BLIX, KUCINICH AND DIXIE CHICKS"
2) Kucinich Campaign Update
- - Lessig's Blog
- - Dennis J. Kucinich endorses Campaign Reform and IRV
- - Kucinich NH Campaign Headquarters Grand Opening
- - Kucinich Stirs Union Activists
- - Huge MeetUp, Iran Policy Statement, Dennis Media Events
3) Greg Palast: WAMY and Saudi funding of terror
Editor's Notes:
This is another important issue with time related information in the quickly passing post Cassini flyby era. Item 1 is one cool article from The American Reporter, "MEDIA NIX TO BLIX, KUCINICH AND DIXIE CHICKS." That title describes the sad fate of current media-political controls, but this won't last forever.
Item 2 is an update on the Kucinich campaign, including the opening of the first field office in New England this Monday in Manchester, NH. To counter-act media controls, Flyby News recommends your actions in viewing and sharing 3 films with discussions for an awareness-producing forum to reclaim a rapidly disappearing US democracy. (1) "The Peace Candidate" is an intimate look at the most qualified and inspirational American leader to emerge in decades. In the film, we see Dennis Kucinich captivating, inspiring, and energizing audiences by discussing crucial issues in a way which actually provides hope for the future of our planet. (2) "What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World," is a film compilation by Frank Dorrel that documents CIA covert operations and US interventions since World War II. (3) "A Prayer for America" is from a speech given by Dennis Kucinich to the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action, on February 17, 2002. These films together unravel a story of heroic proportions, and you can join in this production. This campaign of grassroots needs everyone possible to choose the best person for the job in transforming an incredibly dangerous US government. Dennis Kucinich is the only candidate running for President that voted against the Patriot Act. He offers a whole new direction for national and world security with principles and ideals embodied in the US Constitution. For more on this film/discussion program, see CAMPAIGNS * ACTIONS & EVENTS or go to the link == > Kucinich-Democracy Films -- Make a Difference!.
Item 3 is an excellent article from Greg Palast offering his explanation of the containment' of information related to the Saudi-US relations regarding the 9-11 attacks
1) "MEDIA NIX TO BLIX, KUCINICH AND DIXIE CHICKS"
(Volume 9, No. 2152)
The American Reporter August 5, 2003
MEDIA NIX TO BLIX, KUCINICH AND DIXIE CHICKS
by Norman Solomon
American Reporter Correspondent
Washington, D.C.
WASHINGTON -- Hans Blix, Dennis Kucinich and the Dixie Chicks are in very different lines of work -- but they're in the same line of fire from big media for the sin of strongly challenging the president's war agenda.
Let's start with Blix, who can get respectful coverage in American media -- unless he's criticizing the U.S. government. Belatedly, in mid-April, he went public with accusations that the Bush administration faked evidence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. And Blix declared that the United Nations - not the U.S. government - should deploy arms inspectors in Iraq now.
But presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer retorted"I think it's unfortunate if Hans Blix would in any way criticize the United States at this juncture." The White House message was clear - and it reached the media echo chamber.
So, on the April 22 edition of CNN's "Moneyline" program, host Lou Dobbs (with an American flag pin in his lapel) summed up a news report this way"Blix appearing for all the world to look like a petulant U.N. bureaucrat about a month to go before his retirement."
Mainstream U.S. reporters rarely apply an adjective like "petulant" to petulant administration officials like, say, Ari Fleischer. But then again, Fleischer doesn't challenge U.S. foreign policy. Dennis Kucinich does. The four-term U.S. representative from Ohio is now running for the Democratic presidential nomination. And some media pundits find his anti-war views outrageous.
A few weeks before President Bush launched an undeclared war on Iraq, "liberal" Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen declared his own war on Kucinich. The main trigger for Cohen's wrath was that the member of Congress had dared to identify oil as "the strongest incentive" for the impending war.
Cohen claimed to be shocked shocked shocked. The first word of his column was "liar." From there, the Post columnist peppered his piece with references to Kucinich as an "indomitable demagogue" and a "fool" who was "repeating a lie."
But Cohen would have done well to re-read a front page of his own newspaper. Five months earlier, on Sept. 15, a page-one Post report carried the headline "In Iraqi War Scenario, Oil Is Key Issue; U.S. Drillers Eye Huge Petroleum Pool." In the article, Ahmed Chalabi, the leader of the U.S.-backed Iraqi National Congress, said that he favored the creation of a U.S.-led consortium to develop oil fields in a post-Saddam Iraq "American companies will have a big shot at Iraqi oil."
The same Post article quoted former CIA Director James Woolsey - a Chalabi supporter who, according to a Legal Times story, has been on the payroll of Chalabi's group. Woolsey said: "France and Russia have oil companies and interests in Iraq. They should be told that if they are of assistance in moving Iraq toward decent government, we'll do the best we can to ensure that the new government and American companies work closely with them. If they throw in their lot with Saddam, it will be difficult to the point of impossible to persuade the new Iraqi government to work with them."
As many business pages have long highlighted, it's actually quite reasonable to identify oil as key to U.S. policy toward Iraq. But such talk from a presidential candidate causes some people to become incensed. That hardly makes Kucinich a "liar." On the contrary, it simply makes him a pariah in the media realms patrolled by the likes of Richard Cohen.
Similar media gendarmes are on patrol over the airwaves. The giant corporate owner of more than 1,200 radio stations, Clear Channel, syndicates talk radio host Glenn Beck to scores of stations nationwide -- and Beck is enraged about Kucinich. Days before the all-out war on Iraq began, Beck discussed spontaneous combustion and then said: "Every night I get down on my knees and pray that Dennis Kucinich will burst into flames."
Beck has been a chief on-air organizer of de facto pro-war rallies promoted by Clear Channel, a monopolistic corporation with close ties to President Bush. Those rallies included vilification of the Dixie Chicks, a country music group that earned the wrath of hyper-patriots several weeks ago when lead singer Natalie Maines, a Texan, said she was ashamed to be from the same state as Bush.
While the controversy did not do much harm to sales of their music, the Dixie Chicks have suffered a sharp drop in air play. Most fans don't seem to mind the anti-war sentiment, but some radio industry executives sure do. "What's clear is that in these days of highly concentrated media ownership," says the Chicago area's Daily Herald, "there is an immense amount of pressure to not make waves."
In a new statement that voiced support for the Dixie Chicks as "terrific American artists expressing American values by using their American right to free speech," rocker Bruce Springsteen condemned "the pressure coming from the government and big business to enforce conformity of thought concerning the war and politics."
Being a dissenter from conventional wisdom has always involved risks - but rarely have major media powerhouses in the United States been so eager to dismiss thoughtful opinions with the wave of a patriotic wand.
Norman Solomon is co-author of "Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You." For an excerpt and other information, go to: http://www.contextbooks.com/new.html#target
Copyright 2003 Joe Shea The American Reporter.
http://www.american-reporter.com/2152/117.html
2) Kucinich Campaign Update
- - Lessig's Blog
- - Dennis J. Kucinich endorses Campaign Reform and IRV
- - Kucinich NH Campaign Headquarters Grand Opening
- - Kucinich Stirs Union Activists
- - Huge MeetUp, Iran Policy Statement, Dennis Media Events
- - Lessig's Blog
The Kucinich campaign recently announce that Dennis has been invited to guest-blog on Lawrence Lessig's site next week! Lawrence Lessig is a noted author and professor of law at Stanford -- his blog is considered one of the most thoughtful provoking sites for legal and technology policy discussions on the Internet. Dennis is particularly excited to contribute to this grassroots forum, and has a special interest in many of the issues covered on Lessig's blog, including those dealing with privacy, law, technology, and the rights of consumers.
Date: Monday 8/11 until Friday 8/15
Location: http://lessig.org/blog/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Dennis J. Kucinich endorses Campaign Reform and IRV
Dennis J. Kucinich endorses Campaign Reform and IRV, see:
see: http://www.fairvote.org/index.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich NH Campaign Headquarters Grand Opening
11 August 2003 9:00 A.M.
Dear Friends, Volunteers and Political Activists:
On behalf of the Kucinich for President Campaign, I cordially invite you to join Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich, in person, on Monday, August 11, at 9 am for an exciting event, the
Gala Grand Opening of the Kucinich NH Campaign Headquarters
2nd floor, 913 Elm Street, Manchester, NH.
Come shake the hand of the next President of the United States, the candidate of the people; hear his positions on the major issues, ask questions, meet staff and regional volunteers, pick up campaign material and, if you haven't already, sign up to work with us. Bring your friends and colleagues. Please circulate this announcement to your email lists.
For additional information, please contact
603-781-7215 or Trevor@Kucinich.us
Trevor Elkins,
New England Coordinator
Kucinich for President Campaign
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Please note:
Dennis Kucinich will be on National Public Radio at 7:30 AM, 11 August!
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich Stirs Union Activists
C-SPAN viewers on Tuesday night watched Congressman Kucinich express fervent support for workers rights at the AFL-CIO candidates' forum.In case you missed it, here's the lead from Tom Curry's MSNBC.com report, sub-headlined: "Kucinich stands out at AFL-CIO event."
"The leaders of organized labor played host Tuesday night to a nine-candidate free-for-all among the Democratic presidential
contenders. Long-shot contender Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio stood out from the crowd, delivering a rousing performance, challenging former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean on why he wasn't willing to cut the defense budget and demanding that Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri tell the audience whether he'd revoke the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and pull the United States out of the World Trade Organization.
"After the debate Kucinich insisted that it wasn't impractical to cancel NAFTA and pull out of the WTO. 'No one here answered that question.... None of them would say it -- not even Dick Gephardt who is trying to rely on support from labor to become the next president.'"
Full article: http://www.msnbc.com/news/948704.asp
- - Huge MeetUp, Iran Policy Statement, Dennis Media Events
HUGE MEETUP FOR DENNIS
Last night, in the Kucinich Campaign's first concerted effort to meet nationwide through www.meetup.com, thousands of passionate activists gathered in cities and towns to plan local efforts to help Congressman Kucinich reach the White House. Our campaign started promoting MeetUp just 15 days ago; more than 7,000 people signed up, making it the third largest political MeetUp and gaining a link on the Meetup homepage. At this pace, our young campaign will quickly become the second largest and one day perhaps the largest.
Now is the time to sign up at kucinich2004.meetup.com for the big September 4th Kucinich MeetUp. (It's always the first Thursday of the month.)
Local groups made plans to distribute flyers and posters, table events, and speak at community meetings. And they've planned smaller meetings for the next three Thursdays on topics such as college chapters, media response and fundraising. To get in touch with volunteers in your area, first sign up at http://kucinich2004.meetup.com and then sign up at www.kucinich.us/volunteer.php
"REGIME CHANGE" IN IRAN
Today's Newsday reported that hawks in the Bush Administration are trying to instigate conflict between the U.S. and Iran. Here's the lead: "Pentagon hardliners pressing for regime change in Iran have held secret and unauthorized meetings in Paris with a controversial arms dealer who was a major figure in the Iran-contra scandal..."
Congessman Kucinich issued this statement: "Such actions by the Defense Department, without Congressional authorization or consent, send a dangerous signal to the world community and could lead to the further destabilization of the region. If such actions are unauthorized, as claimed by the White House, the President must act now to seek the resignation of those officials involved. To allow back channel conversations with arms dealers undermines US policy in the region and threatens to send our nation into another deadly war..."
www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-usiran0808,0,432543.story
DENNIS ON CNN
This Sunday, Dennis will be on CNN's "Late Edition" with Wolf Blitzer
(scheduled for 20 minutes between noon -1pm Eastern)
MEDIA DISCOVER KUCINICH'S DISTINCT POSITIONS
There has been a flurry of articles in major outlets in recent days about how Rep. Kucinich has distinguished himself from Democratic rivals by standing forthrightly for workers, seniors and the environment. To find "Kucinich Takes Aim at Dean" and others:
www.kucinich.us/news.htm/#challenge
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a delightful LA Times article, related to the Seabiscuit-Kucinich campaign, see:
www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-et-johnson04aug04182420,1,5777546.story
If you plan to go to this movie, make sure you download a great flier on the Dennis-Seabiscuit connection and help the campaign take off! We pasted in our MeetUp location and times for another good reason to post the Seabiscuit campaign flier around town. Cool photos!
For a good place to download files, see kucinich.us or check the homepage, in left column for the homepage of a
discussion group on Dennis J. Kucinich for US President!
For new websites supporting Dennis Kucinich, see:
www.dennisforamerica.org
and
www.friendsofkucinich.com/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For the official Kucinich for US President in 2004 Website, see: www.kucinich.us
*********************************************************************
3) Greg Palast: WAMY and Saudi funding of terror
GREG PALAST SAYS:
And now, the New York Times tells us, the US Senate has been embarrassed into holding hearings on those Saudi charity fronts including one named WAMY.
Of course, this is ancient news to those who watched my report on WAMY and Saudi funding of terror -- broadcast on BBC's evening news on November 9, 2001.* (In the USA, that report earned me the title of 'conspiracy nut.' In America, a 'conspiracy nut' is defined as a journalist who reports the news two years before the New York Times.)
And here's the ugly little punchline to the story you WON'T read in the Times. Why has the Bush Administration covered up for WAMY and the Saudi's other blood-soaked 'charity' operations?
For the answer, let me take you back to Midland, Texas, 1986. A young old man, George W. Bush, seems to have trouble finding oil. But he strikes it rich when his flailing drilling partnership is bought out by Harken Oil. Despite the addition of the business acumen of Bush Jr., Harken faces collapse; but is pulled from the brink by a cash infusion from a Saudi, Sheik Bakhsh. The money from Arabia has nothing to do, we must assume, with Dubya's daddy at the time holding the post of Vice-President of the Free World.
The Bakhsh booty continued a pattern of the young Bush being saved from his dire business decisions by a line of Sheik angels. His first oil company, Arbusto, going bust-o, was aided by the American financial representative of the bin Ladin family.
And on BBC TV last month, I reported this: following the bombing of our embassies, the Clinton Administration sent two delegations to Saudi Arabia to tell their royal highnesses to stop giving money to the guys who are killing us. But Mr. Bush, once in office, put the kibosh on unfriendly words to the Saudis.
Furthermore, in the summer of 2001, Mr. Bush disbanded the US intelligence unit tracking funding of Al Qaeda. What is it our G-men were uncovering?
According to two separate sources speaking to BBC, the funders of Al Qaeda fronts include those who have previously funded Bush family business and political ventures.
Now that's a wee bit embarrassing. Something you wouldn't want in a congressional report. Something you may not want the FBI to dwell on. (And you can unlock the womens and children: the BBC reports will NOT be broadcast on US television.)
And there's this: a document marked "Secret" and "199I" (meaning 'national security') which found its way out of the offices of the FBI in into the office of our BBC/Guardian newspaper team. It indicates (and whistleblowers confirmed) that, prior to the September 11 attack, the Bush Administration held back agents of the FBI from tracking two members of the bin Laden family. According to the buried FBI report, the bin Laden lads were operating in the USA for "a suspected terrorist organization", WAMY.
But we mustn't ask too many questions of the Bush Administration's blindfolding the FBI, nor, Heaven forbid, discomfit the Saudis over their contributions to Terror-R-Us. After all, in BushWorld, Saudi Arabia and America have shared values: we want our boys to kill, not to kiss.
# # # # # # #
Greg Palast is author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, which includes the award-winning report, "Did Our President Spike the Investigation of bin Laden?" View his report for BBC Television's Newsnight on Bush, WAMY and the bin Ladens at http://www.GregPalast.com
*WAMY and Saudi funding of terror
(broadcast on BBC's evening news on November 9, 2001).
http://www.investigate911.com/pre911.ram
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Please note that Greg Palast will be a keynote speaker with Amy Goodman at the One World Fair. For more information on this and other key events, see
"Campaigns, Actions & Events" ==> http://www.flybynews.com
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
KucinichGreenAppeal * DeanCompare * E-Fraud * Nukes
02 August 2003
1) Kucinich: Open Letter to Nader Voters and the Greens
- - Willie Nelson Promotes Dennis
2) Comparison of Kucinich and Dean
3) NY Times: "Computer Voting Is Open to Easy Fraud, Experts Say"
4) US scraps nuclear weapons watchdog'
Editor's Notes:
This issue opens with an open letter from Dennis Kucinich to Nader voters and the Greens, and it places emphasis on unity and mutual interests. Also, this item is on the contribution by Willie Nelson for Dennis and America.
The Kucinich campaign represents an opportunity to transform a current corrupt US government. Please note updated "Actions Campaigns & Events" from FlybyNews.com regarding proposed film and discussion programs. Emily Lewis is designing a flier. What we need are dates and venues for the program to happen! Please help!.You can also support this campaign by sponsoring a film at your local access television station. To see a nationwide list of such stations, see:
www.world.std.com/~rghm/alpha.htm
Another recent addition to Flyby's Events is the One World Fair on September 20 in Cummington, MA with Amy Goodman and Greg Palast. On this same day, too, the Kucinich campaign will be present for Jim Hightower's Rolling Thunder Down Home Democracy Tour 12/2003 at Veteran's Park in Manchester, NH There will be a mix of music, speeches, workshops, planning, and networking. Keep an eye FlybyNews.com for more on these and other events and campaigns!
Item 2 revisits the issue on comparing Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich. Some people are misinformed and believe they share the same platform for peace and healthcare. This is far from true, and though all the issues are not discussed, a trust is growing to support the one candidate that voted against the Patriot Act, who accepts no corporate campaign finances, and who stands for real change, transformation, peace. Change can be scary to some people, but can this compare with our concerns of a pseudo-democracy-government destabilizing the world and harming innocent life? We need everyone to be active in this campaign now. The primaries are the real obstacle or opportunity. A Kucinich nomination would be unstoppable for reclaiming US democracy, and overcoming concerns of election fraud, which is reported in item 3. Item 4 has another example that change cannot come a moment too soon: "A US department of energy panel of experts which provided independent oversight of the development of the US nuclear arsenal has been quietly disbanded by the Bush administration . . . yesterday.."
The following are 2 ways to "meetup with the Kucinich campaign:
1) WATCH DENNIS ON C-SPAN SUNDAY
This Sunday evening at 6:30pm and at 9:30pm (Eastern and Pacific), you
can see Congressman Kucinich's speech at the recent "Hear It from the
Heartland" event hosted by Sen. Harkin in Iowa. Spread the word.
2) MEET YOUR KUCINICH-FRIENDLY NEIGHBORS -- (Thursday@7pm)
Our next National MeetUp Day is Thursday, August 7. Across the
country, Kucinich folks will be meeting each other. Sign up now
if you want to meet progressive-thinking folks in your area.
For details, visit
www.kucinich.us/volunteeraction.htm#meetup
"The President failed to reestablish the credibility of his Administration.
At this moment of crisis, while the lives of America's sons and daughters
are on the line in Iraq, the American public deserves the truth, not spin."
Dennis J. Kucinich (7/30/03)
Comments regarding President Bush's news conference
1) Kucinich: Open Letter to Nader Voters and the Greens
- - Willie Nelson Promotes Dennis
Open Letter to Nader Voters and the Greens
by Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich
When we marched against the WTO and the corporate trade regime in Seattle in 1999, we marched together.
When we stood together against the war with Iraq, half-a-million strong in New York City, and 15 million strong throughout the world, we stood together.
When we fought the badly-named "Patriot Act," we fought it together -- and I was the only one running who voted against it.
When we tried to stop this war from starting, we fought it together -- and I was able to pull together 126 of my colleagues to vote no to war last fall, working with my friend and ally Barbara Lee, as Co-Chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
We stand together in opposition to the death penalty; in support of living wages; in support of boosting alternative energy rather than wars for oil; in support of medicinal marijuana; in opposition to corporate hog farming; in support of organic farming; in opposition to nukes inspace; in opposition to Star Wars; in support of cutting the military budget by 15% and applying those funds to public education.
We stand together for national health insurance, Canadian style. We stand together on public financing of campaigns, on same day voter registration, on instant runoff voting. We stand together on civil rights, and equal rights, and human rights. We stand together on voting reforms for ex-felons. We stand together on ending the trade and travel embargoes on Cuba. We stand together in opposition to the current war on drugs, which is all too often a war on the urban poor.
We stand together in demanding that publicly-owned clean water is a human right. We stand together in demanding that the developing world's debt be forgiven, as if it were still the JubileeYear; and that we act seriously to build a world in which arms sales decline, hunger declines, poverty declines, and human rights increase.
We stand together on rejoining the rest of the world, and signing the Kyoto Treaty, the International Criminal Court Treaty, the Land Mines Ban Treaty, and all the rest of the treaties and agreements and working relationships that the current Administration has so cavalierly tossed aside.
We stand together in opposition to excessive CEO salaries; in opposition to offshore tax havens for corporations; in support of real pension reforms, real SEC enforcement, real crackdowns on corporate scofflaws. And we stand together in opposition to sweetheart deals for corporate friends of this Administration, whether it's Enron wrecking California for profit, the drug companies ripping off seniors and HIV patients and poor people for profit, or Halliburton ripping off Iraqi oil revenues for profit.
I am a Democrat, but I understand that Greens and Nader voters are not just liberal Democrats. Still, I note that in Europe, even when political parties disagree on issues, they are often able to work together with each other in coalition. I'd like to raise that possibility again today. And I note that Ralph Nader has suggested that my candidacy is worth supporting.
We all know we will do better if we work together. Perhaps we can find common ground on issues and principles. I would like to open up that possibility. And I would like to ask that you give serious consideration to my candidacy for President. Because a better world is still possible.
www.commondreams.org/views03/0724-08.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a related article, published in the San Francisco Examiner
August 1, 2003 - -, see: "Kucinich Gets Green Support"
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Willie Nelson Promotes Dennis
From: Kucinich Campaign < info@kucinich.us >
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003
WILLIE ON THE AIR
Willie Nelson's radio ads supporting Dennis for President will air this week in Iowa. Besides endorsing the candidate, the ads also advertise Willie's Labor Day benefit concert in Des Moines. The radio spots are running on a number of Iowa stations, will expand to more stations in Iowa and then to other states.
You can listen to the ads on our Willie Nelson page:
kucinich.us/willienelson.htm
If you go that page, you can make an online donation to help us increase the number of stations that air these ads. Send any Willie fan you know to that page.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a related article in the Associated Press:
Willie Nelson to play three Kucinich benefits
WASHINGTON - Country music troubadour Willie Nelson will strum guitar and sing for Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich at benefit concerts in Iowa, Ohio and Wisconsin. Details:
www.theunionleader.com/prez_show.html?article=24052
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more information on Dennis Kucinich for President, see:
www.kucinich.us
2) Comparison of Kucinich and Dean
Posted by Bob Harris - Resources: Candidates websites and Google searches
1. Health-Care Plan
Kucinich: Canadian-style single-payer system, extending the successes of Medicare, financed by a tax on employers lower than the current cost of private insurance. [Also financed in part by a peace dividend from a reduced military budget and waste.]
Dean: Complex 4-prong plan, extending multiple state and federal programs piecemeal, combined with tax credits and incentives, all of which Dean claims is more likely to become law, but still won't cover everyone
2. Death Penalty
Kucinich: Opposes.
Dean: Favors for "extreme" crimes like terrorism or the killing of a police officer, although critical of Bush administration's "careless" approach to executions.
3. Roe v. Wade
Kucinich: Pro-life until recently; now the only candidate pledging to make Roe v. Wade a "litmus test" for appointing federal judges.
Dean: Pro-choice, but refuses to make Roe v. Wade a litmus test for federal judges.
4. Kyoto Treaty
Kucinich: Supports.
Dean: Says we must "take another look," but has "concerns" about some provisions.
5. Patriot Act
Kucinich: Only presidential candidate who personally voted against it.
Dean: Would repeal "parts," but also wants to expand intelligence agencies; praises Russ Feingold as only Senator who opposed the act, ignoring Kucinich's vocal House opposition, implying no other candidate opposed the Patriot Act.
6. NAFTA/WTO
Kucinich: Full withdrawal, to replace with fair trade; opposes "fast track" treatment of any future trade legislation; personally marched in Seattle protests.
Dean: Notes problems with "free" trade, suggesting the need for inclusion of human rights, environmental, and labor standards in trade agreements -- but still pro-NAFTA.
7. "Star Wars" Ballistic Missile System
Kucinich: Would abolish; has sponsored legislation banning weapons from space.
Dean: Would cut only 1/8 of the funding, transferring it to international threat-reduction programs.
8. Pentagon Waste
Kucinich: Would cut Pentagon programs which don't even work, like the V-22, F-22, and "Star Wars," and demand accountability for over a $1 trillion in "lost" funds.
Dean: Disagrees with any proposed Pentagon cutbacks, and advocates aggressive expansion of intelligence, police, and special forces.
9. Balanced Budget
Kucinich: A long-term goal, but deficits may be necessary in the short run for economic and social investment.
Dean: A main priority -- even equating it with social progress: "we cannot have social justice without a sound fiscal foundation" -- describing himself as "to the right of Bush" on the issue.
10. Gun Control
Kucinich: Supports federal gun control legislation, and sponsored a bill calling for child safety devices on all new handguns.
Dean: Supports closing the gun show loophole, but opposes other new federal regulation; considers guns a states' rights issue; an "A" rating from NRA most of his career.
11. Medical Marijuana
Kucinich: Supports compassionate use.
Dean: Firmly opposed, although promises to abide by a proposed FDA evaluation.
12. War on Drugs
Kucinich: Proposes European-style treatment of addiction as a medical, not criminal problem, with attendant reductions in crime and violence.
Dean: Has accepted National Governors Association position: more federal funding for all aspects of the drug war; however, also speaks of drug use as a medical problem, and has called the War on Drugs a failure; website and recent speeches simply do not clarify what policies he would pursue, as far as I can tell.
13. Gay Rights
Kucinich: Believes gay and straight couples should be 100% equal before the law, including Social Security and domestic-partner benefits; supports federal civil union legislation.
Dean: Signed a civil union (not gay marriage) bill, but opposes similar national laws as a states' rights issue.
14. Energy
Kucinich: Supports investment in solar, wind, ocean, and other clean energy; risked career to prevent a power monopoly in Cleveland, saving taxpayers over $200 million.
Dean: Supports investment in alternative energy and energy efficiency; however, has sided with Vermont state utilities on most issues [including Vermont Yankee nuclear power].
15. Political Experience
Kucinch: Has held local, state, and federal office for a total of 17 years. Four-term member of Congress, since 1997. Currently chair of the Progressive Caucus, largest Democratic caucus in Congress.
Dean: Vermont state legislator, 1982-86; Lt. Governor, 1986-91; Governor, 1991-2002. Former chair, National Governors Association.
16. Iraq War
Kucinich: Opposed staunchly from the beginning, has never wavered.
Dean: Firmly opposed, before, although he told the L.A. Times in January that he would support unilateral action if Iraq had WMDs; softened his rhetoric again in March, once the war began, explaining in conservative South Carolina, "it's hard to criticize the President when you've got troops in the field... we all have got to support the troops;" now again firmly opposed, and highly vocal.
17. Personal
Kucinich: Lifelong member of the working class. Grew up so poor that his family lived in a car more than once. Currently a vegan.
Dean: Patrician upbringing. Though speaks harshly about negative environmental impact of SUVs. Drives an SUV (a Chevy Suburban).
18. Wellstone Connections
Kucinich: Wellstone was a proud member of the Progressive Caucus, which Kucinich leads.
Dean: Used the "democratic wing of the democratic party" line from Wellstone after his death.
19. Ambition
Kucinich: Began campaign late, in part because he was busy organizing anti-war voices in Congress.
Dean: Vermont newspapers had to sue to get Dean's 2002 schedule as Governor; Dean spent almost all of the year out of the state, and didn't want his constituents to know.
20. Home State
Kucinich: Ohio, 21 electoral votes.
Dean: Vermont, 3 electoral votes.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For the posting of this comparison on Kucinich and Dean on the Issues, see:
www.bobharris.com/kucinichdean.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
DEAN SAYS: "I'M NOT YOUR GUY"
Again distancing himself from a progressive agenda, Howard Dean was quoted on healthcare reform in 30 July 2003 issue of the New York Times: "My plan is not reform -- if you want to totally change the healthcare system, I'm not your guy." Dean advocates incremental changes that leave insurance giants in the center of healthcare.
By contrast, Kucinich supports a commonsense plan of national health insurance for all -- a proven success in industrial democracies far less wealthy than our country. Kucinich says that only by eliminating the waste, bureaucracy and profiteering of insurance companies, can everyone be covered -- a sentiment echoed by Physicians for a National Health Program.
Incremental change over the years has left 40 million Americans uninsured and millions more under-insured -- a failed approach, says legendary public health physician and Kucinich endorser Quentin Young: "You can't leap an abyss in 2 jumps." For more on the Kucinich plan: www.kucinich.us/issues/issue_universalhealth.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Difference Between Dean, Kerry and Kucinich
by Ron Harold (received by email 31 Jul 2003)
Let me say this very loud and very clear:
I recommend thinking about the difference between Kucinich, Dean and Kerry, when it comes to the War on Terror, the War on Iraq, and the War on Our Freedom;
If Dean or Kerry were president right now, they would KEEP our sons and daughters in Iraq AND SEND MORE of our sons and daughters to be killed in Iraq. For What? And I'm supposed to consider supporting Dean and Kerry despite their obvious disregard for human life, a nation's right to sovereignty, and our wallets? No. Kerry and Dean are no different than Bush, inasmuch they all three sincerely believe they can kill and spend their way to peace and security for America AND Iraq. This assumption is staggering to the liberal mind.
No, all three men are too arrogant and hard-headed to admit attacking Iraq was a mistake we should immediately correct by internationalizing Iraq and withdrawing ASAP from Iraq. Dennis Kucinich is the only true LIBERAL POPULIST CANDIDATE who has already made his promise and recommendation to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq. Dean is NOT a liberal! Kerry is NOT a liberal! ONLY a liberal would possess the courage, decency and temerity to admit invading and occupying a sovereign nation was a mistake, and to subsequently -- BRING OUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS HOME NOW!
If we can't trust Dean and Kerry to just "do the right thing" when it comes to bringing our sons and daughters home, then how in the hell do you expect me to trust these guys to restore our democracy and our freedom?
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Will the Real Howard Dean Please Stand Up?
Will the Real Howard Dean Please Stand Up?
Article from Washington Post (Thursday, July 31)
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4798-2003Jul30.html?referrer=email
3) NY Times: "Computer Voting Is Open to Easy Fraud, Experts Say"
New York Times
Computer Voting Is Open to Easy Fraud, Experts Say
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
July 24, 2003
The software that runs many high-tech voting machines contains serious flaws that would allow voters to cast extra votes and permit poll workers to alter ballots without being detected, computer security researchers said yesterday.
"We found some stunning, stunning flaws," said Aviel D. Rubin, technical director of the Information Security Institute at Johns Hopkins University, who led a team that examined the software from Diebold Election Systems, which has about 33,000 voting machines operating in the United States.
The systems, in which voters are given computer-chip-bearing smart cards to operate the machines, could be tricked by anyone with $100 worth of computer equipment, said Adam Stubblefield, a co-author of the paper.
"With what we found, practically anyone in the country from a teenager on up could produce these smart cards that could allow someone to vote as many times as they like," Mr. Stubblefield said.
The software was initially obtained by critics of electronic voting, who discovered it on a Diebold Internet site in January. This is the first review of the software by recognized computer security experts.
A spokesman for Diebold, Joe Richardson, said the company could not comment in detail until it had seen the full report. He said that the software on the site was "about a year old" and that "if there were problems with it, the code could have been rectified or changed" since then. The company, he said, puts its software through rigorous testing.
"We're constantly improving it so the technology we have 10 years from now will be better than what we have today," Mr. Richardson said. "We're always open to anything that can improve our systems."
Another co-author of the paper, Tadayoshi Kohno, said it was unlikely that the company had plugged all of the holes they discovered.
"There is no easy fix," Mr. Kohno said.
The move to electronic voting which intensified after the troubled Florida presidential balloting in 2000 has been a source of controversy among security researchers. They argue that the companies should open their software to public review to be sure it operates properly.
Mr. Richardson of Diebold said the company's voting-machine source code, the basis of its computer program, had been certified by an independent testing group. Outsiders might want more access, he said, but "we don't feel it's necessary to turn it over to everyone who asks to see it, because it is proprietary."
Diebold is one of the most successful companies in this field. Georgia and Maryland are among its clients, as are many counties around the country. The Maryland contract, announced this month, is worth $56 million. Diebold, based in North Canton, Ohio, is best known as a maker of automated teller machines. The company acquired Global Election Systems last year and renamed it Diebold Election Systems. Last year the election unit contributed more than $110 million in sales to the company's $2 billion in revenue.
As an industry leader, Diebold has been the focus of much of the controversy over high-tech voting. Some people, in comments widely circulated on the Internet, contend that the company's software has been designed to allow voter fraud. Mr. Rubin called such assertions "ludicrous" and said the software's flaws showed the hallmarks of poor design, not subterfuge.
The list of flaws in the Diebold software is long, according to the paper, which is online at http://avirubin .com/vote.pdf. Among other things, the researchers said, ballots could be altered by anyone with access to a machine, so that a voter might think he is casting a ballot for one candidate while the vote is recorded for an opponent.
The kind of scrutiny that the researchers applied to the Diebold software would turn up flaws in all but the most rigorously produced software, Mr. Stubblefield said. But the standards must be as high as the stakes, he said.
"This isn't the code for a vending machine," he said. "This is the code that protects our democracy."
Still, things that seem troubling in coding may not be as big a problem in the real world, Mr. Richardson said. For example, counties restrict access to the voting machines before and after elections, he said. While the researchers "are all experts at writing code, they may not have a full understanding of how elections are run," he said.
But Douglas W. Jones, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Iowa, said he was shocked to discover flaws cited in Mr. Rubin's paper that he had mentioned to the system's developers about five years ago as a state elections official.
"To find that such flaws have not been corrected in half a decade is awful," Professor Jones said.
Peter G. Neumann, an expert in computer security at SRI International, said the Diebold code was "just the tip of the iceberg" of problems with electronic voting systems.
"This is an iceberg that needs to be hacked at a good bit," Mr. Neumann said, "so this is a step forward."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = == = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Following is more on this issue from AlterNet, received via
RHINOS BOTTOM LINE:
VOTING AND DEMOCRACY: THE CHALLENGES AHEAD
Don Hazen, AlterNet
Voting security irregularities have put the populace on edge. The solution? Push hard on reform opportunities now, and don't stay home on Election Day.
www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16508
THE THEFT OF YOUR VOTE IS JUST A CHIP AWAY
Thom Hartmann, AlterNet
Are computerized voting machines a wide-open back door to massive voting fraud? A growing number of Americans are saying our votes are too sacred to reside only on computer chips.
www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16474
BEYOND VOTING MACHINES: HAVA AND REAL ELECTION REFORM
Miles Rapoport, AlterNet
The Florida 2000 election proved to Americans of all political persuasions that our election laws are broken. Yet the debacle also created an opening for voting reform that we have not seen for decades.
www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16490
THE VOTING RIGHTS STRUGGLE OF OUR TIME
Kim Alexander, AlterNet
California is at the forefront of the paper trail debate with electronic voting machines. Thanks to a state task force, there's still time to weigh in on the controversy.
www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16476
-=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=--=*=- -=*=- -=*=-
"RHINOS BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com)
www.rhinosblog.info
4) US scraps nuclear weapons watchdog'
US scraps nuclear weapons watchdog
Julian Borger in Washington
Thursday July 31, 2003
The Guardian
A US department of energy panel of experts which provided independent oversight of the development of the US nuclear arsenal has been quietly disbanded by the Bush administration, it emerged yesterday.
The decision to close down the national nuclear security administration advisory committee - required by law to hold public hearings and issue public reports on nuclear weapons issues - has come just days before a closed-door meeting at a US air force base in Nebraska to discuss the development of a new generation of tactical "mini nukes" and "bunker buster" bombs, as well as an eventual resumption of nuclear testing.
Ed Markey, a Democratic congressman and co-chairman of a congressional taskforce on non-proliferation, said: "Instead of seeking balanced expert advice and analysis about this important topic, the department of energy has disbanded the one forum for honest, unbiased external review of its nuclear weapons policies."
Neither the NNSA - part of the department of energy - nor the 15 panel members returned calls seeking comment yesterday.
The NNSA advisory panel is made up of academics, retired officials and business leaders.
Although federal law requires regular open meetings and publication of its reports, the energy department has not convened the panel since May 2002. Its reports have not been released.
The statute establishing federal advisory committees requires their dissolution to be officially gazetted in the federal register but, according to Mr Markey, the NNSA panel was disbanded by a simple email to its members.
Daryl Kimball, the head of the independent, Washington-based Arms Control Association, said: "This will make the department of energy and the NNSA even more opaque. It will be all the more difficult to understand what they are planning to do."
Hawks in the Pentagon and the energy department are pushing for the development of tactical nuclear weapons with yields of less than 5 kilotons and hardened "bunker buster" nuclear bombs, designed to penetrate deeply buried targets, where enemy leaders or weapons may be hidden.
According to the leaked agenda for the Omaha meeting in early August, Pentagon and energy department officials will discuss how to test small numbers of these new weapons, and whether this will require a break from the moratorium on nuclear tests.
Critics argue that the new weapons will blur the distinction between conventional and nuclear arms, and trigger a new arms race.
"The Bush administration is considering policy changes that will alter the role of nuclear weapons in national defence," Mr Markey said. "Given the importance and sheer complexity of the issues raised ... why was the only independent contemplative body studying nuclear weapons disbanded - and disbanded in such a surreptitious fashion?"
Guardian Unlimited Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003
www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4723467,00.html
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Kucinich&Democracy * Films=>Make a Difference
24 July 2003
1) Iowa View: Kucinich backers aren't kidding
2) Long Shots Do Win - Kucinich & Seabiscuit
3) Meet-Up with Kucinich Supporters - August 7
4) Films that Make a Difference
5) Kucinich Challenges Cheney and Bush
- - Warning of Toxic Aftermath from Uranium Munitions
- - Clinton: Bush Iraq Mistake Understandable'
6) Kucinich Resources for Peace
Editor's Notes:
The Chinese word for crisis' can be translated for meaning 'dangerous opportunity.' This is the current state of affairs in our environment, in democracy, and in the principles espoused in the US Constitution. This is an obvious understatement. Yet never has there risen an opportunity to break the grip of ruthless power in government corruption.
Now is a good time to act for a solution. The quickly approaching 2004 US national elections offer an opportunity. There is one qualified candidate with the record and intention to sever the chord of corporate control and corruption in government. Meanwhile President Bush continues the assault on freedom and the environment. Just last Tuesday Bush threatened to veto legislation from Congress to role back the June 2nd FCC media-monopoly ruling. From the illegal war and deception on attacking Iraq, terminating the ABM and other disarmament treaties, pushing an energy policy harming our environment, non-cooperation in 9-11 investigations, Bush is a disgrace for humanity and for what the majority of Americans value. Yet it is the primaries that give us the real opportunity in resolving the current crisis and to free us from the controls of our minds from a corporate media.
President Clinton proved that a centrist Democrat can be elected, and also showed that he couldn't accomplish much. He reminds me of Howard Dean who stated during a February 19, 2003 interview with Salon, "I don't mind being characterized as 'liberal' -- I just don't happen to think it's true." Yet the fear and response to Bush is so great that so-called liberals are endorsing his campaign before the primaries due to their fears of a pro-war Democrat running for President. Some believe that a corporate-supported mainstream candidate is better than ending up with a worse choice. Is this part of a mind game? The swinging pendulum reacts from the Nader idealistic vote to Bush, back to another midstream candidate? This is absurd. Will enough people awaken in time to take an opportunity to unite beyond the power of fear?
1) Iowa View: Kucinich backers aren't kidding
Iowa View: Kucinich backers aren't kidding
I haven't seen anything like this campaign since Robert Kennedy
By NICHOLAS JOHNSON
07/21/2003
"Not only can Dennis Kucinich win the presidency, he just may be the only Democrat who can," say his supporters
They've got to be kidding, right?
But Kucinich supporters aren't kidding. And Democrats best listen to their reasons, and their candidate. Activists, Washington insiders and political reporters ignore them at their peril.
Is Kucinich a sure thing? Of course not. Sure things don't exist in politics.
* The electorate is accustomed to smiling, hair-sprayed, tall candidates, managed by handlers, driven by polls, changing positions in speeches written by others, offending no one, campaigning with photo-ops and manipulative ads, paid for by corporate special interests.
Such tactics have worked - at least for winners. But at a price. They so alienate the eligible electorate that half don't vote. Polls reveal a majority correctly perceives Washington cares more about corporate keepers than citizen constituents.
* Pundits track who's raised the most money. If the presidency is simply a race to the bank it's no contest. President Bush can raise more in an evening than a Democrat can in a year. He wants $200 million. It's the least the corporate rich owe him. Conventional wisdom says candidates should avoid controversy. Don't risk alienating anyone, even Republicans. There are Democratic candidates whose Senate votes are scarcely distinguishable from Republicans. Some are reluctant to criticize a popular president. When they have positions they seem confusing, just tweaking the status quo.
Kucinich supporters argue this won't cut it in 2004. Conventional politics, compromises and corporate contributions can't win. Why would voters choose an imitation Republican when they can vote for Bush, the real thing?
They emphasize each Kucinich victory - mayor of Cleveland, state senator and congressman - involved an "unbeatable" Republican. He took a 34 percent Democratic district and won with 49 percent, was re-elected with 65 and now 74 percent. Clearly he has a record of winning - and winning over - with Republicans and Democrats alike.
Unlike the others, Kucinich's positions are a stark contrast to Bush. He is the only one advocating defense-spending cuts, single-payer health care for all, public education pre-K through college, public funding of campaigns, signing Kyoto and other treaties, and repeal of the death penalty, NAFTA and the Patriot Act. He organized the two-thirds House Democratic opposition to the Iraq war resolution Congressman Dick Gephardt drafted and most of his Senate competitors supported.
The media think former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is "liberal." But on some issues he acknowledges he's to the right of Bush. Both support the death penalty and defense-spending increases. Both like profit-driven health-care systems. Dean's "opposition" to the Iraq war was his proposed 60-day delay before attacking.
Will a majority support all of Kucinich's positions? Of course not. The majority of Iowans didn't support all of Gov. Harold Hughes" positions, either. So why was he so popular? Iowans knew he spoke from the heart and admired his honesty.
If Democrats would unambiguously serve their natural constituency - those earning under $200,000 - they could win in a walk, say Kucinich backers. They say Democrats need to energize the non-voters. Is it possible? In 1984 and 1988, Jesse Jackson registered 3 million and Democrats won back the Senate.
The Kucinich supporters" secret weapon, they claim, is their candidate. They say, "A Dean supporter is a Democrat who hasn't yet heard Dennis speak." Those who are often moved emotionally. They comment about his courage, compassion and commitment - and their hunger for his vision of hope and inspiration.
I haven't seen anything like it since Robert Kennedy.
What if they're right, and thinking outside the box is the only way to get inside the White House? Those trying to trivialize and marginalize Kucinich do the Democrats no favor.
NICHOLAS JOHNSON, who formerly served on the Federal Communications Commission, is evaluating Democrats" choices from his home in Iowa City.
This article was originally published in the Des Moines Register:
http://desmoinesregister.com/opinion/stories/c5917686/21780912.html
or
http://tinyurl.com/hnd1
# # # # # # # # # # # #
Note: You can contact John Friedrich, the Iowa-Kucinich campaign director, at john@kucinich.us or (515) 633-0400 if you are willing to work on the Iowa phone-calling effort. The Kucinich campaign is looking for several dozen people from each state who will help lift Iowa into Kucinich country. The Idea is to focus on the earliest Caucus/Primary state as a national effort and then focus on each subsequent state by caucus/primary date.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Dennis Kucinich will appear at a forum hosted by Sen. Tom Harkin in Ottumwa, Iowa, this Sunday, July 27, starting at 2:00 p.m. (CST). Announcements from the campaign say it will air live on CSPAN. Harkin is hosting these "Hear It From the Heartland" forums for all the presidential candidates.
2) Long Shots Do Win - Kucinich & Seabiscuit
A movie called Seabiscuit is opening in theaters this Friday, July 25. Seabiscuit was a long shot race horse from the Great Depression, who came in a big winner and inspired a nation.
The Kucinich Campaign is asking supporters to participate in their first nationwide volunteer effort. You can download "Seabiscuit flyers" from the Kucinich volunteer web page. They are asking that especially on Friday, the opening day for this movie, for volunteers to hand out the Seabiscuit flyer, which is attached to the Kucinich 10 Key Issues Flyer to moviegoers as they leave the theater.
As soon as possible try to determine the soliciting policies that may be in effect on the grounds of some theaters. We do not want you to break any laws forbidding solicitation on theater property.
Tomorrow they will be sending out a Press Release and begin talking to the media about our Seabiscuit campaign.
If you are committed to distributing flyers after the Seabiscuit movie, please do the following by 12:00 noon Central Time, Friday 25 July 2003:
Send an email to: clslate@kucinich.us
Put Seabiscuit Promotion in the subject line and tell us what city and state you will be working in and how many you expect in your group (we only need one email from each organized group)
For downloadable flyers to hand out, check out the action at the:
new Kucinich Volunteer Action page
3) Meet-Up with Kucinich Supporters - August 7
The Kucinich for President campaign is launching a new effort, urging all volunteers to use the MeetUp website to organize with their friends and neighbors. MeetUp is a website that allows you to plan monthly meetings at restaurants in your city.
Planning for the August 7 Kucinich meetings is already underway.
Please consider going to this site right away to sign up:
http://kucinich2004.meetup.com
Voting began July 17 on venues at which to hold Kucinich Meetups on August 7. Cast your vote right away. There must be at least five votes and, later, five RSVPs for any meetup to take place.
Voting is also underway on the agenda for the meetings. Cast your votes right away.
What: National Kucinich in 2004 Meetup Day
When: Thursday, Aug 7 @ 7PM
(Vote for a venue and agenda NOW.)
Where: In up to 561 towns (anywhere that at least 5 people sign up)
More information and links to MeetUp are posted at the:
new Kucinich Volunteer Action page
YOU are the Movement!
4) Films that Make a Difference
On July 17 Flyby News sponsored a program in Keene NH at the public library, which could easily be reproduced in many venues throughout the country in support of reclaiming a democracy in the US and Kucinich as president in 2004.
We showed 3 films and led discussions between each that helped many discover the crisis and the opportunity.
1) "What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World"
This film compilation, edited by Frank Dorrel, provides 10 segments giving an overview of CIA covert operations and US interventions since World War II. Due to time constraints and the intense subject matter, we limited the showing to the first four segments:
- Martin Luther King Jr. (2:45) [2 minutes and 45 seconds]
These are from film clips of speeches by the famed patriot and slain civil right leader in the US speaking against the war in Vietnam, stating an "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
- John Stockwell (6:18)
Stockwell gives the inside scoop, who went public on what he phrased as the War Against the Third World. He was a former CIA Chief in Angola when George Bush, Sr was the Director of the CIA. He claims that more than 6 million innocent people died during these "wars" or country interventions that were supported by US CIA covert operations.
- Bill Moyers, "The Secret Government" (21:41)
This program aired on PBS in 1987 documents the formation and despicable nature of a secret government in the US, beginning the irrational permanent war mentality since the development of the Atomic Bomb, which led President Truman to the signing of the "National Security Act" in 1947 that created the CIA, and that led to the recruitment of NAZI's and mobsters in a secret government, justified by those in power fearing their own creations to the point of insanity that remains to this day.
- Coverup: Behind the Iran-Contra Affair (20:46)
This film, directed by Barbara Trent of Empowerment Project' shows the betrayal and cover-up of an exposed crime in trading arms for hostages during the Reagan administration, and diverting the illegally obtained funds to finance the Contras for the US-supported terrorist attacks in Nicaragua.
Following these four segments someone asked if such corruption still exists today. Many in the audience responded, but before the discussion got too far on the dark side, we went to the next film.
2) "A Prayer for America" a speech by Dennis J. Kucinich to the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action on February 17, 2002. (18 minutes)
This speech by Dennis Kucinich was in response to the War on Terror and the War on Freedom. He begins by singing patriotic songs and stated:
"I offer these brief remarks today as a prayer for our country, with love of democracy, as a celebration of our country. With love for our country. With hope for our country. With a belief that the light of freedom cannot be extinguished as long as it is inside us. With a belief that freedom rings resoundingly in a democracy each time we speak freely. With the understanding that freedom stirs the human heart and fear stills it. With the belief that a free people cannot walk in fear and faith at the same time.."
This speech naturally drew discussions into a higher level, and for a potential solution to current crises for our democracy. It was in seeing this film that film maker Malachi Roth realized that Dennis Kucinich is the one for his next documentary.
3) "The Peace Candidate" by Malachi Roth (20 minutes)
This film-short is an inspiring account of presidential candidate Dennis J. Kucinich.
The following was written by Malachi Roth on his film projects:
Fellow Kucinich supporters,
I have recently completed a 20 minute documentary, "The Peace Candidate", which covers Kucinich over two days in April as he spoke at public forums and fundraising events in New York. My ultimate goal is to complete a full length documentary. The material collected during this process will be used to promote the candidate through a variety of outlets such as; work-in-progress screening on college campuses, public access and community television stations, streamed over the internet and at house parties and other local venues.
The following is a brief description of the project. Below, I suggest a donation for the 20 min. video but of course I'm also seeking larger donations and investors are encouraged to contact me. At present I am funding myself in time and materials. For those who would like the video but cannot afford it, contact me and I will send it to you for cost, or for free if you make a good case. I hope that you will make suggestions for interview subjects and anyone who might be interested in collaborating on the project or hosting a screening. Please pass this invitation to participate on to anyone you think would be interested. Thank you in advance for your support.
-Malachi Roth
ORDERING
I am still in the process of setting up a system of distribution for the short version. If you are interested in receiving a copy as soon as possible send a donation of $20 dollars or more payable to:
Malachi Roth
20 West 20th St. 2nd fl.
New York, N.Y. 10011
This will cover the costs of the sending you the film short and support the project..
If you would like to contact me or receive updated information please email me at:
malachiroth@mindspring.com
ROUGH DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED DOCUMENTARY
"THE PEACE CANDIDATE"
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
"The Peace Candidate" is an intimate look at the most qualified and inspirational American leader to emerge in decades. In the film, we will see Dennis Kucinich captivating, inspiring, and energizing audiences by discussing crucial issues in a way which actually provides hope for the future of our planet. The film will integrate excerpts from Kucinich's greatest speeches and appearances, candid footage of the candidate campaigning and speaking in Congress and interviews with well known artists, intellectuals, political figures to create a stirring portrait of Kucinich and the global movement which has sprung up as a reaction to the overreaching of an unelected president and the high crimes of his corporate cronies.
DOCUMENTARY OVERVIEW
The primary purpose of this documentary is to create a focus for the solidarity developing among groups and individuals raising their voices in an effort to steer the country away from war and toward peace. Dennis Kucinich brings into the open areas ignored by the mainstream media: the truth about Iraq, Afghanistan, the Patriot Act, the emergence of millions of mobilized and informed citizens fighting for peace and justice around the country and world. His campaign is a catalyst for a connection among peace and justice groups at the most critical time in our history.
The dependence of political campaigns on high-end short-form television advertising might be challenged by footage drawn from films like "The Peace Candidate." If respected thinkers, professionals, community leaders and celebrities are given a forum for genuine dialogue, an opportunity to show their collective support for grass roots political organizing, we may be able to challenge the status quo. In visualizing a new audience, "The Peace Candidate" is not trying to be slick and flashy; the documentary will maintain its integrity while creating the intensity and tone of urgency and seriousness much like an emergency news broadcast. The urgency of the approach will suggest that something is desperately wrong with our system and current leadership and each of us must be brave enough to stand up and do something about it.
"The Peace Candidate" will also attempt to tip the scale away from controlled news by presenting an assembly of highly respected figures who are declaring an alliance of opposition to the powers-that-be, and who are committing themselves to the only candidate who could possibly represent them, Dennis Kucinich.
MOVEMENT OVERVIEW
It is imperative that everyone who can see today's manufactured political trends for what they really are unite and forcefully challenge the ultra wealthy right-wing entities pushing the globe toward catastrophe and chaos.
It is up to credible, articulate and outspoken individuals to use their collective power to point the way toward a viable alternative. The country needs assistance in rediscovering universal values, which good people across the political spectrum have always attempted to embrace in one form or another.
Only a genuine psychological awakening will pull Americans away from the apathy and denial of a people who have lost their voice and given themselves over to an empire in decline. Only a sweeping mass movement will enable a candidate with impeccable integrity and strong ethics to enter the White House and accomplish anything significant while there.
The unifying theme of Dennis Kucinich' populist attempt to re-order our priorities is unity itself: despite differences of opinion, progressives and conservatives can stand together on the crucial issues of law, equality, peace and justice. Fortunately there is tremendous momentum building: around the world, tens of millions of people are speaking out against the military complex and the increasingly fascistic tactics of major corporate interests and helping to move our planet toward global democracy.
What we need is an artistic renaissance, similar to the one which sprung up as a reaction to Franco's invasion of Spain. The passionate mobilization of artists and intellectuals against fascism gave birth to the Popular Front, which can be credited with mobilizing the world against the Nazi rise. A determined group of progressives who began as a small minority found a way to draw out the best impulses of the global community and prevented the total collapse into fascist tyranny. Today more than ever, artists around the world are rising to confront America's abuses of power.
REASON FOR PARTICIPATING
Traditionalists of the Hopi tribe, located in the southwestern corner of the United States, relate ancient prophesies which tell us that the close of the fourth cycle of human history is upon us and that the opening of a fifth cycle will occur sometime in the near future. What this means is that if we don't cleanse ourselves morally and spiritually we will suffer the catastrophic consequences of our desperate clinging to greed, war, corruption and the hypocritical morality of all bloated empires.
Whether or not you believe in such scenarios, the people who are currently steering the American empire have their own definition of Armageddon and are willfully spurring us toward self-destruction and global chaos. Bill Moyers is probably correct in his assertion that one of the Neo-cons' major goals is to bankrupt and therefore completely privatize the United States economy which would bring catastrophe to the entire globe. They're success is entirely dependant on our efforts as citizens to implement an alternative hopeful future. Supporting a man like Kucinich is the first step in that direction.
# # #
Please consider showing these films, leading discussions, and displaying literature on the Kucinich campaign at various locations, libraries, schools, community centers, and for private house gatherings with your neighbors and friends. The program in Keene sponsored by Flyby News went for almost three hours. We also had available literature and other information. You can learn more about these films, and ordering information for the first two, and others, half way down Flyby News page on the campaign of Dennis Kucinich for US President, see:
Kucinich Films That Can Make a Difference.
For more information and for ordering the above 3 films, see:
Kucinich-Democracy Films -- Make a Difference!
Severing the Corporate Hold on the US Constitution
You can get Kucinich campaign literature from the Kucinich National Campaign to share at the event.
Just Call (toll-free)
1-866-413-3664
We suggest asking for as many as you can distribute:
Bumper Stickers,
10 pt platform page
Booklets of "Prayer for America" speech
Booklets of "AFL-CIO" speech
Picture of Dennis with campaign info on back
Donation Envelopes
5) Kucinich Challenges Cheney and Bush
- - Warning of Toxic Aftermath from Uranium Munitions
- - Clinton: Bush Iraq Mistake Understandable'
KUCINICH CHALLENGES CHENEY IN IRAQ FLAP
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 11:23 a.m. ET
July 22, 2003
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic presidential aspirant Dennis Kucinich is calling on Vice President Dick Cheney to explain his role in how the now-disavowed claim that Iraq was seeking uranium in Africa ended up in President Bush's State of the Union address.
In a letter sent to the vice president, the Ohio congressman and two members of the House Government Reform subcommittee on national security, emerging threats and international relations asked Cheney to explain his multiple visits to CIA headquarters.
''These visits were unprecedented. Normally, vice presidents, included, receive regular briefings from CIA in your office ... there is no reason for the vice president to make personal visits to CIA analysts,'' said the letter, which was sent late Monday.
Kucinich and Reps. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., posed 10 questions that they want the vice president to answer, such as: ``Did you or a member of your staff at any time direct or encourage CIA analysts to disseminate unreliable intelligence?''
Cheney's office did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
The lawmakers also are seeking an explanation on the vice president's involvement in the CIA sending Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador, to Niger to investigate the possible sale of uranium.
The lawmakers want to know who in the vice president's office was briefed on the contents of Wilson's report, what efforts were made to share the findings with other members of the Bush administration and whether Cheney's office found the report to be accurate.
The letter also asks Cheney to explain why he and other high-ranking members of the administration claimed Iraq had a nuclear weapons program even after the uranium sale could not be proven by Wilson's investigation.
Kucinich, an outspoken critic of the Iraq war, issued another call Tuesday for the administration to withdraw American troops from Iraq immediately.
``This administration, whose entry strategy was based on falsehood, with no exit strategy, has trapped our troops in Iraq and exposed them to greater harm,'' Kucinich said in a speech on the
House floor.
http://tinyurl.com/hpoz
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Kucinich Criticizes Bush on Iraq Flap
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030723/ap_on_el_pr/kucinich_hadley_2
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Clinton: Bush Iraq Mistake Understandable'
For related story: Clinton: Bush Iraq Mistake Understandable,' see:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=544&e=37u=/ap/20030723/ap_o=
n_go_pr_wh/clinton_iraq_3
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Warning of Toxic Aftermath from Uranium Munitions
Besides the time related matter of item 2 and the Seabiscuit Kucinich campaign, I wanted to note about a new tour by Major Doug Rokke, who was director of the Army's depleted uranium project . For information on his first stop in Buffalo, NY, July 22, 2003, see this article:
Warning of Toxic Aftermath from Uranium Munitions
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0722-03.htm
For more on the tour of Major Douglas Rokke, visit::
http://www.traprockpeace.org
6) Resources: Kucinich the Real Peace Candidate
On July 11, 2001 Congressman Kucinich introduced HR 2459, a bill to create:
a Cabinet-level Department of Peace
Representative Kucinich Introduces Department of Peace Bill Again ..
Washington Post article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60182-2003Apr8.html
http://www.nationalpeace.org/
Speech -- Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (OH10) --...
Dennis J. Kucinich, Lakewood Ministerial Alliance Martin Luther
King Celebration Lakewood Presbyterian Church Lakewood, Ohio, Sunday, January 19, 2003...
"Peace as a Civil Right"
Private Warriors by Ken Silverstein. CounterPunch's Booktalk.
April 1, 2002. A Call to Action.
Peace and Nuclear Disarmament. By Rep Dennis Kucinich...
Rep. Dennis Kucinich: Peace and Nuclear Disarmament
AlterNet: The Peace Candidate
"Dennis Kucinich is clearly holding down the left end of the bench of Democratic Presidential contenders for 2004. The co-chair of the Progressive Caucus in Congress, an advocate of nonviolence who has proposed that the U.S. government create a Department of Peace, a vegan because he believes in "the sacredness of all species," and a pro-labor environmentalist who marched in the streets of Seattle and Washington, D.C., Kucinich is, without a doubt, the progressive candidate. The argument for his candidacy, unlikely though it may be, is that it represents a point of view the Democrats should be forced to deal with.."
[for complete article, see: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15628 ]
"Peace is possible, peace is inevitable" by Monte Leach
An interview with US congressman and Presidential candidate, Dennis Kucinich, highlighting his core values of peace, activism, sharing, human rights and environmental sustainability.
http://www.simedia.org/new/soc-econ-pol/ml-peace-kucinich.html
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Bush Deception * DU dis-ease US * FBI 9-11 * FCC
22 July 2003
1) Uranium Deception May Be Tip of the Iceberg
- - The Crime and the Cover-Up
- - Former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson and Bush Attacks
- - Tell Congress Member to Co-Sponsor Push for Investigations
- - Newsweek Poll: Bush/Uranium True or False?
2) Mysterious Diseases Haunt U.S. Troops In Iraq
- - Unexploded ordnance continues to kill Iraqi children - UNICEF
3) Death of Iraq weapons expert in UK prompting hard questions
4) Canadian reporter 'smeared' over Iraq coverage
5) Newsweek ExclusiveThe 9-11 Report: Slamming the FBI
6) Updated ALERT on Military Exemptions 7/21/03
7) Restore FCC Media Regulations
Editor's Notes:
Uranium Deception is just the tip of the iceberg of a neoconservative agenda and the Bush administration's lies. Item 1 begins with another superb article by William Rivers Pitt, "The Crime and the Cover-Up." Also included in this item is a link to a Time Magazine article on the apparent Bush administration's attacks on former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, "who poured cold water on the Iraq-uranium connection." Also in this item is an action you can take to demand investigations in Congress on Bush-WMD full disclosure. Item 2 describes mysterious diseases affecting US Troops stationed near Baghdad's airport where bunker buster bombs were exploded. NATO experts attribute the mysterious symptoms suffered by U.S. soldiers to the use of depleted uranium.' Also in this item is a report from UNICEF about children still dying and being maimed by US weapons. Many in Iraq and around the world would claim this as a consequence of US weapons of mass destruction. Meanwhile, in all unfairness, those same US corporations that worked with the Saddam regime making money is now garnishing millions in the current occupation of Iraq. In the looking glass of a chaotic world of death and suffering one can see that this is partly attributed from the aid of US taxpayer dollars.
Item 3 provides more scary information about an UK weapons inspector's sudden death, murder or suicide, who was a vocal critic of the war for regime change from fears of (non-appearing) Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The next item is obviously a neo-conservative-style attempt for intimidation, leaking information that a reporter who wrote about the low morale in US troops in Iraq, was openly gay and a Canadian citizen. And item 5, in this stranger than fiction account of current events, is a report by Newsweek on 9-11 investigations, Slamming the FBI.' This report is really another tip of the iceberg. This article did not cite information reported by Flyby News on 17 January 2002 in an article by William Rivers Pitt, "Hell To Pay:"
"..The cozy relationship between Bush and the Taliban frustrated the investigative efforts of former Deputy Director of the FBI John O'Neill. O'Neill was the FBI's chief bin Laden hunter, in charge of the investigations into the bin Laden-connected bombings of the World Trade Center in 1993, the destruction of an American troop barracks in Saudi Arabia in 1996, the African embassy bombings in 1998, and the attack upon the U.S.S. Cole in 2000.
O'Neill quit the FBI in protest two weeks before the destruction of the World Trade Center towers. He did so because his investigation was hindered by the Bush administration's connections to the Taliban, and by the interests of American petroleum companies. O'Neill was quoted as stating, "The main obstacles to investigating Islamic terrorism were U.S. oil corporate interests, and the role played by Saudi Arabia in it." After leaving the FBI, O'Neill took a position as head of security for the World Trade Center. He died on September 11th, 2001, trying to save people trapped by the attack, when the towers came down on top of him. The irony in this is simply horrifying.."
Item 6 is a 7/21/03 update from Mark Palmer on the role of Congress and military exemptions over environmental protections. Palmer writes: "The public must stand up to the military and DEMAND that Congress maintain environmental laws that apply to the Dept. of Defense to protect endangered species, marine mammals, and human health!" Item 7 is an update and actions to take to restore FCC media regulations, before diversity in media and the interests of the public go more into the hands of corporate special interests.
Please try not to be overwhelmed by all this news. On the whole it is good, since truth is coming out.. Bush could become a scape goat, and the next wave of media and corporate shenanigans will seem more tolerant, but don't be fooled. The next issue of Flyby News will have more on a potential solution to rid the US government of corporate-corrupt-intelligence control. Dennis Kucinich is a trustworthy leader. His actions, not just words, make this true.
"Let the beauty we love be what we do."
Rumi
1) Uranium Deception May Be Tip of the Iceberg
- - The Crime and the Cover-Up
- - Former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson and Bush Attacks
- - Tell Congress Member to Co-Sponsor Push for Investigations
- - Newsweek Poll: Bush/Uranium True or False?
The Crime and the Cover-Up
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Monday 21 July 2003
The scandal axiom in Washington states that it is not the crime that destroys you, but the cover-up. Today in Washington you can hear terms like 'Iraqgate' and 'Weaponsgate' bandied about, but such obtuse labels do not provide an explanation for the profound movements that are taking place.
Clearly, there is a scandal brewing over the Iraq war and the Bush administration claims of Iraqi weapons arsenals that led to the shooting. Clearly, there is a cover-up taking place. Yet this instance, the crimes that have led to the cover-up are worse by orders of magnitude than the cover-up itself.
# # # #
For the complete article, see:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/072103A.shtml
Author's Note: The data surrounding this developing story is voluminous, and seems to change every time an administration representative opens his or her mouth. I have collected below the last few stories I have written on this subject in chronological order. Please utilize this data to further your understanding of this matter.
We Used To Impeach Liars (6/3/03)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/060303A.shtml
The Dog Ate My WMDs (6/13/03)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/061303A.shtml
Slaughtergate (6/23/03)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062303A.shtml
Interview with 27-Year CIA Veteran Ray McGovern (6/26/03)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062603B.shtml
The Insiders Are Coming Out (7/8/03)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/070803A.shtml
Mr. Bush, You Are A Liar (7/11/03)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/071103A.shtml
The Dubious Suicide of George Tenet (7/14/03)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/071403A.shtml
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
William Rivers Pitt is the Managing Editor of truthout.org. He is a New York Times best-selling author of two books - "War On Iraq" available now from Context Books, and "The Greatest Sedition is Silence," now available from Pluto Press here.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson and Bush Attacks
From Time Magazine
Thursday, Jul. 17, 2003
A War on Wilson?
Inside the Bush Administration's feud with the diplomat who poured cold water on the Iraq-uranium connection
By MATTHEW COOPER, MASSIMO CALABRESI AND JOHN F. DICKERSON
Has the Bush Administration declared war on a former ambassador who conducted a fact-finding mission to probe possible Iraqi interest in African uranium? Perhaps.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,465270,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Tell Congress Member to Co-Sponsor Push for Investigations
Uranium Deception May Be Tip of the Iceberg
Tell Congress Member to Co-Sponsor Push for Investigations
With each passing day new revelations are surfacing about the justifications cited by President Bush to launch an American attack on Iraq. Bush's allegation that Saddam tried to buy uranium is the first claim getting the scrutiny it deserves. Here are a few more from the same State of the Union Address:
"Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard, and VX nerve agent." ...None has been found.
"U.S. intelligence indicates that Saddam Hussein had upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents." ...No trace of such weapons has been found.
"Our intelligence sources tell us that he (Saddam) has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production." ...Yet months before the war the International Atomic Energy Agency and other leading scientists determined that these tubes were unsuitable for producing nuclear weapons.
War is the gravest act a country can commit. America and indeed the whole world need to know if the justifications for starting this last war were truthful. Congress in the past has unearthed important truths about the conduct of our nation's government. It's time again, and there are two bills in Congress that would open meaningful investigations into what happened. To send a free fax* to your Congress Member (text below) urging your Representative to co-sponsor HR-307 and HR-2625 just click here.
http://www.truemajority.org/ctt.asp?u=48259&l=82
Yours in truth seeking,
Ben Cohen
President, TrueMajority.org
Co-Founder, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream+
+ I am writing this email on my own and not on behalf of Ben & Jerry's, which is not associated with the TrueMajority campaign.
* note: A few of our strongest allies in Congress have asked us to send emails to them instead of faxes. This makes it easier for them to contact you about their position on the issue. We agree that we should help our friends in this way, and therefore we send emails instead of faxes to these special members of Congress.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Newsweek Poll: Bush/Uranium True or False?
Did President Bush know the uranium claim in the State of the Union was false?
Posted 22 July 2003
No. The President was a victim of bad intelligence..............18%
Yes. He bent the truth to build his case for war...................76%
I don't know.......................................................................6%
* 12373 responses
[Survey results were tallied every 60 seconds. Live Votes reflect respondents' views and are not scientifically valid surveys.]
http://www.msnbc.com/news/nw-front_front.asp?0cl=c1
2) Mysterious Diseases Haunt U.S. Troops In Iraq
- - Unexploded ordnance continues to kill Iraqi children
MYSTERIOUS DISEASES HAUNT U.S. TROOPS IN IRAQ
NATO experts attribute the mysterious symptoms suffered by U.S. soldiers to the use of DEPLETED URANIUM
BAGHDAD, July 17 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies)
Several mysterious diseases were reported among a number of American troops within the vicinity of Baghdad airport, a military source closely close to NATO unveiled.
U.S. soldiers deployed around Baghdad airport started showing symptoms of mysterious fever, itching, scars and dark brown spots on the skin, the source, who refused to be named, said in statements published Thursday, July 17, by the Saudi Al-Watan newspaper...
For the full story, click on:
http://tinyurl.com/hfk9
For more information on this serious develop, check with
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org..
or
http://www.traprockpeace.org
or
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid991363232,2156,
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Unexploded ordnance continues to kill Iraqi children
UNICEF - 17 July The conflict in Iraq may be over but children continue to be killed and maimed at a steady pace by the remnants of war - coalition cluster bombs looking like toys, thousands of tons of Iraqi munitions abandoned in residential areas and leaking missiles lying around Baghdad - the United Nations children's agency said today.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=7758&Cr=iraq&Cr1=relief
3) Death of Iraq weapons expert in UK prompting hard questions
It was impossible for Tony Blair to do anything but concede an independent judicial inquiry into the apparent death of David Kelly. The prime minister knows that if, as feared, the body found at Harrowdown Hill is Dr Kelly's, he has no other option. The issue of how Dr Kelly came to be at the center of the post-war storm over Iraq, intelligence and weapons of mass destruction has suddenly, tragically, become too grave to do anything else. Now the row has turned to personal tragedy, hard questions are being asked of the Ministry of Defense, Downing Street and government spin doctors.
for the complete article, see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3077309.stm
4) Canadian reporter 'smeared' over Iraq coverage
CBC Report On Kofman
Canadian reporter 'smeared' over Iraq coverage
Last Updated Fri, 18 Jul 2003 21:44:21
WASHINGTON - A Canadian journalist allegedly attacked by the White House for reports on the plunging morale of American troops in Iraq says he's not surprised his original story touched a nerve.
ABC News correspondent Jeffrey Kofman says many soldiers he interviewed in Baghdad question why they're still there. Some openly criticized Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for delaying their return home.
Jeffrey Kofman
Courtesy ABC News
According to the Washington Post, an operative from the White House decided to respond to Kofman's coverage by sending some personal details about him to well known U.S. Internet journalist Matt Drudge.
Two facts were played up: first, he's openly gay, and second, he's Canadian. Critics slammed the attempt to use nationalism and homophobia to try to discredit an unflattering news report.
"I think it's not surprising in certain ways that a provocative story provokes," Kofman said in a telephone interview from Iraq. But he's not sure why anyone would want to "out" him as a Canadian, or how any of the details of his life could be seen as a "smear."
"It's all a little perplexing and kind of a sideshow," he added, noting that the real story is what's going on in Iraq.
"I think you just have to kind of look at this and roll your eyes and move on."
ABC TV stood by its reporter Friday, and said any attempts to discredit him based on his sexual orientation or place of birth would be outrageous.
The White House would not comment on allegations that one of its employees tried to get back at Kofman by sending personal information about him to an Internet gossip site. But officials made it clear such action would not be condoned.
U.S. military officials, meanwhile, said the soldiers who openly criticized their superiors could face internal discipline. An investigation is expected.
Written by CBC News Online staff
5) Newsweek ExclusiveThe 9-11 Report: Slamming the FBI
Newsweek - July 28 issue
The FBI blew repeated chances to uncover the 9-11 plot because it failed to aggressively investigate evidence of Al Qaeda's presence in the United States, especially in the San Diego area, where two of the hijackers were living with one of the bureau's own informants, according to the congressional report set for release this week.
THE LONG-DELAYED 900-page report also contains potentially explosive new evidence suggesting that Omar al-Bayoumi, a key associate of two of the hijackers, may have been a Saudi-government agent, sources tell NEWSWEEK. The report documents extensive ties between al-Bayoumi and the hijackers. But the bureau never kept tabs on al-Bayoumidespite receiving prior information he was a secret Saudi agent, the report says. In January 2000, al-Bayoumi had a meeting at the Saudi Consulate in Los Angelesand then went directly to a restaurant where he met future hijackers Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, whom he took back with him to San Diego. (Al-Bayoumi later arranged for the men to get an apartment next to his and fronted them their first two months rent.) The report is sure to reignite questions about whether some Saudi officials were secretly monitoring the hijackersor even facilitating their conduct. Questions about the Saudi role arose repeatedly during last year's joint House-Senate intelligence-committees inquiry. But the Bush administration has refused to declassify many key passages of the committees' findings. A 28-page section of the report dealing with the Saudis and other foreign governments will be deleted. "They are protecting a foreign government," charged Sen. Bob Graham, who oversaw the inquiry.
The report criticizes the Pentagon for resisting military strikes against Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan prior to 9-11, and the CIA for failing to pass along crucial information about Almihdhar and Alhazmi at a terrorists' summit in Malaysia. But the FBI gets the toughest treatment. A few months after al-Bayoumi took them to San Diego, Almihdhar and Alhazmi moved into the house of a local professor who was a longtime FBI "asset." The prof also had earlier contact with another hijacker, Hani Hanjour. But even though the informant was in regular touch with his FBI handler, the bureau never pieced together that he was living with terrorists. The bureau also failed to pursue other leads, including a local imam who dealt with several key 9-11 figures. The report, one congressional investigator said, "is a scathing indictment of the FBI as an agency that doesn't have a clue about terrorism." Furious bureau officials say the report misstates the evidence. They say the bureau checked out al-Bayouminow back in Saudi Arabiaand concluded he had not given the hijackers "material support." As for Almihdhar and Alhazmi, "there was nothing there that gave us any suspicion about these guys," said one FBI official.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/941425.asp
6) Updated ALERT on Military Exemptions 7/21/03
From Mark Palmer (sent to LFAS list serve)
[LFAS = low frequency active sonar]
Dear LFA Activists:
Since my last update, little has changed on the surface in Washington DC with the Congressional consideration of the National Defense Authorization Act. Both the House and the Senate passed different versions of this bill back in May; these two versions need to be reconciled into one bill, but that has not happened yet. Both the Senate and the House have now announced the members of the Senate/House conference committee on the Defense Authorization Bill.
We understand staff in the Senate and the House are working on deals behind the scenes, and that there is enormous pressure on the Republican-controlled House and Senate to gut environmental laws, using this conference committee for the Defense Authorization Bill. While actual votes in Congress on this issue are not expected until September, an internal decision on environmental exemptions may be made as soon as in the next two weeks. Senate and House Versions of Defense Authorization Bill: As noted previously, the Senate version of the Defense Authorization Bill includes weakened language for the Endangered Species Act (ESA), exempting military lands from Critical Habitat designations. Environmental groups succeeded in pushing an amendment putting some legal teeth into wildlife habitat plans on military lands that would replace the stronger Critical Habitat Designations under the ESA.
The House version is by far the worst bill. The "small take" permit process of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), which is currently limited to small numbers of marine mammals in restricted geographic areas, would be broadened for anyone, so there would no longer be a numerical or geographic limits to the government issuing a "small take" permit. Also, the provision proposed by the Pentagon to allow Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and his successors to exempt the military from the MMPA for any reason was also left in the House version. The House version further exempts military lands from consideration as Critical Habitat under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and exempts the Navy and other military agencies from provision of the MMPA in several important ways. Clearly, the Senate version is the better of the two. However, we are hearing rumors that the Republicans are leaning towards the House version, or at least including some MMPA exemptions in the final bill for Congress. Furthermore, environmental clean-up language that both houses of Congress left out of the bill is now being revived, reducing or eliminating the need for the Pentagon to clean up toxins and hazardous waste left on military lands, if approved by the conference committee. The public must stand up to the military and DEMAND that Congress maintain environmental laws that apply to the Dept. of Defense to protect endangered species, marine mammals, and human health!
To learn more and what you can do, contact:
Mark J. Palmer
Assistant Director
International Marine Mammal Project
Director
Wildlife Alive
Earth Island Institute
300 Broadway, Suite 28
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 788-3666 x139
(415) 788-7324 (fax)
mpalmer@cal.net
http://www.earthisland.org
7) Restore FCC Media Regulations
Common Cause
July 21, 2003
Media Clout Trumped!
Last week about 75 television network executives descended on Capitol Hill to tell Congress that the nearly two million Americans who have voiced their opinion on the new FCC media ownership rules are wrong thanks to your help, the network power play didn't work.
The strong bipartisan movement in both chambers to restore the FCC rules made significant progress last week. The House Appropriations Committee basically voted to restore the ownership cap to its original 35% limit by refusing to fund the implementation of the regulation. In the Senate, the bipartisan Stevens-Hollings bill, picked up six additional co-sponsors, Senators Bob Graham (FL), Hillary Clinton (NY), Jack Reed (RI), Saxby Chambliss (GA), Joseph Biden (DE), and Norm Coleman (MN).
We must keep the pressure on because this legislation needs to move quickly through Congress. Why? The clock is ticking. Unless Congress acts, the FCC can put these new rules into effect, perhaps as early as September- if Congress does not overturn these rules before it officially comes time to begin to implement them, much will be lost!
Email your Representative and Senators now with a very simple message. "We want a media that is diverse, competitive, and engaged with the local concerns of the communities where we live. Please sponsor and support any effort to undo the FCC rules changes that benefit only big media. In the House, that means supporting H.2052, and S.1046 in the Senate."
==> ACT NOW:
http://causenet.commoncause.org/afr/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=2911686
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Global Warming Alert * Stirling-Waste-Electricity * Bio-Fuels
08 July 2003
1) Global Warming Alert
2) Stirling Engine for Waste Heat Power Systems
3) "The Apollo Project" 10-point plan for energy independence
4) Process for New Sustainable Fuel Resources
Editor's Notes:
This issue of Flyby News is dedicated to sustainable energy resource solutions, and not a moment too soon. Item 1 begins with an astonishing admission by the World Meteorological Organisation. The weather is going haywire, and continued severe climate changes seem inevitable. As reported previously, besides publishing this news service, I am a founder of Stirling Advantage, Inc., a company that has designed a 200kW+ Stirling Engine to convert heat to electricity. Item 2 is on the patent issued for our design to convert waste and other heat sources for onsite commercial-industrial electric power generation. Item 3 is on a new initiative to help get government more behind sustainable and clean energy. Item 4 is a press release on a new project to process waste to fuels. There are a lot of heavy-hitters behind this project. James Woolsey, former Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, is a senior advisor to Changing World Technologies, Inc. They are funded in part by US government grants and a joint venture with ConAgra. Inc..Howard Buffett, who represents ConAgra's investment said, "We've got a lot of confidence in this We wouldn't be doing this if we didn't anticipate success.." This is just one more example how innovative technological solutions can reduce pollution, and encourage the use of sustainable resources with economic and environmental benefits. Having these heavy hitters is not bad when the results will lessen CO2 output.
Please note a correction from last editor's notes. (Thanks for feedback from subscribers.) Michael Ruppert was NOT ex-CIA.. Back when he was an L.A. cop, he was asked to work for the CIA but instead of joining up he discovered direct CIA involvement in the heroin trade and ended up dedicating himself to exposing such things. Somewhere on his web site is an article detailing those events.' I also learned that Ruppert's source with Mike Vreeland proved untrue, I will research this more, and a claim that he was unsupportive of sustainable energy programs, like The Apollo Project, perhaps over-relying on his focus on "peak oil." Perhaps it is too late to change the course of events threatening human and most all life-species now on Earth, but trying to make a difference is living a life with integrity and possibilities, which is a much better choice than going down the tube of indifference, denial, and ignorance.
Please note, the article by Malachi Roth in prior issue of Flyby News on why Dennis Kucinich will win, has been revised.
On the July 17 presentation of "What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy" Flyby News will also include the showing of a new film by Malachi Roth: "The Peace Candidate," which includes speeches by Dennis Kucinich, interviews with supporters, and clips of recent peace demonstrations. To order this film, you can contact Malachi by email at: malachiroth@mindspring.com
For more information on films and resources regarding Dennis Kucinich, visit
Flyby News updated resources on Kucinich for US President in 2004
1) Global Warming Alert
Reaping The Whirlwind
Extreme Weather Prompts Unprecedented Global Warming Alert
July 3, 2003
In an astonishing announcement on global warming and extreme weather, the World Meteorological Organisation signaled last night that the world's weather is going haywire.
In a startling report, the WMO, which normally produces detailed scientific reports and staid statistics at the year's end, highlighted record extremes in weather and climate occurring all over the world in recent weeks, from Switzerland's hottest-ever June to a record month for tornadoes in the United States - and linked them to climate change.
The unprecedented warning takes its force and significance from the fact that it is not coming from Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth, but from an impeccably respected UN organisation that is not given to hyperbole (though environmentalists will seize on it to claim that the direst warnings of climate change are being borne out).
The Geneva-based body, to which the weather services of 185 countries contribute, takes the view that events this year in Europe, America and Asia are so remarkable that the world needs to be made aware of it immediately.
The extreme weather it documents, such as record high and low temperatures, record rainfall and record storms in different parts of the world, is consistent with predictions of global warming. Supercomputer models show that, as the atmosphere warms, the climate not only becomes hotter but much more unstable. "Recent scientific assessments indicate that, as the global temperatures continue to warm due to climate change, the number and intensity of extreme events might increase," the WMO said, giving a striking series of examples.
In southern France, record temperatures were recorded in June, rising above 40C in places - temperatures of 5C to 7C above the average.
In Switzerland, it was the hottest June in at least 250 years, environmental historians said. In Geneva, since 29 May, daytime temperatures have not fallen below 25C, making it the hottest June recorded.
In the United States, there were 562 May tornadoes, which caused 41 deaths. This set a record for any month. The previous record was 399 in June 1992.
In India, this year's pre-monsoon heatwave brought peak temperatures of 45C - 2C to 5C above the norm. At least 1,400 people died in India due to the hot weather. In Sri Lanka, heavy rainfall from Tropical Cyclone 01B exacerbated wet conditions, resulting in flooding and landslides and killing at least 300 people. The infrastructure and economy of south-west Sri Lanka was heavily damaged. A reduction of 20-30 per cent is expected in the output of low-grown tea in the next three months.
Last month was also the hottest in England and Wales since 1976, with average temperatures of 16C. The WMO said: "These record extreme events (high temperatures, low temperatures and high rainfall amounts and droughts) all go into calculating the monthly and annual averages, which, for temperatures, have been gradually increasing over the past 100 years.
"New record extreme events occur every year somewhere in the globe, but in recent years the number of such extremes have been increasing.
"According to recent climate-change scientific assessment reports of the joint WMO/United Nations Environmental Programme Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the global average surface temperature has increased since 1861. Over the 20th century the increase has been around 0.6C.
"New analyses of proxy data for the northern hemisphere indicate that the increase in temperature in the 20th century is likely to have been the largest in any century during the past 1,000 years."
While the trend towards warmer temperatures has been uneven over the past century, the trend since 1976 is roughly three times that for the whole period.
Global average land and sea surface temperatures in May 2003 were the second highest since records began in 1880. Considering land temperatures only, last May was the warmest on record.
It is possible that 2003 will be the hottest year ever recorded. The 10 hottest years in the 143-year-old global temperature record have now all been since 1990, with the three hottest being 1998, 2002 and 2001.
The unstable world of climate change has long been a prediction. Now, the WMO says, it is a reality.
Source: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=421166
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Other related websites and resources:
http://Global-Warming.net / http://GreenhouseEffect.net
http://Acid-Rain.net / http://Extinct.net
A July 2003 Commentary in the Guardian (London) by George Monbiot, called: "Shadow of extinction"
States: "Only six degrees separate our world from the cataclysmic end of an ancient era." Monbiot's commentary concludes:
"..Suddenly, the events of a quarter of a billion years ago begin to look very topical indeed. One of the possible endings of the human story has already been told. Our principal political effort must now be to ensure that it does not become set in stone."
For the complete article, with links and resources, see:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,988380,00.html
George Monbiot's book The Age of Consent: a Manifesto for a New World Order is published by Flamingo.
Monbiot's website is: http://www.monbiot.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Flyby News archives has excellent resources on
The Mounting Evidence of Global Warming!!!
2) Stirling Engine for Waste Heat Power Systems
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Stirling Advantage Announces Patent for Waste Heat Power System
ATHOL, Mass. June 12, 2003. Stirling Advantage, Inc., today announced the award of its first U.S. patent (6,568,169) covering large scale engines to convert waste industrial heat to electricity. The new design utilizes a fluidic piston to reduce unswept gas volumes, or "dead space", in the engine's cold-side heat exchanger. Dead spacetechnically, compressed gas inside the engine whose energy potential is unusablesaps Stirling engines of potential efficiency, and represents one of the classic problems in Stirling engine design.
The company's patented method is a novel approach to the problem that holds the promise of both increased efficiency and lower operating costs. "Reducing dead space improves the volumetric efficiency of the engine and should lead to better fuel utilization," notes Stirling Advantage CEO, Ricardo Conde. "And fluid pistons offer other advantages, like reduced friction and better sealing properties, which lower operating costs."
Fluidic pistons have been used in other Stirling engines but not for the specific purpose of reducing unswept volumes. "To use lower temperature waste heat effectively, we needed to take the technology further," says Conde. "Our challenge has been not only better efficiency, but also delivering it at industrial scale. We think we have done both with this design."
Last year Stirling Advantage announced a new engine designed exclusively to convert waste industrial heat to electricity. Industries using very high temperature process heatglass, ceramics, cement, metals, petrochemicalswaste massive amounts of heat that remain after the processes are completed. In addition to improving industrial fuel efficiency, the added electricity will require no new fuel to be burned and, thus, will create no incremental emissions. Applied globally this technology can play a significant role in cutting the growth of fossil fuel use and the associated greenhouse gas emissions.
Stirling Advantage, Inc., is the leading designer of commercial and industrial scale Stirling engines. Its highly efficient 200kW and, later, 1MW engines will be used to produce electricity from a variety of heat and fuel sources, and to produce chilled water for large air conditioning applications.
SOURCE: Stirling Advantage, Inc.
CONTACT: Dick Meloy, Vice President, Stirling Advantage, Inc., 203-328-3045
###
Ricardo Conde will be presenting a workshop at SolarFest in Poultney Vermont, at noon, Sunday, 14 July. The workshop is describe the development of a Stirling engine to convert waste heat and/or sustainable fuels into efficient and cost-effective commercial/industrial onsite electrical power generation. Stirling engines were prominently used in the 19th Century, and still in use today.
For more information, visit www.stirlingadvantage.com
or from FlybyNews.com or following link, see: "Stirling Solution for Onsite Electrical Power Generation"
3) "The Apollo Project" 10-point plan for energy independence
New Plan for Government Investment in Renewable Energy and
Energy Efficiency Cuts Persian Gulf Oil Imports in Half.
"The Apollo Project" is a 10-point plan for energy independence proposed by
A HISTORIC COALITION of labor unions, environmentalists, and peace
advocates. If adopted by our government it would:
* Create three million jobs
* Protect the environment
* Improve public health
* Cost $30 billion/year for 10 years (7% of the Pentagon budget)
To send a message to all the PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES urging them to support this plan, link to this following URL:
http://www.truemajority.org/ctt.asp?u=98401&l=42
For more info on "The Apollo Project," see:
http://www.apolloalliance.org
4) Process for New Sustainable Fuel Resources
Press Release from Changing World Technologies, Inc
West Hempstead, NY, April 8, 2003 Changing World Technologies, Inc. announces the first commercially successful application of thermal technology to convert organic waste into clean energy. Building on scientific research dating to the 1920s and human history extending from the Stone Age, CWT has patented, tested and deployed a technological process that has been awarded $12 million in grants from the US government and produced a joint venture with ConAgra Foods, Inc.
Utilizing low-value waste by-products such as tires, plastics, municipal sewage sludge, paper, animal and agricultural refuse as feedstocks, CWT's thermal technology provides a commercially viable solution for some of the earth's gravest environmental challenges, including arresting global warming by reducing the use of fossil fuels, and reforming organic waste into a high-value resource. In addition, it has the potential to substantially reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
"If the process works as well as its creators claim, not only would most toxic waste problems become history, so would imported oil," says Discover magazine, which features a full-length article on CWT's thermal process in the May 2003 issue.
"From the point of view of pollution and the point of view of energy production, this is a remarkable story. This technology offers all of us an opportunity someday to have a more peaceful and a freer world, a world that is not dependent on turbulence and chaos," said R. James Woolsey, former Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency and a senior advisor to CWT.
Cornerstone Technology
Where earlier attempts at thermal conversion failed, CWT's thermal process succeeds in breaking down long chains of organic polymers into their smallest units and reforming them into new combinations to produce clean solid, liquid and gaseous alternative fuels and specialty chemicals.
The conversion process emulates the earth's natural geothermal activity, whereby organic material is converted into fossil fuel under conditions of extreme heat and pressure over millions of years. The cornerstone technology, called Thermal Depolymerization Process or TDP, mimics the earth's system by using pipes and controlling temperature and pressure to reduce the bio-remediation process from millions of years to mere hours.
The process entails five steps:
(1) Pulping and slurrying the organic feed with water.
(2) Heating the slurry under pressure to the desired temperature.
(3) Flashing the slurry to a lower pressure to separate the mixture.
(4) Heating the slurry again (coking) to drive off water and produce light hydrocarbons.
(5) Separating the end products.
TDP is 85% energy efficient. The process has very low Btu requirements, due to the short residence times of materials at each stage and to the holding of water under pressure. In addition, it generates its own energy, utilizes recycled water throughout, and uses the steam naturally created by the process to heat incoming feedstock, thereby recapturing expended energy. In addition, TDP produces no uncontrollable emissions and no secondary hazardous waste streams.
"This is not an incremental change. This is a big, new step," said Alf Andreassen, a principal of Paladin Capital Group and former Technical Advisor for Naval Warfare and Science Advisor to President George Bush. "In Europe, there are mountains of bones piling up" due to new regulations for handling bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, he says. "When recycling waste into feed stops in this country, it will change everything."
Plant Commercialization
To test and refine the technology, CWT established a Research & Development plant at the Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) Naval Yard in partnership with the Gas Research Institute, which opened in December 1999. There the company successfully applied its thermal conversion process to a range of feedstocks, including animal waste, tires, mixed plastics and paper.
"This project and the work that Changing World Technologies is doing in Philadelphia will revolutionize the way we deal with waste products on a broad commercial scale, the production of energy, and the reduction or elimination of waste by-products which enhances economic development improving air quality, our quality of life as well as our environment," says Denise Chamberlain, former Deputy Secretary for Air, Recycling & Radiation Protection for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
"The Environmental Protection Agency doesn't even consider us waste handlers. We are permitted as manufacturers. Our process has undergone the scrutiny of an Environmental Assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and received a Finding of No Significant Impact, or FONSI," said Brian Appel, CWT Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "This process changes the whole industrial equation. Waste goes from a cost to a profit."
ConAgra Foods was one of the first enterprises to express early interest in the commercial application of CWT's thermal process. A joint venture between the companies was entered into in December 2000 for the first commercial application of the technology for the conversion of poultry offal at one of ConAgra's large Butterball Turkey plants. When it is commissioned later this month, the $20 million facility in Carthage, Missouri -- funded in part by a $5 million grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency -- will process 200 tons per day of fats, bones, feathers, grease and oils.
"If the technology is successful, it could offer enormous opportunities to address farm waste problems in the Midwest. It could be applied to all sorts of other wastes. This looks extremely positive," said William Rice, EPA Acting Regional Administrator.
According to Howard Buffett, who represents ConAgra's investment, "We've got a lot of confidence in this We wouldn't be doing this if we didn't anticipate success."
"This is a remarkable opportunity to use new technology to turn a troublesome liability waste into a valuable asset renewable energy," said Senator Christopher (Kit) Bond of Missouri, when construction of the Carthage plant first began.
For more information, visit CWT at
http://www.changingworldtech.com
or call (516) 486-0100.
Contact:
Julie Gross Gelfand
CWT Press Office
(516) 536-7258
jgelfand@hldcreative.com
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Kucinich Will Win * Moore's Garden * Ruppert * Nader
04 July 2003
"It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government."
- Thomas Paine
1) Why Dennis Kucinich Will Win
2) MoveOn Primary Results
3) Willie Nelson Endorses Kucinich for President
4) I Never Promised You a Rose Garden - Michael Moore
5) Update by Michael Ruppert - Beyond Bush
6) Nader on Running and on Dennis Kucinich
Editor's Notes:
Reclaiming the Fourth
The campaign of Dennis Kucinich is on the move. This issue again focuses on his campaign since it is the best chances for reclaiming democracy in the US, for peace in our world. Last Sunday I had the honor of meeting Dennis Kucinich again. He confirmed his support of Instant Run-off Voting, which would include a multi-party, more democratic system in the US. Kucinich spoke at a forum at Sacred Hearts University in Fairfield CT for a US Department of Peace and about a campaign to achieve this vital mechanism for nonviolence and humanity.
Dennis acknowledged my being there at the very beginning of his campaign for US President, and he mentioned reading and appreciating Flyby News. I gave him a two-page letter/report for his consideration, the prior issue of Flyby News, other documents, the book by Karl Grossman called The Wrong Stuff: the Space Program's Nuclear Threat To Our Planet. He mentioned receiving this from Karl, but appreciated another copy. It was Karl Grossman and Carol Rosin that helped unite us on the campaign to ban space-based weapons. And when Bush abrogated the ABM Treaty, it was clear that another campaign was needed to respond. Dennis Kucinich has answered this call, but I never anticipated the depth, passion, eloquence, ability, commitment and personal realism associated with this man. Besides Grossman's book, I also gave Dennis a copy of Leonard Peltier's inevitable classic: Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sundance. Dennis at the peace forum spoke about transforming the US prison system, about ending the federal death penalty, stopping unfair prison [slave] labor. Yet most remarkable about Dennis' presentation is his ability in bringing in spiritual ideals into politics that encompass universal concepts. I usually squirm when someone tries to be spiritual. Yet Dennis' sincerity and viewpoint is inviting and non-denomination, bringing light into matter, into politics. He grounds his philosophy with an impressive record of accomplishments and dedication. His leadership in the US House of Representatives demonstrates courage and integrity.
Besides an incredible meeting with Dennis, for the first time in person, I met film maker and activist, Malachi Roth. Malachi's article is item 1. Yet to really feel his words, I strongly advise your ordering his newest film: The Peace Candidate. It is only twenty-minutes. The full documentary will take more time, but he made this film for activists for the campaign. It includes Dennis Kucinich's wonderful speeches, an exciting sound track with powerful demonstration clips against the so-called preemptive war on Iraq, interviews, which provide a cohesive collage of sights and feelings to inspire and educate.
Item 2 is on the MoveOn Vote results. Dennis has made incredible progress. Item 3 is an endorsement/statement by Willie Nelson worth reading, as well as the next item, a recent letter by Michael Moore to G.W., mixing humor and realism in a way that only comes from irreverent true to the bone, patriot, Michael Moore. And the final item in this issue is an update from Michael Ruppert beyond Bush. The item also updates on Ruppert's 911 investigation ad in major newspapers, and other relevant information.. Item 6 is on a segment of Ralph Nader's interview on CNN's Crossfire, responding to running for President in 2004. Here again is another good reason for supporting Kucinich, since Nader claims that running against Dennis would be the most difficult Democratic candidate to run against..
Frank Dorrel's film, "What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World" will be shown at the Keene, NH public library on July 17 beginning at 6pm. This issue of a secret twisted government need someone like Dennis to bring light to forefront. For this reason we are combining the showing and promoting of this film with the Kucinich for President campaign. Dennis received a copy of this film earlier from Frank Dorrel, but I gave him this most recent edited version. Dorrel says that the film is being shown at theaters, and he continues to sell them at cost for their widespread distribution, and invites others to make copies, to show at community TV station, and for other venues. I also gave a copy of this film to Malachi Roth. Following is a response from Malachi:
"..Also I watched the Dorrel video and once again you are right on the money in terms of spreading it around. I even knew much of the information and had seen many of the excerpted films but having it all together in one package effected me in a way very few films have. It made me face just how hypocritical we are when we point fingers at others for their atrocities. I immediately got the urge to do what your doing in trying to get as many to see it as possible. Thank you so much for all the amazing work you are doing in that regard and will do to get my Kucinich piece out. If every person of influence saw the Dorrel film this would most likely be a completely different country. Though that may not happen any time soon it's a great tool for awakening people.."
For more information on this film, and the program to show it in Keene, NH, see FlybyNews.com under campaigns, actions, and events at FlybyNews.com
The next Flyby News issue will have a press release on a newly issued patent for a sustainable energy technology and related stories. Feel welcomed to visit the site and listing of events, including on SolarFest where downloaded information from Flyby News will be available, on July 12 and 13 in Vermont.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
WALK FOR AMERICA 7/4/03
Granny D will open a walk for America. A on July 4, 2003 from Dublin NH where it begins a trek for peace to Keene at Central Square around 4 pm. A program on the Square will start at 5:00 pm with the Nelson Town Band, followed by Keene Mayor Blastos presenting of the keys of the city to Granny D., brief speeches by Granny D. and John Rauh who will explain how we can achieve public funding of all elections for Just Six Dollars per person. There will be street theater as well as citizens presenting a Peoples State of the Nation address.
For more information on this walk, contact :
Gerhard Bedding, 603-355-2202 E-mail: gbedding@earthlink.net
Monadnock Freedom Forum, P.O. Box 194, Keene, NH 03431
1) Why Dennis Kucinich Will Win
THE RACE IS STILL YOUNG
Why Dennis Kucinich will win and why choosing a candidate based on his electability is a recipe for disaster.
by Malachi Roth
Dennis Kucinich will be our next president because there has never been a man of such caliber running for president in our nation's entire history. His honesty, sincerity, morality, genuineness, and immunity to the corrupt nature of power are unprecedented. We have never seen such a candidate run for high office. We are so used to superficial cookie-cutter politicians being forced down our throats with expensive advertising that we think it takes a person like that to win, even though we hate them. Too often we hear the dual complaints, good people dont go into politics and the choices are dismal but when one of our own throws his hat into the ring most scoff and claim he will never win our hearts by using passion and principal to appeal directly to our hearts.
New York Times-reading liberals couch their dismissal of Kucinich in statements suggesting that it is other people who will never vote for him. They say things like, Well, I like him but the rest of the population wont so Im going for Dean. In essence they condescend to the rest of the population for being more superficial and right wing than they are. In truth the people of Kucinichs own district are far more representative of average America than the urban elites dismissing him as unelectable and theyve been voting for him for years. Liberals are assuming that average Americans who already love Kucinich by the tens of thousands across the country would rather vote for Dean because he is more moderate. Entering any contest with such a defeatist attitude and based on such a misreading of the American people is, in my view, sure to bring defeat.
Dean is simply a not-so-liberal elitist who appeals to liberal elitists because liberal elitists are apologists who are often embarrassed of their liberalism and try to hide it or make excuses for it. Thats the kind of liberal that Black and Latino communities especially dislike; the ones that act liberal but spend their entire lives enriching Republicans through their various professions. If we dont believe in the integrity of our employers or those we purchase our goods from it makes little difference who we vote for. Our real voting power lies in what we do with our lifes energy and where we spend our money.
On the issues Kucinich is the obvious candidate for liberals and the peace/activist community and yet he also appeals to labor and working class voters. The only people Dean, Kerry, Lieberman, Edwards, Graham really appeal to is our corporate overlords. So what liberal Dean supporters are really saying is that Kucinich is bound to anger our corporate overlords and will therefore never raise the millions of dollars necessary to brainwash the public into voting for him. Thank god for that. Any candidate who does receive the blessing of the corporate elite simply cannot be trusted. Perhaps campaign finance reform needs to begin in our collective psyche. In essence we are trying to create regulations, which keep the wealthy elite from influencing the rest of us through propaganda. Perhaps we have to teach ourselves to be less susceptible to that propaganda before we will be able to pass laws to regulate it. The obvious example is Germany when the republic was still intact but Hitler was prime minister. The opposition tried political methods to keep him from becoming dictator but the Nazis were using psychological warfare techniques, which have nothing to do with politics.
The only way to combat psychological warfare is for every citizen to become rigorously informed. We must teach ourselves to be politically and morally sensitive in ways we have been moving away from for years. In order to change course we must become as free of economic and spiritual corruption as humanly possible. There will always be forces trying to corrupt us; this is how we are lured into a psychological trap where our guilt causes us to dig our pit of denial deeper and deeper to keep out the light of truth and reason.
A big problem is that we are so used to our psychic chains that freedom scares us. It is as if the electorate has just wandered out of the desert and is offered glasses of sand rather than water with the excuse that it is what they are used to, and the amazing part is they drink it. Choosing a candidate based on electability is like assuming that because voters have just come out of the desert they would prefer a glass of sand to a glass of water.
There is a thirst in this country and around the world for relief. Most can see that the human situation has become far more dismal than anyone imagined it would. Most know deep down that the root of the problem lies with people like Bush, Wolfowitz, Lieberman, Kerry, etc and not with a few angry terrorists or petty dictators. It has become obvious to anyone paying attention that the terrorism plaguing the globe is coming from above, not below.
The thirst is not just for change. We know how difficult and tumultuous change is; this time it must be worth the effort. The thirst now is for enlightenment itself. We quietly yearn to become elevated as a species to a place where we can figure out how to make the world run in a humane, efficient, safe and environmentally sound manner. We cant grasp why we are so prone to empower criminals in the highest levels of our society and allow them to fool us with their thinly veiled duplicity over and over again.
We know that our hard working and our best and brightest have over history identified the problems and come up with a great many solutions. The difficulty seems to be in implementing them and synthesizing them into a universal system of ethical standards, which everyone can agree upon. Global standards which people stick to out of a sense of self-preservation would be far more useful than a world government made up of the same corrupt entities and corporate front men who rule the world today. The reason this is not more obvious is because in many respects we have been divided and conquered as a global population.
There are millions of voices around the world speaking of the challenge before us. These conscientious global citizens see the situation more clearly than the rest and are in the process of educating themselves and the masses through a multiplicity of methods. The scale and breadth of this effort is unfathomable and uniquely collective. The causes of peace and justice are finally starting to gain serious momentum at the exact moment that the Kucinich campaign is finding its legs and spreading like wildfire. He is the next great American leader, but only one man among many men and women are the true heroes among us, using every ounce of their strength and cunning to conjure up the best impulses in the people around them. It is they and the people who are activated by their energy who will carry Kucinich to the White House and mandate massive reforms in our system. Deep down we all know that a spirit of cooperation with the world community and the enactment of strong international laws will end economic tyranny and the accumulation of military power once and for all.
This is not only possible but inevitable. Humans may be easily manipulated by unfounded fears but they also react decisively to real ones. As we come closer and closer to facing extinction through self-annihilation we begin to invent the exact mechanisms needed to survive. Right now many are wishing they could go back to sleep and avoid taking part in the painful task of overhauling life as we know it. The rest, however, are gathering together and beginning a historical discussion about the next phase of human evolution. It is at those gatherings that the name Kucinich is starting to become permanently etched into the dialouge and history of our nation and the world. He is already a legend and is well on his way to becoming one of our most mythic presidents.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
You can contact Malachi Roth where you can inquire about the Peace Candidate film, which is now available, and a Kucinich Documentary in the Works:
by Email: malachiroth@mindspring.com
or
Voice-mail at (212)822-8545
For more info see this Flyby News archive issue link in item 2: Kucinich Documentary in the Work
2) MoveOn Primary Results
Howard Dean did get more votes than anyone else, but fewer than 50%. thus, MoveOn is not endorsing a candidate, yet. Dennis Kucinich was the surprise winner of the vote, coming in second with 76,000 votes from a low-budget grassroots campaign.. John Kerry came in third. Everyone else got single digits. Following is from MoveOn.org.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Jessica Smith or Trevor FitzGibbon,
Friday, June 27, 2003 - Fenton Communications
No Candidate Wins Majority
in MoveOn.Org PAC First-Ever Democratic Online "Primary"
No endorsement now
Estimated $1.75 million raised in pledges to Democratic contenders
Most votes to Dean, followed by Kucinich, Kerry
Friday, June 27, 12:00pmNo candidate won a majority in this week's first-ever Democratic online presidential primary, therefore MoveOn.org PAC will not make an endorsement at this time. Howard Dean received the highest vote total with 43.87% of the vote (139,360 votes); followed by Dennis Kucinich with 23.93% (76,000 votes); and John Kerry with 15.73% (49,973 votes).
The rest of the field was in single digits: John Edwards, 3.19% (10,146 votes); Richard Gephardt, 2.44% (7,755 votes); Bob Graham, 2.24% (7,113 votes); Carol Moseley Braun, 2.21% (7,021 votes); Joe Lieberman, 1.92% (6,095 votes); and Al Sharpton, 0.53% (1,677 votes).
MoveOn.org PAC hailed the primary as a tremendous kick-off for the campaign to defeat George Bush next year:
* 317,639 votes were cast in the "primary," more than the 2000 New
Hampshire Democratic presidential primary, the Iowa and South Carolina
Democratic presidential caucuses, combined;
* 54,370 voters pledged to volunteer for their preferred Democratic
contender;
* 77,192 voters authorized MoveOn.org PAC to give their e-mail
addresses to the candidate of their choice; and
* 49,132 voters pledged to contribute money to their candidate, for a
total estimated at more than $1.75 million ($35 average contribution).
"And one of the most promising results for Democrats in 2004, is that most MoveOn.org voters said they would enthusiastically support' a broad array of candidates as the party's nominee next year," said Wes Boyd, MoveOn.org PAC treasurer.
"This is only the beginning," continued Boyd. "Our most important objectives have been met: early Democratic grassroots involvement; increased contributions and volunteer support for each campaign; and mobilization of the Democratic base to defeat George Bush. We wanted people to have a seat at the table, and they have taken it."
The complete results, along with some analysis, are available on our website at
http://moveon.org/pac/primary/report.html
3) Willie Nelson Endorses Kucinich for President
One of the most beloved figures in popular music and culture has endorsed the populist presidential candidate, Dennis Kucinich.
STATEMENT FROM WILLIE NELSON
"I am endorsing Dennis Kucinich for President because he stands up for heartland Americans who are too often overlooked and unheard. He has done that his whole political career. Big corporations are well-represented in Washington, but Dennis Kucinich is a rare Congressman of conscience and bravery who fights for the unrepresented, much like the late Senator Paul Wellstone. Dennis champions individual privacy, safe food laws and family farmers. A Kucinich Administration will put the interests of America's family farmers, consumers and environment above the greed of industrial agribusiness.
"I normally do not get too heavily involved in politics, but this is more about getting involved with America than with politics. I encourage people to learn more about Dennis Kucinich at http://www.kucinich.us and I will be doing all I can to raise his profile with voters. I plan to do
concerts to benefit the campaign."
(This is an individual endorsement and does not reflect the views of any organization.)
"It's an honor," commented Rep. Kucinich, "to earn the support of a man who has come to symbolize the best values of America."
4) I Never Promised You a Rose Garden - Michael Moore
I Never Promised You a Ruse Garden --
A Letter from Michael Moore to George W. Bush
June 26, 2003
Dear Lt. George W. Bush,
I hope you don't mind me referring to you by the only true military rank you ever achieved, that being the one from your on-again, off-again "days" in the, um, Texas Air National Guard. Ever since I saw you in that flyboy outfit, landing on that ship, I assumed you now wanted to be addressed by your military title, as opposed to the civilian rank imposed on you by your dad's friends.
So, Lieutenant, I was wondering, would you do me a favor?
Could you PLEASE do better than a ROSE BUSH?
I saw the guy on TV yesterday that your boys found, the Iraqi who said he had "planted" some nuclear plans in his "back yard" in Baghdad -- 12 years ago -- "under a rose bush."
Woo boy. That's a good one. Do you really think we are as dumb as we look? I know our fascination with "American Idol" and Scott Peterson may make us Americans look a little light in the head, but when it comes to lying to us to lead us into war, we really do demand a bit more of an EFFORT and a FOLLOW-THROUGH.
You see, George, it's not the lying and the doctoring of intelligence that has me all upset. It's that you've had control of Iraq for over two months now -- and you couldn't even find the time to plant just a few nukes or vats of nerve gas, and at least make it LOOK like you weren't lying to us.
You see, by not faking some evidence of weapons of mass destruction, it shows that you thought no one would mind if it turned out you made everything up. A different kind of president, who believes that the American public would be outraged if they ever found out the truth, would go to great lengths to cover up his subterfuge.
Johnson did it with the Gulf of Tonkin. He said our ships were "attacked" by the North Vietnamese. They weren't, but he knew he had to at least make it LOOK like it happened. Nixon said he wasn't "a crook," but he knew that wasn't enough, so he paid hush money to the burglars and somehow had 18 1/2 minutes erased from a tape in the Oval Office. Why did he do this? Because he knew the American people would be pissed if they found out the truth.
Your blatant refusal to back up your verbal deception with the kind of fake evidence we have become used to is a slap in our collective American face. It's as if you are saying, "These Americans are so damn apathetic and lazy, we won't have to produce any weapons to back up our claims!" If you had just dug a few silo holes in the last month outside Tikrit, or spread some anthrax around those Winnebagos near Basra, or "discovered" some plutonium with that stash of home movies of Uday Hussein feeding his tigers, then it would have said to us that you thought we might revolt if you were caught in a lie. It would have shown us some *respect*. We honestly wouldn't have cared if it later came out that you planted all the WMD -- sure, we'd be properly peeved, but at least we would have been proud to know that you knew you HAD to back up your phony claims with the real deal!
I guess you finally figured that out this week. It started to appear that millions of us were calling you on your bluff -- those "fictitious reasons for the fictitious war." So you quickly produced this man and his rose bush and some 12-year old piece of paper and some metal parts. CNN broke in at 5:15pm and screamed they had the exclusive! "IRAQI NUCLEAR PLANS FOUND!" But a few good reporters started asking some hard questions -- and, barely 3 hours later, your own administration was forced to admit the plans were "not the smoking gun" proving that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
Oops.
Never a good idea to rely on a bush, Lieutenant.
Yours,
Michael Moore
- - - - - - - -
http://www.michaelmoore.com
5) Update by Michael Ruppert - Beyond Bush
BEYOND BUSH
Powers above the White House are deciding that it's time for the Bush gang to go. As a Watergate-style take down is being meticulously put into place, the question is not whether the Bush Administration will be removed before or after the 2004 election. The important questions are whether Bush's successor will address 9/11, Peak Oil, civil liberties, or any of the critical issues. What is being done even now to control the challengers in the Presidential election? A clandestine drama is unfolding and we'll help you understand it. This special free series is a must-read going into 2004.
July 1, 2003 - PART I - The anatomy of the coup against Bush. How it is being set-up as a form of damage control. How the press is building to a climax that may break even after Bush has won (bought or stolen) re-election. How the CIA is hanging Bush out to dry.
For the complete article: BEYOND BUSH - Part I by Michael C. Ruppert, see:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/070103_beyond_bush_1.html
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[Flyby News editor's notes:]
For a Time Magazine article: "The War That Never Ends"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/070103A.shtml
Here's some interesting results of a June 24, 2003 Newsday Bush Poll,
Asking if You Would Vote For Bush in 2004
17.8% Definitely (387 responses)
80.1% Absolutely Not (1740 responses)
2.1% Undecided (46 responses)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Ruppert's 911 Ad Update
As of July 1, 2003 FTW has placed insertion orders and written the check for our full page ad to run in the following newspapers:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Miami Herald
The Boston Globe
The Arizona Republic
Because in most cases all we are provided with is a time window in which the ads will run all we can say at this point is that FTW subscribers and those who contributed so generously to make this happen should start looking for the first ad to run sometime in the week of July 7th.
We are continuing our battles with censorship in some mainstream papers and we are winning some of them. We will say more when we can. We can promise you this: There will be some pleasant surprises coming.
Good news: New York is a lock!
Stay tuned
Watch this page for new news and updates:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/ad_updates.html
6) Nader on Running and on Dennis Kucinich
CNN CROSSFIRE
Interview with Ralph Nader
Aired July 1, 2003 - 16:30 ET
[Excerpt]
Robert Novak questioning Ralph Nader about Need for Green Party Presidential in 2004 if Dennis Kucinich Wins Democratic Nomination
NOVAK: I'm going to try once again why is it that you don't think that Dennis Kucinich, Howard Dean, they're saying exactly what you're saying. Well, why do you have to run again when you've got people on the left and the Democratic Party saying the same thing you are?
NADER: Well, you raise an interesting point. If Dennis Kucinich gets the nomination, it'll be less reason to have a third-party challenge. He's a very progressive Democrat and his views actually are closer to Jim Carville's than many of the nominees, potential nominees, not to mention Gore and Lieberman.
Number two, around Labor Day I'm going to send a progressive agenda to
the Republican, Democratic Parties, not the candidates, and see how they react. We've got serious problems in this country that are being ignored, we've got serious necessities...
NOVAK: Why don't you run as a Democrat?
NADER: First of all, it's not the Democratic Party any more that I know. It's not Carville's Democratic Party, it's the Democratic Leadership Counsel, it's the corporate Democrats, it's Al Frome (ph). It's a party that is selling itself to the same corporate interests that the Republican Party's been selling themselves to.
For the complete transcript, see:
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0307/01/cf.00.html
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Kucinich Can Be Elected * Al Qaeda FBI Spy +
26 June 2003
"The people united can never be defeated!"
1) Kucinich Can Be Elected
2) Kucinich: We're Gaining Ground
3) Important Articles on the War on Freedom
- - Inexperienced Hands Guide Iraq Rebuilding
- - Mishandling of Afghanistan Allows Taliban Revival
- - Ex-Bush Aide's Blast On Security
- - Bush Declares Student an Enemy Combatant
- - Brooklyn Bridge Al Qaeda Bomber was FBI Spy
- - We do know some things about what happened on September 11
Editor's Notes:
Each one of us can legitimately feel overwhelmed by being conscious of what is happening in today's world. The dark forces unleashed against humanity and nature are awesome. We see big doings on mainstream media with tornadoes, forest fires, droughts, floods, social and political unrest, terrorism, war, and then we read what is behind the scenes, or listen to Democracy Now, and start seeing a pattern of a takeover of the US government by crazy, power-influenced, greedy, self-fearful manipulated, neoconservative-militants.
Scott Ritter said that the word "conservative" can be defined as being fundamental. He told of his oath to protect and defend the principles of the US Constitution. Frank Dorrel's film compilation called "What I've Learned About U.S. Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World," documents the US intelligence agency joining forces with former Nazis and mobsters, and the twisted lies and media manipulation to conduct a war on freedom and the environment.
The most effective way to confront it and turn it all around is to elect Dennis Kucinich as President of the US. Item 1 is a piece about the ripeness of these times and the candidate that can make a Kucinich win happen. Our choice is to follow or take leadership. Item 2 is another recent announcement by Dennis on his campaign, which is picking up momentum. On the GobeNet list serve someone described all the people responding to the Kucinich MoveOn campaign as "Kucinich spam!" And this is on the list serve supposedly working to ban weapons from space. Sometimes political groups get so caught up in the fight against an evil, that they can't see a strategic choice or direction for answers or a solution to the problem. The fractionation of political groups has been an obvious problem to me especially since our campaign to stop the Cassini Earth flyby. Many were too caught up in their campaign, that they didn't see the correlation and strategic actions to unite. Now is the time for a Primary that could totally transform the country and its direction. The least we can do is try to make a difference when change is possible. We each need to expand our world to find common ground and unity for change; the choices remain for us with either fear or love.
Thanks for reading, and especially for actions on campaigns to help secure freedom, justice, and yes, democracy.
Thursday, 26 June 2003 is the 28th anniversary date of a shoot-out at Oglala-Lakota nation at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota that led to Leonard Peltier's incarceration for more than 27 years. For the statement that Leonard wrote to be read on this day at Oglala, which will be read at other events, too, see:
Leonard Peltier - Oglala Statement and Strategy
"..So, how do we deal with our issues with the U.S. government? I say democratically, through the politicians. I know this is hard to believe. You voted for candidates you trusted....I want you to get out there and advocate that our People register to vote. It is a weapon we can use.."
- - Leonard Peltier
1) Kucinich Can Be Elected
Whole-hearted support + Word of Mouth + Internet = Geometric Progression = Kucinich
[Excerpted]
by Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D.
Chances are that you will hear about Dennis Kucinich, Democratic candidate for President, from someone you know who has heard him speak. Imagine having someone run for president who is intelligent, principled, spiritual, courageous, a person with depth, humor and compassion!
(Invariably, there are lots of positive adjectives). And, your friend will comment, "You'll really like what he stands for!" All true. Chances are that you then may hear yourself parroting the voice of conventional wisdom: "Yes, but how could Kucinich possibly win?" One of the "Yes, but .. discouraged comments I even got from one of my friends was," He is a wonderful man but he will not be president, he is too short and too radical."
Listen up! This article is about how twenty-first century communication plus whole-hearted, altruistic support makes it possible for Dennis Kucinich to become the Democratic candidate who beats Bush. This potential is a mathematical reality based on the social dynamics of reaching a critical mass. As unlikely as it may seem at first glance, Kucinich can be elected.
..John F. Kennedy was the first president elected with the help of television coverage, Dennis Kucinich can be the first president elected with the help of websites and emails. In the last presidential election, 106 million of the156 million registered voters actually voted. There are probably only two or three degrees of separation between those of us who have or will respond positively to Kucinich early in this election and the number of people needed to win the Democratic nomination, which is the first task.
The largest identifiable group that holds the similar views as Kucinich is the fifty million Cultural Creatives, sixty percent of whom are women. According to the data and research, we are Americans who care deeply about ecology and saving the planet, about relationships, peace, social justice, self-expression, and spirituality. We are both inner directed and socially concerned. We are optimistic, altruistic and idealistic, and believe in gender equality and reproductive choice. Especially relevant in a political campaign, we are volunteers, activists, and contributors to good causes. Neither those of us who fit into this category nor political strategists realize that in numbers and in influence that we have the potential to shape 21st century America by our active, whole-hearted support of Dennis Kucinich. (A second category of voters who respond to Dennis Kucinich as one of their own are working class people. This is a whole other constituency that trusts him to do right by them.)
Word of mouth epidemics follow the same geometric progression as the epidemiology of AIDS or SARS. A virus or an idea held at first by a few, spreads rapidly to many, and reaches a critical mass or "tipping point" and becomes an epidemic. This is how Dennis Kucinich as the least known candidate and without millions of his own or from special interests, could get his message out and be elected.
The most famous example of a word-of-mouth epidemic was Paul Revere's famous Midnight ride. On April 18, 1775, Revere and others in Boston became convinced that the British invasion was set for the next day. At 10 PM, he jumped on his horse and rode to Lexington, stopping in every town along the way to pass the word. The news spread like wildfire -- or like a contagion -- as those alerted by Paul Revere sent out riders with the message and roused their communities by ringing the church bells. The next morning when the British began their march toward Lexington, the region was prepared. In Concord, they were soundly defeated. The American Revolution had begun.
There were actually two midnight riders that night. Paul Revere took the message northwest of Boston, while William Dawes took it to the southwest. Both men carried the same message, rode through just as many towns and over as many miles, but Dawes' ride had little effect. In Gladwell's analysis--which is very relevant for a word of mouth campaign, it was because of the difference between the two men. People whose words are believed are not distinguished by worldly status and achievement, but by the particular standing they have among their friends and in Revere's case in the number of people who knew him as well. The people who can mobilize a word of mouth epidemic are known and trusted. They are information gatherers, connectors, persuaders, innovators or early adopters. If you are reading this, you are likely to be such a person.
I heard about Dennis Kucinich from Gina Thompson, an old friend who called me up and said that after she heard Dennis speak, she became involved in a political campaign for the first time in her life. She and John, her registered Republican husband hosted a fund-raising, meet-the-candidate event at their house, which provided the opportunity for me to hear him speak publicly as well as talk to him informally. To my amazement, I found that he had read The Tao of Psychology..
..The Hundredth Monkey in the allegorical story was the monkey who, upon learning a new behavior, tipped the scales, so that monkeys who were not even in direct communication now changed what they did. When a critical mass is reached, in this theory, new attitudes and behavior will spread through the species unconsciously. This can either be deducted through researched examples or grasped intuitively.
Dennis Kucinich can win when a critical number of people support his candidacy whole-heartedly. Lukewarm support for another Democratic candidate will not beat Bush. Whole-hearted support generates a commitment that is contagious to others. Go to http://www.kucinich.us or http://www.house.gov/kucinich to learn about him, read his speeches, and check out what he stands for and the largeness of his vision for America and for America's participation in a global community. Once you are convinced, commit yourself and providence will move, too.
..Dennis Kucinich now occupies a dark horse position. He is a Congressman from Ohio, who is not yet considered in the running by the media. Meanwhile, below the CNN and Fox News radar, the word is getting out -- Dennis Kucinich is for real and he can be elected.
May 31, 2003
Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D. is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst in private practice, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of California Medical Center, and an internationally known lecturer. She is the author of Goddesses in Older Women, The Millionth Circle, The Tao of Psychology, Goddesses in Everywoman, Gods in Everyman, Ring of Power, Crossing to Avalon, and Close to the Bone.
2) Kucinich: We're Gaining Ground
Statement from Dennis Kucinich:
WE'RE GAINING GROUND. Our campaign has progressed dramatically in the last several weeks. The wonderful exposure of the MoveOn Primary has dramatically increased our fundraising. We passed $1 million yesterday when we took in over $100,000. As you know, we receive federal matching funds on all contributions up to $250.
The MoveOn voting deadline is in a few hours. But another key deadline, June 30, is the fundraising filing deadline. Please donate to our expanding campaign in the next few days.
https://www.kucinich.us/contribute.php
Another exciting campaign development is that I've just added 3 top professionals to our growing staff. Starting immediately Gary Jelinek will be the campaign manager. To more fully devote myself to campaigning, I've found someone in whom I have total confidence and trust. He brings 30 very successful years of experience in business, nonprofits, and political campaigns. Most recently, he was regional director of "Rebuilding Together," a nonprofit that helps low-income
homeowners. We attended college together and he is -- in a very real sense -- family. He managed my first successful campaign in 1968 for Cleveland City Council, and is the ultimate grassroots organizer.
Dan Spinner is the new director of fundraising, with 20 years in nonprofit, charitable and political fundraising. He is a partner in LMI Enterprises, which has contracts with groups such as the Chopra Foundation and Esalen Institute. Third, we've added Suzanne Van Bebber as Gary Jelinek's assistant with the national campaign management. She was our California Field Coordinator; when I met her, she was the coordinator of the Global Renaissance Alliance's Peace Circles.
Join us at http://www.kucinich.us
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The following was excerpted from the K campaign Monday June 23
:..An interesting exchange occurred at yesterday's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Candidates' Forum, in answer to a question about the "Digital Divide" that separates minorities and the poor from middle class whites in computer access. Congressman Dennis Kucinich received warm applause when he declared: "As long as we're spending so much money for the Pentagon, and so little money for education, we're going to have all kinds of divides in this countryThe only way we're really going to close the divide in this country is to start cutting the Pentagon budget and put that money into education."
Howard Dean spoke next and commented: "I don't agree with Dennis about cutting the Pentagon budget when we're in the middle of a difficulty with terror attacks."
That's a stark contrast on one of the biggest questions facing Democrats. Dean describes himself as a fiscal conservative adamant about balanced budgets. But if the soaring Pentagon budget is untouchable, are we being candid with voters about delivering them an enhanced domestic agenda that Democrats can be proud of? With Democratic candidates promising increased spending in such areas as healthcare, education and the environment, how can the federal budget be balanced while Pentagon cuts are deemed off-limits?
Dennis Kucinich has made cuts in the bloated military budget central to his campaign. He has repeatedly pointed out that Pentagon spending will soon rival the military budgets of all other countries in the world combined, that unneeded and Cold-War era weapons are still being produced, that Star Wars missile defense is a boondoggle, and that the Pentagon has a trillion dollars in unreconcilable accounts..
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For the Kucinich platform in a 2-page flier:
http://www.kucinich.us/issues/issue_10key.htm
To volunteer in the campaign that is rallying grassroots activists in support of national health insurance; an end to 'preemptive' war; a "Global Green Deal" creating jobs and renewable technologies; a Cabinet-level Department of Peace; repeal of the "Patriot Act," withdrawal from NAFTA and WTO; fortified Social Security; workers' rights; civil rights for all: http://www.kucinich.us/volunteer.php
For Dennis Kucinich's upcoming speaking engagements, see:
http://www.kucinich.us/schedule.htm
(Today's event is a platform to speak on the same stage with Ralph Nader in Baltimore.)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For an independent website that compares
Kucinich and Dean on the issues
see: http://www.bobharris.com/kucinichdean.html
An informed electorate is a democratic electorate.
3) Important Articles/Resources on the War on Freedom
- - Inexperienced Hands Guide Iraq Rebuilding
U.S. Military Lacks Skills For Task, Some Officials Say
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, June 25, 2003; Page A01
BANI SAD, Iraq -- Two months after the fall of Baghdad, the critical task of postwar rebuilding and governance of most Iraqi cities remains in the hands of U.S. military personnel, almost all of whom lack expertise in government administration and familiarity with the Arab world.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A28227-2003Jun24?language=printer
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Mishandling of Afghanistan Allows Taliban Revival
June 25, 2003
Remember the Taliban? Yes, the bad guys who got kicked out of Kabul, courtesy of U.S. forces and warlord militias. Well, they're back. Actually, they never really went away in Afghanistan, despite the trouncing they got.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.newsday.com/templates/misc/printstory.jsp?slug=ny-vpafg253345140jun25§ion=%2Fnews%2Fopinion
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Ex-Bush Aide's Blast On Security
By Thomas Frank
WASHINGTON BUREAU
June 25, 2003
Washington - A former White House counterterrorism adviser who recently quit his job publicly criticized the Bush administration yesterday for what he called inadequate funding and weak oversight of domestic security.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.newsday.com/templates/misc/printstory.jsp?slug=ny-usbeer253345409jun25§ion=%2Fnews%2Fnationworld
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush Declares Student an Enemy Combatant
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
WASHINGTON, June 23 " President Bush made a surprise decision today to remove a Qatari student from the criminal justice system and declare him an enemy combatant after prosecutors said new evidence linked him to another round of terrorist plots by Al Qaeda after Sept. 11. ....Because he was declared an enemy combatant, Mr. Marri was moved from a prison in Illinois to a military brig in South Carolina, according to Lawrence S. Lustberg, who represented him in the criminal case. As an enemy combatant, Mr. Marri can be held indefinitely, and he has no access to a lawyer unless the military decides to bring charges, officials said. The case represents the first time that the administration is shifting custody of someone charged by criminal prosecutors to the military as an enemy combatant, administration officials said
For the complete article, see:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/24/politics/24TERR.html?ex=1057032000&en=10313890dc944132&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Brooklyn Bridge Al Qaeda Bomber was FBI Spy
Captured al-Qa'eda Man was FBI Spy By David Rennie
The Daily Telegraph
Monday 23 June 003
The American al-Qa'eda operative unmasked last week as having planned to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge was first detained in March, and has been used by the FBI for months as a double agent, it was reported yesterday. US authorities waited until last week to announce a plea bargain struck with Iyman Faris, a Pakistani-born lorry driver ordered to scout out terror targets, including the New York landmark. They did not say that Faris, who was also ordered to study ultralight aircraft, and the possibility of derailing a train into a chemical storage facility in Washington, had been under FBI control for months.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062403F.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - We do know some things about what happened on September 11
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
For an extensive report, see:
http://www.xymphora.blogspot.com/
In summary, 9-11 and the wars which follow it (and I think it important to see 9-11 in the context of all the outrages it has served to excuse, as the think tankers obviously do) show us how the published plans, which describe the ultimate goal of American complete dominance of the world through having a monopoly position on the weaponization of space, are being implemented through the use of 9-11 as a 'Pearl Harbor' event to convice the American people and legislators of the necessity of steps which would never be considered in the absence of the 9-11 terror. Both NORAD and the FBI played important roles in dropping defenses at critically important times in order to allow 9-11 to occur. The main conspirators are the White House think tank warmongers, the Pentagon, and the FBI. Of course, while we can see the broad outlines of how the conspiracy operated, we still do not know the mechanics of its planning and financing. Later, I will consider some suspicious entities that probably didn't play much of a role in 9-11: the CIA (I think the CIA is ironically a patsy in this case, although it appears to play a role in the cover-up), the State of Israel (as opposed to the Likudniks in the Bush Administration who represented what they felt were Israel's interests in advocating the war on Iraq and the future wars on Iran and Syria), al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
For the complete report, see:
http://www.xymphora.blogspot.com/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Preserve your right to vote
Received from constitutionalrestoration@yahoogroups.com
June 25, 2003 From: Scott
"Continuity of Government" (COG) is hoping anguish over 9/11 will stampede Congress into voting for its constitutional amendment to take away our right to vote for our U.S. representatives. The deadline for the vote is this year's anniversary. Wealthy foundations behind COG are prepared to have 38 states ratify the proposed amendment within just 14 months. The House and Senate will soon hold hearings on COG's proposed amendment.
We have no time to lose. Many of you have asked what you can do to STOP COG. The most important action you can take right now is to tell others about COG and our effort to build a nationwide INFORMED opposition to it. We must inform and organize literally hundreds of thousands of people within the next two months to present a tidal wave of opposition when Congress gets ready to
vote on the proposed constitutional amendment.
You won't want to miss a minute! Check the latest items, including "Unnecessary and Dangerous" by Professor Emeritus Charles E. Rice of Notre Dame Law School, on http://www.ProtectYourVote.org ...and spread the word.
Kent Snyder
The Liberty Committee
http://www.thelibertycommittee.org
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Leonard Peltier - Oglala Statement and Strategy
June 26, 2003
Statement by Leonard Peltier:
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota
June 26, 2003
Greetings Oglalas, Lakotas, Friends and Supporters.
Twenty-eight years have gone by since the Jumping Bull Ranch was invaded by the FBI. For those of you who never lived on a Reservation ("Rez"), understand that this was not an uncommon thing. Native Americans did not enjoy the same rights and protections of the U.S. Constitution. Instead, we were treated as a colonized and occupied nation. And this is what we were. U.S. laws were forced on us. The U.S. military draft. Paying taxes? Every time we bought a loaf of bread, a gallon of gasoline - anything - we paid federal and state taxes. Don't ever believe that Native Americans do not have to pay taxes.
Yes, as I said, their laws were forced on us - yet, we did not enjoy the protection of those laws. During the 1950s, the then President signed into law the termination of all Indian Reservations. Can you imagine that? That meant every Rez would no longer exist by the year 1985. In 1954, when this law was signed, Native people had just helped them win two world wars. Remember the Code Talkers, the warriors on the front lines, and the Indian women who worked in the veterans hospitals and as welders, building war ships. My Aunt Rose was a welder in the ship yards. As soon as the war was over, she was fired so her job could be given to a white man. This was common after the war. So, my Aunt Rose was not singled out. She just was one of the many victims of racist America. So, this was our reward for the contributions we made with our lives and labors, so that White Americans could live in their comfortable homes under the safety and protection of the U.S. Constitution. Our reward was complete genocide of our nations and, in the end, our people.
Brothers and sisters, look around you. That part of the plan is still in effect. Look at what it is doing to our blood line. With all this intermarriage, it's changed the full appearance of our people. That has always been part of the plan. Breed the Indian out of the Indians. How do we fight that? Well, that's a good question. We certainly cannot just out-right forbid our children from intermarrying. Now, they have laws against discrimination and they will use it without hesitation against any of us who try to enforce a "no intermarriage" rule. But if we are to live, then we must come up with something.
The American Indian Movement (AIM) tried its best to reverse this terrible loss of culture happening to our people. We revived the culture. We revived pride in ourselves as Indian People. Of course, AIM members were labeled racist. We still are! They labeled us as communist, too, which is hypocritical as this is not what communists advocate. In fact, they advocate the total opposite. Racist! Again, this is an outright lie. Do I or any of you hate White people? I mean, look deep inside yourselves and the answer will be no, because we know there are a lot of good-hearted White people who are legitimately concerned about the genocidal acts still being committed against Native Nations. They want to help and support us.
You should also remember our history. At one time, the government's policy was that the only good Indian is a dead Indian and the White Quakers lobbied the government to stop this policy. The Quakers were once the most powerful religious group in the U.S. So, if they had not stopped the government from doing this, there would be even fewer of our people here today. Remember, they massacred us by the thousands. Wounded Knee is not the only evil massacre that happened.
Sometimes it may seem hopeless for many of us. I know. I feel this hopelessness every moment of my life. You and I feel the same attacks on our sovereign rights. I feel and experience it through the justice system. If I had broken any laws, then I should have been prosecuted on the Oglala Lakota Nation where the so-called crime took place, not taken hundreds of miles into Fargo, North Dakota - the most anti-Indian community in America - and judged by a group of openly racist Americans. Look at the record of persons who sat on my jury. One freely admitted to hating Indians.
As you know, the FBI has been withholding thousands of documents in my case. Never forget that, at my trial, the court ordered all the evidence released because that was my constitutional right. Remember also, for years, they told us they only had a little over 6,000 but would not release them because of national security. Well, that is one more lie they have been telling us all of these years. Now we learn they have had hundreds of thousands of documents. We just had 32,000 released from the FBI Headquarters in Washington, DC, and another from the Special Prosecutor's office in Rapid City - a little over 6,000. I believe the Chicago FBI field office has thousands also. The FBI field office in Minneapolis, MN, has over 42,000 more, but they are resisting their release. So I have to go to court to try and get them released. By the time we are finished, there will have been something like 100,000 to 150,000 documents that were illegally withheld in my case.
All my documents are now supposed to be historically significant. The 32,000+ documents that we have were also sent to the National Archives. But, unlike the ones turned over to me, they were uncensored. Our next move is to analyze all of these documents, trial transcripts, appellate briefs, etc., by computer. Right now, we are talking about at least 150,000 documents. This includes the extradition hearings from Canada. This is just a rough estimate, but after we receive the Minneapolis and Chicago documents, we will have perhaps over 200,000. So, what I'm trying to do is get one of these computer programs that will analyze these documents for us. This way, if I want to know what a specific witness or prosecutor or FBI agent has said or written in my case, I can ask for it, and it will all be there in chronological order. This will make the research much faster and more thorough and nothing will be missed. We have researched some of the documents manually and have found a couple of good pieces of evidence of FBI misconduct. Enough to re-open the case. We found more perjury by government witnesses and intentionally-committed fraud by the government's prosecutors. There is no statute of limitations on fraud. So, there may be some hope there. We will see. But we need to do more thorough research so that we don't miss anything this time.
So, how do we deal with our issues with the U.S. government? I say democratically, through the politicians. I know this is hard to believe. You voted for candidates you trusted. Some of them turned out to be the worst politicians. I'm speaking about Tom Daschle and Bill Clinton. Do you remember? Clinton drove through the Oglala Lakota Nation at a hundred miles an hour, stopped to make a short speech, took a few photos, and raced off the Rez again at 150 miles an hour. He knew about a planned proposal to take land from the Lakotas. That is what he, Daschle, and Jankelow met about and discussed. You know that land was on the agenda. It's always on the agenda. Clinton also lied to you and our tribal leader when he asked, "Who is Leonard Peltier?" Clinton knew who I was when he began his first campaign. Wherever he went in the U.S., many People that shook his hand asked him to free me. And around the world people put up banners with my name on it at his appearances. Foreign leaders such as Jerry Adams asked him face-to-face to release me. Indian people who worked in his administration and non-Indian people also - one of his biggest financers and associates who ate dinner with him - asked him to grant me clemency. So, he lied when he denied knowledge of who I was. Clinton misled Indians and the millions of people around the world who supported my freedom. Clear up to the day before he made the deal to save his butt from going to jail. His staff attorney asked us to prepare a statement that Clinton could read as to why he granted me clemency. I heard the special prosecutor say in a press interview that there were other charges they could have indicted Clinton on besides the perjury charge we were all told about. Then, on the day Clinton announced the deal he made with the government to save himself, we knew something was wrong because the White House refused to accept our phone calls. I learned later that in his deal with the Justice Department, there were five clemency petitions Clinton was not to sign. I was one of the five.
But, in no way am I trying to discourage you from voting. In fact, I am doing the opposite. I want you to get out there and advocate that our People register to vote. It is a weapon we can use. I wrote to you about this in the 90's. But here is the fact. Right now this country is evenly split down party lines. And, as you know from the last election, Gore won the popular vote by somewhere over 300,000. But Bush still won? Well, that is in question still today according to the Florida Voting Commission. As recently as the 1st of June, they would not release the count from those uncounted ballot boxes. So, how do we fight? How do we fight this kind of oppression? Indian Nations should be on guard because there are a lot of these neo-conservatives who still want to terminate our Nations. Well, now we know that our low numbers in population can and do count in an election. So, we must use our new weapon to its fullest. We have to. It's a must. Get out there and encourage our People to register to vote. Remember, we also have millions of our supporters here in the U.S. who will follow our lead. You must make it become the in-thing, the new fad among our People to become a registered voter. You must become the new warriors. Make it something popular, to be proud of. You young people with your music bands and drummers, write songs about it. You rappers, write your rap songs. You only have a little over a year to do this before the next national election. Assuming Bush lets you vote. The last time, Bush won by a little over 500 votes, not 5,000. In the end, he was selected by the Supreme Court which the Republican Party appointed! The Supreme Court isn't elected by the people. Do not believe polls. They are rigged by just the way they ask their questions. Of course, the selected people, mostly the people they call, are the ones who work for the weapons manufacturers, so they have a special interest in seeing there is a war. Hell, if they didn't say yes, they wouldn't have a job. But when the pollster calls them, they ask, "Do you support the President's decision to go to war with Iraq?" A country the media had de-humanized as an evil demon. And stop Saddam Hussein from using his weapons of mass destruction? Remember they claimed Iraq had "700 tons" of the chemical Anthrax, and mustard gas, possible nuclear warheads, thousands of scud missiles. You name it. Saddam was armed to the teeth, a threat to the world, over five hundred thousand heavily armed in a well-trained army.
Well, now it seems as if the US army cannot find any of these weapons of mass destruction not as much as a micro dot. And they have searched every mini-van, every truck. They even searched barbecue grills. Their claims were that they (Iraqis) could have used them to cook the chemicals. What? Are we morons to believe this? But, so far they have searched government vehicles, looked under every suspicious rock. Nothing!! So, where are these weapons of mass destruction? Now they are claiming Iraq is a big country and they could have hidden them anywhere. What did Saddam's soldiers do? Ask the civilians to hide a missile in their garages - if they had any, of course. Pull up to someone's home and say, "Here, hide these canisters in your attics, basements, closets"? Even if this, an impossible stunt, could have happened, don't you think after the U.S. government invaded and the Iraqi government was overthrown that someone, just one family, would have told some soldiers by now, "Hey, get this stuff out of my yard!"? Of course they would, because this stuff is dangerous and just a little leak in one of those canisters could wipe out a whole neighborhood. Well, don't worry, the FBI is there now. And we Indians know they are the best at planting and fabricating evidence. So, something will surely come up soon. The war, by the way, is not over. U.S. soldiers are still killing people by the dozens. U.S. soldiers are dying every day. And one morning you're going to wake up with CNN News blaring, "We found the chemicals!" And if you ask, "Hey, why are all of those canisters looking so freshly painted?" Well, remember, under the new Patriot Act, you just might go to prison for questioning this government.
I would like to say to all of you young people here today (who may not know of our own history), this Iraq war is no different than the tactics used in the wars against us. First, they de-humanized us by calling us Red Savages, rapists of white women, and kidnappers of their children. Indians were raiding and killing innocent White people who only wanted to cross our lands to go visit their relatives in California. After they had depleted our food sources -- buffalos, deer, elk, etc. - and weakened our tribes with their diseases, they came with the light of dawn and massacred our People. And for what? Our lands. The minerals above and underneath our lands. For Iraq, it was their oil. It is as simple as that. There were no other reasons! I could go on and on about the government's lies - the lies they've told Indians and the public at large.
I want to introduce you to Debbie Peebles, one of my new Defense Committee Leaders. And hey, look! She is a Native woman. A real sister from the Chippewa Nation. I have known the Peebles' family since I was a freshman in high school. Debbie's mom was a teacher on the Rez - way back in the day. Debbie Peebles will be speaking to you on my behalf if she hasn't already. Debbie and the LPDC Board has organized what we are calling, the Native Initiative. We hope to organize a million, if not then at least 500,000 registered voters in Indian Country. I know there will be some who will say, "Shhh, they cannot do that. Who does he think he is?" But during the peak of my clemency campaign, the LPDC website was receiving one million hits and visits a day. Not bad, but we also know we can and will do better.
Now to put this Native Initiative into action, it is going to take money and a lot of it. Money we do not have. Again, I know there will be some who will say that's what the LPDC always says. I even heard rumors that I was a millionaire. Hey, the fact is I am broke. In fact, I owe a year's tuition for my grandson's school, but because of these rumors, right now the Committee is literally surviving on the sales of my art work that I donate to it. And we are just treading water and can go under at any time. I know I should not put our dirty laundry out in public, but you're my People. Some of you have been fighting for my freedom from day one of my arrest, so you deserve to know the truth. The old guard has tried to destroy the Defense Committee. Some of them are illegally holding my websites hostage. Two websites from two different people. I also want you to know the people who are doing this are not just White people. Some are Indians too, or at least are supposed to be.
One last word about the Committee's financial problems and if you still disbelieve them, you do not even need to drive down to Lawrence. Call the bank and say I have this check here from the LPDC. I just sold them my car or trailer house and I want to know if this check I have here is good. It's for, let's say, $30,000. Can I deposit it in my bank? You can even go lower than that, say $10,000. I would not go lower than that because Debbie might have a few paintings sold here shortly. But the point is that this is not a lot of money for someone who is supposed to be so rich. I am not making any of this up, people. I do not have time this late in my struggle for my freedom to cause disruption in my efforts for freedom. I'm too old for that. The only thing I need is to go forward, move this campaign to a higher level - for the People. I need your help, my People. I need for you to get behind the LPDC Board of Directors: Debbie Peebles, Cathy McCarthy, and Thomas Dockstader. Also support the LPDC staff: Delaney Bruce and Emily Siebel (also known as Bengal), our intern. Work with them. Give them your full support. Do not let people speak ill of them. And these people who go around claiming we are rich, tell them to stop and quit being jealous. All they are jealous of is my misery. I do not like it here. I hate prison life. All I want to do is go home to die. We can show you our books and bank account. We are not even healthy. We have to worry about how we are going to pay next month's bills. My words are not to ask you for money. I know you're having a hard time yourselves. I know life is not easy for any of us on these reservations. I do hope it is a little better than the old days, but again I tell you this so you will hear it from me.
Finally, I would like for all of you to always remember our bothers and sisters whose sacrifice we remember here today. I am thinking especially of Joe Killsright Stuntz and Anna Mae Aquash - who are buried here - Pedro Bissonnette, June Little, and the many others who died or were tortured during the Reign of Terror here at Pine Ridge. Let us also remember our sister Nilak Butler, who passed within the last year. And in the spirit of reconciliation, let us also remember and pray for FBI special agents, Jack Coler and Ron Williams, who also died on this day 28 years ago. They were victims too.
Thank you for coming out today and thank you for your support.
Mitakuye Oyasin.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Leonard Peltier
For more on inside the movement to free Leonard Peltier, see:
Leonard Peltier and FBI Misconduct - & What You Can Do About It!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
KucinichMoveOnUpDate * WMD Accountability * K-Videos
24 June 2003
"We must use time wisely and forever realize
that the time is ripe to do what is right"
- Nelson Mandela
1) Vote for Dennis - June 24 - MoveOn Presidential Primary
2) Demand White House Evidence on Iraq
- - Whimper of Mass Destruction
- - Online Petition: "Demand White House Evidence on Iraq
3) Kucinich - Power Parable for an Unlikely Crusade
- - Ben Cohen endorsed Dennis Kucinich for President
- - Kucinich Videos / DVDs available from JusticeVision.org
4) Running the Nation into a Fiscal Trainwreck'
Editor's Notes:
Coming from the vintage point of a news publisher out of a campaign to stop/expose the high risk Cassini Earth flyby, the world appears to be steadfastly accelerating its pace toward a widening gap of potential catastrophic [man-made] consequences. The path of Cassini was US military-led, and its next step and stated interest was to dominate the heavens to dominate Earth. Joining the campaign was a Congressman who introduced legislation to preserve space for peace, and aimed to reverse the path of the arms race. Since then I have continually been appreciating the heroic, courageous, eloquent, and strategic actions of Dennis Kucinich. He listens, acts, and is of, for, and by the people.
Please respond ASAP to the MoveOn Presidential Primary, register and vote on June 24! MoveOn has been one of the leading grassroots peace organizations in the US. Please respond to their request for your vote and participation and support a peace candidate for US President in 2004. Your involvement can help unite a movement for world peace, security, and balance for the health of our shared ecosystem.
Item 4 is an Op/Ed piece by Jim Culleny on the Bush group's plan to wreck the economy. Check the link, this is well worth your reading and considering, as you take action in the MoveOn vote. This could prove pivotal for Kucinich and most all life on Earth.
= =
This Thursday, 26 June 2003, is the anniversary date of a shoot-out at Oglala-Lakota nation at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota that led to Leonard Peltier's incarceration for more than 27 years. For more information on this and other campaigns, actions, and events at http://www.flybynews.com
1) Vote for Dennis - June 24 - MoveOn Presidential Primary
From MoveOn: Just a quick reminder: Voting begins in the MoveOn Presidential Primary on June 24. Keep an eye on your inbox for your special email ballot. Please get others involved -- forward this message to your friends. If they are not already on the MoveOn mailing list, they will have to register to vote in the primary here:
http://moveon.org/pac/reg
If you'd like to get to know the candidates more before you cast your vote, we have letters to the MoveOn membership from each of them on our website, as well as their responses to MoveOn members' questions. Here are the links:
Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun: www.moveon.org/pac/cands/braun.html
Governor Howard Dean: www.moveon.org/pac/cands/dean.html
Senator John Edwards: www.moveon.org/pac/cands/edwards.html
Congressman Dick Gephardt: www.moveon.org/pac/cands/gephardt.html
Senator Bob Graham: www.moveon.org/pac/cands/graham.html
Senator John Kerry: www.moveon.org/pac/cands/kerry.html
Congressman Dennis Kucinich: www.moveon.org/pac/cands/kucinich.html
Senator Joe Lieberman: www.moveon.org/pac/cands/lieberman.html
Reverend Al Sharpton: www.moveon.org/pac/cands/sharpton.html
Sincerely,
--Carrie, Eli, Joan, Peter, Wes, and Zack
The MoveOn Team
June 22nd, 2003
---
Paid for by MOVEON.ORG PAC, P.O. Box 9218, Berkeley, CA 94709. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. Website: http://www.moveonpac.org
2) Demand White House Evidence on Iraq
- - Whimper of Mass Destruction
- - Online Petition: "Demand White House Evidence on Iraq"
Congressional Republicans Refuse To Hold Republican President Accountable
Refuse Open Hearings Into Iraq's WMD
Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH), the leader of the opposition to the war in Iraq in the House, again took to the House floor today to continue his pressure to demand the truth about the Administration's lead-up to the war in Iraq.
Today, Kucinich stated:
"Protection of the truth and the Constitutional role of Congress as a co-equal branch should not be a partisan matter. Yet, yesterday Republicans in the House International Relations Committee stonewalled an investigation of the Bush Administration's false claims that sent America to war against Iraq.
"The Resolution of Inquiry backed by 40 members of the House sought to protect Congress' role in asking the Administration where is the proof that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction? Where was proof of an imminent threat?
"Unfortunately, as panic sets in over the realization that the Administration misled the American people in the cause of war. Republicans are refusing to hold public hearings. Republicans are refusing serious oversight. Republicans are refusing open oversight. Republicans just won't make Republicans accountably.
"That is the problem with one party rule. Our democracy is endanger if we do not make this Administration accountable. They sent this country into war based on lies and in doing so have damaged the legitimacy of their own government.
"Where are the weapons of mass destruction?
Where was the imminent threat?
Why did America go to war?"
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Whimper of Mass Destruction
Mondo Washington
Whimper of Mass Destruction
by James Ridgeway
What Didn't They Know? When Didn't They Know It?
June 18 - 24, 2003
Mondo Washington this week:
A group of some 36 backbenchers in the House of Representatives is getting set to force the Republican leadership to take a stand on the continuing controversy over whether weapons of mass destruction exist in Iraq.
The House members, led by Democratic presidential long shot Dennis Kucinich, will submit "a resolution of inquiry" to the International Relations Committee, requesting that Bush turn over within 14 days "documents or other materials in the President's possession that provide specific evidence" in 10 instances where Bush, VP Cheney, or Defense Secretary Rumsfeld claimed that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. These include Cheney's August 2002 assertion that "there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction"a claim that was reiterated by Bush in September at the UN and in October at a speech in Cincinnati, along with further claims by Cheney and Rumsfeld. The latter said on March 24, with much assurance, "We have seen intelligence over many months that they have chemical and biological weapons, and that they have dispersed them and that they're weaponized and that, in one case at least, the command and control arrangements have been established."
The resolution amounts to a subpoena to the president by Congress. An arcane feature of the House rules, it has been used infrequently, once in 1980 in an attempt to elicit facts relating to President Jimmy Carter's brother Billy and his dealings with the Bolivian government, and once under Clinton in connection with the White House travel-office scandal. It seeks facts and nothing else.
A majority vote by the committee would put the resolution on the House floor. Either in the panel or on the floor, the GOP leadership will without doubt move to quash it. In doing so, the Democrats reason, the Republican leadership will not only be carrying forward the White House cover-up, but will be putting itself on record in backing the cover-up, a step that conceivably could have repercussions in next year's elections.
There are 36 co-sponsors, including seven New York members, led by Charlie Rangel and including Maurice Hinchey, Major Owens, Carolyn Maloney, Jerry Nadler, and Edolphus Towns.
Additional reporting: Phoebe St John and Joanna Khenkine
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Online Petition: "Demand White House Evidence on Iraq"
[hosted on the web by PetitionOnline.com]
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/affero03/
3) Kucinich - Power Parable for an Unlikely Crusade
- - Ben Cohen endorsed Dennis Kucinich for President
- - Kucinich Videos / DVDs available from JusticeVision.org
Washington Post
Power Parable for an Unlikely Crusade
Campaign Pulls Bright Spot From Dark Story
By Juliet Eilperin
Fourth in a series
In 1978, Cleveland was in free fall. The banks were pressuring the city's young and diminutive mayor, Dennis J. Kucinich, to sell the city's municipal electricity system to cover $4.5 million in debt. Kucinich refused, and the city went into default.
The next year he lost his reelection bid, and at 33, he entered what he now calls "the dark night of the soul." He had trouble finding any kind of work. A job at a newspaper fell through, as did one at a local radio station. He couldn't even become a spokesman for a paint and home supply store after one of its major investors objected. His marriage fell apart. He took refuge on the speaking tour circuit and in teaching communications classes at local universities, but Kucinich had become a pariah.
But by 1994 many voters, thankful for their low electricity rates, had forgiven him. He distributed placards in the shape of a light bulb with the slogan "Because He Was Right," and unseated a Republican state senator.
Two years later he won his House seat, defeating GOP Rep. Martin Hoke, this time with the slogan "Light Up Congress."
Kucinich's decision to hold on to the municipal power company is still controversial. John Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron, said he suspects most Clevelanders still oppose it. "Everything's colored by the fact that the city went bankrupt," he said. But, for Kucinich, the episode has become a parable in his campaign to win the Democratic nomination for president. "When that story is told, it will be instrumental in getting me elected," he said in an interview. "Where it once was an albatross, now it's a springboard."
The story of Cleveland's municipally owned light plant embodies Kucinich's worldview, the view he hopes voters across the country will embrace: that the United States is in danger of losing its very soul, and that only a crusader such as Kucinich can stand up to the corrupt corporations and their political lackeys who are leading the country down this dangerous path.
Kucinich has a vision of how his administration would dismantle the corporate power structure he sees as destroying America's promise. He wants to repeal the North American Free Trade Agreement so U.S. companies can't take advantage of cheap labor in Mexico. He plans to use antitrust laws to break up monopolies, be they agribusiness or communications. He wants to slash defense spending, defying influential military contractors who extract billions from the nation's budget.
At 56, the four-term congressman sees himself as a bold messenger who is willing to say what others in his party cannot. More than a year ago in Los Angeles he gave a speech, called "A Prayer for America," opposing military action in Iraq. People across the country e-mailed and called him, telling him he should consider a presidential bid. By autumn, he started taking the idea seriously.
But while much of his campaign centers on ideology, it is just as much about his personal experience of defeat and redemption. To have kept trying in the face of defeat and then to finally reemerge as a stronger person is an experience he believes many Americans will relate to.
"It's really not as much about politics as it is about the heart," he said. "It's about seeing there are endless possibilities in life."
At a time of voter unease about the economy and government encroachment on civil liberties, Kucinich seems to have struck a chord with many Democrats. But his candidacy remains a hard sell, in part because of Kucinich himself. Even among liberal Democrats who dominate the party's nominating process, he is just a shade too far to the left. It's one thing for former Vermont governor Howard Dean to oppose the war in Iraq; it's another to propose, as Kucinich does, that the country establish a Department of Peace. Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.) suggests giving companies a tax break for health care; Kucinich wants a government-run, universal health care system that even former president Bill Clinton rejected in his first term.
But Kucinich remains optimistic. "When you look at the traditional political indices of name recognition, money, looks and all the other stuff, I'm the most unlikely candidate in this race," he said. "I'm used to winning elections people say are un-winnable."
So he hits the road and carries his message to Iowa.
On a recent campaign swing, Kucinich recounted the story of Cleveland's electricity crisis many times. He told it to hog farmers when they asked if he was sincere about standing up to giant farming conglomerates. He told it to labor leaders to underscore his willingness to take on multinationals. He told it to a group of supporters in a private home in Des Moines when he was describing how he envisioned his administration would operate.
Sitting with hog farmers in a local restaurant in Story City, Iowa, Kucinich said he would work to make sure that large-scale agriculture operations did not capture the market entirely. This prompted Kermit Miskell, a retired farmer, to ask, "So is this coming from your heart, or is this coming from a politician?"
"If it was coming from a politician, I would have sold a municipal electricity company and gone on to a career of great fame," Kucinich said. "There is not another candidate in this race who can stand up to corporate America, to the bankers."
Other Democratic candidates, such as Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), have touted their humble beginnings. But Kucinich can trump them all. While he was growing up, his family moved 21 times in search of affordable housing; at one point, he lived in the back seat of a 1949 Dodge. The son of a truck driver, Kucinich likes to tell audiences that, as Langston Hughes once wrote, "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair."
"I understand what people go through," he told a group of painters union officials in Ankeny, Iowa. "I can remember my parents counting the pennies to pay the utility bill. I can almost hear the click, click, click of pennies hitting the table."
Although Kucinich lived in poverty as a child, he had serious political ambitions at an early age. As a teenager, he confided to his best friend that he planned to run for mayor. Working as a copy boy at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, he told one of the paper's radio and TV columnists, George E. Condon, that he would be mayor by the time he was 30.
"Needless to say, my father did not put a whole lot of stock in this young-looking guy saying that," said George Condon Jr., who now serves as Washington bureau chief of the Copley News Service.
Eleven years later, Condon's father emceed Kucinich's mayoral inauguration. Kucinich was 31.
On one level, Kucinich is running a conventional campaign, traveling 20,000 miles during a recent campaign swing, complete with a camerawoman trailing him to capture scenes for future television ads, and a Des Moines headquarters opening with red, white and blue balloons. But he lags far behind other Democratic candidates in fundraising.
He raised slightly more than $250,000 on the Internet in the first few months of his campaign; Edwards and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) collected $7 million each during that same period. The Ohio congressman has two paid staffers in Iowa; although it's two more than Al Sharpton has right now, it pales in comparison to the 14 Dean has in the state.
For the past six years, Kucinich hasn't spent a penny on paid media. He plans to employ a similar approach in Iowa, where he has 3,000 volunteers. "I will have the largest grass-roots campaign that the Democratic Party has ever seen," he said.
If there's one place it will work, it's Iowa -- and perhaps New Mexico, whose caucus Kucinich predicts he will win.
"What matters here is not money," said Gordon R. Fischer, the Iowa Democratic Party chairman, who came to watch Kucinich and several other candidates make their pitch at the state's Polk County dinner. "It's organization and people being fired up about your message."
But it is clear to everyone that money is a problem. "It's kind of like going into a gunfight with a pocketknife," said Mark Smith, the AFL-CIO's president in Iowa.
Without question, Kucinich's message resonates with many Iowa voters, particularly his plan to repeal NAFTA. "He's saying all the things a Democrat ought to say," said Ken Raines, one of three Democratic National Committee officers in Iowa. "I keep telling folks if Democrats run in the middle, sounding like a Republican, what's the point of voting for a Democrat?"
And in an era of blow-dried candidates, Kucinich exudes a unique charm. He's a mix of working-class ethnic and New Age visionary, a vegan who jokes that although he doesn't eat pork, he consumes plenty of corn and soy, two of Iowa's major crops. He actually pauses a few beats before answering reporters' questions, and is just as likely to quote Percy Bysshe Shelley in response as JFK. With a seemingly endless reservoir of energy, he outlasts his own aides, and he rises early and talks late into the night with prospective voters about how he would change the country.
Still, even his natural ideological allies said they would have to think twice before voting for him.
Marybeth Gardner, who organizes the Iowa candidate forum for the Stop the Arms Race political action committee and showed up at a recent Kucinich reception, said she has never met a better peace candidate. But she and all her friends face the same dilemma when choosing between Kucinich and Dean: "[Kucinich is] doing the exact right thing. On the other hand, we definitely want Bush out of the White House."
Kucinich is not deterred. Armed with his stories of taking on corporations and the traditional political power structure, he is moving ahead.
"This is about reclaiming the American dream," Kucinich said. "I'm going to be the only one in this campaign who takes this issue right to the people."
2003 The Washington Post Company
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18457-2003Jun21.html?nav=hptop_tb
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Ben Cohen endorsed Dennis Kucinich for President
Statement from Ben Cohen
In this endorsement, I am speaking out as an individual -- and not on behalf of any organization, business, government, labor union or armed force. Nor does it imply that there will soon be an ice cream flavor named Kucinich Kreme.
You know me as a Vermonter, an entrepreneur, a Grateful Dead fan, and a longtime advocate for a peace dividend -- for providing money we need to invest in our children, our schools, and our environment by reducing Cold War-era Pentagon expenditures. There is one candidate running for President who supports the values most important to me, and most critical to the country. That candidate is Congressman Dennis Kucinich, the co-chair of the Progressive Caucus, and the leader on Capitol Hill in challenging Bush Administration foreign policies that make Americans less -- not more -- secure.
While others discuss incremental change, only Dennis Kucinich advocates changing the way our government is run in order to reflect the values of America's people. As Granny D says: "We are the people who believe in a world of environmental beauty, of happiness and not exploitation, of justice and not oppression and torture. A world safe for children... We believe in international law and cooperative action."
How we spend our money as a nation reflects our values and beliefs. Look at your personal check book, and it tells you what is important to you. Our nation's checkbook tells us that our priorities are all wrong -- and Kucinich is the one candidate bold enough to say so. He calls for funding human needs such as universal healthcare, education, environmental cleanup and expanded programs for the poor, the cities, the elderly, and he does it at no additional taxpayer expense by shaving up to 15 percent of the billion dollar a day Pentagon budget.
Because of our skewed national priorities, municipal and state governments are in crisis, as are school districts. Other candidates offer compassionate rhetoric about leaving "no child behind," but it's just lip service without putting your money where your mouth is, and getting rid of tax breaks benefitting the wealthy.
So in this election, voters should say: "Show me the money. What will you cut? What programs will you expand?" I like the answers provided by Dennis Kucinich.
On the subject of checkbooks and money, if you donate some cash to the Kucinich campaign, it will help amplify his message that America needs to reverse course -- and head toward peace and economic justice. And it's not like he's going to get a donation from Enron or Halliburton or the big corporate PACs anytime soon. So check out his web site at http://www.kucinich.us (Donate at https://www.kucinich.us/contribute.php)
My top priority in November 2004 is defeating George W. Bush, and I will try to make that happen even if Dennis Kucinich does not become the Democratic nominee. Win or lose the nomination, his grassroots presidential campaign is the vehicle for expanding the party, moving it in a progressive direction, bringing in new voters, and reaching out in a serious way to bring back disaffected voters. That's another reason I endorse Kucinich for President.
# # # # #
For a Yahoo! News Story -
Ben & Jerry's Ben Backs Kucinich, see:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030620/ap_on_el_ge/kucinich_endorsement_1 h
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich Videos / DVDs available from JusticeVision.org
A 2 hour and 18 minute Videotape includes Events with Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich
Dennis Kucinich's "A Prayer for America" speech (at USC; 2/17/02, 18 mins.); this was the speech that got 25,000 responses when the transcript was circulated on the internet.
Dennis Kucinich at Temple Kol Tikva (Woodland Hills, Ca.; 4/4/03, 1 hour and 43 minutes); Dennis is introduced by actor Elliot Gould.
Dennis Kucinich on the Energy Crisis (6/24/01, :17); Dennis tells about his battles with the power privatizers as mayor of Cleveland, and why we must save public power.
Use this Kucinich video as a fundraiser!
Last Saturday (June 14th) Mary Jacobs sold almost a whole box of these at $5 each outside the Woodland Hills Kucinich event in addition to the Kucinich T-shirts she was also selling.
Per copy pricing, postage included, is as follows:
Suggested requested minimum donation: $5
Quantity prices:
2 copies or more: $2 per copy plus $2 per order to help with postage case of 45: $90 even
Same 3 events on DVD: $5 per copy
Allow about 2 weeks for delivery. Small orders will be sent via US media mail; cases by Fed-Ex 4-day ground.
Because of the very low margin, prepayment is requested on multiple tape orders.
Checks should be made payable to JusticeVision
and sent to:
Ralph Cole,
1425 W. 12th St. #262,
L.A., Ca., 90015, USA
Please write the words "Kucinich Order" on the outside of your envelope.
Sign up to receive future videotapes of Dennis Kucinich!
We will be making and sending out more Kucinich videotapes as the campaign progresses. Say the word and we will mail you copies as soon as they become available, in the quantity you request. See above schedule for requested donation by quantity.
Let's get this guy elected! Just about everybody I talk to that has heard Dennis Kucinich wants to help him get elected. I believe we can, but without mainstream media on our side, it won't be easy. My hope is to help get at least 20,000 videotapes (about 500 cases) of his talks out before the end of the year. Please help us do it! Call with your ideas and suggestions.
Best wishes,
Ralph Cole
website: http://www.justicevision.org
ordering website: http://members.pdxweb.net/justicevision
email address: democracyu@aol.com
telephone: (213) 747-6345
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
http://www.kucinich.us
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Reminder -- Vote in the MoveOn Presidential Primary June 24.
If not already on the MoveOn mailing list, to vote, please register here:
http://moveon.org/pac/reg
Item 4
Running the Nation into a Fiscal Trainwreck'
Less Beautiful and Noble
by Jim Culleny
is posted at this following Flyby News Archive link:
Running the Nation into a Fiscal Trainwreck'
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Running the Nation into a Fiscal Trainwreck'
24 June 2003
1) Vote for Dennis - June 24 - MoveOn Presidential Primary
2) Demand White House Evidence on Iraq.
- - Whimper of Mass Destruction
- - Online Petition: "Demand White House Evidence on Iraq
3) Kucinich - Power Parable for an Unlikely Crusade
- - Ben Cohen endorsed Dennis Kucinich for President
- - Kucinich Videos / DVDs available from JusticeVision.org
4) Running the Nation into a Fiscal Trainwreck'
Item 4 is an Op/Ed piece by Jim Culleny on the Bush group's plan to wreck the economy.
For the first three items, link to:
KucinichMoveOnUpDate * WMD Accountability * K-Videos
= =
This Thursday, 26 June 2003, is the anniversary date of a shoot-out at Oglala-Lakota nation at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota that led to Leonard Peltier's incarceration for more than 27 years. For more information on this and other campaigns, actions, and events at FlybyNews.com
4) Running the Nation into a Fiscal Trainwreck'
Less Beautiful and Noble
by Jim Culleny
By the time the average U.S. citizen wakes from his-and-her reality tv, comfort, and fear-induced stupor there won't be a single social or regulatory program of the federal government left. For Republican neoconservatives this is exactly the point. To follow their rhetoric, government-funded programs such as public education, social security, medicare, and universal health care coverage, run counter to the dictates of a market economy and thwart the will of God. With George Bush's tax-cut orgies, by the time Dubya supporters John and Jane Doe (at the moment among post-9/11 hyper-patriotic 70-percenters) realize they've participated in their own enronization every single one of those programs will have been sucked into the investment portfolios of the richest among us.
Many economists argue that the so-called economic stimulus tax cuts passed a year-or-so ago, and those just signed into law, are going to the wrong people and will do little to stimulate the economy. By every common-sense criteria the largest proportion of these cuts are flowing uphill. Just follow the money.
The rationale given for this by tax-cut supporters is, the cash will then flow back downhill in rivulets of capital investments to collect in huge job pools. This Reagan-era concept used to be called "Trickle-down" economics (with the emphasis on "trickle"). But the laws governing money don't follow the laws of physics. Money is not affected by gravity. With money, what goes up does not necessarily come down. Much of it simply evaporates into the atmosphere of the corporate class.
Look at immediate stimulus simply. If you put more cash into the hands of someone who has enough to pay the rent many times over, it's not at all certain they'd run out and immediately spend it. They might, but it's not certain because they don't have an imperative need to. But if somebody who already can't make ends meet should get a hold of it, what's he going to do,
shove it under his mattress? No. He'll go buy something. In doing so he'll create demand. And, according to our ultra-orthodox free-market priesthood, demand creates an impetus to supply, supply means production, and production means jobs in pretty short order. But the economic-stimulus excuse for these tax cuts offered by neocons is a red herring as huge and effective as weapons of mass destruction themselves. But they're really nothing more than government gifts to the rich.
I listened to a conversation with Noam Chomsky the other day on C-Span. I know Chomsky is not well regarded by many, but the reason I mention it is, something he said corresponded to an intuition I had a while ago. I was joking back then, but I said I thought that what the administration was up to was bankrupting the country so private corporations could bail us out and run the place. Now I'm not so sure it's funny ...or fantastic. You don't have to consult a talking head to get the gist of the impetus of the age. Simple observation will do.
What Chomsky pointed out was that by running the nation into a "fiscal trainwreck" George Bush could accomplish what conservatives could never accomplish honestly and above board through the vote. Who would have voted for the president if he had campaigned with promises to take us to war by executive proclaimation, threaten global military domination, intend to weaken social security, undermine public education, strip the muscle from regulatory agencies, obstruct the establishment of a fair and equitable health insurance system, and (to cherry the sundae) wax lethargic on the environment? Who but the most cynical? But, by decreasing revenues by means of budget-busting tax cuts which result in stupendous long-term deficits (44 trillion --which is too high for even Alan Greenspan to count!) Republicans could force government --by simple financial default-- into the position of being unable to implement it's constitutional mandate "to promote the general welfare" of the people. Then they turn their back on the corpse flicking the dust from their hands, ...done deal.
Who needs government? they say. The elites of the day, by virtue of their wealth, already possess the means to their own power and security. They don' t need government. They can hire body-guards, gate their communities, and send their kids to private schools. Traditionally, the only reason an elite needs government is to manipulate the people. It's the weak who most need a strong, people-oriented government. This is why neocons loath government. It cramps their style. Equality under the law is what this democracy is supposed to be about, but that was before lobbyists were greasing wheels behind curtains to bend laws big time.
What we live with now is no longer the system envisioned by our founders; it's something else. And whatever else can be said about it, it's less beautiful and noble.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Jim Culleny can be reached by email at jculleny@valinet.com
The above was published in
The Recorder, Greenfield, MA Op/Ed on June 18, 2003
You can visit Jim Culleny's website at following URL address:
www.noutopia.com
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
MoveOn--Kucinich * Nuclear Lies & FBI Reaction
16 June 2003
1) MoveOn, Grassroots, & Dennis Kucinich
2) Pro-war officials may have ignored CIA caution
- - FBI Retaliates Against FBI Agent for Telling the Truth
- - So Why Did America Attack Iraq?
Editor's Notes:
Flyby News is a service for life's survival in the 21st Century. This gives us a broad range agenda to report on all sorts of news. Yet awareness of problems is insignificant unless solutions are engaged. The US has become a pariah on the world stage, leading a bribed-led coalition in a war that killed thousands of innocent people, harmed an environment beyond belief, and which was based on false information. This was another illegal and unconstitutional war. Yet the forces of fear seem to know how to control weak-minded individuals yes, brainwashing is a leading force of US government policy leading for an agenda to endanger real democracy, freedom, human rights, or even existence.
Item 1 is on actions you can take in support of a transformation within the US government. Dennis Kucinich, the US, the world, needs your assistance. MoveOn.org has been one of the leading grass roots organizations that helped define the current peace movement. They are now considering endorsing a peace candidate for US President in 2004. Please consider all the facts and take appropriate actions. We need you to unite a movement that could change a fear-pariah government to one that can join in the world community for peace and disarmament initiatives. Dennis Kucinich has proven himself by his record, especially in his standing up to stop the arms race with his legislation introduced in 2002 and 2003 for banning space-based weapons, as well as his introduction for a US Department of Peace to turn around the preemptive formula for madness and ruin.
Item 2 is more on the lies of the Bush administration to convince the US to attack Iraq. Meanwhile an FBI agent who has come forth with the truth is receiving retaliation from the FBI. No wonder Leonard Peltier sits in a lock-down prison while FBI misconduct continues.
Please note that this Monday, I will be on radio to promote efforts for US democracy and freedom. You can listen to this program, broadcast on WMUA (from UMASS, Amherst, MA) on Monday, June 16 from 5:30 to 6:30 P.M. The station is 91.1 FM and can be listened to via the Internet from: www.wmua.org/listen/index.html
Among other Flyby News subjects, we will be discussing the Frank Dorrel video that we are showing at the Greenfield Public Library this Thursday, June 19, and the benefit for Leonard Peltier on June 26. For details on these programs, see flybynews.com (under campaigns, actions, and events). Also, the Dorrel film and discussion on Kucinich will also be presented at the Keene, NH Library on July 17. The coordinator of the Kucinich New England campaign, Trevor Elkins, mentioned that he will likely be at this event. Also, good news on the NH campaign, other individuals, who I met with this weekend, are willing to take the initiative and support getting films on Kucinich distributed on community television access stations throughout the nation, beginning in New Hampshire. One of the first films for this purpose will be a speech by Dennis Kucinich at the Peace Summit in Vermont this past September. For information on this and other films, please see Flyby News page on Dennis Kucinich for President in 2004. Also, if you can contribute and help in any way with this campaign, please contact me at info@flybynews.com. Meanwhile, Malachi Roth is working diligently on a new film on Dennis Kucinich that will help many get to know who this person is and what he represents as a candidate for US President for our world.
1) MoveOn, Grassroots, & Dennis Kucinich
From the Kucinich campaign:
SUPPORT KUCINICH -- AND BUILD A MOVEMENT
In the MoveOn.org online straw poll of its members, Dennis Kucinich ranked among the top of the 9 presidential candidates. Very soon, there will be another round of voting. If you are not already a MoveOn member, join now -- and forward this to your friends encouraging them to join.
www.moveon.org/keepmeposted
By joining MoveOn's election process, you gain a voice with other progressive activists in issues selection, as well as candidate endorsements and funding.
* * *
Ours is an unusual presidential campaign led by a unique candidate. On February 15, when peace protests rocked the planet, it was Dennis Kucinich who joined a half-million activists on the streets of New York -- no surprise, since he'd led antiwar opposition in Congress for the previous 5 months (and leads it today as he demands that the White House release intelligence about its dire pre-war claims. www.kucinich.us )
Kucinich is the only Democratic candidate who joined activists from environmental, labor and social justice movements on the streets of Seattle in 1999 to protest the WTO and the ravages of corporate-dominated trade deals negotiated behind closed doors.
Other Democrats are much cozier with the corporate lobbyists and lawyers who bring in bundled donations and buy tables for ten at expensive fundraising dinners, but Kucinich is the candidate who joins community activists in protests to keep public hospitals open, and walks picket lines with workers seeking economic justice.
Our goal in this campaign is to win the nomination. We know we can't do that, and that Democrats won't turn back the Bush agenda in 2004, without building the grassroots organizations that can counteract GOP money and media dominance with our organized people power.
That's why we stress the importance of MoveOn, one of the most effective groups mobilizing people power -- online and off -- for peace, justice, equality and the effort to defeat Bush in '04. Join MoveOn at
www.moveon.org/keepmeposted
Others are building permanent grassroots organizations. One such group is True Majority www.truemajority.org which campaigns to shift our nation's budget priorities from bloated Pentagon spending toward education, environment and eliminating poverty. Kucinich is the only candidate who has made a budget shift away from the Pentagon central to his campaign.
Please spread the word about our campaign to transform the Democratic Party and our country. www.kucinich.us
To see the Kucinich platform in brochure form:
www.kucinich.us/issues/issue_10key.htm
Circulate this brochure widely.
We don't have corporate backers. Please donate so we can amplify our message:
www.kucinich.us/contribute.php
Please forward this email to your friends, relatives, fellow activists and significant others.
Here are 2 more tips on how you can help building a movement:
KNET
You have been invited to be part of our Kucinich Network KNET for short. Please activate your account by going to http://www.kucinich.us and clicking on the "Meet Up Through the Kucinich Network" button. Obtain your login by clicking on the Question Mark "?" by the login box, entering your email and sending it. Learn how to use it by reading Features/FAQs.
Being active in KNET allows you to find and connect with others by name, location and similar interests. Please update your information, connect with a KNET neighbor, and list the skills/resources you bring to our movement.
MoveOn
In the MoveOn.org online straw poll of its members, Dennis Kucinich ranked among the top of the 9 presidential candidates. Very soon, there will be another round of voting. If you are not already a MoveOn member, join now -- and forward this to your friends encouraging them to join. www.moveon.org/keepmeposted/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
From the editor,
Jonathan Mark, a suggestion in commenting to MoveOn
I think that the key main point to help influence MoveOn for an early endorsement for Kucinich is to encourage them to also consider re-assessing their initial choice at various stages of the Primaries. This way their focus at the beginning of the Season is to be behind the individual most suited for the job, not necessarily just elect-ability. Kucinich wins this hands down by his record and accomplishments, and coming through when we needed him most, in fierce oppositions to the devastating war on Iraq. I sent this suggestion to MoveOn, but please consider this too, sending them your thoughts. Accessing their endorsement for a candidate NOW at various stages can help free MoveOn to get behind the best candidate. Otherwise they may choose Dean from fear in splitting the field (between Dean and Kucinich) and ending up with a candidate who is a traditional war-ho democrat that voted to authorize Bush to take the US into war. But when one chooses for substance, and if Kucinich wins the Primaries, then he would be best suited to help register the most new voters, and definitely the one to inspire millions to hands-down defeat Bush in the 2004 November elections.
Kucinich can reclaim the US's path to democracy, and unite with Conservatives who value the US Constitution.
When joining or writing to MoveOn ( info@moveon.org ), please consider commenting on this strategic initiative.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The following was sent to the kucinich4president@yahoogroups.com list serve from its moderator, Goodsister:
Dear Friends,
I pulled this from another list just now. The second email below, we've seen before: I believe it's already been posted here. But the first one, written about meeting Dennis today, strikes such a chord in me, because the experience described is so close to my own. The first time I met Dennis, in March, I was amazed at the extraordinary impact he had on me. He does have that quality of making each person feel important and heard, and is infinitely approachable, despite the press of people always around him.
Goodsister
* * * * * *
I Saw Dennis Kucinich Speak Today
Seeing Dennis Kucinich speak in person is a literally awesome experience. Because I'm so tired (it was at least 100 degrees in the Valley) and because I am not really eloquent enough to describe it, I am posting the following email that I received from a friend who wrote this after seeing Dennis in Berkeley. But it also perfectly describes the experience I had today!
One other thing. After his speech there was a large group around him, everyone wanting to have a few words with him, including me. It kept coming up to my turn, but people kept breaking in front of me. This happened several times, and he was getting ready to leave. Finally, I quietly said, "Dennis?" He reached out and put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me in close so I could have my say. I felt like I was with an old and close friend. Just that little gesture...
I've volunteered to work for his campaign. Dennis Kucinich is the anti-bush to bush_the_antichrist. He is just amazing.
- - - - - -
Dear Friends,
It's 5:30 AM and I had to get out of bed to share with you something very important that happened last night in Berkeley. I, along with 800 others, listened with rapt attention to Congressman Dennis Kucinich who is a Candidate for U.S. President talk about "Repairing the American Dream". Jack Kornfield, Sylvia Boorstein, and Jean Shinoda Bolen introduced him to an audience that included Ram Dass, Daniel Ellsberg, Stan Grof and many other of our respected elders.
It's the first time I can remember hearing someone in government speak passionately, straight from his heart communicating truth, wisely and compassionately. Although he is a little known candidate at this time, Kucinich is someone who is saying what so many of us are starving to hear. Those of us old enough to remember what it was like to be proud to be an American had a taste of that possibility once again. When "America, the Beautiful" was sung so beautifully it took on a poignant dimension with everyone close to tears for the despair and helplessness that so long has covered up our long-lost joy and gratitude for being part of this country. All the ideals that we had growing up of America being the land of equal opportunity invited by Miss Liberty to "give me your tired, your poor," were stirred up in some faraway place in the heart that understood how one could be patriotic.
Dennis spoke about creating a Department of Peace, of re-joining the world community as an important but caring member of a global family. He eloquently spoke of our need to understand the truth of our inter-connectedness and inter-dependence with all peoples and life on the planet. He said that instead of creating more fear in the world it is our responsibility to address the suffering we've created through a policy based on greed and domination. He talked about using much of the $400 billion we now spend on weapons and defense for education, universal health care, a clean environment and addressing the many inequities our present system thrives on. He said that he knows there are many millions in our country who say with bewilderment, "I can't believe the direction this country is going in."
Dennis' words were like an oasis in a vast desert. They were not contrived. He used no notes. He is bright and articulate. He responded to questions from the audience spontaneously with the ring of truth that everyone listening knew was coming from a place of deep caring. He encouraged everyone to join him in repairing the American dream, in feeling inspired once again at what this country can be. I'm writing to you to let you know there is someone in our government who is not just another politician. His voice needs to be heard and I urge you to listen. His website www.kucinich.us will give you a sense of who he is and where he stands on all the issues.
Dennis decided to become a candidate after a speech he gave was put on the Internet. He received 20,000 emails urging him to consider running for president. Although he doesn't have a big campaign chest he holds a vision of hope and inspiration that millions are longing to hear. In this new electronic world there is a potential for swift communication on a grass roots level that never existed before. As a legitimate candidate of the Democratic Party, he has to be taken seriously. When his voice gets more exposure, it will strike a chord in many hearts who will finally hear someone who makes sense. Anything is possible once people start hearing the truth passionately, eloquently and straight from the heart. If he doesn't ultimately become the final candidate, his contribution to conversation of where America is going will still be vital and his influence real..
With warm regards,
JB
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Listen to a recent Dennis Kucinich speech:
http://www.corvusworld.com/kwins.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For the web site of the campaign to elect
Dennis J. Kucinich in 2004, see:
http://www.kucinich.us
2) Pro-war officials may have ignored CIA caution
- - FBI Retaliates Against FBI Agent for Telling the Truth
- - So Why Did America Attack Iraq?
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
June 13,2003
Pro-war officials may have ignored CIA caution
The agency had said it could not confirm that Iraq sought African uranium. Some cited it anyway.
By Jonathan S. Landay Inquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Making his case for war with Iraq, President Bush in his State of the Union address this year accused Saddam Hussein of trying to buy uranium from Africa, even though the CIA had warned White House and other officials that the story did not check out.
A senior CIA official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the intelligence agency informed the White House on March 9, 2002 - 10 months before Bush's nationally televised speech - that an agency source who had traveled to Niger could not confirm European intelligence reports that Iraq was attempting to buy uranium from the West African country.
Despite the CIA's misgivings, Bush said in his address: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium in Africa."
Three senior administration officials said Vice President Cheney and some officials on the National Security Council staff and at the Pentagon ignored the CIA's reservations and argued that the President and others should include the allegation in their case against Hussein.
The claim later turned out to be based on crude forgeries that an African diplomat had sold to Italian intelligence officials.
The disclosure of the CIA warning suggests that pro-war administration officials may have manipulated, exaggerated or ignored intelligence information in their eagerness to make the case for invading Iraq.
"We've acknowledged that some documents were forged, and we know now it was a mistake to give them credence," said a fourth senior administration official who defended the White House's handling of the matter. "But they were only one piece of evidence in a larger body of evidence suggesting that Iraq attempted to purchase uranium from Africa."
Noting that Iraq had obtained uranium from Africa in the 1980s, he said the most recent allegations "were not central pieces of the case illustrating Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction and their WMD programs."
Bush cited allegations that Hussein was hiding chemical, biological and nuclear warfare efforts from U.N. inspectors as a main justification for the U.S.-led war.
After more than two months of searching, U.S. troops have not discovered any illicit weapons stockpiles or any evidence that Hussein had reconstituted his nuclear weapons program.
The CIA's March 2002 warning about Iraq's alleged uranium-shopping expedition in Niger was sent to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Justice Department and the FBI the same day it went to the White House, the senior CIA official said.
In the months before Bush's State of the Union speech, the senior CIA official said, agency officials also told the State Department, National Security Council staffers and members of Congress that they doubted that Iraq had been trying to buy uranium from Niger.
Some vocal, some not
One senior administration official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity because the intelligence reports remain classified, said the CIA's doubts were well-known and widely shared throughout the government before Bush's speech.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell did not include the uranium story in his Feb. 5 presentation on Iraq to the U.N. Security Council, and senior CIA officials excluded it from their assessments of Iraq's illicit weapons programs and from their testimony.
Among the most vocal proponents of publicizing the alleged Niger connection, two senior officials said, were Cheney and officials in the office of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. The effort was led by Robert G. Joseph, the top National Security Council staff official on nuclear proliferation, the officials said.
Cheney alleged in an Aug. 26, 2002, speech that Hussein "has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons," and on March 16 he went further, saying: "We believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons."
On Sunday's television talk shows, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said the White House was unaware of the CIA's doubts.
"Maybe someone knew in the bowels of the agency, but no one in our circles knew that there were doubts and suspicions that this might be a forgery," she said on NBC.
Seeking answers
The CIA's March 2002 warning about the Niger connection was just one in a daily flood of diplomatic and intelligence reports on Iraq, and it is possible that Rice never saw it.
However, the inclusion of the uranium story in Bush's speech appears to support charges that some pro-invasion officials ignored intelligence that could hurt the administration's case that Hussein was pursuing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs.
Rep. Henry A. Waxman of California, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, has demanded that the White House explain why the Niger uranium story was in the President's State of the Union address.
"Contrary to your public statements, senior officials in the intelligence community in Washington knew the forged evidence was unreliable before the president used the evidence in the State of the Union address," Waxman wrote in a letter Tuesday to Rice.
"This is a question that bears directly on the credibility of the United States," he contended.
Majority Republican lawmakers so far have spurned a public investigation, but the Senate Intelligence Committee has begun reviewing intelligence assessments of Iraq's illicit weapons programs and will start closed-door hearings next week.
Contact reporter Jonathan S. Landay at 202-383-6012
or jlanday@krwashington.com.
Joseph L. Galloway and John Walcott of the Inquirer
Washington Bureau contributed to this article.
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/news/6079211.htm
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/6076383.htm
2003 Philadelphia Inquirer and wire service sources.
All Rights Reserved. http://www.philly.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - FBI Retaliates Against FBI Agent for Telling the Truth
According to a June 13, 2003 press release from Judicial Watch, their client, FBI Special Agent, Robert Wright has been subjected to FBI Retaliation for telling the truth.
For this story, see:
http://www.judicialwatch.org/061303_PR.shtml
For more information on this and other subjects, visit
http://www.judicialwatch.org/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - So Why Did America Attack Iraq?
America and the World Needs to Know the Truth
Tell Congress to Get to the Bottom of the Phantom Weapons of Mass Destruction
In the months and days leading up to the war in Iraq, President Bush and his Administration told the American public and the world that they had proof that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD's) that posed an imminent threat to our nation. Some of the allegations are posted at the bottom of this e-mail. Yet since the end of the war, American-led teams have not located either these weapons or the "re-built factories" that allegedly produced them. Nor have they
found any proof of a massive and hasty destruction of this evidence by Saddam's government.
This leaves three possibilities for why there are no such weapons now in Iraq, each more troubling than the last:
1. JUST PLAIN WRONG. U.S. and British intelligence agencies just got it wrong and Iraq didn't have the stockpiles described in such detail by the spy agencies. This would cast enormous doubt on the government's ability to defend America.
2. WEAPONS GOT AWAY. The WMD's and the means to make more of them were spirited out of Iraq while the battle was raging. This would mean that Al Qaeda or other terrorists could have these weapons today and could be preparing to use them - a catastrophic blunder.
3. LIES. President Bush and his advisors lied to the American people and the world about the existence of WMD's in order to get us into this war. This would be a serious crisis for our nation.
Congressional Inquiries have a long and proud history of acting as a check against abuses by the Executive branch. In the 1970's the Church Committee Hearings led to the reformation of the CIA, resulting in a stronger and safer nation. The Watergate Hearings ultimately led to the resignation of a corrupt President.
We need some answers. Some legislators are already taking a lead on this. For example, Rep. Dennis Kucinich is looking for co-sponsors for a "Resolution of Inquiry" that would compel the President to turn over to Congress the intelligence documents he had on the issue. To support these kinds of efforts, just click on the link below.
http://www.truemajority.com/index.asp?action=10027&ms=wmd2
Sincerely,
Ben Cohen
President, TrueMajority.org
Co-Founder, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream*
* I am writing this email on my own and not on behalf of Ben & Jerry's, which is not associated with the TrueMajority campaign.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Genocide * The Big Lie * Reverse FCC * RFK * K
05 June 2003
"As a result of the war,
corporations have now been enthroned
and an era of corruption in high places will follow,
until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands,
and the Republic is destroyed.
--Abraham Lincoln
1) The Silent Genocide from America
- - Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death
2) Iraq WMD, the Big Lie
- - "How the big lie about Iraq came to be"
- - "We Used To Impeach Liars" by William Rivers Pitt
3) Senators seek to reverse FCC ruling
4) Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
5) Kucinich draws crowd, but not media
"Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it."
-- Robert F. Kennedy
Editor's Notes:
In stark contrast to the unreality portrayed on US television, the world is awakening to the horrendous consequences, the deathly lies of a barbaric brutal war machine laying democracy on its side, and destroying Earth's ecosystems.
"Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered."
-- Thomas Paine, The Crisis Papers, 1776
1) The Silent Genocide from America
- - Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death
The Silent Genocide from America
by Mohammed Daud Miraki, MA, MA, PhD
Director Afghan DU & Recovery Fund
[Excerpt]
"After the Americans destroyed our village and killed many of us, we also lost our houses and have nothing to eat. However, we would have endured these miseries and even accepted them, if the Americans had not sentenced us all to death. When I saw my deformed grandson, I realized that my hopes of the future have vanished for good, different from the hopelessness of the Russian barbarism, even though at that time I lost my older son Shafiqullah. This time, however, I know we are part of the invisible genocide brought on us by America, a silence death from which I know we will not escape." (Jooma Khan of Laghman province, March 2003)
These words were uttered by an aggrieved Afghan grandfather, who saw his own and that of others' familial extinction at the hands of the United States of America and her allies. Another Afghan, who also saw his demise, said:
"I realized this slow, yet certain death, when I saw blood in my urine and developed severe pain in my kidneys along with breathing problems I never had before. Many of my family members started to complain from confusion and the pregnant women miscarried their babies while others gave birth to disabled infants" (Akbar Khan from Paktika province, February 2003)
The perpetuation of the perpetual death in Afghanistan continues with the passage of each day. Every day, people see the silent death striking their families and friends, hopeless and terrified at the sight of the next funeral in their minds' eyes. This indiscriminate murder of the Afghan people continues while those, whose tax money paid for the monstrous weapons and brought about this genocide pretend as though all is well. The horrific pictures of those dying -- whose bodies do not correlate to their age since they have internalized so much uranium dust that it impacted the morphology of their bodies -- remain in the memories of those still living who are fearfully waiting for their turn of disaster. The pregnant women are afraid from giving birth to babies -- horrified to see a deformity instead of a healthy child. This is the legacy of the US "liberation", an indiscriminate murder of the weak and the unarmed that do not have any means of self-defense. In fact, there is no defensive measure against such Weapons of Mass Destruction because these deadly particles of uranium oxide -- the dust formed after uranium pulverizes upon impacting a target -- remain in soil, water and cover the surface of vegetation for generations to come.
When a US bomb or that of her allies landed on an Afghan village or town, the land and its people have become part of the deadly legacy of silent death. This death sentence is different from any other type because in this type death sentence all the people, their land and future generations are condemned to an inescapable genocide. The tragedy that makes this state of affairs so dreadful is the unavoidably invisible threat that targets everyone indiscriminately. Moreover, the threat has become endemic to the fiber of existence, contaminated the land, water and its inhabitants. In fact, when Bush jr. said, "we will smoke them out" he lived up to his promise, making life an unattainable reality for the unborn and unsustainable reality for the living, hence, sentencing Afghan people and their future generations to a predetermined death sentence.
The true extent of this disaster is unfolding as time goes by. In light of the continuous revelations about the quantity and types of weapons used in Afghanistan, the worse has not fully materialized. Everyday, US AC 130 gunships, A-10s and B 52s bomb Afghan villages and towns at each turn when a unit of US troops encounter resistance. Consequently, not only, the perpetual death continues but rather, every round of depleted uranium is one additional nail in the collective coffin of the Afghan people.
The usage of great number of munitions and armaments dropped by US jets resulted in upsurge of various health problems weeks into 2002. This pattern is different from that experienced by the Iraqi after the first Gulf War where it took years for many of the birth defects, deformities and other health conditions to surface. This points to the enormity of uranium weapons used in Afghanistan, a fact, illustrated by many investigators world wide, notably Dai Williams in England, and Dr. Durakovic from the Uranium Medical Research Center in Canada, and Dr. Marc Herald in the United States among others. Furthermore, various international newspapers and media outlets notably Le Monde Diplomatique, Guardian, Frontier Post, BBC, CBC, Al Jazeera among others have reported the types of weapon systems used against Afghan targets -- villages, towns -- and mountain cave complexes. According to the BBC (April 10, 2002), more than 6600 J-dam bombs were dropped on Afghanistan. On October 2002, Boston Globe also reported:
"In contrast with older weapons, the new generation finds its way with advances such as target-elevation data and satellite signals. The JDAM already has proven itself in Afghanistan. By February [2002], commanders had dropped 6,600 JDAMs, consultants estimate - so many that stockpiles ran low and officials had to scramble up more production from a Missouri factory."
By October 2002, the first anniversary of US invasion of Afghanistan, more than 10000 tons of bombs landed on Afghan soil. (Socialist Worker Online, October 11, 2002) Imagine the magnitude of carnage and contamination caused by such barbarism. While another report by Kate Randall on December 2001, put the number of US bombed dropped at 12,000 --
"Since the US launched the war on Afghanistan October 7, more than 12,000 US bombs have been dropped on the country. According to the Pentagon, about 60 percent of these bombs have been precision-guided by satellite or laser technology. However, many of these bombsdropped by B-52s and other aircraft from tens of thousands of feet in the airhave strayed off course, hitting civilian targets." (WSWS, December 29, 2001)
In another report, a year after September 11, 2001, Matt Kelley of the Associated Press put the US munitions statistics as follows:
"U.S. and coalition airplanes have conducted more than 21,000 flights over Afghanistan, dropping more than 20,000 munitions. About 60 percent of the ordnance dropped on Afghanistan has been precision guided, the highest percentage in any conflict."
Similarly the Guardian reported on April 10, 2002:
"More than 22,000 weapons - ranging from cruise missiles to heavy fuel-air bombs - have been dropped on the country over the past six months. US pilots dropped more than 6,600 joint direct attack munitions (J-dams), the satellite-guided bombs One in four bombs and missiles dropped by the US on Afghanistan may have missed its target"
The new generations of hard target weapons whose warheads are made of dense metal have contributed to the heavy contamination of land, water and general population..
[EXCERPT]
I wish to conclude this paper with the following quote from one of the victims of the US bombing:
"Tell America, we are not fools. Your words and actions are those of evil. We do not have airplanes like you do, however, we have one thing that you do not have principles and morals. We will never do anything remotely similar to American children what Americans have done to our children and families. They might win some fights, but we have already won the big fight, the moral ground." (Nurullah Omar-Khail, March, 2003)
Mohammed Daud Miraki, MA, MA, PhD
Director Afghan DU & Recovery Fund
Mdmiraki@ameritech.net
For the complete article and graphic photos, see:
http://www.rense.com/general37/InvisibleGenocid.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death
Democracy Now!,
the U.S. broadcast premiere of a documentary film called
"Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death"
The film provides eyewitness testimony that U.S. troops were complicit in the massacre of thousands of Taliban prisoners during the Afghan War.
It tells the story of thousands of prisoners who surrendered to the US military's Afghan allies after the siege of Kunduz. According to eyewitnesses, some three thousand of the prisoners were forced into sealed containers and loaded onto trucks for transport to Sheberghan prison. Eyewitnesses say when the prisoners began shouting for air, U.S.-allied Afghan soldiers fired directly into the truck, killing many of them. The rest suffered through an appalling road trip lasting up to four days, so thirsty they clawed at the skin of their fellow prisoners as they licked perspiration and even drank blood from open wounds.
Witnesses say that when the trucks arrived and soldiers opened the containers, most of the people inside were dead. They also say US Special Forces re-directed the containers carrying the living and dead into the desert and stood by as survivors were shot and buried. Now, up to three thousand bodies lie buried in a mass grave.
The film has sent shockwaves around the world. It has been broadcast on national television in Britain, Germany, Italy and Australia. It has been screened by the European parliament. It has outraged human rights groups and international human rights lawyers. They are calling for investigation into whether U.S. Special Forces are guilty of war crimes.
But most Americans have never heard of the film. That's because not one corporate media outlet in the U.S. will touch it. It has never before been broadcast in this country.
Today, Democracy Now! brings you the premiere broadcast of "Afghan Massacre" in the United States.
"Afghan Massacre" is produced and directed by award-winning Irish filmmaker Jamie Doran. Doran is has worked at the highest levels of television film production for more than two decades. His films have been broadcast on virtually every major channel throughout the world. On average, each of his films are seen in around 35 countries. Before establishing his independent television company, Jamie Doran spent over seven years at BBC Television.
Watch show on Realplayer (low-bandwidth)
http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/dn20030526b.rm&proto=rtsp
Watch show on Realplayer (high-bandwidth)
http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/dnB20030526b.rm&proto=rtsp
2) Iraq WMD, the Big Lie
- - "How the big lie about Iraq came to be"
- - "We Used To Impeach Liars" by William Rivers Pitt
Credibility Gap, Anyone?
Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service
WASHINGTON, Jun 2 (IPS) - When all three major U.S. newsweeklies -- Time, Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report--run major features on the same day on possible government lying, you can bet you have the makings of a major scandal.
And when the two most important outlets of neo-conservative opinion -- The Weekly Standard and The Wall Street Journal--come out on the same day with lead editorials spluttering outrage about suggestions of government lying, you can bet that things are going to get very hot as summer approaches in Washington.
The controversy over whether the administration of President George W. Bush either exaggerated or lied about evidence that it said it had about the existence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq before the U.S.-led invasion has mushroomed over the past week.
"This is potentially very serious," said one Congressional aide. "If it's shown we went to war because of intelligence that was 'cooked' by the administration, heads will have to roll--and not just little heads, big ones."
The administration was already on the defensive last week as the controversy took off in Europe, particularly in Britain where Prime Minister Tony Blair found himself assailed from all directions for either wilfully exaggerating the intelligence himself or being "suckered," as his former foreign minister Robin Cook called it this weekend, by Washington's neo-conservative hawks, who started agitating for war even before the dust settled in lower Manhattan after the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Matters took a turn for the worse when the London Guardian reported Saturday about the existence of a transcript, obviously leaked from a senior British official, of an exchange at the Waldorf Hotel in New York between U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and British Foreign Minister Jack Straw just before Powell's presentation of the evidence against Iraq before the United Nations Security Council Feb. 5.
It quotes Powell, whose forceful case to the Council was decisive in persuading U.S. public opinion that Baghdad represented a serious threat, as being "apprehensive" about the evidence presented to him by the intelligence agencies. He reportedly expressed the hope that the actual facts, when they came out, would not "explode in their faces." (At a Rome press conference Monday, Powell insisted that he considered the evidence "overwhelming" when he spoke before the Council.)
But it appears that Powell's musing was accurate, as, after almost two months in uncontested control of Iraq, U.S. troops and investigators have failed to come up with concrete evidence of an Iraqi WMD program, let alone an actual weapon.
The scenario of an uneasy Powell received a major boost in the accounts of the three newsweeklies. U.S. News reported, for example, that, during a rehearsal of Powell's presentation at CIA headquarters Feb. 1, the normally mild-mannered retired general at one point ''tossed several pages in the air. 'I'm not reading this,' he declared. 'This is bull----'."
The same magazine also reported that the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) formally concluded that, "There is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons" in September 2002, just as Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld was telling Congress that the Baghdad "regime has amassed large, clandestine stockpiles of chemical weapons, including VX, sarin, cyclosarin and mustard gas."
The accounts by Newsweek and Time were similarly damning. One "informed military source" told Newsweek that when the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) asked the CIA for specific WMD targets that should be destroyed in the first stages of the invasion, the agency only complied reluctantly.
But what it provided "was crap," a CENTCOM planner told the magazine, consisting mainly of buildings that were bombed in the first Gulf War in 1991. And agency experts reportedly could not tell the war-planners what agents were located where.
If true, that contradicts a series of bald assertions by administration officials and their supporters over the last nine months. "Simply stated," Vice President Dick Cheney declared in the first call to arms last August, "there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."
"We know where (the WMD) are," declared Rumsfeld in a television interview Mar. 30, well into the first week of the war. "They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghad and east, west, south and north somewhat."
He has since retreated from that certainty, suggesting last week that the Iraqis "may have had time to destroy them, and I don't know the answer."
There is also growing doubt about the evidence that Bush himself touted this weekend as proof--two truck trailers described by officials as mobile weapons-productions labs.
According to a CIA report noted in the 'Slate' Internet magazine, key equipment for growing, sterilizing and drying bacteria was not present in either trailer. Iraqi officials have said the trailers were used to produce hydrogen for artillery weather balloons..
[Excerpted]
..On Sunday, the powerful chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said he hoped to begin hearings--with the Select Committee on Intelligence--before the Jul. 4 recess, while the ranking member of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee has asked the CIA to produce a report by Jul. 1 reconciling its pre-war assessments with actual findings on the ground.
For the complete article, links to related news items, see:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=655&ncid=655&e=1&u=/oneworld/20030603/wl_oneworld/118151054605718
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - "How the big lie about Iraq came to be"
Did our spy operations blow the call on WMDs, or did Bush distort the truth?
By Robert Scheer
June 4, 2003 - Leave it to a Marine to be blunt. When Lt. Gen. James Conway, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, was asked Friday why his Marines failed to encounter or uncover any of the weapons of mass destruction that U.S. intelligence had warned them about, his honesty put the White House to shame.
"We were simply wrong," Conway said. "It was a surprise to me then, it remains a surprise to me now, that we have not uncovered [nuclear, chemical or biological] weapons" in Iraq. And, he added, "believe me, it's not for lack of trying. We've been to virtually every ammunition supply point between the Kuwait border and Baghdad, but they're simply not there."
Now that the "imminent threat" posed by Iraqi chemical or biological weapons has turned out not to be so imminent, the question is: Did our gazillion-dollar spy operations blow the call, or was the dope they developed distorted or exaggerated by our political leaders?
Either way, heads should roll..
For the complete article, see:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/scheer/2003/06/04/wmd/print.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - "We Used To Impeach Liars" by William Rivers Pitt
see: http://truthout.org/docs_03/060303A.shtml
3) Senators seek to reverse FCC ruling
FCC commissioners are expected to testify at a
Senate Commerce Committee hearing on ownership rules.
June 2, 2003; Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of senators opposed to television networks expanding their reach expressed confidence they had the votes to roll back a rule adopted by communications regulators Monday.
The group said it was pressing ahead with legislation to retain limits keeping a network from owning stations that together reach more than 35 percent of the national audience.
The three Republican members of the Federal Communications Commission voted earlier Monday against their two Democrat colleagues to raise the limit to 45 percent as part of a wider easing of decades-old media ownership rules.
But Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi told a news conference there was no partisanship in Senate opposition to the new cap.
"A lot of Republicans, in fact, probably most of the Republicans in Congress, would not agree with this decision," said Lott, the former Republican leader of the Senate..
[Excerpt]
For the complete article, see:
http://money.cnn.com/2003/06/02/news/companies/fcc_senate.reut/
4) Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
Thursday June 6, 1968 -
The Day The United States Died
by Mark Elsis
[Excerpt]
"Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it."
Robert F. Kennedy
Right after delivering a rousing speech to an overflowing ballroom of exuberant campaign supporters thanking them for helping him win the big prize of the California Democratic primary for President, the junior Senator from New York State, Robert Francis Kennedy was shot at by an assassin four times within a couple of inches. He was wounded by three of the bullets with the fourth bullet going through his jacket. The exact time was 12:15am Wednesday morning June 5, 1968. The location was the kitchen pantry of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. I was only a 10 year old boy back then, but I somehow knew the day Bobby Kennedy died, the next day, Thursday June 6, 1968, was the day the United States died.
If this assassination of Bobby Kennedy didn't happen, he would have been the Democratic presidential nominee in 1968. He then would have faced the Republican presidential nominee, Richard Mulhouse Nixon, in the November election. Bobby most likely would have won and been the next President of the United States. Since Bobby was opposed to the Viet Nam War (police action), this would have put an end to it in 1969 instead of 1975.
This death by assassination of Bobby Kennedy occurred only 63 days after the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis and also less then 5 years after his older brother, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas.
The United States has never been the same since. The dreams of a better, more democratic life for all Americans was brutally slain over and over and over again. We were then, and we still are living in a fascistic country that is run by an evil military industrial corporate complex that assassinate leaders for not playing ball, their war machine ball..
..Six people were shot in the kitchen pantry that night. Lying on the floor, shot three times,
Bobby's last audible words were "Is everybody okay?"
For the complete article, see
http://RobertFKennedy.net/TheDayTheUnitedStatesDied.htm
5) Kucinich draws crowd, but not media
Kucinich draws crowd, but not media
By John Nichols
June 3, 2003
George McGovern says that he won the Democratic nomination for president in 1972 in part because no one took him seriously during 1971.
"For more than a year members of my small national staff and some of my early supporters and I had been crisscrossing the country on separate routes, finding workers and trying to make my views known," recalled the former senator from South Dakota. "We drew scant national attention. But the reception was favorable at almost every stop."
Jimmy Carter says much the same thing about the campaign that won him the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination and, ultimately, the presidency. Carter still recalls the humbling experience of walking up to people on the street in the small towns of Iowa and New Hampshire during those long, lonely months of 1975 and introducing himself with the line, "Hello! I am Jimmy Carter, and I am running for president."
That notion of the candidacy that gets little national attention but quietly builds significant support at the grass roots came to mind Saturday night, when Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-chairman Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, swept into Madison.
Kucinich gets no respect from the national media. When the New York Times featured a drawing of the candidates for the Democratic nomination Sunday, the Ohio congressman was missing - as he has been from much of the early coverage of the campaign.
Yet, with barely a week of preparation, Kucinich's Wisconsin backers pulled together a rally that drew more than 1,000 people to the Orpheum Theater Saturday night. While many in the crowd were still deciding whom they will support next year, the enthusiasm for Kucinich's "peace and prosperity" message should serve as a wake-up call for the national political correspondents who continue to neglect the former Cleveland mayor's candidacy.
The national media remain obsessed with the campaign of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who, despite the fact that he was a more tepid critic of the Iraq war than Kucinich, was pegged as the "anti-war" candidate. Dean gets notice not so much for his stands on the issues as for his willingness to pick fights over the issue with the presumed front-runners in the race: Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt.
On the morning after Kucinich appeared at the Orpheum, the Sunday New York Times magazine featured another big article on Dean. And if Kucinich backers are smart, they will be glad of that. Dean, a self-proclaimed fiscal conservative with a so-so record on issues of concern to working people, has been dubbed the acceptable "liberal" by the inside-the-Beltway crowd.
Kucinich, on the other hand, is the candidate who draws the crowds in places like California, Wisconsin and, according to recent reports in the Des Moines Register, the key first-caucus state of Iowa.
The Register's veteran political writer, David Yepsen, reports, "Kucinich has been spending considerable time in Iowa and his good score indicates he could be on the verge of becoming a factor in the Iowa contest." Even more helpful to the Kucinich campaign may be a line from John Carlson, another Register columnist, who says the candidate is "from the Michael Moore wing of the Democratic Party."
There is still a good deal of time between now and when the Democratic nomination is decided. And there are no guarantees that Kucinich - who is still finding his voice on the stump, and whose campaign has yet to develop the structural strength that is a requirement in the fast-paced 2004 race - will catch fire in the same way that McGovern or Carter did.
But, if the grass roots still count for anything, then the Kucinich people have earned some bragging rights. Drawing a thousand people on a Saturday night in Madison and being compared with Michael Moore in the Des Moines Register could yet prove to be more meaningful than flattering mentions in the New York Times.
Published: 6:55 AM 6/03/03
Madison Newspapers, Inc. All rights reserved.
http://www.madison.com/captimes/opinion/column/nichols/50097.php
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For the web site of the campaign to elect
Dennis J. Kucinich in 2004
see: www.kucinich.us
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Kucinich rEvolution * Voter Confidence * Flyby Events
24 May 2003 - Part I
"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it,
or who said it, no matter if I have said it,
unless it agrees with your own reason and your common sense."
- Buddha
1) Dennis Kucinich Update - A Revolution Within US
2) Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2003
3) Making Media Monopoly Part of the Constitution
4) Defending Our Environment and Health from the US Military
- - Department of Defense Authorization bill
- - LFA: House & Senate Pass Versions of Military Exemptions
- - When DU Burns Through a Target
- - "Navy admits burning 600,000 gallons of radioactive fuel.."
- - Iraq War: "Unprovoked Invasion of A Sovereign Nation"
5) Tax Plan - Give to the Rich - Take from All
6) Oneida-Cassino's Battle on Human Rights
- - Xcel nuclear storage
7) The Mouse that Roared - Ruppert Goes Public
"Still there are moments when one feels free
from one's own identification with human limitations and inadequacies.
At such moments one imagines that one stands on some spot of a small planet, gazing
in amazement at the cold yet profoundly moving beauty of the eternal, the unfathomable;
life and death flow into one, and there is neither evolution nor destiny, only being."
-- Albert Einstein
Editor's Notes:
It's been over a week since last posting, and the items are piling up to challenge the pounding surf of humanity's lost sense for reason and truth. Another great theft of the US Treasury was passed this week with Vice President Cheney casting the tie-breaking vote in the US Senate to give more money to the rich, and taking it from everyone else. The madness continues. Meanwhile as things get obviously much worse, true crusaders like Dennis Kucinich is coming into the limelight. So, this issue begins with an update on a candidate proposing an opportunity for reclaiming a US democracy, leadership, and unity. If you haven't signed up already, and are actively participating in supporting this campaign, what are you waiting for? It is nearing the six-month countdown for the primaries that will choose which Democrat will challenge George W. Bush. In my opinion, due to his record and grass roots campaign financing, Dennis Kucinich is the most trusted and capable of the Democratic Presidential Candidates. Though I am still waiting to learn of Dennis' position for Instant Run-off Voting (IRV), which would encourage a democracy without the spoiler element that helped Bush in the last election with the rise of third party candidate Ralph Nader. Howard Dean had announced his support for IRVs. Dean could be trustworthy, he sometimes sounds sincere, but then, he is a medical doctor and can be misled, or mislead, and the money behind his campaign has influences, and questionable, too, are his foreign affairs abilities and experiences, and environmental commitment. The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant reminds me of this, which threatens those especially in southern Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. On a good note, I was impressed by Dean's recent interview on PBS NewsHour on his transition plan for a universal health care system. Yet democracy has a long ways to go to reach a state of balance and well being in this world. Kucinich definitely has the wider vision and experience shown by his introduction of legislation for a US Department of Peace, the ban of space-based weapons, and his powerful leadership in Government in opposition to the illegal US war on Iraq, NAFTA, Yucca Mountain, the war on drugs, reproductive freedoms, and much more.
Item 2 is on a critical new legislation introduced by Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ) to protect the integrity of future elections by mandating that all voting systems produce an actual paper trail that voters can confirm the accuracy of their votes, and that can be used to verify votes if there is any more hanky panky like what happened in Florida in 2000. Please contact Representatives in Congress on this legislation, and ask them to co-sponsor and support such obviously needed legislation for democracy.
Item 3 begins some of the items we are confronting that makes the chances for survival in the 21st Century pretty dismal. June 2nd is the date that the media is sometimes reporting their expectations to pass laws to allow monopolies to take over the media more than this exists today. You will find some actions in this item to voice your response to these plans. Yet what may be worse could be the impact of the next item where the US military is trying to make legal exemptions for its harming our environment. This includes a new generation of nuclear weapons, low frequency active sonar, blowing dolphins and whales into a frenzy and killing them with powerful sound mechanisms. This item has ugly tales of an ignorant military program gone mad by following the lineage of fears with powerful weaponry and technologies that threaten all. This item also includes information on another powerful statement by Senator Robert Byrd, as he describes the attack on Iraq was from the "exploitation of fear." But then, there's the pay-off well not really except for insiders, but as a steady diet of denial and deceit, item 5 is on the tax plan, raiding the US Treasury for political purposes.
Item 6 is from a press release about the continued genocide of indigenous people in the US. Danielle Shenandoah-Patterson, a citizen of the Haudenosaunee, the Six Nation Iroquois Confederacy, is exposing Federal State & Local Government in Criminal & Civil rights violations occurring in central NY State and asks the United Nations to give her asylum from the United States government and those placed in control of her Oneida Indian Nation by the US Government. Video footage and documentation back the allegations of a member of the Onyota'a;ka (Standing Stone People) who has been made homeless and a refugee from her sovereign Oneida Indian Territory. Patterson says that those in control of the Oneida Indian Nation were put there by the US because they would continue the cultural genocide and sell our people into slavery called "casinos" in order to become income tax generators for the State budget rather than taxing wealthy non-Indians.' In a related article in this item is about another sell-out in corruption and betrayal on sacred land by those in so-called authority of another Indian tribe, enabling the increased storage of radioactive waste at a Prairie Island nuclear power station in Minnesota .
And since we started with a potential solution in this issue, which is so packed with news of mayhem and destruction, I am thankful it concludes with some hope. Michael Ruppert had placed a full-page ad in the Washington Post intended to educate the American people inspired by his video, "The Truth and Lies of 9-11". If Ruppert gets support, the ad will be placed in another 12 major newspapers, with an accumulative readership of between 25-40 Million people. As Robert Byrd said, "Truth has a way of asserting itself despite all attempts to obscure it." So keep the faith, and do what we can to unite the movement for a transformation for world peace, and for all our relations.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Please note these following 3 Upcoming Flyby Events - -
1) Film and Discussion - "What I've Learned About U.S. Foreign Policy"
Frank Dorrel's film, "What I've Learned About U.S. Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World" will be shown at the Greenfield Public Library on Thursday June 19 from 5:00 to 8:00 pm. Also included in this program will be a discussion on responsibilities for a US democracy and safeguarding our planet by electing an independent-green-democrat for President in 2004, Dennis J. Kucinich.
2) Benefit for Leonard Peltier, Freedom, Justice, and Human Rights
Thursday, June 26 - beginning 5:00 P.M.
FREE LEONARD PELTIER
A Time to Gather & Remember
June 26, 2003
The Common Ground -
25 Elliot Street; Brattleboro, Vermont
{Suggested Donation $5 to $20}
Planned will be a showing of a video tape of a Peltier-Congressional briefing hearing, sponsored by Rep. Porter in May, 2000. Dinner will be served at the Common Ground, which is a collective earth-friendly vegetarian food place. Following dinner there will be speakers in respect and honor of this 28th anniversary of the Oglala-US Federal Agent Shoot-out that lead to Leonard's long term incarceration. Please join us and consider making a pledge of some nonviolent action on behalf of Leonard's freedom from prison, and on his birthday, September 12, we will gather again to share stories and celebrate, and plan for actions on February 6, the day of his arrest, the international day to protest the unjust imprisonment of Leonard Peltier. Music will also be featured at this benefit, including performances of Marsia Shuron Harris; Francis Doughty; and surprise guests. This is a night not to be missed. Please note that the 4th annual awareness event for Leonard is scheduled at the same date at the Oglala-Lakota nation, SD. For more information on this, performers, and more on Leonard Peltier, see: flybynews.com.
This event is co-sponsored by Flyby News, Leonard Peltier Support Group of New Eagle-land and the Common Ground Restaurant (Tel. 802-257-0855)
3) SolarFest: The New England Renewable Energy Festival - July 12-13, 2003 -
SolarFest is building on the success and enthusiasm of the past eight years in Middletown Springs! The Festivities continue with the same spirit and intent at their new location: Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont. SolarFest features two solar-powered stages for performances throughout the weekend. It includes nationally known musicians, renewable energy workshops. For more information on this event, including the great list of performers and workshops, visit: www.SolarFest.org or call 802-235-2866.
Special Note: At SolarFest a workshop will include a workshop with my business partner, Ricardo Conde on - "Stirling Engines -- Clean Electrical Power"
Day / Time: Sunday 7/13 at 12:00 PM
Workshop Description: This workshop will cover the development of a Stirling engine to convert waste heat and sustainable fuels for efficient and cost-effective commercial/industrial onsite electrical power generation. This workshop will explain the background of Stirling engines that were prominently used in the 19th Century, and still in use today.
Presenter: Ricardo Conde is president, CEO and co-inventor for Stirling Advantage Inc., developing a 200kW Stirling engine designed to tap into an unused source of energy for electric power production. The new design will facilitate electric generation from industrial waste heat streams, improving the efficiency of industrial processes while avoiding harmful emissions normally associated with power production.
For links for details on these issues and others, see: Flyby News - Actions - Campaigns, & Events
Awakening is ticking for a moment to arrive,
as blue jays dart and shadows dance, listening
in the lure and magic of spring..
Beyond the cruel dead chattering facts,
undeniably brutal and destructive,
our bare bondage born in clay, swept into the cruel grave of
circumstances, driving the wind twisted in horror and rage,
we succumb in ignorance, or rise again in a new way.
1) Dennis Kucinich Update - A Revolution Within US
From: Kucinich Campaign < info@kucinich.us >
The Kucinich Campaign has had a very good week.
(1) Dennis was a smashing success at the Emily's List forum of feminist leaders in Washington, D.C., this week. Here is the description from page A2 of Wednesday's Washington Post: "Kucinich attacked Bush for going to war in Iraq and for failing to focus on the threats to economic security at home. 'I know where weapons of mass destruction are,' he said to rising applause and eventually a standing ovation. 'Joblessness is a weapon of mass destruction. Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction. Homelessness is a weapon of mass destruction. Poor health care is a weapon of mass destruction. And when the government lies to the American people, that is a weapon of mass destruction.'"
(2) On Wednesday, Dennis took to the House floor to assert: "This administration led this nation into a war based on a pretext that Iraq was an imminent threat, which it was not." While other Democrats have gone into hiding on Iraq, Dennis is demanding answers...as forcefully as ever.
(3) Dennis' success in the Iowa debate at the AFSCME union continues to be discussed -- the huge applause, repeated standing ovations, top-rating by the focus group of undecided union members. David Yepsen, the Des Moines Register's long-time political columnist, reported: "Kucinich has been spending considerable time in Iowa and his good score indicates he could be on the verge of becoming a factor in the Iowa contest." John Carlson, another Register columnist, suggested that Dennis was "from the Michael Moore wing of the Democratic Party."
(4) The most recent Zogby Poll of Iowa has Dennis Kucinich at 3%. This is a surprisingly high figure for a largely unknown, under-funded candidate who started late. What it shows is that Dennis' message is beginning to stick, and he is winning supporters with each new visit to Iowa.
(5) Dennis' extended interview on NPR is getting great pass-around on the Internet. It demonstrated his ability to be serious, to handle complex issues with sophisticated solutions, and to inject humor (check out the broccoli repartee near the end). When NPR host Bob Edwards asks "Is your realistic goal to win the presidential nomination or to raise these issues?" -- Dennis replies: "By raising these issues I'm going to win. By raising these issues, I'll identify myself as the one candidate who is in touch with the practical aspirations of people and who sees that this country has the resources to address those aspirations."
If you have not yet heard the extended version of the NPR interview, check it out.
http://www.kucinich.us/npr_transcript.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Kucinich in the News --
http://www.kucinich.us/news.htm
[May 21, 2003]
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
05/17/2003
No Political Fallout for Bush on Weapons
May 17, 2003 (excerpt, page 1 story)
Washington Post
Read full article :
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1155-2003May16.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
05/14/2003
Cleveland Hero
Wednesday, May 14, 2003
When George F. Will [op-ed, May 6] dismissed Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) as "the only presidential candidate to have presided over the bankruptcy of a major American city," he not only was factually wrong -- Cleveland defaulted on bank loans but was not bankrupt -- he dismissed 25 years of history and much scrutiny of that event.
Read full article :
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52295-2003May13.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
05/12/03
Meet the Founder of Kids for Kucinich
http://timesargus.nybor.com/Local/Story/65331.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Kucinich on NPR's 'Morning Edition'
Morning Edition: May 14, 2003
Listen via Real Audio
BOB EDWARDS, host: Why are you running for president?
Rep. KUCINICH: I'm running for president to bring a new day to America..
For the complete transcript, see:
http://www.kucinich.us/npr_transcript.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Recently added to the kucinich.us web site:
Kucinich on the Issues -- the War on Drugs --
A safe, free and just America is undermined, not bolstered, by the costly and ineffective War on Drugs. While well-intentioned, this misguided policy -- which emphasizes criminalization over treatment -- has led to increased violent crime, misdirected resources of law enforcement and restricted Constitutional liberties.
Despite billions spent yearly on the drug war, addiction is up. Our country must rethink a policy that produces many casualties, but benefits only the prison-industrial complex. Non-violent drug offenders often receive Draconian sentences, tearing apart families.
Racial bias in the enforcement of drug laws is pervasive. According to a Human Rights Watch report based on FBI statistics, blacks were arrested on drug charges at nearly five times the rate of whites. Drug use is consistent across racial and socioeconomic lines -- yet in the state of New York, for example, 94 percent of incarcerated drug offenders are Latino or African-American, mostly from poor communities.
Countries in Europe and elsewhere are turning away from failed policies. They are treating addiction as a medical problem and are seeing significant reductions in crime and violence -- with fewer young people becoming involved with addictive drugs in the first place. In our country, due to misplaced priorities and resources, only one bed exists for every ten people who apply for drug treatment. Addiction is a medical and moral problem that should be treated by professionals, not dumped on the criminal justice system
Most Americans believe that medical marijuana should be available to help relieve the suffering of seriously ill patients, and eight states have passed laws to allow it. But the Bush administration has harassed medical marijuana patients in an effort to assert federal authority. This is another aspect of the drug war that should be ended.
http://www.kucinich.us/issues/issue_drugwar.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
KUCINICH 2004 PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY TRAIL - NH
Amy Snyder of Durham, NH Volunteer State Coordinator for the Kucinich for President Committee, today officially welcomed Kucinich's New England Coordinator Trevor Elkins. New Hampshire will serve as the New England hub for the next phase of the Dennis Kucinich campaign. The state kick-off event will be a May 30 full-day Kucinich whirlwind tour of Concord and Manchester that will include opportunities for citizens from all walks of life, civic leaders, community organizers and members of the press to meet with the candidate. The activities will culminate in a public speech starting at 7:00 pm. Kucinich will be introduced by state democracy champion and heroine Granny D. (Doris Haddock).
Snyder commented that New Hampshirites all across the state - north to south from Berlin to Portsmouth, east to west from Milton Mills to Keene - have begun to organize, table, leaflet for and otherwise rally around the one contender Snyder says is "the true candidate of the people, one who cares that we all have access to quality health care and education, to jobs and a clean environment, to peace and justice!"
People interested in finding out more about Kucinich or volunteering to work on his campaign can go to his website: http://www.kucinich.us - which has links to the New Hampshire group.
For additional information:
Amy Snyder - NHHQ@Kucinich.us
2) Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2003
Rep. Rush Holt today responded to the growing chorus of concern from election reform specialists and computer security experts about the integrity of future elections by introducing reform legislation, The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2003. The measure would require all voting machines to produce an actual paper record by 2004 that voters can view to check the accuracy of their votes and that election officials can use to verify votes in the event of a computer malfunction, hacking, or other irregularity. Experts often refer to this paper record as a "voter-verified paper trail."
1) Requires all voting systems to produce a voter-verified paper record for use in manual audits and recounts. For those using the increasingly popular ATM-like "DRE"(Direct Recording Electronic) machines, this requirement means the DRE would print a receipt that each voter would verify as accurate and deposit into a lockbox for later use in a recount. States would have until November 2003 to request additional funds to meet this requirement.
2) Bans the use of undisclosed software and wireless communications devices in voting systems.
3) Requires all voting systems to meet these requirements in time for the general election in November 2004. Jurisdictions that feel their new computer systems may not be able to meet this deadline may use an existing paper system as an interim measure (at federal expense) in the November 2004 election.
4) Requires that electronic voting system be provided for persons with disabilities by January 1, 2006 -- one year earlier than currently required by HAVA. Like the voting machines for non-disabled voters, those used by disabled voters must also provide a mechanism for voter-verification, though not necessarily a paper trail. Jurisdictions unable to meet this requirement by the deadline must give disabled voters the option to use the interim paper system with the assistance of an aide of their choosing.
5) Requires mandatory surprise recounts in 0.5% of domestic jurisdictions and 0.5% of overseas jurisdictions.
http://holt.house.gov/issues2.cfm?id=5996
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Please call your Representative to support this reform legislation:
The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2003
The US Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121
For more information for contacting US Reps, see:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html
For Items 3-7, see: Media/Military/Tax Fiasco * Oneida Homeless * Ruppert Ad
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Media/Military/Tax Fiasco * Oneida Homeless * Ruppert Ad
24 May 2003 - Part II
3) Making Media Monopoly Part of the Constitution
4) Defending Our Environment and Health from the US Military
- - Department of Defense Authorization bill
- - LFA: House & Senate Pass Versions of Military Exemptions
- - When DU Burns Through a Target
- - "Navy admits burning 600,000 gallons of radioactive fuel.."
- - Iraq War: "Unprovoked Invasion of A Sovereign Nation"
5) Tax Plan - Give to the Rich - Take from All
6) Oneida-Cassino's Battle on Human Rights
- - Xcel nuclear storage
7) The Mouse that Roared - Ruppert Goes Public
Editor's Notes
Item 3 begins some of the items we are confronting that makes the chances for survival in the 21st Century pretty dismal. June 2nd is the date that the media is reporting their expectations to pass laws to allow monopolies take over our air waves for ownership of broad band media. Will this happen? You will find some actions in this item to voice your response to these plans. Yet what may be worse could be the impact of the next item where the US military is trying to make legal exemptions for its harming our environment. This includes a new generation of nuclear weapons, low frequency active sonar, blowing dolphins and whales into a frenzy and killing them with powerful sound mechanisms. This item has ugly tales of an ignorant military program gone mad by following the lineage of fears with powerful weaponry and technologies that threatens all.
For complete editor's notes on these items, see part 1 of 24 May 2003 --
Kucinich rEvolution * Voter Confidence * Flyby Events
3) Making Media Monopoly Part of the Constitution
The FCC's Big Grab:
Making Media Monopoly Part of the Constitution
By Robert W. McChesney
As I write this, the Federal Communications Commission is poised to vote on June 2 to relax several longstanding media ownership rules. By nearly all accounts, it will lead to a wave of media mergers and market consolidation that is unprecedented in U.S. history. In my view, such moves would be a disaster for our society.
If you know about this and want to register your opposition, go to www.mediareform.net, where there are links to all the major campaigns to stop the FCC, along with links to news articles and
considerable background information on the topic. Public pressure can stop the FCC. The www.mediareform.net site also has a comprehensive index to all of the groups working on media reform issues in the United States, as well as a complete list of the issues these groups are working on.
If you want an overview of the current situation, and this complete article, see:
http://www.mediareform.net
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Note - from MoveOn.org
Remember: the American people own the airwaves, and broadcasters are supposed to use them to serve the public interest not the interests of a handful of media moguls!
Click Here to Attend a Meeting in Your District:
http://meetings.commoncause.ctsg.com
Click Here for the FCC Issue Center:
http://www.commoncause.org/action/fcc.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
To send a free fax on this from TrueMajority.org, see:
http://www.truemajority.com/index.asp?action=10017&ms=fcc1&ref=54636
4) Defending Our Environment and Health from the US Military
- - Department of Defense Authorization bill
- - LFA: House & Senate Pass Versions of Military Exemptions
- - "Navy admits burning 600,000 gallons of radioactive fuel.."
- - When DU Burns Through a Target
- - Iraq War: "Unprovoked Invasion of A Sovereign Nation"
Defending Our Environment and Health from the US Military
by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Published: Friday, May 16, 2003 by the Chicago Tribune
With our soldiers' brilliant victory in Iraq, we can take comfort that our military is the best-trained, best-equipped fighting force in the world. But the Pentagon is mounting a sneak attack against America's health and safety on the pretext that federal environmental rules have impeded military readiness. This year's defense authorization bill has proposed to exempt the military from laws that protect America's air, water and endangered species, that regulate toxic waste and the cleanup of Superfund sites.
The federal government is America's biggest polluter and the Department of Defense is the government's worst offender. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, unexploded ordnance waste can be found on 16,000 military ranges across the U.S. and more than half may contain biological or chemical weapons. In total, the Pentagon is responsible for more than 21,000 potentially contaminated sites and, according to the EPA, the military may have poisoned as much as 40 million acres, a little larger than Florida. That result might be considered an act of war if committed by a foreign power.
EPA documents describe a martial assault on America's landscapes and citizens by Pentagon officials who consistently violate federal and military laws with sloppy cleanups and poor or non-existent record keeping. The Pentagon also habitually refuses to obtain permits for prohibited activities. Recalcitrant officers charged with remedying the resulting mess generally decline to investigate off-site contamination and routinely take "ill-advised shortcuts to limit costs," said an EPA report.
The risks to those living on or near military installations can hardly be overstated. Twenty million Americans in 43 states are drinking water poisoned by perchlorate, a cancer-causing chemical used by the military in missile fuel, reports the Robert C. Byrd National Technology Transfer Center at Wheeling Jesuit University.
The experience at Cape Cod, Mass., is typical. Unregulated pollution at Massachusetts Military Reservation has contaminated the only drinking water aquifer for the Cape's 200,000 year-round residents and 520,000 summer visitors. Cancer rates there are dramatically higher than the state average. Malingering Pentagon officials have spent decades dodging the responsibility to clean up their mess. The defense authorization bill will let them off the hook altogether.
The Pentagon has not offered any evidence that federal environmental laws have hindered military preparedness. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman recently told Congress that she didn't "believe that there is a training mission anywhere in the county that is being held up or not taking place because of environmental protection regulation."
Moreover, the statutes now under fire already provide case-by-case exemptions whenever a national security interest is at stake. Even as it seeks to carve out huge new loopholes in our environmental laws, the Pentagon admits that it has never even tried to use the broad national security waivers it already has.
The Pentagon's proposal strips the EPA and states of their authority to protect public health by forcing the military facilities to clean up toxic contamination. Massive cleanup costs would fall on state governments and local communities--most of which are facing severe budget crises.
The Defense Department's arguments for new exemptions in our environmental laws do not pass muster. For example, Pentagon officials maintain that training exercises are banned on more than half of Camp Pendleton in California to protect endangered species habitat. In reality, wildlife protections limit training on less than 4 percent of that military base, according to Natural Resources Defense Council calculations. Pentagon officials also are trying to evade laws that protect marine life, claiming that they hamper the Navy's ability to conduct exercises at sea. While sonar testing and bombing can harm whales, dolphins and other marine mammals, federal wildlife officials have never denied the military a permit to conduct its operations.
President Bush campaigned on a promise to require federal agencies to fully comply with environmental standards and to hold agencies accountable for any violations. In other words, no government agency should be above the law. The president was absolutely right to make that pledge in April 2000, and he should stand by his words as commander in chief.
National defense does not have to come at the expense of the very values that the military is entrusted to defend.
Copyright 2003, Chicago Tribune
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Department of Defense Authorization bill
From: Dawn Martin
Oceana.org
Fwd. by Planetary Rescue Corps http://mutanex.com
Urgent: Congress is Voting this Week!! Laws that help recover whales, bald eagles and other threatened wildlife are in the cross-hairs this week.
Have you have seen the recent news reports of the whales and dolphins being "blasted" by Navy sonar tests off the Washington coast? Many believe that some of the Armed Forces' activities are harming whales, dolphins and other ocean wildlife. If so, let your Congressman or Congresswoman know that the bill they will vote on will allow these tragic events to happen more frequently.
Please take a moment to call your U.S. Representative and urge them to fight any exemptions to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Endangered Species Act, and other environmental laws in the "Department of Defense Authorization bill." Current environmental laws are balanced and fair. It is possible to protect the world's oceans and our nation's security at the same time.
If you have additional time, please take a moment to contact your U.S. Senators, Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye and encourage them to not accept any weakening of the Endangered Species Act or Marine Mammal Protection Act in their Defense authorization bill. They cast their votes on the bill this week. Please call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.
Let us know how your phone call went at wavemaker@oceana.org.
For more information about this issue, visit our website. http://www.Oceana.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - LFA: House & Senate Pass Versions of Military Exemptions
This following was received from Stop LFAS list serve:
[Low Frequency Active Sonar]
http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/stoplfas
= = = = = = = = = =
Dear LFA Activists:
Well, the Senate and the House have now passed different versions of the National Defense Authorization Act, with different versions of the Pentagon's cherished exemptions from environmental laws. All in all, what passed was not good, but due to heroic efforts by environmental groups in DC and due to effective grassroots activism (take a bow, you all!), the line up looks pretty good for our side, compared to what the Pentagon and other Neanderthals in the Congress wanted...
House Version: Exempting Military from ESA and MMPA
The House version, which passed this evening (Thursday, May 22nd), is by far the worst bill. We will have to fight strongly to see that the upcoming Conference Committee, which will reconcile the House and Senate versions, drops the House version in favor of the Senate version.
Yesterday and today, the House acted to strip amendments placed in the bill by the reactionary majority of the House Resources Committee and its new Chairman, Dickie Pombo of Stockton, CA. Oddly enough, the author of the amendments to "fix" the Pombo mess was his fellow California Republican, Duncan Hunter of the San Diego area.
The Hunter amendment, which had to be passed on Wednesday and AGAIN on Thursday (because he missed stuff in his Wednesday amendment), restricts the ESA amendment to the military (so other federal land agencies cannot ignore the ESA, as allowed by Pombo & Gallegly), and the weakened "harassment" definition in the MMPA is also restricted to the military only. Hunter left in other bad items: The "small take" permit process, which is currently limited to small numbers of marine mammals in restricted geographic areas (and wildly violated by NMFS and the Navy in the MMPA permit given last fall for LFA Sonar) would be broadened for anyone, so there would no longer be a numerical or geographic limits to NMFS issuing a "small take" permit. Also, the provision proposed by the Pentagon to allow Secretary Rumsfeld and his successors (assuming he doesn't blow up the planet so that there WILL NOT BE successors) to exempt the military from the MMPA for any reason was also left in the House version.
Several important notes about the House fiasco:
(1) The House Rules Committee, controlled by the Republican fascists, refused to allow ANY amendments to the Defense Authorization Bill on the floor concerning environmental issues except for Rep. Hunter's amendments -- how's that for an open democracy??
(2) Rep. Hunter's carrying a clean-up amendment to rebuke fellow Republicans Pombo and Gallegly is fairly unique, especially among Republicans. In other words, even the fascist Republicans who lead the House realized they could not get away with the complete gutting of the ESA and MMPA for industry and other stooges in the name of "national security" and "military readiness" in a Defense Dept. funding bill. Opposition from the public led to a rare victory in Congress against extremism. Still, the overall bill sucks...
In a nutshell, the House version of the Defense Authorization Bill exempts military lands from consideration as Critical Habitat under the ESA and exempts the Navy and other military agencies from provision of the MMPA in several ways. It does not include other exemptions sought by the military for other environmental laws (Clean Air Act, Superfund law, etc.), nor does it expand the exemptions to other federal agencies and industries, as the House ResourcesCommittee leadership wanted.
Senate Version: Substitute for ESA Critical Habitat on Military Lands
The Senate passed their own version of the Defense Authorization Bill on Wednesday, leaving out everything except for the exemption of military lands from the Critical Habitat designations of the Endangered Species Act.This was somewhat modified for the better by Senator Lautenberg's amendment, pushed by most (but not all) environmentalists, which allows Sikes Act management plans to be substituted for Critical Habitat designations. Not a great fix, but the best that could be expected politically in these nasty times.
Republicans are very upset by the narrow passage (51 votes) of the Lautenberg amendment. Indeed, even ol' Secretary Rumsfeld himself went up to Capitol Hill to fume about it, according to the New York Times, calling the Senate approach a mistake and reiterated his view that the environmental laws were hindering training.
"To the extent we are so restricted that we are unable to train, we're going to end up sending men and women into battle without the training they need," he said, telling reporters that he will work to reverse the Senate action.
Next Steps: Conference Committee, Concurrence Votes, President
Both versions of this cursed bill now will go to a Conference Committee, which is expected to finalize a compromise version before July 4th. The Conference report would go for an up or down vote to the Senate and House floor (as the bill is needed to fund the military, don't expect many no votes). The plan is for Commandante Bushie to sign it on the 4th with flags, dancing girls, explosives, and other accouterments of patriotism (or "rotism" for short).
What Can We Do?
Well, plenty!
We will probably want to fight in Conference Committee (depending on whom will be appointed by the leadership) to make sure the least damage is done to our environmental laws. The bill could wind up deadlocked and dead for the year, although most observers believe the final bill will contain at least the ESA exemptions for the military. We probably won't know for a week or two as to who will be the members of the House/Senate Conference Committee..
..Finally, THANK YOU all out there in cyberland who have helped. We still have a bit further to go, but with your CONTINUED help, we will prevail!
Keep those pens sharpened, faxes online, and telephone lines burning brightly...
Yours for a real democracy someday....
Mark J. Palmer
Earth Island Institute
300 Broadway, Suite 28
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 788-3666 x139
(415) 788-7324 (fax)
< mpalmer@cal.net >
This report came via the Stop LFAS list serve:
http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/stoplfas
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - "Navy admits burning 600,000 gallons of radioactive fuel at S.F. shipyard"
for this related article, see:
http://sfweekly.com/issues/2003-05-21/bayview.html/1/index.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - When DU Burns Through a Target
When it comes out of the barrel it is already on fire. When DU burns through a target, between 40 and 70 percent of every penetrator turns into fragments, smoke, and uranium oxide dust. The dust, with particles as small as one micron, settles out on the ground and, studies show, can be carried by the wind as far as 25 miles away. These tiny particles can stick to hair and skin, and get swallowed or inhaled, where they lodge permanently in lungs. Recent research suggests that DU's chemical toxicity damages the brain. It also emits alpha and beta radiation, which can damage lungs, kidneys, and other soft tissues, especially the digestive tract.
http://pnews.org/NWO/phpnuke/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=96
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Iraq War: "Unprovoked Invasion of A Sovereign Nation"
West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd:
Iraq War, "Unprovoked Invasion of A Sovereign Nation"
Delivered on the floor of the U.S. Senate
Wednesday 21 May 2003
Truth has a way of asserting itself despite all attempts to obscure it. Distortion only serves to derail it for a time. No matter to what lengths we humans may go to obfuscate facts or delude our fellows, truth has a way of squeezing out through the cracks, eventually.
But the danger is that at some point it may no longer matter. The danger is that damage is done before the truth is widely realized. The reality is that, sometimes, it is easier to ignore uncomfortable facts and go along with whatever distortion is currently in vogue. We see a lot this today in politics. I see a lot of it - - more than I would ever have believed - - right on this Senate Floor.
Regarding the situation in Iraq, it appears to this Senator that the American people may have been lured into accepting the unprovoked invasion of a sovereign nation, in violation of long-standing International law, under false premises.
There is ample evidence that the horrific events of September 11 have been carefully manipulated to switch public focus from Osama Bin Laden and Al Queda who masterminded the September 11th attacks, to Saddam Hussein who did not. The run up to our invasion of Iraq featured the President and members of his cabinet invoking every frightening image they could conjure, from mushroom clouds, to buried caches of germ warfare, to drones poised to deliver germ laden death in our major cities. We were treated to a heavy dose of overstatement concerning Saddam Hussein and his direct threat to our freedoms. The tactic was guaranteed to provoke a sure reaction from a nation still suffering from a combination of post traumatic stress and justifiable anger after the attacks of 911. It was the exploitation of fear. It was a placebo for the anger.
For the complete transcript, see:
http://truthout.org/docs_03/052203B.shtml
5) Tax Plan - Give to the Rich - Take from All
Citizens for Tax Justice
What's New at CTJ
Friday, May 23, 2003
FINAL TAX PLAN TILTS EVEN MORE TOWARD RICHEST (REVISED)
A revised analysis of the tax cut plan approved by House and Senate negotiators last night shows that the plan offers the wealthiest one percent of Americans a $103,899 tax reduction over the next four years.
The analysis is available on CTJ's website at
http://www.ctj.org/pdf/sen0503.pdf
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
CENTER ON BUDGET AND POLICY
PRIORITIES
820 First Street, NE,
Suite 510
Washington, DC 20002
Tel: 202-408-1080
Fax: 202-408-1056
center@cbpp.org
http://www.cbpp.org
Revised May 22, 2003
CONFERENCE AGREEMENT ON TAX CUTS MAKES HEAVIER USE OF GIMMICKS THAN HOUSE OR SENATE BILLS
Nearly Every Provision in Bill Has Artificial Expiration Date, With True Cost Likely to be $800 Billion or More
by Robert Greenstein, Richard
Kogan, and Joel Friedman
The tax-cut package tentatively agreed to by the White House and House and Senate Republican leaders carries an "official" cost of $350 billion through 2013, but does so only through massive use of budget gimmicks.[1]
For the full report, and a downloadable and printable PDF version, click on:
http://tinyurl.com/cgzp
6) Oneida-Cassino's Battle on Human Rights
- - Xcel nuclear storage
URGENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
US Citizen asks UN for Asylum from US Govt
MAY 21, 2003: United Nations Headquarters 1st & 44th Street in New York, NY, scheduled press conference on front steps of United Nations Headquarters May 22, 2003 at 11AM est
A Citizen of the Haudenosaunee, the Six Nation Iroquois Confederacy, Exposes Federal State & Local Government in Criminal & Civil rights violations presently occurring in central NY State and asks the United Nations to give her asylum from the United States government and those placed in control of her Oneida Indian Nation by the US Government
Video Footage and Documentation back the allegations of Danielle Shenandoah-Patterson, a member of the Onyota'a;ka (Standing Stone People) who has been made homeless and a refugee from her sovereign Oneida Indian Territory by those placed into power and supported by the US Government.
Ms. Shenandoah-Patterson states: "I came to United Nations Permanent Forum of Indigenous People to join other indigenous people also seeking protection from and assistance against US policies furthering the demise of the cultural existence and sovereignty of the Native People. I and other families of the Oneida Indian Territory have suffered and are facing further oppressive abuse of civil and human rights including arbitrary arrest, imprisonment and demolition of our privately purchased and owned homes, all as punishment for speaking out against those placed into power by the US. Those in control of the Oneida Indian Nation were put there by the US because they would continue the cultural genocide and sell our people into slavery called "casinos" in order to become income tax generators for the State budget rather than taxing wealthy non-Indians. They are selling the heritage and lands of my children for a 'treaty' called a 'gambling compact' and a share of casino profits. The BIA has unclean hands in this."
Because of US Policies towards indigenous people, Shenandoah-Patterson has asked the UN for political asylum because the US does not protect the indigenous people within its own borders from religious persecution, especially when done by those placed into power by the US government.
Shenandoah-Patterson continues: "The Oneida Indian Nation of New York is in all actuality a "Casino Cartel" disguised as an 'Indian' Nation. The 'People of the Turning Stone' do NOT represent the Traditional Haudenosaunee People of the Standing Stone. The Turning Stone People have turned their backs on ALL Traditional values and beliefs. What we have here is a modern day Hitler who has locked our Long House (our sacred spiritual building); banished our ceremonies; demolishing our private homes and made Traditional Iroquois families refugees form their own homeland and forced us to become wards of the State of New York."
Shenandoah-Patterson also represents the United Native Nations Truth Network and Voice Confederation and Onyota'a;ka Indian Territory Community. She also charges that the BIA and US violated the sovereignty of the Oneida Indian Nation, and the Treaties of the Haudenosaunee with the US by rejecting the decision of the Traditional Haudenosaunee leaders and supporting a self appointed leader who created a whole new form of government not based on any traditions.
For more information contact:
Diane Shenandoah
315-363-6248
P.O. Box 555
5 Territory Road
Oneida, New York
http://www.oneidasfordemocracy.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Xcel nuclear storage
Xcel nuclear storage plan gets boost in Minnesota
USA: May 19, 2003
SAN FRANCISCO - Xcel Energy Inc's (XEL.N) bid to store more radioactive waste at its Prairie Island nuclear power station in Minnesota got a lift from an Indian tribe that lives near the plant.
For the complete Reuters News Service article, see:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/20825/story.htm
7) The Mouse that Roared - Ruppert Goes Public
May 16, 2003, 0500 PDT (FTW)
The Wilderness today ran a full-page ad in the front section of The Washington Post intended to educate the American people, support heroic leaders and promote a number of independent media outlets which have made important contributions since 9/11. The ad was the direct result of a donation from a subscriber who had recently viewed FTW Publisher Mike Ruppert's video "The Truth and Lies of 9-11".
To see advertisement and story, see:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/051603_wash_post_ad.html
Ruppert's ad agency has put together an amazing ad buy, the Top 12 newspapers (readership wise) in the United States:
Atlanta Journal Constitution
Boston Globe
Chicago Tribune
Dallas Morning News
Los Angeles Times
Miami Herald
New York Times
Philadelphia Inquirer
San Francisco Chronicle
Seattle Times
Minneapolis Tribune
Arizona Republic
Together, the readership of these newspapers is between 25-40 Million people!
If someone purchased these full-page ads individually in these newspapers it would cost well over $500,000. They got a price of just $100,000 for all 12 cities! This is our time. This is our chance to reach and influence many, many millions of Americans (and readers world-wide)...and to wake them up!
Donations can be set to be used EXCLUSIVELY to buy ad space.
They have less than 30 days left to raise $100,000 to buy the ad space. This is completely possible! The Mouse That Roared...will make a difference. If you want to be part of this.
Make checks payable to: More Than News Productions - memo: FTW AD
Send to:
From The Wilderness
Ad Donation
PO Box 6061-350
Sherman Oaks, CA 91413
You can also donate online at: http://www.fromthewilderness.com/FTW_Ad.html
Note: Credit cards can be used to make donations but once the ad buys are placed, no refunds can be given.
For more information visit
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/cgi-bin/MasterPFP.cgi?doc=http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/052103_roaring_mouse.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For another comprehensive minute by minute Timeline On 911, see:
http://911Timeline.net
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For Flyby News' updated resource page on, see::
The Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Films that Make a Difference! - UPDATED
Severing the Corporate Hold on the US Constitution
Seeing is believing. Please consider watching and sharing films
that provide visual and scientific evidence that the World Trade
Center Towers were most likely toppled by controlled demolition,
including building # 7, untouched by the airplanes.
2012 - GCTV - Flyby News
Dark Legacy: JFK & 9/11
Short Version - 58 minutes - Online Film
Also on Youtube!
+
03 December, 2012 - Youtube - Duration: 6:22
Dark Legacy Trailer music-video
&
Press Release
For more on film, see:
Dark Legacy - JFK & 9-11
9/11 DVD Project
Tom Tvedten has created this site for anyone to order 9/11
DVDs; go to to this site, make a selection, and by following
the instructions order which ones you want. Tom is asking for
a small donation to be made after the person receives them in
the mail, but will send them for free if you can't afford it.
And another great DVD resource:
One Dollar DVD Project
v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v
For excellent introductory films:
9/11 Press for Truth,
a film about 9/11 victim families
also
The Elephant In The Room
a film about the 9/11 Truth Movement
v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v
For the first investigative drama to
challenge official version of 9/11
The Reflecting Pool
v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v
9/11: The Myth and the Reality
David Ray Griffin in spring 2006 presented a lecture to a sold out audience
at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, California. The talk condenses the most
relevant points of his first two books into a dynamic presentation, demonstrating
conclusively US Government complicity in the attacks of 9/11. David Ray Griffin's
presentation was videotaped with six cameras, and 9/11 filmmaker Ken Jenkins
has illustrated this DVD with hundreds of relevant graphics and clips. In short,
this is one of the best 9/11 truth overview by David Ray Griffin available today!
Additional David Griffin films:
9/11 & Nationalist Faith:
How Faith Can Be Illuminating or Blinding
9/11: Let's Get Empirical
9/11 & American Empire:
INTELLECTUALS SPEAK OUT
"It is already possible to know, beyond a reasonable doubt,
one very important thing: the destruction of the World Trade Center
was an inside job, orchestrated by terrorists within our own government."
-- David Ray Griffin
<><><><><><><><><><><>
2009 - 4th of Loose Change - films
Loose Change 9/11
An American Coup
<><><><><><><><><><><>
evidence showing controlled demolitions:
Improbable Collapse:
The Demolition of our Republic
Plus
911 Mysteries - Part 1: Demolitions
Also
9/11: Blueprint for Truth:
The Architecture of Destruction
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
AbleDangerTheMovie.com
Premiered in Rotterdam, 27 January 2008
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
ZERO, an investigation into the events of 9/11
Italian film shown in European Parliament
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Part 1/6 Sibel Edmonds - "Kill The Messenger"
Part 2/6 Sibel Edmonds - "Kill The Messenger"
Part 3/6 Sibel Edmonds - "Kill The Messenger"
Part 4/6 Sibel Edmonds - "Kill The Messenger"
Part 5/6 Sibel Edmonds - "Kill The Messenger"
Part 6/6 Sibel Edmonds - "Kill The Messenger"
TERRORSTORM
A History of Government Sponsored Terrorism
Terrorstorm exposes how Governments
have long staged false-flag terror events
to achieve political and sociological ends.
Terrorstorm is also available at:
911DVDproject.com
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
"Confronting the Evidence:
A Call to Reopen the 9/11 Investigation."
- Order a free DVD -
Reopen911.org
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
9/11 Revisited: Scientific & Ethical Questions
9/11 Revisited: Scientific and Ethical Questions is the video of a lecture given by
Steven E. Jones at Utah State Valley College on February 1, 2006. At this very
conservative college campus, Steven E. Jones, a pious professor from the Mormon
Church-owned Brigham Young University, calmly, gently, gave a simple physics
lesson on the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings, the implications of which
awed the audience with a sense of world-historical significance. The auditorium and
seven over-flow rooms were filled beyond capacity to hear the speech.
To download films online, go to:
911files.net
also
BelowGroundSurface.org
For more online films, see:
Dozens of 911 video clips
"9/11 Truth is a very important issue with the power
to bring lasting change to our country.">
-- William Sloane Coffin
Valley 9/11 Truth & Flyby News presented two films:
PHARMAWHORES: The Showtime
Sting of Penn & Teller at 7:00 PM
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
And at 6pm, same date, we screened:
An interview of Robert Bowman
"Patriots Question 9/11"
Valley 9/11 Truth
Presented:
Loose Change 9/11
An American Coup
Tuesday, November 10, 2009; 7:00 PM
Media Ed. Foundation, Northampton, MA
Flyby News
PRESENTED
ZERO, an investigation into the events of 9/11
Italian film shown in European Parliament 26 February 2008,
Also broadcast on Russian State Television 12 September 2008
and with Valley 9/11 Truth in Greenfield, MA; November 5, 2008
Valley 9/11 Truth
PRESENTED
The Reflecting Pool
An investigative dramatic film that
challenges the official version of 9/11
Watch the Jonathan Mark interview:
Jarek Kupsc and Joseph Culp
For more on this film, check out this reply by Jarek Kupsc to
Nathan Lee, the NY Times movie critic of The Reflecting Pool.
UNCOUNTED:
The New Math of American Elections
October 22, 2008; Greenfield, MA
Fabled Enemies
A film by Jason Burmas
in Northampton, Massachusetts
November 11, 2008; 7pm
Martial Law 9/11:
Rise Of The Police State
Northampton, Oct. 14, 2008
Bush - Nazi Link Confirmed
Youtube Video:
John Buchanan From Martial Law 9-11- Alex Jones
William Rodriguez
hero of 9/11
and
The Last Man Out
~ youtube video ~
Why did the 9/11 Attacks Happen?
One Man's Independent Investigation.
John Heartson interviewed by Jonathan Mark
In this interview, John Heartson shares his story as an independent 9/11 researcher,
beginning 2002. The above video is interspersed with his music from a benefit concert for
Valley 9/11 Truth and Flyby News. Why did such research make John Heartson a target
of domestic spying, secret investigations, several unconstitutional home searches,
and a direct threat to stop investigating 9/11 or he 'might end up dead.'?
THE SECRET GOVERNMENT
The Constitution In Crisis
"The Secret Government is an interlocking network of official functionaries, spies,
mercenaries, ex-generals, profiteers and superpatriots, who, for a variety of motives,
operate outside the legitimate institutions of government. Presidents have turned to them
when they can't win the support of the Congress or the people, creating that unsupervised
power so feared by the framers of our Constitution. Just imagine that William Casey's
dream came true. Suppose the enterprise grew into a super-secret, self-financing, self-
perpetuating organization. Suppose they decided on their own to assassinate Gorbachev
or the leader of white South Africa. Could a President control them and what if he became
the enterprise's public enemy Number One? Who would know? Who would say no?"
-- Bill Moyers
From opening narration for a 1987 PBS TV program:
THE SECRET GOVERNMENT: The Constitution In Crisis
Special DVD-Film by John Hankey
Dark Legacy
George Bush and the Assassination of JFK
2) The Revolution Will Not Be Televised - the film
Directed and Photographed by Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Briain
Running time: 74 minutes, English narration, some Spanish.
THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED
This film concerns events around the short-lived coup d'etat
of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela on April 12th 2002.
"What had in fact taken place was the first Latin American
coup of the 21st century, and the world's first media coup."
"Sometimes, a good documentary is all about being in the right place at the right time.
It does not get much better for Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Briain, who, in late 2001
began filming a documentary about Hugo Chavez, the controversial President of Venezuela.
As they worked on their documentary, events in Venezuela reached a fever pitch and the duo
was able to capture on film a coup from the perspective of the Chavez government. The footage
is remarkable, especially given that actual events were so clouded by propaganda on both sides.
What is clear is that this was a coup orchestrated with the crucial help of the media.
Without their support, it would not have been successful."
* For quote source and a review of the film, see:
www.haro-online.com/movies/revolution_will_not_be_televised.html.
"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" was first broadcast in Europe in February 2003 and since then has been aired on a variety of national TV stations including the BBC, ZDF (Germany), Arte (France), and NPS (Holland) as well as at numerous international film festivals. In Venezuela the film had its first airing on national TV in April 2003.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised details the story of the Coup in 2002 against President Hugo Chavez from INSIDE the palace. This is the single biggest tool to disprove the lies of the opposition and demonstrates peoples resistance to fascism.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (Chavez Inside the Coup) shows events before and leading up to the coup, the coup itself and the rise of peoples resistance to regain their democratically elected President.
This is the full version at 74 minutes long on DVD. Perfect for Solidarity meetings and people new to the situation in Venezuela. Now with two additional DVDs, Lluguno Bridge & 4th World War, they provide a compelling picture of key recent events.
History of distributing DVD - The Venezuela solidarity Campaign has been growing dramatically ever since our creation following the Coup in Venezuela 2002. One of the significant weapons in the struggle to build solidarity is The Revolution Will Not Be Televised DVD. This is an award winning documentary, which is a must see for anybody interested in the current developments in Venezuela, is effectively suffering from a distribution boycott. Two years ago, after a long struggle to obtain a copy, we investigated the current position on its distribution. After finding out that it was not being distributed we started selling copies.
However in Sept 2004, we were informed by Power Pictures that they owned the distribution rights and we should stop selling. We gladly agreed, asking when it would be distributed by them. We even offered to distribute some on there behalf for free. They declined this offer and informed us that negotiations were nearing a conclusion regarding the distribution. We were informed that this would be around 4-6 weeks. As a result we withdrew the copies we were distributing at their request. However in January 2005 we were informed by a supporter in Canada that Power Pictures (the distributors) informed him that the film will not be distributed "in the foreseeable future." As a result of this we decided to distribute copies.
Join with us to Bust the Boycott - You can purchase the DVD here -
www.venezuelasolidarity.org.uk/ven/web/dvd/dvd.html
Democracy Now! featured a report on the film on November 6th, 2003:
Why is Amnesty Not Screening a New Documentary About the Failed 2002 Coup in Venezuela?
Statement in Support of the Documentary Film by Venezuelananlysis.com and others..
Read and Sign the Petition in Support of the Film, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
"In February 2002,
Chavez announced his plan to shake up the state oil company
and to put his own people on the Management board.
The war had begun.."
Yet more than about war, this film is about popular movements and democracy,
and about a nonviolent revolution where communications can over-ride the will
of a corporate-military-media complex for justice, freedom, and human rights.
Watch this film online!
3) What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World
"What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World," is a film compilation by Frank Dorrel that documents CIA covert operations and US interventions since World War II. For the proposed film/discussion forum, we suggest showing the first three or four segments of the 2-hour film, but also recommend seeing it in its entirety.
- Martin Luther King Jr. (2:45) [2 minutes and 45 seconds]
These are from film clips of speeches by the famed patriot and slain civil right leader in the US speaking against the war in Vietnam, stating an "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
- John Stockwell (6:18)
Stockwell was a former CIA Chief in Angola when George Bush, Sr was the Director of the CIA. He gives the inside scoop on covert CIA operations. He estimated that more than 6 million innocent people were killed in such operations that were supported by US-CIA covert operations.
Coverup: Behind the Iran-Contra Affair (20:46) (Optional)
This film, directed by Barbara Trent of ‘Empowerment Project' shows the betrayal and cover-up of an exposed crime in trading arms for hostages during the Reagan administration, and diverting the illegally obtained funds to finance the Contras for the US-supported terrorist attacks in Nicaragua. Yet most fascinating in this film is the exposure of a Congress holding back punches to keep the Reagan administration away from the awful truth of an hypocrisy and deceit.
To order this film (in DVD or VHS format) send your address and $10 to:
Frank Dorrel
P.O. 3261
Culver City, CA 90231-3261
Tel. 310-838-8131
Web Site: www.addictedtowar.com/dorrel.html
4) Masters of the Universe, The Secret Birth of the Federal Reserve
By Daniel Hopsicker
Mad Cow Productions
The forty-five minute film, Masters of the Universe: The Secret Birth of the Federal Reserve gives the conspiratorial history of the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913. This film exposes the deceit of forming the Federal Reserve in response to bank runs, and shows how it created a centralized international banking system, which has become a vehicle for engaging two world wars, and policies for corrupt governments and elitists to maintain control over the vast populations, while usurping lifes resources.
Documented in a book, a few years after Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act, he was noted as saying:
I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.
For more resources on the Fed, see:
http://concernedhumanity.net/economy.html
Also the book, SECRETS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE
By Eustace Mullins - www.whale.to/b/mullins5.html
To purchase this film, click here!
5) UNCOUNTED: The New Math of American Elections
UNCOUNTED is an explosive documentary that shows how the election fraud that changed the outcome of the 2004 election led to even greater fraud in 2006 - and now looms as an unbridled threat to the outcome of the 2008 election.
The notion of stolen elections is something we assign to Third World countries but not this beacon of freedom and democracy that we like to view ourselves as. ~Bernie Ellis, Election integrity activist
UNCOUNTED is a wakeup call to all Americans. Beyond increasing public awareness, the film inspires greater citizen involvement in fixing a broken electoral system. As we approach the decisive election of 2008, this film will change how you feel about the way votes are counted in America to inspire you to step in and add your energy to reverse the looming threat to our democracy.
This Friday, February 8, the Northampton Committee Against the War on Iraq is featuring this film entitled Uncounted at the Media Education Foundation (60 Masonic Street in Northampton, MA) at 7 pm February 8th.
To view a trailer or purchase the film, see: UNCOUNTEDtheMovie.com
For another truth riveting film, see:
Orwell Rolls In His Grave
"A marvel of passionate succinctness, Robert Kane Pappas' docu critically examines
the Fourth Estate, once the bastion of American democracy. Docu asks, "Could a
media system, controlled by a few global corporations with the ability to
overwhelm all competing voices, be able to turn lies into truth?..."
6) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon
by Bart Sibrel - film running time - 47 minutes
Flyby News has provided screenings and discussions of a controversial film alleging a moon-landing hoax. The moon is 240,000 miles away from Earth. The space shuttle has never gone more than 400 miles from our atmosphere. Except for Apollo astronauts;, no humans even claim to have gone beyond low-earth orbit. When the space shuttle astronauts did get to an altitude of 400 miles, the radiation of the Van Allen belts forced them to a lower altitude. CNN reported: "The radiation belts surrounding Earth may be more dangerous for astronauts than previously believed (like when they supposedly went through them thirty years ago to reach the Moon.) The phenomenon known as the 'Van Allen Belts' can spawn (newly discovered) 'Killer Electrons' that can dramatically affect the astronauts' health."
In a recent (2008) article in the Guardian (UK), a science correspondent wrote: "The question of how to fend off the solar wind has been given some urgency by an international plan - the Global Exploration Strategy, signed by 14 space agencies including those of Britain, China, France and the US - to return to the moon and send astronauts further into space. George Bush has committed the US to a return trip to the moon by 2020.." So why after the supposed multiple successful lunar landing and take-offs has humans remained in low orbit, since the 1972 and Apollo missions ended; is it coincidence that these missions ended when Russia and other countries had the technology in place to confirm a human moon landing and take-off. According to Bart Jordan, at that time NASA did not have the technology to lift off the moon even if they landed on it, and survived the intense Van Allen Earth-Sun magnetic radiation belt.
What is unique about Bart Sibrel's film, besides its artistic blending of images demonstrating the hubris of humankind throughout the ages, and the current events of the arms race, Vietnam War, race riots, but he also presented some mislabeled, unedited, behind-the-scenes footage from NASA showing the crew of Apollo 11 'staging a shot of being half-way to the moon.' The quote used in his film from George Orwells book, 1984, is very apropos: "Those who control the future control the past." It may be time for another look back to what many of us believed once was true. Did man really land on the moon?
FLYBY NEWS
presented a film screening/discussion
A Funny Thing Happened
On The Way To The Moon
By Bart Sibrel
Thursday, February 21, 2008
at Media Education Foundation; 7pm
60 Masonic Street Northampton, MA
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
DARK SIDE OF THE MOON
During an interview with Stanley Kubrick's widow an extraordinary story came to light. She claims Kubrick and other Hollywood producers were recruited to help the U.S. win the high stakes race to the moon. In order to finance the space program through public funds, the U.S. government needed huge popular support, and that meant they couldn't afford any expensive public relations failures. Fearing that no live pictures could be transmitted from the first moon landing, President Nixon enlisted the creative efforts of Kubrick, whose 2001: a Space Odyssey (1968) had provided much inspiration, to ensure promotional opportunities wouldn't be missed. In return, Kubrick got a special NASA lens to help him shoot Barry Lyndon (1975). A subtle blend of facts, fiction and hypothesis around the first landing on the moon, Dark Side Of The Moon illustrates how the truth can be twisted by the manipulation of images.
Dark Side Of The Moon is written and directed by William Karel and co-produced by Point du Jour Production and ARTE France.
For more resources on this issue, see: www.apfn.org/apfn/moon.htm
and www.orwelltoday.com/moonhoaxdoc.shtml
Apollo Zero Conspiracy YouTube Channel
7) IN LIES WE TRUST: The CIA, Hollywood & Bioterrorism
In Lies We Trust: The CIA, Hollywood & Bioterrorism is a powerful and controversial documentary produced by World Leading Intellectual and drug cartel critic, Dr. Leonard George Horowitz. The film exposes officials, corporations, and American intelligence agencies for historic devil-doing. It takes you inside the policies, politics, and propaganda of genocide with a twist of humor. Horowitz exposes unprecedented fraud, malfeasance, and murder as a clear and present danger to you and your loved ones.
In Lies We Trust examines the CIAs direction of Hollywood, and modern medicine, and will have you rethinking their impacts on the way you think about current events, increasing threats of outbreaks, cancer, and AIDS. Where do you suppose skyrocketing rates of these and other modern plagues came from?
This award-winning doctor advances compelling analyses of documents explaining our modern maladies as socio-political impositions not made in heaven. In Lies We Trust examines the military-medical-petrochemical-pharmaceutical profiteers behind medical madness; their political prostitutes, and shoddy scientists.
Stunning evidence, including secreted interviews, explains why millions of innocent and gullible people worldwide have been killed, and billions more are now being frightened into drug addictions, side-effects, profitable illnesses, and premature death. Watch In Lies We Trust: The CIA, Hollywood & Bioterrorism to learn why your life is entrusted to Manchurian candidates who dont even know how and why they aim to kill you.
Horowitz brilliantly critiques the governments new 24-hour television network and feature documentary, History of Bioterrorism, which is now broadcasting daily over the Dish Network. September has been declared National Preparedness Month. Officials say you must prepare for the worst bioterrorist attacks, yet they use fear and gross inaccuracies (propaganda) examined by Horowitz. This is choice edutainment for your informed decision-making.
Dr. Horowitz generously donated this life-saving DVD for widespread free public distribution without copyright restrictions. Viewers are encouraged to make at least two more copies to gift to others. View every part of this production in the low resolution Quicktime files below, or order your high resolution DVD today by calling toll free: 1-888-508-4787. You can also order these DVDs online through www.healthyworldstore.com.
Make copies and share these DVDs and website links to You Tube liberally. Every mature and intelligent person should watch this film to prepare for forced injections, mass quarantines, and natural disasters. Your generous donation(s) for this monumental production, in support of more works like it, are requested and greatly appreciated.
The most compelling documents are now freely downloadable at www.inlieswetrust.com
YouTube - In Lies We Trust Part 1 of 16
Web Link- InLiesWeTrust.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
CBS News - One Thousand Lives A Month
Broadcast on 60 Minutes February 17, 2008
(CBS) This is the story of a drug that was on the market for 14 years and may have contributed to the deaths of thousands of patients. Trasylol, made by Bayer, is given in the operating room to control bleeding. It was a big money maker.
As correspondent Scott Pelley reports, Bayer marketed Trasylol aggressively until it was used in about one third of all cardiac bypass operations in America.
But then, in 2006, a study showed widespread death associated with Trasylol, and as it turns out there was concern long before that.
How much did Bayer know? And why did it take Bayer and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration nearly two years to take the drug off the market after major studies revealed the danger? Two years - during which it's estimated Trasylol was contributing to the loss of one thousand lives a month.
Truncated, for the complete article and to watch the video:
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/14/60minutes/main3831900.shtml
8) BUYING THE WAR
How did the mainstream press get it so wrong?
By Bill Moyers
Four years ago on May 1, President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln wearing a flight suit and delivered a speech in front of a giant "Mission Accomplished" banner. He was hailed by media stars as a "breathtaking" example of presidential leadership in toppling Saddam Hussein. Despite profound questions over the failure to locate weapons of mass destruction and the increasing violence in Baghdad, many in the press confirmed the White House's claim that the war was won. MSNBC's Chris Matthews declared, "We're all neo-cons now;" NPR's Bob Edwards said, "The war in Iraq is essentially over;" and Fortune magazine's Jeff Birnbaum said, "It is amazing how thorough the victory in Iraq really was in the broadest context."
How did the mainstream press get it so wrong? How did the evidence disputing the existence of weapons of mass destruction and the link between Saddam Hussein to 9-11 continue to go largely unreported? "What the conservative media did was easy to fathom; they had been cheerleaders for the White House from the beginning and were simply continuing to rally the public behind the President no questions asked. How mainstream journalists suspended skepticism and scrutiny remains an issue of significance that the media has not satisfactorily explored," says Moyers. "How the administration marketed the war to the American people has been well covered, but critical questions remain: How and why did the press buy it, and what does it say about the role of journalists in helping the public sort out fact from propaganda?"
On Wednesday, April 25 at 9 p.m. on PBS, a new PBS series BILL MOYERS JOURNAL premieres at a special time with "Buying the War," a 90-minute documentary that explores the role of the press in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq. Two days later on April 27, BILL MOYERS JOURNAL airs in its regular timeslot on Fridays at 9 p.m. with interviews and news analysis on a wide range of subjects, including politics, arts and culture, the media, the economy, and issues facing democracy. "Buying the War" includes interviews with Dan Rather, formerly of CBS; Tim Russert of MEET THE PRESS; Bob Simon of 60 MINUTES; Walter Isaacson, former president of CNN; and John Walcott, Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel of Knight Ridder newspapers, which was acquired by The McClatchy Company in 2006.
Read the transcript or watch the video: "Buying the War" BILL MOYERS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For another excellent film on media manipulation, see:
War Made Easy
9) America: Freedom to Fascism
Determined to find the law that requires Americans to pay income tax, Aaron Russo (THE ROSE, TRADING PLACES) sets out on a journey. Neither left- nor right-wing, this startling examination exposes the systematic erosion of civil liberties in America. Through interviews with US Congressmen, a former IRS Commissioner, former IRS and FBI agents, tax attorneys and authors, Russo connects the dots between money creation, federal income tax, voter fraud, the national identity card (becoming law in May 2008) and the implementation of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to track citizens. A striking case about the evolving police state in America.
To learn more, watch online, and to order film, see:
www.fromfreedomtofascism.com
10) The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium, and the Dying Children
"The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium, and the Dying Children" is a documentary film by Freider Wagner and Valentin Thurn. This new, video just released by Ochoa-Wagner Produktion in 2004 in Germany, documents uranium contamination in Iraq following aerial bombardment and armored tank assaults by U.S. and allied forces. The story is told by citizens of many nations and opens with comments by two British vets, Kenny Duncan and Jenny Moore, describing their exposure to radioactive, so-called 'depleted' uranium (DU), weapons and the congenital abnormalities of their children."
International sales as well as television and theatrical showings are arranged through the international distributors. Contact Carlos Hertel, hertel@telepool.de at Telepool in Munich, Germany. http://www.telepool.de/mainweb/index.htm
This video is available for purchase (online or by mail) in the US
for private, home use only in VHS (ntsc) format. $30 includes shipping cost.
Traprock Peace Center has exclusive rights in the US for public,
non-theatrical showings. Contact Sunny Miller - 413-773-7427 -
To learn more on this courageous moving film visit TraprockPeace.org:
"The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium, and the Dying Children".
11) David Ray Griffin: "Truth and Politics: Unanswered Questions About 911"
David Ray Griffin, a professor of philosophy and religion at the Claremont School of Theology, has written over 20 books, two of which are on top of the list in importance for learning about the truth about 9/11 and bogus investigations. This DVD film includes a one-hour discussion by David Ray Griffin about his latest 9-11 book, "The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions," at a "Truth and Politics: Unanswered Questions About 911" forum in California on October 3, 2004. The new 1-hour DVD of Dr. Griffin speaking in Santa Rosa, California is available for a donation of $20 or more, (no extra shipping costs), from 9/11 truth activists.. It is also available with other wonderful films at SnowShoeFilms.com. For an excellent strategy-provoking insight to using the information on this film and books, read a letter from David Ray Griffin to Emanuel Sferios in FN's 3/21/05 issue, item 3: International Tribunal - 9/11 Omission - David Ray Griffin.
12) Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror
A Special Report by John Pilger
"In 52 minutes, John Pilger succeeds brilliantly where the U.S. mass media have failed miserably -- to examine the "war on terror" with tough-minded humanism and uncompromising journalism. The result of Pilger's efforts is a powerful expose that demolishes the pretensions of George W. Bush and Tony Blair. In 2004, we need Pilger's documentary "Breaking the Silence" more than ever. From Afghanistan and Iraq to New York City and the insulated bastions of power in Washington, this film jolts us to consider the real human costs of flagrant lies still being told in high places. Whether you live in the United States, Britain or anywhere else on the planet, Breaking the Silence shatters some key myths that often prevent us from developing news media and political priorities to protect human life instead of destroying it."
– Norman Solomon, Executive Director, Institute for Public Accuracy
For ordering and additional information on this film, see:
Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror
A Special Report by John Pilger
13) The Truth & Lies of 9/11 with Michael Ruppert
This video tape is from the Portland State University Lecture by Mike Ruppert in November 2001!
It also features special appearances by Peter Dale Scott, Ph.D. (U.C Berkeley);
Former Assistant HUD Secretary Catherine Austin Fitts; John Metzger, Ph.D., Michigan State University;
The Hon. Cynthia McKinney (D), Georgia; The Hon. Barbara Lee (D), CA; and the Hon. Ron Paul (R), TX.
This professionally produced video with original music by Fritz Heede and edited by Hollywood master Jason Stelzel. (138 minutes)
For ordering information see: Truth & Lies of 9-11
To learn more about Michael Ruppert, visit: copvcia.com
14) INVISIBLE BALLOTS - A Temptation for Electronic Vote Fraud
Governments are installing computerized voting systems with no paper record to verify accuracy. Elections will be controlled by companies that do not allow voters to inspect their software. If vote counting becomes privatized, there may be no way to get it back. High-tech vote fraud is already a reality. If you value your vote, you absolutely must get this information to your friends – and fast!
To learn more, see:
INVISIBLE BALLOTS - A Temptation for Electronic Vote Fraud
For a May 4, 2006 update:
Interesting new developments with "Invisible Ballots" DVD project!
by Joan Brunwasser, Voting Integrity Editor, OpEdNews
15) Fahrenheit 9/11 --
One of the most controversial and provocative films of the year, Fahrenheit 9/11 is Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore's searing examination of the Bush administration's actions in the wake of the tragic events of 9/11. With his characteristic humor and dogged commitment to uncovering the facts, Moore considers the presidency of George W. Bush and where it has led us. He looks at how - and why - Bush and his inner circle avoided pursuing the Saudi connection to 9/11, despite the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis and Saudi money had funded Al Qaeda. Fahrenheit 9/11 shows us a nation kept in constant fear by FBI alerts and lulled into accepting a piece of legislation, the USA Patriot Act, that infringes on basic civil rights. It is in this atmosphere of confusion, suspicion and dread that the Bush Administration makes its headlong rush towards war in Iraq ?and Fahrenheit 9/11 takes us inside that war to tell the stories we haven't heard, illustrating the awful human cost to U.S. soldiers and their families.
16) BUSH FAMILY FORTUNES - The Best Democracy Money Can Buy -
This 70 minute long documentary follows the award-winning reporter-sleuth Greg Palast on the trail of the Bush family, from Florida election finagling, to the Saudi connection, to the Bush team spiking the FBI investigation of the bin Laden family and the secret State Department plans for post-war Iraq. Additionally, there is a 20-minute interview of Greg Palast discussing the documentary. The DVD also features an interactive document section where individuals can go through documents Palast has uncovered, read about them, see video clips and hear sound bites pertaining to investigations of the Bush family.
Did America's President block the investigation of the bin Laden family? Palast shows you the FBI 199-I document. Did Little George weasel his way out of Vietnam? Palast shows you the crucial document -- the proof -- that CBS missed. Want to know why our kids' blood is spilling all over Baghdad? "You have to see this film just for the secret Iraq documents and the exclusive interview with General Jay Garner." (Janeane Garofalo, Air America.) -- Music by platinum rocker Moby. Plus, on the DVD, interactive segments and documents from Palast's New York Times bestseller, "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy."
Check the following link for community viewings sponsored by Howard Dean's Democracy for America: TakeYourCountryBack.com - Bush Family Fortunes
Want to get the word out? GregPalast.com has arranged for not-for-profit groups (your local political club, massage circle, whatever) to buy the film in bulk at below wholesale for fundraisers. Go to: www.gregpalast.com/bff-dvd.htm
For more information, visit: GregPalast.com
17) Liberty Bound - Is the United States bound for liberty – or does it just have liberty bound?
Liberty Bound is a resounding 90-minute film documentrary on a US Citizen's journey of discovery into the lies, oppression, and corruption that has invaded her country since 9/11. Directed and written by Christine Rose, produced by Blue Moose Films, through original footage, archived footage, and interviews with people such as Howard Zinn, Michael Parenti, and Michael Ruppert, Liberty Bound explores the state of the union and its ostensible move toward fascism. The film explores the unanswered questions surrounding the attacks of 9/11, and examines the US Government’s reasons for going to war with Afghanistan and Iraq, (that their warlike agenda is actually centered on oil). For more on this film and current national tour with Christine Rose, see: www.LibertyBound.com
18) Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties -
This film, written and produced by Nonny de la Pena, tells the shocking story of how our civil liberties have been infringed upon since 9/11 and the USA Patriot Act. For more information on the film, see: www.publicinterestpictures.org/unconstitutional
19) Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire -
This film examines how a radical fringe of the Republican Party used the trauma of the 9/11 terror attacks to advance a pre-existing agenda to radically transform American foreign policy while rolling back civil liberties and social programs at home. The documentary places the Bush Administration's false justifications for war in Iraq within the larger context of a two-decade struggle by neoconservatives to dramatically increase military spending in the wake of the Cold War, and to expand American power globally by means of military force. Learn more about this film at: www.hijackingcatastrophe.org
20) The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror -
{From the makers of Hidden Wars of Desert Storm & Plan Colombia: Cashing-in on the Drug-War Failure}
THE OIL FACTOR : Behind the War on Terror (90 min)
Everybody with common sense knows that
George Bush invaded Iraq for its oil !
NOW do you know that:
* at the current production rate, North America and Western Europe will run out of oil in 2010 ?
* One million U.S. military personnel are deployed overseas near oil fields and oil routes ?
* U.S. military deployment in Afghanistan and Central Asia blocks China and Russia from accessing oil and natural gas they desperately need for their economies ?
Is invading foreign countries the solution to reducing terrorist threats against the United States ? Since George Bush's invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, Islamic fundamentalists are recruiting more than ever and acts of terrorism have multiplied around the world. Now Dick Cheney claims that "the American way of life is not negotiable". The real question becomes: is invading foreign countries the acceptable way to ensure that Joe Blow can go on driving his 8-mile-to-the-gallon Hummer or that the average American can go on consuming 4 times more energy that the average European or 32 times more energy than the average African?
After spending three months between Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, Free-Will assesses the catastrophic results of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and George Bush Jr.€™s attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan. THE OIL FACTOR looks at both the human cost and the greater geo-strategic picture of these invasions that may precipitate the world toward the next global conflict.
Filled with solid facts and figures, easy-to-understand maps, original footage shot in Iraq and Afghanistan and interviews of such personalities as Zbigniew Brzezinski, Noam Chomsky, The Project for the New American Century Director Gary Schmitt, best-seller "Taliban" author Ahmed Rashid or Pentagon's Karen Kwiatkowski, THE OIL FACTOR is a must-see for anyone who wants to understand what is really at stake with today's "war-on-terror". It is a must-see also for anyone who wants to convince friends and family that another four years of such war may NOT be in the best interest of our nation and the world.
For more information, see: TheOilFactor.com
21) A Prayer for America
Another film in this forum is from an inspiring speech by Dennis Kucinich, "A Prayer for America," presented to the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action on February 17, 2002. The eighteen-minute speech was given just 5 months following the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Congressman Dennis J Kucinich took leadership and courage, and questioned the Bush administration's -- war on terror -- as a -- war on freedom. The transcript of the speech was passed around the Internet, initiating tens of thousands of responses. Reading the transcript you know he makes sense, when watching, you realize with certainty the significance of that moment. Kucinich is the only candidate running for President that voted AGAINST the PATRIOT Act, and with a tenor voice, he begins this speech with a medley of patriotic tunes.
For the transcript of this speech, see this following URL link:
www.serendipity.li/wot/kucinich.htm
"A Prayer for America" speech was filmed by Ralph Cole that includes the 18-minute speech.
The entire film has a running time of more than 2-hours, called:
"3 Events with Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich" and includes:
Dennis Kucinich's "A Prayer for America"
Speech presented at USC; 2/17/02, 18 minutes;
{this was the speech that got 25,000 responses
when the transcript was circulated on the Internet.}
Suggested donation for A Prayer for America - 3 Event Video: $5
Quantity prices: 2 copies or more:
$2 per copy plus $2 per order to help with postage
Checks should be made payable to JusticeVision and sent to:
Ralph Cole,
1425 W. 12th St. #262
L.A., Ca., 90015, USA
Please write the words "Kucinich Order"
on the outside of your envelope.
JusticeVision - Ralph Cole - DemocracyU
Ralph Cole, founder of JusticeVision, is offering a video program series for democracy in action. Check out these following program titles, and with a price at $2.50 per DVD, he is reaching out to the progressive community in a big way with a focused JusticeVision.
To contact Ralph Cole by email, write to democracyu@aol.com
Telephone: (213) 747-6345
For more information on these films and ordering, visit:
JusticeVision.org
22) The Peace Candidate
"The Peace Candidate" [20 minutes] is an intimate look at the most qualified and inspirational American leader to emerge in decades. In the film you can witness Dennis Kucinich inspiring and energizing audiences by discussing crucial issues in a way which actually provides hope for the future of our planet. This video chronicles two days Kucinich spent in New York City during the opening weeks of the war as he spoke out on campus, at gatherings, and at the United Nations. It is a stirring portrait of Kucinich and the global movement which has sprung up as a reaction to the overreaching of an unelected president and the high crimes of his corporate cronies.
You can contact the filmmaker, Malachi Roth by voice-mail at (845) 338-2822
or by email: m@BrookTroutFilms.com
To learn more about The Peace Candidate and Malachi Roth's other films, see:
BrookTroutFilms.com
Please consider sponsoring a video/DVD for your local community
access television station. To find your station, visit this link for
700 Public or Community Television sites worldwide!.
Additional Films:
"We The People - SUMMIT FOR PEACE"
Thid 30 minute video recording is of a Dennis Kucinich's speech at "We The People - SUMMIT FOR PEACE" in Burlington, VT, UVM, September 28, 2002. For information on this film, contact: Hank / Audiographx by Email: hank@hypernet.com by telephone at 207-348-6005; or P.O. Box 353, Deer Isle, ME 04627.
Peace on Earth and in Space
This film was made available for the Institute for Cooperation in Space, called : Peace on Earth and in Space,
To order, contact: ICIS - Institute for Cooperation in Space
Dr. Carol Rosin (USA) rosin@peaceinspace.com Tel. 805-641-1999
or Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, MEd (Canada) alw@peaceinspace.com
Flyby News encourages educational film/discussion forums on democracy and freedom,
and will help you produce or co-sponsor such events.
Your feedback and suggestions for films that make a difference is welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: flyby@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
7-NukesLooted * Trouble in Bush's America * BudgetGlut
13 May 2003
1) Seven Nuclear Sites Looted
2) Trouble in Bush's America
- - Bush Plan Would Wreck an Already Ailing Economy
- - Take Action - Stop Budget Disaster
3) Greg Palast: "The Lies Are Brilliantly Crafted"
- - "The Greatest Sedition is Silence" by William Rivers Pitt
4) June 2nd - FCC Close to Easing Media Caps
- - Take Action! - - Stop the FCC
5) Kucinich's 'Medicare for All' Offers No Role for Private Insurers
- - Create your purposeful self, just like Rep. Dennis Kucinich
6) An Empty Energy Bill and Imperial Ambition/Destruction
Editor's Notes:
The US invaded Iraq due to concern of weapons of mass destruction. Instead, the US suffered no harm from such weapons in an unprovoked invasion. Yet the US allowed the looting of 7 nuclear sites! It has no idea what happened to these dangerous materials and information. The neoconservative warlords want to spread the chaos, but that their facade of being a protector still seems to have control over most people in the US. Meanwhile, the Bush budget plan could kill the American middle class, placing everyone else in peril. Item 3 is a Truthout interview with Greg Palast, showing how some of the lies are crafted. In this item, too, is a link to William Rivers Pitt newest book, "The Greatest Sedition is Silence." Item 4 is more on the death of any diversification in the broad band media, and an action you can take to get past: resistance is futile.' Item 5 is a common sense approach to a nationalized health care system (not for profit) health care system for all US citizens. Today, too, Howard Dean was scheduled to unveil his plan. The Dean campaign stated that he would try to repeal some of the Bush tax cuts to pay for his plan. "This costs almost a half of the Bush tax cuts," Dean said Sunday. "If you give most people in America the choice between the Bush tax cuts and making sure they always have health insurance, they're going to pick health insurance." This again sounds like Dr. Dean is staying in the middle of the road (that in today's world looks liberal), but actually is maintaining a profit-based health care system, not people-based. Didn't the Clinton administration prove that half-way to nowhere leads to a Bush-regime coup d'etat. Item 6 is on the Energy Bill going to the US Senate. Please take Robert F. Kennedy's suggestion and start waking people up to what is happening to our world. Please forward this information and keep lobbying organizations to go all the way for change.. but not just by lobbying Congress, but a vegan-whopper of a regime-change in 2004.
The following is from Goodsister, posted on the kucinich4president list serve:
[Kucinich4President] Each One Teach One: Challenge to the members
On one of the many forums I frequent, I had posted about Kucinich, and received the following response. This poster displays an attitude one runs into a lot - that both parties are corrupt, there's no point in voting, let's all eat worms. At least, I can't imagine what they think our options are, if not within the tattered remains of what's left of the political process. Are they imagining armed revolution? Because that's not going to happen.
So I offer this guy's POV, which seems vague and negative, and then my answer to him below it. Obviously, if he thinks the Democrats are "socialist", he hasn't got too good of a grip on reality, let alone what "socialism" means. But he knows we're in trouble, and that's as good a starting place as any.
I hope that everyone on this list will Go Forth and Multiply our supporters. If you belong to other groups, tell them about Dennis.
In fact, I would challenge all of us to try to bring in ONE new member a week. Let them know they can set their email preferences so as not to be inundated with mail, if they're not online activists already, accustomed to too much mail.
But when you see folks talking about this issue, make sure to respond to them. Tell them there IS a way out. Tell them about Kucinich. Then bring them here if you can. If we follow the old "Each One, Teach One" idea, we can raise awareness - and make our hope as contagious as they'd like us to believe SARS is. Get out there, rub elbows, and cough those Hope and Kucinich cooties into the air. Infect someone today with love and courage!
Together, brothers and sisters, we can do this. We have nothing else to do, really. Top of our To-Do List: Save the country, save the world. Get the nomination for Kucinich, and elect him to the Presidency. Check.
Goodsister
****************
Here is the post:
"US Patriot" wrote: Hello all,
What is the consensus here about political parties?
Many (but not all) of the posts I've seen on several 'patriot' forums do not segregate their own political views from one of the dominant party lines. A recent post to this list (admittedly, I know absolutely nothing about Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D, OH) - but would rather not support either the Socialist "Democrats" or the Fascist "Republicans" - I want to belong to a party that understands that either form of "major party" assimilation can only play into their hands.
If Congressman Kucinich is only running for the Democratic appointment in order to get a foothold of the majority standing - I can understand - but I don't agree with it. Doing so jeopardizes the content of the message by inuring it with the inherent flaws of either major political party.
Am I the only one that feels that way?
******
(And here is my response - GS)
This is the way I look at it.
After the horrifying theft of the 2000 election, I knew the Democratic Party was not for me. My views are much more in line with the Green platform, and like many people, I am disgusted at the complicity of many of the Dems with the worst of the Republicans.
But subsequent events have caused me to think deeply about what I realistically think our options are, if we want to resist the complete takeover by the PNAC crew and the rigid, fascist control they've already begun to implement, and wish to confirm, in the United States. The way our system is set up, of course, alternatives to the two main parties only weaken the party they most resemble; plus, we have a bigger problem with the rigged vote-counting machines, like those made by Diebold Corp., owned by Republican Senator Chuck Hagel. We need to make sure our votes are counted, or no candidate will matter.
Plus they now control the media, and a portion of the population is brainwashed and blindly supportive of the Thief in Residence. TV is critically important to Americans, and right now the TV is lying to them, and even tighter controls are being pushed in the halls of Washington. So we have plenty of obstacles in our way of getting our country back. But we want it back - or what are we all doing here? I think Kucinich may be the way to reclaim our country, our lives, our future.
If I understand you correctly, you're saying you have no wish to vote for a Republicrat or a Bush Lite, right? You're saying what I have said, what every politically literate person I know has said: "They're all crooks. They're all corrupt. They have to be, in order to win elections and stay in power." That's a healthy and legitimate skepticism, but not true across the board.
The late Senator Paul Wellstone was one proof that wasn't true; there are exceptions to our cynical dismissal of the entire Legislative branch of government, men who are good and honest and fighting to represent us, to stay true to the democratic ideals this country is supposed to be about. And Rep. Dennis Kucinich is another. Don't just take my word for it - check it out - www.kucinich.us - He's a 4-term Congressman who's never missed a vote in the House. He started out a boy wonder in politics, as Cleveland's Mayor. He lost that gig after refusing to sell the city's energy to an energy company; "It's not mine to sell", he said. "It belongs to the people of Cleveland." A few years later, he was welcomed back as a hero. He stood up to the Enron of his day, did what was best for his constituents and not his political career.
He's not dirty; he's not corrupt, and he's spent his whole life in political service. After he made a speech called A Prayer for America that circulated widely on the Net, the buzz began to draft him as President. You've got to read that speech. And check out where he stands on the issues; see if he speaks for you or not. Look at his record.
Since he announced his candidacy for President, the media has done an almost complete blackout on Kucinich. But his support is growing anyway - more people are finding out every day, but his is a truly democratic, populist movement, without any corporate backing.
His idea is simple: We take BACK the Democratic Party. Everyone who is not a Bush Republican, at this point, belongs in the Democratic party. We need to unite together, against this menacing group of PNAC neofascists. Greens, Libertarians, and many disaffected Republicans who are as horrified as we are at this nightmare of a Bush regime can join together to RECLAIM the party. Why should we be forced out of the party, into smaller splinter groups that can never win? We know we're not represented by a Lieberman, a Kerry, a Gephardt. We need someone completely different.
Dennis Kucinich is different. What do you want to see in this country? Do you believe we must evolve beyond war? Want to see an end to nuclear weapons? Kucinich proposes a Dept. of Peace. Do you think workers should have rights? Do you believe in our sacred documents, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights? So does he, and he would restore them.
I could go on, because I really believe in this guy, but I hope you'll check him out for yourself. If I hadn't discovered Kucinich, I would be wallowing in despair, like millions of Americans now spiking the level of antidepressant prescriptions. He gives me hope - and without that hope I couldn't deal with what I hear and read as an online activist, day after day.
The mainstream Democratic machine is not supporting Dennis Kucinich, precisely because he is not their boy. It will be up to us. He is NOT beholden to them or in their club. He speaks for us, he is telling the truth, and it will only be through a massive, grassroots movement that he could be elected. Not huge corporations handing his campaign thousands or millions of dollars, but regular citizens sending in $25 each.
So what we're talking about is basically, taking the Democratic Party - which, don't forget, WON the election in 2000 - taking it BACK, and making it serve us. As Democrats, we can decide what the party is about, and kick the corrupt bureaucrats out.
Goodsister
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kucinich4president
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
This was a rather lengthy insertion, but truly fit to transmit in the post Cassini flyby era. Thank You Goodsister.
Please accept the Goodsister challenge -- unite with the best choice we can collectively make and do something about it. Thanks for all efforts and involvement with campaigns.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
A Time To Remember - June 26 - for Leonard Peltier, Justice, and Human Rights.
You are invited to a benefit for Leonard Peltier at the Common Ground Restaurant -- 25 Elliot Street, Brattleboro, Vermont, Thursday, June 26, 2003 beginning at 5:00pm. Planned is the showing of the film of a Peltier-Congressional briefing in May 2000, which was sponsored by Congressman Porter. Dinner will be served at the Common Ground, which is a collective-owner-worker earth-friendly vegetarian food place. Also, expect some good music and speakers in respect and honor of this 28th anniversary of the Ogala-US Federal Agent Shoot-out that lead to Leonard's long term incarceration. Please join us and consider making a pledge of some nonviolent action on behalf of Leonard's freedom from prison, and on his birthday, September 12, we will gather again at the Common Ground to share stories and celebrate, and plan for actions for February 6, the day of Leonard's arrest, which has become the international day to protest the continued unfair incarceration of Leonard Peltier. For the Common Ground June 26 event, Marsia Shuron Harris will be one of the music performers. Also an event for Reconciliation, Restorative Justice, and Healing, will be held at Oglala on June 26. For more on this and information on Leonard Peltier, visit: www.freeleonardpeltier.org and www.flybynews.com
Being Human
Attunement opens the doorway to enter the fiery ball
As love opens wide while the material sky may begin to fall.
And from the droppings of mass confusion a new essence may arise,
a scenario of democracy without spirituality's demise.
How sweet the voyage even through the stern shores
of choppy judgmental eyes,
as waves of antiquity have reached the skies
where, as before in the fiery ball,
the heavens open wide and the truth of being human is realized.
1) Seven Nuclear Sites Looted
Seven Nuclear Sites Looted
By Barton Gellman
Washington Post
Saturday 10 May 2003
Iraqi Scientific Files, Some Containers Missing
BAGHDAD -- Seven nuclear facilities in Iraq have been damaged or effectively destroyed by the looting that began in the first days of April, when U.S. ground forces thrust into Baghdad, according to U.S. investigators and others with detailed knowledge of their work. The Bush administration fears that technical documents, sensitive equipment and possibly radiation sources have been scattered.
If so, there are potentially significant consequences for public health and the spread of materials to build a nuclear or radiological bomb. President Bush had said the war was fought to prevent the spread of "the world's most dangerous weapons."
It is still not clear what has been lost in the sacking of Iraq's nuclear establishment. But it is well documented that looters roamed unrestrained among stores of chemical elements and scientific files that would speed development, in the wrong hands, of a nuclear or radiological bomb. Many of the files, and some of the containers that held radioactive sources, are missing.
Previous reports have described damage at two of the facilities, the Tuwaitha Yellowcake Storage Facility and the adjacent Baghdad Nuclear Research Center. Now, the identity of three more damaged sites has been learned: the Ash Shaykhili Nuclear Facility, the Baghdad New Nuclear Design Center and the Tahadi Nuclear Establishment. All of them have attracted close scrutiny from the International Atomic Energy Agency and from U.S. analysts who suspected that Iraq, despite IAEA inspections, was working to develop a bomb.
The identities of two other sites, also said to have been looted, could not be learned.
Army Lt. Col. Charles Allison, who led the U.S. survey team at Ash Shaykhili, said in an interview that its "warehouses were completely destroyed" by ransacking and fire. A Special Forces soldier, part of another team that reached Ash Shaykhili before Allison, said "they were supposed to store all their enrichment processing machinery there, but it was all gone or badly burned."
Alarmed by similar reports about the two Tuwaitha-area sites, IAEA's director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, sent a letter Monday pressing earlier demands that the United States grant the agency access to Iraq's nuclear sites. He has previously asserted that the IAEA has sole legal authority over the sites under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and U.N. resolutions. But an adviser to ElBaradei said late Thursday that "we have got no official reply" from the United States.
Ash Shaykhili, 10 miles southeast of Baghdad, was the legally designated repository of heavy equipment used in Iraq's former nuclear weapons program. Some of the equipment was destroyed when Israel bombed the Osirak reactor in 1981 and when the United States bombed a Russian research reactor there 10 years later. Other gear had been seized and rendered useless by IAEA inspectors between 1991 and 1998.
Subject to regular inspection by the nuclear watchdog agency, Ash Shaykhili held destroyed centrifuges once used to enrich uranium, disks and machinery used in an alternate enrichment process called electromagnetic isotope separation, key components of the bomb-damaged reactors, vacuum pumps and valves. Experts said it may have held small radiation sources, but not in significant quantities.
Allison's U.S. survey team sought evidence that the site concealed other, forbidden activities, particularly in an underground space that U.S. intelligence thought suspicious. But when Allison arrived on April 24, he found it "so looted that it was just basically warehouses with all kinds of crap all over the floor," he said. "If there was something there it's long since gone."
Another site known to have been damaged is the Baghdad New Nuclear Design Center. A prominent yellow building, the center housed the key personnel responsible for the crash program that nearly succeeded in building a nuclear bomb in 1991.
That program, known by the code name Petrochemical Three, or PC-3, demonstrated Iraqi mastery of three different nuclear enrichment technologies: fabrication of finely milled uranium or plutonium spheres for the core of a fission bomb and the makings of a sophisticated implosion device to detonate the weapon.
Many of the principal scientists and technicians of PC-3 moved to jobs at the new nuclear design center. They formed an umbrella organization for electrical, mechanical and chemical engineering research, all potentially useful for a nuclear weapon. But IAEA inspectors watched the work carefully, and an expert with detailed knowledge of the results said the agency "didn't find anything that indicated ongoing prohibited activities regarding nuclear weapons."
Last month U.S. Central Command sent the Pentagon's Direct Support Team to survey the site. Sources said they found it looted and collected little that would help resolve U.S. suspicions about what was being done there. They declined to detail the damage.
The third site that was badly damaged is the Tahadi Nuclear Establishment.
Jacques Baute, who heads the IAEA's Iraq Action Team, made that site his first stop when IAEA inspections resumed Nov. 27, according to press accounts. Tahadi was thought to be a potential location of renewed weapons activity because, like the Baghdad center, it employed some of Iraq's leading weapons scientists. Unlike the Baghdad center, it housed substantial dual-use equipment, capable of both permitted and prohibited work.
Tahadi hosted magnetic research and development of high-voltage power supplies. Those can be used as components of a program to enrich uranium to weapons grade. An expert on Iraq's weapons program with close ties to the IAEA said in an interview that the site was "at the top of the list" of sites that might be involved in prohibited centrifuge work. The Bush administration accused Iraq of attempting to import specialized aluminum tubes for such a centrifuge cascade, but the IAEA said they were not suitable.
The administration sought evidence at Tahadi, but the Direct Support Team found little left.
At the Baghdad site and Tahadi, experts said there might have been small radiation sources to calibrate instruments, but nothing in quantity. At two other looted sites, Tuwaitha's Location C and the Baghdad Nuclear Research Center nearby, there were significant quantities of partially enriched uranium, cesium, strontium and cobalt. U.S. survey teams have been unable to say whether any of those radiation sources were stolen.
According to witnesses, Allison's survey team reached both of these sites on April 10, the same day that ElBaradei cited them as the two most important for U.S. forces to protect. But because of continuing debate within the Bush administration over whether to enter without IAEA inspectors present, Allison received a hasty order to withdraw. When Allison was told to evacuate all U.S. personnel, including troops providing security at the perimeter, he grew agitated, witnesses said.
"Whoever gave that order better check his retirement plan, because if we leave this place open somebody is going to lose their job," he told an officer at the ground forces operations center of Central Command, according to two witnesses. Allison confirmed the gist of the conversation.
Eventually Central Command relented and ordered a company of the 3rd Infantry Division to guard both Tuwaitha-area sites. But the twin complexes, about a square mile each and half a mile apart, were far too big for the force left in place. Soldiers posted there permitted Iraqi civilians who said they were employees to enter freely. Looting at both places continued last Saturday, when a Washington Post reporter spent four hours at the site.
Daoud Awad, who ran the electrical design department at Tuwaitha, said in a brief interview that he "saw with my own eyes people carrying the containers we used to put radioactive materials in." The containers slightly resemble jugs commonly used for milk, he said, "and they didn't know what was inside."
"I saw some papers on an experiment, and the people threw the papers on the floor and took the table," he said. "If they knew how valuable the papers were, they would have kept the papers, not the table."
"How could they leave a place like this without protection?" he asked. "It's not an ordinary place. It's too dangerous."
Staff researcher Robert Thomason in Washington contributed to this report.
2003 The Washington Post Company
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36985-2003May9.html
2) Trouble in Bush's America
- - Bush Plan Would Wreck an Already Ailing Economy
- - Take Action - Stop Budget Disaster
Trouble in Bush's America
By Bob Herbert
New York Times
[Excerpt]
While our "What, me worry?" president is having a great time with his high approval ratings and his "Top Gun" fantasies, the economy remains in the tank. And the finances of state and local governments are sinking tragically into ever deeper and ever more unforgiving waters.
The high unemployment and sharply reduced social services are having devastating consequences. In some cases people are being driven to destitution.
Nearly a quarter of a million jobs have been lost in New York City in the past two and a half years. Taxes are going up and services are going down and still that is not enough. Similar scenarios are being played out in city and state governments throughout the country.
California is trying to borrow its way out of a nightmarish crisis. Texas, already near the bottom nationally in social services, is heading further south.
Two forms of help from the federal government are needed. One is direct assistance to local governments to help alleviate the disastrous budget shortfalls. The other is an economic stimulus program that really works, that boosts the economy and creates jobs through investments in some of the nation's real needs, rather than simply transferring trainloads of money to the wealthy in the form of tax cuts.
Mr. Bush has no interest in such remedies. Easing the economic struggles of poor and working families in America is not part of his agenda.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/08/opinion/08HERB.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush Plan Would Wreck an Already Ailing Economy
Bush Plan Would Wreck an Already Ailing Economy
By Harry K. Schwartz
The Hill
Wednesday 07 May 2003
Even if Americans could afford President Bush's original proposal to make all corporate dividends tax-free, it would be a profoundly bad idea. Congress is right to worry about the cost. But the most far-reaching impacts, and the most troublesome ones, have nothing to do with the federal deficit.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.thehill.com/op_ed/050603.aspx
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Take Action - Stop Budget Disaster
Stop Budget Disaster From MoveOn.org
Today begins the peak week in our campaign to stop President Bush's disastrous tax and budget cuts. The campaign has developed terrific momentum. Our TV ad, telling the story of Oregon parents who soldtheir blood to raise money for their kids' school, has been covered by CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, FOX, and the Associated Press.*
Today, Americans everywhere are flooding their Senators' offices with MoveOn-sponsored faxes, urging the Senators to stop Bush's tax and budget cuts, which if enacted will cause terrible pain in our schools, health systems, fire departments, and economy. Click here to send FREE faxes to your Senators:
http://www.stopbudgetdisaster.com/fax.asp?ms=on
Please send your faxes right away. The debate in Congress over these cuts is really heating up. On Friday, the House approved a tax & budget cut of $550 billion. This number, a lot less than the $726 billion Bush asked for, is an attempt to placate moderate Senators who have refused to approve such enormous cuts. Thousands of our members have called these Senators in support of their courageous stand.
But any tax cut for the rich is still too much, when deficits everywhere are already forcing massive cutbacks in essential programs. We've got to stop these tax cuts. Please fax your Senators today.
And get ready to call them on Wednesday, when our campaign culminates in a massive phone blitz. We've got to make sure our Senators understand the depth of public opposition to new tax & budget cuts.
Thanks for all you're doing.
Sincerely,
- Carrie, Eli, Joan, Peter, Wes, and Zack
The MoveOn Team
May 12th, 2003
* You can see the ad for yourself on our homepage:
http://www.moveon.org/
P.S.: Here's one of the recent articles about the TV ad. It appeared
on KATU.com (ABC affiliate) in Oregon:
Parents donate blood plasma to pay teacher's salary
May 9, 2003
http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=57349
EUGENE - A group of parents who decided to sell blood plasma to pay a school teacher's salary are now featured on a national political ad skewering President Bush's proposed tax cuts.
On Thursday, the first 30-second television ad aired on CNN. It was based on a re-enactment of the April 13 blood plasma drive, where 50 parents and teachers went to Aventis Bio-Services in west Eugene to raise money for the Family School.
"It's absolutely fabulous," said Family School parent Beth Meyer, who will fly to Washington, D.C., next week to be part of the week-long attack on Bush's tax-cut plan, which the ad says favors the rich.
Take Action => http://www.stopbudgetdisaster.com/fax.asp?ms=on
For Part 2 - Items:
3) Greg Palast: "The Lies Are Brilliantly Crafted"
- - "The Greatest Sedition is Silence" by William Rivers Pitt
4) June 2nd - FCC Close to Easing Media Caps
- - Take Action! - Stop the FCC
5) Kucinich's 'Medicare for All' Offers No Role for Private Insurers
- - Create your purposeful self, just like Rep. Dennis Kucinich
6) An Empty Energy Bill and Imperial Ambition/Destruction
See: GregPalast--Truthout * MediaMonopoly * K-Health * Energy
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
GregPalast--Truthout * MediaMonopoly * K-Health * Energy
13 May 2003 - Part 2
3) Greg Palast: "The Lies Are Brilliantly Crafted"
- - "The Greatest Sedition is Silence" by William Rivers Pitt
4) June 2nd - FCC Close to Easing Media Caps
- - Take Action! - Stop the FCC
5) Kucinich's 'Medicare for All' Offers No Role for Private Insurers
- - Create your purposeful self, just like Rep. Dennis Kucinich
6) An Empty Energy Bill and Imperial Ambition/Destruction
Editor's Notes:
Item 3 is a Truthout interview with Greg Palast, showing how some of the lies are crafted. In this item, too, is a link to William Rivers Pitt newest book, "The Greatest Sedition is Silence." Item 4 is more on the death of any diversification in the broad band media, and an action you can take to get past: resistance is futile.' Item 5 is a common sense approach to a nationalized health care system (not for profit) health care system for all US citizens. Today, too, Howard Dean was scheduled to unveil his plan. The Dean campaign stated that he would try to repeal some of the Bush tax cuts to pay for his plan. "This costs almost a half of the Bush tax cuts," Dean said Sunday. "If you give most people in America the choice between the Bush tax cuts and making sure they always have health insurance, they're going to pick health insurance." This again sounds like Dr. Dean is staying in the middle of the road (that in today's world looks liberal), but actually is maintaining a profit-based health care system, not people-based. Didn't the Clinton administration prove that half-way to nowhere leads to a Bush-regime coup d'etat. Item 6 is on the Energy Bill going to the US Senate. Please take Robert F. Kennedy's suggestion and start waking people up to what is happening to our world. Please forward this information and keep lobbying organizations to go all the way for change.. but not just by lobbying Congress, but a vegan-whopper of a regime-change in 2004.
3) Greg Palast: "The Lies Are Brilliantly Crafted"
- - "The Greatest Sedition is Silence" by William Rivers Pitt
"The Lies Are Brilliantly Crafted"
Greg Palast with Marc Ash
t r u t h o u t | Exclusive Interview
Sunday 11 May 2003
M.A. Greg welcome back to TruthOut.
Your book The Best Democracy Money Can Buy is currently number 5 on The New York Times Best Seller list. Why?
G.P. The USA is home to the largest, longest, deepest river of burbling bullshit known to man - home of the brave and of double-talk, nonsense, half-truths, Tom Brokaw, disinformation, baloney, CNN, white lies, black lies and Katie Curic - laughably called 'US media.' "And here, the President is waving to us from his helicopter!" ... And we're fed up TO HERE with it. So someone had to write a book with the facts that dare not speak their name in America: how the Bush clan fixed the election in Florida, spiked the investigation of the bin Ladins, peddled America like a cheap tart to every corporate John with campaign loot, let the World Bank eat Argentina for breakfast and encouraged Pat Robertson to commit unnatural acts with our Bill of Rights.
Those few citizens not yet Fox'd to death were ready for this book. And Michael Moore helped. By bringing over my stories through his talks and 'Stupid White Men,' he cracked the Propaganda Berlin Wall, opening the space for my investigative reports to rush through.
Plus, the new paperback has these cool illustrations by Winston Smith with 40% new material. Damn, what a bargain - who could resist?
M.A. -- Some would argue that commercial journalism has so completely abdicated objectivity that it is no longer news, but rather public relations. Is the independent media the last bastion of the free press?
G.P. "Independent'' media in America is better called "starvation'' media: journalists that want to do real reporting don't survive long - Bob Parry, who uncovered the Iran-Contra scandal, lost his job at the AP, Seymour Hersh was pushed off the New York Times - and I'm in exile. Investigative reporting is a quick career path to dis-employment. The 'dependent' media is killing us with poisoned lies.
And some of the lies are brilliantly crafted. Let me give you an example: The New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle and god knows how many others ran a photo in June 2001 under the screamer, "100,000 MARCH AGAINST VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT.'' Hugo Chavez. It had to be true: there was the photo. And I was there, in Caracas, so I know it was true. But what the Times and Chronicle DIDN'T show you was the demonstration, nearly twice as large, of Venezuelans marching IN SUPPORT of their President. So the Dependent Media effectively Stalinized the photos.
That left the independent media - Truthout and other dot-commies, plus the Pacifica Network and Spanish-language press - to set the record straight, to give the whole picture, literally.
M.A. -- You have labored long and hard to document the perils of unregulated multi-national corporate activity. To the average American who voted for George W. Bush what would say about the dangers of "Globalization?"
G.P..Look at the documents I've seen and you'll get ill. Example: Pfizer Corporation, which makes Viagra, used to make a heart valve designed by a doctor named Viking Bjork - who found out the company's save-a-buck method of manufacturing them caused the valves to snap apart inside patients. Literally hundreds of hearts exploded, one ugly way to die. Dr. Bjork thought he should issue a public warning, but kept his mouth shut when a Pfizer exec telexed, "ATTN. PROF BJORK: WE WOULD PREFER THAT YOU DID NOT PUBLISH THE DATA RELATIVE TO STRUT FRACTURE.'' The reason to withhold the warning your heart valve could fail? "WE EXPECT A FEW MORE.'' Nice guys.
Pfizer continued to sell these heart-breakers worldwide.
And now the Bush Administration is using the World Trade Organization to prevent dead patients' families from suing Pfizer and other makers of bogus 'medical devices.'
M.A. -- The degree of corporate influence inside the White House is, in a very real sense, mind-boggling. Has there ever been a moment in American history where private interests have held this kind of influence at the highest levels of our government?
G.P. Hey, don't panic. We've been here before. We survived Nixon. We survived Joe McCarthy. We survived the robber barons of the 1890s. Throughout US history, monied jackals have invaded the White House and Congress. Time after time they use some threat of external danger - the Commies, the Viet Cong, the Anarchists, the Terrorists, whomever - to keep Americans hypnotized by The Threat Out There. They empty the Treasury, bust unions, and impoverish the average Joe and Josephine. In the McCarthy era, General Electric used the Red Scare to hunt down and eliminate United Electrical Workers activists. Today, Al-Quida is used as the excuse to seal the EPA files on the real threat of contamination from Exxon-Mobil petrochemical plants.
But despair not: Every time, every single time, after we've been kicked in the head, Americans blink and think - and rise up angry in mass movements: one hundred years ago it was the Populist uprising, in the Sixties, in the Seventies, we had the Environmental and Consumer Movements - and don't forget the Labor, Union and Civil Rights Movements, to say "enough already!''
So I have hope. But in the meantime, I'm taking action. Martin Luther King III, President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (his daddy's old job) and I are gathering signatures on a petition to stop the theft of the election in 2004. Two years ago, Congress passed a fraudulently named "Help America Vote Act'' - it will actually help disenfranchise voters - mainly African-Americans. Anyway, read about it on my site, linked here.
Greg Palast is author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, and his investigation of computer
purges of black voters appeared in Harper's Magazine.
Traditional media inquiries (interviews, appearances, excerpts):media@gregpalast.com
Website inquiries (links, graphics, excerpts): webmaster@gregpalast.com
Greg Palast's completely updated US. edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now in its tenth week on the NYT bestseller list, is available from Penguin Plume at booksellers and via www.gregpalast.com.
http://truthout.org/docs_03/051103B.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - "The Greatest Sedition is Silence" by William Rivers Pitt
TruthOut's senior writer William Rivers Pitt has just come out with his second book, titled "The Greatest Sedition is Silence." The book details the last four years of politics in America, and delves into topics of discussion that have been left aside by the mainstream media. The mysteries and morality surrounding the 9/11 attacks, Enron and the economic meltdown, the 2000 Election, the media and a myriad of other important issues are discussed. Through it all, Mr. Pitt exhorts his readers to get involved in the workings of their country, and to not remain silent in the face of so many calamities.
"The Greatest Sedition is Silence" is available only online at this point, and can be purchased at a discount from the book's website: www.SilenceIsSedition.com
4) June 2nd - FCC Close to Easing Media Caps
- - Take Action! - Stop the FCC
San Francisco Chronicle - May 12, 2003
FCC Close to Easing Media Caps
Giant firms want to own more outlets
by Dan Fost
The Federal Communications Commission is moving closer to easing its media ownership caps, including regulations that now limit how many television stations a network may own, or whether a company can own a newspaper and a television station in the same city.
Opponents are waging a frantic battle to forestall FCC action. They fear that a handful of media giants will gobble up even more of the print and broadcast spectrum.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0512-01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Take Action! - - Stop the FCC
On June 2, the Federal Communications Commission intends to lift restrictions on media ownership that could allow your local newspaper, cable provider, radio stations, and TV channels all to be owned by one company. The result could be the disappearance of the checks and balances provided by a competitive media marketplace -- and huge cutbacks in local news and reporting. Good, balanced information is the basis for our democracy. That's why we're asking that: "Congress and the FCC should stop media deregulation and work to make the media diverse, competitive, balanced, and fair."
Click the following URL link to tell your US Reps and the FCC what you think!
http://www.moveon.org/stopthefcc/
5) Kucinich's 'Medicare for All' Offers No Role for Private Insurers
- - Create your purposeful self, just like Rep. Dennis Kucinich
Kucinich's 'Medicare for All' Offers No Role for Private Insurers
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 11, 2003; Page A07
ANKENY, Iowa, May 10 -- Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (Ohio), campaigning in Iowa today for the Democratic presidential nomination, outlined how he would transform the nation's health care system into a government-run, single-payer program if elected. While several Democratic presidential candidates have detailed how they would help cover the nation's 41 million uninsured, Kucinich's "Medicare for All" proposal is far more interventionist because it would eliminate the role of private health insurers altogether. The plan, which largely mirrors the Canadian model that came under fire when President Bill Clinton tried to revise the U.S. health care system in the early 1990s, would cost $2.2 trillion a year once it was fully implemented in 2013.
Addressing a group of painters union representatives here, Kucinich criticized the current health care system as "a market system" based solely on how much Americans could afford to spend. "It's long past time we should take the word 'profit' out of health care," he said, sparking applause from the audience. "How many people's lives in this country are shortened because they can't get access to health care?"
Kucinich said he would help pay for the plan by imposing a 7.7 percent tax on public and private employers, which he said would represent slightly less than what these employers currently devote to covering health care expenses. That new tax would produce $917 billion in revenue. Kucinich would also eliminate $245 billion in tax deductions that employers currently take. He would draw on $1 trillion in federal, state and local revenue that now pays for the government's Medicare system. The government would save money by making bulk purchases of prescription drugs, Kucinich said, something that Canada has done for years. American pharmaceutical companies have fiercely opposed such an approach, however, arguing that in driving down costs the government would siphon away funds needed for innovative research. Within three years, Kucinich's program would cover all American children. Seniors would come under the system in 2008. And in a decade, all Americans would be enrolled.
While the program has little chance of becoming law, it reflects Kucinich's efforts to inject more progressive policies into his party's presidential race. Former House minority leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), by contrast, introduced a plan in April that would provide federal tax credits to private employers helping cover their workers' health care insurance premiums. The proposal would be financed by rolling back the trillion-dollar tax cut President Bush successfully championed in the previous Congress. Business groups and many of Gephardt's Democratic rivals criticized the plan as unrealistic. Several union officials at the meeting said that, although they need to learn more about Kucinich's proposal, they thought he was headed in the right direction.
2003 The Washington Post Company
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40260-2003May10.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Create your purposeful self, just like Rep. Dennis Kucinich
Create your purposeful self, just like Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Democratic presidential candidate wannabe. According to the Washington newspaper the Hill, Kucinich, who is Catholic, has a Jewish girlfriend and keeps kosher. They're actually both vegans, which is a kind of automatic kosher, but the story says he also knows how to recite the Jewish blessings over wine and bread. Yelena Boxer, his significant other, says he snacks on matzo, which, she pointed out to the Forward, a New York Jewish weekly, is "the bread of oppression." (Doritos just wouldn't have the same political impact.)
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/05/08/DD32281.DTL
6) An Empty Energy Bill and Imperial Ambition/Destruction
Break the Chain and End our Dependence on Oil
Natural Resources Defense Council
From Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Dear Fellow NRDC BioGems Defender,
American soldiers are still guarding oil fields in Iraq but you'd never know it from watching Congress. Last month the House of Representatives passed an energy bill that does virtually nothing to reduce our dangerous addiction to Middle Eastern oil.
Instead, the House voted to leave fuel economy at its lowest level in 20 years, promote reckless energy development on fragile wildlands, and hand out $20 billion in corporate welfare to giant oil, coal and nuclear companies that are already rolling in enormous profits.
If you've had it with this kind of shameless payback to the auto and energy lobbies then now's a good time to do something about it. The U.S. Senate is about to vote on its own energy bill and it could be every bit as bad as the House version -- unless millions of Americans speak out right now for a sane and sustainable energy future.
Our environment has been chained to the gas pump and our national security chained to foreign oil for long enough. Drilling and destroying the Arctic Wildlife Refuge and Greater Yellowstone, as the Bush administration would have us do, is not the answer. Our nation simply doesn't have enough oil to drill our way to self-sufficiency. We could empty every oil reserve in America and we'd still be importing vast quantities of oil.
On the other hand, if we simply used available technology to raise fuel economy standards for new cars and light trucks to 40 miles per gallon, we could save two million barrels of oil a day -- more than we now import from Saudi Arabia.
More than 80 percent of Americans support such common sense improvements, but the auto and oil lobbies are dead set against them. And the House has made it clear it would rather let oil companies plunder our natural heritage than make auto companies clean up the world's most inefficient gas guzzling vehicles.
We must stop the Senate from following suit and caving in to industry pressure. These upcoming votes are absolutely crucial to America's energy independence and environmental future. Please go to
http://www.nrdcaction.org/breakthechain/index.asp?step=2&item=10004&src=bkb0305
and tell your senators to give us the fuel efficient cars that Americans want. And if you'd like to do even more, please forward this message to as many people as you can.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Senior Attorney
Natural Resources Defense Council
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
1) Alliance to Save Energy:
Comparison of House, Senate Energy Bills
Points Out Flawed Provisions - and Omissions
http://www.ase.org/media/newsrel/side_by_side.htm
2) New York Times:
"An Empty Energy Bill"
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/12/opinion/12MON1.html
3) For experts who can comment on the energy bill, visit the
EMS.org energy experts directory:
http://www.ems.org/energy_policy/energy_experts.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Imperial Ambition: An Interview with Noam Chomsky
Monthly Review
Imperial Ambition: An Interview with Noam Chomsky
by David Barsamian
http://www.monthlyreview.org/0503chomsky.htm
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
DemDebate * RegimeChange * ImpeachBush * Rems&Cancer
08 May 2003
1) The Democrats Debate
- - Closing Statement of Congressman Kucinich
- - As Cleveland Mayor, Kucinich's Fight to Save Public Power
2) Scott Ritter Calling for Regime Change in Washington
- - Court Assumes Role of Saddam in 9/11 Lawsuit
- - White House Refuses to Release Sept. 11 Info
3) Ramsey Clark: Removing an Imperial President Committing High Crimes
- - National Press Club Invites Ramsey Clark on May 12
4) Plutonium Dangers - Who's Watching?
- - Rems and Cancer - A Personal Story - the Hanford Project
Editor's Notes:
Item 1 begins with a follow-up on our last issue, on the first debate for Democratic candidates for US President since 2000. While Candidate Dean's campaign has 20,000 people signed up for meet-ups around the Country, the Kucinich grassroots campaign seems still stuck in the mud. Where is the grass roots? But we still got a little time to make a big difference. Please get involved, register as a Democrat to vote in the primary, and encourage others. Encourage organizations to endorse an independent person to represent the people. Item 2 is on Scott Ritter calling for a regime change in the US - what makes him so important is his background as a US Marine willing to risk his life to defend the US Constitution, which is in sharp contrast to the oil-fed gluttony of the Bush administration and Haliburton stealing from the US Treasury for a corrupt deceitful campaign to bleed America dry from its fundamental freedoms. Yet people are still buying the facade of the Bush rhetoric and top gun innuendos. In a recent 9/11 lawsuit case, a federal court ruled nearly $104 million with flimsy evidence for Saddam/Iraq's connection to Al-Qaida and the supposed terrorist attacks. Meanwhile, another story states that the White House is refusing to release 9/11 information. So the manipulation of the truth continues. Meanwhile, Ramsey Clark is doing his best to help remove an Imperial President committing high crimes by impeachment. Listening to the Democrats debate, one realizes how far away from the US government is from this. So, we encourage impeachment, but more practical is regime change ... and the candidate with a record to be most trusted is Dennis Kucinich. However, the impeachment campaign and regime change are inter-related, part of an educational campaign to take actions to save democracy in the US. Ramsey Clark will be speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on May 12. Item 4 is another obvious and profound article by John Gofman, who was an early pioneer discovering radioactive plutonium in the 1940's. Since then he has detailed ample evidence describing that there is no safe dose' with certain alpha emitting radiation inside a human body. To back up this point, I am including Richard Fash's personal account about his life and family's devastation from radiation exposure from his dad's work at the Hanford Project.
"I'm very much in favor of the space program, but I think the use of plutonium in space is a manifestation of organized insanity," said John Gofman, a physicist on the team that developed the atomic bomb for the United States during World War II. "All I can say is that I'll be praying for the success of the flyby."
http://www.flybynews.com/archives/alerts/21nl.htm
-- The above excerpt and URL link was posted as NoFlyby's quote of the day on August 18, 1999 - just after NASA's Cassini flyby of Earth
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Reminder Check FlybyNews.com for Actions/Campaigns/Events
Please note: Flyby News will be presenting the film, "What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World" at the Greenfield Public Library (Gfld. MA) on June 19, 2003 (5:00 to 8:00 pm). Included in this program will be a discussion on responsibilities for a US democracy and safeguarding our planet by electing an independent-green-democrat for President in 2004, Dennis J. Kucinich.
1) The Democrats Debate
- - Closing Statement of Congressman Kucinich
- - As Cleveland Mayor, Kucinich's Fight to Save Public Power
"Only Dennis Kucinich, the anti-war Ohio congressman -- noticeably ignored by his competitors -- managed to squeeze sharply defined programmatic alternatives into his few allotted minutes. He called for flatout "cancellation" of NAFTA and the World Trade Organization, for repeal of the civil-liberties-shredding Patriot Act, and painted himself as the anti-monopoly, anti-corporate candidate. But the press paid little attention -- for example, The New York Times' Adam Nagourney didn't even mention Kucinich in his post-debate report for "the paper of record."
Where's the Vision?
By Doug Ireland (a New York-based media critic and commentator)
Take nine presidential candidates, stick them in a 90 minute format, subtract time for the moderators' intros and questions, for the commercials and station-breaks -- and you're left with a forum in which no one could have time to make a serious intellectual argument. Under such conditions, a "debate" becomes a sound-bite contest and the political equivalent of a beauty pageant - which is exactly what happened at Saturday night's ABC-sponsored cattle-call for the Democratic presidential field.
George Stephanopoulos, the master of ceremonies, deployed his toothy grin while he tried to goad the candidates into attacking each other. If one didn't know that John Kerry was leading in the New Hampshire polls with Howard Dean close on his heels, the meaning of the hostile body language they exchanged was probably incomprehensible to the average viewer. Only the most ardent political junkies could possibly have understood what the squabbling was all about. But who else would have bothered to watch? With the exception of that opening moment, with Dean and Kerry hissing at each other like fighting cats, there were few sparks flying in the University of South Carolina's auditorium.
So, what can be ascertained from the event?
Kerry, tanned but audibly hoarse, was predictably prolix and vague, and kept falling over his words. At one point, in an exchange over civil rights for gay people, Kerry referred to the "non-employment discrimination legislation" -- a mangled reference to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of which, he boasted, he's the chief sponsor. Too bad he couldn't get the name right.
Gephardt -- who winced when Stephanopoulos told him he's considered by many Democrats to be "this year's Bob Dole" -- looked tired and baggy-eyed, and lapsed into obscure Congress-speak acronyms when discussing China trade and fuel emission standards. When his health care plan, financed by tax breaks to corporations, came under attack from some of his competitors, Gephardt kept insisting "I can pass it!" Since he couldn't do so when the Dems still had a House majority, it's hard to see how he could do so in a Republican Congress -- especially since early forecasts suggest the Democrats will lose still more seats in both chambers next year.
Dr. Dean's predominantly grim expression -- his usual facial mode -- made him look like he was telling a patient of the need for a costly operation when he proclaimed that he represents "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party" (a line he swiped from the late Paul Wellstone). Dean's reiteration of his opposition to the war in Iraq, which has motored his campaign thus far, was noteworthy for his newly minted opposition to the Bush doctrine of "preventive war" -- given that he'd endorsed the concept in a speech just a few months ago. He scored points against Kerry and Senator John Edwards when he chided them for helping block Senator Fritz Holling's attempt to annul a huge chunk of Bush's pro-corporate tax cuts. Dean also pumped hard for single-payer, universal health insurance.
Edwards -- informed by Stephanopolous that he was viewed by Dems as having "plenty of charisma but no policy depth or experience" -- kept returning to his poor-boy rap as "someone who understands people." Now that he's a multimillionaire, though, his sympathetic- sounding generalities did little to dispel the notion that he was policy-lite.
Joe Lieberman, still hanging on to front-runner status in polls from South Carolina to California (the fruits of name recognition from his 2000 VP race), reiterated his ardent support for Bush's war, claiming it made him the electable candidate. When Stephanopoulos told Lieberman many saw him as "too nice to take on Bush," the former head of the center-right Democratic Leadership Council said he'd showed he was tough "by taking on Hollywood for peddling sex and violence to our kids." His comment could backfire among civil-liberties-minded primary voters and will likely do Holy Joe (who -- how can we forget? -- once partnered with the moralizing gambling degenerate Bill Bennett) little good outside the South.
Florida's Senator Bob Graham -- visibly thinned by the heart surgery -- tried to out-hawk Lieberman by restating his desire to extend the war beyond Iraq to take on Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. None of the other eight challenged Graham's incendiary proposal for this bloodbath.
Of the left-positioned Democrats, Al Sharpton was on his best behavior, saying nothing outrageous but also little of substance. And the vapid niceties from the mouth of Carol Mosely Braun seemed to confirm Stephanopolous's diagnosis that "you're running [just] to take votes from Al Sharpton." Only Dennis Kucinich, the anti-war Ohio congressman -- noticeably ignored by his competitors -- managed to squeeze sharply defined programmatic alternatives into his few allotted minutes. He called for flatout "cancellation" of NAFTA and the World Trade Organization, for repeal of the civil-liberties-shredding Patriot Act, and painted himself as the anti-monopoly, anti-corporate candidate. But the press paid little attention -- for example, The New York Times' Adam Nagourney didn't even mention Kucinich in his post-debate report for "the paper of record."
It was, in sum, a fairly unenlightening 90 minutes -- just as the forum predetermined it to be. But the prevailing mediocrity can only partly be ascribed to the "lite" format. George Bush came under little fire. The Dems have been cowed for so long by Bush's war-driven poll-numbers that they seem to have gotten out of the habit of directly attacking him. Doris Kearns Goodwin got it right the next morning in a post-debate analysis segment on "Meet the Press." What was missing among the nine, she pointed out, was "the larger argument" -- the construction of a coherent alternative vision to the single-minded one of the Bush conservatives. Opposition to the tax cuts is all very well, she said, but for what purpose, to do what? The Democrats need to project an alternative vision of the purpose and meaning of government against those who would dismantle it, she proclaimed, invoking Lincoln's injunction that government exists to do what individuals cannot do for themselves. In a nation awash in blind nationalism, it's hard to imagine how any of the nine contenders can knock Bush out without projecting such a vision.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/7733
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Closing Statement of Congressman Kucinich
Following is the closing statement of Congressman Kucinich at the first presidential debate of the campaign:
I began my career in public life in 1967. I've been a councilman, a mayor, a state senator and now a congressman. As a candidate for President, I offer a different vision for America, one which separates me from the other candidates.
I am the only candidate for President who will take this country away from fear and war and tax giveaways, and use America's peace dividend for guaranteed health care for all, ending health care for profit. I am the only candidate who will stop the privatization of social security and bring the retirement age back to 65.
As President, I will cancel NAFTA and the WTO, restore our manufacturing jobs, save our family farms, create full employment programs, create new jobs by rebuilding our cities and schools. As President, I will repeal the Patriot Act to regain for all Americans the sacred right of privacy in our homes, our libraries, our schools.
This is a grassroots campaign to take back America. Join me from your cities, your towns, your farms and your campuses. Join me at Kucinich.US and let's take back America for the people.
***
Want to cast an early vote for Kucinich? Click on http://democrats.com/primary and cast your ballot. To vote, you'll need to register with Democrats.com, the largest independent community of Democratic activists, where you can meet and mobilize with other progressive Democrats to build a principled party standing for peace and justice.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
As Cleveland Mayor, Kucinich's Fight to Save Public Power
From: Kucinich Campaign < info@kucinich.us >
Subject: KUCINICH STOOD UP TO THE ENRON OF HIS DAY
Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich has recently faced attacks from George Will and other conservative pundits over his tenure as Mayor of Cleveland. The truth is that the stand Kucinich took was a profile in political courage, and his stand has been fully vindicated by events and even by those who opposed him at the time. As is typical, George Will and those who dominate American punditry haven't gotten the news.
Please CIRCULATE THIS WIDELY, and help set the record straight when you see misinformation in the media.
AS CLEVELAND MAYOR, KUCINICH'S FIGHT TO SAVE PUBLIC POWER
Dennis Kucinich was elected Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1977 at age 31, the youngest person to lead a major U.S. city. He was elected on a promise that he would not sell off or privatize the beloved and trusted city-owned power system, though Cleveland was deeply in debt.
Cleveland Magazine offered this summary: "Kucinich refused to yield to bankers who gave him a choice -- Sell the Municipal Light System to the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. or the city will go into default. The mayor said no."
When Kucinich refused to sell Muny Light, the banks took the unprecedented step of refusing to roll over the city's debt, as is customary. Instead, they pushed the city into default. It turned out the banks were thoroughly interlocked with the private utility, CEI, which would have acquired monopoly status by taking over Muny Light. Five of the six banks held almost 1.8 million shares of CEI stock; of the 11 directors of CEI, eight were also directors of four of the six banks involved.
By holding to his campaign promise and putting principle above politics, he lost his re-election bid and his political career was derailed. But today Kucinich stands vindicated for having confronted the Enron of his day, and for saving the municipal power company. "There is little debate," wrote Cleveland Magazine in May 1996, "over the value of Muny Light today. Now Cleveland Public Power, it is a proven asset to the city that between 1985 and 1995 saved its customers $195,148,520 over what they would have paid CEI."
When Kucinich re-launched his political career in the mid-1990s, it was on the strength of having saved public power. His campaign symbol was a light bulb. "Because he was right!" was his campaign slogan when he won his seat in the state senate in 1994. The slogan that sent him to Washington two years later was "Light Up Congress."
In 1998, the Cleveland City Council issued a commendation to Dennis Kucinich for "having the courage and foresight to refuse to sell the city's municipal electric system."
* * *
Our country needs a President who will stand up against -- and not with -- today's Enrons. A President who puts the public interest before private profit. Such a candidate is Dennis Kucinich, a rare elected official whose political career has been devoted to winning victories against corporate power on behalf of workers, consumers, the poor and the environment. He battles for the people, and he wins.
Help spread the word about the Kucinich for President Campaign. Consider making a donation
https://www.kucinich.us/contribute.php
For background on the campaign, see: http://www.kucinich.us/
To learn more visit the Flyby News' updated Kucinich for US President under breaking news, and you can link, too, from "actions, campaigns, and events" at http://www.flybynews.com
2) Scott Ritter Calling for Regime Change in Washington
- - Court Assumes Role of Saddam in 9/11 Lawsuit
- - White House Refuses to Release Sept. 11 Info
Ex-weapons inspector and former Marine Scott Ritter is calling for regime change in Washington.
By Jan Barry 05/05/03: (VIAW)
[Excerpt]
Scott Ritter may be the Bush reelection team's worse nightmare.
The former UN chief weapons inspector in Iraq and card-carrying Republican is barnstorming America with a blunt message: George W. Bush's war on Iraq was waged on a "bodyguard of lies."
"We need regime change, and we need it quick," Ritter told a gathering of peace activists in New Jersey on Sunday. "George W. Bush does not have the rightto represent the American people, if he told a lie. And he told a whopper."
That whopper, said Ritter, was claiming that the US government had evidence that Saddam Hussein was hiding massive amounts of weapons of mass destruction and that was why Iraq must be invaded. The facts, he said, are that "the inspections worked. The United Nations did disarm Iraq."
"I want the president impeached because he lied to the Congress of the United States," Ritter said. "He may well go out and tell another lie about weapons of mass destruction" being found amid the rubble in Iraq. But, Ritter said, any scheme to plant evidence would run afoul of professional soldiers like those he served with in Gulf War I. "I can tell you, my fellow officers won't sustain that lie."
"What happened in Baghdad last month was not in accordance with international law. What happened in Baghdad last month was a west Texas lynching," Ritter said at New Jersey Peace Action's annual dinner, where he was the guest of honor. "President Bush is implementing a policy of imperialism."
"If you give up now, you are giving up on American democracy," he said. Ritter urged the assembled peace activists to reach out to Republicans like himself and raise the constitutional issues and uncomfortable facts that Bush has run roughshod over. Among those facts, he said, is this glaring one: "Bush was a deserter from his unit during the Vietnam War. He doesn't know what it means to support the troops."
For the complete article, see:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3233.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Court Assumes Role of Saddam in 9/11 Lawsuit
Nearly $104 Million Awarded in 9/11 Case
>From the article below [received from: MassMuzik@aol.com ]
<< The judge noted that the experts provided few actual facts that Iraq provided support to the terrorists.
But he said the experts "provide a sufficient basis for a reasonable jury to draw inferences which could lead to the conclusion that Iraq provided material support to al-Qaida and that it did so with knowledge and intent to further al-Qaida's criminal acts." >>
So the gov't/media brainwash of the American public has now been formally institutionalized in Court!. This now sets a whole new precedent: "Hearsay" - as well as Powell's PROVEN phony presentation to the UN - is now accepted in federal court as evidence of Saddam/Iraq's supposed connection to Al-Qaida!!!
How much more outrageous can outrage possibly get??? We HAVE to stop this nightmare!!!
N
--------------------------------------------------
Nearly $104 Million Awarded in 9/11 Case
By Larry Neumeister, AP
05/07/03 13:34 EDT
NEW YORK (May 7) - A federal judge Wednesday awarded nearly $104 million in damages to the families of at least two victims of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, saying they had shown that Iraq provided material support to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida.
Judge Harold Baer outlined the damages against bin Laden, the Taliban and Saddam Hussein and his Iraqi government in a written decision in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
Baer said he had concluded that lawyers for the two victims "have shown, albeit barely ... that Iraq provided material support to bin Laden and al-Qaida."
The case was being closely watched by lawyers for plaintiffs in other lawsuits filed after the Sept. 11 attacks against Iraq, al-Qaida and others because it was the first to reach the damages phase.
The judge heard evidence for two days in March to help him determine damages. In January, he issued a default order against the Taliban, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and the Republic of Iraq.
The default judgment was granted by Baer after public announcements of the lawsuits failed to attract a response from any of the defendants.
He said lawyers relied heavily on classic hearsay, including reports of a Sept. 11 hijacker meeting an Iraqi consul to Prague, Secretary of State Colin Powell's remarks to the United Nations about connections between Iraq and terrorism and defectors' descriptions of the use of an Iraq camp to train terrorists.
Baer said the opinions of the lawyers' experts was sufficient to show that Iraq collaborated in or support bin Laden's terrorist acts on Sept. 11.
The judge noted that the experts provided few actual facts that Iraq provided support to the terrorists.
But he said the experts "provide a sufficient basis for a reasonable jury to draw inferences which could lead to the conclusion that Iraq provided material support to al-Qaida and that it did so with knowledge and intent to further al-Qaida's criminal acts."
The ruling stemmed from cases brought on behalf of the estate of George Eric Smith, 38, a senior business analyst for SunGard Asset Management and Timothy Soulas, a senior managing director and partner at Cantor Fitzgerald Securities.
Smith was single and without children. Soulas was married with five children and his wife was 3-months pregnant when he was killed.
The lawsuits relied in part on legal principles contained in a 1996 law that permitted lawsuits against countries identified by the State Department as sponsors of international terrorism.
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - White House Refuses to Release Sept. 11 Info
For a related story, "White House Refuses to Release Sept. 11 Info", see: http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/050703A.shtml
3) Ramsey Clark: Removing an Imperial President Committing High Crimes
- - National Press Club Invites Ramsey Clark on May 12
From Ramsey Clark:
Your vote to impeach is important. It reminds Americans that the Constitution provides the means for removing an Imperial President and officials who commit high crimes. It informs the rest of the world that Americans recognize that the U.S. war of aggression against Iraq violated the Nuremberg Charter which ranks war of aggression first among Crimes Against Peace.
Impeachment is more important now than ever. The most serious crimes against peace and humanity and crimes of war have been committed in plain view on TV, worldwide. Iraq lies bleeding and angry with uncounted, unmentioned tens of thousands dead, slaughtered, cities in rubble, hospitals overflowing with critically injured men, women and children, but few emergency medical supplies.
President Bush, the Vice President, Secretaries Powell and Rumsfeld, Attorney General Ashcroft are celebrating as their friends in American corporations plan to reap vast profits and control oil resources, the prize for international crimes. They must be held accountable.
Nearly two hundred thousand people have already voted to impeach online. Many tens of thousands of paper ballots are being counted. Votes are pouring in. Full page ads in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle and smaller papers have informed millions of the campaign.
We need your help now to press on. We need a million votes and more.
Impeachment is the nonviolent means the American people have to take back the Constitution in time to restore honor to our government and find peace with the rest of the world. Get out to vote. Contribute to the campaign.
Sincerely,
Ramsey Clark
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more on the impeachment campaign, visit
http://www.votetoimpeach.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - National Press Club Invites Ramsey Clark on May 12
National Press Club Invites Ramsey Clark to be Featured Speaker at Upcoming May 12 Luncheon in Washington, D.C.
As the country prepares to enter the next election cycle, Ramsey Clark will make a national address on how "U.S. Militarism Threatens the Destiny of Humanity," at the National Press Club on May 12. Mr. Clark will also charge George W. Bush and his administration with committing high crimes and misdemeanors warranting impeachment. For those in the D.C. metropolitan area who would like to attend in person, advance reservations can be made by telephoning the Press Club at (202) 662-7501. For additional information on the luncheon event go to:
http://npc.press.org/calendar/calendarday.cfm?whatday=12&&whatyear=2003&&whatmonth=5
4) Plutonium Dangers - Who's Watching?
- - Rems and Cancer - A Personal Story - the Hanford Project
"The current situation in radiation research is a bit like relying on the tobacco industry to conduct all the research on the health effects of smoking."
Dr. John Gofman
Beware the Data Diddlers
By John W. Gofman
Permit me to put the question starkly. Although there is ample evidence that nuclear pollution presents health risks, how can we properly assess the degree of risk when the governments that have unleashed the poisons also sponsor virtually all the health research concerning nuclear radiation?
That conflict-of-interest problem has a common-sense solution. We-and "we" refers mainly to individuals and nongovernmental organizations- must insist that independent "watchdog authorities" be established to monitor the work of those who may have a vested interest in underestimating the health risks that may be attributed to nuclear radiation.
These watchdog authorities will not be responsible for conducting the actual health-risk studies. Rather, they will be charged with insuring that the raw data used in health-risk studies are obtained and maintained as objectively as possible.
It's a common-sense idea. But like many simple ideas, it will be a tough sell.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.thebulletin.org/issues/1993/may93/may93Gofman.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Rems and Cancer - A Personal Story - the Hanford Project
This following information was sent to Flyby News on 13 February 2003 by Richard Fash
Dear Sir,
I'm contacting you today about my father, and my family.
My father worked at the Hanford Project from 1951 to 1973.
Sixteen years in Reactor Operations.
Job titles as follows.(Radiation Monitoring, Supervisior, Radiation Monitoring, Supervisior,
Supplemental Crews, Reactor Specialist, and Supervisor, 105-109, 100 N Area.)
After which he worked as Office Equipment Manager, and Manager of Printing and Duplicating.
He was in charge of classified files for the Atomic Energy Commission.
My father also worked for Bendix, and U.N.C. geotech in Grand Junction, Colorado.
With almost thirty years employment for the government. He died of Multiple Myeloma at age 62, in 1988. Multiple Myeloma is linked to reactor workers.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Operated by Battelle. Radiological exposure records state he received 22 rems of whole body effective dose equivalent.
My father had no cancer in his family.
My mother died of acute Myeloid Leukemia.
My brother died of Colon Cancer at age 44. He was a health food nut and lived a clean life.
I have Thyroid and Liver disease.
I have no doubt that low dose radiation from Hanford has affected my family!
Thank you
Richard Fash < richardfash@yahoo.com >
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Kucinich Dem Challenge * $700M 2004-Nukes * Kiesling
3 May 2003
"I'm a Green Democrat -- And the Democratic Party needs to learn from the Greens
and other parties who are trying to make the political dialogue relevant.
Those who stand for a political process which is authentic and not bought
ought to have a home in the Democratic Party."
Dennis J. Kucinich
1) A Dark Horse Fights the Odds Again
- - Dennis: On Reproductive Freedom
2) Kucinich: The Military Victory is a Foreign Policy Failure
- - "Diplomatic Breakdown" by John Brady Kiesling
3) Kennedy Warns on Nuclear Tests
4) Kucinich: Back on Track
5) The Pope thinks 9-11 was an inside job
- - Forbidden Truth
- - The War on Freedom
- - The New World Order Exposed
6) Book Review: Rule by Secrecy
Editor's Notes:
During these times of unprecedented threat and loss of freedom, a person has arisen in the US to offer an opportunity to take back the leadership of the Democratic Party to the people, and to defeat the Bush administration's plans for ruling and endangering the world. Yet some people rather concede the powers to the secret societies of ruthless-murdering people. Much of our population have their minds asleep, with fear driving them into a mind-less submissive ability of being controlled, allowing the US Treasury to be robbed by those serving a plan that is diabolical in its history and present time of preemptive war and deception of freedom and democracy.
Item 1 is from the New York Times, a review of Dennis Kucinich's past and re-emergence as a political leader. And since this article questioned his stand on reproductive freedom and his change of position, we included a recent Kucinich statement on this issue, which is posted on his web site. Recently an animal rights activist friend said that her comrades were shut-off from supporting Kucinich because of their perceptions of not trusting him on the pro-choice issue. Yet if these people read his words, reviewed his actions in the last thirty years, they would realize that he would protect a woman's right to choose more effectively than any other candidate running for US President. Yet, it is in item 2, which is Kucinich's statement presented just before President Bush made his speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln that should open the ears and minds of those opposing the Bush-US preemptive war plan. Kucinich states that the military victory is really a foreign policy failure. In this item, too, is a link to a recent article by John Brady Kiesling, a career diplomat, who was first of three State Department veterans that resigned their posts in protest on the eve of our second Iraq war. The patriots in the US are for peace and the reduction of what causes terrorism to arise in our world. And if anyone needed more encouragement to fight on the side of Kucinich for total change in US government, item 3 should offer enough of a reason. Here Senator Kennedy warns on Bush's plans to conduct new nuclear tests with funds recently passed in Congress for $700 million for special projects related to the nuclear arsenal in 2004! Item 4 covers ground again on Kucinich, in California, where he is making quite an impact. Can this momentum be carried to such places as New Hampshire? This is the question posed to grass roots activists. Can we unite in time to help elect an independent Green Democrat' into the White House?
* Program Note: The first Democratic Presidential Debate with nine candidates is scheduled for tonight, May 3, from the University of South Carolina, moderated by George Stephanopoulos of ABC News.
This program will be aired:
* 11:35 p.m. Saturday on ABC News Radio.
* 11:35 p.m. Saturday on ABC News Live, an Internet broadband news service available to subscribers of RealOne, AOL Broadband and Yahoo Platinum.
* After late local news broadcasts on more than 35 ABC affiliates.
* Excerpts Sunday on ABC's This Week (check local times)
* 1 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Sunday on C-SPAN
* 12:30 a.m. Monday on C-SPAN
<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>
Get Involved - www.kucinich.us
Join the Revolution Within US!
<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>
1) A Dark Horse Fights the Odds Again
- - Dennis: On Reproductive Freedom
The New York Times
A Dark Horse Fights the Odds Again
April 23, 2003
By CARL HULSE
WASHINGTON, April 22 - When Dennis J. Kucinich was the enfant terrible of Cleveland politics back in the 1970's and at 31 became the youngest person ever elected mayor of a major American city, it was not far-fetched to think that he would someday be a presidential contender. Beyond his proven ability as an electoral winner, he had plenty of time remaining to reach for higher office.
"At the time he was mayor, Dennis had everything in the world going for him," said Louis Stokes, who represented Cleveland for 30 years as a congressman and backed Mr. Kucinich for mayor. "He was destined to climb high."
But it all came crashing quickly down when Mr. Kucinich presided over the city's plunge into default in 1978. The collapse attracted international ridicule and, except for a brief sojourn on the City Council in the early 80's, left the obstreperous boy wonder in political exile for 15 years before he revived his career with election first to the Ohio Senate, then to Congress.
Now, in his fourth term in the House, his face creased with age and experience, the 56-year-old Mr. Kucinich is again seeking to defy the doubters by running for president, offering himself as a liberal's liberal.
His candidacy's immediate problem is that in selling himself as an antiwar activist, he has railed against a popular president and a war that has found strong public support. Worse still, perhaps, his cash-poor campaign barely has an organization.
But if his candidacy does seem far-fetched after all, Mr. Kucinich does not appear to mind that few people give him much chance of winning the Democratic nomination, let alone the presidency.
"I'm used to fighting for lost causes," he said in an interview. "I am used to doing things that other people say are impossible. I have learned throughout my whole life that you can turn it around."
Mr. Kucinich, known to some colleagues as Dennis the Menace for his energetic doggedness and somewhat impish looks, is co-chairman of the Progressive Caucus, which represents the left-most reaches of the House Democratic membership. He is a champion of universal health care, wants to return the retirement age for full Social Security benefits to 65 and would repeal the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he says has sapped the nation of millions of jobs.
Some who know him say his chief reason for running is to cement a role as national leader of the left. But he insists that he is serious about being president, and says the driving force behind his candidacy is his outrage at the war against Iraq and the prospect of future wars he fears President Bush will wage.
"The administration's illegal attack on Iraq is not just about Iraq," he said. "It is about Iran, it is about North Korea, it is about Libya, perhaps it is about Syria."
Mr. Kucinich credits himself for helping inspire a majority of House Democrats, 126, to vote last fall against the resolution authorizing Mr. Bush to use force in Iraq. Unlike many of his colleagues, he continued to voice opposition once the conflict began. "It is not logical to say you oppose the war and once the war started, you support it," he said.
He is also re-emphasizing his argument that the nation's military buildup, coupled with the president's push for tax cuts, is draining money that could be used for critical domestic programs. And this month he reintroduced his proposal to create a cabinet-level Department of Peace.
Mr. Kucinich began his improbable political career while still in college, after a childhood in which his struggling family moved almost constantly. He was out on his own at 17, and in 1967 lost a race for the Cleveland City Council. Having quickly learned how to tap into a populist vein of ethnic politics, he was back two years later, elected to the Council at age 23. He lost Congressional races in 1972 and 1974 but remained a force in local politics, was elected mayor in 1977 and governed the city with a tight circle of friends.
But Cleveland's finances, already troubled, spiraled out of control. The climactic moment came in December 1978, when the city was unable to meet $14.5 million in bond obligations. Despite pressure from the business community, Mayor Kucinich refused to sell the municipal electric system to cover the debt. Cleveland went bust, as did his career.
Shattered by the loss of the mayor's office the next year to George V. Voinovich, a Republican who is now Ohio's junior senator, Mr. Kucinich taught college courses, worked in radio and television, and started a broadcast production company. (He still carries his membership card from the cinematographers' union.)
His return to politics was spurred by a phone call in 1993 from a reporter for Cleveland's daily, The Plain Dealer. The reporter was pursuing a story about how local officials had now concluded that Mr. Kucinich had been right in refusing to sell the utility. Once the article appeared, "people started coming up to me and said, `Why don't you come back?' " he recalled. The slogan for his subsequent race for the State Senate was "Because he was right," with a light-bulb logo.
In 1996, two years after his state legislative victory, Mr. Kucinich ran for the House and unseated a Republican incumbent, Martin R. Hoke. He made a well-received entry to the capital, stealing the show at a Washington press dinner where, in lampooning Speaker Newt Gingrich's view of civilization, he introduced his own cornerstones: "polka, bowling and kielbasa" (though he is in fact a longtime vegetarian).
Mr. Kucinich's knack for self-promotion sometimes irritates colleagues, but few doubt his conviction. When he offered a proposal this month to cut the emergency wartime spending bill by a third in an effort to end the Iraq conflict, the House's senior military appropriator, Representative Jerry Lewis, Republican of California, took the floor and said he knew that Mr. Kucinich was sincere. "I happen to think he is absolutely wrong," Mr. Lewis said, "but I have risen in part to support his right to express that position."
Mr. Kucinich's fervent antiwar position is drawing him some notice in Iowa, whose presidential caucuses are an important grass-roots test in which activists can have considerable influence.
"I think he is the kind of candidate who could benefit from the Iowa caucuses," said Al Sturgeon, the Democratic chairman there in Woodbury County, a place of strong antiwar sentiment. "I think he could establish himself as the candidate who tells it like it is."
But Mr. Sturgeon said he had yet to see much organization on Mr. Kucinich's behalf. The congressman, who formally entered the race in February, had raised barely $173,000 by April 15, had hired just five people for his campaign staff and had opened offices only in Cleveland, Northern California and Iowa.
David Axelrod, a newspaper reporter turned Democratic political consultant, once covered Mr. Kucinich in Cleveland. "Even accounting for the fact that he has pulled off some of the biggest upsets in Ohio political history, it is hard to envision him pulling off the biggest upset in American political history," said Mr. Axelrod, who recently joined the campaign of a Kucinich rival for the nomination, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina.
Mr. Kucinich could also run into trouble because of the abortion issue. A longtime opponent of abortion, he began softening his stand last year and says he now supports a woman's right to choose and would not appoint judges unless they pledged to support Roe v. Wade. David Loesback, a political science professor at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, said that kind of shifting could be viewed by liberals as an election-year conversion.
But Professor Loesback said he could also see Mr. Kucinich making gains in Iowa, and the candidate himself says he will catch on with Americans who want the country to be taken in a "different direction." His doing so would be a remarkable step in what has already been a remarkable political resurrection.
"It took me 15 years to make any kind of significant political comeback," he said. "Luckily I had 15 years to spare."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Dennis: On Reproductive Freedom
"I support Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose, and will select Supreme Court justices who affirm this Constitutional right.
I've had a journey on this issue that a year ago, before I became a candidate for President, caused me to break from a voting record that had not been pro-choice. After hearing from many women in my own life, and from women and men in my community and across the country, I began a more intensive dialogue on the issue. A lot of women opened their hearts to me. That dialogue led me to wholeheartedly support a woman's right to choose.
I have come to believe that it's not simply about the right to choose, but about a woman's role in society as being free and having agency and having the ability to make her own decisions. That a woman can't be free unless she has this right. The decision to terminate a pregnancy is one of the most serious decisions a woman might make. It is deeply personal. In our society, all women and all men have a right to make difficult moral decisions and make personal choices.
But women will not be equal to men if this constitutionally protected right is denied. I want to work to make abortions less necessary, which means sex education and birth control. I want to work to make sure that, when life is brought forward, we have prenatal care and postnatal care and childcare and universal health care and a living wage. And because I know that the right to choose is under attack -- as President, I will only support someone for the Supreme Court if he or she agrees to uphold Roe v. Wade."
http://www.kucinich.us/issues/issue_rightsreproductive.htm
2) Kucinich: The Military Victory is a Foreign Policy Failure
- - "Diplomatic Breakdown" by John Brady Kiesling
Just before President Bush made his speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich -- ranking member of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations -- issued the following statement:
"Regardless of the outcome, the war in Iraq was wrong. While the United States has won a military victory in Iraq, the Administration never justified the war, rendering it a diplomatic and foreign policy failure.
"The Administration led America into a war based on false pretenses. Even today, as the President declares an end to combat, there is no credible evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction -- weapons that, according to the Administration, posed an immediate and imminent threat to our nation and our allies, and could not be eliminated through international weapons inspectors.
"The Administration, with its policy in Iraq, has isolated the United States from the international community and threatens to make our country less safe not more safe.
"Bringing the troops home, and bringing in the international community to assist with humanitarian reconstruction and security, must happen immediately. Rhetoric alone will not convince the world that the United States is not occupying Iraq, especially since the U.S. has prioritized the rebuilding oil infrastructures instead of providing humanitarian assistance."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - "Diplomatic Breakdown" by John Brady Kiesling
John Brady Kiesling, a career diplomat, was the first of three State Department veterans who resigned their posts - his was at our embassy in Athens - in protest on the eve of our second Iraq war. By his account below, his was a brave act of necessity. By my thinking, it made him the first official American refusnik. He published the following long explanation of his resignation and his thoughts on American policy under the Bush administration (clearly written before the war ended) in the Boston Globe magazine this Sunday. It's well worth reading, not only because he's an articulate, even - as his letter of resignation showed - eloquent writer, but because he's a modest and moderate State Department veteran, an open man, ready to listen to other voices elsewhere, but distinctly no radical. So it tells you exactly how extreme a moment we're in when a man like Kiesling uses the Greek term Planitarehis, or "Ruler of the Planet," and not in a complimentary sense either. The Armenians, he tells us, "used a similar term in the 14th century to flatter their Mongol overlords, but for modern Greeks this is a term of fear and dislike, not respect." When a State Department veteran can say, aghast, that "the more aggressively we use our power to intimidate our foes ... the more we validate terrorism as the only effective weapon of the powerless against the powerful," you know you're in a terrifying new imperial age. The piece is, in its own way, a remarkable document of our times.
Tom Engelhardt
For the article, "Diplomatic Breakdown" by John Brady Kiesling,
The Boston Globe - April 27, 2003 - see:
http://www.boston.com/globe/magazine/2003/0427/diplomat_entire.htm
3) Kennedy Warns on Nuclear Tests
Kennedy Warns on Nuclear Tests
Julian Borger
The Guardian
Wednesday 30 April 2003
WASHINGTON -- Senator Edward Kennedy yesterday warned that the Bush administration was preparing to restart the testing of nuclear weapons so it could develop a new generation of bunker-busting bombs and tactical "mini-nukes", potentially triggering a new arms race.
The veteran Democrat from Massachusetts was speaking before a congressional debate on an administration proposal to lift the legal restrictions on research into "mini-nukes" with an explosive force of less than five kilotons.
The proposal is the latest in a series of steps taken by the White House to reduce the hurdles to producing the new nuclear weapons it says may be necessary to confront threats from "rogue states" or terrorist groups.
Mr Kennedy said the Congress and the American public had not fully realised the scale of the changes under way in US nuclear policy. "They have been eclipsed for too long by the war on terrorism and the war against Iraq. We can ignore them no longer."
The administration has repeatedly said it has no current plans to resume nuclear testing, after an 11-year moratorium, but Mr Kennedy said the details of the defence budget suggested that such plans were quietly under way.
"The best way to get the indication of the seriousness of the administration is to follow the request of the money in the defence authorisation," he said. "We budgeted $700m for fiscal year 2004 [for special projects related to the nuclear arsenal], including funds that could be used to prepare for new tests and cut in half the time needed to conduct them."
In the next few days, congressional committees will debate a proposal by the departments of defence and energy to repeal a 1994 ban on the research and development on low-yield nuclear bombs.
Justifying the repeal, the Pentagon said it was necessary to "train the next generation of nuclear weapons scientists and engineers and restore a nuclear weapons enterprise able to respond rapidly and decisively to changes in the international security environment, or unforeseen technical problems in the stockpile."
Under the Pentagon's classified nuclear posture review, late last year, nuclear weapons could be used against rogue states such as North Korea, Iran, Syria and Libya, and to pre-empt an attack with chemical and biological weapons.
The defence department is also planning a conference at the strategic command headquarters in Nebraska to rewrite nuclear policy. On the agenda are a new generation of weapons, including mini-nukes and a "robust nuclear earth penetrator" that will burrow into the earth before detonating, destroying command bunkers and arsenals.
Advocates of the "bunker-busters" argue that the fallout would be contained in the underground cavern hollowed out by the blast. But Matthew McKinzie, a scientist at the Natural Resources Defence Council, said yesterday that calculations based on the Pentagon's own computer modeling suggested that a 0.5 kiloton nuclear warhead would have to burrow 55 metres to eliminate atmospheric fallout.
Scientists claim there is no known material hard enough to punch more than 16 metres into the earth.
Sidney Drell, a nuclear control campaigner and former Stanford University physics professor, said a nuclear warhead which only burrowed 16 metres down would throw a million cubic feet of
radioactive dust into the atmosphere.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,946249,00.html
4) Kucinich: Back on Track
Pasadena [CA] Weekly Cover Story Back on Track
[Excerpt]
For many, anti-war presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is the best person to help Democrats find their voice in time for 2004
By Joe Piasecki
Anti-war activists who are crying bloody murder in the streets over the US occupation of Iraq, parents who can't afford food or healthcare for their children, people who feel locked out of the political process, anyone who sympathizes with progressive causes listen up!
Congressman Dennis Kucinich wants your vote in the Democratic Party primaries next March. Kucinich, once derided in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, as "Dennis the Menace" and the "Boy-Mayor" who drove that city into default some 25 years ago, has risen from relative obscurity as author of a bill that would create a US Department of Peace. He also led the failed battle to halt congressional authorization for a pre-emptive strike against Iraq.
The Department of Peace legislation, supported by 47 members of Congress, would create an executive branch department advising the president on issues of peacekeeping diplomacy and address domestic issues of family and gang-related violence, as well as hate-motivated crime.
But the peace candidate, 56, is no docile puppy when it comes to his politics. When Kucinich speaks he shakes his fist and shouts to make a point, then breaks into a cappella renditions of the national anthem. This five-foot-five vegan gets in people's faces.
" I'm passionate. Being for peace doesn't imply passivity," Kucinich told the Weekly in an interview on the campaign trail in Los Angeles. "There are people today who might be uncomfortable with the insistence on peace while our armies are in Baghdad, but I say it is urgent that we speak out for peace because the whole world is at risk now. This war is wrong. It's illegal. It's immoral."
Kucinich, co-chair of the Democratic Progressive Caucus with Oakland Rep. Barbara Lee, is running on an anti-war platform that also includes universal health care and strengthened environmental protections. He rails against President Bush's plans for the economy and has vowed to defend the working class on every issue.
He aims to be inclusive of minority voters, and has succeeded, said Congresswoman Hilda Solis, D-Monterey Park, and former California Rainbow Coalition Caucus leader Ralph McKnight. Kucinich has the full endorsement of Los Angeles Congresswoman Diane Watson and actor-activist Ed Asner, who called him a perfect candidate and introduced him to some 300 liberal LA voters at a campaign stop in LA's Koreatown earlier this month.
Kucinich also wants to reinvent the Democratic Party.
" I'm a Green Democrat," he told the Weekly. "And the Democratic Party needs to learn from the Greens and other parties who are trying to make the political dialogue relevant. Those who stand for a political process which is authentic and not bought ought to have a home in the Democratic Party."
Mentioning Libertarians, the Natural Law Party, the Reform Party and social justice advocates of any party, Kucinich declared: "If we get everyone who is concerned about change in the Democratic Party to vote in the Democratic primary, we will become the Democratic Party."
Said former California Green Party candidate for lieutenant governor Donna Warren, "To be very honest, the Greens are talking about [possibly endorsing] Kucinich a little bit, but I don't know just how far that conversation has gone.."
.." My role in this [campaign] has been to assert the rights of my constituents to live in peace. To assert the requirements of a nation to secure its constitutional freedoms by keeping our nation at peace. To insist that only peace will help us achieve better educational opportunities, full health care for all, retirement security, stabilizing our economy. So why are some other Democrats going in another direction? I can't account for why other people do what they do. But I will tell you why I do what I do, because I passionately believe that this country's future is connected directly to worldwide cooperation, and that our country's future is damaged every time America moves toward aggressive war.
" We have to stop this, now," he said.
For the complete article, see:
http://pasadenaweekly.com/features/coverStory/coverstory.html
Items 5 & 6 - Part 2 - see:
Pope: 9/11 InsideJob * Conspiracy 'Rule by Secrecy' Evidence
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Pope: 9/11 InsideJob * Conspiracy 'Rule by Secrecy' Evidence
3 May 2003 - Part 2
"If bush is an example of a good Christian,
I am very glad that i am not even a bad one."
-- Anonymous
5) The Pope thinks 9-11 was an inside job
- - Forbidden Truth
- - The War on Freedom
- - The New World Order Exposed
6) Book Review: Rule by Secrecy
Editor's Notes:
Item 5 in this double issue begins with a fascinating revelation; in an article in Counterpunch, Wayne Madsen states that the Pope believes 9/11, was in part, an inside job.
"..According to journalists close to the Vatican, the Pope and his closest advisers are also concerned that the ultimate acts of evil - the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon - were known in advance by senior Bush administration officials. By permitting the attacks to take their course, there is a perception within the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy that a coup d'etat was implemented, one that gave Bush and his leadership near-dictatorial powers to carry out their agenda.."
The key idea in the above paragraph is near-dictatorial powers.' They don't have total control, not yet. This is evident, too, since the Bush strategy is still to convince everyone that they are agents for democracy and freedom. Their fascism is covert, which gives us a chance to use the freedoms we have left to demand real democracy and an end to the Bush feudal reign. If each of us can register to vote, to get others to register, and support an independent green democrat, namely Dennis Kucinich, we have a chance to reclaim a democracy in the US and stop a diabolical reign of terror.
The author of the Counterpunch article, Wayne Madsen, also wrote the introduction to "Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy, Saudi Arabia and the Failed Search for bin Laden." Two other books are linked in this item, and recommended for researching the dark secret government for world control. (1)"The War on Freedom: How and Why America was Attacked September 11, 2003" and (2) "The New World Order Exposed." Item 6 is another review to put light on history's darkest subjects, "Rule by Secrecy."
<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>
Get Involved - http://www.kucinich.us
Kucinich - The Revolution Within US!
5) The Pope thinks 9-11 was an inside job
- - Forbidden Truth
- - The War on Freedom
- - The New World Order Exposed
Counterpunch
April 22, 2003
Bush's "Christian" Blood Cult
Concerns Raised by the Vatican
by WAYNE MADSEN
--------------------------------
George W. Bush proclaims himself a born-again Christian. However, Bush and fellow self-anointed neo-Christians like House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, John Ashcroft, and sports arena Book of Revelations carnival hawker Franklin Graham appear to wallow in a "Christian" blood lust cult when it comes to practicing the teachings of the founder of Christianity. This cultist form of Christianity, with its emphasis on death rather than life, is also worrying the leaders of mainstream Christian religions, particularly the Pope.
One only has to check out Bush's record as Governor of Texas to see his own preference for death over life. During his tenure as Governor, Bush presided over a record setting 152 executions, including the 1998 execution of fellow born-again Christian Karla Faye Tucker, a convicted murderer who later led a prison ministry. Forty of Bush's executions were carried out in 2000, the year the Bush presidential campaign was spotlighting their candidate's strong law enforcement record. The Washington Post's Richard Cohen reported in October 2000 that one of the execution chamber's "tie-down team" members, Fred Allen, had to prepare so many people for lethal injections during 2000, he quit his job in disgust.
Bush mocked Tucker's appeal for clemency. In an interview with Talk magazine, Bush imitated Tucker's appeal for him to spare her life - pursing his lips, squinting his eyes, and in a squeaky voice saying, "Please don't kill me." That went too far for former GOP presidential candidate Gary Bauer, himself an evangelical Christian. "I think it is nothing short of unbelievable that the governor of a major state running for president thought it was acceptable to mock a woman he decided to put to death," said Bauer.
A former Texas Department of Public Safety officer, a devout Roman Catholic, told this reporter that evidence to the contrary, Bush was more than happy to ignore DNA data and documented cases of prosecutorial misconduct to send innocent people to the Huntsville, Texas lethal injection chamber. He said the number of executed mentally retarded, African Americans, and those who committed capital crimes as minors was proof that Bush was insensitive and a "phony Christian." When faced with similar problems in Illinois, Governor George Ryan, a Republican, commuted the death sentences of his state's death row inmates and released others after discovering they were wrongfully convicted. Yet the Republican Party is pillorying Ryan and John Ashcroft's Justice Department continues to investigate the former Governor for political malfeasance as if Bush and Ashcroft are without sin in such matters. Hypocrisy certainly rules in the Republican Party.
Bush's blood lust has been extended across the globe. He has given the CIA authority to assassinate those deemed a threat to U.S. national interests. Bush has virtually suspended Executive Orders 11905 (Gerald Ford), 12306 (Jimmy Carter), and 12333 (Ronald Reagan) which prohibit the assassination of foreign leaders. Bush's determination to kill Saddam Hussein, his family, and his top leaders with precision-guided missiles and tactical nuclear weapon-like Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bombs is yet another indication of Bush's disregard for his Republican and Democratic predecessors. It now appears that in his zeal to kill Hussein, innocent civilian patrons of a Baghdad restaurant were killed by one of Bush's precision Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs). Like it or not, Saddam Hussein was recognized by over 100 nations as the leader of Iraq -- a member state of the United Nations. Hussein, like North Korea' Kim Jong Il, Syria's Bashir Assad, and Iran's Mohammed Khatami, are covered by Executive Order 12333, which the Bush mouthpieces claim is still in effect. Bush's "Christian" blood cult sees no other option than death for those who become his enemies. This doctrine is found no place in Christian theology.
Bush has not once prayed for the innocent civilians who died as a result of the U.S. attack on Iraq. He constantly "embeds" himself with the military at Goebbels-like speech fests and makes constant references to God when he refers to America's "victory" in Iraq, as if God endorses his sordid killing spree. He makes no mention of the children, women, and old men killed by America's "precision-guided" missiles and bombs and trigger-happy U.S. troops. In fact, Bush revels in indiscriminate blood letting. Since he never experienced such killing in Southeast Asia, when he was AWOL from his Texas Air National Guard unit, Bush just does not seem to understand the horror of a parent watching one's children having their heads and limbs blown off in a sudden blast of shrapnel or children witnessing their parents burning to death with their own body fat nurturing the flames.
Bush and his advisers, previously warned that Iraq's ancient artifacts and collection of historical documents and books were in danger of being looted or destroyed, instead, sat back while the Baghdad and Mosul museums and Baghdad Library were ransacked and destroyed. Cult leaders have historically attempted to destroy history in order to invent their own. The Soviets tried to obliterate Russia's Orthodox traditions, turning a number of churches into warehouses and animal barns. Cambodia's Pol Pot tried to wipe out Buddhism's famed Angkor Wat shrine in an attempt to stamp out his country's Buddhist history. In March 2001, while they were negotiating with the Bush administration on a natural gas pipeline, Afghanistan's Taliban blew up two massive 1600-year old Buddhas in Bamiyan. The Bush administration, itself run by fanatic religious cultists, barely made a fuss about the loss of the relics. It would not be the first time the cultists within the Bush administration ignored the pillaging of history's treasures.
The ransacking of Iraq's historical treasures is explainable when one considers what the blood cult Christians really think about Islam. Franklin Graham, the heir to the empire built up by his anti-Semitic father, Billy Graham, has decided being anti-Muslim is far more financially rewarding than being anti-Jewish. Billy Graham, history notes from the Nixon tapes, complained about the Jewish stranglehold on the media and Jews being responsible for pornography.
Franklin Graham continues to enjoy his father's unfettered and questionable access to the White House. But in the case of Bush, the younger Graham has a fanatic adherent. Graham has called Islam a "very evil and wicked" religion. He then announces he wants to go to Iraq. Graham obviously sees an opportunity to convert Muslims and unrepentant Eastern Christians, who owe their allegiance to Roman and Greek prelates, to his perverted form of blood cult Christianity. Graham says he is ready to send his Samaritan's Purse missionaries into Iraq to provide assistance. Muslims and mainstream Christians are wary that Graham wants to exchange food, water, and medicine for the baptism of Iraqis into his intolerant brand of Christianity. In the last Gulf War, Graham could not get away with his chicanery. The Desert Storm Commander, General Norman Schwarzkopf, stopped dead in the tracks Graham's plan to send 30,000 Arabic language Bibles to U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia. Today's Pentagon shows no such compunction to put a rein on Graham. It invited him to give a Good Friday sermon at the Pentagon to the consternation of the Defense Department's Muslim employees. To make matters worse, under Bush's "Faith Based Initiative," Graham's Samaritan's Purse stands to receive U.S. government funds for its proselytizing efforts in Iraq, something that should be an affront to every American taxpayer.
Bush's self-proclaimed adherence to Christianity (during one of the presidential debates he said Jesus Christ was his favorite "philosopher") and his constant reference to a new international structure bypassing the United Nations system and long-standing international treaties are worrying the top leadership of the Roman Catholic Church. Well-informed sources close to the Vatican report that Pope John Paul II is growing increasingly concerned about Bush's ultimate intentions. The Pope has had experience with Bush's death fetish. Bush ignored the Pope's plea to spare the life of Karla Faye Tucker. To show that he was similarly ignorant of the world's mainstream religions, Bush also rejected an appeal to spare Tucker from the World Council of Churches - an organization that represents over 350 of the world's Protestant and Orthodox Churches. It did not matter that Bush's own Methodist Church and his parents' Episcopal Church are members of the World Council.
Bush's blood lust, his repeated commitment to Christian beliefs, and his constant references to "evil doers," in the eyes of many devout Catholic leaders, bear all the hallmarks of the one warned about in the Book of Revelations - the anti-Christ. People close to the Pope claim that amid these concerns, the Pontiff wishes he was younger and in better health to confront the possibility that Bush may represent the person prophesized in Revelations. John Paul II has always believed the world was on the precipice of the final confrontation between Good and Evil as foretold in the New Testament. Before he became Pope, Karol Cardinal Wojtyla said, "We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of the American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel." The Pope, who grew up facing the evils of Hitler and Stalin, knows evil when he sees it. Although we can all endlessly argue over the Pope's effectiveness in curtailing abuses within his Church, his accomplishments external to Catholicism are impressive.
According to journalists close to the Vatican, the Pope and his closest advisers are also concerned that the ultimate acts of evil - the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon - were known in advance by senior Bush administration officials. By permitting the attacks to take their course, there is a perception within the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy that a coup d'etat was implemented, one that gave Bush and his leadership near-dictatorial powers to carry out their agenda.
The Pope worked tirelessly to convince leaders of nations on the UN Security Council to oppose Bush's war resolution on Iraq. Vatican sources claim they had not seen the Pope more animated and determined since he fell ill to Parkinson's Disease. In the end, the Pope did convince the leaders of Mexico, Chile, Cameroon, and Guinea to oppose the U.S. resolution. If one were to believe in the Book of Revelations, as the Pope fervently does, he can seek solace in scoring a symbolic victory against the Bush administration. Whether Bush represents a dangerous right-wing ideologue who couples his political fanaticism with a neo-Christian blood cult (as I believe) or he is either the anti-Christ or heralds one, the Pope should know he has fought the good battle and has gained the respect and admiration of many non-Catholics around the world.
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and columnist. He wrote the introduction to Forbidden Truth.* Madsen can be reached at: WMadsen777@aol.com
Source: Counterpunch
http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen04222003.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy, Saudi Arabia and the Failed Search for bin Laden
by Jean-Charles Brisard, Guillaume Dasquie, Wayne Madsen, Lucy Rounds (Translator)
For more information on purchasing this book from Amazon.com and The War on Freedom by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, see:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1560254149/ref=ase_counterpunchmaga/102-5937837-0514558
Also for
The War on Freedom: How and Why America was Attacked
by Nafeez M. Ahmed, see:
www.waronfreedom.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Another book on this subject previously reported in Flyby News is called:
The New World Order Exposed' by Victor Thorn
Michael Collins Piper - Author of Final Judgment: The Missing Link in the JFK Assassination Conspiracy, stated:
"There's nothing 'new' about the New World Order. It is a conspiracy - not a conspiracy theory - and its very roots can be found in the Garden of Eden. Today those who are tilling this soil for their own insidious ends are in positions of power in government, the media, and in academia. In order to understand the nature of this monster - this enemy of liberty - you need to read and understand Victor Thorn's The New World Order Exposed. Thorn is a shining star in the freedom movement, and his efforts are inestimable."
Some of the explosive material contained within this book:
-- Who commanded our Air Force to stand down' for nearly two hours on the morning of 9-11?
-- The Federal Reserve is a privately-owned, for-profit corporation with seven of the top ten shareholders being foreign banks
-- The Bush family was the Nazi party's primary money launderer during World War II
-- The CIA is one of the largest drug traffickers in the world
-- Undeniable proof that AIDS is a man-made disease
-- The Bush and bin-Laden families have been in business together for over 30 years and, until recently, both belonged to the Carlyle investment group
-- The Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was actually brought down by explosive charges inside the building
-- The primary financiers for both the Bolshevik Revolution and Hitler's rise to power were American bankers
-- Learn how Votescam' is being used to steal your vote
-- Franklin Roosevelt had full knowledge of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor nearly two weeks before it actually took place
-- The OSS and CIA have been working hand-in-hand with organized crime since the 1930's
-- 90% of the people at Jonestown were either killed by gunshot, strangulation, or lethal injection not suicide
-- Franklin Roosevelt had given all of our nuclear secrets to Russia by 1943 nearly two years before we dropped the Bomb in Hiroshima
-- The U.S. Government smuggled scores of Nazi scientists into this country after WWII under Project Paperclip'
For more reviews, information, table of contents, and to order, see:
http://www.babelmagazine.com/NWO%20EXPOSED.html
6) Book Review: Rule by Secrecy
Book Review: Rule by Secrecy
by Jim Marrs
Title: Rule by Secrecy
Author: Jim Marrs
Copyright 2000
Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers Inc., New York City
ISBN: 0-06-093184-1 (paperback version) 467 pages
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Rule by Secrecy lists some identifiable organs of the international shadow government, and explains their makeup and history. Received via email, [author of review unknown], the following information will summarize some of these shadow government identifiable organs below, largely using excerpts from the book itself:
New World Order
The GOAL of the shadow government which has existed for centuries, and requires the destruction of national sovereignty to achieve. Sovereignty can be accomplished by creating crises so severe that long term help from other nations is required. Massive influx of illegal immigrants can help with destruction of sovereignty. Artificially created long term drought can bring sovereignty to its knees, and that appears to be in progress in North America by way of the chemtrails. George Bush Senior spoke repeatedly about the New World Order, but did not explain what this concept meant. The New World Order means a single world government. Reading this book paints a picture of the single world government as overwhelmingly likely, as brutal and totalitarian as is humanly possible.
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
"...the granddaddy of the modern American secret societies...". The council began as an outgrowth of a series of meetings conducted during World War I. In 1917, Colonel Edward Mandell House, President Woodrow Wilson's confidential adviser, had gathered about one hundred prominent men to discuss the postwar world. Dubbing themselves "the Inquiry", they made plans for a peace settlement...
The CFR's [current-day] invitation-only membership, originally limited to 1,600 participants, today numbers more than 3,300 representing the most influential leaders in finance, commerce, communications [media!], and academia. Admission is a very discriminating and painful process: candidates have to be proposed by a member, seconded by another member, approved by a membership committee, screened by the professional staff, and finally approved by the board of directors.
Once the ruling members of the CFR have decided that the U.S. Government should adopt a particular policy, the very substantial research facilities are put to work to develop arguments, intellectual and emotional, to support the new policy, and to confound and discredit, intellectually and politically, ANY opposition...
John Kenneth Galbraith ... called off-the-record talks by the Treasury Secretary or CIA Director a "scandal". "Why should businessmen be briefed by government officials on information not available to the public...?" he asked.
The Trilateral Commission
"By the early 1970s, ... many Americans were becoming more aware of secretive organizations such as the Council on Foreign Relations. Former CFR chairman David Rockefeller, apparently in an effort to deflect public attention from CFR activities, instigated the creation of a more public offshoot organization: the Trilateral Commission. "Trilateral" means "Europe, North America, and Asia".
The concept of the Trilateral Commission was originally brought to Rockefeller by Zbigniew Brzezinski, then head of the Russian Studies Department at Columbia University. Brzezinski declared that "National Sovereignty is no longer a viable concept".
Brzezinski's hope for a global society did not exclude nations under the rule of Marxism, which he described as "a further vital and creative stage in the maturing of man's universal vision... a victory of reason over belief." Brzezinski was named North American Director, when the Trilateral Commission was founded on July 1, 1973.
Trilateral Commission led to the 1979 creation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a civilian organization with the power to take TOTALITARIAN CONTROL of government functions in the event of a national "emergency". Trilateral Commission has acquired a reputation for being the "Shadow Government of the West". Trilateral Commission has been described by some as a cabal of powerful men out to control the world by creating a supernational community dominated by the multinational corporations.
The Bilderbergers
...are a group of powerful men and women - many of them European royalty - who meet in secret each year to discuss the issues of the day. Despite the fact that many highly regarded American media members meet with the Bilderbergers, LITTLE OR NOTHING gets reported on the group or its activities, leading writers to claim censorship and news management. "Bilderbergers" derives from Bilderberg Hotel in Oosterbeek, Holland, where the group was first discovered by the public in 1954.
Bilderbergers have included CIA Director Allen Dulles, CIA official Thomas Braden, OSS Director William Donovan, and CIA-connected C. D. Jackson, Life Magazine publisher and President Eisenhower's "special consultant for psychological warfare".
Primary impetus for meetings came from Dutch Prince Bernhard, a former member of the Nazi SS, who later married Princess Juliana and became a major shareholder and officer in Dutch Shell Oil.
Americans who have attended Bilderberger meetings include CFR members George Ball, Dean Acheson, Dean Rusk, McGeorge Bundy, Christian Herter, Douglas Dillon, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Walter Reuther, Jacob Javits, Robert McNamara, Walter Bedell Smith, General Lyman Lemnitzer, J. William Fulbright, Henry Ford II.
An obvious connecting link between the CFR, Trilateral Commission, and the Bilderbergers is the Rockefeller family, particularly the youngest son, David.
Senator Barry Goldwater: "David Rockefeller's newest international cabal [The Trilateral Commission] ...is intended to be the vehicle for consolidation of the commercial and banking interests by SEIZING CONTROL OF THE POLITICAL GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES."
The Illuminati
An evolved 1700s order, of German origin, which had as a founding principle that "the end justifies the means" and that bad deeds were only "bad" because of moral rules the Illuminated ones deemed "arbitrary". (Obviously, Hitler embraced this idea.) Merged itself into European Freemasonry, and settled into "Hidden Grades", that is the degrees (ranks) in Freemasonry above 33, unknown to the general public and most lower ranking Freemasons. Unknown if it exists today explicitly, though the groups outlined above certainly appear to embrace the concepts of the early philosophy.
Freemasonry
The ongoing "connective tissue" between modern and ancient secret societies, which existed long before the 18th century Illuminati. Derived from actual ancient masons, who had meeting halls or "lodges" in every major city of the Old World and did carry secret construction related knowledge. Prominent nineteenth-century Freemason Albert Pike admitted that Freemasonry has "two doctrines, one concealed and reserved for the Masters, ...the other public...". The vast majority of Masons never pass from the public to the concealed doctrine.
Deception of the public as to the concealed doctrines has been accomplished by providing both Masonic initiates and the inquiring public with such a mass of contradictory and confusing information, traditions, and history that even Masonic scholars cannot agree on many issues. Author Albert Mackey acknowledges that Masonic records are "replete with historical inaccuracies, with anachronisms, and even with absurdities."
[Eleanor White speaking here:] With secrecy, and a scale of loyalty oaths leading towards a shifting of allegiance from God and Country to Freemasonry, one can see that the upper, not-known-to-the-public-or-most-Masons "Illuminated" levels of Freemasonry would at least provide fertile soil for the nurture and practice of psycho-electronic mind control.
It is kind of amazing how many historical figures were or are high level Masons. Here's a sampling from page 255:
U.S. Presidents: Washington, Monroe, Polk, Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Garfield, Taft, Harding, Truman, Ford and both Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt.
Also: John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, Paul Revere, Sam Houston, Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, Douglas MacArthur, J. Edgar Hoover, Hubert Humphrey, Winston Churchill, Cecil Rhodes, Horatio Nelson, Duke Arthur Wellington, Simon Bolivar, Franz Josef Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Goethe, and Voltaire.
Here are some other notable tidbits excerpted from the book:
[Page 8] When it comes to this nation's deepest, darkest secrets, it appears there are powers even higher than the President of the United States and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
[Page 11] "They" also maintain monopolies over energy, medicine, armaments, and manufacturing by SUPPRESSING NEW TECHNOLOGIES.
[Page 13] U.S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter once revealed, "The real rulers in Washington are invisible, and exercise power from behind the scenes".
[Page 13] ...newly elected President Franklin Roosevelt wrote... "The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson."
[Page 14] Colonel L. Fletcher Prouty (retired) served as a Focal Point liaison officer between the Pentagon and the CIA from 1955 to 1963. From his vantage point, Prouty was able to witness the control mechanisms over both intelligence and the military. Writing in 1973, Prouty said the United States is run by a "Secret Team", an "inner sanctum of a new religious order" answerable only to themselves. "The power of the Team derives from its vast intra-governmental undercover infrastructure and its direct relationship with the great private industries, mutual funds, and investment houses, universities, and the news media, including foreign and domestic publishing houses.
"...All true members of the Team remain in the power center whether in office with the incumbent administration or out of office with the hardcore set. They simply rotate to and from official jobs and the business world or the pleasant haven of academe."
[Pages 146-147] A prerequisite for grasping the background for the rise of the Nazi cult is understanding The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. This is a list of procedures for world domination. This document may have wreaked more havoc than almost any other piece of literature in recent history.
The Protocols still chills readers with its prophetic description of the methodology for tyranny by the few. Its message fits quite well with the elitist outlooks of men like Cecil Rhodes and the Rothschild's. "We are the chosen, we are the only true men. Our minds give off the true power of the spirit; the intelligence of the rest of the world is merely instinctive and animal. They can see, but they cannot foresee; their inventions are merely corporeal. Does it not follow that nature herself has predestined us to dominate the whole world?" stated the Protocols.
"Outwardly, however, in our 'official' utterances, we shall adopt an opposite procedure, and always do our best to appear honorable and cooperative. . . One day they will accept us as benefactors and saviors of the human race. If any state dared to resist us, if its neighbors make common cause with it, we will unleash a world war."
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
K-Revolution WithinUS * GreenDean? * BlixUndermined
30 April 2003
"The U.S. military is the strongest in the world by far, and will remain so.
But Democrats cannot lead the nation without being strong enough
to confront the bloat and waste in the Pentagon budget."
Dennis J. Kucinich
1) Kucinich on Military Spending
- - Kucinich: The Peoples Choice and Opportunity
2) The Man from Vermont is Not Green
3) The mirage of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction
- - Hans Blix vs the US: 'I was undermined'
4) When the Depleted Uranium dust settles
5) Northwoods: A Pentagon Plan for Terror to Justify War against Cuba
- - Statement of a widow of a 9/11 victim to 9/11 Commission
6) ACLU Action Alerts - Rights of Privacy and Reproductive Freedom
Editor's Notes:
Where Are The Activists?
Dennis Kucinich's candidacy for US President provides an opportunity for each of us to help transform the US government. Look at the issues, the actions, the qualifications to take leadership in international affairs. What's more, Kucinich is independent (without corporate-takers). Kucinich has already taken on the role of world leader with his introduction of legislation to ban space-based weapons. He was against Yucca Mountain's transport bonanza. He works in opposition to NAFTA, and other trade issues that sacrifice workers' well-being, and harm the environment. His actions speak louder than words. Yet where are the activists in supporting him? We need to multiply and engage our organizations to realize the time is now! We can transform the US Government in 2004, but not if we wait too long in 2003!
Item 2 is a "Meet Howard Dean" (February 22, 2003) CounterPunch article by fellow Vermonter, Michael Colby. Colby states that the man from Vermont is not Green and not Liberal.' Item 3 is on the mirage of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction' by Imad Khadduri, a former Iraqi nuclear scientist now living in Canada. This item also includes an article by Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, accusing the Bush administration of undermining his efforts to hunt down Iraq's banned weapons.'
Item 4 is on the Depleted Uranium issue and how this could be incredibly more harmful to humankind than previously realized! Item 5 goes back to the 1960's and a Pentagon plan to engage terror to justify an invasion and occupation of Cuba. This report comes from The Emperor-Clothes.com that believes that the US instigated 9-11, just as the Joint Chiefs of Staff proposed instigating fake attacks on Americans in 1962 - to create a climate where military action seems justified.' This again shows the relevance of the film produced by Frank Dorrel, "What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War on the Third World." And the relevance of going all the way behind a Dennis Kucinich nomination for President in the Democratic Party. This is a practical approach with a qualified individual to make a transformation happen. The only area that Kucinich received criticism from the progressive network was for his voting record for pro-life legislation. He never opposed a woman's right to choose, but now admits to expanding his vision to become an avid supporter of the US Constitutional right for choice, while not denying actions of mutual interest to reduce unwanted pregnancies. There is a place where pro-life and pro-choice meet, where conservatives and progressives stand together. Item 6 is from the ACLU, making it easy to send a fax to support for rights of privacy issues and reproductive freedom.
Kucinich in 2004 - The Revolution Within US!
1) Kucinich on Military Spending
FROM THE KUCINICH FOR PRESIDENT CAMPAIGN
A debate recently erupted between two rival Democratic campaigns, with one candidate quoted as saying "We won't always have the strongest military," and a rival campaign attacking the candidate for implying he'd compromise "America's military supremacy."
In response, presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, the ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform subcommittee that monitors the Pentagon, issued the following statement:
"They're both wrong. The U.S. military is the strongest in the world by far, and will remain so. But Democrats cannot lead the nation without being strong enough to confront the bloat and waste in the Pentagon budget."
"Our military budget is almost as big as that of all other countries combined. While we have unchallenged superiority in military strength, we also have more people without healthcare than any other advanced industrial country -- and Democrats must be bold enough to say the two issues are linked."
"I don't agree with other Democrats that we can continue to increase military spending, and still deliver on our domestic agenda for middle class and working Americans. We can't. That's voodoo budgeting.
"In this campaign, I plan to make a major issue of hometown security -- healthcare, jobs and education for all -- and misspent Pentagon dollars, even as other Democratic candidates join President Bush in pressing for still more exorbitant military budgets."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dennis Kucinich is the progressive choice for 2004. On war and peace, military spending, national health insurance, workers rights, gay rights, civil liberties and many other issues, Kucinich articulates a vision different from and more progressive than the other candidates.
Please spread the word about the campaign --
http://www.kucinich.us
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Kucinich: The Peoples' Choice and Opportunity
Dear Friends and Colleagues Everywhere,
I have been writing these paragraphs for a few days now in my head. Recently I have noticed a shift in me, I know a lot about what is wrong with our country, other countries, and our world. I have become satiated with the negative, the injustice, the lack of love and compassion. I see that the 'sin' in this world is the belief in separation, from each other, from our planet and from the cosmos. Every separation belief that results in an inhumane action points again and again to this 'sin'. Hugh Lynn Cayce, eldest son of Edgar Cayce, would often quote a Biblical phrase that went something like this: "I have set before thee life and death, light and darkness, good and evil; CHOOSE THOU." In pondering this statement I do not feel it is speaking about fundamentalism, but instead we have the choice in how to use our minds and hearts to choose light and LIFE in the midst of seeming darkness and despair, or evil. We can let our minds dwell on the pain, injustice or greed, and become overcome, angry and helpless OR we can acknowledge the former and direct our minds and hearts to that which is true, that which we know is possible, that which we can create with love and action together. The Cayce Readings suggest and invoke us to be the leaven that leavens the whole lump!
In this spirit I am sending you information on Representative Dennis Kucinich from Cleveland Ohio who is running for President of the US, as a Democrat. I have heard Dennis speak in person 3 times now, twice this past Friday. In my opinion he is ultimately grounded in Spirit and at the same time ultimately practical. As he speaks to issues, he says what so many of us feel, he brings spiritual principles into every issue, without sounding spacey or ungrounded. This is a man of integrity, who speaks his truth without fear. I truly believe he has been 'called out' to represent and embody the new paradigm. HE is US, We are Him. This is our campaign, his words as well, he is riding an energy that has been seeded and now has grown to the point of manifestation. If we choose to focus our energies in agreement inwardly and in our actions we can and will create the country and the world we want. It is a matter of belief in the power of love and a commitment to taking any and all actions to manifest our desires.
I believe that Dennis Kucinich is the rallying point for this change for America and for the World. This campaign is not just about a US president, this change effects every country. I received an email today written by a person representing a peace group in Japan. She want to support this campaign as this quote states:"I would do my best to support Dennis Kucinich. He can be a real leader of the world. Looking forward to hearing from you! Our survival depends on who become the next US president in 2004."
Some are saying that Dennis does not have a chance, not well enough known, ideas are too far out, not enough money etc. and etc. Well we know about self fulfilling prophesy, why not focus our energies, prayers and creativity on fulfilling and manifesting our heart's desire. The following is a quote from Rabbi Michael Lerner of the Tikkun Community: "The truth is quite different. Dennis Kucinich speaks to the aspirations of many Americans who are not particularly attracted to "the Left" or to "liberals." He speaks about the deepest spiritual truths that unite people--often in ways that we in the Tikkun Community have been advocating. Personally, when I heard him the first time I thought "this is the closest I've ever heard to a politics of meaning speaker in mainstream politics." ...... . But the truth is that the only thing that makes him unelectable is our willingness to believe that and the willingness of many others to believe it. Because based on what he says and how he says it, he'd be very electable--if anyone ever heard him, and if we could help others overcome the "there is no alternative" ideology that keeps them and the media from taking people like Kucinich seriously. I believe that we could change that."
I am one of a dedicated group of volunteers working for Dennis and OUR campaign, we invite you to become involved though volunteering in whatever way you can and by financially supporting him. He is only accepting money from individuals, each can give up to $2000.00 US dollars. The actor Peter Coyote suggested that if we really wish to see him run that each of us could give $25.00 and get commitments of three others to send $25, who would get 3 more etc. in a month around a billion dollars would be accumulated. He continues by saying; "A small donation now will advance his campaign immeasurably, force the media to pay attention to him, and spread his positions: National Health for all, anti-Nafta and Gatt, ending the war, de-militarizing space. There is virtually no difference between his positions and the Green Party platform, but as a Democratic Congressman, he is not a symbolic candidate. He is a tried and tested politician who has stayed true to his principles."
Let us join our hearts, minds and visions of the possible, for we are 'the ones we have been waiting for!'
Suzanne Keehn
Dennis's website is kucinich.us
The address to send donations is:
Kucinich for President Committee
P. O. Box 110180
Cleveland, Ohio 44111
2) The Man from Vermont is Not Green
The Man from Vermont is Not Green
CounterPunch
February 22, 2003
Meet Howard Dean
The Man from Vermont is Not Green
(He's Not Even a Liberal)
by MICHAEL COLBY
For Vermonters who have seen Howard Dean up close and personal for the last eleven years as our governor, there's something darkly comical about watching the national media refer to him as the "liberal" in the race for the Democratic nomination for president. With few exceptions in the 11-plus years he held the state's top job, Dean was a conservative Democrat at best. And many in Vermont, particularly environmentalists, see Dean as just another Republican in Democrat's clothing.
As the son of a wealthy Long Island family (his father was a prominent Wall Street insider), Dean's used to having his golden path well greased. After dutifully attending Yale and then medical school, Dean looked for a state to launch both a private medical practice and a political career. He chose Vermont as much for its beauty as its lenient mood toward carpet bagging politicians, thus joining Brooklynite Bernie Sanders as a born again Vermonter.
Dean became Vermont's accidental governor in 1991 after Governor Richard Snelling died of a heart attack while swimming in his pool. Dean, the lieutenant governor at the time, took the state's political reins and immediately followed through with his promise not to offend the Snelling Republicans who occupied the executive branch. And Dean carried on with his right-leaning centrism for the next eleven, long years. With his sights now set on the White House, the Dean team has been doing its best over the last year to polish up a mediocre gubernatorial record. They're also trying to position Dean as "the liberal" in the Democratic field so as to grab the much-coveted early primary voters. And nowhere are the tall tales of Dean's liberalism more off the mark than when the Dean team begins to gush about his environmental record. "EP under Governor Dean meant Expedite Permits, not Environmental Protection," proclaims Annette Smith, the director of Vermonters for a Clean Environment.
Smith is no stranger to Dean's environmental record, having tangled with the Dean administration on everything from the OMYA Corporation's mining to pesticide usage on Vermont's mega-farms. When Smith learned that Dean was holding a press conference at the Burlington Community Boathouse last week to celebrate his eco-legacy, she fired off emails to Vermont environmentalist calling for a protest of the event and wondering if they were "going to let Governor Dean ride out on his white horse of environmental leadership?"
It was Smith who stumbled onto Dean's official gubernatorial web site a couple of years ago and found a bucolic photo of her home town of Danby being featured with this caption: "Time stands still here, you might even forget when it's time to go home." Ironically, the location depicted in the photo was the same spot Dean was pushing to host a massive gas pipeline, a plan that would have required timber clear-cuts and other dramatic topographical changes. The Dean team removed the photo within a couple of weeks, but not before Smith made hay with his apparent hypocrisy.
"Dean's attempts to run for president as an environmentalist is nothing but a fraud," Smith told Wild Matters. "He's destroyed the Agency of Natural Resources, he's refused to meet with environmentalists while constantly meeting with the development community, and he's made the permitting process one, big dysfunctional joke."
Those are not the words you'd expect to hear from an environmentalist if all you relied on for your news was the mainstream press. The Burlington Free Press, for example, has spent considerable space putting one coat of varnish after another on Dean's tenure, including a rather smarmy salute to his eco-record. The word from those quarters is that Dean is the environment's friend and he's done nothing but anger the business community by slowing development and stymieing growth.
Dean's record, however, shows just the opposite. Remember, when Dean took office there were no Wal-Marts in Vermont; there was no Home Depots; Burlington's downtown was dominated by local stores not the national chains that now rule the roost; there were 36% more small farmers in existence; there were no 100,000-hen mega-farms; and sprawl wasn't a word on the tip of everyone's tongue.
Interestingly, Dean told the Free Press last week that he wished the rest of "the country were more like Vermont." But it certainly seems Dean has been doing his best to make Vermont more like the rest of the country. Stephanie Kaplan, a leading environmental lawyer and the former executive officer of Vermont's Environmental Board, has seen the regulatory process under Dean become so slanted against environmentalists and concerned citizens that she hardly thinks its worth putting up a fight anymore.
"Under Dean the Act 250 process (Vermont's primary development review law) and the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) have lost their way," contends Kaplan. "Dean created the myth that environmental laws hurt the economy and set the tone to allow Act 250 and the ANR to simply be permit mills for developers."
Kaplan points to the "Environmental Board purge" in the mid-90s that allowed Dean to set the pro-development tone. In 1993, the Board issued an Act 250 permit to C&S Grocers in Brattleboro with conditions that restricted the diesel emissions from its heavy truck traffic. After C&S execs cried foul and threatened to move to New Hampshire, Dean broke gubernatorial precedent by publicly criticizing the Environmental Board for issuing what he called a "non-permit."
A year after receiving their public rebuke from Dean, four of the Environmental Board members including the chair were up for reappointment. With the not-so-subtle clues from Dean that he didn't approve of the Board's political direction, the Republican majority in the state senate shot down each and every one of their appointments, thus dramatically changing both the structure and climate of the Board.
"After the post-C&S purge," says Kaplan, "the burden of proof for Act 250 permits switched from being on the applicants -- where it's supposed to be -- to being on the environmentalists. That's why 98% of the permit requests are approved and only 20% ever have hearings."
There is, however, one issue that Dean deserves credit for: his peripatetic efforts in land conservation. During his tenure, Dean has overseen the public preservation of over one million acres of Vermont land, most notably the former Champion Corporation lands in the Northeast Kingdom.
"But these special parcels seem to be the only land Dean cares about," says Kaplan. "The rest has been fair game for over development." As Dean goes national he may be able to fool an Iowan or two with his eco-record, but Vermonters have seen enough to know that being green isn't easy for Dean. And he's far from being a liberal.
Michael Colby is the editor of the national monthly, Wild Matters He
can be reached at mcolby@wildmatters.org .
This CounterPunch article was originally posted at:
http://www.counterpunch.org/colby02222003.html
3) The mirage of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction
- - Hans Blix vs the US: 'I was undermined'
''The mirage of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction''
By Imad Khadduri
Former Iraqi nuclear scientist
YellowTimes.org Guest Columnist (Canada)
April 30, 2003
(YellowTimes.org) -- In late August 2002, I listened with trepidation to President Bush's burgeoning false allegations about Iraq's nuclear military capability. Even then, one could discern that the sustained use of misinformation to support the invasion of Iraq showed that the President's claims were not based on any facts. I, having worked with Iraq's nuclear program for thirty years, reacted with a series of articles expounding on the fact that Iraq had ceased its nuclear weapons program at the start of the 1991 war. I refuted the claims and evidence most famously, or infamously, branded by Secretary of State Colin Powell to the Security Council in February 2003 in which Powell argued that Iraq had rejuvenated its nuclear weapons program after the Gulf War.
With heightened apprehension, I listened to Vice President Dick Cheney's claim on MSNBC that the U.S. does not accept the results of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) extensive inspections nor its failure to find any evidence of a rejuvenated Iraqi nuclear weapons program. The IAEA explicitly exposed the fact that a uranium procurement document provided by British and American intelligence as a piece of evidence proving Iraq's nuclear weapon capability was, in fact, a planted forgery. Cheney provocatively claimed, on the day before Bush's 48 hours ultimatum to invade Iraq, that U.S. intelligence had proof otherwise. My last retort to that incredible plain lie was that some bogus evidence might be planted once U.S. forces were on the ground in Iraq.
Bombing to waste, yet again, the main Nuclear Research Center at Tuwaitha, and foolishly allowing American soldiers to break IAEA protective seals and opening Tuwaitha's radioactive burial mound for looters who then contaminated themselves and their families, the Americans have yet to produce their "evidence" of a nuclear weapons program in Iraq. Why is Cheney now silent about Iraq's nuclear weapons program? With U.S. troops in control of Iraq, this information cannot be a "national security" issue anymore.
In addition to the non-existent nuclear weapons program, two developments in the past two months have convinced me that, since 1991-1992, Iraq did not rejuvenate its chemical or biological weapons programs, either..
..It was the second event, which took place two weeks ago, which convinced me of the futility of finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Amer Al Saadi, the chemical engineer and a senior scientific consultant to the Iraqi government, was the first prominent personality to surrender to the American forces after his German wife interceded with a German TV station to arrange for his surrender. For the past decade, he had been a polished, dignified and assured spokesman. He participated in the biological weapons program since its start in the early eighties. I knew him personally and had great admiration for his scientific integrity. In a ten-minute interview with German TV, Al Saadi asserted that: "I was always telling the truth. Iraq does not have chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. I have nothing to hide. Time will bear me out."
Indeed, time is bearing him out to the chagrin of Bush and Blair. The American and British hopes of finding any WMDs in Iraq, not planted by them, are vanishing mirages.
Bush, Blair and their senior officials lied to their people, knowingly, and waged a criminal invasion in lieu of this reason. Is this the democracy model for a "liberated" Iraq?
[Imad Khadduri has a MSc in Physics from the University of Michigan (United States) and a PhD in Nuclear Reactor Technology from the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom). Khadduri worked with the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission from 1968 until 1998. He was able to leave Iraq in late 1998 with his family. He now teaches and works as a network administrator in Toronto, Canada. He has been interviewed by the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency, FOX, the Toronto Star, Reuters, and various other news agencies in regards to his knowledge of the Iraqi nuclear program. This article was originally printed in www.YellowTimes.org.]
Imad Khadduri encourages your comments: imad.khadduri@rogers.com
Other articles by Imad Khadduri on YellowTimes.org:
''Iraq's nuclear non-capability''
''La incapacidad nuclear de Irak''
''La non-capacit nuclaire de l'Irak''
"'Saddam's bombmaker' is full of lies"
'The nuclear bomb hoax''
"The demise of the nuclear bomb hoax"
"The fig leaf of moral impotence"
"Cheney's bogus nuclear weapon"
For the complete article and links, see:
http://www.yellowtimes.org/article.php?sid=1310&mode=thread&order=0
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related article:
Hans Blix vs the US: 'I was undermined'
By David Usborne in New York
Independent (UK)
23 April 2003
For the first time since the toppling of Saddam Hussein, Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, confronted the Americans openly yesterday, accusing the Bush administration of lacking credibility in its efforts to hunt down Iraq's banned weapons.
Mr Blix, 74, derided by Washington for his failure to find the "smoking gun" that would have convinced the UN to give legal backing to the war, also accused Washington and Britain of deliberately undermining his efforts before the war.
For the complete article, see:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=399573
For items 4-6 - See:
DU Settles * Pentagon Plan for Terror * Citizens Rights
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
DU Settles * Pentagon Plan for Terror * Citizens Rights
30 April 2003
"Depleted uranium may be far more dangerous than previously thought -
and we could be dealing with the fallout for many generations to come."
-- Ian Sample and Nic Fleming report in the Guardian (UK)
1) Kucinich on Military Spending
- - Kucinich: The Peoples Choice and Opportunity
2) The Man from Vermont is Not Green
3) The mirage of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction
- - Hans Blix vs the US: 'I was undermined'
4) When the Depleted Uranium dust settles
5) Northwoods: A Pentagon Plan for Terror to Justify War against Cuba
- - Statement of a widow of a 9/11 victim to 9/11 Commission
6) ACLU Action Alerts - Rights of Privacy and Reproductive Freedom
Editor's Notes:
Where Are The Activists?
Dennis Kucinich's candidacy for US President provides an opportunity for each of us to help transform the US government. Look at the issues, the actions, the qualified ability to take leadership in international affairs. What's more, Kucinich is independent (without corporate-takers). Kucinich has already taken the role of world leader with his introduction of legislation to ban space-based weapons. He was against Yucca Mountain transport bonanza. He works in opposition to NAFTA, and other trade issues that sacrifice workers' well-being, and that of the environment. His actions speak louder than words. Yet where are the activists in supporting him? We need to multiply and engage our organizations to realize the time is now! We can transform the US Government in 2004, but not if we wait too long in 2003!
Item 2 is a "Meet Howard Dean" (February 22, 2003) CounterPunch article by fellow Vermonter, Michael Colby. Colby states that the man from Vermont is not Green and not Liberal.' Item 3 is on the mirage of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction' by Imad Khadduri, a former Iraqi nuclear scientist now living in Canada. This item also includes an article by Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, accusing the Bush administration of undermining his efforts to hunt down Iraq's banned weapons.'
Item 4 is on the Depleted Uranium issue and how this could be incredibly more harmful to humankind than previously realized! Item 5 goes back to the 1960's and a Pentagon plan to engage terror to justify an invasion and occupation of Cuba. This report comes from The Emperor-Clothes.com that believes that the US instigated 9-11, just as the Joint Chiefs of Staff proposed instigating fake attacks on Americans in 1962 - to create a climate where military action seems justified.' This again shows the relevance of the film produced by Frank Dorrel, "What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War on the Third World." And the relevance of going all the way behind a Dennis Kucinich nomination for President in the Democratic Party. This is a practical approach with a qualified individual to make a transformation happen. The only area that Kucinich received criticism from the progressive network was for his voting record for pro-life legislation. He never opposed a woman's right to choose, but now admits to expanding his vision to become an avid supporter of the US Constitutional right for choice, while not denying actions of mutual interests that can reduce unwanted pregnancies. There is a place where pro-life and pro-choice meet, where conservatives and progressives stand together. Item 6 is from the ACLU, making it easy to send a fax to voice support for rights of privacy issues and reproductive freedom.
Kucinich in 2004 - The Revolution Within US!
For Items 1-3 - see:
K-Revolution WithinUS * GreenDean? * BlixUndermined
4) When the Depleted Uranium dust settles
When the dust settles
Depleted uranium may be far more dangerous than previously thought - and we could be dealing with the fallout for many generations to come.
Ian Sample and Nic Fleming report.
Thursday April 17, 2003
The Guardian
The change in wording seems innocuous at first. During the 1991 Gulf war, US army guidelines recommended surgeons do their best to remove fragments of depleted uranium (DU) shrapnel from soldiers struck by flying chunks of metal from armour-piercing shells. In practice, that meant smaller bits of shrapnel were rarely removed. Getting those out just caused more damage to surrounding muscle and other tissue. Today, the guidelines are different: surgeons should be "aggressive" in removing any fragments of depleted uranium.
The small change betrays a big leap in understanding the threat posed by depleted uranium. Evidence is building that DU causes more genetic damage than scientists suspected - even at levels deemed so low as to be non-toxic.
Depleted uranium shells are designed to be lethal: the metal is so dense it can crash through the heavy armour of a modern battle tank. But those who escape the intended effect face other risks. When the depleted uranium rod inside an armour-piercing shell disintegrates, it showers toxic and weakly radioactive dust and fragments over a wide area.
It is not just soldiers who risk exposure. In Iraq, land where people once lived, and will doubtless return to, is now littered with the stuff. In 1991, armour-piercing shells containing around 340 tonnes of DU were fired at targets too tough to take out with standard shells. Hundreds more tonnes have been added to that during the past four weeks. People returning to places where the shells were used breathe in the dust as it is churned up by wind and traffic. The metal can also seep into water supplies, contaminating them for years.
Alexandra Miller at the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, is due to complete an investigation into DU for the US department of defence next year. Already she has some insight into the damage it can do. Last year she showed that depleted uranium from pellets implanted in rats dispersed all over the animals' bodies, turning up in bones, muscles, kidneys and liver. Rats breeding six months later had fewer offspring than normal.
Her latest study reveals something even more unusual. When human bone cells are exposed to DU, some suffer immediate genetic damage. The type of damage varies but often fragments break off chromosomes, the strings of genes in almost every cell, and form tiny rings of genetic material. This much was expected. But as other cells evidently undamaged by the depleted uranium started to divide, creating new cells, Miller noticed the genes in some of these new cells were damaged. More than a month after the DU was removed, new cells were forming with broken chromosomes or other genetic damage. The DU was having a delayed effect.
More intriguing still is Miller's latest suspicion that DU punches above its weight in terms of the damage it does to genes. She knew that depleted uranium could damage genes not only by emitting radiation, but by its chemical make up - like nickel, it can switch on cancer genes by its sheer toxicity. But she found that tiny amounts of DU, too small to be toxic and only mildly radioactive, cause more genetic damage in cells than either the toxicity or radiation could explain. Her latest results suggest that the toxicity and radioactivity of DU reinforce one another, causing more damage than the two just added together. It's no small difference either. "You can get more than an eight-fold greater effect than you'd expect," she says. In other words, more than eight times as many cells suffer genetic damage than predicted. Without taking the effect into account, the health risk of DU could be grossly underestimated.
"People have always assumed low doses are not much of a problem, but they can cause more damage than people think," says Miller. It may be some time before the risk of DU is revised though. "None of these studies has yet impacted on the regulations."
Opinion among scientists is divided about the dangers of the genetic damage caused by DU. "There's a debate in the field. It looks like DNA damage in cells will make them weaker and more susceptible to becoming cancerous. But some say this could just be the cells adapting to the radiation," says Miller.
One person who is convinced DU-induced genetic damage causes real health problems is Albrecht Schott, a biochemist who recently retired from the Free University of Berlin. The day before the start of this Gulf war, he published a study carried out with scientists at the University of Bremen. The study, the first of its kind, looked at genetic damage in the white blood cells of 16 former soldiers who believed they had been exposed to DU in the 1991 Gulf war or in the Balkans. They found that damage to chromosomes in the white blood cells was on average five-and-a-half times higher in the veterans than the rest of the population.
Kenny Duncan, one of the soldiers tested, was 21 when he served with the Royal Corps of Transport, helping to shift Iraqi tanks destroyed by DU shells in the 1991 Gulf war. He believes his exposure to DU has left his family with a painful legacy. His eight-year-old son suffers constant headaches and has deformed ears and toes. His two other children also have deformed toes and both suffer bowel and bladder problems. One is also partially deaf.
The reason is likely to be down to DU, says Schott. "The high levels of genetic damage we observed do not occur naturally. I believe alpha radiation from DU to be the cause of these
chromosome aberrations.
"Uranium molecules in the blood can travel to every part of the body, including the areas where sperm and eggs are. This, and the presence of chromosome aberrations, increases the probability of cancer and other genetic conditions significantly. They lead to a higher probability of genetic damage in the person's babies and then damage can be passed on to the children's children."
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence dismisses the study. "We consider the tests undertaken in Germany neither well thought out nor scientifically sound," he says.
Miller also has doubts about the Bremen study. The soldiers suspected they had been exposed to DU, but how could they be sure? "How do they know they weren't exposed to something else, like weapons cleaning fluid?" she asks.
Virginia Murray who heads the chemical incident response service at Guy's hospital, London, and contributed to the Royal Society's investigation into DU last year says the effects of DU on people can only be assessed accurately if the amount they were exposed to is known precisely. The society's report recommended that in any future conflict when DU was used, levels of uranium should be regularly monitored in soldiers exposed to the metal and their kidney function checked to ensure it is not impaired.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence says soldiers who believe they have been exposed to DU in Iraq can have their urine tested on their return. If they test positive for DU, they can have follow-up checks on their kidneys.
Next week, the United Nations environment programme will publish a study into the environmental dangers posed by the war on Iraq, including those from DU. Pekka Haavisto, chair of Unep's Iraq task force said scientists would take soil, water and air samples and test them for traces of DU. "Based on previous experience, we have seen that in targeted areas, this type of ammunition poses possible environmental and health risks. We found that DU can corrode in the soil and exist for a long time in the dust." Without a clean up, and the Pentagon says they have no plans for one, people returning to DU hotspots might find themselves unwitting volunteers in testing just what effects depleted uranium really has.
Further reading
The health hazards of depleted uranium munitions Part 1,
Royal Society, May 2001 ISBN0854033540
The health hazards of depleted uranium munitions Part 2,
Royal Society March 2002 ISBN0854035745
Royal Society report
For links to references and original posting of this article, see:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,937902,00.html
5) Northwoods: A Pentagon Plan for Terror to Justify War against Cuba
- - Statement of a widow of a 9/11 victim to 9/11 Commission
[Excerpt]
Comments by Jared Israel
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
The Northwoods plan for staging phony attacks on the U.S. to justify invading Cuba was developed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1962. It was never implemented, perhaps due to fear of Soviet retaliation. The Northwoods document was obtained by the National Security Archive which is attached to George Washington University and describes itself as:
"...an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A tax-exempt public charity, the Archive receives no U.S. government funding; its budget is supported by publication royalties and donations from foundations and individuals."
The Emperor's Clothes summary of evidence, "Guilty for 9-11," charges that the Bush Administration staged the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The purpose: to justify a U.S. military crusade, an eternal War Against Terror, starting with the invasion of Afghanistan. (1)
But the attack on Afghanistan is not intended to fight terrorism. Rather than crushing terrorism, the U.S. Establishment hopes to create a new, more subservient terrorist apparatus in Afghanistan, including elements of both the Northern Alliance and 'moderate' Taliban.
The goal of the current protracted war against a weak foe - indeed, against a foe largely created by the U.S. and its client states, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia - is to position the U.S. military-intelligence apparatus firmly in Central Asia.
From that strategic position, Washington hopes to complete the dismemberment of the states of the former Soviet Union.
U.S. military and intelligence operatives will cultivate quislings like Mr. Putin, penetrate military defense structures and political groups in the former Soviet States, instigate terrorist attacks to destabilize the area, and build or take control of powerful military bases. These will be used to stage direct military assaults when, as is sure to happen, some of the former Soviet Republics resist. Thus this strategy risks nuclear war.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
* Could U.S. Leaders Be Capable
Of Instigating The Horrors Of 9-11? *
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Many people believe that the Bush administration took advantage of 9-11 in order to launch the war and impose repressive measures at home. In reality Washington did not just take advantage of 9-11. Rather, it instigated 9-11, just as the Joint Chiefs of Staff proposed instigating fake attacks on Americans in 1962 - to create a climate where military action seems justified.
As for the campaign of repression at home - with its nightmarish Homeland Security, its assault on legal guarantees, and its star chamber Military Tribunals - this campaign is in part intended to silence the millions of people who suspect that Bush and other top leaders were involved in some way in making 9-11 happen.
Some people ask us: how can you believe that our leaders are capable of such cynicism, murderous cruelty, ruthlessness and dishonesty?
That is why Operation Northwoods is so important. For we now know that in 1962 the Joint Chiefs of Staff proposed staging phony attacks to destroy U.S. property, killing Cuban refugees and U.S. citizens, in order to create a wave of indignation and rage, to justify an invasion of Cuba that could have killed hundreds of thousands of people and possibly led to nuclear war.
The complete article with references and links is posted:
http://emperors-clothes.com/images/north-int.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a related article:
"The statement of a widow of a 9/11 victim to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States," see:
http://www.9-11commission.gov/hearings/hearing1/witness_kleinberg.htm
6) ACLU Action Alerts - Rights of Privacy and Reproductive Freedom
From: Matt Howes, National Internet Organizer, ACLU
To: ACLU Action Network Members
Date: April 29, 2003
A) Support proper solutions to national security issues!
Congress will soon be voting on legislation that would significantly infringe on privacy rights without making us any safer from terrorism. The Congressional investigation by the House and Senate intelligence committees into the September 11 attacks uncovered a number of serious, structural breakdowns in the intelligence community.
But instead of taking action to address the real failures in the national intelligence services, several Members of Congress have proposed legislation that would give the government new, unprecedented spying powers and significantly infringe on the privacy rights protected by the Fourth Amendment.
Congress needs to address the real national security issues -- not adopt false solutions that violate Constitutional rights.
Take Action! Click here to get more information and to send a free fax to your Members of Congress.
http://www.aclu.org/NationalSecurity/NationalSecurity.cfm?ID=12483&c=110
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
B) Stop the Assault on Reproductive Rights!
Congress continues its assault on reproductive rights. Next week the House of Representatives will vote on the so-called "partial birth abortion" ban, a misguided piece of legislation that has already passed the Senate. Your letters and faxes to Congress have raised awareness about this unconstitutional and dangerous bill -- it is critical that we keep up the pressure.
This bill must be stopped. It bans an array of safe and common abortion procedures and lacks a required exception to protect women's health. It also eliminates doctors' discretion to choose the best medical procedures for their patients.
Take Action! Click here to get more information and send a free fax to your Representative.
http://www.aclu.org/ReproductiveRights/ReproductiveRights.cfm?ID=10780&c=148
For more information on other issues and the latest news, please visit
http://www.aclu.org
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
ElectPeace * Total Info Control * CivilLiberties * PeltierDefense
27 April 2003
1) Elect Peace in 2004
- - Far reaching damage caused by Bush's huge tax giveaways for the rich
- - Children held at Guantanamo Bay
- - Speculation Grows - - Will US Plant Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq?
2) Total Information Control - Corporate Media and Homeland Security
- - Today Show Goes Dark on Tim Robbins -- (April 19, 2003)
- - San Francisco Chronicle Fires Reporter For Attending Peace Protest
3) Make your city or town a Civil Liberties Safe Zone
4) Chair of Leonard Peltier Defense Committee Statement of Resignation
Editor's Notes:
Will there be a regime change in the US in 2004? Item one is about an organization trying to unite the peace movement to remove what Dennis Kucinich called a war-like administration. MoveOn's efforts for this political solution for peace could be significant. It has a total membership of over 1.3 million, and plans to use its clout to help remove Bush from office in a number of ways, including a campaign to register a wave of new voters. Please consider joining this campaign to help bring democracy back to the US. Meanwhile, also in this item, is a link to an article describing the far reaching damage caused by Bush's proposed huge tax giveaways for the rich. Following that is an article about children being help captive at Guantanamo Bay with no trial, no representation, in suicidal-prone conditions. Another item in this same item is an article from ex-CIA professionals speculating on the US planting false evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq for political purposes. Item 2 is on the direction of total information control, the drive for corporate media to participate in what is called Homeland Security . The next item, is also about US civil liberties in crisis, from the Bill of Rights Defense Committee. This item shows how local communities can make a difference. Item 4 is a troubling report by Robert Free, in his letter of resignation as Chairperson of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC). Leonard Peltier was recognized by the UN as a human rights defender, and is perhaps the most widely known political prisoner in the US. The LPDC has been riddled with all sorts of problems throughout Leonard's 27 years of incarceration. One must wonder if these problems are part of a continuation of a COINTELpro-type policy. Hopefully we will have a more positive follow-up on this issue. Thank you Robert Free for your efforts to help Leonard and the LPDC.
For updated resources and links on each of these items and more, visit
www.FlybyNews.com
1) Elect Peace in 2004
- - Far reaching damage caused by Bush's huge tax giveaways for the rich
- - Children held at Guantanamo Bay
- - Speculation Grows - - Will US Plant Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq?
From MoveOn.org
April 24, 2003
MoveOn.org has a total membership over 1.3 million and has begun a campaign to defeat Bush and the Republicans in 2004. The war in Iraq is over; the U.S. occupation of Iraq has now begun. In an unnecessary war, victory is never sweet: American soldiers, Iraqi civilians, and Iraqi soldiers lost their lives in a conflict that never should have happened. That's not victory, that's tragedy.
The hawks in the Bush Administration see this as a vindication of their belligerent world view. Never mind that we haven't found any weapons of mass destruction; never mind that Iraqi democracy (or even security) is nowhere in sight. The hotter heads have prevailed: pre-emptive unilateralism is now the official policy of the U.S.. Vice President Cheney, Secretary Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and Richard Perle are now thinking even bigger about the "projection of American power." In the chilling words of a senior official close to the Bush administration, "Anyone can go to Baghdad. Real men go to Tehran." Folks, we just have to stop this madness, and there's really only one way to do that: We need to throw these bums out. Regime change in the USA, the best way to repudiate Bush's policy of war.
Are you in? If you're willing to help show Bush the door in 2004, just click below. We'll count you among the participants in this next phase of the peace movement.
http://www.moveon.org/pac/newpres
We'll throw out Bush and the Republicans using every means available: by registering a wave of new voters, by organizing to make sure they get to the polls on election day, by raising enough money to compete with the President's mountain of special interest money, and by volunteering for political campaigns. We'll make it easy for you to play a part. President Bush believes he doesn't have to listen to the American public -- which, even during war, has overwhelmingly been skeptical or strongly resistant to the idea of an American empire. He has decided that his faith in the military takes precedence over his faith in democracy. The election in 2004 is our chance to take our democracy back.
Polls show overwhelmingly that American's do not trust President Bush to revive the failing economy. They're just as concerned with the Administration's assault on civil rights, civil liberties and the environment.. Let's elect a new President in 2004, and put an end to the politics of unnecessary war.
Sincerely,
The MoveOn Team
http://www.moveon.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Far reaching damage caused by Bush's huge tax giveaways for the rich
Published in The Charleston Gazette
April 23, 2003
Damage
Average Americans hurt
FAR-REACHING injury is being done to America by President Bush's huge tax giveaways for the rich, which have plunged the federal government back into debt, and his slashes in programs that help ordinary American families.
Sunday's New York Times said Bush's "misguided domestic agenda" is "a disaster, a national train wreck that must be headed off for the country's well-being."
For the complete article, see:
http://www.wvgazette.com/section/Editorials/200304223/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Children held at Guantanamo Bay
Children held at Guantanamo Bay -
The Guardian, UK
Oliver Burkeman in Washington
Thursday April 24, 2003
Children younger than 16 are being held as "enemy combatants" in the American detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, the US military admitted yesterday, a practice human rights groups condemned as repugnant and illegal. Three boys aged between 13 and 15 are among about 660 inmates at the controversial camp, a US military official told the Guardian, on condition of anonymity....But the children would still be held indefinitely and would not be granted access to lawyers, he said, because the US continues to view them as "enemy combatants" - a term it has used to argue that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to the inmates, who have not been charged with any crimes....Holding the children was "wholly repugnant and contrary to basic principles of human rights," said Angela Wright of Amnesty International, and contravened UN rules with "near-universal acceptance" regarding the treatment of juveniles. The United States and Somalia are the only member states of the United Nations no to have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, but the US is a signatory, and thus has "an obligation not to defeat the object and purpose of the treaty," Ms Wright said. "This is clearly totally at odds with the purpose of the treaty." The precise legal ramifications are unclear, since many experts argue that the US is already in breach of international law by holding any of the detainees indefinitely without trial or charge, regardless of their ages. Guantanamo Bay has attracted the condemnation of human rights campaigners since the first detainees arrived at what was Camp X-Ray, in January 2002. Soon after, they were pictured cowed, blindfolded and bound in the intense Cuban heat. Since then, the US has built Camp Delta, a permanent and better-equipped facility, and has been at pains to describe how the inmates' religious and cultural preferences are being catered for. Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross are in regular contact with the inmates. But reports of hunger strikes and attempted suicides have continued to emerge from the base. Military officials have confirmed 25 suicide attempts by 17 people since the inception of the camp, with 15 this year, often by inmates attempting to strangle themselves.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,942347,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Speculation Grows - - Will US Plant Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq?
Published on Friday, April 25, 2003 by CommonDreams.org
Ex-CIA Professionals: Weapons of Mass Distraction: Where? Find? Plant?
by David MacMichael and Ray McGovern
For complete story, see: http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0425-11.htm
2) Total Information Control - Corporate Media and Homeland Security
- - Today Show Goes Dark on Tim Robbins -- (April 19, 2003)
- - San Francisco Chronicle Fires Reporter For Attending Peace Protest
Corporate Media and Homeland Security
Move towards Total Information Control
By Peter Phillips
Freedom of information in American society is in danger because corporate media needs to maintain access to official sources of news. Consolidation of media has brought the total news sources for most Americans to less than a handful and these news groups have an ever-increasing dependency on pre-arranged content.
The 24-hour news shows on MSNBC, Fox and CNN are closely interconnected with various governmental and corporate sources of news. Maintenance of continuous news shows requires a constant feed and an ever-entertaining supply of stimulating events and breaking news bites. Advertisement for mass consumption drives the system and pre-packaged sources of news are vital within this global news process. Ratings demand continued cooperation from multiple-sources for on-going weather reports, war stories, sports scores, business news, and regional headlines. Print, radio and TV news also engages in this constant interchange with news sources.
The preparation for and following of ongoing wars and terrorism fits well into the visual kaleidoscope of pre-planned news. Government public relations specialists and media experts from private commercial interests provide on going news feeds to the national media distributions systems. The result is an emerging macro-symbiotic relationship between news dispensers and news suppliers. Perfect examples of this relationship are the press pools organized by the Pentagon both in the Middle-East and in Washington D.C., which give pre-scheduled reports on the war in Iraq to selected groups of news collectors (journalists) for distribution through their individual media organizations.
Embedded reporters (news collectors) working directly with military units in the field must maintain cooperative working relationships with unit commanders as they feed breaking news back to the U.S. public. Cooperative reporting is vital to continued access to government news sources. Therefore, rows of news story reviewers back at corporate media headquarters rewrite, soften or spike news stories from the field that threaten the symbiotics of global news management.
Journalists who fail to recognize their role as cooperative news collectors will be disciplined in the field or barred from reporting as in the recent celebrity cases of Geraldo Rivera and Peter Arnett.
Journalists working outside of this mass media system face ever-increasing dangers from "accidents" of war and corporate-media dismissal of their news reports. Massive civilian casualties caused by U.S. troops, extensive damage to private homes and businesses, and reports that contradict the official public relations line were downplayed, deleted, or ignored by corporate media, while content were analyzed by experts (retired generals and other approved collaborators) from within the symbiotic global news structure.
Symbiotic global news distribution is a conscious and deliberate attempt by the powerful to control news and information in society. The Homeland Security Act Title II Section 201(d)(5) specifically asks the directorate to "develop a comprehensive plan for securing the key resources andcritical infrastructure of the United States including information technology and telecommunications systems (including satellites) emergency preparedness communications systems."
Corporate media today is perhaps too vast to enforce complete control over all content 24 hours a day. However, the government's goal is the operationalization of total information control and the continuing consolidation of media makes this process easier to achieve.
Freedom of information and citizen access to objective news is rapidly fading in the United States and the world. In its place is a complex entertainment-oriented news system, which protects its own bottom-line by servicing the most powerful military-industrial complex in the world.
For the majority of Americans who depend on corporate media for their daily news, this monolithic news structure creates intellectual celibacy, inaction and fear. The result is a docile population, whose principal function within society is to simply shut-up and go shopping. The powerful would like us quiet and consumptive and the corporate media is delivering that message on a daily basis.
Peter Phillips is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State
University and Director of Project Censored a media research organization.
Peter Phillips Ph.D.
Sociology Department/Project Censored
Sonoma State University
1801 East Cotati Ave.
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
707-664-2588
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Today Show Goes Dark on Tim Robbins - - (April 19, 2003)
Steve Rosenbaum, a NYC television producer,
Rock and Rap Confidential, April 18, 2003
For the complete story, see:
http://www.people-link.org/news/showupdates.php?upid=740
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - San Francisco Chronicle Fires Reporter For Attending Peace Protest
Published on Thursday, April 24, 2003 by Democracy Now!
San Francisco Chronicle Fires Reporter For Attending Peace Protest
Former Chronicle columnist Henry Norr talks to Democracy Now!
by Amy Goodman and Henry Norr
For the transcript, see:
http://www.democracynow.org/norr.htm
3) Make your city or town a Civil Liberties Safe Zone
From the Bill Of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC.org)
About one hundred cities, towns, and counties have passed resolutions protecting the civil liberties of their residents. The USA PATRIOT Act (acronym for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism") was passed with many Congressmen stating later that they had not even had time to read the law, but it creates a new crime, "domestic terrorism," so broadly defined that it could conceivably apply to acts of civil disobedience.
The USA PATRIOT Act gives the FBI and the CIA greater rights to wiretap phones, monitor e-mail, survey medical, financial and student records, and break into homes and offices without prior notification. It creates a new crime of domestic terrorism that is so broadly defined that it may be applied to citizens acting legally to express their dissent. To our knowledge, Attorney General John Ashcroft defends this surveillance. Before he took that job, as a senator during the Clinton Administration, he wrote that such surveillance violated the 4th Amendment right to privacy. Read Keep Big Brother's Hands Off the Internet.
Under this Act and other legislation, non-citizens are being deported or detained indefinitely without judicial appeal.
The dangers of the USA PATRIOT Act are augmented by a Bureau of Prisons order allowing federal agents to abridge the attorney-client privilege by eavesdropping on conversations between lawyers and their clients held in federal custody.
The Justice Department has dismantled regulations against COINTELPRO operations that were enacted following abuses of the civil rights and peace movements of the 50's, 60's and 70's.
The Administration has ordered secret military tribunals for suspected terrorists. In addition to being unfair and unnecessary, the U.S. threat of using military tribunals increases the likelihood that U.S. citizens will be treated accordingly overseas, and decreases the likelihood that other governments will be willing to extradite suspected terrorists or other parties wanted by the U.S.
93 cities, towns, and counties so far have passed resolutions protecting the civil liberties of their 6,612,023 residents. To find out more on what you can do in support of this movement to protect our basic rights, visit the web site of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee
http://www.bordc.org/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a Washington Post article on this movement:
"Local Officials Rise Up to Defy The Patriot Act"
by Evelyn Nieves, April 21, 2003, page A1; see:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64173-2003Apr20.html
4) Chair of Leonard Peltier Defense Committee Statement of Resignation
The Official Website of Leonard Peltier and the
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC)
http://www.freeleonardpeltier.org/index.htm
LPDC UPDATES
4/24/2003 ROBERT FREE RESIGNS AS CHAIRPERSON
3/20/2003 Leonard Peltier on the passing of Standing Deer
3/19/2003 Questions About Delaney Bruce
3/18/2003 Leonard Peltiers Statement Regarding Peace
3/11/2003 Statement from the New Chair Robert Free
2/28/2003 Leonard Peltier Statement
4/24/2003
Dear Leonard and Global Supporters :
I had hoped to present a more productive report since my opening statement, but there are some highlights:
1.Regarding the Freedom of Information Act documents we have sought, 60,000 have been released as of July last year, and 40,000 more are currently being sought. The documents relating to Leonard Peltier have recently received National Historic Significance designation. This should allow quicker access and less tampering by the FBI. Mike Kuzuma of New York organized these successful efforts.
2.The 10th Circuit Court of Denver will hear legal efforts for appeal of parole denial, spearheaded by Barry Bachrach, soon. Other legal venues are being pursued and will be posted as news arrives. Lobbying efforts by Tamara Carter are yielding great results and will be shared as completed.
3.A web-site recovery program has been successful. The Leonard Peltier web-site was re launched on March 6th and the global response has been heartening. The LPDC and Leonard Peltier wish to express their thanks to Dave of the Tule River Tribe in California for his efforts. The idea of a support group page to post the efforts of groups with photos etc have been resisted and may never materialize.
4. The KOLA group of Europe and its VIP signatories campaign including high profile and international celebrities such as Madonna and others, has done a great deal for lifting the morale of international supporters.
5. Local support groups of Canada in Vancouver, Seattle and Tacoma have produced musical benefits featuring prominent local musicians and artists and have staged marches with over 300 participants. By the long time dedication of Arthur Miller, Sue Morales, Kitty Bell, and Dave from Tule River Res. Thanks to Shep, Candace, Andrea and others in the northeast. The Oakland and California groups, as well as the many long time supporters on reservations across the land, and countries far and wide. I feel I will stop trying to name the many, as I know I will leave too many out. Please excuse my not recognizing the many.
But I must now report to you Leonard that it has near impossible to conduct business and move forward with the six activities for your freedom with the people you have surrounded yourself at the office and on your board.
I have not received direct communications from you [Leonard] about the matters I brought to your attention concerning the way all communication is filtered to you by individuals who you have just recently met. This is a questionable practice that undercuts the authority of the Chair and has proven counter-productive. These people you are now empowering in this way have no history in our struggle. Curiously, they have refused to give me their resumes, a strange practice for people supposedly agreeing to my first chair report.
It was there that I promised transparency of decisions and an openness of inclusion and accountability. There are efforts to hide the board proceedings and not allow people to come and work in the office.
It does not help either the office or your organizing efforts that they have continually insulted the supporters and misrepresented your stated aims to me, by recognizing Russ Redner as the interim director of the LPDC, stating that this is your wish. This has disrupted relations with the International Treaty council and other native groups. Furthermore, they have created friction with unfounded accusations and causing many of us to be bombarded endless emails that distract from our primary work.
Your support for me and Russ has not been made explicitly clear with these people and I cannot implement the activities and programs you've asked me to with their constant demands that I explain myself to them and wait for their approvals. Anyone who has spent time in the front lines of this struggle would immediately understand the moves I have been requesting for your freedom, yet we are continually challenged and delayed. This is like a secretary questioning the judgment of the Board of Directors, and it causes chaos in the organization.
My priorities are different than theirs. They are spending most of their efforts trying to create a super mall merchandising web site. I need the web-site to be a work-site, where individuals and groups from around the world can check in and join the struggle for your freedom---which is our primary goal. I have proposed doing both simultaneously, but I am being challenged at every turn. This leads me to believe that there is an economic incentive beneath their activities which may go a long way to supporting them, but not your freedom.
I have been approached repeatedly by several of these people individually (behind each others backs) asking for my support so that they could get a contract to market your art work. With these priorities governing their work and with the stress and alienation and mis representation of my (and other people's)efforts for you, it is my sad duty to tell you that with out your total and direct support to me that I will not be able to work in the this office anymore. There are too many vital Native issues that I could be attending too, without seeing my efforts unraveled as they are being produced. Unfortunately, this situation is your fault Leonard. It is your fault because you have continually empowered people who manage to catch your attention in a given moment; people you don't really know; whose history you don't really know. With you in their corner, they are emboldened and empowered to run things as they see fit, making it impossible for your oldest and most loyal supporters to function at all. Just to remind you:
I have advised you since before you were arrested. I went to San Francisco to help you in organizing efforts in 1974. When you were my body guard during the Trail of Broken Treaties, you asked where to go for safety in Canada and I told you not Small Boy's camp, yet you went, with the consequences we know all too well. Then, you asked me to come help you in Vancouver and I have been working for you since that time.
Over the years, I've warned you repeatedly on certain issues and events. Often, you ignored my advice and would later write me apologies. Does this seem familiar? Now, you've asked for my assistance to recover your organization and its resources. Once again, I responded to your request, at great expense to myself personally, and to my children, who have suffered over the years from the time I've donated to this cause; who have watched my time, energy, and resources flow to you and not to them. When the consequences of having people you just met guide your LPDC onto the rocks of alienation and bankruptcy once again, will you later apologize for not listening to me again?
These new people are in a hostile takeover to remove me as your Chairman. They supply you with continual misinformation, work on your suspicions and fears and you respond by empowering them to be your gate keepers to you and to further entrench themselves in absolute control of your affairs. It is so self-destructive and counter-productive I could weep for you.
It is you who are doing the time, Leonard. I know that you are subjected to your letters and phone communication being scrutinized. I can only hope that a psych-op program has not been established and that it is playing you through such people. Can they go to any community such as Denver and have the community respond to them to rally and demonstrations for you?
I will still be out in the world, available to speak and work towards your freedom efforts. I can no longer work in the LPDC without your total, unconditional support. I'm sorry to put you on the spot this way. It will cause you pain I know and that grieves me. But you have created the problem and only you can solve it. You have to look deep into your heart and decide who it is you really trust and why. I should not be in your organization without your support. I pray that it is not the people you presently have working for you, but that is beyond my control. I await your thoughts and decisions, and will only accept them in your handwriting or voice, not through any of these other people I've mentioned.
In the mean time I regretfully resign, as do several others. My resignation is effective after the completion of a few business transactions.
Your long time friend,
Robert Free
Former Chairperson ~ LPDC
PS: Look for more information (as it becomes available) on my new website created by the Peacepipe Network
Details to follow in a later posting
http://www.freeleonardpeltier.org/index.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more on Leonard Peltier, see link from FlybyNews.com - -
News from inside the movements to free political prisoners
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Real War * DU Clean-up * George Carlin * Weird Bush Men
21 April 2003
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism."
-- Thomas Jefferson
1) The Real War - On American Democracy by Thom Hartmann
2) Royal Society Urges DU Clean-Up In Iraq
3) George Carlin on Bush War
- - Trapped in a poison fog by John Kaminski
- - Missing Arms Cast Doubt on War by Scott Ritter
- - Bush: It's Not Just His Doctrine That's Wrong by Howard Dean
4) The Weird Men Behind George W. Bush's War
- - Tim Robbins - 'A Chill Wind is Blowing'
- - Hollywood Revives McCarthyist Climate
Editor's Notes:
This past weekend I had the good graces to celebrate both Easter and Passover. First, on Good Friday, I was almost crucified in court due to debts attributed to my credit card investment in developing an improved Stirling engine for clean onsite electrical power generation. The good news is that the company will soon have rights to an issued patent. The not so good news is that the project has been severely underfunded, especially since September 11, 2001. But we make a bit of progress each day for this promising important sustainable technology. For more on this work see link from FlybyNews.com "STIRLING solution for Onsite Power Production." So, I am in debt.. and expected the Court to apply a Lien on my home, but the opposing attorney before we met the Judge mentioned that they were seeking my imprisonment for Contempt of Court charges. It suddenly dawned on me that I might not be going home that day; the Judge could lock me up that simply.. no trial.. no jury... obviously I did my best to explain the sincerity of my endeavors and commitment to resolve this matter, to either file for bankruptcy or succeed with the work and make payments. The opposing attorney after the case was finished was convinced that the Judge was about to have me arrested, but at the last minute, after discussing various points in the case with me, decided to give me six months for the next review. Whew.. You got to imagine my relief. The case before mine had a young adult in shackles because he ran away from the police on trivial matters, but they take this all so seriously. So when my dad came over to celebrate Passover with me on Saturday, I was mighty appreciative to celebrate the story of a people seeking their freedom. Yet, here, I again came back to the reality of my brother/friend Malik Abdullah Akili, and Leonard Peltier, and thousands of others, suffering in an unjust and twisted system. To complete the weekend on Easter Sunday I visited my favorite sustainable-oriented community http://www.siriuscommunity.org "Sirius," and lucked out in gathering with an indigenous group traveling from California, headed to Canada to council for the healing of all races. They opened a stone lodge ceremony and sacred pipe, deep nurturing prayers for renewal and trust of purpose. After the sweat (and feast) we watched the Dorrel video on US foreign policy since WWII. It has been a full weekend. So it is no wonder that this issue of Flyby News is dedicated to our freedom, and reclaiming a democracy in the US.
Item 1 begins with two paragraphs excerpted by Thom Hartman on his recent commentary called "The Real War - On American Democracy." He quite clearly points out that ..the neoconservative agenda is nothing less than an attempt to overthrow republican democracy and replace it with a worldwide feudal state.' No wonder these are such intense times. Item 2 is a positive response from Britain's premier scientific institution, which was indignant because the Pentagon had claimed that it had the backing of the society in saying DU was not dangerous. The Royal Society, in fact, is calling for the monitoring and cleaning of exploded Depleted Uranium sites in Iraq. Item 3 is George Carlin's take on Bush's War. Of course you can't repeat Carlin's words to your family relations, but following it is an excerpt from John Kaminski's family discussions, also, very revealing. In this item, too, are links for Scott Ritter's article, "Missing Arms Cast Doubt on War" and a rebuttal by Presidential Candidate, Howard Dean. Dean was responding to a previous his article also published by Common Dreams and Flyby News in last issue. This piece is entitled: "Bush: It's Not Just His Doctrine That's Wrong." And item 4 is called "The Weird Men Behind George W. Bush's War." This is an extensive and clearly written, thought provoking analysis from the New Statesman publication of London. This item, too, contains a transcript link of the talk by Tim Robbins at the National Press Club, and an article on the McCarthyist climate in Hollywood, and creeping into many communities in these dark times. But the darkest of times may come just before the breaking of dawn.
A sunrise takes us by surprise
Yet never delay its coming,
Its turning, its yearning
To mix life with color
And turn on the crystal ball of Earth.
1) The Real War - On American Democracy by Thom Hartmann
CONNECTING the PIECES:
NEO-FEUDALISM~The Neo-Cons Global Vision, here and abroad
The Real War - On American Democracy
Excerpt: The Founders of America knew that for 6000 years "civilized" humans had always been ruled by one of three groups: kings, theocrats, or feudal lords. Kings held power by threat of violence and continual warfare; theocrats and popes held power by the people's fear of a god or gods; and feudal lords held power by wealth and the power that comes from throwing average people into poverty.
The "new" idea of our Founders in 1776 was to throw off all three of these historic tyrannies and replace them with a fourth way - people being ruled by themselves. A government that derived its legitimacy and continuing existence solely from the approval of its citizens. Government of, by, and for "We, The People." They called it a republican democracy. What we are seeing now in the neoconservative agenda is nothing less than an attempt to overthrow republican democracy and replace it with a worldwide feudal state.
Thom Hartmann is an author and talk show host.
Check his website for a link to the complete article:
http://www.thomhartmann.com
2) Royal Society Urges DU Clean-Up In Iraq
The Pentagon claimed the DU is harmless and that the Royal Society in Britain backed them up. Here the Brits refute that, and call for a cleanup.
Royal Society Urges DU Clean-Up In Iraq
Spells Out Dangers Of Depleted Uranium
By Paul Brown
Environment Correspondent
The Guardian - UK 4-17-03
Hundreds of tons of depleted uranium used by Britain and the United States in Iraq should be removed to protect the civilian population, the Royal Society said yesterday, contradicting Pentagon claims it was not necessary.
The society's statement fuels the controversy over the use of depleted uranium (DU), which is an effective tank destroyer and bunker buster but is believed by many scientists to cause cancers and other severe illnesses.
The society, Britain's premier scientific institution, was incensed because the Pentagon had claimed it had the backing of the society in saying DU was not dangerous.
In fact, the society said, both soldiers and civilians were in short and long term danger. Children playing at contaminated sites were particularly at risk.
DU is left over after uranium is enriched for use in nuclear reactors and is also recovered after reprocessing spent nuclear fuel. There are thousands of tons of it in stores in the US and UK.
Because it is effectively free and 20% heavier than steel, the military experimented with it and discovered it could penetrate steel and concrete much more easily than conventional weapons. It burns at 10,000 C, incinerating everything as it turns to dust.
As it proved so effective, it was adopted as a standard weapon in the first Gulf war despite its slight radioactive content and toxic effects. It was used again in the Balkans and Afghanistan by the US.
DU has been suspected by many campaigners of causing the unexplained cancers among Iraqi civilians, particularly children, since the previous Gulf war. Chemicals released in the atmosphere during bombing could equally be to blame.
Among those against the use of DU is Professor Doug Rokke, a one time US army colonel who is also a former director of the Pentagon's depleted uranium project, and a former professor of environmental science at Jacksonville University. He has said a nation's military personnel cannot willfully contaminate any other nation, cause harm to persons and the environment and then ignore the consequences of their actions. He has called on the US and UK to "recognise the immoral consequences of their actions and assume responsibility for medical care and thorough environmental remediation".
The UN Environment Programme has been tracking the use of DU in the Balkans and found it leaching into the water table. Seven years after the conflict it has recommended the decontamination of buildings where DU dust is present to protect the civilian population against cancer.
Up to 2,000 tons of DU has been used in the Gulf, a large part of it in cities like Baghdad, far more than in the Balkans. Unep has offered to go to Iraq and check on the quantities of DU still present and the danger it poses to civilians.
Professor Brian Spratt, chairman of the Royal Society working group on depleted uranium, said that a recent study by the society had found that the majority of soldiers were unlikely to be exposed to dangerous levels of depleted uranium during and after its use on the battlefield.
"However, a small number of soldiers might suffer kidney damage and an increased risk of lung cancer if substantial amounts of depleted uranium are breathed in, for instance inside an armoured vehicle hit by a depleted uranium penetrator."
He said the study also concluded that the soil around the impact sites of depleted uranium penetrators may be heavily contaminated, and could be harmful if swallowed by children for example.
"In addition, large numbers of corroding depleted uranium penetrators embedded in the ground might pose a long-term threat if the uranium leaches into water supplies.
"We recommend that fragments of depleted uranium penetrators should be removed, and areas of contamination should be identified and, where necessary, made safe."
He added: "We also recommend long-term sampling, particularly of water and milk, to detect any increase in uranium levels in areas where depleted uranium has been used. This provides a cost-effective method of monitoring sensitive components in the environment, and of providing information about uranium levels to concerned local populations."
--
Canadian Mind Products, Roedy Green.
See http://mindprod.com/iraq.html for links about the Iraq war.
- - - - -
Note: Photos at above URL show graphic depictions of consequences of this War.
3) George Carlin on Bush War
- - Trapped in a poison fog by John Kaminski
- - Missing Arms Cast Doubt on War by Scott Ritter
- - Bush: It's Not Just His Doctrine That's Wrong by Howard Dean
George Carlin on Bush War:
Rockets and Penises in the Persian Gulf
[Excerpted]
Premature Extraction
Actually, when you think about it, this country has had a manhood problem for some time. You can tell the language we use; language always gives us away. What did we do wrong in Vietnam? We 'pulled out'! Not a very manly thing to do. No. When you're fucking people, you're supposed to stay with it and fuck them good; fuck them to death; hang in there and keep fucking them until they're all fucking dead.
But in Vietnam what happened was by accident we left a few women and children alive, and we haven't felt good about ourselves since.
That's why in the Persian Gulf, George Bush had to say, 'This will not be another Vietnam.' He actually said, 'this time we're going all the way.'
Imagine. An American president using the sexual slang of a thirteen-year-old to describe his foreign policy.
And, of course, when it got right down to it, he didn't 'go all the way.' Faced with going into Baghdad he punked out. No balls. Just Bush.
Instead, he applied sanctions, so he'd be sure that an extra half a million brown children would die. And so his oil buddies could continue to fill their pockets.
If you want to know what happened in the Persian Gulf, just remember the first names of the two men who ran that war: Dick Cheney and Colin Powell.
Dick and Colon.
Someone got fucked in the ass.
And those brown people better make sure they keep their pants on, because Dick and Colin have come back for an encore.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Trapped in a poison fog by John Kaminski
[Excerpted]
Perhaps you can't use George Carlin's observations with your family, but you could say:
"..Did you know that 255,000 soldiers have filed for VA disability pensions as a result of being in the first Gulf War? Did you know that 10,000 of those people have already died? And they say that the potency of the ordnance they're using now is much greater, so that we can expect the incidence of illness and cancer in these troops who are serving now is going to be much greater that what happened in the first Gulf War?
"You don't want me to talk about the actual diseases these people get, not at the dinner table .."
With that he rocked forward and took a big slug of beer. I was an avuncular prizefighter looking for a gentle but irrevocable knockout.
"Do you know why we went to war in Iraq?" I asked quietly. His answer was mumbled, garbled, uncertain. "Well, yeah, that guy (Saddam) was dangerous; he was a menace."
I pushed on. "Is it OK to invade another country if the reason you're using is a lie?" I asked.
"Well, er, no."
"There were two reasons we invaded Iraq," I said. "First was we said he had weapons of mass destruction. We didn't find any. That reason was a lie. Second, we said Saddam was connected with al-Qaeda and 9/11. There IS no connection. Al-Qaeda was invented by the CIA when we recruited Muslims to fight the Russians in Afghanistan 15 years ago. The U.S. has fought side-by-side with al-Qaeda in Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia. The connection is not between al-Qaeda and Iraq; it's between al-Qaeda and the U.S. Both reasons we went to war in Iraq are lies, told by our country. We killed all those people for no real reasons at all, or at least, for reasons that are not the ones they're telling us.."
You could contact John Kaminski < skylax@comcast.net > to request the entire article.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Missing Arms Cast Doubt on War by Scott Ritter
See: http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0416-07.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush: It's Not Just His Doctrine That's Wrong' by Howard Dean
Published on Thursday, April 17, 2003 by CommonDreams.org
[Note: After reading a recent article that called into question my opposition to the Bush Doctrine of preemptive war, I wanted to state my position clearly to set the record straight. I appreciate that the editors of Common Dreams have given me this opportunity.]
When Congress approved the President's authorization to go to war in Iraq no matter how well-intentioned it was giving the green light to the President to set his Doctrine of preemptive war in motion. It now appears that Iraq was just the first step. Already, the Bush Administration is apparently eyeing Syria and Iran as the next countries on its target list. The Bush Doctrine must be stopped here.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0417-07.htm
4) The Weird Men Behind George W. Bush's War
- - Tim Robbins - 'A Chill Wind is Blowing'
- - Hollywood Revives McCarthyist Climate
The Weird Men Behind George W. Bush's War
By Michael Lind
New Statesman - London
http://www.newstatesman.com
April 7, 2003
America's allies and enemies alike are baffled. What is going on in the United States? Who is making foreign policy? And what are they trying to achieve? Quasi-Marxist explanations involving big oil or American capitalism are mistaken. Yes, American oil companies and contractors will accept the spoils of the kill in Iraq. But the oil business, with its Arabist bias, did not push for this war any more than it supports the Bush administration's close alliance with Ariel Sharon. Further, President Bush and Vice-President Cheney are not genuine "Texas oil men" but career politicians who, in between stints in public life, would have used their connections to enrich themselves as figureheads in the wheat business, if they had been residents of Kansas, or in tech companies, had they been Californians..
..The core group now in charge consists of neoconservative defence intellectuals (they are called "neoconservatives" because many of them started off as anti-Stalinist leftists or liberals before moving to the far right). Inside the government, the chief defence intellectuals include Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defence. He is the defence mastermind of the Bush administration; Donald Rumsfeld is an elderly figurehead who holds the position of defence secretary only because Wolfowitz himself is too controversial. Others include Douglas Feith, the number three at the Pentagon; Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a Wolfowitz protege who is Cheney's chief of staff; John R Bolton, a right-winger assigned to the State Department to keep Colin Powell in check; and Elliott Abrams, recently appointed to head Middle East policy at the National Security Council. On the outside are James Woolsey, the former CIA director, who has tried repeatedly to link both 9/11 and the anthrax letters in the US to Saddam Hussein, and Richard Perle, who has just resigned from his unpaid defence department advisory post after a lobbying scandal. Most of these "experts" never served in the military. But their headquarters is now the civilian defence secretary's office, where these Republican political appointees are despised and distrusted by the largely Republican career soldiers.
Most neoconservative defence intellectuals have their roots on the left, not the right. They are products of the largely Jewish-American Trotskyist movement of the 1930s and 1940s, which morphed into anti- communist liberalism between the 1950s and 1970s and finally into a kind of militaristic and imperial right with no precedents in American culture or political history. Their admiration for the Israeli Likud party's tactics, including preventive warfare such Israel's 1981 raid on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor, is mixed with odd bursts of ideological enthusiasm for "democracy". They call their revolutionary ideology "Wilsonianism" (after President Woodrow Wilson), but it is really Trotsky's theory of the permanent revolution mingled with the far-right Likud strain of Zionism. Genuine American Wilsonians believe in self-determination for people such as the Palestinians.
The neo-con defence intellectuals, as well as being in or around the actual Pentagon, are at the centre of a metaphorical "pentagon" of the Israel lobby and the religious right, plus conservative think- tanks, foundations and media empires. Think-tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) provide homes for neo-con "in-and- outers" when they are out of government (Perle is a fellow at AEI). The money comes not so much from corporations as from decades-old conservative foundations, such as the Bradley and Olin foundations, which spend down the estates of long-dead tycoons. Neoconservative foreign policy does not reflect business interests in any direct way. The neo-cons are ideologues, not opportunists.
The major link between the conservative think-tanks and the Israel lobby is the Washington-based and Likud-supporting Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (Jinsa), which co-opts many non-Jewish defence experts by sending them on trips to Israel. It flew out the retired General Jay Garner, now slated by Bush to be proconsul of occupied Iraq. In October 2000, he co-signed a Jinsa letter that began: "We . . . believe that during the current upheavals in Israel, the Israel Defence Forces have exercised remarkable restraint in the face of lethal violence orchestrated by the leadership of [the] Palestinian Authority."
The Israel lobby itself is divided into Jewish and Christian wings. Wolfowitz and Feith have close ties to the Jewish-American Israel lobby. Wolfowitz, who has relatives in Israel, has served as the Bush administration's liaison to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Feith was given an award by the Zionist Organisation of America, citing him as a "pro-Israel activist". While out of power in the Clinton years, Feith collaborating with Perle, co-authored for Likud a policy paper that advised the Israeli government to end the Oslo peace process, reoccupy the territories and crush Yasser Arafat's government.
Such experts are not typical of Jewish-Americans, who mostly voted for Gore in 2000. The most fervent supporters of Likud in the Republican electorate are southern Protestant fundamentalists. The religious right believes that God gave all of Palestine to the Jews, and fundamentalist congregations spend millions to subsidise Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.
The final corner of the neoconservative pentagon is occupied by several right-wing media empires, with roots - odd as it seems - in the Commonwealth and South Korea. Rupert Murdoch disseminates propaganda through his Fox Television network. His magazine the Weekly Standard, edited by William Kristol, the former chief of staff of Dan Quayle (vice-president, 1989-93), acts as a mouthpiece for defence intellectuals such as Perle, Wolfowitz, Feith and Woolsey as well as for Sharon's government. The National Interest (of which I was executive editor, 1991-94) is now funded by Conrad Black, who owns the Jerusalem Post and the Hollinger empire in Britain and Canada.
Strangest of all is the media network centred on the Washington Times - owned by the South Korean messiah (and ex-convict) the Reverend Sun Myung Moon - which owns the newswire UPI. UPI is now run by John O'Sullivan, the ghost-writer for Margaret Thatcher who once worked as an editor for Conrad Black in Canada. Through such channels, the "Gotcha!" style of right-wing British journalism, as well as its Europhobic substance, have contaminated the US conservative movement.
The corners of the neoconservative pentagon were linked together in the 1990s by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), run by Kristol out of the Weekly Standard offices. Using a PR technique pioneered by their Trotskyist predecessors, the neo-cons published a series of public letters, whose signatories often included Wolfowitz and other future members of the Bush foreign policy team. They called for the US to invade and occupy Iraq and to support Israel's campaigns against the Palestinians (dire warnings about China were another favourite). During Clinton's two terms, these fulminations were ignored by the foreign policy establishment and the mainstream media. Now they are frantically being studied.
How did the neo-con defence intellectuals - a small group at odds with most of the US foreign policy elite, Republican as well as Democratic - manage to capture the Bush administration? Few supported Bush during the presidential primaries. They feared that the second Bush would be like the first - a wimp who had failed to occupy Baghdad in the first Gulf war and who had pressured Israel into the Oslo peace process - and that his administration, again like his father's, would be dominated by moderate Republican realists such as Powell, James Baker and Brent Scowcroft. They supported the maverick senator John McCain until it became clear that Bush would get the nomination.
Then they had a stroke of luck - Cheney was put in charge of the presidential transition (the period between the election in November and the accession to office in January). Cheney used this opportunity to stack the administration with his hardline allies. Instead of becoming the de facto president in foreign policy, as many had expected, Secretary of State Powell found himself boxed in by Cheney's right-wing network, including Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith, Bolton and Libby..
For the complete article, see:
http://www.rense.com/general37/theweirdmenbehind.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Tim Robbins - 'A Chill Wind is Blowing'
'A Chill Wind is Blowing in This Nation...'
Transcript of the speech given by actor Tim Robbins to the National Press Club
Washington, D.C. April 15, 2003.
TIM ROBBINS: Thank you. And thanks for the invitation. I had originally been asked here to talk about the war and our current political situation, but I have instead chosen to hijack this opportunity and talk about baseball and show business. (Laughter.) Just kidding. Sort of.
I can't tell you how moved I have been at the overwhelming support I have received from newspapers. . . I am extremely grateful that there are those of you out there still with a fierce belief in constitutionally guaranteed rights. We need you, the press, now more than ever. This is a crucial moment for all of us..
..A chill wind is blowing in this nation. A message is being sent through the White House and its allies in talk radio and Clear Channel and Cooperstown. If you oppose this administration, there can and will be ramifications.
Every day, the air waves are filled with warnings, veiled and unveiled threats, spewed invective and hatred directed at any voice of dissent. And the public, like so many relatives and friends that I saw this weekend, sit in mute opposition and fear.
I am sick of hearing about Hollywood being against this war. Hollywood's heavy hitters, the real power brokers and cover-of-the- magazine stars, have been largely silent on this issue. But Hollywood, the concept, has always been a popular target..
..The journalists in this country can battle back at those who would rewrite our Constitution in Patriot Act II, or "Patriot, The Sequel," as we would call it in Hollywood.. We are counting on you to star in that movie.
Journalists can insist that they not be used as publicists by this administration.
..Our ability to disagree, and our inherent right to question our leaders and criticize their actions define who we are. To allow those rights to be taken away out of fear, to punish people for their beliefs, to limit access in the news media to differing opinions is to acknowledge our democracy's defeat.
These are challenging times. There is a wave of hate that seeks to divide us -- right and left, pro-war and anti-war. In the name of my 11-year-old nephew, and all the other unreported victims of this hostile and unproductive environment of fear, let us try to find our common ground as a nation. Let us celebrate this grand and glorious experiment that has survived for 227 years. To do so we must honor and fight vigilantly for the things that unite us -- like freedom, the First Amendment and, yes, baseball. (Applause.)
The above was excerpted; for the complete transcript, see:
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0416-01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Hollywood Revives McCarthyist Climate
NEW MCCARTHYISM: HOLLYWOOD SILENCING & SACKING WAR CRITICS...
Published on Monday, April 21, 2003 by the lndependent/UK
Hollywood Revives McCarthyist Climate by Silencing and Sacking War Critics
by Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
Hollywood is often depicted in the US media as a hotbed of anti-government dissent and left-wing politics but that is not how it feels to Ed Gernon.
Mr Gernon was, until recently, a television producer at CBS responsible for a four-part miniseries on Hitler's rise to power, which will be shown next month. He thought the timing was apt, and said so in an interview with TV Guide magazine. "It basically boils down to an entire nation gripped by fear, who ultimately chose to give up their civil rights and plunged the whole nation into war," he said. "I can't think of a better time to examine this history than now."
That was far too strong for Leslie Moonves, CBS's chief executive, who promptly fired him. No reasons were given, although politics and a strong desire not to fall foul of the Bush administration apparently had plenty to do with it.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Desolation Row * Peace Candidate * Fixed Elections
April 15, 2003
"It's the so-called liberals or centrists who are closet imperialists who are the true danger.
Kucinich is in the unique position to be the one person who from the very beginning
tried to tell the American people what was happening in their name."
Malachi Roth
1) Devastating critique of US/UK aggression
- - When Precision Bombing Really Isn't
- - Lawless, grief-stricken Baghdad buries its dead
- - US rejects Iraq DU clean-up
- - Eagleburger: Bush Should be Impeached
2) The Peace Candidate / Kucinich / The Progressive
- - On Dennis Kucinich for US President by Malachi Roth
3) Howard Dean Folds Back into the National Security Establishment
4) Are American elections fixed?
Editor's Notes:
This issue begins with a look at the devastation brought to Iraq by the US and UK. Meanwhile on tax day in the US, President Bush is hailing his drive to lower taxes in a make believe world where war is peace, ignorance is strength, and freedom is slavery. The hopeful part in this item is from an article where Lawrence Eagleburger, who was US Secretary of State under George Bush Sr., told the BBC that if George Bush Jr. decided to turn the troops loose on Syria and Iran, would last in office for about 15 minutes.' The problem is that he's been in office too long already. Item 2 is an article in The Progressive, about Kucinich as a Peace Candidate. In the second part of this item, Malachi Roth, who is making a documentary film on the Kucinich campaign, suggests that we will Kucinich into power with an unwavering belief that people are ready for a dramatic change. This awakening is still in dormancy, but something is stirring, and eventually people will realize that Dennis K. is our best chance to reclaim democracy in the US. We suggest, especially until Malachi Roth and team finish the new documentary on Dennis Kucinich, ordering and sharing Frank Dorrel's "What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World." This film compilation gives the overview of CIA covert operations and US country interventions since WWII. Anyone who sees this film will be scared silly or awaken to act on convictions in response to the US Constitution in crisis. Item 3 is a critical article on Howard Dean, who has also been hailed as a peace candidate, but questions remain. Item 4 is an article asking: "Are American elections fixed?"
"Until we convince ourselves of the utter inevitability of our self determination
others will determine our future for us."
Malachi Roth
1) Devastating critique of US/UK aggression
Devastating critique of US/UK aggression
by John Pilger
"They have blown off the limbs of women and the scalps of children. Their victims overwhelm the morgues and flood into hospitals that lack even aspirin.
John Pilger on a piratical war that brought terrorism and death to Iraq." (John Pilger, 10 Apr 2003)
A BBC television producer, moments before he was wounded by an American fighter aircraft that killed 18 people with "friendly fire", spoke to his mother on a satellite phone. Holding the phone over his head so that she could hear the sound of the American planes overhead, he said: "Listen, that's the sound of freedom."
Did I read this scene in Catch-22? Surely, the BBC man was being ferociously ironic. I doubt it, just as I doubt that whoever designed the Observer's page three last Sunday had Joseph Heller in mind when he wrote the weasel headline: "The moment young Omar discovered the price of war". These cowardly words accompanied a photograph of an American marine reaching out to comfort 15-year-old Omar, having just participated in the mass murder of his father, mother, two sisters and brother during the unprovoked invasion of their homeland, in breach of the most basic law of civilised peoples..
For the complete article, see:
http://pilger.carlton.com/print/132898
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For an article called:
WHEN 'PRECISION' BOMBING REALLY ISN'T:
The Evil, the Grotesque and the Official Lies
Including appalling photographs, see:
http://www.cursor.org/stories/iraq.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For another related article:
"Lawless, grief-stricken Baghdad buries its dead"
The Times of India - April 14, 2003, See:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=43105875
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"US rejects Iraq DU clean-up"
By Alex Kirby
BBC News Online environment correspondent
The US says it has no plans to remove the debris left over from depleted uranium (DU) weapons it is using in Iraq.
For the complete article, see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2946715.stm
For more on Depleted Uranium, see:
http://traprockpeace.org/depleteduranium.html
and
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid991363232,2156,
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Eagleburger: Bush Should be Impeached
Lawrence Eagleburger, who was US Secretary of State under George Bush Snr, told the BBC: "If George Bush [Jnr] decided he was going to turn the troops loose on Syria and Iran after that he would last in office for about 15 minutes. In fact if President Bush were to try that now even I would think that he ought to be impeached. You can't get away with that sort of thing in this democracy."
The above was reported in The Independent (UK) article:
"US warns Syria not to provide haven for wanted Iraqis"
Monday, 14 April 2003,
2) The Peace Candidate / Kucinich / The Progressive
The Peace Candidate
By Ruth Conniff, The Progressive
April 14, 2003
Dennis Kucinich is clearly holding down the left end of the bench of Democratic Presidential contenders for 2004. The co-chair of the Progressive Caucus in Congress, an advocate of nonviolence who has proposed that the U.S. government create a Department of Peace, a vegan because he believes in "the sacredness of all species," and a pro-labor environmentalist who marched in the streets of Seattle and Washington, D.C., Kucinich is, without a doubt, the progressive candidate. The argument for his candidacy, unlikely though it may be, is that it represents a point of view the Democrats should be forced to deal with.
The former "boy mayor" of Cleveland, now fifty-six, is the most vocal opponent of war with Iraq in the House of Representatives. A year ago, he began making impassioned speeches on the subject, and lately he's showing up on the talk show circuit as a lonely voice for peace. Meet the Press, Crossfire, Hardball, and The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, among others, have had him on to debate the Bush Administration's Iraq policy though the Washington establishment is not taking his Presidential bid seriously. (The New York Times ranks him somewhere below Al Sharpton as a "viable candidate," and his February announcement in Iowa that he was running was greeted with a resounding shrug by most of the mainstream media.)
Kucinich thinks the pundits are in for a surprise. "They try to make it appear that the positions I'm taking are way out, but they're not," he told me on the phone recently. "As the war effort continues, I think you'll see that more and more people will join in and want to be involved with the campaign."
Steve Cobble agrees. A longtime progressive political strategist who worked for Jesse Jackson, Cobble compares Kucinich to Jackson in 1988. He thinks he could do much better than expected, thanks to the support of people the politicos in Washington don't notice.
"The people who are dismissing Kucinich out of hand are the same people who are shocked by this big anti-war movement that has had such growth in so short a time," says Cobble, who is an adviser to the candidate. Like the late Senator Paul Wellstone, Kucinich is long on big ideas and short on glitz. He is neither tall nor telegenic, neither wealthy nor well connected. And, of course, there's his minimal national name recognition.
But no one voted Ralph Nader "Mr. Charisma" five years ago, Cobble points out, and Nader became a pop star on college campuses during the 2000 campaign. "Young people responded to Nader in 2000," says Cobble. "It was the ideas and the sense of integrity, not blowing in the wind. Dennis is going to give the same vibes."
That's where the comparison to Nader ends, however. "I have no interest in a third party candidacy. None," says Kucinich. "I want to do it the other way bring third party candidates into the [Democratic] Party and get support in the primaries." Taking much of Nader's message into the Democratic Party may be a worthy goal. But how far will it get Kucinich?
If a lot of progressives have a hangover from the last Presidential election and are feeling down, Kucinich and his campaign staff are energized by the massive anti-war and anti-globalization demonstrations around the world and by the feeling that a newly active grass-roots movement is rising up and making itself heard.
Kucinich, who opposes NAFTA, is the only candidate proudly giving voice to the fair trade movement. And his opposition to weapons in space and civil liberties violations under the Patriot Act are welcome among a Democratic base eager for a strong opposition to Bush.
"Whereas everyone else says, 'Gee, I'd have used a different airplane, or maybe we should use this missile instead of that one,' he'll be a clarion call for peace," says progressive Wisconsin Democrat and labor lawyer Ed Garvey. Now a supporter of Kucinich, Garvey was moved by the experience of hearing him speak out early against the Iraq war. "The passion and intellectual depth of his speech was really impressive."
Certainly, Kucinich, who quotes long passages of poetry and has a deeply thoughtful, almost starry-eyed quality, is not your usual politician. So is Kucinich the peace movement candidate, as Eugene McCarthy was in 1968?
"This movement precedes a war. The 1968 movement happened years after war began," Kucinich says. His campaign takes on not only war but also a complex array of domestic and international concerns.
Kucinich denounces the Bush Administration's whole political philosophy of "projecting aggression into the world." The issues of his campaign are empire versus democracy, globalization versus equality, war versus peace, a private health insurance system that leaves seventy-five million people intermittently uncovered versus national health care, the Patriot Act versus the Bill of Rights. Get him going, and he'll blow your ears back with a litany of calamitous news.
"People are fearful," Kucinich says. "My candidacy steps forward and says, 'Hey, stop! Hold it!' We're losing what's dear to our country. We have a foreign policy that's setting the stage for new wars. We're talking about first use of nuclear weapons. We still have chemical and biological weapons, which disqualifies us from the chemical and biological weapons treaty. The polar ice caps are still melting. Islands in the Pacific are seeing the water rising. Meteorological changes suggest that global climate change is here to stay. The Kyoto climate change treaty is urgent. The U.S. has to recognize the interconnectedness, interdependence, of the world. We're not doing it. I'm looking at the entire structure of our society and saying, how can government be relevant?"
For the complete article, see:
http://alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15628
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
On Dennis Kucinich for US President by Malachi Roth
The following is excerpts from emails written by Malachi Roth, who is working with the Kucinich for President campaign in NYC and making a new film on the peace candidate, Dennis Kucinich. Malachi is endeavoring to encourage everyone that might read this to begin to will Kucinich into power with an unwavering belief that people are ready for a dramatic change. Though this isn't evident if you watch the mainstream media, in the hearts of the majority of people, it is true. We just need to awaken ourselves and one another.
"..All Dennis has to do is stand firm and the changes which are starting to take place in the national psyche will eventually launch him onto the national scene. Nobody could have pictured Mandela going from jail to the presidency and yet it happened. Kucinich is our Mandela. Nobody could have imagined "Roger & Me" getting national distribution, but it did and then "Bowling for Columbine" won an Academy and now Michael Moore is working with Mel Gibson of all people to blow the lid off of the Bush family secrets. I can't say I could have predicted any of this a year and a half ago when I first read about Kucinich."
[Malachi was introduced to Dennis Kucinich from Flyby News, which he discovered from his interest in Bart Jordan, which is posted from the web site.]
"..I always saw Dennis as a great guy whose oratory skills needed work until I saw the Prayer For America Speech. Then I felt a little embarrassed for judging a man who clearly has some of the best oration skills in the country. Of course like most great artists he does not perform as well when psychological support is not present in the audience. This is bound to change as he gains notoriety. When crowds cheer his words and delivery he seems to harness that energy like a large bird resting on a strong updraft even if he may loose his train of thought the next moment and read some lines as if he were doing it for the first time.
The fact that he needs improvement doesn't bother me because so few have that kind of potential to begin with. Beyond his potential to become one of histories greatest orators he has unlimited potential as a leader. This is true no matter what the outcome of the 2004 election. Seldom do such historical figures arrive on the seen and most people don't recognize them as such until their momentum is overwhelming. Who knows how long that will take but I wouldn't be interested in him if I didn't think it where inevitable. Being part of his campaign is so much more than trying to get the white house away from the republicans. It's more like being a part of the most important historical event of recent history. The excitement among his supporters is palpable.
Part of it seems to come from Dennis and the way his personality and speeches resonate with audiences and part of it seems to derive from the general feeling that for the first time in more years than anyone would like to admit a true opposition movement is beginning to unify and set it's sights on the entrenched establishment. People who care deeply about issues which the main stream media ignores seem to be as important to the campaign as Kucinich himself. The war in Iraq is really just a battle in a global propaganda war taking place between the entrenched establishment and the people of the world. In this war the establishment is not faring nearly as well as we are of course conditioned to believe. I see a desperation evident in the drastic measures being undertaken by a corporate elite who can see that the tide is turning against them.
As the money and leadership falls into place in the campaign there is going to be a sudden realization of how potent the force behind Dennis and the peace movement really is. It seems to be quite unprecedented and yet not being discussed in the terms historians will eventually employ. There are so many talented and dedicated people coming out of the woodwork to support Dennis and peace there simply isn't enough structure to house them all. He converts people to his cause in what seems like minutes.
All one has to do is watch one of his speeches and the realization that they've never seen a politician like him sets in with a vengeance. The more fearful and shaped by compromise someone is the more skeptical they are of their own inner respect for the man. Ergo the author of that review admitting that he liked Kucinich better than Dean but was simply giving up hope that Dennis stands a chance (a short sighted apologetic approach). The new motto of the Democratic Party should be "No to Compromise" We've tried it and it doesn't work. By putting a humane face on a single party of total compromise the democrats have essentially done the Republican's dirty work for them.
As far as the campaign focusing on Bush, that will be a redundant mistake. The distinct impression given by much of the stories on Flyby News is that the establishment will be pushing a Kerry or McCain into the white house in 2004 based on Anti-Bush sentiment. Our biggest danger is letting the establishment cooped the blow back that this administration is bound to experience. It's the so-called liberals or centrists who are closet imperialists who are the true danger. Kucinich is in the unique position to be the one person who from the very beginning tried to tell the American people what was happening in their name.
..As our empire begins to falter our need to elect charlatans will begin to fade. That is when Kucinich's lack of slick political skills will become his greatest asset. I think the whole idea of self fulfilling prophesies should dictate how we view Dennis and the campaign. i.e. He IS going to become president, whether in 2004, 8, 12, or 16. Between now and the time he is leading the country he will do incredible things to help steer us back on to a more humane course. That can not readily be said of any of the other candidates who would more likely slip back into obscurity because they are there more for themselves than for the people. The peace movement will grow into a justice movement and opposition to the current earth threatening crisis will intervene to save millions of lives that are at grave risk. Until we convince ourselves of the utter inevitability of our self determination others will determine our future for us.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Kucinich Official Web Site is http://www.kucinich.us
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Flyby News Resource page on Dennis Kucinich
Including Kucinich Film Documentary in the Works!, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1045685440,9146,
3) Howard Dean Folds Back into the National Security Establishment
As Baghdad Falls Howard Dean Folds Back into the National Security Establishment
by Charles Knight
On April 9, 2003, the day that most American newspapers headlined the "liberation of Baghdad", Howard Dean, a Democratic presidential candidate notable for his opposition to Bush's war against Iraq, gave a speech in Washington which went a long way toward endorsing the Bush doctrine of preventive war.
Dean has been a favorite candidate among anti-war Democrats because he believes an imminent threat from Iraq was never proven and therefore the situation did not justify the invasion. In his remarks to the Alliance for American Leadership, an invitation-only organization of foreign policy specialists most of whom were associated with the Clinton administration, Dean addressed the problems of possible nuclear proliferation to North Korea and Iran. As reported in the Boston Globe he made a point of saying that he would not rule out using military force to disarm either North Korea or Iran.
In effect this supposedly 'anti-war' Democrat has announced his support for a policy in which Washington will decide which countries are allowed to have nuclear weapons and will reserve for itself the right to forcefully disarm those who do not voluntarily disarm by U.S. dictate. In this crucial regard Dean's position is in close accordance with the Bush doctrine of coercive disarmament and preventive war.
Dean did seek to draw a distinction between his policy and that of the Bush administration by advocating a return to the Clinton policy of "constructive engagement." However, in the context of a world with preventive counter-proliferation warfare this is a distinction not of principle, but only of pragmatic considerations.
The basic argument between Democrats such as Dean and Republicans becomes whether their respective approaches to forced disarmament are more or less costly or risky, in what time period. For instance, Dean argues for reopening negotiations with the North Koreans over their nuclear program, while privately making it clear that the U.S. will go to war to stop their nuclear program if they don't settle in the end. In a preferred outcome of this diplomacy the U.S. might end up paying the North Koreans ten or twenty billion to abandon their nuclear and long range missile program. Dean would argue that despite the distaste of having to pay for disarmament, the financial costs would be about one-fifth to one-tenth the cost of a war, and successful diplomacy would also avoid the human costs of the likely hundreds of thousands of Koreans, Americans, and possibly Japanese who would die in new Korean war. In the longer run it is likely that the communist regime in North Korea will collapse in its own decrepitude and a more cooperative government will take its place and seek to reunite peacefully with South Korea.
The neo-conservative Republicans argue that once we get into a 'pay for disarmament' relationship the North Koreans have an incentive to maintain the threat of their nuclear program in order to pressure us to meet their ever-growing financial demands. In the mean time making payments to them just ends up supporting their regime and increases the likelihood that they will become a bigger threat to American interests later on. Much better to do what the U.S. did with Iraq: keep North Korea poor, let their obsolescent Soviet-era Army deteriorate, and when the time is right overthrow their regime and take direct control of their security policy. The war of regime change will be costly, but manageable, and if we wait until later the costs will be much higher.
With Dean's statement of April 9th we see a narrowing of the range of strategic options represented by the 'major' or 'leading' candidates for President in the Republican and Democratic parties. Republicans will use the preventive war option early and often. Democrats will hold the preventive war option in reserve (and as threats expressed in private) while investing more in 'dollar persuasion' and other forms of 'soft power'. But, since 911 both parties have been learning to love the power of preventive war, something they both would have felt compelled by history and culture to renounce only a few years ago.
Left unacknowledged and unexplored in Dean's remarks is the issue of where preventive war policies leave the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Depending the how credulous you are, the answer would have to be either a) a minor supporting role to U.S. unilateral coercive counter-proliferation or b) so much waste paper. Also un-addressed is the contradiction of 'militarized counter-proliferation policy' that makes the acquisition and deployment of nuclear weapons seem like the most effective way for hard-nosed realists in North Korea and Iran to deter the aggressive preventive warriors in Washington. Indeed on April 10th , the day North Korea's withdrawal from the NPT came into effect, their news agency stated ". the security of the country and the nation can be assured only when one has physical deterrent force." (AP) We should expect Iranian security thinkers to reach a similar conclusion.
It is perhaps instructive to note that Dean's remarks were informed by talking points provided by Danny Sebright. Sebright is Associate Vice President of former Secretary of Defense William Cohen's consulting group and until January of 2002 oversaw the war in Afghanistan from his position Director of the Policy Executive Secretariat in the DoD. He began his career in the Defense Intelligence Agency and his bio at the Cohen Group boasts that "Mr. Sebright cultivated extensive contacts with U.S. and foreign defense industry officials to coordinate and implement DoD weapons sales to Israel and many countries in the Middle East." What the Sebright connection suggests is how closely held even an 'anti-war' candidate like Howard Dean is by the conservative-leaning national security establishment of both parties. And that national security establishment has been marching steadily to the right ever since the Republicans took control of the Congress in 1994.
Charles Knight is co-director of the Project on Defense
Alternatives at the Commonwealth Institute in Cambridge, MA.
4) Are American elections fixed?
Are American elections fixed?
By Ernest Partridge
Co-editor of The Crisis Papers and Online Journal Contributing Writer
"The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which all other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery."Thomas Paine
"It doesn't matter who casts the ballots. What matters is who counts the ballots."attributed to Joseph Stalin
(Trust, but verify)Ronald Reagan's favorite Russian proverb
April 3, 2003Might it be possible that, due to GOP control of computer voting machines, the electoral ""fix"" is in, and that as a result nothing short of a revolution will ever budge the Republican Party from control of the Congress and the White House? In other words, is it not conceivable that our ""democracy"" is more than ""threatened""it is in fact finished, done for, kaput? And we are not even aware of it?
Imagine the following election procedure
Paper ballots are marked, in secret and deposited by the voters in sealed ballot boxes. (So far, so good).
The ballot boxes are then delivered to the offices of a private firm, which is publicly known to be a supporter of and contributor to one of the political parties.
Upon receipt of the ballot boxes, the doors are locked and no one other than employees of that firm is allowed to inspect and validate the counting.
The ballots are then destroyed, after which the results are announced.
The firm's favorite candidate is declared the winner. The final results vary radically from pre-election polls. Sounds like a Soviet "election," doesn't it? Like something that a dictator might dream up to assure himself a lifetime office. But surely, such a "fix" is too transparently and shamelessly obvious for anyone to think he could get away with it.
And yet this scenario is an exact analogy, in all relevant respects, to the "computer touch screen" voting system that has been rushed into use, following the fiasco of the 2000 presidential election.
Consider
There are, in all, 13 manufacturers of electronic voting machines, of which two, ES&S and Diebold, are predominant. Both are owned and operated by individuals with right-wing political views, who are heavy contributors to the Republican Party.
ES&S and Diebold machines use "proprietary" source codes (i.e., not available for public inspection and analysis), and leave no "paper record" of their tallies.
"Exit polling," a reliable validation method which has proven to be much more accurate than pre-election polling, was "withdrawn" soon after the polls closed in the November 2002 election. Voter News Service (VNS), a consortium owned by the major cable and broadcast TV networks, reported that the system "collapsed," due to "technical problems." . . .
For the complete article, see:
http://onlinejournal.com/Commentary/040303Partridge/040303partridge.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more on illicit voting and what to do about it, visit
www.BlackBoxVoting.com
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
US Terrorism * Kucinich&Polls * M. Moore * Wonderland
April 9, 2003
"We are going to ignore the United Nations
in order to make clear to Saddam Hussein
that the United Nations cannot be ignored."
-- Peter Freundlich
"All Things Considered"
NPR - March 13, 2003
1) Convene The General Assembly - - Censure US Terrorism
2) Despite Polls, Kucinich Seeks End to War Needs Our Help!
3) Michael Moore - My Oscar "Backlash"
4) "All Things Considered" -- Looking through the looking glass
"Kucinich describes the war as an unprovoked display of U.S. aggression
that will turn the world against the United States and
put Americans in greater danger of terrorist attacks. "
Editor's Notes:
If any of you seen dismembered children and civilians, parts of flesh blown to bits, you will know that the US media coverage of the war is controlled by one-sided propaganda forces. Not one lost of life or limb in this war is worthwhile except for exploitation, colonialism, and for the fires of emotions to push for more terrorism and repression of freedoms everywhere. Yet all is not totally dark and gloomy. Inspirational Americans like Dennis Kucinich and Michael Moore and countless others, are joining forces to make a difference, if not immediately, then by 2004! Please join them in your efforts. Don't let this campaign for terror go any further in damaging true American and international ideals for peace and justice. Let's keep encouraging UN member states to denounce acts of aggression that is adding, not lessening the amount terrorism in our world.
"It also gives us a very special, secret pleasure
to see how unaware the people around us are
of what is really happening to them."
-- Adolf Hitler
1) Convene The General Assembly - - Censure US Terrorism
More than 30 million people have been out in the streets to say "No" to this war. More than half the Security Council, given a chance, would say "No" to this war, as would the overwhelming of the UN General Assembly. But the Security Council has failed us. It's time for the General Assembly of the United Nations, which more thoroughly represents the voice of this world's people, to rise up and demand that Iraq be disarmed peacefully, and that the slaughter of innocent Iraqis cease immediately.
In 1950, the United Nations agreed a way to address impasses at the Security Council. The "Uniting for Peace" resolution (resolution 377A) was designed to bring the entire General Assembly together to address a "threat to peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression" when the Security Council failed to reach agreement
To E-mail All the UN member countries:
http://www.voice4change.org/stories/mailUFP2.asp
Please note: Voice4change.org has reported some blocking of their Emails to UN member states. If you prefer, see this following link for all the email addresses and other information, and keep trying to get through. The United Nations needs to go on record on this aggression by the US against many innocent people in Iraq for their crude oil and dominating interests.
"Uniting for Peace to Resolve the Iraq Crisis"
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1045091648,41257,
or link from "Campaigns * Actions, & Events" at: http://www.FlybyNews.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BRITAIN ADMITS THERE MAY BE NO WMD'S IN IRAQ
Ruben Bannerjee Aljazeera.net
Sunday 06, April, 2003 /
Last Updated: 6:06PM Doha time, 11:06PM GMT
Well into the war that was supposed to rid Iraq of its alleged stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, a senior British official admitted on Saturday that no chemical, biological or nuclear weapons of mass destruction may after all be found.
Making the startling confession in a radio interview, British Home Secretary, David Blunkett, added in the same breath that he would in any case rejoice the "fall" of Saddam Hussein and his regime regardless of whether any weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq or not.
The confession reconfirms the worst fears of opponents of the war that "weapons of mass destruction" is only a ruse for the US and the British to go to war against Iraq....
For the full story, click on:
http://tinyurl.com/8w6y
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For related story, "Smoking gun chemicals nothing but pesticide" (AFP)
Agence France Presse
7 April 2003
A facility near Baghdad that a US officer had claimed might finally be "smoking gun" evidence of Iraqi chemical weapons production turned out on Monday to contain pesticide, not sarin gas as originally thought.
For complete story, see:
http://iafrica.com/news/us_terror/iraq/226656.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Activism Alert at Working Assets:
UN Should Lead Relief & Reconstruction in Iraq; see:
http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?itemid=14747
Iraqis can't turn off the TV to make the war go away
"The whole world is watching us die"
http://www.voice4change.org/stories/showstory.asp?file=030407~vnw.asp
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Re: If this won't bring tears and rage, what will?
Dear Frank,
I appreciate you sending me this website. At long last, I dared to view the horrific images, the terror of this war that our government won't allow us to see from its dominating embedded reporters (nor can we view much through primarily radio broadcast Democracy Now). The tears flow easily as I weep in response to the terror that my country has wrought upon these innocent people. I share in your shame, your frustration, and I grieve with every breaking heart. I do all I can to stop the war, and sometimes it seems to no avail. I will pass this important website on, as I think it is important that we all put human faces to the destruction our tax dollars invest in.
May all beings be free from suffering.
Mary
Take a look to see the price of violence and war mentality that leads religious extremists everywhere.. http://regulareverydaypeople.com
It is sickening. I am ashamed of my country; yet, it is my own taxes that finance this. I am ashamed of myself and frustrated that at least for now it seems like there is nothing that I can do to make this better. Frank
- - - - - - -
IMAGES OF WAR:
Collection of Pictures Depicting the Horror And Reality Of "Operation Iraqi Freedom"
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2604.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
US rampage through Baghdad kills thousands
By James Conachy
7 April 2003
The American military has officially claimed the 64th Armored Regiment of the US Third Infantry Division killed between 2,000 and 3,000 Iraqis during a three-hour rampage through southwestern Baghdad on April 5.
In the aftermath of the assault, the Red Cross reported the city's hospitals filling with hundreds of wounded, both military and civilian, and morgues receiving dozens of bodies.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/apr2003/bagd-a07.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Red Cross horrified by number of dead civilians -- Canadian Press
OTTAWA - Red Cross doctors who visited southern Iraq this week saw "incredible" levels of civilian casualties including a truckload of dismembered women and children, a spokesman said Thursday from Baghdad.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1049413227648_10/?hub=SpecialEvent3
2) Despite Polls, Kucinich Seeks End to War Needs Our Help!
Politics - AP
Despite Polls, Kucinich Seeks End to War
Fri Apr 4,10:11 AM ET
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - When Rep. Dennis Kucinich goes into his oft-repeated tirade against war in Iraq, he has been known to point his finger, pound his fist and even burst into patriotic song. Sometimes he causes listeners to squirm in their seats.
The Ohio Democrat, a 2004 presidential hopeful, knows he sometimes makes people uncomfortable, though he does not think it is because they disagree with his antiwar position. "I think people know what I'm saying is the truth and it's unsettling for them to hear it," he said.
Kucinich describes the war as an unprovoked display of U.S. aggression that will turn the world against the United States and put Americans in greater danger of terrorist attacks.
He says spending on the war wastes money that should be used on domestic problems, including medical care, unemployment, public works, education, the environment and the economy. He believes the war is illegal, unjust and immoral.
Polls show more than two-thirds of the U.S. public supports the war, but Kucinich sticks to his belief that his stand will carry him to the White House.
"I'm going to be president," he said. "People are going to wake up and theyare going to say we need a fundamental change. And I'm the only candidate presenting that plan for change."
Kucinich is the lone voice among the nine Democrats running for president who wants President Bush to pull the troops out of Iraq and end the war immediately. Others have criticized Bush's diplomacy or even opposed a start to the war, but none has spoken out so relentlessly now that bombs are falling.
For the complete article, see:
http://tinyurl.com/8vaf
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Kucinich Official Web Site is http://www.kucinich.us
Flyby News Resource page on Dennis Kucinich - URL -
{Including Kucinich Film Documentary in the Works!}
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1045685440,9146,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RHINOS BLOG, Mon 4/7/03 on Kucinich
RHINO HERE:
Saturday morning I caught part of a WorldLinkTV http://www.worldlinktv.com program called "Bridge To Baghdad" which used a live satellite link to bring 2 groups of teenagers together, 1 from New York City and the other from Baghdad. It had occurred shortly before the invasion and they spoke to each other on everything from from dating to Metal Rock 'n' Roll. They also discussed the impending war.
The Iraqi kids were so amazingly normal. It broke my heart to imagine the kids in New York still going about their business and the Iraqi kids in God knows what kind of hell right now. As I made my way to the 1st of 2 events featuring presidential candidate, Dennis Kucinich, I endured through waves of emotions; anger at U.S. leaders, sadness for all the civilians caught under the bombing, thoughts of revenge on those perpetrating the killing in my name, feelings of frustration about how little can be done to stop them and lastly wondering if I've been wasting my time writing these blogs and maybe I should just move out to the woods somewhere and disconnect from this crazy world.
Then I arrived at the church where the organization Americans Against The War In Iraq http://www.democrats.com/elandslide/index.cfm?campaign=iraq was holding a town meeting with Kucinich. It was packed to the rafters & Dennis, who I'd describe as a little angel with a tiger's heart, spoke eloquently and passionately & it seemed, right to me about the feelings I'd had that day. Since it's too early for his speech to be posted on his website, I'll paraphrase:
This is a time when the peace movement could become angry and discouraged. But this is not the time to give up. People who love America and understand what democracy truly means have a responsibility to speak out. This is a time for courage. War is not inevitable. Peace is inevitable.
Kucinich ran down a list of the transgressions against American democracy that the current administration has perpetrated, and with each one, he explained what he would do as President to right the wrong. He spent an hour fielding questions. On each exchange, he was diplomatic & inspired.
At this point I wholeheartedly support Dennis Kucinich for President. I also am in support of Howard Dean's candidacy. I believe the way to have a democratic win in 2004, both for President and in Congress, is to have a candidate principled enough to inspire the mass of registered voters who don't usually vote. So far, Kucinich & Dean are the only ones I believe that can inspire that sort of outcome. But they will need money. So I urge each one of my readers to send what you can to either or both of these courageous men. Learn more about Dennis Kucinich at:
http://www.kucinich.us
-=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=-
A Note From Peter Coyote
Friends,
If three people were to give $25 dollars each and each notify 3 people and get them to do the same, in a month around a billion dollars would be accumulated.
I'm writing to urge each of you to send $25.00 to the campaign of Dennis Kucinich and to commit to organize three others to do the same thing. Dennis is the most progressive candidate currently running for President. Whether or not you finally vote for him is immaterial. A small donation now will advance his campaign immeasurably, force the media to pay attention to him, and spread his positions: National Health for all, anti-Nafta and Gatt, ending the war, de-militarizing space. There is virtually no difference between his positions and the Green Party platform, but as a Democratic Congressman, he is not a symbolic candidate. He is a tried and tested politician who has stayed true to his principles.
He must have $20,000,000 in the bank by June (this is true for all candidates) to be taken seriously. We could do this for less than the cost of good bottle of wine. Send $25.00 and get three people to commit to the same. Support Democratic diversity, support a peace initiative and support a progressive agenda. Try it. It doesn't preclude you from supporting other candidates, but if you simply support who you think will "win", you can't complain when they don't represent your interests.
Go to: https://www.kucinich.us/ and hit "contribute." The internet is changing national politics. Please participate.
Thanks,
Peter Coyote
3) Michael Moore - My Oscar "Backlash"
"Stupid White Men" Back At #1, "Bowling" Breaks New Records
From Michael Moore
April 7, 2003
Dear friends,
It appears that the Bush administration will have succeeded in colonizing Iraq sometime in the next few days. This is a blunder of such magnitude -- and we will pay for it for years to come. It was not worth the life of one single American kid in uniform, let alone the thousands of Iraqis who have died, and my condolences and prayers go out to all of them.
So, where are all those weapons of mass destruction that were the pretense for this war? Ha! There is so much to say about all this, but I will save it for later.
What I am most concerned about right now is that all of you -- the majority of Americans who did not support this war in the first place -- not go silent or be intimidated by what will be touted as some great military victory. Now, more than ever, the voices of peace and truth must be heard. I have received a lot of mail from people who are feeling a profound sense of despair and believe that their voices have been drowned out by the drums and bombs of false patriotism. Some are afraid of retaliation at work or at school or in their neighborhoods because they have been vocal proponents of peace. They have been told over and over that it is not "appropriate" to protest once the country is at war, and that your only duty now is to "support the troops."
Can I share with you what it's been like for me since I used my time on the Oscar stage two weeks ago to speak out against Bush and this war? I hope that, in reading what I'm about to tell you, you'll feel a bit more emboldened to make your voice heard in whatever way or forum that is open to you.
When "Bowling for Columbine" was announced as the Oscar winner for Best Documentary at the Academy Awards, the audience rose to its feet. It was a great moment, one that I will always cherish. They were standing and cheering for a film that says we Americans are a uniquely violent people, using our massive stash of guns to kill each other and to use them against many countries around the world. They were applauding a film that shows George W. Bush using fictitious fears to frighten the public into giving him whatever he wants. And they were honoring a film that states the following: The first Gulf War was an attempt to reinstall the dictator of Kuwait; Saddam Hussein was armed with weapons from the United States; and the American government is responsible for the deaths of a half-million children in Iraq over the past decade through its sanctions and bombing. That was the movie they were cheering, that was the movie they voted for, and so I decided that is what I should acknowledge in my speech.
And, thus, I said the following from the Oscar stage:
"On behalf of our producers Kathleen Glynn and Michael Donovan (from Canada), I would like to thank the Academy for this award. I have invited the other Documentary nominees on stage with me. They are here in solidarity because we like non-fiction. We like non-fiction because we live in fictitious times. We live in a time where fictitious election results give us a fictitious president. We are now fighting a war for fictitious reasons. Whether it's the fiction of duct tape or the fictitious 'Orange Alerts,' we are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you. And, whenever you've got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, you're time is up."
Halfway through my remarks, some in the audience started to cheer. That immediately set off a group of people in the balcony who started to boo. Then those supporting my remarks started to shout down the booers. The L. A. Times reported that the director of the show started screaming at the orchestra "Music! Music!" in order to cut me off, so the band dutifully struck up a tune and my time was up. (For more on why I said what I said, you can read the op-ed I wrote for the L.A. Times, plus other reaction from around the country at my website www.michaelmoore.com)
The next day -- and in the two weeks since -- the right-wing pundits and radio shock jocks have been calling for my head. So, has all this ruckus hurt me? Have they succeeded in "silencing" me?
Well, take a look at my Oscar "backlash":
-- On the day after I criticized Bush and the war at the Academy Awards, attendance at "Bowling for Columbine" in theaters around the country went up 110% (source: Daily Variety/BoxOfficeMojo.com). The following weekend, the box office gross was up a whopping 73% (Variety). It is now the longest-running consecutive commercial release in America, 26 weeks in a row and still thriving. The number of theaters showing the film since the Oscars has INCREASED, and it has now bested the previous box office record for a documentary by nearly 300%.
-- Yesterday (April 6), "Stupid White Men" shot back to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. This is my book's 50th week on the list, 8 of them at number one, and this marks its fourth return to the top position, something that virtually never happens.
-- In the week after the Oscars, my website was getting 10-20 million hits A DAY (one day we even got more hits than the White House!). The mail has been overwhelmingly positive and supportive (and the hate mail has been hilarious!).
-- In the two days following the Oscars, more people pre-ordered the video for "Bowling for Columbine" on Amazon.com than the video for the Oscar winner for Best Picture, "Chicago".
-- In the past week, I have obtained funding for my next documentary, and I have been offered a slot back on television to do an updated version of "TV Nation"/ "The Awful Truth."
I tell you all of this because I want to counteract a message that is told to us all the time -- that, if you take a chance to speak out politically, you will live to regret it. It will hurt you in some way, usually financially. You could lose your job. Others may not hire you. You will lose friends. And on and on and on.
Take the Dixie Chicks. I'm sure you've all heard by now that, because their lead singer mentioned how she was ashamed that Bush was from her home state of Texas, their record sales have "plummeted" and country stations are boycotting their music. The truth is that their sales are NOT down. This week, after all the attacks, their album is still at #1 on the Billboard country charts and, according to Entertainment Weekly, on the pop charts during all the brouhaha, they ROSE from #6 to #4. In the New York Times, Frank Rich reports that he tried to find a ticket to ANY of the Dixie Chicks' upcoming concerts but he couldn't because they were all sold out. (To read Rich's column from yesterday's Times, "Bowling for Kennebunkport," go here: http://www.michaelmoore.com/articles/index.php?article=20030406-nytimes. He does a pretty good job of laying it all out and talks about my next film and the impact it could potentially have.) Their song, "Travelin' Soldier" (a beautiful anti-war ballad) was the most requested song on the internet last week. They have not been hurt at all -- but that is not what the media would have you believe. Why is that? Because there is nothing more important now than to keep the voices of dissent -- and those who would dare to ask a question -- SILENT. And what better way than to try and take a few well-known entertainers down with a pack of lies so that the average Joe or Jane gets the message loud and clear: "Wow, if they would do that to the Dixie Chicks or Michael Moore, what would they do to little ol' me?" In other words, shut the f--- up.
And that, my friends, is the real point of this film that I just got an Oscar for -- how those in charge use FEAR to manipulate the public into doing whatever they are told.
Well, the good news -- if there can be any good news this week -- is that not only have neither I nor others been silenced, we have been joined by millions of Americans who think the same way we do. Don't let the false patriots intimidate you by setting the agenda or the terms of the debate. Don't be defeated by polls that show 70% of the public in favor of the war. Remember that these Americans being polled are the same Americans whose kids (or neighbor's kids) have been sent over to Iraq. They are scared for the troops and they are being cowed into supporting a war they did not want -- and they want even less to see their friends, family, and neighbors come home dead. Everyone supports the troops returning home alive and all of us need to reach out and let their families know that.
Unfortunately, Bush and Co. are not through yet. This invasion and conquest will encourage them to do it again elsewhere. The real purpose of this war was to say to the rest of the world, "Don't Mess with Texas - If You Got What We Want, We're Coming to Get It!" This is not the time for the majority of us who believe in a peaceful America to be quiet. Make your voices heard. Despite what they have pulled off, it is still our country.
Yours,
Michael Moore
http://www.michaelmoore.com
4) "All Things Considered" -- Looking through the looking glass
"We are going to ignore the United Nations in order to make clear to Saddam Hussein that the United Nations cannot be ignored."
Read by the author/commentator [Peter Freundlich] on the March 13, 2003 edition of All Things Considered on U.S. National Public Radio
All right. Let me see if I understand the logic of this correctly: We are going to ignore the United Nations in order to make clear to Saddam Hussein that the United Nations cannot be ignored.
We're going to wage war to preserve the UN's ability to avert war.
The paramount principle is that the UN's word must be taken seriously--and if we have to subvert its word to guarantee that it is, then by God, we will. Peace is too important not to take up arms to defend.
Am I getting this right?
Further: if the only way to bring democracy to Iraq is to vitiate the democracy of the Security Council, then we are honor-bound to do that, too, because democracy, as WE define it, is too important to be stopped by a little thing like democracy as THEY define it.
Also, in dealing with a man who brooks no dissension at home, we cannot afford dissension among ourselves. We must speak with one voice against Saddam Hussein's failure to allow opposing voices to be heard.
We are sending our gathered might to the Persian Gulf to make the point that "might does not make right," as Saddam Hussein seems to think it does. And we are twisting the arms of the opposition until it agrees to let us oust a regime that twists the arms of the opposition.
We cannot leave in power a dictator who ignores his own people. And if our people--and people elsewhere in the world--fail to understand that, then we have no choice but to ignore them.
Listen. Don't misunderstand. I think it is a good thing that the members of the Bush administration seem to have been reading Lewis Carroll. I only wish someone had pointed out that "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass" are meditations on paradox and puzzle and illogic and on the strangeness of things--not templates for foreign policy.
It is amusing for The Mad Hatter to say something like "We must make war on him because he is a threat to peace," but not amusing for someone who actually commands an army to say that. As a collector of laughable arguments, I'd be enjoying all this were it not for the fact that I know--we all know--that lives are going to be lost in what amounts to a freak, circular-reasoning accident.
-----------------------------------------------------
Peter Freundlich is free-lance journalist in New York.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For another article,
"I Should Not Be Allowed To Say The Following Things About America" by Ellen Dunst, see: http://www.theonion.com/onion3912/i_should_not_be.html
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
War is Wrong * MarchDC * Malik&Freedom * 911 PlaneVision
April 4, 2003
"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power.
We have guided missiles and misguided men."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
1) This war is wrong
- - "Cluster bombs liberate Iraqi children"
- - Letter to UN General Assembly President
2) March on Washington -- April 12 -- Global Actions for Peace
3) Malik Abdullah Akili and Case Breaking for Freedom?
4) 9-11 Video Footage - Was it Flight 11?
Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated 35 years ago - April 4, 1968
For a Flyby News archive article - April 4, 2002 - see item 2:
"Martin Luther King Assassination-Conspiracy Confirmed"
= = = = = = = = =
FREE AT LAST
Can a seed wither into the dust of despair
and if truth than be neglected, then tell me, why?
Can a man speaking out with a righteousness really die,
was not Martin Luther King Jr. wise?
My life is inspired by a few and to these I congratulate and continue
to breathe the air and receive its gifts, nourishing the cells with a spiritual lift.
but when confusion enters into the night
we must go to the center of love not fright,
for in ideals of freedom we will last forever, in realms of wisdom,
loving one another.
Life is thus, a series of attitudes bringing peace war or feuds,
but by keeping the dignity of what is right,
we cannot be discouraged by a brother's soulful flight.
Editor's Notes:
Martin Luther King, Jr. is still with us. He is another good reason for seeing Frank Dorrel's film, "What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World." The first segment of the film is from film clips of some of Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous speeches, including his speaking out against the Viet Nam war, which many consider as the final motivation for those who assassinated him. "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." See flybynews.com for more information this film and other actions.
Item one in this issue is regarding the crimes against humanity in Iraq. It includes a sample letter in writing the UN General Assembly President for a special session of the General Assembly to consider a resolution censuring the US for clearly violating the UN Charter.' Item 2 is about next weekend's world peace rallies, and march on Washington, D.C. Item 3 is some updates on Malik Abdullah Akili's case, and some kind words of appreciation for Flyby News. Item 4 is on 9-11 evidences regarding a conspiracy. Any feedback on the review of the plane footage would be appreciated. Also, any interest in a Flyby contact claiming key information on the war on freedom, reply to info@flybynews.com
1) This war is wrong
- - "Cluster bombs liberate Iraqi children"
- - Letter to UN General Assembly President
Inter-Nation
April 3, 2003
This war is wrong
by Pilar
As a mother, as a teacher, as a Muslim-American, I appeal to all Americans to rethink what our country is doing in Iraq.
Governments and people from around the world are opposed to this war! The war is not about nuclear and biological weapons, or about Saddam Hussein. It is about controlling the oil world market. The Bush administration represents the "special interests" of oil, energy and the military industrial complex and is leading the country into a war from which only they will profit.
The despicable part of the scenario is the Bush administration's willingness to sacrifice the blood of our sons and daughters, mostly poor and middle class for their greedy pursuits. Would they be so quick on the trigger if their sons and daughters were on the front lines?
Bush's pre-emptive attacks against Iraq are irresponsible and violate international law. They destabilize world order, the rule of law, and lead us into World War III or Armageddon. Even if the outcome goes according to Bush's own agenda, does this make it right? The only legitimate use of force is in self-defense. What kind of role models are our leaders to the rest of the world and to our own children? Do we let bullies run our schools, or do we teach our children to solve conflict through mediation?
This war against Iraq will hurt our national interests. Our own intelligence agencies have admitted that the prospects for increased terrorism against Americans at home and U.S. interests abroad are increasing with an attack against Iraq.
Unfortunately, Americans were too busy 'supporting the president' to see that the war in Iraq is a hijacking of our democracy by the Bush "oligarchy." Not only have we lost countless civil liberties since the USA Patriot Act, but Congress has handed over to President Bush its constitutional power to declare war without the people's consent.
The citizens were not sophisticated enough to understand the truth, or care.
And now it's too late to stop it...
http://www.inter-nation.org/InterNation-feature-This_War_is_Wrong.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a related article:
"Cluster bombs liberate Iraqi children"
by Pepe Escobar
Asia Times - April 4, 2003 - See:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ED04Ak07.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Letter to UN General Assembly President
[Please consider using Eric Walberg's letter as a sampler for your letter to the UN General Assembly President, and others. This war is an International Issue. The UN must respond for the best interests of peace and to extinguish terrorism in all its forms. Thank you for all of us, Eric.
Letter to UN General Assembly President
Dear Jan Kavan,
I urge you to call a special session of the General Assembly to consider a resolution censuring the US for clearly violating the UN Charter.
America has launched what the whole world sees clearly as an unprovoked attack on a weak Iraq which is not posing a threat to any other country. For the US, to invade a sovereign country on the assumption that it will threaten it some time in the future is illegal under international law. There is no place for a pre-emptive war in the UN Charter. As long as the US is a member of the UN, it must abide by such a bedrock of the Charter.
I thus call on you to immediately pass a resolution censuring the US for violating international law and demanding its immediate withdrawal from Iraq. If the UN does nothing, indeed in the words of President Bush in his recent address to the nation "the United Nations Security Council has not lived up to its responsibilities."
Yours truly,
Eric Walberg
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2003 17:25:37 +0500
From: "Eric Walberg" < eric@albatros.uz >
To: < presidentga57@un.org >
Subject: attention: Jan Kavan
For the Secretary General, UN Delegates' addresses, and information, see:
"Uniting for Peace to Resolve the Iraq Crisis"
2) March on Washington -- April 12 -- Global Actions for Peace
International A.N.S.W.E.R.
On Saturday, April 12, join the tens of thousands of people of conscience who will surround the White House. The whole world is watching to see if the people of the United States can intensify the power of the anti-war movement at the moment that the Bush Administration is intending to slaughter tens of thousands of Iraqi people and occupy their country. We urge every anti-war organizer and concerned person to bring your friends, neighbors and family members to this all-important mobilization on April 12.
The world is in a state of Shock and Revulsion as the murderous Bush Administration follows through on its promise to "Shock and Awe" the Iraqi people by dropping thousands of bombs and missiles on their capital, a city that is home to 4.5 million human beings. Baghdad has been bombed relentlessly, terrorizing the occupants of that city and of the entire country. U.S. "precision" bombs have slammed into poor residential neighborhoods in Baghdad and a busy shopping street. U.S. and British troops are leaving a "trail of death" in their wake as they invade and bomb Iraq and reporters describe charred corpses littering the roads to Baghdad as well as in its streets.
The Iraqi people and the U.S. GIs who have been killed and wounded and are suffering are the casualties of George W. Bush's unprovoked war of aggression. We extend our heartfelt sympathies to the families of all those who have been killed and wounded as a consequence of this illegal imperialist war.
This horrific unprovoked attack on Iraq must be understood as one of the extreme terrorist acts of modern times. Cruise missiles launched from submarines and aircraft hundreds of miles away and 2,000 lb. bombs dropped from 30,000 ft. up are the latest example of the Bush administration's criminal resort to limitless violence and terrorism in order to achieve its objectives of conquest and occupation. The hypocrisy of the war against Iraq is extreme: the most powerful military in the world waging first strike war with the most advanced weapons against an impoverished country on the pretext that it someday may possess such weapons.
The world has entered a new phase. The Bush Administration is hell bent on world domination. The war on Iraq was meant to signal that the U.S. use of raw military power will be the means to create a new era of Empire. We understand that the war on Iraq is only one of the fronts on which the United States government is determined to build a world empire. The U.S. is also waging war in Colombia, training future death squads at the dreaded School of the Americas/WHISC, and waging economic war through the IMF, World Bank, and free trade treaties such as the Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement.
To the shock of the war makers, their plans have ignited a world movement of opposition and solidarity. In addition to the well publicized demonstrations in Europe and the Middle East, nearly every country in Latin America has participated in massive street demonstrations and the continent has nearly unanimously rejected Bush's "Coalition of the Willing." For months this movement has delayed and restrained the war plans for Iraq. Bush and Co. have lost all legitimacy and they are isolated. The people's movement has deprived them of the any threadbare claim to legality.
April 12 comes in the midst of the long-planned "Mobilization Against Military and Economic Intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean" organized by the Latin America Solidarity Coalition (LASC). This coalition, which includes some members of the A.N.S.W.E.R Steering Committee, has called for a series of actions from April 10- 15. In addition to converging in Washington on Saturday April 12 for the mass march on the White House to Stop the War on Iraq, A.N.S.W.E.R. encourages you to travel to DC in time for the public opening plenary of the LASC conference on Friday evening, April 11, and to stay for a demonstration on Sunday, April 13 focusing on Latin America Solidarity which will march to several corporate and financial institutions before arriving at the World Bank. Visit the LASC web page at http://www.lasolidarity.org for full details.
Today our hearts are filled with both anger at the war and sadness for the suffering people of Iraq who are enduring this unprovoked terrorist attack, and for the grieving families of the sons and daughters of America who Bush has sent to kill and be killed for his war of aggression and conquest. But sadness and grief should be coupled with a profound understanding that the sudden emergence of a new global movement offers the best and only hope that the U.S. government's plans for militarism, war and domination -- the doctrine of endless war -- can and will be overcome. In the days ahead we must intensify the struggle against this cruel war.
From: A.N.S.W.E.R.: Nat'l Orgs Endorse April 12 & other updates
Date: Thu, 03 Apr 2003 22:16:10 -0500
USLAW (United States Labor Against the War), Not in Our Name, Black Voices for Peace, the National Lawyers Guild, and Voices in the Wilderness are all endorsing and encouraging their members to mobilize for the April 12 National March on Washington DC to Surround the White
House.
Members and supporters of Voices in the Wilderness, a number of whom are at the front lines standing in solidarity with the people of Iraq, issued the following statement of support: "Voices in the Wilderness fully endorses A.N.S.W.E.R.'s call to action for a march on Washington on April 12. While war rages in Iraq, we join millions of others in the spirit of nonviolent resistance
and global citizenship. We will raise our voices for all forgotten people of Iraq and the world."
VIDEO FOR APRIL 12 NOW AVAILABLE
A downloadable video for the April 12 march is now available at
http://www.iqueb.de/video/A12promo.rm
This link is for a 60-second video. It is a Real Media document, which will automatically download when you open the link (the URL), assuming you have RealPlayer. It was produced by filmmaker Alan Roth of Asymmetric Pictures, who is an media activist with the A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition.
We encourage all anti-war activists and organizations to place links to this video on their web pages, and to circulate the link to others.
APRIL 12 WILL TRULY BE A GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION.
Demonstrations are now planned in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Ecuador, England, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, United States and Venezuela.
For more information, see:
http://www.internationalanswer.org/campaigns/a12/index.html
3) Malik Abdullah Akili and Case Breaking for Freedom?
The following are from the hand-written letters of Malik Abdullah Akili to Jonathan Mark.
[27 February 2003]
...It's important for you to know that all of the energy and raw spirit that goes into Flyby News is deeply appreciated. For me Flyby News is a great source of inspiration and hope... When I read the wonderful stories concerning the common struggles and triumphs that both men and women have gone through in their lives fighting back against a system that is trying to crush them. Flyby News gives its readers another way or opportunity to view things in a political way. It gives us another way to motivate us to make conscious decisions, and to want to do something to change these repressive conditions.
I am saying that all of us have to do something about the rampage of injustice and brutality!!!
I write this missive as an Afrikan prisoner of social consciousness - having been born into a society whose family members were direct victims of Slavery.. My Grandmom gave me my first lessons in history, as she was the matriarch of the family. Accordingly, she told me many important stories and explained their value for keeping me alive.. Stories about life on the Slave ships, in the kamps, in the Slave quarters, fields, prisons, on the road, on the run, underground, under siege, in the throes and on verge. My Grandmom told me how it was; and how it be. She passed along her great wisdom...
...And I have absolutely no doubt that those stories helped me to survive. She told me about what she called the "Afrikan Holocaust" and explained its long term affects upon Afrikan Peoples. So, whenever I read stories or articles about someone being a child of the Jewish Holocaust, I find myself being touched by it... I see much importance in the richness of well written articles, because it not only helps to better educate people so that they are able to comprehend the realities of what took place with the Jewish concentration kamps, but also the mass murders of 35 million in the Afrikan Holocaust.. If people can have facts, then they can see the truth more clearly.... This is what Flyby News offers it gives us the facts to read, and for us to come away with what we gained from them..
In the spirit of understanding and sensitivity, I shall remain,
yours in struggle,
Malik Abdullah Akili
Prisoner # 94-A-5238
[16 March 2003]
..When I view or reflect the whole of the political air here in Amerikkka, I can understand from that point of view that most people here are existing under the same conditions as those of us behind the walls of prison... Conditions all around have become quite repressive and people are looking for some easy way out..
.. I want to go on record to state that we should not just sit back and accept injustice on any level. When you see it, you should confront it, speak out against it, or know in your heart that it is wrong... We are as we believe. If you believe in fairness, (when your belief is strong and righteous), you become what your believe not just what you say you believe. It show in your actions.. When you stop listening to what people say, and look at what they do, then you will see where people are coming from....We need to politically understand that in the absence of unity we have a problem.. When people come together, we can truly get things done. Unity is what this system fears.
..You know that contact with the outside is extremely important, so I thank you for living up to your part of our friendship.. in these times after 9/11 many people live in fear, so much that it has turned families, loved ones, and friends against each other. Most have abandoned prisoners. This saddens me because absolutely no prisoner should be left standing all alone, broke, growing old with broken promises.. These old gray walls behind the prison gates have become witness to some of the cruelest aspects of broken men, souls, on this face of earth. No prisoner should be left all alone to die, to just become a hump in the ground, as if he never existed in the first place..
[26 February 2003]
..Some new evidence has surfaced through the efforts of the investigators on my case that will prove what I have been saying from the on-set...This evidence will also show that the police knew that I was innocent all along, but they moved on me because they belonged to this "special force of police" which was more interested in my past membership in the Black Panther Party than in the truth. It will also show the collusion by the DA's office with the police when they prosecuted me for the crime I did not do.. In fact, to put it simply, I am in prison solely because I refused to compromise myself and/or deny the very foundations of principles. Both my family and I have paid a terrible price for my steadfastness and position.. I have never wavered from that position and I remain committed to sustaining it as a unified body with my heart and consciousness..
[January 29, 2003]
Been working on court case. There appears to be this new drive to get me home. My Attorney seems to think I should be coming home soon. He feels that he will get me back to Court for a new Hearing in front of the same Judge who sentenced me... This Judge seems to have developed much respect for me and the principles I stand for. Of late, my spirit has been extremely light. However, because I've come to know the mind set of Judges and the thing which they represent, I am not putting my hopes too high. You would always like to think of them as human beings who have a heart and consciousness - that they play fair and they balance justice with a fair hand..
# # # #
For more on Malik, (also linked from flybynews.com), see:
My Friend in Jail - Malik Abdullah Akili
4) 9-11 Video Footage - Was it Flight 11?
The Incredible 9-11 Evidence We've All been Overlooking by Leonard Spencer
The plane that hit the North Tower was not American Airlines Flight 11. It was not a Boeing 767. It was a custom-built military plane carrying three missiles that created the impression of a plane crash without leaving any wreckage. In order for it precisely to strike the correct part of the tower (in line with the bomb already planted in the east wall) it must have been flown remotely using cruise navigation. I believe a similar plane was used to strike the Pentagon.
Complete article and photographs here:
http://www.serendipity.li/wot/aa11.htm
Free Independent News
FlybyNews.com
For Life's Survival in the 21st Century
Flyby News bumper stickers with above text are available for the
mainstream education drive
This way while driving you can point others to Flyby News' resources. If you wish, $5 for a bumper sticker will cover most costs, (or 3 stickers for $10), but I hope we can get some subsidized for anyone wanting to place them on their car's bumper or other public placement. The artwork and colors are beautiful by Liz Nicholas. If you want one, please write to info@flybynews.com and provide your snail mail address, and specify if you want the blue-green swirling background, or red-orange sunset horizon.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Death of America * DU * Objector * Nuke Forgery * Order?
April 3, 2003
1) The Death of America'
2) Kucinich: Stop the War Now - before Siege on Baghdad
3) UN urged to hold a General Assembly meeting on Iraq
4) The Un-American Media
- - The Hindu -- Arundhati Roy, Jemima Khan flay Bush, Blair
- - US Forces' Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons is Illegal'
5) Fighting not to fight - American conscientious objector
6) Why administration endorsed a forgery about Iraq's nuclear program?
7) "The New World Order Exposed" by Victor Thorn
Editor's Notes:
The first item, "The Death of America" by W. David Jenkins III, hits home. Yet Dennis Kucinich, as shown in his statement on the US House of Representatives' floor, continues to be a voice for a rebirth of US democracy. Item 3 is the latest opportunity for the UN to become a peace-keeping organization, and how you can help influence their actions. Item 4 is on the world vs US-controlled media. This item also includes links and statements by Arundhati Roy, reported in The Guardian to have said, ``regardless of what the propaganda machine tells us, these tin-pot dictators (like the Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein) are not the greatest threat to the world. The real and pressing danger, the greatest threat of all is the locomotive force that drives the political and economic engine of the American government, currently piloted by George Bush." Another section in this item is about the illegal use of Depleted Uranium by the US and UK as a weapon of mass destruction that will harm people for years to come, including US soldiers. Item 5 is an article on the first American conscientious objector from the war on Iraq. Item 6 is a follow-up on Michael Ruppert's Perfect Storm (part 2) report, and an article in the New Yorker exploring the issues around why the Bush administration endorsed a forgery about Iraq's nuclear program. And item 7 is a link on a new book by Victor Thorn called: "The New World Order Exposed."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"Only when the US refrains from taking the road of pursuing global empire
can it avoid terrorists' bombs or other forms of attacks."
China's People's Daily
1) The Death of America'
The Death of America
By: W. David Jenkins III - 04/01/03
[Excerpt]
America died the other day. It walked right into hellfire - willingly if you believe the polls - and committed suicide on a Friday afternoon in March.
All that this once proud country stood for has been tossed aside in exchange for a cheap political move paid for with the blood of innocent civilians and the blood of our own brave daughters and
sons. Paid for with all the virtues and sacred foundations laid down by our founding fathers.
The America we once knew is now dead.
I've spent a lot of time pacing back and forth both looking at the TV and looking away from the TV. I've tried so hard for the last week to try to write down what I'm feeling. It's been so easy to beat up on Bush because he's such an easy target. But how does one articulate the death of your country and the hands of such recklessness?
The view outside my window looks somehow -different.
The other morning I watched my 4-year-old son ride his new bike up and down the sidewalk. I felt a pang of jealousy as I listened to his laughter. I envied the innocence of a child who knew nothing of the horror being broadcast on my television that very minute. I felt a deep sense of loss, for the America that he will grow up in will not be as kind as the America where I grew up.
I talked to my teenaged daughter later the same day. She was excited about a writers' forum she had joined and was letting me know what a great time she was having. We also talked about the invasion and how she felt it strange that America would do something so violent against the wishes of the rest of the world. She said that it just felt so wrong. "It makes me so angry" she said, "and I don't even understand it all."
I thought about the parents of those brave children sent to Iraq by Bush and how they must worry about the lives of their brave soldiers. I thought about the parents of the scared children of Iraq and how they must worry about their future and the lives of these innocent little ones among the fury of this invasion. And I thought about the many parents like myself, who worry about the well-being of our own children due to the recklessness of these short-sighted, sanctimonious politicians.
The America I once knew seems like a distant memory.
I am amazed at the ignorance of the supporters of this invasion of a country that posed no immediate threat to us. Has it dawned on anybody that this is an invasion waged by businessmen? Not soldiers or generals or anybody who has any military experience - as they are the ones who advised against this invasion - but men who are conducting a bloody corporate take-over against a brutal, yet still sovereign nation. And the leader of these "wanna be warriors" is a failed businessman!
Would someone explain to me just how this makes America "safe?"
As I write this, C-Span is hosting The Washington Journal, its daily morning call-in show. One of the things I keep noticing is that most of the people who call in supporting the invasion keep citing what happened on 9/11 as their base of rationale.
"I cant believe that those protesters forgot about the World Trade Center!"
"This war is to make sure we don't have another 9/11."
"9/11 proved that Saddam is a threat."
And on and on and on. There are people who have bought the "9/11 rationale" as a talking point in order to justify America becoming a rogue nation. This does a great disservice to the lives lost on that tragic day.
Unfortunately, the Bush administration has been only too happy to perpetuate this falsehood as long as it serves their purpose. They celebrate the ease at which those with a Fox News mentality are so easily manipulated - even at the expense of the memory of the innocent victims of 9/11. There is no depth of depravity that Bush Inc. is not willing to sink to as long as the means justify their ends. They are grave-spitters.
And those who use the tragedy of 9/11 as the excuse for supporting Bush and his war are grave-spitters.
They are nothing more than victims of knee-jerk patriotism who either refuse to see - or are incapable of seeing - just how complicated and reckless Bush's war policy truly is.
And what's worse is that they don't care that they don't know. As weak as Bush's reasons are to go to war with - I mean invade - Iraq, think of how much weaker they would be without his prostituting 9/11? And with a lack of understanding by the general public as to the events leading up to 9/11 and a lack of any in-depth independent investigation into the day that changed America, it's no wonder that so many people are under the misconception that Iraq had something to do with it all. With the spineless American media's refusal to "connect the dots" of 9/11, as massive as they are, it's no wonder more people don't realize that if it weren't for the obvious negligence (at best) of Bush Inc. on that horrible day in September there would most likely still be two twin towers in lower Manhattan.
The despicable use of the horror that was September 11, 2001, as a means to somehow "justify" America becoming an aggressor nation has not gone unnoticed by many of the surviving families of those victims. They are out there marching with the rest of us in protest of the memories of their loved ones being used to destroy America and all that it once meant. The proud city, so devastated by the events of that tragic day, continues to protest in great numbers against Bush Inc.'s nose-thumbing at America's once great principles. So have many other cities - globally. Yet the three great American monkeys - See No Protest - Hear No Protest - Speak No Protest - continue on in spite of world opinion.
"Who cares what the world thinks? Nuke them too!"
I actually saw this statement and others like it on a bulletin board. I've heard people say it. I'm sure you have too. It's because of this mentality that many cannot distinguish "anti-war" from "pro-Saddam." This low level of reasoning skill cannot perceive the un-repairable damage being done to this country by Bush's invasion. Their "logic" tells them to hate France or to hate the protesters. Their level of "reasoning skills" tells them that nuking our enemies, real or perceived, would actually be an okay thing to do. Patriotic even. It's because of this type of thinking, this complete lack of knowledge, that Bush has been able, so far, to get away with hurting America. Government and media induced "patri-idiotism" has replaced George Washington's America with George W. Bush's America..
America is now a rogue state.
We are no longer a country which commands respect and admiration but a country to be looked upon with suspicion and loathing. The world community which we are a part of - despite what Bush says - now looks upon us in a different way. Bush is lowering us to the same level of contempt as those he wages "war" on in the world's eyes. Yet there are those who demand that we all "get behind this president." I couldn't disagree more.
Now is the time for all - including the wet noodles posing as Democrats in Congress - who want this country back, to get in front of this president! Stop bringing up the rear and whining about the promises Bush never meant to keep in the first place. Get in front of these rogues - not behind them and their lies.
His claim of invading Iraq to keep America safe is a lie. His "proof" for going to war is a lie. His claim two years ago that he was a "uniter not a divider" is a lie. His presidency is a lie. His claim that the U.N. is "irrelevant" is a lie. His claim of future victory is a lie. His claim of doing what's best for America is a lie. The coupling of 9/11 with an illegal invasion of Iraq is a lie.
Those who believe Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Perle want what's best for America are living and breathing a lie.
But the America that so many died for, that so many loved and respected worldwide, that you and I had hoped our children would grow up in is now dead - due to the bloodlust of the warrior
businessmen of Bush Inc.
And that's no lie.
The complete article is posted:
http://www.liberalslant.com/wdj040103.htm
W. David Jenkins III is a contributing writer for Liberal Slant. His articles have also been published at: www.AmericaHeldHostile.com , Democrats.com, Democratic Underground and Bush Watch.
E-mail David at: WDavidJenkinsIII@aol.com
David's web site: http://wdjiii.tripod.com/wdjiii3/id1.html
2) Kucinich: Stop the War Now - before Siege on Baghdad
Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH), who leads opposition to the War in Iraq within the House, issued the following statement on the House floor:
"Stop the war now. As Baghdad will be encircled, this is the time to get the UN back in to inspect Baghdad and the rest of Iraq for biological and chemical weapons. Our troops should not have to be the ones who will find out, in combat, whether Iraq has such weapons. Why put our troops at greater risk? We could get the United Nations inspectors back in.
"Stop the war now. Before we send our troops into house-to-house combat in Baghdad, a city of five million people. Before we ask our troops to take up the burden of shooting innocent civilians in the fog of war.
"Stop the war now. This war has been advanced on lie upon lie. Iraq was not responsible for 9/11. Iraq was not responsible for any role al-Qaeda may have had in 9/11. Iraq was not responsible for the anthrax attacks on this country. Iraq did not tried to acquire nuclear weapons technology from Niger. This war is built on falsehood.
"Stop the war now. We are not defending America in Iraq. Iraq did not attack this nation. Iraq has no ability to attack this nation. Each innocent civilian casualty represents a threat to America for years to come and will end up making our nation less safe. The seventy-five billion dollar supplemental needs to be challenged because each dime we spend on this war makes America less safe. Only international cooperation will help us meet the challenge of terrorism. After 9/11 all Americans remember we had the support and the sympathy of the world. Every nation was ready to be of assistance to the United States in meeting the challenge of terrorism. And yet, with this war, we have squandered the sympathy of the world. We have brought upon this nation the anger of the world. We need the cooperation of the world, to find the terrorists before they come to our shores.
"Stop this war now. Seventy-five billion dollars more for war. Three-quarters of a trillion dollars for tax cuts, but no money for veterans ' benefits. Money for war. No money for health care in America, but money for war. No money for social security, but money for war. We have money to blow up bridges over the Tigris and the Euphrates, but no money to build bridges in our own cities. We have money to ruin the health of the Iraqi children, but no money to repair the health of our own children and our educational programs.
"Stop this war now. It is wrong. It is illegal. It is unjust and it will come to no good for this country.
"Stop this war now. Show our wisdom and our humanity, to be able to stop it, to bring back the United Nations into the process. Rescue this moment. Rescue this nation from a war that is wrong, that is unjust, that is immoral.
"Stop this war now."
-- Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich
Dear Friend, I made the following speech on the floor of the house today. With your support I will continue to lead the way to peace, both in congress and in the presidential campaign. I need your active involvement in my campaign as a volunteer, a contributor or both. Please visit our website - http://www.kucinich.us - to help empower this message. Pass this message along to your friends.
3) UN urged to hold a General Assembly meeting on Iraq
Iraq-Regional, Politics, 3/31/2003
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/030331/2003033142.html
The whole world was vociferous in opposition to war, but no action was taken to stop it, despite attempts by some nations to obtain a resolution from the UN General Assembly on the illegality of the US-led attack against Iraq.
Meanwhile, the US is doing its utmost to block a General Assembly meeting.
What would the issuance of a UN resolution against the war mean? What might be the consequences of such a move by the UN?
The Arabic weekly magazine October tried to find answers to these questions by putting them to several experts in international law.
Professor of international law at Cairo University, Dr Ayesha Rateb thinks that a majority in the UN General Assembly could press for a meeting since the Security Council failed to settle the Iraq issue.
A resolution could be issued by the majority without fear of a member or members using the veto, Dr Rateb said, adding that during the Tripartite Aggression (Suez Crisis) in 1956, Yugoslavia asked that the issue be referred to the UN General Assembly according to the 1950 Resolution on Unity for Peace and Security, giving the assembly responsibilities of the UN Security Council.
Accordingly, the General Assembly assumed the responsibility of the then UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold to create a peace-keeping force for the first time to bring an end to the war.
Dr Rateb said that if the Arab countries or any other side succeeds in calling a meeting of the UN General Assembly and act according to the 1950 resolution, there would be the distinct possibility that the American-British aggression in Iraq could be halted.
"In the case of 1956, the UN formed a peace-keeping force and forced the withdrawal of the aggressors," the professor said.
"The recommendation was supported by the US and Russia, despite the fact that two of the aggressor states were permanent members of the UN Security Council and could use the veto.
The recommendation was therefore made by the General Assembly," Dr. Rateb added.
Dr Rateb affirmed that a state like France or Russia with nine other members of the Security Council could vote for handing the issue over to the UN General Assembly to obtain a cease-fire resolution and the withdrawal of forces, thus making a valuable step towards ending the crisis.
In Dr Rateb's opinion, the difference between the UN of 1956 and today lies in the absence of a personality like Hammarskjold, who took the side of Third World Countries, while the present Secretary-General Kofi Annan made the mistake of agreeing to recall international weapons inspectors from Iraq, a few days before the war started.
UN resolutions would have moral value only, unless the UN Secretary-General orders the dispatch of peace-keeping forces, Dr Rateb said.
"However, any resolution would come as condemnation of the US-British assault and reveal the truth of claims by Bush and Blair about 45 nations belonging to the international coalition.
Dean of the Faculty of Law at Zagazig University, Nabil Ahmed Helmi said that the US has violated international law by attacking Iraq.
"Firstly, the US is using military force against a sovereign state, thereby threatening global peace and security.
"Secondly, the American-British attack with the aim of toppling a regime is a violation of one of the basic principles of international law, which prohibits one state from interfering in the internal affairs of another," Helmi said.
"Therefore, Iraq is entitled to seek recourse to the UN Security Council for its intervention and issuing a resolution to keep international peace and security.
"Since such a resolution could be vetoed by the US, the UN General Assembly could take on the responsibility of the Security Council and produce a resolution to suspend military operations and compensate Iraq for damage so far," Helmi said.
"Iraq could also use the International Criminal Court agreement and enjoy protection of the international community. In which case, it could sue the US and Britain, whose leaders would be put on trial, which is one of their biggest fears," he explained.
Professor of International Law at Cairo University, Dr Salah Amer believes that the Security Council or the UN General Assembly would meet soon in response to calls from the Arab League to debate the Iraqi crisis.
"Since the Security Council failed to make a resolution against military action against Iraq, nine members of the council could refer the issue to the General Assembly for resolutions, demanding an immediate cease-fire and withdrawal of foreign forces," Dr Amer said.
Could this crisis have emerged from negligence of international law? Or has the UN been made
all the weaker for not having resolved the crisis.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/030331/2003033142.html
CONTACT DETAILS :
UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY GENERAL
------------ Kofi Annan ------------
Secretary-General United Nations,
New York, NY 10017
Tel: (212) 963-4475, Fax: 212-963-7055
E-mail: inquiries@un.org
CONTACT GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT
------------ Jan Kavan ------------
Office of the President of the General Assembly
United Nations, New York, NY 10017
Tel: (212) 963 2209, Fax: (212) 963 3133
web: www.un.org/ga/president
e-mail: presidentga57@un.org
---------------
For email addresses for U.N. MISSIONS and other information on
Uniting for Peace to Resolve the Iraq Crisis, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1045091648,41257,
4) The Un-American Media
- - The Hindu -- Arundhati Roy, Jemima Khan flay Bush, Blair
- - US Forces' Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons is Illegal'
The Un-American Media
By Ana Marie Cox | 3.28.03
IN THESE TIMES
There was a time you could safely assume that anyone calling skeptical coverage of the war in Iraq "un-American" was probably also speed-dialing Rush Limbaugh. Now it seems that calling skeptical coverage of the war "un- American" is probably correct, if only in the most literal sense. With the American press largely distracted or enraptured with the spectacle of combat, the duty of examining the motives behind the war has fallen to the world's other media outlets.
The audience for these un-American stories is becoming more and more American. In the past month, foreign news Web sites have seen large volumes of traffic from computers in the United States. Wired reported that almost half of the visitors to the Guardian Web site were Americans. Americans have also been flocking to Arab news sources, particularly the Qatar-based news channel Al-Jazeera. The channel reaches 150,000 households in the United States via satellite, but a newly launched English-language Web site reaches anyone with a modem. During the first week of the war, "Al Jazeera" rounded out the top three terms searched for on Google.com (along with "CNN" and "Iraq.").
This trend has been building steadily since the New Year, but the war has brought it to new heights. A media metric called "Blogdex," developed by MIT's Media Lab ranks Web sites by the number of independent-and mostly American-web diarists, or "bloggers," linking to them. (Full disclosure: I am now a recreational blogger myself, at http://theanticmuse.blogspot.com.) It's a fairly reliable indication of what people on the Internet are reading. Since the war began, almost every other site has been a foreign news source.
What kind of stories have the bloggers pointed to?
For the complete article, see:
http://inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=136_0_3_0_C
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- The Hindu - Arundhati Roy, Jemima Khan flay Bush, Blair
London April 2. Booker Prize winning writer Arundhati Roy and Jemima Khan, wife of the former cricketer-turned politician, Imran Khan, have condemned the U.S.-led war on Iraq and said no one in the Muslim world now believed that this was really all about making the world a safer place.
Writing in two separate British dailies today, the two women said the economic ``outposts'' of the American empire had now been ``exposed'' and the "world's sense of injustice was growing.''
In an article titled `A strange kind of freedom' in The Guardian, Ms. Roy said, ``regardless of what the propaganda machine tells us, these tin-pot dictators (like the Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein) are not the greatest threat to the world. The real and pressing danger, the greatest threat of all is the locomotive force that drives the political and economic engine of the American government, currently piloted by George Bush."
PTI
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2003/04/03/stories/2003040306871100.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- US Forces' Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons is Illegal'
US Forces' Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons is Illegal'
By Neil Mackay
March 30, 2003; The Sunday Herald (Scotland)
BRITISH and American coalition forces are using depleted uranium (DU) shells in the war against Iraq and deliberately flouting a United Nations resolution which classifies the munitions as illegal weapons of mass destruction.
http://www.sundayherald.com/32522
Background on Depleted Uranium Ammunition For much more check out:
Discounted Casualties - The Human Cost of Depleted Uranium
provided by the Hiroshima, Japan newspaper - The Chugoku Shimbun.
http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/abom/uran/index_e.html
For more on this issue, visit Flyby News updated page on the harm by exposure to exploded depleted uranium shells,' see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid991363232,2156,
5) Fighting not to fight - American conscientious objector
Marine who said no to killing on his conscience
Fighting not to fight
Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles
Tuesday April 1, 2003
The Guardian
The first American conscientious objector from the Iraq war will give himself up at a marine base in California this morning. He said he believed the war was "immoral because of the deception involved by our leaders". Stephen Eagle Funk, 20, a marine reserve who was due to be sent for combat duty, is currently on "unauthorised absence" from his unit. He faces a possible court martial and time in military prison for his action.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,926965,00.html
6) Why administration endorsed a forgery about Iraq's nuclear program?
Michael Ruppert wrote:
"Just 1 day after FTW published Part II of The Perfect Storm, veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh - fresh on the heels of his coup in forcing the resignation of Richard Perle from the Defense Policy Board - confirms that powerful forces and mysterious events are auguring the fall of the Bush regime.."
"Who Lied to Whom?" by Seymour M. Hersh
Why did the Administration endorse a forgery about Iraq's nuclear program?
Last September 24th, as Congress prepared to vote on the resolution authorizing President George W. Bush to wage war in Iraq, a group of senior intelligence officials, including George Tenet, the Director of Central Intelligence, briefed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Iraq's weapons capability. It was an important presentation for the Bush Administration. Some Democrats were publicly questioning the President's claim that Iraq still possessed weapons of mass destruction which posed an immediate threat to the United States. Just the day before, former Vice-President Al Gore had sharply criticized the Administration's advocacy of preemptive war, calling it a doctrine that would replace "a world in which states consider themselves subject to law" with "the notion that there is no law but the discretion of the President of the United States." A few Democrats were also considering putting an alternative resolution before Congress..
For the complete article in the New Yorker, see:
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?030331fa_fact1
7) "The New World Order Exposed" by Victor Thorn
From Babel Magazine - http://www.babelmagazine.com
Babel Magazine reported that Victor Thorn's newest book, "The New World Order Exposed," is now in stock and already causing waves. Two days after its official publication, an email inquiry from Rowena, England stated: "I reside in the UK and am interested in "The New World Order Exposed" by Victor Thorn, which looks excellent and should be read by as wide an audience as possible. However, my London bookseller tells me he can't get it as none of his suppliers will touch it.' Does this surprise you? I was somewhat taken aback that censorship has become this obvious."
Surprised? Not really. "The New World Order Exposed" could be one of the most explosive, comprehensive, and affordable books ever written on the subject of Orwellian one-world government. At 570 pages and priced at only $12.98, this expose brings to light what mainstream media and publications won't tell you. That's what makes the independent press so vital. Do we want to live in reality with our eyes wide open, or in a conditioned state of illusion created by government and media spin-doctors deliberately trying to keep us in the dark?
The answer is obvious, especially considering the times we currently live in. The world is undergoing dramatic changes, and with a slew of propaganda, brainwashing, and outright deceit being hurled our way, it's extremely important to get information from alternative news sources.
Check out: THE NEW WORLD ORDER EXPOSED by Victor Thorn
http://www.babelmagazine.com/NWO%20EXPOSED.html
You can also order it via the U.S. postal service
($12.98 + $2.98 shipping = $15.98):
Sisyphus Press
P.O. Box 10495
State College, Pa.16805-0495
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
CivilianDeaths * Miscalculations * BlessedMichael * DennisRocks
April 1, 2003
"President Bush announced tonight that he believes in democracy
and that democracy can exist in Iraq. They can have a strong economy,
they can have a good health care plan, and they can have a free and fair voting.
Iraq? We can't even get this in Florida."
-Jay Leno
1) Three British soldiers sent home after protesting at civilian deaths
- - U.S. troops shot and killed seven women and children in a van Monday
2) The Miscalculations of Yes-Men
3) How the Hell Are We Going to Pay for This?
4) Starting a Ruckus Was the Right Thing to Do by Michael Moore
- - Michael Moore Teams With Mel Gibson For Next Documentary
5) Presidential Candidate Kucinich Urges US to Step Back From War
- - Review by Goodsister: Dennis Rocks Northern California
Editor's Notes:
Quite remarkably, in spite of an astonishing price tag and cost for innocent human life, (soldiers and civilians), recent nationwide polls suggests that the US public remains 70% behind the U.S. action in Iraq!* Yet reality will inevitably set in, but until then, much more harm is being delivered. The bunker buster DU missiles will produce harm for generations. On 27 March 2003 Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA) introduced legislation requiring studies on the health and environmental impact of depleted uranium (DU) munitions, as well as cleanup and mitigation at DU sites within the United States.
For a copy of the Bill, H.R. 1483 see: http://traprockpeace.org/DUBill24March03.html
But meanwhile people suffer, and a renegade commander-in-chief is destroying innocent life. Item 1 begins with an article on three British soldiers in Iraq that have been ordered home after 'objecting to the conduct of the war. It is understood they have been sent home for protesting that the war is killing innocent civilians.' Item 2 is another brilliant article by William Rivers Pitts, "The Miscalculations of Yes-Men." Item 3 is a Newsday Editorial asking the obvious: "How the Hell Are We Going to Pay for This?" Item 4 is a fascinating piece by Michael Moore, giving more background on his famous or infamous Oscar night speech. The second part in this item is about Moore teaming up with Mel Gibson for the next documentary, "Fahrenheit 911," which could help explain why the U.S. has become a target for hatred and terrorism, and about the two generations of close ties between the Bush and bin Laden clans. Moore is timing this film's release in time for the 2004 Presidential Elections. Item 5 is on the best hope-candidate for reclaiming US democracy, an article and review from Goodsister, is about his presentation: "Kucinich Rocks Northern California."
*For article on 70% Support for US Action in Iraq, see:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/04/01/MN170852.DTL
TAKE ACTIONS FOR PEACE and JUSTICE
for information and links see
CAMPAIGNS * ACTIONS & EVENTS
"We have it. The smoking gun.
The evidence. The potential weapon of mass destruction
we have been looking for as our pretext of invading Iraq.
There's just one problem - it's in North Korea." -Jon Stewart
SEOUL (AFP) - 'North Korea declared it would make no concessions to end the ongoing nuclear crisis and pledged instead to build up its defense and fend off the kind of "miserable fate" that has befallen Iraq.'
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"Iraq began destroying those missiles they don't have over the weekend.
See, President Bush may be the smartest military president in history.
First, he gets Iraq to destroy all of their own weapons.
Then he declares war."
-- Jay Leno
1) Three British soldiers sent home after protesting at civilian deaths
Three British soldiers sent home after protesting at civilian deaths
Richard Norton-Taylor
Monday March 31, 2003
Three British soldiers in Iraq have been ordered home after objecting to the conduct of the war. It is understood they have been sent home for protesting that the war is killing innocent civilians.
The three soldiers - including a private and a technician - are from 16 Air Assault Brigade which is deployed in southern Iraq. Its task has been to protect oilfields.
The brigade includes the 1st and 3rd battalions of the Parachute Regiment, the 1st battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment, a Royal Horse Artillery regiment, and a reconnaissance squadron of the Household Cavalry.
The three soldiers, based in Colchester, Essex, face court martial and are seeking legal advice, defence sources said yesterday.
The Ministry of Defence said it was not prepared to comment on individual cases. It said it had "no evidence" to suggest the soldiers had been sent home for refusing to fight.
Soldiers could be returned home for a number of reasons, including compassionate and medical, as well as disciplinary grounds, defence sources said.
But it is understood that the three soldiers have been sent home for complaining about the way the war is being fought and the growing danger to civilians.
The fact that they are seeking legal advice makes it clear they have been sent home for refusing to obey orders rather than because of any medical or related problems such as shell shock.
MoD lawyers were understood last night to be anxiously trying to discover the circumstances surrounding the order to send the soldiers home.
Any refusal of soldiers to obey orders is highly embarrassing to the government, with ministers becoming increasingly worried about the way the war is developing.
It is also causing concern to British military chiefs who are worried about growing evidence of civilians being killed in fighting involving American soldiers around urban areas in southern Iraq.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,925984,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - U.S. troops shot and killed seven women and children in a van Monday
"U.S. troops in southern Iraq shot and killed seven women and children in a van Monday when the driver failed to stop at a checkpoint as ordered..." For the article, see:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/03/31/international1927EST0832.DTL
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
And another related article posted:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,926650,00.html
2) The Miscalculations of Yes-Men
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Monday 31 March 2003
It is becoming difficult to tally all of the decisions made by the Bush administration that have turned out to be dead wrong. Walking away from North Korea at the outset of the administration has blossomed into an embarrassing tactical and diplomatic imbroglio with nukes prominently on the table. The massive trillion-dollar tax cut, feted by the administration as an economic cure-all, has become a crushing millstone on the back of an already murderously overburdened federal budget. The decision to withdraw from the Kyoto Treaty, and to be generally disdainful of the international community as a matter of course, led to the utterly humiliating series of diplomatic defeats America has suffered on the matter of Iraq.
This is what the highest members of the administration, as well as opinion-makers favorable to the war, were saying about the ease with which we would take Iraq:
For the complete article by William Rivers Pitt, see:
http://truthout.org/docs_03/040103A.shtml
3) How the Hell Are We Going to Pay for This?
Newsday.com
Editorial
How the Hell Are We Going to Pay for This?
It's only money, right? With American fighting men and women on the ground in Iraq, the patriotic impulse is to take care of business first and worry about the bills later. With victories to be won and history to be made, people fretting about the sorry state of the federal purse risk coming off as small-minded ankle-biters. They're not.
As armored vehicles rumble through the sand toward Baghdad, the federal treasury is sinking deeper and deeper into the red. The war bills will be paid. There's no choice, really. Bush asked Congress last week for $75 billion -- the first installment. You fight a war, you pay the freight. But the federal government has other costly obligations too homeland security, for instance, nation-building in Iraq and benefits for baby-boomers nearing eligibility for Social Security and Medicare.
So the question isn't just how the hell do we pay for all this. It's also: Who the hell will pay?
The complete Newsday article is posted at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-war-currents0330,0,645094.story
4) Starting a Ruckus Was the Right Thing to Do by Michael Moore
- - Michael Moore Teams With Mel Gibson For Next Documentary
Starting a Ruckus Was the Right Thing to Do
By Michael Moore, MichaelMoore.com
March 28, 2003
A word of advice to future Oscar winners: Don't begin Oscar day by going to church.
That is where I found myself this past Sunday morning, at the Church of the Good Shepherd on Santa Monica Boulevard, at Mass with my sister and my dad.
My problem with the Catholic Mass is that sometimes I find my mind wandering after I hear something the priest says, and I start thinking all these crazy thoughts like how it is wrong to kill people and that you are not allowed to use violence upon another human being unless it is in true self-defense.
I had not planned on winning an Academy Award for "Bowling for Columbine" (no documentary that was a big box-office success had won since "Woodstock"), and so I had no speech prepared. I'm not much of a speech-preparer anyway. Besides, I had already received awards in the days leading up to the Oscars and used the same acceptance remarks. I spoke of the need for nonfiction films when we live in such fictitious times. We have a fictitious president who was elected with fictitious election results. He is now conducting a war for a fictitious reason (the claim that Saddam Hussein has stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction when in fact we are there to get the world's second-largest supply of oil).
For the complete article by Michael Moore, see:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Michael Moore Teams With Mel Gibson For Next Documentary
By Michael Fleming
3-28-3
[Excerpt]
NEW YORK (Variety) - Michael Moore, who didn't endear himself to the Oscar audience last Sunday, will doubtless arouse further ire with his next documentary.
The project will depict the allegedly murky relationship between President Bush's father and the family of Osama bin Laden. And it will suggest that the bin Laden family was greatly enriched by that association.
Moore is making a deal with Mel Gibson's Icon Prods. to finance "Fahrenheit 911," a documentary that will trace why the U.S. has become a target for hatred and terrorism. It will also depict alleged dealings between two generations of the Bush and bin Laden clans that led to George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden becoming mortal enemies..
.."The primary thrust of the new film is what has happened to the country since Sept. 11, and how the Bush administration used this tragic event to push its agenda," Moore said. "It certainly does deal with the Bush and bin Laden ties. It asks a number of questions that I don't have the answers to yet, but which intend to find out."
Moore has put a year's worth of research into the film. He'll finish it in time to be submitted for Cannes, 2004, and released in time for the presidential election that fall.."
For the complete article, see:
http://www.rense.com/general36/mel.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related article: Robin Williams blasts Bush;
" Bush Says -- We have to get rid of Dictators,
But he is pretty much one himself !" -- RW
The article was posted: http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/dailydish/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"President Bush has said that he does not need approval from the UN to wage war, and I'm thinking, well, hell, he didn't need the approval of the American voters to become president, either."
-David Letterman
5) Presidential Candidate Kucinich Urges US to Step Back From War
Published in San Francisco Chronicle, March 31, 2003
Presidential Candidate Kucinich Urges US to Step Back From War
Unabashed liberal a hit with Marin audience
by John Wildermuth
The United States still has a chance to pull away from a war that can have devastating consequences for the country, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a Democratic presidential hopeful, told a Marin County audience this weekend.
"We see what war has already wrought. We know where it's heading," the Ohio congressman said. "It's time for America to step away from the abyss. It's time to end this war now."
[Excerpts]
..But it's one thing to draw an enthusiastic response from a crowd of anti- war activists in Marin County and another to build the national support needed for a realistic run at the Democratic presidential nomination.
Kucinich is confident that there's an audience out there for his liberal, anti-war message. Mayor of Cleveland in 1977 at the age of 31, Kucinich beat a Republican incumbent in 1996 to win his current congressional seat.
"I've shown the ability to attract votes to progressive Democratic programs in Cleveland, which is Middle America," he said. "I fully expect that I'll stay in contention for the Democratic nomination."
2003 San Francisco Chronicle
For the complete article, see:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0331-05.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Review by Goodsister: Dennis Rocks Northern California
The following is an insider's review of the Marin County event by Goodsister,
moderator for kucinich4president list serve: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kucinich4president/
Dennis Rocks Northern California
Brothers and Sisters,
Dennis Kucinich's appearance last night before a capacity crowd in San Rafael generated the kind of excitement one might expect from a rock icon or a movie star. Never have I seen such a roaring, passionate, public response to a single individual. I think Dennis was surprised, too; "floored" might be more like it. Several times in his talk he spoke of how surpassingly progressive our area is, and I believe he was getting audience response - or rather, a unanimity of audience response - that he gets nowhere else. The auditorium was packed, and the crowd was very interactive; our enthusiasm was so great, applause punctuated his entire speech. I think there were five or more standing ovations. Of course, there's almost nothing Dennis could say that we wouldn't wildly applaud his positions are our positions, his vision our vision. Dennis is the progressive Bay Area's dream candidate. We love him, and it shows.
But we weren't easy. Several times there were unruly shouts from the audience, the wild and woolly Bay Area progressives.
"IMPEACH BUSH!" someone called out, and "How can we move on without IMPEACHMENT!" Dennis dealt with this issue later, during the question and answer period, but it was instructive to see how he dealt with the impetuous outbursts. He'd stop, look quizzical, make a wry and gentle comment ("I'll get to that" with a smile), and move on.
In that auditorium last night, we were of one mind. We're scared and we're angry. As the shouter from the back called out "We can't afford to wait for the election to get rid of Bush!" We were a single organism with an unhappy, restless desire to take back our country. And standing before us was the one man who could do it. We yearned towards him, leaning forward, hanging on every word. As the shouter hollered, "WE CAN'T AFFORD TO WAIT."
When the impeachment issue came up during the questions from the audience, Dennis spoke simply, "The votes are not there." And he spread his hands to signify "there's no point". Now, I know we're all disappointed about this. We want more than anything to see the Bush cartel booted out and charged with their crimes. But let's get real; the midterm elections took care of any possibility of such action. With a Republican majority in both Congress and the Senate, impeachment would never happen. We've learned, through what happened to Clinton, that all it takes for impeachment is the will of Congress - well, the will might be there among some, but not enough; not nearly enough. So sadly I must agree with Dennis' superior wisdom. If he were to ride that bandwagon, it would be a divisive and distracting waste of everyone's energy, and most probably come to nothing in the end. We all still want the S.O.B. impeached, but we can't spare Dennis to do it. Dennis is needed to be the next President of the United States.
Within his wonderful talk, Dennis paused and sang some bits of our national songs, as he did in his now-famous Prayer for America speech. You know, that's a very odd thing that he does that. The first time I saw the video of the Prayer speech, I went through a variety of reactions as he sang. At first, cynical person that I am, I thought it was a bit corny. "What? Huh?" I thought. But then, the hair at the back of my neck raised up, and a chill went down my spine as I realized what he was doing. Singing the phrases in a haunting, quiet tenor, Dennis is praying from his heart, from his very soul. My eyes filled with tears, as they do now when I recall the profound emotion of that message.
But THIS audience sang WITH him. I don't know if Dennis is used to that, but it was one more indication of the feeling in that auditorium last night. If we could've carried him on our backs to Washington, we would have, and never felt tired.
I must include a personal note, because it is illustrative of the man's character. There was a reception to follow the speech, costing more than we could afford just now, since my husband has been laid off in this Bush recession. Those at the reception would get to meet and talk with Dennis personally. I was looking for familiar faces among the volunteers I'd met at the campaign meeting I'd attended a few weeks ago, shamelessly wheedling for an introduction before the reception began and my opportunity disappeared. I was nearly wild by then - so near, and yet so far from the man I've worked so hard for, all these months. I felt desperate and defiant. I mean, Kucinich is a populist leader, right? Well, we are The People. And given what I know about Dennis, I felt certain that I needn't feel ashamed of being light in the pocketbook, or that I'd be less important to Dennis than wealthier supporters.
I was right.
When my opportunity came, and I stepped forward, offered my hand, and spoke my name, Dennis' face lit up, he nearly shouted my name, and swept me up in a hug, as if we were old friends, and he was so happy to see me again at last. And as he hugged me, I felt an electric rush of emotion, everything I've ever felt in one sparkling burst. I held onto him tightly for a moment. He knew who I was; I wasn't nobody, as I'd been trying to convince myself all night, comforting myself in advance, in case I did not get the chance to meet him. My closed eyes saw stars, and then everything swam back into focus, and I was back in the hot, noisy room, and Dennis was talking to me.
He said, "Of course I know you. I wrote you an email - myself!" Which, of course, he had, and I knew he'd typed it, too, not an aide or secretary. And he'd said in it "See you in San Rafael". So I had hoped - I had hoped he'd remember me, that out of all the millions of people out there who must email him, and pull on his sleeve, he might remember me.
Not only had he remembered me, but I then found out he had put me and my party on the list for the reception - as his personal friends.
It occurred to me later that it was like hugging Gandhi or Cesar Chavez or Nelson Mandela. Where you feel suddenly that you are not only in the presence of greatness, true human greatness, but that you've been pulled into a warm embrace by that person. I'll never forget it. I hope I have grandchildren, so I can tell them about it. And it occurs to me, too, that such a man - who remembers all, the great and the small - is a real leader. His warm and gracious connection made with me was all the payment I'll ever need to go on working for him forever. A man who can engender such love and loyalty as I feel, cannot lose. In our increasingly scary and technological world, the power of a word, a touch, a hug, can transform our lives and our hearts, and Dennis knows it.
Kucinich for President. Kucinich as the leader to restore our Democracy! Long may he live. Brothers and sisters, we have work to do. An auditorium full of Bay Area progressives are now Kucinich foot soldiers, and we're on the march.
Goodsister
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The Kucinich Official Web Site is http://www.kucinich.us
Flyby News Resource page on Dennis Kucinich - URL -
{Including Kucinich Film Documentary in the Works!}
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1045685440,9146,
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
BaghdadTears * EndWar * RuppertStorm * Skull&Bones * Zinn
30 March 2003
"You can no more win a war, than you can win an earthquake."
-- Jeanette Rankin
1) Letter from Baghdad
- - "So Much Blood Everywhere"
2) Kucinich Calls for Immediate End to War
3) Michael Ruppert -- The Perfect Storm - Part II
- - "Takoma the dolphin goes Awol"
- - Guilty for 9-11: Bush, Rumsfeld, Myers
4) An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones
5) The Zinn Way -- Getting Along
Editor's Notes:
Before the next deadly phase of this so-called "successful" war, the siege of Baghdad, please continue to urge the United Nations to stop the horrendous assault on innocent life. Demand inspections and a peaceful disarmament of any of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The US actions are actually encouraging proliferation and development. As people of the world, we implore the United Nations to help end this illegal war.
Encourage a UN General Assembly emergency meeting to evoke the 'Uniting for Peace' resolution and demand an immediate cease fire, and withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq.
This war is wrong - this administration is wrong.
Uniting for Peace to Resolve the Iraq Crisis'
For UN contact and more information, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1045091648,41257,
Item one shows why we can't stop trying. These words come from a letter from an American nurse in Baghdad helping injured children. Please listen, and take action. Item 2 is the statement by Congressman Dennis Kucinich for an immediate end to this war. Item 3 is from Michael Ruppert, on the inner workings in the financial empire, leading to what he calls a perfect storm, soaring oil prices, economy upheavals, and the Bush fall guys.
"..In the meantime, there are increasing signs that the U.S. political and economic elites are laying the groundwork to make the Bush administration, specifically Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Perle and Wolfowitz, sacrificial scapegoats for a failed policy in time to consolidate post 9-11 gains, regroup and move forward.." -- Michael Ruppert
Item 4 is a preface from one of Ruppert's recommended books: "America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones" by Antony C. Sutton.
With all these heavy items, make sure you read last item and link to Howard Zinn's article: "On Getting Along."
1) Letter from Baghdad
BAGHDAD DIARIES - Cathy Breen, RN
March 26, 2003
Dear Friends,
It is impossible to describe. It is like we are submerged in a glowing yellow-orange cloud here in the city. Our Iraqi friends say they have never seen anything like it. It is eerier than any science fiction film I've ever seen. Some say it is caused by a combination of the burning oil and the billowing smoke from the bombs. Both near and far the bombs continue to fall.
Heavy bombing woke me out of a deep sleep last night. Earlier I'd been on the telephone with a friend who told me that in her neighborhood a missile had struck the day before wounding 29 and killing 5. Among the dead was a 12 year old. "Cathy" she said, "please tell them (the U.S.) to stop talking about humanitarian aide." Apparently this keeps coming on over the television news. "Please tell them to shut up!" How ludicrous to speak of humanitarian aide as the country is being bombed, people being killed and wounded and their homes destroyed!
The Bush administration said a couple of days ago that the war has been successful because so far there have been only 500 casualties. I am anxious to get word to you about some of these "casualties" as I've been to the trauma hospitals these last 3 days to see for myself. This is not to mention the trauma of fear and terror of the bombing which has no end. As I write you the bombs continue and the windows threaten to explode. Should I move somewhere else? There really is no safe place.
Let me tell you about Amar, a 7 year old boy whom I saw in the hospital this morning. He has an emergency chest tube to drain blood as he suffered multiple shell injuries. His mother, Hannah, died in the direct hit to their house this morning. He is from a farming village on the outskirts of Baghdad. Then there is Mueen, 8 years old also the son of a farmer, but from another area. He is in the bed alongside Amar and also has a drainage tube. But his is from the abdomen. The doctor showed us a plastic bag holding parts of his small intestine which had to be removed during surgery in order to try and get to all of the shrapnel. His father died in that bombing, and his 6 year old brother Ali was wounded in the head.
Shall I go on? Ten year old Rusel was wounded in an explosion outside her door. We saw the shrapnel in her chest on the Xray and she too has a chest tube. Her right hand is fractured. I had seen her yesterday and to my surprise she remembered me. We played with the finger puppet of the frog for a moment and I decided to leave it with her. I told her that I was going to tell other children what a brave little girl she is. Her father said "Bush said he'd bring democracy to Iraq. This is not democracy. This is terrorism!"
Nada Adnan is a 14 year old high school student who came in with a deep gash and fracture to her right forehead. She also has a hunk of shrapnel in her upper thigh.. Some of our folks were present when she and her family were brought into the hospital. Her mother had to be restrained as she was so distraught. A missile had crashed into her uncle's home where they were staying, causing the walls to collapse. Nada's 8 year old sister had died as a result. Nada said "Is this good what is happening here? How many children have been killed? How many wars they've done to us? And we have so much painAll the countries know that Bush has committed a crime."
An elderly woman, Fatima, had fallen in fear during the bombing and fractured her hip. She had already had surgery for the hip, but her ankle too is in a cast and her knee is wounded. Mohammed her husband said "We are not the enemy or against you. We love freedom for everyman, for every human in the world. Bush is not human. He is the enemy against humanity."
We meet Ali and his wife in the hospital, the parents of four young children. They tell us that they want the war to stop for the children's sake, for the mothers. They say that families are all leaving their homes to run away from the bombs. They try and stay all together at one of their relatives homes. "If we die, we want to die together." Ali works in a food shop, they explain. But all of the stores are closed and there is no work. No money coming in. The children no longer go to school. All of their children are fearful and hiding under the covers.
And Mr. Bush says the war is successful. Children maimed for life. Children orphaned in an instant. Their homes destroyed. Their young men forced to fight. A peaceful people visited by unspeakable terror and violence. Oh tell me Mr. Bush, what should I do with my anger, with my rage? Can you tell me what to say to the people here when they ask me what have they done?, when they ask me why is this happening?
They know I am from America. As I meet their questioning eyes and despairing expressions I have no words. Mr. Bush, shall I tell them that the war so far is a success. I can only say "I'm sorry" on behalf of us all. And, please God stay the hand of my nation.
Love,
Cathy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For a related article: "So Much Blood Everywhere"
A Baghdad hospital is overwhelmed after a missile hits an outdoor market, killing dozens.'
By John Daniszewski and Sergei L. Loiko
Times Staff Writers - March 29, 2003, see:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-war-baghdad29mar29003427,1,3678088.story
2) Kucinich Calls for Immediate End to War
28 Mar 2003
Today, at a press conference on Capitol Hill, Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH), who leads opposition to the war in Iraq, issued the following statement:
"This Administration has never made its case for war against Iraq. It is an unjustified war, which the Administration continues to misrepresent and exaggerate. The most recent example is the Administration's characterization of international coalition support for this war."
"This morning, President Bush once again exaggerated the extent of support for the war stating that the coalition of countries supporting this war is larger than the 1991 Gulf War. What Bush failed to mention was that back in 1991, all of the 34 coalition members offered military force, by contributing troops on the ground, aircraft, ships or medics. "
"This war involves the troops of only the U.S., Britain, Australia, Poland and Albania. Not even the three members of the Security Council that support the war, Spain, Italy, and Bulgaria are committing military support."
"This Bush Administration has been adding coalition member to their list based on statements of "moral" support. As the Washington Post reported last week, if this type of criteria was used back in 1991, the size of the coalition would likely have topped 100 countries."
"Further, the total cost of the Gulf War to the United States was around $4 billion dollars. This time, the President has come to Congress requesting a $75 billion bill, all of which will be paid by U. S. taxpayers. Clearly, military and economic support from countries is far more important than statements of 'well-wishes'."
"This war must end now. It was unjust when it started last week, and is still unjust today. The U.S. should get out now and try to save the lives of American troops and Iraqi citizens. Most importantly, ending the war now and resuming weapons inspections could salvage world opinion of the United States, which has been deteriorating since the talk of war began. After all, the greatest threat to the United States at this time is terrorism, which is breeding from this war."
Congressman Kucinich will issue daily statements on the war in Iraq.
For more information, visit: http://www.kucinich.us
3) Michael Ruppert -- The Perfect Storm - Part II
From the Wilderness Publications
[Excerpt]
THE PERFECT STORM - Part II
"Shock and Awe" Is "Mocked and Flawed" --
War Plan Stumbles as Bush Tells CNN, "It's Gonna Take a While to Achieve Our Objective... This Is Just the Beginning of a Tough Fight." --
U.S. Soldiers Captured, Iraqi Resistance Significant and Toughening
U.S. Press/Political Hostility to Bush Administration Intensifies Major Papers Discussing Criminal Behavior, Impeachment as Focus Intensifies on Forged Niger Uranium Docs
Cheney, Powell and Rumsfeld Implicated
Oil Bonanza Fading as Economic Indicators Weaken in an Unstable Environment Iraqi Oil Deliveries Interrupted Reality Tramples Market Exuberance
Turk-Kurdish Chaos More Likely
Has the U.S. Been Set Up by Europe, Russia and China?
by Michael C. Ruppert
Copyright 2003,
From The Wilderness Publications, http://www.copvcia.com.
All Rights Reserved.
May be reprinted, distributed or posted on an Internet web site for non-profit purposes only.
[ The following was excerpted, the complete article is posted at:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/032503_perfect_storm_2.html ]
March 24, 2003, 2100 EDT (FTW) Atlanta,
Military, economic, oil, and political storms continue to gather and converge in what may become a Perfect Storm for the Bush Administration and the United States economy.
On the fifth day of a U.S. military campaign rejected by the U.N. Security Council, at least 12 U.S. soldiers have been captured by Iraqi forces near al Nasiriyah even as various foreign news sources are reporting that as many as four to ten of the vaunted M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks have been destroyed in combat. A helicopter aircrew has been captured further north. ABC has reported that coalition casualties are approaching 200. Promises that Iraqi civilians expecting liberation would greet coalition troops with open arms have been unfulfilled as Iraqi resistance stiffens on a daily basis..
..In the meantime, there are increasing signs that the U.S. political and economic elites are laying the groundwork to make the Bush administration, specifically Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Perle and Wolfowitz, sacrificial scapegoats for a failed policy in time to consolidate post 9-11 gains, regroup and move forward. These indications include: written press attacks on the Bush administration by select journalists long known for their loyalty and obedience to financial interests and the CIA; a growing revolt from within the intelligence communities of the U.S. and the U.K. including damaging leaks undermining the credibility of the administration; serious economic consequences closing in on the financial markets; growing signs of pending oil shortages; and indications that the use of forged documents by the Bush and Blair regimes may become the Watergate burglary of the 21st century.
THE WRITTEN PRESS TURN ON BUSH, BIG TIME
While most of the American people rely on television coverage for their worldview, those within the government, politics and the financial markets look to a select group of entrenched print journalists to sniff the winds of political change. Those winds started blowing against George W. Bush and his administration before the war began. In what appears to be intensifying anti-Bush rhetoric, an unprecedented media effort is beginning to cut the legs from under the administration even as it gambles everything on an increasingly elusive military victory.
March 15 The International Herald Tribune reported that top officials of the World Trade Organization had also started turning on Bush by reporting, "...officials said they feared that American moves within the organization and toward a war in Iraq would weaken respect for international rules and lead to serious practical consequences for the world economy and business.
"In the past months the United States has compiled one of the worst records for violating trade rules... "They said they were worried that all international institutions would suffer a loss of credibility if the one superpower appeared to be choosing which rules to obey and which rules to ignore."
The WTO, globalization, is the heart of the economic power bloc that brought Bush into power.
March 16 The big guns at The Washington Post begin to open fire. In a lengthy story on the controversial Carlyle Group, a major private investment bank with which both the President and his father have deep financial connections, Greg Schneider made some absolutely stunning statements:
"David M. Rubenstein is exasperated, and he blurts something that a quick look around the room proves is outrageous: "We're not," he nearly shouts, "that well connected!
"Behind him is a picture of Rubenstein on a plane with then-Gov. George W. Bush. Across the room, a photo of Rubenstein with the President's father and mother. Next to that, Rubenstein and Mikhail Gorbachev. Elsewhere: Rubenstein and Jimmy Carter. On a bookshelf: Rubenstein and the pope... "Rubenstein, after all, is founder of the Carlyle Group...
[To view previous FTW stories on the Carlyle group please visit
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/index.html#bush ]
March 20 Columnist Craig Roberts, writing in the traditionally pro-Republican, conservative Washington Times delivered perhaps the most shocking signal that the power establishment, which should have stopped the war before it started, was moving to set the administration up for a fall.
In a column titled "A Reckless Path", Roberts' lead paragraph read:
"Will Bush be impeached? Will he be called a war criminal? These are not hyperbolic questions. Mr. Bush has permitted a small cadre of neoconservatives to isolate him from world opinion, putting him at odds with the United Nations and America's allies."
It got worse from there.
"...On the eve of Mr. Bush's ultimatum, it came to light that a key piece of evidence used by the Bush administration to link Iraq to a nuclear weapons program is a forgery. Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, has asked the FBI to investigate the forged documents that the Bush administration has used to make its case that Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction."
Amazingly, Roberts then went on to make a comparison with Adolf Hitler's faked attacks by SS soldiers dressed as Polish troops in 1939 to justify the invasion of Poland, which started the Second World War.
Roberts closed his column with a dire warning. "Mr. Bush and his advisers have forgotten that the power of an American president is temporary and relative."..
INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES TURN ON BUSH/BLAIR
It has been happening for two months now. Leaks, protests, even overt criticisms from those like former senior CIA analyst Stephen Pelletier, who has revealed that it was Iran rather than Iraq which had killed thousands of Kurds in massive poison gas attacks in the 1980s. More recently we have seen British intelligence personnel leak information to the press showing that Britain's infamous intelligence dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) had been plagiarized from outdated information in graduate student papers and that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has engaged in illegal wiretapping of U.N. officials in attempts to secure enough votes for a resolution in support of the invasion.
OIL'S NOT WELL
The utterly ridiculous and unjustified drop in oil prices and upsurge in the Dow last week is belied by real data on oil supplies as the Iraqi invasion stumbles. As the war intensifies some real garbage and some occasional gems of truth are coming from the major media.
First, it is a given that while the war is in progress, Iraqi oil exports are virtually non-existent. The port region around Basra which accounts for well more than half of Iraqi exports -- is virtually shut down. One pipeline running from northern Iraq to the Turkish port of Ceyhan is reported to be intact but there are no reports as to whether oil is actually flowing. It's not likely. What this means is that it is a safe bet that two million plus barrels per day (Mbpd) have been taken out of world supplies.
In the meantime, according to The Financial Times today, the Mexican government has announced its intent to start selling U.S. dollars on world currency markets. This move could further weaken an already shaky U.S. dollar, especially if other nations, angered at the U.S. invasion of Iraq, follow suit. Since oil is currently purchased in dollars, inevitable future oil price spikes could become doubly painful for the U.S. economy as the dollar loses value.
BUSH'S WATGERATE BURGLARY
"At the Security Council, some are questioning the veracity of any U.S. claim regarding Iraq." The Boston Globe, March 16, 2003
The first official report that documents prepared on stationery of the governments of Niger and Iraq detailing a planned sale of uranium to Iraq were forged came on March 7. Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief nuclear inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency told the U.N. Security Council that the documents, "were not authentic." The first paper to break the news was London's Financial Times. The documents, not very clever or convincing, failed to convince the U.N. but were, however, included in British Prime Minister Tony Blair's now legendary flawed intelligence dossier, which had been presented to Parliament on Sept. 24, 2002.
The Washington Post picked up on the story on March 8 where it reported that, "The forgers had made relatively crude errors that eventually gave them away including names and titles that did not match up with the individuals who held office at the time the letters were purportedly written, the officials said."
On March 14, Ken Guggenheim of The Associated Press reported that Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WVa.), ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee had called the FBI and asked for an investigation of the documents. Rockefeller's full name is John D. Rockefeller, IV and he is a direct descendant of the same family that essentially brought the Bush family into power. What is amazing here is not only that someone has requested an investigation of just one of the hundreds of Bush administration inconsistencies and proven lies since 9-11, but that it was a Rockefeller who requested it. That reality has thundered throughout Washington's power corridors like an earthquake.
FTW placed calls to both FBI headquarters and Rockefeller's Washington offices asking for comment or further information. An FBI spokesperson told FTW that the Bureau had nothing to say. After hearing what the topic was, a Rockefeller spokesperson promised to call back but did not.
Colin Powell immediately started denying that the State Department had anything to do with creating the forgeries. No one had accused him! And the story picked up "legs" in print media around the world.
The most scathing blow to date and there are sure to be more came from Congressman Henry Waxman (D, Ca.) who, in a six-page March 17 letter to George Bush, created a locked-down record of Bush's, Cheney's, Rumsfeld's and Powell's use of the documents, even pointing out that the President had made reference to the documents in his State-of-the-Union address in January by saying, "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." Waxman noted next that, "a day later, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters at a news briefing that Iraq "recently was discovered seeking significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
Waxman closed his letter with three chilling questions that may now distance George Tenet from George W. Bush and his cabinet, who will all go down together if it becomes necessary. Waxman asked the President to directly address:
1.Whether CIA officials communicated their doubts about the credibility of the forged evidence to other Administration officials, including officials at the Department of State, the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, and the White House;
2.Whether the CIA had any input into the "Fact Sheet" distributed by the State Department on December 19, 2002; and
3.Whether the CIA reviewed your statement in the State of the Union address regarding Iraq's attempts to obtain uranium from Africa and, if so, what the CIA said about the statement.
I can hear the distant echoes of Senator Howard Baker in the Senate Watergate hearings asking,
"What did the President know and when did he know it?"
THE PERFECT STORM
It's all coming together on the radar screen and the chances are that these storms are going to merge. In this all out economic war of survival, as Peak Oil forces its way into the public consciousness, Russia will likely continue to provide Saddam with arms and technical assistance. France may well share intelligence. China, with the slightest nod, can contribute tactical advice and many mines for the Mediterranean. All of them can indirectly, and through plausibly deniable methods, foster and supply revolts in oil producing regions around the globe. And they can all laugh and deny as the U.S. tries to point a finger at them. This has all been done before..
..The tragedy, of course, is that the American people will suffer greatly as the storms converge. The truth is that the American people have never been any more of a concern to the powers that be than the people in the rest of the world have, except that giving them a higher standard of living made them compliant and dumb. It appears as if even that is no longer necessary. The destruction of American credibility and the transfer of its wealth are necessary steps in the creation of the New World Order.
Everything might just come crashing down all at once and if that happens the powers that rule will sacrifice their little Caesar and cut a deal with the other nations quickly. Just as in Shakespeare's play, there will be many wounds in Caesar's body, inflicted by many different people. But most certainly one of the daggers will be found in the hand of George Tenet and the CIA. He knows where the real power resides.
The above was excerpted, the complete article is posted at:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/032503_perfect_storm_2.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For a lighter related item - "Takoma the dolphin - Awol"
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,5944-627180,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For an important archived - November 2001 - article:
GUILTY FOR 9-11: BUSH, RUMSFELD, MYERS
Introduction & Section 1 by Illarion Bykov and Jared Israel
see: http://emperors-clothes.com/indict/indict-1.htm
4) An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones
"AMERICA'S SECRET ESTABLISHMENT:
An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones"
by Antony C. Sutton
There are two ways of looking at the world. You can take the morning paper at face value and believe the world oscillates between the dumb-show of "left-wing" and "right-wing". Or you can begin to question this national hypnosis. - Adam Parfrey
From the Preface:
" After 16 books and 25 years in basic research I thought I'd heard it all ... the world was a confused mess, probably beyond understanding and certainly beyond salvation - and there was little I could do about it. Back in 1968 my Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development was published by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. In three substantial volumes I detailed how the West had built the Soviet Union. However, the work generated a seemingly insoluble puzzle - why have we done this? Why did we build the Soviet Union, while we also transferred technology to Hitler's Germany? Why does Washington want to conceal these facts? Why have we boosted Soviet military power? And simultaneously boosted our own? In subsequent books, the Wall Street series, I added more questions - but no answers. I had more or less arrived at the conclusion that there was no rational answer that could be proven. Then a year or so ago I received an eight-inch batch of documents nothing less than the membership lists of an American secret society. Glancing through the sheets it was more than obvious - this was no ordinary group. The names spelled Power, with a capital P. As I probed each individual a pattern emerged ... and a formerly fuzzy world became crystal clear. The book you will read here is a combined version of a series reporting on this research. Each volume builds on the previous volume in a logical step-by-step process. These volumes will explain why the West built the Soviets and Hitler; why we go to war, to lose; why Wall Street loves Marxists and Nazis; why the kids can't read; why the Churches have become propaganda founts; why historical facts are suppressed, why politicians lie and a hundred other whys."
"This series is infinitely more important than the original Western Technology series on technological transfers. If I have a magnum opus, this is it". - Antony C. Sutton.
For more on - "AMERICA'S SECRET ESTABLISHMENT:
An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones" by Antony C. Sutton,
and other books recommended by Michael Ruppert, visit:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/store/books.html
5) The Zinn Way -- Getting Along
On Getting Along
By Howard Zinn
You ask how I manage to stay involved and remain seemingly happy and adjusted to this awful world where the efforts of caring people pale in comparison to those who have power?
For the complete article, see:
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/1999-03/mar7_1999.htm
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Stop the War * Ritter's Predictions * Oil&Currency * Kucinich
27 March 2003
"We are not liberating Iraq, we are destroying Iraq."
Scott Ritter1) UNITING FOR PEACE - ACTION - NOW -
2) Scott Ritter Predicts - US Will Lose in its War on Iraq
3) Oil, Currency and the War on Iraq
4) Kucinich: The Workers' White House
Editor's Notes:
It may appear impossible, but we must at least try to stop this war before the military assault continures on the ground against Baghdad.. Why? According to Greenpeace, "Thanks to an initiative from the Arab League, the UN is not hiding its head in the sand over the war in Iraq. We now have a crucial opportunity for the world to condemn the war in Iraq." The world united can stop the senselessness of a terror-rising war.
In item 2 Scott Ritter says, "We're in Iraq --carrying out the right-wing neo-conservative motives of a handful of people. The Richard Perle's, Paul Wolfowitz's; the Dick Cheney's. And we've allowed them to hijack our foreign policy." This statement reminds me of the critical video that Flyby News presented this last week:
"What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War on the Third World." This video is the best overview of the history of a secret government enforcing a ruthless foreign policy that may have included involvement and/or cover-up of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and others. The evidence of the ruthlessness and the distorted aims of the neoconservatives (referred to by Ritter), the criminal conduct against the US Constitution, is atrocious. It is time for a change. The video details the trail of the conspirators of US foreign policy since the signing of the National Security Act of 1947. Scott Ritter predicts in this current undeclared war that the US will lose in Iraq. The people most faithful in supporting our troops will call for an end to this aggression and preemptive strike on Iraq, and return to a peaceful process for inspections and rule of International Law.
Item 3 gives some explanations for the US military scourge in Iraq, how it interplays with oil and the Euro and US currencies. The author, Ciln Nunan, concludes: "The fear for Washington will be that not only will the future price of oil not be right, but the currency might not be right either. Which perhaps helps explain why the US is increasingly turning to its second major tool for dominating world affairs: military force."
In item 4 is excerpts from Dennis Kucinich's speech to members of the Iowa AFL-CIO on Monday February 17. This was near the time when he announced his decision to run for President. The Iowa primaries are coming up, next January. This is the time to choose to make a commitment to help build such a powerful grass roots campaigns that no dirty tricks can stop the power of the people to reclaim their government, integrity, and freedom.
Please take actions to support Uniting for Peace', the UN's initiative, and help the campaign for the people to elect Dennis Kucinich for US President.
Such actions are in support of our troops, and for those innocent people being harmed by the politics of deceit, fear, and destruction.
**********************************************************************
1) UNITING FOR PEACE - ACTION - NOW -Greenpeace: Urgent Peace Opportunity
Thanks to an initiative from the Arab League, the UN is not hiding its head in the sand over the war in Iraq. We now have a crucial opportunity for the world to condemn the war in Iraq.
On Wednesday, 26 March, there was an 'open session' of the UN Security Council, and members are expected to put forward a resolution condemning the war and calling for a ceasefire. The debate is expected to carry on until Thursday, but it is clear that any such resolution will be vetoed by the US and UK.
Arab League Foreign Ministers, as well as their colleagues in the non-Aligned Movement, have said that if there is no Security Council resolution, they will invoke Resolution 377 ('Uniting for Peace'), and call for an Emergency Session of the UN General Assembly, where a resolution calling for an end to the war would get overwhelming support.
We have chosen several countries whose support for this move is key to its success. Any country that puts this forward, will have to be able to withstand diplomatic and economic blackmail from the US and the UK in order to exercise their democratic right to speak on behalf of their people.
Please use this link:
http://act.greenpeace.org/ams/e?a=733&s=wrto write to the Foreign Ministers of Cuba, South Africa, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nigeria, New Zealand, Switzerland, Fiji, Mexico, Chile, Germany, Russia, and France, and ask them to support 'Uniting for Peace'.
You can discuss the campaign for a 'Uniting for Peace' resolution here:
http://act.greenpeace.org/1048719593For information on the Greenpeace Cyberactivist Community, visit:
http://act.greenpeace.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For Flyby's updated
Uniting for Peace to Resolve the Iraq Crisis', see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1045091648,41257,
2) Scott Ritter Predicts - US Will Lose in its War on IraqFrom GuluFuture.com
US WILL LOSE
THE IRAQ WAR
says Scott Ritter
25th March, 2003
by Fintan Dunne, Editor
http//www.GuluFuture.com
Thorn in the side of the American administration, and former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, has warned that America will lose the Iraq war and the American military "will leave Iraq with its
tail between its legs."
In an interview with Irish radio, Mr. Ritter said that the conflict would become an "absolute quagmire," and the US-UK advance would stall outside Baghdad and fail to capture the city.
"We find ourselves... facing a nation of 23 million, with armed elements numbering around 7 million --who are concentrated at urban areas. We will not win this fight. America will lose this war," said Mr. Ritter.
According to Mr. Ritter, too many in the Pentagon have listened to "the blithering of Iraqi expatriates," whose agenda coincides with neo-conservatives in the White House.
"We're in Iraq --carrying out the right-wing neo-conservative motives of a handful of people. The Richard Perle's, Paul Wolfowitz's; the Dick Cheney's. And we've allowed them to hijack our foreign policy," he told Irish broadcaster, Vincent Browne on the RTE1 radio "Tonight Show."
He warned that Shia Muslims in the South were not fighting because of intimidation by the Iraqi government, but because of nationalistic and religious reasons.
"They're doing it because, the American Crusader Infidel has invaded and violated Holy Iraq, and they will resist us, and they will resist us strongly," said Mr. Ritter. "We are not liberating Iraq, we are destroying Iraq," he added later in the interview.
Scott Ritter, is a former U.N. weapons inspector and author of the book "Endgame." Ritter, a ballistic-missile technology expert, worked in military intelligence during his 12-year career in the U.S. armed forces. In 1998, Ritter resigned from the U.N. Special Commissions team to protest Clinton Administration policies that he said subverted the weapons inspection process.
For Full Transcript & Audio, see:
http://www.gulufuture.com/news/scott_ritter030325.htm
3) Oil, Currency and the War on IraqFEASTA.com
Ciln Nunan: Oil, Currency and the War on Iraq
It will not come as news to anyone that the US dominates the world economically and militarily. But the exact mechanisms by which American hegemony has been established and maintained are perhaps less well understood than they might be. One tool used to great effect has been the dollar, but its efficacy has recently been under threat since Europe introduced the euro.
The dollar is the de facto world reserve currency: the US currency accounts for approximately two thirds of all official exchange reserves. More than four-fifths of all foreign exchange transactions and half of all world exports are denominated in dollars. In addition, all IMF loans are denominated in dollars.
But the more dollars there are circulating outside the US, or invested by foreign owners in American assets, the more the rest of the world has had to provide the US with goods and services in exchange for these dollars. The dollars cost the US next to nothing to produce, so the fact that the world uses the currency in this way means that the US is importing vast quantities of goods and services virtually for free.
Since so many foreign-owned dollars are not spent on American goods and services, the US is able to run a huge trade deficit year after year without apparently any major economic consequences. The most recently published figures, for example, show that in November of last year US imports were worth 48% more than US exports1. No other country can run such a large trade deficit with impunity. The financial media tell us the US is acting as the consumer of last resort' and the implication is that we should be thankful, but a more enlightening description of this state of affairs would be to say that it is getting a massive interest-free loan from the rest of the world.
While the US' position may seem inviolable, one should remember that the more you have, the more you have to lose. And recently there have been signs of how, for the first time in a long time, the US may be beginning to lose.
One of the stated economic objectives, and perhaps the primary objective, when setting up the euro was to turn it into a reserve currency to challenge the dollar so that Europe too could get something for nothing. This however would be a disaster for the US. Not only would they lose a large part of their annual subsidy of effectively free goods and services, but countries switching to euro reserves from dollar reserves would bring down the value of the US currency. Imports would start to cost Americans a lot more and as increasing numbers of those holding dollars began to spend them, the US would have to start paying its debts by supplying in goods and services to foreign countries, thus reducing American living standards. As countries and businesses converted their dollar assets into euro assets, the US property and stock market bubbles would, without doubt, burst. The Federal Reserve would no longer be able to print more money to reflate the bubble, as it is currently openly considering doing, because, without lots of eager foreigners prepared to mop them up, a serious inflation would result which, in turn, would make foreigners even more reluctant to hold the US currency and thus heighten the crisis.
There is though one major obstacle to this happening: oil. Oil is not just by far the most important commodity traded internationally, it is the lifeblood of all modern industrialised economies. If you don't have oil, you have to buy it. And if you want to buy oil on the international markets, you usually have to have dollars. Until recently all OPEC countries agreed to sell their oil for dollars only. So long as this remained the case, the euro was unlikely to become the major reserve currency: there is not a lot of point in stockpiling euros if every time you need to buy oil you have to change them into dollars. This arrangement also meant that the US effectively part-controlled the entire world oil market: you could only buy oil if you had dollars, and only one country had the right to print dollars - the US.
If on the other hand OPEC were to decide to accept euros only for its oil (assuming for a moment it were allowed to make this decision), then American economic dominance would be over. Not only would Europe not need as many dollars anymore, but Japan which imports over 80% of its oil from the Middle East would think it wise to convert a large portion of its dollar assets to euro assets (Japan is the major subsidiser of the US because it holds so many dollar investments). The US on the other hand, being the world's largest oil importer would have, to run a trade surplus to acquire euros. The conversion from trade deficit to trade surplus would have to be achieved at a time when its property and stock market prices were collapsing and its domestic supplies of oil and gas were contracting. It would be a very painful conversion.
The purely economic arguments for OPEC converting to the euro, at least for a while, seem very strong. The Euro-zone does not run a huge trade deficit nor is it heavily indebted to the rest of the world like the US and interest rates in the Euro-zone are also significantly higher. The Euro-zone has a larger share of world trade than the US and is the Middle East's main trading partner. And nearly everything you can buy for dollars you can also buy for euros - apart, of course, from oil. Furthermore, if OPEC were to convert their dollar assets to euro assets and then require payment for oil in Euros, their assets would immediately increase in value, since oil importing countries would be forced to also convert part of their assets, driving the prices up. For OPEC, backing the euro would be a self-fulfilling prophesy. They could then at some later date move to some other currency, perhaps back to the dollar, and again make huge profits.
But of course it is not a purely economic decision.
So far only one OPEC country has dared switch to the euro: Iraq, in November 20002,3. There is little doubt that this was a deliberate attempt by Saddam to strike back at the US, but in economic terms it has also turned out to have been a huge success: at the time of Iraq's conversion the euro was worth around 83 US cents but it is now worth over $1.05. There may however be other consequences to this decision.
One other OPEC country has been talking publicly about possible conversion to the euro since 1999: Iran2,4, a country which has since been included in the George W. Bush's axis of evil'.
A third OPEC country which has recently fallen out with the US government is Venezuela and it too has been showing disloyalty to the dollar. Under Hugo Chavez's rule, Venezuela has established barter deals for trading its oil with 12 Latin American countries as well as Cuba. This means that the US is missing out on its usual subsidy and might help explain the American wish to see the back of Chavez. At the OPEC summit in September 2000, Chavez delivered to the OPEC heads of state the report of the 'International Seminar on the Future of Energy', a conference called by Chavez earlier that year to examine the future supplies of both fossil and renewable energies. One of the two key recommendations of the report was that OPEC take advantage of high-tech electronic barter and bi-lateral exchanges of its oil with its developing country customers'5, i.e. OPEC should avoid using both the dollar and the euro for many transactions.
And last April, a senior OPEC representative gave a public speech in Spain during Spain's presidency of the EU during which he made clear that though OPEC had as yet no plans to make oil available for euros, it was an option that was being considered and which could well be of economic benefit to many OPEC countries, particularly those of the Middle East6.
As oil production is now in decline in most oil producing countries, the importance of the remaining large oil producers, particularly those of the Middle East, is going to grow and grow in years to come(7).
Iraq, whose oil production has been severely curtailed by sanctions, is one of a very small number of countries which can help ease this looming oil shortage. Europe, like most of the rest of the world, wishes to see a peaceful resolution of the current US-Iraqi tensions and a gradual lifting of the sanctions - this would certainly serve its interests best. But as Iraqi oil is denominated in euros, allowing it to become more widely available at present could loosen the dollar stranglehold and possibly do more damage than good to US economic health.
All of this is bad news for the US economy and the dollar. The fear for Washington will be that not only will the future price of oil not be right, but the currency might not be right either. Which perhaps helps explain why the US is increasingly turning to its second major tool for dominating world affairs: military force.
REFERENCES
Anon., Trade Deficit Surges to a Record High', Reuters, (January 17, 2003),
http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/4970891.htmRecknagel, Charles, Iraq: Baghdad Moves to Euro', Radio Free Europe (November 1, 2000),
http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2000/11/01112000160846.aspAnon., A Look At The World's Economy', CBS Worldwide Inc., (December 22, 2000),
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/12/22/2000/main259203.shtmlAnon., Iran may switch to euro for crude sale payments', Alexander Oil and Gas, (September 5, 2002),
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/ntm23638.htm Hazel Henderson, Globocop v. Venezuela's Chavez: Oil, Globalization and Competing Visions of Development', InterPress Service, (April 2002),
http://www.hazelhenderson.com/Globocop%20v.%20Chavez.htmJavad Yarjani, The Choice of Currency for the Denomination of the Oil Bill', (April 14, 2002),
http://www.opec.org/NewsInfo/Speeches/sp2002/spAraqueSpainApr14.htmThe Association for the Study of Peak Oil, Newsletter 26, (February 2003),
http://www.asponews.orgFURTHER READING
William Clark,
The Real Reasons for the Upcoming War With Iraq:
A Macroeconomic and Geostrategic Analysis of the Unspoken Truth', (January 2003), see:
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/RRiraqWar.html This item is posted at:
http://www.feasta.org/documents/papers/oil1.htmCopyright Feasta. All rights reserved.
For more information on Feasta and Energy, see:
http://www.feasta.org/energy.htm
4) Kucinich: The Workers' White HouseThe Workers' White House
U.S. Representative Dennis J. Kucinich
The Iowa AFL-CIO
Monday, February 17, 2003
Altoona, Iowa
[Excerpt]
Brothers and Sisters. I am Dennis Kucinich. I am a dues-paying member of the camera operator's union, IATSE Local 600, of the AFL-CIO. Tomorrow I am filing papers in Washington, DC to explore becoming President of the United States of America. Let us make 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue the address of Worker's Local Number One.
On this President's Day 2003, let us reflect upon another address. One made at Gettysburg, where Lincoln prayed that "a government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from this earth." If I am elected President, this union membership card will be placed on my desk as a reminder that in America the people rule.
You are the "people" to whom the spirit of Lincoln speaks today. You in this room and you, who clean the streets of snow, who pick up the garbage, repair the potholes, keep the tap water running, keep the lights burning, and put out the fires. You, who plant and grow America's food, who sell the food in supermarkets, who prepare and serve it in restaurants. You, who drive the trucks and buses that deliver people and goods. You who work at the post office and deliver the mail. You who protect our neighborhoods. You who protect the future by educating our children. You who protect our health, who nurse the sick. You who make steel, who make machines which turn the wheels of society, make cars coursing through the streets of big cities, make trains which stream across the country side, and planes which soar through the air. It is you and you. You are the people of whom Lincoln spoke when he proclaimed a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
This election is about your right to have a government you can call your own, a people's President, a Workers' White House.
We know workers' influence has been diminished in our national government. The passage of NAFTA was proof enough. NAFTA promised new manufacturing jobs, but NAFTA has been devastating to America's workers. Three million jobs, many of them in manufacturing, have been lost since NAFTA passed. Each lost job represents dreams deferred or shattered. Each lost job represents a family and a home that was threatened. Health insurance that was lost. Retirement benefits jeopardized. Children's educational opportunities postponed. The US Trade deficit was $417 billion in 2001. NAFTA has exported jobs and imported poverty..
What would a Workers' White House look like? It would protect the right to strike. ". . . There is no other bargaining but collective bargaining," civil rights attorney Clarence Darrow said. As President I will reject any request to force workers back to work against their will. Employers would have to negotiate in good faith with the workers.
What would a Workers' White House look like? It would fight every single day for national health care for all. No one in America should be without adequate health care. No one should be afraid to go to a doctor because they cannot pay for it. No one should have to worry about losing everything they have worked for in life because of a major illness.
Globalization, NAFTA, and national health care are three issues which even Democratic candidates do not want to talk about. I'll tell you a fourth. Everyone knows it is the sons and daughters of America's working men and women who are the first called into battle. It has always been that way. Except this Administration has not made its case to go to war against Iraq.
I am the only candidate in this race who actually voted against the war, who led the efforts in the House of Representatives over the last year, who organized 126 Democrats to vote against the war.
The facts are these: Iraq was not responsible for 911, for Al-Qaeda's role in 911, for the anthrax attacks on our country. The Administration has not made its case for war. Iraq does not have missile technology which can reach our shores. Iraq has not been demonstrated to have usable weapons of mass destruction.
Inspections should continue. They worked before. They can work again. Iraq was contained. It can continue to be contained. America's power is a deterrence to an attack by any nation.
This war is wrong. It puts at risk the lives of our servicemen and service women. It puts at risk the lives of innocent civilians in Iraq. Surely everyone understands that if we kill thousands of civilians, anger against America will rise and we will increasingly become less safe here at home.
We have a right to defend ourselves. It is a foundational principle. We also have an obligation not to make America less safe. Every grade school athlete knows the difference between defense and offense and America is about to go on the offensive in the world, for empire, for oil but not for us. This Administration, which is run by energy interests, gave a trillion dollar tax cut to the rich and is prepared to accelerate the transfer of wealth through a war which will cost at least $200 billion dollars and perhaps much more. No money for health care. No money for child care. No money for living wages. No money for Social Security. No money for Medicare. Only money for tax cuts for the rich and only money for war. That's your money they are spending to send your sons and daughters to their war. And in the end corporate interests will win while fresh new graves will be dug on two continents.
What would a Worker's White House do? Protect this nation when we are attacked, but not attack another nation so we are forced to protect the nation once again. Use diplomacy to work for disarmament everywhere, not only in Iraq. We have proven that deterrence is the way to avert annihilation. It is the only way. Once we set these weapons at work in the world the situation goes out of control and war breaks loose around the world.
Once again the hopes of people of two nations are being smashed by weapons in the name of eliminating weapons. Let us abolish weapons of mass destruction at home. Corporate control of government is a weapon of mass destruction. Joblessness is a weapon of mass destruction. Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction. Homelessness is a weapon of mass destruction. Poor health care is a weapon of mass destruction. Poor education is a weapon of mass destruction. Discrimination is weapon of mass destruction.
Let us use hundreds of billions of our tax dollars instead for the restoration of the dreams of the American worker, to rebuild our economy and to expand opportunities for all. We have a duty to assert our human needs as a people and not to yield them for the base concerns of an unresponsive government: We have a right to a job. We have a right to decent housing. We have a right to health care. Peace is a precondition which makes all other rights possible.
Peace will protect the rights of workers. The administration has already used national security to try to roll back the rights of the American Federation of Government Employees. It is attempting to frustrate efforts of airport security workers to organize. Its anti-worker agenda includes not only strike breaking, attacking collective bargaining, it also includes cheating workers out of time and a half for overtime. This is the moment for workers all over America to strengthen the cause of peace and for all those who work for peace to rally to the cause of the American worker.
You can change the course of this election. Labor has the power. You, Iowa's union members, are the gatekeepers to the Democratic nomination. I call on you to use your power to put globalization on the agenda. Use your power to put NAFTA back on the table. Use your power to put national health insurance back on the table. And let's stop this war before it starts. I ask you to consider using your power to choose a nominee from the House of Labor, one of Labor's sons, one of your brothers. You can change the course of this election.
What would a Worker's White House do? It would unite people. It would show them their power. It would work for prosperity and peace. It would create solidarity. The kind of solidarity which birthed this nation, the kind of solidarity which births unions, the kind of solidarity which will create a rebirth in America.
The complete speech is posted:
http://www.kucinich.us/speech11.htmFor the official web for the campaign to elect Dennis Kucinich for US President in 2004, see:
www.kucinich.usFor Flyby News's updated "K" page with links to other speeches, articles, etc., and about a new film documentary in the works, see:
Kucinich for US President
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
FLYBY NEWS=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
US War Lies * UN Action! * Deep Concerns * Alaska Refuge
25 March 2003
"..Anytime you've got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, you're time is up!"
-- Michael Moore
1) The War's Impact: Saddam as hero - USA as Villain
2) A country divided begins to feel pain
- - Congressman Waxman asks Bush to explain glaring lies and fabrication
- - Re: Iraq's alleged attempt to acquire nuclear arms
3) Uniting for Peace - Demand a UN Emergency Session
4) Pro-War & Pro-Peace Candidates
5) Michael Moore blasts U.S. war
6) Deep Concerns by Noam Chomsky
7) Alaska Refuge Safe for Now from Oil Drilling
Editor's Notes:
Item one is such an obvious conclusion that one wonders that the Bush administration is planning on this knowingly to cause more turmoil to stay in power. Remember the Ring of Nuclear Power the fear and power can make one quite irrational. Item 2 is some interesting bits on Paula Zahn getting embarrassed by a dead soldier's family response on air, but what is more embarrassing is such a policy that causes such needless harm. At the end of this item please read Congressman Waxman's letter asking Bush to explain glaring lies and fabrication regarding Iraq's alleged attempt to acquire nuclear arms. The Congress was knowingly misled at the time before the Resolution Vote to authorize force.
Item 3 is more from Greenpeace on the Uniting for Peace campaign.
NOW is the time to encourage Peace and Resolution from the United Nations.
Item 4 shows those presidential candidates for and against the war. Kucinich gets mentioned in this article as remaining steadfast for peace.
For more on the campaign in support of a Bill for a Department of Peace, make sure you visit http://www.dopcampaign.org . On April 8th, this historic legislation will be introduced for a second time by Congressman Dennis Kucinich. If you are interested in supporting or joining a Conference on this Bill, visit the web site for the Global Renaissance Alliance at http://www.renaissancealliance.org
Item 5 is an article on Michael Moore's heroics. This is the text of what he said Sunday:
"Whoa. On behalf of our producers Kathleen Glynn and Michael Donovan from Canada, I'd like to thank the Academy for this. I have invited my fellow documentary nominees on the stage with us, and we would like to they're here in solidarity with me because we like nonfiction. We like nonfiction and we live in fictitious times. We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elects a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. Whether it's the fiction of duct tape or fiction of orange alerts we are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you. And any time you got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up. Thank you very much."
Item 6 is an article or link to Noam Chomsky's "Deep Concerns."
Item 7 is on the recent Senate vote that was narrowly defeated that makes the Alaska wildlife refuge safe for now from oil drilling.
1) The War's Impact: Saddam as hero - USA as Villain'This makes us love Saddam, not America'
34 die as US missiles hit wrong target
By Luke Harding in Halabja, northern Iraq
The Guardian
24 March 2003
The last thing that Omar Mohammed Saeed heard was the sound of the American missile plunging through the roof of his dormitory. It was 12.30 at night, and Mr Saeed and his fellow peshmerga fighters had been fast asleep. The laser-guided bomb reduced the compound where Mr Saeed had been staying into a tomb of pulverised concrete and metal. There was no chance of escape.
"We don't understand. Why did America do this? My uncle was a kind man who would never have hurt anybody," his nephew, Sadar Mohammed, said yesterday. "This makes us love Saddam Hussein rather than America," he added.
Mr Saeed was killed in a US missile strike against Iraq in the early hours of Saturday. Over the weekend the US fired more than 70 missiles at territory in north-east Iraq controlled by Ansar al-Islam, a radical Islamist group linked by the Bush administration to al-Qaida. It was Mr Saeed's misfortune that on the night the missiles fell from the sky he was sleeping in the next-door village. Most of the missiles landed on Ansar's tiny mountainous enclave, close to the town of Halabja and the Iranian border. But four missiles hit Khormal, a large neighbouring village, and the headquarters of another Islamic group, Komala. Komala's military garrison was also hit, killing Mr Saeed and at least 33 other people. As volunteers pulled corpses and body parts from the smouldering ruins of the compound yesterday, Mr Saeed's widow Aisha and 10 children wanted to know only one thing: why had America killed him?
"There is no excuse for doing this," said his nephew, Mr Mohammed.
"We were happy when the US promised to get rid of Saddam Hussein and his regime. But this is replacing Saddam with another form of tyranny."
"We simply don't understand," said another relative, Star Rafor.
Refugees who poured out of Khormal yesterday also wanted to know why a superpower that prided itself on the accuracy of its weaponry appeared to have got it wrong. "The US has committed an injustice. It needs to be more careful about civilians," Tafir Abdulla said, as he fled town in a lorry loaded with his belongings. Mr Saeed's relatives buried him in an unmarked plot in Halabja's bleak cemetery on Saturday morning. Afterwards they produced his photo, showing a middle-aged man wearing traditional Kurdish clothes, standing in his leafy back garden. He was 50, and had died of massive internal injuries, they said.
It was not clear last night whether the Americans had hit his garrison in error or had been fed wrong information by the main Kurdish faction, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which has been trying to wipe out Ansar al-Islam for 18 months. Ansar's guerrillas have been expecting an American attack since late January, when the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, told the UN that the group had links with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. Its fighters took to the mountains long ago, and appear to have survived the bombardment largely unscathed. Mr Saeed and his comrades, by contrast, were not thought to be on any US target list. They have no known connection with al-Qaida or with Baghdad. They have spent most of their life fighting Saddam Hussein.
Their group, Komala, run by the bearded warlord Ali Bapir, is part of the Iraqi opposition, and has been at pains to distinguish itself from its fundamentalist neighbours. Mr Bapir fled to Iran last week, leaving his fighters behind. "The reason so many people died is because they were not expecting to be attacked," Mr Mohammed said. Kurdish officials say at least 150 people were killed by US bombing over the weekend in northern Iraq - while others say around 60 have died. Either way the human cost of the coalition's war to get rid of Saddam Hussein is now becoming grimly visible. The phrase collateral damage has a hollow ring..
..Mr Saeed's family yesterday took consolation from the fact that they were at least able to extricate his body from the rubble. Many other Komala fighters were vapourised.
"When Saddam oppressed us there was a reason," Mr Mohammed said, after his uncle's funeral. "We revolted against him and killed his soldiers. But we haven't done anything to the Americans for them to treat us like this."
Who did he now prefer? "We prefer Saddam," he said.
The complete article is posted:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,920556,00.html
2) A country divided begins to feel pain - - Congressman Waxman asks Bush to explain glaring lies and fabrication
- - Re: Iraq's alleged attempt to acquire nuclear arms
Voices of dissent
A country divided begins to feel pain
Sunday March 23, 2003
The Observer
A suddenly awkward moment in America's media bombardment of its own people came yesterday on CNN, which after endless references to the 'ultimate sacrifice' made by those US servicemen who had been killed, lined up its first interview with a bereaved American family; that of dead Marine, Sgt Kendall Waters-Bey of Baltimore.
What was evidently intended to be an emotive patriotic item mutated into crushing embarrassment when anchorwoman Paula Zahn invited the dead man's father to talk about 'the service these men and women are doing' and to react to tributes from General Tommy Franks and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Mr Waters-Bey brandished a photograph of his son saying: 'President Bush, take a look at this man, because you took my only son away from me.'
Asked if he was opposed to the war, he replied: 'Yes I am, people are losing relatives, sons and daughters.'
When an uncomfortable Zahn switched quickly to the dead man's sister, she added that she thought the war 'useless and there is no point in it'.
The item was swiftly terminated and Zahn, turning to a colleague, said: 'It's not easy to hear their pain, is it?'
It was an exchange which revealed the bitter divisions among Americans and between political parties over the strategy and management of conflict.
While popular support for President Bush soared during the first three days of war, polls and public statements yesterday showed up splits in opinion.
One Democrat Congressman from California accused the President of having 'hoaxed' the country into war. A poll by the New York Times showed approval ratings for the President boosted to 70 per cent - an increase of 19 points over 10 days - since the onset of war.
Those who disapproved dropped 15 points to only 27 per cent. Similar figures were reflected in a CNN/ USA Today poll.
But the polling figures among voters for the different parties showed a country deeply divided over the war and in particular the way in which it is being fought. While 93 per cent of Republicans support the President's handling of the war, only half of Democrat voters do.
In one follow-up interview, a woman from Colorado spoke for many in the poll when she said: 'We've taken it upon ourselves to be invaders. September 11th happened and the world looked at us and could feel empathy for us. Now they're just going to say "you had it coming for what you did".'
By contrast, another interviewee from New York said: 'If we had kept putting it off we would have ended in more trouble than we needed to be.'
Thousands of US flags first displayed on front doors and cars in the aftermath of September 11 have been put up again as the nation rallies to support the forces in the Gulf. But Friday night's devastating attack on Baghdad caused many to think twice about the justification for war.
Cynthia Manriquez, who works in a Manhattan law firm, said her entire office stopped to watch the blasts broadcast live on TV.
'The whole place went silent,' she said. 'Even the people who were for the war were in shock.'
In New York, psychologist John Draper said his mental health referral service received a surge in calls around the time of the bombing.
Meanwhile protests against the war gathered pace across the US. At least 20,000 people attended a demonstration in mid-town Manhattan yesterday which erupted into violent clashes between police and protestors.
The Democrat Party has been a limp opposition, if any, to war during the build-up. This has left churches, student groups and families of victims of the September 11 attacks to lead the anti-war movement.
The Senate last week gave Bush unanimous support for going to war. 'This is back-the-Commander-in-chief time,' said one senior Democrat aide. Presidential candidate and former House leader for the party Richard Gephardt has said the war against Iraq is 'part of the war on terrorism'.
Although the opposition walks a highwire over the sudden mood of patriotism, rifts are opening up among Democrats, and some are coming forward to challenge the war.
Vermont governor Howard Dean, campaigning for the presidential nomination on an anti-war platform, said through his spokesman Joe Trippi: 'We stand by the troops, and we stand against the policy. We don't think those are inconsistent at all.
'I certainly want to make it clear that I am going to support the troops and then I'm going to campaign without criticising the President by name.'
But it is Congressman Henry Waxman of California who now leads the anti-war charge, having volte-faced on his initial support for it with a letter to President Bush, citing the forgery by Britain of an Iraqi nuclear connection with Niger as changing his mind.
Waxman expressed 'grave concern' over 'evidence' on 'Iraq's efforts to obtain nuclear weapons', which he calls 'a hoax'.*
Waxman recalls how he 'voted for the congressional resolution condemning Iraq and authorising the use of force' after being 'particularly influenced by your views about Iraq's nuclear intentions'.
'It has now been conceded that this evidence was a forgery,' he says.
Others have emerged since war began, like Dennis Kucinich of Ohio who said he would 'step up the challenge to an international policy that has taken us into an illegal war, and which will bring us more war'.
One vociferous critic of the war, African-American leader Al Sharpton, said he would 'continue to openly question the President's policies' and participate in peace demonstrations.
The New York Times poll bore out many of the Democrats' misgivings. Even now, there are signs that the public is not altogether convinced of President Bush's motives.
Half said they thought Bush's motive was to remove Saddam Hussein, with 16 per cent saying that his primary interest was to protect America's oil supply, and 85 per cent said they thought the US would be victim to a major terrorist attack on its soil 'in the very near future'.
Guardian Unlimited Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003
http://www.observer.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4631553,00.html= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
* Congressman Waxman asks Bush to explain glaring lies and fabrication
Re: Iraq's alleged attempt to acquire nuclear armsMarch 17, 2003
Dear Mr. President:
I am writing regarding a matter of grave concern. Upon your order, our armed forces will soon initiate the first preemptive war in our nation's history. The most persuasive justification for this war is that we must act to prevent Iraq from developing nuclear weapons.
In the last ten days, however, it has become incontrovertibly clear that a key piece of evidence you and other Administration officials have cited regarding Iraq's efforts to obtain nuclear weapons is a hoax. What's more, the Central Intelligence Agency questioned the veracity of the evidence at the same time you and other Administration officials were citing it in public statements. This is a breach of the highest order, and the American people are entitled to know how it happened.."
For the complete letter by Congressman Henry Waxman, see:
http://www.house.gov/waxman/text/admin_iraq_march_17_let.htm
3) Uniting for Peace - Demand a UN Emergency SessionDemands for a UN emergency session is on the rise, but no nation has yet stepped forth to get the ball rolling. However many have expressed their support for the Uniting for Peace resolution, which would bring all nations of the General Assembly together to demand an end to the war.But the resolution needs even more support NOW, because the US has begun an active lobbying campaign against it.
According to Reuters, "The United States has launched a worldwide diplomatic drive to head off the calling of an emergency session..." The US has circulated angry letters to many countries stating that "Given the current highly charged atmosphere, the United States would regard a General Assembly session on Iraq as unhelpful and as directed against the United States."
If they're worried about this, it's a good sign.
Over the last week, the Russian Duma, the President of Indonesia, several European countries and the vast majority of African, Asian, and Latin American countries have expressed support for an emergency session.
UN General Assembly President Jan Kavan of the Czech Republic said he thought it "very likely" that a special session would be called.
But we can't just leave this to "likely."
It's important that a Uniting for Peace resolution passes to show the overwhelming opposition of the world's countries to this war and to make abundantly clear its illegality.
We're part of what the New York Times has called the "new second superpower": world opinion, and it is time our voices were listened to.
Urge your UN Ambassador to support an emergency session under the Uniting for Peace resolution:
http://act.greenpeace.org/aas/e?a=ufp&s=amb_sSend an E-card to your friends, colleagues, fellow students, and family asking them to take action too:
http://act.greenpeace.org/ecs/s2?i=730&sk=stdFor more details on Uniting for Peace from Greenpeace, see:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/news/details?item_id=179491For Flyby's updated Uniting for Peace to Resolve the Iraq Crisis', see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1045091648,41257,
4) Pro-War & Pro-Peace CandidatesCNN.com/Inside Politics
War with Iraq promises to alter campaign battlefield
Candidates say they'll adjust to nation's mood
By John Mercurio
CNN Washington Bureau
Thursday, March 20, 2003
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A sudden hush will likely fall over the crowded, raucous field of Democrats running for president with the U.S. strike against Iraq, as most of the candidates curtail public schedules and tone down partisan rhetoric.
But every candidate, regardless of his or her views on a war, plans to take a wait-and-see approach on exactly how to campaign in this new, unfamiliar environment.
"Like every campaign, we'll be adjusting our campaign schedule on an as-appropriate basis," said Jim Jordan, the campaign manager for Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, who still plans to travel to New Hampshire on Sunday but may adjust the nature of the public events he holds there. "We're certainly not suspending all of our activities, but we will, of course, be sensitive to tone, to taste, to the national mood, and making scheduling decisions accordingly."
With a key fund-raising deadline looming March 31, however, the fierce money chase that could make or break some campaigns will continue unabated, albeit behind closed doors. The day-to-day mechanics of building their base in the early-primary states will remain a top, if less noticeable, priority.
And don't be surprised to find Democrats maintaining their strong criticism of President Bush, particularly on domestic issues like the budget, taxes and economy.
"Even though we're at war abroad, we have to remember that democracy continues here at home. That means that the basic mechanics of the campaign and the important work of the Senate must continue," said Jano Cabrera, a spokesman for Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, who harshly criticized Bush and congressional Republicans this week on their budget plan.
All eight active candidates have ruled out officially "suspending" their campaigns during the early stages of the war, and all of them say they plan to assess and evaluate schedules as the highly unpredictable situation develops.
Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, who entered the race late last month, has not started to campaign actively and will not do so until the initial phase of the war passes. Graham is the only senator who opposed last year's congressional resolution authorizing U.S. military action without the support of a U.N. coalition.
'Staying flexible'
"We're staying flexible and just make decisions as events unfold," said Erik Smith, a spokesman for Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri, who currently plans to proceed with a scheduled trip to the United Auto Workers convention in Des Moines, Iowa this weekend. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who has strongly criticized Gephardt and other congressional Democrats for supporting the war resolution, also plans to attend the UAW conference this weekend.
Still, some candidates are clearly more willing to criticize the administration's Iraq policy than others. Former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, for example, blasted Bush again yesterday in San Francisco, urging him to "call off this war."
"In its rush to war, the administration has obscured the goals, dissimulated the costs, disparaged our friends and allies and branded as unpatriotic ordinary Americans who pose legitimate questions," said Moseley Braun, who will travel to Washington for private meetings later this week. "It has squandered the universal credit and sympathy America received after 9/11, and it has damaged our alliances and the United Nations."
And Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who entered the race in February billing himself as a staunch antiwar candidate, has made clear that he'll continue to speak out against Bush and "the president's war."
"He'll continue to campaign and will speak out on the president's policies, both foreign and domestic," said Doug Gordon, a Kucinich spokesman. "Dates and venues [of campaign events] could change due to the war, but his message will not change. He believes we can support the troops but challenge the policies that put them there."
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/03/20/sprj.irq.politics/index.html
5) Michael Moore blasts U.S. warAccepts documentary Oscar with `Shame on you, Mr. Bush'
ANTHONY BREZNICAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELESMichael Moore criticized President George W. Bush and the U.S.-led war in Iraq during his acceptance speech at Sunday's Academy Awards, drawing a partial standing ovation and some jeers from Hollywood's elite.
The documentary maker won his first Oscar for Bowling For Columbine, but he brought the other nominees on stage with him in what he called a show of solidarity for nonfiction during
these "fictitious times."
"We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elect a fictitious president," Moore said. "We live in a time where we have a man who's sending us to war for fictitious reasons, whether it's the fiction of duct tape or the fiction of orange alerts."
Applause gave way to some boos, as the orchestra began playing to cue the filmmaker to leave the stage.
"We are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush. Shame on you," Moore shouted.
Afterward, host Steve Martin tried to restore levity.
"It was so sweet backstage, you should have seen it," Martin joked. "The Teamsters were helping Michael Moore into the trunk of his limo."
Bowling For Columbine, produced by Alliance-Atlantis of Toronto, was Moore's exploration of gun violence in America.
The title refers to the fact that gunmen Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went bowling before they opened fire at Columbine High School in Colorado, killing 12 students and a teacher before turning the guns on themselves.
Asked backstage why he made the remarks, Moore answered: "I'm an American."
"Is that all?" a reporter asked.
"Oh, that's a lot," Moore responded.
He dismissed the jeers he received, telling reporters: "Don't report that there was a split decision in the hall because five loud people booed."
Scattered appeals for peace and grim reports from the U.S.-led war in Iraq added a sober contrast to Hollywood's traditional night of glitzy self-glorification.
"In light of all the troubles in this world, I wish us all peace," Chris Cooper said in his acceptance speech for best supporting actor for Adaptation.
Cooper was among several nominees, including Meryl Streep and Martin Scorsese, who wore dove peace pins on their formal wear as a silent statement about the war.
Moore's words last night echoed his acceptance on Saturday, when Bowling For Columbine took the Independent Spirit Award for best feature documentary in a funky annual awards ceremony known as the "anti-Oscars."
On Saturday, Moore also took a shot at CNN, which he mocked for its use of army generals as commentators. "I would like to call on the U.S. military to withdraw from the media," he said.
The Indie Spirit awards included a sweep by Far From Heaven a satiric but poignant tribute to 1950s Hollywood repression won five awards. It was named best independent feature of 2002; Todd Haynes was chosen best director; Julianne Moore was best lead actress; and Dennis Quaid was best supporting actor.
Winnipeg native Nia Vardalos, who wrote and starred in My Big Fat Greek Wedding commercially the most successful independent movie ever won the award for best debut performance.
Opening the Indie Spirit show, Elvis Costello drew an emotional ovation when he sang the words, "What's so funny about peace-loving understanding?"
Moore, the rotund, scruffy-bearded activist from Flint, Mich., also directed the 1989 documentary Roger & Me, in which he pursued former General Motors Corp. boss Roger Smith to confront him about the collapse of the auto industry in Moore's hometown.
He's also the author of the best-selling book, Stupid White Men, which criticizes American politicians for favouring corporate wealth over public well-being.
Copyright 1996-2003. Toronto Star Newspapers Limited.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1035779783772&call_pageid=968867495754&col=969483191630
6) Deep Concerns by Noam ChomskyDeep Concerns
by Noam Chomsky; March 20, 2003
[Excerpt]
At this grim moment, we can do nothing to stop the ongoing invasion. But that does not mean that the task is over for people who have some concern for justice, freedom, and human rights. Far from it..
..Terminal nuclear war has been avoided by near miracle in the past; a few months before Acheson's speech, to mention one case that should be fresh in our minds today. Threats are severe and mounting. The world has good reason to watch what is happening in Washington with fear and trepidation. The people who are best placed to relieve those fears, and to lead the way to a more hopeful and constructive future, are the citizens of the United States, who can shape the future.
Those are among the deep concerns that must, I think, be kept clearly in mind while watching events unfold in their unpredictable way as the most awesome military force in human history is unleashed against a defenseless enemy by a political leadership that has compiled a frightening record of destruction and barbarism since it took the reins of power over 20 years ago.
For the complete article, see
http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=3293§ionID=40
7) Alaska Refuge Safe for Now from Oil DrillingThe following commentary, preceding the following AP article, is from Nancy (via kucinich4president list serve):
"..I was watching C-Span2 coverage and that old goat Senator Stevens said on the floor of the Senate "anyone who votes against this bill is a vote against me, and I won't forget it." That is a threat, esp, severe since the Old Goat Stevens is Chairman of the Appropriations committee......I guess a couple of GOPers didn't worry about his vindictiveness..
Republicans Fail to Get Alaska Refuge Drilling Measure, by the Narrowest of Margins
By H. Josef Hebert Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate on Wednesday narrowly rejected oil drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge, rebuffing the Bush administration on a top energy goal it had hoped to win with a wartime security appeal.
Despite intense lobbying by pro-drilling senators and the White House in the hours leading up to the vote, Democrats mustered the support needed to remove a drilling provision from a budget resolution expected to be approved later this week.
An amendment offered by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., to strip away the provision passed 52-48.
For the complete article, see:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/134656575_webdrilling19.htmlor
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/030319/w031952.html
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Shock, Awe, & Kucinich * History's Darkest Visions
22 March 2003
"We are going to be in such a fix when this war is over, or before this war is over. Our grandchildren's grandchildren are going to be paying for this war. I look at our future as, I'm sorry, being very, very dark."
- Walter Cronkite, March 19, 20031) "Shock and Awe" - Kucinich Responds- - kucinich4presidend list serve feedback
- - Man With a Plan - changes in our administration
2) When Democracy Failed: The Warnings of History - - by Thom Hartmann
3) Cheney's Warped Perspective on the Need to Attack Iraq - - by Scott Ritter
4) Into the Darkness- - by William Rivers Pitt
Editor's Notes:Shock and Awe has begun -- one thing is for sure -- people are being misled to what it is all about. Congressman Dennis Kucinich is making statements each day on the current crisis. Following his statement in item 1, are feedback and ideas to get involved in a campaign to replace the current regime in the US with someone representing a democracy and the founding principles and ideals of its Constitution. Item 2 is a clear warming of history in an article by Thom Hartmann. Item 3 is from Scott Ritter, detailing the lies connected with "Cheney's Warped Perspective on the Need to Attack Iraq." Item 4 is a poignant article by William Rivers Pitt, "Into the Darkness." Please keep the actions for peace flowing.. Help us with your actions to get ahead of the curve of domination and destruction to what is good about humanity.
Keep the faith - Get rid of the corrupt leaders!
1) "Shock and Awe" - Kucinich Responds- - kucinich4presidend list serve feedback
- - Man With a Plan - changes in our administration
"Shock and Awe" - Kucinich Responds
Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH), who leads opposition in the House to the war in Iraq, issued [Fri, 21 Mar 2003] the following statement on the 'shock and awe' air campaign:
"Today is a sad day, the United States has begun its 'shock and awe' air campaign against Iraq. By all accounts this attack will rain thousands of bombs down on a heavily populated area."
"The 'shock and awe' air campaign is a horrific acceleration of the United States' unprovoked attack against Iraq. This air campaign is designed to aim the full might of the United States military apparatus at the center of a civilian population."
"Today, my thoughts and prayers are with the coalition service men and women serving in the region and with the innocent Iraqi civilians. We must end this unjustified war."
Congressman Kucinich will issue daily statements on the war in Iraq.
# # # # #
To read Congressman Dennis Kucinich other statements in March/February 2003, see:
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/oh10_kucinich/~list.html# # # # #
To learn more visit the official web site for Dennis Kucinich for US President in 2004:
http://www.kucinich.us= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
kucinich4presidend list serve feedback
The following is a response to a presentation by Dennis Kucinich in Kentucky in an email over the kucinich4president@yahoogroups.com list serve:
> Hello, I first heard Kucinich speak when he came to Lexington, Kentucky's Kentucky Theatre. This experience provided for the most hopefully, positive moment that I have had in a long time. Before last Saturday I had never heard the name Kucinich and for the past week I have told so many people about how amazing he is. He speaks true to a dream that I have had for a long time about a peaceful nation. How do we get his name out more, I just only hope it is possible for us to promote his campaign more so that he has a chance to win the election. Is there any way that I can help???? I don't have money to give, I am merely a poor college student but I want to help in some way. Also, let me tell you a story about what happened when he came to speak on Saturday. It was at the end of his speech and we were all about to go outside and participate in a peace rally and march, and my boyfriend walks up to the stage where Kucinich was speaking with a number of people. It just so happened that that Monday was Saint Patrick's day and my boyfriend was turning 30 years old. He was wearing his lucky Saint Patrick's day shirt that he has had for about 11 years now. The shirt is the official Rugby with four leaf clover on it. Anyway, he is a poor college student as well, and he wanted to help out Kucinich in some way so he walks up to the stage and offers him his lucky shirt, Kucinich right away takes off his suit jacket and puts on the shirt and wears the shirt for the rest of the day!!! What a wonderful person!!! I just hope that the shirt provides him with some kind of luck during the campaign!!
> Anyway, in light of the bombs dropping today, today it was a sad sad day! Thank you so much for having this group, I was so pleased to find it on the groups list!
Heather
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For information on this list serve, visit:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kucinich4president/= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
To contribute, volunteer, and learn more from the Kucinich campaign, see:
http://www.kucinich.usHelp make Peace on Earth Happen - the other alternative is plain darkness.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Please note - You can also help by encouraging other institutions, universities, and organizations to bring Dennis Kucinich to your area, and to provide his campaign with financial support!
Another suggestion is in supporting a documentary video on Dennis in the works, see item 2 at following URL:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1047762100,84797, AND, we highly recommend NOW your viewing and showing the Frank Dorrel video called:
"What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World." The information in this 2-hour video is vital for US citizens to realize the purpose of the Kucinich campaign in reclaiming democracy in the US, and it only costs $10! The idea is to spread this video everywhere in the US and beyond.
Flyby News is sponsoring this video and discussions at the Common Ground in Brattleboro, VT. Tuesday 25 March 2003 beginning at 6:00 P.M..
To order this video send $10 to:
Frank Dorrel - P.O. Box 3261; Culver City, CA 90231-3261.
For more information, see:
http://www.addictedtowar.com/dorrel.html= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Man With a Plan - changes in our administrationFor another recent interview article of Dennis Kucinich
Published in a San Francisco Bay Area alternative paper),
see "Man With a Plan: Congressman Dennis Kucinich
is looking to make a few changes in our administration"
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/03.13.03/peace-0311.htmlThe following are key points from this interview:
Kucinich
"..we know that there has been no proof that Iraq was connected to the event of 9-11, and we know that Iraq did not attack our country. No credible information has been brought forward that suggests that Iraq was responsible for al Qaida's role in 9-11, nor is there any evidence that Iraq had anything to do with the anthrax attack on our country. . . .
It's important for people to look for alternative resources when the major media may not be presenting information which is at variance with the message of the day at the White House. .
.. We need to work to regain those civil liberties that have been ceded to a government which is determined to stay at war and therefore keep this nation on alert. The Patriot Act ought to be repealed. We cannot achieve security in our society through having a government dedicated to war. The attack on Iraq will increase the jeopardy for our own citizens. We need a different response to the challenge of terrorism, which is to enforce the law using good, old-fashioned police and detective work, and wherever that can't work, using the international community to take coordinated action towards peaceful resolution.
The Patriot Act was a step in the direction of establishing a type of government that is really foreign to everything that America stands for. This will be an issue in the 2004 election.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/03.13.03/peace-0311.html
2) When Democracy Failed: The Warnings of History - - by Thom Hartmann
[Excerpt]
First published - March 16, 2003 - by Common Dreams
When Democracy Failed: The Warnings of History
by Thom Hartmann
The 70th anniversary wasn't noticed in the United States, and was barely reported in the corporate media. But the Germans remembered well that fateful day seventy years ago - February 27, 1933. They commemorated the anniversary by joining in demonstrations for peace that mobilized citizens all across the world.
It started when the government, in the midst of a worldwide economic crisis, received reports of an imminent terrorist attack. A foreign ideologue had launched feeble attacks on a few famous buildings, but the media largely ignored his relatively small efforts. The intelligence services knew, however, that the odds were he would eventually succeed. (Historians are still arguing whether or not rogue elements in the intelligence service helped the terrorist; the most recent research implies they did not.)
But the warnings of investigators were ignored at the highest levels, in part because the government was distracted; the man who claimed to be the nation's leader had not been elected by a majority vote and the majority of citizens claimed he had no right to the powers he coveted. He was a simpleton, some said, a cartoon character of a man who saw things in black-and-white terms and didn't have the intellect to understand the subtleties of running a nation in a complex and internationalist world. His coarse use of language - reflecting his political roots in a southernmost state - and his simplistic and often-inflammatory nationalistic rhetoric offended the aristocrats, foreign leaders, and the well-educated elite in the government and media. And, as a young man, he'd joined a secret society with an occult-sounding name and bizarre initiation rituals that involved skulls and human bones.
Nonetheless, he knew the terrorist was going to strike (although he didn't know where or when), and he had already considered his response. When an aide brought him word that the nation's most prestigious building was ablaze, he verified it was the terrorist who had struck and then rushed to the scene and called a press conference.
"You are now witnessing the beginning of a great epoch in history," he proclaimed, standing in front of the burned-out building, surrounded by national media. "This fire," he said, his voice trembling with emotion, "is the beginning." He used the occasion - "a sign from God," he called it - to declare an all-out war on terrorism and its ideological sponsors, a people, he said, who traced their origins to the Middle East and found motivation for their evil deeds in their religion.
Two weeks later, the first detention center for terrorists was built in Oranianberg to hold the first suspected allies of the infamous terrorist. In a national outburst of patriotism, the leader's flag was everywhere, even printed large in newspapers suitable for window display.
Within four weeks of the terrorist attack, the nation's now-popular leader had pushed through legislation - in the name of combating terrorism and fighting the philosophy he said spawned it - that suspended constitutional guarantees of free speech, privacy, and habeas corpus. Police could now intercept mail and wiretap phones; suspected terrorists could be imprisoned without specific charges and without access to their lawyers; police could sneak into people's homes without warrants if the cases involved terrorism.
To get his patriotic "Decree on the Protection of People and State" passed over the objections of concerned legislators and civil libertarians, he agreed to put a 4-year sunset provision on it: if the national emergency provoked by the terrorist attack was over by then, the freedoms and rights would be returned to the people, and the police agencies would be re-restrained. Legislators would later say they hadn't had time to read the bill before voting on it.
Immediately after passage of the anti-terrorism act, his federal police agencies stepped up their program of arresting suspicious persons and holding them without access to lawyers or courts. In the first year only a few hundred were interred, and those who objected were largely ignored by the mainstream press, which was afraid to offend and thus lose access to a leader with such high popularity ratings. Citizens who protested the leader in public - and there were many - quickly found themselves confronting the newly empowered police's batons, gas, and jail cells, or fenced off in protest zones safely out of earshot of the leader's public speeches. (In the meantime, he was taking almost daily lessons in public speaking, learning to control his tonality, gestures, and facial expressions. He became a very competent orator.)
Within the first months after that terrorist attack, at the suggestion of a political advisor, he brought a formerly obscure word into common usage. He wanted to stir a "racial pride" among his countrymen, so, instead of referring to the nation by its name, he began to refer to it as "The Homeland," a phrase publicly promoted in the introduction to a 1934 speech recorded in Leni Riefenstahl's famous propaganda movie "Triumph Of The Will." As hoped, people's hearts swelled with pride, and the beginning of an us-versus-them mentality was sewn. Our land was "the" homeland, citizens thought: all others were simply foreign lands. We are the "true people," he suggested, the only ones worthy of our nation's concern; if bombs fall on others, or human rights are violated in other nations and it makes our lives better, it's of little concern to us.
Playing on this new nationalism, and exploiting a disagreement with the French over his increasing militarism, he argued that any international body that didn't act first and foremost in the best interest of his own nation was neither relevant nor useful. He thus withdrew his country from the League Of Nations in October, 1933, and then negotiated a separate naval armaments agreement with Anthony Eden of The United Kingdom to create a worldwide military ruling elite.
His propaganda minister orchestrated a campaign to ensure the people that he was a deeply religious man and that his motivations were rooted in Christianity. He even proclaimed the need for a revival of the Christian faith across his nation, what he called a "New Christianity." Every man in his rapidly growing army wore a belt buckle that declared "Gott Mit Uns" - God Is With Us - and most of them fervently believed it was true.
Within a year of the terrorist attack, the nation's leader determined that the various local police and federal agencies around the nation were lacking the clear communication and overall coordinated administration necessary to deal with the terrorist threat facing the nation, particularly those citizens who were of Middle Eastern ancestry and thus probably terrorist and communist sympathizers, and various troublesome "intellectuals" and "liberals." He proposed a single new national agency to protect the security of the homeland, consolidating the actions of dozens of previously independent police, border, and investigative agencies under a single leader.
He appointed one of his most trusted associates to be leader of this new agency, the Central Security Office for the homeland, and gave it a role in the government equal to the other major departments.
His assistant who dealt with the press noted that, since the terrorist attack, "Radio and press are at out disposal." Those voices questioning the legitimacy of their nation's leader, or raising questions about his checkered past, had by now faded from the public's recollection as his central security office began advertising a program encouraging people to phone in tips about suspicious neighbors. This program was so successful that the names of some of the people "denounced" were soon being broadcast on radio stations. Those denounced often included opposition politicians and celebrities who dared speak out - a favorite target of his regime and the media he now controlled through intimidation and ownership by corporate allies.
To consolidate his power, he concluded that government alone wasn't enough. He reached out to industry and forged an alliance, bringing former executives of the nation's largest corporations into high government positions. A flood of government money poured into corporate coffers to fight the war against the Middle Eastern ancestry terrorists lurking within the homeland, and to prepare for wars overseas. He encouraged large corporations friendly to him to acquire media outlets and other industrial concerns across the nation, particularly those previously owned by suspicious people of Middle Eastern ancestry. He built powerful alliances with industry; one corporate ally got the lucrative contract worth millions to build the first large-scale detention center for enemies of the state. Soon more would follow. Industry flourished.
But after an interval of peace following the terrorist attack, voices of dissent again arose within and without the government. Students had started an active program opposing him (later known as the White Rose Society), and leaders of nearby nations were speaking out against his bellicose rhetoric. He needed a diversion, something to direct people away from the corporate cronyism being exposed in his own government, questions of his possibly illegitimate rise to power, and the oft-voiced concerns of civil libertarians about the people being held in detention without due process or access to attorneys or family. . .
. . . As we conclude this review of history, there are a few milestones worth remembering.
February 27, 2003, was the 70th anniversary of Dutch terrorist Marinus van der Lubbe's successful firebombing of the German Parliament (Reichstag) building, the terrorist act that catapulted Hitler to legitimacy and reshaped the German constitution. By the time of his successful and brief action to seize Austria, in which almost no German blood was shed, Hitler was the most beloved and popular leader in the history of his nation. Hailed around the world, he was later Time magazine's "Man Of The Year."
Most Americans remember his office for the security of the homeland, known as the Reichssicherheitshauptamt and its SchutzStaffel, simply by its most famous agency's initials: the SS.
We also remember that the Germans developed a new form of highly violent warfare they named "lightning war" or blitzkrieg, which, while generating devastating civilian losses, also produced a highly desirable "shock and awe" among the nation's leadership according to the authors of the 1996 book "Shock And Awe" published by the National Defense University Press.
Reflecting on that time, The American Heritage Dictionary (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1983) left us this definition of the form of government the German democracy had become through Hitler's close alliance with the largest German corporations and his policy of using war as a tool to keep power: "fas-cism (fbsh'iz'em) n. A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism."
Today, as we face financial and political crises, it's useful to remember that the ravages of the Great Depression hit Germany and the United States alike. Through the 1930s, however, Hitler and Roosevelt chose very different courses to bring their nations back to power and prosperity.
Germany's response was to use government to empower corporations and reward the society's richest individuals, privatize much of the commons, stifle dissent, strip people of constitutional rights, and create an illusion of prosperity through continual and ever-expanding war. America passed minimum wage laws to raise the middle class, enforced anti-trust laws to diminish the power of corporations, increased taxes on corporations and the wealthiest individuals, created Social Security, and became the employer of last resort through programs to build national infrastructure, promote the arts, and replant forests.
To the extent that our Constitution is still intact, the choice is again ours.
# # #
Thom Hartmann lived and worked in Germany during the 1980s, and is the author of over a dozen books, including "Unequal Protection" and "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight."
This article is copyright by Thom Hartmann, [
http://www.thomhartmann.com ] but permission is granted for reprint in print, email, blog, or web media so long as this credit is attached.
###
The complete article is posted:
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0316-08.htm
3) Cheney's Warped Perspective on the Need to Attack Iraq - - by Scott Ritter
Published September 10, 2002 in the Chicago Tribune
It was a tour de force in terms of storytelling--the vice president of the United States speaking before an enthralled audience at the Veterans for Foreign Wars national convention last month in Nashville. Vice President Dick Cheney took full advantage of his bully pulpit to reinforce the case for war against Iraq, which hinged on Saddam Hussein's alleged continued possession of weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological, nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles, all outlawed since 1991 by a United Nations Security Council resolution).
"The Iraqi regime has in fact been very busy enhancing its capabilities in the field of chemical and biological agents," Cheney told the audience. "And they continue to pursue the nuclear program they began so many years ago."
On what basis did Cheney substantiate his assertion?
"We've gotten this from the firsthand testimony of defectors," he grimly noted, "including Saddam's own son-in-law, who was subsequently murdered at Saddam's direction."
And so the tale began. "During the spring of 1995, the weapons inspectors were actually on the verge of declaring that Hussein's programs to develop chemical weapons and longer-range ballistic missiles had been fully accounted for and shut down," Cheney told the veterans. "Then Saddam's son-in-law [Hussein Kamal] suddenly defected and began sharing information. Within days the inspectors were led to an Iraqi chicken farm. Hidden there were boxes of documents and lots of evidence regarding Iraq's most secret weapons programs."
All of this would be valid, if it were only true. I have spoken with the CIA and British intelligence officials who debriefed Hussein Kamal after his defection and reviewed the complete transcript of UNSCOM's own session with Saddam's prodigal son-in-law.
Contrary to the myth propagated by Cheney, there were no "smoking gun" revelations made by Hussein Kamal regarding hidden Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Throughout his interview with UNSCOM, a UN special commission, Hussein Kamal reiterated his main point--that nothing was left. "All chemical weapons were destroyed," he said. "I ordered destruction of all chemical weapons. All weapons--biological, chemical, missile, nuclear--were destroyed. There is not a single missile left ... they [Iraq] had kept blueprints and molds for production, but all the missiles were destroyed."
Everything Hussein Kamal said about Iraq's undeclared weapons programs was confirmed, in parallel, through the ongoing analysis by UNSCOM experts of the chicken farm documentation alluded to by Cheney.
There was nothing unique, nothing that differed from the documentary evidence. The bottom line from this high-profile defector--there was nothing left, that all proscribed weapons and their programs had been eliminated, and that the worst fears of a retained Iraqi capability--a nuclear device, for instance--were without substance.
Up until the Cheney's speech, the Bush administration had been vague about its objections to the return of weapons inspectors to Iraq.
However, in speaking of the defection of Hussein Kamal, Cheney revealed some of the thinking behind the rhetoric, and in doing so exposed fundamental flaws in the factual basis supporting the reasoning of the White House. The vice president's speech was intended to help solidify the case for war against Iraq. But if the evidence cited is representative of the level of knowledge possessed by those promoting regime change in Iraq, then it is high time we as a nation demand a halt to this rush toward war.
Unfortunately, as far as the Bush administration is concerned, it seems that when it comes to Iraq and weapons of mass destruction, truth is more often than not the first casualty. Consider Cheney's emphasis during his speech that " ... we often learned more as the result of defections than we learned from the inspection regime itself."
I would ask Cheney to review the transcript of the debriefing of Hussein's son-in-law, and heed carefully the words he spoke to the weapons inspectors that day in August 1995. "You should not underestimate yourself." Hussein Kamal said. "You are very effective in Iraq."
Inspectors were very effective in Iraq, and would be again if given a chance to carry out their tasks. Some in the Bush administration are waking up to this fact. "The president has been clear that he believes weapons inspectors should return," Secretary of State Colin Powell said recently. "And so, as a first step, let's see what the inspectors find. Send them back in."
That, Mr. Vice President, is advise worth heeding.
Scott Ritter is the former UN weapons inspector in Iraq and the author of "Endgame: Solving the Iraq Problem-- Once and For All."
Copyright 2002, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com
4) Into the Darkness- - by William Rivers Pitt
T r u t h o u t | Perspective
Tuesday 18 March 2003
An associate of mine, a former political appointee, recently spoke to a Republican friend of his who serves in a senior position in what has become the Office of Homeland Security. He reports that this official, along with many of his colleagues across the political spectrum within the apparatus of government, are absolutely terrified of George W. Bush. According to this official, the consensus is that Bush has completely lost touch with reality, and is bringing us to a place where politics will no longer matter.
A London newspaper, the Guardian, has quoted a source close to the administration as saying, "This has been the worst diplomatic debacle of our lifetime." A senior White House official is also quoted as saying, in a voice reportedly awash with sarcasm, "There's a recognition that this has not been our finest diplomatic hour."
There is no calculating the understatement here. There was never any diplomacy involved here to begin with. This has been a disaster, and it is about to get worse by orders of magnitude.
The weapons inspectors, empowered by UN resolution 1441 to ferret out the weapons everyone is so concerned about, have packed their bags and fled Iraq. They have been betrayed by the Bush administration, by Tony Blair and by Spain, as they worked to protect us from both these weapons and from the dreadful effects of a war in the Middle East.
The inspections were working weapons were being dismantled, Hussein was under control, and no mass destruction materials were found. The fact that the hammer has come down before these inspectors were even half done with their work means, simply, that those pushing for war never wanted the inspections to work in the first place.
Welcome to the timeline. .
For the complete article by William Rivers Pitt
and excellent resource links, see:
http://truthout.org/docs_03/031903A.shtml
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark
info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
BushWar * Zinn * Constitution * Peace * Rachel * bloodbath?
18 March 2003
"Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes. And armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. "In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended. Its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force of the people. "The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war and in the degeneracy of manners and morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."
- James Madison, April 20, 1795 1) BUSH STAGES `SHOOTOUT' AT IRAQ CORRAL Court Challenge Still Alive Challenging Bush War Declaration
Marbury v. Madison Celebrates 200 Years as the Law of the Land
2) Howard Zinn: War is terrorism
3) Greenpeace Uniting for Peace Link
4) Rachel Corrie - Peace Activist Killed by Israeli Bulldozer
5) Felicity Arbuthnot: "There is going to be a bloodbath"
Editor's Notes:George W. has chosen the 200th anniversary-year of the Marbury v. Madison case to declare unilateral war against the principles of the US Constitution.
Item 1 begins with Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr.'s press release on the misleading Bush Speech. Perhaps the following description by Goodsister is even more revealing:
"Bu$h's handlers must've told him to cool the Valium and the everpresent smirk this time, because he looked a little less glassy-eyed, and kept those thin lips from sneering most of the time. But hearing him drone on in lying cliches I'm sick of hearing, I felt the horror of the moment like an electric charge up my spine.
This is the way the world ends, I thought. Not with a bang but a droning, boring whine from a spoiled, aging frat boy who thinks he talks directly to God. It's ironic that the end of the world should be signaled not by a shout, or an eloquent and fiery speech by a demagogue, but instead by this weak, spotty assortment of cliches, embarrassing in their simplemindedness."
--GoodsisterStill, in item 1, is information on the pending court challenge on the Bush unilateral declaration for war. Also, is some information from another Goodsister's moderated list serve - United-Stands-America@yahoogroups.com - from Scott Thurston, worth repeating, here:
** Article I, Section 8(11) states that only congress can declare war and Article III, Section 2.1 states that "The President shall be commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States, WHEN CALLED INTO THE ACTUAL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES";...(emphasis added)
Item 2 is from a PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer Transcript from a program called: "Historical Perspectives", which aired on March 17, 2003 - immediately following President Bush's war speech. This item has excerpts mainly from the historical and real perspective from Howard Zinn.
Item 3 is on a critical action you can take with Greenpeace: "If ever there was a need for the United Nations to rise to the challenge it was conceived to meet, now is that time. . . Through a little-used mechanism known as Resolution 377A, the "Uniting for Peace" resolution, the General Assembly may be the last hope for disarming Iraq peaceably and stopping the US war machine." Please visit their link and contact UN ambassadors to support this resolution! ASAP!
Item 4 is about the tragic story of Rachel Corrie, a peace activist killed by an Israeli bulldozer. You can read from Rachel's own words, and her mom's. It is not too late to stop this war, and stop policies that Rachel gave her life to prevent. As Howard Zinn stated: "War is terrorism!" Item 5 is from an interview with Felicity Arbuthnot: "There is going to be a bloodbath," and she expects the use of nuclear weapons, but not if the world wakes up in time! Please help stop an illegal and unjust war.
This Thursday and next Tuesday, Flyby News will be showing the film, "What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World." This video compilation is an excellent educational tool. We plan to show part of it, and engage people in a discussion on what we can do to reclaim our democracy. Flyby News highly recommends your purchasing a copy. For more information on this, and other actions, visit FlybyNews.com CAMPAIGNS * ACTIONS * EVENTS
"The world is a dangerous place to live;
not because of the people who are evil,
but because of the people that don't do anything about it."
Albert Einstein
1) BUSH STAGES `SHOOTOUT' AT IRAQ CORRAL Court Challenge Still Alive Challenging Bush War Declaration
Marbury v. Madison Celebrates 200 Years as the Law of the LandBUSH STAGES `SHOOTOUT' AT IRAQ CORRAL
President Orders Saddam To `Get Out Of Dodge'
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, March 17, 2003
Congressman Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. - using language similar to the cowboy and gunslinger image this President likes to project - said, "President Bush tonight announced that he is staging a `high noon' shootout at the Iraq corral in 48 hours. President Bush has ordered Saddam Hussein to `get out of Dodge.' Without UN sanction and with a new doctrine of preemption, the former owner of the Texas Rangers is now acting as the Lone Ranger. Unlike his father's success at building a United Nation's `coalition of the willing' in 1991, this President's failure to get a UN resolution means he is going to war with a `coalition of the wanting.' His actions also shred Secretary of State Colin Powell's military doctrine.
"For over a decade, the Powell Doctrine has served presidents of both parties as a guidepost in determining whether or not American Armed Forces should be committed to battle. As articulated in a 1992 article in Foreign Affairs magazine, Colin Powell provided a prudent template for judging the acceptability of a proposed military action by the U.S. The Powell Doctrine posed several questions:
* Is a vital national security interest threatened?
* Do we have a clear attainable objective?
* Have the risks and costs been fully and frankly analyzed?
* Have all other non-violent policy means been fully exhausted?
* Is there a plausible exit strategy to avoid endless entanglement?
* Have the consequences of our action been fully considered?
* Is the action supported by the American people?
* Do we have genuine broad international support?
"Each question posed by Colin Powell, when applied to Iraq, renders a negative answer - which means Bush has shredded the Powell Doctrine. The Powell Doctrine is dead!
"Finally," Congressman Jackson said, "our lawyers have gone back into the Federal Court of Appeals in Boston to challenge the President's authority to wage war without a declaration from Congress."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Court Challenge Still Alive Challenging Bush War DeclarationFor Immediate Release:
DATE: March 17, 2003
COURT CHALLENGE TO BUSH STILL ALIVE
BUSH MOMENT OF TRUTH COMES TO FEDERAL COURT
CONTACTS:
Justin Kazmark (646) 495-4960 justin@andymorrisandcompany.com
Andy Morris (646) 495-4958 andy@andymorrisandcompany.com
John Bonifaz (attorney), (617) 524-2675 or (617) 529-4611 (cell)
Charles Richardson and Nancy Lessin (parent plaintiffs), (617) 522-9323, (617) 320-5301 (cell), (508) 277-9466 (cell)
Last Weeks Court of Appeals Ruling Opens Door To Judicial Intervention In War Against Iraq
-- Plaintiffs Resubmitting Suit Today Because Conditions Are Ripe --
Boston The lawsuit filed by active-duty U.S. soldiers, parents of U.S. soldiers and 12 Members of Congress to prevent the President from waging war against Iraq without a formal Declaration of War by Congress will resubmit the case today. The case will again go before the same three-judge panel of the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that dismissed the case on Thursday last week on "ripeness" grounds essentially saying the timing was not right for it to get involved.
"The case is very much alive," said John Bonifaz, lead attorney for the plaintiffs. "We are not going to wait until the bombs fall. If the President moves us closer to war without U.N. authorization, this case will be ripe for the court's review and will demand judicial intervention to prevent an unjust and unconstitutional war."
While the Doe v. Bush case was dismissed by a federal appeals court on Thursday, the three-judge panel gave the plaintiffs a "partial victory" by making it clear they would be open to looking at the issues again should President Bush order an invasion of Iraq without the authorization of the United Nations. The lawsuit challenges the Presidents authority to wage war in Iraq without a Congressional Declaration of War, as required by the Constitution in Article I, Section 8.
This case should be of major concern to the Bush Administration and could slow the timing for an invasion of Iraq should President Bush try to proceed without the authorization of the United Nations, said law professors who studied the 30-page opinion Friday. The First Circuit Court decision is important precisely because it turns on the ripeness of the claim. The court gives every indication that it is taking the plaintiffs' case seriously but that are not yet ready for adjudication. The court leaves open for consideration whether the President actually has power to declare war absent specific Congressional action. It is interesting that they did not find that the plaintiff lacked standing or that the whole case is a political question. Rather, the court emphasized that it is not ripe so the wheel is still very much in spin, said Jamin Raskin, a law professor at the Washington College of Law at American University in Washington, D.C.
If the court were then to grant the request for an injunction preventing the President from invading Iraq absent further action by Congress, the issue will be thrown to Congress to vote up or down on whether to go to war without U.N. authorization. Such a decision could delay the start of the war or even force the Bush Administration to wait until it has U.N. backing, should that be the decision of the Congress.
The fact the lawsuit is still alive hinges on an understanding of certain esoteric legal doctrines. The appeals court could have dismissed the case on "political question" grounds, as the lower trial court had. This means that the issues are so political that they would be best left to the legislative and executive branches of government. If the case had been dismissed on these "political question" grounds, it would have essentially killed the lawsuit.
According to Thursday's opinion, the Plaintiffs' claim will be ripe for hearing as soon as it becomes clear either that the Security Council will not authorize war, and that the President will proceed nonetheless. Today we seem to have arrived at that situation. If the president wants to proceed to war without U.N. approval, and without being delayed by proceedings in a federal court, he would be well-advised to obtain Congress' authorization of an attack on Iraq, said Nancy Lessin, one of the parent plaintiffs in the case.
Those suing include a coalition of U.S. soldiers, parents of U.S. soldiers from seven states, and 12 congress people. Two weeks ago, the group won a rare expedited review by the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston of a lower-court dismissal. The lawsuit was originally filed on February 13. The lead plaintiffs are three U.S. soldiers, including a Marine currently stationed in the Persian Gulf. The U.S. Justice Department is representing President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the named defendants.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The above press release was written by Andy Morris and Co (contact info above)
Up to Date information on the case with copies of legal filings may be found at
Military Families Speak Out:
http://www.mfso.org and
and Traprock Peace Center
http://traprockpeace.org~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Marbury v. Madison Celebrates 200 Years as the Law of the Landby Scott Thurston
Marbury V. Madison celebrates its 200th Birthday this year and has received little to no attention. I believe the words written by this nations highest court in this landmark case are worthy of our attention and consideration in light of the fact that; we have a sitting president who has taken it upon himself to unilaterally declare war in clear violation of our Federal Constitution**; we have a judicial system that is corrupt and in which the dispensation of justice is secondary to the dollar; we have a legislature that is manipulated by elite, corporate interests to pass laws, many of which are "repugnant" to our Federal Constitution.
**Article I, Section 8(11) states that only congress can declare war and Article III, Section 2.1 states that "The President shall be commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States, WHEN CALLED INTO THE ACTUAL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES";...(emphasis added)
In the battle for Liberty,
Scott Thurston (TJL)
http://www.angelfire.com/az/sthurston/RealityZone.htmlhttp://www.angelfire.com/az/sthurston
2) Howard Zinn: War is terrorismThe following is [EXCERPTED] from a special PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer Transcript "HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES" March 17, 2003 -
which followed President Bush speaking from the White House
JIM LEHRER: President Bush speaking from the White House.
Some perspective now on what the president just said from four historians. From Boston University: Robert Dallek who has written extensively on the American presidency and the history of American foreign policy; and Professor Emeritus Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States and The Politics of History, among others. Walter Russell Mead, a senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations; and Diane Kunz, a diplomatic historian, formally at Yale University. She's the author of utter and Guns: America's Cold War, Economic Diplomacy.
EXCERPT - for the complete transcript, see:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/white_house/jan-june03/historians_3-17.html JIM LEHRER: Howard Zinn, what did you think of the president's case for war?
HOWARD ZINN: Well, as Robert Dallek, says it's the usual case but the one thing that is missing in so much of the discussion is that we are going to kill a lot of people in this operation. It's all well and good to talk about the promise of a different Iraq, a democratic and free Iraq, a promise which is very dubious considering the history of the United States.
It's a history in which it has not been very good at creating democracy, a history in which it has rather supported dictatorships around the world, but we are going to kill -- and think of it this way -- we talk about Saddam Hussein and what he's doing to the people of Iraq -- we are going to kill the victims of Saddam Hussein. The civilians of Baghdad are going to be living under terrorism.
We are concerned about terrorism. War is terrorism. The people of Baghdad are going to be terrorized. Shock and all, we are going to unleash enormous numbers of bombs on the cities and villages of Baghdad. Now we can't... that is certain. What is uncertain is the future. When you face certain horrors in war and uncertainties about the outcome, morally you cannot go along with this war.
And I think that's why most of the world is outraged at what the United States is about to do. They are right. President Bush is right now the greatest danger to world peace. He is also the greatest danger to our young men and women whom he is sending into combat. Those who die, not just those who die in Iraq, but those people in our armed forces who die, they will die because President Bush has grandiose ambitions for American power in the world. They will die because of oil. They will die because of politics. They will die because of the need of the United States government to expand its power. Those are not good reasons for people to die -- there or here.
How will posterity remember this era?
JIM LEHRER: I take it then you disagree with what Walter Mead just said that over time public opinion throughout the world will swing to the Bush position and the American position?
HOWARD ZINN: Nobody knows how public opinion will look. Predicting the future and predicting public opinion, we don't know what is going to happen in the future.
We do know what is going to happen immediately. And what is going to happen immediately is that the United States is going to be really endangering the people of the United States, not just the people of Iraq because even the CIA has said that the threat of terrorism will grow if we go to war.
The United States government, by going to war, is making the American people less safe, is putting us in greatest danger. For Bush to talk about national security doesn't make any sense. He is endangering the security of the United States just as he is endangering the security of the people in Iraq. I might say one more thing. Iraq was a real danger... just one more sentence.
If Iraq was a real danger to the world, then why is it that all the countries around Iraq and why is it that the countries of the rest of the world do not want to go to war? Why is it that the most powerful military country in the world with oceans on both sides is going to war against Iraq? The reasons are not the ones given by President Bush.
3) Greenpeace Uniting for Peace Link The leaders of the most powerful nations on Earth have failed us. The Security Council has failed us. The world stands on the brink of war.
If ever there was a need for the United Nations to rise to the challenge it was conceived to meet, now is that time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Through a little-used mechanism known as Resolution 377A, the "Uniting for Peace" resolution, the General Assembly may be the last hope for disarming Iraq peaceably and stopping the US war machine.
You can write to your UN ambassador to support this resolution from here:
http://act.greenpeace.org/aas/e?a=ufp&s=amb_sThe Uniting for Peace resolution empowers the General Assembly to meet in emergency session to address acts of aggression or a breach of the peace when the Security Council has been unable to act. Its was first used to bring about a cease-fire in the Suez crisis of 1950, forcing Britain and France to withdraw from Egypt within a week, even after they had vetoed calls for a cease-fire in the Security Council. It's been used ten times since then, most often at the request of the United States.
If you believe, as we do, that the very future of the world, and of the United Nations, is being put at risk in the name of a pre-emptive war, please join the call for the UN General Assembly to respond. Ask that the Uniting for Peace resolution be invoked, that the war on Iraq be condemned, and that peaceable means of disarming Iraq be sought.
The next hours may provide our last chance to change a dangerous course in history. The United Nations must not allow a world order based on multilateralism to be replaced with one in which the mightiest and richest make the rules.
You can read more here:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/news/details?item_id=179491and, again, you can write to your UN ambassador to support this resolution from here:
http://act.greenpeace.org/aas/e?a=ufp&s=amb_sYou can visit the Greenpeace No War website for more news:
http://nowar.greenpeace.orgPlease take a few minutes to act now.
*Editor's note
This information came from Greenpeace Cyberactivist Community at:
http://act.greenpeace.orgFlyby News will post this information also at our updated URL:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1045091648,41257,"Uniting for Peace to Resolve the Iraq Crisis"
We have days or hours to help activate this plan!
4) Rachel Corrie - Peace Activist Killed by Israeli BulldozerOn Sunday, March 16, 2003, at the age of 23, Rachel Corrie, of Olympia, Washington, USA, was killed -- crushed to death by a US-made Israeli bulldozer -- while protesting the demolition of Palestinian homes by Israeli army.
ISRAELI BULLDOZER DRIVER MURDERS AMERICAN PEACE ACTIVIST
Photo story: Israeli bulldozer driver murders American peace activist
Nigel Parry and Arjan El Fassed,
The Electronic Intifada, Mar 16, 2003
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article1248.shtmlRachel Corrie: In her own words
Rachel Corrie, writing from Rafah, occupied Palestine.
Excerpts from an e-mail from Rachel Corrie to her family on February 7, 2003
I have been in Palestine for two weeks and one hour now, and I still have very few words to describe what I see. It is most difficult for me to think about what's going on here when I sit down to write back to the United States--something about the virtual portal into luxury. I don't know if many of the children here have ever existed without tank-shell holes in their walls and the towers of an occupying army surveying them constantly from the near horizons. I think, although I'm not entirely sure, that even the smallest of these children understand that life is not like this everywhere. An eight-year-old was shot and killed by an Israeli tank two days before I got here, and many of the children murmur his name to me, "Ali"--or point at the posters of him on the walls. The children also love to get me to practice my limited Arabic by asking me "Kaif Sharon?" "Kaif Bush?" and they laugh when I say "Bush Majnoon" "Sharon Majnoon" back in my limited Arabic. (How is Sharon? How is Bush? Bush is crazy. Sharon is crazy.)
Of course this isn't quite what I believe, and some of the adults who have the English correct me: Bush mish Majnoon... Bush is a businessman. Today I tried to learn to say "Bush is a tool", but I don't think it translated quite right. But anyway, there are eight-year-olds here much more aware of the workings of the global power structure than I was just a few years ago--at least regarding Israel.
For more, "Rachel Corrie: In her own words" see:
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article1254.shtmlRachel Corrie's letter to her parents from Gaza.
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article1248.shtmlhttp://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article1254.shtmlRemembering Rachel Corrie.
Statement from Rachel Corrie's parents
March 16, 2003
"We are now in a period of grieving and still finding out the details behind the death of Rachel in the Gaza Strip.
"We have raised all our children to appreciate the beauty of the global community and family, and are proud that Rachel was able to live her convictions.
"Rachel was filled with love and a sense of duty to her fellow man, wherever they lived. And, she gave her life trying to protect those that are unable to protect themselves.
"Rachel wrote to us from the Gaza Strip, and we would like to release to the media her experience in her own words at this time.
"Thank you".
Craig and Cindy Corrie, parents of Rachel Corrie
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"..I am just beginning to learn, from what I expect to be a very intense tutelage, about the ability of people to organize against all odds, and to resist against all odds."
Rachel Corrie
4) Felicity Arbuthnot: "There is going to be a bloodbath"British journalist Felicity Arbuthnot speaks on Iraq
"There is going to be a bloodbath"
By Barbara Slaughter
18 March 2003
Felicity Arbuthnot is a freelance journalist who has visited Iraq 26 times since the 1991 Gulf War. She worked as senior researcher on the film Paying the PriceKilling the Children of Iraq, which investigated the devastating effect of United Nations sanctions on people of Iraq.
The film's title refers to a statement by then US Secretary of State Madeline Albright in 1996 that the deaths of over half a million Iraqis as a result of embargo related causes was, "a hard price but the price is worth it."
Arbuthnot was interviewed by Barbara Slaughter just before she returned to Iraq.
The US and the UK accuse Saddam Hussein of non-compliance with UN resolutions, but the US and the UK don't even have any mandate from the Security Council to comply with. There is no mandate from the United Nations for them to be patrolling the no-fly zones or indeed for the no-fly zones themselves. The continuous bombings of Iraq by American and British forces is illegal.
I personally am convinced that this will be a nuclear war. I think that Bush and Blair are prepared to break that sacred vow on the Hiroshima memorial, which says, "Rest in peace. The mistake will not happen again." And I'll give you one of the reasons why. In 1991 in Tel-Aviv, just before the Gulf War, the Israeli military gave a press conference, and one of the questions was, "What will happen if Iraq lobs anything into Israel?" And the spokesman replied, "We will turn Baghdad into a sheet of glass."
Israel has the fifth largest nuclear arsenal on earth, with two hundred nuclear warheads. Also US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his British counterpart Geoffrey Hoon have made it clear that they won't hesitate to use nuclear weapons.
Nobody has really looked at what Britain and America are rather chillingly referring to as "the day after". We all remember that film in the 1980s about nuclear war called The Day After. Who is going to take over?
There is going to be a bloodbath that the British and the Americans have not thought through. Not because these are a warlike people but imagine if the Iraqis or anyone else said "OK, we'll come in and sort out Tony Blair."
For the complete article, see:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/mar2003/arbu-m18_prn.shtml
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark
info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
AboutDennis - KucinichFilm * Oil * Hartmann * DixieChicks
15 March 2003
1) About Dennis from www.kucinich.us
2) Kucinich Documentary Film in the Works
3) Kucinich Forces Administration To Disclose Iraq Document to Congress - - Obviously Oil' by Dennis Kucinich
- - Yes Magazine Interviews Kucinich
- - 'The Empire Needs New Clothes' by Thom Hartmann
- - Action Alert - Remove Arctic drilling from budget bill
- - Democracy in Iraq doubtful' Greg Miller4) Dixie Chicks Hammer President on Iraq Issue
Editor's Notes:Nedra Pickler, in a recent AP article, noted that "..out of the 51 roll call votes cast in the Senate as of Wednesday afternoon {March 12], Kerry missed the most of any senator 29, including two while he was recovering from prostate surgery last month. Graham missed 18, including 16 since his surgery. Lieberman didn't vote 16 times and Edwards 10.
In the House, the missed vote leader is another presidential candidate, Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, who has missed 45 of the 60 roll call votes. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a newcomer to the
presidential race, has not missed any."
Kucinich's perfect voting attendance record is quite astonishing, taking into account his extraordinary efforts in opposition of President Bush's war and terrorist-producing policies, and his active Presidential campaign to reclaim democracy in the US. And when we met in Burlington for last October's Peace Summit, Congressman Kucinich asked me how did I find the time for my work with Flyby News. It was humorous for me getting such a question from him, who was due in San Francisco later that day, and then scheduled to be back in Washington, D.C. for a Sunday national news TV program that very next morning. I mentioned about prioritizing, but I still can't figure out how he gets so much accomplished.
Meanwhile, the media has begun aggressively attacking Kucinich or dismissing him. PBS Washington Week in Review this week mentioned Howard Dean as the only "major" candidate against the war. Kucinich was left out. As another tactic, Kucinich was aggressively attacked by Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen for suggesting that interest for preemptive war on Iraq was based on oil. Yet, when Dennis Kucinich offered a reply, the Washington Post denied publishing it. The Kucinich reply is linked in item 3, following a press release of another Kucinich accomplishment, forcing the Bush administration to disclose an Iraq document to Congress.
Item one begins with "About Dennis" from www.kucinich.us.
The opening sentence states:
"US Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, a Democrat of Ohio, is a dynamic, visionary leader of the Progressive Caucus of the congressional Democrats who combines a powerful activism with a spiritual sense of the essential interconnectedness of all living things." When have you ever heard such an opening remark about a politician?
Dennis is about hope, about an independent person running for US President, free from corporate special ties, and who values life and democracy with a passion and commitment. Since the mainstream media won't be helping his campaign, the people must find other ways to get his and our message across. Item 2 is about such a vehicle, a documentary film, which is in the works that could bring Kucinich into the homes and the hearts of America.
Please read about this project and consider how you can help.
Besides supporting this critical project, Flyby News also recommends your showing another video that gives an overview of CIA covert operations and US interventions since WWII.
"What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World." The information in this video is vital for US citizens to realize the purpose of the Kucinich campaign for leadership to reclaim democracy in the US.
Flyby News is sponsoring this video and discussions at the Jones Library in downtown Amherst, MA, Thursday March 20, 2003 beginning at 6:00 P.M., and also 6 pm Tuesday, March 25th at the Common Ground in Brattleboro, VT.
If interested in ordering this video, send $10 to:
Frank Dorrel - P.O. Box 3261; Culver City, CA 90231-3261.
For more information, see:
http://www.addictedtowar.com/dorrel.htmlOn the current situation, President Bush is preparing to attack Iraq in the matter of days, and will probably forgo a vote seeking another Resolution in the United Nations (since his plan for preemptive attack to disarm and occupy Iraq would be defeated). Besides taking actions in the prayer candlelight vigils across the globe Sunday (16 March at 7:00 PM), we encourage you to write to UN's Security Council Member States and to Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Here's a sample letter:
(Kofi Annan's email address is sg@un.org)
Dear Kofi Annan,
I am very grateful for your recent appeals for the UN Security Council to act in unity over Iraq. Unfortunately, it may not be possible for the UNSC to agree. I am writing to ask that in that situation, you consider a further step, that is, to convene an emergency session of the General Assembly under the "Uniting for Peace" mechanism.
I know you are working hard to avoid War, and also to maintain the integrity of the United Nations. A majority of people and nations in the world support you in this.
Please consider this suggestion very urgently and seriously.
Sincerely
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Also, please write to the UN Security Council for the same objective:
Following is a sample letter and addresses of UNSC members.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Email addresses:
mexico@un.int , Angola@un.int , Chile@un.int , Pakistan@un.int , Guinea@un.int , Cameroon@un.int , rusun@un.int , chinamission_un@fmprc.gov.cn , france-presse@un.int , syria@un.int , contact@germany-un.org
Dear Ambassador,
I am very grateful for your recent resistance to a proposed 2nd resolution leading to War. Unfortunately, it may not be possible for the UNSC to agree, despite the efforts of all those for Peace. I support your position that peaceful disarmament can still be achieved. I am writing to ask that in the current situation, you consider a further step, that is, to request the convening of an emergency session of the General Assembly under the "Uniting for Peace" mechanism.
If America goes to War, it should be seen to the eyes of the whole world that its does so against the collective nations of the world. Better still, a meeting of the General Assembly may yet prevent War. I know you are working to avoid War and to maintain the integrity of the United Nations. A majority of people and nations in the world support you in this. Please consider this suggestion very urgently and seriously.
Yours sincerely
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more on "Uniting for Peace to Resolve the Iraq Crisis," see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1045091648,41257, = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For another possible way to stop this war - Nelson Mandela has spoken out against an attack on Iraq in no uncertain terms. He has said that he will go to Iraq in an attempt to stop the war if the UN asks him. It is almost midnight and a request from the UN has not materialized. So we must ask him ourselves. War seems inevitable, but Mandela's intervention could stop it. Below is a letter which you can copy and paste and send to him - or write your own.
His email address is NMF@NelsonMandela.org
Dear Madiba,
You have rightly condemned an attack on Iraq and we are very thankful indeed for what you have done, and throughout your whole life. I understand that you are willing to go to Iraq in the hope that your presence will stop it. We hear that you are waiting for the UN to ask you to do this. It's close to midnight and we, the people of the world who oppose this war, cannot wait in the hope that a request from the UN materialises. So we are asking you ourselves. Your presence in Iraq if possible, along with other Nobel Peace Prize winners such as Jimmy Carter and Mikhail Gorbachev, who have also spoken out against an attack on Iraq, would surely stop those who would shed the blood of children for oil and power. This war can be stopped and I believe that just your presence alone would be enough to stop it.
If I had the power to stop the war by going to Iraq, I would certainly go. But I don't have that power. You do. Please use that power for the sake of the Iraqi people and for all our sakes. The world needs 'Madiba magic' more than ever now. It's our last chance for peace. Please help the innocent who are sacrificed for the power greedy. The world is at a turning point, and we must use this opportunity to tip the balance in the right direction to bring about a lasting peace.
Respectfully yours,
John Downing
(From England)
Flyby News thanks all the good folks, especially those on the Kucinich4president list serve. Someday the crisis will pass over and a resurrection for democracy will take place. In working for peace and justice, thanks for reading and especially for taking actions in response to those threatening humankind-life for greed and power or annihilation.
For more on Dennis Kucinich, see:
Kucinich for US President in 2004 and for the Kucinich official campaign web site, visit:
www.kucinich.us
1) About Dennis from www.kucinich.usUS Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, a Democrat of Ohio, is a dynamic, visionary leader of the Progressive Caucus of the congressional Democrats who combines a powerful activism with a spiritual sense of the essential interconnectedness of all living things. His holistic worldview carries with it a passionate commitment to public service, peace, human rights, workers rights, and the environment. His advocacy of a Department of Peace seeks not only to make nonviolence an organizing principle in our society, but to make war archaic. His is a powerful, ethical voice for nuclear disarmament, preservation of the ABM treaty, banning weapons in outer space, and a halt to the development of a 'Star Wars' - type missile defense technology.
He has been recognized of his advocacy of human rights in Burma, Nigeria and East Timor. Together with the late Rep. Joe Moakley (D-Mass), he has led a concerted effort to close the School of the Americas, which has been an incubator of human rights violations in Central America. On the eve of the World Trade Organization's Seattle conference, Rep. Kucinich organized 114 Democrats to help convince President Clinton to seek human rights, workers rights and environmental quality principles as preconditions in all US trade agreements. Kucinich marched with workers through the streets of Seattle protesting the WTO's policies and with students through the streets of Washington, DC, challenging the structural readjustment policies of the IMF.
Congressman Kucinich acts upon his belief that protection of the global environment is fundamental to preserving the life of all species. He has been honored by Public Citizen, the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth and the League of Conservation Voters as a champion of clean air, clean water and an unspoiled earth. He was an early critic of nuclear power as being risky economically, and environmentally, raising questions about nuclear wasted byproducts. As a state senator he raised so many questions about a planned siting of a nuclear waste dump in Ohio that the idea was eventually scrapped. Early in his first term in Congress he thwarted an effort to repeal a provision of the Clean Air Act. As a congressional representative to the global climate treaty talks, Congressman Kucinich encouraged America to lead the way toward a sustainable, shared stewardship of the planet through carbon reduction and investment in alternative energy technologies.
He not only believes in sustainability, he practices it. Congressman Kucinich is one of the few vegans in Congress, a dietary decision he credits not only with improving his health, but in deepening his belief in the sacredness of all species. In the 106th Congress, his call for labeling and safety testing of all genetically engineered foods provoked a $50 million advertising campaign by the biotech industry.
Kucinich hosted an international parliamentary session, attended by officials of 18 countries, on the social, economic, political and health impact of genetic food technologies. More recently he was one of the principal speakers at an international conference on water rights where he called for governments to reserve public ownership of water resources.
As chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (which is the largest congressional caucus). Kucinich has promoted a national health care system, preservation of Social Security, increased Unemployment Insurance benefits, and the establishment of wholesales cost-based rates for electricity, natural gas and home heating oil. When the Supreme Court ruled that mandatory arbitration could be a condition of employment, Kucinich introduced a bill to reverse the Court's decision.
In his Cleveland, Ohio district, Kucinich has been recognized by the Greater Cleveland AFL-CIO as a tireless advocate for the social and economic interests of his community. He is currently leading a civic crusade to save Cleveland's 90 year-old steel industry and the thousands of jobs and retiree benefits it provides. While hundreds of community hospitals have been closed throughout the country, Kucinich led a powerful citizens' movement which reopened two Cleveland neighborhood hospitals. He was prepared to block a railroad merger at the Surface Transportation Board until he gained an agreement from the nation's largest railroads which improved rail safety while diverting a heavy volume of train traffic away from heavily populated residential areas. His promotion of rail safety improvements gained him the top award from the Ohio PTA in 2000. His efforts on behalf of Cleveland's poor gained the recognition of the National Association of Social Workers. He continues to be a local and national advocate for the homeless.
Kucinich first came to national prominence in 1977 when he was elected mayor of Cleveland at age 31; the youngest person ever elected to lead a major American city. In 1978, Cleveland's banks demanded that he sell the city's 70 year-old municipally-owned electric system to its private competitor (in which the banks had a financial interest) as a precondition of extending credit to city government. Kucinich refused to sell Muny Light. In an incident unprecedented in modern American politics, the Cleveland banks plunged the city into default for a mere $15 million. Kucinich lost his re-election bid in 1979. Fifteen years later, Kucinich made his first step toward a political comeback, winning election to the Ohio Senate on the strength of the expansion of the city's light system which provides low-cost power to almost half the residents of Cleveland. In 1998 the Cleveland City Council honored him, "having the courage and foresight to refuse to sell the city's municipal electric system."
Kucinich was born in Cleveland, Ohio on October 8, 1946. He is the eldest of 7 children of Frank and Virginia Kucinich. He and his family lived in twenty-one places, including a couple of cars, by the time Kucinich was 17 years old. "I live each day with a grateful heart and a desire to be of service to humanity," he says.'
From -
http://www.kucinich.us -
2) Kucinich Documentary Film in the WorksThe following was written by Malachi Roth,* filmmaker, Flyby News subscriber, and a valuable contributor for the campaign to elect Dennis Kucinich for US President in 2004.
SHORT
In the spirit of the many outspoken political documentaries from over the years (Roger & Me, Panama Deception, Harlon County, U.S.A., Land Without Bread, etc.) which have helped shape people's views and broadened their information base this intimate look at the rise of a great American leader will inspire, energize and catapult Kucinich and his message onto the national scene.
BRIEF
While most politicians use shameless smear tactics to wage their war like electoral campaigns there is one bit of shameless propaganda which is not only morally acceptable but strategically necessary: celebrity endorsements. One of the central themes of this documentary will be the interviews with those who endorse Kucinich weather they are Actors, Musicians, Political figures, Academics, Writers, Film-makers, Poets, or average Americans. These testimonies will be the backbone of the film while Dennis speeches and interviews will act as the Greek chorus. This way the candidate does not come across as trying to sell himself but instead is pitched to the audience by an endless parade of supporters from across the spectrum.
The production will also seek rights to music (preferably well known), which deals with war and injustice and the soundtrack will do a great deal to set an overall tone of heartfelt dissent. Rather than take the fly on the wall approach this documentary will be agenda driven and much like the old New Deal documentaries it won't use feigned objectivity as an excuse to shy away from presenting a vision for a better world. The film will come across as an emotional plea to people's awakening sense of moral outrage.
The interviews, speeches, candid footage of the candidate, historical and contemporary stock footage, scenes of contemporary America will all be woven together into a stirring introduction to both Kucinich as well as the massive awakening which is going on around the world as a reaction to the overreaching of a doomed un-elected president and his corporate cronies.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* A biographical sketch on Malachi Roth -
Malachi Roth graduated from Temple University s Tyler School of Art with a B.F.A. in graphic design. He has recently completed, an hour-long biographic documentary called Jos Limn: A Life Beyond Words, which will be aired on PBS sometime this year. The film has received wards for: Best Film Made for Television/Montreal Festival of Films on Art; Best Documentary on the Arts/Wine Country Film Festival & Best Documentary/Ajijic Film Festival (Mexico). The documentary was a recipient of New York and Pennsylvania State Council on the Humanities and Latino Public Broadcasting grants. The film has been screened at Lincoln Center, The Pompidou Center and at the Kennedy Center on March 12th 2003.
Malachi has also directed two short films: Plain English and Sour Instinct, which won the award for best experimental film at the Philadelphia International Film Festival. He has also recently been awarded a filmmaking grant by the New York State Council on the Arts and was also a panelist for their Project Support Grant. Malachi is also the author of three original feature-length screenplays, and is currently finishing a short experimental documentary on the audition process called Actors.<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
YOU CAN HELP MAKE THIS FILM HAPPEN
The following suggestions are ways you can help -
- financial donations
- pre-purchase VHS or DVD copies
- contacts for interviewees and music
- connections for a producer, and other film making professionals
- and any other ideas you can think of helping!
Please note that now there's a twenty-minute documentary film ready! -- "The Peace Candidate."
Contact Malachi Roth
Email:
malachiroth@mindspring.com or
Voice-mail at (212)822-8545
3) Kucinich Forces Administration To Disclose Iraq Document to Congress - - Obviously Oil' by Dennis Kucinich
- - Yes Magazine Interviews Kucinich
- - 'The Empire Needs New Clothes' by Thom Hartmann
- - Action Alert - Remove Arctic drilling from budget bill
- - Democracy in Iraq doubtful' Greg MillerFor Immediate Release
from Kucinich Congressional Office
Contact: Doug Gordon - (202) 225-5871
Tuesday, March 11, 2003
Kucinich Forces Administration To Disclose Iraq Document to Congress Administration Forced To Turn Over Documentation
On Iraq Due to Kucinich Resolution of Inquiry
The Administration was forced to turn over documentation to Congress about Iraq due to a Resolution of Inquiry filed by Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH). The Administration finally released to Congress the 12,000 page Iraqi declaration made to the United Nations on December 7, 2002.
Kucinich, Ranking Member of the Government Reform Subcommittee National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, used a rare House procedure known as a Resolution of Inquiry, filed in the House on February 12, 2003, to pry the information out of the Administration.
"This is a small step forward in obtaining information that the Administration has deliberately withheld from the public and the Congress," stated Kucinich. "This Administration has marched the nation, and the world, to the verge of war without revealing any evidence to this Congress or the American people to back up its war rhetoric. I will continue to oppose this unjustified war, and continue my efforts to ensure that this Administration reveals evidence, to the public, it may have before its sends the young men and women of the Armed Force into battle. I believe Congress, and the American people, deserve nothing less."
In a concession by the Administration, the report will now be available for Members of Congress to view.
Kucinich plans to use the rules of the House to continue to push this Administration to lift its cloak of secrecy and allow the Congress, and the American people, see any evidence it may have to justify its preemptive attack against Iraq.
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/oh10_kucinich/030311doc.html= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a related article, see:
"Obviously Oil" by Dennis Kucinich= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
And another article, from
Yes Magazine:
interview with Rep. Dennis Kucinich= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Also, check this powerful article:
'The Empire Needs New Clothes' by Thom HartmannIt's easy to vilify George W. Bush as a cynical warmonger, anxious to attack Iraq to repay the oil companies that funded his election campaigns. But to do so is to make a dangerous and fundamental error, and such a myopic view of the Bush administration's policies puts America's future at risk.
The reality is that the current administration has a clear and specific vision for the future of America and the world, and they believe it's a positive vision. In order to put forward an alternative vision, it's essential to first understand the vision of America held by the New Right.
The core of the neoconservative vision was first articulated on June 3, 1997, in the Statement of Principles put forth by the Project For The New American Century. Signed by Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Bill Bennett, Jeb Bush, Gary Bauer, Elliott Abrams, Paul Wolfowitz, Vin Weber, Steve Forbes and others from the Reagan/Bush administration, it clearly stated that "the history of this century should have taught us to embrace the cause of American leadership."
Frankly acknowledging that America is a small portion of the world's population but uses a large percentage of the world's oil and other natural resources, Poppy Bush is famous for having said, "The American lifestyle is not negotiable."
McMansions for two-person families, a transportation infrastructure based on 6,000-pound SUVs carrying single individuals, cheap Chinese goods at Wal-Mart and cheap Mexican food in the supermarket - all of this is not anything America intends to give up. We're king of the hill, and we intend to stay that way, even if it means going to war to keep it.
At the core of this is oil. When the administration's people say American involvement in Iraq is "not about oil," they're often responding to charges that they're only going after profits for American oil companies. They speak truth, in that context, when they say the war isn't about revenues from oil - the profits will only be a desirable side-effect. What the war is really about is the survival of the American lifestyle, which, in their world-view, is both non-negotiable and based almost entirely on access to cheap oil.
For the complete article, see:
'The Empire Needs New Clothes' by Thom Hartmann= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
EMERGENCY ALERT:
Tell your senators to remove Arctic drilling revenues from the budget bill.Next week the U.S. Senate will cast a critical vote on a budget bill that the Bush administration and its pro-drilling allies have commandeered as a stealth vehicle for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.
Take action now at
http://www.nrdcaction.org/index.asp?step=2&item=1536If you prefer to call your senators, the Capitol switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
When calling, please urge your senators to vote to remove any language in the FY04 budget resolution that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related article: Democracy in Iraq doubtful
State Dept. report says Social, economic obstacles work against transformation
by Greg Miller,
Los Angeles Times
Friday, March 14, 2003
Washington -- A classified State Department report expresses deep skepticism that installing a new regime in Iraq will foster the spread of democracy in the Middle East, a claim President Bush has made in trying to build support for a war, according to intelligence officials familiar with the document.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/03/14/MN22108.DTL
4) Dixie Chicks Hammer President on Iraq Issue"Vive Le France and Germany and Russia! And the Dixie Chicks!!"
AOL News: Dixie Chicks Hammer President on Iraq Issue
DIXIE CHICKS 'ASHAMED' ON IRAQ ISSUE
.c The Associated Press
NASHVILLE, Tennessee (March 14) - The Dixie Chicks are drawing harsh words from country music fans for remarks singer Natalie Maines made about President Bush during a recent performance in London.
Maines told the audience earlier this week, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."
Angry phone calls flooded Nashville radio station WKDF-FM on Thursday, some calling for a boycott of the Texas trio's music.
The group released a statement Thursday saying they have been overseas for several weeks and "the anti-American sentiment that has unfolded here is astounding. While we support our troops, there is nothing more frightening than the notion of going to war with Iraq and the prospect of all the innocent lives that will be lost."
In a separate statement Thursday, Maines said, "I feel the president is ignoring the opinion of many in the U.S. and alienating the rest of the world. My comments were made in frustration, and one of the privileges of being an American is you are free to voice your own point of view."
The Dixie Chicks will kick off a U.S. tour in support of their multi-platinum album "Home" on May 1 in Greenville, South Carolina. The group's hits include "Wide Open Spaces," "Ready to Run" and "Landslide."
03/14/03 11:45 EST
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The following note came from Loring Wirbel via globenet list serve:
Seeing as how two-thirds of the country-music stations in the US have banned the Dixie Chicks because Natalie Mains criticized the president in a London concert last night, I think it behooves all of us in the progressive community to run right out and buy a Dixie Chicks album and rub it in the face of some dumbass pro-war redneck. I swear, I'm getting to the point where I no longer want to argue finer points with those supporting the war, I just want to call them names and act belligerent.
Vive Le France and Germany and Russia! And the Dixie Chicks!!"
Loring Wirbel
CPIS/PPJPC
lwirbel@aol.com
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
FLYBY NEWS=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
TerrorBomb * StopUS * Goodman * Shield * PentagonJunk
13 March 2003
1) Threat of Terror - U.S. tests massive bomb
2) The Iraq crisis - about stopping the United States
3) 'Democracy Now!' Amy Goodman - Voice Heard on Iraq
4) Activists in Baghdad Brace for Consequences of War
5) Doves Step Up Efforts to Halt March to War
6) Pentagon Seeks Freedom to Pollute Land, Air and Sea
Editor's Notes:Elizabeth Smart's coming home was welcomed and joyful news, but sadly too, likely to be used also as a distraction by war mongers calling for the build-up and execution of a US invasion and occupation of Iraq. The US is delaying the UN vote. Yet the US says its so gun-ho for what it calls an imminent war. So, the only real way to stop a US invasion is for a pro-active peace plan, Uniting for Peace. Innocent children don't need to die. Inspections are working, and the greater crisis at hand is with confirmed nuclear weapon programs and starving people. The brutal approach is too expensive for US soldiers', too. Not one child, or one soldier defending his home, need to die to effectively disarm Iraq from weapons of mass destruction.
The US is unresolved; the plan for a UN vote for Friday, has been delayed. Please take critical actions each weekday in support of a peaceful resolution.
For more on contacting UN Delegates in support of "Uniting for Peace to Resolve the Iraq Crisis," see this URL link:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1045091648,41257, This Sunday 16 March, thousands of communities will join in candlelight vigils in prayer for peace, beginning at 7:00 pm.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Reverend Robert Edgar, and other religious leaders call for candlelight vigils around the world on march 16th to say yes to peace -- and no to war with Iraq. So far, 2637 vigils have been scheduled in 91 countries. See the web URL link for a candlelight vigil in your area, or you can schedule a new vigil.
www.GlobalVigil.org Please contact UN member states in support of pro-active peace plans. Encourage nations to act together to stop a US invasion that would harm innocent Arab people, and inflame unresolved emotions that could add to more problems. Thus, coinciding with Newton's law for action and reaction, cause and effect, karma.. War should only be a last resort, and per US Constitution, can only be declared by an act of Congress!
There is much to ponder in reading the following six items. The Amy Goodman interview is worth reading completely, and the story on the peace activists in Baghdad, protecting children, is simply inspirational.
Please Give Peace a Chance
1) Threat of Terror - U.S. tests massive bombCNN.com - Tuesday, March 11, 2003 Posted: 8:34 PM EST (0134 GMT)
U.S. tests massive bomb
Designed for use in 'psychological operations'
From Barbara Starr
CNN Washington Bureau
[For photo: "The MOAB, privately known in military circles as "the mother of all bombs," has been under development since late last year," see URL link following article.]
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Air Force Tuesday tested the biggest conventional bomb in the military's arsenal, dropping the new 21,000-pound device on a test site at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, U.S. officials said.
The Pentagon hopes the test will pave the way for use of the bomb -- should there be a war in Iraq -- against critical targets on the surface and underground.
The new Massive Ordnance Air Blast, or MOAB, was dropped from a military transport plane over a test site at Eglin, 60 miles east of Pensacola, Florida, just after 2 p.m.
It was the final test of the new Massive Ordnance Air Blast, or MOAB, and the first to use actual explosives. Two previously undisclosed tests, one in February and one on Friday, were inert.
The Air Force released video of the Tuesday's test, which showed the bomb falling through the sky and bursting into a massive fireball upon impact. A cloud of smoke then rose hundreds of feet into the sky.
The video was released in hopes of placing additional pressure on the Iraqi military, officials said.
For the complete article at CNN.com with links and photos, see:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/11/sprj.irq.moab/index.html = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a related CNN.com article:
Selling an Iraq-al Qaeda connectionSome critics blame TV news for making Baghdad new enemy
Bruce Morton -- CNN -- Tuesday, March 11, 2003
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Does Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein provide assistance to
Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda? It's a case the Bush administration has tried hard to make.
"These al Qaeda affiliates, based in Baghdad, now coordinate the movement of people, money and supplies into and throughout Iraq for his network, and they've been operating freely in the capital for more than eight months," said U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in his presentation last month to the U.N. Security Council.
During testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in mid-February, CIA Director George Tenet added, "Iraq has, in the past, provided training in document forgery and bomb-making to al Qaeda. It has also provided training in poisons and gases to two al Qaeda associates."
These assertions, however, might be as good as the case gets for U.S. officials linking the terror network to Iraq. While some members of al Qaeda could be operating out of Iraq, intelligence and investigative sources said there is evidence the group also operates out of Iran and Pakistan. And while there is evidence Iraqi officials might have helped al Qaeda years ago, the same case could be made for Pakistani, Yemeni and Saudi officials.
The Iraqi president repeatedly has denied any connection between his government and bin Laden's terrorist network. "If we had a relationship with al Qaeda and if we believed in this relationship, we wouldn't be ashamed to admit it," Saddam said in a recent interview on British television. "The answer is no. We do not have any relationship with al Qaeda."
Bin Laden recently declared solidarity with the Iraqi people, but he lashed out at Saddam's government. In the latest audio-taped message purported to be recorded by the al Qaeda leader, bin Laden denounced Saddam's socialist Baath party as "infidels."
Bottom line: U.S. officials claim there is evidence of an al Qaeda-Iraq connection -- but there is no "smoking gun."
..Some critics blame the cable news networks for helping make Iraq the new enemy. "They use essentially the kind of logos, martial music, and so on that we saw after Gulf War One had started," Krugman said. "So, from the point of view of the American public, Iraq is already the enemy; we're already at war."
Many Americans who watch U.S. news coverage have accepted Saddam as the new enemy. Europeans have a different outlook.
"The European media, by contrast, have been very skeptical of the war, very aggressive of covering the anti-war movement," explained Kurtz, "and some people think they have a strain of anti-Americanism -- or at least anti-George Bush."
The above was excerpted -- the complete original article is posted:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/11/Iraq.Qaeda.link/index.html 2003 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. An AOL Time Warner Company.
2) The Iraq crisis - about stopping the United StatesToronto Star
Published March 11, 2003
Tide Turns Against Bush
by Thomas Walkom
The Iraq crisis is no longer about stopping Iraq. It is about stopping the United States.
This is the real significance of what is going on now at the United Nations, of the peace marches around the world, of the political turmoil that rocks staunchly pro-U.S. leaders such as Britain's Tony Blair and Australia's John Howard. Most countries outside the U.S. are no longer worried about rogue Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. They are worried about rogue American President George W. Bush.
It is this that finally pushed Russia and France to announce yesterday that they will veto any attempt by Washington to have the U.N. Security Council authorize a March 17 ultimatum to Iraq and, in effect, a March 18 war. It is this, rather than some kind of Gallic spleen, that sends French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin flying around the world lobbying against an Iraq war. When Bush's father cobbled together a political and military coalition in 1991 to oppose Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, he won widespread support from the rest of the world. At the time, most of those who dissented argued either on the basis of timing (as did then opposition leader Jean Chrtien) or consistency: Why make war to reverse Iraq's annexation of Kuwait but not, say, Israel's occupation of the West Bank or Turkey's invasion of Cyprus?
However, the principle behind the 1991 Gulf War that nations do not have an open-ended right to invade other countries was generally accepted.
..When, at Washington's urging, the Security Council gathered again last fall to debate Iraq, these same principles were at the forefront. Iraq had committed an international crime 11 years earlier; the U.N. had ordered it to rid itself of certain weapons; there was no evidence that this disarmament had occurred. The 15-member Security Council unanimously ordered weapons inspectors to enter Iraq again and make sure it had done what it was supposed to do.
However, two things have occurred since then. The first is that inspections worked. When pushed to the wall, Iraq reluctantly co-operated. Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and his team have found no evidence of a chemical or biological weapons program. Nor, as Blix told the U.N. last week, have they found evidence supporting any of the more extravagant U.S. allegations, such as mobile anthrax labs or underground chemical factories.
Where they concluded that weapons did break the rules (as in the case of the Al Samoud 2 missiles that fly 30 kilometres farther than they should), Iraq grudgingly agreed to destroy them. Similarly, nuclear inspectors have found no evidence that Iraq tried to restart its atomic bomb program. In fact, they found that some of the evidence suggesting otherwise, provided to them by Western intelligence agencies, was forged.
But the second, and more important, development since last fall has been a worldwide reappraisal of U.S. motives. Initially, some argued that Bush's bellicosity was a skillful tactic designed to pressure Iraq. But now, it's clear that simple disarmament is not his aim. Rather, Bush wants to occupy Iraq for an indeterminate period of time and eventually replace Saddam's government with one more to his liking. As Chrtien noted on Sunday, this makes the rest of the world nervous.
..War is to be no longer a last resort but an active part of superpower foreign policy. Decisions on the international order are to be made not at the U.N. but in Washington alone. The sovereignty of other nations is now to be wholly contingent upon U.S. geopolitical interests.
No wonder the rest of the world is nervous. No wonder that France, Germany, Russia and (maybe) China have forged their unlikely peace coalition. No wonder that even Canada is alarmed.
Thomas Walkom's column appears on Tuesday.
twalkom@thestar.ca
Copyright 1996-2003.
Toronto Star Newspapers Limited
The complete article is posted at this following URL:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1035778982663&call_page=TS_News&call_pageid=968332188492&call_pagepath=News/News
3) 'Democracy Now!' Amy Goodman - Voice Heard on IraqPeace Correspondent
'Democracy Now!' Host Amy Goodman Is Making Her Voice Heard on Iraq
By Michael Powell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 10, 2003; Page C01
NEW YORK
And now for the news
"President Bush last night claimed a war in Iraq would set the stage for peace in the Middle East, but he did not set any deadline or detail any specific steps." . . .
"The Financial Times describes the Bush administration's financial analysis as 'a piece of fiction.' " . . .
"In Australia, 43 legal experts warn that an attack on Iraq is a violation of international law." . . .
"And the United States asks aid groups in Baghdad for civilian satellite coordinates in Iraq" -- pregnant pause here -- "Is it to bomb them or save them?"
"This is 'Democracy Now!' " says the anchor. "The war and peace report." Cue the lilting Bob Marley reggae guitar licks.
This is not the news as Brit Hume construes it or Dan Rather intones it. In a "Show-down-Iraq," Blix-is-nixed, pack-my-trench-coat-honey testosterone media age, Amy Goodman and her radio show, "Democracy Now!," beam in as if from some alternative left galaxy.
For the complete article, see this Flyby News Archive URL link:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1047570683,52669,or if accessible, you can link to the following URL for the original Washington Post article, including photo and links:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A2307-2003Mar9?language=
4) Activists in Baghdad Brace for Consequences of WarGannett News Service
Originally published: Wednesday, March 12, 2003
Activists in Baghdad Brace for Consequences of War
by Greg Barrett
BAGHDAD - If the invasion that the Pentagon has dubbed "Operation Shock and Awe" commences, Charlie Liteky is unlikely to feel either.
Charles Liteky
Ex-U.S. Army Captain
Congressional Medal of Honor
He expects the United States to bomb Iraq. He expects noise and destruction more powerful and frightening than he has ever known. He expects the Earth to shake and houses to go dark and children to scream themselves hoarse.
But Liteky sounds more determined than frightened.
Like 20 other members of the Chicago-based Iraq Peace Team
http://www.iraqpeaceteam.org who remain in Baghdad even as hostilities appear certain, Liteky abhors cluster bombs, cruise missiles and the civil unrest that combat causes. As a decorated Vietnam veteran, he knows firsthand the chaos and carnage of war.
That's precisely why he sounded elated Tuesday morning when he told his wife that the Iraqi government had extended his tourist visa 10 days and is likely to extend it again, long enough for him to help Iraqi children through the difficult time.
Most of the peace activists who descended by the hundreds on Baghdad this fall and winter have fled. Those who remain have no intentions of leaving. They are anchored to the bull's-eye despite the fact - or maybe because of it - that the World Health Organization predicts 100,000 Iraqis could die.
"I'm here because I hear the children cry," Liteky said. "In my mind ... I imagine the bombing and the noise and the windows shattering and something coming down from the ceiling and children looking up and parents grabbing them and fear being transferred from parents to
children."
Save yourselvesWashington has warned the activists to clear out. The Pentagon has said its assault will leave no place in Baghdad to hide. So the rundown hotels that enjoyed full houses as recently as February are shuttering their windows.
At the Hotel Al-Fanar on the Tigris river, the Iraq Peace Team is moving to the lower floors because the eight-story building is old and seems unsteady. Its bomb shelter is a musty basement that stores the hotel's chemical cleaning supplies.
Members of the peace team have signed an ominous-sounding contract: "In the event of your death, you agree to your body not being returned to your own country but being disposed of in the most convenient way."
They have had awkward discussions about what to do with the corpses that might collect around them. Wrap the dead in hotel drapes, they decided. Pray for help.
Iraq Peace Team founder Kathy Kelly had a photo enlarged that shows her with some of her dearest friends - the family of an Iraqi widow and her nine children. The photo is being mailed to Kelly's mother in Chicago.
"She can see by that photo that I am very, very happy," Kelly said, sounding serenely calm despite the gathering storm.
On Monday, Kelly helped an Iraqi friend pack to leave. Teacher and artist Amal Alwan rushed her three young children into a taxi and paid $300 for the 10-hour drive from Baghdad to Damascus, Syria. Alwan doesn't have relatives in Syria and couldn't tell the cabbie exactly where to go.
"She doesn't have a clue where she will stay, but she can't possibly stay in Baghdad, not with children," Kelly said. "Her house is next to a communications center."
As Kelly spoke it was almost 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday in Baghdad and she was awake reading "A Fine Balance," a novel about civil war in India. She planned to rise six hours later for a daily prayer meeting then go with the peace team to the United Nations offices in Baghdad. They would hold aloft several enlarged photos of Iraqi families.
Each photo would carry a single question: "Doomed?"
"I don't have the slightest sense of not belonging exactly where I am right now," said Kelly, 50, a three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee. "The thought of leaving has not even crossed my mind."
The Pentagon says the presence of U.S. pacifists will not deter the course of war. Although there are no plans to arrest them for violating sanctions on Iraq by traveling to Baghdad, officials throughout the U.S. government, from the White House to the State Department to the Pentagon, sound confused about how to best to deal with them.
"There's not a whole lot of precedence," said Pentagon spokesman Lt. Dan Hetlage. "It's not like you had human shields protecting the Taliban."
Armed for warMembers of the Iraq Peace Team say they are as prepared for war as they will ever be. They have "crash kits" packed neatly and set by their hotel doors. Liteky's is the size of carry-on luggage. It bulges with bandages, antibiotics, water-purification tablets, three liters of water, dried fruit, canned tuna, biscuits, power bars and a short-wave radio.
He hopes to ride out Operation Shock and Awe in Baghdad's Orphanage of the Sisters of Mother Teresa. Or at least to rush there as soon as the bombing subsides. He's compelled to at least try to quell the inevitable trembling of the children.
"I'd rather die doing something," he told his wife, Judy, "then die ... in some old folks home."
Liteky, 72, is a former Roman Catholic priest and Vietnam war hero awarded the congressional Medal of Honor for crawling under volleys of gunfire in 1967 to rescue 23 injured U.S. soldiers.
According to Army reports, during the firefight near Phuoc-Lac the wounded became too heavy to carry so Liteky turned onto his back in the mud, pulled the men on top of him and crawled backward under gunfire, using only his heels and elbows.
He's plenty scared of war, he said, but his fear is for the children.
When the attack comes, he said, "the most beautiful thing that can happen for me is if I am permitted to be at the orphanage. At least I could pick the children up, hold them, and try to let my calm and love transfer to them."
Liteky speaks every morning to his wife 11 times zones away in San Francisco. Since arriving in Baghdad three weeks ago, it has become increasingly difficult to hang up the phone. On Tuesday they spoke for 40 minutes, said goodbye twice, and kept talking.
"I don't have a death wish," he said in an interview Monday. "I have everything to live for. I have a wonderful wife and a wonderful life back home."
Liteky and his wife have thought for a week that the invasion of Iraq would begin sometime between March 10 and 17. So when Judy Liteky, a math teacher at a community college, left for work on Monday, she put a bumper sticker on her car.
"Attack Iraq? No!," it read.
"The bumper sticker made me feel just a little bit better," she said
Kelly heard late Monday that the United Nations would evacuate most of its remaining office staff on Tuesday. Still, she sounded steadfast in her decision to stay in Baghdad, even if it meant dying.
"A lot of people are concerned for the foreigners who remain here; you wonder if anyone is concerned for these very ordinary Iraqi people who are going to die here," she said.
When photographer Thorne Anderson chose to travel to Baghdad with Kelly in January to document the people and the war, he informed his family of the trip in an email.
Anderson, who has freelanced for Gannett News Service, Newsweek, The New York Times and other publications, said he expected a little preaching, lots of concern, and some pleas to reconsider.
Instead, his father, the Rev. Eade Anderson of Montreat, N.C., was succinct in his reply.
"I've always said life shouldn't be wasted on the small things," he wrote in an email. "Love, Dad."
2003 Gannett News Service
-
www.gannett.com/= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related article: "Pentagon Threatens to Kill Independent Reporters in Iraq
From GuluFuture.com
10th March, 2003
by Fintan Dunne, Editor
The Pentagon has threatened to fire on the satellite uplink positions of independent journalists in Iraq, according to veteran BBC war correspondent, Kate Adie. In an interview with Irish radio, Ms. Adie said that questioned about the consequences of such potentially fatal actions, a senior Pentagon officer had said: "Who cares.. ..They've been warned."
For the complete article, see:
http://www.GuluFuture.com/news/kate_adie030310.htm
5) Doves Step Up Efforts to Halt March to WarSan Francisco Chronicle
Published Thursday, March 13, 2003
Doves Step Up Efforts to Halt March to War
by Edward Epstein
WASHINGTON -- As war apparently draws nearer, anti-war members of Congress led by Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland outlined their last-ditch bid on Wednesday to reopen debate on whether the United States should attack Iraq.
Lee's vehicle, the latest in a host of anti-war resolutions that the leadership of both houses has refused to take up, is the introduction of a nonbinding resolution that would put the House on record as opposing so-called wars of pre-emption.
Lee and other anti-war House members admit there isn't much they can do to stop a war against Iraq, but they plan to hold more press conferences and try parliamentary maneuvers to force debate on the House and Senate floors.
President Bush's supporters say Congress spoke on the issue in October when the House voted 296-133 and the Senate 77-23 to authorize the president to use military force against Iraq. They argue that Saddam Hussein is still refusing to obey United Nations Resolution 1441 calling for Iraq to disarm.
Calling the president's justification for a pre-emptive attack against Hussein's regime "a statement of extreme arrogance and illegality," Lee said at a Capitol press conference that the Bush doctrine "undermines any moral authority of the United States in seeking peaceful resolution of any conflicts. "
One of her co-sponsors, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, was active on two fronts Wednesday. A lawsuit he and 14 other House members filed in U.S. District Court in Boston claiming Bush doesn't have the right to go to war without an express declaration from Congress was reinstated by an appeals court after a judge had thrown it out.
Last week, Kucinich filed a House "resolution of inquiry," asking that Bush be required to turn over to the House all 12,000 classified pages of Iraq's report on its weapons of mass destruction that Hussein's regime gave the United Nations in December. Last Friday, the administration quietly handed the report to the House Select Intelligence Committee, and most House members can see it as long as they keep its contents secret.
It's unclear whether Kucinich can view it, however. He, Rep. Pete Stark, D- Fremont, and Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., have refused to sign the pledge of confidentiality required of members if they want to see classified material.
"I'm checking if I can get access," Kucinich said. "I think the American people will want to see it."
On Wednesday, the House International Relations Committee sent Kucinich's resolution to the full House, even though it is a moot point. Leaders made it clear that any floor debate must be limited to the resolution's specifics and cannot include a wider debate on Iraq policy.
Lee's proposal, which she introduced with more than a dozen House Democrats as co-sponsors, joins other bills recently introduced to try to forestall the move toward war. These include a proposal to repeal October's vote. Among the co-sponsors are Lee, Stark, Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, and Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel.
Sens. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., have a similar bill in the Senate.
One member who voted for the resolution in October, Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D- Walnut Creek, has introduced a bill calling on Bush to make a full report to Congress before he launches an attack. And California's two senators, Barbara Boxer -- who voted against October's resolution -- and Dianne Feinstein -- who supported it -- put forward a resolution calling for U.N. inspectors to get more time to complete their work.
Bush has left little doubt that he intends to act against Hussein and feels fully justified in doing so. "We are determined to confront threats wherever they arise," he said at his press conference last Thursday. "I will not leave the American people at the mercy of the Iraqi dictator and his weapons."
2003 San Francisco Chronicle
The above originally published article is posted at:
http://sfgate.com/chronicle/
6) Pentagon Seeks Freedom to Pollute Land, Air and SeaIndependent (UK)
by Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
The Pentagon is quietly seeking exemptions from some of America's main environmental laws, which would give the military free rein to dump spent munitions, pollute the air and poison endangered species at its bases without risk of liability for any damage.
The proposal, slipped into the fine print of the 2004 military budget last week, is enraging environmentalists and some senior figures on Capitol Hill, who say the Pentagon is taking shameless advantage of the 11 September attacks and the looming war against Iraq to wriggle out of its responsibilities to public health and the country's natural heritage.
"There is no justification whatsoever for the exemptions they are seeking. They do not even present examples of why they are seeking this exemption," John Walke, a clean air specialist with the National Resources Defense Council, said.
Among the laws the military is seeking to circumvent are the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, important pieces of legislation governing the clean-up of environmental disasters and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Navy sonars have been blamed for the deaths of whales found washed up on beaches.
For the complete originally posted article - URL link - see:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=386524
FLYBY NEWS=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
'Democracy Now!' - Amy Goodman - Voice Heard on Iraq
Peace Correspondent'Democracy Now!' Host Amy Goodman Is Making Her Voice Heard on Iraq
By Michael Powell - Washington Post Staff Writer
Published by the Washington Post
Monday, March 10, 2003; Page C01
NEW YORK
And now for the news
"President Bush last night claimed a war in Iraq would set the stage for peace in the Middle East, but he did not set any deadline or detail any specific steps." . . .
"The Financial Times describes the Bush administration's financial analysis as 'a piece of fiction.' " . . .
"In Australia, 43 legal experts warn that an attack on Iraq is a violation of international law." . . .
"And the United States asks aid groups in Baghdad for civilian satellite coordinates in Iraq" -- pregnant pause here -- "Is it to bomb them or save them?"
"This is 'Democracy Now!' " says the anchor. "The war and peace report." Cue the lilting Bob Marley reggae guitar licks.
This is not the news as Brit Hume construes it or Dan Rather intones it. In a "Showdown: Iraq," Blix-is-nixed, pack-my-trench-coat-honey testosterone media age, Amy Goodman and her radio show, "Democracy Now!," beam in as if from some alternative left galaxy.
Broadcasting on the Pacifica Radio network from a book-strewn loft in an old firehouse a half-dozen blocks from Ground Zero, Goodman is a daily polestar for those who crave the antiwar perspective that mainstream networks and newspapers often consign to the margins.
"War coverage should be more than a parade of retired generals and retired government flacks posing as reporters," Goodman says after the show. "Why not invite on some voices that are not Pentagon-approved?"
Her 9 a.m. magazine show mixes investigative scoops (a recent report detailed how the Bush administration quashed an FBI investigation into Saudi Arabian funding of terrorist organizations), reports from foreign correspondents, and very few generals. She and her co-host, New York Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez, speak, unabashedly, to those who oppose a war with Iraq, a roomier club than one might imagine from watching cable television news channels.
A recent Washington Post-ABC poll found that six in 10 Americans harbor doubts about using force in Iraq, while 40 percent are opposed to any invasion.
The audience for "Democracy Now!" is small but growing, and the show is influential among antiwar activists. More than 120 stations carry it, including WPFW-FM (89.3) in Washington and some public radio affiliates. And in the last two years, it's begun broadcasting on Web TV (via
http://www.democracynow.org ) and public access television channels around the world.
And starting today the formerly 60-minute show expands by an hour to accommodate more reporting on the war.
Its politics can veer toward communion for the progressive choir. But in this age of corporate media conglomeration, when National Public Radio sounds as safe as a glass of warm milk, "Democracy Now!" retains a jagged and intriguing edge.
Goodman is the show's center, a slight 45-year-old in a pullover vest, jeans and sneakers. Her unruly brown hair is streaked with gray. She can break out a playful smile, and punctuate an interview by opening a hatch in her office floor and sliding down a fire pole to the floor below.
More often, though, her intensity burns through.
In two decades of reporting for Pacifica, she's been beaten bloody by Indonesian soldiers as she charted East Timor's battle for independence. And she's wandered the deltas of southern Nigeria charting the environmental and human rights degradations of the Nigerian army and Chevron Oil Corp.
For such work, she's received some of mainstream journalism's highest honors the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the George Polk Award and the Overseas Press Club Award (an honor she declined at the podium on awards night -- more on that later).
But the awards seem beside the point. Her Edward R. Murrow comes always with a twist of Emma Goldman.
Goodman leans forward in her chair, trying to explain what's so very clear to her. "I feel this is a very urgent time, for this nation and the world," she says. "The clock is ticking towards war. We can't do enough, we absolutely can't."
She begins broadcasting at 7 a.m. every morning, and works until near midnight, talking to sources, reading documents and talking up funders. (Although the show raises $2.5 million annually for the Pacifica network, it, more than any other program, runs on a shoestring budget $800,000.) Each Friday, she heads to the airport, hopping planes to such places as Seattle and Albuquerque, Boston and Cleveland and Ithaca, N.Y., to talk about the coming war with Iraq.
Her eye sockets look a bit hollowed out. It's hard to leave phone messages for her because her voice mail keeps filling up.
"She doesn't say 'no' very well," says Michael Ratner, a friend and an attorney with and president of with the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Sleep? Her friend, Elizabeth Benjamin, head of the Legal Aid Society's Health Law Unit, chuckles.
"I wish she got more of it. Amy has so much passion to right the wrongs of the world."
The Amy & Bill ShowThree years ago, President Clinton placed an Election Day call to "Democracy Now!" For Clinton it was supposed to be two minutes of get-out-the-vote happy talk with a progressive radio show and then Gotta go.
Except Goodman began by asking"You are calling radio stations telling people to vote. What do you say to people who feel the two parties are bought by corporations and that at this point their vote doesn't make a difference?"
"There is not a shred of evidence to support that," Clinton rejoined.
And they were off and running, Amy and Bill, debating American politics, the health effects of sanctions against Iraq, and whether Clinton would pardon native American activist Leonard Peltier. Why, she asked, did he fly back to Arkansas in 1992 during the presidential campaign to execute a mentally impaired man?
Goodman is the reporter who sinks her teeth in and never lets go, and he was the president who never gives up hope of winning you over. "You have asked questions in a hostile, combative and even disrespectful tone," he scolded Goodman at one point.
Then he kept on talking.
In this insider media age when oh-so-serious reporters measure status by access to the powerful, Goodman is the journalist as uninvited guest. You might think of the impolite question; she asks it. She torments Democrats no less than Republicans.
When former senator Bob Kerrey called a news conference to defend himself against charges he committed a war crime while a soldier in Vietnam, Goodman asked if perhaps a war crimes tribunal should be set up to examine the guilt of the war's architects, such as Henry Kissinger.
Kerrey's halting demurral made a few television broadcasts. But Goodman's question displeased some establishment media worthies. That Sunday, NPR reporter Mara Liason went on "Fox Special Report With Brit Hume" and complained that Goodman was not really a journalist and that no one would have asked such a question in Washington.
Last year Goodman sneaked into the World Economic Forum, a hermetically sealed gathering of the powerful (and a few well-behaved journalist guests) in Manhattan. She found Nicholas Platt, a former U.S. ambassador to the Philippines and asked him if American support of Indonesia was worth it, given that its military killed tens of thousands in East Timor.
Platt squinted at her and inquired (on the air)"What ax are you grinding right here?"
"I survived a massacre in East Timor," Goodman responded.
Growing Up AmyGoodman grew up a movement child, the daughter of radical parents in Bayshore, N.Y., across from Fire Island. Her father, a physician, was featured in a poster for nuclear disarmament, the image of a mushroom cloud in his stethoscope. (Going further back, she is descended from prominent Hasidic rabbis, although she counts herself a secular Jew.)
After graduating from Harvard in 1984, Goodman came to New York City. She fiddled with the radio dial and found WBAI, the New York affiliate of the cacophonously left-wing Pacifica, a network founded in the 1940s by pacifist Lew Hill. She heard vegans and pagans, performance artists and beatniks, jazz musicians and black nationalists.
"It was New York, in all of its beauty and all of its ugliness," she recalls. "And it wasn't trying to sell a thing. I was riveted."
She took a video documentary class, began volunteering at the station and a few years later became the station's news director. She's never left.
In 1991, she traveled to East Timor with journalist Allan Nairn. They fell in step one day with a Timorese memorial procession. As the procession passed a row of Indonesian troops, the soldiers brought rifles to shoulders and began firing, killing 250 men, women and children. Nairn and Goodman huddled on the ground as the soldiers began beating them with rifle butts.
"Allan put his body over mine," she recalls. "I thought we would die."
Photos show them afterward, bruised and bleeding from head to foot. The Indonesians expelled them. But Goodman and Nairn made a documentary that drew attention to this distant island, and not incidentally explored the American complicity in backing the Indonesian occupation.
As she accepted a prize for that work, Goodman was asked to explain her approach. She replied: "Go where the silence is and say something."
She has lived that advice, traveling to Yugoslavia, Haiti, Cuba, Israel's occupied territories and Mexico, often recording reports in the face of danger. In 1996, she started "Democracy Now!" as a daily newsmagazine.
The shows are of varying quality. The politics can sometimes seem predictable and the overseas telephone lines can sound as if sanded with gravel. And sometimes the guests are a bit . . . dated.
So on a recent day Ramsey Clark, the 75-year-old former U.S. attorney general and patron saint of very lost causes (former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and the North Korean government, to name two) wandered in to talk up his campaign to impeach Bush (
http://www.VoteToImpeach.org ).
But on its best days, Goodman's show has the quality of a good reporter peering under unexpected rocks.
Goodman talks with a reporter for the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel about his investigation into complicity of American and European companies in selling biological and chemical weapons supplies to the Iraqis in the 1980s. Another recent guest details an investigative report in British papers that found the United States was tapping the phones and reading the e-mails of United Nations Security Council members during the debate over Iraq.
Last Thursday she interviewed two veteran war correspondents, Chris Hedges of the New York Times and Robert Fisk of the Independent in London, about the Pentagon's censorship of reporters.
"The press in the first Gulf War was completely managed," said Hedges, who covered that event. "The coverage was absolutely shameful."
Fisk and Hedges often worked outside the Pentagon-approved press pools in that first war and suffered arrests and beatings for their trouble -- from allied troops. "I was arrested by the Marines after I was betrayed by a CBS reporter who said I was not in the pool."
None of these stories and views have gotten much air time on the commercial or publicly funded airwaves.
"There's such an hunger out there for an alternative," Goodman says. "It's almost explosive."
Radio AmyTwo hundred thousand people jam the frigid streets of New York City in early February, protesting the planned war on Iraq. Vast puppet heads bob in the air, along with placards reading: "Somewhere in Texas, a village has lost its idiot." And throughout the crowd, demonstrators tune radios to WBAI and Amy Goodman -- who is broadcasting live from the march.
Later, you find Goodman, sitting outside in a director's chair on First Avenue, a pathetic foot-heater kicking out little in the way of warmth. A techie fixes a webcast video camera on her. It's another of those alt-media celebrity moments: the anchor without leg warmers or makeup, but with politics and passion.
Actors Danny Glover and Susan Sarandon, and entertainer Harry Belafonte and Archbishop Desmond Tutu stop by to chat. The broadcasts of their interviews draw cheers far up the parade route.
The cold this day is wind-driven and cuts to the bone. And yet Goodman sounds invigorated. Her life and passions are one -- she works the vast majority of her waking hours. She is single and has no children.
Even her friends aren't always sure what drives her, not exactly.
"A lot of us have parents who were political, but we're not willing to accept a life that has very little room for pure enjoyment," says Ratner, the Center for Constitutional Rights president. "Amy will come to our annual baseball game up in the country each summer, but a couple of hours later, she's gone.
"I would love for her to reserve some part of her life for herself."
Ask Goodman about this and she shrugs. She talks of drawing inspiration from a century-old grandmother who, when sick, organized her sanitorium. But quickly she turns the conversation to the war for oil and empire in Iraq.
She's not so much disapproving as disinterested in the career arcs of her generational peers.
Two years ago, a new board took over Pacifica and was accused of trying to pasteurize the network's political edge. Goodman walked away and broadcast on the Web for eight months. (That board has since been overthrown and she has returned.) Four years ago, she was invited to the Overseas Press Club's awards dinner, where her Nigeria documentary would be honored. She could not afford the $125 ticket, so she and a colleague sat on chairs in the back. Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke was the club's keynote speaker that night, but the club's board, including its chairman, Tom Brokaw, set the ground rules: Holbrooke would not appear if he had to answer questions.
Then Holbrooke gave a speech and noted that American bombers had just hit a Serbian television station. Goodman took the podium and declined her award.
"He'd just told a roomful of journalists that we've bombed a television station and yet no one said a word," Goodman recalls. "I said: 'Thank you, Mr. Brokaw, but no thank you.' "
Goodman manages to recount this without sounding terribly self-righteous. She respects a number of mainstream reporters -- or, in her lexicon, corporate media -- and she likes nothing better than when they pick up her stories, with or without credit.
The interview at an end, she slides down the fire pole, and you swallow hard and follow her. She walks you to the door. Upstairs, her braided and spike-haired producers prepare for the next day's broadcast, downloading, cutting, fiddling with soundboards like so many caffeinated maestros.
It's dark. She's eager to get back upstairs and rejoin them.
"There are so many deeply patriotic voices out there raising questions about this war, and they aren't being heard." She says goodbye, and reminds you: "Steal our stories -- please."
2003 The Washington Post Company
Original URL posting, with photo and links:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A2307-2003Mar9?language=
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark
info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Stop King George's War & Lies * ACLU Alert!
10 March 2003
"The first casualty when war comes, is truth.
Senator Hiram Johnson1) Going Off to War Supplied With Lies
-- UN Inspector: Fake Nuclear Evidence on Iraq
-- Red Alert for Bill of Rights! by Nat Hentoff
-- Afghan Prisoners Beaten To Death At US Base Investigation
-- Resisting the Doctrine of Pre-emptive Strike by Fidel Castro
-- Cheney wins oil-field contract
2) Just War -- or a Just War? by Jimmy Carter
3) Actions to Stop King George's War
4) ACLU Action Alerts:
-- Protect the Right for a Woman's Choice
-- Stop government-funded religion
Editor's Notes:Thanks for many signing an Emergency Petition featured in last issue. According to MoveOn.org, more than 500,000 people signed this petition to be delivered to UN Delegates today. Yet King George has stated that he plans to send US troops to attack Iraq regardless of the UN vote. This unconstitutional "UNDECLARED WAR" is WRONG!
We got to get the UN to take a pro-active role to defend innocent life, and support those ethically courageous peace "human shields" in Iraq.
This is a good week to make telephone calls to the UN, and not only support the rejection of a US resolution to authorize war, but to encourage the General Assembly's Resolution 377 -- "Uniting for Peace" which has been used ten times by the UN, most often as an initiative of the United States to "..maintain or restore international peace and security.." When has this initiative ever been more critical? We ask for France to propose such an initiative to advance their plans with Germany and others for increased Inspections and Peacekeepers in Iraq.
You will find information on actions you can take to stop the war in item 3, and at Flyby's updated page:
"Uniting for Peace to Resolve the Iraq Crisis"
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1045091648,41257, Items 1 and 2 provide resources showing that this war in not just unjust, but inhumane, and a great threat to freedom. Item 4 is current ACLU alerts. Civil freedoms and principles of the US Constitution are in great jeopardy. Every issue is making the reality more visible, a renegade military regime is implementing a plan to maintain control, chaos, and loss of freedom and life, while gluttony is pursued for limited corporate gain.
Please ask the General Assembly UN member states to implement UN Resolution 377, "Uniting for Peace." Help them tell the US that they CAN NOT INVADE IRAQ DURING THEIR PEACE MISSION AND PLAN FOR IRAQI DISARMAMENT OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION.
The United Nations should take such pro-active peace approach NOW with the vision ahead to swiftly begin engaging the US in its plans for the disarmament and dismantling of North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
Flyby News' next issue will include some good news from Malik Abdullah Akili, Leonard Peltier, and we will give details on the beginnings of a new documentary film project on Dennis J. Kucinich. A change is coming, but we must deal with the current Bush crisis and regime that has squandered the largest surplus in US history, purposely, with a devious plan proceeding rapidly that threatens US freedom and democracy, and the very lives of woman, children, men, in Iraq, and US soldiers. If there is ever a time for the UN to be relevant, it is now. Thanks for any efforts to encourage the UN member states to do more than say no to the new US resolution, but join for "Uniting for Peace" to send in peacekeepers and inspectors, and demand a resolution for a peaceful disarmament of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction - and stop a US-led invasion!
U N I T I N G for P E A C E
1) Going Off to War Supplied With Lies
-- UN Inspector: Fake Nuclear Evidence on Iraq
-- Red Alert for Bill of Rights! by Nat Hentoff
-- Afghan Prisoners Beaten To Death At US Base Investigation
-- Resisting the Doctrine of Pre-emptive Strike by Fidel Castro
-- Cheney wins oil-field contract
Going Off to War Supplied With Lies March 6, 2003
Doubt everything. Trust nothing. Believe nothing.
Governments and the media messengers are lying now.
Going Off to War Supplied With Lies
by Nicholas von Hoffman
[Excerpt]
"War whore" is the name. They're the ladies and gentlemen of the media who whoop, holler and thigh-slap the United States into war. Day in and day out, hour after hour, on the TV news channels in particular, they tingle with happy excitement as they strain to infect their viewers (and somewhat less often, their readers) with their enthusiasm for the looming death and disfigurement of others. . .
. . . As we trot along toward our latest war, the government has come up with a new wrinkle for reporters gullible enough to buy into it. The reporters are being taken to "boot camps" where they are whipped into combat shape, after which they are "embedded" into different combat units to bond with the soldiers and become, more or less, soldiers themselves. These co-opted gulls are the detached observers who will be broadcasting and writing the dispatches that will pass for news back here at home.
Thus the one thing you may be sure of when the conflict breaks out is that you will have no way of knowing what's going on. Information will be withheld or twisted or invented, all interwoven with pieces of accurate news so that it's impossible to sort out the true stuff from the lies and misrepresentations, be they artful or crude. The people at home will not be told what's happening when it's happening. Nor for years after the event, when they may read the real story in history books.
Doubt everything. Trust nothing. Believe nothing. Governments and the media messengers are lying now and were lying then, as witness this small sampling of the lies by omission and commission told by the American government through the press over the last 65 years. . .
. . . In December 1989, an American army invaded Panama in order to lay hands on the country's dictator, General Manuel Noriega, who was also some kind of C.I.A. operative as well as a reputed drug smuggler. What George Bush I's motives were for kidnaping this man are not known-and as for Mr. Noriega, he's been kept incommunicado in a Florida prison for 14 years now. The government claimed the invasion was one of those surgical strikes during which nobody is injured; however, since reporters were not allowed to move around freely in Panama City, there are no American third-party accounts of what actually happened. Latin-American sources say that up to 2,000 civilians were killed and up to 70,000 were wounded. Less easy to cover up were the smoking ruins of the section of the city torched, accidentally or on purpose, by the Americans. The authors of those articles suggest that if people wonder why America is becoming a universal object of hatred, they might inquire among the Panamanians.
. . . Gulf War II: This conflict has posed an unusual set of propaganda problems. The usual Hitler stuff has been trotted out and made to fit Saddam as best it can, but the war crimes are old-very old. The most frequently made accusation of a Hitlerian type is: "He even used poison gas on his own people." But that crime was committed almost 20 years ago and done with the tacit approval of the United States, since the victims were Kurds, who were allied with the Iranians. Since then, the Kurds have become good guys, but it's hard to get some people to go to war in 2003 to right a wrong committed in 1981.
The government has been stymied in coming up with something bad that Saddam is doing now. They tried "linking" him to Al Qaeda, but-and this represents a rare example of propaganda backfiring-somehow or other, millions have found out that it's a fairy tale.
Hence, Bush II is in a predicament. He has to persuade people that we must attack Iraq for crimes it has not yet committed but which Bush II knows it will. The chosen method has been to fill the air with dozens of accusations, clouds of midge-like lies too numerous and too short-lived to be refuted. By producing volcanic eruptions of fiction, supposition, half-truths and no truths, the world will come to imagine Saddam, mustache and all, is climbing in the bedroom window, oriental dagger in hand. Far-fetched? The war whores are on the streets, strutting. If anybody can make believers out of the market segments and the focus groups, it is they.
Mr. Knightley begins his book with a 1917 quote from Senator Hiram Johnson, the long-forgotten, Progressive-era California Republican giant: "The first casualty when war comes, is truth."
You may reach Nicholas von Hoffman via email at
nvonhoffman@observer.com.
This column ran on page 4 in the 3/10/2003 edition of The New York Observer.
The complete article is posted:
http://www.observer.com/pages/observer.asp= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
UN Inspector: Fake Nuclear Evidence on IraqFor a related article:
"U.N. Nuclear Inspector Says Documents on Purchases Were Forged"
By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 8, 2003; Page A01
A key piece of evidence linking Iraq to a nuclear weapons program appears to have been fabricated, the United Nations' chief nuclear inspector said yesterday in a report that called into question U.S. and British claims about Iraq's secret nuclear ambitions.
SOME EVIDENCE ON IRAQ CALLED FAKE
For the complete article, see:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59403-2003Mar7.html= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"Red Alert for Bill of Rights!" by Nat Hentoff
[Excerpt] Justice Department vs. Democracy
March 7th, 2003
We may never know the name of the patriot who leaked John Ashcroft's draft of a sequel to the USA Patriot Act to Charles Lewis, head of the Center for Public Integrity. Lewis put the 86 pages on his web site
http://www.publicintegrity.org on February 7, and that night Bill Moyers interviewed Lewis on his PBS television program, Now. This broke the story of the most radical government plan in our history to remove from Americans their liberties under the Bill of Rights.
As The Washington Post warned in a February 12 editorial, this proposed law-prepared in secret for months while the Justice Department told Congress it had no such legislation in mind-gives the Bush administration "more power unilaterally to exempt people from the protections of the justice system and place them in a kind of alternative legal world." For more on the liberties that may be lost-through secret arrests, stripping Americans of citizenship, dragnet collection of DNA-see last week's column, "Ashcroft Out of Control."
On Bill Moyers's program, Charles Lewis said it took "the most incredible kind of courage" for a member of the Justice Department to have leaked this draft.
"There's gonna be a witch-hunt," Lewis predicted. "[If found, the leaker] could very likely not only lose their job, but . . . be ruined professionally. [And I] have an incredible respect for anyone who does that."
Called the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003, the legislation was most likely intended to be sprung on Congress and the rest of us once the war on Iraq began. As Charles Levendosky, editorial page editor of the Casper, Wyoming, Star-Tribune-a ceaselessly vigilant watcher of the Justice Department-said in his syndicated column:
"The DSEA isn't a working paper. It's a complete proposal for legislation. One cannot escape the ramifications. The thoroughness of DSEA is meant to discourage congressional changes, deletions or amendments. . . . It attacks the fundamental framework of our democracy by removing the checks and balances that hold it together and make it work."
In addition to the judiciary and Congress, the other check the Framers relied on to stop uncontrolled government power was what used to be called the Fourth Estate. That's why the First Amendment guarantees "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the . . . freedom . . . of the press."
But most of the media treated this unprecedented revision of the Constitution as a one- or two-day story, and there was scant mention of it on television. Interestingly, the largest response soon after Bill Moyers's program was from 3581 radio stations. And Moyers's Web site got more than 200,000 hits after the February 7 interview with Charles Lewis.
But as happened with The Washington Post's front-page story on the torture of prisoners in CIA interrogation at our military bases overseas-and the Los Angeles Times' detailed report on the CIA's targeted killings-there has been hardly any follow-up in newspapers or on broadcast and cable television..
# # #
The complete article is posted:
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0311/hentoff.php= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related article: Afghan Prisoners Beaten To Death At US Base Investigation
'Blunt Force Injuries' Cited In Murder Ruling
By Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles The Guardian - UK 3-6-03
Two prisoners who died while being held for interrogation at the US military base in Afghanistan had apparently been beaten, according to a military pathologist's report. A criminal investigation is now under way into the deaths which have both been classified as homicides.
For this article, see:
http://www.rense.com/general35/beat.htm= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For another article, called:
"The War on the Dark Corners of the World:
Resisting the Doctrine of Pre-emptive Strike"
by Fidel Castro (March 7, 2003), see:
http://www.counterpunch.org/castro03072003.html= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Cheney wins oil-field contract
Hussein may destroy facilities in event of war
Saturday, March 8, 2003
Edward Epstein
San Francisco Chronicle
Washington -- A company tied to Vice President Dick Cheney has won a Pentagon contract for advice on rebuilding Iraq's oil fields after a possible war.
The contract was disclosed in the last paragraph of a Defense Department statement on preparations for Saddam Hussein's possible destruction of Iraq's oil fields in the event of a U.S.-led invasion. The statement calls for proposals on how to handle oil well fires and for assessing other damage to oil facilities. The contract went to Kellogg Brown & Root Services, which is owned by Halliburton Co., of which Cheney was chairman until his election in 2000.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/03/08/MN242495.DTL
2) Just War -- or a Just War? By Jimmy Carter
New York Times
OP-ED Piece
ATLANTA - Profound changes have been taking place in American foreign policy, reversing consistent bipartisan commitments that for more than two centuries have earned our nation greatness. These commitments have been predicated on basic religious principles, respect for international law, and alliances that resulted in wise decisions and mutual restraint. Our apparent determination to launch a war against Iraq, without international support, is a violation of these premises.
As a Christian and as a president who was severely provoked by international crises, I became thoroughly familiar with the principles of a just war, and it is clear that a substantially unilateral attack on Iraq does not meet these standards. This is an almost universal conviction of religious leaders, with the most notable exception of a few spokesmen of the Southern Baptist Convention who are greatly influenced by their commitment to Israel based on eschatological, or final days, theology.
For a war to be just, it must meet several clearly defined criteria.
The war can be waged only as a last resort, with all nonviolent options exhausted. In the case of Iraq, it is obvious that clear alternatives to war exist. These options previously proposed by our own leaders and approved by the United Nations were outlined again by the Security Council on Friday. But now, with our own national security not directly threatened and despite the overwhelming opposition of most people and governments in the world, the United States seems determined to carry out military and diplomatic action that is almost unprecedented in the history of civilized nations. The first stage of our widely publicized war plan is to launch 3,000 bombs and missiles on a relatively defenseless Iraqi population within the first few hours of an invasion, with the purpose of so damaging and demoralizing the people that they will change their obnoxious leader, who will most likely be hidden and safe during the bombardment.
The war's weapons must discriminate between combatants and noncombatants. Extensive aerial bombardment, even with precise accuracy, inevitably results in "collateral damage." Gen. Tommy R. Franks, commander of American forces in the Persian Gulf, has expressed concern about many of the military targets being near hospitals, schools, mosques and private homes.
Its violence must be proportional to the injury we have suffered. Despite Saddam Hussein's other serious crimes, American efforts to tie Iraq to the 9/11 terrorist attacks have been unconvincing.
The attackers must have legitimate authority sanctioned by the society they profess to represent. The unanimous vote of approval in the Security Council to eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction can still be honored, but our announced goals are now to achieve regime change and to establish a Pax Americana in the region, perhaps occupying the ethnically divided country for as long as a decade. For these objectives, we do not have international authority. Other members of the Security Council have so far resisted the enormous economic and political influence that is being exerted from Washington, and we are faced with the possibility of either a failure to get the necessary votes or else a veto from Russia, France and China. Although Turkey may still be enticed into helping us by enormous financial rewards and partial future control of the Kurds and oil in northern Iraq, its democratic Parliament has at least added its voice to the worldwide expressions of concern.
The peace it establishes must be a clear improvement over what exists. Although there are visions of peace and democracy in Iraq, it is quite possible that the aftermath of a military invasion will destabilize the region and prompt terrorists to further jeopardize our security at home. Also, by defying overwhelming world opposition, the United States will undermine the United Nations as a viable institution for world peace.
What about America's world standing if we don't go to war after such a great deployment of military forces in the region? The heartfelt sympathy and friendship offered to America after the 9/11 attacks, even from formerly antagonistic regimes, has been largely dissipated; increasingly unilateral and domineering policies have brought international trust in our country to its lowest level in memory. American stature will surely decline further if we launch a war in clear defiance of the United Nations. But to use the presence and threat of our military power to force Iraq's compliance with all United Nations resolutions with war as a final option will enhance our status as a champion of peace and justice.
Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, is chairman of the Carter Center in Atlanta and winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize. NY Times URL posting:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/09/opinion/09CART.html
3) Actions to Stop King George's WarSome of the following was compiled and written by Voice4Change
http://www.voice4change.orgMarch 10, 2003
Use Your Veto!
The United States is pushing for a vote next week that will authorize the use of force in Iraq. You can link to the following URL to reach a form to send e-mail to France, China, and Russia, supporting their Veto Vote to block UN Authorization for war.
http://www.voice4change.org/stories/mailVeto.aspThe following URL link is to send an E-mail to all 15 Security Council Members to vote no on a Resolution to Authorize a US-led attack on Iraq.
http://www.voice4change.org/stories/mailUN.asp-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
101 Ways to Stop the War on Iraq
Some of the following was compiled by Guy Dauncey, Victoria, BC, Canada
http://www.earthfuture.com Ten Ways to Stop the War with Your Email
http://www.earthfuture.com/stopthewar/email.aspTen Ways to Stop the War with Your Pen
http://www.earthfuture.com/stopthewar/pen.aspTen Ways to Stop the War with Your Signs
http://www.earthfuture.com/stopthewar/signs.aspTen Ways to Stop the War with Your Body
http://www.earthfuture.com/stopthewar/body.asphttp://www.humanshieldaction.org/=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Emergency Convergence March 15 Stop the Countdown;
Tens of Thousands to March on the White House Against the War Deadline
The Politics of Deceit, Diplomacy, Oil and War
We urge you to join and support the tens of thousands of people who are holding an Emergency March on the White House Saturday, March 15 and conducting solidarity Stop the War actions all around the world. On March 15, workers in Italy are staging an anti-war General Strike.
In Spain, Greece, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the UK, and in Los Angeles, San Francisco and cities around the world people are coming together in Emergency Mass Action on March 15 to stop the U.S./UK war against the people of Iraq.
Bush and Blair have announced a March 17 deadline for war and demanded the international community's ratification. They are paving the path to war by racing to convince the world that war is inevitable and that they answer to no one except George W. Bush and his warmongering associates. They want to demoralize and immobilize the opposition at the most critical moment.
But the war-makers can still be stopped, and they know it. If it hadn't been for the worldwide uprising against the war the carnage would have started months ago. We can and must intensify the mobilization for March 15.
While there are multiple plans for activities in the event of war or after war has begun, all people of conscience recognize that there are no planned actions more important than those called to prevent a war before it starts, and for people in the United States at this time that is particularly true. We must do everything in our power now to prevent the government of the U.S. from its planned killing in the Middle East. That is what makes the March 15 Emergency Convergence so crucial. It's time to Take it to the White House.
For the rest of the story:
http://www.voice4change.org/stories/showstory.asp?file=030307~vnw.asp=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
What Can the World Do if the US Attacks Iraq?
by Jeremy Brecher -
published by portside
March 7, 2003
If the US attacks Iraq without support of the UN Security Council, will the world be powerless to stop it? The answer is no. Under a procedure called "Uniting for Peace," the UN General Assembly can demand an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal. The global peace movement should consider demanding such an action.
When Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956, Britain, France, and Israel invaded Egypt and began advancing on the Suez Canal. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower demanded that the invasion stop. Resolutions in the UN Security Council called for a cease-fire - but Britain and France vetoed them. Then the United States appealed to the General Assembly and proposed a resolution calling for a cease-fire and a withdrawal of forces. The General Assembly held an emergency session and passed the resolution. Britain and France withdrew from Egypt within a week.
The appeal to the General Assembly was made under a procedure called "Uniting for Peace." This procedure was adopted by the Security Council so that the UN can act even if the Security Council is stalemated by vetoes. Resolution 377 provides that, if there is a "threat to peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression" and the permanent members of the Security Council do not agree on action, the General Assembly can meet immediately and recommend collective measures to U.N. members to "maintain or restore international peace and security." The "Uniting for Peace" mechanism has been used ten times, most frequently on the initiative of the United States.
The Bush Administration is currently promoting a Security Council resolution that it claims will authorize it to attack Iraq. However, huge opposition from global public opinion and most of the world's governments make such a resolution's passage unlikely.
What will happen if the US withdraws its resolution or the resolution is defeated? The US is currently indicating that it will attack Iraq even without Security Council approval. The US would undoubtedly use its veto should the Security Council attempt to condemn and halt its aggression. But the US has no veto in the General Assembly.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Flyby Note: TAKE ACTION ON THIS ABOVE PROPOSAL BEFORE WAR
You will find more information on this, including telephone numbers, etc.. to contact member states of the UN Security Council at.
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1045091648,41257,= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Marchers protest arrest of man for wearing peace T-shirt at Crossgates
Shopper charged after refusing to take off shirt that mall store made for him, bearing slogans "Peace on Earth" and "Give Peace a Chance"
By CAROL DeMARE, Staff writer, with wire reports
First published: Wednesday, March 5, 2003
TimesUnion.com
GUILDERLAND [NY]-- About 100 people marched through Crossgates Mall at noon today to protest the arrest Monday of a man who wore a peace T-shirt while he shopped.
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=112222&category=REGION&BCCode=HOME
4) ACLU Action Alerts:
Protect the Right for a Woman's Choice
Stop government-funded religionFrom: Matt Howes, National Internet Organizer, ACLU
To: ACLU Action Network Members
Date: March 10, 2003
Protect the Right to Choose!
The U.S. Senate is expected this week to once again consider legislation that would ban so-called "partial-birth abortions." Just like previous versions of this legislation, the bill before the Senate continues to lack an exception to protect women's health -- a requirement that the Supreme Court said is constitutionally compelled.
The legislation before the Senate would seriously compromise women's health and drastically limit physicians' discretion to choose the most medically appropriate abortion method for their patients.
Take Action! Urge your Members of Congress to oppose this regressive and unconstitutional legislation! Click here to get more information and send a free fax:
http://www.aclu.org/ReproductiveRights/ReproductiveRights.cfm?ID=10780&c=143= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Support Civil Rights: Oppose the Faith-Based Initiative!
After voting on the anti-choice legislation, the Senate is expected to turn to a bill that would write into federal law President Bush's initiative for government-funded religion. If you have not yet sent a FREE FAX to your Senators about this dangerous legislation, please send your letter today!
The legislation before the Senate must be amended. Unless Congress explicitly prohibits discrimination, the Bush Administration has made it clear that it will allow religious organizations that take federal funds to discriminate against job applicants on the basis of religion, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, HIV status or any other characteristic that a religious organization finds objectionable.
Take Action! All federally funded employers must protect, not gut, the civil rights of all Americans.
Click here to get more information and send a free fax:
http://www.aclu.org/ReligiousLiberty/ReligiousLiberty.cfm?ID=11059&c=37For more information on other ACLU issues, visit:
http://www.aclu.org
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark
info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Emergency Petition * Caldicott-Pope * Nuke Threat
05 March 2003
1) Emergency Petition to the Security Council
2) Join Helen Caldicott to request that the Pope go to Iraq
3) A war policy in collapse
Also, a related article link, "War" by Howard Zinn
4) North Korea Says a U.S. Attack Could Lead to a Nuclear War
5) U.S. Public Opposition to War Grows
Editor's Notes:Please take a moment, if you haven't already, and sign MoveOn's petition to the UN Security Council to say no to war on Iraq. This petition will be delivered on Thursday, March 6!
http://www.moveon.org/emergency/ More information on this and an urgent campaign to stop a Bush right wing justice appointee are in item 1. Item 2 is about sending the Pope an Email to ask him to take steps to stop a US invasion on Iraq. Item 3 is about a war policy in collapse' even though there are hundreds of thousands of US troops waiting to attack from Iraq's borders. Item 4 should be the primary focus of the Bush administration in regards to stopping the threat of weapons of mass destruction, and it gives evidence that there is an ulterior motive for Bush wanting to occupy and make a regime change in Iraq. Item 5 is more on public opposition. Please don't give up. Do everything you think is important to help stop this war and the harm that could come to thousands or millions of people. Besides signing the online petition and sending emails and faxes, please also call member states of the UN Security Council urging members to "Unite for Peace to Resolve the Iraq Crisis." The following URL link has contact and other information:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1045091648,41257, Thank You for reading Flyby News and most importantly, taking actions for peace.
1) Emergency Petition to the Security CouncilFrom MoveOn.org
We've launched an emergency petition from citizens around the world to the U.N. Security Council. We'll be delivering the list of signers and your comments to the 15 member states of
the Security Council on THURSDAY, MARCH 6.
If hundreds of thousands of us sign, it could be an enormously important and powerful message -- people from all over the world joining in a single call for a peaceful solution. But we really need your help, and soon. Please sign and ask your friends and colleagues to sign TODAY at:
http://www.moveon.org/emergency/In the next week, the U.N. Security Council will likely meet to decide on authorizing a war against Iraq. If the Council votes to accept a second resolution, it'll be very difficult to avert a war. But if the resolution doesn't get enough votes, it'll be a major setback for the Bush Administration's plans to invade and occupy Iraq.
In the United States and around the world, millions of us oppose a war against Iraq. We believe that tough inspections can disarm Saddam Hussein without the loss of a single life. This week may represent our last chance to win without war.
The stakes couldn't really be much higher. A war with Iraq could kill tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians and inflame the Middle East. According to current plans, it would require an American occupation of the country for years to come. And it could escalate in ways that are horrifying to imagine.
We can stop this tragedy from unfolding. But we need to speak together, and we need to do so now. Let's show the Security Council what world citizens think. You can add your voice at:
http://www.moveon.org/emergency/Sincerely,
--Eli Pariser
International Campaigns Director
MoveOn.org
March 3rd, 2003
P.S. Here's the letter we'll be delivering to the Security Council members along with the petition:
Dear Member of the U.N. Security Council,
We are citizens from countries all over the world. We are speaking together because we will all be affected by a decision in which your country has a major part -- the decision of how to disarm Iraq.
The first reason for its existence listed in the Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations is "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind." If your country supports a Security Council resolution that would authorize a war on Iraq, you will directly contradict that charter. You will be supporting an unnecessary war -- a war which immediately, and in its unknown consequences, could bring "untold sorrow to mankind" once again.
The U.N. was created to enable peaceful alternatives to conflict. The weapons inspections under way are a perfect example of just such an alternative, and their growing success is a testament to the potential power the U.N. holds. By supporting tough inspections instead of war, you can show the world a real way to resolve conflict without bloodshed. But if you back a war, it will undermine the very premise upon which the U.N. was built.
President Bush argues that only by endorsing a war on Iraq can the United Nations prove its relevance. We argue the opposite. If the Security Council allows itself to be completely swayed by one member nation, in the face of viable alternatives, common sense and world public opinion, then it will be diminished in its role, effectiveness, and in the opinion of humankind.
We do not support this war. For billions of citizens in hundreds of countries, and for the future generations whose lives will be shaped by the choice you make, we ask that you stand firm against the pressuring of the Bush Administration, and support tough inspections for Iraq. The eyes of the world are on you.
Sincerely,
[Number] citizens of the world.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Editor's Note: TODAY - Wednesday 5 March - is the last day to sign this petition. If you have difficulty getting to their site, keep trying, and for more information on contacting the UN about taking a pro-active position to ensure peace, see:
"Uniting for Peace to Resolve the Iraq Crisis" http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1045091648,41257,= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
More from MoveOn: Free Call to SUPPORT the filibuster to stop Miguel Estrada
As we continue our Iraq campaign, we're also working to track the most pressing domestic challenges from the Bush administration. While Iraq is taking all the media focus, the right wing is using this diversion to cover attacks on almost every front.
Tomorrow -- Thursday, March 6th -- our ability to withstand this onslaught may come down to one crucial Senate vote. This vote -- on the Miguel Estrada judicial nomination -- is widely seen as a key moment defining whether the Democratic opposition can turn back the worst of the right-wing initiatives.
The Senate will be voting on the filibuster* on the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the D.C. appeals court. We need to support this filibuster and the courageous Senators who are stepping forward at this key moment. Please call your Senators *immediately* to make your voice heard.
We've arranged a TOLL-FREE number for you to use. Please call it twice to speak with both your Senators:
1-888-508-2974
If that number is busy, please call your Senators directly, at:
The Congressional Switchboard telephone number: 202-224-3121
Make sure the staffers know you're a constituent. Then urge your Senators to:
-- "Please SUPPORT the filibuster to stop Miguel Estrada."
-- "Please vote AGAINST cloture."
Please let us know you're making these important calls, at:
http://www.moveon.org/callmade2.htmlMiguel Estrada is a stealth right-wing extremist who has never served as a judge before, yet has been nominated by the White House to a seat on America's second-highest court. He stonewalled the Senate during his confirmation hearings last year, refusing to answer basic questions about his legal & judicial philosophy. Estrada is widely thought to be President Bush's top choice for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. His silence on his views on the law is a direct challenge to all of us.
A recent New York Times story on the filibuster is at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/12/politics/12ESTR.htmlFor more information on Estrada, there's a good fact sheet at:
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=7795* For more information on filibusters, see our bulletin at:
http://www.moveon.org/moveonbulletin/bulletin11.html
2) Join Helen Caldicott to request that the Pope go to IraqDr. Helen Caldicott and the National Council of Churches are calling for the Pope to act as a human shield for the people of Iraq. Imagine if this could happen. She is asking for help from around to world to contact the Pope and urge him to go to Iraq.
Subject: An Appeal from Dr. Helen Caldicott to the Pope
From: Helen Caldicott
hcaldic@bigpond.comSent: Saturday, March 01, 2003 11:01 AM
Dear Friends:
I write this appeal for your help as a pediatrician, a mother, and a grandmother -- and I am writing about the lives of tens of thousands of children.
Although the current administration has demonstrated it has no reservations about slaughtering up to 500,000 innocents in Iraq, there is one person whose life they absolutely will not risk. That person is Pope John Paul II.
The Pope has already formally denounced the proposed war, calling it a defeat for humanity, and also has sent his top spokesperson. However, to stop the war, he now must take a historically unprecedented action of his own and travel to Baghdad. The Pope's physical presence in Iraq will act as the ultimate human shield, during which time leaders of the world's nations can commit themselves to identifying and implementing a peaceful solution to a war that the world's majority clearly does not support.
To persuade the Holy Father to take this unusual but potent action, he must hear from you and millions of others around the world who have already been inspired to stand up and speak out for peace. A mountain of surface mail, email, faxes, and phone calls are our devices to inspire him.
Please understand that your taking just a few minutes right now to communicate with him may ultimately spare the lives of thousands of innocent people who at this moment live in complete terror from the threat of an imminent U.S.-lead military strike on their homeland.
So here is what you can do to be a part of this powerful final action to stop the march to war in Iraq.
Email the Pope at:
accreditamenti@pressva.vaShould you wish to phone the Vatican directly, (from USA) dial 011-39-06-69-82--all other countries must use their appropriate international prefix.
Pass this original email on to as many people you can so as to assure a critical mass is reached in this action.
Thank you for participating in this formal request of the Pope. We just may stop this war in Iraq -- and save these children's lives.
Dr. Helen Caldicott
3) A war policy in collapseA war policy in collapse
By James Carroll, 3/4/2003
What A Difference a month makes. On Feb. 5, Secretary of State Colin Powell made the Bush administration's case against Iraq with a show of authority that moved many officials and pundits out of ambivalence and into acceptance. The war came to seem inevitable, which then prompted millions of people to express their opposition in streets around the globe. Over subsequent weeks, the debate between hawks and doves took on the strident character of ideologues beating each other with fixed positions. The sputtering rage of war opponents and the grandiose abstractions of war advocates both seemed disconnected from the relentless marshaling of troops. War was coming. Further argument was fruitless. The time seemed to have arrived, finally, for a columnist to change the subject.
And then the events of last week. Within a period of a few days, the war policy of the Bush administration suddenly showed signs of incipient collapse. No one of these developments by itself marks the ultimate reversal of fortune for Bush, but taken together, they indicate that the law of ''unintended consequences,'' which famously unravels the best-laid plans of warriors, may apply this time before the war formally begins. Unraveling is underway. Consider what happened as February rolled into March:
Tony Blair forcefully criticized George W. Bush for his obstinacy on global environmental issues, a truly odd piece of timing for such criticism from a key ally yet a clear effort to get some distance from Washington. Why now?
The president's father chose to give a speech affirming the importance both of multinational cooperation and of realism in dealing with the likes of Saddam Hussein. To say, as the elder Bush did, that getting rid of Hussein in 1991 was not the most important thing is to raise the question of why it has become the absolute now.
For the first time since the crisis began, Iraq actually began to disarm, destroying Al Samoud 2 missiles and apparently preparing to bring weapons inspectors into the secret world of anthrax and nerve agents. The Bush administration could have claimed this as a victory on which to mount further pressure toward disarmament.
Instead, the confirmed destruction of Iraqi arms prompted Washington to couple its call for disarmament with the old, diplomatically discredited demand for regime change. Even an Iraq purged of weapons of mass destruction would not be enough to avoid war. Predictably, Iraq then asked, in effect, why Hussein should take steps to disarm if his government is doomed in any case? Bush's inconsistency on this point -- disarmament or regime change? -- undermined the early case for war. That it reappears now, obliterating Powell's argument of a month ago, is fatal to the moral integrity of the pro-war position.
The Russian foreign minister declared his nation's readiness to use its veto in the Security Council to thwart American hopes for a UN ratification of an invasion.
Despite Washington's offer of many billions in aid, the Turkish Parliament refused to approve US requests to mount offensive operations from bases in Turkey -- the single largest blow against US war plans yet. This failure of Bush diplomacy, eliminating a second front, might be paid for in American lives.
The capture in Pakistan of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a senior Al Qaeda operative, should have been only good news to the Bush administration, but it highlighted the difference between the pursuit of Sept. 11 culprits and the unrelated war against Iraq. Osama bin Laden, yes. Saddam Hussein, no.
Administration officials, contradicting military projections and then refusing in testimony before Congress to estimate costs and postwar troop levels, put on display either the administration's inadequate preparation or its determination, through secrecy, to thwart democratic procedures -- choose one.
In other developments, all highlighting Washington's panicky ineptness, the Philippines rejected the help of arriving US combat forces, North Korea apparently prepared to start up plutonium production, and Rumsfeld ordered the actual deployment of missile defense units in California and Alaska, making the absurd (and as of now illegal) claim that further tests are unnecessary.
All of this points to an administration whose policies are confused and whose implementations are incompetent. The efficiency with which the US military is moving into position for attack is impressive; thousands of uniformed Americans are preparing to carry out the orders of their civilian superiors with diligence and courage. But the hollowness of that civilian leadership, laid bare in the disarray of last week's news, is breathtaking.
That the United States of America should be on the brink of such an ill-conceived, unnecessary war is itself a crime. The hope now is that -- even before the war has officially begun -- its true character is already manifesting itself, which could be enough, at last, to stop it.
[James Carroll's column appears regularly in the Globe.]
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/063/oped/A_war_policy_in_collapseP.shtml= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a related article, "War" by Howard Zinn, is posted at:
http://www.CommonDreams.org/views03/0227-12.htm
4) North Korea Says a U.S. Attack Could Lead to a Nuclear War NY Times -
North Korea Says a U.S. Attack Could Lead to a Nuclear War
By KEITH BRADSHER
SEOUL, South Korea, Monday, March 3 - North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, has warned that nuclear war could break out if the United States attacks his country's nuclear program. The remarks were his first public pronouncement since North Korea restarted a nuclear reactor last Wednesday.
The statements by Mr. Kim, which were read by an announcer for North Korean radio and monitored by the BBC, were consistent with statements in North Korean newspapers over the weekend, as North Korea has increased its criticisms of American policies in response to growing worries in Washington that North Korea may soon begin production of nuclear weapons.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/03/international/asia/03KORE.html
5) U.S. Public Opposition to War GrowsFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 26, 2003
Contact: Gordon Clark, 301-589-2355
U.S. Public Opposition to War Grows
Nonviolent Civil Disobedience Actions Planned in 43 U.S. Cities
As one of the strongest signs yet of public opposition to war in Iraq, organizers are currently planning nonviolent civil disobedience actions in dozens of U.S. cities. Many of the actions are planned as response or "day after" actions, while a number are planned for set dates.
"As President Bush continues to press for war against Iraq, we are continuing to escalate our resistance to that war," said Gordon Clark, National Coordinator of the Iraq Pledge of Resistance. "The illegality and immorality of this war, which will kill thousands of innocent Iraqis, is compelling thousands of Americans to put their bodies on the line in a nonviolent attempt to stop it. This is the largest nationwide coordinated civil disobedience since the Central America Pledge of Resistance in the 1980s, which had a significant impact on the Reagan Administration's military plans for that region."
"Opposition to this war will not end if the Bush Administration chooses to flout world opinion and initiate military action - it will begin a new season of resistance," added Mr. Clark.
The Iraq Pledge of Resistance is a campaign of nationally coordinated nonviolent civil disobedience to oppose war in Iraq, sponsored by over a dozen major U.S. peace groups Initiated in October of 2002, there are now local groups and coalitions in over 50 cities actively organizing around the Iraq Pledge of Resistance; more information is available at
http://www.peacepledge.org/resist
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark
info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
US Dirty Tricks * YAY Turkey * War Plans - Reactions
02 March 2003
"War is just a racket.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems
to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about.
It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses."
--Major General Smedley Butler, USMC1) US dirty tricks to win vote on Iraq war Russia to use veto power to "maintain world peace"
2) Turkish Deputies Refuse to Accept American Troops
3) War Plan for Iraq Largely in Place US Prepares to Use Toxic Gases in Iraq
Official US Diplomat's letter of resignation to Colin L. Powell
The Constitutionality of War with Iraq - Update on Boston Law Suit
4) Kucinich's Prayer for America VIDEO The Salon Interview: Dennis Kucinich
Editor's Notes:The first item, if not so serious, would be funny. The US gets caught playing dirty tricks to win the vote for war on Iraq in the United Nations. The Bush administration is getting desperate. They lost their secondary terror-producing launching pad from Turkey. The article in item 2 states that it was more like sounds of silence since 'more Turkish lawmakers supported the measure than opposed it, but the resolution failed because the total number of "no" votes and abstentions exceeded the number of favorable votes. Under the Turkish Constitution, a resolution can become law only if it is supported by a majority of the lawmakers present.' But the fight is not over, and the US is still planning an attack regardless. Meanwhile Russia stated that it will use its veto power in the United Nations. This change in tone came following the intelligence information posted in previous issue, which makes it appear possible that Saddam might have agreed, and the rebuke at the UN was the response of Russia after a peace proposal for disarmament, US oil business in Iraq, and peaceful relations were guaranteed, but would Bush want peace? His actions and words tell another story, skull and bones and dark consequences.
Item 3 is about the Bush war-plan ready for an attack phase for merciless harm to life for generations. Following the Washington Post article, item 3, you will find another resource on the US now equipped with toxic riot-control agents in Iraq, which is in contravention of the Chemical Weapons Convention. Also, another resource, a heroic, patriotic letter of resignation to Colin L. Powell by an official US diplomat in protest of the threatening US war policy. I am sorry for all of us that the news is so jam-packed with critical info on overload. In this item, too, is a link-update on the Boston law suit questioning the Constitutionality of the Bush War with Iraq. Contrary to media reports, this justice action remains active, and Tuesday is the next scheduled Hearing. Only Congress can declare war. In essence, this is words of the US Constitution. Bad precedents for illegal wars since WWII don't count. Item four includes a short review by Goodsister on the Kucinich prayer for America (speech), and a link to the video. Also, this item has excerpts and a link to theSalon interview with Dennis Kucinich. This guy is truly an inspiration. Flyby encourages you to get to his site, and sign up to help his grassroots campaign to transform current policies and structure for democracy and government.
And please, take action this week to counter dirty tricks of Bush administration for war on Iraq.
Support disarmament-inspection plans supported by Germany and France.
UN member nations need to hear from us this week and next until they take Pro-Active measures to ensure Peace.
For "Uniting for Peace to Resolve the Iraq Crisis" information, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1045091648,41257,~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand. I can do no other.
-- Martin Luther
1) US dirty tricks to win vote on Iraq warRevealed: US dirty tricks to win vote on Iraq war
Secret document details American plan to bug phones and emails of key Security Council members.
[Excerpted]
The United States is conducting a secret 'dirty tricks' campaign against UN Security Council delegations in New York as part of its battle to win votes in favour of war against Iraq.
Details of the aggressive surveillance operation, which involves interception of the home and office telephones and the emails of UN delegates in New York, are revealed in a document leaked to The Observer. The disclosures were made in a memorandum written by a top official at the National Security Agency - the US body which intercepts communications around the world - and circulated to both senior agents in his organisation and to a friendly foreign intelligence agency asking for its input. The memo describes orders to staff at the agency, whose work is clouded in secrecy, to step up its surveillance operations 'particularly directed at... UN Security Council Members (minus US and GBR, of course)' to provide up-to-the-minute intelligence for Bush officials on the voting intentions of UN members regarding the issue of Iraq. The leaked memorandum makes clear that the target of the heightened surveillance efforts are the delegations from Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Mexico, Guinea and Pakistan at the UN headquarters in New York - the so-called 'Middle Six' delegations whose votes are being fought over by the pro-war party, led by the US and Britain, and the party arguing for more time for UN inspections, led by France, China and Russia. The memo is directed at senior NSA officials and advises them that the agency is 'mounting a surge' aimed at gleaning information not only on how delegations on the Security Council will vote on any second resolution on Iraq, but also 'policies', 'negotiating positions', 'alliances' and 'dependencies' - the 'whole gamut of information that could give US policymakers an edge in obtaining results favourable to US goals or to head off surprises'.
The complete article is posted:
http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,905899,00.html= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Russia to use veto power to "maintain world peace"Posted: 1213 PM (Manila Time) | Feb. 28, 2003
Agence France-Presse
BEIJING - Russia will use its veto power in the United Nations to maintain world peace if needed, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Friday, without specifically mentioning Iraq.
"Russia has veto power. If needed, and under the conditions of maintaining world peace and stability, Russia will use its veto," Ivanov said through a translator at a press conference in the Chinese capital.
For the complete article, see:
www.inq7.net/brk/2003/feb/28/brkafp_4-1.htm
2) Turkish Deputies Refuse to Accept American TroopsFrom: "Bill Smirnow" smirnowb@ix.netcom.com
Subject: Turkey Votes No Re Accepting US Stormtroopers
Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2003 04:10:56 -0500
Thank God someone's stood up to the SOBs. Maybe dominos will start falling. Let's remember that this "may be war" if becomes a war is still illegal [not to mention astonishing immoral] on at least 2 counts- violation of the UN Charter in the form of Article 51 & violation of the Kellogg-Briand Pact. Irrespective of weather there' war or not the sociopath that's currently occupying the White House after the 200 Coup De Etat [http://www.gregpalast.com] needs to be impeached along with his entire cabinet. A worse case scenario has 3.6 million people being killed in which the USA & UK attack Iraq, Saddam unleashes bio and/or chem weapons and the USA uses nuclear weapons. 3.6 million potential murders and the media push for Bush's & Blair's bloodbath knowing this.
-Bill SmirnowNY Times -
http://www.nytimes.comTurkish Deputies Refuse to Accept American Troops By DEXTER FILKINS
NKARA, Turkey, March 1 - The Turkish Parliament today dealt a heavy blow to the Bush administration's plans for a northern front against Iraq, narrowly rejecting a measure that would have allowed thousands of American combat troops to use the country as a base for an attack. More Turkish lawmakers supported the measure than opposed it, but the resolution failed because the total number of "no" votes and abstentions exceeded the number of favorable votes. Under the Turkish Constitution, a resolution can become law only if it is supported by a majority of the lawmakers present.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/02/international/europe/02TURK.html
3) War Plan for Iraq Largely in PlaceUS Prepares to Use Toxic Gases in Iraq
Official US Diplomat's letter of resignation to Colin L. Powell
War Plan for Iraq Largely in Place
Quick, Simultaneous Attacks on Ground and From Air Envisioned ...
By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 2, 2003; Page A01
After more than a year of intense work, the Bush administration's plan for an assault on Iraq is essentially in place and is based on an unusual approach that envisions simultaneous air and ground operations combining the U.S. advantages in firepower, speed and precision, according to several people familiar with the strategy. . .
. . .Indeed, the end of the fighting may be the beginning of the real difficulties for the U.S. military, some experts said, noting that the Bush administration is planning for a lengthy military occupation. "The major concerns," said Andrews, "are still pretty much what happens after the shooting stops."
2003 The Washington Post Company
The complete article was posted at this following URL link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A23867-2003Mar1?language=printer= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
US Prepares to Use Toxic Gases in IraqPublished on Sunday, March 2, 2003 by the lndependent/UK
US Prepares to Use Toxic Gases in Iraq
by Geoffrey Lean and Severin Carrell
The US is preparing to use the toxic riot-control agents CS gas and pepper spray in Iraq in contravention of the Chemical Weapons Convention, provoking the first split in the Anglo-US alliance. "Calmative" gases, similar to the one that killed 120 hostages in the Moscow theatre siege last year, could also be employed.
The convention bans the use of these toxic agents in battle, not least because they risk causing an escalation to full chemical warfare. This applies even though they can be used in civil disturbances at home: both CS gas and pepper spray are available for use by UK police forces. The US Marine Corps confirmed last week that both had already been shipped to the Gulf.
For the complete article, see:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_medical/story.jsp?story=383006= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Official US Diplomat's letter of resignation to Colin L. PowellThe following is the text of John Brady Kiesling's letter of resignation to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. Mr. Kiesling is a career diplomat who has served in United States embassies from Tel Aviv to Casablanca to Yerevan.
Dear Mr. Secretary:
I am writing you to submit my resignation from the Foreign Service of the United States and from my position as Political Counselor in U.S. Embassy Athens, effective March 7. I do so with a heavy heart. The baggage of my upbringing included a felt obligation to give something back to my country. Service as a U.S. diplomat was a dream job. I was paid to understand foreign languages and cultures, to seek out diplomats, politicians, scholars and journalists, and to persuade them that U.S. interests and theirs fundamentally coincided. My faith in my country and its values was the most powerful weapon in my diplomatic arsenal.
It is inevitable that during twenty years with the State Department I would become more sophisticated and cynical about the narrow and selfish bureaucratic motives that sometimes shaped our policies. Human nature is what it is, and I was rewarded and promoted for understanding human nature. But until this Administration it had been possible to believe that by upholding the policies of my president I was also upholding the interests of the American people and the world. I believe it no longer.
The policies we are now asked to advance are incompatible not only with American values but also with American interests. Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been America's most potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days of Woodrow Wilson. We have begun to dismantle the largest and most effective web of international relationships t he world has ever known. Our current course will bring instability and danger, not security.
The sacrifice of global interests to domestic politics and to bureaucratic self-interest is nothing new, and it is certainly not a uniquely American problem. Still, we have not seen such systematic distortion of intelligence, such systematic manipulation of American opinion, since the war in Vietnam. The September 11 tragedy left us stronger than before, rallying around us a vast international coalition to cooperate for the first time in a systematic way against the threat of terrorism. But rather than take credit for those successes and build on them, this Administration has chosen to make terrorism a domestic political tool, enlisting a scattered and largely defeated Al Qaeda as its bureaucratic ally. We spread disproportionate terror and confusion in the public mind, arbitrarily linking the unrelated problems of terrorism and Iraq. The result, and perhaps the motive, is to justify a vast mis-allocation of shrinking public wealth to the military and to weaken the safeguards that protect American citizens from the heavy hand of government. September 11 did not do as much damage to the fabric of American society as we seem determined to so to ourselves. Is the Russia of the late Romanovs really our model, a selfish, superstitious empire thrashing toward self-destruction in the name of a doomed status quo?
We should ask ourselves why we have failed to persuade more of the world that a war with Iraq is necessary. We have over the past two years done too much to assert to our world partners that narrow and mercenary U.S. interests override the cherished values of our partners. Even where our aims were not in question, our consistency is at issue. The model of Afghanistan is little comfort to allies wondering on what basis we plan to rebuild the Middle East, and in whose image and interests. Have we indeed become blind, as Russia is blind in Chechnya, as Israel is blind in the Occupied Territories, to our own advice, that overwhelming military power is not the answer to terrorism? After the shambles of post-war Iraq joins the shambles in Grozny and Ramallah, it will be a brave foreigner who forms ranks with Micronesia to follow where we lead.
We have a coalition still, a good one. The loyalty of many of our friends is impressive, a tribute to American moral capital built up over a century. But our closest allies are persuaded less that war is justified than that it would be perilous to allow the U.S. to drift into complete solipsism. Loyalty should be reciprocal. Why does our President condone the swaggering and contemptuous approach to our friends and allies this Administration is fostering, including among its most senior officials. Has "oderint dum metuant" really become our motto?
I urge you to listen to America's friends around the world. Even here in Greece, purported hotbed of European anti-Americanism, we have more and closer friends than the American newspaper reader can possibly imagine. Even when they complain about American arrogance, Greeks know that the world is a difficult and dangerous place, and they want a strong international system, with the U.S. and EU in close partnership. When our friends are afraid of us rather than for us, it is time to worry. And now they are afraid. Who will tell them convincingly that the United States is as it was, a beacon of liberty, security, and justice for the planet?
Mr. Secretary, I have enormous respect for your character and ability. You have preserved more international credibility for us than our policy deserves, and salvaged something positive from the excesses of an ideological and self-serving Administration. But your loyalty to the President goes too far. We are straining beyond its limits an international system we built with such toil and treasure, a web of laws, treaties, organizations, and shared values that sets limits on our foes far more effectively than it ever constrained America's ability to defend its interests.
I am resigning because I have tried and failed to reconcile my conscience with my ability to represent the current U.S. Administration. I have confidence that our democratic process is ultimately self-correcting, and hope that in a small way I can contribute from outside to shaping policies that better serve the security and prosperity of the American people and the world we share.
U.S. Diplomat's Letter of Resignation
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/27/international/27WEB-TNAT.html>
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The Constitutionality of War with Iraq - Update on Boston Law SuitBLESS OUR MEDIA!
BY Marta Steele
MFSO plaintiff Laurie Manis is alive and well after her appearance on MSNBC's Special Edition report February 24 at 10 PM. That I can certify, having been in rapid email communication with her since I first began covering the lawsuit last weekend.
The most important news is that despite Joe Scarborough's (MSNBC) assertion that the judge "ruled against the suit and "found no evidence of conflict between the executive and the legislature" in the October Resolution as it stands, Laurie countered that "[o]ur case was appealed within minutes of being dismissed yesterday. By the way, Judge {Joseph L.] Tauro did not 'toss it out.' [today's Boston Globe insisted the judge "dismissed it" on Monday"!] He ruled that it was out of his jurisprudence precisely so it could be appealed in a higher federal court. (that is, Scarborough misinformed the viewing public on MSNBC)." Scheduling of the appeal, accomplished February 26, is already in place for March 4. "[T]he US First Circuit Court of Appeals [for the First District] agreed to an expedited hearing. The Court turned down the government's request for more time. The hearing has been scheduled for Tuesday, March 4, at 9 A.M. in Boston."
For the complete article, see:
http://www.legitgov.org/essay_steele_bless_our_media_022703.html**********************************************************************
4) Kucinich's Prayer for America VIDEO
The Salon Interview: Dennis KucinichThe following was posted by Goodsister,
moderator of kucinich4president list serve:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kucinich4president"I had read the text of this speech, but not until fairly recently did I have the pleasure of seeing this video. And I was more deeply moved than I thought possible. There is something oddly poetic about the Congressman's delivery, as well as his choice of words. And in the throes of this suppression of our voices, we are starved for poetry as never before.
Remember that this speech was given a year ago, long before his decision to run for President was made. I believe, in fact, that it was this speech that galvanized the first surges of support for DK to step up and lead us out of this appalling Bush nightmare. His singing those bits of our anthems at the beginning, in that quiet lilt that sounds Irish to me, raised the hair on the back of my neck. I felt I was witnessing a public expression of deep and very private feelings of patriotism and despair.
In any case, the speech is incredible. Crown thy good, America.
(Text below, but click on link to see video)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.28I.Kucinich.Prayer.htm-- Goodsister
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Salon Interview: Dennis KucinichKucinich spoke with Salon by telephone:
[Excerpt]
Salon -- Do you really, truly think you have any chance to win the Democratic presidential nomination?
Kucinich -- Yes. Because I'm the only candidate who has a message which encompasses international politics and domestic politics and shows the links between the two. I'm the only one. The only one who has a real economic platform for the United States; it's fair to say I come from the FDR school of the Democratic Party, which is a full-employment economy, to work for lower interest rates, to cancel NAFTA and the WTO, and return to bilateral trade conditioned on workers rights, human rights, and environmental principles, guaranteed healthcare for everyone, guaranteed Social Security.
Your speech to the DNC last Saturday was about the war and about foreign policy.
Successes on domestic policy have been undermined with our move towards war, and they will continue to be undermined. Whether it's Lawrence Lindsey, the president's former chief economic advisor, or Professor [William] Nordhaus of Yale, they both talk about the impact of the war on the economy, and they see the cost of the war as anywhere from $99 bil to a trillion or more, depending on the costs of bombing, the costs of occupation, the costs of reconstruction of Iraq. Two hundred billion dollars was Lindsey's estimate. In addition to that, we all understood that the rising cost of oil would have a very damaging effect on the national economy.
I led the effort in the House of Representatives; I organized 126 Democrats to challenge the administration's policy. And this is not only about Iraq. The White House relies on preemption and unilateralism, and in this complex world that can only mean more danger to United States.
And despite having a generally pro-life voting record, you support Roe v. Wade?
Yes; I've never been for overturning it. In fact, I had an opponent in 1998, Joe Slovenec, who was from Operation Rescue, and one of things he was pressing for in the campaign was a constitutional amendment to overturn Roe v. Wade. And I've never been for that.
I know that my voting record indicates very clearly that over a five-year period I have voted in ways that have been supportive of those who have worked to make sure that quality of life is affirmed. And there have been some cases in which those votes can be construed to be part of the polarity that this country's in. But expanding one's view is beyond changing one's mind.
Well, can you explain to me precisely what that view is?
I support a woman's right to choose, which is guaranteed by the Constitution. And on the other hand, I want to work to create alternatives to abortion. And I think it's possible to do both. Most Americans would like a leader to be elected who steps out of the polarity and tries to reconcile people and recognize that people may hold viewpoints that seem diametrically opposed.
In 1996 when you won your congressional seat, you declared, "I believe that life begins at conception." Have you changed your mind on that?
No, no. Not at all. That's what I think. But we live in a pluralistic society and there are many different spiritual beliefs in this Congress.
If I were a pro-choice Democrat how could I trust you?
I think what I've been able to demonstrate to people is they see someone who wants to lead this nation, someone who has the capacity for growth and the ability to look at complex and even divisive issues anew, and that I've done that.
Let me ask you about another apparent inconsistency. On "Meet the Press," in arguing against the war, you argued that the way to remove Saddam Hussein from power "is continue to use sanctions which thwart his efforts to grow." But in the Progressive magazine last November, you wrote, "The time has come for us to end the sanctions against Iraq, because those sanctions punish the people of Iraq for having Saddam Hussein as their leader. These sanctions have been instrumental in causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children." How do you reconcile those two statements?
I probably should have used a modifier on "Meet the Press." I should have said smart sanctions. I would oppose some sanctions -- no military equipment, nothing for the nuclear industry; most people would agree with that. But I wouldn't want sanctions on dialysis equipment, on surgical instruments, on oxygen tents, on water-purification chemicals. I wouldn't want sanctions on nasal gastric tubes or on any kind of medical supplies or anything of use to the water.
Are there any conditions under which you would support military action against anyone?
There are two conditions. After an attack on our country or an imminent threat backed by incontrovertible evidence. Those would be my foundations of principle. But no such evidence exists in case of Iraq, and Iraq has not attacked our country.
You know, the day after attack there was a National Security Council meeting and, according to Bob Woodward in "Bush at War," in that meeting you had [Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld saying, 'Let's go after Iraq.' That's on page 49 of his book. Check it out if you haven't read it already.
So this plan to go after Iraq has been on the boards for a long time.
But would those rules, those "foundations of principle," have permitted the U.S. to take action to stop the Nazis before Pearl Harbor? It would seem that President Kucinich wouldn't think we should take any action.
You're taking about a condition before the advent of the United Nations. Now that we live in a world where there's a structure and a United Nations charter, Hitler's activities would have been the subject of a Security Council action and the world community could have responded.
For the complete article, go to salon.com:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/03/01/kucinich/index.html~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Flyby News encourages you to visit and sign up for email notices from
Dennis Kucinich official web site for US President - www.kucinich.us
For a real change.. that is if we have an election, and can thwart off the efforts
of a terror-coup d'etat-group that acts to control and/or destroy the world.
Reminder -- this week -- take action to support the Uniting for Peace to Resolve the Iraq Crisis
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark
info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Kucinich on CNN Crossfire * War Against Ourselves
27 February 2003
1) CNN CrossFires with Dennis Kucinich
2) The War Against Ourselves
An Interview with Major Doug Rokke
Editor's Notes:CNN's Crossfire featured Dennis Kucinich, and nothing but the word "hot" adequately describes the interchange and debate. "..You know what, as president, I will be independent and be able to challenge the corporate interests who right now control a good part of the Democratic party." Item 1 includes the transcript of this interview, dealing with all sorts of issues including abortion. Kucinich is determined to expand his conviction for pro-democracy, pro-life, and pro-choice. He fervently will defend the Constitutional Right for a woman to choose an abortion for herself, and is alarmed by current trends against our civil liberties. You can visit the Kucinich web site for his statement on many issues, and learn more about his efforts to stop an unjust war. At the end of this item, make sure you find the link for ==>
Kids4Kucinich.org.
Kucinich, the boy Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, is quite simply an inspiration for most everyone young at heart. The children of the world don't want to see other children of the world dead in streets, or their moms or dads, or to see families in refugee camps, suffering from Depleted Uranium and other illnesses. Kucinich is leading the opposition to the proposed Bush war, which is irresponsible, unjustified, expensive, chaos-producing, children killing.. This so-called preemptive war is better described by the title of the next item, "The War Against Ourselves."
Item 4 features an interview of Major Doug Rokke and his experiences from studying Depleted Uranium. Uranium is often mined in places known as sacred by indigenous people. Yet the processing, separating, the technical manipulation of enriching uranium for radioactive qualities is evil-doing, which could remain destructive beyond the life of humanity. Instead of recognizing this, the US is preparing to make war on a weakened people, with no evidence of a nuclear program, while at the same time, North Korea begins operation of its nuclear power plant to produce enriched uranium. In a previous Flyby News we learned that Rumsfeld was on the Board of a Corporation involved in providing nuclear technologies to North Korea in the 1990's. The UN has little time but to act to save us from a bizarre military regime and administration. Your encouragement of the UN in supporting a 'Uniting for Peace' initiative could enable the German-France plan to effectively prevent a US invasion, and to successfully contain and disarm Iraq's potential weapons of mass destruction.
Thanks for reading, acting, and caring.
Time is short, but lasting within a moment.
1) CNN CrossFires with Dennis KucinichCNN CROSSFIRE - Interview With Dennis Kucinich
Aired February 21, 2003 - 1900 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: CROSSFIRE.
On the left, James Carville and Paul Begala.
On the right, Robert Novak and Tucker Carlson.
In the CROSSFIRE, he's one of the most outspoken liberals on Capital Hill, and one of the fiercest opponents of a war with Iraq.
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH (D) OHIO: This administration has been spoiling for a war with Iraq, whether or not there's been any evidence at all.
ANNOUNCER: Is there any evidence he has a chance of moving into the White House?
The Bush administration plays "Let's Make a Deal" with a Middle East ally.
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: This is a serious matter and our good friend and ally, Turkey, is taking it seriously.
ANNOUNCER: Seriously, is this anyway to prepare for a war?
BEGALA: Every presidential candidate knows there's an obligatory stop on the road to the White House, the first toll booth on that road, right here on CROSSFIRE.
Tonight, Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich gets ready to take his turn. And later, Turkey tells the Bush administration "show me the money." We will debate who's going to get the best out of that deal.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BEGALA: Welcome back to CROSSFIRE.
Promising to be the people's president and live in what he calls a worker's White House, Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich this week formed a presidential exploratory committee.
Mr. Kucinich was once the mayor of Cleveland. He's among a handful of lawmakers who has filed suit to stop the Bush administration from going to war with Iraq. He told voters in Iowa that his first act as president would be to repeal the North America Free Trade Agreement.
Tonight, presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich steps into the CROSSFIRE.
KUCINICH: Good to see you again.
NOVAK: Congressman Kucinich, I want to start off by asking you about a quote which is attributed to you, and we're going to put it up on the screen, and see if you actually said it -- I want you to explain it.
"It would be a cold day and probably a snowy day in hell before a liberal Democrat could back to the White House, but it looks like my time has arrived."
What does that mean?
KUCINICH: Well, that meant that when I arrived in Iowa, they had a snow storm that hit the city, and when I heard the report was covered in Washington, snow storm hit this city, so my time is here. Thanks.
NOVAK: Do you think it's time for somebody as far to the left as you are to get into the White House?
KUCINICH: Well, you know, when I was playing baseball when I was a kid, I could throw with either hand, and I can tell you that the American people want someone who is familiar with the scope of the political debate from both sides, but who's dedicated towards a transformation of our politics that deals with healthcare, education, retirement security, jobs, doing something about our trade deficit, and the kind of change the Franklin Roosevelt brought to this country in 1932.
NOVAK: Congressman Kucinich, there's one thing I used to admire you for. You are a pro-life liberal. You had a perfect, 100 percent anti-abortion voting record, and last year you completely switched. You didn't vote for a ban of partial birth abortion and other proposals you voted against. What -- were you -- do you think to get in the Democratic Party now you have to be pro-abortion?
KUCINICH: Not at all. I think that one who leads and who intends to lead from an even higher office has to show a capacity for growth. And as you pointed out, I was...
NOVAK: You changed. You did a switch-over.
KUCINICH: No, I expanded my view, Bob. Because what I believe is this -- this is a very divisive debate, and I think that it's important to simultaneously affirm that a woman has a right to choose under the constitution, and at the same time work, as I have my whole life, to see that abortions are not necessary by having sex education and birth control and then prenatal care, postnatal care and childcare.
NOVAK: But you voted for every single anti-abortion proposal in the Ohio legislature.
KUCINICH: My voting record is clear, and you're right about that, but I will tell you this, there is a move on in the Congress today to try to criminalize abortion, to repeal Roe v. Wade. I've never been for a constitutional amendment that would overturn Roe v. Wade.
I think that we need to have someone who can take a unifying position, who said that we'll do everything we can to make abortions less necessary and at the same time to protect a woman's right to choose, which is constitutionally protected.
So I think that it's possible to take that kind of acrimonious debate and try to heal this nation so that we're not divided and that we can accomplish two things, and that is, protecting life within the constitution and making sure that a woman's right to choose is also protected.
BEGALA: Let me ask you now about a more fundamental issue than that, and that is experience, qualifications. We now know the price of the on-the-job training in the Oval Office. We used to have peace and prosperity. We put a guy in there who wasn't experienced or qualified, and look what happened.
You've got two years as the mayor of Cleveland, two years in the Ohio state senate, six years in the Congress. Is that enough experience to be the president of the United States?
KUCINICH: Well, actually, my political experience goes back to 1967 and my first race for office in the city of Cleveland. I served in the Cleveland City Council. I served as clerk of the Cleveland courts. I served as mayor of Cleveland. I served in the Ohio senate, and I've served at every level of government: local, state, and federal.
I've served in executive and legislative and a quasi-judicial office. I actually have broader experience in government than anybody in this race.
BEGALA: You mentioned Franklin Roosevelt a moment before. He had been the governor of a state, the assistant secretary of the Navy, he had run for vice president of the United States. He brought a wealth of experience that -- do you think you have the sort of experience FDR had coming into the office?
KUCINICH: Absolutely. Well, you know, I'm not going to compare myself to FDR. What I am saying is that my aspirations for this country would be on the scope of what Franklin Roosevelt brought to this country in 1932 when he saw a nation that was broken economically. He looked for a dramatic restructuring of the government to make sure that government served the people, not the corporations. To make sure that government produced jobs instead of let the corporations run the economy and result in cutting jobs. To make sure that retirement security was guaranteed and to do something about uplifting the quality of life for every American.
That's the kind of president I aspire to be, and I will tell you, if I get the nomination, I will bring in a whole Democratic Congress with me, if they follow that platform.
NOVAK: Congressman Kucinich, CNN/"TIME" took a poll this week of the nine candidates for the Democratic nomination for president. We'll take a look at it. You know who was dead last? Dennis Kucinich. Dead last. Carol Moseley-Braun, who was in disgrace in Illinois with scandals, she was defeated for reelection, has twice as much support as you have.
KUCINICH: This is great news. You know, I got 2 percent without even filing my petition. That's great.
NOVAK: Doesn't that show that you've got tremendous problems?
KUCINICH: Well, you know, Bill Clinton was at 1 percent when he started. Jimmy Carter was at 1 percent. I mean, the American people wait for a campaign, and when I bring my campaign to the American people, you're going to see my support rise.
We're already seeing on this Web site that I've established,
http://www.kucinich.us , people from 47 states contacted us the first day saying they wanted to help. It's a grassroots campaign. That's what will cause the numbers to go up.
BEGALA: You mentioned President Clinton. When he was Gov. Clinton and I went to work for him in 1991, he had 12 years as a governor and a host of accomplishments.
You're running against a field, your colleagues in the Congress particularly, who have a good deal of accomplishment. Joe Lieberman helped write the Homeland Security Bill, and John Edwards is a big proponent of the Patient's Bill of Rights. Dick Gephardt leads on taxes and trade and other issues.
What legislative accomplishment do you point to as a source of pride and accomplishment for you?
KUCINICH: Well, I would say that I've worked on, as a chairman of the Progressive Caucus, I've worked on saving the position of Social Security when some in our own party were talking about working towards privatizing it. I led the way in challenging NAFTA, which I said and did say that it will be my first act in office to cancel it and return to bilateral trade, which has workers rights, human rights and environmental quality principles.
I was able to work with President Clinton to get him to state in Seattle that he would abide by those kind of trading principles. I led the way in the Congress to organize 126 Democrats, almost 2/3 of the Democratic caucus, to vote against the war in Iraq, this Iraq resolution.
So I will say this, that what I have been able to demonstrate is that I can come right off the floor of the Congress without any kind of official position within the party structure and organize and lead, and the kind of leader that I'll be as a president is one from the grassroots up.
NOVAK: Congressman, I've got a question I've got to ask you before we take a break. You may not remember this, but 24 years ago I interviewed you when you were the mayor of Cleveland.
KUCINICH: I do remember that.
NOVAK: And you had been in office seven months, and there was already a recall election out for you, and I asked...
KUCINICH: I remember that.
NOVAK: And I asked who was trying to recall you, and you said "Real estate and banking, the privately owned electric utility, the regular Democratic party of Cuyahoga County and organized crime, mostly."
Are those people all still against you?
KUCINICH: You know what, as president, I will be independent and be able to challenge the corporate interests who right now control a good part of the Democratic party.
NOVAK: You didn't say no to what I asked you, did you?
KUCINICH: Well, Bob, come on. I mean, look...
BEGALA: We have a few seconds -- we we're going to hold you over for the next segment too, but I want to ask you this very important question: if you're president, when will you commit U.S. troops -- you mentioned you oppose the war in Iraq. You opposed President Clinton's war in Kosovo as well.
We'll have to ask you that when we come back, I'm sorry.
NOVAK: All right, Iraq's vice president today offered to open a dialogue with the United States if the United States stops threatening to make war.
In a minute, we'll debate Iraq policy with Dennis Kucinich and a Republican congressman who, believe it or not, is not interested in running for president.
. . . (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NOVAK: President Bush called U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan this morning and told him the U.N. Security Council is playing an important role in the Iraq situation, and the United States will continue to work with it.
A new Iraq resolution is expected to be introduced Monday. Meanwhile, Iraq is suddenly interested in opening a dialogue with the Bush administration.
Democratic president candidate Dennis Kucinich, a Democratic congressman from Ohio, remains in the CROSSFIRE. And joining us, from New York City, is Republican Congressman Vito Fossella.
BEGALA: Congressman Fossella, thank you for joining us, sir.
Before the break, I was asking Congressman Kucinich when America should commit troops. Governor Bush -- then governor, in one of the presidential debates, was asked about this. Here's what he said, when he said he would commit troops and how. I want you to listen and then respond.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, U.S. PRESIDENT: I'm going to be judicious as to how to use the military. It needs to be in our vital interest. The mission needs to be clear, and the exit strategy obvious.
NOVAK: What is wrong with that? If there is United Nations -- if the United Nations Security Council unanimously passes resolution, and the Iraqis don't obey it, what alternative do we have but force?
KUCINICH: Iraq should be disarmed, and I think that Iraq should have a regime where all of the weapons are gone. And I also think that the United Nations has a responsibility to continue inspections. But, having said that, the administration has not made its case to invade Iraq. They haven't -- Bob, they haven't proven that Iraq was connected to 9-11, to al Qaeda's role in 9-11.
(CROSSTALK)
NOVAK: What about Iraq not obeying the resolution passed by the United Nations?
KUCINICH: I think that the United Nations is clearly being pushed in the direction of war by the Bush administration. And I also think that that's not in the best interest of the world, that we -- the Bush administration is threatening to destroy the United Nations over this, just as they threatened NATO, just as they are threatening other nations to go along.
I mean, the fact that Turkey is ready to join for what, $26 billion? There's no checkout counter in the world big enough to hold all those nations that are going to get into line to take money from this country in order for us to go into Iraq. And at what cost? At a cost of $1 trillion when we're not meeting all the needs I this country? I don't think so.
BEGALA: Congressman Fossella.
FOSSELLA: I think -- yes. Well, first of, I think...
BEGALA: Go ahead -- congressman.
FOSSELLA: I think the United Nations can serve a purpose, but clearly when it can't enforce its own resolutions -- just a few weeks ago, for example, one of its committees on disarmament, of all things, the chair of that committee was supposed to be Iraq, of all countries.
So I think they do a good enough job of really making themselves somewhat irrelevant, but ultimately what I think we need to do altogether as Americans and those who love freedom and democracy, is to bring an end to this reign of terror so that the American people can live in peace.
You know, we saw on September 11, when terrorist can strike imminent, unexpected, taking the lives of thousands -- too many men and women, many of whom I represent. And I never want to see that again -- I never want to see that again. I never want to see that again. And we should be doing all we can. We should be doing all we can to bring an end to those who harbor terrorists, support terrorists, sponsor terrorism and nations that sponsor terrorism. That is, I believe, the fundamental responsibility.
NOVAK: Let's let Congressman Kucinich in.
KUCINICH: OK. There's a lot of buzz words here, and in the whole campaign to go after Iraq is just made-up of buzz words. It's not made of any facts.
They cannot prove that Iraq had anything to do with 9-11 yet. The day after those planes hit the World Trade Center, according to Bob Woodward in a book, "Bush at War," page 49, Donald Rumsfeld was already talking about attacking Iraq. They're just trying to create a pretext to go after Iraq for any reason whatsoever. They haven't made their case, and yet they're going to cost, you know -- invasion or bombing, invasion, occupation, it's going to cost this economy $1 trillion. We don't have that money. We have money to blow up bridges over the Tigress and Euphrates and we don't have money to build bridges in our major cities.
We have money to destroy the health of the Iraqi people and we don't have enough money to repair the health of our own people in this country. There is something fundamentally wrong with the direction this administration is taking its foreign policy, and I intend to change that if I am elected president of the United States.
BEGALA: Congressman Fossella, let me get to the -- what you just said -- and you used some very, very emotional language about 9-11. I lost friends on that day as well, and Iraq had nothing to do with it whatsoever.
But the argument that you...
FOSSELLA: I don't think you know that at all.
BEGALA: We haven't seen a shred of evidence, sir, with respect. But the argument is, we need a preventive war or this will happen again, that's the gravamen of what you just said. It's what President Bush has been telling us.
Let me read to you from a guy who knew a little something about war, Dwight David Eisenhower, five-star general, general of the army, president of the United States of America. This is what he said about this doctrine of preventive war.
He said, "All of us have heard this term "preventive war" since the earliest days of Hitler. I recall that's about the first time I heard it. In this day and time, I don't believe there is such a thing, and frankly I wouldn't even listen to anyone seriously that came in and talked about such a thing."
Do you know more than Dwight Eisenhower, sir?
FOSSELLA: I never profess to know more than anybody, but all I have is my own judgment. And my judgment is that when -- at the end of the Gulf war, Saddam Hussein agreed to allow unfettered inspections and agreed not to develop weapons of mass destruction. We have evidence, we believe that he has biological, chemical and nuclear weapon capabilities, not that he could only use them but offer -- perhaps offer them with blackmail or, ultimately, to a terrorist organization. I don't want to wake up one day and know that we did nothing about that. And if the next generations of Americans have to live in fear of this...
(CROSSTALK)
(APPLAUSE)
KUCINICH: And wait a minute. I don't want to wake up one day and see that we have given our civil liberties away in this country to a phony war campaign that's going to go everywhere around the world with an American imperium! I'm not...
(CROSSTALK)
NOVAK: We're out of time.
(CROSSTALK)
NOVAK... Mr. Kucinich. No time, Mr. Fossella. Congressman (UNINTELLIGIBLE) just one quick question. When the fighting starts and our men and women are in harm's way, will you be continuing to attack this policy, or will you support the troops?
KUCINICH: I support the troops, and I'd say support the troops, get rid of the administration and bring the troops back home!
(APPLAUSE)
BEGALA: Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Democrat who's running for president, thank you very much for joining us. Congressman Vito Fossella from New York, thank you, as well, sir.
# # #
For the complete CNN.com CROSSFIRE transcript online, see:
www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0302/21/cf.00.html= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
To read the text of Dennis on NBC's "Meet the Press," see:
Transcript for Feb. 23 =>
www.msnbc.com/news/876263.asp= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
: ) Kids4Kucinich.org ( :
okay all you kids, or if you know any, pass the word..
www.kids4kucinich.orgFor an article on this "kids4K" movement, initiated by Dylan Hallsmith from Vermont see:
www.freepress.org/dispatches.php==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+
Visit Flyby News updated Page -
Dennis J. Kucinich for US President in 2004!
www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1045685440,9146,and for Kucinich for President web site, visit
www.kucinich.us
2) The War Against OurselvesThe War Against Ourselves
An Interview with Major Doug Rokke
FutureNet / Yes!
Doug Rokke has a PhD in health physics and was originally trained as a forensic scientist. When the Gulf War started, he was assigned to prepare soldiers to respond to nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare, and sent to the Gulf. What he experienced has made him a passionate voice for peace, traveling the country to speak out. The following interview was conducted by the director of the Traprock Peace Center, Sunny Miller, supplemented with questions from YES! editors.
QUESTION : Any viewer who saw the war on television had the impression this was an easy war, fought from a distance and soldiers coming back relatively unharmed. Is this an accurate picture?
ROKKE : At the completion of the Gulf War, when we came back to the United States in the fall of 1991, we had a total casualty count of 760: 294 dead, a little over 400 wounded or ill. But the casualty rate now for Gulf War veterans is approximately 30 percent. Of those stationed in the theater, including after the conflict, 221,000 have been awarded disability, according to a Veterans Affairs (VA) report issued September 10, 2002. Many of the US casualties died as a direct result of uranium munitions friendly fire. US forces killed and wounded US forces. We recommended care for anybody downwind of any uranium dust, anybody working in and around uranium contamination, and anyone within a vehicle, structure, or building that's struck with uranium munitions. That's thousands upon thousands of individuals, but not only US troops. You should provide medical care not only for the enemy soldiers but for the Iraqi women and children affected, and clean up all of the contamination in Iraq. And it's not just children in Iraq. It's children born to soldiers after they came back home. The military admitted that they were finding uranium excreted in the semen of the soldiers. If you've got uranium in the semen, the genetics are messed up. So when the children were conceived -- the alpha particles cause such tremendous cell damage and genetics damage that everything goes bad. Studies have found that male soldiers who served in the Gulf War were almost twice as likely to have a child with a birth defect and female soldiers almost three times as likely.
Q: You have been a military man for over 35 years. You served in Vietnam as a bombardier and you are still in the US Army Reserves. Now you're going around the country speaking about the dangers of depleted uranium (DU). What made you decide you had to speak publicly about DU?
ROKKE: Everybody on my team was getting sick. My best friend John Sitton was dying. The military refused him medical care, and he died. John set up the medical evacuation communication system for the entire theater. Then he got contaminated doing the work. John and Rolla Dolph and I were best friends in the civilian world, the military world, forever. Rolla got sick. I personally got the order that sent him to war. We were both activated together. I was given the assignment to teach nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare and make sure soldiers came back alive and safe. I take it seriously. I was sent to the Gulf with this instruction: Bring 'em back alive. Clear as could be. But when I got all the training together, all the environmental cleanup procedures together, all the medical directives, nothing happened. More than 100 American soldiers were exposed to DU in friendly fire accidents, plus untold numbers of soldiers who climbed on and entered tanks that had been hit with DU, taking photos and gathering souvenirs to take home. They didn't know about the hazards. DU is an extremely effective weapon. Each tank round is 10 pounds of solid uranium-238 contaminated with plutonium, neptunium, americium. It is pyrophoric, generating intense heat on impact, penetrating a tank because of the heavy weight of its metal. When uranium munitions hit, it's like a firestorm inside any vehicle or structure, and so we saw tremendous burns, tremendous injuries. It was devastating. The US military decided to blow up Saddam's chemical, biological, and radiological stockpiles in place, which released the contamination back on the US troops and on everybody in the whole region. The chemical agent detectors and radiological monitors were going off all over the place. We had all of the various nerve agents. We think there were biological agents, and there were destroyed nuclear reactor facilities. It was a toxic wasteland. And we had DU added to this whole mess.
When we first got assigned to clean up the DU, and arrived in northern Saudi Arabia, we started getting sick within 72 hours. Respiratory problems, rashes, bleeding, open sores started almost immediately. When you have a mass dose of radioactive particulate and you start breathing that in, the deposit sits in the back of the pharynx, where the cancer started initially on the first guy. It doesn't take a lot of time. I had a father and son working with me. The father is already dead from lung cancer, and the sick son is still denied medical care.
Q: Did you suspect what was happening?
ROKKE: We didn't know anything about DU when the Gulf War started. As a warrior, you're listening to your leaders, and they're saying there are no health effects from the DU. But, as we started to study this, to go back to what we learned in physics and our engineering -- I was a professor of environmental science and engineering -- you learn rapidly that what they're telling you doesn't agree with what you know and observe. In June of 1991, when I got back to the States, I was sick. Respiratory problems and the rashes and neurological things were starting to show up.
For the complete transcript, see:
http://www.futurenet.org/25environmentandhealth/rokke.htmFor more information on DU, visit:
The Wise Uranium Project:
www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium/ The National Gulf War Resource Center:
www.ngwrc.org Veterans for Common Sense:
www.veteransforcommonsense.org Sunny Miller's interview was originally broadcast on WMFO (Boston) in November 2002 and is available for re-broadcast at:
www.traprockpeace.orgYou can also visit Flyby News' updated resource links on Depleted Uranium:
www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid991363232,2156,
= = = = = = FLYBY NEWS = = = = =
Peace Prospect for Inspections and Oil * APOLOGY
26 February 2003
1) Iraq Agrees To Full Compliance With Inspectors and Oil
2) US Apology and Appeal ~ UN HELP
Editor's Notes:Time is moving fast -- or is it -- too much happening in too little time. Either way, choices for positive actions now are significant. The first item is from Stratfor, a global intelligence service, reporting on intel that could avert a war. According to Stratfor's sources, President Saddam Hussein is proposing to be in full compliance with the German-French plan for inspections and disarmament of weapons of mass destruction. Stratfor also reports that Hussein is willing for the return of US-oil commercial business in Iraq, if the US calls off the invasion. The report suggests that the response from Bush is uncertain. The second item illustrates a concern for such uncertainty. The APOLOGY is circulating all over the web, a sort of consensus is forming that the only rationale behind the Bush foreign policy is to engage Armageddon.
But the US doesn't rule the world, yet, and a United Nations pro-active peace proposal could effectively stop the US from launching its invasion.
Please support a UN resolution called "Uniting for Peace" in supporting a plan for peace. Please contact your UN rep and others to take action and stop a US preemptive war.
"All of us have heard this term "preventive war" since the earliest days of Hitler. I recall that's about the first time I heard it. In this day and time, I don't believe there is such a thing, and frankly I wouldn't even listen to anyone seriously that came in and talked about such a thing."
-- President Dwight D. EisenhowerThe source for the above Eisenhower quote came to Flyby News from Paul Begala of CNN's Crossfire,
during an interview with Dennis Kucinich.
Please take action before an undignified ending comes to the human species.
1) Iraq Agrees To Full Compliance With Inspectors and OilFrom Stratfor, a global intelligence service:
Sources: Iraq Agrees To Full Compliance With Inspectors
Former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, reputed to be a personal friend of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, made a lightning visit to Baghdad on Feb. 23. The purpose and results of the meeting are shrouded in secrecy, apart from a statement by Moscow that Hussein was asked -- and agreed -- to cooperate fully with U.N. weapons inspectors.
Reliable Stratfor sources within the Russian government say Hussein indeed has promised to cooperate with the inspectors' demands --including that Baghdad scrap its al Samoud 2 missile program by March 1, an announcement that sources expect to be forthcoming within days.
The importance of the meeting stretches much further, however. Sources say the Iraqi leader has agreed to a proposal by Russian President Vladimir Putin -- previously discussed between Russian, French and German leaders -- that Baghdad formally invite U.N. peacekeepers within the next 10 days or so to back up weapons inspectors. This, sources say, would show the world that Iraq will be unconditionally disarmed under strict and fully enforceable U.N. deadlines, with peacekeepers staying on in Iraq until the task is complete.
Sources also say that Hussein has asked Putin to deliver a secret offer to U.S. and British energy giants, inviting them back to Iraq as major industry players roughly 30 years after they were ousted from the country. The companies could return to Iraq immediately if Washington calls off its planned invasion.
On Feb. 24, Vladimir Voloshin the head of Russia's presidential administration -- left Moscow for Washington, where he is likely to deliver that message to President George W. Bush. The choice of Voloshin as a diplomatic envoy is highly unusual, because he focuses on managing Russia's internal affairs and has never been dispatched in this way before. Voloshin also will brief U.S. leaders on other aspects of the discussion between Primakov and Hussein. The ultimate goal of this visit is to persuade the Bush administration that Iraq will be disarmed to such a point that it not only will be unable to threaten U.S. and Israeli forces for years to come, but would be unable to resist a U.S. invasion if Washington deems it necessary to attack Iraq in the future. If Washington is at least partly receptive to this message and to Hussein's promises, a second meeting between Primakov and Hussein likely will result.
If intelligence from Stratfor sources is correct, the Bush administration could save face by claiming that Iraq's true disarmament was reached only through U.S. military pressure. Putin already has called British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac to convey details of the Primakov meeting. Sources say Chirac was enthusiastic about the proposal, and that Blair has also reacted favorably. But the fate of the proposal rests with Washington.
The Bush administration's reaction at this point is far from clear. The proposal would not achieve Washington's two main goals in Iraq: regime change and a new base for U.S. forces in the Middle East. However, as the costs of war continue to pile up, the Russian proposal could be considered a face-saving exit for Washington.
The ultimate decision likely will come down to Bush administration advisers -- including former U.S. President George H.W. Bush -- who will weigh the risks involved for the current president's re-election plans and the U.S. geopolitical stance as a whole. At this point, we believe the Bush administration will reject Hussein's overtures and Putin's proposal. But there will be more to the story: Last minute-attempts to block or promote the war will continue within the U.N. Security Council and possibly involving a second trip by Primakov to Baghdad.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Flyby News gratefully acknowledges receipt of this report from Thomas Smith from the AriseAction list serve, sent to him apparently by Dennis Burke CPPAX dburke@cppax.org
2) US Apology and Appeal ~ UN HELPTHE APOLOGY - From the heart of the United States, we extend a profound apology to the rest of the world for the serious failure of our political system.
While not receiving a majority of the popular vote and selected by the Supreme Court rather than elected, we nevertheless have ended up with a sociopath as President surrounded by religious fanatics who actively seek war and others who seek to destroy our democracy and impose authoritarian values.
This group is taking the world down the path to an Armageddon that they believe is the necessary and appropriate end to the world as we know it.
They hate life, believe themselves to be flawed by sin, and long for a divine intervention that will make them rulers of an Earth transformed by the absence of earthiness.
They care nothing for the environment because there won't be an environment when they are done.
They do not care about international law and a preemptive U.S. strike as precedent because there will be no such law under the elevated "Christian" rule.
They do not worry that an invasion of Iraq may cause outrage in the Muslim world and spread the conflict because such an expansion is part of the necessary script.
They do not worry about later retaliation by those angered at an invasion of Iraq because all such lesser beings will be under their unbreakable domination after the final battle.
They do not worry about how to govern a post-war Iraq because they will be ruling the entire world and everyone will appear before them on bended knee. They do not worry about Iraq or the U.S. initiating the use of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction because use of such weapons is part of the Armageddon script.
They only thing they worry about is getting the war started before some force can prevent their usurpation of everyone's future.
At home, civil liberties are quickly being erased in favor of absolute government to prevent democratic discussion of and opposition to the coming holocaust and to practice for their coming domination of the world.
We lack an appropriate political mechanism for removing these dangerous people from power. We do not have the opportunity to vote no confidence, as the Australian Senate did.
The once proud Democratic Party is coopted and corrupted by corporate contributions and eager to beat the drums of war in hopes of being popular.
The once independent media is now a corporate conglomerate that closes more doors to truth than it opens.
Our people are fed lies big and small and lack access to the information they need to understand what is happening in our country.
Flush with the wealth exploited from the planet they seek to kill, our government and corporations bribe, buy, or otherwise coerce smaller and more fragile governments into ignorantly supporting the coming destruction.
All we can do is appeal to those outside our country to save the world from our government. Even though we will not hear about it from our media, march in your streets. Even though we will not hear about it from our media, expose the lies being told by our government and others. Even though we will not hear about it in our media, talk about Armageddon so people will know where the madness is leading. Urge your government to vote no on any U.N. resolution furthering the Armageddon agenda.
We will continue to reach out to our fellow citizens within the limitations imposed on our society and do our part to bring sanity back to the human family and protect all life. Our apology is an expression of our love for and unity with that family and the living Earth.
-- Concerned Citizens of America -- BREATHE in and BREATHE out
LIGHT and LOVE daily. ALL IS WELL.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Visit this following URL link
if you want contacts and information to support:
Uniting for Peace to Resolve the Iraq Crisis http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1045091648,41257,
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark
info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
UN Peace Action * Kucinich * Cheney N.K. Nukes
23 February 2003
1) Center for Constitutional Rights - Uniting for Peace Related article, "Saddam told: disarm in three weeks or it's war"2) Kucinich for US President Update Review by Goodsister on Kucinich at the Democratic National Committee Meeting
Join a new list serve discussion group, Kucinich4president, moderated by Goodsister3) Rumsfeld was on ABB Board During Nuclear Deal with North Korea Related article: "Iran sues U.S. in world court for helping Saddam kill Iranians"
Related article: "GOP Threats Halted GAO Cheney Suit"Editor's Notes:In 1950 the United Nations by an almost unanimous vote adopted Resolution 377, named "Uniting for Peace." As its charter so eloquently states, the UN can "save succeeding generations form the scourge of war." Item 1 opens on an Action Alert from the Center for Constitutional Rights : "In a Nutshell: The General Assembly could approve the Franco-German proposal for UN peacekeeping action in Iraq, which would effectively block aggression. The procedure is called the Uniting for Peace resolution. Any member of the UN can call for a peacekeeping action under this procedure if the Security Council are in disagreement." In this item find links for contact information for your contacting UN Permanent Missions.
Please act, send an E-mail, make a telephone call, send a fax, unite with the world to stop a US-preemptive-led invasion that could harm us all.
Item 2 is an update on the campaign to elect Dennis J. Kucinich for the next US President. This campaign could be the miracle we are hoping for to transform US government as we know it, and a foreign policy and environmental platform to sustain life in peace.
Item 3 is more from the category, stories from the weird but true, yikes! Donald Rumsfeld was on ABB Board during their nuclear deal with North Korea. Another article link is about Iran suing the U.S. in world court for helping Saddam kill Iranians. And another article link to a story about Cheney making budget threats to get a law suit dropped.
I can't help but agree with Scott Ritter, who believes the intentions of going to war with Iraq is to continue creating a policy that causes destabilization-chaos to in effect maintain a certain group of neo-conservatives in their positions of power. The best chances for the world to unite and to stop this war on Iraq is with the UN "Uniting for Peace." Beyond this we need regime change in the US and Kucinich has been a key leader and effective communicator in the ideals of freedom and democracy.
Many thanks to those donating and purchasing bumper stickers and supporting Flyby News. It cut my bill in half of what was owed to copiers, and that takes much pressure off me.. it feels good to feel a part of a team in this independent news sourcing endeavor. Anyone wanting to circulate fliers, posting on bulletin boards, please let me know. But most key is in your support of critical campaigns of critical campaigns like "uniting for peace." Will the UN move in time to stop the attack? If we can help accomplish a yes to this question, perhaps then we could transfer war funds to buy back nukes that Cheney et al sold to North Korea. What a world? Thanks for reading! Peace.
1) Center for Constitutional Rights - Uniting for PeaceCenter for Constitutional Rights Action Alert!
Stop The War on IraqCCR is asking for your help in a very important action. We hope to create a movement in support of the adoption of a Uniting for Peace Resolution by the United Nations General Assembly to prevent an attack on Iraq by the United States, the United Kingdom and other nations. If even one country requests such a meeting, that alone can trigger this procedure. While in the U.N. system the Security Council has the primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security throughout the world, another procedure exists to ensure peace when the Council fails to do so. That procedure, the Uniting for Peace resolution, allows the General Assembly to meet to consider the threat to international peace and it can then recommend collective measures to U.N. Members to maintain or restore peace.
If one U.N. Member State requests that a meeting be convened to consider adoption of such a resolution and either seven Members of the Security Council or a majority of the Members of the General Assembly agree, an emergency special session will be called and the General Assembly will come together to discuss the threat to international peace. We are hoping to find the requisite support for the convening of such a session. The United States and the United Kingdom have become increasingly vocal about their willingness to use force against Iraq without explicit Security Council authorization. Because of the veto power of these two countries, the Security Council will be stymied in its responsibility to maintain international peace and security in the Persian Gulf. In these circumstances, the General Assembly has the right and indeed the responsibility to assume this duty.
We urge you to contact your U.N. representative, other members of your government, and other governments to request that they write to the Secretary-General to call for an emergency special session under the Uniting for Peace Resolution. Please also circulate these materials to other groups and individuals and encourage them to do the same.
To find e-mail addresses of UN Permanent Missions go to:
http://home.online.no/~oelpeleg/email.htmTo find postal addresses of UN Permanent Missions go to:
http://www.rhsmun.org/papers/Permanent_Mission_Addresses.pdfTo read more about this initiative, see this following URL link:
http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/whatsnew/report.asp?ObjID=0hZHHegENn&Content=186For further information, please contact:
smwatt@ccr-ny.orgFor Flyby News updated page: "Uniting for Peace to Resolve the Iraq Crisis", see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1045091648,41257,m= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related article,
"Saddam told: disarm in three weeks or it's war" Blair and Bush force second UN resolution
Backbench MPs set to mount rebellion
Kamal Ahmed,
political editor
Sunday February 23, 2003
The Observer
Saddam Hussein is to be given a final 'act or be defeated' deadline of the middle of March before a second United Nations resolution is debated by the Security Council, clearing the way for imminent military action.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.observer.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,901242,00.html= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For another related article:
"White House Advisors Looking for a "Way Out" of War With Iraq"From Capitol Hill Blue
1600 PENNSYLVANIA
White House advisors looking for a "way out" of war with Iraq
By CHB Staff
Feb 20, 2003, 05:47
Some strategists within the Bush Administration are urging the President to look for an "exit strategy" on Iraq, warning the tough stance on war with the Arab country has left the country in a "no win" situation.
For the complete original article, see:
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_1796.shtmlalso posted:
http://truthout.org/docs_02/022303E.htm
2) Kucinich for US President UpdateFlyby News follows a reporting strategy that attempts to learn from past mistakes, and to get ahead of the curve by supporting strategic actions in support of life's survival in the 21st Century. Flyby News was conceived when successfully exposing the dangers of NASA's Cassini Earth flyby. NASA was embarrassed by the Internet exposure of their "high-risk" flyby. This probe was carrying a record amount 72.3 lbs (32,8kg) of deadly Plutonium on board and approached Earth at record speeds in excess of 81,000 mph (133,150 km). After August 18, 1999, in the post Cassini flyby era, "NoFlyby" became Flyby News. Besides reporting on basic human rights, democracy, justice, and environmental issues, we focused on stopping the weaponization of space before it happened. Dennis Kucinich became the champion of this effort. In 2001 and 2002 he proposed legislation to forever ban space-based weapons. Besides this direction for disarmament, Dennis Kucinich proposed legislation for a Department of Peace. And when Bush terminated the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972, to engage an expensive and aggressive Star Wars plan, Kucinich became the lead plaintiff in a law suit claiming that Bush had not the authority to terminate a Treaty signed into law by Congress and the US President. Yet transforming government to abide by the principles of the US Constitution is not easy. Yet Kucinich is trying and in representing his Constituency, he became involved in another law suit to stop President Bush from attacking Iraq. The Constitution states that only Congress has that awesome responsibility in declaring war. But is it any wonder that the Bush administration ignores the Constitution; he was selected by Judges in 2000 and is assuming the role of President, yet questions remain on a Court-appointed President, and the voting "problem" in Florida where his brother was Governor. Bush's actions show that he represents the military-industrial-academic-criminal complex and not US democracy, freedom, justice, or world peace.
The Lord of the Ring corruption/madness of the White House seemed to take shape beginning in the 1940's with the awesome power unleashed by the atomic bomb. This allowed fascist-fear to begin manipulating the US government, preparing for a permanent war mentality with weapons capable of destroying all human life. President Harry Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947, which began intelligence organizations like the CIA and the entrapments of a secret and corrupt government, with an agenda not always in keeping with the principle of the US Constitution, all in the name of "national security interests." This corrupt influence created things like the dangerous Cassini Earth flyby, new weapons of mass destruction, their proliferation, drug dealing, taking over space for military purposes, supporting fuels that add to Global Warming, and replacing democracies in other countries with dictatorships for US-corporate interests. The madness to endanger life for all humans reached into new extremes. Fear has become the ruler, a nectar for self-destruction, and only someone pure and simple like Frodo, or, perhaps, Dennis, could take the ring back to its source, and disarm weapons of mass destruction, uniting the world for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Kucinich, a vegan, a grass roots inspirational politician, the youngest Mayor in US history, has created a record for people to trust his abilities and motivation to lead the US back to an evolving democracy. His chances are excellent. He could win in the Iowa primaries for the Democratic Party's nomination for President, and this could lead to national exposure and excellent chances to win in New Hampshire. His campaign could go all the way and reclaim democracy in the US. His leadership in the ideal of the US Constitution could go a long ways in helping in the direction for world peace, a healthier environment, and improved economic conditions. This is the path of Dennis Kucinich, a man of destiny, and for those supporting his campaign.
Join us in getting ahead of the curve with integrity and in the spirit of freedom. Please check this following URL link for Flyby News' updated page Dennis Kucinich for US President in 2004!
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1045685440,9146,= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Congressman Kucinich was on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday (2/23/03). He again asserted his leadership in identifying why a US-led invasion of Iraq at will do more harm than good in the war against terrorism. He challenged the big price tag, responded to a question on why the administration's oil interests are in the debate, since nothing else is there that can substantiate the reason to attack Iraq while there is no evidence of Iraq being an imminent threat to US security interest. He also covered his pro-choice position, an expansion on the issue where he supports the Constitutional right of free choice for each individual, and will also seek to take actions in sensitivity to those of pro-life sentiments; he is seeking to conduct a policy with a role as a healer, not as a divider.
To read Dennis Kucinich's statement on many issues and/or to support the campaign:
Visit:
www.kucinich.us= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Dennis Kucinich's presentation at the Democratic National Committee Meeting
Review by GoodsisterThe following is a review by Goodsister on Dennis Kucinich's presentation at the Democratic National Committee Meeting, chaired by Terry McAuliffe, broadcast on CSPAN, 22 February 2003.
.
I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't the incredible speech I just heard Dennis deliver to a fairly dead room of mainstream Democrats at their committee meeting.
He started out light and funny, joking that we could change from the days of Crawford, Texas and barbecues to Cleveland, polka and kielbasa. Ha ha! He joked about his "cold day in hell" remark, and how he saw, during last week's severe storms in the East, that his time had come. He joked about his 2% showing in the "polls", saying that was pretty good, for a guy no one knows. He even spelled out his name, and said he'd changed it - "to capture the ethnic vote". Ha ha ha! That was a good one. I laughed along to every joke, delighted.
But then his tone changed; his expression went grave, and he began to talk quietly about the mess we're in, and all of the things we need to do to change direction. His cadence got more and more rhythmic, and soon he was working a classic gospel 'call and response' with the audience, which is a GREAT oratorical skill. At certain points, he got people to their feet, but I had a feeling that if he'd been speaking to a rally of regular Americans, as opposed to that cynical roomful of professional politicos, the reactions would've been much more visceral and enthusiastic.
Mine certainly was. There's something about him. Something that makes me get to my feet and shout out responses to the television. He makes sense - and he covers it all. There are no blank spots he skitters away from; he sees the whole picture.
That speech I just saw would fall into the Shakespearean category of "pearls to swine", I'm afraid, even if I did see Maxine Waters of Los Angeles in the audience. But once Dennis gets to speaking to crowds of ordinary Americans across this country, I think he will have an eager and ever-growing army of followers. There's something irresistible about hearing the truth spoken with passion and conviction. Dennis is a leader for these apocalyptic times.
GoodsisterJoin a list serve for discussions on Dennis J. Kucinich for US President!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kucinich4president
Goodsister is the moderator ! ! !This is a group for discussion, support, and encouragement for Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich to become the next US President of the United States. Discussion, analysis, and news related to the Kucinich campaign welcome. Let's become part of the grassroots movement to make this happen!
To subscribe send a blank message to: Kucinich4President-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
3) Rumsfeld was on ABB Board During Nuclear Deal with North KoreaPublished on Friday, February 21, 2003 by SwissInfo -
Swiss Radio International
http//www.swissinfo.org/
Rumsfeld was on ABB Board During Nuclear Deal with North Korea
by Jacob Greber
The Swiss-based ABB on Friday told Swissinfo that Rumsfeld was involved with the company in early 2000, when it netted a $200 million (SFr270million) contract with Pyongyang.
The ABB contract was to deliver equipment and services for two nuclear power stations at Kumho, on North Korea's east coast. Rumsfeld - who is one of the Bush administration's most strident "hardliners" on North Korea - was a member of ABB's board between 1990 and February 2001, when he left to take up his current post.
Wolfram Eberhardt, a spokesman for ABB, told swissinfo that Rumsfeld "was at nearly all the board meetings" during his decade-long involvement with the company.
Maybe, maybe not
However, he declined to indicate whether Rumsfeld was made aware of the nuclear contract with North Korea.
"This is a good question, but I couldn't comment on that because we never disclose the protocols of the board meetings," Eberhardt said. "Maybe this was a discussion point of the board, maybe not."
The defense secretary's role at ABB during the late 1990s has become a bone of contention in Washington. The ABB contract was a consequence of a 1994 deal between the US and Pyongyang to allow construction of two reactors in exchange for a freeze on the North's nuclear weapons program.North Korea revealed last year that it had secretly continued its nuclear weapons program., despite its obligations under the deal with Washington. The Bush government has repeatedly used the agreement to criticize the former Clinton administration for being too soft on North Korea. Rumsfeld's deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, has been among the most vocal critics of the 1994 weapons accord.
Dirty bombs
Weapons experts have also speculated that waste material from the two reactors could be used for so-called "dirty bombs". Rumsfeld's position at ABB could prove embarrassing for the Bush administration since while he was a director he was also active on issues of weapons proliferation, chairing the 1998 congressional Ballistic Missile Threat commission.
The commission suggested the Clinton-era deal with Pyongyang gave too much away because "North Korea maintains an active weapons of mass destruction program., including a nuclear weapons program.".
Copyright swissinfo SRI
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a related story,
"Iran sues U.S. in world court for helping Saddam kill Iranians"Translated from Der Spiegel
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,236508,00.htmlA strange spectacle in court: As the USA prepares for a war against Iraq, it is being sued by Iran for its previous close relationship to Saddam Hussein. At the International Court of Justice, Teheran is accusing the United States of delivering dangerous chemicals and deadly viruses to Baghdad during the eighties.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Another related news story:
"GOP Threats Halted GAO Cheney Suit"Published on Wednesday, February 19, 2003 by The Hill (Washington, DC)
by Peter Brand and Alexander Bolton
Threats by Republicans to cut the General Accounting Office (GAO) budget influenced its decision to abandon a lawsuit against Vice President Dick Cheney, The Hill has learned.
Sources familiar with high-level discussions at the GAO said Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of the Appropriations Committee, met with GAO Comptroller General David Walker earlier this year and "unambiguously" pressured him to drop the suit or face cuts in his $440 million budget.
For a complete posting of this article, see:
http://www.hillnews.com/news/021903/cheney.aspxalso posted:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0219-12.htm
Free Independent NewsFlybyNews.comFor Life's Survival in the 21st CenturyFlyby News bumper stickers with above text are available for the mainstream education driveThis way while driving you can point others to Flyby News' resources. If you wish, $5 for a bumper sticker will cover most costs, (or 3 stickers for $10), but I hope we can get some subsidized for anyone wanting to place them on their car's bumper or other public placement. The artwork and colors are beautiful by Liz Nicholas. If you want one, please write to info@flybynews.com and provide your snail mail address, and specify if you want the blue-green swirling background, or red-orange sunset horizon.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark
info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Resources on Dennis J. Kucinich
<
This page was originally posted on 13 May 2002
when Flyby News announced its support for
Dennis J. Kucinich for US President in 2004
"America, America. God shed grace on thee. Crown thy good, America.
Not with weapons of mass destruction. Not with invocations of an axis of evil.
Not through breaking international treaties. Not through establishing America as king of a unipolar world.
Crown thy good America."
Dennis J. Kucinich
"A Prayer for America"
speech at the Americans for Democratic Actions conference --
February 17, 2002
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people
can change the Earth: indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead, social anthropologist
"We will either bring an end to war or we will bring an end to a war-like administration."
–Dennis J. KucinichText of speech by US Representative Dennis J. Kucinich
New York City; Saturday, February 15, 2003
"Inner Space"One of the Columbia astronauts is said to have looked upon the earth from the silence of outer space and said to fellow voyagers: "Look! The whole world is reflected in the iris of my eye." As she watched the whole world, the whole world is watching us to see what is reflected in our eyes, the light of peace or the fires of war. We who gather carry a vision of peace. We see the world as one. We carry a vision of human unity. We see the world undivided. Today and tomorrow we act on that vision.
To those leaders in our country struggling in inner space, those who have war in their eyes and in their hearts and would project it upon the world: The whole world is watching. "Look, the whole world is reflected in the iris of my eye." America is reflected in the irises of billions of eyes. The whole world is watching to see if the power of our morality is greater than the power which would unleash our weapons. Peaceful coexistence or war. The whole world is watching. A fist or an open hand. The whole world is watching. First use of nuclear weapons or leadership in global disarmament. The whole world is watching. Bombs or bread to the Iraqi people, to the Iranian people, to the North Korean people. The whole world is watching.
Some in the name of peace, prepare us for war, in the name of liberty, prepare us for submission, in the name of courage, prepare us to be fearful. Let all Americans challenge war, submission and fear! Some power has ruled there is no permit to march today. Yet we are on the march. The direction of peace is forward! We are on the march. The direction of human unity is forward! We are on the march. The direction of political change is forward. We are on the march. We will either bring an end to war or we will bring an end to a war-like administration. We are on the march!
Two hundred and fourteen years ago the First Congress standing upon the holy ground of a new Constitution met in this city. Their permit came from the Declaration of Independence. The same High Power which entrusted them entrusts us with the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. We call upon the Spirit of the Founders to guide us as we create a new world where all may live in peace.
The United States, brought forth by the power of human unity, seeks to be reborn. We invoke the Spirit of Freedom. We hear the cadence of courage echo across the ages: "Life, Liberty, pursuit of Happiness." Once again, the hour has come for us to stand for unity, even as our government tells us we must follow it into war. Once again the hour has come for us to be strong of heart. The direction of human unity is forward. We are on the march. It is our government which must follow, or be swept aside.
Thank you.
–Dennis J. Kucinich
Beyond Cassini - Dennis KucinichFlyby News (FN) has tried to stay ahead of the curve of destruction since about a year and a half before the Cassini-Earth flyby. FN posted an endorsement for Dennis Kucinich for US President 2004 nine months before his announcement. Kucinich missed an opportunity in 2004 to win in New Hampshire. Yet any great leader must learn from their mistakes, and his work has exemplified the qualities of a great leader. Kucinich and Flyby News has endorsed John F. Kerry for US President in 2004 with his nomination by the Democratic Party.
The
Lord of the Ring corruption/madness of the White House seemed to take shape beginning in the 1940's with the awesome power unleashed by the atomic bomb. This allowed fascist-fear to begin manipulating the US government, preparing for a permanent war mentality with weapons capable of destroying all human life. President Harry Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947, which began intelligence organizations like the CIA and the entrapments of a secret and corrupt government, with an agenda not always in keeping with the principle of the US Constitution, all in the name of "national security interests." This corrupt influence created things like the dangerous Cassini Earth flyby, new weapons of mass destruction, their proliferation, drug dealing, taking over space for military purposes, supporting fuels that add to Global Warming, and replacing democracies in other countries with dictatorships for US-corporate interests. The madness to endanger life for all humans reached into new extremes. Fear has become the ruler, a nectar for self-destruction, and only someone pure and simple like Frodo, or, perhaps, Dennis, could take the ring back to its source, and disarm weapons of mass destruction, uniting the world for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Kucinich, a vegan, a grass roots inspirational politician, the youngest Mayor in US history, has created a record for people to trust his abilities and motivation to lead the US back to an evolving democracy. His leadership could go a long ways in helping in the direction for world peace, a healthier environment, and improved economic conditions.
Join the movement to transform US government
with that of integrity and with/in the spirit of freedom.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Flyby News encourages you to visit, sign up to volunteer, and/or sign up for email notices from
Dennis Kucinich web site is www.kucinich.us
==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==
: ) Kids4Kucinich.org ( :
okay all you kids, or if you know any, pass the word..
www.kids4kucinich.org
For an article on this "kids4K" movement, initiated by Dylan Hallsmith from Vermont see:
www.freepress.org/dispatches.php
==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==
United States Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio)
1730 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-5871
Fax: (202) 225-5745
www.house.gov/kucinich
==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==
The following web sites had Dennis Kucinich for President Campaigns:
www.wewantkucinich.com/
www.dennisforamerica.org
www.massforkucinich.us
www.presidentkucinich.com/
www.acousticmusic.com/dave/kucinich.htm
groups.yahoo.com/group/kucinich4president
www.kucinichdeancompare.com
Another Iowan for Kucinich
KucinichWatch.com
For sharing other Kucinich links with Flyby News, please send website URL's to
info@flybynews.com with Flyby-Kucinich-Link in subject.
==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==
MeetUp with Fellow Kucitizens
Plan to meet fellow peace and justice activists in your town on the first Thursday of every month
Learn more and sign up at kucinich2004.meetup.com
Kucinich Films That Can Make a DifferenceThe Peace Candidate [20 minutes]
This new film short by Malachi Roth offers an intimate look at the most qualified and inspirational American leader to emerge in decades. In the film, we will see Dennis Kucinich captivating, inspiring, and energizing audiences by discussing crucial issues in a
way which actually provides hope for the future of our planet. The film will integrate excerpts from Kucinich's greatest speeches and appearances, candid footage of the candidate campaigning and speaking in Congress and interviews with well known artists, intellectuals, political figures to create a stirring portrait of Kucinich and the global movement which has sprung up as a reaction to the overreaching of an unelected president and the high crimes of his corporate cronies.
"It's the so-called liberals or centrists who are closet imperialists who are the true danger.
Kucinich is in the unique position to be the one person who from the very beginning
tried to tell the American people what was happening in their name."
– Malachi Roth
For more on "The Peace Candidate" plus other films for a discussion/film forum, see:
Films that Make a Difference!
"We Can Make War Archaic"
-- Dennis J. Kucinich
Check this excellent article on a Kucinich 2004 candidacy, posted in Flyby News, May 21, 2002, Item 1.
Deeper Rivers - A Kucinich candidacy would tread where others can't reach
Kucinich at the Democratic National Committee Meeting
a review by Goodsister"I just saw the segment, and they had some nimrod CA Republican sitting with Kucinich. He repeated the phrase "blood grudge" at least five times by my count, as in "Iraq has a blood grudge against the United States" as a reason for war. His remarks were real eye-rollers; he had his little prepared set of phrases, and that was the extent of what he could contribute.
Rep. Kucinich was magnificent. He made his points clearly and firmly, no matter how many times little Tucker Carlson tried to derail him with frivolous and irrelevant sidebars. Tucker brought up the Congressman's votes from the past, on trying Hussein as a war criminal, and something else I forgot that's related.... Tucker was trying to say Kucinich is pro-Saddam, but instead he just neatly proved the opposite. Kucinich said, "Thanks for making clear that I've never been pro-Saddam", and looked at Tucker like he's an idiot.
Ha!
When the CA Repub actually said that the Iraqi people would love us as their liberators, throw flowers and wave American flags, Kucinich pointed out that they'd be unlikely to respond in that way to Operation Shock-Awe, which would drop 8000 missiles on Iraq. Kucinich says that inspections worked for years, and they can continue to work. He says there is no reason to punish the Iraqi people because we don't like their leader, not to mention 300,000 American men and women. He mentioned the numbers of other countries that possess chemical, biological, and/or nuclear weapons, and asked if we were prepared to bomb all of them and impose leaders more to our liking. And when someone tried to talk about the danger Iraq poses to US security, Kucinich held up a copy of the CIA report to the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which says that what puts us in most danger would be for us to attack Iraq!
He got the last word in, too, commenting that "Being the world's policeman is not what America is about". And, very important to me, Kucinich never forgot that Iraqi lives are as important as American lives. That peculiar, parochial view some Americans have, thinking that somehow our lives are more "real" or somehow more valuable than those of foreign people living in countries we can't find on a map, is obviously not a view Kucinich shares. He clearly sees a big picture, a global picture. He sees that in order to survive as a species on what's left of our planet, we will need to evolve into cooperation and friendship.
I love this guy. Did anyone else see it? What did you think? Can we unseat the Pretender with this man's energy and integrity?"
-- Goodsister
Join a list serve for discussions on Dennis J. Kucinich for US President!http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kucinich4presidentGoodsister is the moderator ! ! !
This is the national networking group for the fast-growing grassroots movement behind the Presidential campaign of Congressman Dennis Kucinich. We are supporters, volunteers and campaign workers, dedicated to the reclamation of the Democratic Party and our country.
We are a discussion group as well as a center for all news, interviews, articles, reviews, and audio and videos about Kucinich. We value our growing sense of community, and ask only that members keep their messages on-topic and focused on Kucinich and the campaign.
Downloadable materials and flyers to hand out in your communities can be found in our Files section, and great stuff in our Links section, too.
Courage, America!To subscribe send a blank message to:
Kucinich4President-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Meet-Up with Kucinich Supporters - First Thursday of each month @ 7pmThe Kucinich for President campaign is urging all volunteers to use the MeetUp website to organize with their friends and neighbors. MeetUp is a website that allows you to plan monthly meetings at restaurants in your city.
Please consider going to this site right away to sign up:
kucinich2004.meetup.com
Flyby News Archives - Kucinich ResourcesFor more recent issues, see the
Flyby News Archives.
May 3, 2003 - Items 1, 2, and 4
NYTimes: A Dark Horse Fights the Odds Again * Dennis: On Reproductive Freedom *
Kucinich: The Military Victory is a Foreign Policy Failure * Kucinich: Back on Track April 30, 2003 - Item 1
Kucinich on Military Spending * The Peoples Choice and OpportunityKucinich in 2004 - The Revolution Within US!April 15, 2003 - Item 2
The Peace Candidate / Kucinich / The Progressive -Also- On Dennis Kucinich for US President by Malachi Roth"Until we convince ourselves of the utter inevitability of our self determination
others will determine our future for us."
– Malachi RothApril 9, 2003 - Item 2
Despite Polls, Kucinich Seeks End to War – Needs Our Help!April 1, 2003 - Item 5
Presidential Candidate Kucinich Urges US to Step Back From War -also- Review by Goodsister: Dennis Rocks Northern CaliforniaMarch 30, 2003 - Item 2
Kucinich Calls for Immediate End to War March 27, 2003 - Item 4
Kucinich: The Workers' White House March 25, 2003 - Item 4
Pro-War & Pro-Peace Candidates March 22, 2003 - Item 1
"Shock and Awe" - Kucinich Responds - - kucinich4presidend list serve feedback
- - Man With a Plan - changes in our administration
March 15, 2003 - Items 1 - 3
About Dennis - Kucinich Film * Kucinich Forces Administration To Disclose Iraq Document to Congress * ‘Obviously Oil' * Yes Magazine Interview March 13, 2003 - Item 5
Doves Step Up Efforts to Halt March to War March 02, 2003 - Item 4
Kucinich's Prayer for America VIDEO & Salon.com Interviews Dennis Kucinich February 27, 2003 - Item 1
CNN CrossFires with Dennis Kucinich This issue links to the complete transcripts of CNN's "Crossfire" interview with Dennis Kucinich, and Dennis' interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert.
February 23, 2003 - Item 2
Kucinich for US President Update Also see review by Goodsister on K's presentation at the Democratic National Committee Meeting.
February 17, 2003 - Items 2 and 3
World Watching * Kucinich President's DayFebruary 4, 2003 - Item 2
Congressman Kucinich Draws Speculation As Possible CandidateJanuary 23, 2003 - Item 6
Kucinich: "Peace as a Civil Right"January 17, 2003 - Item 2
Draft Kucinich for President 2004January 12, 2003 - Item 1
Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, Swearing-In * Speech in Canada for Space Preservation Treaty"It takes wisdom to have great power and to make gentle its presence in the world."
- Dennis J. KucinichJanuary 6, 2003 - Item 4
Judge Allows Bush's Withdrawal from ABM Treaty to StandJanuary 4, 2003 - Item 3
Evolutionary Politics: Representative Dennis J. KucinichDecember 13, 2002 - Item 2
Open Letter to Bush on Venezuela from U.S. Congress MembersNovember 17, 2002 - Item 3
Kucinich: Leading Opposition in the House to the WarNovember 5, 2002 - Item 1
"The Bloodstained Path" by Dennis Kucinich"Unilateral military action by the United States against Iraq is unjustified, unwarranted, and illegal.."October 30, 2002 - Item 3
Oral Argument in Kucinich v. Bush on Plaintiffs' MotionOctober 23, 2002 - Item 2
Kucinich Asks White House To Explain Contradictions On Iraq, North Korea NukesOctober 12, 2002 - Item 2
Kucinich: Statement in Opposition to the ResolutionOctober 7, 2002 - Item 3
Kucinich & McDermott -- Questioning Bush's Iraq War MotivesAugust 8, 2002 - Item 1
Spirit and Stardust - Dennis Kucinich Speech in Croatia"The Soul of the Worker and the American Restoration"
Dennis Kucinich's speech (transcript) at the Iowa AFLCIO State Convention, Wednesday August 14, 2002.
July 4, 2002 - Items 1
Kucinich Videos Released!. Also see Item 2 - ABM Treaty still lives!
June 12, 2002 - Item 1
1) Lawsuit to stop withdrawal from ABM Treaty * also see item 2 for a link to Dennis Kucinich's Statement to STOP: "Transportation of Nuclear Waste to the Proposed Yucca Mountain Storage Facility.
February 25, 2002 - Items 1, 2, 3,
ABM Treaty Hanging * Nuclear Theft Confirmed * Kucinich on war economy - "How Can We Justify This?"April 23, 2002 - Item 1
"Kucinich Is the One", article by Studs Terkel
March 9, 2002 - Items 2 and 3
"Kucinich Rocks the Boat" + Carol Rosin reports on Peace in Space kick-off event
For a February 2, 2003 - (NewsNet5) Associated Press article, see:
"Kucinich Running For President?"
For information on Dennis J. Kucinich ~ see his web site at:
kucinich.us
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
World Watching * Kucinich President's Day * Bio/Chem
17 February 2003
"We will either bring an end to war or we will bring an end to a war-like administration."
Dennis J. Kucinich
15 February 2003, NYC
1) Millions Worldwide Protest War in Iraq
2) Kucinich Speech - 15 February - NYC
3) Kucinich to run for president
4) US Plans to Use Illegal Weapons
5) Taking a Stand on Iraq: Speak Out
6) Response to Andy Rooney's France's Unpaid Debt'
Editor's Notes:15 February I went back to my roots, NYC, joining with hundreds of thousands, millions around the globe. It was an outstanding outpouring for peace. Beyond the cold temperatures in NY, many were heartened by the actions of France, Germany, and Russia, placing the Bush policy of attacking Iraq in the minority of the UN Security Council. It is obvious that a preemptive attack and occupation would severely destabilize the region and invoke more terrorist acts. It would do more harm than good, and the people will forever suffer from such a blunder or a sinister plot. The US plan to attack Iraq effects each one of us. This was why so many people were in the streets demonstrating. Beginning this Monday, please call, fax, and email member nations of the UN to take a pro-active position to maintain peace in Iraq, for an effective containment and inspection policy. In 1950 the United Nations by an almost unanimous vote adopted Resolution 377, named "Uniting for Peace." As its charter so eloquently states, the UN can "save succeeding generations form the scourge of war."
See Action link from FlybyNews.com for
"Uniting for Peace to Resolve the Iraq Crisis"or go to:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1045091648,41257,Item 2 is the text of Dennis Kucinich's speech in NYC, 15 February, "..The whole world is watching ...We are on the march. It is our government which must follow, or be swept aside."
Item 3 is an AP article stating that Dennis Kucinich will announce a presidential campaign this Monday, Presidents Day. Yes! Based on his effective opposition to the Bush administration, and the overwhelming interest for peace and world unity, and based on evidences of apparent political assassinations of key individuals in the past, one must be concerned. When I spoke with Congressman Kucinich on this subject a few months ago on the telephone, he was much more concerned of the direction of our country than his personal security, but I asked him to consider taking actions to remove any incentive for an assassination that could result in killing or delaying the US and world's movement for peace and compassion. Yet Kucinich is a man of destiny, passionate about democracy and serving those he represents. There may well be something to celebrate this Presidents Day.
Item 4 is on the madness of US military considerations for using biological and chemical weapons. A related story link at the end of this item is to the text of a CBS 60 Minutes segment (16 February 2003) on the lack of confidence regarding our soldier's protective gear and training in order to survive a chemical or biological attack. Item 5 is a poem by San Francisco's first poet laureate, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, "Taking a Stand on Iraq: Speak Out." Item 6 is my letter to Andy Rooney in response to his commentary on 60 Minutes.
In the ensuing discoveries to reach horizons lost,
I cast out a net to find love at all cost,
Trampled beneath the pavement I squirmed as a worm would,
Hardened technology blocked the sun, but still, hope had won.
I found a crack that opened wide,
My laughter spiraled upwards, grateful I was alive.
Blemished by toil, surround by a cloak of dust,
Emerging victorious, I found the love I trust.
1) Millions Worldwide Protest War in IraqMillions Worldwide Protest War in Iraq
By ROBERT BARR,
Associated Press Writer
LONDON - Millions of protesters - many of them marching in the capitals of America's traditional allies - demonstrated Saturday against possible U.S. plans to attack Iraq.
In a global outpouring of anti-war sentiment, Rome claimed the biggest turnout - 1 million according to police, while organizers claimed three times that figure.
In London, at least 750,000 people demonstrated in what police called the city's largest demonstration ever. In Spain, several million people turned out at anti-war rallies in about 55 cities and towns across the country, with more than 500,000 each attending rallies in Madrid and Barcelona.
Spanish police gauged the Madrid turnout at 660,000. Organizers claimed nearly 2 million people gathered across the nation in one of the biggest demonstrations since the 1975 death of dictator Gen. Francisco Franco (news - web sites).
More than 70,000 people marched in Amsterdam in the largest Netherlands demonstration since anti-nuclear rallies of the 1980s.
Berlin had up to half-a-million people on the streets, and Paris was estimated to have had about 100,000.
In New York, rally organizers estimated the crowd at up to 500,000 people. City police provided no estimate of the crowd, which stretched 20 blocks deep and two blocks wide.
"Peace! Peace! Peace!" Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa said while leading an ecumenical service near U.N. headquarters. "Let America listen to the rest of the world - and the rest of the world is saying, 'Give the inspectors time.'"
London's marchers hoped - in the words of keynote speaker the Rev. Jesse Jackson (news - web sites) - to "turn up the heat" on Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites), President Bush (news - web sites)'s staunchest European ally for his tough Iraq policy.
Rome protesters showed their disagreement with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's support for Bush, while demonstrators in Paris and Berlin backed the skeptical stances of their governments.
"What I would say to Mr. Blair is stop toadying up to the Americans and listen to your own people, us, for once," said Elsie Hinks, 77, who marched in London with her husband, Sidney, a retired Church of England priest.
Tommaso Palladini, 56, who traveled from Milan to Rome, said, "You don't fight terrorism with a preventive war. You fight terrorism by creating more justice in the world."
Several dozen marchers from Genoa held up pictures of Iraqi artists.
"We're carrying these photos to show the other face of the Iraqi people that the TV doesn't show," said Giovanna Marenzana, 38.
Some leaders in German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's government participated in the Berlin protest, which turned the tree-lined boulevard between the Brandenburg Gate and the 19th-century Victory Column into a sea of banners, balloons emblazoned with "No war in Iraq" and demonstrators swaying to live music. Police estimated the crowd at between 300,000 and 500,000.
"We Germans in particular have a duty to do everything to ensure that war - above all a war of aggression - never again becomes a legitimate means of policy," shouted Friedrich Schorlemmer, a Lutheran pastor and former East German pro-democracy activist.
In the Paris crowd at the Place Denfert-Rochereau, a large American flag bore the black inscription, "Leave us alone."
Gerald Lenoir, 41, of Berkeley, Calif., came to Paris to support demonstrators.
"I am here to protest my government's aggression against Iraq," he said. "Iraq does not pose a security threat to the United States and there are no links with al-Qaida."
In southern France, about 10,000 people demonstrated in Toulouse against the United States, chanting: "They bomb, they exploit, they pollute, enough of this barbarity."
Police estimated that 60,000 turned out in Oslo, Norway; 50,000 in bitter cold in Brussels, Belgium; and about 35,000 in frigid Stockholm, Sweden.
About 80,000 marched in Dublin, Irish police said. Crowds were estimated at 60,000 in Seville, Spain; 40,000 in Bern, Switzerland; 30,000 in Glasgow, Scotland; 25,000 in Copenhagen, Denmark; 15,000 in Vienna, Austria; more than 20,000 in Montreal and 15,000 in Toronto; 5,000 in Cape Town and 4,000 in Johannesburg in South Africa; 5,000 in Tokyo; and 2,000 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
"War is not a solution, war is a problem," Czech philosopher Erazim Kohak told about 500 people in Prague, the Czech Republic.
In Mexico City, as many as 10,000 people - including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchu - snarled traffic for blocks before rallying near the heavily guarded U.S. Embassy. Demonstrators beat drums, clutched white balloons and waved handmade signs saying, "War No, Peace Yes."
In Baghdad, tens of thousands of Iraqis, many carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles, demonstrated to support leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and denounce the United States.
"Our swords are out of their sheaths, ready for battle," read one of hundreds of banners carried by marchers along Palestine Street, a broad Baghdad avenue. In Damascus, the capital of neighboring Syria, an estimated 200,000 protesters chanted anti-U.S. and anti-Israeli slogans while marching to the People's Assembly.
Najjah Attar, a former Syrian cabinet minister, accused Washington of attempting to change the region's map.
"The U.S. wants to encroach upon our own norms, concepts and principles," she said in Damascus. "They are reminding us of the Nazi and fascist times."
An estimated 2,000 Israelis and Palestinians marched together against war in Tel Aviv on Saturday night.
In Ukraine, some 2,000 people rallied in snowy Kiev's central square. Anti-globalists led a peaceful "Rock Against War" protest joined by communists, socialists, Kurds and pacifists.
"We want to say that war is evil and that we who survived one know that better than anyone," said Majda Hadzic, 54.
In divided Cyprus, about 500 Greeks and Turks braved heavy rain to briefly block a British air base runway.
Several thousand protesters in Athens, Greece, unfurled a giant banner across the wall of the Acropolis - "NATO (news - web sites), U.S. and EU equals War" - before heading toward the U.S. Embassy.
U.S. Ambassador Thomas Miller said the Greek protesters' indignation was misplaced.
"They should be demonstrating outside the Iraqi embassy," he said before the march.
About 900 Puerto Ricans chanted anti-war slogans against the possible invasion of Iraq. One man waved a U.S. flag on which the stars were replaced with skulls.
In Brazil, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva began efforts to unite South American nations against a possible U.S.-led attack on Iraq. Police estimated 1,500 marchers.
# # #
For posting with links for this AP article, see:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030216/ap_on_re_eu/world_war_protests_23
2) Kucinich: "The whole world is watching"Text of speech by US Representative Dennis J. Kucinich
New York City; Saturday, February 15, 2003
"Inner Space"
One of the Columbia astronauts is said to have looked upon the earth from the silence of outer space and said to fellow voyagers: "Look! The whole world is reflected in the iris of my eye." As she watched the whole world, the whole world is watching us to see what is reflected in our eyes, the light of peace or the fires of war. We who gather carry a vision of peace. We see the world as one. We carry a vision of human unity. We see the world undivided. Today and tomorrow we act on that vision.
To those leaders in our country struggling in inner space, those who have war in their eyes and in their hearts and would project it upon the world: The whole world is watching. "Look, the whole world is reflected in the iris of my eye." America is reflected in the irises of billions of eyes. The whole world is watching to see if the power of our morality is greater than the power which would unleash our weapons. Peaceful coexistence or war. The whole world is watching. A fist or an open hand. The whole world is watching. First use of nuclear weapons or leadership in global disarmament. The whole world is watching. Bombs or bread to the Iraqi people, to the Iranian people, to the North Korean people. The whole world is watching.
Some in the name of peace, prepare us for war, in the name of liberty, prepare us for submission, in the name of courage, prepare us to be fearful. Let all Americans challenge war, submission and fear! Some power has ruled there is no permit to march today. Yet we are on the march. The direction of peace is forward! We are on the march. The direction of human unity is forward! We are on the march. The direction of political change is forward. We are on the march. We will either bring an end to war or we will bring an end to a war-like administration. We are on the march!
Two hundred and fourteen years ago the First Congress standing upon the holy ground of a new Constitution met in this city. Their permit came from the Declaration of Independence. The same High Power which entrusted them entrusts us with the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. We call upon the Spirit of the Founders to guide us as we create a new world where all may live in peace.
The United States, brought forth by the power of human unity, seeks to be reborn. We invoke the Spirit of Freedom. We hear the cadence of courage echo across the ages: "Life, Liberty, pursuit of Happiness." Once again, the hour has come for us to stand for unity, even as our government tells us we must follow it into war. Once again the hour has come for us to be strong of heart. The direction of human unity is forward. We are on the march. It is our government which must follow, or be swept aside.
Thank you.
Dennis J. Kucinich
http://www.thespiritoffreedom.comdkucinich@aol.com
3) Kucinich to run for presidentKucinich to run for president
CNN.com
Saturday, February 15, 2003
Posted1021 PM EST (0321 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rep. Dennis Kucinich plans to file papers to launch a presidential campaign next week, a source familiar with the Ohio Democrat's plans said Saturday.
His entry into the 2004 presidential race bumps the Democratic field of candidates to eight.
Kucinich has said voters need to hear alternative points of view on Iraq, trade and the nation's economic policies, all issues expected to be at the center of his campaign.
Kucinich told The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer in a story for Sunday's editions that he is "testing the waters" by filing to form a presidential exploratory committee and will commit to running for the nomination in June if his candidacy wins wide support in the next several months.
The fourth-term congressman will announce his plans on Monday, which is Presidents Day.
He is scheduled to be in Iowa Sunday, where he is to meet with Democratic Party activists in advance of an appearance Monday with other presidential hopefuls at an AFL-CIO forum.
The Iowa caucuses next January mark the first major contest of the 2004 presidential primary season.
Those already in the race are former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun and the Rev. Al Sharpton.
Kucinich, 56, is best known nationally as being Cleveland's "boy mayor" in the 1970s. However, since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the increased attention on the inspection of Iraqi weapons, Kucinich has become a national voice for civil liberties and peace.
"We need to start asking why is war considered to be an instrument of policy," Kucinich said at a recent news conference in Washington.
"Inspections are an adequate substitute for war, diplomacy is a substitute for war, human relations are a substitute for war, and so I think that there is no case made for war," he said.
A spokesman from Kucinich's office said the congressman receives "tens of thousands" of phone calls and e-mails each day urging him to run for president, an outpouring he said started after Kucinich gave a speech last February called "A prayer for America."
In that Los Angeles, California, address, Kucinich used patriotic language to denounce Bush administration policies that he says tread on personal liberties and take the country in a dangerous direction internationally.
The text of the speech circled the Internet and led an Oklahoma City computer consultant to launch a Web site asking people to urge Kucinich to run. The site
http://www.draftkucinich.com gets about 5,000 visitors a day.
Ralph Nader, who also appeals to economic populists, has spoken publicly about his support for Kucinich, saying the race needs a progressive candidate. Nader was the Green Party's presidential candidate in 2000.
As chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which consists of 55 of the most liberal members, Kucinich has pushed in Congress for a worker-friendly economic stimulus package and been a longtime advocate for establishing a Department of Peace.
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Flyby News updated resource page on Dennis Kucinich:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1021307488,43210,m
4) US Plans to Use Illegal Weaponslndependent/UK
Sunday, February 16, 2003
US Plans to Use Illegal Weapons
by Severin Carrell
While American forces invading Iraq face the threat of chemical attack, they could themselves be using biochemical agents which are banned under international law.
The US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, revealed earlier this month that American forces are planning to use "non-lethal" biochemical weapons such as anti-riot gases and crowd control agents if they invade Iraq. Mr Rumsfeld and General Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee they were preparing to ask President George Bush for permission to use these weapons, known in military circles as "calmatives", on Iraqi civilians, in cave systems or to take prisoners.
But two of Britain's leading authorities on chemical weapons, Professor Alistair Hay and Professor Julian Perry-Robinson, who are collaborating on an expert guide for the World Health Organisation, said such weapons are illegal under the 1992 Chemical Weapons Convention and the 1928 Geneva Protocol, which ban the use of chemical agents against people in wartime.
"It would be absolutely outrageous if they did this," said Prof Hay, an epidemiologist at Leeds University. "Surely this war against Iraq is to stop the use of those weapons, not about also using them."
The dangers of such weapons were exposed, the experts said, when Russian special forces used an opiate-based crowd control gas, with devastating consequences, on Chechen rebels holding theatregoers hostage in Moscow in October. Both men said Mr Rumsfeld's comments also threatened to put the Pentagon on a collision course with Britain.
Ministry of Defence experts have repeatedly warned their US counterparts that their proposed use of these weapons in warfare is illegal.
2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
http://www.independent.co.uk/= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a related report, see:
Bio/Chem Attack Protection Questioned
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/14/60minutes/main540691.shtml
5) Taking a Stand on Iraq: Speak OutTaking a Stand on Iraq: Speak Out
by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
And a vast paranoia sweeps across the land
And America turns the attack on its Twin Towers
Into the beginning of the Third World War
The war with the Third World
And the terrorists in Washington
Are drafting all the young men
And no one speaks
And they are rousting out
All the ones with turbans
And they are flushing out
All the strange immigrants
And they are shipping all the young men
To the killing fields again
And no one speaks
And when they come to round up
All the great writers and poets and painters
The National Endowment of the Arts of Complacency
Will not speak
While all the young men
Will be killing all the young men
In the killing fields again
So now is the time for you to speak
All you lovers of liberty
All you lovers of the pursuit of happiness
All you lovers and sleepers
Deep in your private dreams
Now is the time for you to speak
O silent majority
Before they come for you
Lawrence Ferlinghetti is San Francisco's first poet laureate (1998) and the owner and founder of City Lights Bookstore. This poem first appeared on the City Lights Web site:
http://www.citylights.com
6) Response to Andy Rooney's France's Unpaid Debt'To: ANDY ROONEY
Re: Commentary, CBS 60 Minutes, 16 February 2003
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/14/60minutes/rooney/main540729.shtmlDear Mr. Rooney,
I appreciate most of your commentaries, but not tonight's, "France's Unpaid Debt." It seemed pompous to assume that France, from past debts, should go along with the Bush administration's war, which is not the US war. (According to the US Constitution, war can only be declared by an act of Congress.) You didn't mention that France claims that such a war would destabilize their surrounding area and the Middle East. They have a right to resist a war that could produce more terrorism and harm to innocent life, and the environment around them. The French and I believe that continuing inspections and containment is more effective in stopping the threat of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction than an armed assault on a people that have suffered long enough, and with inconclusive evidence of any wrong doing outside their borders in the last decade. Now is the time when such resources going toward attacking Iraq should be available in dealing with a more urgent problem, the atomic bomb production process in North Korea.
I am proud of your and America's role during WWII, and I also appreciate France's assistance during the US Revolutionary War, but this has little to do with this current debate of a Bush change in foreign policy for preemptive attacks that promises to harm innocent people and play into the hands of terrorists seeking support in fighting US actions of apparent unilateral imperialism.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Mark,
Publisher
Flyby News - www.FlybyNews.com
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark
info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
World PEACE Rally * Illegal War * UN Peace Mission
14 February 2003
"Congress shall have power... (to) declare war."
-- Article I, Section 8, US Constitution
1) Ten Million Join World Protest Rallies
2) Suit questions Bush's war powers
3) Russia Threatens to Veto US War Plan
4) Justice, Peace, a voice in the Americas
Editor's Notes:Today, while writing, I will sometimes stop to chase squirrels from my windowsill, which is reserved for my winter-feathered friends for sunflower seeds. The squirrels can get those falling to the ground. In North Korea, a CBS Sixty-Minutes correspondent said that the sky there was silent, due to hungry people scavenging for any sort of nourishment. Meanwhile, the North Korean government maintains a hefty military operation with more special unit forces than in all of the US. Now, for leveraging power, North Korea has fired up its plutonium generating nuclear power plant. This could produce enough Pu for about 6 atom bombs in a few months. This is a crisis situation that makes an attack on Iraq now more preposterous. This weekend will mark an unprecedented moment in the world uniting for peace. Please keep passing the word to support the plan for a U.N. alternative to war, "Uniting for Peace," which was posted in the last issue, and can be linked from the action section at FlybyNews.com
Item 1 in this issue is an article that was published in The Guardian (UK) about the world movement for peace. The second item covers a law suit, which includes Dennis Kucinich as a plaintiff, declaring that war without a vote first in Congress is unconstitutional. The suit states that Congress' resolution passed last October to authorize Bush to attack Iraq was also unconstitutional. War can only be declared one way, definitely not by military dictatorship with cronies in Congress avoiding their Constitutional responsibilities.
Scott Ritter's full house presentation in Albany, NY last night was aired on public radio, WAMC, He said that he believed that a Coup d'etat had taken over the US government by neo-conservatives from the Republican party. He said that they have interest in further destabilizing our world to remain in power. Scott Ritter is a courageous person, who will stare death in its face to defend and uphold the principles in the US Constitution. When asked what one can do, he said we should make sure that George W. Bush is a one-term President. Item 2 shows again the Kucinich-record as the best (soon to be) candidate for the job. His tireless endeavors for democracy and the US Constitution are inspirational. According to a recent schedule, he is speaking in NYC - February 15. Item 3 is on Russia's actions in being a broker for peace. Having their support makes a UN plan to send in inspectors and peace keepers feasible in stopping the US-led invasion. This would be best for America and the world. Then, perhaps, we can continue to unite and join efforts for a peaceful resolution with North Korea, toward the ideals of working to destroy and abandon all weapons and technologies capable of the mass destruction to life, for peace, mutual prosperity, and celebration.
Please write, call, member nations of the UN to Unite for Peace.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
RALLY for PEACE * February 15 & 16
"The World Says No to War" - for more information, see:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?list=sub&sub=30* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"There's a growing consensus in America today that Bush's economic programme is just misguided."
Joseph Stiglitz
Nobel laureate
1) Ten Million Join World Protest Rallies10 million join world protest rallies
From Africa to Antarctica, people prepare to march for peace
John Vidal
Thursday February 13, 2003
The Guardian
Up to 10 million people on five continents are expected to demonstrate against the probable war in Iraq on Saturday, in some of the largest peace marches ever known.
Yesterday, up to 400 cities in 60 countries, from Antarctica to Pacific islands, confirmed that peace rallies, vigils and marches would take place. Of all major countries, only China is absent from the growing list which includes more than 300 cities in Europe and north America, 50 in Asia and Latin America, 10 in Africa and 20 in Australia and Oceania.
Many countries will witness the largest demonstrations against war they have ever seen.
The majority will be small but 500,000 people are expected in London and Barcelona, and more than 100,000 in Rome, Paris, Berlin and other European capitals. In the US, organisers were yesterday anticipating 200,000 marching in New York if permission is given. A further 100,000 are expected to march in 140 other American cities.
What is extraordinary, say the organisers, is the depth and breadth of opposition that the US and Britain are meeting across the world before a war has even started.
"This is unprecedented. Demonstrations only got this large against the Vietnam war at the height of the conflict, years after it started," said a spokesman for Answer, a coalition of US peace groups which helped organise a march of 200,000 people last month in Washington.
Many in the global peace movement optimistically hope that public opposition to a war is becoming politically significant and could now affect the timing of an invasion of Iraq and possibly even help avert conflict altogether.
"The internationalism of the opposition is the most powerful weapon people have. It's all we have. We think that Bush and Blair are well aware that global opposition is mounting fast and that they are now desperate to start the war before they are completely isolated by world opinion," said a spokesman for United for Peace and Justice, a US coalition.
New polls in Europe and the US yesterday suggested that opposition is still mounting and is likely to continue even if the US gets a second resolution. Spanish and Dutch polls showed that more than 70% now oppose even UN-mandated action, with slightly fewer in Italy. Yesterday CND reported that it was struggling to cope with the deluge of people wanting to join.
In Germany, more than 300 towns are sending coaches to Berlin, where more than 100,000 people are expected to march.
"Opposition is broader than at any time in the past. This will the largest peace march in 20 years," said Malte Keutzseldt of Attac, Germany. "The peace movement is getting older now, but a new generation of young people is deeply concerned. The churches and unions have linked to make the coalition far broader than even the anti-nuclear missile marches in the 1980s".
In Paris, a march organiser said that feeling was running high and that he expected the anti-war demonstration to be largest ever. The most unusual rally is expected to be in the international territory of Antarctica, where dozens of scientists and others at the US McMurdo base on the edge of the Ross sea will take to the ice.
The idea of an international day of action against the war was first suggested in London after the last peace march in October. It was discussed by peace and anti-globalisation groups from 11 countries at the European social forum in Florence in November, but only became truly international following meetings in Cairo, Egypt and Porto Alegre, Brazil, last month.
Since then the idea of coordinating international peace protests has spread rapidly across the world and up to 30 new cities a day are believed to be planning demonstrations. Next month activists from all continents will meet in London to propose further global actions.
Coordinated international demonstrations have flourished in the past five years with anti-capitalist marches and campaigns by environmentalists and anti-globalisers against corporations like McDonald's, Shell and Esso, and against global warming or international trade. Mostly organised on the web by activists working below the radar of the mainstream media, they have taken the establishment by surprise in many countries and only been reported by independent media.
"The whole world's marching," said Helmut, a German student in London. "This peace party should be better than the millennium celebrations."
The Stop The War Coalition (STWC) is planning a display of mass direct action designed to bring Britain to a standstill on the day any war starts with Iraq. The protests would involve demonstrations in the centre of London and other big towns and cities, wildcat strikes by anti-war supporters and mass sit-ins at schools, colleges and universities across the country.
A spokeswoman for the SWTC said: "We do think there will be a whole wave of civil disobedience if war breaks out. People want to be peaceful and are quite slow to anger, but they will be very angry if after Saturday's mass show of opposition Tony Blair refuses to listen."
For the originally posted article by John Vidal in The Guardian February 13 2003, see:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,894448,00.html= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Featured speakers and performers at the NYC Peace Rally, 2/15, include:
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Harry Belafonte
Danny Glover
Julian Bond
Phyllis Bennis
Susan Sarandon
Pete Seeger
Rosie Perez
Angela Y. Davis
Dennis Rivera
Ruth Messinger
Welfare Poets
Kim Gandy
Congressman Dennis Kucinich
Poets from Def Poetry Jam
For more information, see
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=961
2) Suit questions Bush's war powersBy David D. Haskell
From the National Desk
Published 2/13/2003 3:25 PM
BOSTON, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- A lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston Thursday seeks to prevent President Bush from going to war against Iraq without congressional approval.
A coalition including six House members, several U.S. soldiers and parents of servicemen claims only Congress has that power under the Constitution.
"We have a message for President Bush today. Read the Constitution," John Bonifaz, the plaintiffs' lead attorney, said at a news conference announcing the suit.
"A war against Iraq without a congressional declaration of war will be illegal and unconstitutional," he said. "It is time for the courts to intervene."
The representatives joining the suit, all Democrats, are John Conyers of Michigan, Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, James McDermott of Washington, Jose Serrano of New York, Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas and Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois.
The U.S. Attorney's office said it had no comment on the suit.
The plaintiffs asked for a preliminary injunction against the president and for a hearing on their request that Bush be barred from launching a military invasion against Iraq without a congressional declaration of war.
The lawsuit cites Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, which reads: "Congress shall have power... (to) declare war."
The suit argues the resolution on Iraq that Congress passed in October did not declare war and unlawfully ceded the decision to Bush.
The suit contends the framers of the Constitution sought to ensure that U.S. presidents would not have the power of European monarchs of the past to wage war.
"The Founding Fathers did not establish an imperial presidency with war-making power," Conyers said. "The Constitution clearly reserves that for Congress."
"The president is not a king," said Charles Richardson, a plaintiff whose Marine son is stationed in the Persian Gulf.
"If he wants to launch a military invasion against Iraq, he must first seek a declaration of war from the United States Congress. Our Constitution demands nothing less," Richardson said.
Richardson and two other plaintiffs -- Nancy Lessin and Jeffrey McKenzie -- are co-founders of Military Families Speak Out, an organization of people opposed to war against Iraq and who have family in the military.
"A full and complete congressional discussion of the issues and all options must precede any move towards war," Lessin said, "because of the irreparable harm that would result."
At the news conference, Lessin said she worried about her son, Joe, a Marine stationed in the Gulf.
"We worry about Joe," she said. "We don't want him to be wounded or die. We don't want him to be forced to wound or kill innocent Iraqi civilians. That would kill part of him and part of us."
Copyright 2001-2003 United Press International
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030213-093506-8792r
3) Russia Threatens to Veto US War Plan Russia Threatens to Veto US War Plan
By Caroline Overington
New York Correspondents
TheAge.com Australia
Thursday 13 February 2003
For the first time, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council has warned that it might use its veto to deny the United States UN backing for a war on Iraq.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told French journalists yesterday that Moscow was prepared to vote against a resolution that contained the threat of "an unreasonable use of force".
"If today a proposition was made that we felt would lead to an unreasonable use of force, we would act with France or alone," Mr Putin said when asked about a veto.
Mr Putin defended France's plan to send peacekeepers to Iraq, instead of troops, saying: "We are trying to find a peaceful solution to a grave, international crisis and, I repeat, we will be heard."
He also warned the US not to launch a unilateral strike, saying: "I am convinced that it would be a grave error, outside of international law."
Russia's veto warning came as the United States grappled with a growing rift with key European allies France and Germany.
For the original posting and links, see:
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/02/12/1044927662952.html
4) Justice, Peace, a voice in the AmericasBelow is the latest list of cities in Latin America & the Caribbean where protests for peace will be held on February 15, 2003.
Bahia
Bariloche
Buenos Aires
Caracas
Caxias do Sul
Goiania
Havana
Kingston, Jamaica
Lima
Martinique
Mexicali
Mexico City
Montevideo
Quito
Rio de Janiero
Rio Grande do Sol
San Jose, CR
San Juan
San Miguel
San Salvador
Santiago
Santo Domingo
Sao Paulo
The Narco News Team opens its full coverage from the first-ever hemispheric Drug Legalization Summit in Merida, Yucatan, with our first nine reports, including a communique authored by Bolivian Congressman Felipe Quispe - El Mallku of America - special to Narco News, a report by Adam Saytanides on Mexican Congressman Gregorio Urias' keynote speech calling for a united Pan-American battle to end drug prohibition. ..You can read their accounts of the opening session of the J-School, too:
The Narco News Bulletin -
http://www.narconews.com/For information by Email, write to:
narconews@hotmail.com
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark
info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Unite for Peace * Lobby * Sharon/Bush * Warming Bill
12 February 2003
1) "Uniting for Peace"
2) Lobbying Congress for Peace
3) The war on Iraq: Conceived in Israel?
4) Bipartisan Global Warming Bill Finally Arrives in Congress
Editor's Notes:Top on the agenda of this issue is on efforts for stopping the US war on Iraq. Item one proposes a plan for the United Nations to "maintain international peace and security." In 1950 the United Nations, by an almost unanimous vote, adopted Resolution 377, named "Uniting for Peace." Please help the world realize this possibility for peace by engaging member states to adopt the French-German peace plan and take it to the General Assembly and Prevent the War!
Item 2 is less of a probability, but well worth trying, to get US Congress to review any plans before an attack on Iraq. Item 3 is an in depth essay on the united actions of the Sharon and Bush ruthless policies in the Middle East. Item 4 is on a new bill to lower global warming emissions by Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT). Yet what is most important, even for preventing Global Warming, is to stop the US from attacking Iraq. As posted previously, a CBS TV evening news on 21 January 2003 reported:
"There are new signs that war could take an enormous economic toll. Military officials tell CBS News tonight they have a solid indication that Saddam plans to blow up Iraq's oil wells, if it appears certain that his regime will fall.
He did it in Kuwait at the end of the Gulf War. It took 9 months to put out the fires. Iraq has twice the number of wells
The Gulf Region is still recovering from the environmental and economic affects of Saddam's scorch earth policy of 1991. Destroying the Iraqi oil wells now would send oil prices into the stratosphere and cripple the economic recovery here."
But the economy is not all that is threatened by war. Recently CBS news reported that Saddam has wired explosives to oil wells in Iraq.= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
How the Coming War Stacks Up
Blood, Stats, and Tears
by Ward Harkavy
February 5 - 11, 2003
The Village Voice:
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0306/harkavy.php= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The Road Better Not Taken by Jack Beatty
A war against Iraq could be the most catastrophic blunder in U.S. history
Jack Beatty writing in Atlantic Unbound, the on-line supplement to the Atlantic Magazine, notes that "The imminent U.S. attack on Iraq will be the first war in our history in which success is as fearful a prospect as failure. When we "win," our troubles will just begin. How we win will determine their gravity.
For the complete text, see:
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/polipro/pp2003-02-05.htm
Public Demonstrations for PEACE * February 15 & 16
"The World Says No to War" - for more information, see:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?list=sub&sub=30
1) "Uniting for Peace"
If The Security Council Can't Get Vote For French-German Plan,
They Can Take It To The General Assembly and Prevent the War!Dear Friends,
This week and the next are crucial weeks during which to prevent the war.
The German-French proposal may well be able to accomplish this, and with the presence in Iraq of a large number of inspectors (3 times as many as now under their plan) and a contingent (hopefully a large one) of United Nations Peacekeepers, the horrifying war plan of the Bush Administration, which includes possible use of nuclear bombs in the initial onslaught, may be prevented altogether.
Such a plan would of course be vetoed by the U.S. on the Security Council, which, as we know, only authorizes things with a unanimous vote. However, there is a loophole in the U.S. power to stop the French-German plan, which is substantiated in the article reprinted below. Under the "United For Peace" provision of the U.N. laws, Security Council members may take their proposal to the General Assembly for a vote. This is what I believe can and must happen this week. The French and the Germans have the right idea, as I'm sure we all agree. Basically they are attempting to do whatever they can to prevent the war. If the Bush Administration and whoever they have bought and coerced on the Security Council object, France, Germany, Russia and China and their other co-sponsors may go the General Assembly for a vote, and this will make it possible for U.N. Peacekeepers to depart for Iraq as soon as possible, hopefully within 24 to 48 hours. Once the peacekeepers are there, it will be almost impossible for the U.S. to bomb Iraq.
Let's circulate this proposal and discuss it with others, as well as telephone the French, German, Russian and Chinese, embassies to express our support for a "United For Peace Initiative to Resolve the Iraq Crisis". Following are the contact information for these four countries from the U.N. Website.
France
Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations
One Dag Hammarskjld Plaza, 245 East 47th Street, 44th Floor
New York, N.Y. 10017, Telephone: (212) 308-5700
Telefax: (212) 421-6889
Correspondence: French
france-presse@un.int
Germany
Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations
871 United Nations Plaza (First Ave., 48/49 St.), New York, N.Y. 10017-1814
Telephone: (212) 940-0400, Telefax: (212) 940-0402
contact@germany-un.org
Russian Federation
Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations
136 East 67th Street, New York, N.Y. 10021
Telephone: (212) 861-4900/4901/4902, Telefax: (212) 628-0252
rusun@un.int
China
Permanent Representative of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations
350 East 35th Street, New York, N.Y. 10016
Telephone: (212) 655-6100, Telefax: (212) 634-7626
E-mail: chinamission_un@fmprc.gov.cn
Additional United Nations Security Council members' Email addresses:
mexico@un.int, ang-un@angolamissionun.org, chile@un.int, Pakistan@un.int, spain@spainemb.org, usa@un.int, IPRD@mfa.government.bg, syria@un.int, Guinea@un.int, Cameroon@un.int, uk@un.int
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
A U.N. Alternative to War: "Uniting for Peace"In the last few months, the Bush Administration has been unyielding in its march towards war, over the objections of some allies and despite the efforts of the United Nations. In response to France's threat that it would veto efforts by the United States to obtain a U.N. resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq, President Bush said the United States would lead a "coalition of the willing to disarm Saddam Hussein." Prime Minister Tony Blair stated that the United States and Britain reserved the right to use force against Iraq--- even if a Security Council member vetoed a resolution authorizing the use of force. It now seems obvious that the United States, with some other countries, may soon go to war despite a veto; or, alternatively, go to war without returning to the Security Council and risking a veto. But for people around the world terrified that a new war in Iraq is inevitable, there may yet be hope. And that hope lies in a little-discussed mechanism of the United Nations itselfwhich, although it seems marginalized by American power, has the potential to stop the war.
The Charter gives the Security Council "the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security." But the Security Council is currently unable to carry out this responsibility in light of U.S. plans to attack Iraq. The Council is stymied: The United States may bypass the Council entirely. And, if the Council tries to obtain passage of a resolution prohibiting the United States from using unauthorized force against Iraq, the United States or Britain will surely veto it.
Long ago, the members of the United Nations recognized that such impasses would occur in the Security Council. They set up a procedure for insuring that such stalemates would not prevent the United Nations from carrying out its mission to "maintain international peace and security." In 1950, the United Nations by an almost unanimous vote adopted Resolution 377, the wonderfully named "Uniting for Peace." The United States played an important role in that resolutions adoption, concerned about the possibilities of vetoes by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Uniting for Peace provides that if, because of the lack of unanimity of the permanent members of the Security Council (France, China, Russia, Britain, United States), the Council cannot maintain international peace where there is a "threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression," the General Assembly "shall consider the matter immediately." The General Assembly can meet within 24 hours to consider such a matter, and can recommend collective measures to U.N. members including the use of armed forces to "maintain or restore international peace and security."
The Uniting for Peace resolution procedure has been used ten times since 1950. Its first use was by the United States. After Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956 Britain and France attacked and occupied parts of the canal. Cease-fire resolutions in the Security Council were quickly vetoed by Britain and France. The United States went to the General Assembly calling for a cease-fire and a withdrawal of forces. An emergency session was held under the "Uniting for Peace" resolution; the U.S. resolution and subsequently an even stronger resolution passed the General Assembly. In the face of these resolutions it took less then a week for Britain and France to withdraw.
Uniting for Peace was next used by the United States to pressure the Soviet Union to cease its intervention in Hungary in 1956. The Soviet Union had used its veto to prevent the passage of an anti-intervention resolution in the Security Council. Again, an emergency session of the General Assembly was held and the Soviet Union was ordered to stop its intervention in Hungary.
In the current impasse over Iraq in the Security Council, Uniting for Peace can and should be used. The General Assembly should consider taking action with regard to the threat to the peace posed by U.S. military action against Iraq taken without U.N. authority. It could require that no military action be taken against Iraq without the explicit authority of the Security Council. It could mandate that the inspection regime be permitted to complete its inspections. It seems unlikely that the United States and Britain would ignore such a measure. A vote by the majority of countries in the world, particularly if it were almost unanimous, would make the unilateral rush to war more difficult.
Uniting for Peace can be invoked either by seven members of the Security Council or by a majority of the members of the General Assembly. This gives those who oppose unilateral war a real opportunity for activism. People everywhere in the world can lobby their governments to bring on such a resolution. This effort can become a worldwide effort to, as the UN Charter so eloquently states, "save succeeding generations form the scourge of war."
Michael Ratner
President, Center for Constitutional Rights
212 243 3805
Jules Lobel
Professor, Univ. of Pittsburgh Law School
1 412 648 1375
http://www.danirak.dk/english/ratner_final_op_ed_uniting.htm
2) Lobbying Congress for PeaceThe Nation
[posted online on February 10, 2003]
Lobbying for Peace
by PETER DREIER
All social movements need an "outside" strategy and an "inside" strategy. The growing number of people participating in rallies and marches in opposition to President George W. Bush's plans to invade Iraq is heartening. The participants in protest events have included large numbers of ordinary Americans with no experience as activists and no ideological ax to grind. They think
Bush's war plans are premature or reckless.
But most Americans who oppose Bush's war plans don't show up for these protests. Polls show that since last October, when--under the pressure of the November elections--Congress voted to give Bush the broad authority he asked for to use military force against Iraq, and to act alone if necessary, Americans have become more ambivalent, hesitant and skeptical about going to war with Iraq. In growing numbers, Americans now oppose giving a free hand to a President with an itchy trigger finger. Without an "inside" strategy that gives people more conventional ways to voice their dissent, however, the peace movement will appear smaller and more marginal than it really is.
The street protests, along with petitions, newspaper and TV ads, and bumper stickers, have forced Bush to proceed more slowly than he and his advisers had planned. But ultimately, only Congress can effectively stop the Bush Administration from waging war--directly, by tying Bush's hands, or indirectly, by reflecting the public's mounting aversion to war with Iraq. Antiwar forces have begun to acknowledge this reality by focusing attention on Congress's role and mobilizing support for resolutions to limit Bush's options.
"We have to put up as many obstacles as we can," explained Erik Leaver, a foreign policy expert at the Institute for Policy Studies. "We need to pressure members of Congress to come out against the war. Legislation gives the grassroots something to grasp onto."
The strategy seems to be having an effect. On January 24, as Bush was putting the finishing touches on his State of the Union speech, 129 Democratic members of the House of Representatives--more than a quarter of all members--sent him a letter asking him "to use the opportunity provided in the upcoming State of the Union Address to offer assurances both to the American people and the international community that the United States remains committed to the diplomatic approach and comprehensive inspections process agreed to in the UN Security Council."
The letter, written by Representatives Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Ron Kind of Wisconsin, called on Bush to "sufficiently weigh future decisions regarding Iraq on the assessment" given by the UN weapons inspectors, "including additional inspection time and resources as appropriate." Kind was among the twenty-six signers who had voted for the war resolution last October. These original signers changed their minds as a result of grassroots organizing and public opinion in their districts--an indication that the antiwar movement outside the Beltway is being felt inside it, even though only a few major newspapers published stories about the letter.
Since then, some members of Congress have taken the next step to reassert Congress's authority in the war-making process. Senators Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and Robert Byrd of West Virginia, and Representatives Pete DeFazio of Oregon and Ron Paul of Texas, have filed resolutions to limit Bush's room for maneuver. The Kennedy/Byrd resolution requires Bush to go back to Congress for approval before using military force in Iraq. The DeFazio/Paul bill--which was filed within hours of Secretary of State Colin Powell's February 4 speech to the UN and immediately drew thirty co-sponsors--repeals last October's use-of-force vote.
No one expects that all 133 House members and twenty-three senators who voted against the war resolution last October will immediately sign on to these bills. Too many of them--Democrats as well as Republicans--have been intimidated by the Bush Administration's willingness to challenge the patriotism of anyone who opposes its march to war. But the legislation provides the antiwar movement with an organizing tool to reach Americans with a simple message: Write your senator and representative to co-sponsor a resolution to limit Bush's recklessness in getting the country into a war most people don't want.
A piece of legislation makes the stakes clear and forces elected officials to answer the question: Which side are you on? It provides antiwar advocates involved with churches, labor unions and other groups an opportunity to get their organizations to support the bill, their leaders to speak out and their elected representatives to sign on. It provides local activists with a tool to lobby city councils to urge their congresspersons to co-sponsor the legislation. (As of February 5, at least sixty-six city councils in twenty-four states--as well as the Maine State Senate and the Hawaii House of Representatives--had passed antiwar resolutions.) Newspaper columnists and editorial writers will have to take sides.
As the antiwar movement builds momentum, each day the number of Congressional co-sponsors will grow. A steadily increasing groundswell of opposition might even give some of the Democratic Party's presidential hopefuls the backbone to speak out strongly and forcefully against Bush's plans for Iraq, even if they support some aspects of the war on terrorism or some of Bush's other foreign policy goals.
The initial leaders of today's antiwar movement were schooled in the politics of street protest. They skillfully used the Internet to mobilize large public demonstrations that attracted many middle-of-the-road Americans who view Bush's war plans as reckless. In growing numbers, people are adding their names (and contributions) to newspaper ads and petitions. A month ago these were primarily longtime peace activists and intellectuals, but as the national mood has turned more skeptical of Bush's plans, a broader range of people have been willing to put their names on these ads and petitions and join street protests.
Peace activists have also been behind other creative tactics, including last month's full-page letter in the Wall Street Journal, "A Republican Dissent on Iraq," supported by business executives, and the thirty-second soundbites starring actress Susan Sarandon and former US Ambassador to Iraq Ed Peck with the message: "Why rush into war? Let the inspections work," sponsored by www.truemajority.com, a group started by Ben & Jerry's founder Ben Cohen.
The protests, rallies and ads should continue, but their target and message should now be aimed not only at Bush but also at getting Congress to tie Bush's hands. Unless the antiwar movement can reach out beyond those willing to march in the streets, and provide people with more conventional ways to express their concern and outrage, it will fail to fulfill its potential to galvanize much of Middle America, which doesn't trust Bush's eagerness to put American soldiers and tax dollars in harm's way on behalf of his holy crusade.
This article can be found on the web at
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030224&s=dreier
3) The war on Iraq: Conceived in Israel?The following uses excerpts from the essay, "The war on Iraq: Conceived in Israel" by Stephen J. Sniegowski. He notes that "Joshua Micah Marshall authored an article in The Washington Monthly titled: "Bomb Saddam?: How the obsession of a few neocon hawks became the central goal of U.S. foreign policy. And in the leftist e- journal CounterPunch, Kathleen and Bill Christison wrote:
The suggestion that the war with Iraq is being planned at Israel's behest, or at the instigation of policymakers whose main motivation is trying to create a secure environment for Israel, is strong. Many Israeli analysts believe this. The Israeli commentator Akiva Eldar recently observed frankly in a Ha'aretz column that Perle, Feith, and their fellow strategists "are walking a fine line between their loyalty to American governments and Israeli interests." The suggestion of dual loyalties is not a verboten subject in the Israeli press, as it is in the United States. Peace activist Uri Avnery, who knows Israeli Prime Minister Sharon well, has written that Sharon has long planned grandiose schemes for restructuring the Middle East and that "the winds blowing now in Washington remind me of Sharon. I have absolutely no proof that the Bushies got their ideas from him. But the style is the same."'
Thanks much to Vince for sending Stephen J. Sniegowski's comprehensive essay to Flyby News. It clearly shows the parallel interests of Bush and Sharon military and corporate actions. First "..the United States helped arm Iraq with the very weaponry of horror that administration officials are now trumpeting as justification for forcibly removing Saddam from power." This is crazy, and with knowledge of the recent posting by Victor Thorn's review of Michael Collins Piper's "Final Judgment," we have come to learn of the nuclear development program between these two countries and the possible collaboration in the political assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It's the ring, Frodo, nuclear power has driven them mad.
The following are the concluding paragraphs of
Stephen J. Sniegowski's essay:
"The war on Iraq: Conceived in Israel"
".. The deductions drawn in this essay seem obvious but are rarely broached in public because Jewish power is a taboo subject. As the intrepid Joseph Sobran puts it: "It's permissible to discuss the power of every other group, from the Black Muslims to the Christian Right, but the much greater power of the Jewish establishment is off-limits." [99]
So in a check for "hate" or "anti-Semitism," let's recapitulate the major points made in this essay. First, the initiation of a Middle East war to solve Israeli security problems has been a long-standing idea among Israeli rightist Likudniks. Next, Likudnik- oriented neoconservatives argued for American involvement in such a war prior to the atrocities of September 11, 2001. Since September 11, neocons have taken the lead in advocating such a war; and they hold influential foreign policy and national security positions in the Bush administration.
If Israel and Jews were not involved, there would be nothing extraordinary about my thesis. In the history of foreign policy, it has frequently been maintained that various leading figures were motivated by ties to business, an ideology, or a foreign country. In his Farewell Address, George Washington expressed the view that the greatest danger to American foreign relations would be the "passionate attachment" of influential Americans to a foreign power, which would orient U.S. foreign policy for the benefit of that power to the detriment of the United States. It is just such a situation that currently exists.
We can only look with trepidation to the near future, for in the ominous words of Robert Fisk, "There is a firestorm coming." [10]'
For a link to the complete essay:
"The war on Iraq: Conceived in Israel"
by Stephen J. Sniegowski
see:
http://www.thornwalker.com/ditch/snieg_conc1.htm
4) Bipartisan Global Warming Bill Finally Arrives in CongressGLOBAL WARMING -- THE REAL DEAL?
The latest scientific reports indicate that global warming is a real problem being made worse by human activity. And the planet is already starting to show symptoms of trouble:
Scientists expect the planet's climate to warm as much as 10 degrees by the end of the century.
The journal Nature reports that rising temperatures are by now impacting some birds, plants, insects and other wildlife, and could push some species to extinction.
MCCAIN-LIEBERMAN CLIMATE CHANGE BILL -- WHAT IT DOES:
* Sets mandatory greenhouse gas pollution reduction targets.
All major sectors of the U.S. economy would limit greenhouse gas pollution to year 2000 levels by 2010, and year 1990 levels by 2016. The Bush Administration, in contrast, has only called for "voluntary" pollution reductions. Mandatory reductions are the only way to achieve meaningful greenhouse gas pollution reductions. Voluntary efforts have been tried for more than a decade, and we are losing ground.
* Makes the U.S. Economy More Energy Efficient.
Real greenhouse gas pollution cuts cannot be made without an effective plan for making the U.S. economy more energy efficient. This bill will prompt new investments in energy-efficient technologies and renewable energy, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
* Uses free-market incentives to lower costs, protect economy and promote innovation.
The bill takes an approach first developed by Environmental Defense for the federal acid rain program enacted in 1990, which helped achieve larger acid rain reductions than actually required, and at a lower cost. By taking this same approach, the McCain-Lieberman bill would reduce greenhouse gas pollution while stimulating innovation and economic growth.
* Reduces greenhouse gas pollution from transportation.
Thirty percent of all GHG pollution in the U.S. comes from the transportation sector. This area will finally be required to reduce its contribution to global warming.
* Helps U.S. Uphold International Treaty Commitments.
The U.S. has disregarded its international global warming treaty obligations, angering many of our closest allies around the world. Support for the McCain-Lieberman bill will demonstrate America's commitment to this worldwide problem and help us improve relations with allies.
* Breaks logjam on U.S. inaction to fight global warming.
For years, the federal government has resisted taking real action to tackle global warming. The
McCain-Lieberman bill is the best chance for creating a legitimate U.S. climate policy.
Mandatory reduction targets combined with market mechanisms would not only ensure real reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, but would harness the vast ingenuity of the U.S. economy in finding the cheapest and most innovative ways of achieving those reductions.
For more information on the McCain-Lieberman global warming bill and Environmental Defense's efforts to fight global warming, visit.
http://www.environmentaldefense.org/article.cfm?ContentID=2589
Free Independent NewsFlybyNews.comFor Life's Survival in the 21st CenturyFlyby News bumper stickers with above text are available for the mainstream education driveThis way while driving you can point others to Flyby News' resources. If you wish, $5 for a bumper sticker will cover most costs, (or 3 stickers for $10), but I hope we can get some subsidized for anyone wanting to place them on their car's bumper or other public placement. The artwork and colors are beautiful by Liz Nicholas. If you want one, please write to info@flybynews.com and provide your snail mail address, and specify if you want the blue-green swirling background, or red-orange sunset horizon.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark
info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Uniting for Peace to Resolve the Iraq Crisis
If the UN Security Council can't win a vote for the French-German Plan,
they can take it to the General Assembly and prevent the war!The French and German resolution for Iraq includes increased inspections, and U.N. peacekeepers on the ground. It is the next rational step to disarming Iraq as opposed to the Bush Administration's War plans. If there is enough world wide support, it could be taken to the U.N. general assembly as outlined in Resolution 377 and thus bypass any veto by the Bush Administration.
The response to the French ambassador's speach after the latest weapons report seems to indicate that there is a high likelihood of the General Assembly accepting it. With U.N. inspectors on the ground, the goal of averting war and disarming Iraq peacefully will have been reached.
"In a Nutshell: The General Assembly could approve the Franco-German proposal for UN peacekeeping action in Iraq, which would effectively block aggression. The procedure is called the Uniting for Peace resolution. Any member of the UN can call for a peacekeeping action under this procedure if the Security Council are in disagreement."
Please act, send an E-mail, make a telephone call, send a fax, unite with the world to stop a US-preemptive-led invasion that could harm us all.
Here's a sample letter: Kofi Annan's email address is
sg@un.orgDear Kofi Annan,
I am very grateful for your recent appeals for the UN Security Council to act in unity over Iraq. Unfortunately, it may not be possible for the UNSC to agree. I am writing to ask that in that situation, you consider a further step, that is, to convene an emergency session of the General Assembly under the "Uniting for Peace" mechanism.
I know you are working hard to avoid War, and also to maintain the integrity of the United Nations. A majority of people and nations in the world support you in this.
Please consider this suggestion very urgently and seriously.
Sincerely
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Also, please write to the UN Delegates for the same objective:
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
UN Delegates email addresses:
afghanistan@un.int, albania@un.int, algeria@un.int, andorra@un.int,angola@un.int, antigua@un.int, argentina@un.int, armenia@un.int,australia@un.int, austria@un.int, azerbaijan@un.int, bahamas@un.int,bahrain@un.int, bangladesh@un.int, barbados@un.int, belarus@un.int,belgium@un.int, belize@un.int, benin@un.int, bhutan@un.int, bolivia@un.int,bosnia@un.int, botswana@un.int, braun@delbrasonu.org, brunei@un.int,bulgaria@un.int, burkinafaso@un.int, burundi@un.int, caf@un.int,cambodia@un.int, cameroon@un.int, canada@un.int, capeverde@un.int,chad@un.int, chile@un.int, china@un.int, colombia@un.int, comoros@un.int,congo@un.int, costarica@un.int, croatia@un.int, cuba@un.int, cyprus@un.int,czechrepublic@un.int, delun@mfa.no, denmark@un.int, djibouti@nyct.net,dominica@un.int, dprk@un.int, dr@un.int, drcongo@un.int, elsalvador@un.int,eqguinea@un.int, ecuador@un.int, egypt@un.int, eritrea@un.int, estonia@un.int,ethiopia@un.int, fiji@un.int, finland@un.int, france@un.int, gabon@un.int,gambia@un.int, georgia@un.int, germany@un.int, ghana@un.int, greece@un.int,grenada@un.int, guatemala@un.int, guinea@un.int, guyana@un.int, haiti@un.int,honduras@un.int, hungary@un.int, iceland@un.int, india@un.int,indonesia@un.int, iran@un.int, iraq@un.int, ireland@un.int, italy@un.int,ivorycoast@un.int, jamaica@un.int, japan@un.int, jordan@un.int,kazakhstan@un.int, kenya@un.int, korea@un.int, kyrgyzstan@un.int, laos@un.int,latvia@un.int, lebanon@un.int, lesotho@un.int, liberia@un.int, libya@un.int,liechtenstein@un.int, lithuania@un.int, luxembourg@un.int, macedonia@un.int,madagascar@un.int, malawi@un.int, malaysia@un.int, maldives@un.int,mali@un.int, malta@un.int, marshallislands@un.int, mauritania@un.int,mauritius@un.int, mexico@un.int, micronesia@un.int, moldova@un.int,monaco@un.int, mongolia@un.int, morocco@un.int, mozambique@un.int,myanmar@un.int, namibia@un.int, nepal@un.int, netherlands@un.int,newzealand@un.int, nicaragua@un.int, niger@un.int, nigeria@un.int,oman@un.int, pakistan@un.int, palau@un.int, panama@un.int, paraguay@un.int,peru@un.int, philippines@un.int, png@un.int, poland@un.int, portugal@un.int,qatar@un.int, romania@un.int, rusun@un.int, rwanda@un.int, samoa@un.int,sanmarino@un.int, senegal@un.int, seychelles@un.int, sierraleone@un.int,singapore@un.int, slovakia@un.int, slovenia@un.int, solomonislands@un.int,somalia@un.int, southafrica@un.int, spain@un.int, srilanka@un.int,stkn@un.int, stlucia@un.int, stp@un.int, stvg@un.int, sudan@un.int,suriname@un.int, swaziland@un.int, sweden@un.int, syria@un.int,tajikistan@un.int, thailand@un.int, togo@un.int, tto@un.int, tunisia@un.int,turkey@un.int, turkmenistan@un.int, uganda@un.int, ukraine@un.int, uae@un.int,uruguay@un.int, uzbekistan@un.int, vanuatu@un.int, venezuela@un.int,vietnam@un.int, yemen@un.int, yugoslavia@un.int, zambia@un.int,zimbabwe@un.int, mission@palestine-un.org, Saudi-Mission@un.int, aalcc@un.int,caribcomun@un.int, RedCrossCommittee@un.int, ec@un.int, francophonie@un.int,holysee@un.int, ilo@un.int, isa@un.int, seaun@un.int, las@un.int, oau@un.int,oic@un.int, switzerland@un.int
Dear Ambassador,
I am very grateful for your recent resistance to a proposed 2nd resolution leading to War. Unfortunately, it may not be possible for the UNSC to agree, despite the efforts of all those for Peace. I support your position that peaceful disarmament can still be achieved. I am writing to ask that in the current situation, you consider a further step, that is, to request the convening of an emergency session of the General Assembly under the "Uniting for Peace" mechanism.
The General Assembly can stop 'the scourge of war'. I know you are working to maintain the integrity of the United Nations. A majority of people and nations in the world support you in this. Please consider this suggestion very urgently and seriously.
Yours sincerely
3) Uniting for Peace - Demand a UN Emergency SessionIf ever there was a need for the United Nations to rise to the challenge it was conceived to meet, now is that time. . . Through Resolution 377A, the "Uniting for Peace" resolution, the General Assembly may be the last hope for disarming Iraq peaceably and stopping the US war machine." You can link to the Greenpeace action to contact your UN ambassadors to support this resolution!
Demands for a UN emergency session is on the rise, but no nation has yet stepped forth to get the ball rolling. However many have expressed their support for the Uniting for Peace resolution, which would bring all nations of the General Assembly together to demand an end to the war. But the resolution needs even more support NOW, because the US has begun an active lobbying campaign against it.
In March 2003 the Russian Duma, the President of Indonesia, several European countries and the vast majority of African, Asian, and Latin American countries have expressed support for an emergency session.
UN General Assembly President Jan Kavan of the Czech Republic said he thought it "very likely" that a special session would be called. But we can't just leave this to "likely." It's important that a Uniting for Peace resolution passes to show the overwhelming opposition of the world's countries to this war and to make abundantly clear its illegality.
We're part of what the New York Times has called the "new second superpower": world opinion, and it is time our voices were listened to.
Urge your UN Ambassador to support an emergency session under the Uniting for Peace resolution:
http://act.greenpeace.org/aas/e?a=ufp&s=amb_sSend an E-card to your friends, colleagues, fellow students, and family asking them to take action too:
http://act.greenpeace.org/ecs/s2?i=730&sk=stdUrgent Peace Opportunity
Thanks to an initiative from the Arab League, the UN is not hiding its head in the sand over the war in Iraq. We now have a crucial opportunity for the world to condemn the war in Iraq.
On Wednesday, 26 March, there was an 'open session' of the UN Security Council, and members are expected to put forward a resolution condemning the war and calling for a ceasefire. The debate is expected to carry on until Thursday, but it is clear that any such resolution will be vetoed by the US and UK.
Arab League Foreign Ministers, as well as their colleagues in the non-Aligned Movement, have said that if there is no Security Council resolution, they will invoke Resolution 377 ('Uniting for Peace'), and call for an Emergency Session of the UN General Assembly, where a resolution calling for an end to the war would get overwhelming support.
We have chosen several countries whose support for this move is key to its success. Any country that puts this forward, will have to be able to withstand diplomatic and economic blackmail from the US and the UK in order to exercise their democratic right to speak on behalf of their people.
Please use this link:
http://act.greenpeace.org/ams/e?a=733&s=wrto write to the Foreign Ministers of Cuba, South Africa, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nigeria, New Zealand, Switzerland, Fiji, Mexico, Chile, Germany, Russia, and France, and ask them to support 'Uniting for Peace'.
For more details on Uniting for Peace from Greenpeace, see:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/news/details?item_id=179491
Center for Constitutional Rights Action Alert!
Stop The War on IraqCCR is asking for your help in a very important action. We hope to create a movement in support of the adoption of a Uniting for Peace Resolution by the United Nations General Assembly to prevent an attack on Iraq by the United States, the United Kingdom and other nations. If even one country requests such a meeting, that alone can trigger this procedure. While in the U.N. system the Security Council has the primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security throughout the world, another procedure exists to ensure peace when the Council fails to do so. That procedure, the Uniting for Peace resolution, allows the General Assembly to meet to consider the threat to international peace and it can then recommend collective measures to U.N. Members to maintain or restore peace.
If one U.N. Member State requests that a meeting be convened to consider adoption of such a resolution and either seven Members of the Security Council or a majority of the Members of the General Assembly agree, an emergency special session will be called and the General Assembly will come together to discuss the threat to international peace. We are hoping to find the requisite support for the convening of such a session. The United States and the United Kingdom have become increasingly vocal about their willingness to use force against Iraq without explicit Security Council authorization. Because of the veto power of these two countries, the Security Council will be stymied in its responsibility to maintain international peace and security in the Persian Gulf. In these circumstances, the General Assembly has the right and indeed the responsibility to assume this duty.
We urge you to contact your U.N. representative, other members of your government, and other governments to request that they write to the Secretary-General to call for an emergency special session under the Uniting for Peace Resolution. Please also circulate these materials to other groups and individuals and encourage them to do the same.
To find e-mail addresses of UN Permanent Missions go to:
http://home.online.no/~oelpeleg/email.htmTo find postal addresses of UN Permanent Missions go to:
http://www.rhsmun.org/papers/Permanent_Mission_Addresses.pdfTo read more about this initiative, see this following URL link:
http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/whatsnew/report.asp?ObjID=0hZHHegENn&Content=186For further information, please contact:
smwatt@ccr-ny.org
A U.N. Alternative to War: "Uniting for Peace"In the last few months, the Bush Administration has been unyielding in its march towards war, over the objections of some allies and despite the efforts of the United Nations. In response to France's threat that it would veto efforts by the United States to obtain a U.N. resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq, President Bush said the United States would lead a "coalition of the willing to disarm Saddam Hussein." Prime Minister Tony Blair stated that the United States and Britain reserved the right to use force against Iraq--- even if a Security Council member vetoed a resolution authorizing the use of force. It now seems obvious that the United States, with some other countries, may soon go to war despite a veto; or, alternatively, go to war without returning to the Security Council and risking a veto. But for people around the world terrified that a new war in Iraq is inevitable, there may yet be hope. And that hope lies in a little-discussed mechanism of the United Nations itselfwhich, although it seems marginalized by American power, has the potential to stop the war.
The Charter gives the Security Council "the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security." But the Security Council is currently unable to carry out this responsibility in light of U.S. plans to attack Iraq. The Council is stymied: The United States may bypass the Council entirely. And, if the Council tries to obtain passage of a resolution prohibiting the United States from using unauthorized force against Iraq, the United States or Britain will surely veto it.
Long ago, the members of the United Nations recognized that such impasses would occur in the Security Council. They set up a procedure for insuring that such stalemates would not prevent the United Nations from carrying out its mission to "maintain international peace and security." In 1950, the United Nations by an almost unanimous vote adopted Resolution 377, the wonderfully named "Uniting for Peace." The United States played an important role in that resolutions adoption, concerned about the possibilities of vetoes by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Uniting for Peace provides that if, because of the lack of unanimity of the permanent members of the Security Council (France, China, Russia, Britain, United States), the Council cannot maintain international peace where there is a "threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression," the General Assembly "shall consider the matter immediately." The General Assembly can meet within 24 hours to consider such a matter, and can recommend collective measures to U.N. members including the use of armed forces to "maintain or restore international peace and security."
The Uniting for Peace resolution procedure has been used ten times since 1950. Its first use was by the United States. After Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956 Britain and France attacked and occupied parts of the canal. Cease-fire resolutions in the Security Council were quickly vetoed by Britain and France. The United States went to the General Assembly calling for a cease-fire and a withdrawal of forces. An emergency session was held under the "Uniting for Peace" resolution; the U.S. resolution and subsequently an even stronger resolution passed the General Assembly. In the face of these resolutions it took less then a week for Britain and France to withdraw.
Uniting for Peace was next used by the United States to pressure the Soviet Union to cease its intervention in Hungary in 1956. The Soviet Union had used its veto to prevent the passage of an anti-intervention resolution in the Security Council. Again, an emergency session of the General Assembly was held and the Soviet Union was ordered to stop its intervention in Hungary.
In the current impasse over Iraq in the Security Council, Uniting for Peace can and should be used. The General Assembly should consider taking action with regard to the threat to the peace posed by U.S. military action against Iraq taken without U.N. authority. It could require that no military action be taken against Iraq without the explicit authority of the Security Council. It could mandate that the inspection regime be permitted to complete its inspections. It seems unlikely that the United States and Britain would ignore such a measure. A vote by the majority of countries in the world, particularly if it were almost unanimous, would make the unilateral rush to war more difficult.
Uniting for Peace can be invoked either by seven members of the Security Council or by a majority of the members of the General Assembly. This gives those who oppose unilateral war a real opportunity for activism. People everywhere in the world can lobby their governments to bring on such a resolution. This effort can become a worldwide effort to, as the UN Charter so eloquently states, "save succeeding generations form the scourge of war."
Michael Ratner
President, Center for Constitutional Rights
212 243 3805
Jules Lobel
Professor, Univ. of Pittsburgh Law School
1 412 648 1375
http://www.danirak.dk/english/ratner_final_op_ed_uniting.htm
(Please send a copy of your letters to info@flybynews.com for possible posting. Please mention if you wish for us to post your name and/or contact information.)
Sample letters:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Ambassador Greenstock:
As an American citizen who has been trying to change my government's position by demonstrating and other means, I implore you to do anything in your power to stop a military solution to the situation in Iraq. I support any resolutions for extended/stepped-up
inspections, and, if necessary, a veto of any war resolution presented by my government.
Thank you,
Richard
IL, USA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Honorable United Nations Representatives:
I urge you to write to the Secretary-General to call for an emergency special session under the Uniting for Peace Resolution.
I sincerely applaud your determination to present the people of the world with a new vision for conflict resolution and to lead all nations' leaders toward building a safer, more just and sustainable world.
Because of the terrible arsenal of weapons humanity has devised, it is not necessary to even raise the detestable euphemism of "collateral damage" in any argument against the use of force. It is simply pain, devastation and death we are talking about. Let's avoid needlessly being the cause of unimaginable suffering for other beings. If we can. Any time the seeds of force are sown excessively or unnecessarily, the fruit brought forth are grapes of wrath.
The evolution of life, the occupation of ever higher elevations on the fitness landscape, cannot continue lest we forego use of deadly weapons of mass destruction as a start, and then devote our creative energies to solving the many other critical problems that we as a species are presently facing. Growing numbers of people recognize this: Our children's future ultimately demands that all weapons of this kind be put away for good.
There is really only one source of security, and that is the peace of trust and justice when all the world's people live with respect for each other's right to self-determination.
Personally, I've always been most powerfully persuaded when led by example.
Please continue to be guided by love of this precious planet, all the life forms here and of our own flawed, but tremendously creative species. May you lead us all toward peace.
Sincerely
Hank Whitsett
Deer Isle Maine USA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear United Nations Member and Government Leaders,
I am writing to reqest your input for a pro-active role for a peaceful resolution regarding the crisis in Iraq. Please support the German-French plan for increased inspections and continued containment of Iraq's potential weapons of mass destruction. Please encourage your country to support a plan for a united world where preemptive attacks that can harm thousands or millions of innocent people are outlawed and discouraged. As an USA citizen, I implore you to stop my country of making a bad precedent that would increase terror in our world. Please help stop this war and maintain a united peace.
Please consider exploring the resources on this issue at FlybyNews.com.
With kind regards,
Jonathan Mark
editor, publisher
http://www.flybynews.com
THE APOLOGY[Editor's note: The APOLOGY had circulated widely over the web, forming a sort of a consensus, with many agreeing that the likely rationale behind the Bush foreign policy is to engage Armageddon, and maintain a corrupt power over the US and world. Please feel free to copy and send this anonymously written statement to UN member states and request a pro-active "Uniting for Peace" action to stop a US invasion on Iraq!]
THE APOLOGY - From the heart of the United States, we extend a profound apology to the rest of the world for the serious failure of our political system.
While not receiving a majority of the popular vote and selected by the Supreme Court rather than elected, we nevertheless have ended up with a sociopath as President surrounded by religious fanatics who actively seek war and others who seek to destroy our democracy and impose authoritarian values.
This group is taking the world down the path to an Armageddon that they believe is the necessary and appropriate end to the world as we know it.
They hate life, believe themselves to be flawed by sin, and long for a divine intervention that will make them rulers of an Earth transformed by the absence of earthiness.
They care nothing for the environment because there won't be an environment when they are done.
They do not care about international law and a preemptive U.S. strike as precedent because there will be no such law under the elevated "Christian" rule.
They do not worry that an invasion of Iraq may cause outrage in the Muslim world and spread the conflict because such an expansion is part of the necessary script.
They do not worry about later retaliation by those angered at an invasion of Iraq because all such lesser beings will be under their unbreakable domination after the final battle.
They do not worry about how to govern a post-war Iraq because they will be ruling the entire world and everyone will appear before them on bended knee. They do not worry about Iraq or the U.S. initiating the use of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction because use of such weapons is part of the Armageddon script.
They only thing they worry about is getting the war started before some force can prevent their usurpation of everyone's future.
At home, civil liberties are quickly being erased in favor of absolute government to prevent democratic discussion of and opposition to the coming holocaust and to practice for their coming domination of the world.
We lack an appropriate political mechanism for removing these dangerous people from power. We do not have the opportunity to vote no confidence, as the Australian Senate did.
The once proud Democratic Party is coopted and corrupted by corporate contributions and eager to beat the drums of war in hopes of being popular.
The once independent media is now a corporate conglomerate that closes more doors to truth than it opens.
Our people are fed lies big and small and lack access to the information they need to understand what is happening in our country.
Flush with the wealth exploited from the planet they seek to kill, our government and corporations bribe, buy, or otherwise coerce smaller and more fragile governments into ignorantly supporting the coming destruction.
All we can do is appeal to those outside our country to save the world from our government. Even though we will not hear about it from our media, march in your streets. Even though we will not hear about it from our media, expose the lies being told by our government and others. Even though we will not hear about it in our media, talk about Armageddon so people will know where the madness is leading. Urge your government to vote no on any U.N. resolution furthering the Armageddon agenda.
We will continue to reach out to our fellow citizens within the limitations imposed on our society and do our part to bring sanity back to the human family and protect all life. Our apology is an expression of our love for and unity with that family and the living Earth.
-- Concerned Citizens of America -- BREATHE in and BREATHE out
LIGHT and LOVE daily. ALL IS WELL.
What Can the World Do if the US Attacks Iraq?
by Jeremy Brecher -
published by portside
March 7, 2003
If the US attacks Iraq without support of the UN Security Council, will the world be powerless to stop it? The answer is no. Under a procedure called "Uniting for Peace," the UN General Assembly can demand an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal. The global peace movement should consider demanding such an action.
When Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956, Britain, France, and Israel invaded Egypt and began advancing on the Suez Canal. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower demanded that the invasion stop. Resolutions in the UN Security Council called for a cease-fire - but Britain and France vetoed them. Then the United States appealed to the General Assembly and proposed a resolution calling for a cease-fire and a withdrawal of forces. The General Assembly held an emergency session and passed the resolution. Britain and France withdrew from Egypt within a week.
The appeal to the General Assembly was made under a procedure called "Uniting for Peace." This procedure was adopted by the Security Council so that the UN can act even if the Security Council is stalemated by vetoes. Resolution 377 provides that, if there is a "threat to peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression" and the permanent members of the Security Council do not agree on action, the General Assembly can meet immediately and recommend collective measures to U.N. members to "maintain or restore international peace and security." The "Uniting for Peace" mechanism has been used ten times, most frequently on the initiative of the United States.
The Bush Administration is currently promoting a Security Council resolution that it claims will authorize it to attack Iraq. However, huge opposition from global public opinion and most of the world's governments make such a resolution's passage unlikely.
What will happen if the US withdraws its resolution or the resolution is defeated? The US is currently indicating that it will attack Iraq even without Security Council approval. The US would undoubtedly use its veto should the Security Council attempt to condemn and halt its aggression.
But the US has no veto in the General Assembly.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark
info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
UN-War * K-Endorsed * CIA-Drugs-Nam-JFK * Patriot?
10 February 2003
1) Ramsey Clark's letter to the UN security Council
2) A Draft Kucinich Endorsement
3) Vietnam, CIA's Illegal Drug Trafficking, and JFK's Assassination
4) Justice Dept. Drafts Sweeping Expansion of Anti-Terrorism Act
Editor's Notes:First the bad news. North Korea has engaged a process to make more plutonium. Now the worst news, Bush avenges to attack Iraq with or without further UN support. This makes a strong action by the UN or member nations vital in stopping the US invasion on Iraq! Item 1 has more on this thinking in a letter by Ramsey Clark to the UN security Council. Following are UN email addresses for you to write. Please take actions and join in the International Actions for Peace especially on the weekend of February 15 and 16! The best chance to stop the US from attacking Iraq is by international and responsible actions. A war on Iraq is the last thing the world needs at this time. A policy of Containment is better. International negotiations for disarmament is best.
There is no question that containment would reduce world terrorism while a US invasion would create more terrorism. It is vital to have all resources focused on dealing with the dangers realized by North Korea's generation of plutonium at this moment. We need to work out some deal with North Korea now, before the US spreads uncontrollable terror around the world.
Item 2 is a ringing endorsement for the campaign to draft Dennis Kucinich for 2004-US President. Congressman Kucinich appeared on the ABC News-TV program, last Sunday morning, interviewed by George Stephanopoulos. Kucinich's upcoming appearances in Iowa was mentioned, but clearly, Kucinich demonstrated a keen articulation for peace and a real alternative for an unprecedented grass roots campaign for freedom, peace, and democracy.
Item 3 is another segment from Victor Thorn's review of Michael Collins Piper's book, Final Judgment. This is on the relationship between Vietnam, the CIA's illegal drug trafficking, and JFK's assassination. Recommended, too, for an overview on the history of CIA Covert Operations and US interventions since World War II, is the video compilation called: "What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World": Information on this video is posted at FlybyNews.com
Item 4 is on a recently breaking news story on another clear sign of "the terrorism plan" unfolding...the US Justice Department drafted a sweeping expansion for Anti-Terrorism laws. Watch Out!
But it is getting difficult to post all the breaking news, which is coming at us in a blur. Last Monday, Colin Powell hailed a new "intelligence report" put forth by Tony Blair. UK's Channel 4 News the next day reported that this document was plagiarized from a postgraduate student's work related to the build-up to the 1991 Gulf War. The media reported this, commentators laughed, noting that the "intelligence report" didn't even correct some grammatical errors that were in the student's report; yet Bush continues to rally the troops and the public's attention span fades away into oblivion and obliged blind consent. Yet, one of these moments, if we continue to act, people will awaken, perhaps, before it is too late.
For the complete article "Government plagiarised Iraq data," see:
http://www.itv.com/news/1894417.htmland for more information and resources, visit:
http://www.traprockpeace.org/#upcoming* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Public Demonstrations for PEACE *
February 15 & 16
"The World Says No to War" - for more information, see:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?list=sub&sub=30
1) Ramsey Clark's letter to the UN security CouncilRamsey Clark
Founder / Former U.S. Attorney General
International Action Center
39 West 14th St., #206,
NY, NY 10011
iacenter@action-mail.org
http://www.iacenter.orgFebruary 7, 2003
The following is former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark's letter to the UN security Council. It was also sent to all member nations of the UN.
Dear Secretary General Annan,
Only firm opposition to war can serve and save the United Nations.
The peoples and nations of the world are looking to the United Nations to prevent the United States from waging a war of aggression against Iraq. This is the purpose for which the United Nations was created. To fail to firmly oppose military action against Iraq as a clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations and international law will propel the United Nations toward irrelevancy, or worse, apologist for an aggressor Superpower.
The great majority of the people and the nations of the United Nations oppose aggression against Iraq. By saying "no" to the scourge of war, the United Nations may save the United States from its own misguided leadership. It will at least save the moral stature of the United Nations.
If the United Nations yields its authority to United States aggression, it may never achieve independence to pursue its founding purpose, a world free of war and the domination of violent forces. Better to oppose U.S. aggression and struggle to preserve the principles and major participation of peoples and nations in its cause than yield to the coercive will of the Bush Administration. The balance of world political, social and moral power has shifted against further United States aggression. Through the courage now to say no to war, the United Nations will prevail.
Iraq Has Been The Victim Of U.S. Aggression For 12 Years.
Far from being a threat to the United States, or any other people, Iraq has been a victim of U.S. aggression for 12 years. Between January 16, 1991 and March 1, 1991 the U.S. acknowledges it dropped 88,500 tons of bombs the equivalent of 7 Hiroshima bombs, on a defenseless Iraq. The U.S. targeted and destroyed essential parts of the civilian life support system; water storage, pipe lines, pumping stations, filtration plants; food production, processing, storage and marketing; medical facilities services and supplies; transportation; communications; housing; schools; mosques, churches and synagogues.
Asked his assessment of Iraqi casualties in the U.S. assault in 1991 General Colin Powell then the highest-ranking officer in the U.S. Armed Forces responded, "It's really not a number I'm very interested in." Patrick Tyler, New York Times, March 23, 1991, p. A1.
The U.S. placed its casualties during its assault at 157. More than 1/3 was from friendly fire, the remainder from mechanical failures and accidents. General Norman Schwartzkopf estimated Iraqi casualties repeatedly at 100,000 during March 1991. The Wall Street Journal reported that General Schwartzkopf provided the Congress with a report estimating 100,000 Iraqi soldiers dead on March 20, 1991. The Defense Intelligence Agency on May 25, 1991 formally estimated 100,000 Iraqi casualties.
The London Times reported allied intelligence estimated as many as 200,000 Iraqi soldiers were killed. The Nouvelle Observateur reported French intelligence placed the Iraqi military death toll at 200,000. A former U.S. Secretary of the Navy estimated 200,000 Iraqi soldiers were killed.
Tens of thousands of civilians died during the 42 days of constant bombing. These were 110,000 U.S. aerial sorties, averaging one every 30 seconds. Civilians were killed directly by the bombs and from accidents, lack of medicines to treat injuries and bad water resulting from the bombing. There was no public water system working within 24 hours of the first attacks. Thousands died from drinking contaminated water, often directly from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. 9,000 civilian homes were destroyed. Most hospitals were damaged.
More deadly than that bombing, twelve years of sanctions have inflicted death on over 1,500,000 people in Iraq, the majority children under 5 years old.
You must remember the enormity of this genocide as you consider whether to agree to another major U.S. military assault on Iraq. U.S. plans for intense bombardment of Iraq followed by land invasion discussed daily in the media would take thousands of Iraqi lives, however successfully executed. Violence that could radiate out from such a criminal assault may have catastrophic effect far more deadly and long lasting than the sanctions on Iraq.
The Only Rational Explanation For President Bush's Obsession With Attacking Iraq Is Oil And Related Geo-Political Power.
No rational analysis can support war against Iraq from fear it now has, or might later develop and use weapons of mass destruction. Iraq did not use such weapons when it was mercilessly bombed in 1991 though the U.S. falsely insists it used weapons of mass destruction "against its own people" during the Iran-Iraq war. See Stephen C. Pellstierre, N.Y. Times Op. Ed, January 31, 2003, "Iraq was not to blame for the Halabja massacre." Iraq has not used weapons of mass destruction while enduring 12 years of sanctions.
U.N. Inspectors have searched Iraq over most of the past twelve years and found nothing. The U.N. Inspectors have reduced the risk that Iraq might develop, use, or provide others with weapons of mass destruction far below the risk of the more than forty nations known to possess, or considered to be seeking, such weapons. President Bush has threatened to use nuclear weapons against Iraq. Any realistic hope for the elimination and future prevention of weapons of mass destruction must began with nations known to possess them.
The certainty of violence in a war against Iraq and probability of prolonged and proliferating violence from it, far exceed any risk that Iraq might develop and use weapons of mass destruction, or commit acts of aggression.
An Attack On Iraq Will Cause Terrorism, Not Prevent It.
The only rational explanation for a war on Iraq is an intention by the U.S. to control and exploit its oil, use oil sales to pay for the cost of the war and occupation, benefit U.S. oil companies and petroleum engineering firms with awards of contracts, control the price of oil to enrich the U.S. and enlarge U.S. geo-political power in the region.
Secretary Of State Powell's Presentation To The Security Council On February 5, 2003 Was A Rhetorical Exercise Without Credibility.
"We're been looking at this for a year and we just don't think it's there." New York Times article on CIA and FBI summary of U.S. intelligence data of Iraqi efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction, February 3, 2003 p. A13.
President Bush and other high U.S. political officials have long stated they believe Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Their "belief" is not based on intelligence data. It is a falsehood designed to overcome resistance to the war they intend to wage.
Secretary Powell's charts, photos and electronic intercepts of conversations require authentication. They are repetitious of old tactics like the U.S. claim North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked U.S. Navy ships in the Tonkin Gulf in 1964. Only later the U.S. admitted there were "no boats" there. Or the U.S. claim in early August 1990 that 250,000 Iraqi troops were poised to invade on Saudi Arabia's border, disproved by commercial satellite photos that showed no troops were there.
U.N. investigators have worked in Iraq for years. Their knowledge of the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq exceeds the knowledge of Secretary Powell. Their investigations impede any development of, or plan to use such weapons. Secretary Powell's rhetoric encourages the acquisition of such weapons by small countries as essential to sovereignty, self-defense and survival.
The investigative agencies of the United States government relied upon to determine whether Iraq has weapons of mass destruction or have any links to Al Queda, do not believe such weapons, or efforts to develop them, exist.
And if everything Secretary Powell feared and professed to find were true, an attack on Iraq would still be unlawful. International law does not permit a war of aggression for non-violent acts in the absence of an imminent threat of violence.
In Their Determination To Attack Iraq And Control Its Oil Resources U.S. Officials Will Say, And Too Often Do, Anything.
"All told, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested [by the U.S.] In many countries. And many others have met a different fate. Let's put it this way. They are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies." President George W. Bush, State of the Union message, February 4, 2003, broadcast and published worldwide.
President Bush was speaking of summary executions, or pre-emptive murder in the language of a grade B Hollywood movie on organized crime. His doctrine of "pre-emptive" or "first strike" war makes war prevention impossible and international law meaningless. His doctrine has increased violence, or the threat of violence in occupied Palestine, between India and Pakistan, on the Korean peninsula and elsewhere. It promises the reign of violence and lawlessness.
The United Nations and each of its nations must say "No" to war.
Sincerely,
Ramsey Clark
= = = = = = = =
Please send your letter or resend the above letter to the United Nations Security Council members:
United Nations Security Council members' Email addresses:
france@un.int, Chinamission_un@fmprc.gov.cn, mexico@un.int, ang-un@angolamissionun.org, chile@un.int, contact@germany-un.org, Pakistan@un.int, spain@spainemb.org, rusun@un.int, usa@un.int, IPRD@mfa.government.bg, syria@un.int, Guinea@un.int, Cameroon@un.int, uk@un.int
2) A Draft Kucinich EndorsementDear friends and colleagues,
Congressman Dennis Kucinich is seriously considering a revolutionary grass roots campaign for the Presidency. As someone who has followed his career closely for three years, had the good fortune to meet him several times, and hear him speak four times, I can assure you that this is going to be a really major situation/opportunity if he decides to go for it.
Please consider supporting the initiatives to draft him, because this would really be politically constructive. No other candidate is entering the race at the urging of a massive wave of people who are awake and seriously fed up with the direction the country is being taken. If the already sizable 'Draft Kucinich' effort were to grow significantly, this would really contribute to him gaining traction and credibility quickly.
Experienced political operatives consider Kucinich's chances in the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries to be very good because he is just the sort of inspiring, personable, authentic candidate primary voters gravitate towards. He is an eloquent, deeply committed, real-deal person of total ethical integrity, deep wisdom, and with a profoundly inspirational vision of the deeper meaning and purpose of this country. It is hard to overstate. You just have to get to know him, read his speeches, and so on, in order to begin to appreciate it.
It is going to require a massive groundswell of activated people fighting for the future of our country, and the world, to overcome the huge challenges to running without a traditional 'money machine' approach. There is a web site,
http://www.drafkucinich.com that contains some good information, including some of Dennis' great speeches. (I particularly recommend his Jan. 3rd speech at the Swearing In ceremony for his fourth term.)
He is really out in front as a clear national voice intelligently pointing out that Bush and Co. are leading us into a unnecessary war that will have grave 'side effects' for world stability for the indefinite future. He also is a skillful and intelligent voice on the serious issues of the rollback of civil liberties, on this creation of a 'fortress America', on the profound implications of this rush to militarize space, on the serious issue of genetically engineered food, and much more.
Best,
Bruce First
(In Washington, DC)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Flyby News' updated Dennis J. Kucinich page, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1021307488,43210,m
3) Vietnam, CIA's Illegal Drug Trafficking, and JFK's AssassinationVietnam, the CIA's Illegal Drug Trafficking, and JFK's Assassination
An Overview of Michael Collins Piper's "Final Judgment"
by Victor Thorn
NOTE: The information below is derived from Michael Collins Piper's Final Judgment. My role is that of a reviewer, and all credit for the research must be given to Mr. Piper. I urge everyone to purchase a copy of this book. Final Judgment is published by The Center for Historical Review, 132 Third Street, SE, Washington, DC, 20003 (1-888-699-NEWS)
Perhaps the biggest secret of the Vietnam War is that our Central Intelligence Agency seized control of the infamous Golden Triangle during that time period, then, along with assistance from various elements of Organized Crime, shipped huge amounts of heroin out of that area into our country. Because piles of money were being made from this practice and many others, those who stood to profit from this horrendous war the armament manufacturers, bankers, military men, and drug dealers met any suggestion to withdraw from Vietnam with immediate consternation. But that's exactly what John F. Kennedy intended to do upon re-election. In fact, he had already planned on telling the American people that their troops would be back home by 1965. Think about this momentous decision for a moment. If we had exited Vietnam by 1965, EIGHT years of bloodshed in the jungles and civil unrest on America's streets and campuses could have been alleviated.
Michael Collins Piper writers in Final Judgment"Kennedy's intended change in Vietnam policy his plan to unilaterally withdraw from the imbroglio infuriated not only the CIA but elements in the Pentagon and their allies in the military-industrial-complex. By this time, of course, the Lansky Syndicate had already set-up international heroin running from Southeast Asia through the CIA-linked Corsican Mafia in the Mediterranean. The joint Lansky-CIA operations in the international drug racket were a lucrative venture that thrived as a consequence of deep U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia as a cover for drug smuggling activities."
Piper's simple one-paragraph explanation may be the most concise overview of the Vietnam War ever written. The military men and defense contractors were making out like bandits from the War Machine, while the CIA crooks and Lansky-led Mobsters (via Santo Traficante as the major wheeler-dealer) were likewise padding their pockets. Author Peter Dale Scott, in Deep Politics and the Death of JFK, said of this phenomenon, "The flood of drugs into this country since WWII was one of the major unspeakable' secrets leading to the ongoing cover-up of the Kennedy assassination."
To provide a broader perspective on this situation, Professor Alfred McCoy stated in The Politics of Heroin, "Since the prohibition of narcotics in 1920, alliances between drug brokers and intelligence agencies have protected the global narcotics traffic. Given the frequency of such alliances, there seems a natural attraction between intelligence agencies and criminal syndicates. Both are practitioners of what one retired CIA operative has called the clandestine arts' the basic skill of operating outside the normal channels of civil society. Among all the institutions of modern society, intelligence agencies and crime syndicates alone maintain large organizations capable of carrying out covert operations without fear of detection."
On the government side, the two main Golden Triangle runners were Ted Schackley and Thomas Clines the same two men who ran Operation Mongoose (the plot to take out Fidel Castro). Thus, from 1960-1975, the CIA deployed a secret force of 30,000 Hmong tribesmen to fight the Laotian Communists. They also created heroin labs in this area; then brought it out via their own private airline Air America.
Alfred McCoy, in The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade, describes how the CIA first gave smack to our own American soldiers in Vietnam before shipping it into the United States, where Lansky mobsters dealt it on the streets.
Sam Giancana's biographers reinforced this point by stating that while organized crime did its thing, "The CIA looked the other way allowing over $100 million a year in illicit drugs to flow through Havana into the U.S. It was an arrangement similar to all the rest they'd made. The CIA received 10% of the take on the side of narcotics, which they utilized for their undercover slush fund."
After the Mob and the CIA generated this dirty money, they laundered it into secret bank accounts controlled by the international bankers. That way, the government couldn't get their hands on it and the funds could be invested in the stock market, loaned out to other businesses on the take, or channeled into the Secret Services' black budgets.
So, even though the above information is only the tip of the iceberg, now do you see why it was so important to the CIA/Mobster/international banker cabal that JFK didn't pull America out of Vietnam? The money (via illegal drug trafficking and for the War Machine) was incredible, while CONTROL of another area of the globe (the Golden Triangle) was secured.
As a final note, only FOUR DAYS after John Kennedy was assassinated, Lyndon Baines Johnson, his successor, put his name on NSAM 273, which secured our increased involvement in Southeast Asia. These guys weren't wasting any time! Within a few short months, our involvement in Vietnam went from 20,000 troops to a quarter of a million! The CIA had won, and ten years later 57,000 American soldiers were dead - truly shocking and abysmal behavior an embarrassment and blight on the American consciousness.
Info received via Babel Magazine < babelmagazine@adelphia.net >
http://www.babelmagazine.com/issue92/finaljudgment92.htmlNEXT WEEK: The Media's complicity in JFK's Assassination
Also from Babel Magazine
Dexter Raymond III The New World Order and Iraq:
Towards World Empire or World Government?
http://www.babelmagazine.com/issue92/newworld.htmlWe urge EVERYONE to tune into "The Victor Thorn Show" this Monday night at 9:00 pm eastern standard time at:
http://www.realityradionetwork.com. Our guest this week is Mr. Peter Kawaja . . .Kawaja acquired evidence in 1989 on U.S. Government and Israeli Agents through civilian contractors developing new Weapons of Mass Destruction inside the U.S. under a Mossad/CIA plot to make it look like an Iraqi/Saddam operation so they could test/use them in the upcoming (planned in advance) Gulf War on American service-members as well as on Iraqis.. For more information, search for "Peter Kawaja" via search engines. For Babel Magazine's homepage, visit
http://www.babelmagazine.com
4) Justice Dept. Drafts Sweeping Expansion of Anti-Terrorism ActJustice Dept. Drafts Sweeping Expansion of Anti-Terrorism Act
Center Publishes Secret Draft of Patriot II' Legislation
By Charles Lewis and Adam Mayle
February 7, 2003
(WASHINGTON, Feb. 7, 2003) -- The Bush Administration is preparing a bold, comprehensive sequel to the USA Patriot Act passed in the wake of September 11, 2001, which will give the government broad, sweeping new powers to increase domestic intelligence-gathering, surveillance and law enforcement prerogatives, and simultaneously decrease judicial review and public access to information.
The Center for Public Integrity has obtained a draft, dated January 9, 2003, of this previously undisclosed legislation and is making it available in full text (12 MB). The bill, drafted by the staff of Attorney General John Ashcroft and entitled the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003, has not been officially released by the Department of Justice, although rumors of its development have circulated around the Capitol for the last few months under the name of "the Patriot Act II" in legislative parlance.
"We haven't heard anything from the Justice Department on updating the Patriot Act," House Judiciary Committee spokesman Jeff Lungren told the Center. "They haven't shared their thoughts on that. Obviously, we'd be interested, but we haven't heard anything at this point."
Senior members of the Senate Judiciary Committee minority staff have inquired about Patriot II for months and have been told as recently as this week that there is no such legislation being planned.
Mark Corallo, deputy director of Justice's Office of Public Affairs, told the Center his office was unaware of the draft. "I have heard people talking about revising the Patriot Act, we are looking to work on things the way we would do with any law," he said. "We may work to make modifications to protect Americans," he added. When told that the Center had a copy of the draft legislation, he said, "This is all news to me. I have never heard of this."
After the Center posted this story, Barbara Comstock, director of public affairs for the Justice Dept., released a statement saying that, "Department staff have not presented any final proposals to either the Attorney General or the White House. It would be premature to speculate on any future decisions, particularly ideas or proposals that are still being discussed at staff levels."
An Office of Legislative Affairs "control sheet" that was obtained by the PBS program "Now With Bill Moyers" shows that a copy of the bill was sent to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert and Vice President Richard Cheney on Jan. 10, 2003. "Attached for your review and comment is a draft legislative proposal entitled the Domestice Security Enhancement Act of 2003,'" the memo, sent from "OLP" or Office of Legal Policy, says.
Dr. David Cole, Georgetown University Law professor and author of Terrorism and the Constitution, reviewed the draft legislation at the request of the Center, and said that the legislation "raises a lot of serious concerns. It's troubling that they have gotten this far along and they've been telling people there is nothing in the works." This proposed law, he added, "would radically expand law enforcement and intelligence gathering authorities, reduce or eliminate judicial oversight over surveillance, authorize secret arrests, create a DNA database based on unchecked executive suspicion,' create new death penalties, and even seek to take American citizenship away from persons who belong to or support disfavored political groups."
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark
info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Web of War * CIA-Media * Columbia's Wake ~ Nukes
07 February 2003
1) The Tangled Web of War
2) Analysis Report: CIA Media Manipulation
3) In Columbia's Wake - Nukes-in-Space
"War is a tangled web of unbridled ego, power-mad agendas, and the loss of all sanity. Like all webs, once we are caught within, the struggle to escape is often more dangerous and lethal than the slim silvery threads that attracted us to it in the first place."
-- John Cory
Editor's Notes:
As Bush preaches the game is over and War on Iraq is inevitable, as countries are bribed to conform to the ruthless riches of the US, and unprecedented threat by weapons of mass destruction, fear is creating its own reality, hell. In item 1, following the excerpted piece by John Cory, is feedback on Powell's presentation to the UN. Nothing was proven about any significant harm caused by Iraq outside of its country in the last ten years. The world sees through the greed and world-dominating interests of the Bush administration, but the US media plays the role in keeping Americans afraid to look at the real enemy, an enemy of freedom and democracy. Item 2 is worth a thorough read, regarding the history of the CIA's takeover of the US media. Please help network this information, as well as Frank Dorrel's intense video compilation, "What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World." [Info on getting this video is posted at flybynews.com - under "campaigns * actions & events."] Item 3 is more on the sad state of affairs. While the tragedy of the seven aboard Columbia is investigated, the US is moving swiftly to implement nuclear power in space. A small bit of debris could have caused the catastrophe, but imagine adding to the mix nuclear radiation. Karl Grossman authors this article called: "Nukes-in-Space in Columbia's Wake."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The following has feedback and reports related to the last issue of Flyby News:
On Ballot Tampering:
Recently, technicians and programmers for Diebold Election Systems, the company that supplied every single voting machine for the surprising 2002 results in the state of Georgia, the company that is preparing to convert the state of Maryland to its no-paper-trail computerized voting, admitted to a file-sharing system that amounts to a colossal security flaw.
Latest news at http://blackboxvoting.com/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- Really rich, far right-wing "Christian Nation" fanatics involved in the ownership of the companies that make the voting machines. That alone should set off alarm bells.
Seeing The Forest: 'What's wrong with this picture?'
February 04 - Topic: Elections
The article concludes:
"..This is an easy situation to fix. Demand that voting machines come with a paper printout that the voter looks at to verify that the vote was recorded correctly, and puts this paper record in a ballot box that is watched. That's all there is to it. Why in the world don't these machines come with this simple, common-sense security measure?
"..The right to vote -- and for that vote to be counted with integrity -- is at the heart of liberty. People are already skeptical. If we continue on this path, pure cynicism will corrode what's left of public trust in an already frayed system.
For complete story, see
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print.php?sid=10051
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The following is a review by "Goodsister" on Congressman Kucinich's appearance on CNN's "Crossfire" 5 February 2003:
"I just saw the segment, and they had some nimrod CA Republican sitting with Kucinich. He repeated the phrase "blood grudge" at least five times by my count, as in "Iraq has a blood grudge against the United States" as a reason for war. His remarks were real eye-rollers; he had his little prepared set of phrases, and that was the extent of what he could contribute.
Rep. Kucinich was magnificent. He made his points clearly and firmly, no matter how many times little Tucker Carlson tried to derail him with frivolous and irrelevant sidebars. Tucker brought up the Congressman's votes from the past, on trying Hussein as a war criminal, and something else I forgot that's related.... Tucker was trying to say Kucinich is pro-Saddam, but instead he just neatly proved the opposite. Kucinich said, "Thanks for making clear that I've never been pro-Saddam", and looked at Tucker like he's an idiot.
Ha!
When the CA Repub actually said that the Iraqi people would love us as their liberators, throw flowers and wave American flags, Kucinich pointed out that they'd be unlikely to respond in that way to Operation Shock-Awe, which would drop 8000 missiles on Iraq. Kucinich says that inspections worked for years, and they can continue to work. He says there is no reason to punish the Iraqi people because we don't like their leader, not to mention 300,000 American men and women. He mentioned the numbers of other countries that possess chemical, biological, and/or nuclear weapons, and asked if we were prepared to bomb all of them and impose leaders more to our liking. And when someone tried to talk about the danger Iraq poses to US security, Kucinich held up a copy of the CIA report to the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which says that what puts us in most danger would be for us to attack Iraq!
He got the last word in, too, commenting that "Being the world's policeman is not what America is about". And, very important to me, Kucinich never forgot that Iraqi lives are as important as American lives. That peculiar, parochial view some Americans have, thinking that somehow our lives are more "real" or somehow more valuable than those of foreign people living in countries we can't find on a map, is obviously not a view Kucinich shares. He clearly sees a big picture, a global picture. He sees that in order to survive as a species on what's left of our planet, we will need to evolve into cooperation and friendship.
I love this guy. Did anyone else see it? What did you think? Can we unseat the Pretender with this man's energy and integrity?"
-- Goodsister
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Public Demonstrations for PEACE * February 15 *
for more information, see:
CAMPAIGNS * ACTIONS * EVENTS
http://www.flybynews.com
1) The Tangled Web of WarThe Tangled Web of War
By John Cory
TO correspondent in Saudi Arabia
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Wednesday 05 February 2003
[The following is excerpted], for complete article, see:
http://truthout.org/docs_02/020603D.htm..Here in the Middle East, the audience is already skeptical, to put it mildly. People from Jordan and Egypt and the UAE have assumed that fabrication is the technique in vogue from this administration because Bush wants his war. Bush in their eyes, has picked Iraq precisely because it is weakened from the previous war and a decade of sanctions. Everyone reminds me that most Arab military organizations are looked upon as "less than" their western counterparts. And because the US and others have spent decades profiting from the sale of weaponry in this part of the world, Bush and company are in the perfect position to know who would be the easiest target to decimate without heavy casualties. Thus making the US and Bush appear strong and invincible to anyone else who might object to American policies and their world-wide sagacity.
..The thing is, this White House has laid the groundwork for either war or no war, just to cover its butt. But it is counting on the leaks of attack plans and bombings to psych out Iraq, and should that fail, the heavy evidence offered by the "trustworthy" messenger Powell. The Bush junta hopes that Powell and his personal reputation can turn the American public, not the UN, into supporting the war against Iraq. Is this really how Colin Powell wants to be remembered?
Only through the use of war, can Bush and the GOP retain control of America. Feeding the public a daily dose of fear, a confused citizenry becomes easily cowed into silent obedience. Painting dissent as unpatriotic and treasonous, Bush uses war to erode civil liberties and slip partisan conservatives into the judicial system in order to ensure a long tenure and continued dismantling of anything closely resembling American principles of freedom and choice and accountability. Bush has bought and paid for his judicial branch, his congressional cronies, his corporate media lackeys, and is now moving on to reshape the rest of the world according to what is best for Bush and company.
The coming war has been spindled, twisted, and mutilated to conform to the needs of Bush, not the world, not America, but Bush. An attack on Iraq will do more harm than good. While American-Might could possibly win the battle, it cannot win the war.
Ignoring the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to threaten any chance for peace in the Middle East. The fallout from an American takeover in Iraq will only fuel the anti-western movements all over the Middle East and eventually all over the world. Bombings in Kenya, Bali, and elsewhere should serve as ominous warning of the smoldering resentment that will one day erupt as common occurrence everywhere. This is not about freedom-hating people. This is not about the poor railing out at the wealthy powers of world government. This is not about Islam versus Christianity.
This war is about the arrogant Corporate America that views the rest of the world as its own natural resource. Cheap labor, profitable water control, oil development and ownership, and control of financial markets are the driving factors of Bush's agenda. And he is willing to sacrifice whatever you have to accomplish it.
War is a tangled web of unbridled ego, power-mad agendas, and the loss of all sanity. Like all webs, once we are caught within, the struggle to escape is often more dangerous and lethal than the slim silvery threads that attracted us to it in the first place.
The Tangled Web of War
By John Cory
http://truthout.org/docs_02/020603D.htm= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
for a related article:
CBS | Powell Fails To Sway Key Allies
"The use of force can only be a final recourse," French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin said. "We must move on to a new stage and further strengthen the inspections."
For the complete article see:
http://truthout.org/docs_02/020703B.htmor original at CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/05/iraq/main539465.shtml= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For another related article,
"Cross-Examining Colin" by William Rivers Pitt, see:
http://truthout.org/docs_02/020703A.htm= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Powell's Threat to Peace
Colin Powell's presentation to the United Nations was an example of Alice in Wonderland-type propaganda. Reality has been turned upside down. At the very moment that Iraq, hobbled by 12 years of devastating sanctions and ongoing U.S. bombing, is surrounded by a heavily-armed invasion force of more than 100,000 troops, fighter aircraft, warships and high tech conventional missiles, and is threatened with a nuclear strike, Powell argued that Iraq poses a great threat to "peace."
The Pentagon has disclosed its plan to maintain peace by carrying out an opening blitzkrieg on Iraq of more than 3000 bombs and missiles in the first 48 hours. This plan is titled "Shock and Awe" by the administration. 300 to 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles will rip through Iraq on the first day of a U.S. assault, which is more than the number that were launched during the entire 40 days of the first Gulf War. On the second day, another 300 to 400 cruise missiles will be sent. "There will not be a safe place in Baghdad," said one Pentagon official. "The sheer size of this has never been seen before, never been contemplated before," the official said. One of the authors of the Shock and Awe plan stated the intent is, "So that you have this simultaneous effect, rather like the nuclear weapons at Hiroshima, not taking days or weeks but in minutes.'" (CBS News January 27, 2003, New York Times, February 2, 2003)
To see the rest of the story:
http://www.voice4change.org/stories/showstory.asp?file=030207~vnw.asp= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
From the Brainwashing of America
1. I will remain loyal to my sworn pledge to uphold the U.S. Constitution, no matter what. If I consider a civilian or military order or operation to be contradictory to the Constitution, I will not follow the order and will do whatever is in my power to stop the unconstitutional operation.
This mind-set is represented by such military leaders as (to name just a few):
Colonel L. Fletcher Prouty
General Frederick Woerner--commander in Panama and replaced by Bush senior when he wouldn't obey an illegal military order to attack Panama
Admiral William Crowe--Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and replaced by Bush senior when he wouldn't obey an illegal military order to attack Panama
2. I will do whatever my civilian and military commanders tell me to do, without reflection on whether or not what they are ordering is permitted by the Constitution (since I want to get ahead in the military). This mind-set is represented by such people as:
Colin Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during Bush senior's presidency (took over when Admiral William Crowe wouldn't agree to Bush senior's illegal invasion of Panama)
For this and background information, see "Brainwashing of America":
http://www.hermes-press.com/brainwash1.htm= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Noam Chomsky on the anti-war movement
Noam Chomsky: The [peace] demonstrations were another indication of a quite remarkable phenomenon. There is around the world and in the United States opposition to the coming war that is at a level that is completely unprecedented in US or European history both in scope and the parts of the population it draws on.
There's never been a time that I can think of when there's been such massive opposition to a war before it was even started..
For the rest of the story, see:
http://www.voice4change.org/stories/showstory.asp?file=030207~v4c.asp
2) Analysis Report: CIA Media ManipulationOperation Mockingbird: CIA Media Manipulation
By Mary Louise
"The CIA is the epitome of organized crime run amuck!"
-- Mary LouiseNote: The following was excerpted, for complete article, see:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/analysis_louise_01_03_03_mockingbird.html The CIA's secret activities, covert missions, and connections of control are all done under the pretense and protection of national security with no accountability whatsoever, at least in their minds. Considering the public is held accountable for everything we think, say, and do there is something seriously wrong with this picture. The CIA is the President's secret army, who have been and continue to be conveniently above the law with unlimited power and authority, to conduct a reign of terror around the globe.
The "old boy network" of socializing, talking shop, and tapping each other for favors outside the halls of government made it inevitable that the CIA and Corporate America would become allies, thus the systematic infiltration and takeover of the media.
Under the guise of 'American' objectives and lack of congressional oversight, the CIA accomplish their exploits by using every trick in the book (and they know quite a few) that they actually teach in the notorious "School of the Americas", nicknamed the "School of Dictators" and "School of Assassins" by critics. The Association for Responsible Dissent estimates that 6 million people had died by 1987 as a result of CIA covert operations, called an "American Holocaust" by former State Department official William Blum. In 1948, the CIA recreated its covert action wing called the Office of Policy Coordination with Wall Street lawyer Frank Wisner as its first director. Another early elitist who served as Director of the CIA from 1953 to 1961 was Allen Dulles, a senior partner at the Wall Street firm of Sullivan and Cromwell, which represented the Rockefeller empire and other trusts, corporations, and cartels.
Starting in the early days of the Cold War (late 40's), the CIA began a secret project called Operation Mockingbird, with the intent of buying influence behind the scenes at major media outlets and putting reporters on the CIA payroll, which has proven to be a stunning ongoing success.
The CIA effort to recruit American news organizations and journalists to become spies and disseminators of propaganda, was headed up by Frank Wisner, Allen Dulles, Richard Helms, and Philip Graham (publisher of The Washington Post). Wisner had taken Graham under his wing to direct the program code-named Operation Mockingbird and both have presumably committed suicide.
Media assets will eventually include ABC, NBC, CBS, Time, Newsweek, Associated Press, United Press International (UPI), Reuters, Hearst Newspapers, Scripps-Howard, Copley News Service, etc. and 400 journalists, who have secretly carried out assignments according to documents on file at CIA headquarters, from intelligence-gathering to serving as go-betweens. The CIA had infiltrated the nation's businesses, media, and universities with tens of thousands of on-call operatives by the 1950's.
CIA Director Dulles had staffed the CIA almost exclusively with Ivy League graduates, especially from Yale with figures like George Herbert Walker Bush from the "Skull and Crossbones" Society.
Many Americans still insist or persist in believing that we have a free press, while getting most of their news from state-controlled television, under the misconception that reporters are meant to serve the public. Reporters are paid employees and serve the media owners, who usually cower when challenged by advertisers or major government figures. Robert Parry reported the first breaking stories about Iran-Contra for Associated Press that were largely ignored by the press and congress, then moving to Newsweek he witnessed a retraction of a true story for political reasons.
In 'Fooling America: A Talk by Robert Parry' he said, "The people who succeeded and did well were those who didn't stand up, who didn't write the big stories, who looked the other way when history was happening in front of them, and went along either consciously or just by cowardice with the deception of the American people.". . .
..A good site to visit for more information is Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a public interest media watchdog group, at
http://www.fair.org/index.html ,
http://www.fair.org/mediafiles/index.html and
http://www.fair.org/extra/9711/gmg.html .
Media propaganda tactics include blackouts, misdirections, expert opinions to echo the Establishment line, smears, defining popular opinions, mass entertainment distractions, and Hobson's Choice (the media presents the so-called conservative and liberal positions).
"Who Controls the Media? The Subversion of the Free Press by the CIA, The Depraved Spies and Moguls of the CIA's Operation Mockingbird", "The CIA: America's Premier International Terrorist Organization", and "Virtual Government: CIA Mind Control Operations in America" by Alex Constantine are an excellent source of information on this topic:
http://www.alexconstantine.50megs.com/the_cia_and.html and
http://www.alexconstantine.50megs.com .
David Guyatt has written books and many articles including one entitled "Subverting the Media" at
http://www.deepblacklies.co.uk/subverting_the_media.htm .
Then there are two articles called "A Timeline of CIA Atrocities" and "The Origins of the Overclass" by Steve Kangas that are very informative although from a more liberal perspective. Steve will not be writing anymore articles as he is no longer with us, having unfortunately met his untimely death that was 'apparently' from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. If you read about him on his web page that is still available, you will see that he did not seem like a person who was suffering from deep depression. In his memory, please take the time to read what he wrote at
http://www.korpios.org/resurgent/CIAtimeline.html , and
http://www.korpios.org/resurgent/index.html .
CNN aired "Valley of Death" in June of 1998 and Time magazine (both owned by Time-Warner) ran a story about a secret mission called Operation Tailwind and the activities of SOG, Studies and Observations Group, a secret elite commando unit of the Army's Special Forces that used lethal nerve gas (sarin), on a mission to Laos designed to kill American defectors. Suddenly the network was awash in denials and the story was hushed up, as usual. Acknowledged use of this gas coming at a time when the U.S. government was trying to get Saddam to comply with weapons inspections, was an embarrassment to say the least. What hypocrisy!
Having actually used the weapons on our own troops, then complaining and accusing Saddam of potential use of stored similar weapons, of which some were manufactured in and supplied by the U.S. The broadcast was prepared after exhaustive research and rooted in considerable supportive data. To decide for yourself what the truth is read Floyd Abrams' report on the CNN site at
http://www.cnn.com/US/9807/02/tailwind.findings/index.html . . .
..One of the primary reasons John F. Kennedy was assassinated had to do with the fact he dared to interfere in the framework of power. Kennedy was intent on exercising his ELECTED powers and not allowing them to be usurped by power-crazed individuals in the intelligence community, threatening to "splinter the CIA in a thousand pieces and scatter it to the wind." There were four things that filled the CIA with rage and sealed his fate; JFK fired Allen Dulles, was in the process of founding a panel to investigate the CIA's numerous crimes, put a damper on the breadth and scope of the CIA, and limited their ability to act under National Security Memoranda 55.
There is such an overwhelming amount of information pertaining to the CIA that it is impossible to cover it all in one book, much less an article. Personally, I have come to the conclusion that the media is not only influenced by the CIA.....the media is the CIA. Many Americans think of their supposedly free press as a watchdog on government, mainly because the press itself shamelessly promotes that myth. One of the first tenets for the control of a population is to control all sources of information the population receives and mostly because of the pervasive CIA and Operation Mockingbird, the mainstream American Press is a controlled multi-national corporate/government megaphone. They are up to their eyeballs in dirty deeds and there will never be an end to the corruption that prevails unless the CIA is abolished. Otherwise, the CIA will just keep on using their tricks of propaganda, stuffed ballot boxes, purchased elections, extortion, blackmail, drug trafficking, sexual intrigue, kidnaping, beating, torture, intimidation, economic sabotage, false stories about opponents in the local media, infiltration and disruption of opposing political parties, demolition and evacuation procedures, death squads, and politically motivated assassinations. The CIA is the epitome of organized crime run amuck!
This PrisonPlanet.com Analysis:
"Operation Mockingbird: CIA Media Manipulation"
By Mary Louise
is posted at :
http://www.prisonplanet.com/analysis_louise_01_03_03_mockingbird.htmlIf you would like to send a message to Mary Louise, contact:
paul@propagandamatrix.com and it will be passed on.
3) In Columbia's Wake - Nukes-in-SpaceNukes-in-Space in Columbia's Wake
By Karl Grossman
The Columbia shuttle disaster came just as NASA was pushing to greatly broaden its program to use nuclear power in space. This includes the development of a nuclear-propelled rocket--a project which NASA spent billions of dollars on in the 1950s and 60s until it was canceled because of concern of such a nuclear rocket crashing to earth.
Just think if it was a nuclear rocket that came falling down in pieces over Texas or elsewhere on Earth.
The new space nuclear power scheme, called Project Prometheus, is a broadening of the NASA Nuclear Systems Initiative--on which $1 billion is to be spent over five years--that began last year.
However, as the Los Angeles Times reported last month, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe is expecting a "very significant" increase in that funding as the Nuclear Systems Initiative becomes Project Prometheus.
In addition to a nuclear-powered rocket, NASA is planning additional plutonium-energized space probe and to put atomic power to other space uses including the launching of planetary rovers with nuclear systems.
Indeed, this May and June NASA is planning to launch two rockets from Florida carrying rovers to be landed on Mars equipped with heaters powered by plutonium. The Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power In Space (www.speace4peace.org) has been conducting demonstrations to protest these launches.
NASA's "Environmental Impact Statement for the Mars Exploration Rover-2003 Project" says that "the overall chance of an accident occurring" for each launch "is about 1 in 30" and "the overall chance of any accident that releases radioactive materials to the environment is about 1 in 230." People "offsite in the downwind direction...could inhale small quantities of radionuclides," says NASA's statement. An area as far as 60 kilometers from the launch site could be impacted, says NASA.
"These and other NASA space shots involving materials must be canceled in the wake of the Columbia disaster and safe space energy systems be used instead," declares Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network..
..In contrast, NASA's renewed emphasis on nuclear power in space "is not only dangerous but politically unwise," says Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York and author of best-selling books including "Hyperspace." "The only thing that can kill the U.S. space program is a nuclear disaster. The American people will not tolerate a Chernobyl in the sky. That would doom the space program."
"NASA hasn't learned its lesson from its history involving space nuclear power," says Kaku, "and a hallmark of science is that you learn from previous mistakes. NASA doggedly pursues its fantasy of nuclear power in space. We have to save NASA from itself." He cites "alternatives" space nuclear power. "Some of these alternatives may delay the space program a bit. But the planets are not going to go away. What's the rush? I'd rather explore the universe slower than not at all if there is a nuclear disaster."
This article was excerpted, for the complete article, see:
http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk/articles/columbiaswake.htm
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at FlybyNews.com.
FLYBY NEWS=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Ballot Tampering * Big "K" for Prez * Shuttle's Odd Images
04 February 2003
1) Ballot-Tampering in the 21st Century
2) Congressman Kucinich Draws Speculation As Possible Candidate
3) Photos show odd images near Columbia's Break-Up
Editor's Notes:Item 1 in this issue of Flyby News is a behind the scene viewpoint of ballot tampering. This item contains a press release about Chuck Hagel, US Senate-Ethics Director, and his admission of owning a voting machine company. The best part of this story is learning about BlackBoxVoting.com, and their efforts for preserving, or regaining, democracy. This work makes the information in Item 2 even more hopeful, which is from an AP article on the appeal of Dennis Kucinich for President. His record and broad appeal is causing much anticipation. Dennis is listening, and the response, from all types of people, is profound. Item three is on a report published in the San Francisco Chronicle about the photographing of an electrical transference during the early part of Columbia's tragic descent to Earth. The witness from California said: "They clearly record an electrical discharge like a lightning bolt flashing past, and I was snapping the pictures almost exactly . . . when the Columbia may have begun breaking up during re-entry."
While the space shuttle accident emphasizes how crazy it is to use nuclear materials on dangerous rocket-fired space missions, the military seems to get its way. So, while are on a human learning curve, the Bush administration is gun-ho with nukes in space and taking an offensive posture to invade Iraq, (with or without the UN's support). People are dazed, but now it's time to wake up. We need US Congress and United Nations to act in support of a Containment Policy with Iraq - or we will witness the consequences of a US installed regime-change that would destabilize the world and cause much horror and suffering for tens or hundreds of thousands of people, as well as a likely economic collapse and loss of freedom.
For What? CHAOS?.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Take Action
Tell the UN Security Council No to War on Iraq! Send a letter to the United Nations Security Council members, telling them to not authorize war on Iraq! Colin Powell is going to the UN on Wednesday, lets pre-empt his meeting by letting the UN know that he does not represent our views. Spread the word and take action. Just fill in your information and click send and all 15 Security Council members will receive your message. [But you can copy or click on each individual addresses to email Security Council members with your personal message!]
http://www.voice4change.org/stories/mailUNSC.asp= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Reminder:
Call US Senators and ask them to support SR. 32.
Capitol Switchboard Telephone # - 202-224-3121.Iraq Resolution SR. 32 calls on the President to come back to Congress to obtain approval of the legislation authorizing the use of force before committing American troops for war against Iraq. The resolution also calls on the President to fully support the inspectors with the assistance they need for their ongoing disarmament work.
* Senator Kennedy introduced this sense of the Senate resolution on January 29, 2003.
* Senator Byrd (D-WV) is an original co-sponsor of the resolution.
* Many in Congress DO NOT believe that the President has made a compelling case that the use of military force is the only way to disarm Iraq. This war shouldn't be unilateral; it needs to have the support of our Allies. UN weapons inspectors need more time to do their job.
* Under current conditions and circumstances, Senator Kennedy's words are valid: "..that this is still the wrong war at the wrong time."
S. Res 32: Resolution Language
The key language of the resolution states "the sense of the Senate that, before the President uses military force against Iraq without the broad support of the international community, the President should -
(1) provide full support to the United Nations weapons inspectors to facilitate their ongoing disarmament work; and (2) obtain approval by Congress of new legislation authorizing the president to use all necessary means, including the use of military force, to disarm Iraq."= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Public Demonstrations for PEACE
February 15 * for more information, see:
CAMPAIGNS * ACTIONS * EVENTS
http://www.flybynews.com
1) Ballot-Tampering in the 21st CenturyBlack Box Voting - Ballot-Tampering in the 21st Century
For the first time in history, it may be possible to rig an election on a national scale. Vote-rigging has been part of every election process in history but ever before have so few people had access to so many votes at once!
What are the risks to Democracy?
For more information see
http://www.blackboxvoting.comThe following is a press release via Global Network is a BlackBoxVoting.com
This site features the work of Bev Harris, author of Black Box Voting: Ballot-Tampering in the 21st Century. Harris has provided numerous articles on voting machine ownership, errors and security to news publications worldwide. In writing Black Box Voting, she spent over two thousand hours researching voting machines, and interviewed dozens of witnesses including many election officials and even voting machine programmers who work directly for the firms that build these machines. Harris owns Talion.com, a publicity firm, and has been writing professionally for 10 years.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Senate Ethics Director Resigns; Senator Hagel Admits Owning Voting Machine Company
CONTACTS -- Bev Harris, "Black Box Voting," 425-228-7131
http://www.blackboxvoting.comDan Spillane, Senior Test Engineer for voting machines - 206-860-2858
Chuck Hagel202-224-4224 -- Senate Ethics Committee - 202-224-2981
Charlie Matulka, ran for office against Chuck Hagel - 402-228-1009
Rebecca Mercuri, expert on computerized voting machines 215/327-7105
The Hill Article
http://www.thehill.comU.S. CHUCK HAGEL NOW ADMITS OWNERSHIP IN VOTING MACHINE COMPANY-
SENATE ETHICS COMMITTEE DIRECTOR RESIGNS
"Hagel's ethics filings pose disclosure issue" -- "The Hill" 1/29/2003
On October, 10, 2002 Bev Harris, author of the upcoming "Black Box Voting: Ballot-Tampering" in the 21st Century, revealed that Republican Senator Chuck Hagel has ties to the largest voting machine company, Election Systems & Software (ES&S). She reported that he was an owner, Chairman and CEO of Election Systems & Software (called American Information Systems until name change filed in 1997). ES&S was the ONLY company whose machines counted Hagel's votes when he ran for election in 1996 and 2002. The Hill, a Washington D.C. newspaper that covers the U.S. national political scene, confirmed her findings today and uncovered more details.
Hagel's campaign finance director, Michael McCarthy, now admits that Senator Hagel still owns a beneficial interest in the ES&S parent company, the McCarthy Group. ES&S counts approximately 60 percent of all votes cast in the United States. According to the Omaha World-Herald which is also a beneficial owner of ES&S, Hagel was CEO of American Information Systems, now called ES&S, from November 1993 through June 2, 1994. He was Chairman from July 1992 until March 15 1995. He was required to disclose these positions on his FEC Personal Disclosure statements, but he did not.
Hagel still owns up to $5 million in the ES&S parent company, McCarthy Group. But Hagel's office, when interviewed by Channel 8 News in Lincoln, Nebraska for the evening news on October 22, 2002, said he had sold his shares before he was elected. His office issued a fact sheet claiming that he had made full disclosure.
Last week, Hagel's campaign finance director, Michael McCarthy (currently an owner and a director of ES&S) admitted to Alexander Bolton of The Hill that Hagel is still an owner of ES&S parent company, the McCarthy Group, and said that Hagel also had owned shares in AIS Investors Inc., a group of investors in ES&S itself. Yet Hagel did not disclose owning or selling shares in AIS Investors Inc. on his FEC documents, a required disclosure, nor did he disclose that ES&S is an underlying asset of McCarthy Group, in which he lists an investment of up to $5 million in 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001.
SENATE ETHICS COMMITTEE CHIEF COUNSEL / DIRECTOR RESIGNS
Harris spoke with Victor Baird of the Senate Ethics Committee office January 9, and asked him who is responsible for ensuring that FEC disclosures are complete. She asked whether anyone had followed up to see why Senator Hagel did not list his positions with the voting machine company, and she asked about his characterization of the McCarthy Group as an "excepted investment fund" and his failure to disclose that it owned ES&S. Baird was silent, and then said "If you want to look into this, you'll need to come in and get hold of the documents."
Unfortunately, according to Alexander Bolton, a reporter at The Hill, when he went to the Senate Public Documents Room to retrieve originals of Hagel's 1995 and 1996 documents he was told they were destroyed. "They said anything over five years old is destroyed by law, and they pulled out the law," says Bolton. However, when he spoke with Hagel's staff, they said had obtained the documents from Senate Ethics Committee files. Copies of the documents are available at OpenSecrets.org/pfds -- a repository for FEC disclosures.
In 1997, Baird asked Hagel to clarify the nature of his investment in McCarthy Group on his 1996 FEC statement. Hagel had written "none" next to "type of investment" for McCarthy Group. In response to Baird's letter, Hagel filed an amendment characterizing the McCarthy Group as an "Excepted Investment Fund," a designation for widely held, publicly available mutual funds. He never disclosed his indirect ownership of ES&S at all, but apparently no one questioned this omission, nor his curious characterization of the McCarthy Group, a privately held company that is not listed on any public brokerage.
Baird told Bolton that the McCarthy Group did not seem to qualify as an "excepted investment fund." He reportedly met with Hagel's staff on Friday, January 25 and Monday, January 27, 2002. Then, also on Monday, he stepped down. On Monday afternoon Baird's replacement, Robert Walker, provided a new, looser interpretation of "publicly available" (though experts disagree, saying that a privately held company like the McCarthy Group cannot be called "publicly available" in order to avoid disclosing underlying assets.)
Hagel's challenger in the Nebraska Senate race, Charlie Matulka, wrote to Baird in October 2002 to request an investigation into Hagel's ownership in and nondisclosure of ES&S. Baird replied, "Your complaint lacks merit and no further action is appropriate with respect to the matter, which is hereby dismissed," in a letter dated November 18, 2002.
SENATE CANDIDATE QUESTIONS HAGEL'S CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Charlie Matulka, the candidate who ran against Chuck Hagel in Nebraska's U.S. Senate race in November 2002, also wrote to the Nebraska Secretary of State and to state elections officials in October 2002. He pointed out that his opponent had ties to ES&S, and asked them to look into the conflict of interest, but received no answer.
Several Nebraska ES&S machines malfunctioned on Election Day, and Matulka filed a request for a hand count on December 10, 2002. It was denied, because Nebraska has a new law that prohibits election workers from looking at the paper ballots, even in a recount. The only machines permitted to count votes in Nebraska are ES&S.
CAN VOTING MACHINES BE TAMPERED WITH THROUGH ACCESS TO PROGRAMMERS?
The Washington Post characterized Hagel's election in 1996 as the biggest upset of the election season. At the time, voters did not know that he owned and had held key positions with the company that counted his votes. But is it improper for a candidate to have ties with voting machine companies?
Harris examines the issue of tampering security in the upcoming "Black Box Voting" book. One of her sources, Dan Spillane, a former Senior Test Engineer for a voting machine company, believes that the computerized voting machine industry is riddled with system integrity flaws.
"The problems are systemic," Spillane says, and he contends that the certification process itself cannot be trusted. Despite industry characterizations that the code is checked line by line, this does not appear to be the case. Spillane points to frequent, critical errors that occur in actual elections and identifies omissions in the testing procedures themselves. His own experience as a voting machine test engineer led him to address his concerns about integrity flaws with the owner of the voting machine company, who then suggested that he resign. He did not, but shortly before a General Accounting Office audit, Spillane was fired, and so was his supervisor, who had also expressed concerns about system integrity.
Election Technology Labs quit certifying voting machines in 1992. Its founder, Arnold B. Urken, says that the manufacturers, specifically ES&S (then AIS), refused to allow the detailed examination of code needed to ensure system integrity. Wyle Labs refused to test voting machine software after 1996; testing then went to Nichols Research, and then passed to PSINet, and then to Metamor, and most recently to
Ciber.
But even if certification becomes adequate, nothing guarantees that machines used in actual elections use the same programming code that was certified. Machines with adjusted code can be loaded onto delivery trucks with inside involvement of only ONE person. To make matters worse, "program patches" and substitutions are made in vote-counting programs without examination of the new codes, and manufacturers often e-mail technicians uncertified program "updates" which they install on machines immediately before and on Election Day.
Both Sequoia touch screen machines and Diebold Accuvote machines appear to have "back door" mechanisms which may allow reprogramming after votes have been cast. Diebold's Accuvote machines were developed by a company founded by Bob Urosevich, a CEO of Diebold Election Systems and Global Election Systems, which Diebold acquired. Together with his brother Todd, he also founded ES&S, where Todd Urosevich still works. ES&S and Sequoia use identical software and in their optical scan machines. All three companies' machines have miscounted recent elections, sometimes electing the wrong candidates in races that were not particularly close.
For more information, call 425-228-7131.
http://www.blackboxvoting.com/= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a related article, January 31, 2003
"If You Want To Win An Election, Just Control The Voting Machines"
by Thom Hartmann, see:
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0131-01.htm
2) Congressman Kucinich Draws Speculation As Possible CandidateKucinich Running For President?
Congressman Draws Speculation As Possible Candidate
POSTED101 p.m. EST February 2, 2003
WASHINGTON -- Those battling to nab the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 2004 include Joe Lieberman, John F. Kerry, John Edwards, Dick Gephardt -- and Dennis Kucinich?
After making stirring speeches across the country and emerging as Congress' liberal answer to the Bush administration, one of Ohio's congressmen is starting to be mentioned as White House material.
Kucinich, 56, is best known nationally as being Cleveland's "boy mayor" in the 1970s. However, since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the increased attention on the inspection of Iraqi weapons, Kucinich has become a national voice for civil liberties and peace.
He plans to spend five days in Iowa this month. Still, the three-term congressman has skillfully dodged questions about his political ambitions. He told Wolf Blitzer on CNN this week to "stay tuned."
"I have been hearing from people all over the country who are asking for my voice to be added into the debate," Kucinich said at a Washington news conference this week. "I'm listening very carefully to those voices."
A spokesman from Kucinich's office said the congressman receives "tens of thousands" of phone calls and e-mails each day urging him to run. The onslaught started after Kucinich gave a speech last February called "A Prayer for America."
In that Los Angeles address, Kucinich used patriotic language to denounce Bush administration policies that he said tread on personal liberties and take the country in a dangerous direction
internationally.
The text of the speech circled the Internet and led Mike Swickey, a 44-year-old computer privacy consultant from Oklahoma City, to launch a Web site asking people to urge Kucinich to run. The site,
http://www.draftkucinich.com, has gone from about 200 to 300 hits in its early days to about 5,000 visitors a day.
"He struck a chord with the activist progressive grass-roots part of the Democratic Party, also with the Green Party," Swickey said. "I'm hearing from such a cross section of people. They are interested in his strong statements, how he is not tepid on his views of the war with Iraq and also his populist economic roots."
Ralph Nader, who also appeals to economic populists, has spoken publicly about his support for Kucinich, saying the race needs a progressive candidate. Nader was the Green Party's presidential candidate in 2000.
As chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which consists of 55 of the most liberal members, Kucinich has pushed in Congress for a worker-friendly economic stimulus package and been a longtime advocate for establishing a Department of Peace.
"He is very strong on labor issues, so I am hopeful that he may raise some issues that might not otherwise be discussed," said Gordon Fischer, chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party.
Fischer said his state has seen many of the Democratic hopefuls in the last several months and the buzz about Kucinich has been circling the state. The Iowa Caucus is considered an early test of how successful candidates would be in a presidential race.
Still, Kucinich lacks the name recognition of the current Democratic contenders. And his campaign account had $43,668 as of Nov. 25, 2002, while a presidential primary campaign costs $20 million to $30 million.
Ohio State University political scientist Paul Beck said he wouldn't take the Kucinich rumors seriously -- but, he added, you never know.
"It can happen. I would have said the same thing about Jimmy Carter in 1974," he said. "One can only imagine that if the war goes badly and the economy continues to decline, all of a sudden, Dennis Kucinich looks like he's positioned right on the axis of the major issues."
For more information on Kucinich, see links to previous stories, at:
http://www.newsnet5.com/news/1951586/detail.htmlPrevious Stories:
January 28, 2003 - Kucinich: Bush Should Focus On Domestic Issues
October 24, 2002 - Kucinich Investigates Near-Nuclear Accident
July 8, 2002 - Congressman Wants Indians Back On Free TV
December 21, 2001 - Kucinich Meets With Potential LTV Buyers
November 21, 2001 - Kucinich Wants LTV Top Management Fired
October 28, 2001 - Kucinich Endorses Campbell For Mayor
October 17, 2001 - Kucinich: 'We Have To Stay Calm'
September 23, 2001 - Kucinich Wants To Hold International Gathering
September 16, 2001 - Kucinich Holds Open Forum About Tragedy
September 9, 2001 - Local Seniors To Rebel Against Rent Hike
May 27, 2001 - Kucinich Says He Won't Run For Mayor
March 15, 2001 - Voinovich, Kucinich Against Lake Erie Drilling
December 21, 2000 - Congressman Forming Coalition To Help LTV
November 8, 2000 - Local Incumbents Prove Too Tough
June 19, 2000 - Kucinich Trying To Lower Gas Prices
March 6, 2000 - Kucinich Leading Way To Save St. Michael
Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press
http://www.newsnet5.com/news/1951586/detail.html # # #
For Flyby News' Updated Dennis J. Kucinich for US President in 2004!, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1021307488,43210,m
3) Photos show odd images near Columbia's Break-UpPhotos show odd images near shuttle
David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor
Sunday, February 2, 2003 2003 San Francisco Chronicle
For
URL:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/02/02/MN221641.DTL A San Francisco amateur astronomer who photographs the space shuttles whenever their orbits carry them over the Bay Area has captured five strange and provocative images of the shuttle Columbia just as it was re-entering the Earth's atmosphere before dawn Saturday.
The pictures, taken with a Nikon-880 digital camera on a tripod, reveal what appear to be bright electrical phenomena flashing around the track of the shuttle's passage, but the photographer, who asked not to be identified, will not make them public immediately.
"They clearly record an electrical discharge like a lightning bolt flashing past, and I was snapping the pictures almost exactly . . . when the Columbia may have begun breaking up during re-entry," he said.
The photographer invited The Chronicle to view the photos on his computer screen Saturday night, and they are indeed puzzling.
They show a bright scraggly flash of orange light, tinged with pale purple, and shaped somewhat like a deformed L. The flash appears to cross the Columbia's dim contrail, and at that precise point, the contrail abruptly brightens and appears thicker and somewhat twisted as if it were wobbling.
"I couldn't see the discharge with own eyes, but it showed up clear and bright on the film when I developed it," the photographer said. "But I'm not going to speculate about what it might be."
E-mail David Perlman at dperlman@sfchronicle.com.
2003 San Francisco Chronicle
Page A - 18
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
For Original Posting, see:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/02/02/MN221641.DTL
Free Independent NewsFlybyNews.comFor Life's Survival in the 21st CenturyFlyby News bumper stickers with above text are available for the mainstream education driveThis way while driving you can point others to Flyby News' resources. If you wish, $5 for a bumper sticker will cover most costs, (or 3 stickers for $10), but I hope we can get some subsidized for anyone wanting to place them on their car's bumper or other public placement. The artwork and colors are beautiful by Liz Nicholas. If you want one, please write to info@flybynews.com and provide your snail mail address, and specify if you want the blue-green swirling background, or red-orange sunset horizon.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark
info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
God's Gift to Humanity ? War/Cost * Cities for Peace
31 January 2003
God's Gift to Humanity?President Bush's concluding remarks at the 2003 State of the Union address:
"..America is a strong nation and honorable in the use of our strength. We exercise power without conquest, and we sacrifice for the liberty of strangers. Americans are a free people, who know that freedom is the right of every person and the future of every nation. The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world; it is God's gift to humanity. We Americans have faith in ourselves, but not in ourselves alone. We do not claim to know all the ways of Providence, yet we can trust in them, placing our confidence in the loving god behind all of life and all of history. May he guide us now, and may God continue to bless the United States of America. Thank you."= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The following reply on Bush-Iraq war talk by
Jerry Zero, Secretary Treasurer of Teamsters Local 705 in Chicago, and principal convener of US Labor Against the War. (This is an association of more than 42 labor locals, 14 district or regional councils, 13 central labor councils, 5 state federations, 4 national labor organizations and 22 local committees which have passed anti-war resolutions, whose own local passed its anti-war resolution by a vote of 402 to 1.)
Jerry Zero stated:
"Our membership is split 50-50.
Fifty percent don't believe a thing President Bush says,
and 50 percent think he's a liar." [Info receive via Bruce Gagnon / GlobalNet list serve]
1) US Prepared To Violate International Law - All Bush Wants is Iraqi Oil, Says Mandela -
- War Would Be 'Catastrophic' for Iraqi Children -
- Impeach Bush - Resolution and Resources2) U. S. Military Spending And the Cost of Invading Iraq
3) War 'has ruined Afghan environment'
4) Cities for Peace Anti-War Resolution - Kucinich: No Case For War Against Iraq
Editor's Notes:There was a disturbance in the force last Tuesday night when President Bush took to the air~waves on his administration's war dance in full throttle in hot pursuit. The first item explains International Laws jeopardized by a US invasion. Nelson Mandela questioned the US most harshly, and fairly, (I would add), recognizing terrorism of the US in the past, dropping an atomic bomb on people, twice. The US is the principle agent of the export of weapons of mass destruction around the globe, including in Iraq. Oil, Mandela said, is a big motivator for the US to attack and threaten another holocaust. At the end of this first item, too, you will find a link to an article about the smallest and most hard hit victims of war, children. In Iraq it would be catastrophic.' Item 2 is another assessment of the financial down-sides from a Bush attack, -- of course except for military and oil-related interests. Item 3 is on Afghanistan and the impact of war on its environment and wildlife, nature and humankind is suffering. Item 4 is hopeful; cities are responding with Resolutions for Peace for US, Iraq. Help your city, town, become an advocate for peace -- CitiesforPeace.org --
Instead of mending the leaks in US homeland security, where crossing the US borders illegally, as reported by network news, is "like taking a walk in a park," crossing the territories owned by the US, National Park. Bush, instead, has tanks sailing to Turkey to force them to help us in this oil war. Bush will be antagonizing and engaging the terrorists, leave security behind in our country, lacking.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Take Action
Call your Senators and ask them to support SR. 32.
Capitol Switchboard # - 202-224-3121.
Iraq Resolution SR. 32 calls on the President to come back to Congress to obtain approval of the legislation authorizing the use of force before committing American troops for war against Iraq. The resolution also calls on the President to fully support the inspectors with the assistance they need for their ongoing disarmament work.
* Senator Kennedy introduced this sense of the Senate resolution on January 29, 2003. Senator Byrd (D-WV) is an original co-sponsor of the resolution.
* Many in Congress DO NOT believe that the President has made a compelling case that the use of military force is the only way to disarm Iraq. This war shouldn't be unilateral; it needs to have the support of our Allies. UN weapons inspectors need more time to do their job.
* Under current conditions and circumstances, Senator Kennedy's words are valid: "..that this is still the wrong war at the wrong time."
S. Res 32: Resolution Language
The key language of the resolution states "the sense of the Senate that, before the President uses military force against Iraq without the broad support of the international community, the President should -
(1) provide full support to the United Nations weapons inspectors to facilitate their ongoing disarmament work; and
(2) obtain approval by Congress of new legislation authorizing the president to use all necessary means, including the use of military force, to disarm Iraq."= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Public Demonstrations for PEACE February 15 * for details see:
CAMPAIGNS * ACTIONS * EVENTS
FlybyNews.com* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"The spectacle of the United States, armed with its weapons of mass destruction, acting without Security Council authority to invade a country in the heartland of Arabia and, if necessary, use its weapons of mass destruction to win that battle, is something that will so deeply violate any notion of fairness in this world that I strongly suspect it could set loose forces that we would deeply live to regret."
Former U.N. arms inspector Richard Butler,
(Quoted in a Reuters article, January 28, 2003.)
1) US Prepared To Violate International LawUS Prepared To Violate International Law
By Adrian Kuzminski
In a fundamental change of policy, the Bush administration has embraced the doctrine of preemptive war, including the first strike use of nuclear weapons, and is now applying it to Iraq. Speaking in Davos, Switzerland, on 26 January 2003, US Secretary of State, Colin L. Powell, said: "We continue to reserve our sovereign right to take military action against Iraq alone or in a coalition of the willing . . ."
There is no such unqualified sovereign right. On the contrary, as a member state of the United Nations, the US is obliged by law to pursue peaceful means in international relations, as stated in the UN Charter, Chapter 1, Article 2:
"All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered; and, All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner consistent with the Purposes of the United Nations."
The UN Charter does recognize the use of unilateral military force by a member state, but only for purposes of self defense and only when an "armed attack" has occured against that state, as stated in Chapter 7, Article 51 of the UN Charter:
"Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security."
Iraq has not been shown to have carried out "an armed attack" on the United States. No evidence has been offered that assigns any responsibility to Iraq for the attacks on the United States made on 11 September 2001, or any other attacks. Iraq has not been shown to be a credible threat to the US.
Possession of weapons of mass destruction by Iraq, weapons already widely distributed among many countries, does not constitute an "armed attack" on anyone; nor does it justify unilateral US military action. If such weapons are a threat to its neighbors or anyone else, including the US, this is a matter for UN action, not unilateral American military action outside the UN.
Iraq may have links to Al Queda, but this too does not constitute an "armed attack" on anyone. If such links constitute a serious threat, this too is a matter for UN action, not for unilateral American action.
A US attack against Iraq, absent evidence of an Iraqi armed attack against the US, would violate international law and render the UN impotent. It would promote the US as world dictator, accountable to no one, with inevitable resentment abroad. Such a US attack might someday be determined a war crime, and those with authority to carry out such attacks, war criminals.
The US must respect international law and work through the United Nations to resolve international disputes, and not act unilaterally to impose its own will on the world. If the US is unhappy with decision-making at the UN, it should work to make that organization more democratic and accountable.
The US has been the only superpower since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. It could have used its power during that period to strengthen international institutions and establish a more responsible global democratic system, but under both Democratic and Republican administrations it chose not to do so.
To renounce the UN and other international institutions such as the World Court in favor of our own military and economic power is the path of empire and tragedy, so often followed in the past. The alternative path, that of working for a just and democratic world order, still remains open to us. We should take it before it is too late.
Adrian Kuzminski
279 Donlon Road Fly Creek, NY 13337
607-547-8586
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
All Bush Wants is Iraqi Oil, Says Mandela
Former president Nelson Mandela said on Thursday the United States was preparing to go to war because "George Bush wants to get hold of the Iraqi oil".
For the article, published Thursday, January 30, 2003 by the Independent (Cape Town, South Africa), posted by CommonDreams.org, see:
http://news@commondreams.org/headlines03/0130-05.htm= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Published on Thursday, January 30, 2003 by the Inter Press Service
War Would Be 'Catastrophic' for Iraqi Children -
Report
by Marty Logan
MONTREAL - War in Iraq would have devastating effects on the country's 13 million children, many of whom are already malnourished and living in ''great fear'' of another conflict, says the report of a Canadian-led, fact-finding team released Thursday.
The document, based on a trip to Iraq Jan. 20-26 by 10 health experts, concludes that, ''Iraqi children are at grave risk of starvation, disease, death and psychological trauma''.
For the complete article, see:
http://news@commondreams.org/headlines03/0130-04.htm= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Impeach Bush - Resolution and Resources
"The President, Vice President and all Civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." --Article II, Section 4 United States Constitution
http://www.rise4news.net/impeach.html Impeachment Resolution:
http://www.rise4news.net/Impeachment_Resolution.html
2) U. S. Military Spending And the Cost of Invading IraqThe Bush administration's defense spending next year will be $394 billion. The United States already has the most powerful military on earth and now spends as much on defense as the next 15 big defense-spending nations combined. Russia, China and "Rogue" states spend $60, $42, and $15 billion for military, respectively. The U.S. military spending is about eight-times that of education or health care spending and twenty-times that of training, employment and social services spending.
In the same budget, with such huge military spending that is already $100 billion higher than Bill Clinton's final year, one will notice the following program cuts that relate to poverty and hunger in America:
* 36,000 seniors will be cut-off of meal programs
* 532,000 families will be cut-off of heating assistance
* 8,000 homeless kids will be cut-off of education programs
* 50,000 kids will be cut-off of after school programs
* 33,000 kids will be cut-off of child care
The most important sections of the mainstream media in the USA continue to carry out psychological warfare against the citizens of the USA in order to mobilize them to support the military invasion of Iraq at a time when millions want jobs, heat, affordable housing and medicine, healthcare, and decent education. According to military and economic experts, the invasion of Iraq will likely cost as much as $200 billion, which has to be paid by the American people. $200 billion is:
* Six-times what federal government spends on K-12 education
* Enough to provide health care to all uninsured children in the U.S. for ten years
* More than eight-times the total international affairs budget
Perhaps the biggest cost of invading Iraq will be the tens- if not hundreds-of-thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians who will lose their lives to massive bombardments and military invasion and occupation of their cities and homes. In addition, rebuilding of Iraq is likely to cost another $50 billion and would require significant material and personnel resources. Just the security forces alone would entail 75,000 personnel in the first year amounting to about $16.5 billion. At least 5,000-10,000 troops would have to remain in place for five-ten years, costing $1- $2 billion a year. Beyond security, the U.S. would be expected to make a significant contribution for humanitarian and emergency aid, a transitional administration, civil service and other components of reconstruction. These non-security costs would amount to $15 - $25 billion over the next decade.
At a time of economic recession and when 35 states face severe economic difficulties and budget short falls, the $200 billion cost of invading Iraq must be carried by all of the States of the Union.
In addition, the administrations new tax plan will cost states, on average, another $4.5 billion in revenues. This will push the states further into recession, resulting in loss of jobs, and deeper cuts in social, health and educational programs, since states are now mandated by the federal law to balance their budget.
Lafayette [Indiana] Area Peace Coalition 1/16/03
3) War 'has ruined Afghan environment'BBC News Online
Wednesday, 29 January, 2003, 09:55 GMT
War 'has ruined Afghan environment'
Snow leopards and other species suffer as well as people
By Alex Kirby
BBC News Online environment correspondent
Two decades of war have laid waste Afghanistan's environment so badly that its reconstruction is now compromised, the United Nations says.
A UN Environment Programme (Unep) survey found more than half of Kabul's water supply is going to waste. It found children working 12-hour shifts in dangerous factories, and sleeping at their machines. More than half the forests in three Afghan provinces have been destroyed in 25 years. A team from Unep's Post-Conflict Assessment Unit worked with the Afghanistan Transitional Authority to carry out the survey. It involved 20 Afghan and foreign scientists in visits to 38 urban sites in four cities, and to 35 rural sites.
Basic resources
The team's report says the years of conflict have led to the "collapse of local and national governance, destroyed infrastructure, hindered agricultural activity and driven people into cities already lacking the most basic public amenities".
It says: "Three to four years of drought have compounded a state of widespread and serious resource degradation: lowered water tables, dried-up wetlands, denuded forests, eroded land and depleted wildlife populations."
Children are at special risk
For the complete article/report, see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2704989.stm
4) Cities for Peace Anti-War ResolutionCleveland Becomes 50th City to Pass Anti-War Resolution
Active Campaigns Underway in More than 60 Additional Cities
==========================
Cleveland City Council unanimously passes anti-war resolution Tuesday 28 Jan 2003
From: "James K Miller"
posted To:
Independent Media Center
http://www.cleveland.indymedia.org:8081
author: stav (stavrosthehunter@yahoo.com)
Summary: An Emergency Resolution: Supporting the men and women serving in the armed forces an honoring their commitment to our national safety and security; opposing unilateral military actions against Iraq and urging President Bush to continue seeking a peaceful resolution of issues with Iraq in a diplomatic manner.
===
On January 27 of 2003 Cleveland City Council unanimously passed a resolution in opposition to unilateral military action against Iraq. Over one hundred people gathered outside city hall an hour before the council came to order to rally support for the measure. The full transcript of the resolution can be found here.
This marks Cleveland as the 50th city nationwide -- and the very first in Ohio -- to adopt such a resolution. A complete list of all cities that have passed resolutions can be found at http://www.citiesforpeace.org.
==========================
Cities for Peace is a rapidly growing effort to get City Councils and other civic bodies to pass resolutions against a war on Iraq. Civic and religious leaders, educators, peace activists, business leaders and individuals from all sectors are coming together across the country to say "no" to Bush's call for war. We the people of the U.S. are wary of a military venture against a country that has not attacked us. We are fearful that a war will lead to the deaths of thousands of Iraqis and US troops. We see this as a potentially dangerous distraction from fighting terrorism and we are aware that such a war would have devastating consequences on our city budgets and on local capacity to meet the current needs of our own communities in these difficult economic times.
We need to exercise our democratic rights by pressing our local elected officials and other public institutions to pass resolutions expressing the will of local communities with regard to a war with Iraq. It is imperative that local officials weigh in on national matters that will ultimately have enormous impacts on our communities.
Please join us! This web site is a hub to link the many City Council resolutions and campaigns across the country. It is a testament to the growing unease that people across the country are feeling about Bush's preemptive strike policy and our commitment to cultivating a world based on peace and justice.
Citiesforpeace.org brought to you by the Institute for Policy Studies.
CitiesforPeace.org/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Representative Dennis Kucinich Press Release - January 27, 2003
See:
No Case For War Against Iraq - Administration Must Stop Rush To War And Allow UN To Disarm Iraq
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Saddam Can Prevent WAR * Secret Army * Nuke Cowboy
28 January 2003
Photo Link of the Day - "Frodo Has Failed"
http://www.madhack.com/~madhack/frodo_has_failed.jpg
1) The War Against the Third World
2) The CIA's Secret Army
3) Nuclear Power In Space And The Impact On Earth's Ecosystem
Re: Statement by Hans Blix to the UN security council,
27 January 2003
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/0,2759,423009,00.html
Editor's Notes:
The UN weapons inspectors report on Iraq's possession of any weapons of mass destruction was inconclusive, but evidence points toward obvious and logical conclusions. The suspicious aluminum casing, suggesting a possible concurrent Iraqi nuclear weapon-development program proved false, it appears that IRAQ HAS NO ATOMIC BOMB DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM at this time. With inspections, under a looking glass, it is unlikely Iraq could develop a nuclear weapon program secretly. And here's the other point of view from the Inspectors' report: Iraq has been non-cooperative in proving that they have destroyed (and do not possess), chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction.
If I was in Saddam's head, and possessed weapons of mass destruction that I would commit to using only if under attack, I would disclose this to the weapons inspectors and world before the US invasion. This way Iraq would have the chance to declare that these weapons are defensive, and for PEACE Iraq would commit itself with the UN to Stop All Acts of Terrorism and negotiate for International Disarmament of Weapons of Mass Destruction to Life. Though a war could be imminent in any case, a forthright sincere declaration by Iraq could help influence a new UN Resolution for a new policy of CONTAINMENT, and help lead all nations toward mutual security and disarmament of all weapons of mass destruction to life.
Yet the War appears imminent, as tanks are on ships crossing the Atlantic, where leaders in Turkey are getting squeezed by a war machine like no other. But still, the very economy of the US depends on a peaceful resolution. Containment will reduce the threat of terrorism. Attacking increases the risk. Containment is not a final solution but could give more time for nations to learn how to unite for mutual security, peace and prosperity. The best solution, proposed by leaders such as Dennis Kucinich, is to move towards a world alliance to outlaw all weapons of mass destruction. I have little faith in the current leadership of the US, but a little more if Iraq and the UN work together toward a peaceful resolution that could help stop threats of imperialism, world disorder, terror, and harm to innocent life.
1) The War Against the Third World
Frank Dorrel put together a special 2-hour video called "What I've Learned About U.S. Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World." The video compilation uses 10 segments to illustrate the drug, money, power, intimidation and influence of a ruthless rogue US military dictatorship, responsible for actions resulting in the murdering of millions of people in the Third World.
The National Security Act of 1947 was signed by President Harry Truman.. This gave birth to the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), and with the atomic escalation of weapons of mass destruction, brought insanity to a corrupted view of what is best for national security interests.
The video opens with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking out against the US war in Vietnam. Next, John Stockwell, former CIA Station Chief in Angola, 1975, who was then working for the Director of the CIA, George Bush, discloses secrets of his 13-years with the agency. Stockwell provides a short history of the CIA, estimating over 6 million people have died as a direct consequence of the agency's covert operations. This talk was given in the late 1980's.
The segment from Bill Moyer's program called, "The Secret Government," which aired on PBS in 1987, is not to be missed. Moyers, a highly respected TV journalist, who also worked for LBJ, interviewed many different people involved with the CIA and other government agencies. This Moyer's special program gives quite an overview of what actually has happened in the last 50 years regarding the CIA.
Titles of subsequent segments are "Coverup: Behind the Iran-Contra Affair;" "School of Assassins;" "Genocide by Sanctions;" Amy Goodman talking about two genocides Indonesia committed. First against its own people in 1965, then against the people of East Timor in 1975, both sanctioned by the United States government and aided by the CIA; "The Panama Deception," which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. This film documents the untold story of the December 1989 US invasion of Panama. The United States military deliberately attacked and destroyed primarily residential neighborhoods, killing an estimated 3 to 4 thousand people in the process. This video exposes the role the U.S. government and mainstream media play in suppressing information about U.S. foreign policy; Ramsey Clark, former Attorney General of the United States, taped while speaking in 1998 in a program called, "Save the Iraqi Children;" S. Brian Willson, a Vietnam veteran, who in 1987 lost both his legs when run over by a munitions train bound for Central America.
One reviewer of Frank Dorrel's video compilation wrote: "..the effect of Dorrel's film is greater than the sum of its parts. As a viewer watches through the 10 segments, the similarities in U.S. actions against countries throughout the Third World become almost unbearably apparent.... Dorrel's film is a powerful indictment of the U.S. as an overreaching imperialist power, ready and able to impose its will on virtually any country in the world that seeks control over its own economy or politics."
If you're interested in knowing truth, horrible as it is, this video is an excellent resource and education medium. These atrocities, supported by our system, with our tax dollars, will continue until the American people wake up and put a stop to this evil. The first step is to understand that this is really happening.
To learn more about the video click on the following URL:
http://www.addictedtowar.com/dorrel.html
"What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World"
This site includes links to many of some of the groups and individuals mentioned in the video. A link to this site is also posted at flybynews.com under "campaigns, actions, & events.
If you are interested in ordering this video, which is being sold at cost to maximize its distribution, send $10 to Frank Dorrel - P.O. Box 3261; Culver City, CA 90231-3261
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Flyby News will be presenting "What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World" or part of it, at the Jones Library in downtown Amherst, MA, Thursday, March 20, 2003, beginning at 6:00 P.M. A discussion will follow on the topic: "responsibilities for a US democracy and safeguarding our planet."
# # # #
"I feel like the most innocent person in the world," said a... woman, who was literally moved to tears by what she had just seen. "I knew that the government was lying but I didn't know it was this bad, and I want people to talk to me and tell me why people can be so evil for money."
2) The CIA's Secret Army
From the February 03, 2003 issue of TIME magazine
TIME Online Edition
The CIA's Secret Army
Because of past scandals, the agency had largely dropped its paramilitary operations. But the war on terrorism has brought it back into the business
By DOUGLAS WALLER
The U.S. is not yet at war with Saddam Hussein. Not officially. But quietly, over the past few months, some of its savviest warriors have sneaked into his country. They have been secretly prowling the Kurdish-controlled enclave in northern Iraq, trying to organize a guerrilla force that could guide American soldiers invading from the north, hunting for targets that U.S. warplanes might bomb, setting up networks to hide U.S. pilots who might be shot down and mapping out escape routes to get them out. And they are doing the same in southern Iraq with dissident Shi'ites.
But the biggest surprise of all is that they are not even soldiers; they are spies, part of the CIA's rough and ready, supersecret Special Operations Group (SOG). Until fairly recently, the CIA, in an effort to clean up a reputation sullied by botched overseas coups and imperial assassination attempts, had shied away from getting its hands dirty. Until about five years ago, it focused instead on gathering intelligence that could be used by other parts of the government. Before that, traditional CIA officers, often working under cover as U.S. diplomats, got most of their secrets from the embassy cocktail circuit or by bribing foreign officials. Most did not even have weapons training, and they looked down on the few SOG commandos who remained out in the field as knuckle draggers, relics of a bygone era. Now the knuckle draggers are not just back; they are the new hard edge of the CIA, at the forefront of the war on terrorism. And, says a U.S. intelligence official, "they know which end the bullet comes out of."
It was George Tenet who began rebuilding the SOG five years ago when he took charge of the CIA, but the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, accelerated his efforts.
Confronted with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda, an enemy that has no army, no fixed assets and no clearly defined territory, the Bush Administration needed an unconventional military force. It wanted combatants who could match al-Qaeda for wiliness, adaptability and, up to a point, ruthlessness. It wanted its own army of James Bonds. So in the past year, hundreds of millions of additional dollars have been pumped into the CIA budget by President George W. Bush, a man who may be predisposed to believe strongly in an agency his father once headed. He has ordered SOG operatives to join forces with foreign intelligence services. He has even authorized the CIA to kidnap terrorists in order to break their cells or kill them.
All of which could make for a more agile, effective intelligence agency. Or it could also mean a CIA that once again steps beyond the realm of collecting secrets to intervening forcibly in the affairs of foreign states. In that area, the agency's history has often been one of blunders and worse, from Iran and Guatemala in the 1950s through the Bay of Pigs fiasco under John F. Kennedy to the Nicaraguan war that led to the Iran-contra debacle in the '80s. Some longtime intelligence watchers are wondering whether a reinvigorated paramilitary wing of the CIA could be a mixed blessing for America once again. And the military itself is not too pleased. It believes its special-ops forces are perfectly equipped to handle these jobs. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has reacted in part by planning his own secret unit, which would function much like the SOG but would answer to him rather than Tenet.
Though tiny by Pentagon standards, the SOG has swelled to several hundred officers. They are planted in Pakistan, Central Asia, North Africa and East Asia.
"These are people who are operating every day around the world," Jim Pavitt, the CIA's deputy director of operations, told TIME. "I can insert a team anywhere quickly and clandestinely." The future may bring even more ambitious missions. Last May, Bush signed a top-secret directive authorizing pre-emptive strikes by the Pentagon and the CIA against nations that are close to acquiring nuclear weapons. Administration sources tell TIME that the Department of Energy's nuclear-weapons experts are training SOG operatives on ways to attack enemy nuclear facilities. In the current crisis with North Korea, Washington so far is committed to diplomacy as a means of pressuring Pyongyang to give up its atomic-arms program, but it might well be a SOG team that gets called to action.
The latest debate over the wisdom of expanding CIA powers in this way has been confined mostly to a small group of professionals, escaping the public's notice. That's largely because the evolution of the CIA's mission has proceeded so quietly. Americans did get a glimpse into the world of the CIA paramilitary when American Johnny (Mike) Spann, 32, was killed in Afghanistan in November 2001 after being overpowered by Taliban prisoners he had been interrogating; uncharacteristically, the CIA confirmed that Spann was one of its own, a member of the sog. Another peek into the shadows came last November when it was revealed that the explosion that had carbonized a carful of alleged al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen was caused by a Hellfire missile let loose by a CIA Predator drone.
The outlines of this new mission are not new, but TIME has uncovered enough fresh details to construct the fullest picture yet of the CIA's secret army. It spoke to past and current intelligence officials, including an active member of the sog, as well as to detractors within the Pentagon. Our report:
INTO AFGHANISTAN
Officially, the war in Afghanistan began on Oct. 7, 2001, with the first round of U.S. air attacks. For the SOG, however, the battle opened on Sept. 26, just 15 days after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. That was how "John," one of the SOG's paramilitary officers, unexpectedly found himself peering out the open window of a Soviet-made Mi-17 helicopter that day as it soared over the Anjuman Pass and into the Panjshir Valley, northeast of Kabul. Just ahead on the ground, John spotted a patrol of bearded men in turbans toting AK-47 rifles.
John tugged the sleeve of the pilot from the rebel Northern Alliance, who was aboard to guide the aircraft through the treacherous mountains of northeastern Afghanistan. "They're not ours," the Afghan shouted, letting John know that the helicopter could be fired on from below. The Taliban fighters, however, were so stunned by the appearance of the beastly aircraft roaring above them that they did not have time to shoulder their weapons and shoot before it flew out of range. "Wonderful," the CIA officer shouted to his Afghan comrade. Just a week earlier, John (who talked to TIME on the condition that his real name not be used) had been studying at a language school in Virginia, preparing for an entirely different assignment overseas. (What language and what posting, he would not say.) The agency yanked him out to join the first U.S. team going into Afghanistan. That was typical for a CIA paramilitary officer, who at a moment's notice may be thrown into what John calls a pickup team. John's team included four CIA officers fluent in Farsi or Dari who for years had been sneaking into Afghanistan, recruiting spies for the agency. Their mission now was to hook up with those contacts, collect intelligence for the impending U.S. aerial attack and hunt for bin Laden. Along with the light arms, radios and rations they had packed into the Mi-17 were two suitcases stuffed with $3 million. It was used for bribing Afghan warlords to fight the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
WHO JOINS UP?
Like all the SOG's other paramilitary operatives, John had spent years in the U.S. military before joining the CIA; five years is the minimum requirement. CIA recruiters regularly prowl clubs like those at Fort Bragg, N.C., where the Army's Special Operations Command has its headquarters, looking for Green Berets interested in even more unconventional work and higher pay (a starting SOG officer can earn more than $50,000 a year; a sergeant in the Green Berets begins at about $41,000). Special-forces soldiers, Navy seals and Air Force commandos are routinely dispatched to the agency on a temporary basis to provide special military skills that the CIA needs for specific missions. If a soldier is assigned highly clandestine work, his records are changed to make it appear as if he resigned from the military or was given civilian status; the process is called sheep dipping, after the practice of bathing sheep before they are sheared.
Military commandos who join the CIA full time are sent to the "farm," the agency's Camp Peary training center, located on 9,000 heavily wooded acres surrounded by a barbed-wire-topped fence near Williamsburg, Va. There the soldiers go through the year-long course that all new CIA case officers must take to learn such skills of the trade as infiltrating hostile countries, communicating in codes, retrieving messages from dead drops and recruiting foreign agents to spy for the U.S..
..CIA officials, leery of being sucked into new scandals, insist that their covert operations are now subject to layers of oversight. Before an agency paramilitary team can be launched, the President must sign an intelligence "finding" that broadly outlines the operation to be performed. That finding, along with a more detailed description of the mission, is sent to the congressional intelligence committees. If they object to an operation, they can cut off its funds the next time
the agency's budget comes up.
After approving a covert operation, Bush leaves the details of when and how to Tenet and his senior aides. For example, Administration officials say Bush did not specifically order the Predator attack in Yemen. But after Sept. 11 he gave the CIA the green light to use lethal force against al-Qaeda.
Rumsfeld, nevertheless, is intent on building his own covert force. He recently ordered the Special Operations Command to draw up secret plans to launch attacks against al-Qaeda around the world, and he intends to put an extra $1 billion in its budget next year for the job. Elsewhere in the Defense Department, small, clandestine units, coordinating little with the CIA, are busy organizing their own future battles. Several hundred Army agents, with what was originally known as the intelligence support activity, train to infiltrate foreign countries to scout targets. With headquarters at Fort Belvoir, Va., the unit is so secretive, it changes its cover name every six months. Delta Force has a platoon of about 100 intelligence operatives trained to sneak into a foreign country and radio back last-minute intelligence before the force's commandos swoop in for an attack.
The CIA isn't amused. "Don't replicate what you don't need to replicate," argues a senior U.S. intelligence officer. So who referees this dispute? In addition to running the CIA, Tenet, as director of Central Intelligence, is supposed to oversee all intelligence programs in the U.S. government. But the Pentagon, which controls more than 80% of the estimated $35 billion intelligence budget, doesn't want him meddling in its spying.
Ultimately, the man who chooses between them is the President. Both Tenet and Rumsfeld report directly to him. And thus far, Bush has been eager to give Tenet leeway to build up his commando force. With a major conflict looming in Iraq, units from all branches of the military are mobilizing to get a piece of the action.
The CIA, at least, will have its own.
Excerpted from article posted at:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030203-411370,00.html
Copyright 2003 Time Inc. All rights reserved.
3) Nuclear Power In Space And The Impact On Earth's Ecosystem
Nuclear Power In Space And The Impact On Earth's Ecosystem
by Bruce K. Gagnon
Washington - Jan 27, 2003
After a 30-year shutdown of plans for the nuclear rocket, the Bush administration has resuscitated the technology by giving NASA nearly $1 billion in the next five years to expand its space nuclear and propulsion research and development program.
"We are still doing exploration of our solar system in covered wagons," says Ed Weiler, NASA's Space Science Chief. "The Nuclear Systems Initiative will open up the railroad."
Included in NASA plans are the nuclear rocket to Mars; a new generation of Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) for interplanetary missions; nuclear-powered robotic Mars rovers to be launched in 2003 and 2009; and the nuclear powered mission called Pluto-Kuiper Belt scheduled for January, 2006. Ultimately NASA envisions mining colonies on the Moon, Mars, and asteroids that would be powered by nuclear reactors. All of the above missions would be launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on rockets with a historic 10% failure rate. By dramatically increasing the numbers of nuclear launches NASA also dramatically increases the chances of accident.
During the 1950s and 1960s NASA spent over $10 billion to build the nuclear rocket program which was canceled in the end because of the fear that a launch accident would contaminate major portions of Florida and beyond.
For the complete article, published in "Space Daily," see:
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nuclearspace-03b.html
Bruce K. Gagnon is the Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space group and can be contacted via globalnet@mindspring.com
Web Site: http://www.space4peace.org
Free Independent News
FlybyNews.com
For Life's Survival in the 21st Century
Flyby News bumper stickers with above text are available for the
mainstream education drive
This way while driving you can point others to Flyby News' resources. If you wish, $5 for a bumper sticker will cover most costs, (or 3 stickers for $10), but I hope we can get some subsidized for anyone wanting to place them on their car's bumper or other public placement. The artwork and colors are beautiful by Liz Nicholas. If you want one, please write to info@flybynews.com and provide your snail mail address, and specify if you want the blue-green swirling background, or red-orange sunset horizon.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Why Rush to War? * Peace Shields * Standing Deer
25 January 2003
1) Why the Rush to War?
2) Rush to Attack Iraq (sic) Timetables
3) U.S. Weighs Tactical Nuclear Strike on Iraq
4) Support for War with Iraq Weakens
5) Human shields head for Iraq
6) NOT IN MY NAME - Vigil for PEACE
7) Standing Deer murdered in Houston
Editor's Notes:
Why rush to war? It is the ugly American not giving Peace a Chance. It is the heartless person to rob joy, peace, and life from innocent people for some weird self-serving mad agenda.
This Wednesday, the day after Bush's State of the Union address, people are taking leave from work to attend a peace vigil. See item 6 for details on how you can participate. Also, see this item for information on Kucinich on CNN this Monday, on the UN weapon inspectors' report.
Those serving as human peace shields truly honor humanity with their caring, courage, and sacrifice. What a contrast from the US considering engaging in tactical nuclear strikes. Who is the terrorist?
During these dark times for humanity, please also honor and take actions in the memory of Standing Deer, who passed into the spirit world 20 January 2003.
May the good path take you and find you within.
1) Why the Rush to War?
We ought not to tolerate a government that commits such acts in our name.
Why the Rush to War?
By Robert Higgs*
In the face of worldwide opposition and growing domestic condemnation of the Bush administration's rush to war, the president has launched a new public relations offensive to convince the world abroad and the American people that nothing can stop the United States from carrying out its impending military conquest of Iraq. In public appearances, the commander in chief has displayed ever more impatience not only with the Iraqi regime's actions but also with anyone's even questioning his war policy. Merely repeating tired declarations that Saddam has brutalized his own people and "failed to disarm," President Bush has added nothing of substance to the administration's case for going to war. Instead, he has become petulant when asked to
explain, for example, why he is so angrily intent on military action against Iraq while he is so serenely content to let diplomacy continue indefinitely to resolve the more serious threat posed by North Korea's barbarous regime..
.. . In any event, the president's recently displayed impatience and undisguised hostility ill suit a leader who, thanks to congressional abdication, holds the power of war and peace in his own hands. War is too serious a matter to be decided by someone who lacks the keen intelligence and mature judgment to understand the situation fully and to weigh the pros and cons of alternative
policies wisely. George Bush is doing nothing to reassure the public that he has what it takes to be a responsible foreign policy maker.
Worse, he appears to be acting under the greatest sway of advisersCheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, and their ilkwho have long been obsessed with attacking Iraq no matter what Saddam might do to placate them and who manifest a megalomania for remaking the Middle East in their preferred image. Their fantasies of transforming Iraq into a liberal democracy abide light years away from any realizable reality: Iraq lacks all the ingredients for baking that cake. If Americans allow themselves to become lodged in Iraq, ruling it directly or through a puppet regime, they will soon rue the day they plunged into that oil-rich but politically hopeless quagmire. If U.S. occupiers cannot deal successfully even with the rag-tag clans and warlords of Afghanistan, they won't stand a chance in the treacherous ethnic, religious, and political cauldron known as Iraq.
Ultimately, the most troubling aspect of the administration's present rush to war is its failure to treat the question of war and peace as the grave issue that it is. War consists of many horrors, most of them spilling onto wholly innocent parties. It ought never to be entered into lightly. Indeed, it ought always to be undertaken only after every decent alternative has been exhausted. We are far from having exhausted every good alternative. To allow more time for the inspections to proceed promises a far better ratio of benefits to costs than going straight to war.
That the United States already has positioned scores of thousands of troops near Iraq, ready to launch an attack, in no way justifies proceeding with that attack. Acting on a "use 'em or lose 'em" assumption makes no sense. Better to withdraw those forces than to commit them to a war that easily might have been avoided. The men and women in the U.S. armed forces certainly deserve to be kept out of harm's way unless a completely compelling reason exists to place their lives at risk. Nor do the countless Iraqi civilians who will suffer in any war deserve the harms that a U.S. attack will bring them. The ordinary Iraqi citizen is not the Iraqi regime. No defensible moral calculus can justify killing those hapless peoplemilitary conscripts as well as civiliansjust because the Bush administration harbors an animus toward Saddam Hussein and his lieutenants.
Despite what President Bush insists, time is on our side, not Saddam's. We hold the upper hand in every way. It is no answer to catalog how under a host of conditions not yet realized and not likely to be realized soon, the Iraqi regime someday might seriously harm the American people here on our own territory. Justification of war requires that we face a definite, immediate, grave threat, and the administration has put forth no evidence that Iraq poses such a threat to us. In the present circumstances, then, a U.S. attack on Iraq would constitute a clear, utterly unjustified act of aggression. We ought not to tolerate a government that commits such acts in our name.
For the complete commentary, see:
http://www.independent.org/tii/news/030123Higgs.html
* For Robert Higgs' bio, see:
http://www.independent.org/tii/tii_info/bios/rhiggs.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a related piece, Senator John Kerry's remarks at Georgetown University:
"Mr. President, Do Not Rush To War"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/012503A.kerry.no.rush.htm
2) Rush to Attack Iraq (sic) Timetables
The Message from the Bush Camp: 'It's War Within Weeks'
Guardian/UK
Friday, January 24, 2003
Washington now concentrating on timing
State of union address to 'turn up the heat'
Blair faces nightmare scenario over war decision
by Julian Borger in Washington,
Ewen MacAskill and Simon Tisdall
President George Bush is determined to go to war with Saddam Hussein in the next few weeks, without UN backing if necessary, according to authoritative sources in Washington and London.
The US president is "to turn up the heat" in his state of the union address on Tuesday.
"The pressure comes from President Bush and it is felt all the way down," a European official said. "They're talking about weeks, not months. Months is a banned word now."
Mr Bush wanted the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, to force the issue of military action by presenting evidence of Saddam Hussein's violations of UN resolutions immediately after weapons inspectors give their report to the UN on Monday. In Washington circles such an event is being referred to as the Adlai Stevenson moment.
The "Adlai Stevenson moment" has become Washington shorthand for the US presentation of its intelligence case. Stevenson was the US ambassador to the UN at the time of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, who dramatically confronted the Soviet envoy with vivid aerial photographs of nuclear missiles being unloaded in Cuba.
Downing Street was alarmed by the Bush administration's sudden haste in moving towards a climax. It was adamant that the decision to go to war should not be declared before Tony Blair flies to Camp David for talks with Mr Bush next Friday.
An informed source in Washington said: "Blair is a good guy. They won't want to do that to him. They want it to look like he played a part in the policy-making but the decision has been made."
A key moment will now be the state of the union address. According to a Washington source, the US administration remains divided along old fault lines about the precise timescale of war. The US secretary of state, Donald Rumsfeld, wants Mr Bush to set a clear and imminent deadline. But Mr Powell, is resisting, asking for a little more time for diplomatic coalition-building.
But both sides of the divide are making it increasingly clear that the end result will be military action, with or without UN backing.
The chief White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, yesterday brushed off mounting anti-war feeling across Europe, led by France. It was "entirely possible that France won't be on the line", he said, adding that Britain, Australia, Italy, Spain and "virtually all of the eastern European countries" would provide support.
Mr Powell echoed this, saying: "I don't think we will have to worry about going it alone."
The impatience within the White House for action against Iraq came on a day in which the cracks in the international coalition against Iraq widened. China and Russia joined France and Germany in warning the US against precipitate action and calling for Washington to work within the UN.
The German foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, revealed the extent of European anger over the US position when he told Washington to "cool down". The Russian foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, said: "Russia deems that there is no evidence that would justify a war in Iraq."
But Mr Rumsfeld's deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, ratcheted up the rhetoric by claiming that Iraqi scientists were at risk of death. "We know from multiple sources that Saddam has ordered that any scientists who cooperate during interviews will be killed, as well as their families," he said.
Britain believes it has won a short reprieve before the US presents its own intelligence evidence against Saddam Hussein, in effect a declaration of war, but only for a fortnight at most.
Mr Bush will lay out the broad case for toppling President Saddam next Tuesday but White House officials insist the speech, a year after the president coined the phrase, "axis of evil", will stop short of being a declaration of war. That will await a more detailed presentation of intelligence evidence in the next few weeks, after Mr Blair visits Camp David.
"We said that has to be a substantive consultation, not a fait accompli," one British official said. The British argument is that the longer the US waits before showing its hand, the better the case it will have to put before the UN security council, as the inspectors come across more Iraqi infringements.
The Foreign Office had initially sought to defuse the rising tension around next Monday's inspectors' report by denying that it represented a "moment of truth", but in recent days a source conceded: "That was never going to be realistic. Of course it's important."
At his meeting with Mr Powell yesterday, the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, clung to the official line. "There are still ways that this can be resolved peacefully," he said. Mr Straw repeated that the British preference is for a second UN resolution before any further action against Iraq but Mr Powell, in a change of tack, refused to commit himself to seeking a second resolution.
One of the factors behind Washington's haste appears to be the annual rise in temperatures in the Iraqi desert over the next few months. In theory, US and some allied troops have the capacity to fight in any weather but the effectiveness of both soldiers and equipment diminishes rapidly when the temperature rises over 35C.
"The planes have been designed for the cold war. They start losing lift, carry lighter loads, and must make shorter runs when the temperature goes over 35," said one government official involved in Anglo-American debates over the timing of an attack.
Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,881215,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a related article "From the Wilderness"
January 24, 2003, 1930 PST (FTW) - Serious international developments are indicating that the first stages of the U.S. invasion of Iraq will begin unilaterally no later than next Wednesday and most likely as the President delivers his State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday night.
..Only time will tell if they are correct.
For the full report, see:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/012403_invasion.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
This following link is to an on January 25, 2003 in the Washington Post:
"Troop Deployment Timetables and Drive to Build Support Temper Bush's Desire to Act"
By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 25, 2003; Page A17
While making clear it believes Iraq has already violated last November's U.N. Security Council resolution, the Bush administration will acquiesce to continued U.N. inspections there, at least for the next several weeks, according to U.S. and diplomatic sources.
There is no expectation that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein will decide to cooperate more fully with weapons inspectors, and the administration is unlikely to announce any formal retreat as it strives to keep the pressure on Baghdad, sources said. But requests from Britain, the need to build more public and political support at home and abroad, and a military schedule that is a month or more away from full deployment have combined to temper thoughts of attempting an earlier inspection cutoff.
"Events will drive the timetable," one administration official said. Beginning with the inspectors' report to the council on Iraqi cooperation Monday, followed by a subsequent, less formal report now scheduled for Feb. 14, British and U.S. officials believe it will become increasingly apparent to a council majority that, even without the discovery of an Iraqi "smoking gun," continued inspections will serve no useful disarmament purpose.
A complete posting, see:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/012603C.more.time.htm
3) U.S. Weighs Tactical Nuclear Strike on Iraq
Los Angeles Times
Saturday, January 25, 2003 by the
U.S. Weighs Tactical Nuclear Strike on Iraq
by Paul Richter
WASHINGTON -- As the Pentagon continues a highly visible buildup of troops and weapons in the Persian Gulf, it is also quietly preparing for the possible use of nuclear weapons in a war against Iraq, according to a report by a defense analyst.
Although they consider such a strike unlikely, military planners have been actively studying lists of potential targets and considering options, including the possible use of so-called bunker-buster nuclear weapons against deeply buried military targets, says analyst William M. Arkin, who writes a regular column on defense matters for The Times.
Military officials have been focusing their planning on the use of tactical nuclear arms in retaliation for a strike by the Iraqis with chemical or biological weapons, or to preempt one, Arkin says.
For a complete posting of this Los Angeles Times article, see:
http://news@commondreams.org/headlines03/0125-01.htm
4) Support for War with Iraq Weakens
Support for War with Iraq Weakens
Majority in Poll Critical of bush record on the economy
By Dana Milbank and Richard Morin
Washington Post
January 22, 2003
Seven in 10 Americans would give U.N. weapons inspectors months more to pursue their arms search in Iraq, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll that found growing doubts about an attack on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
In addition to the public's skepticism about military action against Iraq, the poll found that a majority of Americans disapproved of President Bush's handling of the economy for the first time in his presidency. The number of Americans who regard the economy as healthy has not been lower in the past nine years, and fewer than half supported the tax cut plan Bush has proposed as a remedy.
The Post-ABC poll is based on telephone interviews with 1,133 randomly selected adults conducted from Jan. 16 to Jan. 20. Margin of sampling error for the overall results is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
For this complete report, see:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23564-2003Jan21.html
5) Human shields head for Iraq
Human shields head for Iraq
By Andrew Cawthorne
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/030125/80/dnc6n.html
LONDON (Reuters) - Proclaiming they are prepared todie to stop war in Iraq, the first convoy of "human shield" volunteers has driven out of London on double-decker buses bound for Baghdad.
The roughly 50 volunteers, ranging from a 19-year-old factory worker to a 60-year-old former diplomat, formed the vanguard of a series of caravans organisers say will take hundreds, possibly thousands, of anti-war activists to Iraq.
Dismissing criticism by some that they are naively playing into Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's hands, the volunteers plan to fan out to heavily populated areas of Baghdad and other parts of the country as a deterrent to possible U.S.-led bombing.
"We're not a bunch of nutters. We have thought about this," Scottish businessman Stevan Allen, 31, told Reuters at the send-off on the banks of the Thames river. "I could die, but I'd rather live a short life achieving something useful than a long one doing nothing to change the terrible state of the world."
.."We have been inundated by volunteers. This is just the first wave. I am calling for 10,000 to get down there and stop this war," he told Reuters as he saw his first group off.
ACROSS EUROPE
Saturday's convoy -- like others planned for early February -- will travel across Europe, picking up morepeople, loading provisions and stopping to promote their cause. The three buses were led by a white taxi with a huge peace flag on the top.
On board were volunteers from across Europe, Canada and the United States, plus one Norwegian-based Iraqi.
..In the Muslim world, the main rallying point for
would-be human shields is in Jordan. There, a campaign
led by leftist parties and civic bodies is seeking
100,000 volunteers.
The above was excerpted, for the complete article, see:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/030125/80/dnc6n.html
6) NOT IN MY NAME - Vigil for PEACE
NO WAR IN IRAQ - January 29, 2003 - NOT IN MY NAME -
Vigil for PEACE - WORK STOPPAGE --
In honor of Phil Berrigan, people are being encouraged to take a peace sign and/or stand in a silent vigil for peace for ONE hour. This is a grass roots action on the day after Bush's State of the Union address. The WORK STOPPAGE to CLAIM the war against Iraq is NOT IN MY NAME, begins at 2:00 P.M. EST, (9am HI) (10am AK) (11am PT) (noon Mt) (1pm Central)(2pm ET). Please, pass the word to help spread the effectiveness of this action!
NO WAR IN IRAQ - January 29, 2003 - nationally coordinated day of local protests at Federal buildings, the day following Bush's State of the Union address. Also, in solidarity with the European movement for mass anti-war demonstrations on February 15, there will be demonstrations in thousands of cities across the country and around the world. A.N.S.W.E.R. joins with UFPJ and hundreds of other organizations who will be mobilizing for the NYC action. The February 15 protest will be part of the Week of Anti-War Resistance from February 13 to February 21. For more information on these campaigns, visit http://www.VoteNoWar.org and http://www.unitedforpeace.org
SCOTT RITTER: The Case Against The U.S. War on Iraq - Join the campaign to see and share a historic anti-war speech by Scott Ritter at the Deerfield Academy on October 15, 2002. For related information on this video and subject, visit the following URL link: http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1035412352,83775,
PROTESTS PLANNED AT SPACE NUKES CONFERENCE - February 3-4 -
The Global Network (GN), with support from activists in New Mexico and beyond, will be protesting in Albuquerque at the 20th Annual Symposium on Space Nuclear Power & Propulsion. NASA keeps insisting that nuclear power in space is only for civilian interplanetary exploration. For years the GN has been saying that nukes in space are really icebreakers -- sold to the public as civilian technologies but also intended for military purposes down the road. GN board member Dr. Michio Kaku, Professor of Physics at CUNY has long maintained that nuclear reactors are the only feasible way to provide the enormous power needed for laser weapons in space. On May 3, 2003, there will be protests at NASA's Launch of Mars Plutonium Mission at the Kennedy Space Center. For more information, visit the web site of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space http://www.space4peace.org
Draft Kucinich for President 2004 -
Representative Dennis J. Kucinich is a man of strength and conviction who understands that for every action there is a consequence in national policy. Whether that be a war on Iraq resulting in even more terrorism against the United States, or lessening regulations on corporate America resulting in high crimes against the people, or cutting health funding to communities which results in more people going without needed medical services. It is time to stand up for sanity and reclaim our democracy. Representative Kucinich for US President in 2004, visit: http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1021307488,43210,m"
Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich will be appearing on CNN's "Wolf Blitzer Reports" this Monday 27 January 2003 - [Show airs between 5-6pm EST.] Kucinich will discuss the latest developments in Iraq and Chief Weapons Inspector Hans Blix's report to the United Nations.
These items are posted at flybynews.com with additional events, and updated, under "campaigns and actions"http://www.flybynews.com
7) Standing Deer murdered in Houston
Original Message Fri, 24 Jan 2003 101828 -0500
From"mitchelcohen@mindspring.com"
To: actiongreens@yahoogroups.com
Subject[ActionGreens] Ex-pol. pris. Standing Deer murdered in Houston
From: Bob Lederer ledererbob@usa.net
>
For those who missed yesterday's Democracy Now! and Free Speech Radio News, Native American former political prisoner Standing Deer was stabbed to death on Monday in his home in Houston. During his 25-year sentence in federal prison, he became friends with Leonard Peltier after exposing a prison administration plot to kill Leonard. Since his release in 2001, Standing Deer had become active in the indigenous community of Houston, where he became a friend and colleague of restored KPFT Native American programmer Jacquelyn Battise. Jac told some of us on our last trip to Houston that she greatly valued the friendship and insights of this 70-year-old elder, and had him as a guest on her program several times. He had become a community adviser to the program and Jac looked forward to more joint work in the future. So this is a terrible blow for her as well.
Here's an excerpt from her email to me from Monday
There many people in grief and sorrow tonight over the death of Standing Deer. He is loved by many. He was a true warrior. In his death he put up a fight. He was devoted to freeing his dear friend Leonard Peltier. I know he would want us to carry on that struggle. Leonard has suffered a great loss in Standing Deer his trusted friend.
In my shock and horror to Standing Deer's death I asserted an assumption that this could be a political murder. As there is someone in custody for his Standing Deer's death, all the pieces are not yet known and there are many questions to be answered before anyone can say what exactly went down.
It has been a nightmare for many of us who loved him. Standing Deer knew what hell on earth was and he evolved from that hell. As an elder he had so much joy and spirit and love. I don't know the words to say what knowing him has been for me I can only hope to know something of the kind of strength and courage and love Standing Deer was.
Jacquelyn
********************************
P.S. (from Bob): What follows is a brief statement about Standing Deer's murder by the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, followed by a statement Standing Deer sent to an Ameican Indian Movement rally for Leonard Peltier last summer in Houston.
*******************
LPDC - On the Passing of Standing Deer
January 21, 2003
Dear Friends
Late yesterday afternoon the LPDC was informed of the death of Robert Standing Deer Wilson. As many of you know, Standing Deer was a close friend and brother to Leonard Peltier for the past 25 years.
He had long been a vocal supporter for Leonard, and in the past year assisted in organizing Houston events and radio programs dedicated to Leonard's freedom. More recently, Standing Deer joined the LPDC's Board of Directors and was an active member. The LPDC is saddened and greatly regrets his passing. More information will be forthcomingas details are released.
In Solidarity,
LPDC
http://www.freepeltier.org
*************
Sanding Deer's Message to the People June 26, 2002
Greetings to all my sisters and brothers, I pray you, your many relatives, and those you love are well and happy and enjoying all the blessings our Mother has to offer.
My name is Standing Deer. I've been locked away in supermax Iron Houses for the last quarter-of-a-century. Eight months ago they got weak and let me go, and while I'm happy to be out of
prison I'll never be free until my brother Leonard Peltier is free.
So as we approach another June 26 which marks the 27th anniversary of the firefight at Oglala, South Dakota, where Peltier was framed and lost his freedom we must remember this indomitable warrior who is being robbed of his very life because of the lies and injustice of the takers of the fat. Leonard has been a captive of the united states going on 27 years for a crime he didn't even commit. I've known him for 25 of those years and I've seen them force him to exist in a cage so small that had he been a dog the Humane Society would have closed the prison down. During these years his keepers have subjected him to hideous treatment in an effort to break his will and Spirit but he is protected by the Spirit of Crazy Horse and his warrior heart remains strong and unyielding serving as an inspiration to us all. Make no mistake about it - Peltier is an innocent man! He has committed no crime! He is the victim of a system of injustice which operates outside the moral boundaries that just people claim to live by.
Brothers and Sisters, Leonard Peltier is a Prisoner of War unjustly held captive in his own land by the descendants of the very sea pirates who murdered his great grandmothers & great grandfathers, decimated his People., and stole Mother Earth out from under their feet.
Peltier is the longest held Native Prisoner of War in this country and on June 26th People all across Turtle Island will be holding events to honor this courageous brother. In Houston we will be having a march dedicated to Leonard's freedom. You are all invited to attend. Houston will be the only city to have Leonard's grandson, Cyrus, to speak to us with a message directly from his grandfather in Leavenworth prison. Please come out for this June 26th celebration. We want you to be there!
[The event was sponsored by Houston A.I.M.]
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Web Site
IN MEMORY OF STANDING DEER
August 26, 1932 - January 20, 2003
http://geocities.com/standingdeer1/index.htm
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Germany-France-Peace * Bush-Nazi * UN * Kucinich
23 January 2003
"..WRONG WAR at the WRONG TIME!"
Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Ma.)
1) France Vows to Block Resolution on Iraq War
2) Germany against military action against Iraq
3) Russia Military See U.S. Iraq Attack in Feb
4) Standing on the Dead -- Bush-Nazi Connection
5) Demand Congress to Respect UN Process
6) Kucinich: "Peace as a Civil Right"
Editor's Notes:
The following is from the story that broke on CBS TV Evening News on January 21, 2003:
"There are new signs that war could take an enormous economic toll. Military officials tell CBS News tonight they have a solid indication that Saddam plans to blow up Iraq's oil wells, if it appears certain that his regime will fall.
He did it in Kuwait at the end of the Gulf War. It took 9 months to put out the fires. Iraq has twice the number of wells
The Gulf Region is still recovering from the environmental and economic affects of Saddam's scorch earth policy of 1991. Destroying the Iraqi oil wells now would send oil prices into the stratosphere and cripple the economic recovery here."
It appears that something far more sinister is going on than just a war for oil. Destabilization seems to be in the interests of the Bush administration. One can speculate why, but unless peace can persevere, unfortunately, we are going to find out.
Items 1 and 2 contain good news from France and Germany, and the strengthening of the UN to unite the world under a process for peace and a better economic and environmental direction. Item 3 is about a report from Moscow stating that US war plans are on for mid February. John Roberts of CBS News reported "..that it appears the White House is becoming increasingly convinced that if it comes to war it may be without the blessing of the U.N." Item 4 is another explosive piece by Marc Ash, exposing the Bush-Nazi connection. When will this story reach effectively through to the mainstream media? Item 5 has some actions for what you can do to support the UN peace process, and item 6 begins and links to another inspirational speech by Dennis Kucinich, "Peace as a Civil Right."
1) France Vows to Block Resolution on Iraq War
-- At the United Nations, several foreign ministers said a war in Iraq would spawn more terrorist acts around the globe and, in the words of Germany's Joschka Fischer, have "disastrous consequences for long-term regional stability."
Resource: Washington Post -
http://www.washingtonpost.com
France Vows to Block Resolution on Iraq War
By Glenn Kessler and Colum Lynch
UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 20 -- France suggested today it would wage a major diplomatic fight, including possible use of its veto power, to prevent the U.N. Security Council from passing a resolution authorizing military action against Iraq.
France's opposition to a war, emphatically delivered here by Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, is a major blow for the Bush administration, which has begun pouring tens of thousands of troops into the Persian Gulf in preparation for a military conflict this spring. The administration had hoped to mark the final phase in its confrontation with Iraq when U.N. weapons inspectors deliver a progress report Monday.
But in a diplomatic version of an ambush, France and other countries used a high-level Security Council meeting on terrorism to lay down their markers for the debate that will commence next week on the inspectors' report. Russia and China, which have veto power, and Germany, which will chair the Security Council in February, also signaled today they were willing to let the inspections continue for months.
Only Britain appeared to openly support the U.S. position that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has thwarted effective inspections.
"If war is the only way to resolve this problem, we are going down a dead end," de Villepin told reporters. "Already we know for a fact that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs are being largely blocked, even frozen. We must do everything possible to strengthen this process."
The United Nations, he said, should stay "on the path of cooperation. The other choice is to move forward out of impatience over a situation in Iraq to move towards military intervention. We believe that today nothing justifies envisaging military action."
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, in the face of such comments, departed from his prepared text on terrorism and implored his colleagues to remember that the Security Council resolution passed unanimously Nov. 8 gave Iraq "a last chance" to meet its obligations. "We must not shrink from our duties and our responsibilities when the material comes before us next week," Powell said. He used a variation of the phrase "must not shrink" three more times as he addressed the council.
During the weeks of debate on the Iraq resolution, French officials had indicated they were open to some sort of military intervention if Iraq did not comply. But now the French appear to have set much higher hurdles for support.
Rising opposition to war, particularly in France, appears to have played a role in the hardening positions on the Security Council. Foreign officials are also aware of polls in the United States suggesting that support for a war drops dramatically if the Bush administration does not have U.N. approval.
While the United Nations was debating today, U.S. military officials announced that the Army is sending a force of about 37,000 soldiers, spearheaded by the Texas-based 4th Infantry Division, to the Persian Gulf region. It is the largest ground force identified among an estimated 125,000 U.S. troops ordered to deploy since Christmas Eve, the Associated Press reported.
At the United Nations, several foreign ministers said a war in Iraq would spawn more terrorist acts around the globe and, in the words of Germany's Joschka Fischer, have "disastrous consequences for long-term regional stability."
"Terrorism is far from being crushed," said Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov. "We must be careful not to take unilateral steps that might threaten the unity of the entire [anti-]terrorism coalition. In this context we are strictly in favor of a political settlement of the situation revolving around Iraq."
Powell replied: "We cannot fail to take the action that may be necessary because we are afraid of what others might do. We cannot be shocked into impotence because we are afraid of the difficult choices that are ahead of us."
But when the foreign ministers emerged from the council debate and addressed reporters, it appeared that Powell's pleas had made little impact. Although President Bush said last week he was "sick and tired of games and deception," Fischer said the inspections were a success.
"Iraq has complied fully with all relevant resolutions and cooperated very closely with the U.N. team on the ground," Fischer said. "We think things are moving in the right direction, based on the efforts of the inspection team, and [they] should have all the time which is needed."
Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan said Monday's report should be regarded as a "new beginning" rather than an end to inspections. The chief weapons inspectors "have been talking about that there is more work to do in terms of the inspections and they need more time. I think we should respect their opinion and support their work."
De Villepin, in a lengthy and at times theatrical news conference, was asked whether France would use its veto power to thwart Washington's campaign for quick action. He said France "will shoulder its responsibilities, faithful to the principles it has."
France would never "associate ourselves with military intervention that is not supported by the international community," de Villepin added. "We think that military intervention would be the worst possible solution."
France, as chair of the Security Council this month, had organized today's meeting on terrorism in part to draw attention to its contention that the Iraq situation has detracted from the more pressing need to confront international terrorism.
De Villepin reacted coolly to suggestions, made by senior Bush administration officials Sunday, that Hussein and his top advisers be offered political asylum outside Iraq to avert a war. "The problem is something more difficult than a question of change of regime," he said. "Let us not be diverted from our objective. It is the disarmament of Iraq."
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan also indirectly criticized the prospect of war when he addressed the council on terrorism. "Any sacrifice of freedom or the rule of law within states -- or any generation of new disputes between states in the name of anti-terrorism -- is to hand the terrorists a victory that no act of theirs could possibly bring," he said, alluding to frequent U.S. assertions that the confrontation with Iraq is part of the larger war on terrorism.
The only sign of support for the U.S. position came from its closest ally, Britain. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said "time was running out" for Hussein and his "cat and mouse" game. But Straw added that Britain preferred a U.N. resolution authorizing force.
"Iraq has a responsibility now to avoid a conflict, to avoid a war," Powell told reporters. "There is no question that Iraq continues to misunderstand the seriousness of the position that it's in.
"If the United Nations is going to be relevant," he added, "it has to take a firm stand."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19221-2003Jan20.html
2) Germany against military action against Iraq
U.S. Angst Over Allies Grows
Jan. 22, 2003
In a move that will heighten Bush administration anxiety, Germany has come out against any Security Council resolution authorizing military action against Iraq.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder had already refused to commit troops to any such war, but hedged on whether he'd back U.N.approval for any action. At a party rally Tuesday night, he aligned himself closely with the French, who have also voiced skepticism over the justification for conflict.
"Don't expect Germany to approve a resolution legitimizing war, don't expect it," Schroeder said.
Just a day earlier, the United States mounted a coordinated diplomatic offensive aimed at getting reluctant allies to back military action.
Clearly displaying his irritation, President Bush mocked calls to give inspectors beyond their Jan. 27 report to complete their job.
"This business about more time, how much time do we need to see clearly that he's not disarming?" Mr. Bush told reporters.
Also Tuesday, the White House released a detailed report called "Apparatus of Lies," documenting what it calls Iraq's "disinformation and propaganda campaigns."
"The Iraqis use elaborate ruses and obvious falsehoods, covert actions and false on-the-record statements, and sophisticated preparation and spontaneous exploitation of opportunities," the report read. "To craft tragedy, the regime places civilians close to military equipment, facilities, and troops, which are legitimate targets in an armed conflict."
The report accuses the Iraqis of leaking false stories to the press, exploiting Islam, forging documents and, "in a particularly shocking practice," holding dead babies for months "so that they can stage mass funeral processions and create the impression that UN sanctions are killing small children."
The report is similar to an effort prior to the 1991 Gulf War to depict atrocities by the Iraqi government. One of the more sensational accusations, that Iraqi soldiers had removed babies from incubators so that they would die, was never substantiated.
In a speech cleared by the White House, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage Tuesday said time was running out for any option except war.
Though no proof has been made public, Armitage said the 16 chemical weapons discovered recently in Iraq were on the tip of an iceberg that illustrates Saddam's duplicity.
"Finding these 16 warheads just raises a basic question: Where are the other 29,984? Because that's how many empty chemical warheads the U.N. Special Commission estimated he had, and he's never accounted for," Armitage said.
White House officials said Armitage's argument previewed the case Mr. Bush will make against Saddam in his State of the Union address. They said Mr. Bush would not announce hostilities or impose a deadline Tuesday night, and they played down prospects of new evidence being revealed.
CBS News Correspondent John Roberts reports that it appears the White House is becoming increasingly convinced that if it comes to war it may be without the blessing of the U.N.
The president faces fierce opposition to the idea of war, not only at the U.N. Security Council, but also among many Democrats on Capitol Hill who said the threat from Iraq is not imminent.
"I continue to be convinced that this is the wrong war at the wrong time," says Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Ma.).
Russia, France, Germany and Syria are Security Council members who say they are unconvinced a war is necessary. France and Russia have veto power, and Germany will soon hold the Council presidency.
Schroeder did not specify whether Germany would vote against a resolution or abstain. The French have left open the possibility of military action against Saddam as a last resort, but Schroeder has not.
Still, British Foreign Office minister Denis MacShane said Wednesday he was confident the United Nations would approve action against Iraq.
"The U.N. will accept its responsibilities in this matter and make sure that Saddam Hussein does not get away with what he has been getting away with for years," MacShane told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.
Meanwhile, arms monitors, on their daily rounds of surprise inspections, stirred up protests from angry students at Baghdad Technology Institute on Wednesday.
"No War For Oil," read one student's sign in English, reflecting a common Iraqi view that U.S. threats to attack Iraq are motivated by lust for oil.
The U.N. teams Wednesday also made unannounced visits to the Badr Company, an engineering facility south of Baghdad where work was carried out before the 1991 Gulf linked to Iraq's nascent nuclear program; and to Basra University.
MMIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/18/world/main537096.shtml
3) Russia Military See U.S. Iraq Attack in Feb
Published January 22, 2003 by Reuters
Russia Military See U.S. Iraq Attack in Feb
MOSCOW - Russia's armed forces have obtained information that the United States and its allies have already decided to launch military action in Iraq from mid-February, news agency Interfax said on Wednesday.
The agency's specialist military news wire AVN, quoting an unnamed high-ranking source in the Russian general staff, said U.S.-led operations would be launched once an attacking force of 150,000 had been assembled in the Gulf.
"According to the information we have, the operation is planned for the second half of February. The decision to launch it has been taken but not yet been made public," the source told the agency, which has generally authoritative contacts in the Russian military and political establishment.
The source added that the main aim of the war would be to secure control of Iraqi oilfields.
It was not indicated by what means the Russian military had obtained such information -- it was not clear if it had been acquired covertly by Russian intelligence services or by a direct tip-off from Washington, which would be keen to avoid any misunderstandings with Moscow if it does launch a war.
The United States says it is building up a force estimated to reach more than 150,000 by the end of next month. Britain is sending a further 30,000 troops. No other allies have come forward with significant military commitments so far and some, notably France, Germany and Russia are against rapid action.
"The military operation against Iraq will be conducted by a combination of means -- strikes will be from the air, land and sea. The war will be short, lasting about one month," the Russian source was quoted as saying.
The source added that the main aim of the operation was not so much to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein but to secure U.S. control over Iraqi oilfields. "Hussein is the pretext. The real aim of the military action is control over Iraqi oil," he said.
Russia, together with France which is also a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, are cautioning against US action in Iraq now while U.N. arms inspectors are continuing to search for evidence of weapons of mass destruction there.
Russia has a major commercial interest in Iraqi oil and has made clear its eagerness to exploit Iraq's huge reserves once U.N. sanctions on Saddam are lifted.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Ltd
http://www.reuters.com
4) Standing on the Dead -- Bush-Nazi Connection
Standing on the Dead
By Marc Ash
t r u t h o u t | Essay
http://truthout.org/docs_02/012303A.ma.dead.htm
Wednesday 22 January 2003
"What luck for the rulers that men do not think."
--Adolf Hitler
In October of 1942, under the Trading With the Enemy Act, the U.S. government halted operations at New York's Union Banking Corporation. A bank official was charged with "Running Nazi front groups in the Untied States."
His name: Prescott Bush.
Prescott Bush, father of future US President George Herbert Walker Bush and grandfather of George W. Bush, had been hard at work on behalf of his Nazi partners. In flagrant violation of U.S. law, Prescott Bush had worked tirelessly to launder money, procure raw materials, arrange transportation and provide guidance for the Nazi war effort and the German army he had helped to build.
In April of 2002, George W. Bush -- standing literally on the bones of the men who fell at Normandy beachhead in mortal combat with that very same Nazi army -- delivered his Memorial Day address. He said, in part, "This is a day our country has set apart to remember what was gained in our wars, and all that was lost."
Let us remember.
As the German army came crashing into Poland, spreading death and destruction in its path, Prescott Bush continued aiding the Nazis.
As German tanks rolled through the Ardennes Forest and into Paris, Prescott Bush continued aiding the Nazis.
As Allied forces fighting to defend France were forced literally into the sea at Dunkirk by the German Army, Prescott Bush continued aiding the Nazis.
As German war planes rained bombs down on London, killing 50 thousand English men, women and children, Prescott Bush continued aiding the Nazis.
As millions died at the hands of the most ruthless and violent organization the world has ever known, Prescott Bush continued aiding them.
And of course, as Hitler and the Nazis planned and carried out the extermination of Europe's Jews, Prescott Bush was an eager and active partner.
When did Bush stop? When we made him stop.
In this case, George W. Bush won't have to worry about the US Government shutting him down. That's been taken care of -- he is the US Government.
As debate rages back and forth across the Atlantic over the morality and acceptability of this assault against Iraq, it is interesting to note the German position.
It was Germany who bought most completely into the war lie during the past century. It was the German people who, with their faith in country and leadership, and even their loyalty to the Fatherland, made possible the greatest nightmare the world has ever known. It is those same German people who stand today before Europe and the world in unflinching opposition to this latest world conquering force.
How well do the German people know George W. Bush? Better than they want to.
-------
Sources:
Heir to the Holocaust:
http://www.clamormagazine.org/features/issue14.3_feature.3.html
The Bush Nazi Connection:
http://www.lpdallas.org/features/draheim/dr991216.htm
Gold Fillings, Auschwitz & George Bush:
http://www.spiritone.com/~gdy52150/bushies.htm
Or just do a search at www.google.com under " Prescott Bush Nazi UBC 1942" and take your pick of the documents that come up. (Highly recommended.)
---------------------
You can send comments to t r u t h o u t Editor Marc Ash at: ma@truthout.com
Truthout Homepage=====> http://www.truthout.org
5) Demand Congress to Respect UN Process
Tell Your Congressperson to Pressure the President On Iraq:
The UN Process Must Be Respected
http://www.truemajority.com/index.asp?action=2411&ms=conglt1&ref=48259
The United Nations Inspections are working. Foreign and domestic opposition to a unilateral invasion of Iraq by the United States is growing. Even Tony Blair's administration is muttering about a need to get approval from the House of Commons before sending in British Troops. Everybody seems to "get it" except for the Bush Administration.
A letter addressed to President Bush is being circulated in Congress. It calls for The President to "make every attempt to achieve Iraq's disarmament through diplomatic means and with the full support of our allies, in accordance with the process articulated in UN Security Council resolution 1441."
Shouldn't your Representative's name be on this sensible letter? Click Reply and we'll send a fax to your Representative now asking them to sign on. If you want to customize the fax or if a friend forwarded this email to you, just click this link to send your free fax:
http://www.truemajority.com/index.asp?action=2411&ms=conglt1&ref=48259
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Links For resources and campaigns to stop the US War on Iraq:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/
http://www.traprockpeace.org
http://www.flybynews.com
6) Kucinich: "Peace as a Civil Right"
U.S. Representative Dennis J. Kucinich
Lakewood Ministerial Alliance
Martin Luther King Day Celebration
Lakewood Presbyterian Church
Sunday, January 19, 2003
Lakewood, Ohio
Peace as a Civil Right
"Oh hear my song, thou God of all the nations, a song of peace for their land and for mine." - - This Is My Song, Finlandia, Jean Sibelius
The life of Dr. Martin Luther King shines like the sun through the clouds which hover over this nation, casting a beam of light whenever darkness seeks to envelope us, illuminating our way over the rocky, perilous ground until we can envision the upward path towards social and economic justice.
This evening let us reflect on his challenge to America's prosecution of a war in Vietnam as we ponder an America poised to once again use its destructive power against a nation of people already broken by war, by US sanctions, by an uncaring leader. America stands ready to accelerate the bombing over major cities in Iraq, to destroy lives, families, houses, buildings, water systems, electric systems, to light fires to force populations to move, to engage in house to house combat. All in the name of fighting terrorism. In the name of removing weapons of mass destruction.
In his speech thirty five years ago at Riverside Church in New York City, Dr. King created the synthesis of peace and civil rights.
"Somehow this madness must cease," Dr. King said then of the annihilation of the Vietnamese people and their nation. "I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted."
Let us contemplate his words. "Somehow this madness must cease." Tonight we call for an end to the pretext for war. Tonight we call for the end of justification for war. Tonight we call for the end of a military build up towards war. Tonight we call for the end of war in the hearts of those who desire war. Tonight we call for the beginning of compassion. Tonight we call for human dignity. Tonight we call for human unity.
"I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption in Vietnam," Dr. King said.
Once again the hopes of people of two nations are being smashed by weapons in the name of eliminating weapons. Let us abolish weapons of mass destruction at home. Joblessness is a weapon of mass destruction. Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction. Hunger is a weapon of mass destruction. Homelessness is a weapon of mass destruction. Poor health care is a weapon of mass destruction. Poor education is a weapon of mass destruction. Discrimination is a weapon of mass destruction.
Let us abolish such weapons of mass destruction here at home. Let us use hundreds of billions of our tax dollars, which some would cast upon Iraq in bombs and warring troops, instead for the restoration of the American Dream, to rebuild our economy and to expand opportunities for all. We have a duty to assert our human needs as a people and not to yield them for the base concerns of an unresponsive government: We have a right to a job. We have a right to decent housing. We have a right to health care. We have a right to food fit to eat, air fit to breathe and water fit to drink. Peace is a civil right which makes other human rights possible. Peace is the precondition for our existence. Peace permits our continued existence.
"I speak as a citizen of the world," Dr. King said, "for the world, as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our nation: The great initiative in this war is ours, the initiative to stop it must be ours."
Today the world is watching, once again, aghast at an America resolutely poised for war. The UN is already predicting a war against Iraq will bring about at least 500,000 casualties among the men, women and children of Iraq who are not foreigners, but are our brothers and sisters.
It is up to us to rally our countrymen and countrywomen to the cause of peace, for the sake of peace, and for the sake of the innocents and whatever innocence of our own we may rescue.
For the sake of truth too.
No justification whatsoever exists for the United States, the United Nations or any institution whose existence celebrates justice or human unity to wage war against Iraq..
for the complete transcript, see:
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/speech/oh10_kucinich/030122MLKday.html
You can contact Dennis Kucinich at dkucinich@aol.com
For the Flyby News resource page on Dennis Kucinich, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1021307488,43210,m
Free Independent News
FlybyNews.com
For Life's Survival in the 21st Century
Flyby News bumper stickers with above text are available for those wanting to join the mainstream education drive.
This way while driving you can also point others to FlybyNews.com resources. If you wish, $5 for a bumper sticker will cover most costs, (or 3 stickers for $10), but I hope we can get some subsidized for anyone wanting to place them on their car's bumper or other public placement. The artwork and colors are beautiful by Liz Nicholas. If you want one, please write to info@flybynews.com and provide your snail mail address, and specify if you want the blue-green swirling background, or red-orange sunset horizon.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
MLK - PEACE * IronCross * Mossad - JFK * FlyingNukes
20 January 2003
"We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools. We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the way God's universe is made; this is the way it is structured.
John Donne caught it years ago and placed it in graphic terms: "No man is an island entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." And he goes on toward the end to say, "Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind; therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." We must see this, believe this, and live by it if we are to remain awake through a great revolution.."
Martin Luther King, Jr
31 March 1968 -
Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution'
1) "Flawed Report; Iraqi Warheads Found" William Rivers Pitt
2) January 18 - Hundreds of Thousands - Give Peace a Chance'
3) Humanity hanging from a cross of iron' - Dwight D. Eisenhower
4) Israel's War Machine, JFK's Assassination, and the Atomic Bomb'
5) Dubya and the flying nuclear reactors'
6) AwolBush.com - a chickenhawk's perspective
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
Dwight D. Eisenhower
April 16,1953
Editor's Notes:
Item 1 is from a letter by William Rivers Pitt regarding a misleading CNN report. This information can really be for most all the mainstream news reports. Item 2 is a broad report on the significant demonstrations this past weekend. Item 3 goes again to statements by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, calling his address, "The Chance for Peace." Item 4 is a piece by Victor Thorn on an overview of Michael Collins Piper's book "Final Judgment," which puts Israel's intelligence agency, the Mossad, as involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Item 5 is more on Dubya and the flying nuclear reactors.' Item 6 is on the military history or non-history of President-select's chickenhawk perspective.
"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power.
We have guided missiles and misguided men."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
For a related Flyby News Archive Link, April 4, 2002 - See Item 2:
Martin Luther King Assassination-Conspiracy Confirmed
1) "Flawed Report; Iraqi Warheads Found" William Rivers Pitt
William Rivers Pitt, Author "War on Iraq"
to: Staff / Aaron Brown CNN
Subject: Flawed Report; Iraqi Warheads Found
Thursday 16 January 2003
My name is William Rivers Pitt. I am the author of the book 'War on Iraq,' which has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list, and has cracked the top ten bestseller lists of the Washington Post, L.A. Times, San Francisco Chronicle and others. I am also a writer for the publication truthout.org.
I apologize for flouting my resume at you, but I wanted to make sure that you do not dismiss this email as coming from someone not very well versed in this Iraq situation. A correspondent ........ at CNN gave me your address, so that I might pass a note through you to Mr. Aaron Brown. I am hoping he is prepared to hear what I am saying.
First things first: The warheads.
Let's be clear. These were not 'chemical warheads.' In the Iraqi arsenal, a warhead is a warhead - an empty ordnance space strapped to a missile. What matters is the payload, be it explosive or chemical or nuclear. The item placed in the warhead denotes the designation. These warheads were stone-cold empty, so by definition they are not 'chemical warheads.' They are, in fact, nothing, because they were loaded with no payload. Furthermore, the word 'warhead' is in itself misleading, as these were artillery munitions.
Second. Iraq is allowed by UN resolutions to have a variety of weapons, including the Al Samoud missile. We did not want to pull Iraq's fangs completely after the Gulf War, considering the neighborhood they live in. We allowed them to keep missiles that fly only a certain distance (150km most often). Many people will not know this, and will think the presence of these munitions will represent a breach of the UN resolution. This is not the case.
Third. Scott Ritter informed me today that these munitions were part of Iraq's declaration last December. I await further confirmation of this, and so should the journalism world.
Fourth. This is absolutely a vindication of the inspections regime. They found the stuff, and it will be destroyed, and no American soldiers or Iraqi civilians died in the process. Inspections work.
Fifth. Recall how the UNSCOM inspections were undermined by meddling from the American intelligence community. Understand that this warhead story did not come from Blix, or through the normal channels, but through a Japanese (read: close ally) inspector who contacted the news media and let rip before the facts were in hand. Why?
Finally, I want to address a comment you made earlier this week. You said on your show that it was unconscionable that viewers were writing in claiming that CNN wants war because war is good for the media business. I understand that this idea offends the core of your professionalism, but I wonder if you have been watching CNN today.
Your station has referred, over and over again, to these discovered warheads as 'chemical warheads.' The debate has not been centered on what the facts are behind these items - when they were made, whether they were loaded with anything, how long they have been there, whether they were declared - and instead has focused on whether the White House can use this as a pretext for war. Calling these things 'chemical warheads' is a gross exaggeration, which I have heard on CNN no less than seven times during the period I have been writing this message. Mull that.
Please, take the data I have given you and air it, for the sake of a reasoned and complete debate. I remind you that CNN's viewership increased by 500% after 9/11 and that your network made its bones on the first Gulf War. I beg you to get this data out to the American people, who desperately need facts and not overheated innuendo.
With great appreciation,
William Rivers Pitt
2) January 18 - Hundreds of Thousands - Give Peace a Chance'
For Immediate Release:
Sunday, 19 Jan 2003
500,000 Anti-War Protesters Demonstrate in Washington
200,00 March in San Francisco
Hundreds of Thousands More Demonstrate Around the World To Oppose U.S. War With Iraq
Half a million people marched through the streets of Washington Saturday and 200,000 demonstrated in San Francisco in the largest U.S. demonstrations yet against war with Iraq.
Sponsored by the International A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) Coalition, the protests were endorsed by thousands of organizations. Similar demonstrations were held in at least 30 other countries.
"Today's demonstrations shattered the myth of consensus for war," said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice, one of the groups in A.N.S.W.E.R. "Throughout the whole world demonstrations today showed the kind of people's power it's going to take to stop the war in its tracks."
January 18 was a day of global protest based in the U.S., with coordinated demonstrations held in more than 30 countries -- including Japan, Ireland, Egypt, Spain, Argentina, South Africa, Jordan, Belgium, Syria, Hong Kong, Russia, Germany and Britain.
Announcing a week of anti-war protest for the week of February 13-21 -- and culminating with a Student and Youth Day of Action on the anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X -- organizers of the January 18 demonstration joined the call of the European movement to make February 15 the next step in the worldwide anti-war movement.
The morning of the demonstration, train and subway stations in D.C. were jammed as hundreds of buses -- including 20 from New York's 1199/SEIU Health and Hospital Workers Union, 20 from Winston-Salem South Carolina, eight from Rochester and six from the Chicago Teachers Union -- arrived in the city for the massive protest.
The rally featured such speakers as former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, civil rights activist Mahdi Bray, actors Jessica Lange and Tyne Daly, Representative John Conyers, Reverend Jesse Jackson, former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, author and Vietnam vet Ron Kovic, singer Patti Smith, Reverend Herbert Daughtry, and Elizabeth McAllister.
The program -- with musical performances by British pop group Chumbawumba, singer Patti Smith, and a capella duet Pam Parker and Lucy Murphy -- was opened by Moonanum James of United American Indians of New England.
Speakers included A.N.S.W.E.R. leaders Elias Rashmawi, Free Palestine Alliance; Peta Lindsay, A.N.S.W.E.R. Youth & Student Coordinator; Larry Holmes and Brian Becker, International Action Center; Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Partnership for Civil Justice; Marie Hilao Enriquez, BAYAN; Macrina Cardenas, Mexico Solidarity Network; Chuck Kaufman, Nicaragua Solidarity Network; Yoomi Jeong, Korea Truth Commission; Cheri Honkala, Kensington Welfare Rights Union; and Ismail Kamal, Muslim Students Association National. Reverend Lucius Walker read an anti-war statement from Rep. Charles Rangel.
Also addressing the rally were representatives of groups such as New York City Labor Against the War, Maryland and D.C. AFL-CIO, Colombia Trade Unionists in Exile, Queers for Peace and Justice, United for Peace and Justice, Not In Our Name, and representatives of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques. Speakers reminded the crowd that the fight against war and racism included the struggles to free political prisoners Mumia Abu Jamal, Leonard Peltier, Jamil Al Amin, and the Cuban Five.
# # # #
For more information, visit
http://www.VoteNoWar.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
[Editor's notes:
Here's a recent mainstream pub's poll that was posted late last week at
http://www.abc.net.au/news/poll1/vote/
Do you believe there is a case for war against Iraq?
This week's question is:
Do you believe there is a case for war against Iraq?
Poll Results:
Yes 12%
No 88%
14027 votes counted
3) Humanity hanging from a cross of iron' - Dwight Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower, "The Chance for Peace,"
delivered before the American Society of Newspaper Editors,
April 16, 1953.
[Excerpts]
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone.
It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities.
It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population.
It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals.
It is some 50 miles of concrete highway.
We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushels of wheat.
We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.
This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking.
This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.
This Government is ready to ask its people to join with all nations in devoting a substantial percentage of the savings achieved by disarmament to a fund for world aid and reconstruction. The purposes of this great work would be to help other peoples to develop the under developed areas of the world, to stimulate profitability and fair world trade, to assist all peoples to know the blessings of productive freedom. The monuments to this new kind of war would be these: roads and schools, hospitals and homes, food, and health.
We are ready, in short, to dedicate our strength to serving the needs, rather than the fears, of the world.
We are ready, by these and all such actions, to make of the United Nations an institution that can effectively guard the peace and security of all peoples.
The details of such disarmament programs are manifestly critical and complex. Neither the United States nor any other nation can properly claim to possess a perfect, immutable formula. But the formula matters less than the faith-the good faith without which no formula can work justly and effectively.
The fruit of success in all these tasks would present the world with the greatest task, and the greatest opportunity, of all. It is this: the dedication of the energies, the resources, and the imaginations of all peaceful nations to a new kind of war. This would be a declared total war, not upon any human enemy but upon the brute forces of poverty and need.
The peace we seek, founded upon decent trust and cooperative effort among nations, can be fortified, not by weapons of war but by wheat and by cotton, by milk and by wool, by meat and by timber and by rice. These are words that translate into every language on earth. These are needs that challenge this world in arms.
These proposals spring, without ulterior purpose or political passion, from our calm conviction that the hunger for peace is in the hearts of all peoples--those of Russia and of China no less than of our own country.
They conform to our firm faith that God created men to enjoy, not destroy, the fruits of the earth and of their own toil.
They aspire to this: the lifting, from the backs and from the hearts of men, of their burden of arms and of fears, so that they may find before them a golden age of freedom and of peace.
[Address by President Dwight D. Eisenhower "The Chance for Peace" delivered before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16,1953.]
The full text of the speech can be found at http://www.eisenhower.utexas.edu/chance.htm
4) "Israel's War Machine, JFK's Assassination, and the Atomic Bomb"
Israel's War Machine, JFK's Assassination, and the Atomic Bomb:
An Overivew of Michael Collins Piper's "Final Judgment" by Victor Thorn
NOTE: The information below is derived from Michael Collins Piper's Final Judgment. My role is that of a reviewer, and all credit for the research must be given to Mr. Piper. I urge everyone to purchase a copy of this book. Final Judgment is published by The Center for Historical Review, 132 Third Street, SE, Washington, DC, 20003
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"Israel need not apologize for the assassination or destruction of those who seek to destroy it. The first order of business for any country is the protection of its people."
Washington Jewish Week, October 9, 1997
In March, 1992, Illinois Representative Paul Findley said in The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, "It is interesting but not surprising to note that in all the words written and uttered about the Kennedy assassination, Israel's intelligence agency, the Mossad, has never been mentioned."
Considering that the Mossad is quite possibly the most ruthless and efficient intelligence agency in the world, it is peculiar that they have never been scrutinized in relation to the Kennedy assassination, especially when practically every other entity in the world (short of Elvis impersonators) has been implicated. But that all changed in January, 1994 with the release of Michael Collins Piper's Final Judgment. In this book, Piper says, "Israel's Mossad was a primary (and critical) behind the scenes player in the conspiracy that ended the life of JFK. Through its own vast resources and through its international contacts in the intelligence community and in organized crime, Israel had the means, it had the opportunity, and it had the motive to play a major frontline role in the crime of the century and it did."
Their motive? Israel's much touted Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, who ruled that country from its inception in 1948 until he resigned on June 16, 1963, was so enraged at John F. Kennedy for not allowing Israel to become a nuclear power that, Collins asserts, in his final days in office he commanded the Mossad to become involved in a plot to kill America's president.
Ben-Gurion was so convinced that Israel's very survival was in dire jeopardy that in one of his final letters to JFK he said, "Mr. President, my people have the right to exist, and this existence is in danger."
In the days leading up to Ben-Gurion's resignation from office, he and JFK had been involved in an unpublicized, contentious debate over the possibility of Israel getting nuclear capabilities. Their disagreement eventually escalated into a full-fledged war of words that was virtually ignored in the press. Ethan Bronner wrote about this secret battle between JFK and Ben-Gurion years later in a New York Times article on October 31, 1998, calling it a "fiercely hidden subject." In fact, the Kennedy/Ben-Gurion conversations are still classified by the United States Government. Maybe this is the case because Ben-Gurion's rage and frustration became so intense and his power so great within Israel that Piper contends it was at the center of the conspiracy to kill John Kennedy. This stance is supported by New York banker Abe Feinberg, who describes the situation as such: "Ben-Gurion could be vicious, and he had such a hatred of the old man [Joe Kennedy, Sr., JFK's father]." Ben-Gurion despised Joe Kennedy because he felt that not only was he an anti-Semite, but that he had also sided with Hitler during the 1930's and 40's. [We will touch upon this aspect of the story in an upcoming article entitled The CIA and Organized Crime: Two Sides of the Same Coin].
Anyway, Ben-Gurion was convinced that Israel needed nuclear weapons to insure its survival, while Kennedy was dead-set against it. This inability to reach an agreement caused obvious problems. One of them revolved around Kennedy's decision that he would make America his top priority in regard to foreign policy, and not Israel! Kennedy planned to honor the 1950 Tripartite Declaration which said that the United States would retaliate against any nation in the Middle East that attacked any other country. Ben-Gurion, on the other hand, wanted the Kennedy Administration to sell them offensive weapons, particularly Hawk missiles.
The two leaders thus engaged in a brutal letter exchange, but Kennedy wouldn't budge. Ben-Gurion, obsessed by this issue, slipped into total paranoia, feeling that Kennedy's obstinance was a blatant threat to the very existence of Israel as a nation. Piper writes, "Ben-Gurion had devoted a lifetime creating a Jewish State and guiding it into the world arena. And, in Ben-Gurion's eyes, John F. Kennedy was an enemy of the Jewish people and his beloved state of Israel." He continues, "The nuclear option' was not only at the very core of Ben-Gurion's personal world view, but the very foundation of Israel's national security policy."
Ben-Gurion was so preoccupied with obtaining nuclear weapons that on June 27, 1963, eleven days after resigning from office, he announced, "I do not know of any other nation whose neighbors declare that they wish to terminate it, and not only declare, but prepare for it by all means available to them. We must have no illusions that what is declared every day in Cairo, Damascus, and Iraq are just words. This is the thought that guides the Arab leaders I am confident that science is able to provide us with the weapons that will serve the peace and deter our enemies."
Avner Cohen, in Israel and the Bomb, published by Columbia University Press, reinforces this sense of urgency by writing, "Imbued with lessons of the Holocaust, Ben-Gurion was consumed by fears of security Anxiety about the Holocaust reached beyond Ben-Gurion to infuse Israel's military thinking." He further adds fuel to this point by pointing out, "Ben-Gurion had no qualms about Israel's need for weapons of mass destruction," and "Ben-Gurion's world view and his decisive governing style shaped his critical role in instigating Israel's nuclear progress."
Kennedy, on the other hand, was adamant in his refusal to promote Israel's ascension to the nuclear stage. Avener Cohen, in Israel and the Bomb, stresses, "No American president was more concerned with the danger of nuclear proliferation than John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He was convinced that the spread of nuclear weapons would make the world more dangerous and undermine U.S. interests." Cohen continues at the end of this passage, "The only example Kennedy used to make this point was Israel."
Realizing that Kennedy would not change his mind, Ben-Gurion decided to join forces with Communist China. Both countries were greatly interested in creating nuclear programs, and so began their secret joint dealings. Working in unison through intermediary Shaul Eisenberg, who was a partner of Mossad gun-runner and accountant Tibor Rosenbaum, Israel and China proceeded to develop their own nuclear capabilities without the knowledge of the United States.
If you find this scenario improbable, I strongly urge you to read Gordon Thomas' excellent book, Seeds of Fire, where he exposes how the Mossad and CSIS (Chinese secret service) have conspired on many occasions to not only steal American military secrets, but to also doctor U.S. intelligence programs such as the Justice Department's PROMISE software. This instance, I am afraid to say, is but the first where echoes of the JFK assassination can still be felt today reverberating through our post 9-11 world. The danger of Israel developing the Bomb in unison with China became a highly volatile situation, and was closely monitored by the CIA.
Intent on pursuing this path, the Israeli's constructed a nuclear facility at Dimona. When Kennedy demanded that the U.S. inspect this plant, Ben-Gurion was so incensed that he erected another PHONY facility that held no evidence of nuclear research and development. (Does this scenario sound eerily familiar to the game we're playing with Saddam Hussein in Iraq right now?) Fully aware of their shenanigans, though, JFK told Charles Bartlett, "The sons of bitches lie to me constantly about their nuclear capability."
Avner Cohen, in Israel and the Bomb, reiterates this claim by saying that Ben-Gurion had taken the nuclear issue so closely to heart that he, "concluded that he could not tell the truth about Dimona to American leaders, not even in private."
Dr. Gerald M. Steinberg, political science professor at Bar-Ilan University's BESA Center for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv, weighs in by saying, "Between 1961 and 1963, the Kennedy administration placed a great deal of pressure on Ben-Gurion in the effort to pressure for acceptance of international inspection of Dimona and Israeli abdication of their nuclear weapons. This pressure apparently did not alter Israeli policy, but it was a contributing factor to Ben-Gurion's resignation in 1963."
To convey how serious this situation had become in modern terms, look at what is happening in Iraq with United Nations security teams inspecting the royal palaces and bunkers for nuclear weapons and materials. This matter is so urgent that our nation is on the verge of war. Forty years earlier, the heat that JFK was placing on Ben-Gurion was equally as strong as what George Bush is laying on Saddam Hussein today.
In Israel and the Bomb, Avner Cohen reinforces this point. "To force Ben-Gurion to accept the conditions, Kennedy exerted the most useful leverage available to an American president in dealing with Israel: a threat that an unsatisfactory solution would jeopardize the U.S. government's commitment to, and support of, Israel."
The pressure on Ben-Gurion was so immense that he ended up leaving office. But Kennedy, in true pit-bull style, didn't let up on Ben-Gurion's successor, Levi Eshkol, as Avner Cohen reports. "Kennedy told Eshkol that the U.S. commitment and support of Israel could be seriously jeopardized' if Israel did not let the U.S. obtain reliable information' about its efforts in the nuclear field. Kennedy's demands were unprecedented. They amounted, in effect, to an ultimatum." Cohen concludes this thought by asserting, "Kennedy's letter precipitated a near-crisis situation in Eshkol's office."
In the end, as we're all aware, Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963; but less known is that China conducted its first nuclear test in October, 1964. What makes this event more profound is Piper's claim that even though Israel said its first nuclear tests took place in 1979, they actually occurred in October, 1964 along with the Chinese! If this is true, other than August, 1945 when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, October 1964 may possibly be the most dangerous month in 20th century history..
For the complete article:
Israel's War Machine, JFK's Assassination, and the Atomic Bomb:
An Overivew of Michael Collins Piper's "Final Judgment" by Victor Thorn
See:
http://www.babelmagazine.com/issue89/finaljudgment89.html
[Babel Magazine will post pn "The CIA and John F. Kennedy's assassination," next week.]
5) Dubya and the flying nuclear reactors'
The following short intro was posted on the Globenet list serve -
Subject: [globenet] Fw: Dubya and the flying nuclear reactors
Fantastically INSANE proposal for the US to fly to Mars by 2010.
It involves sitting on top of a high-speed nuclear reactor and a few thousand tonnes of high explosive.
Applicants wanted.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"Oh man! Look at those spacemen go ..."
Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles
Saturday January 18, 2003
The Guardian
The United States hopes to send an astronaut to Mars in a nuclear-powered rocket, according to a senior Nasa official. Under the space agency's ambitious plan, humans would be sent on a two-month journey to Mars in a spaceship travelling at three times the current speed of space travel.
President George Bush may announce the plan, named Project Prometheus, at his State of the Union address on January 28, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. It would commit the US to the exploration of Mars as a priority and herald the development of a nuclear-powered propulsion system.
The first voyage could take place as soon as 2010.
For the complete article, published in the Guardian, see
http://www.guardian.co.uk/spacedocumentary/story/0,2763,877363,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Article:
"New NASA Shuttle Program Doomed To Failure Warns Space Foundation"
Nyack - Jan 15, 2003
The initiation of NASA's latest space transport program, the Orbital Space Plane (OSP), was challenged today by the Space Frontier Foundation, which estimates the program's chances of success at zero.
"Through all its vehicle development programs since the Shuttle, NASA's record has been perfect: they've cancelled every one," said Foundation Board Member John Cserep. "We've seen no reason to believe NASA has learned the lessons of its many failed efforts, and every reason to expect that the taxpayers are going to lose billions of more dollars on another fruitless program."
For this complete article, including the Foundation's letter to Congress regarding the OSP, see:
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/rlv-03a.html
6) AwolBush.com - a chickenhawk's perspective
Why did the Bush campaign refuse to release his military records, as Senator John McCain, Vice President Gore and President Clinton have all done?
"..while the media have sat on this explosive story for months, it's well documented that George W. Bush never showed up for National Guard duty for a period of approximately one year, possibly more, in 1972-1973. Despite all the talk about "honor and dignity," Bush seems to have a problem meeting his commitments."
For more on this chickenhawk perspective, see
http://www.awolbush.com/
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
US Gone Mad * Kucinich 2004 * Chem Plant *Big Brother
17 January 2003
1) "The United States of America has gone mad"
2) Draft Kucinich for President 2004
3) "Bush Concealed Iraqi Chemical Weapons Plant in Florida"
4) 'Big Brother' Is No Longer a Fiction, ACLU Warns in Report
Editor's Notes:
Flyby News begins with item 1 and a clear enough statement: "The United States of America has gone mad." Following the article by John le Carr, are various links adding more to the lunacy; including an updated on Israel changing its policy to include killing opponents in the US and other Allied nations; also, a link on a commentary on Bush threatening Iraq with nukes, on information of Bush signing for a new nuclear space rocket to Mars, and on the UN predicting 500,000 Iraqi casualties. Last May Flyby News began its updated issue on Kucinich for President We are please to be adding a link to an excellent new Web Site
"DRAFT KUCINICH FOR PRESIDENT 2004"
Link to = = = => http://www.draftkucinich.com/
Also, Item 2 contains an article from Cleveland, Ohio speculating on a Kucinich Presidential run. Kucinich at the helm could certainly turn around the madness to a renaissance of peace and prosperity, and new domestic and foreign policies. Item 3 came via surfing for a transcript on last night's Ted Koppel program, which included an interview with Dennis Kucinich. I couldn't find a transcript, but the article by Thomas Flocco, was a find: "Bush Concealed Iraqi Chemical Weapons Plant in Florida," Item 4 does not wander too far from our door, as a new ACLU report suggests. This is another good reason for the people to unite and fight against the military-industrial-academic-criminal complex from controlling the USA. The only declared candidate against the insanity of attacking Iraq, or authorizing President Bush to make the attack, is Howard Dean, former Governor of Vermont. For Dean and Kucinich, and the rest of us against this war, we have to find a way to unite with a single voice, and not let the forces succeed in dividing and conquering. We need change for 2004, and sooner. Bush will try to gain control of Iraq with the threat of mass destruction, which breeds destruction and terrorism to continue. Now is the time for new choices, to learn from our mistakes, and reclaim a democracy, to free ourselves from the madness.
"Either we do away with war or war will do away with us."
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
Purportedly from the interview 16 January 2004
Nightline with Ted Koppel (ABC News)
1) "The United States of America has gone mad"
Times Online / Opinion
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,482-543296,00.html
January 15, 2003
"The United States of America has gone mad"
by John le Carr
America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War.
The reaction to 9/11 is beyond anything Osama bin Laden could have hoped for in his nastiest dreams. As in McCarthy times, the freedoms that have made America the envy of the world are being systematically eroded. The combination of compliant US media and vested corporate interests is once more ensuring that a debate that should be ringing out in every town square is confined to the loftier columns of the East Coast press.
The imminent war was planned years before bin Laden struck, but it was he who made it possible. Without bin Laden, the Bush junta would still be trying to explain such tricky matters as how it came to be elected in the first place; Enron; its shameless favouring of the already-too-rich; its reckless disregard for the world's poor, the ecology and a raft of unilaterally abrogated international treaties. They might also have to be telling us why they support Israel in its continuing disregard for UN resolutions.
But bin Laden conveniently swept all that under the carpet. The Bushies are riding high. Now 88 per cent of Americans want the war, we are told. The US defence budget has been raised by another $60 billion to around $360 billion. A splendid new generation of nuclear weapons is in the pipeline, so we can all breathe easy. Quite what war 88 per cent of Americans think they are supporting is a lot less clear. A war for how long, please? At what cost in American lives? At what cost to the American taxpayer's pocket? At what cost because most of those 88 per cent are thoroughly decent and humane people in Iraqi lives?
How Bush and his junta succeeded in deflecting America's anger from bin Laden to Saddam Hussein is one of the great public relations conjuring tricks of history. But they swung it. A recent poll tells us that one in two Americans now believe Saddam was responsible for the attack on the World Trade Centre. But the American public is not merely being misled. It is being browbeaten and kept in a state of ignorance and fear. The carefully orchestrated neurosis should carry Bush and his fellow conspirators nicely into the next election.
Those who are not with Mr Bush are against him. Worse, they are with the enemy. Which is odd, because I'm dead against Bush, but I would love to see Saddam's downfall just not on Bush's terms and not by his methods. And not under the banner of such outrageous hypocrisy.
The religious cant that will send American troops into battle is perhaps the most sickening aspect of this surreal war-to-be. Bush has an arm-lock on God. And God has very particular political opinions. God appointed America to save the world in any way that suits America. God appointed Israel to be the nexus of America's Middle Eastern policy, and anyone who wants to mess with that idea is a) anti-Semitic, b) anti-American, c) with the enemy, and d) a terrorist.
God also has pretty scary connections. In America, where all men are equal in His sight, if not in one another's, the Bush family numbers one President, one ex-President, one ex-head of the CIA, the Governor of Florida and the ex-Governor of Texas.
Care for a few pointers? George W. Bush, 1978-84: senior executive, Arbusto Energy/Bush Exploration, an oil company; 1986-90: senior executive of the Harken oil company. Dick Cheney, 1995-2000: chief executive of the Halliburton oil company. Condoleezza Rice, 1991-2000: senior executive with the Chevron oil company, which named an oil tanker after her. And so on. But none of these trifling associations affects the integrity of God's work.
In 1993, while ex-President George Bush was visiting the ever-democratic Kingdom of Kuwait to receive thanks for liberating them, somebody tried to kill him. The CIA believes that "somebody" was Saddam. Hence Bush Jr's cry: "That man tried to kill my Daddy." But it's still not personal, this war. It's still necessary. It's still God's work. It's still about bringing freedom and democracy to oppressed Iraqi people.
To be a member of the team you must also believe in Absolute Good and Absolute Evil, and Bush, with a lot of help from his friends, family and God, is there to tell us which is which. What Bush won't tell us is the truth about why we're going to war. What is at stake is not an Axis of Evil but oil, money and people's lives. Saddam's misfortune is to sit on the second biggest oilfield in the world. Bush wants it, and who helps him get it will receive a piece of the cake. And who doesn't, won't.
If Saddam didn't have the oil, he could torture his citizens to his heart's content. Other leaders do it every day think Saudi Arabia, think Pakistan, think Turkey, think Syria, think Egypt.
Baghdad represents no clear and present danger to its neighbours, and none to the US or Britain. Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, if he's still got them, will be peanuts by comparison with the stuff Israel or America could hurl at him at five minutes' notice. What is at stake is not an imminent military or terrorist threat, but the economic imperative of US growth. What is at stake is America's need to demonstrate its military power to all of us to Europe and Russia and China, and poor mad little North Korea, as well as the Middle East; to show who rules America at home, and who is to be ruled by America abroad.
The most charitable interpretation of Tony Blair's part in all this is that he believed that, by riding the tiger, he could steer it. He can't. Instead, he gave it a phoney legitimacy, and a smooth voice. Now I fear, the same tiger has him penned into a corner, and he can't get out.
It is utterly laughable that, at a time when Blair has talked himself against the ropes, neither of Britain's opposition leaders can lay a glove on him. But that's Britain's tragedy, as it is America's: as our Governments spin, lie and lose their credibility, the electorate simply shrugs and looks the other way. Blair's best chance of personal survival must be that, at the eleventh hour, world protest and an improbably emboldened UN will force Bush to put his gun back in his holster unfired. But what happens when the world's greatest cowboy rides back into town without a tyrant's head to wave at the boys?
Blair's worst chance is that, with or without the UN, he will drag us into a war that, if the will to negotiate energetically had ever been there, could have been avoided; a war that has been no more democratically debated in Britain than it has in America or at the UN. By doing so, Blair will have set back our relations with Europe and the Middle East for decades to come. He will have helped to provoke unforeseeable retaliation, great domestic unrest, and regional chaos in the Middle East. Welcome to the party of the ethical foreign policy.
There is a middle way, but it's a tough one: Bush dives in without UN approval and Blair stays on the bank. Goodbye to the special relationship.
I cringe when I hear my Prime Minister lend his head prefect's sophistries to this colonialist adventure. His very real anxieties about terror are shared by all sane men. What he can't explain is how he reconciles a global assault on al-Qaeda with a territorial assault on Iraq. We are in this war, if it takes place, to secure the fig leaf of our special relationship, to grab our share of the oil pot, and because, after all the public hand-holding in Washington and Camp David, Blair has to show up at the altar.
"But will we win, Daddy?"
"Of course, child. It will all be over while you're still in bed."
"Why?"
"Because otherwise Mr Bush's voters will get terribly impatient and may decide not to vote for him."
"But will people be killed, Daddy?"
"Nobody you know, darling. Just foreign people."
"Can I watch it on television?"
"Only if Mr Bush says you can."
"And afterwards, will everything be normal again? Nobody will do anything horrid any more?"
"Hush child, and go to sleep."
Last Friday a friend of mine in California drove to his local supermarket with a sticker on his car saying: "Peace is also Patriotic". It was gone by the time he'd finished shopping.
The author has also contributed to an openDemocracy debate on Iraq at www.openDemocracy.net
Copyright 2003 Times Newspapers Ltd.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a related article:
As Bush threatens Iraq with nukes,
US ramps up its own biowarfare research
By Kllia Ramares, Online Journal Contributing Editor, see:
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/Ramares010903/ramares010903.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
January 17, 2003
NASA Sets Its Sights on Nuclear Space Rocket
The White House has signed off on the project, which could make human travel to Mars feasible and boost Southland industry.
By Peter Pae
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Hoping to pave the way for human exploration of Mars within the next decade, NASA is expected to announce that developing a nuclear-powered rocket is its top research priority.
For more on this article and what to do, contact:
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, FL. 32607
(352) 337-9274
Email: globalnet@mindspring.com
http://www.space4peace.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For another related, and recent update:
"Israel to kill people in US, allied nations, under new policy"
Israel is embarking upon a more aggressive approach to the so-called 'war on terror' that will include staging targeted killings in the United States and other friendly countries, former Israeli intelligence officials have said. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has forbidden the practice until now, these sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Israeli statements were confirmed by more than a half dozen US foreign policy and intelligence officials in interviews.
For the complete story in UPI [US], 15 January 2003, see:
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030115-035849-6156r
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
UN predicts 500,000 Iraqi casualties in any war
Wednesday, January 8, 2003. Posted: 11:11:53 (AEDT)
United Nations officials say as many as 500,000 Iraqis could require medical treatment as a result of serious injuries suffered in the early stages of a war on Iraq.
..UN officials have confirmed the authenticity of the document, which assumes that unlike the 1991 Gulf War, a new war in Iraq would develop beyond an initial aerial bombardment into a large scale and protracted ground offensive.
"The resultant devastation would undoubtedly be great," the UN planners said.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s759359.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Date for Iraq war slips back to March
As US troops and armor continue to pour into the Persian Gulf, the target date for a possible US attack against Iraq seems to be slipping to late February or early March, US officials and analysts say. As recently as a few weeks ago, senior Bush administration officials were suggesting that a US invasion to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein might begin soon after a pivotal report from United Nations' weapons inspectors on Jan. 27. But in the latest sign of a possible delay, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is reportedly leaning against a plan to begin a war in Iraq with bombing before all necessary US ground forces are assembled in the Persian Gulf region. Those forces are not expected to be in place before mid-February.
For the complete article in the Miami Herald [US], 15 January 2003, see:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/4948520.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Please consider making this simple call.
The Bush White House has an "opinion" line for you to call. So, whether you oppose or approve of the proposed war in Iraq, give a call. The line only accepts calls from 9-5 EST., Monday thru Friday.
Call the White House at 202-456-1111.
A machine will detain you for only about a minute and then a live operator will thank you for saying: "I oppose" or "I approve" regarding the attack on Iraq. It will only take minutes.
The president has said that he wants to know what the American people are thinking. Let him know. Time is running out. Then please forward this e-mail to at least five people right away.
Tell them what you think: ONE PHONE CALL EQUALS 10-20 PEOPLE WHO DIDN'T CALL, PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO FRIENDS.
[A strong telephone presence to follow-up D.C. Protest - - Recommended - -
Please Call beginning Monday
202-456-1111
2) Draft Kucinich for President 2004
Representative Kucinich is a man of strength and conviction who understands that for every action there is a consequence in national policy. Whether that be a war on Iraq resulting in even more terrorism against the United States, or lessening regulations on corporate America resulting in high crimes against the people, or cutting health funding to communities which results in more people going without needed medical services.
For me, this is an opportunity to reach out to the masses and ask those who share the ideals of Dennis Kucinich to join me in urging him to consider a run for the presidency in 2004. Congressman Kucinich, in simply being a candidate, will place on the table issues that must be discussed. We have had enough of Democrats seeking the presidency who "run to the center" and fail to ignite the people because they fail -- to be Democrats! It is time for a Kucinich candidacy to speak the truth, to relate to the everyday problems and concerns of Americans, to throw out the political-speak of those who reach out to Corporate America for their support and speak directly to the people and allow them to hear, in plain, clear terminology the truth about the blatant assault on their rights, the failure of their government to lead on the domestic problems facing the average working person, the war hungry insiders who want to fight first and talk later (while enriching defense contractors).
It is time to stand up for sanity. To realize that America and indeed, the world, is at a crossroads like never before. That the capability to destroy all of mankind is within reach of not just superpowers with their mired missiles, but with those who would terrorize and provoke a reaction that could lead to unpredictable consequences. Dennis Kucinich represents the voice for that sanity..
# # # #
For more on the above information on the campaign to
"DRAFT KUCINICH FOR PRESIDENT 2004"
Link to = = = => http://www.draftkucinich.com/
By Telephone:
Toll-Free 1-877-638-5811
By Electronic Mail: information@draftkucinich.com
Web Site: http://www.draftkucinich.com/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
President Dennis? Who Knows?
Published on Sunday, January 12, 2003 by the Cleveland Plain Dealer
President Dennis? Who Knows?
by Tom Diemer
WASHINGTON -- His name doesn't show up on the growing "short list" of Democratic hopefuls, but political allies of Rep. Dennis Kucinich think he is seriously considering a bid
for his party's 2004 presidential nomination.
The Cleveland Democrat, elected in November to his fourth term in the U.S. House, remains coy about his prospects.
"The issues that I have been debating in Congress, which are the major issues that I talk about in Cleveland, are resonating with people across the country," he said last week. "As a result, I am hearing from thousands of people from East Coast to West Coast, talking to me about running. I am listening.
"It is a great honor . . . to even be considered."
An announcement of a Kucinich candidacy is not imminent but could come this winter or in the early spring. In the meantime, the field for what some call an "invisible primary" is expanding almost weekly. The challenge of merely lifting off is daunting for anyone, much less a U.S. House member who is not widely known nationally outside the "progressive" - read "liberal" - wing of politics.
Kucinich has yet to demonstrate he can raise enough money to sustain a coast-to-coast campaign, or expand his base beyond the peace activists, environmentalists and free-trade critics he addresses in national speaking appearances.
So, what makes Dennis Kucinich run?
He has traveled to dozens of American cities, preaching - one speech was titled a "Prayer for America" - against war in Iraq and criticizing Republican economic policies.
Ohio State University political scientist Paul Beck said long shots often enter campaigns under the guise of using a national platform to draw attention to their issues. For Kucinich, that would include a fight against tax cuts and free-trade deals.
"In many ways it serves the candidate more than the issues," Beck said. "It is a way for the candidate to become known over time, to build name recognition and visibility for a subsequent campaign. It also helps them have influence in their own party."
However, Beck said that, in the end, when such a candidacy collapses, he doubts much has been accomplished in the way of "educating voters." Voters in presidential campaigns, he said, are "usually looking for capable leaders," not causes.
Support from labor
But Steve Rosenthal, political director of the AFL-CIO, said Kucinich could force other Democrats to respond to issues important to the labor movement - workers' rights and jobs lost to free trade, for instance.
"He is a guy who is not afraid to speak up and fight for what he believes in. He wins just by putting his issues - our issues - front and center," Rosenthal said. "In terms of winnability, it is a steep, steep uphill fight."
Ralph Nader, who appeals to economic populists in much the same way as Kucinich, thinks the former Cleveland mayor should jump into the race.
"There needs to be a clearly progressive candidate in the primaries," Nader said recently when asked about Kucinich. "I hope he does."
Nader stopped short of endorsing Kucinich, since he is uncertain about his own plans. He ran for president as the candidate of the Green Party in 2000.
But Nader is a Kucinich fan - part of Kucinich's circle of famous friends, which includes columnist Arianna Huffington and Warren Beatty, the actor who thought about running for president himself in 2000.
An Internet site, www.draftkucinich.com, is promoting him, calling attention in a Wednesday posting to a mention of his possible candidacy on ABC's political Web site, The Note, and in a Washington Post online column.
"Kucinich must be urged to run," proclaims the Draft Kucinich site, which is operated by a man who dabbles in politics but has said he has no ties to Kucinich. "Democrats, Independents, Greens, people are writing to voice their support."
While Kucinich contemplates a step that could bring him fame or make him look foolish, others are jumping in.
Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina, Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt and Vermont Gov. Howard Dean have formed "exploratory" committees signaling their intentions to run. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut is expected to join the fray on Monday, and the Rev. Al Sharpton of New York has said he will get in later this month. Florida Sen. Bob Graham and former Colorado Sen. Gary Hart, who ran in 1984 and 1988, are said to be considering bids.
Timing important
While this incipient campaign holds little interest for many voters, the would-be candidates already are jousting for campaign money and signing up seasoned political operatives. He who hesitates loses out on veteran staff and financial commitments.
Kucinich, who has run outside his Cleveland base only once - a failed bid for Ohio secretary of state in a Democratic primary - raised $508,712 for his 2002 re-election, including more than $195,000 from labor unions. He had $48,697 in his campaign treasury going into the new year.
To run a viable presidential race, a candidate has "to raise a million bucks a week," estimated Cleveland Heights lawyer Glenn Billington, who worked in past campaigns for Hart and former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley.
Billington, who admires Kucinich for his work in Congress, questions whether the lawmaker has the organizing skills or money-raising ability for such a mammoth effort.
"We are in the year that counts. You saw what happened with Tom Daschle," he said, referring to the Senate leader who last week decided to bypass the presidential contest. "You have to be out there. It is full time."
# # #
2003 cleveland.com
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1042381805299731.xml
# # #
For Flyby News' Updated Dennis J. Kucinich for US President in 2004!, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1021307488,43210,m
3) "Bush Concealed Iraqi Chemical Weapons Plant in Florida"
NERVES OF STEAL / PROFITS OF WAR ( Part II )
"Bush Concealed Iraqi Chemical Weapons Plant in Florida"
A U.S. Congressman says 1.2 million chemical-biological combat protection suits are "missing" -- 250,000 of which are defective -- while reports cite high gas mask failure rates and the Pentagon now admits to 7,000 dead Gulf War I soldiers.
This, as Congress has voted to permit George W. Bush to deploy ground troops against biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction illegally transferred to Iraq just before the war -- while the president acted as a key advisor during his father's Administration.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.tomflocco.com/nerves_of_steal.htm
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH):
"The Pentagon's inability to pass an independent audit has cost taxpayers trillions of dollars in wasted spending, and now recent evidence shows that Defense Department accounting problems are putting our troops at risk."
. . . According to Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), "the Pentagon's accounting systems are so bad that several military units actually thought they had an excess of [protective] suits; so they resold suits costing $200 for $3 a piece on the Internet." But even worse, Kucinich said "some of the suits were purchased by individuals now under investigation by the U.S. terrorism task force."
. . . Kucinich added that "The Pentagon's inability to pass an independent audit has cost taxpayers trillions of dollars in wasted spending, and now recent evidence shows that Defense Department accounting problems are putting our troops at risk."
For the complete article, see:
http://www.tomflocco.com/nerves_of_steal.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Thomas Flocco is an independent investigative journalist, featured in such publications as Scoop.co.nz, WorldNetDaily.com, From the Wilderness Publications (copvcia.com), NewsMax.com, NarcoNews.com, JudicialWatch.org, which are all archived at:
http://www.tomflocco.com/
4) 'Big Brother' Is No Longer a Fiction, ACLU Warns in Report
U.S. Newswire
15 Jan 12:35
'Big Brother' is No Longer a Fiction, ACLU Warns in New Report
To: National Desk
Contact: Jay Stanley of the ACLU, 202-715-0818, or the
ACLU Press Office, 212-549-2666
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 15 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The United States has now reached the point where a total "surveillance society" has become a realistic possibility, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) warned in a report being released today.
"Many people still do not grasp that Big Brother surveillance is no longer the stuff of books and movies," said Barry Steinhardt, Director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Program and a co-author of the report.
"Given the capabilities of today's technology, the only thing protecting us from a full-fledged surveillance society are the legal and political institutions we have inherited as Americans," he added. "Unfortunately, the September 11 attacks have led some to embrace the fallacy that weakening the Constitution will strengthen America."
For the complete release, see:
http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/qtr1_2003/0115-123.html
The complete report, by Steinhardt and Jay Stanley, Public Education Coordinator with the Technology and Liberty Program, is online at
http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=11573&c=39.
Free Independent News
FlybyNews.com
For Life's Survival in the 21st Century
Flyby News bumper stickers are now available for those wanting to join in the "mainstream education drive." This way while driving you can also point others to new information. We really need a critical mass to change our current directions, and networking Flyby News can help others achieve exposure to many critical issues. If you wish, $5 for a bumper sticker will cover all costs, (or 3 stickers for $10), but I hope we can get some subsidized for anyone wanting to place them on their car's bumper or other public placement. The artwork and colors are beautiful. If you want one, please write to info@flybynews.com, provide your snail mail address, and specify if you want the blue-green subtle beautiful swirling background, or the red-orange sunset over a lake in Georgia.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Kucinich Swears In * Weapon Ban * Armageddon Revisited
12 January 2003
"We are, in short, going to attack and massacre Iraq for the oil reserves, to protect America's corporate interests, to feed the gaping maw of the military-industrial complex. Same as it ever was."
-- Mark Morford
SF Gate Columnist
10 January 2003
1) Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, Swearing-In
Also: Speech in Canada for Space Preservation Treaty
2) "Bush's Armageddon Obsession- revisited" & "Happy Imbeciles At War"
3) N Korea pulls out of nuclear treaty
4) 'Blanket commutation' empties Illinois death row
Also: Update on Zolo Agona Azania
5) In the Spirit of Crazy Horse: Strange Man of the Oglalas
Editor's Notes:
This issue is another power-packed irreverent issue on the approaching war, resistance, on democracy and justice fighting back. This Tuesday Flyby News is showing the video, "Scott Ritter: The Case Against US War Against Iraq." If you are interested in this event or hosting this video, go to flybynews.com "campaigns, actions and announcements." You will also find a link for another major action in Washington. DC this coming weekend, January 18.
Item 1 begins in a good way, the text of the speech made by Representative Dennis J. Kucinich for his re-election's Swearing-In Ceremony in Cleveland, Ohio. He is a real opposition leader to the direction promoted by George W. Bush. In the second part of this item, you will find an introduction and link for his speech in Canada on stopping the acceleration of the arms race. Kucinich promises to re-introduce a Space Preservation Treaty, banning space-based weapons. This is critical for our nation's security, for our economy, and to stop the sudden surge in destabilizing the world with a new arms race.
Item 2 contains two explosive commentaries regarding "Bush's Armageddon Obsession- revisited" & article called "Happy Imbeciles At War." Mark Morford's words are worth repeating:
"We are, in short, going to attack and massacre Iraq for the oil reserves, to protect America's corporate interests, to feed the gaping maw of the military-industrial complex. Same as it ever was."
-- Mark Morford
Same as it ever was
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
January 17, 1961
Farewell Radio and Television Address to the American People
http://www.eisenhower.utexas.edu/farewell.htm
But many of the good have died tragic deaths since then, which inaugurated the JFK coup and cover-up. John Fitzgerald Kennedy fought back the military-intelligence intentions to invade Cuba; he was also promising to change US policy in relationship with Southeast Asia and world. Like a thief in the night, a military dictatorship has come about, challenging democracy's right to choose a path for peace, prosperity, and security. Instead, the elite has chosen a path of self destruction, with greed ushering on the chaos, with denial, and self deception.
"Call and Answer" by Robert Bly
Tell me why it is we don't lift our voices these days
And cry over what is happening. Have you noticed
The plans are made for Iraq and the ice cap is melting?
I say to myself: "Go on, cry. What's the sense
Of being an adult and having no voice? Cry out!
See who will answer! This is Call and Answer!"
We will have to call especially loud to reach
Our angels, who are hard of hearing; they are hiding
In the jugs of silence filled during our wars.
Have we agreed to so many wars that we can't
Escape from silence? If we don't lift our voices, we allow
Others (who are ourselves) to rob the house.
How come we've listened to the great criersNeruda,
Akhmatova, Thoreau, Frederick Douglassand now
We're silent as sparrows in the little bushes?
Some masters say our life lasts only seven days.
Where are we in the week? Is it Thursday Yet?
Hurry, cry now! Soon Sunday night will come.
# # #
Item 3 shows the evolving nature of the dangers unleashed by the military planners denying the call for a unified world to deny the existence of ALL WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION.
Item 4 is about the "noble" work of outgoing Illinois Governor, giving a 'Blanket commutation' to empty Illinois' death row. Hallelujah! Following the CNN report, check the link for consideration in supporting Ryan for the Nobel Peace Prize. If only Indiana and other states would see the light of justice. This item also updates on the case of Zolo Agona Azania, who's execution was stayed due to a perjured witness was discovered working with the prosecution. So typical, but unless we stand united, feel for one another, our voices will fall on deaf ears, while violent time and corrupt control takes its toll on individuals' inalienable rights.
Item 5 is about a classic book by Mari Sandoz, published in 1938, the biography called: Crazy Horse: Strange Man of the Oglalas. She interviewed living witnesses to chronicle this sacred life, and the betrayal, not just from the US government, but also by those of his own people. Yet the story of the past is a light post about evolutionary politics, and uniting to transform the US government with a democracy. For us to unite effectively, as one people, the lessons of Crazy Horse and Leonard Peltier must come to light, and we need to unite behind what is good in the USA, before darkness covers life from all human perceptions in this world.
"It takes wisdom to have great power and to make gentle its presence in the world."
- Dennis J. Kucinich
1) Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, Swearing-In
U.S. Representative Dennis J. Kucinich
Swearing-In Ceremony
Sunday, January 5, 2003
Cleveland, Ohio
My fellow Americans, in this ceremony we recognize the power of the people in a democracy to create self-government. For you have truly lifted me, as a lowly servant, up from your midst to serve our nation. You have entrusted in me the duties of national service. You have asked me to stand as a sentinel to safeguard our rights. You have expected me to tell the truth, even if that truth shall disturb established economic, political and social structures. I accept your trust with humility and with resolve. I shall proceed in my duties each day with courage, with unshakeable faith and with love of you, my dear constituents, love of our country, love of freedom and love of our brothers and sisters worldwide.
For the America I envision seeks world unity instead of unilateralism. It gains its power through being the first to help, not the first to strike. It extends itself to the peoples of the world to lift their burden. It is an America, which when asked for help, dispenses bread instead of bombs, medical assistance instead of missiles, and food instead of fissile materials.
There is a role for America in the world. It is in working with the community of nations to achieve the security of all nations. It is in restoring the promise of the Non Proliferation Treaty to lead the way to get rid of all nuclear weapons. It is in helping to assure international order. It is through strengthening and abiding by international treaties. It is in assuring control and eventual
elimination of biological and chemical weapons, and landmines. It is in protecting our global climate by cooperating with the rest of the world in reducing carbon emissions.
America can help protect the world. America can help save the world. But America cannot control the world, nor should we want to do so.
Yet our Administration would project American power for the purpose of domination. Their National Security doctrines call for America to strike anywhere it pleases and to be the first to use nuclear weapons.
Our nation is now poised to go to all-out war against Iraq. Iraq has not committed any act of aggression against the United States. Iraq was not responsible for 911. No credible evidence exists linking Iraq to Al Queda's role in 911. Iraq was not responsible for the anthrax attack on our nation. The United Nations has yet to establish that Iraq has usable weapons of mass destruction. There is no intelligence that Iraq has the ability to strike at the United States. According to the CIA, Iraq has no intention to attack America, but will defend itself if attacked.
Why then, is our nation prepared to send three hundred thousand of our young men and women into house to house combat in the streets of Baghdad and Basra? Why is our nation prepared to spend $200 billion or more of our hard-earned tax dollars for the destruction of Iraq?
Why is our nation preparing to use the most powerful military machine in history to wage an assault against the people of Iraq, to destroy their houses and buildings, to wipe out their water and electric systems and to block their access to food and medical supplies?
There is no answer which can separate itself from oil economics, profit requirements of arms trade, or distorted notions of empire-building.
War with Iraq is wrong. But if war is prosecuted further in Iraq, we must be prepared to advance the cause of peace in this country. We must be prepared to stand up, to speak out, to organize, to march, to demand an end to the war, or to demand an end to an administration which insists on war.
It is urgent we oppose this war. It will dominate our nation's priorities. It will threaten Social Security. It will threaten Medicare. It will block a prescription drug benefit for the elderly. It will stop America from providing jobs for all, health care for all, education for all.
There are some who believe that it is unpatriotic to challenge the Administration on the war. They believe it is politically wiser to debate the economy. But how can one reasonably separate war from the budget, war from the economy, war from America's ability to meet the needs of the people of this nation?
The Administration's own top economic adviser said the war could cost up to $200 billion. Our federal budget is already close to a $200 billion deficit due to huge tax cuts for the wealthy. Remember when we had a budget surplus?
Each time the administration talks about war, fear is created and when fear goes up, the market goes down. War will mean a sharp increase in oil prices, which will hurt jobs in manufacturing and transportation. One economic study with a worst-case scenario puts the cost of an all-out war, plus long-term occupation of Iraq at $1.6 trillion.
You cannot separate war from the economy. You cannot separate war from America's future, from its role in the world and its ability to meet the needs of our own people here at home.
We need to ask the questions: Why does America have hundreds of billions to ruin the health and take the lives of innocent people in Iraq but no money to provide health care for all Americans?
Why would America spend hundreds of billions to retire Saddam Hussein, but no money to protect the retirement security of its own people?
Why does America have money to blow up bridges over the Euphrates River in Iraq, but no money to build up bridges over the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland?
The path America must take is one of peace which leads to prosperity. It is one which understands that creating a structure of peace ensures that economic structures can be sound, affirmative of human needs and restorative of human values.
This is the dream of a Department of Peace which can help America take the first step towards making nonviolence an organizing principle in our society - - making the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a reality - - and working to make war itself a thing of the past. It is this ethic of peace seeking and peace building which will cause us to take down weapons from the heavens and work to create a heaven on earth full of new possibilities.
Peace and prosperity shall be as two pillars in a newly rebuilt America which provides for the economic and social security of its own people as a cause of nationhood and for the economic and social progress of peoples of other lands as a cause of brotherhood.
This confirmation of the purpose of nation was the dream of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society, and John F. Kennedy and the New Frontier. This shall continue to be our dream in the days ahead, that no matter the darkness, we shall hold up the light of America's higher purpose, which calls to us across the ages from Washington. Jefferson and Adams through Lincoln to the present day.
Our nation has always had a higher calling, despite the darkness of 911 and the official response to it. It is a calling to maintain the quest for democracy, for freedom and liberty at times of peril as well as in times of peace. We can sense that higher calling. That higher calling is our heritage.
The words of Francis Scott Key still echo:
"Oh say does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?" In this he celebrated the link between freedom and bravery: That it takes courage to live in a democracy. It takes courage to stand up to terrorists and maintain basic liberties. It takes courage to lead the way toward global disarmament while some are bent on destruction.
It takes patience to face dictators around the world and not be tempted to bomb them into submission. It takes wisdom to have great power and to make gentle its presence in the world.
And it takes compassion to understand the plight of peoples world wide who themselves are trying to survive, to live out their own humble lives despite having conditions which are challenging or governments which are oppressive.
My friends. This is still your government. You have a right to have a say in how its destiny is being charted. That right derives from our very Declaration of Independence, which claimed self-governance as a basic right. Government does not just happen in Washington, DC. It is the result of a process which takes place in thousands of cities, villages and townships. It is also a process which also takes place in our hearts, which is brought to life by our love of country, and our love of each other. It is your love which enables me to carry those hopes and dreams forward. And I shall do so courageously in the days ahead.
Thank you.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a Related Link Speech by Dennis Kucinich in Canada
for Space Preservation Treaty Conference to Ban Space-based Weapons
"A SACRED MISSION" by Dennis J. Kucinich
TORONTO, CANADA - U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), Co-Chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Aviation and Space Caucus, on November 30, 2002 spoke before approximately 1000 people at CUSP: Canadian Conference on Unity, Sovereignty, and Prosperity in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, invited by the former Canadian Minister of Defense. In a keynote speech, released on New Year's Eve 2002, Kucinich, who is also Chair of the U.S. House of Representative's Progressive Caucus, calls on Canada's leaders to convene an international Space Preservation Treaty Conference where world leaders will gather to sign into law the Space Preservation Treaty, companion to his Space Preservation Act, to ban all space-based weapons.
Kucinich will reintroduce the Space Preservation Act into the U.S. Congress in early 2003. This Act "implement(s) a ban on space-based weapons of the United States and the use of weapons of the United States to destroy or damage objects in space that are in orbit." The Act also directs the U.S. President to negotiate an international Treaty: "The President shall direct the United States representatives to the United Nations and other international organizations to immediately work toward negotiating , adopting, and implementing an international treaty banning space-based weapons and the use of weapons to destroy or damage objects in space that are in orbit."
A SACRED MISSION by U.S. Rep Dennis Kucinich
http://www.renaissancealliance.org/issact/isspers/govpol/dkucin5.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For one of the best resources on the web on Dennis J. Kucinich, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1021307488,43210,m
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For another related web page, called
"Fighting For Democracy" by Norman D. Livergood,
See:
http://www.hermes-press.com/fighting_for_democracy.htm
2) "Bush's Armageddon Obsession- revisited" & "Happy Imbeciles At War"
Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory
Bush's Armageddon Obsession, Revisited
January 4, 2003
by MICHAEL ORTIZ HILL
"We are lived by forces we scarcely understand," wrote W.H. Auden. What forces live us now as America again torques toward war?
George W. Bush is certainly the plaything of such forces as the geopolitics of oil but it seems that he is susceptible to other even darker archetypal concerns. Let me be blunt. The man is delusional and the shape of his delusion is specifically apocalyptic in belief and intent. That Bush would attack so many vital systems on so many fronts from foreign policy to the environment may seem confusing from the point of view of realpolitik but becomes transparent in terms of the apocalyptic worldview to which he subscribes. All systems are supposed to go down so the Messiah can come and Bush, seemingly, has taken on the role of the one who brings this to pass.
The Reverend Billy Graham taught Bush to live in anticipation of the Second Coming but it was his friendship with Dr. Tony Evans that shaped Bush's political understanding of how to deport himself in an apocalyptic era. Dr. Evans, the pastor of a large Dallas church and a founder of the Promise Keepers movement taught Bush about "how the world should be seen from a divine viewpoint," according to Dr. Martin Hawkins, Evans assistant pastor.
S.R. Shearer of Antipas Ministries writes, "Most of the leaders of the Promise Keepers embrace a doctrine of 'end time' (eschatology), known as 'dominionim.' Dominionism pictures the seizure of earthly (temporal) power by the 'people of God' as the only means through which the world can be rescued.... It is the eschatology that Bush has imbibed; an eschatology through which he has gradually (and easily) come to see himself as an agent of God who has been called by him to 'restore the earth to God's control', a 'chosen vessel', so to speak, to bring in the Restoration of All Things." Shearer calls this delusion, "Messianic leadership"-- that is to say usurping the role usually ascribed to the Messiah.
In Bush at War Bob Woodward writes, "Most presidents have high hopes. Some have grandiose visions of what they will achieve, and he was firmly in that camp."
"To answer these attacks and rid the world of evil," says Bush. And again, "We will export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of this great nation." Grandiose visions. Woodward comments, "The president was casting his mission and that of the country in the grand vision of Gods Master Plan."
In dominionism we can see the theological source of Bush's monomania. Not to be distracted by the fact that he lost the popular election by a half a million votes, that the Joint Chief of Staff at the Pentagon were so concerned about his plans to invade Iraq that they leaked their unanimous objection, that he has systematically alienated much of the world, that roughly seventy percent of Americans remain unconvinced of the imminent threat of Saddam Hussein and the same percentage object to war if there will be significant American casualties--none of this is in the least relevant. He believes his mandate toward action is from God.
The complete article is posted at CounterPuch, see:
http://www.counterpunch.org/hill01042003.html
Michael Ortiz Hill is the author of Dreaming the End of the World (Spring 1994) and, (with Augustine Kandemwa) Gathering in the Names (Spring Journal books, 2002). The companion to this essay, The Looking Glass War, is posted at http://www.gatheringin.com/.
He can be reached at michaelortizhill@earthlink.net.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Here's another straight forward article by Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist, called:
"Happy Imbeciles At War"
Massive U.S. military buildup, billions of dollars, a useless enemy, and no one seems to know why
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, January 10, 2003
2003 SF Gate
Excerpted from URL:
http://sfgate.com/columnists/morford/
..So, let's boil it down: Why go to war with Iraq? Can't find Osama, is one reason. That looks bad. Really, really want to steal all that delicious oil for ShrubCo, is another. Saddam is clearly a very bad guy who kills his own people and snickers in America's general direction, is a third. But then again, so are at least a half-dozen other vile tyrants of the world. Volatile, nuke-ready North Korea? Let's open some talks. Feeble, oil-ready Iraq? Let's massacre. Hmm.
Perhaps you wonder why no one is asking any of these questions, making similar points.
Perhaps you wonder just where in the hell is the spineless major media in all this, as they watch the chicken-hawk Shrubster himself, between golf swings, announce how tens of thousands of American troops are being sent to the Gulf alongside an enormous billion-dollar military buildup and imminent gobs of heaping death raining down upon a paltry oppressed nation and coming up next on CNN, we interview that dumb guy from "Joe Millionaire."
Perfect.
Perhaps you wonder where is the national TV coverage of all those huge anti-war protests, hundreds of thousands of people, all over the world, from Spain to Berlin to New York to San Francisco.
Perhaps you wonder where are all the "serious" journalists, the risk-taking news agencies pointing up the absurdity of it all, the imminent horror, the outrage. Could it be these news agencies are owned by major conservative corporations? Could it be they're all terrified of losing ratings, of saying something unpopular, of invoking Cheney's wrath, of losing advertiser dollars and that ever-precious, ever-dwindling dumbed-down audience? One guess.
And besides, who needs a reason for a massacre anymore? This is the age of the preemptive-strike, screw-you Bush regime. Who needs, for example, the Monroe Doctrine, that crusty old rag stating how America will go to war only as a last resort, as a defensive measure, and won't become embroiled in unwinnable foreign wars that are none of our business?
Who needs every precedent ever set by international law? Who needs the U.N. Charter? Who needs confused congressional approval? Who needs ethical integrity?
Screw it all, says Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, his black eyes gleaming like the devil's own golf balls. Let us become an ever-more-hated rogue nation, attack whomever we want, whenever we want, with no international support and much international disgust. Let us squander, childishly, within months, the generous and compassionate goodwill afforded our country by our international allies in the wake of 9/11.
Let us wantonly kill innocent civilians and children and thousands of Iraqi soldiers who, let us repeat, did nothing to provoke us. Shall we? Yes let's. Why? Shhh.
Let us be clear. Saddam is not a threat to the U.S., and never has been. He is merely yet another cowardly and murderous thug, much like the countless other despots and autocrats, from Marcos to King Fahd to Ariel Sharon, the U.S. has added to its payroll when it served our needs, and whom we then backhand when we need economic stimulus, or when the president needs a boost to his approval ratings, or when the corporate pals of the Bush WASP mafia need more billion-dollar petrochemical and defense contracts. Aha. Perhaps this is why.
We are, in short, going to attack and massacre Iraq for the oil reserves, to protect America's corporate interests, to feed the gaping maw of the military-industrial complex. Same as it ever was.
But let us be perfectly clear: We are most definitely not cranking up the appalling war machine for your sake, or for the country's protection, or for our commendable standing among our humanitarian allies.
We are not doing it to defeat terrorism (it will have the exact opposite effect), or to make the streets safer for our children, or because they've found big scary WMDs (they haven't -- not a one) -- or even for Iraq's own good.
And to believe we are is, quite simply, to be wholly misinformed and openly, flagrantly, deliberately deceived.
Do we understand this? We must, we absolutely must, try and understand this.
Thoughts for the author? E-mail him.
mmorford@sfgate.com
Mark Morford's Notes & Errata column appears every Wednesday and Friday on SF Gate. He also writes the Morning Fix, a deeply skewed thrice-weekly e-mail column and newsletter. Subscribe at sfgate.com/newsletters.
2003 SF Gate
3) N Korea pulls out of nuclear treaty
10 Jan 2003
North Korea has declared its immediate withdrawal from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2003/01/item20030110143612_1.htm
Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency
http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm
says the Communist country is pulling out of the treaty but has no intention of developing nuclear weapons at this stage.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
It's time the U.S. started taking its own advice: '[Colin Powell] said withdrawal from the NPT was a very serious issue as the treaty was a cornerstone of the whole nuclear arms control regime. "A country cannot just walk out without ramification because challenging the integrity of the nonproliferation regime is a matter that can affect international peace and security."'
Powell: N. Korea cannot go undealt with
By Anwar Iqbal
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
January 10, 2003
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20030110-060811-3449r.htm
For the page on Items 4 and 5
4) 'Blanket commutation' empties Illinois death row
Also: Update on Zolo Agona Azania
5) In the Spirit of Crazy Horse: Strange Man of the Oglalas
See following URL link:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1042397816,64324,
Free Independent News
FlybyNews.com
For Life's Survival in the 21st Century
Flyby News bumper stickers are now available for those wanting to join in the "mainstream education drive." This way while driving you can also point others to new information. We really need a critical mass to change our current directions, and networking Flyby News can help others achieve exposure to many critical issues. If you wish, $5 for a bumper sticker will cover all costs, (or 3 stickers for $10), but I hope we can get some subsidized for anyone wanting to place them on their car's bumper or other public placement. The artwork and colors are beautiful. If you want one, please write to info@flybynews.com, provide your snail mail address, and specify if you want the blue-green subtle beautiful swirling background, or the red-orange sunset over a lake in Georgia.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
IL. Death Row Canned * In the Spirit of Crazy Horse
12 January 2003
4) 'Blanket commutation' empties Illinois death row
Also: Update on Zolo Agona Azania
5) In the Spirit of Crazy Horse: Strange Man of the Oglalas
Editor's Notes:
Item 4 is about the "noble" work of outgoing Illinois Governor, giving a 'Blanket commutation' to empty Illinois' death row. Hallelujah! Following the CNN report, check the link for consideration in supporting Ryan for the Nobel Peace Prize. If only Indiana would see the light; more in this item covers the case of Zolo Agona Azania, who's execution was stayed since a perjured witness was discovered working deceptively in cahoots with the prosecution. So typical, but unless we stand united, and take action, our individual voices will fall on deaf ears, as violent time takes its toll on individuals' inalienable human rights.
Item 5 is about a classic book by Mari Sandoz, published in 1938, the biography called: Crazy Horse: Strange Man of the Oglalas. She interviewed living witnesses to chronicle this sacred life, and the betrayal, not just from the US government, but also by those of his own people. Yet the story is about evolutionary politics, and about our uniting for a new revolution (or transformation) in the US government. For us to unite effectively, as one people, the lessons of Crazy Horse and Leonard Peltier must come to light, and we need to unite behind what is good in the USA, before darkness covers the land from all man.
It takes wisdom to have great power and to make gentle its presence in the world.
- Dennis J. Kucinich
4) 'Blanket commutation' empties Illinois death row
'Blanket commutation' empties Illinois death row
Incoming governor criticizes decision
From Jeff Flock
CNN
Saturday, January 11, 2003 Posted: 4:58 PM EST (2158 GMT)
CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Outgoing Illinois Gov. George Ryan announced Saturday that he had commuted the sentences of all of the state's death row inmates and said he would "sleep well knowing I made the right decision."
He delivered his unprecedented speech at Northwestern University.
"Our capital system is haunted by the demon of error: error in determining guilt and error in determining who among the guilty deserves to die. What effect was race having? What effect was poverty having?
"Because of all these reasons, today I am commuting the sentences of all death row inmates," Ryan said.
Ryan, a Republican who did not run for re-election in November, acknowledged during his speech that his actions would not be universally applauded. But he said he felt he had no choice but to strike a blow in "what is shaping up to be one of the great civil rights struggles of our time."
"This is blanket commutation," Ryan said. "I didn't believe I would do it myself. I realize my decision will draw ridicule, scorn and anger from those who oppose it.
"But I can tell you this," he added. "I'm going to sleep well tonight knowing that I made the right decision."
Ryan, who leaves office Monday, pardoned four death row inmates Friday after determining they had been tortured into confessing crimes they did not commit.
Madison Hobley, Leroy Orange and Aaron Patterson were released after their gubernatorial pardon Friday. Another inmate, Stanley Howard, remained in prison because he had been convicted of a separate crime.
The governor's announcement Saturday covers all of the 157 people, four of them women, on death row in four Illinois prisons. Not included in the commutations, a source in the governor's office said, will be inmates who have been convicted but not yet sentenced or who have been remanded for a new trial.
All but three of the commutations will reduce the inmates' sentences to life without parole; the remaining three will be reduced to 40 years to life to bring their sentences in line with co-defendants.
Gov.-elect Rod Blagojevich, the Democrat who will replace Ryan, told CNN on Saturday that he disagreed with the governor's decision.
"I think a blanket anything is usually wrong," Blagojevich said. "We're talking about convicted murderers, and I think that is a mistake."
Capital punishment in Illinois came under the microscope after a group of journalism students at Northwestern began looking into the case of Anthony Porter in the late 1990s.
The students, working with their professor and a private investigator, found evidence that cleared Porter after 17 years on death row. Ryan vowed he would do whatever it took to "prevent another Anthony Porter."
Ultimately, 13 inmates who had been sentenced to death were exonerated, and Ryan declared a moratorium on executions in the state.
A panel Ryan appointed to examine capital punishment and review the cases of all death row inmates concluded last year that Illinois had applied capital punishment too often since it was re-established in the state in 1977.
In Saturday's speech, Ryan slammed the use of the death penalty in his state.
"The death penalty in Illinois is not imposed fairly or uniformly," said Ryan, but is often based on geography, race, nationality or economic status.
"The legislature couldn't reform it," the 69-year-old governor said. "Lawmakers won't repeal it. And I won't stand for it."
Prosecutor: 'They've had their years in court'
Friday's pardons, coupled with early word that the governor was planning to issue commutations, sparked outrage from prosecutors and family members of victims.
"I believe that he is wiping his muddy shoes on the face of victims, using them as the doormat as he leaves his office," said Peoria County State's Attorney Kevin Lyons on CNN's Newsnight. "It says much more about George Ryan than it does about the death penalty."
Ollie Dodds, whose daughter died in the fire Hobley was convicted of setting and remains convinced he is responsible, said, "This brings back memories just like it happened."
"By his actions today, the governor has breached faith with the memory of the dead victims, their families and the people he was elected to serve," said Cook County State's Attorney Richard Devine, who called the pardons "unconscionable."
Lyons accused Ryan of arrogantly substituting his own judgment for those of juries and courts that have imposed and upheld the death sentences, assuming that "none of us get it but him."
"Everybody has had not their day in court, they've had their years in court," Lyons said. "It's shameful that the victims of this state, in fact, have to not fear the courts, not the defense lawyers, not the defendants, but they have to fear their very own governor."
Ryan said he decided to pardon the four men rather than commute their sentences to life because he is convinced they did not commit the crimes that sent them to death row. All four men claim they were tortured by police.
"I believe these men are innocent or I wouldn't have pardoned them," he said Friday. "There isn't any doubt in my mind these four men were wrongfully prosecuted and wrongfully sentenced to die."
"The system has failed for all four men, and it has failed for all of the people of this state," Ryan said in a speech at DePaul University Law School.
'Thank God this day has finally come'
Hobley, 42, who was convicted of killing seven people, including his wife and son, in a fire in 1987, said the pardon was a "dream come true."
"Thank God that this day has finally come," he said after being released from a state prison in Pontiac.
Orange, 52, who was condemned after being convicted of four murders in 1985, said he felt "alive" as he walked out of the Cook County Jail on Friday.
"I didn't believe it when I first found out about it," he said. "Thank you with all my heart and soul, and please do something for the remaining guys on death row."
Patterson, 38, said he's "going to do all right" after walking out of the Pontiac prison. He was sentenced to die for the murder of a Chicago couple in 1986.
"It was long overdue, and I thank Governor Ryan for taking the appropriate steps and having the courage to do the right thing," he said.
All four are part of a group of 10 death row prisoners who claim they were tortured into giving confessions under the direction of then-Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge. He was fired after internal police investigators found systemic evidence of physical abuse of suspects.
Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/01/11/illinois.death.row/index.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = == = = =
Support Governor Ryan for the Nobel Peace Price!
The campaign is supported by a very active web site that can be found at
www.stopcapitalpunishment.org
The web site is both a resource to anyone wanting to know more about Governor Ryan's achievements and a bulletin board for all the latest developments in the campaign. Press releases and other resources for the media and press will be available there.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
ZOLO AGONA AZANIA
Also, in neighboring Indiana, check this issue of Zolo Agona Azania, struggling from Death Row professing his innocence.
www.ccadp.org/zoloazania.htm
"..After years of contesting the bogus charge, the death sentence was reversed (overturned) by the Indiana Supreme Court in 1993. But after a second trial on the sentence only, it was put on me again in 1996. Giving up was not an option; so the struggle for liberation continues !
I am holding my head up with much dignity and self-respect. I have a positive, constructive outlook on life. I do not believe that lies are more stronger than truth. I am seeking to garner pledges of concrete support from as many people as possible, and to let people know who I am. For without the essential moral and material support from concerned people, like you on the outside of prison, one has a tendency to become isolated and alienated in here, like a scuba diver cut off from fresh oxygen twenty-thousand leagues beneath the sea. Isolation is used as a means of total control, to imbue your mind with the feeling of being alone and helpless.
Both all-white Jury trials were rigged and corrupt evidence was falsified against me, in gross violation of my human rights. Even though they've been caught lying; they'll merely fabricate more lies to cover up for being found out. Through all the fire of persecution and hatred I remained undaunted.."
Zolo Agona Azania #4969
Indiana State Prison, PO Box 41
Michigan City, Indiana 46361-0041 USA
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
References and Links
Indiana Court Overturns Death Sentence (11/23/02)
Court overturns death sentence of man who shot officer (11/25/02)
Right to be judged by jury of his peers (12/6/02)
www.icacp.org/azania.html
For more information, recent developments, etc., contact:
Indiana Information Center on the Abolition of Capital Punishment
www.icacp.org/
Visit the official web page for Zolo, his defense and communications, art work.
www.ccadp.org/zoloazania.htm
5) In the Spirit of Crazy Horse: Strange Man of the Oglalas
The following is excerpted from Colonial & Postcolonial Literary Dialogues. The dialog in this case is about the biography written by Mari Sandoz, Crazy Horse: the Strange Man of the Oglalas. Flyby News highly recommends reading this book. This following information will be posted also on the updated critical issue of "Leonard Peltier" linked from www.flybynews.com.
[Page Created by: Allen Carey-Webb]
Western Michigan University
www.wmich.edu/dialogues/texts/crazyhorse.html
Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas
'Crazy Horse' is a biography of one of the most famous Native American warriors in recent history. Mari Sandoz, the author, interviewed dozens of Crazy Horse's people in the 1930's, all of them by then old people. From interviews, facts, and letters, she constructed this semi-fictionalized biography of the great Sioux warrior. He is most famous for defeating Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, but there was much more to his life than merely that one battle. The book attempts to describe and chart the lives of Crazy Horse and his Sioux people during the mid to late nineteenth century, during which they were enduring the immense pressures of the United States' Indian Wars, as well as settlers pressure on the Sioux land.
Dialogues
Mari Sandoz tells us Crazy Horse was born in or around the year 1842 to Sioux parents on Rapid Creek, in an area called the Black Hills, or Paha Sapa. The Black Hills were the center of Sioux land, which spread out into what is now called Wyoming, Nebraska, South and North Dakota, and Montana. The young boy was light-skinned compared to his people, and his hair was light-colored and curly, earning him his childhood name of 'Curly.'
When still just a pre-teen, Curly witnessed the shooting of some of his people by the Army, led by a man named Grattan. The shooting was over the loss of a cow, something ridiculous. This was one of dozens of incidents in the book where clashes between the whites and the Indians went badly; growing up with these types of things happening to his people constantly, Crazy Horse vowed to protect his people from the whites' invasion of Sioux land.
From bravery in battle, 'Curly' was granted the name of his father, Crazy Horse. Quickly he was recognized for his cunning, as well as bravery and skill in battle. Often Crazy Horse led decoys in battles, like in the Fetterman Massacre and Platte Bridge battles. There were many other Sioux warriors and leaders besides Crazy Horse who helped (often in giving up their lives) the effort of their people to keep their homeland. Others mentioned and chronicled in the book are Sitting Bull (the medicine man who once cut out 100 pieces of his own skin in order to get a vision), Young Man Afraid of His Horse, Spotted Tail, Worm (Crazy Horse's father's name in later life), Red Cloud, Touch the Clouds, Little Big Man, American Horse, Conquering Bear, He Dog, and Dull Knife.
Throughout the book there are mentions of promises and treaties struck up between the US government and the Indians, including the famous one that used the phrase 'as long as grass grows and rivers run.' Of course none of them worked, as eventually each and every one crumbled beneath the weight of westward expansion, manifest destiny, and an insatiable desire harboured by the whites for not just more land, but all of the land. The embodiment of the Indians' plight and frantic struggle for their precious homeland was in the Battle of the Little Big Horn (recounted in Crazy Horse, as well as from the white perspective in Sandoz' book The Battle of the Little Big Horn). Perhaps the most famous of all battles between Indians and the US
government, this one went down as the greatest defeat by the Indians in history.
General Custer (ironically known for his long, curly hair, too) and his soldiers were completely wiped out by the Sioux. But even this great conquest against the invading forces of the whites was not enough to stop the ever-encroaching tide of people. They kept coming and coming, eventually overwhelming even the Sioux by sheer numbers, and by killing their main food source, buffalo.
In a vision, Crazy Horse saw himself with a pebble in his hair in a hailstorm, protected from everything. In every battle he painted his horse in hailstones, and hung his medicine stone in a knot in his hair. The medicine held true, as he was never harmed by enemy bullets in any of his many skirmishes and wars. In the end, true to his vision, it was one of his own people who aided in his death. Two Sioux warriors, then turned into guards for the white men, were holding Crazy Horse's arms while he struggled against going into a prison, where he knew he would die. A soldier stabbed him several times with a bayonet in the back, resulting in his death.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Sandoz, Mari. Crazy Horse: the Strange Man of the Oglalas.
Nebraska: Bison Books, University of Nebraska Press, 1971.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Mari Sandoz literary page link (books for sale and some info) :
www.sandozlit.com/siouxhistory.html
Sheridan County Publishing
117 North Main Street
Gordon, NE 69343
Ph/Fax: (308) 282-9972
msbooks@gpcom.net
= = = = = = = = = = =
by Sandoz, Mari
Publisher: University Of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803292112
Retail Price: $ 14.95
www.insight-books.com/new/0803292112.html
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes FNs' use of copyrighted material is posted at FlybyNews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
If you would like to receive more Flyby News alerts for the New England
region, send an email to flyby@mtdata.com & insert "subscribe" in subject
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
DU Nightmare * Iraqi Misadventure * Chem-Kyoto * More
09 January 2003
The White Christmas is a symbol of more than we can assemble,
it is the heart that hurts when that is broken.
Jesus the man, Christ his symbol, came with love but became an idol.
With joy he gave, he spoke, a truth to live, more than just hope;
but, as Centuries went by, man manipulated truth into lies,
stating that heaven or hell awaits those who do or do not realize;
yet death is just an opening door to allow us to go on
with the thoughts we lived with and for..
Jonathan Mark
12/21/1977
1) Afghanistan: The Nuclear Nightmare Starts
2) The Consequences Of An Iraqi Misadventure
3) Chem-trails and Kyoto
4) NASA: Arctic Sea Ice Disappearing Before End of Century
5) Comment on NASA's Nuke-Mars Mission
Editor's Notes:
In light of the information in previous issues on DU, Major Doug Rokke, the cover-up, the intent to use depleted uranium in nuclear strikes on Iraq, the first two items are troubling. Please check flybynews.com homepage for listings on CAMPAIGNS * ACTIONS & EVENTS to help stop the madness from harming innocent life. As crazy as things are, then, item 3, ChemTrails and its relationship with Kyoto is not quite so far-fetched.. Symbolic of the ring in the Tolken's classic, is the development and use of nuclear power. This power has driven intelligent men to absolute insanity. Item 4 is a follow-up on the NASA study showing that the rate of sea ice melt could make it disappear before the end of this Century. Item 5 contains information for your chance to comment on NASA's nuke-Mars mission.
Please note that in Flyby News' January 4th issue, item 3 on Evolutionary Politics, a quote that was attributed to Congressman Kucinich, which was originally published in the Nov/Dec 2002 issue of Timeline, should have been attributed to Dr. Bela Banathy, the author of the book, Guided Evolution of Society.
Regarding the Flyby News issue, 20 December 2002, in editor's notes on my Ralph Nader and the Right Wing Conspiracy speculations, Carol Wolman on the GlobeNet list serve, replied:
"It was clear to us in the Mendocino Peace Action Group that the overriding issue of the 2000 election was missile defense, star wars and the ABM treaty. We begged Nader repeatedly to take a stand on this and make it a focus of his campaign. We wrote, phoned, met him in person. We asked his friend Helen Caldicott to intervene. When questioned directly, he had the right position, but he refused to initiate any discussion in this area. It baffled us, since his whole message is anti-corporate, and clearly the aerospace industry has been calling the shots here. Your speculations certainly raise the red flag. Peace, Carol Wolman"
The Flyby News Kucinich page is updated, including a link for a new list serve:
kucinich-for-president@yahoogroups.com
Dennis J. Kucinich for US President in 2004!
See: http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1021307488,43210,m
1) Afghanistan: The Nuclear Nightmare Starts
Coastal Post Online
January, 2003
Afghanistan: The Nuclear Nightmare Starts
By Davey Garland
[Davey Garland is a coordinator of the British-based Pandora DU Research Project.
Source; Green Left Weekly, Issue of December 2002. ]
When questions were asked in the British parliament a year ago about whether depleted uranium (DU) weapons had been used in the military strikes on Afghanistan, "It is not being used at present" was defense minister Geoff Hoon's reply.
A few days earlier, Hoon had been similarly vague on the issue, assuring us that: "No British forces currently engaged in operations around Afghanistan are armed with depleted uranium ammunition. However, we do not rule out the use of depleted uranium
ammunition in Afghanistan, should its penetrative capability be judged necessary in the future."
The defense minister played his cards close to his chest, no doubt having been informed that DU or other uranium weapons were being used by the United States (and no doubt British) forces to penetrate the caverns of Tora Bora and other targets (including civilian ones), especially in the vicinity of Kabul.
The refusal of the Ministry of Defense to fully admit that dangerous uranium weapons may have been used in Afghanistan and the conflicts in the Balkans (Bosnia and Kosova), when evidence shows the contrary, illustrates just how sensitive the government is to the possibility that its use, or its collusion in the use, of weapons of mass destruction may be discovered.
This is not just because thousands of innocent civilians will suffer due to radiological (and heavy metal) poisoning, but also because the government is prepared to send British troops and aid workers, possibly for a long occupation of the war zones, ill-equipped and vulnerable to contamination.
When the Afghan crisis began, many of us believed that a great amount of DU/dirty uranium would be used to achieve the US-British campaign objectives, both to penetrate the opposition's hideouts in rocky terrain and to test new weapons systems (dirty uranium or dirty DU contains radioactive contaminants, such as plutonium isotopes, derived from spent fuel from power reactors). The amount used in Afghanistan might have exceeded the several hundred ton's of DU/dirty uranium used in the 1990-91 Gulf War and the Balkans conflicts.
Startling report
A startling new report based on research in Afghanistan indicates that our worst fears have been realized. The study, produced by the Uranium Medical Research Centre (UMRC), points to the likelihood of large numbers of the population being exposed to uranium dust and debris.
Dr. Asaf Durakovic, a professor of nuclear medicine and radiology and a former science adviser to the US military, who set-up the independent UMRC, has been testing US, British, and Canadian troops and civilians for DU and uranium poisoning over the past few years. His findings confirm significant amounts in the subjects' urine as much as nine years after exposure.
Two scientific study teams were sent to Afghanistan in the aftermath of the conflict in 2001-02. The first arrived in June 2002, concentrating on the Jalalabad region. The second arrived four months later, broadening the study to include the capital Kabul, which has a population of nearly 3.5 million people. The city itself contains the highest recorded number of fixed targets during Operation Enduring Freedom. For the study's purposes, the vicinity of three major bomb sites were examined.
It was predicted that signatures of depleted or enriched uranium would be found in the urine and soil samples taken during the research. The team was unprepared for the shock of its findings, which indicated in both Jalalabad and Kabul, DU was possibly causing the high levels of illness but also high concentrations of non-depleted uranium. Tests taken from a number of Jalalabad subjects showed concentrations 400% to 2000% above that for normal populations, amounts which have not been recorded in civilian studies before..
# # #
The complete article is posted at this following URL:
http://www.coastalpost.com/03/01/03.htm
2) The Consequences Of An Iraqi Misadventure
Coastal Post Online
The Consequences Of An Iraqi Misadventure
Remarks by Dr. Paul Atwood
January, 2003
Remarks by Dr. Paul Atwood at a meeting of CPPAX in Boston (Citizens for
Participation in Political Action), December 7, 2002.
I fear that we are embarking upon another deadly misadventure in which desires and fantasies on the part of a small number of administration advisers about private gains are overriding rational judgments about costs and long-term consequences.
I find it very instructive, and something the media largely ignore, that such opposition as does exist within the administration to invading and occupying Iraq comes from those members who actually served in uniform in Vietnam. Though his opposition is muted now, Colin Powell originally demurred.
Undersecretary of State Richard Armitage served two tours in Vietnam and is on record as strenuously opposing war with Iraq, and former national Security Adviser Gen. Brent Scowcroft has said that such a war would unleash "Armageddon" in the Middle East. Numerous high ranking general staff officers are also on record in opposition to war.
Almost all of those in the Bush Administration who do favor war are men who also favored war with Vietnam but who found it expedient to find ways not to have to bear any burden or make any sacrifice themselves. Vice-President Cheney has infamously said that he "had more important Priorities" than serving in uniform. He and Paul Wolfowitz and others were perfectly happy to have other less fortunate young men, and some women, do the dirty work of killing and of sacrificing their lives for the cause. And now they are willing to do so once again.
Cheney claims that Saddam is a threat to world peace yet as Secretary of Defense in 1991 he played a central role in enabling Saddam to remain in power and in the process betray the Kurds and Shiites of Iraq, that is, those who have been his primary victims all along.
In the very week before the resolution vote the Central Intelligence Agency issued a report declaring that Saddam Hussein was highly unlikely to use any weapon of mass destruction that he MAY possess UNLESS he was attacked first. It is now established that the question of Iraq was relatively low on President Bush's list of concerns even after September 11. Numerous intelligence assessments have reiterated that Iraq played no role in 9-11, and that there is no direct evidence that Saddam Hussein has provided any assistance to Islamic terrorists. This makes sense since he trusts no one outside of a small select circle, and the Islamists see him as an apostate.
So the impetus for "regime change" has come from a very different direction. The administration of George I said that Saddam was allowed to remain in place because the United Nations had provided no mandate for toppling the regime. Only Iraq's expulsion from Kuwait had been mandated..
# # #
The complete article is posted at this following URL:
http://www.coastalpost.com/03/01/01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For information to see or show a powerful video presentation by former UN weapons inspector,
"Scott Ritter: The Case Against US War on Iraq"
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1035412352,83775,
3) Chem-trails and Kyoto
Via WarOnFreedom@yahoogroups.com list serve
X-Sender: halva@groovy.gr
Subject: [WarOnFreedom] Why the USA won't sign the Kyoto Protocol
WHY THE U.S.A. WON'T SIGN THE KYOTO PROTOCOL
Wayne Hall
Like many, if not all, I suppose, residents of Athens Greece I have in the last months at all times throughout the day (and also at night) noticed aircraft flying at high altitudes and discharging something which is denser and more long-lasting than the familiar condensation trails left behind by commercial passenger jets. The difference is easily perceptible by comparing these trails to what you see coming out of planes taking off or landing at the local airport.
You can also see what part of the plane these denser emissions are coming from by visiting http://hamilton.indymedia.org:8081/front.php3?article_id=1132#mark2
and scrolling to the bottom.
I have noticed these emissions, and these trails, over central Athens, the northern and southern suburbs, Mount Pendeli and the Saronic Gulf. I would be very interested to find out in how many other parts of Greece they are being observed. The trails these planes leave behind often remain visible for a long time. They gradually disperse and become clouds which again do not look like the natural cumulus clouds we see at lower altitudes in the sky. Often on clear days a few hours of the these planes flying backwards and forwards is enough to spoil the whole appearance of the sky. Sometimes, too, they can suddenly give off increased amounts of emission, forming very dense white clouds with "tails" underneath. On 24th December 2002 at around two in the afternoon I saw a huge cloud of this kind over the town of Aigina. It was unlike anything I have ever seen before in my life, and it got me wondering what we would be breathing when the contents of that cloud got down to ground level.
By chance last summer I discovered that these emissions in the United States are popularly called "Chemtrails" and that anyone interested can learn quite a lot by just typing the word into a relevant Internet search engine such as Google.
One particularly good source of information is
http://hamilton.indymedia.org:8081/front.php3?article_id=1793
There is now a discussion on the aerosol spraying over Athens at:
http://www.chemtrailcentral.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001629.html
One of the first things I discovered is that the aircraft involved in this activity include military KC-135 and KC-10s. They are planes used as tankers by the United States Air Force. There have also been certain unmarked white jets participating in aerosol operations, and in fact I saw such an anonymous white plane flying at a low altitude over Pendeli on Saturday 22nd December 2002 at a time when spraying was in progress. It was not itself discharging white plumes and was possibly coming in to land. This information on plane types is from the writer Toni Thayer and dates from 2001. At that time no governmental agency of any country would confirm that spraying activity was occurring. In mid- 2002 the countries in which eyewitnesses had reported seeing this type of aerosol spraying included the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, Croatia, Australia, Mexico, New Zealand and Haiti. As of late 2002 it is clear that the spraying is now also taking place in Greece.
What is its purpose?
A book written by the investigative journalist Will Thomas called "Probing the Chemtrail Conundrum" puts forward three theories, only one of which: the least macabre, I will mention. It is indeed possible that more than one purpose is being served and more than one substance sprayed. According to the first of Will Thomas's theories, the spraying is part of a strategy for countering the destructive effects of global warming. Of the scientists carrying out computer simulations of the effects of aerosol spraying as a possible means of slowing global warming.
Ken Caldeira of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory shares the view of the ecological movement that curtailing of greenhouse gas emissions, as set out (very conservatively) in the Kyoto Protocol, would be "the most prudent and least risky option for mitigating global warming". But the approach that seems to have prevailed has been that recommended by Edward Teller, "father of the H-bomb" (and of the Star Wars "missile defence" programme) in a 1997 paper entitled Global Warming and the Ice Ages: Prospects for Physics-based Modulation of Global Change. What Teller has advocated is a programme for spraying minute aluminium particles all over the planet so as to deflect the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays but still allow the Earth's heat to rise through them. Teller's report emphasizes the negative economic implications of imposing limitations such as the Kyoto Protocol on fossil-fired energy production and notes how much cheaper it would be to lace the skies with light-scattering particles.
Teller has powerful supporters for this view. In 1994, apparently in the context of lobbying by petroleum companies for "solutions" to global warming that would allow continued burning of fossil fuels, a patent was issued to the Hughes Aircraft Company for "Stratospheric Welsbach seeding for reduction of global warming". The patent describes how tiny particles of aluminium oxide and other reflective particles could be added to the fuel of jet airliners and emitted from the jet exhaust. One does not need to be a medical expert to imagine the likely effects on human health of such a programme of emissions. In a 50 square mile area around Espanola, Ontario, where months of stratospheric seeding took place in 1998, residents experienced high rates of severe headaches, chronic joint pain, dizziness, sudden extreme fatigue, acute asthma attacks, fever-less "flu-like" symptoms and loss of short term memory. Lab analyses of Espanola rainwater found reflective quartz particles and levels of aluminium five times higher than the maximum permissible levels under Ontario's Health and Safety Standards.
Will Thomas's second theory, which as stated I don't propose to go into here, has to do with reasons for spraying the even more toxic heavy metal barium over large areas of the earth's surface. The effects of stratospheric seeding have now become very visible in the skies of the United States and, increasingly, outside the United States but, given the media blackout on "Chemtrails"-related information (apart from on Internet), the American public has not yet begun to react..
..Just as a matter of interest, Ken Caldeira has warned that apart from producing adverse health effects in humans, stratospheric aerosol seeding could have an unknown devastating effect on the climate. Enhanced stratospheric cooling could accelerate the destruction of stratospheric ozone, which protects the earth from solar and cosmic radiation. The placing of aerosols in the atmosphere could also lead to reverse results of the earth being subjected to extremely rapid heating, potentially causing a run-away greenhouse effect.
It is still not too late for us to make a start:we in Greece can start by asking our government what purpose is being served by these increasingly frequent high altitude flights of jet planes over our heads with very dense and long lasting vapour trails. Better some questions now than mass hysteria in the future.
Aigina, 26th December, 2002
# # # #
For Flyby News' updated resource page:
"Military Weather Experiments, ChemTrails, and Psychotronic Warfare, see: http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1013706954,22312,m
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Following are links to more stories on the dark side:
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
A dead congressman on an Israeli beach - why no media reporting?
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=35948
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The Complete 9/11 Timeline
http://cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline/
"The Complete 9-11 Timeline" section was developed and is maintained by Paul Thompson.
http://cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline/
In the event of a hacking, the timelines are mirrored at:
http://www.unansweredquestions.net/timeline/
http://billstclair.com/911timeline/
http://64.177.75.218/completetimeline/index.htm
http://208.187.163.46/completetimeline
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The timeline links will be posted also from Flyby News updated page:
The Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports, looking into the unanswered questions.
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1014738186,11057,
4) NASA: Arctic Sea Ice Disappearing Before End of Century
NewScientist.com
Arctic to lose all summer ice by 2100
10:02 04 December 02
Fred Pearce
The Arctic Ocean will be completely devoid of summer ice before the 21st century has ended, a NASA study predicts.
The new work shows that the permanent ice cap over the ocean - the cover that survives through the warm summer months - is disappearing far faster than previously thought.
Between 1978 and 2000, 1.2 million square kilometres of apparently permanent ice melted away. That is an area five times the size of Britain and represents a loss of nine per cent per decade.
"At this rate, permanent ice will have disappeared before the end of this century," says NASA ice physicist Josefino Comiso.
Trebling up
Past satellite studies of ice cover have looked at the average ice cover for individual months during the year. They found an average retreat of around three per cent a decade.
But the minimum ice cover, which represents the ice that lasts through the summer, occurs at different times in different regions of the ocean. So to get a clearer estimate of the amount of ice that survives, Comiso reanalysed the data.
He measured the minimum extent of sea ice in each region - and that revealed the much higher rate of loss. The trend is continuing. This past summer, "we had the least amount of permanent ice cover ever observed," says Comiso.
"If the permanent ice cover disappears, the entire Arctic ocean climate and ecology would become very different," says Comiso, at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. It will give an extra kick to global warming and polar bears, which live by hunting on the sea ice, will have nowhere to go.
Point of no return
The ice loss coincides with a summer warming trend of 1.2 C a decade in the air above the ice. The biggest disappearance of ice so far has been over the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, north of Canada and Alaska. This is also where air temperatures have warmed most.
Comiso agrees that some of the ice retreat could be due to short-term fluctuations in climate or ocean currents. But he warns that the rate at which ice disappears is likely to accelerate in future.
As the ice disappears, it will speed up the warming of Arctic waters. This is because ice reflects most of the Sun's rays back into space, while the dark-blue oceans absorb much more heat.
Warmer water will delay autumn freezing, leading to a thinner ice cover in the winter and spring. In turn this will make the sea ice more vulnerable to melting the next summer. This positive feedback is propelling the Arctic ice to a point of no return beyond which, says Comiso, the melting will be become "irreversible".
# # #
Journal reference: Geophysical Research Letters (DOI: 10.1029/2002GL015650)
Article originally posted 10:02 04 December 02 by the New Scientist
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993138
# # #
For Flyby New's updated page on the mounting evidence of Global Warming, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1014396414,10278,
5) Comment on NASA's Nuke-Mars Missions
NASA is now holding a public comment period until January 15 on their plans to launch two Mars Exploration Rovers from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The nuclear launches are planned for May and June of 2003. The Global Network will hold a major protest at the space center on Saturday, May 3 (10am - 1pm) in response. In the meantime please send your comments opposing the launches to NASA at the address below. Please help us spread word about these nuclear launches.
Send a protest message to NASA during their public comment period which runs until January 15, 2003. (You do not have to be a U.S. citizen to comment.)
David Lavery
Office of Space Science
NASA
Code SM
Washington DC 20546
marsnepa@hq.nasa.gov
Following is an open letter by Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space.
January 8, 2002
David Lavery
Office of Space Science
NASA
Code SM
Washington DC 20546
Dear Mr. Lavery:
This letter is to express our deep opposition to the planned launch of NASA's Mars rover missions from Florida in May and June of 2003.
We would very much appreciate hearing from you immediately about the amount (pounds/ounces) of plutonium-238, cobalt-57, and curium-244 to be used in each mission.
Our obvious concern begins with the processing of plutonium at DoE laboratories across the country. During 1994-96 there were 244 cases of worker contamination reported at Los Alamos labs while the RTG's for the Cassini mission were being fabricated. We know that NASA intends to expand production of space nuclear power in the coming years and that increased contamination of workers and communities will be the result.
In the event of a launch accident with either Mars rover mission, the NASA Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) states that it is "likely" that some radioactive materials would be released into the environment. The same EIS shows a map of Florida with a 60 mile radius of "affected" areas.
Sooner or later, as NASA expands the number of plutonium launches from the space center, there will be an accident. One thing we know is that accidents do happen, often due to human failure. Mix plutonium into the equation and we face disaster.
Recent statements by the new director of NASA reveal the growing control of the space program by the Pentagon. We clearly see a link between NASA's "Nuclear Systems Initiative" and the long held desire of the military to power weapons in space with nuclear reactors. NASA and the DoE are serving as the Trojan horse, expanding research and development of space nuclear power that will eventually be used for war in the heavens.
NASA is now in violation of its founding charter which called for the peaceful exploration of space. Now matter how much NASA denies this reality, the public is becoming painfully aware of this fact. Support for NASA is declining, in fact support for the Mars missions is dropping.
People would rather see their hard earned tax dollars used for health care, social security, child care and environmental clean-up here on our mother Earth. While the Mars Society cynically says that the "Earth is a dying planet and that we must terra form Mars and move civilization there," most people would prefer to make life here on this planet livable.
When citizens learn that NASA now is preparing, and in fact expanding, the use of nuclear power in space they become even more firm in their opposition to the space program. Those who work at NASA, and truly believe in peaceful and environmentally sound exploration, should stand up and resist the ruination of their beloved space program.
We know that there are people inside NASA who have done dramatic research on non-nuclear alternatives for space exploration but they have been pushed aside by the growing control of the nuclear advocates, many of them who come with a military objective. If you have doubts about the potential of solar alternatives just check with the European Space Agency and their Rosetta mission that will use solar to travel into deep space.
We can assure you that our organization, now in our 11th year, is working vigorously to create a global constituency that is opposed to the nuclearization and weaponization of space. NASA's decision to continue down this dangerous path of promoting nuclear launches only makes our efforts to focus public attention on your agency easier.
In peace,
Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, FL. 32607
(352) 337-9274
globalnet@mindspring.com
http://www.space4peace.org
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
US/Iraq * 9/11/Osama * CITGO/Venezuela * ABM/Peace
06 January 2003
1) U.S. Played a Key Role In Iraq Military Buildup
2) 9/11 Investigator Linked to Osama bin Laden?
3) Help Venezuela, Help Democracy - Go with CITGO!
4) Judge Allows Bush's Withdrawal from ABM Treaty to Stand
5) 'Bush's master plan for the Internet'
6) Governor George Ryan of Illinois for the Nobel Peace Prize
Editor's Notes:
Item 1 begins this issue with another mainstream article on the hypocritical policies of the US, first as a supplier with weapons of mass destruction, then as an executioner for regime change, or control of oil resources. Item 2 is from an email showing possible links with the newest Bush appointee to Chair 9/11 investigations, Thomas Kean, and involvement with Osama bin Laden. Item 3 is a thoughtful letter to the Guardian about Venezuela, about oil, about democracy, and freedom. Go with CITGO is a new campaign in this item to encourage your purchasing gas in support of the Venezuelan government, the majority of its people, democracy, and their Constitution. Item 4 is on the recent ruling on the Bush withdrawal from the ABM Treaty, allowing it to stand, though leaving open the possibility of Congress to define its role in treaty termination. Item 5 follows an item in the last issue of Flyby News, speculating on a Bush plan to control the Internet. If George W. Bush gets a second term, loss of Internet freedom, based on current losses of civil liberties and media-controlled-monopolies, would likely result. This is another reason for efforts to transform the Democratic Party and remove the current administration from power, first, and then to establish a multi-party system by ending the spoiler route with instant run-off elections. Not having priorities in order in 2000 have brought major consequences, and hopefully people will learn from obvious mistakes, unless pride and desire for destruction and chaos get in our way for reasonable thinking and actions. Kucinich hasn't announced his candidacy yet. The recent announcement by the Senator of North Carolina, John Edwards, seemed hopeful, but in checking his voting record to authorize Bush the okay to attack Iraq preemptively, how can you trust him? So far, the only announced 2004 Presidential candidate in opposition of the Bush foreign policy of greed and turmoil is the outgoing Governor of Vermont, Howard Dean. Yet Kucinich has the record of priority thinking and legislation for peace, disarmament, and sustainable energy-technology policies. The final item in this issue is from a campaign in support of Governor George Ryan of Illinois for the Nobel Peace Prize, due to his work for a Moratorium on the Death Penalty, due to his awareness of the flaws of the criminal justice system, and innocent people being released from Death Row!
"Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal's deed, however calculated can be compared. For there to be an equivalency, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not encountered in private life."
- Albert Camus
1) U.S. Played a Key Role In Iraq Military Buildup
U.S. Played a Key Role In Iraq Military Buildup
By Michael Dobbs
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday 30 December 30 2002; Page A01
* Rumsfeld Visited Baghdad In 1983 as Hussein Used Chemical Weapons
* Trade in Chemical Arms Allowed Despite Their Use on Iranians, Kurds
High on the Bush administration's list of justifications for war against Iraq are President Saddam Hussein's use of chemical weapons, nuclear and biological programs, and his contacts with international terrorists. What U.S. officials rarely acknowledge is that these offenses date back to a period when Hussein was seen in Washington as a valued ally.
Among the people instrumental in tilting U.S. policy toward Baghdad during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war was Donald H. Rumsfeld, now defense secretary, whose December 1983 meeting with Hussein as a special presidential envoy paved the way for normalization of U.S.-Iraqi relations. Declassified documents show that Rumsfeld traveled to Baghdad at a time when Iraq was using chemical weapons on an "almost daily" basis in defiance of international conventions.
The story of U.S. involvement with Saddam Hussein in the years before his 1990 attack on Kuwait -- which included large-scale intelligence sharing, supply of cluster bombs through a Chilean front company, and facilitating Iraq's acquisition of chemical and biological precursors -- is a topical example of the underside of U.S. foreign policy. It is a world in which deals can be struck with dictators, human rights violations sometimes overlooked, and accommodations made with arms proliferators, all on the principle that the "enemy of my enemy is my friend." ....
In late 1987, the Iraqi air force began using chemical agents against Kurdish resistance forces in northern Iraq that had formed a loose alliance with Iran, according to State Department reports. The attacks, which were part of a "scorched earth" strategy to eliminate rebel-controlled villages, provoked outrage on Capitol Hill and renewed demands for sanctions against Iraq. The State Department and White House were also outraged -- but not to the point of doing anything that might seriously damage relations with Baghdad. "The U.S.-Iraqi relationship is . . . important to our long-term political and economic objectives," Assistant Secretary of State Richard W. Murphy wrote in a September 1988 memorandum that addressed the chemical weapons question. "We believe that economic sanctions will be useless or counterproductive to influence the Iraqis."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For information to see or show a powerful video presentation by former UN weapons inspector, "Scott Ritter: The Case Against US War on Iraq"
see Item 1 at following URL:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1035412352,83775,
2) 9/11 Investigator Linked to Osama bin Laden?
Subject: More connections in administration investigation of 9-11, to Osamma
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=36152
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2002 10:29:09 -0800 (PST)
From: Michael Treis - mftreis3@yahoo.com
Unknown to most, UNOCAL's partner in the Cent-Gas trans-Afghan pipeline consortium, the Saudi Company Delta Oil is owned by the bin Mahfouz and Al-Amoudi clans which allegedly have ties to bin Laden's Al Qaeda. According to a 1998 Senate testimony of former CIA director James Woolsey, powerful financier Khalid bin Mahfouz' younger sister is married to Osama bin Laden,. (US Senate, Senate Judiciary Committee, Federal News Service, 3 Sept. 1998, See also Wayne Madsen, Questionable Ties, In These Times,12 Nov. 2001 ). Bin Mahfouz is suspected to have funneled millions of dollars to the Al Qaeda network.(See Tom Flocco, Scoop.co.nz 28 Aug. 2002)
Now, "by sheer coincidence", former New Jersey governor Thomas Kean, the man chosen by President Bush to lead the 9/11 commission also has business ties with bin Mahfouz and Al-Amoudi. Thomas Kean is a director (and shareholder) of Amerada Hess y: In other words, Delta Oil Ltd. of Saudi Arabia --which is a partner in the Hess-Delta Alliance--is in part controlled by Khalid bin Mafhouz, Osama's brother in law.
And former Governor Thomas Kean not only sits on the board of directors of a company which has business dealings with Khalid bin Mahfouz, he also heads the 9/11 Commission, which has a mandate to investigate Khalid's brother in law, Osama bin Laden. Dr. Kissinger had a conflict of interest and resigned! The vice chairman of the Commission, former Sen. George Mitchell of Maine, resigned for the same reason. (See Xymphora, 19 Dec 2002 )
Now you would think that being a business partner of the brother in law and alleged financier of "Enemy No. 1" would also be considered a bona fide "conflict of interest", particularly when your mandate --as part of the 9/11 Commission's work-- is to investigate "Enemy No. 1".
What else will they have us swallow as they investigate' the 9-11 conspiracy? You'd think people would snap to the treason that has been committed by this administration by now!
Michael
3) Help Venezuela, Help Democracy - Go with CITGO!
Letter to the Guardian (London)
Dear Sirs:
I have read the latest (30 December) report in the Guardian regarding the situation in Venezuela, and I must point out that you failed to even mention the real issue at stake in this crisis, namely, the control of the nation's oil industry, and not, as some of the media would lead one to believe, the unpopularity of the nation's president. One might mistakenly be left with the impression that the crisis is a mere banana republic's' squabble over power.
The government of President Hugo Chavez was elected by an overwhelming majority in 1999, his mandate and political programme, including the formulation of a new and progressive constitution, were ratified on 6 further occasions. Never before, in the history of Venezuela, has a government been so thoroughly legitimated to carry out its political programme, which includes socially oriented reforms of the nation's oil company, PDVSA, directed at:
* increasing its efficiency
* making it accountable to the nation
* channeling the benefits from private hands to the public treasury.
PDVSA is notoriously corrupt and grossly inefficient compared to other large oil companies. The above reforms constitute the only reason why the wealthy elite, terrified of losing any of its illegitimate privileges, has paralysed and sabotaged the nation's oil industry and brought the country to a standstill, thereby depriving millions of Venezuelans of their livelihoods, food, medicines, access to their funds and savings, as well as freedom of movement throughout the territory. These are flagrant violations of basic human rights and a criminal abuse of economic power in an attempt to remove a democratically elected President instead of recurring to constitutional means.
Venezuelas new constitution provides legal means for revoking a mandate through a referendum at the end of the first 4 years of the 6- year presidential term. In view of this, one has to ask:
* Why doesn't the opposition wait the constitutionally established period and use civilized means to express their discontent and obtain power?
* What is it's real agenda?
The opposition' in Venezuela is a precarious coalition of economic interest groups and the formerly dominant political parties, reduced to a very small minority after the last elections. The major media, owned by a powerful elite, orchestrated a campaign against the President which has been successful in creating supporters among the upper classes of the population. They consist of a pot-pourri of individual discontents united in signaling President Chavez as the universal cause of all their and the nation's problems. It is an opposition without a visible leader, plan, project nor ideology. It has, apparently, only one proposal: the resignation of President Chavez.
However, behind the oppositions rhetoric, there is a not-so-hidden agenda about which many of the oppositions supporters are apparently blissfully unaware. The fact is that they are being mobilised and used in attempts to oust the President in order to leave the way open for the privatization of the nations oil industry on which Venezuela depends for 80% of its income.
Ownership of PDVSA equals ownership of Venezuela. Since Venezuela has the world's 5th largest oil reserves and is rich in minerals and biodiversity, it is of immense strategic importance to global powers which seek to control the world resources for their voracious consumption.
The United States government was involved in the thwarted coup against President Chavez in April this year, immediately after President Chavez appointed a new president and other executives of PDVSA. It has been reported that leading members of the opposition have been meeting with US officials in Washington. Venezuela is the US' only major oil supplier located in the western hemisphere. Venezuela, under President Chavez, also led the revival of the OPEP, which resulted in higher oil prices and a boost to the national income. In the Bush plan to wage war on (ie: to massacre) the people of Iraq to obtain their oil, Venezuela's oil is of vital strategic importance.
One cannot discount US involvement in the current coup attempt in Venezuela, since President Chavez's nationalist policies are not the most convenient for US interests, and the timing of this attempt to overthrow President Chavez is surely not a mere coincidence. If the opposition wants to change the President, why not act in a civilized, democratic way, using the constitutionally established referendum in August 2003? Why carry out this sabotage in this precise moment?
The opposition is using terrorist tactics against its fellow countrymen, tantamount to an act of civil warfare, whilst reveling in the increasing vicissitudes that beset the nation. People of all nations should assume the defence of democratic institutions world-wide, repudiate the opposition's use of economic sabotage to impose political ends and inflict cruelty and suffering on the whole population.
I urge the GUARDIAN to inform its readers of the real nature of this crisis, and its global context, and to do justice to the democratically elected government of Venezuela, whose chief error' is, in the final analysis, its attempt to emulate in great part, the socio-economic system which is taken for granted in Britain and other European countries.
Lorna Haynes
University of the Andes , Mcrida, Venezuela
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
GO WITH CITGO!
--- Original Message ----- From Alfred L. Marder
Sent Saturday, December 21, 2002 1129 AM
Subject CITGO GAS
Dear Friend
The WALL STREET JOURNAL brought to our attention that CITGO is a wholy-owned subsidiary of the national Venezuela oil company. The attacks on the overwhelmingly democratically elected government of President Hugo Chavez deal directly with the reforms that this government is instituting including: land reform, labor rights and protection oif the nationally owned assets. Many go into affect on January 1st, thus explaining the push at this time to have Chavez resign. Otto Reich and Company have their dirty hands in the mix despite the sanctimonious declarations of "neutralilty" emenating from Bush, Inc. It is part and parcel of the US policies to foist FTAA and privitization on Latin America.
IN addition to our statements and acts of solidarity, the proposal is that we purchase gasoline from CITGO. In filling our tanks, we inform the franchised dealer that the reason we are buying CITGO gasoline is to show our solidarity with the Venezuelan people and democracy in Venezuela.
We urge we all forward this message to all of our friends and neighbors.
Yours in Peace,
Al Marder
US Peace Council
4) Judge Allows Bush's Withdrawal from ABM Treaty to Stand
For Immediate Release: January 1, 2003
John Burroughs, Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy: (cell) 917-439-4585
Jackie Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation: (cell) 510-306-0119
Judge Allows Bush's Withdrawal from ABM Treaty to Stand;
Leaves Open Possibility of Future Congressional Role in Treaty Termination
WASHINGTON, DC -- In a December 30, 2002 decision, Judge John Bates of the U.S. District Court ruled that lead plaintiff Representative Dennis Kucinich and 31 other Members of the House of Representatives have no standing to challenge President Bush's withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty without congressional approval. He also ruled that the case presents a "political question" not suitable for resolution by the courts.
In a 31-page written opinion, Judge Bates left open the possibility that in the future, Congress as a whole may be able to invoke the aid of the judiciary in a constitutional dispute with the President, noting that in this case, "there is no claim that Congress, as an institution, has asserted its role in the treaty termination process."
Judge Bates did not rule on the merits of whether the Constitution requires a president to obtain congressional approval of termination of a treaty, holding that this is a matter to be resolved by the executive and legislative branches through the political process with courts only a possible "last resort."
According to plaintiffs' lead counsel, Peter Weiss of the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy in New York City, "Judge Bates' decision in the ABM Treaty termination case was foreshadowed by his recent decision in Walker v. Cheney holding that a congressional agency, the General Accounting Office, has no standing to obtain a court order compelling disclosure of information concerning meetings of the energy task force chaired by the Vice-President." Weiss continued, "The ABM Treaty case indicates that, contrary to the opinion of many members of Congress, the President does not necessarily have an absolute right to terminate treaties on his own. However, both decisions place a heavy burden on Congress to provoke full-blown political crises in order to obtain from the courts rulings interpreting the Constitution, which is, after all, the business of the courts. Such 'institutional' challenges are unlikely to occur at any time; they are virtually impossible when, as now, the President's party controls Congress." Weiss concluded, "Thus both decisions represent a considerable advance toward the imperial presidency and a commensurate retreat from constitutional government."
John Burroughs, executive director of the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy and one of plaintiffs' attorneys, added: "While Judge Bates refused to decide the constitutional question before him, he did recognize that the Supreme Court's 1979 decision in Goldwater v. Carter concerning President Carter's unilateral withdrawal from the Taiwan Mutual Defense Treaty does not foreclose Congress from asserting its constitutional role in the treaty termination process."
Burroughs concluded: "Congress should now make clear that henceforth the President must seek its consent to termination of any treaty consistent with historical practice in the vast majority of treaty terminations. Future decisions regarding matters as momentous as withdrawal from the ABM Treaty must involve Congress if the United States is to remain a democracy. The framers of the Constitution rejected the monarchical system of government and did not intend that a president could rule by fiat."
According to plaintiffs' co-counsel Michael Veiluva of the Western States Legal Foundation in Oakland, California: "The Bush administration withdrew from the ABM Treaty, refuses to seek Senate approval of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, negotiated an arms reduction treaty' with Russia that does not require the destruction of a single nuclear warhead or delivery system and contains no verification provisions, blocked adoption of a verification protocol to the Biological Weapons Convention, and is working to undermine the International Criminal Court. Judge Bates has passed up an important opportunity to put the United States back on the track of upholding the rule of law, at home and abroad."
In a December 30 statement responding to Judge Bates' decision, Representative Kucinich said, "The Administration is undermining both national and international security by taking a wrecking-ball to the Constitution and international agreements."
Kucinich v. Bush, filed on June 11, 2001, names as defendants President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. It sought a decision on whether or not the Constitution permits the President to terminate the ABM Treaty without obtaining the consent of Congress. The House Members bringing the lawsuit are: Dennis Kucinich, D-10-Ohio; James Oberstar, D-8-MN; Patsy Mink, D-2-HI; Tammy Baldwin, D-2-WI; Peter DeFazio, D-4-OR; John Olver, D-1-MA; Sam Farr, D-17-CA; Barbara Lee, D-9-CA; Maurice Hinchey, D-26-NY; John Conyers, D-14-MI; Hilda Solis, D-31-CA; Janice Schakowsky, D-9-IL; Alcee Hasting, D-23-FL; Fortney (Pete) Stark, D-13-CA; Bernard Sanders, I-1-VT; Earl Hilliard, D-7-AL; Carolyn Kilpatrick, D-15-MI; Lane Evans, D-17-IL; Jim McDermott, D-7-WA; Bob Filner, D-50-CA; Cynthia McKinney, D-4-GA; George Miller, D-7-CA; Lynn Woolsey, D-6-CA; William Lacy Clay, D-1-MO; Edolphus Towns, D-10-NY; Maxine Waters, D-35-CA; Jesse Jackson, Jr., D-2-IL; Gregory Meeks, D-6-NY; Marcy Kaptur, D-9-OH; Jerrold Nadler, D-8-NY; Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-11-OH; and Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-18-TX.
They are represented by James Klimaski, Klimaski & Grill, P.C. Washington, DC; Peter Weiss and John Burroughs, Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy, New York, NY; Bruce Ackerman, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale Law School, New Haven CT ; Jeremy Manning, Esq., New York, NY; Jules Lobel and Michael Ratner, Center for Constitutional Rights, New York, NY; Edward Aguilar, Philadelphia Lawyers Alliance for World Security, Philadelphia, PA; and Michael Veiluva, Western States Legal Foundation, Oakland, CA.
Judge Bates' decision is available in pdf upon request by email from johnburroughs@lcnp.org or wslf@earthlink.net. The main papers filed in the case are available on line, in pdf format, at
http://www.lcnp.org/disarmament/ABMlawsuit/indexoflinks.htm
5) 'Bush's master plan for the Internet'
'Bush's master plan for the Internet'
December 21 @ 09:12:18 EST
Commander-In-Thief
The URL for this complete article is:
http://www.SmirkingChimp.com/article.php?sid=9507
By Kurt Nimmo
Bush and his Machiavellian minions will no longer put up with you roaming free into dangerous territory on the internet. You need to be corralled, electronically tethered, kept away from sites promoting conspiracy theories -- in other words, information the corporate media, the official US Ministry of Disinformation, does not want you to read or see. It's now increasingly obvious the Bushites want to lock us up in a hermetically sealed informational box and throw away the key. All the information they consider worthwhile will be pumped in through a one-way hole.
During war, as they say, the first causality is truth. And war -- all the time and everywhere people resist -- is what Bush will deliver. It will be easier for him to accomplish this if you can't read the truth, if you remain ignorant, or if you are obstructed from organizing and speaking out on the internet against war and madness. Bush knows this -- or, at least, those around him know this. The internet, regardless of its trashy and lame commercial characteristics, is a nearly perfect medium for organizing. It's a thorn in the side of neo-cons and fascists everywhere.
Enter Dubya's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board (CIPB), which the unelected one created with a flourish of his pen (another executive order, a most popular way to rule vassals). The men and women around Bush want to require internet service providers, ISPs, to build a centralized network capable of monitoring where you go, what you look at and read, what you write in your email -- and all in real-time. Of course, they don't say this. What they say is they want to protect you against viruses and terrorist attacks. They want to shield you from Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, who are everywhere, ready to attack, even on the internet (Osama's cave in Tora Bora, don't you know, bristled with computers and crack virus software programmers).
CIPB is working on a report, "The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace," which it will release early next year. It is billed as a strategy for the Ministry of Homeland Security and -- this is the laughable part -- is subject to congressional review. Yeah, like Congress protected us from Bush's totalitarian Patriot Act and the Ministry of Homeland Security bill. What a joke. 99% of these folks are Bush co-conspirators. When Bush tells them to jump, they ask how high. Your right to travel through cyberspace without a snoop noting your every move is one of the next hoops Bush will wave before an obeisant Congress. The internet is one of the last bastions of resistance. Besides, some rabble-rouser posted the Anarchist's Cookbook on there.
Of course, converting the internet into a big Carnivore system is one thing, while denying you access is quite another. Bush's centralized system will make this a reality. Get labeled a malcontent, a "security risk," or even a "cyber-terrorist" and you can be easily barred from Bush's "secure, trusted, robust, reliable, and available infrastructure."
Say the wrong thing on a bulletin board or forum and your ISP -- afraid of the government breathing down its neck, yanking its business license, or sicking the IRS on it -- may terminate your service. Hell, if things go as Bush and Clan envision most small ISPs will go out of business, replaced by AOL, Comcast, and other rich communications industry friends and big dollar contributors to Project Bush.
The URL for the complete article, is:
http://www.SmirkingChimp.com/article.php?sid=9507
6) Governor George Ryan of Illinois for the Nobel Peace Prize
As the January 13, 2003 deadline approaches an international campaign has begun to nominate Gov. George Ryan of Illinois for the Nobel Peace Prize. Gov. Ryan known for his imposition of a moratorium of the death penalty in his state has been lauded for his courage and public outrage at the number of wrongful capital convictions in his state.
"As a Professor of International Law and Human Rights, I will nominate Illinois Governor George Ryan for the Nobel Peace Prize because of his principled and courageous opposition to the racist and class-based death penalty system that we have here in the State of Illinois, the Land of Abraham Lincoln. George Ryan is a worthy successor."
Francis A. Boyle
University of Illinois College of Law
Board of Directors, Amnesty International USA (1988-92)
The campaign is supported by a very active web site that can be found at
http://www.stopcapitalpunishment.org
The web site is both a resource to anyone wanting to know more about Governor Ryan's achievements and a bulletin board for all the latest developments in the campaign. Press releases and other resources for the media and press will be available there. It is interesting to note that although the site has only been available on the Internet since late on Christmas Eve afternoon that at the time of writing -- December 30 at 8:00 pm -- there have already been 100 people who have voluntarily signed up on the web site as supporters of the campaign.
Free Independent News
FlybyNews.com
For Life's Survival in the 21st Century
Flyby News bumper stickers are now available for those wanting to join in the "mainstream education drive." This way while driving you can also point others to new information. We really need a critical mass to change our current directions, and networking Flyby News can help others achieve exposure to many critical issues. If you wish, $5 for a bumper sticker will cover all costs, (or 3 stickers for $10), but I hope we can get some subsidized for anyone wanting to place them on their car's bumper or other public placement. The artwork and colors are beautiful. If you want one, please write to info@flybynews.com, provide your snail mail address, and specify if you want the blue-green subtle beautiful swirling background, or the red-orange sunset over a lake in Georgia.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
DU-Rokke * Pile of Tricks * Kucinich Evolutionary Politics
04 January 2003
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect."
- Mark Twain
1) Doug Rokke - Depleted Uranium - War Hazard
2) 2003-1984 Politics [Pile of tricks]
3) Evolutionary Politics: Representative Dennis J. Kucinich
Editor's Notes:
The story of Dr. Doug Rokke tops the items in this first 2003 issue for Flyby News. As war preparations go into full gear, this story should not be dismissed. Dr. Rokke was put in charge of the Army's effort to clean up depleted uranium (DU) after the Persian Gulf War. "In the past decade, Rokke said 30 men out of 100 who were closely involved in these operations dropped dead. Rokke's lungs and kidneys are damaged. He believes that uranium oxide dust is permanently trapped inside his lungs. He has lesions on his brain, pustules on his skin. He suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome. He has reactive airway disease, which means he can't stop wheezing and coughing, and experiences a loss of breath when he exercises. He also has fibromyalgia, a condition that causes chronic pain in his muscles, ligaments and tendons." The good doctor is truly a patriot and warrior, and fighting to expose the dangers of a coming war where safeguarding life by the US is not the prime objective.
Item 2 reports on the Bush plan for Internet surveillance, coming to an ISP near you; and this item includes a link on a report on the CIA using philanthropic foundations to channel large sums of money. Item 3 is from an address by the ever hopeful, self empowering, honest, freedom-loving individual, Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, on the evolutionary nature of politics. It will not be a moment too soon for people to rise up and support a person with such integrity to make it possible for democracy to be reclaimed.
"I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent."
- Mohandas Gandhi
1) Major Rokke - Depleted Uranium - War Hazard
Depleted uranium: war hazard?
TRAVIS DUNN
Disaster News Network
BALTIMORE (December 28, 2002)
Dr. Doug Rokke has a disturbing habit of laughing when he should probably be crying.
He laughs when he talks about battlefields contaminated with radioactive waste. He can't stop laughing when he talks about what he claims is a massive government cover-up. And he keeps laughing when he talks about his health problems, which he attributes to deliberate Army negligence, and which will likely kill him.
Talking to Rokke on the telephone is disturbing enough without him laughing about such horrors. A strange echo accompanies every utterance. When this bizarre sound is pointed out to him, Rokke says he isn't surprised: he claims his phone has been tapped for years.
It may be tempting to dismiss Rokke as a crank or a conspiracy theorist, but Rokke is 35-year-veteran of the U.S. Army, and he isn't just a disgruntled grunt. Rokke ran the U.S. Army's depleted uranium project in the mid-90s, and he was in charge of the Army's effort to clean up depleted uranium after the Persian Gulf War. And he directed the Edwin R. Bradley Radiological Laboratories at Fort McClellan, Ala.
Yet if you type Rokke's name into a search engine on any military website, you will draw a blank, as if he doesn't exist.
If you read through hundreds of pages of government documents and transcriptions of countless government hearings regarding the military use of depleted uranium, not once will you come across his name.
That is more than a little unusual, since Rokke and his team were at the forefront of trying to understand the potential health and environmental hazards posed by the use of depleted uranium, or DU, on the battlefield.
"We were the best they ever had," Rokke claims. He's not bragging. He's laughing again.
The use of DU in combat is a fairly new innovation. It was used for the first time in the Persian Gulf War as the crucial component of armor-piercing, tank-busting munitions.
These munitions are tipped with DU darts that ignite after being fired. The shells are so heavy and hot that they easily rip through steel.
"It's like taking a pencil and pushing it through paper," Rokke said.
This uranium "pencil" then explodes inside its target, creating a deadly "firestorm."
As an anti-tank weapon, "these things are great," Rokke said. They enable U.S. troops to quickly take out enemy tanks at long-range.
According to the Web site of the Deployment Health Support Directorate, DU is "a by-product of the process by which uranium is enriched to produce reactor fuel and nuclear weapons components."
In other words, DU is low-level nuclear waste. According to the same Web site, DU can also contain trace amounts of "neptunium, plutonium, americium, technitium-99 and uranium-236."
A total of 320 tons of DU munitions were fired during the Gulf War. Rokke's job was to figure out how to clean up U.S. tanks, the unfortunate victims of "friendly fire," which had been blown apart by DU rounds.
After years of this kind of this workin Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and on practice ranges in the U.S.Rokke reached a conclusion in 1996.
He told the Army brass that DU was so dangerous that it had to be banned from combat immediately.
That conclusion, Rokke said, cost him his career.
'Contamination was all over'
Burning tanks, burning oil fields, charred bodies.
This was Kuwait after the Gulf War. Rokke had a missionclean up U.S. tanks contaminated with DU.
What Rokke found terrified him.
"Oh my God is the only way to describe it," Rokke said. "Contamination was all over."
Rokke and his crew were measuring significant levels of radiation up to 50 meters away from affected tanks: up to 300 millirems an hour in beta and gamma radiation, and alpha radiation from the thousands to the millions in counts per minute (CPM) on a Geiger counter.
"That whole area is still trashed," he said. "It's hotter than heck over there still. This stuff doesn't go away."
His team took three months to clean up 24 tanks for transport back to the U.S.
The Army, Rokke said, took another three years to fully decontaminate the same 24 tanks.
But the contaminated tanks weren't the only problem.
Within 72 hours of their inspections, Rokke and his crew started getting sick.
But they continued with their work. They went back to the U.S. to perform tests on Army bases. They deliberately blew up tanks with DU rounds, then ran over and jumped on the tanks while they were still burning. They videotaped the uranium-oxide clouds pouring out, and they measured the radiation being thrown off.
In the past decade, Rokke said 30 men out of 100 who were closely involved in these operations dropped dead.
Rokke's lungs and kidneys are damaged. He believes that uranium oxide dust is permanently trapped inside his lungs. He has lesions on his brain, pustules on his skin. He suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome. He has reactive airway disease, which means he can't stop wheezing and coughing, and experiences a loss of breath when he exercises. He also has fibromyalgia, a condition that causes chronic pain in his muscles, ligaments and tendons.
The VA tested Rokke for uranium levels in his body in 1994. He got the results back two and a half years later. His urine had 5000 times the amount of permissible uranium.
After years of fighting with the VA, Rokke said he managed to get a 40 percent disability, but there is no official acknowledgment that his illnesses were caused by his work with DU.
The Army and the Pentagon continue to insist that DU is safe. Rokke says they know better, because he gave them the proof. He said they can't find evidence of DU's dangers because "they're looking for the wrong stuff, and they're using the wrong procedures."
The problem with DU, he said, is the stuff that's given off when a round is fired. The projectile begins burning immediately, and up to 70 percent of it oxidizes. This aerosolized poweruranium oxideis the really dangerous stuff, Rokke said, particularly when it is inhaled.
Rokke insists that he and his men were wearing protective equipmentor equipment they thought would protect them. But their face masks were capable of straining out particles of 10 microns or larger. That's as big as the DU particles get, according to the Army and the Pentagon.
Rokke, however, insists that he has measured particles as small as .3 microns, and that scientists at the Livermore laboratories have measured them as small as .1 micron.
Thus these safety precautions, which are still in place now, are utterly useless, he said.
'I'm a warrior and a patriot'
About one quarter of the 700,000 troops sent to the Persian Gulf War have reported some sort of Gulf War-related illness, and Rokke is convinced that DU has something to do with it, along with the host of other chemicals to which troops were exposed, including low levels of sarin gas, smoke from oil fires, countless pesticides as well as anti-nerve gas tablets which troops were required to ingest.
If Rokke is right about the dangers of DU, why does the Department of Defense continue to use it and insist that it is safe?
"When you go to war, your purpose is to kill," Rokke said, "and DU is the best killing thing we got."
Rokke believes that the U.S. military is putting more emphasis on firepower than on the health and safety of its own troops. He received a memo in the early 90s he says proves his theory. Dated March 1, 1991, the memo was written by Lt. Col. M.V. Ziehmn at the Los Alamos Laboratories in New Mexico.
"There has been and continues to be a concern regarding the impact of dU [sic] on the environment. Therefore, if no one makes a case for the effectiveness of dU on the battlefield, dU rounds may become politically unacceptable and thus, be deleted from the arsenal," the memo reads. "If dU penetrators proved their worth during our recent combat activities, then we should assure their future existence (until something better is developed) through Service/DoD proponency. If proponency is not garnered, it is possible that we stand to lose a valuable combat capability. I believe we should keep this sensitive issue at mind when after action reports [sic] are written."
The meaning of this memo is quite clear, Rokke said. Since DU munitions are so effective, they must continue to be used in combat, regardless of the environmental or health consequences.
The other issue is financial, he said. If the true effects of DU were known, cleanup costs would be absolutely staggering.
DU contaminated areas extend much farther than the Persian Gulf battlefields. Rokke said DU is regularly used in practice maneuvers in the U.S., namely in Indiana, Florida, New Mexico, Massachusetts, Maryland and Puerto Rico. Then there's Kosovo, where DU rounds were used to take out Serbian tanks.
As the U.S. stands on the brink of another war with Iraq, Rokke said he wants to make sure the American public fully understands that this war will be far worse that the last one, and that numbers of troops sickened by DU is likely to be much higher.
Rokke insists he is no pacifist.
"I'm a warrior and a patriot," he said. Given a verifiable threat against the U.S., "I would go to war in a heartbeat."
But he said that he is speaking out for the good of American troops, and for anyone, including Iraqi troops and civilians, who could be exposed to DU.
"Am I pushing for peace today? Yes, I am," he said.
Before a war with Iraq can even be contemplated, Rokke said, DU has to be removed from every arsenal in the world.
In order for that to happen, however, the Pentagon would have to admit that Doug Rokke is right, and that would come at a price that no one has even imagined. But money can't restore the lives of those that Rokke says have died from DU, and money isn't going to get the uranium oxide out of his lungs. There are people at the Pentagon who understand all this, Rokke claims, and that he
deems unconscionable.
"I hope God slam-dunks their butts, because this is absolutely criminal," he said.
Posted December 30, 2002
http://www.disasternews.net/news/news.php?articleid=1687#more
2) 2003-1984 Politics [Pile of tricks]
Bush to propose requiring ISP's to monitor Net
Posted on Thu, Dec. 19, 2002
By John Markoff and John Schwartz
New York Times
The Bush administration is planning to propose requiring Internet service providers to help build a centralized system to enable broad monitoring of the Internet and, potentially, surveillance of its users.
The proposal is part of a final version of a report, ``The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace,'' set for release early next year, according to several people who have been briefed on the report. It is a component of the effort to increase national security after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/4779109.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The Ford Foundation and the CIA:
A documented case of philanthropic collaboration with the Secret Police
by James Petras
12/15/01
Introduction
The CIA uses philanthropic foundations as the most effective conduit to channel large sums of money to Agency projects without alerting the recipients to their source. From the early 1950s to the present the CIA's intrusion into the foundation field was and is huge. A U.S. Congressional investigation in 1976 revealed that nearly 50% of the 700 grants in the field of international activities by the principal foundations were funded by the CIA (Who Paid the Piper?
..We will proceed by examining the historical links between the Ford Foundation and the CIA during the Cold War, by examining the Presidents of the Foundation, their joint projects and goals as well as their common efforts in various cultural areas."
For the complete report, see:
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/FordFandCIA.html
3) Evolutionary Politics: Representative Dennis J. Kucinich
The following text was originally printed in the latest issue of Timeline Magazine- a bimonthly publication of the Foundation for Global Community.
http://www.globalcommunity.org
EVOLUTIONARY POLITICS
An Address by Representative Dennis Kucinich
Last month, as debates began in Congress about authorizing the President to go to war against Iraq, Representative Dennis Kucinich, (D-OH) visited the Global Community offices in Palo Alto to address a standing-room-only audience. Kucinich noted that the world view which allows us to consider such actions as attacking Iraq dominates our current thinking. But this world view is obsolete, he said, and needs to be replaced by a more realistic view.
"We are in a period of chaos," Kucinich said, "which is driven by fear, by control, by power, by secrecy, mistrust, fragmentation, isolation, and by policies which use the lexicon of unilateralism and of preemption.
"But he world view - that system - cannot stand. That system is falling apart - we're seeing its last gasp right now. We are in the midst of an evolution in politics. We're not seeing the beginning of a new empire because that's ridiculous. What we are seeing is this old energy playing itself out in the world. And with its disintegration we will see a new integration; chaos will yield to harmony."
Kucinich believes that this political evolution can occur fairly rapidly. He noted that biological evolution throughout history has not always taken place at a steady rate, and quoted Bela Banathy from his book, Guided Evolution of Society: A Systems View: "Fossil records show that evolution has been static for most of the time, but the state of equilibrium is punctuated by rapid change that occurs suddenly over a brief period of time. Discontinuity between two generations has far-reaching consequences for conscious evolution and for societal change. When an evolutionary stage reaches its limitations and begins to decline, it creates disruption, chaos, and social disorder. In the decline state, an evolutionary system cannot change incrementally, it has to transform into a new evolutionary entity by conscious evolution."
One such rapid transformation, Kucinich noted, was the birth of America in 1776. It was not just an American revolution, he pointed out, but an evolution in human consciousness, an event that created a new form of government for this country, and for the world. We need to imagine and work for such a sudden shift today. One way to help bring about the change, he said , is to talk with others about the world we envision, to bring others together to dialogue, to bring back the kind of community that as a nation we've known in the past. Our words will help create the kind of world we want, Kucinch believes.
"It's a conscious effort. We have to call it forward. that's the power of consciousness - to call it forward. The world is multidimensional. The new vision is an holistic one that understands the power of intention and the power of cooperation, of mutuality, of trust, of seeing the world as one. That vision then becomes our outer reality. Ours is the ability, through our consciousness, to create peace, to create love. The organ of transformation is the human heart because there is nothing - no weapon ever made - that is more powerful than a human heart."
"Our founders, and those who followed is that spirit, had an understanding of America's connection to something transcendent. We need to recreate the America of our dreams, an America that is a country of peace, a country that stands for human rights, that works for total nuclear disarmament, that leads the way to abolish biological and chemical weapons, that works to achieve cooperation in protecting our global environment, that works to achieve cooperation in international law through an inter-national criminal court, that works to abolish all land mines, that works for a small-arms treaty. We need to confirm America's purpose through cooperating with a community of nations, with the understanding that our country's role always has been to be a light to the world.
Conflict and Change
When asked a question regarding the inevitability of conflict, Kucinich replied: "Some people in Washington today buy into that theory. The danger there is one of a self-fulfilling prophecy because if you put your consciousness in the direction of conflict, you're quite likely to get that conflict. Instead, we need to make nonviolence an organizing principle in our society for domestic as well as international policy. Internationally, we need to focus on intervention and mediation, and celebrate what Franklin D Roosevelt called 'the science of human relationships.'
"One view of history is that events happen and we're just bystanders - these forces somehow don't yield to human involvement. Another view is that we can intervene - that's why we're here. We can change things. Through knowledge and love, we create the world anew every day. The cold, flat, and often dead dictums of history need to be given an infusion of compassion and energy to create new possibilities."
Dealing with Anger
When asked if he experiences anger when working for peace, and if so how he handles it, Kucinich responded: "When you're involved in political action, there is always a conflict in experiencing negativity at the same time you're trying to do something positive. All of us have that experience. The difference is not being angry, because negativity is really an intent that somehow gets embedded in anger. It's hard not to be angry: Our country is about to wage an immoral war in Iraq. But if we can avoid getting hooked by the anger - try not to judge the individuals involved, but keep our eyes focused on creating that world that we desire - then there's hope. You bring that hope to the moment because you are claiming the essence of your own humanity. Each of us has the power to change someone else's thinking, and as we approach that moment - inspired and with compassion - chances are we may well change peoples' thinking."
The System and Power
When asked about his reaction to being in Washington, Kucinich said:; "One of the surprises I had when I first got to Congress was about my stereotypes about Washington. I found that there are a lot of thoughtful men and women in Washington. They're very skilled and very bright and very caring. The problem is the system; it's something that can be almost overwhelming. You get into Washington and you become part of the system. You see this huge bureaucracy, the structure of the buildings; everything says, I'm here, I'm part of the system. "That system has almost a specific gravity and you can get caught in it - particularly with respect to power. In Washington people are sometimes confused by the power that's embedded in the structure of government. If you come to Washington seeking power, you're in trouble because you have to have that sense of power before you get there. It's confusing when people are elected to an office by a process which seemingly confers power on them, then find that winning that office didn't give them power. Then they feel powerless - powerless to stop even a war. That's the paradox. So there are many good people in Washington and it's just the system."
Local Politics
"The work that I do as a practical matter in politics begins with going to people's homes, going door-to-door - either myself or having others do it - and talking to people. We need to start a new conversation in this country. In some ways we've lost that capacity. Our politics removed itself from the grassroots years ago when federal campaigns began relying on TV to communicate the message. Activities that were aimed at going directly to people began to change and the emphasis was 'raise the money so you can get on TV."
"In its terminal stage, it's reflected in members of Congress spending four days a week on the phone at the party headquarters in Washington and not having time to participate in the debates. Because they're raising money so they can get on TV. And they seldom see their own constituents. I repeat: They're good people - it's a bad system. So we need to go back to door-to-door, talk to our neighbors, have that conversation over the fence, reach out to each other again. that's how you do it. People talking to people. People on the phones calling about something that's going on in the community, it registers."
Building Community
Kucinich continued: "Today we have the electronic Town Hall - Web chats, Web pages, e-mails - that enable us to connect with each other. That's a real power today. And if you extend the old grassroots campaigning to the Web, you have a national campaign on almost anything. That helps build a sense of community, which is some of what we've lost in this so-called modern society where people bowl alone, and eat alone, and watch movies alone, and do their banking alone. It's by capturing that sense of community that we become empowered, that we become once again 'We the People' as a conscious, collective expression of our hopes and aspirations. As we reconnect as a community, that's when we start to affirm some of our basic rights. What is the right to assemble? We have to celebrate it by coming together. What is freedom of speech, except that someone stands up and expresses a point of view in a community meeting. We have to exercise those freedom muscles again, and then we strengthen our country.
"How it works out depends on our own willingness, our own belief, our faith in ourselves that we can make a difference. We lose that at times. We see these big institutions and think they're impenetrable, not accessible, we can't move them: 'I can't do anything about that. I make a phone call and it goes into the wastebasket - nobody cares. 'Not so. You can change anything. There is no institution in a democratic society that is beyond our reach. If we have faith in ourselves, then we can have faith in our country."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For one of the best resources on the web on Dennis "K",
see Flyby News' updated page:
Dennis J. Kucinich for US President in 2004!.
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1021307488,43210,m
Free Independent News
FlybyNews.com
For Life's Survival in the 21st Century
Flyby News bumper stickers are now available for those wanting to join in the "mainstream education drive." This way while driving you can also point others to new information. We really need a critical mass to change our current directions, and networking Flyby News can help others achieve exposure to many critical issues. If you wish, $5 for a bumper sticker will cover all costs, (or 3 stickers for $10), but I hope we can get some subsidized for anyone wanting to place them on their car's bumper or other public placement. The artwork and colors are beautiful. If you want one, please write to info@flybynews.com, provide your snail mail address, and specify if you want the blue-green subtle beautiful swirling background, or the red-orange sunset over a lake in Georgia.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Secret War * Israel Aid * Peltier Update * AP Venezuela
20 December 2002
"If it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"
- Alexander Sozhenitsyn, exiled Russian novelist
1) Star Wars Further Destabilizes the World
2) The "Secret" War on Iraq
3) Stop US Military Aid to Israel
4) Court Rules Peltier's Appeal Too Late for Sentence Reduction
5) AP's One-Sided Venezuela Coverage
Editor's Notes:
Ralph Nader and the Right Wing Conspiracy
It wouldn't surprise me that someday it is revealed that Ralph Nader purposely acted in support of the Bush 2000 campaign. Many would say this about Al Gore and the Democrats, which I agree, too, that the one party rules: (especially since JFK's assassination), the military industrial-academic-criminal complex -- but Nader? Well, stranger things have happened. Yet questions and suspicions remain. For one thing, how could the campaign of this politically-correct Green Party front runner accept funds from the dirtiest of all places, the Bush campaign itself, to help in critical swing-states?* Instead of saying that the lead candidates were identical, a real leader looks for subtle differences, such as Bush stating that he wanted to push for Star Wars 100%, Gore was not so sure during the campaign, and was at least open to debating on the escalation of a new domain for the arms race. That is not a subtle difference, and many others add up to a slew of big differences between a Bush or a Gore administration. Item 1 includes the official announcement for Star Wars. Following the press release from the Global Network, linked resources give more information about the Bush agenda. Yet most disconcerting to me is why Nader did not actively support Clemency for Leonard Peltier? Why not mention about this campaign at his rally at Madison Square Garden, just two months before the International Day of Human Rights, when Leonard's family and supporters planned to march for Truth and Reconciliation in NYC? Chris Groden, Green Party member and coordinator of the Leonard Peltier support group in New England, was blocked from raising this concern in the program at the Fleet center in Boston. Groden observed Washington-insiders seemingly taking over the grass roots methods of democratic decision-making for the Greens. I personally spoke with the manager of Winona LaDuke, who promised to pass my message about the December 10, 2000 Peltier event. What happened? Where was Ralph, why didn't he publicize this important event?. Was this a political decision just because Clinton remarked in his interest in reviewing Clemency for Peltier? Yet most disheartening is the flack that survival-oriented Democrats and Independents have received from a "higher than thou" stance of the Greens. Sometimes the better of two evils is not evil, but a practical solution for a possible future. Compromise is better than being so correct that one lets things get so bad that all life is in jeopardy. Yet I mainly agree with the rhetoric of Ralph Nader, but I wonder why his leadership wasn't more successful in achieving an effective debate on Stars Wars, on alternative sustainable fuels for energy, Peltier's freedom, review of FBI misconduct, and what should have been number 1 on the Green Party 2000 agenda: Instant Run-Off elections, which would open the door for all third party candidates. Was it lack of leadership that made Ralph become primarily a protest vote to show us how bad things are, or something more deceitful? Either way, his leadership was compromising.*
* Linked Resources on the Nader-Bush 2000 ticket:
Parties assail one another's tactics
By Anne E. Kornblut, Globe Staff, 10/28/2000
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/campaign2000/news/Parties_assail_one_another_s_tactics+.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Ralph Nader's political olive branch to Bush
By Barry Grey
30 March 2001
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/mar2001/nad-m30.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Is Nader Right?
Sam Parry
September 5, 2001
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2001/090501a.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Ralph, Don't Run
by Ronnie Dugger
www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20021202&s=dugger
Whereas Item 1 is on the official announcement and agenda of the destabilizing funding and implementation for Star Wars, item 2 shows that the Bush war agenda with Iraq is already happening. Plus, this item links to breaking news from Democracy Now on why the US knows that Iraq most likely has weapons of mass destruction, since many agencies in the US and corporations had provided such materials and technologies to Iraq, illegally. Related to this military theme for controlling the world, and resisting, Item 3 links to a petition to help stop military aid to Israel. Please read and consider signing. By definition, I am a Zionist, someone who is Jewish and favors the existence of a state of Israel. Yet true patriotic Zionists will protest against the Occupation of another people; we are all related. Item 4 is an update on Peltier. Another setback, a court recently ruled that Peltier was too late with a motion to reduce his sentence. They still don't want him up for parole until 2008! The LPDC is asking for your support in gaining the release of withheld documents. Item 5 is on the Venezuela press coverage, and the Organization of American States resolution in support of democracy in Venezuela, and elsewhere.
A reminder, the 2002 solstice is on December 21st at 8:15pm (US east coast time). This marks a ten-year countdown to the Solstice of 2012 when the Mayan era is marked. This may be a good time to renew or intensify your efforts to withstand and overcome the assault on humanity by the current US regime. Things don't look too good, as any reader of Flyby News knows all too well, but don't despair, a miracle is possible, like the life we each have received.
.
"Free Independent News FlybyNews.com For Life's Survival in the 21st Century"
Flyby News bumper stickers are now available for those wanting to join in the mainstream education drive. This way while driving you can point others to new information. We really need a critical mass to change our current directions, and networking Flyby News can help expose many critical issues. If you wish, $5 for a bumper sticker will cover all costs, but I hope we can get some subsidized for anyone wanting to place them on their car's bumper or other public placement. The artwork and colors are beautiful. If you want one, please write to info@flybynews.com, provide your snail mail address, and specify if you want the blue-green subtle swirling background, or the red-orange sunset over a lake in Georgia.
Thanks to Liz Nicholas for donating the beautiful artwork. www.artwithaconscience.com
1) Star Wars Further Destabilizes the World
BUSH CALL FOR STAR WARS DEPLOYMENT
TO FURTHER DESTABILIZE THE WORLD
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bruce Gagnon (352) 337-9274
The Bush administration call for deployment of a yet to be proven "missile defense" system by election time in 2004 is further evidence that security and safety are not their top priority. Instead high on their list are Bush's reelection, subsidies for the weapons corporations and increased destabilization of the global [dis]order. Already facing mounting budget deficits the U.S. treasury will be further drained by Bush funding for Star Wars research and development as billions will be poured into the Star Wars sink hole. The Democratic Party so far has been a willing partner in this effort.
According to Bruce Gagnon, Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, "George W. Bush is not interested in reducing tensions around the Earth. If he was he would not have walked away from the ABM Treaty. Now with a free hand he intends to ramp up the arms race which will ensure maximum profits for his weapons industry friends. And from the ensuing new arms race in space those same corporate allies will make even more grotesque profits in the coming years. It's a win-win situation for them."
In addition the Bush administration is pushing early deployment of Theatre Missile Defense (TMD), also called boost-phase defense, that would be forward deployed into the Middle East and the Asian-Pacific region. TMD will be used to virtually surround China with U.S. deployments in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and on ships and plans throughout the region. This will force China into building more nuclear weapons, they only have 20 today, and off we go to a new arms race.
At the same time Bush announced the 2004 deployments for Alaska, his team was also making formal requests to England and Denmark to allow the U.S. to expand and upgrade radar facilities in the U.K. and on Greenland (whose foreign policy is controlled by the Danes.) Upgrades of these facilities will allow the U.S. to integrate these installations into the global Star Wars coordination program. These requests have enlivened debate in those countries by opponents of Star Wars who claim that their countries now become prime targets for retaliation.
Since 1992 the Global Network has been coordinating the growing movement to prevent the arms race from moving into the heavens. Now with over 165 affiliate groups on virtually every continent, the campaign to resist the Bush plans to move warfare into space is in place and is actively organizing.
For more information about the Global Network, visit:
http://www.space4peace.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more from Flyby News on the campaign to ban space-based weapons, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1012609619,15020,m
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Mainstream articles for Bush's Announcement for Missile Defense
http://www.austin360.com/aas/news/ap/ap_story.html/Washington/AP.V5964.AP-Bush-Missile-De.html
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021217-10394100.htm
= + =
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related breaking news/video on White House Scam:
"Video reminds Bush family of embarrassing Enron links"
by David Teather in New York
Wednesday December 18, 2002
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/enron/story/0,11337,862090,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Article -- John Pilger reveals the American plan
Two years ago a project set up by the men who now surround George W Bush said what America needed was "a new Pearl Harbor". Its published aims have, alarmingly, come true. : John Pilger :12 Dec 2002
http://pilger.carlton.com/print/124759
2) The "Secret" War on Iraq
John Pilger's latest article for The Mirror examines the "secret" war already being waged by Allied forces in Iraq. While Bush and Blair declaim the risk posed by Saddam, the truth is that Britain and America have been bombing Iraq illegally for a decade, have used depleted uranium against her people and deliberately withheld humanitarian aid, an action leading to soaring child mortality and widespread abject poverty.
For the complete article, see:
http://pilger.carlton.com/print/125498
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a Democracy Now! exclusive, related article:
US and others illegally helped arm Iraq!
Top-secret Iraq Report Reveals U.S. Corporations, Gov't Agencies and Nuclear Labs Helped Illegally Arm Iraq:
Hewlett Packard, Dupont, Honeywell and other major U.S. corporations, as well as governmental agencies including the Department of Defense and the nation's nuclear labs, all illegally helped Iraq to build its biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programs.
On Wednesday, December 18, Geneva-based reporter Andreas Zumach broke the story on the US national listener-sponsored radio and television show "Democracy Now!" Zumach's Berlin-based paper Die Tageszeitung plans to soon publish a full list of companies and nations who have aided Iraq.
For the complete story, see:
http://www.democracynow.org/Zumach.htm .
3) Stop US Military Aid to Israel
To: President George W. Bush and the United States Congress
We, the undersigned, are appalled by the human rights abuses against Palestinians by the Israeli government, the continued military occupation and colonization of Palestinian territory by Israeli armed forces and settlers, the forcible eviction of the inhabitants from, and the demolition of, Palestinians homes, towns, and cities. We find the recent attacks on Israeli civilians unacceptable and abhorrent. But these should not and do not negate the human rights of the Palestinians.
We find it reprehensible that US tax dollars, in the form of US military aid to Israel, are being used to fund Israel's oppressive policy towards the Palestinians. This aid not only sustains Israel's illegal occupation and provides the means for Israel to continue violating the human rights of Palestinians, but also violates the US Arms Export Control Act, which prohibits the President from furnishing military aid or selling weapons to any country that consistently violates internationally recognized human rights standards. We demand the immediate cessation of all US military aid to Israel until Israel honors United Nations authority and abides by the rules of international law. In particular, we demand that:
1. Israel comply with United Nations Resolution 242, which notes the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war, and which calls for withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from the Occupied Territories.
2. Israel comply with the United Nations Committee Against Torture 2001 Report, which recommends that Israel's use of torture be ended.
3. Israel cease the building of new settlements, and vacate existing settlements, in the Occupied Territories, in compliance with the Fourth Geneva Convention. ("The occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into territories it occupies"; Article 49, paragraph 6.)
4. Israel acknowledge in principle the applicability of United Nations Resolution 194 with respect to the rights of refugees, and work towards a just and practical solution.
We furthermore demand that the United States cease all military aid to any nation that has been shown to violate human rights, including Turkey, Columbia, or any other. This petition focuses on Israel because it is the largest recipient of US military aid in the world.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
If you agree with the petition, please sign it by linking to following URL and entering the information requested:
http://www.stop-us-military-aid-to-israel.net/petition/index.php3
The Stop US Military Aid to Israel petition has been endorsed by the following groups:
Gush Shalom -- International Solidarity Movement -- Jews Against the Occupation -- Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign -- Golshan Society -- News from Babylon -- Not in My Name -- Nilemedia Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights -- Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel -- Citizens for Fair Legislation -- Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace -- All About Palestine -- Matzpun FlybyNews.com
4) Court Rules Peltier's Appeal Too Late for Sentence Reduction
Peltier Update from the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
"LPDC"
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2002 16:51:04 -0600
Friends,
We are writing to you about yet another travesty of justice in the long battle that we have waged for Leonard's freedom from the unjust imprisonment imposed upon him for crimes he did not commit. Yesterday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit denied Leonard's appeal to reduce the unjust sentences imposed upon him. In doing so, the court avoided addressing the merits of the case, to which it would have had no answer, and rested its decision on jurisdictional grounds, ruling that Leonard's motion to reduce his unjust sentence was too late.
Though the court acknowledged it had the equitable power to address Leonard's contentions, it disgracefully refused to address the issues -- and yet again upheld the outrageous and dishonest conduct of the government in its handling of Leonard's case and his ultimate conviction for crimes he did not commit. And, now 26 years later, the courts still continue to make excuses for the government's misconduct and callously ignore that an innocent man has spent now nearly half his life in jail because of our government's racist policies against Native Americans.
But now is not the time to despair. We must band together and, as a strong majority, demonstrate that we will no longer tolerate injustice. The time is now to rally for Leonard and all political prisoners in this country.
We must still remember that there is an appeal pending before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals which addresses the Parole Commission's refusal to consider Leonard for parole until 2008. The Parole Commission is utterly wrong in its decision, and the Tenth Circuit will be forced to face the facts and address the injustice Leonard has suffered and the outrageous conduct of the government. We will need your support so that Leonard will get a full and fair hearing at that time.
So, now is not the time for despair.
Rather, now is the time for all of us to rise up as a single voice and scream out to those who continue to oppress Leonard -- as well as all other under-represented groups: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH AND WE WILL NOT TAKE IT ANY MORE.
Peace to each and every one of you -- and more than ever to Leonard. And remember, we do need your help as we get ready for the next court appearance. None of us should tolerate any further injustice. Our thanks for your continuing support
Posted on Thu, Dec. 12, 2002
U.S. appeals court rejects Peltier's sentence-reduction bid
JIM SUHR
Associated Press
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthtribune/4726679.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Please note that Leonard Peltier's daughter, Marquetta Peltier, and attorney Barry Bachrach plan to speak at Cape Cod Community College, January 16th, 2003 Sponsored by the Boston Area Leonard Peltier Support Group and the Mashpee Peltier Support Group.
Thursday, January 16th, 2003 - 7 PM
Lecture Hall A, Science Building
Cape Cod Community College
http://www.capecod.mass.edu
For information from the Mashpee Peltier Support Group
Tel(508) 563-7720 Email: jacko@dublin.com
For more information from the Boston LPSG by email, contact::
ahornbein@earthlink.net
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
ACT NOW for Leonard Peltier:
Write for the release of documents.
For more information visit: http://www.freepeltier.org
5) AP's One-Sided Venezuela Coverage
18 Dec 2002, 125003 PM
Subject: [narconews] AP's One-Sided Venezuela Coverage
(printer-friendly for your local editor)
http://www.narconews.com/Issue26/article567.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
OAS Resolution Reaffirms Support for Venezuela
December 16, 2002
http://www.oas.org/OASpage/eng/Venezuela/CP10628E01.htm
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Moons of Mars * Harbury Plea * 911 News * FBI-Contact
17 December 2002
The rich need to learn to live more simply, so that the poor may simply live."
- GANDHI
1) Bart Jordan's Moons of Mars
2) Plea for help, Jennifer Harbury, Attack on Bamaca Family
3) Links to Various 9/11 and other related recent articles
4) Narco News: White House Venezuela Error Backfires
5) What to do if the FBI contacts you
Editor's Notes:
Item 1 updates and links to Bart Jordan's 1997 article in the British Science publication, the "Moons of Mars." This item includes information to why these moons are really asteroids and what is behind the mysteries of the Mars Cydonia region, the "Face on Mars" and the mysterious "chevron" on Miranda, in the orbit of Uranus. Bart Jordan is bringing the Greek legends to life in a way that has been guiding NASA for years, though they are secretly discrediting him and his sources of information from ancient literature. There is much to this story; we will continue to provide updates. Thanks to the Millennium Group for posting the Moons of Mars article. This next item was in the first item position when originally sent out. Jennifer Harbury has been an attorney for Leonard Peltier, and a beloved human rights activist, the author of her account: "Searching for Everardo." We are forwarding her communication seeking help in calling the Guatemalan Embassy to safeguard her family and herself. Item 3 includes various links to recent articles, including on the license for the CIA to be the judge, jury, and executioner, to anyone, in the war for terrorism. Item 4 updates the ever turning events in Venezuela, a young democracy with substantial oil reserves is a dangerous mix. Item 5 is on what to do if the FBI contacts you.
"In mindful time past, we honored our grandparents;
in mindless time present, we threaten our grandchildren."
-- Bart Jordan
1) Bart Jordan's Moons of Mars
Bart Jordan worked anonymously for years consulting NASA on various space missions, including Gemini and Apollo missions, using information from ancient languages. Thus, Phobos and Deimos were discovered, but are they moons, or asteroids which were placed into orbit by an advanced ancient civilization?
To see a photo of these two asteroids and other special features of the "red" planet, go to:
http://www.sciencefriday.com/pages/features/mars/marspics.html
Bart Jordan's, "The Moons of Mars" is posted Online:
http://www.tmgnow.com/repository/mars/bartjordan_1.html ,
This article was originally published by QUEST For Knowledge (a British science publication) in 1997. Bart Jordan said that in 1944 at age seven he calculated the distances of the moons Phobos and Deimos from the center of Mars. (These figures were published in the Encyclopedia Britannica during the 1960's, before NASA had such records.) Bart Jordan met Ernest O. Lawrence, the Nobel prize physicist, in the early summer of 1945 (at eight years of age) to whom he gave a thirty-five-page paper entitled: Ares [Mars], Phobos, Harmonia [Miranda], Deimos, Aphrodite [Venus], and Comet [Haley]. Two years later at Lawrence's urging, Jordan met with Albert Einstein to discuss the content of his paper and its supportive data. By way of introduction to a brief article by Jordan in Early America Revisited, Dr. Ivan Van Sertima states: "Bart Jordan was a child prodigy to whom Einstein granted special audience because of his phenomenal mathematical abilities."
Bart Jordan contacted Jonathan Mark from a press release he had received about the high risk (plutonium) Cassini Earth flyby in August 1999. Bart Jordan has nurtured a tremendously wide-ranging, diverse, yet interrelated, combination of skills that has allowed him to uncover, perhaps, the discovery of our times. He is highly gifted in metrology (the art and precision of measuring), he understands some 17 languages, many of them ancient varieties, he is a former concert classical string performer, often using ancient instruments, his friend and mentor was the renown classical guitarist, Andres Segovia; Bart is also an artist, an astronomer, and an anthropologist.
This summer Harry Jordan (not blood-related to Bart) wrote Flyby News that he was planning to present an overlay with survey drawings completed on the Mars' Cydonia region that demonstrate Bart Jordan's accuracy in mapping this area with the latest NASA Surveyor images at an International Conference.
See this following URL page for a November, 2000 article on this by Harry Jordan, which includes a link to his bio.
http://tmgnow.com/repository/mars/mars_jordan.html
For an sharp version of a photo on the "Face on Mars" and the Cydonia region, see:
http://barsoom.msss.com/education/facepage/face.html
For another site with various theories and background on Mars, see:
http://www.nauticom.net/users/ata/cydonia.html
Besides Mars, Bart Jordan said he provided information to Dr. Kuiper that led him to discover the 5th moon of Uranus. As a balance for Phobos and Deimos, the ancient Greek literature directed Bart Jordan to calculations from the name, "Harmonia." Yet, instead of Harmonia, they changed the name to Miranda, (a character from Shakespeare) and according to Jordan, began a campaign to discredit him and the truth that could awaken humankind to a wondrous past that could provide guidance for a future.
To see the image of Miranda and the unusual "chevron," obviously not of natural origin, see:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/9802/miranda_vg2mos1_full.jpg
For a smaller image, and text, formatted for printing, see:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990306.html
For more on Bart Jordan, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/bartjordan/
2) Plea for help, Jennifer Harbury, Attack on Bamaca Family
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: from Jennifer Harbury - EXTREMELY URGENT : ATTACK ON BAMACA FAMILY
Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2002 20:42:53 -0500
From: Denis
To: denis@riseup.net
PLEASE DISTRIBUTE - requested action below
Dear Friends...As you read this I am heading for Guatemala. My family has been attacked there. We urgently need as many calls as you and your friends can possibly make to the Guatemalan embassy this week, starting Monday morning....
THANKS....Jennifer Harbury
December 12, 2002
EXTREMELY URGENT : ATTACK ON BAMACA FAMILY
Dear Friends,
I am writing to ask you for your emergency calls for protection for my family down in Guatemala. All three of my sisters in law have been threatened and one was badly battered a few days ago in front of her small children. She is now in hiding with her entire family. I am leaving for Guatemala in a day or so to see work with the MINUGUA team and other human rights groups; and to lodge my formal protest with the government. The army knows everyone is getting ready to leave for the holidays, and they are testing the waters to see what they can get away with in terms of retaliation against my family. They also hope that given the Sept. 11 backlash, that they can do whatever they please nowadays. All this is happening because they are up against the deadline the Inter American Court gave them for complying with the reparations order in Everardo's case, and they are very, very angry. I fear that someone is going to be killed or badly hurt if there is not an immediate and powerful response from all of us. Has not the Bamaca family suffered enough?
Ironically, all of this started with what appeared to be a startling victory. A few weeks ago, Copredeh ,( the government's defense lawyers in the case), called us to say that the government was willing to pay the money damages award ordered by the Inter-American Court. We were all astounded by this news, needless to say. I have always assumed that it would take me twenty years to get this particular government to comply in this particular case. The Court, of course, had also ordered that Everardo's body be returned to me, and that the Court's findings and fact and law about what really happened be published in the main Guatemalan newspapers. But when we asked about these portions of the order, we were told that there was no time for discussion about these issues. The Copredeh people also insisted that I arrive in Guatemala at once to sign the papers, and that there should be no publicity. This caused some obvious concern, but I did go down, and met with both the family and Copredeh lawyers. We decided that for the sake of the family's safety, we would keep all this secret until they could move to a more protected area. We were, frankly, all amazed when the funds were actually transferred later that week. The Guatemalan government has paid the damages in Everardo's case. Unfortunately, they are evidently now bent on making us pay too. Some of the reprisals began even before we had heard from the government. Several months ago, my sister in law Alberta Velasquez, Efrain's half sister, reported several disturbing incidents. She and her family had fled from the remote finca where they grew up as a result of the army repression in the area. They have lived quietly in a small barrio in the Capital until recently. Then the neighbors began to report that armed men were looking for her husband and asking where he lived. Friends told her son that he should hide, that a car with black glass windows was circling the area, and had asked where he lived. The car was full of armed men. Strangers she had never seen before began speaking loudly in the streets about the Bamaca case, swearing they would kill any relatives if they ever found them. She and her family once again fled their home, and are now in a new location.
When I was in Guatemala two weeks ago, I learned that my other sister in law, Josefina Bamaca Velasquez, had also fled her home as well, over a month ago. Armed men had broken into her small hut on the remote finca where she still lived, terrifying her, and searching everywhere, for what she did not know. Needless to say, a robbery by a large group of well armed men in a tiny and impoverished peasant community is very unusual, given that the residents would have virtually nothing to steal. Such assaults have traditionally been politically motivated and carried out by the army or other state security sectors.
On Wednesday, December 11, my sister in law Egidia Bamaca Velasquez was attacked in her home in a small barrio just outside of Malacatan. Six well armed men wearing ski masks, and bearing guns and machetes entered her house and beat her in front of her children, threatening to kill her. This is a very tiny and frail woman who suffered from severe malnutrition for most of her life. The style of the attack is very much that of the military. Once again they tore up the house, searching for something, and lamenting that they had not found it. I presume they were searching for her bank book, intending to take away the very funds they had just been forced to pay in reparations.
Obviously, the military is furious and also mortified by the payment of the reparation portion of the award and now intends to seek "vengeance". They know that the best way to hurt me is to hurt the family. They also wouldn't mind if a "common criminal" kidnaped someone to take the money back, or killed someone to "teach me a lesson". I have now met most of my 21 nieces and nephews, from baby Everardo, two years old, to the young adults. It would be difficult for me to imagine a brighter, more talented group of young Mayans, and I am so pleased to think that my share of the reparations award will send each and every one of them to the University. ( I signed years ago to give all of my share to the new generation and will honor that commitment.) If they live. I could , of course, try to bring them here, and will do so if they wish. But exile was not part of the Court's concept of justice in this case; and Guatemala has already lost three generations of its best and brightest, either to the death squads or as refugees. This has to end. I will, as I say, be leaving for Guatemala either Monday or Tuesday. I have notified some Congressional offices, but remain concerned that the army may try to arrest me or charge me with "illegal speech", as they have been doing with so many other human rights leaders recently. It is the new fashion to bring charges for criminal defamation, incitement to riot, or even treason.as we have seen in the cases of Rigoberta Menchu, Rosario Pu, Bruce Harris, and many others. We have already notified the Court that the family needs protection at once. However, your calls to the Guatemalan Embassy, as of early Monday morning and throughout this week, are the most important of all. The government needs to know that this case has not been forgotten, and that our own commitment to human rights for all people is as strong as ever. They are waiting to evaluate our response. Your calls will keep people alive over the Christmas holidays, quite literally.
PLEASE CALL OR WRITE THE GUATEMALAN EMBASSY AT ONCE.
TELEPHONE : 202-745-4952
ADDRESS : 2220 R St. NW Washington D.C. 20008
EMAIL : ambassador@guatemala-embassy.org
Fax: 1 202 745 1908
MESSAGE :
1. Please tell the Guatemalan government that we will not tolerate acts of state terrorism and reprisals against any persons seeking justice.
2. We demand guarantees of safety for all members of the Bamaca family.
3. We demand safe passage for Jennifer Harbury while she seeks to protect her family.
4. Should there be further actions of this nature, we will ask our Congresspersons to move for the extradition of military officers implicated in the drug trade in Guatemala.
5. If this is how Guatemala respects the international judicial system, we will start up a campaign to have Guatemala expelled from the OAS.
IF YOU WISH TO MAKE CALLS TO CONGRESS TO ASK THEM TO CONTACT THE
GUATEMALAN GOVERNMENT , PLEASE DO SO. THE SWITCHBOARD NUMBER IS
202-224-3121.
THANK YOU, EVERYONE FOR YOUR MANY YEARS OF SOLIDARITY AND SUPPORT.
ABRAZOS JENNIFER
Some background sites:
http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~pavr/harbury/
Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA:
http://www.ghrc-usa.org/
FBI and CIA target Harbury, July 2002:
http://www.counterpunch.org/harbury0722.html
Harbury sues CIA, State, argues before US Supreme Court:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020422&s=alterman
3) Links to Various 9/11 and other related recent articles
The Death of Operation TIPS
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=35621
Kissinger steps down as chairman of 9/11 panel
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=35620
White House Approves "License to Kill" Assassination List
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=35688
Climate Change Will Affect Carbon Sequestration In Oceans
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/greenhouse-02o.html
- Allied Planes Bomb Civilian Sites In Southern Iraq: INA
http://www.spacedaily.com/2002/021215190224.ddei0y31.html
"...follow all facts, wherever they lead...."
- George W. Bush, 27 Nov 2002
Kissinger Clients Lead To Enron, Cheney and 911
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=35693
How did Iraq get its weapons? We sold them.
By Neil Mackay and Felicity Arbuthnot
http://www.sundayherald.com/27572
THE NEVER-ENDING OIL SPILL
Maria Tomchick, AlterNet
We should view the Prestige oil spill not as a fluke or a one-time accident. It's our future, made more likely by our reliance on crude oil.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=14771
Organization: http://www.apfn.org
Subject: Bush names Thomas Kean to head nine-eleven panel
Former NJ Governor to Head 9/11 Commission
(CNSNews.com) - President Bush Monday named former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean to replace Henry Kissinger as chairman of the commission investigating the intelligence failures prior to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
http://www.cnsnews.com/ThisHour.asp#Former%20NJ%20Governor%20to%20Head%209/11%20Commissi
Bush names Thomas Kean to head nine-eleven panel
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=35716
4) Narco News: White House Venezuela Error Backfires
by Alberto M. Giordano
December 16, 2002
Dear Colleagues,
Friday's desperate maneuver by U.S. President George W. Bush his cynical call for "early elections" in Venezuela, a country that has had six national elections in the past four years has backfired after it was revealed as unconstitutional.
White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, earlier today, withdrew that demand with some not-too-fancy semantic footwork:
"Early elections, in the sense that of course, there is a referenda (sic) that can be held earlier that is a reflection of the manifestation of the will of the people and this is the process that is anticipated in the Venezuelan constitution," Fleischer told reporters earlier today.
The White House backpedaling comes on the heels of major developments in Venezuela and our Amrica...
- Stores are open for business now even in the wealthy areas of Eastern Caracas, the last bastion of "The Strike that Wasn't:"
- 90 percent of all contract employees of the oil industry are back at work, now that the executives who locked them out have been removed.
- This morning's highway "blockades" (meant to distract from the "strike" collapse this morning) were disbanded by 2 p.m. (See our report today for more details):
http://www.narconews.com/
Read also, in our report today, about the machinations within the Organization of American States, as we name the names of which countries' leaders have lined up with the coup plotters, which have been strongest for democracy, and which have broken from the United States position in recent hours.
Read also from the transcript of White House correspondents grilling Ari Fleischer on his false claims made last Friday regarding the Venezuela Constitution.
Also, WELCOME BACK to Charlie Hardy and his columns on Vheadline (we quote his analysis of the "Grinch-osition" in Venezuela and link to today's column).
These stories and more are now posted at Narco News.
from somewhere in a country called Amrica,
Al Giordano
Publisher
The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews.com/
narconews@hotmail.com
5) What to do if the FBI contacts you
Fwd: [AriseAction] What to do if the FBI contacts you
Please distribute.
If an FBI, INS, or police officer asks to speak to you
* Tell the officer you want to consult an attorney before deciding what to do. Telling the officer that you need to speak to an attorney before answering any questions is legal and appropriate. If you want to talk to the FBI, INS, or police, your attorney can contact them for the interview on your behalf.
* ANY information you give to an officer without an attorney, even if it seems harmless, can be used against you or someone else. Lying to an officer is a separate crime. Remaining silent is your right.
* You are not required to allow the officer into your home or office without a warrant. Ask to see the warrant. However, do not obstruct an officer who refuses to show you a warrant and forces his or her way into your home or office. Tell the officer that he or she does not have your permission to enter.
If the officer claims to have a warrant for your arrest
* You have a right to see the warrant. You must go with the officer, but you do not have to answer questions until you consult an attorney.
* If you are detained, you should ask for an attorney and remain silent. If you are detained in an immigration detention center, ask for contact information for attorneys. You also have a right to call your embassy.
Tip: If the FBI, INS, local police or other law enforcement contact you, write down the name, agency, and telephone number of the officer who calls or visits you. Then CONTACT AN ATTORNEY IMMEDIATELY.
FOR LEGAL ASSISTANCE
Immigration Attorneys
Mahsa Khanbabai
Caruso Brown Landers Khanbabai & Murphy
Springfield, MA
413-732-3320
Alan S. Musgrave
Amherst, MA
413-549-2002
Organizations
American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
202-244-2990, http://www.adc.org
American Immigration Lawyers Association
Immigration Lawyer Referral Service
800-954-0254, http://www.aila.org ; click on "Need a Lawyer?"
Massachusetts Bar Association
Lawyer referral service
866-627-7577
National Lawyers Guild National Immigration Project
617-227-9727,
http://www.nationalimmigrationproject.org
AriseAction, the mailing list of the Arise Peace and Solidarity Committee
To post a message, write to AriseAction@yahoogroups.com
To join AriseAction send an email to
AriseAction-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To unsubscribe send an email to
AriseAction-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
The AriseAction Archives are at
http://www.yahoogroups.com/messages/AriseAction
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
US-Venezuela Coup * Carter Executed * Peltier * Lori's 7th
13 December 2002
"For powerful countries to adopt a principle of preventative war may well set an example that can have catastrophic consequences."
Former US President Jimmy Carter
December 10, 2002 -
Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo
1) USA intelligence agencies revealed in plot to oust Venezuela's President
2) Open Letter to Bush on Venezuela from U.S. Congress Members
3) Desmond Carter Executed
4) December Statement of Leonard Peltier
5) Lori Berenson's 7th year of wrongful imprisonment
Editor's Notes:
On Human Rights Day former President Carter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. His statement: "For powerful countries to adopt a principle of preventative war may well set an example that can have catastrophic consequences," is worth repeating, but was weakened when interviewed by the BBC, when he refused to criticize George W Bush's handling of Iraq. "The government has decided that action should be multilateral. The US has taken a completely appropriate multilateral position," he told the BBC's HARDtalk programme. Like his presidency, Carter showed much brilliance and weakness. Item 1 underscores the dangers that democracy is facing. This report states that Uruguayan EP-FA congressman Jose Bayardi says he has information that far-reaching plans have been put into operation by the CIA and other North American intelligence agencies to overthrow Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez within the next 72 hours. Yet someone not weakened by the dangers of a democracy running amok, Dennis Kucinich, with members of Congress: John Conyers, Jr., Jose E. Serrano, Barney Frank, and Major R. Owens, signed an open letter to Bush on the crisis in Venezuela and their attempts to preserve democracy not only in that county, but in the US, too. You are encouraged to sign and send this letter to President Bush, making your statement is better than doing nothing! And if you get a hint of cynicism, this next item (3) about the Institutional Supreme Court MURDER and Governor Easely washing his hands of this Human Rights Day Execution, and the rejection of a Judge's stay, may explain, if that is possible. Item 4 is a statement by Leonard Peltier, struggling with life inside, with support still giving him hope. This human rights defender, as declared by the UN, is the canary of American justice. If he goes down, we are all sunk. Item 5 gives a report on the 7th year unjust incarceration of Lori Berenson in Peru. It is not our place to give in to the ruthless savagery of the mix of lost souls seeking oil, power, nukes, and the military embezzlement of what is good in life. Hang in there, and support freedom and justice until our last breath.
Updates on the oil crisis off the Spain coast
Spain says sunken tanker could leak until 2006
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/19002/story.htm
Spain says 125 tonnes a day leak from sunk tanker - SPAIN
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/19008/story.htm
1) USA intelligence agencies revealed in plot to oust Venezuela's President
USA intelligence agencies revealed in plot to oust
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez Frias
USA intelligence agencies revealed in plot to oust Venezuela's President
report by VHeadline.com Reporters
Thursday, December 12, 2002 -- Uruguayan EP-FA congressman Jose Bayardi says he has information that far-reaching plans have been put into operation by the CIA and other North American intelligence agencies to overthrow Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias within the next 72 hours.
Bayardi says he has received copies of top-secret communications between the Bush administration in Washington and the government of Uruguay requesting the latter's cooperation to support white collar executives and trade union activists "to break down levels of intransigence within the Chavez Frias administration."
In an interview with reporters from the Uruguyan newspaper La Juventud, Bayardi says he observes a domestic-political situation in Venezuela which could easily erupt into a civil war and bloodbath ... "the whole process is a shocking reminder of what happened in Chile in 1973 ... I sincerely hope it does not come to that!"
Bayardi says he does not foresee any immediate foreign military intervention in the Venezuelan situation but warns of a possible escalation if the opposition gets the upper hand over constitutional law and order.
"The problem is that Venezuelan television and major newspapers have been hiding the true fact that there are huge popular uprisings in support of the Chavez Frias government ... now that Venezuelans are beginning to understand that they have been duped by the anti-government media, they are demanding that these information channels should begin to tell the truth!"
# # # #
For the originally posted article and links, see:
http://www.vheadline.com/0212/14248.asp
2) Open Letter to Bush on Venezuela from U.S. Congress Members
Send your signature with U.S. Congress members in favor of Authentic Democracy
December 13, 2002
Hon. George W. Bush
President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC, 20500
Dear President George W. Bush,
Given the high level of political tension in Venezuela, and recognizing that part of the leadership of the opposition is determined to depose President Hugo Chavez by any means, we, the undersigned organizations and persons, urge you to declare unequivocally that the government of the United States is opposed to any unconstitutional or coup attempt against the democratically elected government of Venezuela. Also, the White House should affirm that the United States will not recognize diplomatic relations with a government installed by means of a coup.
We believe that the silence of the White House after the April 11th coup d'etat, which the Administration appeared to congratulate, is generally seen as a support for a coup. We are concerned by the fact that this perception diminishes the incentives for the opposition and the Chavez government to seek dialogue or a peaceful solution to the current crisis.
We are also concerned that, while the top officials of the White House have remained silent, Otto Reich, the Special Envoy for the Western Hemisphere of the State Department, recently denounced the Venezuelan government, saying that, "the existence of elections is not enough to say that a country is democratic." This is a strange departure from diplomatic protocol, and in the light of what happened during the April coup, it has risen the level of suspicion that Venezuelan officials have about Washington's motives.
The role of the United States government in the April 11th coup is not clear. We know that some United States officials met with the coup leaders in the months before the coup. Groups involved with the coup also received financing from the United States government. At the same time, the Bush Administration openly expressed its hostility toward the government of President Chavez. According to the office of the Inspector General of the State Department, one of the reasons for this friction was "the participation (of President Chavez) in the affairs of the Venezuelan oil company and the impact this could have on the price of oil."
Also, the Office of the Inspector General of the State Department, after investigating the role of U.S. officials before and after the April coup, concluded that U.S. warnings against the coup "were perhaps not critical enough. Among these warnings, few went beyond the formulation of common and ritualistic opposition to anti-democratic or unconstitutional change.' Any warning of non-recognition of a coup installed government, economic sanctions or other punitive and corrective actions were few and far between. Retrospectively, this has also been recognized and lamented by some high United States officials."
The Inspector General's report also noted that "the fact of having met frequently with those interested in toppling the Chavez government could have been seen as United States backing for their efforts, notwithstanding our ritualistic denunciation of anti-democratic and unconstitutional measures."
Given those circumstances, the current silence by the White House about its opposition to a coup d'etat or other unconstitutional defeat of a democratically elected government in Venezuela is seen throughout Venezuela and elsewhere as support for those illegal actions. The opposition leaders, determined to defeat a government, have few incentives to seek a peaceful solution via dialogue if they believe that the United States government would support whatever happens. The government of the United States must demonstrate its current and active support for democratically elected governments. Only a strong statement of condemnation by the White House explaining that the U.S. is opposed to violent or unconstitutional actions, that it will not tolerate a coup government and that it will impose sanctions on any government installed by coup measures, would send the correct and democratic message to the Venezuelan political actors and the other Latin American governments.
Therefore, we urge the White House to clarify its position, before Venezuela goes to Civil War.
Sincerely,
U.S. Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio
U.S. Rep. John Conyers, Jr., Michigan
U.S. Rep. Jose E. Serrano, New York
U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, Massachusetts
U.S. Rep. Major R. Owens, New York
[Jonathan Mark, publisher, FlybyNews.com]
# # # #
Please copy/paste and sign this letter and send to President George W. Bush by snail mail at top, but even better, send by Email fax, and/or telephone calls.
Email: president@whitehouse.gov
The White House Comment Line: 202-456-1111
FAX: 202-456-2461
Also, if you can access this page, to sign the letter on the Washington DC IndyMedia site, click the link that says "add your own comments" posted directly under the copy of this letter that is posted there.
http://dc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=42466&group=webcast
For late breaking details, including a link to the White House Statement (and analysis by Al Giordano), visit:
http://www.narconews.com/Issue26/article563.html
http://www.narconews.com
3) Desmond Carter Executed
From NBC17.com
Desmond Carter Executed
POSTED: 8:57 a.m. EST December 10, 2002
RALEIGH -- A man who brutally stabbed his elderly neighbor over a few dollars for drugs died peacefully Tuesday in the state's execution chamber after last-minute appeals failed.
Desmond Keith Carter, 35, was executed hours after the U.S. Supreme Court twice declined to stop his execution. Gov. Mike Easley also declined to change the death sentence to life in prison without parole.
Carter's father, William Conway, and defense lawyer Bill Osteen sat sandwiched between two detectives on the front row of the execution witness room. Two relatives of Carter victim Helen Purdy, 71, of Rockingham County, watched intently from the second row where they sat between a detective and a prosecutor.
Lawyers have said Carter was intoxicated on alcohol, crack cocaine and tranquilizers when he stabbed Purdy 13 times with a butcher knife and took $15.
"I love you, pop," Carter mouthed to his father as a drug put him to sleep before a powerful muscle relaxer stopped his breathing.
In a last statement recorded by warden R.C. Lee of Central Prison, home of the state's death row, Carter said:
"The only thing I would like to say is that I apologize to the victim's family of Ms. Purdy and I would like to apologize to my family for the disappointment and pain I have caused them throughout my life."
No one from the Purdy or Carter families spoke to reporters after the execution. Carter's half brother, Tryone Wallace, stood with death penalty protesters outside the prison.
Carter's last meal consisted of two cheeseburgers, a steak sub and two Cokes from the prison canteen. He declined to ask for a special last meal and paid $4.20 from his prison account for the food, said Pam Walker, a Corrections Department spokeswoman.
Defense lawyers' appeal to the nation's highest court challenged a state Supreme Court rejection of a stay that was issued last week by a lower court judge. The Supreme Court turned down the request without comment.
Spokesman Ed Turner said the U.S. Supreme Court also denied a second appeal filed late Monday on the grounds that some jurors used a Bible during deliberations.
In the first high court appeal, the defense asked for review of Carter's case on three issues: racial bias in the death penalty, lack of prosecutorial discretion to seek a life in prison sentence for first-degree murder and the state's indictment form that doesn't list all factors against a defendant.
Carter's lawyers said the death sentence was flawed by racial bias because his victim was white and he is black. Prosecutors have in recent years had the option of seeking a life sentence since the Legislature changed the law.
Carter was the 23rd person executed in North Carolina since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977. The last execution was Friday, when Ernest Basden was put to death for the 1992 murder-for-hire of a Kinston insurance agent.
For this originally posted article with links to the following previous stories, see:
http://www.nbc17.com/news/1829303/detail.html
December 10, 2002: Carter Denied Clemency
December 6, 2002: Ernest Basden Executed
December 5, 2002: Judge Issues Stay Of Execution For Desmond Carter
December 5, 2002: Religious Group Excluded From Basden Clemency Meeting
December 3, 2002: Carter Lawyers Seek Execution Stay
December 2, 2002: Juror Denies Pressure To Vote For Death In Carter Case
November 7, 2002: Dec. 6 Execution Date Set For Ernest Basden
October 23, 2002: Dec. 10 Execution Date Set For Desmond Carter
Copyright 2002 by NBC17.com
4) December Statement of Leonard Peltier
///\\\=====///\\\=====///\\\=====///\\\=====///\\\
Greetings Friends & Supporters:
Well here we are once again, at the end of my 26th year behind these prison walls. As I reflect back on this past year I am amazed to see all the legal motion that is now happening in my case. After Clinton walked out on us in 2001, I almost felt that I didn't have any avenues of redress left and I wasn't sure if the campaign for my freedom could continue. I wasn't really sure that there would be any more options to pursue. There was the office transition and a lull in activity this past summer. But now, thanks to my great legal team I see that there are still more battles to be fought and if fought hard enough, won. And I hope you are all ready to continue this work because I sure am ready for the next go round.
I know that the political climate, the impending war and the state of the economy is going to make this work a lot more difficult for all of us. However, we must remember that the people have always had to struggle for every little gain that has been won and it isn't going to be any different this time. We must continue our work to expose the FBI's illegal conduct not only in my case, but also for all the people who are unjustly incarcerated for their political beliefs.
This past summer I put out a call for Native youth to come out and take on some responsibility for the movement to free me and to make sure Indigenous issues are kept alive. I am happy to report that a number of students from Haskell Indian Nations University took up the challenge. They have formed the Peltier Indigenous Justice Alliance (PIJA). This endeavor by these students makes me feel proud. I hope that others will join them to carry on the work of those who have already worked so tirelessly all their lives for justice. Remember it was a hand-full of students from the Bay Area who helped organize the takeover of Alcatraz, which gave spark to the movement, which led to many of the demonstrations that would bring our issues before the public.
I also want to tell you how proud and happy to have my daughter Marquetta working in the office coordinating my campaign and being on the speakers' bureau. She has taken on a tremendous responsibility is doing a fine job. Thanks to her this Christmas I will be able to have more of my grandchildren with me. It hasn't been easy watching my children and now my grandchildren grow up through photos. Now I can actually have them with me and be able to spend some time talking and playing with them for a few hours a week. Believe me this is a welcome break from this daily oppressive life I live in here.
Now that the holidays are once again upon us I would once again ask you to support the Christmas Drive for the children of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. So many children would have gone without a gift, had it not been for your generosity these past years. And last but far from least I want to thank each and every one of you for hanging in there with me through the good and the hard times. I am counting on all of you to be with me for this next campaign. No effort can move forward without your continued support. Together we can and will succeed. And in closing I want to wish you and yours safe and happy holidays and a prosperous New Year.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Leonard Peltier
\\\///=====\\\///=====\\\///=====\\\///
Annual Christmas Drive 2002
///\\\=====///\\\=====///\\\=====///\\\
Indigenous Political Prisoner, Leonard Peltier, has organized his annual gift drive for the children of the Pine Ridge Lakota Nation in South Dakota. This is one way Leonard continues his humanitarian work for his people despite his incarceration. Help Leonard Peltier reach out beyond the bars that imprison him. You can send gifts such as new toys and practical, new winter clothing (gloves, jeans, thermal underwear, sweaters, socks, hats, scarves, jackets, boots, and blankets, etc.) to the addresses listed below.
Your gifts will be distributed to the people of Pine Ridge in Leonard's name. Thanks to Peltier's supporters, last years gift drive was very successful. Many families wrote Leonard to both thank him and tell him how the gifts brightened the families' holidays. Some supporters collected donations from stores who were willing to help after learning that Pine Ridge continues to be the most impoverished community in the United States. Some organized collections by asking friends and co-workers to sponsor a child by contributing a gift. Others simply purchased gifts out of pocket. The gift drives don't only help the families, but also help Leonard keep his spirits strong through the difficult holiday season.
Gifts may be sent to the persons listed below. They will be responsible for the distribution of these gifts to different areas of the community. Thank You and have a safe holiday!
Geraldine Janis
Box 525
Pine Ridge, SD 57770
Fedelia Cross
Box 42
Oglala, SD 57764
Roslyn Jumping Bull
Box 207
Oglala, SD 57764
///\\\=====///\\\=====///\\\=====///\\\=====///\\\
Until Freedom Is Won!
The New Leonard Peltier Justice Campaign
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-5774
http://www.freepeltier.org
5) Lori Berenson's 7th year of wrongful imprisonment
Saturday, November 30th marked the seventh anniversary of Lori's arrest on a bus in downtown Lima. She has now spent 2,557 days wrongfully incarcerated and our struggle for her freedom from this injustice continues.
An interview with Lori
Journalist and author Peter Laufer visited Lori in Huacariz Prison in late April and interviewed her over a two-day period, taking notes with pencil and paper. The resulting article, now published, is almost entirely in "Lori's voice."
Internet poll shows Peruvians ready to accept Lori's release
In a two-day Internet write-in poll conducted September 14 and 15 by El Comercio, Peru's largest circulating newspaper (which has always been wrongfully critical of Lori), the respondents overwhelmingly indicated that they would accept an Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling that called for Lori's release. The final results show that 67.3% would accept a decision for Lori's release.
Human Rights Court accepts Lori's case for review
President Toledo states Peru will abide by court ruling
On September 6, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San Jose, Costa Rica notified the involved parties that it admitted for review the petition filed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on Lori's behalf against the government of Peru. In a blow to the government of Peru, however, the Court refused to treat, as a separate case, Peru's counter-petition against the Commission's recommendation in favor of Lori. Peru must now convince the Court that the Commission's recommendation was incorrect.
In a press conference held September 14 in Washington DC, Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo declared that his government will fully adhere to the ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Lori's case.
For information on these above and other related developments, visit the
Committee to Free Lori Berenson - web site - http://www.freelori.org/
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
War for Terror * Jordan-Mars * Venezuela * Toll Bells
09 December 2002
"I will not give in to blackmail nor pressures of any kind. I swear to you that I will be with the people my entire life. You brought me here and you are the only ones who can get rid of me. Nobody else is going to take me out of here."
- Venezuela President Hugo Chavez
Saturday, December 7, 2002
1) The War on Freedom Review - Who knew?
2) Berlin Declaration - "The war on terrorism does not work."
3) Venezuela-Chavez Update - What's Really Happening
4) TollBells Schedule of Prisoner-Killings
Editor's Notes:
This issue of Flyby News again revisits the powerful book that investigated the terrorists' attacks on September 11, 2001. The item contains a review by a former skeptic, who was turned around by the evidences revealed by the book, "The War on Freedom: How and Why America was Attacked." Evidences that will surely be overlooked by Henry K. and the "official" 9/11 investigators. Item 2 is a declaration from Berlin in honor of Human Rights Day supporting the end of the terrorism-creating-campaigns. Please read and consider adding your name in support of this document that eloquently states the obvious - that war on terrorism does not work. Item 3, (thanks to the Narco News), reports on what is really going on in Venezuela. The bogus TV reports are really disgusting, and in actuality, are in alliance with attacks on freedom. The oil people are going crazy these days. Meanwhile a report just came in on a study declaring that a war on Iraq could cost around $1.9 trillion dollars.* Holy Cow!.
*Study: Iraq War Could Cost $1.9 Trillion, see following URL link:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20021206/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_war_cost
Meanwhile I am having trouble with my $30 order for really cool FlybyNews.com bumper stickers. Any help for this purchase, for mailings, sending Flyby News to prisons, web hosting costs, etc. would be much appreciated. Also, if you want a bumper sticker for your car for the "mainstream education drive" let me know. When I can afford to, I will send this artistic, full color bumper sticker, which was designed by Liz Nicholas of http://www.artwithaconscience.com (It costs me about $2-3 per bumper sticker for printing. Thank you Liz, and everyone else who has contributed and networked in support of Flyby News, especially Mik, our original web master. We still have an IOU with this wonderful patient friend. Flyby News is committed to continuing our efforts to around December 21, 2012, if possible, and then will reassess the situation. This December 21st solstice (8:14 PM EST) marks 10 years before the completion of a major Mayan calendar cycle. [See flybynews.com, under "Flyby Support" for a link to on this subject and for contact information, etc..]
As you must realize by now, completing our fifth year of independent news reporting, Flyby News will take chances on controversial topics, combining political, social, technological, cultural, and spiritual perceptions into the mix of news for life's survival in the 21st Century.
Bart Jordan may be the ultimate controversial topic in our reporting. There are very few places that mention his name. Yet he continues to receive about 35% of all visits to Flyby News (where we have been averaging about 100 hits per day). His story and evidences of technologically advanced ancient civilizations is well worth reviewing. We will continue to provide updates on this extraordinary individual. Harry Jordan, (not blood-related to Bart) recently contacted us through the Millennium Group. Harry Jordan will be sharing his work on the face on Mars at an International Conference in Michigan, July 4-6, 2003 . He intends to present his overlay survey drawings completed on the Mars' Cydonia region that demonstrate Bart Jordan's accuracy in mapping this area with the latest NASA Surveyor images. Bart Jordan's sources for his information was from ancient literature.
See this following URL page for a November, 2000 article on this by Harry Jordan, which includes a link to his resume:
http://tmgnow.com/repository/mars/mars_jordan.html
You can learn more about Bart Jordan at this Flyby News URL:
http://www.flybynews.com/bartjordan/
"In mindful time past, we honored our grandparents;
in mindless time present, we threaten our grandchildren."
-- Bart Jordan
Another date that you should mark on your calendar for summer 2003 is July 12 and 13 -- for SolarFest: Energy Education Through the Arts. Their nonprofit mission is to educate people about renewable energy by engaging the community through the performing arts. In its eight-year history, SolarFest has built a reputation for promoting artistic excellence and community-building, and has raised awareness when people realize that the entire weekend festival is run on solar energy.
http://www.solarfest.org
But on the near term agenda, especially if around Amherst, MA this Wednesday, check out this:
OPEN FORUM:
"THE FBI versus THE PEOPLE"
Wednesday, 11 December 2002, 7pm
Top of the Campus (11th floor, Campus Center) UMass, Amherst)
Civil Liberties Under Attack at UMASS!
The University of Massachusetts, Amherst has assigned a campus police officer to work under the direction and control of the FBI Anti-Terrorism Task Force. FBI presence on our campus is an issue that we must take seriously. As the Bush administration continues its "War or Terrorism" with plans to invade Iraq, the FBI poses a threat to civil liberties and human rights here in the U.S.
Please join us for this OPEN FORUM, which will address the FBI's repressive history as well as the current situation.
Speakers:
- Milton Cantor, UMass History Dept., on McCarthyism
- John Bracey, UMass Dept. of Afro-American Studies, on Black activism
- Joyce White Deer Vincent, Native American Student Support Services
- Marty Nathan, Greensboro Justice Fund, on labor activism
- Bill Newman, ACLU, on civil rights and civil liberties today
- Ryan Coughlin, UMass Anti-War Coaltion, on current Anti-War movement
- Chair Sara Lennox, STPEC/Dept. of Germanic Languages and Literatures
Sponsored by: STPEC, Office of ALANA Affairs, the UMass Anti-War Coalition, and an ad-hoc committee of concerned faculty, staff, students, and community members
[Please note (related to this above topic) that Flyby News has updated our page on Leonard Peltier]
Item 4 in this issue gives a list of those expecting to be executed this month in the USA. Please make an effort to stop institutional and all killings. The hopeful news that a Judge granted a stay of execution in the case of Desmond Carter is not absolute. Please consider contacting Governor Easely, and any state that plays the role of God in determining someone's guilt to end their life. This precedent, as with the Bush push for war can only make things worse.
Blessed be this human rights day, and each day. Thanks for sharing such incredible times, if only we can survive with freedom, we will have one incredible story and life to share.
1) The War on Freedom Review - Who knew?
Who knew?
by Mike Keefe-Feldman
Published by Missoula Independent
www.MissoulaNews.com
December 5, 2002
[Originally Published: 11/14/2002 In the Books section]
The War on Freedom: How and Why America was Attacked
by Nafeez M. Ahmed.
New book examines possible White House role in 9/11 attacks
Three months after Sept. 11, 2001, I was substitute teaching a high school political science course. Because the students had finished the day's lesson plan, we began talking about current events. When the talk turned to Sept. 11, a young girl in the class said that she thought that President Bush knew what was going to happen and let it happen anyway. I instantly responded that I thought it was far-fetched to think Bush had been somehow complicit in the events of Sept. 11. Steal an election? Maybe. But my mind was simply unable to ponder such a gruesome possibility. Yet it is just this possibility that Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed considers in The War on Freedom: How and Why America Was Attacked.
Despite the fact that Ahmed is the executive director of the Institute for Policy Research and Development in Brighton, UK, and despite the fact that his scholarship has been recommended as a resource by Harvard University, I was prepared for a presentation fit for the pages of some wacko Web site named something like www.santakilledjfk.org. But my skepticism was soon reigned in.
Ahmed presents information within the pages of his book cited from respected sources including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Wall Street Journal. But while the mainstream media has supplied pieces of the puzzle, it's left to Ahmed to piece together the big picture. The information presented in this book is shocking, terrifying and severely under-reported. The War on Freedom is so ominous that I felt dirty reading it, and yet I was fascinated at the same time, like a young boy holding a magnifying glass up to an ant, enthralled with the burning creature struggling on the pavement.
One of the key points that Ahmed focuses on is alleged high-level "blocks" on suspected terrorists that the FBI was investigating prior to Sept. 11. One of the most particularly disturbing findings was reported in The Washington Times, stating that local FBI investigators in Minneapolis "had immediately viewed Zacarias [Moussaoui] as a terrorist suspect and sought authorization for a special counterintelligence surveillance warrant in order to search the hard drive of his computer." The Times reported that this request was denied by the Justice Department and top FBI officials. Rather than simply reporting this fact, Ahmed puts it into focus by presenting government reports that show "...the special court that reviews [these] requests has approved more than 12,000 Justice Department applications for covert search warrants and wiretaps and rejected only one since the act was passed in 1978."
The question, then: Why reject a search warrant request on Moussaoui? Particularly after, as the San Francisco Chronicle reported, "An instructor at a Minnesota flight school warned the FBI in August of his suspicion that a studentmight be planning to use a commercial plane as a weaponwarn[ing] the FBI in urgent tones about the terrorist threat posed by the student, Zacarias Moussaoui." Ahmed also brings to light the testimony of U.S. attorney David Phillip Schippers, former Chief Investigative Counsel for the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. Schippers states that he made numerous and urgent attempts to warn Attorney General John Ashcroft of terror attacks planned for lower Manhattan weeks before Sept. 11.
Schippers says his warnings were based on information from U.S. intelligence sources, including FBI agents, but that FBI command killed investigations based upon his information and then threatened agents with prosecution under the National Security Act if they published any information regarding their investigations.
Currently, Schippers is representing an FBI agent in a suit against the U.S. government aimed at allowing the agent to legally speak about the alleged blocked investigations on public record. As with much of the information in The War on Freedom, you'd be hard pressed to find details of this lawsuit elsewhere.
Ahmed writes that Schippers wasn't the only one who knew "something was up" prior to Sept. 11. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Mayor Willie Brown received a phone call from what he described as "airport security" advising him not to travel by air. The London Times reported that novelist Salman Rushdie received a similar warning. The Times went on to state that Rushdie testified that his warning came directly from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Similarly, Ahmed points to a Newsweek report stating that on Sept. 10, 2001, "a group of top Pentagon officials suddenly canceled travel plans for the next morning, apparently because of security concerns." Here, Ahmed doesn't even have to ask the question. It asks itself: "If Rushdie, Brown and a group of Pentagon officials were warned, why wasn't everyone else?"
Particularly notable in The War on Freedom is a chapter titled "The Collapse of Standard Operating Procedure on 9-11." One incredibly striking detail is the change in the official story of Air Force procedures. Ahmed details how, on Sept. 13, Joint Chief of Staff Richard Myers stated that no planes were scrambled (i.e., sent up into the air to intercept the hijacked planes) until after the Pentagon was hit. Tim Russert, Ahmed notes, also made this same statement on "Meet the Press" with VP Dick Cheney, and Cheney did not dispute it. Ahmed leads his reader into an examination of FAA flight procedures, which state that the moment a plane deviates from its flight path, the air traffic controllers must attempt to make contact. If no contact can be made, planes are to be scrambled.
Ahmed deduces that, if no planes were scrambled until after the Pentagon was hit, this leaves approximately 95 minutes between the time the first United Airlines flight deviated from flight path and the time planes were scrambled, which would be a blatant violation of protocol. The author describes how, on Sept. 14, this official story changed. Air Force and government officials reneged on their own testimonies, Ahmed writes, telling CBS that a scramble was launched from Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod and that planes were headed to New York by 8:56 a.m. Ahmed takes this official testimony to task with these words: "This storyraises more questions than it answersF-16s can travel at 1500 mph. If it took the F-16s half an hour to cover 150 miles, they could not have been traveling at more than 300 mphat 20 percent capacity. Boeing 767s and 757s have cruising speeds of 530 mph. Talk about a lack of urgency!" Ahmed also questions why planes were sent to protect D.C. from Langley Air Force Base, 129 miles from Washington, when, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune and the "authoritative" U.S. military information Web site, demilitary.com, fighters could have been sent from Andrews Air Force Base, only 15 miles from Washington. From this, Ahmed draws the inference that these peculiarities make the Sept. 13 explanation more believable than the Sept. 14 statement. However, Ahmed notes, even in the case of the second explanation, there would still be 24 minutes to account for between the time the first plane deviated from flight path without contact and the time a scramble was issued. According to the author, FAA manuals would note this as a violation of standard operating procedure.
Ahmed goes after the White House with tenacity. He uses a Dick Cheney press conference in which Tim Russert asks Cheney what the most important decision President Bush had to make on Sept. 11 was. Cheney responded, "I suppose the toughest decision was the question of whether or not we would intercept incoming commercial aircraftWe decided to do it." Ahmed pins Cheney down in an uncomfortable position here. Citing FAA regulations, Ahmed notes that hijacked planes are automatically to be intercepted by scramblers if they deviate from flight path and contact can't be made. Thus, Ahmed writes, the decision to intercept aircraft shouldn't have had anything to do with the White House, nor should it have been a "decision." Ahmed concludes that Cheney's statement indicates that the White House, not the FAA, was in control regarding scrambling on Sept. 11, making the White House responsible for standard operating procedure failure. Eerily then, Ahmed pieces together an argument that the White House took the authority to call the shots on Sept. 11 and then didn't actually call any until well after the FAA was required to scramble planes.
And on and on he goes, examining business connections between the Bush and bin Laden families through the Carlyle Group, questioning why it is that the new Afghani Prime Minister is a former paid UNOCAL oil consultant, asking the all-important, yet stomach-turning question, "Who benefited from Sept. 11?" even noting suspicious stock trading in the days leading up to Sept. 11 involving United Airlines and several WTC companies. Ultimately, however, Ahmed does not attempt to argue that his book proves that the White House and the intelligence community are accomplices in the attacks. Rather, Ahmed merely concludes that a full-scale investigation is needed.
As Senator Tom Daschle has agreed to Bush's request of a more "limited" Congressional investigation, The War on Freedom becomes more significant. If nothing else, this book makes me wish for a time machine. If I had one, I would go back to that high school classroom where a young girl said she thought Bush was involved. This time, I wouldn't be so hasty and closed-minded as to dismiss any possibility without thoroughly considering it first.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
THE WAR ON FREEDOM: How and Why America was Attacked by Nafeez M. Ahmed was compiled from hundreds of sources - newspapers, experts and official documents. It is a definitive account of how and why America was attacked.
The War on Freedom: How and Why America was Attacked
by Nafeez M. Ahmed.
Paperback, 400 pages, ISBN 0-930852-40-0.
http://www.thewaronfreedom.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related article (commentary): Bush isn't a moron, he's a cunning sociopath
By Bev Conover
Online Journal Editor & Publisher
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/Conover120502/conover120502.html
2) Berlin Declaration - "The war on terrorism does not work."
The Berlin Declaration
The war on terrorism does not work. Every week, there are new reports of bombings and hostage-taking in different parts of the world - Moscow, Bali, Mombasa|..
The war on terrorism cannot work. It cannot work because terrorism is a crime, the expression of a new type of global privatised violence. The word 'war' dignifies the terrorist as an 'enemy' instead of a criminal. It polarises the world between 'us' and 'them', which is just what the terrorists want. It inflicts further violence on innocent people and nurtures the black feelings that lead to terrorism.
We are on the verge of an escalating process of world-wide violence, something akin to the Israel-Palestine conflict on a global scale. This impending cycle of destruction might include the possibility of the use of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, further genocidal crimes, unpredictable acts of terrorism, not to mention more US 'preemptive strikes', which will turn out to be counter-productive strikes.
There is no such thing as a just war in our interdependent globalised world. But we need legitimate force to contain privatised violence. So there is still a role for military forces, to enforce international law and to protect people, to do what the police ought to do and cannot.
We call on governments , parliaments , NGO`s and citizens to oppose war and unilateralism and to mobilise in favour of an alternative strategy for combating terrorism. This strategy has to be multilateralist and co-operative and must aim at the construction of a global legal order. It should include:
1) The promotion of human values and norms that should underpin international law. Human rights must be applied in a non-selective way, in Israel as well as Iraq, in Chechnya as well as Afghanistan. There needs to be an authentic dialogue among those who favour democracy so as to find sustainable solutions to the black holes of the world, which breed terrorism in Israel-Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Kashmir, Chechnya, to name some of the most important.
2) The establishment of mechanisms to enforce international law. This International Criminal Court should be established as soon as possible with no exemptions. Human security forces at a European or a global level need to be established especially designed to protect civilians in conflicts and to capture those who commit crimes against them.
3) An increase in resources at a global level to finance a global legal order - to fund the global public goods, like eliminating poverty or tackling the environment as well as global legal and policing institutions, needed to extend a global rule of law.
We do not claim that this strategy can eliminate terrorism. The most, perhaps, that can be done is to contain terrorism, to prevent its spread and escalation. But we do believe that we can no longer preserve democracy and the rule of law only in one part of the world. War will destroy those values that we consider precious. The only hope we have is through the application of those values throughout the world. This is a task for every individual as well as government.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Prof.Ulrich Albrecht, Berlin, Prof Norman Birnbaum ,Washington D.C., Colin Archer, International Peace Bureau, Geneva-London, Erhard Eppler, Bundesminister a.D., Germany , Mient Jan Faber, Interchurch Peace Council, The Hague, Solange Fernex, womens league for peace and freedom, France, Fredereck Heffermehl, peace association Norway , Prof. Mary Kaldor ,London ,David Krieger ,Nuclear Age peace foundation ,Santa Barbara ,USA ,.Eva Quistorp MEP a.D., european women for peace , Berlin-Zürich-Prague-Krakau-Stockholm
10.12.2002 -in honor of the olive tree and the UN Human Rights Charta
-gracias a la vida
.ViS.d.P.Eva Quistorp, M. Jan Faber c/o IKV, The Hague http://www.ikv.nl
Please mail your signature for the 10.12. ( but later too ) and interest for cooperation and a meeting in Thessaloniki and Athens 2003, in Barcelona 2004 (http://www.ipb.org ) to equistorp@aol.com (Berlin declaration signatures)
3) Venezuela-Chavez Update - What's Really Happening
4) TollBells Schedule of Prisoner-Killings
Please Note:
Items 3 and 4 are posted at this following URL link:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1039465596,46632,
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Venezuela-Chavez Update * Schedule of Prisoner-Killings
09 December 2002
"I will not give in to blackmail nor pressures of any kind. I swear to you that I will be with the people my entire life. You brought me here and you are the only ones who can get rid of me. Nobody else is going to take me out of here."
- Venezuela President Hugo Chavez
Saturday, December 7, 2002
1) The War on Freedom Review - Who knew?
2) Berlin Declaration - "The war on terrorism does not work."
3) Venezuela-Chavez Update - What's Really Happening
4) TollBells Schedule of Prisoner-Killings
Editor's Notes:
Items 1 and 2 are posted at this URL link:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1039467011,1182,
Item 3, (thanks to the Narco News), reports on what is really going on in Venezuela. The bogus TV reports are really disgusting, and in actuality, are in alliance with attacks on freedom. The oil people are going crazy these days. Meanwhile a report just came in on a study declaring that a war on Iraq could cost around $1.9 trillion dollars.* Holy Cow!.
*Study: Iraq War Could Cost $1.9 Trillion, see following URL link:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20021206/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_war_cost
Meanwhile I am having trouble with my $30 order for really cool FlybyNews.com bumper stickers. Any help for this purchase, for mailings, sending Flyby News to prisons, web hosting costs, etc. would be much appreciated. Also, if you want a bumper sticker for your car for the "mainstream education drive" let me know. When I can afford to, I will send this artistic, full color bumper sticker, which was designed by Liz Nicholas of http://www.artwithaconscience.com (It costs me about $2-3 per bumper sticker for printing. Thank you Liz, and everyone else who has contributed and networked in support of Flyby News, especially Mik, our original web master. We still have an IOU with this wonderful patient friend. Flyby News is committed to continuing our efforts to around December 21, 2012, if possible, and then will reassess the situation. This December 21st solstice (8:14 PM EST) marks 10 years before the completion of a major Mayan calendar cycle. [See flybynews.com, under "Flyby Support" for a link to on this subject and for contact information, etc..]
As you must realize by now, completing our fifth year of independent news reporting, Flyby News will take chances on controversial topics, combining political, social, technological, cultural, and spiritual perceptions into the mix of news for life's survival in the 21st Century.
Bart Jordan may be the ultimate controversial topic in our reporting. There are very few places that mention his name. Yet he continues to receive about 35% of all visits to Flyby News (where we have been averaging about 100 hits per day). His story and evidences of technologically advanced ancient civilizations is well worth reviewing. We will continue to provide updates on this extraordinary individual. Harry Jordan, (not blood-related to Bart) recently contacted us through the Millennium Group. Harry Jordan will be sharing his work on the face on Mars at an International Conference in Michigan, July 4-6, 2003 . He intends to present his overlay survey drawings completed on the Mars' Cydonia region that demonstrate Bart Jordan's accuracy in mapping this area with the latest NASA Surveyor images. Bart Jordan's sources for his information was from ancient literature.
See this following URL page for a November, 2000 article on this by Harry Jordan, which includes a link to his resume:
http://tmgnow.com/repository/mars/mars_jordan.html
You can learn more about Bart Jordan at this Flyby News URL:
http://www.flybynews.com/bartjordan/
"In mindful time past, we honored our grandparents;
in mindless time present, we threaten our grandchildren."
-- Bart Jordan
Another date that you should mark on your calendar for summer 2003 is July 12 and 13 -- for SolarFest: Energy Education Through the Arts. Their nonprofit mission is to educate people about renewable energy by engaging the community through the performing arts. In its eight-year history, SolarFest has built a reputation for promoting artistic excellence and community-building, and has raised awareness when people realize that the entire weekend festival is run on solar energy.
http://www.solarfest.org
But on the near term agenda, especially if around Amherst, MA this Wednesday, check out this:
OPEN FORUM:
"THE FBI versus THE PEOPLE"
Wednesday, 11 December 2002, 7pm
Top of the Campus (11th floor, Campus Center) UMass, Amherst)
Civil Liberties Under Attack at UMASS!
The University of Massachusetts, Amherst has assigned a campus police officer to work under the direction and control of the FBI Anti-Terrorism Task Force. FBI presence on our campus is an issue that we must take seriously. As the Bush administration continues its "War or Terrorism" with plans to invade Iraq, the FBI poses a threat to civil liberties and human rights here in the U.S.
Please join us for this OPEN FORUM, which will address the FBI's repressive history as well as the current situation.
Speakers:
- Milton Cantor, UMass History Dept., on McCarthyism
- John Bracey, UMass Dept. of Afro-American Studies, on Black activism
- Joyce White Deer Vincent, Native American Student Support Services
- Marty Nathan, Greensboro Justice Fund, on labor activism
- Bill Newman, ACLU, on civil rights and civil liberties today
- Ryan Coughlin, UMass Anti-War Coaltion, on current Anti-War movement
- Chair Sara Lennox, STPEC/Dept. of Germanic Languages and Literatures
Sponsored by: STPEC, Office of ALANA Affairs, the UMass Anti-War Coalition, and an ad-hoc committee of concerned faculty, staff, students, and community members
[Please note (related to this above topic) that Flyby News has updated our page on Leonard Peltier]
Item 4 in this issue gives a list of those expecting to be executed this month in the USA. Please make an effort to stop institutional and all killings. The hopeful news that a Judge granted a stay of execution in the case of Desmond Carter is not absolute. Please consider contacting Governor Easely, and any state that plays the role of God in determining someone's guilt to end their life. This precedent, as with the Bush push for war can only make things worse.
Blessed be this human rights day, and each day. Thanks for sharing such incredible times, if only we can survive with freedom, we will have one incredible story and life to share.
3) Venezuela-Chavez Update - What's Really Happening
"I will not give in to blackmail nor pressures of any kind. I swear to you that I will be with the people my entire life. You brought me here and you are the only ones who can get rid of me. Nobody else is going to take me out of here."
- Venezuela President Hugo Chavez
Saturday, December 7, 2002
From: Narco News Bulletin
Dear Colleagues,
To read the commercial news reports from Venezuela, one might almost think there is a popular "strike" that has brought an "authoritarian" regime to its knees, threatened U.S. oil supplies and that the Chavez government is not allowing the people to vote on its continuance.
None of those above statements are true in the slightest, but the simulating behavior of most English-language correspondents from Caracas is, as ever, over the top and knowingly false.
To help clear up the haze of lies and distortion with some facts, Narco News publishes the analysis by three correspondents on the scene in Venezuela, including two professors from the Narco News School of Authentic Journalism: Thierry Deronne, the Belgian journalist who works with Tele-Tambores Community TV in Venezuela; Max Arvelaiz, the French-Venezuelan communications consultant to the Chavez government, and, Paul Emile-Dupret, observer and official of the European Parliament, all eye-witnesses to events in recent days.
You can read their factual accounts at
http://www.narconews.com/
Other late-breaking news items
- The Venezuelan Navy today regained control of the hijacked oil tanker from its mutinous captain. The last effective maneuver of the upper-class "opposition" was thus foiled and the "strike" (management imposed lockout of workers from their jobs) that began last week has now fracased on every front.
- Friday night's contemptible shooting of civilians in an opposition demonstration by gunmen, resulting in the capture of Portuguese national Joao Gouveia, has taken a shocking turn
"Congressman of the MVR party (Fifth Republic Movement) and journalist Juan Barreto reported today that Joao Gouveia, the Portuguese citizen accused of having assassinated various members of the opposition concentrated in Plaza Francia of Altamira (the wealthy section of Caracas) entered the country (Friday) at 540 p.m. coming from Lisbon. Barreto said that Gouveia confessed that he had been contracted by pro-coup General Medina Gomez to cause a massacre in Altamira, for which he was paid 35 million bolivares.
"Congressman Barreto said that as a journalist he has contacts in various agencies and information that the accused was acting as if he were paranoid, faking that he was mentally ill, but after examined by different psychiatrists who determined he was lucid, finally confessed this morning.
"Barreto reported that in a few hours the video of Gouveia's confession will be made public."
Source: http://www.aporrea.org/
- If this is true, and such a video confession exists, as the congressman and journalist reports, the "opposition" leaders who have, without a shred of evidence, blamed Chavez and his supporters for Friday's shootings (3 dead, 28 wounded), will have to face facts that one of their own top leaders is capable of ordering his own supporters shot in order to create destability and mayhem in order to justify another coup attempt by rogue uniformed forces. General Medina Gomez, like clockwork - we remind - moments after Friday night's shootings called on military officials to overthrow the elected government by force. The Armed Forces - significantly cleaned-up after last April's two-day military coup - have remained solidly on the side of the constitution this round (as evidenced by today's smooth retaking of the hijacked oil tanker).
- This video would also raise very clear questions about who was behind the sniper attacks last April that created the first pretext to try and take power by upper-class coup. As previously reported by Narco News and others, the snipers captured last April 11th were freed on April 12th by Dictator-for-a-Day Pedro Carmona (a fact still not reported by the simulating commercial correspondents).
It is difficult for many to believe that there are interests so cynical as to order their own supporters shot to gain sympathy for their "cause," but to close observers of the Venezuelan reality this possibility is not surprising at all. Stay tuned as we hunt down the facts.
- Finally, after months of turning the other cheek, Venezuelan President Chavez today announced that middle and upper level managers of the state oil company who participated in this week's sabotage and hijacking maneuvers will be fireda decision that is reasonable by any standards, and, in fact, overdue.
- Meanwhile, today, two million Venezuelans took to the streets today to defy the "strike of the spoiled brats" and defend their electoral choices. The mood is still tense but all the momentum and factual information continues to cumulate on the side of constitutional rule and against destabilizing coup attempts.
- One of the losers of this week's skirmishes is U.S. State Department fixer Otto Reich. (We note that Secretary of State Colin Powell was, surprisingly, not accompanied by Reich in his trip last week to Colombia, an indication that Reich's extremist brinkmanship in South America is increasingly viewed as counter-productive even among moderates, like Powell, in the Bush
administration.)
The events of the next few days could accomplish the "two-fer" of putting to rest delusional coup fantasies by anti-democracy forces in Venezuela and also be the final nail in the coffin of Reich's reign over U.S. Latin America policy.
It's was the Venezuelan electorate in 1998 (and five times since) that started the ball rolling for a united Latin America against outside impositions. The Venezuelans withstood and turned back April's coup attempt, and appear to have the current one well in hand. In early January, Brazil will inaugurate president Lula de la Silva and Ecuador's Lucio Gutierrez is walking through the same door in his country.
There will no doubt be cynical commercial media correspondents who continue to "cry wolf" with their hysterical predictions of the overthrow of Venezuela's democratically elected government. But their wolf-crying has diminishing effect after having been so wrong so many times.
What they don't admit, at least not in their simulated reports, is that the coups fail precisely because democracy in Venezuela is so extraordinarily healthy, compared to that of any other country in the hemisphere. It is vibrant. It is strong. It respects human rights and voter control. And it has been exemplary in its tolerance displayed toward a bratty and disruptive upper-class "opposition."
As Venezuela has lived some very trying moments in recent hours, the truth that shines through is that democracy and constitutional rule endures even the harshest most cynical provocations.
The hour has come for the commercial media - in Venezuela and among U.S. and English language correspondents who have been feeding a false picture of events there - to grow up and cease the dishonest reports that get proved wrong again and again and again, and again today.
Al Giordano
Publisher
The Narco News Bulletin
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
[Updated December 8, 2002]
Dear Colleagues,
The online Spanish-language magazine Rebelin has published an astute and informed analysis of the dynamics at work this week in Venezuela by Heinz Dieterich Steffan...
http://www.rebelion.org/dieterich/dieterich071202.htm
We have now translated it to English and posted it to Narco News...
http://www.narconews.com/
We can also make it available in an email text to facilitate your work distributing and posting it far and wide, so that all can get a better, more accurate, understanding of what is really at play in Venezuela today. According to Dieterich, there are very solid explanations for why the Venezuelan "opposition" is behaving so erratically, irrationally and desperately this week. And there are steps that the democratically elected government in Venezuela can take to defeat the coup plotters, legally, once, and for all.
from somewhere back in a country called Amrica,
Al Giordano
Publisher
The Narco News Bulletin
narconews@hotmail.com
http://www.narconews.com/
4) TollBells Schedule of Prisoner-Killings
From_: "Tollbells" < tollbells@abolition.org >
Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2002 1:29 AM
Subject: [tollbells] Bells Campaign: Schedule of Prisoner-Killings: 12/08/02
Bells Campaign: Schedule of Prisoner-Killings: 12/08/02
Dear Friends,
The following information is gleaned from various sources and is intended to give you as accurate a listing as can be expected. All of these execution dates are considered to be serious, although stays can be granted up until the last minute. If we learn of a stay for an execution scheduled in the coming week, we will try to alert you via this e-mail list. Any stays issued for execution dates beyond the next week or two will be reflected in the next update. New updates will be posted as significant adjustments warrant. Generally there will be at least two updates each month. Please toll your bells at 6pm local time for two minutes on the following dates. If you have elected to display the banner or another message, please do that all day. Please remember to explain your activities to the local media and to members of your faith community.
Please note: In the listings below, we have included the name of the victim(s) for whom the state is killing in our names. Please remember them and their families and friends in your prayers as well. Finally, we are still developing this list service. If you have feedback or suggestions, please send to tollbells@abolition.org.
Since the last update the following prisoners received a stay:
Amos King - Florida
Linroy Bottoson - Florida (new date December 09)
And the following prisoners were killed:
Leonard Rojas - Texas
Ernest Basden - North Carolina
Total killed in 2002: 60
Total killed since resumption of executions in 1977: 809
See < http://www.cuadp.org/exinfo.html > for a complete list.
December, 2002
09 - Florida; 6:00 PM EST
Linroy Bottoson is scheduled to be killed by the people of Florida in revenge for his murder of Catherine Alexander.
10 - Oklahoma; 10:00 PM EST
Jerry Lynn McCracken is scheduled to be killed by the people of Oklahoma in revenge for his murders of Steven Allen Smith, Tyrell Lee Boyd, Timothy Edward Sheets and Carole Ann McDaniels.
10 - North Carolina; 2:00 AM EST
Desmond Carter is scheduled to be killed by the people of North Carolina in revenge for his murder of Helen Purdy.
11 - Texas, 7:00 PM EST
James Collier is scheduled to be killed by the people of Texas in revenge for his murders of Joy Reed and Timmy Reed.
11 - Mississippi; 6:00 PM EST
Jessie Derrell Williams is scheduled to be killed by the people of Mississippi in revenge for his murders of Karon Ann Pierce
12 - Oklahoma; 10:00 PM EST
Jay Neill is scheduled to be killed by the people of Oklahoma in revenge for his murders of Kay Bruno, Jerri Bowles, Joyce Mullienix and Ralph Zeller
12 - Alabama; 1:01 AM EST Anthony Keith Johnson is scheduled to be killed by the
people of Alabama in revenge for his murder of Kenneth Cantrell.
17 - Oklahoma; 10:00 PM EST
Earnest Carter is scheduled to be killed by the people of Oklahoma in revenge for his murder of Eugene Manowski.
19 - Oklahoma; 10:00 PM EST
John Duty is scheduled to be killed by the people of Oklahoma in revenge for his murder of Curtis Wise.
* * * * *
in peace,
-- tollbells@abolition.org
For more information, please visit our webpage at
http://www.curenational.org/~bells/
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Death's Sting - Phil Berrigan * War Crime * Execution Stay
07 December 2002
"I die with the conviction, held since 1968 and Catonsville, that nuclear weapons are the scourge of the earth; to mine for them, manufacture them, deploy them, use them, is a curse against God, the human family, and the earth itself."
Philip Berrigan
1) O death, where is your sting? Phil Berrigan's Last Statement
2) U.S. Gulf War 'crime'
3) Judge Stays Desmond Carter's Execution
4) Ten Hopeful Cracks in the Bush Facade
Editor's Notes:
Just before releasing this issue, with the hopeful news of a Judge's ruling to stay the execution stay of Desmond Carter, (see Item 3), I was ready for a positive, almost cheerful Flyby News. Human Rights Day might not be blotted by another US racist-based execution. With this information, I was prepared to send the information linked in Item 4, ten hopeful cracks in the Bush facade. Then news came on the death of Philip Berrigan, which included a most powerful incomplete "last statement," which was dictated to his wife, including this sentence: "I die with the conviction, held since 1968 and Catonsville, that nuclear weapons are the scourge of the earth; to mine for them, manufacture them, deploy them, use them, is a curse against God, the human family, and the earth itself." And so, another issue takes form, and Item 2 provides more information on Gulf War disease and the harm by exploded depleted uranium shells. This item also includes information of concern that the administration is moving toward creating new kinds of nuclear weapons. Yet the voice of Phil Berrigan and others, continue to ring loud and clear for truth, justice, humankind, and time is short.
1) O death, where is your sting? Phil Berrigan's Last Statement
The following message is from the Jonah House, where Philip Berrigan, a spiritual leader of the anti-war movement, passed away, with loved ones present, and a message for our world.
>
Hello Everyone,
Phil died tonight at Jonah House. The family is grieving, but also thankful that his last painful days are over and he can now rejoice. There are many who have helped and supported the family with prayers and food and kind words; all of your support is greatly appreciated. All the letters and calls Phil got in his final days showed the strength and compassion of this, the beloved community.
Contact Jonah House if interested in housing possibilities in Baltimore if you choose to come for the wake and/or the funeral mass. Folks from Viva House Catholic Worker (410-233-0488) here in Baltimore have volunteered to coordinate housing; Jonah House is filled to the brim with family, so please contact Viva House if you need to find a place to stay.
This is the press release the family sent out, as well as a chronology of Phil's life and works, and a statement he and Liz write shortly before his death.
Thanks to you all, and peace be with you.
Love,
Becky
Philip Berrigan, Anti-War Activist, Dies at Home in Baltimore, MD
Baltimore, MD - Phil Berrigan died December 6, 2002 at about 9:30 PM, at Jonah House, a community he co-founded in 1973, surrounded by family and friends. He died two months after being diagnosed with liver and kidney cancer, and one month after deciding to discontinue chemotherapy. Approximately thirty close friends and fellow peace activists gathered for the ceremony of last rites on November 30, to celebrate his life and anoint him for the next part of his journey. Berrigan's brother and co-felon, Jesuit priest Daniel Berrigan officiated.
During his nearly 40 years of resistance to war and violence, Berrigan focused on living and working in community as a way to model the nonviolent, sustainable world he was working to create. Jonah House members live simply, pray together, share duties, and attempt to expose the violence of militarism and consumerism. The community was born out of resistance to the Vietnam War, including high-profile draft card burning actions; later the focus became ongoing resistance to U.S. nuclear policy, including Plowshares actions that aim to enact Isaiah's biblical prophecy of a disarmed world. Because of these efforts Berrigan spent about 11 years in prison. He wrote, lectured, and taught extensively, publishing six books, including an autobiography, Fighting the Lamb's War. In his last weeks, Berrigan was surrounded by his family, including his wife Elizabeth McAlister, with whom he founded Jonah House; his children Frida, 28, Jerry, 27, and Kate, 21; community members Susan Crane, Gary Ashbeck, and David Arthur; and extended family and community. Community members Ardeth Platte and Carol Gilbert, Dominican sisters, were unable to be physically present at Jonah House; they are currently in jail in Colorado awaiting trial for a disarmament action at a missile silo, the 79th international Plowshares action. One of Berrigan's last actions was to bless the upcoming marriage of Frida to Ian Marvy.Berrigan wrote a final statement in the days before his death. His final comments included this: "I die with the conviction, held since 1968 and Catonsville, that nuclear weapons are the scourge of the earth; to mine for them, manufacture them, deploy them, use them, is a curse against God, the human family, and the earth itself."
The wake and funeral will be held at St. Peter Claver Church in West Baltimore, (1546 North Fremont Avenue, Baltimore MD 21217); calling hours: 4-8 PM Sunday December 8 with a circle of sharing about Phil's life at 6 PM; funeral: Monday, December 9, 12 PM. All are invited to process with the coffin from the intersection of Bentalou and Laurens streets to St. Peter Claver Church at 10 AM (please drop off marchers and park at the church). A public reception at the St. Peter Claver hall will follow the funeral mass; internment is private. In place of flowers and gifts for the offertory, attendees may bring pictures or other keepsakes. Mourners may make donations in Berrigan's name to Citizens for Peace in Space, Global Network Against Nuclear Weapons, Nukewatch, Voices in the Wilderness, the Nuclear Resister, or any Catholic Worker house.
Philip Berrigan, 1923-2002
Born: October 5, 1923, Minnesota Iron Range, near Bemidji to Frieda Fromhart and Thomas Berrigan
1943-1945: Served in WWII, artillery officer, Europe.
1949: Graduated from Holy Cross College.
1955: Ordained a Catholic Priest in the Josephite Order, specializing in inner city ministry.
1956-1963: Taught at St. Augustine's high school, New Orleans, a segregated all black school.
1962 (or 3?): First priest to ride in a Civil Rights movement Freedom Ride.
1963-1965: Taught at a Josephite seminary, Newburgh, NY.
1966: Published first book, No More Strangers.
1966: Served at St. Peter Claver parish, Baltimore, MD.
October 27, 1967: Poured blood on draft files in Baltimore with 3 others. Known as the "Baltimore Four."
May 17, 1968: Burned draft files in Catonsville, MD with 8 others, including his brother, Fr. Daniel Berrigan. Action known as the "Catonsville Nine." Convicted of destruction of US property, destruction of Selective Service records, and interference with the Selective Service Act of 1967. Sentenced to prison.
1970: Married Elizabeth McAlister, an activist nun, Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary.
1970: Became a fugitive when appeals failed. Captured and returned to prison.
1971: Named co-conspirator by J. Edgar Hoover and Harrisburg grand jury while in prison. Charged with plotting to kidnap Henry Kissinger and blow up the utility tunnels of US Capitol buildings. Convicted only of violating prison rules for smuggling out letters.
1973: Co-founded Jonah House community of war resisters in Baltimore, MD.
April 1, 1974: Birth of Frida Berrigan at Jonah House.
April 17, 1975: Birth of Jerry Berrigan at Jonah House.
1975: End of Vietnam War and beginning of focus on weapons of mass destruction and changing U.S. nuclear policy. Actions included pouring of blood and digging of graves at the White House and Pentagon resulted in several jail terms ranging up to six months.
1975: Atlantic Life Community conceptualized as East Coast counterpart to Pacific Life Community.
1976: First of summer community building sessions; led to triannual Faith & Resistance Retreats in DC.
September 9, 1980: Poured blood and hammered with 7 others on Mark 12A warheads at a GE nuclear missile plant, King of Prussia, PA. Charged with conspiracy, burglary, and criminal mischief; convicted and imprisoned. Action known as the "Plowshares Eight;" began the international Plowshares movement.
1980-1999: Participated in 5 more Plowshares actions, resulting in ~7 years of imprisonment.
November 5, 1981: Birth of Kate Berrigan at Jonah House.
1989: Published The Times' Discipline, on the Jonah House experience, with Liz McAlister.
1996: Published autobiography, Fighting the Lamb's War.
December 14, 2001: Released from Elkton, OH prison after nearly a year of imprisonment for his final Plowshares action.
July 12, 2002: Underwent hip replacement surgery at Good Samaritan Hospital, Baltimore, MD.
October 8, 2002: Diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, cancer in the liver and kidney.
December 6, 2002: Died at home in Baltimore, surrounded by family and community.
PHIL'S STATEMENT 12/05/02 (via Liz McAlister)
Philip began dictating this statement the weekend before Thanksgiving. It was all clear - he had it written in his head. Word for word I wrote...
WHEN I LAY DYING...of cancer
Philip Berrigan
I die in a community including my family, my beloved wife Elizabeth, three great Dominican nuns - Ardeth Platte, Carol Gilbert, and Jackie Hudson (emeritus) jailed in Western Colorado - Susan Crane, friends local, national and even international. They have always been a life-line to me.
I die with the conviction, held since 1968 and Catonsville, that nuclear weapons are the scourge of the earth; to mine for them, manufacture them, deploy them, use them, is a curse against God, the human family, and the earth itself. We have already exploded such weapons in Japan in 1945 and the equivalent of them in Iraq in 1991, in Yugoslavia in 1999, and in Afghanistan in 2001. We left a legacy for other people of deadly radioactive isotopes - a prime counterinsurgency measure. For example, the people of Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Pakistan will be battling cancer, mostly from depleted uranium, for decades. In addition, our nuclear adventurism over 57 years has saturated the planet with nuclear garbage from testing, from explosions in high altitudes (four of these), from 103 nuclear power plants, from nuclear weapons factories that can't be cleaned up - and so on. Because of myopic leadership, of greed for possessions, a public chained to corporate media, there has been virtually no response to these realities...
At this point in dictation, Phil's lungs filled; he began to cough uncontrollably; he was tired. We had to stop - with promises to finish later. But later never came - another moment in an illness that depleted Phil so rapidly it was all we could do to keep pace with it... And then he couldn't talk at all. And then - gradually - he left us.
What did Phil intend to say? What is the message of his life? What message was he leaving us in his dying? Is it different for each of us, now that we are left to imagine how he would frame it?
During one of our prayers in Phil's room, Brendan Walsh remembered a banner Phil had asked Willa Bickham to make years ago for St. Peter Claver. It read: "The sting of death is all around us. O Christ, where is your victory?"
The sting of death is all around us. The death Phil was asking us to attend to is not his death (though the sting of that is on us and will not be denied). The sting Phil would have us know is the sting of institutionalized death and killing. He never wearied of articulating it. He never ceased being astonished by the length and breadth and depth of it. And he never accepted it.
O Christ, where is your victory? It was back in the mid 1960's that Phil was asking that question of God and her Christ. He kept asking it. And, over the years, he learned:
that it is right and good to question our God, to plead for justice for all that inhabit the earth
that it is urgent to feel this; injustice done to any is injustice done to all
that we must never weary of exposing and resisting such injustice
that what victories we see are smaller than the mustard seeds Jesus praised, and they need such tender nurture
that it is vital to celebrate each victory - especially the victory of sisterhood and brotherhood embodied in loving, nonviolent community. Over the months of Phil's illness we have been blessed a hundred-fold by small and large victories over an anti-human, anti-life, anti-love culture, by friendships - in and out of prison - and by the love that has permeated Phil's life. Living these years and months with Phil free us to revert to the original liturgical question: "O death, where is your sting?"
2) U.S. Gulf War 'crime'
Iraqi doctors in Tokyo accuse U.S. of Gulf War 'crime'.
The likelihood of people developing cancer increased 10 times in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, because of the depleted uranium bullets that the U.S. military dropped during the Gulf War, two Iraqi doctors claimed in Tokyo Thursday.
Jawad Kadhim Al-Ali and Husam Al-Din Said-Jormakly, both university doctors in Iraq, are visiting Japan to study methods of treating cancer caused by radioactivity. In Basra, with its population of some 1.7 million, the probability of developing cancer increased 10 times from 1988, (a year before the 1991 Gulf War), to 2001, Al-Ali said at the Japan National Press Club. The doctors claimed that children were most susceptible to cancer and deformity, as they were apparently exposed to radioactivity during the war, as embryos and fetuses inside their mothers' bodies. As a result, the probability of pregnant women giving birth to deformed children tripled since before the Gulf War. Al-Ali said the use of depleted uranium bullets was a crime ranking closely behind the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Mysterious illnesses plague gulf war vets.
Martha Quillin, Staff Writer
The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC)
November 10, 2002 Sunday, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. B1
FAYETTEVILLE-- If they would give him a fresh Air Force uniform, former Staff Sgt. Richard Wadzinski Jr. gladly would climb into the cargo hold of the first C-130 headed toward Southwest Asia to supply a U.S. assault on Iraq. "I'd go today. Right now," he said, taking a deep breath that stiffened his spine, briefly recalling the career military man he once was. Just one thing holds him back: Wadzinski is so sick from his deployment during Desert Storm, 11 years ago, that the military wouldn't take him. Like the rest of the country, Persian Gulf War veterans are divided over the long-term political effects of a U.S. war with Iraq. But those like Wadzinski, who suffer from illnesses linked to their duty in the gulf, say there is one certain outcome of sending troops back to the region to fight: another generation of service members with medical problems that may haunt them for life.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said it would spend $ 20 million on research into gulf war illnesses in 2004, more than twice what it has spent in any previous year. In announcing the funding, Leo S. Mackay, deputy secretary for the VA, said, "There is increasing objective evidence that a major category of gulf war illnesses is neurological in character" and not related to combat stress, as some scientists have said. Many sick vets believe their illnesses are caused by a combination of toxins they were exposed to in the war..
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
They still fight Iraq war--Military gulf-war syndrome victims are still battling -- to get answers from the U.S. government.
By JOHN GITTELSOHN and TOM BERG ,
The Orange County Register, November 11, 2002
Every war leaves unanswered questions. For many of the 700,000 Americans who served in Desert Storm 11 years ago, they include questions like this: Why are my teeth falling out? That's what Anthony Joseph wonders when he stares in the mirror. The man who stares back also has welts on his stomach, rashes on his hands, cramps in his legs and night sweats. ''The gulf war is still on for me,'' says Joseph, 51, of Santa Ana. ''I'm still fighting.''
So are 110,000 other gulf-war veterans -- 16 percent of those who fought -- who are on some kind of disability today, according to the Veterans Administration in Washington, D.C. And thousands more who can't get benefits because their symptoms are too elusive, too unpredictable, or just inexplicable. Their battle continues as the United States weighs another war against Iraq.
''I think we need to take care of the ones we already had there, before we send more,'' says Joseph, an 18-year Marine veteran who now works in maintenance at the Orange County Transportation Authority. One of the main justifications for fighting Iraq again is to eradicate Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass-destruction, including nerve gas and other chemical weapons blamed, in part, for cases of gulf-war syndrome. Several such causes are suspected for the syndrome. But there are several other suspected causes of the syndrome, some of which came from the American military -- U.S. ammunition loaded with depleted uranium, defective vaccines for anthrax, and antidotes to nerve gas. Also, smoke from burning oil wells, desert heat, and stress could have contributed to the ailments..
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Nuclear Study, Given Go-Ahead, Rouses Fears About a New 'Bunker Buster' Weapon
[The New York Times] November 17, 2002
By JAMES DAO
WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 Buried in the $393 billion defense authorization bill that Congress approved this week was an obscure item that has raised concerns that the administration is gradually moving toward creating new kinds of nuclear weapons.
The item authorizes the National Nuclear Security Administration, which manages the nation's nuclear stockpile, to spend $15 million to study modifying nuclear weapons so they can be used to destroy underground factories or laboratories.
The United States produced a "bunker buster" weapon in 1997 by repackaging a hydrogen bomb into a hardened case. But Pentagon planners contend that such a weapon would not be effective against the deeply buried and fortified installations that some countries, including Iraq and North Korea, are thought to use for producing and storing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
Advocates of the study contend that the administration is not yet proposing to create a new weapon, and is simply looking at solutions to an increasingly significant problem.But critics argue that the study is a first step toward producing weapons that would require a resumption of nuclear testing, which the United States suspended in 1992. The Energy Department is also considering building a new installation for making the plutonium pits that are at the heart of nuclear bombs. The plant would cost $2.2 billion to $4.1 billion, the department estimates. It intends to issue a decision on construction in April 2004.
3) Judge Stays Desmond Carter's Execution
A Durham judge Wednesday halted the execution of confessed murderer Desmond Carter, scheduled for early Tuesday, and agreed to hold a hearing in January on his legal claims, including an allegation of broad racial bias in sentencing.
After Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson signs his written order, perhaps today, lawyers for the state promise to appeal it immediately to the state Supreme Court, which has frowned on such last-minute intervention by trial judges. Carter's attorneys were elated. "A human life is at stake," one of his attorneys, Tom Loflin of Durham, told Hudson during a court hearing that lasted until after the rest of the Durham County courthouse had been closed and emptied because of the winter storm.
"We need to take the time to get it right, as it were." Attorneys for the state told Hudson that Carter's last-ditch plea outside the normal appeal process, couched as a legal challenge to the jurisdictional authority of Carter's trial judge and jury, was a misuse of the courts "to subvert the process of justice in this state." They said Carter's claims are baseless but could apply to many other convicted murderers."
Mr. Loflin is not just asking you to set aside Mr. Carter's conviction in this case," Barry McNeill, a special deputy attorney general, told Hudson. "He's asking you to empty death row."
2 state and 2 federal courts have ruled that Carter, 35, had a fair trial and sentencing. There is no question of his guilt. If the state Supreme Court does not overrule Hudson's order, he will hear evidence from defense lawyers and state attorneys on four issues that Carter's attorneys raised Tuesday in an emergency court petition, filed 1 week before the scheduled execution: Alleged broad racial bias in state sentencing for murder. Carter's attorneys plan to rely on two UNC-Chapel Hill studies asserting that race -- especially the race of the victim -- unevenly influences punishment for murder. Carter, who is black, stabbed to death his 71-year-old next-door neighbor Helen Moore Purdy, who was white, one night in 1992 when she refused to loan him $5 to buy drugs. He then stole $15. The next year, a jury convicted him of 1st-degree murder and sentenced him to die.
A claim that Carter's trial lawyers in 1993 would not have met tougher qualification standards that went into effect in 2001. The General Assembly intentionally did not make the change retroactive, but Carter's attorneys say it should be by law. However, they are not arguing that Carter's trial lawyers actually did a poor job. A challenge to the standard of evidence used to prove aggravating factors that contributed to Carter's death sentence. This claim turns on a disputed interpretation of a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. A technical challenge questioning whether Carter's indictment sufficiently spelled out his 1st-degree murder charge. The state Supreme Court has repeatedly rejected similar arguments. Hudson dismissed Carter's 2 other claims: that North Carolina's elected judges can't fairly handle capital trials and appeals because they have a personal political stake in being perceived as tough on crime; and that it's not fair that Carter's prosecutor did not have the discretion to seek life in prison instead of death for the 1st-degree murder. Hudson's decision was a dramatic turn in the 9-year history of Carter's case.
His attorneys first asked Superior Court Judge Shirley Fulton of Charlotte to hear the emergency petition Monday. She refused. On Tuesday afternoon, they persuaded Hudson to hear it. On Wednesday, Carter won a tentative reprieve, depending on the state Supreme Court's action.
Gov. Mike Easley plans to proceed today with Carter's clemency hearing. Carter's attorneys are asking Easley to spare Carter and convert his sentence to life in prison. The proceeding Wednesday was based on Carter's petition for habeas corpus, an order to bring the prisoner personally to court to hear the claim of unlawful imprisonment. But when the prisoner got there, he didn't want the public to personally see him. Through his attorneys, he objected to the presence of TV cameras for WRAL and Time-Warner Channel 14. Instead of forcing the cameras out, Hudson and the lawyers found a way around Carter's concern by letting him waive his right to attend the hearing after all. So he waited in a nearby room. Throughout the hearing, Hudson and the lawyers discussed what the Supreme Court might do or should do in response to the execution stay and order for an evidentiary hearing.
"Is this the way our system is supposed to work?" McNeill asked Hudson at one point. "Do we want capital defendants waiting until a week prior to their execution and then going to any judge regardless of the jurisdiction to file a petition? I don't think so."
"I know one thing, Mr. McNeill," Hudson said. "If I do something in this case that they don't like, and you petition the court, I'm sure they'll take the case and do what they want to with it. "Why the North Carolina Supreme Court does what it does, why the U.S. Supreme Court does what it does, I have no idea. I don't lose a lot of sleep over it."
> (source: News Observer)
4) Ten Hopeful Cracks in the Bush Facade
Through a Glass Lightly: 10 Hopeful Cracks in the Bush Facade
By Bernard Weiner, The Crisis Papers
Don't know about you, but I find myself caught right in the middle of the glass half-empty/half-full way of looking at our current political situation.
In my last piece ("Shining Our Light on the Shadow Forces: Open Letter to the Fledgling 'Movement'"), I talked about how things are going to get worse before they get worse, and then even more worse, and then things will start to get better. In my darker periods -- which these days is most of the time -- I still believe this, that what is about to come down from Bush&Co. in the next few years is going to be horrendous, both for Americans domestically and for those in the way of U.S. imperial moves abroad.
Domestically, due-process Constitutional protections, already in shreds thanks to Bush & Ashcroft, will nearly disappear. Big Brother government will invade our privacy in virtually every area of our lives, thanks to technological breakthroughs and the magic word "terrorists." More citizens will be yanked off to the American gulags, cut off from judicial review or even their attorneys. Internationally, Bush&Co. will continue to march forward belligerently, arrogantly and threateningly in their desire to bring "benevolent hegemony" to those areas of the world rich in minerals and energy sources, thus stirring up anti-U.S. rebellions and fueling more terrorism.
But rather than dwell on that awful picture, and what it presages for the future -- the glass half-empty scenario -- let's search for any hopeful signs that point to a way out of our current morass.
In this glass-half-full approach, consider these:.
{For the complete insightful and hopeful article by Bernard Weiner, co-editor of the Crisis Papers, see: http://crisispapers.org/Editorials/glass.htm
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Woodward Probe * Canada Free Peltier * Kissinger Outrage
02 December 2002
"You can no more win a war,
than you can win an earthquake."
-- Jeanette Rankin
1) Justice eyes Woodward FBI probe
2) Canadian members of Parliament: Free Leonard Peltier!
3) The Latest Kissinger Outrage
Editor's Notes:
As with the NC-scheduled execution of Desmond Carter,* the case of Robert "Woody" Woodward, begs the question: What is legally justified killing? Woody was a friend of mine, an environmental activist and wonderful human being. He was kind and a gentle person. On December 2nd, 2001, he sought political asylum in a Church in Brattleboro Vermont. Two policemen came into the Church and opened fire, shooting him seven times within a minute of entering the sanctuary. Woody was handcuffed, while bleeding to death. The Attorney General's report (of Vermont), issued April 2, 2002 (to consider if this case should be investigated), concluded: "The shooting death of Robert Woodward on December 2, 2001, although tragic, was legally justified."
Today I plan on going to a Memorial Service and silent vigil. Please visit the Justice for Woody web site, link in the first item.
Item 2 is on another critical justice issue. Canadian members of Parliament reiterated just last Tuesday that they want the U.S. government to free native activist Leonard Peltier, who was handed over to U.S. authorities after a controversial hearing riddled with perjured testimony.
And Item 3 continues with the question by Christopher Hitchens and others: "Why is a proven liar and wanted man in charge of the 9/11 investigation?" Yet, while the outrage is being blunted by the mainstream TV media's analysis that appears to justify the spending of billions to prepare an attack on Iraq, while criminal acts of terrorism around the world expands, the US administration is making matters worse. Why -- for oil, chaos, power, madness? Yet the beginning of the US Christmas shopping season is a boom; the desire for distraction and denial, people getting sucked in to the illusion of wealth is a short term goal, but chaos and ruin seems to be the message and direction. Meanwhile, the devastation of the world's worst oil spill off the coast of Spain* is threatening the livelihoods of thousands and adding to the destruction of life by corrupt regimes and broken democracies.
Desmond Carter is scheduled to be put to death on December 10.
This date is recognized internationally as Human Rights Day.
To learn more about an act of an institutional killing, see:
A Nation Behind Bars: the buried talents of a population
1) Justice eyes Woodward FBI probe
Brattleboro Reformer
Article Last Updated:
Saturday, November 30, 2002 - 12:30:28 AM MST
Justice eyes Woodward FBI probe
By PATRICK ARMSTRONG
Reformer Staff
BRATTLEBORO -- Part of an FBI investigation into the shooting death of Robert Woodward has been completed and is under review by the Justice Department, but the probe continues to delay a civil suit filed by Woodward's family, and a federal judge wants to know more.
U.S. District Court Judge J. Garvan Murtha last week ordered William Ellis, defense attorney for the Town of Brattleboro and Brattleboro Police Officers Marshall Holbrook and Terrance Parker, to determine the status of the investigation by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and report his findings by Dec. 20.
"The court is concerned that the process of the civil suit before this court is being delayed by the investigation by the Department of Justice and seeks information as to the length of time the department will take to complete its investigation," Murtha wrote in a Nov. 22 order.
Woodward, 37, was fatally shot by Parker and Holbrook in the All Souls Unitarian-Universalist Church in West Brattleboro on Dec. 2, 2001. Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell in April exonerated the police officers of any wrongdoing after a lengthy investigation that largely focused on technical details of the incident.
But Woodward's family is pursuing a wrongful death civil suit against the town of Brattleboro and the two officers. The suit alleges the town failed to adequately train and supervise Holbrook and Parker. It further charges the two officers with "unconstitutional use of unreasonable force" and negligence in shooting Woodward seven times, including once in the back.
In July, the Department of Justice unexpectedly opened an investigation into whether Woodward's federal civil rights had been violated. Justice spokes-man Casey Stavropoulos said the investigation was being conducted with the FBI.
John Kavanagh, FBI supervisor for Vermont, said this week that his office had completed the preliminary investigation and the information was forwarded to the Department of Justice "over six weeks ago."
Kavanagh said because state police and the attorney generals already had conducted research, the FBI used the material gathered by those agencies rather than re-interviewing witnesses.
If the Department of Justice orders a full-blown investigation, the FBI will "reinvent the wheel," Kavanagh said -- interviewing witnesses and gathering its own data.
Stavropoulos said the Woodward case was still classified as an ongoing matter, and is under review by Justice Department attorneys.
"It's an open, ongoing investigation by the Civil Rights Division," she said.
The FBI investigation is linked to the civil suit filed by Woodward's family. On Aug. 26, a motion to extend the discovery schedule was submitted to U.S. District Court, signed by Ellis, as well as by attorneys Thomas Costello and Joel Faxon of Bridgeport, Conn. Both Costello and Faxon represent the Woodward family.
In the motion, both parties asked for postponement of depositions of the defendants and the disclosure of experts until the Justice Department and the FBI conclude their investigation into the shooting.
It was the second delay, since depositions had been postponed while Sorrell and the Vermont State Police conducted investigations, according to court documents.
The basis for delaying the deposition was that Holbrook and Parker did not want to be deposed as long as a criminal investigation was open, according to court documents. "They will assert their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination in response to any questioning conducted by plaintiffs before the FBI completes its investigation," the motion states.
On Sept. 3, a discovery schedule was submitted to the court, signed by both parties, that stated, "Depositions of the individual defendants shall be completed on or before Nov. 30, 2002, or 30 days after the FBI completes its investigation, whichever is later."
However, on Sept. 30, Ellis filed a motion for a protective order. According to court documents, Ellis had telephone conversations with both Costello and Faxon, who wanted to schedule the depositions of Holbrook and Parker for the week of Oct. 21. Ellis stated that he wanted to stick with the schedule both sides had agreed upon.
In court documents filed Oct. 10, Costello and Faxon argued, among other things, that the existence of the FBI investigation could not be proven.
"Unlike the case of the attorney general's criminal investigation where the existence of that investigation was evident and acknowledged by both the state of Vermont and all of the concerned parties to this action, here defendants rely on a purported investigation by the FBI which even that agency will not confirm whether it has undertaken," the attorneys wrote to the court.
"There is simply no evidence offered by defendants that the FBI investigation exists or is even contemplated," court documents state.
Brattleboro Police Chief John Martin was quoted as saying he could confirm the existence of an FBI investigation, and at that point there was no criminal action pending against any of the defendants in the case, according to the documents.
"Even if there is an FBI investigation currently under way, and even if that investigation were to result in criminal charges against these defendants, there is no automatic stay of discovery and defendants have advanced no basis for such a dramatic measure."
In court documents filed Oct. 21, Ellis argued that Costello and Faxon had previously acknowledged the existence of the FBI investigation in court documents, such as the motion to extend discovery.
"Moreover, the plaintiffs offer the bald assertion that 'there is simply no evidence offered by defendants that the FBI investigation exists or is even contemplated,'" Ellis stated. "Again, such an allegation is troublesome in light of the plaintiffs' previous representations concerning the existence of this investigation."
Ellis also stated that there was ample evidence of the investigation in the media. In support of his argument, Ellis submitted a copy of a published news story about the investigation.
On Friday, Murtha granted the protective order, Ellis said. "The protective order was just issued to enforce what we had agreed to with our previous motion," he added.
1999-2002 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and NENI Newspapers
http://www.reformer.com/Stories/0,1413,102%257E8860%257E1022029,00.html
For Flyby News Archives on a Friend Shot Dead by Police, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1008915830,18782,m
For the "Justice for Woody" web site, visit:
http://www.justiceforwoody.net
2) Canadian members of Parliament: Free Leonard Peltier!
POLITICS-CANADA:
MPs Want U.S. to Release Native Activist Peltier
Wed Nov 20,
Mark Bourrie, Inter Press Service
OTTAWA, Nov 19 (IPS) - Canadian members of Parliament reiterated Tuesday that they want the U.S. government to free native activist Leonard Peltier, who was handed over to U.S. authorities after a controversial hearing riddled with perjured testimony.
Peltier is in Kansas state's Leavenworth Penitentiary serving the 27th year of two life sentences for the murder of two FBI agents, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, who were killed during a shootout at a South Dakota reservation on Jun. 26, 1975.
U.S. prosecutors admit they do not believe Peltier shot the agents, but claim he was involved in planning the ambush of the men, who were on the Pine Ridge Reservation to arrest a leader of the American Indian Movement (AIM), the group that had sponsored an occupation in the nearby community of Wounded Knee.
Peltier, a leader of the AIM and one of its most articulate spokesmen, has always denied any role in the killings. After the murders, he fled to Canada, but was turned over to U.S. authorities after an extradition hearing in 1975. The U.S. promised to give Peltier a fair trial.
''At a time when we are concerned in general about the possibility of people being falsely incriminated by an overzealous American administration, we would do well to be reminded and instructed to Mr. Peltier's case,'' said Bill Blaikie, a senior member of the left-of-center New Democratic party.
''Here was a case with an obvious political dimension and, as a result of evidence that was manufactured, Mr. Peltier, who did not believe he would be treated fairly in the United States, was extradited,'' he added.
Tuesday's parliamentary debate, which did not include a vote, was co-sponsored by John Reynolds, deputy leader of the right-of-center Canadian Alliance Party. Reynolds has campaigned for several years for Peltier's release, complaining that the U.S. justice system dismissed ''critical and compelling testimony in the Peltier case''.
The debate discussed evidence revealed in a privately commissioned legal inquiry held in Toronto in October, 2000. The findings of the inquiry, headed by Justice Fred Kaufman, a retired judge of the Quebec Court of Appeal, formed the basis of a Canadian clemency appeal that was turned down by former U.S. president Bill Clinton in the last days of his administration.
Kaufman concluded: ''I am satisfied that if this had been known when the extradition hearing took place, the request to extradite Peltier would likely have been refused.''
Several other Canadian judges, including Justice R.P. Anderson of the British Columbia Supreme Court, have commented on the case.
''It seems clear to me that the conduct of the U.S. government involved misconduct from the inception,'' said Anderson.
The key extradition hearing witness, Myrtle Poor Bear, later testified that the FBI coerced her into signing false affidavits stating she witnessed Peltier murder the two agents.
The jailed man's supporters in Canada and the United States say the FBI fabricated documents supporting Poor Bear's testimony and withheld important evidence that pointed toward another suspect. The Canadian government, which conducted a five-year internal investigation into the extradition, admits that it knows Poor Bear's affidavits were false.
Peltier's latest request for parole was turned down by authorities after a hearing last summer. His lead lawyer, former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark, thinks he will be released before 2008, when he is eligible for a full parole hearing.
''We've detected weaknesses today that we've seen repeatedly,'' Clark said Tuesday. ''I think we'll get him out before 2008. But every day hurts.''
''This is such a tragic injustice for the people involved and such a tragedy for the country that in the 21st century we still have such a multi-tiered system of justice,'' he added.
While the debate did not include a vote, a senior government official said it gives Ottawa ''a strong moral ground to remind the Americans that Canada objects to the continuing imprisonment of Mr. Peltier''.
Copyright 2002 OneWorld.net.
For more on Leonard Peltier, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1013207483,22139,
and the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee:
http://www.freepeltier.org
3) The Latest Kissinger Outrage
New York Times
December 1, 2002
He's Ba-a-ack!
By MAUREEN DOWD
(E-mail: liberties@nytimes.com)
WASHINGTON It's an inspired choice. Bold, counterintuitive, edgy,
outside the box. Who better to investigate an unwarranted attack on America than the man who used to instigate America's unwarranted attacks? Who better to ferret out government duplicity and manipulation than the man who engineered secret wars, secret bombings, secret wiretaps and secret coups, and still ended up as a Pillar of the Establishment and Nobel Peace Prize winner?
It was Dick Cheney's brainstorm, naturally. Only someone as pathologically opaque as the vice president could appreciate the sublime translucency of Henry Kissinger. And only someone intent on recreating the glory days of the Ford and Nixon White Houses could have hungered to add the 79-year-old Dr. Strange I mean, Dr. Kissinger to the Bush team.
There will be naysayers who quibble that the president's choice to lead the 9/11 commission is not so much a realist as an opportunist, not so much Metternich as Machiavelli. They will look askance at Mr. Kissinger's rsum: keeping the Vietnam War going for years after he realized it might be unwinnable; encouraging the illegal bombing of Cambodia; backing Chile's murderous Pinochet; playing Iago to President Richard Nixon, telling him he'd be "a weakling" if he did not prosecute newspapers running the Pentagon Papers; wiretapping journalists and his own colleagues to track down leaks on the Cambodia bombing.
If you look for the words "Kissinger" and "secret" in the same sentence in Nexis, the search cannot be completed; there are too many results. When he was dating Jill St. John and Liv Ullmann and preaching that power is an aphrodisiac, he even coyly called himself "a secret swinger." In Walter Isaacson's biography, "Kissinger," the same words cascade: "deceitful," "disingenuous," "paranoid," "insecure," "temper tantrum," "flatterer," "two-faced" and "secretive." The ber-diplomat has even been criticized for dissembling in his own memoirs. But secretiveness is not a disqualification for jobs in this White House. Quite the contrary: only the clandestine and the conspiratorial need apply. Mr. Bush, after all, worked very hard to suppress any investigation of 9/11. He had to cave to the victims' families, who were hellbent to hear what the president learned in his August 2001 briefing about Al Qaeda plans, and what wires were crossed at the C.I.A., F.B.I. and I.N.S. Now Mr. Bush can let the commission proceed, secure in the knowledge that Mr. Kissinger has never shed light on a single dark corner, or failed to flatter a boss, in his entire celebrated career. (He was one of Mr. Bush's patient tutors in foreign policy during the campaign.)
If you want to get to the bottom of something, you don't appoint Henry Kissinger. If you want to keep others from getting to the bottom of something, you appoint Henry Kissinger. Mr. Bush learned about the diplomat's black belt in the black arts long ago, when he made a patsy of Bush pre. As the ambassador to the U.N. in 1971, Bush 41 was accused of aggressively making the case for Taiwan and against Beijing, even as Mr. Kissinger, the national security adviser, was secretly traveling to Beijing and undercutting Taiwan. Afterward, Mr. Kissinger told George H. W. Bush he was "disappointed" that Beijing had gotten Taiwan's seat in the U.N. "Given the fact that we were saying one thing in New York and doing another in Washington," Mr. Bush drily observed, "that outcome was inevitable." Fortunately, Bush Jr. was not held back by the revulsion that many in his generation have for Mr. Kissinger's power-drunk promotion of bloody American adventures abroad. As the former fraternity president told GQ magazine, he stayed a retro 50's guy through the roiling 60's: "I don't remember any kind of heaviness ruining my time at Yale." Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney are in tune with Mr. Kissinger's principles: that the greatest enemy of U.S. policy is the U.S. media, that American diplomacy may be happily indifferent to American public opinion, that the great unwashed masses of our democracy are just a big old drag on the elites who know what's best, and that corporate pals are a help, not a hindrance, in government work.
For this administration, outside the box is inside the box.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The Latest Kissinger Outrage
Why is a proven liar and wanted man in charge of the 9/11 investigation?
By Christopher Hitchens
Posted Wednesday, November 27, 2002, at 3:36 PM PT
The Bush administration has been saying in public for several months that it does not desire an independent inquiry into the gross "failures of intelligence" that left U.S. society defenseless 14 months ago. By announcing that Henry Kissinger will be chairing the inquiry that it did not want, the president has now made the same point in a different way. But the cynicism of the decision and the gross insult to democracy and to the families of the victims that it represents has to be analyzed to be believed.
For the complete article, see:
http://slate.msn.com/?id=2074678
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Kissinger of Death * President of Peace 2000 in Prison
29 November 2002
1) The Kissinger of Death for 9/11 Investigation
2) President of Peace 2000 in prison - RSVP
Editor's Notes:
The "news of the weird" is becoming too common place, as Item 1 suggests. The Bush appointment of Henry Kissinger to Chair a 9/11 Investigative Commission would be a good joke on April 1st, but just before Thanksgiving Day, this appointment adds insult to injury and provides more terrorism in the mix of lost American freedoms and world chaos.
Item 2 is about the arrest of Thor Magnusson, who is president for Peace 2000 Institute for making comments on Iceland's new policy with NATO that adds more targets for terrorism. He requests your support via an email! Please respond.
Monday, December 2nd is the first anniversary of my friend "Woody" Robert Woodward's slaying by police while seeking sanctuary in a Church. News and links on this can be found from the Flyby News homepage. [ http://www.flybynews.com ] Also, see our actions and campaigns listings and links to add your voice to stop the execution of Desmond Carter on this coming international day for human rights, December 10. Your actions can save a life and send a message of light and compassion for humanity during these darkening times.
Many thanks for reading, thinking, and taking action!
1) The Kissinger of Death for 9/11 Investigation
"THOSE WHO WIN IN A RIGGED GAME, GET STUPID"
-- Catherine Austin Fitts
The Kissinger Bombshell
An Open Letter to 9/11 Skeptics and Doubters
by Jack Riddler (written in astonishment)
Ladies and Gentlemen,
our lord and emperor George W. Bush has just tied together the entire ball of 9/11 lies and related wax, stuck a wick in it, and handed us the match. He has done so by appointing Henry Kissinger chairman of the long-awaited "independent" commission to investigate the Sept. 11 attacks.
To all those who want the unvarnished truth about the "Attack on America," starting with the families of the victims, this would have been a slap in the face - were it not so laughable.
Sequel to the Warren Commission
The resident of the White House was explicit in stating that the commission is not supposed to actually investigate anything about 9/11. Wrote the Associated Press, "Bush did not set as a primary goal for Kissinger to uncover mistakes or lapses of the government that could have prevented the Sept. 11 attacks."
So what is Henry supposed to actually do? "Instead, [Bush] said the panel should try to help the administration learn the tactics and motives of the enemy."
Aha. In other words, the panel is supposed to produce more scary stories about what the freedom-hating evildoers are planning to do to us next. Sounds like overkill: Isn't that what every department of the administration is already doing?
The Kissinger commission is being called to life nearly 15 months after the attacks. The White House refused to sign off on the investigative body, until Congress agreed to its conditions. The panel can issue subpoenas only if the Republican members agree. In the polite words of Stephen Push, a leader of the 9/11 families ("Families of September 11" - http://www.familiesofseptember11.org , the commission concept is simply "too weak."
http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/11/27/intelligence.probe.signing.ap/index.html
So far, no surprise. For fifteen months, Bush and Cheney have repeatedly acted to delay the calling of an independent 9/11 investigation. They have tried to stop the release of any information about the attacks - let alone about their level of prior knowledge! And they have otherwise established the most secretive administration in modern American history.
But Henry Kissinger? Now that is a surprise!
Who could have imagined that the Bush regime would so obviously expose themselves to ridicule by appointing one of the world's best-known war criminals, terrorist masterminds, and professional liars as the head of a New Warren Commission?
Highlights of Dr. Kissinger's Career
Kissinger's name seems to be magically entwined with the date of Sept. 11th. As national security adviser and secretary of state in the Nixon administration, he helped engineer the CIA coup that overthrew the elected government of Chile, on Sept. 11, 1973. For a detailed account of that atrocity - the original Sept. 11th attack - see:
http://www.osamaskidneys.com/history.html#1973
In a famous comment on Chile at a 1970 White House meeting, Kissinger made no secret of his utter contempt for democratic government: "I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people," he said.
Now everyone remembers where they were on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, though we know precious little about how and why the horrible crimes of that day were allowed to happen. But who knows that on the same morning, a federal suit was being filed against Dr. Kissinger by relatives of one of his countless victims?
"Family of Slain Chilean Sues Kissinger, Helms - Military Leader Was Killed in Kidnap Attempt Linked to Nixon Administration"
By Bill Miller, Washington Post, September 11, 2001
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/KHsuedOn911.html
As a direct result of the Pinochet coup, at least 3,000 Chilean civilians were "disappeared" and assassinated. As horrible as that was, Kissinger has been involved in even worse crimes.
As Nixon's national security adviser, Kissinger helped plan the "secret" bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed in this unprovoked action against a neutral state. The bombing destabilized the U.S.-backed Cambodian government, paving the way for the later takeover of that country by the Khmer Rouge.
But hey, let's not let mass murder detract from the man's achievements. In 1973, Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize for reaching a deal to end the U.S. invasion of Vietnam.
The Nixon government had at first refused the Paris peace deal with North Vietnam. Instead, it chose to level Hanoi in a massive Christmas 1972 bombing, leaving nothing there but dust. A few months later, Nixon and Kissinger accepted the same deal, with minor changes. Now that's how you win a peace prize!
Kissinger was the only major cabinet member who miraculously survived the subsequent fall of the Nixon regime. He remained Secretary of State under the appointed Unpresident, Gerald Ford. (Ford was the first "president" to not have even run in a presidential election, so there was no need to actually steal it.)
Okay, class. Anyone remember who the other key players in the 2-1/2 year Ford administration were?
Vice President: Nelson Rockefeller, brother of David.
Chief of Staff: Dick Cheney.
Secretary of Defense: Donald Rumsfeld.
Director of Central Intelligence: George Herbert Walker Bush.
Hmmm... Papa Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Kissinger. Sound familiar? Today, the same four men run the regime of the Idiot Prince.
Now *there* is a story for the historians of the future! Papa Bush apparently cut some nice deals with his CIA boys at the time, and in gratitude the agency later named its new headquarters the "George Herbert Walker Bush Building." We'll leave the rest of the Papa Bush story aside for today, though it may surpass even Kissinger's for sheer criminality. Today is Henry's day.
In 1973, while still with the Nixon administration, Kissinger became one of the founding fathers of the Trilateral Commission, together with Zbigniew Brzezinski and David Rockefeller, brother of Nelson. This association of billionaires, business leaders, academics and politicians was brought together by the three men in an effort to arm the global elites of the U.S., Europe and Japan against what at the time seemed like an unprecedented social and economic crisis. The Trilateral Commission has continued to meet annually ever since.
In 1975, Kissinger traveled with Ford to Indonesia, where they met with the U.S.-backed and U.S.-armed dictator Suharto, who oversaw the killing of millions during his 35-year reign. The day after Ford and Henry left, Indonesian forces invaded the independent territory of East Timor. One-third of the territory's population was exterminated during the subsequent 20-year occupation, but this had little impact on continuing American and Western arms shipments to the regime in Jakarta. Recently released documents establish that Suharto received a green light for the invasion from the president and secretary of state.
The 9/11 panel will not be the first "Kissinger Commission." In the early 1980s, under the Reagan-Bush administration, Henry was called to lead an investigation of U.S. policy in Central America. They provided the whitewash for the death squads that U.S. forces had armed and trained in El Salvador and Honduras, and for the "Contra" army that was organized by the CIA to invade Nicaragua.
Since then, the doctor has lived more quietly as the head of Kissinger Associates, which provides "consultancy" (door-opening) for oil and arms deals and much else besides, and which counts among its clients the U.S. government, NATO, many corporations, and foreign countries like China and Central Asia.
French prosecutors paid a surprise visit to Kissinger's Paris hotel suite in 2001, questioning him with regard to the war crimes charges that they would have been required to level under French law. They let him go his way, but henceforth, Henry will have to be a touch more discreet when strolling along the banks of the Seine.
2001 saw the publication of Christopher Hitchens's book, "The Trial of Henry Kissinger." Released in 2002, an eponymous documentary details the man's horrific and astonishing crimes. Couldn't Bush have found anyone less conspicuous, or less farcical, to wash his dirty laundry? One can only conclude that this was the only man the White House knew they could trust. If you want to cover something up, better pick someone with tons of his own dirt to hide.
Kissinger's appointment is an act of tremendous hubris - or else of absolute desperation. Is the official story of the 9/11 attacks really so wobbly that the regime must resort to hiring him?
He brought death squads to Chile in 1973. He covered up death squads in Central America in the 1980s. And now should we expect him to tell us the full story of how the CIA helped create Osama Binladin's death squads? Is this guy who is going to explore why the Air Force was stood down, or why and how so many FBI agents were blocked from investigating reports that terror pilots had infiltrated the United States? Or is Kissinger going to tell us why George W. Bush killed the FBI investigations into the binladin family's connections to terrorism in early 2001?
Seriously. We can really have a field day with this.
But dangers lurk. Kissinger's appointment is the latest signal of an absolute and open intent to play HARDBALL. Let us all beware what sudden "surprises" are in store during the next days and months. Kissinger features prominently within the "Defense Policy Board" run by Paul Wolfowitz at the Pentagon, which also includes veteran warheads Richard Perle and Newt Gingrich. These men, termed the "Wolfowitz Cabal" by no less a personage than Colin Powell, are the Supreme Chickenhawks of the War Party. For years they have individually and collectively called for the (further) destruction of Iraq and, depending on their mood, preemptive war with Iran, Syria, North Korea - you name it. At a meeting earlier this year, they declared Saudi Arabia the real enemy, and considered the option of taking out the Saudis right after the planned war in Iraq. The powerpoint presentation viewed by the group on that day concluded with the following grand strategy for the upcoming war: "Iraq is the tactical pivot, Saudi Arabia the strategic pivot, Egypt the prize."
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j080702.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2175947.stm
On Sept. 11, 2001, as though that day was not bad enough for all of us, Kissinger, who was in Berlin, called in to CNN during the attacks. He basically argued that the attacks fully justified any American response whatsoever. The next day, he wrote that the U.S. had every right to destroy states that "harbor people who have the capability to do something like this," emphasizing that it made no difference whether these states actually had anything to do with the Sept. 11 attacks or not.
So watch out for sudden revelations about the alleged 9/11 hijackers that "prove" both Saudi Arabia and Iraq (or any other country) must immediately be crushed. The groundwork for such an attack, should the regime decide to go with it, has been prepared during the last weeks with the sudden "discovery" of Saudi financing of terrorism - something that never bothered the Bushes before 9/11, of course.
May fortune and God only give us enough time to work on this, and we the people will peacefully bring down this regime. Appointing Kissinger could turn out to be their greatest blunder. Perhaps it will finally awaken the antiwar movement to the continuing importance of learning the full truth of 9/11. No doubt many of the antiwar organizers can well remember the early 1970s, when their protests against the Vietnam War were directed at none other than: Henry Kissinger. Why has he of all people been given the 9/11 job?
We need to gather everything known about this man and throw it hard and wide, until the whole sham of the investigation is exposed. If we are given enough time, and still fail to bring this house of lies crashing down, it will have been our own fault.
Strength and best wishes to you all,
"Jack Riddler"
http://www.osamaskidneys.com
See: Christopher Hitchens, "The Case Against Henry Kissinger," Harper's, June-July 2001, also available as a book.
# # # # END OF ARTICLE
See http://www.osamaskidneys.com/links.html for a listing of many 9/11 Skeptic sites, with reviews.
9/11 Books:
Nafeez Ahmed, "The War On Freedom"
Michel Chossudovsky, "War and Globalisation"
Richard Labeviere, "Dollars for Terror"
Dasquie & Brisard, "The Forbidden Truth"
"Police State America," ed. Tom Burghardt (By Frank Morales, Doug Valentine et al.)
Greg Palast, "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy"
Eric Hufschmid, "Painful Questions"
VIDEOS TO ORDER AND SHOW:
-Michael Ruppert, "The Truth and Lies of Sept. 11" (www.copvcia.com)
-Daniel Hopsicker, "Mohamed Atta and The Venice Flying Circus" (www.madcowprod.com)
-Sterling of Global Free Press, "Wat Tyler's Revenge" (www.globalfreepress.com)
-Alex Jones, "9-11 - THE ROAD TO TYRANNY" (www.infowars.com)
-Unanswered Questions and GNN, "Aftermath" (www.guerrillanews.com)
"It's the votes that count in a democracy. If the votes don't count, it's not a democracy."
-- Greg Palast
The above quote is from an interview with the Guerilla News Network:
"Bush Racial Coup D'Etat and Intel Shutdown"
http://www.guerrillanews.com/counter_intelligence/233.html
For the NY Times article: "Kissinger to Lead 911 Inquiry, see:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/27/politics/27CND-BUSH.html
The above link and following remarks, via Globenet listserve:
Peals of hysterical, maniacal laughter could be heard echoing around the globe from Santiago, Chile to Dili, East Timor, and from Luanda, Angola, to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, as, speaking to reporters outside the White House, Dr. Kissinger pledged to "get all the facts." Speaking from his family mansion in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden said, "I think it is very funny; praise to Allah for sending us this joke to ease our souls with merriment in this time of trouble" adding, "Happy Thanksgiving, American turkeys."
2) President of Peace 2000 in prison - RSVP
>At 0919 AM 11/29/2002 -0500, you wrote
Dear friends,
I need your urgent help and attention. Please read this message carefully.
Last Friday Icelandic Prime Minister Mr. David Oddsson and Foreign Minister Mr. Halldor Asgrimsson surprised and shocked most of our formerly peaceful nation with an announcement from the NATO meeting in Prague, that Iceland is no longer a by-stander in military actions and that an agreement has been made with two Icelandic public transport airlines, Icelandair and Atlanta, to use their passenger aircraft for transportation of NATO weapons and soldiers. We have never had a military following a peace meeting by the Vikings at our Althing in the year 1000! But our misguided Prime Minister Mr. Oddsson said this new policy of his government is to "strengthen the military might of the NATO alliance" and to "fly troops and military equipment to war areas and that the Icelandic government would pay for it". The news indicated the first flight operation using Icelandic passenger aircraft for the transportation of weapons and troops may be as soon as with an upcoming war with Iraq that the Prime Minister expects that NATO and his government will support.
I issued a warning immediately on Friday that any agreement linking the use of passenger aircraft with NATO or with the transportation of weapons and troops will compromise the security of those aircraft - also when conducting normal passenger flights.
Within hours of my warning Friday I was arrested by the Icelandic Police. I was taken from a restaurant down town by secret police that was in no uniform into an unmarked car. They refused to let my fiancee and the other people I was with in the restaurant know that I was being arrested. A man simply asked me to come with him outside for a moment, and there he arrested me. They could have ditched [me] anywhere and nobody would have known!!! I was thrown into jail and kept there for several days in complete isolation. The first night I was kept in a cell without any toilet and had to do my things on the floor!!! Only when the High Court heard an appeal the Police released me.
But it does not seem to be the end! News report last night said that the police was looking at another letter I sent to the directors of the airlines yesterday, and that today they will make a decision for further action. Our lawyer suggested I sleep the night in hiding somewhere.
People have been phoning us constantly - everyone is shocked. Lawyers say that the arrest has no foundation in law. Our best-known human rights lawyer, Mr. Ragnar Adalsteinsson took it up by himself to speak out in shock over this on TV while I was in the prison. He tells me the law professors at the Reykjavik University are also shocked. EkstraBladet, a major newspaper in Denmark, said that the imprisonment of the leader of Peace 2000, former Icelandic Presidential Candidate Thor Magnusson was an obvious action to "shut the mouth of the opposition".
A man called me last night and told me that he has knowledge that my arrest was decided in the Prime Ministers office building. Politicians are not supposed to have any influence on the police here, but this seems to be changing now.
The police raided the Peace 2000 offices and my home in the middle of the night and confiscated computers. They have refused to return the computers and are keeping all member databases and contact lists. Earlier this year, when the President of China visited Iceland, the Icelandic police worked with a "black list" of Falun Gong practitioners that wanted to do a peaceful demonstration against Human Rights abuses in China. On instructions from the government of China as it seems, they arrested whole groups of Falun Gong tourists upon arrival in the country and kept them in a detention centre. The Icelandic police also got the airlines to cooperate and give access to reservation lists to refuse boarding in foreign airports if their name was found on the black list from China. We fear that they have now started to create a black lists of the Peace 2000 members and that this may be used in a similar way as with the Falun Gong black list.
We have written to the directors of both airlines. We have asked them to increase security immediately and to terminate said armaments transport agreement forthwith. In our opinion, while any such agreements are in place, these aircraft are at increased risk as they seem in that situation to fall exactly within the description of targets by terrorist groups. It is clear that my warning and calling for extra security last Friday was valid. While I was being detained in prison, the UK Observer newspaper printed a new letter from Osama Bin Laden where he calls for terrorist attacks against civilian targets. Yesterday there was an attempt to shoot down an Israeli passenger aircraft.
Many fear that the Icelandic government ministers have become so corrupt that they may try to use the police again today to send me back to prison in an attempt to stop me talking about this.
PLEASE SEND YOUR PROTEST
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Please protest my arrest by immediate email and ask all your contact lists to do same. In Icelandic my name is written: Astthor Magnusson. Please also demand that the Peace 2000 computers and data are returned immediately. We've created a mailing list that will distribute your message automatically to all Icelandic Members of Parliament, Civil Servants, the Airlines and to the Icelandic Media. The automatic listserver to protest is: althingi@peace.is
EMAIL NOW PLEASE
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Please send your protest to althing@peace.is - (There is no editing, it will be distributed immediately to Members of Parliament, Civil Servants and the Media in Iceland). I repeat the email address to send protest to is althing@peace.is
Please also send a copy, in case the government tries to shut us down:
thormag@myrealbox.com
MEDIA DISTRIBUTION
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Please alert your media contacts.
UPDATE
- - - - - -
If I am still walking free later today, I will send you an update if we receive the information requested from the airlines. We can then more clearly determine if there is need for a follow up alert. Atlanta calls themselves the airline for the airlines as they are one of the worlds largest contract airline and fly under the banners of several internationally known carriers.
Yours truly
Thor Magnusson
Peace 2000 Institute
http://www.peace2000.org
thor@peace2000.org
Telephone+354 557 1000
Fax+354 552 2000
For additional Items of Flyby News for 29 November 2002
3) Arctic Meltdown and New Evidences of Global Warming
4) Flying in the no-fly zone,
see: http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1038610319,45231,
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Meltdown ~ Global Warming * No-Fly Zone
29 November 2002
3) Arctic Meltdown and New Evidence of Global Warming
4) Flying in the no-fly zone
Editor's Notes
Item 3 is on new evidence of Global Warming and the quickening rate of the arctic meltdown. NASA has revealed satellite images of the sea ice at the top of the world shrinking by almost 10% per decade, which at that rate, could disappear totally by the end of this Century. Other environmental news links follow in this item. Item 4 is a human tale from Iraq on an American's journey through the No-Fly Zone.
Monday, December 2nd is the first anniversary of my friend "Woody" Robert Woodward's slaying by police while seeking sanctuary in a Church. News and links on this can be found from the Flyby News homepage.. Also, see our actions and campaigns listings and links to add your voice to stop the execution of Desmond Carter on this coming international day for human rights, December 10. Your actions can save a life and send a message of light and compassion for humanity during these darkening times.
Many thanks for reading, thinking, and taking action!
3) Arctic Meltdown and New Evidence of Global Warming
Arctic Meltdown
November 25, 2002
The year-round ice in the Arctic Sea could be gone by the end of the century, say National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists.
A NASA study finds that perennial sea ice in the Arctic is melting faster than previously thought, at a rate of 9 percent per decade. At that rate, the Arctic's "perennial sea ice" could disappear in a few more decades.
Perennial sea ice floats in the polar oceans and remains at the end of the summer, when the ice cover is at its minimum and seasonal sea ice has melted. On average, this year-round ice is just under 10 feet thick, but can be as much as 23 feet in depth.
The study also finds that temperatures in the Arctic are increasing at the rate of 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit per decade.
Melting sea ice would not affect sea levels, but it could profoundly impact summer shipping lanes, plankton blooms, ocean circulation systems, and global climate, NASA said.
"If the perennial ice cover, which consists mainly of thick multi-year ice floes, disappears, the entire Arctic Ocean climate and ecology would become very different," said Josefino Comiso, a researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., who wrote the study.
Comiso used satellite data to track trends from 1978 to 2000. Before satellite data, most records came from sparsely located ocean buoys, weather stations, and research vessels.
Comparing the differences between Arctic sea ice data from 1979 to 1989 and data from 1990 to 2000, Comiso found the biggest melting occurred in the western area (Beaufort and Chukchi Seas) while considerable losses were also apparent in the eastern region (Siberian, Laptev and Kara Seas). Also, perennial ice actually advanced in relatively small areas near Greenland.
In the short term, reduced ice cover would open shipping lanes through the Arctic. Also, massive melts could increase biological productivity, since melt water floats and provides a stable layer conducive to plankton blooms.
But it would be [more than] just the arctic climate that would be affected. Summer sea ice reflects sunlight out to space, cooling the planet's surface, and warming the atmosphere.
As polar ice caps melt, less sunlight gets reflected into space. It is instead absorbed into the oceans and land, raising the overall temperature, and fueling further melting.
Although not included in the study, Comiso also analyzed more recent data and discovered that this year's perennial ice cover is the least extensive observed during the satellite era.
The study appears in the late October issue of Geophysical Research Letters, and was funded by NASA's Cryospheric Sciences Program and the NASA Earth Science Enterprise/Earth Observing System Project.
The mission of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise is to develop a scientific understanding of the Earth System and its response to natural or human-induced changes to enable improved prediction capability for climate, weather and natural hazards.
MMII CBS Worldwide Inc., All Rights Reserved. Original Posting:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/11/25/tech/main530762.shtml
Related Article: "Ice core evidence of global warming in west Canada"
"The scientists, whose research is reported in the science journal Nature, said their study provides evidence of higher surface temperatures and atmospheric warming, which point to climate change due to greenhouse gases."
Ice core evidence of global warming in west Canada
LONDON - An ice core drilled out of a mountain shows climate change has been occurring in western Canada for the past 150 years, scientists said.
The evidence from the 100-metre (yard) core taken from Mount Logan in the Yukon Territory also indicates that the region is due for warmer winters and altered weather patterns.
An international team of scientists, who did a chemical analysis of the ice core, found the average annual snowfall had been constant for more than 100 years but that it started to increase in 1850, which they believe is a sign of global warming.
"We argue that this increase in snow accumulation is associated with a warming of the atmosphere over Western Canada," Professor Kent Moore, of the University of Toronto, said in a statement.
It may seem paradoxical but Moore and his team explained that warmer air holds more moisture and during the winter it can be released as snow.
The scientists, whose research is reported in the science journal Nature, said their study provides evidence of higher surface temperatures and atmospheric warming, which point to climate change due to greenhouse gases.
"We're seeing evidence that both of these climate modes have been intensifying," Moore added.
Their findings are consistent with earlier research which showed that levels of carbon dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas linked to climate change, also began to rise in Western Canada around 1850 and were due in part to the Industrial Revolution.
Moore said studies of global warming trends point the finger of blame at human activity and he emphasised the need for action to reduce global warming.
"We need to be serious about this. Kyoto is a start - I don't know if it's all we have to do. But for our children and our children's children's sake, we need to deal with this because we caused this," Moore added.
Climate experts have warned that global warming will increase the risk of droughts, floods and other natural disasters around the globe.
The 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the developed world by 2012 to 5.2 percent below 1990 levels.
But the United States, the world's biggest air polluter, has refused to ratify the treaty because it does not bind developing countries.
In order for the pact to take effect, it must be approved by states accounting for at least 55 percent of the industrialised world's 1990 gas emissions.
Story Date: 29/11/2002
Originally posted:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/18823/story.htm
Related story links:
Arctic ice 'melting from below'
(Wednesday, 27 March, 2002, 11:36 GMT)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1894740.stm
Related story: Judge Again Bars Effort to Keep Cheney Files Secret
By Katherine Q. Seelye
WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 " A federal judge today again rejected Bush administration efforts to protect as confidential documents from Vice President Dick Cheney's energy committee.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/28/politics/28CHEN.html?ex=1039490124&ei=1&en=40d53ecff3b29c03
Bush administration to ease forest management rules - USA
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/18825/story.htm
Bush Pacific NW timber plan draws fire from greens - USA
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/18814/story.htm
Nevada senators seek Yucca Mountain probe - USA
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/18789/story.htm
For Flyby News updated page on Global Warming, see:
The mounting evidence for Global Warming!
Also, check out this archive link for a new developing technology that could meet all the new electrical power generating needs for years without the requirement for any new centralized power plants, and which could produce electricity from existing waste heat and fuels that are already available without additional pollution emissions! See:
STIRLING solution for Onsite Power Production
What is taking the world so long to wake up and stop the oil proponents for death and harm to most all life?
4) Flying in the no-fly zone
From Elias - November 26, 2002
FLYING IN THE NO-FLY ZONE
The captain of the aging Boeing 727 Iraqi Airways flight 642 to Basra stands by the cockpit door greeting his passengers as they board the plane. His uniform is trim and well-pressed. Our eyes meet - beneath dark eyebrows his Arab eyes are marked with kindness and sadness. "Good morning," I say to him in Arabic. "Morning of light!" he replies - the standard response in this part of the world.
The plane leaves its gate at the Saddam International Airport and taxis to the runway. There is no queue of planes waiting - there are no other planes. Flight 642 rises into the pale blue morning of light, and in a few minutes we are cruising at 25,000 feet.
Here in the no-fly zone are many secrets. No one knows where the F-16 fighter jets are patrolling in the blue above us. No one knows what they will choose to shoot at. In early March, 1991, two U.S. Air Force pilots watched helplessly, under orders not to intervene, as below them Saddam's helicopter gunships massacred rebelling Iraqi Shi'ite forces. The U.S. did not want the Shi'ites to gain control in the region, preferring Saddam's brutal hand to the possibility of an Islamic state allied with Iran. It is said those U.S. fighter pilots wept.
Secrets. Below I see roads, clusters of mud-brick houses and farm buildings, patches of crops. Four days later as we drive back to Baghdad on the ground I see these same areas from a different perspective. As the dull miles roll by I stare out the GMC Suburban's windows - for no discernible reason mymind thumbs through a list of "b" wordsblasted, benighted, bereft, blighted One-room mud huts, little kids barefoot, gaunt dogs with noses to the ground looking for scraps - all the usual, banal secrets of poverty. They are secrets because we drive past them so quickly, or fly over them, shake our heads in resignation and never crack the hard shell of their secrecy: what it feels like to be condemned to no other choice.
As the plane banks in a wide circle around Basra, I imagine how easy it must be to make a game of shooting the little ant-size toy trucks below. In the port two large steel hulls lay on their sides in the water. Two days later a few of us drive south to the Kuwaiti border, stopping at a graveyard of vehicles pulled off one of the several "Highways of Death" where Iraqis fleeing from Kuwait were caught in a "turkey shoot", as the fighter pilots called it. The burned-out carcasses of trucks, buses, cars, and tanks are spread over several acres. We are told not to touch anything, since the Americans used depleted uranium shells to blast through tank armor, the dust from which flew into the air and soil and still makes Geiger counters swing. I stand next to the skeleton of a bus sitting on the sand, rusted, half its roof blown off. It reminds me of those photos of bombed-out buses in Israel, fresh with blood, the wails of the bereaved thick in the air. But the wails of those bereaved by this bus's deadly end are long since silenced. I stare vacantly at the few seats left, their bare springs casting strange shadows on the floor. Secrets.
We land safely and I watch how the mostly men passengers bid each other goodbye - shaking hands, kissing each cheek, touching their hearts with their hands. I remember being in Denver Airport, seeing a solitary Arab-looking man make his way through the crowds and wondering how it must feel for him to be the object of so much restrained suspicion. Now I am in his position, with thousands of troops from my country 40 miles away, poised to attack. But I don't feel enmity from these people. When I smile, nod, say: "A'salaam alleikum" (Peace be with you) to strangers, they always nod and reply, "And to you, peace."
The first afternoon in Basra we visit a children's hospital, the region's center for pediatric oncology. Ever since the Gulf War there has been a drastic rise in leukemia, lymphoma, breast, skin, and lung cancer, and of course malnutrition. A Dr. Jamash meets with us and patiently describes the by now familiar scenarioshortages of medicines, shots for chemotherapy, machines for radiation therapy, money for doctors and nurses. "The economic embargo has destroyed everything," he says flatly. Dr. Jamash tells us of a dramatic increase in "strange cases not seen before" - congenital deformities with babies born eyeless, or with no face, or absent limbs.
The hospital is bleak, beat up, the windows and walls dirty. I find myself in a room with at least eight black-robed mothers caring for their sick children. I start taking pictures of them and showing them the results on the little screen of my digital camera. They laugh and point at themselves and ask for me to take more pictures. The atmosphere becomes joyful, the sick kids with hollow eyes smile, the old grandmothers pull their families together for one more shot.
The next morning a few of us go south, near the Highway of Death, to Safwan, a small dusty town on the Kuwaiti border where the cease-fire was signed in 1991 with the Americans. We track down a peasant family's house where a young boy is said to be suffering from skin cancer. He was born six months before the Gulf War, and soon thereafter the first signs of skin cancer appeared. His parents lived and worked at that time on a small farm near where many Iraqi tanks were hit with depleted uranium shells. As I write this I want to stop, to spare you and me from remembering this, from prying into this secret held in a poor mud-walled compound on a forlorn road in a remote town, the dirt in front of the door swept clean, the little windowless room with palm mats on the floor, both the single clock on the wall and the calendar marking time's meaning with gaudy pictures of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, and there a broken plaque with the Arabic inscription "May Allah's blessings be upon Mohammed and his family." We enter and sit along the walls. The door darkens with the figure of the grandmother, covered with a black abaya, gathering herself together for this unexpected invasion of foreigners, her hand shepherding in the boy.
The boy's name is Naathn Massim. He is wearing a dirty sweatsuit with a matching cap that has written on it "Camps Fashion." He keeps his head down, chin to chest, and dabs a crumpled tissue to the open sores across his face. His nose is half eaten away, as are his eyes. We are told that three weeks ago he went completely blind. Naathn sits down next to his grandmother, who answers our questions. The boy has been seen by doctors in Safwan and Basra, she says, but they say nothing more can be done. "Allah kareem," she says. "God provides." Naathn's hands move from dabbing on his nose to shooing away the constant swarm of flies that settle on him. Neville, a 72 year-old minister with us on the Peace Team, begins to weep. A bottomless pit of grief opens inside us, for this boy, for his family, for this country, for our country, for ourselves. If we could we would push away this secret we have uncovered, this dirty secret of the rotting flesh of an eleven year old boy, the end result of grown men calculating attack and counter-attack in distant well-lighted rooms.
Maybe this is all I can say. Maybe this is why I came to Iraq, to witness this secret. Maybe this is the most peace teams like ours can hope to accomplish - to look for a moment into the face of all that is lost in the catastrophe of violence, and then again and again re-commit to life.
That night four of us went to stay with a family in the poor Jumariyah district of Basra. We sat on the stoop on the dirt street while dozens of kids gathered around us. I began to sing songs for them, teaching them call-and-response lines. Six or seven boys around Naathn's age hung on me, wanting me to keep singing. I remembered one song I used to sing to my own kids, "Gospel Train", and the boys rollicked and clapped to its refrain "Get on board little children, get on board little children, get on board little children, there's room for many a'more." The sounds of our songs rose up into the black sky, up into the no-fly zone, and beyond.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
War Plans * Worst Oil Spill - EPA * Ralph, Don't Run
24 November 2002
1) US would attack Iraq even if UN inspectors fail to find weapons!
2) World's Worst Oil Spills off Spain's Coast, Now!
3) EPA Eases Rules on Air Cleanup
4) The Nation: "Ralph, Don't Run"
Editor's Notes:
Please consider writing Governor Easely (North Carolina, USA) to help stop the scheduled 10 December 2002 execution of Desmond Carter on International Human Rights Day. You may want to also make an appeal the Governor to execute a moratorium on the death penalty due to a record of unfairness to minority races. Democracy needs justice to work for the rights of all.
I encourage you to read the background information on this case from Amnesty International, and to take action. Our links make it easy to send an Email to honor the International Human Rights Day. Do something now to celebrate rather than mourn another Black Man Lynched from death row by a system that is awfully flawed.
To learn more about Desmond Carter, see:
Clemency for Desmond Carter
or you can link from Flyby News home page see:
CAMPAIGNS * ACTIONS & EVENTS
http://www.flybynews.com
Check there too for updates on other events, including a first anniversary event, December 2nd, marking the Brattleboro police shooting of my ecologist friend, "Woody" Robert Woodward.
In the first item of this issue, we are posting an article on the reality of pending war on Iraq. Pax Americana is pre-designed, and unless world unity usurps this current direction and commitment, the oil glut messenger of death will find quicker ways to achieve its goals. Item 2 and 3 shows such symptoms, the consequences of the marketing-escalating war against our environment, for greed, power, fear. Item 4 is related to this, too, and since much of the harm has been politically-generated, this means the solution must come from a political process, too, unless one favors the continuation of the Bush-Osama pattern for apocalyptic visions. We have to reclaim what democracy is left as quickly as possible. Let us all try to get our non-voting friends to register, and to encourage such candidates that voted against the Iraq War Resolution to run for higher Offices. Based on the realities of current political structures, we can be most effective by first transforming the Democratic Party, and then all parties by the support of Instant Run-off Elections and clean elections to end the corruption and use of the spoiler phenomenon; so, eventually, we can always have the opportunity to vote for the candidate of any party of our choice without being manipulated to be in support of the far right by voting for Green party candidates!
Time is shrinking, for Desmond Carter and each of us.
Please, read, think, act, and unite!
1) US would attack Iraq even if UN inspectors fail to find weapons
WAR, WHATEVER
From Mirror.co.uk
WAR, WHATEVER
Exclusive By Paul Gilfeather, Whitehall Editor
GEORGE Bush's top security adviser last night admitted the US would attack Iraq even if UN inspectors fail to find weapons.
Dr Richard Perle stunned MPs by insisting a "clean bill of health" from UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix would not halt America's war machine.
Evidence from ONE witness on Saddam Hussein's weapons programme will be enough to trigger a fresh military onslaught, he told an all- party meeting on global security.
Former defence minister and Labour backbencher Peter Kilfoyle said: "America is duping the world into believing it supports these inspections. President Bush intends to go to war even if inspectors find nothing.
"This make a mockery of the whole process and exposes America's real determination to bomb Iraq."
Dr Perle told MPs: "I cannot see how Hans Blix can state more than he can know. All he can know is the results of his own investigations. And that does not prove Saddam does not have weapons of mass destruction."
The chairman of America's defence policy board said: "Suppose we are able to find someone who has been involved in the development of weapons and he says there are stores of nerve agents. But you cannot find them because they are so well hidden.
"Do you actually have to take possession of the nerve agents to convince? We are not dealing with a situation where you can expect co-operation."
Mr Kilfoyle said MPs would be horrified at the admission. He added: "Because Saddam is so hated in Iraq, it would be easy to find someone to say they witnessed weapons building.
"Perle says the Americans would be satisfied with such claims even if no real evidence was produced.
"That's a terrifying prospect."
# # # #
For original article posting, see:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12377231&method=full&siteid=50143
# # # #
For a related article (11/24/02): "Allies blast radar site in Iraq in fourth air attack of week," see:
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1038134252272940.xml
Here are some related issues in Flyby News Archives:
October 10, 2002 - Item 2
"President's Real Goal,"
Published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 9/29/02
By Jay Bookman:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1034275355,38608,
16 September 2002 - Item 1
Secret Blueprint for US Global Domination Revealed!
Bush planned Iraq invasion before becoming president, document reveals
Sunday Herald - 15 September 2002
By Neil Mackay
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1032198463,25194,
For more on these and other resources, visit Flyby News' Mid East links:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1019753212,83873,
2) World's Worst Oil Spills off Spain's Coast, Now!
World Environment News'
copyright C Planet Ark 2002 and Reuters
http://www.reuters.com
========================================================
PRESTIGE OIL SPILL - NEWS STORIES
Tanker sinking off Spain threatens eco-disaster
CAION, Spain - A tanker laden with over 65,000 tonnes of fuel oil broke in two off Spain and plunged to the bottom of the Atlantic on Tuesday, triggering what ecologists fear may become one of the world's worst oil spills.
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/18682/story.htm
Leaking oil tanker off Spain splits in two
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/18686/story.htm
Remainder of stricken oil tanker sinks off Spain
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/18688/story.htm
Recriminations fly, but tanker gives up the fight
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/18683/story.htm
To read archived stories on the Prestige oil tanker spill, visit: http://www.planetark.com/SpanishOilSpill/
Flyby News Fair Use Policy' ==> http://www.flybynews.com
3) EPA Eases Rules on Air Cleanup
Article in Cleveland Plain Dealer
Saturday, November 23, 2002
Going Backwards
EPA Eases Rules on Air Cleanup
Activists Cry Foul
by Sabrina Eaton
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency yesterday revised its clean-air rules to make it easier for businesses to modernize without running afoul of air pollution laws.
Environmentalists immediately denounced the move as a boon to polluters.
The new rules, important to Ohio because of its abundance of smokestack industries, would let factories modify their operations without government approval if their emissions fall under a government-set cap. It also would let manufacturers that have scaled back operations - and cut emissions - resume at their old, higher level.
EPA Administrator Christie Whitman said the changes to the New Source Review program will promote clean air.
"The steps we are taking today recognize that some aspects of the NSR program have deterred companies from implementing projects that would increase energy efficiency and decrease air pollution," Whitman said.
Environmental activists said the rules were a payoff to corporate lobbyists and called for Whitman's resignation. New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer promised a lawsuit seeking to overturn them.
"This early Christmas gift to industry means more pollution and less protection," said Vermont Sen. James Jeffords, an independent who lost chairmanship of the Senate's environment committee after Republicans gained in this month's elections.
"If the administration is so proud of these regulations, you have to ask yourself why they would wait until after the election, after Congress adjourns for the year, and on the Friday afternoon before Thanksgiving to release them."
For the complete article, see:
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1038048086286560.xml
4) The Nation: "Ralph, Don't Run"
Ralph, Don't Run
by Ronnie Dugger
Published in The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/
Given the GOP sweep in the midterm elections, progressives and populists must position themselves to play a pivotal role in the next presidential contest. As we demonstrated in 2000, we are a fragmented political force, divided between those who supported, however reluctantly, the Democratic choice, Al Gore, and those who backed the Green Party's Ralph Nader. But the Bush disaster, compounded now by the meltdown of the Democratic Party on November 5, is an emergency. We cannot afford another division in our ranks that will bring about the election of George W. Bush in 2004.
His selection as President by the Supreme Court in 2000 was a presidential and judicial coup. Progressives may believe this coup stains his Administration as illegitimate, but apparently he and his inner group take it as leave to cast aside the Bill of Rights and international law. Now the President is out of control and threatens American democracy and the peace of the world. At home, there is mounting evidence that we are living in a land ruled by a crypto-fascist government: The FBI spies on law-abiding political organizations and churches, citizens are deputized to spy and inform on one another, an underground parallel executive government has been activated, lawyer-client consultations are bugged, the government keeps citizens locked up without lawyers or hearings and talks of using the military to police the United States, and the Pentagon is making a vast database of the American people. We are being cudgeled into agreeing to wars of aggression, to make first use of nuclear weapons and to put weapons in outer space. Setting a lethal example for other nations, the Bush government prepares to initiate an attack on a small nation 6,000 miles away and asserts the right to wage a war with no discernible end by attacking any nation that one man--an unelected President who has rarely traveled overseas--determines to be harboring terrorists or seeking weapons of mass destruction. This
same unelected President schemes to exempt Americans from the jurisdiction of the new International Criminal Court, which punishes crimes against humanity. The will to dominate the world is explicit when he tells Congress he will not allow "any foreign power to catch up with" or surpass "the power of the United States." If Bush and the Pentagon control the government through 2008 we will become a militarized nation bent on world domination, a third-millennium Rome.
Intensified terrorist attacks on us and a series of widening wars can be expected. All of this is dramatically worse in kind and degree than what Al Gore would have done as President.
For the complete article in The Nation, see:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20021202&s=dugger
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
9/11/Election Resources * Ritter-Kucinich * Sonar Limits
17 November 2002
"Those who cast the votes decide nothing; those who count the votes decide everything."
-- Joseph Stalin
1) Flyby Resources - 911 Investigations & Rigged 2002 Elections
2) Scott Ritter: "The Case Against The U.S. War on Iraq"
3) Kucinich: Leading Opposition in the House to the War
4) Navy's Sonar and Protecting Marine Life
Editor's Notes:
This issue begins with information and links on 911 investigation coverage & rigged US-2002 elections. Thanks to John Kaminski for sending this information. We need all the resources we can get to best defend and reclaim our democracy. Item 2 is a commentary and interview by Jake Asbin with Scott Ritter during his speech at Deerfield Academy, 15 October 2002. After the article are links for getting this speech on video cassette from Turning Tide Productions! This is highly recommended. Also, in item 2, you will find a link for the Reuters News Service article on medical experts in UK reporting that "A war against Iraq could escalate into a nuclear conflict that would kill nearly four million people and have catastrophic health and environmental consequences." Following this item is a press release by Congressman Dennis Kucinich, stating that the war talk by the Bush administration is undermining the UN's goals for weapons inspections, and a diplomatic peace with Iraq. Item 4 is on the latest regarding the court ruling limiting the Navy's use of low frequency active sonar systems.
Please note that time is shrinking for all of us, but particularly for Desmond Carter, who is scheduled to be executed in North Carolina on the International Day of Human Rights - 10 December 2002. Please consider supporting "Clemency for Desmond Carter" - write to Governor Easley. For more on this, including my letter to the Governor, see the "Clemency for Desmond Carter" link from http://www.flybynews.com
By trying to make a difference, we make change, at least, possible.
1) Flyby Resources - 911 Investigations & Rigged 2002 Elections
John Kaminski sent Flyby News
"9/11 Investigative Reporting Links and Resources"
Posted - November 17, 2002:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1037545133,4360,
Also, in New Zealand, Al Thompson's calling the 2002 election an American coup. The following URL is a good review of polls vs. vote counts.
[You can also check the Scoop home button for other election stories.]
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0211/S00078.htm
American Coup: Mid-Term Election Polls vs Actuals
Tuesday, 12 November 2002, 10:25 am
Article: Alastair Thompson
In the interests of further examining the question of whether the vote in some races in the U.S. midterm elections was fixed by electronic voting machines supplied by republican affiliated companies, Scoop has done some digging. How accurate were the pollsters in advance of the US mid-term elections?
Scoop's analysis shows that - according to the polls - the Republican Party experienced a pronounced last minute swing in its favour of between 4 and 16 points. Remarkably this last minute swing appears to have been concentrated in its effects in critical Senate races (Georgia and Minnesota) where it secured it's complete control of Congress.
Scoop has compared the results of final week polling in 19 races, with the actual results in those same races.
The full details of the Scoop analysis follow below. In summary Scoop found:
- 14 races showed a post opinion poll swing towards the Republican Party (by between 3 and 16 points);
- 2 races showed a post opinion poll swing towards the Democratic Party (by 2 and 4 points);
- In three races the pollsters were close to correct;
- The largest post opinion poll vote swings occurred in Minnesota and Georgia where pollsters got the final result wrong (see Pollsters defend their surveys in wake of upsets for more coverage of this issue);
Comments:
- All the post polling swings in favour of the democratic party were within the margin of error.
- Several of the post polling swings in favour of the republican party were well outside the margin of error.
- In the states where the senate races were critical and close the swing was predominantly towards the Republicans, with the exceptions of Arkansas and Missouri. The level of post-poll swing in these races in favour of the Republican Party in each race were: North Carolina 3, Colorado 4, Georgia 9-12, Minnesota 8-11, Texas 3-11, New Hampshire 1.
- The state where the biggest upset occurred, Georgia, is also the state that ran its election with the most electronic voting machines.
FULL DETAILS OF ANALYSIS -- See following URL Link:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0211/S00078.htm
"The concept is clear, simple, and it works. Computerized voting gives the power of selection, without fear of discovery, to whomever controls the computer"
-- James & Kenneth Collier, authors of VoteScam (1992)
For "Voter Fraud 2002: Death Stalks America's Democracy"
a compilation by Warren Gammel, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1037501537,48288,
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For resources for the Mind Control Forum, see:
http://www.heart7.net/mcf/archv-hm.htm#Quinn
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
And if you aren't too burnt out, check this link with more questions on Paul Wellstone's recent tragic death
Ciresi's Law Firm Looking Into Wellstone Plane Crash
Tony Kennedy and Paul McEnroe
Star Tribune
Friday, 14 November, 2002
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1752/3430473.html
2) Scott Ritter: "The Case Against The U.S. War on Iraq"
An avowed hawk resists war
By Jake Asbin
"Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love".
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
[From his speech accepting Nobel Peace Prize - 11 December 1964]
I recently had the privilege of attending a lecture and participating in a subsequent discussion with Former United Nations weapons inspector and ex-Marine, Mr. Scott Ritter. Mr. Ritter has relentlessly contributed arguments against invading Iraq and who has been dubbed "an outspoken critic" of the current administration and its rush to war. He served as the chief weapons inspector in Iraq until he was removed by the United States government. You won't find this 41-year-old son of a career Army officer following an autocratic administration as it knowingly deceives the public. Instead, he has ceaselessly presented the public an objective and persuasive argument opposing a new war undertaking in Iraq. The following are some excerpts from Mr. Ritter's lecture and conversation with me on October 16, at the Deerfield Academy, in Deerfield Massachusetts. As Mr. Ritter was about to speak, he noted that US warplanes had just attacked two Iraqi sites, while patrolling the no-fly zones that have been in effect over Iraq since 1991. Hence, reinforcing the notion that we might already be at war with Iraq.
Q. How effective were your inspection teams in discovering and eliminating Saddam Hussein's Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Ritter: UNSCOM inspectors were the best investigators in the world. We were very successful in uncovering and destroying 90-95 percent of Iraq's weaponry by 1996. Fundamentally disarming Iraq as well as neutralizing their technical capabilities to manufacture and produce such weapons.
Q. In the past, the media has steadfastly reported that U.N. inspectors were kicked out of Iraq by Iraq itself-- I pointed out as an example, a recent August article in USA Today by reporter John Diamond, that repeated the common myth that "Iraq expelled U.N. weapons inspectors four years ago and accused them of being spies." For the record what really caused you and your inspectors removal from Iraq in December of 1998?
Ritter: We were not kicked out, but rather ordered out by the U.S. government. In 1997 when Richard Butler took control of inspection teams, we had basically already disarmed Iraq but our information was more valuable for over the 100 locations we inspected and gathered intel on, so that the United States would bomb them under the guise of retaliation for the inspection teams so-called forced departure. Richard Butler withdrew us in anticipation of a military attack that was aimed at regime change. I firmly believe that information we had gathered at presidential palaces and the like were used so that the military could bomb these residences with the sole intention of killing Saddam Hussein. Not destroying weapon sites or installations as was offered up by the then Clinton administration.
Q. Could those facilities that were destroyed have been rebuilt?
Ritter: No weapons inspectors have set foot in Iraq since 1998. I think Iraq was technically capable of restarting its weapons manufacturing capabilities within six months of our departure, so by early 1999 they could have had operational weapons and programs again. That gives them three and a half years to have weaponized their covertly-manufactured weapons that the Bush administration claims as motivations for an attack. The important issue here, however, is "technically capable". If we weren't watching, Iraq could do this. Just their nuclear program, would have to be started from scratch, having already been disassembled and bulldozed. Primary equipment was also inventoried, and destroyed. The Iraqi's would have to procure the complicated tools and technology required in restarting these programs. This would have been already detected, if it were true. The manufacture of chemical weapons releases a lot of gasses that would have been detected by now if they existed. We have been watching, with our satellites and other means, and have seen none of these signs. If Iraq was producing weapons right now, we [the U.S. government] would have definitive proof, but we don't .
Q. What do you think of this administration's comments regarding the Al Qaeda connection and Iraqi support of terrorism?
Ritter: This is absurd, really. Iraq is run by a secular dictator. Saddam has spent his entire reign waging war on Islamic fundamentalism, and has proceeded to crush any uprising. Osama Bin Laden has shown a history of hating Saddam Hussein. He's called him an apostate, somebody who needs to be killed.
Q. Even as Bin Laden claims sanctions against Iraq as a war cry?
Ritter: Because sanctions don't target Saddam, they target Iraqi civilians.
Q. My last question because of time constraints: I ask you this question as a concerned veteran, Bush has gone on record, (the first sitting president to do so) as stating: "He would not hesitate to use pre-emptive, first-strike tactical nuclear weapons, bunker-busters, to remove threats to U.S. interests." Do you believe Bush will resort to using nuclear weapons as a means to removing Saddam Hussein from power?
Ritter: Here's the scenario, if Bush ignores the United Nations and unilaterally invades, he has at his disposal of no more than 80,000-100,000 troops he can deploy immediately. If it where to take urban warfare-- fighting street to street, house to house, hand to hand combat-- to liberate Baghdad, and we have our armed forces bogged down, then yes Bush would have the indisputable means of ending the quagmire at his disposal. And yes I do believe President Bush would deliver a nuclear warhead to change the regime in Iraq. Some of his closest advisors are advocating exactly this scenario.
end....................................................
In closing, Mr. Ritter's interview and comments come at a pivotal time for our nation. I write this commentary during a sad milieu, one man of distinguished valor whom I personally met, Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota (he was one of twenty-three others who bravely voted against Bush's war resolution), has died in a plane crash. The president of the United States proceeds to ignore the voices and concerns so many citizens have against his charge to war. While poutingly thumbing his nose at world leaders who are resisting his unilateral war and instead are advocating the re-deployment of U.N. weapons inspectors to Iraq.
So by the span of making it to the age of forty, I have witnessed during the last year alone, the prominent symbols of identity in my old hometown murdered before they ever had a chance to live, the retailing of war and perpetuation of immanent aggression, so much so, that our Congress willingly gave even more power to this administration. I have endured lies by elected officials who have lamely explained bipartisanship agreements as being more important during these distressing times, instead of debating the minutiae this action holds for family members of American soldiers and our nation's security. Also, I have watched with alarming frequency former White House officials and former presidents champion restraint.
By far, the worst "Homeland" experience has been the suspension of civil liberties, including Right's of the nation's press. So shortly after 9-11, before the country could thoroughly mourn its pain, Mr. Bush, Mr. Ashcroft and their intelligence circles did not hesitate to subvert our Constitution and Bill of Rights, under the guise of fighting lifetime-lasting terrorism, by signing into law the (342 page) USA PATRIOT Act on October 26, 2001.
The Act passed with no transparency and virtually no public hearings or debate, and it was accompanied by neither a conference nor a committee report. This administration's obvious power grab, coupled with the wide array of anti-terrorism tools that the Act puts at its disposal, portends a broad suspension of civil liberties that will reach far beyond those who are involved in terrorist activities.
First, the Act places our First Amendment Rights to freedom of speech and political association at peril by fabricating a broad new crime of "Domestic Terrorism,"(which is vaguely defined in Section 802 of the Act). Because this new crime is couched in such vague terms, it may be interpreted by law enforcement agencies as endorsing the investigation and surveillance of political activists and organizations based on their opposition to government policies. It could also be read by prosecutors as permitting the criminalization of legitimate political dissent. Environmental activists and anti-globalization activists and any group who uses direct action--no matter how peacefully and non-violent--are particularly vulnerable to severe prosecution as "domestic terrorists." The First Amendment does not tolerate viewpoint-based discrimination.
Second, the Act will reduce our already modest expectations of privacy under the Fourth Amendment by granting the government enhanced surveillance powers. Using the Act, the Federal Bureau of Investigation can (and will) covertly enter our homes and apartments to conduct "sneak and peak searches" without ever notifying the person of the execution of the search warrant until after the search has been completed. In Section 213 of the Act, it allows authorized delay of notice of the execution of a warrant to conduct a seizure of items where the court finds a "reasonable necessity" for the seizure-Translation- They can rifle through someones personal effects stealing any information, using it against an individual in the future while nobody was ever notified.
Lastly, under this dreadful Act non-citizens will see a further erosion of their due process rights as they are placed in mandatory detention and removed from the United States. How sad then that our crucial political activists and respected writers who are faultfinding on our government or persons who maintain ties with international civil and human rights groups or environmental protecting movements, will most likely bear the brunt of these attacks on our civil liberties.
Respectfully,
Jake Asbin
(long time anti-war activist and American Indian activist who currently resides in Northampton, Massachusetts)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Please Note:
SCOTT RITTER'S SPEECH AT DEERFIELD ACADEMY IS NOW AVAILABLE
BY VIDEO CASSETTE by TURNING TIDE PRODUCTIONS:
SCOTT RITTER: "The Case Against The U.S. War on Iraq"
Turning Tide Productions PO Box 864 Wendell, MA 01379 USA
Tel: 800-557-6414 978-544-8313 Fax: 978-544-7989 Email: info@turningtide.com
Talk by former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq and former U.S. Marine given at Deerfield Academy, Deerfield, MA on October 15. Broadcast nationally on Pacifica Radio's "Democracy Now" and on Free Speech TV. (55 minutes, VHS Video) Special Price (all categories): $29.95, plus $6 shipping & handling. To place your order now, call 1-800-557-6414. More details about this video, as well as, our new series of anti-war organizing videos, will be posted soon at Turning Tide Production's Web Site: http://www.turningtide.com
Flyby News highly recommends getting and showing SCOTT RITTER: "The Case Against The U.S. War on Iraq" - which will be featured at our next sponsored video/discussion event on the topic of "U.S. Democracy and Safeguarding Our Planet" -- at the Jones Library in Amherst, MA -- Tuesday 14 January 2003 (6-9pm).
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more information on Scott Ritter, campaigns, and related resources, you can also visit:
Traprock Peace Center http://www.traprockpeace.org
Also, FlybyNews.com's "Mid East Peace" initiatives and resource page:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1019753212,83873,
This Archive issue contains an article on the talk 10/15/02 talk by Scott Ritter at the Deerfield Academy in the first Item:
Scott Ritter -- "NO TO WAR" * Kucinich Asks White House To Explain Contradictions On Iraq, North Korea Nukes * Bush - Iraq War - and Armageddon
3) Kucinich: Leading Opposition in the House to the War
For Immediate Release
Contact: Doug Gordon
(202)225-5871 (w)
(202)271-7302 (c)
November 11, 2002
War Talk By Administration Undermines UN Inspections in Iraq
Despite securing a United Nations' resolution to ensure weapons inspectors return to Iraq, the Administration has continued its war talk, undermining the stated goals of the United Nations, Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) stated today.
Today, Kucinich, who leads opposition in the House to the war, issued the following statement:
"The Administration's continual war talk is contrary to the spirit of the resolution the UN passed, and is contrary to the assurances which the Administration gave to secure the key votes of Russia, France and Syria in the Security Council. The UN is attempting to bring about a peaceful resolution to the crisis. The Administration's war talk undermines this goal.
"It must be understood, the UN did not pass an authorization for the use of force against Iraq. The UN resolution authorized the return of weapons inspectors and required the Iraqi government to comply. Non-compliance is to be referred back to the Security Council by UN weapons inspectors.
"Despite that, immediately after the UN vote, the Administration continued to indulge in talk. Worse, over the weekend, the Administration leaked to the press its latest war plan to send 250,000 American men and women into battle against Iraq. This even before the Iraqi government had a chance to respond to the UN resolution.
"Even today, while the UN is attempting to gain approval for inspections from the Iraqi government, the Administration is continuing its call for regime change. Currently, the Administration is engaging in a massive build up of troops, aircraft, and materiel in preparation for war. These actions make it clear the Administration is on a war mission not a mission to return UN weapons inspectors to Iraq.
"In order to bring peace and stability to the region, the United States must continue to work with the international community, not undermine the goals of the UN."
http://www.house.gov/kucinich/press/pr-021111-wartalk.htm
For the FlybyNews.com updated page - Dennis J. Kucinich for President in 2004 - see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1021307488,43210,m
4) Navy's Sonar and Protecting Marine Life
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 00:32:40 -0800
From: Cheryl Magill
Subject: Database update & NY Post Perceptions
This is a message to the Stop LFAS Worldwide Network: The current information being compiled in the database has to do with unique strandings and only with strandings. Political, scientific, legal and activist issues are not included in this inventory by stated reference. So far we have 51 strandings identified under quick reference in this database. More complete explanations as to why those incidents are associated with suspected or known acoustic influences is referenced or linked with each entry. Ultimately, I'd like to see a more detailed description available at a glance. Some of the strandings involve as many as 500 or more animals. And I didn't check very carefully for any supplemental information between 1998-2000. So there are no doubt more entries to be pulled from our archives.
Putting a list like this together has been a sobering experience. It's a sad task to undertake. I kept finding reminders that only a portion of the injured whale population actually makes it's way to shore. Sadder too, is the fact that we know the strandings are simply headline grabbers. The real damage being done in the water is likely less dramatic and more insidious. As is stated in one entry, "Between 20 percent and 35 percent of whales found dead show signs of having been struck by ships." The increasing apparent deafness of whales and other marine life is hardly grabbing headlines. But it is an alarming increase..
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Dear LFA Activists:
Yesterday (Thursday 11-14-2002), Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Navy reached a tentative agreement (still has to be approved by Judge LaPorte) on where LFA Sonar can be tested and trained with before the full trial in June. Essentially, the Navy went along with the NRDC approach of limiting activity to an area in the Pacific Ocean far from coastal areas and major biologically important areas.
The agreement frees up the lawyers and scientists to concentrate on the trial set for June on the merits of the case. In the meantime, LFA Sonar use will still be allowed, but in a very limited area.
Congrats to the lawyers at NRDC!
Mark J. Palmer
For more information on this issue, visit the updated flybynews.com link: "The harmful impact on Whales and Dolphins by the U.S. Navy's experimental use of active sonar systems."
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid948385848,37113,
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
9/11 Investigative Reporting Links and Resources
This list is only one person's opinion of what's out there on the web regarding information about the coverup of 9/11. This list is meant to be a recommendation of where to find valid information not curdled by corporate contempt. It is not meant to be a complete list, and apologies to all those great sites out there I haven't found yet. I always like getting recommendations and I understand that what I like might not be what you like. Nevertheless, after a year of surfing every day, these are the sites I've found to be most valuable. I would sincerely urge you to check all of them out at your leisure and support them financially if you are able. This is the 3rd edition because I've done this twice before.
John Kaminski's BEST 9/11 Sites 3RD EDITION
To contact John, write to skylax@comcast.net
Most important site:
http://www.copvcia.com/
Best news sources:
http://www.rense.com/
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
http://www.voxnyc.com/
http://www.questionsquestions.net/
and don't miss http://www.questionsquestions.net/gatekeepers.html )
http://www.globalresearch.ca/
http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/kenvardon.htm
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/
http://www.rumormillnews.net/
http://www.narconews.com/index.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/
http://www.madcowprod.com/
Best liberal leftie sites:
http://www.wsws.org/index.shtml
http://www.legitgov.org/
http://www.newsmakingnews.com/
http://www.yellowtimes.org/index.php
http://www.iacenter.org/
http://www.unknownnews.net/
[out in left field]
http://www.flybynews.com/
Best Patriot right sites:
http://www.americanfreepress.net/
http://www.public-action.com/
http://www.sierratimes.com/
Best mainstream right sites:
http://www.drudgereport.com/
http://www.lewrockwell.com/
http://www.antiwar.com/
Best all-around analytical websites:
http://www.911-strike.com/index.htm
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/index-old1.htm
http://www.hermes-press.com/index.html
http://www.sumeria.net/wnew.html
http://serendipity.magnet.ch/index.html
Best wild and woolly websites:
http://www.davidicke.com/icke/index1a.html
http://www.skolnicksreport.com/
http://www.paranoiamagazine.com/
http://www.nexusmagazine.com/index.html
http://www.konformist.com/
Best elected official sites:
http://www.house.gov/mckinney/
http://www.house.gov/lee/
http://www.house.gov/kucinich/
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/welcome.htm
Best essays:
http://www.americanfreepress.net/09_03_02/NEW_SEISMIC_/new_seismic_.html
http://www.questionsquestions.net/kolskegg_911.html
http://www.narconews.com/goff1.html
http://www.sumeria.net/politics/bushknew/ghostriders.html
http://www.sumeria.net/politics/shadv3.html
Best worldwide sites:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/
http://www.globalspin.org/world_news_sources.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/
http://www.iran-daily.com/daily.shtml
http://english.pravda.ru/
Best news digests:
http://newsinsider.cjb.net/
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/
http://truthout.com/
Other resources:
BBC TELEVISION INDICTS BUSH / CIA IN 9-11 TERROR COMPLICITY (Real Player Video)
Russian Air Force Chief Says Official 9-11 Story Impossible,
[Posted 13 September 2001]
For another extensive list for links and resources for alternative news media, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1015254268,64077,
And for Flyby News Updated page on 9/11 investigative reporting, see:
The Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports, looking into the unanswered questions
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Voter Fraud 2002: Death Stalks America's Democracy
Posted 16 November 2002 - Received via email by John Kaminski skylax@comcast.net
Voter Fraud 2002: Death Stalks America's Democracy
"Those who cast the votes decide nothing; those who count the votes decide everything."
--Joseph Stalin
Compiled and edited by WARREN GAMMEL
It's all here, perhaps providing too much to read in one day. I suggest that you get a cup of coffee and start out by reading Votescam. Votescam furnishes the blueprint upon which everything else is essentially built. You may want to save this compilation for future reference and, possibly, to send it out to everyone!
It seems safe to say that any credibility imagined for the Midterm Elections is non-existent. There have been too many mistakes, too many malfunctions, too many missing documents, too many dirty tricks. Certainly the sudden abandonment of the Voter News Service exit polls suggests that actual polling results were so far out of alignment with the desired results that the media predictions had to be shut down.
"The concept is clear, simple, and it works. Computerized voting gives the power of selection, without fear of discovery, to whomever controls the computer"
-- James & Kenneth Collier, authors of VoteScam (1992)
Votescam
http://www.votescam.com/frame.html
Vote of No Confidence: Everything you need to know about stealing elections
http://www.conspire.com/vote-fraud.html
My Husband has a patent on popular voting machine
http://www.bartcop.com/111402rose.htm
A Touch Better
http://www.kioskcom.com/article_detail.php?ident=1021
The elephant in the room is vote theft on a massive scale
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Editor_sDesk/editor_sdesk.html
It is now effectively illegal for citizens in 49 states to count their own votes on election day.
http://www.votefraud.org/Intro/index.html
The Greatest Cover-Up Of All: Vote Fraud In America
http://www.votefraud.org/Archive/Write/greatest.htm
CalTech and M.I.T. Computer Experts -- Hacking the Machines
http://pub103.ezboard.com/fsoldiervoicefrm4.showMessage?topicID=24.topic
Why One Tech Maven Fears Computer Voting
http://www.notablesoftware.com/Press/WSJ.html
Voices Events with Tom Webber and Rebecca Mercuri
http://interactive.wsj.com/public/current/articles/SB985032601926471110.htm
Right-wing, radical political activists financed USA's largest voting machine company.
http://www.talion.com/election-systems-software.html
Voting Machines - A High Tech Ambush
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles/Landes_Ambush.htm
Diebold - The Face Of Modern Ballot Tampering
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0211/S00081.htm
Diebold Magic?
http://www.bartcop.com/111102fraud.htm
Who are Diebold?
http://www.diebold.com/
When it Comes to Elections in America: Assume Crooks are in Control
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm
31 Election Mistakes (So far)
http://www.talion.com/election-mistakes.html#reports
Computer Vote Counts are Unverifiable
http://www.votefraud.org/Archive/Write/unverifiable.htm
Testimony of a Computer Expert:
http://www.votefraud.org/Archive/Write/expert.htm
Why we need to know who owns voting machine companies
http://www.talion.com/election-machines.html#Nebraska
Republican Controlled Voting Machines Hand Suprise Victories to... Guess which party?
http://www.voxnyc.com/archives/00000051.htm
Voter News Service sitting on Election Day data
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/nc/story/1902810p-1886603c.html
Vote Fraud in America
http://www.hoffman-info.com/votefraud.html
The Real Scandal Is the Voting Machines Themselves
http://www.commondreams.org/views/121400-108.htm
Rage Against the Machine
http://www.tnr.com/120400/dugger120400.html
Voting Machine Companies owned by conservative Republican businessmen
http://www.ecotalk.org/VotingMachineCompanies.htm
Repository for Voter Complaints
http://www.votewatch.us/
Republicans dominate the voting machine business:
http://www.ecotalk.org/MidtermElections2002.htm
Voting Machines - High Tech Ambush
http://www.ecotalk.org/Vote-By-Mail.htm
Elections In America - Assume Crooks Are In Control
http://www.ecotalk.org/AmericanElections.htm
The Nightmare Scenario Is Here:
Computer Voting with No Paper Trail
http://www.ecotalk.org/Dr.RebeccaMercuriComputerVoting.htm
Alert: Ghost Precincts, Vigilance Needed
http://pub103.ezboard.com/fsoldiervoicefrm4.showMessage?topicID=25.topic
Broward vote total off in reporting glitch
http://www.miami.com/mld/miami/4460196.htm
Arkansas Republicans went to court to keep votes uncounted
http://www.kark.com/karktv/news/story_tmp.asp?cmd=view&Storyid=4948
A statewide recount in Alabama's gubernatorial election demanded by Democratic Governor Siegelman gave victory to his Republican challenger:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2002/11/07/politics1919EST0782.DTL
Problems in Texas with touchscreen voting machinery
http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=51022&SecID=2
Kansas provisional ballots caused problems
http://www.thekansascitychannel.com/news/1771656/detail.html
South Carolina's voting equipment creates difficulties
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/4459621.htm
Nebraska's election fiasco
http://www.theindependent.com/stories/110602/new_electionglitches06.shtml
New Jersey's tally delayed by computer problems
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--votingglitches1106nov06,0,808514.story?coll=ny-ap-regionalwire
Massive Polling Fraud in Florida
http://www.voxnyc.com/archives/00000043.htm
Michigan ballot shortages and polling problems
http://www.tv7-4.com/Global/story.asp?S=1002309&nav=1vrjCEZ7
San Francisco ballot shortages
http://www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?S=1002487&nav=5D7lCElH
Proprietary software makes inspection of electronic voting systems impossible
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/110602_elections.html
Republican Manufactured Voting Machines Ivolved in Election Fraud
http://www.voxnyc.com/archives/00000048.htm
On Scrapping the Exit Polls
http://www.rumormillnews.net/cgi-bin/config.pl?read=25876
Massive Voter Fraud: An exclusive interview with Greg Palast
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/2002/11/04_Palast.html
High-tech voting system working fine "Go back to sleep, citizen. Nothing to see here!"
http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/830822.asp
"I'll tell you right now, this election is fixed!"
http://www.drudgereport.com/vote1.htm
Controversy Greets Early Voting
http://www.pbcommercial.com/archives/index.inn?loc=detail&doc=/2002/October/22-2390-NEWS1.TXT
Background Stories about ES&S Voting Machines
http://pub103.ezboard.com/fsoldiervoicefrm4.showMessage?topicID=12.topic
Chip Glitch hands victory to wrong party. Guess which party?
http://www.voxnyc.com/archives/00000050.htm
Great Bartcop article on Voting Machine Fraud, Execs GOP contributions
http://www.bartcop.com/110702otter.htm
Fraudulent automated phone messages in Florida
http://election2002.tbo.com/election2002/MGARSR0D58D.html
Vote Fraud Texas style http://www.jshull.org/
There's only one reason the exit poll has been scrapped.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&ncid=716&e=1&u=/ap/20021105/ap_on_el_ge/eln_voter_news_service
Voting Problems In Orlando, South Florida
http://news.tbo.com/news/MGACF5AHY5D.html
Voting Machines' Maker Blamed
http://www.tampatrib.com/MGASSAS976D.html
Manufacturers Admit Voting Machines Unreliable
http://www.rumormillnews.net/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?read=5172
The Nightmare Scenario
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0805-07.htm
Voting into the void
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/11/05/voting_machines/
How VNS helped to rig Nov. 5 Election for GOP
http://pub103.ezboard.com/fsoldiervoicefrm61.showMessage?topicID=2.topic
Why did VNS bow out the morning of the election?
http://www.bartcop.com/vns2002.htm
Voter News Service Meltdown - Washington Post article
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10472-2002Nov5.html
Voter News Service (VNS) is a top-secret private consortium owned by ABC News, The Associated Press, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, and NBC News. It's current headquarters is in Brooklyn, New York. It's been around (under different names) since 1964. It's the only company whose exit poll results are used by the news media to announce the "projected" winners in races for the president, U.S. House and Senate, state governors, and select races. With the use of computerized vote counters and the news networks exclusive control over polling data in major elections, the gates to election fraud were wide open. Computerized voting machines have now made election fraud as easy as stealing candy from a baby... If VNS is helping to rig elections, why are they doing it? Generally speaking... I believe that the same people who can't rake in enough money, also can't get enough power. The news networks are owned lock, stock, and barrel by the richest corporations and individuals in the world. They certainly have an agenda. Their arrogance and disregard for the little guy is clear. They may think that we're not smart enough to pick the 'right' kind of leaders... right for them, that is. So they might try to do it for us. Voter News Service warrants an investigation. Its operations should be shut down regardless. It's in a perfect position to sabotage the election process. Let the counties count the vote and report it to the states. If it takes a day or two for the states to report the results... so be it. Democracy takes time.
VNS got into a lot of trouble for correctly calling Florida for Gore after exit polls showed him winning by a comfortable margin. After that 'debacle' they were forced to completely re-design their computer hardware and software. They were my client, and ran on a large IBM mainframe with legacy software. They were forced to get off the mainframe and on to a completely different hardware and software platform. Everything had to be built from scratch. Supposedly, they didn't have time to fully test the new environment thoroughly far enough ahead of this election cycle. Therefore, they chose to use this election to test the new environment, but not publicly release the results. Why does VNS think their "Gore wins" Florida 2000 projection was wrong? Bush guaranteed he would win Florida, even after VNS said he lost it. Why is nobody else suspicious?
Why did Voter News Service bow out the morning of the election?
http://www.bartcop.com/111102bonus.htm
More Magic: winning vote totals uncanny
http://www.mysanantonio.com/specials/elections/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=180&xlc=860675
VNS - CIA link?
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20021106/ap_wo_en_po/us_election_vns_6
Battelle was also under investigation during the search for the anthrax killer
http://www.columbusalive.com/2002/20020530/053002/05300203.html
Rothschilds are part owners of voting machines
http://www.rense.com/general31/roth.htm
Think the November 5, 2002 U.S. General Election went smoothly?
http://www.notablesoftware.com/evote.html
Networks to Examine Future of Voter News Service
http://quickstart.clari.net/qs_se/webnews/wed/cd/Aeln-voter-news-service.RHoy_CN6.html
Following the Anthrax Trail
http://www.columbusalive.com/2002/20020110/011002/01100205.html
Zogby International: Whatz New?
http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=648
Latest Republican Voter Scams Exposed by Broward Poll Worker
http://gaytoday.com/events/111402ev.asp
Democrat Raised Funds for the GOP
http://www.miami.com/mld/miami/4504234.htm
Did God tell them to steal the votes?
http://www.bartcop.com/111402faun.htm
The above was unedited and received via John Kaminski.
This following via Jodi is solution-proposal from another list serve..
--------------------
Involve every voter in checking establishment vote theft.
Here is a simple proposal to enable the masses of voters individually to protect the integrity of their vote, and to make sure that the elected candidates are the ones who get custody over the office for which they ran. Please reply to meyersjoel@yahoo.com with critiques and suggestions toward more closely perfecting the schema suggested herein.
This is a response to indications that big-money is fixing elections, and converting them into a series of fraudulent mini-coups, which add up to hijacking governance. The hijacking of governance in thepolitical sphere leads to a conceptual frame of reference in which our very minds end up disoriented and to a degree, controlled.
Computers can be used to create intangible, untraceable, unverifiable and consequently unauditable votes, and the computers can be programmed to bias or completely predetermine the outcome, in vast disregard for the will of the voters. But computers can also be used to make election cheating and vote stealing more difficult.
If polling places were computerized, each voter would be able to submit votes on a computerized ballot. Upon voting, each individual can be assigned a random number by a statewide online hookup. This number would be known only to the individual voter, since the computer generating the number does not know which individual is voting. The number should not be confused with a permanent ID number. It would be assigned for the particular day only. Thus secrecy of ballot and privacy would be preserved.
On finalizing the ballot, the individual would be issued a printed receipt, indicating exactly for whom and for what the individual voted. The receipt would be in duplicate. One copy the voter would keep, and the other would be sealed in an envelope and deposited with the officials at the polling place. The envelope would prevent anyone from seeing the assigned number and associating it with the signed-in registered voter.
The day after Election Day, a listing of each individual ballot would be published online and in local newspapers, with the assigned number and the individual's choices, along with totals for each election district. The voter would then be able to verify that his or her individual vote was accurately recorded, but would not be able to identify anyone else's vote, since the assigned number would be known only to the individual voter.
If his or her choices were not accurately reported, the individual voter would know instantly, and would have the receit as evidence for a challenge. The individual's receipt would be corroborated by the computer results and the duplicate handed in at the polling place.
Of course, independent poll watchers from each candidate, party or referendum position, would still function as at present, to assist voters and safeguard against irregularities. They would be required to observe and reconcile the identity and registration of each voter signing in, and keep track of the overall total reporting. They would oversee the custody of the envelopes containing the duplicates. They would verify the initialization of the computer totals to zero at the opening of the polls and to independently record the totals at the closing of the polls, and certify agreement. The figures would have to reconcile with each other and corroborate with the machine totals.
No system is foolproof, or can prevent any and all cheating. But it would be much more difficult if the millions of individual voters were directly empowered to police the integrity of their own votes. Of course, the above-suggested approach is only meant to make allow the voters to keep the elections more honest. The general context in which Big Money and Big Media, along with the police and the courts, still unfairly influence, manipulate and spin or misinterpret the significance of election outcomes, and pressure office holders after the election. But there are so many working class and middle class people, up against such a handful of superrich. Therefore, mere money spent and the power applied still cannot consstently guarantee a custom-made majority or plurality for the elite's favored issues ("Gore Got More" votes, for example), which is why they have to resort to cheating or an occasional outright coup d'etat. Increasingly, they have to be checked, until they can be checkmated.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Chickenhawk's War * DU-Afghan * Terror Hill * Forsberg
12 November 2002
1) War Veterans Gather To Stop A New War
2) More DU Weapons in Afghanistan Than in Gulf War
3) Terror On the Hill
4) Behind the Smile - the slick (oiled) G.O.P.
5) MA Election Update Randall Forsberg for US Senate
Editor's Notes:
The first item is hopeful. Mainstream Americans, War Veterans, are standing together against a potentially provocative war which would result in many innocent people killed and environments destroyed. Item 2 is an article stating that more depleted uranium weapons were used in Afghanistan than in the Gulf War. From this item, or from FlybyNews.com, you can link to an updated DU page for background and resources. DU is nasty stuff, and just what they plan to use against life in Iraq, including the soldiers used to preemptively attack, and control another country's oil resources. Item 3 describes reasons for fear on Capital Hill. At the end of the Marc Ash from TruthOut.org , are links to related articles, including a piece by Bertrand Russell on JFK's assassination. Item 4 is an article by Bob Herbert of the NY Times on the slick G.O.P. Item 5 is an update by Randall Forsberg, who gives the results of her meaningful campaign to send a message to Senator Kerry and anyone serving the interests of a party that is destroying our entire world.
This following excerpted poem, by Cortland E. Richmond, a retired soldier, was published in a "Dear Abby:"
Currency
Do not give medals for our death;
Where we are, we cannot know.
Do not raise flags and hold parades;
Where we are, flags don't go.
We ask but one thing of our land,
Of you who had us fight:
"Please be WORTH the blood we shed,
Be worth the eternal night."
We are the currency you spend
For freedom, fear or oil;
Our blood, the coin you pay,
Dark on some foreign soil.
1) War Veterans Gather To Stop A New War
Intervention Magazine
http://www.interventionmag.com
Angry military veterans attack "an administration of chickenhawks" who demand the blood of another generation of US soldiers and marines -- blood these macho-posturing, drum-beating hyper-"patriotic" middle age warriors refused to risk in their youth.
By Stewart Nusbaumer
An enthusiastic crowd of approximately 350 military veterans jammed the hall of the Martin Luther King Labor Center in New York City yesterday to oppose a war with Iraq. The largest meeting of antiwar veterans in many years, the "Protest Meeting & Speakout Against War with Iraq and In Defense of Constitutional Rights" attracted a diverse group of veterans and their spouses. All, however, agreed an invasion of Iraq is wrong; all appeared to express a determination that the Bush Administration must be stopped.
"This is crazy," said Ed a Navy veteran of World War II, "I really think the Bush people don't care about the guys in the military. They only care about the oil and the money."
Most of the military veterans had white hair or little hair, many with no hair -- they had fought their wars long ago. These are the wars that some non-veterans hardly remember or are barely aware of, yet wars that are intensely remembered by the men who fought them. Seldom have antiwar movements attracted young veterans, the exception being the Vietnam War because of its long duration and the obvious failure of the war. An active duty soldier did give a brief speech expressing his refusal to participate in a war with Iraq, but he sounded like the product of older handlers, handlers with an agenda more than stopping a war against Iraq.
On the wall hung banners, dusted off and taped up with the same determination the veterans mustered in their resistance to earlier wars: Veterans for Peace, Philadelphia Chapter; Vietnam -- Never Again! Stop The War In Central America. On the wall behind the podium, The Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and The Veterans for Peace, New York City Chapter. And of course the recognizable logo of helmet over rifle, The Vietnam Veterans Against The War.
For nearly three hours, eight speakers addressed a range of issues, opposition to a war with Iraq always the unifying theme. A retired Army major spoke about biological, chemical and radioactive contamination in the Gulf War, and promised similar exposure to our troops in a second war against Iraq. "One-third of Desert Storm forces now have disability compensation from the Veterans Administration." Although few were actually wounded in that war, many in the last decade have because seriously ill.
A representative of the Center for Constitutional Rights talked about how Americans' rights are under assault and how pervasive surveillance is diminishing our privacy. Several screams of "Ashcroft" echoed in the hall.
David Cline of Vietnam Veterans Against The War said: "When going into the military, we did not swear alliance to protect the flag and the reputation of the President. We swore to protect the Constitution."
A speaker opposed the racial profiling of Arabs; another honed-in on war for oil is not a just war. Every speaker pleaded that going to war in Iraq is not the answer, and every one received strong approval from the audience.
The strongest emotional trigger was a single word, chickenhawks! Referring to the men in the White House and the media who chose not to express their patriotism by fighting in Vietnam -- a war they strongly supported -- they chose instead educational and phony health deferments. Today these men are the hawks pressing to send another generation to another war while their children remain safe and secure, as they were safe and secure during the Vietnam War.
On several occasions, chickenhawks was shouted from the audience and a strong sense of contempt washed over the crowd of military veterans, followed by laughter laced with bitterness.
Conservative academics and politicians preach that class is not an issue in America, it's irrelevant in our modern society. When in the company of combat veterans, especially when the current Commander In Chief skirted his military duty and even went AWOL, you understand that war is still an intense class issue.
A few speakers displayed a certain bias against America -- "this is America, what do you expect" scuffed Ellen Barfield. But this was not the prevalent attitude. What distinguished this meeting from a typical non-veteran peace gathering was addressed eloquently by Marine combat veteran Jaime Vazquez when he answered his own question: what is patriotism? "I love my country. And the love of country is expressed as a willingness to stand up to and to resist your government. Patriotism is not blindly following the men of war, but resisting them."
It is the love of country -- which motivated most of these veterans to sacrifice for their country -- merged with the warrior spirit to resist, which inspires these men and women to resist the current plan for war. Having once fought in a war, now they fight against a war. And this seems natural to them.
"Once a patriot, always a patriot" I heard someone in a row behind me say. For this man, resisting his government bent on war is American patriotism.
The oldest speaker was Moe Fishman, a veteran who served in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade fighting the fascists in the Spanish Civil War. For over half a century, Moe has fought domestic battles against an opposition that inevitably waved the flag of patriotism to silence dissenters, even military veterans that dissented. "It's not my country right or wrong," he screamed with unshakable conviction, "but to make my country right when it is wrong."
Igor Bobobsky, a Vietnam veteran that served in the Marine Corps, told me that "if there is no draft, then there should be no war. What could be more patriotic than insisting everyone fight a war?"
Igor is very aware that if the draft was reinstated and exemptions from military service denied, then an entire class of Americans would quickly lose their enthusiasm to invade Iraq.
The neoconservatives and chichenhawks whose children are currently protected from military service and battlefield danger would suddenly discover viable alternatives to sending the U.S. military into Iraq. That is, sending their children into Iraq.
A speaker during the Speakout noted that the warriors in the Pentagon are significantly less keen about fighting Iraq than the chickenhawks in the White House. Combat experience makes options other than war very attractive. Surely, there are millions of veterans who reject a war against Iraq. Retired Generals are writing op-ed articles and even appearing on cable news channels to advise caution, some are demanding no war. Enlisted men are seldom heard, because they are never asked. Yesterday on the eve of Veterans Day, in New York City they spoke and they listened, some 350 strong. This, the organizers of the meeting believe, is the tip of an approaching ground swell of veterans' resisting a war against Iraq. The backbone of a movement than will soon spill into the streets of America.
# # #
Stewart Nusbaumer is editor of Intervention Magazine. Stewart is a veteran of the Vietnam War.
Posted Monday, Nov. 11, 2002
Copyright 2002 Intervention Magazine
http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=238
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a related article: Dissent Grows Within the Military
When former Secretary of the Navy James Webb slammed the war on Iraq last Thursday at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., he received a "respectful, admiring" response from his audience -- the students and faculty of one of the best military schools in the country.
As it turns out, most of them agree with Webb's position: attacking Iraq is dangerous, expensive, and a waste of time. If such expressions of dissent are surprising, one of the staff members reminds us, "Overall, military officers have a great openness of mind. There's a great capacity for innovative thinking. They've seen a lot, they've done a lot, they come here at mid-career. Now, we're getting many who are rotating out of Afghanistan. This isn't like four-star generals who are just thinking how to protect their conventional force structures." Or like chicken hawks within the Bush administration who are enamored with dreams of global domination.
Posted on November 11, 2002 @ 1038AM.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/
2) More DU Weapons in Afghanistan Than in Gulf War
U.S. Used More DU Weapons in Afghanistan Than in Persian Gulf War: Dracovic
TEHRAN TIMES POLITICAL DESK
November 9, 2002
http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=11/9/02&Cat=2&Num=026
TEHRAN -- "U.S. forces must refrain from using depleted uranium weapons like the ones they used in Afghanistan in their possible attack on Iraq," said the discoverer of Gulf War syndrome, Dr. Asef Dracovic, in an interview with Al-Jazeera television. He warned against the syndrome and said that if U.S. forces use depleted uranium (DU) in the threatened attack on Iraq, as they did in Afghanistan, it would have very serious implications.
Dracovic said that U.S. forces used more DU weapons in Afghanistan than they used in the Persian Gulf War and the Balkans wars, adding that if the same amounts were used in Iraq, it would have terrible consequences.
He stated that thousands of DU bombs were used by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
About 80,000 U.S., 15,000 Canadian, and a large number of British soldiers are suffering from Gulf War syndrome, but unfortunately the media has covered up the whole issue under pressure from the U.S. administration.
Meanwhile, in recent days there have been numerous reports about the birth of many disabled and deformed children in Afghanistan. A large number of health specialists in Afghanistan as well as international observers, including one of the officials of a local hospital, regard the increased number of birth defects in Afghanistan to be the direct result of the U.S dropping DU bombs on Afghanistan.
The use of DU weapons has not only harmed children but also has contaminated plant and animal life in the war-ravaged and impoverished country.
If U.S. forces use DU weapons in their threatened war against Iraq, two important Muslim countries of the region will suffer for years.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a Flyby News updated page with links and resources on Depleted Uranium, see:
(Item 4)
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid991363232,2156,m
3) Terror On the Hill
Terror On the Hill
By Marc Ash
Tr u t h o u t | Commentary
Sunday, 10 November, 2002
A Republican reader of ours called in yesterday and asked, "You don't really believe that Paul Wellstone was murdered, do you?"
What could I say to him? He asks what I ask, what you ask -- what every one of Wellstone's colleagues has asked themselves.
Terror is funny that way, it eats at the heart, intimidates the soul. Officially the crash that killed Wellstone, his wife, his daughter is viewed as an accident, but every member of Congress, their staffs and families, can do the math.
They know full well that Wellstone had crossed over the line. Wellstone had done what each one of them knows they dare not do - challenge the power brokers. They know that this man was willing to step right up in the face of the most powerful and ruthless people in the world and say, "No, you will not run roughshod over the community."
They know he's dead. They know his political opponent, Norm Coleman, a man hand-picked by those who Wellstone threatened, has conveniently risen to power in his place. Filibuster, anyone?
The crash itself has slipped quietly away. Not a single report of the circumstances surrounding the crash has come. We have no NTSB reports, no expert analysis no hard questions inconveniently raised prior to the election that would sweep the right to control of the entire federal government. Instead, the story has been pushed aside by news of glorious victories by those who oblige the powerful.
There were warnings, of course. Tom Daschle, that pesky obstructionist. managed to outflank the Republican leadership for a time and seize control of the Leader's office. He got a gift of deadly anthrax. Patrick Leahy, that radical from Vermont, made the unwise choice of opposing right-wing judges. His anthrax warning was likewise delivered.
Then there's the Mel Carnahan story. The former Missouri Governor opposed John Ashcroft for a US Senate seat, and subsequently died in small plane crash. Don't worry about widow Carnahan; she's out of the way now.
Wellstone was different, though. He was a wrestler; he let it be known that he would challenge the status quo head on. He would stand by his beliefs. While others seemed to heed the warnings, Paul Wellstone did not.
There is some historical precedent on which to draw; the death of Robert Kennedy in 1968 led to the ascension of Richard Nixon. Kennedy had campaigned, in part, on a platform to end the Vietnam War. To understand the ramifications of his death and Nixon's rise, go to the Vietnam memorial and look at all the names added after 1968.
The assassination of moderate Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 led to the rise of the Israeli right-wing. To understand the ramifications of that, see your morning paper.
The precedent set by the death of Wellstone and the subsequent ascension of his opponent Coleman has the gravest of implications. The two men espoused diametrically opposed ideologies. The shift from Wellstone to Coleman is as dramatic as any the US Senate has ever seen. It is a stark and immediate reversal of fortune ushered in by the grim reaper.
The classic horror film, "The Shining" opens with a child haunted by premonitions of violent death. He sees blood in rivers washing down hallways and faces of those long since dead. He keeps repeating over and over a word that no one understands: R-E-D-R-U-M. Only when the ax comes crashing through the bathroom door does the meaning of this word become all to clear, as it is viewed scrawled on the wall, reversed in the mirror.
# # #
You can send comments to t r u t h o u t Editor Marc Ash at ma@truthout.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a related article at TruthOut:
The Desert of the Real by William Rivers Pitt, see:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/11.12A.wrp.desert.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Also see this article in The Observer (UK)
"A dark week for democracy" by Will Hutton
The stranglehold the far Right has now taken on America will make it a more divided, reactionary and illiberal country
http://www.observer.co.uk/worldview/story/0,11581,837130,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For another related article:
"16 Questions on the Assassination" [of John F. Kennedy]
By Bertrand Russell
From "The Minority of One," 6 September 1964, pp. 6-8, see:
http://karws.gso.uri.edu/JFK/the_critics/russell/Sixteen_questions_Russell.html
4) Behind the Smile - the slick (oiled) G.O.P.
Behind the Smile
by Bob Hebert
NY Times
November 11, 2002
One of the definitions of slick is "deftly executed; adroit." Synonyms include "sly, shrewd, slippery, wily." These words came to mind as I watched the Republican Party's remarkable off-year election triumph last week. Give credit where it's due. Bill Clinton at his most devious was never as sly or as cunning (or as politically effective) as the Republican Party has become.
I think of the G.O.P. as the costume party. It wears a sunny mask, which conceals a reality that is far more ideological, far more extreme, than most Americans realize.
Among the less meaningful questions being asked in Washington is whether the Republicans, having won control of the Senate and strengthened their hold on the House, will now go too far and outpace their mandate. My question is: Where have you been? In a nation that is divided almost 50-50 politically, the Republicans flew past their mandate a long time ago.
Driven by its right wing and aided immeasurably by George W. Bush's genial smile, the G.O.P. is putting in place profoundly conservative policies that will hamper progressive efforts for decades to come, no matter what happens in upcoming elections.
With the help of Democrats who should have known better, the Republicans have already enacted a huge and potentially hazardous round of tax cuts. In an environment in which budget deficits have returned and war appears to be imminent, common sense would seem to suggest that the government tread softly on tax cuts for the time being. But a key element of the G.O.P. agenda in the immediate aftermath of last week's stunning victories was a plan to make the current tax cuts permanent and enact a new package of cuts.
There is a method to the G.O.P.'s tax cut madness, beyond the obvious benefits to the very rich. Conservatives have long reasoned that the only way to destroy popular programs that actually help ordinary Americans (Social Security, Medicare and so on) is to starve the government of the money needed to pay for them.
The intensity of the conservative opposition to such programs can be startling. To Ronald Reagan, for example, Medicare was an affront to the very idea of America. The historian Robert Dallek noted that Mr. Reagan "saw Medicare as the advance wave of socialism, which would 'invade every area of freedom in this country.' "
During a budget fight in the mid-90's, Newt Gingrich, apparently referring to the original fee-for-service version of Medicare, which had become cherished by the elderly, wisecracked: "We don't get rid of it in Round One because we don't think it's politically smart."
The way to cripple such programs without openly opposing them is to bleed the government of the money to pay for them. With the prospect of budget deficits stretching far into the future, and with the first wave of baby boomers already well into their 50's, the day of reckoning for Social Security and Medicare is not far off.
The right wing of the G.O.P. has also proved itself hostile to environmental protection, and to the myriad health and safety regulations that protect Americans against poisonous foods and other dangerous products and practices.
One of its most important leaders in those fights, Representative Tom DeLay, will now ascend to the post of House majority leader.
How extreme is Mr. DeLay? When the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to the discoverers of the link between chlorofluorocarbons and ozone depletion, Mr. DeLay mocked the award as the "Nobel Appeasement Prize."
And then there are the federal courts, which are being packed by conservatives from coast to coast, with the big prize - appointments to the Supreme Court - still to come.
Over the next couple of years as many as three (or more) Supreme Court vacancies could open, which could determine the direction of the court for the next 30 years. President Bush has made it clear that he favors justices in the mode of Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia. With two more justices like that, progressive government would be caught in the devastating trap of a right-wing assault from all sides - the White House, the Congress and the courts - with the Treasury drained of all money for new initiatives.
Slick? Adroit? Any number of adjectives will do. How about dangerous?
Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/11/opinion/11HERB.html?ex=1038050948&ei=1&en=77
5) MA Election Update Randall Forsberg for US Senate
The following is an update by Randall Forsberg, who ran as a write-in candidate, opposed to John Kerry (who was unopposed by any Republican candidate) for US Senate. Forsberg ran to defeat Kerry and discourage him from Presidential ambitions, because of his vote ignoring his constituents to authorize President Bush to unilaterally and preemptively attack Iraq.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
From Randall Forsberg to volunteers, supporters, and voters
Re: Election Update
PF Soto, our terrific webmaster, has just finished putting up the most recently compiled election results at http://www.rforsberg.com/results.htm .
As of this weekend, we have compiled results from 270 out of 351 towns. The Forsberg vote total (it will probably be close to 25,000 when counting is done) is lower than I had hoped. If we had been able to recruit poll volunteers in every town, my hope was to get 100,000 votes and thereby get national attention.
But the good news is that if we had had volunteers in every town, it seems likely that we would have gotten closer to 200,000 than 100,000 votes!
..My conclusion from this is that if we had a month or more to organize polling place volunteers, instead of less than two weeks, and if we had done door-to-door leaf-letting where polling place coverage is ineffective, we might have come close to that 10,000 hours (3,000 people averaging 3 hours each, and willing to drive to uncovered polling places). In that case, I think we might well have gotten not just 100,000 votes, but possibly as much as 200,000.
..So I conclude from our experiment in direct democracy and our attempt to send Kerry (if not the nation) a message is that this practice run -- with no money for direct mail or staff telephoning, no experience or practice, very little time to organize, almost no publicity in statewide mass media, and great difficulty voting at places with levers -- demonstrates the enormous potential impact of grassroots organizing on electoral politics. Upward and Onward!
Request
I have taken a month off from work, unpaid, to conduct this campaign. Tomorrow I will be returning to my paid work, conducting research and writing for the IDDS monthly reference journal, the Arms Control Reporter - see: http://www.idds.org .
..I still have close to $5000 in campaign expenses (mainly lawn signs and flyer printing, but also telephone, office rent, etc) not paid off on my credit card. It would be a big help to me personally (in a tight spot financially) if all of you who have not already contributed could make whatever contribution you can afford to help pay off this debt -- $10, $25, $50, or $100 -- and/or pass on this email to friends who voted for me. I believe that responses in that range will cover the whole amount. Checks should be made to Committee to Write-in Randall Forsberg and mailed to me at: Randall Forsberg, 950 Mass. Ave, Apt 512, Cambridge MA 02139.
Future Plans
Many people encouraged me to run for U.S. Senate in future; and if the seat held by Kerry or Kennedy opens up, I will do so. It was a wonderful experience to have such terrific support and encouragement out there; and I think that I am qualified to be a Senator, and could offer some national leadership on the issues of foreign and military policy in that position.
In the meantime: The results of the 2002 election nationwide have made me more determined than ever to continue with a project I launched last June, in cooperation with David Cortright (former long-time head of Sane, and now, as president of Fourth Freedom Forum, http://www.fourthfreedom.org, a leader of national efforts to prevent war in Iraq), and Jonathan Schell, author of the Fate of the Earth, the Gift of Time, the Abolition, and many other important books on nuclear weapons and matters of war and peace (new one next spring). This is UrgentCall.org, a web-based, coalition-based project, which I am now directing, to recruit 1-10 million participants nationwide, who contribute $10/year to support a national education/outreach/advertising campaign that will make US nuclear weapon policy, and military and foreign policy more generally, a major issue in the 2004 elections and beyond. We are looking for participants who will stick with this issue, and this coalition-based effort!
If you are interested in participating in this campaign to change America, please go to the UrgentCall.org web site,
http://www.UrgentCall.org
Invitation
Because UrgentCall.org effort is headquartered at IDDS in Cambridge, we are looking for volunteers to help launch this national campaign. The first meeting of volunteers (planned before I decided on the write-in campaign) will take place at the IDDS 8th floor conference room, 675 Mass. Ave (corner of Mass Ave and Prospect, in Central Square), Cambridge, this coming Thursday, Nov 14, 7-9 pm.
You are welcome to participate in this start-up meeting. Please email me with subject line UrgentCall Nov 14 if you plan to come, so we have some idea of the number of people to expect.
If you would like a volunteer assignment, but cannot make this meeting (or prefer not to come to any meetings!), please email me with the subject line UrgentCall volunteer.
In either case, please be sure to go to the UrgentCall.org web site, and sign the Urgent Call, so that you know what it is about before you volunteer! An draft agenda for the meeting, showing the kinds of volunteer help we need, will be sent out to those who reply.
A Huge Thank You
I am immensely grateful to the many people who spent a great deal of time and effort to produce the amazing results we achieved in the towns with volunteer efforts.
http://www.rforsberg.com/
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Carbon Rise * Anti-War * Human Rights * DU * Lori 33
11 November 2002
1) Carbon Dioxide on the Rise
2) Half-A-Million March in Anti-War Rally in Italy
3) Veteran Doug Rokke and Depleted Uranium
4) Human Rights Clemency for Desmond Carter
5) Lori Berenson Turns 33 in Peruvian Prison
Editor's Notes:
All the drumming for war can make this first item easily overlooked, for a little while, until it sinks in on the impact of exponentially rising increases of carbon saturation in our atmosphere. This item is on the latest information on these increases by forest fires, but not just the forest fire burning experienced in the US, but the burning of peatlands. A new study published in Nature magazine shows how such fires in Indonesia is significantly taking carbon from the Earth and placing it into our atmosphere. Life balance going up in smoke!
Item 2 is on the a demonstration in Italy where 500,000 people protested the US push to attack Iraq. And while the US propaganda machine makes believe that casualties of the Gulf War were light, think again. 159,000 Gulf War vets are on disability for service related injury and illness. This item 3 features the great work of Major Doug Rokke, a U.S. Army Depleted Uranium Project director from 1994 1995. His work honors all veterans, and he offers a warning about the dangers of exploded depleted uranium from personal experience.
For more information on this and other events, visit Flyby News homepage - http://www.flybynews.com
[Please note that Helen Caldicott is speaking at Smith College in Northampton, MA on November 12, and Dr. Gordon Thompson, executive director of the Institute for Resource and Security Studies, will address the vulnerability of nuclear reactor sites this week, too.]
Item 4 is critical for most all of us to respond soon in honor of human rights. The State of North Carolina plans to execute Desmond Carter on December 10 (Human Rights Day) 2002. The State refuses to take responsibility for not giving treatment to Desmond, who was turned away due to insurance non-coverage for substance abuse treatment that was requested by his family; yet it would take the responsibility to take his life? Please Do Something! Read this item and write to Governor Michael F. Easley. Item 5 is on another human rights case with an update on Lori Berenson, who just celebrated her 33rd birthday, still confined to a Peruvian prison.
Please take actions this week
A little time out of your life can make all the difference!
1) Carbon Dioxide on the Rise
Thursday, 7 November, 2002, 00:07 GMT
BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2413375.stm
Wildfires blamed for greenhouse gas rise
Billions of tons of carbon is released by wildfires
New research has shown that the forest fires which ravaged South East Asia five years ago caused a massive increase in levels of the greenhouse gases which are blamed for global warming.
Scientists from Indonesia and Europe believe that between 0.8 and 2.6 billion tonnes of carbon entered the atmosphere after the fires in Indonesia - contributing to the biggest annual increase in carbon emissions since records began.
Almost a million hectares of forest were destroyed in the fires, mainly in Borneo and Sumatra, which produced a choking smog across much of southeast Asia.
It is thought they were sparked off by loggers, industrialists and farmers after the failure of seasonal rains created ideal conditions for a blaze.
Land clearance blamed
The scientists, whose research is published in Nature,* also found that most of the carbon did not come from the burnt trees but from smouldering deposits of peat.
Tropical peatlands store huge amounts of carbon which, the scientists say, could be released by forest fires in the future.
"Carbon dioxide is known to be responsible for the global warming of the atmosphere of the Earth," said the head of the team of scientists, Dr Susan Page, from the University of Leicester in the UK.
"Recurrent fires have, therefore, the threatening potential of making a very significant contribution to this warming."
Carbon produced by the fires accounted for 13%-40% of that year's total worldwide emissions - produced by the burning of fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas.
The scientists warned that the continued use of fire as a means of clearing land would lead to higher emissions of carbon dioxide unless policies were changed.
The Indonesian fires five years ago were set off when timber and plantation companies tried to clear land.
The fires then spread due to a prolonged drought blamed on the El Nino climate phenomenon. El Nino is a swell of warm water in the Pacific Ocean that affects global weather patterns.
Dr Page's team worked in the Central Kalimantan province of Borneo, where 8,000 square kilometres of swamp forest were scorched.
They used satellite data to estimate the amount of carbon released by the wildfires.
In total, the fires covered about 60,000 square kilometres of Indonesia's peat swamp overall - an area twice the size of Belgium.
That makes up around one-third of the archipelago's total peat swamp.
# # #
For the article in Nature:
Burning bogs belch carbon
Global-warming models should account for peat in forest fires.
7 November 2002, see:
http://www.nature.com/nsu/021104/021104-11.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
A program aired on NPR's All Things Considered:
"Indonesian Wildfires Tied to Global Warming"
can be found at
http://discover.npr.org/rundowns/segment.jhtml?wfId=836692
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For Flyby News updated page on Global Warming, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1014396414,10278,
2) Half-A-Million March in Anti-War Rally in Italy
florence, italy 500,000 protest
November 09, 2002 01:56 PM ET
By Luke Baker
FLORENCE, Italy (Reuters) - More than half a million anti-war protesters from across Europe marched through this Italian Renaissance city on Saturday in a loud and colorful demonstration
denouncing any possible U.S. attack on Iraq.
Brimming with anti-American feelings and riled by a tough new U.N. resolution to disarm Iraq, young and old activists from as far afield as Russia and Portugal joined forces for the carnival-like rally, singing Communist anthems and 1970s peace songs.
"Take your war and go to hell," read one banner, in a forest of multi-colored and multi-lingual placards.
"Drop Bush, not Bombs" read another. Some placards depicted President Bush as Hitler and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as Mussolini.
Organizers said the rally, planned months ago, gained added relevance by Friday's U.N. Security Council resolution which gave Iraq a last chance to disarm or face almost certain war.
The protest, involving children as well as grandmothers, marked the climax of the first European Social Forum, a four-day meeting of anti-globalisation campaigners from all over Europe. Delegates discussed topics from debt-reduction to support for the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
Florence has been virtually shut down for the November 6-10 period, with the State Department advising its citizens to steer clear of Italy's art capital over concerns that violent, anarchist groups
might infiltrate the demonstration.
Authorities estimated that some 450,000 protesters flooded Florence's streets for the march on a chilly autumn afternoon.
But by dusk, the crowed had swelled to over half a million, many of them arriving on specially chartered trains and buses. Organizers estimated the gathering at around one million, making it one of Italy's biggest ever anti-war rallies.
Despite the large crowds, the march was largely peaceful and no incidents were reported.
3) Veteran Doug Rokke and Depleted Uranium
In service to his country, in honor of all Veterans, Major Doug Rokke is speaking out on exposure to depleted uranium from personal experience, and he is challenging the Army to use the training video he created as a health physicist assigned to the U.S. Army Depleted Uranium Assessment team in the Gulf War. Thirty of roughly 100 DU team members have since died. All but one are sick; that one did mostly paperwork.
Depleted Uranium is a heavy metal and radioactive waste used in the manufacture of munitions. Rokke was the U.S. Army Depleted Uranium Project director from 1994 1995, and directed the development, instruction, and assessment of radiation safety education and field procedures for the U.S. Army at the Bradley Radiological Laboratories, Fort McClellan, AL from 1996-1997, so he brings both personal and professional experience regarding the on-going use of DU.
159,000 Gulf War vets are on disability for service related injury and illness as of May, 2002. Over 20,000 claims await the V.A. Over 20,000 claims have been denied.
In honor of Veterans' Day, Traprock Peace Center has coordinated a multi-state tour for Major Doug Rokke
Nov. 10 - NYC
Nov. 12 - New Haven
Nov. 12 - Boston
Nov. 13 - Portland, ME
Nov. 16 in Seattle, WA
Nov. 25 in Sacramento, CA
For information on this tour and future programs, contact:
Traprock Peace Center
http://www.traprockpeace.org
Tel. 413-773-7427
also, for more information:
National Gulf War Resource Center, Inc.
http://www.ngwrc.org
and visit Flyby News Archives info on "harm by exposure to exploded depleted uranium shells"
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid991363232,2156,
4) Human Rights Clemency for Desmond Carter
Some of the following is excerpted from
Amnesty Int'l Urgent Action Appeal
Date: Thu, 07 Nov 2002 18:33:54 -0500
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Desmond Carter is scheduled to be executed in North Carolina on 10 December - International Human Rights Day. He was sentenced to death in July 1993 for the murder of Helen Purdy in March 1992. Helen Purdy, a 71-year-old woman, was Desmond Carter's next-door neighbour in Eden, Rockingham County, northern North Carolina. She was found stabbed to death in her house by family members. At the time of the crime, Desmond Carter was reportedly intoxicated on alcohol, cocaine, and tranquilizers. He had taken $15 from Helen Purdy, which he used to buy cocaine.
Desmond Carter was born to a 17-year-old mother in 1967. When he was three, his mother moved away, leaving him with his grandmother and alcoholic grandfather. The grandmother eventually left the grandfather and she and the child moved to North Carolina. During this time, Desmond Carter's father was imprisoned for murder. According to his current lawyers, Desmond Carter began using drugs when he was a teenager, and his substance abuse deteriorated over time. Not long before the murder of Helen Purdy, his grandmother tried to obtain substance abuse and mental health treatment for her grandson, however the hospital refused him treatment due to his lack of medical insurance cover.
In common with most capital defendants in the USA, Carter was too poor to hire his own lawyer to represent him at the murder trial. A study by the Common Sense Foundation, a research organization based in Raleigh, North Carolina, has concluded that more than 1 in 6 of the state's current death row inmates were represented at trial by lawyers who have been disciplined by the State Bar. One of Desmond Carter's court-appointed trial lawyers was recently reprimanded by the State Bar for making demeaning statements about a client in the media and for charging excessive fees.
Desmond Carter is black and Helen Purdy was white. A preliminary study issued in 2001 by researchers at the University of North Carolina indicates that people in the state who kill white people are 3.5 times more likely to receive a death sentence than for murders involving victims who are not white. This likelihood increases if the defendant is not white. About 40 % of murder victims in North Carolina are white, yet 86 % of the 21 people executed there since resumption of executions were put to death for crimes involving white victims. This pattern is reflected in Rockingham County. More than half of murder victims there are African American; in cases which have resulted in death sentences, seven of the eight murder victims were white (87.5 %).
----------------------------------------------------------------
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Please send appeals, to arrive as quickly as possible, in your own words:
- expressing sympathy for the family and friends of Helen Purdy, and explaining that you are not seeking to condone the manner of her death or to minimize the suffering caused;
- noting that studies have consistently pointed to race as a factor in the US death penalty, and expressing concern that this appears to be reflected in North Carolina's capital sentencing, including in Rockingham County;
- noting that Maryland's governor recently imposed a moratorium on executions in his state because of concern about the possible role of race in death penalty cases;
- noting the role that poverty also appears to have played in this case;
- urging clemency for Desmond Carter in the interest of fairness, compassion, and the reputation of North Carolina;
- calling on the governor to impose a moratorium on executions in North Carolina.
APPEALS TO:
Governor Michael F. Easley
Office of the Governor
20301 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-0301
Fax: 1 919 715-3175 or 1 919 733-2120
Email, via website: www.governor.state.nc.us (Click on 'contact us').
# # #
Please contact the Governor of North Carolina and urge him to grant clemency on behalf of Desmond Carter (inmate # 0068237). You can contact him via mail, email, fax or phone at the above address. The Governor needs to hear that there are a lot of people who love and care about Desmond Carter and are watching what happens. Important: Desmond's family needs a record of all letters, faxes, emails, and telephone calls to the Governor. If you or your friends send a letter, please send a copy to Tyrone Wallace at the following contact information. - Get your friends and local state representatives to contact North Carolina Governor, Michael F. Easley.
Tyrone Wallace
97 Hawley Street, Northampton, MA 01060
(work) (413) 586-4900 ext. 161
(home) (413) 536-7320
(email) twallace@collaborative.org
You can write Desmond Carter directly.
Desmond Carter #0068237
1300 Western Blvd.
Raleigh, NC 27606
You may also copy your appeals or write a brief letter (not more than 250 words) to:
Letters to the Editor
The News-Observer
PO Box 191
Raleigh, NC 27602
Fax: 1 919-829-4872
E-mail: forum@newsobserver.com
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
5) Lori Berenson Turns 33 in Peruvian Prison
Friday, November 8, 2002
To All Friends and Supporters of Lori Berenson:
RHODA VISITS LORI FOR HER 33RD BIRTHDAY
Although Lori won't "celebrate" her 33rd birthday until November 13, Rhoda recently visited her for this occasion and found her in good spirits, despite the five-month rainy season that commenced in Cajamarca. She continues to spend her days reading, writing, knitting or making greeting cards. Hopefully, this will be Lori's last birthday wrongfully spent in a Peruvian prison.
LORI BACK IN THE PERUVIAN NEWS
Worried about a future Inter-American Court decision favoring Lori, the Peruvian government has resorted to "scare tactics" reminiscent of the Fujimori-Montesinos regime. Key Peruvian officials have absurdly declared that the "floodgates" will be opened and hundreds of prisoners will be freed. And Peruvian Justice Minister Fausto Alvarado, trying to "defend the indefensible," claimed that Peru's illegal anti-terrorism legislation, developed by the Fujimori-Montesinos dictatorship to quash opposition as much as to quash terrorism, is "perfectly fine" and he hinted that Peru might withdraw from the jurisdiction of the OAS Court system if the decision by that body favors Lori. Other Peruvian politicians, in an unfortunate and unfounded display of nationalism, urged Peru to withdraw now rather than comply with its international obligations and commitments - such is the new Peruvian democracy!!! Several weeks ago, in our last update, we reported that President Toledo and Foreign Minister Wagner said that Peru would totally comply with the decision of the Court. Now these two Peruvian leaders are conspicuously quiet - perhaps allowing others to speak for them. President Bush will have to remind President Toledo that the government and people of the United States are concerned with Lori Berenson's well-being and expect the government of Peru to comply with the decision of the Court.
Meanwhile, the focus on Lori's case and its ramifications for other political prisoners serves as a smokescreen to cover twenty years of government-sponsored terrorism that has been documented by the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This week the Commission announced that to date 7,618 persons are known to have been "kidnapped and disappeared" over the two decades (1980 - 2000) and the list is still growing. To date, 84.0 % of these acts are known to have been committed by Peruvian military or police, 0.7 % are known to have been committed by rebel groups, and 15.3% were committed by unknown parties.
Rhoda and Mark Berenson
Website: http://www.freelori.org
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
December 21, 2012
FN plans to maintain its resources for life's survival in the 21st Century until at least December 21, 2012.
This is the ending/beginning of a 25,800 cycle in an Ancient Maya calendar. When FN first posted this page
we found 125,000 listings when submitting "December 21 2012" for a Google search. The following is just
a sampling of a few. We plan to reassess the situation after this date, and go on from there..
What the Mayan Elders are Saying About 2012
by Carlos Barrios - (December 2011)
Carlos Barrios, Mayan elder and Ajq'ij (is a ceremonial priest and spiritual guide) of the Eagle Clan. Carlos initiated an investigation into the different Mayan calendars circulating. Carlos along with his brother Gerardo studied with many teachers and interviewed nearly 600 traditional Mayan elders to widen their scope of knowledge.
Carlos found out quickly there were several conflicting interpretations of Mayan hieroglyphs, petroglyphs, Sacred Books of 'Chilam Balam' and various ancient text. Carlos found some strong words for those who may have contributed to the confusion:
Carlos Barrios: "Anthropologists visit the temple sites and read the inscriptions and make up stories about the Maya, but they do not read the signs correctly. It's just their imagination. Other people write about prophecy in the name of the Maya. They say that the world will end in December 2012. The Mayan elders are angry with this. The world will not end. It will be transformed."
"We are no longer in the World of the Fourth Sun, but we are not yet in the World of the Fifth Sun. This is the time in-between, the time of transition. As we pass through transition there is a colossal, global convergence of environmental destruction, social chaos, war, and ongoing Earth Changes."
He continues: "Humanity will continue, but in a different way. Material structures will change. From this we will have the opportunity to be more human. We are living in the most important era of the Mayan calendars and prophecies. All the prophecies of the world, all the traditions are converging now. There is no time for games. The spiritual ideal of this era is action."
Carlos tells us: "The indigenous have the calendars and know how to accurately interpret it -- not others. The Mayan Calendars comprehension of time, seasons, and cycles has proven itself to be vast and sophisticated. The Maya understand 17 different calendars such as the Tzolk'in or Cholq'ij, some of them charting time accurately over a span of more than ten million years.
"All was predicted by the mathematical cycles of the Mayan calendars. -- It will change --everything will change. Mayan Day-keepers view the Dec. 21, 2012 date as a rebirth, the start of the World of the Fifth Sun. It will be the start of a new era resulting from and signified by the solar meridian crossing the galactic equator and the Earth aligning itself with the center of the galaxy."
At sunrise on December 21, 2012 for the first time in 26,000 years the Sun rises to conjunct the intersection of the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic. This cosmic cross is considered to be an embodiment of the Sacred Tree, The Tree of Life, a tree remembered in all the world's spiritual traditions.
Some observers say this alignment with the heart of the galaxy in 2012 will open a channel for cosmic energy to flow through the Earth, cleansing it and all that dwells upon it, raising all to a higher level of vibration. Carlos reminds us: "This process has already begun. Change is accelerating now and it will continue to accelerate.
If the people of the Earth can get to this 2012 date in good shape without having destroyed too much of the Earth, we will rise to a new, higher level. But to get there we must transform enormously powerful forces that seek to block the way."
The date specified in the calendar Winter Solstice in the year 2012 does not mark the end of the world. Many outside people writing about the Mayan calendar sensationalize this date, but they do not know. The ones who know are the indigenous elders who are entrusted with keeping the tradition.
Carlos tells us: "The economy now is a fiction. The first five-year stretch of transition from August 1987 to August 1992 was the beginning of the destruction of the material world. We have progressed ten years deeper into the transition phase by now, and many of the so-called sources of financial stability are in fact hollow. The banks are weak. This is a delicate moment for them. They could crash globally, if we don't pay attention. Now, people are paying attention."
The North and South Poles are both breaking up. The level of the water in the oceans is going to rise. But at the same time land in the ocean, especially near Cuba, is also going to rise. Carlos tells a story about the most recent Mayan New Year ceremonies in Guatemala. He said that one respected Mam elder, who lives all year in a solitary mountain cave, journeyed to Chichicastenango to speak with the people at the ceremony. The elder delivered a simple, direct message. He called for human beings to come together in support of life and light.
"Right now each person and group is going his or her own way. The elder of the mountains said there is hope if the people of the light can come together and unite in some way. We live in a world of polarity -- day and night, man and woman, positive and negative. Light and darkness need each other. They are a balance."
"Just now the dark side is very strong, and very clear about what they want. They have their vision and their priorities clearly held, and also their hierarchy. They are working in many ways so that we will be unable to connect with the spiral Fifth World in 2012."
"On the light side everyone thinks they are the most important, that their own understandings, or their group's understandings, are the key. There's a diversity of cultures and opinions, so there is competition, diffusion, and no single focus."
Carlos believes the dark side works to block unity through denial and materialism. It also works to destroy those who are working with the light to get the Earth to a higher level. They like the energy of the old, declining Fourth World, the materialism. They do not want it to change. They do not want unity. They want to stay at this level, and are afraid of the next level.
The dark power of the declining Fourth World cannot be destroyed or overpowered. It's too strong and clear for that, and that is the wrong strategy. The dark can only be transformed when confronted with simplicity and open-heartedness. This is what leads to unity, a key concept for the World of the Fifth Sun.
Carlos said the emerging era of the Fifth Sun will call attention to a much-overlooked element. Whereas the four traditional elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water have dominated various epochs in the past, there will be a fifth element to reckon with in the time of the Fifth Sun --- that element is 'ETHER'.
The dictionary defines Ether as a "hypothetical substance supposed to occupy all space, postulated to account for the propagation of electromagnetic radiation through space." Perhaps it could be defined as the "space between space". I would suggest it could be manifest as the alignment of charged particles from our solar system (Sun), and our galaxy (Milky Way) surge. The Ether element represents spiritual energy.
"The element of the Fifth Sun is celestial. Within the context of Ether there can be a joining of the polarities. No more darkness or light in the people, but an uplifted unity. But right now the realm of darkness is not interested in this. They are organized to block it. They seek to unbalance the Earth and its environment so we will be unready for the alignment in 2012."
"We need to work together for peace, and balance with the other side. We need to take care of the Earth that feeds and shelters us. We need to put our entire mind and heart into pursuing unity and unity now, to confront the other side and preserve life."
"We are disturbed -- we can't play anymore. Our planet can be renewed or ravaged. Now is the time to awaken and take action. Everyone is needed. You are not here for no reason. Everyone who is here now has an important purpose. This is a hard but a special time. We have the opportunity for growth, but we must be ready for this moment in history."
Carlos says: "The prophesied changes are going to happen, but our attitude and actions determine how harsh or mild they are. We need to act, to make changes, and to elect people to represent us who understand and who will take political action to respect the Earth."
"Meditation and spiritual practice are good, but also action. It's very important to be clear about who you are, and also about your relation to the Earth. Develop yourself according to your own tradition and the call of your heart. But remember to respect differences, and strive for unity. Eat wisely --- a lot of food is corrupt in either subtle or gross ways. Pay attention to what you are taking into your body. Learn to preserve food, and to conserve energy. Learn some good breathing techniques, so you have mastery of your breath. Be clear. Follow a tradition with great roots. It is not important what tradition, your heart will tell you, but it must have great roots."
"We live in a world of energy. An important task at this time is to learn to sense or see the energy of everyone and everything -- people, plants, animals. This becomes increasingly important as we draw close to the World of the Fifth Sun, for it is associated with the element 'ether' -- the realm where energy lives and weaves. Go to the sacred places of the Earth to pray for peace, and have respect for the Earth which gives us our food, clothing, and shelter. We need to reactivate the energy of these sacred places. That is our work."
"One simple but effective prayer technique is to light white or baby-blue colored candles. Think of a moment in peace. Speak your intention to the flame and send the light of it on to the leaders who have the power to make war or peace."
Carlos reminds us this is a crucially important moment for humanity and for Earth. Each person is important.
He said the elders have opened the doors so that other races can come to the Mayan world to receive the tradition. "The Maya have long appreciated and respected that there are other colors, other races, and other spiritual systems. They know that the destiny of the Mayan world is related to the destiny of the whole world."
"The greatest wisdom is in simplicity. Love, respect, tolerance, sharing, gratitude, forgiveness. It's not complex or elaborate. The real knowledge is free. It's encoded in your DNA. All you need is within you. Great teachers have said that from the beginning. Find your heart, and you will find your way."
Sunday New York Times December 21, 2012
The Final Days
By BENJAMIN ANASTAS
Published July 1, 2007
[EXCERPT]
The year 2012 first entered the public consciousness two decades ago this August with the Harmonic Convergence organized by Jos Arguelles, the author of a number of esoteric books about the Mayan cosmos and his experiences with telepathically received prophecies. With a penchant for promotion going back to the first Whole Earth Festival in 1970, which he organized, Arguelles promoted the convergence as an earth-changing event requiring 144,000 participants the number echoed Mayan mathematics and the Book of Revelation to free the planet from the dissonant influence of Western science and synchronize with the wave harmonic of history set to culminate in 2012. Mayan civilization, to Arguelles, was not entirely Mayan: It was originally a terrestrial project managed by a race of galactic masters from star bases. In the introduction to his book Maya Cosmogenesis 2012: The True Meaning of the Maya Calendar End Date,
John Major Jenkins describes his first visit to Tikal, the vast ruin in the Guatemalan rain forest that thrived as an urban center at the pinnacle of Mayan civilization. Jenkins, perhaps the most lucid figure in the subculture of 2012 prophets, writes of the bone-jarring 16-hour bus ride on muddy and dangerous roads that carried him to a sprawling former metropolis of pyramids, palaces, residences, ball-courts and scores of engraved monumental stones, or stelae, decorated with intricate, otherworldly images and hieroglyphs.
Sitting on the stone steps of the Central Acropolis, Jenkins recalls, I looked around me at the towering sentinels of stone, their upper platforms stretching above the jungle canopy like altars to the stars, and I listened carefully to the wind whisper messages of a far-off time, and of another world.
Jenkins wasnt the first 22-year-old traveler with spiritual yearnings to encounter the sublime at a Mayan archaeological site, but he is one of the few who has found a lifes vocation in the process. As harmonically as Jenkins was struck in Guatemala by the larger mysteries of the Maya, however, it was the calendar that really seized him specifically the fact that there were Maya living in the highlands who still followed the same day count as their distant ancestors. (A common misconception is that the Maya disappeared when their cities emptied; there are six million Maya currently living in the states of Central America, a number far larger than population estimates of Mayan civilization during the Classic period.)
Here was an unbroken tradition, Jenkins told me when I went to visit him at his home in Windsor, Colo., one afternoon in late March. Influenced by the work of the pioneering psychedelic writer Terence McKenna whose Timewave Zero system, based on computer analysis of the I Ching, also shows history to be culminating on Dec. 21, 2012 Jenkins argues that ancient Maya calendar priests were able to chart a 26,000-year astronomical cycle called the precession of the equinoxes with the naked eye. He fixed the 2012 end date to coincide with a galactic alignment of the winter-solstice sun and the axis that modern astonomers draw to bisect the Milky Way, called the galactic equator.
In the alchemical tradition, Jenkins notes, eclipses signify the transcending of the opposites. During the period around 2012, Jenkins says, the galaxy will provide the opportunity for the rebirth of creation and a reconciliation of infinity and finitude, time and eternity. The Maya knew it, and just like an alarm clock, they set their calendar to coincide with the occasion.
I asked Jenkins how he viewed the passing of one world-age cycle into another in December 2012, and he paused. It was a little bit like asking a seismologist what he thinks about earthquakes.
2012 is such a profound archetype, Jenkins went on. Here we are five and a half years before the date, and already theres so much interest. Personally, I think its about transformation and renewal. Its certainly nothing as simplistic as the end of the world.
But what about the connection many people see between the approach of 2012 and environmental crisis? I asked. What about the popular link between the Maya and end-time prophecy? A lot of people are talking about apocalypse right now, he said, but theres a deeper meditation that can and should happen around the end date.
It is a splendid, human-size dream, that an ancient people revered for unearthly wisdom could climb aboard a calendar ship and redeem us from our troubled world and the confines of our vexing natures. Dec. 21, 2012, is already here long before the date arrives and perhaps it has always been. End dates are not the stuff of fantasy, after all; each and every one of us has a terminal appointment inscribed in our calendars. And the end might just arrive sooner. Perhaps that is why we need to imagine a supernatural force with one eye on a ticking clock, waiting to make everything new again.
For the original New York Times article, see:
www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/magazine/01world-t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
"According to the Inca perspective we are now entering the sixth world age, the sixth sun. This is consistent with the Aztec and Toltec beliefs. The Maya mark their world ages a bit differently. Their new sun, the fifth world age, will begin when their current calendar ends, December 21, 2012.
The critical point to remember is that each new sun, or world age was marked by a period of great transformation and cultural upheaval - a time that literally resulted in a shift of a cultural worldview. Some cultures actually believe that the light, the light coming from the sun, shifts in vibration, resulting in a literal new sun.
A new precessional cycle is a big deal. It only happens once every 25,800 years. The classical Maya who apparently were masters of large cycles of time, believed that a precessional cycle marked a specific time of spiritual evolution. Thus, a new cycle of spiritual evolution is now beginning as marked by their 2012 calendar end point.
Author John Major Jenkins points out that on December 21, 2012, the solstice our solar system will be in conjunction with the galactic center. This has not happened for 25,800 years. The center of the Milky Way, our galaxy may be a black hole from which all life in the galaxy originated. The Maya knew of its location and considered it our cosmic womb. Jenkins believes that the Mayan calendar and their current world age ends in 2012 because a new cycle of cosmic fertilization of humanity will begin with the new galactic conjunction. This will mark a time of spiritual rebirth and renewal for all of humanity, a golden age.
The prophecies speak of potential, not certainly. It all depends on us. One thing is clear, it has never been more important for each of us and for humanity as a whole to awaken."
Source: www.web-of-light.com/prophecies.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
An End of Days and The Sun is On the Cross
(C)2001 TimeCrystal
It is like a large check mark on the calendar. A pointer aimed at 13.0.0.0.0, the "End Date" of the Mayan Calendar. It is so significant that the calendar just comes to a stop. It's the longest short sheet of all time. This date is also known as December 21, 2012, the day of the Winter Solstice. But what is this check mark trying to tell us. What are we suppose to remember that day?
The Mayan calendar started in 3113 BC. But, most of the documents that would tell us what this calendar was for were destroyed long ago. In Mesoamerica, South Amaerica and on Easter Island, zealot priests destroyed almost all the written documents. The library at Alexandria in Egypt was distorted by fire. Almost all ancient books in China were destroyed on the order of a dying emperor.
Yet not all was lost. Writings on stone, lost to the world when the past was being destroyed, have since been found. In Mesopotamia were found thousands of clay tablets. On these tablets is the description of a society in which the government, economy and religion is controlled by one organization. This organization is a family of fallen gods . In Mesoamerica, the writings are on the temples, altars and other stone structures. Even better, in Mesoamerica, there still live the descendants of these ancient people. They have been practicing the rituals all along.
So here we are. Someone put this big check mark on the calendar. If there was a note telling us what the mark is for, it was destroyed with most of the history of the ancient world. So what is one to do? Look for clues..
Source: www.artideas.com/Why2012/Why2012.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
THE HOW AND WHY OF THE MAYAN END DATE IN 2012 A.D.
by John Major Jenkins
May 23rd, 1994
Originally published in the Dec-Jan '95 issue of Mountain Astrologer.
This essay is not contrived upon sketchy evidence. It basically rests upon two facts:
1) the well known end date of the 13-baktun cycle of the Mayan Long Count, which is December 21st, 2012 A.D. and
2) the astronomical situation on that day. Based upon these two facts alone, the creators of the Long Count knew about and calculated the rate of precession over 2300 years ago. I can conceive of no other conclusion. To explain this away as "coincidence" would only obscure the issue.
For early Mesoamerican skywatchers, the slow approach of the winter solstice sun to the Sacred Tree was seen as a critical process, the culmination of which was surely worthy of being called 13.0.0.0.0, the end of a World Age. The channel would then be open through the winter solstice doorway, up the Sacred Tree, the Xibalba be , to the center of the churning heavens, the Heart of Sky.
Source: www.levity.com/eschaton/Why2012.html
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Try a Google search yourself and see what you come up with.. December 21, 2012
The views expressed herein are writers' own and not necessarily of Flyby News.
Fair Use Policy that describes use of copyrighted material is at FlybyNews.com.
Feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News is appreciated.
You can write to the editor by email: - flyby(at}FlybyNews{dot)com -
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus,
and has supported critical campaigns for a healthy
environment, human rights, justice, and nonviolence,
since the launch of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era
= = = www.FlybyNews.com = = =
Bloodstained Abyss * US Regime Change * Sonar Ruling
05 November 2002
"Unilateral military action by the United States against Iraq is unjustified, unwarranted, and illegal."
-- Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich
1) The Bloodstained Path by Dennis Kucinich
2) Global Eye -- Into the Dark
3) An Open Letter to Sen. John Kerry on Iraq' by Brian Willson
4) For Whales' Sake, Judge Halts Sonar
Editor's Notes:
We urge everyone to network the Dennis J. Kucinich article in Item 1. Kucinich reasons to find a way out, rather than to attack Iraq, which is "unjustified, unwarranted, and illegal." Item 2 has information on the Bush administration using a policy that incites terrorism for world domination and profit. This article, "Global Eye -- Into the Dark" by Chris Floyd, was published in the Moscow Times. After it you will find links to related articles: Journalist Cronkite warns against potential war'; US plans to dissolve OPEC after Iraq war'. Item 3 links to a CounterPunch posting of an open letter to Senator John Kerry by Vietnam Veteran Peace Activist, Brian Willson. This is followed with information on the opportunity of Massachusetts voters to make a statement to oppose war in Iraq, and discourage John Kerry from running for US President. Item 4 has an article on a recent decision by a Federal Judge prohibiting U.S. Navy from combing the world's oceans with low frequency active sonar, ruling that the booming sounds meant to detect enemy submarines could cause irreparable harm to whales. Here is at least a dab of sanity' in one crazy "human" world.
Update -- Greater New England -- Campaigns, Actions and Events
Two days after election day, Thursday, November 7, 2002, Flyby News will show a video of the Kucinich Speech at the Jones Library in downtown Amherst, MA, 7:00 P.M, "We The People - SUMMIT FOR PEACE" -- (Burlington, VT, UVM, September 28, 2002). Following the video there will be a discussion on US democracy and responsibilities for safeguarding our planet.
The following evening, Friday, November 8, AMY GOODMAN of "Democracy Now"will speak on "The Media and Iraq: Constructing the Peoples Response," (7:30 p.m.) This will take place at First Churches, 129 Main St., Northampton MA , sponsored by Womens Congress for Peace, the Media Education Foundation, and Solidago Foundation.
November 12, Dr. HELEN CALDICOTT, will present a talk on the indebtedness of the Bush administration to the arms industry, and the exploitation of American's fear of terrorism for increased military spending. This will happen at Sage Hall, Smith College, Northampton, 7:00 p.m. For more information, see: http://www.gljcenter.net
For more updates, events, campaigns, and resources, visit:
http://www.flybynews.com
November 5, 2002 VOTE US 2002 Elections
1) The Bloodstained Path by Dennis Kucinich
The Progressive
November 2002 issue
http://www.progressive.org/nov02/kuc1102.html
Unilateral military action by the United States against Iraq is unjustified, unwarranted, and illegal. The Administration has failed to make the case that Iraq poses an imminent threat to the United States. There is no credible evidence linking Iraq to 9/11. There is no credible evidence linking Iraq to Al Qaeda. Nor is there any credible evidence that Iraq possesses deliverable weapons of mass destruction, or that it intends to deliver them against the United States. When Iraq possessed and used weapons of mass destruction, quite sad to say, it did so with the knowledge of, and sometimes with materials from, the United States.
During the Administration of Ronald Reagan, sixty helicopters were sold to Iraq. Later reports said Iraq used U.S.-made helicopters to spray Kurds with chemical weapons. According to The Washington Post, Iraq used mustard gas against Iran with the help of intelligence from the CIA.
Iraq's punishment? The United States reestablished full diplomatic ties around Thanksgiving of 1984.
Throughout 1989 and 1990, U.S. companies, with the permission of the first Bush Administration, sent to the government of Saddam Hussein mustard gas precursors and live cultures for bacteriological research. U.S. companies also helped to build a chemical weapons factory and supplied the West Nile virus, fuel air explosive technology, computers for weapons technology, hydrogen cyanide precursors, computers for weapons research and development, and vacuum pumps and bellows for nuclear weapons plants. "We have met the enemy," said Walt Kelly's Pogo, "And he is us."
Unilateral action on the part of the United States, or in partnership with Great Britain, would for the first time set our nation on the bloodstained path of aggressive war, a sacrilege upon the memory of those who fought to defend this country. America's moral authority would be undermined throughout the world. It would destabilize the entire Persian Gulf and Middle East region. And it would signal for Russia to invade Georgia; China, Taiwan; North Korea, the South; India, Pakistan.
The United States must recommit itself to the U.N. Charter, which is the framework for international order. We have a right and a duty to defend ourselves. We also have an obligation to defend international law. We can accomplish both without going to war with Iraq.
There is a way out.
It must involve the United Nations. Inspections for weapons of mass destruction should begin immediately. Inspectors must have free and unfettered access to all sites.
The time has come for us to end the sanctions against Iraq, because those sanctions punish the people of Iraq for having Saddam Hussein as their leader. These sanctions have been instrumental in causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children. Emergency relief should be expedited. Free trade, except in arms, must be permitted.
Foreign investments must be allowed. The assets of Iraq abroad must be restored.
And a regional zone free of weapons of mass destruction should be established.
The only weapon that can save the world is nonviolence, said Gandhi. We can begin this practice today by calling upon the Administration in Washington to stop the talk of war, and stop the planning for war.
In their heart of hearts, the American people do not want war on Iraq. The American people want peace.
There is no reason for war against Iraq. Stop the drumbeat. Stop sending troops and supplies to Kuwait and Qatar. Pull back from the abyss of unilateral action and preemptive strikes.
We know that each day the Administration receives a daily threat assessment. But Iraq is not an imminent threat to this nation. Forty million Americans suffering from inadequate health care is an imminent threat. The high cost of prescription drugs is an imminent threat. The ravages of unemployment is an imminent threat. The slowdown of the economy is an imminent threat, and so, too, the devastating effects of corporate fraud.
We must drop the self-defeating policy of regime change. Policies of aggression and assassination are not worthy of any nation with a democratic tradition, let alone a nation of people who love liberty and whose sons and daughters sacrifice to maintain that democracy.
The question is not whether or not America has the military power to destroy Saddam Hussein and Iraq. The question is whether we destroy something essential in this nation by asserting that America has the right to do so anytime it pleases.
America cannot and should not be the world's policeman. America cannot and should not try to pick the leaders of other nations. Nor should America and the American people be pressed into the service of international oil interests and arms dealers.
We must work to bring Iraq back into the community of nations, not through destruction, but through constructive action worldwide. We can help negotiate a resolution with Iraq that encompasses unfettered inspections, the end of sanctions, and the cessation of the regime-change policy.
We have the power to do this. We must have the will to do this. It must be the will of the American people expressed through the direct action of peaceful insistence.
If the United States proceeds with a first strike policy, then we will have taken upon our nation a historic burden of committing a violation of international law, and we would then forfeit any moral high ground we could hope to hold.
Representative Dennis Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, is head of the Progressive Caucus in Congress.
# # # #
For an extensive resource page on Dennis Kucinich, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1021307488,43210,m
2) Global Eye -- Into the Dark
Moscow Times
Nov. 1, 2002. Page XXIV
Global Eye -- Into the Dark
By Chris Floyd
This column stands foursquare with the Honorable Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Defense Secretary, when he warns that there will be more terrorist attacks against the American people and civilization at large. We know, as does the Honorable Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Defense Secretary, that this statement is an incontrovertible fact, a matter of scientific certainty. And how can we and the Honorable Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Defense Secretary, be so sure that there will be more terrorist attacks against the American people and civilization at large?
Because these attacks will be instigated at the order of the Honorable Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Defense Secretary.
This astonishing admission was buried deep in a story, which was itself submerged by mounds of gray newsprint and glossy underwear ads in last Sunday's Los Angeles Times. There -- in an article by military analyst William Arkin detailing the vast expansion of the secret armies being massed by the former Nixon bureaucrat now lording it over the Pentagon -- came the revelation of Rumsfeld's plan to create "a super-Intelligence Support Activity" that will "bring together CIA and military covert action, information warfare, intelligence and cover and deception."
According to a classified document prepared for Rumsfeld by his Defense Science Board, the new organization -- the "Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG)" -- will carry out secret missions designed to "stimulate reactions" among terrorist groups, provoking them into committing violent acts which would then expose them to "counterattack" by U.S. forces.
In other words -- and let's say this plainly, clearly and soberly, so that no one can mistake the intention of Rumsfeld's plan -- the United States government is planning to use "cover and deception" and secret military operations to provoke murderous terrorist attacks on innocent people. Let's say it again: Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush and the other members of the unelected regime in Washington plan to deliberately foment the murder of innocent people -- your family, your friends, your lovers, you -- in order to further their geopolitical ambitions.
For P2OG is not designed solely to flush out terrorists and bring them to justice -- a laudable goal in itself, although the Rumsfeld way of combating terrorism by causing it is pure moral lunacy. (Or should we use the Regime's own preferred terminology and just call it "evil"?) No, it seems the Pee-Twos have bigger fish to fry. Once they have sparked terrorists into action -- by killing their family members? luring them with loot? fueling them with drugs? plying them with jihad propaganda? messing with their mamas? or with agents provocateurs, perhaps, who infiltrate groups then plan and direct the attacks themselves? -- they can then take measures against the "states/sub-state actors accountable" for "harboring" the Rumsfeld-roused gangs.
What kind of measures exactly? Well, the classified Pentagon program puts it this way: "Their sovereignty will be at risk."
For complete article, see:
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2002/11/01/120.html
]The article concludes:]
"It's not a fight for freedom; it's a retreat into darkness.
And the day will be a long time coming."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For related story: Journalist Cronkite warns against potential war"
By Christopher Ferrell
Eagle Staff Writer
October 28, 2002
Walter Cronkite, the veteran newsman who covered almost every major world event that took place during his six-decade career, on Sunday warned that if the United States takes action against Iraq without support from the United Nations it could set the stage for World War III.
See following URL link for complete article:
http://www.theeagle.com/aandmnews/102802cronkite.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Another important and related story ( via http://newsinsider.cjb.net )
US plans to dissolve OPEC after Iraq war
Planning for Iraq's post-Saddam oil industry is being driven by a coalition of neo-conservatives in Washington think-tanks with close links to the Bush administration, and with Iraqi National Congress (INC) officials who have long enjoyed their support. Those hawks have long argued that US control of Iraq's oil would help deliver the destruction of OPEC, the oil producers' cartel, which they argue is evil' -that is, incompatible with American interests.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,825103,00.html
The Observer [UK], 03 November 2002
3) An Open Letter to Sen. John Kerry on Iraq' by Brian Willson
October 15, 2002
An Open Letter to Sen. John Kerry on Iraq
by BRIAN WILLSON
Dear John,
It has been a long time since we have had contact. As you might remember our very first meeting was at VVAW's Dewey Canyon III, "A Limited Incursion Into the Country of Congress," April 19-23, 1971, in Washington, D.C. I'm sure you remember asking the Senate that week in an impassioned speech, "How do you ask a man to die for a mistake?" You also stressed the importance of being "totally nonviolent."
The complete article is posted at CounterPunch
http://www.counterpunch.org/willson1015.html
For more information, visit
http://www.brianwillson.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Please Note: Election Day in Massachusetts, voters have the opportunity to register a protest vote in response to Senator Kerry's vote for a criminal war.
Flyby News endorses write-in candidate Randall Forsberg - http://www.forsbergforsenate.org
4) For Whales' Sake, Judge Halts Sonar
For Whales' Sake, Judge Halts Sonar
Los Angeles Times
November 1, 2002
Navy's worldwide use of powerful new system is banned until military and environmentalists agree on where it's not likely to hurt animals.
By Kenneth R. Weiss, Times Staff Writer
A federal judge Thursday prohibited the U.S. Navy from combing the world's oceans with a powerful new sonar, ruling that the booming sounds meant to detect enemy submarines could cause irreparable harm to whales.
The temporary injunction bans a type of low-frequency sonar that has not been conclusively
linked to marine mammal mortality.
Although the ruling could allow the Navy to resume using the sonar in some places, U.S. Magistrate Elizabeth D. LaPorte imposed a worldwide ban until Navy brass and environmental experts can agree on a list of spots where sailors can deploy the sonar without harming marine life.
In her 58-page opinion, the judge, who is based in San Francisco, agreed with the Navy that even a temporary peacetime ban on the low-frequency sonar system could hamper military preparedness.
She gave the Navy and environmental groups that filed the lawsuit until Nov. 7 to report back to her with an interim solution.
The Navy and federal marine fisheries officials declined immediate comment.
But environmental groups were elated by the preliminary injunction. They had sued to overturn a Bush administration decision in July that gave the Navy permission to "harass" or injure whales in training missions using the sonar designed to search for super-quiet diesel submarines.
"There was no justification for giving the Navy a blank check to operate this sonar in 75% of the world's oceans," said Joel Reynolds, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. If allowed to continue, he said, the sonar system would have "threatened marine life on a staggering and unprecedented geographic scale."
Thursday's ruling is the latest legal victory for environmental groups trying to rein in powerful sonar and other loud sounds that science is increasingly linking to deaths and injuries of marine mammals.
The Bush administration is pushing to exempt military activities from a variety of environmental constraints. In September, a federal judge rejected arguments that sonar use in the deep ocean was exempt from the National Environmental Policy Act.
In early 2000, 16 beaked whales beached themselves in the Bahamas in a mass stranding that the Navy and other authorities have linked to bursts of mid-frequency sonar. A similar mass die-off of whales occurred in September in the Canary Islands, following naval operations by warships from the United States and nearly a dozen NATO allies.
"From a scientific point of view, there is very little question that, given the right set of circumstances, active sonar can kill marine life," said Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist with the U.S. Humane Society.
Yet military officials point out that naval operations in the Bahamas and Canary Islands were not using the new surveillance towed array sonar system banned Thursday. That system broadcasts low-frequency sonic waves through 18 speakers dangled behind a ship on cables hundreds of feet long..
For complete article, see:
http://www.latimes.com/la-na-whales1nov01,0,174293.story
For Flyby News updated page for resources and links on low frequency active sonar and its harm to marine life, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid948385848,37113,m
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Sub NY * Bush Junta * ABM Suit * Stolen Elections
30 October 2002
1) Global Warming Submerging NY
2) Gore Vidal claims 'Bush junta' complicit in 9/11
3) Oral Argument in Kucinich v. Bush on Plaintiffs' Motion
4) PBS Stations To Air Evidence Bush Stole 2000 Election
Editor's Notes:
Item 1 is more than about NY submerging. Item 2 encapsulates again the 9/11 issue with the viewpoint of Gore Vidal and foreign press. But the truth is sinking in.. Item 3 is on the oral arguments in a lawsuit regarding the illegality of the President's ABM withdrawal. This happens tomorrow in D.C. Item 4 is on the stealing of our elections, and getting air-play on PBS.
Visit http://www.flybynews.com
for updates, actions, and campaigns!
1) Global Warming Submerging NY
Stop global warming or NY submerges
- Greenpeace
INDIA: October 28, 2002
NEW DELHI - By the year 2080, Manhattan and Shanghai could be underwater, droughts and floods could become more extreme and hundreds of millions of people will be at risk from disease, starvation and water shortages.
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/18347/story.htm
That is the picture that a Greenpeace senior official painted of the future if the world failed to take urgent steps to curb greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming.
"We're talking of about the submergence of islands, submergence of Shanghai, the submergence of Bombay, the submergence of New York City," Greenpeace climate policy director Steve Sawyer told Reuters late last week.
"Manhattan would be under water."
Sawyer, who is in New Delhi for a 10-day annual U.N. climate change conference, said global warming would lead to the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, which in turn would cause a five to seven metre (16 to 23 ft) sea-level rise and the inundation of coastal regions.
"Most coastal cities would be uninhabitable in their present forms...and that's a catastrophic change of the shape of continents."
Some environmentalists have said that recent climate disasters around the world - from droughts in India, Australia and the United States to floods in Europe - have been graphic harbingers of some of the expected consequences of global warming.
The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted that by 2100 global average surface temperature will be 1.4 to 5.8 degrees Celsius higher than it was in 1990.
Sawyer said an increase in temperatures would lead to more extreme droughts and a rise in frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones.
"What these temperature changes are going to do to the hydrological cycle, particularly in the tropics, is not a very pretty picture," he said.
Between 2050 and 2080, tens of millions of people would be more at risk of malaria, coastal flooding and starvation and hundreds of millions of people would be at risk from water shortages, he said.
Delegates from 185 countries are attending the climate conference, which is likely to be the last major climate meeting before the 1997 Kyoto Protocol is expected to come into force early next year.
The Kyoto Protocol aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the developed world by 2012 to 5.2 percent below 1990 levels.
But the United States, the world's biggest air polluter, has refused to ratify the treaty, which it sees as flawed because it does not bind developing countries. It also says it would hurt the U.S. economy. The Earth Summit in Johannesburg earlier this year was widely criticised by environmentalists and vulnerable Pacific nations for barely touching on the problem of global warming. The United States was singled out for criticism.
Story by Sugita Katyal
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
2) Gore Vidal claims 'Bush junta' complicit in 9/11
Sunder Katwala
Sunday October 27, 2002
America's most controversial writer Gore Vidal has launched the most scathing attack to date on George W Bush's Presidency, calling for an investigation into the events of 9/11 to discover whether the Bush administration deliberately chose not to act on warnings of Al-Qaeda's plans.
Vidal's highly controversial 7000 word polemic titled 'The Enemy Within' - published in the print edition of The Observer today - argues that what he calls a 'Bush junta' used the terrorist attacks as a pretext to enact a pre-existing agenda to invade Afghanistan and crack down on civil liberties at home.
Vidal writes: 'We still don't know by whom we were struck that infamous Tuesday, or for what true purpose. But it is fairly plain to many civil libertarians that 9/11 put paid not only to much of our fragile Bill of Rights but also to our once-envied system of government which had taken a mortal blow the previous year when the Supreme Court did a little dance in 5/4 time and replaced a popularly elected President with the oil and gas Bush-Cheney junta.'
Vidal argues that the real motive for the Afghanistan war was to control the gateway to Eurasia and Central Asia's energy riches. He quotes extensively from a 1997 analysis of the region by Zgibniew Brzezinski, formerly national security adviser to President Carter, in support of this theory. But, Vidal argues, US administrations, both Democrat and Republican, were aware that the American public would resist any war in Afghanistan without a truly massive and widely perceived external threat.
'Osama was chosen on aesthetic grounds to be the frightening logo for our long-contemplated invasion and conquest of Afghanistan ... [because] the administration is convinced that Americans are so simple-minded that they can deal with no scenario more complex than the venerable, lone, crazed killer (this time with zombie helpers) who does evil just for the fun of it 'cause he hates us because we're rich 'n free 'n he's not.' Vidal also attacks the American media's failure to discuss 11 September and its consequences: 'Apparently, "conspiracy stuff" is now shorthand for unspeakable truth.'
'It is an article of faith that there are no conspiracies in American life. Yet, a year or so ago, who would have thought that most of corporate America had been conspiring with accountants to cook their books since - well, at least the bright dawn of the era of Reagan and deregulation.'
At the heart of the essay are questions about the events of 9/11 itself and the two hours after the planes were hijacked. Vidal writes that 'astonished military experts cannot fathom why the government's "automatic standard order of procedure in the event of a hijacking" was not followed'.
These procedures, says Vidal, determine that fighter planes should automatically be sent aloft as soon as a plane has deviated from its flight plan. Presidential authority is not required until a plane is to be shot down. But, on 11 September, no decision to start launching planes was taken until 9.40am, eighty minutes after air controllers first knew that Flight 11 had been hijacked and fifty minutes after the first plane had struck the North Tower.
'By law, the fighters should have been up at around 8.15. If they had, all the hijacked planes might have been diverted and shot down.'
Vidal asks why Bush, as Commander-in-Chief, stayed in a Florida classroom as news of the attacks broke: 'The behaviour of President Bush on 11 September certainly gives rise to not unnatural suspicions.' He also attacks the 'nonchalance' of General Richard B Myers, acting Joint Chief of Staff, in failing to respond until the planes had crashed into the twin towers.
Asking whether these failures to act expeditiously were down to conspiracy, coincidence or error, Vidal notes that incompetence would usually lead to reprimands for those responsible, writing that 'It is interesting how often in our history, when disaster strikes, incompetence is considered a better alibi than .... Well, yes, there are worse things.'
Vidal draws comparisons with another 'day of infamy' in American history, writing that 'The truth about Pearl Harbour is obscured to this day. But it has been much studied. 11 September, it is plain, is never going to be investigated if Bush has anything to say about it.' He quotes CNN reports that Bush personally asked Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle to limit Congressional investigation of the day itself, ostensibly on grounds of not diverting resources from the anti-terror campaign.
Vidal calls bin Laden an 'Islamic zealot' and 'evil doer' but argues that 'war' cannot be waged on the abstraction of 'terrorism'. He says that 'Every nation knows how - if it has the means and will - to protect itself from thugs of the sort that brought us 9/11 ... You put a price on their heads and hunt them down. In recent years, Italy has been doing that with the Sicilian Mafia; and no-one has suggested bombing Palermo.'
Vidal also highlights the role of American and Pakistani intelligence in creating the fundamentalist terrorist threat: 'Apparently, Pakistan did do it - or some of it' but with American support. "From 1979, the largest covert operation in the history of the CIA was launched in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan ... the CIA covertly trained and sponsored these warriors.'
Vidal also quotes the highly respected defence journal Jane's Defence Weekly on how this support for Islamic fundamentalism continued after the emergence of bin Laden: 'In 1988, with US knowledge, bin Laden created Al-Qaeda (The Base); a conglomerate of quasi-independent Islamic terrorist cells spread across 26 or so countries. Washington turned a blind eye to Al-Qaeda.'
Vidal, 77, and internationally renowned for his award-winning novels and plays, has long been a ferocious, and often isolated, critic of the Bush administration at home and abroad. He now lives in Italy. In Vidal's most recent book, The Last Empire, he argued that 'Americans have no idea of the extent of their government's mischief ... the number of military strikes we have made unprovoked, against other countries, since 1947 is more than 250.'
For this originally posted article and links to:
Talk: Gore Vidal on Bush
Observer Worldview
Terrorism crisis: Observer special
Visit this following URL:
http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,819931,00.html
3) Oral Argument in Kucinich v. Bush on Plaintiffs' Motion
The following came through the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space list serve, from John Burroughs, who is the executive director of Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy about the Oral Arguments planned for October 31st regarding the ABM withdrawal law suit. If you are in D.C., please go... and send news about it to flyby.
The following is from John Burroughs, executive director of the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy, which came to Flyby via the Global Network's list serve:
+ + +
The oral argument in Kucinich v. Bush on plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and defendants motion to dismiss or, in the alternative, for summary judgment will take place on Thursday, October 31, beginning at 1000 am, in Courtroom 21, U.S. Courthouse, 3rd and Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC, before federal district judge John Bates, U.S. district court for the District of Columbia. This is not the ceremonial courtroom. It is next door to it. The public can observe the proceedings (space allowing, about 120 spectators).
There is no time limit set for conclusion of the argument. If the judge grants plaintiffs' motion or defendants' motion, that will decide the case at this level. It may be some time before the judge issues his decision.
The case was brought by Congressman Dennis Kucinich and 31 other members of the House of Representatives to challenge President Bush's withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty without congressional approval. The main papers filed in the case are available in pdf at http://www.lcnp.org/disarmament/ABMlawsuit/indexoflinks.htm
-John Burroughs
John Burroughs, Executive Director
Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy
211 E. 43d St., Suite 1204
New York, New York 10017 USA
tel: +1 212 818 1861 fax: 818 1857
e-mail: johnburroughs@lcnp.org
website: http://www.lcnp.org
For more background on this, see following Archive links:
June 12, 2002 -- Lawsuit to stop withdrawal from ABM Treaty - Item 1
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1023931432,38812,m
"Ohio lawmaker to file lawsuit to stop withdrawal from ABM treaty"
and
June 21, 2002 - "ABM Treaty Still Lives" -- Item 2
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1025805829,84082,m
"ABM Treaty still lives, say congressmen who sue to undo its 'unconstitutional' knifing by Bush without OK of Congress"
4) PBS Stations To Air Evidence Bush Stole 2000 Election
PBS Stations To Air Evidence Bush Stole 2000 Election
Two Must See Movies
From: Greg Palast
Email: Greg Palast
Thursday, October 17, 2002
PALAST INVESTIGATION OF FLORIDA VOTE THEFT TO AIR ON PBS, FEATURED AT HAMPTONS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Two films, "Counting on Democracy" and "Unprecedented," premier this month.
>COUNTING ON DEMOCRACY
In the face of the controversial decision by the PBS network to refuse to transmit the investigative report, the nation's top PBS stations will independently broadcast COUNTING ON DEMOCRACY.
Directed by Emmy-award winner Danny Schechter, the 57-minute documentary follows BBC television reporter Greg Palast as he discovers how Katherine Harris removed up to 57,000 legal voters from registries -- most black -- five months before the 2000 election.
While the public broadcast network chiefs refused to schedule this important report, WNET (New York), KCET (Los Angeles), KQED (San Francisco) and dozens more are insisting on showing the expose before the mid-term elections.
See full schedule at
http://www.GregPalast.com/events2.cfm#news253
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
A second film on the scandal of the vote theft in Florida, UNPRECEDENTED, opens this month in national screenings sponsored by People for the American Way, the NAACP and The Nation.
The Robert Greenwald Production includes exclusive footage from Palast's confrontations with Katherine Harris' vote fixers. Palast will join directors Joan Sekler and Richard Perez at the New York opening.
For more information and some photo stills, go to
http://www.Unprecedented.org
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
2002 Election Issue ==> Comes a Time * Forsberg * Iraq
29 October 2002
1) Comes a Time by William Rivers Pitt
2) Elect Randall Forsberg (D) for US Senator (MA)
3) Hundreds of Thousands March Against War in Iraq
Editor's Notes:
The first item in this Flyby News' 2002 US Election issue, is a clear overview of the political times we are living through, written by William Rivers Pitt. Item 2 is about an interesting and purposeful write-in-campaign for Randall Forsberg for US Senator in Massachusetts. People have a choice to choose leaders with fear-based reasoning or for those who would take actions to eliminate elements needed for terrorism. Due to the impressive background of Randall Forsberg in the disarmament of weapons of mass destruction, and other reasons in this item, Flyby News officially endorses the write-in-campaign for Randall Forsberg for Senator! Item 3 is on the October 26 demonstrations, which are comparable to those actions against the War on Vietnam
We must stop a new US war on Iraq before it happens.
You can send a free fax to encourage the leaders of permanent members of the United Nations Security Council to make sure that the inspectors have a real chance to do their job before President Bush is given approval to invade. This should also be the responsibility of the US Congress, too!
Send a free fax from:
http://www.truemajority.com/index.asp?action=2247&ms=un1&ref=48259
In memory of Paul Wellstone -- and other grave events of our time,
take action on November 5th
Do what you can -- Get the Vote Out
to salvage the bit of US democracy left <==
1) Comes a Time by William Rivers Pitt
Comes a Time
by William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t - Perspective
Sunday, 27 October, 2002
"There used to be a thing or a commodity we put great store by. It was called the People. Find out where the People have gone. I don't mean the square-eyed toothpaste-and-hair-dye people or the new-car-or-bust people, or the success-and-coronary people. Maybe they never existed, but if there ever were the People, that's the commodity the Declaration was talking about, and Mr. Lincoln."
- John Steinbeck
There are times when history seems to drift idly from one year to the next with no profound milestone to mark its passage. The decade of the 1990s was such a time; after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world seemed to pause for breath. The Clinton administration saw a number of moments pass that have revealed their importance over time - the first bombing of the World Trade Center, the war in Bosnia, the coup in Russia, the passage of the budget that heralded the Wall Street boom, the shut-down of the government - but in their chapter, these moments came and went with the flick of a page. Even the historic impeachment of a sitting President collapsed under its own turgid weight into sordid, tabloid nonsense.
There are also times when history finds a fifth gear and puts the go pedal to the mat. It is our common fate to live within such a chapter, and it serves to remember all that we have experienced in the last 700 days:
* The chaos of our democratic process gone horribly awry, as evidenced by the month of madness in Florida following the 2000 vote. For the first time in our history, a President was chosen by the Supreme Court, and not by the voters.
* The defection of Senator James Jeffords, whose move from the Republican party into political independence handed control of the entire Senate over to the Democratic party. The dramatic consequence of this was unprecedented - there have been party-switchers before, but none have caused so momentous a reversal of power. Given the plans Bush had for faith-based programs that decimated the separation of church and state, more tax cuts, more industry deregulation, and the constitutional restrictions that have come in the aftermath of 9/11, the profound nature of Jeffords' defection cannot be overstated. Historians will look back at this event and stand in awe at its significance.
* The passage of the Bush tax cut, which removed well over a trillion dollars from the then-assumed budget surplus. The wealthiest 1% of Americans received half of that payout, while the vast majority of citizens received $600, $300 or nothing at all. The aforementioned surpluses were discovered, in the aftermath of the Enron collapse, to have been based upon expected tax revenues from corporations which have since' readjusted' their earnings, because they had been lying on the profit reports. Those lies 'readjusted' the forecasted budget surplus. The tax cut has, in fact, bitten deeply into the federal budget, introducing a phenomenon not seen in years - deficit spending.
* Enron, Halliburton, Harken: Enron flamed out in one of the biggest bankruptcies in history, even after rigging the California power grid in an act of hydraulic despotism that reaped billions in blackmail profits, bilking investors and employees out of billions in retirement funds once their accounting lies were exposed, and thus instigating the death spiral we continue to endure in the stock market. Halliburton is under an SEC investigation for decidedly Enron-like behavior, and faces questions about the multi-billion dollar business deals done with Saddam Hussein. Harken went broke years ago after executives lied about the profitability of the stock and then bailed out before said stock bottomed out.
The importance of this - the umbilical connections between these corporations and the Bush administration. Enron was Bush's biggest funding contributor, all the way back to his Texas days. Enron basically wrote America's energy policy behind closed doors with Vice President Dick Cheney, who was an executive of Halliburton for the time period currently being investigated. Harken, simply, was a harbinger of things to come - Harken executive Bush knew the company was tanking, that it was lying about its profits, and he cashed in his chips before the hammer came down. The investors were soaked, a common occurrence since Bush abandoned the oil business for politics. Such a collection of compromised and profit-driven businessmen has not been seen in the White House in 100 years.
* September 11thIn the numbing aftermath of the attacks, Americans have been left fearful of blue skies and airplanes. 9/11 was many things, but was first and foremost a cataclysmic intelligence failure. Rather than storm to the forefront and demand a detailed investigation of how such an attack could happen, why it happened, and take far-reaching actions to make sure it never happens again, the Bush administration has worked to quash and deflect both a Congressional investigation into the attacks, and an independent investigation preferred by the grieving families of 9/11 victims. Pearl Harbor was vigorously investigated, as was the assassination of John F. Kennedy. This was done as a matter of course. The Bush administration, however, wants no questions asked or answered regarding 9/11. This is
unconscionable, for it means the security loopholes that existed on that terrible day are very likely still in place.
* As a crude replacement for an actual determination of cause and solution regarding the security failures of 9/11, the administration has put forth a piece of legislation that has no peer in American legal history - The USA PATRIOT Anti-Terror Act. In the pages of this legislation lies the dissolution of many basic freedoms outlined by the Constitution. Section 213 of the Act, nicknamed the "Sneak and Peek" provision, allows federal agents to enter a private home, conduct a search, and attach data-tracking devices to any computers found, all without warrant or notice. Ostensibly, this was to be used against non-citizens who are under suspicion of terrorist activities. Then came the case of Jose Padilla, suspected of plotting to explode a "dirty" nuclear device in New York. It turned out that Padilla was not capable of such an act, having no means to produce one. Yet he sits today in federal prison, denied attorney or trial or even a timeline for release. He is to be held indefinitely with no chance for the justice system to determine his guilt, and with no chance to plead his case.
Padilla is an American citizen. If an American citizen can be held indefinitely on the word of the Bush administration, then private homes of American citizens are subject to searches based upon Section 213, so long as the Bush administration decides to label that citizen 'suspicious.' The Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution were cast aside with the passage of this Act. When questioned about it before the Senate, John Ashcroft, U.S. Attorney General and the highest law official in the land, said, "To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty; my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists - for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve." So much, then, for the First Amendment.
This is the short list, and history has not begun to slow down. Economic dissolution has been replaced on the nightly news by a barnstorming push for war in Iraq. The Bush administration has failed to offer any definitive proof that Iraq is a pressing threat, that the war can be won, that we have an exit strategy, that democracy will ever work in Iraq, that the Middle East will not explode in reaction to our war, that the precedent of 'pre-emptive war' against a non-threatening nation will not forever poison diplomatic relations between all nations, or that such a course will not in any way cause new and more terrible terrorist attacks on our shores by agents not connected with Iraq but who will react from a sense of outrage after Iraqi civilian casualties are filmed by al-Jazeera television cameras. Osama bin Laden is still alive and free, as are many al Qaeda lieutenants and operatives. War on Iraq will not slow them down one bit, and will drive new warriors into their ranks.
The speeding train of history, and the whirling grist mill of the 24-hour news media, seems to have left this short list behind. No one talks about Jeffords any more, nor Enron, nor Halliburton, nor the 2000 election, nor the PATRIOT Act. We are continually trying to look around corners for the next big surprise, losing in that process an appreciation for what has taken place already, and how those events continue to affect us. We are offered no breathing space, and therefore we have no time to think.
More than anything, we feel powerless to slow this train down. We are punch-drunk with blows from profound event after profound event, and we are slowly turning into a nation of shell-ensconced turtles because of it.
The sudden and inexplicable death of Senator Paul Wellstone only adds to these feelings of dismay and disconnection. Like Senator Mel Carnahan before him, Wellstone's light was darkened at the moment of greatest tension. Locked in a tight race to retain his seat, Wellstone's success in the November election seemed likely to be a determining factor in the question of which party would control the Senate. Now he is gone, martyred to the cause he had served so well.
To quantify Wellstone as simply an important factor in an election season is to ignore the passage of a great man. If you work for a living, Wellstone was for you. If you have concerns for the cleanliness of the air you breathe, Wellstone was for you. Wellstone was a man who stood in the path of that speeding train, a question always on his lips and true concern for this American nation always in his thoughts. Now this great man has fallen, while working as best he could to represent the people of his state, and the speeding train of history keeps moving.
There is a way to slow this train down, and it is coming soon.
The Congressional midterm elections of 2002 will happen all across the country on November 5th. Control over both houses of Congress is up for grabs, and many of the races are tight. In the end, it will all come down to turnout. The GOP base is energized - they see an historic
opportunity for Bush and the Republicans to take Congress and overthrow the Jeffords jump. The Democratic base, as it stands, has been demoralized by recent 'yes' votes cast by many Democratic Congresspeople that allowed passage of Bush's resolution for war on Iraq. Green Party campaigns in races all across the country have likewise sapped strength from traditional Democratic voting bases.
The economic uncertainty, coupled with broad disquiet at the notion of an Iraq war, would seem to offer the Democrats an opportunity to make large gains in November. If the turnout is not high enough, this will not happen. If the GOP should retake Congress after November 5th, a number of things will happen in rapid succession
1. There will be more ruinous tax cuts that will push us further into deficit spending;
2. There will be no justice for the crimes of the corporate robber barons who have bilked American investors of trillions of dollars;
3. Bush will be in a position to nominate as many as three new ultra-conservative Justices to the Supreme Court before his re-election campaign. Those nominations will not be stopped;
4. The PATRIOT Act will be reaffirmed, and likely given sharper teeth;
5. Roe v. Wade will fall;
6. Regulations controlling inflated profit reporting and pollution will be further watered down;
7. Further ill-conceived and nebulously-defined wars across the globe will be pushed;
8. No answers to questions regarding 9/11 will ever, ever come.
This, again, is a short list.
History happens fast these days, and seems beyond our grasp to control. We forget, in the blur, that it is the people who make history oftentimes, when they make their minds up to do so. Remember what has passed, and consider what may come, as you mark your calendar for November 5th. This administration has not demonstrated the competence or goodwill required of their position in the world. Handing all three branches of the federal government over to them would be a blunder of millennial proportions.
If for no other reason, act in the memory of one fallen man. Paul Wellstone worked every day for the betterment of this nation. On November 5th, remember him, and act in his name.
-------
William Rivers Pitt is a teacher from Boston, MA. He is the author of two books - "War On Iraq" (with Scott Ritter) available now from Context Books, and "The Greatest Sedition is Silence," available in April 2003 from Pluto Press.
t r u t h o u t 2002
This article was originally posted at TruthOut.org
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/10.28A.wrp.comes.time.htm
2) Elect Randall Forsberg (D) for US Senator (MA)
Randall Forsberg has agreed to run as write-in candidate to oppose John Kerry for Senator! This is an opportunity to declare "accountability" for a "fear-based" Resolution-Vote by John Kerry authorizing George W. Bush to attack Iraq.
Randall Forsberg founded and directs the nonprofit Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies (IDDS), which publishes the Arms Control Reporter, a monthly reference journal used by governments and think tanks worldwide (see http://www.idds.org). She has written many books and articles on military, peace, and disarmament issues. Her experience includes serving as an advisor on disarmament issues to several US administrations and meeting with top government officials in many countries.
Randy has registered as a write-in candidate with the Secretary of the Commonwealth, so that write-in votes for her will count in her name. This gives us an opportunity to vote our consciences, a delightful prospect. And since Kerry's only printed ballot opponent is a Libertarian, voting for Randy will not inadvertently give control of the Senate to the Republicans.
This vote will be a referendum on commitment to peace in Massachusetts, as well as an expression of our anger at the breakdown in the democratic process when Kerry voted to give Bush the authority to launch a unilateral US war against Iraq. Through his aides, Kerry admitted that the constituents who contacted him were overwhelmingly opposed to the War Powers resolution. Some 20,000 people sent him email in the last week before the vote, pleading with him to vote no. Yet he ignored his constituents. Now it is time to let him know, and let the rest of the country know, how we feel about that!
If Randall Forsberg receives a substantial number votes, the national press will want to know why. We will be fortunate then to have Randy as a spokesperson. She is an articulate, eloquent advocate for peace and democracy, as well as someone whose depth of knowledge on nonproliferation, arms control, and disarmament cannot be challenged.
Help spread the word on this campaign to everyone you know in Massachusetts.
On November 5 use the write in section to write-in and check your vote for:
RANDALL FORSBERG (all caps, in "Write-in" space)
950 Mass Ave, Cambridge and mark your vote in "oval" to the right.
For more information, and ballot demo, visit: http://www.rforsberg.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Upcoming speaking events with Randall Forsberg:
Wednesday, October 30
4 - 6 pm
UMass, Amherst
Campus Center 162-75
Randall Forsberg will speak on:
IRAQ, NUCLEAR POLICY, AND PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKES:
Will Bush Jr. obliterate 50 years of progress in international law and arms control?
For additional details, contact:
Prof. Brenda Bushouse, Dept of Political Science: bushouse@polsci.umass.edu
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Wednesday, October 30
7:30 - 9:30 pm
Edwards Church (opposite Academy of Music in the middle of town)
297 Main Street
Northampton
For additional details, contact: Claudia Lefko (413) 584-0068; lefkoev@hge.net
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Saturday, November 2
8:30 am - 5 pm
Clark University
Worcester
This event is sponsored by Worcester Peaceworks. For complete details, see
http://worcpeaceworks.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
New England anti-war rally, sponsored by Peace Action and AFSC
Sunday, November 3
12 noon - 4 pm
Boston Common
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more information you can contact Amy Hendrickson, Campaign Manager, amy@forsbergforsenate.org
Write-In-Campaign to Elect Randall Forsberg for US Senator (MA)
http://www.rforsberg.com/
3) Hundreds of Thousands March Against War in Iraq
100,000 Rally, March Against War in Iraq
By Monte Reel and Manny Fernandez,
Washington Post Staff Writers
October 27, 2002
Tens of thousands of people marched in peaceful protest of any military strike against Iraq yesterday afternoon, in an antiwar demonstration that organizers and police suggested was likely
Washington's largest since the Vietnam era.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24432-2002Oct26.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
http://www.VoteNoWar.org
In the biggest anti-war demonstrations since the Vietnam War, hundreds of thousands of people on October 26th took to the streets across the country announcing with a massive visible and vocal presence the creation of a new anti-war movement to stop George W. Bush's plans to wage war against Iraq. The demonstrators included a vast number of people compelled to action because they were frustrated and angered when the Congress failed to listen to the people's opposition to a war on Iraq.
More than 200,000 people marched in the streets of Washington, D.C. and over 100,000 in San Francisco in addition to tens of thousands in other cities around the country. In Washington, D.C., the march was so vast that as the front of the march completed encircling the White House it met the last quarter of the march that had not even begun moving up towards the White House, and was forced to stop for a half an hour to allow the last portion of the march to proceed before the front could continue along the route back towards the rally site. People filled Washington's wide boulevards and sidewalks shoulder to shoulder for 25 city blocks, over two miles.
The October 26 demonstrations launched another major step in mass action against the war -- the grassroots People's Anti-War Referendum and a mass national 2-day mobilization on the weekend of January 18-19 in Washington, DC, timed to coincide with the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the 12th anniversary of the start of the 1991 Gulf War.
To VOTE NO TO WAR, go to:
http://www.votenowar.org/referendum.html
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Scott Ritter * Iraq/North Korea * Armageddon * Malik
23 October 2002
1) Scott Ritter -- "NO TO WAR"
2) Kucinich Asks White House To Explain Contradictions
3) Bush - Iraq War - and Armageddon
4) Letter from Malik (10/17/02)
Tremble, brutal war, Olympus, first conceived without objection in mind,
the tower of Babel crushes down.
Ruined pages of history tell a tale of what once was, repeated over and over
until a shaken humanity listens to what makes one free.
Editor's Notes:
This issue begins with an article on an inspiring talk of Scott Ritter. Check the link at the end to find the transcript, audio, and video. If humankind survives, this presentation will be known as a classic anti-war declaration. Scott Ritter, who voted for George W. Bush in 2000, is doing everything he can to make sure President Bush is not elected in 2004. Responding to my question, following the presentation, Scott Ritter said that he would support Dennis Kucinich, and respected his stance in Congress on the Iraq issue. Item 2 features a statement by Dennis Kucinich asking the White House for an explanation on the contradictions on Iraq, and North Korea policies. Kucinich and many others want to know why Congress was left in the dark on the North Korea nuclear development issue during the debates on a Resolution that authorized President Bush to be able to attack Iraq. Item 3 is on Presidents Bush's relationship with the Christian right, thoughts on Armageddon. Following the article by Morgan Strong, check related article links for articles on the "Bush Family and Nazi Blood Money" by Victor Thorn, and "Addiction, Brain Damage and the President," by Katherine van Wormer. Item 4 is a recent letter from Malik Abdullah Akili, sharing thoughts on being denied parole, seeking help, ideas; me, too.
Reminder: There's less than 2 weeks before the mid-term Elections. This election is a critical test on President Bush's power over the American people, and the interest for peace and prosperity. Please help in the campaign to elect all Democrats, who opposed the Resolution giving George W. Bush authorization to attack Iraq!
A full roll call list for the Senate is available at:
http://www.moveon.org/senatevote.html
A full roll call for the House is available at:
http://www.moveon.org/housevote.html
Also visit http://www.moveon.org for other ideas, including sample letters to editors, etc.
1) Scott Ritter -- "NO TO WAR"
Deerfield Academy 10/15/02
STRONG WORDS AGAINST WAR
Published in the Greenfield Recorder
Wednesday, October 16, 2002
http://www.recorder.com/
Former weapons inspector implores students to act
DEERFIELD - A former weapons inspector in Iraq told students and community members that they needed to be involved citizens to prevent war.
"Participate, participate, participate," said Scott Ritter, a Marine for 12 years and a United Nations weapons inspector for seven. "Voting is the great equalizer. We all get to go back there and pull the lever."
He spoke at Deerfield Academy Tuesday evening to a crowd that packed the 700 capacity auditorium and poured out into the lobbies surrounding the auditorium.
It's too late to avoid a war in Iraq, but Ritter urged people to hold their representatives and senators in Congress accountable and vote out of office those who gave President Bush power to use force against Iraq.
A war with Iraq will kill 20,000 to 30,000 Americans, Ritter said. "It's a war that could be every bit as bad as Vietnam," he said.
"War is forever. You don't come back. Sometimes you do come back, missing an arm, a leg or both legs."
The way to capture Saddam is to indict him in the International Court and set up economic sanctions contingent upon turning him over, he said.
Although Ritter detests Saddam, he said President Bush has not made the case to go to war. Instead, Bush relied on the fear many Americans have after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and on the ignorance many have about the situation in Iraq, said Ritter. "The president of the United States is telling you Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, but he's not telling you how
he knows."
A 1998 U.S. bombing campaign of 91 Iraqi targets destroyed weapon inspectors' credibility because it showed the U.S. was more concerned with routing out Saddam rather than eliminating Iraq's ability to produce and store weapons of mass destruction, Ritter said.
According to Ritter, of those targets, only 11 were involved in producing weapons; the rest were targets like Saddam's bedroom, his bodyguard's facilities or his office, all sites designed to kill Saddam. It's a move that violated international law, he said, one of unilateral imperialism.
Before then, weapons inspectors had eliminated 90 to 95 percent of weapons of mass destruction as well as Iraq's ability to make those weapons, Ritter said.
Ritter has written a book, many articles and made a movie about the inspections. A recent Newsweek article criticized Ritter for taking $400,000 from an Iraqi-American to make the film. That money was a loan from the man's personal assets, said Ritter, adding that he took pains to make sure the money was not coming from the Iraqi government, letting the FBI investigate the transaction.
Lindsey Wei, a senior from Pennsylvania, was among a group of students trying to organize a school sponsored trip to a war protest in Washington D.C. on Oct. 26. She said she hopes students will stay inspired from the speech and be driven to try to make a difference. "He's definitely one of our great Americans,:" said Vinny Natale of Montague, adding he was especially impressed by the description he gave of the realities of war.
You can reach the reporter, Arn Albertini at aalberti@recorder.com
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
For more information on Scott Ritter, from an interview by Jake Asbin at the Deerfield Academy event, visit the Flyby News Archive Issue:
November 17, 2002 - Item 2
Scott Ritter: "The Case Against The U.S. War on Iraq"
Please Note:
An edited version of Scott Ritter's Speech at Deerfield Academy is Now Available by Video Cassette by Turning Tide Productions
SCOTT RITTER: "The Case Against The U.S. War on Iraq"
Turning Tide Productions PO Box 864 Wendell, MA 01379 USA
Tel: 800-557-6414 978-544-8313 Fax: 978-544-7989 Email: info@turningtide.com
Talk by former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq and former U.S. Marine given at Deerfield Academy, Deerfield, MA on October 15. Broadcast nationally on Pacifica Radio's "Democracy Now" and on Free Speech TV. (55 minutes, VHS Video) Special Price (all categories): $29.95, plus $6 shipping & handling. To place your order now, call 1-800-557-6414. More details about this video is posted soon at Turning Tide Production's Web Site: www.turningtide.com
Flyby News highly recommends getting and showing SCOTT RITTER: "The Case Against The U.S. War on Iraq" - which was featured at our video/discussion event on the topic of "U.S. Democracy and Safeguarding Our Planet" -- at the Jones Library in Amherst, MA -- Tuesday 14 January 2003 (6:45 to 9:00 pm).
You can also visit Flyby News updated page on Mid East Peace - initiatives and information
Also, we suggest visiting Traprock Peace Center's web site: traprockpeace.org
This organization arranged for many public speaking engagements with Scott Ritter.
2) Kucinich Asks White House To Explain Contradictions
Kucinich Asks White House To Explain Contradictions On Iraq, North Korea Nukes
From a Press Release (10-18-02) from the offices of Dennis J. Kucinich
http://www.house.gov/kucinich/press/pr-021018-contradictions.htm
Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH), who led the efforts in the US House of Representatives to defeat the Iraq war resolution, today publicly demanded that the White House explain why it did not inform the Congress of developments concerning North Korea's nuclear capability prior to the October 12th vote which authorized the President to take pre-emptive action.
Kucinich issued the following statement:
"The Administration had an obligation to inform Congress of North Korea's admission of nuclear capability. The nature of the debate in Congress would have been changed.
"Failure to disclose the facts about North Korea prior to the vote masks a significant contradiction in foreign policy. On October 4, the Administration learned that North Korea has an active nuclear weapons program, notwithstanding an agreement with the United States to give up such weapons and to commit to inspections. The Administration did not communicate these facts to the Congress or the American people. A week later the Administration, which has said Iraq may have nuclear weapons by 2010, convinced Congress to authorize military action.
"If the information concerning North Korea had been known before Congress voted on the Iraq resolution, it is reasonable to predict that many more members of Congress would have asked if a diplomatic route taken with North Korea would have been preferable with Iraq, too, especially since endorsement of preemption licenses North Korea to strike the South, and sets off the possibility of a string of other undesirable exchanges between rival countries.
"By withholding the information from Congress, members were denied the opportunity to consider the Iraq question in the broader context.
"The Administration is right to pursue diplomacy in resolving the crisis with North Korea's nuclear arms capability. But beating the drums for war against Iraq, which does not have similar weapons capability raises questions about the policy and intentions of the Administration."
For more information, link to Kucinich's press release:
http://www.house.gov/kucinich/press/pr-021018-contradictions.htm
For Flyby News' "Dennis Kucinich for President in 2004"
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1021307488,43210,m
3) Bush - Iraq War - and Armageddon
Armageddon
by Morgan Strong
October 19, 2002
When we go to war in Iraq we will do so to summon the Messiah. That is what the Christian right believes. The final battle to rid the world of all non believers, non-Christians, more exactly non-Evangelical Christians, is going to take place very soon at Armageddon in Israel. The Bible tells us so.
Rev. Jerry Falwell believes fully, and un-equivocally that we must go to war with Iraq to set in motion the cataclysmic events that will ensure the second coming of Jesus Christ. War with Iraq will lead to the end of the World, as we know it. God will reign and Jerry Falwell will sit at the right hand of God.
Israel will be no more. Israel will be destroyed during the apocalypse. Any Jews that survive anywhere will be converted to Christianity. Or more precisely, Evangelical Christianity.
The Moslems, the Jews, the Buddhists, the Hindus, the Shintos, the Animists, the Voodooists, the Catholics, et al, will be converted to the Evangelical Christian legions of the Lord commanded by Jerry Falwell.
If you believe otherwise, if you believe that Biblical prophesies as interpreted by the Christian right are so much lunacy, you are in the helpless majority. Because the Christian right has extraordinary influence in the administration of President George Bush.
George Bush is one of their number. He does not attempt to hide this; he is quite deliberate in his public discussions of his re-birth, and his salvation. He was saved from a life of excess when he embraced the rigorous teachings of the Christian Evangelicals.
The Christian right managed, through the rebirth of George Bush, to gain a good measure of influence over the most powerful nation on this earth. The Christian right believes that only the apocalypse will purify the souls of the heretics, and the United States will be the instrument to bring forth God's wrath. The great resources, the military might, of the United States is part of the divine plan to bring the Apocalypse upon us.
Jerry Falwell has made the truth about the administration's desperate attempts to go to war with Iraq frighteningly clear. Falwell has said publicly he believes Mohammad the Prophet was evil. Falwell said that Mohammad was a terrorist. That is why he and the Christian fundamentalists support Israel in their battle against the Palestinians. Because the battle Israel is fighting against the Moslem Palestinians is to reclaim the lands of biblical Israel. Evangelicals believe the lands of ancient Israel must be reunited in order to fulfill the biblical prophesy of Christ's return to earth.
That is why George Bush makes no effort to stop Ariel Sharon's furious attempt to drive the Palestinians from the occupied territories. Sharon will restore the ancient Hebrew Kingdom, including Judea and Samaria, provinces which make up the modern-day West Bank. George Bush makes no effort to protect the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat because the Evangelicals tell him not to.
When President Bush told the Israelis to withdraw their tanks and troops from the occupied territories last April, Falwell sent him a letter of protest. Falwell had his followers send one hundred thousand emails to President Bush to support his demand. Israel did not withdraw its tanks and troops and George Bush stopped calling. George Bush has given Ariel Sharon a free hand since.
The Evangelicals are Bush's core support. They are the people who helped him defeat John McCain, who once called Jerry Falwell "evil". in the crucial South Carolina primary. Falwell's Evangelicals called thousandsof South Carolina voters to inform them that McCain has a black child. (McCain and his wife Cindy adopted a little girl from Bangladesh.) These righteous people do not believe in the mixing of the races. The Bible tells them the mixing of race is an abomination.
These same pious people, who await the coming of Christ, find nothing wrong with murdering doctors who perform abortions. These virtuous people and their leader are the same people who have condemned
homosexuals, and will never give women the right to an abortion. These devout people regard other religious beliefs as heresy. They want to go to war with Iraq so that millions will die in the apocalyptic horror that will follow for their own salvation.
What is frightening is the language President Bush uses when he describes Saddam and others as the "Evil Ones", the "Evil Doers," to incite the American people to war. They are the same descriptions;
carrying the same religious connotations, that Jerry Falwell and his flock employ to describe non-believers. George Bush is a child of their beliefs. George Bush seems to believe he and Ariel Sharon are locked in a struggle together against the "Evil Ones" for the world's salvation.
Sharon represents the key to the coming salvation. The Evangelicals adore him. Sharon has said often he wants to reclaim the land of ancient Israel. He believes the Palestinians have a homeland called Jordan. He does not want peace with the Palestinians, and he does not want Iraq to remain a threat to Israel.
Sharon and Falwell have formed a partnership based on the lunacy of biblical prophecies, and the insanity of Sharon's vision of the resurrection of the ancient Hebrew Kingdom.
We, the majority of Americans, are only observers, and have no real influence to stop what will surely occur. There may be a reason for the war. Saddam is truly a very bad person. He should be removed. But he is not the only bad person who runs a country. Where do we stop? Or do we stop at the second coming?
What worries me is that we may be going to war to fulfill what a few deluded people believe to be biblical prophecy. And what really worries me is that we have a President who might believe this nonsense, too.
# # # #
Morgan Strong a former professor of Middle Eastern History at S.U.N.Y. Poughkeepsie, is a consultant to 60Minutes on the Middle East. He has written for Playboy, USA Today, Vanity Fair, and many other publications.
This article is posted at http://www.antiwar.com/orig/strong1.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a somewhat related article:
The Bush Family and Nazi Blood Money by Victor Thorn, see:
"..What I'm trying to say is this: a good portion of the Bush Family's financial foundation was established through their assistance to Adolf Hitler. Can you feel the ramifications of this statement? The current President of the United States, plus his father (an ex-President, V.P., and CIA Director) rose to the top of the American political ladder because their grandfather and in-laws aided and abetted the Nazis. The questions I want to ask right now are:
1) Why won't President Bush admit to these family crimes?
2) Why won't the media directly question him about these abhorrent crimes?
Naturally, some may not believe that the Bush Family directly assisted the Germans, in essence committing treason against their own country. But sadly, it's true. To prove it, let's start at the beginning.."
For the complete article, see: http://www.victorthorn.com/babel/issue79/bushnazi.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
And another one:
Addiction, Brain Damage and the President
"Dry Drunk" Syndrome and George W. Bush
by KATHERINE van WORMER
"...Bush drank heavily for over 20 years until he made the decision to abstain at age 40. About this time he became a "born again Christian," going as usual from one extreme to the other. During an Oprah interview, Bush acknowledged that his wife had told him he needed to think about what he was doing. When asked in another interview about his reported drug use, he answered honestly, "I'm not going to talk about what I did 20 to 30 years ago."
...To summarize, George W. Bush manifests all the classic patterns of what alcoholics in recovery call "the dry drunk." His behavior is consistent with barely noticeable but meaningful brain damage brought on by years of heavy drinking and possible cocaine use. All the classic patterns of addictive thinking that are spelled out in my book are here:
..the tendency to go to extremes (leading America into a massive 100 billion dollar strike-first war); a "kill or be killed mentality;" the tunnel vision; "I" as opposed to "we" thinking; the black and white polarized thought processes (good versus evil, all or nothing thinking). His drive to finish his father's battles "
For the complete article, see:
http://www.counterpunch.org/wormer1011.html
4) Letter from Malik (10/17/02)
The following is a letter from Malik with his response on being denied parole. If you have any ideas, or interest, please write, in revolutionary love..
Jonathan
"..I am sorry that I did not answer your letters sooner. I realize the exchanges between us are important to the spirit of our friendship, but the two year hit of the parole board set me back. I did think that because of my ailments they might have released me. I felt they just may have had a heart. I truly have tried to understand their decision with my limited capacity, but I can't make sense of it at all.
They went back in my history. Spoke of my political background with the Black Panther Party. They felt I would be a threat to the community. And since I didn't have a real force of show of support from the community, I could not prove them to be wrong. I have always had a good relationship with the community. Nobody from the community has ever felt threatened by me.
When I viewed the situation between the parole board and me, I felt like this . . . There is a story of a master locksmith who could open any lock in the world. He also had the imagination to create locks that nobody in the world could open. Once he was imprisoned for a crime he didn't do. As soon as he was alone he proceeded to pry the locked cell open. However, as soon as he saw the lock, he started to cry. He had discovered to his dismay that the lock, which held him prisoner, was his own creation, and therefore, impossible even for him to open. The moral of the tale is that the wounds we inflict on ourselves are the most egregious and the most painful. No one can hurt us as much as we can hurt ourselves. In fact, much of the harm that others cause us is partly the result of our behavior or lack of..
Psychologists have long noticed that people who are masochists, provoke others into hurting themselves. Even people in normal circumstances will, for one reason or another, draw the type of reaction from others that they themselves want. In relationships, we sometimes mold others into treating us in a certain way, even if that behavior is hurtful. Self-inflicted wounds are the most tragic and most difficult to treat... I say all of that to say, when the reality of the two-year finally hit me, I was deeply touched and moved closer to the edge of desperation. I turned into myself. I didn't want to be bothered. I have not written to anyone, nor have I spoken of the phone with anyone. I think the cruelest of this whole thing has been the pain, suffering of what my wife and daughter has been through emotionally, already, and now this all over again, and there is no telling that when I go back in two years that they won't hit me again. I have been and am prepared for anything.. In that sense, I have always looked for the worst, and hoped for the best. There can be no in between with me. We understand the law of opposites and once we have come to understand that, then we must move to neutralize that force which oppose us.
How can we do this? There were some mistakes made in the campaign to free me. I understand that I am not a celebrity case, and there is no money in the campaign.. but still, we can learn from mistakes, so that we can have some real chance of neutralizing the parole board. . . Do we want to do this? What steps should we begin in order to start this process? And.. we must take into account whether or not we want to take on this task of regrouping again?
I really don't know what further to say, because I have fallen out of words and the spirit just isn't in me to go on.
Much revolutionary love,
Malik Abdullah Akili
Prisoner # 94-A-5238
Collins Correctional Facility
P.O. Box 340
Collins, NY 14034-0340
For more on Malik and other prison/human rights issues, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid999200948,87474,
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Congress: Bush OK to Attack Unilaterally * Turning the Tide
12 October 2002
1) Turning The Tide
2) Kucinich: Statement in Opposition to the Resolution
"The power to declare war is the most solemn responsibility given to Congress by the Constitution. We must not delegate that responsibility to the president in advance." Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.)
Editor's Notes:
This has been a crushing couple of days. First learning about the Congress vote for George W. Bush to go ahead and make war preemptively, based on his judgement.. This too much.. But then, too, learning that my friend Malik Abdullah Akili was denied parole.. They told him not to come back for another 24 months - in the belly of the beast. Malik and his family, friends, are all struggling now, facing a faceless tomorrow. . . except in knowing each other's love, a moment is brightened to a greater resolve and choice to survive, to choose to struggle, and remain whole as living, caring people, though others are going down the tubes in distorting what is true about being human.
It is with the inspiration of those caring, for those who wrote in support of Malik's parole, for those who called Congress to stop a corrupt new phase for preemptive war, that helps each individual choice to be free and on the side of caring, and not to give up. Item 1 is an eloquent statement and commitment to "Turn the Tide" from Eli Pariser, for MoveOn, which is one of the many powerful organizations that had worked effectively to try and stop a policy that increases terror and loss of freedom and democracy. Eli offers a refreshing perspective, and that this battle is not yet over, the bombs have not yet struck those innocent people living their lives. Item 2 is a transcript of a speech made on the floor of the House by Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich.
Flyby News has updated its homepage with current campaigns, actions, and events. Also, please note that Flyby News page on Dennis Kucinich has been updated. Please help network such information. Scott Ritter will be speaking in western Massachusetts this Tuesday. On November 7th, Flyby News is sponsoring a premiere showing of a Dennis Kucinich video presentation of his speech at the Peoples' Peace Summit in Burlington, VT, September 28, 2002. Following the video there will be a discussion on US Democracy and Safeguarding Our Planet. However, note, too, that November 5 is election day 2002. If you had taken the pledge not to vote for those supporting the recent Iraq War Resolution, which makes good sense, please check the following link for the roll call. Yet, for those who took a stand for freedom and democracy, please give your support. The campaign will now travel to the UN, and with the world unity for support, we can hold back US aggression that would tax the economy more to a downward spiral, as their plans for domination and control is but a fantasy for the weak-minded, for those in denial of the real current crises and environmental damage now taking place on Earth.
Take a Stand -- Preemptive War is Unacceptable!!!
A full roll call list for the Senate is available:
http://www.moveon.org/senatevote.html
A full roll call for the House is available at:
http://www.moveon.org/housevote.html
Flyby News Homepage FlybyNews.com
1) Turning the Tide
From "Eli Pariser, MoveOn.org"
To: info@flybynews.com
Date: 11 Oct 2002, 05:11:33 PM
Subject: Turning the Tide
Over the last five days, Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) and our friends in Congress fought a pitched battle against a hasty and dangerous war resolution. Senator Byrd fought with every tool at his disposal, from an array of parliamentary tactics to his pocket copy of the Constitution. Joined by Senators Kennedy (D-MA), Sarbanes (D-MD), Durbin (D-IL), and Boxer (D-CA) in outrage, he launched a furious filibuster, demanding that our elected representatives give this issue the lengthy and deep consideration it deserves.
In the House, Representatives Doggett (D-TX), Lee (D-CA), Kucinich (D-OH), and Pelosi (D-CA) took a stand against House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-MO) and worked unstoppingly to deliver a defeat for the authorization of force. In doing so, they risked political retaliation from both within their party and outside of it, but they spoke out anyway.
Early yesterday afternoon, the House voted 296 to 133 in support of the President's resolution. Surprising nearly everyone, a significant majority of Democrats stood with Pelosi and Doggett in
opposition to the resolution.
And around 1 in the morning last night, the Senate voted to support President Bush's proposal, 77 for to 23 against. Senator Byrd said, "I have fought the good fight. I might as well talk to the ocean."
For those of us who are worried about a war on Iraq -- worried what it will do to our country, our future, or our world -- this is a dark day. Our Congress has been stampeded into supporting a unilateral, pre-emptive war that could set the Middle East on fire and turn the world against us. In the immediate aftermath of this decision, it's easy to feel, like Senator Byrd, that we might as well have talked to the ocean.
But that is just plain wrong. This vote hurts, but without our work it would have been much worse.
Let us not underestimate what we're up against. In the Bush Administration, we have a cadre of men hungry for war. Iraq has been on the agenda since President Bush and Vice President Cheney were on the campaign trail. When September 11th happened, the President immediately tried to link it to Saddam. No dice. When anthrax brought our capitol to a halt, the FBI was dispatched to find connections to Baghdad. Nothing surfaced.
The President has demonstrated that he is willing to use every Machiavellian trick in the book to force our country to war. He hasn't hesitated to use our national tragedy to push his agenda. He hasn't hesitated to play off the fear of Americans. He hasn't hesitated to take advantage of this election year to divide and conquer his opposition. When the President of the United States, a man with the loudest megaphone in the world, chooses to use such tactics, he is an extremely formidable opponent.
Make no mistake: the President did everything he could to make this vote a unanimous one. He failed. And the dissent in Congress will resonate throughout our country.
The New York Times today interviewed Representative Susan Davis (D-CA), from southern California: "Ms. Davis's San Diego district includes thousands of active and retired military personnel in the West Coast's largest Navy base, many of whom, she said, may not be happy with her decision to vote against the president's wishes. But having agonized over her decision until a few hours before the vote, she said she was persuaded by a large number of calls and e-mail messages from voters who were deeply uneasy about the prospect of a new war that could be fought with terrible weapons." That was us.
And when Senator Byrd was speaking out on the Senate floor, he knew we stood behind him. When Representative Pelosi spoke out against the House leadership, she knew that we were with her. Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota is in the political fight of his life against a candidate hand-picked by the White House to defeat him. But even though it could damage his re-election campaign, Senator Wellstone voiced his conscience. Our work helped to make that possible.
Our impact can be felt far beyond Washington, D.C. The American people are a lot smarter than politicians think, and support for this warmongering is paper thin. With each dissenter, with each
dissenting vote we will gain the support of more of our fellow citizens. President Bush may now have the legal authority for a war, but thanks to the concern we've voiced in the media and in our
representatives' offices, he does not have the mandate of his constituents.
This vote will not stand. We will keep fighting this thoughtless war in every way we can. We will fight it over the next weeks and the next months, in Washington and at home.
For now, though, we should take a moment to reflect on the hard work we've put in, on our successes and our failures. Remember: we're not talking to the ocean. We're turning the tide.
Sincerely,
--Eli, Wes, Carrie, Joan, Peter, and Susan
MoveOn.org
Friday, October 11, 2002
P.S. The pressure we've put on Congress has been overwhelming. Over the last two months, we've met with Senators' offices in every state. We've mobilized a team of volunteer lobbyists who worked with over 400 Congressional offices. We've written over 3,600 letters to the editor on Iraq. And we've made, at the very least, a staggering 143,000 phone calls to Congress. With countless emails and a petition with over 200,000 signers, we've communicated a deep and broad concern to our elected representatives.
Here's what Senator Byrd had to say about the grassroots feedback he received:
"I have heard from tens of thousands of Americans people from all across this country of ours who have urged me to keep up the fight. I am only one Senator from a small state, yet in the past week I have received nearly 20,000 telephone calls and nearly 50,000 e-mails supporting my position. I want all of those people across America who took the time to contact me to know how their words have heartened me and sustained me in my efforts to turn the tide of opinion in the Senate. They are my heroes, and I will never forget the remarkable courage and patriotism that reverberated in the fervor of their messages."
From:
http://byrd.senate.gov/byrd_newsroom/byrd_news_oct2002/rls_oct2002/rls_oct2002_3.html)
A full roll call list for the Senate is available on our website at:
http://www.moveon.org/senatevote.html
A full roll call for the House is available at:
http://www.moveon.org/housevote.html
You can help decide the direction of MoveOn.org by participating in the discussion forum at:
http://www.actionforum.com/forum/index.html?forum_id=223
Flyby Notes:
The Washington Post reported that among the dozen most vulnerable Democrats in next month's elections, just two -- Reps. James Maloney (Conn.) and Julia Carson (Ind.) -- opposed the measure. In the Senate, Paul D. Wellstone (D-Minn.) was alone among incumbents facing tough reelections who voted against it.
ANNOUNCEMENT FOR WAR=========>> Washington Post:
Congress Passes Iraq Resolution
Overwhelming Approval Gives Bush Authority to Attack Unilaterally
By Jim VandeHei and Juliet Eilperin
Friday, October 11, 2002]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6032-2002Oct10.html
2) Kucinich: Statement in Opposition to the Resolution
Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH), leader of the House opposition to the resolution, gave the following statement on the House floor today during general debate on the war resolution:
Yesterday students held a peace rally on the West front of the Capitol. It may have been the first rally on the Capitol grounds in opposition to war with Iraq. I attended and I heard representatives of America's youth asking: Why:
Why war against the people of Iraq?
Why assert military power which threatens innocent civilians?
Why war to settle differences?
Why separate our nation from the world community?
Why not give peaceful resolution a chance?
I looked at the faces of the young people at the peace rally. Fresh faces, hopeful, optimistic, and challenging. Soon the voices of our youth will be heard across the nation. And we should pay them heed. They will be heard on campuses, in town halls, in marches. They will be raised to challenge and to confront senseless violence, mindless war, the death of innocents, the destruction of villages to save villages. Voices will be lifted up in urgency because the future knows when the place it needs to build could be destroyed. The future knows skepticism when promises of peace are wrapped in fire and brimstone.
Our young people opposing war represent a message from the future America, the America that can be, and with the upwardly spiraling aspirations of millions of Americans of all ages, the America that will be:
The future America works to make nonviolence an organizing principle in our society.
The future America works to make war archaic.
It is a nation that lives courageously in peace, working to settle differences at home and abroad without killing.
The future America comprehends the world as an interconnected whole. It understands that changes in transportation, communication and trade have made people throughout the world neighbors.
The future America believes that each person is sacred. That each person makes a difference. That each choice we make affects others. That an injury to one person is an injury to all. That justice ought to be international and that vengeance is reserved to the Lord.
It is an America where human rights, and workers rights and environmental quality principles are within the ark of the Human Covenant.
It is a nation where each life is given an opportunity to unfold, where all have access to health care, to higher education, to jobs and to a secure retirement. Where the quality of life matters. Where people build families, build communities, build an American community of our dreams, where our highest aspirations light the way to a better nation and to a better world.
The future America is a nation which works to sustain life on earth. It champions protection of the global environment. It works with all nations to abolish nuclear weapons, chemical weapons and biological weapons.
It is a nation which preserves the heavens for the restless human soul. And it rejects putting weapons in space because it knows the kingdom that will come from the stars should bring eternal peace, not war.
While some voices clamor for war, a future America looks for deeper unity of all people worldwide and seeks not empire but harmony.
So to you, young America, I sing a hymn of praise because while some may want to send you marching off to fight yesterday's wars, you are advancing from the future, reminding us that our nation has a higher calling. Reminding us of the America that can be. Reminding us that there has to be a better way. Challenging us to find that better way. Joining with us to make straight the path of democracy.
This is a time for caution as we would face war, but it is also a cause for joy because the same reveille which sounds a battle cry and clangs the tocsins of war, brings forth legions of others enlisted in a holy cause to relight the lamp of freedom in our own land.
So come forth young and old. Prepare for America's future.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich's Press Releases:
http://www.house.gov/kucinich/press/~list.html
For much more on Congressman Kucinich and his work to stop the attack on Iraq, to ban space-based weapons, and for a US Department of Peace, and more...visit this updated page:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1021307488,43210,m
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Stop War * president's real goal * Iraq War/for Dummies
10 October 2002
1) Stop the War Take Action!
2) The president's real goal in Iraq
3) Bush's War on Iraq for Dummies by Bernard Weiner
Editor's Notes:
In Item 1, please consider linking to send email to all fifty senators at once. Many groups are uniting in the call for peace and freedom. The National Lawyers Guild's press release is in this item, too, stating their case for supporting civil disobedience to stop needless war atrocities. Take a Stand!
Item 2 is an article that offers a clear analysis of the real goal and strategies behind the Bush administration's interests on attacking Iraq.
Item 3 links to a new piece by Bernard Weiner, "Bush's War on Iraq for Dummies."
Tell your Congressman to stand up for PEACE and not some preemptive, domination-striking, terror-producing, policy that will continue to plunge economies and the environment in ruin.
TELL THEM TO CHOOSE ANOTHER DIRECTION FOR INTER--NATIONAL PEACE AND SECURITY!
"It is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners."
- Albert Camus
1) Stop the War Take Action!
Send an e-mail to over 50 Senators at once:
http://www.voice4change.org/stories/mailsenate.asp
Sponsored by Voice4Change
Changing Hearts and Minds
http://www.voice4change.org
October 10, 2002
Dear Senator,
The current rush to war with Iraq concerns me deeply. I do not condone the actions of Saddam Hussein, but the people of Iraq do not deserve to suffer more as a result of his actions.
If we go to war with Iraq, once again the world will see the United States as a perpetrator of violence and hate. We will be seen in the world community as a "bully" a Rogue State.
Please ponder these questions on the proposed US attack on Iraq
Why Now?
What has changed since 1991?
What has Iraq done to threaten its neighbors since 1991?
Can we not re-visit this issue after the United Nations attempts to act?
Where is the imminent danger?
These unanswered questions lead me to call on you to take the following actions this week in the Unite States Senate
1. Support any effort to delay the vote i.e. Filibuster, Cloture motion.
2. Vote YES on the Levin Resolution
3. Vote NO on the Lieberman-Bayh sponsored Resolution even if amended by Biden-Lugar
Respectfully Submitted,
To sign and send this letter to Senators, go to:
http://www.voice4change.org/stories/mailsenate.asp
This is from TrueMajority.com:
Our friends in Congress have been telling us that something amazing has been happening this week. Many of their colleagues have been finding their backbones and are starting to oppose Bush's war. One Member of Congress told us that the 57,000 faxes TrueMajority members have sent in over the past few weeks has been just the calcium these people will need to keep up the struggle during this week's debate and over the next few months. If nobody opposes Bush he'll have the blank check he wants to go to war. So fill out this form to send free faxes opposing a unilateral invasion of Iraq to your Members of Congress.
http://www.truemajority.com/index.asp?action=2215&ms=blkchk&ref=14025
Remember, even if Bush wins the vote this week he will still need the support of Congress and The People if he is going to go through with this dangerous and expensive folly in Iraq. Now is the time to get as many Members of Congress on record against this war. We'll need them in the months to come.
This is from Eli Pariser, from MoveOn.org
10 Oct 2002, 06:18:27 AM
Subject: CIA: War will make us less safe, not more
Yesterday, the Central Intelligence Agency released a letter that turns President Bush's argument for war on its head. In it, a senior intelligence official said that the likelihood of an attack by Saddam using weapons of mass destruction in the "foreseeable future" is low. But he went on to say that if Saddam was attacked, the likelihood of him using chemical or biological weapons or providing them to terrorist organizations was "pretty high."
In other words, a war against Iraq would likely create exactly the disaster that President Bush claims it will prevent. It may be the only circumstance under which Saddam Hussein would use whatever chemical or biological weapons are at his disposal against the United States. (There still isn't any solid evidence that Saddam has any weapons of mass destruction.)
The CIA letter makes it clear that a war on Iraq will make our country and the world less safe, not more safe. Since the debate in the Senate could end any day now, please call your Senator right now:
Contact both your Senators and your Representative. Call the Congressional Switchboard for the numbers of Washington offices(202)224-3121. You are also encouraged to write, email or fax.
For more Congressional contact info, visit:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html
You can also call the Congress at the Capital Switchboard toll free at 1-800-8395276 and ask to be connected to your member of Congress.
Make sure the staffer you speak to knows that you're a constituent. Then tell him or her that in light of the new CIA testimony, you hope the Senator will vote against authorizing a war on Iraq. Feel free to explain why you're worried about the effects of a war on our security.
MoveOn.org
More information on Byrd filibuster by Ken Schubert ken.schubert@e-posten.net
I have now spoken more extensively with Senator Byrd's offices in both Washington D.C. and Charleston. They confirmed that they are being inundated with phone calls and are having difficulty taking all of them. However, they both emphasized that it is much more important for you to call your own Senator and express your views, including support for Senator Byrd's filibuster plans. Even if you believe that your Senator is staunchly for a war, such calls will provide Senator Byrd with a firmer foundation for his efforts.
National Lawyers Guild will support civil disobedience
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 3, 2002.
NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
SUPPORTS ACTS OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IN
PROTESTING PREEMPTIVE STRIKE AGAINST IRAQ
Will Provide Legal Support and Materials Regarding Necessity Defense
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) condemns George Bush's proposed preemptive strike and escalation of the ongoing war against Iraq as violating the Constitution of the United States and the United Nations Charter. The Guild will seek to provide legal support for individuals and groups practicing non-violent civil disobedience regarding the "necessity" defense, which is conduct that an actor believes to be necessary to avoid harm to himself or to another. Such behavior may be justifiable, provided that the harm sought to be avoided by such conduct is greater than the harm which the law defining the offense seeks to prevent.
"The Guild commits its legal resources to support those who engage in acts of civil disobedience against such unauthorized military action," says Guild President Bruce Nestor. The Guild is preparing a legal brief and supporting materials related to the necessity defense and military action against Iraq, and will distribute those materials nationally.
Immediately after the attacks of September 11, 2001, a relatively small group of individuals in the United States government -- primarily President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his Deputy Paul Wolfowitz -- began to develop pretexts for intensified military attacks against Iraq. No credible evidence connects Iraq to the crimes of September 11. One year later, these officials formally promulgated a doctrine under which the United States will "act preemptively," without the legally required authorization of the United Nations and the international community, or any legitimate claim of self-defense or defense of others, to bomb and invade Iraq. (National Security Strategy, Section V). Ongoing unilateral military attacks by the US against Iraq, consisting of bombing raids in the "no fly zones," are not authorized by any resolution of the UN Security Council. These bombing raids, as well as any escalated attacks, violate Article 1, Section 4 and Articles 41 and 42 of the UN Charter and other provisions of international law, which as ratified treaties are also part of the "supreme Law of the Land." (Constitution of the United States, Article VI Section 2).
The forthcoming air attacks and invasion of Iraq will kill innocent civilians, threaten international peace and security, undermine the rule of law, and create a backlash against the people of the United States. Under well-accepted general principles of criminal law applicable in every US jurisdiction, otherwise technically illegal acts may be justified by the necessity of preventing a greater wrong or danger -- a form of self-defense or defense of others. In this case there is ample legal necessity and justification for non-violent resistance to these illegal and immensely destructive, murderous actions by the top officials of the US government.
NLG President Bruce Nestor says that "The basic question raised by continuing and intensifying US aggression against Iraq is moral: whether US government officials are authorized to decide that the 'price is worth it,' for millions of people whose lives will be shaped -- and in many cases destroyed -- by the criminal actions of a handful of US leaders who hold themselves above the law." The fundamental principles of international law and democracy empower individuals to make this moral decision for themselves, regardless of the contrary actions of their leaders. US government officials forfeit legitimacy and the power to enforce laws against non-violent trespass and "disorder" when they pursue policies that result in war crimes. Non-violent civil disobedience in opposition to the US government's illegal preemptive wars is justified by the necessity of self-defense and defense of others.
The National Lawyers Guild was founded in 1937 as an alternative to the then-racially segregated American Bar Association. Currently, the NLG has nearly 5,000 members nationally - lawyers, legal workers, law students and jailhouse lawyers - committed to using the law as a vehicle for positive social change.
http://www.nlg.org/
Published on Sunday, October 6, 2002 by the United Press International
1.5 Million March Against Attack on Iraq
Anti-War Rallies Change Italy on Iraq?
by Eric J. Lyman
ROME -- More than 1.5 million Italians took to the streets of dozens of cities Saturday afternoon and evening to protest possible U.S. military action against Iraq -- a surprise show of discord that could be fervent enough for the Italian government to re-think its support of Washington.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1006-01.htm
2) The president's real goal in Iraq
The president's real goal in Iraq
Published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 9/29/02
By JAY BOOKMAN
The official story on Iraq has never made sense. The connection that the Bush administration has tried to draw between Iraq and al-Qaida has always seemed contrived and artificial. In fact, it was hard to believe that smart people in the Bush administration would start a major war based on such flimsy evidence.
The pieces just didn't fit. Something else had to be going on; something was missing.
In recent days, those missing pieces have finally begun to fall into place. As it turns out, this is not really about Iraq. It is not about weapons of mass destruction, or terrorism, or Saddam, or U.N. resolutions.
This war, should it come, is intended to mark the official emergence of the United States as a full-fledged global empire, seizing sole responsibility and authority as planetary policeman. It would be the culmination of a plan 10 years or more in the making, carried out by those who believe the United States must seize the opportunity for global domination, even if it means becoming the "American imperialists" that our enemies always claimed we were.
Once that is understood, other mysteries solve themselves. For example, why does the administration seem unconcerned about an exit strategy from Iraq once Saddam is toppled?
Because we won't be leaving. Having conquered Iraq, the United States will create permanent military bases in that country from which to dominate the Middle East, including neighboring Iran.
In an interview Friday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld brushed aside that suggestion, noting that the United States does not covet other nations' territory. That may be true, but 57 years after World War II ended, we still have major bases in Germany and Japan. We will do the same in Iraq.
And why has the administration dismissed the option of containing and deterring Iraq, as we had the Soviet Union for 45 years? Because even if it worked, containment and deterrence would not allow the expansion of American power. Besides, they are beneath us as an empire. Rome did not stoop to containment; it conquered. And so should we.
Among the architects of this would-be American Empire are a group of brilliant and powerful people who now hold key positions in the Bush administration: They envision the creation and enforcement of what they call a worldwide "Pax Americana," or American peace. But so far, the American people have not appreciated the true extent of that ambition.
Part of it's laid out in the National Security Strategy, a document in which each administration outlines its approach to defending the country. The Bush administration plan, released Sept. 20, marks a significant departure from previous approaches, a change that it attributes largely to the attacks of Sept. 11.
To address the terrorism threat, the president's report lays out a newly aggressive military and foreign policy, embracing pre-emptive attack against perceived enemies. It speaks in blunt terms of what it calls "American internationalism," of ignoring international opinion if that suits U.S. interests. "The best defense is a good offense," the document asserts.
It dismisses deterrence as a Cold War relic and instead talks of "convincing or compelling states to accept their sovereign responsibilities."
In essence, it lays out a plan for permanent U.S. military and economic domination of every region on the globe, unfettered by international treaty or concern. And to make that plan a reality, it envisions a stark expansion of our global military presence.
"The United States will require bases and stations within and beyond Western Europe and Northeast Asia," the document warns, "as well as temporary access arrangements for the long-distance deployment of U.S. troops."
The report's repeated references to terrorism are misleading, however, because the approach of the new National Security Strategy was clearly not inspired by the events of Sept. 11. They can be found in much the same language in a report issued in September 2000 by the Project for the New American Century, a group of conservative interventionists outraged by the thought that the United States might be forfeiting its chance at a global empire.
"At no time in history has the international security order been as conducive to American interests and ideals," the report said. stated two years ago. "The challenge of this coming century is to preserve and enhance this 'American peace.' "
Familiar themes
Overall, that 2000 report reads like a blueprint for current Bush defense policy. Most of what it advocates, the Bush administration has tried to accomplish. For example, the project report urged the repudiation of the anti-ballistic missile treaty and a commitment to a global missile defense system. The administration has taken that course.
It recommended that to project sufficient power worldwide to enforce Pax Americana, the United States would have to increase defense spending from 3 percent of gross domestic product to as much as 3.8 percent. For next year, the Bush administration has requested a defense budget of $379 billion, almost exactly 3.8 percent of GDP.
It advocates the "transformation" of the U.S. military to meet its expanded obligations, including the cancellation of such outmoded defense programs as the Crusader artillery system. That's exactly the message being preached by Rumsfeld and others.
It urges the development of small nuclear warheads "required in targeting the very deep, underground hardened bunkers that are being built by many of our potential adversaries." This year the GOP-led U.S. House gave the Pentagon the green light to develop such a weapon, called the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, while the Senate has so far balked.
That close tracking of recommendation with current policy is hardly surprising, given the current positions of the people who contributed to the 2000 report.
Paul Wolfowitz is now deputy defense secretary. John Bolton is undersecretary of state. Stephen Cambone is head of the Pentagon's Office of Program, Analysis and Evaluation. Eliot Cohen and Devon Cross are members of the Defense Policy Board, which advises Rumsfeld. I. Lewis Libby is chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. Dov Zakheim is comptroller for the Defense Department.
'Constabulary duties'
Because they were still just private citizens in 2000, the authors of the project report could be more frank and less diplomatic than they were in drafting the National Security Strategy. Back in 2000, they clearly identified Iran, Iraq and North Korea as primary short-term targets, well before President Bush tagged them as the Axis of Evil. In their report, they criticize the fact that in war planning against North Korea and Iraq, "past Pentagon wargames have given little or no consideration to the force requirements necessary not only to defeat an attack but to remove these regimes from power."
To preserve the Pax Americana, the report says U.S. forces will be required to perform "constabulary duties" -- the United States acting as policeman of the world -- and says that such actions "demand American political leadership rather than that of the United Nations."
To meet those responsibilities, and to ensure that no country dares to challenge the United States, the report advocates a much larger military presence spread over more of the globe, in addition to the roughly 130 nations in which U.S. troops are already deployed.
More specifically, they argue that we need permanent military bases in the Middle East, in Southeast Europe, in Latin America and in Southeast Asia, where no such bases now exist. That helps to explain another of the mysteries of our post-Sept. 11 reaction, in which the Bush administration rushed to install U.S. troops in Georgia and the Philippines, as well as our eagerness to send military advisers to assist in the civil war in Colombia.
The 2000 report directly acknowledges its debt to a still earlier document, drafted in 1992 by the Defense Department. That document had also envisioned the United States as a colossus astride the world, imposing its will and keeping world peace through military and economic power. When leaked in final draft form, however, the proposal drew so much criticism that it was hastily withdrawn and repudiated by the first President Bush.
Effect on allies
The defense secretary in 1992 was Richard Cheney; the document was drafted by Wolfowitz, who at the time was defense undersecretary for policy.
The potential implications of a Pax Americana are immense.
One is the effect on our allies. Once we assert the unilateral right to act as the world's policeman, our allies will quickly recede into the background. Eventually, we will be forced to spend American wealth and American blood protecting the peace while other nations redirect their wealth to such things as health care for their citizenry.
Donald Kagan, a professor of classical Greek history at Yale and an influential advocate of a more aggressive foreign policy -- he served as co-chairman of the 2000 New Century project -- acknowledges that likelihood.
"If [our allies] want a free ride, and they probably will, we can't stop that," he says. But he also argues that the United States, given its unique position, has no choice but to act anyway.
"You saw the movie 'High Noon'? he asks. "We're Gary Cooper."
Accepting the Cooper role would be an historic change in who we are as a nation, and in how we operate in the international arena. Candidate Bush certainly did not campaign on such a change. It is not something that he or others have dared to discuss honestly with the American people. To the contrary, in his foreign policy debate with Al Gore, Bush pointedly advocated a more humble foreign policy, a position calculated to appeal to voters leery of military intervention. For the same reason, Kagan and others shy away from terms such as empire, understanding its connotations. But they also argue that it would be naive and dangerous to reject the role that history has thrust upon us. Kagan, for example, willingly embraces the idea that the United States would establish permanent military bases in a post-war Iraq.
"I think that's highly possible," he says. "We will probably need a major concentration of forces in the Middle East over a long period of time. That will come at a price, but think of the price of not having it. When we have economic problems, it's been caused by disruptions in our oil supply. If we have a force in Iraq, there will be no disruption in oil supplies."
Costly global commitment
Rumsfeld and Kagan believe that a successful war against Iraq will produce other benefits, such as serving an object lesson for nations such as Iran and Syria. Rumsfeld, as befits his sensitive position, puts it rather gently. If a regime change were to take place in Iraq, other nations pursuing weapons of mass destruction "would get the message that having them . . . is attracting attention that is not favorable and is not helpful," he says.
Kagan is more blunt.
"People worry a lot about how the Arab street is going to react," he notes. "Well, I see that the Arab street has gotten very, very quiet since we started blowing things up."
The cost of such a global commitment would be enormous. In 2000, we spent $281 billion on our military, which was more than the next 11 nations combined. By 2003, our expenditures will have risen to $378 billion. In other words, the increase in our defense budget from 1999-2003 will be more than the total amount spent annually by China, our next largest competitor.
The lure of empire is ancient and powerful, and over the millennia it has driven men to commit terrible crimes on its behalf. But with the end of the Cold War and the disappearance of the Soviet Union, a global empire was essentially laid at the feet of the United States. To the chagrin of some, we did not seize it at the time, in large part because the American people have never been comfortable with themselves as a New Rome.
Now, more than a decade later, the events of Sept. 11 have given those advocates of empire a new opportunity to press their case with a new president. So in debating whether to invade Iraq, we are really debating the role that the United States will play in the years and decades to come.
Are peace and security best achieved by seeking strong alliances and international consensus, led by the United States? Or is it necessary to take a more unilateral approach, accepting and enhancing the global dominance that, according to some, history has thrust upon us?
If we do decide to seize empire, we should make that decision knowingly, as a democracy. The price of maintaining an empire is always high. Kagan and others argue that the price of rejecting it would be higher still.
That's what this is about.
2002 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/opinion/0902/29bookman.html
3) Bush's War on Iraq for Dummies by Bernard Weiner
LiberalSlant.com
Bush's War on Iraq for Dummies
By: Bernard Weiner - 10/05/02
Once again, in need of help to sort through all the Iraq flak and confusion, I consult the oracle of that great publishing franchise that helps explain complicated matters in terms simple enough for even ordinary types like me.
Q. I don't get it. Just about everyone in the world -- including even his father's famous brain trust -- thinks that Bush attacking Iraq, with no provocation, is a terrible idea and will harm America's national interests. But Mr. Bush and his advisors don't seem to give a fig and bluster right on, convinced they're doing the right thing. Please explain.
A. Nothing is ever simple in politics. There are the things that are revealed, usually for a reason, and there is the stuff taking place behind the scenes, the subtext, as it were. Here, the visible reasons have to do with the fact that Saddam Hussein, in truth, is a very bad, dangerous man. Once he gets his hands on nuclear weaponry, to go along with his biological and chemical agents, he might well gain control of that region of the world, and thoroughly upset the status quo, which would be unbearable for Iraq's neighbors and for the U.S. So, the reasoning goes, better to take him out now, before he starts his mischief. The subtext: Bush&Co. see that the U.S.of A. is the world's only superpower and thus has a window of opportunity to do what it wants, take what it wants, while the doing and taking are good. In short, to remake the world in America's image, to structure a new world order that, in all things that matter, does America's bidding. By taking out Saddam, the word goes out: Don't mess with us, ever; if you do, you can expect the same treatment. Thus, if this theory of bullyish behavior is right, after some initial chaos, things will settle back into a fairly stable, America-friendly operational mode: oil&gas will remain safely in Western hands, and reasonably affordable; many nationalist rebellions will be put down as "terrorist" threats; the capitalist market will romp supreme. . .
To read the entire "Bush's War on Iraq for Dummies"
by Bernard Weiner, see:
Bush's War on Iraq for Dummies
Bernard Weiner, a playwright and poet, was the San Francisco Chronicle's theater critic for nearly two decades. Holder of a Ph.D. in government & international relations, he has taught American politics and international relations at Western Washington University and San Diego State University, and has written for The Nation, Village Voice, The Progressive and other political journals. He is a contributing writer for Liberal Slant. Bernard Weiner, Ph.D., also authored " 'The War on Terrorism' for Dummies," " The Middle East for Dummies," "The Intifadeh & Israel for Dummies" and "The Bush 9/11 Scandal for Dummies."
http://www.liberalslant.com
Flyby News Updated Action Page to Stop Preemptive WAR Resolutions:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1032732988,9612,m
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
"Bush's War on Iraq for Dummies" by Bernard Weiner
LiberalSlant.com
Bush's War on Iraq for Dummies
By: Bernard Weiner - 10/05/02
Once again, in need of help to sort through all the Iraq flak and confusion, I consult the oracle of that great publishing franchise that helps explain complicated matters in terms simple enough for even ordinary types like me.
Q. I don't get it. Just about everyone in the world -- including even his father's famous brain trust -- thinks that Bush attacking Iraq, with no provocation, is a terrible idea and will harm America's national interests. But Mr. Bush and his advisors don't seem to give a fig and bluster right on, convinced they're doing the right thing. Please explain.
A. Nothing is ever simple in politics. There are the things that are revealed, usually for a reason, and there is the stuff taking place behind the scenes, the subtext, as it were. Here, the visible reasons have to do with the fact that Saddam Hussein, in truth, is a very bad, dangerous man. Once he gets his hands on nuclear weaponry, to go along with his biological and chemical agents, he might well gain control of that region of the world, and thoroughly upset the status quo, which would be unbearable for Iraq's neighbors and for the U.S. So, the reasoning goes, better to take him out now, before he starts his mischief. The subtext: Bush&Co. see that the U.S.of A. is the world's only superpower and thus has a window of opportunity to do what it wants, take what it wants, while the doing and taking are good. In short, to remake the world in America's image, to structure a new world order that, in all things that matter, does America's bidding. By taking out Saddam, the word goes out: Don't mess with us, ever; if you do, you can expect the same treatment. Thus, if this theory of bullyish behavior is right, after some initial chaos, things will settle back into a fairly stable, America-friendly operational mode: oil&gas will remain safely in Western hands, and reasonably affordable; many nationalist rebellions will be put down as "terrorist" threats; the capitalist market will romp supreme.
Q. What if this theory is wrong? What if people don't especially want to be ruled by America and follow all its dictates? What if they want to choose another path?
A. They can follow whatever path they want. As long as it does not threaten American economic or military dominance. In other words, as in any empire's far-flung holdings, they have a bit of wiggle room, but not much.
Q. This new Bush doctrine basically seems to be saying that whenever you think another country is going to harm your interests, it's OK pre-emptively to invade them or assassinate their leaders -- in other words, do unto others before they even think about doing unto you. Couldn't this lead to all sorts of bad consequences?
A. Yes, there is that likely free-for-all around the globe. The Russians just smash the Chechnians under the "anti-terrorist" justification, and the U.S. has to remain silent. Sharon claims Arafat is thinking about getting ready to assassinate Israeli leaders, and takes out the Palestinian chairman. China says that Taiwan is considering declaring its independence, and the attack is on. You can see how this ball can roll. But, in the end, for the sake of international stability, The Enforcer will tend to intervene to settle such disputes. Guess who that Enforcer will be: the one great power all others must take into consideration when contemplating action, at least for the next decade or two. (All this suggests a much more militarist society in the U.S., to support such worldwide responsibilities.)
Q. Let's get back to Iraq for a moment. You skimmed over the obvious reasons for Bush attacking that country. Does Saddam have these horrible weapons at his disposal? Is he going to use them, either on his neighbors or on the U.S. and its one coalition partner (Great Britain)?
A. Saddam has lots of stuff hidden. He could have used his stockpiles of nerve gas and toxins during the last Persian Gulf War, but he was warned that if he did, he'd bring total disaster on himself and his regime. He chose not to use them, he chose to survive. But now he's told from the outset that it isn't just the weapons the U.S. is after but his head. If he can't wiggle out of the vise this time, he may well feel, since he'll be going down anyway, that he might as well use his weapons, taking as many Americans, Brits and, by long distance, Israelis with him. He might even be willing (if he hasn't already done so) to hand over toxic weaponry to al-Qaida operatives, for delivery in the U.S. and Israel.
Q. I keep hearing Bush say that Saddam is only six months away from having nuclear capability, and that there are documents to prove it.
A. Certainly, it's clear that Saddam long has been interested in achieving nuclear capability. But Bush&Co. based its flimsy six-months theory on a supposed study done by the International Atomic Energy Agency a few years ago. The problem is that no such study exists. When informed of this minor impediment, the Bush spokesmen said he really was referring to a 1991 United Nations study. Same problem: There is no such study.
Q. But now the U.N. might send its inspectors back in to locate all this dread stuff. Wouldn't that take care of the situation?
A. Even if these first-time-out inspectors found something in the limited time that will be available to them -- Saddam has had four years to secrete the weapons, stashed far underground in out-of-the-way locations, and much is hidden away in presidential palaces, off-limits to inspectors -- Bush has made it clear that the inspection regime is just a fig-leaf, something he has to pay lip-service to, to show that he went that extra diplomatic mile. Bush won't let any findings dissuade him one way or another. The softening-up bombing for his attack already has begun, and the major war moves will come probably within a few months, if not sooner. Actually, though, Bush&Co. is hoping for another solution.
Q. You mean there's a non-violent way to solve this situation?
A. We wouldn't go that far, but it's at least different from full-scale invasion. Bush&Co. are hoping that by being so very obvious and threatening about what's about to go down in Iraq, some officer or other will put a bullet in Saddam's brain, and thus lead the way for a diplomatic settlement, with another Iraqi government coming to power, one more amenable to U.S. demands. The only problem with this scenario is that it's delusional. Saddam runs one of the more tyrannical, murderous, totalitarian regimes on the planet; no anti-regime officer has been able to get near the guy for decades, as he continually wipes out any officer corps about which he has even the whiff of suspicion. Nope, to get Saddam, the U.S. is going to have to go in there and fight street by street, house by house, to find him. It's going to be a bloody mess, and probably entail hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops, many of them remaining there for a long time. The "collateral damage" to innocent civilians will be enormous, and the American troops coming home in body bags likewise, some due probably to toxic overexposure. On the other hand, it is possible, if not likely, that once the U.S. troops enter Baghdad and start the Saddam-hunt, some military faction may see the handwriting on the wall and decide to give away the location of their leader. But counting on that to happen early might be a big mistake.
Q. What about the famed "Arab street"? Won't there be an upheaval in reaction to the U.S. unprovokingly attacking another Islamic country?
A. There may well be and America's sometime-allies in the region -- Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, et al. -- could have their "moderate" governments overthrown by Islamicist extremists. But the U.S. doesn't seem to care. If it has to, it'll take on those bad guys if and when the time comes. But invasion doesn't always have to happen in the Giant Elephant scenario: the huge beast roars and everyone backs away so as not to enrage it further. They've seen what kind of rampage the Elephant is capable of, and choose to live to fight another day.
Q. Why the rush to invade? Iraq is not threatening the U.S. or even its immediate neighbors. Am I missing something?
A. Bush&Co. are terrified of getting bogged down by traditional international diplomacy. They just want to get in there and do the deed, and to hell with everyone else. Plus, if they wait much longer than a few months from now, the weather will be too hot for the heavy anti-toxicity suits the U.S. troops will have to wear. Plus, Bush&Co. have put their macho believability on the line; they're trying to box everyone into the fait accompli corner. If they postpone much longer, or even are forced to back away from the attack, they will look like wusses -- in short, they will remind everyone of Poppy, who didn't finish the job the first time.
Q. Are you saying the attack is a done deal, that there's nothing the American people -- or those opposed abroad -- can do to impede the war machine?
A. The Democrats in Congress don't seem to have the desire to stand up to Bush before the November election and risk looking wimpy or "unpatriotic." (There are a few with wisdom and courage, such as that old Constitutionalist Robert Byrd -- and Al Gore made a dynamite speech -- but they are few and far between.) There isn't yet a truly effective and widespread "peace movement" in the streets, analogous to the millions who opposed the Vietnam War in demonstrations. The recalcitrant allies in Europe and elsewhere are basically toothless when it comes to making their opposition hurt the U.S. What is possible is that by ratcheting up the opposition, here and abroad, Bush&Co. will be boxed into a political corner that reveals even more clearly their disdain for the American populace. When the war comes and goes sour, there may be grounds for, and an organizational structure in place to demand, a heavy electoral price in 2004 for such imperial folly, maybe even a move toward impeachment.
Q. You've used the "i" word before. Are you for real?
A. There are so many serious scandals involving the Bush administration that have disappeared from the front pages because of the Iraq focus -- any one of those would be enough to get the impeachment ball rolling. But, when you add the Iraq war to it, the willingness to put in harm's way young American troops in a pre-emptive strike on the flimsiest of surmises, there's even more impeachment-ammunition. (If, by some chance, the Dems can take over the House and hold onto the Senate in next month's election, you'll begin to see more courage flowing into their veins and the beginning of meaningful investigations.)
Q. You aren't painting a very rosy picture here. You're saying there's not much we ordinary American citizens can do to stop the coming war with Iraq, nor much our skeptical allies can do abroad. But, regardless, we shouldn't stop trying: if we don't get Bush now, we'll set the stage for getting him later.
A. In broad outline, that's about where we are now. This arrogant, anti-democratic, anti-Constitutional bully of an administration is not going to change its course until absolutely forced to. Citizen agitation is part of that process of forcing them to. It won't be easy and it may not come as quickly as we would like -- though, if the election results in November are favorable, it will begin to generate a growing momentum. But we are building the foundation for removal from office of these dangerous bullyboys, and more and more citizens (even a lot from the conservative side) are beginning to come around. We WILL get rid of these guys. Don't lose the faith, eyes on the prize, a better day is coming, organize, organize, organize.
Bernard Weiner, a playwright and poet, was the San Francisco Chronicle's theater critic for nearly two decades. Holder of a Ph.D. in government & international relations, he has taught American politics and international relations at Western Washington University and San Diego State University, and has written for The Nation, Village Voice, The Progressive and other political journals. He is a contributing writer for Liberal Slant. Bernard Weiner, Ph.D., also authored " 'The War on Terrorism' for Dummies," " The Middle East for Dummies," "The Intifadeh & Israel for Dummies" and "The Bush 9/11 Scandal for Dummies."
http://www.liberalslant.com
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Oppose War on Iraq Petition * Ritter - Kucinich - McDermott
7 October 2002
1) Truth Is Already A Victim... And The War Hasn't Started
2) Scott Ritter - Guardian - "Help us to stop the war"
3) Kucinich & McDermott -- Questioning Bush's War Motives
Editor's Notes:
Finally someone has posted a petition with some teeth in it. Michael Moore, (best selling author of "Stupid White Men") is sponsoring the following Petition:
"We call on the Democrats in Congress to oppose a war on Iraq, to vote "No" to Bush's war cries. We pledge to never again vote for any Democratic member of Congress who supports George W. Bush's war against Iraq. To the Democrats in Congress, we give you fair warning: You are either with us, or you are fired."
You can sign and send off this petition from:
www.michaelmoore.com/petitions/peacepledge/index.php
Charles Jenks (of Traprock Peace Center) yesterday, stated that Senator Byrd's intent to filibuster the Senate Iraq War Resolution Vote was undermined by a recent Senate vote not to have open-ended dialog. Please keep the pressure on any politician, let them know about the pledge "to never again vote for any Democratic member of Congress who supports George W. Bush's war against Iraq."
For information on contacting Congress and more, visit Flyby's Updated Action Page to Stop the WAR Resolution:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1032732988,9612,
Item 1 in this issue is about the pseudo-democracy-rhetoric that would actually begin a new phase for a race war and for world domination, and chaos. Item 2 is on Scott Ritter speaking with the Guardian newspaper in London. The Constitution is under threat, and here is one hero willing to take a stand with a those who believe in peace and freedom. [Scott Ritter is speaking at Deerfield Academy, (Deerfield, MA) on October 15.] Item 3 is on Congressman Kucinich and McDermott, in September, willing to question the president's motives for an illegal war on Iraq.
"Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our Fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."
- Abraham Lincoln
1) Truth Is Already A Victim... And The War Hasn't Started
Truth Is Already A Victim... And The War Hasn't Started
By Eric Margolis
Contributing Foreign Editor Toronto Sun
October 6, 2002
SAN FRANCISCO -- Once the United States overthrows Saddam Hussein and "liberates" Iraq, it will then proceed to spread democracy, human rights, and enlightenment throughout the Mideast. So vows the Bush administration's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, an academic expert on Soviet affairs.
One hopes her preposterous assertion is simply part of the administration's propaganda buildup before invading oil-rich Iraq.
Truth is indeed the first casualty of war. Recall in 1990 the famous tearjerker about Kuwaiti babies thrown from incubators by evil Iraqi soldiers, a canard that ignited war fever across America, but turned out to be a total fabrication. Or White House claims to have photographic evidence of an impending Iraqi invasion of Saudi Arabia. These claims were also phony, but they succeeded in stampeding the petrified Saudis into allowing the U.S. to permanently station military forces in the kingdom, where they remain to this day.
If Rice really believes the U.S. will bring democracy to the Mideast, she must also believe in the tooth fairy. Such naivete is unacceptable in a senior policy maker.
Unsurprisingly, Rice's silly claim was greeted from Morocco to Iran with profoundest derision by the very people she aspires to "liberate." In fact, the Bush administration's stated goal of bringing democracy to the Arabs faithfully echoes claims by Victorian Britain's imperialists that they were conquering and exploiting Africa and Asia only to bring the benefits of Christianity and western civilization to benighted heathen.
Fifty years ago, Middle Easterners would have believed Rice. After World War II, they hailed the United States as the symbol of honest government, decency, generosity and opposition to colonialism. When America's great president, Dwight Eisenhower, ordered the British, French and Israelis to end their 1956 aggression against Egypt, the U.S. was a supreme hero across Asia and Africa.
In the ensuing half-century, the U.S. has gone from hero to supreme villain. America's ever-growing support for Israel was half the reason, but the other half was the U.S. policy of keeping oil prices low, and supply high, by imposing despotic surrogate rulers on the region.
The U.S. has dominated the Arab world for the past 50 years. What has it done to promote democracy or human rights there, Miss Rice? Name one democracy, one nation ruled by laws, one nation not run by the secret police.
Take a tour of the Arab states under U.S. "protection."
Morocco - A medieval monarchy, as brutal as Iraq, with thousands of political prisoners tortured and confined in underground dungeons.
Algeria - Sunk in a nightmare civil war. When Algeria held the Arab world's first free vote in 1991, Islamic parties won. The army, backed by France and the U.S., annulled the elections and has ruled since.
Tunisia - A military dictatorship.
Egypt - Home to 40% of all Arabs, and intellectual heart of the Arab world, is a military dictatorship with a ruthless secret police. They routinely torture and murder opponents. Many thousands are held in political prisons, the press is censored and parliament is a sham. As in the case of Iran under the late Shah Reza Pahlavi, the FBI, CIA, and NSA all assist Egypt's secret police in repressing opposition and keeping the military regime in power. Ayman al-Zawahri, 9/11 chief planner, was tortured for years in Egyptian prisons.
Jordan - Decent and well-run, but no democracy. The U.S.-backed king and his Bedouin army rule a nation that is over 60% Palestinian.
Saudi Arabia - A feudal monarchy of 7,000 princes. Political opponents are muzzled or charged with drug dealing and beheaded. The Saudis sell oil to the U.S. and its allies on the cheap. In exchange, they get protection against their neighbours and their own people. Saudi Arabia buys billions of U.S., British and French arms it cannot use and keeps $100 billion in the U.S. financial system. Osama bin Laden claims the West steals Arab oil. He says oil should cost US $300 a barrel, not $20-30 - true terrorist talk to SUV owners.
Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates - all tiny feudal monarchies inherited by the U.S. from the British Empire. Oman, another monarchy, is discreetly run by British intelligence, MI6.
Arab nations not under direct or indirect U.S. domination - Libya, Syria, Yemen, Sudan - are also nasty dictatorships (Yemen less so). Lebanon is a tribal/feudal society dominated by Syria. Saddam's brutal Iraq was a close U.S. ally from 1979-90.
Now, suddenly, Rice and the neo-conservatives who are pulling the Bush administration's strings, claim they will bring the balm of democracy to the wretched Arabs.
But why now, after half a century of fostering petro-despotism? Why the sudden conversion on the road to Baghdad? At the very same time the Bush administration is busy shoring up Pakistan's military dictator, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and maintaining a U.S.-imposed regime in chaotic, "liberated" Afghanistan whose leader, Hamid Karzai, must be protected by teams of U.S. bodyguards from his own unloving people.
In the buildup to the 1991 war against Iraq, George Bush Sr. promised a Palestinian state. This time around, the whopper du jour is democracy and freedom for all Arabs, and especially Iraqis. Why, just recently, George W. Bush promised Palestinians democracy - provided, of course, they didn't re-elect Yasser Arafat.
Eric Margolis can be reached by e-mail at margolis@foreigncorrespondent.com.
2) Scott Ritter - Guardian - "Help us to stop the war"
Help us to stop the war -
(As a US Republican, I reject George Bush's illegal and unconstitutional plan to attack Iraq ) -
by Scott Ritter
WSRitter@aol.com
Monday October 7, 2002
The Guardian
As a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and as a registered member of the Republican party who voted for George Bush in the last presidential election, I have to admit to a certain trepidation and uncertainty when I was asked by Labour MPs to participate in the massive anti-war rally in London on September 28. In my way of thinking, mass demonstrations, regardless of the righteousness of the cause, were the theatre of the political left, and not something with which I should be associated. I was proven wrong on all counts. The outpouring of democratic will that occurred on that day came not only from the left, but from across the breadth of mainstream British society. It sent a message to a Blair government that had grown increasingly isolated from public opinion: UK support for an American unilateral war on Iraq would not be tolerated. That message met a response a few days later from the Labour party at its annual conference in Blackpool.
Democracy in action is a wonderful thing.
Across the Atlantic, in the United States, a debate is about to begin in the US Congress over the granting of sweeping war powers that would enable President Bush to wage war against Iraq, even if such action were unilateral and lacking in authority from the United Nations. To many Americans, myself included, the granting of such powers represents a breach of constitutional responsibility on the part of Congress, which alone under the constitution of the United States is authorised to declare war. There is at least one US senator - Robert Byrd of West Virginia - who recognises this, and has indicated his willingness to launch a filibuster of the debate. Senator Byrd is famous for carrying a copy of the US constitution in his breast pocket, and pulling it out on the floor of the Senate to remind fellow senators what American democracy is founded on. One man fighting in defence of the basic foundation of American society. Where are the large-scale US demonstrations in support of this struggle? Where are the voices of outrage over what amounts to a frontal assault on the constitution of the United States? Democracy silenced is awful.
The constitution has always guided me in my actions as an American citizen. It establishes the US as a nation of laws, and sets high standards for the ideals we Americans strive to achieve as a nation. As an officer of Marines, I took an oath to defend the US constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. It is an oath I take very seriously and I am willing to give my life in defence of this document - something I demonstrated during my time in uniform, including service in Operation Desert Storm.
I am no pacifist, but I am opposed to President Bush's rush towards war with Iraq this time around. As signatories to the UN charter, Americans have agreed to abide by a body of international law that explicitly governs the conditions under which nations may go to war. All require authority of the security council, either through an invocation of article 51 (self defence), or a resolution passed under chapter seven of the charter (collective security). President Bush's case for war simply has not been demonstrated to meet any of these criteria. The president repeatedly announced that Iraq has failed to comply with its obligation to disarm, and as such poses a threat to international peace and security. The president declared that Iraq must allow weapons inspectors to return to Iraq, without conditions, with unfettered access to all sites. Iraq's failure to allow inspectors to return to work since their withdrawal in December 1998 has prompted fear in many circles (recently demonstrated by the UK government's dossier on Iraqi weapons programs) that Iraq has taken advantage of the intervening time to reconstitute its weapons of mass destruction programs dismantled under UN supervision. With no inspectors in Iraq, it was impossible to know for certain what the regime of Saddam Hussein was up to; and, given Iraq's past record of deceit over these weapons, the US and others were justified in presuming ill intent.
But now Iraq has agreed to allow the inspectors to return, unconditionally, and to be held accountable to the rule of law as set forth in existing security council resolutions governing Iraq's disarmament. The opportunity finally exists to bring clarity to years of speculation about the potential threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, as well as an opportunity to resolve this ongoing crisis of international law peacefully.
But President Bush refuses to take "yes" for an answer. The Bush administration's actions lay bare the mythology that this war is being fought over any threat posed by Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. It has made it clear that its objective is the elimination of Saddam Hussein. And this is where I have a fundamental problem. The UN charter prohibits regime removal. The US constitution states that international agreements entered into by the United States carry the force of law. The US has signed the UN charter. Regime removal is not only a violation of international law, it is unconstitutional.
There is a way to deal with the need to change a regime deemed to be a risk to international peace and security, and that is through the UN. If President Bush truly wanted to seek regime removal in Baghdad, then he would push for an indictment of Saddam Hussein and his senior leadership in the international court for crimes against humanity, something that should not prove hard to do, given the record of the Butcher of Baghdad (and something other members of the UN would clearly support as an alternative to war). But seeking judgment through the international court requires a recognition by the US of the primacy of international law, something the Bush administration has been loath to do.
The fact of the matter is this crisis between Iraq and the US goes beyond even the issue of regime removal. It represents the first case study of the implementation of a new US national security strategy, published last month, which sets forth a doctrine of unilateralism that capitalises on American military and economic might to maintain the US as the sole superpower, to impose our will on the rest of the world, even through pre-emptive military action. This strategy is a rejection of multilateralism, a turning away from the concepts of international law.
This new Bush doctrine of American unilateralism reeks of imperial power, the very power against which Americans fought a revolution more than 200 years ago. The streets of Washington DC are empty of demonstrators protesting at this frontal assault on American democracy. Will the streets of London be filled again with protesters against this assault on the rule of international law? I certainly hope so, because the people of Britain could lead by example, sending a clear signal to fellow practitioners of democracy in America that when it comes to determining what actions a government takes in the name of the people, the will of the people cannot, and will not, be ignored.
--
Scott Ritter was a UN weapons inspector in Iraq in 1991-98 and chief of the concealment investigations team. His interview with William Rivers Pitt forms the core of War on Iraq (Profile Books)
Videos and books with Scott Ritter is available at http://www.traprockpeace.org
[Scott Ritter is speaking at Deerfield Academy, (Deerfield, MA) on October 15.]
You can e-mail him: WSRitter@aol.com
Guardian Unlimited Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,805900,00.html
3) Kucinich & McDermott -- Questioning Bush's War Motives
Demos - Iraq No Imminent Threat, Bush Wants Saddam's Oil
By Jeff Johnson
CNSNews.com Congressional Bureau Chief
September 14, 2002
WASHINGTON, DC (CNSNews.com) - Two House Democrats said Friday that Saddam Hussein's on-going effort to amass chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons poses no immediate threat to the United States, and that the Bush administration has ulterior motives for pursuing war against Iraq.
Rep's. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) told reporters and opponents of military action against Iraq at a Capitol Hill briefing that politics and oil, not fear that Iraq will use weapons of mass destruction, are the driving factors behind the president's call for a regime change in that country.
"There is no imminent threat by Iraq against the United States. Iraq does not have nuclear capabilities that anyone has been able to specifically determine, nor does it have the ability to deliver such a weapon, nor does it have the intent to do so," Kucinich claimed. "It could be said by Iraq that they none are facing the imminent threat."
But, if Iraq poses no danger to the U.S. or its allies, why is President Bush threatening to attack the Persian Gulf country? Kucinich believes the answer lies beneath the sands of Iraq.
"Oil is a factor. How much [of a factor] is anybody's guess, but to discount it as a factor is, I think, to be misleading," he continued. "It's not a conspiracy theory to bring it in because, after all, it is the second largest oil supply in the world."
The congressman said the White House should be focusing on healthcare, the cost of prescription drugs, unemployment, the economy, corporate fraud, and retirement security.
"Therein is the immediate threat to America's security," Kucinich added. "Iraq is a handy diversion."
McDermott said the lack of focus on those issues points to another motivation for the administration's push for Hussein's removal.
"This war business has obfuscated, hidden, beaten down any discussion of domestic issues," he charged. "I think that the president may have a two-pronged plan here, one over oil and the other is to win the fall election."
McDermott originally came to the briefing only to listen, but spoke when Kucinich invited him to the table. McDermott charged that the original military action against Iraq - launched with United Nation's approval after Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 - was also primarily undertaken because of fear that the U.S. would lose access to foreign oil.
"That was really about the Kuwaiti oil fields and now we're back into this again," he claimed. "I, personally, am one of those who thinks [oil] is a much larger issue than people wish to talk about."
The allegation of access to oil as a motive for removing Hussein is not frequently heard publicly, McDermott said, because of an organized effort by the Bush administration to squelch such discussions.
"The political operatives in the White House have been very careful to spin it away from oil," he said. "Anytime anybody tries to see a connection, they spin it the other way."
Kucinich suggested sarcastically that, if and when they do vote on any administration proposal to engage Iraq, members of Congress should perhaps have a new choice for voting.
"Maybe we should have four buttons on our voting machine," he said with a laugh, "one that says, 'yes;' one that says, 'no;' another one that says, 'present;' and a fourth one that says, 'fill 'er up.'"
Kucinich insisted that any action the U.S. takes against Iraq, without permission from the United Nations, "would clearly be a violation of international law."
"This is a question of whether we become an aggressor nation," he claimed. "This would change what America is all about."
Kucinich is urging his colleagues to wait to see what action, if any, the United Nations might take. President Bush, however, wants Congress to deliberate the issue and vote on a resolution concerning Iraq before it adjourns to campaign for the November elections.
"I can't imagine an elected member of the United States Senate or House of Representatives saying, 'I think I'm going to wait for the United Nations to make a decision,'" Bush said Friday morning prior to the accusations by Kucinich and McDermott.
"It seems like to me that if you're representing the United States, you ought to be making a decision on what's best for the United States," he continued. "If I were running for office, I'm not sure how I'd explain to the American people saying, 'Vote for me, and, oh, by the way, on a matter of national security, I think I'm going to wait for somebody else to act."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The House of Reps already supported the Bush-Preemptive War Resolution The debate is now in the Senate Go to Flyby's Updated Action Page to Stop the WAR Resolution:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1032732988,9612,
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Byrd's Filibuster * Congress Overwhelmed * Ruppert's Rubicon
5 October 2002
1) Byrd's Filibuster? -- Tell Senate to Deny Bush Blank Check
2) Congress Overwhelmed With Anti-War Calls
3) Ruppert's Across the Rubicon'
Editor's Notes:
Item 1 is important. It could be the saving grace that can stop Congress from rubber stamping a Bush preemptive strike policy. You can take a critical action today by calling Senator Byrd's office to comment on the consideration for a filibuster. Item 2 is a report from Democracy Now! on public pressure on Congress for peace. This needs to intensify this coming week. Item 3 is a piece by Michael C. Ruppert, with, as usual, keen perspective and observations.
Flyby News wishes to thank William Rivers Pitt for his talk on October 3 in Amherst. His balanced, sharp-witted political insights are still being absorbed. Meeting this man is good for the soul. A video on 9/11 related subjects is in the making. Special thanks to Eliz for recording this presentation, which will be aired via community access television stations. Also, Emily, thanks for your talents with the fliers, and richness in working on these events.
Flyby News presents ~
A Dennis Kucinich Video Presentation
"Peace in Space and On Earth" (Discussion to follow)
Thursday November 7 at the Jones Library, downtown Amherst, Massachusetts -- 7:00 to 9:00 PM
This video is a different one than the one shown on October 3, and includes more on the campaign to ban space-based weapons. Besides watching the video, we plan to have a discussion on US democracy and responsibilities for safeguarding our planet. This comes two days after the 2002 elections, which should help make discussions interesting. If interested in receiving one of our fliers, by snail mail or as an attached file, please reply to info@flybynews.com The last two fliers include the remarkable cartoons from Norman D. Livergood's web site: Brainwashing America:
http://www.hermes-press.com/brainwash1.htm
Please, call Congress this week for a better future, and Senator Byrd now for a possible filibuster to help stop a war from consuming us all.
1) Byrd Filibuster? -- Tell Senate to Deny Bush Blank Check
Published on Friday, October 4, 2002 by the Charleston Gazette (West Virginia)
Byrd Asks Senate to Deny Bush Blank Check
by Paul J. Nyden
In one of his most impassioned speeches during his 50 years in Congress, Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., pleaded with fellow senators on Thursday not to issue a "blank check" to President George W. Bush.
"The president is using the Oval Office as a bully pulpit to sound the call to arms. But it is from Capitol Hill that such orders must flow. The people, through their elected representatives, must make that decision," Byrd said.
Quoting Roman historian Titus Livius, Byrd called Bush "blind and improvident....
"As sure as the sun rises in the east, we are embarking on a course of action with regard to Iraq that, in its haste, is both blind and improvident. We are rushing into war without fully discussing why, without thoroughly considering the consequences, or without making any attempt to explore what steps we might take to avert conflict."
The "bellicose stance" taken in Bush's resolution, sent to the Senate 33 days before Election Day, is motivated by campaign politics, Byrd argued.
"Before risking the lives of American troops, all members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike, must overcome the siren song of political polls and focus strictly on the merits, not the politics, of this most serious issue."
Immediately after Byrd sat down, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said, "He has been a voice of sanity and reason. He has been a voice the American people wanted to hear....
"When our president didn't want to come to Congress, Sen. Byrd stood up and said, Just a moment. Read the Constitution. The Congress shall have the power to declare war,'" Boxer said. "I cannot support a blank check. It would be an affront to the people of this country to do that."
Bush defended himself Thursday, saying his resolution would affirm his right to use pre-emptive military strikes only as a last resort.
Byrd called the Bush resolution "a product of haste ... a product of presidential hubris. This resolution is breathtaking in its scope. It redefines the nature of defense, and reinterprets the Constitution to suit the will of the Executive Branch.
"It would give the president blanket authority to launch a unilateral pre-emptive attack on a sovereign nation that is perceived to be a threat to the United States. This is an unprecedented and unfounded interpretation of the president's authority under the Constitution, not to mention the fact that it stands the charter of the United Nations on its head," Byrd said.
Last month, the Congressional Research Service issued a report noting the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis: "represented a threat situation which some may argue had elements more parallel to those presented by Iraq today. But it was resolved without a pre-emptive' military attack by the United States."
Bush argues the Joint Resolution on Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, authorizes him to initiate military actions on his own.
Byrd called Bush's argument "a cynical twisting of words.... Nowhere was there an implied recognition of inherent authority under the Constitution to deter and prevent' future acts of
terrorism.
"Other nations will be able to hold up the United States as the model to justify their military adventures. Do you not think that India and Pakistan, China and Taiwan, Russia and Georgia are closely watching the outcome of this debate?" Byrd asked.
"A war against Iraq will affect thousands if not tens of thousands of lives, and perhaps alter the course of history. It will surely affect the balance of power in the Middle East. It is not a decision to be taken in haste," Byrd said. "Yet that is exactly what the Senate is proposing to do."
Byrd said the White House failed to establish any concrete ties between Iraq and al-Qaida.
"We know who was behind the Sept. 11 attacks," Byrd said. "We know it was Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorist network. We have dealt with al-Qaida and with the Taliban government that sheltered it. We have routed them from Afghanistan and we are continuing to pursue them in hiding....
"No one in the administration has been able to produce any solid evidence linking Iraq to the Sept. 11 attack," Byrd said.
Byrd also warned that Saddam, "ruthless in gaining and staying in power," is likely to use all weapons at his disposal if attacked.
"Iraq is not Afghanistan, impoverished by decades of war, internal strife, and stifling religious oppression. Though its military forces are much diminished,... it is a large country that has spent years on a wartime footing, and it still has some wealth."
And even a successful attack could lead to a long-term, expensive occupation of a nation so religiously and ethnically divided.
"If the Congress authorizes such a mission, we must be prepared for what will follow," Byrd said. "Nation-building cannot be accomplished with the wave of a wand by some fairy godmother."
Byrd criticized Bush for providing no detailed estimates of the costs of war, including the cost in human lives.
"The questions surrounding the wisdom of declaring war on Iraq are many and serious. The answers are too few and too glib. This is no way to embark on war."
Byrd again said the United Nations is the "proper forum" to search for and destroy Iraq's weapons. "If Iraq again chooses to interfere with such an ongoing and admittedly intrusive inspection regime, then and only then should the United States, with the support of the world, take stronger measures....
"Let us guard against the perils of haste, lest the Senate fall prey to the dangers of taking action that is both blind and improvident."
Copyright 2002 The Charleston Gazette
Published on Friday, October 4, 2002 by the Charleston Gazette (West Virginia)
http://www.wvgazette.com/
To contact staff writer Paul J. Nyden, E-mail: pjnyden@wvgazette.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For the complete transcript of the October 3, 2002 speech by Senator Robert C. Byrd,
"Rush to War Ignores U.S. Constitution"
see:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/10.05A.byrd.rush.htm
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
URGENT - Calls Needed to Senator Byrd's office to Stop the War
It is urgent to call Sen. Robert Byrd's office (202-224-3954) and ask the Senator to filibuster against the war resolution of the Administration (and Dem leadership).
His office is taking a poll on whether he should do this. We need to swamp the offices to urge him on. He has been one of the few courageous voices on this. His filibuster may be the only impediment to the war plans, and it may spark demonstrations of support in DC and around the country. You can leave a message at his number after hours.
Sen. Robert Byrd (202)224-3954
2) Congress Overwhelmed With Anti-War Calls MORE NEEDED!
From "The Silenced Majority"
Democracy Now
http://www.democracynow.org/CongressCalls.htm
29 September 2002
Republican and Democratic Senate offices report "overwhelming" opposition from their constituents to war with Iraq. This comes as Congress prepares to pass a war resolution granting President Bush sweeping powers to invade Iraq.
The national news radio show Democracy Now! conducted an informal survey on Thursday of 70 Republican and Democratic Senate offices.
Of the 26 offices which responded to our inquires, 22 reported an overwhelming majority - in some cases up to 99 percent -- of constituents opposed war in Iraq; three said the response was split and just one office reported a majority called backing the war. Among the findings:
Democrats
* Wisconsin Sen. Herb Kohl: Aides say they are receiving 1,000-2,000 calls per week with the
overwhelming number opposed to an attack on Iraq.
* Washington Sen. Patty Murray: Over 5,000 letters and phone calls were received last week on Iraq, aides say. Only about 100 came from constituents who supported an attack.
* California Sen. Dianne Feinstein: Staff in her San Francisco office reported about 200 calls a day with 99 percent of the callers opposing the war.
* New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman: The D.C. office has been receiving at least 1,300 calls a day with about 70 percent opposed to war.
Republicans
* North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms: Staff declined to give figures but said the "majority is against" when it comes to calls on Iraq.
* Nebraska Sen. Charles Hegal: According to aides, constituents favor diplomacy over war at a rate of 5 to 1.
* Virginia Sen. John Warner: About 150 constituents a day are calling into the D.C. offices. "A very small minority supported military action," said one aide.
"It's extraordinary that, as Senators work with the Bush Administration to draft a war resolution, their constituents are expressing overwhelming opposition to an attack against Iraq," said Amy Goodman, the host of Democracy Now! "Unfortunately we are hearing very little about this in the media. These calls represent the silenced majority, not the silent majority."
Democracy Now is a daily nationwide news show based in New York. It is broadcast on over 130 public radio and television stations around the country.
http://www.democracynow.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Congress will likely try to vote on a resolution to authorize the use of military force against Iraq early next week. The sheer volume of calls and letters has caused Congress people to think twice about rubber-stamping Bush's proposal. Many Senators and Representatives are still on the fence about how to vote. It is absolutely critical that we keep the pressure on in these last few days. Please call your Senators soon and often.
Congressional Switchboard for Washington offices (202) 224-3121;
or 1-800-839-5276 [ Toll-free number from http://www.endthewar.org ]
Please, call, too, Senator Majority leader Tom Daschle (D-SD)
For more Congressional contact info, visit:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
For resources and links on the Stop the War Campaign, visit:
Flyby News Archives
Alert==>Stop Bush War Resolution * Call Congress
3) Ruppert's Across the Rubicon'
The following is excerpted from Michael C. Ruppert's
"Across The Rubicon"
For more information on Michael Ruppert, visit: The Wilderness Publications
http://www.copvcia.com
..The Asia Times, in a story published Sept. 30, also confirms the position taken by FTW about eight weeks ago that the move against Iraq and Saudi Arabia is a move to break the back of OPEC and drastically reduce prices by increasing production from the only two countries in the world that can open oil taps wider. This position was also noted on a Sept. 28 Fox News show by former CIA Director James Woolsey, who has had a habit of addressing FTW themes in interviews. Woolsey noted that Iraq is currently exporting only 1 million barrels of oil a day and that this could be increased by 3- to 4 million barrels per day as a price "control" measure. When asked if Saddam might scorch the earth and attempt to destroy his oilfields Woolsey replied, "Saddam is capable of anything." He then implied that the U.S. was prepared for that contingency by recalling that Saddam had tried that tactic in 1991, and the U.S. had quickly restored production. "But we could do the same thing again," said Woolsey and "get the fields online quicker than anyone thought."
As the invasion plans appear more and more unstoppable, the heavy shuttle diplomacy taking place in the Arab world between Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim states indicates that the OPEC/Muslim world sees the plan also. They want to slow the U.S. down and prevent the invasion. While staving off an inevitable collapse of the U.S. economy by drastically reducing oil prices (including heating oil and fuel for power generation) just before winter, the Bush Administration would also gut the national incomes of most countries in the region. Our immediate economic instability would be immediately transferred to the Middle East. The Saudi monarchy, awaiting the imminent passing of King Fahd, must see this clearly. The civil war between Princes Abdullah and Sultan that looms from that event alone might turn into anarchy if the Saudi government is suddenly unable to meet the domestic financial obligations that keep it in place.
What seems clear to me now is that the administration has thought through all of these contingencies and has prepared for them. The administration's arrogance is as frightening as its power. I have recently learned from trusted sources on Capitol Hill that the Armed Services committees have quietly begun planning for a re-institution of the draft. That harkens back to my June 2000 essay, "When the Children of the Bull Market Begin to Die." The eventual drafting of our youth is to me as much a certainty as anything else I have written about thus far. Reserve units, now having been called up for more than a year, are nearing the breaking point. A bloody and protracted war -- something the rest of the world may now be hoping for -- will overextend our military, and the draft will be essential as the criminals occupying the Executive Branch desperately attempt to make their grasp meet their reach. I think that there is better than a 50-50 chance that nuclear weapons will be used on the battlefield by either the U.S. or Israel within the next six months.
Russia and China wait as close to the sidelines as possible. China will be the ultimate endgame as it competes with growing demand for dwindling supplies of energy. And should the U.S. stumble, China will exert herself even more on the world scene..
..Most of our critics, notably David Corn of The Nation and self-anointed media critic Norman Solomon, have gone silent as both our reporting and predictions have been completely validated by events. And both Corn and Solomon have also revealed themselves to be agents of the U.S. State Department run by Colin Powell and career covert operative and criminal Richard Armitage. Last November in a story published on Alternet Corn wrote, "I had been dispatched to Trinidad by the U.S. State Department to conduct a two-day seminar on investigative reporting for local journalists (your tax dollars at work!)..." And just recently Norman Solomon of the Institute for Public Accuracy traveled with sitting congressman Nick Rahall and others on what CNN described as an official delegation to meet with officials of the Iraqi government.
I make these points because it seems to me that the learning curve of activism has not matched that of the oppressor. It is true that the Internet may prove itself to be the saving grace of mankind. But I look back at all the dedicated activists of the last 30 years and ask what have they accomplished? Human rights are worse. The environment is worse. Globalization is batting near 1000. Military spending has skyrocketed. And there seems to be nothing that can stop the empire's progression. (That is what I labeled it in January 2001).
Visionaries like Catherine Austin Fitts [ http://www.solari.com ] continue to demonstrate how our government is not a government but a criminal enterprise run for the benefit of corporations and syndicates. Her writing about alternative economic models that succeed without killing attracts far too little attention. And while FTW is growing, we are constantly short of funds as we continue to provide the most accurate reporting, analysis and predictions in the marketplace of ideas.
This is all because most of the people in this country still avoid the hard realities and try to cure symptoms rather than the causes of this great illness that envelops our country. Just recently I was in Washington, D.C. and attended several seminars at the Congressional Black Caucus. One seminar, on COINTELPRO, the FBI's domestic suppression operation of the '60s and '70s, featured Martin Luther King III who said, "We are a sick nation. Every day we are getting sicker."
I could not agree more.
But Julius Caesar has crossed the little river called the Rubicon with his legions and is heading toward Rome. The Republic is dead. And throughout human history it was at these times, when answers were hard to find and darkness seemed unstoppable, that a part of the human spirit persisted -- "I will not give up. I will not go quietly. I will not surrender." It was at these moments that faith demonstrated its true power, that courage found itself in the heart, and that the human race justified its existence in the universe.
The complete article is posted:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/100102_across_rubicon.html
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
>FLYBY NEWS>>>
Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era
= = = = = = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = = = = = = = =
NO VOTE Pledge - Stop Iraq Attack * Skull and Bones
23 September 2002
"Today, every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet may no longer be habitable. Every man, woman, and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or madness."
-- John F. Kennedy
1) Pledge Not to Vote for Supporters of an Illegal Iraq Attack
2) Scott Ritter Addresses Iraqi Parliament
3) A Dream That Was America - a talk by William Rivers Pitt
4) George W. Bush and the Brotherhood of Death
Editor's Notes:
As a new season brings a night and day to a balance, humankind is taking drastic steps in creating unprecedented instability with life on Earth. The leadership of Israel and the US are crazed in their scape-goat diversion tactics, creating oppression and chaos and fear with a military-dictatorship direction. Though Iraq has responded to a tough-minded former Marine and UN weapons inspector, Scott Ritter, [see item 2], there's talk by the leadership of Congress to give George W. the green light to attack Iraq anyway, which would be against the US Constitution and International Law. Item 1 asks for you to ACT. Please consider using the persuasive power of your Commitment to Refuse to Vote for any elected representative that supports the Bush "shoot first, ask questions later" doctrine that will only lead to economic, political, social, and environmental ruin. Please spread the word on this pledge and make the Call Today and every Tuesday, joining thousands attempting to Stop the Madness.
Item 3 is about a Flyby News sponsored event, a talk by William Rivers Pitt regarding 9/11 and the US-Proposed Preemptive Attack on Iraq. William Rivers Pitt's book, "War On Iraq" has been recently published by Context Press, and about the work of Scott Ritter. The Flyby event opens with a video presentation featuring Dennis Kucinich. Keep an eye for updates and actions at FlybyNews.com.. NOW is the time to respond before thousands or millions of people are harmed for a corrupt plan for US world domination.
Item 4 relates will give you chills of disbelief. This item includes excerpts from one wild article by Alexandra Robbins, author of "George W. Bush and the Brotherhood of Death 'Secrets of the Tomb' Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power."
[The following poem was published by Tree-Root Press in 1980, by Jonathan Mark.]
Questions
What if we crush against the pit of war
And out bursts its bitter counterpart, destruction?
What if tears and pains unbearable
Are curses because of lack of food?
What if death won't unlock the door
And we stay alive in misery?
Could we comprehend the meaning of existence?
Did it mean much before the war;
Does it mean more now in these days of panic-stricken homes?
O' the emotions lose control,
Who the fuck cares who wins the war?
Who's on the side of fate?
Can nuclear radiation wipe out hate?
What if we lean against each other's shoulder
And profess a liberty that can't be beat?
What if our hearts melt openly in the sun
And declare a unity that makes all one?
Can the bleeding call of mass hysteria conquer simple trust?
Will innocence bow down below an inferior lust?
1) Pledge Not to Vote for Supporters of an Illegal Iraq Attack
Just a bit more than a week, following Scott Ritter's historic address to the Iraqi Parliament (see excerpts in Item 2), on Monday September 16th, 2002, the Iraqi government announced its willingness to allow the return of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq without conditions. The White House immediately rejected this offer as "a tactical step by Iraq in hopes of avoiding strong U.N. Security Council action." The US government is still planning to attack Iraq!
Scott Ritter said, "My country seems on the verge of making an historic mistake, one that will forever change the political dynamic which has governed the world since the end of the Second World War; namely, the foundation of international law as set forth in the United Nations Charter, which calls for the peaceful resolution of problems between nations."
The plans of a preemptive strike on Iraq is a policy of fear gone mad, and would only make matters worse. It is time for Citizens to Act. The commitment of your vote matters to members of Congress. Tell your Government representatives to stop the rush to war based on speculation, and support the return of inspectors as an important step for peace in bringing Iraq in compliance with UN Resolutions, and ensuring that Iraq does not possess weapons of mass destruction!
Let them know what YOU THINK!
Consider Pledging Not to Vote for any Candidate who Supports a Resolution for the Bush Doctrine of a Preemptive Attack on Iraq or any Country!
Make a Call TODAY and Join Thousands on this and every Tuesday until (at least) the November Elections.
Contact both your Senators and your Representative. Call the Congressional Switchboard for the numbers of Washington offices(202) 224-3121. You are also encouraged to write, e-mail or fax.
For more Congressional contact info, visit:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html
For more information and talking points, visit these following links, organizations, references, and actions:
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Flyby News Archives
Alert==>Stop Bush War Resolution * Call Congress
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Sign the Petition to Congress -- Posted by Michael Moore
We call on the Democrats in Congress to oppose a war on Iraq, to vote "No" to Bush's war cries. We pledge to never again vote for any Democratic member of Congress who supports George W. Bush's war against Iraq. To the Democrats in Congress, we give you fair warning: You are either with us, or you are fired.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Global Exchange Web site, and the Iraq links on Progressive Portal.
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/iraq/
http://www.progressiveportal.org/links/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"New Way" to Peace between Americans and the Iraqi people
http://www.endthewar.org
Email: nnewai@usa.com
Telephone (650) 326-9057
For more information and resources on a Call-In Alert to Congress, see:
Stop Bush War Resolution * Call Congress
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Traprock Peace Center
http://traprockpeace.org/
Email: charles@mtdata.com
Tel. (413) 773-7427
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
MoveOn.org - links and resources on Iraq:
http://www.moveon.org/infoiraq.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Iraq Peace Pledge
web@peacepledge.org
http://www.peacepledge.org/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
International A.N.S.W.E.R.
(Act Now to Stop War & End Racism)
http://www.internationalanswer.org
Email: info@internationalanswer.org
Tel. (212) 633-6646; 202-332-5757
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The Brainwashing of America
http://www.hermes-press.com/brainwash1.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Text of Bush' Requested Congressional Resolution:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39666-2002Sep19.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
*** Reasons *Not* to Invade Iraq, by George Bush Sr.***
"We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq."
From "Why We Didn't Remove Saddam" by George Bush [Sr.] and Brent Scowcroft, Time (2 March 1998):
For an excerpt, see: http://www.thememoryhole.org/mil/bushsr-iraq.htm
For the complete article: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/1998/dom/980302/special_report.clintons_29.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a related article:
"Crazed US administration now threatens to block Iraq weapons inspections"
The American secretary of state, Colin Powell, has said the United States will find ways to stop weapons inspectors going back to Iraq unless there is a new United Nations Security Council resolution on the issue. The development came as the chief UN arms inspector, Hans Blix, told the Security Council he hoped to have an advance party in Iraq on 15 October.
BBC News [UK], 19 September 2002
For the complete article, see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2269462.stm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
WAR ON IRAQ
by William Rivers Pitt with Scott Ritter
http://www.contextbooks.com/waroniraq/
2) Scott Ritter Addresses Iraqi Parliament
Scott Ritter Addresses Iraqi Parliament
BBC Monitoring Service -- Sunday, Sept. 8, 2002
-- Scott Ritter, a former senior United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, who had a reputation for toughness as an inspector, accuses Washington of building a case for war based on fear and ignorance: "I feel I cannot stand by idly, while my country behaves in such a fashion," he says. "Iraq has not been shown to possess weapons of mass destruction."
Ritter addressed a special session of the Iraqi National Assembly's Arab and Foreign Relations Committee in Baghdad. The following are excerpts from his speech, which was carried by Iraqi Satellite Channel Television"I understand that I appear before you today not only as the first American citizen to address your body, but also as the first non-governmental speaker as well. And I thank you for providing me with this opportunity..."
"My country seems on the verge of making an historic mistake, one that will forever change the political dynamic which has governed the world since the end of the Second World War; namely, the foundation of international law as set forth in the United Nations Charter, which calls for the peaceful resolution of problems between nations...
"As someone who counts himself as a fervent patriot and a good citizen of the United States of America, I feel I cannot stand by idly, while my country behaves in such a fashion...
"A case for war"
"My government is making a case for war against Iraq that is built upon fear and ignorance, as opposed to the reality of truth and fact.
"We, the people of the United States, are told repeatedly that we face a grave and imminent risk to our national security from a combination of past irresponsible behaviour on the part of Iraq and ongoing efforts by Iraq to re-acquire chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic weapons ... which have been banned since 1991 by a Security Council resolution...
"The truth of the matter is that Iraq is not a sponsor of the kind of terror perpetrated against the United States on 11 September, and in fact is active in suppressing the sort of fundamentalist extremism that characterises those who attacked the United States on that horrible day.
"This is the truth, and once the American people become familiar with and accept this truth, the politics of fear will be defeated and the prospect of war between our two countries greatly diminished...
No threat
"The truth of the matter is that Iraq today is not a threat to its neighbours and is not acting in a manner which threatens anyone outside of its own borders.
"When speaking of international law as set forth by the United Nations Charter, it is impossible to come up with any scenario today that would justify military action against Iraq based upon its current behaviour.
"The truth of the matter is that Iraq has not been shown to possess weapons of mass destruction, either in terms of having retained prohibited capability from the past, or by seeking to re-acquire such capability today...
"Iraq, during nearly seven years of continuous inspection activity by the United Nations, had been certified as being disarmed to a 90-95 percent level - a figure which includes all the factories used by Iraq to produce weapons of mass destruction, together with the associated production equipment, as well as the vast majority of the products produced by these factories...
"Iraq must loudly reject any intention of possessing these weapons and then work within the framework of international law to demonstrate this a reality.
"The only way that Iraq can achieve this is with the unconditional return of UN weapons inspectors, allowing such inspectors unfettered access to sites inside Iraq in order to complete the disarmament tasks as set forth in Security Council resolutions..."
This was posted at BBC Monitoring Service -- Sunday, Sept. 8, 2002
http//news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/not_in_website/syndication/monitoring/media_reports
3) A Dream That Was America - a talk by William Rivers Pitt
Regarding 9/11 and the US-Proposed Pre-emptive Attack on Iraq
For Immediate Release
Contact: Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
Flyby News will be presenting a program with a talk by William Rivers Pitt, called 'A Dream That Was America, regarding 9/11 and the US-Proposed Pre-emptive Attack on Iraq at 7 pm on Thursday, October 3 at the Jones Library in Amherst, MA. Admission is free.
This event will open precisely at 7pm with a 25-minute video featuring Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich in "Peace In Space & On Earth."
Rep. Kucinich says, "We have a responsibility to challenge those who are so filled with fear, to challenge those who feel that somehow we live in a unipolar world where America is king, to recognize that every man and woman on this planet is a king...and ought to be given the chance to live out their lives in dignity and decency without fear of destruction." Dennis J. Kucinich (D), Ohio, is the Chair of the Progressive Caucus and sponsor for legislation for a US Department of Peace and to Ban Space-based Weapons.
William Rivers Pitt is a teacher of English Literature, Writing and Journalism from Cambridge, MA. He has authored two books the recently published, War on Iraq, by Context Press, which makes the case that the Bush administration's war plans for Iraq are a recipe for bloody disaster and The Greatest Sedition is Silence, to be published by Pluto Press in February, which describes in detail the erosion of American civil liberties since 9/11, among many other topics. Mr. Pitt is also a writer for http://www.Truthout.org, and his articles appear there at least once a week.
For more information on this program, and other issues vital for life's survival in the 21st Century, visit: http://www.FlybyNews.com
4) George W. Bush and the Brotherhood of Death
In the following, journalist and author Alexandra Robbins, discusses her book "Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power" with Ann Curry of The Today Show (NBC)n on September 4, 2002. The complete posting can be found at MSNBC.com at the following URL link:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/802773.asp#BODY
George W. Bush and the Brotherhood of Death 'Secrets of the Tomb' Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power
By Alexandra Robbins
MSNBC.com
..Fastforward 170 years. Skull and Bones has curled its tentacles into every corner of American society. This tiny club has set up networks that have thrust three members into the most powerful political position in the world. And the group's influence is only increasing the 2004 presidential election might showcase the first time each ticket has been led by a Bonesman. The secret society is now, as one historian admonishes, " an international mafia'. . . unregulated and all
but unknown." In its quest to create a New World Order that restricts individual freedoms and places ultimate power solely in the hands of a small cult of wealthy, prominent families, Skull and Bones has already succeeded in infiltrating nearly every major research, policy, financial, media, and government institution in the country. Skull and Bones, in fact, has been running the United States for years..
..Skull and Bones has also taken steps to control the American media.
Two of its members founded the law firm that represents the New York Times. Plans for both Time and Newsweek magazines were hatched in the Skull and Bones tomb. The society has controlled publishing houses such as Farrar, Straus & Giroux. In the 1880s, Skull and Bones created the American Historical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Economic Association so that the society could ensure that history would be written under its terms and promote its objectives. The society then installed its own members as the presidents of these associations.
Under the society's direction, Bonesmen developed and dropped the nuclear bomb and choreographed the Bay of Pigs invasion. Skull and Bones members had ties to Watergate and the Kennedy assassination. They control the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission so that they can push their own political agenda. Skull and Bones government officials have used the number 322 as codes for highly classified diplomatic assignments. The society discriminates against minorities and fought for slavery; indeed eight out of twelve of Yale's residential colleges are named for slave owners while none are named for abolitionists.
The society encourages misogyny: it did not admit women until the 1990s because members did not believe women were capable of handling the Skull and Bones experience and because they
said they feared incidents of date rape. This society also encourages grave robbing: deep within the bowels of the tomb are the stolen skulls of the Apache chief Geronimo, Pancho Villa, and former president Martin Van Buren..
..It is astonishing that so many people continue to believe, even in twenty first century America, that a tiny college club wields such an enormous amount of influence on the world's only superpower. The breadth of clout ascribed to this organization is practically as wide ranging as the leverage of the satirical secret society the Stonecutters introduced in an episode of The Simpsons. The Stonecutters theme song included the lyrics
Who controls the British crown? Who keeps the metric system down? We do! We do. . . Who holds back the electric car? Who makes Steve Guttenberg a star? We do! We do.
Certainly, Skull and Bones does cross boundaries in order to attempt to stay out of the public spotlight. When I wrote an article about the society for the Atlantic Monthly in May 2000, an older Bonesman said to me, "If it's not portrayed positively, I'm sending a couple of my friends after you." After the article was published, I received a telephone call at my office from a fellow journalist, who is a member of Skull and Bones..
..Skull and Bones, particularly in recent years, has managed to pervade both popular and political culture. In the 1992 race for the Republican presidential nomination, Pat Buchanan accused President George Bush of running "a Skull and Bones presidency." In 1993, during Jeb Bush's Florida gubernatorial campaign, one of his constituents asked him, "You're familiar with the Skull and Crossbones Society?" When Bush responded, "Yeah, I've heard about it," the constituent persisted, "Well, can you tell the people here what your family membership in that is? Isn't your aim to take control of the United States?" In January 2001, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd used Skull and Bones in a simile"When W. met the press with his choice for attorney general, John Ashcroft, before Christmas, he vividly showed how important it is to him that his White House be as leakproof as the Skull & Bones tomb.'"
That was less than a year after the Universal Pictures film introduced the secret society to a new demographic perhaps uninitiated into the doctrines of modern day conspiracy theory. Not long before the movie was previewed in theatersand perhaps in anticipation of the election of George W. Busha letter was distributed to members from Skull and Bones headquarters. "In view of the political happenings in the barbarian world," the memo read, "I feel compelled to remind all of the tradition of privacy and confidentiality essential to the well being of our Order and strongly urge stout resistance to the seductions and blandishments of the Fourth Estate." This vow of silence remains the society's most important rule. Bonesmen have been exceedingly careful not to break this code of secrecy, and have kept specific details about the organization out of the press. Indeed, given the unusual, strict written reminder to stay silent, members of Skull and Bones may well refuse to speak to any member of the media ever again.
But they have already spoken to me. When? Over the past three years. Why? Perhaps because I am a member of one of Skull and Bones' kindred Yale secret societies. Perhaps because some of them are tired of the Skull and Bones legend, of the claims of conspiracy theorists and some of their fellow Bonesmen. What follows, then, is the truth about Skull and Bones. And if this truth does not contain all of the conspiratorial elements that the Skull and Bones legend projects, it is perhaps all the more interesting for that fact. The story of Skull and Bones is not just the story of a remarkable secret society, but a remarkable society of secrets, some with basis in truth, some nothing but fog. Much of the way we understand the world of power involves myriad assumptions of connection and control, of cause and effect, and of coincidence that surely cannot be coincidence.
George W. Bush and the Brotherhood of Death 'Secrets of the Tomb' Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power
By Alexandra Robbins
The complete article is posted at: http://www.msnbc.com/news/802773.asp#BODY
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
>>------------------------FLYBY NEWS---------------------------->>>
------------ Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era ------------
= = = = = = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = = = = = = = =
Alert==>Stop Bush War Resolution * Call Congress
Flyby News Special Alert
Stop Congress from supporting Bush War Resolution
Contact both your Senators and your Representative.
Congressional Switchboard for Washington offices (202) 224-3121;
or 1-800-839-5276 [ Toll-free number from http://www.endthewar.org ]
Please, call, too, Senator Majority leader Tom Daschle (D-SD)
For more Congressional contact info, visit:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Sign the Petition to Congress -- Posted by Michael Moore
We call on the Democrats in Congress to oppose a war on Iraq, to vote "No" to Bush's war cries. We pledge to never again vote for any Democratic member of Congress who supports George W. Bush's war against Iraq. To the Democrats in Congress, we give you fair warning: You are either with us, or you are fired.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more information, see Flyby News Archives,
October 12, 2002 - Items 1 and 2
Congress: Bush OK to Attack Unilaterally * Kucinich: Statement in Opposition to the Resolution
October 10, 2002 - Items 1, 2, and 3
Stop War * president's real goal * Iraq War/for Dummies
October 7, 2002 - Items 1, 2, and 3
Oppose War on Iraq Petition * Ritter - Kucinich - McDermott
October 5, 2002 - Items 1 and 2
Byrd's Filibuster? -- Tell Senate to Deny Bush Blank Check * Congress Overwhelmed With Anti-War Calls
September 23, 2002 - Item 1-4
NO VOTE Pledge - Stop Iraq Attack * Skull and Bones
"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. . . And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. . . Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. . . How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar."
Julius Caesar
Congressional Campaign Advocacy Alert #4
from the National Network to End the War Against Iraq (NNEWAI)
"Sisters and brothers, I implore you to act according to your conscience and recognize that we are facing a national emergency: an impending war vote in Congress. If you oppose a U.S. 'pre-emptive' war in Iraq, then you must prepare to act this week. Otherwise, acting on your behalf, your elected representatives in Washington will consent to an atrocity that will do irreparable harm to the people of Iraq, international security, and to us as a nation. There comes a time when events overtake us, events of colossal importance. Now is the time to act. Not when it is too late."
--Anonymous Gulf War Veteran, 9/22/2002
Join thousands of others on Tuesday, September 24th and call Your Senators and Congressional Representative. You can call Congress at the Capital Switchboard toll free at 1-800-839-5276 and ask to be connected to your member of Congress.
Also, call Senator Majority leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) at (202) 224-2321, & House Minority leader Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-MO) at (202) 225-2671.
If your member of Congress refuses to vote for peace, organize and participate in non-violent demonstrations and sit-ins at their local offices, forums, and town meetings.
[Pledge Not to Vote for any Candidate who Supports a Resolution for the Bush Doctrine of a Preemptive Attack on Iraq or any Country!]
TELL THEM
DON'T GIVE PRESIDENT BUSH A BLANK CHECK!
VOTE "NO" ON THE WAR RESOLUTION!
JOIN THE ANTI-WAR COALITION
SIGN ON TO THE ANTI-WAR RESOLUTION HCR 473
TAKE A STAND FOR PEACE
OPPOSE THE ADMINISTRATION'S
EFFORTS TO UNDERMINE UN INSPECTIONS.
[And let them know that in any good conscience, you could never vote for any supporter of the proposed Bush War Resolution!!]
TALKING POINTS
Despite the constant repetition of unsubstantiated allegations as truths by high level cabinet members, the Bush Administration has presented still failed to present any evidence linking Iraq to Al-Qaida, or any tangible evidence that Iraq is reconstituting its weapons of mass destruction programs, or that Iraq poses an "immanent threat" to the United States.
Iraq's recent decision to accept weapons inspectors without conditions is still on the table. Iraqi Foreign Minister Sabri has said that Iraq has nothing to hide. The United States should pursue peace and allow the UN weapons inspections to confirm that the minister is telling the truth.
Iraq's rejection of new and tougher UN Security Council Resolutions must be dealt with by negotiations, not war. Our government must honor previous UN agreements that recognize the sovereignty of Iraq. Secretary of State Rumsfeld has already rejected the Iraqi statements; see; http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/09/21/iraq.un/indes.html
For additional Talking Points see: "Why the US Should Not Invade Iraq"
http://www.endthewar.org/frontps/whynotinvade.htm
BACKGROUND AND FURTHER STEPS
1. NO BLANK CHECK FOR BUSH
September 19, 2002, "Further Resolution on Iraq", submitted to Congress by President George Bush, United States Congress
At the House International Relations Hearings on Thursday, September 19, Committee members revealed that the Administration had begun circulating a joint resolution entitled the "Further Resolution on Iraq". Section 2 of the Resolved paragraphs asks for "AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF THE UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES", The full resolved paragraph is as follows
The President is authorized to use all means that he determines to be appropriate, including force, in order to enforce the United Nations Security Council Resolutions referenced above, defend the national security interests of the United States against the threat posed by Iraq, and restore international peace and security in the region.
NNEWAI Response: Critique of the Resolution
This resolution states that the President is to be given the power necessary to enforce existing UN Security Council resolutions. There are two issues here. First, President Bush is at the same time applying pressure to the UN Security Council to pass newer and tougher language. If he succeeds, this congressional resolution could be voided. But more importantly, the resolution purports to give President Bush the authority to enforce UN Security Council resolutions. The resolution thus stands in violation of Articles 39-42 of the UN Charter, which make it absolutely clear that only the UN Security Council has the authority to determine if there is a threat to the peace and to decide which measures are necessary to enforce its resolutions and restore international peace.
The WHEREAS clauses of the resolution are full of distortions, outright falsehoods, and speculation. The administration alleges that Iraq would transfer weapons of mass destruction to terrorist organizations (there is no evidence to support this allegation, it is pure speculation), accuses the Iraqi regime of continuing hostility toward the United States by firing on the US airplanes that enforce the no-fly zones (US planes that illegally violate Iraqi airspace, as there are no UN resolutions which grant the US or the UK the authority to patrol Iraqi airspace or to fire on targets inside Iraq), states that Al-Qaida operatives are active inside Iraq (a misrepresentation, as reports indicate that their activity is restricted to the autonomous Kurdish region in the north, over which the Iraqi government has no control), and declares therefore that the US can invoke the right to self defense based on the presence of Al-Qaida in Iraq as acknowledged by the UN Charter (falsely ascribing responsibility for Al-Qaida's presence inside Iraq to the Iraqi regime).
Would this resolution, if passed, violate the constitution? Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, said his belief in the Constitution will prevent him from voting for Bush's resolution. He is quoted in the September 21 Charleston Gazette online as saying "I am finding that the Constitution is irrelevant to people of this administration." Byrd said that the proposed resolution would be "the broadest grant of war powers to any President in the history of our country... I cannot believe the gall and arrogance of the White House in requesting such a broad grant of war powers." For the complete article, see:
http://www.wvgazette.com/display_story.php3?sid=200209213&format=prn
Diane Watson , D-32nd District, California, on the House International Relations Committee said at the public hearing on Thursday, September 19 that she could not vote for this bill due to the excessive powers given to the President.
The Washington Times reported on September 20th"Rep. Constance A. Morella, the Maryland Republican who is in a tight congressional race, said in an interview yesterday that while she had not seen any proposed language yet, she would be inclined to oppose 'a unilateral, pre-emptive strike to go to war' with Iraq. 'To go to war before the United Nations has acted? Again, I'm inclined against it,' she said."
2. CONDUCT NEGOTIATIONS NOT WAR
September 19, 2002,
HCON Resolution 473, United States Congress.
On September 19th, nineteen Democrats formed an Anti -War Coalition opposing a military attack on Iraq, and stressing the need for negotiations and weapons inspections through the United Nations. Barbara Lee, D-9th District-CA introduced anti- war resolution HCON Resolution 473 on September 19th expressing the sense of Congress of the importance of the United States working through the UN to assure Iraq's compliance with UN resolutions. The "resolved" paragraph is as follows
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the senate concurring).
That the United States should work through the United nations to seek to resolve the matter of ensuring that Iraq is not developing weapons of mass destruction, through mechanisms such as the resumption of weapons inspections, negotiation, enquiry, mediation, regional arrangements, and other peaceful means."
Twenty-six democrats have sponsored the resolution.
To see the entire bill and the list of the co-sponsors go to http://thomas.loc.gov and search for HCR 473.
NNEWAI Response: Urge all members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats to sponsor the anti-war bill and join the anti-war coalition. For details on the coalition and quotes from members go to
http://asp.washtimes.com/printarticle.asp?action=print&ArticleID=20020920-347297
Call the coalition members and bill sponsors to thank them for their courageous action.
3. OPPOSE THE UNDERMINING OF SANCTIONS
September 20, 2002,
"Have the hawks in Washington been defeated?"
The Daily Star, Beirut, Lebanon, by Patrick Seale. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/opinion/90_09_02_b.htm
Patrick Seale writes: "The hawks in Washington and Tel Aviv do not want Saddam to be serious about weapons inspections. They want him to cheat and provide a pretext for war. For them, Iraqs alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) has always been something of a side issue, while Iraq itself was only a means to an end. They dream of regime change in Iraq as a stepping stone to bigger things: control of Iraqs oil, thereby reducing Western dependence on Saudi oil; pressure on Iran, seen as the major long-term threat to Israel; possible regime change in both Iran and Syria; a free hand for Israel to break the Palestinians and draw new expanded frontiers; democratic reform, US-style, in both Egypt and Saudi Arabia; a new imperial order in the Mideast under joint US-Israeli control. Such are the geopolitical fantasies devised by a group of fervent American Likudniks Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Assistant Secretary for Defense Policy Douglas Feith, Chairman of the Defense Policy Board Richard Perle and which have been adopted, uncritically, by the two most powerful men in Bushs administration, Rumsfeld and Cheney, and apparently by Bush himself. Some of these men are aware that, if Iraq manages to escape from war, their own ideological vision and political fortunes could be sacrificed. They need to move fast because the timetable is extremely tight. To avoid the summer heat in Iraq, which would hamper military operations on the ground, the hawks had planned to attack this winter in December or in January-February at the latest. This timetable will have to be scrapped if Hans Blix and his team of UN inspectors start their lengthy inspection process... It is estimated that this process could take up to six months. Once approval has been given, the real business of inspections can begin. If, by cooperating fully with the UN inspectors and being ultra-careful not to give any sort of provocation, Iraq manages to spin things out until November-December of 2003, it will probably be safe from attack, because the United States will then be preoccupied by the start of the 2004 US presidential election campaign."
NNEWAI Response: President Bush is seeking a UN Resolution that would put the US on a hair-trigger alert to invade Iraq at the first sign of Iraqi non-compliance with UN inspections and UN resolutions. This is consistent with making allegations that have yet to be substantiated about Iraqi ties to Al-Qaida or that Iraq poses an immanent threat to the US; the Bush Administration appears to be seeking whatever pretext for war it can find. This is contrary to the spirit of the UN Charter, the US Constitution and the interests of the American public. War should always be a measure of last resort.
FOLLOW-UP
Following up with Correspondence:
You are encouraged to follow up any phone calls you make with e-mails or letters by regular mail and by e-mail. Regular mail correspondence may be addressed as follows
To a Senator
The Honorable (full name)
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator_(Last Name)
To a Representative
The Honorable (full name)
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative_(Last Name)
You may also wish to contact the following administration officials
Comment Line for President Bush and Vice President Cheney(202) 456-1111
E-mail George Bush at president@whitehouse.gov
Fax 202-456-2461
E-mail Dick Cheney at vice.president@whitehouse.gov
Comment line Secretary of State Colin Powell: (202) 647-6575.
His e-mail address: Secretary@state.gov
Comment line for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld: (703) 428-0711.
E-mail address: Public@defenselink.mil
Note: The anonymous Gulf War Veteran quoted at the outset of this alert has put out his own alert. That alert, along with all of these alerts from NNEWAI, will be posted on line at
http://www.endthewar.org/Alerts/alertarchive.htm
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NNEWAI is seeking a "New Way" to Peace between Americans and the Iraqi people.
Http://www.endthewar.org
Email: nnewai@usa.com
Telephone: (650) 326-9057
To sign up for IRAQ UPDATE, NNEWAI's monthly e-digest, or IRAQ-MEET, a listserv for US activists opposing war and sanctions against Iraq, send a request to: nnewai@usa.com.
Be sure to mention your name, city and organization.
To Contribute to NNEWAI, address check or money order to "PPJC/NNEWAI", and send it to PPJC Attn: National Network, 457 Kingsley Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94301.
MMEDIATE ACTION ALERT ON IRAQ
from Progressive Portal and Global Exchange
Antiwar citizens have just a couple of days to influence the Congressional debate about Iraq. Congress is expected to pass a resolution this week and there is evidence that a strong outpouring of antiwar sentiment is starting to have an impact, as members from both parties express skepticism about the broad war mandate sought by the White House.
Please take a minute as soon as you can to:
(1) Send a letter to Congress at:
http://www.progressiveportal.org/letters/global/iraq/
You can do it in less than a minute.
(2) Pass this alert along to your contacts.
(3) Display your opposition to war with peace flags, U.N. flags, Earth flags, antiwar posters, etc. See: http://www.progressiveportal.org/resources/flags.html
(4) For more information, see the Iraq section of the Global Exchange Web site, and the Iraq links on Progressive Portal.
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/iraq/
http://www.progressiveportal.org/links/
For more information and talking points, visit these organizations for resources, actions, and links:
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Traprock Peace Center
http://traprockpeace.org/
Email: charles@mtdata.com
Tel. (413) 773-7427
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
MoveOn.org - links and resources on Iraq:
http://www.moveon.org/infoiraq.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Iraq Peace Pledge
web@peacepledge.org
http://www.peacepledge.org/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
International A.N.S.W.E.R.
(Act Now to Stop War & End Racism)
http://www.internationalanswer.org
Email: info@internationalanswer.org
Tel. (212) 633-6646; 202-332-5757
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The Brainwashing of America
http://www.hermes-press.com/brainwash1.htm
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
>FLYBY NEWS>>>
Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era
= = = = = = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = = = = = = = =
US Threat to Peace * Future Planning * Reich Endorsement
16 September 2002
1) Secret Blueprint for US Global Domination Revealed!
2) Nelson Mandela: The U.S. Is a Threat to World Peace
3) Planet Planning & Peace Summit with Dennis K. in Vermont
4) Flyby Reich Endorsement What You Do is What You Get
Editor's Notes:
In the next issue we will cover more on 911 investigative work. The evidences keep rolling in support of conspiracy theories. In this issue, item 1 is an article with breakthrough evidences of US plans for world domination, and the using of Saddam Hussein as an excuse for taking over (or creating inexcusable chaos) in the Middle East. Following the first article are related links that show how the current Saudi regime is folding under the pressure from Washington. Also, check out the Washington Post article again showing how oil is a key issue in the US intentions to attack Iraq. Item 2 features a rare interview with Nelson Mandela speaking out against the US foreign policy. Quite clearly, Mandela states that the US government is a threat to world peace. Item 3 is about two upcoming events involving Dennis Kucinich, a people's summit for peace and future planning for humanity and planet Earth. These events are also linked from the newly updated FlybyNews.com homepage. Please visit, and support critical campaigns for social justice, environmental preservation, and peace. Item 4 is on a political endorsement for Robert Reich to win the Democratic nomination for Governor in tomorrow's election in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This local race, as many of our issues, have a basis in the interest for regaining democracy in the US. The current Bush regime is impacting every place on Earth. We need to unite strategically with plans, actions, and decisions that can reclaim a direction for a democracy, and peace, and for the well-being for humanity .
1) Secret Blueprint for US Global Domination Revealed!
Bush planned Iraq invasion before becoming president, document reveals
Sunday Herald - 15 September 2002
Bush planned Iraq 'regime change' before becoming President
By Neil Mackay
A SECRET blueprint for US global domination reveals that President Bush and his cabinet were planning a premeditated attack on Iraq to secure 'regime change' even before he took power in January 2001.
The blueprint, uncovered by the Sunday Herald, for the creation of a 'global Pax Americana' was drawn up for Dick Cheney (now vice- president), Donald Rumsfeld (defence secretary), Paul Wolfowitz (Rumsfeld's deputy), George W Bush's younger brother Jeb and Lewis Libby (Cheney's chief of staff). The document, entitled Rebuilding America's Defences: Strategies, Forces And Resources For A New Century, was written in September 2000 by the neo-conservative think-tank Project for the New American Century (PNAC).
The plan shows Bush's cabinet intended to take military control of the Gulf region whether or not Saddam Hussein was in power. It says: 'The United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.'
The PNAC document supports a 'blueprint for maintaining global US pre-eminence, precluding the rise of a great power rival, and shaping the international security order in line with American principles and interests'. This 'American grand strategy' must be advanced for 'as far into the future as possible', the report says. It also calls for the US to 'fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theatre wars' as a 'core mission'.
The report describes American armed forces abroad as 'the cavalry on the new American frontier'. The PNAC blueprint supports an earlier document written by Wolfowitz and Libby that said the US must 'discourage advanced industrial nations from challenging our leadership or even aspiring to a larger regional or global role'.
The PNAC report also:
refers to key allies such as the UK as 'the most effective and efficient means of exercising American global leadership';
describes peace-keeping missions as 'demanding American political leadership rather than that of the United Nations';
reveals worries in the administration that Europe could rival the USA;
says 'even should Saddam pass from the scene' bases in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will remain permanently - - despite domestic opposition in the Gulf regimes to the stationing of US troops -- as 'Iran may well prove as large a threat to US interests as Iraq has';
spotlights China for 'regime change' saying 'it is time to increase the presence of American forces in southeast Asia'. This, it says, may lead to 'American and allied power providing the spur to the process of democratisation in China';
calls for the creation of 'US Space Forces', to dominate space, and the total control of cyberspace to prevent 'enemies' using the internet against the US;
hints that, despite threatening war against Iraq for developing weapons of mass destruction, the US may consider developing biological weapons -- which the nation has banned -- in decades to come. It says: 'New methods of attack -- electronic, 'non-lethal', biological -- will be more widely available ... combat likely will take place in new dimensions, in space, cyberspace, and perhaps the world of microbes ... advanced forms of biological warfare that can 'target' specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool';
and pinpoints North Korea, Libya, Syria and Iran as dangerous regimes and says their existence justifies the creation of a 'world-wide command-and-control system'.
Tam Dalyell, the Labour MP, father of the House of Commons and one of the leading rebel voices against war with Iraq, said: 'This is garbage from right-wing think-tanks stuffed with chicken-hawks -- men who have never seen the horror of war but are in love with the idea of war. Men like Cheney, who were draft-dodgers in the Vietnam war.
'This is a blueprint for US world domination -- a new world order of their making. These are the thought processes of fantasist Americans who want to control the world. I am appalled that a British Labour Prime Minister should have got into bed with a crew which has this moral standing.'
The Sunday Herald [UK], 15 September 2002
http://www.sundayherald.com/print27735
Copyright 2002 smg sunday newspapers ltd. no.176088
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Article:
British dossier to claim Iraq trained al Qaeda forces, say sources
PRIME Minister Tony Blair's promised dossier on Iraq is to reveal that Saddam Hussein trained some of Osama bin Laden's key lieutenants. The dossier is also expected to disclose that the Iraqi leader has rebuilt three plants to manufacture biological and chemical weapons.
The Scotsman [UK], 16 September 2002
http://www.news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=102608200
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Saudis shift stance on Iraq, side with US
The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, indicated on September 15, 2002 that the kingdom would allow the US to strike Iraq from Saudi bases. In an apparent shift of policy, he also urged Iraq to move quickly to allow the return of UN weapons inspectors to ward off such an attack. When asked if Saudi bases would be available. "Everybody is obliged to follow through," he said.
The complete AP [US] September 15, 2002 article is posted:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=540&u=/ap/20020915/ap_on_re_mi_ea/saudi_iraq_7&printer=1
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Thanks to the News Insider team
http://newsinsider.cjb.net
for sending Flyby the above breaking news stories!
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Article:
In Iraqi War Scenario, Oil Is Key Issue
U.S. Drillers Eye Huge Petroleum Pool
by Dan Morgan and David B. Ottaway
"There's not an oil company out there that wouldn't be interested in Iraq," one analyst said.
Published on Sunday, September 15, 2002 in the Washington Post and posted:
http://commondreams.org/headlines02/0915-03.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Recommended Related Site:
Hidden Agenda: The Films and Writings of John Pilger
"Iraq: Paying the Price"
http://pilger.carlton.com/iraq
2) Nelson Mandela: The U.S. Is a Threat to World Peace
In a rare interview with Newsweek, the South African demands that George W. Bush win United Nations support before attacking Iraq
Nelson Manedela:
"..The United States has made serious mistakes in the conduct of its foreign affairs, which have had unfortunate repercussions long after the decisions were taken. Unqualified support of the Shah of Iran led directly to the Islamic revolution of 1979. Then the United States chose to arm and finance the [Islamic] mujahedin in Afghanistan instead of supporting and encouraging the moderate wing of the government of Afghanistan. That is what led to the Taliban in Afghanistan. But the most catastrophic action of the United States was to sabotage the decision that was painstakingly stitched together by the United Nations regarding the withdrawal of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan. If you look at those matters, you will come to the conclusion that the attitude of the United States of America is a threat to world peace. Because what [America] is saying is that if you are afraid of a veto in the Security Council, you can go outside and take action and violate the sovereignty of other countries. That is the message they are sending to the world. That must be condemned in the strongest terms.."
Newsweek: "I gather you are particularly concerned about Vice President Cheney?"
"Well, there is no doubt. He opposed the decision to release me from prison [laughs]. The majority of the U.S. Congress was in favor of my release, and he opposed it. But it's not because of that. Quite clearly we are dealing with an arch-conservative in Dick Cheney."
For the complete Newsweek interview with Nelson Mandela, see:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/806174.asp?cp1=1#BODY
2002 Newsweek, Inc.
3) Planet Planning & Peace Summit with Dennis K. in Vermont
The last weekend of September in Vermont will include two visionary events
1) A Peace Summit in Burlington, VT at the University of Vermont (UVM), called:
WE THE PEOPLE - SUMMIT FOR PEACE - Saturday, September 28, 2002, which includes special presentations by 2 progressive members of Congress, Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), sponsored by the University of Vermont - Environmental Program.
For information, see: http://www.shiesl.com/peace/
2) The second annual VISIONARY VERMONT Future Fair will be held at Lightgate Learning Center and other sites in Thetford, Vermont from September 27 29, 2002. On September 28, participants will be caravanning to UVM to attend the presentation of Dennis J. Kucininch.
The first Future Fair in October of 2001 at UVM in Burlington was such a success that it was replicated in Ithaca, New York in June and will be held over the coming year in Jackson, Mississippi; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Colorado Springs, Colorado and a second time in Ithaca. Unity Scholars, the nonprofit organization sponsoring the fairs, is planning a nationwide program of these people-powered evolutionary events! You are welcomed to become part of the network of caring people who are dedicated to conscious collaborative planning of our future planetary success. The entire fair is free, including the food and the numerous offerings of insight, inspiration and celebration. Also included in the program, on Sunday, will be Ricardo Conde, president of Stirling Advantage, Inc. who will be demonstrating a demo for a multi-cylinder Stirling engine for clean power generation. As reported in Flyby News, the Stirling engine is an external combustion engine that can use most any fuel for generating electricity. Check the links from FlybyNews.com for more information on this and other upcoming special events, actions and news fit to transmit. For a direct link to Planet Planning Future Fair and Visionary Vermont, visit http://www.planetplanning.org
4) Flyby Reich Endorsement What You Do is What You Get
The Massachusetts Primaries for Governor is this Tuesday, September 17. Early on, just before the Democratic Caucuses, Flyby News endorsed Robert Reich, due to his qualifications for the job, his chances for winning, and his sincerity for caring about people struggling with low income, and the environment. Though not as visionary as the venerable Congressman from Ohio, Dennis Kucinich, Flyby News endorses Robert Reich as the best choice in the race for Governor in Massachusetts, and one who, we believe, would best support Kucinich for President in 2004.
A Boston Herald editorial stated: "Even in the rough-and-tumble world of Massachusetts politics - perhaps especially in the rough-and-tumble world of Massachusetts politics - sheer intellectual prowess, the ability to look at old problems with fresh eyes, is a gift beyond measure. Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich has that gift, and Massachusetts Democrats would be fortunate indeed to have him as their standard-bearer going into the November election. In fact, a November match-up between Reich and the uncontested Republican contender, Mitt Romney, would make this a world-class race for the Corner Office - and a race between two men who have made their mark somewhere other than Beacon Hill. And that's something that appears to be important to voters this year.."
Robert Reich was Secretary of Labor for the Clinton administration. He didn't stay for the second term, unwilling to face another four years of limited contact with his family and frustrated because the Clinton team was moving away from its original goal of narrowing the prosperity gap. In a memoir of his DC years, "Locked in the Cabinet," Reich explained how they gave in to pressure -- to keep unemployment at around six percent in order to keep wages down, inflation at bay and investments profitable. And the Clinton middle line, with the Republican policy, continued to push people off welfare -- though they knew there would be no jobs for many who left. Reich reiterated this in an interview with the Advocate: "There is a dilemma at the core of welfare reform. If there are not jobs, many people are going to be left in the lurch." Reich says he wants to make the working family the center of his politics for Massachusetts.
"Even though the income of the average household increased in the boom years, averages often mask the important details. After all, Shaquille O'Neal and I have an average height of six feet."
-- Robert Reich (on the income gap) in his book, "I'll Be Short."
On other issues, Reich is against the Death Penalty, opposes all forms of discrimination, and promises to fight to pass legislation to legalize marriage for same-sex couples. Also, as Governor, Reich states that one of my highest priorities will be to preserve and protect our environmental heritage. I want to jump-start renewable energy: I support vigorous expansion of the Renewable Energy Trust, and tough and timely regulations to accelerate the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard."
For more on the Robert Reich: endorsements, writings, and issues, visit:
http://www.robertreich.org
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
>>------------------------FLYBY NEWS---------------------------->>>
------------ Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era ------------
= = = = = = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = = = = = = = =
Parole for Malik * Leonard Update * Oneidas for Democracy
07 September 2002
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. ... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
- Abraham Lincoln
1) Help Parole [FREE] Malik Abdullah Akili
2) Peltier supporters pin hopes on papers
3) End the Atrocities at Oneida, NY
Editor's Notes:
This Flyby News returns to social justice concerns and request for help. Malik Abdullah Akili has spent too much time incarcerated; he needs your support to gain his freedom. Please consider writing a letter in support of his parole hearing scheduled for this October! September is the time to write! Please help this good friend. The first item includes more from Malik, the draft letter I am working on to send to the parole board, and one sent from Malik's eleven-year-old daughter. Please consider going through the links, read Malik's letters, and write. Time is of the essence for this good person, and for the healing of the harm committed by the racist US prison system.*
Item 2 is a brief update on Leonard Peltier. You may wish to keep the fires for this freedom fighter glowing, and to write to this wonderful being. His 58th birthday is this September 12.
Item 3 is on the complex threat to peace and democracy in Oneida, NY. They need our support, or even just our awareness on this case. Please help network this information, and do what you can.
In thankfulness for this day and the gifts for life and peace..
* The Prison Policy Initiative conducts research and advocacy on incarceration policy. Their work starts with the idea that the racial, gender and economic disparities between the prison population and the larger society represent the grounds for a democratic catastrophe. "Our conception of prison reform is based not solely in opposing a rising rate of incarceration, but in evolving to a better way of addressing social problems than warehousing our citizens in cages."
For the Prison Policy Initiative Web Site, see:
http://www.prisonpolicy.org/index.shtml
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Help Parole [FREE] Malik Abdullah Akili
From an August 20, 2002 letter from Malik:
The timing of your brief note was on time. I also have in hand all the Flyby material. It was great reading on the up-date of the political situation taken place here in Amerikka. They heightened my understanding on certain political issues. Thank you for every thing.... Your note, along with the material came at a time when they were most needed.
It has been raining much up here and with the rain comes with it, gloom and depression. Along with these gray walls and the sadness of seeing so many young punk kids coming to prison with so much time makes me reflect back to my own youth... I think that in many ways my life, in all of its heartbreak, setbacks, failures, contradictions, tragedies and triumphs, can be used as a road map and object lessons for these young kids coming here with 50/75 to life Perhaps heir lives wouldn't have been necessary subjected to this madness!!
There is nothing hip about coming to prison. This isn't the place one may find manhood/womanhood, or gain some great political, spiritual insight or social wisdom. We may never come to understand, but prisons were built with us in mind. Our youth need to stay in school to learn how to think and not what to think. Our youth needs to learn so they can make informed decisions and become independent thinkers, so that they can make this Earth better for those that come afterwards..
..when we look around today we see that most people are in a fight for survival.. This struggle is taking place with a cross section of people of all colors.. This in itself can become a basis for unity.. I have a vision of the future, and I see us moving in that direction..
With much revolutionary love,
Malik Abdullah Akili
Prisoner # 94-A-5238
For the main updated page for information on Malik, addresses to write Malik and send a letter in support of his parole hearing, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid999200948,87474,m
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Parole Board Examiner
Re: Malik Abdullah Akili;
DIN: 94-A-5238
Dear Parole Board Examiner,
I am writing on behalf of Malik Abdullah Akili. I have been friends with Malik for more than twenty-five years. We first met in Turners Falls, MA. when Malik was a counselor with a youth organization, and visiting the area near where I lived. We met one another when we came to the aid of a family we knew that had its children removed by a single allegation for emotional abuse by an acquaintance. Malik and I worked to counter-respond and expose the serious nature of having State Troopers arrive at night to take children away to undeclared institutional housing. Finally, after about a week, the children were returned to their parents. So, this began my long friendship with Malik, and over the years, our friendship and trust has only deepened. My background: religion, Jewish, and race, Caucasian, is quite in contrast to Malik's, yet our friendship is based on mutual respect and caring. All of our correspondence is available to you, if interested, please let me know. Some letters have been published in my alternative Internet news service, Flyby News [www.flybynews.com]. I will enclose the issues with items related to Malik and his case.
While Malik is in prison, many of us suffer, too. I know his wife does, his daughter, too, perhaps that is the cruelest part of prison, separation from family and friends, and having one's freedom of movement confined to crowded harsh settings. There has to be real good reason to take someone's freedom away, not just a smudged sole fingerprint, especially during these times of new evidences of fraud in the highest law enforcement offices in the nation, and with DNA proving men's innocence who were released from death row. Please receive the support we have given for Malik's parole as evidence for his character of a good being, and his worth to our community and family. We deserve justice in this light, and compassion to help heal the many years of separation.
With prayers,
Jonathan Mark
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Peltier supporters pin hopes on papers
Peltier supporters pin hopes on papers
Defense committee combing thousands of FBI documents
By Joel Mathis, News Reporter
MONDAY, JULY 8, 2002
It's a little bit like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee last month received 30,000 pages of FBI documents relating to the imprisoned American Indian's case. Now, activists with the Lawrence-based committee are digging through those pages hoping to find even a sliver of evidence that will help to set Peltier free. "There will be very specific items we'll be looking for," said Denis Moynihan, acting coordinator of the committee. "We'll be looking for evidence of the sort that would grant a retrial."
For the complete article, see:
http://www.ljworld.com/section/archive/story/98724
For more information on Leonard Peltier, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1013207483,22139,
September 12 is Leonard's birthday. Please don't forget this great leader, human being, human rights activist. His defense committee's web site is http://www.freepeltier.org
If you wish to write to Leonard directly, write to:
USPL
Leonard Peltier #89637-132
PO Box 1000
Leavenworth, KS 66048
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) End the Atrocities at Oneida, NY
The Oneidas for Democracy are the Oneida People who peacefully uphold the traditional values of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy). The Onyota'a:ka - "People of the Standing Stone" have endured many hardships over the past few generations as they have struggled to maintain their status as Haudenosaunee. They have overcome great odds to return to their ancestral lands. Their inherent right to live in peace within Oneida Territory is rapidly being stripped away from them by the current leadership of the Oneida Nation of New York, Inc.
Presently, Oneida people reside in New York, Wisconsin and Canada. It was a dream that a homeland for all Oneida people would become a reality. Sadly, such efforts have been thwarted due to the lust for money and control over our ancestral territory by a few misguided Oneidas.
Against the wishes of the Confederacy, and without knowledge of the Oneida people, a Casino deal was struck between ex-Governor Cuomo and so-called Oneida Nation "CEO" Arthur Raymond Halbritter in 1993. The compact was never ratified by the Oneidas. Using money borrowed by Halbritter from the Key Bank of Central NY ( the CEO mortgaged Oneida land without our knowledge) "The Turning Stone Casino" was built in Oneida, NY. The Casino was built on wetlands in violation of both US and Haudenosaunee laws.
Because Halbritter violated Haudenosaunee rules he was removed from his position as an Oneida spokesperson in May, 1993 a decision acknowledged by the US government only to be rescinded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs at the request of US Rep. Sherwood Boehlert who feared a change in Oneida leadership would place the casino in peril .
The Oneida people were completely unaware that any transactions for land, a casino, or lawsuits against 20,000 land owners would ensue. To date, the Oneida people who have opposed these decisions continue to be threatened with on-going human, civil and religious rights violations and are in present danger of losing their homes on the Oneida Indian Territory.
Under the guise of a "beautification program", the leadership has authorized a mock tribal court system to prosecute all those who stand up for their rights as Haudenosaunee. A 54 man, completely non-Native "Oneida Nation Police" force acting on the direct orders of Halbritter has harassed, intimidated and physically assaulted Oneida people on their own territory.
A Tree of Peace was planted on the territory in June of 2000 by Mohawk Nation Chief Jake Swamp at the Oneida Territory to encourage peace and reconciliation. On August 8, 2001, by "direct orders from the CEO" the non-Native contractor uprooted the Tree of Peace and cast it aside. Despite this provocation the Oneida people continue to embrace peace, advocate for a return to traditional democracy, and call for unity among the Oneida people.
Because the Oneidas have sought to restore and protect their ancestral freedoms on their homelands they have endured:
Human, civil and religious rights violations
Personal property illegally confiscated
Suspension of their Oneida membership
No housing benefits
Rejection of heating assistance
On-going police abuses, arrests and harassment including 24 hour surveillance.
Likely evictions from the 32 acre territory
Denial of education benefits
Subverting of due process In the so-called "Oneida court"
To Help Oneidas for Democracy, and for other links, see:
http://www.oneidasfordemocracy.org/help.htm
OneidaPower@hotmail.com Tel. (315)361-4346
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
>------------------------FLYBY NEWS---------------------------->>>
------------ Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era ------------
= = = = = = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = = = = = = = =
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Saving the Planet * Missile Defense Fraud * Who Are the Terrorists?
31 August 2002
1) Saving the Planet - Johannesburg Politics
2) Missile Defense Fraud Double-Take
3) Who Are the Terrorists?
"In my lifetime or my daughter's lifetime, the Arctic might be ice free."
Lee Cooper, scientist
Editor's Notes:
The truth hurts. Our planet is knocking off species at record pace. The weather is bizarre. Yet, George W. and team are slamming on the accelerator for quick profits, domination, and, in actuality, self-annihilation. How many of us will they take with them on their inevitable descent from power? Nevertheless, each day we have many choices on what course of actions we can take to make a difference. With only little support, a team of scientists and engineers could demonstrate the effectiveness of a new design for a Stirling engine, to convert waste heat and gases into clean producing electricity. Yet this is still under funded, while waste wreaks havoc on dying species, including human kind. Check the links to this positive developing technology and other Johannesburg Summit information in item 1.
Item 2 is another whistle blowing, tongue in cheek, article by Al Martin. As the title suggests, it's about a Missile Defense Fraud Double-Take." Dennis Kucinich, who introduced Bills to ban space-based weapons, and for a US Department of Peace, is still making the case for stopping the arms race. Kucinich will be speaking at a Peace Summit at the University of Vermont, Burlington, September 28, 2002. For more information, visit: http://www.shiesl.com/peace/
And on another area program note, Flyby News will be presenting William Rivers Pitt on a talk on 911 and the US-proposed regime change in Iraq. William Rivers Pitt is a teacher of English Literature, Writing and Journalism from Cambridge, MA. He has authored two books: WAR ON IRAQ, by Context Press, which makes the case that the Bush administration's war plans for Iraq are a recipe for bloody disaster; and The GREATEST SEDITION IS SILENCE, to be published by Pluto Press in February, which describes in detail the erosion of American civil liberties since 9/11, among many other topics. Check this following Flyby News Archive link to a William Rivers Pitt article with Scott Ritter (in item 1) ==> http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1027607401,73232,
The program with William Rivers Pitt will begin promptly on Thursday, October 3, 2002 at 7:00pm in the Main Meeting Room at the Jones Library in Amherst, MA with a 25-minute video featuring Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich, called "Peace In Space & On Earth."
For more information, please write to Jonathan Mark Email info@flybynews.com .
Please contact us, too, if you wish to consider helping us pay for Flyby News bumper stickers. You may agree that these stickers will help raise consciousness. Our favorite space probe and planet will be pictured with a text overlay. Lahri Bond of Heartwork Graphics said he would help -- FREE THE NEWS www.FlybyNews.com for life's Survival in the 21st Century
A price quote for 250 bumper stickers run from $160 to $231.
{We could charge $1 per sticker to help repay a loan for them, too.}
Networking, support for campaigns, donations, are much appreciated, and can be sent to "Flyby News" P.O. Box 1999; Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
And what is Item 3 about -- "Who are the Terrorists?" Can we blame anyone for getting confused? It is hard to tell these days, yet Flyby News does its best, reporting commentaries based on evidences beyond the controls of corporate-run-media in cahoots with the military-industrial-academic complex.
"Until the United States changes its priority from regime change to disarmament, none. The United States Government will not allow inspectors back in."
Scott Ritter
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Saving the Planet - Johannesburg Politics
Saving the planet
by IGNACIO RAMONET
From the August Le Monde Diplomatique
JOHANNESBURG will host the world summit on sustainable development from 26 August to 4 September - an event of great importance, the biggest gathering of government leaders and heads of state in a decade, 60,000 people from more than 180 countries. The aim is to find answers to humanity's most pressing problems: how to save the environment, eradicate poverty, save our planet.
The planet is in a sorry state. The diagnosis of its ills was apparent a decade ago at the first earth summit, held in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro. Alarm bells rang: global warming was a fact; world supplies of drinking water were running out; forests were disappearing; many species were en route to extinction; and poverty was destroying the lives of more than 1bn of our fellow humans.
The world's leaders agreed that "the major cause of the continued deterioration of the global environment is the unsustainable pattern of consumption and production, particularly in industrialised countries, which is a matter of grave concern, aggravating poverty and imbalances". They adopted two conventions, one on climate change and one on biodiversity, as well as the plan known as Agenda 21, to promote sustainable development worldwide.
The idea of sustainability is simple: development is sustainable if future generations inherit a quality of environment at least equal to that inherited by their predecessors (1). Sustainable development presupposes the application of three principles: the precautionary principle, adopting a preventive rather than remedial approach; the principle of solidarity between all peoples of the world and between the present generation and those to come; and the principle of people participation in decision-making (2).
In many areas things have not improved in 10 years. They have got worse. With the acceleration of free-market globalisation, the "unsustainable pattern of consumption and production" has become even more entrenched. Social inequality is now at levels not seen since the times of the pharaohs. The fortunes of the world's three richest individuals now exceed the total wealth of the inhabitants of its 48 poorest countries. The ecological destruction of the biosphere by the rich countries has also accelerated.
Although the 30 most developed countries represent only 20% of world population, they produce and consume 85% of synthetic chemical products, 80% of non-renewable energy and 40% of drinking water. And their emissions of greenhouse gases per inhabitant are 10 times greater than those of the countries of the South (3).
During the past decade emissions of carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming, increased by 9%. In the United States, the leading polluter, the figure increased by 18%. More than a billion people still do not have access to drinkable water, and almost 3bn (half of humanity) have only water of inferior quality. Thirty thousand people die every day as a result of drinking this polluted water - 10 times the number killed in the attacks of 11 September. The devastation of forests continues; 17m hectares disappear each year - an area four times the size of Switzerland. And since there are fewer and fewer trees to absorb the carbon dioxide, the greenhouse effect and global warming worsen. More animal species are being eliminated - 13% of all bird species have gone, 25% of mammals, 34% of fish, a mass extinction the planet has not seen since the disappearance of the dinosaurs.
The delegates who will gather for the summit travel with great hopes. But these will come to nothing if national egotism, the fetishism of growth, the logic of the market and the law of profit are allowed to take over. That was what happened during the preparatory conference in Bali in June. As a result it was unable to adopt a plan of action for sustainable development and ended in stalemate.
To save the planet it is imperative that the powerful nations meeting in Johannesburg commit themselves on at least seven key issues: an international programme for renewable energy, prioritising energy access for the South; undertakings on access to and supply of clean drinking water, aiming to reduce by the year 2015 the number of people who still lack this basic right; measures to protect forests, as already agreed in the biodiversity convention adopted in Rio in 1992; the establishment of juridical frameworks to make companies answerable for their ecological impact, and reaffirming the precautionary principle as the governing principle of all commercial activity; initiatives to modify the rules of the World Trade Organisation in the light of United Nations principles for the protection of ecosystems, and the standards of the International Labour Organisation; a commitment by developed countries to contribute at least 0.7% of their wealth to development aid; binding recommendations to wipe out the debt of the poorest countries.
By destroying the natural world mankind has been making planet Earth less viable as a place to live. There are processes under way that may lead to environmental catastrophe. The Johannesburg summit must find ways to reverse them. This is the challenge that we face at the start of the 21st century. Otherwise we may find that the human race is threatened with extinction.
Translated by Ed Emery
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 1997-2002 Le Monde diplomatique
http://MondeDiplo.com/2002/08/01edito?var_s=%5C%27saving+the+planet%5C%27
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The official UN website on the Johannesburg summit:
http://www.johannesburgsummit.org/
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For a solution-related Flyby News (June 27, 2002) article,
"New Power Source To Help Cut Global Warming," see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1025191711,6186,
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Big business accused of hijacking Earth Summit
The UN World Summit is in danger of being hijacked by major corporations and a secret deal between the European Union and the United States, a coalition of non-profit organizations has
charged. "What we are seeing is quite literally a corporate takeover of this process. So far corporate accountability has been dropped from the implementation text at the summit," Daniel Mittler, spokesman for Friends of the Earth International warned at a Press conference. "Key negotiations in Johannesburg are in danger of being stitched up by a controversial deal struck between US trade officials and trade mandarins in the EU Commission," Oxfam and the World Wide Fund for Nature added in a statement.
For the complete article in the New Straits Times [Malaysia], 28 August 2002, see:
http://www.emedia.com.my/Current_News/NST/Wednesday/World/20020828081402/Article/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a related article:
"Corporate Capture"
by George Monbiot,
The Guardian
If the world's transnational corporations have their way, the Earth Summit in Johannesburg will not only fail to tackle the ecological crisis, it may make it worse.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldsummit2002/story/0,12264,777533,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Story: Bush's Environmental Blow-Off
George W. Bush's decision not to join 100 world leaders at this week's Earth Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, is one more step in his go-it-alone foreign policy. It's also part of a strange strategy in which George Bush the Younger repudiates the actions of George Bush the Elder, when those actions offended the Republican conservative base in the first Bush administration.
For the full August 26, 2002 story by Sam Parry, see:
http://Consortiumnews.com/2002/082602a.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Missile Defense Fraud Double-Take
Missile Defense Fraud Double-Take
by Al Martin
http://www.almartinraw.com/column29.html
The most recent Department of Defense fraud was a test in which a missile was allegedly destroyed by another missile over the Pacific.
A July 13 release by the Department of Defense claimed that this so-called ABM test has been declared a success.
The videotape, released to the media and shown on CNN and other networks, looks suspiciously similar to the admittedly dummied-up September 1985 Department of Defense videotape showing another supposedly successful interception of a ballistic missile under the former ASAT Program, the Anti-Satellite Ballistic Missile Program.
As a matter of fact, the videotapes are exactly the same.
How do I know? Not only do I remember it, but I have a hard copy printout. Having just compared it to the tape seen on CNN, it looks exactly the same. The only thing that's changed is the video-date readout at the bottom.
This latest "successful test" is another low-cost deception from the US Department of Defense.
I really don't blame them, though. They spend a lot of money dummying up the first test. It was later estimated by the Government Accounting Office (GAO) that the Department of Defense spent $43 million to dummy up this test. It actually cost a lot of money to do it the right way.
This latest fraud, however, is a very cost-effective deception.
You could call it Star War Fraud Redux. Now it's packaged up under the new ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) expenditures. But it was exactly the same tape they had shown before in 1985 -- a test which the Department of Defense later admitted was dummied up in an effort to continue congressional appropriations for Star Wars expenditures.
In that time frame (at the end of 1985), the Democrats in Congress were starting to get suspicious of the enormous Star Wars spending. This Star Wars spending peaked in 1986, and then it was sharply ratcheted down.
To put it in historical context, the GAO Report of 1988 stated that of the $531 billion spent by the Department of Defense from 1982 to 1988 under the guise of developing Star Wars projects, over 50 % of the money could not be accounted for.
In 1989, FARCO (Foreign Asset Recovery Control Office) revealed that during the peak years of expenditures on Star Wars programs (1985-1986), there was an enormous increase in the opening of offshore accounts by senior Reagan-Bush officials, including senior military officers and others closely connected to the Reagan Bush Regime, particularly in the defense industry.
That's one of the mandates of FARCO - to maintain an account of the flow of US monies as to foreign deposits.
According to a syndicated Newhouse report, current Department of Defense fraud is even worse than anyone can imagine. "For fiscal year 1999, the Pentagon Inspector General reported $2.3 trillion worth of untraceable accounting entries"
"For fiscal year 2000, auditors or the Pentagon's inspector General's Office found $1.1 trillion in bookkeeping entries that could not be tracked or justified," (Story - http://www.newhouse.com/archive/story1a061301.html )
This was barely a minor blip in the news.
Originally, in the 1980s, it was the late Senator John Tower who was going to blow the whistle on the Star Wars Defense Fraud. He had planned to do so, and in fact he had documents regarding massive Department of Defense fraud involving the Star Wars program. He was carrying it in his high-security metal briefcase -- when his plane crashed.
The FAA still lists this as a "suspicious plane crash." It happened outside of Brunswick, Georgia. It should also be noted that the briefcase was never recovered after he crash The NTSB stated that they could not find the briefcase.
This is the Famous Briefcase Incident [See Chapter 9 of "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider" by Al Martin]*
Peggy Tower, his daughter, complained and asked about the briefcase's whereabouts, after she was informed by famed congressional investigator Tom Strzemienski.
Then an investigator for Charlie Rose, Chairman of the House Government Oversight Committee, Strzemienski was collaterally investigating the incident of the so-called "C130 Aircraft Diversion" from the US Forestry Service. He was trying to solve the problem -- why were all these C130s from the forestry department suddenly winding up in Libya?
He mentioned the type of documents her father was carrying to Peggy.
Subsequent to this event, in 1989, the Department of Defense did in fact return Senator Tower's battered briefcase to Peggy. It was still locked, by the way. When she had it opened, there were no documents inside.
This was the incident when the FAA inspectors showed up at the airport in Brunswick, Georgia. Later it was revealed that the men were not from the FAA, but were in fact from the Department of Defense. They were simply bearing FAA inspectors' identification badges.
Today the new ABM program is nothing more than a continuation of the old fraud of the Star Wars program.
The Al Martin Raw website predicts, as Senator Robert Byrd has already intimated, that five years from now, it will be discovered that fresh hundreds-of-billions of dollars in defense expenditures on the ABM Program are again unaccounted for -- disappearing into shadowy Republican-connected offshore accounts and institutions.
The ongoing frauds are so rampant and egregious that even the so-called watchdogs of the Department of Defense, the Pentagon Inspector General's Office has been publicly caught redhanded.
"Defense Department's inspector general's office is now under investigation for allegedly recreating financial records for an audit shortly before the documents were reviewed by an outside auditor."
"As described by an internal Pentagon report, the apparent fabrication required a dozen staffers to work long hours including overtime at a personnel cost of $63,000." (See "Who shall inspect the inspectors general?" http://www.coxnews.com/washingtonbureau/staff/malone/061301IG-FRAUD13.html )
Remember - it costs a lot to commit serious fraud.
The Pentagon should actually be commended for recycling their old Star Wars Fraud video as their latest so-called "successful" ABM missile defense test.
After all, a really good fraud deserves a double-take
# # #
AL MARTIN is America's foremost whistle-blower on government fraud and corruption. A retired US Navy Lt. Commander and former officer in the Office of Naval Intelligence, he has testified before Congress (the Kerry Committee and the Alexander Committee) regarding Iran-Contra. Al Martin is the author of "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider" (2001, National Liberty Press, $19.95; order line: 1-866-317-1390.) He lives at an undisclosed location, since the criminals named in his book have been returned to national power and prominence. His column "Behind the Scenes in the Beltway" is published regularly on Al Martin Raw: Criminal Govt Conspiracy
http://www.almartinraw.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Who Are the Terrorists?
Want another good reason not to attack Iraq? "Massacre at Mazar" is a film with testimonies accusing US of war crimes, [For a June 13, 2002 Guardian article on this, see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,736324,00.html ]. Such accounts were confirmed this week by an exclusive CBS News report, in which terrorized Afghanistani prisoners gave accounts of thousands of prisoners dying by suffocation during transport, and buried in mass graves, with US Special Unit Forces' knowledge. The CBS News report aired this last week, but no transcript is currently posted at their site.
In another media breakthrough this week, PBS News Hour's Margaret Warner conducted a debate on whether the U.S. should return UN weapons inspectors to Iraq. Included were two former inspectors; David Kay, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Iraq in 1991 and '92, (on Iraq's nuclear weapons development program); and Scott Ritter, inspector for the United Nations Special Commission, or UNSCOM, from 1991 to '98, (focused on Iraq's chemical and biological weapons).
The complete program transcript is posted:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/July-dec02/inspections_8-28.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Story:
Officers Say U.S. Aided Iraq in War Despite Use of Gas
By Patrick E. Tyler - The New York Times - August 18, 2002
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/18/international/middleeast/18CHEM.html
WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 - A covert American program during the Reagan administration provided Iraq with critical battle planning assistance at a time when American intelligence agencies knew that Iraqi commanders would employ chemical weapons in waging the decisive battles of the Iran-Iraq war, according to senior military officers with direct knowledge of the program.
Those officers, most of whom agreed to speak on the condition that they not be identified, spoke in response to a reporter's questions about the nature of gas warfare on both sides of the conflict between Iran and Iraq from 1981 to 1988. Iraq's use of gas in that conflict is repeatedly cited by President Bush and, this week, by his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, as justification for "regime change" in Iraq.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
UN Chief Warns US Over Iraq'\
By John Lloyd in Kabul
Published in the Financial Times on August 28, 2002
The head of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan warned the US on Wednesday that it faced rising Afghan anger at its troops' presence in the region.
Lakhdar Brahimi, a highly respected diplomat and veteran UN troubleshooter, said the US-led coalition forces hunting al-Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan "are realising they must be more careful. The Americans are very much aware of how much anger there is against them."
Afghan frustration at the US grew after the discovery of mass graves near Sherbeghan prison, which may contain bodies of prisoners allegedly murdered by the Northern Alliance after capture. The prison was run by the Alliance, a close ally of the US in the war against terrorism.
The UN has led its own investigation but Mr Brahimi accused his predecessor, Francesc Vendrell, now the European Commission's special representative in Afghanistan, of "addressing the gallery" in calling for punishment for those who had perpetrated the alleged murders.
In a separate interview, however, Mr Vendrell said: "There must be an end to this culture of impunity which has plagued the society for 23 years."
On the separate issue of a possible US military strike on Iraq, Mr Brahimi said Washington should first gain UN assent before it could launch an attack on Iraq.
Mr Brahimi voiced deep concern at US plans for unseating the regime of Saddam Hussein.
He said: "If you were so certain in helping humanity you shouldn't have any problem in going to the UN and getting assent.
"If you want to intervene in Iraq, for example, you shouldn't have a problem in coming and getting support."
Mr Brahimi insisted the UN "must not be trampled on. It's an extremely useful instrument. It's not perfect - but it's the only instrument we have and we must use it in the best way possible."
Mr Brahimi's comments come in the wake of Monday's speech by Dick Cheney, US vice-president, giving strong support for an attack on Iraq.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related article: Cheney/Rumsfeld link to CIA Horror
"The Secret Sharers: The CIA, the Bush Gang and the Killing of Frank Olson"
by Chris Floyd Published by CounterPunch - August 28, 2002
http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd0828.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
>------------------------FLYBY NEWS---------------------------->>>
------------ Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era ------------
= = = = = = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = = = = = = = =
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Presidential Contender * Brainwashing America - Iraq * Bush Fires
24 August 2002
1) Kucinich - a Contender for US Democracy
2) Brainwashing America and Petition for No Iraq War
3) Analysis of Bush Wildfire Plan
Editor's Notes:
The first item gives reason for hope. Though Cynthia McKinney got booted in the primaries in Georgia for her re-election, Dennis J. Kucinich is picking up momentum beyond the expectations of many. John Nichol's article describes Kucinich's growing popularity in the labor movement and as a legitimate contender for the nomination of President for the Democratic Party. Following this article is a link to the transcript of the Kucinich speech for the people at the Iowa AFL-CIO State Convention on August 14, 2002. Following that is a brief report from a telephone interview with Flyby News on his controversial pro-life voting record; and after that is a link to various press releases and statements on current affairs from the Kucinich Congressional web site.
Item 2 has much information to grapple with on the brainwashing of America. Watching a puppy dog get gased on the media, with the anchor reporters' commentaries on how Al Qaeda is more dangerous than previously realized, is absurd; and then from the absurd to the ridiculous: AP reports that Fox took out a full-page advertisement accusing CNN of buying videos from AL-Qaeda, or is it the CIA? This becomes even more suspicious when Pravda, in the next piece, reports that Al-Qaeda operationals have been observed testing chemical weapons by US agents in northern Iraq. This is the Iraq of the Northern Shield, the no-fly zone imposed by the USA and UK. Pravda's source for information for this report is the American ABC network, which reported that Al-Qaeda were carrying out tests with chemical weapons on animals. For some unknown reason, ABC claimed that President Bush vetoed a CIA plan to target the facility producing the chemicals. Pretty spooky, which is why we need to act and support those people not mind controlled, like those demonstrators in Oregon protesting the Bush war on freedom and the environment. If you are awake, please take take actions, and respond to the petition linked to contact the Senate to stop a war before it can happen.
Item 3 are analyses of Bush's Wildfire Plan by environmental groups. Bush and his administration wants to cut more trees down, build more roads, and release more CO2 and nuclear pollution into our environment. Call it mind control or fear, but something stinks, and time is getting short. We better do more to prevent new wars and misguided terrorism coming from within, not without.
"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."
James Madison, while a United States Congressman
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Kucinich - a Contender for US Democracy
Bold Kucinich Leaves Tepid Dems Behind
by John Nichols
Published on Tuesday, August 13, 2002 in the Madison Capital Times http://www.madison.com/captimes/
Dennis Kucinich is using his summer vacation to stir up working people across America. Come fall, he might just find that he is a serious contender for the Democratic nomination for president in 2004.
Indeed, while every Democrat who is even pondering a presidential run angled for a prime speaking slot at this week's Iowa AFL-CIO dinner - in hopes that the right message will kick-start their campaigns in that state's critical caucuses - Kucinich has been awarded the coveted keynoter spot. [see Flyby link for complete transcript of this speech at end of this article (1)] Later this month, he'll address the conventions of the United Steelworkers and Service Employees unions.
None of this means that the labor movement is ready to throw its considerable weight behind a still relatively obscure congressman from Cleveland. But it does suggest that Kucinich, whose passionate defense of workers' rights, civil liberties and sensible foreign policies recalls William Jennings Bryan more than it does most contemporary politicians, is certainly getting noticed.
Kucinich is in some senses an unlikely Democratic presidential prospect. He has cast votes against abortion rights protections, [(2)], he has an intensely spiritual side and he is entirely unafraid of speaking his mind and standing his ground - even when it costs him politically. The former mayor of Cleveland was forced out of office at the dawn of the 1980s Reagan era when he refused to buckle under pressure from bankers and corporate power brokers who wanted to privatize the city's municipal utilities.
After Kucinich lost he was written off as a political ghost. But in the mid-1990s, he returned to haunt the corporate interests that had driven him from office more than a decade earlier. In 1994, Kucinich won a seat in the Ohio legislature as one of the few Democratic challengers to prevail in that Republican landslide year. Two years later, in 1996, he beat a Republican congressman and headed for Washington.
Unlike most politicians who suffer early in their careers, however, Kucinich did not come back cautious. Rather, the current chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus may well be the boldest member of the current Congress.
His courage was on display earlier this year when, in a speech to the Southern California chapter of Americans for Democratic Action, the congressman delivered the speech heard round the world. At a time when few members of Congress were willing to challenge a president with 90 percent approval ratings in the polls or that president's military adventuring abroad, Kucinich dared to demand that the United States stop and reflect on strategies that had led to the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians in Afghanistan, inflamed tensions in the Middle East, estranged the United States from European allies and undermined constitutional rights at home.
The talk of a Kucinich presidential run started after that speech, as dissenters from the Bush administration's military and economic policies hailed him as one of the few Democrats who was willing to challenge not just a popular president but the direction in which the nation was headed.
Whether Kucinich actually makes a run, and whether that run draws the support of powerful unions, remains a big "if." But there is no question that the congressman will continue to be the sort of outspoken dissenter from a dreary status quo that his party desperately needs.
"I believe the world is a profoundly creative place where we can turn war into peace, where we can turn famine into plenty, where we can turn fear into hope. But that does require us to speak up," says the Cleveland Democrat. "When we limit ourselves to the fears of the moment, we often miss opportunities to change the whole debate."
# # #
(1) The transcript for Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich's speech,
"The Soul of the Worker and the American Restoration"
at the Iowa AFL-CIO State Convention; Wednesday August 14, 2002, is posted:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1030187944,37097,m
(2) Regarding Dennis Kucinich's voting record on Abortion Rights
After reading Katha Pollitt's article, "Regressive Progressive?" in The Nation, Flyby News received another return call from Congressman Kucinich, who again asserted his commitment to maintain the status quo of the Supreme Court ruling, Roe V. Wade, which guarantees a woman's right to choose an abortion, safely and legally. The question of Kucinich's pro-life record relates to his representing one of the highest concentration of Catholic voters of any Congressional district, his personal beliefs about life and conception, and his challenging whether the government should fund abortions. The real issue, he said, is about not judging one another, but to begin thinking in a new way to help heal this issue, which has polarized many Americans for so long. He expressed his interests in support of one's rights for pro-choice and for pro-life. Dennis Kucinich said that some of his staff disagree with him on this or other issues, and that he prefers it that way, for diversity in discussion and consideration. He said that if he should decide to run for President, he would have a position paper available for people to know where he stands on this and other important issues.
(3) Kucinich's Press Releases on current issues in the US House of Representatives
http://www.house.gov/kucinich/press/~list.html
News Releases
August 2002
(August 15, 2002) Statement of Congressman Kucinich in Advance of Traveling to The World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa
(August 6, 2002) 75 Members of Congress, led by Kucinich, Assert Constitutional Role in Declaring War
July 2002
(July 24, 2002) Kucinich: House [Against] Bill Could Fund New Military Action in Iraq
(July 23, 2002) Kucinich: Keep Accounting Standards for Federal Employee Health Plans
(July 19, 2002) Kucinich Calls For An Investigation Into US Control of Supplies of Biological and Chemical Pathogens
(July 19, 2002) Kucinich: US Should Not Take New Military Action Against Iraq
(July 08, 2002) Kucinich Introduces The Baseball Fan Protection Act
For links to these and other Press Releases & Statements by Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich, visit:
http://www.house.gov/kucinich/press/~list.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For the Flyby News Archives Updated Page on Dennis J. Kucinich, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1021307488,43210,m
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Brainwashing America and Petition for No Iraq War
This following segment of the brainwashing of America was received from Brian Clarke bclrk@idirect.com via 911inquiry@yahoogroups.com - 21 Aug 2002
Subject[911inquiry] Brainwashing America
In light of the recent "gas the cute little puppy dog" story that has seen so much airplay over at CNN and other networks, here's a quote from "Brainwashing America," an article by former US Army War College Dept Head Dr. Norman Livergood, that might have some relevance.
"In an earlier article, I reviewed the varied aspects of personality profiling and simulation. While serving as Head of the Artificial Intelligence Department at the U.S. Army War College, 1993-1995, I conducted studies on profiling, psychological programming, and brainwashing. I explored and developed personality simulation systems, an advanced technology used in military war games, FBI profiling, political campaigning, and advertising. Part of my discovery was that:
- unenlightened human minds are combinations of infantile beliefs and emotional patterns
- these patterns can be simulated in profiling systems
- these profiling systems can be used to program and control people
Personality simulation systems are being used to create political campaigns which apply voter profiles to control their voting behavior. TV commercials and programs use personality simulation to profile viewers to control their purchasing and viewing behaviors. And sophisticated propaganda and brainwashing techniques are being used by the Bush junta to keep American citizens under control.
Here's the link to the rest of the article: http://www.hermes-press.com/brainwash1.htm
Check out also the article "Military Dictatorship USA," also by Dr. Livergood posted at: http://www.hermes-press.com/militarismindex.htm
Well, certainly the first thing American workers must do is wake up to what the Bush regime is doing: fostering and allowing corporate crime to run rampant, destroying the life savings of hundreds of people.
We must be aware that the Bush regime is actually a military dictatorship which will inevitably lead to the total destruction of our civil liberties unless we make sure that doesn't happen.
It's easy to miss the unmistakable aspects of the "High Cabal's" dictatorship if we assume that tyranny in the United States will necessarily take the same form as in, say, Nazi Germany, the communist Soviet Union, Sadam Hussein's dictatorship in Iraq, or other instances of despotism.
The United States has a long and glorious history of civil rights and some amount of governance by the will of the people. So the "High Cabal's" puppet Bush regime must start from a different historical position in its insane drive toward a police state. Daily, we see the Bush-led junta demolishing Constitutional liberties with impunity. We must recognize that the old forms of military dictatorship--with jackbooted storm troopers--have been replaced with new war on terrorism' military control of civilians.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Who's wagging the dog now? This "war on terrorism" is getting more ridiculous by the day!!
EXTRA! EXTRA!! GET YOUR "NEWS" FROM CNN (or is it CIA??!!!!!)
______________________________________________
CNN ****BUYS**** Videos from Al-Qaeda
by Associated Press
This is HILARIOUS!!! Fox takes out a full-page NYT ad (for $100,000)
accusing CNN of BUYING videos from AL-Qaeda (for around $30,000)!!!
"NEWS" to the HIGHEST BIDDER !!!! (next time, Al-Qaeda should try ebay?)
FULL STORY HERE:
http://portland.indymedia.org:8081/front.php3?article_id=17478&group=webcast
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
AL-QAEDA IN IRAQ
But protected by the Kurds in the Northern Exclusion Zone
Pravda.RU
Al-Qaeda operationals have been observed testing chemical weapons by US agents in northern Iraq, but not the Iraq of Saddam Hussein. This is the Iraq of the Northern Shield, the no-fly zone imposed by the USA and UK.
The Al-Qaeda operationals were reportedly observed for several weeks by CIA agents. The Al-Qaeda members were carrying out tests with chemical weapons on animals and, it is claimed, a man, according to sources quoted by the American channel ABC. It was stated that donkeys and chickens were killed in the experiment and at least one man, who was exposed to the toxin and then watched as he died in agony at home.
All of this took place under the protection of the Kurdish group Ansar-al-Islam. For some reason, claims ABC, President Bush vetoed a CIA plan to target the facility which was producing the chemicals.
John ASHTEAD
PRAVDA.Ru
LONDON UK
For this Pravda posted story, and links, see:
http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/08/22/34969.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Petition: NO IRAQ WAR
The Bush White House is aggressively promoting war on Iraq, against the advice of its diplomats, and without strong support from Congress, the American public, or our allies. The organization, MoveOn is launching a petition to oppose a war that would likely undermine both national and world security. Let's show our representatives that they have strong public support to stop this war. If you sign today, your comments will be hand-delivered to your Senators as part of a national day of action next week. They're organizing constituent meetings with Senate offices everywhere.
Sign the petition at:
http://www.moveon.org/nowar/
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Analysis of Bush Wildfire Plan
Environmental Media Services (EMS) Update - August 23, 2002
Analysis of Bush Wildfire Plan
Following the unveiling of Bush's "Healthy Forests Initiative," green groups have released their analyses of the plan and experts are available to comment.
The Wilderness Society analysis:
http://www.wilderness.org/newsroom/factsheet082202.htm
The Sierra Club analysis:
http://lists.sierraclub.org/SCRIPTS/WA.EXE?A2=ind0208&L=ce-scnews-releases&D=1&T=0&H=1&O=D&F=&S=&P=1150
WWF experts available: http://www.ems.org/wildfires/wwf_advisory.pdf
Duke University release:
http://www.ascribe.org:2201/cgi-bin/spew4th.pl?ascribeid=20020822.072604&time=07%2036%20PDT&year=2002&public=1
Wildfires and Climate Change
For links to reports and websites that touch on the relationship between global warming, drought and wildfires, visit a new links page at
http://www.ems.org/wildfires/climate_change.html
World Summit News
For World Summit news, updated daily, visit:
http://www.ems.org/world_summit/news.html
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
EMS Updates provide news tips and resources for journalists from
Environmental Media Services - http://www.ems.org.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
For a Village Voice feature (July 31 - August 6, 2002) article,
The Climes They Are A-Changin'
by Mike Romoth
The Indisputable Science of Global Warming, see:
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0231/romoth.php
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
>------------------------FLYBY NEWS---------------------------->>>
------------ Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era ------------
= = = = = = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = = = = = = = =
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Kucinich -- "The Soul of the Worker.." - AFL-CIO State Convention
The Iowa AFL-CIO State Convention Wednesday August 14, 2002
"The Soul of the Worker and the American Restoration"
Dennis J. Kucinich U.S. Representative
http://www.house.gov/kucinich
I was born into the House of Labor. My father was a Teamster who drove a truck for 35 years. He died with his first retirement check in his pocket, uncashed. He and my mother raised seven children, of which I was the oldest. We lived in 21 different places by the time I was 17. Having a job doesn't solve all of a family's problems. One of my first jobs was at the Plain Dealer newspaper in Cleveland. As a copyboy I joined the American Newspaper Guild. Years later, working at TV 8, I belonged to AFTRA. Today I am a member of the cameraman's union, the IATSE of the AFL-CIO.
This is my membership card. I am of the House of Labor and still building. This is my card of membership in the House of Representatives. This card (House) is where my work is. And this card (IATSE) is where my heart is.
The hopes and dreams of the men and women who sent me to congress are the stars by which I journey. Whenever there is an organizing campaign, a picket line to walk, jobs to save, working conditions to improve, laws to champion, I'm there. This is my purpose: To stand up and to speak out on behalf of those who have built this country and who want to rebuild this country. This is my passion: To raise up the rights of working people. Workers' rights are the key to protecting our democracy.
Workers' rights embody spiritual principles which sustain families, nourish the soul and create peace. Worker's rights are human rights.
Today, let us begin anew to rededicate our efforts to bring economic justice to those who have created the wealth through their work. A re-energized labor movement will reenergize America's politics and create a more just society. Your cause is the cause of our nation. Your dream is the American dream. The cause of union, of brotherhood and sisterhood is felt in the worker's anthem. Solidarity can be the song which echoes across this land. It can be the music which lifts up the hearts of all those who dignify work with their toil.
For decades labor has been telling the nation about the dangers of unchecked corporate power. Organizing campaigns have brought the lessons home:
Employers firing union supporters. Forcing workers to listen to anti-union propaganda from company supervisors. Bringing in outsiders to run well-funded anti-union campaigns. Threatening loss of jobs and even threatening to move out of town.
Often in these struggles labor stands alone. But we need to change this. We need a Democratic Party which will ensure the right to organize by establishing an automatic union once half the workers sign up. You know, sisters and brothers, that when workers can choose a union, free of fear and intimidation, they choose to have the collective voice a union provides. As a member of the Cleveland Jobs With Justice workers rights board I have seen the community help nearly 2,000 workers to join unions. We need a national labor law which provides for democracy in the workplace.
Labor has stood almost alone while corporations have cut wages and benefits, slashed working hours, tried to undermine wage an hour provisions, reneged on contracts, jettisoned retirements through bankruptcy strategies. The current clamor for corporate accountability calls for honesty in stating the numbers, and faithful custody of shareholders money.
Yet there needs to be equal concern for those who created the wealth through their labor. Because the attacks on unions are a means of redistributing the wealth upwards. As union membership has declined, the disparity of wealth has increased. Since 1973 union membership has dropped from 24% to 14%. And the share of aggregate income of the poor, the middle class and the upper middle class has declined.
It's an old saying that the rich get richer. But it's a new convention in the American political economy that a class of working poor has emerged, including the working homeless. More than 1/2 the homeless families in Iowa are headed by someone who is employed. Congress will not pass an increase in the $5.15 minimum wage even though the inflation adjusted minimum wage is 21% lower today than in 1979.
Since 1981 the share of income of the richest 5% of this country has increased more than 40% while that of the lowest fifth has decreased more than 20%. An even starker contrast arises. According to Business Week, the average CEO made 42 times the average workers pay in 1980, 85 times in 1990 and 531 times in 2000. Forbes Magazine points out that the number of billionaires increased from 13 in 1982 to 149 in 1996.
In the past 20 years you sat at the negotiating table, you fought for fair wages and benefits, you were told you were just asking for too much, that your demands would make the company less competitive. And all the while the wealth kept getting accelerated upwards, with the help of NAFTA and other trade agreements which were designed to undermine workers rights and lower wages world wide.
I'd like to read a quote to you. ". . . working men have been surrendered, isolated and helpless, to the hardheartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked competition. . . the hiring of labor and the conduct of trade are concentrated in the hands of comparatively few; so that a small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the laboring poor a yoke little better than that of slavery itself." Pope Leo XIII said this 111 years ago in his encyclical On Capital and Labor.
I quote a great spiritual leader because standing behind the daily efforts to lift up the human condition through improving standards of work is a great moral cause. It is about the intrinsic worth of each and every human being. When both work and workers are valued, when all men and women are given a chance to earn their daily bread; when all are paid a living wage, when hands strong and weak can clasp in common enterprise, to seek and to build a newer world, then every day will belong to workers. And every voice will praise the moment when human toil has lifted up the human condition. It is a high cause which brings us together, which causes us to put ourselves on the line.
We need to feel in every cell of our bodies that power which comes from union: the power which confirms our purpose, the power when focused and directed will save our nation by saving the Democratic Party from the clutches of corporate interests. Enlightened self-interest requires labor to make the Democratic Party accountable. Labor must rally the Democrats to the workers' banner. Labor must begin now to build the Democratic Party platform for 2004 to ensure that solid principles of economic justice prevail and to inspire millions of Americans, who would otherwise stay home on Election Day, to vote to save our democracy.
Labor cannot afford to settle for half-hearted nominees or half measures which keep in place a system which is destroying our democracy through trade agreements which transfer sovereign power to the World Trade Organization, undermine our economy and devastate workers' ability to defend themselves. "All that harms labor is treason," said President Lincoln. "If any man tells you that he loves America (but) he hates labor, he is a liar."
Supporters of the decaying system of injustice continue to advance propositions which are an offense to basic fairness and workers' dignity. With the Team Act they attacked the right to organize. With the Rewarding Performance in Compensation Act, they wanted to strip workers of overtime. In the name of workplace flexibility, they wanted to repeal the Fair Labor Standards Act. With the Paycheck Protection Act they attacked union dues as compulsory and political. They wanted workplace safety rules set by corporate consensus and not by OSHA. They would take us back to the days when workers had no protections nor rights. Back to the days of "Sixteen Tons."
"You load 16 tons, and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. St.Peter don't you call me, 'cause I can't go, I owe my soul to the company store."
No more 16 tons in America! The soul of the worker is not for sale. It will not be sacrificed upon the corporate altar, nor annihilated by a hostile or indifferent government. The soul of the worker will be redeemed by the enshrinement in law of workers' rights. If in 2004, Labor goes up to the Mountaintop of our nation's Capitol, it must bring back engraved in stone these rights of working people:
"People have a right to a job. A right to a safe workplace. A right to decent wages and benefits. A right to organize and be represented. A right to grieve about working conditions. A right to strike. A right to fair compensation for injuries on the job. A right to sue if injured by negligent employers. A right to security of pension and retirement benefits. A right to participate in the political process."
These basic rights ought to be inviolate in a democratic society. There can be no true corporate accountability unless corporations are accountable to workers. There can be no accountability to workers unless workers rights are protected. And workers rights cannot be protected unless the Democratic party makes it the centerpiece of its legislative program, and its drive for the White House in 2004. The Democratic Party must be challenged by Labor to truly be the party of all the people.
When the Democratic Party rises it must be with the ranks not from the ranks. "The future of labor is the future of America," said John L. Lewis.
It is the restoration of the rights of workers which will put us at the dawn of a new political age. The rights of workers are core of principles of an American Restoration. These aren't mere political principles. These are timeless moral principles, about fairness, about equality, about justice.
In the 1660s the English Restoration brought back the royal family to power. The American Restoration will be about restoring the American working family to economic power, to ensure that all have jobs, that all have meaningful work and that all make a living wage. "The enthusiasm of falling welfare numbers," said Cardinal Mahoney, "should be tempered by the reality of persistent poverty and wages too meager to provide for a family's needs. Many may be leaving welfare, too few have left poverty." Twenty-five percent of all workers in Iowa earn poverty level hourly wages. Who can live at $5.15 an hour? The campaign for a living wage is fundamental to making certain that people have more than crumbs when they sit down to eat their daily bread.
The restoration of the rights of workers in America and throughout the North American continent will begin when we repeal NAFTA. NAFTA has spurred a $360 billion trade deficit, costing 363,000 high paying jobs, most in manufacturing. This is called free trade. But where is freedom when jobs are lost? Where is freedom when industries threaten to move out of the country unless wages are cut? Where is freedom when the right to bargain collectively is crushed? Where is freedom when a union is broken? Where is freedom when you can't make a mortgage payment? Where is freedom when you can't send your children to college? An economic democracy is a precondition of a political democracy. Where is freedom?
NAFTA has attacked federal laws meant to protect worker rights, human rights and environmental quality principles. It is time to repeal NAFTA. It is time to reclaim state and local sovereignty which NAFTA has usurped. No NAFTA, no Fast Track. No more back track on democracy. No more back track on workers' rights. No more back track n human rights. No back track on the bill of rights.
"The working people know no country. They are citizens of the world," said the founder of the AFL-CIO Samuel Gompers in 1887. It is time to return to bilateral trade agreements, nation to nation. It is time for humane trading partnerships where the living wages, benefits and retirement security of workers of each nation constitute a centerpiece of trade pacts.
The American Restoration will be about restoring the physical health of our people with universal health care. I worked with the SEIU and all of organized labor in Cleveland to save two urban hospitals from closure. A market-based system of health care has brought about closure of hundreds of community hospitals, limited access to health care, denied specialized care, driven up the cost and made health care a bargaining chip in negotiations, forcing trade-offs for wage increases. A universal health care system, with prescription drug coverage will protect quality of life and reflect the improved health of our democracy. Our nation has the money to do this.
The questions are do we have the political freedom, do we have the will, do we have the courage to transform a system where for tens of millions every accident and every illness carries with fear of being unable to afford health.
We must restore the American dream of home ownership through lowering and regulating lending rates, ending predatory lending practices, increasing the percentage of the home mortgage deduction for middle income people, and stopping home insurance redlining.
"The practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion rejected by the minds and hearts of men." said President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his Inaugural Address on March 4, 1933. Under FDR the government took responsibility for the economic vitality of consumers. Today, the government protects credit card companies, banks, and insurance companies.
Our nation will be restored with new manufacturing policy, where the maintenance of our industrial base is understood to be vital to our national economic welfare. We can fuel domestic steel production and consumption by rebuilding our nation's infrastructure with American made steel, utilizing the productive capacity of our mills. We need to spend at least $500 billion to rebuild our schools, roads, bridges, ports, sewer systems, water systems, our government buildings. A highly trained, highly skilled workforce backed by Davis-Bacon guarantees will make it happen. A federal bank of infrastructure modernization can be created to fund this program with zero interest loans to the states.
America needs a great new public works program to restore the dream of a full employment economy, to restore the physical health of ournation. When the American economy faltered, President Franklin Roosevelt created the WPA. Labor, inspired to rally the disaffected, the dispirited, the disenfranchised can provide new hope for our country through bringing forth new leadership responsive in word and deed to the task of rebuilding our nation.
A rebuilt infrastructure will help restore American commerce. America cannot come through crisis of confidence in corporate America simply through improving accounting practices and imprisoning wayward executives. Our country must restore the American economy by restoring competition, by breaking up monopolies, by genuine anti- trust enforcement, re-regulation, by the federal chartering of corporations and by the repeal of Taft-Hartley which deprives the American workplace of a strong, co-equal relationship with labor. "The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit." said FDR.
Anti-trust enforcement is needed in all areas of the economy, especially in agriculture where unfair practices,from seed to retail are driving our family farmers out of business. We must free the family farmer from the market dominance of agribusiness and its predatory policies which set prices so farmers can't survive.
Americans are learning hard lessons about the dangers of monopolies in energy. When Americans learn the difference between the price the producer gets and what the consumer pays for food, when Americans realize the risk of becoming dependent on imports or corporate mega-farms for our national food supply, we will be on the path of reform which will protect independent farmers.
The largest roadblock toward the American Restoration is a corrupt campaign finance system which promotes plutocracy allowing laws, and regulations to be steathily auctioned to the highest bidder. Less than one percent of the US population contributes 80% of the money in federal elections. The top one percent in income also received more than half the tax cuts. Tax policy has become an engine for transferring wealth upward. Enron had been poised to dominate energy markets world wide because it controlled the White House, and gave to 71 senators and 186 house members.
Private control of campaign financing leads to private control of the government itself and schemes like the privatization of social security which would put nearly seven trillion dollars in retirement funds of Main Street workers at the disposal of Wall Street speculators over the next twenty five years. Public control of the political process requires public financing. The restoration of our American Democracy depends upon public financing.
The Supreme Court, equating money with free speech, will not restrict the power of corporate interests to own government. The establishment of our democracy began with the Constitution. Let us renew the Constitution by amending it, requiring public financing to redeem from the perishable fires of corporate control an imperishable government of the people, by the people and for the people."
Today, as we meet in Iowa, riveted upon uplifting the conditions of workers, on a day when IBM will cut another 15,000 jobs, and Ames Department Stores will close, throwing 22,000 out of work, and American Airlines announces they will cut 7,000 jobs, some of our nation's leaders are distracted by a desire to control oil markets and a lust for war. In his farewell address in 1961, President Eisenhower gave this warning: "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence . . . by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist," You know and I know that it will be the children of the poor and of working men and women who will become cannon fodder unless we demand our leaders give up the arms build up, end the war talk, stop the saber rattling, and work with our allies to take up the burden of global security.
We need a new vision of America, as a nation among nations, as a strong presence but not as king of a unipolar world dictating policy on behalf of global corporate interests. We need a vision which connects workers and all people in the highest causes of the human spirit: peace and justice. This will be the crowning achievement of an American Restoration, the liberation of people all over the world.
As we face the challenges ahead, let us recall the plea of the Prophet Isaiah. ". to unlock the shackles of injustice? To break every cruel chain? . Then shall your light shine in the darkness. Your people. shall lay the foundations for ages to come. You shall becalled repairer of the breach. Restorer of the streets to dwell in."
You, the men and women of labor. It is your light which will shine in the darkness. It is you who will lay the foundation for ages to come. It is you who will repair the breach. It is you who will lead the American Restoration.
Thank you.
###
For the Flyby News Archives Updated Page on Dennis J. Kucinich, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1021307488,43210,m
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
>------------------------FLYBY NEWS---------------------------->>>
------------ Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era ------------
= = = = = = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = = = = = = = =
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Just Time to Act - Malik - Zolo - Leonard - Iraq or Apocalypse Now!
17 August 2002
1) Malik Abdullah Akili - Justice and Parole Needed
2) Demand New Trial for Death Row Inmate, Zolo Agona Azania
3) Leonard Peltier: man, soldier and symbol
4) Apocalypse Now - US Attack on Iraq?
Editor's Notes:
This is the third anniversary of NASA's (dangerously reckless) Cassini Earth flyby; and the threats to humankind and other life keep increasing. Flyby News is committed to trying to get ahead of the curve of destruction, seeking justice and human rights to change the course of events to sustain human life through this Century. With the US poised to attack Iraq, with Global Warming exponentially increasing, there is little time left, which is excruciatingly painful, if you are locked up unjustly in the prison system. Minor and big miracles are needed, and your actions in support of what is fair and just are more important than ever. Please take some of your precious time to try to make a difference. With unity, truth, compassion, and vision, anything is possible.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Malik Abdullah Akili - Justice and Parole Needed
The following is excerpted from a recent letter by Malik A. Akili.
"The measure of our progress will be determined by the measure of willingness in us to think, and teach our children to think." - W.E.B. Dubois
Thanks for all the time and energy put into getting inside this hellhole. I do deeply appreciate your efforts.... And, though, you may not be capable of understanding the joy of getting mail from the mainland, each message brings with it much relief and the knowledge that someone cares..
There's truth in that everyone who enters prison won't leave the same. These places have ways of breaking the spirit and were built for the purpose of punishment and breaking the will of those that resist and rebel. Prisons were not built to transform prisoners into better conscious human beings. They are dark and evil places..
Many prisoners don't make it home They die and are buried right here on the prison grounds... Because their bodies aren't claimed by either family members, friends, or wife. It saddens me to think that even in death the keepers are still in possession of the remains of these prisoners..
Each day as I walk the prison grounds, I look at the wall to wonder what's beyond. I better understand now the purpose of these walls. I sense they have a deeper motive, separating the outside community from us prisoners.. For any person on the outside to take time out from struggles in life, it shows love and we can relate that love is a thing of action..
Since 9-11, and the whole repressiveness that followed, many people on the outside as well as inside, have become so afraid that they have begun to and sell each other out for small material gains. It has gotten to the point that one doesn't know who to trust anymore..
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The following is a letter from Malik to his Attorney, Harold V. Ferguson, Jr. It describes his interest to pursue a new legal direction for his case, and mentions doubts about receiving parole this October. However, by supporting Malik's parole hearing, by submitting a letter, you will give support for all of Malik's legal options. Please check the links at the end of this item and respond to help this friend, caught in a racist and torturous unjust system, to find a way to live out his life with his loving family in the freedoms many take for granted.
To Harold V. Ferguson, Jr.
Associate Appellate Counsel
The Legal Aid Society
Dear Mr. Ferguson, Jr.:
My wife keeps telling me to stay and think positive and I guess in a larger sense she's correct... I have attempted to remain focused. I wasn't looking to win the direct appeal or the second appeal, but I was indeed looking forward to the 440 [legal action]. I believe the greatest opportunity we have of winning is the 440. I felt both of us were in full agreement in this opinion.. then when I received your letter of July 23, 2002 I was quite taken back. Why? Well, because you wrote that although the 440 is the route of my vindication, you believe we should now focus on the Parole board, since that is my present quickest opportunity for release. Well, Mr. Ferguson, I think that its important for you to understand that my criminal history dates back to 1953 at the age of the manchild I was just 13 years young. In the past I've been one bad dude. It wasn't until the Black Panther Party came along to redeem me. This was the beginning of a new birth for me. That was the thing that gave real meaning to my life. I gave myself to the Community day and night. I worked in the Community full time. I taught classes of political education. I fed children who hadn't eaten in days. I defended the Community and the people that was a part of that Community. I didn't get paid for any of it, because at the time I felt that a true revolutionary was guided by the principles of love for the People.... My heart was indeed moved by all this, so I acted upon it, until the very day was forced to go underground.. the record, my files won't reflect any of this. All my criminal history will reflect is the bad boy aspects..
I think we should stay within the realm of reality.. I have some serious health issues that need immediate medical attention...The longer I am kept behind these walls, I am getting closer to my death. ..I do not desire to become another hump in the ground.. I would much rather die on the outsideon the mainland to be with my daughter, wife, family and the People from the community by my side.
The objective is to save my life and this can take place with the 440. The legal ramifications are right there between each page of the trial records. I have come to feel that your first strategy must be to put the 440 [forth] in that to me it is of primary importance..
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"..Some people live on the edge some part in their life, but being inside this hell-hole seems that we live on the edge all of the time, of each hour and minute of a day. They come and go with the hope that perhaps tomorrow will bring a new spirit with new hopes. There aren't many things to hold on to, but the hope of spirit is always some kind of gentleness to look forward to. Tomorrow represents brighter hopes and brighter days. Hope and me are old time comrades. We have been together for a long time and not once has hope given up on me, nor me of him/her." [M.A.K.]
Please help a friend in jail, visit the FlybyNews.com updated page, on the case of Malik Abdullah Akili, and write a letter in support for his upcoming parole hearing.
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid999200948,87474,m
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Demand New Trial for Death Row Inmate, Zolo Agona Azania
Press Statement
Petitioner, Zolo Agona Azania, a writer and artist on Indiana's Death Row, is asking the Indiana Supreme Court to grant him a new trial based on the admission by former prosecution witness and sole identification witness, James McGrew, that lied at Mr. Azania's 1982 trial when he identified Zolo Azania as the man he saw hiding in the bushes and running from the police. In addition, we are here to ask the Indiana Supreme Court to order a new sentencing hearing for Mr. Azania because it has now been conclusively established that the all-White jury that sentenced Mr. Azania to death was chosen from a jury pool which systematically excluded 87% of Wayne Township, the largest township, the urban center, and home to 75% of Allen County's voting-age Black population.
Mr. Azania is represented by Michael E. Deutsch and Erica Thompson of the People's Law Office in Chicago, and Jessie A. Cook of Terre Haute.
An amicus brief has been filed on Mr. Azania's behalf by the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus, the National Jury Project, the Southern Center for Human Rights, the National Lawyers Guild, the Voter Information Center of Fort Wayne, and the United Church of Christ.
The False Testimony of James McGrew
James McGrew, now a college teacher in Illinois, testified via videotape at a post-conviction hearing in Allen County last year that after repeatedly telling prosecutors that he could not identify Zolo Azania as the man fleeing the scene of a bank robbery during which a police officer was killed, he was placed in a small room prior to testifying when a large, red-haired law enforcement officer entered the room, told him to identify Azania, and pointed to him in the courtroom. Mr. McGrew further testified that he never saw the face of the man running from the police and that he identified Mr. Azania in court because of fear for his own safety. Indeed, Mr. McGrew's hesitation in making the critical identification of Azania in the courtroom was so apparent that it is noted in the trial transcript.
Given the critical nature of James McGrew's identification testimony and the fact that no one identified Mr. Azania in any of the 308 bank camera photographs taken during the robbery, he should be granted a new trial.
For more information contact Attorneys for Petitioner, Zolo Agona Azania at peopleslaw@aol.com
and see prior Flyby News issue - item 2 -
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1021500607,77209,m
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Leonard Peltier: man, soldier and symbol
"Indian Country"
Leonard Peltier: man, soldier and symbol
Posted: August 02, 2002 - 9:01am EST
Some Native observers have lately jumped on the federal bandwagon to demean the condition of Leonard Peltier, the American Indian Movement (AIM) activist imprisoned for double life sentences in the killing of two FBI agents in South Dakota in 1975. Peltier was the only person convicted of the killings in what was from all accounts a horribly unfortunate incident that also caused the death of Joseph Stuntz, a Native man. The violent incident came in the midst of hundreds of acts of violence, a dozen or more murders of American Indians and major political mayhem on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation during the 1970s.
It is easy now to diminish the Peltier case. Perhaps it provides just the right positioning for any Native pundit seeking a trendy "devil's advocate" label. Or maybe it provides an easy way to ingratiate oneself with federal agencies. But it is not right. It is less fair at this time in history than even the trial that Peltier received in 1977. That prosecution process and trial was as blatant a railroad as has ever been produced by American law enforcement and allowed by the legal system. As a result, Peltier is going on some 26 years in federal prisons, with very long stretches in solitary confinement and harsh physical conditions that have impaired his health. At the mere possibility of a pardon or parole, FBI agents and their relatives march by the thousands to oppose it, so prediction is against the likelihood of the world's most famous American Indian prisoner ever going home to his family.
Peltier is hugely well-known -- at home, in Europe, Japan, Russia, Africa -- because his particular case illustrates well the issues surrounding the virtual state of war that existed between American Indian defenders supported by many Native and non-Native professional people, against some powerful institutions including several federal agencies. In general, this was an explosion by Indian communities and emerging professionals against deeply entrenched corruption and paternalism which continued to impose themselves on Indian life. It was a scream of pain and defiance and brought forth commitments from all kinds of people throughout the world -- not a few who have since gone on to help rebuild Indian country.
To contend that Peltier is simply a murderer, or to further indict or criticize him with hearsay assertions from interviews, taped or untaped, conveniently ignores the sordid history of FBI abuses at Pine Ridge. It was during that time that infamous raids were conducted against the homes of elderly Lakota and the homesteads of many traditional people whose only crime had been to hang on tenaciously to their language and spiritual culture and to seek a better way forward. Many traditional elders also supported the young men and women who had taken to the barricades against the many perceived injustices taking place in the 1970's.
While liberal romantics feasted for a decade on the heroics of AIM, particularly in its fight against the administration of Richard "Dickie" Wilson and the BIA at Pine Ridge, seasoned Indian observers are quick to point out the foibles and mishaps of AIM. Nevertheless, all agree that FBI agents on the reservation during those years behaved reprehensibly, seriously mistreating Indian people in their persecution of AIM leadership and its rank-and-file. The FBI directly backed the infamous "Goon Squads" that instigated and directed a lot of the violence. Not a few AIM people, of course, also instigated incidents of violence, but the federal agency was acting within the government's "Garden Plot" program, with a mandate that included illegal "dirty tricks" against so-called "subversive" social movements. AIM, with its penchant for brandishing weapons, soon qualified.
To put down the "subversives," federal agencies supported and distributed weapons to semi-deputized groups of toughs. When push came to shove, in trial after trial, FBI heavy-handed tactics were exposed. The 1974 so-called "Wounded Knee leadership trial" of AIM leaders Russell Means and Dennis Banks, flagship of the government's prosecution, ended in dismissal of all charges, with the presiding judge scathingly tongue-lashing the FBI for manufacturing of witnesses, tampering with evidence and other misdeeds.
Leonard Peltier stepped into that time. Many who knew him then recall his quiet, serious demeanor and his willingness to work for elders. Like most leaders and participants in the American Indian Movement, he came from the hard-knocks school. He pledged as a soldier at a time when events were exploding. Indian country was under severe political and economic pressure and for many hope was but a fleeting idea.
The fateful events of June 25, 1975, at the Jumping Bull Homestead, when an FBI raid turned into a firefight and cost the lives of three men, disrupted the personal histories of many people. No one can but mourn for all the victims. All involved did their duty that day -- FBI agents, AIM activists, women and children who fled to safety through ravines and arroyo creeks, medical personnel. Two other AIM activists, Robert Robideau and Dino Butler, also brought to trial on the death of the two agents, were freed on grounds that they had acted in self-defense. A great deal of evidence seriously damaging to the prosecution in Peltier's case was suppressed out of hand. Incorrect ballistics tests, recanted testimony that originated under duress, an extremely hostile judge -- all coalesced to force the case on the shoulders of the last possible suspect, Leonard Peltier.
The case is complex, and many were the victims of the time and its circumstances. Three men are dead; one is encased by steel. Four families mourn. The hearts of people and peoples, and a piece of American justice, lie shattered on the ground. It is cruel form for those who now, 26 long years later, kick this one around and look for salt to be rubbed into Peltier's wounds. Despite the mode of deconstruction popular these days, most American Indian people have a clear memory of that time. It is that common memory about this particular case, at Pine Ridge and throughout, that sees Peltier as a symbol of the injustice of that time, and, of all times, against American Indians. In that context, Peltier represents a Native resistance to conquest, even to a recent era where repeated attempts at direct repression of American Indian sovereignty could easily spawn strident advocacy and resistance. Certainly he is all that. And like the two agents, Jack Coler and Ron Williams, like Joseph Stuntz, Peltier is also a victim. He too lost, big time, while so many others from different sides, equally involved in actions and tumults and violence from those days, walk in freedom today.
We wish the best of health and strength to Leonard Peltier, his family and relatives. We wish the best of spirit and health as well to the families of the lost agents, and to the relations of Joseph Stuntz. May healing forces and peaceful reconciliation, rather than obfuscation, hostility-making and hatred, prevail to set the tone in public discussion of this case.
This article was originally posted:
http://IndianCountry.com/?1028293644
For more information, contact the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee; PO Box 583; Lawrence, KS 66044; Tel. 785-842-5774
Web Site: http://www.freepeltier.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Apocalypse Now - US Attack on Iraq?
Media's Willing Distortions Pave Way for War with Iraq
Mark Waller - 911 Inquiry Commentary
Editor's note:
Stop an apocalypse in the making. Please use this and other information to contact US Senators and Representatives to take action to stop war in Iraq and US aggression for oil and military domination.
US Congress Contact Information
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html
The Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
From: Mark Waller Email: malcontent@ev1.net
Sent: Friday, August 16, 2002 12:54 PM
To: 911inquiry@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [911inquiry]
I apologize if I'm stating the obvious here...
UN weapons inspector to Iraq, Scott Ridder, has been on several forums saying that 80-90% of the weapons inspecting was completed, and found to be in compliance, before the US unilaterally withdrew (per article below) from inspections. Ridder says the ONLY thing that will ensure security against Iraq's use of weapons of mass destruction is to resume inspections. Iraq is willing. The US is making it clear that they are not interested in resuming inspections. Why? Because Hussein is a threat to his neighbors, all of whom (except Israel) are explicitly against a US invasion (even Israel appears a little nervous about it). Why is Hussein still a threat? Because the US stopped the weapons inspections and refuses to resume them under any circumstances.
It is crystal clear that the US has ulterior motives. They have intentionally set up the situation which (to them) requires an invasion.
This follows the pattern of "Let It Happen On Purpose" theory regarding Sept 11.
"The New Crusade: America's War on Terrorism" by Rahul Mahajan, gives a point by point factual rebuttal of the myths of the US war on Afghanistan. What is clear from Mahajan's rebuttals is that the US carefully created an elaborate mythology to justify its war on Afghanistan. The US had (has) ulterior motives in its war on Afghanistan, and Mahajan lists some of these motives from US action pre- and post-Sept 11. These motives are nearly identical to the apparent motives for the pending war on Iraq.
The idea that the US bears no direct responsibility for the Sept 11 attacks, that only foreign terrorists are to blame, is inconsistent with the clear and obvious pattern of the US intentionally and deceptively constructing events to provide pretense for economically driven military aggression. The US may not have controlled the specifics of the Sept 11 attacks, but the event dovetails so perfectly and consistently into the development of both foreign and domestic US policies, that if such an event had not happened, the US would have had to invent it.
Mark Waller
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Action Alert by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
"Media's Willing Distortions Pave Way for War"
An August 8 USA Today article that described how Saddam Hussein is "complicating U.S. plans to topple his regime" repeated a common myth about the history of U.S./Iraq relations. Reporter John Diamond wrote that "Iraq expelled U.N. weapons inspectors four years ago and accused them of being spies." Diamond gives no evidence for this claim, which simply repeats commonplace assumptions about the relevant history. But his statement simply isn't true, by a longshot--as noted in this action alert by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.
Firstly, Iraq didn't expel the weapons inspectors-the U.S. leader of the inspections team made a unilateral decision to withdraw. Secondly, Iraq's accusation against the weapons inspection teams--that they were spying for the US--later turned out to be true. Corporate media like USA Today are happy to consign these actual facts to the memory hole, in favor of misstatements which make a fine accompaniment to the Bush administration's war drums, but don't do much for the health of our democracy.
The Bush administration can be expected to soon launch a PR campaign to "sell" the idea of attacks on Iraq to the American public. You can bet that these facts will be omitted:
* US corporations were Iraq's major source--perhaps only source--of biological weapons materials just prior to the Gulf War.
* International weapons inspectors were instructed not to report the nation of origin of any such weapons they found stockpiled in Iraq.
* Weapons inspectors in the late 1990s were satisfied that Iraq's capability to sustain a biological weapons program had been effectively ended.
* Iraqi weapons inspections were halted by the US government, not by Iraq.
* The Bush administration does not want Iraqi weapons inspections to resume; in fact they arranged the ouster of Jose Bustani (former head of the treaty-established Organization for the Prevention Chemical Weapons) in the midst of his promising negotiations to reopen Iraq to inspections.
* Iraq apparently poses no significant military threat to the US or to its regional neighbors.
* The US government has produced no evidence linking Iraq or the Saddam Hussein regime to 9/11 terrorist attacks (and not for lack of trying).
* A US military attack on Iraq, as an act of aggression, would be explicitly illegal under every relevant US and international law (See UN Charter sections VI and VII).
* A government preparing for an unnecessary, immoral and illegal war can be expected to tell horrible lies to the public. We should require better from the nation's journalists.
For more information and take action on media inconsistencies, visit:
http://www.fair.org/activism/usat-iraq.html
US Congress Contact Information
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html
The Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
On August 28, across the country, thousands of us will be urging our Senators to put the brakes on the Bush Administration's war against Iraq. Sign up at following link to join the effort.
http://www.moveon.org/iraq_meetings/?id=682-629617-JNfJFEZTPiRO9AZvtBftwg
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
>------------------------FLYBY NEWS---------------------------->>>
------------ Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era ------------
= = = = = = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = = = = = = = =
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Spirit of Peace * War Crimes - Tonkin - Iraq * Plutonium SC * LFAS
08 August 2002
"We must be the change we wish to see"
- Mahatma Gandhi -
1) Spirit and Stardust - Dennis Kucinich Speech in Croatia
2) To attack Iraq is a crime
3) Tonkin Incident Might Not Have Occurred
4) Cynthia McKinney Update by M. Ruppert
5) S. Carolina plutonium shipments under way
6) ENS - New Sonar System Could Deafen Marine Mammals
Editor's Notes:
This issue starts off with an inspirational speech by Dennis J. Kucinich in Croatia during the Praxis Peace Institute Conference. Item 2 includes a petition that you can print out and use to send to Senators and Representatives that argues that attacking Iraq would be a crime. Item 3 is clearly related to this concern, since it shows evidence of how the US public and Congress may have been misled in supporting the bombing of Vietnam by the fabrication of the Tonkin incident. Following this item is a link to a 60 Minutes 2 transcript of another military operation in the Vietnam War under the command of Bob Kerrey, who was in command of a 1969 operation where his Navy SEAL unit killed more than 20 unarmed civilians - one old man, the rest women and children. Meanwhile the attacks of Cynthia Mckinney have not let up. It is getting closer to a critical race for her re-election. This update comes from Michael Ruppert. Item 5 is progress, as usual, taking command over reason, and the best efforts of a Governor. South Carolina plutonium shipments are under way. Item 6 is more on the sonar system shown to have harmed to marine life. The Navy has denied reports of using this system since 1998. Yet public records show their use for 90 days in fiscal year 2001. Would the US military ever lie to the public?
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Spirit and Stardust - Dennis Kucinich Speech in Croatia
U.S. Representative Dennis J. Kucinich
Praxis Peace Institute Conference
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Sunday, June 9, 2002
" S p i r i t a n d S t a r d u s t "
As one studies the images of the Eagle Nebula, brought back by the Hubble Telescope from that place in deep space where stars are born, one can imagine the interplay of cosmic forces across space and time, of matter and spirit dancing to the music of the spheres, atop an infinite sea of numbers.
Spirit merges with matter to sanctify the universe. Matter transcends to return to spirit. The interchangeability of matter and spirit means the starlit magic of the outermost life of our universe becomes the soul-light magic of the innermost life of our self. The energy of the stars becomes us. We become the energy of the stars. Stardust and spirit unite and we begin: One with the universe. Whole and holy. From one source, endless creative energy, bursting forth, kinetic, elemental. We, the earth, air, water and fire-source of nearly fifteen billion years of cosmic spiraling.
We begin as a perfect union of matter and spirit. We receive the blessings of the Eternal from sky and earth. In our outstretched hands we can feel the energy of the universe. We receive the blessings of the Eternal from water, which nourishes and sanctifies life. We receive the blessings of the Eternal from the primal fire, the pulsating heart of creation. We experience the wonder of life multidimensional and transcendent. We extend our hands upwards and we are showered with abundance. We ask and we receive. A universe of plenty flows to us, through us. It is in us. We become filled with endless possibilities.
We need to remember where we came from; to know that we are one. To understand that we are of an undivided whole: race, color, nationality, creed, gender are beams of light, refracted through one great prism. We begin as perfect and journey through life to become more perfect in the singularity of "I" and in the multiplicity of "we"; a more perfect union of matter and spirit. - - This is human striving. This is where, in Shelley's words, " . . . hope creates from its own wreck the thing it contemplates."
This is what Browning spoke of: Our 'reach exceeding [our] grasp'. This is a search for heaven within, a quest for our eternal home. In our soul's Magnificat, we become conscious of the cosmos within us. We hear the music of peace, we hear the music of cooperation, we hear music of love. We hear harmony, a celestial symphony. In our soul's forgetting, we become unconscious of our cosmic birthright, plighted with disharmony, disunity, torn asunder from the stars in a disaster well-described by Matthew Arnold in Dover Beach: " . . . the world, which seems to lie before us like a land of dreams, so various, so beautiful, so new, hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, nor certitude nor peace, nor help for pain. And we are here, as on a darkling plain, swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, where ignorant armies clash by night."
Today Dover Beach is upon the shores of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Our leaders think the unthinkable and speak of the unspeakable inevitability of nuclear war; of a nuclear attack on New York City, of terrorist attacks throughout our nation; of war against Iraq using nuclear weapons; of biological and chemical weapon attacks on civilian populations; of catastrophic global climate change; of war in outer space.
When death (not life) becomes inevitable, we are presented with an opportunity for great clarity, for a great awakening, to rescue the human spirit from the arms of Morpheus through love, through compassion and through integrating spiritual vision and active citizenship to restore peace to our world. The moment that one world is about to end, a new world is about to begin. We need to remember where we came from. Because the path home is also the way to the future.
In the city I represent in the United States Congress, there is a memorial to Peace, named by its sculptor, Marshall A. Fredericks the "Fountain of Eternal Life". A figure rises from the flames, his gaze fixed to the stars, his hands positioned sextant-like, as if measuring the distance. Though flames of war from the millions of hearts and the dozens of places wherein it rages, may lick at our consciousness, our gaze must be fixed upward to invoke universal principles of unity, of co-operation, of compassion, to infuse our world with peace, to ask for the active presence of peace, to expand our capacity to receive it and to express it in our everyday life.
We must do this fearlessly and courageously and not breathe in the poison gas of terror. As we receive, so shall we give. As citizen-diplomats of the world, we send peace as conscious expression where ever, whenever and to whomever it is needed: to the Middle East, to the Israelis and the Palestinians, to the Pakistanis and the Indians, to Americans and Al Queda, and to the people of Iraq, and to all those locked in deadly combat. And we fly to be with the bereft, with those on the brink, to listen compassionately, setting aside judgment and malice to become peacemakers, to intervene, to mediate, to bring ourselves back from the abyss, to bind up the world's wounds.
As we aspire to universal brotherhood and sisterhood, we harken to the cry from the heart of the world and respond affirmatively to address through thought, word and deed conditions which give rise to conflict: Economic exploitation, empire building, political oppression, religious intolerance, poverty, disease, famine, homelessness, struggles over control of water, land, minerals, and oil. We realize that what affects anyone, anywhere affects everyone, everywhere. As we help others to heal, we heal ourselves. Our vision of interconnectedness resonates with new networks of world citizens in nongovernmental organizations linking from numberless centers of energy, expressing the emergence of a new organic whole, seeking unity within and across national lines. New transnational web-based email and telecommunications systems transcend governments and carry within them the power of qualitative transformation of social and political structures and a new sense of creative intelligence. If governments and their leaders, bound by hierarchy and patriarchy, wedded to military might for legitimacy, fail to grasp the implications of an emerging world consciousness for cooperation, for peace and for sustainability, they may become irrelevant.
As citizen-activists the world over merge, they can become an irresistible force to create peace and protect the planet. From here will come a new movement to abolish nuclear weapons and all weapons of mass destruction. From here will come the demand for sustainable communities, for new systems of energy, transportation and commerce. From here comes the future rushing in on us.
How does one acquire the capacity for active citizenship? The opportunities exist every day. In Cleveland, citizens have developed the ability to intercede when schools are scheduled to be closed, and have kept the schools open; to rally to keep hospitals open; to save industries which provide jobs; to protect neighborhood libraries from curtailment of service, to improve community policing; to meet racial, ethnic and religious intolerance openly and directly.
Active citizenship begins with an envisioning of the desired outcome and a conscious application of spiritual principles. I know. I have worked with the people in my own community. I have seen the dynamic of faith in self, faith in one's ability to change things, faith in one's ability to prevail against the odds through an appeal to the spirit of the world for help, through an appeal to the spirit of community for participation, through an appeal to the spirit of cooperation, which multiplies energy. I have seen citizens challenge conditions without condemning anyone, while invoking principles of non-opposition and inclusion of those who disagree.
I have seen groups of people overcome incredible odds as they become aware they are participating in a cause beyond self and sense the movement of the inexorable which comes from unity. When you feel this principle at work, when you see spiritual principles form the basis of active citizenship, you are reminded once again of the merging of stardust and spirit. There is creativity. There is magic. There is alchemy.Citizens across the United States are now uniting in a great cause to establish a Department of Peace, seeking nothing less than the transformation of our society, to make non-violence an organizing principle, to make war archaic through creating a paradigm shift in our culture for human development, for economic and political justice and for violence control. Its work in violence control will be to support disarmament, treaties, peaceful coexistence and peaceful consensus building. Its focus on economic and political justice will examine and enhance resource distribution, human and economic rights and strengthen democratic values.
Domestically, the Department of Peace would address violence in the home, spousal abuse, child abuse, gangs, police-community relations conflicts and work with individuals and groups to achieve changes in attitudes that examine the mythologies of cherished world views, such as 'violence is inevitable' or 'war is inevitable'. Thus it will help with the discovery of new selves and new paths toward peaceful consensus.
The Department of Peace will also address human development and the unique concerns of women and children. It will envision and seek to implement plans for peace education, not simply as a course of study, but as a template for all pursuits of knowledge within formal educational settings.
Violence is not inevitable. War is not inevitable. Nonviolence and peace are inevitable. We can make of this world a gift of peace which will confirm the presence of universal spirit in our lives. We can send into the future the gift which will protect our children from fear, from harm, from destruction.
Carved inside the pediment which sits atop the marble columns is a sentinel at the entrance to the United States House of Representatives. Standing resolutely inside this "Apotheosis of Democracy" is a woman, a shield by her left side, with her outstretched right arm protecting a child happily sitting at her feet. The child holds the lamp of knowledge under the protection of this patroness.
This wondrous sculpture by Paul Wayland Bartlett, is entitled "Peace Protecting Genius". Not with nuclear arms, but with a loving maternal arm is the knowing child Genius shielded from harm. This is the promise of hope over fear. This is the promise of love which overcomes all. This is the promise of faith which overcomes doubt. This is the promise of light which overcomes darkness. This is the promise of peace which overcomes war.
Thank You.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich info@denniskucinich.net
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more information on Dennis J. Kucinich, see Flyby News updated page on this one of a kind member of Congress, who we are appealing to run for US President in 2004!
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1021307488,43210,m
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) To attack Iraq is a crime
Affirm the rule of law! To attack Iraq is a crime
To the Hon. [name of senator], U.S. Senate, Washington, DC 20510:
We citizens of the United States ask you to reject President George W. Bush's unlawful plan to invade Iraq in order to overthrow its government.
To attack any nation without a congressional declaration of war against that nation violates the Constitution, which gives Congress alone the authority to initiate a war. And an invasion of Iraq is not authorized by the resolution of September 14, 2001, approving "necessary and appropriate force" against those found responsible for the September 11 terrorism. Iraq had nothing to do with it, as U.S. allies all agree.
But even with a declaration of war, a war of aggression contradicts treaties of the United States, which under the Constitution are federal laws. Other presidents since FDR, including George H. W. Bush, condemned international aggression. The Nuremberg war crimes tribunal called it "the supreme international crime." It is outlawed by:
-- The Kellogg-Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of national policy. Nazi and Japanese leaders were hanged for violating it by waging aggressive wars, thus committing "crimes against peace," among their crimes.
-- The United Nations Charter. It forbids "the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state" and requires members to "settle their international disputes by peaceful means."
Moreover, The Hague Convention on laws of war prohibits "the attack or bombardment ... of towns, villages, dwellings, or buildings which are undefended...." Such attacks under Presidents Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II have killed thousands of civilians. We expect more news like this: "Hundreds of women and children were killed or wounded when American bombers blasted a packed air raid shelter in Baghdad" (The Times, London, 2-14-91).
Just because George W. Bush declares the ruler of Iraq to be "evil" and suspects that he has "weapons of mass destruction," it does not legitimize the use of our weapons for the mass destruction of that country and its people.
If our government stops at nothing to overthrow a foreign leader it dislikescommitting overt and covert aggression and assassination (a U.S. felony)couldn't a foreign government try to do the same here someday?
The United States must not be an outlaw nation. Bush II says we stand for "the rule of law." Let's carry it out.
To print out the above, go to:
http://www.warandlaw.homestead.com/files/index.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
To link to a letter by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, which was sent to all members of the UN Security Council, with copies to the UN General Assembly and Senator Biden ofthe Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, see http://www.iacenter.org/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Meet Country X --
An Innovative Pentagon War Game Fine Tunes a U.S. Attack on Iraq --
By William M. Arkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
e-mail Arkin: william.arkin@wpni.com
Tuesday, August 6, 2002; 7:42 AM
Since July 24, the U.S. military has been playing a $235 million wargame named Millennium Challenge 02 (MC 02), one that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld blandly says "will test the forces and equipment that will help us judge and define both near-term and future capabilities."
The scenario for Millennium Challenge is classified. All military spokesmen will say is that the scenario includes an earthquake in Country X followed by chaos and a military coup and the taking of some islands in a mythical part of the world where most of the oil lifelines exist.
"We have taken real targets -- about 14,500 -- targets from Country X," says Brig. Gen. James Smith, the direct wargame supervisor and Deputy Commander of the military's Joint Warfighting Center in Suffolk, Virginia. "We are using real data points, from a real country."
"We have developed about a thousand electronic target folders."
Smith says that the United States has developed a "very in-depth look at each of these nodes, both military, economic, information and political."
What country is Country X?, General Smith was asked at a May 22 press conference.
"Country X. It's not relevant. And it's classified," he answered.
Well it is relevant. Country X is Iraq..
For the complete article, see,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49207-2002Aug6.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Tonkin Incident Might Not Have Occurred
Published on Saturday, August 3, 2002 in the San Antonio Express-News (Texas)
Tonkin Incident Might Not Have Occurred
by Bob Richter
AUSTIN - Thirty-eight years ago Sunday, network television was interrupted at 11:36 p.m. EDT so President Lyndon B. Johnson could tell the nation that U.S. warships in a place called the Gulf of Tonkin had been attacked by North Vietnamese PT boats. In response to what he described as "open aggression on the open seas," Johnson ordered U.S. airstrikes on North Vietnam. The airstrikes opened the door to a war that would kill 1 million Vietnamese and 58,000 Americans and divide the nation along class and generational lines.
Over the years, debate has swirled around whether U.S. ships actually were attacked that night, or whether, as some skeptics suggest, the Johnson administration staged or provoked an event to get congressional authority to act against North Vietnam. Recently released tapes of White House phone conversations indicate the attack probably never happened.
The tapes, released by the LBJ Library at the University of Texas at Austin, include 51 phone conversations from Aug. 4 and 5, 1964, when the Tonkin Gulf incident occurred. Two days earlier, on Aug. 2, North Vietnamese forces in Russian-made "swatow" gunboats had attacked the USS Maddox, a destroyer conducting reconnaissance in the gulf. But from the get-go, many have doubted anything really happened to the Maddox and a sister ship, the USS C. Turner Joy on Aug. 4. Even LBJ seemed skeptical, saying in 1965: "For all I know, our Navy was shooting at whales out there."
For the complete story, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid965302444,49107,m
Editors Note:
From the time JFK was assassinated to present times, only those lost in denial and greed can be still disillusioned that the American ideals of justice, freedom and democracy, has been more than compromised.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For another bizarre war story, see: "Memories Of A Massacre"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/05/01/60II/main288832.shtml
This above link is to a transcript of several segments from 60 Minutes 2 with Dan Rather. This is the story of a military operation in the Vietnam War under the command of Bob Kerrey, a former Senator, governor and Presidential candidate. The story was a secret until Senator Kerrey agreed to talk to 60 Minutes and the New York Times Magazine about the 1969 operation, when his Navy SEAL unit killed more than 20 unarmed civilians - one old man, the rest women and children.
But a very experienced Navy SEAL who was at Kerrey's side that night, Gerhard Klann, a man who later helped save Kerrey's life, told us it was no accident - that in the chaos women and children were rounded up and shot at point-blank range for what was considered to be necessary reasons.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
And for another terror of war story, "One Year On In Afghanistan" by Robert Fisk, which was published in The Independent on August 05, 2002
See:
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=2189
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Cynthia McKinney Update by M. Ruppert
In what is has become a down-to-the-wire race to determine the fate of Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, has resurrected innuendo-like charges implying that somehow McKinney is a supporter of terrorism. These implied connections are reminiscent of the vigorous effort by the FBI and ruling elites to portray Martin Luther King as a Communist protg when, in fact, years later U.S. Congressional investigations disclosed that all of those supposed Communist connections had originated from within the FBI and had no basis in fact.
McKinney did receive campaign donations from people who have been connected to terrorist support groups. So have the Republicans in a much harder case. [See Guardian story below]. That is not the point. No politician has ever been asked, or expected to run a background check on every campaign donor. That's nonsense. The Atlanta Journal Constitution has shown its stripes by glossing over the case of the Safa Trust, a significant donor to the Republican Party and supporter of the Bush Administration that was targeted earlier this year by the FBI and described as being a money laundering operation for terrorist groups that actually shared office space with Republican Party operatives.
That such tactics are being resorted to, less than three weeks before a primary election which will determine McKinney's fate, is an indicator of the desperation and deception that vested interests will go to make McKinney an object lesson. Her fearless and vindicated questioning about the events of 9/11, her unpartisan support of human rights issues, her refusal to worship the sacred cows and pork of Washington, and her symbolic position on Capitol Hill make her Political Enemy Number One for the corporate, financial and political interests that are trying so hard to silence nascent dissent over 9/11.
As a dark night of repression tries to settle down on what remains of a great nation - where the administration threatens lawmakers with polygraph examinations and a CIA official has said that SWAT teams should be sent into the homes of journalists - Cynthia McKinney's survival on August 20th would lend broad hope and courage to all who are asking deep questions about economic, political, and moral corruption. Her defeat would likely suck the air from the lungs of a movement that is just beginning to learn how to walk. It would almost certainly suck the life out of a dying republic.
Michael C. Ruppert
Publisher/Editor
"From The Wilderness"
http://www.fromthewilderness.com
For the Atlanta Journal-Constitution article, "McKinney donors probed for terror ties" by Bill Torpy - Staff, August 3, 2002, see:
http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/epaper/editions/saturday/metro_d3b4e67b17a052210020.html
For the Guardian article: FBI raids pro-Republicans
Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles; Monday March 25, 2002, see:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4380933,00.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
5) S. Carolina plutonium shipments under way
August 3, 2002
Charles Seabrook - Staff
Atlanta-Journal Constitution
After months of court battles and bitter opposition from South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges, the federal government has begun trucking bomb-grade plutonium to the governor's state from a former Colorado nuclear weapons plant. Energy Department officials told U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) on Friday that the first loads of 6 tons of plutonium from the former Rocky Flats nuclear plant near Denver had departed for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina on Georgia's border near Augusta.
For the complete story, see:
http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/epaper/editions/saturday/news_d3b4a64a80ae704510e1.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
6) ENS - New Sonar System Could Deafen Marine Mammals
From the Environmental News Service
01 August 2002
"New Sonar System Could Deafen Marine Mammals"
Between the crash of waves, the bellows of whales, and the chatter of snapping shrimp, the oceans have never been quiet. Ship engines and petroleum blasting have only upped the noise level.
Now the United States Navy is about to deploy a powerful new sonar system that scientists say could disturb just about every marine mammal out there. The plans, approved by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, involve dropping 18 Volkswagen-bug-sized speakers into the water below sonar ships in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans to detect silent-running enemy submarines. The speakers will pulse low-frequency rumbles at an intensity of about 215 decibels, the sound level of a rocket launch.
The pulses are well within the hearing range of many seals and whales. Even 100 miles away, the sound level would be about 150 decibels as loud as a jet takeoff and potentially loud enough to disrupt whale migrations. To date, 44 scientists from 13 universities and research institutions and the Humane Society of the United States have opposed the plans.
http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/2002/08/08012002/s_47986.asp
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
>------------------------FLYBY NEWS---------------------------->>>
------------ Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era ------------
= = = = = = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = = = = = = = =
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Iraq Oil Attack * Hearings? * Martial Law * UFO Sighting
01 August 2002
"Everyone should realize the secret that oppression thrived only when the oppressed submitted to it."
- Mahatma Gandhi
1) West Sees Glittering Prizes Ahead in Giant Oilfields
2) Iraq: What's Missing From the Hearings?
3) Foundations are in place for martial law in the US
4) What was that bright light in Maryland's sky???
"It would be a tragedy if we removed a tyrant in Iraq, only to leave chaos"
-- Senator Joseph Biden
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) West Sees Glittering Prizes Ahead in Giant Oilfields
Published July 11, 2002 in the Times of London
by Michael Theodoulou in Nicosia and Roland Watson
THE removal of President Saddam Hussein would open Iraq's rich new oilfields to Western bidders and bring the prospect of lessening dependence on Saudi oil. No other country offers such untapped oilfields whose exploitation could lessen tensions over the Western presence in Saudi Arabia.
After Kuwait's liberation by US-led forces in 1991, America monopolized the postwar deals, but the need to win international support for an invasion is unlikely to see a repeat.
Russia, in particular, and France and China all permanent members of the United Nations Security Council have high hopes of prizing promises of contracts in a liberated Iraq from a United States that may need their political support.
President Bush has used the War on Terror to press his case for drilling in a protected Arctic refuge, but predicted reserves in Alaska are dwarfed by the oilwells of the Gulf.Anthony Cordesman, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that the issue for the US was as much the security of the Gulf as access to particular oilfields.
"You are looking down the line to a world in 2020 when reliance on Gulf oil will have more than doubled. The security of the Gulf is an absolutely critical issue."
Gerald Butt, Gulf editor of the Middle East Economic Survey, said: "The removal of Saddam is, in effect, the removal of the last threat to the free flow of oil from the Gulf as a whole."
Iraq has oil reserves of 112billion barrels, second only to Saudi Arabia, which has some 265billion barrels. Iraqi reserves are seven times those of the combined UK and Norwegian sectors of the North Sea. But the prize for oil companies could be even greater. Iraq estimates that its eventual reserves could be as high as 220billion barrels.
Three giant southern fields - Majnoon, West Qurna and Nahr Umar have the capacity to produce as much as Kuwait. The first two could each equal Qatar's production of 700,000 barrels a day. "There is nothing like it anywhere else in the world. Its the big prize," Mr Butt said.
Extraction costs in these giant onshore fields, where development has been held up by more than two decades of war and sanctions, would also be among the lowest in the world. Provided that the US can ensure stability in a post-Saddam Iraq, it would take five years, at most, to develop the oilfields and Iraq's prewar capacity of three million barrels a day could reach seven or eight million, industry experts said.
However, regime change in Baghdad will be of little value to international oil companies unless it is followed by a stable Iraq with a strong central government. Companies cant go in unless there is peace. To develop Majnoon, you need two to three billion dollars and you don't invest that kind of money without stability, one industry analyst said.
Copyright 2002 Times Newspapers Ltd.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related article: White House Acts to Shed Arrogant Image
---- New PR Office to Sell Bush Policies and War on Terror ----
Published on Wednesday, July 31, 2002 in the Guardian of London
Posted: http://commondreams.org/headlines02/0731-02.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Article: "Iraqi weapons 'a growing threat'"
from BBC News - 1 August, 2002, 02:32 GMT 03:32 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2163183.stm
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Iraq: What's Missing From the Hearings?
Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________
Thursday, August 1, 2002
Iraq: What's Missing From the Hearings?
As the Senate Foreign Relations Committee continues to hear testimony from the individuals it has selected, the following analysts are available for interviews:
PHYLLIS BENNIS, pbennis@compuserve.com,
http://www.ips-dc.org/projects/newinternat.htm
Bennis is a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and co-editor of "Beyond the Storm: A Gulf Crisis Reader." Her testimony was put in the Congressional Record on Wednesday; she was not asked to testify.
KATHY KELLY, kkelly@igc.org,
http://www.vitw.org
Coordinator of Voices in the Wilderness, a group which has challenged the economic sanctions against Iraq, Kelly has been to that country over a dozen times, most recently in June. She will be in New York City after 1 p.m. on Thursday.
SCOTT RITTER, wsritter@aol.com,
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0731-09.htm
Ritter, who was a chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq, is the author of "Endgame: Solving the Iraqi Problem Once and For All."
HANS VON SPONECK, von_sponeck@yahoo.com,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/bush/story/0,7369,759512,00.html
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0702-03.htm
As a former UN Assistant Secretary General, Von Sponeck headed the UN "oil-for-food" program until he resigned two years ago in protest over the continued sanctions. He was in Iraq in July.
JIM JENNINGS, jimjennings@earthlink.net,
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/jan-june98/iraq_3-13.html
President of Conscience International, a humanitarian aid organization, Jennings has led medical and public health workshops in Iraqi hospitals since 1991, training 500 Iraqi doctors and nurses in child survival techniques. He said today: "Any new war with Iraq would only bring a fresh humanitarian catastrophe. We are still dealing with the devastating effects of the last war and the subsequent harsh embargo on vulnerable women, children, and the aged. Since the Gulf War, the death rate for children under age 5 in Iraq has risen from 56 per thousand to 131 per thousand. One in every eight Iraqi children dies before his or her first birthday. Sixty percent of mothers are anemic, and one child in three suffers from chronic malnutrition. The incidence of childhood cancer and leukemia has more than tripled in the Basra governorate..."
RAHUL MAHAJAN, rahul@tao.ca,
http://www.nowarcollective.com
http://www.monthlyreview.org/0202mahajan.htm
http://www.fair.org/extra/0111/iraq.html
Mahajan is author of "The New Crusade: America's War on Terrorism" and the forthcoming "Desert Deception: Myths and Realities About the War on Iraq." Mahajan said today: "Myths impede discussion about Iraq. Myths like: The economic sanctions would be lifted if only Iraq had complied with the weapons inspectors. (The U.S. government repeatedly stated the sanctions would continue regardless.) Myths like: Inspectors are not in Iraq because Iraq kicked them out in December of 1998. (Actually they were withdrawn by UNSCOM head Richard Butler, just before the Desert Fox bombing campaign.) It was also under Butler's watch that inspectors were used for espionage, something many have forgotten about. Also, the Pentagon continues to bomb Iraq about once a week in the 'no-fly' zones. These hearings add more layers of myth instead of unraveling them."
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a related article, "The Coming October War in Iraq" by William Rivers Pitt, which details a presentation by Scott Ritter in Cambridge, Massachusetts, see:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.25A.wrp.iraq.htm
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Foundations are in place for martial law in the US
Foundations are in place for martial law in the US
By Ritt Goldstein
July 27 2002
Recent pronouncements from the Bush Administration and national security initiatives put in place in the Reagan era could see internment camps and martial law in the United States.
When president Ronald Reagan was considering invading Nicaragua he issued a series of executive orders that provided the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with broad powers in the event of a "crisis" such as "violent and widespread internal dissent or national opposition against a US military invasion abroad". They were never used.
But with the looming possibility of a US invasion of Iraq, recent pronouncements by President George Bush's domestic security chief, Tom Ridge, and an official with the US Civil Rights Commission should fire concerns that these powers could be employed or a de facto drift into their deployment could occur.
On July 20 the Detroit Free Press ran a story entitled "Arabs in US could be held, official warns". The story referred to a member of the US Civil Rights Commission who foresaw the possibility of internment camps for Arab Americans. FEMA has practised for such an occasion.
FEMA, whose main role is disaster response, is also responsible for handling US domestic unrest.
From 1982-84 Colonel Oliver North assisted FEMA in drafting its civil defence preparations. Details of these plans emerged during the 1987 Iran-Contra scandal.
They included executive orders providing for suspension of the constitution, the imposition of martial law, internment camps, and the turning over of government to the president and FEMA.
A Miami Herald article on July 5, 1987, reported that the former FEMA director Louis Guiffrida's deputy, John Brinkerhoff, handled the martial law portion of the planning. The plan was said to be similar to one Mr Giuffrida had developed earlier to combat "a national uprising by black militants". It provided for the detention "of at least 21million American Negroes"' in "assembly centres or relocation camps".
Today Mr Brinkerhoff is with the highly influential Anser Institute for Homeland Security. Following a request by the Pentagon in January that the US military be allowed the option of deploying troops on American streets, the institute in February published a paper by Mr Brinkerhoff arguing the legality of this.
He alleged that the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which has long been accepted as prohibiting such deployments, had simply been misunderstood and misapplied.
The preface to the article also provided the revelation that the national plan he had worked on, under Mr Giuffrida, was "approved by Reagan, and actions were taken to implement it".
By April, the US military had created a Northern Command to aid Homeland defence. Reuters reported that the command is "mainly expected to play a supporting role to local authorities".
However, Mr Ridge, the Director of Homeland Security, has just advocated a review of US law regarding the use of the military for law enforcement duties.
Disturbingly, the full facts and final contents of Mr Reagan's national plan remain uncertain. This is in part because President Bush took the unusual step of sealing the Reagan presidential papers last November. However, many of the key figures of the Reagan era are part of the present administration, including John Poindexter, to whom Oliver North later reported.
At the time of the Reagan initiatives, the then attorney-general, William French Smith, wrote to the national security adviser, Robert McFarlane: "I believe that the role assigned to the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the revised Executive Order exceeds its proper function as a co-ordinating agency for emergency preparedness ... this department and others have repeatedly raised serious policy and legal objections to an 'emergency czar' role for FEMA."
Criticism of the Bush Administration's response to September11 echoes Mr. Smith's warning. On June 7 the former presidential counsel John Dean spoke of America's sliding into a "constitutional dictatorship" and martial law.
Ritt Goldstein is an investigative journalist and a former leader in the movement for US law enforcement accountability. He revealed exclusively in the Herald last week the Bush Administration's plans for a domestic spying system more pervasive than the Stasi network in East Germany.
This story was found at:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/07/27/1027497418339.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) What was that bright light in Maryland's sky???
WTOPNEWS.com
http://wtopnews.com/news/newsdetail.cfm?newsid=584517
07-27-02
Waldorf Puts the U in UFO
What was that bright light in Maryland's sky???
WTOP has learned that residents near Andrews Air Force base were shaken from their beds early Friday morning by some strange activity in the air.
"Incredible. Absolutely incredible" is what Renny Rogers of Waldorf calls it. Just before two in the morning, Rogers says he saw a large blue ball of light streaking across the sky. But it was the military jets that really startled him.
"(The jets) were right on its tail. As the thing would move, a jet was right behind it," Rogers recalls.
He is not the only one who saw it. Several people called WTOP Radio reporting seeing a bright blue or orange ball moving very fast, being chased by jets. Rogers says there was no smoke coming from the object, no flashing lights, and says it was smooth, and eerily silent. The Air National Guard confirms they scrambled the 113th squadron. Spokesman Sheldon Smith says they are investigating and in contact with NORAD.
WTOP Radio, 2002
Copyright 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For related Flyby News "Disclosure Project" Info (UFO/ET documentation and men in black). see, http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid989633463,12613,m
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
>------------------------FLYBY NEWS---------------------------->>>
------------ Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era ------------
= = = = = = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = = = = = = = =
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
War on Freedom * Whale Beachings * P&J Rally for McKinney
30 July 2002
1) The War on Freedom
2) Massive Worldwide Whale Beachings
3) Peace and Justice Forces Rally to McKinney
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) The War on Freedom
"Democracies demand transparency; dictatorships demand deception."
The War on Freedom-
How and Why America was Attacked September 11, 2001
by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
http://waronfreedom.mediamonitors.net/index.html
reviewed by Carol Brouillet
http://www.communitycurrency.org/9-11.html
This book, on many levels, is a miracle, not unlike the mysterious process of Birth, and revives our collective aspirations for Hope, Peace, Justice, Joy and Life to prevail against those in power who scream for War. Piercing the smoke and mirrors of propaganda, misinformation, the largest psychological "Special Operation" ever pulled on humanity, the book calmly, carefully, meticulously examines the facts, the evidence of the crime of the century, and documents the clear need for a real, open, public inquiry of 9-11.
Much of the C.I.A.'s budget is devoted to controlling the public mind, for there is no greater threat, today, to the powers that be, than an informed American public. Enormous resources have been squandered to distract, mislead, deflect, frighten attention from a deep understanding of the events of September 11th, what actually happened, why it happened, who has benefited, and who is paying the price. Outside the U.S., the veil is perhaps easier to see through, Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed has the advantage of distance, living in England. He also has drawn from his work on the history and development of the conflict in Afghanistan, and the rich insights of others, freely scattered across the Internet, to pull together a clear, coherent understanding of the geopolitics of a war that had been planned for many, many years.
He lays bare the hypocrisy and deception of the U.S.'s policy in Afghanistan, from luring the Russians into the "Afghan trap" to propelling the Taliban into power, to the installation of a "foothold in Central Asia" from which new geo-political alliances have emerged, as well as an "interim government," friendly to multi-national oil interests.
Under the deluge of theories and facts about 9-11, Ahmed focuses on the key issues- the evolution of the Afghan crisis since before the Soviet invasion, the strategic design behind the U.S. war plans, foreknowledge of "the terrorist attacks," the collapse of Standard Operating Procedures on 9-11, the American ties with Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, the Saudi Connection, the U.S. Pakistani Alliance, and the I.S.I. (Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence), the "New War;"- Power and Profit, at Home and Abroad.
Ahmed's evidence and analysis are very compelling -- the U.S.'s role in creating Al Qaeda, how the U.S. funds, trains, supports Al Qaeda (and terrorism) where convenient, and uses them as an excuse for military intervention in other regions (when convenient), the blatant elevation of the "security interests of multi-national oil interests" above the interests of humans living in the U.S. or other countries, the financial links between the Bush family and the Bin Laden family, and the ISI Director-General Mahmoud Ahmed's role in last September's drama.
Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad was in the U.S. meeting with top U.S. officials before and during the attacks. At the urging of the U.S., he was later sent to Afghanistan to "demand that the Taliban hand over Bin Laden without conditions or face certain war." When it was revealed that Mahmoud Ahmad had ordered his aide, Ahmad Umar Sheikh, to wire $100,000. to "WTC hijacker Mohammed Atta" from Pakistan, and confirmed by the F.B.I., the U.S. sought ISI Director-General Mahmoud Ahmed's removal from his position, but did not investigate or, in any way, try to hold him responsible for his role in the attacks.
Last winter, our awareness of this information, prompted many of us, peace and human rights activists, to march on our senators and congresswoman to demand a Congressional Inquiry of 9-11, and to get out in the streets, to demonstrate, raise these issues publicly, and to expose the fraudulent nature of the "War." I spoke to television reporters, journalists, Noam Chomsky, Michael Parenti, Norman Solomon who doubted "the credibility of my information and analysis." Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, has done what I have not found time to do, patiently document the evidence, compile multiple references from many different sources, including the Congressional Records, analyze it in a dispassionate way, allowing readers to make their own judgements. From his examination of what he believes to be the key facts, he concludes that-
"The virtually unhindered expansion of the American Empire is simultaneously and systemically eroding the very values that America claims to stand for. Throughout the West and beyond, civil liberties, basic freedoms and human rights are being curtailed in the name of fighting terrorism, while military interventions with nuclear implications are being planned to pursue brute strategic and economic interests, at the expense of indigenous populations--- and for the benefit of corporate elites. Under U.S. leadership, it seems that the entire world is moving towards a situation of global apartheid governed by the Western-based international institutions of what is fast becoming a global police state, administered by the powerful for their own profit."
He dedicates the book to the innocent civilians murdered in the terrorist attacks on September 11th, their families, their friends, and to all the other victims of terrorism around the world, including those killed, injured and starving in Afghanistan. By understanding the role of the state in creating "terrorists" and "terrorist attacks" to further their interests and the interests of multinational corporations, we are in a better position to stop "terrorism" at its roots.
In the lengthy Afterward, publisher John Leonard, takes a broader historical look at the "deceptions" perpetuated by governments to justify their wars, and at the more controversial areas of inquiry into what actually happened. Leonard makes a good case that the "War on Terrorism" should be recognized as a "War of Terrorism." The War on Terrorism needs to be redefined; the big lie needs to be countered by the simple truth.
The clash of "civilizations" is a "smokescreen" for a clash of "worldviews." There are those who believe in Bush, capitalism, the integrity of corporations and their ordained right to govern the world they own, the evil of any who "oppose them," and then there are those who believe in- the goodness of humanity, human rights, freedom, peace, justice, the interdependence of humanity with the web of Life. Will the forces of "Fear and Greed" triumph over the desire for "Peace, Life, Freedom?" We are all part of the public mind; will we allow it to obscure Truth, embrace Denial, be frightened into Obedience? Or can we play our part to further the cause of Truth, Peace, Justice, Freedom by helping to raise consciousness on the most critical issues of our time. Will we hold those in power accountable for their actions, and their crimes against humanity? Process must match purpose; democracies demand transparency; dictatorships demand deception. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed and John Leonard have given us an invaluable tool to cast light upon the darkest secrets of our time, in this powerful book- The War on Freedom, now it is up to us, to get out the message to the world, especially to the people of the United States and the legislators who are supposed to serve them.
The War on Freedom-
How and Why America was Attacked September 11, 2001
by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
http://waronfreedom.mediamonitors.net/index.html
reviewed by Carol Brouillet
http://www.communitycurrency.org/9-11.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Massive Worldwide Whale Beachings
The following was sent to a Stop LFAS Worldwide Network:
This message will read like an itinerary because there's quite a lot going on and I don't want to ignore a detail which might later prove to be important. Throughout yesterday evening I was receiving calls and emails regarding yesterday's whale strandings. Thanks go out to those of you who contacted me and took the time to offer everyone a greater glimpse as to what's going on. Certainly, I am sure that some of you who are involved in large and well sponsored environmental organizations have been kept busy with these events.
First, let's begin with the ironic twist of the day. While multiple whale strandings were occurring, the NRDC was in Federal Court doing it's best to stop LWAD. (How about that for a dramatic backdrop? ) "The NRDC is demanding that the testing program -- known as "LWAD," short for Littoral Warfare Advanced Development -- be stopped until a full-blown environmental review can be done, and environmental guidelines for LWAD can be set. The government is arguing, in turn, that it already is taking extraordinary measures to protect marine life, and that the NRDC's case should be dismissed."
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,54077,00.html
And of course, there is a second irony which revolves around last week's decision by National Marine Fisheries Service to approve the US Navy's permit to kill marine life with SURTASS LFA Sonar. Because of that decision, I've been receiving a great many speculative remarks about the likelihood that the whales could be stranding due to a sonar incident. However, at this point, we have no knowledge of any such sonar events or deployments. We do have multiple strandings all kicking-in around the same time. (Don't let the international dateline confuse the point... they all hit ground around roughly the same time.)
The following stranding incidents have been reported in the news:
1. Monday - July 29, 2002
A Beaked whale was found dead off Faial and was taken to the University of Azores in Horta for Necropsy....probably a Sowerbys
2. Monday - July 29, 2002
DENNIS, Mass. (AP) - More than 50 pilot whales beached themselves on a stretch of Cape Cod sand Monday and nine of them died before vacationers and other volunteers could push the animals back out to deeper water in a feverish rescue effort. While pilot whale strandings are not considered to be rare, the event coincides with other ill-reported incidents of US Navy exercises which included bombings north of Cape Cod earlier this summer & coincides with the discovery of a blown-to-bits baby right whale there as well as the recent stranding on Nantucket of a Sperm whale.
3. Tuesday - July 30, 2002
SYDNEY - A pod of 54 whales died after washing up on a remote stretch of beach near the Great Australian Bight, conservation officials said. Western Australian Conservations and Land Management (CALM) workers said they feared the carcasses - weighing up to five tonnes each -would be devoured by sharks before a mass grave could be dug along Tooregullup Beach, on the Indian Ocean southeast of Perth. These were False Killer Whales which are found worldwide in tropical and temperate waters. They favour deep water but occasionally come close to the beach.
4. Tuesday - July 30. 2002
EASTHAM, Mass. About 40 pilot whales became stranded on a Cape Cod beach Tuesday, just one day after volunteers pushed them back out to sea from another beach. The development is "pretty bad news" and may be a sign the whales are dying, an expert said. The small black whales, which had been tagged on Monday before being freed from Chapin Beach in Dennis, were found stuck in shallow water Tuesday morning about 25 miles to the east.
5. Tuesday - July 30, 2002
The Nando Times has a map of the area where the strandings occurred on both Monday and Tuesday on Cape Cod.
http://www.nandotimes.com/healthscience/story/482900p-3856776c.html
The Washington Post has an aerial photo of the rescuers trying to work with the whales. I'm sure it was very thoughtful of the press to totally freak out the whales with their helicopter. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20618-2002Jul30.html
CNN is running the story of the second day of strandings on Cape Cod with even more aerial photographs.
http://europe.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/07/30/whales.beached.again/index.html
Additionally, the story is running in these news sources:
Massachusetts Whales Stranded Again, Likely to Die - Reuters http://reuters.com/news.jhtml?type=science
Rescued Pilot Whales Trapped Again - Discovery Channel\ http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-1915811,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2002 13:00:44 -0700 Subject: [stoplfas] LFA comments as sent from a Contributor
Reply-To: stoplfas@yahoogroups.com
The author's name of this following commentary wanted to kept anonymous.
>>
Regardless of what we might wish to see in the following article, the Navy has basically weaseled into position for carte blanc operation of LFAS. They no longer have to sneak. They are no longer in "test mode". They no longer have to keep the duration brief. They no longer have to keep the volume down. For FIVE YEARS. You mentioned checking the proximity of the squid event to the Cape Cod whale event. This may not matter. You have already seen what this thing can do in "test mode" from a single transmitter at low power. Now the leash is off. There is nothing to stop them from running LFAS at inconceivable volume from a global network of transmitters already in place.
Back in a grade school, a semi tractor once parked outside my classroom with its diesel engine idling. The idle speed was particularly slow and the truck emitted a peculiar subsonic vibration, concentrated within the structure of the school building, the classroom, whatever, which produced rising discomfort, dissociation, and irritability throughout the class. Everyone became more and more upset, angry, and panicked. My bodily functions seemed to be working just fine yet, just to point out the effect on my breathing, it felt as if someone else was breathing, or as if the air I was taking in had no effect. It was nearly impossible to think. The teacher was beginning to lose his battle to suppress the strangeness, so it was especially difficult to convince him to get someone to move that truck.
Once it was moved, the symptoms vanished. This single source was likely oscillating at around 15-20 Hz, at very LOW volume, and through the air. LFAS operates near the 7 Hz "frequency of death" (which in itself can be fatal even at very low volume -- reference Gavreau's research), at a volume similar to a 747 at full thrust, through dense water, from multiple sources. It is a sound which penetrates where most manmade noises do not. I seriously believe they know not what they do. Given the superior acoustic conductivity of water, and ignoring the added effects of salinity and super compression in the deep, and given the harmonics which can develop from the persistent application of the correct stimulus, killing every living thing in the ocean may only be the beginning.
I have read that the walls of Jericho did not break upon the first blast of the trumpets. While you are unlikely to shatter a crystal wine glass by singing, you can certainly do so with the correct pure tone. The crystal doesn't shatter immediately -- you have to wait a bit for the harmonics to build. LFAS operates at frequencies akin to those of earthquakes; and it does so in a medium which is intimately bound, like no other, to the Earth's crust. Now THAT is what I call "national security".
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Flyby Notes: Most of the mainstream commentaries have made no mention of the recent pro-LFAS ruling, nor of this sonar's history of causing disorientation and harm to whales. This raises suspicion. If you choose to lobby on the disclosure for this issue, please consider demanding a medical autopsy by those from the Woods Hole Institute, to examine if any hemorrhaging can be detected, as in other whale Beachings from the harm of the Navy's use of low frequency active sonar. Since they plan to use it in 80% of the oceans, and simultaneous beachings were reported, suspicions remain strong.
You can reach your US Congressional representative via 202-224-3121, and other contact information can be found at http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html
For more on LFAS reported in Flyby News, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid948385848,37113,m
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Peace and Justice Forces Rally to McKinney
Peace and Justice Forces Rally to McKinney
[via portside@yahoogroups.com, 20 Jul 2002]
Peace and Justice Forces Rally to McKinney
By Frances M. Beal
AIPAC, the American Israel Political Affairs Committee is tasting blood with the defeat of Earl Hilliard in Alabama. The U.S. Congressman had enraged the Zionist lobbying group by often voting against legislation that one-sidedly favored Israel and introducing a bill to drop sanctions against Libya and Iraq.
AIPAC is now aiming its big financial and political fangs at Cynthia McKinney from Georgia's 4th congressional district. She faces a primary runoff on August 20th, which for all intents and purposes, determines the general election with an overwhelmingly Democrat constituency. Her stance on a balanced Mid East policy and her outspoken criticism of the Israeli occupation army has enraged AIPAC and it has arranged for hundreds of thousands of dollars to be poured into her opponent's campaign coffers.
McKinney's Black female opponent is a former Judge who was appointed by Sen. Zell Miller, a Georgia democrat who initially appointed this Jonetta come lately to the bench. He has joined the AIPAC chorus with an unprecedented assault on Democratic Party colleague McKinney. Thus, AIPAC is joined in this all-sided assault by the local and national apparatus of the Democratic Party because of McKinney's views on peace, human rights and civil liberties.
The question posed sharply is whether progressives will permit AIPAC and the Dixiecrats to foist Israeli policy on voters as the defining issue for the mainly Black district in the Atlanta suburb McKinney represents. More importantly, will they tolerate AIPAC to further subvert 37 years of struggle to implement the 1965 Voting Rights Act by its use of the discriminatory campaign financing laws to oust an African American woman whose outstanding performance on a peace and justice agenda has earned her the hatred of the racists and the war mongers.
Months of slanderous assaults have been directed at this first African American congresswoman from Georgia, including labeling her a "loony" for suggesting that the Bush Administration be investigated for what it may or may not have known and failed to act upon about the tragic events of September 11th. Even though she has been vindicated by subsequent exposures, the attacks on McKinney's "intemperate remarks" continue unabated.
Black politicians, however, are beginning to feel threatened by outside support of Black stooges and have begun to mobilize on behalf of McKinney, the first African American female elected to the U.S. Congress from Georgia. The Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials (GABEO) unanimously adopted a resolution on June 22nd accusing Zell Miller of "scurrilous comments" and demanded that he repair his relations with the Black community by offering McKinney "the same respect given to other elected leaders in the state of Georgia."
The Atlanta-Journal Constitution, on the other hand, has been unrelenting in it attempts to discredit McKinney. "[She] has shown herself to be a fringe lunatic, well outside the congressional mainstream," writes Cynthia Tucker in a typical commentary. She asserts that McKinney is "incapable of aiding any cause," and exhibiting an astonishing level of hypocrisy writes, "The plight of the Palestinians and their desire for an independent homeland is a serious cause deserving of thoughtful, mainstream advocates. Hilliard wasn't one and neither is McKinney."
The problem with Tucker's own "intemperate remarks" is that there are no "thoughtful, mainstream advocates" prepared to take up the defense of Palestinian sovereign rights. But there are others, and they are determined to build a financial and political fight back to protect the outspoken advocate that is not afraid of AIPAC's vilification nor its financial war chests.
Nevertheless, spirit and courage alone do not win campaigns in the year 2002. It takes grassroots organizing combined with financial support -lots and lots of financial support. A national grassroots campaign to provide Cynthia McKinney with the necessary funds to fend off AIPAC's blood lust has emerged from coast to coast. Peace and justice forces nationwide are combining with local Black political organizations to draw a line in the sand.
Noting, "We must stand by those who stand by us," CAIR-PAC, a Moslem based group has called for its members to "step forward" and donate to McKinney's campaign. "Her victory will also give strength to those other members of Congress who also want to vote their conscience on issues relating to the Middle East" CAIR-PAC concludes. Other Arab American groups are also soliciting their members for financial support for her re-election efforts.
Typical of the peace forces galvanizing support is: Just Peace Contacts, which includes many Jewish activists. They have set an ambitious goal. "Through our networks across the country of Jews, Arabs, Christians and others active in the struggle for Justice in Israel and Palestine, we ought to be able to raise $100,000 by August 1," they say.
Lastly, a variety of Black websites and free thinkers like The Konformist are also carrying calls for financial assistance as are scores of listserves of racial justice and peace advocates.
The irony here is that Hilliard's defeat in Alabama may very well have provided the impetus for Cynthia McKinney to amass the financial means necessary to push back AIPAC's reactionary assault on Black political power in Georgia and on a congressional peace advocate nationwide.
Frances M. Beal is a political columnist for the San Francisco Bayview newspaper and national secretary of the Black Radical Congress. Contact fmbeal@igc.org
2002 Frances M. Beal, All Rights Reserved
Cynthia McKinney's Congressional Web Site:
http://www.house.gov/mckinney/welcome.htm
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
********************************************************************************************************************************************************
>------------------------FLYBY NEWS---------------------------->>>
------------ Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era ------------
= = = = = = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = = = = = = = =
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
********************************************************************************************************************************************************
War in Iraq * Ode to Cynthia * Yucca Action * Vt Energy Fest
25 July 2002
1) The Escalation for War in Iraq
2) Ode to Cynthia
3) Yucca Mt. Nuke Depository Action
4) Vermont Alternative Energy Festival - July 26-28
"It is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners."
- Albert Camus
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) The Escalation for War in Iraq
[The following artle was excerpted, link to Truthout posting at end]
The Coming October War in Iraq
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Wednesday, 24 July, 2002
Room 295 of the Suffolk Law School building in downtown Boston was filled to capacity on July 23rd with peace activists, aging Cambridge hippies and assorted freaks. One of the organizers for the gathering, United For Justice With Peace Coalition, handed out green pieces of paper that read, "We will not support war, no matter what reason or rhetoric is offered by politicians or the media. War in our time and in this context is indiscriminate, a war against innocents and against children." Judging from the crowd, and the buzz in the room, that pretty much summed things up.
The contrast presented when Scott Ritter, former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, entered the room, could not have been more disparate. There at the lectern stood this tall lantern-jawed man, every inch the twelve-year Marine Corps veteran he was, who looked and spoke just exactly like a bulldogging high school football coach. A whistle on a string around his neck would have perfected the image.
"I need to say right out front," he said minutes into his speech, "I'm a card-carrying Republican in the conservative-moderate range who voted for George W. Bush for President. I'm not here with a political agenda. I'm not here to slam Republicans. I am one."
Yet this was a lie - Scott Ritter had come to Boston with a political agenda, one that impacts every single American citizen. Ritter was in the room that night to denounce, with roaring voice and burning eyes, the coming American war in Iraq. According to Ritter, this coming war is about nothing more or less than domestic American politics, based upon speculation and rhetoric entirely divorced from fact. According to Ritter, that war is just over the horizon..
.."If I were an American, uninformed on Iraq as we all are," said Ritter, "I would be concerned." Furthermore, continued Ritter, if an unquestionable case could be made that such weapons and terrorist connections existed, he would be all for a war in Iraq. It would be just, smart, and in the interest of national defense.
Therein lies the rub: According to Scott Ritter, who spent seven years in Iraq with the UNSCOM weapons inspection teams performing acidly detailed investigations into Iraq's weapons program, no such capability exists. Iraq simply does not have weapons of mass destruction, and does not have threatening ties to international terrorism. Therefore, no premise for a war in Iraq exists. Considering the American military lives and the Iraqi civilian lives that will be spent in such an endeavor, not to mention the deadly regional destabilization that will ensue, such a baseless war must be avoided at all costs.
"The Bush administration has provided the American public with little more than rhetorically laced speculation," said Ritter. "There has been nothing in the way of substantive fact presented that makes the case that Iraq possesses these weapons or has links to international terror, that Iraq poses a threat to the United States of America worthy of war."
Ritter regaled the crowd with stories of his time in Iraq with UNSCOM. The basis for the coming October war is the continued existence of a weapons program that threatens America. Ritter noted explicitly that Iraq, of course, had these weapons at one time - he spent seven years there tracking them down. At the outset, said Ritter, they lied about it. They failed to declare the existence of their biological and nuclear programs after the Gulf War, and declared less than 50% of their chemical and missile stockpiles. They hid everything they could, as cleverly as they could. After the first lie, Ritter and his team refused to believe anything else they said. For the next seven years, the meticulously tracked down every bomb, every missile, every factory designed to produce chemical, biological and nuclear weaponry. They went to Europe and found the manufacturers who sold them the equipment. They got the invoices and shoved them into the faces of Iraqi officials. They tracked the shipping of these materials and cross-referenced this data against the invoices. They lifted the foundations of buildings destroyed in the Gulf War to find wrecked research and development labs, at great risk to their lives, and used the reams of paperwork there to cross-reference what they had already cross-referenced.
Everything they found was later destroyed in place...Along with the other mitigating factors described above, it seems clear that 100% compliance under the UNSCOM rules was impossible to achieve. 90-95%, however, is an impressive record.
The fact that chemical and biological weapons ever existed in the first place demands action, according to the Bush administration. After all, they could have managed to hide vast amounts of the stuff from Ritter's investigators. Iraq manufactured three kinds of these nerve agents: VX, Sarin and Tabou. Some alarmists who want war with Iraq describe 20,000 munitions filled with Sarin and Tabou nerve agents that could be used against Americans.
The facts, however, allay the fears. Sarin and Tabou have a shelf life of five years. Even if Iraq had somehow managed to hide this vast number of weapons from Ritter's people, what they are now storing is nothing more than useless and completely harmless goo.
"The research and development factory is destroyed," said Ritter. "The product of that factory is
destroyed. The weapons they loaded up have been destroyed. More importantly, the equipment procured from Europe that was going to be used for their large-scale VX nerve agent factory was identified by the special commission - still packed in its crates in 1997 - and destroyed. Is there a VX nerve agent factory in Iraq today? Not on your life."
This is, in and of itself, a bold statement. Ritter himself and no weapons inspection team has set foot in Iraq since 1998. Ritter believed Iraq technically capable of restarting its weapons manufacturing capabilities within six months of his departure. That leaves some three and one half years to manufacture and weaponize all the horrors that has purportedly motivated the Bush administration to attack.
"Technically capable," however, is the important phrase here. If no one were watching, Iraq could do this. But they would have to start completely from scratch, having been deprived of all equipment, facilities and research because of Ritter's work. They would have to procure the complicated tools and technology required through front companies, which would be detected. The manufacture of chemical and biological weapons emits vented gasses that would have been detected by now if they existed. The manufacture of nuclear weapons emits gamma rays that would have been detected by now if they existed. We have been watching, via satellite and other means, and we have seen none of this.
"If Iraq was producing weapons today, we would have definitive proof," said Ritter, "plain and simple.."
..The removal of Saddam Hussein became a plank in the GOP's race for the Presidency in 2000. After gaining office, George W. Bush was confronted with the reality that he and many within his administration had spent a great amount of political capital promising that removal. Once in power, however, he came to realize what his father and Clinton already knew - talking tough was easy, and instigating pinprick military confrontations was easy, but removing Hussein from power was not easy at all. His own rhetoric was all around him, however, pushing him into that corner which had only one exit. Still, like the two Presidents before him, he treaded water..
..It is of a certainty that few in the Muslim world support another American war with Iraq. Osama bin Laden used the civilian suffering in Iraq under the sanctions to demonstrate to his followers the evils of America and the West. Another war would exacerbate those already-raw emotions. After 9/11, much of the Islamic world repudiated bin Laden and his actions. Another Iraq war would go a long way to proving, in the minds of many Muslims, that bin Laden was right all along. The fires of terrorism that would follow this are unimaginable.
Scott Ritter wants to be present as a witness on Monday when the Foreign Relations Committee convenes its hearing, a hearing that will decide whether or not America goes to war in Iraq. He wants to share the information he delivered in that Boston classroom with Senators who have spent too many years listening to, or propounding, rhetorical and speculative fearmongering about an Iraqi threat to America that does not exist. Instead, he wants the inspectors back in Iraq, doing their jobs. He wants to try and keep American and Iraqi blood from being spilled in a military exercise promulgated by right-wing ideologues that may serve no purpose beyond affecting the outcome of the midterm Congressional elections in November 2002.
"This is not theory," said Ritter in Boston as he closed his comments. "This is real. And the only way this war is going to be stopped is if Congress stops this war."
-------
Take Action!!!! On the web:
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee:
http://foreign.senate.gov/committee/
-------
William Rivers Pitt is a teacher from Boston, MA. His new book, 'The Greatest Sedition is Silence,' will be published soon by Pluto Press.
-------
The original and complete article is posted at TRUTHOUT
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.25A.wrp.iraq.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"You've read and heard a great deal about a likely U.S. attack on Iraq. It is coming. I am not giving away any state secrets here. Saddam Hussein knows it is coming, and he is preparing for it. Shortly, some time in the next year, the U.S. will launch an all-out attack on Iraq designed to finish the war we should have finished a decade ago. The objective will be to hunt down Saddam Hussein and his inner circle and kill them all, while simultaneously locating and destroying his growing stockpile of weapons of mass destruction."
--Warren Buffett --the second wealthiest man in the world --
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
This following information was received from Charles Jenks, president of Traprock Peace Center
Re: Iraq -- the breaking news is that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is starting hearings today [July 25!!] We just found this out. We had been informed by Sen. Biden's office that they were starting Monday - only today did we learn they are starting earlier. Scott Ritter has not, as of last night, been invited to testify. I feel that it is critically important that he be invited to testify. For more resources and connections to late breaking news on this issue, see: http://www.traprockpeace.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Article : Iraq War Phase One Is Under Way, Sources Say
Source: Pravda / www.pravda.ru
MOSCOW, Jul 24, 2002 -- Pravda.Ru sources in the Gulf have confirmed that the military build-up by the US Forces has begun, with "tent cities" being built in Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, while in Washington military sources have confirmed that operations have started.
The new French Foreign Minister, Dominique Villepin, told French diplomats that she expected the military action from the USA against Iraq to come "soon" after a meeting with US National Security Advisor, Condoleeza Rice. Military strategists in Washington have leaked to the press reports that the first strike would be with special forces, possibly Delta Force and CIA operationals, together with British SAS and SBS, setting up blockades along Iraq's road arteries, while aircraft carried out punitive missions and advanced bases were set up in Mosul, in the north and Basra in the south. This, according to Major Charles Heyman, spokesperson for Jane's Information Group, could take place "much sooner than expected", in August or September. These bases would be used in a second phase next Spring with a large invading force of some 250,000 troops liaising with Kurdish and Shi'ite guerrillas. A legitimate basis for such an attack has not yet been declared.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Ode to Cynthia
It's vacation time, and people temporarily disengage from the political razzmatazz for more pacific exploits. But this summer will mark an important, nay, fateful choice in interlinked destinies of America and Palestine. You should not miss it.
Ode to Cynthia
By Israel Shamir
Things must be bad indeed if a woman steps forward to the line of fire. Nature arranged that a woman does not court danger unless her land and her folks are in real trouble. But when she does, she teaches men a lesson of manly behaviour.
When France was fading away, a shepherd girl Jeanne d'Arc took a heavy sword and led the flower of French nobles to assault the walls of Orleans. When cities of Republican Spain was strafed by the Nazi Luftwaffe, it was a woman, Dolores Ibarruri, La Pasionaria, who said to her peopleit is better to die tall, than to live on your knees. In 1990, when Mikhail Gorbachev led his country to disaster and disintegration, a year before the wealth of Russia was embezzled in privatisation spree, only one person has dared to raise her voice against the dictator in the parliament. She was the indomitable Sashie Umalatov, an MP from the Chechen Mountains.
Now it is the turn of the US to feel the chilly wind of eternity on its face. It came from unexpected direction. People of America became hostage in the hands of a few men with too many dollars in their pockets and endless greed in their hearts. For millennia, the difference of income, education, and standard of living was not so vast in one land. The wealth of the nation could provide every American with a superb education, perfect medical care, happy childhood, secure old age, guaranteed home, and free time to open one's mind to new thoughts and old friends. America could be on its way to the Golden Age of universal happiness and wisdom.
Instead of it, a small group of men squeezes the nation in order to add another billion to their coffers. They would surely destroy the US by their limitless greed. The devotees of Mammon, they are totally devoid of compassion to the people they live amongst. They do not see the local people as their own kind'. If they want to show compassion, they send money to Israel. Out of five dollars American taxpayer gives for aid, four dollars land in the coffers of the Jewish state. They appear unstoppable, as the politicians are scared of them and docilely raise their hands and sign the pledge promising to send more money to Israeli generals. Support of Israel is not a foreign policy. It is the covenant of the Mammonites, and you sign it with blood. With Palestinian blood.
But one woman refused to sign the pledge. One woman, Cynthia McKinney, a member for Georgia, dared to refuse. Four hundred congressmen signed it; they preferred their own personal advancement to the good of the country. Ancestors of Cynthia were slaves in her native Georgia. But she is one of a very few free persons in the US Congress. As we Israelis were used to say about our Golda Meir, she is the only man over there. She is a black woman, but she is the whitest man of them all, they would say before the Politically Correct era. She knew the billions of Israeli aid are needed for the poor people of the United States, for her own Afro-American community. She wanted to uphold the sovereignty of the people and congress of the United States, in face of encroaching servility to the Jewish Lobby.
She is not alone. Another wonderful Afro-American congresswoman, Barbara Lee, cast the only vote against the slaughter in Afghanistan; John Conyers, Jessie Jackson Jr, and Maxine Waters supported the cause of Palestine on different occasions. Ron Paul of Texas voted against all-house resolution sending obsequious greeting to General Sharon. Nick Rahall, John Sununu, David Bonior did not bend.
Cynthia was just more outspoken in seeing the evil. She said , "There are many Members of Congress who want to be free. I am one of them. I wanted to be free to vote according to my conscience, but I had been told that if I didn't sign a pledge supporting the military superiority of Israel, no support would come my way. And sure enough, I didn't sign the pledge and no support came my way. I suffered silently year in and year out, because I refused to sign that pledge. And then, like a slave that found a way to buy his freedom... I went to work ... I wanted to be free ... Free to cast the votes in the United States Congress as I saw fit and not as I was dictated to".
Now she stands for re-election, and her chances are dim, as the frightful AIPAC, the spearhead of the organised Jewish community, targeted her. They do not want to see independent and free congressmen on the Capitol Hill. Their huge financial might, network of connections in the media and universities are used to smother every free voice. They succeeded to unseat Earl Hilliard, another Black Congressman, who did not bow to Sharon, and now plan to do Cynthia in. If they succeed, the cause of freedom will suffer a huge setback. If she succeeds, the myth of Jewish omnipotence will evaporate, and America will look towards better days, as support or rejection of segregated Israel speaks volumes about true agenda of a candidate.
..It is paramount to rally around her, as the French nobles rallied to Jeanne d'Arc. Whether you are a descendant of African slaves or Muslim immigrants, a son of Confederacy or a Daughter of American Revolution, a freedom-loving Jew or a born-again Christian - it is the time to unite for Cynthia and for America.
This article was excerpted.. the complete article is posted
http://www.israelshamir.net/english/ode.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Alert!!! [from the offices of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney]
Dissent of Rep. Cynthia McKinney
To House Armed Services Committee Consideration of H.R. 4547
The Costs of War Against Terrorism Act
July 22, 2002
The attacks of September 11th, 2001 caused significant changes throughout our society. For our military services, this included increased force protection, greater security, and of course the deployment to and prosecution of the War on Terrorism in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Sadly, one of the first acts of our President was to waive the high deployment overtime pay of our servicemen and women who are serving on the front lines of our new War. The Navy estimates that the first year costs of this pay would equal about 40 cruise missiles. The total cost of this overtime pay may only equal about 300 cruise missiles, yet this Administration said it would cost too much to pay our young men and women what the Congress and the previous Administration had promised them.
In another ironic twist, the War on Terrorism has the potential to bring the US military into American life as never before. A Northern Command has been created to manage the military's activity within the continental United States. Operation Noble Eagle saw combat aircraft patrolling the air above major metropolitan areas, and our airports are only now being relieved of National Guard security forces. Moreover, there is a growing concern that the military will be used domestically, within our borders, with intelligence and law enforcement mandates as some now call for a review of the Posse Comitatus Act prohibitions on military activity within our country.
In the 1960s, the lines between illegal intelligence, law enforcement and military practices became blurred as Americans wanting to make America a better place for all were targeted and attacked for political beliefs and political behavior. Under the cloak of the Cold War, military intelligence was used for domestic purposes to conduct surveillance on civil rights, social equity, antiwar, and other activists. In the case of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Operation Lantern Spike involved military intelligence covertly operating a surveillance operation of the civil rights leader up to the time of his assassination. In a period of two months, recently declassified documents on Operation Lantern Spike indicate that 240 military personnel were assigned in the two months of March and April to conduct surveillance on Dr. King. The documents further reveal that 16,900 man-hours were spent on this assignment. Dr. King had done nothing more than call for black suffrage, an end to black poverty, and an end to the Vietnam War. Dr. King was the lantern of justice for America: spreading light on issues the Administration should have been addressing. On April 4, 1968, Dr. King's valuable point of light was snuffed out. The documents I have submitted for the record outline the illegal activities of the FBI and its CoIntelPro program. A 1967 memo from J. Edgar Hoover to 22 FBI field offices outlined the COINTELPRO program well: "The purpose of this new counterintelligence endeavor is to expose, disrupt, misdirect, or otherwise neutralize" black activist leaders and organizations.
As a result of the Church Committee hearings, we later learned that the FBI and other government authorities were conducting black bag operations that included illegally breaking and entering private homes to collect information on individuals. FBI activities included "bad jacketing," or falsely accusing individuals of collaboration with the authorities. It included the use of paid informants to set up on false charges targeted individuals. And it resulted in the murder of some individuals. Geronimo Pratt Ji Jaga spent 27 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. And in COINTELPRO documents subsequently released, we learn that Fred Hampton was murdered in his bed while his pregnant wife slept next to him after a paid informant slipped drugs in his drink.
Needless to say, such operations were well outside the bounds of what normal citizens would believe to be the role of the military, and the Senate investigations conducted by Senator Frank Church found that to be true. Though the United States was fighting the spread of communism in the face of the Cold War, the domestic use of intelligence and military assets against its own civilians was unfortunately reminiscent of the police state built up by the Communists we were fighting.
We must be certain that the War on Terrorism does not threaten our liberties again. Amendments to H.R. 4547, the Costs of War Against Terrorism Act, that would increase the role of drug interdiction task forces to include counter intelligence, and that would increase the military intelligence's ability to conduct electronic and financial investigations, can be the first steps towards a return to the abuses of constitutional rights during the Cold War. Further, this bill includes nearly $2 billion in additional funds for intelligence accounts. When taken into account with the extra-judicial incarceration of thousands of immigration violators, the transfer of prisoners from law enforcement custody to military custody, and the consideration of a 'volunteer' terrorism tip program, America must stand up and protect itself from the threat not only of terrorism, but of a police state of its own.
There does exist a need to increase personnel pay accounts, replenish operations and maintenance accounts and replace lost equipment. The military has an appropriate role in protecting the United States from foreign threats, and should remain dedicated to preparing for those threats. Domestic uses of the military have long been prohibited for good reason, and the same should continue to apply to all military functions, especially any and all military intelligence and surveillance. Congress and the Administration must be increasingly vigilant towards the protection of and adherence to our constitutional rights and privileges. For, if we win the war on terrorism, but create a police state in the process, what have we won?
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
To Sign-up for updates and more on Rep. Cynthia McKinney, visit::
http://www.house.gov/mckinney/welcome.htm
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Yucca Mt. Nuke Depository Action
On July 9th, the Senate voted 60-39 to overturn Nevada's veto of the proposed high-level radioactive waste dump at Yucca Mountain, capitulating to the nuclear industry's well-financed lobby despite broad-based opposition from environmental and public interest organizations.
How did your Senator vote? Visit:
http://action.citizen.org/pc/issues/votes/?votenum=167&chamber=S&congress=1072 .
Take Action! Send a free fax to your Senators to let them know what you think of their vote:
http://www.citizen.org/fax/background.cfm?ID=60&source=19
The commercial nuclear industry, eager to advance its plans for expansion, had pegged the Yucca Mountain decision as a symbolic vote of confidence in nuclear power, and spent tens of millions of dollars on advertising, campaign contributions and lobbyists leading up to the Senate vote. In a statement to the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum Annual Conference in April 2002, Nuclear Energy Institute President & CEO Joe Colvin said, "[Approval of the Yucca Mountain repository] will resolve the main obstacle to widespread deployment of new nuclear facilities in the United States."
In a July 9th post-vote statement, Colvin was quoted saying, "The Senate's approval of the Yucca Mountain resolution is a clear signal of continued congressional support for nuclear energy. . ."
However, the recent vote has not resolved longstanding concerns about the Department of Energy's Yucca Mountain dump proposal. Considering the scientific, economic, and policy questions that continue to plague the Yucca Mountain Project, the Department of Energy's repository plans face an uncertain future in upcoming legal, regulatory, and legislative processes. Furthermore, the Yucca Mountain controversy has raised legitimate questions about nuclear power's continued viability in terms of safety, the environment, and dollar costs. As advocates of safe, sustainable, and affordable energy, we will continue to challenge both the dangerous Yucca
Mountain dump and the Bush Administration's irresponsible plan to construct new nuclear power plants. . . which would needlessly exacerbate the nuclear waste problem.
Preeti Prasad
Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy & Environment Program
215 Pennsylvania Ave. SE
Washington, DC 20003
ph. 202-454-5175
FAX 202-547-7392
http://www.citizen.org/cmep
*************************************************************************
4) Vermont Alternative Energy Festival - July 26-28
For too long, our dependence on foreign and domestic petroleum has burdened our great country, both socially and economically. Its time to start investing in a Sustainable America, its time for a green solution.
Join us July 26, 27, & 28 to learn about the improvements in Wind and Solar Technologies, and an improved Stirling engine, and other innovative technologies.
For more information and excellent line-up of music performances, see:
http://www.vaef.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
>------------------------FLYBY NEWS---------------------------->>>
------------ Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era ------------
= = = = = = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = = = = = = = =
----------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Earth's Ice Melt * Navy's Deadly Sonar Unleashed * Yucca Fight
July 20, 2002 - Part 1
1) Earth's Ice Melting Faster Than Projected
2) Navy Wins OK for New Sonar
3) Senate Vote does not mean End to Yucca Mountain Fight!
Editor's Notes:
The first item in this issue again deals with the rapid pace of global warming. As the temperatures and oceans continue to rise at unprecedented rates, one must wonder, is global climate change increasing exponentially, and is it already beyond our ability to control to sustain human and other life in this Century? In stark contrast to the rapid increase, the US economy is falling. It is now time to make a change. Yet those in power -- in greed -- in fear -- are moving in the wrong directions and making things worse for short term gain for a dwindling few more moments. Item 2 is on the approval of a federal agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, for the Navy's use of powerful sonar systems, which has proven to harm whales and dolphins. The Navy plans to develop this deadly-loud low frequency active sonar in 80 percent of the world's oceans! Item 3 is on the Senate's corrupt ruling in favor to override Nevada to make the war in terrorism more available on US soil, with thousands of radioactive shipments planned to Yucca Mountain! The press release from the Nuclear Information and Resource Service is also about the continued battle to stop the assault on life.
"THE WAR AGAINST TERRORISM is the political equivalent of a stock market bubble - hope, hubris and hyperbole parading as fact. We have learned nothing since September 11: we are more belligerent, jingoistic, imperialistic, and anti-Muslim than we were before. We have thus accentuated the very conditions that led to that disaster and are now fully invested in our own myopia. The price of this error could be enormous. The alternative is to dramatically change our policies and our way of speaking of them. There is no possibility of our politicians doing this willingly; hope lies in a broad, non-partisan, pro-democratic, pro-decency, pro-constitutional coalition of conscience. Those who profess to provide moral leadership and who enjoy access to the media could still accomplish this if they chose. But time is running out. "
Sam Smith
Editor of "The Progressive Review"
"Undernews" Email: news@prorev.com
Please take actions for the best strategy you can think of to make the big change! A recommended one is happening this Wednesday, 7:00pm -- Flyby News is showing the Kucinich videos at Sirius Community in Shutesbury, MA. For directions or for more information on this sustainable-directed community, visit their web site:
http://www.siriuscommunity.org
For more on the Congressman Dennis Kucinich Videos, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1025805829,84082,
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Earth's Ice Melting Faster Than Projected
Earth Policy Institute
Update 8: March 12, 2002
Earth's Ice Melting Faster Than Projected
Lester R. Brown
Several new studies report that the earth's ice cover is melting faster than projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its landmark report released in early 2001. Among other things, this means that the IPCC team, which did not have the ice melt data through the 1990s, will need to revise upward its projected rise in sea level for this century--currently estimated to range from 0.09 meters to 0.88 meters (from 4 to 35 inches).
A study by two scientists from the University of Colorado's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research shows that melting of the large glaciers on the west coast of Alaska and in northern Canada is accelerating. Earlier data indicated that the melting of glaciers in these areas was raising sea level by 0.14 millimeters per year, but the new data for the 1990s indicate that the more rapid melting is now raising sea level by 0.32 millimeters a year, more than twice as fast.
The Colorado study is reinforced by a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) study, which indicates glaciers are now shrinking in all 11 of Alaska's glaciated mountain ranges. An earlier USGS study reported that the number of glaciers in Glacier National Park in the United States has dwindled from 150 in 1850 to fewer than 50 today. They project the remaining glaciers will disappear within 30 years.
Another team of USGS scientists, which uses satellite data to measure changes in the area covered by glaciers, describes an accelerated melting of glaciers in several mountainous regions, including the South American Andes, the Swiss Alps, and the French and Spanish Pyrenees.
Glaciers are shrinking faster throughout the Andes. Professor Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University reports that for the Qori Kalis glacier, which is located on the west side of the Quelccaya ice cap in the Peruvian Andes, the annual shrinkage from 1998 to 2000 was three times that which occurred between 1995 and 1998. And that, in turn, was nearly double the annual rate of retreat from 1993 to 1995. Thompson also projects that the large Quelccaya ice cap will disappear entirely between 2010 and 2020.
The vast snow/ice mass in the Himalayas, which ranks third in fresh water stored, after Antarctica and Greenland, is also retreating. Although data are not widely available for the Himalayan glaciers, those that have been studied indicate an accelerating retreat. For example, data for the 1990s show that the Dokriani Bamak Glacier in the Indian Himalayas retreated by 20 meters in 1998, more than during the preceding five years.
Thompson has also studied Kilimanjaro, observing that between 1989 and 2000, Kilimanjaro lost 33 percent of its ice field. He projects that it could disappear entirely within the next 15 years. (See table http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update8.htm.)
Both the North and the South Poles are showing the effects of climate change. The South Pole is covered by a continent the size of the United States. The Antarctic ice sheet, which is 1.5 miles thick in some places, contains over 90 percent of the world's fresh water.
While this vast ice sheet is relatively stable, the ice shelves--the portions of the ice sheet that extend into the surrounding seas--are fast disappearing. A team of U.S. and British scientists reported in 1999 that the ice shelves on either side of the Antarctic Peninsula are in full retreat. From mid-century through 1997, these areas lost 7,000 square kilometers as the ice sheet disintegrated. But then within scarcely one year they lost another 3,000 square kilometers. Delaware-sized icebergs that have broken off are a threat to ships in the area. The scientists attribute the accelerated ice melting to a regional temperature rise of 2.5 degrees Celsius (4.5 degrees Fahrenheit) since 1940.
While the South Pole is covered by a huge continent, the North Pole is covered by the Arctic Ocean. Arctic sea ice is melting fast. Over the last 35 years, the ice has thinned 42 percent--from an average of 3.1 meters to 1.8 meters. It has also shrunk by 6 percent since 1978. Together, thinning and shrinking have reduced the mass of sea ice by half. A team of Norwegian scientists projects that the Arctic Sea could be entirely ice-free during the summer by mid-century, if not before.
If this melting materializes as projected, the early explorers' dream of a northwest passage--a shortcut from Europe to Asia--could be realized. Unfortunately, what was a dream for them could be a nightmare for us.
If the Arctic Ocean becomes ice-free in the summer, it would not affect sea level because the ice is already in the water, but it would alter the regional heat balance. When sunlight strikes ice and snow, most of it is reflected back into space, but if it instead strikes land or open water, then much of the energy in the light is absorbed and converted into heat, leading to higher temperatures. This is what computer modelers refer to as a positive feedback loop, a situation where a trend creates conditions that reinforce itself.
Richard Kerr, writing in Science, says summer "would convert the Arctic Ocean from a brilliantly white reflector sending 80 percent of solar energy back into space into a heat collector absorbing 80 percent of [incoming sunlight]." The discovery of open water at the North Pole by an ice breaker cruise ship in August 2000 provides further evidence that the melting process may now be feeding on itself.
This prospect of much warmer summers in the Arctic is of concern because Greenland, which has the world's second largest ice sheet, is largely within the Arctic Circle. In a Science article in 2000, a team of U.S. scientists from NASA reported that the vast Greenland ice sheet is starting to melt. Greenland is gaining some ice in higher elevations in its northern reaches, but it is losing much more at the lower elevations along its southern and southeastern coasts. This huge island of 2.2 million square kilometers--three times the size of Texas--is experiencing a net loss of 51 billion cubic meters of ice each year, which is raising sea level by 0.13 millimeters per year, according to the NASA team.
The team also reports that the melting there appears to be accelerating because the ice sheet on its southern and eastern edges has thinned by more than a meter a year since 1993. If all the ice on Greenland were to melt, it would raise sea level by 7 meters (23 feet), but even under a high temperature rise scenario, it could take many centuries for it to melt completely.
The accelerated melting of ice, particularly during the last decade or so, is consistent with the accelerating rise in temperature that has occurred since 1980. With the IPCC projecting global average temperature to rise by 1.4 to 5.8 degrees Celsius (2.5 to 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit) during this century, the melting of ice will likely continue to gain momentum.
Our generation is the first to have the capacity to alter the earth's climate. We are also, therefore, the first to wrestle with the ethical question of whether the capacity to change the planet's climate gives us the right to do so.
Copyright 2002 Earth Policy Institute
http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update8_printable.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Scientists Say Future Climate Change Could Be Sudden
July 13 Future changes in the Earth's climate may happen suddenly, triggered by man-made factors, scientists warned. (Reuters, LATimes.com)
Warmer World Will Starve Many, Report Says
July 13 Scientists say rising temperatures are likely to boost crops in parts of the globe but devastate them in others. (LATimes.com, BBCNews.com)
Sizzling Sun Makes Cloudy Days
July 13 New research shows that the United States becomes cloudier during periods of increased solar activity, possibly because the increased radiation heats the upper atmosphere and nudges the jet stream. (CNN.com, Astronomy.com, Scripps Howard News Service, Detroit News online)
Arctic Oscillation Causes Climate Change
July 10 A little known climate pattern called the Arctic Oscillation, or North Atlantic Oscillation, has been linked to warming winters, according to Colorado State University Researchers. (ENN.com, CBC News.com)
Retreating Sea Ice Threatens Existence of Alaskan Town
July 9 Towns on Alaska's coast are dealing with what many observers believe are the early heralds of climate change. (Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times)
Warming Shrinks Peruvian Glaciers
July 9 Hundreds of snow-tipped glaciers in the Peruvian Andes are retreating, and scientists say it is the direct result of a warming climate. (Washingtonpost.com)
Climate Change Underestimated, Say Scientists
July 2 Researchers report climate change for the 20th century may have been greater than previous estimates, according to a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory report. (Weather.com)
For the above and additional references, see:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/2001/200107.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a related article, "Alaska, No Longer So Frigid, Starts to Crack, Burn and Sag" by Timothy Egan, NYTimes, (June 16, 2002), see
http://www.greenhousenet.org/news/June-2002/alaska.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Navy Wins OK for New Sonar
The San Francisco Chronicle
Tuesday, July 16, 2002
NEWS
Navy wins OK for new sonar despite fears for whales
Jane Kay
Chronicle Environment Writer
E-mail Jane Kay at jkay@sfchronicle.com.
Rejecting warnings of potential injury to whales and dolphins, a federal agency has approved plans by the Navy to deploy a powerful sonar system to search out enemy submarines.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday that the Navy could start using the sonar system -- the underwater equivalent of radar -- in 80 percent of the world's oceans. The new rule, expected to be published today in the Federal Register, exempts the Navy from provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act that prohibit harassing sea animals.
"We know the decision is controversial," said Rebecca Lent, deputy director of regulatory programs. "But we're confident that we made a decision based on science and public input that will protect marine mammals and allow the Navy system to operate.
"We don't expect any marine mammal deaths," Lent added. "If we get evidence of any injury or death that we link to a naval activity, we'll re-examine the letter of authorization."
The coast of California is off-limits to the surveillance technology, which the Navy says it needs to find silent-running submarines. When the Navy applied for approval in California, the state's Coastal Commission raised questions over possible harm to marine mammals and the Navy withdrew its application. Twenty-two other states have authorized the system off their shores.
The Navy will not apply to operate off the California coast "until such time as plans to operate near California have been finalized," said spokeswoman Lt. Commander Pauline Storum.
The Navy wants to use four sonar ships in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. On each ship, an array of 18 loudspeakers, each the size of a Volkswagen, will hang into the ocean to a depth of about 200 feet.
Each ship's array operates at a frequency range of 250 to 500 hertz and emits sound at 215 decibels. When the sound strikes an object, echoes return and get picked up by a couple of hundred underwater microphones trailing off the back of the vessel. A computer determines whether the object is a submarine and how far away and how fast it's moving.
Before the Pentagon can deploy the low-frequency active sonar, or LFA, anywhere in the world, the Navy has to apply for a permit from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, identifying the waters and listing the kinds of animals that live in the area.
The Navy must show that it will prevent harm to marine mammals and sea turtles by keeping them away from the sonar ships, which at close range produce high decibel levels.
Sound in the deep ocean can injure the ears and cause internal hemorrhaging among marine mammals as well as interfere with communication, breeding, feeding and migration, according to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
Within six-tenths of a mile, the sound level from the ships would be well above the maximum level considered safe for a whale's hearing, which is 180 decibels, according to the Navy. Even 100 miles from the sound source, the sound level would be from 150 to 160 decibels. The Navy acknowledges that the level might be high enough to disrupt whale migrations at 120 decibels.
Until now, the controversial surveillance system has been used only in research. But it has drawn opposition from the Humane Society of the United States, Earth Island Institute in San Francisco and 44 scientists from 13 universities and research institutions.
They assert that there is a lack of evidence as to which decibel levels interfere with underwater species dependent on acoustics for survival and warn that many animals could die in the ocean uncounted by observers.
Joel Reynolds, a Natural Resources Defense Council attorney who has been tracking the Navy's technology for seven years, is considering litigation.
David Phillips, executive director of Earth Island Institute, said, "The Navy's system has the potential to deafen every marine mammal living in the world's oceans. Alternative systems exist that don't have adverse impacts on whales and other marine life."
# # # #
For more information, see FlybyNews.com updated "breaking news stories"
"The harmful impact on Whales and Dolphins by the U.S. Navy's experimental use of active sonar systems" or visit:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid948385848,37113,m
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Senate Vote does not mean End to Yucca Mountain Fight!
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
http://www.nirs.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Kevin Kamps, 202.328.0002
July 9, 2002 cell: 202.262.9518
Michael Mariotte, 202.328.0002
Home: 301.277.3481
Senate Vote does not mean End to Yucca Mountain Fight!
Plans include more Congressional actions, legal suits, protests, and blockades!
The outrageous 60-39 U.S. Senate vote on July 9, 2002, to override Nevada's veto of the proposed Yucca Mountain high-level nuclear waste dump does not mean Yucca Mountain ever will open. Instead, it simply sets the stage for years of courtroom activity, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing proceedings, continued Congressional action, and an increased likelihood of large protests and blockades of highways and railways.
"Today's Senate vote accomplished only one thing," said Michael Mariotte, executive director of Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS). "It proved that 60 members of the U.S. Senate caved in to the nuclear power industry and put those interests above the interests of the American people. By approving this project, the Senate has assured that this multi-billion dollar waste of taxpayer and ratepayer money will continue for now. But that doesn't mean Yucca is a done deal."
"The increased opposition to Yucca Mountain from previous votes should be a clear warning to the NRC and future Congresses that there is a great deal of doubt about Yucca Mountain, and they must be prepared to stop this project at anytime," said Kevin Kamps of NIRS' Radioactive Waste Project.
"The State of Nevada and environmental groups will be continuing to mount lawsuits against the project, on numerous grounds, including the failure of the project to meet the environmental regulations established to protect the public. Instead, the Department of Energy, NRC and Environmental Protection Agency all have weakened public protection standards in recent years to accommodate the ill-chosen site, rather than rejecting the site as should have been done," said Kamps.
NIRS expressed no confidence in the NRC to conduct a fair licensing process. "The NRC may be an 'independent' agency, but it is staffed entirely by nuclear advocates who want to see a new future for this obsolete technology," explained Mariotte. "Since its establishment in 1975, the NRC has rejected only two license applications of the thousands of it has received, and one of those, at the Byron nuclear complex in Illinois, was overturned on appeal. Only a 1996 decision by an Atomic Safety Licensing Board, which rejected on environmental racism grounds a uranium enrichment plant proposed by a company called Louisiana Energy Services (LES), ever stood. And the NRC then took steps to limit the public's right in such licensing hearings, to be sure that never happens again. Indeed, LES is on the verge of announcing a new effort to build such a plant."
NIRS pointed out that Yucca Mountain does little to solve the nation's growing radioactive waste problem. "Yucca Mountain is legally limited in how much high-level atomic waste it can accept," said Kamps. "Even if it opened, it would only be able to accept about half the waste expected to be generated by the nation's nuclear reactors. The rest will remain where it is now, on-site at every nuclear reactor in the country, and the Energy Department will be out there looking for another politically-weak state to dump the waste on."
"Meanwhile, the DOE is encouraging the construction of still more nuclear reactors that will have no place to store their lethal waste," said Mariotte. "Just two weeks ago, Secretary Abraham announced that he will give $17 million of taxpayer money to three wealthy nuclear utilities to begin the process of licensing new reactors. This is not only an unacceptable use of tax money, it gives the lie to any belief that DOE even cares about the nuclear waste problem. Where does Abraham propose this waste will go-under the DOE's Forrestal Building in downtown Washington, D.C.?"
"Yucca Mountain already is projected to cost some $58 Billion, and the costs seem to rise daily," said Mariotte. "And if Abraham and the nuclear utilities get their way, we're going to have to start this process all over again, with a new site, and tens of billions more dollars spent to support this unnecessary and dangerous source of electricity. It simply boggles the mind that any public official could propose such a plan. It is past time to aggressively promote sustainable energy technologies-that's where we should be spending our money, not on more nuclear power."
Mariotte said NIRS would now step up its preparations for large protests and blockades of highways and railways if the transport of high-level waste actually begins in the U.S. NIRS and grassroots environmental organizations have been training people in non-violent resistance to such shipments since 1997, and has sent activists to Germany to learn from the massive protests there in the past few years.
"Germany has made six shipments of nuclear waste casks since 1995," said Kamps, who was in Germany earlier this year to view a shipment. "It now requires some 30,000 police and $100 million to move a cask just 250 miles, disrupts the transportation network of much of the country, and requires a police state in large parts of northern Germany. The U.S. is talking about thousands of shipments, averaging 2,000 miles. There will be thousands of protestors along these routes," he predicted.
Mariotte also warned that some members of Congress may again attempt to open an "interim" storage site at Yucca Mountain next session, and begin the transportation of radioactive waste as soon as possible. "We expect Congress would reject such an attempt," he said, "but we will be ready if it does not."
To find out each Senators' vote on this issue, see:
http://www.nirs.org/YUCCAVOTELIST.htm
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
For part 2 - 20 July 2002 -
4) Behind Assassination of President John F. Kennedy
5) Robert Bowman Strategy Session
6) Skolnicks Report - Citizens' Committee to Clean Up the Courts
7) FBI/CIA attacks Peltier attorney Jennifer Harbury
See:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1027205321,56786,
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest are welcomed.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
We suggest book marking or opening your browser to the fast-loading updated Flyby News homepage.
You can submit any E-mail address for a free subscription for upcoming issues of Flyby News.
All addresses are maintained confidentially, and you can remove your address at any time.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
>------------------------FLYBY NEWS---------------------------->>>
------------ Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era ------------
= = = = = = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = = = = = = = =
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
JFK's Assassination * Bowman * Skolnicks * CIA/FBI Attacks Harbury
20 July 2002 - Part 2
In the last FlybyNews, (July 9) we used a quote purportedly by John F. Kennedy. Since we have not been able to find a clear resource on its authenticity, we removed it. However, it did get me reading various Kennedy conspiracy ideas, and it is obvious who is benefitting from the current reign of terror against human rights and civil liberties. There is no surprise that the government does not want to revamp the CIA, FBI and other intelligence agencies for homeland security. It would expose to much for the liking of those betraying the US Constitution, democracy, human rights, and freedom. Item 4 is a report by Vincent J. Salandria, Attorney, on JFK's assassination and his "systematic thinking on why President Kennedy was killed."
Item 5 is part of a report on a strategy session with Robert Bowman, which occurred this last July 6th with 15 members of the Nuclear Peace Action Group. Dr. Bowman, as a rocket scientist, directed the top-secret U.S. missile defense programs under Presidents Ford and Carter. A retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, Col. Bowman flew 101 combat missions in Vietnam, then helped the Pentagon brass stop Reagan's "Star Wars" missile defense madness. Item 6 is a link for Skolnicks Report. In recent reporting, Skolnicks covers recent political assassinations at LA's airport. Item 7 is a report from Jennifer Harbury, a renowned human rights attorney whose efforts exposed the role of the CIA in the torture and murder of her husband in 1992, at the hands of the Guatemalan military. She has recently received threats from the FBI/CIA. THIS HAS GOT TO STOP!
"THE WAR AGAINST TERRORISM is the political equivalent of a stock market bubble - hope, hubris and hyperbole parading as fact. We have learned nothing since September 11: we are more belligerent, jingoistic, imperialistic, and anti-Muslim than we were before. We have thus accentuated the very conditions that led to that disaster and are now fully invested in our own myopia. The price of this error could be enormous. The alternative is to dramatically change our policies and our way of speaking of them. There is no possibility of our politicians doing this willingly; hope lies in a broad, non-partisan, pro-democratic, pro-decency, pro-constitutional coalition of conscience. Those who profess to provide moral leadership and who enjoy access to the media could still accomplish this if they chose. But time is running out. "
Sam Smith
Editor of "The Progressive Review"
"Undernews" Email: news@prorev.com
Please take actions for the best strategy you can think of to make the big change! A recommended one is happening this Wednesday, 7:00pm -- Flyby News is showing the Kucinich videos at Sirius Community in Shutesbury, MA. For directions or for more information on this sustainable-directed community, visit their web site:
http://www.siriuscommunity.org
For more on the Congressman Dennis Kucinich Videos, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1025805829,84082,
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Behind Assassination of President John F. Kennedy
The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: A Model of Explanation
The following is excerpted, and posted, in its entirety at http://www.tomdavisbooks.com/library/salandria1.html
Part One
by Vincent J. Salandria, Attorney
Philadelphia, Pa.
"While the researchers have preoccupied themselves with how the assassination was accomplished, there has been almost no systematic thinking on why President Kennedy was killed."
(Based on an address at the conference of the New England Branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Cambridge, Mass., Oct. 23, 1971.)
For almost eight years the American people have failed to address themselves to the crucial issue of why President John F. Kennedy was killed. Much valuable time has been lost; it is becoming increasingly clear that our delay has cost mankind dearly. I urge that no one drop this question, for to do so is to abandon the serious search for peace internationally and for domestic tranquility.
Government Evidence Cries Conspiracy
New Rulers Timed Diffusion of Evidence
Lone Assassin Myth Suggests Governmental Guilt
A Warning to Opponents
Silence of Kennedys Points to Top-Level Coup
A. Which Group Was Responsible?
1. J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI?
2. The Left?
3. The Right?
4. President Johnson and Friends?
5. President Kennedy's Own Estimate of a Possible Military Takeover
Was the American military on its own capable of this degree of sophistication? It does seem rather beyond the intelligence of the American military to have accomplished this crime alone. But it is not inconceivable to imagine the American military as having been involved in a plot to eliminate Kennedy, in order to ensure the continuation of the Cold War. Kennedy himself did not regard a military take-over as implausible. We have an excellent articulation of his feeling on this matter in a discussion with Paul B. Fay, Jr. [1] This colloquy occurred one summer weekend in 1962 on the Honey Fitz, the Kennedy yacht. The President was asked what he thought of the possibility of a military takeover in the United States. The discussion grew out of the book Seven Days in May by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey.
President Kennedy said: "It's possible. It could happen in this country, but the conditions would have to be just right."
The conditions outlined by the President were as follows:
1.The country would have to be led by a young President.
2.There would be a Bay of Pigs.
3.Military criticism of the President would follow.
4.Then, if there were another Bay of Pigs, the military would consider overthrowing the elected establishment, and finally,
5."...if there were a third Bay of Pigs, it could happen."
Mr. Fay concluded this episode by describing how the President, "pausing long enough for all of us to assess the significance of his comment ... concluded with an old Navy phrase, 'But it won't happen on my watch.'"
These conditions were approximated during the Kennedy administration. President Kennedy was in fact a young President. There was a Bay of Pigs. The missile crisis which followed resulted not in the bombing of Cuba --- as the military advisors had urged upon the President --- but rather in a detente with Russia. This has followed by a nuclear test ban treaty which "...the Joint Chiefs of Staff declared themselves opposed to under almost any terms." [2]
The American University speech by President Kennedy following his reexamination of the Vietnamese policy, completely fulfilled the conditions set forth by President Kennedy for a take-over to happen on his watch.
Evidence for Military Involvement in the Assassination
There is much evidence to indicate military involvement in the assassination. There was the startling and incriminating action of the then Commander James J. Humes, the head of the Navy Bethesda autopsy team, who took the original autopsy notes --- and then burned them. [3] The autopsy was under the control of an army general who was not trained in medicine. [4] The autopsy was never completed. [5] The findings of the autopsy were contrary to the findings of the non-military physicians at Parkland Hospital. The pathologists were directed not to look at the Kennedy neck wound. [6] The x-rays were never turned over to the Commission by the military. The burning of the notes by Commander Humes did not deter the military from promoting him to Captain.
Military-ClA Interests Coincided
Although at the time of the assassination the interests of the CIA and the military coincided, now evidence of a CIA-military rift abounds. The Boston Globe of July 20, 1971 stated that the Pentagon Papers revealed that "one agency ...comes out ... with a record for calling its shots correctly." So Ellsberg did not do badly by his "ex" employer. The Boston Globe of July 3 offered an item which indicates the "ex"-Pentagon people are hitting back at the "ex"-CIA Ellsberg. "A former Pentagon liaison officer with the Central Intelligence Agency said in London that President Kennedy engendered the hate of the CIA by trying to curb the agency's power. He also said he did not think Lee Harvey Oswald 'by himself killed President Kennedy.'"
"L. Fletcher Prouty, a retired Air Force colonel and the director of special operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1962 and 1963, said Kennedy issued two directives in 1961 to limit the CIA's power but the documents never surfaced and were not implemented."
Jack Anderson on April 21 1971 said:
"International espionage is seldom as efficient as the inter-departmental spying that goes on in Washington.
"... the Central Intelligence Agency never makes a move without the Defense Intelligence Agency keeping close surveillance.
"... Government agencies in the best cloak-and-dagger tradition snoop upon one another." [8]
I view the American military's motive for involving itself in the killing of Kennedy as perversely patriotic in nature. But at that period of time there was, as we will demonstrate, a congruence of interests between the American military and the CIA. Kennedy was the enemy of both power groups at the time he was killed.
The Pentagon Papers -- a CIA Jab at Military?
6. Did the CIA Kill President Kennedy?
The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: A Model of Explanation
This complete report:
http://www.tomdavisbooks.com/library/salandria1.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
5) Robert Bowman Strategy Session
The following was excerpted from the GlobeNet list serve (14 Jul 2002)
Subject: Robert Bowman Strategy Session
globenet@yahoogroups.com
On July 6th, 15 members of the Nuclear Peace Action Group met with Dr. Robert Bowman to garner his wisdom and discuss strategy. As a rocket scientist, Dr. Bowman directed the top-secret U.S. missile defense programs under Presidents Ford and Carter. A retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, Col. Bowman flew 101 combat missions in Vietnam, then helped the Pentagon brass stop Reagan's "Star Wars" missile defense madness.
Dr. Bowman's Talk
When Reagan was in office, the Joint Chiefs of Staff called Star Wars "military madness". Although the project was stopped while Reagan was in office, the budget for R&D never went down.
Bush has resurrected it, and as Reagan did, calls it defensive. But in fact missile defense is purely offensive. The terrorist threat to the US has nothing to do with missiles. No terrorist would bother with an ICBM when there are so many cheap, low-tech ways to deliver a nuclear weapon, without the clear return address that an ICBM entails. The DoD prior to Rumsfeld and the CIA both agree on this. The director of the CIA has testified that ICBM's are the least likely delivery system for a nuclear weapon. Small boats, small aircraft, trucks are more accurate and reliable, cheaper, and anonymous.
If missile defense and Star Wars is not about defense, what is it about? These weapons have military uses. Lasers in space don't work; they need to be 200-300 miles from their target. They are useful in TMD, to defend against retaliation from OUR first strike. They are useful on airplanes, or Aegis ships., and a short range, can take out any target. The point is to maintain our overwhelming military superiority. We have no enemies, only small adversaries without nuclear weapons. Why do we need these weapon? It's true that they feed the arms industry, but there's another reason. The AF Vision for 2020 clearly states that these weapons are necessary TO MAINTAIN THE GROWING GAP BETWEEN THE RICH AND THE POOR. The main point is to control countries all around the world.
The Bush family and the Bin Laden family have been financial partners for many years. The CIA investigation of El Qaeda was blocked when #43 took office. When the Taliban refused the oil pipeline, the war in Afghanistan was planned, long before 9-11.
The real terrorism is the nuclear threat. It is due to the US government serving the interests of multinational corporations rather than of the American people.
QUESTION AND ANSWER
Q. You really took on the Bushes. They play rough, I understand, airplane crashes and such. Were you scared?
A. It's spiritual warfare, you have to take what comes. I was audited by the IRS 3 times in 2 years, I got some death threats, and there was other harassment. It doesn't matter, the important thing is to recruit members of Congress to a Reform caucus. We should run Green Democrats, as Michael Moore suggests.
Q. What about the approach of revoking corporate charters?
A. We have to concentrate on nuclear issues. Get Congress to put an amendment on the Defense Appropriation Bill saying that nothing will be funded which violates the ABM Treaty.
This information was excerpted. For more on Robert Bowman, see:
http://www.rmbowman.com/ssn/index.htm
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
6) Skolnicks Report - Citizens' Committee to Clean Up the Courts
CITIZENS' COMMITTEE TO CLEAN UP THE COURTS.
Editor, HOTLINE NEWS,
a recorded phone message, -- a regular phone call -- (773)731-1100.
Moderator, TV program "BROADSIDES",
Chicago and suburbs -- Monday evening in Chicago, on Channel 21 cable, 9 p.m.
Email: skolnick@ameritech.net
Web site: http://www.skolnicksreport.com/
From the web site, you can link to exposes on
Political Assassinations at LA Airport
The Bilderberg Syndrome
The Chandra Levy Affair
The Overthrow of the American Republic
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
7) FBI/CIA attacks Peltier attorney Jennifer Harbury
This just came in from the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
http://www.freepeltier.org
We were very alarmed to receive this report from one of Leonards attorneys. Jennifer Harbury. Jennifer is a renowned human rights attorney whose efforts exposed the role of the CIA in the torture and murder of her husband in 1992, at the hands of the Guatemalan military. She has tirelessly devoted herself to human rights work, and was a key legal strategist, organizer and spokesperson in Leonards drive for executive clemency during Pres. Clintons administration. Her call to action is at the bottom. She will appear at the July 20th forum (Listen Live Sat July 20, 7:30 PM Central Time, at http://www.wbix.org ).
July 10, 2002
Dear Friends,
I am writing today because I would like all of you to be informed about some very disturbing information I received last week. September 11 was certainly one of the most horrifying tragedies we have ever witnessed on our own soil, but I fear it is being badly exploited by certain government officials in order to justify both human rights violations abroad, including torture, as well as extreme repression against our own citizens. Our civil rights are eroding with a speed which I find frightening.
Given the situation, I have not been a bit surprised to find myself a target. Not long after Sept. 11, various government officials, including many of the CIA people exposed in Everardo's case, began to publicly insist that it was all my fault. When asked again and again if the tragedy did not represent the biggest failure of our intelligence system in U.S. history, they replied that I was to blame, that CIA operatives in the field had been afraid to aggressively seek out information from unsavory characters. In fact, the 1995 reforms simply required an operative to inform his superiors before hiring a known human rights abuser, and the CIA itself admits that permission has never been denied. Nevertheless the accusations were made again and again, especially on a lengthy BBC program. I took all this with a grain of salt and figured things would come out in the wash. They did indeed....I know that all of you have seen the lengthy disclosures about exactly how much the CI A and FBI did in fact know, but somehow never acted upon. Similarly, I have not been particularly upset by harassing phone calls or right wing articles which have appeared in remote publications. I was however, very taken aback by the most recent news I received, specifically, that an FBI official told an Amnesty International staffer that they consider me a top suspect in the death threats and assaults against Barbara Bocek. Barbara is the Amnesty worker who has received death threats for a year now and who has been assaulted twice, once in Guatemala and once in Washington state. All threats have made it very clear that she is being targeted for her work for Guatemalan human rights. The FBI has made it very clear that they do not believe her at all. As in the case of Sister Diana Ortiz, there seems to be a government effort to suggest that Barbara somehow, inexplicably, assaulted and threatened herself, not once but twice.
I am sure most of you saw the recent New York Times article. Now, apparently, the story has shifted a bit to suggest that I have carried out the threats, to somehow make my own case stronger. In fact, as a matter of law, the assaults on her, so me ten years after Everardo's abduction, has a legal relevance of zero for my own case. I have, however, been outspoken in my support for her, which is evidently more than enough. I get the message : Shut up about the Guatemalan terrorists here in the US who happen to CIA links, or else suffer the consequences.
Barbara first began receiving threats a year ago when she wrote an op ed piece about the Bishop Gerardi murder trial. When she went to Guatemala with a delegation in June 2001 she was assaulted outside her hotel room and left bound and gagged at the bottom of a stairwell. Her abductors were telling her she would be tortured and killed for her human rights work. Clearly, a warning was being sent to the international human rights community. Foreigners should not feel safe, even members of the highest level ngo's could and would be attacked and perhaps killed whenever the killers so desired. The Guatemalan response was predictable. It didn't happen, or else she did it to herself for whatever reason. The U.S. government response was a throwback to the not so good old days. No real action was taken and slowly but surely we began to hear insinuations that perhaps Barbara indeed was either fabricating the threats or staged the abduction.
While this was going on, my own witness was having grave problems as well. He is living here in the US with his family, and began to receive very frightening death threats against himself and his children. His friends and family back in Guatemala too were having the same problems. Upon the request of an Amnesty staffer , we did go to the FBI offices to give them the details. The response was shocking. The officer read through a few lines of the police report and asked if the assertions were true. He then stated that no threats had been made, only obscenities. When we pointed out the portion of the report specifically describing the threats, he refused to accept them, stating that the witness should have mentioned them earlier in the interview. The witness, however, was never asked. Later, an FBI agent approached the witness at home, stating that he had spoken with local Guatemalans, and none had noticed any military types or death squad members around town. This was rather laughable, and the witness asked that he not be contacted again.
I was particularly incensed by this because it was more of the same from the mid-1990s. In the spring of 1995 just after the disclosures by Sen. Torricelli, the FBI arrived late at night on my doorstep in Texas to let me know that the Guatemalans were hiring a hit man to kill me. The iron security door of the Guatemala Human Rights Commission was torn off its hinges and left in the street. Only the answering machine was taken. A few months later, in January 1996 my lawyer, Jose Pertierra, had his car firebombed at his Washington D.C. home, and the religious community where I was living in D.C. was shot at by someone in a pickup truck with dark glass windows. The FBI agent in charge opened the case under potential international terrorism. We also received a tip from a high level insider, indicating a Guatemalan military person who fought in Vietnam, owned a car repair shop, a luxurious home, and had unexplained income. The FBI agent was very interested but was swiftly transferred off the case. None of us ever received any further communications from the FBI, although some truly foolish statements have come back to me through the grapevine. When I heard about the incipient smear campaign about Barbara, I immediately sent in all of this information as to the same or similar events to corroborate her story. The Guatemalan army clearly has a modus operandi of sending or hiring people here to terrorize human rights activists and witnesses living in this country. And our own government has a practice of looking the other way when the perpetrators happen to be working with the CIA.
Things went from bad to worse. Barbara was attacked again, this time in the United States near her place of work. She was returning home one night and heard a grating sound beneath her car. When she got out to investigate, a car with its headlights off pulled up behind her and she was seized and tied up and told not to return to Guatemala for the investigation as planned, or she would be killed. The men spoke in Spanish. Her eyes were taped, she was gagged, and she was locked into her car where police found her later, semi-conscious. According to the New York Times article which followed, the police found her story questionable. Yet most of their questions could have been easily answered had they spoken with Barbara. But they failed to do so. Barbara was also sent to the FBI to give her story. As soon as she arrived it became clear that she was a suspect and not the victim. Her sister had accompanied her but was not allowed to attend the "interview". Instead, Barbara was given a hostile interrogation of many hours, and then told that she was probably fabricating the whole story. What on earth her motive would be has never been elucidated. Barbara is a quiet and mature woman who has a PhD from Stanford which she is too shy to mention, and who worked for several years in Guatemala. She then chose to return to the U.S. and do public service work for Native Americans in a remote northwestern reservation. This is clearly not a woman seeking attention for herself. This is a modest and courageous woman who has long dedicated herself to working for the human rights of others with little or no recognition for herself.
Now I learn that because I have outspokenly defended her and offered up evidence of the same and similar events when her credibility was questioned, that I too have become a "suspect". Evidently these statements were made some time ago. It is clear to me that I have not only received an insult, but also a direct threat. Silence about these matters, or else. Since I am not too good at silence, I am considering my legal alternatives at this time. But most importantly, I wanted to keep all of us in the network fully informed. I have no doubt that more is coming.
Should you wish to call anyone in Congress in this regard, I would recommend three Members on the Judiciary Committees who have been truly heroic on the issues of human rights : Rep. Conyers, Rep. Frank, and Senator Leahy. If you call them, please remember that they are our friends, and simply call their attention to yet one more example of abuse of power by government officials. They have long been very interested and supportive. The Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121.
Abrazos, Jennifer
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest are welcomed.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
We suggest book marking or opening your browser to the fast-loading updated Flyby News homepage.
You can submit any E-mail address for a free subscription for upcoming issues of Flyby News.
All addresses are maintained confidentially, and you can remove your address at any time.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
>---------------------FLYBY NEWS------------------------->>>
-------- Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era --------
= = = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = = = = =
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
9/11 & What To Do * Green Card for Republicans * McKinney Support
09 July 2002 - Part 2
1) The Bush 9/11 Scandal for Dummies & What You Can Do About It!
2) The Green Card - MVP for Republican Senate Control in 2002
3) Cynthia McKinney and Georgian Black Electorate Support
Editor's Notes:
Item 1 is a good overview of the Bush 911 Scandal. The distinguished author, Bernard Weiner, not only gives a wide perspective of the problem, but makes the point to explain in realistic terms, what we can do to stop the US military coup of our freedom and security. His suggestion may outrage those pushing the "Green" agenda. Item 2 shows how far the Greens plan to go in becoming a spoiler party in 2002. In Minnesota they are running a pro-war-on-terrorism-candidate in a close race where Paul Wellstone could lose his Senate seat to a Bush Republican. This could give favor to the Party of Bush, and the military interests that threaten the environment, security, and freedoms for all.
Not only is Wellstone's seat in jeopardy, but also that of the courageous Congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney. Item 3 links to a press release from the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, which passed a resolution demanding R-E-S-P-E-C-T where it is deserved.
"Why of course the people don't want war ... But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship ... Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."
--Hermann Goering --
Nazi leader, at the Nuremberg Trials after World War II
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) The Bush 9/11 Scandal for Dummies & What You Can Do About It!
The Bush 9/11 Scandal for Dummies
By Bernard Weiner
Online Journal Contributing Writer
http://www.onlinejournal.com
June 4, 2002
Don't know about you, but all this who-knew-what-when pre-9/11 stuff is mighty confusing. So once again, I head to that all-purpose reference series for some comprehensible answers.
Q. I've heard all these reports about the government knowing weeks and months in advance of 9/11 that airliners were going to be hijacked and flown into buildings, and yet the Bush administration apparently did nothing and denied they did anything wrong. They claimed the fault lay in the intelligence agencies "not connecting the dots," or that it was the "FBI culture" that failed. Can you explain?
A. Most of the "it's-the-fault-of-the-system" spin is designed to deflect attention from the real situation. Bush and his spokesmen may well be correct in saying they had no idea as to the specificsthey may not have known the exact details of the attacksbut it is more and more apparent that they knew a great deal more than they're letting on, including the possible targets.
Q. You're not just going leave that hanging out there, are you? Just bash Bush with no evidence to back it up?
A. There's no need to bash anybody. There is more than enough documentation to establish that the Bush administration was fully aware that a major attack was coming from Al-Qaeda, by air, aimed at symbolic structures on the U.S. mainland, and that among mentioned targets were the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, the White House, the Congress, Statue of Liberty. (According to Richard Clarke, the White House's National Coordinator for Anti-Terrorism, the intelligence community was convinced 10 weeks before 9/11 that an Al-Qaeda attack on U.S. soil was imminent.)
Q. If they knew in advance that the, or at least an, attack was coming, why did the Bush administration do nothing to prepare the country in advance: get photos of suspected terrorists out to airlines, have fighter jets put on emergency-standby status or even in the air as deterrents, get word out to the border police to stop these "watch-list" terrorists, put surface-to-air missiles around the White House and Pentagon, etc.?
A. The explanation preferred by the government is to admit, eight months late, to absolute and horrendous incompetence, up and down the line (although Bush&Co., surprise!, prefer to focus the blame lower down, letting the FBI be the fall guy). But let's try an alternate explanation. Think about it for a moment. If their key goal was to mobilize the country behind the Bush administration, get their political/business agenda through, have a reason to move unilaterally around the globe, and defang the Democrats and other critics at homewhat better way to do all that than to have Bush be the take-charge leader after a diabolic "sneak attack"?
Q. You're suggesting the ultimate cynical stratagem, purely for political ends. I can't believe that Bush and his cronies are that venal. Isn't it possible that the whole intelligence apparatus just blew it?
A. Possible, but not bloody likely. There certainly is enough blame to spread around, but the evidence indicates that Bush and his closest aides knew that bin Laden was planning a direct attack on the U.S. mainlandusing airplanes headed for those icon targetsand, in order to get the country to move in the direction he wanted, he kept silent.
Q. But if that's true, what you've described is utterly indefensible, putting policy ahead of American citizens' lives.
A. Now are you beginning to understand why Bush&Co. are fighting so tenaciously against a blue-ribbon commission of inquiry, and why Bush and Cheney went to congressional leaders and asked them not to investigate the pre-9/11 period. Now do you understand why they are trying so desperately to keep everything secret, tightly locked up in the White House, only letting drips and drabs get out when there is no other way to avoid congressional subpoenas or court-ordered disclosures? They know that if one thread of the cover-up unravels, more of their darkest secrets will follow.
Q. You're sounding like a conspiracy nut.
A. For years, we've avoided thinking in those terms, because so many so-called "conspiracies" exist only in someone's fevered imagination. Plus, to think along these lines in this case is depressing, suggesting that American democracy can be so easily manipulated and distorted by a cabal of the greedy and power-hungry. But I'm afraid that's where the evidence leads.
Q. You mean there's proof of Bush complicity in 9/11 locked up in the White House?
A. We wouldn't use the term complicity. So far as we now know, Bush did not order or otherwise arrange for al-Qaeda's attacks on September 11. But once the attacks happened, the plans Bush&Co. already had drawn up for taking advantage of the tragedy were implemented. A frightened, terrorist-obsessed nation did not realize they'd been the object of another assault, this time by those occupying the White House.
Q. This is startling, and revolting. But I refuse to jump on the conspiracy bandwagon until I see some proof. Bush says he first heard about a "lone" pre-9/11 warning on August 6, and that it was vague and dealt with possible attacks outside the U.S. Why can't we believe him? After all, the FBI and CIA are notorious for their incompetence and bungling. You got a better version that makes sense, I'd love to hear it.
A. Bush and his spinners want us to concentrate on who knew what detail when; it's the old magician's trick of getting you to look elsewhere while he's doing his prestidigitation. We're not talking about a little clue here and another little clue there, or an FBI memo that wasn't shared. We're talking about long-range planning and analysis of what strategic-intelligence agencies and high-level commissions and geopolitical thinkers around the globeincluding those inside the U.S.saw for years before 9/11 as likely scenarios in an age of terrorist attacks.
The conclusion about al-Qaeda, stated again and again for years by government analysts, was basically: "They're coming, by air. Get prepared. They're well organized, determined, and technically adept. And they want to hit big targets, well-known symbols of America." (There was a 1999 U.S. government study, for example, that pointed out that al-Qaeda suicide-bombers wanted to crash aircraft into a number of significant Washington targets; during the 1995 trial of Ramsi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, he revealed plans to dive-bomb a plane into CIA headquarters, and earlier he had told FBI agents that the list was expanded to include the Pentagon and other D.C. targets.)
Elements in the FBI, all over the country, who suspected what was coming, were clamoring, begging, for more agents to be used for counter-terrorism investigations, but were turned down by Attorney General Ashcroft; Ashcroft also gave counter-terrorism short shrift in his budget plans, not even placing anti-terrorism on his priority list; John O'Neill, the FBI's NYC anti-terrorism director, resigned, asserting that his attempts at full-scale investigating were being thwarted by higher-ups; someone in the FBI, perhaps on orders of someone higher-up, made sure that the local FBI investigation in Minneapolis of Zacaria Moussauoi was compromised. All this while Ashcroft was shredding the Constitution in his martial law-like desire to amass information, and continues even now to further expand his police-state powers.
(Note: An FBI agent has filed official complaints over the bureau's interfering with anti-terrorism investigations; his lawyers include David Schippers, who worked for the GOP side in the Clinton impeachment effort; Schippers says the agent knew in May 2001 that "an attack on lower Manhattan was imminent." A former FBI official said: "I don't buy the idea that we didn't know what was coming . . . Within 24 hours [of the attack], the Bureau had about 20 people identified, and photos were sent out to the news media. Obviously this information was available in the files and someone was sitting on it.")
One can accept the usual incompetency in intelligence collection and analysis from, say, an anti-terrorist desk officer at the FBI, but not from the highest levels of national defense and intelligence in and around the president, where his spokesman, in a bald-faced lie, told the world that the 9/11 attacks came with "no warning." More recently, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, in a quavering voice, tried to characterize the many warnings as mere "chatter," and concerned attacks "outside the U.S."
But the many warning-reports focused on terrorist attacks both inside and outside the United States; the August 6 briefing dealt with planned attacks in the United States. Not only were there clear warnings from allies abroad, but the U.S., through its ECHELON and other electronic-intercept programs, that may well have broken bin Laden's encryption code; for example, the U.S. knew that he told his mother on September 9: "In two days you're going to hear big news, and you're not going to hear from me for a while."
And, the word of an impending attack was getting out: put options (hedges that a stock's price is going to fall) in enormous quantities were being bought on United Airlines and American Airlines stock, the two carriers of the hijackers, as early as September 7; San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown was warned by "an airport security man" on September 10 to rethink his flight to New York for the next day; Newsweek reported that on September 10, "a group of top Pentagon officials suddenly canceled travel plans for the next morning, apparently because of security concerns;" many members of a Bronx mosque were also warned to stay out of lower Manhattan on September 11, etc. etc.
Q. You're giving me intriguing bits and pieces. Can't you tie it all together and make it make sense?
A. OK, you asked for it, so we're going to provide you with a kind of shorthand scenario of what may well have gone down, a kind of narrative that attempts to tie a lot of disparate-seeming events together. There is voluminous, multi-source evidence that establishes this scenario. It's
scary, so prepare yourself. We believe that the HardRight began serious planning for a 2000 electoral victoryand then implementation of a HardRight agenda, and the destruction of a liberal oppositiona year or two after Clinton's 1996 victory. (The impeachment of Clinton was a key ingredient to sully Democrat opposition.)
The GOP HardRight leaders decided early to select George W. Bush, a none-too-bright and easily malleable man with the right name and pedigree. They ran into a speed-bump when John McCain began to take off in the public imagination, and so with dirty tricks they wrecked his campaign in the South and elsewhere, and continued on their merry course. For a while, they fully expected an easy victory over dull Al Gore, tainted goods for a lot of conservative Republicans and others because of his association with Clinton, but, given the obvious limitations of their candidate, they weren't going to take a lot of chances. In Florida, for example, where it looked as if the race might be tight, they early on arranged thingsthrough Bush's governor-brother Jeb, and the Bush campaign's Katherine Harris, Florida's Secretary of Stateso that George W. couldn't lose. An example: removing tens of thousands of eligible African-American voters from the rolls.
As it turned out, Gore won the popular vote by more than a half-million votes nationwide, and, we now know, would have won Florida's popular vote had all the ballots been counted, but the U.S. Supreme Court HardRight majority, despite its longtime support for states' rights, in a bit of ethical contortionism did a philosophical reverse in midair and ordered the Florida vote-counting to stop and declared Bush the winner, installing a president rather than letting the people decide for themselves.
Q. That's ancient history. I'm interested in 9/11, not tearing at an old scab.
A. Okay. We're merely trying to indicate that the HardRight's campaign to take power was not an overnight, post-9/11 whim but worked out long in advance. After so many near-chances to take total control, they would do anything to guarantee a presidential victory this time aroundwhich would give them full control over the reins of power: Legislature (where HardRightists dominated the House and Senate), the Courts (where the HardRight dominated the U.S. Supreme Court and many appellate courts), and the Executive branch, not to mention the HardRight media control they exerted in so many areas.
They had followed the news, they knew that the al-Qaeda terrorist network was engaged in a maniacal jihad against America, and was quite capableas they had demonstrated on many occasions, from Saudi Arabia to East Africa to the first attempt on the World Trade Centerof carrying out their threats. They also knew, from innumerable intelligence reports from telecommunications intercepts, and from various commissions, CIA and foreign agents that al-Qaeda liked to blow up symbolic icon structures of countries targeted, and that al-Qaeda, and its affiliates, had an affinity for trying to use airplanes as psychologic or actual weapons. (The French had foiled one such attack in 1994, where a hijacked commercial airliner would be flown into the Eiffel Tower.)
By early 2001 and into the summer, warnings were pouring in to U.S. intelligence and military agencies from Jordan, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Israel, and other Middle East and South Asian intelligence sources, along with Russia and Britain and the Philippines, saying that a major attack on the U.S. mainland was in the works, involving the use of airplanes as weapons of mass destruction.
Indeed, in June and July of 2001, the alerts started to be explicit that air attacks were about to go down in the U.S.; even local FBI offices in Phoenix and Minneapolis began passing warnings up the line about Middle Eastern men acting suspiciously at flight schools. In July, Ashcroft stopped flying on commercial airliners and traveled only by private plane, and Bush, after but a few months in office, announced he was going to ground, spending the month of August on his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Cheney disappeared from view, and our guess is that he was coordinating the overall, post-attack strategy.
Under this scenario, in mid-Summer 2001, Bush&Co. decided this was it. Bin Laden unknowingly was going to deliver them the gift of terrorism, and they were going to run with it as far and as fast and as hard as they could. The various post-attack scenarios had been worked out, the so-called USA Patriot Actwhich contained various police-state eviscerations of the Constitutionwas polished and prepared for a rush-job (with no hearings) through a post-attack Congress, the war plans against the Taliban in Afghanistan were readied and rolled out, the air-base countries around Afghanistan were brought onboard, and so on. All during the summer of 2001.
Q. I don't understand how war against Afghanistan could have been anticipated so early.
A. Follow the money. Various oil/gas/energy companies had wanted a Central Asian pipeline to run through Afghanistan (costing much less to build, but also so it wouldn't have to go through Russia or Iran); that project was put on hold during the chaos in Afghanistan, but when the Taliban took over and brought stability to that country, the U.S. began negotiating with the Taliban about the pipeline deal. Even after sending them, via the United Nations, $43million dollars for "poppy-seed eradication," and inviting them to talks in Texas, the Taliban began to balk. At a later meeting, the U.S. negotiator threatened them with an attack unless they handed over bin Laden and reportedly told them, in reference to the pipeline, that they could accept "a carpet of gold" or be buried in "a carpet of bombs." (The later U.S. government spin was that the bin Laden issue and the pipeline issues were separate, and that the U.S. threats didn't mix the two and there were misunderstandings of what was said.) Shortly thereafter, bin Laden, hiding out in Afghanistan, initiated the September 11 attacks, and the U.S. bombing of that country began. Oh, by the way, in case you haven't noticed, under the new U.S.-friendly government in Kabul, the pipeline project is back on track and the pipeline will terminate reasonably close to the power plant in India built by Enron that has been lying dormant for years, waiting for cheap energy supplies.
Q. You're saying that U.S. war and foreign policy have been dictated by greed?
A. Among other unpleasant motivations, such as hunger for domination and control, domestically and around the globewhich always ties in with greed. That's why Bush&Co. play such political and military hardball. That's why the arrogant, take-no-prisoners, in-your-face attitude to bully and frighten potential opponents into silence and acquiescence, even questioning their patriotism if they demur or raise embarrassing issues.
Q. But this is a democracy, people are still speaking their minds, right?
A. Certainly, there are areas of America's democratic republic that have not yet been shut down. But where there should be a vibrant opposition party, raising all sorts of questions about Bush administration policy and plans, America receives mostly silence and timidity. However, as more and more of the ugly truth begins to emergeand Enron, anthrax, and pre-9/11 knowledge are just the tips of the icebergthe Democrats (and moderate Republicans) are beginning to feel a bit more emboldened. But just a bit, preferring to run for cover whenever Bush&Co. accuse them of being unpatriotic when they raise pointed questions.
Q. You're so critical and negative about the Bush administration. Can't you say anything good about what they're doing?
A. Yes. They have moved terrorismthe new face of warfare in our timefront and center into the world's consciousness, and have mobilized a global coalition against it. They may be making mistakes, which could lead to horrifying consequences, or acting at times out of impure motives, but at least the issue is out there and being debated and acted upon. Now, having said that, we must point out that the institutions in this countrythe Constitution, the courts, the legislative bodies, civil liberties, the Bill of Rights, the press, etc.are in as much danger as they've ever been in. And the U.S.'s bullying attitude abroad may well lead to disastrous consequences for America down the line.
Q. So, what's to be done?
A. The most important thing at the momenteven, or especially when, the inevitable next terrorist attack occursis to break the illusion of Bush&Co. invulnerability. The best way to do that, aside from ratcheting up the Enron and anthrax and 9/11 investigations (and it may turn out that those scandals are deeply intertwined), is to defeat GOP candidates in the upcoming November elections. If the Democrats hang on to the Senate and can take over the House, the dream of unchallengeable HardRight power will be broken. Bush&Co. will become even more desperate, overt, nasty, and in their arrogance and bullying ways, will make more mistakes and alienate more citizens. The edifice will begin to crumble even more; there will be more and deeper congressional and media investigations; resignations and/or impeachments (of both Bush & Cheney, and Ashcroft) may well follow.
Q. You're asking me to support all Democrats, even though in a particular race a moderate GOP conservative would be better?
A. Yes. In some cases, you may have to hold your nose and send money to, canvass for, and vote for a Democrat; we can get rid of the bad ones later. The objective right nowfor the future of the Constitution, and for the lives of our soldiers in uniform and civilians around the globehas to be to break the momentum of the HardRight by taking the House and keeping the Senate from returning to GOP control. Doing so would be even more important than what happened when that courageous senator from Vermont, Jim Jeffords, appalled by the HardRight nastiness and greed-agenda of the Bush folks, resigned from the GOP and turned the Senate agenda over to the Democrats.
Q. And you think if the GOP gets its nose bloodied in the November election that will convince Bush to resign or lead to his impeachment? I don't get that.
A. Churchill once told the Brits during World War II that "this is not the beginning of the end, but it is the beginning of the beginning of the end." There is a lot of hard work and organizing and educating to be done, but the recent exposure of Bush cover-up lies about pre-9/11 knowledge is "the beginning of the beginning of the end." With a GOP defeat in November, Democrats will be emboldened to speak up more, investigate deeper, and those inquiries will unlock even more awful secrets of this greed-and-power-hungry administration. And that will be the beginning of the endand the beginning of the beginning of a new era of more humane values for America and the rest of the world.
Bernard Weiner, Ph.D., has taught American government and international relations at Western Washington University and San Diego State University; he was with the San Francisco Chronicle for nearly 20 years, and has published in The Nation, Village Voice, The Progressive, Northwest Passage and widely on the Internet.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a related Flyby News Archive article, (December 30, 2000)
"A Laymans Guide to the Supreme Court Decison in Bush V. Gore"
by Mark H. Levine, Attorney at Law, see Item 3:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid978235295,95845,m
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) The Green Card - MVP for Republican Senate Control in 2002
"Red Over Green Party Moves"
Published on Friday, June 7, 2002 by The Nation
Red Over Green Party Moves
by Marc Cooper
Minnesota can be considered a veritable mecca for insurgent third parties. Its governor is maverick independent Jesse Ventura. Its own Democratic Party is an outgrowth of the Farmer-Labor Party.
No surprise, then, that its Green Party is one of the best organized in the country. After winning more than 5 percent of the state vote in the 2000 presidential election, the Minnesota Greens now qualify for major ballot status. Taking advantage of the public financing provisions available as a result, the party could snag as much as $250,000 to run its gubernatorial candidate this fall. Other Greens will compete for other statewide offices and for state legislative seats. Already Greens sit on the Minneapolis and Duluth city councils. For those seeking alternatives to a two-party system ever more beholden to special interests, the news coming from the northern plains this elections cycle could have been welcome.
Could have been. But unfortunately, when hundreds of Minnesota Greens met for their state nominating convention two weeks ago, they took a precipitous lunge toward political suicide. By more than a two-thirds margin, the Minnesota Green Party endorsed a candidate to run against incumbent Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone--arguably the most liberal, the most "Green-ish" member of the US Senate. Wellstone is already engaged in a touch-and-go fight for his political survival. The White House is pouring in support for his conservative rival, Norm Coleman, as the Bushies hunger to retire the obstreperously liberal Wellstone and to simultaneously win back the Senate for the GOP. It is an election in which every vote counts, and even a relatively small Green vote could tip the scales in favor of Coleman..
For the complete Nation article, visit:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=special&s=cooper20020607
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a related Flyby News Archive article, (November 2, 2000)
"Sierra Club, Petitioners ask Nader to Stop in Swing States", see Item 2:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid973197896,73448,m
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Cynthia McKinney and Georgian Black Electorate Support
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 28, 2002
From the offices of member of Congress, Cynthia McKinney
Contact: Dana Mott
(202) 225-1605
GABEO Calls U.S. Senator Zell Miller to Repair Damage with Georgia's Black Electorate
(Decatur, Georgia) -" I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials (GABEO) for their unanimously adopted resolution. GABEO saw fit to question the appropriateness of comments made by U.S. Senator Zell Miller in reference to myself, and they authored a resolution to that effect. GABEO's resolution is especially significant in light of the turn of events that now sees other members of the U.S. Congress receiving accolades for raising the exact same questions that earned for me nothing but criticisms."
[The following resolution was authored by The Reverend Henry Ficklin, Macon City Council and Treasurer of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials. It was unanimously adopted during the recent convention on June 22, 2002.]
This Resolution is posted:
http://www.house.gov/mckinney/news/pr020628.htm
# # #
To Sign-up for updates on Rep. McKinney's call for an inquiry into the events of Sept.11, Visit:
http://www.house.gov/mckinney/welcome.htm
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
>------------------------FLYBY NEWS---------------------------->>>
------------ Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era ------------
= = = = = = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = = = = = = = =
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Earth ' will expire by 2050 ' * Fatal Innocence, Ours
09 July 2002
1) Earth 'will expire by 2050'
2) Fatal Innocence, Ours
Editor's Notes:
Item 1 should be distributed on the front pages of all information services. It reveals a report detailing the evidences that Earth 'will expire by 2050.' Yet the looney profiteers will try to spin this information to justify those claiming an interest in colonizing other planets, like Mars. Yeah, Right! They should first try to colonize the top of Mt. Everest, which is much less hostile, never mind the impossibility of getting there in time with a rapidly depleting oxygen balance in Earth's atmosphere. Meanwhile, as reported in the 27 June 2002 issue of Flyby News, a project is still being delayed due to lack of funding that can convert waste heat and gases for power. The ecosystem is crashing and those in power want to keep things as they are for as long as possible; yet time for all of us is running out! These are strange unsettling times.* In New England the weather patterns fluctuate from humid hot southwest winds, or cooler smoke-laden-haze from fires coming down from the northwest in Canada. Our planet is clearly being managed by those supporting of an environment to hell!
Item 2 is an excellent commentary by Marc Ash, called "Fatal Innocence, Ours." Since we have space limitations, a follow-up Flyby News issue will be forthcoming, which will provide a clear overview of the Bush 911 scandal and what we can do about it.
Note: See previous Flyby News issue regarding Yucca Mountain; Senate vote expected momentarily.
HELP STOP THE INSANITY ! ! !
* For a stranger than fiction account, "When the Army Owns the Weather," see following Flyby News Archives URL:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1013706954,22312,m
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Earth 'will expire by 2050'
The world's ticking timebomb
Earth 'will expire by 2050'
Observer International - The Guardian Limited
"The report, based on scientific data from across the world, reveals that more than a third of the natural world has been destroyed by humans over the past three decades."
Our planet is running out of room and resources.
Observer Worldview
Mark Townsend and Jason Burke
Sunday July 7, 2002
The Observer
Earth's population will be forced to colonise two planets within 50 years if natural resources continue to be exploited at the current rate, according to a report out this week.
A study by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), to be released on Tuesday, warns that the human race is plundering the planet at a pace that outstrips its capacity to support life.
In a damning condemnation of Western society's high consumption levels, it adds that the extra planets (the equivalent size of Earth) will be required by the year 2050 as existing resources are exhausted.
The report, based on scientific data from across the world, reveals that more than a third of the natural world has been destroyed by humans over the past three decades.
Using the image of the need for mankind to colonise space as a stark illustration of the problems facing Earth, the report warns that either consumption rates are dramatically and rapidly lowered or the planet will no longer be able to sustain its growing population.
Experts say that seas will become emptied of fish while forests - which absorb carbon dioxide emissions - are completely destroyed and freshwater supplies become scarce and polluted.
The report offers a vivid warning that either people curb their extravagant lifestyles or risk leaving the onus on scientists to locate another planet that can sustain human life. Since this is unlikely to happen, the only option is to cut consumption now.
Systematic overexploitation of the planet's oceans has meant the North Atlantic's cod stocks have collapsed from an estimated spawning stock of 264,000 tonnes in 1970 to under 60,000 in 1995.
The study will also reveal a sharp fall in the planet's ecosystems between 1970 and 2002 with the Earth's forest cover shrinking by about 12 per cent, the ocean's biodiversity by a third and freshwater ecosystems in the region of 55 per cent.
The Living Planet report uses an index to illustrate the shocking level of deterioration in the world's forests as well as marine and freshwater ecosystems. Using 1970 as a baseline year and
giving it a value of 100, the index has dropped to a new low of around 65 in the space of a single generation.
It is not just humans who are at risk. Scientists, who examined data for 350 kinds of mammals, birds, reptiles and fish, also found the numbers of many species have more than halved.
Martin Jenkins, senior adviser for the World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge, which helped compile the report, said: 'It seems things are getting worse faster than possibly ever before. Never has one single species had such an overwhelming influence. We are entering uncharted territory.'
Figures from the centre reveal that black rhino numbers have fallen from 65,000 in 1970 to around 3,100 now. Numbers of African elephants have fallen from around 1.2 million in 1980 to just over half a million while the population of tigers has fallen by 95 per cent during the past century.
The UK's birdsong population has also seen a drastic fall with the corn bunting population declining by 92 per cent between 1970 and 2000, the tree sparrow by 90 per cent and the spotted
flycatcher by 70 per cent.
Experts, however, say it is difficult to ascertain how many species have vanished for ever because a species has to disappear for 50 years before it can be declared extinct.
Attention is now focused on next month's Earth Summit in Johannesburg, the most important environmental negotiations for a decade.
However, the talks remain bedevilled with claims that no agreements will be reached and that US President George W. Bush will fail to attend.
Matthew Spencer, a spokesman for Greenpeace, said: 'There will have to be concessions from the richer nations to the poorer ones or there will be fireworks.'
The preparatory conference for the summit, held in Bali last month, was marred by disputes between developed nations and poorer states and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), despite efforts by British politicians to broker compromises on key issues.
America, which sent 300 delegates to the conference, is accused of blocking many of the key initiatives on energy use, biodiversity and corporate responsibility.
The WWF report shames the US for placing the greatest pressure on the environment. It found the average US resident consumes almost double the resources as that of a UK citizen and more than 24 times that of some Africans.
Based on factors such as a nation's consumption of grain, fish, wood and fresh water along with its emissions of carbon dioxide from industry and cars, the report provides an ecological 'footprint' for each country by showing how much land is required to support each resident.
America's consumption 'footprint' is 12.2 hectares per head of population compared to the UK's 6.29ha while Western Europe as a whole stands at 6.28ha. In Ethiopia the figure is 2ha, falling to just half a hectare for Burundi, the country that consumes least resources.
The report, which will be unveiled in Geneva, warns that the wasteful lifestyles of the rich nations are mainly responsible for the exploitation and depletion of natural wealth. Human consumption has doubled over the last 30 years and continues to accelerate by 1.5 per cent a year.
Now WWF wants world leaders to use its findings to agree on specific actions to curb the population's impact on the planet.
A spokesman for WWF UK, said: 'If all the people consumed natural resources at the same rate as the average US and UK citizen we would require at least two extra planets like Earth.'
The world's ticking timebomb
Marine crisis:
North Atlantic cod stocks have collapsed from an estimated 264,000 tonnes in 1970 to under 60,000 in 1995.
Pollution:
The United States places the greatest pressure on the environment, with its carbon dioxide emissions and over-consumption. It takes 12.2 hectares of land to support each American citizen and 6.29 for each Briton, while the figure for Burundi is just half a hectare.
Shrinking Forests:
Between 1970 and 2002 forest cover has dwindled by 12 per cent.
Endangered wildlife:
African elephant numbers have fallen from 1.2 million in 1980 to half a million now. In the UK the songbird population has fallen dramatically, with the corn bunting declining by 92 per cent in
the past 30 years.
More global commentary, links -- Observer Worldview Visit:
http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,750783,00.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Fatal Innocence, Ours
Fatal Innocence, Ours
by Marc Ash
t r u t h o u t | Opinion
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.08A.ash.innocence.p.htm
Sunday, 7 July, 2002
"Why of course the people don't want war ... But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship ... Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."
-Hermann Goering, Nazi leader, at the Nuremberg Trials after World War II
As the 2000 Presidential election descended into a three ring media circus, Americans sat hypnotized by television broadcasts, reading chads as though they were tea leaves. We earnestly debated; 'would George W. Bush's Florida Campaign Chairwoman Katherine Harris really abuse her position as Florida Secretary of State to manipulate the results in favor of the man whose
campaign she had led?' For Americans somehow miraculously, this proved too confusing. We were alone.
The rest of the world saw right through it, there was never a moment of doubt. Abroad we were a laughing stock, it was a coup d'etat. America who had long preached to the world of its vaunted free elections had rolled over with out a fight. A small group of ruthless industrialists had rigged the White House and handed the nation a clumsy lie. American Democracy gone, and we were the only ones who refused to see it.
See no evil
It is difficult to imagine what it would take to make the case to the American center that Mr. Bush and his associates are up to no good. The information in the public record to date is so damning that it should have toppled this regime five times over.
Enron alone should have been the end of the road for Bush & Co. It is a criminal scandal of unparalleled scope. Hundreds of millions of dollars stolen, entire states economies impacted and thousands of workers pensions destroyed. George W. Bush was in bed with Ken Lay and did his bidding, on cue open-and-shut. Yet for some inexplicable reason we as a nation have decided that we do not want to see.
September 11th. : Did Gorge W. Bush Know? Every major news source in the country has presented enough evidence of the Bush administration's foreknowledge of the attacks that killed three thousand Americans to indict Mr. Bush and his top aids -- even without the benefit of a real investigation. The proof quite literally surrounds us. Mr. Bush stated flatly that he was personally aware that attacks involving hijacked aircraft were imminent. As early as mid August John Ashcroft was warned to stay off commercial aircraft. Not a single warning was issued to the American people. Outrage, public outcry? No, fear and silence.
When do we take the blinders off?
The White House has been hijacked. We have been terrified into supporting a war-for-profit, because, as Hermann Goering put it, 'they have told us we are being attacked.' Our economy is being bled dry, the constitution has been shredded and the only ones profiting are the Bush gang and their wealthy backers.
The harsh reality is; Mr. Bush and the shadowy bunch to whom he answers, do not respect elections, do not respect Congressional oversight, do not respect constitutionally guaranteed freedoms, do not respect Democrats and do not respect Republicans. In short they operate entirely above and beyond the law.
They preserve their public standing in spite of these transgressions by waging the most aggressive Public Relations assault ever launched from the oval office. And by holding the nation under the threat of war. They believe that while the threat of war is on the table we will never question their actions. As long as that is true, we will never be free from the threat of war.
The innocent spirit of this nation has allowed us to go forward into the world with an open hand and an open heart, it is one of our great strengths. But every child must eventually make the transition to adulthood.
We have waited too long.
-------------------------------
You can e-mail t r u t h o u t, Editor Marc Ash at: ma@truthout.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest are welcomed.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
We suggest bookmarking or opening your browser to the fast-loading updated Flyby News homepage.
You can submit any E-mail address for a free subscription for upcoming issues of Flyby News.
All addresses are maintained confidentially, and you can remove your address at any time.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
>----------------------------Flyby News--------------------------------------->>>
----------- Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era ---------
= = = = = = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = = = = = =
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Part 1 - Kucinich Videos Released! * ABM Treaty still lives
July 4, 2002
1) Peace In Space & On Earth - Kucinich Videos Released!
2) ABM Treaty still lives
3) U.S. Complicity in 911 Attacks -- G6B Report
4) Enron-Peabody Destruction to Native Land & Water
5) Yucca Moving Target -- Action Alert
Editor's Notes:
Item 1 is very special, and could be the grass roots sort of tool to turn the nation around toward a progressive mind-set. Congressman Kucinich stands up as a leader for Americans with integrity, as he opposes the military-dictatorial rule that creates terror to stop terror, which is only fooling the evil-doers, themselves, as they take the temporary riches of Earth, and jeopardize the balance for all human life. This item gives quotes and information on two big "K" videos, that could make a difference. Please help distribute this information, and support the grass-roots campaign to transform the Democratic Party to the interests of the people. The large majority of members in Congress (in either party) is corruptible and manipulated. Dennis Kucinich, Chair of Progressive Caucus of the Democratic Party, has the vision, courage, tenacity, accomplishments, and communication talents to win the Democratic Party's nomination for US President in 2004 or 2008. How quickly is up to us; we need to get this information available to the mainstream public. Everything else will continue to worsen, but when and/or if we can transform the Democratic Party, we can transform the US and its current crazy life threatening policies.
Item 2 shows that the fight to maintain the ABM Treaty is not over. In 1972 the ABM Treaty was signed by President Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev and approved by the Senate by a vote of 88 to 2. George W. Bush gave notice of termination on Dec. 13, 2001, without a vote of either the Senate or the House of Representatives. This item lists all the good representatives behind this suit. [I want to note that my Rep., John W. Olver, is on this list. How or why he switched sides on his vote to support Yucca Mt. shipments of radioactive wastes, cris-crossing our communities and nation during this day and age of terrorist threats and transport accidents, is beyond my ability to understand?
Item 3 is a recent report on the conference regarding US complicity in 9-11 attacks. Mike Ruppert and University of Ottawa Professor Michel Chossudovsky presented evidence of and a rationale for U.S. government complicity in last September's terrorist attacks. "In a question and answer session after the lecture, not one audience member questioned that the Bush Administration needed the attacks in order to mobilize public support for a war to control Central Asian oil reserves and the cash from the Afghani opium trade. Traditionally, Afghanistan has been the world's largest producer of opium."
Item 4 is a special letter, entitled, "The Drought and the Enron Scandal in Black Mesa" on Enron-Peabody (Lehman Bros) destruction to native land and water. Item 5 is on a critical alert on the Senate's upcoming vote for the Yucca Mountain, mobile Chernobyl fiasco. Following this item is information to join a progressive letter cooperative. It is best to write letters personally, but Flyby News also encourages you to join forces with this easy-to-do and free service provided by Quakers and long-time activists, helping progressive people make their voices heard.
Many thanks for Carol in Virginia for a critical $25 donation to Flyby News. Receiving your support is very much appreciated. We plan to distribute information at the upcoming SolarFest, and any donation will be put to good use. It is the intent of Flyby News to actively pursue its campaigns and update this web site in support of a transformation of policies threatening life until at least December 21, 2012. Working with others supporting such issues is a great motivator, and can help bring about what Dennis Kucinich said, "..a power within each of us..that can bring love to the world and compassion to the world and understanding to the world that as we focus our conscious intent on making the world a better place, so it is. And we need to communicate that all across this country. This has to be a part of the promise of America. A new America... Not an America of fear, but an America of hope."
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Peace In Space & On Earth - Kucinich Videos Released!
"Peace In Space & On Earth" Videos Released
Featuring Speeches by Congressman Denis J. Kucinich
Los Angeles, CA Mobilizing citizens to support legislation and a companion world treaty that will ban weapons in space is the aim of two new amazing videotapes, one 85-minute video and one 25-minute video, that features impassioned, informative and inspirational speeches by Congressman Dennis Kucinich, (D-OH) in programs sponsored by the Institute for Cooperation in Space (ICIS).
"We have a responsibility to challenge those who are so filled fear, to challenge those who feel that somehow we live in a unipolar world where America is king, to recognize that every man and woman on this planet is a king...and ought to be given the chance to live out their lives in dignity and decency without fear of destruction," said Kucinich to the frequent standing ovations of 1400+ people in attendance at the Agape International Spiritual Center. "We can reach millions of people in one month through the Internet," and "we can ban all space-based weapons," he told another group of about 250 people who packed a home meeting in Malibu, California, where emphasized "We must do this!"
As Chair of the House Progressive Caucus and Co-Chair of the Aviation and Space Caucus, Kucinich speaks about H.R. 3616, the Space Preservation Act of 2002, as well as the companion international treaty that can be signed now by all nation-state leaders. These documents are designed to permanently ban weapons from being deployed in outer space. He also addresses many subject areas including what it's like to work in Washington these days, and the abrogation of various long-standing treaties by the present administration that were to reduce and eliminate nuclear warheads, as well as many other issues, with the primary focus being on banning space-based weapons - and how to do it. Kucinich also talks about his pending legislation, H.R. 2459, that will create a cabinet level Department of Peace, and emphasized the urgency of supporting and passing HR 3616 and the companion world treaty into law. Kucinich sites a U.S. Space Command report, entitled "Vision for 2020" which openly proclaims its intentions to "dominate the High Heavens."
Kucinich, whose recent speeches and essays have been receiving widespread dissemination over the Internet and in print, delivered an impassioned plea, stating, "I maintain that there is a power within each of us..that can bring love to the world and compassion to the world and understanding to the world that as we focus our conscious intent on making the world a better place, so it is. And we need to communicate that all across this country. This has to be a part of the promise of America. A new America... Not an America of fear, but an America of hope."
The VHS videos are excellent educational tools for home and community forums. Your donation of $25.00 for each video or $40 for both, will be deeply appreciated, and will help ICIS's efforts for the permanent ban on all space-based weapons by legislation Congressman Kucinich introduced, the Space Preservation Act of 2002 -- H..R. 3616 -- and companion world "Space Preservation Treaty." For inquiries on bulk and promotional copies, contact Carol Rosin, via tel. (805) 641-1999; or email: rosin@west.net. You can order online at the ICIS web site, or send your tax-deductible check to ICIS:
ICIS (Institute for Cooperation in Space)
PO Box 25040
Ventura, CA. 93001
USA
Web Site: http://www.peaceinspace.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) "ABM Treaty Still Lives"
A War and Law League (WALL) News Report
"ABM Treaty still lives, say congressmen who sue to undo its 'unconstitutional' knifing by Bush without OK of Congress"
June 21, 2002
Although President George W. Bush may consider the Anti-Ballistic Missile Limitation Treaty of 1972 (ABM Treaty) dead as of the 13th of June, 33 members of Congress headed by Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) maintain that it is still legally alive.
A lawsuit was filed against President Bush, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld on June 11. Congressmen asked the U.S. District Court in Washington, DC, to declare Bush's action in terminating the treaty without congressional authorization unconstitutional. Bush's six-month termination notice to Russia expired as June 13 arrived.
"This is a case arguing that the president does not have the authority under the Constitution to terminate a treaty without a majority of both houses of Congress or two-thirds of the Senate," said Peter Weiss, the lead attorney, a constitutional lawyer of New York City, in a telephone conversation.
The 33 plaintiffs, all representatives, include nine from California, four from New York, and three each from Illinois and Ohio. All are Democrats except for one independent, from Vermont.
The Californians are Rep. Bob Filner of Chula Vista; Reps. Hilda Solis, Maxine Waters, and Dianne Watson, all of Los Angeles; Rep. Lynn Woolsey of Marin and Sonoma Counties; Rep. Sam Farr of Monterey, Salinas, and Santa Cruz; and Reps. Barbara Lee, George Miller, and Fortney H. (Pete) Stark, all from the Oakland-East Bay area. (Others are listed below.)
Rep. Kucinich, the lead plaintiff, from Cleveland, Ohio, has introduced bills to ban "the weaponization of space" and to establish a U.S. "Department of Peace."
Senators such as Russell D. Feingold (D-WI) who had thought of joining the suit were forbidden to do so by the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, headed by Senator Harry Reid (D-NV). The reason given had to do with legal services that the lawyers had offered without charge
The complaint
Pointing out that the issue of presidential termination of treaties has never been decided by the courts, the "Complaint for Declaratory Relief" calls the issue "of supreme importance to the constitutional framework of this nation as well as the treaty-based system of international law."
The complaint refers to "ample evidence that the Framers intended Congress to have a role in the termination as well as the making of treaties."
It charges that President Bush's "proposed termination" of the ABM Treaty on his own violates the treaty power in Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution and "is inconsistent with two centuries of practice and with the overall design of separation of powers and checks and balances of the Constitution."
Furthermore, the complaint charges, "Since treaties have the status of laws, the President's proposed termination of the ABM Treaty without the assent of Congress violates Article II, Section 3, of the Constitution, which obliges the President to take care that the laws be faithfully executed."
The plaintiffs seek a court order with two main parts
"(a) Declaring that the President's withdrawal from the ABM Treaty is without force and effect until such time as the President has requested and received the assent of a majority of both Houses of Congress or two thirds of the Senate;
"(b) Ordering that the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense and their subordinate officers are enjoined from taking any action in violation of the ABM Treaty until its termination has received the assent of a majority of both Houses of Congress or two thirds of the Senate."
--Other plaintiffs and lawyers--
The other 23 members of the House of Representatives participating in the lawsuit are listed below by state.
ALABAMA -- Earl F. Hilliard
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
FLORIDA -- Alcee L. Hastings
alcee.pubhastings@mail.house.gov
GEORGIA -- Cynthia McKinney
http://www.house.gov/mckinney/guest.htm
HAWAII -- Patsy T. Mink
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
ILLINOIS -- Lane Evans lane.evans@mail.house.gov, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Tel. 202-225-0773 Janice D. Schakowsky email: http://www.house.gov/writerep/
MASSACHUSETTS -- John W. Olver, email: http://www.house.gov/writerep/
MICHIGAN -- John Conyers, Jr., email: http://www.house.gov/conyers/letstalk.htm
Carolyn C. Kilpatrick, email: http://www.house.gov/writerep/
MINNESOTA -- James L. Oberstar
MISSOURI -- William L. Clay, Jr.
NEW YORK -- Maurice D. Hinchey, Gregory W. Meeks, Jerrold Nadler, Edolphus Towns
OHIO -- Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Marcy Kaptur
OREGON -- Peter A. De Fazio
TEXAS -- Sheila Jackson Lee
VERMONT -- Bernard Sanders (ind.)
WASHINGTON -- Jim McDermott
WISCONSIN -- Tammy Baldwin
There were 31 plaintiffs when the suit was filed.
Reps. Dianne Watson of California and Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas joined later.
[You can easily locate contact information at "Contacting the Congress"
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html ]
Weiss, the attorney, and colleague John Burroughs belong to the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, sponsor of the lawsuit along with the Center for Constitutional Rights; both groups have headquarters in New York City. Julius Lobel and Michael Ratner of the center are assisting in the suit.
Other attorneys for the plaintiffs are Bruce Ackerman, professor of law and political science at Yale University; Edward A. Aguilar of Philadelphia, with the Lawyers Alliance for World Security; James R. Klimaski of the DC bar; and Jeremy Manning of New York City.
The above was from a report by the War and Law League. The complete report is posted:
http://warandlaw.homestead.com/files/index.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related article -- Feingold Still Pushes ABM Treaty Fight
06/21/2002 @ 2:53pm
The Senate Ethics Committee has denied US Sen. Russ Feingold, D-WI., permission to join a lawsuit that asks the federal courts to clarify whether it was appropriate for President Bush to unilaterally end participation by the United States in the thirty-year-old Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
But that does not mean that Feingold is giving up on the suit brought by 31 member of the House of Representatives, or the cause of pushing the Senate to assert its Constitutionally-defined authority role in deciding whether the US enters and exits international treaties.
"I wanted to be a part of the lawsuit because I think this is a fundamental issue for anyone who cares about the separation of powers. The fact that I am not going to be allowed to be a plaintiff does not make the lawsuit, or the issue, any less important," says Feingold, a lawyer who says he is considering filing an amicus brief in support of the legal action. "I am going to continue to do everything I can to help the members of Congress that are bringing the suit."
For the complete article, see:
See: http://www.thenation.com/thebeat/index.mhtml?bid=1&pid=76
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Part 2 - July 4, 2002 -
3) U.S. Complicity in 911 Attacks -- G6B Report
4) Enron-Peabody Destruction to Native Land & Water
5) Yucca Moving Target -- Action Alert
Is Posted at following Flyby News URL:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1025803773,42737,m
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest are welcomed.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
We suggest bookmarking or opening your browser to the fast-loading updated Flyby News homepage.
You can submit any E-mail address for a free subscription for upcoming issues of Flyby News.
All addresses are maintained confidentially, and you can remove your address at any time.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
---------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com--------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Mike Ruppert-G6B 911-Report * Water Genocide * Yucca Moving Target
July 4, 2002 - Part 2
3) U.S. Complicity in 911 Attacks -- G6B Report
4) Enron-Peabody Destruction to Native Land & Water
5) Yucca Moving Target -- Action Alert
Item 3 is a recent report on the conference regarding US complicity in 9-11 attacks. Mike Ruppert and University of Ottawa Professor Michel Chossudovsky presented evidence of and a rationale for U.S. government complicity in last September's terrorist attacks. "In a question and answer session after the lecture, not one audience member questioned that the Bush Administration needed the attacks in order to mobilize public support for a war to control Central Asian oil reserves and the cash from the Afghani opium trade. Traditionally, Afghanistan has been the world's largest producer of opium."
Item 4 is a special letter, entitled, "The Drought and the Enron Scandal in Black Mesa" on Enron-Peabody (Lehman Bros) destruction to native land and water. Item 5 is on a critical alert on the Senate's upcoming vote for the Yucca Mountain, mobile Chernobyl fiasco. Following this item is information to join a progressive letter cooperative. It is best to write letters personally, but Flyby News also encourages you to join forces with this easy-to-do and free service provided by Quakers and long-time activists, helping progressive people make their voices heard.
Many thanks for Carol in Virginia for a critical $25 donation to Flyby News. Receiving your support is very much appreciated. We plan to distribute information at the upcoming SolarFest, and any donation will be put to good use. It is the intent of Flyby News is to actively pursue its campaigns and update this web site in support of a transformation of policies threatening life until at least December 21, 2012. Working with others supporting such issues is a great motivator, and can help bring about what Dennis Kucinich said, "..a power within each of us..that can bring love to the world and compassion to the world and understanding to the world that as we focus our conscious intent on making the world a better place, so it is. And we need to communicate that all across this country. This has to be a part of the promise of America. A new America... Not an America of fear, but an America of hope."
Part 1 - July 4, 2002
1) Peace In Space & On Earth - Kucinich Videos Released!
2) ABM Treaty still lives
is posted at following Flyby News URL:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1025805829,84082,
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) U.S. Complicity in 911 Attacks -- G6B Report
Complicity in 9-11 Attacks Widely Accepted at G6B Summit in Canada
June 27, 2002, 16:00 PDT (FTW) -- An estimated crowd of 1,200 turned out on June 25 at the University of Calgary's MacEwan Hall to hear FTW Publisher Mike Ruppert and University of Ottawa Professor Michel Chossudovsky present evidence of and a rationale for U.S. government complicity in last September's terrorist attacks. (See photos at www.fromthewilderness.com). Their two-and-a- half-hour presentation, including documentary evidence, was greeted with a standing ovation.
In a question and answer session after the lecture, not one audience member questioned that the Bush Administration needed the attacks in order to mobilize public support for a war to control Central Asian oil reserves and the cash from the Afghani opium trade. Traditionally, Afghanistan has been the world's largest producer of opium.
The G6B -- standing for a global population of six billion people whose interests need to be balanced against the corporate interests of the industrialized world -- was a three-day event sponsored by, among others, the government of Canada, Amnesty International and the University of Calgary. It brought delegates and activists together from 60 countries. The counter summit was timed and located in Calgary, Alberta so as to juxtapose it with the G8 meeting in nearby Kananaskis of the world's eight largest industrialized nations starting on June 26.
The first-ever joint presentation involving Ruppert and Chossudovsky, an economics professor, presented the strongest evidence to date that not only did the Bush Administration have complete foreknowledge of the attacks and allow them to happen, but also that the CIA had a direct hand in financing the attacks. Chossudovsky presented documentary evidence from ABC news, citing FBI sources, confirming a report that Gen. Mahmud Ahmad, then-chief of the Pakistani intelligence service (ISI), ordered for $100,000 to be wired to lead hijacker Mohammed Atta just weeks before the attacks. The new corroboration from U.S. media, using FBI sources, gave considerable weight to earlier press stories originating in India linking the ISI to 9/11. [These new revelations will be the subject of an upcoming story in FTW].
"General Ahmad arrived in Washington on Sept. 4 and met with, among others, his good friend [CIA Director] George Tenet, [Deputy Secretary of State] Richard Armitage, [Sen.] Joe Biden, [D-Del.,] and the heads of the two intelligence committees," Chossudovsky said.
"To me the issue of foreknowledge is a red herring. Osama bin Laden is and remains to this day a CIA asset. Even now his Al Qaeda operatives are working with the Kosovo Liberation Army who are U.S. allies and with U.S.-backed forces in Macedonia. Members of Al Q'aeda have been protected as they moved into Kashmir where they are now fomenting conflict between India and Pakistan.
"The evidence is becoming clearer every day that the U.S. government helped to plan and fund the Sept. 11 attacks," said Chossudovsky.
In addition, Chossudovsky has uncovered what may be complicity on the part of the major media in hiding the smoking gun. Using transcripts from the Federal Records Service (FRS), Chossudovsky obtained the transcript of a question posed to National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rica at a May 16 press conference, in which she was asked if she had met with the "ISI chief" while he was in Washington. The CNN transcript of the event indicated that the words "ISI chief" were "inaudible" when, in fact, they were quite audible to the FRS. Rice's response was a troubled, "I have not seen that report, and he was certainly not meeting with me."
Chossudovsky painted a broad picture of globalization pushing events toward a possible nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan by noting that one U.S. company with strong intelligence and military connections, MPRI of Vienna, Va., was acting as adviser to both governments. He also noted the strong links between CIA Director George Tenet and Deputy Secretary of State Armitage to the leaders of both countries. Chossudovsky also pointed out that George W. Bush receives daily "personal" intelligence briefings from the CIA Director -- a custom that has never previously been followed by any sitting president. Previously most CIA briefings have been delivered in written format.
Ruppert, using new evidence of U.S. government foreknowledge disclosed by major media sources and through recent press conferences, established that by using only open source material, the U.S. government had warnings that multiple airliners, most likely from United and American Air Lines would be hijacked during the week of Sept. 9 and crashed into the twin towers. Using revelations of intelligence intercepts and a Pentagon drill responding to an attack from a hijacked airliner staged prior to Sept. 11, Ruppert established that the Bush Administration's position, which held it had no hint that aircraft would be used as weapons, was false. Pointing to last year's G8 summit in Genoa, Italy, Ruppert noted that extensive precautions had been taken there (including anti-aircraft guns) to prevent just such an attack. A Los Angeles Times story disclosed that President Bush was the target of the suspected attacks in Genoa.
"Bush ought to be having some interesting conversations with the leaders of Italy, Germany, France and Russia since it was their intelligence services who forwarded detailed advance warnings to the CIA throughout the summer of 2001," said Ruppert. "And they referred specifically to suicide attacks with airliners."
Ruppert also debunked the notions that the 9-11 attacks were caused by a lack of cooperation between agencies, and that great numbers of people would have had to be involved in the U.S. end of the operation. Citing a BBC TV report by Gregg Palast which showed an FBI report stating that the Bush administration had ordered the FBI to curtail investigations into bin Laden relatives, Ruppert demonstrated that orders were coming from levels above FBI and CIA leadership. Additionally, referring to the recent memorandum from FBI Special Agent Colleen Rowley and a press conference given by FBI Special Agent Robert Wright, Ruppert popped the government's position that somehow the so-called intelligence "failures" of 9-11 were the result of negligence.
"If you look at the text of Rowley's message and listen to what Wright said at his press conference you hear and see words like, 'obstruct,' ' deliberately thwart,' 'intimidate,' 'block,' 'harass,' 'dishonest,' 'rewrite,' 'omit,' 'undermine,' 'suppress,' 'punish,' 'retaliate' and 'prevent.' These are not words describing negligence. These are words describing deliberate and willful actions.
> "And if you note from both the Rowley memo, and apparently from the Wright press conference, it was only one supervisory special agent at FBI headquarters who did all of the deliberate work to stop investigations that could have prevented the attacks. And what did Rowley tell us? Right after Sept. 11 the agent who had blocked the investigations was promoted!"
The $64,000 question remains unanswered: Was the agent in Rowley's case also involved in blocking Wright's Chicago-based investigations into money-laundering for terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda? In any event, the Rowley memorandum proves that just a few officials in key positions could have carried out the 9-11 conspiracy successfully.
For the complete article and photos, see:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/g6b_calgary.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Enron-Peabody Destruction to Native Land & Water
"The Drought and the Enron Scandal in Black Mesa"
The following is a Letter to the Editor by signatories of the sovereign Dineh (Navajo) nation, demanding corporate accountability in the face of a drought disaster and the Enron scandal. This affects us all for our air and water preservation.
Please post widely, and consider adapting as a letter to the editor of your local paper.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
"The Drought and the Enron Scandal in Black Mesa"
July 1, 2002
We the undersigned wish to submit this open letter to the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe and the U.S. government to demand corporate accountability in light of the Bush administration's decision last week to relax air-quality rules governing older coal-fired power plants, the Enron scandal in Black Mesa and the current drought disaster.
Can't you see we are suffering from the effects of corporate greed in collusion with the U.S. and tribal governments? "Grandfathered" coal-fired power plants in our region constitute the largest source of greenhouse gases in North America. Fossil fuel emissions impact global climate change.
We are directly affected because our ancestral homeland contains major deposits of coal which are being extracted by Peabody Coal Company owned by Lehman Brothers. The coal from Peabody's Black Mesa mine is transported to the Mojave Power plant through a slurry pipeline owned by Enron Corporation that pumps 3.3 million gallons of pristine water from our sole source aquifer each day. Stop the corporate waste! In a region where water is extremely scare, our only source of drinking water is being depleted and contaminated to transport coal without any permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
We urge you to stop proclaiming your inability to help us during a drought emergency declared by the state of Arizona and the Navajo Nation. Don't shrug your shoulders while you show us news articles and photos vividly portraying shallow wells that have dried up and animals that are dying. The original leases you signed with Peabody Coal Company gives you the right to stop the slurry pipeline today if you suspect (not prove) diminution and degradation of our sole source aquifer.
Our survival is in jeopardy and our lack of access to water is a tragic waste. The situation is dire. For the past 5 months the U.S. government's Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) water tower in Rocky Ridge, a public drinking water source for about 4,000 Dineh people has been shut off and all the Hopi Partition Land (HPL) wells owned and maintained by the U.S. government's Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) have been capped off and dismantled, windmill blades and troughs bulldozed.
Demand the BIA repair the Rocky Ridge water tower and all HPL livestock wells or pay for their repair from your mining royalties. Stop for a moment and consider the frequent ruptures in the coal slurry pipeline are responsible for widespread contamination of our land and water resources. Is this why all our wells have been destroyed - like the radioactive windmill in Coal Mine Mesa Canyon which is responsible for causing cancer in nearby residents?
We pray you will act now to fulfill your trust responsibility to us and demand corporate accountability by Peabody, Enron and Lehman Brothers who are operating in collusion with the U.S. government. We pray you will stop looking at the 45 million dollars in revenue you receive each year from Peabody long enough to see that water is more precious than gold and not a drop should be wasted.
At one time, large herds of antelope, elk, beavers and herons populated this part of the Little Colorado basin. Before the rain and groundwater took care of us and our animals. Now there is no water at all. We believe we have a human right to water and livelihood. We believe when a government denies certain communities fundamental rights, it places the rights of all its citizens in jeopardy. Our distinct identity as a people is crucially linked to the lands we have occupied since time immemorial. Displacement from our territories means death and the destruction of our identity, culture and way of life. Without water we cannot survive. We believe our human rights should not be denied and should take precedence over national sovereignty -- whether it be the sovereignty of independent nations or the dependent sovereign status accorded to tribal governments. Concerns about development policies and their economic and ecological impact are a matter of tribal sovereignty, women's rights and human rights.
We pray you will act now and shut down the coal slurry pipeline so we can all have a drink of water. For without water we will have nothing left to give our children and our grandchildren.
Thank you,
Anna H. Begay
Bennie Nez
Huck Greyeyes
Norris Nez
Genevieve Greyeyes
Lena Nez
Rena Babbitt Lane
Zena Lane
Pauline Johnston
Bonnie Whitesinger
Pauline Whitesinger
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Posting
Hopis Concerned About Coal-Fired Power Plant on Black Mesa
by Andy Matinog Saturday April 06, 2002 at 03:40 PM
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2002/04/121119.php
nonoboy@peak.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more background on the Big Mountain relocation issue.
http://www.theofficenet.com/~redorman/pagea~1.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more on "Clean Water, Safe Homes & a Healthy Environment," you can contact the Citizen's Coal Council 1705 S. Pearl Street, #5; Denver, CO 80210
303-722-9119, fax: 303-722-8338
http://www.citizenscoalcouncil.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
5) Yucca Moving Target -- Action Alert
Received from: "Regina Birchem"
Subject: ACTION ALERT
Date: Mon, 01 Jul 2002 10:33:33 -0400
PLEASE CONTACT YOUR STATE SENATORS.
_______________________________________________________
Regina Birchem
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The decision about transport of hi-level radioactive waste, which will effect our people for many decades, will be made by a vote in the US Senate as early as July 8. So please act now---
TELL OUR SENATORS THAT THIS IS IMPORTANT AND THEY MUST VOTE NO!
OPPOSE THE U.S. ADMINISTRATION PLANS FOR 100,000 SHIPMENTS OF HI-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE THROUGH U.S. COMMUNITIES, AND THE YUCCA MOUNTAIN PERMANENT REPOSITORY
President Bush recently designated Yucca Mountain as the permanent repository for U.S. high-level nuclear waste and promulgated a plan for 100,000 shipments of 77,000 tons of this dangerous waste from military and power plant sources, by rail, truck and barge, through forty four states. Close to 5,000 shipments will pass through Pennsylvania. This plan is highly controversial on scientific, health, environmental and security grounds. It is pushed by the nuclear power industry and opposed by a large array of scientists.
The US Conference of Mayors recently passed a resolution against nuclear waste transportation.
The people and elected representatives of Nevada strongly oppose this plan and the Nevada Governor has vetoed it. The U.S. Senate vote in early July can support and sustain the veto (by voting NO) or override it.
TELL OUR SENATORS --
* Vote NO on Senate Joint Resolution 34, to block this dangerous plan and to support Nevada's veto of Yucca Mountain storage.
* The Administration plan will produce homeland insecurity by exposing our people to 100,000 potential "mobile Chernobyls" due to possible terrorist attack or accident, with rupture of
vulnerable containers.
* The Yucca Repository is an unproven, leaky, earthquake-prone site (an earthquake shook Yucca Mountain most recently on June 14)
CALL or FAX them now and before July 8
The Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121
Additional US Congress contact information, see:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html
= + = = + = = + = = + = = + = = + = = + = = + = = + = = + = = + = = + =
It is best to contact Congress with your personal letters, emails, faxes and telephone calls, but for time efficiency and no cost, Flyby News encourages you to also sign up with the Progressive Letter Writing Cooperative.
Progressive Secretary sends out progressive email letters to Congress, the President, and other officials on peace, ecology, civil rights and other issues. There is no charge for this. They volunteer their time, since Jim and Pat Harris are Quakers and long-time activists, and they believe in helping progressive people make their voices heard on important issues. You must approve any letter before it would be sent on your behalf.
For more information, visit their website:
http://www.ProgressiveSecretary.Org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest are welcomed.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
We suggest bookmarking or opening your browser to the fast-loading updated Flyby News homepage.
You can submit any E-mail address for a free subscription for upcoming issues of Flyby News.
All addresses are maintained confidentially, and you can remove your address at any time.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
---------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com--------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Help Cut Global Warming * Too Hot? * Truth on Warming * SolarFest
27 June 2002
1) New Power Source To Help Cut Global Warming
2) How Hot Is Too Hot?
3) The Truth on Warming
4) New England's Only Totally Solar-Powered Festival
Editor's Notes:
I met Alvin Marks in 1990, a scientist and inventor with over 100 patents, who was working on a technology for converting sunlight to electricity. It took me about four years to learn that although his technology was issued a patent in the US, there were basic components missing, or unavailable, that made his technology unfeasible in the near term. Yet, through this effort, I became associated with a highly talented team of engineers, scientists, and business managers, who decided to work together to produce practical solutions for sustainable and appropriate technologies, which would be effective in today's competitive market systems and beneficial for our environment.
For the last three years this company, Stirling Advantage, Inc., has developed an improved design for heat-electrical power generation. This technology uses a Stirling cycle, which has been around nearly two-hundred years. It can use sustainable fuels or conventional, and can significantly lower pollution emissions that are known to be contributing to Global Warming. With all this talk about the catastrophic consequences of pollution caused by electrical power generation, one would think that this project would receive full support. However, since last September, the reverse has happened, and as the people being driven away from their homes in the US southwest from drought-driven flames, this company is struggling. Yet time is still with us to make a difference. Item 1 presents this challenge in the form of a press release entitled: "New Power Source To Help Cut Global Warming." And like the prior Flyby News issue regarding friends and innocent humans in prison, time is of the essence.
Item 2 is from a New York Times editorial by Bob Herbert, "How Hot Is Too Hot?" Which is a question for each human and most all other species on Earth. Yet the current US administration is the leader in denial for excessive greed interests.
SCAMS AWAY
In the 2001 article by Al Martin, called "Scams Away: The Boom Is Falling," which was posted by Flyby News, Martin writes:
"..When you keep scamscateers in power as long as US voters have (aka Reagan/Bush/Bush Jr.), eventually the bill becomes due. Coincidentally Pfizer announced that there is a record number of depressed people in the United States. The number of depressed people in the United Sates since George Bush Jr. has come to office has increased by 11%. And that is the reaction to the Bushonian form of government. In other words, the American people have given up.
As always, the American people, not knowing what to do, being confused, not understanding what's happening, but understanding that the nation is slowly being bled dry, simply don't know what to do. They're fearful of their pensions. They're fearful for their 401K accounts. They don't know who to vote for. They've heard so many stories, so they simply take Prozac. The people don't know what else to do.
You know it's bad when not only the people take Prozac, but now those who cause the people to take Prozac, the scamscateers themselves, are taking Prozac. Washington, DC is now the Number One metropolitan area for sales of Prozac."
..And then I'm reminded of the words of George Bush who said, "The truth will get you broke."
Or I am reminded of the words of Oliver North who said, "The truth is useless. You can't deposit it in the bank. You can't eat it. It's absolutely useless."
And anyone who is interested in the truth doesn't have any money.
In Washington, there are no limits now. The covers have been blown off. There are no restraints anymore. There's not even a pretense. It's just naked, raw scams against the public purse. Nobody cares in Washington anymore. It's just grab what you can before it all comes to an end"
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For the complete Al Martin article (May 22, 2001), "Scams Away: The Boom Is Falling," see:
http://www.almartinraw.com/column58.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Item 3 is an article from July 8, 2002 issue of The Nation by Mark Hertsgaard, "The Truth on Warming." This information could give more impetus for depression, or it can give more support for doing something about it. As Hertsgaard states, a Green Energy Future would mean more, not less, economic well-being for most Americans. Yet the political nature of these times offers an affront against a balance in nature and humanity. I guess we can choose Prozac or other anti-depressants after reading this, or, we can do something that can make a difference. The miracle of life is too grand to give up.
Item 4 is about a music festival to recharge our drained energy and creative juices. SolarFest is a totally solar-powered music festival in a heavenly place in Vermont. Please pass the word on this, and about Stirling Advantage. We know now about the problems all too well, but unique solutions are hard to find. Thanks for reading, but especially for taking any actions to help our world, lost in the sea of greed and treachery.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Morning Star
"If there was a morning star
and I found a path to a mountain reservoir,
and viewed the past in moments of today,
I must say, I have found the way.
Chosen, because I choose to do what I came here for,
realizing I have seen it all before,
a deja-vu from a morning star,
reawakening love to a planet which has strayed much too far."
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) New Power Source To Help Cut Global Warming
ATHOL, Mass. June 21, 2002. Stirling Advantage, Inc., announced today a new design for its Stirling Power Systems that promises to play an important role in curbing man-induced global warming. The new design will produce electricity from the energy in wasted steam. Replacing steam condensers at large installations such as power plants and paper mills, the system will convert formerly wasted energy to electricity with no additional production of CO2 or other greenhouse gases.
"Large power plants currently waste about two-thirds of their energy input to produce electricity" notes Stirling Advantage CEO, Ricardo Conde. "Our 1 megawatt, low temperature Stirling Power System would perform the function of a steam condenser at these plants and convert much of the wasted energy to electricity. In effect, it would increase the fuel efficiency of large power plants 10-15 percent by avoiding use of additional fuel." The new system would also be useful in other applications where low quality steam is condensed such as paper mills, or as a bottoming cycle for fuel cells and steam turbines.
Stirling cycle engines can utilize any source of heat to operate. However, most Stirling engines are small and require very high temperature heat. Stirling Advantage has elected to focus on larger engines that can operate efficiently at much lower temperatures. This approach offers many advantages related to lower maintenance costs.
Equally important, low temperature Stirlings also promise significant environmental benefits. For example, demand for additional power capacity in the U.S. grows between 1-2 percent a year. If Stirling Power Systems replaced steam condensers at all U.S. power plants, increasing their fuel efficiency by 10 percent, the power industry could meet demand growth without adding generation capacity or producing ANY additional harmful emissions for at least five years.
Stirling Advantage believes that economic use of wasted thermal energy is a critical component of a comprehensive environmental cleanup plan. Applied globally this approach can play a significant role in cutting the growth of fossil fuel use and associated greenhouse gas emissions.
Stirling Advantage, Inc., is the leading designer of commercial and industrial scale Stirling engines. Its highly efficient 200kW-1MW engines will be used to produce electricity from a variety of heat and fuel sources, and to produce chilled water for large air conditioning applications.
SOURCE: Stirling Advantage, Inc.
CONTACT: Dick Meloy, Vice President, Stirling Advantage, Inc., 203-328-3045
Web Site: http://www.stirlingadvantage.com
###
For more on Stirling solutions for onsite power production, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1019075905,59898,m
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) How Hot Is Too Hot?
How Hot Is Too Hot?
By Bob Herbert
One of the more startling stories in The Times recently was Timothy Egan's article on the climate in Alaska, where the average temperature has risen seven degrees in the last 30 years and mosquitoes have shown up in normally frigid Barrow, the northernmost town in North America.
Large portions of Alaska are melting and other strange things are happening. Just a few hours' drive from Anchorage, a four-million-acre spruce forest has been killed by beetles, a development that is both astonishing and depressing. It is believed to be the largest loss of trees to insects ever recorded in North America.
"Government scientists," wrote Mr. Egan, "tied the event to rising temperatures, which allow the beetles to reproduce at twice their normal rate."
Meanwhile, enormous wildfires have been raging in bone-dry regions of the West and Southwest. Fires whipped by high winds in the mountains of eastern Arizona have driven thousands of residents from their homes. One local official, Jim Paxon, said: "The forest is burning like you're pouring gasoline on it. And the wind is like taking a blow torch to it."
In Colorado, which is enduring its worst drought in decades, residents have been trying to cope with at least five major fires, including the so-called Hayman fire, the largest in the state's history. Investigators believe it was deliberately set by a U.S. Forest Service worker. The long drought and continuing hot weather provided the conditions that enabled this apparent act of arson to explode into an unprecedented conflagration.
Big fires are becoming the rule. By late last week authorities reported that in the first six months of this year, nearly two million acres have burned or are currently burning in the United States, which is almost twice the average of the last 10 years.
Strange, indeed. Mosquitoes in northernmost Alaska. Much of the West and Southwest ablaze. Extended droughts. Extreme heat waves.
Can you say global warming?
The year 2001 was, globally, the second hottest on record. The hottest was 1998.
Now imagine that just a few more years go by and the world becomes hotter still, which will almost certainly be the case. What then?
Do you think, maybe, we should be paying more attention to this?
What is missing in most conversations in the U.S. about global warming is a sense of urgency. A Bush administration report earlier this month acknowledged that human activity the burning of fossil fuels that send heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere was the primary cause of the recent warming of the planet, and that the warming will result in some extremely serious consequences in the U.S.
President Bush (who has distanced himself from his own administration's report) wants to rely mostly on voluntary not mandatory efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Under the president's strategy, it's estimated that emissions will actually increase over the next decade. We're speeding toward a wall and the president is not only refusing to step on the brake, he's accelerating.
Ten years is too long to wait to do something real about this problem. Dr. Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton who is an expert on climate change, has studied the imminent threat that planetary warming poses to the world's coral reefs. These are ecosystems so abundant in animal and plant life that they are sometimes called the rain forests of the oceans.
Dr. Oppenheimer noted that one of the essential questions of the global warming debate is, "How warm is too warm?"
When you consider that the increased warming is already threatening to decimate the world's coral reefs, and that we're already seeing the melting of the tundra in Alaska, and that alpine ecosystems are already being squeezed off the tops of mountains, it's not too difficult to reach the conclusion that "too warm," in Dr. Oppenheimer's words, "isn't awfully far from where we already are."
Closing our eyes and pumping another decade's worth of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at the current very dangerous rate would not seem to be a very bright idea. The gases remain in the atmosphere for centuries, and in some cases millenniums, which means the damage cannot quickly be undone.
What a miserable legacy for this generation to leave to its children and grandchildren.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/24/opinion/24HERB.html
Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company |
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Environmental Media Services: Press Advisory:
As millions of Americans make plans to visit their favorite national park or forest during the Fourth of July holiday, a new report finds global warming is putting many of the country's public lands and waters in peril.
U.S. lawmakers and scientists will take part in an Press Teleconference on Thursday, June 27, to discuss the report and call on the Bush administration to uphold laws requiring that it protect the country's most special places by taking prompt action to reduce damages.
For more information, visit:
http://www.ems.org/
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) The Truth on Warming
EDITORIAL | The Truth on Warming
by Mark Hertsgaard - A Green energy future would mean more, not less, economic well-being for most Americans. (from The Nation - July 8, 2002 issue)
Published in the July 8, 2002 issue of The Nation
The Truth on Warming
by Mark Hertsgaard
The journalist I.F. Stone used to joke that the government issues so much information every day, it can't help but let the truth slip out every once in a while. The Bush Administration's recent report on global warming is a classic example. Though far from perfect, it contains some crucial but awkward truths that neither George W. Bush nor his environmentalist critics want to confront. Which may explain why the Administration has sought to bury the report, while critics have misrepresented its most ominous conclusion.
U.S. Climate Action Report 2002 made headlines because it contradicted so much of what the Administration has said about global warming. Not only is global warming real, according to the report, but its consequences--heat waves, water shortages, rising sea levels, loss of beaches and marshes, more frequent and violent weather--will be punishing for Americans.
The report's biggest surprise was its admission that human activities, especially the burning of oil and other fossil fuels, are the primary cause of climate change. Of course, the rest of the world has known since 1995 that human actions have "a discernible impact" on the global climate, to quote a landmark report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. But the White House has resisted this conclusion. After all, if burning fossil fuels is to blame for global warming, it makes sense to burn less of them. To a lifelong oilman like Bush, who continues to rely on his former industry colleagues for campaign contributions as well as senior staff, such a view is nothing less than heresy. No wonder, then, that Bush and his high command have virtually repudiated the report. Although their staffs helped write it, both EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham claimed they were unaware of the report until the New York Times disclosed its existence on June 3. Bush himself dismissed it as a mere product of "the bureaucracy," that oft-vilified boogeyman of right-wing ideology. But he could equally have blamed his own father. The only reason U.S. Climate Action Report 2002 was compiled in the first place is that George Bush the First signed a global warming treaty at the 1992 Earth Summit that obligates the United States to periodically furnish such reports to the UN (one more reason, it seems, to despise treaties). But somebody in the Administration must have seen trouble coming, because the report could not have been released with less fanfare: It was simply posted on the EPA's website, three unguided links in from the homepage. If you weren't looking for it, you'd never find it.
The Administration has been hammered for issuing a report that on one hand admits that global warming threatens catastrophe but on the other maintains there is no need to reduce consumption of fossil fuels. The report squares this circle by arguing that global warming has now become inevitable, so we should focus less on preventing it than on adapting to it. To deal with water scarcity, for example, the report advocates building more dams and raising the price of water to encourage conservation. Critics see such recommendations as proof that the Administration is doing nothing about global warming. Unfortunately, it's not that simple.
The worst thing about the new global warming report is that it is absolutely correct about a fundamental but often unmentioned aspect of the problem: the lag effect. Most greenhouse gases remain in the atmosphere for approximately 100 years. The upshot of this undeniable chemical fact is that no matter what remedial steps are taken today, humanity is doomed to experience however much global warming the past 100 years of human activities will generate. That does not mean we should make matters worse by continuing to burn fossil fuels, as Bush foolishly urges; our children and grandchildren deserve better than that. It does mean, however, that we as a civilization must not only shift to green energy sources immediately but also begin planning how we will adapt to a world that is bound to be a hotter, drier, more disaster-punctuated place in the twenty-first century.
Many environmentalists know it is too late to prevent global warming; the best we can do is minimize its scope. They don't like to admit this truth, because they fear it will discourage people from making, and demanding, the personal and institutional changes needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There is that risk. But a truth does not disappear simply because it is inconvenient. Besides, a green energy future would mean more, not less, economic well-being for most Americans, while also increasing our chances of avoiding the most extreme global warming scenarios. Sometimes the truth hurts. But avoiding it will hurt even more.
Mark Hertsgaard is the author, most recently, of Earth Odyssey: Around the World in Search of Our Environmental Future (Broadway). His new book, The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World, will be published in October by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020708&s=hertsgaard
2002 The Nation Company, L.P.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) New England's Only Totally Solar-Powered Festival
SolarFest: July 13 & 14, 2002
New England's Only Totally Solar-Powered Festival
For Immediate Release:
Middletown Springs, Vt. - New England's only totally solar-powered festival happens in Middletown Springs, Vermont on July 13 & 14. SolarFest's Eighth Annual Solar-Powered Music Festival and Sustainable Future Fair hosts over 25 performers on two solar-powered stages and more than 26 workshop on sustainable living and renewable energy. SolarFest has something for everyone.
SolarFest is an intimate festival held on 40 acres of pristine, private land. With no power lines to the site, the entire festival is powered by solar panels and batteries and is itself an exciting demonstration of solar power's effectiveness. The arts, the natural setting and inspiring renewable energy presentations make up the unusually engaging mix for which SolarFest is recognized.
SolarFest's designation by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce as one of 2002's Top Ten Summer Events and a three-page article in Home Power Magazine on SolarFest 2001 are both indications that SolarFest is the place to go for quality performances, inspiration and information about living more lightly on the earth.
Chelsea Green Publishing of White River Junction, Vt. will again present two days of workshops on a variety of sustainable living topics. In SolarFest's own renewable energy workshop tent, topics will include Renewable Energy Basics, Grid-Independent Solar Energy Systems, Grid-Connected RE Systems, and Eco-Friendly House Appliances, to name a few. Six new workshop topics have been added this year.
Since 1995, SolarFest has made a name for itself by offering a wide variety of quality performances (contemporary folk, roots music, blues, pop, reggae, storytellers, puppetry, children's theater, poetry, and mime) in a beautiful, family-friendly setting. This year's line-up features such artists as Entrain, Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams, guitarist Jeff Lang, Bluegrass band Gopher Broke, and many more. SolarFest's unique goal is to inform and inspire people about renewable energy and sustainable living options through workshops, exhibits, demonstrations and performances.
There are also food and crafts vendors, children's activities, solar site tours, and much more at SolarFest. Weekend tickets are $40 and include all performances and workshops. Day rates are available and admission for children 12 and under is free when accompanied by an adult. The gates open at 9 a.m. both days. To facilitate everyone's happiness over the weekend, SolarFest has a few ground rules: no dogs, no glass bottles, no open fires. While parking is free, the parking area has a limited capacity. The SolarFest organizers urge guests to car pool. Walk-in camping is allowed: no RV hook-ups. For other lodging suggestions and further information check the SolarFest website, or call (802) 235-2866.
For more information, visit:
http://www.solarfest.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
For inquiries or to submit articles, suggestions, and to help distribute Flyby News fliers, please write to Jonathan Mark
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - info@flybynews.com- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Peltier: Until Freedom Is Won * Malik's Parole * Bush: Permanent War
26 June 2002
1) Leonard Peltier: Until Freedom Is Won
2) Malik Abdullah Akili - Parole Letter Correction
3) Bush's Mid East Speech - A Vision of Permanent War
Editor's Notes:
This issue of Flyby News is released on the 27th anniversary of the shoot-out at the Pine Ridge Reservation, seeking support for another opportunity to heal centuries-old wounds. Please take a moment to support Leonard Peltier for his interim parole, and for urgent medical attention. Item 2 is another letter from Malik Abdullah Akili. Please read and consider supporting his parole and freedom from prison, too. Item 3 is a link and excerpt about the recent George W. Bush speech on the Mid East, twisting rhetoric for peace into a vision for permanent war.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Leonard Peltier: Until Freedom Is Won
Parts of the following are excerpts from the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee from a 6/25 update for Leonard Peltier.
Dear Supporters of Leonard Peltier
This update includes an URGENT ACTION - please read below and take action. Thank you for your support. Please distribute this email widely.
1. URGENT ACTION regarding Leonard Peltier's health
2. LPDC announces historic FBI document release!
3. Weds., June 26th 2002 Leonard Peltier events summary
4. Leonard Peltier's interim parole hearing delayed til July 9th.
1. URGENT ACTION - Leonard Peltier has for over a year now been quietly enduring a BONE SPUR in his heel. He has sought treatment for this painful condition, yet none of the remedies offered by the federal US Bureau of Prisons has worked. Bone spurs occur when muscle tension in the foot pulls a bone out of place. The condition is worsened by poor-quality footwear and by stressing the foot. In Leonard's case, after a cortisone shot over a year ago had no effect, he was given low quality foam inserts. A second cortisone shot more recently also had no effect. Leonard is forced to work at the UNICOR factory, the federal prison labor operation that produces a vast array of goods for sale to US government agencies. In the Leavenworth UNICOR furniture factory, Leonard must stand on his feet all day, which causes severe pain. When he asked for transfer to a position that did not cause him pain, he was told that he would stay where he was for six more years. The prison clinician has recommended a simple surgical procedure to correct the bone spur, but the Bureau of Prisons medical facility in Springfield, Missouri has denied the request, and the Leavenworth warden has denied a request for treatment at a Kansas City hospital that regularly treats Leavenworth inmates. Leonard seeks immediately special gel-foam inserts for his shoe and the necessary surgery to correct the bone spur.
The LPDC asks that you call, fax, email or write:
Kathleen Hawk Sawyer, Director, Bureau Of Prisons,
320 First St. NW, Washington, DC 20534,
tel: 202-307-3198, fax: 202-514-6878;
e-mail; khawk@bop.gov
Also contact: Capt. Newton E. Kendig II, Medical Director, Health Services Division, Bureau of Prisons at 202-307-3055 Fax202-307-0826 Email: nkendig@bop.gov
Demand immediately at least the level of care recommended by their own clinician in Leavenworth to the painful bone spur that is currently causing suffering to Leonard Peltier, USPL #89637-132. Send a copy of your letter to the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations complaint@jcaho.org , Fax(630) 792-5636
2. The LPDC has received an historic release of declassified FBI documents. Thanks to the persistence of supporters and ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) legal activity on Leonard's behalf, the FBI released eleven boxes of documents from their headquarters in Washington, DC. The documents were first released to the office of US Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), who wrote to the FBI regarding the documents after he received hundreds of letters from constituents on the issue. These documents will be digitized with a state-of-the-art system that the LPDC is in the process of acquiring, which will allow thorough searching, indexing and cross-referencing. These documents will be analyzed by a team of experts including attorneys Bruce Ellison, of the original Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee and Jennifer Harbury, among others. While these documents represent the extent of what the FBI claims it had in their headquarters, there are still many more documents in the 56 field offices. The Minneapolis field office reports 42,000 pages in Leonard's file, and an FBI agent assigned to FOIA issues in Washington says the volume may near 100,000 pages. The goal is to vigorously pursue full declassification of all the documents, which will likely involve legal challenges to delays in release and to the extent of redactions, or "blacking out" of information. Check our website for updates and sample documents as they become available.
3. 27th Anniversary of Incident at Oglala
Wednesday, June 26th, 2002 marks the 27th anniversary of the tragic shootout in Oglala that left FBI agents Coler and Williams and AIM activist Joe Killsright Stuntz dead. On the 25th anniversary, in the summer of 2000, people gathered at the Jumping Bull property to mark the date with ceremony and prayer in pursuit of reconciliation and healing. This year, with the same ends in mind, people will be directing their attention at the FBI, its history of suppressing dissent and violating citizens' Constitutional rights, and recent revelations of investigatory misconduct that has caused the wrongful conviction and incarceration of many.
A large rally is expected in Boston, where Leonard's second-eldest daughter, Marquetta Shields, will read Leonard's statement, joined by LPDC Board Members Glenn Marshall and Kenarahdiyoh, Jean Day, AIM member and survivor of the Pine Ridge Reign of Terror, and others. In New York City, a rally will be held at City Hall, to support City Council member Charles Barron's resolution #344 calling for the release of political prisoners in New York State. Kathleen Cleaver will be speaking on behalf of Leonard there. On the Pine Ridge Reservation, there will be a Prayer ceremony for the people at the grave sites of Joe Stuntz, Anna Mae Aquash, and Wallace Little Jr., followed by a walk to the Jumping Bull property, a press conference, and a concert in the town of Pine Ridge. Bruce Ellison will be speaking in San Francisco on the 26th and in Berkeley on the 27th, while in Houston, Leonard's grandson Cyrus will speak, joined by Standing Deer, who readers of Peter Matthiessen's "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse" will recall is the fellow inmate who was recruited by the authorities to execute Leonard but ultimately blew the whistle on the plan. There are also events planned for Portland, Oregon, San Diego, Carbondale, Illinois, Denver, and in Europe, London, Paris and Brussels. Information on all these events can be found on the LPDC web site.(1)
Standing Deer, Cyrus Peltier and others will be on Pacifica Radio's KPFT 90.1FM in Houston on the 26th, from starting just after 11 AM Central Time and running until 1 PM. You can listen live over the web by going to http://www.kpft.org and following instructions.
4. Leonard Peltier's interim parole hearing delayed until July 9th -
There is still time to send letters of support!
Leonard was told by authorities at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary that his interim parole hearing, scheduled originally for July 1st, will now be held on July 9th. Thousands of letters of support have been received, and will be delivered together at the hearing, so Leonard will see for himself the mass of support for his release. While there are inherent problems with the parole system that leave many close to Leonard's case skeptical as to the possibility of a favorable outcome, we still need to make a strong showing to let the authorities know that people are still working globally for Leonard's release. The repeated denial of parole is being addressed separately in a Habeas Corpus suit that was filed in 1999 and is currently pending.
A sample parole hearing letter is posted on our website. We ask people to use it as is or modify it, or write an original letter, and send it to us at LPDC, PO Box 583, Lawrence, KS 66044, fax to 785-842-5796 or email it to lpdc@freepeltier.org You may also send a copy along to your member of Congress. Thanks for your efforts in this drive for parole support letters. There are some who insist Leonard stay behind bars, and our voices must be loud, clear and overwhelming.
PLEASE take part in the URGENT ACTION to help Leonard get the medical treatment he needs and deserves. If you did not get this email directly from the LPDC, consider signing up directly for our email update list. See http://www.freepeltier.org/e_mail.htm for details.
THANK YOU!
In Solidarity,
LPDC
Until Freedom Is Won!
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-5774
lpdc@freepeltier.org
http://www.freepeltier.org
The LPDC has a limited inventory of the hard cover edition of
Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sundance by Leonard Peltier, edited by Harvey Arden
Get your copy for only $18.00 (Includes S&H) !
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For Information on the Evidence and Documentation of a Wrongful Conviction
Court Records
Testimony
Formerly Concealed FBI Documents
Information from the Original Version of The FBI Files, See:
http://www.freepeltier.org/fbi_files.htm#top
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Leonard Peltier Congressional Briefing Video
On May 17, 2000, Congressman John Porter sponsored a congressional briefing on the case of Leonard Peltier and its related circumstances on the Pine Ridge reservation. This video contains testimonies on Leonard Peltier and related circumstances on the Pine Ridge reservation, which includes the Constitutional misconduct of the FBI. Featured is testimony from Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Rigoberta Menchu Tum; acclaimed human rights activist and attorney, Jennifer Harbury; Pine Ridge reign of terror survivor, Debbie White Plume; shoot-out survivor, Nilak Butler; LPDC spokesperson and survivor, Jean Day; former NPR journalist, Kevin McKiernan; Amnesty International Advocacy Director, Carlos Salinas; National Congress of American Indians Executive Officer, Ernie Stevens Jr., and Leonard Peltier's lawyer since trial and expert in FBI activities on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Bruce Ellison.
Kevin McKiernan, journalist, stated: "[I] was there on June 25, 1975, outside the Jumping Bull ranch on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, when some of the bullets were flying." In his editorial, he provides eye witness account to the "climate of fear" on Pine Ridge 27 years ago, saying that "it matched anything I have experienced reporting from war zones like El Salvador and the Middle East." Mr. McKiernan concurs with Judge Heaney who wrote in his clemency plea, "At some time, the healing process must begin. We as a nation must recognize their unique culture and their great contribution to our nation."
Copies of this video are available by contacting:
Leonard Peltier Support Group of New Eagle-land
Coordinator: Chris Groden
Telephone: (413)549-2739
Email: cgroden@hotmail.com, lpsg_gne@yahoo.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Malik Abdullah Akili - Parole Letter Correction
In this following letter by Malik, he makes an important correction for the June 1, 2002 Flyby News issue on a sample letter for his parole. For the corrected sample letter that you can use in support of Malik's upcoming parole hearing, see Item 1:
Just Parole for Malik Abdullah Akili:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1022948045,42346,m
Dear Brother,
..It's bad enough to be sick, but to be sick in prison is the worst. There is so little show of concern and so little care for life in general. There is no balance to say that - ok - he may be here for some criminal behavior, but still, he's a human who should be treated with professionalism, and respect. . .Most prison doctors respond negatively. But overall I am in good spirit and my determination continues to grow even stronger with my struggle to win my liberation. People are beginning to become more supportive, and before long we'll grow in numbers and strength . . . we understand that strength does not come in numbers, but in the faith and in the belief that we can achieve our mission of purpose!
I am responding to your 6/5/02 letter from a two-fold purpose. First, I wanted to thank you for the letter and the material that came along with it. On the second point, I wanted to make clear that I am NOT, nor have I ever been a Black Muslim. There is a vast difference between being a Black Muslim and following the teachings of "Orthodox Sunni Islam." From the on-set, when I first become a Muslim, I came into the faith as a Sunni Muslim. When I understood that the Black Muslims were teaching that all whites were devils, I understood right then and there, that that wasn't the place for any conscious human being to be a part of. As a Sunni Muslim, we believe that black men/women and white men/women are all held as equals, with due respect. We judge a man, woman, not by the color of their skin, but by their character and moral behavior.
I have come to respect the political consciousness of those reading Flyby News. I wouldn't want a simple mistake to leave them with the wrong impression of myself. Enough said on that issue!
I am truly blessed to have someone as you for a friend. Today friends are far and few in between. It has been some years since we first connected. I can still recall our first meeting and the main issue which brought us together.* That first coming together was in deed the beginning of a lasting and true friendship!
I've said enough. Take care until next time..
*For the updated Flyby page on Malik, see:
Item 1 - My Friend in Jail
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid999200948,87474,m
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Bush's Mid East Speech - A Vision of Permanent War
Bush's Speech - A Vision of Permanent War
by Ali Abunimah
CHICAGO -- George Bush's much-anticipated speech on how to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, weighed in at 1,867 words. By my count, more than one thousand words were devoted to criticizing and making demands of the Palestinians, while just 137 words dealt with what Israel should do. And if you look for any criticism at all of Israel, you will not find it. The few remaining words were taken up with cliches and platitudes.
The content of few statements can have been leaked in advance as much as this one, and yet Bush's pronouncement still managed to surprise by its sheer breathtaking unfairness and unwillingness to address a reality which is clearly perceived by the rest of the world.
For the complete article, see:
http://news@commondreams.org/views02/0625-05.htm
The article by Ali Abunimah concludes:
"The future for Palestinians and Israelis is as grim as it has ever been. What Bush has offered is not a formula for provisional or any other kind of Palestinian statehood, but a vision of permanent war."
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
For inquiries or to submit articles, suggestions, and to help distribute Flyby News fliers, please write to Jonathan Mark
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - info@flybynews.com- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Preemptive Madness * 911 Suit * Stupid White Men Back on Top
24 June 2002
1) Iraq: Behind 'Plot' on Hussein, a Secret Agenda
2) 911 Suit -- William Rivers Pitt -- "All Along the Watchtower"
3) Michael Moore's Stupid White Men Back on Top
Editor's Notes:
One can only continue to believe that light often breaks in the deepest and the darkest of hours yet it seems that we are stretching this insane suicidal leadership agenda a bit too far. The preemptive strike agenda will only accelerate the forces of terrorism, especially with the greed factor of armament manufacturers, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
A strategic action for you to consider doing is to get and show a cassette video tape of a powerful presentation by Dennis J. Kucinich. The Yucca Mountain vote proved that the majority of members of Congress are controlled by money interests and irrational. Here it is at a time of terrorist threats, and they are sending thousands of radioactive shipments (targets) traversing across the US to an earthquake-prone area. This makes as much sense as the plutonium Cassini flyby or billions of dollars spent for Corporate "Star Wars." An answer to engage policies that would help transform US from such madness would be to elect Dennis Kucinich for US President in 2004. Yet, much damage can happen in the next two years, and Iraq appears to be the line in the sand for finding out how much terror the US can create by an unprovoked attack that could cost thousands, or more, their innocent lives and untold suffering. The banner of attacking for one's fear is just plain bad common sense and lunacy. We need to pull on Congress to listen to someone with the experience and integrity of Scott Ritter. Following Ritter's EdOp in item 1, are various related news story links. Item 2 is another eloquent article by William Rivers Pitt on a 911-$7billion-lawsuit that names ten defendants, including George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld. Item 3 emphatically states that you are not alone. Michael Moore's book, Stupid White Men' began its 16th week on the New York Times Best Seller list and, once again, #1!
The Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121
Keep working on Congress to debate and not to attack Iraq.
Send the Scott Ritter Editorial
Additional US Congress contact information, see:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html
For purchasing the Kucinich video, contact:
ICIS - Institute for Cooperation in Space
Dr. Carol Rosin rosin@peaceinspace.com
Tel. (805)641-1999
PO Box 25040, Ventura, CA 93001
or Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, MEd alw@peaceinspace.com
2225 West 41 Avenue, PO Box 18153
Vancouver, BC V6M4L3 Canada
***************************************************************************
1) Iraq: Behind 'Plot' on Hussein, a Secret Agenda
by Scott Ritter, June 19, Los Angeles Times,
Killing weapons inspections would clear way for war.
President Bush has reportedly authorized the CIA to use all of the means at its disposal--including U.S. military special operations forces and CIA paramilitary teams--to eliminate Iraq's Saddam Hussein. According to reports, the CIA is to view any such plan as "preparatory" for a larger military strike.
Congressional leaders from both parties have greeted these reports with enthusiasm. In their rush to be seen as embracing the president's hard-line stance on Iraq, however, almost no one in Congress has questioned why a supposedly covert operation would be made public, thus undermining the very mission it was intended to accomplish.
It is high time that Congress start questioning the hype and rhetoric emanating from the White House regarding Baghdad, because the leaked CIA plan is well timed to undermine the efforts underway in the United Nations to get weapons inspectors back to work in Iraq. In early July, the U.N. secretary-general will meet with Iraq's foreign minister for a third round of talks on the return of the weapons monitors. A major sticking point is Iraqi concern over the use--or abuse--of such inspections by the U.S. for intelligence collection.
I recall during my time as a chief inspector in Iraq the dozens of extremely fit "missile experts" and "logistics specialists" who frequented my inspection teams and others. Drawn from U.S. units such as Delta Force or from CIA paramilitary teams such as the Special Activities Staff (both of which have an ongoing role in the conflict in Afghanistan), these specialists had a legitimate part to play in the difficult cat-and-mouse effort to disarm Iraq. So did the teams of British radio intercept operators I ran in Iraq from 1996 to 1998--which listened in on the conversations of Hussein's inner circle--and the various other intelligence specialists who were part of the inspection effort.
The presence of such personnel on inspection teams was, and is, viewed by the Iraqi government as an unacceptable risk to its nation's security.
As early as 1992, the Iraqis viewed the teams I led inside Iraq as a threat to the safety of their president. They were concerned that my inspections were nothing more than a front for a larger effort to eliminate their leader.
Those concerns were largely baseless while I was in Iraq. Now that Bush has specifically authorized American covert-operations forces to remove Hussein, however, the Iraqis will never trust an inspection regime that has already shown itself susceptible to infiltration and manipulation by intelligence services hostile to Iraq, regardless of any assurances the U.N. secretary-general might give.
The leaked CIA covert operations plan effectively kills any chance of inspectors returning to Iraq, and it closes the door on the last opportunity for shedding light on the true state of affairs regarding any threat in the form of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
Absent any return of weapons inspectors, no one seems willing to challenge the Bush administration's assertions of an Iraqi threat. If Bush has a factual case against Iraq concerning weapons of mass destruction, he hasn't made it yet.
Can the Bush administration substantiate any of its claims that Iraq continues topursue efforts to reacquire its capability to produce chemical and biological weapons, which was dismantled and destroyed by U.N. weapons inspectors from 1991 to 1998? The same question applies to nuclear weapons. What facts show that Iraq continues to pursue nuclear weapons aspirations?
Bush spoke ominously of an Iraqi ballistic missile threat to Europe. What missile threat is the president talking about? These questions are valid, and if the case for war is to be made, they must be answered with more than speculative rhetoric.
Congress has seemed unwilling to challenge the Bush administration's pursuit of war against Iraq. The one roadblock to an all-out U.S. assault would be weapons inspectors reporting on the facts inside Iraq. Yet without any meaningful discussion and debate by Congress concerning the nature of the threat posed by Baghdad, war seems all but inevitable.
The true target of the supposed CIA plan may not be Hussein but rather the weapons inspection program itself. The real casualty is the last chance to avoid bloody conflict.
Scott Ritter, a former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq, is author of "Endgame: Solving the Iraq Problem, Once and for All" (Simon & Schuster, 1999).
This article first appeared in the: Los Angeles Times and posted at Media Workers Against War
http://www.mwaw.org/article.php?sid=1273&mode=thread&order=0
See this above URL for links to following articles:
Iraq accuses US of sabotaging deal
Iraq: US building to wage war by February
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Article: Why a First Strike Will Surely Backfire
Published Sunday, June 16, 2002
Washington Post
Why a First Strike Will Surely Backfire
by William A. Galston
As the White House moves closer to a brand-new security doctrine that supports preemptive attacks against hostile states or terrorists that have chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, Iraq would be first on its list of targets. The Bush administration has argued before that the national security of the United States requires the elimination of Saddam Hussein's regime, by force if necessary. Democrats with national ambitions have been lining up to agree.
A preemptive all-out invasion of Iraq would represent one of the most fateful deployments of American power since World War II. Given the stakes, the policy discussion in official Washington has been remarkably narrow. To be sure, glib analogies between Iraq and Afghanistan and cocky talk about a military "cakewalk" have given way to more sober assessments: A regime change would likely require 150,000-200,000 U.S. troops, allies in the region willing to allow us to pre-position and supply them, and a post-victory occupation measured in years rather than months.
But hardly anyone in either party is debating the long-term diplomatic consequences of a move against Iraq that is opposed by many of our staunchest friends. Fewer still have raised the most fundamental point: A global strategy based on the new Bush doctrine means the end of the system of international institutions, laws and norms that the United States has worked for more than half a century to build.
What is at stake is nothing less than a fundamental shift in America's place in the world. Rather than continuing to serve as first among equals in the postwar international system, the United States would act as a law unto itself, creating new rules of international engagement without agreement by other nations. In my judgment, this new stance would ill serve the long-term interests of our country.
William Galston is a professor at the University of Maryland's School of Public Affairs and director of the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy. From 1993 until 1995 he served as
deputy assistant to President Clinton for domestic policy.
The complete Ed/Op Article by William A. Galston is posted at
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0616-07.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Article: Bush's Grim Vision
George W. Bush once joked that he would like to run the United States like a dictatorship. As he asserts unilateral power at home and abroad, it looks more and more like he wasn't entirely kidding.
For the complete Nat Perry article at Consortium News, see:
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2002/062102a.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Story: Mass grave discovered in Afghanistan
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
LATELINE
Late night news & current affairs
TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT
Broadcast: 19/6/2002
Human rights groups are urging that mass gravesites in northern Afghanistan be immediately secured and investigated for evidence of possible war crimes involving United States military personnel. An Irish documentary maker has secretly filmed mass graves near the northern city of Mazar-e-sharif and interviewed witnesses who claim that container loads of prisoners were dumped in the desert. It's alleged that most suffocated in the sealed containers, but those left alive were shot on the spot. Key aspects of his claims are backed up by a detailed report from the group Physicians for Human Rights.
For the complete TV transcript, see:
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/s586222.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Article: Cheney Made Millions Off Oil Deals with Hussein
by Martin A. Lee
San Francisco Bay Guardian
November 13, 2000
Here's a whopper of a story you may have missed amid the cacophony of campaign ads and stump speeches in the run- up to the elections.
During former defense secretary Richard Cheney's five-year tenure as chief executive of Halliburton, Inc., his oil services firm raked in big bucks from dubious commercial dealings with Iraq. Cheney left Halliburton with a $34 million retirement package last July when he became the GOP's vice-presidential candidate.
Of course, U.S. firms aren't generally supposed to do business with Saddam Hussein. But thanks to legal loopholes large enough to steer an oil tanker through, Halliburton profited big-time from deals with the Iraqi dictatorship. Conducted discreetly through several Halliburton subsidiaries in Europe, these greasy transactions helped Saddam Hussein retain his grip on power while lining the pockets of Cheney and company.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.22A.cheney.hussein.htm
***************************************************************************
2) 911 Suit -- William Rivers Pitt -- "All Along the Watchtower"
All Along the Watchtower
By William Rivers Pitt
20 June, 2002
Stanley Hilton, a San Francisco attorney and former aide to Senator Bob Dole, filed a $7 billion lawsuit in U.S. District Court on June 3rd. The class-action suit names ten defendants, among whom are George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and Norman Mineta.
Hilton's suit charges Bush and his administration with allowing the September 11th attacks to take place so as to reap political benefits from the catastrophe. Hilton alleges that Osama bin Laden is being used as a scapegoat by an administration that ignored pressing warnings of the attack and refused to round up suspected terrorists beforehand. Hilton alleges the ultimate motivation behind these acts was achieved when the Taliban were replaced by American military forces with a regime friendly to America and its oil interests in the region.
Hilton's plaintiffs in this case are the families of 14 victims of 9/11, numbering 400 people nationwide. These are the same families that rallied in Washington recently to advocate for an independent investigation into the attacks. The current 9/11 hearings are being conducted by Congress behind closed doors, a situation these families find unacceptable.
Mr. Hilton, by filing his lawsuit, has joined the ranks of an ever-increasing body of Americans who subscribe to what they call the LIHOP Theory. LIHOP stands for Let It Happen On Purpose. The LIHOP Theory puts forward the accusation that Bush and his people allowed the September 11th attacks to take place, despite the fact that they had been repeatedly warned of an impending strike.
The LIHOP Theory is straightforward: In the months before 9/11, American intelligence agencies received ominous warnings from the intelligence services of nations like Israel, Russia, Egypt and Germany. These warnings were pointed - an attack involving hijacked aircraft and prominent American landmarks was imminent, our security forces were told. Bush himself was briefed of these warnings weeks before they happened. Instead of responding vigorously to these warnings, the Bush administration and its security apparatus did nothing.
LIHOP is, of course, the purest breed of conspiracy theory, involving high-ranking members of government from both parties, as well as the CIA, FBI and NSA. Like all good conspiracy theories, LIHOP is surrounded by disturbing facts and bits of evidence that are difficult to ignore.
The warnings from all those foreign intelligence services, after all, are quite real. Egypt, Germany, Russia and the Israelis were vociferous in their concerns. The German intelligence service BND told US and Israeli intelligence that Middle East terrorists were "planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture." The BND's information came through Echelon, the American-controlled network of 120 satellites that monitors all worldwide electronic communications.
Egypt voiced similar warnings that same month regarding aircraft attacks. Delivered just before the G-8 summit in Genoa, Egypt's alert carried such weight that anti-aircraft batteries were placed around Columbus Airport in Italy. The Russians warned the US that same summer of 25 pilots who had been trained for suicide missions, and Putin himself delivered the warning "in the strongest possible terms" to the US government. The Israeli intelligence service Mossad delivered a warning to both the FBI and the CIA detailing "a major assault on the United States" against "a large-scale target" that was "very vulnerable."
The Washington Post has reported that the NSA intercepted two messages on September 10, 2001, warning that something was going to happen the next day. "Tomorrow is zero hour," was one of the messages. The NSA's charter is to intercept, translate and pass on to FBI and CIA operatives important electronic signals from all across the globe. The Echelon satellite network which provided the German BND with their 9/11 information last June is part of that system.
According to the NSA, the September 10th data was not translated until September 12th, but it stands to reason that they were privy to the same electronic data the other foreign services were using as the basis for their warnings. One US intelligence source claims the data provided "no actionable intelligence," a fair claim given the vagueness of the messages and the volume of material NSA must deal with. Yet in combination with the strident foreign intelligence warnings, the words intercepted by our large electronic ears on September 10th add to the growing questions.
Then, there are the threads. A FEMA official told Dan Rather that the disaster agency had been at the World Trade Center on September 10th. Why? Governor Jeb Bush of Florida signed executive order #01-261 on September 7th, putting his state's National Guard on heightened alert status, essentially placing Florida under martial law for no demonstrable reason. Why? Attorney General John Ashcroft stopped flying on commercial aircraft in the weeks before 9/11, something he had commonly done since his entry into the administration. Why?
At the core of the LIHOP Theory lies motivation - what possible purpose could be served by the Bush administration allowing a terrorist attack to take place on American soil? It is flatly inconceivable to most Americans that Bush and his people could demonstrate such callous disregard for American lives, and accusations that they allowed an attack to happen reek of the worst kind of poisonous partisan politics.
LIHOP Theory, however, is not so easily dismissed. Two French intelligence analysts, Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie, have published an extensively-researched book entitled "Osama bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth." In it, they allege that the Bush administration put energy policy before national security concerns. According to Brisard and Dasquie, a foundering pipeline project aimed at exploiting natural gas reserves along the Caspian Sea in Turkmenistan was revived by the Bush administration when it arrived in Washington in January of 2001.
The pipeline project, which sought to bring oil and natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to a warm water port, had been the brainchild of American petroleum giant Unocal for much of the 1990s. After the destruction of two American embassies in Africa in 1998 by Osama bin Laden, the Clinton administration forbade any American companies from doing business with the Taliban, which had been sheltering bin Laden in Afghanistan. Unocal's pipeline project was frozen.
After the Bush administration came to power, Brisard and Dasquie allege that reinvigorating the pipeline project became a high-priority matter of policy. Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca was dispatched to Pakistan to discuss the pipeline with Taliban officials in August of 2001. Rocca, a career officer with the CIA, had been deeply involved in Agency activities within Afghanistan. According to documents Brisard and Dasquie claim to hold, the main subject of their discussion was oil. A Pakistani foreign minister was also present at the meeting, and witnessed the exchange.
How does this pipeline relate to September 11th? According to Brisard and Dasquie, the main obstacle to the completion of the pipeline was the fact that it had to pass through Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. The project would receive no international support unless the Afghan government somehow became legitimized. In bargaining for the pipeline, the Bush administration demanded that the Taliban reinstate deposed King Mohammad Zahir Shah as ruler of Afghanistan, and demanded that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden for arrest. In return, the Taliban would reap untold billions in profit from the pipeline. According to Brisard and Dasquie, part of the Bush administration's bargaining tactics involved threats of war if these conditions for the legitimization of Afghanistan were not met.
The BBC of London reported on September 18th, 2001 of the existence of war plans on Bush's desk aimed at Afghanistan. Niaz Naik, a former Pakistani Foreign Secretary, stated that the war plans were slated for October of 2001. Conditions set by the Bush administration to avoid war involved the Taliban's handing over of bin Laden and the acceptance of King Zahir Shah. Naik went so far as to doubt that America would hold off on war even if these conditions were met.
The result, according to the French analysts, was total disaster. The Bush administration fundamentally misunderstood the Taliban regime - to bring back the King and hand bin Laden over to the West would have been tantamount to suicide for the Taliban. Instead of acquiescing to the hard-sell tactics of the Bush administration, the Taliban unleashed their pet attack dog, Osama, upon America. They were going to lose everything, and chose to attack first in the hope that all-out war would break out in Central Asia and rally other Muslim nations to their cause.
Motive suddenly becomes far more clear. The Bush administration very much wanted the Unocal pipeline to go through, and put intense pressure on the Taliban to see it happen. As this was happening, American intelligence services were flooded with warnings of an impending attack upon American targets by bin Laden and Al Qaida. The decision was made - let the attack come, and in the ensuing outrage American forces can carve out the guts of the Taliban government like a ripe gourd, replacing them with a 'legitimate' regime more receptive to the pipeline plan.
Did the Bush administration have an inkling of the massive death and destruction that would come on September 11th? Those who espouse the LIHOP Theory disagree on this point. Some believe that FEMAs presence at Ground Zero on the day before the attack, coupled with specific language within the international intelligence warnings pertaining to aircraft and high-profile targets, are prima facie evidence of specific prior knowledge. Others believe that the Bush administration only knew vaguely that an attack would come, but not where or when. They did not foresee the level of destruction, and were caught flat-footed when those planes appeared along the New York skyline.
In the end, LIHOP Theory can encompass either view. Whether they had specific knowledge beforehand, or merely decided to let some attack happen somewhere, the final results were the same. The Taliban were routed and replaced by an interim government headed by a man named Harmid Karzai. Karzai was recently elected President of Afghanistan in his own right, legitimizing the Afghanistan government. Soon after this, Karzai announced the impending construction of a pipeline that would exploit Turkmenistan's natural gas reserves He named Unocal as the lead company for the project. Before becoming President, Karzai was an advisor to Unocal.
For LIHOP Theorists, the evidence is clear. The Bush administration got the pipeline it wanted. Along the way, they used the horrors of 9/11 to place themselves above reproach. In the patriotic fervor that resulted from the attacks, both the press and the Democratic opposition were bracketed by the administration-espoused idea that any questions or criticism were tantamount to treason.
The passage of the PATRIOT Anti-Terror Act has given the US government sweeping abilities to snuff dissent by defining it as terrorism, thanks to the loosely-defined wording of the bill. Bush enjoyed stratospheric approval ratings that persist to this day, and American citizens were given new enemies to hate. The Defense Department, and the weapons contractors who cater to them, received billions from the federal budget to do with as they pleased in order to address the objects of that hate.
Even the most hardened political observer must admit the dismal truth - September 11th was the greatest thing ever to happen to the Bush administration. Attorney Stanley Hilton has brought LIHOP Theory into the federal court system with his class-action suit, and with the families of 9/11 victims he represents. It will be interesting to see what transpires when these two facts collide in an American courtroom. Given the current climate, it does not seem likely that much will come of it. After all, these conspiracy theorists are just a bunch of nuts.
Right?
# # #
William Rivers Pitt w_pitt@hotmail.com is a teacher from Boston, MA. His new book, 'The Greatest Sedition is Silence,' will be published soon by Pluto Press.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Michael Moore's Stupid White Men Back on Top
"Michael Moore's Mailing List" < mailinglist@michaelmoore.com >
Stupid White Men Returns to #1 This Week on NY Times List June 22, 2002
Dear friends,
Tomorrow (Sunday, June 23) "Stupid White Men" begins its 16th week on the New York Times Best Seller list - and, remarkably, it does so by returning, once again, to #1. I just want to thank all of you for this incredible response, but more importantly, I want each of you to know that there are millions just like us who don't like what is happening to this country under George W. Bush, and the overwhelming reaction to this book is living proof. YOU ARE NOT ALONE! I know it feels that way, but don't fall for it. Now is the time to get active and encourage others to do likewise.
I am also happy to announce that my website, http//www.michaelmoore.com, has finally been overhauled and will soon be chock-full of lots of goodies. A Canadian web design company, Plank Design, has graciously offered to re-design and update our site and Webcore Labs from Calgary is our new Internet host. These are wonderful people who are helping me reach an audience that now includes millions more than we ever had before. We are currently getting nearly 8 million hits per month on our site!
The new site is still a work in progress but I'm sure you'll like it. It includes a free additional chapter to Stupid White Men, "THE SAD AND SORDID WHEREABOUTS OF BIN CHENEY AND BIN BUSH." Part One, "What Does a 99-cent Bic Lighter Tell Us About Bush's War on Terrorism?" begins today. Over the coming weeks, I intend to ask some questions about 9-11 that few in the media seem willing to address. The website will also include other good information, links and news. http://www.michaelmoore.com
Yours,
Michael Moore
mike@michaelmoore.com
Author
Filmmaker
Uncharged Detainee
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
For inquiries or to submit articles, suggestions, and to help distribute Flyby News fliers, please write to Jonathan Mark
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - info@flybynews.com- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Warming World on Thin Ice - Bush Manifesto: Death by Carbon Dioxide
15 June 2002
1) Warming World on Thin Ice
2) The Sky is Indeed Falling: Bush Says, Get Used to It
3) Greenwire: Bush favors old resource-based uses in West
Editor's Notes:
This issue of Flyby News covers more on Global Warming, and its dangerous consequences. Bush is an oil man, and leader of the world -- free to commit Hari Kari -- for ignorant and fear-induced thinking. According to Bart Jordan, who completed a mathematical modeling of Global Warming in the 1950's, it's already too late, our atmosphere is doomed to a similar CO2 concentration that is around Mars and Venus, over 95%. Jordan said that the collapse of the Larsen B ice shelf in Antartica confirmed an exponentially increasing rate in this process. Yet, whatever we can do to limit our output of global warming gases will help extend life significantly for those alive, but not for many yet to be born.
For more information on this topic, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1014396414,10278,m
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Warming World on Thin Ice
Rapidly Melting Glaciers Threaten Death to Millions
by Making Huge Areas Uninhabitable
June 9, 2002, The Observer of London
By Joanna Walters
Ian McNaught-Davis has spent a long time in the mountains. Stocky and affable, the president of mountaineering's international association, the UIAA, is not easily fazed. But when he hiked into the glaciers surrounding the world's highest mountains on a UIAA mission funded by the United Nations Environment Program, he was profoundly shocked.
It's about time we slowed this whole thing down and stopped it. If the US would get off their arses, maybe someone would sit up and take notice.
Ian McNaught-Davis UIAA - International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation For generations of explorers, environmentalists and local people, these cold Himalayan valleys, with glaciers that stretch for miles, seemed to symbolize a kind of cold, brutal permanence.
After hiking through zero visibility and atrocious weather for five days, McNaught-Davis emerged into a sherpa village surrounded by breathtaking scenery. There he was confronted with a shocking truth: the glaciers on Everest were melting alarmingly quickly.
McNaught-Davis listened as kinsmen of Nepalese sherpa Tenzing Norgay, who conquered Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953, reported a rapid retreat of the Khumbu glacier from which the two pioneers set out.
Sherpas and Buddhist lamas told him the glacier no longer reached to where Hillary's base camp tents were pitched: it had melted three miles up the valley.
To check their accounts, McNaught-Davis climbed up to a glacial meltpool at 5,000 meters that 20 years ago was marked on maps as a series of small ponds.
He found that the ponds had merged into a vast lake more than a mile long. 'It was huge. I was completely amazed,' he said. 'Further up the glacier you can see more ponds forming.'
A mountaineer overlooks the Imja glacier lake in the Everest region of Nepal (undated UNEP handout photo). The Imja lake did not exist 35 years ago. Experts of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in Geneva warned June 5, 2002 of bursting Himalayan glacial lakes, threatening the lives of millions of people, because of ice melt caused by global warming.
And it is happening so quickly that map makers cannot keep up. Locally, the prospect of these glacial lakes bursting their banks and obliterating whole villages is frightening. Globally, McNaught-Davis believes what mountaineers are seeing first is a bellwether for the climate change affecting us all.
'It is a harbinger, a clue that something terrible is happening. Some scientists say "It must be other factors", but when you talk to people who have lived and climbed in these mountains for 60 years they say it is getting warmer, and the glaciers are shrinking at a sprint.'
Closer to home in the Alps, mountaineers report that rock pillars held on to their crags by ice for thousands of years are simply crumbling away as the ice melts. The climbing and skiing resort of Chamonix is under threat in the long-term, as the peaks around Mont Blanc begin to lose their ice and become more prone to avalanches.
McNaught-Davis said a recent visit to the Eiger in Switzerland was a shock too. 'The north face used to have three massive ice fields. The last time I was there, there was one left, and it was almost gone.'
Glaciers on the African peaks of Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya are receding rapidly, and the same is happening in the South American Andes.
It is not only the mountain glaciers that are melting. American NASA scientists say the rate at which the huge Greenland ice sheet is melting has increased by a fifth in the last two decades.
This is because more meltwater is trickling down from the surface of the sheet to the bedrock 1,200 meters below. The water 'lubricates' the path of the whole sheet, causing it to slip faster towards the sea. Team member Jay Zwally said such a process had never before been detected in large ice sheets.
NASA believes global warming could be to blame - and it is the first time the scientists have suggested such a link.
This pattern is repeated in all the world's coldest places. Antarctica has been the scene of huge collapses of ice shelves. In the Arctic, seasonal melting around the North Pole has led to a suggestion that soon shipping will be able to navigate the North West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
All this comes as the world's environment Ministers failed at a meeting in Bali last week to agree tough action to halt global warming and wipe out poverty. They now approach the Earth Summit in Johannesburg in August in disarray and facing accusations of betrayal from environmental groups.
Kate Hampton, international climate campaigner for Friends of the Earth, sees a direct link between disagreement among Western nations about how to tackle pollution and the reports of vanishing ice sheets.
'Glaciers are the water towers of the world - vital for storage. If they are melting fast this has grave implications for the people who live locally but is also a sign of global warming.
'Water supplies everywhere are under threat from climate change,' she said.
Water is a vital bargaining chip in any Middle East peace talks. While politics and religion grab the headlines, shrinking water resources in this dry region are always a major factor when negotiators draw lines on maps.
Hampton warned that without serious strategies to reverse global warming, the next few decades would see tens of millions of 'climate refugees' fleeing regions in Africa and Asia, where extreme drought and floods become the norm.
'What will happen when millions of Bangladeshis from the flood plains are literally washed out, and end up spilling into poor parts of India?' she said.
In the US scientists are warning that the 'sunshine state' of California could become the 'desert state'.
The Intergovernmental Conference on Climate Change has already established that the average temperature on Earth rose by 0.6 C in the twentieth century. They predict it will be between 1.4 C and 5.8 C warmer by 2100 than it was in 1990. The sea could rise by between nine and 88cms.
The higher end of these forecasts spells an environmental apocalypse. Today it means a few disappointed ice climbers, but by the end of the century it could mean death for tens of millions.
In Britain the winters are already becoming warmer, with violent storms and flash floods more frequent. Hampton said the reports of disappearing Himalayan glaciers confirmed what many scientists and environmentalists had been saying for a decade.
'This is a serious issue in areas where the people who live there are the least responsible for causing the problem - industrialized nations are not getting to grips with this in the face of the most overwhelming evidence,' she said.
The Kyoto protocol was meant to make the climate targets reached at the Rio Earth Summit 10 years ago more enforceable.
But while the European Union is preparing to sign up to the protocol this year the US first watered it down, then walked away from it - holding the world's climate hostage, said Hampton.
Campaigners are worried that what should in effect be an emergency summit to save the planet in Johannesburg will be at best a farce and at worst a confirmation of the power of corporate America over the environment - with President George W. Bush presiding as polluter-in-chief.
Ian McNaught-Davis believes every car-driving Westerner munching fruit flown in from halfway around the globe must take a share of responsibility for pumping climate-warming carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
'It's about time we slowed this whole thing down and stopped it. If the US would get off their arses, maybe someone would sit up and take notice,' he added.
Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
http://www.observer.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,729951,00.html
[You can email letters@observer.co.uk (insert "letter to the editor" in subject).]
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) The Sky is Indeed Falling Bush Says, Get Used to It
David Corn, AlterNet
June 7, 2002
The world is becoming hotter and the air you breathe can give you cancer, according to two new EPA studies. But, the Bush administration says, don't worry about it.
In the last week of May, the Bush EPA -- that's nearly an oxymoron -- posted on its web sites two significant reports, one on global warming, the other on air toxics. For neither did the EPA issue a press release or hold a press conference; the air toxics assessment was placed on the site on a Friday, the day of choice for bureaucrats looking to avoid media attention. Despite the EPA's efforts, the global warming paper -- which confirmed the scientific consensus that human-generated greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide from cars and power plants, are the main cause of global warming -- hit the front-page of The New York Times and sparked a mini-controversy. The air toxics report, which showed the cancer risks of air pollution, produced barely a sigh. And on each of these fronts, the administration has offered no policy that would truly address the problem confirmed.
Let's look at the air toxics report first. Years in the making, this study examined the risk posed by 32 common air pollutants, 29 of which are classified as carcinogens. Using data from 1996, the EPA concluded that more than 200 million Americans live where the cancer risk from these substances exceeds a ten in 1 million risk, meaning that there would be ten additional cancers (attributable solely to these chemicals) for every 1 million people. That may not sound like much (except, of course, if you are one of the unlucky ones), but the EPA typically tries to deal with cancer risks between one in 1 million and 100 in 1 million. Moreover, there are plenty of areas where the EPA found a greater risk than the average.
"This report shows the risks are still very high for breathing outside air," says Dr. Gina Solomon, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The unpromoted EPA website for this study is rather nifty; it allows visitors to look up individual states. I gave Washington, DC, a spin and saw the cancer risk was close to 200 in a million (that's one in 5,000). To be slightly less parochial, I checked Los Angeles: The risk was the same as Washington. The site also lets you check where certain toxics are especially bad.
"It's pretty useful," says Solomon. "You can see where toxic hotspots exist. It's a shame this hasn't gotten more attention." She notes that in some locales the risk is one in 1,000 and that the maps contain a pattern of pollution -- involving mercury and soot -- that runs from the northern Midwest to New England. This swath of dangerous air is probably caused by coal-burning power plants.
The study also calculated the non-cancer health effects of a lifetime of exposure to these toxics. It concluded that the "respiratory hazard index" exceeded 1.0 for "nearly the entire US population," noting that a hazard index "greater than 1.0 can be best described as indicating that a potential may exist for adverse effects." For 20 million Americans, the hazard index surpassed 10.0.
The Washington Post published a four-paragraph item on the study on page A16, under the headline, "200 Million in US Face Cancer Risk, EPA Says," without mentioning the details for Washington. Why wasn't this worth more space? As far as I can tell, only The Los Angeles Times ran a full story on the study, with a subhead that stated, "For millions of Americans, many of them living in California, the danger is 100 times greater than acceptable levels." This may not be news you can use. After all, are you going to stop breathing? But it is news you deserve to know. Especially when the Bush administration is ttrying to provide industry more slack in dealing with its emissions and has presented a so-called "clean skies" initiative that will lessen pollutants at a slower pace than that mandated by current clean-air laws.
The Bushies succeeded in burying the air toxics assessment. They failed with the global warming report. Written in keeping with obligations the United States has under an early climate change treaty signed by Bush's father, the study says the United States will experience dramatic environmental changes due to global warming in the coming decades. A partial list includes heat waves and other extreme weather, loss of wetlands and coastland, pest outbreaks, more air pollution, and water shortages. Bush tried to distance himself from the study, dismissing it as a "report put out by the bureaucracy," and his chief mouthpiece, Ari Fleischer, said there still is "considerable uncertainty" on the scientific causes of global warming. But the report did allow the administration to have its carbon dioxide and eat it, too. While it confirmed what environmentalist and other nations have been saying about global warming for years, it expressed doubt concerning the ability of emission cuts to counter the damage already in progress.
What a wonderful strategy for industry and its political comrades: They denied global warming for so long that there is no longer a possible remedy. Now that pro-business Republicans finally concede global warming is under way and caused by human activity, they claim it's too late to do anything and argue that decreasing greenhouse gases -- as called for by the Kyoto treaty the Bush administration trashed -- won't matter. The message contained in the report is, global warming is indeed coming, but nothing can really be done, so get used to it.
The White House isn't quite that frank in public. It still is trying to fool people into believing the President cares and is addressing the problem. Scott McClellan, a White House spokesman, said, "It is important to move forward on the president's strategies for addressing the challenge of climate change, and that's what we're continuing to do." In response to questions from the White House press corps about Bush's snotty reaction to his own EPA's study, Fleischer maintained Bush's climate change proposal "can reduce the problem of greenhouse gases and global warming." But no one in the briefing room that day posed the obvious challenge to Fleischer. Bush's plan calls for voluntary reductions in the growth of greenhouse gases. That means it's fine by him if the United States' production of greenhouse gases continues to rise, as long as it increases at a pace slower than the growth of the economy. If the economy expands by 2.5 percent, then the amount of greenhouse gases produced can go up by 2.4 percent. It's tough to see how permitting more greenhouse gases will "reduce the problem" of global warming. The Bush administration ought to drop this fig leaf. If (as its new report argues) Kyoto-style reductions are not going to repair the atmosphere -- a proposition open to challenge -- Bush's rinky-dink proposal surely won't mean a thing. Why bother with it -- except for politics? Instead, he should offer tax credits for air conditioning (for the report does advocate more air conditioning) and sun screen.
Here's a philosophical question. Is it worse to deny a problem exists, or to recognize the problem but then, rather purposefully, do nothing of substance? The air, according to government scientists, is a threat to the nation. Yet Bush refuses to act upon the evidence. With this less-than-serious response, he signals that, really, really, the air is just fine. It's a reverse Chicken Little position -- which can be quite dangerous when the sky is actually falling.
David Corn is the Washington editor of The Nation.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13319
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Article:
Stupefying Stance on Global Warming
by Molly Ivins
June 6, 2002
Baltimore Sun
AUSTIN, Texas - Throwing around words like "fantastic" and "stupefying" is considered bad form outside the tabloid press. But I'm damned if I know what else to say about the news that the Bush administration has decided that global warming is indeed taking place and they are planning to do exactly nothing about it.
For the complete article, published on Thursday, June 6, 2002 in the Baltimore Sun, and posted at Common Dreams:
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0606-01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Article:
Gore slams Bush for refusing global climate report
June 8, 2002
Reuters
MADISON, Wisconsin Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore on Saturday criticized President George Bush for refusing to accept a federal agency report that blames humans for global warming.
The recently released Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report appeared to back the view of many scientists who believe global warming is caused mainly by emissions from automobiles, power plants, and oil refineries.
Bush appeared to dismiss the report, calling it a product of bureaucracy, and said he would continue to press for voluntary efforts and financial incentives for U.S. companies to reduce emissions.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0608-06.htm
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Greenwire: Bush favors old resource-based uses in West
The following is excerpted from Greenwire
E&E PUBLISHING, LLC
122 C. St. NW, Ste. 722 Washington, D.C. 20001
www.eenews.net
Friday, June 14, 2002
Despite President Bush's stand-aside policy on climate change, pressure continues to mount from inside and outside national borders, as well as from mother nature, that action must be taken to curb rising temperatures.
Last month's release of the U.S. EPA-led Climate Action Report predicts human activity will increase temperatures 3 to 9 degrees this century. And the Senate is gearing up this month to address Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) multi-pollutant bill to curb emissions from power plants.
The international community is also questioning Bush's withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol, the international treaty intended to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases. And rising temperatures do not appear to be affecting Bush. In the last four months, two have set global heat records, while the other two were the second-hottest on record.
But Bush appears to remain committed to voluntary emission reduction programs and dismissed the Climate Action Report as "put out by bureaucrats" (Seth Borenstein, Houston Chronicle, June 13). MV
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Bush favors old resource-based uses in West
In deciding environmental policy, some Westerners note that the Bush administration is returning control to the ranchers, miners and timber companies who ruled the land during the "Old West," a diversion from the Clinton-era "New West," which was based on tourism and recreation.
In the last 16 months Bush has overhauled forest management plans to allow logging, roads and development, proposed opening areas to drilling, withdrawn habitat protection plans and called for a re-evaluation of the proposed ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park. University of Montana economists Thomas Power and Richard Barrett write in their new book Post-Cowboy Economics that the subsistence of the West has changed, thus creating a markedly different economy no longer based on the natural resources of times past.
In the last three decades, jobs in natural resources have dropped from 10 percent to less than 4 percent as the high tech and telecommunications sector continues to expand westward. And in Moab, Utah, where uranium and oil operations once dominated the landscape, 75 percent of the local economy is now dependent on tourists who utilize the region's national parks, rivers and mountains.
"Now we have spandex, T-shirt shops, curio stores and bicycles," said Moab resident Berta Knutson, who favors the Old West economy based on the oil and gas industry that employed her and her husband. "People back East don't realize we can't eat these rocks."
The federal government is able to shape such policy because of the large stake it holds in the West. In the 11 westernmost continental states, approximately 48 percent of the land is federally owned, allowing each new administration to make its impact on the West's future (Tom Kenworthy, USA Today , June 14). -- MV
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Greenwire rounds up the latest commentary on a U.S. EPA report that linked most of climate change to human activities.
A Providence Journal editorial: "America needs to start taking the issue of manmade climate change much more seriously. And that, inconveniently, must include a raft of mandatory actions" (June 13).
A Philadelphia Inquirer editorial: "For the health and safety of America, [Bush] should start trusting his own experts. In the case of global warming, he should work to become the international leader he promised last June he'd be" (June 12).
A Washington Post editorial: "If you acknowledge that climate change can be expected to do bad things and that human activity bears a significant share of the blame, then you might logically feel obliged to take tougher steps to lower U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases than Mr. Bush has been willing to take. The report doesn't go there. But it's a short leap to make, and the right one, no matter how much Mr. Bush tries to brush off the message" (April 12).
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Other Miscellaneous Greenwire Reports:
Judge throws out Hodges' lawsuit, shipments could begin to S.C. tomorrow
The Department of Energy may begin shipping 34 tons of weapons-grade plutonium to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina as early as this weekend, after a federal judge yesterday threw out Gov. Jim Hodges' (D) lawsuit to block the shipments.
The DOE wants to ship plutonium from the Rocky Flats Arsenal in Colorado to the SRS near Aiken, S.C., to be processed into mixed-oxide fuel for nuclear power plants. Hodges is seeking guarantees the federal government will not use SRS as a permanent storage site for the plutonium and accused the DOE of violating federal environmental review laws (Jacob Jordan, AP/ Columbus Dispatch).
U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie said DOE did not violate the National Environmental Policy Act and that Hodges did not demonstrate the shipments would cause irreparable harm. Currie noted that SRS already has two metric tons of surplus plutonium that, unlike the plutonium from Rocky Flats, is not stabilized or packaged. "It's difficult to establish irreparable harm if the plutonium you receive is safer than the plutonium you already have," Currie said (Tim Smith, Greenville [S.C.] News).
Currie also agreed with the federal government that SRS is a better location for the plutonium. The SRS is a 310-square mile site in a rural area, while Rocky Flats is only 10 square miles and surrounded by Denver suburbs.
Although shipments can legally begin as early as tomorrow, Currie urged the DOE to wait at least five days to allow Hodges to appeal. Currie"I'm sure they don't want to put trucks on the road and have the 4th Circuit turn them around" (Mike Soraghan, Denver Post).
Hodges said he plans to appeal Currie's ruling to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., as soon as possible. "If we lose, than the nation's weapons-grade plutonium comes to South Carolina for long-term storage, and that's simply unacceptable," Hodges said. "I will continue to use every legal power that I have to make sure South Carolinians are taken care of and that our health and safety is protected" (Sammy Fretwell, Columbia [S.C.] State).
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said the DOE "intends to proceed" with the plutonium shipments, but DOE officials refused to provide a timeline, citing security precautions. However, DOE spokesman Joe Davis said the department is "working under the assumption there won't be a blockade" of South Carolina highways by Hodges or state troopers (Jeffrey Gettleman, Los Angeles Times).
The governor has threatened to lie down at the state border to block the shipments from entering the state, and state troopers practiced stopping a truck in an April drill. State officials say the plutonium-carrying convoys could take any of 69 roads that lead into the state and any of seven entrances into the SRS (Jennifer Talhelm, Charlotte Observer).
Republicans have accused Hodges of grandstanding to help his re-election campaign. "This issue should never have reached a courtroom," said Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.). "The governor of South Carolina should have worked out an agreement with DOE long ago instead of wasting taxpayers' money on delaying tactics." Rep. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) added"It is time for the governor to work with the delegation in a constructive matter" (Jacob Jordan, AP/ New York Times). (All cites June 14.)
-- DHB
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Lake Erie Dead zone may be sign that enviro progress is ending
The dead zone discovered last year in Lake Erie may return again this summer, leaving scientists baffled as to what may be causing the lake to shift back to its lifeless state of the early 1980s.
Forty researchers from 17 universities will start heading out on boats next week to take a closer look at what may be causing the apparent reversal of Lake Erie's environmental progress -- regarded as one of the major successes of the environmental movement. A recent U.S. EPA report says that last year's dead zone duplicated the prevalence of anoxia in the late 1960s but said there were no clear reasons for its reappearance. In 1983, about 90 percent of the lake's central basin had no oxygen.
In a little-noticed Internet posting last month, the EPA declared the oxygen-depleted area a dead zone. And an EPA boat this spring found water samples with unusual levels of algae and other plant life, indicating high levels of nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen.
Scientists this summer will collect thousands of water samples to measure the dead zone's boundaries, depths and progress. Scientists suspect there may be several causes of the oxygen depletion, including the prevalence of zebra mussels and other invasive species, climate change or excess wastes dumped by sewage plants.
"I don't want to sound alarmist," said Murray Charlton, a scientist at Canada's National Water Research Institute. "But we have no idea, really, what is going on" (Bill Sloat, Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 14). -- EG
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For the Flyby News updated page on the Mounting Evidences of Global Warming, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1014396414,10278,m
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Stop ABM Treaty Withdrawal - Law Suit * Dept. of Homeland Offense!
12 June 2002
1) Lawsuit to stop withdrawal from ABM Treaty
2) Department of Homeland Offense
"It is not the task of the individual who lives in this critical time merely to await results and to criticize. He must serve this great cause as well as he can. For the fate of all humanity will be that fate which it honestly earns and deserves. "
Albert Einstein
Berlin, September 4, 1931
For the complete transcript of his speech at the 1932 Disarmament Conference, see
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=archive&s=1932einstein
Editor's Notes:
If there is one politician striving to do all he can for disarmament, it is Dennis J. Kucinich. He and other House Democrats are filing a law suit to prevent the US withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. China and Russia are expected to be introducing a proposal to ban space-based weapons to the United Nations' Conference on Disarmament at the end of this month. Meanwhile, Item 2 highlights the official US position for initiating unprecedented chaos. Suddenly C-Span switched from its plans to cover 911 investigations at the National Press Club on June 10, to covering Bush's new plan to centralize national and domestic security and border agencies under the auspices of one government official. Of course the new restructuring by the Bush administration left the CIA and FBI out of the picture -- that would shake up the present control structures too much, exposing the destructiveness of the current law enforcement JUST US system. This item, too, includes information on Yucca Mountain, Leonard Peltier Earth First, FBI abuses, and plans to protest at FBI Headquarters on June 29.
"The natural state of mind for mankind is freedom. The proof is the length to which any man, woman or child will go to regain it, once it is taken. He will try and try and try, against all odds... to get home."
John Quincy Adams
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Lawsuit to stop withdrawal from ABM Treaty
Ohio lawmaker to file lawsuit to stop withdrawal from ABM treaty
Mon Jun 10, 521 PM ET
WASHINGTON - A group of House Democrats, led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, plans to file a lawsuit Tuesday to block the Bush administration from withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Kucinich's office said the lawsuit will ask a federal district court to issue a temporary restraining order to stop the withdrawal, scheduled to go into effect Thursday, six months after President George W. Bush announced his plans to leave the treaty.
The Ohio lawmaker said the suit will also seek a decision on whether the Constitution permits the president to withdraw from the treaty without the consent of Congress. He said 29 other Democrats and an independent who usually votes with the Democrats would join as plaintiffs.
Kucinich tried last Thursday to bring to the House floor a resolution asking Bush to get the approval of Congress before pulling out of the treaty, which barred the United States and the Soviet Union from erecting missile defense systems.
He was defeated 254-169, with all House Republicans supporting a ruling of the chair that denied Kucinich a vote on his resolution.
In 1979 Sen. Barry Goldwater filed a lawsuit against President Jimmy Carter, saying Carter had acted unconstitutionally in unilaterally abrogating the U.S. mutual defense pact with Taiwan when the United States formalized diplomatic relations with the Beijing government. The Supreme Court declined to take the case after a lower court decided against the senator.
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"Space Weapons Ban - How Can It Be Achieved"
Breaking News from Conference and Workshop, sponsored by:
International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation
Federation of German Scientists
June 10 and 11, 2002
Berlin
Press Release:
New movement towards a space weapons ban
June 11, 2002
On June 10 and 11, a workshop and expert meeting were held in Berlin, Germany, on the questions how a space weapons ban could be achieved. On the invitation of three scientific organizations, experts from the US, China, Russia, the United Kingdom, and Germany met to discuss proposals for a space weapons ban that have been officially tabled in the past.
The Chinese representative surprised the attendants with a brand new proposal that will be officially introduced into the United Nations' Conference of Disarmament at the end of this month. Fu Zhigang from the Permanent Mission of the People's Republic of China to the CD explained details of a working paper his country drafted jointly with Russia. The suggested agreement would obligate the States Parties "not to place in orbit around the Earth any objects carrying any kinds of weapons, not to install such weapons on celestial bodies, or not to station such weapons in outer space in any other manner."
Several other draft treaties were also presented and discussed by the scientific, legal, and policy experts at the workshop. The Space Preservation Act of 2002, introduced at the US Congress by Representative Dennis Kucinich, is complemented by the companion Space Preservation Treaty and used as a tool to both educate the public on the dangers of an arms race in space and build pressure on the US administration to reconsider its space weaponization plans. Considerably older is the Proposed Treaty on the Limitation of the Military Use of Outer Space drafted by German scientists in 1984 which at that time was supported by the SPD and Green Party in the German Bundestag.
The discussion showed that activities to prevent an arms race in space are as important now and then. The participants will continue their efforts in the future to raise international attention for a space without weapons.
Background information: The workshop "Space Weapons Ban - How Can It Be Achieved" was held on June 10 and 11, 2002, at the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin and convened by ACDIS (Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), INESAP (International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation), and VDW (Federation of German Scientists).
For further details contact: Regina Hagen, INESAP Coordinator
Email: inesap@hrzpub.tu-darmstadt.de
To read the Kucinich-H.R.3616- and
"World Treaty to Ban Space-Based Weapons," visit:
http://www.peaceinspace.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Article:
Militarizing Space Would Lead to New Balance of Terror
Published Tuesday, June 11, 2002 in the Madison Capital Times
by Dan Cornwell
Within days, President Bush's withdrawal from the ABM Treaty will go into effect - without the advice and consent of the Senate or action by Congress. This is an assault on our Constitution and the principle of separation of powers that is so essential to our freedom. And there is no greater threat to the future security of the United States than the Bush administration's rush to put weapons into space.
It is obvious why the president has chosen to avoid seeking the Senate's advice and consent or any action by Congress: The arguments for urgency in termination of the treaty could not stand up under scrutiny by the Congress. There is no plausible case for urgency in deployment of a missile defense system when the threat is so remote, the demand on our resources so great, and the dependability of the system so much in doubt.
So one has to ask, what is the administration's purpose? Why the hurry?
The answer is clear from all the signals the Bush administration has sent about its vision of our future military posture. The goal is to gain complete military dominance of space and to be able to project overwhelming force from space to anyplace on earth, at any time.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0612-04.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Article:
U.S. endorses preemptive strikes Bush administration promotes new strategic doctrine
By Thomas E. Ricks and Vernon Loeb
THE WASHINGTON POST
June 10 The Bush administration is developing a new strategic doctrine that moves away from the Cold War pillars of containment and deterrence toward a policy that supports preemptive attacks against terrorists and hostile states with chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/764396.asp?pne=msntv
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Article:
Bush reportedly tells Koizumi he's going to attack Iraq
Sunday, June 9, 2002 at 11:00 JST
TOKYO " U.S. President George W Bush told Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of his intention to attack Iraq when the two met in Tokyo in February, a Japanese daily reported Sunday. Citing Japan-U.S. diplomatic sources, the Mainichi Shimbun said in a front-page story that Bush did not refer to any specific date but said twice, "It would be swift." "We'll attack Iraq. We'll do it definitely," Bush was quoted as telling Koizumi.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=9&id=219352
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related BBC News Article:
"Iraq 'has no terror weapons"
By Alex Kirby
A former UN official who served in Iraq tells BBC News Online he thinks the country has no weapons of mass destruction.
The official, Denis Halliday, was the UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Iraq in 1997-98.
Mr Halliday said he thought a US attack on Iraq was likely later this year, and people there were deeply concerned.
Any attack could mean appalling losses of Iraqi civilians and US troops.
For the complete article, see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_2029000/2029457.stm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Leaving the ABM Treaty in the Dust
-- by Leah Wells
Two months ago, the Los Angeles Times exposed a U.S. plan for developing contingency plans to use nuclear weapons against Russia, China, Syria, Lybia, Iran, Iraq, and/or North Korea. This enlightening, albeit dangerous and revealing, policy demonstrates our motives of paving the road for a fast and furious arms race unlike any other. To make matters worse, the United States will unilaterally walk away from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty this Thursday under the pretext that it is outdated and unneeded..
..Leo Tolstoy, in his essay entitled "Patriotism or Peace" cites a passage by the Chinese philosopher Confucius: "In reply to a prince's question how to increase his army, in order to conquer a southern tribe which did not submit to him, Confucius replied: 'Destroy all thy army, and use the money, which thou art wasting now on the army, on the enlightenment of thy people and on the improvement of agriculture, and the southern tribe will drive away its prince and will submit to thy rule without war.'"
In response to our country's policies and to Confucius' advice, I have two questions: Is there more than one way to defend our country? Is there more than one way to show we love our country? Seems like taking care of future generations is a good way both to defend our country and show we love it. When one-fourth of children in America live in poverty, our country is less secure and less stable. A healthy, well-educated and well-cared-for population will want to invest their time, energy and money in keeping America beautiful. A deprived, sickly and ill-informed population is actually a danger to our nation.
We can defend our country by establishing alliances with other countries, especially those on the "terrible seven" list. Folks from the Peace Pilgrim Center, in a letter after the terrorist attacks on September 11, said that we still have the capacity to transform enemies into friends. Dr. King challenged us to do the same thing in his essay entitled "Loving Your Enemies.."
..Perhaps we should heed Confucius' words. Or Dr. King's. Or buckle up - we're in for a wild ride.
The above was excerpted from an article by Leah C. Wells, who serves as the Peace Education Coordinator for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. She may be contacted at education@napf.org
The complete article was published Tuesday, June 11, 2002 by CommonDreams.org at this link:
http://commondreams.org/views02/0611-08.htm
Copyrighted 1997-2001
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Department of Homeland Offense
With his Cabinet-level homeland security agency, Bush overwhelmed questions about his pre-9/11 performance, and undid the Democrats' 2002 election strategy. David Corn reports.
Bush's New Dept: Rushing for Security or Politics?
June 10, 2002
After September 11, the President of the United States told budget director Mitch Daniels there would be three conditions under which a deficit would be acceptable recession, national emergency and war: "Lucky me, I hit the trifecta." First the trifecta, now, with the announcement of his new cabinet-level homeland security department, George W. Bush has pulled a hat trick. In one stroke, Bush overwhelmed the mounting questions about his administration's pre-9/11 performance regarding terrorism, placed himself in the forefront of change, and undid the Democrats' 2002 election strategy. Not bad for a President who, of late, was somewhat foundering on the Middle East and 9/11 questions.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=71
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Article:
Mr Bush's Titanic War on Terror Will Eventually Sink Beneath the Waves Meantime, all the men who claim to be fighting terror are using this lunatic "war" simply for their own purposes.
Independent/UK
by Robert Fisk
June 12, 2002
First it was to be a crusade. Then it became the "War for Civilization". Then the "War without End". Then the "War against Terror". And now believe it or not President Bush is promising us a "Titanic War on Terror". This gets weirder and weirder. What can come next? Given the latest Bush projections last week "we know that thousands of trained killers are plotting to attack us" he must surely have an even more gargantuan clich up his sleeve.
Well, he must have known about the would-be Chicago "dirty" bomber another little secret he didn't tell the American people about for a month. Until, of course, it served a purpose. We shall hear more about this strange episode and I'll hazard a guess the story will change in the next few days and weeks. But what could be more titanic than the new and ominously named "Department for Homeland Security", with its 170,000 future employees and its $37.5bn (26.6bn) budget? It will not, mark you, incorporate the rival CIA and FBI already at each other's throats over the failure to prevent the crimes against humanity of 11 September and will thus ensure that the intelligence battle will be triangular: between the CIA, the FBI and the boys from "Homeland Security". This, I suspect, will be the real titanic war.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0612-01.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Bush Administration Stops One Dirty Bomber, But Targets US Cities With Largest Dirty Bomb Program in History
WASHINGTON - June 11 - While Attorney General Ashcroft announced the capture of an alleged al Qaeda operative intending to make a radioactive "dirty bomb," the Bush Administration has given the rubber stamp for thousands of potential dirty bombs to move across the United States to a leaky dump at Yucca Mountain. A national nuclear dump in Nevada, located far from the sites of waste generation would result in millions of shipping miles of high-level nuclear waste - the most concentrated nuclear material on the planet. The routes (barge, rail and truck) would be general commerce routes that link trade centers. Major US cities in 43 states are in the cross hairs for Yucca shipments, which in the current era, could well become dirty bombs if exploded in transit.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.commondreams.org/news2002/0611-07.htm
also
http://www.nirs.org
# # # #
Related Yucca Information:
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee passed a resolution approving the Yucca Mountain nuclear storage site in Nevada. The measure now moves to the Senate floor for a final vote. For more details on this, see:
http://www.lcv.org/congress/congresswatch/2002/06/10/cw_26962.asp
# # # #
Yucca: Inefficient reactors, a lazy DOE, a mountain of deadly fuel
By Bob Nichols
Online Journal Contributing Writer
June 10, 2002Yucca Mountain is a colossal testament to bureaucratic waste and
inefficiency. The federal Department of Energy (DOE) mismanagement legacy is
truly Biblical in its proportions.
For the article, see:
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/Nichols061002/nichols061002.html
# # # #
For an easy way to contact your Senator on the Yucca Mountain and other vital issues, contact Jim Harris Jim@ProgressiveSecretary.Org
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Link to Dennis Kucinich's Statement to STOP:
"Transportation of Nuclear Waste to the Proposed Yucca Mountain Storage Facility"
House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
Highways and Transit/Railroads Joint Hearing
http://www.house.gov/kucinich/press/pr-020425-nuclearwaste.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
June 11, 2002
Debate Over Homeland Security Plan Hits Congress Full Force
by The Associated Press | New York Times
Tuesday, 11 June, 2002
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Lawmakers questioned the exclusion of the FBI and CIA from direct lines of authority under a new Homeland Security Department as the House opened hearings into President Bush's anti-terrorism reorganization plan.
At Tuesday's hearing and elsewhere on Capitol Hill, members of Congress grew more openly critical of the plan, which was announced last week, even as they generally agreed on a need for quick action.
House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, said many lawmakers are concerned that the president's plan does not envision the "full participation'' of the FBI and CIA, which have been the subjects of heavy criticism for their pre-Sept. 11 intelligence performance. Under Bush's plan, intelligence would be analyzed by the new department, which would have no authority over what the agencies produced.
"Many of us feel we can maybe, perhaps, more completely do that job than what was outlined'' by the president, Armey said. "We may have to pull these agencies more fully into the structure than was recommended.''
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/09.013B.debate.full.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Spying and Lying: The FBI's Dirty Secrets
Mark Weisbrot, AlterNet June 6, 2002
It seems that the FBI is likely to be rewarded for the missed warnings, fumbled intelligence, and bureaucratic foul-ups that preceded Sept. 11. Attorney General John Ashcroft has announced that the FBI is changing its rules so that it can spy on domestic organizations, even where there is no evidence of specific criminal activity.
It is doubtful that the Administration could get away with these changes if the real functioning of the FBI as a political police force were better known. The press has referred to the agency's COINTELPRO (from counterintelligence program) operation of the 1960s and 70s as though it were ancient history, a minor aberration of the FBI's quirky and fanatical director J. Edgar Hoover.
In fact COINTELPRO was a massive operation to infiltrate, disrupt, harass, and otherwise interfere with the lawful activities of civil rights advocates, peace activists, religious organizations, and others. One of the FBI's most famous and hated targets was the late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In a covert operation that now reads like a B-grade movie script, the FBI actually made a serious effort to blackmail Dr. King into committing suicide.
For the complete article, see :
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13316
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Article:
Environmental Activists Win Case Against FBI, Police -- Given $4.4M
By The Associated Press | New York Times
Tuesday, 11 June, 2002
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- A federal jury awarded $4.4 million Tuesday to two radical environmentalists who accused Oakland police and the FBI of trying to frame them for a 1990 bomb blast that wrecked the activists' car.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/09.013D.bari.4M.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Issue:
Leonard Peltier is one of the many current victims of COINTELPRO.
Visit the following Flyby News Archive link for more information and to learn how you can help free this indigenous human rights leader:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1013207483,22139,
This June 26, 2002 will mark the 27th year since the shoot-out on the Pine Ridge Reservation that led to the deaths of two FBI agents, the un-investigated killing of an American Indian Movement activist, and the Wrongful Conviction of Leonard Peltier. To learn about actions around the world and to support his defense, or to purchase a limited inventory of the hard cover edition of Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sundance for only $18.00 (Includes S&H), visit:
http://www.freepeltier.org/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
CALL TO ACTION:
MARCH ON THE FBI AND JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
headquarters in Washington DC Pennsylvania Ave. between 9th and 10th St. NW
Saturday, June 29 @ 12 noon
- Say no to the FBI attacks on civil rights and civil liberties
- Stand up against racism and racial and religious profiling
- No new COINTELPRO
- Defend the Arab American, Muslim and South Asian communities
- Stop the new witchhunt against political and religious organizations
- Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, Leonard Peltier & all political prisoners in the U.S.
- Money for jobs, education and healthcare - not repression and war
The Bush administration announced in the last week of May that the FBI would be seizing vast additional powers to spy on the people of the United States. We must act now to stop this assault on our rights.
These powers pose a grave danger to civil liberties and civil rights, and will - unless defeated by the people - lead to a new round of persecution of people based on their political or religious convictions.
More than anything, the people of this country need to be back in the streets to let the government know that we will not be silenced and we will not be intimidated. Everything that we have learned from the union movement, the civil rights movement and the anti-war movements of the past is that the people can defeat the government's plans through their own mobilization.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
*ENDORSE the June 29 protest! Email ANSWER@afgj.org with your/your group's endorsement.
*DONATIONS are urgently needed! Tax-deductible contributions can be made at http://www.internationalanswer.org/donate.html
*HELP GET THE WORD OUT - organize others to come to Washington DC on June 29. For more information, see http://www.internationalanswer.org (downloadable flyers, local contacts and more will be available). We are calling on all nearby cities in the East Coast, South and Midwest to come to Washington DC on Saturday, June 29 for a regional demonstration at the FBI headquarters. If you can't make it to DC, organize a local action at a Federal Building on Friday, June 28.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
http://www.internationalanswer.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
For inquiries or to submit articles, suggestions, and to help distribute Flyby News fliers, please write to Jonathan Mark
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - info@flybynews.com- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Nuclear Shadow * Global Warming Admission * 911 Hanging * DOE * Coup
04 June 2002
1) The Big Admission -- Climate is Changing, US Says in Report
2) ABM Demise -- Bombs away
3) DOE Plutonium Generator Public Comments (Due by June 19)
4) The 9/11 Evidence that May Hang George W. Bush
5) Jenin -- Time to clean up the battlefield of a dirty war
6) Coup plotters had orders to kill him, Chavez tells lawmakers
Editor's Notes:
When J. Robert Oppenheimer saw his handiwork mushrooming over the New Mexico desert in 1945, he quoted the Bhagavad-Gita, "I am become death, the shatterer of worlds." At first scientists were in the race with the possibility that Nazi Germany was developing the atomic bomb, but then they discovered that the military of the US were ready to use it twice on civilian populations near the ending of the second world war. Oppenheimer realized that pandora's box had been opened, and he opposed the development of even more powerful bombs, which resulted in his security clearance being revoked and his contract with the Atomic Energy Commission canceled. While President Truman approved the development of the hydrogen bomb, Oppenheimer found the political atmosphere had turned against him and humanity. Yet, the scientific community rallied to his support and he became a symbol of a scientist trying to resolve moral problems arising out of scientific discoveries. His final years were focused on the relationship between science and society. Oppenheimer retired from Princeton in 1966, and died of throat cancer on February 18, 1967. (1)
Thirty-five years following Oppenheimer's death, Arundhati Roy, looks at the conflict over Kashmir from her home in New Delhi. She states, "..the whole of human civilisation means nothing to the monsters who run the world. What kind of book should I write? For now, just for now, for just a while pointlessness is my biggest enemy. That's what nuclear bombs do, whether they're used or not. They violate everything that is humane, they alter the meaning of life. Why do we tolerate them? Why do we tolerate the men who use nuclear weapons to blackmail the entire human race? (2)
Under this nuclear shadow, this Flyby News issue begins with a startling admission by the Bush administration about the reality of Global Warming. However, there's a big omission in their taking appropriate actions to significantly lower accumulating CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Not even the mentioning of raising the standards of miles per gallon for automobiles. The gluttony for death and erosion of responsibilities continue.
Item 2 is on the ABM demise, including an invitation to celebrate by those thinking that this action by George W. is about global security! Item 3 is more twisting of the truth, and you are invited to comment to the DOE on their plans to generate more Plutonium. Item 4 could be considered an appropriate title for an outlaw Texan: The 9/11 Evidence that May Hang George W. Bush. Item 5 is on the rubble still exposed in Jenin, and why there is little interest in rebuilding. Item 6 is on an article stating that Hugo Chavez said the Coup plotters had orders to kill him.
(1) http://www.inventorsmuseum.com/oppenheimer.htm
Biographical sketch of J. Robert Oppenheimer
(2) "Under the nuclear shadow," by Arundhati Roy
Sunday June 2, 2002 The Observer
http://www.observer.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,726274,00.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) The Big Admission -- Climate is Changing, US Says in Report
Climate Changing, U.S. Says in Report
June 3, 2002
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
In a stark shift for the Bush administration, the United States has sent a climate report to the United Nations detailing specific and far-reaching effects that it says global warming will inflict on the American environment. In the report, the administration for the first time mostly blames human actions for recent global warming. It says the main culprit is the burning of fossil fuels that send heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. But while the report says the United States will be substantially changed in the next few decades - "very likely" seeing the disruption of snow-fed water supplies, more stifling heat waves and the permanent disappearance of Rocky Mountain meadows and coastal marshes, for example - it does not propose any major shift in the administration's policy on greenhouse gases. It recommends adapting to inevitable changes. It does not recommend making rapid reductions in greenhouse gases to limit warming, the approach favored by many environmental groups and countries that have accepted the Kyoto Protocol, a climate treaty written in the Clinton administration that was rejected by Mr. Bush.
The new document, "U.S. Climate Action Report 2002," strongly concludes that no matter what is done to cut emissions in the future, nothing can be done about the environmental consequences of several decades' worth of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases already in the atmosphere. Its emphasis on adapting to the inevitable fits in neatly with the climate plan Mr. Bush announced in February. He called for voluntary measures that would allow gas emissions to continue to rise, with the goal of slowing the rate of growth. Yet the new report's predictions present a sharp contrast to previous statements on climate change by the administration, which has always spoken in generalities and emphasized the need for much more research to resolve scientific questions. The report, in fact, puts a substantial distance between the administration and companies that produce or, like automakers, depend on fossil fuels. Many companies and trade groups have continued to run publicity and lobbying campaigns questioning the validity of the science pointing to damaging results of global warming. The distancing could be an effort to rebuild Mr. Bush's environmental credentials after a bruising stretch of defeats on stances that favor energy production over conservation, notably the failure to win a Senate vote opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to exploratory oil drilling.
But the report has alienated environmentalists, too. Late last week, after it was posted on the Web site of the Environmental Protection Agency, private environmental groups pounced on it, saying it pointed to a jarring disconnect between the administration's findings on the climate problem and its proposed solutions.
"The Bush administration now admits that global warming will change America's most unique wild places and wildlife forever," said Mark Van Putten, the president of the National Wildlife Federation, a private environmental group. "How can it acknowledge global warming is a disaster in the making and then refuse to help solve the problem, especially when solutions are so clear?"
..The report also warns of the substantial disruption of snow-fed water supplies, the loss of coastal and mountain ecosystems and more frequent heat waves. "A few ecosystems, such as alpine meadows in the Rocky Mountains and some barrier islands, are likely to disappear entirely in some areas," it says. "Other ecosystems, such as Southeastern forests, are likely to experience major species shifts or break up into a mosaic of grasslands, woodlands and forests."
Despite arguments by oil industry groups that the evidence is not yet clear, the report unambiguously states that humans are the likely cause of most of the recent warming. Phrases were adopted wholesale from a National Academy of Sciences climate study, which was requested last spring by the White House and concluded that the warming was a serious problem. A government official familiar with the new report said that it had been under review at the White House from January until mid-April, but that few substantive changes were made. Without a news release or announcement, the new report was shipped last week to the United Nations offices that administer the treaty and posted on the Web: http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming/publications /car/
.."Because of the momentum in the climate system and natural climate variability, adapting to a changing climate is inevitable," the report says. "The question is whether we adapt poorly or well."
See the complete article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/03/science/03CLIM.html?ex=1024113517&ei=1&en=8e5bda0aed2b0ec9
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Article:
by Molly Ivins 6.4.02
Greenhouse asses
What they know and why they're not going to do anything thing about it
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemId=13414&CFID=1713378&CFTOKEN=35676566
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) ABM Demise -- Bombs away
Bombs away
by Geov Parrish - WorkingForChange - 05.30.02 -
June 12th will mark the 20th anniversary of the opening of a United Nations session on nuclear disarmament and the corresponding massing of astonishing numbers of anti-nuclear protestors on the streets of the world's cities, including an estimated one-half to two million people in New York's Central Park that day. The crowds gathered because, after three decades of the Cold War, a bellicose Reagan Administration had fanned new fears of nuclear holocaust. In this country and around the world, many millions were demanding that such weapons be not just limited, but banned.
With a remarkable lack of fanfare or controversy, on the day after the coming anniversary June 13, 2002 the Bush Administration will officially and gleefully bury any hopes that such weapons will ever be limited or their further use avoided.
The occasion is the expiration of the six-month's notice given by the Peter Sellers stand-in now running the Department of Defense, the Strangelovian Donald Rumsfeld (and his boss, who recalls another Peter Sellers role, in Being There) of the 1973 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. Ever since (literally) taking office, Bush has been insisting, much to the slack-jawed disbelief of the rest of the world, that the ABM Treaty should be discarded entirely as an outmoded relic that no longer serves either the security needs or the technological developments of the 21st Century.
It would be far more accurate to say that the ABM Treaty does not serve the financial interests of U.S. military contractors or the global conquest fantasies of penthouse warriors like Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney. This prospect of having the world's dominant military power walking away from limits on arms control has left nuclear proliferation experts aghast. All this, though the official White House line has received remarkably little scrutiny by our domestic media or by an all-too-loyal Democratic opposition whose Congressional districts are also stuffed with sub-sub-contractors for such weapons.
Such scrutiny wouldn't serve the would-be conquistadors well. Their logic has little to do with American security and everything to do with the free market namely, the application of capitalist theory to weapons of mass destruction. America wants a monopoly, just as it wanted an A-bomb monopoly after World War II. The assumption is that (particularly with space-based weapons) the United States can keep potentially hostile countries out of space entirely, thereby acquiring complete global military dominance. (And this includes, not incidentally, selling a lot of the component technology and hardware to lesser militaries around the world in the bargain.)
Unfortunately, selling Armageddon isn't the same as selling widgets for one thing, potential enemies can purchase or build mass death tools a lot of different ways. Remarkably, rather than driving home this point, September 11 only served to reinforce the (visible) White House and Pentagon conviction that only expensive mastery of high-tech weapons of mass destruction the kind the ABM Treaty prohibits can protect the United States.
Preposterous doesn't begin to do justice to the notion that, say, the Airborne Laser (ABL) even if it works would be able to ferret out a boxcutter in a cockpit or a dirty nuke in a subway station. But punting the ABM isn't simply a reckless and expensive policy decision. Combined with the Bush Administration's mad post-9/11 embrace of the previously de facto U.S. policy of reserving the right to invade countries and replace governments at any time (in any place, around the world), there remains no military guy in any country anywhere in the world who will not want to defend his country against possible U.S. aggression. And what, in the wake of the United States' abandonment of the ABM Treaty, the treaty banning weapons in outer space, and various others, will be the simplest and most effective "defense"? Why, embracing whatever sort of weapons of mass destruction that warrior can lay his hands on nuclear, chemical, biological, or others yet unimagined. It's open season.
This creates a feedback loop, justifying an infinite U.S. war on "terrorists" and "terror states" (such states being anyone who might use against us the same sorts of weapons we'd use against them). It also opens up as we're seeing at this very moment with India and Pakistan the inevitability that, of the various combinations of 190 countries that might not like each other, some pair will face off using such weapons. At that point all hell, quite literally, will break loose.
The calculations of the various Peter Sellers stand-ins running our country seem to add up threefold: first, that the United States will be so dominant militarily that it can keep a lid on everyone, everywhere in the world, at all times, under all circumstances; second, that any human costs incurred in the process (say, a few million dead here and there) are well worth the resulting profits; and third, that this will be seen as so inevitable that most Americans won't object and nobody else's opinions will matter.
The first two assumptions are highly dubious, but the last seems to be holding up fine. This year, there are no millions massing in Central Park, even though the anti-Reagan crowds were inspired in the same amount of time by presidential rhetoric no more appreciably horrifying than Dubya's. With open talk of American development and casual battlefield use of "tactical" nukes, newly aggressive U.S. military deployment around the world, and the lingering image of a comparatively low-tech tragedy that killed a fraction of the number of people such weapons can destroy, you'd think that fewer people would think George W. Bush was stupid and more people would think he was clinically insane.
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=13401
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
This following invite was picked-up and sent to various no-nuke list serves:
Subject: [abolition-usa] FW: Heritage Reception on June 12th: ABM: RIP
Edwin J. Feulner, President of The Heritage Foundation, cordially invites you to a reception
ABM: RIP
A Cheerful Wake for a Flawed Treaty
featuring
The Honorable John Bolton
Under Secretary of State
Senator Trent Lott (R-MS)
Senator Don Nickles (R-OK)
Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC)
Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Representative Curt Weldon (R-7-PA)
Representative Bob Schaffer (R-4-CO)
Representative David Vitter (R-1-LA)
Lt. General James A. Abrahamson
Ambassador Henry F. Cooper
The Honorable Frank Gaffney, Jr.
5:30-7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, June 12, 2002
Russell Caucus Room
United States Capitol
For 30 years, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty has served to bolster the policy of mutually assured destruction (MAD) and impose crippling restrictions on the nation's missile defense programs.
President Bush, recognizing the inappropriateness of MAD and the policy of vulnerability to missile attack, announced on December 13, 2001, that the United States is withdrawing from the treaty. This is a decision that will serve to bolster the national security by allowing the unfettered development and deployment of missile defenses for the protection of the American people, our allies, and troops deployed abroad.
Please join us as we mark the occasion when the treaty will lapse. We hope that you will be willing to add your voice in support of this important step forward for the national interest.
(Invitation is non-transferable.)
Please RSVP by phone or facsimile no later than Friday, June 7, 2002, to:
Jeni Harms
Fax: 202-608-6085
E-mail: jeni.harms@heritage.org
Questions? Please call Jeni Harms at (202)675-1765.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) DOE Plutonium Generator Public Comments (Due by June 19)
Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 09:12:35 -0400
[Federal Register: May 31, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 105)]
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Scoping Meetings for Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator Relocation Environmental Assessment (EA)
AGENCY: Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice of Intent.
SUMMARY: Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Department of Energy (DOE, the Department) is announcing its intent to prepare an Environmental Assessment (EA) to assess the environmental impacts related to determining the future location of the Department's Heat Source/Radioisotope Power System (HS/RPS) assembly and test operations. The HS/RPS operations include those identified as HS/Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (HS/RTG) operations in prior NEPA documents. These activities are currently conducted at the Mound site near Miamisburg, Ohio. The EA will evaluate continuation of the HS/RPS operations in the currently used facilities (the No Action alternative) or alternative facilities at the Mound site. Alternative sites to be evaluated in the EA include the Pantex Plant (Pantex), near Amarillo, Texas, and the Argonne National Laboratory-West located on the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory site, near Idaho Falls, Idaho.
PUBLIC COMMENT DATES: The public scoping period begins with the publication of this Notice and will continue for 21 days (June 19). Comments received or postmarked by that date will be considered in the preparation of the EA. Comments postmarked after that date will be considered to the extent practicable.
PUBLIC HEARINGS: The Department will conduct public meetings to solicit comments on the consideration of future locations for these operations and the scope of the EA as follows:
June 18, 2002--Washington, DC Metropolitan Area, 7:00pm to 9:00pm, Monroe/Arlington Rooms, Days Inn Crystal City, 2000 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, VA.
June 20, 2002--Miamisburg, OH, 7:00pm to 9:00pm, Carnegie Center, Lower Level Room, 426 East Central Avenue, Miamisburg, OH.
June 24, 2002--Amarillo, TX, 7:00pm to 9:00pm, Oak Room, College Union Building, Washington Street Campus, Amarillo College, 24th and Jackson Streets, Amarillo, TX.
June 26, 2002-Idaho Falls, ID, 7:00pm to 9:00pm, Grand Teton Room, Shilo Inn, 780 Lindsay Boulevard, Idaho Falls, ID.
These meetings will also be advertised in the local media.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Please direct comments on the proposed relocation and scope of the EA, requests for copies of the EA, and questions concerning the project to: Mr. Timothy A. Frazier, U.S. Department of Energy, P.O. Box 66, Miamisburg, OH 45343-0066, Telephone: (937)865-3748, Facsimile (937)865-4489, Electronic mail: Tim.Frazier@hq.doe.gov. For general information on DOE's NEPA process, please contact Ms. Carol Borgstrom, Office of NEPA Policy and Compliance, U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW. Washington, DC 20585, telephone (202) 586-4600 or leave message at 1-(800) 472-2756.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For information to stop nuclear power/weapons in space, contact:
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, FL. 32607
(352) 337-9274
http://www.space4peace.org
globalnet@mindspring.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) The 9/11 Evidence that May Hang George W. Bush
Smoking Gun
The 9/11 Evidence that May Hang George W. Bush
By Cheryl Seal
02 June 2002
The Case Against G.W. Bush: a Preliminary "Hearing" in the Court of Common Sense
At the very least Bush allowed 9/11 to happen. But the evidence indicates his guilt involves more than just a huge intentional sin of omission this now seems certain. So it is ulcer-fomenting to watch him, Cheney, Condoleeza Rice and their PR army try to sell America yet another Big Lie that they had no idea such a thing as 9/11 could happen...they could never have imagined it in their wildest dreams...they had no specific warnings...there was nothing unusual about the summer 2001 warnings, etc, etc, ad nauseam. I have compiled some material that clearly shows that the above litany is blatantly, arrogantly false. But first, let's hold a preliminary hearing in the "Court of Common sense".
To see through a wall of propaganda and determine what's really going on, one must tune out the spin completely and take a good, objective look at what has been DONE and what the parties involved have to GAIN by their actions. Let's look at the well-documented facts:
For this complete article, see:
http://newsinsider.cjb.net/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Story:
US rejected Iraq offer to turn over alleged World Trade Center bomber
The United States spurned an offer from Iraq to turn over terror bombing suspect Abdul Rahman Yasin, a suspect in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. CBS News program "60 Minutes" interviewed Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz who said Washington rejected his country's offer to deliver Yasin, who is the US list of most-wanted terrorists for his alleged role in the bombing. "Twice we asked them to come and take him. They refused," Aziz said in an interview transcript.
For this complete article, see:
AFP [France], 03 June 2002
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/020603/1/2qje3.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Patriotism Devitrified
by Vincent L Guarisco
As our military apparatus belches onward with the "War on Terrorism," the national news media and other public relation puppeteers are handing out rewards and punishments; depending on what degree of "wag the dog" is needed at the time to take the public eye off whatever the White House deems "a sensitive issue." Misinformation or lack of is the largest form of mass mind control currently available. We're fed what they want us to hear to guarantee our successful behavior modification.
Currently, White House officials, FBI and the CIA are under congressional and media scrutiny for pre-knowledge of the 9/11 attack and failure to pass vital information to one another. I've yet to form an opinion of these investigations because this could very possibly be a political GOP strategy to exonerate everyone before mid-term elections. When you consider our lack of faith for the Department of Justice and other agencies that investigate, it's like letting the "rooster guard the henhouse," or letting the "criminals judge their own cases."
In the meantime our patriotism, fears and emotions are constantly being stretched like an accordion to captivate our acceptance of endless war. They intoxicate us with war's folktale packaged and harmonized like a pentagon style "Barber-Shop-Quartet" laced with "drum-roll" for our percolated ears.
They power-pitch preordained time-released panic for our continued victimization process introducing bogus threats of future planned Terrorist attacks upon American soil. They plant this fearful seed into our lives comparable to placing a "Scare-crow" in a garden while snatching our cherished civil liberties & freedom like taking "tiddly-winks" from a child.
All of this "War Business" is being conducted while demanding our time-honored patriotism in tight-lipped unison for our unquestionable patronage. We have allowed this to continue only because our nation is traumatized and suffering plus dealing with the media head-game.
Although disturbing, we must now resist this unmerciful attack upon our lifestyle & freedom and overcome our fears and nervousness to unmuzzle our voices to breakaway from the restraints of censorship and state-sponsored propaganda. We must regain our deviance for a normal society standard of living; for our children and their children's children quality of life depends on our decisions and action, for they shall inherit our mistakes, achievements or oppression when we are long gone.
It is not unpatriotic to love your country but oppose war, global intervention and not wanting to live under an extreme police state environment. It is not unpatriotic to hold our leaders responsible for their corruption and lies that had cost the lives of thousands of Americans, in fact it's the duty of American citizens to hold those accountable for such treasonous acts! Many have sacrificed their lives in order to protect our civil liberties & freedom, are we going to stand by and let our constitution dissolve before our very eyes allowing those who paid the ultimate price to die in vain? We the people are either represented fairly within the framework of our constitution, or "We the People" are no better off than third-world rogue state dictatorships; the choice is oursbut do not forget that our future generations must endure our choices made here today. Stand your ground as many have done before you!
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
5) Jenin -- Time to clean up the battlefield of a dirty war
Jonathan Cook in Jenin
June 03 2002
United Nations special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen entered Jenin refugee camp on April 18, shortly after Israel lifted its news blackout, and declared the sight of the devastated camp "horrific beyond belief". He was not alone in being appalled.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4426500,00.html
Guardian Newspapers Limited
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
6) Coup plotters had orders to kill him, Chavez tells lawmakers
Sunday June 2, 5:12 AM
Coup plotters had orders to kill him, Chavez tells lawmakers
Coup participants who briefly removed him from power in April had orders to kill him, President Hugo Chavez told legislators investigating the tumultuous events.
For the complete article, see:
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/020601/1/2qhq7.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
For inquiries or to submit articles, suggestions, and to help distribute Flyby News fliers, please write to Jonathan Mark
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - info@flybynews.com- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Just Parole for Malik & Leonard! * Death for Capital Punishment * Marijuana
01 June 2002
1) Just Parole for Malik Abdullah Akili
2) Don't forget Leonard - Interim Parole Hearing Set for July 1
3) Last Statement: Texas Death Row Inmate Napoleon Beazley
4) Digging a Grave for Capital Punishment?
5) Marijuana prohibition insane public policy
The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates.
-- Tacitus
Editor's Notes:
This issue seeks your support in writing letters for the parole and freedom of Malik Abdullah Akili and Leonard Peltier. Please don't pass up this opportunity to work for the just freedom of these two wonderful people. Their cases represent the concerns of millions, and they are deserving of every effort we can share in the freedom of our day to day, to help another locked into hell by a system running amok with lost values of justice and compassion. Item 3 passes forth a poignant statement by another person executed by the state of Texas. Item 4 is part of an article questioning the demise of capital punishment. A related article examines the lives of hundreds of inmates released from prison due to DNA evidence proving their innocence, after excruciating years of suffering, the AP writers follow their path of continued hardships. Item 5 is an editorial examining another insane policy, the prohibition of marijuana. Flyby News is committed to a justice system where corruption is not rampant, where most all nonviolent offenders receive alternative sentencing for community service, and not locked up into a place of morbid values and influences. Please help with your actions and deeds.
Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.
-- Albert Einstein (1950)
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Just Parole for Malik Abdullah Akili
Malik, his family, his friends, and those who know of his case and Malik's commitment as a peacemaker, request that you write a letter on his behalf for a parole hearing this October that could lead to his freedom from the torturous confines of prison.
We need all the help and support that we can get, knowing too well the cards are stacked up against Malik, who is Black, a devout Sunni Muslim, and a former Black Panther member with a long prison record. Malik is not a celebrity, yet his story is of tremendous consequence for those who have worked with him, for those that know of his case and why he is in prison today, and for those missing him the most, his daughter and his wife.
To learn more on this case, see a Flyby News' posting "A Nation Behind Bars," Item 1
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid999200948,87474,m
A personal letter from you to the Board reviewing Malik's case is the best sort of letter. Try to reach into the parole review examiner's heart and mind, and offer your experience, your understanding of why you are encouraging him/her to give Malik parole. The following is a sample letter that you are invited to use. Please send your signed letter with your address to the Parole Board to Malik's wife, Talibah. She will send a copy of your letter immediately to the Parole Board, and will hand deliver the original at the hearing in October. Please act soon in sending your letter, since time is of an essence, and your support will uplift what is good in the spirit of freedom, justice, and family.
SAMPLE LETTER>>= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = >
New York State Parole Board
Re: Parole Application For: Malik Abdullah Akili, #94-A-5238
To whom It May Concern,
I am writing this letter on the behalf of Malik Abdullah Akili, who is about to receive a parole hearing. I learned of Malik and his case initially by his writings. I believe with firm conviction that this person poses no threat to society, and in actuality, there are many good reasons for you to give a favorable review for his freedom. I realize about his lengthy prison record, his former involvement with the Black Panther party, but beyond these issues, (where some in society would rather have him locked behind bars), if they knew Malik, like I do, like I hope you will, most anyone would agree that justice would be most served by releasing Malik from prison to join his wife in Rochester, NY.
This is a time when the healing work of a devout Muslim is clashing with the background of much corruption in the criminal justice system, (where even the Director of the FBI knew about an innocent men going to prison for decades), where one smudged fingerprint at the scene of a robbery was enough to incarcerate Malik for years...this should not be used against his parole in 2002. Beyond any questions of corruption in the system, the reality is that Malik has a wonderful life to go home to outside of NYC, where his wife, of five years, resides and works as a respected professional (PhD), and a valued member of the Islamic community in Rochester, NY. Malik has already received good prospects for employment opportunities.
Also, Malik has suffered with asthma since early childhood, developed diabetes as an adult, and has hypertension, hepatitis C and other medical conditions. Yet he would not only be best served by parole, but our society, too. Malik is a wonderful human being and friend, and as long as he remains in prison, a part of what is good in each of us is in prison, too. Please support what is best for justice and freedom for all. Please grant Malik Abdullah Akili a favorable parole board hearing review.
Please contact me if I can offer any further support for Malik.
Sincerely,
Your Name
cc: Malik Abdullah Akili
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Please send your signed/addressed letter to:
Talibah Amatullah Akili
P.O. Box 40412
Rochester, NY 14604
If you wish to write to Malik, and send him a copy of your letter too, it would lift his spirits!
His address and more on his case can be found at the following URL:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid999200948,87474,m
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Don't forget Leonard - Interim Parole Hearing Set for July 1
Reminder: Please do not forget to send your letter in support of parole for Leonard Peltier. The interim hearing is on July 1st. The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee would like to have the letters collected by Monday, June 24. Please send your letters with signatures and addresses to the LPDC. They are collecting the letters and will send copies to the parole commission as they receive them. They will hand deliver originals to the parole examiner at the hearing itself, so that they will be part of the record, and knowing how many were generated.
For sample letter, addresses, and for more information, see Flyby News Archive May 15, 2002 - Letters Needed to Free Leonard Peltier after 26 years - Item 1 -
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1021500607,77209,m
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Last Statement: Texas Death Row Inmate Napoleon Beazley
Last Statement: Napoleon Beazley
Executed by the state of Texas, USA.
Last Statement: May 28, 2002
"The act I committed to put me here was not just heinous, it was senseless. But the person that committed that act is no longer here - I am. I'm not going to struggle physically against any restraints. I'm not going to shout, use profanity or make idle threats. Understand though that I'm not only upset, but I'm saddened by what is happening here tonight. I'm not only saddened, but disappointed that a system that is supposed to protect and uphold what is just and right can be so much like me when I made the same shameful mistake. If someone tried to dispose of everyone here for participating in this killing, I'd scream a resounding, "No." I'd tell them to give them all the gift that they would not give me ... and that's to give them all a second chance.
I'm sorry that I am here. I'm sorry that you're all here. I'm sorry that John Luttig died. And I'm sorry that it was something in me that caused all of this to happen to begin with. Tonight we tell the world that there are no second chances in the eyes of justice ... Tonight, we tell our children that in some instances, in some cases, killing is right. This conflict hurts us all, there are no SIDES. The people who support this proceeding think this is justice. The people that think that I should live think that is justice. As difficult as it ma seem, this is a clash of ideals, with both parties committed to what they feel is right. But who's wrong if in the end we're all victims?
In my heart, I have to believe that there is a peaceful compromise to our ideals. I don't mind if there are none for me, as long as there are for those who are yet to come. There are a lot of men like me on death row - good men - who fell to the same misguided emotions, but may not have recovered as I have. Give those men a chance to do what's right. Give them a chance to undo their wrongs. A lot of them want to fix the mess they stated, but don't know ho. The problem is not in that people aren't willing to help them find out, but in the system telling them it won't matter anyway. No one wins tonight. No one gets closure. No one walks away victorious."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Sharing by Brenda Pitts Bennett
TEXAS ADVOCATES
http://www.geocities.com/copbrutality
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Digging a Grave for Capital Punishment?
State moratoriums have some in the U.S. predicting the end is near.
By John Ibbitson
May 11, 2002, The Toronto Globe & Mail
They killed Lynda Block yesterday. The state of Alabama strapped her into Yellow Mama, as the chair is called, and poured 2,200 volts of electricity through her until a doctor pronounced her well and truly dead.
The day before, the Governor of Maryland had put a temporary halt to executions in his state, joining what many believe is a swelling tide of government restraint that could see the death penalty eliminated in the United States, not in one grand gesture, but state by state, act by humanitarian act.
"It's much more than a blip," Dennis Elliott of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty said in an interview yesterday. "The entire terrain on which the debate is being waged has shifted. Now the death-penalty proponents have to defend a system that is irreparably broken.
"For the first time in a quarter of a century their backs are against the wall, and we have the momentum."
But supporters of the death penalty say capital punishment is alive and well in the United States. And two economists have produced a report that maintains homicide rates actually increase when death-penalty moratoriums are imposed.
Ms. Block, 53, was the first woman put to death in Alabama since 1957.
She was impassive as death approached, officials said. "She never displayed any emotion," said Mike Haley, commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections. "She seemed very sombre, somewhat stoic."
(Nine years ago, Ms. Block and her common-law husband murdered a police officer during an identity check in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Her husband, too, is on death row. The two believed most of the U.S. government is illegitimate.)
Earlier this week, in Pennsylvania, Thomas Kimbell became the 101st person to be exonerated since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. A jury found him innocent when evidence that had been excluded at his first trial was presented at his second. He had been on death row for four years.
"With each troubling case, it is becoming increasingly clear that our system of capital punishment is so seriously broken that all executions should be stopped," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
Illinois was the first state to call a temporary halt to the death penalty. Illinois Governor George Ryan imposed the first moratorium two years ago, on the grounds that too many people convicted of murder had later been found innocent, in some cases because of DNA testing. In Maryland's case, Governor Parris Glendening cited evidence of racial bias in awarding the death penalty.
For the complete article, inquire
http://www.globeandmail.ca/
2002 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Article:
For 110 inmates freed by DNA tests, true freedom remains elusive
By SHARON COHEN, DEBORAH HASTINGS, AP National Writers
Their time in prison surpassed 1,000 years, and all were wrongly convicted. Then they returned to lives that had passed them by.
An Associated Press examination of what happened to 110 inmates after their convictions were overturned by DNA tests found that, for many of the men, vindication brought neither a happy ending nor a happy beginning.
For this complete article, see:
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/AP-CohenDNA.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
5) Marijuana prohibition insane public policy
Marijuana prohibition insane public policy
By Bob Newland
Founder and president of SoDakNORML, an affiliate of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).
This editorial ran in the Rapid City (SD) Journal; Sat., May 4, 2002.
Public school teachers are permitted only to speak of the evils of cannabis, forbidden to teach its 5,000-plus years of history of service to man. Politicians spout absurdity after slander when they speak of it at all. Misinformed people are moved to anger, threaten violence, or wax childish ("Oh, wow!") when the subject confronts them.
Within this melee of babble, a large and growing number of credible people are expressing doubt about the efficacy of marijuana prohibition. The politicians and their sycophants accuse us of advocating "giving drugs to babies." They say we're "supporting terrorism." They even make absurd statements like State Rep. Stan Adelstein made at a speech to the United Campus Ministries luncheon at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology on Nov. 22, 2001:
"I know the marijuana laws work, because only one of my three sons smoked marijuana. The other two didn't smoke it, because it's illegal. They told me so."
Adelstein refused to answer when asked if he thought his son who smoked marijuana should have gone to prison for it, as millions of others have.
Fact is, Adelstein's family is squarely in the mainstream. The National Institute on Drug Abuse's annual national household survey continually says that about one-third of adults in the U.S. have smoked marijuana. Yet, we continue:
Arresting people at the rate of one every 45 seconds for possession or sale of marijuana.
Confiscating folks' cars, houses, cash and children for mere suspicion of trafficking in marijuana. If they're convicted, we throw them in prison, also.
Paying snitches to create marijuana crimes so that law enforcement can confiscate even more property and children.
Allowing law enforcement agencies to keep most of the plunder they steal, thus perpetuating the vicious and counterproductive cycle.
Preventing legal access to marijuana for sick, disabled and dying people who currently benefit from it, albeit illegally.
Caught up in this insanity is industrial hemp, which has a potential worldwide market of $500 billion or more, but which is banned from production in the United States (but allowed in Canada and 30 other nations). Even more insanely and cruelly, the politicians maintain that there is no medical use for cannabis, in spite of disagreement from thousands of doctors and tens of thousands of patients.
How arrogant and stupid to make the statement that an herb has "no medical use." A fifth-grader wouldn't even make such a blanket statement about tomatoes or horseradish.
Here is the simple truth. Cannabis was first taxed out of the market, then made illegal in the United States in order to benefit the stockholders in a large consortium of industries which now do not have to face competition from industrial hemp. For that purpose, the politicians are willing to imprison millions and cruelly deny medical relief to tens of thousands of sick people.
When one understands that industrial hemp can be used for any purpose served by trees, cotton or flax, and petroleum, and that hemp seed is the most nutritious single food item in the world, one begins to understand the scope of the industries served by keeping it illegal. One begins to grasp whose ox will be gored by re-establishment of industrial hemp at the forefront of American farm products.
These are some of the reasons I've staked my life, my possessions, and my honor on exposing the truth about cannabis, knowing that, like countless others, I could be stopped, "found" in possession of something illegal, and imprisoned at the whim of the politicians.
It's just one more of the cruel truths of the so-called "war on drugs": that innocent people are sometimes silenced by police who frame them by "finding" drugs on them. Cops have unlimited access to drugs to use for such purposes. It's also sad that we must paint all policemen and women with the same brush, because the bad cops' and the good cops' uniforms look the same.
And it is for these reasons that SoDakNORML organized the Rapid City segment of the Million Marijuana March, an educational event being held in over 160 cities worldwide today. We're appealing to governments everywhere to stop all cannabis arrests, to stop lying about cannabis, to release cannabis as medicine to sick people, and to stop imprisoning people for simply trying to feel better.
There's more good information about cannabis on the Internet than just about any other subject. Simply inquire "hemp," "cannabis," or "marijuana" on any search engine. For a tragic laugh, see what the major disseminators of misinformation, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and the Parents for a Drug-Free America (whose largest funder is Anheuser-Busch) have to say on the subject.
It's time for all good people to help end this horrible cycle. Civilian and soldier, cop and just-folks alike, we must hold our local politicians and our federal delegations accountable for the carnage and economic damage created by marijuana prohibition.
From: "Bob Newland" newland@rapidcity.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
For inquiries or to submit articles, suggestions, and to help distribute Flyby News fliers, please write to Jonathan Mark
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - info@flybynews.com- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Global Warming on the Rise * Sustainable Development * SolarFest 2002
29 May 2002
"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."
- Nelson Mandela
1) Expert warns world is warming faster than forecast
2) Antarctic Ice Melt Poses Worldwide Threat
3) World Summit on Sustainable Development
4) SolarFest 2002
5) Help Flyby News
Editor's Notes:
This issue follows up on the critical area of global warming. Since the Larsen B ice shelf collapse in Antartica, scientists are becoming alarmed at the quickening rate of CO2 concentration and atmospheric global warming. Item 3 is on an upcoming world summit on sustainable development. There are many questions as to the effectiveness of such a summit, but each situation offers some opportunity. Information is linked at the end of this item on what you could do, learn, or share, in support of the development of a beneficial commercial-industrial energy technology. Item 4 is on SolarFest, which combines art, music, and sustainable learning, in a beautiful off-the-grid intimate homestead in Vermont.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Expert warns world is warming faster than forecast
INTERVIEW - Expert warns world is warming faster than forecast
UK: May 14, 2002
LONDON - Planet earth is warming up faster than previously expected, the head of a leading climate research institute said yesterday.
Dying forests, expanding deserts and rising sea levels would wreak havoc to human and animal lives sooner than anticipated as global warming was accelerating, said Geoff Jenkins, head of the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research.
"It looks like it will be warmer by the end of the century than what we have predicted," he told Reuters in an interview.
Jenkins said recent revisions showed much greater output of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) than earlier estimated. These gases are blamed for global warming.
Warmer weather will generate more droughts, floods and rising sea levels which many fear will create millions of refugees from drowning island-nations and possible wars over increasingly scarce fresh water.
Economies are also likely to take a blow as farming, fishing and business will be affected by the change in climate.
A 2001 United Nations' report on climate change forecast that global temperatures will rise two to five degrees Celsius by the end of the century.
But recent data suggest temperatures could rise even higher as a worst case scenario shows four times as much emitted CO2 in the atmosphere from today's levels which Jenkins said is significantly higher than previously expected.
Carbon dioxide is blamed for two thirds of all global warming and is largely produced when burning fossil fuels such as oil and coal.
NATURE'S DEFENCES WEAKENING
Despite efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 percent of 1990's levels during 2008-12 under a global Kyoto pact, the amount in the atmosphere is set to rise as warmer temperatures will curb nature's capacity to absorb the gases, Jenkins said.
Half of all CO2 emissions last in the atmosphere for about 100 years, while the rest is soaked up by seas, land and vegetation.
But the opposite effect may kick in as warmer weather and less rainfall in some places will dry out and kill trees which emit CO2 as they decompose, Jenkins said.
CO2-absorbing microbes in the soil are also set to boost emissions as higher temperatures will fuel their activities which produce the greenhouse gas.
"Instead of helping, they will make global warming worse," Jenkins said.
He echoed a warning from the Royal Society, Britain's national academy of science, that present
measures to cut greenhouse gases were not sufficient to avoid the worst effects of global warming.
He said temperatures in the UK could rise by seven to eight degrees by 2080 compared with an expected four degree increase.
"We would have to cut emissions by 60-70 percent by the end of the century to stabilise CO2 levels," Jenkins said.
The European Union has said it will ratify the Kyoto treaty this summer and if Russia and Japan also do
so the treaty can come into force without the world's largest producer of man-made CO2 emissions - the United States.
The U.S., which has the world's biggest economy, rejected the pact in 2001 over worries it would harm its industry.
Story by Eva Sohlman
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more on the mounting evidences of Global Warming, visit:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1014396414,10278,
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Antarctic Ice Melt Poses Worldwide Threat
Published on Tuesday, May 14, 2002 by Reuters
by Michael Byrnes
HOBART, AUSTRALIA - The Antarctic Peninsula ice shelves are cracking up and, on the face of things, it is the most serious thaw since the end of the last ice age 12,000 years ago.
The break-up of the ice shelves in itself is a natural process of renewal, but the size and rate of production of icebergs -- some the size of major cities -- is alarming scientists, who blame global warming.
The break-off last month of a 500 billion ton chunk of the Larsen Ice Shelf -- 650 feet thick and with a surface area of 1,250 sq. miles -- is the second big break since a giant iceberg broke away in 1995 and is well beyond normal activity, scientists say.
The production of vast amounts of icebergs is a threat to the world's climate and the way the ocean's function, they say. And the process, once started, cannot be reversed.
The fear is that a snowball effect will lead to disintegration of the vast West Antarctic ice shelf, kilometers thick in parts.
"The (first) break-off said 'this is not theory, it's real -- a rapid and dramatic collapse of an ice shelf can happen'," says Neal Young, glaciologist with the Antarctic Cooperative Research Center (CRC) in Hobart.
"This is saying 'that wasn't a one-off thing."'
Significant warming in parts of the pristine Antarctic wilderness is expected to continue to send huge icebergs into the Southern Ocean, and lead to the disintegration of other sections of ice shelves that fringe Antarctica's continental ice cover.
A longer-term effect would be if the disintegration led to a meltdown of the grounded West Antarctic ice sheet, which would cause the world's oceans to rise by up to five meters (17 feet).
As they delve deeper into the mysteries of the southern continent, scientists are finding a jigsaw on a gigantic scale.
The Antarctic Peninsula, which juts out into the Southern Ocean, has warmed by 2.5 degrees Celsius over the past 50 years, while some other areas have cooled. Some parts of West Antarctica have been losing ice, while, like shifting grains of sand on a beach, ice has built up elsewhere.
LONG-TERM FEARS
But the main message from the world's biggest concentration of Antarctic scientists in Hobart, in
Australia's southernmost city, is of retreating West Antarctic ice and massive break-offs.
Scientists are not too worried for the moment about rising sea levels. This is because floating ice shelves displace large amounts of sea water, and sea levels would effectively remain unchanged if the ice shelfs disappeared.
The real problems arise if the ice built up over millions of years on parts of Antarctica's land mass melts.
"We aren't too worried about the first 100 years or so when the ice shelves go, because there's no real effect on sea level and feedback on global climate is really rather small," said Bill Budd, Professor of Meteorology at the CRC.
The CRC is a co-operative body between Australia's Antarctic Division, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), the University of Tasmania and other bodies.
But scientists believe that the expected loss of half the Antarctic's sea ice by the end of the century will have important consequences for Earth's entire natural system.
They are finding that the world's deep ocean circulation system will slow as the Antarctic produces smaller amounts of dense oxygen-rich seawater, possibly within 30 years, threatening marine life.
"We can't reverse it. Because the greenhouse gas levels are already up, we can't bring them down, they just get higher, and the (ocean) cutoff will be stronger at higher levels," Budd said.
The Antarctic is normally the source for a large part of the "bottom water" which feeds oxygen to global ocean depths. And computer modeling results indicate production of this dense, rich water has fallen by 20 percent from pre-industrial times.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more on the mounting evidences of Global Warming, visit:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1014396414,10278,
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) World Summit on Sustainable Development
In his first major policy address on expectations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development to be held this August, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan identified water and sanitation, energy, health, agriculture and biodiversity as five key areas where concrete results can and must be obtained.
The Secretary-General proposed the following actions:
Water Provide access to at least one billion people who lack clean drinking water and two billion people who lack proper sanitation.
Energy Provide access to more than two billion people who lack modern energy services; promote renewable energy; reduce over-consumption; and ratify the Kyoto Protocol to address climate change.
Health Address the effects of toxic and hazardous materials; reduce air pollution, which kills three million people each year, and lower the incidence of malaria and African guinea worm, which are linked with polluted water and poor sanitation.
Agricultural productivity Work to reverse land degradation, which affects about two-thirds of the world's agricultural lands.
Biodiversity and ecosystem management Reverse the processes that have destroyed about half of the world's tropical rainforest and mangroves, and are threatening 70 per cent of the world's coral reefs and decimating the world's fisheries.
The World Summit on Sustainable Development will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 26 August to 4 September, bringing together world leaders, citizen activists and business representatives.
For more information, visit: http://www.johannesburgsummit.org/
= = = = = == = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Article:
Energy Emerges as a Key Issue for Johannesburg
New York, 8 May 2002 Beyond the debates over energy use and efficiency that have featured during the preparatory process for the World Summit on Sustainable Development is the fact that more than a third of the world's population does not have clean and affordable energy services.
For this complete article, see:
http://www.johannesburgsummit.org/html/whats_new/otherstories_energy0905.html
= = = = = == = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Article:
JOHANNESBURG SUMMIT PREPARATIONS BOG DOWN (April 8, 2002)
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-08-03.html
= = = = = == = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Editor's Note:
As the title of the above article-link indicates, there is much debate whether this Summit will be effective. Yet if anyone on this list is attending, I would like your request your consideration in giving Kofi Annan, or his organization, the Stirling Advantage, Inc. business plan. It shows the potential results by improving an 1800's external combustion engine technology. The engine runs favorably with sustainable agricultural practices, and besides generating electricity, its final exhaust heat can be used to enhance water purification systems and other applications, serving humanity in harmony with ecosystems.
For more information, see
A Practical "Stirling" Solution for Onsite Power Production
Flyby News archive posting April 17, 2002 - Item 1
Jonathan Mark is a founder in both organizations: Flyby News and Stirling Advantage, Inc.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) SolarFest 2002
Flyby News is a proud co-sponsor of SolarFest -- New England's Energy and Music Festival.
SolarFest combines superb family entertainment with presentations by some of the region's most knowledgeable renewable energy experts. Chelsea Green Publishing's eclectic offerings on sustainable living adds much to the mix, as does, home-grown Theater-in-the-Woods children's book author Frank Asch, and an assortment of craft, food, energy and sustainable living vendors. There is room for serendipitous encounters, learning, relaxation, and celebration of the sun on special land away from the grid, just southwest of Rutland, Vermont.
Saturday and Sunday
July 13 and 14, 2002
Daisy Hollow Road,
Middletown Springs, Vermont
For musical performer listings, workshops, maps, early bird special for tickets, etc. visit:
http://www.solarfest.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
5) Help Flyby News
Donations are gratefully accepted in support of Flyby News' expenses.
Wish List:
- Toner, cartridge for HP LaserJet 5P Printer
- $32.85 for next quarterly web hosting bill
We don't ask for much. Anything helps.
Most critical are your actions in support of campaigns that could make a difference.
Thanks!
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380
For more information write to Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
911 US War on Freedom * Iraq - the Phantom Menace * War No More
28 May 2002
1) 911 US War on Freedom
2) Iraq - The Phantom Menace
3) We Must All Prevent War
Editor's Notes:
As a nuclear war between Pakistan and India threatens all, the US seems to be content in its role as a world leader for making war the absolute truth in an ill-defined plan in black and white terms in battling good versus evil. Greed, corruption, fear, domination, false justification, is the name of the game, and watch out for our eroding freedoms. Item 1 gives substantial documentation on pre-911 awareness by the US government, cover-up, oil-money motives, etc. The next item is about what is next on the Bush-US foreign policy agenda, attack Iraq. The US/Israel campaign for dominance is not effective in terminating terrorism. It adds to it. Last week Scott Ritter spoke in Amherst, MA at a program sponsored by Traprock Peace Center. Scott Ritter was the former chief of the Concealment Investigations Unit for the UN Special Commission on Iraq. With first-hand experience he claims that Iraq is no longer a real threat. So, why go to war?
THIS IS NOT A WAR AGAINST TERROR, BUT FOR TERROR.
After reading please take actions to give peace a chance.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) 911 US War on Freedom
The War on Freedom:
How and Why America Was Attacked
September 11, 2001
by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
In the weeks before the 9/11 attacks, warnings poured in from the world's spy agencies, but U.S. officials did nothing.
Instead, our intelligence agencies were reined in, air interceptors grounded - and the attacks exploited to launch a devastating war on Afghanistan. The results: a U.S. corporate takeover of Central Asia's oil and gas - a wealthier Bush family - and more censorship.
Was the attack on America to open the door for a more aggressive U.S. foreign policy - and uncurbed surveillance of the American people? Compiled from hundreds of newspapers, experts and official documents, "The War On Freedom" is the definitive account of how and why America was attacked.
Who blocked investigation of known Bin-Laden associates?
What happened to our defense measures?
When was the Afghan offensive first conceived?
Where does the real blame lie for the WTC devastation?
Why did America not protect its own?
"What did this administration know, and when did they know it?"
Rep. Cynthia McKinney, (D) GA.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The War On Freedom" rips apart the veil of silence surrounding 9/11, and lets readers look at the facts for themselves.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"This riveting and thoroughly documented study is a 'must' resource for everyone seeking to understand the attack on the World Trade Center of New York on Sept. 11, 2001 and 'America's New War' since . . . this volume provides the detailed documentation in a definitive and masterful record."
Professor John McMurty, Department of Philosophy, University of Ontario; Fellow at the Royal Society of Canada; Chair of Jurists, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Tribunal at the Alternative World Summit in Toronto, 1989 (Canada)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The most complete book I know of, summarizing the relevant background and foreground intersecting upon the events of Sept. 11, 2001 . . . A tour de force in every respect . . . I can't say how much I admire this work. It MUST be seen by as many people as possible all over the world as soon as possible."
Barry Zwicker, Producer and Host, MediaFile, Vision TV Insight; award-winning journalist on CBC-TV and CTV (Canada)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To pre-view and/or purchase this book, visit:
http://www.thewaronfreedom.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Online Journal on 911 foreknowledge
All the desperate lies and spin don't change the fact that the Bush administration had foreknowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks
By Larry Chin
Online Journal Contributing Editor
http://www.onlinejournal.com
May 19, 2002George W. Bush knew. And his administration knew. The transparently dishonest denials issued by the White House do not stand up to the slightest scrutiny. They are lying. A simple examination of existing information, gathered from reliable, open sources proves it.
Last night, Michael C. Ruppert of From The Wilderness was scheduled to present his case for Bush 9/11 foreknowledge before a national TV audience on Geraldo Rivera's Fox News program. At the last minutes, this live appearance was canceled. Coincidence? Ruppert's appearance, which could have caused immeasurable damage to the administration, was allegedly prompted by "breaking news" from the White House suggesting "imminent new terrorist attacks." "Wag the dog"? What desperate measures will this cabal resort to in order to remain in power?
How many more lives will they take?
For the complete article, visit!!!
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/Chin051902/chin051902.html
The More Important Questions They Are Not Asking
1. Who really is Osama bin Laden? What is al Qaeda? What really is "Militant Islam?"
In a penetrating analysis by Professor Michel Chossudovsky titled "Who is Osama bin Laden?" this question is answered clearly. Osama bin Laden and the terror networks of the region are creations of the United States and its CIAand continue to serve the geostrategic purposes the United States government, which directly and indirectly controls their operations.
* The CIA, using Pakistan's ISI, played a key role in training the mujahadeen. In turn, the CIA-sponsored guerrilla training was integrated into the teachings of Islam.
* Pakistan's ISI is a proxy of the CIA by official government directive.
* CIA covert operations in the region are conducted through the ISI. Terror operations continue throughout the Middle East, the Caucasus, the Balkans and Central Asiawhich, in addition to holding coveted untapped oil and gas reserves, produces three quarters of the world's opium.
* The Islamic Jihad has been supported by the US and Saudi Arabia with a significant part of the funding generated from the Golden Crescent drug trade.
* Motivated by nationalism and religious fervor, and kept out of touch with upper levels of the intelligence hierarchy, Islamic warriors are unaware of whose purposes they serve.
* Since the Cold War, Washington has consciously supported Osama bin Laden, while at the same time inflating his legend as the world's foremost terrorist.
"All the desperate lies and spin don't change the fact that the Bush administration had foreknowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks"
By Larry Chin
Online Journal Contributing Editor
The complete article is posted:
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/Chin051902/chin051902.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a Michael C. Ruppert article, posted May 16, 2002
THE LIE WON'T STAND
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/051602_liewontstand.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Scams Away: The Boom Is Falling
by Al Martin
(May 22, 2001) In an incredible display of arrogance, George Bush said that HE (not the White House, but HE) will no longer tolerate second-guessing on the subject of the growing questions of what did the Bush Administration know and when did it know it regarding threatened terrorist attacks against the United States prior to 9-11. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld then came out with a press release from the Department of Defense, stating that "those who ask questions could face government charges."
AL MARTIN is America's foremost whistle blower on government fraud and corruption. A retired US Navy Lt. Commander and former officer in the Office of Naval Intelligence, he has testified before Congress (the Kerry Committee and the Alexander Committee) regarding Iran-Contra. Al Martin is the author of "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider" (2001, National Liberty Press, $19.
This complete article was linked from:
http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/
http://www.almartinraw.com/
http://www.centrexnews.com/
Excellent 911 investigative resources!
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Oil Moves the War Machine
by Michael T. Klare
June 2002
Since its inception, the Bush Administration has launched two great foreign policy initiatives: a global war against terrorism, and a global campaign to expand American access to foreign oil. Originally, each possessed its own rationale and mode of operation. As time has passed, however, they have become increasingly intertwined, so that today the war on terrorism and the struggle for oil have become one vast enterprise.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.theprogressive.org/June%202002/klare0602.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more information on the Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1014738186,11057,m
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Iraq - The Phantom Menace
As the response to 9-11 continues, a looming question hangs over Washington: Is Iraq Next? The hawks say take out Saddam Hussein now, or take him out later at much greater cost. The doves say, contain Saddam Hussein, but don't risk an American strike that might antagonize the Arab nations and harm more innocent civilians. In this following linked article, former chief of the Concealment Investigations Unit for the UN Special Commission on Iraq, Scott Ritter, claims that Iraq does not pose to be a threat, "Rather than relying on information from dubious sources, let's put all the facts on the table. The conclusions drawn from such a debate could pull us back from the brink of an unnecessary and costly war."
For the article originally published in the Christian Science Monitor,
"Iraq: The Phantom Threat," by Scott Ritter, see:
http://www.globalpolicy.org/wtc/targets/2002/0123phantom.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Scott Ritter is seeking your help to meet with Senator John Kerry and others to discuss open Congressional hearings on the debate of attacking Iraq. He wants to be there in a debate with his testimony based on his eye witness accounts. Ritter plans on being in Washington, D.C. on June 14 and intends to discuss this with the following Senators. You can help by contacting your Senator and mention that Scott Ritter is available to discuss possible hearings before the US bombs Iraq, and plunges life deeper into the abyss of world chaos and suffering.
Sen. John Forbes Kerry (D) MA
Tel.202-224-2742
http://kerry.senate.gov/low/contact_email.html
Sen. John McCain (R) AZ
Tel. 202-224-2235
John_McCain@mccain.senate.gov
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D)
202-224-3841
http://feinstein.senate.gov/email.html
Eliot L. Engel (D-17) NY
Tel. 202-225-2464
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
"Iraq today is no longer a military threat to anyone. Intelligence agencies know this. All the conjectures about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq lack evidence." [Hans von Sponeck, Geneva/Dublin, 29 May 2001, UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq from 1998-2000]
There has been no documented evidence made public of Iraq's role in harboring, promoting, or financing terrorist threats to the United States.
Iraq is indicating positive gestures of resuming inspections by United Nations weapons inspectors.
Additional military spending to support an intensive war with Iraq will further erode support for domestic social programs, which are steadily and rapidly deteriorating.
A provoked war with Iraq and an attempt to dislodge Saddam Hussein will likely cause immense suffering to a nation and a population which have greatly suffered as a result of the 1990-91 Gulf War and the imposition of strict economic and trading sanctions since then. How much more pain will we inflict on them?
Sample letters available, see
http://www.rmpjc.org/STOP-THE-WAR-AGAINST-IRAQ/
Contacting the Congress web site:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html
Senate Operator: 202-224-3121
House Operator: 202-225-3121
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Article:
Military Would Be Stressed by a New War, Study Finds
by THOM SHANKER and ERIC SCHMITT
New York Times [May 24, 2002]
WASHINGTON, May 23 - A top-secret Pentagon war game has revealed that expanding the campaign against terrorism to a country like Iraq would place severe strains on personnel and cause deep shortages of certain critical weapons, senior officials say.
Even so, the computer-simulated exercise found that the armed forces could still wage and win a major regional conflict while maintaining other global commitments.
Military officials have already concluded that such an invasion could involve as many as 200,000 troops and probably could not be mounted until next winter.
The war game, code named "Prominent Hammer," made clear that the new missions given the military after Sept. 11 to defend the United States at home, wage war in Afghanistan and increase security at bases overseas are seriously taxing combat readiness.
Taking on an adversary like Iraq, the simulation found, could require mobilizing reservists at a level not seen since the Persian Gulf war, when 265,000 members of the National Guard and Reserves were called up, more than three times the number who were mobilized as of this week.
The complete article is posted
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/24/international/24GAME.html?ex=1023436608&ei=1&en=d78c61782c53c4d4
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) We Must All Prevent War
Published on Tuesday, May 28, 2002 in the Boston Globe
We Must All Prevent War
by James Carroll
THE SHOCK OF headlines leaves us unable to distinguish between the merely awful and a world historic threat. The Catholic crisis and even the war on terrorism will be mere footnotes to the present age if the conflict between India and Pakistan moves from border skirmishing to general war. As the prospect of such escalation grows more likely by the day, here are several points deserving of renewed emphasis:
There has never been a shooting war between two nuclear powers. And war, by definition, carries its own irrational momentum. The possibility of new Hiroshimas on the subcontinent is real, perhaps imminent.
From within the dispute between India and Pakistan, issues of national sovereignty and religious identity seem worth the risk even of nuclear war, but from outside there is no conceivable justification of that risk. This is the position of the United States and other nations.
But that contradiction adheres in every situation of war. From within a dispute, drastic action is always justified. From outside it, compromise, negotiation, and restraint are always seen as preferable to violence. The India-Pakistan war, in other words, is a revelation of the futility of war as such. Therefore it is not enough for the United States and other nations to urge restraint on New Delhi and Islamabad.
The escalation of this conflict has not occurred in a vacuum. Two things have made it possible: a broad international climate of moral approbation in favor of war, and widespread indifference to the threat still posed by nuclear weapons. The real and immediate prospect of a nuclear war must generate changes on both these fronts.
There was a time when the populations of nations got out ahead of their governments on the urgent question of nuclear war. From the ''Ban the Bomb'' movement of the 1950s to the ''Nuclear Freeze'' movement of the 1970s, from student activists to aging peaceniks, from the scientists of Pugwash to the mothers of Womens' Action for Nuclear Disarmament, from antinuclear organizations of physicians and lawyers to those of business people and bishops - the voices of ordinary citizens have been raised in the past to tremendous effect on this question. Indeed, it may be that the arms race itself was reversed by those voices, once governments were forced to hear them.
Where are such voices today? Or, to ask the question another way, what happened to the tradition of ''resistance''? During the height of the Cold War, many human beings across the globe discovered that the only way to live humanly in the nuclear age was in active opposition to the coming prospect of the nuclear nightmare. After 1990, the danger seemed to abate, and the resistance evaporated.
The same broad population that once regarded the risk of nuclear war as an urgent public problem accepted the myth that nuclear war would never happen. In America, this led to indifference even as government officials abandoned nuclear-limiting treaties (Test Ban, ABM), proposed new nuclear weapons programs (battlefield nukes, militarization of space), and reiterated the dogma that American power rests on its permanent nuclear arsenal.
Hardly anyone seemed to notice as these trends in the United States reinforced the determination of other nations to wield such power. Hardly anyone seemed to notice, even more concretely, when the moral capacity of the United States to object to nuclear testing by India and Pakistan was undercut by the US Senate's rejection of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
The context within which India and Pakistan have moved to the brink of nuclear war has thus been defined not only by the irresponsibility of other governments, but by the detachment of citizens everywhere who no longer see the prevention of such war as involving them. And now? Are we really to watch the unfolding of the crisis along the border of India and Pakistan as if it is the Catholic bishops, say, in contest with the press? As if it is the FBI in blame-game competition with the CIA?
We owe it to the ''fate of the earth,'' in Jonathan Schell's great phrase, to do far more than that. We must, first, think the unthinkable again, imagining what the world after even a limited nuclear war would be like. And we must face the question that such a possible future already puts to every one of us: What are you doing to try to prevent this disaster?
The only way to live humanly - still - is in resistance to war. The prevention of war, in the nuclear age, must be a central purpose of every person's life. Scientists, physicians, lawyers, bishops, mothers, students, writers - where are you? We must remember what we learned already, but forgot; what the leaders of India and Pakistan are showing us again: If we human beings leave this problem to governments, we are doomed.
James Carroll's column appears regularly in the Globe.
http://www.boston.com/globe/
Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
For inquiries or to submit articles, suggestions, and to help distribute Flyby News fliers, please write to Jonathan Mark
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - info@flybynews.com- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Kucinich Deeper Rivers * McKinney's Inspiration * Bush Knew * Patriot-Enron?
21 May 2002
1) Deeper Rivers - A Kucinich candidacy where others can't reach
2) Cynthia McKinney's Statement: Terrorist Warnings
3) The Terrorists Flew and Bush Knew
4) CBS Anchor Rather Admits: "patriotism run amok"
5) Enron Pipeline Leaves Scar on South America
Editor's Notes:
The first item is another Kucinich for President article. This time from LA Weekly with an apropos title, both poetic and meaningful, "Deeper Rivers - A Kucinich candidacy would tread where others can't reach." Item 2 is a statement by the courageous and inspirational, Cynthia Mckinney, who stands tall in her continuous calling for investigations on the Bush administration's 911 awareness, or lack thereof. The article links following her statement, show the obvious contrast of true patriots, like McKinney and Kucinich, and about those now running the government as a crooked business, like Cheney and Bush. Item 3 confronts the B.S. with articles and time-lines by William Rivers Pitt, Michael C. Ruppert, Russ Kick, and David Corn, on what they knew, and when they knew it. Item 4 is an article about Dan Rather admitting self-censorship with an untrue patriotic fervor. And item 5, is on our Enron friends screwing up the environment again, with their political muscle, leaving ruin in their wake before their demise.
Call Congress for 9/11 Investigations -- Stop the US withdrawal from the ABM Treaty -- Support the Space Preservation Act of 2002 (H.R. 3616), a ban on all space-based weapons.
The Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121.
For more information on the Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1014738186,11057,m
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Deeper Rivers - A Kucinich candidacy would tread where others can't reach
Deeper Rivers - A Kucinich candidacy would tread where others can't reach
L.A. Weekly
May 10
By David Corn
SINCE SEPTEMBER 11, MANY POLITICIANS have prayed for America, but only one offered a devotional accusing the government of "in effect canceling" the first and fourth amendments, warning that a "great fear" overwhelmed America's leaders, and opposing "war without end."
When Representative Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat from Cleveland who is not a familiar face on Sunday news gab shows, offered such a "prayer for America" in February at a Los Angeles meeting of the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action, he became a magnet for progressives suffering post-9/11 blues and longing for a kick-ass leader who would bash the Bush administration, the national-security establishment and the recent expansion of federal police powers, and who also could express a left vision promoting peace, social justice, civil liberties and democracy.
Thousands of leftists across the country read Kucinich's words on the Internet and sent him emails declaring, "Right on!" The response to his speech prompted talk among liberals in L.A. and elsewhere of an improbable Kucinich-for-president campaign. In The Nation magazine, a starry-eyed Studs Terkel, the well-known lefty oral historian, declared, "Kucinich Is the One."
That's some speech that can do all that. (And Kucinich began it by singing portions of various patriotic anthems.) But with most elected Democrats proclaiming their support for George W. Bush's war on terrorism at home and abroad, the competition is slim these days for a national progressive leader.
For his part, Kucinich, 55, has long been an independent voice willing to cut against political fashion. The son of a truck driver and the oldest of seven children, Kucinich was a child star of Cleveland politics. He was elected to the City Council in 1969 at the age of 23, a populist eager to mix it up with the city's business establishment. In 1977, as the boy mayor of Cleveland, he waged a titanic struggle against the town's financial elite. The money gang wanted him to sell off the municipal utility to balance debt-ridden books he had inherited. Kucinich refused, hoping to preserve low electricity rates. The banks called in their loans, and the city went into default. Kucinich won voter referendums on the issue and on raising income taxes to cover the city deficit. But in the face of opposition from the local barons, he was bounced from office in 1979.
Seventeen years later, he was elected to Congress, beating a Republican incumbent/millionaire- businessman. As a backbencher in the minority, Kucinich does not have much clout. But he has become chairman of the Progressive Caucus, a collection of several dozen House liberals. And he has established himself as an iconoclastic and idealistic legislator who pushes issues few others will touch.
At the Web site he recently set up -- http://www.thespiritoffreedom.com -- Kucinich highlights three causes he's been chasing: establishing a Department of Peace, outlawing weapons based in space, and advocating nuclear disarmament. In Congress, he recently offered an amendment to stop Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest one percent and apply that $187 billion to prescription-drug benefits for seniors. When Homeland Security czar Tom Ridge refused to testify before Congress but deigned to appear at an informal closed-door session, Kucinich walked out of the briefing in protest.
"I have a sense of urgency," says Kucinich. "This is a time when world peace is at stake, when nuclear armament is occurring, when domestic needs, such as health care, are being ignored... I am trying to be a spokesperson. I have this sense of an unarticulated consciousness that exists in this country and that has been waiting for representation."
His unadulterated message has registered. Not only has he been flooded by 20,000 or so e-mails, he's been receiving speaking invitations from across the country. In late May, for instance, he will be the keynote speaker at the Western conference meeting of the Democratic National Committee in Seattle.
KUCINICH HAS TAKEN POSITIONS not widely shared by his fellow elected Democrats. He is openly critical of the U.S. bombing campaign in Afghanistan, saying the response to the 9/11 attacks ought to have been more in line with a police action than a war. The incursions of Ariel Sharon, he adds, are bound to fail because they "will create more violence against Israel." In one break with traditional liberals, Kucinich is not pro-choice. He explains that he represents one of the most Catholic districts in the country and was raised in a Catholic setting: "I believe in the sanctity of life and that life begins at conception." But, he adds, he has "never taken a position that Roe v. Wade should be overturned or that people should be prosecuted for abortion." In a similar vein, last year he joined with social conservatives to lead the fight in the House for a ban on all forms of human cloning, even therapeutic cloning.
Kucinich has a spiritual -- almost New Age-ish -- side to his politics he is not afraid to show. "There is a hunger out there for a message that goes beyond traditional politics," he says. "My philosophy has a lot to do with the potential for all of us to unfold." For several years, Kucinich has been friends with best-selling, spirit-celebrating author Marianne Williamson, who, he says, "has a grasp of the deeper meanings of the American experience." Regarding Kucinich, Williamson observes, "Many of us have felt so frustrated for years, because hardly anyone within mainstream politics swims the deeper river of the American psyche anymore... But then comes Dennis, and it's as though he sounds a clarion call to those of us trying to reconcile our love for this country with our disdain for so much of what we have come to stand for... He's a rare combination of poetry and power." She adds, "If he does run for president, I'll help in any way I can."
IS KUCINICH PONDERING A PRESIDENTIAL bid? He pauses -- for a long time -- before answering: "I'm getting requests from people across the country who ask me to consider it -- some from people considered to be politically astute. But it's a bit early to start that speculation." As political reporters are quick to note, that's not a "no."
"I'd like to see him run for president," gushes Lila Garrett, the immediate past president of the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action, which provided last February's forum for Kucinich's prayer. "Stranger things have happened. Look at Jesse Ventura in Minnesota. I get calls every day from people asking what they can do to support him." If Kucinich does steer in that direction, it may be because of the encouragement flowing from the support base he has cultivated in Los Angeles, where he often speaks and raises money.
Would he have a prayer? Not since 1880 has a sitting member of the House grabbed the presidential nomination of a major party. And usually candidates need tens of millions of dollars to be competitive -- a chunk of change likely beyond Kucinich's reach. Still, a bid might be worth considering. Steve Cobble, a liberal political strategist, says, "There is an opening in the 2004 field for a progressive candidate who holds office, is used to organizing grassroots support rather than depending on elites, and is brave enough to lead rather than just report back on focus-group findings. He or she would rally millions of American progressive voters who currently have few political outlets for their energies."
In the past, ideologically minded long-shot candidates have seen presidential campaigns bolster their status and influence. Pat Robertson's once-powerful Christian Coalition rose out of his 1988 presidential run, and Jesse Jackson's 1984 and 1988 campaigns transformed him, for a time, into the left's chief champion.
His prayer, Kucinich says, "was intended to let people know there's a real threat to our Bill of Rights and Constitution." In delivering it, Kucinich also won himself a much more prominent pulpit.
http://www.laweekly.com/ink/02/25/news-corn.shtml
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Cynthia McKinney's Statement: Terrorist Warnings
Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney
Terrorist Warnings
May 16, 2002
Several weeks ago, I called for a congressional investigation into what warnings the Bush Administration received before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. I was derided by the White House, right wing talk radio, and spokespersons for the military-industrial complex as a conspiracy theorist. Even my patriotism was questioned because I dared to suggest that Congress should conduct a full and complete investigation into the most disastrous intelligence failure in American history. Georgia Senator Zell Miller even went so far as to characterize my call for hearings as "dangerous, loony and irresponsible."
Today's revelations that the administration, and President Bush, were given months of notice that a terrorist attack was a distinct possibility points out the critical need for a full and complete congressional investigation.
It now becomes clear why the Bush Administration has been vigorously opposing congressional hearings. The Bush Administration has been engaged in a conspiracy of silence. If committed and patriotic people had not been pushing for disclosure today's revelations would have been hidden by the White House.
Because I love my country, because I am a patriot, and because the American people deserve the truth, I believe it would be dangerous, loony and irresponsible not to hold full congressional hearings on any warnings the Bush Administration had before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Ever since I came to Congress in 1992, there are those who have been trying to silence my voice. I've been told to "sit down and shut up" over and over again. Well, I won't sit down and I won't shut up until the full and unvarnished truth is placed before the American people.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.17AA.Mckinney.Bush.NU.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Articles:
Cheney Moves to Block 9-11 Probe
By Alison Mitchell
May 20, 2002
WASHINGTON, May 19 -- Vice President Dick Cheney said today that he would advise President Bush not to turn over to Congress the August intelligence briefing that warned that terrorists were interested in hijacking airplanes, and he insisted that the investigation into Sept. 11 should be handled by the Congressional intelligence committees, not an independent commission.
For this complete story, see:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.21A.Cheney.Block.911.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Strife, Dissent Beset Hill's Sept. 11 Panel
--- Bipartisan Group Disagrees on Mission ---
By Dana Priest and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, May 20, 2002; Page A01
The congressional panel authorized and funded to investigate the performance of intelligence agencies leading to the Sept. 11 attacks has been racked with internal strife, partisan politics and disagreements over its ultimate goal.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42577-2002May19.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"Statewide, the largest numbers of voting problems were found in precincts with high proportions of black and elderly voters. Under the settlement, both sides will work to restore voters who were wrongly removed from voters lists in the 2000 election. Many law-abiding voters across the state said their names were dropped because they were mistakenly pegged as ex-cons, who generally aren't allowed to vote in Florida. "
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.28A.Election.Fraud.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Quietly Florida Admits 2000 Election Fraud By The Associated Press 4/26/02
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Election-Lawsuit.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) The Terrorists Flew and Bush Knew
The Terrorists Flew and Bush Knew
By William Rivers Pitt
When Andrew Card interrupted the 298th reading of 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' by whispering words of fire and death into the ear of George W. Bush as he sat with schoolchildren on September 11th, 2001, Mr. Bush's face betrayed not a hint of surprise and shock.
Now, we know why..
For the complete article, see:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.17A.WRP.Bush.NU.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"Oh Lucy! You Gotta Lotta 'Splainin To Do"
A TIMELINE SURROUNDING SEPTEMBER 11TH - IF CIA AND THE GOVERNMENT WEREN'T INVOLVED IN THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS WHAT WERE THEY DOING?
Bin Laden Met with the CIA in July and Walked Away
by
Michael C. Ruppert
Expanded and Revised:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/02_11_02_lucy.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
September 11, 2001: No Surprise
by Russ Kick:
..Let us build the case slowly, starting with the more general warning signs that were allegedly missed. Gradually, we shall move up the evidence ladder, to the indications that the US knew what was about to happen.
For this complete article, see:
http://www.loompanics.com/Articles/September11.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Bush's Little Secret
David Corn,
The Nation & WorkingForChange.com
May 20, 2002
By the way, we, uh, forgot to mention, that in August of 2001, while the President was taking a long vacation at his ranch in Crawford, the CIA told him that, uh, Osama bin Laden might be planning to hijack an airliner as part of some, who-knows-what terrorist action against the United States. That is, in essence, how the Bush White House confirmed the CBS News report that broke this story Wednesday night.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13174
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) CBS Anchor Rather Admits: "patriotism run amok"
US media cowed by patriotic fever, says CBS star
Network news veteran admits national mood caused him to shrink from tough questions on war in Afghanistan
Matthew Engel in Washington
Friday May 17, 2002
The Guardian
Dan Rather, the star news anchor for the US television network CBS, said last night that "patriotism run amok" was in danger of trampling the freedom of American journalists to ask tough questions. And he admitted that he had shrunk from taking on the Bush administration over the war on terrorism.
In the weeks after September 11 Rather wore a Stars and Stripes pin in his lapel during his evening news show in an apparent display of total solidarity with the American cause. However, in an interview with BBC's Newsnight, he graphically described the pressures to conform that built up after the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
"It is an obscene comparison - you know I am not sure I like it - but you know there was a time in South Africa that people would put flaming tyres around people's necks if they dissented. And in some ways the fear is that you will be necklaced here, you will have a flaming tyre of lack of patriotism put around your neck," he said. "Now it is that fear that keeps journalists from asking the toughest of the tough questions."
Rather did not exempt himself from the criticism, and said the problem was self-censorship. "It starts with a feeling of patriotism within oneself. It carries through with a certain knowledge that the country as a whole - and for all the right reasons - felt and continues to feel this surge of patriotism within themselves. And one finds oneself saying: 'I know the right question, but you know what? This is not exactly the right time to ask it.'"
Such a confession is astonishing, bearing in mind its source.
For the complete story, see:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/bush/story/0,7369,717097,00.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
5) Enron Pipeline Leaves Scar on South America
ENRON'S END RUN (Weekly Grist)
Here's another victim of Enron: the Chiquitano Dry Tropical Forest, one of the two most valuable forests in Latin America and one of the 200 most endangered eco-regions in the world, according to the World Bank and the World Wildlife Fund, respectively. The forest was the largest remaining undeveloped land of its kind in South America -- until Enron built a 390-mile natural gas pipeline directly through it. Perhaps even more horrifying, the project was given the go-ahead and $200 million by a U.S. agency, Overseas Private Investment Corp., that is charged with protecting sensitive forest areas. Enron needed OPIC's backing because no commercial bank would finance the project; OPIC needed Enron because of a congressional battle to eliminate the agency. Enron successfully lobbied against the elimination, and OPIC backed the pipeline project even though one of its environmental reviewers is said to have exclaimed that there was "no way in hell" it should be funded.
Enron Pipeline Leaves Scar on South America
Lobbying, U.S. Loans Put Project on Damaging Path
Washington Post, James V. Grimaldi, 06 May 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37365-2002May5.html
To subscribe to WEEKLY GRIST, send a blank email message to
weekly-grist-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
For inquiries or to submit articles, suggestions, and to help distribute Flyby News fliers, please write to Jonathan Mark
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - info@flybynews.com- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
911 Coup and Coverup Update * Bush Wins the Final Battle for Star Wars?
18 May 2002
1) Operation 911 Coup and Coverup Update
2) Bush Wins the Final Battle for Star Wars?
Editor's Notes:
Okay, now that the mainstream is waking up to evidences of Bush 911 foreknowledge, (Item 1), one must wonder how far the investigations will go; and could this help end the current campaigns against democracy and military rule of law and reason? Last Tuesday the Pentagon Missile Defense Agency reported that work on underground silos for missile interceptors will begin in Alaska on June 14, the very first day that the U.S. administration expects to be freed from a 1972 treaty. Now, with US and Russia collaborating on missile defense, the evil-doers threaten a new level to the arms race (Item 2). When will Congress realize that the Bush administration, which is gearing up for perpetual war, is a lose/lose situation for most all, unless, of course, you are a defense contractor, or somehow connected to such short term gain at a horrific price for all humanity.
Combine the Issues!
Call Congress for 9/11 Investigations -- Stop the US withdrawal from the ABM Treaty -- Support the Space Preservation Act of 2002 (H.R. 3616), a ban on all space-based weapons.
The Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121.
For more information on the campaigns and the legislation Introduced by Dennis Kucinich, visit:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1012609619,15020,m
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Operation 911 Coup and Coverup Update
The VILLAGE VOICE/Mondo Washington:
Knowing Much, Bush Did Little to Protect America by James Ridgeway
Posted May 16th, 2002
When people first raised questions about President Bush's scared-chicken behavior on September 11, they were buried in patriotic abuse. But think about it. Consider the bare facts: The attacks happened on George Bush's watch. He was in charge. And he now admits to having known in general what was going to happen. Terrorists were slipping into the country. They were studying at American flight schools. They intended to hijack planes. They were financed by Osama bin Laden. Knowing all of this, Bush still left us totally undefended. And for this performance, his approval ratings soared. If the president got an intelligence warning during the summer about what might soon happen, how come he didn't do something then?
He could have:
1. Told Congress.
2. Improved airport security, which had already been criticized as inadequate.
3. Alerted the airlines. As it was, the airlines never raised any questions when the hijackers started laying down thousands in cash for one-way tickets.
4. Warned the FAA. The FAA control center in New Hampshire knew 10 to 15 minutes after takeoff that an American Airlines flight from Boston had been hijacked. It was more than half an hour later when it crashed into the World Trade Center.
5. Ordered improved security for the nation's nuclear power plants, the untended thousands of miles of natural gas pipelines, the harbors into which a terrorist could sail a liquid natural gas tanker and unleash a holocaust equal to a nuclear explosion.
If Bush knew so much, how come he did so little on September 11? Instead of letting his handlers move him from place to place in an utter fog, he could have returned to Washington immediately and, as commander in chief, taken charge. He could have alerted the military, which ought to have had planes in the air moments after the FAA control learned of the takeover.
Bush was much more careful when it came to defending his political power. He and his managers managed to spin his response to the attacks so well that approval ratings soared to all-time highs. Clutching his halo, the president then began pushing for various rollbacks of freedom and constitutional process. They were old ideas for him, but he wrapped them in patriotic banners and sold them to the nation. Consider what he accomplished:
1. He set in motion the installation of a secret Congress.
2. His administration marched far forward with its program for restricting civil rights and tightening immigration rules.
3. He started a shooting war in Afghanistan against a group of peoplethe Talibanwith whom the administration was quietly negotiating last summer. He advanced immeasurably the interests of those who want to go to war against Iraq. That's not to mention those of the Israeli war hawks who assert they are part of the campaign against terror and that their invasion of Palestinian cities and towns is thus justified.
Bush protected himself and his friends. What he left uncovered was the rest of us.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related CNN.com 17 May 2002 article:
'In retrospect, this looks horrible'
Revelation, consternation, investigation over 9/11
May 17, 2002 Posted: 6:32 AM EDT (1032 GMT)
http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:EpvCRjFcsF0C:www.cnn.com/2002/US/05/16/bush.sept.11/+9/11+investigations,+may+2002&hl=en
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Check the Updated Flyby News 9/11 Investigative Page that makes this breaking mainstream info - old news - which has been all over the Internet since last fall! Why aren't the main streamers mentioning this or about Cynthia McKinney, now, and her courageous early calls for an investigation.
Flyby News maintains an updated page:
"The Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports, looking into the unanswered questions."
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1014738186,11057,m
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Received from: "Aftermath News" < pjw56108@yahoo.com >
Operation 911 Coup and Coverup Update > 5-9-02
Blowing the Lid Off the Official Coverup Story:
THE EVIDENCE IS OVERWHELMING!!!!
The Massive Intelligence "Failures" and Coverups of Prior Knowledge Can Only Be Orchestrated from the Top!
9-11 beginning of long-term plot?
Group analyzes attacks, says CIA needs 'truckload of pink slips'
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27520
Official Bungling Claimed in 9-11 Intelligence
http://www.americanfreepress.net/02_17_02/Official_Bungling/official_bungling.html
The Proof of a 9/11 Frame-up is Right Before You
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/frameup.html
The Case for Bush Administration Advance Knowledge of 9-11 Attacks by Michael C. Ruppert
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/042202_bushknows.html
Scandal Inside the FBI: Did G-Men Miss the Boat on 9-11?
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/3/13/94339.shtml
THE MOTIVES:
How the Pentagon Learned to Love the Weapon No One Wanted
The Carlyle Connection
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0218/gray.php
PENTAGON PSYOPS - AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 77.
http://www.nerdcities.com/guardian/SeptemberEleventh/WhatHitThePentagon/index.html
THE AFTERMATH:
Strange Cluster Of Microbiologists' - Deaths Under The Microscope
http://www.rense.com/general24/exk.htm
THE HISTORICAL PRECEDENTS
Operation Northwoods And The Reichstag Fire
http://www.rense.com/general24/operationnorthwoods.htm
"U.S. GOVERNMENT PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF EMERGENCY"
by Sherman H. Skolnick 09/11/01
AMERICA'S REICHSTAG FIRE
http://www.skolnicksreport.com/pkem.html
BOOGYMAN FOR A NEW WORLD ORDER
Book alleges attempts to arrest Osama bin Laden blocked by the US
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2001/1119/wor8.htm
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Bush Wins the Final Battle for Star Wars?
Published on Thursday, May 16, 2002 in the Guardian of London
Bush Wins the Final Battle for Star Wars
Kremlin abandons bitter opposition;
Construction starts in Alaska within weeks
by Ian Traynor in Moscow and Julian Borger in Washington
The Bush administration is poised for a major political breakthrough in gaining international acceptance of its controversial star wars plans.
After a year of bitter Russian opposition to a scheme which Moscow warned could jeopardize global nuclear stability and spark a new arms race, the Kremlin has accepted a White House offer to cooperate on the national missile defense project (NMD).
The Pentagon is to start construction work on NMD in Alaska within weeks following a frenzy of intense diplomacy that this week has resulted in the announcement of a major arms control treaty with Russia and a new deal between NATO and Russia that allows Moscow inside the alliance's councils for the first time.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0516-08.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Received from News Insider -- http://newsinsider.cjb.net/
"Nuclear arms treaty is not worth the paper it's printed on"
There is a reason the nuclear arms treaty President Bush plans to sign at the coming Moscow summit meeting is only three pages long. It is intended to provide maximum flexibility to the Pentagon.
The new accord does not require the destruction of a single missile launcher or warhead. Each side can carry out the reductions at its own pace, or even reverse them and temporarily build up its forces.
The only real constraint is that each side must have no more than 1,700 to 2,200 warheads at the end of 2012. At that point, the treaty is set to expire, leaving each side free to have as many weapons as it would like unless the accord is extended.
"What we have now agreed to do under the treaty is what we wanted to do anyway," a senior administration official said today. "That's our kind of treaty."
In other words, it is a fitting agreement for Pentagon planners who are more concerned about protecting the United States' nuclear options than constraining those of the Russians. It marks a break with traditional approaches to arms control.
While arms control can be a highly technical enterprise, the logic of the Bush administration's new approach to nuclear weapons treaties is fairly simple. Throughout the cold war, the United States saw arms control as a way to contain the Soviet nuclear threat and constrain Moscow's ability to carry out a first strike.
The Pentagon's big worry was that the Soviet Union would outpace the United States in an arms race in which each side rushed to deploy new missiles and warheads. American defense officials were especially anxious about the Soviets' heavy SS-18 land-based missile, which carries 10 warheads and was code-named Satan by NATO planners.
That ability gave Washington an enormous stake in arms agreements that had strict provisions mandating weapons cuts and that forced the Russians to give up their most threatening weapons. Negotiating a ban on land-based missiles with multiple warheads like the SS-18 was a top priority for the first Bush administration.
With the end of the cold war and the collapse of the Soviet military, however, the Pentagon has a very different set of priorities. The Pentagon is counting on Russia's beleaguered economy to force a contraction in the Russian nuclear arsenal. Its primary goal now is not to constrain the Russian nuclear force but to maintain its own flexibility in planning the American one.
The Pentagon's new philosophy was spelled out in its classified Nuclear Posture Review. That study called for reducing the United States arsenal to the level of 1,700 to 2,200 precisely the limit that the new treaty says the two sides must reach by the end of 2012. According to the study, the planned force will consist of 14 Trident missile-carrying submarines, 500 Minuteman III land-based missiles, 76 B-52H bombers and 21 B-2 bombers.
Even that force, the Pentagon says, may not be sufficient given an uncertain world or what the Pentagon prefers to call "potential contingencies." If relations with Russia or China worsen, administration officials say, the United States may need to expand its nuclear arsenal quickly.
President Bush may talk about building relations with a new Russia that is no longer an adversary, but the agreement he plans to sign is intended to keep open Washington's option to expand its nuclear arsenal if relations with Moscow sour.
Under the agreement, for example, the Pentagon expects to reduce its arsenal gradually so that it shrinks the strategic nuclear force from around 6,000 warheads today to 1,700 to 2,200 at the end of 2012, a significant cut. But if tensions rose with Moscow or China, the United States could suspend the reductions for a few years or even increase the arsenal without violating the treaty.
"In the event that U.S. relations with Russia significantly worsen in the future, the U.S. may need to revise its nuclear force level and posture," the Pentagon said in its nuclear review.
The United States is under no obligation to extend the treaty when it lapses after 10 years. The agreement also contains an escape hatch: each side can withdraw on three months' notice. That is half the amount of time required to withdrawn from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty of 1972.
Nor is there any link in the treaty to the issue of missile defenses, as Moscow once insisted.
To obtain such a degree of flexibility, the Bush administration had to make concessions. The accord will be legally binding, as the Russians have insisted. Bush administration hard-liners initially resisted doing even that, but Russia wanted a binding accord to make the nuclear balance more predictable and put some limits on the Americans.
"The Russians got a treaty, and the U.S. got its flexibility," said Ivo Daalder, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "The U.S. can go down when it wants to, and it can go back up when it needs to. That is what Bush set out to accomplish in his new nuclear policy."
Because the Bush administration insisted on maximum flexibility in planning its arsenal, it also had to allow Moscow the freedom to plan its strategic forces. As a result, the Russians will be free to deploy new land-based missiles with multiple warheads, such as the three-warhead version of the SS-27, and to keep old ones like the SS-18.
The ban on land-based missiles with multiple warheads, which President Bush's father so actively promoted as a way to eliminate the most destabilizing weapons, has essentially been cast aside.
It is cheaper to put several warheads on a missile than to build a missile for each warhead. So this gives Moscow a cost-effective way to maintain its nuclear arsenal or expand it should the United States field an effective missile defense.
That point has not been lost on some of the skeptics. Mr. Daalder observed, "Maximum flexibility is a two-way street."
Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/14/international/europe/14AGRE.html?ex=1022420232&ei=1&en=1e03a33c677ede0c
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Peace Camp Invite --
You are cordially invited to Peace Camp at Fort Greely, Alaska.
When: June 12 - 16th, 2002
Why: June 14th: Official day of U.S. withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, missile silo construction begins at Fort Greely.
HONOR THE TREATY! Protest Star Wars and the Bush administration's decision to abandon this fundamental arms control agreement and build this wasteful and offensive weapons system. Similar events are being held simultaneously at the Star Wars site at Menwith Hill, Yorkshire, UK (Echelon) and other places around the world.
Complete details of this event are available at http://www.nonukesnorth.net/PeaceCampAlaska.htm
For more information, contact:
Stacey A. Fritz
Coordinator, No Nukes North
PO Box 84997
Fairbanks, AK 99708
(907) 457 - 5230
info@nonukesnorth.net
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
For inquiries or to submit articles, suggestions, and to help distribute Flyby News fliers, please write to Jonathan Mark
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - info@flybynews.com- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Parole Peltier * Framed Conviction * Death Row USA * ACLU Action
15 May 2002
1) Letters Needed to Free Leonard Peltier after 26 years
2) Out of an Unjust Hell on Death Row - Zolo Agona Azania -
3) Overview on the Arrest/Conviction of Malik Abdullah Akili
4) ACLU Action Update: Congress Seeks to Amend Constitution
Editor's Notes:
Yesterday, I received a reply telephone call from Dennis Kucinich. After getting over the initial shock of a politician returning a phone call, I asked if he had any comment regarding last issue's Flyby News, in which we encouraged his running for US President in 2004. He remarked that he is receiving such requests from all over the country and world, and that he is grateful for this, and listening, listening carefully. This is what I call hopeful and good news -- for a change.
This issue of Flyby News gets back to the issue of justice and the understanding of the depths of corruption in the US prison (slave) system. The worst of horrors are experienced by those incarcerated in the pits of what is Hell on Earth. About 2 million people are in prison, with minority races disproportionately arrested .*
Item 1 updates the campaign to help free Leonard Peltier. His defense committee is requesting letters in support of his interim parole hearing, which is set for July 1, 2002. The update also briefly touches on the shenanigans of the trial now in Boston about the relationship of the highest office in the FBI consorting with the mob over murder, with innocent people imprisoned for decades. Sounds Familiar?
Item 2 was inspired from a letter received from Zolo Agona Azania, a death row inmate. His book, "Fighting Forward: Words that Inspire Death Row Prisoner and Activist Zolo Agona Azania" is available from the web. His case is another example of the brutal unfairness of the current judicial criminal system. At the end of this item, an article link was inserted that gives a small hint of hope -- Maryland became the second state for a Moratorium on Executions, until a study shows if the system is unfair to those of minority races.
The following linked AP article reports on a recent accounting of prison populations: "Long-standing racial and ethnic disparities remained, particularly among younger black men. For instance, 13.4 percent of black males age 25 to 29 were in prison or jail, compared with 4.1 percent of Hispanic men and 1.8 percent of white males."
Item 3 relates to this, but with not only the added consequence of being Black, but also a former member of the Black Panther Party. It is more from a letter from my personal dear friend, Malik Abdullah Akili. In response to my request, he wrote more on the details and circumstances surrounding his arrest and conviction. We are trying to build support for his parole hearing, which is during this upcoming October.
Item 4 is on an action alert from the ACLU regarding the Constitutional premise that one is free until proven guilty. And now, even an appearance of a fair judicial system, is under attack!
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
* According to a recent AP article, the number of people incarcerated in the United States reached a new high last year. The Justice Department reported last Wednesday that 1,965,495 people were in custody in the nation's federal and state prisons and local jails in June 2001, a 1.6 percent increase from the previous year. To read the complete Associated Press article, posted 15 May 2002, see : http://www.whdh.com/news/articles/7041/
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Letters Needed to Free Leonard Peltier after 26 years
From the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
http://www.freepeltier.org
Leonard Peltier's next interim parole hearing has been scheduled for July 1st, 2002. Letters of support are urgently needed. An interim parole hearing is different from a regular parole hearing. Its purpose is to review the Parole Commission's original decision to deny parole to see if any new developments warrant a change. The Commission can do one of three things: affirm the original decision to deny parole and leave the next full hearing date (2008) in place (the most common scenario); accelerate or postpone the next full hearing date; or grant parole.
As many of you have experienced, the Parole Commission does not treat these hearings with any seriousness or fairness. During the last hearing, the Parole Examiner wrote his recommendation that Leonard not be granted parole while Leonard's representatives were still making their presentations. However, it is critical that we maintain a strong showing of support for Leonard's release. We DO NOT want to give the Commission or prison officials the false impression that Leonard Peltier's support is dwindling.
This showing of support is what keeps Leonard safe. Furthermore, we must take full advantage of any opportunity to seek Leonard's release, even if the chances for victory are slim. Let's gather as many letters as possible and show officials that we have not and will not give up.
A sample letter that you can use if you'd like is below. If you can personalize it that is even better. Please send copies of your letters to the LPDC so that we can track how many were submitted and compile them for presentation to the Parole Commission.
Thank you for your ongoing support!
In Solidarity,
LPDC
Click here to learn about Leonard's parole status
http://www.freepeltier.org/remaining_avenues.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Date
United States Parole Commission
5550 Friendship Boulevard, Suite 420
Chevy Chase, MD 20815-7286
Re: LEONARD PELTIER #89637-132
Dear Commissioners:
I am writing to express my wholehearted support for the parole of Mr. Leonard Peltier who is currently housed at the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth. Mr. Peltier has served more than 26 years in prison for the deaths of FBI Agents, Ronald Williams and Jack Coler. I recognize the grave nature of such an offense. My deepest sympathy is extended to the families of these two agents. After careful consideration of the facts in Mr. Peltier's case, I ask you to grant Mr. Peltier parole. I note that the United States attorneys and the courts have long held that they do not know who killed Mr. Coler or Mr. Williams. In spite of this fact, Mr. Peltier has served more than 26 years in prison for their deaths. Although Mr. Peltier maintains that he did not kill the agents, he has openly expressed remorse and sadness over their deaths.
Mr. Peltier has no prior convictions and has advocated for non-violence throughout his prison term. Mr. Peltier does not represent a risk to the public. To the contrary, his release would help to heal a wound that has long impeded better relations with Native Americans. Furthermore, Mr. Peltier has been a model prisoner. He has received excellent evaluations from his work supervisors on a regular basis. He continues to mentor young Native prisoners, encouraging them to lead clean and sober lives. He has used his time productively, disciplining himself to be a talented painter and an expressive writer. Most admirably, he contributes regular support to those in need. He donates his paintings to charities including battered women's shelters, half way houses, alcohol and drug treatment programs, and Native American scholarship funds. He coordinates an annual gift drive for the children of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, which last year garnered more than 1,000 gifts. He is widely recognized in the human rights community for his good deeds and in turn has won several human rights awards, including the 2001 Ontario Federation of Labour Human Rights Award and a current nomination for the Right to Livelihood Award.
Lastly, I note my deep concern with Mr. Peltier's health. He is now 57 years of age and he suffers from partial blindness, diabetes, a heart condition, and high blood pressure. Mr. Peltier deserves to live the remaining years of his life in peace.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely yours,
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
In May 2000, Congressman Porter sponsored a two hour congressional briefing on Leonard Peltier and related circumstances on the Pine Ridge reservation. Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Amnesty International, Ernie Stevens Jr. of the National Congress of American Indians, Author Peter Matthiessen, Journalist Kevin McKiernan, shoot-out survivor Nilak Butler, reign of terror survivor Debra White Plume, shoot-out aftermath witness Jean Day, and lawyers Bruce Ellison and Jennifer Harbury testified to a full room of human rights leaders and Congressional staff of numerous human, civil, and constitutional rights violations involved in the Peltier case.
This historic event was videotaped and edited for a one hour program. The testimonies of people who were there at the Jumping Bull Ranch, and the quality and humanity of Leonard Peltier supporters, make this a video to be seen. It expand awareness on the case of Leonard Peltier and at the same time, it touches the heart strings of our common yearnings for freedom and being with loved ones. You can purchase, at cost for copying and distribution, a copy of this video from Chris Groden - Tel. 413-549-2739 or email: cgroden@hotmail.com. Chris is the coordinator of the Leonard Peltier Support Group of New Eagle-land.
The Boston LPSG is coordinating a Leonard Peltier freedom event on the 27th anniversary -- June 26, 2002 since the shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation that led to the killing of two FBI agents and the non-investigated killing of a First Nations warrior, and the Wrongful Conviction of Leonard Peltier. Contact - Andrea Hornbein ahornbein@earthlink.net for details in Boston, and contact the LPDC for events in other regions.
Leonard Peltier's book: Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance is available from your bookstore, library, but it serves best when purchased from the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee.
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-5774
http://www.freepeltier.org
Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu calls
Leonard Peltier's Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance:
"A deeply moving and very disturbing story of a gross miscarriage of justice and an eloquent cri de coeur of Native Americans for redress and to be regarded as human beings with inalienable rights guaranteed under the United States Constitution as any other citizens. We pray that it does not fall on deaf ears. America owes it to herself."
For excerpts from Leonard's book, see Item 2:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid978364686,28469,m
PRISON WRITINGS: MY LIFE IS MY SUN DANCE
Published by St. Martins Press, NYC 1999
Edited by Harvey Arden
http://wisdomkeepers.com/prison.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Boston FBI-Mob Article:
Devilish deal: Probers unveil memo showing Boston FBI protected killer
by J.M. Lawrence
Sunday, May 12, 2002
Congressional investigators released a ``smoking gun'' 1965 memo yesterday showing FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover knew informant Vincent ``Jimmy The Bear'' Flemmi murdered seven men but still protected him from the electric chair and let four other men go to prison for one of the murders.
For the complete article, visit this following URL:
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/mob05122002.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
So the criminal link rises to the top office in the FBI; yet another stool pigeon, former Boston FBI agent, John J. Connolly Jr., now on trial, is receiving damaging testimony from his superior, a 25-year FBI agent that received immunity for testifying against Connolly. His testimony is said to have bolstered the government's case that Connolly never had legitimate FBI orders to get so deeply involved with his criminal informants. Yet this is a case of distortion, murder and lies.
To help connect the Peltier case with the current investigations of the FBI, visit:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1013207483,22139,
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Out of an Unjust Hell on Death Row - Zolo Agona Azania -
Letter of Appeal for Help Out of an Unjust Hell of Death Row
By Zolo Agona Azania
On August 11, 1981, i was arrested in the city of Gary and charged with armed robbery and murder. On that day the police dispatcher sent out a call about a robbery at the Gary National Bank, 3680 Broadway. The first cop on the scene was shot. Thereafter, a citywide dragnet took place and about 10 Black (New Afrikan) people were snatched off the street!
All police reports of these arrests were either withheld or destroyed. In this atmosphere of class conflict, i was stopped in a Black neighborhood on the West Side of Gary by a white cop. When i demanded to know what was going on, the racist cop said, "Nigger, you shot a cop!" i vehemently denied the accusations only to be told, "Well if you didn't do it nigger, you sure as hell know who did." Then he said, "Well, i'm not sure if you did or not, but you'll do." This happened on 25th & Lincoln Street.
i was arrested because nobody else was around on the street at that time. The police officer who arrested me did not even know who i was. But since i was the only person walking down the street (about 2 miles from where the bank robbery and shooting had occurred) i was considered a suspect!
For the complete Letter of Appeal.. See
http://home4.inet.tele.dk/lepan/lene/indiana/zolo.htm
Here's its final paragraph:
i am not a common criminal. i am a conscious political prisoner of war, and a target in an insane political climate rampant with racism, reaction and corruption. i do not need anybody to march in the streets for me carrying picket signs like Mumia Abu Jamal. i need help in the area of publicity. i have a lot of dignity and self-esteem. i can reach more people via the media, than writing one letter at a time. No decision or ruling has been made on my new appeal currently pending in the Indiana Supreme Court. It has been filed in court since May, 1997. i am hopeful and optimistic for a positive outcome in my favor.
For more information please contact:
Attorney Michael E. Deutsch
People's Law Office
1180 North Milwaukee
Chicago, Illinois 60622
Telephone:
(773) 235-0070
(847) 475-8378
Thank you very much,
Zolo Agona Azania
Bro. Zolo Agona Azania #4969
Indiana State Prison
P.O. Box 41
Michigan City, IN 46361-0041
About Zolo Agona Azania
Zolo was a committed community activist even before his arrest in 1981. But in the years he has spent behind bars, he has continued to use his painting, drawing and writing skills to fight for "economic self-reliance, local community control and development free of corruption." He identifies [himself] as a Conscious Citizen of the Republic of New Afrika and he firmly supports any cause that works in earnest with poor people "regardless of race or religion, in their struggle against hunger, disease, exploitation and poverty." It's very little wonder our government wants him dead.
One can only imagine what would happen in this country when a defendant identifies himself as a New Afrikan citizen: race plays an important role. The jury that convicted Zolo was all white. During his sentencing retrial, a so-called "computer error" eliminated 70% of the county's black jurors from his potential jury pool, so he was again sentenced by a "jury of his peers" with no black members.
Despite any questions of guilt or innocence, we are fighting for Zolo Azania's life. We do so because he has asked us to. We do so because we are against the death penalty. And, most importantly, we do so because Zolo continues to use the gifts he has, even from death row, to help other human beings.
We hope that you will download a copy of Zolo's book Fighting Forward: Words that Inspire Death Row Prisoner and Activist Zolo Agona Azania. Any donation you will make for this book will go to Zolo's Campaign at the People's Law Office in Chicago.
http://www.commoncouragepress.com/zolo/index.cfm?action=zolo
Fighting Forward: Words that Inspire Death Row Prisoner and Activist Zolo Agona Azania.
Researched and Compiled by Zolo Agona Azania
13 pages; January 2001, Common Courage Press
Fighting Forward "Words to lift the revolutionary soul" is available at this link:
http://www.commoncouragepress.com/zolo/index.cfm?action=book
It is a 13-page e-book available as a PDF file, for which you will need Acrobat Reader to view. The price to download a copy of Fighting Forward is entirely up to you. No amount is too little, and no amount is too high. Any donation you make for this book will go to Zolo's Campaign at the People's Law Office in Chicago.
In the words of Edmund Berke, quoted within, "The worst mistake is to do nothing because you can only do a little."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Article:
Maryland Suspends Death Penalty
By Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 10, 2002; Page A01
Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening declared a moratorium on executions yesterday, sparing, for now, the life of a Baltimore area killer and making Maryland the second state, after Illinois, to suspend the death penalty because of doubts about its fairness.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62711-2002May9.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Overview on the Arrest/Conviction of Malik Abdullah Akili
..You asked of me to write an overview on the case. Here's some more details we never covered before regarding a snitch, who i had known for years. We used to go to the same Masjid to pray together. I helped him get a place to live, along with his wife. I helped to get him into the hospital to deal with his drug problem. When some people had him trapped in a basement in Brooklyn, ready to kill him, someone gave me a call to the situation and I went to pull him out of that situation... Yet, when he got arrested on April 19, 1994 for 39 robberies, he desired so badly to free himself, he told special police forces that he knew of someone who was an ex-Panther that had been underground for years..
On April 19, 1994, I was at home with my wife and daughter. John (Yahya) Jamison called me and asked me to meet him at 168 West 121st Street. He stated that he had a serious problem and needed to see me right away. I got up, made prayers..left the house to go directly there to Harlem to meet him. When I arrived at apartment 1-R, thee was a house full of people. After speaking with the owner of the house, he told me that he hadn't seen Yahya all day. I couldn't understand the whole situation, because I did put some trust in Yahya. After a few moments waiting, the phone rang and the owner called out to Yahya's wife to come to the phone that Yahya wanted to speak with her. Well, at that moment I went and took the phone to ask him where he was and that I had been waiting for him. He told me to get off the phone and put his wife on. He would never spoken to me like that, so I knew something was wrong, but couldn't put my finger on it. After his wife finished speaking with him, she was in this great rush to get out of the house, so I began to question her about what was going on. She said nothing, and then said she would come back and tell me the whole story. As she opened the door to leave, the police kicked it in with guns out yelling who is Malik I stood up to say that I was Malik, please don't hurt anyone. They told me to lay on the floor and don't move or else they would kill me.. My concern was two fold that I might actually be killed inside the apartment and that others inside the apartment might also be killed. With my life hanging in the balance, I tried to convince the police that nobody in the apartment was armed and since they already have me -- they shouldn't shoot or hurt anyone.
As we emerged from the apartment, the street had been closed down, traffic had been stopped. There was this helicopter circling overhead and there were long lines of unmarked special police cars. They drove me from 121st street in Harlem directly to 12th Street in the village without stopping. This was to one of those special police stations with PLA written on the outside to throw people off. Once inside I was placed in a cell with curtains so I couldn't see who was coming or leaving. After a few hours, they took me out into a room with three special police and someone typing everything that was said. One of the first things they laid out to me was that they didn't want me. They were truly interested in the capture of someone by the name of "M." John (Yahya Jamison had told them that I knew where "M" was hiding out, and if I was to cooperate with them, they would let me walk out of the station house as a free man.
Well, all of us have come to understand what the "snitching" game is about.. Most of us were introduced to the game of snitching at an early age. We made choices back then at the age of the man/woman child not to snitch or cooperate. Therefore, we come to understand the consequences of snitching and made a conscious decision, and with that decision comes a bond of principles, respect, and trust.
Indeed, oppression first shaped the spirit of resistance within all of us. I was raised up under oppression, so it can neither defeat, nor destroy my original concept to reject the idea of snitching or cooperating. We have come to understand that nothing is more fundamental than the principles of truth and respect, and if I cannot remain steadfast to both of those principles, how can I ever expect to be true to myself or anyone else?
Snitching is a serous behavior. It's not an action it is a process that is ongoing for those caught up in it. I would hope that they come to recognize this .. in hopes that one day their consciousness will lift them up to new heights of awareness, and move them to the point that they will be able to see that they have out-lived that life and move on beyond that point. Even the person (John Yahja Jamison), who snitched on me, I forgive him and hope that he can truly put the pieces of his life together in a positive way.
The police used and exploited his weakness.. Most of us have weaknesses, and the police seek what might be the individual thing to bring it out. Most snitches turn state evidence to escape prosecution or to gain some material goods, but such a small gain, to lose so much in return. When you reflect on the overall conditions of the Movement here in Amerikkka, we can see how the Movement has been crippled by COINTELPRO and the exploited weaknesses of the individuals that were exploited.
Whether or not two men wearing disguises robbed the architectural firm at 211 West 61 Street is not being disputed by me, but one thing is for sure, it was NOT me! The police investigation of that robbery was indeed seriously flawed from the inception.. An appropriately conducted investigation would have revealed two things. The first being that I m not the man who did this criminal act and the second would have foreclosed the possibility of any conviction on my behalf.. this is indeed a miscarriage of justice.
On April 20, 1994 I was arrested. Held for two days against my will. I was put on many line-ups throughout these two days. A number of line-ups were necessary [to build their case]. Det-Deloney, the lead Detective in the case, requested that my fingerprints be compared to other prints recovered in some other robberies that he was investigating. As a result of the lack of anyone in this investigation identifying me, the District Attorney declined to prosecute me and I was released from custody. Seven months later, Det-Deloney came to arrest me stating that he found my fingerprint on the inside of the place that had been robbed.
Once he arrested me, he made all kinds of offers if I was to snitch. He explained that he knew I wasn't the individual, but he also knew that I knew where "M" was, so he was encircling me for the sole purpose of forcing me to snitch. I knew "M" quite well, but I could not make any inculpatory statements against him, nor myself and so, because i wouldn't snitch, Det-Deloney arrested me.
I waited many months before they took me to trial. The D.A. and the judge explained to me that they were gonna make me an offer, and if I refused, I was facing a life sentence because of my record. They wanted me to take a few years and I would be home, but again, I refused and proceeded to trial. In an indictment filed on September 29, 1994, a New York County Grand Jury charged me with two counts of first-degree robbery (NY County Indictment No. 9336/94. On May 20, 1996, my first trial ended in a hung jury.
..I proceeded to a second trial before a new judge...and was convicted as charged. On July 25, 1996, I was sentenced to prison of 8.5 to 17 years on the first degree robbery counts, and 7 to 14 years on the second-degree robbery counts.
That's the overview. I will begin to work on the letter to the parole board, but you must know how difficult this sort of writing is for me. Not only is it difficult for me, but also quite painful and hurting.. since it takes me back to one of the cruelest aspects of this whole thing taking me away from my daughter when she was so young, which is something either of us can never make up for that time lost. Perhaps the state has destroyed one of the greatest love relationships between Daughter and Father that existed.
Take care,
Malik
Malik is seeking support for his parole hearing, which will be coming up in October 2002.
To contact Malik, learn more on his case, and other Flyby News prison issues, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid999200948,87474,m
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) ACLU Action Update: Congress Seeks to Amend Constitution
05-19-02 -- ACLU Action Update: Congress Seeks to Amend Constitution
TO: ACLU Action Network
FR: Jared Feuer, Internet Organizer
DT: May 19, 2002
Despite protest by victims' groups and legal experts, Members of Congress have once again introduced the so-called Victims' Rights Amendment (S.J. Res. 35/H.J. Res. 91) which, if passed, would jeopardize the principles that the accused are innocent until proven guilty and that everyone in this country should have the right to a fair trial.
While many of the provisions in the proposed amendment reflect laudable goals, it is unnecessary, even counterproductive, to amend the U.S. Constitution to achieve them. Every state has either a state constitutional provision or law protecting victims' rights -- or both. In addition, federal and state prosecutors have stated that a federal constitutional amendment is likely to hamper the ability of law enforcement to effectively prosecute cases. For these various reasons, victims groups including National Network to End Domestic Violence and the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women are speaking out against this constitutional amendment.
Take Action! You can read more about this amendment and send a FREE FAX to your Members of Congress from our action alert at:
http://www.aclu.org/action/vra107.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Kucinich for US President * Chomsky - Mid East - Solution/Problem * Updates
FLYBY NEWS' UPDATED PAGE ON
DENNIS J. KUCINICH FOR US PRESIDENT IN 2004
HAS MOVED -- IT IS NOW POSTED AT THIS FOLLOWING URL LINK
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1045685440,9146,
Dennis J. Kucinich for US President in 2004
1) Kucinich for US President - Head them off at the pass
2) The solution is the problem by Noam Chomsky
3) Sharon's party votes to reject Palestinian state
4) US military proposes illegal bio-weapons research
5) Agent sues FBI over ignoring pre-September 11 activities
6) The siege of Baghdad
7) Ruling on Dumping of Mine Waste Stuns Coal Industry
This page was originally posted on May 13, 2002 with some updated information and resources on Dennis J. Kucinich
For the new updated page on Dennis, posted on 19 February 2003, see:
Dennis J. Kucinich for US President in 2004
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the Earth: indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead, social anthropologist
1) Kucinich for US President - Head them off at the pass
Flyby News follows a reporting strategy that tries to learn from our mistakes, and to act in support of campaigns that can make a difference. If you replaced the ring in Tolken's "Lord of the Rings" for the dangerous development of radioactive nuclear power, the classic takes on quite a significance. Dennis J. Kucinich has the record for someone we can trust to return this power to its source, and to help replace fear with love in a human evolution in harmony with nature, and not against her, or ourselves.
Representative Dennis J. Kucinich is the Chair of the Progressive Caucus of the Democratic Party. He was the youngest mayor in Cleveland, Ohio, and has a clean record of serving his constituency without special interest funds. Rep. Kucinich sponsored legislation for a US Department of Peace, and to ban space-based weapons. When President Bush terminated a House-passed Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, he became the lead plaintiff, with 31 other Members of the House of Representatives, in legally challenging President Bush's withdrawal from the Treaty without congressional approval. He is also a main opposition leader against a President Bush's war on Iraq, stating that: "Unilateral military action by the United States against Iraq is unjustified, unwarranted, and illegal." He is the one leader that will stand up to non-democratic elements, if enough people decide to support such a change for life and America's leadership for a united and harmonious world.
For an article on Dennis Kucinich as a Presidential Contender in 2004, see item 1:
Kucinich - a Contender for US Democracy
"DRAFT KUCINICH FOR PRESIDENT 2004"
On February 17th, Congressman Dennis Kucinich returns to Iowa. This time as a potential candidate for President of the United States. Congressman Kucinich is planning a five-day visit in which he will be making at least one joint appearance with the announced/presumed candidates for president. He is also planning an appearance before the Iowa Federation of Labor on Monday night, the 17th. After these five days in Iowa, I believe we'll have a candidate for president in Congressman Dennis Kucinich. As DJK told Wolf Blitzer when asked about a candidacy: "stay tuned"........
Draft Dennis Kucinich For President 2004
Mike Swickey
P.O. Box 57134
Oklahoma City, OK 73157
By Telephone:
Toll-Free 1-877-638-5811
By Electronic Mail: information@draftkucinich.com
Link to = = = => DraftKucinich.com
Dear friends and colleagues,
Congressman Dennis Kucinich is seriously considering a revolutionary grass roots campaign for the Presidency. As someone who has followed his career closely for three years, had the good fortune to meet him several times, and hear him speak four times, I can assure you that this is going to be a really major situation/opportunity if he decides to go for it.
Please consider supporting the initiatives to draft him, because this would really be politically constructive. No other candidate is entering the race at the urging of a massive wave of people who are awake and seriously fed up with the direction the country is being taken. If the already sizable 'Draft Kucinich' effort were to grow significantly, this would really contribute to him gaining traction and credibility quickly.
Experienced political operatives consider Kucinich's chances in the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries to be very good because he is just the sort of inspiring, personable, authentic candidate primary voters gravitate towards. He is an eloquent, deeply committed, real-deal person of total ethical integrity, deep wisdom, and with a profoundly inspirational vision of the deeper meaning and purpose of this country. It is hard to overstate. You just have to get to know him, read his speeches, and so on, in order to begin to appreciate it.
It is going to require a massive groundswell of activated people fighting for the future of our country, and the world, to overcome the huge challenges to running without a traditional 'money machine' approach. There is a web site, http://www.drafkucinich.com that contains some good information, including some of Dennis' great speeches. (I particularly recommend his Jan. 3rd speech at the Swearing In ceremony for his fourth term.)
He is really out in front as a clear national voice intelligently pointing out that Bush and Co. are leading us into a unnecessary war that will have grave 'side effects' for world stability for the indefinite future. He also is a skillful and intelligent voice on the serious issues of the rollback of civil liberties, on this creation of a 'fortress America', on the profound implications of this rush to militarize space, on the serious issue of genetically engineered food, and much more.
Best,
Bruce First
(In Washington, DC)
Here's something YOU CAN DO!
We suggest getting a video tape of an inspiring Kucinich presentation, pass it around, and share it with your public library or community access television station. And you can show it at a public forum with a discussion on "US Democracy and Safeguarding Our Planet."
For a 30 minute video recording of a Dennis Kucinich speech at We The People - SUMMIT FOR PEACE (Burlington, VT, UVM, September 28, 2002): contact Hank / Audiographx by Email: hank@hypernet.com by telephone at 207-348-6005; or P.O. Box 353, Deer Isle, ME 04627.
For the Dennis Kucinich video entitled: Peace on Earth and in Space,
contact: ICIS - Institute for Cooperation in Space
Dr. Carol Rosin (USA) rosin@peaceinspace.com Tel. 805-641-1999
or Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, MEd (Canada) alw@peaceinspace.com
To contact Flyby News for announcements, ideas, fliers, articles, sharing links, etc., send your email (no attached files) to: info@flybynews.com
Congressman Kucinich's Contact Information and Web Site:
United States Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio)
1730 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-5871
Fax: (202) 225-5745
Email: Dkucinich@aol.com
Web Sites:
http://www.house.gov/kucinich/index.htm
http://www.thespiritoffreedom.com
H.R. 3616 and the campaign to ban all space-based weapons
Check this excellent article on a Kucinich 2004 candidacy, posted in Flyby News, May 21, 2002, Item 1.
Deeper Rivers - A Kucinich candidacy would tread where others can't reach
The following is by "Goodsister" on Congressman Kucinich's appearance on CNN's "Crossfire" 5 February 2003:
"I just saw the segment, and they had some nimrod CA Republican sitting with Kucinich. He repeated the phrase "blood grudge" at least five times by my count, as in "Iraq has a blood grudge against the United States" as a reason for war. His remarks were real eye-rollers; he had his little prepared set of phrases, and that was the extent of what he could contribute.
Rep. Kucinich was magnificent. He made his points clearly and firmly, no matter how many times little Tucker Carlson tried to derail him with frivolous and irrelevant sidebars. Tucker brought up the Congressman's votes from the past, on trying Hussein as a war criminal, and something else I forgot that's related.... Tucker was trying to say Kucinich is pro-Saddam, but instead he just neatly proved the opposite. Kucinich said, "Thanks for making clear that I've never been pro-Saddam", and looked at Tucker like he's an idiot.
Ha!
When the CA Repub actually said that the Iraqi people would love us as their liberators, throw flowers and wave American flags, Kucinich pointed out that they'd be unlikely to respond in that way to Operation Shock-Awe, which would drop 8000 missiles on Iraq. Kucinich says that inspections worked for years, and they can continue to work. He says there is no reason to punish the Iraqi people because we don't like their leader, not to mention 300,000 American men and women. He mentioned the numbers of other countries that possess chemical, biological, and/or nuclear weapons, and asked if we were prepared to bomb all of them and impose leaders more to our liking. And when someone tried to talk about the danger Iraq poses to US security, Kucinich held up a copy of the CIA report to the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which says that what puts us in most danger would be for us to attack Iraq!
He got the last word in, too, commenting that "Being the world's policeman is not what America is about". And, very important to me, Kucinich never forgot that Iraqi lives are as important as American lives. That peculiar, parochial view some Americans have, thinking that somehow our lives are more "real" or somehow more valuable than those of foreign people living in countries we can't find on a map, is obviously not a view Kucinich shares. He clearly sees a big picture, a global picture. He sees that in order to survive as a species on what's left of our planet, we will need to evolve into cooperation and friendship.
I love this guy. Did anyone else see it? What did you think? Can we unseat the Pretender with this man's energy and integrity?"
-- Goodsister
Join a list serve for discussions on Dennis J. Kucinich for US President!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kucinich2004
Goodsister is the moderator ! ! !
This is a group for discussion, support, and encouragement for Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich to become the next US President of the United States.
Subscribe: kucinich2004-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
List owner: kucinich2004-owner@yahoogroups.com
For extensive information and resources on Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich, link to these following updated
Flyby News Archive Issues:
February 4, 2003 - Item 2
Congressman Kucinich Draws Speculation As Possible Candidate
January 23, 2003 - Item 6
Kucinich: "Peace as a Civil Right"
January 17, 2003 - Item 2
Draft Kucinich for President 2004
January 12, 2003 - Item 1
Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, Swearing-In * Speech in Canada for Space Preservation Treaty
"It takes wisdom to have great power and to make gentle its presence in the world."
- Dennis J. Kucinich
January 6, 2003 - Item 4
Judge Allows Bush's Withdrawal from ABM Treaty to Stand
January 4, 2003 - Item 3
Evolutionary Politics: Representative Dennis J. Kucinich
December 13, 2002 - Item 2
Open Letter to Bush on Venezuela from U.S. Congress Members
November 17, 2002 - Item 3
Kucinich: Leading Opposition in the House to the War
November 5, 2002 - Item 1
"The Bloodstained Path" by Dennis Kucinich
"Unilateral military action by the United States against Iraq is unjustified, unwarranted, and illegal.."
October 30, 2002 - Item 3
Oral Argument in Kucinich v. Bush on Plaintiffs' Motion
October 23, 2002 - Item 2
Kucinich Asks White House To Explain Contradictions On Iraq, North Korea Nukes
October 12, 2002 - Item 2
Kucinich: Statement in Opposition to the Resolution
October 7, 2002 - Item 3
Kucinich & McDermott -- Questioning Bush's Iraq War Motives
August 8, 2002 - Item 1
Spirit and Stardust - Dennis Kucinich Speech in Croatia
"The Soul of the Worker and the American Restoration"
Dennis Kucinich's speech (transcript) at the Iowa AFLCIO State Convention, Wednesday August 14, 2002.
July 4, 2002 - Items 1
Kucinich Videos Released!. Also see Item 2 - ABM Treaty still lives!
June 12, 2002 - Item 1
1) Lawsuit to stop withdrawal from ABM Treaty * also see item 2 for a link to Dennis Kucinich's Statement to STOP: "Transportation of Nuclear Waste to the Proposed Yucca Mountain Storage Facility.
February 25, 2002 - Items 1, 2, 3,
ABM Treaty Hanging * Nuclear Theft Confirmed * Kucinich on war economy - "How Can We Justify This?"
April 23, 2002 - Item 1
"Kucinich Is the One", article by Studs Terkel
March 9, 2002 - Items 2 and 3
"Kucinich Rocks the Boat" + Carol Rosin reports on Peace in Space kick-off event
For a page with links to following AP articles on Dennis Kucinich:
January 28, 2003 - Kucinich: Bush Should Focus On Domestic Issues
October 24, 2002 - Kucinich Investigates Near-Nuclear Accident
July 8, 2002 - Congressman Wants Indians Back On Free TV
December 21, 2001 - Kucinich Meets With Potential LTV Buyers
November 21, 2001 - Kucinich Wants LTV Top Management Fired
October 28, 2001 - Kucinich Endorses Campbell For Mayor
October 17, 2001 - Kucinich: 'We Have To Stay Calm'
September 23, 2001 - Kucinich Wants To Hold International Gathering
September 16, 2001 - Kucinich Holds Open Forum About Tragedy
September 9, 2001 - Local Seniors To Rebel Against Rent Hike
May 27, 2001 - Kucinich Says He Won't Run For Mayor
March 15, 2001 - Voinovich, Kucinich Against Lake Erie Drilling
December 21, 2000 - Congressman Forming Coalition To Help LTV
November 8, 2000 - Local Incumbents Prove Too Tough
June 19, 2000 - Kucinich Trying To Lower Gas Prices
March 6, 2000 - Kucinich Leading Way To Save St. Michael
See this following February 2, 2003 - (NewsNet5) Associated Press article:
"Kucinich Running For President?"
Regarding Dennis Kucinich's voting record on Abortion Rights
After reading Katha Pollitt's article, "Regressive Progressive?" in The Nation, Flyby News received another return call from Congressman Kucinich, who again asserted his commitment to maintain the status quo of the Supreme Court ruling, Roe V. Wade, which guarantees a woman's right to choose an abortion, safely and legally. The question of Kucinich's pro-life record relates to his representing one of the highest concentration of Catholic voters of any Congressional district, his personal beliefs about life and conception, and his challenging whether the government should fund abortions. The real issue, he said, is about not judging one another, but to begin thinking in a new way to help heal this issue, which has polarized many Americans for so long. He expressed his interests in support of one's rights for pro-choice and for pro-life. Dennis Kucinich said that some of his staff disagree with him on this or other issues, and that he prefers it that way, for diversity in discussion and consideration. He said that if he should decide to run for President, he would have a position paper available for people to know where he stands on this and other important issues.
The following was received from a Pioneer Valley activist list serve:
http://www.yahoogroups.com/messages/AriseAction
Hi all -- when I receive the information on who voted "no" on the vote to support Israel in Congress, I was dismayed to see that Congressman Dennis Kucinich was not on that list. I assumed he had, therefore, voted "yes". So I emailed him the following (this was not my first email to him; the others were supportive ):
Congressman: I was shocked to learn that you supported the Israeli forces in the recent vote in which our legislative bodies voted overwhelmingly in favor.
Why?
Why would a man of peace be in favor of a pointless war? A war that breeds war and atrocities on both sides? I can only come to one conclusion on my own and that is you have played USA politics.
I am so dreadfully disappointed. You have been a shining light for many of us...this latest decision on your part contradicts so much of what you have said. Your light has dimmed dramatically.
If you would respond I would be appreciative.
Thank you.
Emily
Last night when I came home there was a telephone message from him, saying he had not voted "yes" and would call me back on Thursday to talk about what he did do. Thursday morning he did call. I was delightfully surprised. He is not ordinary. Anyway, he read to me what he read to his colleagues on the floor of the House. I asked that he email it to me and he did. This is what he said:
Statement of Congressman Dennis Kucinich
On H.R. 392
I declare my support for the State of Israel and for the security of the Israeli people. I also declare my support for a Palestinian state and for the security of the Palestinian people. So I will vote present today because I believe the security of Israel requires the security of the Palestinians.
I will vote present because I believe the United States can do better through honest brokering, and a principled commitment to peaceful coexistence. Today we are missing an opportunity to lead people of the Middle East toward a secure and stable future together.
This resolution equates Israels dilemma, which is the outcome of the Palestinians struggle for self-determination with the United States campaign against the criminal organization, Al Queda. Unfortunately, our own policy is undefined, amorphous, without borders, without limits, and without congressional oversight. For this Congress to place the historic Israeli-Palestinian conflict into the context of the current fashion of US global policy pitches Israelis and Palestinians alike into a black hole of policy without purpose, and conflict without resolution.
The same humanity that requires us to acknowledge with profound concerns the pain and suffering of the people of Israel requires a similar expression for the pain and suffering of the Palestinians. When our brothers and sisters are fighting to the death, instead of declaring solidarity with one against the other, should we not declare solidarity with both for peace, so that both may live in security and freedom?
If we seek to require the Palestinians, who do not have their own state, to adhere to a higher standard of conduct, should we not also ask Israel, with over a half century experience with statehood, to adhere to the basic standard of conduct, including meeting the requirements of international law?
There is a role for Congress and the Administration in helping to bring a lasting peace in the Middle East, however, this resolution does not create that role. After today we will still need to determine a course of action to bring about peace. This course will require multilateral diplomacy, which strengthens cooperation among all countries in the region. It will require focused, unwavering attention. It will require sufficient financial resources. And it will require that our nation have the political will to bring about a true, a fair, and a sustainable resolution of the conflict.
When this Congress enters into the conflict and takes sides between Israel and Palestine we do not help to achieve peace, but the opposite. Similarly, the Administration should consider that when it conducts a war against terrorism without limits the principle of war is quickened everywhere in the world, including the Middle East. When it talks incessantly about invading Iraq, the tempo of war is picked up everywhere. If we truly want peace in the Middle East this resolution is counter productive. I will vote present because I do not believe that this resolution dignifies the role towards creating peace, which this Congress can and must fulfill.
2) The solution is the problem by Noam Chomsky
The US presents itself as the peace-broker in the Middle East. The reality is different
Noam Chomsky
Friday May 10 2002
To see this story with its related links on the Guardian Unlimited site, go to
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4411560,00.html
3) Sharon's party votes to reject Palestinian state
Party Rebuffs Sharon Over Palestinians
Los Angeles Times
May 13, 2002
Israel: A Likud panel rejects the concept of statehood, contradicting its premier's views. U.S. peacemaking efforts could be hampered.
By MARY CURTIUS
TEL AVIV--Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a humiliating defeat Sunday at the hands of his archrival, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as the central committee of their Likud Party ruled out the establishment of a Palestinian state. The party's decision, formalized in a resolution backed by Netanyahu, directly contradicted Sharon's own stated acceptance of a Palestinian state as the eventual conclusion of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. It came as Sharon faces mounting domestic and international pressure to find a way to stop more than 19 months of bloodshed and launch talks with the Palestinians. It also seems certain to complicate the Bush administration's efforts to arrange a Mideast peace conference.
For the complete LA Times article, see:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-051302likud.story
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Please respond to this issue threatening the Palestinian people, their freedoms and justice, and what would be best for Israel and the rest of our world, too.
Here is an easy way to send a fax to Secretary Colin Powell today, urging immediate Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian areas and support for the Saudi Peace Plan.
The following links to an online fax system, sponsored by Global Exchange:
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/palestine/fax040302.html
Urge immediate Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian areas
4) US military proposes illegal bio-weapons research
According to documents unearthed by a nonprofit government watchdog, the United States military has proposed the development of biological weapons that would violate international treaties and federal law. In fact, they may have already developed some of these illegal, treaty-busting bioweapons. Using the Freedom of Information Act, the Sunshine Project has recently pried loose some damning documents from the Marine Corps, which seems to be overseeing this area of research.
For the complete Village Voice [US], 10 May 2002, article, see:
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0220/kick.php
The Sunshine Project (Organization)
http://www.sunshine-project.org/
5) Agent sues FBI over ignoring pre-September 11 activities
An FBI agent in Chicago has accused his superiors of ignoring the pre-September 11 criminal activities of alleged US associates of the Islamic Resistance Movement, the militant organization also known as Hamas. The agent also alleged that the Bureau steered agents away from filing criminal cases that he believes could have disrupted Hamas's operations in this country. Last Thursday, Robert G. Wright, a 12-year FBI veteran, filed a lawsuit against the Bureau in US District Court in Washington. He accused the FBI of violating his First Amendment rights by prohibiting him from making his complaints public.
For the complete Washington Post [US], 11 May 2002, article, see:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3860-2002May10.html
6) The siege of Baghdad
May 11 2002
The US obsession with toppling Saddam Hussein is growing despite European doubts and shaky justification, writes Gay Alcorn.
The last remaining suspicion that Saddam Hussein was involved in the death of 3000 Americans on September 11 seemed to be put to rest. ''US officials" scotched the ''Iraqi connection" in a series of leaks this week, saying they no longer believed the hijackers' ringleader, Mohammed Atta, held secret meetings with an Iraqi intelligence agent in the Czech capital of Prague in April last year.
For the complete story, see:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/05/10/1021002391082.html
7) Ruling on Dumping of Mine Waste Stuns Coal Industry
Published on Friday, May 10, 2002 in the Washington Post
Ruling on Dumping of Mine Waste Stuns Coal Industry by Eric Pianin
The coal industry was reeling yesterday from a federal court ruling that would end a long-standing practice of filling rivers and streams with waste rock and dirt from mountaintop mining operations.
For the complete article, see
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0510-07.htm
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
>>------------------------FLYBY NEWS---------------------------->>>
------------ Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era ------------
= = = = = = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = = = = = = = =
Nonviolence * US/Sharon * Israeli Reservists * Powell: Iraq Attack * 9/11 Fiasco
09 May 2002
1) A Nonviolent Strategy by Mubarak Awad
2) Sharon Thanks the Americans for Scuttling Jenin Investigations
3) The US Congress Not Stopping the Cycle of Violence
4) Rebel reservists tell why they refuse to go to the territories
5) US wants to oust Saddam even if he makes concessions
6) Conspiracy could have been discovered before 9/11
This issue of Flyby News returns to the critical situation in the Mid East and in the policies of the US that need to listen about how to stop the cycle of violence. At the end of the 1980's, Israel expelled Mubarak Awad, a Palestinian Christian psychologist who organized a nonviolent resistance movement against the occupation of Palestinian lands. But the Israelis have not expelled Sheik Ahmed Yassin, founder of Hamas, who vows continued suicide attacks. When one realizes that non violence is more of a threat to the Israeli agenda than suicide bombers, their agenda becomes increasingly transparent. This is a story that should be explored but seems to have been overlooked. Thank you Dianne who brought this to our attention and forwarded us the articles in item 1 about a nonviolent strategy. Both Israeli analysts and Palestinian spokesmen agree military action alone won't stop suicide bombers.
Item 2 is a Guardian article about Sharon putting US officials on the spot by publicly announcing, or strongly hinting and praising Americans, for their help in scuttling UN investigations on the Israeli military actions in Jenin. Item 3 lists those few courageous enough in the US Congress not to give Israel the green light for their military incursions into the West Bank. That the majority of Congress voted for brutality as a policy for peace and security is not surprising. No wonder so few have joined in support of H.R. 3616 to stop the dangerous arms race, or have spoken in support of the Saudi Peace Plan. This is not the government of the people, but an agenda of deceit and ill will
Item 4 is on the courage of Israel's finest. 436 Israeli reserve officers and men, who have announced their intention to refuse to serve in the territories occupied by the Palestinian people. A poll in yesterday's Ma'ariv newspaper indicated that most Israelis were not so far removed from the reservists' thinking: 52 per cent supported a regional conference based on the principles of Saudi Arabia's peace proposal - full withdrawal from the territories in exchange for peace with all the Arab states.
Item 5 is simply scary, last Sunday, on the day that God rests, US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, said that the US plans to oust Saddam even if he makes concessions for new weapons inspections. And if you missed last Wednesday's Sixty-Minutes 2, make sure you check out the transcript link from item 6. This shows more evidences that the September 11 conspiracy could have been discovered before the attack. Also, following this is a link to Online Journal's coverage on the smear tactics used against Representative Cynthia McKinney. She is one strong voice for real investigations on the truth surrounding what the US and Bush administration knew (and/or tried not to know) prior to the 9/11 attacks.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man. Destruction is not the law of the humans. Man lives freely by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him. Every murder or other injury, no matter for what cause is a crime against humanity."
Mahatma Gandhi
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) A Nonviolent Strategy by Mubarak Awad
To Win, Palestinians Must Adopt a Nonviolent Strategy by Mubarak Awad
The Palestinians need to pursue a conscious, organized strategy of nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation.
Violence, fiery speeches and threats of war against Israel are counterproductive. Instead, Palestinians should organize massive peaceful marches to demand an end to Israeli settlements and occupation, which are violations of morality and international law.
Such a strategy must involve Palestinians, the Arab world, the international community and committed Israelis. It must be grounded in broad public discussions involving unions, students, civil-society institutions and the local media.
The role of the Arab and Muslim worlds is crucial. Nonviolent resistance in the form of boycotts, protests and diplomatic pressure must be applied to translate the support of the various Arab populations into pressure on Israel.
The international community should focus on ending the Israeli settlements and occupation. Every opportunity should be taken to frame the question in moral and legal terms and to challenge Israel's war crimes. We must insist that the United Nations take action on these issues, regardless of U.S. opinion.
Boycotts of Israeli products should be linked to specific individuals or policies hurting Palestinians.
The Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims should view acceptance of Israelis as an acceptance of the humanity of other people who were born in the land and have a right to stay.
As a consequence of this new way of thinking, Arabs and Palestinians would accept the economic need for open borders between Palestine, Israel and the Arab world. Jews would be accepted as a minority in the Middle East and would not have to rely on the protection of the United States and Europe. Instead, they would be protected by a regional security arrangement such as the one put forth in the recent Saudi initiative.
This proposal has the potential of becoming a solid building block.
How can Israelis born in Israel, who possess the right to live there as citizens, coexist with the neighboring Arab and Islamic communities, especially the Palestinians, with equality and dignity for all?
The answer does not consist of believing in Israeli superiority or the power of military might. Salvation lies in Israel's relationship with the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim community. Israel has no future as a colonizing power without being seen as an apartheid state. Whites in South Africa, despite their power, were not able to enforce their rule forever. The sooner Israel reaches this conclusion, the sooner we will see an end to this conflict, which has taken a devastating toll on Palestinians and Israelis.
It is important for Palestinians to focus on nonviolent struggle. Many Israelis, who truly yearn for a just peace, can be enlisted in this nonviolent struggle against occupation and settlements, whereas there is almost no chance of enlisting them in any armed Palestinian activity. Palestinians will choose nonviolence only if they are convinced of its efficacy.
The Israelis know well how to fight an armed antagonist, yet they have little understanding of how to deal with massive nonviolent resistance. They expect and, in fact, need for Palestinians to be either submissive or violent.
A nonviolent approach would neutralize much of Israel's military might and disrupt its actions. We need to embark on this course now.
Mubarak Awad is founder and director of Nonviolence International, a nonprofit organization that helps those seeking nonviolent means to achieve their social and political goals.
Copyright 2002 Miami Herald
Published on Friday, April 12, 2002 in the Christian Science Monitor
also posted http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0412-06.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = == == = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Interview: Nonviolence in the Middle East:
A Talk with Mubarak Awad
Mubarak Awad is a Palestinian Christian psychologist who organized a nonviolent resistance movement against the occupation of Palestinian lands at the end of the 1980s. Israel expelled him to the United States, where his organization is known as Nonviolence International. Meir Amor, an Israeli peace activist living in Canada, interviewed him.
http://www.peacemagazine.org/0010/awad.htm
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Sharon Thanks the Americans for Scuttling Jenin Investigations
Sharon puts Washington on the spot Julian Borger in Washington
The Guardian
May 08 2002
The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, went out of his way to embarrass the divided US administration yesterday, openly thanking the Americans for scuttling the proposed UN investigation of Palestinian deaths in the West Bank town of Jenin.
His remarks were made only hours before he met George Bush in the White House. There are sharp differences between Israel and the US about the role of Yasser Arafat and Saudi Arabia in future peace negotiations. The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, played an important part in setting up the Jenin mission, in response to Palestinian claims of a massacre. It collapsed last month, because of Israeli opposition, before it even reached the West Bank.
Addressing the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish American pressure group, Mr Sharon hinted heavily that the Bush administration had ultimately helped block the inquiry. "No nation in the world has the right to bring Israel to court," he said. "I would like to thank the American administration and its leadership that helped us, understood us, and supported us to get out of this trap."
The speech put the administration in an awkward situation by suggesting that the US had acted privately to thwart a mission it supported in public. Denying Mr Sharon's claim would anger the fervently pro-Israel Congress, which is currently debating whether to increase the annual $2.8bn (£1.9bn) subsidy to Israel. There was no immediate US response to Mr Sharon's comments yesterday, but a diplomat watching the speech said that state department officials present turned "dour" when they heard them.
UN officials said the US had initially proposed a fact-finding mission principally as a means of heading off a security council resolution establishing a full investigative commission. But as opposition in the Israeli defence force became clear and the Israeli foreign minister, Shimon Peres, dropped his initial support, the US envoy to the UN, John Negroponte, distanced himself from the idea.
Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, was left "holding the baby", a UN official said. "He read the writing on the wall and pulled the plug." Another diplomat at the UN headquarters in New York agreed. "I don't think the US were out to get Sharon off the hook, but once it was clear he was not going to accept the mission, they may have tried to use it to get a package out of him."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The complete story is posted at http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4409055,00.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) The US Congress Not Stopping the Cycle of Violence
In case you missed it here is the list of senators and representatives who voted against the resolutions endorsing the Israeli military action in the West Bank. Human Rights Watch has documented numerous acts by the Israeli Defense Forces which, in their opinion, constitute war crimes. They include the use of human shields, the destruction of houses with civilians inside, the prevention of adequate medical care to wounded civilians who are allowed to die in the streets, and gratuitous attacks on civilians (including children) and civilian infrastructure that cannot be justified by military necessity.
If you can't find your representatives on this list that voted against supporting such military incursions against the Palestinian people and humanity, contact them and ask why they are supporting such policies that only continue the cycle of violence and threatens everyone.
Senators voting no. Byrd, Dem, W. Va, Hollings, Dem. S.C.
Senators not voting:
Bennett, Rep. Utah; Bunning, Rep., Ky.;
Helms, Rep. N.C.; Torricelli, Dem, NJ.
House of Representatives, Voting No.
Democrats: Abercrombie, Hawaii; Bonior, Mich; Boucher, Va.; Condit, Calif.; Conyers, Mich.; DeFazio, Ore.; Dingell, Mich.; Hilliard, Ala.; Inslee, Wash.; Jackson, Ill.; Kleczka, Wisc.; Lee, Calif.; McKinney, Ga.; Miller, Calif.; Obey, Wisc.; Rahall, W. Va.; Stark, Calif.
Republicans: Paul, Tex.; Petri, Wisc.; Rohrabacher, Calif.; Nick Smith, Mich.
Please consider calling and thanking these above Senators and Representatives who voted against the resolution in support of Israeli military policies that can only continue the cycle of violence and suffering in the Mid East. And if you can't find your elected representatives on this list, please call and ask them why they support policies that makes the situation worse. Not seeing Dennis Kucinich's name on the list, we called and discovered that he (and perhaps others) voted "present" which is registered neither as a "yes" or a "no" vote.
"It is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners."
- Albert Camus
The Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121
Additional Congressional Contact Information:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Rebel reservists tell why they refuse to go to the territories
Rebel reservists tell why they refuse to go to the territories 'WE
NEED TO STRENGTHEN IMAGE OF OUR SOCIETY'
Financial Times; Apr 27, 2002
By HARVEY MORRIS
Reserve staff sergeant Amit Mashiah is a self-proclaimed patriot and committed Zionist who is proud of what he calls one of the most moral armies in the world. That, he says, is why he is prepared to court accusations of treachery and cowardice by publicly refusing to serve in the occupied West Bank and Gaza strip.
Mr Mashiah is one of 436 Israeli reserve officers and men who have announced their intention to refuse to serve in the territories, an almost tenfold increase since the movement was launched three months ago.
"We believe it works against Israel society to maintain the occupation and that we have to push to end it," says Mr Mashiah.
On the eve of the planned arrival of a UN fact-finding mission into events at the Jenin refugee camp, the rebel reservists have decided to break a self-imposed silence towards the outside world by talking for the first time to the foreign press.
"We didn't want to be a stick with which to beat Israel," says Mr. Mashiah. "But now we really need to strengthen the image of Israeli society."
The last month has been a difficult time for the reservists' movement. Israeli passions were inflamed by a series of devastating Palestinian suicide bomb attacks and by the war that followed in the West Bank.
A majority appeared to accept the argument of Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, that the invasion of the West Bank was part of a war to safeguard the existence of Israel.
The reservists' movement has turned that argument on its head.
"If Israeli society, more than any other society in the world, abandons its core values, it won't be able to continue," Mr Mashiah says. "That's why we feel the country has left us no option but to refuse to serve in the occupied territories. As patriots we won't do it."
Mr Mashiah, who has served in the artillery in Lebanon and the occupied territories, says the army sets great store by morality in its training. It is the occupation that is immoral.
The 30-year-old former advertising man, who now works full-time as the reservists' spokesman, says: "The situation of an army in a populated area is an impossible reality."
He plans to reject his next reserve call-up papers in May, if it means service in the territories, and join 42 reservists already serving 28- day jail sentences.
The rebels firmly refuse to engage in politics - Mr. Mashiah says most are centrists and some even voted for Mr Sharon. "We go into the army, we fight, we go to university, we work, we pay taxes. But we can't sit aside and do nothing any more."
However, with feelings in Israel so raw, it looks like being an uphill struggle. In a mounting mood of intolerance in Israel, Limor Livnat, the education minister, this week raised the prospect of indicting Hebrew University lecturers who supported the rebel reservists.
An opinion poll published yesterday indicated 58 per cent of Israelis believe that journalists who criticise the army's role or government policy in the territories are damaging national security.
But, yesterday's poll in the Ma'ariv newspaper also indicated that most Israelis were not so far removed from the reservists' thinking 52 per cent supported a regional conference based on the principles of Saudi Arabia's peace proposal - full withdrawal from the territories in exchange for peace with all the Arab states.
http://www.ft.com/mideastcrisis
Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 1995-2002
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
5) US wants to oust Saddam even if he makes concessions
US wants to oust Saddam even if he makes concessions
Brian Whitaker and agencies
Sunday May 05 2002
The Observer
The US may try to remove Saddam Hussein from power even if he agrees to new weapons inspections, the secretary of state, Colin Powell, said yesterday.
For this article, see:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4408022,00.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
6) Conspiracy could have been discovered before 9/11
New information suggests a key to the Sep. 11 conspiracy could have been discovered before the
attack - if it hadn't been for what appears to be a communication breakdown between the FBI and the French intelligence.
This report was aired on Sixty-Minutes 2 on 08 May 2002
Scott Pelley of Sixty-Minutes 2, reports in this following link:
Could It Have Been Stopped?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/05/08/60II/main508362.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Article:
A case history in the culture of lies: The Washington Post
By Charles Utwater II
Online Journal Contributing Writer
The Strange Case of Cynthia McKinney
May 6, 2002Actually, it wasn't strange. It was standard smear politics. Take what someone says, stretch it into what she didn't say and then ridicule her for it. The only thing that's strange is that McKinney hasn't gone down to punch Post editor Len Downie a few feet below the nose.
This article is posted at:
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Media/Utwater050602/utwater050602.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Investigate the Pentagon * Mobile Chernobyl * World Tribunal Axed
08 May 2002
1) Investigate the Pentagon
2) Can Navy sonar hurt whales?
3) Governor turns away plutonium-hauling trucks?
4) Bush Renounces World Tribunal Pact
This is a busy week on Capitol Hill as Congress votes on Yucca Mountain, Defense Department environmental exemptions, and the Farm Bill conference report. Please call and try to reason with your Representatives on these and other issues. Item 1 lays a few facts on the line about the totalitarian nature, control, and misuse of the Pentagon budget. Congress is apparently easily manipulated, and real security, peace, humanity, and our environment, suffers tremendously.
Item 2 is more than about just sonar and whales, but also about the possibility of many additional environmental exemptions connected with the Defense Bill. The full House will consider the $383.4 billion National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 4546) for fiscal year 2003 as early as today. The measure is $4 billion more than the administration had requested. There is strong support from the administration and Capitol Hill to increase defense spending. Some in the Defense Department have used the momentum as an opportunity to exempt certain military activities from the nation's most important environmental laws, including the Endangered Species Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Yet, while there may be support for more defense spending, there is also overwhelming opposition from the American public for exempting the Defense Department from environmental statutes.
In fact, a recent poll of 1,002 registered voters found that 85 percent believe the Defense Department should follow the same environmental and public health laws as other agencies and individuals. Existing laws already afford the Defense Department flexibility to balance environmental protection and military readiness by allowing exemptions on a case-by-case basis in the interest of national security. Rep. James Maloney (D-Conn.) indicated he will offer an amendment to strike the two exemptions when H.R. 4546 reaches the floor. Check with the following address to the website of the League of Conservation Voters for updates: http://www.lcv.org/index.asp . Also, see at end of this item for actions that you can take to help sway Congress ASAP.
Item 3 just shows how sloppy things can become when shipping around toxic plutonium materials. Let's call and pray that Yucca doesn't begin a whole new mess load of toxic shipments. Please help stop threatening Mobile Chernobyl's. The governor of South Carolina should not be the only one concerned about the military's toxic stuff being moved around our vicinity, country, our world.
Item 4 should come as no surprise: The US Bush administration has announced its opposition to an international criminal court and is expected to declare that the signing of the document by the Clinton administration is no longer valid.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Please note that Flyby News last issue, which included a Toronto Star OPED article, "Canada could prevent weaponization of space," was featured today as the top link (at the left menu) of Yahoo.com's National Missile Defense webpage, see: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/US/Missile_Defense_System/
Please help stop the expansion of the arms race before it happens. Help encourage your Reps. to co-sponsor H.R. 3616, Space Preservation Act of 2002. We also need a Senator to introduce it as a Bill and to encourage world leaders to support the ban on space-based weapons.
For an online fax system in support of this, and for more information, visit:
http://www.peaceinspace.com
A new Kucinich video on this subject is available. Interested?
Contact: Carol Rosin < rosin@west.net > or info@peaceinspace.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Investigate the Pentagon
Like Harry Truman, We Should Investigate the Pentagon
by Gary Ferdman and Myriam Miedzian
Fact:
Pentagon and General Accounting Office analysts agree that year after year the Department of Defense loses track of a quarter of its budget-an amount in excess of the entire annual federal budget for education.
Fact:
No congressional investigation of the Pentagon budget is planned.
Fact:
President Bush's 2002 Pentagon budget calls for a $48 billion increase which would bring the total 2003 budget to $396.8 billion.
Fact:
Our 2002 defense budget is much larger than the defense budgets of Russia and China plus all potential adversaries combined.
Fact:
Since the 1960's we have spent $130 billion on missile defense. The proposed 2003 budget includes another $7.7 billion. Pentagon plans call for hundreds of billions to be spent in future years.
Fact:
According to our intelligence community the least likely means of delivery of a weapon of mass destruction is long range missile. A substantial number of scientists many of whom have worked for the Pentagon believe that a missile defense system would be ineffective and would lead to a new escalation of nuclear weapons. Our allies are opposed to it and to the breaking of the ABM treaty that it requires.
Fact:
For decades the Pentagon has spent $30 to $35 billion annually to maintain a nuclear arsenal of at least 10,000 warheads.
Fact:
Experts such as Paul Warnke, Chief negotiator of the 1979 Salt II treaty, and Robert McNamara, former Secretary of Defense have taken the same position as Richard Garwin, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a key contributor to the first U.S. hydrogen bomb that "no conceivable threat requires the U.S. to keep more than a few hundred survivable warheads."
Fact:
The Pentagon still spends tens of billions on Cold War weapons systems such as F-22 fighter jets and new nuclear weapons.
Fact:
The cold war with the USSR has been over for more than twelve years.
Fact:
Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing and other weapons manufacturers are amongst the largest contributors to political candidates; for years they have spent even more than Enron to buy political influence.
Fact:
The above facts are well known to members of Congress, but a vast majority of Americans are unaware of them.
Question:
Why has not one Democratic Senator taken real leadership in opposing any increase in Pentagon spending and exposing the waste and political pork that perpetuates a bloated budget bearing little relationship to our nation's true military needs?
For the complete story, published May 7, 2002 by CommonDreams.org, see:
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0507-08.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Related Story from ASSOCIATED PRESS
House Panel OKs Defense Spending Plan
Wed May 1,1019 PM ET
By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - A House panel adopted a military spending blueprint Wednesday that matches President Bush's proposal for the largest boost in defense in two decades. The legislation raises troop levels and pay, provides for a new generation of stealth jet fighters and adds billions to fight terrorism.
"We did remarkably well," said House Armed Services Chairman Bob Stump, R-Ariz., after a 57-1 vote by panel members late in the evening sent the measure to the House floor for expected
consideration next week. Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., was the only lawmaker not in support.
The $383 billion authorizes national defense spending by the Defense and Energy departments for the budget year that begins Oct. 1. Congressional appropriators must write separate
appropriations legislation before the money can be spent.
It roughly matches the Bush administration's defense spending proposal, minus a $10 billion reserve fund that the White House proposed for future war costs.
For the complete story, inquire:
http://www.ap.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Can Navy sonar hurt whales?
Activists poised to block new device seen as harmful to marine mammals
Can Navy sonar hurt whales?
By EMILY C. DOOLEY
A high-tech sonar system unveiled by the Navy could harm whales, dolphins and other marine mammals, environmentalists say. The new sonar uses sound waves and microphones to detect submarines at distances 10 times farther away than standard sonar equipment. Environmentalists believe the noise could affect whale health and behaviors, such as migratory patterns and breeding.
Acknowledging the system could affect "small numbers" of marine mammals, the Navy has filed for a permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service to use the technology for the next five years. If the system is approved, the Navy would have the right to "incidentally harass or harm marine species."
A decision by the Fisheries Service is expected within the next few weeks, according to agency spokeswoman, Connie Barclay. Military officials and environmental activists, meanwhile, are debating the risks involved with the new technology.
"It's virtually impossible to know what the baseline response behavior will be," said Joe Johnson, civilian project manager for the Navy's new sonar program.
The Navy's Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System, or SURTASS, has a string of underwater microphones that detect noise from submarines and other underwater hazards. The new system uses Low Frequency Active (LFA) enhancement, which broadcasts sounds so the Navy can listen to underwater echoes bouncing off vessels.
Activists worry the decibel levels will hurt marine life. "(The Navy) said, 'We tested it and it's safe,' but they never tested at the full level," said Marsha Green, a professor with Albright University and a member of Ocean Mammal Institute. "I think they were clearly trying to deceive people.."
..Environmental exemption sought
Meanwhile, a bill to exempt the Department of Defense from several environmental laws, including the Marine Mammal Protection Act and Endangered Species Act, is being discussed on Capitol Hill.
"It's very disturbing," said Peter Borelli, executive director of the Center for Coastal Studies. "I think (the military is) trying to see how far 9/11 carries them.'
The environmental provisions are part of a House bill that authorizes fiscal 2003 spending for the Department of Defense. A committee on Tuesday removed exemptions from Superfund and Clean Air acts, but other exemptions remained. The Armed Services Committee debated the bill yesterday. The Cape's lawmakers are not encouraged by the measure.
"It's an attempt to undo a great deal of progress in a wholesale way," said Steve Schwadron, a senior aide for U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, who represents the Cape and islands.
"We need to defend the nation - period," Schwadron said. "We just need to do that in a responsible fashion. There is no need to sacrifice the environmental protection aspects of this in order to ensure we have proper training."
When it comes to marine mammals the act makes it harder to file lawsuits, Schwadron said. It also changes definitions, making it harder to prove something is harassment, Young said. "That's a pretty potent combination," Schwadron said. "The last thing we need is a whole statutory overhaul that releases everybody from their obligations."
If approved, the proposed legislation could clear the way for the sonar program.
"Without it, the Navy cannot proceed," Schwadron said. "With it, the Navy can get through this obstacle."
For the complete article, posted at the Cape Cod Times, 02 May 2002, see
http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/archives/2002/may/2/cannavy2.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
One short but positive news segment on military exemption issues and LFA Sonar on Pacifica's WBAI New York broadcast of Democracy Now! hosted by Amy Goodman, this morning May 6th. Mentioned was the house vote this week and how important it is to call congressional reps this week.
DN is broadcast at Pacifica stations, check for broadcast times, webcast also at:
http://www.democracynow.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Please Please Please KEEP MAKING THOSE FAXES, E-MAILS, and PHONE CALLS!!! (Things are moving so quickly that even Congress is outstripping snail mail....)
The ONLY REASON Congress has balked at placing these anti-environmental "riders" in the Defense Authorization Bill so far is because the public and the media are getting angry about this
outrageous, un-democratic action. Some of them are feeling the heat -- THEY ALL NEED TO FEEL THE HEAT!
Call the Capitol Switchboard (202) 224-3121 and ask to speak to your Representative's or Senator's office.
TheNatural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has set up an action alert page where you can e-mail an immediate message to your Representative on this issue. Take advantage of it by going to: http://www.nrdc.org/action/default.asp
(1) Oppose ANY attempt to weaken environmental reviews and environmental laws for military activities.
(2) Support the concept that National Security must include a healthy global environment, or the US will be more vulnerable than ever to enemies within and without our society.
(3) Oppose deployment of Low Frequency Active (LFA) Sonar, and urge an environmental review of all Navy soundblasting with intense active sonars that pose a threat to marine life. Point out that there are alternatives to LFA Sonar that do not harm the environment.
(4) Oppose any attempt to circumvent the legislative process (such as attaching an amendment that exempts the military from environmental laws to the Defense Authorization Bill!!). This issue needs full deliberation by Congress, not end-run gamesmanship.
Thanks for your help! Keep contacting your legislators!
For more information on this issue, contact:
Mark J. Palmer
Assistant Director
International Marine Mammal Project
Director
Wildlife Alive
Earth Island Institute
300 Broadway, Suite 28
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 788-3666 x139
(415) 788-7324 (fax)
mpalmer@mother.com
www.earthisland.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Governor turns away plutonium-hauling trucks?
TheState.com
South Carolina's Homepage
Posted Mon, May. 06, 2002
Hodges' war on plutonium move igniting political, PR meltdown
U.S. plan to dispose of six tons of toxic bomb-making residue threatened as
governor balks
By CHARLES SEABROOK
Cox News Service
ROCKY FLATS, Colo. - At the peak of the Cold War, 8,000 workers labored around the clock in top-secret buildings west of Denver to build the deadliest devices ever invented - thermonuclear bombs.
Now, with Russia and the United States cutting their nuclear arsenals, the Rocky Flats site - once one of the world's most dangerous bomb plants - will shut down by 2006. Its grounds will become a wildlife refuge.
First, though, the government must level hundreds of buildings and remove huge volumes of highly radioactive material left from decades of making hydrogen bombs.
Crews are sending tons of this waste to disposal, storage and recycling sites around the country.
However, the most dangerous material - more than six tons of heavily guarded plutonium suitable for use in H-bombs - is destined for the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River Site, near Aiken. There, if all goes according to plan, it would be recycled into fuel for electric generating reactors.
Plutonium shipments to SRS could begin anytime after May 15.
But getting the substance across the South Carolina border is becoming a political and public relations headache.
Gov. Jim Hodges vows to use state troopers - even lie down in the road himself if necessary - to turn away plutonium-hauling trucks, unless he is convinced the feds won't leave the plutonium in his state permanently.
At the U.S. Justice Department, lawyers are looking at whether to send federal marshals along with the shipments to South Carolina, and studying the law about whether Hodges can block the shipments.
So far, the Energy Department's promises have left Hodges unconvinced. "The federal government is asking us to take them at their word," Hodges said. "Given their track record, that's not good enough."
On Wednesday, the governor sued the Energy Department, asking a federal court to block the plutonium shipments until Washington studies the impact on public health and the environment.
Hodges' stance has thrown the Energy Department, and some people in Colorado, into a tizzy.
If the plutonium does not begin moving out of Colorado soon, the department will miss its 2006 deadline for closing Rocky Flats, the agency says.
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham says he fears the Russians might lose interest in cutting weapons if the United States cannot show it is making progress in getting rid of its nuclear material.
In Colorado, Denver's newspapers have called Hodges "silly" and likened him to a Confederate rebel. U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., who introduced the bill to make Rocky Flats a wildlife refuge, says Hodges will be to blame if plans fall apart.
His press secretary has referred to Hodges, a Democrat, as an "Elmer Fudd."
Allard and Hodges are running for re-election, raising the possibility that their battles have as much to do with politics as protecting their states from nuclear hazards.
STATES CHALLENGE FEDS
The plutonium from Rocky Flats is just the first part of more than 34 tons of the radioactive metal - enough to make thousands of H-bombs - that will be shipped to SRS from Energy Department sites over the next several years. Much of the plutonium is from dismantled bombs. Russia has agreed to dispose of a similar amount of the material.
The plutonium shipped to SRS would be reprocessed into a fuel for commercial nuclear reactors. When that fuel is spent, it would be disposed at a planned repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev.
To reprocess the plutonium, the Energy Department plans to spend $3.8 billion to build and operate two massive structures at SRS. Hodges' fear is that the structures won't be built, and the plutonium will sit indefinitely.
RAIDED BY THE FBI
The cleanup and closure of the 6,500-acre Rocky Flats facility, once one of the world's filthiest bomb factories, will set the tone for other such projects to come, nuclear experts say.
At a cost of more than $7 billion, the Rocky Flats effort is one of the biggest public works projects in the nation's history and the first of its kind - the complete dismantling of a major nuclear weapons plant - in the world.
The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission began building Rocky Flats in 1951. The facility took plutonium, produced by reactors at SRS and the government's Hanford plant in Washington state, and turned it into plutonium "pits," or triggers for nuclear bombs.
A hollow sphere that varies in size from a grapefruit to a soccer ball, a plutonium pit explodes with the power of the bomb that obliterated Hiroshima during World War II. But in thermonuclear weapons, the pit serves mainly as a starter - the pit is a compact atomic bomb that detonates the larger hydrogen bomb. Pits made at Rocky Flats can trigger weapons 600 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Declassified reports reveal that Rocky Flats made about 70,000 pits in 36 years. Manufacturing at the site halted in 1989, when the FBI raided the factory for alleged environmental crimes. An Energy Department contractor paid more than $18 million in fines.
Because of the numerous environmental and safety deficiencies, Rocky Flats never resumed operations. In 2000, the Energy Department signed a contract with Kaiser-Hill, an environmental restoration company, to clean up the site, tear down its hundreds of structures, and close it down by the end of 2006.
Energy Department officials say they are now about a third of the way through the cleanup. Grassy areas and piles of rubble now mark the spots where some of the plant's support buildings and laboratories once stood.
Nearly every day, tractor-trailer rigs loaded with radioactive waste in huge shipping casks depart for the various storage sites around the country.
"We have more than 700 buildings here, large and small, and every one of them will be decontaminated and torn down," said Pat Etchart, a Rocky Flats spokesman as he drove a visitor through the complex recently.
Some of those buildings cover the equivalent of three football fields and have walls more than 5 feet thick. Tearing down such massive structures would be a major feat under even ordinary circumstances.
But the dismantling job becomes immensely more complex when workers must dress out in bright yellow moon suits and follow precise, detailed safety steps to protect themselves from nuclear materials and radiation.
For the complete story, see:
http://www.thestate.com/mld/state/news/3207533.htm
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Bush Renounces World Tribunal Pact
Bush Renounces, Reverses Clinton on World Tribunal Pact
By NEIL A. LEWIS
May 5, 2002
WASHINGTON | The Bush administration has decided to renounce formally any involvement in a treaty setting up an international criminal court and is expected to declare that the signing of the document by the Clinton administration is no longer valid, government officials said today.
The full article is posted at following two URL addresses:
http://truthout.com/docs_02/05.05C.Tribunal.Pact.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/05/international/05TRIB.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Ban Weapons in Space * Energy Update * New Fuel Source * Arafat and Jenin
01 May 2002
This issue begins with an article stating that Canada could play a critical role in the prevention of the weaponization of space. Please consider supporting this by going to the website of the Institute for Cooperation in Space (ICIS) where you can use their online fax system to help limit the arms race to the confines of Earth, where visionary leaders can have a chance to disarm all weapons of mass destruction before we blow ourselves to smithereens.
Item 2 reports on the recently passed Senate Energy Bill. This is more of the same with tweaks here and there to make people think these legislatures are doing something. Yet in reality they are continuing policies that are leading to global climate changes and pollution, and dangerous technologies for humankind.
Item 3 is a rebuttal on all this, which is from a press release from Stirling Advantage, Inc. They are proposing the use of new fuel sources that can be available for generating electricity by improving an early 19th century technology. Sooner or later people will wake up to the disastrous effects of accumulating carbon and other greenhouse gases being recklessly emitted into our atmosphere. Whether or not it will be too late for the fate of humankind is another question.
Item 4 is an update on Flyby News last issue's focus on the Mid East. Flyby News has endorsed the Saudi Arabian peace initiative that can work for Israel and Palestine, and help unite the world community behind diplomatic actions that can help stop the violence, destruction, oppression, and suffering.
1) Canada could prevent weaponization of space
2) Senate delivers 88-11 final vote on Democratic energy bill
3) New Fuel Source for Electricity Generation
4) Arafat and Jenin / What sort of deal did Bush strike?
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Canada could prevent weaponization of space
THE TORONTO STAR APRIL 30, 2002
No other country is in a better position to initiate international action
By James George, Dr. Carol Rosin, and Alfred Webre
ON JUNE 13, 2002, the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty will expire following its unilateral termination by the Bush administration, leaving an international legal void that will allow the weaponization of space. The termination of the ABM Treaty will permit research, development, testing, manufacturing, production and deployment of space-based weapons, and space-based components of the U.S. National Missile Defense System to go forward, instigating a dangerous, costly, and destabilizing arms race in space, impacting all of us.
Russian Minister of Defence Sergei Ivanov has already suggested that if the U.S. proceeds, Russia could deploy its own response to the U.S. space-based weapons system. The stated objectives of the United States Space Command in "Vision For 2020" are to seize the strategic high ground of space to "dominate and control." There is a rapidly growing worldwide movement to stop this potentially catastrophic arms race in space. This must be stopped before it begins this year.
As seen from space, Canada lies between Russia and the United States, and, geography aside, no country is in a better position to initiate international action. Since 1982, Canada has led the growing United Nations lobby opposing weapons in space. Deputy Prime Minister John Manley stated on July 26, 2001: "Canada would be very happy to launch an initiative to see an international convention preventing the weaponization of space."
With the strong support of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the U.N. General Assembly last Nov. 29 voted 156-0 to prevent an arms race in space. Almost everyone wants it. On Sept. 28, 2001, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov had invited "the world community to start working out a comprehensive agreement on the non-deployment of weapons in outer space." At the U.N. Conference on Disarmament in June last year, China had taken a similar position. But neither Russia nor China will initiate binding action while the United States is unbound. If Canada does not act now, who will? If we do, we will generate far more support and respect than we gathered over our land mines initiative. We could turn the tide that will lift all ships and preserve space as a weapons-free commons.
In the United States, polls confirm that this result is what the great majority of Americans want. When there is almost unanimous international pressure, as well as very strong domestic support, the United States will change course. In the next few days, every head of government will be receiving, from the Institute for Cooperation in Space, a Space Preservation Treaty, which is the international companion to the legislation introduced as H.R. 3616, the Space Preservation Act of 2002, in the United States House of Representatives on Jan. 23, 2002. The act requires the U.S. to implement an international treaty that will ban all space-based weapons and the use of weapons to destroy or damage objects in space that are in orbit to preserve the cooperative, peaceful uses of space for the benefit of all humankind.
The Space Preservation Treaty is an effective and verifiable world agreement that also will implement a ban on space-based weapons. Implement a ban on the use of weapons to destroy or damage objects in space that are in orbit. Immediately order the permanent termination of research and development, testing, manufacturing, production and deployment of all space-based weapons. The treaty allows for space exploration, research, development, testing, manufacturing, production and deployment of civil, commercial and defence activities in space that are not related to space-based weapons. Under the terms of the treaty, each nation having signed the treaty shall immediately work toward supporting other non-signatory nations in signing, ratifying and implementing the treaty.
Once three nations sign it and deposit it at the United Nations, Annan is required to report publicly to the U.N. General Assembly every 90 days on the progress of implementing a permanent ban on space-based weapons and on the progress of signing and ratifying the treaty.
Once 20 nations have signed and ratified the Space Preservation Treaty, it will go into force; the outer space peacekeeping agency will be funded and empowered to monitor and enforce the ban on space-based weapons.
Canada's signing of the treaty will encourage Russia to maintain Russia's and China's longstanding commitment to keep space weapons-free and to sign the treaty as well. Together, Canada, Russia, China, and many other nations already on record as supporting such a treaty, can lead the nations of the world in signing the Space Preservation Treaty.
We can and must stop the weaponization of space before it occurs. The signing of the Space Preservation Treaty will put needed pressure on the U.S. Congress and administration to sign this verifiable and enforceable agreement. This permanent ban on all space-based weapons, worldwide, will transform the war industry into a space industry that will stimulate the creation of clean and safe technologies, products and services, including new jobs and training programs, that can and will be applied directly to solving urgent human and environmental problems.
What can an ordinary citizen do? Contact Prime Minister Jean Chrtien, Deputy Prime Minister John Manley and Foreign Minister Bill Graham immediately. Tell them to lead the way, to be the first to say that they will sign the Space Preservation Treaty. This is the greatest challenge of our generation.
###
James George is a retired Canadian diplomat who served at the United Nations. He can be contacted at geojam6@sympatico.ca
Dr. Carol Rosin is president of The Institute for Cooperation in Space (ICIS), a non-profit educational foundation. rosin@west.net (USA)
Alfred Lambremont Webre is an ICIS international director. info@peaceinspace.com (Canada).
The ICIS Web site-- http://www.peaceinspace.com
Copyright 1996-2002. Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved.
http://www.thestar.com
This article is posted at The Star:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=1020117723217
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Senate delivers 88-11 final vote on Democratic energy bill
"There's something in this bill to disappoint everybody."
The following is from Environment & Energy Daily (April 26, 2002)
A process triggered nearly a year ago when the Bush administration dropped an energy package heavy on production incentives climaxed in the Senate last night when the upper chamber voted 88-11 to approve a comprehensive energy bill, S. 517, after more than six weeks of debate. Republicans and Democrats alike immediately claimed victory, while environmentalists and many industry groups walked away feeling slighted by a bill many regard as watered down to a fault.
A hectic final day of floor maneuvering produced the conclusive margin, but not before the Senate took up a series of last-minute amendments. In a rush of activity, the Senate conducted eight roll-call votes Thursday, resulting in the acceptance of language softening climate change provisions, the dilution of air-conditioning efficiency standards and the defeat of an attempt to strip tax incentives for hybrid-electric vehicles.
The Senate also beat back an attempt to include offsets for $15 billion in energy tax credits and rejected Sen. Tom Carper's (D-Del.) modest fuel-economy transportation boost.
At the end of the day, Republicans and Democrats were quick to take the credit, though Democrats traditionally thought of as representing the more liberal element of the party were clearly unhappy with the bill on several counts. Among those voting "no" Thursday were Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer (Calif.), Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Hillary Clinton (N.Y.), Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Edward Kennedy (Mass.), all of whom cited either environmentalist opposition or dissatisfaction with S. 517's ethanol mandate.
"No bill is a lot better than a bad bill," Schumer said.
Environmental Defense's Legislative Director Elizabeth Thompson expressed similar thoughts. "This debate has been more painful than a root canal," she said.
Also voting "no" were Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Phil Gramm (R-Texas), Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), Bob Graham (D-Fla.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.).
In the bill's defense, Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Senate Majority Whip Harry Reid (D-Nev.) described the dissatisfaction from green groups and industry as the bill's greatest strength. "There's something in this bill to disappoint everybody," Bingaman said.
The victors on the GOP side of the aisle, meantime, credited themselves for fixing a "broken" Democratic bill on the Senate floor. "Every step of the way, Republicans have successfully improved the Senate energy bill," Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) said. "Amendment after amendment was approved, leaving this legislation changed for the better."
Passage of the legislation now sets up an election-year House-Senate conference committee on energy that may deteriorate into a pitched battle given the vast differences between S. 517 and the House-passed bill, H.R. 4.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
See the following URL address for another review of the Senate Energy Bill from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy:
Senate Takes Small Steps Towards Energy Efficiency
http://www.aceee.org/press/0202senateanalysis.htm
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) New Fuel Source for Electricity Generation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New Fuel Source for Electricity Generation
Athol, MA. May 1, 2002. Stirling Advantage, Inc., today announced a new design for its Stirling power systems that will tap an unused source of energy for electric power production. The new design will facilitate electric generation from industrial waste heat streams, improving the efficiency of industrial processes while avoiding harmful emissions normally associated with power production.
"The Stirling cycle engine is unique in its ability to operate on virtually any source of heat," notes Stirling Advantage CEO, Ricardo Conde. "The use of waste heat for electricity production can deliver significant increases in industrial productivity."
It is estimated that U.S. industrial companies spend $11 billion annually for fuel to produce process heat for such things as glass and ceramic furnaces, foundries and melting and heat treating facilities. The Industrial Heating Equipment Association estimates that from 20% to 85% of the energy in that fuel is not used in the process. Such heat energy is often vented to the atmosphere for lack of a cost-effective means to use it. The new Stirling Advantage design will use this heat to generate electricity that can reduce a company's power bill or be sold to the local utility.
In addition to improving industrial fuel efficiency, the added electricity will require no new fuel to be burned and, thus, will create no incremental emissions. Applied globally this technology can play a significant role in cutting the growth of fossil fuel use and the associated greenhouse gas emissions.
Stirling Advantage, Inc., is the leading designer of commercial and industrial scale Stirling engines. Its highly efficient 200kW engines will be used to produce electricity from a variety of heat and fuel sources, and to produce chilled water for large air conditioning applications.
###
SOURCE: Stirling Advantage, Inc.
CONTACT: Dick Meloy, Vice President, Tel: (203)328-3045;
http://www.stirlingadvantage.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Arafat and Jenin / What sort of deal did Bush strike?
The following was received from "Bill Thomson" < wthomson@umich.edu >
BULLETIN--MIDEAST URGENT ACTION: 5/1/02 (AM--EST)
Israel is refusing to cooperate with the UN investigators regarding the tragedy in Jenin. The Minneapolis Star Tribune indicates that a deal was struck by Bush with the Israelis to allow them to refuse the UN commission in exchange for Arafat's release. This is a situation that absolutely demands our response.
It is also not clear to me how President Arafat could possibly accept such an arrangement. I was in Jenin just over a week ago, and it is obvious that some terrible events happened there, including significantly more than the 50 deaths referred to in the editorial.
If you have never contacted the President before, now is the time to do it.
-- Bill
[Contact information is given after the following editorial.]
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The Minneapolis Star Tribune
April 30, 2002
Editorial: Arafat and Jenin / What sort of deal did Bush strike?
President Bush and his foreign-policy advisers moved with great creativity to disarm one of the most pressing issues in the Middle East: isolation of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in his Ramallah compound. We'd be applauding full force if it didn't appear that Bush made a bad deal to secure Arafat's release.
Under the agreement, British and American guards will secure six Palestinians, now in Arafat's compound, who are wanted by Israel. Arafat then will be free to move around the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This arrangement represents a significant concession by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Heretofore, a major goal of encircling Arafat's compound with tanks was to isolate him. That such isolation contradicted Israeli calls for Arafat to combat terrorism always was clear to anyone with any emotional distance from this conflict. With Arafat's new ability to move about, calls for him to smash the remaining "infrastructure of terror" will take on new force. Surely he can now see how severely his embrace of violence has backfired for the Palestinian people. Perhaps a visit to Jenin can bring that message home to him.
But it is on the issue of Jenin that this deal smells. Both American and Israeli officials said Monday that in return for freeing Arafat, the United States agreed to stand by Israel in its high-stakes confrontation with the U.N. Security Council and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The Security Council has authorized, and Annan seeks to dispatch, a U.N. fact-finding team to evaluate what happened in Jenin. The Israelis say their soldiers carefully safeguarded civilians. The Palestinians say the Israelis massacred hundreds. That would seem a situation tailor-made for independent fact-finding, and Annan assembled an impressive team: Martti Ahtisaari, former president of Finland; Cornelio Sommaruga, former president of the International Red Cross, and Sadako Ogata, former U.N. high commissioner for refugees, plus several military advisers.
For 10 days now, however, the Israeli government has prevented the fact-finding team from getting started. Coming on top of the strict control Israel exercised over Jenin during and for five days following the fighting, Israeli delaying tactics have a growing number of people asking whether it is trying to hide something.
That question is additionally informed by condemnations of Israeli actions in Jenin coming from Amnesty International and other human-rights organizations that have visited the camp. London's Independent newspaper also has done credible reporting from Jenin suggesting that while "massacre" may be too strong a word, many civilians were killed, including women, children and the elderly, in situations that cannot be justified as "collateral damage." Of the 50 dead Palestinians identified at the time the Independent was doing its reporting from Jenin, almost half were civilian. In five days of interviews, the Independent constructed horrific individual tales of nurses, disabled people and unarmed schoolboys shot dead by Israeli forces.
Neither Israel nor the United States has any legal authority to interfere with the fact-finding mission. By trying to cooperate with Israel, Annan has put his own credibility on the line. With or without Israel's cooperation, very soon the mission must begin, in service to the truth of what really happened in Jenin.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Please contact your political representatives immediately and ask them to urge a cessation of hostilities on both sides. Also encourage them to urge the use of international observers, many of whom are currently in Ramallah and the surrounding area.
You can easily find how to contact for your own U.S. Senators and Congresspeople at http://government.aol.com.
Here are four important people to address in the United States. Use phone and fax and email:
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvanian Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
Phone: (202) 456-1111 -- Fax: (202) 456-2461 -- E-mail: president@whitehouse.gov
Vice President Dick Cheney
(The White House, as above)
Condoleezza Rice
National Security Advisor
(The White House, as above)
Secretary of State Colin Powell
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20520
Phone: (202) 647-6575 -- Fax: (202) 261-8577 -- E-mail: secretary@state.gov
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UNITED NATIONS ADMINISTRATION:
webmaster@unhcr.ch, areca@unhcr.ch , unsco@palnet.com , ecu@un.org , coi@un.orgwebadmin.hchr@unog.ch
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
McKinney on MidEast Crisis * Jenin Stinks * Peace Initiatives
25 April 2002
1) Rep. McKinney's 4/20 remarks to peace rally in Washington, DC
2) Jenin: Something Stinks
3) America Can Persuade Israel to Make a Just Peace - Jimmy Carter
4) Bush's Speech - A Vision of Permanent War
Editor's Notes:
Resolution of the Middle East Crisis is Critical for Everyone. Cynthia McKinney's speech at the April 20th 2002 peace rally in Washington, D.C. follows in item 1 Her remarks cover a broad spectrum for peace and for saving our failing democracy in the US. Item 2 is a report on the literally stinking situation in Jenin. The US really needs to do something constructive for peace, and in item 3 Jimmy Carter outlines real solutions in an Op-Ed NY Times article. Please read this and call your elected representatives in support of such a US peace initiative. The US Congressional switchboard number is (202)224-3121. The White House Comment Line is 202-456-1111. Item 4 is a commentary on Bush's vision for permament war.
1) Rep. McKinney's 4/20 remarks to peace rally in Washington, DC
We Come For Peace
By Rep. Cynthia McKinney
[Remarks to April 20, peace rally in Washington, DC]
We come here today from the four corners of this nation.
We are blacks and whites, Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans; Christians, Muslims, and Jews; gay, lesbian, and straight; immigrants and native-born Americans; rich and poor. Here today are representatives of all sections of society: students, union members . . . union members on strike . . . homeless veterans . . . and everyday warriors on the battlefield for justice.
But despite all our differences, we are here today . . . one community with one thing in common: a desire to see the restoration of the true ideals of America. America -- where fundamental rights to vote, speak, and practice religion mean something. A country that has a democratic form of government, a democratic way of life and a nation in which all can participate freely in political activity and share in the abundance of its harvest. But America today is still a far cry from the noble Republic founded upon those words: "All men are created equal."
We have not dealt well with our diversity and too many of our citizens suffer needlessly. Each day millions of Americans suffer poverty, hunger, the sting of discrimination . . . arbitrary arrest, racial profiling, and brutality from rogue police . . . inadequate health care, drug abuse, and unemployment.
For the millions of poor Americans, ours is not a just society. More than 31 million Americans live in poverty. One in every six of our children live in poverty. Some of our nation's poor even sleep each night on the steps of the buildings just visible from the bedrooms of the White House. And sadly, many of those who sleep on America's streets are our veterans from US wars . . .
Sadly, nor is ours a democratic society. In November 2000, the Republicans stole from America our most precious right of all: the right to free and fair elections. Florida Governor Jeb Bush and his Secretary of State Katherine Harris, created a phony list of convicted felons--57,700 to be exact--to "scrub" thousands of innocent people from the state's voter rolls. Of the thousands who ultimately lost their vote through this scrub of voters, 80% were African- American, mostly Democratic Party voters. Had they voted, the course of history would have changed. Instead, however, Harris declared Bush the victor by only 537 votes. Now President Bush occupies the White House, but with questionable legitimacy. But however he got there, his Administration is now free to spend one to four billion dollars a month on the war in Afghanistan . . . free to cut the high deployment overtime pay of our young service men and women fighting in that war . . . free to propose drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve National Park . . . free to stonewall on the Enron and Energy Task Force investigations . . . free to revoke the rules that keep our drinking water free of arsenic . . . free to get caught in Venezuela . . . and free to propose laws that deny our citizens sacred freedoms cherished under the Constitution.
We must dare to remember all of this. We must dare to debate and challenge all of this. And that is why we are here today. We come here today to chart a new course for our communities and for America. To fight against bigotry, we stand together as one and we must. To fight against injustice, we stand together as one and we must. To fight against poverty, we stand together as one and we must. To fight against the destruction of our environment, we stand together as one and we must. To wage peace instead of war, we stand together as one and we must. Because, through our efforts, I believe we can once again, make America a force for good in the world.
We, as the world's most powerful nation have a responsibility to act in defense of the weak and to protect them from harm.
We failed in Rwanda.
We failed in Srebrenica.
We failed in East Timor.
And now, as we speak, we fail in Jenin.
Let us dedicate ourselves here today, to join together as one. When one person stands up and speaks out for the suffering of the weak, a tiny ripple of hope is created. When numerous people stand and demand justice for the multitude who have been forgotten, a strong current of possibilities is created. When an entire community stands up and demands change a mighty wave of freedom and justice is created. We gather here today and we speak with one voice . . . And let us remember, that one person can make a ripple. One ripple can make a movement. One movement can make a voice. And one voice can make mighty change.
Let us leave here today and make the change this country needs to be loved and respected around the world once again.
And remember one thing: Register and Vote!
Cynthia McKinney represents Georgia's Fourth Congressional District
Please consider writing or calling in support of this courageous person.
Congresswoman Cynthia Ann McKinney
124 Cannon Building Washington, DC 20515
ph 202 225 1605 fax 202 226 0691
http://www.house.gov/mckinney/
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Note:
Cynthia Mckinney is one of the seven congressional co-sponsors of H.R. 3616
SPACE PRESERVATION ACT OF 2002 - Sponsored by Dennis Kucinich (D-OHIO)
Additional co-sponsors include: Bob Filner, Joseph M. Hoeffel, William "Lacy" Clay Jr., Maurice Hinchey, Barbara Lee, Pete Fortney Stark -- Source as of 4-9-02: http://thomas.loc.gov/
2) Jenin: Something Stinks
Jenin: Something Stinks
By Uri Avnery
20.4.02
There is fill agreement between all those who were in the Jenin refugee camp on only one thing. A week after the end of the fighting, foreign journalists and IDF soldiers, UN representatives and hired hacks in the Israeli media, members of the welfare organizations and government propagandists all report that a terrible stench of decomposing bodies lingers everywhere. Apart from that there is no agreement on anything. The Palestinians speak about a massacre amounting to a second Sabra and Shatila. The IDF speak about hard fighting, in which "the most humane army in the world" did not intentionally hurt even one single civilian. The Palestinians speak about hundreds of dead, the Minister of Defense asserts categorically that exactly 43 were killed..
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Preliminary findings of Amnesty International delegates' visit to Jenin
http://web.amnesty.org/web/news.nsf/WebAll/483EC8372B6A32EA80256BA300481012
Israelis to Delay U.N. Fact-Finders
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/24/international/middleeast/24MIDE.html
A Massacre by Degrees
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.22G.Genocide.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = == = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
A Protest and Peace March is scheduled Saturday, April 27, starting at 7 p.m. from Cinematheque Square, Tel-Aviv, along Karlibach, Ibn Gvirol and Shaul Hamelech streets and culminating with a rally at the Tel Aviv Museum Plaza.
3) America Can Persuade Israel to Make a Just Peace - Jimmy Carter
Excerpted Op-ed article by Jimmy Carter
"America Can Persuade Israel to Make a Just Peace"
"..The situation is not hopeless. There is an ultimate avenue to peace in the implementation of United Nations resolutions, including Resolution 242, expressed most recently in the highly publicized proposal of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah. The basic premises of these resolutions are withdrawal of Israelis from Palestinian lands in exchange for full acceptance of Israel and Israel's right to live in peace. This is a reasonable solution for many Israelis, having been accepted in 1978 by Prime Minister Menachem Begin and ratified by the Israeli Knesset. Egypt, offering the greatest threat to Israel, responded by establishing full diplomatic relations and honoring Israeli rights, including unimpeded use of the Suez canal. This set a pattern for what can and must be done by all other Arab nations. Through constructive negotiations, both sides can consider some modifications of the 1967 boundary lines.
East Jerusalem can be jointly administered with unimpeded access to holy places, and the right of return can be addressed by permitting a limited number of displaced Palestinians to return to their homeland with fair compensation to others. It will be a good investment for the international community to pay this cost.
With the ready and potentially unanimous backing of the international community, the United States government can bring about such a solution to the existing imbroglio. Demands on both sides should be so patently fair and balanced that at least a majority of citizens in the affected area will respond with approval, and an international force can monitor compliance with agreed peace terms, as was approved for the Sinai region in 1979 following Israel's withdrawal from Egyptian territory.
There are two existing factors that offer success to United States persuasion. One is the legal requirement that American weapons are to be used by Israel only for defensive purposes, a premise certainly being violated in the recent destruction of Jenin and other villages.."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Please call your elected representatives in support of such actions for a peace initiative. The US Congressional switchboard number is (202)224-3121. The White House Comment Line is 202-456-1111.
You can read the complete article at either of the following url postings:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.22B.Jimmy.Carter.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/21/opinion/21CART.html
4) Bush's Speech - A Vision of Permanent War
The following was published on Tuesday, June 25, 2002 by the Electronic Intifada
Bush's Speech - A Vision of Permanent War
by Ali Abunimah
CHICAGO -- George Bush's much-anticipated speech on how to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, weighed in at 1,867 words. By my count, more than one thousand words were devoted to criticizing and making demands of the Palestinians, while just 137 words dealt with what Israel should do. And if you look for any criticism at all of Israel, you will not find it. The few remaining words were taken up with cliches and platitudes.
The content of few statements can have been leaked in advance as much as this one, and yet Bush's pronouncement still managed to surprise by its sheer breathtaking unfairness and unwillingness to address a reality which is clearly perceived by the rest of the world.
"The future for Palestinians and Israelis is as grim as it has ever been. What Bush has offered is not a formula for provisional or any other kind of Palestinian statehood, but a vision of permanent war."
For the complete article, see:
http://news@commondreams.org/views02/0625-05.htm
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
>>------------------------FLYBY NEWS---------------------------->>>
------------ Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era ------------
= = = = = = = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = = = = = = = =
MIDDLE EAST PEACE - Information & Initiatives - Updated!
You can no more win a war, than you can win an earthquake."
-- Jeanette Rankin
Flyby News condemns all terrorist attacks
that harm innocent people and give power
to the sinister forces of terrorism,
especially in institutional governments.
War: first, one hopes to win;
then one expects the enemy to lose;
then, one is satisfied that he too is suffering;
in the end, one is surprised that everyone has lost.
-- Karl Kraus
(1874 1936)
"If you are neutral in situations of injustice,
you have chosen the side of the oppressor."
-- Desmond Tutu
Updated Resources
19 January 2011 - Democracy Now - Amy Goodman
Gaza Doctor Izzeldin Abuelaish Two Years After
Israeli Attack that Killed 3 Daughters & Niece:
"As Long as I am Breathing, They are with Me.
I Will Never Forget"
23 September 2010 - The Telegraph/UK - War and Peace Report
Israel Used 'Incredible Violence' Against Gaza
Aid Flotilla, Says UN Human Rights Council
The recently released report on the flotilla
raid makes for a tough, demoralizing read.
28 September 2010 - The Jerusalem Post - Larry Derfner
Rattling the Cage: Burn after reading
..easier it gets to deny the crimes,
the easier it gets to commit them.
01 June 2010 - DemocracyNow! - War and Peace Report
Global Condemnation of Israeli Attack
on Gaza-Bound Freedom Flotilla..
01 June 2010 - The Guardian (UK) - Information Clearing House
Israelis opened fire before boarding
Gaza flotilla, say released activists
20 July 2010 - Clear Day Books - James Petras
WAR CRIMES IN GAZA
and the Zionist Fifth Column
20 May 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Did Obama's Mideast Speech Signal
United States Shift on Israel-Palestine?.
Roundtable with author Norman Finkelstein,
Palestinian human rights lawyer Noura Erakat,
and Jeremy Ben-Ami, of lobby group J Street.
+
U.N. Gaza Inquiry Panelist Col. Desmond Travers
Challenges Goldstone's Recantation of Key Finding.
23 February 2011 - Democracy Now! - Declan Walsh
Arrest of CIA Agent Sheds Light on American Covert
War in Pakistan, Straining U.S.-Pakistani Relations
23 February 2011 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
"We're Witnessing the Violent Lashings of a
Dying Beast": Libyan Novelist Hisham Matar
on Gaddafi's Brutal Crackdown in Libya
22 February 2011
"Gaddafi Cares More for Himself and His Power
than He Cares for Anybody in Libya": Libyan
American Activist Abdulla Darrat on
Bloody Crackdown on Protesters
23 February 2011 - Pakistan Observer - Sorcha Faal
Raymond was 'giving N-material to terrorists'
01 May 2010 - Rumor Mill News - The Fox
Sorcha Faal AKA David Booth Is A
Well Known Disinformation Agent
23 February, 2011 - Pakistan Observer - Andrew J. Bacevich
They're doing it without us
Rendering a decade of U.S. policy irrelevant, the people
of the Middle East are transforming the region themselves.
13 February 2011 - WL Central - clayclai
Tales of Tyrants: Ben Ali, Mubarak & Suleiman
11 February 2011 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
The Egyptian Revolution:
Special on Mubarak's Resignation
04 February 2011 - The Guardian/UK - Phillip Inman
"Mubarak family fortune could reach $70bn,
say experts" Egyptian president has cash in
British & Swiss banks plus UK & US property
11 February 2011 - Democracy Now - Professor Lisa Hajjar
"Omar Suleiman, the CIA's Man in Cairo
and Egypt's Torturer-in-Chief"
28 January 2011 - 911blogger - Stephen C. Webster
Under 'emergency' for decades, Egypt's
special powers mirrored in post-9/11 US
04 February 2011 - Foreign Policy in Focus - Common Dreams
US 'Orderly Transition' in Egypt
Really 'Business as Usual' in Disguise
03 February 2011 - Veterans Today - Dr. Ashraf Ezzat
All the President's Men in Egypt
Only a criminal regime could allow such criminal acts
to dominate and terrorize innocent people with impunity.
03 February 2011 - Mail Online - Nick Fagge and David Williams
Secret police blamed as peace protesters
are gunned down in the siege of Cairo
08 July 2010 - OnlineJournal - Jerry Mazza
Secret document confirms US-Israel nuclear partnership
06 June 2010 - Israeli daily Haaretz - Henry Siegman
Israel's Greatest Loss: Its Moral Imagination
If a people who so recently experienced such inhumanities
cannot understand the injustice and suffering its territorial
ambitions are inflicting, what hope is there for the rest of us?
19 January 2011 - Democracy Now - Amy Goodman
Gaza Doctor Izzeldin Abuelaish Two Years After
Israeli Attack that Killed 3 Daughters & Niece:
"As Long as I am Breathing, They are with Me.
I Will Never Forget"
23 September 2010 - The Telegraph/UK - War and Peace Report
Israel Used 'Incredible Violence' Against Gaza
Aid Flotilla, Says UN Human Rights Council
The recently released report on the flotilla
raid makes for a tough, demoralizing read.
28 September 2010 - The Jerusalem Post - Larry Derfner
Rattling the Cage: Burn after reading
..easier it gets to deny the crimes,
the easier it gets to commit them.
28 September 2010 - Democracy Now - Fatima Mohammadi - Gideon Levy
As Settlement Construction Begins Again in the West Bank,
Israel Blocks Jewish Activists on Aid Boat Headed to Gaza
05 August 2010 - DemocracyNow! - War and Peace Report
Emily Henochowicz, Art Student Who Lost Her Eye
Speaks Out After Being Shot by Israeli Tear
Gas Canister in West Bank Protest
31 May 2010 - APFN - Francis A. Boyle
International Law and Israel's War on Gaza
01 June 2010 - DemocracyNow! - War and Peace Report
Global Condemnation of Israeli Attack
on Gaza-Bound Freedom Flotilla..
01 June 2010 - The Guardian (UK) - Information Clearing House
Israelis opened fire before boarding
Gaza flotilla, say released activists
04 June 2010 - Online Journal - Jerry Mazza
Memorial Day and the Freedom Flotilla massacre
25 May 2010
Vanunu: 'Shame on you, democracy'
The world's most-noted whistleblower on Israel's nuclear arsenal
is going back to jail on some trumped-up charge, after serving
18 years in prison. What it is all about is silencing him.
26 May 2010 - TruthJihad.com Blog - Kevin Barrett
Senior BBC Mideast Correspondent:
"Here's what may have REALLY happened on 9/11"
Analysis considering an Israeli Connection to September 11
27 May 2010 - 911blogger - John Bursill
Journalist Alan Hart interviewed by Kevin Barrett:
Controlled Demolition and Mossad/Zionist
Israeli Involvement on 9/11?
28 May 2010 - Truth Jihad - Kevin Barrett
Jonathan Kay's mendacious propaganda:
Is this the only "argument" the anti-truthers have?
29 March 2010 - OnLineJournal - Jerry Mazza
U.S. and Israel
sign
a massive arms deal
19 July 2010 - DemocracyNow! - War and Peace Report
Netanyahu in 2001: US "Wont Get
in the Way" of Israeli Expansionism
"The Guantnamo 'Suicides'
A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle"
By SCOTT HORTON
20 January 2010 * Interview * Democracy Now!
Casting Doubt on US Claims of Suicide, Attorney Scott Horton
Reveals 3 Gitmo Prisoners Died After Torture at Secret Site.
19 January 2010 * Harpers Magazine * Scott Horton
The Official Response Begins
21 January 2010
Time for a Special Prosecutor
29 January 2010 * Harpers Magazine * Scott Horton
Obama's Secret Afghan Prisons
International Law Professor Launches
World BUSH TO HAGUE Campaign
26 January 2010 * Pravda * 911blogger
Hague acknowledges Professor of International Law,
Francis A. Boyle, on his filing against Bush et al
for the war-crime "Extraordinary Rendition"
04 March 2010 - BBC News - CommonDreams
The Cost of War:
Disturbing Story of Fallujah's Birth Defects
For a critical FN resource, see:
Uranium Munitions ~ harm for generations
04 March 2010 - The Telegraph/UK - CommonDreams
One in Three Killed by US Drones
in Pakistan Is a Civilian,
Report Claims
Crisis in GAZA
Human Rights Blog - Qumsiyeh
"We do not constitute any threat to Israels security, and
that we just want to get to the people of Gaza. And so, if
they attack us, which they have threatened . . we hope its
clear to the international community that this is a deliberate
attack, and we hope it also opens their eyes to the policies of
Israel, which have nothing to do with security. It has to do with
punishing an entire population, and we just cant accept this.
- Huwaida Arraf
30 June 2009 - Democracy Now!
Cynthia McKinney Reportedly
Taken Captive By Israeli Navy
02 July 2009 - Audio - YouTube
Telephone interview from Israeli prison
02 July 2009 - Democracy Now!
Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire
Speaks from Israeli Jail Cell After Arrest
on Boat Delivering Humanitarian Aid to Gaza
McKinney Headed Home
The Monstrosity of War
06 January 2009 article by Dahr Jamail
Kucinich Speaks Against Israel Resolution
Boat carrying Cynthia McKinney to Gaza attacked!
CNN: Israeli Navy Attacking Civilian Mercy Ship!
Cynthia McKinney talks about voyage to Palestine,
Israeli aggression in Gaza, and boat getting rammed!
Evidence Confirms Israel's Use of White Phosphorus
05 November 2009 - New York Times
Goldstone and Gaza - By Jimmy Carter
Support the Goldstone Report
What Anti-Zionism Is All About
A perspective from Hedy Epstein
85-year young Holocaust survivor,
who had left Germany when eight years old,
and lost her parents in 1942 in Auschwitz.
Watch, listen, read (12/24/09) Democracy Now!
Gaza Freedom March One-Year
Anniversary of Israeli Assault
"If we make peaceful revolution impossible,
we make violent revolution inevitable."
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Report from GAZA by a 9th-grader
via email from
Faculty for Peace and Justice-Faculty
for Israeli Palestinian Peace-Harvard
January 03, 2009 4:36 PM
Report from Gaza by a 9th-grader
Today is the eighth day of this horrible war. To me yesterday was the worst day of all. When I woke up in the morning one of my friends called, his voice was very weird and when I asked how was he. He was like "fine, but have you got any news about some of your friends?" I was really scared, and asked him what's wrong? He told me Christine died. I was in a big shock, and till now I don't believe it. I threw the phone and started crying. I called some of my friends to make sure, and all of them were sad about her. She has been my friend for almost four years and we used to go to school and to the YMCA together. I'm sad, afraid, and worried at the same time, because she would've been my sister. I feel very sorry for her and her family.
Her parents did the best they can do, but it wasn't enough so the result was dying. What if my parents couldn't protect me and give me the support I need...will I die too?
What I can say now is that my future is almost destroyed.
An Israeli rocket hit my school this morning, and the school was destroyed completely. I really can't imagine how come they're bombing religious and educational places such as mosques, schools, and universities (etc.)
In every explosion we feel our house shaking and about to be destroyed; what about the people that already lost their homes? I'm crying for the loss of one of my friends... what about the people that lost at least five of their relatives?
Depression and fear are filling our souls and surrounding our homes.what's next?
I actually don't wish for anything as much as I wish that this war will end soon and that the Palestinian people can live like any other people and Palestinian children can enjoy their childhood like any children in the world.
HELP US BECAUSE WE'RE ALL HUMAN BEINGS!!
Nour Kharma 9th Grade
More critical news article links:
18 December 2009
CIA Working with Palestinian Security Agents
US agency co-operating with Palestinian counterparts
who allegedly torture Hamas supporters in West Bank
29 March 2009
Spanish judge to hear torture
case against six Bush officials
I was victim of medieval torture,
says freed Guantanamo detainee
02 April 2009
Lawyers for Binyam Mohamed face
the incredible prospect of a six-month
jail sentence in America after writing a
letter to President Obama detailing their
client's allegations of torture by US agents.
22 March 2009 - Serbia
Death squad leader was top CIA agent
VIDEO: "An Unholy Alliance"
Documentary examines CIA links to the global drug trade
FN Middle East Archive Links:
For most recent issues, see: Flyby News Archives.
January 1, 2009 - Item 1
Israel Illuminati GAZA Death-Suffering Toll
- - We have no words left
- - "I Heard the Missile Coming"
- - Mass Grave
- - Bolton: Gaza raids precursor to Iran war
- - Boat carrying Cynthia McKinney to Gaza attacked!
- - Starhawk personal commentary on Gaza
- - Demonstrations to stop the massacre of Palestinians
January 27, 2008 - Item 3
GAZA An Israeli Call for Urgent Action
December 1, 2006 - Item 2
Jimmy Carter for Peace in the Middle East
- - Civil War in Iraq noted by mainstream US media
July 24, 2006 - Item 1
9/11 and Art of Religion and Hypocrisy
- - Lebanon crisis reveals an Anti-Jewish Israeli State
- - Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11 David Ray Griffin
- - Kevin Barrett Appears On 'For The Record'
- - Middle East Politics Divides Progressives
July 19, 2006 - Item 1
Israel Violates Law on U.S. Weapons in Mideast
February 8, 2005 - Item 1
Kennedy vs. Rumsfeld on US withdrawal from Iraq
February 2, 2005 - Item 1
We've Been Taken Over By a Cult
- - Iraq Dispatches: Dahr's personal log from Iraq
- - Debate on Alberto Gonzales Continues
- - "Standing for the Founding Principles of the Republic"
- - Gore Vidal on Bush's Inaugural Address
May 18, 2004 - Item 1
The Gray Zone by Seymour Hersh
- - Secret operation approved by Rumsfeld leads to abuse
- - Legal Foundation Clearing Way for Abuse Scandal
- - U.S. Denies Rumsfeld Approved Iraq Interrogations Methods
- - US guards 'filmed beatings' at Guantanamo
- - Precondition for Peace in the Middle East
May 10, 2004 - Item 1
Chain of Command - Horrible Abuse
May 1, 2004 - Items 1 and 2
US military in Iraq torture scandal * What's Happening in Iraq?
- - A Look at April 2004
- - Fallujah accord leaves US policy in disarray
- - Laptop Report From Fullujah, Iraq Battlefield
- - Bush League Diplomacy
- - Oil-Slick Jim Baker Moves In
April 27, 2004 - Item 1
Falluja, Najaf and the First Law of Holes
April 16, 2004 - Item 1
Stay the Course in Iraq?
- - A message from Dennis Kucinich
- - For U.S. Troops the Deadliest Days of the War
- - Bush rips up the Middle East road map for Peace
- - Iraqi 'Beaten To Death' by US Troops
- - Fallujah Refugees Describe Horrors of U.S. Siege
March 31, 2004 - Items 1- 3
This Isn't America * Cheney, energy and Iraq invasion * GOP and Nazis
March 27, 2004 - Items 1 and 3
"Opening the Gates of Hell" - Israel Assassinates Yassin * US soldier refuses return to Iraq
March 22, 2004 - Item 1
Did Bush Press For Iraq-9/11 Link?
- - The Armageddon Plan
- - General Sacked by Bush Wanted Early Elections in Iraq
- - Worldwide Protests Demand Iraq Pullout
March 20, 2004 was when people all around the globe took to the streets
to say YES to peace and NO to pre-emptive war and occupation.
Two organizations sponsoring events in USA were
United For Peace and International Action Center.
March 15, 2004 - Item 1
Camp X-Ray's Savagery Revealed
January 11, 2004 - Item 1
Ignore US atrocities in Iraq at what cost?
November 28, 2003 - Item 6
"Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War"
November 13, 2003 -Item 1
"US unleashes renewed bombing raids on Iraqi towns"
- - GNN interviews Naomi Klein
October 13, 2003 -Item 1
Kucinich: "Bring US Troops Home!"
September 8, 2003 -Items 1 and 2
The War on Terrorism is Bogus * Israel seeks pipeline for Iraqi oil
July 22, 2003 -Items 1 and 2
Uranium Deception May Be Tip of the Iceberg * Mysterious Diseases Haunt U.S. Troops In Iraq
June 5, 2003 -Items 1 and 2
The Silent Genocide from America * Iraq WMD, the Big Lie
- - Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death
May 13, 2003 -Items 1 and 2
Seven Nuclear Sites Looted * Trouble in Bush's America
May 3, 2003 -Item 3
Kucinich: The Military Victory is a Foreign Policy Failure * "Diplomatic Breakdown" by John Brady Kiesling
April 30, 2003 -Item 3
The mirage of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction * Hans Blix vs the US: 'I was undermined'
April 30, 2003 -Item 4
When the Depleted Uranium dust settles
April 27, 2003 -Items 1 - 2
Elect Peace in 2004 * Total Information Control - Corporate Media and Homeland Security
April 21, 2003 -Items 1 - 4
Real War * DU Clean-up * George Carlin * Weird Bush Men
April 15, 2003 -Items 1
Devastating critique of US/UK aggression
- - When Precision Bombing Really Isn't
- - Lawless, grief-stricken Baghdad buries its dead
- - US rejects Iraq DU clean-up
- - Eagleburger: Bush Should be Impeached
April 9, 2003 -Items 1 - 4
US Terrorism * Kucinich&Polls * M. Moore * Wonderland
April 4, 2003 -Items 1 - 2
This war is wrong * March on Washington -- Global Actions for Peace
- - "Cluster bombs liberate Iraqi children"
- - Letter to UN General Assembly President
April 3, 2003 -Items 1 - 7
Death of America * DU * Objector * Nuke Forgery * Order?
April 1, 2003 -Items 1 - 5
CivilianDeaths * Miscalculations * BlessedMichael * DennisRocks
"President Bush announced tonight
that he believes in democracy and that democracy can exist in Iraq.
They can have a strong economy, they can have a good health care plan,
and they can have a free and fair voting. Iraq? We can't even get this in Florida."
-Jay Leno
March 30, 2003 -Items 1 - 5
BaghdadTears * EndWar * RuppertStorm * Skull&Bones * Zinn
March 27, 2003 -Items 1 - 4
Uniting for Peace * Scott Ritter Predicts - US Will Lose in its War on Iraq * Oil, Currency and the War on Iraq * Pro-War & Pro-Peace Candidates
"We are not liberating Iraq, we are destroying Iraq."
Scott Ritter
March 25, 2003 - Editor's Notes - Items 1 - 6
US War Lies * UN Action! * Deep Concerns
March 22, 2003 - Editor's Notes - Items 1 - 4
Shock, Awe, & Kucinich * History's Darkest Visions
"We are going to be in such a fix when this war is over, or before this war is over.
Our grandchildren's grandchildren are going to be paying for this war.
I look at our future as, I'm sorry, being very, very dark."
Walter Cronkite
March 19, 2003
March 18, 2003 - Items 1 - 5
BushWar * Zinn * Constitution * Peace * Rachel * bloodbath?
March 15, 2003 - Items 3 and 4
Kucinich Forces Administration To Disclose Iraq Document to Congress * Dixie Chicks Hammer President on Iraq Issue
- - Obviously Oil' by Dennis Kucinich
- - Yes Magazine Interviews Kucinich
- - 'The Empire Needs New Clothes' by Thom Hartmann
- - Action Alert - Remove Arctic drilling from budget bill
- - Democracy in Iraq doubtful' Greg Miller
March 13, 2003 - Items 1 - 6
TerrorBomb * StopUS * Goodman * Shield * PentagonJunk
March 10, 2003 - Items 1 - 3
Going Off to War Supplied With Lies
* Going Off to War Supplied With Lies * Actions to Stop King George's War
-- UN Inspector: Fake Nuclear Evidence on Iraq
-- Red Alert for Bill of Rights! by Nat Hentoff
-- Afghan Prisoners Beaten To Death At US Base Investigation
-- Resisting the Doctrine of Pre-emptive Strike by Fidel Castro
-- Cheney wins oil-field contract
March 05, 2003 - Items 1 - 5
Emergency Petition * Caldicott-Pope * Nuke Threat
March 02, 2003 - Items 1 - 3
US Dirty Tricks * YAY Turkey * War Plans - Reactions
February 27, 2003 - Items 1and 2
CNN CrossFires with Dennis Kucinich * The War Against Ourselves - an Interview with Major Doug Rokke
February 26, 2003 - Items 1and 2
Iraq Agrees To Full Compliance With Inspectors and Oil * US Apology and Appeal ~ UN HELP
February 23, 2003 - Items 1- 3
UN Peace Action * Kucinich * Cheney N.K. Nukes
February 17, 2003 - Items 1- 6
World Watching * Kucinich President's Day * Bio/Chem
"We will either bring an end to war or we will bring an end to a war-like administration."
Dennis J. Kucinich
15 February 2003, NYC
February 14, 2003 - Items 1- 4
World PEACE Rally * Illegal War * UN Peace Mission
February 12, 2003 - Items 1- 3
A U.N. Alternative to War: "Uniting for Peace" * Lobbying Congress * The war on Iraq: Conceived in Israel?
"..To engage in war is always to pick a wild card. And war must always be a last resort, not a first choice. I truly must question the judgment of any President who can say that a massive unprovoked military attack on a nation which is over 50% children is "in the highest moral traditions of our country". This war is not necessary at this time. Pressure appears to be having a good result in Iraq. Our mistake was to put ourselves in a corner so quickly. Our challenge is to now find a graceful way out of a box of our own making. Perhaps there is still a way if we allow more time."
--US Senator Robert Byrd
For the Senator's complete Senate Floor Speech - Wednesday, February 12, 2003, see:
Reckless Administration May Reap Disastrous Consequences
February 10, 2003 - Items 1- 4
UN-War * K-Endorsed * CIA-Drugs-Nam-JFK * Patriot?
"It takes wisdom to have great power and to make gentle its presence in the world."
-- Dennis J. Kucinich
February 7, 2003 - Items 1& 2
The Tangled Web of War * Analysis Report: CIA Media Manipulation
January 31, 2003 - Items 1 - 4
God's Gift to Humanity? * US Prepared To Violate International Law (Mandela * Iraqi Children * Impeach Bush) * U. S. Military Spending And the Cost of Invading Iraq * War 'has ruined Afghan environment' * Cities for Peace Anti-War Resolution (Kucinich: No Case For War Against Iraq)
January 28, 2003 - Items 1 - 3
Saddam Can Prevent WAR * Secret Army * Nuke Cowboy
January 25, 2003 - Items 1 - 6
Why the Rush to War? *Attack Iraq (sic) Timetables * U.S. Weighs Tactical Nuclear Strike on Iraq * Support for War with Iraq Weakens * Human shields head for Iraq
January 23, 2003 - Items 1 - 6
Germany-France-Peace * Bush-Nazi * UN * Kucinich: "Peace as a Civil Right"
January 21, 2003 - Items 1 - 6
"Flawed Report; Iraqi Warheads Found" * January 18 - Give Peace a Chance' * Mossad - JFK * FlyingNukes * AwolBush.com
January 17, 2003 - Items 1 and 3
"The United States of America has gone mad" * "Bush Concealed Iraqi Chemical Weapons Plant in Florida"
January 12, 2003 - Item 2
"Bush's Armageddon Obsession- revisited" & "Happy Imbeciles At War"
"We are, in short, going to attack and massacre Iraq for the oil reserves,
to protect America's corporate interests, to feed the gaping maw of the military-industrial complex.
Same as it ever was."
-- Mark Morford
SF Gate Columnist
January 9, 2003 - Item 2
The Consequences Of An Iraqi Misadventure
January 6, 2003 - Items 1 and 2
U.S. Played a Key Role In Iraq Military Buildup * 9/11 Investigator Linked to Osama bin Laden?
January 4, 2003 - Item 1
Doug Rokke - Depleted Uranium - War Hazard
December 20, 2002 - Items 2 and 3
The "Secret" War on Iraq * Stop US Military Aid to Israel
"For powerful countries to adopt a principle of preventative war
may well set an example that can have catastrophic consequences."
Former US President Jimmy Carter
December 10, 2002 -
Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo
December 7, 2002 - Item 2
U.S. Gulf War 'crime'
November 29, 2002 - Item 4
Flying in the no-fly zone
November 24, 2002 - Item 1
US would attack Iraq even if UN inspectors fail to find weapons!
November 17, 2002 - Items 2 and 3
Scott Ritter: "The Case Against The U.S. War on Iraq" * Kucinich: Leading Opposition in the House to the War
November 12, 2002 - Items 1 and 2
War Veterans Gather To Stop A New War * More DU Weapons in Afghanistan Than in Gulf War
November 11, 2002 - Items 2 and 3
Half-A-Million March in Anti-War Rally in Italy * Gulf War Veteran Doug Rokke and Depleted Uranium
November 7, 2002 - Item 2
New champions of the war cause
A small group of influential right-wingers with close ties to the offices of Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney plan to launch a new political campaign to rally public support for the invasion of Iraq.
November 5, 2002 - Items 1, 2, 3
The Bloodstained Path * Global Eye -- Into the Dark * Letter to Sen. John Kerry on Iraq
These items include articles by Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich, (published by The Progressive), and Chris Floyd, (Moscow Times); and the letter was written by peace activist and Viet Nam Veteran, Brian Willson.
"Why of course the people don't want war ... But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship ... Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."
--Hermann Goering -- Nazi leader, at the Nuremberg Trials after World War II
October 23, 2002 - Items 1-3
Scott Ritter -- "NO TO WAR" * Kucinich Asks White House To Explain Contradictions On Iraq, North Korea Nukes * Bush - Iraq War - and Armageddon
October 12, 2002 - Items 1 and 2
Congress: Bush OK to Attack Iraq Unilaterally * Turning the Tide
Alert==>Stop Bush War Resolution * Call Congress
October 10, 2002 - Items 1, 2, and 3
Stop War * president's real goal * Iraq War/for Dummies
October 7, 2002 - Items 1, 2, and 3
Oppose War on Iraq Petition * Ritter - Kucinich - McDermott
October 5, 2002 - Items 1 and 2
Byrd's Filibuster? -- Tell Senate to Deny Bush Blank Check * Congress Overwhelmed With Anti-War Calls
September 23, 2002 - Item 1-4
NO VOTE Pledge - Stop Iraq Attack * Skull and Bones
September 16, 2002 - Items 1 and 2
Secret Blueprint for US Global Domination Revealed! * Nelson Mandela: The U.S. Is a Threat to World Peace
August 24, 2002 - Item 2
Brainwashing America and Petition for No Iraq War Also see: AL-QAEDA IN IRAQ: But protected by the Kurds in the Northern Exclusion Zone; Pravda.RU
August 17, 2002 - Item 4
Apocalypse Now - US Attack on Iraq?
Media's Willing Distortions Pave Way for War with Iraq
August 8, 2002 - Item 2
To attack Iraq is a crime
August 1, 2002 - Item 1 and 2
West Sees Glittering Prizes Ahead in Giant Oilfields * Iraq: What's Missing From the Hearings?
June 4, 2002 - Item 5
Jenin -- Time to clean up the battlefield of a dirty war
May 13, 2002 - Items 2 and 3
The solution is the problem by Noam Chomsky * Sharon's party votes to reject Palestinian state
May 9, 2002 Items 1-4
Nonviolence * US/Sharon * Israeli Reservists * Powell: Iraq Attack
April 25, 2002 - Items 1-4
McKinney on MidEast Crisis * Jenin Stinks * Peace Initiatives
April 11, 2002 - Item 4
Jewish Manifesto: Sharon is Israel's Worst Enemy
April 4, 2002 - Item 1
Israel's State Terrorism
For more on this topic, visit:
Flyby News Archives.
It may be that God will ordain love between you and those
whom you hold as enemies. For God has power over all things;
and God is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.
Islam. Qur'an 60.7
Aid an enemy before you aid a friend, to subdue hatred.
Judaism. Tosefta, Baba Metzia 2.26
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Christianity. Romans 12.21
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Energy Bill Action * Ugly American-Oust Diplomats * Space 4 Peace Event
24 April 2002
Item 1 requires your immediate attention. The final vote for the S. 517 on a comprehensive energy bill is coming this week and it needs to be prevented. No energy bill is better than this one. Items 2 and 3 show the real context of the Ugly American. The US is using its financial muscle to control independent organizations to advance its dreadful foreign "terror-feeding" policies. Item 4 is an announcement from the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space on their 10th annual gathering to help end the arms race and prevent nuclear madness from going any further.
Please call US Senators today or ASAP to stop this energy bill as a main priority, and at the same call, request that your Senators introduce legislation that would halt the arms race, similarly to what was proposed by Dennis Kucinich in the US House of Representatives H.R. 3616.
1) Oppose S. 517 Senate Energy Bill -- ASAP
2) The Ugly America - US forces out UN arms director
3) The Uglier American - Climate scientist ousted
4) Keep Space for Peace Conference, May 10-12, Berkeley, CA
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Oppose S. 517 Senate Energy Bill -- ASAP
URGENT ALERT-ALERT -ALERT
TELL YOUR SENATORS TO OPPOSE S. 517 THE SENATE ENERGY BILL!
Capitol Switchboard - (202)224-3121; ask for your Senators' offices or find emails and local contact information at http://www.senate.gov.
TAKE ACTION TODAY--
BREAKING NEWS - April 23, 2002
Energy cloture vote passes in Senate; final vote expected this week. http://www.eenews.net/EEDaily.htm
The Senate moved a giant step closer to finalizing the work on a comprehensive energy bill (S. 517) with a vote for cloture that effectively guarantees a tally on final passage later this week.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
From http://www.nirs.org
We need to put pressure on Senators to vote against this bill. The Democrats need cover to vote against it-let's give it to them. Tell your Senators S 517 curtails all renewable energy and nationalizes nuclear power, once again distorting the electricity market in favor of dangerous, unwanted nuclear energy. At a time when nuclear reactors are (finally) an officially recognized terrorist target, this bill would use taxpayer money and federal land and government resources to "deploy" a new generation of nuclear reactors. Tell them this energy policy is more mid-20th century than 21st century, and that we deserve better. For more information you can contact the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, and ask for Cindy 202-328-0002.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) The Ugly America - US forces out UN arms director
Times of London Online [April 23, 2002]
America forces out UN arms director
by Michael Binyon
JOS BUSTANI, the embattled director-general of the world body monitoring chemical weapons, was dismissed yesterday when most of the member states supported an American move to oust him.
Forty-eight of the 145 members of the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) voted to dismiss Senhor Bustani, the first head of the organisation, who was re-elected for a further four years last May. Only seven countries supported him; a further 43 abstained.
A stormy two-day meeting in The Hague heard lengthy accusations against him by the Americans, although the US delegate was booed when he failed to produce the promised evidence. After the vote a devastated Senhor Bustani stormed out of the conference hall, threw his hands in the air and said he had lost his job.
The Americans accused the Brazilian head of the OPCW of a "habit of refusing to consult with member states" and cited his proposed new anti-terrorism measures after September 11, which were not first cleared with the US. The State Department called his management disastrous and blamed him for not resigning after losing a vote of confidence last month. It accused him of threatening inspections in five unspecified countries for political ends.
Senhor Bustani gave an impassioned defence of his tenure. He called the US accusations against him false and said that the meeting would decide "whether genuine multiculturalism will survive, or whether it will be replaced by unilateralism in a multilateral disguise". He added: "I refuse to resign under pressure from a small handful of member states." He said before the vote that his dismissal would be illegal because "the convention does not allow for such a dismissal".
America called the special session of the OPCW to force him out and was supported by Britain, Germany and all European Union and Nato countries, with most of Eastern Europe and several former Soviet states.
Those supporting him were Russia, China, Iran, Cuba, Belarus, Mexico and his own country, Brazil. Most of Africa, Asia and Latin America abstained.
The United States had co-sponsored Senhor Bustani for re-election, but the change of Administration in Washington led to a swift reappraisal. The Bush Administration, determined not to be bound by multilateral agreements, has resented the restrictions of the Chemical Weapons Convention. It was particularly angered by Senhor Bustani's moves to woo Iraq, which Washington hardliners believe will make any military attack on Baghdad more difficult.
Senhor Bustani accused the White House of trying to push him out because of his independence from Washington. He said that he had been blamed for seeking Iraq's membership of the Chemical Weapons Convention, even though that was in full accordance with the United Nations Security Council decision.
American officials have briefed intensively but anonymously against Senhor Bustani. One said that his lapses "are not legal crimes; nonetheless they are severe mismanagement policies, which significantly impede the effectiveness of the organisation".
Several EU countries said privately they feared that unless they voted with the United States, America, which pays more than a fifth of the budget, would walk out of the UN body. The US has paid only half this year's dues and the OPCW is deeply in debt. A senior member of the OPCW said after the vote that the American arm-twisting was clearly horrendous. He said: "We are now living in a completely different world."
Copyright 2002 Times Newspapers Ltd.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more on this sorry state of affairs, visit
http://www.monbiot.com/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Also, for another article on this, by the Christian Science Monitor [US], 24 April 2002, see:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0424/p06s01-woeu.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) The Uglier American - Climate scientist ousted
Friday, 19 April, 2002, 16:36 GMT 17:36 UK
Climate scientist ousted
Sceptics claimed the IPCC had become too political. One of the most outspoken scientists on the issue of global warming has been ousted from his job.
Dr Robert Watson was voted out of the chair of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) on Friday and will be replaced by one of the current vice-chairs, Dr Rajendra Pachauri.
Dr Watson's removal will spark a huge political row - environmentalists accuse the US Government of orchestrating a campaign to have the scientist sidelined.
They say Washington disliked Dr Watson's willingness to tell governments what he believes to be the unvarnished truth - that human activities are now contributing dangerously to climate change.
Government representatives attending an IPCC meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, voted 76 to 49 for the engineer and economist Dr Rajendra Pachauri to take the chair.
Dr Pachauri, the director of the Tata Energy Research Institute in New Delhi, was the US administration's
favoured candidate.
Climate facts
President Bush repudiated the international climate agreement, the Kyoto Protocol, which is the only
political instrument so far to result from the IPCC's work.
The president took the view that the protocol would do enormous damage to the US economy.
Green groups believe Mr Bush is unduly influenced by the energy lobby in America, and point to a memo forwarded to the White House by ExxonMobil last year.
The document raised the question of whether Dr. Watson could be replaced as the US representative on the IPCC. Environmentalists claimed the outcome of Friday's vote was proof of ExxonMobil's power behind the scenes in Washington.
The complete BBC story is posted at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1940000/1940117.stm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For a related link with an Environmental News Network's In-depth Report on Global Warming and Climate Change, see:
http://www.enn.com/indepth/warming/index.asp
Flyby News keeps an updated page on Global Warming, which is linked from flybynews.com or
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1014396414,10278,
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For another in this series of the "Ugly American" ruling reason for greed, here's another individual getting put (sic) in his place:
EPA ombudsman resigns over job shift
An embattled ombudsman at the Environmental Protection Agency submitted his resignation April 22nd, complaining the agency was transferring him into a job where he would "merely answer a telephone" and have no power.
For the full story, see
http://www.enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/04/04232002/ap_ombudsman_47004.asp
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Keep Space for Peace Conference, May 10-12, Berkeley, CA
KEEP SPACE FOR PEACE CONFERENCE SET FOR BERKELEY, CA.
Media Advisory - For Immediate Release
Contacts: Bruce Gagnon (352) 337-9274
Sally Light (510) 527-2057
In the midst of Bush administration's efforts to wage war on the world, hundreds of activists from around the planet will gather at the University of California in Berkeley for the 10th Annual International Space Organizing Conference & Protest.
From May 10-12, peace movement leaders from 15 countries will meet for a protest and to create strategies to prevent the nuclear arms race from moving into the heavens.
Events will begin with a news conference at Noon on Friday, May 10 at Wesley Student Center (2398 Bancroft Way at the corner of Dana) to be followed by a protest rally at Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale from 2:30 - 5:30 pm. Lockheed Martin is currently doing research and development on several key space weapons technologies that the U.S. SpaceCommand says they will use to "control and dominate" space and the Earth below.
On Saturday, May 11 at the University of California at Berkeley (Room 2050, Valley Life Sciences Bldg.), the GN will hold its day long conference featuring plenary sessions and educational workshops.
"George W. Bush is now building the costly and destabilizing Star Wars system, that, once deployed, will throw the door wide open to a new arms race,"said Global Network Coordinator Bruce Gagnon. "We are told that Star Wars is intended to make the U.S. more secure but we know that in the end this will not be the case. The only people who will benefit from the weaponization of space are the aerospace corporations and their congressional allies, Republican and Democrat alike."
The Bush team is embarking on the controversial construction of "missile defense" systems in Alaska, expanding testing of Star Wars programs, and threatening so-called "rogue states" with attack if they develop weapons of mass destruction. Recent disclosures of Bush's Nuclear Policy Review showed that it is the U.S., who is now undertaking plans to create new generations of nuclear weapons while the rest of the world is lectured on the immorality of such systems.
The Global Network was founded in 1992 to stop the nuclearization and weaponization of space.
For more information about the conference visit:
www.space4peace.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Kucinich Is the One* Earth Day Stirling * Yucca * Sonar & New Alaska Oil Plans
23 April 2002
This is a Flyby News' Earth Day 2002 late edition. Top on the list of this issue and for US President in 2004 is Dennis Kucinich. He is building a solid reputation as a leader for the cause of freedom and democracy. Item 2 is an Earth Day Stirling Engine article. John Kerry spoke up after the ANWR defeat and said we can't drill our way out of the mess we created, but we need to "invent" our way out of it. It is easy to talk, but real support for inventors for sustainable technologies have been lacking . The next three items show the dangers of being lulled asleep by idle rhetoric, while fast track legislation threatens lasting harm. This week Congress is expected to decide on the fate of Yucca Mountain, also, the US House of Reps. is pushing for broad military exemptions from environmental laws, (which would enable the Navy's sound piercing sonar systems to be engaged), and also, the Bush administration is preparing to open 9.6 million acres of pristine coastal lands on the other side of Alaska's North Slope for oil and gas leasing in 2004. So, rejoicing on the ANWR win is short-lived. Now is the time to keep pushing for big changes, please support the current campaigns, and for Kucinich's H.R. 3616 Bill to ban space-based weapons and for a US Department for Peace. Stop the Bush/Sharon leadership for the war machine of unconsciousness, and the madness from fear and greed that's killing our environment and human life.
1) Kucinich Is the One
2) Earth Day Stirling Advantage Article
3) House Puts Nevada Nuclear Waste Site Bill On Fast Track
4) The White House wants to kill protections for marine mammals
5) Bush sets sights on new Alaska oil reserve
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Kucinich Is the One
"Today, in his second term as a US Congressman from Ohio, he is chairman of the Progressive Caucus, and its spark plug. His website reads like a press release: "He combines a powerful political activism with a spiritual sense of the interconnectedness of all living things. His holistic worldview carries with it a passionate commitment to public service, peace, human rights, workers' rights and the environment. His advocacy of a Department of Peace seeks not only to make nonviolence an organizing principle in our society, but to make war archaic." This sounds nave and loonily idealistic, except for one thing: He is a remarkably practical and astute politician."
-- Studs Terkel
Kucinich Is the One
by Studs Terkel
May 6, 2002
When I finished reading John Nichols's exhilarating communiqu from California ("Kucinich Rocks the Boat," March 25), the bells began to ring. In his speech to the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action, criticizing Bush's conduct of the war on terrorism, Dennis Kucinich set the crowd on its ear--one standing ovation after another. Sure, they were all liberals, but what counted was the response on the Internet. The Cleveland Congressman's e-mail box was stuffed to overflowing with 20,000-plus enthusiastic letters. Among them was the call Kucinich for President. That's when--bingo!--I remembered my first encounter with him. It was twenty-four years ago.
At the arrival gate of the Chicago-to-Cleveland flight, a skinny kid who appeared no more than 19 or 20 reached out for my torn duffel bag. I thought he was one of those Horatio Alger heroes, whose opening line is usually "Smash your baggage, mister?" This one said, "Did you have a good flight, Studs?" I'll be damned, he was the person I had come to visit, Dennis Kucinich, the Boy Mayor of Cleveland.
For the complete story, link to
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020506&s=terkel
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Earth Day Stirling Advantage Article
New technology from venerable Stirling
By JUDSON BROWN, Staff Writer
Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, MA
Monday, April 22, 2002 -- ATHOL - The three-story brick and concrete factory building near the center of this once prospering milltown has gone downhill since the day in 1906 when Calvin Coolidge came out from Northampton to dedicate it as the new home of the Athol Vise Co.
The building was one of the first precast concrete structures and considered a minor architectural marvel of the time.
Today it appears abandoned. Ripped plastic sheeting flaps in broken upper-story windows. The parking lot is a weedy and littered desert.
But external appearances can be deceiving. Once through a plywood side door whose gray paint is peeling, it is clear that the building is in the process of being restored to productive life, from the back forward and from the inside out.
The principals at a fledgling company called Stirling Advantage Inc. got the 28,000-square-foot structure and 3.4-acre site dirt cheap, at $64,000, three years ago, and have since been making structural improvements and installing machine tool equipment in anticipation of manufacturing a new kind of electric power generation system they have developed. The system is based on modifications they have made to the ancient and storied Stirling engine.
They are one of a growing number of entrepreneurial energy companies that have cropped up since widespread deregulation of electric power markets in the late 1990s.
Deregulation, which dissolved utilities' monopoly of power generation, provided "a terrific opportunity for companies like ours to bring new products to the marketplace," says Richard Meloy, formerly with the power project finance group at GE Capital, and now the owner of a consulting company in Connecticut and the chief financial officer of Stirling Advantage.
Sterling Stirling
The Stirling engine, first developed in Scotland in 1816 by Robert Stirling, a minister in the Church of Scotland, is referred to as an external combustion engine to distinguish it from the more familiar internal combustion engine. It applies external heat to gases sealed in heat-exchanger tubes that expand and (cooling) contract, activating reciprocal pistons.
The heat can come from anywhere, including from landfill gas, "biomass" (or composted plants) and industrial process waste heat, of which there is a huge amount being lost into the biosphere every day.
This versatility of the Stirling is one feature that should give their product an edge in a deregulated marketplace increasingly hungry for both "green" and "on site" solutions to electricity generation, according to company officials. CEO and president Ricardo Conde, 41, of New Salem designed the company's engine and also the manufacturing process. Vice president for marketing is Jim Sweeney of Plymouth, and vice president is Jonathan Haber of Warwick.
That the Stirling engine involves no combustion and therefore no exhaust and that it is more efficient than most engine systems by virtue of its ability to "regenerate" some heat within itself are also strong selling points, these company officials say.
The modification he has made, and for which he is seeking a patent, adds further efficiency, Conde notes. His Stirling has a hydraulic motor drive, which means there are no piston cranks that create friction, need maintenance, and wear down.
'Distributed power"
There is a fast-growing market for so-called "distributed" or on-site electric generation systems chiefly because they are increasingly cost-effective and reliable in a way that power coming off the centralized electric grid can never be, according to Lawrence L. Ambs, a professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
As director of the Center of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the university, Ambs has consulted with Conde and company about certain technical aspects of their Stirling power system when they were referred to the center by the state environmental office.
"The Stirling cycle is always interesting," Ambs said.
Combined heat and power production is of major interest to the UMass center which, along with a New York State agency, is currently seeking federal Department of Energy funds to develop a northeast regional center to explore the issue, Ambs said.
The Stirling system holds promise in this arena for its waste heat applications, Ambs said, although he's not ready to endorse the local company, which still has to get over the large and expensive hump of producing a working prototype before they are ready to ramp up to production.
Ambs also pointed out that there are many different technologies, from combined gas and turbine systems to "micro turbines" to fuel cells, competing with one another in the alternative energy field.
The funding hurdle
Stirling Advantage, which four years ago was spun out of a seven-year-old Athol-based company called MicroPhotonics, has succeeded in raising about $1 million to date, mostly from various "angel" investors, said Haber. CFO Meloy added that a Massachusetts water purification company also is an equity partner as they are looking for a high efficiency engine to drive their water filtration systems.
Since the fall of 2000, when the technology-loaded NASDAQ stock exchange took a plunge, it has become harder and harder to raise money as "investors' appetites for risk have been reduced," Meloy said. "That's why now they say they need to see a prototype."
The money raised to date has helped pay for such things as engineering and legal services (covering patent applications, among other things), purchase of the old Athol plant, the start of the conversion of the plant, and equipment.
Half the old floor has been covered with a new concrete slab. Bags of concrete are stacked to the ceiling. The space is light and bright thanks to new steel-framed insulated windows. Among the large pieces of equipment installed in the space are a computerized machine tooling center; a metal tube-bending machine that includes a very long conveyor; and, in a sequestered area behind a new concrete block partition, a large and lumpy horizontal device called a dynamometer. It's wired up to a computer on the other side of the wall.
Various test parts of the engine, including crazily looping tubes (prototype heat exchangers that will contain the sealed hydrogen gas) and shining machine-turned cylindrical piston containers, are collected in various places in the shop.
The dynamometer, which Conde described as a series of interconnected brakes, will be used to test some prototype single-cylinder 25 kilowatt Stirling engines, assuming that some much-needed new funding comes in. The company is waiting to hear on its application for $500,000 in response to a request for proposals from the New York State Energy Research and Development Agency for "innovative distributed generation technologies."
Beyond prototype
After the prototype is tested, the plan is to complete engineering of a larger, 4-cylinder 250 kilowatt model, and then to crank out 20 of them for field testing, a two-year process that will cost an estimated $8 to $10 million.
In its business plan, the company has identified "waste industrial process heat" as its first "target market." Conde, whose diverse work background includes having been manager of a glass manufacturing plant, said glass and ceramic manufacturers are particularly large consumers of process heat and would be likely customers.
U.S. manufacturers, according to information in the plan, spend $11 billion annually on process heat. Forty percent of this heat currently is being wasted, said Conde. This is a huge potential market.
Stirling Advantage has been in conversation with several large manufacturing companies that, once they see a prototype, might be willing to invest generously in bringing the company's modified Stirling into full production, Meloy said.
Related sites:
Stirling Advantage, Inc.
http://www.stirlingadvantage.com
Center of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
http://www.umass.edu/oed/wmb/wmb79.html
Stirling Engine Society USA
http://www.sesusa.org/
This article is also posted, with links and photo, at:
http://www.gazettenet.com/04222002/business/13695.htm
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) House Puts Nevada Nuclear Waste Site Bill On Fast Track
The vote in the Senate will be close. Please call both your Senators at 202-224-3121 to tell them to sustain the Nevada veto. No Yucca Mt., no Mobile Chernobyl. Fax & other contact data should be available at http://www.senate.gov Please disseminate this to other lists & interested parties.
Don't you just love the line "neutral experts" at NRC? If you want to give DOE & Abraham a piece of your mind they can be reached at http://www.doe.gov
-Bill Smirnow
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
House Puts Nevada Nuclear Waste Site Bill On Fast Track
Thu Apr 18, 323 PM ET
By Bryan Lee, OF DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- A hearing Thursday put on a fast-track schedule a House vote on whether to override the state of Nevada 's opposition to a proposed nuclear-waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles from Las Vegas. The House Energy and Commerce Committee's panel on energy and air quality heard testimony from Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham in support of the Bush administration's highly controversial proposal to store high-level nuclear waste in the Nevada desert.
The subcommittee is scheduled to vote next week on legislation to override Nevada 's statutory veto of the repository site, and the full committee is slated to vote on the measure the following week, said Ken Johnson, an aide to Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., the committee's chairman. And the House Transportation Committee has set a hearing next week on the issue, all of which sets the stage for a vote on the House floor early in May, said Joe Colvin, president and chief executive of the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry group.
For the complete story and links, see:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/dowjones/20020418/bs_dowjones/house_puts_nevada_nuclear_waste_site_bill_on_fast_track
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) The White House wants to kill protections for marine mammals
Dear LFA Activists
..The Republicans in the House of Representatives are, according to this story and other information, to take the broad military exemption from environmental laws, attach it as an amendment to the Defense budget authorization bill next week, and try to jam it through Congress. Making the bill an "anti-environmental rider" makes their job easier, as the full bill MUST be passed by Congress in order to authorize the Pentagon to spend money again next year. (Several people have e-mailed me asking me what the bill number is for this proposal. There is no bill number yet, as the draft legislation has not yet been officially "introduced." yet. When the Republicans finish work in Committee on the Defense authorization bill in the next week or two, then we will have a bill number to focus on.)
I understand some Democrats are willing to try to pull the military exemption rider out of the bill, but face an uncertain future in the House, which has a majority of Republicans. By separate e-mail, I am sending around my alert of a few weeks ago. Now, more than ever, it is time to contact members of Congress to get this ugly and non-germaine rider out of the Pentagon's budget bill!!
As one example, the amendment to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which changes the definition of "harassment" from one which applies to individual animals (e.g. now, the MMPA prohibits harassment of any marine mammal, unless you have a permit to do so) to one which the harassment has to be proven to have "biologically significant effects." That standard is virtually impossible to prove, so the Navy would be essentially exempt from any harm shown to individual marine mammals from their activities. This is a license to kill whales, dolphins, birds, endangered species, and the Earth, folks!
-- Mark J. Palmer
Mark J. Palmer
Assistant Director
International Marine Mammal Project
Director
Wildlife Alive
Earth Island Institute
300 Broadway, Suite 28
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 788-3666 x139
(415) 788-7324 (fax)
http://www.earthisland.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Pentagon Asks Easing of Rules Environment
The White House wants to restrict protections for marine mammals.
Changes are being sought to six laws.
By ELIZABETH SHOGREN
Times Staff Writer
April 20 2002
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is seeking to restrict protections for marine mammals as part of a sweeping proposal to exempt the military from key provisions of environmental legislation. The Pentagon's proposed changes to six landmark environmental laws were presented to Congress in briefings Thursday. Draft legislation was delivered Friday evening to Capitol Hill. Members of Congress begin drafting the defense authorization bill next week.
The Marine Mammal Protection Act forbids--with certain exceptions--harassing, hunting, capturing or killing whales, dolphins or any other marine mammals. Environmentalists charge that the Pentagon's proposal would dilute the definition of "harassment" so much that the National Marine Fisheries Service would find it difficult to regulate military activities that affect marine mammals. The changes also would make it harder for citizens and environmental groups to sue the military for endangering marine mammals.
The Pentagon's proposal, a draft of which was obtained by The Times, lso would give the military exemptions under the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and hazardous waste laws. According to the military, environmental laws have
inhibited training at bases across the country and on the waters offshore.
The complete article is posted:
http://latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la--42002enviro.story?coll=la%2Dhome%2Dtodays%2Dtimes
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related article by Marc Kaufman, Washington Post, 4/17/2002
"Sonar dispute grows louder between Navy and its critics"
WASHINGTON - For more than a decade, the Navy has been developing a revolutionary sonar system designed to detect new ''quiet'' submarines of the future by sending out extremely loud, low-frequency pings around the globe. At the same time, environmentalists and oceanographers have grown increasingly worried that the intense sound waves emitted by the new sonar would confuse, injure, and eventually kill noise-sensitive marine mammals, and large whales in particular. Now, with the National Marine Fisheries Service on the verge of making a final decision on whether to allow deployment of the new low-frequency sonar - and, if so, with what restrictions - the Navy and its critics have intensified their competing campaigns to have it quickly approved or permanently sidetracked.
Disputes between the military and environmentalists are nothing new. But the Navy sonar controversy is approaching a climax in what both proponents and opponents say is a new atmosphere created by the Sept. 11 attacks.
For the complete story that ran on page A4 of the Boston Globe on 4/17/2002, see:
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/107/nation/Sonar_dispute_grows_louder_between_Navy_and_its_critics+.shtml
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related article, April 09, 2002
Whale activists want sonar silenced
By Laura Linden
STAFF WRITER
In the space of just two days, 16 whales mysteriously beached themselves in the Bahamas. Six of the creatures died, their ears and brains bleeding and crushed from a mysterious source of pressure.
That was in March 2000.
Four months ago, the U.S. Navy admitted that the pressure came from huge blasts of underwater sound it had deployed during surveillance exercises. Now, the Navy wants to launch a five-year program using similar but less powerful equipment -- so-called Low Frequency Active Sonar -- possibly off the coast of California. The Navy sonar ships would operate throughout 80 percent of the world's oceans, according to the proposal.
The unprecedented admission of the Navy's role in the death of the whales has lent validity to environmentalists' long-standing concerns about sonar's threat to marine mammals. "The entire Bahamas incident raises a red flag about the operation of active sonar and other intense sound sources," said Michael Jasny, senior policy analyst with the National Resources Defense Council.
For complete article, see:
http://www.dailyreviewonline.com/Stories/0,1002,10973%257E515745%257E88%257E,00.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stop LFAS Worldwide! Insist that people be told the truth about LFAS and other high intensity sonars. For additional updates go to this URL http://listen.to/lfas , also you can visit the link to
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
5) Bush sets sights on new Alaska oil reserve
Bush sets sights on new Alaska oil reserve
Debate muted over North Slope drilling
By Los Angeles Times
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The U.S. Senate last week rejected oil drilling on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but the Bush administration quietly is preparing to open 9.6 million acres of pristine coastal lands on the other side of Alaska's North Slope for oil and gas leasing in 2004.
Unlike ANWR, the lands within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, west of the Prudhoe Bay oil field, do not require further Congressional approval for oil drilling.
U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton has ordered federal land managers to move quickly to expand leasing within the reserve, where the oil industry found potentially significant deposits during an initial lease sale on 4.6 million acres opened for exploration in 1999.
For complete story, see:
http://www.dailyreviewonline.com/Stories/0,1413,88%257E10973%257E564262,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
See how your Senators voted for protecting or drilling in the Arctic Refuge.
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/vote1072/vote_00071.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Arctic Saved! * US Diplomatic Coup * Kucinich Walks Out * Sonar Kills * Peltier
18 April 2002
Thank Goodness Today the Senate turned back the latest attempt to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling. This victory was vital for the environmental movement, and could represent a beginning for other needed victories. The following items show some other challenges remaining for democracy and life, so keep energized, and working for peace. Item 2 is an article about another coup d'etat about the US wanting to depose the diplomat who could take away its pretext for war with Iraq. This Sunday there will be an unprecedented "special session" to oust a "peacemaker," director of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Item 3 is another situation where Dennis Kucinich is rising to the occasion to try and protect the US government's democratic ideals. Strange doings are most likely going on with the Homeland Security's $38 billion budget, but it is so much more than about money, which was the point made by Dennis Kucinich in walking out of a "secret" meeting. Remember, this is the man who put forth a proposal to ban weapons from space, (H.R. 3616) and THIS is the turnaround legislation that could change everything. We need to get the Senate behind such a transformation for real peace, democracy, health, and prosperity. Nevertheless, like space, the US is exploiting our oceans. The decision for the Navy's deadly sonar blasts is coming to a point for a decision. Please research and help support our special kinship with life in the sea, too. Special updated pages can be found from www.flybynews.com on these issues. Item 5 is on an event in Vermont to honor the Earth and support the human rights of Leonard Peltier and the indigenous people, surrounded by the strange ways and concepts of the US rule of law.
May this be a wonderful Earth Day. Thanks for helping protect Alaska's pristine wilderness sanctuaries. Thanks for sending in articles to post, and for reading these intense issues and taking actions in support of what is true in the Lakota words: Mitakuye Oyasin All My Relations.
1) Senate REJECTS Arctic Drilling 54-46
2) A War Against the Peacemaker
3) Kucinich Walks Out on Ridge Secret Meeting
4) Navy Sonar Controversy Coming to a Head
5) Leonard Peltier Benefit and Earth Awareness Day
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Senate REJECTS Arctic Drilling 54-46
Senate REJECTS ARCTIC DRILLING, 54-46, In Major Environmental Victory!
Today eight Republicans joined with 45 Democrats and one Independent to turn back the latest attempt to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling. The win represents the environmental community's biggest political win in years as a majority of Senators opposed Arctic drilling under any condition or scenario, a major defeat for President Bush's oil and gas-focused energy plan. The Senate voted 54-46 to uphold a filibuster by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), well short of the 60 votes necessary to conclude debate on the amendment to give the president authority to allow drilling in the Arctic Refuge, an American natural treasure, for a mere six months of oil that wouldn't be available for a decade. The Senate also turned back, by a vote of 64-36, an attempt by Alaska Senator Ted Stevens (R) to link Arctic drilling revenues to benefits for steel workers.
Copyright 2001 by League of Conservation Voters (LCV)
LCV will post the roll vote results on our site as soon as they are available.
http://www.lcv.org/
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) A War Against the Peacemaker
Published on Tuesday, April 16, 2002 in the Guardian of London
Chemical Coup D'Etat: The US Wants to Depose the Diplomat Who Could Take Away Its Pretext for War With Iraq
by George Monbiot
A War Against the Peacemaker
The US wants to depose the diplomat who could take away its pretext for war with Iraq
By George Monbiot.
Published in the Guardian
16th April 2002
On Sunday, the US government will launch an international coup. It has been planned for a month. It will be executed quietly, and most of us won't know what is happening until it's too late. It is seeking to overthrow 60 years of multilateralism, in favour of a global regime built on force.
The coup begins with its attempt, in five days' time, to unseat the man in charge of ridding the world of chemical weapons. If it succeeds, this will be the first time that the head of a multilateral agency will have been deposed in this manner. Every other international body will then become vulnerable to attack. The coup will also shut down the peaceful options for dealing with the chemical weapons Iraq may possess, helping to ensure that war then becomes the only means of destroying them.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) enforces the Chemical Weapons Convention. It inspects labs and factories and arsenals and oversees the destruction of the weapons they contain. Its director-general is a workaholic Brazilian diplomat called Jose Bustani. He has, arguably, done more in the past five years to promote world peace than anyone else on earth. His inspectors have overseen the destruction of two million chemical weapons and two-thirds of the world's chemical weapon facilities. He has so successfully cajoled reluctant nations that the number of signatories has risen from 87 to 145 in the past five years: the fastest growth rate of any multilateral body in recent times.
In May 2000, as a tribute to his extraordinary record, Bustani was re-elected unanimously by the member states for a second five-year term, even though he had yet to complete his first one. Last year Colin Powell wrote to him to thank him for his "very impressive" work. But now everything has changed. The man celebrated for his remarkable achievements has been denounced as an enemy of the people.
In January, with no prior warning or explanation, the US State Department asked the Brazilian government to recall him, on the grounds that it did not like his "management style". This request directly contravenes the Chemical Weapons Convention, which states "the Director-General ... shall not seek or receive instructions from any government." Brazil refused. In March, the US government accused Bustani of "financial mismanagement", "demoralization" of his staff, "bias" and "ill-considered initiatives". It warned that if he wanted to avoid damage to his reputation, he must resign.
Again, the US was trampling the convention, which insists that member states shall "not seek to influence" the staff. He refused to go. On March 19th, the US proposed a vote of no-confidence in Mr Bustani. It lost. So it then did something unprecedented in the history of multilateral diplomacy. It called a "special session" of the member states to oust him. The session begins on Sunday. And this time the US is likely to get what it wants.
Since losing the vote last month, the United States, which is supposed to be the organisation's biggest donor, has been twisting the arms of weaker nations, refusing to pay its dues unless they support it, with the result that the OPCW could go under. Last week Bustani told me, "the Europeans are so afraid that the US will abandon the convention that they are prepared to sacrifice my post to keep it on board." His last hope is that the United Kingdom, whose record of support for the organisation has so far been exemplary, will make a stand. The meeting on Sunday will present Blair's government with one of the clearest choices it has yet faced between multilateralism and the "special relationship".
The US has not sought to substantiate the charges it has made against Bustani. The OPCW is certainly suffering from a financial crisis, but that is largely because the United States first unilaterally capped its budget and then failed to pay what it owed. The organisation's accounts have just been audited and found to be perfectly sound. Staff morale is higher than any organisation as underfunded as the OPCW could reasonably expect. Bustani's real crimes are contained in the last two charges, of "bias" and "ill-considered initiatives".
The charge of bias arises precisely because the OPCW is not biased. It has sought to examine facilities in the United States with the same rigour with which it examines facilities anywhere else. But, just like Iraq, the US has refused to accept weapons inspectors from countries it regards as hostile to its interests, and has told those who have been allowed in which parts of a site they may and may not inspect. It has also passed special legislation permitting the president to block unannounced inspections, and banning inspectors from removing samples of its chemicals.
"Ill-considered initiatives" is code for the attempts Bustani has made, in line with his mandate, to persuade Saddam Hussein to sign the Chemical Weapons Convention. If Iraq agrees, it will then be subject to the same inspections -- both routine and unannounced -- as any other member state (with the exception, of course, of the United States). Bustani has so far been unsuccessful, but only because, he believes, he has not yet received the backing of the UN Security Council, with the result that Saddam knows he would have little to gain from signing.
Bustani has suggested that if the Security Council were to support the OPCW's bid to persuade Iraq to sign, this would provide the US with an alternative to war. It is hard to see why Saddam Hussein would accept weapons inspectors from UNMOVIC -- the organisation backed by the Security Council -- after its predecessor UNSCOM was found to be stuffed with spies planted by the US government. It is much easier to see why he might accept inspectors from an organisation which has remained scrupulously even-handed. Indeed, when UNSCOM was thrown out of Iraq in 1998, the OPCW was allowed in to complete the destruction of the weapons it had found. Bustani has to go because he has proposed the solution to a problem the US does not want solved.
"What the Americans are doing," Bustani says, "is a coup d'etat. They are using brute force to amend the convention and unseat the director-general." As the Chemical Weapons Convention has no provisions permitting these measures, the US is simply ripping up the rules. If it wins, then the OPCW, like UNSCOM, will be fatally compromised. Success for the United States on Sunday would threaten the independence of every multilateral body.
This is, then, one of those rare occasions on which our government could make a massive difference to the way the world is run. It could choose to support its closest ally, wrecking multilateralism and shutting down the alternatives to war. Or it could defy the United States in defence of world peace and international law. It will take that principled stand only if we, the people from whom it draws its power, make so much noise that it must listen. We have five days in which to stop the US from bullying its way to war.
-- 16th April 2002
For more information on this and related issues, visit:
http://www.monbiot.com/
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Kucinich Walks Out on Ridge Secret Meeting
t r u t h o u t | Statement
Kucinich Statement on Ridge Secret Meeting with House Committee April 11, 2002
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), ranking member of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans' Affairs and International Relations today walked out of a Government Reform Committee briefing with Governor Tom Ridge, Director of the Homeland Security Office. Kucinich said Governor Ridge should testify publicly about the office. Kucinich said there was a ruling by the Chair that the meeting was not open because there was no official business being transacted. Kucinich then asked for a ruling from the parliamentarian, but did not receive one. The following is his statement about his departure from the briefing.
This is a very serious matter that a Director who speaks for the President on matters of national security is not accountable to the Congress, not accountable to the press and not accountable to the people. Homeland Security has a $38 billion budget. There's been no public process to review this $38 billion budget. So you have a Director who is not accountable to the Congress, not accountable to the press, and not accountable to the people.
I want to state that a free exchange of ideas behind closed doors may not in reality be free. It may in fact be a direct challenge to the doctrine of separation of powers that is a key and fundamental part of our democracy. And it's a challenge to the position of Congress as a coequal branch of government.
In a democracy, secret government is not an acceptable substitute for self-government. A wink is not an acceptable substitute for an oath.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.17G.Walks.Out.htm
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Navy Sonar Controversy Coming to a Head
Thursday, April 18, 2002, Issue 1607
NAVY SONAR CONTROVERSY COMING TO A HEAD:
With the NMFS "on the verge of making a final decision on whether to allow deployment of the new low-frequency sonar" the Navy and environmental groups have "intensified their competing campaigns to have it quickly approved or permanently sidetracked" says the Washington Post 4/15. Marine conservationists maintain the "extremely loud low-frequency pings" of the submarine detection system would "seriously confuse, injure and eventually kill noise-sensitive marine mammals and large whales in particular." For its part, the Navy is pushing proposed legislation to give the military broad exemptions from a variety of environmental laws including the ESA, Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act.
FISHERIES MANAGEMENT LACKING:
A federal judge has ruled that the NMFS's management of Pacific coast commercial fishing has "not adequately protected bottom-dwelling rockfish" says the S.F. Chronicle 4/17. Scientists have warned that some 80 species of Pacific rockfish are "declining rapidly" with overfishing and by-catch the inadvertent killing of juvenile fish, protected fish, marine mammals and birds "considered a big part of the problem."
SPERM WHALES MUCH RARER:
A leading expert on whale population biology has determined that "sperm whales are far rarer than had been previously estimated" says the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society 4/17. The new evidence that sperm whales are only at one-third of their historical abundance "casts doubt over the recovery of the sperm whale from centuries of intensive commercial whaling and highlights concerns over this species being taken as part of the Japanese scientific' whaling program." For more information see http://www.wdcs.org .
GLOBAL OVERFISHING MARINE CRISIS:
Scientists warn that "little is being done" to prevent the world's fishing fleets from decimating ocean ecosystems, marine biodiversity and the fisheries that they are over exploiting says the S.F. Chronicle 4/15. Largely due to government subsidies, the global fishing fleet has "expanded dramatically" in the last two decades resulting in up to 30% of fish populations being "overfished" and another 40% "fully exploited - meaning that additional pressure could result in their collapse." Public broadcasting stations will soon be airing an important documentary on the crisis (see story below).
"EMPTY OCEANS, EMPTY NETS":
On or around Earth Day, April 22, PBS stations around the country will be airing a powerful new documentary that presents a stunning case in support of what fishermen and scientists are reporting the world over; oceans are rapidly being depleted of fish. In fact, entire populations of fish are becoming commercially extinct as marine biodiversity and habitats are pushed to the brink. To find out when the film is airing near you go to http://www.habitatmedia.org/pbs.html and to learn more about what you can do see http://www.oceansatrisk.com .
(c) Endangered Species Coalition 2002
For more information you can call (202) 772-3231 or
e-mail elytwak@stopextinction.org
http://www.stopextinction.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
5) Leonard Peltier Benefit and Earth Awareness Day
"Songs of Hope in Times of Struggle"
Sunday April 21, 2002
4 PM to Midnight at the Common Ground Restaurant
25 Elliot Street, Brattleboro, VT
Featuring:
Sacred Earth
Jesse Friedman
Rose Gerber
Timeship Earth
World Beat Ensemble
Spiral Spirit
Delicious vegetarian food and beverages will be available.
Generous Donations Encouraged
This is a fundraising and awareness event in support of bringing Leonard Pelitier's Paintings to our Community -- Leonard Peltier Support Group - Vermont - Honor the Earth
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Converting Waste Heat Into Power -- Updated
ReGen Power Systems LLC is pioneering development of a Stirling-type external combustion power system to convert excess process heat and steam energy at industrial plants into electricity. The system will be powered by a novel design to operate at the moderate and lower temperatures found in process heating at paper mills, steel mills, chemicals and petroleum refining facilities, glass ovens, cement plants and similar locations.
In addition to high efficiency, the ReGen systems will produce additional power with no new fuel combustion. Not only will they save money, but will produce no new emissions, enabling companies to contribute in a positive way to the environment.
The Stirling cycle was invented by Robert Stirling in 1816, and it is still known to be the highest potential efficiency of any heat engine technology. It is an external combustion engine that operates by using temperature differntials to expand and compress a pressurized gas, driving a piston that results in energy for electrical and other power operations. Because the system is closed, a portion of the heat not converted to work can be retained for reuse on the subsequent cycle. Internal combustion engines do not have this capability for efficiency and lower pollution emissions.
Self-generation of power by onsite generation is increasingly the solution for many energy-related problems, and can help the bottom line of costs for industries in a way the benefits the preservation of our environment. Distributed, rather than centralized power plants, are the most economic way to utilize locally produced waste gas or biomass. Perhaps the greatest value of the Stirling engine is its flexibility of fuel use. It can operate irrespective of the heat source, and serve many nations with the energy independence while lowering pollution emissions..
ReGen Power Systems LLC receives a $5 million investment
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ReGen Power Systems Receives $5 Million Equity Commitment from 21Ventures.
NEW SALEM, MA November 17, 2008. ReGen Power Systems LLC today closed a significant equity financing that will enable the company to continue development of its low temperature differential engine to convert waste industrial heat to power. The $5 million investment by 21Ventures, LLC, and the Quercus Trust will fund the design and fabrication of two prototype engines. The first will be a 10kW engine for purposes of evaluation and testing. The second will be a 500kW engine to be installed at a corporate user site for field testing.
As an external combustion engine, our design will be capable of using a wide range of heat sources to produce power, notes ReGen President, Ricardo Conde. We plan to offer engines that operate at 250 Centigrade for furnace exhaust, and others at 100 Centigrade to condense low pressure steam. We are excited to enter these very large markets.
Not only will the engine use free fuel, Conde explained, but its use will produce power without producing a single molecule of greenhouse gas. The engine will make power that would otherwise have been produced by a polluting central power plant. As a result, it will be environmentally positive as well as economic.
The new technology will be useful in many major industries, including paper, chemicals, refining, steel, aluminum, glass and cement. In the U.S. alone, industry wastes the heat equivalent of more than 20 gigawatts of power each year, according to David Anthony, Managing Director, of 21ventures.. If this energy were converted to power using ReGens technology, it would eliminate the need to build twenty nuclear power plants. The company expects demand for its power systems from around the world
The $5 million funding will also enable ReGen to fabricate several follow-up beta units for broader field tests, and to design a production prototype.
SOURCE: ReGen Power Systems, LLC
CONTACT: Richard Meloy, Chairman,
ReGen Power Systems at 203-328-3045
or visit the companys website at www.rgpsystems.com
Please note that Jonathan Mark, publisher of Flyby News,
is also associated with ReGen Power Systems LLC
Background and Resources --
ReGen Power Systems LLC
March 7, 2008 article published by Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology
ReGen's Stirling idea: Power from waste heat
also posted in FN's archive issue March 16, 2008 - Item 3
ReGens Stirling idea: Power from waste heat
March 7, 2008 STIRLING Engine R&D Gets Mass Financial Boost
"State loan kicks engine research into high gear"
July 8, 2003 Item 2 - Stirling Engine for Waste Heat Power Systems
Stirling Advantage Announces Patent for Waste Heat Power System
April 22nd, Earth Day - 2002 -- Hampshire Gazette -- newspaper article:
"New technology from venerable Stirling", originally posted
http://www.gazettenet.com/04222002/business/13695.htm
Stirling Advantage -- June 21, 2002 -- Press Release:
New Power Source To Help Cut Global Warming
General information on Stirling Engines
The Bloom Box
21 February 2010 - 60 Minutes - CBS News
Large corporations have been testing a new device that can generate
power on the spot, without being connected to the electric grid.
Will we have one in every home someday?
Program Transcript
March 2010 - Business Insider - Chris Nelder
Sorry, The Much-Hyped "Bloom Box"
Is Not The Holy Grail Of Alternative Energy
For Flyby News archived resource guide, see:
Energy Emissions' Impact On Our Environment
This page was originally posted on 17 April 2002, and updated
above on the development of an external combustion engine
for clean affordable electrical power generation.
2) The Arctic Meltdown
3) Where art thou, Dems?
4) The moment of truth for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Editor's Notes (17 April 2002):
Item 2 is more on evidence of the effects of Global Warming. Time is growing short. Item 3 is about the depressing known-revelations about the Democrats spineless stand in the wake of unprecedented destruction, except for those like Dennis Kucinich, Cynthia McKinney, Pete Stark, Barbara Lee, and others. The last Item is on the moment of truth for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. When originally posted and sent to Flyby News subscribers, it was in the first position.
2) The Arctic Meltdown
Published on Monday, April 15, 2002 in the Seattle Times
The Arctic Meltdown
Quick Thaw Alarms Natives
and Scientists by Usha Lee McFarling
YANRAKYNNOT, Russia The native elders have no explanation. Scientists are perplexed as well. The icy realm of the Eskimo the tundra and ice of Russia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland has started to thaw.
Strange portents are everywhere.
Thunder and lightning, once rare, have become commonplace. An eerie warm wind now blows in from the south. Hunters who prided themselves on their ability to read the sky say they no longer can predict the sudden blizzards.
"The Earth," one hunter concluded, "is turning faster."
In recent years, seabirds have washed up dead by the thousands and deformed seal pups have become a common sight. Whales appear sick and undernourished. The walrus, a mainstay of the local diet, is becoming scarce, as are tundra rabbits.
The elders, who keep thousands of years of history and legend without ever writing it down, have long told children this story: If the ice that freezes thick over the sea each winter breaks up before summer, the entire village could perish.
The children always laugh. Here in the Russian Arctic, the ground is frozen nearly year-round. The ice blanketing the winter seas around the Bering Strait is thick enough to support men dragging sleds loaded with whale carcasses.
Even Zoya Telpina, the schoolteacher in this outpost of 350 Chukchi reindeer herders and marine mammal hunters, said a winter sea without ice seemed like "a fairy tale."
But last winter, when Telpina looked from her kitchen window toward the Bering Sea, she saw something she'd never seen in her 38 years: the dark swell of the open ocean, water where there had always been ice.
Telpina's husband, Mikhail, a 38-year-old dog-sled musher, has seen mushrooms on the tundra shrivel and whole herds of reindeer starve. He has cut open the bellies of salmon to find strange insects inside. He has seen willows rise where he has never seen trees before.
The changes are so widespread that they have spawned changes in the Eskimo languages that so precisely describe ice and snow. In Chukotka, where the natives speak Siberian Yupik, they use new words such as misullijuq rainy snow and are less likely to use words like umughagek ice that is safe to walk on. In Nunavut, Canada, the Inuit people say the weather is uggianaqtuq like a familiar friend acting strangely.
What the residents of the Arctic are reporting fits convincingly with powerful computer models, satellite images and recently declassified ice measurements taken by Russian submarines.
In the last century, parts of the Arctic have warmed by 10 degrees Fahrenheit 10 times the global average. Sea ice covers 15 percent less of the Arctic Ocean than it did 20 years ago, and that ice has thinned from an average of 10 feet to less than 6.
A group of scientists who spent a year aboard an icebreaker concluded that the year-round sea ice that sustains marine mammals and those who hunt them could vanish altogether in 50 years.
The U.S. Navy, already planning for an ice-free Arctic, is exploring ways to defend the previously ice-clogged Northwest Passage from attack by sea.
Without the stabilizing effect of great land masses, the Earth's watery north is exquisitely sensitive to warming. A few degrees of warmth can mean the difference between ice and water, permafrost or mud, hunger or even starvation for the inhabitants of these remote lands.
Yet, explaining the quick thaw and determining its cause whether human or natural has so far eluded the experts.
There are few long-term climate observations from the ArcticWeather stations in the Far North are just 50 years old. And there is almost no data from places like Russia's Chukotka Peninsula, only 55 miles from Alaska.
In their search for information, Western scientists are turning to sources they once disparaged. In a rare convergence of science and folklore, a group of scientists is mining the memories of native elders, counting animal pelts collected by hunters and documenting the collective knowledge of entire villages.
These threads, which stretch back generations, may be the only way to trace the outlines of the half-century of change that has resculpted the Arctic and to figure out its cause.
"We have all these people paying very close attention to the animals they hunt and the sea ice they travel on," said Henry Huntington, a scientific consultant in Alaska. "It's often extremely accurate and far better than anything science has come up with."
Native observations that at first don't seem consistent with the warming such as snowier winters and colder summers also fit the scientists' models. Warmer air is expected to usher more storms and precipitation into the Arctic. Melting sea ice in summer can lower the water temperature and lead to cooler temperatures on adjacent land.
Despite parallel observations, Western researchers and Arctic dwellers still look at each other suspiciously across a cultural divide. Many scientists remain uncomfortable with any information not backed by numbers and measurements. Many native elders resent scientists who come ashore with their strange machines thinking they know more about the place than those who live there.
Others mistrust Western scientists who come to gather data and never send back word of their findings. They recall a group of toxicologists who came to remote villages here several years ago to collect women's breast milk to measure pollution levels. The scientists detected organic pollutants such as dioxin and PCBs in the breast milk. But the women say they were never contacted about the results.
For scientists, the facts are mostly a matter of academic, and sometimes political, interest. But for the natives, they may be a matter of life and death.
The subsistence hunters of Chukotka live in small villages without pickup trucks or snowmobiles, without supply ships or supermarkets. They have 19th-century harpoons, small boats and limited fuel for their hunts.
These villagers, who depend almost entirely on the icy sea for their food, may be witnessing the demise of their ancient way of life.
Caleb Pungowiyi, an Eskimo who works with scientists to record the observations of his elders and peers, put it this way"When this Earth starts to be destroyed, we feel it."
Ice is a second home for Gennady Inankeuyas, a 42-year-old hunter considered the best harpooner on the Chukotka Peninsula. For years, Inankeuyas has prowled the ice for seals and walrus, dragging heavy sleds and animal carcasses over the frozen ocean.
This year, Inankeuyas returned to the uncertain ice. He had to. "Of course it's dangerous," he said. "But the village needs the food."
That food is not as easy to come by now that the weather has changed. "The south wind is a bad wind. It moves the walrus to another place," said Igor Macotrik, a 42-year-old Eskimo hunter. "The walrus is hard to find."
Scientists understand such observations. Their data show that the walrus are declining, possibly because they also have to work harder to find food. Walrus mothers nurse their babies on sea-ice floes. As melting ice recedes, the walrus do, too. Far from the coast, the mothers must dive longer and deeper from the ice to the sea floor to find clams.
In recent years, the Eskimo hunters have also noticed that gray whales have become very skinny. The meat of some freshly killed whales smells rancid, "like medicine," said Maxim Agnagisyak, a 28-year-old hunter. The sled dogs won't eat it.
Scientists are beginning to analyze samples of whale blubber from the region to seek an explanation. For several years, record numbers of gray whales have washed up dead and emaciated as they migrate to their winter calving grounds in Baja California.
Land animals are also under stress. Reindeer herds plummeted after the Soviet Union collapsed and the government subsidies that helped sustain the herds were cut off. The animals began starving, and their numbers continue to decline.
Scientists have not studied the reindeer herds of Chukotka, but they have seen similar starvation in Canadian caribou. The grazing animals normally survive the winter by nosing through soft, dry snow to feed on the tundra vegetation insulated below. In recent warm years, winter rains have alternated with snow, leaving an icy crust that is difficult to penetrate and cuts the animals' legs.
Scientists are only beginning to catch up with native observations on many other aspects of the Arctic environment, such as tundra vegetation. They are monitoring a tree line that is advancing north as the Arctic warms. And scientists from Russia, Delaware and Ohio have just started a large-scale project to study the permafrost as it thaws.
It is unclear if the changing climate will let them finish their work. With scientists still debating the trajectory of change in the Arctic, the fate of the Siberian Eskimo remains as uncertain as the Arctic ice in late spring.
Hunters with tiny boats and little fuel must now go much farther out to sea for food. Sometimes they return empty-handed. Sometimes they return with prey unusual for the season, or fish native to warmer waters. Sometimes, when the seas are rough, they do not return at all.
The hunters willingly talk about the many changes they see around them. But they don't spend much time worrying about climate change.
For the moment, they have more pressing concerns gathering enough ammunition for the spring hunt and stretching their supply of stored whale meat.
Copyright 2002 The Seattle Times Company
For Flyby News resources on this topic, see.
Mounting Evidence of Global Warming
3) Where art thou, Dems?
Where art thou, Dems?
So this is what it's like to live in a one-party country
By Molly Ivins
April 12, 2002; Creators Syndicate
AUSTIN, Texas -- Across the length and breadth of this great land of ours, from the mountain to the prairie, from every hill and dale comes the question, "Where are the Democrats?" They're among the missing, along with Judge Crater and Osama bin Laden. The venerable political organization, the party of Jackson and Jefferson, is not to be found in action. OTAM -- out to all meals. So this is what it's like to live in a one-party country.
Is it possible, remotely possible, that Democrats are frightened by the John Ashcroft-Trent Lott school of "patriotism," which holds that questioning our elected (or even not-so-elected) leaders is tantamount to disloyalty if not treason? That expressing concern about our fundamental liberties helps terrorists? For that line of attack to be treated with anything but the contempt it deserves is itself un-American, not a word I use lightly.
As if the argument is not contemptible enough, one has only to look at the performance of these same definers of "patriotism" as blind obedience when Bill Clinton was struggling to fight a war. When the Clinton administration was trying to track and kill Osama bin Laden, Republicans gratuitously dismissed the entire effort as an attempt to change the subject from the all-important Monica Lewinsky.
And there we do come to one real reason the Democrats are so quiet. Political opposition in the Clinton years was so shatteringly nasty, no one wants to be seen anywhere near it now. To be accused of being "partisan" now stands for a level of conduct so degraded and degrading, we have forgotten what principled opposition means.
However, President Bush's sex life has nothing to do with the fact that his foreign policy is so inept that all the Arab countries, including our friends and allies the Saudis and the Egyptians, are now siding with Saddam Hussein rather than the United States. You really have to work at it to produce a result that bad.
We still haven't caught Bin Laden or any of the other leaders of Al-Qaeda, who are presumably regrouping and plotting some fresh horror. We haven't even finished the job in Afghanistan, as we are reminded daily, but the administration seems to have dropped that like a hot rock and gone off to plan invading Iraq -- which has no known connection with Sept. 11 -- instead. Already we are abandoning Hamid Karzai by refusing to cooperate with the Brits to maintain order there.
Someone suggested the other day if the Republicans were in the opposition, they'd have an "Osama calendar" updated daily. It's now 254 days since Sept. 11 and still Bin Laden eludes our clueless leaders." But that is precisely the sort of opposition we don't need.
Suggestions for how to fix things are a lot more useful than sitting around complaining about how fouled up things are. How do we get Sharon to accept the idea that the settlers on the West Bank have to go? How about talking the Arab countries into co-funding a Marshall Plan for the West Bank? Why not call in Bruce Urquhart, the U.N. diplomat who settled several wars, as a sort of senior consultant?
And why NOT remind people that Bush was warned over and over that letting the Middle East crisis get worse was folly? Why not point out that suggestions and solutions offered before Sept. 11 were ignored by Bush? Why not explain that the consequences of arrogant unilateralism are simply unacceptable? The old American isolationist tendency is always too ready to conclude, "You just can't deal with Those People." Of course you can. Disaster is not inevitable, but it can sure be encouraged by inaction. And that includes inaction by Democrats.
From Sept. 12 on, this administration ignored repeated calls for energy conservation. At a time when all Americans were ready to do anything to help, we could have started a "get out of the SUVs, cut the mileage, carpool, take a bus" campaign. To help one's country in a concrete way like saving fuel, and in turn reducing our dependence on unstable allies and freeing up our foreign policy options, was such an obvious step. And the Bush administration should take all the lumps it's got coming for having failed to do so.
So what did the Democrats do? Nineteen Democratic senators recently voted with the Republicans against requiring automakers to increase gas mileage. The Middle East is now so volatile an oil embargo is not that unlikely. We could have bought ourselves quite a bit of insurance by now, had we acted promptly.
Many elected Democrats apparently think this administration is so set in its unilateralist ways, there's no point in trying to move on the Kyoto Treaty, or the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, or the International Criminal Court (which would have been such a useful option for dealing with Bin Laden.) Sen. William Proxmire of Wisconsin delivered, over the years, 3,211 speeches on why we should sign the U.N. Convention Against Genocide. It took 19 years. Let's get started. Why not point out that suggestions and solutions offered before Sept. 11 were ignored by Bush?
2002 Creators Syndicate
www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemId=13137
4) The moment of truth for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
The moment of truth has arrived for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The U.S. Senate is likely to vote as early as Thursday on an amendment to open America's greatest sanctuary for Arctic animals to oil development and sprawling industrialization. Even if you have sent a message to your senators about this issue before, new developments make it critical that you do so again right now by going to:
http://www.savebiogems.org/arctic/takeaction.asp?step=2&item=1190
Our defense of the Arctic Refuge is hanging by a slender thread -- a mere handful of senators who are likely but not certain to vote with us. As the critical vote nears, the pro-oil lobby is resorting to increasingly cynical schemes to lure these "swing" senators to their side. Drilling proponents have offered to guarantee healthcare benefits for unemployed steelworkers in return for opening the refuge to oil development. They have offered to guarantee a supply of oil to Israel. More eleventh-hour ploys are sure to follow today and tomorrow. It is an insult to the American people to tie such issues to the fate of the Arctic Refuge. Providing for steelworkers and promoting peace in the Middle East should not depend on destroying our greatest remaining wilderness.
These attempts to cut backroom deals that will sell out the refuge are especially repugnant because the Senate has already voted AGAINST an amendment that would have improved fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks. That single measure alone would have saved far more oil than the Arctic Refuge could ever produce. But pro-oil senators would rather sacrifice America's premier wildlife refuge so that oil giants can sell even more oil that can then be wasted in the world's most inefficient gas-guzzling vehicles. This is special-interest politics at its absolute, public-be-damned worst. It can only be countered by millions of pro-environment messages from people like you and me.
Please do your part by contacting your two senators immediately. If you want to have the greatest possible impact, then **pick up the phone right now** and call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121. Speak to your senators' staff and ask them to tell your senators to oppose any amendment that would allow oil exploration or development in the Arctic Refuge. It will take you only about 3 minutes, but will make a big impression.
If you have less than 3 minutes or you're not within reach of a phone, then go to http://www.savebiogems.org/arctic/takeaction.asp?step=2&item=1190 and send an electronic fax or email (and please take a few seconds to personalize the sample message by adding your own thoughts about why preserving the Arctic Refuge is important to you).
However you choose to contact your senators, *please do it instantly.* This may be our last, best chance to stop the oil giants from plundering America's irreplaceable sanctuary for polar bears, white wolves, and 130,000 caribou.
And thank you, as always, for your continued support of NRDC.
Sincerely,
John H. Adams
President
Natural Resources Defense Council
==================================================
BioGems: Saving Endangered Wild Places
A project of the Natural Resources Defense Council
www.SaveBioGems.org
The views expressed herein are writers own and not necessarily of Flyby News.
Fair Use Policy that describes use of copyrighted material is at FlybyNews.com.
Feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News is appreciated.
You can write to the editor by email: - flyby(at}mtdata{dot)com -
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus,
and has supported critical campaigns for a healthy
environment, human rights, justice, and nonviolence,
since the launch of NASAs Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Chavez and Venezuela Still Free * Nicaragua Assassination * 9/11 Investigations
14 April 2002
What a difference a couple of days can make. Freedom has survived a paid for (oil-interest) military coup in Venezuela. This coup leader had been recognized as legitimate by the US media and government. Yet all that has changed. The will of the people in Venezuela and its military had freed President Hugo Chavez. Following today's CNN.com article is a courageous eye-witness account of the Coup in Caracas. Item 2 shows the dangers lurking in a corrupt world, motivated by fear and greed, a beloved professor in Nicaragua was assassinated in his home. He was the husband of Dr. Mara Luisa Acosta, an internationally renown indigenous human rights lawyer. Silence can become deadly.. So please take appropriate actions. Item 3 is a Washington Post article on Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) calling for 9/11 investigations. We have to keep supporting this noble woman seeking truth. And item 4 is an update on Lieutenant Michael Vreeland's confirmation of 9/11 foreknowledge. Vreeland was reported in writing a letter to warn of impending terrorist attacks of September 11th, in August of 2001. This letter had been entered into court documents.
1) Chavez and Venezuela Still Free -- By the will of the people
2) Human Rights Assassination in Nicaragua
3) Cynthia McKinney Calls for 9/11 Investigations
4) Follow-up Update on Lieutenant Michael Vreeland
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Chavez and Venezuela Still Free -- By the will of the people
Venezuela president back in power
April 14, 2002 Posted: 2:21 PM EDT (1821 GMT)
CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN) President Hugo Chavez has reclaimed power in Venezuela, just two days after being forced from office.
In a televised address he promised to unite the country and denied an announcement made by the military on Friday that he had resigned.
Chavez was forced from office after he ordered the army to quell anti-government protests and 12 demonstrators were killed.
Initially Chavez was replaced by Pedro Carmona, a businessman and economist, only for him to be replaced by Chavez's vice president Diosdado Cabello, when he tried to dissolve the National Assembly.
Cabello was sworn in as the head of government but he now appears to have stepped aside for Chavez's return.
Cabello has told national radio he would remain as president until Chavez can be reinstated.
Three-thousand members of the National Honor Guard -- which protects the presidential palace and has remained loyal to Chavez -- regained control of the presidential residence hours before Carmona's resignation became official.
Chavez returned to the palace on Sunday on helicopter and was seen surrounded by bodyguards.
Jubilant pro-Chavez supporters gathered outside the palace, Miraflores, ahead of his return waving flags and singing the national anthem.
In a televised address he said: "There are a lot of urgent things to take care of now. We must fix that light that has been broken. I call for peace. I call for strength within all Venezuelans."
And despite its role in his temporary removal from office Chavez praised the military saying: "Our military forces ... have a heart. I was never mistreated.
"I have learned a lot from our military forces. By listening to them I felt like a soldier once again."
The Bush administration said it hopes Chavez listened to his countrymen.
In an interview Sunday with "Meet the Press," National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said,
"I hope that Hugo Chavez takes the message that his people sent him: that his own policies are not working for the Venezuelan people, that he's dealt with them in a high-handed fashion.
"And I hope that ... he understands this is the time for him to reflect on how Venezuela got to where it is," she said. "He needs to respect constitutional processes. This is no time for a witch hunt. This is time for national reconciliation in Venezuela."
Chavez, who led a bloody 1992 failed coup attempt, now enjoys wide support from Venezuela's poor, many of whom believe he has addressed issues facing them.
He took office in 1999 after a sweeping to election victory in December 1998 promising constitutional reform, an end to corruption and the redistribution of oil wealth.
Venezuela is the world's No. 4 oil exporter and the second biggest source of oil to the United States.
Washington blamed Chavez for provoking the crisis, while several Latin American leaders, including the heads of Peru and Mexico, said during the crisis they would not recognize the new government until elections were held.
The leaders of Argentina, Mexico and Paraguay -- meeting in San Jose, Costa Rica -- said Saturday they would not recognize any new leaders in Venezuela until elections are held there.
"There are a lot of urgent things to take care of now," Chavez said. "We must fix that light that has been broken. I call for peace. I call for strength within all Venezuelans."
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/americas/04/14/venezuela/index.html
======================================================================
Related Story:
Coup in Venezuela: An Eyewitness Account
By Gregory Wilpert
The orchestration of the coup was impeccable and, in all likelihood, planned a long time ago. Hugo Chavez, the fascist communist dictator of Venezuela could not stand the truth and thus censored the media relentlessly. For his own personal gain and that of his henchmen (and henchwomen, since his cabinet had more women than any previous Venezuelan government's), he drove the country to the brink of economic ruin. In the end he proceeded to murder those who opposed him. So as to reestablish democracy, liberty, justice, and prosperity in Venezuela and so as to avoid more bloodshed, the chamber of commerce, the union federation, the church, the media, and the management of Venezuela's oil company, in short: civil society and the military decided that enough is enough--that Chavez had his chance and that his experiment of a 'peaceful democratic Bolivarian revolution' had to come to an immediate end.
This is, of course, the version of events that the officials now in charge and thus also of the media, would like everyone to believe. So what really happened? Of course I don't know, but I'll try to represent the facts as I witnessed them. First of all, the military is saying that the main reason for the coup is what happened today, April 11. 'Civil society,' as the opposition here refers to itself, organized a massive demonstration of perhaps 100,000 to 200,000 people to march to the headquarters of Venezuela's oil company, PDVSA, in defense of its fired management. The day leading up to the march all private television stations broadcast advertisements for the demonstration, approximately once every ten minutes. It was a successful march, peaceful, and without government interference of any kind, even though the march illegally blocked the entire freeway, which is Caracas main artery of transportation, for several hours. Supposedly at the spur of the moment, the organizers decided to re-route the march to Miraflores, the president's office building, so as to confront the pro-government demonstration, which was called in the last minute. About 5,000 Chavez-supporters had gathered there by the time the anti-government demonstrators got there. In-between the two demonstrations were the city police, under the control of the opposition mayor of Caracas, and the National Guard, under control of the president. All sides claim that they were there peacefully and did not want to provoke anyone. I got there just when the opposition demonstration and the National Guard began fighting each other. Who started the fight, which involved mostly stones and tear gas, is, as is so often the case in such situations, nearly impossible to tell. A little later, shots were fired into the crowds and I clearly saw that there were three parties involved in the shooting, the city police, Chavez supporters, and snipers from buildings above. Again, who shot first has become a moot and probably impossible to resolve question. At least ten people were killed and nearly 100 wounded in this gun battle-- almost all of them demonstrators.
One of the Television stations managed to film one of the three sides in this battle and broadcast the footage over and over again, making it look like the only ones shooting were Chavez supporters from within the demonstration at people beyond the view of the camera. The media over and over again showed the footage of the Chavez supporters and implied that they were shooting at an unarmed crowd. As it turns out, and as will probably never be reported by the media, most of the dead are Chavez supporters. Also, as will probably never be told, the snipers were members of an extreme opposition party, known as Bandera Roja. These last two facts, crucial as they are, will not be known because they do not fit with the new mythology, which is that Chavez armed and then ordered his supporters to shoot at the opposition demonstration.
Perhaps my information is incorrect, but what is certain is that the local media here will never bother to investigate this information. And the international media will probably simply ape what the local media reports (which they are already doing). Chavez' biggest and perhaps only mistake of the day, which provided the last remaining proof his opposition needed for his anti-democratic credentials, was to order the black-out of the private television stations. They had been broadcasting the confrontations all afternoon and Chavez argued that these broadcasts were exacerbating the situation and should, in the name of public safety, be temporarily shut-down.
Now, all of 'civil society,' the media, and the military are saying that Chavez has to go because he turned against his own people. Aside from the lie this is, what is conveniently forgotten are all of the achievements of the Chavez administration: a new democratic constitution which broke the power monopoly of the two hopelessly corrupt and discredited main parties and put Venezuela at the forefront in terms of progressive constitutions; introduced fundamental land reform; financed numerous progressive ecological community development projects; cracked-down on corruption; promoted educational reform which schooled over 1 million children for the first time and doubled investment in education; regulated the informal economy so as to reduce the insecurity of the poor; achieved a fairer price for oil through OPEC and which significantly increased government income; internationally campaigned tirelessly against neo-liberalism; reduced official unemployment from 18% to 13%; introduced a large-scale micro-credit program for the poor and for women; reformed the tax system which dramatically reduced tax evasion and increased government revenue; lowered infant mortality from 21% to 17%; tripled literacy courses; modernized the legal system, etc., etc.
Chavez' opposition, which primarily consisted of Venezuela's old guard in the media, the union federation, the business sector, the church, and the traditionally conservative military, never cared about any of these achievements. Instead, they took advantage of their media monopoly to turn public opinion against him and managed to turn his biggest liability, his autocratic and inflammatory style, against him. Progressive civil society had either been silenced or demonized as violent Chavez fanatics.
At this point, it is impossible to know what will happen to Chavez' 'Bolivarian Revolution'--whether it will be completely abandoned and whether things will return to Venezuela's 40-year tradition of patronage, corruption, and rentierism for the rich. What one can say without a doubt, is that by abandoning constitutional democracy, no matter how unpopular and supposedly inept the elected president, Venezuela's ruling class and its military show just how politically immature they are and deal a tremendous blow to political culture throughout Latin America, just as the coup against Salvador Allende did in 1973. This coup shows once again that democracy in Latin America is a matter of ruling class preference, not a matter of law. If the United States and the democratic international community have the courage to practice what they preach, then they should not recognize this new government. Democrats around the world should pressure their governments to deny recognition to Venezuela's new military junta or any president they happen to choose. According to the Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS), this would mean expelling Venezuela from the OAS, as a U.S. state department official recently threatened to do. Please call the U.S. state department or your foreign ministry and tell them to withdraw their ambassadors from Venezuela.
Gregory Wilpert lives in Caracas, is a former U.S. Fulbright scholar in Venezuela, and is currently doing independent research on the sociology of development. He can be reached at: Wilpert@cantv.net
Gregory Wilpert, Ph.D.; Central University of Venezuela, Caracas
New School University, New York
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Human Rights Assassination in Nicaragua
This following information was forwarded by the ProLibertad Freedom Campaign.
http://www.ProLibertad.org
______________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, April 9, 2002
Dear Friends and Supporters of Nicaragua:
With sadness and a great sense of moral outrage we report that Francisco Jos Garca Valle, esteemed professor at the University of the Autonomous Regions of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua and husband of Dr. Mara Luisa Acosta, internationally renown indigenous human rights lawyer was assassinated in his home on Monday night.
At the time of his murder, his wife was meeting with the IFCO/Pastors for Peace Central American Caravan to Chiapas, Honduras and Nicaragua, which had been in the region for the last week and a half. Maria, who has received threats to her physical safety in the past because of her work advocating on behalf of indigenous communities fighting for their land and other basic human rights, was briefing the caravan on an important case that she is currently working on. Had she not been away from her home meeting with the caravan, she could have met with the same fate as her husband. Francisco Jose was found bound and gagged, shot in his heart. A police investigation is under way, however at this time, there is no information available about who is responsible for this heinous act.
The caravan members were able to accompany Attorney Acosta today, but we remain extremely concerned about her continued safety given this violent attack against her immediate family. The caravan held a press conference Tuesday afternoon in Managua to call for the immediate apprehension of the assassins and for the guaranteed protection of Attorney Acosta and her
family.
IFCO/Pastors for Peace is urgently requesting that you communicate your concern to Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolaos, specifically:
1. Express your outrage at the senseless murder of Francisco Jos Garca Valle and concern for the security of Maria Acosta and her family, who have been at the forefront of the struggle for indigenous rights in the region.
2. Demand that the security of Maria Acosta and her family be ensured by the government of Nicaragua and that a rigorous, stepped up investigation into the murder begin NOW.
3. Demand that the assassins be immediately apprehended and brought to justice.
You can address your letters to:
President Enrique Bolaos
The Nicaraguan Ambassador
The Republic of Nicaragua
1627 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
Washington DC 20009
Telephone(202) 9396570
Fax(202) 939-6574
More information as to where to send messages of condolence and solidarity, as well as future actions to take, will be available shortly.
IFCO/Pastors for Peace
402 W 145th Street, New York City, NY 10031
212-926-5757; fax212-926-5842; emailifco@igc.org;
http://www.ifconews.org
IFCO/Pastors for Peace
402 W 145th Street, New York City, NY 10031
212-926-5757; fax212-926-5842; emailifco@igc.org;
http://www.ifconews.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Cynthia McKinney Calls for 9/11 Investigations
WASHINGTON POST
Friday, April 12, 2002;
Page A16
Democrat Implies Sept. 11 Administration Plot
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) is calling for an investigation into whether President Bush and other government officials had advance notice of terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 but did nothing to prevent them. She added that "persons close to this administration are poised to make huge profits off America's new war."
In a recent interview with a Berkeley, Calif., radio station, McKinney said "We know there were numerous warnings of the events to come on September 11th. . . . What did this administration know and when did it know it, about the events of September 11th?
Who else knew, and why did they not warn the innocent people of New York who were needlessly murdered? . . . What do they have to hide?"
McKinney declined to be interviewed yesterday, but she issued a statement saying"I am not aware of any evidence showing that President Bush or members of his administration have personally profited from the attacks of 9-11. A complete investigation might reveal that to be the case."
Bush spokesman Scott McLellan dismissed McKinney's comments.
"The American people know the facts, and they dismiss such ludicrous, baseless views," he said. "The fact that she questions the president's legitimacy shows a partisan mind-set beyond all reason."
In the radio conversation, McKinney delivered a stinging attack on the administration. In 2000, she charged, Bush forces "stole from America our most precious right of all, the right to free and fair elections." With the September attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and in
Pennsylvania, McKinney said, "an administration of questionable legitimacy has been given unprecedented power."
She suggested that the administration was serving the interests of a Washington-based investment firm, the Carlyle Group, which employs a number of high-ranking former government officials from both parties. Former president George H.W. Bush -- the current president's father -- is an adviser to the firm. McKinney said the war on terrorism has enriched Carlyle Group investors by enhancing the value of a military contractor partly owned by the firm.
Carlyle Group spokesman Chris Ullman asked: "Did she say these things while standing on a grassy knoll in Roswell, New Mexico?"
During her five terms in office, McKinney has often given voice to radical critiques of U.S. policy, especially in the Middle East.
She defied the State Department to investigate assertions that international sanctions are brutalizing innocent Iraqis.
With her comments concerning Sept. 11, McKinney, 47, seems to have tapped into a web of conspiracy theories circulating during the past six months among people who believe that the government is partially -- or entirely -- to blame for last year's attacks, which killed more than 3,000 people.
"What is undeniable is that corporations close to the administration have directly benefitted from the increased defense spending arising from the aftermath of September 11th," McKinney charged. "America's credibility, both with the world and with her own people, rests upon securing credible answers to these questions."
None of McKinney's colleagues has embraced her allegations, but a few said they are familiar with the theories.
"I've heard a number of people say it," said Rep. Melvin Watt (D-N.C.), who quickly added, "I can't say that it would be a widely held view" among lawmakers.
Some lawmakers have a less charitable view of McKinney's penchant for publicity. Rep. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) said McKinney is simply trying to impress her constituents.
"She's demonstrated at home an ability to win," he said, "and she's demonstrated in Washington a total lack of responsibility in her statements."
Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), a friend of McKinney's, said the Georgia Democrat is adept at seizing on "red-meat" issues that resonate with her political base and have helped her fend off a series of GOP challengers.
"She's not as random as people think," Kingston said. "People always want to hear a political conspiracy theory."
Staff writer David Von Drehle contributed to this report.
2002 The Washington Post Company
_____________________________________________________________
Please consider writing or calling in support:
Congresswoman Cynthia Ann McKinney
124 Cannon Building Washington, DC 20515
ph 202 225 1605 fax 202 226 0691
http://www.house.gov/mckinney/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = == = = = = = = =
Related Links:
Democrat Implies Sept. 11 Administration Plot Washington Post {4-12-02}
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34565-2002Apr11.html
9-11 Overview by Vision TV, Bush / CIA Complicity in 9-11, Real Player Video Stream at
http://clients.loudeye.com/imc/mayday/mediafile.ram
BBC TELEVISION INDICTS BUSH / CIA IN 9-11 TERROR COMPLICITY
http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/cta/progs/newsnight/attack22.ram
Reasonable Doubts About September 11th, 53 minute Real Player Video stream at
http://www.indybay.org/news/2002/03/118760.php
AUSTRALIAN MAINSTREAM PRESS BREAKS 9-11 FRAUD STORY
http://smh.com.au/articles/2002/04/08/1017206313833.html
FULL STORY AT INDYMEDIA -- 9.11 - What did the U.S. know, and when did it know it?
http://portland.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=8824&group=webcast
Flyby News: The Bush Conspiracy & 9/11 Investigative Updated Reports
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1014738186,11057,
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Follow-up Update on Lieutenant Michael Vreeland
Editors's Note:
The following information came from Chuck, a subscriber. He did some special follow-up work on the April 5th Flyby News issue "Proof of 9/11 Foreknowledge by Michael C. Ruppert." It is our hope that more of us will continue to follow Vreeland's case. He asked Lt. Vreeland to post the Court information, so any doubters could verify that his case is actual and ongoing. This is the information he provided:
The Superior Court of Justice
361 University
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Chuck mentioned that the Lieutenant has a message forum being run at his website. He is on the message board daily. Anyone can participate by accessing the Website, then click on "FORUM." Then click on one of the message strings. At the left side of any posted message you can click on "Reply". When you do so, a username and password are called for. Simply enter the Username "mike25gta" and the password "greens", then place your message in the text block and click on the "Add" button. [My computer couldn't access the FORUM page, but I did get this following message on the focus and purpose of Lt. Vreeland's webpage: http://www.ltvreeland.com
USA Spy Forsaken by US Government
Lt Delmart Vreeland has been imprisoned for 16 months in Ontario, Canada. He allegedly is a US spy forsaken by his own government. He wrote a letter to warn of impending terrorist attacks of September 11th, in August of 2001. The letter he wrote has been entered into court documents. He is fighting extradition to the US for fear of assassination. He has sold everything he owns for his defense. This website is dedicated to raising money for Lt Vreeland's Defense Fund.
For more information, see:
http://www.ltvreeland.com
For Flyby News posting of Proof of 9/11 Foreknowledge by Michael C. Ruppert, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1018046626,78245,
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby Alert: Venezuela Military Coup * Video of army murdering Palestinian mother
12 April 2002
This is another incredibly sad and dangerous day on Earth. Sorry for the amount of news, but it keeps coming, and we wonder when will we wake up. The rhetoric of lies lie in the actions, so apparent that is making matters worse for everyone, but especially for that of freedom and democracy.
1) Venezuela Military Coup
2) Video of army murdering Palestinian mother
3) Bush deepening U.S. ties with human-rights abuses
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Venezuela Military Coup
April 12, 2002
The Narco News Bulletin
Dear Colleagues,
It is now past 5 a.m. in our Amrica and the newsroom has not slept, as we have sifted through the reports and propaganda by all sides on the events in Venezuela.
Our correspondents have been in direct contact with key sources in Venezuela throughout the day and night. We will continue to monitor the situation and report it to our readers. We begin with a translation of the press account we think is most accurate, from Pablo Rodriguez of the daily newspaper Pagina 12 of Buenos Aires, Argentina, reporting from Caracas, Venezuela.
At 5:23 a.m. Venezuela Eastern Time, the English language email newsletter of Vheadline.com reports from Caracas
"With a South American tropical dawn just hours away, Venezuela has announced a new Military High Command for the transition to a new Presidency of the Republic... at 4:30 a.m. VET they were named as Army C-i-C General Efrain Vasquez Velasco, General Ramirez Poveda, General Alfonso Martinez and General Jesus Pereira."
A subsequent update from Vheadline editor Roy Carson informs that the same business magnate who led the coup has now been installed as unelected "president" of Venezuela: "Federation of Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Fedecamaras) president Pedro Carmona Estanga has been appointed the interim President of Venezuela."
President Hugo Chavez, elected in 1998 and 2000 by landslide margins, was placed under arrest and his held in a military prison.
He is 47, the same age as Simn Bolvar was at the end of his road.
From a democratically elected government to an unelected military junta and its imposed "president".
These are your U.S. tax dollars at work.
from somewhere in a country called Amrica,
Al Giordano
Publisher
The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews.com
narconews@hotmail.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For another breaking news story on this issue, see
Military seizes power in Venezuela, Chavez's fate is unknown
A Venezuelan general said on Thursday that President Hugo Chavez's government had "abandoned its functions" and the South American country was under the control of the armed forces.National Guard General Alberto Camacho Kairuz made the announcement on local television after senior military officers blamed the president for violence during a huge anti-Chavez protest march in which at least 10 people were killed. "All of the country is under the control of the national armed forces," Camacho said. "The government has abandoned its functions," he added.
News 24 [South Africa], 12 April 2002
For complete story see,
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Americas/0,1113,2-10-33_1167263,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
See Flyby News Archive Issue: For the article by John Pilger, item 2: "Venezuela: Next Chile?"
March 13, 2002 - UN Sanctions Palestine * Venezuela: Next Chile? * Earth First! FBI Lawsuit
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1016047396,1820,
Allied with Chavez's domestic enemies is the Bush administration. Defying Washington, Chavez has sold oil to Cuba and refused overflying rights to American military aircraft supplying "Plan Colombia", the US campaign in support of the murderous regime in neighbouring Colombia. Worse, although he condemned the attacks of 11 September, he questioned the right of the United States to "fight terrorism with terrorism". ===
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Video of army murdering Palestinian mother
Video of army murdering Palestinian
mother escapes Israeli censorship,
shocks viewers
A video segment showing the murder of a Palestinian mother by Israeli soldiers, before her husband and weeping children, has escaped Israeli military censorship and is doing the rounds on Israeli media. The decision of Israel's Chanel 2 to break the rigid censorship rules imposed by the government upon Israeli media has caused numerous hawkish analysts to demand a "higher degree of self-restraint" by the country's journalists. Watch the shocking video and draw your own conclusions.
CBC [Canada], 12 April 2002 (.ram file)
This link can be found at:
http://newsinsider.cjb.net
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Bush deepening U.S. ties with human-rights abuses
Records: Though President Bush says he envisions a world that settles disputes with "reason and good will," he is deepening U.S. ties with countries that commit human-rights abuses.
By Frida Berrigan
Knight Ridder/tribune
Originally Published April 7, 2002
In a speech marking the six-month anniversary of Sept. 11, President Bush envisioned a "peaceful world beyond terror" where "disputes can be settled within the bounds of reason and good will and mutual security." But Bush's coalition against terrorism is deepening U.S. military ties with countries that don't settle their disputes "within the bounds of reason and good will." In fact, many of these countries commit human-rights abuses that are well documented by the State Department. Last month, the department released its annual "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices." It lists 52 countries that are receiving U.S. military training or weapons as having "poor" or "very poor" human-rights records.
Here's a sampling of what the Bush administration has pledged and what the State Department says about some of Washington's partners in the war on terrorism.
* GeorgiaThe United States is offering $64 million to train and equip four 300-strong battalions of Georgian forces to help them combat terrorists hiding in the Pankisi Gorge near the Russian border. The program would equip the units with light weapons, vehicles and communications. Yet the State Department's human-rights report has this to say about Georgia"The government's human-rights record remained poor and worsened in several areas. Several deaths in custody were blamed on physical abuse, torture or inhuman and life-threatening prison conditions. Reports of police brutality continued. Security forces continued to torture, beat and otherwise abuse detainees."
* IndonesiaAfter preparing to send U.S. military "counterterrorism experts" to the world's most populous Muslim nation, the Bush administration, fearing an anti-American backlash, has decided it could be "counterproductive." Instead, Indonesian military forces will be trained in Hawaii, and the FBI will be given the task of tracking down terrorists in this vast multi-island state. The administration is also working to persuade Congress to loosen restrictions on
transfers of military hardware that have been in place since the Indonesian army's rampage in 1999 and widespread atrocities in East Timor. The State Department's report on Indonesia says: "The government's human-rights record remained poor, and it continued to commit serious abuses. Security forces were responsible for numerous instances of, at times indiscriminate, shooting of civilians, torture, rape, beatings and other abuse, and arbitrary detention in Aceh, West Timor, Papua (formerly known as Irian Jaya) and elsewhere in the country."
* YemenThe Bush administration is planning to send at least 100 U.S. troops to train local forces and has hinted at aiding in the creation of a maritime force. But the State Department's human-rights report says this about Yemen"The government generally respected its citizens' human rights in some areas ... however, its record was poor in several other areas, and serious problems remain. Members of the security forces tortured and otherwise abused persons, and continued to arrest and detain citizens arbitrarily, especially oppositionists in the south and other persons regarded as 'secessionists.'"
* Colombia: There are no al-Qaida terrorists in Colombia, and yet the rhetoric of fighting the war on terrorism has affected U.S. military policy in that country. The Bush administration is hoping to provide Colombia with about $374 million in military aid. An additional $98 million would be used to supply Colombian soldiers with 10 "Super Huey" helicopters to protect a strategically important American-built oil pipeline that has been targeted by the rebels. Total military aid offered to Colombia for 2003 is estimated to be more than $490 million. Here's what the State Department has to say about Colombia: "Government security forces continued to commit serious abuses, including extrajudicial killings. Impunity remained a problem."
* The Philippines: The United States recently sent six more helicopters and a number of aviation experts to join the 660 elite troops doing joint training exercises with the Filipino military. The United States has supplied the Philippines with $92 million worth of military equipment so far, and the Pentagon has requested an additional $2.4 million in training and $20 million in foreign military financing. The State Department's report"The government generally respected the human rights of citizens; however, there were serious problems in some areas. Members of the security services were responsible for extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture and
arbitrary arrest and detention."
* Uzbekistan: U.S. Green Beret troops are training the Uzbek military in marksmanship, infantry patrolling, map reading and other skills. The United States has provided "nonlethal" equipment such as helmets, flak jackets, Humvee transport vehicles and night-vision goggles to the Uzbek military and border guards. For fiscal year 2003, the Pentagon has requested $1.2 million in training and $8.7 million in foreign military funding. The State Department says this about Uzbekistan: "The government's human- rights record remained very poor, and it continued to commit numerous serious abuses. Citizens cannot exercise the right to change their government peacefully; the government does not permit the existence of opposition parties. Security force mistreatment resulted in the deaths of several citizens in custody."
The records of these allies in the war on terrorism wreck the credibility of Bush's high-minded rhetoric. Aiding these repressive regimes will not make the world a better place.
Frida Berrigan is a research associate with the Arms Trade Resource Center at the World Policy Institute and a military analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus. This article was prepared for The Progressive Media Project.
http://www.sunspot.net/news/opinion/oped/bal-pe.column07apr07.story
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Malik Abdullah Akili's Freedom Campaign * How Politics Built a Prison Nation
11 April 2002
This issue of Flyby News continues with a focus on human rights and the prison injustice system. Item 1 opens with a recent letter from Malik Abdullah Akili, "in the presence of this pain" (to be locked up for years and taken away from family and friends). Flyby News will be supporting Malik's efforts for a favorable parole board hearing, which is coming up for this October. Please support this effort in any way you can, by writing letters or supporting Flyby News to work on this campaign. Malik has said that Flyby News gets circulated inside his NY state prison facility. Meanwhile Flyby News is just about out of toner (HP Laser Jet 5P) cartridge, which costs nearly $100. We are also out of paper, and a budget down to the wire. Please help if you can. And please feel welcomed to write to Malik, or just feel, reading his words, his struggle, and the importance of our efforts together for freedom, justice, and basic decency.
Item 2 is a review on a newly published book called, Hard Time Blues: How Politics Built a Prison Nation. Remember when you visit www.flybynews.com the links from the homepage are updated, including the link from: "News from inside the movements to free political prisoners Leonard Peltier, in the US and Lori Berenson in Peru, and other prison/human rights issues." The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee has again requested supporters to help in a letter campaign to Senate Judiciary Chair Patrick Leahy, (D-VT). This would be especially important if you are a resident of Vermont. Please write, fax, and/or call Leahy asking for Oversight Investigations of the FBI to resume, and for those investigations to include the case of Leonard Peltier. For more on this, go to the link to Leonard Peltier from www.flybynews.com.
Item 3 is another troubling update on the dangerous place that terrorism is taking Congress in considering the drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Two prominent Jewish groups concerned about rising Middle East tensions endorsed the plan. Meanwhile, on the good side, item 4 is a Jewish Manifesto: Sharon is Israel's Worst Enemy. The leadership of both US and Israel is what is being questioned. Their response to attacks on terrorism and their military-focus is making matters worse. Please call your Senators on these issues, and while you do, take advantage of supporting a few issues for the price of one phone call. Each week, as the countdown for the ending of peace in space could be realized, call and ask Congress to support the ban on space-based weapons, as stated in the Kucinich H.R. 3616 "Space Preservation Act of 2002." We need to save Alaska from the exploits of destruction, and stop other actions that are based on fear, greed, and ego incentives. Item 5 is on the bullish direction for weapons in space. Please use the one issue that could favorable impact all the issues, demand that Congress keep space for peace, as well as support the human rights for those incarcerated in a racist and abusive system, depriving the well-being of families and our society.
1) Malik Abdullah Akili -- Parole Campaign for Freedom and Family
2) Review of Hard Time Blues: How Politics Built a Prison Nation
3) Update- Senators to push for Alaska oil drilling this week
4) Jewish Manifesto: Sharon is Israel's Worst Enemy
5) First-Ever Weapons in Space -- (Space Planes)
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Malik Abdullah Akili -- Parole Campaign for Freedom and Family
Dear Brother Jonathan,
Yours of March 14, 2002 has been with me for some time, but since the mood, spirit to express hasn't surfaced, I've had to wait. These things of feelings take time. they are such that they can't be pushed. When we push, things never come to be as we desire. To take pen and paper at hand to express thoughts, feelings, and emotions, comes with complete elevation of consciousness. Our inner voices take over. To have some on the outside to become a part of what one is going though in prison is indeed something special, rare, and vital for the prisoner to get from one moment until the next. And though, each letter of expressions, you don't desire to share the morbidness of what prison produces. Still, I am forced to write what I feel from day-to-day. I can't separate the two when I take pen and paper in hand. I write from these overwhelming feelings to just let it all flow. If you were to review or reread each of my letters, you'll be able to sense a deep seated compulsion. I desire so badly to share in the whole of this experience, because I want those on the outside to feel the presence of this pain. Not that they aren't experiencing enough of their own personal pain, but I am hoping that it would encircle, push or pull them along to come inside to help the prison movement as a whole.
I have come to understand that this experience is indeed an incredible one, so why not share it, and everything that comes with it. I try not to write from some self-conscious place internally, I sense though at times it becomes extremely difficult and I become torn. For me, this appears to be one of the most difficult times of my life. Why? Well, when I look back at all this, I see how senseless and cruel the whole thing is. Reviewing the whole thing in its perspective I have had the opportunity to compare this tragedy of my life to a deep-rooted tragedy of the whole being damaged. No memories of world tragedies are more wrenching than those based on the recollections of a nation's people locked away from families, loved ones, communities, and the right to go for a walk in the sun. Just as what was done in the Afrikan holocaust and Cambodia's killing fields, give birth to memories of unrelenting terrible childhoods..
Most of my life has been in constant struggle of one form or another. I didn't understand it then, as I understand it today, but some of my earlier days while at Catholic School were some of the most repressive times of my years as the Manchild. I couldn't understand it for the life of me, why was the education of "Little Black Sambo and Black Tar Baby in Bre Rabbit so important toward my education, as an Afrikan child among white children. As I see now, there was indeed a deeper motive. There was an attempt to rob me of my sense to belong, my uniqueness and my value as an individual Manchild of the futureleading to the Man!
I think of it as being important that when we are trying to teach, educate, and/or raise someone's consciousness, that we must bear in mind that you give them what they want, what they like, what they're used to, there's a decent chance that they'll respond favorably. ..when you keep tying to enforce your ideas on them, when they just aren't interested, they without a doubt, will rebel. In retrospect, I can clearly see why it was that I begin to rebel at such an early age. In understanding that self-determinism was/is the philosophy of life which will determine the outcome of my destiny. This was my motive, why I rebelled at the age of the Manchild.
When we refuse to see struggle as a legitimate self-defense we put our lives and/or destinies in the hands of ruthless buffoons.. I relate all of us have gone thorough some struggle in our life-time. We have learned from that struggle and that the efforts we put forward in that struggle was the determining factor of the outcome of that struggle... the result of that experience has taught about the principles of the sacrifices that must be made in order for us to reach certain objectives in our journey through lifeour right for self-determination and the right to control our own destinies!!!
I am i full agreement with what you expressed concerning the parole board. When you speak of total commitment to non-violence. In that perspective, I have always been against all forms of violence. When we speak of violence, we have to understand the term in itself and not be side-tracked. Because when one defends or protects themselves from violence, that doesn't make them a violent person. Not being violent is our very nature violence is learnt behavior. I recall taking a non-violent program here a while back, and completing it with honors. It was simple for me. Why? Because I have never been a violent human being. I have probably stopped more attacks on police, as well as prisoners than anyone in the state prison history. I have always been committed to keeping peace between prisoners.
When I speak of the issue of love and i think of my wife and daughter, I must state, having come to realize that there has been few times in my life that I could've honestly and truthfully been capable to say that I feel extremely close to both of these women in my lifeI have come to feel so close, connected, and so in love. They have come to be of special meaning.
Many times in our lives, we live and die having not ever having the opportunity to tell someone, to express the words of love to them, that to me it is very sad. Because love is one of the most powerful gifts free to us, a quality we are born withyet, we die never having possess that theme of love! This is why to me this is one of the cruelest aspects of the prison experience to be separated from that love. Love is the thing which galvanized us. I know from my own experience in prison that it is possible to be galvanized, so that we (prisoners) can reach beyond these walls to connect with true love. I think as prisoners, one of the greatest gifts we can give to our loved ones on the outside is to give them the gift of love to see themselves as we see them.
As to where the parole board perceives me, my record reads like that of ten. They probably see me, (because of my political history) also someone that should never be given parole. However, if they were to go over the 9 years I was out on parole, they;\'ll be able to see all the good I've done by the judges, DAS, the Legal Aid Society all the lawyers I assisted, plus the many, many, many clients I helpputting them back in touch with their lives. Therefore, if we desire to show the parole board a different face, from the record that they perceive me to be, we must get some of this information from the Legal Aid Society. Also, I feel strongly that a pamphlet should be put together around my history and what led up to the arrest..*
As much as we like to think we have a lot of time left on this earthwe don't. Therefore, we should live as if each is our last day. Our children come through us, but they live in the house of tomorrow, their future isn't ours. We must share with them and give them as much as we can, so that their knowledge leads them in the path of those whole struggle to leave this world a better place for those that come afterward.
Until our spirits touch each others hearts again, take care,
warm greetings,
Malik
Malik Abdullah Akili
DIN 94-A-5238
Collins Correctional Facility
P.O. Box 340
Collins, New York 14034-0340
For background on Malik, visit Flyby News Archive,
August 30, 2001 -- A Nation Behind Bars: the buried talents of a population
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid999200948,87474,
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Review of Hard Time Blues: How Politics Built a Prison Nation
The Prisonization of America as a Shameful Social Problem: A Review of Hard Time Blues: How Politics Built a Prison Nation By ELAINE CASSEL -- Friday, Apr. 5, 2002 --
Sasha Abramsky,
Hard Time Blues: How Politics Built a Prison Nation
(St. Martin's Press, 2002)
Prisons were first conceived in the United States a little more than 200 years ago. Maybe it makes sense that we created them as an institution, for we have become the leading prison country among civilized nations.
The statistics are staggering. The United States incarcerates more people for more offenses than any other country in the free world--five to eight times more citizens per capita than Western European countries. The American prison population increased 500 percent between 1970 and 2000, doubling in the last decade of the century. More than 2 million men and women are locked up in the U.S. today.
What accounts for this unique and shameful social problem? The answer is partly explained by Sasha Abramsky in Hard Time Blues: How Politics Built a Prison Nation - a well-researched and reported narrative of the recent history that lengthened sentences, built prisons, and resulted in mass incarceration.
The Politics of Prisonization: California's "Three Strikes" Law Is Passed
Abramsky frames the story in the context of the life of one non-violent repeat offender, Billy Ochoa. Ochoa is a veteran of the California corrections system who got caught in the net of that state's notorious "Three Strikes" law. It is no exaggeration to say that politics created California's Three Strikes law, and Abramsky details the machinations that exploited public fears and personal grief.
Abramsky's story begins with the Fresno District Attorney, a Republican named Mike Reynolds, grieving over the senseless death of his daughter, Kimber, at the hand of some thugs in a robbery. Reynolds meets up with the father of Polly Klass - the young girl who in 1993 was kidnaped and murdered by a diagnosed psychopath recently released from prison for another kidnaping and robbery.
Together, they sold the idea of "Three Strikes" to Governor Pete Wilson - who sold it to the legislature which, in turn, agreed to put it on the ballot as Proposition 184. The voters approved it overwhelmingly. Indeed, the California legislative session of 1994 was a virtually one-issue session, with get-tough-on-crime laws abounding. The voters obviously liked the message, for they reelected Wilson in 1994.
Under the California "Three Strikes" law, prison sentences for a second felony conviction are doubled, while a third felony conviction requires a 25-years-to-life sentence. The law's injustice stems partially from the fact that the offenses need not be crimes of violence - the defendant may only have stolen food or groceries, or written a bad check.
The law is also unjust in that it keeps juries in the dark, and ties judges' hands. After a jury finds the defendant guilty of a second or third offense (without being informed of the dire sentencing consequences), the court hands down the sentence. If a prosecutor demands sentencing under Three Strikes, the judge must impose it.
The Rest of the Country Gets on California's "Tough on Crime" Bandwagon
As Abramsky details, Wilson's success inspired politicians of both parties across the country to jump on the harsh sentencing bandwagon. Democrats in the Congress felt the pressure to join the movement. So did the President himself.
During the 1992 presidential race, then-Governor Bill Clinton - a strong proponent of the death penalty - made a highly publicized trip back to Arkansas to sign the death warrant for a brain-damaged murderer. The Clinton-Gore campaign emphasized its strong anti-crime strategy - the mantra of which was, "More police on the streets and more criminals behind bars."
Then, in 1994, Congressional Democrats stole the Republicans' agenda by putting forth an enormous piece of legislation known as the Violent Crime Control Law Enforcement Act. This sweeping body of laws sent money to states for all kinds of anti-crime initiatives, including prison construction. It also created a federal Three Strikes law and expanded the federal death penalty.
During this session, Congress also amended the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, adding harsher penalties for drug use and dealing. The amendment reflected the Clinton Administration's "One Strike" policy toward public housing tenants. As articulated by the statute, HUD was directed to promulgate provisions in leases that subjected tenants to eviction if any members of their households used drugs--on or off the public housing premises.
And just last week, in a unanimous opinion in the case of Dep't. of Housing and Urban Dev. v. Rucker, the Supreme Court upheld these public housing provisions, as interpreted by HUD, despite a challenge by innocent public housing tenants facing eviction. The regulations provide for no second, even third chances; thus the "One Strike" moniker. It is conceivable under the regulations that a public housing tenant in New York could be evicted because a daughter in California used drugs. Similar laws enacted in the 1990s forbid any person convicted of drug possession from obtaining food stamps or a federally guaranteed student loan.
The Democrats, Abramsky explains, had co-opted one of the issues nearest and dearest to Republicans: the need for tough crime control and harsh punishment. Across the country, candidates and elected officials were trying to outdo each other in their meanness. Many
states enacted their own version of Three Strikes laws, though none was quite as vicious as California's.
The War on Drugs: Getting Tough on Drug Users
Hard Times reports, however, that New York's Draconian drug laws, enacted under Nelson Rockefeller, are just as harsh as Three Strikes laws. They impose sentences of 25 (or even 40) years to life for selling cocaine.
Neither are federal drug sentences known for their leniency. Parole has been abolished and mandatory minimum federal sentences for drug charges lock people up for life for dealing. Unsurprisingly, more than half of federal prisoners and a third of state prisoners are serving time for drug offenses.
Nevertheless, in March of this year, the Federal Sentencing Commission reiterated its support for mandatory minimum sentences for federal drug offenses, and for the disparity in sentences for power and crack cocaine. (Sentences for possession and distribution of crack are many times greater than those for powder cocaine - leading to a predictable racial disparity in sentencing, in which often-white cocaine users serve far less time than crack users, who are more often members of minority groups.) Since addiction is a lifelong, relapsing disease, the sentencing laws insure the continued prisonization of a large population.
What's Wrong With Tough Justice?
Billy Ochoa's Story Illustrates the Problem
In Hard Times, Abramsky juxtaposes the origin of Three Strikes laws with the case of Billy Ochoa - thus adeptly illustrating how the application of the law fails to produce the results suggested by the hard sell. For while the tough sentencing laws were designed for violent killers such as those who took the lives of Polly Klass and Kimber Reynolds, they are more likely to be imposed on men like Billy Ochoa, a career criminal who made a life of burglary, robbery, and
welfare fraud.
This fact comes as no surprise to criminologists and statisticians. Only 10 percent of crimes are violent offenses against persons. The remaining 90 percent consists of property and drug offenses. People like Ochoa, a heroin addict who burgled and defrauded to support his habit, not psychopathic rapists and killers, fill the supermax prisons built in California, Texas, and Virginia to prepare for the age of incarceration.
Abramsky traces Ochoa's pitiful story up to and including his ultimate Three Strikes sentence. Ochoa was never convicted of a violent crime as an adult. (He was convicted of kidnaping as a juvenile, but the offense, though potentially frightening for the victim, was not as serious as the charge implies. Rather than taking a girl home from a party directly, Ochoa took her on a joy ride on the freeways instead).
Nevertheless, Ochoa was sentenced, at the age of 53, to 326 years in prison for committing $2,100 of welfare fraud to support his drug habit. He will spend the rest of his life in a supermax prison - where prisoners are confined to tiny cells for 23 hours a day, and never have any human contact unless chained and shackled - at a cost to taxpayers of over $20,000 a year. The Alice-in-Wonderland logic that makes petty theft a felony also turns someone sentenced under Three Strikes into an escape risk deserving of the harshest deprivations penal experts can devise. (The head of Virginia's Department of Corrections, Ronald Angelone, has boasted that the goal of a supermax is to "make life hell" for the inmate.)
Is There Any End In Sight To Harsh Sentencing Laws? Perhaps.
There may be a more humane movement afoot in the birthplace of Three Strikes. In July 2001, California voters implemented Proposition 36, which mandates probation and treatment, rather than jail time, for first- and second-time nonviolent drug offenders. Whether this is a fluke, or a trend toward a more realistic and compassionate response to drug addiction, remains to be seen in the years ahead.
Another hopeful sign for an amelioration or reversal of Three Strikes comes from two federal appeals court decisions in recent months that rejected California's Three Strikes Law as unconstitutional. In Andrade v. Attorney General of the State of California, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a Three Strikes 50-year-to-life sentence for two petty theft convictions violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, because the punishment was grossly disproportionate to the crime.
Moreover, on February 7 of this year, the same court reaffirmed Andrade in Brown v. Mayle and Bray v. Ylst (two cases that were consolidated for appeal). The court held that the appellants' life sentences -without any possibility of parole for the first 25 years - violated the Eighth Amendment. Again, the Court employed a proportionality analysis, holding that these sentences were grossly disproportionate to the defendants' petty theft convictions (Brown had tried to steal a steering wheel alarm; Bray, to steal three videotapes).
On April 1 of this year, the Supreme Court announced that it had granted certiorari in Andrade and an earlier Three Strikes sentence case, Ewing v. California (in which the defendant was sentenced to 25-to-life for attempting to steal three golf clubs). Opponents of the law would be foolhardy to think that this Supreme Court will agree with the Ninth Circuit that it is cruel, unusual, or disproportionate to spend 50 years in prison for stealing nine videotapes valued,
in total, at $153.54 from two stores on two occasions two weeks apart (as Andrade did).
Rather, the majority of these Justices are likely to conclude that this sentence is not cruel or unusual since several states have such laws. This is the type of reasoning they have used earlier to support capital punishment in general and the execution of mentally retarded persons and teenagers over the age of 17 years in particular.
Given the politics of the current Supreme Court, Abramsky's heartfelt chronicle and criticism of an unjust justice system is in no danger of becoming irrelevant or obsolete. Three Strikes -- and One Strike -- legacies of 20th century politics, will no doubt be with well into the new millennium. Hard times indeed--and no end in sight.
= = = = = = = == = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
About the author of this review -- Elaine Cassel -- practices law in Virginia and teaches law and psychology. Her textbook, Criminal Behavior (Allyn & Bacon, 2001), explores crime and violence from a developmental perspective. She writes and lectures for continuing legal education courses in election law, Internet law, surveillance and civil liberties, genetics, and health law. She is Vice-Chair of the Behavioral Science Committee of the ABA Science and Technology Law Section and a member of the Section's Privacy and Computer Crime Committees.
This review is online, with a link for posting messages, at
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/books/reviews/20020405_cassel.html
About the author of Hard Time Blues: How Politics Built a Prison Nation Sasha Abramsky -- a freelance journalist. His work has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, New York magazine, The Village Voice, and Rolling Stone. Originally from England and a graduate of Oxford University, he has since adopted his mother's homeland of America and now lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife. He has a master's degree from Columbia University School of Journalism and in 2000 he was awarded a Soros Society, Crime, and Communities Media Fellowship. This is his first book.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
This issue is continued, including the following items:
3) Update- Senators to push for Alaska oil drilling this week
4) Jewish Manifesto: Sharon is Israel's Worst Enemy
5) First-Ever Weapons in Space -- (Space Planes)
At this following link:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1018568870,84468,
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Alaskan Drilling Update * Jewish Manifesto: Sharon: Worst Enemy * Space Weapon
11 April 2002 (Continued)
3) Update- Senators to push for Alaska oil drilling this week
4) Jewish Manifesto: Sharon is Israel's Worst Enemy
5) First-Ever Weapons in Space -- (Space Planes)
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Update- Senators to push for Alaska oil drilling this week
Story by Tom Doggett
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
USA: April 11, 2002
WASHINGTON - Arguing that the United States should not depend on Iraq as an oil supplier, Republican Sen. Frank Murkowski of Alaska said on Tuesday he will offer this week an amendment to a broad energy bill to allow drilling in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
Republicans, who have been scrambling to pick up more Senate support for the Arctic drilling proposal, said two prominent Jewish groups concerned about rising Middle East tensions endorsed the plan.
The Democratic-led Senate has been debating a broad energy policy for several weeks, with the Alaskan drilling amendment looming as one of its most contentious issues. The bill also seeks to promote conservation, increase funding of renewable energy sources, and encourage more domestic production of coal, nuclear power, natural gas and oil.
Murkowski said Iraq's threat on Monday to stop its oil exports for 30 days in protest of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict shows why oil companies should be allowed to tap the Arctic wildlife refuge's potential 16 billion barrels of oil.
"My intention is to offer an ANWR amendment this week," Murkowski told his colleagues in a Senate floor speech.
Republicans want to allow drilling in a small part of the 19 million acre (7.7 million hectares) refuge, a move they say is safe for the environment and important for U.S. security.
Democrats and green groups contend the Alaskan refuge, which they have dubbed "America's Serengeti," must remain closed to protect caribou, migratory birds and other wildlife.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle accused Republicans of dragging out the ANWR debate and said he wants to have a vote on the drilling issue this week.
JEWISH SUPPORT FOR DRILLING
A coalition of Jewish groups, including the influential American Jewish Congress and B'nai Brith, came out on Tuesday in favor of Senate passage of an energy bill that would allow drilling in the Arctic refuge.
The groups said U.S. foreign policy should not be blackmailed by Iraq's attempt to use oil as a weapon.
Endorsement of Arctic drilling is a reversal for the American Jewish Congress, which adopted a resolution in January saying the amount of potential oil from the refuge was "too small to make a significant impact" on U.S. supplies.
Chuck Brooks, a spokesman for the mainstream group, said on Tuesday that passing comprehensive energy legislation that includes drilling in the refuge was now "a national security imperative."
U.S. purchases of oil from Iraq provide funds to Saddam Hussein to help pay Palestinians suicide bombers $25,000 each, Murkowski said. "Each time an American goes to the gas pump he is funding indirectly the suicide bombers," he said.
BUSH DOWNPLAYS THREAT
Iraq, which ships about 2 million barrels per day of crude oil, is the sixth-largest foreign supplier to the U.S. market.
Murkowski asked Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham late Tuesday for an emergency review of the impact of lost Iraqi oil supplies on the U.S. economy.
"Americans have reason to be concerned. Safe, secure and affordable energy is to our economy as oxygen is to our existence," the senator said in a letter to Abraham.
The White House has downplayed Iraq's threat.
President George W. Bush said he did not expect other oil-producing nations to fall in line behind Iraq.
"You know my opinion about Saddam... the world's not going to follow him," Bush told a Republican fund-raising lunch in Connecticut. "But it just goes to show how important it is to diversify our supply away from places like Iraq."
Abraham said the Bush administration was not seriously considering releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or delaying crude deliveries to the emergency stockpile to counter any supply disruptions from Iraq.
"We're not at the point of even looking at those options," Abraham said. "It's obviously, however, a tool available to the president should he conclude that national security interests are involved."
The United States has plenty of oil. The American Petroleum Institute reported late Tuesday that U.S. weekly oil inventories reached a 3-year high of 326 million barrels.
Lawmakers have spent a total of 15 days so far debating energy legislation, a long period by Senate standards.
But Republicans face an uphill battle to win congressional approval for drilling in the Alaskan refuge.
A Reuters survey late last month found that 40 senators were on record in favor of opening the refuge. Fifty opposed drilling and 10 lawmakers were undecided.
Under the Senate's rules, 60 votes are needed to end debate on controversial measures and proceed to a final vote.
The Republican-led House passed an energy bill last summer that would allow drilling in the Arctic refuge.
"Now it's time for the Senate to finish its job. I regret it's taken this long," Abraham said.
All Contents Reuters News Service 2002
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = == = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
To reach your Senator, call the Congressional Switchboard telephone number 202-224-3121.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Jewish Manifesto: Sharon is Israel's Worst Enemy
Many of us who have initiated and signed this manifesto lost family members during the Second World War. They died in concentration camps or perished in the mass graves of Eastern Europe. Often they had to dig their own graves before being catapulted into them. Others of us are survivors of Nazi persecution.
We totally repudiate Ariel Sharon's claim to speak in the name of world Jewry. He certainly does not speak in ours. Israel's declaration of war on the Palestinians could easily escalate into a major regional conflict. Israel has nuclear weapons, and there is little doubt that Sharon is fully prepared to use them. In our view, he and his policies have almost single- handedly brought the Middle East to the point where disaster could strike at any moment. Sharon is the biggest threat to the Israeli people and to Jews around the world.
The Saudi proposal adopted by the Arab League handed Sharon a unique historic opportunity to make peace. His only response was ruthless violence. Sharon is incapable of concluding agreements or forging compromises. A peaceful solution is impossible as long as he remains in power. He has never in his career done anything but resort to the toughest conceivable military measures.
The Israeli resistance and peace movements deserve all the support we can give them. As far back as 1952, Sharon commanded the infamous special operation Unit 101, whose task was to carry out reprisals on the Palestinian and Arab side of the armistice lines. During the next couple of years, he was responsible for two attacks on Palestinian villages that left almost 100 civilians dead. Israeli Prime Minister Moshe Sharett condemned the atrocities.
In 1982, Defense Minister Ariel Sharon fashioned "Operation Peace in Galilee" - otherwise known as Israel's invasion of Lebanon. This time the toll was 20,000 killed and more than 100,000 homeless. Better than 80% of the victims were civilians, and at least 6,000 children were orphaned.
An International Commission of Inquiry set up by Nobel Peace Prizewinner Se-¡n MacBride determined that the Israelis had been in violation of international law during the Lebanese war. An Israeli government commission headed by Supreme Court President Yitzhak Kahan concluded that Sharon had not done enough to stop the massacre of 800 unarmed civilians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.
In less than two years, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has managed to torpedo the agreements that took Israel and the Palestinians many years of patient accommodation to achieve. Sharon contends that Israel is above the Geneva Conventions and international law. That puts him in the company of the world's cruelest and most despicable dictators. On Sharon's orders, ambulances and hospitals are ambushed, doctors are shot, and pregnant women are left to die or give birth at Israeli checkpoints.
Our alternative to Sharon is the Jewish tradition of humanism and faith in the future. When challenged by a stranger to sum up the Jewish religion while he hopped on one foot, the great Rabbi Hillel replied simply, "That which you find hateful to yourself, do not do unto others. That is all of the law. The rest is merely commentary."
We demand that Israel immediately and unconditionally withdraw from the Occupied Territories, that an international peacekeeping force be sent to the region, that Israel comply with international law, and that Israel declare at once its willingness to negotiate peace on the basis of all U.N. resolutions.
(initial signers;)
Henry Ascher, physician (Sweden)
Channa Bankier, artist (Sweden)
Adrienne Levy Berg, physiotherapist (Sweden)
Nina Bergman, district medical officer (Sweden)
Set Bornstein (Sweden)
Noam Chomsky, professor of linguistics (United States)
Ilan Cohen, certified engineer (Sweden)
Anja Emsheimer, teacher (Sweden)
Peter Emsheimer, PhD (Sweden)
Dror Feiler, musician (Sweden)
Lennart Grosin, associate professor of education (Sweden)
Hertha Fischer, county commissioner (Sweden)
David Gutman, sociologist (Sweden)
David Henley, senior physician, associate professor (Sweden)
Dan Israel, publisher (Sweden)
Erland Josephson, actor (Sweden)
Anja Karlsson, student (Sweden)
Katarina Katz, economist (Sweden)
Olle Katz, teacher (Sweden)
Ronit Koerner, Waldorf school teacher (Sweden)
John Lapidus, freelance author (Sweden)
Judit Luk-¡cs, journalist (Sweden)
Joanna Dubinska Malmberg, occupational therapist (Sweden)
Rafael Najdorf, male nurse (Norway)
Mitchell Plitnick, writer, activist (United States)
Georg Riedel, musician (Sweden)
Cynthia Roth, poet (United States)
Ken Schubert, authorized public translator (Sweden and the United States)
Jakub Srebro, certified engineer (Sweden)
Julianna Srebro, psychologist (Sweden)
Annika Thor, author (Sweden)
G-¡bor Tiroler, instructor in rehabilitation, public health expert (Sweden)
Zoltan Tiroler, research engineer (Sweden)
Maj Wechselman, filmmaker (Sweden)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For a related web site on this Manifesto, viist:
http://www.swedishenglishtranslation.com/manilink.htm
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
5) First-Ever Weapons in Space -- (Space Planes)
April 10, 2002
Military explores space planes
Vehicle could drop bombs, fix satellites, general says
By John Diedrich
The Gazette
Michael Limcango, left, representing Analytical Graphics Inc., and Adam Pederson of Lockheed Martin talk Tuesday at The Broadmoor against a backdrop of a screen depicting space technology. The Space Symposium at The Broadmoor continues through Thursday.] The military is looking into building a spacecraft that could drop bombs from space, fix orbiting satellites and give better pictures of the battlefield, the top space officer said Tuesday. If a military space plane becomes a reality, it would be the first time the United States has put weapons in space.
The Pentagon has military satellites that provide navigation, communication, weather, reconnaissance and missile warning information, all considered key to how the United States fights war. But none of them has weapons. Gen. Ed Eberhart, head of U.S. Space Command, Air Force Space Command and NORAD - all based in Colorado Springs - says the military needs a space plane.
"A reusable launch vehicle will be the key to operating and conquering the space frontier," Eberhart said at the 18th annual National Space Symposium at The Broadmoor hotel, an annual exposition of commercial, military and civilian space issues. About 3,800 people attended. NASA scrapped plans to build a spacecraft called the X-33 a year ago, in part, because of cost overruns. Eberhart said the military is interested in that spacecraft, but its version would be different. It might be designed to run without humans on board and to land in the oceans, he said.
A military space plane quickly could provide surveillance in areas of the world that become important to the Pentagon, he said. Moving satellites for better surveillance now can take days. It could fix or refuel satellites in orbit, which isn't a current option for the military. The plane also could bomb a target in a matter of hours, instead of the 17 hours it takes for a conventional bomber to travel halfway around the world. "(A space plane) has a lot of possibilities, a lot of applications in every one of our missions," Eberhart said. The space plane is only an idea and studying it doesn't mean the United States has decided to put weapons in space, said Army Maj. Barry Venable, spokesman for U.S. Space Command.
"We aren't doing our job if we don't look at things like this and think about it," he said. Some critics of Space Command have said a space plane that drops bombs would be in violation of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which says "space will be used for peaceful purposes." But Venable said "peaceful purposes" has been interpreted to mean nonaggressive acts.
In other words, weapons can be put in space to defend a nation and its assets, he said. Also Tuesday, Eberhart said information from military satellites may be useful for local police and other first responders in the war on terrorism.
"Over time we can leverage our space assets to support homeland security and law enforcement," Eberhart said, noting there is no such proposal yet. "A lot of it hinges on cooperation."
The general didn't give examples, but Venable said later satellite information could help fire departments track the spread of chemical or biological agents released by terrorists, provide police with more accurate city maps or give emergency workers better communications. "We need to look for ways to make this information available for the local guys as well," Venable said.
Copyright 2002, The Gazette, a Freedom Communications, Inc. Company.
All rights reserved. For the original posting with photos and links, see:
http://www.gazette.com/stories/0410loc1-2.php?section=3D1
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Story links:
Military High Ground Key To America's Security
http://www.space.com/news/nss_spacebomber_020409.html
Military, Civilian Spacecraft Respond To Homeland Defense Needs
http://www.space.com/news/nss_homeland_020409.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Proof of 9/11 Foreknowledge by Michael C. Ruppert * Pipeline Politics Taint US War
05 April 2002
Item 1 is one of those interviews you got to read to believe. In it Michael C. Ruppert interviews Delmart "Mike" Vreeland, who has proven foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks. He learned of the plans for such an attack during the first week of December 2000!
Item 2 has been posted for some time, "Pipeline Politics Taint US War," which was published in the Chicago Tribune March 18, 2002. Keep checking the link from flybynews.com for our special updated 9/11 investigative page:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1014738186,11057,
For those able, please join the American Friends Service Committee, Peace Action, and thousands of people in Washington, DC on April 20th for a nonviolent march to stop the War On Terrorism. As we enter the seventh month of the War on Terrorism, the Bush administration is getting ready to launch a major offensive in Iraq. US military action in countries from Indonesia to Somalia to Columbia also appears to be in the works. It's time to demonstrate that September 11th is not a mandate for war without end. For more information, go to: http://www.unitedwemarch.org
1) Proof of 9/11 Foreknowledge by Michael C. Ruppert
2) "Pipeline Politics Taint U.S. War"
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Proof of 9/11 Foreknowledge by Michael C. Ruppert
From The Wilderness Special Interview: Delmart "Mike" Vreeland
What the CIA doesn't want you to know By Michael C. Ruppert
[Ed. Note: Just prior to the publication of this article the FTW (From the Wilderness) web site was hacked for the second time in a month. This hackingaccomplished via sophisticated methodshas been apparently intended to prevent us from publishing the following interview. As a temporary emergency measure ONLY please direct emergency e-mail correspondence to mikeruppert@earthlink.net. FTW will be back up and running in an even more secure manner in the near future. MCR]
April 4, 2002, 1:00 PM PST (FTW)If all of its dark alleys were explored, the case of Delmart Edward Joseph "Mike" Vreeland is one which is worthy of a book that would rival "War and Peace." It is a case that has sparked zealous attacks on FTW and me personally, and one which has seriously disturbed many officials in Washington. These attacks are an indication of the threat Vreeland poses to the credibility of the U.S. government. Only one question of any relevance exists. How was this man able to write details that described the events of Sept. 11 while locked in a jail cell, more than a month before the attacks occurred?
It matters little to a housewife in Kansas if Mike Vreeland has a very confusing criminal arrest recordsome of it very contradictory and apparently fabricatedfor a variety of petty criminal offenses including fraud. But it may be a matter of the gravest importance for the same housewife if this man knew accurate information about the attacks, tried to warn both the U.S. and Canadian governments about them, and was ignored. If a crazy man runs up to you on the street and says that a house is on fire with children trapped inside, and you smell smoke, who is the crazy one if you decide not to investigate?
The U.S. Navy says that Vreeland, arrested in Canada on Dec. 4, 2000 and currently fighting a U.S. extradition warrant, was discharged for unsatisfactory performance after only four months of service in 1986. But a growing pile of evidence, much of it filed in court records and
undisputed by Canadian or U.S. authorities, establishes clearly that Vreeland was exactly what he says he wasa spy.
In three previous stories, FTW has described how his military records, acknowledged to be in excess of 1,200 pages, have been tampered with. We have described how, in open court on a speakerphone, his lawyers obtained direct confirmation from the Pentagon that he was a Navy officer. We have also reported that, as of March 14, all Canadian charges against Vreeland were dismissed. He was released on bail and also granted temporary refugee status by the Canadian government until his battle to beat the U.S. extradition request is settled.
Something that Canadian authorities have never disputed is that Vreeland wrote his ominous and hastily scribbled warning a full month before the attacks, and that the warning was sealed away by his keepers, beyond his reach, until Sept. 14, three days after the attacks.
If he loses his extradition fight, both Vreeland and his attorneys believe that his assassination will occur within days of his return to U.S. soil.
Mike Vreeland is not a saint. Covert operatives are not made from such material, and governments do not recruit or screen candidates for saintly qualities. By his own admission in Canadian court documents and in several conversations with FTW, Vreeland says he has done bad things. He has been on probation for petty offenses, and he has behaved the way covert operatives behave in the real worldnot in Hollywood.
I have been studying, interacting with, and talking to covert operatives for more than 25 years. It is for that reason that I avoid some of the questions being raised by dilettantes and neophyte journalists who take all of the threads of Vreeland's stories and run with them into a wilderness from which no professional journalist could credibly emerge. Yes, I have listened to him talk about so-called "red mercury," baseball-sized atom bombs, and Star Wars weapons systems. Yes, I have heard him talk about a great many things, and I believe that what he told me was truthful according to his knowledge of events and the documents he brought back from Moscow in December 2000.
Even by his own statements, Vreeland, now 35, was a relatively low ranking officer and an intelligence field operative. Never in the history of covert operations has any government entrusted field operatives with total strategic knowledge because the knowledge held by those who make the plans is compartmentalized and locked away. Perhaps 80 percent of all intelligence work is disinformation, and governments know that their field operatives risk capture, interrogation and torture. Quite often field operatives are themselves fed disinformation so that if they talk, they will still spread lies that serve a larger strategic purpose. Quite often they carry documents that are deliberately inaccurate and their capture is engineered to give those documents credibility.
To the U.S. government, Vreeland is totally expendable. And those who run with every piece of information he has disclosed will themselves be proven fools in a fool's game.
But one question remains. And it is a question that now stands vindicated by time and events. He knew something chillingly accurate about the 9-11 attacks before they happened. And if he knew something, based upon documents given to him by Russian officials indicating U.S. knowledge, and if the U.S. government went to great lengths to discredit him, rather than bring him in from the coldthen there is real meat on the plate for journalists, the American government, and all of mankind.
I have asked him 35 questions, and now you can read Mike Vreeland's answers as he speaks for himself. The first 32 questions were jointly submitted to both Vreeland and his attorney, Paul Slansky, for review. The remaining three questions were asked after the most recent hacking of FTW's website, which we believe was perpetrated by the CIA. This made the publication of this story an emergency and also made a statement about the survival of a free press in America:
1. What part of the U.S. government did you work for? Was it the CIA?
I worked for U.S. Naval intelligence. What the CIA directs us to do is their business, so we have no way of knowing whether we're working for them or not.
2. Was your assignment primarily connected to terrorism/oil?
Yes, on both issues, in part.
3. Why were you in Moscow and Russia in the latter part of 2000?
I was sent there by the U.S. government and the ONI [Office of Naval Intelligence]. I got my orders between Sept. 4 and Sept. 7, 2000.
Marc Bastien departed for Russia on Sept. 7, 2000. I had orders to meet him. Bastien was going to work at the Canadian embassy regarding diagrams and blueprints of a weapons defense system. The U.S. government had a direct influence on his mission. The name of the defense system is SSST [Stealth Satellite System Terminator]. There are five different individual and unique defensive and strike capabilities of the system. The only portion that I have publicly spoken on is one frame regarding actual current orbiting satellites, which are not at this time owned by the US government. On advice of counsel I cannot discuss the other components.
This one component is a satellite system. Within the confines of the system there are multiple, deployable space/orbital EMP [Electromagnetic Pulse] missiles that are not aimed at the ground. They are targeted at everyone else's satellites. These would kill worldwide communications. The satellites of some countries that are shielded with titanium are protected from these weapons. The
protected countries are Russia and China, but U.S. satellites are vulnerable and Putin has told Bush that the U.S. missile defense system doesn't work, and that Bush knows it.
The reason why I went to Russia was because I needed to meet with Bastien and another individual from the Russian Ministry of Defense named Oleg. The purpose was to get the Canadian diplomat who had made contact with Oleg to get the book of designs out of the ministry's R&D. That was done. We copied the entire book. Then we took certain documents, and we changed serious portions of the defense design so the program wouldn't work. They know this now.
Additionally I was to pick up docs from other agents and bring them back.
4. You told Canadian authorities that Bastien was murdered when?
I never told them he was murdered. I wrote a letter to Bastien around June of 2000 from jail. I sent it to CSIS [Canadian Security and Intelligence Service] in Ottawa, to the director for his eyes only. I had restructured the diagram to put it back in its original state. But I never told anyone exactly how to turn it on and how to build it. CSIS already knew that Bastien was dead. He died six says after I was arrested on Dec. 6. I was discharged on Dec. 9. He was killed on Dec 12.
CSIS sent RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] (Sgt. Mabe, Corporal Kispol) to visit me in jail on Aug. 8, 2001, . . . and they advised me that he was dead. They didn't say he was murdered. They told me he was dead. I told them that if Bastien was dead, it was murder, and that they should get a toxicology report. And I would tell you how it was done, and who did it.
5. When did they finally admit that Bastien was murdered?
They admitted that I was correct in mid-January.
6. When did you first learn details of the attacks that were to happen on Sept. 11?
In the first week of December 2000.
7. How did you learn of the details?
One document was written in English by a U.S. agent, who had picked up a copy of a document that had been sent to V. Putin by K. Hussein, Saddam Hussein's son. This is what the translation of the doc indicates. The Iraqis knew in June 2000 that I was coming. I didn't get my orders until August. The letter said that Bastien and Vreeland would be dealt with "in a manner suitable to us." The letter specifically stated on page two, "Our American official guarantees this."
8. Who put the information on the attacks into the pouch, and what would have been their motive for doing so?
I am not allowed to answer that. It would jeopardize the lives of active agents, and it would violate the National Security Act of 1947.
9. After having learned of the details of the impending attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon, how long did you wait before trying to notify Canadian and U.S. authorities of the information?
On Dec. 6, 2000, I told Canadian authorities to their face that I needed to contact the Canadian military immediately. I wrote it down. She [the Canadian official] was playing games, so I wrote down that I was a Russian spy and a weapons systems expert, and that I wanted to talk to them TODAY. I said I was a Russian because I figured it would get their attention. The name they had on me was Mikhail Cristianov (Michael Christian), because I had ID that used this name.
10. What was their reaction?
The Canadians turned blue, walked away, and I never saw them again.
11. How did it make you feel?
I was pissed off. It's on video [referring to a standard jail surveillance/security video].
12. Did the U.S. and Canadian response lead you to reach any conclusions? If so, what were they?
I thought I was dealing with idiots who had no clue about what was about to happen. It's been put to me that there were certain officials who wanted the attacks to happen. No one ever had any intention of building the system I was after because it would have made the defense budget obsolete. One thing that happened after 9-11 was that the Pentagon budgets soared.
13. Your written warning contains the statement, "Let one happen, stop the rest." Who was going to let one happen? Who was going to stop the rest?
I can't comment on the advice of counsel.
14. Does that statement imply that the U.S. or some other intelligence agency had achieved complete penetration of the terrorist cells?
That goes without question. Sometimes certain governments design, create networks like Al'Qaeda, which was really the government in Afghanistan. Those entities create specific problems at the creating government's direction.
15. Do you know who had achieved this penetration?
I cannot comment on that.
16. Is it possible that the terrorist cells were being "run" without knowing by whom?
Absolutely.
17. The most common excuse people use to discredit you is that you have prior arrests on fraud charges, and there are several press stories linking you to alleged criminal activity. How do you explain this?
The American Express charges are b.s., and Amex has stated on tape that the specific charges in question were approved. They admit that there was no fraud on this card. That card had been issued to Lt. Delmart Michael Vreeland. The Amex people admitted that the card was a U.S. Navy card.
People have accused me of identity theft. If anybody checked with the police departments in the U.S., they would find that there is not one police report form any individual in the U.S. who has alleged that I have stolen any identities. There is not a single identified victim anywhere. Three judges in Canada have denied my requests to have discovery and disclosure on these alleged charges.
The press stories that have circulated about my past are lies. Portions of the stories alleging fraud and ID theft are lies. I have threatened to sue these papers, and the stories have been pulled.
I'm working with ONI. Certain government officialspoliticians, brass, and high ranking militaryhave 11th Amendment privileges and can't be sued. Another government agency has to go investigate activities connected to weapons smuggling, organized crime and drug trafficking. They use their power to break laws, and we're not allowed to investigate them. Thus certain parts of the U.S. government designed an entity called UID (Unofficial Intelligence Investigation Division). It was designed by Adm. Jeremy Michael Boorda, who allegedly committed suicide. Boorda put this together prior to becoming CNO [Chief of Naval Operations]. He was not a bad guy.
Intelligence officers are sometimes put into positions where they are given assignments to infiltrate specific organizations that are powerful enough to check out a newcomer's background. Page 335 of the Charter Application in Canadian Court shows a copy of orders from Southern Command. These orders are dated April 18, 2000, concerning an anti-drug operation we were mounting. At approximately the same time the media released widespread stories that I was a wanted criminal. This was a means pf providing cover and credibility for me with the people I was infiltrating.
18. How many times have you been arrested on criminal charges?
Maybe three. Some of this I did, like a DUI charge in New York. I had been at the UN, and I had definitely been drinking.
19. How many times have you been convicted?
I have never been legally convicted of any criminal, felony activity anywhere. The drunk driving charge is still pending, and I have admitted in open court that I did it.
20. The Michigan warrant for credit card fraud is based upon the use of your own credit card. How do you explain this?
It is a setup.
21. Were your credit cards authorized or facilitated by the U.S. Navy or any part of the U.S. government?
Yes.
22. Could the U.S. government or any of its intelligence agencies have "inserted" the charges through state and local agencies?
Yes.
23. You were in custody in New York on the date the alleged Michigan offense took place. What was the charge, and what was the disposition of that case?
That was the DUI charge.
24. Was working with organized crime families a part of your duties with the Navy?
Yes.
25. Were any of the organized crime families in Michigan?
Yes.
26. For what reason were you working with organized crime?
I was under orders to do so 90 percent of the time. Organized crime supplies the weapons and drugs that go to the people we investigate.
27. Are you afraid that you will be killed if you are extradited to the U.S.? Why?
Yes. Because I have spoken out.
28. Can you explain why the Canadian courts will not allow your attorneys to introduce evidence that verifies your position with the U.S. Navy?
Yes. The Canadians are totally subservient to U.S. intelligence interests. They're afraid of Uncle Sam. It would also prove that CSIS covered up Marc Bastien's death, and that there was a cover-up involving a member of a major drug organization that had planned assassinations against prominent Canadians. In fact, one individual was found dead in a vat of acid. He was a hit man.
29. What do you want?
I want my uniform back, my back pay at $4,210.90 a month and my honor. I want President Bush to give me a full and complete pardon and the amnesty of the U.S. government. I am owed that. I want Bush personally to know everything that I know, and what kind of threats there are against the U.S.
It's never going to happen, so I am now seeking permanent refugee status in Canada and the protection of the United Nations.
30. What do you think will happen next in your case?
I don't know. My attorney is in court seeking a postponement of the extradition case because the Canadian government will not allow me to subpoena very important U.S. witnesses from the Pentagon and other places.
31. Is the war on terrorism about something other than what the people of the world are being told?
What war on terrorism?
32. What do you think will happen next in the war on terror?
Eventually, someone's going to have to tell the truth. Once those people are dealt with according to law, there will be no more false terror spread across the globe.
33. You have recently had dealings with an American journalist named Rick Wiles. What is your opinion of Wiles and what was your experience?
My opinion of Wiles is that he is a psychopath, who will print anything that will make him money. My experience with him was that I had private conversations with him that he recorded, not telling me he was going to post them on the Internet and sell them to the world. Then once I contacted him and told him that he was not to do that, he said he would take them down right now. Instead of taking them down he placed a bigger ad. He made a bigger ad!
In my opinion he is neither honorable nor professional. He has placed my story right next to a story about someone who talked to aliens 25 years ago. Yeah, that's right where I want my story to be, right next to some bozo who talks to aliens. The idiot!
So now he's selling this phony exclusive interview with me for $20 and he's making all the money. He never had my permission to do that.
34. You have recently had dealings with an American journalist named J.R. Nyquist. What is you opinion of Nyquist and what was your experience?
Don't even get me started. My opinion: I think he might be working for the government. I did not know that he was writing a story about me. He asked me some questions. I answered some questions. I recorded it, and then he went off on a wild tangent about psychological crap, and I didn't even read the whole story I was so mad.
He went off about the Russians, and it's all b.s. He sent me this fax about you saying that Ruppert was not my friend. He was saying that the Russians had me boxed in. The truth is, the American government is boxing me in. He's full of shit.
35. Are all of these statements on-the-record?
Yes!
MCR: As a result of the most recent hackings FTW's sales and cash flow have been interrupted while we are spending the thousands of dollars necessary to upgrade our security and Web services. FTW supporters who wish to make donations in this emergency may do so by calling 818-788-8791.
For the originally posted interview and more background information, link to:
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/Ruppert040402/ruppert040402.html
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and do not necessarily reflect those of Online Journal.
Email editor@onlinejournal.com
Copyright 1998-2002 Online Journal. All rights reserved.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) "Pipeline Politics Taint U.S. War"
by Salim Muwakkil
{Published on Monday, March 18, 2002 in the Chicago Tribune}
An ongoing source of frustration and anger for many Americans is the lack of support the war on terrorism has received abroad. Other nations are considerably less enthusiastic about our use of "daisy cutter" and "thermobaric" bombs than we think they should be. Why is that? One reason is their media. Stories alleging imperial and commercial motives for the war on terrorism are rife.
Outside this country, there is a widespread belief that U.S. military deployments in Central Asia mostly are about oil. An article in the Guardian of London headlined, "A pro-western regime in Kabul should give the U.S. an Afghan route for Caspian oil," foreshadowed the kind of skeptical coverage the U.S. war now receives in many countries.
"The invasion of Afghanistan is certainly a campaign against terrorism," wrote author George Monbiot in the Oct. 22, 2001, piece, "but it may also be a late colonial adventure."
He wrote that the U.S. oil company Unocal Corp. had been negotiating with the Taliban since 1995 to build "oil and gas pipelines from Turkmenistan, through Afghanistan and into Pakistani ports on the Arabian sea." He cited Ahmed Rashid's authoritative book "Taliban, Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia" as a source for this information.
Rashid, who has reported on Afghan wars for more than 20 years as a correspondent for the Eastern Economic Review and the Daily Telegraph, carefully documents in his book how the U.S. and Pakistan helped install the Taliban in hopes of bringing stability to the war-ravaged region and making it safer for the pipeline project. Unocal pulled out of the deal after the 1998 terrorist attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were linked to terrorists based in Afghanistan.
"The war against terrorism is a fraud," exclaimed John Pilger in an Oct. 29 commentary in the British-based Mirror. Pilger, the publication's former chief foreign correspondent, wrote, "Bush's concealed agenda is to exploit the oil and gas reserves in the Caspian basin, the greatest source of untapped fossil fuel on earth."
These harsh assessments are not just those of embittered ideologues. They are common fare. "Just as the Gulf War in 1991 was about oil, the new conflict in South and Central Asia is no less about access to the region's abundant petroleum resources," writes Ranjit Devraj in the Hong Kong-based Asia Times, a business-oriented publication.
A popular French book titled "Bin Laden, the Forbidden Truth," which alleges that the Bush administration blocked investigations of Osama bin Laden while it bargained for him with the Taliban in exchange for political recognition and economic aid, is guiding much of the recent
European coverage.
Written by Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie, the book adds another plank to the argument that America's major objective was to gain access to the region's oil and gas reserves.
According to the book, the Bush administration began to negotiate with the Taliban immediately after coming into power. The parties talked for many months before reaching an impasse in August 2001.
The terrorist acts of Sept. 11, though tragic, provided the Bush administration a legitimate reason to invade Afghanistan, oust the recalcitrant Taliban and, coincidentally, smooth the way for the pipeline.
To make things even smoother, the U.S. engineered the rise to power of two former Unocal employees: Hamid Karzai, the new interim president of Afghanistan, and Zalmay Khalizad, the Bush administration's Afghanistan envoy.
"Osama bin Laden did not comprehend that his actions serve American interests," writes Uri Averny, in a Feb. 14 column in the daily Ma'ariv in Israel. Averny, a former member of the Israeli Knesset and a noted peace activist, added, "If I were a believer in conspiracy theory, I would think that bin Laden is an American agent. Not being one I can only wonder at the coincidence."
Averny argues that the war on terrorism provides a perfect pretext for America's imperial interests. "If one looks at the map of the big American bases created for the war, one is struck by the fact that they are completely identical to the route of the projected oil pipeline to the Indian Ocean."
The Asia Times reported in January that the U.S. is developing "a network of multiple Caspian pipelines," and that people close to the Bush administration stand to benefit.
For example, the proposed Baku-Ceyhan pipeline, linking Azerbaijan through Georgia to Turkey, is represented by the law firm Baker & Botts. The principal attorney is James Baker, former secretary of state and chief spokesman for the Bush campaign in the Florida vote controversy.
In 1997, the now disgraced Enron Corp. conducted the feasibility study for the $2.5 billion Trans-Caspian pipeline being built under a joint venture between Turkmenistan, Bechtel Corp. and General Electric, the article noted.
There are many other connections, too numerous to recount here. No wonder the rest of the world is a bit skeptical about our war on evildoers.
Salim Muwakkil is a senior editor at In These Times E-mail: salim4x@aol.com
Copyright 2002, Chicago Tribune
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Israel's State Terrorism * King Conspiracy Confirmed * Peltier vs FBI * HAARP Attack
04 April 2002
Since the recent offensive assault by Israel on Palestine, an immeasurable sadness has fell upon our world. The summit by Arab nations, just before the attacks, offered a new direction for a peaceful co-existence between the people Israel and Palestine. Instead, the US-supported Israeli regime has maimed the goodwill for such a peace initiative. As my friend, in one of the numerous emails trying to respond to such insanity, wrote, "Specific politics aside, opinions of Arafat aside, everything aside except straightforward self-interest as Jewish Americans - Israel's actions are on the verge of precipitating a catastrophe for all of us. A still-preventable catastrophe." With this in mind, Flyby News is endorsing the peace plan put forth by Saudi Arabia and supported by most all the Arab nations let's go back to pre-1967 borders, let's give dignity to a people seeking their freedom, as Israel once sought a home for its peoples. The choice of domination and brutality is only heightening the violent cycle that will only end with the throngs of Armageddon trouncing on all life's dreams and chances for a peaceful co-existence with nature and humanity.
It is difficult for anyone to understand the chaos in our world since George W. and his team has taken over the White House. Noah Chomsky recently stated in an interview, published by Z Magazine: "It is convenient in the US, and the West, to blame Israel and particularly Sharon, but that is unfair and hardly honest. Many of Sharon's worst atrocities were carried out under Labor governments. Peres comes close to Sharon as a war criminal. Furthermore, the prime responsibility lies in Washington, and has for 30 years. That is true of the general diplomatic framework, and also of particular actions. Israel can act within the limits established by the master in Washington, rarely beyond."* All we know is that things are getting worse, and closer to an abyss from the use of weapons of the mass destruction to life.
Today marks the 34th anniversary since the conspiracy-slaying of Martin Luther King, Jr., which happened during an unprecedented era of three major assassinations in the US during a brief period when US policies were driven by war in southeast Asia. Item 2 covers this issue, and a civil trial that confirmed that the US government participated in the conspiracy to assassinate a beloved brother, and a part of humanity, while chaos reigns and thugs are in control of our nations' governments.
Item 3 is information released today on Leonard Peltier's new legal suit against the FBI. Following this information is a link to information on another lawsuit against the FBI, by Earth First. These justice issues are so critical for all of our survival. And item four is more on HAARP, now activated with the potential to threaten the balance of life and climate.
The question of humanity's survival and rush toward Armageddon has never been so profound. Yet what is true can never be fully concealed, and this is our tidbit for hope and for the perseverance to survive the actions of those trying to bring our world into a New World Disorder.
* The complete Noam Chomsky Text Link to ZMag.org -- http://www.zmag.org/content/Mideast/chomsky_palestine_april2.cfm
1) Israel's State Terrorism
2) Martin Luther King Assassination-Conspiracy Confirmed
3) Leonard Peltier Files Lawsuit Against FBI Today
4) HAARP and the Trigger to Climate Change
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Israel's State Terrorism
By Lev Grinberg
March 31, 2002
What is the difference between State terrorism and individual terrorist acts? If we understand this difference we'll understand also the evilness of the US policies in the Middle East and the forthcoming disasters. When Yassir Arafat was put under siege in his offices and kept hostage by the Israeli occupation forces, he was constantly pressed into condemning terror and combating terrorism. Israel's State terrorism is defined by US officials as "self-defense", while individual suicide bombers are called terrorists.
The only "small" difference is that Israeli aggression is the direct responsibility of Ariel Sharon, Benjamin Ben Eliezer, Shimon Peres and Shaul Mofaz, while the individual terrorist acts are done by individuals in despair, usually against Arafat's will. One hour after Arafat declared his support of a cease fire and wished the Jews a Happy Passover feast, a suicide bomber exploded himself in an hotel in Netanya, killing 22 innocent Jews celebrating Passover. Arafat was blamed as responsible for this act, and the present IDF offensive has been justified through this accusation. At the same time, Sharon's responsibility for Israeli war crimes is being completely ignored. Who should be arrested for the targeted killing of almost 100 Palestinians? Who will be sent to jail for the killing of more than 120 Palestinian paramedics? Who will be sentenced for the killing of more than 1,200 Palestinians and for the collective punishment of more than 3,000,000 civilians during the last 18 months? And who will face the International Tribunal for the illegal settlement of occupied Palestinian Lands, and the disobedience of UN decisions for more than 35 years?
Suicide bombs killing innocent citizens must be unequivocally condemned; they are immoral acts, and their perpetrators should be sent to jail. But they cannot be compared to State terrorism carried out by the Israeli Government. The former are individual acts of despair of a people that sees no future, vastly ignored by an unfair and distorted international public opinion. The latter are cold and "rational" decisions of a State and a military apparatus of occupation, well equipped, financed and backed by the only superpower in the world. Yet in the public debate, State terrorism and individual suicide bombs are not even considered as comparable cases of terrorism. The State terror and war crimes perpetrated by the Israeli Government are legitimized as "self-defense", while Arafat, even under siege, is demanded to arrest "terrorists".
I want to ask, Who will arrest Sharon, the person directly responsible for the orders to kill Palestinians? When is he going to be defined a terrorist too? How long will the world ignore the Palestinian cry that all they want is freedom and independence? When will it stop neglecting the fact that the goal of the Israeli Government is not security, but the continued occupation and subjugation of the Palestinian people?
As Israelis in the opposition, we are fighting against our government, but the international support that Sharon receives is constantly jeopardizing our struggle. The whole international public opinion must be reverted, and the UN must deploy intervention forces in order to stop the bloodshed and the imminent deterioration. Israelis and Palestinians desperately need the awakening of the international community's public opinion and a reversal in the global attitude. These are needed both in order to save our lives (literally), and preserve our hope in a better future.
[Dr. Lev Grinberg < lev@bgumail.bgu.ac.il > is a political sociologist, Director of the Humphrey Institute for Social Research, at Ben Gurion University]
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Tuesday, April 2, 2002
UrgentEyewitness report from Ramallah
Posted by The Editor
Ramallah, Occupied Palestine -- My name is Tzaporah Ryter (See url link for her picture). I am an American student from the University of Minnesota. I currently am in Ramallah. We are under a terrible siege and people are being massacred by both the Israeli army and armed militia groups of Israeli settlers. They are shooting outside at anything that moves. I am urgently pleading for as much outside help as possible to help save lives here. I arrived in Ramallah last Thursday. I had come back for a visit to the Palestinian city where I had been previously living and studying.
For the complete transcript of this personal account and response from Jean Hudon's website, see:
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000/Archives2002/Ramallah.htm
For original posting and other stories from Ramallah, see:
http://www.electronicintifada.org/diaries/index.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Here is a sample of the small print news, posted by
The News Insider: http://newsinsider.cjb.net
Israeli military on killing rampage hours before US orders halt
Blind children trapped as Israeli police lush out against activists
Israeli forces turn back activists trying to take food aid to Ramallah
France suggests armed interposition force for Palestine
Saddam raises suicide bomber pay to US$25,000, US claims
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Deadly Crisis in the Middle East --
AlterNet's breaking coverage continues at:
http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=28
Tragically, as the Middle East boils over into a cruel war, we are stuck with leaders -- Ariel Sharon and George W. Bush -- who see brute force as the only solution to rebellion and historical disagreement. Suicide bombers and brutal occupation cannot breed peace, only future horrors. So now is not the time to get depressed. It's the time to be informed, make our voices heard and fight for a peaceful solution. With these headlines, AlterNet brings you a collection of voices to help make sense of the carnage:
* Painful dispatches from those under constant siege in Ramallah
* Biting analyses of U.S. policy
* Appeals from Palestinians and Israelis alike who refuse to give up in the search for peace
* Resources to help you protest the Bush administration's response to the Israeli invasion.
All at our constantly updated "War in the Middle East" page:
http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=28
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Martin Luther King Assassination-Conspiracy Confirmed
Memphis jury finds that a conspiracy led to Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination
By Helen Halyard
17 December 1999
On December 8 a jury in Memphis, Tennessee returned a verdict that civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. was the victim of an assassination conspiracy and did not die at the hands of a lone gunman.
The verdict followed a three-week trial of a wrongful death lawsuit which he King family filed last year against former Memphis cafe owner Loyd Jowers. According to the suit, Jowers was part of a plot to murder the civil rights leader. King was shot and killed at the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968.
In a 1993 television interview with ABC News, Jowers, now 73, reported that mobsters offered him $100,000 to have King killed. Since the interview Jowers has changed his story several times. He was unable to testify at the trial due to illness. His attorney, Lewis Garrison, told the jurors they could reasonably conclude King was the victim of a conspiracy in which his client was involved, but that his role was minor.
At the end of the trial a number of jurors commented that they were convinced by the evidence that there was a conspiracy. Summing up the sentiment of the jurors, one remarked, "We all thought it was a kind of cut and dried case and that there were a lot of people involved."
The major news media paid scant attention to the trial and portrayed the verdict as having little significance. Reports on the outcome of the trial appearing in the New York Times, for example, have been dismissive of theories of a broad conspiracy involving government agencies.
A column by Nathan Lewin in the December 11 issue of the Times, entitled "Putting History On Trial," denounced civil trials as a means of judging history. Lewin, now a Washington attorney, was deputy assistant attorney general in the civil rights division of the Justice Department at the time of King's assassination.
While Lewin and others in the political establishment flatly reject conspiracy theories in the King assassination, a majority of the American population are inclined to believe that more than one gunman was involved, and many give credence to allegations of complicity on the part of government agencies.
Attorney William Pepper, former lawyer of James Earl Ray, who was sentenced to prison as the lone gunman in the King murder, has investigated the circumstances behind the assassination for the past 20 years. In 1995 he published the book Orders to Kill, which alleges involvement by the Mafia, the FBI, the CIA and the military in the assassination.
Whether or not one accepts Pepper's theories, to rule out a priori some form of conspiracy, including one involving elements within the state apparatus, is, at the very least, no more objective than the various conspiracy theories that have been advanced. An investigation into the killing by the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1978 concluded that while Ray was the gunmen, there was a 95 percent probability that others were involved.
The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. took place in the midst of mass social protests and urban upheavals involving working people, youth and students who opposed racial discrimination, poverty and America's involvement in the Vietnam war. Shortly before King was killed he publicly denounced the war and began to address social issues, such as poverty, that went beyond the pervasive discrimination that confronted African Americans. He was in Memphis in 1968 to lead a march of 1,300 sanitation workers on strike for better working conditions, wages and benefits.
James Earl Ray was picked up in London several months after King's assassination and returned to the United States. He confessed to the crime in March 1969 and received a 99-year sentence. He recanted his confession three days after he made it, and for the next 29 years fought to rescind his guilty plea. State and federal courts upheld the plea on eight separate occasions. Ray met with Martin Luther King, Jr.'s son Dexter in a prison hospital shortly before he died of liver disease in 1998 and told the son of the civil rights leader that he was not responsible for his father's death.
After Ray's death William Pepper joined forces with the King family to file the wrongful death suit. Since Jowers had stated that he hired a man to do the killing, the liability charges were filed against him.
In the course of the trial 70 witnesses were presented by the defense. Among them were members of King's family; the brother of James Earl Ray; Walter Fauntroy, formerly a member of the House Select Committee on Assassinations; and New York-based attorney and media expert William Schapp.
Much of the testimony focused on the extent of operations carried out by the FBI against King and those involved in civil rights struggles. On August 25, 1967, FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover approved a major counterintelligence program, Cointelpro, to disrupt and discredit left-wing organizations, civil rights demonstrators and anti-war protesters. Hoover directed operations against King in an effort to discredit his leadership and break up the movement.
Convinced that King was a communist, Hoover described him as "the most dangerous man in America, and a moral degenerate," and was obsessed with following King's activities. Dozens of internal FBI memoranda document the surveillance and harassment of King. In one incident King's alleged "sexual escapades" were used in an attempt to blackmail him. Shortly before the assassination Hoover distributed an internal memo to the FBI calling for King's "removal from the national scene."
At the trial Fauntroy testified that while he believed Ray was the shooter, he felt that Ray did not act alone. Fauntroy expressed dissatisfaction with the investigation carried out by the House Select Committee, noting that it was denied access to FBI files on the King murder and was unaware that US Army operatives had King under surveillance at the time of his death.
Following the issuance of the House Select Committee's final report in 1979, Committee Chairman Louis Stokes and Chief Counsel G. Robert Blakey ordered that all of the backup records, documents, unpublished transcripts and investigative data be locked up for the next 50 years.
Jurors saw the videotaped deposition of Jack Terrel, formerly of the US military, who testified that he had a conversation with a military operations specialist who told him that he was assigned to a triangular shoot team that had a special mission in Memphis around the time of King's death. Terrel stated that the specialist was never told about the specifics of the mission, and that the team was pulled out of Memphis at the last minute.
Attorney William Schaap explained how the media has been used historically by the government to disseminate information, or, more precisely, misinformation. According to Schapp, the FBI under Hoover's direction infiltrated newspapers around the world and persuaded them in the 1960s to run stories that discredited King. Schaap commented on the lack of media attention to the wrongful death suit, saying, "It's amazing how much psychological power the dissemination of false information has after 30 years."
Following the verdict the King family told a press conference that they were satisfied with its results. The youngest son, Dexter King, remarked, "This is what we have always wanted. This is history."
Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder told the press that the Memphis verdict would have no impact on an ongoing Justice Department review of the King assassination. The Justice Department, which initiated a review of the case last year at the request of King's widow Coretta Scott King, is expected to issue its report shortly. According to Holder it is very unlikely that criminal charges will be brought or that the government will alter its position James Earl Ray was the lone gunman and that there was no governmental conspiracy involved in the King assassination.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/dec1999/king-d17.shtml
For the Complete Transcript of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassination Conspiracy Trial
http://www.thekingcenter.org/tkc/trial.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Leonard Peltier Files Lawsuit Against FBI Today
NATIVE AMERICAN ACTIVIST FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST FBI
THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2002
Contact: Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (785) 842-5774; lpdc@freepeltier.org
NATIVE AMERICAN ACTIVIST FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST FBI
Former FBI Director Louis Freeh is named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed today by attorneys for imprisoned Native American activist, Leonard Peltier. Freeh, along with the FBI Agents Association and a long list of active FBI agents, are accused of violating Peltier's Constitutional rights by making false and unsupported statements to the public, the Department of Justice, the United States Parole Commission, and former President Clinton.
The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court, Washington D.C., alleges that the FBI "engaged in a systematic, and officially sanctioned campaign of mis-information and dis-information" designed to prevent Peltier from receiving fair clemency and parole reviews. The suit follows a highly controversial campaign conducted by the FBI to stop former president Bill Clinton from issuing Peltier a grant of executive clemency during his last days in office. FBI agents across the nation submitted letters to the editor, sponsored major newspaper and radio ads, and marched by the hundreds in front of the White House to discourage clemency. Former FBI Director Louis Freeh wrote searing letters to Bill Clinton and Janet Reno, to urge against Peltier's release. The campaign, which gained national attention, characterized Peltier as a cold-blooded killer who brutally shot two FBI agents at point blank range. Peltier's attorneys and supporters assert that this characterization is not only false but intentionally deceptive given the government's long held position that it cannot prove who shot the agents. Furthermore, they say it cost Peltier, now 57 years of age and in poor health, his long deserved freedom.
Peltier has served more than 26 years in prison for the deaths of two FBI agents killed in a 1975 shoot-out on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Peltier's supporters claim the FBI terrorized witnesses, utilized false testimony and withheld a ballistic test proving Peltier's innocence to gain his conviction. Senior Eighth Circuit Judge Gerald Heaney, who denied Peltier a new trial based on a legal technicality, has since come forward to support Peltier's release, citing FBI misconduct. Amnesty International, the Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Corretta Scott King, and scores of Native tribes are among those who consider Peltier a political prisoner who should be freed.
(Complaint will be posted on LPDC web site on April 4. Interviews with lawyer handling case and spokespeople for the LPDC can be arranged).
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-5774
http://www.freepeltier.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = == = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
In a related issue,
Historic Trial in Bari vs. FBI begins April 8, 2002 in Federal Court in Oakland, CA
Visit http://www.judibari.org/ for details!
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) HAARP and the Trigger to Climate Change
Washington's New World Order Weapons Have the Ability to Trigger Climate Change
by Michel Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa
Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG)
4 January 2002
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The important debate on global warming under UN auspices provides but a partial picture of climate change; in addition to the devastating impacts of greenhouse gas emissions on the ozone layer, the World's climate can now be modified as part of a new generation of sophisticated "non-lethal weapons." Both the Americans and the Russians have developed capabilities to manipulate the World's climate.
In the US, the technology is being perfected under the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) as part of the ("Star Wars") Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI). Recent scientific evidence suggests that HAARP is fully operational and has the ability of potentially triggering floods, droughts, hurricanes and earthquakes. From a military standpoint, HAARP is a weapon of mass destruction. Potentially, it constitutes an instrument of conquest capable of selectively destabilising agricultural and ecological systems of entire regions.
While there is no evidence that this deadly technology has been used, surely the United Nations should be addressing the issue of "environmental warfare" alongside the debate on the climatic impacts of greenhouse gases.
Despite a vast body of scientific knowledge, the issue of deliberate climatic manipulations for military use has never been explicitly part of the UN agenda on climate change. Neither the official delegations nor the environmental action groups participating in the Hague Conference on Climate Change (November 2000) have raised the broad issue of "weather warfare" or "environmental modification techniques (ENMOD)" as relevant to an understanding of climate change.
The clash between official negotiators, environmentalists and American business lobbies has centered on Washington's outright refusal to abide by commitments on carbon dioxide reduction targets under the 1997 Kyoto protocol.(1) The impacts of military technologies on the World's climate are not an object of discussion or concern. Narrowly confined to greenhouse gases, the ongoing debate on climate change serves Washington's strategic and defense objectives.
"WEATHER WARFARE"
World renowned scientist Dr. Rosalie Bertell confirms that "US military scientists ... are working on weather systems as a potential weapon. The methods include the enhancing of storms and the diverting of vapor rivers in the Earth's atmosphere to produce targeted droughts or floods." (2) Already in the 1970s, former National Security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski had foreseen in his book "Between Two Ages" that: "Technology will make available, to the leaders of major nations, techniques for conducting secret warfare, of which only a bare minimum of the security forces need be appraised... Techniques of weather modification could be employed to produce prolonged periods of drought or storm."
Marc Filterman, a former French military officer, outlines several types of "unconventional weapons" using radio frequencies. He refers to "weather war," indicating that the U.S. and the Soviet Union had already "mastered the know-how needed to unleash sudden climate changes (hurricanes, drought) in the early 1980s."(3) These technologies make it "possible to trigger atmospheric disturbances by using Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) radar [waves]." (4)
A simulation study of future defense "scenarios" commissioned for the US Air Force calls for:
"US aerospace forces to 'own the weather' by capitalizing on emerging technologies and focusing development of those technologies to war-fighting applications... From enhancing friendly operations or disrupting those of the enemy via small-scale tailoring of natural weather patterns to complete dominance of global communications and counterspace control, weather-modification offers the war fighter a wide-range of possible options to defeat or coerce an adversary... In the United States, weather-modification will likely become a part of national security policy with both domestic and international applications. Our government will pursue such a policy, depending on its interests, at various levels.(5)
HIGH-FREQUENCY ACTIVE AURORAL RESEARCH PROGRAM (HAARP)
The High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) based in Gokoma Alaska --jointly managed by the US Air Force and the US Navy-- is part of a new generation of sophisticated weaponry under the US Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). Operated by the Air Force Research Laboratory's Space Vehicles Directorate, HAARP constitutes a system of powerful antennas capable of creating "controlled local modifications of the ionosphere".
Scientist Dr. Nicholas Begich --actively involved in the public campaign against HAARP-- describes HAARP as:
"A super-powerful radiowave-beaming technology that lifts areas of the ionosphere [upper layer of the atmosphere] by focusing a beam and heating those areas. Electromagnetic waves then bounce back onto earth and penetrate everything -- living and dead." (6)
Dr. Rosalie Bertell depicts HAARP as "a gigantic heater that can cause major disruption in the ionosphere, creating not just holes, but long incisions in the protective layer that keeps deadly radiation from bombarding the planet." 7
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = == == = = = = = == = =
For this complete Report, see:
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO201A.html
Copyright by Michel Chossudovsky, CRG 2002. All rights reserved.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Part 1 - Kucinich on Nuclear Disarmament * Europe's Fury * China's Response
29 March 2002
The situation is getting so bad that there is hope for a miraculous turnaround. An opportunity now awaits us to spring back from the control of terror's influences to live in peace. The first item is a recent speech by Congressman Kucinich on peace and disarmament. The following two items show the negative influence of US unilateral militarism for the control of our world. Things are getting worse. The fighting in the Mid East is 100% asinine. How else could you describe the leadership of a nation like Israel, having the opportunity for peace, and yet, is seeking revenge, dominance, with the likely results of more people dying and chaos reigning.
Item 4 is about another courageous Representative in Congress, Cynthia Ann McKinney from Georgia, who is demanding that the Bush/Bin Laden connection and the full story behind 9/11 be fully investigated. Item 5 contains an update from Michael Moore during his upswing tour that contradicts President Bush's high approval ratings.
In the last issue, Flyby News forwarded a report received from network TV news that George W. Bush on his visit to Peru decided not to bring up the subject of Lori Berenson. Yet, Lori's father, Mark Berenson, in a recent press release, reported that Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters that President Bush raised the issue and again, like last June, forcefully expressed his compassionate concerns. According to Powell, Lori Berenson's case remains an important issue for the Bush administration and for bilateral relations between the US and Peru. For more on this press release, and other information, visit: http://www.freelori.org .
And on the issue of what we can do, the coordinator of the Global Network, Bruce Gagnon, has requested that people respond to the Pentagon's request for public comments regarding their planned "missile defense" expansion program. They will hold public hearings in Kodiak and Anchorage, Alaska and Lompoc, California (dates, time locations not yet released). Please take the time to send comments by April 25. Contact information and general talking points are located near the bottom in Item 6.
1) Peace and Nuclear Disarmament -- a Call to Action
2) Europe's Fury
3) China Bars U.S. Ship From Hong Kong
4) Rep. McKinney - A hero in the demand for inquiry into 9-11
5) Michael Moore's Stupid Tour' Update
6) Comments Requested by the Pentagon for a Star Wars Program
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Peace and Nuclear Disarmament -- a Call to Action
by U.S. Rep Dennis Kucinich
". . . Come my friends, 'tis not too late to seek a newer world,"
- Alfred Lord Tennyson
If you believe that humanity has a higher destiny, if you believe we can evolve, and become better than we are; if you believe we can overcome the scourge of war and someday fulfill the dream of harmony and peace earth, let us begin the conversation today. Let us exchange our ideas. Let us plan together, act together and create peace together. This is a call for common sense, for peaceful, non-violent citizen action to protect our precious world from widening war and from stumbling into a nuclear catastrophe.
The climate for conflict has intensified, with the struggle between Pakistan and India, the China-Taiwan tug of war, and the increased bloodshed between Israel and the Palestinians. United States' troop deployments in the Philippines, Yemen, Georgia, Columbia and Indonesia create new possibilities for expanded war. An invasion of Iraq is planned. The recent disclosure that Russia, China, Iraq, Iran, Syria, North Korea, and Libya are considered by the United States as possible targets for nuclear attack catalyzes potential conflicts everywhere.
These crucial political decisions promoting increased military actions, plus a new nuclear first-use policy, are occurring without the consent of the American people, without public debate, without public hearings, without public votes. The President is taking Congress's approval of responding to the Sept. 11 terrorists as a license to flirt with nuclear war.
"Politics ought to stay out of fighting a war," the President has been quoted as saying on March 13th 2002. Yet Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution explicitly requires that Congress take responsibility when it comes to declaring war. This President is very popular, according to the polls. But polls are not a substitute for democratic process. Attributing a negative connotation here to politics or dismissing constitutionally mandated congressional oversight belies reality. Spending $400 billion a year for defense is a political decision. Committing troops abroad is a political decision. War is a political decision. When men and women die on the battlefield that is the result of a political decision. The use of nuclear weapons, which can end the lives of millions, is a profound political decision. In a monarchy there need be no political decisions. In a democracy, all decisions are political, in that the derive from the consent of the governed.
In a democracy, budgetary, military and national objectives must be subordinate to the political process. Before we celebrate an imperial presidency, let it be said that the lack of free and open political process, the lack of free and open political debate, and the lack of free and open political dissent can be fatal in a democracy.
We have reached a moment in our country's history where it is urgent that people everywhere speak out as president of his or her own life, to protect the peace of the nation and world within and without. We should speak out and caution leaders who generate fear through talk of the endless war or the final conflict. We should appeal to our leaders to consider that their own bellicose thoughts, words and deeds are reshaping consciousness and can have an adverse effect on our nation. Because when one person thinks fight! he or she finds a fight. One faction thinks war! and starts a war. One nation thinks nuclear! and approaches the abyss. And what of one nation which thinks peace, and seeks peace?
Neither individuals nor nations exist in a vacuum, which is why we have a serious responsibility for each other in this world. It is also urgent that we find those places of war in our own lives, and begin healing the world through healing ourselves. Each of us is a citizen of a common planet, bound to a common destiny. So connected are we, that each of us has the power to be the eyes of the world, the voice of the world, the conscience of the world, or the end of the world. And as each one of us chooses, so becomes the world.
Each of us is architect of this world. Our thoughts, the concepts. Our words, the designs. Our deeds, the bricks and mortar of our daily lives. Which is why we should always take care to regard the power of our thoughts and words, and the commands they send into action through time and space.
Some of our leaders have been thinking and talking about nuclear war. In the past week there has been much news about a planning document which describes how and when America might wage nuclear war. The Nuclear Posture Review recently released to the media by the government
1. Assumes that the United States has the right to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike.
2. Equates nuclear weapons with conventional weapons.
3. Attempts to minimize the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons.
4. Promotes nuclear response to a chemical or biological attack.
Some dismiss this review as routine government planning. But it becomes ominous when taken in the context of a war on terrorism which keeps expanding its boundaries, rhetorically and literally. The President equates the "war on terrorism" with World War II. He expresses a desire to have the nuclear option "on the table." He unilaterally withdraws from the ABM treaty. He seeks $8.9 billion to fund deployment of a missile shield. He institutes, without congressional knowledge, a shadow government in a bunker outside our nation's Capitol. He tries to pass off as arms reduction, the storage of, instead of the elimination of, nuclear weapons.
Two generations ago we lived with nuclear nightmares. We feared and hated the Russians who feared and hated us. We feared and hated the "godless, atheistic" communists. In our schools, we dutifully put our head between our legs and practiced duck-and-cover drills. In our nightmares, we saw the long, slow arc of a Soviet missile flash into our very neighborhood. We got down on our knees and prayed for peace. We surveyed, wide eyed, pictures of the destruction of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. We supported the elimination of all nuclear weapons. We knew that if you "nuked" others you "nuked" yourself.
The splitting of the atom for destructive purposes admits a split consciousness, the compartmentalized thinking of Us vs. Them, the dichotomized thinking, which spawns polarity and leads to war. The proposed use of nuclear weapons, pollutes the psyche with the arrogance of infinite power. It creates delusions of domination of matter and space. It is dehumanizing through its calculations of mass casualties. We must overcome doom-thinkers and sayers who invite a world descending, disintegrating into a nuclear disaster. With a world at risk, we must find the bombs in our own lives and disarm them. We must listen to that quiet inner voice which counsels that the survival of all is achieved through the unity of all.
We must overcome our fear of each other, by seeking out the humanity within each of us. The human heart contains every possibility of race, creed, language, religion, and politics. We are one in our commonalities. Must we always fear our differences? We can overcome our fears by not feeding our fears with more war and nuclear confrontations. We must ask our leaders to unify us in courage.
We need to create a new, clear vision of a world as one. A new, clear vision of people working out their differences peacefully. A new, clear vision with the teaching of nonviolence, nonviolent intervention, and mediation. A new, clear vision where people can live in harmony within their families, their communities and within themselves. A new clear vision of peaceful coexistence in a world of tolerance.
At this moment peril we must move away from fear's paralysis. This is a call to action to replace expanded war with expanded peace. This is a call for action to place the very survival of this planet on the agenda of all people, everywhere. As citizens of a common planet, we have an obligation to ourselves and our posterity. We must demand that our nation and all nations put down the nuclear sword. We must demand that our nation and all nations
-- Abide by the principles of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
-- Stop the development of new nuclear weapons.
-- Take all nuclear weapons systems off alert.
-- Persist towards total, worldwide elimination of all nuclear weapons.
Our nation must
-- Revive the Anti Ballistic Missile treaty.
-- Sign and enforce the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
-- Abandon plans to build a so-called missile shield.
-- Prohibit the introduction of weapons into outer space.
We are in a climate where people expect debate within our two party system to produce policy alternatives. However both major political parties have fallen short. People who ask "Where is the Democratic Party?" and expect to hear debate may be disappointed. When peace is not on the agenda of our political parties or our governments then it must be the work and the duty of each citizen of the world. This is the time to organize for peace. This is the time for new thinking. This is the time to conceive of peace as not simply being the absence of violence, but the active presence of the capacity for a higher evolution of human awareness. This is the time to conceive of peace as respect, trust, and integrity. This is the time to tap the infinite capabilities of humanity to transform consciousness which compels violence at a personal, group, national or international levels. This is the time to develop a new compassion for others and ourselves.
When terrorists threaten our security, we must enforce the law and bring terrorists to justice within our system of constitutional justice, without undermining the very civil liberties which permits our democracy to breathe. Our own instinct for life, which inspires our breath and informs our pulse, excites our capacity to reason. Which is why we must pay attention when we sense a threat to survival.
That is why we must speak out now to protect this nation, all nations, and the entire planet and
Challenge those who believe that war is inevitable.
Challenge those who believe in a nuclear right.
Challenge those who would build new nuclear weapons.
Challenge those who seek nuclear re-armament.
Challenge those who seek nuclear escalation.
Challenge those who would make of any nation a nuclear target.
Challenge those who would threaten to use nuclear weapons against civilian populations.
Challenge those who would break nuclear treaties.
Challenge those who think and think about nuclear weapons, to think about peace.
It is practical to work for peace. I speak of peace and diplomacy not just for the sake of peace itself. But, for practical reasons, we must work for peace as a means of achieving permanent security. It is similarly practical to work for total nuclear disarmament, particularly when nuclear arms do not even come close to addressing the real security problems which confront our nation, witness the events of September 11, 2001.
We can make war archaic. Skeptics may dismiss the possibility that a nation which spends $400 billion a year for military purposes can somehow convert swords into plowshares. Yet the very founding and the history of this country demonstrates the creative possibilities of America. We are a nation which is known for realizing impossible dreams. Ours is a nation which in its second century abolished slavery, which many at the time considered impossible. Ours is a nation where women won the right to vote, which many at the time considered impossible. Ours is a nation which institutionalized the civil rights movement, which many at the time considered impossible. If we have the courage to claim peace, with the passion, the emotion and the integrity with which we have claimed independence, freedom and, equality we can become that nation which makes non-violence an organizing principle in our society, and in doing so change the world.
That is the purpose of HR 2459. It is a bill to create a Department of Peace. It envisions new structures to help create peace in our homes, in our families, in our schools, in our neighborhoods, in our cities, and in our nation. It aspires to create conditions for peace within and to create conditions for peace worldwide. It considers the conditions which cause people to become the terrorists of the future, issues of poverty, scarcity and exploitation. It is practical to make outer space safe from weapons, so that humanity can continue to pursue a destiny among the stars. HR 3616 seeks to ban weapons in space, to keep the stars a place of dreams, of new
possibilities, of transcendence.
We can achieve this practical vision of peace, if we are ready to work for it. People worldwide need to be meet with like-minded people, about peace and nuclear disarmament, now. People worldwide need to gather in peace, now. People worldwide need to march and to pray for peace, now. People worldwide need to be connecting with each other on the web, for peace, now. We are in a new era of electronic democracy, where the world wide web, numerous web sites and bulletin boards enable new organizations, exercising freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, to spring into being instantly. Thespiritoffreedom.com is such a web site. It is dedicated to becoming an electronic forum for peace, for sustainability, for renewal and for revitalization. It is a forum which strives for the restoration of a sense of community through the empowerment of self, through commitment of self to the lives of others, to the life of the community, to the life of the nation, to the life of the world.
Where war making is profoundly uncreative in its destruction, peacemaking can be deeply creative. We need to communicate with each other the ways in which we work in our communities to make this a more peaceful world. I welcome your ideas at dkucinich@aol.com or at http://www.thespiritoffreedom.com .
We can share our thoughts and discuss ways in which we have brought or will bring them into action.
Now is the time to think, to take action and use our talents and abilities to create peace
in our families.
in our block clubs.
in our neighborhoods.
in our places of worship.
in our schools and universities.
in our labor halls.
in our parent-teacher organizations.
Now is the time to think, speak, write, organize and take action to create peace as a social imperative, as an economic imperative, and as a political imperative. Now is the time to think, speak, write, organize, march, rally, hold vigils and take other nonviolent action to create peace in our cities, in our nation and in the world. And as the hymn says, "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me."
This is the work of the human family, of people all over the world demanding that governments and non-governmental actors alike put down their nuclear weapons. This is the work of the human family, responding in this moment of crisis to protect our nation, this planet and all life within it. We can achieve both nuclear disarmament and peace. As we understand that all people of the world are interconnected, we can achieve both nuclear disarmament and peace. We can accomplish this through upholding an holistic vision where the claims of all living beings to the right of survival are recognized. We can achieve both nuclear disarmament and peace through being a living testament to a Human Rights Covenant where each person on this planet is entitled to a life where he or she may consciously evolve in mind, body and spirit.
Nuclear disarmament and peace are the signposts toward the uplifting path of an even brighter human condition wherein we can through our conscious efforts evolve and reestablish the context of our existence from peril to peace, from revolution to evolution. Think peace. Speak peace. Act peace. Peace.
Email responses to this speech are appreciated.
Send to info@thespiritoffreedom.com or Dkucinich@aol.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Europe's Fury
Article from the Washington Post
By David S. Broder
Wednesday, March 27, 2002
ROME -- The United States has been fighting a war in Afghanistan. It has troops in the field in the Philippines and in Colombia. It is trying to mediate the bloody Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East. The last thing it needs is a quarrel with Europe.
But that is exactly what has developed, as I was repeatedly reminded during a brief stay here for an international conference last week.
The immediate irritant is steel. The looming and larger point of conflict is Iraq. And the underlying complaint is that the Bush administration, whose leadership has gained significantly in standing since my last transatlantic visit 11 months ago, has reverted to an earlier and unsettling pattern of behavior. From the European perspective, Washington looks unpredictable, erratic and impulsive -- all the things that jar the allies' nerves.
It is easy to dismiss their mutterings as the nattering of nervous Nellies. But when the questioning comes not only from chronic critics such as the French but also from such friends as Germany and even Britain, it may behoove Washington to take heed.
The Europeans are not without power, as they demonstrated last week with their response to President Bush's surprise decision this month to impose tariffs as high as 30 percent on steel imports from Europe and Asia. Americans living here or visiting Rome for the conference I attended were hard-pressed to explain the glaring contradiction between Bush's professed support for free trade and his action to protect declining steelmakers in such political swing states as Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Many did not even try.
It does not matter, because the Europeans are not interested in excuses. They are furious. And they are ready to fight back. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the European Union is planning to target Florida orange juice and Wisconsin-made motorcycles -- hitting two states that were virtual ties in the last presidential election. Their target list also includes steel exports from Pennsylvania and West Virginia and textiles from the Republican political strongholds of North and South Carolina.
By hitting electoral college battlegrounds and states with key Senate and House races in November, the Journal said, the EU will strike Bush "where it could hurt the worst at the ballot box."
The steel tariff decision -- denounced by Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill in candid private comments that quickly became public -- looks more and more like one of the worst of the Bush presidency. Another Wall Street Journal article last week reported that the Commerce Department has been inundated by more than 1,000 requests for tariff exemptions from U.S. manufacturers who claim they cannot get the specialty steel they need from domestic steelmakers. Government officials are struggling to determine the merits of each case -- exactly the kind of heavy-handed bureaucratic interference with the marketplace that Republicans and conservatives are supposed to find abhorrent.
But all this is minor compared to European angst about Iraq.
The "axis of evil" section of the State of the Union Address came as a shock to countries that had offered Washington strong support for the first phase of the post-Sept. 11 war on terrorism.
The linkage of Iraq, Iran and North Korea made no sense to them, and subsequent assurances that Bush had no immediate intention to take military action against the last two simply heightened fears that he planned to bomb or invade Iraq.
Americans are being asked: What has happened in the past few months that makes it so imperative to remove Saddam Hussein? Is there any evidence that Iraq was implicated in the 9-11 attacks? With whom do you plan to replace Saddam? And what will a war with Iraq mean for Israel, Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia? If removing Saddam is vital to America's national interest, how are the interests of the neighboring countries to be protected?
There may be answers to all these questions, but the Europeans would like to hear them. And they would like to believe that Washington is interested in hearing from them. The lack of consultation is a chronic complaint, but rarely has it reached this level of anxiety.
Some Europeans believe Bush is on a mission of personal revenge against Saddam, determined to finish the work his father left incomplete at the end of the Gulf War. That trivializes his purpose. But the mere fact that such suspicions are being voiced is a warning that the slide in Euro-American relations needs to be addressed.
2002 The Washington Post Company
========================================================================================================================================================
Regina Hagen, from Germany and on the Board of Directors of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space wrote to the Globenet list serve in relationship to the above article:
"Actually, there is more fighting going on.
The European Union has this week finally decided that GALILEO, the European satellite navigation system, will be built. And the US did all they could to try to prevent this - for economic and military reasons. I am personally not happy with GALILEO, most of all because it has the military dual-use capability. But I find it amazing that the US so openly tells the European Union that it would prefer them to remain dependent on the US.."
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) China Bars U.S. Ship From Hong Kong
China Bars U.S. Ship From Hong Kong
By Helen Luk
Associated Press Writer
(washingtonpost.com)
Tuesday, March 26, 2002; 3:33 AM
HONG KONG Apparently angered over U.S. dealings with Taiwan, China has refused permission for a U.S. warship to make a routine port call in Hong Kong.
The U.S. Consulate said Tuesday that Beijing's rejection of the request by the USS Curtis Wilbur came March 18 one day before the Chinese government accused Washington of committing a "series of erroneous acts" in the weeks since President Bush's visit in February to China.
Beijing was angered by a U.S. decision to let Taiwan's defense minister, Tang Yiau-ming, attend a private defense convention this month in St. Petersburg, Fla. The Chinese Foreign Ministry summoned U.S. Ambassador Clark T. Randt to express its displeasure.
Barbara Zigli, a U.S. Consulate spokeswoman, said "no reason was given for the disapproval." She declined to speculate on China's motives.
The Curtis Wilbur, a guided missile destroyer belonging to the U.S. Seventh Fleet based in Yokosuka, Japan, had sought clearance to visit here from April 5-9, Zigli said.
Port calls by foreign warships and aircraft are approved on a "case-by-case basis," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said Tuesday at a regular briefing for reporters. "We have taken into consideration a lot of issues," Zhang said.
Last week, Zhang warned of adverse effects on China-U.S. relations if Washington did not change its ways.
China and Taiwan split amid a civil war on the mainland in 1949. Beijing says it will attack Taiwan if the island declares formal independence or delays too long in talks over uniting with the mainland. It has sought to isolate Taiwan diplomatically.
America severed formal ties with Taiwan in 1979 when Washington recognized China. Since then, high-level exchanges and meetings between U.S. and Taiwanese officials have been rare.
Tang's attendance at the three-day conference in Florida sponsored by the private U.S.-Taiwan Business Council is the most recent result of Bush's push for closer relations with Taiwan.
Since this former British colony reverted to Chinese rule in 1997, Beijing has occasionally protested U.S. actions by barring U.S. warships from visiting Hong Kong, long a popular port of call.
2002 The Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17946-2002Mar26.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Part 2 is posted for items:
4) Rep. McKinney - A hero in the demand for inquiry into 9-11
5) Michael Moore's Stupid Tour' Update
6) Comments Requested by the Pentagon for a Star Wars Program
is posted at
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1017416279,95072,
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Part 2 - Rep. McKinney's 9/11 Inquiry * 'Stupid Tour' Update * Star Wars Comments
29 March 2002 == Part two
4) Rep. McKinney - A hero in the demand for inquiry into 9-11
5) Michael Moore's Stupid Tour' Update
6) Comments Requested by the Pentagon for a Star Wars Program
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Rep. McKinney - A hero in the demand for inquiry into 9-11
This information was received via Jean Hudon's list serve, posted on the web at http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000/Archives2002/TurningTide5.htm
(US) Rep. McKinney - A hero in the demand for inquiry into 9-11
DateThu, 28 Mar 2002
We have a hero in the demand for inquiry into 9-11. Congresswoman Cynthia Ann McKinney from Georgia has begun demanding that the Bush/Bin Laden connection and the bizarre fabrications making up the official story around the 9-11, WTC attacks, be FULLY INVESTIGATED.
She has suffered much hate mail from this, and she needs our support. In just five years, Cynthia Ann McKinney, Georgia's first African-American Congresswoman and the only woman serving in the state's congressional delegation, has emerged as an internationally renowned advocate for voting rights, human rights and the strengthening of business ties between Africa and the United States. She is known as a passionate, intelligent, charismatic and effective member of the House of Representatives.
As a Georgia state legislator from 1988 to 1992, Congresswoman McKinney gained national attention because of her determined struggle for a fair and just reapportionment plan in Georgia. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives by a decisive margin in 1992, McKinney has continued that struggle. Her new district, the Fourth Congressional District of Georgia, was redrawn as a result of recent US. Supreme Court decisions challenging the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act.
The New York Times reported this week the Senate committee voted unanimously to dramatically widen the 9-11 inquiries. This doesn't mean it's a done deal, it could still be glossed over. HOWEVER, with committed people of conscience like Rep. McKinney pushing and pushing behind the committees, WE COULD HAVE A REAL INQUIRY.
Here's a courageous person in government who deserves our support for standing up and speaking out.
Please send cards of thanks and support to:
Congresswoman Cynthia Ann McKinney
124 Cannon Building Washington, DC 20515
ph 202 225 1605 fax 202 226 0691
http://www.house.gov/mckinney/
McKinney Interview - Flashpoints!
DB: Well, Congresswoman Cynthia Mckinney, it is great to have you with us on Flashpoints. I wanted to follow up on that very powerful commentary with just a few questions that come off speeches you have made from the House floor on related information. First of all, why do you oppose the Rumsfeld 48.1 billion dollar increase in the military budget? What is most troubling about this for you?
CM: It was incredible sitting in the room on the day that secretary Rumsfeld gave his presentation to members of the Armed Services Committee. Of course I serve on the House Armed Services Committee, and every year the Secretary of Defense comes before that Committee with a statement on the budget.
Now, the $48.1 billion increase that Secretary Rumsfeld requested was interesting because basically what he said was we can afford it. Notwithstanding the fact that the Pentagon has lost 2.3 trillion dollars that we very well cannot afford to have lost.
DB: Lost it? Where did they lose it?
CM: That's a darn good question. You would think that Arthur Anderson is their accountant over there. They have lost 2.3 trillion dollars, and they don't know where to find that money. And of course the Secretary acknowledged the fact 2.3 trillion dollars remain unaccounted for, but in his testimony to the House Armed Services Committee, the Secretary said that the US can afford it. Now, he also said that we have a responsibility in this brave new post September 11 world, to make sure that we can adequately defend ourselves. And what he used as a justification for this unprecedented hike, the biggest hike in a generation, was the fact of the events around September 11. But as you know, and I know, it wasn't the military that failed. It was a failure of people who had information to act.
We know that there were several warnings that were given prior to the events of September 11. From people in Germany to people in the Cayman Islands to people even, now we learn about the owners of the pilot school. People were calling in to the FBI and the CIA and they were giving information that was critical.
Even prior to these warnings we had the trial itself from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. And we had the trial from the American embassy bombing... And now the US government is being sued by survivors of the embassy bombings, because it is clear that America had warnings and did nothing. Did nothing to protect the lives of the people who serve in our foreign service and who serve us in other ways in our embassies around the world. Now the US government is being sued, and we're gonna have to pay for that, as those families are now paying every day with the loss of their loved ones
There was adequate warning. There were people who failed to act on the warning. And that's what ought to be investigated. But instead of requesting that Congress investigate what went wrong and why, we had president Bush (painful for me to say that, but) we had president Bush placing a call to Majority Leader Senator Tom Daschle asking him NOT to investigate the events of September 11, And then, hot on the heels of the president's phone call was another phone call from the vice president asking that Tom Daschle also not investigate the events that lead to September 11.
My question is, What do they have to hide? And why is it that the American people are being asked to make tremendous sacrifices now in our civil liberties. And the fact that we got this request for an unprecedented hike in -- the hike alone of 48.1 billion dollars is more than any one of our allies spend total on their defense.
And then the other issue that saddens me is the fact that the former President, president Bush's daddy, sits on the board of the Carlyle Group. And so we get this presidency, of questionable legitimacy, requesting a nearly unprecedented amount of money to go into a defense budget for defense spending that will directly benefit his father.
Where are the brakes on transparency and corruption that I see happening as a result of the fact that the president's father stands to make money off of the very requests that the president has made, on what I would call a specious argument saying that we need to increase defense spending because of Sept 11, when we now know that there was enough warning that we didn't have to even experience September 11 at all; at least that's the way it is now beginning to appear.
DB: How would the father make money on this budget?
CM: The father sits on the board of an organization called the Carlyle Group. Now when we had Frank Carlucci come to testify at the House International Relations Committee shortly after George W was sworn in,
DB: former Defense Secretary
CM: former Defense Secretary -- and we have a requirement that organizations that come before our committee, the House International Relations Committee, have to disclose Federal contracts. And so I requested of our chairman, Chairman Hyde, whether or not the Carlyle Group would be subjected to that requirement, since everyone else has to do it. And of course the Carlyle Group was NOT required to make any disclosure as to the Federal contracts that it had. That in itself means that they are skirting the rules of the House.
Notwithstanding that, the fact that the father sits on the board of the Carlyle Group, which is one of the highest level defense contractors in the country. I think they're number 11 or 12 in defense contracts. And they have at least one program, the Crusader, which doesn't work, it's a weapons system that doesn't work, has experienced tremendous cost overruns, and yet it continues to be funded, and we can only think that it's the heavy hand of very well-placed lobbyists that make sure that weapons systems that are, that have a connection with the Carlyle Group get funded. And even building contracts: bases abroad, all of the bases that we are now looking at, new bases going into Uzbekistan. The positioning of troops in former Soviet Georgia -- those troops are going to have to be housed, fed, and the weapons systems are going to have to be contained, and all of that is money. And sadly the Carlyle Group will benefit from this increase in funding that has been requested by the president.
Interestingly also, and probably the scariest of all, was the new mission, as identified by the Secretary, for our Armed Services. And that is that a major role now for the US military will be to occupy an opponent's capital and displace its regime.
Now, if that's the mission -- and we've been told that there are as many as 60 countries around the world that host terror cells that we need to go in and flush out -- then basically what we're talking about is expanding US military presence all over the planet. And that is a frightening experience and a frightening thought for me because I know that if we provide weapons they get used. And if our troops are there, they are going to use those weapons and those weapons that we provide might even be used against our own troops; we have to be very careful about that.
But interestingly the Secretary said that they intend to "drain the swamp", and it's interesting to me that it appears to me that this new mission of our military to go into a capital and take it over was started in Washington DC.
DB: Final question, Congresswoman McKinney. These are mighty powerful thoughts you're expressing here. I'm wondering how much support you have in Congress, and perhaps you have heard from people who are quite unhappy with your voicing these kinds of very strong, controversial thoughts
CM: It's always good to hear from people who think like you. I definitely hear from people who don't think like you. And that's healthy. It's a part of the American process. But just as it's healthy for me to hear from people who don't think like me, it's also very healthy for people like me to have a voice and to be willing to speak. And it's totally inappropriate, I believe, for my patriotism to be questioned, my feelings of attachment and loyalty for America to be questioned
DB: Has it been questioned?
CM: You would be surprised at the hate mail that I get in the Congressional office.
DB: What do people say to you?
CM: I wish I had a piece right here and I'd read it to you. We got one piece that told me that I needed to go back to Africa and take Jesse with me. it seems that the people who write in find it impossible to omit the fact that I'm black. And so the racial aspect of the hatred also comes out. I can accept people who disagree. But I don't know that we need thought police in our universities, because our universities are supposed to teach freedom of thought. And I don't know that we need thought police and speech police inside the US Congress, because the Congress is supposed to represent Americans of all stripes and all ideologies. And I know that there is a very powerful peace movement in this country. I hear from them, I know they're out there. I'd love to hear a little bit more from them.
DB: Well, we have very much appreciated hearing from you today. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, reading her essay "Thoughts on our war against terrorism", and then speaking with us on Flashpoints here on Pacifica radio. We thank you so much for your time and your good
information and commentary.
CM: Thank you very much and I look forward to talking with you again.
=========================================================================================================================================================
For a related story, the BBC reports:
Did Secret CIA Anthrax Mailing 'Test' Go Terribly Wrong?
BBCNews.co.uk
3-18-2
An investigation raised the possibility that there was a secret CIA project to investigate methods of sending anthrax through the mail which went madly out of control. The shocking assertion is that a key member of the covert operation may have removed, refined and eventually posted weapons-grade anthrax which killed five people.
For this complete article, visit:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/audiovideo/programmes/newsnight/archive/newsid_1873000/1873368.stm
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
5) Michael Moore's Stupid Tour' Update
An update from Michael Moore: The Stupid Tour Is Extended
Monday, March 25, 2001
Dear friends,
Good news... I've been able to line up (with the help of lots of good people around the country), more than a DOZEN extra cities for the "Stupid White Men" book tour.
Today's #1 ranking for "Stupid White Men" on the New York Times bestseller list has, I honestly believe, very little to do with me and a WHOLE LOT to do with you and the powerful rebuttal you have given to the media mantra of "GEORGE W. BUSH HAS THE HIGHEST APPROVAL RATINGS IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND!"
That more Americans are reading this book, this week, than any other book in the country has sent a stunning dagger to the heart of the right-wing agenda -- and they are going bonkers trying to figure it out! Well, there is nothing to figure out. Those approval ratings are the biggest bunch of B.S. since daddy Bush's 90% approval rating one year before he was sent packing. Take heart in this folks. I want you to share this day, this incredible victory with me. Let's hope it's the beginning of the end for those boys who are occupying our Oval Office.
Gee, did I just break their new Patriot Act by saying that? Let's hope so!
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
I will be in Kansas City for two events tonight, Monday, March 25th (the first is at UMKC, the second event will be at 10pm at the Uptown Theatre). Then I'll be back in New York at NYU on Wednesday (March 27th).
Other dates include Northwest Michigan College in Traverse City on Monday, April 1st; Ithaca on April 3rd; and at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY, on April 4th. Later in April, I will be coming to Tufts University near Boston, Denton and Dallas, TX; Oklahoma City and Norman, OK; Champaign-Urbana, IL; Palo Alto, CA; Portland and Eugene, OR, and Seattle.
Tentative cities still in the works include Philadelphia, Atlanta, Tampa, Raleigh-Durham, Grand Rapids, East Lansing, Saginaw, Athens, OH -- and more are planned for later.
A Canadian tour is also being put together. The book has been #1 in Canada for the past three weeks. Many thanks to all of you up there who look south and roll your eyes in disbelief.
Please go to my website to get the exact times and locations.
Michael Moore
Author
Filmmaker
Middle East Envoy
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
6) Comments Requested by the Pentagon for a Star Wars Program
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Office of the Secretary; Preparation of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense Extended Test Range Environmental Impact Statement
ACTION Public Comment Period - COMMENTS DUE BY APRIL 25
SUMMARY
In order to meet the requirement to increase the realism of GMD integrated flight testing, MDA proposes to enhance the current test capability that includes the missile launch sites and array of sensors and other test equipment associated with the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Test Site (RTS) at Kwajalein Atoll, the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) in Hawaii and Vandenberg Air Force Base (AFB) in California.
The Department of Defense is publishing this notice to announce the initiation and preparation of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) Extended Test Range (ETR) Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) per Council of Environmental Quality regulations.
BACKGROUND
The Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) Joint Program Office of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has been directed to conduct more operationally realistic testing of the GMD element of the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS).
The GMD element of BMDS is being developed to protect the entire United States against limited ballistic missile threats during the midcourse segment of an attacking missile's flight. The extension of the GMD test range would increase the realism of GMD testing by using multiple engagement scenarios, trajectories, geometry, distances, speeds of targets and interceptors that closely resemble those in which an operational system would be required to provide an effective defense.
Scoping Process
This EIS will assess environmental issues associated with the proposed action; reasonable alternatives including the no-action alternative; foreseeable future actions; and cumulative effects.
Public input and comments are solicited concerning the environmental safety and occupational health issues related to the proposed action. As a part of the decision-making process, the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command (USASMDC) is managing the preparation of the EIS for flight-testing of GMD on behalf of the MDA.
PUBLIC COMMENTS/SEND TO THIS ADDRESS
Comments concerning the public scoping process or the EIS process should be addressed to U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, ATTNSMDC-EN-V (Mrs. Julia Hudson-Elliott), 106 Wynn Drive, Huntsville, AL 35805, or by e-mail at gmdetreis@smdc.army.mil.
[Federal Register: March 28, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 60)] [Notices] [Page 14919-14920]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCIDfr28mr02-38]
= = = = = = = = = = = =
The Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space suggests that you reply soon with the following points for their consideration:
1) Star Wars test expansion will be expensive and will require cuts in education, health care, social security and the like.
2) No real threat has been established. Who is the enemy?
3) Star Wars will be destabilizing and create a new arms race.
4) This program is really about U.S. "control and domination" and will in the end only benefit the military industrial complex.
For more information on the Global Network and to join their campaigns, contact the
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
Bruce Gagnon - globalnet@mindspring.com
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, FL. 32607
(352) 337-9274
http://www.space4peace.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Collapsing doubts on warming * Rep. Pete Stark * Castro at Monterrey * Peltier Break
25 March 2002
The first item is a follow-up article to the news in last issue about the near sudden collapse of a major ice shelf in Antartica. Yet, amazingly, the debate on global warming continues. One of the networks interviewed an "expert" stating that global warming is not yet proven as causing this unprecedented incident.. He said they were still developing the mathematical modeling. Yet, among the other amazing accomplishments of Bart Jordan (see previous issue), I learned that Bart completed and presented such a model when in the U.S. military service in the 1950's! Bart told me that he attempted to retrieve this report, but it disappeared from all the records, even his abstracts were missing. The stats and inevitable study of the work and life of Bart Jordan goes beyond a beautiful mind. They will reveal the suppression of information by those taking over our freedoms and endangering our planet to suck as much temporary treasures as possible from the life force -- for a fossil-fueled military consciousness -- reaching toward or surpassing a point of no return for the carbon saturation on Earth, which may end up resembling the 95+% CO2 saturation in the atmospheres of both Venus and Mars.
The second item is a statement of another courageous member of Congress, Pete Stark (D-Cal). He made his comments during the House debate on concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2003. His speech was brief and to the point: "..and I am sure they [the people] are going to recognize it when they see wasteful money spent on things like Star Wars, which will not work, and programs which do nothing except to pay for large defense contractors, who are related to former Republican Presidents, and I think they are going to see that this is an obscene, corrupt, and undemocratic attempt to harm those people who are most fragile in this country only to benefit the 1 or 2 percent of the very wealthiest."
Item three is another potent communication by Fidel Castro, which is aligned with the spirit of the democratic speech by Pete Stark. Castro presented this speech at the International Conference on Financing for Development on March 21, 2002. Fidel Castro said, "The prestige of the international financial institutions rates less than zero," and went on to suggest possible solutions in lessening the gap between the wealthy and those suffering in poverty.
Item four is from the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. It is imperative for the sake of justice, and for an end to racist and environmental exploitation, to resolve this case. Please lobby the Senate's Judicial Committee and House Reform Committee for FBI-abuse investigations. There now seems to be a good chance for the release of new information, which have been withheld by the FBI for more than 25-years.
For a quick note on the case of Lori Berenson. It was announced on network news that George W. Bush decided not to even bring up the subject of a pardon for this American woman placed and held in prison by a corrupt regime, during his meeting with the Peruvian president. Again, it was all so convenient to use a terrorist bombing, (which occurred in Lima within a week of the Bush visit), as a way of shifting focus to the interests of a ruthlessly controlled military-industrial global complex. President-select Bush and Peruvian President-select, Alejandro Toledo, have much in common, but compassion for an innocent tortured young woman is not one of them. Flyby News will keep you posted on any new significant developments.
In the next issue of Flyby News, we will include more details on the call from the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space for an intensive call-in campaign in support of the Kucinich -- "Space Preservation Act of 2002." The Congressional Call-In Days are from April 1-5. This campaign in support of H.R. 3616 has been endorsed by more than two hundred and fifty organizations. For more on this, visit http://www.space4peace.org . This would be a good time to write letters to the editors of local newspapers to get more support for the Call-In Campaign and for this legislation that can turnaround the whole military industrial complex. We must demand that they find a way to survive without the expansion of the arms race, and instead, unite with most all nations for peace in space, and help end terrorism in all forms, while re-engaging the sanity in governments to care, instead of destroying, our beloved planet.
1) Collapsing the doubts on warming
2) Congressman Pete Stark: "It does smack of fascism"
3) Castro's Speech: Intl. Conference on Financing for Development
4) Peltier Update - Progress Toward Obtaining New Evidence
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Collapsing the doubts on warming
By Derrick Z. Jackson, 3/22/2002
IF RHODE ISLAND really did cleave off and disintegrate beneath the sea, that might make the evening news. Brown University, Newport, the Pawtucket Red Sox, and cheap flights on Southwest would suddenly be artifacts in Atlantis. The next great collapse would take out Harvard University, Cape Cod, Fenway Park, and turn the Big Dig's billions into the world's biggest pothole. Maybe you folks elsewhere in the country could do without some of our snooty institutions, but it would be easy to lay an equivalent template somewhere over your state and wipe out several places precious to you, like Broadway, Chinatown, and Yankee Stadium or Coke, UPS, and Delta in Atlanta or Boeing, Microsoft, and Starbucks in Seattle.
We have no idea how lucky we are that global warming has not yet come to that, washing away our coffee shops, stadiums, and property values. Whether we act before our luck runs out is another story.
Down in Antarctica, a giant ice shelf that was at least 12,000 years old and 70 stories thick fractured into ice cubes in the space of five weeks. That is shocking by geological standards. While no one could say for sure if the particular collapse of the shelf known as Larsen B was directly due to global warming, there is little doubt that this is the kind of thing that would happen on a warmer planet.
''What we're seeing is pretty profound,'' said Ted Scambos, glaciologist for the National Snow and Ice Data Center. ''The polar regions have a way in which they amplify change. We're a water planet, and when you have an area that is at the freezing point, you can get some pretty strong feedback when snow or ice forms or melts. It is another message from the world's cold regions that profound things are happening.''
Scambos was quick to say over the telephone that not all of Antarctica is melting as fast as the wicked witch of the west. Some parts of the frozen continent show signs of thickening. Global warming theories include conflicting patterns of heat and cold across the planet. The inescapable overall fact is that the temperature at the earth's poles has risen 4.5 degrees in the last half-century, five times faster than the temperature of the rest of the planet.
Eighty percent of the world's ice is located in Antarctica. If it all melted, the world's sea level would rise more than 200 feet, destroying the coastal homes of the rich and famous and endangering hundreds of millions of the world's poor who have nowhere to move their shacks.
Many nations understand the facts. British Environment Minister Michael Meacher reacted to the collapse of Larsen B by calling it a ''wake-up call to the whole world.'' Meacher said, ''It's an indication of global warming which is extremely stark.''
The nation that produces the most greenhouse gases, the United States, is still sleeping behind the wheel of sport utility vehicles and frets more about anthrax from Osama than asthma from air-polluting companies. A stark example of how the United States stands stupidly apart from the rest of the world came last month when Eric Schaeffer resigned as director of the Environmental Protection Agency's office of regulatory enforcement. Schaeffer, a 12-year veteran who started at the EPA when President Bush's father was president, was in charge of monitoring power companies for pollution that he said kills 10,000 people a year, more than double the death toll in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
Schaeffer said he could no longer do his job when the White House and industry lobbyists were ''working furiously to weaken the laws we are trying to enforce.'' Schaeffer said his agency's momentum in settling pollution cases ''has effectively stopped.'' In recent days, by the White House's own admission and inside documents leaked to the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group critical of the Bush administration, the EPA is doing its best to let companies delay or avoid modernizing pollution controls and self-regulate their pollution levels.
Schaeffer said, ''We need to choose between children with asthma and influence peddlers who don't seem to care.''
The choice is also between a planet and a president who does not care. With Bush so invested in oil drilling, coal burning, and gaz guzzling, it will take a chunk of ice much bigger than the size of Rhode Island to fall off Antarctica. Bush's native Texas comes readily to mind, but then again, it did not matter to him that Houston had the worst air quality in the nation. Maybe when that city is drowned by the rising sea and the waters rush to the doorstep of Bush's ranch in Crawford, our president might look up to the sky and say, ''Houston, we have a problem.''
Derrick Z. Jackson's e-mail address is jackson@globe.com.
This story ran on page A19 of the Boston Globe on 3/22/2002.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/081/oped/Collapsing_the_doubts_on_warming+.shtml
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Congressman Pete Stark: "It does smack of fascism"
Comments during debate on Concurrent Resolution on the Budget, Fiscal Year 2003
(House of Representatives - March 20, 2002)
Mr. Chairman, there are some of us who remember this world in the 1930s, when Hitler suspended the Bundestag to promulgate conservative ideology and not let people speak. It is a shame that the Republicans in the House, Mr. Chairman, have taken up that same ideology and are denying a chance for debate and open discussion of a budget. It does smack of fascism; and it is too bad, because the American people will recognize that and understand that in a free economy, and in a free country that created programs like Social Security and Medicare and special education and aid for dependent children and aid for people who are unable to care for themselves, for the disabled, that to deny them care is obscene.
I think it will be quite clear that, for whatever reason, whether it is deficits or anything else, that the overwhelming desire of the Republican Party is to destroy programs in the Federal Government, except those few intended for the very wealthy. Most of the colleagues who are screaming about the war never wore a uniform other than the Boy Scout uniform. And I would like to suggest, as I said before, none of them have worked in free enterprise, which they tout so loudly. And yet, because that is where the campaign contributions come from, in the hundreds of millions of dollars, that is where their allegiance is. They are forsaking the seniors who need health care and who need an economic safety net. They are forsaking our children by denying them the chance to come along and get an education.
I am sure the American public is going to recognize this, and I am sure they are going to recognize it when they see wasteful money spent on things like Star Wars, which will not work, and programs which do nothing except to pay for large defense contractors, who are related to former Republican Presidents, and I think they are going to see that this is an obscene, corrupt, and undemocratic attempt to harm those people who are most fragile in this country only to benefit the 1 or 2 percent of the very wealthiest. And I hope my colleagues will vote down this budget.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Castro's Speech at the International Conference on Financing for Development
From:
The Permanent Mission of the Republic of Cuba to the United Nations
315 Lexington Avenue
New York, N.Y. 10016
Speech by Fidel Castro at the International Conference on Financing for Development
Monterrey, MARCH 21, 2002
Excellencies:
Not everyone here will share my thoughts. Still, I will respectfully say what I think. The existing world economic order constitutes a system of plundering and exploitation like no other in history. Thus, the peoples believe less and less in statements and promises. The prestige of the international financial institutions rates less than zero. The world economy is today a huge casino. Recent analyses indicate that for every dollar that goes into trade, over one hundred end up in speculative operations completely disconnected from the real economy.
As a result of this economic order, over 75 percent of the world population lives in underdevelopment, and extreme poverty has already reached 1.2 billion people in the Third World. So, far from narrowing the gap is widening. The revenue of the richest nations that in 1960 was 37 times larger than that of the poorest is now 74 times larger. The situation has reached such extremes that the assets of the three wealthiest persons in the world amount to the GDP of the 48 poorest countries combined. The number of people actually starving was 826 million in the year 2001. There are at the moment 854 million illiterate adults while 325 million children do not attend school. There are 2 billion people who have no access to low cost medications and 2.4 billion lack the basic sanitation conditions. No less than 11 million children under the age of 5 perish every year from preventable causes while half a million go blind for lack of vitamin A.
The life span of the population in the developed world is 30 years higher than that of people living in Sub-Saharan Africa. A true genocide! The poor countries should not be blamed for this tragedy. They neither conquered nor plundered entire continents for centuries; they did not establish colonialism, or re-established slavery; and, modern imperialism is not of their making. Actually, they have been its victims. Therefore, the main responsibility for financing their development lies with those states that, for obvious historical reasons, enjoy today the benefits of those atrocities.
The rich world should condone their foreign debt and grant them fresh soft credits to finance their development. The traditional offers of assistance, always scant and often ridiculous, are either inadequate or unfulfilled. For a true and sustainable economic and social development to take place much more is required than is usually admitted. Measures as those suggested by the late James Tobin to curtail the irrepressible flow of currency speculation --albeit it was not his idea to foster development-- would perhaps be the only ones capable of generating enough funds, which in the hands of the UN agencies and not of awful institutions like the IMF, could supply direct development assistance with a democratic participation of all countries and without the need to sacrifice the independence and sovereignty of the peoples.
The Consensus draft, which the masters of the world are imposing on this conference, intends that we accept humiliating, conditioned and interfering alms. Everything created since Bretton Woods until today should be reconsidered. A farsighted vision was then missing, thus, the privileges and interests of the most powerful prevailed. In the face of the deep present crisis, a still worse future is offered where the economic, social and ecologic tragedy of an increasingly ungovernable world would never be resolved and where the number of the poor and the starving would grow higher, as if a large part of humanity were doomed. It is high time for statesmen and politicians to calmly reflect on this. The belief that a social and economic order that has proven to be unsustainable can be forcibly imposed is really senseless.
As I have said before, the ever more sophisticated weapons piling up in the arsenals of the wealthiest and the mightiest can kill the illiterate, the ill, the poor and the hungry but they cannot kill ignorance, illnesses, poverty or hunger. It should definitely be said: "Farewell to arms!"
Something must be done to save Humanity!
A better world is possible!
Thank you.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Leonard Peltier Update - Progress Made Toward Obtaining New Evidence
From the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
Include in this message:
* Updates on the Motion to Reduce Leonard's Sentence
* Progress Made Toward Obtaining New Evidence
* Civil Rights Case
* Government Reform Committee
Dear Friends,
We are writing today with both good and bad news on the case of Leonard Peltier. But before we begin we want to thank all of you who have been sponsoring LPDC speakers and organizing Peltier events in your communities. Raising awareness continues to be essential and supporters have organized several successful events. Let's keep the LPDC speakers bureau busy and word of Leonard's case flowing! We also want to let you know that there will be three important events on June 26 marking 27 years since the shoot-out occurred. They include gatherings in Oglala, South Dakota, San Francisco, California and Boston, Massachusetts. We encourage you to plan on attending one of these events or organizing something in your community.
More details will be released soon.
BAD NEWS, BUT NOT SURPRISING
We regret to announce that the motion to reduce Leonard's sentence was denied by the U.S. District Court of North Dakota. We expected this case to be a challenge because of the many procedural obstacles it involved combined with the political nature of the Peltier case, especially in this district. However, we had hoped for more fairness given that Judge Benson, who tried Leonard, is no longer hearing cases. Judge Magnison denied the motion without a hearing based upon issues of timeliness. A motion to reduce sentence is supposed to be filed within a year following a conviction. However, we argued that filing at this late date was justified because of significant developments that occurred since trial, citing cases in which exceptions had been made due to extraordinary circumstances. The court said that the significant developments in question (government admission that it can't prove who shot agents/ballistics) had already been litigated. Judge Magnison refused to consider these issues despite the clearly different character of the case, which sought a review of sentence and not a new trial like before. Attorney Eric Seitz is appealing the decision to the Eighth Circuit.
NOW WHAT?
We MUST obtain new evidence and demand a new trial for Leonard Peltier. We are confident that key evidence exists in the thousands of documents that are withheld by the FBI and fortunately, we are moving closer to obtaining them.
GOOD NEWS!
Thanks to the persistent letters of supporters in Massachusetts, Representative Barney Frank wrote to the FBI insisting that the withheld documents be released given Clinton's Executive Order requiring the disclosure of documents after the passage of 25 years. The FBI Office of Public and Congressional Affairs responded by saying, "After receipt of your letter, the FBI consulted with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to request that the investigative records pertaining to Mr. Peltier that are 25 years or older be considered of significant historical interest subject to declassification review. NARA agreed and the process of declassification review has begun. Upon completion, the material will be accessioned to NARA and a declassified copy will be provided to your office. We anticipate completion of this project by the end of the year."
Attorney Mike Kuzma, who is handling Leonard's FOIA requests, wrote to NARA to learn when the declassification would be completed. Mike also asked that he be provided copies of the documents. NARA responded, "We have been informed that the records are still in the physical and legal custody of the FBI. The FBI has completed its declassification review and is currently processing the records for transfer to NARA and their subsequent public release. The transfer is expected to occur in May of this year. Following the transfer, NARA may require additional time to prepare for the public release of the records." This is a very positive development for us and strengthens our chances for obtaining new information. Furthermore, the documents are now protected against destruction because of their historical classification. The battle is not over, as we expect the documents to be partly censored for reasons of "national security" like before. But, we plan to demand the full release and exposure of the documents in court. It should also be noted that Mike Kuzma continues to pursue the documents through the Freedom of Information Act process. Requests have been submitted to FBI headquarters and numerous field offices across the country. With the exception of Portland, Oregon, all offices have reported that they possess records. We anticipate filing one or several suits to demand the release of these documents in the near future. Mike Kuzma is also working with law students involved in the Innocence Project of Osgoode Hall and the LPDC of Canada to obtain documents generated around the extradition.
MORE GOOD NEWS!
The civil rights complaint against the FBI has been drafted and the finishing touches are being added now. This case argues that the FBI violated Leonard's Constitutional Rights by lying to the Department of Justice, former President Clinton, the Parole Commission, and the public with the sole intention of denying Leonard fair clemency and parole reviews, thus costing him his long deserved freedom. We plan to do a major press blitz on the day the case is filed and we will need your participation. This is our chance to undo much of the disinformation disseminated by the FBI through the press in recent years. Please be prepared to forward the press release to your local media. We will let you know when we determine the exact date it will be filed. Please stay tuned.
NOTE: This case represents another opportunity to access the withheld FBI documents through discovery.
KEEP PUSHING CONGRESS FOR INVESTIGATIONS!
Meanwhile, a window of opportunity continues to exist with the House Committee on Government Reform. As you know this committee is planning to investigate cases of FBI misconduct leading to wrongful convictions. We must press the Reform Committee to shine its spot light on Leonard's case. Please continue to write Representative Burton on a regular basis, and cc your letters to your representative. A recent phone call to Rep Burton's office indicates that he is collecting and taking notice of our letters. Please send us copies of any response letters you receive from officials so that we can track their positions.
LET US KNOW
Let us know if you are organizing anything for Leonard whether it be for June 26 or any other date so that we can help by publicizing it. Do not hesitate to contact us to share your ideas and suggestions about building pressure and awareness for the freedom of Leonard Peltier!
Thank you.
In Solidarity,
LPDC
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
Tel. 785-842-5774
Email. lpdc@freepeltier.org
http://www.freepeltier.org
Editor's note: If anyone is interested in receiving a video tape of the May 2000 Congressional Briefing on the Case of Leonard Peltier, you can write to the coordinator of the Leonard Peltier Support Group of New Eagleland: Chris Groden - Email address: groden@hotmail.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Bart Jordan and advanced ancient civilizations
The bottom section of this page was originally posted 20 March 2002
The top section includes
Flyby News Exclusive Updates on Bart Jordan
and evidence of technologically advanced ancient civilizations
The Cassini Earth flyby was preceded by the launching of this NASA space probe in October 1997 with a record load of Plutonium on board. The probe was directed toward Venus to conduct two flybys that increased the speed significantly, and then the Cassini space probe was directed toward Earth traveling around 10 miles per second. It had the potential to release 400,000 curies of radioactive plutonium into our atmosphere in a breathable and ingest-able form. August 17/18, 1999, Cassini was less than minutes away from unprecedented tragedy, which could impact life for thousands of years. But it wasn't just that NASA or the US military would take such a risk, a greater surprise resulted when Bart Jordan called Flyby News because of a press release where he learned of the Plutonium content on board Cassini. Bart Jordan wanted to post a statement on how ancient civilizations knew all about development of such isotopes. Yet that information was just the tip of something I never could imagine as happening. Bart Jordan told me that he learned the languages of the ancient Hellenic (Greek), Germanic, and Semitic from his grandfather. After reading Gulliver's Travels in which Swift, although writing fiction, had accorded two moons to Mars he wanted to determine their exact revolutions and distances from Mars. In 1944 when Bart Jordan was seven years of age, he calculated the distances of moons, Phobos and Deimos (named by the ancient Greeks) from the center of Mars. Is there any other explanation for how Jordan's four measures appear in the statistical box of Encyclopaedia Britannica's article on Mars, running from 1966 to 1973? This is prior to NASA's ability to measure and confirm.
Jordan's article, "The Moons of Mars," published by QUEST For Knowledge (a British science publication) in 1997, was excerpted from his paper of 1944 and provided mathematical evidence that the moons of Mars were culled from the Asteroid Belt between Jupiter and Mars. Jordan also predicted the fifth moon of Uranus, which was known to the Homeric Greeks as Harmonia, and gave these calculations to Dr. Gerard Kuiper, who then identified the moon in 1948 (which he called Miranda after a heroine of Shakespeare). This moon renamed Miranda has a very interesting mark on its surface, described by NASA as having a "chevron" feature, which looks like a big number 7, with new and old terrain.
Bart Jordan's is currently working on a new paper where he will show how he derived measurements
from the alphabets of ancient languages. He expects to have this available for Flyby News to post in 2005.
For Flyby News original posting on Bart Jordan and references, see:
www.flybynews.com/bartjordan/
For other updates and links in Flyby News on Bart Jordan, see:
December 17, 2002 - Item 1
Bart Jordan's Moons of Mars
This Item contains links to NASA photos of the moons and the Cydonia region of Mars, as well as Miranda."
Visit this following link for a November, 2000 article by Harry Jordan:
Mars Theory Falls on Its Face?"
March 24, 2002 - Editors Notes
Bart Jordan's mathematical modeling on Global Warming concerns in the 1950's.
June 15, 2002 - Editor's Notes:
Warming World on Thin Ice - Bush Manifesto: Death by Carbon Dioxide
Measure Man's Mind and Mind Man's Measure
by Bart Jordan
The following is the final statement in an article Bart Jordan wrote, called Measure Man's Mind and Mind Man's Measure" published in the journal of the New England Antiquities Research Association Volume # 14, Spring 1985.
"..Patient reader: we all know that musicians are supposed to emote and not think. However, before leaving you with this minor statement of major systems, this truncated report inviting a thousand queries, allow this musician some emotive thoughts about Man's personal measure. From my former articles and foregoing account, it can be seen that much of what we are now may be measured against what we were then. And it is just this matter of measure that must be understood the "we" of then and now.
We are historic; we were prehistoric. How do we measure ourselves? Our intellectual present versus our intuitive past? Originality versus aboriginality? Such notions as present Man is matchless and past Man is witless have little validity and less virtue. There is a difference between hidden harmony and apparent harmony, between mentality and ornamentality, between a thinking individual and a thoughtless society. In mindful time past, we honoured our grandparents; in mindless time present, we threaten our grandchildren.
Where are the measures of yesteryear? Blue Winter Mother, Green Spring Daughter, Yellow Year Person, Orange Autumn Son, Red Summer Father a bow has been set in the cloud, a covenant made with the Earth. There be a message in these measures for a man's family and for the Family of Man:
Love Creation and Created
Honour Moon, Sun, and Planet
Obey Time and Space
Obey Sound and Light
Honour Earth, Star, and Comet
Love Finite and Infinite
We have inherited more than the wind. We have a measure of Man's mind.
The following information was originally posted
20 March 2002
News Flash! ! !
An Antarctic ice shelf that was 200 metres thick and had a surface area of 3,250 square kilometres has broken apart in less than a month.
"We knew what was left would collapse eventually, but the speed of it is staggering," said Dr David Vaughan, a glaciologist at the Bas in Cambridge.
"[It is hard] to believe that 500 billion tonnes of ice sheet has disintegrated in less than a month."
The full article, with graphics and maps, is located at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1880000/1880566.stm
This information is updated at FlybyNews.com under Mounting Evidence of Global Warming
"When in the dim beginnings of the years,
God mixed into humans the rapture and the tears,
and scattered through brains the starry stuff, and said,
"Behold, this is not enough, for I must test the spirit to make sure
that they can dare the vision and endure,
Leaving behind only a broken clue, a crevice where the glory glimmers through,
Leaving them in tragic loneliness to choose,
With all in life to win, or all in life to lose."
--Anonymous
1) Disclosure Project Update
2) HAARP Experiments Activated
3) The sound of silence
1) Disclosure Project Update
The Disclosure Project (DP) is a nonprofit research project working to fully disclose the facts about UFOs, extraterrestrial intelligence, and classified advanced energy and propulsion systems. We have over 400 government, military, and intelligence community witnesses testifying to their direct, personal, first hand experience with UFOs, ETs, ET technology, and the cover-up that keeps this information secret.
For revealing witness testimonies, and background on the Disclosure Project, see Flyby News Archives, posted 11 May 2001
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid989633463,12613,
The following excerpts are from three sample DP Testimonies.:
Admiral Lord Hill-Norton:
Five-Star Admiral, Former Head of the British Ministry of Defense, July 2000
Lord Hill-Norton is a five-star Admiral and the former Head of the British Ministry of Defense who was kept in the dark about the UFO subject during his official capacities. In this short interview, he states that this subject has great significance and should no longer be denied and kept secret. He emphatically states, "that there is a serious possibility that we are being visited and have been visited for many years by people from outer space, from other civilizations; that it behooves us to find out who they are, where they come from, and what they want. This should be the subject of rigorous scientific investigation, and not the subject of rubbishing by tabloid newspapers."
Sgt. Clifford Stone: US Army
"During the discussion of UFOs, the question, ultimately, is going to come up, can any government keep secrets, let alone the U.S. Government? And the answer to that is unequivocally yes. But one of the greatest weapons the intelligence community has at their disposal is a predisposition by the American people, the American politicians and the debunkers people who wish to try to debunk UFO information. They immediately come out and say, oh, we can't keep secrets, we can't keep secrets. Well, the truth is, yes, we can.
"The National Reconnaissance Office remained secret for many, many years. The mere existence of the NSA remained secret. The development of the atomic weapon remained secret until once you exploded one you eventually had to tell some people what was going on.
"And we are conditioned by our own paradigms not to accept the possibility or probability of a highly advanced intelligent civilization coming here to visit us. You have evidence in the form of highly credible reports of objects being seen, of the entities inside these objects being seen. Yet, we look for a prosaic explanation and we throw out the bits and pieces of the evidence that doesn't meet our paradigm. So it is a self-keeping secret. You can conceal it in plain sight. It is political suicide to go and start hitting up intelligence agencies to get this information released. So, most of your members of Congress, and I know I've worked with a lot of them along that line, will balk and try not to do it. I can name you three members of Congress that were point blank asked to have a congressional inquiry on what happened here at Roswell
"We have got to get the documentation as it exists in the Government files. We have got to get it released before it ultimately is destroyed. A good example is the Blue Fly and Moon Dust files. I had classified documents the Air Force acknowledged. When I got members of Congress to help me open up more files, they were immediately destroyed and I can prove this.
"Somewhere along the line, they may see that material and realize there is some very highly sensitive information that would have a damning effect upon the national security of United States should it become compromised. It needs to be further protected, to insure that there is only a limited access to that information to a small number of people. So small you can put them on a list of paper, on a piece of paper, and list them by name. Thus, you have the special access programs. The controls that were supposed to be put on the special access programs are not there. When Congress did their review of the way we protect documents, and the way we go ahead and implement our secrecy programs, they found that you had special access programs within special access programs that is was essentially impossible to keep control of them all by Congress. And, I'm telling you right now; it is essentially impossible to keep control of them all.
"When it comes to UFOs, the same criteria applies. Therefore, only a small nucleus within the intelligence community, numbering less than a hundred no, I'd suggest less than 50 control all that information. It is not subject to congressional review or oversight at all. So, Congress needs to go ahead and ask the hard questions and convene a hearing."
For the Disclosure Online Fax Form to Contact Members of Congress, see:
http://www.disclosureproject.org/campaign.htm#ContactRep
Sgt. Karl Wolfe: US Air Force
"I didn't want to look at it any longer than that, because I felt that my life was in jeopardy. Do you understand what I'm saying? I would have loved to have looked at it longer, I would have loved to have had copies. I would love to have said more about it, discussed it more, but I knew I couldn't. I knew the young fellow who was sharing this was really, really overstepping his bounds at that point.
"I felt that he just needed somebody to talk to. He hadn't discussed it, couldn't discuss it, and he wasn't doing it for any ulterior motive other than the fact that I think he had the weight of this thing on him and it was distressing to him
"I knew that I couldn't go anyplace for at least five years without telling the State Department where I was, after I left the military. Any time I traveled I had to notify and get permission, even in the United States. They had to know where I was all the time. As an example, if we went to Vietnam there was always someone there with us, with a gun, ready to annihilate us basically if we should fall into the hands of the enemy. They didn't want the enemy to get us; we would be killed instead.
"So we knew we were operating under these sort of conditions. Your life was in jeopardy all the time, should you fall into the wrong hands. So we were aware of that. I was told when I left that I would be investigated on a regular basis to make sure that I wasn't involved in any peculiar activities that didn't suit the government's needs."
To learn more visit the Disclosure Project's Website:
www.DisclosureProject.org/
2) HAARP Experiments Activated
From: ELFRAD 1986 -- Extremely Low Frequency Research And Development
The HAARP installation in Alaska has announced a campaign of testing for two weeks starting March 15, 2002.
It is my understanding that each test will last ten hours beginning at 7 PM Alaska time each evening. The frequencies being used in this particular campaign are 3.2 MHz, 3.3 MHz and 5.8 MHz.
The ELFRAD Group will also be monitoring for unusual signals however at a much lower frequency. It is believed that it may be possible to detect and record ULF and ELF signals which may be generated during this campaign. which propagate through the earth rather than through the atmosphere.
Unusual signals in the range from .01 to 45 hertz will be recorded during this period and displayed on this page.
http://www.elfrad.com/
The charts are time referenced to the bureau of time standards WWV in Boulder, Colorado to within plus or minus 10 milliseconds, in order for others to compare their receptions.
Acoustic sound & image from HAARP insertion tests can be found at the following links.
(The sound recording is speeded up several times.)
http://www.anomalous-images.com/elf/Schnebly20Resample201.jpg
http://www.anomalous-images.com/elf/Schnebly20Resample201_19x.wav
For more on HAARP, visit Flyby News Archive link for
"Military Weather Experiments, ChemTrails, and Psychotronic Warfare"
3) The sound of silence
by Kathryn Casa
BRATTLEBORO Five weeks ago, a brave and excellent voice fell silent. J.B.C. "Tommy" Thomas was a community activist, an educator, a veteran, a teacher, a church-goer and a musician. Thomas died suddenly during a meeting, a day after he had been skiing with family. At 76, his life had been full. He had served as president of All Souls Unitarian Church, a board member of the Brattleboro Music Center and the Brattleboro Area Drop-In Center.
When he died he was president of the Windham Arts Council and the Marlboro Conservation Commission, and was on the board of the Windham Regional Commission and the Southern Vermont Regional Marketing Organization, and was working with Early Educational Services.
Wednesday, March 13, 2002
By all accounts a life well lived.
Those agencies and organizations doubt are feeling the loss of such a dynamic contributor. And even though Thomas' work with them was not finished, they are strong and well-established, and other voices will pick up where his left off.
But Tommy Thomas leaves one more job unfinished. It was a job he never asked for; instead, it was thrust upon him the morning of Dec. 2 when a frightened man burst into the church where Thomas was about to worship. Robert "Woody" Woodward left that church with seven bullets in his body and died a few hours later.
Woody Woodward never knew Tommy Thomas. Perhaps there are bigger powers at play that understand why their fates converged that morning in West Brattleboro; why their existence assumed a parallel course for two brief months; why the synchronicity of their nicknames today is woven into the same printed paragraph.
But Tommy Thomas had no doubt as to his responsibility. He listened to Woodward because something told him he should; he witnessed the events that unfolded in that church because he felt it was his responsibility to do so; and he stayed the course when other witnesses fell silent. Until he died, Tommy Thomas knew what he saw and did not hesitate to talk about it. He wasn't silenced by critics who tried to hush him; less than 10 days before his death, he stood his ground before town and police officials and asked pointedly, "Are you telling me I didn't see what I saw?"
Three months later, Brattleboro is in the twilight zone between trauma and resolution. Some grieve the loss of a man's life, others the loss of confidence; some aim their anger at police, others at this newspaper for keeping Woodward's last day alive. All this plays out against the silence of the system. We wait for the attorney general to make a decision, wait for word of a grand jury, wait for autopsy results, wait for the clarity of truth to pierce the shroud of questions that continue to surround Dec. 2.
As the months pass, time has not healed us and, ultimately, silence will not serve us. Instead, it dims the memories and dulls the questions.
Woody Woodward was quieted too soon.
So was Tommy Thomas. But his example can be our collective legacy: He used his voice as a tool -- to question, to build community. We must do the same.
Kathryn Casa is managing editor of the Reformer.
1999-2002 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and NENI Newspapers, posted:
http://www.reformer.com/Stories/0,1002,8854%257E459266%257E102%257E%257E,00.html
*Woody would have been 38 on Tuesday, March 19, 2002, had he not been killed by the Brattleboro Police on December 2, 2001.
For more on this case, visit:
www.justiceforwoody.org
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Flawed (Fraudulent) Missile Defense * 2002--Warming * Berenson Update/Action
18 March 2002
This issue's first item is another powerful article about the fraud and flaws of missile defense. The US has more than enough force to protect itself from anyone, except, perhaps, from itself. As the US pours billions into research, development to dominate space, a new escalation of the arms race begins in terms of the increase of all sorts of weapons of mass destruction.
The second item is an update on this year's particularly warm temperatures, and the return of El Nino. The global warming issue is heating up. Check FlybyNews.com's updated link page on "Global Warming" for more information and possible solutions. Item 3 is an update on Lori Berenson, and the request for your call to the White House by Tuesday and Wednesday this week.
1) The Flawed (Fraudulent) Missile Defense Technology
2) Taking the Earth's temperature
3) Lori Berenson Update Call the White House
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) The Flawed (Fraudulent) Missile Defense Technology
Blowing the Whistle on Bad Science
Arianna Huffington, AlterNet
March 14, 2002
It's the biggest comeback of the millennium to date: nuclear weapons. Only this isn't your parents' nuclear winter. It's a whole new one, as is made clear in a classified Pentagon report leaked last week detailing the Bush administration's willingness to significantly lower the threshold for going nuclear.
Apparently the bar has now been set at "in the event of surprising military developments." But as recent events in the Shah-i-Kot Valley proved, there are rarely any other kind. So this pretty much means "at the will of the president."
Last week also saw the release of a report from the General Accounting Office (GAO) that details how the Pentagon, two major military contractors, TRW and Boeing, and a team of high-powered MIT scientists fabricated the success of the nation's first missile defense test -- turning an embarrassing failure into a phony triumph.
As attention grabbing as this sounds, the report is not really news to anyone who has been following the case of Dr. Nira Schwartz and the United States Government vs. TRW and Boeing.
Schwartz, a scientist and computer expert, was hired in 1995 by TRW to test the key component of the missile defense system: the ability of our missiles (charmingly known as "kill vehicles") to discriminate between incoming enemy warheads and harmless decoys. She soon discovered that the technology being used was fatally flawed.
Alarmed by her findings, she approached her boss, Robert Hughes, and insisted that TRW reveal the problem to the Pentagon. When she was rebuffed, Schwartz sent a letter to the company warning: "If you will not notify the U.S. government, then I will." She was fired the next day.
Two months later, Schwartz sued TRW on behalf of the U.S. government under the False Claims Act, asserting that the defense contractor had knowingly defrauded the American people. In the six years it has taken the case to work its way through a legal maze, on-going tests, including the $100 million debacle highlighted in the GAO report, have only confirmed Schwartz's findings.
By any yardstick, this is a shocking story, affecting both our national security and the nation's fiscal health. According to a recent estimate by the Congressional Budget Office, the price tag for a missile defense system would be over $230 billion. Worse, by sacrificing the Anti-
Ballistic Missile Treaty on the altar of a missile defense shield that has been proven not to work, we are ushering in a new era of nuclear proliferation that will make the world a far more dangerous place.
Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), who requested the GAO report on TRW, makes it clear that he has no "theological problem" with a missile defense shield. "If you can prove to me," he told me, "that we can build a system capable of intercepting missiles from rogue nations, and that it will not bring with it the consequence of restarting an arms race, then I'm open to it. But the report raises way too many questions about concealment and fundamental flaws in the technology."
It's not like the information about test failures and fraud has been flying under the radar. After a judge finally unsealed Schwartz's suit, the story ended up on the front page of the New York Times in March 2000, followed by a Dan Rather interview with Schwartz on CBS.
So the question becomes: Why is the national missile shield as seemingly unstoppable as the missiles it purports to destroy? And what will it take for this story to penetrate Washington's defenses against critical information affecting national policy?
"The government's system of checks and balances has badly failed at every level throughout this process," missile defense expert and MIT professor Ted Postol told me. "What it's going to take now is stirring the public imagination and outrage." Perhaps it will take dramatizing Nira Schwartz's story and turning her into the Erin Brockovich of the nuclear arms debate.
When I first talked with Dr. Schwartz on the phone, it was hard to picture her as the heroine in a David vs. Goliath struggle against the military-industrial complex. She speaks haltingly in a soft, thickly accented voice (she emigrated from Israel in 1984). But as she continued to tell her story, her words filled with passion, patriotism and integrity, it became clear that this is a woman on a moral mission.
"As an adopted citizen of this beautiful country," she told me, "I would do anything to be able to protect what I love so dearly. But we've wasted a decade, and billions of dollars, in a quest for a missile defense shield based on a technology that will never work."
Her commitment to exposing the truth has come at a high price. A gifted cientist with a Ph.D. in physics and engineering, and the holder of 24 United States patents, Schwartz has found herself effectively blackballed since filing her suit -- unable to land a job in her field despite having sent out over 300 resumes.
It's a disturbing precedent -- especially given the Bush administration's obsession with secrecy, and our elected representatives' unwillingness to take on a popular wartime president,
lest they be branded traitors. In this kind of political climate, we need courageous whistle blowers like Nira Schwartz more than ever.
"She is definitely a hero," Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), who has requested a Congressional hearing on this issue, told me. "She's like a 21st Century Paul Revere who is warning that this fundamentally flawed technology will not protect the American people, and at the same time it's being used to destroy the ABM treaty."
When Gary Hart and Warren Rudman released their prophetic report warning of America's vulnerability to terrorist attacks, no one paid attention, and thousands died on 9/11. Will untold millions have to die before we start paying attention to Nira Schwartz?
2002 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
Original article is posted:
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12628
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Taking the Earth's temperature
Taking the Earth's temperature by Leonie Haimson
14 Mar 2002
The global temperature data for January and February are in -- and it sure has been hot.
Both the Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that the year started with the warmest January since record-keeping began. Global temperatures were 0.69 degrees Celsius (1.24 degrees Fahrenheit) above the long-term average. In large areas of North America and Central Asia, January was an astonishing 4 degrees Celsius (7 degrees Fahrenheit) above average. February was also extremely warm, according to the GISS figures, although the month came in second to the record February of 1998.
About the data
Globally, the three months from November through January were the second-warmest on record for that three-month period, measuring 0.57 degrees Celsius (1.03 degrees Fahrenheit) above average. In the U.S., temperatures during these months were the highest ever recorded -- a toasty 2.4 degrees Celsius (4.3 degrees Fahrenheit) above the long-term mean (Planet Ark, Reuters, 25 Feb 2002). In Canada, they're calling it the "year without winter" (Toronto Globe and Mail, 08 March 2002).
Meanwhile, NOAA scientists are glimpsing signs of an impending El Nino in the equatorial Pacific, with ocean temperatures already having increased by 2 degrees Celsius (3.75 degrees Fahrenheit) in February. They predict that over the next few weeks, the seas off the coast of Ecuador and Peru will warm still further, most likely leading to the emergence of a full-fledged El Nino over the next three months. Signs of a developing El Nino have appeared earlier than usual this year (ENS, 11 Mar 2002).*
Along with warmer-than-normal ocean temperatures, El Ninos customarily bring heavy rain and floods to large parts of the U.S. and South America, and drought and forest fires to many areas of Southeast Asia, Australia, and the western Pacific. The last El Nino, in 1997, was especially disruptive worldwide, contributing to famines in Papua New Guinea and devastating fires and smog in Indonesia (Planet Ark, Reuters, 08 Feb. 2002).
Although it's still early, it's safe to say that overall, 2002 is shaping up to be a very hot year.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For this article and links at Grist Magazine, see
http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/heatbeat/weather031402.asp?source=daily?source=mailify
Leonie Haimson was the climate columnist for the former Liberty Tree Alliance website. She coauthored The Way Things Really Are; Debunking Rush Limbaugh on the Environment for the Environmental Defense Fund, and edited Common Questions on Climate Change for the U.N. Environment Programme.
*For the latest on the progress of El Nino, check out this NOAA advisory.
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Lori Berenson Update Call the White House
LORI ENDS 25-DAY HUNGER STRIKE
(Thursday, March 13, 2002)
To All Friends and Supporters of Lori Berenson:
Rhoda was thrilled to hear Lori's voice on the telephone this afternoon telephone privileges from the prison were suspended when the hunger strike by political prisoners began in Lima on February 11. Lori had joined the strike on February 18, hours before the Supreme Court announced it upheld her sentence.
Lori sounded strong and although she said she was not ready to "run a marathon" she said she felt fine. Her last previous meal had been on Sunday evening February 17 and she has been living on sugarwater since. Lori was also grateful for the visit from US Consular Officer Hugo Rodriguez last Friday. He had reported to us that Lori looked healthy on the 19th day of her hunger protest but that other prisoners did not seem to be doing as well. Lori had expressed her concerns for the others to him.
Although phone privileges were restored it was not clear when visiting privileges would be permitted to resume. The prisons have been closed to visitors since the strike began. The US Consular officer was permitted to visit under the rules of the Vienna Convention. As parents, we are grateful to Bishop Luis Bambaren, head of the Council of Bishops for the Catholic Church in Peru, for his compassionate request to the prisoners throughout Peru to end the hunger strike.
Rhoda will be visiting Lori on Saturday March 30.
URGENT ACTION -- PLEASE CALL WHITE HOUSE HOTLINE!!!!!
With President Bush scheduled to leave Washington next weekend for trips to Mexico, Peru, and El Salvador, it is imperative that he hears from supporters and our request that while he is in Peru, he secures Lori's release on humanitarian grounds.
Urgent -- Please call the White House hotline at 202-456-1111 on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday [this week] and ask your friends and relatives to do the same. Press "O" for operator and ask the operator to urge that President Bush do all in his power to secure Lori's release on humanitarian grounds and bring her home to her family and friends.
Many, many thanks!!!!
Rhoda and Mark Berenson
http://www.freelori.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
UN Sanctions Palestine * Venezuela: Next Chile? * Earth First! FBI Lawsuit
13 March 2002
That Leonard Peltier is still in the U.S. federal penitentiary, alone, is enough to see to the degree to which justice and human rights have been violated in the US for the last twenty-six years. The big commotion over the documents withheld in the Timothy McVeigh case was for show. But it did shine an illumination on the hypocrisy and suspicion of those 6,000 plus FBI documents still withheld from Leonard Peltier, and each of us, for the bogus reasoning of national security interests. This twisted form of injustice endangers our country, and threatens each one of us. The key question is how do we connect all these issues with enough awakened people to effectively take the reigns from misdirected administrations, when it comes to promoting democracy, freedom, and justice..
Item 1 is on the welcomed news of the UN supporting the establishment of a Palestinian state and to maintain a peace between the nations of Palestine and Israel. It is time for this, but the horrid thought is that the US was motivated to this decision for diplomatic purposes to bomb Iraq. We try to make peace here, to go to war there..?
Item 2 is also connected in the scope of everything, but barely has been reported. John Pilger writes an excellent commentary, "Venezuela: Next Chile?" "Almost 30 years after the violent destruction of the reformist government of Salvador Allende in Chile, a repeat performance is being planned in Venezuela."
Item 3 is on an historic lawsuit. On April 8, 2002, at the Oakland Federal Courthouse in California, Earth First! is going to court on a lawsuit against the FBI and Oakland Police Department. Among other issues, the lawsuit is exposing the FBI's continued use of "COINTELPRO" that strips away US Constitutional and basic human rights.
Time is getting short. People think that they are getting busier, but it is really, time that is running out for possibly most our entire species. We better reign in the cowboy policies of the Bush administration before it is too late, and we can't wait until 2004. So, please, support many of these and other important campaigns for justice, freedom, and human rights, but also work with a strategic focus on legislation that can change most everything: the Space Preservation Treaty of 2002 - H.R. 3616. We need more co-sponsors in the US House of Representatives and the introduction of similar legislation in the US Senate. The window of opportunity to accomplish this, is still with us, but time is disappearing fast.
1) U.N. backs 'vision' of Palestinian state
2) Venezuela: Next Chile?
3) Earth First! vs the FBI and Oakland Police Department
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) U.N. backs 'vision' of Palestinian state
CNN.com
March 13, 2002 Posted608 AM EST (1108 GMT)
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The U.N. Security Council has approved a resolution that for the first time endorses "the vision of" a Palestinian state.
The resolution, passed late Tuesday, described "a vision of a region where two States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side within secure and recognized borders."
The U.S.-sponsored resolution, which only drew one abstention from Syria, also calls for an immediate cease-fire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
But CNN's Ben Wedeman, speaking in Ramallah in the West Bank, said on Wednesday"There have been no signs of a cease-fire here. The situation in Ramallah was very tense overnight, with
continual bursts of shooting."
The U.N. move came after Israeli soldier s scoured the West Bank and Gaza on Tuesday to root out what they called the Palestinian "terrorist infrastructure" in the largest Israeli military operation since the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
In all, the fighting has left at least 37 Palestinians dead -- four on Wednesday alone -- including 17 at the Jabiliya camp in northern Gaza that has long been a hotbed for Palestinian nationalism. Seven Israelis were killed, with six of those slain when two Palestinian gunmen -- disguised as Israeli army officers -- opened fire on motorists in northern Israel near the Lebanese border, authorities said.
The seventh Israeli was killed and another wounded in a separate incident in the Ramallah area, according to Israeli medical sources, who said the victims came under fire while working on a road.
In Wednesday's fighting, Palestinian security sources said a deputy commander for Force 17, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's personal guard, was killed during clashes with Israeli forces at the southern entrance to Ramallah. The sources identified him as Fouad Laadaili.
Also in Ramallah, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said three Palestinians had died and eight
others had been injured.
In addition, an Italian journalist for Corriere della Sera magazine was killed Wednesday in Ramallah, according to Italian media sources. The Israeli army said it was not aware of a journalist being killed but was checking into the alleged incident.
Israeli television reported that 20,000 Israeli troops were engaged in operations in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel Defense Forces would not confirm the number of soldiers involved, but said the military was waging a battle against terrorists.
Israeli Army Col. Gal Hirsch called the operation a success so far. "We have found many explosives, we've found many bombs ready on their way to the main populated areas of Israel," he said.
"We found a lot of ammunition, rifles, revolvers, machine guns. And we're fighting against terrorists wherever we went to."
Palestinian leaders said the Israelis' raids would only worsen matters.
"This is leading to a real open war between the army of occupation and us. We have called upon all the Palestinians to resist this occupation and to confront it," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, the Palestinian information minister.
Hasan Abdel Rahman, the chief Palestinian representative to the United States, echoed that sentiment"If Israel believes that terrorizing the Palestinian people is going to bring security to Israel, it is the opposite. ... This is pushing more people to become more radicalized."
The Israeli military operations were causing friction within the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Two Cabinet ministers -- members of the conservative National Union party -- have handed in their resignation letters, which will go into effect Thursday, an Israeli government spokesman said. They said Sharon was not taking strong enough action against the Palestinians.
The escalation of violence comes against a backdrop of renewed U.S. diplomatic efforts to calm tensions in the region, with Mideast envoy Anthony Zinni to arrive there Thursday, followed by Vice President Dick Cheney, who is currently on a 12-nation tour.
Speaking in Jordan on Tuesday, Cheney said, "The United States will do all it can to help end the tragic violence between the Palestinians and Israelis, and return the parties to a productive negotiating process."
Washington also is pushing for Sharon to allow Arafat to travel later this month to the Arab League summit in Beirut, Lebanon. Sharon has recently eased a travel restriction on Arafat but has yet to decide if the Palestinian leader will be free to attend the summit.
The Israeli operation prompted a sharp rebuke from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who criticized the Israeli government's use of heavy weaponry in civilian areas.
He called on the government to end its "illegal occupation" of Palestinian territory and "the daily humiliation of ordinary Palestinians."
Annan, addressing the U.N. Security Council, was also critical of the Palestinians. He told them the "deliberate and indiscriminate targeting of civilians is morally repugnant" and said acts of terror and suicide bombings were doing "immense harm" to their cause.
Israel on the offensive
Israel's new offensive followed recent terror attacks by Palestinians. Last weekend, 13 Israelis were killed in two attacks that came at the end of the Jewish Sabbath.
Ra-anan Gissin, a spokesman for Sharon, said the incursions were needed "to uproot the terrorists from their camps."
The military operations would serve to remind terrorists that "there is no sanctuary and no safe haven," Gissin said.
One Israeli military source said the operation was partly in response to the "threat of Qassam" rocket attacks. Israel sees the use of the homemade rockets as a dangerous escalation of conflict because they have the range to reach major Israeli population centers from the Palestinian territories.
In a sign of just how bitter tensions are in Ramallah -- the center of the Palestinian Authority -- the body of a Palestinian man killed earlier after being accused of collaborating with Israel was on display in the town's main square.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Venezuela: Next Chile?
Allied with Chavez's domestic enemies is the Bush administration. Defying Washington, Chavez has sold oil to Cuba and refused overflying rights to American military aircraft supplying "Plan Colombia", the US campaign in support of the murderous regime in neighbouring Colombia. Worse, although he condemned the attacks of 11 September, he questioned the right of the United States to "fight terrorism with terrorism". ===
-----------------------------
Venezuela: Next Chile?
March 13, 2002
ZNet Commentary By John Pilger
http://www.zmag.org/content/MainstreamMedia/PilgerVenezuela.cfm
He has won two elections, and he has made a start on relieving poverty. So now the US wants to get rid of Venezuela's president
Almost 30 years after the violent destruction of the reformist government of Salvador Allende in Chile, a repeat performance is being planned in Venezuela. Little of this has been reported in Britain. Indeed, little is known of the achievements of the government of Hugo Chavez, who won presidential elections in 1998 and again in 2000 by the largest majority in 40 years.
Following the principles of a movement called BolIvarism, named after the South American independence hero Simon BolIvar, Chavez has implemented reforms that have begun to shift the great wealth of Venezuela, principally from its oil, towards the 80 per cent of his people who live in poverty.
In 49 laws adopted by the Venezuelan Congress last November, Chavez began serious land reform, and guaranteed indigenous and women's rights and free healthcare and education up to university level.
Chavez faces enemies that Allende would recognise. The "oligarchies", which held power since the 1950s during the corrupt bipartisan reign of the Social Christians and Democratic Action, have declared war on the reforming president, backed by the Catholic Church and a trade union
hierarchy and the media, both controlled by the right.
What has enraged them is a modest agrarian reform that allows the state to expropriate and redistribute idle land; and a law that limits the exploitation of oil reserves, reinforcing a constitutional ban on the privatisation of the state oil company.
Allied with Chavez's domestic enemies is the Bush administration. Defying Washington, Chavez has sold oil to Cuba and refused overflying rights to American military aircraft supplying "Plan Colombia", the US campaign in support of the murderous regime in neighbouring Colombia. Worse, although he condemned the attacks of 11 September, he questioned the right of the United States to "fight terrorism with terrorism".
For this, he is unforgiven. On 5-7 November, the State Department, Pentagon and National Security Agency held a two-day meeting to discuss "the problem of Venezuela". The State Department has since accused the Chavez government of "supporting terrorism" in Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador. In fact, Venezuela opposes American-funded terrorism in those three
countries.
The US says it will "put Venezuela in diplomatic isolation"; Colin Powell has warned Chavez to correct "his understanding of what a democracy is all about". Familiar events are unfolding.
The International Monetary Fund has indicated it supports a "transitional government" for Venezuela. The Caracas daily El Nacional says the IMF is willing to bankroll those who remove Chavez from office.
James Petras, a professor at New York State University, who was in Chile in the early 1970s and has studied the subversion of the Allende government, says that
"the IMF and financial institutions are fabricating a familiar crisis. The tactics used are very similar to those used in Chile. Civilians are used to create a feeling of chaos, and a false picture of Chavez as a dictator is established, then the military is incited to make a coup for the sake of the country."
A former paratrooper, Chavez apparently still has the army behind him (as Allende did, until the CIA murdered his loyal military chief, opening the way to Pinochet). However, several senior officers have denounced Chavez as a "tyrant" and have called for his resignation. It is difficult to assess this; in its rumour-mongering, the hostile Caracas press plays a role reminiscent of Chile's right-wing press, with poisonous stories questioning Chavez's sanity.
The most worrying threat comes from a reactionary trade union hierarchy, the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV), led by Carlos Ortega, a hack of the anti-Chavez Democratic Action Party. The CTV maintains a black list of "disloyal" and "disruptive" members, which it supplies to employers.
According to Dick Nichols, writing from Caracas, Chavez's most serious mistake has been his failure to move against the union old guard, following a national referendum in which a majority gave him a mandate to reform the CTV.
The crime of Hugo Chavez is that he has set out to keep his electoral promises, redistributing the wealth of his country and subordinating the principle of private property to that of the common good. Having underestimated the power of his enemies, his current counter-offensive is imaginative but also hints of desperation.
He has set up what are called "BolIvarian circles", of which 8,000 are being established in communities and workplaces across the country. Based on the revolutionary heritage of Simon BolIvar's triumph in the war against Spain, their job is to ...
"raise the consciousness of citizens and develop all forms of participatory organisations in the community, releasing projects in health, education, culture, sport, public services, housing and the preservation of the environment, natural resources and our historical heritage".
Allied to this is a popular command "unifying and strengthening the forces in support of President Chavez".
These are fighting words that echo through the continent's history of epic struggles. They say that yet another South American country, in offering its people an alternative to poverty and foreign domination, the "threat of a good example", is entering a period of great uncertainty and fear. The achievements in Venezuela are a clear response to those who say that radical dreams and change are no longer possible. Chavez should be supported by all democrats. Chile must not happen again.
For more on the author of this article, visit:
http://www.johnpilger.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Earth First! vs the FBI and Oakland Police Department
A Historic Lawsuit for Civil Liberties
The Earth First! lawsuit against the FBI and Oakland Police Department goes to trial on April 8, 2002 at the Oakland Federal Courthouse in California.
On May 24, 1990, Earth First! organizers, Darryl Cherney and Judi Bari, were the victims of a motion triggered car bomb. They were driving through Oakland on a tour to promote Redwood Summer, a nonviolent direct action campaign protesting the logging of the last old growth redwoods. The FBI and Oakland Police showed up at the bomb scene within minutes and quickly arrested the pair for transporting the bomb, despite ample evidence that Judi was the intended target. The Alameda County DA eventually refused to press charges against the pair due to lack of evidence. No real investigation to find the bombers was ever done and the bombers remain at large today. Instead the FBI used the bombing as an opportunity to vilify Earth First! and expand surveillance of nonviolent activists.
In 1991, Judi and Darryl filed a civil rights lawsuit against the FBI and Oakland Police Department for false arrest, illegal search and seizure and conspiracy to violate their first amendment rights. The lawsuit is exposing the FBI's continued use of the notorious and now illegal "COINTELPRO" program- the FBI campaign to, in their words, "disrupt and neutralize" political dissidents. Judi died of breast cancer in 1997 but the case survives.
This lawsuit is more important than ever! Since September 11th, there has been an alarming roll back in civil liberties. The FBI has been given more powers, without oversight or accountability. The Earth First! lawsuit honors the legacy of Judi Bari and exposes the FBI's misuse of authority to harass and intimidate nonviolent political activists. With your help, the historic trial can reverse the growing power of the FBI to trample on our right to dissent.
What you can do to help (even from far away):
Check out our website www.judibari.org to get more background information on the lawsuit. From the website, you can join our informational listserv.
Publicize the trial! We would be happy to send you flyers or an article for your newsletter. Help get media coverage of the trial in your local papers or on radio stations.
Forward this email to your email list.
Do an event to educate your community about the lawsuit and FBI COINTELPRO! You can order a great short video about Judi Bari and the lawsuit by calling (415) 820-1635 or on-line at http://www.havc.org.
Organize a solidarity rally at your local FBI offices on April 8th. Call us to find other groups in your area or to get flyers to pass out.
Donate money to the legal fund or organize a fundraising event. All funds raised pay court costs, publicity, and volunteer expenses. Make checks payable to Earth First!.
Contact us at:
Earth First! / Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters
2530 San Pablo Ave, Berkeley, CA 94702
(510) 548-3113
http://www.judibari.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Bush's Nuclear Madness * Stupid White Men * World Banker Speaks Out
11 March 2002
Most of us really need a break from the continuous, dumbfounding, significant, news that keeps coming into our lives (especially in the last six months), but not this week. The leaking of a secret policy review of the nation's nuclear policy this past weekend is another shocker, but that it was exposed, gives some hope for an international reaction to help end the madness. Please support a world treaty to ban space-based weapons. This would help prevent a new escalation of the arms race, and allow "civilized" nations to unite for the disarmament of all weapons of mass destruction. For the text of the -- Space Preservation Treaty -- and to support the placing of a permanent ban on basing weapons in space, visit http://www.peaceinspace.com/worldtreaty.htm .
1) Secret Plan Outlines the Unthinkable
2) Outrage As Pentagon Nuclear Hit List Revealed
3) Stupid White Men
4) World Bank Insider Speaks Out
5) China condemns US global military expansion
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Secret Plan Outlines the Unthinkable
This article comes courtesy of the Los Angeles Times.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-arkinmar10.story
Commentary
Secret Plan Outlines the Unthinkable
A secret policy review of the nation's nuclear policy puts forth chilling new contingencies for nuclear war.
By WILLIAM M. ARKIN
March 10 2002
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration, in a secret policy review completed early this year, has ordered the Pentagon to draft contingency plans for the use of nuclear weapons against at least seven countries, naming not only Russia and the "axis of evil"--Iraq, Iran, and North Korea--but also China, Libya and Syria.
In addition, the U.S. Defense Department has been told to prepare for the possibility that nuclear weapons may be required in some future Arab-Israeli crisis. And, it is to develop plans for using nuclear weapons to retaliate against chemical or biological attacks, as well as "surprising military developments" of an unspecified nature.
These and a host of other directives, including calls for developing bunker-busting mini-nukes and nuclear weapons that reduce collateral damage, are contained in a still-classified document called the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), which was delivered to Congress on Jan. 8.
Like all such documents since the dawning of the Atomic Age more than a half-century ago, this NPR offers a chilling glimpse into the world of nuclear-war planners: With a Strangelovian genius, they cover every conceivable circumstance in which a president might wish to use nuclear weapons--planning in great detail for a war they hope never to wage.
In this top-secret domain, there has always been an inconsistency between America's diplomatic objectives of reducing nuclear arsenals and preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, on the one hand, and the military imperative to prepare for the unthinkable, on the other.
Nevertheless, the Bush administration plan reverses an almost two-decade-long trend of relegating nuclear weapons to the category of weapons of last resort. It also redefines nuclear requirements in hurried post-Sept. 11 terms.
In these and other ways, the still-secret document offers insights into the evolving views of nuclear strategists in Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's Defense Department.
While downgrading the threat from Russia and publicly emphasizing their commitment to reducing the number of long-range nuclear weapons, Defense Department strategists promote tactical and so-called "adaptive" nuclear capabilities to deal with contingencies where large nuclear arsenals are not demanded.
They seek a host of new weapons and support systems, including conventional military and cyber warfare capabilities integrated with nuclear warfare. The end product is a now-familiar post-Afghanistan model--with nuclear capability added. It combines precision weapons, long-range strikes, and special and covert operations.
But the NPR's call for development of new nuclear weapons that reduce "collateral damage" myopically ignores the political, moral and military implications--short-term and long--of crossing the nuclear threshold.
Under what circumstances might nuclear weapons be used under the new posture? The NPR says they "could be employed against targets able to withstand nonnuclear attack," or in retaliation for the use of nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons, or "in the event of surprising military developments."
Planning nuclear-strike capabilities, it says, involves the recognition of "immediate, potential or unexpected" contingencies. North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Libya are named as "countries that could be involved" in all three kinds of threat. "All have long-standing hostility towards the United States and its security partners. All sponsor or harbor terrorists, and have active WMD [weapons of mass destruction] and missile programs."
China, because of its nuclear forces and "developing strategic objectives," is listed as "a country that could be involved in an immediate or potential contingency." Specifically, the NPR lists a military confrontation over the status of Taiwan as one of the scenarios that could lead Washington to use nuclear weapons.
Other listed scenarios for nuclear conflict are a North Korean attack on South Korea and an Iraqi assault on Israel or its neighbors.
The second important insight the NPR offers into Pentagon thinking about nuclear policy is the extent to which the Bush administration's strategic planners were shaken by last September's terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Though Congress directed the new administration "to conduct a comprehensive review of U.S. nuclear forces" before the events of Sept. 11, the final study is striking for its single-minded reaction to those tragedies.
Heretofore, nuclear strategy tended to exist as something apart from the ordinary challenges of foreign policy and military affairs. Nuclear weapons were not just the option of last resort, they were the option reserved for times when national survival hung in the balance--a doomsday confrontation with the Soviet Union, for instance.
Now, nuclear strategy seems to be viewed through the prism of Sept. 11. For one thing, the Bush administration's faith in old-fashioned deterrence is gone. It no longer takes a superpower to pose a dire threat to Americans.
"The terrorists who struck us on Sept. 11th were clearly not deterred by doing so from the massive U.S. nuclear arsenal," Rumsfeld told an audience at the National Defense University in late January.
Similarly, U.S. Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton said in a recent interview, "We would do whatever is necessary to defend America's innocent civilian population .... The idea that fine theories of deterrence work against everybody ... has just been disproven by Sept. 11."
Moreover, while insisting they would go nuclear only if other options seemed inadequate, officials are looking for nuclear weapons that could play a role in the kinds of challenges the United States faces with Al Qaeda.
Accordingly, the NPR calls for new emphasis on developing such things as nuclear bunker-busters and surgical "warheads that reduce collateral damage," as well as weapons that could be used against smaller, more circumscribed targets--"possible modifications to existing weapons to provide additional yield flexibility," in the jargon-rich language of the review.
It also proposes to train U.S. Special Forces operators to play the same intelligence gathering and targeting roles for nuclear weapons that they now play for conventional weapons strikes in Afghanistan. And cyber-warfare and other nonnuclear military capabilities would be integrated into nuclear-strike forces to make them more all-encompassing.
As for Russia, once the primary reason for having a U.S. nuclear strategy, the review says that while Moscow's nuclear programs remain cause for concern, "ideological sources of conflict" have been eliminated, rendering a nuclear contingency involving Russia "plausible" but "not expected."
"In the event that U.S. relations with Russia significantly worsen in the future," the review says, "the U.S. may need to revise its nuclear force levels and posture."
When completion of the NPR was publicly announced in January, Pentagon briefers deflected questions about most of the specifics, saying the information was classified. Officials did stress that, consistent with a Bush campaign pledge, the plan called for reducing the current 6,000 long-range nuclear weapons to one-third that number over the next decade. Rumsfeld, who approved the review late last year, said the administration was seeking "a new approach to strategic deterrence," to include missile defenses and improvements in nonnuclear capabilities.
Also, Russia would no longer be officially defined as "an enemy."
Beyond that, almost no details were revealed.
The classified text, however, is shot through with a worldview transformed by Sept. 11. The NPR coins the phrase "New Triad," which it describes as comprising the "offensive strike leg," (our nuclear and conventional forces) plus "active and passive defenses,"(our anti-missile systems and other defenses) and "a responsive defense infrastructure" (our ability to develop and produce nuclear weapons and resume nuclear testing). Previously, the nuclear "triad" was the bombers, long-range land-based missiles and submarine-launched missiles that formed the three legs of America's strategic arsenal.
The review emphasizes the integration of "new nonnuclear strategic capabilities" into nuclear-war plans. "New capabilities must be developed to defeat emerging threats such as hard and deeply-buried targets (HDBT), to find and attack mobile and re-locatable targets, to defeat chemical and biological agents, and to improve accuracy and limit collateral damage," the review says.
It calls for "a new strike system" using four converted Trident submarines, an unmanned combat air vehicle and a new air-launched cruise missile as potential new weapons.
Beyond new nuclear weapons, the review proposes establishing what it calls an "agent defeat" program, which defense officials say includes a "boutique" approach to finding new ways of destroying deadly chemical or biological warfare agents, as well as penetrating enemy facilities that are otherwise difficult to attack. This includes, according to the document, "thermal, chemical or radiological neutralization of chemical/biological materials in production or storage facilities."
Bush administration officials stress that the development and integration of nonnuclear capabilities into the nuclear force is what permits reductions in traditional long-range weaponry. But the blueprint laid down in the review would expand the breadth and flexibility of U.S. nuclear capabilities.
In addition to the new weapons systems, the review calls for incorporation of "nuclear capability" into many of the conventional systems now under development. An extended-range conventional cruise missile in the works for the U.S. Air Force "would have to be modified to carry nuclear warheads if necessary." Similarly, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter should be modified to carry nuclear weapons "at an affordable price."
The review calls for research to begin next month on fitting an existing nuclear warhead into a new 5,000-pound "earth penetrating" munition.
Given the advances in electronics and information technologies in the past decade, it is not surprising that the NPR also stresses improved satellites and intelligence, communications, and more robust high-bandwidth decision-making systems.
Particularly noticeable is the directive to improve U.S. capabilities in the field of "information operations," or cyber-warfare. The intelligence community "lacks adequate data on most adversary computer local area networks and other command and control systems," the review observes. It calls for improvements in the ability to "exploit" enemy computer networks, and the integration of cyber-warfare into the overall nuclear war database "to enable more effective targeting, weaponeering, and combat assessment essential to the New Triad."
In recent months, when Bush administration officials talked about the implications of Sept. 11 for long-term military policy, they have often focused on "homeland defense" and the need for an anti-missile shield. In truth, what has evolved since last year's terror attacks is an integrated, significantly expanded planning doctrine for nuclear wars.
_ _ _
William M. Arkin is a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington and an adjunct professor at the U.S. Air Force School of Advanced Airpower Studies. He is also a consultant to a number of nongovernmental organizations and a regular contributor to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Posted at the L.A. Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-arkinmar10.story
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Outrage As Pentagon Nuclear Hit List Revealed
Outrage As Pentagon Nuclear Hit List Revealed
Edward Helmore New York and Kamal Ahmed
The Observer, Sunday March 10, 2002
http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,665162,00.html
========================================================================================================================================================
Asia Times Online
March 13, 2002
atimes.com
Fallout fierce over Washington's new nuclear policy
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon's new contingency plans for using nuclear weapons against a range of countries, including some who do not even have them, came under heavy fire on Monday here and abroad.
China said it was "deeply shocked" by the "Nuclear Posture Review" (NPR), leaked to the media last weekend, and arms-control groups here said the secret study is almost certain to heighten international tensions and fuel concerns about the unilateralist aims of President George W Bush's administration.
For full story at Asia Times Online, see: http://atimes.com/front/DC13Aa01.html
=========================================================================================================================================================
Published on Monday, March 11, 2002 in the Daily Mirror (UK)
Bush's Nuclear Madness
Horror at Dubya's Secret Attack Plan on 7 Countries
by Alexandra Williams and Bob Roberts
PRESIDENT Bush faced world anger last night over America's seven-nation nuclear hit list.
British MPs joined the outcry after a leaked Pentagon report revealed contingency plans to
use nuclear weapons against China, Russia, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Syria and Libya. The secret policy was denounced as warmongering "lunacy".
Alarmed officials from Moscow to Tehran warned that the "power crazy" President, buoyed up by the successful campaign in Afghanistan, could plunge the world into chaos. British politicians said the strategy threatened the stability of the NATO alliance.
International tension mounted as Washington pressed Britain to back an attack on Iraq - including the possible commitment of 25,000 British troops to topple Saddam Hussein.
Cabinet Minister Clare Short hinted that she might resign if Tony Blair supported a mass strike against Baghdad. She said"We need to deal with the problem of Saddam Hussein - we don't need to inflict further suffering on the people of Iraq."
Labour MPs Alice Mahon and Tam Dalyell will today deliver a letter to 10 Downing Street warning the Prime Minister against joining any military action.
US Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in London last night for talks with Mr Blair which will cover the threat posed by Iraq.
No 10 insisted last night "No decisions have been taken."
Amid mounting anger, the target nations accused America of intimidation and "wreaking havoc on the whole world" and branded the plans a "lunatic" threat to world peace.
In Britain, MPs said the sensational disclosures threatened the stability of the Western alliance.
Labour MP Alice Mahon said "The lunatics have taken over the White House. This report must be ringing alarms throughout NATO" The Pentagon document, known as the Nuclear Posture Review, was leaked as the US lobbied Britain to join an invasion of Iraq.
International Development Secretary and Cabinet Minister Clare Short hinted she might resign if a strike went ahead.
The review says the US must be ready to use nuclear weapons against China, Russia, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Syria and Libya. It then identified four areas where the US should be prepared to press the button
In an Arab-Israeli conflict, in a war between China and Taiwan, in an attack by North Korea on South Korea and in an attack by Iraq on Israel or another neighbor. Additionally, the weapons could be used against targets able to withstand conventional attack and in retaliation for the use of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.
They could also be used in the event of "surprising military developments", reflecting fears that rogue states or terrorists could deploy weapons against the US.
The review, leaked to the Los Angeles Times, orders the military to plan for the use of "smaller nuclear weapons" as a more effective deterrent against terrorist attacks. It also calls for cruise missiles to carry nuclear weapons. It is the first time the US has reviewed its nuclear strategy since 1994 and the first list of target nations to be made public.
Last night it was seen as a warning to those states who might be harboring terrorists. In Russia, defense hawk General Leonid Ivashov said"The heart of US political doctrine is to push powerful Russia off the political scene."
Russian politician Dmitry Rogozin added "This is a nuclear stick intended to intimidate us." Vyacheslav Nikonov, of the Politika think tank, branded the plans a "very negative signal" which would be "received in an appropriate fashion by Russia's leadership".
Iran's former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, an aide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said "The US believes that by threatening countries they'll withdraw their demands. Their policy is one of intimidation.''
The Tehran Times newspaper said "This indicates the US is going to wreak havoc on the world to establish its domination." Professor Michael Yahuda, professor of international relations at the London School of Economics, warned"China won't be happy to be classified among rogue nations."
Liberal Democrat spokesman Menzies Campbell said "America seems to be moving from nuclear deterrence to nuclear war fighting.
"It would drive a coach and horses through NATO's doctrine of nuclear strikes as a last resort."
US Secretary of State Colin Powell insisted the report did not signal imminent action.
He said "We should not get carried away with some sense the US plans to use nuclear weapons in some contingency in the near future.
"It's not the case. What the Pentagon has done with this is sound military, conceptual planning.
"Not a single nation is being targeted by an American nuclear weapon on a day-to-day basis."
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice added "We all want to make the use of weapons of mass destruction less likely.
"The way that you do that is to send a very strong signal to anyone who might use them against the United States that they'd be met with a devastating response."
Vice-President Dick Cheney arrived in London last night to meet Tony Blair. He is expected to appeal for military support against Iraq. It is reported the US will ask for up to 25,000 British troops to form part of an invasion force.
In the first sign of a Cabinet split, Ms Short denounced any invasion plans yesterday. She said"An all-out military attack is, of course, not at all sensible.
"We need to deal with the problem of Saddam Hussein. We don't need to inflict further suffering on the people of Iraq."
Ms Short said the best answer was to allow UN inspectors back into Iraq, a move firmly ruled out by Iraq's Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan yesterday. Her warning amounted to a threat to resign if there is a strike against Iraq. Donald Anderson, Labour chairman of the Commons foreign affairs select committee, said military action on Iraq must only be a last resort.
He said"I think there are reckless elements in the Pentagon who are on a roll because of Afghanistan.
"I would hope part of the task of our Government is to influence those who take a contrary view."
Downing Street played down the reports of an American request for British troops. A spokesman said "No decisions have been taken, let alone any requests made."
Copyright 2002 mirror.co.uk
This article was also posted at:
http://news@commondreams.org/headlines02/0311-02.htm
======================================================================
For related article from Space.com:
New US Proposals Could Quash Nuclear Taboos
Washington (AFP) Mar 11, 2002 - A Pentagon report that pinpoints certain countries for possible nuclear targetting seems to mark an evolution in the US doctrine that discouraged nuclear use.
======================================================================
Another related article,
"The Doomsday Regime"
by Geov Parrish
WorkingForChange.com
03.11.02 - Since nothing else the Bush Administration does seems to be inspiring hundreds of thousands of people to pour into the streets of every major city in anger, perhaps this will: the news this past weekend, as reported by Paul Richter of the Los Angeles Times, that George W. Bush is planning to destroy the world.
They didn't phrase it that way, of course. And it isn't exactly a one-step process, though it's a hell of a lot fewer steps than anyone has a right to concoct.
But that's the net effect of the plans, outlined in a report obtained by the L.A. Times, given to Congress on January 8. The report directs the Pentagon to draw up plans to wage nuclear war against China, Russia, Iraq, North Korea, Syria, Iran, and/or Libya..
.....Six months ago today, the world was horrified by the devastation in New York, D.C., and Pennsylvania. Since then, it has been doubly horrified by the Bush Administration's exploitation of a few thousand tragic deaths to set in motion a series of policy decisions, based explicitly upon an aggressive desire for military domination of the world for up to the next 50 years, that if pursued for any length of time will unquestionably kill tens of millions, including many of us.
If not all life on earth.
No wonder he's not worried about global warming.
= = = = = = = = = = =
The complete article by Geov Parrish is posted:
The Doomsday Regime
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Stupid White Men
From Michael Moore
Dear friends,
This is just a quick note of thanks for the support all of you have given my book. "Stupid White Men" debuted at #3 on the New York Times bestseller list this week, and at #1 on the Publisher's Weekly nonfiction bestseller list for independent bookstores. It's still #1 for all books on Amazon, and, my personal favorite for a good laugh, #4 on the bestseller list for the Wall Street Journal. By the fifth day of release, the book had gone into its 9th printing. More copies have been sold in one week than "Downsize This" sold in a whole year. Pundits and publishers are stunned. "But the president has an 80% approval rating!" There's something going on here, and they don't know what it is...
I am writing this from northern California, two weeks into the book tour, on a drive with my family to visit small towns like Ukiah and Arcata. Last night in Santa Rosa, at the local high school, they had a thousand people packed inside and another 500 out on the lawn who couldn't get in. It's like this in all the places I visit. Hundreds, thousands, turning out to discuss all the sorry excuses for the state of the nation. People have had it with keeping silent for the past 6 months. They resent having felt like if they chose to question what the government is up to or, God forbid, dissent, they would somehow be considered unpatriotic. Let's get one thing straight -- this is what it means to be "unpatriotic"
1. When you shred our constitution and eliminate our civil liberties, passing laws that make it illegal to encourage opposition to the government's actions, THAT is un-American.
2. When you send our kids to go fight and die on a foreign land so that you can finally build a pipeline for your oil backers across that country, THAT is un-American.
3. When you use the dead of September 11 to try to get huge tax cuts passed that will only benefit your rich benefactors, THAT is un-American.
4. When you allow criminals who are stealing the pensions of workers and retirees to come in and hand-pick the head of the agency which is supposed to be regulating them, and then you place some of the criminals' top brass in your administration to "serve" as the secretary of the army and White House counsel, and then these criminals turn out to be your number one financial backers -- and their law firm turns out to be your #3 backer -- and, in spite of all this you still haven't resigned in disgrace, THAT is un-American.
I want all of you to share this success with me and feel heartened and reassured by the response to this book.
For more information on Michael Moore, visit his website:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
See also
MICHAEL MOORE'S ROCKSTAR MOMENT
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12577
By trying to censor Michael Moore's new book, publishing giant HarperCollins gave media-savvy Moore the perfect platform to harass his real arch-enemy -- George W. Bush.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) World Bank Insider Speaks Out
World Bank Insider Speaks Out
by Greg Palast February 1 2002, Fri, 345pm
The World Bank's former Chief Economist's accusations are eye-popping - including how the IMF and US Treasury fixed the Russian elections
The Globalizer Who Came In From the Cold
Observer, London
Wednesday, October 10, 2001
This article is posted at
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2002/02/115110.php
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
5) China condemns US global military expansion
China condemns US global military expansion following Sept 11
AFP - Beijing, March 11
China on Monday broke with its policy of refusing to condemn the increased US global military presence following September 11, saying the expansion of Washington's "so-called security interests" presented a threat to the world.
The complete article is posted at
http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/110302/dLFOR36.asp
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Petition 9/11 Investigations - Kucinich Rocks the Boat - John Robbins' food revolution
09 March 2002
"I do believe that all God's creatures have the right to live as much as we have. Instead of prescribing the killing of the so-called injurious fellow creatures of ours as a duty, if men of knowledge had devoted their gift to discovering ways of dealing with them otherwise than by killing them, we would be living in a world befitting our status of menanimals endowed with reason and the power of choosing between good and evil, right and wrong, violence and non-violence, truth and untruth."
Mahatma Gandhi
H, 9 Jan. 1937
From a book compiled by R.K. Prabhu,
MOHAN-MALA - A Gandhian Rosary
Navajivan Publishing House - Ahmedabad-14
The first item is an online petition for the US Senate to investigate oddities regarding 9/11 Terrorist Attacks. Please support our right to know or to at least try to understand some of the shenanigans happening around that day. Perhaps some revelations will help expose distorted united fronts of terror and greed. If democracy is to survive, it must first awaken. Item 2 is from an article in the Nation about Dennis Kucinich "rocking the boat" and the impact of his speech on February 17 in the House of Reps. Item 3 is an informal briefing by Carol Rosin on the event on February 23rd with Dennis Kucinich to ban space-based weapons. This campaign has the potential of making an unprecedented ending for the arms race. So, stay flexible, petition for 9/11 investigations and support the campaign to ban space-based weapons. Visit ICIS's online fax system. Item 4 is from the first chapter of John Robbin's newest book, The Food Revolution. It is all so connected, our choices, what we take within and act upon. Keep listening.. and thanks for subscribing and for any actions you take for peace, justice, and truth.
1) Petition Senate -- Investigate Oddities Involving 9/11
2) Kucinich Rocks the Boat
3) Carol Rosin reports on Kucinich - H.R. 3616 - Rally in Malibu
4) John Robbins The Food Revolution
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Petition Senate -- Investigate Oddities Involving 9/11
"Petition to the Senate to Investigate Oddities Involving 9/11 Terrorist Attacks"
To: The U.S. Senate
We, the undersigned, do hereby petition the Senate of the United States of America to thoroughly investigate the events surrounding the acts of terrorism that transpired in the United States on September 11, 2001. Such an investigation would include research into the following peculiarities relating to the terrorist attacks on the United States on 9/11:
1.) Thousands of put stock options that were purchased on United and American airlines immediately prior to 9/11/01
2.) Financial transactions totaling more than 100 million dollars that electronically passed through the World Trade Center immediately prior to its destruction on 9/11
3.) Black-box recordings from the four planes which crashed on 9/11
4.) Cell phone calls made by passengers on hijacked flights on 9/11 which never emerged on their cell-phone bills
5.) Interviews of any air-traffic controllers on duty on 9/11
6.) Eyewitness accounts detailing Flight 93's explosion prior to its crashing
7.) Aircraft debris strewn approximately seven miles from the crash site of Flight 93
8.) Unocal's role in its quest to build an oil pipeline across Afghanistan, plans implemented prior to 2001
9.) Carlyle Corporation's role in overseeing Unocal's quest to have an oil pipeline built across Afghanistan, plans implemented prior to 2001
10.) Role of remote-control software technology implemented in 9/11 hijackings and crashes
11.) George W. Bush's possible foreknowledge of the terrorist attacks on 9/11
12.) Role of the Northern Alliance in explosive growth of opium production in Afghanistan after U.S. military intervention
We respectfully petition the Senate to make public the results of this investigation.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
http://www.petitiononline.com/11601TFS/petition.html
{The Petition to the Senate to Investigate Oddities Involving 9/11 Terrorist Attacks Petition to The U.S. Senate was created by Fall Out Shelter News and written by Lori R. Price. This petition is hosted at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service.}
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Kucinich Rocks the Boat
THE NATION
COMMENT | March 25, 2002
Kucinich Rocks the Boat
by John Nichols
Dennis Kucinich never doubted that millions of Americans had deep concerns about George W. Bush's ever-expanding war on ill-defined foes abroad and on civil liberties at home. But the Congressional Progressive Caucus chair admits he underestimated the depth of the discomfort until February 17, when he delivered a speech to the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action, in which he declared, "Let us pray that our country will stop this war." Recalling the Congressional vote authorizing the President's response to the September 11 terrorist attacks--a resolution supported by Kucinich and all but one member of Congress, California Democrat Barbara Lee--the Ohioan thundered, "We did not authorize an eye for an eye. Nor did we ask that the blood of innocent people, who perished on September 11, be avenged with the blood of innocent villagers in Afghanistan. We did not authorize the Administration to wage war anytime, anywhere, anyhow it pleases. We did not authorize war without end. We did not authorize a permanent war economy. Yet we are upon the threshold of a permanent war economy."
Kucinich's "Prayer for America" speech was interrupted by repeated standing ovations. But the real measure of the message's resonance came as the text of the speech circulated on the Internet--where a genuine worldwide web of opposition to the Administration's actions led to the posting of Kucinich's words on websites (including www.thenation.com) and dispatched them via e-mail. Within days, Kucinich received 10,000-plus e-mails. Many echoed New Jerseyan Thomas Minet's sentiments "Since the 'Axis of Evil' State of the Union Address, I have been searching like Diogenes with his lantern for one honest person in Congress who would have the guts to speak out about the attack on Democracy being mounted by the Bush Administration. It has been a frustrating search indeed, and I was just about ready to give up hope when I ran across 'A Prayer for America.' Thank God for this man's courage." Others simply read, "Kucinich for President."
For Kucinich, a former Cleveland mayor who led Democratic opposition to the US bombing of Yugoslavia and proposed establishing a Cabinet-level Department of Peace, speaking out against military adventuring is not new. But he says he's never experienced so immediate and enthusiastic a response. "We can't print out the messages as fast as we are receiving them," he says. "But I've read through a lot of them now, and they touch on the same themes. The Administration's actions are no longer appropriate, and it is time for Congress to start asking questions. The people understand something most of Congress does not. There is nothing unpatriotic about challenging this Administration's policies."
Kucinich was not the first Congress member to express concern about Bush's plans. Lee cast her cautionary vote in September. In October, responding to reports of civilian casualties in Afghanistan, Representative Jim McDermott criticized the speed with which the Administration had taken military action and the failure of the White House to adequately consult Congress. In December, Kucinich, McDermott and Lee joined five other House Democrats in signing a letter to Bush, written by Representative Tammy Baldwin, which noted, "We are concerned by those in your Administration and among our own ranks in the Congress who appear to be making the case for broad expansion of this military campaign beyond Afghanistan. Without presenting clear and compelling evidence that other nations were involved in the September 11 attacks, it is inappropriate to expand the conflict." Another letter, by Representative Peter DeFazio, called on the White House to comply with the War Powers Resolution before expanding the war. In February Senator Robert Byrd said that Congress should no longer hand the President a "blank check." Senate majority leader Tom Daschle suggested the war "will have failed" without the capture of Osama bin Laden--a statement rebuked by Republicans, who want no measure of success or failure applied to this war.
But Kucinich's speech was a clarion call. "For most people, Kucinich's speech represents the clearest Congressional criticism they have heard about the conduct of the war, and of the Administration's plans to expand it. That's enormously significant," said Midge Miller, who helped launch Senator Eugene McCarthy's antiwar challenge to President Lyndon Johnson in 1967. "Citizens look for Congressional opposition to organize around--they look for leaders to say something. When I read Kucinich's speech, I thought, This could be a turning point."
It has certainly been a turning point for Kucinich. Overwhelmed by invitations to speak, he says his top priority will be to work with Baldwin and others to encourage a broader Congressional debate over international priorities, Pentagon spending and the stifling of dissent. Expect battles in the House Democratic Caucus, where minority leader Dick Gephardt has been more cautious than Daschle about criticizing Bush. But Kucinich thinks more Democrats will begin to echo Senator Byrd's challenge to blank-check military spending in a time of tight budgets. Kucinich plans to encourage grassroots activists to tell members of Congress it is not merely necessary but politically safe to challenge "the Patriot Games, the Mind Games, the War Games of an unelected President and his unelected Vice President."
Kucinich, whose working-class district elected a conservative Republican before him, is confident Democrats from even the most competitive districts can safely join him in questioning the war. "The key," he says, "is to recognize that there is a great deal of unity in America around some basic values: peace and security, protection of the planet, a good quality of life for themselves and for others. When people express their patriotism, they are not saying--as some would suggest--that they no longer believe in these things. There's nothing unpatriotic about asserting human values and defending democratic principles. A lot of Americans are telling me this is the highest form of patriotism."
JOHN NICHOLS
For this article and links, see:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020325&s=nichols
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Carol Rosin reports on kick-off event with Dennis Kucinich
The following Carol Rosin report was received from jean hudon, webposted at
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000/Archives2002/MiscelSubjects132.
tm
Sat, 2 Mar 2002
On Saturday evening, Feb. 23rd the most extraordinary experience happened in Malibu, CA. About 250 (I expected 30-50) people showed up to meet Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) who introduced about the most exciting news any of us have heard in years, H.R. 3616, the Space Preservation Act of 2002 and the compatible world treaty that will replace the ABM Treaty, the Space Preservation Treaty. We now have a way to literally end the arms race, cap it, BEFORE space-based weapons can be deployed (which is possible any time after June 13th when Bush has announced he will unilaterally break the ABM Treaty between the US and USSR).
The house sat 80 comfortably, so it was standing room only and the room felt like it was filled with light. The congressman was clearly blown away, too. And what a message.
For the first time, we have a real chance to take a real step, to get U.S. national and WORLD law to ban space-based weapons, to prohibit the use of weapons against objects that are in space in orbit, and to literally transform, Aikido style, the war industry (and mindset) into a space
industry.
We can only do it this year, really, because as of June 13th, the U.S. administration can legally deploy weapons into space pointed down all our throats, even under the guise of it being "MERELY testing or MERELY research."
The language and purpose of the legislation and the treaty are the same. The treaty also includes language of the Outer Space Treaty of '67 and the great Chinese proposal for a treaty to ban space-based weapons. Most country leaders of the world have already expressed the desire to ban space-based weapons. And now is our chance...and it's a once in a lifetime chance.
Hearing Congressman Kucinich gave most of us chills. He's incredible. He's champion of all progressive issues as Chairman of the House Progressive Caucus, and is learning a lot about what IS in space and what CAN BE in space that will be exciting enough, fulfill enough contracts for industries, businesses and entrepreneurs in order to shift us from a war based economy into a space economy, and he travels to other countries...and knows that it's better to base security on enhancing communication, to the applications of clean and safe technology to solving urgent human and environmental problems, and he can see the value of banning space-based
weapons while we still can.
He's clearly a man of heart and integrity, and we were more blown away than he was at seeing this unexpected turn-out. He and his partner are vegan vegetarians. I mean, he is conscious and caring, and he walks his talk.
If I could, I would insist that everyone read, no, study the Space Preservation Act of 2002, and the Space Preservation Treaty. They are milestone pieces, works of art, and they will lead us into a new space paradigm, a new way of thinking, that will awaken and shift consciousness.
You can read the text on www.peaceinspace.com http://www.peaceinspace.com.
One of the most unique parts of the bill and the treaty is that the bill requires the U.S. President to negotiate a treaty, and the treaty establishes a world space peacekeeping agency that will monitor and enforce the ban. That kind of agency was missing from other treaties, so now when people ask "How would this be enforced" there is an answer.
Both the bill and treaty call for the immediate implementation of the ban on space-based weapons and for the stopping of research and development, testing, manufacturing and production of ALL space-based weapons (more than what the ABM Treaty called for, and it was only between the US and USSR), but allows for everyone to work cooperatively worldwide on space research and development, manufacturing, production, and deployment of civil, commercial and defense related projects that are NOT of a space-based weapons nature.
In other words, the bill and treaty provide for a win-win. People have been unable to stop the war machine for decades. The largest R&D program in history is now mandated to weaponize space. The nuclear industry, and other dangerous technologies continue to be developed. Standing on a launch pad with posters saying stop the rocket fumes didn't work. We can now shift the consciousness as we cap off the arms race, IF we go for it now. All we are doing as a FIRST STEP to actually shifting the consciousness is removing the mandate to weaponize space.
The people got really excited when Congressman Kucinich said NOW is the time to call your congress representatives in the House and tell them you want them to sign-on, to co-sponsor H.R. 3616. Now is the time to call Senators and tell them you want them to introduce and help to get co-sponsors of a Senate version of H.R. 3616. And now is the time to call all of your friends around the world, get a copy of the Space Preservation Treaty into the hands of all nation-state leaders, and tell them to introduce it and agree publically to sign-on to it.
This congressman is one of the people. His father was a truck driver for 35 years. His mother was a mom of seven children, of which he was the oldest. He was the youngest mayor in the country at 31, in Cleveland Ohio. He's won numerous awards including one from the International Order of the Eagles for being the outstanding politician. He's champion of conscious issues and is determined to get peace on this planet not only through this bill, but by creating a Department of Peace. He gives presentations that are so present, calm yet powerful, and he's the most amazing man I've met in my 28 years of working the Hill. He is devoted to getting this ban on space-based weapons in the world arena, which will pressure this administration and congress to do the same. And we have one chance in time to make this ban a reality.
Our Institute for Cooperation in Space, ICIS, will announce the details of a full-on action campaign next week, but meanwhile, people are activating already. I've received countless emails from people who attended that event who are really excited about this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join a worldwide movement in solidarity. In fact, people there agreed to rise above their different perspectives and other vitally important issues to join in solidarity to get this Space Preservation Act of 2002, H.R. 3616, and the compatible Space Preservation Treaty into everyone's hands we know, into the media, supported and turned into law in 2002!
And once we've got this ban turned into law, we will also have the collective consciousness shifting, and our networks who have joined in solidarity to get the ban on space-based weapons will move on in the same way to focus on getting alternative energy and propulsion systems, and to feeding and healing everyone on this planet, and more.
First step, since there is a time sense of urgency, June 13th, people will do everything we know how to do to get the H.R. 3616, the Space Preservation Act of 2002, the Space Preservation Treaty, co-sponsored and signed and turned into law.
If anyone has any questions or needs for a copy of the legislation or the treaty, just let me know.
Times are looking up! We will have peace on earth through peace in space!!
Love and peace,
Carol Rosin
ICIS institute for cooperation in space
PO Box 25040 Ventura, CA 93001
Tel805-641-1999 Fax805-641-9669
http://www.peaceinspace.com
rosin@west.net
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For related article, Published on Friday, March 8, 2002 in the Boston Globe, see
"Missile Defense Shenanigans" by Derrick Jackson
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) John Robbins The Food Revolution
The following is from chapter one of John Robbin's newest book: The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and the World.
http://www.foodrevolution.org/food_revolution.htm
I was born into ice cream. Well, not literally, but just about. My father, Irv Robbins, founded, and for many years owned and ran what would become the world's largest ice cream company: Baskin-Robbins (31 Flavors). Along with my uncle, Burt Baskin, he built an empire, with thousands of stores worldwide and sales eventually measuring in the billions of dollars. We had an ice cream cone-shaped swimming pool, our cats were named after ice cream flavors, and I sometimes ate ice cream for breakfast. Not all that surprisingly, many people in the family struggled with weight problems, my uncle died of a heart attack in his early fifties, my father developed serious diabetes and high blood pressure, and I was sick more often than not.
None of that showed up on the balance sheets, however, and my father was grooming me to succeed him. I was his only son, and he expected me to follow in his footsteps. But things did not develop that way. I chose to leave behind the ice cream company and the money it represented, in order to take my own rocky road. I walked away from an opportunity to live a life of wealth to live a different kind of life, a life in which, I hoped, I might be able to be true to my values and learn to make a contribution to the well-being and happiness of others. It was a choice for integrity. Instead of the Great American Dream of financial success, I was pulled forward by a deeper dream.
Explaining that kind of thing to my father, a conservative Republican businessman who sometimes drove a Rolls Royce and never to my knowledge went a day without reading the Wall Street Journal, was not easy. At one point I told him, "Look, Dad, it's a different world than when you grew up. The environment is deteriorating rapidly under the impact of human activities. Every two seconds somewhere on Earth a child dies of starvation while elsewhere there are abundant food resources going to waste. Do you see that for me, under these circumstances, inventing a thirty-second flavor just would not be an adequate response for my life?"
My father was not pleased. He had worked hard his whole life and had achieved a level of financial success most people can only fantasize about, and he wanted to share his success and his company with his only son. From his point of view, I am sure, he got the only kid in the country who would turn down such a golden opportunity.
But turn it down I did, and, hungering for connection to the natural world and life's deeper rhythms, I moved with my wife, Deo, in1969, to a little island off the coast of British Columbia. There we proceeded to build a one-room log cabin, where we lived for the next ten years, growing most of our own food. We were financially poor, some years spending less than $1,000 total, but we were rich in love. Four years into our time on the island, our son Ocean was born into my hands. Deo and I are still lovingly together all these years later, by the way-a rarity in our generation.
During this time we began to live by the values that would culminate, in 1987, with the publication of my book Diet for a New America. I was learning to perceive the immense toll exacted by the standard North American diet-and the benefits that might be gained by a shift in a healthier direction. I was learning that the same food choices that do so much to prevent disease-that give you the most vitality, the strongest immune system, and the greatest life expectancy-were also the ones that took the least toll on the environment, conserved our precious natural resources, and were the most compassionate toward our fellow creatures.
In Diet for a New America I described what it was that pulled me away from the path my father had envisioned and prepared for me, and set me instead on the one I took:
"It's a dream of a success in which all beings share because it's founded on reverence for life. A dream of a society at peace with its conscience because it respects and lives in harmony with all life forms. A dream of a people living in accord with the natural laws of Creation, cherishing and caring for the environment, conserving nature instead of destroying it. A dream of a society that is truly healthy, practicing a wise and compassionate stewardship of a balanced ecosystem.
"This is not my dream alone. It is really the dream of all human beings who feel the plight of the Earth as their own, and sense our obligation to respect and protect the world in which we live. To some degree, all of us share in this dream. Yet few of us are satisfied that we are doing all that is needed to make it happen. Almost none of us are aware of just how powerfully our eating habits affect the possibility of this dream becoming a reality. We do not realize that one way or the other, how we eat has a tremendous impact."
In Diet for a New America, I attempted to show in full detail the nature of this impact on our health, and in addition on the vigor of our society, on the health of our world, and on the well-being of its creatures. I had no idea, while writing that book, that it would become a bestseller. I never suspected that I would receive 75,000 letters from people who read the book or who heard me speak about its message. And even if I had known how widely the book would be read, and how deeply it would impact the course of many people's lives, I don't think I could ever have imagined that it might help to impact choices on a larger scale. In the five years immediately following the book's publication, beef consumption in the United States dropped nearly 20 percent.
But in the last few years there's been a backlash. Fad diet books have sold millions of copies telling people they can lose weight and obtain optimum health while eating all the bacon and sausage they want. The U.S. meat industry has managed to divert attention away from the fact that the animals raised in modern factory farms are forced to endure conditions of almost unimaginable cruelty and deprivation. The USDA is proposing to irradiate increasing numbers of foods to combat the deadly food-borne diseases such as E. coli 0157:H7 that increasingly breed in today's factory farms and slaughterhouses.
Rather than clean up the conditions that produce these pathogens in the first place, the U.S. meat industry has strongly supported food disparagement laws that make it illegal to criticize perishable food products, and then has used such legislation to sue those who challenge their control over your wallet. They even sued Oprah Winfrey for saying that, based on what she'd learned about meat production in the United States, she was never going to eat another burger.
Meanwhile, the chemical industry has mounted an aggressive campaign to discredit organic food. And without the knowledge or consent of most Americans, two-thirds of the products on our supermarket shelves now contain genetically engineered ingredients.
The debate about animal products and genetically engineered foods, and about their impact on our health and our world, is not going to go away. It will be fought in courtrooms and the media, but it will also be fought in people's minds, hearts, and kitchens. In the process, those seeking a more humane and sustainable way of life-for themselves and for our society-will be criticized and attacked by the industries that profit from activities that are harming people and the planet.
As the discussion intensifies, so will the amount of information floating around. Some of it will be valid and rigorously accurate. And some of it will be the product of the public relations machinery of the industries that are selling unhealthy food and exploiting our world. I have written The Food Revolution because I believe that, given a chance, most people can tell the difference between the propaganda of industries whose entire intention is to promote and sell products, and data from researchers and scientists whose focus is the public interest.
I have written The Food Revolution to provide solid, reliable information for the struggle to achieve a world where the health of people and the Earth community is more important than the profit margins of any industry, where basic human needs take precedence over corporate greed. I have written this book so that you might have clear information on which to base your food choices. It will show you how to attain greater health and respond more deeply from your connection to all of life.
There is still strong in our society the belief that animals and the natural world have value only insofar as they can be converted into revenue. That nature is a commodity. And that the American dream is one of unlimited consumption.
There are many of us, on the other hand, who believe that animals and the natural world have value by virtue of being alive. That Nature is a community to which we belong and to which we owe our lives. And that the deeper American dream is one of unlimited compassion.
For the complete text of this chapter, see
http://www.foodrevolution.org/chapter_one.htm
For more information on this book and the work of John Robbins, visit his website:
http://www.foodrevolution.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Climate Change Catastrophe * Doomsday Clock Ticks * Missile Defense = Fraud
6 March 2002
FlybyNews.com has been updated.
Under recent issues at homepage and Flyby Links, check out a new links page for Alternative News, resources, reviews, analyses, discussion, and mainstream media web sites.
Editor's Note:
Out of the darkness comes some glimmer of light, and the debate is mounting on the question of the relevance of missile defense as the best policy for the security of the U.S. in the here and now. But before you get to the missile defense analysis, you need to go by item 1, which is on a report by scientists showing that (global warming induced) climate change catastrophes could be imminent. And if you want to help on this issue, see item 2 on specific beneficial legislation you can support by calling your US Senators this week. The current debate is on a US energy policy that would pollute more with coal, expand nuclear power and its pollution-radiation, and drill for oil in one of the last pristine wilderness areas left in the good-ole USA. If you can make it through these first two, item 3 is on the atomic scientist's clock going down two notches to seven-seconds before midnight. Item 4 presents more evidences of Academic-Industry-Military fraud with BMD testing results. Ted Postol's response is straightforward, which contrasts his MIT colleagues' treacherous deceit. And the last item, where the light glimmers, shows evidences of support weakening for missile defense in the US Congress. When you speak to your Senators on Energy, please, also, request that they consider sponsoring a Bill similar to H.R. 3616, which bans space-based weapons. We need a miracle this spring, and putting an end to the escalation of the arms race would be a good beginning.
Flyby News could use donations to defray expenses. We currently need toner for printing and expense for copying fliers. A recent donation ($25.) helped for this quarterly payment for website hosting services. All donations go toward operating expenses, including the copying and posting of Flyby News fliers on community bulletin boards. Thanks for any assistance, but, especially, for your actions on campaigns for peace and justice, and the well being for life on Earth.
Subscribing to Flyby News is not for the weak of heart.
Thanks for caring.
1) A report on climate change: catastrophe could be imminent
2) Your Actions Requested for Senate Energy Debate
3) 'Doomsday Clock' Moved Forward
4) MIT team tied to questionable missile studies
5) Missile Defense Support Tapering Off
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) A report on climate change: catastrophe could be imminent
Goodbye cruel world
A report by top US scientists on climate change suggests that catastrophe could be imminent
Jeremy Rifkin
Friday March 1, 2002
The Guardian
We live in a world that has become so desensitised by watching calamities unfold on global television - both natural and human-induced - that it takes something really spectacular even to get our attention.
And it usually has to be visually dramatic to register, much less elicit a deep emotional response - such as the tragic events of September 11.
Recently, I came across a frightening report published by the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - the nation's most august scientific body. Yet, because there was no visually provocative content, the report had received only a couple of short paragraphs tucked away inside a few newspapers.
Here is what the academy had to say it is possible that the global warming trend projected over the course of the next 100 years could, all of a sudden and without warning, dramatically accelerate in just a handful of years - forcing a qualitative new climatic regime which could undermine ecosystems and human settlements throughout the world, leaving little or no time for plants, animals and humans to adjust.
The new climate could result in a wholesale change in the earth's environment, with effects that would be felt for thousands of years. If the projections and warnings in this study turn out to be prophetic, no other catastrophic event in all of recorded history will have had as damaging an impact on the future of human civilisation and the life of the planet.
A year ago the UN intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) issued a voluminous report forecasting that global average surface temperature is likely to rise by 1.4 to 5.8 degrees centigrade between now and 2100. If that projection holds up, we were told, the change in temperature forecast for the next 100 years will be larger than any climate change on earth in more than 10,000 years.
The impacts on the earth's biosphere are going to be of a qualitative kind. To understand how significant this rise in temperature is likely to be, we need to keep in mind that a 5 degrees centigrade increase in temperature between the last ice age and today resulted in much of the northern hemisphere of the planet going from being buried under thousands of feet of ice to being ice-free.
The UN study predicts that a temperature rise of 1.4-5.8 degrees centigrade over the course of the coming century could include the melting of glaciers and the Arctic polar cap, sea water rise, increased precipitation and storms and more violent weather patterns, destabilisation and loss of habitats, migration northward of ecosystems, contamination of fresh water by salt water, massive forest dieback, accelerated species extinction and increased droughts.
The IPCC report also warns of adverse impacts on human settlements, including the submerging of island nations and low-lying countries, diminishing crop yields, especially in the southern hemisphere, and the spread of tropical disease northward into previously temperate zones.
The newly released NAS report begins by noting that the current projections about global warming and its ecological, economic and social impacts cited in the UN report are based on the assumption of a steady upward climb in temperatures, more or less evenly distributed over the course of the 21st century. But that assumption, they say, may be faulty - there is a possibility that temperatures could rise suddenly in just a few years' time, creating a new climatic regime virtually overnight.
They also point out that abrupt changes in climate, whose effects are long lasting, have occurred repeatedly in the past 100,000 years. For example, at the end of the Younger-Dryas interval about 11,500 years ago, "global climate shifted dramatically, in many regions by about one-third to one-half the difference between ice age and modern conditions, with much of the change occurring over a few years".
According to the study"An abrupt climate change occurs when the climate system is forced to cross some threshold, triggering a transition to a new state at a rate determined by the climate system itself and faster than the cause." Moreover, the paleoclimatic record shows that "the most dramatic shifts in climate have occurred when factors controlling the climate system were changing". Given the fact that human activity - especially the burning of fossil fuels - is expected to double the CO2 content emitted into the atmosphere in the current century, the conditions could be ripe for an abrupt change in climate around the world, perhaps in only a few years.
What is really unnerving is that it may take only a slight deviation in boundary conditions or a small random fluctuation somewhere in the system "to excite large changes ... when the system is close to a threshold", says the NAS committee.
An abrupt change in climate, of the kind that occurred during the Younger-Dryas interval, could prove catastrophic for ecosystems and species around the world. During that particular period, for instance, spruce, fir and paper birch trees experienced mass extinction in southern New England in less than 50 years. The extinction of horses, mastodons, mammoths, and sabre-toothed tigers in North America were greater at that time than in any other extinction event in millions of years.
The committee lays out a potentially nightmarish scenario in which random triggering events take the climate across the threshold into a new regime, causing widespread havoc and destruction.
Ecosystems could collapse suddenly with forests decimated in vast fires and grasslands drying out and turning into dust bowls. Wildlife could disappear and waterborne diseases such as cholera and vector-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue and yellow fever, could spread uncontrollably beyond host ranges, threatening human health around the world.
The NAS concludes its report with a dire warning"On the basis of the inference from the paleoclimatic record, it is possible that the projected change will occur not through gradual evolution, proportional to greenhouse gas concentrations, but through abrupt and persistent regime shifts affecting subcontinental or larger regions - denying the likelihood or downplaying the relevance of past abrupt changes could be costly."
Global warming represents the dark side of the commercial ledger for the industrial age. For the past several hundred years, and especially in the 20th century, human beings burned massive amounts of "stored sun" in the form of coal, oil and natural gas, to produce the energy that made an industrial way of life possible. That spent energy has accumulated in the atmosphere and has
begun to adversely affect the climate of the planet and the workings of its many ecosystems.
If we were to measure human accomplishments in terms of the sheer impact our activities have had on the life of the planet, then we would sadly have to conclude that global warming is our most significant accomplishment to date, albeit a negative one.
We have affected the biochemistry of the earth and we have done it in less than a century. If a qualitative climate change were to occur suddenly in the coming century - within less than 10 years - as has happened many times before in geological history, we may already have written our epitaph.
When future generations look back at this period, tens of thousands of years from now, it is possible that the only historical legacy we will have left them in the geologic record is a great change in the earth's climate and its impact on the biosphere.
Original Article is posted:
http//www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4365494,00.html
Jeremy Rifkin is the author of The Biotech Century (Gollancz) and president of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington DC
comment@guardian.co.uk
Guardian Unlimited Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Story Link:
Small Commonwealth states fear global warming could cause a catastrophic flood of migrants from Pacific and Indian ocean islands, delegates to a key leadership summit warned Tuesday, 5 March 2001. See: http://spacedaily.com/news/020305063214.gcbx06oi.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Your Actions Requested for Senate Energy Debate
The biggest environmental policy fight in a decade is now nearing its peak: the Senate has just begun its debate on energy policy.
Enron and other giant corporations have already forced a disastrous energy bill through the House, with the support of the White House.
The Senate is our only chance to stop them. Please call BOTH your Senators now at:
The Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121
Make sure the aide you speak with know if you're a constituent. Then urge them to:
1. "Please support the Kerry-Hollings CAFE bill --
2. Support the Jeffords Renewable Energy bill -- and
3. Block_ oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge."
1. The Kerry-Hollings "CAFE" bill would increase the fuel economy of new cars and light trucks to an average of 35 miles per gallon by 2013 (CAF stands for "Corporate Average Fuel Economy"). This will save as much oil as we import from Iraq and Kuwait combined. It's the single biggest, fastest step we can take to reduce our dependence on oil, a crucial goal for our national security, our economy, and our environment.
2. The Jeffords Renewable Energy bill will help move America toward a sustainable energy future, by requiring that 20% of our energy be generated from renewable sources by the year 2020.
3. Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is just plain wrong. The Refuge is the intact heart of the last great wilderness ecosystem in North America. It contains only enough oil to last the United States 6 months, and that would take 10 years to come online. President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and their friends in the energy business are determined to drill it. But once it's gone, it's gone forever.
Please make your calls now. This environmental battle is vital. Make sure your voice is heard.
The Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121
This message was originally sent from MoveOn.org, Wes Boyd, on March 6, 2002
If you wish, please let them know you're making these calls to help them keep a count:
http://www.moveon.org/callmade.html?id=464-629617-0%2FUq69i5onYynCJMSEuvwA
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) 'Doomsday Clock' Moved Forward
'Doomsday Clock' Moved Forward To Reflect Higher Nuclear Threat
Chicago (AFP) Feb 27, 2002
The Cold War era may have passed, but the threat from nuclear weapons is greater today than it was some 20 years ago, an influential group of US academics and scientists said Wednesday.
The group, which makes up the board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, raised its nuclear-danger warning Wednesday, citing the lack of progress on nuclear disarmament and the efforts of terrorists to acquire nuclear and biological weapons.
"The vector is certainly moving in the wrong direction from our point of view in a post-Cold War world," said George Lopez, chairman of the Bulletin's board of directors.
"The record since 1991 is a record of systematic disappointment," he continued, adding: "We are maybe less close to cataclysm, but we are no closer to global security with regards to weapons of mass destruction."
In a symbolic representation of the danger level, the Bulletin moved the hands of the so-called "Doomsday Clock" two minutes forward, to seven minutes before midnight.
Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman did the honours in a ceremony at the University of Chicago.
The clock was created by scientists at the University of Chicago in 1947 and has been adjusted periodically since then to reflect the waxing and waning threat to the human race from weapons of mass destruction.
Midnight, originally conceived of as nuclear Armageddon, has now come to represent a more limited threat that would create "midnight on Earth" in one place, according to Stephen Schwartz, the journal's publisher.
On this occasion, the Bulletin's board decided to reset the clock because of a number of concerns -- chief among them the United States' decision to act unilaterally in some recent moves rather than in concert with its allies, Lopez told reporters.
The board pointed to the US government's decision to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia and President George W. Bush's reference to an "axis of evil" -- made up of Iran, Iraq and North Korea -- in his January 29 State of the Union address.
In particular, the board members regretted the administration's decision to abandon negotiations with North Korea.
"Clearly there is a great deal of concern about many of the things that the Bush administration has said and that the Bush administration has done," said Schwartz.
Other considerations included the increasing tensions between the nuclear powers of India and Pakistan in the wake of the December 13 terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament, and evidence that the al-Qaeda network was trying to acquire fissile materials to make dirty bombs.
Wednesday's action marks just the third time the clock -- a legacy of the Manhattan Project -- has been reset since the end of the Cold War in 1991.
It was reset in 1998 after India and Pakistan went public with their nuclear tests.
The Bulletin was established in 1945 by scientists who worked on the US government's top-secret Manhattan Project, which resulted in the creation of the world's first atomic bomb.
All rights reserved. 2002 Agence France-Presse.
Originally posted story and links, see
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nuclear-blackmarket-02b.html
= = = = = = = = = = = =
The last three paragraphs of the statement by the Board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientist, follows:
"The United States should reconsider its plans to walk away from the ABM Treaty in June. As the U.S. intelligence community recently concluded, ballistic missiles are neither the most likely nor the most destructive threat facing the United States.
Other measures that would increase global stability include a ban on the deployment of space-based weapons, whether designed to damage or disrupt satellites or to attack targets on the ground or in the air; full adherence by all parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention; and the resumption of negotiations on a verification protocol for the Biological Weapons Convention. Stronger international support for the global movement to limit the spread of small arms and to ban land mines, which each year maim or kill tens of thousands of people, most of them innocent civilians, would also be a welcome and necessary development.
The clock is ticking."
To read the complete statement, see:
http://www.thebulletin.org/media/current.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) MIT team tied to questionable missile studies
[This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 3/4/2002]
MIT team tied to questionable missile studies
By David Abel, Globe Staff, 3/4/2002
A Pentagon agency, two major military contractors, and an independent research team led by MIT scientists produced flawed studies that exaggerated the success of a key test used to justify spending billions of dollars on the fledgling national missile defense program, according to two reports obtained by the Globe.
The long-awaited reports, to be released today by the General Accounting Office, detail the flawed analysis of critical missile-defense technologies provided by the contractors, Boeing Co. and TRW, verified by senior researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory, and hailed by the Pentagon's recently renamed Missile Defense Agency.
In reports about a highly sophisticated sensor used in the first test of the missile-defense program - a technology similar to one now designed for the vital task of distinguishing decoys from warheads - contractors described its performance as ''excellent'' and the overall test as a ''success.'' The team directed by two MIT scientists, which evaluated the contractors' reports of the test, pronounced them ''basically sound.'' And officials in the Missile Defense Agency called the first test of the technology in space ''highly successful.''
Yet the review by the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, found that crucial elements of the 1997 test failed - prompting investigators to raise questions about the oversight of a program that has already cost billions of dollars and could, if the Bush administration has its way, ultimately cost taxpayers as much as $238 billion, according to a recent estimate by the Congressional Budget Office.
''The data are garbage - they had to use all these software shenanigans and throw out two-thirds of the data to make it look like a success,'' said a congressional source close to the GAO investigation. ''Up to now, there has been no independent verification of the contractors' claims. This pulls out the rug from those calling the test a success. By any definition, there's no way to call it a success.''
The main defect in the test, according to the GAO, was that the infrared sensor built by Boeing failed to cool to a sufficient temperature to function properly. Also, the power supply of the sensor turned out to be much louder than expected. The excess heat and noise, missile specialists said, caused a significant distortion, by a factor of up to 200 times, in the ability of the sensor to detect targets. As a result, the sensor often detected targets where none existed.
The performance of the sensor is crucial because the planned land-based national missile defense system might have only one chance to hit its target. And once the military launches an antimissile against an incoming ballistic missile, military analysts say they believe it would almost certainly face a barrage of decoys. Moving at great speeds, it would have to distinguish the fake from the real in a matter of minutes.
Regarding what became known in defense circles as the ''MIT study,'' a review of the contractors' findings that the Pentagon used to champion missile defense spending, the GAO faulted the team led by scientists at Lincoln Lab for relying on data processed by TRW - instead of seeking the contractor's raw data.
Although the team reported that TRW's sensor contained a few software glitches, GAO investigators said the scientists' use of the processed data allowed them to review only 14 of 54 seconds worth of data. The limited look at the sensor's performance, according to the GAO, skewed the scientists' review and led them to pronounce the sensor's software well designed and say it worked properly.
The failure to review the raw data, investigators wrote in the report, means ''the team cannot be said to have definitively proved or disproved TRW's claim that its software successfully discriminated the mock warhead from the decoys.''
For MIT physicist Theodore Postol, a frequent critic of the Pentagon's missile defense plans, the omissions of his colleagues and their stamp of approval for the Missile Defense Agency amounts to scientific fraud. Postol recently lodged complaints with the MIT Corporation about the study - charging that the university's president, Charles M. Vest, knew of the alleged misconduct and did nothing about it.
''This certainly has the appearance of a well-orchestrated fraud,'' Postol said. ''The managers at Lincoln Lab either knew or should have known that this experiment was a total failure - and they falsely represented it as a success. The implications of that deceit could cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.''
MIT officials did not return calls for comment. But Roger Sudbury, a spokesman for Lincoln Lab, told the Globe last month that the Lexington-based research arm of MIT received no complaints from contractors or the Pentagon about their review, and he said, ''There is no evidence of fraud.''
Lieutenant Colonel Rick Lehner, a spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency, which oversees the Pentagon's effort to develop an overlapping air, land, sea, and space-based missile shield, insisted that, as far as he knows, the sensor guiding Boeing's ''kill vehicle'' worked as planned.
Still, in the scheme of the overall missile defense plan, he said, the 1997 test is irrelevant. Not long after the test, the Pentagon decided to use a sensor built by Raytheon Corp., one with ''totally different'' technology than the one designed by Boeing.
''I would guess our people will take issue with this report,'' Lehner said. ''At face value, the only thing I was told was that the Boeing kill vehicle did discriminate against the decoys and warhead. Until the agency tells me otherwise, I have to go with that.''
The GAO reports, requested by Representative Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, and two other members of Congress, were sought nearly two years ago after Postol sent the White House a detailed analysis of the 1997 test, alleging both Boeing and TRW misrepresented the results.
The MIT professor analyzed the raw data of the test, which he obtained through Nira Schwartz, a senior staff engineer at TRW who was fired after she reported that the software her company developed would not distinguish decoys from warheads. Schwartz, who is suing TRW, and Postol insisted it's a fallacy to say the 1997 test is irrelevant.
Because both the Boeing and Raytheon sensor use ''infrared eyes,'' ''It's the equivalent of looking at a bunch of suitcases with only your eyes and trying to find a bomb inside,'' Postol said. ''If I give you a telescope, a microscope, or dark glasses when you look at the suitcase, none will tell you which has the bomb.''
Despite the allegations, the GAO studies stop short of calling the reports and exaggerated results fraud. Unlike most GAO reports, and despite congressional requests for them, they don't include recommendations.
The reason, another congressional source close to the investigation said, is political. The reports, delayed by sluggish responses from the Pentagon and contractors for documents, were vetted very closely to avoid casting too much blame on any one party, the source said.
''Much of the findings were buried inside the text and purposely written in technical language so as not to highlight many things,'' the source said. ''There are many political pressures, and the report was certainly edited for political reasons.''
With billions of dollars at stake and $100 million a pop for each antimissile test, a lot is riding on whether it is technically possible to build a national missile defense that works. Over the past five years, three out of the five antimissile tests hit their targets. But during that time, the tests have been downgraded in complexity, now using only one decoy that is much larger and brighter than the mock warhead.
For the Bush administration, which vowed to build a robust national missile defense during its campaign two years ago, fielding a viable system is one of its highest priorities. In December, President Bush announced the United States would withdraw in June from the 30-year-old ABM treaty, which bars a nationwide missile shield.
In a statement about the GAO reports, Markey, who has proposed a bill calling for independent oversight of the missile shield, cautioned that relying on questionable technology could amount to a massive waste of taxpayer dollars.
''The national missile defense program needs independent oversight and testing milestones to ensure that it works before we spend countless billions of dollars deploying it,'' he said. ''If it can't tell the warhead apart from a decoy, what good is it?''
David Abel can be reached by e-mail at dabel@globe.com.
The original article is posted:
http//www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/063/nation/MIT_team_tied_to_questionable_missile_studies+.shtml
Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
5) Missile Defense Support Tapering Off
Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation
(formerly Council for a Livable World Education Fund)
March 4, 2002 Analysis:
"Missile Defense Support Tapering Off"
A review of transcripts from four Senate and House Armed Services Committee hearings suggests the following conclusions:
1. Support for national missile defense may remain strong, but that support is less intense than last year.
2. Some supporters of missile defense are arguing that homeland defense should be a higher priority than missile defense.
3. Missile defense is not a top priority for most Members of Congress.
4. Many Democrats who muted their criticisms of missile defense after the September 11 terrorist attacks are beginning to find their voices.
For the complete analysis report, see:
http://www.clw.org/nmd/supporttapering.html
Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation
110 Maryland Avenue, NE
Washington, D.C. 20002
(202) 543-4100 x.131
http://www.clw.org
= = = = = = = = = =
For a related commentary from Antiwar.com -- see
THE TIDE TURNS - by Justin Raimondo
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/pf/p-j030402.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Energy Debate/Actions * Terrorist Nuke Shadow * Freedom Updates* LFAS
4 March 2002
1) Declaration of Energy Independence
2) The Senate's Debate on Energy Policy and What You Can Do
3) Terrorists thought to have 10 Kiloton Nuclear Weapon
4) America sets up 'shadow government' at secret locations
5) Lori Berenson Update -- Tuesday Call for her Freedom
6) Free Leonard Peltier Update
7) Whales and sonar -- Under water, no one can hear you scream
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Declaration of Energy Independence
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s letter and action proposal:
Dear Friend,
There is nothing patriotic about handing over our natural heritage to the oil industry. But that's exactly what the White House wants to do in the name of national security.
I'm asking you to join me in opposing the senseless destruction of our environment by going to http://www.savebiogems.org/declaration.asp and signing the Declaration of Energy Independence. The declaration calls on our government to pursue a sustainable energy future that will preserve -- not destroy -- our last, unspoiled wildlands.
We have little time to lose. With the nation's attention focused almost exclusively on the war against terrorism, the Bush administration has moved quietly but aggressively in recent months to open up fragile wildlands to giant energy corporations. In Utah, they were in such a hurry to lease millions of acres of our redrock canyonlands for oil and gas development that they skipped the environmental review that is required by law. My colleagues here at NRDC have already gone to federal court to block this illegal giveaway of redrock country.
But that's only the beginning. The Bush-Cheney energy plan -- hatched in closed-door meetings last year with Enron and other energy giants -- would pave the way for oil and gas companies to despoil an alarming number of our last wild places: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, Wyoming's Red Desert, and many, many more.
President Bush says we need the oil to become more energy independent. Don't buy it! Using the tragic events of September 11th as an opportunity to advance the special interests of the oil industry will not enhance America's energy security. Our nation simply doesn't have enough oil to drill our way to self-sufficiency.
If we really want to declare energy independence, then the only answer is to dramatically reduce our appetite for oil. For starters, we could increase the fuel efficiency of our cars and light trucks to 40 miles per gallon. That would save nearly two million barrels of oil a day by the year 2012 -- more than all the oil we imported last year from Saudi Arabia.
The Declaration of Energy Independence sets forth plenty of other ways to slash our dependence on oil. It proves that fighting terrorism does NOT require the destruction of our own natural heritage.
Please do your part by visiting http://www.savebiogems.org/declaration.asp and signing the Declaration of Energy Independence. It will take you less than a minute. Then please forward this message to your family and friends. If millions of us sign the declaration, then the White House and Congress will be unable to ignore its message.
And thank you for helping to save America's last wild places.
Sincerely yours,
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Senior Attorney
Natural Resources Defense Council
==================================================================
Energy and National Security FAQ
1. How is our country's energy policy related to national security?
The United States consumes 25 percent of all the oil produced in the world, yet we control just 3 percent of the world's oil reserves. As a result of this imbalance, we've become heavily reliant on foreign oil, much of which comes from the conflict-ridden Middle East. In1974, our country imported one million barrels a day from the Persian Gulf; today, that figure tops 2.5 million. This dependence means our economy is highly vulnerable to wild swings in the price and supply of oil -- a fact that's become all the more unsettling since the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
2. How can we make our nation less vulnerable?
By reducing our dependence on oil from all sources -- foreign and domestic. This is not only the fastest, cleanest and cheapest path to energy security, it's also the best way of keeping our planet healthy.
Figuring out how to do this isn't difficult. We already know that transportation accounts for two-thirds of all the oil we consume, so changing the way America travels can dramatically curb our use of oil. A first step should be improving the fuel efficiency of American-made cars, trucks and SUVs. Passenger cars today get only 24 miles to the gallon on average -- the lowest level since 1980 -- and nearly every model on the market today could easily and inexpensively be reengineered to get more miles from less fuel. The second should be speeding up the development of cleaner, more efficient fuels and cars for the future. Two promising technologies, ethanol made from crop wastes and hydrogen fuel cells, are already within reach.
3. But aren't these fuel-efficient technologies still years away?
In some cases. Cars powered by fuel cells, for example, probably won't reach the mass market for another decade or two. (Fuel cells run on hydrogen, which is considered the ultimate "green" energy source -- its only byproduct is water.) But if we don't fund this research now, and set goals for producing these cars, they're likely to remain the next-generation novelties they are today.
Other advances, such as a new way of making ethanol, are ready to be tested on a commercial scale. This process draws on farm waste, such as corn stalks and rice hulls, to produce ethanol, while using far less energy than the current method.
Still other energy-saving technologies are available now. Automakers have all the tools they need to boost the average gas mileage of new passenger vehicles to 40 mpg. And by increasing their production of gas-electric hybrid vehicles, they could raise the overall fuel efficiency for new vehicles to 55 mpg by 2020. But so far, Congress has failed to pass laws requiring higher gas mileage standards, giving Detroit little incentive to make the investment needed to retool their factories.
4. Will higher gas mileage standards really save that much oil?
Yes. By raising the average gas mileage of all new cars, including SUVs, to 40 mpg, our country would save more than 50 billion barrels of oil over the next 50 years. By the year 2020, this would mean a savings of more than 3 million barrels every day -- which is more than the amount of oil we now import from the Persian Gulf.
For car owners, this would translate to a savings of $3,000 to $5,000 in gas over the life of their vehicles, more than offsetting slight increases in the price of fuel-efficient cars.
5. In the short term, why shouldn't we also start drilling for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other wilderness areas that might hold oil?
Because drilling in these areas won't solve our energy problems or make our country more secure. There's no way the United States can drill its way to energy independence -- we simply don't have enough oil. While it makes sense for oil companies to increase production in existing oil fields, the real solution to our problems is to reduce our use of oil, not to destroy our last remaining wild lands in search of new places to drill.
Nowhere is this more clear than in the debate over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a rugged landscape of glaciers and rivers that teems with wildlife, including polar bears, Arctic wolves and caribou. After Sept. 11th, 2001, some members of Congress cited national security as a reason to begin drilling in the refuge. But if drilling started today, it would take at least 10 years for the first crude to reach refineries. And even then, the amount of oil likely to be recovered would never amount to more than 2 percent of our country's annual consumption. Such small yields would hardly make a dent in the amount of oil we import, or in the prices we pay at the gas pump.
6. Is there a connection between energy security and global warming?
Definitely. When our cars burn gasoline, they release carbon dioxide -- the primary cause of global warming and long-term changes in the earth's climate. In 2000, the production, transportation and use of gasoline for our cars and light trucks produced 1,450 million tons of heat-trapping gases -- more than a fifth of the United States' total global warming emissions that year.
The good news is that we can sharply reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases by raising gas mileage standards -- the same fix that will save Americans money at the gas pump and reduce our dependence on oil. For example, requiring vehicles to get at least 40 mpg by 2012 and at least 55 mpg by 2020 would cut carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 900 million tons per year.
= = = = = = = = = =
Dangerous Addiction: Ending America's Oil Dependence
http://www.nrdc.org/air/transportation/oilsecurity/securityinx.asp
Oil and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
http://www.nrdc.org/land/wilderness/arctic.asp
A Responsible Energy Policy for the 21st Century
http://www.nrdc.org/air/energy/rep/repinx.asp
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) The Senate's Debate on Energy Policy and What You Can Do
From Wes Boyd, (Move-On Organization)
The Senate has just begun its debate on energy policy, and the stakes couldn't be higher. The Senate is under intense pressure from the Enron-backed White House to
- Open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling;
- Give tens of billions in taxpayer subsidies to the energy industry;
- Make no substantial increase in car or SUV fuel economy.
The House has already passed a bill that does all these things, so the Senate is our last chance to stop them. The Senate remains closely split, of course, and the Bush administration's friends in the energy business are twisting arms harder than ever. It's urgent that we make a strong show of support now for common-sense energy policies.
One of the most powerful ways to help is to send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper -- letters tell our Senators the people at home are watching.
Please take a moment now to write your letter. Be sure to include your home address and phone number. A letter will typically be under 250 words. The letters section of your paper will have the email address and fax number for submission. We've included a few sample letters below. Your own words are always better, of course.
A sensible energy policy would protect our national security, our economy, and our environment. Please send a letter today.
Thank you,
Wes Boyd
MoveOn.org
February 28, 2002
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ON ENERGY POLICY
DATE
Dear Editor,
The Senate is now debating energy policy, and the stakes are huge.
We need our Senators to support an energy bill that secures our energy future while protecting our precious public lands, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. By using more renewable energy like wind and solar power, and making America's cars and SUVs go farther on a gallon of gas, we can create more jobs and reduce our dependence on oil. With these measures we could be on the path toward a clean energy future, a healthy economy, and greater national security.
Sincerely,
YOUR NAME,
YOUR FULL ADDRESS
YOUR PHONE NUMBER
_____________________
DATE
Dear Editor,
America's energy use is an integral part of our national security. As a country we use a quarter of the world's oil, but we possess only 3% of the world's oil reserves. Yet, while we rely heavily on other countries for our oil needs, we are wasteful with our oil consumption. The American fleet of cars and light trucks goes no further on a gallon of gas today than it did in 1980! We can do better. The technology exists today to make cars much more fuel-efficient.
We need our Senators to support legislation sponsored by Senators Kerry (D-MA) and Hollings (D-SC) that will make cars go farther on a gallon of gas. By raising the average fuel economy of American cars and light trucks to 35 miles per gallon by 2013, we can decrease our dependence on oil, protect our precious public lands, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and save American families millions of dollars at the gas pump. The senate must take a stand on this issue, for the good of the economy and the country.
Sincerely,
YOUR NAME,
YOUR FULL ADDRESS
YOUR PHONE NUMBER
______________________
Please let us know you've sent your letter at
http//www.moveon.org/lte.html?id=457-628818-ErQefFhv5vksR7%2BUSk962g
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Terrorists thought to have 10 Kiloton Nuclear Weapon
Source:
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash.htm
DRUDGE REPORT -- SUN MARCH 03, 2002 09:22:37 ET --
OCTOBER BULLETIN SAID TERRORISTS THOUGHT TO HAVE 10 KILOTON
NUCLEAR WEAPON TO BE SMUGGLED INTO NEW YORK CITY
Sun Mar 03 2002 10:40:24 ET
**TIME MAGAZINE**
New York -- In October, an intelligence alert went out to a small number of government agencies, including the Energy Department's top-secret Nuclear Emergency Search Team, based in Nevada. The report said that terrorists were thought to have obtained a 10-kiloton nuclear weapon from the Russian arsenal, and planned to smuggle it into New York City, a special TIME magazine investigation reveals.
Publishing sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT, the next cover story of TIME will headline: "Can We Stop the Next 9/11?"
The report hits newsstands Monday, March 4th.
MORE
The source: a mercurial agent code-named DRAGONFIRE, who intelligence officials believed was of "undetermined" reliability, TIME reports. But DRAGONFIRE'S claim tracked with a report from a Russian general who believed his forces were missing a 10-kiloton device.
That made the DRAGONFIRE report alarming. So did this: detonated in lower Manhattan, a 10-kiloton bomb would kill some 100,000 civilians and irradiate 700,000 more, flattening everything in a half-mile diameter.
Counterterrorist investigators went on their highest state of alert, TIME reports. "It was brutal," a U.S. official told TIME.
It was also highly classified and closely guarded.
MORE
Under the aegis of the White House's Counterterrorism Security Group, part of the National Security Council, the suspected nuke was kept secret so as not to panic the people of New York. Senior FBI officials were not in the loop. Former mayor Rudolph Giuliani says he was never told about the threat. In the end, the investigators found nothing, and concluded that DRAGONFIRE'S information was false. But few of them slept better.
Counterterrorism experts and government officials interviewed by TIME say that for all the relative calm since Sept. 11, America's luck will probably run out again, sooner or later. "It's going to be worse, and a lot of people are going to die," warns one U.S. counterterrorism official. "I don't think there's a damn thing we're going to be able to do about it."
The DRUDGE REPORT has been briefed on other revelations coming from TIME's investigation:
The Coast Guard is arming itself against a possible terrorist attempt to destroy a major U.S. coastal city by detonating a tanker loaded with liquified natural gas.
The Administration has recalled old CIA hands with experience in Central Asia. Says an Administration official: "You ended up going back to retirees because the bench was so light on Afghanistan. We're still trying to get up to speed."
This week, Tom Ridge's office plans to announce a new color-coded alert system to warn local law enforcement and the public about threats within U.S. borders, sources tell TIME.
While there is a genuine debate inside the government about whether Osama bin Laden is still alive, there is far less argument about what will happen after Washington is able to confirm that he is dead. A U.S. official told TIME last week that it is widely presumed that al-Qaeda sleeper cells will take retaliatory action once the terrorist leader is killed or proven dead.
"We're as vulnerable today as we were on 9/10 or 9/12," says presidential counselor Karen Hughes. "We just know more."
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Source: AUSTRALIAN PEACE COMMITTEE
AUSTRALIAN ANTI-BASES CAMPAIGN
FRIENDS OF THE EARTH
In a recent Washington Post article, Pentagon advisers speculated that over the next year, there was a 5% probability of a nuclear attack against the US.
In the same Washington Post item, "You can go and kill every one of their terrorists and hang [Osama] bin Laden in front of the White House and you still haven't solved the problem -- and you've probably created hundreds of new terrorists," said retired Col. Richard Dunn, a former chief of the Army's internal think tank. "So you could win tactically, and lose strategically."
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) America sets up 'shadow government' at secret locations
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
02 March 2002
Reported in Independent News
The fear of another terror strike against America has led President Bush to establish a "shadow government" that is operating at two fortified locations away from Washington.
Up to 150 senior staff were dispatched to the secret bases in the immediate aftermath of the 11 September attacks to ensure government could continue to function in the event of a crippling terrorist attack perhaps involving nuclear weapons. The bases are meant to ensure disruptions to the nation's food, water and energy supplies, and breaks in communications and transport links, will be as limited as possible.
The so-called Continuity of Operations Plan was first conceived as a Cold War precaution against nuclear attack during the Eisenhower administration in the 1950s but never put into place until last year. It was initially thought that the shadow team would only be in place for a few days but the US intelligence community believes that the threat of another terror attack from al-Qa'ida is great enough to warrant its continued operation.
Those involved who work on a rotation of up to 90 days are not allowed to tell their families where they are going, other than "on a business trip".
Mr Bush confirmed the existence of the shadow government yesterday and said: "I have an obligation, and my administration has an obligation to protect ... and put measures into place that should there be an attack on Washington DC there is an ongoing government." Vice-President Dick Cheney spends most of his time away from Washington in a secure location.
The plan put into operation in the first hours after the attacks on New York and Washington involves personnel from all of the cabinet departments. They operate from two secret locations on the east coast that use local geological features to make them extremely secure. The bases are stocked with supplies and can generate their own power.
Last week, Senator Bob Graham, chairman of the Senate's intelligence select committee, said about 100 al-Qa'ida sleepers were in America, posing an "immediate threat".
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=250433
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
5) Lori Berenson Update -- Tuesday Call for her Freedom
Saturday March 2
To All Friends and Supporters of Lori Berenson
SUPPORT THE "URGENT ACTION" BY NATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF WOMEN ("NOW')
CALLING FOR LORI'S RELEASE
This past fall the National Organization for Women (NOW) passed a resolution in support of Lori's "immediate release and safe passage out of Peru." The NOW resolution appears on our website at http://www.freelori.org/groups/now/01sep_resolution.html
On February 22, NOW initiated an "Urgent Action" campaign for Lori's release. Please visit the NOW website at http://www.now.org and under Urgent Actions on the homepage click on to Free Lori Berenson. There are two letters that you can immediately e-mail or print out, one for President Bush and the other for Secretary of State Powell. This is crucial, given President Bush's forthcoming visit to Peru.
We are very grateful to the leadership of NOW for championing Lori's case.
Note that the NOW resolution and letters can serve as a model for other organizations. If you would like more information on getting your organization involved in such actions please contact us at berenson@freelori.org.
LORI'S HUNGER PROTEST CONTINUES
Today is the 13th day of Lori's hunger protest and we have had no word as to her condition or that of other prisoners. The hunger protest began in Lima 20 days ago by political prisoners and has spread throughout the country, affecting approximately 1,000 persons. Although the Peruvian Justice Minister simply dismissed the prisoners' demands as "terrorist rhetoric," no objective person would agree that suggestions for improving human rights and justice in Peru are terrorist rhetoric. The prisoners have urged an end to impunity that started under earlier governments whereby police, military, and paramilitary units were absolved from their violent (government approved) crimes. The prisoners have demanded an end to the illegal internationally condemned anti-terrorism legislation and have asked for new trials. The prisoners have demanded that officials stop repressive acts within the prison system and to respect their fundamental rights as human beings. The prisoners have asked for transfers to be closer to their homes to facilitate visits from family members financially unable to visit at long distances. The prisoners have demanded the closing of three prisons condemned as inhumane by every international and Peruvian human rights group. The prisoners have urged the government to facilitate the work of the Truth Commission so that the Peruvian people and the world can finally learn the truth about the political violence and terrorism that affected Peru for nearly two decades.
WHITE HOUSE "CALL IN CAMPAIGN" CONTINUES
Reminder -- Please keep up the calls to the White House "hot line" on every Tuesday in March, if possible. The number is 202-456-1111. Ask to speak to the hotline operator and tell that person that you ask President Bush to bring Lori Berenson home when he visits Peru on March 23rd -- she has suffered enough.
Many thanks,
Rhoda and Mark Berenson
website: http://www.freelori.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
6) Free Leonard Peltier Update
URGE CONGRESS TO INVESTIGATE PELTIER CASE!
Dear Friends,
Please keep letters going to Congressman Burton, chair of the Government Reform Committee of the House of Representatives. We have been informed that plans to hold hearings into FBI abuses resulting in wrongful convictions are only in their beginning stages, gives us time to push, push, push for Peltier's inclusion! See the following link for more information:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1013207483,22139,
This Tuesday, March 5, there will be a showing of the Leonard Peltier Congressional Briefing Video at the Common Ground Restaurant in Brattleboro, Vermont, beginning at 6:30. There's a community meal prior to the video, beginning at 5pm.
For more information on this and the video, see
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1013207483,22139,
And visit the Leonard Peltier website, where besides additional information on his case, you can view his beautiful artwork, oil paintings: http://www.freepeltier.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
7) Whales and sonar -- Under water, no one can hear you scream
Feb 28th 2002 | NEW YORK
From The Economist
The American navy may soon have a whale of a problem
IT MIGHT offer a plot for a Hollywood blockbuster. The usual suspects are presentevil military types, a plucky band of environmentalists and a cast of loveable animals fighting for their survival. The story is spoilt, though, by the fact that the would-be heroes of the drama (earnest biologists trying to make the truth heard over the political fray) are still off in a corner arguing with each other over the scientific evidence.
The loveable animals in question are the world's whales. At stake is the American navy's use of a new form of sonar. For the past two years, it has been trying to get permission to deploy low-frequency active sonar (LFAS), a system designed to hunt for very quiet submarines. But the frequency range of LFAS (100-500Hz) is the same as that used by baleen whales (blue, grey, fin and humpback (the most charismatic species) in their songs. Biologists worry that LFAS might thus damage these whales in some way. That would make its use illegal under an American law from which not even the navy is exempt. In the next couple of months, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the agency responsible for protecting the welfare of marine mammals, is due to announce whether it will let the navy deploy the new device. It's decision, one way or the other, is sure to infuriate somebody.
Sounding the depths
The reach of the proposed system is remarkable. Because of the distance that low-frequency sound waves can travel under water, a set of four ships emitting sound at 235 decibels could monitor 80% of the world's oceans for submarines. But it is precisely that reach which, from the whales' point of view, might be worrying. So, in 1997 and 1998, the navy gathered data on the response of whales to an LFAS test array. Kurt Fristrup, a marine biologist at Cornell University who helped to conduct this study, says humpback whales exposed to LFAS altered the lengths of their songs slightly, but resumed normal calling a few hours afterwards. Grey whales exposed to a test source in the middle of their migration path altered their routes to avoid it, but once the source was moved out of the migration corridor and further into the ocean, they appeared to ignore it.
That does not sound much to worry about, and in any case, the navy says the system can be made safe. It has been designed to switch off as soon as a broadcasting ship comes within 1km of a whale. At this distance the animal would hear the sonar at a volume of 180 decibels, which the navy says will cause no harm.
Some whale experts, however, disagree with the navy's boffins. Lack of alteration does not imply lack of injury, according to Naomi Rose, a marine biologist at the Humane Society, an American animal-welfare charity. The animals could have been disturbed or even partially deafened, but their mating and migrating activities may have been too important for them to change their patterns of behaviour. More pertinently, the navy's test array broadcast at a maximum level of 155 decibels. That is roughly 0.3% of the power of the 180-decibel cut-off point that the operational system would have.
Meanwhile, greens are fretting not only about the whales, but also about the vigour of the agency appointed to protect them, which they fear is the victim of "regulatory capture". According to Michael Jasny of the National Resources Defence Council, an environmental lobby group, the best available science has shown that LFAS causes "severely adverse effects" in marine mammals. "The NMFS would have to tie itself in knots to come up with a determination supporting the navy."
Dr Fristrup, though, doubts if more studies and more tests could assuage the fears of whale-lovers. Certain groups, he says, "oppose LFAS deployment on principletheir positions are clearly not susceptible to change based on any scientific evidence that can be developed."
Article from The Economist
http//www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=1010882
For more information, see the link at www.flybynews.com (under "Breaking News Stories"):
"The harmful impact on Whales and Dolphins by the U.S. Navy's experimental use of active sonar systems," or following link:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid948385848,37113,
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com----------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Alternative News Links (Resources, Reviews, Analyses, Discussion, Mainstream, etc.)
Activist Page
http://www.theofficenet.com/~redorman/
Alter Net. Org {Independent News Media}
http://www.alternet.org/index.html
Alternative Media Watch http://www.zmag.org/altmediawatch.htm
Amnesty International - USA
http://www.amnestyusa.org/home.html
Antiwar.com
http://www.antiwar.com
Black Panther Party Alumni http://www.itsabouttimebpp.com/
Black Radical Congress
http://www.blackradicalcongress.org/
Bobby Seale's Home Page = BPP Founder
http://www.bobbyseale.com/
E-Mail= seale@bobbyseale.com or ReachBS@msn.com
Common Dreams
http://news@commondreams.org/
Email= news@commondreams.org
Corp Watch ~~ Holding Corporations Accountable
http://www.corpwatch.org
Digital Divide Network
http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org/content/sections/index.cfm
Emperor's New Clothes {Piercing a fog of lies}
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/
Flyby News
http://www.flybynews.com/
Email= info@flybynews.com
Global Circle Net News
http://globalcircle.net/1gnn0913wtc.htm
Global Network Agains Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
http://www.space4peace.org
Global Portal ~~ bridging the information divide
http://globalcircle.net/portal.htm
Human Rights Watch {Human Rights Worldwide}
http://www.hrw.org/
IGC's Internet Progressive Gateway & Related Links
http://www.igc.org/igc/gateway/index.html
Independent Media Center
http://indymedia.org/
http://www.alternet.org
http://www.antiracismnet.org
http://www.counterpunch.org
http://www.fair.org
http://www.globalexchange.org
http://www.inthesetimes.com
http://www.justresponse.org
http://www.madre.org
http://www.mediachannel.org
http://www.oneworld.net
http://www.thenation.com
http://www.tompaine.com
http://workingforchange.com/
http://www.zmag.org/
Institute for Cooperation in Space
http://www.peaceinspace.com
Institute for Global Communications
http://www.igc.org/igc/gateway/
Liberator 2000 Forum
http://liberator2000.com/
Los Angeles Independent Media Center
http://la.indymedia.org/index.php3
Mother Jones Earth News
http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/
Narco News Global Alert
http://www.narconews.com/
NY Transfer {All the news that doesn't fit}
http://www.blythe.org/
Northern Light
http://www.northernlight.com/
One World Today's Headlines
http://www.oneworld.net/news/today/front.shtml
Sacramento Progressive Calendar
http://www.sacleft.org/
The Daily Brew {editorial/opinion column}
http://www.thedailybrew.com/
Truthout
http://www.truthout.com/index.htm
Utne Reader Online
http://www.utne.com/
Women's E News
http://www.womensenews.org/
http://64.81.195.15/
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Amerikan News Sources
BIOS ~ News, Info & Analyses on U.S.~Mexican Border
http://www.us-mex.org/
Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/index.html
Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/
Sacramento Bee Online Newspaper
http://www.sacbee.com/
Sacramento News & Review
http://www.newsreview.com
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
United States Newspapers ~~Listed by State
http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/usatable.htm
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/usafront.htm
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
AMERICAN TV NETWORKS
ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/
CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/now/section/0,1636,100-412,00.shtml
FOX News
http://www.foxnews.com/
MS-NBC
http://www.msnbc.com/news/default.asp
PBS Online {Public Broadcasting System}
http://www.pbs.org/
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
LATINO PROGRESSIVE NEWS SOURCES
Access Mexico Connect Magazine
http://www.mexconnect.com/
Chiapas ~~ Independent Media Center
http://chiapas.indymedia.org/front.php3
Colombian Labor Monitor
http://www.prairienet.org/clm/
Latin American Press News Organ
http://www.lapress.org/main.asp
Latin America Solidarity Conference
http://www.americas.org/LASC/
La Voz de Aztlan ~~ Communications Network
http://www.aztlan.net/
The Zapatistas: A Rough Guide
http://www.chiapaslink.ukgateway.net/
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
NATIVE AMERICANS NEWS SOURCES=
Indian Gaming News on the Internet
http://www.pechanga.net/index.htm
Indian Trust: Cobell v. Norton
http://www.indiantrust.com./index.cfm
Indian Z.Com Your Internet Resource
http://www.indianz.com/default.asp
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (International Office)
http://www.freepeltier.org/
KOLA Homepage
http://users.skynet.be/kola/
Native American Times
http://www.okit.com/
Voice of the Eagle
http://members.tripod.com/eaglesvoice/index.htm
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
OTHER NEWS SOURCES
NPR News ~~ All Things Considered
http://news.npr.org/
Technology Review
http://www.technologyreview.com/
Wired News
http://www.wired.com/news/
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
RESEARCH NEWS SOURCES
Robert Bowman on Missile Defense, and related information
http://rmbowman.com/ssn/
Center for Research on Globalisation
http://globalresearch.ca/
DRC Net Online Library of Drug Policy
http://www.druglibrary.org/
Find Articles {FREE article search}
http://www.findarticles.com/PI/index.jhtml
Make Them Accountable {Investigative Reporters Podvin & Kay}
http://www.makethemaccountable.com/
Mexico Online
http://www.mexonline.com/history.htm
National Latino Research Center {NLRC)
http://www.csusm.edu/nlrc/
On-Line Latino Research Center
http://latinos.slonet.org/
The Public i {investigative report Center for Public Integrity}
http://www.public-i.org/index.htm
Third World Traveler {Info. & links}
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/
Tom Paine ~~ Journal of Opinion
http://www.tompaine.com/
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
PROGRESSIVE YAHOO GROUPS & RELATED WEBSITES =
Activist List Yahoo Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Activist_List
AIM {American Indian Movement} Issues Yahoo Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AIM_Issues
American Patriot Friends Network
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/apfn/
Armchair Activist Yahoo Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/armchairactivist
THE BULL SH-T FREE ZONE {Data bank for human rights links etc.}
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THE_BULL_SH-T_FREE_ZONE
Bush Busters
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BushBusters/
Communist-Internet Yahoo Group {Global & Local News & Discussion}
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Communist-Internet
Dr. Rich Boylan Reports ~ Factual reports on Star Visitors, UFOs, encounters with Star People, and the human condition post-contact
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DrRichBoylanReports/
Humane Rights Agenda Yahoo Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HumaneRightsAgenda
Indigenous Peoples Literature Yahoo Group {+ Key Links}
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/indigenous_peoples_literature
Mumia Abu-Jamal's Writings from death row.
http://www.mumia.org
His previous columns @
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mumiacolumns
La Raza Unida Party Yahoo Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Raza_Unida
Native American Inmates & Family Support Yahoo Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THUNDERINGDRUMS
NDN-AIM Yahoo Group ~~
American Indian & Indigenous Peoples Issues
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ndn-aim
Nerve Signal Interference (NSI) Removal {Wholistic Health}
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NSIRemoval/
Proletarian News Yahoo Group {continuing coverage of WWIII}
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews
Struggle News Yahoo Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/strugglenew/
http://struggle.ws/new.html
Trust the People = Sacramento
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/trustthepeople-sacramento/
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
USA & GOVERNMENT INFORMATION SOURCES
California Online Services
http://www.ca.gov/state/portal/myca_homepage.jsp
CIA World Factbook 2001
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
Fed World Information Network Home Page
http://www.fedworld.gov/
Health & Human Services News & Public Affairs
http://www.hhs.gov/news/
National Security Archive
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/
United Nations Website
http://www.un.org/
USA Census Bureau Homepage
http://www.census.gov/
USA House of Representatives
http://www.house.gov/
USA ~ HUD Website {Housing & Urban Development}
http://www.hud.gov/
USA Senate
http://www.senate.gov/
USA State & Local Gateway
http://www.statelocal.gov/
USA White House
http://www.whitehouse.gov/
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
WORLD NEWS SOURCES & OTHERS
ABYZ News Links
http://www.abyznewslinks.com/
Afghanistan Online
http://www.afghan-web.com/
Arabic Media Internet Network
http://www.amin.org/
British Broadcasting Corporation
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
CNN World News
http://www8.cnn.com/
European Press Review: English Service
http://www.dwelle.de/english/european_press/Welcome.html
First News Source, A ~~ "We Cover the World"
http://travisjackson.com/
Foreign Wire International News Service
http://www.foreignwire.com/
GRANMA International - Havana, Cuba http://www.granma.cu/ingles/index.html
Email: Informacion@granmai.cip.cu
The Hindu ~~India's National Newspaper
http://www.hinduonnet.com/
International News Sources
http://www.simcom.on.ca/internat.html
Islam Online
http://www.islam-online.net/english/index.shtml
Japan Times Online
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/start.htm
Jerusalem Post
http://www.jpost.com/
Latin America Online News Sources
http://www.lib.utsa.edu/Instruction/helpsheets/pubs.html
Latin America Press ~~Independent Analysis
http://www.lapress.org/main.asp
The London Times
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/
Millat Online ~ Pakistan News Source
http://millat.pibc.com/index.htm
Online Newspapers ~ World Wide
http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/index.htm
Pravda ~ Russia
http://english.pravda.ru/
Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/
UN Wire {United Nations News Service}
http://www.unwire.org/
Voice of Americas
http://www.voanews.com/
World Flash News Ticker {Download Internet News Program}
http://www.scroller.com/
World News Sources on the Internet
http://www.discover.co.uk/NET/NEWS/news.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
MISC. INFORMATION/COMMUNICATION RESOURCES
Earth & Sky Astronomy Site
http://earthsky.com/About/
English-Chinese Dictionary
http://www.ok88.com/go/svc/ecdict.html
English ~ French Online Dictionary
http://dictionaries.travlang.com/EnglishFrench/
English ~ Spanish Online Dictionary
http://dictionaries.travlang.com/EnglishSpanish/
Free Translation Online
http://www.freetranslation.com/
Merriam-Webster Online Learning Center
{English Dictionary & Thesaurus}
http://www.m-w.com/
Signing Avatar ~ Internet Enabled 3-D Characters
http://www.signingavatar.com/
Smithsonian Institution Collection of Stuff
http://historywired.si.edu/index.html
Translation Tools ~ Systran
http://world.altavista.com/tr
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
NOTE:
The above information was compiled by
Peter S. Lopez ~~ Humane Rights Agenda General Moderator
Email: humaneliberation@yahoo.com
(Please contact him to update or improve this list)
Human Rights Discussion On the Internet @
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HumaneRightsAgenda
Naturally, in this New Millennium with Internet Power and Search Engines this is not an exhaustive list, just a small handy one with many related links. Seek and ye shall find!
No listing above is an endorsement as being 'politically correct'. Feel free enough to offer any solvent suggestions. Plus, you can always JOIN a Progressive Online Group for further relevant information and/or Group Discussions.
Sharing is caring! Educate to Liberate!
Towards Harmony On Mother Earth~!~
================================================================================================
For more Links for Organizations, Information, and Actions, visit Flyby Links -- http://www.flybynews.com/links.shtml
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
----------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com--------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
The Bush Conspiracy & 9/11 Investigative Reports - Part 3
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition
of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.
The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
January 17, 1961
Farewell Radio and Television Address to the American People
"Why of course the people don't want war ... But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship ... Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."
--Hermann Goering -- Nazi leader, at the Nuremberg Trials after World War II
Flyby News "911" archive links:
March 15, 2004 - Items 1, 2, and 3
Camp X-Ray's Savagery Revealed * Prescription-drug bill fraud * Haiti and Venezuela Coup Updates
March 11, 2004 - Items 2, 3, and 4
Nuclear Madness Beyond Saturation * Mainstream Media Coverup and Aristide's Kidnapping * The New Pentagon papers
- - Pentagon finance manager resigns
- - Rumsfeld Says Full Funding Needed to Continue Terror War
- - Election panel OKs Illegal software
- - Election Problems Stir Bad 2000 Memories
- - White House vs. 9/11 Panel: Resistance, Resolution
March 8, 2004 - Item 3
9/11 Visibility Project
February 28, 2004 - Item 2
9/11 panelist may quit over Bush secrecy
February 7, 2004 - Item 2
Resources on George W. Bush Telling Lies
February 5, 2004 - Item 1
Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror - A Special Report by John Pilger
- - Intelligence chief's bombshell
- - British officers knew on eve of war that Iraq had no WMDs :
- - Bush Sabotages WMD Commission Before It Starts
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 30, 2004 - Items 1-3
ParanoidShift * BBC War * Reviving Draft/Suicide
January 16, 2004 - Editor's Notes
911review.org - What's Next? * Bush always planned invasion, says insider * Ruppert: War on Terror heads to W. Africa
Featured web site of the day -- RemoveBush.com
January 11, 2004 - Item 2
Physics911.org - a science-based inquiry
December 17, 2003 - Item 5
9-11 Widow Requests Saddam's Deposition in RICO Suit
December 8, 2003 - Items 1, 2, & 5
911 Widow's Bush Treason Suit Vanishes * 9/11 Commission - A Historical Whitewash? * Evidence indicates that Wellstone crash was no accident
November 21, 2003 - Item 3
Deal on 9/11 Briefings Lets White House Edit Papers
November 8, 2003 - Item 1
Ruppert's Beyond Bush II * Diebold Sued Over Threats * Halliburton Contract Extension Canceled * Will U.S. Bring Back the Draft?
September 8, 2003 - Item 1
The War on Terrorism is Bogus
This above link to the article originally published in The Guardian, by Michael Meacher, showing that 'the 9/11 attacks gave the US an ideal pretext to use force to secure its global domination.'
September 4, 2003 - Item 3
International Terrorism and the FBI
This above item is about the book: "1000 Years for Revenge: International Terrorism and the FBI--the Untold Story" by Peter Lance, shows clearly that the FBI "could have and should have prevented the 9/11 attacks."
July 22, 2003 - Items 1-7
Bush Deception * DU dis-ease US * FBI 9-11 * FCC
June 24, 2003 - Item 4
Running the Nation into a Fiscal Trainwreck'
May 13, 2003 - Items 1 & 2
Seven Nuclear Sites Looted * Trouble in Bush's America
May 13, 2003 - Item 3
Greg Palast: "The Lies Are Brilliantly Crafted" & "The Greatest Sedition is Silence" by William Rivers Pitt
May 3, 2003 - Items 5 and 6
The Pope thinks 9-11 was an inside job * Books and resources: Forbidden Truth, The War on Freedom, The New World Order Exposed, Rule by Secrecy
April 30, 2003 - Item 3
The mirage of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction *Hans Blix vs the US: 'I was undermined'
April 30, 2003 - Items 5 and 6
Northwoods: A Pentagon Plan for Terror to Justify War against Cuba * ACLU Action Alerts - Rights of Privacy and Reproductive Freedom
- - Statement of a widow of a 9/11 victim to 9/11 Commission
April 27, 2003 - Items 1, 2, and 3
Total Information Control - Corporate Media and Homeland Security * Make your city or town a Civil Liberties Safe Zone
- - Far reaching damage caused by Bush's huge tax giveaways for the rich
- - Children held at Guantanamo Bay
- - Speculation Grows - - Will US Plant Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq?
April 21, 2003 - Items 1 and 4
The Real War - On American Democracy by Thom Hartmann * The Weird Men Behind George W. Bush's War
- - Tim Robbins - 'A Chill Wind is Blowing'
- - Hollywood Revives McCarthyist Climate
April 15, 2003 - Item 4
Are American elections fixed?
April 4, 2003 - Item 4
9-11 Video Footage - Was it Flight 11?
April 3, 2003 - Item 7
"The New World Order Exposed" by Victor Thorn
March 30, 2003 - Items 3 & 4
Michael Ruppert -- The Perfect Storm - Part II * An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones
March 27, 2003 - Item 3
Oil, Currency and the War on Iraq
March 25, 2003 - Items 2 & 6
Congressman Waxman asks Bush to explain glaring lies and fabrication regarding Iraq's alleged attempt to acquire nuclear arms * Deep Concerns by Noam Chomsky
March 22, 2003 -Items 1 - 4
"Shock and Awe" * When Democracy Failed: The Warnings of History * Cheney's Warped Perspective on the Need to Attack Iraq * Into the Darkness
March 18, 2003 -Item 1
BUSH STAGES `SHOOTOUT' AT IRAQ CORRAL
Court Challenge Still Alive Challenging Bush War Declaration
Marbury v. Madison Celebrates 200 Years as the Law of the Land
March 10, 2003 -Item 1
Going Off to War Supplied With Lies --- "The first casualty when war comes, is truth."
-- UN Inspector: Fake Nuclear Evidence on Iraq
-- Red Alert for Bill of Rights! by Nat Hentoff
-- Afghan Prisoners Beaten To Death At US Base Investigation
-- Resisting the Doctrine of Pre-emptive Strike by Fidel Castro
-- Cheney wins oil-field contract
March 02, 2003 -Item 1
US dirty tricks to win vote on Iraq war
February 26, 2003 -Item 2
US Apology and Appeal ~ UN HELP
"THE APOLOGY - From the heart of the United States, we extend a profound apology
to the rest of the world for the serious failure of our political system."
February 23, 2003 -Item 3
Rumsfeld was on ABB Board During Nuclear Deal with North Korea
Also, links for two related articles:
"Iran sues U.S. in world court for helping Saddam kill Iranians"
and "GOP Threats Halted GAO Cheney Suit"
February 17, 2003 -Items 1 - 4
World Watching * Kucinich President's Day * Bio/Chem
"We will either bring an end to war or we will bring an end to a war-like administration."
Dennis J. Kucinich
15 February 2003, NYC
February 14, 2003 -Item 2
Suit questions Bush's war powers
February 10, 2003 -Items 3 and 4
Vietnam, CIA's Illegal Drug Trafficking, and JFK's Assassination * Justice Drafts Sweeping Expansion of Anti-Terrorism Act
February 7, 2003 -Items 1 and 2
The Tangled Web of War * Analysis Report: CIA Media Manipulation
February 4, 2003 -Item 1
Ballot-Tampering in the 21st Century
January 31, 2003 - Editor's Notes and Item 1
God's Gift to Humanity? - President Bush's concluding remarks at the 2003 State of the Union address * US Prepared To Violate International Law * {All Bush Wants is Iraqi Oil, Says Mandela - War Would Be 'Catastrophic' for Iraqi Children - Impeach Bush - Resolution and Resources
January 28, 2003 - Items 1 and 2
The War Against the Third World * The CIA's Secret Army
January 23, 2003 - Item 4
Standing on the Dead -- Bush-Nazi Connection
"All of us have heard this term "preventive war"
since the earliest days of Hitler. I recall that's about the first time I heard it.
In this day and time, I don't believe there is such a thing, and frankly I wouldn't
even listen to anyone seriously that came in and talked about such a thing."
-- President Dwight D. Eisenhower
The source for the above Eisenhower quote came via Paul Begala of CNN's Crossfire,
during an interview with Dennis Kucinich.
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Here's another excellent 9/11 resource website by Will Thomas, author of ALL FALL DOWN:
The Politics of Terrorism and Mass Persuasion www.lifeboatnews.com
AND.. check out this following url link from www.asile.org, and tell them where was the plane that supposedly crashed into the Pentagon Building on 9/11 ?????
Hunt the Boeing! And test your perceptions!
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition
of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.
The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
January 17, 1961
Farewell Radio and Television Address to the American People
PETITION the US SENATE -- Investigate Oddities Involving 9/11 (Item 1) http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1015695954,85283,
"Pipeline Politics Taint U.S. War"
by Salim Muwakkil
{Published on Monday, March 18, 2002 in the Chicago Tribune}
An ongoing source of frustration and anger for many Americans is the lack of support the war on terrorism has received abroad. Other nations are considerably less enthusiastic about our use of "daisy cutter" and "thermobaric" bombs than we think they should be. Why is that? One reason is their media. Stories alleging imperial and commercial motives for the war on terrorism are rife.
Outside this country, there is a widespread belief that U.S. military deployments in Central Asia mostly are about oil.
The complete article is posted at Flyby News Archive issue - March 5, 2002 - Item 2 -
"Pipeline Politics Taint US War"
January 21, 2003 - Items 4 and 6
Israel's War Machine, JFK's Assassination, and the Atomic Bomb' * AwolBush.com - a chickenhawk's perspective
January 17, 2003 - Items 1, 3, and 4
US Gone Mad * Chem Plant * Big Brother
January 12, 2003 - Item 2
"Bush's Armageddon Obsession- revisited" & "Happy Imbeciles At War"
January 9, 2003 - Items 1 and 2
1) Afghanistan: The Nuclear Nightmare Starts * The Consequences Of An Iraqi Misadventure'
January 6, 2003 - Items 2 and 4
9/11 Investigator Linked to Osama bin Laden? * 'Bush's master plan for the Internet'
January 4, 2003 - Item 2
2003-1984 Politics [Pile of tricks] Bush to propose requiring ISP's to monitor Net - The Ford Foundation and the CIA
December 17, 2002 - Item 3
Links to Various 9/11 and other related recent articles
Also, see items 4 and 5: White House Venezuela Error Backfires * What to do if the FBI contacts you
December 13, 2002 - Item 1
USA intelligence agencies revealed in plot to oust Venezuela's President
December 9, 2002 - Items 1 and 2
The War on Freedom Review - Who knew? * Berlin Declaration - "The war on terrorism does not work."
December 7, 2002 - Item 4
Ten Hopeful Cracks in the Bush Facade
December 2, 2002 - Items 1 & 3
Justice eyes Woodward FBI probe * The Latest Kissinger Outrage
November 29, 2002 - Items 1 & 2
The Kissinger of Death for 9/11 Investigation * President of Peace 2000 in prison - RSVP
November 24, 2002 - Item 1
US would attack Iraq even if UN inspectors fail to find weapons!
November 17, 2002 - Item 1
Flyby Resources - 911 Investigations & Rigged 2002 Elections
"THOSE WHO WIN IN A RIGGED GAME, GET STUPID"
-- Catherine Austin Fitts
November 16, 2002
Voter Fraud 2002: Death Stalks America's Democracy
November 12, 2002 - Items 3 and 4
Terror On the Hill * Behind the Smile - the slick (oiled) G.O.P.
November 7, 2002 - Item 1
Ruppert: On the 2002 Midterm Elections
November 5, 2002 - Item 2
"Global Eye -- Into the Dark" This article, published in the Moscow Times, accuses US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld and US policy as purposely inciting acts of terrorism.
October 30, 2002 - Items 2 and 4
Gore Vidal claims 'Bush junta' complicit in 9/11 * PBS Stations To Air Evidence Bush Stole 2000 Election
October 23, 2002 - Item 3
Bush - Iraq War - and Armageddon Following the article by Morgan Strong, see links for "The Bush Family and Nazi Blood Money" by Victor Thorn and "Addiction, Brain Damage and the President - 'Dry Drunk' Syndrome and George W. Bush" by Katherine van Wormer
October 12, 2002 - Item 1 and 2
Congress: Bush OK to Attack Iraq Unilaterally * Turning the Tide
October 10, 2002 - Items 2 and 3
president's real goal * Iraq War/for Dummies
October 5, 2002 - Item 3
Ruppert's Across the Rubicon'
September 16, 2002 - Items 1 and 2
1) Secret Blueprint for US Global Domination Revealed! 2) Nelson Mandela: The U.S. Is a Threat to World Peace
Photo Link of the Day - "Frodo Has Failed"
"If it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"
- Alexander Sozhenitsyn, exiled Russian novelist
August 24, 2002 - Item 2
Brainwashing America
September 23, 2002 - Item 4 - Skull and Bones
George W. Bush and the Brotherhood of Death
August 31, 2002 - Item 3
Who Are the Terrorists?
May 18, 2002 - Item 1
Operation 911 Coup and Coverup Update
August 24, 2002 - Item 2
Brainwashing America
August 8, 2002 - Item 4
Cynthia McKinney Update by M. Ruppert
August 1, 2002 - Item 3
Foundations are in place for martial law in the US
July 30, 2002, Items 1 & 2
The War on Freedom: How and Why America was Attacked September 11, 2001
Peace and Justice Forces Rally to McKinney
July 25, 2002 - Item 1, article by William Rivers Pitt on the
Escalation for War in Iraq, presentation by former UN Weapons Inspector, Scott Ritter
July 20, 2002 - Items 4-7
JFK's Assassination * Bowman * Skolnicks * CIA/FBI Attacks Harbury
July 9, 2002, Items 1-3
9/11 & What To Do * Green Card for Republicans * McKinney Support
July 9, 2002 (Part 1), Item 2
Fatal Innocence, Ours
July 4, 2002, see item 3
U.S. Complicity in 911 Attacks -- Mike Ruppert -- G6B Report
June 24, 2002 - Items 1-3
Preemptive Madness * 911 Suit * Stupid White Men Back on Top
June 4, 2002 - Item 4
The 9/11 Evidence that May Hang George W. Bush
May 28 2002 - Item 1
911 US War on Freedom
May 21, 2002 - Items 2 and 3
Cynthia McKinney's Statement: Terrorist Warnings * The Terrorists Flew and Bush Knew
May 13, 2002 - Item 3
Greg Palast: "The Lies Are Brilliantly Crafted" * "The Greatest Sedition is Silence" by William Rivers Pitt
May 9, 2002 - Item 6
Conspiracy could have been discovered before 9/11
- - The Strange Case of Cynthia McKinney
April 14, 2002 - Item 3
Cynthia McKinney Calls for 9/11 Investigations
March 29, 2002 - Part 2 - Item 4
Rep. McKinney's 9/11 Inquiry, plus link to BBC story: "Did Secret CIA Anthrax Mailing 'Test' Go Terribly Wrong?"
March 11, 2002 - Items 1 - 5
Bush's Nuclear Madness * Stupid White Men * World Banker Speaks Out
February 1, 2002 - Item 3
Bush Asks Daschle to Limit Sept. 11 Probes
January 12, 2002
Corruption in the upper levels of influence polluting our environment
See, especially, Items 3 & 4
Bush names Oil company adviser to be US representative to Afghanistan * Bush family's dirty little secret
November 5, 2001- Item 1
"It's about oil" - written by Ted Rall
November 2, 2001- Item 5
Bin Laden reported meeting with CIA in July 2001
September 13, 2001- Items 1 and 2
Even in the Wake of Tragedy: "Space-Based Weaponry is Irrational" * Nuclear Power Plants easy targets for terrorists
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Here's another excellent 9/11 resource website by Will Thomas, author of ALL FALL DOWN:
The Politics of Terrorism and Mass Persuasion www.lifeboatnews.com
AND.. check out this following url link from www.asile.org, and tell them where was the plane that supposedly crashed into the Pentagon Building on 9/11 ?????
Hunt the Boeing! And test your perceptions!
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition
of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.
The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
January 17, 1961
Farewell Radio and Television Address to the American People
PETITION the US SENATE -- Investigate Oddities Involving 9/11 (Item 1) http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1015695954,85283,
"Pipeline Politics Taint U.S. War"
by Salim Muwakkil
{Published on Monday, March 18, 2002 in the Chicago Tribune}
An ongoing source of frustration and anger for many Americans is the lack of support the war on terrorism has received abroad. Other nations are considerably less enthusiastic about our use of "daisy cutter" and "thermobaric" bombs than we think they should be. Why is that? One reason is their media. Stories alleging imperial and commercial motives for the war on terrorism are rife.
Outside this country, there is a widespread belief that U.S. military deployments in Central Asia mostly are about oil.
The complete article is posted at Flyby News Archive issue - March 5, 2002 - Item 2 -
"Pipeline Politics Taint US War"
This following link goes to:
The Bush Conspiracy & 9/11 Investigative Reports - Part 1
and
The Bush Conspiracy & 9/11 Investigative Reports - Part 2
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
The Bush Conspiracy & 9/11 Investigative Reports - Part 2
"America will never be destroyed from the outside.
If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
-- Abraham Lincoln
The following is Part 2 of Flyby News updated information on
The Bush Conspiracy & 9/11 Investigative Reports
This following link goes to Part 1:
The Bush Conspiracy & 9/11 Investigative Reports
"Oh Lucy! You Gotta Lotta 'Splainin To Do"
A TIMELINE SURROUNDING SEPTEMBER 11TH - IF CIA AND THE GOVERNMENT WEREN'T INVOLVED IN THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS WHAT WERE THEY DOING?
Bin Laden Met with the CIA in July and Walked Away
by
Michael C. Ruppert
Expanded and Revised:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/02_11_02_lucy.html
The Terrorists Flew and Bush Knew
By William Rivers Pitt
When Andrew Card interrupted the 298th reading of 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' by whispering words of fire and death into the ear of George W. Bush as he sat with schoolchildren on September 11th, 2001, Mr. Bush's face betrayed not a hint of surprise and shock.
Now, we know why..
For the complete article, see:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.17A.WRP.Bush.NU.htm
Washington Post [US],
11 May 2002, article
Agent sues FBI over ignoring pre-September 11 activities
An FBI agent in Chicago has accused his superiors of ignoring the pre-September 11 criminal activities of alleged US associates of the Islamic Resistance Movement, the militant organization also known as Hamas. The agent also alleged that the Bureau steered agents away from filing criminal cases that he believes could have disrupted Hamas's operations in this country. Last Thursday, Robert G. Wright, a 12-year FBI veteran, filed a lawsuit against the Bureau in US District Court in Washington. He accused the FBI of violating his First Amendment rights by prohibiting him from making his complaints public.
For the complete Washington Post [US], 11 May 2002, article, see:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3860-2002May10.html
"Why of course the people don't want war ... But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship ... Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."
--Hermann Goering -- Nazi leader, at the Nuremberg Trials after World War II
Flyby News "911" archive links:
November 17, 2004 - Item 2
Why Would The President Fix The Election?
November 02, 2004 - Item 2
Day of the Dead: The Haunting of the White House
By Cynthia McKinney and Catherine Austin Fitts (November 1, 2004)
September 25, 2004 - Item 1
Government Insider Says Bush Authorized 911 Attacks
- - 9/11 Families sue Bush, Rich, Cheney, Rumseld, Tenet, Ashcroft et. al.
- - Former CIA Agent Says Bush to Blame for 9/11
- - Ray McGovern in New Hampshire this week
September 8, 2004 - Items 1 - 2
"Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy"
- - Flip-Flopper In Chief
- - US troops death toll mounts as Iraq danger persists
- - Video: Bush's Words... The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
- - Video: 9/11 In Plane Sight
- - Bush Family Wounds America Below The Belt Line
- - Neocons Preparing the Sequel to Plan of Attack
- - The Unwinnable War
August 30, 2004 - Items 1 - 6
SOS Lake Wobegon * Diebold Hole * Bush Payoff
August 12, 2004 - Items 1 - 4
CronkitePeace * DemocracyThreat * OutFoxed * DU-film
July 31, 2004 - Item 1
The Case Against George W. Bush by Ron Reagan
- - The Unbearable Costs of Empire
- - Whistle-Blowing Said to Be Factor in an F.B.I. Firing
- - U.S. General Witnessed Abuses, Iraqi Says
- - Canadian Sent to Syrian Prison Disputes US Claims Against Torture
- - Did Iraq's Prime Minister Iyad Allawi shoot seven restrained prisoners?
July 26, 2004 - Item 2
CIA Analyst and FBI Whistleblower Dissect Final 9/11 Report
- - Support Sibel Edmonds!
- - No Safe Haven - Homeland Security
July 21, 2004 - Item 1
Sen. Byrd on Meet the Press and on "Losing America"
- - Progress Report: More Proof They Knew
- - Iraq is not improving, it's a disaster
- - Torturing Children [in Iraq]
- - Is Iraq's new Prime Minster a war criminal?
- - Halliburton Iran deals under fire
- - Coup D'Etat in America?
July 14, 2004 - Item 2
Cheney faces Criminal Indictments
- - Advocates of War Now Profit From Iraq's Reconstruction
- - Feds knew about 9-11 bribery conspiracy before attacks
- - Iraq war 'a gift' to bin Laden, says CIA veteran
- - The CIA and Iraq
- - Death toll for U.S.-led coalition in Iraq tops 1,000
- - Congressman Charles Rangle Arrested at Sudanese Embassy
July 4, 2004 - Item 2
‘Grand Jury Will Soon Issue Explosive Indictments'
- - Shallow Throat: Why Bush Is Going Down, Big Time
July 3, 2004 - Item 1
"Fiery Hell On Earth"
"Why is the U.S. failing to stop, and in some cases actually
promoting, the spread of nuclear weapons worldwide?"
June 23, 2004 - Items 1 - 4
NuclearHypocrisy * BushTorture * MooreVOTES
"Bush Claimed Right to Waive Torture Laws"
- - Pentagon Memo Undermines the U.S. Constitution
- - Support for Bush's War on Terror Slips, Poll Shows
- - Will the 9/11 Commissioners Cave?
June 17, 2004 - Items 1 - 4
9-11 Lies * Bush-Torture * Orwell * Nuke-Chems
What we have seen, topped by that legalistic treatise on torture,
shows clearly that Mr. Bush set the tone for this dreadful situation
by pasting a false "war on terrorism" label on the invasion of Iraq.
From a New York Times editorial - 9 June 2004
June 17, 2004 - Item 5
George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - The Hitler Project
June 5, 2004 - Items 2 and 3
"Fahrenheit 9/11" Wins Top Prize in Cannes by Michael Moore * Dirty bomb attack a matter of time, say experts - - Bush Knew About Leak of CIA Operative's Name
"My worst fears about the Bush administration
have been confirmed, and then some."
Sen. Jim Jeffords, I-Vt
"The greatest crime since World War II
has been US foreign policy."
– Ramsey Clark
May 21, 2004 - Items 1 and 3
'In the mouth of madness' * The New Pearl Harbor - - International Citizens' Inquiry Into 9/11
May 18, 2004 - Item 1
The Gray Zone * Precondition for Peace in the Middle East
May 10, 2004 - Item 2
911 Stand Down Orders Destroyed
- - 9/11: Reported Bombs Both Within the Towers and on the Planes!
- - Lawyers Try to Gag FBI Worker over 9/11
- - We're all terrorists now
- - Heat on Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" Rising
May 1, 2004 - Item 2
Oil-Slick Jim Baker Moves In
April 27, 2004 - Item 4
9/11 – What They Knew and When They Knew It
April 22, 2004 - Items 1, 3, and 4
Woodward Shares War Secrets * Bush Secret Oil Deal With Saudis * Senator backs Draft to boost Iraq and Pandemonium
"History, we don't know. We'll all be dead." – George W. Bush
[For quote source and background, see above Woodward link in item 1.]
April 16, 2004 - Items 2-3
More on 9/11 Investigations - - The Man Who Knew * Amy Goodman - The Exception to the Rulers
April 8, 2004 - Items 1-5
US-Iraq War Terror News Digest * Where Was the Air Force on 9/11? * 9/11 International Inquiry - Phase One * Will the 2004 Election Be Called Off?
April 5, 2004 - Items 2, 4, and 5
Bush and Blair pact for Iraq war 9 days after 9/11 * Thom Hartmann: On Corporate Rule * John Dean: "Worse Than Watergate"
March 31, 2004 - Items 1-3
This Isn't America * Cheney, energy and Iraq invasion * The GOP and the Nazis
There are similarities and, no, I will not apologize - by Wayne Madsen
March 27, 2004 - Item 2
Bush 911-Iraq Debacle - Running Scared
- - FBI Translator: 'We Knew 9/11 Attacks Were Coming'
- - September 11 Should Have Been Stopped
- - Silent Genocide
- - Voting Paper Trail Advocate Dies In 'Tragic Accident'
March 22, 2004 - Items 1, 2, and 3
Did Bush Press For Iraq-9/11 Link?
- - The Armageddon Plan
- - General Sacked by Bush Wanted Early Elections in Iraq
- - Worldwide Protests Demand Iraq Pullout
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Here's another excellent 9/11 resource website by Will Thomas, author of ALL FALL DOWN:
The Politics of Terrorism and Mass Persuasion www.lifeboatnews.com
AND.. check out this following url link from www.asile.org, and tell them where was the plane that supposedly crashed into the Pentagon Building on 9/11 ?????
Hunt the Boeing! And test your perceptions!
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition
of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.
The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
January 17, 1961
Farewell Radio and Television Address to the American People
PETITION the US SENATE -- Investigate Oddities Involving 9/11 (Item 1) http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1015695954,85283,
"Pipeline Politics Taint U.S. War"
by Salim Muwakkil
{Published on Monday, March 18, 2002 in the Chicago Tribune}
An ongoing source of frustration and anger for many Americans is the lack of support the war on terrorism has received abroad. Other nations are considerably less enthusiastic about our use of "daisy cutter" and "thermobaric" bombs than we think they should be. Why is that? One reason is their media. Stories alleging imperial and commercial motives for the war on terrorism are rife.
Outside this country, there is a widespread belief that U.S. military deployments in Central Asia mostly are about oil.
The complete article is posted at Flyby News Archive issue - March 5, 2002 - Item 2 -
"Pipeline Politics Taint US War"
This following link goes to:
The Bush Conspiracy & 9/11 Investigative Reports - Part 3
and
The Bush Conspiracy & 9/11 Investigative Reports - Part 1
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
New 9/11 Investigation VS. New World Order
A flyby perspective
Space for Peace & September 11
Connecting dots to democracy or to genocide
The truth is out there ... right?
Published Feb, 2002 - Following article Aug. 2005:
9/11 ON TRIAL ~ about the world's worst
Yet many questions remain unanswered
The following is dedicated to truth and justice,
inspired by families, first responders, independent
researchers and dedicated activists for world peace.
31 October, 2012 - Youtube 43:27 - AlienScientist
9/11 Conspiracy Solved:
Names, Connections, & Details Exposed!
07 October, 2018 - Off Guardian
"9/11 Unmasked"
Update & reminder to READ THIS BOOK
An International Review Panel: By
David Ray Griffin and Elizabeth Woodward
02 June, 2018 - NoLiesRadio - Left Forum NYC
Petition for Grand Jury Investigation Into Crimes of 9/11
Live Video-Streamed Conference- June 2, 2018
12 September, 2017 - Muslim Press - David Ray Griffin
'The U.S. was not attacked
by Muslims; it attacked itself'
26 May, 2017 - Youtube - 16:27 - Jonathan Mark
Denial, Cognitive Dissonance, & September 11
Flyby News June 2017 Update@ GCTV
25 August, 2016 - Colorado 9-11 Truth - Fran Shure
Colorado Public Television to air world premiere of
"The Demolition of Truth Psychologists Examine 9/11"
And now available to watch on Youtube:
"The Demolition of Truth Psychologists Examine 9/11"
21 August, 2016 - Youtube - 0:06:35 - Tony Rooke
INCONTROVERTIBLE OFFICIAL TRAILER
Police & Firefighters Speak Out On 9-11
27 November, 2015 - Killing Auntie Films - Tony Rooke
Incontrovertible 9-11 Evidence
INCONTROVERTIBLE is the first and only feature length documentary we
have which portrays the frank and candid views of Police Officers,
Firefighters and Soldiers as they express their grave concerns
about the official explanation for the events of 9/11. The
film is intended to act as a practical aid in combating
the mainstream media's propaganda and outright lies
concerning the attacks on September 11th 2001.
Also posted on Youtube - Running time 2:01:29
07 April, 2016 - FN Youtube - 07:30 - PSA
INCONTROVERTIBLE
Public Service Announcement - May 21 screening
07 May, 2017 - ZeroHedge - George Washington
The Ever-Growing List of
ADMITTED False Flag Attacks
22 May, 2014 - Dig Within - Kevin Ryan
Donald Rumsfeld and the Demolition of WTC 7
08 October, 2015 - Article by Jonathan Mark -
Litmus Tests for Truth & Transformation
31 August, 2014 - Global Research - Michel Chossudovsky
September 11, 2001: The Crimes of War
Committed "In the Name of 9/11"
01 August, 2014 - Youtube - CSPAN
Richard Gage: Architects
and Engineers for 9/11 Truth
21 January, 2014 - AwazTV - Daily Motion
Russia Today News Declares 9/11
An Inside Job False Flag Attack!
September 11
The New Pearl Harbor
A film by Massimo Mazzucco
10 September, 2014 - Youtube - Flyby News
Dark Legacy 9-11
Condensed Compilation - 0:14:39 running time
19 May 2011 - VIDEO - Oakland Forum
Robert M. Bowman Speech Excerpt
Empowering Citizens to End 9/11 Wars
19 September, 2017 - Youtube - 1:26:00 - Flyby News
September 11 - New Pearl Harbor
film summary and discussion
24 October, 2014 - Youtube - Flyby News
September 11, 2014 Forum at GCTV
Solving the Mystery of WTC 7 plus 5
Interviews with Jonathan Mark - 1:36:06
13 July, 2016 - Youtube - Jonathan Mark
September 11 and War On Terror
- 2 minute PSA -
23 November, 2013 - AE911truth - Frances T. Shure
Why Do Good People Become
Silent or Worse about 9/11?
09 May, 2017 - Activist Post - Rosanne Lindsay
Controlled Opposition In The Truth Movement
29 February 2012 - Flyby News - Jonathan Mark
Controlled Opposition * 9-11 Truth Attacks
24 August, 2012 - Youtube - 0:04:09 - Eva James
Sharing the Truth
Dark Legacy - JFK & 9-11
Part 1 - Online - running time - 0:56:00
Part 2 - Online - running time - 1:28:00
Parts 1 and 2
Short Version - 58 minutes - Online Film
20 September 2011 - Flyby News - Jonathan Mark
Senator Mike Gravel Interview
Part 1 of 8 - Watch on Youtube - at above link
Full 88-minute program is available in high
resolution at Greenfield Community Television
More information at FN-wordpress link!
04 July 2011 - Flyby News - Mike Gravel
An Actionable Plan for 9/11 Truth and Justice
09 February 2012 - Flyby News - Mike Gravel
Report on Citizens 9/11 Commission Campaign
29 February 2012 - Flyby News - Jonathan Mark
Controlled Opposition * 9-11 Truth Attacks
The National Citizen's Initiative for Democracy
is for citizens to make laws by ballot initiative.
22 August, 2015 - Youtube - 0:54 - We Are Change
Dr. Bob Bowman asks you to
contemplate the Lie of 9/11
Bob Bowman Tribute Connection
William Rodriguez
hero of 9/11
and
The Last Man Out
~ youtube video ~
William Rodriguez vindicated
Newly released 9/11 Commission notes
When the people fear the government that is tyranny.
When the government fears the people, that is liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson
The Mysterious Collapse of
World Trade Center Building 7
"It is commonly known that the Twin Towers fell on 9/11,
but did you know that a third building also fell that day?
WTC Building 7, a 47-story steel-framed skyscraper located
one block from the Twin Towers collapsed at 5:20 that evening,
imploding in the exact manner of a professionally engineered
demolition. It fell suddenly straight down, at near freefall
speed, and landed in a compact pile of rubble, barely
damaging any of the surrounding buildings.."
In first 3 minutes, watch
9/11 - WTC-7 - Exposed!
Video clip produced by Robert Bowman
16 August 2011 - Youtube - AE911truth
Architects & Engineers
Solving the Mystery of WTC 7
04 January 2012 - Youtube - Construuct
2012 - A 9/11 Documentary
Proof 9/11 Was An Inside Job
12 January, 2013 - 9/11 Truth Seattle - Barbara Honegger
Behind the Smoke Curtain
What happened and what didn't happen
at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
Individual chapters now posted!
Recommended Chapter 12/14 - 0:14:47
9/11 Masterminds and the Source of Their Evil
27 June, 2014 - Truth Troubadour - Vic Sadot
One of the Greatest
9/11 Truth Books Yet!
"Another Nineteen: Investigating
Legitimate 9/11 Suspects"
by Kevin Ryan
12 September, 2013 - Global Research TV - James Corbett
Another Nineteen - Kevin Ryan
on the Legitimate 9/11 Suspects
The Anatomy of a Great Deception - David Hooper
A 2014 released Film - Watch on Youtube!
Anatomy of a Great Deception
01 September, 2011 - Research Rabbit Whole
Historical Importance of 9/11
Daniele Ganser Speech (Switzerland)
05 October, 2014 - WhoWhatWhy - Peter Dale Scott
The Hidden Government Group Linking
JFK, Watergate, Iran-Contra and 9/11
04 June 2010 - 911blogger - Brett's Blog
Hypothesis Trailer
The trailer for Hypothesis is a documentary short about Steven Jones
and his 9/11 research. The film tells his story in his own words and
reflects the explosive controversy that ensued which resulted in
everything from threats, bribery, and academic suspension.
What started as a mere hypothesis became so much more.
The Mysterious Collapse of World Trade Center 7,
Why the Final Official Report about 9/11 is Unscientific and False
By David Ray Griffin
For an audio of Dr. Griffin presenting about this book:
Guns and Butter- The Mysterious Collapse of WTC-7
For a review of this book by Jerry Mazza:
"Just Say No to Nist.."
BBC Reported World Trade Center Building
WTC-7 Collapsed 20 Minutes Before It Fell!
For information on this and 10 other remarkable facts, see:
11 Remarkable Facts About 9/11
First film showing hard evidence:
Improbable Collapse:
The Demolition of our Republic
Directed by:
Michael Berger
Media Coordinator for 911Truth.org
"The dramatic collapse of World Trade Center 7
is something everyone ought to see
It really does have the characteristics
of an explosive demolition."
Steven Jones, physicist, author of
"Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Completely Collapse?"
April, 2009 - The Open Chemical Physics Journal
Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust
from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe
Press Release ~ Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice
Dr. Steven Jones ~ 911blogger:
What you need to know about "Peer-review"
10 May 2011 - 911blogger - Prof. Steven Jones
Responses to questions regarding thermite, nanothermite
and conventional explosives used in the WTC destruction.
Editor in chief of Open Chemical Physics Journal
resigns after controversial article regarding 9/11
13 March 2011 - 911blogger - BuildingWhat?
New TV Spot Unveiled
in Hartford on March 26
Watch it now and support
RememberBuilding7.org
Dr. Steven E. Jones Announces New Discovery:
Red/gray Bi-layered Chips in WTC Dust
Presentation video from 12/15/07 Boston event!
Read first published peer-reviewed scientific journal
article questioning government's official 9/11 version:
Fourteen Points of Agreement with Official Gov.
Reports on the World Trade Center Destruction
and the second:
Environmental anomalies at the WTC:
evidence for energetic materials
Note these important articles:
Ten Connections Between NIST and Nano-Thermites
&
The NIST WTC 7 Report:
Bush Science reaches its peak
By Kevin Ryan - September 2008
Recommended for hard evidence:
Journal of 9/11 Studies
and
Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth
AE911Truth Companion Edition
10-Minute WTC 7 Video Online
For 9/11 demolition evidence::
9/11: Blueprint for Truth:
The Architecture of Destruction
For the first investigative drama to
challenge official version of 9/11
The Reflecting Pool
Watch the Jonathan Mark interview with
Jarek Kupsc and Joseph Culp
For more 9/11 key resources, see:
Films that Make a Difference!
11 May 2010 - YouTube - Robert Bowman
Patriots Question 9/11
Interview by Jonathan Mark and Tom Finnell
Parts 1 - 5 running time approximately 48 minutes
For best Online viewing, in alphabetical order, see:
Flyby News Productions
A Vermont neural plasticity expert produces
a film about awareness and critical thinking.
DECEPTIONS
Watch a discussion on this film with
Jonathan Mark & filmmaker Chris Pratt
Link to Flyby News Productions at GCTV
Video On Demand for best Online viewing
Why did the 9/11 Attacks Happen?
One Man's Independent Investigation.
John Heartson interviewed by Jonathan Mark
The Scarlet A:
Links between the Anthrax Attacks and 9/11
September, 2008 article by Barbara Honegger
17 April, 2015 - Global Research - Washington's Blog
Head of the FBI's Anthrax Investigation
Says the Whole Thing Was a Sham
18 April, 2015 - ICH - Paul Craig Roberts
The Anthrax Coverup Exposed
"Paranoid Shift" ~ Shifting Consciousness
Following excerpts from Michael Hasty's article, "Paranoid Shift"
"..In his book, "Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only superpower," William Blum warns of how the media will make anything that smacks of "conspiracy theory" an immediate "object of ridicule." This prevents the media from ever having to investigate the many strange interconnections among the ruling classfor example, the relationship between the boards of directors of media giants, and the energy, banking and defense industries. These unmentionable topics are usually treated with what Blum calls "the media's most effective toolsilence." But in case somebody's asking questions, all you have to do is say, "conspiracy theory," and any allegation instantly becomes too frivolous to merit serious attention.
On the other hand, since my paranoid shift, whenever I hear the words "conspiracy theory" (which seems more often, lately) it usually means someone is getting too close to the truth..
Take September 11which I identify as the date my paranoia actually shifted, though I didn't know it at the time.
..Years, even decades before 9/11, plans had been drawn up for American forces to take control of the oil interests of the Middle East, for various imperialist reasons. And these plans were only contingent upon "a catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbor," to gain the majority support of the American public to set the plans into motion. When the opportunity presented itself, the guards looked the other way . . . and presto, the path to global domination was open.
Simple, as long as the media played along. And there is voluminous evidence that the media play along. Number one on Project Censored's annual list of under-reported stories in 2002 was the Project for a New American Century (now the infrastructure of the Bush Regime), whose report, published in 2000, contains the above "Pearl Harbor" quote..
Nor, finally, is it in any way a "theory" that the one, single name that can be directly linked to the Third Reich, the US military industrial complex, Skull and Bones, Eastern Establishment good ol' boys, the Illuminati, Big Texas Oil, the Bay of Pigs, the Miami Cubans, the Mafia, the FBI, the JFK assassination, the New World Order, Watergate, the Republican National Committee, Eastern European fascists, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the United Nations, CIA headquarters, the October Surprise, the Iran/Contra scandal, Inslaw, the Christic Institute, Manuel Noriega, drug-running "freedom fighters" and death squads, Iraqgate, Saddam Hussein, weapons of mass destruction, the blood of innocents, the savings and loan crash, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, the "Octopus," the "Enterprise," the Afghan Mujaheddin, the War on Drugs, Mena (Arkansas), Whitewater, Sun Myung Moon, the Carlyle Group, Osama bin Laden and the Saudi royal family, David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, and the presidency and vice-Presidency of the United States, is: George Herbert Walker Bush.
"Theory?" To the contrary.
It is a well-documented, tragic andespecially if you're paranoidterrifying fact.
For the complete article, see: Paranoid Shift
24 June 2006 - VIDEO - John McMurtry
Why The Facts Of 9/11 Are Suppressed
"The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone
of any significance in the major media."
-William Colby,
former CIA Director,
quoted by Dave Mcgowan, Derailing Democracy
The CIA and the Media
FAMILY OF SECRETS: The Bush Dynasty,
the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House,
and What Their Influence Means for America.
By RUSS BAKER
Investigative documentary film
Dark Legacy
George Bush and the Assassination of JFK
By John Hankey
Bush - Nazi Link Confirmed
Youtube Video:
John Buchanan From Martial Law 9-11- Alex Jones
25 September, 2004 - The Guardian - Aris, Campbell
How Bush's grandfather helped
Hitler's rise to power
"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things
over and over and over again for the truth to sink in,
to kind of catapult the propaganda."
- George W. Bush
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it,
people will become accustomed to believing it."
- Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels
The 'official conspiracy theory' of 911 is just such a lie.
Bush's official conspiracy theory requires a complete rewrite
of the laws of physics going back to Galileo, Newton, and
perhaps even Aristotle. It is more reasonable to conclude
that Bush is a part of a murderous plot to seize dictatorial
powers than to conclude that Galileo, Newton and Einstein
were just wrong about matter, motion, and the conservation
of both matter and energy. I don't [think] they were wrong.
Rather --I think Bush is a goddamn liar!
-- Len Hart
The Blood on Bush's hands
Bush Insider Planned To Tell All Killed In Plane Crash
Non-Profit Demands Full Federal Investigation
- PRNewswire Dec 21, 2008 -
On-scene Video: Crash of Mike Connell's aircraft
9/11 News - Vancouver Sun reviews The New Pearl Harbor
A Theologian Asks the Hard Questions About 9/11
By Douglas Todd
The Vancouver Sun
Dec 11, 2004
David Ray Griffin is one of the most respected philosophers of religion in North America. He is the author or editor of more than 24 academic books, including works co-written with the deans of world religions, Huston Smith and Martin Marty. He has lectured around the world, including at UBC.
Griffin is one of those profiled in the prestigious volume, A Handbook of Christian Theologians. He's painstakingly probed countless philosophical challenges, from the question of why there is evil to the relationship between science and religion, for which he's won numerous awards.
So why did this soft-spoken professor from the high-ranking Methodist-rooted School of Theology at Claremont, Calif., feel it necessary to risk his hard-earned reputation as a religion scholar to write one of the most incredible -- in all senses of the word -- political books of 2004?
Because no one else in mainstream America seemed prepared to do it...
The result? Griffin's book, The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11 (Interlink Publishing, $22.50) has already sold an astonishing 80,000 copies.
Griffin's unflinching analysis of the unanswered questions surrounding the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington has made Amazon.com's bestseller list despite receiving virtually no reviews in North America's mainstream media. That's unlike in Britain, where he's had solid coverage, including a three-page spread in London's mass-circulation Daily Mail.
Personally, when people ask how a group of Muslim extremists could have pulled off the devastating suicide attacks against the U.S., in spite of the country's global intelligence network and massive defence arsenal, I tend to side with the German philosopher, Goethe, who once said: "Why look for conspiracy when stupidity can explain so much?"
But when Griffin, who's known for his careful approach to philosophical problems, poses a series of questions suggesting the administration of George W. Bush had been warned about the terrorist attacks and did nothing, it's enough to make you shudder. The implications would make the Watergate scandal look like a Sunday brunch.
In effect, The New Pearl Harbor fleshes out in 214 pages the question asked in the final moment of Michael Moore's Academy-award-winning documentary, Fahrenheit 911. That's when the filmmaker wonders aloud: What exactly was Bush thinking as he sat in front of a bunch of school children reading a book titled My Pet Goat, knowing two jetliners had been flown into the World Trade Center?
Griffin's book is titled The New Pearl Harbor for two reasons. One, because that's what Bush wrote in his diary on the evening of Sept. 11: "The Pearl Harbor of the 21st century took place today." But also because members of the Bush administration in 2000 helped author the document, Project for the New American Century, which opined it would be difficult to galvanize Americans to support military expansion in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere unless a "new Pearl Harbor" occurred.
Here are a few of the questions Griffin looks into:
* Why did the Bush administration say it didn't anticipate the Sept. 11 attacks when the CIA and FBI had repeatedly told it al-Qaida was planning to hijack planes and fly them into U.S. targets, including the World Trade Center and the Pentagon?
* Why were standard procedures that could have prevented the tragedy not followed when the four hijacked planes went off course, including immediately sending up jet fighters to shoot down passenger planes that fail to obey orders?
* Why has there been no physical evidence a jet plane crashed into the Pentagon? Independent onlookers say they saw a missile fly into the building. Video evidence shot by a nearby gas station's security cameras was confiscated by government officials.
* Why did Bush, despite knowing about first one, then two, World Trade Center crashes, delay his response to them for up to 30 minutes and instead continue to read a children's book? Why was he not whisked away by his security agents, who are trained to believe he's a logical target of terrorists?
* Who made tens of millions of dollars by betting on the stock market in the weeks before Sept. 11 that shares in the two airlines that owned the hijacked planes were about to plummet?
Truncated, for the complete article, see: A Theologian Asks the Hard Questions About 9/11
The New Pearl Harbor Revisited:
9/11, the Cover-Up, and the Expos
By David Ray Griffin
November, 2008
'Pick of the Week' by Publishers Weekly
"It is already possible to know, beyond a
reasonable doubt, one very important thing:
the destruction of the World Trade Center
was an inside job, orchestrated by terrorists
within our own government."
- David Ray Griffin
In the interest of Truthful and Accurate History; the 2006 book
that accounts for all of George W. Bushs mindless exploits
on September 11, is now posted online for free reading.
"BULLSHIT ARTIST"
The 9/11 Leadership Myth
By Ron Schalow
"In a time of universal deceit,
telling the truth is a revolutionary act"
- George Orwell
SUPPORT SIBEL EDMONDS - FBI WHISTLEBLOWER
For latest updates ~~ click here!
New York Times Best-Selling Author's 9/11 Truth Novel
THE SHELL GAME
Find Concerned Citizens and 9/11 Questions Meetups
"To open ourselves to the truth and to bring ourselves face to face
with our personal and collective reality is not an option that can be
accepted or rejected. It is an undeniable requirement of all people
and all societies that seek to humanize themselves and to be free.."
-- Guatemalan Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi Conedera
Assassinated April 25, 1998, one day after his speech (and above quote),
when he presented his findings of an in-depth probe into a campaign of
terror against the people of Guatemala waged by their own government.
David Ray Griffin - Truth & Reconciliation - Heal 9-11
Updated News and Resources
22 April, 2016 - Alex Jones - Youtube - 15:02
Steve Pieczenik (Govt Insider) says the Israelis,
Saudis and neocons were behind the 9-11 attacks.
22 July, 2016 -FN Wordpress- Barry Kissin
The Truth about the 28 Pages
and its Enduring Cover-up
22 May, 2016 - Breitbart - Deborah Danan
Saudi Press: U.S. Blew Up World Trade
Center To Create War On Terror
17 March, 2016 - NY Times - Mark Mazzetti
Senate Passes Bill Exposing Saudi Arabia
to 9/11 Legal Claims
Link to 28 Pages-related 9/11 Commission
Staff Memos released by National Archives
11-22 November, 2015 - AE911truth - FF911truth
Firefighters, Architects & Engineers
Expose 9/11 Myths - New England Tour
Watch a 2-minute Trailer on Youtube
&
58-minute version, too
24 November, 2015 - Youtube - 0:56:00
Richard Gage, Q and A
Inside 9-11 Truth Movement
November, 2015 - Youtube - 0:16:55
Flyby News Tour
1,600+ Architects and Engineers
Call for New 9/11 Investigation
And 14,000+ other petition signers!
Should theAmerican Institute of Architects
support a new investigation into the
complete collapse of WTC 7?
******
Update - May 16, 2015
Overwhelming Majority of AIA Delegates Make the
Political Decision and Vote Down Resolution 15-6
We are a professional - not a political - Organization.
But in this case, if we vote "No" on this resolution, we
are making a political decision, not a professional one..
- Dan Barnam, FAIA
19 May, 2015 - PBS - Frontline- 0:54:30
Secrets, Politics, and Torture
The secret history of the CIA's controversial
"enhanced interrogation" methods
07 November, 2014 - Paul Craig Roberts
Another Fake Bin Laden Story
Anyone who believes anything the US government
says is gullible beyond the meaning of the word.
15 January, 2014 - Youtube 0:57:40 - Academic Freedom Conference
9/11: Why do Bill Moyers and
Robert Parry Accept Miracles?
[Note: Comment by Jonathan Mark under video.]
For original post see below
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
Original Posting at FlybyNews.com
New 9/11 Investigation VS. New World Order
A flyby perspective
Space for Peace & September 11
The truth is out there ... right?
Published Feb, 2002 - Following article Aug. 2005:
9/11 ON TRIAL ~ about the world's worst
Yet many questions remain unanswered
The following is dedicated to truth and justice,
inspired by families, first responders, independent
researchers and dedicated activists for world peace.
27 November, 2015 - Killing Auntie Films - Tony Rooke
Incontrovertible 9-11 Evidence
INCONTROVERTIBLE is the first and only feature length documentary we
have which portrays the frank and candid views of Police Officers,
Firefighters and Soldiers as they express their grave concerns
about the official explanation for the events of 9/11. The
film is intended to act as a practical aid in combating
the mainstream media's propaganda and outright lies
concerning the attacks on September 11th 2001.
Also posted on Youtube - Running time 2:01:29
31 August, 2014 - Global Research - Michel Chossudovsky
September 11, 2001: The Crimes of War
Committed "In the Name of 9/11"
01 August, 2014 - Youtube - CSPAN
Richard Gage: Architects
and Engineers for 9/11 Truth
08 September, 2013 - Youtube - Daniel Bushell
Russia Today News Declares 9/11
An Inside Job False Flag Attack!
September 11
The New Pearl Harbor
A film by Massimo Mazzucco
10 September, 2014 - Youtube - Flyby News
Dark Legacy 9-11
Condensed Compilation - 0:14:39 running time
19 May 2011 - VIDEO - Oakland Forum
Robert M. Bowman Speech Excerpt
Empowering Citizens to End 9/11 Wars
24 October, 2014 - Youtube - Flyby News
September 11, 2014 Forum at GCTV
Solving the Mystery of WTC 7 plus 5
Interviews with Jonathan Mark - 1:36:06
Flyby News recommends taking action
by giving truth a face, your face;
we all must come out on this one.
I Am the Face of Truth
Join a worldwide grassroots movement for 9/11 Truth
& Justice. We want to be associated only with evidence
that can be held up to the harshest scrutiny in any fair
court on the planet. We do not want to be associated
with theories that cannot be scientifically proven such
as: Directed Energy Weapons, nuclear weapons,
or 'no planes' at the World Trade Center towers.
24 August, 2012 - Youtube - 0:04:09 - Eva James
Sharing the Truth
23 November, 2013 - AE911truth - Frances T. Shure
Why Do Good People Become
Silent or Worse about 9/11?
Dark Legacy - JFK & 9-11
Part 1 - Online - running time - 0:56:00
Part 2 - Online - running time - 1:28:00
Parts 1 and 2 subjects reversed, condensed.
Short Version - 58 minutes - Online Film
Now on Youtube, too!
+
Trailer - Youtube - Duration: 6:22
Dark Legacy Trailer music-video
20 September 2011 - Flyby News - Jonathan Mark
Senator Mike Gravel Interview
Part 1 of 8 - Watch on Youtube - at above link
Full 88-minute program is available in high
resolution at Greenfield Community Television
More information at FN-wordpress link!
04 July 2011 - Flyby News - Mike Gravel
An Actionable Plan for 9/11 Truth and Justice
09 February 2012 - Flyby News - Mike Gravel
Report on Citizens 9/11 Commission Campaign
29 February 2012 - Flyby News - Jonathan Mark
Controlled Opposition * 9-11 Truth Attacks
The National Citizen's Initiative for Democracy
is for citizens to make laws by ballot initiative.
Bob Bowman Tribute Connection
William Rodriguez
hero of 9/11
and
The Last Man Out
~ youtube video ~
William Rodriguez vindicated
Newly released 9/11 Commission notes
When the people fear the government that is tyranny.
When the government fears the people, that is liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson
The Mysterious Collapse of World Trade Center Building 7
"It is commonly known that the Twin Towers fell on 9/11,
but did you know that a third building also fell that day?
WTC Building 7, a 47-story steel-framed skyscraper located
one block from the Twin Towers collapsed at 5:20 that evening,
imploding in the exact manner of a professionally engineered
demolition. It fell suddenly straight down, at near freefall
speed, and landed in a compact pile of rubble, barely
damaging any of the surrounding buildings.."
In first 3 minutes, watch
9/11 - WTC-7 - Exposed!
Video clip produced by Robert Bowman
27 May, 2013 - Youtube - 0:06:52
WTC7 and The Deniers
16 August 2011 - Youtube - AE911truth
Architects & Engineers
Solving the Mystery of WTC 7
1,700+ Architects and Engineers
Call for New 9/11 Investigation
And 15,000+ other petition signers!
15 October, 2012 - AE911truth - David Chandler
Cutter Charges in the North Tower
Four-minute Youtube video
04 January 2012 - Youtube - Construuct
2012 - A 9/11 Documentary
Proof 9/11 Was An Inside Job
The Anatomy of a Great Deception - David Hooper
A 2014 released Film - Watch on Youtube!
The Anatomy of a Great Deception
12 January, 2013 - 9/11 Truth Seattle - Barbara Honegger
Behind the Smoke Curtain
What happened and what didn't happen
at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
Individual chapters now posted!
Recommended Chapter 12/14 - 0:14:47
9/11 Masterminds and the Source of Their Evil
27 June, 2014 - Truth Troubadour - Vic Sadot
One of the Greatest
9/11 Truth Books Yet!
"Another Nineteen: Investigating
Legitimate 9/11 Suspects"
by Kevin Ryan
01 September, 2011 - Research Rabbit Whole
Historical Importance of 9/11
Daniele Ganser Speech (Switzerland)
05 October, 2014 - WhoWhatWhy - Peter Dale Scott
The Hidden Government Group Linking
JFK, Watergate, Iran-Contra and 9/11
04 June 2010 - 911blogger - Brett's Blog
Hypothesis Trailer
The trailer for Hypothesis is a documentary short about Steven Jones
and his 9/11 research. The film tells his story in his own words and
reflects the explosive controversy that ensued which resulted in
everything from threats, bribery, and academic suspension.
What started as a mere hypothesis became so much more.
The Mysterious Collapse of World Trade Center 7,
Why the Final Official Report about 9/11 is Unscientific and False
By David Ray Griffin
For an audio of Dr. Griffin presenting about this book:
Guns and Butter- The Mysterious Collapse of WTC-7
For a review of this book by Jerry Mazza:
"Just Say No to Nist.."
07 May 2012 - Petition - AVAAZ.org
Revise the U.S. government report
on the collapse of Building 7
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
BBC Reported World Trade Center Building
WTC-7 Collapsed 20 Minutes Before It Fell!
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
For information on this and 10 other remarkable facts, see:
11 Remarkable Facts About 9/11
First film showing hard evidence:
Improbable Collapse:
The Demolition of our Republic
Directed by:
Michael Berger
Media Coordinator for 911Truth.org
"The dramatic collapse of World Trade Center 7
is something everyone ought to see
It really does have the characteristics
of an explosive demolition."
Steven Jones, physicist, author of
"Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Completely Collapse?"
April, 2009 - The Open Chemical Physics Journal
Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust
from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe
Press Release ~ Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice
Dr. Steven Jones ~ 911blogger:
What you need to know about "Peer-review"
10 May 2011 - 911blogger - Prof. Steven Jones
Responses to questions regarding thermite, nanothermite
and conventional explosives used in the WTC destruction.
Editor in chief of Open Chemical Physics Journal
resigns after controversial article regarding 9/11
13 March 2011 - 911blogger - BuildingWhat?
New TV Spot Unveiled
in Hartford on March 26
Watch it now and support
RememberBuilding7.org
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Dr. Steven E. Jones Announces New Discovery:
Red/gray Bi-layered Chips in WTC Dust
Presentation video from 12/15/07 Boston event!
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Read first published peer-reviewed scientific journal
article questioning government's official 9/11 version:
Fourteen Points of Agreement with Official Gov.
Reports on the World Trade Center Destruction
and the second:
Environmental anomalies at the WTC:
evidence for energetic materials
Note these important articles:
Ten Connections Between NIST and Nano-Thermites
&
The NIST WTC 7 Report:
Bush Science reaches its peak
By Kevin Ryan - September 2008
<><><><><><><><><><><><>
Recommended for hard evidence:
Journal of 9/11 Studies
and
Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth
AE911Truth Companion Edition
10-Minute WTC 7 Video Online
For 9/11 demolition evidence::
9/11: Blueprint for Truth:
The Architecture of Destruction
For the first investigative drama to
challenge official version of 9/11
The Reflecting Pool
Watch the Jonathan Mark interview with
Jarek Kupsc and Joseph Culp
For more 9/11 key resources, see:
Films that Make a Difference!
11 May 2010 - YouTube - Robert Bowman
Patriots Question 9/11
Interview by Jonathan Mark and Tom Finnell
Parts 1 - 5 running time approximately 48 minutes
For best Online viewing, in alphabetical order, see:
Flyby News Productions
A Vermont neural plasticity expert produces
a film about awareness and critical thinking.
DECEPTIONS
Watch a discussion on this film with
Jonathan Mark & filmmaker Chris Pratt
Link to Flyby News Productions at GCTV
Video On Demand for best Online viewing
Why did the 9/11 Attacks Happen?
One Man's Independent Investigation.
In this interview, John Heartson shares his story as an independent 9/11 researcher,
beginning 2002. The above video is interspersed with his music from a benefit concert for
Valley 9/11 Truth and Flyby News. Why did such research make John Heartson a target
of domestic spying, secret investigations, several unconstitutional home searches,
and a direct threat to stop investigating 9/11 or he 'might end up dead.'?
John Heartson interviewed by Jonathan Mark
The Scarlet A:
Links between the Anthrax Attacks and 9/11
September, 2008 article by Barbara Honegger
"Paranoid Shift" ~ Shifting Consciousness
These following excerpts are from Michael Hasty's article, "Paranoid Shift"
"..In his book, "Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only superpower," William Blum warns of how the media will make anything that smacks of "conspiracy theory" an immediate "object of ridicule." This prevents the media from ever having to investigate the many strange interconnections among the ruling class—for example, the relationship between the boards of directors of media giants, and the energy, banking and defense industries. These unmentionable topics are usually treated with what Blum calls "the media's most effective tool—silence." But in case somebody's asking questions, all you have to do is say, "conspiracy theory," and any allegation instantly becomes too frivolous to merit serious attention.
On the other hand, since my paranoid shift, whenever I hear the words "conspiracy theory" (which seems more often, lately) it usually means someone is getting too close to the truth..
Take September 11—which I identify as the date my paranoia actually shifted, though I didn't know it at the time.
..Years, even decades before 9/11, plans had been drawn up for American forces to take control of the oil interests of the Middle East, for various imperialist reasons. And these plans were only contingent upon "a catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbor," to gain the majority support of the American public to set the plans into motion. When the opportunity presented itself, the guards looked the other way . . . and presto, the path to global domination was open.
Simple, as long as the media played along. And there is voluminous evidence that the media play along. Number one on Project Censored's annual list of underreported stories in 2002 was the Project for a New American Century (now the infrastructure of the Bush Regime), whose report, published in 2000, contains the above "Pearl Harbor" quote..
Nor, finally, is it in any way a "theory" that the one, single name that can be directly linked to the Third Reich, the US military industrial complex, Skull and Bones, Eastern Establishment good ol' boys, the Illuminati, Big Texas Oil, the Bay of Pigs, the Miami Cubans, the Mafia, the FBI, the JFK assassination, the New World Order, Watergate, the Republican National Committee, Eastern European fascists, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the United Nations, CIA headquarters, the October Surprise, the Iran/Contra scandal, Inslaw, the Christic Institute, Manuel Noriega, drug-running "freedom fighters" and death squads, Iraqgate, Saddam Hussein, weapons of mass destruction, the blood of innocents, the savings and loan crash, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, the "Octopus," the "Enterprise," the Afghan Mujaheddin, the War on Drugs, Mena (Arkansas), Whitewater, Sun Myung Moon, the Carlyle Group, Osama bin Laden and the Saudi royal family, David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, and the presidency and vice-Presidency of the United States, is: George Herbert Walker Bush.
"Theory?" To the contrary.
It is a well-documented, tragic and—especially if you're paranoid—terrifying fact.
For the complete article, see: Paranoid Shift
24 June 2006 - VIDEO - John McMurtry
Why The Facts Of 9/11 Are Suppressed
"The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone
of any significance in the major media."
-William Colby,
former CIA Director,
quoted by Dave Mcgowan, Derailing Democracy
The CIA and the Media
FAMILY OF SECRETS: The Bush Dynasty,
the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House,
and What Their Influence Means for America.
By RUSS BAKER
Investigative documentary film
Dark Legacy
George Bush and the Assassination of JFK
By John Hankey
Bush - Nazi Link Confirmed
Youtube Video:
John Buchanan From Martial Law 9-11- Alex Jones
"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things
over and over and over again for the truth to sink in,
to kind of catapult the propaganda."
- George W. Bush
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it,
people will become accustomed to believing it."
- Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels
The 'official conspiracy theory' of 911 is just such a lie.
Bush's official conspiracy theory requires a complete rewrite
of the laws of physics going back to Galileo, Newton, and
perhaps even Aristotle. It is more reasonable to conclude
that Bush is a part of a murderous plot to seize dictatorial
powers than to conclude that Galileo, Newton and Einstein
were just wrong about matter, motion, and the conservation
of both matter and energy. I don't [think] they were wrong.
Rather --I think Bush is a goddamn liar!
-- Len Hart
The Blood on Bush's hands
Bush Insider Planned To Tell All Killed In Plane Crash
Non-Profit Demands Full Federal Investigation
- PRNewswire Dec 21, 2008 -
On-scene Video: Crash of Mike Connell's aircraft
9/11 News - Vancouver Sun reviews The New Pearl Harbor
A Theologian Asks the Hard Questions About 9/11
By Douglas Todd
The Vancouver Sun
Dec 11, 2004
David Ray Griffin is one of the most respected philosophers of religion in North America. He is the author or editor of more than 24 academic books, including works co-written with the deans of world religions, Huston Smith and Martin Marty. He has lectured around the world, including at UBC.
Griffin is one of those profiled in the prestigious volume, A Handbook of Christian Theologians. He's painstakingly probed countless philosophical challenges, from the question of why there is evil to the relationship between science and religion, for which he's won numerous awards.
So why did this soft-spoken professor from the high-ranking Methodist-rooted School of Theology at Claremont, Calif., feel it necessary to risk his hard-earned reputation as a religion scholar to write one of the most incredible -- in all senses of the word -- political books of 2004?
Because no one else in mainstream America seemed prepared to do it...
The result? Griffin's book, The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11 (Interlink Publishing, $22.50) has already sold an astonishing 80,000 copies.
Griffin's unflinching analysis of the unanswered questions surrounding the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington has made Amazon.com's bestseller list despite receiving virtually no reviews in North America's mainstream media. That's unlike in Britain, where he's had solid coverage, including a three-page spread in London's mass-circulation Daily Mail.
Personally, when people ask how a group of Muslim extremists could have pulled off the devastating suicide attacks against the U.S., in spite of the country's global intelligence network and massive defence arsenal, I tend to side with the German philosopher, Goethe, who once said: "Why look for conspiracy when stupidity can explain so much?"
But when Griffin, who's known for his careful approach to philosophical problems, poses a series of questions suggesting the administration of George W. Bush had been warned about the terrorist attacks and did nothing, it's enough to make you shudder. The implications would make the Watergate scandal look like a Sunday brunch.
In effect, The New Pearl Harbor fleshes out in 214 pages the question asked in the final moment of Michael Moore's Academy-award-winning documentary, Fahrenheit 911. That's when the filmmaker wonders aloud: What exactly was Bush thinking as he sat in front of a bunch of school children reading a book titled My Pet Goat, knowing two jetliners had been flown into the World Trade Center?
Griffin's book is titled The New Pearl Harbor for two reasons. One, because that's what Bush wrote in his diary on the evening of Sept. 11: "The Pearl Harbor of the 21st century took place today." But also because members of the Bush administration in 2000 helped author the document, Project for the New American Century, which opined it would be difficult to galvanize Americans to support military expansion in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere unless a "new Pearl Harbor" occurred.
Here are a few of the questions Griffin looks into:
* Why did the Bush administration say it didn't anticipate the Sept. 11 attacks when the CIA and FBI had repeatedly told it al-Qaida was planning to hijack planes and fly them into U.S. targets, including the World Trade Center and the Pentagon?
* Why were standard procedures that could have prevented the tragedy not followed when the four hijacked planes went off course, including immediately sending up jet fighters to shoot down passenger planes that fail to obey orders?
* Why has there been no physical evidence a jet plane crashed into the Pentagon? Independent onlookers say they saw a missile fly into the building. Video evidence shot by a nearby gas station's security cameras was confiscated by government officials.
* Why did Bush, despite knowing about first one, then two, World Trade Center crashes, delay his response to them for up to 30 minutes and instead continue to read a children's book? Why was he not whisked away by his security agents, who are trained to believe he's a logical target of terrorists?
* Who made tens of millions of dollars by betting on the stock market in the weeks before Sept. 11 that shares in the two airlines that owned the hijacked planes were about to plummet?
Truncated, for the complete article, see: A Theologian Asks the Hard Questions About 9/11
The New Pearl Harbor Revisited:
9/11, the Cover-Up, and the Expos
By David Ray Griffin
November, 2008
'Pick of the Week' by Publishers Weekly
"It is already possible to know, beyond a reasonable doubt,
one very important thing: the destruction of the World Trade Center
was an inside job, orchestrated by terrorists within our own government."
- David Ray Griffin
27 November, 2015 - Killing Auntie Films - Tony Rooke
Incontrovertible 9-11 Evidence
INCONTROVERTIBLE is the first and only feature length documentary we
have which portrays the frank and candid views of Police Officers,
Firefighters and Soldiers as they express their grave concerns
about the official explanation for the events of 9/11. The
film is intended to act as a practical aid in combating
the mainstream media's propaganda and outright lies
concerning the attacks on September 11th 2001.
Also posted on Youtube - Running time 2:01:29
In the interest of Truthful and Accurate History; the 2006 book
that accounts for all of George W. Bushs mindless exploits
on September 11, is now posted online for free reading.
"BULLSHIT ARTIST"
The 9/11 Leadership Myth
By Ron Schalow
"In a time of universal deceit,
telling the truth is a revolutionary act"
- George Orwell
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
SUPPORT SIBEL EDMONDS - FBI WHISTLEBLOWER
For latest updates ~~ click here!
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
New York Times Best-Selling Author's 9/11 Truth Novel
THE SHELL GAME
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Find Concerned Citizens and 9/11 Questions Meetups
"To open ourselves to the truth and to bring ourselves face to face
with our personal and collective reality is not an option that can be
accepted or rejected. It is an undeniable requirement of all people
and all societies that seek to humanize themselves and to be free.."
-- Guatemalan Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi Conedera
Assassinated April 25, 1998, one day after his speech (and above quote),
when he presented his findings of an in-depth probe into a campaign of
terror against the people of Guatemala waged by their own government.
David Ray Griffin - Truth & Reconciliation - Heal 9-11
Flyby News Updated Resource Links
27 November, 2015 - Killing Auntie Films - Tony Rooke
Incontrovertible 9-11 Evidence
INCONTROVERTIBLE is the first and only feature length documentary we
have which portrays the frank and candid views of Police Officers,
Firefighters and Soldiers as they express their grave concerns
about the official explanation for the events of 9/11. The
film is intended to act as a practical aid in combating
the mainstream media's propaganda and outright lies
concerning the attacks on September 11th 2001.
Also posted on Youtube - Running time 2:01:29
07 January, 2015 - Media Advisory - 9:30 AM
Declassify The 28 Pages
Capitol Hill Press Conference
Representatives Walter B. Jones (NC-3),
Stephen Lynch (MA-8), and Sen. Bob Graham (FL)
will hold a bipartisan press conference on H. Res.428,
a resolution that calls on President Obama to declassify
the 28 pages of the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence
Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks
of September 2001 that were initially classified by
President George W. Bush and have remained
classified under President Barack Obama.
Livestream - LaRouchePAC
Watch Live Press Conference
09 October, 2014 - Day 6 - Brent Bambury
Did censoring a 9/11 report
pave the way for ISIS?
05 October, 2014 - WhoWhatWhy - Peter Dale Scott
The Hidden Government Group Linking
JFK, Watergate, Iran-Contra and 9/11
September 11
The New Pearl Harbor
A film by Massimo Mazzucco
10 September, 2014 - Youtube - Flyby News
Dark Legacy 9-11
Condensed Compilation - 0:14:39 running time
19 May 2011 - VIDEO - Oakland Forum
Robert M. Bowman Speech Excerpt
Empowering Citizens to End 9/11 Wars
24 October, 2014 - Youtube - Flyby News
September 11, 2014 Forum at GCTV
Solving the Mystery of WTC 7 plus 5
Interviews with Jonathan Mark - 1:36:06
27 August, 2014 - Youtube - Flyby News
September 11 - The New Pearl Harbor
1-minute PSA - Greenfield, Massachusetts
08 September, 2014 - CNN - Jake Tapper
28 pages of a 9/11 report
you can't see
16 September, 2014 - CounterPunch - James Ridgeway
9/11: the Saudi Connection
The Bush Cover-Up Begins to Unravel?
05 October, 2014 - Global Research - Larry Chin
The Anglo-American Empire's War of Conquest.
The War on the Islamic State (ISIL) is a Lie
There is no reasoning with an empire
waging a world war of deception
2014 - ReThink911.org
This September: New Billboard
to Rock The New York Times
27 August, 2014 - Youtube - Flyby News
September 11 - The New Pearl Harbor
1-minute PSA - Greenfield, Massachusetts
Flyby News recommends taking action
by giving truth a face, your face;
we all must come out on this one.
I Am the Face of Truth
Join a worldwide grassroots movement for 9/11 Truth
& Justice. We want to be associated only with evidence
that can be held up to the harshest scrutiny in any fair
court on the planet. We do not want to be associated
with theories that cannot be scientifically proven such
as: Directed Energy Weapons, nuclear weapons,
or 'no planes' at the World Trade Center towers.
27 December, 2012 - Youtube - NuoVisoCom
9/11 False Flag Conspiracy
Names, Connections, Motives
08 December, 2013 - DigWithin - Kevin Ryan
How to Debunk WTC Thermite
18 October, 2013 - Global Research - David Ray Griffin
The Unspoken Truth on 9/11:
"September 11 The New Pearl Harbor"
Review of documentary by Massimo Mazzucco.
16 October, 2013 - Paul Craig Roberts
Original Pakistani TV Bashir Interview and
Massimo Mazzucco's 9/11 Documentary
18 August, 2014 - Flyby News - Wordpress
15 years and the Cassini-Earth flyby
13 August, 2014 - Global Research - Prof Michel Chossudovsky
America's "War on Terrorism"
The Truth will Prevail
01 August, 2014 - Youtube - CSPAN
Richard Gage: Architects
and Engineers for 9/11 Truth
2014 - ReThink911.org
This September: New Billboard
to Rock The New York Times
27 June, 2014 - Truth Troubadour - Vic Sadot
One of the Greatest
9/11 Truth Books Yet!
"Another Nineteen: Investigating
Legitimate 9/11 Suspects"
by Kevin Ryan
26 August, 2013 - Youtube - 0:00:56
The Lie of 9/11 by Lt. Col. Robert Bowman
Tribute Video of Dr. Bob Bowman by Chris Pratt
26 August, 2013 - FN - wordpress
Bob Bowman Tribute Connection
12 January, 2013 - 9/11 Truth Seattle - Barbara Honegger
Behind the Smoke Curtain
What happened and what didn't happen
at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
Individual chapters now posted!
Recommended Chapter 12/14 - 0:14:47
9/11 Masterminds and the Source of Their Evil
27 May, 2013 - MP3 Player - Tom Neilson
No Plane at the Pentagon
10 September, 2013 - Paul Craig Roberts
Too Many Years Of Lies:
From Mossadeq to 9/11
Must see video around 40th anniversary
of two important September 11 events:
Ken Loach Chile 1973, September 11
07 December 2008 - Youtube - 0:10:57
08 December, 2013 - DigWithin - Kevin Ryan
How to Debunk WTC Thermite
31 August, 2013 - Project Unspeakable - Leslie Sullivan Sachs
Obama, the CIA and
the Unspeakable
18 August, 2010 - Info Wars - Wayne Madsen
Barack Obama conclusively
outed as CIA creation
02 December, 2009 - Flyby News - Jonathan Mark
abomination obama nation
Updated - Flyby News - Wordpress
Apocalypse and lifting of veil
JFK & 9-11
11 October, 2013 - YouTube - Dick Gregory
9/11 & The America Too Few Know About
11 October, 2013 - PressTV - Kevin Barrett
US continues to gag, murder 9/11 truth-seekers
08 September, 2013 - Youtube - Daniel Bushell
Russia Today News Declares 9/11
An Inside Job False Flag Attack!
05 October, 2013 - Global Research - Elizabeth Woodworth
Search Engine Manipulation. Google and
YouTube Suppress Controversial 9/11 Truth?
01 September, 2011 - Research Rabbit Whole
Historical Importance of 9/11
Daniele Ganser Speech (Switzerland)
"When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold
gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will
seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic."
- Dresden James
23 November, 2013 - AE911truth - Frances T. Shure
Why Do Good People Become
Silent or Worse about 9/11?
30 August & Updated - WP - FlybyNews
Syria and false flag operations
03 December, 2013 - The Agonist - Michael Collins
Saudi America and the State of Denial
09 December, 2013 - Intrepid Report - Larry Pinkney
Barack Obama's de facto
totalitarian nation
14 and 15 September, 2013 - Wash., DC
9/11 Commemoration Conference
9/11: Advancing the Truth
11 September, 2013 - Global Research - Nile Bowie
Has Questioning 9/11 become more Acceptable?
14 February, 2011 - Foreign Policy Journal - Michael Fullerton
A Scientific Theory of the WTC 7 Collapse
08 September, 2013 - Youtube - Daniel Bushell
Russia Today News Declares 9/11
An Inside Job False Flag Attack!
27 December, 2012 - Youtube - NuoVisoCom
9/11 False Flag Conspiracy
Names, Connections, Motives
10 September, 2013 - Paul Craig Roberts
Too Many Years Of Lies:
From Mossadeq to 9/11
22 February, 2013 - Global Resarch - Michel Chossudovsky
Historic Court Hearings: The BBC in the Dock for
Manipulating Evidence and Providing Biased
Coverage of the September 11, 2001 Attacks
25 February, 2013 - Reinvestigate 9/11 - Tony Rooke
Court Victory for Protestor
17 March, 2013 - Youtube - 0:1:37
Splitting the Sky: Antiwar Left,
Progressives complicit in 9/11 Cover-up
12 August, 2013 - San Diego 6 - Kimberly Dvorak
CIA Director Brennan Confirmed as
Reporter Michael Hastings Next Target
28 February, 2013 - 21stcenturywire - Greg Fernandez Jr
Philip Marshall 'Murder-Suicide'
A Lack of Evidence
mp3
Rosie O'Donnell Interviews William Rodriguez
06 November 2009 - 911blogger
Rosie O'Donnell is picking up where she left off.
19 February, 2013 - Kevin Barrett - Wayne Madsen
9/11 author Philip Marshall "suicided"
01 July, 2012 - Youtube - Jon Gold
Hedges on record regarding 9-11
Is Chris Hedges a gatekeeper Re: 9-11 truth?
22 February, 2013 - AirAmarteifioRadio - Ruthann Amarteifio
Jonathan Mark on JFK and Federal Reserve
2nd hour of program, live at 10:00 PM (ET)
22 February, 2013 - Flyby News - Wordpress
JFK, FED, Flyby News update
19 February, 2013 - Kevin Barrett - Wayne Madsen
9/11 author Philip Marshall "suicided"
19 February, 2013 - ICH - Kevin Barrett
US Supreme Court slams door in 9/11 widow's face
05 September 2012 - Intrepid Report - Jerry Mazza
9/11 widow hoping for Supreme Court review
15 October, 2012 - AE911truth - David Chandler
Cutter Charges in the North Tower
Four-minute Youtube video
10 September, 2012 - GazetteNet - Bob Dunn
Local groups offer differing views on
11th anniversary of Sept. 11 attacks
Youtube - Ken Loach
Chile 1973, September 11
01 February 2007 - Wordpress - Bala Fria
The Other September 11th
10 September, 2012 - Youtube - Brasscheck TV
9/11: The Official Story Defies Science
17 December, 2012 - Valley911truth
Dark Legacy and Thrive
13 November, 2012 - Youtube - Chris Pratt
CHOOSE
A 30-minute remix of Thrive
01 December, 2012 - WashingtonsBlog
Seismic Evidence Implies
Controlled Demolition on 9/11
21 November, 2012 - Youtube - AlienScientist
Black 9/11: Money, Motive,
Technology, and Plausible Deniability
15 November, 2011 - Global Research - Michel Chossudovsky
9/11: Its Never Too Late for the Truth
11 November, 2011 - Veterans Today - Dean Henderson
CIA Created Afghan Heroin Trade
15 October, 2011 - Youtube - WarCrime911
9/11 Suspects - Explosive Connections
30 October, 2012 - Youtube - AlienScientist
Financial 9/11: Following the Money
Trail Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole
17 October, 2012 - The Guardian - Rory Carroll
Martin Sheen and Woody Harrelson
9/11 'truther' film September Morn
19 November, 2012 - Youtube - Mark Dice
Mainstream 9/11 Truth Film Sabotaged,
says Star
24 December, 2008 - Youtube - Daily Kos
Dick Cheney's highest moment in office
30 September, 2012 - CLG - Sydney Herald
'U.S. Forcibly Drugged
All Guantanamo Prisoners'
18 October, 2011 - Democracy Now - Headlines
Alleged 9/11 Mastermind: U.S. Killed
More People Than Hijackers Did
16 October, 2012 - Associated Press - Pete Yost
Court throws out conviction of bin Laden driver
24 December, 2008 - Youtube - Daily Kos
Dick Cheney's highest moment in office
30 September, 2012 - CLG - Sydney Herald
'U.S. Forcibly Drugged
All Guantanamo Prisoners'
08 November, 2012 - Wordpress - Flyby News
Financial 9-11 Military BP + Cloud Atlas
06 November, 2012 - Wordpress - Flyby News
Election (fix) Update Dark Legacy
08 September 2012 - The Corbett Report
Black 9/11: Mark Gaffney on GRTV
May-July, 2012 - AE911truth - Richard Gage
9/11: Explosive Evidence
Experts Speak Out
Final Edition
Colorado PBS-TV Leads the Way!
Streaming Worldwide 18 August; 7pm MDT
17 August 2012 - Deadline Live - 10:30 AM EDT
Jonathan Mark and Jack Blood JFK and 9-11
29 September, 2012 - Truthout - Ralph Lopez
Colorado PBS Runs 9/11 Film
Sponsored by 9/11 Families:
Experts Reject Official Story,
Present Evidence of Demolition
24 September, 2012 - Global Research - Prof Peter Dale Scott
Systemic Destabilization as "A Strategy of Tension":
9/11, the JFK Assassination, and the OK City Bombing
23 September, 2012 - Examiner - Gregory Patin
9/11 official story doubts
becoming more mainstream
17 September, 2012 - Youtube - CNN
"Every War Starts
With A False Flag"
This is JESSE VENTURA on live TV
11 September, 2012 - Digital Journal - Elliott Freeman
Italian Supreme Court head calls
for international 9/11 inquiry
31 October, 2012 - Youtube - AlienScientist
9/11 Conspiracy Solved:
Names, Connections, & Details Exposed!
01 October, 2012 - Truthout - Chris Hedges
What Is Happening to Muslims
Will Happen to the Rest of US
01 July, 2012 - Youtube - Jon Gold
Hedges on record regarding 9-11
Is Chris Hedges a gatekeeper Re: 9-11 truth?
11th Anniversary of 9-11 Events
How the World Changed After 9/11
A made for television event at Walker Stage
in lower Manhattan on September 9th, 2012.
Presented by the International News Net,
WBAI, and WhatReallyHappened.com.
Ground Zero 9-11
11 September, 2012 - Valley 9/11 Truth
September 11 - Dark Legacy
10 August 2012 - Truth Jihad Radio - Kevin Barrett
Jonathan Mark on Dark Legacy - JFK and 9-11
Broadcast and archived - mp3 - 08/10/2012
American Freedom Radio
May-July, 2012 - AE911truth - Richard Gage
9/11: Explosive Evidence
Experts Speak Out
Final Edition
Youtube
Lynn Margulis Interview
07 May 2012 - Veterans Today - Gavin Phillips
9/11: Shattering the Spell of Mythical Realities
09 May 2012 -AlJazeera
Purported al-Qaeda bomber was 'CIA informant'
15 March 2012 - Star Tribune - WantToKnow
Pentagon says it has no records
of bin Laden's death; CIA hasn't
answered open records request
2009 - Google Books - David Ray Griffin
Osama bin Laden: dead or alive?
23 March 2012 - Boiling Frog - Bill Bergman
A 9/11 Paper Trail
Watch a 58-minute video-discussion with
Jonathan Mark & filmmaker Chris Pratt
Link to Flyby News Productions at GCTV
Video On Demand for best Online viewing
For a Four minute clip of above interview:
Jonathan Mark & filmmaker Chris Pratt
You can also watch interviews by
Jonathan Mark at his Youtube Channel
05 April 2011 - 911blogger - 63 Documents
Jesse Ventura talks about 9/11
on CNN American Morning
16 August 2011 - Youtube - AE911truth
Architects & Engineers
Solving the Mystery of WTC 7
09 February 2012 - Flyby News - Mike Gravel
Report on Citizens 9/11 Commission Campaign
28 January 2012 - WordPress - Scott Creighton
Mike Gravel is under attack
20 September 2011 - Flyby News - Jonathan Mark
Senator Mike Gravel Interview
Part 1 of 8 - Watch on Youtube - at above link
Full 88-minute program is available in high
resolution at Greenfield Community Television
More information at FN-wordpress link!
03 February 2012 - NI4D.US - Mike Gravel
What is the National Initiative for Democracy?
04 January 2012 - Youtube - Construuct
2012 - A 9/11 Documentary
Proof 9/11 Was An Inside Job
Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth
9/11: Explosive Evidence
- Experts Speak Out -
31 January 2012 - Corbett Report Radio
A Violation of Trust with Howard Cohen
04 February 2012 - Truth and Shadows - Craig McKee
Sanctions in Gallop 9/11 lawsuit send a
message: seek justice at your own risk
24 January 2012 - 9/11 Justice Canada
Canadian Investigation of 9/11 Commences
25 July 2011 - 911cc.org - Byron Belitsos
Why Lobbying Congress Is a Dead End
"Congress will never mount a new 9/11 investigation
I've tried that. Our courts and our district attorneys
won't do it either; that, too, has been attempted un-
successfully. Only the citizens themselves can get
a real investigation. The best path remaining is
that which Senator Gravel has spent part of his
life working on: the citizens' initiative."
- Cynthia McKinney,
six-term U.S. Congressperson (D-Georgia),
2008 Presidential Candidate (Green Party)
08 October 2010 - 911blogger - Carol Brouillet
Former Senator Mike Gravel Spearheads
California 9/11 Truth Commission Initiative
31 October 2010 - World for 9/11 Truth - 911blogger
Colorado Democratic Party Calls for
Grand Jury Investigation of 9-11
09 November 2010 - AE911truth - Frances Shure
An Insider Tells Us How They Did It
17 August 2010 - AE911truth - Action Alert
The "BuildingWhat?"
NYC Television Advertising Campaign
Watch The Ad One Million New Yorkers Will See:
BuildingWhat.org
7ProblemsWithBuilding7.info
9/11 Truth Teleconference
A coalition of 9/11 truth leaders and groups has been
communicating on a monthly basis (via teleconference)
about supporting critical campaigns to expose the U.S.
government and media cover-up on what really happened.
24 January, 2011 - Rock Creek Free Press - Lynn Margulis
Two Hit, Three Down, The Biggest Lie
National Academy of Science member and
Distinguished Professor endorses David
Ray Griffin exposing truth of 9/11.
Interlink Books - 2011 - David Ray Griffin
9/11 Ten Years Later
When State Crimes against Democracy Succeed
03 January 2009 - Youtube - John Trudell
"IN MY REALITY I'M CRAZY"
14 February 2011 - Flyby News - Jonathan Mark
Lord of the Rings * Black 9/11 * Exposed
21 May 2009 - Youtube - IndieResearch (3-parts)
Jesse Ventura vs 9.11 Conspiracy Debunkers
21 June 2011 - My Catbird Seat - Paul Craig Roberts
September 11 and the Orwellian
Redefinition of "Conspiracy Theory"
21 June 2011 - The Hidden Evil - Mark Rich
Was Aaron Russo Murdered?
19 December 2011 - AE911truth - David Ray Griffin
Beacon of Light for 9/11 Truth
Dr. Lynn Margulis, 1938-2011
21 September 2011 - Washington's Blog - Psychologists:
Questioning 9/11 Is the Sane Thing To Do
21 December 2011 - AE911truth - Wayne Coste
Occupy Building 7 Impacts Manhattan:
Police, OWS Protesters Informed About
Explosive 9/11 Evidence
20 September 2011 - Youtube - Media Education
Mike Gravel and George Ripley on citizens' campaign
21 September 2011 - WHMP Radio - Bill Newman
Mike Gravel interviewed in Northampton, MA
09 July 2011 - Youtube - Dr. Kevin Ryan
The NIST WTC 7 Report is False
01 August 2011 - The Intel Hub - Susan Lindauer
The Missing Security Tapes
From The World Trade Center
26 September 2011 - Washington's Blog
Government Twists Science of 9/11
Just As With Iraq, the Gulf Oil Spill and
Fukushima to Promote Its Policy Objectives
28 June 2009 - Youtube - Major General Stubblebine III
General of all American Intelligence:
9/11 was a fraud!
17 August 2011 - Campaigns - Citizens 9/11 Commission
U.S. Senator Leads Massachusetts Initiative
Campaign for a Citizens 9/11 Commission
13 March 2011 - 911blogger - BuildingWhat?
New TV Spot Unveiled
in Hartford on March 26
Watch it now and support
RememberBuilding7.org
09 April 2011 - 911blogger - InvestigateBuilding7
Failure to Report: A Panel Discussion
Among Journalists on 26 March, 2011
Mark Crispin Miller, Craig Unger
Dick Russell, Leslie Griffith
08 September 2011 - WashingtonsBlog - 9-11 Cover-up
High-Level Officials Eager to Spill the Beans
About What REALLY Happened on 9/11 _ But
No One In Washington or the Media Wants to Hear
24 August 2011 - Information Clearing House - Paul Craig Roberts
9/11 After A Decade:
Have We Learned Anything?
05 August 2011 - Boiling Frogs - Sibel Edmonds
Exactly How Big Is This So-Called Al Qaeda?
04 August 2011 - Boiling Frogs - Kevin Fenton
The NSA & 9/11: Failure to Exploit
the US-Yemen Hub & Beyond
Special film short - 9 minutes - Chris Pratt
Operation Checkmate: the pawns fight back
Challenge politicians to take:
The PLEDGE
NYC Truth and Reconciliation
NYC CAN
NYC Coalition for Accountability Now
02 September 2011 - World for 9/11 Truth - Remember Building 7
9/11 10th Anniversary: French, Italian,
German Media to Leave US and UK in the Dust
14 September 2011 - Scoop World - Kyle Hence
CIA Threats of Federal
Prosecution
Delay 9/11 Documentary
15 September 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Former Senator Bob Graham Urges Obama to Reopen
Investigation into Saudi Role in 9/11 Attacks
September 11, 2011 - The Guardian - Charlie Skelton
How the world changed after 9/11
13 September 2011 - Youtube - 9-11cc.org
Senator Mike Gravel at Boston Statehouse
Announcement of the Massachusetts Ballot
Initiative for a Citizens' 9/11 Commission
Youtube
Cynthia McKinney at Boston Statehouse
Press Release
Launch of Massachusetts Initiative Campaign
Attorney General Martha Coakley certifies
controversial 9/11 measure for ballot access
For events, actions in western Massachusetts
Valley 9/11 Truth
27 March 2011 - 911blogger - TruthNews
Susan Wolfe, Organizer for 10th Anniversary
NYC 11 September, 2011 Events Interviewed
Revolution Travel Management
Stand for Truth in NYC on Tenth Anniversary of 9/11
FN Editor's Note (August, 2011):
After almost five years as a member at 911blogger,
I am now banned. This first began when I tried to post
the July 4th announcement on the Citizens' 9/11 Commission
campaign. Their reason was that I was associated with those
that they did not like or trust. What is up with 911blogger?
27 October 2010 - 911blogger - Rock Creek Free Press
"911Blogger.com" Accused: Is leading
9/11 truth site working for the other side?
24 August 2011 - Flyby News - Wordpress
Star Trek 9-11 * Fukushima Radiating Everyone
01 August 2011 - Flyby News - Wordpress
Disconnecting Dots * 9-11 Citizens Campaign
29 July 2011 - Flyby News - Wordpress
Citizens' 9-11 Initiative * Updated News
31 August 2011 - Village Voice - Graham Rayman
9/11: The Winners
For some people, the terrorist attacks have been a gold mine
1,562 Architects and Engineers
Call for New 9/11 Investigation
17 April 2011 - AE911truth - Leroy Gmazel
Supporters Raise the Stakes this September
+
10th Anniversary - AE911truth - Citizen Actions
11 August 2011 - Associated Press - Tamara Lush
From JFK to Sept. 11, conspiracy theories thrive
18 July 2011 - Veterans Today - Anthony J. Hall
Our Scandalous Media &
the Quest for 9/11 Truth
09 August 2011 - BeforeItsNews - Richard Roepke
"Last Man Out" Makes Shocking 9/11 Disclosure
03 September 2011 - World for 9/11 Truth + Articles
Obama, Bush, Bloomberg to Bar 9/11 First Responders
From Ground Zero On the 10th Anniversary
September 8-11 - Center for 9/11 Studies - Toronto
International Hearings on 9/11
Schedule and Live Coverage
Sunday, September 11, 2011
2:00 3:15 Senator Mike Gravel:
State Deception in the Past and Today
11 July 2011 - 9-11cc - Byron Belitsos
Senator Gravel an Expert Witness at Toronto Hearings
17 August 2011 - Campaigns - Citizens 9/11 Commission
U.S. Senator Leads Massachusetts Initiative
Campaign for a Citizens 9/11 Commission
31 May 2011 - AE911truth.org - Arthur Naiman
New Paperback Demolishes Official WTC Story
Raw footage of a film premiering 9/10/2011
"9/11: Explosive Evidence - Experts Speak Out"
30 June 2011 - Youtube - 911blogger
Ed Asner TV Ad Promotes AE911Truth
08 June 2011 - RememberBuilding 7 - Press Release
New Poll Of New Yorkers Finds Lingering Doubts
About Official Explanation of 9/11 Attacks,
Including Third Tower's Collapse
02 June 2011 - Sibel Edmonds - Peter B. Collins
The Boiling Frogs Presents Paul Craig Roberts
03 June 2011 - Wanttoknow.info - Fred Burks
9/11 Attacks and the Black Eagle Trust Fund
13 July 2011 - Al Jazeera - Pepe Escobar
Why The US Won't Leave Afghanistan
It's Raining Trillions
27 May 2011 - ACLU - 911truth.org
House Passes Authority for Worldwide War
08 July 2010 - Youtube - music-video - SRange
John Kay & Steppenwolf - "MONSTER"
29 July 2011 - Global Research - Peter Dale Scott
The US-Al Qaeda Alliance:
Bosnia, Kosovo and Now Libya.
Washington's On-Going Collusion with Terrorists
26 July 2011 - Boiling Frogs - Julia Davis
The Saudi States of America:
From BAE to Iran-Contra, 9/11 & Beyond
02 August 2011 - Deadline Live - Jack Blood
Obama's New 2nd in Command at DOD
Ashton Carter
CFR, Aspen Group, Goldman Sachs..
Connects to 9/11 False Flag
03 April 2007 - Youtube - News Clips
9/11: Total Proof That Bombs
Were Planted In The Buildings!
19 July 2011 - Salon - Glenn Greenwald
DOJ casts serious doubt on its own
claims about the anthrax attack
"The commencement of a fresh investigation
would undermine public confidence in the
criminal investigation and unfairly
cast doubt on its conclusions."
11 July 2011 - Washington's Blog - Bob Graham
Co-Chair of 9/11 Inquiry: US Government
Covered Up State Assistance to Hijackers
12 July 2011 - Youtube - Docu-Dram
Insured Freedom
This 45 minute film exposes 9/11 cover-up,
and the financing of the Freedom Tower.
14 July 2011 - Huffington Post - Robert Koehler
Panetta's Gaffe
The reason you guys are here is because
on 9/11 the United States got attacked.
10 July 2011 - 911blogger - Paul Schreyer
Response to Miles Kara's review of new 9/11 air defense film
26 July 2011 - CNN - New York
Program won't cover 9/11 responders for cancer
9/11 Initiative Campaign - Senator Mike Gravel
Citizens 9/11 Commission
This is a new initiative that uses the prevailing ballot box
(and we all know there are some risks associated with that),
but it could establish a truly independent commission to
pursue justice regarding the events of September 11.
An Actionable Plan for 9/11 Truth and Justice
July 4, 2011 - 9-11cc.org - Senator Gravel
Announcing the 9/11 Commission Campaign
01 July 2011 - Youtube - Alex Jones
Former Senator Mike Gravel Interview
19 May 2011 - NoLiesRadio - 911blogger
Creating a New Path to Peace & Prosperity
Sen. Mike Gravel and Lt. Col. Bob Bowman
Live Radio Broadcast from Oakland, CA.
11 July 2011 - Agence France-Presse - 911blogger
Panetta to troops: We're in Iraq because of 9/11
FN Editor's Note:
After almost five years as a member at 911blogger,
my comments are now getting moderated and my post on
the July 4th announcement of the 9/11 Commission Campaign
was blocked - What is up with 911blogger?
In first 3 minutes, watch
9/11 - WTC-7 - Exposed!
Video clip produced by Robert Bowman
30 June 2011 - Youtube - 911blogger
New! Ed Asner TV Ad Promotes AE911Truth
24 June 2011 - 911blogger - Will Hurst, David Rogers
Richard Gage Talk at Royal Institute
of British Architects Ignites Firestorm
03 May 2011 - Jonathan Cole, Richard Gage, and Gregg Roberts
AE911Truth FAQ #6: What's Your Assessment
of the Directed Energy Weapon Hypothesis?
30 April 2011 - Atlanta Progressive News - Gloria Tatum
Activists, Architects, 9/11 Questions Linger Ten Years..
28 May 2009 - KMPH Fox 26 - WeAreChange
Richard Gage - TV Interview - Fresno, CA
17 April 2011 - AE911truth - Leroy Gmazel
Supporters Raise the Stakes this September
19 July 2011 - Democracy Now - Rais Bhuiyan
Muslim Victim of Post-9/11 Hate Crime
Calls on Texas to Spare Life of His Assailant
20 July 2011 - cbs11news
State of Texas has executed Mark Stroman despite pleas
from one of his shooting-spree victims to spare his life.
26 July 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Norway Attacks Reveal Growing Violent,
Anti-Muslim Sentiment in Europe
Glenn Greenwald
Norway Attacks Expose U.S. Media's
Double Standard on "Terrorism"
25 July 2011 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
News Outlets Initially Blamed Norway Attacks on Muslim Militants
Numerous news outlets and commentators initially blamed
the Norway attack on Islamic militants. Rupert Murdoch's
British newspaper, The Sun, ran a front-page headline titled,
"Al Qaeda's" Massacre, Norway's 9/11. On The Washington
Post's website, Jennifer Rubin wrote, "This is a sobering
reminder for those who think it's too expensive to wage
a war against jihadists." The Wall Street Journal also
initially blamed "jidhadists" reporting that, "Norway
is targeted for being true to Western norms."
23 April 2011 - Youtube - forjustice.co.uk/77
7/7 Ripple Effect
7ProblemsWithBuilding7.info
Footage of WTC-7's Collapse
RememberBuilding7.org
April, 2009 - The Open Chemical Physics Journal
Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust
from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe
Press Release ~ Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice
10 May 2011 - 911blogger - Prof. Steven Jones
Responses to questions regarding thermite, nanothermite
and conventional explosives used in the WTC destruction.
27 May 2011 - 911blogger - Theiry Meyssan
Projection "The black box of September 11" Paris
31 May 2011 - 911blogger - Aidan Monaghan
Official GPS Data Reveal Superior
Aviation GPS Service Provided To
WTC & Pentagon During 9/11 Attacks
03 March 2011 - NoLiesRadio - Video
Former Sen. Mike Gravel presents
draft for a California Ballot Initiative
to get a real 9/11 Truth Commission
03 May 2011 - AP - Rashard Mendenhall
NFL Star Sparks 9/11 Demolition Controversy
"We'll never know what really happened.
I just have a hard time believing a plane
could take a skyscraper down demolition style."
1,495 Architects and Engineers
Call for New 9/11 Investigation
03 March 2011 - NoLiesRadio - Video
Former Sen. Mike Gravel presents
draft for a California Ballot Initiative
to get a real 9/11 Truth Commission
27 March 2011 - 911blogger - TruthNews
Susan Wolfe, Organizer for 10th Anniversary
NYC 11 September, 2011 Events Interviewed
Revolution Travel Management
Stand for Truth in NYC on Tenth Anniversary of 9/11
18 April 2011 - NoLiesRadio - Kevin Barrett
David Ray Griffin is back!
Radio program archived here!
09 April 2011 - 911blogger - InvestigateBuilding7
Failure to Report: A Panel Discussion
Among Journalists on 26 March, 2011
Mark Crispin Miller, Craig Unger
Dick Russell, Leslie Griffith
10 May 2011 - 911blogger - Prof. Steven Jones
Responses to questions regarding thermite, nanothermite
and conventional explosives used in the WTC destruction.
04 May 2011 InfoWars Steve Pieczenik
Government Insider: Bin Laden
Died In 2001, 9/11 A False Flag
02 May 2011 - Global Research - Larry Chin
Obama's "Big Lie": White House Propaganda
and the "Death" of Osama bin Laden
02 May 2011 - AP - 911blogger
Destruction of 9/11 Evidence Continues;
Bin Laden Body Dumped at Sea
2009 - Google Books - David Ray Griffin
Osama bin Laden: dead or alive?
25 April 2011 - The Guardian - Common Dreams
WIKILEAKS Lift Lid on
Gitmo's Nefarious History
27 April 2011 - Cageprisoners - Andy Worthington
The Hidden Horrors of WikiLeaks' Guantnamo Files
25 April 2011 - Veterans for Peace - Press Release
Obama Declares Manning Guilty Before Trial
28 April 2011 - Democracy Now - Ray McGovern
Petraeus Will Expand Pro-War
Agenda as New CIA Director
05 May 2011 - WordPress - Flyby News
9/11 Whistleblower * DRG * Bahrain non-Human Rights
02 May 2011 - AlJazeera - RevolutionaryPolitics
Resident near 'Bin Laden's death' questions its authenticity
02 May 2011 - El Publico - 911blogger
Spanish press:
bin Laden dead photo a fake
26 April 2011 - Washington's Blog
Four Stories This Week Prove that
the War On Terror Is a Farce
07 March 2011 - WashingtonsBlog - 911blogger
Pentagon Papers Whistleblowers.. and 9/11 Commissioners
Themselves Call for a New 9/11 Investigation
PatriotsQuestion911.com
06 April 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
New York Court to Hear Case Against Psychologist
Accused of Torture in Guantnamo Interrogations
10 March 2011 - TruthisTreason.net - Kevin Hayden
Heroin, the CIA in Afghanistan,
9/11 and the Mujahadeen
12 April 2011 - 911blogger - Tony Szamboti
Structural Aspects of Building 7's Collapse:
Why the NIST Report is Non-explanatory
03 April 2011 - 911blogger - Youtube
Remember Building 7 - Hartford - Videos
06 April 2011 - 911blogger - William Veale
Judge John Walker, George Walker Bush's
cousin, judges April Gallop's suit
24 March 2011 - Center for 9/11 Justice - 911blogger
Amidst Growing World Doubts About 9/11,
Career Army Officer Takes Bush Administration
Officials to Court April 5th (New Haven, CT)
24 January, 2011 - Rock Creek Free Press - Lynn Margulis
Two Hit, Three Down, The Biggest Lie
National Academy of Science member and
Distinguished Professor endorses David
Ray Griffin exposing truth of 9/11.
11 March 2011 - 911blogger - Mark Gaffney
New document supports Norman Mineta's
testimony about VP Dick Cheney
30 March 2011 - 911blogger - Joseph Culp
AWAKE IN A WORLD THAT ENCOURAGES SLEEP
New play opening in NYC encouraging awareness
22 March 2011 - 911truth.org - 911blogger
An Open Letter To Bill Moyers
21 March 2011 - 911blogger - YouTube
New Videos From The International Center for 9/11 Studies
February, 2011 - "The Blueprint" - AE911truth
Bill Moyers' Attack on 9/11 Truth
Exposes Defense Mechanisms in Full Force
16 February, 2011 - American Free Radio - Kevin Barrett
9/11 Truth Movement Infighting
With guests: Jonathan Mark and Adam Syed
Audio is in archives or go to this MP3 link!
15 February, 2011 - 911Blogger - Anditico & Comments
BIGGER PICTURE
17 February 2011 - Common Dreams - Partnership for Civil Justice
'So This Is America' Ray McGovern
Bloodied and Arrested at Clinton Speech
11 February 2011 - ABC News - 911blogger
Science review casts doubt on 2001 anthrax case
11 February 2011 - 911blogger - John Michael Talboo
9/11 - Foreknowledge and Lack of AirDefense
20 February, 2011 - 911blogger - Dr. Steven Jones
"9/11: Science and Society" Now on Youtube!
14 February, 2011 - Foreign Policy Journal - 911blogger
A Scientific Theory of the WTC 7 Collapse
by Michael Fullerton
24 October 2010 - 911blogger - Jonathan Mark
John Hankey - 9/11 and JFK connection
20 November 2010 - 911blogger - FederalJack
Jesse Ventura - JFK - TruTV - Pts 1-4
19 November 2010 - NowPublic - TruTV
Jesse Ventura - JFK Deathbed
Confession of E. Howard Hunt
This show also on Youtube - Alex Jones Channel
JFK Deathbed Confession - Part 1 of 3
23 December 2010 - Economic Policy Journal - 911blogger
My Files on LBJ-CIA Assassination of JFK
By Robert Morrow
06 February 2011 - The Observer London - Greg Palast
Reagan: Killer, Coward, Con-man
07 February 2011 - Center for Constitutional Rights & Human Rights
Human Rights Groups Announce Bush Indictment
for Convention Against Torture Signatory States
03 February 2011 - Youtube - Radio Interview
9/11 Whistleblower, Susan Lindauer,
on Patriot Act & Bradley Manning
Help end the inhumane treatment of Bradley Manning
31 January 2011 - Boiling Frogs - Sibel Edmonds
9/11 Family Members Demand Answers from the 9/11 Commission:
The Censored Testimony of FBI's Behrooz Sarshar
30 January 2011 - Visibility 9/11 - Kevin Ryan
Why Robert Parry is right about 9/11 Truth
25 January 2011 - The Telegraph - 911blogger
UN Human Rights Official Claims 9-11 Was US Plot
30 January 2011 - The Intel Hub - Shepard Ambellas
9/11 Whistleblower Susan Lindauer On Life In a Military Prison
03 June 2010 - Examiner.com - Shawn Hamilton
NYC CAN, AE911Truth ask NYC city
council to investigate WTC Building 7
New York-based group allied with Architects and Engineers
for 9-11Truth is lobbying New York City council members
to investigate the anomalous circumstances surrounding
the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7.
7ProblemsWithBuilding7.info
For Independent Investigations
NYC 9/11 Ballot
I N I T I A T I V E
New York Magazine article:
Asner vs. Cheney in NYC 9/11 Commission
Activists hope to reinvestigate with city's help.
22 November 2010 - 12160 - Pat Shannan
Persecuted FEMA 9-11
Photographer Fights Extradition
17 November 2010 - 911blogger - Nor Cal Truth
Another High Rise in China
Burns
Completely Without Collapse
14 November 2010 - Fox News - 911blogger
"BuildingWhat?" Appears on
Geraldo At Large on Fox News
16 November 2010 - Raw Story - Stephen C. Webster
Geraldo 'much more open minded'
about 9/11 thanks to NYC television ads
19 November 2010 - 911blogger
Geraldo Follow Up On "Freedom Watch"
01 December 2010 - 9/11 Truth News - 911blogger
9/11 Families Demand Apology from Media Matters
09 December 2010 - WashingtonsBlog - 911blogger
Pentagon Papers Whistleblowers
Call for a New 9/11 Investigation
06 December 2010 - Opinion Maker - Kourosh Ziabari
Wayne Madsen Speaks Out
Responding to questions about the 9/11 attacks,
Israel's dominance over the U.S. media and
the prospect of Iran-U.S. relations.
07 December 2010 - WeAreChange NJ - 911blogger
2010 NIST 9/11 Footage Leaks Ignored
06 December 2010 - 911blogger - Phil Restino
FOX News questions Govt's sole,
one & only reason to justify its wars
02 December 2010 - 911blogger - Prof. Steven Jones
A peer-reviewer of the "Active Thermitic
Materials" paper identifies himself... Great!
25 December 2010 - 911blogger - Jack Blood
Daniel Ellsburg Sees Need
for New 9/11 Investigation
October 2010 - 911blogger - Steve Alten
GRIM REAPER is a Trojan Horse for 9/11 Truth
09 December 2010 - NY Times - 911blogger
F.B.I. Asks Panel to Delay Report on Anthrax Inquiry
05 December 2010 - FrederickNewsPost - Megan Eckstein
Bruce Ivins's lawyer, colleague share details FBI left out
22 December 2010 - 911blogger - MichaelCollins
The Hornet's Nest Kicked Back
A Review of Susan Lindauer's
Extreme Prejudice
02 January 2011 - Veterans Today - Enver Masud
Pentagon Transcripts, Official Records
Belie 'The 9/11 Commission Report'
Intelligence Officers for 9/11 Truth
Intelligence officers calling for a new, independent investigation
of 9/11 that takes account of evidence that has been documented
by independent researchers - ignored by governments and media.
Pilots for 9/11 Truth
Pilots for 9/11 Truth is an organization of aviation professionals
and pilots throughout the globe committed to seeking the truth
surrounding the events of the 11th of September, 2001.
U.S. Military Officers for 9/11 Truth
Officers who honor their oath to 'support and defend the Constitution
against all enemies, foreign and domestic.' That remains in force.
Therefore, 'it is our duty to expose the real perpetrators of 9/11..'
20 January 2011 - Common Dreams - Peaceful Tomorrows
9/11 Family Members Express Profound Disappointment
at Reports White House Will Increase Use of Military
Commission to Try Guantanamo Detainees
22 December 2010 - Washington Post - Common Dreams
Indefinite Detention for Suspects at Guantanamo Bay
06 January 2011 - Boiling Frogs - Sibel Edmonds
The Exceptionally Redacted
9/11 Commission Interview
1,404 Architects and Engineers
Call for New 9/11 Investigation
13 August 2010 - 9/11 Investigator
We Wrote it All Down in
a Classy Little Newspaper
13 October 2010 - Global Research - Richard Gage, Gregg Roberts
Evidence Refutes Official 9/11 Investigation:
The Scientific Forensic Facts
28 September 2010 - 911blogger - National Press Club
Watch AE911Truth full 9/9/10 Press Conference
07 December 2010 - YouTube - 911blogger
9/11 Explosive Testimony - Robert McCoy - Architect
06 November 2010 - AE911Truth - Eli Rika
Little-Known 9/11 Truth Organization
Strikes Gold in Court Action Against NIST,
Unearths Striking Video/Photo WTC Evidence
05 November 2010 - AE911Truth - Eli Rika
AE911Truth Speakers Warmly Received in Oklahoma City
29 September 2010 - Online Journal - Jerry Mazza
Reclaiming the "Boston Tea Party"
for 9/11 Truth
08 October 2010 - Press TV - Ramin Mehmanparast
Iranian Minister: 'Half Of Westerners Doubt 9/11 Event'
17 September 2010 - Global Research - Michel Chossudovsky
9/11 Truth and America's "Global War on Terrorism":
The Pretext to Wage War is Totally Fabricated
9/11 Truth is fundamental to building a real and effective
antiwar movement, which challenges the legitimacy
of the war criminals in high office.
02 September 2010 - Salon - Glenn Greenwald
Confirmed: Obama authorizes
assassination of U.S. citizen
abomination obama nation
08 September 2010 - 12160 - Jonathan Mark
New David Ray Griffin book
Cognitive Infiltration: An Obama Appointee's
Plan to Undermine the 9/11 Conspiracy Theory
31 August 2010 - 911blogger - David Ray Griffin
The Traitor Betrays Himself:
review of Cognitive Infiltration
21 September 2010 - 911blogger - Guns and Butter KPFA
Project Censored "censored" because of 9/11 Truth!
27 October 2010 - 911blogger - Rock Creek Free Press
"911Blogger.com" Accused: Is leading
9/11 truth site working for the other side?
16 October 2010 - Visibility 9-11 - Kevin Ryan
A dozen questions about Flight 77 and the Pentagon
that might lead to justice, and one that won't
04 January 2011 - Online Journal - Jerry Mazza
New Year's in the New World Order
1,414 Architects and Engineers
Call for New 9/11 Investigation
13 August 2010 - 9/11 Investigator
We Wrote it All Down in
a Classy Little Newspaper
13 October 2010 - Global Research - Richard Gage, Gregg Roberts
Evidence Refutes Official 9/11 Investigation:
The Scientific Forensic Facts
28 September 2010 - 911blogger - National Press Club
Watch AE911Truth full 9/9/10 Press Conference
22 December 2010 - Democracy Now - John Feal
"I've Been to 44 Funerals In the Last 4 1/2 Years"
9/11 First Responder Calls on Senate to Pass Zadroga Bill
17 December 2010 - NY Daily News - Editorial
Jon Stewart gives GOP senators the skewering
their hypocrisy on 9/11 deserves
22 December 2010 - 911blogger - Comments
9/11 First Responders Health Care Bill:
Deal Reached In Senate
11 December 2010 - 911blogger - Carol Brouillet
Janette MacKinlay
February 26, 1948 - December 9, 2010
05 December 2010 - AE911truth - Richard Gage, AIA
AE911 Action Groups in Full Swing
Here's the First Monthly Report
11 December 2010 - Truth Jihad Radio - Kevin Barrett
Interview with Major Doug Rokke
on WikiLeaks, DU and September 11
12 December 2010 - WeAreChangeNJ - 911blogger
9 Years Of Hidden Evidence
Exposes Massive 9/11 Coverup
09 December 2010 - YouTube - 911blogger
9/11 Survivor Eyewitness Paul Lemos
Says Bombs Exploded North Tower
As The Bombs Were Going Off People Started Running
13 December 2010 - 911blogger - Stockholm Attacks
Military staffer knew about attacks,
but authorities claim bomber was 'unknown'
14 December 2010 - 911blogger - 9/11 In Context
Daniele Ganser Discusses Operation Gladio
09 December 2010 - The Nation - U.S. Capitol
Jeremy Scahill Testifies Before
Congress on America's Secret Wars
16 December 2010 - World 9/11 Truth - 911blogger
Republican Senator Calls
Cops on 9-11 Responders
06 November 2010 - Word Press - Scott Creighton
Chomsky: No Evidence That Al Qaeda
or bin Laden Carried Out 9/11 Attack
17 December 2010 - The Korea Herald - Seoul
US soldier suspected of uploading fake picture
of North Korea's shelling on a southern island
27 October 2010 - Online Journal - Jerry Mazza
A tale of two families' 9/11 deaths
17 October 2010 - Digital Journal - Bill Lindner
9/11 Truth:
Time to review post-9/11 mentality and face reality?
Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust
from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe
31 May 2010 - 911blogger - Kevin Ryan
Dusting-off Corley: Is this the official response to the
discovery of energetic materials in the WTC dust?
22 July 2010 - 911blogger - 911TrueStory
Video highlights of lectures presented by
Steven Jones and Kevin Ryan in 2009
09 May 2010 - 911blogger - Professor Steven E. Jones
BYU and Prof. Steven Jones revisited
The Mysterious Collapse of World Trade Center 7,
Why the Final Official Report about 9/11 is Unscientific and False
By David Ray Griffin
For an audio of Dr. Griffin presenting about this book:
Guns and Butter- The Mysterious Collapse of WTC-7
For a review of this book by Jerry Mazza:
"Just Say No to Nist.."
12 July 2010 - 911blogger - Director of NIST
NIST Denies Access to WTC7 Data
10 September 2010 - Global Research - Dick Gregory
WTC 1 and 2:
Justice and 9/11 Demands Accountability.
Evidence Indicates Controlled Demolition
06 July 2010 - Global Research - David Ray Griffin
Left-Leaning Despisers of the
9/11 Truth Movement:
Do You Really Believe in Miracles?
An Open Letter to Terry Allen, Noam Chomsky,
Alexander Cockburn, David Corn, Chris Hayes,
George Monbiot, Matthew Rothschild, and Matt Taibbi.
15 June 2010 - 911blogger - article and comments
Did 9/11 provide cover
for massive securities
fraud by the Fed?
04 June 2010 - SOTT.net - 911blogger
Seismic Signals Reveal Explosives Were Used at the WTC
on September 11 according to geophysicist Andr Rousseau
Citizen's Campaign for a 9/11 Grand Jury Investigation
04 August 2010 - 911blogger - John Bursill
"The New American Century"
A Film by Massimo Mazzucco
25 June 2010 - Global Research - David Ray Griffin
Did 9/11 Justify the War in Afghanistan?
06 August 2010 - CNN - World
Ex-Pakistan spy chief:
Afghanistan war 'lost cause'
abomination obama nation
04 October 2010 - Online Journal - Jerry Mazza
Dust not settled on the last 9/11
victim family claim for a trial!
The real reason why none of the victim family plaintiffs have
ever been awarded a trial: the government's 9/11 conspiracy.
04 October 2010 - FOX News - 911blogger
[Able Danger] Witnesses in Defense Dept.
Report Suggest Cover-Up of 9/11 Findings
Citizen's Campaign for a 9/11 Grand Jury Investigation
02 October 2010 - The Wisdom Fund - Enver Masud
A Note on Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC)
Uncritical Support of 'The 9/11 Commission Report'
03 October 2010 - Power of Truth Radio - 911blogger
National Association of Muslim American Women
calls for new 9/11 investigation
23 September 2010 - Youtube - Russia Today
'9/11 was an inside job'
Full speech by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at UN
25 September 2010 - BBC News - 911blogger
Obama condemns Ahmadinejad's UN speech
25 September 2010 - Press TV - 911blogger
An International Lawyer Says Ahmadinejad
is Rational and Correct. Excellent interview.
Watch the video:
'Americans seek probe into 9/11'
"Government officials will be notified that
'Misprision of Treason,' U.S. Code 18 (Sec. 2382),
is a serious federal offense, which requires
those with evidence of treason to act..
- Richard Gage, AIA
04 March 2010 - 911blogger - Gabriel Sukenik
The movement behind 9/11
16 March 2010 - NoLiesRadio - Kevin Barrett
Richard Gage AIA & Jonathan Mark
Update on AE911truth & Misprision of treason campaigns
Truth Jihad Radio - 13 February 2010 - Misprision of Treason
Richard Gage, AIA and Jonathan Mark
Interview by Kevin Barrett - 2nd hour - Dr. Leonard Horowitz
On staying healthy in a false-flag terrorized world.
Listen here or link from Archives ~ Truth Jihad Radio
19 April 2010 - The Corbett Report - James Corbett
When False Flags Don't Fly
27 August 2010 - Associated Press - 911blogger
Fidel Castro:
Osama bin Laden is a US agent
19 August 2010 - YouTube - Alex Jones
Wayne Madsen: 'Barack Obama
Conclusively Outed as CIA Creation'
04 September 2010 - 911blogger - BoneZ
WTC Detonations finally revealed (video)
31 August 2010 - 911blogger - Justin Keogh
International Center for 9/11 Studies Secures
Thousands of Photos and Videos from NIST
04 September 2010 - Corbett Report - 911blogger
9/11 Truth is Still the Issue
Part 1 through 7 - Video
23 September 2010 - The Intel Hub - 911blogger
Video Proof of the 9/11 Conspiracy,
The Kurt Sonnenfeld Story
22 September 2010 - Press TVM - 911blogger
Report on AE911Truth Press Conference
30 September 2010 - 911blogger - AE911Truth
AE911truth Resonates around the World
- 67 Press Conferences -
10 September 2010 - Fox News - WantToKnow.info
Pentagon Attempts to Block Book on Afghan War
Click following link for Video of
Fox News' exclusive interview with the
author of the book, Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer
17 September 2010 - Reuters - 911blogger
Anthrax Case Update
Congressional investigators plan to examine
how the FBI determined that one scientist
was responsible for the deadly
2001 anthrax attacks
15 September 2010 - OnLine Journal - Jerry Mazza
The making of 9/11 activists
This is a "slice of life" look at Saturday past's 9/11.
It was a zoo, with a riot at the Islamic learning center,
bullhorns shouting at each other, a visit by Right-to-Lifers
with a billboard size, full color photo of a dead fetus, all to
distract and divide Americans against each other. Meanwhile we,
WeAreChange, with the help of Manny Badillo and Richard Gage
and others, stayed focused on a Reinvestigation of 9/11 based on the
facts of Tower 7's demise and the presence of the army-developed
explosive nanothermite throughout the site of Ground Zero.
12 September 2010 - AE911truth - 911blogger
AE911Truth shines 3rd Beam
into NYC skyline for WTC 7
"We are shining the spotlight, literally, on the fact that the official story
of what happened at Ground Zero simply cannot be true and that a truly
independent new investigation is needed both as a matter of national
security and as the key to justice for the victims of the Twin Towers."
09 September 2010 - Raw Story
Former senator, engineers offer
'proof'
of 9/11 controlled demolitions
September 9, 2010 Press Conference 2:00 PM
VIDEO
at the National Press Club in Washington, DC
Citizen's Campaign for a 9/11 Grand Jury Investigation
12 September 2010 - Daily Mail (UK) - World News
UK Ministry of Defense probes claim that
soldiers are smuggling heroin from Afghanistan
10 September 2010 - New York Observer - 911blogger
Untangling the Bizarre CIA Links
to the Ground Zero Mosque
20 August 2010 - OnLine Journal - Jerry Mazza
'Ground Zero Mosque' inflating Islamophobia
02 September 2010 - Kenny's Sideshow - Blog
BuildingWhat?
Just how did Muslims bring down WTC7?
Just lucky I guess.
And we should thank those 19 Muslim daredevils
and Bin Laden for suspending the laws of physics,
bringing down WTC 1 & 2 so neatly straight down
in a pile and for turning much of the mass into dust
so that there wasn't as much debris to pick up.
12 September 2010 - Daily Mail (UK) - World News
UK Ministry of Defense probes claim that
soldiers are smuggling heroin from Afghanistan
September 7, 2010 - Yahoo News - AE911truth
1,270 Architects/Engineers Reveal
Evidence of Explosive Demolition
at the World Trade Center on 9/11
September 9, 2010 Press Conference 2:00 PM
at the National Press Club in Washington, DC
hosted by Former US Senator Mike Gravel
September 11, 12, 2010 in NYC and via Internet
How The World Changed After 9/11
After 9/11 - A Symposium of Critical Thinkers
Blueprint (August 2010) Newsletter
30 July 2010 - 911blogger - Associated Press
House rejects bill to aid sick 9/11 responders
21 July 2010 - 911blogger - Nathan James
It Fell in Silence
The Collapse of World Trade Center 7
12 July 2010 - 911blogger - Director of NIST
NIST Denies Access to WTC7 Data
20 July 2010 - 911blogger - The Swill Buchket
Dwain Deets launches site devoted to WTC Building 7
29 June 2010 - 911blogger - J.T. Waldron
Richard Gage's Gnosis Interview in Tucson
7ProblemsWithBuilding7.info
30 July 2010 - 911blogger - Associated Press
House rejects bill to aid sick 9/11 responders
21 July 2010 - 911blogger - Nathan James
It Fell in Silence
The Collapse of World Trade Center 7
12 July 2010 - 911blogger - Director of NIST
NIST Denies Access to WTC7 Data
20 July 2010 - 911blogger - The Swill Buchket
Dwain Deets launches site devoted to WTC Building 7
7ProblemsWithBuilding7.info
War in Space & 9/11
Jonathan Mark on Fair & Balanced
Kevin Barrett - NoLiesRadio - August 11, 2009
12 July 2010 - 911blogger
9/11 Documentary Film Resources
07 July 2010 - Tetrahedron - Len Horowitz and Sherri Kane
WAR on The World
Rothschild League of Bankers
Thirty Facts Reveal Gulf Oil Disaster Was Planned
National Tour Press Release:
PharmaWhores:
Are They Manipulating Your Mind?
26 June 2010 - Daily Mail - 911blogger
Dr David Kelly: The damning new evidence that
points to a cover-up by Tony Blair's government
15 June 2010 - 911blogger - Bruno Bruhwiler
WeAreChangeLA Organizer Faces Terrorism Charge
20 June 2010 - 911blogger - Katy
Updated information and comments
16 June 2010 - 911blogger - OpEdNews - Bill Willers
Increasing Threats To The 9/11 Truth Movement
15 March 2010 - Russia Today - 911blogger
New Bill Would Allow U.S, to Hold
Citizens for Life Without a Trial
24 June 2010 - OnlineJournal - Jerry Mazza
'Manchurian Candidate' Shahzad confesses all
Why do I smell a rat when Shahzad confesses (and forfeits
all his legal rights) in a "terror bombing" that totally
fizzled? Could it be mind control or its analogue,
torture, given the repeated statement that he
continuously "cooperated with authorities."
03 July 2010 - 911blogger - Jeff Jacobucci
Cause to celebrate:
A&E Petition Hits 10,000 this 4th of July
Space for Peace and September 11
A 10th anniversary Cassini flyby perspective
War in Space & 9/11
Jonathan Mark on Fair & Balanced
Kevin Barrett - NoLiesRadio - August 11, 2009
June 23-28, 2010 - NYC CAN - Channel Your Voice
Wake Up the District Attorney
With 1,000 Letters: WEEK 4
Help bring WTC-7 to attention of NYC DA!
27 May 2010 - 911truth.org - David Ray Griffin
Building What?
How SCADs Can Be Hidden in Plain Sight
27 May 2010 - 911blogger - comments
Professor David Ray Griffin Requests Focus on WTC 7
running up to the Tenth Anniversary - 11 September, 2011
05 May 2010 - MYSTERIES - 911blogger
Swiss MYSTERIES magazine
covers nanothermite-research
17 June 2010 - DemocracyNow! - War and Peace Report
With Rumored Manhunt for Wikileaks Founder and Arrest
of Alleged Leaker of Video Showing Iraq Killings,
Obama Admin Escalates Crackdown on Whistleblowers..
17 June 2010
Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater Owner Erik Prince's
Rumored Move to UAE and Obama Admins Expansion
of Special Forces Operations Abroad
15 June 2010
Supreme Court: Torture and Rendition Victim
Maher Arar Cannot Sue in US Courts
10 June 2010 - CNET - 911blogger
Senators propose granting president emergency Internet power
21 May 2010 - OnlineJournal - Jerry Mazza
Cass Sunstein wants to turn off your light!
Obama's Czar for White House Internet censorship
wants party line or silence from you. Or else..
Financial Analysis - World Reports - Christopher Story
30 May 2010
Obama Confirms Biden, Geithner, Emanuel Bribery
24 May 2010
Why Admiral Dennis C. Blair Was Sacked By Obama
11 May 2010
Biden, Geithner, Emanuel Taking Bush Sr's Bribes
Plus -- Formal C.I.A. Elimination Order
Issued Against Key Settlements Signatory
02 May 2010
Endemic Corruption In Brussels and Halliburton
18 April 2010
Text of the S.E.C.'s Complaint Against Goldman Sachs
Youtube - October 2009 - Video
Christopher Story - EU Corruption
09 April 2010
CMKM/CMKX $3.87 Trillion Lawsuit Goes 'Mainstream'
You can also access the CMKM/CMKX text at:
www.viewer.zoho.com/docs/paKdda
Seeing what's at the end of one's nose requires constant effort.
- George Orwell
31 March 2010 - Examiner.com (NY) - Tim Barello
CMKM Diamonds and the $3.87
trillion lawsuit you didn't hear about
"..As the United States continues to fracture in every way imaginable,
most citizens are unable to keep up with the never-ending hodgepodge
of government corruption. Each day, a new larger-than-life scandal emerges,
and in the short mind span of news media, there is always a bigger and better
story to chase. Right now, the hot button issue for mainstream news outlets is
healthcare reform, and its myriad implications for our society; this doubtlessly
ensures the aforementioned media will continue to overlook unprecedented
accusations brought forth in a recent $3.87 trillion lawsuit against U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary L. Shapiro, as well
as several other current and former SEC commissioners, among others.."
22 May 2010 - Examiner.com - 911blogger
US agencies have billions, trillions in investments
looted from the American public
22 May 2010 - NY Times - 911blogger
Spymaster departs amid intelligence controversy
10 May 2010 - WantToKnow.Info - Revealing News Articles
Wall Street Insiders Make a Killing,
Government-Oil Industry Collusion Behind Gulf Oil Spill
26 May 2010 - TruthJihad.com Blog - Kevin Barrett
Senior BBC Mideast Correspondent:
"Here's what may have REALLY happened on 9/11"
Analysis considering an Israeli Connection to September 11
27 May 2010 - 911blogger - John Bursill
Journalist Alan Hart interviewed by Kevin Barrett:
Controlled Demolition and Mossad/Zionist
Israeli Involvement on 9/11?
12 May 2010 - OnLine Journal - Jerry Mazza
What is good for Goldman Sachs is bad for the world
16 April 2010 - PBS - Bill Moyers Journal
Moyers on the Costs of War
Bill Moyers talks about Binghamton, NY's Mayor Matt Ryan
and his effort to make manifest the costs of war
to his town and its citizens.
16 April 2010 - PBS - Bill Moyers Journal
Simon Johnson and James Kwak:
Bill Moyers talks with authors Simon Johnson and James Kwak,
two of the nation's most respected economic experts and authors of
the new book 13 BANKERS: THE WALL STREET TAKEOVER
AND THE NEXT FINANCIAL MELTDOWN.
26 April 2010 - OnLineJournal - Jerry Mazza
The Big Six banks are shorting the American Dream
09 March 2010 - MSNBC - TODAY books
AMERICAN CONSPIRACIES
Jesse Ventura claims gov't involved in 9/11
16 May 2010 - 911bogger - TruthActionOttawa
Richard Gage, AIA to Appear on
Chinese Television News Program
20 May 2010 - 911bogger - Naomi Breeze
9/11 Truth Heroine Confronts 9/11 Official
Spokesman Ex-Chief Fire-fighter Dan Daly
14 May 2010 - 911bogger - NewsFocus
George W. Bush's Inaction On 9/11
12 May 2010 - Dissident Voice - Stephen Lendman
Using Alleged Terrorism to Escalate War
and Homeland Repression
23 April 2010 - ProPublica - 911blogger
Colleague Says Anthrax Numbers Add Up to Unsolved Case
A microbiologist who supervised the work of accused anthrax killer
Bruce E. Ivins explained to a National Academy of Sciences panel
Thursday why the arithmetic of growing anthrax didn't add up
to Ivins' mailing deadly spores in fall 2001.
01 May 2010 - Boiling Frogs (Podcast) - Sibel Edmonds
Francis Boyle discusses the October 2001 anthrax attack
An Open Letter to the People of Iraq
Two soldiers from Bravo Company 2-16,
the company depicted in the video, have
written an open letter of apology to the Iraqis
who were injured or lost loved ones during
the attack that, these former soldiers say,
is a regular occurrence in this war.
May 14-16, 2010 * CONFERENCE * Santa Cruz, CA
Understanding Deep Politics
Behind World Events and Creating Alternative Solutions
May, 2010 * Connection Magazine * Byron Belitsos
Face the Shadow First:
Seeking the Hidden Dimensions of American and Global Politics
09 May 2010 - Spingola.com - Deanna Spingola
False Flag Operations
The Crisis Route to the New World Order
1,197 Architects and Engineers
Call for New 9/11 Investigation
Major Milestone Press Conference
28 April 2010 - 911blogger - Erik Lawyer - Richard Gage, AIA
9/11 Myths Exposed: Firefighters, Architects and Engineers
Re-investigate the Destruction of the Three WTC Skyscrapers
May 8th event was LIVE video streamed at:
AE911Truth.org
10 May 2010 - DemocracyNow! - War and Peace Report
Obama Administration Approves
27 New Offshore Drilling Permits
The Center for Biological Diversity reports the Obama
administration is continuing to exempt new offshore drilling
operations from environmental review despite the Gulf disaster.
Since the April 20th explosion at the BP rig, the Department of
Interiors Minerals Management Service has approved twenty-
seven new offshore drilling permits. All but one of the projects
were granted the same environmental review exemption
used to approve the BP drilling site..
05 May 2010
BP Oil Spill Highlights Poor Safety Record,
the Worst of Any Oil Company in America
03 May 2010
BP Oil Spill Worsens With No Solution in Sight,
210,000 Gallons a Day Spew into Gulf of Mexico
Flyby News archived resource guide:
Energy Emissions' Impact On Our Environment
Is the War in Afghanistan Justified by 9/11?
David Ray Griffin's Spring 2010 Speaking Tour Itinerary
For more information about David Ray Griffin, visit:
DavidRayGriffin.com
04 May 2010 - 911blogger - Article + Comments
Canadian University staff 'denounce 9/11 Truthers speech'
05 May 2010 - 911blogger - Article + Comments
Toronto Star letters to the editor re: Griffin and Gage
9/11 Myths Exposed: Firefighters, Architects and Engineers
Re-investigate the Destruction of the Three WTC Skyscrapers
May 8th event to be LIVE video streamed at:
AE911Truth.org
05 May 2010 - OnLine Journal - Jerry Mazza
'Car Bomb' comes to Broadway
30 April 2010 - 911blogger - Article + Comments
SEC finds no sign 9/11 conspirators bet on attacks
05 May 2010 - The Telegraph (UK) - CommonDreams
Greek Crisis: Clashes Turn Deadly
as Thousands Protest Against Cuts
May 14-16, 2010 * CONFERENCE * Santa Cruz, CA
Understanding Deep Politics
Behind World Events and Creating Alternative Solutions
May, 2010 * Connection Magazine * Byron Belitsos
Face the Shadow First:
Seeking the Hidden Dimensions of American and Global Politics
9/11 DVD Project
Tom Tvedten has created this site for anyone to order 9/11
DVDs; go to to this site, make a selection, and by following
the instructions order which ones you want. Tom is asking for
a small donation to be made after the person receives them in
the mail, but will send them for free if you can't afford it.
24 April 2010 - Veterans Today - Gordon Duff
Stage Being Set For "Dirty Bomb" False Flag
29 April 2010 - OnLineJournal - Wayne Madsen
The super-classified network that served
as command and control for the 9/11
false flag attack on America
16 April 2010 - NYTimes.com -
S.E.C. Accuses Goldman of Fraud in Housing Deal
16 April 2010 - Democracy Now! -
Jailed Whistleblower: US Lawmakers Held Offshore UBS Accounts
05 February 2010 - Barrie Zwicker - 911blogger
The Peace Movement versus the 9/11Truth movement
Comment - Jonathan Mark - 911blogger
challenging the peace movement by uniting ourselves
25 December 2009 - VIDEO - 911blogger
Dr. Graeme MacQueen on "9/11 Truth:
the Challenge to the Peace Movement"
Spring, 2010 - VIDEO - ae911truth
Ed Asner for 9/11 Truth
Ed Asner is supporting Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth
and the voice of AE911Truth's radio campaign. AE911truth.org
is pleased to announce that Asner's 30 second spot has aired
nationwide on Coast to Coast AM with George Noory as well
as on Progressive Talk radio station KTLK in Los Angeles
the week of 3/15. But this is just the beginning. With
your help, we can take this thing national. And with
a spokesman like Asner, people will listen.
Clear Channel has allowed the spots to air
without even blinking. To take the Asner
campaign to the next step, please
contribute! ae911truth.org
Read their latest newsletter!
20 April 2010 - 911blogger - Luke Rudkowski
New Video: WeAreChange
Talks to Stephen Colbert
25 February 2010 - 911blogger - Tim King
Mainstream Media Questions Inaccuracies in 9/11 Story
15 February 2010 - 911blogger - Elizabeth Woodworth
The Media Response to the Growing Influence
of the 9/11 Truth Movement. Part II: A Survey
of Attitude Change in 2009-2010
10 December 2009 - 911blogger
9/11 on TruTV Wed 12/9
Watch it online at above link!
Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura
12 December 2009
RAW STORY covers Venturas 9/11 program
27 November 2009 - Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Fifth Estate The Unofficial Story
12 December 2009 - Elizabeth Woodworth
The Media Response to the Growing
Influence of the 9 /11 Truth Movement
13 January 2010 - Village Voice - Nat Hentoff
George W. Obama - After his first
year, Obama shows his true face
25 March 2010 - Truthout - John Pilger
Have a Nice World War, Folks
22 March 2010 - Rock Creek Free Press - 911blogger
9/11 Truth Goes Primetime
By Sheila Casey
09 March 2010 - ABC News - 911blogger
Inside a 9/11 'Truther' Convention
06 March 2010 - Video - 911blogger
ABC News Comes to Valley Forge
Uncut interview with Dylan Avery and Kory Rowe
March 6-7, 2010 * CONFERENCE * Prussia, PA
"Treason in America: 911, the Wars
and Our Broken U.S. Constitution"
08 March 2010 - Veterans Today - Gordon Duff
9/11 and Current Attempts to
Cover Up an American Holocaust
06 March 2010
Is America Subject To A Domestic Reign Of Terror?
Is America The Victim Of A War From Within?
12 December 2009
"Carlyle, Kissinger, SAIC and Halliburton:
A 9/11 Convergence" - By Kevin Ryan
Understanding and destroying terrorism might simply be
a matter of understanding and destroying organizations
that continue to profit from 9/11.
20 December 2009 - 911blogger - Jon Gold
The "Post-9/11 World" Is
A Detriment To Humanity
06 January 2010 - Democracy Now!
US-Led Forces Accused of Executing Schoolchildren
06 January 2010 - New America Media
Cancer The Deadly Legacy of the Invasion of Iraq
06 January 2010 - 911blogger - Raw Story
Using 9/11, And Inflating Terrorism
And "Al-Qaeda" To Incite Fear
25 March 2010 - Taki Magazine - Information Clearinghouse
Covering up American War Crimes,
From Baghdad to New York
The US government does not want it known
that it was using chemicals on human beings
in a country whose leader it overthrew ostensibly
because he retained the capacity to do the same thing.
17 March 2010 - Raw Story - 911blogger
Revealed: Ashcroft, Tenet, Rumsfeld
warned 9/11 Commission about
'line' it 'should not cross'
21 March 2010 - Washington Post - 911blogger
FBI false flag terror
plot exposed in court
16 March 2010 - William Veale, Esq. - 911blogger
April Gallop's case on 9/11-Pentagon thrown out!
Judge Chin has just dismissed the Gallop case.
He said that the allegations are frivolous and
based on fantasy and delusion.
Former Minnesota governor and one-time professional wrestler
Jesse Ventura has run afoul of the Huffington Post's no-
conspiracy-theory policy, and he's not happy about it.
12 March 2010 - Raw Story - Video (RT) - 911blogger
Jesse Ventura:
'You're not allowed to ask' about 9/11
24 March 2010 - CounterPunch - 911blogger
Paul Craig Roberts - Good-Bye.
Truth Has Fallen and Taken
Liberty With It
Truth is an unwelcome entity. It is disturbing.
It is off limits. Those who speak it run the risk of being
branded "anti-American," "anti-semite" or "conspiracy theorist."
25 February 2010 - OpedNews - 911blogger
The Road to Armageddon
By Paul Craig Roberts
22 February 2010 - Washington Times - Jennifer Harper
EXPLOSIVE NEWS
3 Misprision of Treason proposals to consider
07 April 2010 - TimesOnline (UK) - CommonDreams
Obama Targets US Citizen for 'Kill or Capture'
13 April 2010 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
Afghans Protest Deadly US Attack on Passenger Bus
Hundreds of Afghan protesters took to the streets of Kandahar
Monday hours after at least five civilians were killed in a US attack.
According to witnesses, US forces opened fire on a passenger bus
just as the bus began pulling over to the side of the road to
allow another military convoy to pass. Another eighteen
civilians were wounded. Protesters burned tires and
blocked a main road leading out of Kandahar. One
protester said the shootings were unprovoked.
Protester:
"The bus carrying civilians was 100 meters away from
the convoy of Americans. Despite that, they opened fire
on the bus. Sixty passengers were traveling on the bus,
six people martyred and eighteen others wounded."
The Kandahar shooting comes as the US is preparing
to launch a major offensive there later this year.
09 April 2010 - PBS - Bill Moyers Journal
Andrew Bacevich on Afghanistan
"It is the longest war in American history.
And it is a war for which there is no end in sight..
..it is a war that is utterly devoid of strategic purpose.
Quite frankly, the notion that we can prevent another 9/11
by invading and occupying and transforming countries is absurd."
07 April 2010 - Inter Press Service - CommonDreams
Afghan Official Says US Raiders Hid Killings
- 911blogger -
9/11 Crime - Misprision - Citizens Action
Click following for most recent PDF file copy
A Call for Truth Over Treason
Stop War by exposing the 9/11 Cover-up
30 March 2010 - Veterans Today - Gordon Duff
Caught In The Act,
Torture, Murder And Rape
Authorized By Bush Administration
24 March 2010 - CounterPunch -
Paul Craig Roberts - Good-Bye.
Truth Has Fallen and Taken
Liberty With It
Truth is an unwelcome entity. It is disturbing.
It is off limits. Those who speak it run the risk of being
branded "anti-American," "anti-semite" or "conspiracy theorist."
28 March 2010 - VIDEO - 911blogger
9-11 Truth makes HUGE appearance
at Los Angeles Anti-War March
07 April 2010 - WTC-7 - 911blogger
The Final Day - 1,000 Phone Calls!
Today NYC CAN will head into their seventh meeting
with a member of the New York City Council to inquire
about World Trade Center building-7's total collapse.
11 March 2010 - Veterans Today - Gordon Duff
CryBaby "SIR" Bernie Kerik,
9/11
& Americans Controlled Press
13 March 2010 - Progressive Radio - 911blogger
Three Day in-depth report on 9/11 truth
with Gary Null on Progressive Radio
Network with record amount of listeners
20 March 2010 - Daily Mail - Information Clearinghouse
How Criminals Profit From War
Blair's Fight to Keep his Oil Cash Secret
12 March 2010 - NYCCAN - Bob McIlvaine
Join the Building What?! campaign!
12 March 2010 - OnLine Journal - Jerry Mazza
Shading corruption for the appearance of truth
A Review of Shadow Masters By Daniel Estulin
07 February 2010
The Bush family's Project Hammer
By Deanna Spingola
14 February 2010 - 911blogger
10 NH Towns to VOTE for New 9/11 Investigation
13 March 2010 - Deanna Spingola
Barack Obama, Former CIA Agent
06 October 2009
Obama Worked for the CIA
By Wayne Madsen
04 December 2009 - 911blogger
Obama Lied: Taliban Did Not
Refuse to Hand Over Bin Laden
29 November 2009
Senate Report: "Tora Bora Revisited:
How We Failed To Get Bin Laden
And Why It Matters Today"
Pilots for 9/11 Truth
9/11: Pentagon Aircraft Hijack Impossible:
FLIGHT DECK DOOR CLOSED FOR ENTIRE FLIGHT
08 March 2010 - Washington Post - 911blogger
A leading Japanese politician espouses a 9/11 fantasy
13 March 2010 - Washington Post - 911blogger
Yukihisa Fujita's Letter to the Editor
10 March 2010 - VIDEO - 911blogger
David Ray Griffin says hijackers were alive after 9/11/2001
10 March 2010 - Mark Crispin Miller - 911blogger
David Ray Griffin: HuffPost's absurd stand on "conspiracy theories"
10 March 2010 - The Huffington Post - 911blogger
Coleen Rowley: ABC News Reporter Does a Hatchet Job
14 March 2010 - Dead Dean films - 911blogger
Cynthia Mckinney and Dr Nafeez Ahmed
discuss 9/11 in UK Parliament
04 March 2010 - Russia Today - 911blogger
9/11 truthers find home in New Hampshire
02 March 2010 - 911blogger
Freedom Of Information Act - Request Refused:
WTC-7 - Barry Jennings and Michael Hess
National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST)
01 March 2010 - Veterans Today - Gordon Duff
Pakistan's Imran Khan;
Looking for America in the Strangest Places
March, 2010 - Hustler Magazine - Brad Friedman
Sibel Edmonds: The Traitors Among US
26 February 2010 - OnLine Journal - Jerry Mazza
Patsy Zazi confesses to NYC subway bomb plot
25 February 2010 - Veterans For Peace - 911blogger
Veterans For Peace May Be First Anti-War
Group to Demand a New 9/11 Investigation
23 February 2010 - Puppet Government - Don Paul
Good Riddance to the Big Lie:
Kevin Ryan's 'Demolition Access'
Lights the Shadows
29 December 2009 - 911blogger - Dr. Steven Jones
Additions to the Journal of 9/11 Studies,
and thoughts for this coming new year
"Active Thermitic Materials by Prof. Niels Harrit et al.
Translated into Spanish and German, published in the
Journal of 9/11 Studies
February, 2010 - Journal of 9/11 Studies - David Chandler
Destruction of the World Trade Center
North Tower and Fundamental Physics
26 February 2010 - 911blogger - Stephen E. Jones
Profound Implications of Observed Downward Acceleration
of the North Tower -- Article by David Chandler Published
06 February 2010 - Brad Friedman - Sibel Edmonds
'Sibel Edmonds: The Traitors Among Us'
in March Issue of Hustler Magazine
29 January 2010 - 911blogger - Robin Hordon
Affidavit Supporting April Gallop's Lawsuit
Against Cheney, Rumsfeld and Meyers...
05 February 2010 - Barrie Zwicker - 911blogger
The Peace Movement versus the 9/11Truth movement
Comment - Jonathan Mark - 911blogger
challenging the peace movement by uniting ourselves
15 February 2010 - Veterans Today - Gordon Duff
Our War On Terrors Empty Net
Nearly A Decade Later And We Have Nothing
Merton - The Value of Essential Works
Do not depend on the hope of results.
When you are doing the sort of work
you have taken on, essentially an
apostolic work, you may have to face
the fact that your work will be apparently
worthless and even achieve no result at all,
if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect.
As you get used to this idea, you start more and more
to concentrate not on the results but on the value,
the rightness, the truth of the work itself.
- Thomas Merton
February 21, 1966
Scanning the Abdulmutallab story for more lies
By Jerry Mazza
"Lets give Umar a good dose of radiation
with the knowledge that first reveals the 80 grams
of PETN explosive he carried in his crotch lacked
a blasting cap to blow him and the plane away. Instead,
lighting with an injection of liquid did nothing but set him
on fire. As if no one in the military or intelligence knew that."
Citizens For Legitimate Government
Northwest Bomb Plot 'Oddities'
05 January 2010 - Veterans Today - Webster Tarpley
White House Probes Mole Network
Behind Flt 595 Terror - Report
04 January 2010 - World Socialist - Patrick Martin
Questions mount over attempt to bomb Detroit-bound jetliner
04 January 2010 - 911blogger - Tom Burghardt
The Strange Case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab
28 December 2009 - Veterans Today - Gordon Duff
Caught Lying: The Detroit Terror Plot
29 December 2009 - Veterans Today - Gordon Duff
Evidence Mounts For US Complicity In Terrorism
31 December 2009 - Veterans Today - Gordon Duff
Michigan Lawyer Stands Against Terrorist Cover-up
08 January 2010 - 911truth.org
Statement of September 11th Advocates
In Response to 12/25 Terror Attempt
02 December 2009 - The Populist
Scott Fenstermaker, the 9/11 Lawyer, Speaks Out
25 December 2009 - VIDEO - 911blogger
Death Of 9/11 Firefighter Hero Jim Ryan
Overshadowed By "Flashier" Flight 253 Terrorism Story
15 February 2010 - 911blogger
Spanish Inquiry of Bush-Era War Crimes Begins
OnlineJournal - 12 February 2010 - Jerry Mazza
The battle of 9/11s ailing first responders
911blogger - 11 February 2010 - Carol Brouillet
Surviving 9/11- Janette MacKinlay
- Update -
Years later, 9/11 dust,
fumes cause headaches: study
AFP - 10 February 2010 - 911blogger
1,049 Architects and Engineers
Call for New 9/11 Investigation
Friday, February 19, 2010
Major Milestone Press Conference
This GLOBAL MEDIA EVENT will be
Simultaneously Hosted in over 23 Cities
19 February 2010 - 911blogger
FBI formally closes protracted anthrax case
25 January 2010 * Wall Street Journal * 911blogger
The Anthrax Attacks Remain Unsolved
The FBI disproved its main theory
about how the spores were weaponized.
20 February 2010 - Of Goats and Men - 911blogger
Joe Stacks 9/11, NSA, and
Homeland Security Related
Defense Contractor Clients
The client list from the software programmer
believed to have crashed his plane into the Echelon
building in Austin Texas reads like a guidebook to defense
contractors with connections to 9/11, NSA and Homeland Security.
21 January 2010 - Veterans Today - Gordon Duff
9/11: NATIONAL TRAGEDY,
CIRCUS OR BLATANT TREASON?
22 January 2010
Call For Arrest Of 5 Supreme Court Justices For Treason
25 January 2010 - TruthDig - Chris Hedges
Democracy in America Is a Useful Fiction
Wars sending U.S. into ruin
05 February 2010 - Eric Margolis - Omi Agency
If Obama really were serious about restoring Americas economic health,
he would demand military spending be slashed, quickly end the Iraq
and Afghan wars and break up the nations giant Frankenbanks.
18 January 2010 - Cynthia McKinney
Haiti 2010: An Unwelcome Katrina Redux
Haiti Devastated by Massive Earthquake
Recommended Resource:
Democracy Now!
16 January 2010 - 911blogger - Glenn Greenwald
"Obama Confidant's Spine-Chilling Proposal"
{cognitive infiltration of 9/11 conspiracy groups}
08 January 2010 - 911blogger
Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer
interviewed
on the Alex Jones Show
Shaffer made a protected disclosure to the 9/11
Commission staff director, Philip D. Zelikow, while
undercover in Afghanistan in October 2003 regarding
the existence of the ABLE DANGER program that had
identified alleged 9/11 lead hijacker Mohammed Atta
and three other al-Qaeda operatives operating
in the United States prior to 9/11.
08 January 2010 - Focus Money
"We do not believe you!"
German Business Journal Questions 9/11
21 January 2010 - The Star/Asia News Network
Mahathir: 9/11 was staged
30 January 2010 - Veterans Today - Gordon Duff
Senate Burglary:
CIA Domestic Black-Op Team Arrested
All 4 Involved In Senate Homeland Security Breakin CIA N-O-C Agents
CIA Program May Have Trained Domestic Death Squads
09 February 2010 - Veterans Today - Gordon Duff
The 500,000 Hidden American Casualties
of the Failed War On Terror
08 February 2010 - Veterans Today - Gordon Duff
Case Closed,
Bin Laden's True Translation On 9/11 Attack
US terror suspects in Pakistan allege FBI torture
By NABIL YOUSAF, Associated Press Writer Tue Feb 2, 6:47 am ET
"Since our arrest, the U.S. FBI and Pakistani police
have tortured us," read the message. "They are trying
to set us up. We are innocent. They are trying to keep us
away from public, media and families and lawyers. Help us."
20 December 2009 - 911blogger
The 90-Minute Stand Down on 9/11:
Why Was the Secret Service's Early
Request for Fighter Jets Ignored?
The Big Lie
Why Propaganda Trumps Truth
By Paul Craig Roberts
October 2009 - The New Internationalist
OUR TERRORISTS by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
04 November 2009 - The Guardian, UK
Italian court finds CIA agents guilty
of kidnapping terrorism suspect
First prosecution for US abduction of suspects
to torture states - "Extraordinary Rendition"
Wall Street Journal's Opinion piece soft pedals
criminal behavior in face of International Law.
9yr-old boy tortured,
says former Guantanamo detainee
Families of 9/11 Victims Divided Over Detainee Trial Plan
09 December 2009 - 911blogger
Richard Gage, AIA, 9/11 Truth
Making A Big Difference In Japan
Japan Questions 9/11
and the Global War on Terror
in Top 25 Censored Stories for 2009
Richard Gage, AIA, on New
Zealand National Television
November, 2009
9/11 Out of the Dark in New Zealand
19 November 2009 - Press Release
NASA Director: 9/11 'Controlled Demolition'
NY Times bestselling author's 9/11 Truth Novel
THE SHELL GAME
The Shell Game review by Jehan Abdur-Raheem
Also see following by Jonathan Mark and Kevin Barrett:
"Retaking the moment, The Shell Game potential"
"Why Steve Alten is Winning the Shell Game Debate"
Loose Change 9/11 - An American Coup
Film documentary by Dylan Avery, narrated by Daniel Sunjata
For Independent Investigations
NYC CAN
NYC Coalition for Accountability Now
Once Again, The Will of the Voters Is Denied
VIDEO:
New 9/11 Inquiry Squashed:
Truth Quest Stopped By City Hall
An open letter to Justice Edward Lehner
on denying 9/11 justice
16 October 2009
The Turning Point
27 October 2009 - New York Times
Brother of Afghan Leader Is Said to Be on C.I.A. Payroll
September 13, 2009 - YouTube:
Manny Badillo schools France 24 News
Historic 9/11 French TV Debate on October 28, 2009
Jean-Marie Bigard, Laurent, Kassovitz and Niels Harrit
20 October 2009 - Jerry Mazza - InfoWars
Ex-CIA Chief James Woolsey handed
down gag-order to 9/11 Firefighters
21 September 2009
FBI False-Flag Goes Bust in NYC?
12 October 2009
Three Heroes Of 9/11 Die
Of Cancer In Five Days
30 August 2009
Independent Investigation Into
Pentagon Attack
Yields Alarming Information
The American Conservative:
Who's Afraid Of Sibel Edmonds?
10 September 2009
City of New York Concedes 9/11 Coalition
Has 30,000 Valid Signatures To Put Referendum
For 9/11 Investigation on November Ballot
March For Answers
For A New 9/11 Investigation
From Battery Park to City Hall
via Ground Zero, The City Clerk
September 27, 2009 - 2:00 PM
Speakers Include:
Bob McIlvaine - 9/11 Family Member
Manny Badillo - 9/11 Family Member
Daniel Sunjata - Star of "Rescue Me"
Download Flier- Color, or Black and White
NYC CAN - VIDEO - 21 September 2009:
Van Jones Petitions For Peace
September 23, 2009 - By Jerry Mazza:
The March for Answers
Rock Creek Free Press
July, 2009
Researchers Release 9/11 Pentagon Attack Report
04 September 2009
Court Says 9/11 Witnesses Can Sue Ashcroft
06 September 2009
Presidential adviser Van Jones resigning after
coming under fire for signing 9/11 Petition.
05 September 2009
9/11 FEMA Videographer Blows the Whistle?
Democracy Now! ~ 27 August 2009
As Obama Golfs with UBS CEO
Days After Firm Avoids Criminal
Prosecution, UBS Whistleblower
Given 40-Month Jail Term
03 June 2009
New York Senator Supports New 9/11 Investigation
Democracy Now! - 12 August 2009
Jeff Sharlet on "The Family:
The Secret Fundamentalism at
the Heart of American Power"
24 July 2009
9-11 Blueprint for Truth to Debut in Colorado
Public Broadcasting Station, August 15, 2009
31 July 2009
9/11s smoking gun still smoking
By Jerry Mazza - Video -
'9/11 was an inside job'
US poet JerryMazza - RussiaToday - August 02, 2009
9/11 Truth Movement Rejects Propaganda of Hypocrisy
Demolition access to the WTC towers
By Kevin R. Ryan
07 July 2009
How the FBI and 9/11 Commission Suppressed Key
Evidence about Hani Hanjour, alleged hijack pilot
24 June 2009
New Evidence Links Saudi Royal Family To Al Qaeda
And Extremists, But May Never Be Used In 9/11 Suit
21 May 2009
NYC CAN Update: Now 40,000 signatures
Click here to download NYC CAN support letter-pdf
Vote for Answers - VIDEO - Heartfelt 50 seconds
18 May 2009
Vice President Biden confronted with conclusive
scientific proof of criminal demolitions on 9/11/01
AE911Truth Companion Edition
10-Minute WTC 7 Video Online
Richard Gage on KMPH Fox 26 in Fresno
Russia Today covers Richard Gage efforts in DC
9/11 truth still in a cloud of smoke? 16 July, 2009
US Television Premiere: 9/11 Press for Truth
Colorado Public Television KBDI-Channel 12
Review of new book by David Ray Griffin,
Osama Bin Laden: Dead or Alive
Active and retired top military brass met
to discuss what really happened on 9/11
The dubious Zelikow shortcuts
"Philip Zelikow, author of the 9/11 Commission report,
short-cutted his research, using information garnered by
the CIA and Pentagon from purportedly "Al Qaeda"
detainees through the use of torture." -Jerry Mazza
Truth & Deception:
An Interview with Kevin Ryan on 9/11
Intellectual Dishonesty
In The Age Of Universal Deceit...
Daniel Sunjata statement on September 11
19 April 2009
Sibel Edmonds interviewed by Electric Politics
9/11 Opinion Poll Hacked on ScrippsNews
See What They Don't Want You to Know
Suspicious Pre-9/11 WTC Steel Fireproofing
Planned 2000 Seattle Kingdome Demolition
19 April 2009
CIA Used Waterboarding
266 Times on 2 Suspects
Self-Confessed 9/11 "Mastermind"
Confessed to Crimes He Didn't Commit
The September Eleventh Advocates Write
An Open Letter To Senator Patrick Leahy
Help Force Congress To Observe
the Law on National Emergencies!
Former Accused Iraqi Agent
Reveals Facts about 9/11 Warning
CBS TV-2008 - WTC-7 Collapse
AP Story - Study: 9/11 lung
problems persist years later
Study shows Ground Zero link to lung ailments
George Galloway Barred Entry to Canada
Cynthia McKinney talks about voyage to Palestine,
Israeli aggression in Gaza, and boat getting rammed!
Secret Government 9/11 Valley Advocate
Bush Conspiracy & 9/11 Investigative Reports - FN Archives
September 18, 2009 - Item 1
September 11 Breakthrough for Treason
- - NYC CAN's Historic MARCH FOR ANSWERS
- - Senior Government Officials Question 9/11
- - The Mysterious Collapse of WTC Seven
- - Dr. Steve Jones - DVD - Nanothermite - AE911truth Newsletter
- - 9/11: Blueprint for Truth World Premiere TV Broadcast
- - Sibel Edmonds Deposition re: 9/11 & Nuclear Trafficking
- - Why Propaganda Trumps Truth
- - Charlie Sheen 'Twenty Minutes' with President Barack Obama
- - Barack Obama Abandons Missile Defense Shield in Europe
- - U.S. Death Squads Roam The Globe
- - Ex-CIA Chiefs Seek Halt to Interrogations Probe
- - "Anthrax Wars" with investigative journalist, author and filmmaker
- - Film Critic Reviews Loose Change 9/11: An American Coup
- - Evidence of Treason...Basis for 9/11 Grand Jury Investigation
August 20, 2009 - Item 2
Loose Change 9/11: An American Coup
- - Demolition Access To The WTC Towers: Part Two - Security
- - Proof of higher cancer rate among World Trade Center responders
- - The "9/11 Truth Proclamation" A Citizens Campaign
- - Major media push for 9/11 Truth from author Steve Alten
- - We Demand Transparency Conference - NYC September 11-13, 2009
July 27, 2009 - Item 1
NYC CAN forced to take Court Action
July 21, 2009 - Item 1
9/11 Cover-up by three U.S. Presidents - NYC CAN
- - Coalition calling for a new official probe of 9/11
- - Treason reported to Judge and Nano-thermite Paper on record
- - Rob Balsamo, Pilots for 9/11 Truth and No Lies Radio
- - The September Eleventh Advocates Letters
- - 9/11 Mass Murder By Three Criminal U.S. Presidents
July 15, 2009 - Item 1
Space for Peace and September 11
- - A flyby perspective
June 28, 2009 - Item 1
NYC 9/11 Referendum Update Pentagon 9/11 Eyewitnesses
- - New Report on Filing Referendum NYC 9/11 Vote Petition
- - Deconstructing the 9/11 Pentagon Attack
- - Eyewitnesses Contradict Pentagon 9/11 Story
June 16, 2009 - Item 1
Referendum Vote - Truth and Breakthroughs
- - NYC CAN filing Petition 9/11 Investigation Vote!
- - 9/11 Truth Comes Home
- - Schumer lends qualified support to new 9-11 inquiry
- - Is 9/11 Truth Growing?
- - Bilderberger treason goes unpunished!
- - Top Secret Bilderberg Meeting - 9-11 Media Breakthroughs
- - New DVD - Steven Jones announces NanoThermite
June 1, 2009 - Item 1
Bush Hidden History Coming Out - Family Secrets
- - LA Times covers (Bush) Family of Secrets paranoid style
- - Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty - Russ Baker audio
- - Paranoid Shift Confronting Reality
- - Obama administration sides with Saudis in 9/11 suit
- - Vote for Answers - VIDEO - Heartfelt 50 seconds
- - The Hidden History of 9-11
- - Fake Terror - The Road to War and Dictatorship
May 22, 2009 -
A communiqu to the 9/11 truth movement
May 13, 2009 -
Obama--torture - NYC CAN video
May 5, 2009 - Item 2
Universal Deceit September 11 NYC CAN
- - Intellectual Dishonesty In The Age Of Universal Deceit
- - NYC CAN Update: Now 35,000+ signatures
- - Statements from the NYC CAN Executive Council
April 21, 2009 - Item 1
NYC CAN William Pepper Truth and Justice
April 7, 2009 - Item 1
Military-grade Thermite Found In WTC DUST DRG - Rescue Me
- - Scientists find active 'super-thermite' in WTC dust
- - Smoking Gun Evidence of 9/11 Explosives in WTC Dust
- - Danish scientist: nano explosive material found in WTC dust
- - Rescue Me heats up 9/11 conspiracy theories
- - David Ray Griffin - 9/11: Time for a Second Look
March 15, 2009 - Item 1
Deadly Deceitful US Government Bush-Cheney-9-11
- - Bush 'executive assassination ring' reported directly to Cheney office
- - David Ray Griffin - 9/11: Time for a Second Look
- - September 11, 2009 - The Real Transparency Conference
February 25, 2009 - Items 1 - 2
September 11 Hero Vindicated - Seismic - Transparency - MD
- - William Rodriguez Vindicated
- - Seismic Recordings Confirm Rodriquez Testimony
- - September 11, 2009 - The Real Transparency Conference
- - Medical Professionals for 9/11 Truth
- - Hugo Chavez of Venezuela Blames Bush for 911
- - I was victim of medieval torture, says freed Guantanamo detainee
- - 9/11: Truth or Consequences
- - Catastrophic Banker's Ramp to Continue Under Obama
- - Parker Palmer Interview On Bill Moyers Journal
Beverly Eckert among Flight 3407 victims
9/11
"MY SILENCE CANNOT BE BOUGHT"
18 February 2009
"Advocate for Peace and 9/11 Victims"
February 6, 2009 - Item 1
War for Terror September 11 Legacy Donn De Grand Pre
- - The War on Terror is a Hoax
- - The True September 11 Legacy of George W. Bush
- - DONN DE GRAND PRE, REQUIESCAT IN PACE!
January 1, 2009 - Item 2
Nanothermites 101 Kevin Ryan PSYOPS Did Bush Kill Kennedy?
Brainwashing is a system of befogging the brain
so a person can be seduced into acceptance of what
otherwise would be abhorrent to him. He loses touch
with reality. Facts and fancy whirl round and change places
However, in order to prevent people from recognizing the
inherent evils in brainwashing, the Reds pretend that it is
only another name for something already very familiar
and of unquestioned respect, such as education or reform.
-- Edward Hunter,
Brainwashing (New York, Pyramid Books, 1956, pages 185-186).
December 24, 2008 - Item 1
Bush Insider Who Planned To Tell All Killed In Plane Crash
- - Career Army Specialist sues Rumsfeld, Cheney
- - Entrapment? Five convicted in Ft. Dix plot
- - CBS News: Did Contractor Expose Troops To Toxin?
- - Brainwashing and UNESCO Global Education System
- - Semantic Trickery Will Continue Occupation of Iraq
- - Scott McClellan: "Pres. Bush Outed CIA Agent Valerie Plame"
- - The Bush Family of Secrets -- The Bush Dynasty
- - Charlie Rose interview with Sean Penn
- - Design of WTC-7 - engineer malfunction?
December 1, 2008 - Items 1 and 3
CIA 9/11 Mossad Taliban Opium Mumbai a western trade-off
- - New York Times misleads on Taliban role in opium trade
- - CIA, MOSSAD Hand Behind Sangh Parivars Extremists!
- - New Pearl Harbor Revisited: 9/11, the Cover-Up, and the Expos
- - Change.org censors 911 truth
- - Conspiracies and Confabulation: Tales from two Naomis
- - Financial Bailout Now Trillions
- - Citizens Campaign for 2009 Year of 9/11 Truth
September 11, 2008 - Item 1
Truth or Corruption
- - NYC 9/11 Ballot Initiative Campaign Announces Milestone!
- - 9-11 On Russian TV Friday
- - No consensus on who was behind Sept 11-global poll
- - The New Pearl Harbor Revisited: 9/11, the Cover-Up, and the Expos
- - McKinney in NYC: Open the files on 9/11 - iReport.com
- - Reflections on 9-11 by Cindy Sheehan
- - Firefighters for 9-11 Truth
- - New Documentary Takes a Look at the 9/11 Truth Movement
- - Valley 9/11 Truth 2008
September 2, 2008 - Item 1
NIST supports 9/11 cover-up
- - Debunking NIST's Conclusions About WTC 7
- - The Financial Times and the 'Self-Confessed Mastermind of 9/11'
- - FBI Sweeps Anthrax Under the Rug
- - Sarah Palin, grazing animals and the herd mentality
- - "The Reflecting Pool" receives award at Moondance Film Fest
- - September 08 Month of Truth campaigns and events
August 15, 2008 - Item 1
September 11 Cover-up, Related Wars & Campaigns
- - Court: Saudi Arabia not liable in Sept. 11 attacks
- - Pentagon official removed from 2nd Guantanamo trial
- - Putin Demands His $30 Billion Or He Broadens the War
- - "President Bush, Will You Please Shut Up?"
- - US military will stay in Georgia
- - The New York Times: Making Nuclear Extermination Respectable
- - The BBCs Demolition of 9/11 Truth
- - FilmClick: Red Pill nominated in best documentary category
- - Carrying Forward the NYC 9/11 Ballot Initiative
August 6, 2008 - Items 1-2
New Publication 9/11 research Anthrax coverup Shell Game * Month of Truth Campaigns
- - Environmental anomalies at the World Trade Center
- - Book Claims White House Forged War Intel
- - 911 Plotters Bury the Evidence of Anthrax
- - Anthrax and ABC Roundup: Pressure is on ABC to Come Clean
- - The Purported 'Anthrax Killer', Was a Registered Democrat
- - US Government RATS Did The Anthrax Attacks
- - News Updates from Citizens For Legitimate Government
- - The Shell Game False Flag Warning Thriller
- - Olbermann Covers Dick Cheney Iran False Flag Story
- - Why is the Military Experimenting On Our Troops?
- - Month of Truth 9/11 Campaign Update
- - Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth Challenge
- - Update on the NYC 9/11 Ballot Initiative - 24,000 sigs!
- - 911Truth.org to host Conference Call with Cynthia McKinney
July 29, 2008 - Item 2
The search for 9/11 truth is an awakening
- - More than a movement -- the search for 9/11 truth is an awakening
- - Mohamed Atta in Oklahoma City September 2001
- - Support First Responders Watch These Videos
- - Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth Challenge
July 8, 2008 - Item 1
Nano-Thermites * BBC hole * Gage * Reflecting Pool USA * Anthrax +
- - The Top Ten Connections Between NIST and Nano-Thermites
- - BBC keeps digging, the hole gets bigger
- - Richard Gage, AIA, debates Mark Roberts, NY TV: "HardFire"
- - The Reflecting Pool - NYC Theatrical Premiere July 11
- - NYC 9/11 Ballot Initiative 20,000 & Gravel Press Release
- - Who Planned the Anthrax Attacks?
- - The JFK Assassination and 9/11: Designated Suspects
- - Boston Activists Blast 4th of July Celebration with the Truth
June 29, 2008 - Item 1
Democracy Now & 9/11 - NYC Ballot Initiative +
- - Update on NYC 9/11 Ballot Initiative
- - Reflecting Pool on the Road
- - BBC 9/11 Conspiracy Files Producer's New Blog Posting
- - Heartson life threatened for researching 9/11 - Video
"We're trying to change the paradigm of human democracy,
of human governance, and thats what this [NYC 9/11 Ballot Initiative] is
all about, changing the paradigm of human governance right here in New
York City by asserting that you saw something wrong that took place,
and you want to address it through using the tool of the Initiative, the
legislative power of citizenry to go after that fundamental change."
-- Mike Gravel
Former US Senator
Democracy Now! June 17, 2008
June 19, 2008 - Item 1
The 911 Blood on Bush Deep State Violence NYC Commission
- - The Blood on Bush's hands
- - 9/11, Deep State Violence, and the Hope of Internet Politics
- - General Accuses WH of War Crimes
- - Deals With Iraq Are Set to Bring Oil Giants Back
- - Tim Russert, Dick Cheney, and 9/11 by David Ray Griffin
- - Independent 9/11 Investigation -- Mike Gravel -- Democracy Now!
June 12, 2008 - Item 1
Kucinich 911 Impeach - AZ truth CA & NYC 9/11 Invest..
- - Dennis K & The House Vote on Impeachment
- - Supreme Court: Guantanamo Detainees Have Rights in Court
- - Arizona State Senator Karen Johnson Honors 9/11 Truth
- - Hungry For Truth - Day 16
- - Petition for Canadian 9/11 Investigation Read Into Parliament
- - NYC 9/11 Ballot Initiative Why So Important?
- - William Pepper Keynote - opening night of COPA RFK conference
- - The Report of the Citizens Commission on 9/11
- - Free Bees - 9/11's a Lie (Stayin' Alive)
June 3, 2008 - Item 1
Ballot Initiative Griffin Able McClellan Mineta Detrick +
- - DRG Statement of Support for the NYC 9/11 Ballot Initiative
- - Able Danger, the movie, June 6 Brooklyn, NYC
- - McClellan provides a glimpse into Bush regime's machinations
- - Mineta Recalls Cheney Activity In White House Bunker On 9/11
- - Fort Detrick Scientists Think Killer Anthrax Came from their Facility
- - Lawyers want 9/11 trial dismissed
- - Hunger strike for 9/11 truth
- - The New England 9/11 Symposium: Recap (Updated 5/26)
I wanted to express my strong support for the NYC 9/11 Ballot Initiative.
There has never been a better time to get such an initiative on the ballot,
because the 9/11 Truth Movement's case against the official account of 9/11
..All that is necessary is enough people to commit themselves to work enough
hours to gather those signatures. If you help get this initiative on the ballot,
your name will surely be included in the universe's list of heroes.
-- David Ray Griffin
May 15, 2008 - Item 1
ABLE DANGER US Premiere Brooklyn + nyc911initiative + updates
May 5, 2008 - Item 1
Fourteen Points Follow-up Bomb bomb Iran 2008?
- - 9/11 theorist not curtailing his research
- - "Fourteen Points" paper translated -- and in a major SLC newspaper
- - We deserve the full truth about 9/11 (Arizona State Senator)
- - Government Apologists Keep Moving the Goal Posts
- - High-Level Officials Warn of Fake Terror
- - Bomb Bomb Iran by Summer's End?
- - Extraordinary Times, Intentional Collapse, and Takedown of the U.S.A.
- - Rethinking 9/11: Why Truth and Reconciliation are Better Strategies Than Global War
- - Motorcycle Freedom Run supporting 9/11 Responders May 10
"More than six years after 9/11, we still have not
had a thorough investigation of the causes of that tragedy.
I am so impressed by the research of Dr. Steven Jones, Frank Legge,
Tony Szamboti, David Ray Griffin, and many others. My concern deepens
every time I read a new article. As the evidence of controlled demolition
mounts, my desire for a new investigation increases. I want to
add my voice to the voices of AE for 911 Truth."
-- Karen Johnson
State Senator, Arizona (R)
April 28, 2008 - Item 1
Battle for 9/11 Truth within The Movement Itself
- - Kick-off NYC Ballot Initiative Event April 30th
- - First Week Of Truth Both A Success And A Failure
- - The New England 9/11 Symposium
April 21, 2008 - Item 1
Truth breakthrough in Civil Engineering Journal on WTC Destruction
April 15, 2008 - Item 1
The Shell Game - Week of Truth Power to the People
- - U.N. Official's Call for Study of U.S. Govt. Role in 9/11 Attacks
April 3, 2008 - Item 3
A Lie Called 911, Timeline Update
- - Why A Federal Grand Jury Must Indict Bush And Cheney
- - Former Governor Jesse Ventura: WTC Collapse A Controlled Demolition
- - Cooperative Research's 9/11 Timeline and Others Significantly Updated
- - Lucky Larry wants $12.3 billion more for 9/11, by Jerry Mazza
- - Martin Luther King, Jr. ties into the 911 TRUTH Movement
April 1, 2008 - Item 2
Reflecting Pool US Economy Impact Silverstein & illness lawsuit
- - Report Of WTC Collapse Cover-Up Justifies Call For New Inquiry
- - The Impact of the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks on the US Economy
- - Developer (Silverstein) Sues to Win $12.3 Billion in 9/11 Attack
- - Court Clears Way for 9/11 Illness Lawsuit
- - Film Review: The Reflecting Pool
March 16, 2008 - Item 1
Shell Game potential & Griffin 9/11 Contradictions
- - Retaking the moment, The Shell Game potential
- - Why Steve Alten is Winning the Shell Game Debate
- - In Honor of Anthony and Mary Guarisco
- - Cost of Freedom tour/Day 5/Waco by Mike Palecek
- - Griffin Takes Powerful New Approach to 9/11 Truth
March 5, 2008 - Item 2
September 11 Advocates Uncover Lies and Unanswered Questions
- - Transcript For Lorie Van Aukens Speech - NYC Ballot Initiative
- - The Shell Game newsletter
- - The Mother of All Lies About 9/11
- - Moussaoui appeals, calling plea invalid
- - ZERO : Europe for an Independent Inquiry into 9/11
- - Architects, Engineers & Scientists Examine the Evidence of 9/11 in LA
- - Whitewash cover on What Happened on August 30 Nuclear Bomb Incident
- - Corpus Christi 911 Truther Arrested for Askin B.Clinton 9/11 Question
- - Oscar-winning Marion Cotillard's 9/11 conspiracy theory
February 18, 2008 - Item 1
NYC Ballot & More for an Independent 9/11 Investigation
- - 9/11 Truth Debate at European Parliament, February 26
- - Principal Electrical Engineer for WTC Calls for Investigation
- - Newly Released FBI Timeline Reveals New Information about 9/11
- - Lifting the veil to understand the 9/11 Commission
- - British Judges Slam Prosecutors for Framing Algerian on 9/11
- - The Shell Game -- Expose Another 9/11 before it happens
- - The Reflecting Pool - Reviews
- - Bill Moyers Debunnking 9/11 Debunking Comment
February 11, 2008 - Items 3 and 5
Sibel Edmonds * Project Shell Game 9/11 Commission Cover-Up
- - The Shell Game Opportunity for 9/11 Truthers to Reach the Masses
- - 9/11 inquiry head 'tried to shield George Bush'
- - Coleen Rowley on Philip Shenon's Book
- - The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation
February 6, 2008 - Item 1
Iran Syria Oil Currency US-Israel Threat to Attack
- - Iran Oil Bourse to deal blow to dollar
- - What did Israel bomb in Syria? Implicit threat to Iran
- - THE SHELL GAME newsletter from Steve Alten
- - THE REFLECTING POOL LA movie premiere review
- - The New York City 9/11 Ballot Initiative - Update
- - The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation
- - Why Were The Tapes Destroyed?
- - Willie Nelson: Twin Towers Were Imploded On 9/11
January 27, 2008 - Item 1
Pre-Emptive Nuclear Strike a Key Option, NATO Told
- - The American Medias Failure to Report on the Sibel Edmonds Case
- - Let Sibel Edmonds Speak
- - Found in Translation: FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds spills her secrets
- - Sibel Edmonds kill the messenger video clips
- - Has America grown numb to war?
- - Scott Ritter: Absolute Requirement to Know What Happened on 9-11
- - Its Time to Hold Democratic House Leaders in Contempt
- - Bourne Identity Meets 9/11 TRUTH ABLE DANGER
- - Can a novel help educate the masses?
- - 9/11 and Nationalist Faith by David Ray Griffin
- - Bruce Springstein on loss of our freedoms & great tune
Able Danger Movie Trailer - 911Blogger.com
Premiered in Rotterdam, 27 January 2008
AbleDangerTheMovie.com
- Part 1/6 Sibel Edmonds - "Kill The Messenger"
- Part 2/6 Sibel Edmonds - "Kill The Messenger"
- Part 3/6 Sibel Edmonds - "Kill The Messenger"
- Part 4/6 Sibel Edmonds - "Kill The Messenger"
- Part 5/6 Sibel Edmonds - "Kill The Messenger"
- Part 6/6 Sibel Edmonds - "Kill The Messenger"
January 21, 2007 - Item 1
NYC 9/11 Ballot Initiative Gets Boost by Dr. William Pepper
- - Martin Luther King, Jr. ties into the 911 TRUTH Movement
- - There Is No War on Terror
- - Oops Canada reverses torture stance and stands by hypocrisy
- - Cover-Up of Documents in Sibel Edmonds Nuke Secrets Case
January 10, 2007 - Item 1
Sibel Edmonds Whistle Getting Louder for (Nuclear) Security Concerns
- - 9-11 Cover-Up, Treason and The Bomb
- - The Bomb in the Shadows: Proliferation, Corruption
- - Failure to Cover Vital Issues Highlights Widespread US Media Corruption
- - Nukes, Spooks, and the Specter of 9/11
- - Nuclear Bombs: 9/11 Matters to Everyone You Know
January 3, 2007 - Item 1
Architectural Integrity 9/11 Investigation Religious Slander
- - AE911Truth Response to Mark Weitzman of the Simon Wiesenthal Center
- - NYC 9/11 Ballot Initiative
- - Dr. Steven E. Jones Announces New Discovery:
- - Journal of 9/11 Studies Articles & Site
- - More of 9/11s amazing history Towards a New World Order"
- - In Their Own Words: Untold Stories Of The 9/11 Families
- - The Shell Game --> Powerful new novel "MUST READ"!
- - Steve Jones Joins 9/11 Coalition ~ "The Shell Game"
- - Bhutto broke her agreement with the CIA
- - Bhutto Report: Musharraf Planned to Fix Elections
- - 9/11 Truth Manifesto
December 7, 2007 - Item 1
Ex-Italian President: Intel Agencies Know 9/11 An Inside Job
- - Former Air Traffic Controller Robin Hordon speaks out on 9/11
- - Seven Senior Republican Appointees Challenge Official Account of 9/11
November 5, 2007 - Item 1
Whistle Inspiration Beyond the Media Blockade
- - 9/11: Families, First Responders & Experts Speak Out - Video
- - 9/11 Truth Debates Howard Dean, David Bonior, Elizabeth Kucinich
- - Free ae911truth.org flash animation for your web sites
- - FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds Will Now Tell All
- - Thom Hartmann to Host 9/11 Truth Debate on Air America
September 30, 2007 - Item 2
Shocking New Revelations On 9/11 Ground Zero Cover-Up
- - Seven CIA Veterans Challenge 9/11 Commission Report
- - Action Plan for Californian 9/11 Grand Jury
- - ABC Journalist Ordered to Disclose Sources on 2001 Anthrax Attacks
- - Video: Ray McGovern asking 9/11 questions
- - "9/11 THE NEW EVIDENCE"
September 19, 2007 - Item 1
9/11 explains the impotence of the antiwar movement
- - Sibel Edmonds case: The real culprits of 911
- - 9/11 First Responder Heard WTC 7 Demolition Countdown
- - A New Standard For Deception: The NIST WTC Report
- - "9/11 Blueprint for Truth" - Architectural Integrity vs Official Lies
- - 9/11 Gold Heist Story Heist
- - Spitzer Helped Silverstein Win $4.5 Billion WTC Insurance Windfall
- - Fidel Castro says U.S. fooled world over 9/11
- - 9/11 - the big cover-up?
First, let the technical truth emerge.
Then, if necessary, cope with the inevitable
political, conspiracy and other questions. But let us
not allow a possible painful truth block the primary
task of determining once and for all what caused
the collapse of the WTC towers and building no. 7.
Joel S. Hirschhorn, PhD
Former Congressional Office of Technology
Assessment Senior Staff Member
September 7, 2007 - Item 1
Poll: Majority of Americans Investigate Bush-Cheney on 9/11
- - Congressional Technology Member Calls for New 9/11 Investigation
- - New DVD Examines World Trade Center Destruction on 9/11
- - Twenty-Two Things We Now Know Six Years After 9/11
- - If not now, when? General Strike on 9/11/2007
- - 9/11 truth Event and Webcasting from NYC!
August 29, 2007 - Items 2-3
The Truth About 9/11 Is Rising to the Surface * Global Warming Crises & 9/11 Awareness
- - Academy of Sciences Member Calls for New 9/11 Investigation
- - Thunder Bay, Ontario's only daily newspaper covers 9/11 truth
- - Evidence Suggests CIA Purposefully Spiked Investigations
- - 9/11/07 Global Day of Action & Letter from Donna Marsh O'Connor
- - Police provocateurs caught 'rock-handed' at SPP meeting in Canada
- - Robert Fisk--Even I question the 'truth' about 9/11
- - Chief of NIST's Fire Science Division Calls for Independent Review
- - 9/11 First Responders Benefit & Rally
- - Behind 9/11 Demolition Work, Obscure Name and Slim Record
Courage is not the absence of fear;
it is the making of action in spite of fear;
the moving out against the resistance
engendered by fear into the unknown
and into the future.
-- M. Scott Peck
The Road Less Traveled
August 16, 2007 - Items 1-2
Blow Up Dollar * Palast-Jones * 9/11 Cult
- - The Cult of 9/11
- - We Need To Counter Those Pushing for A False Flag Attack
- - China's Tallest Building Catches Fire, Does Not Collapse
- - Greg Palast apologizes to Dr. Steven Jones
- - William Rodriguez Hero of 9/11 1 hr Radio Special
- - The Obama Campaign V.S. Student Scholars for 9/11 Truth
- - CIA Analyst Discusses Possible Cheney 9/11 Stand-down Order
- - Loose Change Final Cut 1st test screening (Norway)
- - New major motion picture on the REAL 9/11 "The Reflecting Pool"
July 30, 2007 - Item 1
The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America
July 7, 2007 - Item 2
Brave New World and September 11
- - September 2001 Anthrax Attacks from within US Government
- - Whitman's Cover-Up an 'Insult to Truth'
- - US Social Forum Calls for Independent 9/11 Investigation
- - Kevin Ryan responds to Purdue 9/11 Animation of WTC Collapse
- - Two Project Censored judges quit over 9/11 Truth story
- - Brave New World for 9/11 Families
- - New Doc Examining BBC Debunking 9/11 Truth
June 29, 2007 - FN Alert - Hellerstein's 9/11 Kangaroo Court
Choosing 9/11 victim lawsuits for trial? and related article
NY judge sanitizes 9/11 airline trials, blocks key fed witness testimony
June 20, 2007 - Items 1-2
Loose Change Final Cut Bombshell Inside WTC-7
- - WTC7 Security Official Details Explosions Inside Building
- - The Media's Mayor: Mythologizing Guiliani and 9/11
- - 9/11 'Truthers' uncovering disturbing anomalies
- - 9/11 Commission Report bars 503 First-responder eyewitnesses
- - Warming and 9/11 Related Danger Zones
May 31, 2007 - Items 1-2
Sheehan 9/11 * William Rodriguez * Architects
May 17, 2007 - Item 1
Debunker Buster David Ray Griffin
- - Ground Zero Illnesses Clouding Giuliani's Legacy
May 12, 2007 - Item 1
Buying the official story of Sept. 11
- - Potential terror jurors cite 9/11 doubts
- - Steven Jones Replies to Jim Fetzers Questions
May 1, 2007 - Item 2
Controversial ground zero documentary grounded in science
- - Ludicrous Freeway Comparison To 9/11 Truth
April 26, 2007 - Items 1 - 4
Rosie * 9/11 Fire Fight * Sitcha * Mind Control
- - Rosie Tells ABC To Screw Its 9/11 Censorship
- - 9/11 FIREFIGHTER LUNG AILMENTS ON THE RISE
- - Court Ruling May Stop 9/11 Air Quality Lawsuits
- - The Betrayal of New York's Bravest
- - Kucinich Seeks Cheney Impeachment
- - Court Date for Richard Sitcha Press Release
- - The Waters of Knowledge vs. Waters of Uncertainty
April 18, 2007 - Items 1 & 2
French Intelligence Warned CIA of 9/11 Plot in January 2001
- - Request for Correction to 9/11 NIST Report
- - Book Review of Debunking 9/11 Myths
- - "The Third Stage" 9/11 TRUTH 20-minute video
- - Bringing Down the House of Cards -- The Final 'Leg' of the Journey
- - The War On Consciousness
April 3, 2007 - Item 1
Debunking 9/11 Debunking and the Evidence
- - Courageous Rosie is out in view on The View
- - 9/11 Families Petition For Pertinent 9/11 Documents
- - Developments In The 911 Truth Grassroots Movement
- - 9/11 & The Reflecting Pool
March 13, 2007 - Item 1
Debunking 9/11 Debunking
- - Morons and Magic: A Reply to BBCs George Monbiot
- - Sibel Edmonds [& World] Needs Your Support
- - Clairvoyant Collapse BBC & WTC-7
February 24, 2007 - Items 1 and 2
911 Truthers - Time Is On Our Side * Norman Mineta Exposes Dick Cheney on 9/11 Stand-down
- - BBC Hit Piece a Tissue of Lies, Bias and Emotional Manipulation
- - Did America mastermind Sept 11?
- - Improbable Collapse Spring 9/11 Truth Northeast Tour
February 16, 2007 - Item 2
An Open Letter from Ellen Mariani
- - 9/11 Widows Keep on Asking the Tough Questions
- - LinkTV Airs '9/11: Press for Truth'
- - Patriots Question 9/11
- - Improbable Collapse Spring 9/11 Truth Northeast Tour
February 6, 2007 - Item 1
9/11: The Case Isn't Closed
- - 9/11 Truth Forum - David Ray Griffin Interview
January 27, 2007 - Item 1
London Guardian and 9/11 News
- - More 9/11 Emergency Calls Released in 2007
- - Huslter Magazine and 9/11 Truth Making Time
- - Only 16% Think Government Telling the Truth about 9/11
- - The 9/11 Movement: Those Who Divide and Those Who Unite
- - Michael Berger & Improbable Collapse Spring NE
January 24, 2007 - Item 1
9/11 Truth Outreach to the Peace Movement
- - Americas shadow
- - The many trials of 9/11 widow Ellen Mariani
9/11 Truth is the Peace Movement with a Brain.
-- Webster Griffin Tarpley
January 8, 2007 - Item 2
What if Flight 93 Hit Its Target on Sept. 11?
- - Alex Jones interviews Col. Donn de Grand-Pre
- - New 9/11 Book Indicts FBI and Dept. of Justice
- - Afternoon of Truth and Activism with Webster G. Tarpley in NH
January 4, 2007 - Item 1
9-11 Fiasco True or False
- - Manuel Garcia Sees Physics That Dont Exist
- - Prof. Steven Jones Quits Scholars for 9-11 Confusion
- - Arrest and Try Bush & Cheney for Global Crimes of 9/11
- - Reopen 9/11 investigation, local group says
December 29, 2006 - Item 2
9/11 and the Greenberg Familia
December 26, 2006 - Items 1 and 2
Probes of Bush Policies in Works
- - U.S. Deaths in Iraq Exceed 9-11 Count
- - 9-11 Research & Federal Building in Oklahoma City Bombing
- - The Astonishing $27.5 Trillion Leo Wanta Story
- - World Reports: New 9/11 to Fabricate Derivatives End-Game
December 18, 2006 - Item 1
Pressing for the Truth on 9/11
- - Disbelief Regarding The Official 9/11 Story in the U.S.
- - Poisoned Russian spy revealed Putin's false flag ops
- - Boston: Tea and 9/11 Report Dumped in Harbor Dec. 16
According to a July poll conducted by Scripps News Service, one-third of Americans
think the government either carried out the 9/11 attacks or intentionally allowed
them to happen in order to provide a pretext for war in the Middle East.
November 15, 2006 - Items 1
New World Order * Improbable Collapse
- - The Cheney-Gates Cabal
- - Dont Look for Much From the Bipartisan Iraq Study Group
- - Ten Reasons Congress Must Investigate Bush Administration Crimes
- - Sample letter-to-editor after Library-DVD-donation
November 3, 2006 - Item 1
Mainstream 9/11 Press
- - Backers hail 9/11 theorist's speech
- - Panelists raise doubts over 9/11
October 18, 2006 - Item 1
False Flag Terror Alert
- - Public's Right To Know Demand Release of 9/11-Documents
- - Official 9/11 story On Life support; Truth is Taking Over
- - Terrorstorm Raises The Bar In Truth Film Making
October 2, 2006 - Items 1 and 2
Habeas Corpus * WTC Collapse * JFKreserve
September 22, 2006 - Item 2
Taking to the Streets on 9/11
- - Democracy Now! 9/11 Debate
- - Film Review: 9/11 Press for Truth
- - 911 DVD Project Get the Truth Out
September 17, 2006 - Item 1
9/11 Truth Movement Approaches Critical Mass
- - 911Truth.org 5th anniversary Newsletter
- - BYU Professor Steven Jones Placed on "Paid Leave"
- - 9-11-06 GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION
- - 9/11 Victim Families Say Case Merits New Investigation
- - 911 TRUTH DVD PROJECT
August 25, 2006 - Item 1
911 "Conspiracy Theorists" Vindicated - Pentagon misled..
- - Inquiry Opened Into Israeli Use of U.S. Bombs
- - Bush: Iraq Had `Nothing' To Do With 9/11
- - U.S. Cold War gift: Iran nuclear plant
- - Army Analyst Targeted For Suggesting new 9/11 Investigation
- - GOP candidate says 9/11 attacks were a hoax
- - 9/11 Symposium C-Span Show
- - Interview with Producer of 9/11 Loose Change
- - 9/11: Press For Truth one full scene on YOUTUBE
- - Join the 9/11 Truth Campaign In a Big Way
August 14, 2006 - Item 1
9/11 Book from Church Publishing House Causes Uproar
- - Revelations about Twin Towers in the 9/11 Oral Histories
- - Buzzflash at the 9/11 Truth Brink?
- - The War On Terror Is A Fraud & Civil Disobedience
- - 9/11 Truth Begins To Organize in Western Massachusetts
- - New film - 9/11 Press For Truth
August 9, 2006 - Item 1
Chain of Deceit: From Pentagon to 9/11 Commission to Public
- - 9/11 Symposium Most Popular C-Span Show
- - 9/11 conspiracy theorists thriving
- - New Book Challenges Media Over September 11 Coverage
July 24, 2006 - Item 1
9/11 and Art of Religion and Hypocrisy
- - Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11 David Ray Griffin
- - Middle East Politics Divides Progressives
- - Kevin Barrett Appears On 'For The Record'
- - Dozens of 911 video clips
- - Loose Change Vanity Fair 9/11 Article
- - Daniel Ellsberg Calls for New 9/11 Investigations
- - Cindy Sheehan says "NO" to uniting efforts with 911 Truth
- - Update by 9/11 Grassroots Truth Activist, Mia
July 19, 2006 - Item 2
Worldwide Day of Action September 11, 2006
- - Demonstration at Federal Building, Spfld. MA
- - Tim Russert Interviewed by Jack Blood on 9/11 Truth
July 12, 2006 - Item 1
Exposing the 9/11 Conspiracy Wingnuts
July 6, 2006 - Item 2
Scholars for 9/11 Truth under Attack
June 28, 2006 - Item 1
9/11 and the Neo-Con Agenda
- - BYU Physics Prof Finds Thermate in WTC Physical Samples
- - 9/11 Conspiracy Theorists Gather at LA Conference
- - Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth
- - One Nation Under Siege
- - 9/11 and William Sloane Coffin
A new Zogby poll reveals that less than half
of the American public trusts the official 9/11 story
or believes the attacks were adequately investigated.
May 26, 2006 - Items 1 and 2
Seventy Million Americans Support New 9/11 Investigation
- - Release of New Pentagon Video Clears Up Nothing
- - How Flight 77 Hitting The Pentagon Would Really Look?
- - Explosive New 9/11 Revelations
- - Upcoming International Conference for 911 Truth
- - Loose Change 2 Online Video
Drugs Intelligence Terrorism Apocalypse Now
May 16, 2006 - Item 1
The Crime That Covered-Up The Coup
- - Resource- - Bldg. 7 - Can anyone answer this 9/11 Question
- - Loose Change and 9/11 public awareness events
- - Russ Feingold and NH Democrats Annual Convention June 3
- - Avian Flu and the Rumsfeld Connection
- - Abolish Both Hayden Nomination and NSA
- - US to release video of September 11 attack on Pentagon
May 2, 2006 - Item 1
The American Empire and the Commonwealth of God
- - Resources for the 9/11 Truth-Peace Movement
- - Neo-conservatives threaten nuclear war on the pretext of Iran
- - Springsteen and Young: Music of a Once and Future Democracy
April 23, 2006 - Item 2
9/11 and the oil-sleazy-empire-business
- - They got away with 9-11 and mass murder (thus far)
- - 11 Remarkable Facts About 9/11
April 13, 2006 - Item 4
9/11 NY Air - Illuminati - UFO Disclosure
April 1, 2006 - Item 2
Venezuelan Government To Launch International 9/11 Investigation
- - Long Live The 9/11 Conspiracy!
- - How the FBI Let 9/11 Happen
- - Fitzgerald Will Seek New White House Indictments
March 27, 2006 - Editor's Notes and Item 2
Charlie Sheen and Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth
- - 911 Scholar for Truth Murdered
- - Senate hearing set on move to censure Bush
March 22, 2006 - Item 1
Agent Faults FBI on 9/11
March 16, 2006 - Items 2 and 3
Russ Feingold Censure Remarks * 9/11 Truth Revealed
- - Scholars Affirm Cheney Complicity in 9/11
- - DVDs Available to Help 9/11 Truth Awareness Grow!
March 10, 2006 - Item 3
Scholars Call for Release of 9/11 Information
- - Warning: Are Scholars for 9-11 Truth Being Sabotaged?
- - 9/11 and other Video Resources on the Web
"Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories
concerning the attacks of September the 11th;
malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame away
from the terrorists, themselves, away from the guilty."
-- George W. Bush
43rd US President,
Yale Skull & Bones Society
Stated at the United Nations,
November 11, 2001
February 27, 2006 - Items 1 & 2
9/11 Truth--Will Americans Be the Last to Know? * Bush bankrupts America
- - Village Voice - The ABC's of 9-11:
- - The Secret History Of Mohamed Atta
- - Porter Goss's Op-Ed: by Sibel Edmonds
- - Garofolo: 9/11 Was An Inside Job
- - 911Truth Grassroots Connections
February 13, 2006 - Items 1 & 3
Reopen911.org - Confronting the Evidence * Billions Stolen From Iraq
- - Bush ignored CIA advice on Iraq, says former spy
- - Libby: White House 'Superiors' OK'd Leaks
- - CIA chief sacked for opposing torture
- - US prepares military blitz against Iran's nuclear sites
- - Iran is prepared to retaliate, experts warn
February 9, 2006 - Item 1
A War Too Far
- - Why We Fight - by writer/director Eugene Jarecki
- - Human Rights Abuse In Gitmo Continues
January 31, 2006 - Item 1
Scholars - 911 Truth - Exposing the Hoax
December 29, 2005 - Item 1
Fear destroys what bin Laden could not
November 22, 2005 - Item 2
Able Danger: Uncovering the 9/11 Cover-up
- - More Than Half of House Reps. Wants Hearings on Able Danger
November 20, 2005 - Item 2
9/11 Revealed: Challenging the Facts behind the War on Terror
- - A State Department's Critique
November 14, 2005 - Item 2
Physicist Challenges 9/11 Tower Collapse Explanation
November 1, 2005 - Item 1
The White House Exposure Of Valerie Plame
October 24, 2005 - Item 2
Griffin Seals Case for 9/11 WTC Demolition
"They that can give up essential liberty
to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin
October 21, 2005 - Item 2
The 9/11 Whistle-Blowers and the Cover-Up
October 9, 2005 - Item 1
British and American leaders likened to Nazi war criminals
- - MI6 recruited Muslim Extremists for Terror'
- - Plamegate Noose Tightens at the White House
- - Bush claimed God told him to invade Iraq, Afghanistan
- - US Senate okays $50-billion more for wars
September 19, 2005 - Item 4
Where David Ray Griffin and Flyby News Meet
August 30, 2005 - Item 1
Getting Agnostic About 9/11 - David Ray Griffin & LA Times
"America will never be destroyed from the outside.
If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
-- Abraham Lincoln
August 19, 2005 - Item 1
CIA Commander: U.S. Let bin Laden Slip Away
August 10, 2005 - Item 1
9/11 ON TRIAL - about the world's worst
August 9, 2005 - Item 3
Four in 9/11 Plot Are Called Tied to Qaeda in '00
August 5, 2005 - Item 1
Vanity Fair floats allegations GOP chief Hastert took Turkish bribes
- - Vanity Fair - Sibel Edmonds - 9/11 CitizensWatch
- - ACLU Urges Supreme Court to Review Case of FBI Whistleblower
- - 9/11 and the American Empire - a film by Ken Jenkins
August 2, 2005 - Item 1
David Ray Griffin at the National Press Club
June 15, 2005 - Item 4
Ex-Bush official: 9/11 was an inside job
May 25, 2005 - Items 1 and 2
The 9/11 Commission Report: A 571-Page Lie * European Tour: Re-Open 911 Investigations
May 8, 2005 - Items 1 and 2
Proof Bush Fixed The Facts * Media ‘Gatekeepers of the So-Called Left
- - C-Span Breakthrough for 9/11 Truth
"It's better to light one candle
than to curse the darkness"
-- Emily Dickinson
April 24, 2005 - Item 1
Bush Lies, America Cries
- - Rice changed terrorism report
- - Top Brass Cleared Over Iraq Abuse
- - Colin Powell puts down John Bolton as UN ambassador
- - Psychological resistance to facing election fraud
- - Chairman of Voting Reform Panel Resigns
April 24, 2005 - Item 4
9/11 'Smoking Gun,' Proving Gov't Complicity
- - Wisconsin newspaper (and C-Span?) covering David Ray Griffin
April 18, 2005 - Item 3
"Our Country Has Been Overtaken By Murderous Thugs"
- - Negroponte Confirmed By Senate Committee
- - Bush Eliminating 19-year-old International Terrorism Report
- - A Most Dangerous Message
- - Space Peace Abolition NYC April 29-May 1st
- - Iraq's Oilworkers Unionize to Defend the Country's Oil
March 21, 2005 - Item 3
International Tribunal - 9/11 Omission - David Ray Griffin
March 8, 2005 - Item 1
Truth and Politics: Unanswered Questions About 911
- - Threshold Fears and Unanswered Questions about 9/11
- - Bush Lied Thousands Died
March 3, 2005 - Item 3
Two courageous women continue the fight for 9/11 truth!
- - No Plane Hit the Pentagon
The Complete 9/11 Timeline
http://cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline/
"The Complete 9-11 Timeline" section was developed and is maintained by Paul Thompson.
http://cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline/
In the event of a hacking, the timelines are mirrored at:
http://www.unansweredquestions.net/timeline/
http://billstclair.com/911timeline/
http://64.177.75.218/completetimeline/index.htm
"Why is this man in the White House?
The majority of Americans did not vote for him.
Why is he there? And I tell you this morning
that he's in the White House because God put him there
for a time such as this."
– Lt Gen William Boykin,
speaking of G. W. Bush,
New York Times, 17 October 2003
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"God gave the savior to the German people.
We have faith, deep and unshakeable faith,
that he was sent to us by God to save Germany."
Hermann Goering,
speaking of Hitler
Impeach Bush - Resolution and Resources
"The President, Vice President and all Civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." --Article II, Section 4 United States Constitution
http://www.rise4news.net/impeach.html
Impeachment Resolution:
http://www.rise4news.net/Impeachment_Resolution.html
"Call and Answer" by Robert Bly
Tell me why it is we don't lift our voices these days
And cry over what is happening. Have you noticed
The plans are made for Iraq and the ice cap is melting?
I say to myself: "Go on, cry. What's the sense
Of being an adult and having no voice? Cry out!
See who will answer! This is Call and Answer!"
We will have to call especially loud to reach
Our angels, who are hard of hearing; they are hiding
In the jugs of silence filled during our wars.
Have we agreed to so many wars that we can't
Escape from silence? If we don't lift our voices, we allow
Others (who are ourselves) to rob the house.
How come we've listened to the great criers–Neruda,
Akhmatova, Thoreau, Frederick Douglass–and now
We're silent as sparrows in the little bushes?
Some masters say our life lasts only seven days.
Where are we in the week? Is it Thursday Yet?
Hurry, cry now! Soon Sunday night will come.
This following link goes to:
The Bush Conspiracy & 9/11 Investigative Reports -- Part 2
and
The Bush Conspiracy & 9/11 Investigative Reports -- Part 3
The views expressed herein are writers' own and not necessarily of Flyby News.
Fair Use Policy that describes use of copyrighted material is at FlybyNews.com.
Feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News is appreciated.
You can write to the editor by email: - flybynews(at}hughes{dot)net-
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus,
and has supported critical campaigns for a healthy
environment, human rights, justice, and nonviolence,
since the launch of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era
= = = www.FlybyNews.com = = =
ABM Treaty Hanging * Nuclear Theft Confirmed * Kucinich on war economy
25 February 2002
1) The ABM Treaty: Dead or Alive?
2) US Certifies Theft Of Russian Nuclear Material Has Occurred
3) Kucinich: "Upon the threshold of a permanent war economy"
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) The ABM Treaty: Dead or Alive?
by Dr. Robert M. Bowman*
On December 13, 2001, President George W. Bush gave notice that the United States was going to withdraw from the ABM Treaty in six months.
There are several issues to be dealt with.
(1) Does a President of the United States have the Constitutional power to terminate a treaty without the advice and consent of the Senate or the approval of the Congress?
(2) Has the United States satisfied the necessary conditions for withdrawal from the ABM Treaty as specified in the Treaty itself?
(3) Is it necessary to withdraw from the ABM Treaty at this time to pursue the development of ballistic missile defenses?
(4) Are effective defenses against ballistic missiles accompanied by likely countermeasures and decoys technologically achievable in the foreseeable future?
(5) Is there a ballistic missile threat which justifies the development of ballistic missile defenses?
(6) Are the envisioned ballistic missile defenses survivable against preemptive attack by entities possessing the technology for both intercontinental ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction?
(7) Are ballistic missile defenses more effective and less costly than other means of dealing with the existing and forecast ballistic missile threats (such as buying them out)?
(8) Taking into account the likely responses of both our allies and our adversaries to our withdrawal from the ABM Treaty and development of ballistic missile defenses, is the net effect of such actions such as to enhance our national security?
(9) Considering the fact that ballistic missile defenses would be useless against aircraft, small boats, rental trucks, and all the other delivery means that the CIA and DOD say are far more likely to be used against us than missiles, and that withdrawal from the ABM Treaty will increase the fear and hatred which makes us the target of terrorists, is the potential utility of defenses against hypothetical rogue nation missiles sufficient to offset the increase in the terrorist threat they will cause?
(10) Is it in the interest of the people of the United States of America to withdraw from the ABM Treaty?
These ten questions are interrelated, of course, but each of them can be addressed independently of the others. For President George W. Bush's actions to be appropriate, the answer to all ten questions would have to be "Yes." For the members of Congress to be justified in continuing their inaction with respect to the President's planned withdrawal from the ABM Treaty, the answer to all ten questions would have to be "Yes." If the answer to even one of the above ten questions is "No," then Congress has to challenge the President's actions, and (if necessary) take him to court.
Ironically, in my considered opinion, the answer to every single one of the ten questions is "NO."
The purpose of the following [linked] article is to address the first three questions
http://rmbowman.com/ssn/ABMTreaty2.htm
In previous articles, I have explained why "No" is the proper answer to each of the last seven questions. These questions are addressed in some detail on our web site http://rmbowman.com/ssn/ and in past issues of Space & Security News as well as my 1984 book "Star Wars: Defense or Death Star." (And no, the answers haven't changed.)
*Lt. Col. Robert M. Bowman, Ph.D. (USAF, ret.), had directed all the "Star Wars" programs under Presidents Ford and Carter.
Post Script:
Stop Withdrawal From ABM Treaty -- Sign the petition at
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/abmtrty/petition.html
Also, online-fax your representatives in support of the Bill introduced by Representative Dennis Kucinich http://www.peaceinspace.com/fax/
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) US Certifies Theft Of Russian Nuclear Material Has Occurred
From Space.com:
US Certifies Theft Of Russian Nuclear Material Has Occurred
by Maxim Kniazkov
Washington (AFP) Feb 23, 2002
An undetermined amount of weapons-grade nuclear material has been stolen in post-Communist Russia, heightening concerns that some of it could have ended up in the wrong hands, the US intelligence community has concluded.
The announcement comes amid warnings by top US officials that Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terrorist network have been making a concerted effort to obtain the know-how and materials to manufacture a crude nuclear or radiological device.
"We also believe that bin Laden was seeking to acquire or develop a nuclear device," Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet told Congress earlier this month. "Al-Qaeda may be pursuing a radioactive dispersal device -- what some call a 'dirty bomb.'"
In his testimony, the CIA director refrained from disclosing where al-Qaeda operatives could be shopping for such technology.
But the National Intelligence Council, in its annual report to Congress, made public late Friday, gave a strong warning that despite foreign assistance and its own efforts to heighten security, Russia still represents a serious nuclear proliferation risk.
"Weapons-grade and weapons-usable nuclear materials have been stolen from some Russian institutes," said the council, the collective analytical think tank for the 13 agencies that make up the US intelligence community.
"We assess that undetected smuggling has occurred, although we do not know the extent or magnitude of such thefts," the report said. "Nevertheless, we are concerned about the total amount of material that could have been diverted over the last 10 years."
A total of 23 attempts to steal fissile materials, which can be found in Russia in more than 300 buildings at over 40 locations across the country, were uncovered and thwarted by Russian authorities between 1991 and 1999, according to the document.
The problem remains how many smugglers made off with particles of plutonium or enriched uranium -- a hot commodity on the black market -- without being detected.
"Russian facilities housing nuclear materials typically receive low funding, lack trained security personnel, and do not have sufficient equipment for securely storing nuclear materials," the council said.
The documented cases of nuclear theft in Russia include the disappearance of 1.5 kilograms (3.3 pounds) of 90-percent-enriched weapons-grade uranium from the Luch Production Association in 1992.
In 1994, according to the council, three kilograms (6.6 pounds) of weapons-grade uranium were stolen in Moscow.
Four years later, there was a hair-raising incident at an unnamed nuclear facility in the Chelyabinsk region, in the Ural Mountains, where according to Viktor Yerastov, a top official at the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry, the amount stolen was "quite sufficient ... to produce an atomic bomb."
While admitting that US intelligence could not independently confirm the theft, the National Intelligence Council said the Chelyabinsk case was "of concern." Four grams (0.14 ounces) of weapons-usable enriched uranium that "likely originated in Russia" was seized in Bulgaria.
Even sites storing nuclear weapons, which are surrounded by layers of security, cannot be seen as problem-free because of drug and discipline problems among the servicemen, and their low pay, the report said.
In May 2000, two students at a training center that prepares guards for nuclear weapons facilities were expelled because they had failed their drug tests.
That same month, the Russian Defense Ministry started using officers instead of enlisted men for guard duty while transporting nuclear warheads because of seven incidents in just one month when sentries had left their posts.
All rights reserved. 2002 Agence France-Presse.
For the originally posted article and related links, see:
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nuclear-blackmarket-02a.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Kucinich: "Upon the threshold of a permanent war economy"
How Can We Justify This?
By Representative Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio)
Let us pray that our nation will remember that the unfolding of the promise of democracy in our nation paralleled the striving for civil rights. That is why we must challenge the rationale of the Patriot Act. We must ask why should America put aside guarantees of constitutional justice?
How can we justify in effect canceling the First Amendment and the right of free speech, the right to peaceably assemble?
How can we justify in effect canceling the Fourth Amendment, probable cause, the prohibitions against unreasonable search and seizure? How can we justify in effect canceling the Fifth Amendment, nullifying due process, and allowing for indefinite incarceration without a trial?
How can we justify in effect canceling the Sixth Amendment, the right to prompt and public trial?
How can we justify in effect canceling the Eighth Amendment which protects against cruel and unusual punishment?
We cannot justify widespread wiretaps and internet surveillance without judicial supervision, let alone with it. We cannot justify secret searches without a warrant. We cannot justify giving the Attorney General the ability to designate domestic terror groups. We cannot justify giving the FBI total access to any type of data which may exist in any system anywhere such as medical records and financial records.
We cannot justify giving the CIA the ability to target people in this country for intelligence surveillance. We cannot justify a government which takes from the people our right to privacy and then assumes for its own operations a right to total secrecy. The Attorney General recently covered up a statue of Lady Justice showing her bosom as if to underscore there is no danger of justice exposing herself at this time, before this administration.
Let us pray that our nation's leaders will not be overcome with fear. Because today there is great fear in our great Capitol. And this must be understood before we can ask about the shortcomings of Congress in the current environment. The great fear began when we had to evacuate the Capitol on September 11. It continued when we had to leave the Capitol again when a bomb scare occurred as members were pressing the CIA during a secret briefing. It continued when we abandoned Washington when anthrax, possibly from a government lab, arrived in the mail. It continued when the Attorney General declared a nationwide terror alert and then the Administration brought the destructive Patriot Bill to the floor of the House. It continued in the release of the Bin Laden tapes at the same time the President was announcing the withdrawal from the ABM treaty. It remains present in the cordoning off of the Capitol. It is present in the camouflaged armed national guardsmen who greet members of Congress each day we enter the Capitol campus. It is present in the labyrinth of concrete barriers through which we must pass each time we go to vote. The trappings of a state of siege trap us in a state of fear, ill equipped to deal with the Patriot Games, the Mind Games, the War Games of an unelected President and his unelected Vice President.
Let us pray that our country will stop this war. "To promote the common defense" is one of the formational principles of America. Our Congress gave the President the ability to respond to the tragedy of September the Eleventh. We licensed a response to those who helped bring the terror of September the Eleventh. But we the people and our elected representatives must reserve the right to measure the response, to proportion the response, to challenge the response, and to correct the response.
Because we did not authorize the invasion of Iraq.
We did not authorize the invasion of Iran.
We did not authorize the invasion of North Korea.
We did not authorize the bombing of civilians in Afghanistan.
We did not authorize permanent detainees in Guantanamo Bay.
We did not authorize the withdrawal from the Geneva Convention.
We did not authorize military tribunals suspending due process and habeas corpus.
We did not authorize assassination squads.
We did not authorize the resurrection of COINTELPRO.
We did not authorize the repeal of the Bill of Rights.
We did not authorize the revocation of the Constitution.
We did not authorize national identity cards.
We did not authorize the eye of Big Brother to peer from cameras throughout our cities.
We did not authorize an eye for an eye.
Nor did we ask that the blood of innocent people, who perished on September 11, be avenged with the blood of innocent villagers in Afghanistan.
We did not authorize the administration to wage war anytime, anywhere, anyhow it pleases.
We did not authorize war without end.
We did not authorize a permanent war economy.
Yet we are upon the threshold of a permanent war economy. The President has requested a $45.6 billion increase in military spending. All defense-related programs will cost close to $400 billion. Consider that the Department of Defense has never passed an independent audit. Consider that the Inspector General has notified Congress that the Pentagon cannot properly account for $1.2 trillion in transactions. Consider that in recent years the Dept. of Defense could not match $22 billion worth of expenditures to the items it purchased, wrote off, as lost, billions of dollars worth of in-transit inventory and stored nearly $30 billion worth of spare parts it did not need.
Yet the defense budget grows with more money for weapons systems to fight a cold war which ended, weapon systems in search of new enemies to create new wars. This has nothing to do with fighting terror. This has everything to do with fueling a military industrial machine with the treasure of our nation, risking the future of our nation, risking democracy itself with the militarization of thought which follows the militarization of the budget.
United States Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio)
Email responses to Dkucinich@aol.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
9/11 Investigation Article * Vancouver Sun, Ian Mulgrew
"The truth is out there ... right?"
Ian Mulgrew
Vancouver Sun
Saturday, February 23, 2002
[The following article was originally posted by Flyby News on February 26, 2002.The original posting with photos was at the following URL address:
http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/story.asp?id=DCC82857-AA3C-41FB-997D-EDA05CC774E3
At first, it all seemed so obvious. It was those Islamic terrorists. Osama bin Laden. Mullah Omar. George W. Bush had nothing to do with it ... did he?
The truth is out there ... right?
Ian Mulgrew
Vancouver Sun
Saturday, February 23, 2002
"The right wing benefited so much from September 11 that, if I were still a conspiratorialist, I would believe they'd done it." --
Norman Mailer
When the paladin of Camelot joined the fray, I knew 9/11 had become the Kennedy Assassination of the 21st century -- a real-life X-Files episode occurring before my eyes. Like those X-Files accounts of aliens living in oil deposits, this was a story with such staggering implications the mainstream media are loath to go near it. The question isn't who killed the president -- it's who piloted the airplanes that slammed into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and the Pennsylvanian countryside.
Just as there remains lingering doubt that Lee Harvey Oswald fired a burst of fatally accurate shots from the Texas Book Depository, so there is skepticism that cells of Islamic terrorists secretly coordinated and simultaneously commandeered four commercial jetliners.
The culprit responsible for the Sept. 11 attack is now rumoured to be the same one who lurked behind the grassy knoll: the oil-dependent U.S. military-industrial complex.
Not everyone is ready to accept this -- a substitute teacher in North Vancouver's Sherwood Park elementary school has been called on the mat for suggesting to Grade 5 students the Central Intelligence Agency might have been involved in 9/11.
And at last count, there were a dozen U.S. Congressional Committees investigating the tragedies and how such an intelligence
and security breakdown was allowed to occur.
But President George W. Bush and his right-hand man, Vice President Dick Cheney, have taken the unprecedented step of trying to restrict those investigations, pouring fuel on the simmering conspiracy theories being propagated in alternative publications, on wingnut Web sites and among some serious media outlets.
In Germany, a former minister of technology, Andreas von Buelow, made headlines when in an interview he dismissed the U.S. government's explanation that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network is responsible for the attacks. His own explanation implicated the White House.
"I wonder why many questions are not asked," von Buelow said. "For 60 decisive minutes, the military and intelligence agencies let the fighter planes stay on the ground; 48 hours later, however, the FBI presented a list of suicide attackers. Within 10 days,it emerged that seven of them were still alive."
In Britain, a flight engineer has published a detailed paper asserting the U.S. took the joysticks out of the pilots' hands using a method of remote control developed by the American military in the 1970s.
In the U.S. and Canada, independent publisher and editor Mike Ruppert (a former LAPD cop who hates the CIA) has drawn huge crowds to his two-hour lecture in which he states baldly that the U.S. government was complicit in the attacks and had foreknowledge. He opens his documentary presentation with an offer of $1,000 US to anyone who can prove any of his sources were misrepresented or inauthentic.
A former U.S. government agent also has given interviews claiming the CIA has been dealing with Osama bin Laden since 1987.
According to those who do not believe in The Lone Gunman, the truth is as plain as the nose on your face: Sept. 11's terrorist acts were planned and paid for by the CIA to enable the Bush Administration to "legitimately" bomb Afghanistan into submission on behalf of the oil industry.
After all, everyone knows the Bush family has strong and long acknowledged ties to the oil industry, as do other senior members of the administration. Cheney until recently was president of a company servicing the oil patch. National Security adviser Condoleeza Rice was a manager for Chevron. Commerce and Energy Secretaries Donald Evans and Stanley Abraham worked for Tom Brown, another oil giant.
Follow the money, as they say, and you'll find the smoking gun.
Under this scenario, conspiracy theorists say a pliant Afghan regime was essential because of plans to pipe central Asian oil across Afghanistan. And there is a harvest of coincidence and contradiction to feed such imaginings.
Consider first that the intelligence breakdown that led to 9/11 appears to have been a consequence of the Bush Administration
telling the Federal Bureau of Investigation to back off on its investigation of Middle Eastern terrorism. A senior FBI investigator
resigned from the agency, noisily claiming its main obstacle in the investigation was Big Oil's political influence. In an ironic twist
of fate, the agent died in the World Trade Center.
(Fox Mulder, was that you? Is that why they cancelled the series?)
There also are recurring reports the CIA station chief in Dubai met with bin Laden only seven weeks before 9/11 while he was laid up for surgery. (The CIA denies this, but of course you can't believe anything it says.)
Now think about this for a second: The Independent in London questions how Bush could claim in two public appearances to have seen the first plane hit the first tower long before any such TV footage was broadcast. The paper also asks why Dubya continued sitting with elementary school students after the second tower was hit and he'd been told, "America is under attack."
Very mysterious, when standard procedure for such a situation is to whisk the president away to safety. Unless -- and here is the nub -- unless he knew something more than we did that morning. As the Independent asked, "What television station was HE watching?"
This is rich stuff for those who see Them under the bed, especially since the financial miasma melds nicely with the already swirling rumour and insinuation.
In the days before the attacks, there was unusually heavy trading in airline and related stocks using a market tactic called a "put
option" that essentially bets that a stock will decline in value. If you were Osama, buying puts would be a great way to boost the value of your investment portfolio.
And sure enough, unusually high numbers of put options were purchased in early September for the stocks of AMR Corp. and UAL Corp., the parents of American and United -- each of which had two planes hijacked. The U.S. government is now investigating suspicious trading in 38 companies directly affected by the events of Sept. 11.
The initial survey of beneficiaries, however, turns out not to include one tall, dark-haired, olive-skinned, Allah-loving, Saudi-born sheik. Mainly the profiteers were blue-chip, establishment, red-white-and-blue Americans, some of whom were tenants in the collapsed twin towers, such as Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Lehman Brothers and the Bank of America, major airlines, cruise companies, General Motors Corp., Raytheon and others. Several insurance companies are also on the 38-name list U.S. and Canadian financial firms were asked to review and compare with their records for any unusual patterns.
(Which may say more about who plays the market than anything else, but why quibble with the quixotic?)
Cynics are also questioning the incredible speed with which evidence in the WTC collapse is being destroyed. Never in the history of fire investigations, they say, has evidence been destroyed before exhaustive investigations are complete.
(Say what? Two skyscrapers' worth of debris should be warehoused?)
And then there were the curious developments swirling around the anthrax public health hysteria triggered shortly after 9/11. Even dullards can appreciate that anthrax sent to a top Democrat and to the U.S. media helped unify the nation behind the war effort while literally shutting down Congress -- a remarkably useful outcome for Dubya and his gang.
Indeed, specialists in biological warfare say the anthrax appears to be a U.S. military strain and the culprit a disgruntled American scientist who possesses a rare combination of laboratory identify. Hmmm.
And who didn't smell a bad odour two weeks ago when Tennessee driver's licence examiner Katherine Smith died in Memphis under "most unusual and suspicious" circumstances. One day before her arraignment on charges she conspired to provide phoney licences to five Arabs tied by the FBI to the 9/11 attacks, her car crashed into a utility pole. The car was only slightly damaged, the gas tank was full and intact, but the vehicle was immediately engulfed in flames.
As one report pointed out, Smith and the car interior apparently were doused with gasoline, which would certainly qualify in my book as at least "suspicious."
And Memphis ... Memphis? Wasn't that the same place a noted Harvard bio-warfare expert "fell" off a bridge in December?
Scully!
The truth is out there. I know it. You too can help find it.
If you would like an activist kit to get involved in urging a full public investigation of 9/11 and its aftermath, reply to findtruth
40@hotmail.com with "Send kit."
But be warned.
The Pentagon has just established a new Office of Strategic Influence that calls for the planting of false stories in the foreign press, phoney e-mails from disguised addresses and other covert activities to manipulate public opinion.
This could be one of them.
Ian Mulgrew claims to be a Vancouver Sun reporter.
Copyright 2002 Vancouver Sun
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Energy Pollution's Impact On Our Environment
Precarious
A grounded bird
Perched feet from sheer faces,
Freefalls and deadly drops
Flying on jutted thrusts of rock
I suddenly feel boreal
And pseudo-alpine.
The wind rustles steadily
In lower reaches of this chasm,
this monstrous ravine.
Clouds puff and duplicate
In the sun's constant spread.
Mountains engage the eye
From every dimension
Beyond the third
Into a timeless fourth.
Time eased away
In the day's anxiousness.
Next is annexed to now
You are the impermanence of moment.
Ned Green wrote this beautiful poem on the Appalachian Trail in his Journal in 1997.
On February 18, 2001, at only 26, doing what he loved most, climbing, his support on an
ice ledge gave way where he fell into a deep chasm on Mt. Washington, New Hampshire.
HUMAN-CO2-CHEMICAL IMPACT ON ENVIRONMENT
Information on humankind's impact on Global Climate Change first began to be posted on Flyby News on 22 February, 2002, beginning with an article about widespread environmental change in the Arctic. It has always made sense to lessen the amount of greenhouse gas emissions, especially Carbon, into our atmosphere. And to maintain the lungs of Earth, forests, and places for carbon sinks and air purification. The New World Disorder or the military industrial complex empire had another agenda in lock step with fascist fear, control of the elite over the masses. It is the blind leading the blind. We hope raising awareness for life's survival in the 21st Century for a big turnaround. Becoming more aware is a critical step regardless of outcome. Our integrity, our humanity is at risk.
06 May, 2015 - Common Dreams - Sarah Lazare
It's Official: Global Carbon Levels
Surpassed 400 ppm for Entire Month
In summer 2000, an international team of scientists led by Serreze
released results of a study documenting widespread
environmental changes over the Arctic.
To read the article published by Space.com, see:
Scientists Say Polar Warming Continues With Ice Mass Losses
News Flash! ! !
This came in 20 March 2002 on the vernal equinox:
An Antarctic ice shelf that was 200 metres thick
and had a surface area of 3,250 square kilometres
has broken apart in less than a month.
"We knew what was left would collapse eventually,
but the speed of it is staggering,"
-- Dr David Vaughan
Glaciologist at the Bas in Cambridge.
"[It is hard] to believe that 500 billion tonnes of
ice sheet has disintegrated in less than a month."
The full article, with graphics and maps, is located at
news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1880000/1880566.stm
For related information and article, see editor's notes and item 1
Collapsing the doubts on warming - posted 25 March 2002.
The Day After Tomorrow?
The present state of the 'ocean conveyor belt' that transfers
warm, less salty water from the Pacific to the Atlantic as a
shallow current, and returns cold, more salty water from the
Atlantic to the Pacific as a deep current flowing further
south. This flow is threatened by melting ice in the
Arctic, and disruptions off the Antarctic coast.
See following link for a photo and more on this critical concern!
Ocean Forces Threaten Our Climate
UPDATED - August, 2008:
Scientists Astounded by Speed of Deep Freeze
It's one of the most dramatic examples of climate change in Earth's history,
and scientists now say it happened almost entirely in one year's time.
Climate chill came exactly 12,679 years ago: study
The study, of pollens, minerals and other matter deposited in annual
layers at the bottom of Lake Meerfelder Maar in Germany, pinpointed an
abrupt change in sediments consistent with a sudden chill over just one year.
The world's largest frozen peat bog
is thawing for the first time in 11,000 years
(since it was formed at the end of the last ice age).
This bog in western Siberia, the size of France and Germany
combined, could release "billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas."
Warming Hits 'Tipping Point'
Originally published August 11, 2005 by the Guardian/UK
UPDATED <> NEWS <> RESOURCES
15 March, 2015 - Youtube - 0:37:30 + 20:30
Beyond Moss Brook
No Fracking Way! +
Bart Jordan Timesinger
More info on Wordpress & also view
Via Greenfield Community Television
14 January, 2016 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
As California Methane Leak Displaces Thousands,
Will U.S. Regulate Natural Gas Sites Nationwide?
01 October, 2014 - Youtube - 15:23 - OfGeometry
Pilots, Doctors and Scientists
Tell the Truth About Chemtrails
07 January, 2016 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
TransCanada Sues the U.S. for $15B
for Rejecting Keystone XL.
Will This Be the New Normal Under TPP?
11 December, 2015 - TheSleuthJournal - Bart Sibrel
Solar Storm Means No Food
for You and Your Family
06 October, 2015 - Economic Collapse - Michael Snyder
Electromagnetic Pulse: One Day We Will Wake Up
In An America Without Electricity And Society
Will Totally Break Down
09 December, 2015 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Naomi Klein Decries Climate Deal as
Extraordinarily Dangerous; Backs
Defiance of French Protest Ban
04 December, 2015 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
Climate Scientist James Hansen Warns World is on
Wrong Track to Prevent Runaway Global Warming
Flyby News endorses James Hansen's proposal to end the fossil fuel age.
As far as the status of the U.N. Climate Summit in Paris, Hansen said:
"This is really a total fraud."
James Hansen proposes a plan to phase out dirty energy
with clean energy with an across-the-board carbon fee.
"You collect money from fossil fuel companies and you
distribute it equaled [to] all residents. So the one
who does better than average and limiting his
fossil fuel use will get more in the dividend
than he pays in increased prices."
04 November, 2015 - Mother Jones - James West
Bernie Sanders Wants to Ban
All New Fossil Fuel Development
on Federal Lands
20 October, 2015 - The Nation - Bill McKibben
Exxon Knew Everything There Was to Know About
Climate Change by the Mid-1980sand Denied It
This proves how greed and political military support
can achieve dominance and profit to kill us all..
including themselves.. and some good people are
still here to talk about it.. I hope this adds
to the enormous shift we must go through to
end the fossil nuclear fuel era.
27 December, 2015 - Daily Kos - xaxnar
The Ongoing Environmental Disaster
Currently Not Making The Headlines
28 December, 2015 - Common Dreams - Deirdre Fulton
Climate Change. Extreme Weather
Wreaking Havoc Across Globe
04 August, 2015 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Naomi Klein: Obama Is Beginning
to Sound Like a Climate Leader,
When Will He Act Like One?
22 July, 2015 - Common Dreams - Lauren McCauley
Study: When Human Consumption
Slows, Planet Earth Can Heal
'New research debunks myth of
climate-friendly fracking revolution'
16 July, 2015 -Common Dreams - Andrea Germanos
Human Exploitation of Nature Has
Driven Planetary Health to the Edge
New report says
'we have been mortgaging the
health of future generations'
09 June, 2015 - OEC - Melanie Houston
US EPA's study confirms water
contamination caused by fracking
06 June, 2015 - Common Dreams - Jon Queally
G7's Unrelenting Burning of Fossil Fuels
Called 'Weapon of Mass Destruction'
Report by Oxfam International slams
G7's disregard for people and planet
06 May, 2015 - Common Dreams - Sarah Lazare
It's Official: Global Carbon Levels
Surpassed 400 ppm for Entire Month
03 June, 2015 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
"Cultural Genocide": Landmark Report
Decries Canada's Forced Schooling
of Indigenous Children
03 June, 2015
Fracking Protests Continue in Texas
as New ALEC-Backed Law Bars
Towns from Banning Drilling
02 June, 2015 - Youtube 0:07:58 - Flyby News
Beyond Moss Brook
Save Pulpit Falls!
12 June, 2015 - Recorder - Richie Davis
Crowd slams state at pipeline hearing
Article+ also posted at FN Wordpress
11 June, 2015 - GCTV - Video - 02:45:55
DPU Berkshire Gas & TGP Hearing
07 April, 2015 - E&E Publishing - H. Northey and K. Bogardus
FERC: Employees negotiate for
industry jobs under agency's eye
Employees at Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
have deep ties to the industry they regulate,according
to agency documents detailing their job negotiations
and stock holdings.
29 December, 2014 - Flyby News - Wordpress
Fossil fuels dead end Transformation
27 December, 2014 - Salon - Rebecca Solnit
The Age of Capitalism is over
Rebecca Solnit assesses our poisonous
fossil fuel dependency -- and why we're
on the verge of a paradigm shift
04 October, 2012 - Youtube - RealEconTV
The Shale Gas Shell Game
BrassCheckTV:
Short sighted, short lived wells
17 December, 2014 - Think Progress
B-R-E-A-K-I-N-G
New York Will Ban Fracking
18 December, 2014 - Boston Globe - Andrew Ba Tran
Where communities have banned fracking
16 December, 2014 - Wordpress - Flyby News
Stop the Pipeline Referendum in Mass
on Facebook too
Campaign to explore Referendum in Mass
Through the heart of New England?
No Fracked Gas In Mass
19 December, 2014 - Democracy Now!
New York Says No to Fracking:
. . Following Grassroots Outcry
over Public Health
19 November, 2014 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
As Sioux Tribe Calls Keystone XL an
"Act of War", TransCanada Hires
PR Firm to Probe Critics
16 November, 2014 - Truthout - Anne Meador
Fed Up With FERC: The People Declare
Greed "Not in the Public Interest"
17 November, 2014 - ZeroHedge - Tyler Durden
3 Billion Gallons Of Fracking Wastewater
Pumped Into Clean California Aquifiers:
"Errors Were Made" State Admits
04 December, 2014 - RT - Reuters
Congress gives Native American lands to
foreign mining company with new NDAA
03 August, 2013 - Sleuth Journal
Joe Biden's Son's Company Prepares
To Drill Shale Gas In East Ukraine
13 May, 2014 - CNN - Jason Hanna
Ice melt in part of Antarctica
'appears unstoppable,' NASA says
8 July, 2014 - Phys.org - Sean Nealon
Sand-based lithium ion batteries that
outperform standard by three times
Through the heart of New England?
No Fracked Gas In Mass
10 March, 2014 - PDF - Camille Cosby
Ignorance is not bliss
15 June, 2014 - Youtube - Flyby News
Moss Brook and TGP
No Fracking Way!
Produced through the facilities of
Greenfield Community Television
16 June, 2014 - GCTV Feature Short - 0:05:00
A Man And His Land
Also posted on Youtube
21 May, 2014 - Valley Advocate - Maureen Turner
An Ironic Proposal
Mass Audubon denies pipeline
developers access to sanctuary lands.
30 July, 2014 - GCTV - Video
Making Their Voices Heard
Full video of 30 July, 2014 rally in Boston
against the proposed Tennessee Gas Pipeline.
30 July, 2014 - Recorder - Richie Davis
Rally reaches Statehouse - Gas pipeline
protesters meet with Governor Patrick
11 June, 2014 - TheEdge - Judy Eddy
Eye on the Pipelines: Opposition gathers
to network of natural gas pipelines
from the 'fracking' fields
23 April, 2014 - Common Dreams - Zoltn Grossman
The Cowboy Indian Alliance Rises to
Protect Our Common Land and Water
28 April, 2014 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
We Need to End the Fossil Fuel Age:
Music Legend Neil Young Protests
Keystone XL Oil Pipeline
27 May, 2014 - Disasters - Michael Janitch
Colorado 4 MILE LONG Landslide
[Hushed Up] @ FRACKING operation
08 May, 2014 - Ohio Public Radio
Driller Causes Fracking Liquid Spill..
06 May, 2014 - RT
Oklahoma at risk for damaging
earthquake, but is fracking to blame?
'The magnitude 5.7 quake that hit Prague, Oklahoma
on Nov. 6, 2011 was, in fact, linked to fracking
operations, the USGS said in March.
Mounting scientific evidence has linked an uptick
in seismic activity in states like Oklahoma to fracking
developments amid the current domestic energy boom.'
23 April, 2014 - Common Dreams - Lauren McCauley
Family Wins Fracking Suit
in Legal Blow to Industry
21 April, 2014 - GaslandMovie - Food & Water
Tell Congress: Don't Rubber
Stamp Fracked Gas Exports!
Union of Concerned Scientists
Climate Risks of Overreliance
on Natural Gas for Electricity
04 December, 2014 - RT - Reuters
Congress gives Native American lands to
foreign mining company with new NDAA
December, 2014 - ICH - Mike Whitney
Ukraine War Driven by Gas-Dollar
Link Defending Dollar Imperialism
03 August, 2013 - Sleuth Journal
Joe Biden's Son's Company Prepares
To Drill Shale Gas In East Ukraine
18 September, 2014 - Impact Lab
$100B invested in wind or solar
will produce more energy than oil
18 December, 2014 - The Japan Times
6 tons tainted water leak at Fukushima
No. 1 during Korean safety tour
17 December, 2014 - Global Research - Michel Chossudovsky
The Fukushima Endgame: The Radioactive
Contamination of the Pacific Ocean
17 May, 2014 - Youtube - WuweiTranslations
Aerospace Worker:
"I Installed Chemtrails Devices"
21 April, 2014 - Forbidden Knowledge TV
Explosive UN Testimony
23 March, 2014 - Youtube - Rosalind Peterson
Chemtrails, Here is your PROOF!
17 December, 2013 - Common Dreams - Dahr Jamail
Considering Extinction: Are We
Falling Off the Climate Precipice?
08 April, 2014 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
"Science Does Not Exist on Capitol Hill":
Rep. Welch on GOPs Climate Change Denial
19 November, 2013 - Youtube - Audio
Fukushima "Apocalypse in Progress"
Gundersen & Wasserman
28 October, 2013 - Global Research - Ethan A. Huff
Radioactive Debris in Pacific Ocean:
Fukushima Radiation is Tearing up
the West Coast of the US and Canada
07 June 2009 - Nature - Common Dreams
Earth Facing Imminent 'Tipping Point'
Humankind is facing the threat of extinction,
according to new research released recently by
the science journal Nature. The article is entitled,
"Approaching a state shift in Earth's biosphere"
27 September, 2013 - Washington Post - Darryl Fears
IPCC report says humans almost
certainly cause global warming
18 October, 2013 - RT - News
Radioactivity level spikes
6,500 times at Fukushima well
20 September, 2013 - Common Dreams - Harvey Wasserman
The Crisis at Fukushima's Unit 4
Demands a Global Take-Over
18 September, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
How US Narrowly Avoided a Nuclear Holocaust
33 Years Ago, and Still Risks Catastrophe Today
18 September, 2013
The 1,000-Year Flood: Did Global Warming
Worsen Colorado's Unprecedented Rainfall?
16 September, 2013 - AFP - Global Post
Typhoon hits Japan as Fukushima
operator releases water into sea
16 September, 2013 - WantToKnow - Fred Burks
Fukushima 'Not Under Control', 9/11 Truth
Advancing, Israel Pushing Syria Strike
10 August, 2013 - Youtube - RT
China Syndrome at Fukushima,
Melted Cores Moved Into the Earth
03 December, 2013 - The Agonist - Michael Collins
Saudi America and the State of Denial
27 August, 2013 - WCAX News
Entergy announces plans to close Vermont Yankee
18 August, 2013 - BeforeItsNews - Deborah Dupree
Aussies Blow Lid Off BP Gulf Oil-Corexit
Deaths, Health Catastrophe Cover-Up
02 October, 2012 - MORPHcity - Cassandra Anderson
Scientists Warn Geo-Engineering
Can Kill Billions of People
13 May, 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Climate Tipping Point? Concentration of CO2
Tops 400 ppm For First Time in Human History
11 May, 2013 - AP - Seth Borenstein
Experts: CO2 record illustrates 'scary' trend
08 March, 2013 - Common Dreams - Andrea Germanos
Earth Hurtling Towards Temperatures
Not Seen in 11,000 Years
03 March, 2013 - Youtube - John Massaria
Climate Change - Extinction - ChemTrails
04 January, 2013 - Bill Moyers - Anthony Leiserowitz
Ending the Silence on Climate Change
15 November, 2012 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
"Chasing Ice": Film Captures Melting of Planet
Through the Lens of Photographer James Balog
17 September, 2012 - The Guardian - John Vidal
Arctic expert predicts final collapse
of sea ice within four years
25 July 2012 - Common Dreams - Staff
'Not a Mistake': NASA in Disbelief
over Rate of Melting Ice
30 May 2012 - RSN - Pratap Chatterjee
How Obama Helped Authorize
Shell's Drilling the Arctic
07 November, 2012 - Examiner - Deborah Dupre
Military BP partnership
prevents toxic Gulf cleanup
20 May 2012 - BBC News - Richard Black
Arctic melt releasing ancient methane
31 May 2012 - Science Daily
Geoengineering for Global Warming:
Increasing Aerosols in Atmosphere
Would Make Sky Whiter
10 May 2012 - Natural News - Ethan A. Huff
Corexit chemical dispersant used by BP
during Gulf oil disaster linked to
horrific human injuries
23 April 2012 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Gulf Oil Spill: BP Execs Escape Punishment
as Fallout From Disaster Impacts Sea life
19 April 2012 - EcoWatch - Greg Palast
BP Covered Up Blow-out Two Years
Prior to Deadly Deepwater Horizon Spill
05 April 2012 - Common Dreams - Staff
USGS: Recent Earthquakes
'Almost Certainly Manmade'
Report implicates oil and natural gas drilling, aka fracking
05 September 2012 - Examiner - Deborah Dupre
Sinkhole area Isaac aftermath
fish kills raise potable water question
22 August 2012 - Bloomberg - Inajima and Song
Tepco Finds Extreme Levels of
Radioactivity in Fukushima Fish
18 August 2012 - Rolling Stone - Bill McKibben
The Arctic Ice Crisis
05 August 2012 - Washington Post - James Hansen
Climate Change is Here and
Worse Than We Thought
03 July 2012 - Truthdig - Amy Goodman
Climate Change: 'This Is Just the Beginning'
03 July 2012 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
"This Is Just the Beginning": Forest Fires,
Deadly Storms, Record Heat, a Changed Climate
03 July 2012
Climate Disasters' Toll Worsened by Sustained
Attacks on Public Sector, Science and Regulation
20 May 2012 - BBC News - Richard Black
Arctic melt releasing ancient methane
09 May 2012 - NYTimes - James Hansen
Game Over for the Climate
01 May 2012 - Natural News - Ethan A. Huff
Fukushima still spewing massive radiation
plumes;
America in 'huge trouble,' says nuclear expert
02 April 2012 - Science Daily - Joshua Landis
Scientists Track Radioactive Iodine
in New Hampshire from Japan
Nuclear Reactor Meltdown
28 March 2012 - Common Dreams - Experts
Radiation at Fukushima
Far Worse Than Thought
23 March 2012 - CounterPunch - James Marc Leas
Vermont Yankee, State Rights
and the Future of Nuclear Power
04 April 2012 - AP - Washington Post
Ice age thaw may serve as global warning:
First greenhouse gas spiked,
then temperatures rose
"Carbon dioxide levels have jumped roughly
the same amount in the last century as they
did over 6,000 years to get out of the ice age."
29 March 2012 - Democracy Now! - War & Peace
Ousted Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed
on Coup that Ousted Him & Climate Activism
09 April 2012 - Part 2
From Political Prisoner to Climate Activist:
President Mohamed Nasheed Speaks Out
20 March 2012 - Common Dreams - Staff
Unprecedented Temperatures
Soar, Highs Continue
Climate scientist: This is the 'most unusual'
weather event I've witnessed in my lifetime.
22 March 2012 - Global Justice Ecology Project
Native Americans Protest
Keystone XL From A Cage
Take Action - 350.org - 05 May 2012
Connect the Dots between climate
change and extreme weather
17 March 2012 - BBC - Richard Black
Climate 'tech fixes' urged for Arctic methane
13 September 2011 - Natural News - Mike Adams
Solar flare could unleash nuclear holocaust
across planet Earth, forcing hundreds of
nuclear power plants into total meltdowns
15 March 2011 - Common Dreams - David Krieger
Mother Nature and Nuclear Power
For a successful technology, reality must
take precedence over public relations,
for Nature cannot be fooled.
- Richard Feynman
(1918-1988) American physicist
Help stop new nuclear power plants:
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
13 December 2011 - The Independent (UK) - Steve Connor
Shock as retreat of Arctic sea ice
releases deadly greenhouse gas
05 December 2011 - DailyKos - Bill McKibben
Most Important News Story of the Day/Millennium
Financial-Energy Crisis solution policy
Open letter (Oct. 2008) to Obama
By Jonathan Mark
07 December 2011 - Democracy Now - War & Peace
Nobel-Winning IPCC Chair Rajendra Pachauri Urges
Obama to "Listen to Science" on Global Warming
06 December 2011 - Inter Press Service - Common Dreams
US Obstinacy at Climate Talks
Destroying Hope, Planet
27 February 2012 - Common Dreams - Staff
There Will Be Fire: The 'Carbon
Bomb' 'Waiting to Be Ignited'
27 February 2012
White House Vows to 'Expedite'
New Pipeline Proposal
02 February 2012 - Democracy Now! - John Fenton
Obama's Support for Natural Gas Drilling
"A Painful Moment" for Communities
Exposed to Fracking
02 February 2012
"Gasland" Director Josh Fox Arrested
at Congressional Hearing on Natural Gas Fracking
20 February 2012 - Common Dreams - UN-Experts
'Perpetual Growth Myth'
Leading World to Meltdown
24 February 2012 - Examiner - Deborah Dupre
Secret 3rd Gulf of Mexico well
evidence as BP trial to begin
02 Febuary 2012 - Examiner - Deborah Dupre
Rights groups sue Gulf oil company
04 May 2011 - Youtube - Dr. Helen Caldicott
Expert Says Millions Will Die From Japan Radiation
16 August 2011 - 60 Minutes - Australia's CBS
Fukushima Now Radiating Everyone:
'Unspeakable' Reality 'Will Impact All Of Humanity
10 February 2012 - NYTimes - SFGate
2 nuclear reactors
approved for Georgia
10 February 2012 - NukeFree - Harvey Wasserman
We May Yet Lose Tokyo . . . Not to Mention
Alaska . . . . . and Now Georgia, [USA], Too
26 January 2012 - ValleyAdvocate - Stephanie Kraft
Judge Overturns Vermont Nuke Law
22 March 2012 - Huff Post - Wilson Ring
Vermont Yankee Protest: 130 Arrested At
Nuclear Plant's Corporate Headquarters
22 March 2012 - No Nukes - Safe & Green
Occupy Entergy HQ
Your Time Is Up
Defend democracy and state rights!
Ideas for balance in a mad mad world
Flyby News Health and Spiritual Blog
"It's better to light one candle
than to curse the darkness."
- Emily Dickinson
03 January 2012 - Huff Post - Harvey Wasserman
2012 Is the Year to Finally Bury Nuke Power
09 August 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Atomic Cover-Up: The Hidden Story Behind
the U.S. Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
05 August 2011 - War Is A Crime - David Swanson
Truman Lied, Hundreds of Thousands Died
05 August 2011 - Video - Information Clearing House
Is this the Greatest Crime in Human History?
14 February 2011 - Flyby News - Jonathan Mark
Lord of the Rings * Black 9/11 * Exposed
02 August 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Radiation Hits Record High
at Japanese Nuclear Plant
16 June 2011 - CounterPunch - Karl Grossman
Fukushima and the Nuclear Establishment
18 June 2011 - Guardian UK - Associated Press
Because of a rapid rise in radiation Japanese nuclear
plant halts operation to clean contaminated water
04 August 2011 - FAIR - Common Dreams
The Fires This Time:
In Coverage of Extreme Weather,
Media Downplay Climate Change
27 June 2011 - Reuters - Zelie Pollon
Firefighters beat back flames on nuclear
Los Alamos National Laboratory property
07 July 2011 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
As Exxon Crude Oil Spills Into Yellowstone River,
Obama Mulls New Pipeline From Canada to Texas
24 June 2011 - Examiner - Deborah Dupre
Large levee breach three miles up from
Cooper Nuclear Station. Mandatory evacs
24 June 2011 - Democracy Now! - Jeff Donn
New Expos Reveals Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Colluded with Industry to Weaken Safety Standards
21 June 2011 - Daily Mail (UK) - Reporter
Dangerous radiation leaked from 75%
of United States nuclear power plants
08 November 2011 - Reuters - Laura Zuckerman
Seventeen workers exposed
to radiation at Idaho lab
09 November 2011 - Common Dreams - Karl Grossman
NASA Readies Nuclear Launch
"Don't Do Disney..."
02 September 2011 - VIDEO - Josh Fox
Protecting the Sacred
Oscar nominated director Josh Fox (Gasland)
gives powerful support to Tar Sands Action!
02 September 2011 - Examiner - Deborah Dupre
First Nation Peoples powered
Pipeline Protest at White House
21 June 2011 - AlJazeera - State of the Ocean
Ocean life 'facing mass extinction'
30 May 2011 - The Guardian/UK - Common Dreams
Worst Ever Carbon Emissions
Leave Climate on the Brink
23 May 2011 - 350.org - Bill McKibben
Keep Calm and Carry On
A link between climate change and Joplin tornadoes
23 May 2011 - Democracy Now - Amy Goodman
The Fight over Coal Mining is a 'Fight About Democracy'
New Documentary with Robert Kennedy, Jr. Chronicles
Campaign to Halt Mountaintop Removal.
10 May 2011 - ZME Science - Mihai Andrei
9 out of 10 top climate change
deniers linked with Exxon Mobil
22 April 2011 - Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman
Earth Day Special
Vandana Shiva and Maude Barlow
on the Rights of Mother Earth
22 April 2011
"Now Is Our Time to Take a Stand"
Tim DeChristopher's Message to Youth
Climate Activists at Power Shift 2011
25 April 2011 - Common Dreams - Karl Grossman
Why Nuclear Power Will Never be Safe
19 June 2011 - Examiner - Deborah Dupre
Missouri River Flood - Nuclear Warnings
Nebraska's Fort Calhoun Nuclear plant
possibly leaking radiation now,
10,000 evacuees prepare to leave
20 June 2011 - The Examiner - Deborah Dupre
Fukushima suicide mission,
TEPCO nixes pricey solution
07 June 2011 - CNN - Tokyo
3 nuclear reactors melted down
after quake, Japan confirms
01 June 2011 - Compass Natural - Steven Hoffman
Fukushima in Our Food: Low Levels of Radiation
from Japan's Nuclear Meltdown Detected in Milk,
Fruit and Vegetable Tested from California Farms
30 May 2011 - Der Spiegel/Germany - Common Dreams
Germany's Nuclear Phaseout
Is an 'Historic Moment'
Take Action - Million FAX March Action Page
Stop All New Nuclear Power Development
11 March 2011 - Special article by Karl Grossman
Japan Nuclear Emergency
For more on this topic:
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
25 February 2011 - Scientific American -David Biello
Can Geoengineering Save the World from Global Warming?
06 October 2010 - Youtube
G. Edward Griffin talks about new CHEMTRAIL film
October 2010 - Reality Zone - DVD film
What in the World Are They Spraying?
15 December 2010 - TruTV - YouTube
Conspiracy Theory W/ Jesse Ventura:
HAARP [Season 1, Episode 1] (Full Length)
Do you want to see a Third Season?
Tell TruTV you support Jesse and the show!
For FN's resource, see:
Military Weather - Chem/Nukes in Space
04 February 2010 - The Guardian/UK - Common Dreams
Mass Tree Deaths Prompt Fears of Amazon 'Climate Tipping Point'
Scientists fear billions of tree deaths caused by 2010 drought
could see vast forest turn from carbon sink to carbon source
02 June 2010 - The Guardian (UK) - Felicity Carus
UN urges global move to meat and dairy-free diet
15 February 2011 - Truthout - Greg Palast
Chevron Runs From Judgment in Ecuador
13 December 2010 - YouTube - Dr. Len Horowitz
Conspiracy Theory With Jesse Ventura,
Season 2 Episode 7 (BP OIL SPILL) - FULL LENGTH
07 July 2010 - Len Horowitz and Sherri Kane
WAR on The World
Thirty Facts Reveal Gulf Oil Disaster Was Planned
13 July 2010 - Youtube - Flyby News Productions
Leonard Horowitz and Sherri Kane
Interviewed by Jonathan Mark on July 1, 2010
Part 1 of interview is at above link.
For all 6 parts, and for Bob Bowman Interview, click here!
[Flyby News Productions, listed in alphabetical order]
17 July 2010 - Socio-Economics Blog - Gianluigi Zangari
Gulf of Mexico Loop Current Broken!
Risk of Global Climate Change by BP Oil Spill
05 October 2010 - EuropeBusiness Blog - Lord Stirling
Life On This Earth Just Changed
- Rebuttal -
{But following data not related to 2010 Oil-Corexit timetable}
07 December 2010 - Reporting Climate Science - Leon Clifford
Gulf Stream is not slowing because of global warming
"NASA found no change in the strength of the circulation
between 2002 and 2009. And using the longer set of satellite
altimeter data, NASA found that the circulation had actually
increased in speed by about 20 percent between 1993 and 2009."
22 December 2010 - Agence France-Presse - Common Dreans
Biting Winters Driven by Global Warming: Scientists
28 December 2010 - Democracy Now - Dr. Paul Epstein
From Snowstorms to Heat Waves, How Global Warming
Causes Extreme Weather and Climate Instability
13 January 2011 - Common Dreams - Jeff Biggers
EPA Vetoes Largest Mountaintop Removal
Permit: New Era of Civility in the Coalfields?
21 May 2010 - Hot Indie News - Nature
Worlds Oceans getting warmer significantly
Based on a new study, detailed in the
May 20, 2010 issue of the journal Nature.
15 April 2010 - Democracy Now! -
Environmentalist, 350.org Founder Bill McKibben on
"Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet"
22 January 2010 - Agence France Presse - CommonDreams
Last Decade Warmest Ever: NASA
14 January 2010 - Climate Progress
2009 hottest year on record
in Southern Hemisphere
and tied for second globally
15 January 2010 - The Guardian (UK) - Common Dreams
Arctic Permafrost Leaking Methane
at Record Levels, Figures Show
Experts say methane emissions from the Arctic
have risen by almost one-third in just five years,
and that sharply rising temperatures are to blame.
21 December 2009 - Democracy Now!
Hugo Chavez Interview with Amy Goodman
Copenhagen - How to Tackle Climate Change
17 December 2009 - Valley Advocate - Stephanie Kraft
Three Hundred and Fifty Chimes
Bells rang from Copenhagen across the world
to warn us to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
21 December 2009 - 911blogger - Jerry Mazza
One man's look at the global warming horizon
How oil remains the culprit behind 9/11 and global warming,
the latter being a reality not an elitist scam.
Global Warming Crises & 9/11 Awareness
25 June 2010 - Newsweek - Sharon Begley
Newspapers Retract 'Climategate'
Claims, but Damage Still Done
16 February 2011 - Smirking Chimp - Harvey Wasserman
Obama's $36 Billion Nuke-Powered Giveaway
22 December 2009
Helen Caldicott Slams Environmental Groups
on Climate Bill, Nuclear Concessions
July, 2010 - Blip TV - Karl Grossman
Nuclear Power:
Dirty, Dangerous and Expensive
18 February 2010 - Democracy Now!
"A Bad Day for America":
Anti-Nuclear Activist Harvey Wasserman
Criticizes Obama Plan to Fund Nuclear Reactors
Nuclear Information And Resource Service
Help Stop A Taxpayer Bailout
of the Nuclear Power Industry!
23 July, 2010 - Nuclear Information and Resource Service
Good News From Washington (For A Change)
Senate Rejects Emergency Funding Bill
with $9 Billion in Nuke Loan Guarantees
22 July 2010 - Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
EPA Employees Blow the Whistle
on Flawed Climate Bills
Agency Specialists Say Greenhouse Gas
Offsets Unenforceable and Demand Probe
14 February 2009
Climate change could be even worse than feared!
22 May 2009
New worries on Arctic permafrost thaw
21 July 2009
Here Comes the Ice
Greenpeace is recording the breakup of the
Petermann Glacier, one of Greenlands largest.
23 November 2009
Antarctic Ice Loss Vaster, Faster Than Thought: Study
Scientists believe that Antarctica could lose
more ice than Greenland within a few years..
21 October 2010 - Democracy Now! War and Peace Report
6 Months Since BP Oil Spill, Writer and Environmentalist
Terry Tempest Williams Asks "Where Is Our Outrage?"
21 October 2010 - GregPalast.com - Greg Palast
The Petroleum Broadcast System Owes Us an Apology
09 June 2010 - Sherri Kane - Leonard Horowitz
Vatican Official Tied To BP, Goldman-Sachs,
And Media Censorship In The Oil Fiasco
Increasing Evidence Of Foul Play
21 May 2010 - New York Times - Bob Herbert
More Than Just an Oil Spill
The disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is threatening
an ecosystem the same way that big corporations
like BP threaten our political system.
17 August 2010 - NY Daily News - Common Dreams
Government Report on Gulf Oil Spill Inaccurate,
Scientists Say at Least 79% of Oil Still in the Sea
06 August 2010 - 911blogger - Sander Hicks
From Agent Orange, to 9/11, to BP:
Kenneth Feinberg is Master of Disaster
17 June 2010 - Helium.com - Terrence Aym
How the BP Gulf disaster could kill millions
Secret ingredients of chemical dispersant Corexit finally revealed
11 June 2010 - Natural News - Mike Adams
Toxic Corexit dispersant chemicals remained
secret as feds colluded with Big Business
18 June 2010 - Scientific America -Common Dreams
Is Using Dispersants on the BP Gulf Oil Spill
Fighting Pollution with Pollution?
17 May 2010 - NaturalNews - Mike Adams
Massive underwater oil cloud
may destroy life in Gulf of Mexico
Financial Crisis solution policy
Open letter (Oct. 2008) to Obama
By Jonathan Mark
22 July 2010 - Associated Press - Cara Anna
First details on China oil spill's cause emerge
02 June 2010 - The Guardian (UK)- UN Report
UN urges global move to meat and dairy-free diet
09 December 2010 - Democracy Now - War and Peace Report
Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa on WikiLeaks,
the September Coup, U.S. Denial of Climate
Funding, and Controversial Forest Scheme REDD
06 December 2010 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Pablo Soln Responds to Secret U.S. Manipulation
of Climate Talks Revealed in WikiLeaks Cable
07 December 2010 - NIRS - Take Action
Tell Congress: Stop $9 Billion in New Nuke Loans.
No More Taxpayer Bailouts for Giant Corporations!
CHEMTRAILS
09 April, 2016 - YourNewsWire - Kristen Meghan
Military Insider Comes Clean About
Chemtrails To Luke Rudskowski
17 March, 2016 - YourNewsWire - Sean Adl-Tabatabai
Top Scientist Confirms Aluminium
Poisoning Via Chemtrails Is Real
12 December, 2015 - Youtube - 1:48
Chemtrails Report: WIN TV
NEWS, Dubbo, Australia
01 October, 2014 - Youtube - 15:23 - OfGeometry
Pilots, Doctors and Scientists
Tell the Truth About Chemtrails
30 April, 2014 - Zen Gardner - Carolyn Williams Palit
The True Purpose of Chemtrails?
September, 2007 - Youtube - UN webcast
Rosalind Peterson addresses the UN
on Chemtrails And Geoengineering
Read the transcript here!
29 April, 2013 - CE - Arjun Walia
Geoengineering & Chemtrails:
What In The World Are They Spraying?
And Why?
05 June, 2014 - MemoryHole - Marcus K. Dalton
Chemtrails Are Over Las Vegas
17 May, 2014 - Youtube - WuweiTranslations
Aerospace Worker:
"I Installed Chemtrails Devices"
17 May, 2014 - GlobalTruth.net - Eric Lavals
Does the Airline You Fly Spray Chemtrails?
Plus more video resources
05 February, 2014 - YouTube - GeoEngineeringWatch
Geoengineering And The Collapse Of Earth
Updated
Energy Pollution's Impact On Environment
For more information, see following FN archive links:
August 6, 2008 - Item 3
A Simple Statement On Nuclear Power and Climate Change
"We do not support construction of new nuclear reactors
as a means of addressing the climate crisis. Available
renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies are
faster, cheaper, safer and cleaner strategies for
reducing greenhouse emissions than nuclear power."
Sign the petition
June 26, 2008 - Item 1
Global Warming James Hansen - Tipping Point - Congress
- - James Hansen: Prosecute oil companies, top scientist says
- - Global Warming Twenty Years Later: Tipping Points Near
- - Global Warming and Heavy Rainfall
May 15, 2008 - Item 2
World CO2 Continues to Rise Polar Bears threatened
- - World CO2 Levels At Record High, Scientists Warn
- - U.S. lists polar bears as threatened species
March 26, 2008 - Item 3
Exposed Bribes to Scientists, Global Warming, Aerial Spraying
- - Bribes offered to scientists
- - Bush Administration to Blue-State California: Drop Dead!
- - Alex Jones Hurts Truth By Ignoring Human-Made Excess in Air
March 20, 2008 - Item 2
Glaciers suffer record shrinkage
- - As Andean Glaciers Shrink, Water Worries Grow
- - NASA Data Shows Thickest and Oldest Arctic Ice Is Melting
October 19, 2007 - Item 2
Ice Caps Melting Fast: Say Goodbye to the Big Apple?
September 30, 2007 - Item 3
Arctic Thaw May Be at Tipping Point
- - A chance to protect the Arctic Refuge forever
- - STOP Mountaintop removal mining
June 20, 2007 - Item 3
Global Warming Crises & 9/11 Awareness Building Coalitions
- - Global Warming Is Three Times Faster Than Worst Predictions
- - Warming and 9/11 Related Danger Zones
- - Dems Plan to Channel Billions in Oil Subsidies to Renewable Fuels
- - Converting Waste Heat Into Power GreenLiving - SolarFest
February 16, 2007 - Item 4
Greenhouse Gases Hit New High, Rise Accelerates
January 27, 2007 - Item 2
ChemTrails and the New World Order
January 24, 2007 - Item 2
UN Climate Panel to Project Wrenching Change
- - Global warming: the final verdict
December 1, 2006 - Item 3
Carbon emission rises shock experts
September 17, 2006 - Item 3
Greenhouse Gas Bubbling From Melting Permafrost Feeds Climate Warming
May 2, 2006 - Item 2
Chilling warnings on receding permafrost
April 4, 2006 - Item 2
Forum Hears Dire Warnings Of Environmental Collapse
- - Is It Too Late to Stop Global Warming?
April 1, 2006 - Item 1
Was Confusion Over Global Warming a Con Job?'
- - Time Cover Story - Global Warming Heats Up
March 27, 2006 - Item 1
Sea rise could be 'catastrophic'
- - Glacial earthquakes rock Greenland
- - Studies: Polar warming speeds up
March 16, 2006 - Item 1
Climate change 'irreversible'
- - States Calculate Global Warming Pricetag
- - Another Senate Attempt for Oil Drilling in ANWR
December 21, 2005 - Item 3
Ecosystems Plunge as Carbon Rise
- - Republicans Add Alaska Oil Drilling to Defense Bill
- - How America Plotted to Stop Kyoto Deal
- - Great Lakes Headed for Catastrophic 'Ecological Collapse'
- - Scientists: Greenland Glaciers Retreating
November 29, 2005 - Item 3
Arctic Booms as Climate Change Melts Polar Ice Cap
November 22, 2005 - Item 1
Global Disaster Will Follow If the Ice Cap on Greenland Melts
Greenland's glaciers have begun to race towards the ocean..
the most alarming manifestations of climate change to date -
suggest that the ice cap is melting far more rapidly than scientists
had thought, with immense consequences for civilisation and the planet.
Geoffrey Lean
November 1, 2005 - Item 3
U.S. Military Wants to Own the Weather
September 27, 2005 - Item 1
This is Global Warming, Says Environmental Chief
- - Wes Clark Blog Invite - national security and global warming
"The increased intensity of these kinds of extreme storms
is very likely to be due to global warming."
Referring to the arrival of Hurricane Rita: "If this makes
the climate loonies in the States realise we've got a problem,
some good will come out of a truly awful situation."
Sir John Lawton
chairman of the Royal Commission
on Environmental Pollution
September 19, 2005 - Item 3
Global Warming 'Past the Point of No Return'
- - Government Email Plays in the Katrina Blame Game
- - Katrina Relief: It's Iraq Deja vu All Over Again
- - Toxic Waters 'Will Make New Orleans Unsafe for a Decade'
- - Global Warming Hits New Orleans
September 6, 2005 - Item 3
Impact of CO2-Induced Warming on Hurricane Intensity
September 1, 2005 - Item 1
Katrina's real name is Global Warming
August 13, 2005 - Item 1
Warming Hits 'Tipping Point'
June 15, 2005 - Item 3
Global Warming: The US Contribution in Figures
April 24, 2005 - Item 3
Hell of an Earth Day - House Energy Bill - Take Action for Senate
- - On Eve of Earth Day, House Passes Energy Bill that Allows ANWR Drilling
April 24, 2005 - Item 3
Oil production could peak next year
- - Stirling Solution for Earth-friendly Onsite Power Generation
February 20, 2005 - Item 3
Final Proof: Global Warming is a Man-Made Disaster
- - US Citizens' Ratification of the Kyoto Protocol
Join a people's campaign to ratify the Kyoto Protocol
February 8, 2005 - Item 1
Apocalypse Now: Sleepwalking to End of the Earth
November 10, 2004 - Item 3
New Scientific Consensus: Arctic Is Warming
- - Fast Arctic Thaw Threatens People, Polar Bears
November 6, 2004 - Item 3
Awesome power of Iceland volcano
November 4, 2004 - Item 3
Volcano Erupts in Isolated Iceland Area
October 11, 2004 - Item 2
[NO] Surprise CO2 rise may speed up global warming
September 25, 2004 - Item 2
Study: "Antarctic Glaciers Melting Faster"
Glaciers once held up by a floating ice shelf off Antarctica
are now sliding off into the sea -- and they are going fast,
scientists said on Tuesday.
Two separate studies from climate researchers and the space agency
NASA show the glaciers are flowing into Antarctica's Weddell Sea,
freed by the 2002 breakup of the Larsen B ice shelf.
Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters,
the researchers said their satellite measurements suggest
climate warming can lead to rapid sea level rise.
March 11, 2004 - Item 1
We Face Climate Disaster * Global Warming as a Weapon of Mass Destruction
"We are carbonizing the oceans with dire consequences."
February 24, 2004 - Item 1
Now the Pentagon Tells Bush: Climate Change Will Destroy Us
February 7, 2004 - Item 3
How Global Warming May Cause the Next Ice Age
November 28, 2003 - Item 1
Global Warming Gas Seen Increasing Dramatically * New View of Data Supports Human Link to Global Warming
July 8, 2003 - Items 1-4
Global Warming Alert * Stirling Engine for Waste Heat Power Systems * "The Apollo Project" 10-point plan for energy independence * Process for New Sustainable Fuel Resources
January 9, 2003 - Item 4
NASA: Arctic Sea Ice Disappearing Before End of Century
November 29, 2002 - Item 3
Arctic Meltdown and New Evidence of Global Warming
November 24, 2002 - Items 2 and 4
World's Worst Oil Spills off Spain's Coast * EPA Eases Rules on Air Cleanup
November 11, 2002 - Item 1
Carbon Dioxide on the Rise
October 30, 2002 - Item 1
Global Warming Submerging NY
July 9, 2002 - Item 1
Earth 'will expire by 2050'
June 27, 2002 Items 1-4
Help Cut Global Warming * Too Hot? * Truth on Warming
August 24, 2002 - Item 3
Analysis of Bush's Wildfire Plan!
July 20, 2002 - Item 1
Earth's Ice Melting Faster Than Projected
June 15, 2002 - Items 1, 2, & 3
Warming World on Thin Ice - Bush Manifesto: Death by Carbon Dioxide
May 29, 2002 - Items 1-4
Expert warns world is warming faster than forecast * Antarctic Ice Melt Poses Worldwide Threat * World Summit on Sustainable Development * SolarFest
June 4, 2002 - Item 1
The Big Admission -- Climate is Changing, US Says in Report
April 17, 2002 - Items 1 & 2
Practical "Stirling" Solution for Onsite Power Production and The Arctic Meltdown
December 21, 2001 - Item 2
2001 to be second hottest year since records began: UN
September 11, 2001 - Item 2
Astronaut says environmental damage can be seen from space.
October 11, 2001 - Item 2
Satellites Reveal Drought Conditions
May 9, 2001 - Item 1
Letter on Global Warming and Missile Defense
July 23, 2001 - Item 1
Global Warming Deal Reached
January 13, 2001 - Item 2
Peatlands Loss Linked to Global Warming Surge
March 4, 2002 - Items 1 & 2
Declaration of Energy Independence - Energy Debate in Senate
March 6, 2002 - Item 1
A report on climate change: catastrophe could be imminent
March 18, 2002 - Item 2
Taking the Earth's temperature
The global temperature data for January and February 2002 are in -- and it sure has been hot.
April 24, 2002 - Item 3
The Uglier American - Climate scientist ousted
-- Washington - Feb 14, 2002 --
The Arctic ice cap is shrinking that much is known with certainty.
Over the past century, the extent of the winter pack ice in the
Nordic Seas has decreased by about 25%. Last winter the Bering
Sea was effectively ice-free, which is unprecedented, and if
this big melt continues, some say the formerly ice-locked
Arctic will have open sea lanes as soon as 2015.
By 2050, the summertime ice cap could disappear entirely.
For the complete article, see:
Arctic Summer Sea Lanes Open By 2015 Forecasts ONR
also from Space.com:
Is Europe About To Freeze
Disaster at sea: global warming hits UK birds
By Michael McCarthy Environment Editor
30 July 2004
Disaster at sea: global warming hits UK birds
Leading article: A disaster that should serve as a global warning
Hundreds of thousands of Scottish seabirds have failed to breed this summer in a wildlife catastrophe which is being linked by scientists directly to global warming.
The massive unprecedented collapse of nesting attempts by several seabird species in Orkney and Shetland is likely to prove the first major impact of climate change on Britain.
In what could be a sub-plot from the recent disaster movie, The Day After Tomorrow, a rise in sea temperature is believed to have led to the mysterious disappearance of a key part of the marine food chain - the sandeel, the small fish whose great teeming shoals have hitherto sustained larger fish, marine mammals and seabirds in their millions.
In Orkney and Shetland, the sandeel stocks have been shrinking for several years, and this summer they have disappeared: the result for seabirds has been mass starvation. The figures for breeding failure, for Shetland in particular, almost defy belief.
More than 172,000 breeding pairs of guillemots were recorded in the islands in the last national census, Seabird 2000, whose results were published this year; this summer the birds have produced almost no young, according to Peter Ellis, Shetland area manager for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).
Martin Heubeck of Aberdeen University, who has monitored Shetland seabirds for 30 years, said: "The breeding failure of the guillemots is unprecedented in Europe." More than 6,800 pairs of great skuas were recorded in Shetland in the same census; this year they have produced a handful of chicks - perhaps fewer than 10 - while the arctic skuas (1,120 pairs in the census) have failed to produce any surviving young.
The 24,000 pairs of arctic terns, and the 16,700 pairs of Shetland kittiwakes - small gulls - have "probably suffered complete failure", said Mr Ellis.
In Orkney the picture is very similar, although detailed figures are not yet available. "It looks very bad," said the RSPB's warden on Orkney mainland, Andy Knight. "Very few of the birds have raised any chicks at all."
The counting and monitoring is still going on and the figures are by no means complete: it is likely that puffins, for example, will also have suffered massive breeding failure but because they nest deep in burrows, this is not immediately obvious.
But the astonishing scale of what has taken place is already clear - and the link to climate change is being openly made by scientists. It is believed that the microscopic plankton on which tiny sandeel larvae feed are moving northwards as the sea water warms, leaving the baby fish with nothing to feed on.
This is being seen in the North Sea in particular, where the water temperature has risen by 2C in the past 20 years, and where the whole ecosystem is thought to be undergoing a "regime shift", or a fundamental alteration in the interaction of its component species. "Think of the North Sea as an engine, and plankton as the fuel driving it," said Euan Dunn of the RSPB, one of the world's leading experts on the interaction of fish and seabirds. "The fuel mix has changed so radically in the past 20 years, as a result of climate change, that the whole engine is now spluttering and starting to malfunction. All of the animals in the food web above the plankton, first the sandeels, then the larger fish like cod, and ultimately the seabirds, are starting to be affected."
Research last year clearly showed that the higher the temperature, the less sandeels could maintain their population level, said Dr Dunn. "The young sandeels are simply not surviving."
Although over-fishing of sandeels has caused breeding failures in the past, the present situation could not be blamed on fishing, he said. The Shetland sandeel fishery was catching so few fish that it was closed as a precautionary measure earlier this year. "Climate change is a far more likely explanation."
The spectacular seabird populations of the Northern Isles have a double importance. They are of great value scientifically, holding, for example, the world's biggest populations of great skuas. And they are of enormous value to Orkney and Shetland tourism, being the principal draw for many visitors. The national and international significance of what has happened is only just beginning to dawn on the wider political and scientific community, but some leading figures are already taking it on board.
"This is an incredible event," said Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth. "The catastrophe [of these] seabirds is just a foretaste of what lies ahead.
"It shows that climate change is happening now, [with] devastating consequences here in Britain, and it shows that reducing the pollution causing changes to the earth's climate should now be the global number one political priority."
This article was originally posted at
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=546138
The views expressed herein are writers' own and not necessarily of Flyby News.
Fair Use Policy that describes use of copyrighted material is at FlybyNews.com.
Feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News is appreciated.
You can write to the editor by email: - flyby(at}mtdata{dot)com -
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus,
and has supported critical campaigns for a healthy
environment, human rights, justice, and nonviolence,
since the launch of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era
= = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
New Space-Age Paradigm Invitation - Pentagon Disinformation - Lori Update
19 February 2002
The ninety-day action plan for "peace in space" kicks off this weekend on February 23, 2002. The Institute for Cooperation in Space and Global Citizens for Sustainable Existence Now are sponsoring a program with Dennis Kucinich in support of the ban of all space-based weapons in 2002. This campaign is not a day too soon. President Bush and his administration's aim to expand the arms race must be stopped. The only way this could possibly happen this year is from a powerful grassroots campaign, an inspired Congress and international support to transform the weapon building industry into functioning in a world without any weapons in space. This could have an immediate peace dividend for sustainable technology projects and for international cooperation, strengthening conventional military forces committed to the eventual enforcement of the abolition of all weapons of mass destruction. This new direction for peace, prosperity, and environmental protection can be the new paradigm shift in consciousness.
1) A Cooperative World Space Industry
2) A Propaganda War of Lies
3) Peru Supreme Court Upholds 20-Year Sentence for Lori Berenson
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) A Cooperative World Space Industry
An Invitation to Transform the World
February 23, 2002; Malibu, California
A Cooperative World Space Industry vs Star Wars
The Institute for Cooperation in Space (ICIS) is inviting leaders for peace, newsmakers and celebrities, who are committed to shifting consciousness, to join them for an initiation of a 90-day action plan that includes the goals of the Space Preservation Act of 2002, H.R. 3616. Find out why Life on this planet could shift dramatically after June 13, 2002, from the current US administration's aim to weaponize space to a new beginning of arms control and a realistic approach for the abolition of all weapons of mass destruction before it is too late.
Join ICIS during the evening of Saturday, Feb. 23rd and find out details on how this issue can be transformed, while creating a grassroots movement to shift the new space-age paradigm to a new way of thinking and functioning that is beyond fear and war consciousness. Get inspired and join leaders of this campaign to help transform the weapon industry to an industry supporting a peace dividend that can be lasting.
Speakers for the February 23rd event include:
* Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), Chair of the House Progressive Caucus and Co-Chair of the House Space and Aviation Caucus. Meet an emerging national progressive leader of the Democratic Party. On January 23rd he introduced a national bill in the House of Representatives, H.R. 3616, the Space Preservation Act of 2002 to ban space-based weapons.
* Carol Rosin, President of Institute of Cooperation in Space, International speaker and leading the way in transforming the weapons and war based economy and security system into a cooperative world space industry and program.
* Daniel Sheehan J.D., General Counsel of ICIS, was legal counsel for Pentagon Papers, Karen Silkwood, Iran Contra & Three Mile Island. Sheehan will identify immediate steps that need to be taken and guide us through creating a successful movement to preserve space and the domination of Earth from space based weapons.
* Lindsay Wagner, actress and advocate for human potential has stepped up to the plate to be a voice and advocate for others to be a call to action.
Learn about immediate things you can do to create awareness and activate the people in your spheres of influence.
Find out about an event that will provide education and a call to action with entertainment from top celebrities. Saturday, March 30th 2002 and is being sponsored by Season for Nonviolence.
The February 23rd event will begin around 6pm, speakers begin at 7pm, and doors will close at 6:45pm. The location is PCH and the Big Rock turnoff in Malibu; get specific directions when you RSVP to the office of Carol Rosin 805/641-1999 or email to rosin@west.net
Sponsored by Institute for Cooperation in Space and Global Citizens for Sustainable Existence Now!
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) A Propaganda War of Lies
Pentagon Readies Efforts to Sway Sentiment Abroad
NYTimes
February 19, 2002
By JAMES DAO and ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 - The Pentagon is developing plans to provide news items, possibly even false ones, to foreign media organizations as part of a new effort to influence public sentiment and policy makers in both friendly and unfriendly countries, military officials said.
The plans, which have not received final approval from the Bush administration, have stirred opposition among some Pentagon officials who say they might undermine the credibility of information that is openly distributed by the Defense Department's public affairs officers.
The military has long engaged in information warfare against hostile nations - for instance, by dropping leaflets and broadcasting messages into Afghanistan when it was still under Taliban rule.
But it recently created the Office of Strategic Influence, which is proposing to broaden that mission into allied nations in the Middle East, Asia and even Western Europe. The office would assume a role traditionally led by civilian agencies, mainly the State Department.
The small but well-financed Pentagon office, which was established shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was a response to concerns in the administration that the United States was losing public support overseas for its war on terrorism, particularly in Islamic countries.
As part of the effort to counter the pronouncements of the Taliban, Osama bin Laden and their supporters, the State Department has already hired a former advertising executive to run its public diplomacy office, and the White House has created a public information "war room" to coordinate the administration's daily message domestically and abroad.
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, while broadly supportive of the new office, has not approved its specific proposals and has asked the Pentagon's top lawyer, William J. Haynes, to review them, senior Pentagon officials said.
Little information is available about the Office of Strategic Influence, and even many senior Pentagon officials and Congressional military aides say they know almost nothing about its purpose and plans. Its multimillion dollar budget, drawn from a $10 billion emergency supplement to the Pentagon budget authorized by Congress in October, has not been disclosed.
Headed by Brig. Gen. Simon P. Worden of the Air Force, the new office has begun circulating classified proposals calling for aggressive campaigns that use not only the foreign media and the Internet, but also covert operations.
The new office "rolls up all the instruments within D.O.D. to influence foreign audiences," its assistant for operations, Thomas A. Timmes, a former Army colonel and psychological operations officer, said at a recent conference, referring to the Department of Defense. "D.O.D. has not traditionally done these things."
One of the office's proposals calls for planting news items with foreign media organizations through outside concerns that might not have obvious ties to the Pentagon, officials familiar with the proposal said.
General Worden envisions a broad mission ranging from "black" campaigns that use disinformation and other covert activities to "white" public affairs that rely on truthful news releases, Pentagon officials said.
"It goes from the blackest of black programs to the whitest of white," a senior Pentagon official said.
Another proposal involves sending journalists, civic leaders and foreign leaders e-mail messages that promote American views or attack unfriendly governments, officials said.
Asked if such e-mail would be identified as coming from the American military, a senior Pentagon official said that "the return address will probably be a dot-com, not a dot-mil," a reference to the military's Internet designation.
To help the new office, the Pentagon has hired the Rendon Group, a Washington-based international consulting firm run by John W. Rendon Jr., a former campaign aide to President Jimmy Carter. The firm, which is being paid about $100,000 a month, has done extensive work for the Central Intelligence Agency, the Kuwaiti royal family and the Iraqi National Congress, the opposition group seeking to oust President Saddam Hussein.
Officials at the Rendon Group say terms of their contract forbid them to talk about their Pentagon work. But the firm is well known for running propaganda campaigns in Arab countries, including one denouncing atrocities by Iraq during its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The firm has been hired as the Bush administration appears to have united around the goal of ousting Mr. Hussein. "Saddam Hussein has a charm offensive going on, and we haven't done anything to counteract it," a senior military official said.
Proponents say the new Pentagon office will bring much-needed coordination to the military's efforts to influence views of the United States overseas, particularly as Washington broadens the war on terrorism beyond Afghanistan.
But the new office has also stirred a sharp debate in the Pentagon, where several senior officials have questioned whether its mission is too broad and possibly even illegal.
Those critics say they are disturbed that a single office might be authorized to use not only covert operations like computer network attacks, psychological activities and deception, but also the instruments and staff of the military's globe- spanning public affairs apparatus.
Mingling the more surreptitious activities with the work of traditional public affairs would undermine the Pentagon's credibility with the media, the public and governments around the world, critics argue.
"This breaks down the boundaries almost completely," a senior Pentagon official said.
Moreover, critics say, disinformation planted in foreign media organizations, like Reuters or Agence France-Presse, could end up being published or broadcast by American news organizations.
The Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency are barred by law from propaganda activities in the United States. In the mid-1970's, it was disclosed that some C.I.A. programs to plant false information in the foreign press had resulted in articles published by American news
organizations.
Critics of the new Pentagon office also argue that governments allied with the United States are likely to object strongly to any attempts by the American military to influence media within their borders.
"Everybody understands using information operations to go after nonfriendlies," another senior Pentagon official said. "When people get uncomfortable is when people use the same tools and tactics on friendlies."
Victoria Clarke, the assistant secretary of defense for public information, declined to discuss details of the new office. But she acknowledged that its mission was being carefully reviewed by the Pentagon.
"Clearly the U.S. needs to be as effective as possible in all our communications," she said. "What we're trying to do now is make clear the distinction and appropriateness of who does what."
General Worden, an astrophysicist who has specialized in space operations in his 27-year Air Force career, did not respond to several requests for an interview.
General Worden has close ties to his new boss, Douglas J. Feith, the under secretary of defense for policy, that date back to the Reagan administration, military officials said. The general's staff of about 15 people reports to the office of the assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, which is under Mr. Feith.
The Office for Strategic Influence also coordinates its work with the White House's new counterterrorism office, run by Wayne A. Downing, a retired general who was head of the Special Operations command, which oversees the military's covert information operations.
Many administration officials worried that the United States was losing support in the Islamic world after American warplanes began bombing Afghanistan in October. Those concerns spurred the creation of the Office of Strategic Influence.
In an interview in November, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, explained the Pentagon's desire to broaden its efforts to influence foreign audiences, saying
"Perhaps the most challenging piece of this is putting together what we call a strategic influence campaign quickly and with the right emphasis. That's everything from psychological operations to the public affairs piece to coordinating partners in this effort with us."
One of the military units assigned to carry out the policies of the Office of Strategic Influence is the Army's Psychological Operations Command. The command was involved in dropping millions of fliers and broadcasting scores of radio programs into Afghanistan encouraging Taliban and Al Qaeda soldiers to surrender.
In the 1980's, Army "psyop" units, as they are known, broadcast radio and television programs into Nicaragua intended to undermine the Sandinista government. In the 1990's, they tried to encourage public support for American peacekeeping missions in the Balkans.
The Office of Strategic Influence will also oversee private companies that will be hired to help develop information programs and evaluate their effectiveness using the same techniques as American political campaigns, including scientific polling and focus groups, officials said.
"O.S.I. still thinks the way to go is start a Defense Department Voice of America," a senior military official said. "When I get their briefings, it's scary."
Original article posted:
http//www.nytimes.com/2002/02/19/international/19PENT.html?ex=1015133364&ei=1&en=f49c19b130661525
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Peru Supreme Court Upholds 20-Year Sentence for Lori Berenson
Monday, February 18, 2002
To All Friends and Supporters of Lori Berenson
PERU SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS 20-YEAR SENTENCE
After months of delay, Peru's highest appeals court upheld the conviction and 20-year sentence imposed against Lori last June 20. The five-judge panel turned down her appeal that she was innocent of all charges and was imprisoned solely for her beliefs. Dr. Sandoval, Lori's lawyer, had argued that during the course of the civilian trial that commenced on August 28, 2000 there were numerous violations in fundamental due process and that no evidence was presented nor did any witness testify that would warrant a conviction. Dr. Sandoval said that the judges relied extensively on the tainted evidence taken from other prisoners under duress and threats of torture during the original 1995-6 military tribunals. Dr. Sandoval had also pointed out that Chief Judge Ibazeta had prejudiced Lori two years earlier but refused to recuse himself from the case and that the media, now known to be corrupted by the discredited Fujimori-Montesinos regime, had built up a strong negative public image of Lori that was impossible for her to overcome and that there was never one moment where she was presumed innocent requiring the State to prove guilt.
PRESS STATEMENT BY RHODA AND MARK BERENSON
We are not surprised at the decision by the Peruvian Supreme Court and are prepared to continue our efforts to bring Lori home. We remain convinced of Lori's innocence and the decision of the Supreme Court today only indicates that the Peruvian judiciary is still in need of reform. The anti-terrorism laws under which Lori was convicted have been universally condemned and need to be changed. Lori is but one of hundreds who wrongfully remain in Peruvian prisons because of this injustice.
As to Lori's future, we remain optimistic. We believe in the strength of the rule of law and we expect Lori to be released. First, we will call upon President George W. Bush to right this wrong, to use his power under U.S.C. 22, Section 1732 and come to the rescue of a U.S. citizen who has been wrongfully held in a foreign country. Second, we hope that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States, which has had Lori's case under review for four years and which has already publicly condemned the Peruvian laws under which she was tried, will now be ready to call for Lori's release. And third, we call upon President Alejandro Toledo to pardon Lori. She was a victim of the Fujimori-Montesinos dictatorship that used her as a political pawn for their personal gains. Given that Lori has already been held for more than six years under extremely harsh conditions that have caused permanent damage to her health, we ask him to pardon her immediately.
For more information, see
http://www.freelori.org
Please call the White House Comment Line
1-202-456-1111
In support of President Bush's support to strongly encourage the President of Peru, Alejandro Toledo, to pardon Lori. ["Given that Lori has already been held for more than six years under extremely harsh conditions that have caused permanent damage to her health, we ask him to pardon her immediately."]
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Military Weather - Psychotronics - Chem/Nukes in Space
This page was originally posted on 14 February 2002, and updated!
Military Weather - Psychotronics - Chem/Nukes in Space
Editor Notes:
Item 1 is on the US experimenting on our atmosphere and weather. You will also find updated links on experimental military weapons in violation of human rights, such as electromagnetic weapons influencing human cognition. Also this updated page includes other issues including chem trails, psychotronics, and other devices developed by organized insanity. Item 2 has an NYTimes editorial in support of the development of nuclear power in space. Item 3 is on the stupendous amount of money to build a so-called "missile defense," but one that will lead to an escalation of the arms race. Item 4 is an article on China's interest in a ban on space-based weapons.
1) When the Army Owns the Weather
- - Updated archives on Electromagnetic Weapons, Chemtrails, +
2) Looking Anew at Nuclear Power for Space Travel
3) US Attempt to Stop Missile Threat Could Cost $238 Billion
4) China criticises U.S. over arms control
12 March 2011 - MSNBC - Asia-Pacific
Meltdown Possible at Japan
nuclear plant, official says
11 March 2011 - MSNBC - Common Dreams
Nuclear Emergency Declared
As Japan Power Plants Fail
11 March 2011 - Special article by Karl Grossman
Japan Nuclear Emergency
For more on this topic:
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
06 March 2011 - Examiner - Alfred Lambremont Webre
Chemtrails are global covert operation
for total control, detecting UFOs - Part 3
25 February 2011 - Scientific American -David Biello
Can Geoengineering Save the World from Global Warming?
06 October 2010 - Youtube
G. Edward Griffin talks about new CHEMTRAIL film
October 2010 - Reality Zone - DVD film
What in the World Are They Spraying?
15 December 2010 - TruTV - YouTube
Conspiracy Theory W/ Jesse Ventura:
HAARP [Season 1, Episode 1] (Full Length)
1) When the Army Owns the Weather
by Bob Fitrakis,
Columbus Alive
February 5, 2002
Humans have long sought to control the weather. Early people learned how to make fire and modify their micro-environments; rain dances and other rituals to alleviate droughts are part of our folklore. So news that the government is engaged in secret experiments to control the weather should come as no surprise -- especially after a long history of "cloud seeding," "atom splitting" and cloning revelations.
In fact, a vast majority of people would be shocked to learn that this orphan of the cold war is still in practice. As the U.S. and former Soviet Union spent trillions of dollars on their militaries, their commitment to mutually assured destruction led to extensive experimentation with the use of weather as a weapon. In 1977, the Saturday Review cited a CIA report hinting that the U.S. government already had the power to massively manipulate the weather for war purposes.
As the Soviet Union disintegrated, a 1993 Isvestia article suggested theU.S. might want to partner with the Russians in peddling their top-secret technology to the world. Oleg Klugin, a high-ranking KGB officer, bragged of his involvement in geophysical weapons research to a London newspaper. The grid patterns of jet chemtrails now spotted throughout the Western world are likely the application of these technologies to new military and civilian uses.
The military is not attempting to hide its long-term goals. "Weather is a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025" is a white paper that can be found on a Pentagon-sponsored website. The paper's abstract reads: "In 2025, U.S. aerospace forces can 'own the weather' by capitalizing on emerging technologies and focusing development of those technologies towards fighting applications. Such a capability offers the war fighters tools to shape the battle space in ways never before possible... In the U.S., weather modification will likely become a part of national security policy with both domestic and international applications."
Wired magazine wrote about the paper and extensively quoted physicist Bernard Eastlund in its January 2000 article "Activate Cloud Shield! Zap a Twister!" The article detailed the military's plan for "made-to-order thunderstorms" and "lightning strikes on demand."
Eastlund managed programs for Controlled Thermal Nuclear Research for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission from 1966 to 1974; he was a key researcher in the 1980s' Strategic Space Initiative (aka Star Wars). Since 1996, Eastlund served as CEO and president of Eastlund Scientific Enterprises Corporation. The company boasts on its website that it specializes in "weather modification" and "tornado modification" among other high-tech services.
Eastlund considers the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) in Alaska a smaller version of what he envisions for weather modification. In response to Michael Theroux of Borderland Sciences -- who asked Eastlund whether the HAARP station could affect the weather -- Eastlund replied: "Significant experiments could be performed... The HAARP antenna as is it now configured modulates the auroral electrojet to induce ELF waves and thus could have an effect on the zonal winds."
At the Space 2000 Conference and Exposition on Engineering, Construction, Operations and Business in Space, sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers, Eastlund outlined his plan for zapping tornados with an electromagnetic radiation beam from the proposed Thunderstorm Solar Powered Satellite he's developing with the help of the European Space Agency and Jenkins Enterprises.
U.S. patent number 6315213, filed on November 13, is described as a method of modifying weather and should concern the public. A scientist from Wright Patterson Air Force Base acknowledges that planes are spraying barium salt, polymer fibers, aluminum oxide and other chemicals in the atmosphere to both modify the weather and for military communications purposes. The patent abstract specifically states: "The polymer is dispersed into the cloud and the wind of the storm agitates the mixture causing the polymer to absorb the rain. This reaction forms a gelatinous substance which precipitate to the surface below. Thus, diminishing the cloud's ability to rain."
Answering the age-old question, Who'll stop the rain?: Apparently our government and a few of their closest friends in the military industrial-complex. The emergence of Edward Teller promoting this startling technology is more than scary. (Teller was the father of the H-Bomb and grand promoter of Readi Kilowatt, our perky little radiation friend from the '50s; one of his bright ideas from the '50s was to create harbors by nuking our own coastline.) The April 24 New York Times reported that Teller "has promoted the idea of manipulating the Earth's atmosphere to counteract global warming." The computer simulations on the use of aluminum oxide to counter global warming come from the Lawrence Livermore Weapons Laboratory, where Teller serves as director emeritus.
There should be little doubt that this would be a priority for the government -- or for for-profit military contractors. While 2001 was the second-hottest year on record (1998 holds the record as the hottest year), the nine hottest years on record have occurred since 1990. But why would the government conduct anti-global warming experiments in secret?
Investigative reporter William Thomas holds that there's a link between the recent increase in asthma, allergies and upper respiratory ailments and the chemtrail spraying. Sound crazy? Remember, it sounded absurd when reports first came out that the government had conducted radioactivity experiments on U.S. citizens and released radiation from nuclear plants to test the effect on civilian populations. It sounded bizarre when news first filtered out that the government was engaged in the MK-Ultra mind-control experiments using LSD. The CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency admit they were responsible for many of the UFO sightings in the 1950s in order the explain away experimental military technology.
From public documents to mainstream news accounts, the record is filled with reports of weather-modifying technology left over from the Cold War. Now we have a right to know what, if anything, the government plans to do with it.
www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12342
= = = = = = = =
Related Links:
Washington's New World Order Weapons Have the Ability to Trigger Climate Change
by Michel Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa
Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG)
4 January 2002
The important debate on global warming under UN auspices provides but a partial picture of climate change; in addition to the devastating impacts of greenhouse gas emissions on the ozone layer, the World's climate can now be modified as part of a new generation of sophisticated "non-lethal weapons." Both the Americans and the Russians have developed capabilities to manipulate the World's climate.
In the US, the technology is being perfected under the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) as part of the ("Star Wars") Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI). Recent scientific evidence suggests that HAARP is fully operational and has the ability of potentially triggering floods, droughts, hurricanes and earthquakes. From a military standpoint, HAARP is a weapon of mass destruction. Potentially, it constitutes an instrument of conquest capable of selectively destabilising agricultural and ecological systems of entire regions.
For this full report and links for references, see:
Washington's New World Order Weapons Have the Ability to Trigger Climate Change
Planet Earth As Weapon and Target
by Leuren Moret
Beginning with the use of nuclear energy for military purposes, mankind has entered a seemingly endless race to harness the natural forces within the planet, in the atmosphere and in space for waging war. The earth is already gravely affected by many of those secret research and testing programmes leading to unpredictable environmental and epidemiological consequences.
The term exotic weapons systems includes weapons designed to damage space or natural ecosystems (such as the ionosphere and upper atmosphere) or climate, weather, and tectonic systems with the purpose of inducing damage or destruction upon a target population or region on earth or in space.
For the complete article. see:
Planet Earth As Weapon and Target
Flyby News Updates and related archived issues:
May 23, 2007 - Item 2
US Electromagnetic Weapons and Human Rights
November 1, 2005 - Item 3
U.S. Military Wants to Own the Weather
June 17, 2004 - Item 1
Chemtrails And Terror In The Age Of Nuclear War
By Amy Worthington
Idaho Observer
Published on June 3, 2004
"North America is now suffering its seventh year
of conspicuous and dangerous aerosol and
electromagnetic operations conducted by the U.S.
government under the guise of national security.
Concerned citizens watch in fear as military
tankers discolor the skies with toxic chemicals
that morph into synthetic clouds."
For the complete article, see:
www.rense.com/general53/chemsd.htm
January 9, 2003 - Item 3
Chem-trails and Kyoto
August 24, 2002 - Item 2
Brainwashing America
June 27, 2001- Item 1
Nuclear Murder: America's Atomic War Against Its Citizens and Why It's Not Over Yet
For a the photo journal website on CHEM-TRAILS, visit Chemtrail Crimes & Cover-Up Documented by Clifford E Carnicom
Here's another site worth visiting CHEMTRAILS OVER AMERICA by Investigative Journalist, Author, Videographer, William Thomas
Neuroscience is being increasingly recognized as posing potential threat to human rights.
For an extemsive resources page with loads of links, visit:
Mind Control Forum Archives
http://www.heart7.net/mcf/archv-hm.htm#Quinn
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For more information on Pyschotronic and related issues, visit the websites of the International Movement for the Ban of the Manipulation of Human Nervous System by Technhical Means and Citizens Against Human Rights Abuse
Make sure you visit this link on brainwashing in America http://www.hermes-press.com/brainwash1.htm
Also note the resources available at: InLiesWeTrust.com
2) Looking Anew at Nuclear Power for Space Travel
NYTimes
February 12, 2002
Looking Anew at Nuclear Power for Space Travel
By WARREN E. LEARY
WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 - NASA says the future of space exploration is rooted in the past, and it is time to look again at nuclear power as the way to the stars.
Years after largely abandoning efforts to apply atomic power to space, NASA last week announced a Nuclear Systems Initiative that it said could jump-start space exploration within a decade. Tucked away in the Bush administration's proposed 2003 budget for the agency is $125.5 million to begin moving NASA into a new nuclear age.
In the early days of the space program, NASA looked into nuclear-powered rockets as a possible means of sending humans to Mars and other planets. The agency tested some atomic rocket engines, but abandoned the effort because no missions arose to use them. In the new program, nuclear reactors would not directly produce thrust to propel rockets as in the earlier program, but would be activated when far from Earth, to supply power for other types of engines.
The agency also developed electric generators powered by radioactive materials that have been flown on two dozen spacecraft, including the Pioneer and Voyager outer planet probes and piloted Apollo missions to the moon. In 1997, the launching of another probe with a nuclear generator, the Cassini mission to Saturn, drew protests from some environmental and antinuclear groups that worried that a rocket explosion might spread radioactivity.
Now only one of these power units, called radioisotope thermoelectric generators, or R.T.G.'s, remain in the civilian space inventory, and officials say it is time to reopen production lines. The new program, they say, presents an opportunity to design and build new generators that are more efficient, require less nuclear fuel and can be used on more varied spacecraft.
NASA is proposing to spend $950 million over the next five years to develop new types of atomic-powered generators to supply electricity for spacecraft, and also to build nuclear electric rockets to propel ships through space at greater speed than possible with traditional rockets.
For the full article see:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/12/science/12NUKE.html
The following reply was posted on the GN listserve:
To: Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2002 10:33 AM
Subject: GN in NYTimes
>Did you see GN in the NYTimes science section yesterday? WRITE AN EDITORIAL LETTER BACK!!!!!!
> Weiler is a goon - his statement at the very end about exploring space with covered wagons is obscene - look what we obliterated in our rushed expansion across the continent! buffallo, nature, indians - genoicde! PROGRESS! PROGRESS! PROGRESS!
3) US Attempt to Stop Missile Threat Could Cost $238 Billion
NYT Feb 1 2002
Plan to Stop Missile Threat Could Cost $238 Billion
By JAMES DAO
WASHINGTON, Jan. 31
Building and operating the major missile defense programs now under development by the Bush administration could cost as much as $238 billion by 2025, according to a study released today by the Congressional Budget Office.
The study provides one of the most detailed and comprehensive cost analyses to date of the Pentagon's missile defense programs, which include ground- and ship-based missiles and space-based lasers. President Bush has said he wants to build a "layered" system capable of shooting down missiles at varying points in their trajectory.
All those missile defense programs are currently in research and development now, and the study's estimates are based on the assumption that all will eventually become operational. The Pentagon said that is not likely to happen.
"It's too early to start using these numbers," said Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, a spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency at the Pentagon. "You don't know whether any of these programs will ever be deployed. Obviously, we will have a missile defense system, but what will be deployed remains to be determined."
Still, the study drew quick reaction from three senior Senate Democrats who have been critical of Mr. Bush's missile defense plans: Tom Daschle, the majority leader, Kent Conrad, chairman of the Budget Committee, and Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee.
"If the administration decides to pursue such a costly program, it could draw resources away from programs to counter other, more likely and more immediate threats we know we face: terrorism, attacks with anthrax or other biological and chemical agents," the three senators said in a statement.
But supporters of missile defense said the cost estimates were premature. "This should not dissuade us from testing at this early stage," said an aide to Representative Curt Weldon, Republican of Pennsylvania. "Proliferation of missiles did not go away after Sept. 11."
The study projects the cost of developing, building and operating a wide array of radar equipment, satellite technology, interceptor missiles and lasers that the Pentagon sees as part of a layered system.
The budget office says that a system of ground-based missile interceptors would cost between $26 billion and $74 billion through 2015, depending on how large the system was. A system of missile interceptors launched from ships would cost between $50 billion and $64 billion through 2015, the report said. And a space-based laser system would cost between $82 billion and $100 billion through 2025.
In a letter to Mr. Daschle, the budget office warns that it might be inaccurate to add all the component costs together, arguing that the Pentagon could save money by developing all the systems together and sharing technology among them.
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related link:
Flyby News Archives 1 July 2001
"Why a Missile-Defense System Can Never Work" See item 1 - LA Times Interviews Ted Postol
4) China criticises U.S. over arms control
Reuters Thurs Feb7, China criticises U.S. over arms control
By Richard Waddington
GENEVA(Reuters)
China blamed the United States on Thursday for the "grave situation" facing global attempts at arms control, saying its recent rejection of a number of pacts had weakened international confidence in the process.
Although it did not specifically name Washington, China pointed to examples where international arms treaties had either been spurned or were in difficulty -- all of them involving the United States. These included the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty, from which the United States is withdrawing, and a failed attempt to give teeth to a world ban on biological weapons, also largely due to Washington's opposition.
"All these have...a negative impact on the mutual trust among states and the overall confidence in multilateral efforts in the field of arms control and disarmament," China's ambassador for disarmament affairs Hu Xiaodi said.
"The international arms control and disarmament process is facing a grave situation beset by enormous difficulties," he told the Conference on Disarmament.
The Geneva-based Conference, the world's principal disarmament negotiating forum which has spawned several international treaties, has been deadlocked for more than three years. The disputes centre on whether to launch international negotiations on a treaty to ban arms in space as well as on outlawing the production of fissile material that could be used to make nuclear weapons.
NEW APPROACHES
Speaking for the United States, new ambassador Eric Javits reaffirmed Washington's commitment to having international accords on arms control but said the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington showed the old approaches might not always be effective.
He said Washington's decision to build a defensive missile shield, something forbidden under the ABM, reflected the country's need to protect itself in a world where militant groups, perhaps backed by rogue states, posed a serious threat.
"To reduce the possibility that missiles will be used as tools of coercion and aggression, the United States needs updated means of dissuasion," Javits told the Conference.
The Conference impasse essentially pits the United States against China and Thursday's speeches gave no indication that it would be broken soon, diplomats said.
"We are going to have to wait until after Bush has visited Peking. Perhaps something will happen there," said one European diplomat referring to President George W. Bush's trip to China set for later this month.
Most of the 66 member states of the Conference back the opening of negotiations on the banning of the making of fissile material for nuclear weapons, but the United States and China are split on the question of outer space.
Washington is willing to open exploratory talks on the space question but China wants to go right into negotiating a ban. Beijing will not open negotiations on the fissile issue without an accord to negotiate on outer space.
Sweden's Foreign Minister Anna Lindh attacked the Chinese stance, which is supported by some other developing countries, saying that she could not accept that the Conference was being held up by "artificial links between topics".
But the minister, whose country has a long tradition of neutrality, also had strong words for Washington. She regretted the U.S. administration's opposition to ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty on underground nuclear blasts and said the plan to build the missile defence shield risked leading to a new arms race.
The Conference meets for three sessions each year but it has been unable to agree on a work agenda since 1998.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes FNs' use of copyrighted material is posted at FlybyNews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: flyby[AT]mtdata{dot}com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Free Leonard Peltier
"Amnesty International considers Leonard Peltier to be a political prisoner
whose avenues of redress have long been exhausted....Amnesty International
recognizes that a retrial is no longer a feasible option and believes that
Leonard Peltier should be immediately and unconditionally released.
---Amnesty International, April 6, 1999
Leonard Peltier Denied Parole - Lawyer's Response
For updated information, visit the web site for the
Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee
P.O. Box 7488, Fargo, ND 58106
Phone: 701/235-2206
Leonard Peltier #89637-132
USP-Lewisburg - US Penitentiary
PO Box 1000; Lewisburg, PA 17837
For excerpts from Leonard Peltier's book:
PRISON WRITINGS: MY LIFE IS MY SUN DANCE
see Item 2: Time for Human Rights on Native Ground
Celebrate Freedom with Me - (February 6, 2010 Statement)
By Leonard Peltier
Greetings to everyone,
34 years. It doesn't even sound like a real number to me. Not when one really thinks about being in a jail cell for that long. All these years and I swear, I still think sometimes I'll wake up from this nightmare in my own bed, in my own home, with my family in the next room. I would never have imagined such a thing. Surely the only place people are unjustly imprisoned for 34 years is in far away lands, books or fairy tales.
It's been that long since I woke up when I needed to, worked where I wanted to, loved who I was supposed to love, or did what I was compelled to do. It's been that long-long enough to see my children have grandchildren. Long enough to have many of my friends and loved ones die in the course of a normal life, while I was here unable to know them in their final days.
So often in my daily life, the thought creeps in - I don't deserve this. It lingers like acid in my mouth. But I have to push those types of thoughts away. I made a commitment long ago, many of us did. Some didn't live up to their commitments, and some of us didn't have a choice. Joe Stuntz didn't have a choice. Neither did Buddy Lamont. I never thought my commitment would mean sacrificing like this, but I was willing to do so nonetheless. And really, if necessary, I'd do it all over again, because it was the right thing to do. We didn't go to ceremony and say "I'll fight for the people as long as it doesn't cost too much." We prayed, and we gave. Like I say, some of us didn't have a choice. Our only other option was to run away, and we couldn't even do that. Back then, we had no where left to run to.
I have cried so many tears over these three plus decades. Like the many families directly affected by this whole series of events, my family's tears have not been in short supply. Our tears have joined all the tears from over 500 years of oppression. Together our tears come together and form a giant river of suffering and I hope, cleansing. Injustice is never final, I keep telling myself. I pray this is true for all of us.
To those who know I am innocent, thank you for your faith. And I hope you continue working for my release. That is, to work towards truth and justice. To those who think me guilty, I ask you to believe in and work for the rule of law. Even the law says I should be free by now, regardless of guilt. What has happened to me isn't justice, it isn't the law, it isn't fair, it isn't right. This has been a long battle in an even longer war. But we have to remain vigilant, as we have a righteous cause. After all this time, I can only ask this: Don't give up. Not ever. Stay in this fight with me. Suffer with me. Grieve with me. Endure with me. Believe with me. Outlast with me. And one day, celebrate freedom with me. Hoka hey!
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Leonard Peltier
This page was originally posted on February 8, 2002 and Updated!
"Leonard Peltier is a great-grandfather, artist, writer, & indigenous rights activist. He is a citizen of the Anishinabe and Dakota/Lakota Nations who has been unjustly imprisoned since February 6, 1976, thirty-two years ago. He was involved in the American Indian Movement, and went to assist the Oglala Lakota people on the Pine Ridge Reservation in the mid-70s where a tragic shoot-out occurred on June 26, 1975. Accused of the murder of two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Peltier fled to Canada believing he would never receive a fair trial in the United States. On February 6 when he was apprehended, the FBI knowingly presented the Canadian court with fraudulent affidavits, and Peltier was returned to the U.S. for trial. Key witnesses were banned from testifying about FBI misconduct and the conditions and testimony of the atmosphere on the Pine Ridge Reservation at the time of the shoot-out was severely restricted. Important evidence, such as conflicting ballistics reports, was ruled inadmissible. Still, the U.S. Prosecutor failed to produce a single witness who could identify Peltier as the shooter. Instead, the government tied a bullet casing found near the bodies of their agents to the alleged murder weapon, arguing that this gun had been the only one of its kind used during the shootout, and that it had belonged to Peltier. Later, Mr. Peltiers attorneys uncovered, in the FBIs own documents, that more than one weapon of the type attributed to Peltier had been present at the scene and the FBI had intentionally concealed a ballistics report that showed the shell casing could not have come from the alleged murder weapon. Other troubling information emerged.."
See these Flyby News Archive issues for background and updated resources:
July 28, 2009 - Updated 8/23
Leonard Peltier's Parole Denied - Updated
- - Eric Seitz ~ Leonard Peltier Attorney ~
Response on Parole Denial - Fri, 21 Aug 2009
June 1, 2009 - Item 3
Parole Letter for Leonard Peltier; time for freedom
January 21, 2009 - Item 1
Leonard Peltier brutalized, life in jeopardy!
February 6, 2008 - Item 2
Why David Geffen Hates Hillary & Bill Clinton * Failure to pardon Leonard Peltier a travesty
December 18, 2007 - Item 2
Leonard Peltier: A POW of America's Energy Wars
September 7, 2007 - Item 3
Kucinich Recently on Leonard Peltier
July 30, 2007 - Item 2
Corrupt FBI - Families Get $101 Million In Wrongful Conviction
- - Three Decades of Injustice [and counting] for Leonard Peltier
May 17, 2007 - Item 3
A Native Perspective on Virginia Tech Headlines
September 1, 2005 - Item 2
Court room eyewitness: Peltier is a political prisoner
August 19, 2005 - Item 3
Note from Leonard Peltier, transferred to Lewisburg, PA
August 5, 2005 - Item 4
Leonard Peltier's Plight
June 10, 2005 - Item 3
Peltier Hearing ~ June 15 ~ Lakota Sovereignty at Stake
September 05, 2004 - Item 4
Leonard Peltier and Yorie Von Kahl sue government for illegal imprisonment
June 23, 2004 - Item 7
Leonard Peltier - eagle soars in the circle for freedom
- - Message from Leonard
- - Leonard Peltier: America's Political Prisoner
- - Oglala and other June 26 Commemoration Events
February 5, 2004 - Item 3
Leonard Peltier Nominated for 2004 Nobel Peace Prize
- - Unfinished business in Indian country (BBC News article)
January 30, 2004 - Item 4
Flyby News to Presidential Candidates
April 27, 2003 - Item 4
Chair of Leonard Peltier Defense Committee Statement of Resignation
December 20, 2002 - Item 4
Court Rules Peltier's Appeal Too Late for Sentence Reduction
December 13, 2002 - Item 4
December Statement of Leonard Peltier
December 2, 2002 - Item 2
Canadian members of Parliament: Free Leonard Peltier!
August 17, 2002 - Item 3
Leonard Peltier: man, soldier and symbol
June 26, 2002 - Item 1
Leonard Peltier: Until Freedom Is Won
February 3, 2002 -- Item 2
February 6 - 26th Anniversary of Leonard Peltier's Arrest
Talking Points to contact Vermont Senator, Patrick D Leahy, Judicial Committee Chairman
April 4, 2002 -- Item 3
Leonard Peltier Files Lawsuit Against FBI Today
May 15, 2002 -- Item 1
Letters Needed to Free Leonard Peltier by Parole
July 19, 2001 - Item 2
Peltier Responds to Threat Made In His Name
June 25, 2001 - Items 1 and 2
Peltier/FBI Review Letter to Patrick Leahy * The Case of Leonard Peltier
"Evidence and Documentation of a Wrongful Conviction"
May 17, 2001 - Items 1 and 2
Demand Investigations of the FBI, including the case of Leonard Peltier * Leonard Peltier's Statement Regarding FBI Abuses
February 7, 2001
Peltier Storm ^ Quarter of a Century Mark
February 5, 2001
Day to Remember Leonard -- 25 Years of Unjust Incarceration -- Protests Planned
January 30, 2001 - Items 1 and 2
International Day of Protest for the Arrest of Leonard Peltier * Statement of Fedelia Cross, of the Oglala Lakota Nation
January 25, 2001
Day of Shame Feedback * 25th year Peltier Imprisonment - from Leonard via Harvey
January 20, 2001
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee's Statement: "DAY OF SHAME"
January 20, 2001
Peltier Denied Freedom (Clemency)
January 1, 2001- Items 1 and 2
Time for Human Rights on Native Ground * Excerpts from Peltier's Prison Writings
December 26, 2000
Peltier Clemency Coverage
December 22, 2000 - Items 1, 2, and 3
Unprecedented FBI Anti-Clemency-Peltier Demonstration Criticized * Wall Street Journal's Erroneous Anti Peltier Editorial * Statements from Religious Leaders on Peltier's Behalf
December 16, 2000
Men in Suits March to White House to Denounce Peltier - Media Obeys! WHAT NOW?
December 14, 2000
FBI to demonstrate against Peltier - RSVP * Peltier's Message to the Slain Agents'
December 5, 2000 - Item 2
Belgian Second Resolution for Peltier
December 2, 2000 - Item 2
Speakers' Schedule for Truth and Reconciliation Walk
Human Rights Day 2000 - Time to Free Leonard Peltier
November 26, 2000
Leonard Peltier and Myrtle Poor Bear's Tortured Testimony
November 19, 2000
Peltier 7-Year Clemency Anniversary <> Truth and Reconciliation Walk
November 13, 2000
Breakthrough News for Leonard Peltier
President Clinton had publicly confirmed that Leonard's clemency petition has reached his office, and that it will be decided one way or the other in the very near future.
July 10, 2000
CNN chat with author/editor Harvey Arden about the movement to free Leonard
June 13, 2000
Peltier's Parole Denied Before Hearing Completed?
December 4, 1999 - Item 4
Candidate Bradley About Peltier
September 12, 1999
Cassini and Peltier: What's the connection?
This above issue also links to this excellent article in the London Guardian --
Chief behind bars
"I have nothing on my conscience at all."
- U.S. Prosecutor Lynn Crooks
Leonard Peltier's book:
Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance
Published by St. Martins Press, NYC 1999
Archbishop Desmond Tutu on April 18, 1999 stated:
"I have been reading in Leonard Peltier's book, and about
an hour ago I spoke with him.... He is a remarkable person and
the depth of his spirituality shows....I would hope that the campaign
to have him freed will succeed. I certainly support it passionately
Because it is a blot on the judicial system of this country that
ought to be corrected as quickly as possible."
Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu also stated that
Leonard Peltier's Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance, is:
"A deeply moving and very disturbing story of a gross miscarriage of justice
and an eloquent cri de coeur of Native Americans for redress and to be regarded
as human beings with inalienable rights guaranteed under the United States Constitution
as any other citizens. We pray that it does not fall on deaf ears. America owes it to herself."
For excerpts from Leonard's book, see Item 2:
Time for Human Rights on Native Ground
PRISON WRITINGS: MY LIFE IS MY SUN DANCE
Published by St. Martins Press, NYC 1999
Edited by Harvey Arden
http://wisdomkeepers.com/prison.html
This page was originally posted on February 8, 2002 and updated!
The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee requested that supporters of Leonard Peltier contact the House Government Reform Committee, which is holding hearings on FBI misconduct relating to wrongful convictions. The hearings were prompted by the release of two Boston men who were framed by the FBI and held wrongfully in prison for more than 32 years. Their two co-defendants, also innocent, died in prison. Congressman Burton, who chairs the committee, said on 60 Minutes recently that he will be looking into other cases. Let's let him know about Leonard Peltier! Write, and ask your friends, family, and neighbors to write letters.
For Leonard Peltier's June 26, 2003 Statement, see:
Leonard Peltier - Oglala Statement and Strategy
1) Salvati and Peltier - Evidences of FBI Misconduct
Honorable Dan Burton
Chairman, Government Reform Committee
2157 Rayburn House Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20515
Tel. 202-225-2276
Fax 202-225-0016
Dear Congressman Burton,
I have been following the case of James Salvati, and appreciate your interest to consider looking into other cases that may show other evidences of FBI misconduct. Leonard Peltier has been imprisoned for 26 years. His case and the background of his case is riddled with all sorts of documented FBI wrongdoings. On May 17, 2000, Congressman Porter sponsored a two hour congressional briefing on Leonard Peltier and related circumstances on the Pine Ridge reservation. Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Amnesty International, Ernie Stevens Jr. of the National Congress of American Indians, Author Peter Matthiessen, Journalist Kevin McKiernan, shoot-out survivor Nilak Butler, reign of terror survivor Debra White Plume, shoot-out aftermath witness Jean Day, and lawyers Bruce Ellison and Jennifer Harbury testified to a full room of human rights leaders and Congressional staff of numerous human, civil, and constitutional rights violations involved in the Peltier case. The Peltier defense committee, or the editor of FlybyNews.com, could send you a copy of this briefing, recorded onto a one-hour video tape. Please let them know, if interested..
Among the evidences of an unfair trial for Leonard Peltier are documents showing that although the prosecution and government directly pointed the finger at Peltier for shooting the agents at close range during the trial, three years later it was shown that critical ballistic test results were concealed from the defense and the jury, proving that the fatal bullets could not have come from the gun tied to Mr. Peltier. The exposure of the test prompted the U.S. Prosecutor to admit during subsequent oral arguments, "we can't prove who shot those agents". The Eighth Circuit found that "There is a possibility that the jury would have acquitted Leonard Peltier had the records and data improperly withheld from the defense been available to him in order to better exploit and reinforce the inconsistencies casting strong doubts upon the government's case." Yet, a new trial was denied. Judge Heaney, who authored the denial now supports Mr. Peltier's release, stating that the FBI used improper tactics to gain Mr. Peltier's conviction.
Other supporters for Peltier's freedom include Amnesty International, the Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Coretta Scott King, Nelson Mandela, many members of Congress and millions of people, an entire race of people, who have suffered enough by unfair, and even racist government behavior. Given all of the above, I am asking you to include the Peltier case in your investigations. We request the subpoena of the 6,000+ FBI documents that remain secret. These could show the motivation behind the FBI's acts of misconduct. The evidences of the Salvati case shows the seriousness of the charge that the FBI in some cases are threatening our democracy and an individual's human rights. It is time for accountability, and review of such cases showing evidences of FBI misconduct, and abuse of human rights, democracy, and justice.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Mark
post script:
For more information contact:
Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee
P.O. Box 7488, Fargo, ND 58106
Phone: 701/235-2206; E-mail: contact(at}whoisleonardpeltier[dot]info
For the Flyby News Archive issue featuring a Canadian article with a testimonial of Myrtle Poor Bear, see:
"Woman Who Implicated Activist in Killings Says She Was Forced Into It By FBI"
By Kirk Makin, Justice Reporter, Toronto
(Published by The Golbe & Mail - November 11, 2000)
Leonard Peltier Congressional Briefing Video
On May 17, 2000, Congressman John Porter sponsored a congressional briefing on the case of Leonard Peltier and its related circumstances on the Pine Ridge reservation. This video contains testimonies on Leonard Peltier and related circumstances on the Pine Ridge reservation, which includes the Constitutional misconduct of the FBI. Featured is testimony from Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Rigoberta Menchu Tum; acclaimed human rights activist and attorney, Jennifer Harbury; Pine Ridge reign of terror survivor, Debbie White Plume; shoot-out survivor, Nilak Butler; LPDC spokesperson and survivor, Jean Day; former NPR journalist, Kevin McKiernan; Amnesty International Advocacy Director, Carlos Salinas; National Congress of American Indians Executive Officer, Ernie Stevens Jr., and Leonard Peltier's lawyer since trial and expert in FBI activities on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Bruce Ellison.
Kevin McKiernan, journalist, stated: "[I] was there on June 25, 1975, outside the Jumping Bull ranch on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, when some of the bullets were flying." In his editorial, he provides eye witness account to the "climate of fear" on Pine Ridge 27 years ago, saying that "it matched anything I have experienced reporting from war zones like El Salvador and the Middle East." Mr. McKiernan concurs with Judge Heaney who wrote in his clemency plea, "At some time, the healing process must begin. We as a nation must recognize their unique culture and their great contribution to our nation."
Nilak Butler, one of the survivors of the Pine Ridge Reservation's "Reign of Terror" and who testified at the Congressional briefing hearing, (see above), passed from this world on December 26th, 2002.
We wish to express condolences to her family, friends, and colleagues.
On the Passing of Nilak Butler: A Statement from Leonard
I am deeply saddened by the news I received regarding the passing of my good friend and sister in the struggle, Nilak Butler...Nilak was a strong and courageous woman who was admired by all those who knew her.
I remember those early days when she took the responsibility of placing herself out in front on many issues seeking to correct the wrongs and gain justice for our people. She fought so hard all her life against these injustices perpetuated against us. Nilak knew the meaning of sacrifice as she always put the needs of the people ahead of her personal needs. Her humor and her dedication will always stand out. She is one of the finest examples of the strength and courage of Native women that I know.
We will all certainly miss her presence in the struggle and miss her as a friend. We must honor her life by picking up where she left off. We must continue this struggle to ensure the future of the coming generations.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Leonard Peltier
Peacepipe Network - temporary host of the LPDC - Update - 18 February 2003
While we are all waiting for the new official LPDC website, here are some sites sent in by readers of the last email. If you know of some sites with good Leonard Peltier information, send them in. It would also be nice to provide everyone with a complete list of LPSG and AIM websites around the world, if you have any of these, or any other links of interest, send them to me soon. We are also hoping to collect audio, video and pictures from LPSG's around the world who attend Feb 15 2003 Peace March events. Already we have heard from the UK, Texas, Seattle, and New York. Let us know what you saw and what you have, and then we can create a new page with supporters from around the globe. Email me soon at peacepipetv@hotmail.com
Reader Suggested ~ Leonard Peltier Supporter Websites :
www.PeltierSupport.org
www.homestead.com/arvollookinghorse/Index.html
users.skynet.be/kola/index2.htm
www.FlybyNews.com
www.stevefree.com
www.pechanga.net
thestruggle.envy.nu/index.html
www.nativeamericacalling.com
MacMouse.Com
Hawaii-Nation.Org
AlohaQuest.Com
UNTIL FREEDOM IS WON !!!
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse: Strange Man of the Oglalas
A classic book written by Mari Sandoz, published in 1938, is a biography called: Crazy Horse: Strange Man of the Oglalas. She interviewed living witnesses to chronicle this sacred life, and the betrayal, not just from the US government, but also by those of his own people. Yet the story of the past is a light post about evolutionary politics, and uniting to transform the US government with a democracy. For us to unite effectively, as one people, the lessons of Crazy Horse and Leonard Peltier must come to light, and we need to unite behind what is good in the USA, before darkness covers life from all human perceptions in this world.
The following information is excerpted from Colonial & Postcolonial Literary Dialogues. The dialog in this case is about the biography written by Mari Sandoz, Crazy Horse: the Strange Man of the Oglalas. Flyby News highly recommends reading this book.
[Page Created by: Allen Carey-Webb]
Western Michigan University
http://www.wmich.edu/dialogues/texts/crazyhorse.html
Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas
'Crazy Horse' is a biography of one of the most famous Native American warriors in recent history. Mari Sandoz, the author, interviewed dozens of Crazy Horse's people in the 1930's, all of them by then old people. From interviews, facts, and letters, she constructed this semi-fictionalized biography of the great Sioux warrior. He is most famous for defeating Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, but there was much more to his life than merely that one battle. The book attempts to describe and chart the lives of Crazy Horse and his Sioux people during the mid to late nineteenth century, during which they were enduring the immense pressures of the United States' Indian Wars, as well as settlers pressure on the Sioux land.
Dialogues
Mari Sandoz tells us Crazy Horse was born in or around the year 1842 to Sioux parents on Rapid Creek, in an area called the Black Hills, or Paha Sapa. The Black Hills were the center of Sioux land, which spread out into what is now called Wyoming, Nebraska, South and North Dakota, and Montana. The young boy was light-skinned compared to his people, and his hair was light-colored and curly, earning him his childhood name of 'Curly.'
When still just a pre-teen, Curly witnessed the shooting of some of his people by the Army, led by a man named Grattan. The shooting was over the loss of a cow, something ridiculous. This was one of dozens of incidents in the book where clashes between the whites and the Indians went badly; growing up with these types of things happening to his people constantly, Crazy Horse vowed to protect his people from the whites' invasion of Sioux land.
From bravery in battle, 'Curly' was granted the name of his father, Crazy Horse. Quickly he was recognized for his cunning, as well as bravery and skill in battle. Often Crazy Horse led decoys in battles, like in the Fetterman Massacre and Platte Bridge battles. There were many other Sioux warriors and leaders besides Crazy Horse who helped (often in giving up their lives) the effort of their people to keep their homeland. Others mentioned and chronicled in the book are Sitting Bull (the medicine man who once cut out 100 pieces of his own skin in order to get a vision), Young Man Afraid of His Horse, Spotted Tail, Worm (Crazy Horse's father's name in later life), Red Cloud, Touch the Clouds, Little Big Man, American Horse, Conquering Bear, He Dog, and Dull Knife.
Throughout the book there are mentions of promises and treaties struck up between the US government and the Indians, including the famous one that used the phrase 'as long as grass grows and rivers run.' Of course none of them worked, as eventually each and every one crumbled beneath the weight of westward expansion, manifest destiny, and an insatiable desire harboured by the whites for not just more land, but all of the land. The embodiment of the Indians' plight and frantic struggle for their precious homeland was in the Battle of the Little Big Horn (recounted in Crazy Horse, as well as from the white perspective in Sandoz' book The Battle of the Little Big Horn). Perhaps the most famous of all battles between Indians and the US government, this one went down as the greatest defeat by the Indians in history.
General Custer (ironically known for his long, curly hair, too) and his soldiers were completely wiped out by the Sioux. But even this great conquest against the invading forces of the whites was not enough to stop the ever-encroaching tide of people. They kept coming and coming, eventually overwhelming even the Sioux by sheer numbers, and by killing their main food source, buffalo.
In a vision, Crazy Horse saw himself with a pebble in his hair in a hailstorm, protected from everything. In every battle he painted his horse in hailstones, and hung his medicine stone in a knot in his hair. The medicine held true, as he was never harmed by enemy bullets in any of his many skirmishes and wars. In the end, true to his vision, it was one of his own people who aided in his death. Two Sioux warriors, then turned into guards for the white men, were holding Crazy Horse's arms while he struggled against going into a prison, where he knew he would die. A soldier stabbed him several times with a bayonet in the back, resulting in his death.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Sandoz, Mari. Crazy Horse: the Strange Man of the Oglalas.
Nebraska: Bison Books, University of Nebraska Press, 1971.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Mari Sandoz literary page link (books for sale and some info) :
http://www.sandozlit.com/siouxhistory.html
Sheridan County Publishing
117 North Main Street
Gordon, NE 69343
Ph/Fax: (308) 282-9972
msbooks@gpcom.net
= = = = = = = = = = =
by Sandoz, Mari
Publisher: University Of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803292112
Retail Price: $ 14.95
www.insight-books.com/new/0803292112.html
The views expressed herein are writers own and not necessarily of Flyby News.
Fair Use Policy that describes use of copyrighted material is at FlybyNews.com.
Feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News is appreciated.
You can write to the editor by email: -- flyby(at}mtdata{dot)com --
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus,
and has supported critical campaigns for a healthy
environment, human rights, justice, and nonviolence,
since the launch of NASAs Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Prison Brutality - Peltier's 26th - The Others - Truth in Woodward Shooting
03 February 2002
This issue of Flyby News focuses on justice issues, or the lack thereof. Item 1 reveals some of the depths and realities, the suffering, of being inside, from a heartfelt letter by Malik Abdullah Akili. Item 2 calls on you to act, call Senator Leahy this Wednesday to release those 6,000 + documents still withheld from Leonard Peltier's defense, and the public, by the FBI and government prosecutors. This action would honor Leonard and justice on this sad anniversary day.
Item 3 is an article from Howard Zinn, published in The Nation, called The Others. It shows that there is more to collateral damage than what the mainstream wants to believe. Item 4 is the text of a press release by the family and friends of "Woody,' Robert Woodward. His family is filing a suit to seek answers from the bizarre shooting of this peaceful activist and environmentalist, and friend.
Please, also, this week, consider calling and/or faxing your government representatives regarding the prior issue of Flyby News on Kucinich's H.R. 3616. This spring we need progress for a world treaty to ban space-based weapons. This would impact all human rights issues.
For recent issues of Flyby News, you can link from http://www.flybynews.com
1) Inside the Belly of the Beast - Malik Abdullah Akili
2) February 6 - 26th Anniversary of Leonard Peltier's Arrest
3) The Others by Howard Zinn
4) Family Pursues Quest for Truth in Woodward Shooting
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Inside the Belly of the Beast - Malik Abdullah Akili
Greetings,
Another year has come to its closure with the usual amount of suffering and disruptions... the world has changed somewhat, but then again, the world is always changing. The shocking event on 9/11/01 in New York and Washington was startling, chilling, revealing and significant. The loss of lives is always sorrowful.. But the reason why things of that nature happen is rooted in years of egregious Amerikan policies, politics, actions, arrogance, and greed / racism. US terrorism, racism, and injustice, has been non-stop.
As an Afrikan prisoner of social consciousness I know first-hand the realities of US terrorism, and prison brutality. I don't write in some attempt at expressing some rhetoric, but I am writing from a personal experience of what has happened to me personally and from what I have witnessed.. I understand what they like to tell People about their wonderfully-run prison system, but it isn't true.
Throughout the years the Amerikkkan Prison system has become extremely repressive. In that it has gone from brutality of prisoners to the psychological damaging of the minds and spirits of prisoners. This is far worst. Far more damaging than physical abuse. One can overcome physical brutality, but the damage to one's mind, from methods to break one's spirit, can last a lifetime..
..My appeal was turned down. Also, the bail! I was hurt by this, but my hurt and rage comes from a place far more profound than my own subjective feelings. It is based upon the deep love for my family, what we have developed together, my hurt was more out of their emotions. I understood all awhile what I was up against.. With my political historical background how could they ever rule in my behalf. It would have been Unamerikkkan. I can take whatever they force into my situtation, but my family.......... they don't -- won't understand how could they! They are both strong individuals and they will use their strengths to overcome these emotional set-backs. When love is the greater force.. that force can and will overcome the deepest of pain, sorrow or despair..
..Prison has taken on a new spirit. For me this is troubling, because I can't sit quietly by waiting to die all alone without writing some pages to history. I would want history to reflect upon my life while upon this earth, as someone who helped this place to be a better place for others.
What has happened to me, what is happening to me at this very moment has outraged me for the last time I've come to recognize the value of my life and what this life means without control and it's direction for one to have life without the control to go for a walk in the sun, otherwise, it isn't the worth of that life... I've grown sick of waking up each day to someone else's call. I can't go on living like this waiting for death to come hug me.
I can't write anymore.
Revolutionary love,
Malik
- - - - - - - - - -
Editors note: The above was from a letter written by
Malik Abdullah Akili, dated January 26, 2002.
For more background on Malik, see Flyby News Archives:
A Nation Behind Bars: the buried talents of a population
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid999200948,87474,
You can write to Malik at the following address.
Malik Abdullah Akili
DIN 94-A-5238
Collins Correctional Facility
P.O. Box 340
Collins, New York 14034-0340
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) February 6 - 26th Anniversary of Leonard Peltier's Arrest
This Wednesday marks Leonard Peltier's 26th year in prison for defending his people, and trying to protect our Earth Mother. Use this anniversary date to call Senator Leahy, the Chair of the Senate's Judicial Committee, and ask for him to release more than 6,000 documents related to Leonard Peltier's case. (Doing things together has an impact!)
Senator Patrick D Leahy
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
202-224-3479 fx | 202-224-4242 ph
TALKING POINTS FOR CALLS TO LEAHY
1. I am calling in regard to the Judiciary Committee's current examination of incidences of FBI misconduct and its efforts to create a means for better government oversight.
2. In particular, I would like to bring your attention to the case of Leonard Peltier, the imprisoned Native rights activist who Amnesty International calls a "political prisoner" who should be "immediately and unconditionally released." Perhaps more than any other, the case of Leonard Peltier necessitates urgent congressional intervention.
3. First, Mr. Peltier's case is rooted in a three-year period of violent conflict on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, which began with the 1973 Wounded Knee takeover and ended in 1976 as tribal chairman, Dick Wilson left office. During that period the FBI cooperated with the tribal chairman and together they sought to eliminate American Indian Movement activity and presence on the reservation. Vigilantes hired by the tribal chairman and supported by the FBI carried out a campaign of violence against members and supporters of AIM. Over 60 AIM members were murdered, and scores more were assaulted. Nothing was done to stop the violence and the survivors have received little if any closure. That period was well documented by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, but remains largely unrecognized by our government.
4. Second, it is well documented that Mr. Peltier's conviction resulted from the withholding of exculpatory evidence, the coercion of witnesses, and the utilization of falsified testimony by the FBI and U.S. Attorneys. Since 1985 the government has conceded that it cannot prove who shot the agents. In 1986 the Eighth Circuit Court ruled that had the FBI not improperly withheld evidence, Mr. Peltier might have been acquitted. Yet, a new trial was denied based on a legal technicality. The FBI withheld over 18,000 documents from the defense at trial, and continues to withhold over 6,000 today. Yet, nothing has been done to correct the improprieties and Mr. Peltier has languished over 25 years in prison despite the total lack of evidence against him.
5. Third, the FBI has consistently and aggressively obstructed Mr. Peltier's remaining avenues for redress. As you may know, President Clinton announced that he was considering Mr. Peltier for a grant of executive clemency late last year. The FBI responded with an intensive lobby and media campaign to prevent a positive decision from occurring. The statements disseminated throughout the FBI's campaign were false, intentionally misleading, and absent of highly relevant information. The FBI has utilized similar tactics in blocking Mr. Peltier's release through parole, for which he is long overdue. Clearly the killing of the two agents represents a great tragedy, but official vengeance can never be allowed to replace the due process of the law.
6. Given all of this, we want to urge the Judiciary Committee to hold full hearings on the treatment of residents on the Pine Ridge Reservation between 1973 and 1976, and on the Peltier case in particular. We also want to urge the judiciary committee to declassify the 6,000 FBI documents that remain concealed. Amnesty International, Rev. Jesse Jackson, the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights, the National Congress of American Indians, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Eighth Circuit Court Judge-Gerald Heaney, and the Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights are only a few who have recognized the troubling nature of the Peltier case and have voiced support for resolution.
7. We are encouraged by the Judiciary Committee's commitment to seek better oversight of the FBI and to prevent mishaps and abuses from reoccurring. Certainly, recent revelations of misconduct give way to the need for reform. However, true reform will be difficult to achieve if the situation of Leonard Peltier continues without governmental scrutiny and resolution.
8. Taking an honest and open look at the Peltier case and the era in which it is rooted, will help bring closure to a matter that has long served as a source of distrust and anguish for so many Native Peoples and non-Native citizens. Perhaps most importantly, airing the truth could lead to the prevention of future abuses, and promote a more just and equitable society.
Senator Patrick D Leahy
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
202-224-3479 fx | 202-224-4242 ph
= = = = = =
This Tuesday, February 5, Peltier support groups are meeting at the Common Ground Restaurant (Eliot Street) in Brattleboro, Vermont at 6p.m. There is also a free meal served there at 5pm. The meeting will include a showing of the documentary, "Incident At Ogalala," and a discussion of actions to support justice and freedom for Leonard Peltier. The group will also discuss organizing a fund-raising music benefit to support the showing of Leonard's art work.
For more information on these and other campaigns, visit the Boston support web site: http://www.peltiersupport.org
and
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-5774
http://www.freepeltier.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) The Others by Howard Zinn
This article is published in The Nation
http://www.thenation.com
February 11, 2002
The Others
by Howard Zinn
Every day for several months, the New York Times did what should always be done when a tragedy is summed up in a statistic: It gave us miniature portraits of the human beings who died on September 11--their names, photos, glimmers of their personalities, their idiosyncrasies, how friends and loved ones remember them.
As the director of the New-York Historical Society said: "The peculiar genius of it was to put a human face on numbers that are unimaginable to most of us.... It's so obvious that every one of them was a person who deserved to live a full and successful and happy life. You see what was lost."
I was deeply moved, reading those intimate sketches--"A Poet of Bensonhurst...A Friend, A Sister...Someone to Lean On...Laughter, Win or Lose..." I thought: Those who celebrated the grisly deaths of the people in the twin towers and the Pentagon as a blow to symbols of American dominance in the world--what if, instead of symbols, they could see, up close, the faces of those who lost their lives? I wonder if they would have second thoughts, second feelings.
Then it occurred to me: What if all those Americans who declare their support for Bush's "war on terrorism" could see, instead of those elusive symbols--Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda--the real human beings who have died under our bombs? I do believe they would have second thoughts.
There are those on the left, normally compassionate people whose instincts go against war, who were, surprisingly, seduced by early Administration assurances and consoled themselves with words like "limited" military action and "measured" response. I think they, too, if confronted with the magnitude of the human suffering caused by the war in Afghanistan, would have second thoughts.
True, there are those in Washington and around the country who would not be moved, who are eager--like their counterparts elsewhere in the world--to kill for some cause. But most Americans would begin to understand that we have been waging a war on ordinary men, women and children. And that these human beings have died because they happened to live in Afghan villages in the vicinity of vaguely defined "military targets," and that the bombing that destroyed their lives is in no way a war on terrorism, because it has no chance of ending terrorism and is itself a form of terrorism.
But how can this be done--this turning of ciphers into human beings? In contrast with the vignettes about the victims featured in the New York Times, there are few available details about the dead men, women and children in Afghanistan.
We would need to study the scattered news reports, usually in the inside sections of the Times and the Washington Post, but also in the international press--Reuters; the London Times, Guardian and Independent; and Agence France-Presse.
These reports have been mostly out of sight of the general public (indeed, virtually never reported on national television, where most Americans get their news), and so dispersed as to reinforce the idea that the bombing of civilians has been an infrequent event, a freak accident, an unfortunate mistake.
Listen to the language of the Pentagon: "We cannot confirm the report...civilian casualties are inevitable...we don't know if they were our weapons...it was an accident...incorrect coordinates had been entered...they are deliberately putting civilians in our bombing targets...the village was a legitimate military target...it just didn't happen...we regret any loss of civilian life."
"Collateral damage," Timothy McVeigh said, using a Pentagon statement, when asked about the children who died when he bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City. After reports of the bombing of one village, Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said, "We take extraordinary care.... There is unintended damage. There is collateral damage. Thus far, it has been extremely limited." The Agence France-Presse reporter quoting her said: "Refugees arriving in Pakistan suggested otherwise. Several recounted how twenty people, including nine children, had been killed as they tried to flee an attack on the southern Afghan town of Tirin Kot."
Listening to the repeated excuses given by Bush, Rumsfeld and others, one recalls Colin Powell's reply at the end of the Gulf War, when questioned about Iraqi casualties: "That is really not a matter I am terribly interested in." If, indeed, a strict definition of the word "deliberate" does not apply to the bombs dropped on the civilians of Afghanistan, then we can offer, thinking back to Powell's statement, an alternate characterization: "a reckless disregard for human life."
The denials of the Pentagon are uttered confidently half a world away in Washington. But there are on-the-spot press reports from the villages, from hospitals where the wounded lie and from the Pakistan border, where refugees have fled the bombs. If we put these reports together, we get brief glimpses of the human tragedies in Afghanistan--the names of the dead, the villages that were bombed, the words of a father who lost his children, the ages of the children. We would then have to multiply these stories by the hundreds, think of the unreported incidents and know that the numbers go into the thousands. A professor of economics at the University of New Hampshire, Marc Herold, has done a far more thorough survey of the press than I have. He lists location, type of weapon used and sources of information. He finds the civilian death toll in Afghanistan up to December 10 exceeding 3,500 (he has since raised the figure to 4,000), a sad and startling parallel to the number of victims in the twin towers.
The New York Times was able to interrogate friends and family of the New York dead, but for the Afghans, we will have to imagine the hopes and dreams of those who died, especially the children, for whom forty or fifty years of mornings, love, friendship, sunsets and the sheer exhilaration of being alive were extinguished by monstrous machines sent over their land by men far away.
My intention is not at all to diminish our compassion for the victims of the terrorism of September 11, but to enlarge that compassion to include the victims of all terrorism, in any place, at any time, whether perpetrated by Middle East fanatics or American politicians.
In that spirit, I present the following news items (only a fraction of those in my files), hoping that there is the patience to go through them, like the patience required to read the portraits of the September 11 dead, like the patience required to read the 58,000 names on the Vietnam Memorial:
For the complete article and links on related issues, see:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020211&s=zinn
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Family Pursues Quest for Truth in Woodward Shooting
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Michael London
203-261-1549
State maintains silence in case of pacifist shot by cops as he sought asylum in church
BRATTLEBORO, VT, January 21, 2002 -- The family of a 37-year-old pacifist gunned down by police as he sought help in church today announced the filing of a lawsuit against the Town of Brattleboro as well as the officer who fired the fatal shots.
Robert "Woody" Woodward of Bellows Falls, Vermont, was seeking sanctuary at the All Souls Unitarian Church in Brattleboro on December 2, 2001, when police shot him at least six times as parishioners watched in horror.
"The family wants the truth," said one of the family's attorneys, Joel Faxon, of Bridgeport, Connecticut-based Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder. Faxon, a former resident of Brattleboro, said he was "dismayed that the state officials investigating this case have refused to provide the family with the facts so they can begin to understand how this tragedy could have happened."
"The state's refusal to cooperate with the family leaves us no choice but to file suit," he said. "Now we will subpoena police and autopsy reports so the family can learn what happened to Woody and help identify ways to train police officers so something like this will never happen again."
Faxon stated that "[a] true independent investigation is required since the state police concluded in their press release a day after the shooting that the officers did nothing wrong. The state police have wrongly prejudged this case. That is plainly prejudicial to the victim's rights in this case." "The Acting Chief of Police has recognized that the State's investigation is narrow and does not include inquiry into civil rights violations. As Brattleboro Chief of Police Martin noted "serious issues involving civil rights are at issue that must be addressed as soon as possible." "Since the FBI was unwilling to step in we must do so on behalf of the family."
Faxon's co-counsel in the case, Attorney Thomas Costello of Brattleboro called "on the Governor to appoint independent counsel to oversee the investigation and to convene a grand jury to independently examine the evidence in the case." "The State Police's statement issued on December 3 is nothing but a knee jerk reaction aimed at exonerating the officers who killed
Woody. We call for a true independent review of the case."
Costello said "It is unclear why the police officers felt compelled to use deadly force." "Why was Woody shot repeatedly when he threatened nobody? This anguished family wants answers."
Woodward, who friends say was a pacifist, ran into the church at the start of Sunday morning services claiming that he was afraid of being hunted and killed by the FBI. At one point, he took out a knife and threatened to hurt himself.
When told he was scaring people, Woodward apologized, sat down and put his knife away. He jumped to his feet and picked up the knife again when police arrived with semi-automatic handguns and held the knife to his own temple. One officer allegedly opened fire and then the second officer discharged his weapon. After being shot, Woodward crumpled into a fetal position but witnesses say he was then shot repeatedly by two of the three officers. The one officer who did not fire his weapon had been trained in New York.
"The officers did not attempt to talk to Woody or try another method to subdue him," Faxon said. "We can find no witness who felt Woody was a threat to anyone in the church other than himself. In our view it is indisputablely clear that the police officers used unreasonable, deadly force and did not properly deal with this emotionally disturbed man."
Faxon said the lawsuit is being commenced Monday and will be filed at the Windham (Vermont) Superior Court on behalf of Woodward's parents and his sister, who are residents of Connecticut. The complaint was delivered Monday to the sheriff for service on Defendants in the case, the Town of Brattleboro and the two police officers, Marshall Holbrook and Terrance Parker.
The suit also charges the officers with negligent discharge of firearms and the town with negligence in its training and supervision of the police department.
Costello said, "This case underscores the need for state legislation dictating how investigations and prosecutions in this type of case must proceed. Many other states already have similar legislation. It is time for Vermont to follow suit."
You can read the wording of the suit at the justiceforwoody.org website
http://www.justiceforwoody.org/cases/docs/docket.htm
http://www.justiceforwoody.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Campaign to Ban Space-Based Weapons Bush: "Limit 9/11 Probe"? Space Nukes
Space for Peace & September 11
Connecting dots to democracy or to genocide
This Page was Originally Posted on 01 February 2002
For Immediate Release:
Institute for Cooperation in Space
Contact: Carol Rosin; Telephone: 805-641-1999 E-mail: rosin@west.net
peaceinspace.com
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) introduces legislation to ban space-based weapons. Kucinich says, "We signed the ABM treaty nearly 30 years ago; which requires a reduction in strategic arms, nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. Weaponization of space clearly violates that treaty. My bill will call for an immediate and permanent termination of research, testing, manufacturing, production and deployment of all space-based weapons systems and components by any person, agency or contractor of the U.S. government ."
--- Ban Weapons from Space before the ABM gets Trashed ---
Flyby Action -- Call Your Reps this week. Ask for their co-sponsoring and support of H.R. 3616. Tell them that the banning of space-based weapons would cap the arms race, and unite the world for peace and stability. It could help the economy and help transform Industries benefitting from war, to benefit from peace and preserving our natural environment.
The Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121
Go read the text of H.R. 3616 and link to an online fax system in support of H.R. 3616
peaceinspace.com/HR3616.htm .
Also, support the World Treaty Banning Space-based Weapons
www.peaceinspace.com/WORLDTREATY.htm
For more information, visit: The Institute for Cooperation in Space and The Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
And keep tuned in with Flyby News.
For updated information on Congressman Kucinich and his work to stop the attack on Iraq, to ban space-based weapons, and for a US Department of Peace, and more, see Flyby News' resources on Dennis J. Kucinich
02 February 2009 - The Telegraph - WikiLeaks
US and China in military standoff over space missiles
The following are links to Flyby News Archives on campaign to ban space-based weapons:
February 25, 2005 - Item 1
Canada opts out of U.S. defense shield
February 7, 2003 - Item 3
In Columbia's Wake - Nukes-in-Space
January 12, 2003 - Item 1
Speech in Canada for Space Preservation Treaty
January 9, 2003 - Item 5
Comment on NASA's Nuke-Mars Mission
January 6, 2003 - Item 4
Judge Allows Bush's Withdrawal from ABM Treaty to Stand
January 4, 2003 - Item 3
Evolutionary Politics: Representative Dennis J. Kucinich
December 20, 2002 - Item 1
Star Wars Further Destabilizes the World
July 4, 2002 - Items 1 & 2
(1) Peace In Space & On Earth - Kucinich Videos Released & (2) ABM Treaty still lives!
June 12, 2002 - Item 1
Lawsuit to stop withdrawal from ABM Treaty
June 4, 2002 - Item 2
ABM Demise -- Bombs away
May 18, 2002 - Item 2
Bush Wins the Final Battle for Star Wars?
May 13, 2002 - Item 1
Kucinich for US President - Head them off at the pass
May 1, 2002 - Item 1
Canada could prevent weaponization of space
February 25, 2002 - Items 1, 2, 3,
ABM Treaty Hanging * Nuclear Theft Confirmed * Kucinich on war economy
"How Can We Justify This?" By Representative Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio)
March 9, 2002 - Items 2 and 3
"Kucinich Rocks the Boat" + Carol Rosin reports on Peace in Space kick-off event
April 23, 2002 - Item 1
"Kucinich Is the One", article by Studs Terkel
Kucinich in 2004 and the Space Preservation Act of 2002
To contact Dennis Kucinich, write to:
United States Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio)
1730 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-5871
Fax: (202) 225-5745
http://www.house.gov/kucinich/index.htm
Email: Dkucinich@aol.com
1) Changes in HR 3616 from 2977 - email reply by Carol Rosin & additional updated Archive Links
2) Letter to Australian Defence Minister regarding Kucinich Bill
3) Bush Asks Daschle to Limit Sept. 11 Probes
4) The Return of Space Nuclear Reactors
1) Changes in HR 3616 from 2977 - email reply by Carol Rosin
Excerpts from an E-mail by Carol Rosin
30 Jan 2002
My first notes are going to be long and unedited...as I really want to help everyone who makes contact really understand the basic philosophy, approach, content, get questions answered from my/our perspective now...as soon I won't have time to write so much and it's my hope that I will have "force multiplied" our efforts here to you so that you can help spread it around, too. I didn't go to bed last night until 730AM and woke up at 9AM...trying to stay caught up. I have over 10,000 emails about all this, mostly supportive, thank heavens. But only a few need answers, and if I have them, each will get an answer like this. I hope this helps you. After a couple more days of this, I'll put more on the website in a more condensed form to answer the common questions in the FAQ. The legislation and compatible World Treaty Banning Space-based Weapons and all the educational material we have put together is on the www.peaceinspace.com website. The FAX your congress rep and world leader will be up by the end of this day. Everyone on-line can do this...it's free. We'll change the letters periodically as they need to be updated. And eventually we'll have phone numbers and fax numbers available on that site, for those who need to make copies of them for those in our networks who don't use computers.
The first bottom line is that this is not and never was a chemtrials or psychotronic or electromagnetic weapons bill...it is and was a space-based weapons bill to start. Those were only listed as definitions of possible space-based weapons because we all know that if a weapons R&D program exists it could be placed in space. These words were only in there for definition purposes. Nothing else. And they aren't needed as ALL space-based weapons and the use or weapons against objects in orbit will be banned. This is GREAT, and it's what we all need to focus on now. We are NOT going to focus on weapons because that is what we will get if we do...more weapons. We ARE going to focus on what IS in space and what CAN BE in space of a non-space based weapons nature. Because the vision we focus on is what we are going to get. I think more and more of us are beginning to realize that now.
This is a new approach for those of us who are angry with the bombings, the secrets, the lies, and frustrations of working so hard on issues like chemtrails and mind control...and getting virtually no where, feeling helpless, to the point that some really good people are getting outraged and even hostile sometimes. Anyone can understand this. And I'm finding that anyone can understand, too, that there is another approach...one that takes place in the context of a whole new way of thinking, a new space paradigm. And now we have the legislative and legal tools for the collective consciousness who can, to rally around. In that context, in the context of the short time in which we have to create a huge new reality that we want...just to make that happen...we don't have time to work with people who get stuck in the old ways...because we want to tap those who know we can get this done IF we rise above all that stuff for now and focus our intent. That is what this will take. And removing definitions, that's all they were, out of a piece of legislation is quite a normal thing to do...as we want a simple and clean bill that will attract other congress members and world leaders to agree too. Keep it simple. It's as simple as that.
Most important, I think, is to let your network know that we can't do things the same old way. If we focus on weapons, we get weapons, It drags us down into another level of the grid which we have learned results in no change except more weapons. The largest R&D program in history is mandated to weaponize space. We will remove that U.S. mandate by turning this and the forthcoming Senate legislation and compatible World Treaty into law. The words chemtrails, psychotronics, etc., were simply put into the legislation for the purpose of listing some sample weapons or weapon systems. That is all people need to know because it is the truth. There is no government line of conspiracy here. This is normal procedure in a bill like this to modify, change, improve and then re-introduce it so it's better..in terms of getting it supported, co-sponsored, and passed.
What is true is that we have a great congressman and champion who has integrity, courage, dedication, and intention to work with and for us to get this bill passed, and we have a World Treaty that is completely compatible with the legislation...that if we work to get into the hands of our national and world leaders we can change the whole paradigm in our lifetime...help the horribly suffering children, the millions of orphans, poor and sick uneducated people and other tortured animals on this planet, build safe and clean technologies that can get our environment stabilized and healthy, and we can start that process with a winnable bill that will cap the arms race.
And we had better do this now, or in June OUR chances are over. We have to build this movement quicker and in more solidarity than we've ever done anything before. This bill, after all, fits with the universal laws and principals and with the Declaration of Human Rights. But you cannot change the truth...and that is what will inevitably be able to be unveiled once this bill is signed into law. But, if we allow weapons to go into space, we will have only more of the same...in the most negative sense. And, we have a June deadline to have this rolling out. Once we introduce the 90 day plan, we'll commit, do it, huddle, and see what we need to do to get the job completed. Timing is of the essence here. We need everyone we can get to start this campaign in mid-Feb., and while it won't obviously be everyone, I'm only here to do my little part, too, it is going to be an amazingly wonderful, not easy but wonderful, experience for all who participate...who can rise above these questions and concerns.
Getting a ban on space-based weapons is so vital it's beyond words. From the angle you work, it's the ONLY way to get the veil of secrecy to lift...in our system on this planet, at least. It's the only way to maintain space as a sanctuary for travel to and from earth...and you know what that means. And it's the only way to cap the arms race at the ONLY time in history when it can be done...as Bush can deploy weapons after June 13th above all our heads under the guise of it being "MERELY testing."
Now, talk about mind control...that team has officially announced they plan to "dominate and control" the earth and space from space. ..I believe we can get the ban on space-based weapons and replace the ABM Treaty that Bush will break in June with a WORLD Treaty Banning Space-based Weapons...end the arms race BEFORE it mores into space, and allow the people on this planet begin to experience real healing and life without suffering and with the truth about who we are in these bodies and in the universe(s).
Please now tell me more about you and about your ideas re what you/we can do. How can I help you? And know that most of the material I'm attaching is on the website now for all to share. We'll start the campaign in mid-February...though it is really beginning with people talking about this now. Remember, not many know about the 90 Day Plan. We'll spread it around in mid-February. But for those who hear about it, we are putting our foundations of people and resources, our minds and hearts into place together now.
Thanks for being there and here. I'm with you and all as we form our world family and focus with pure intention to get this ban on space-based weapons passed into law now while we still can.
Remember, people can now fax their leaders from the website.
Thanks so much.
My love in peace,
Carol Rosin
Email: rosin@west.net
(President, Institute for Cooperation in Space)
90 Day Plan of Action to be introduced in February, see http://www.peaceinspace.com
2) Letter to Australian Defence Minister regarding Kucinich Bill
28 January 2002
Hon Robert Hill
Minister for Defence
Parliament House
Canberra, ACT 2600
Dear Mr Hill,
I do hope that you will be interested in the following issue. It could have a very great deal to do with the future well-being of the world's people. US House of Representatives member, Dennis Kucinich has just reintroduced a Bill, (HR 3616), the Space Preservation Act of 2002, a redraft of an earlier Kucinich Bill along the same lines. It calls on the US to ban all research, development, testing, and deployment of space-based weapons and if passed would require the US to enter negotiations toward a World Treaty to Ban Weapons in Space. It is clearly opposed to President Bush's aspirations for control of space through his ballistic missile defence program.
In the past, Australia has been very supportive of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. However, our support (at least implied but possible more explicit) for US plans for ballistic missile defence, seem to have resulted in somewhat of a collapse of any criticism of the US as it withdraws from the ABMT. Once no longer party to the ABMT, there will be no stopping US development of the BMD program. This course is dangerously provocative to Russia and China, and therefore destabilising, potentially leading the world down the track of a renewed nuclear arms race. Hints that the Pentagon may resume underground nuclear testing to maintain the US nuclear weapons stockpile are ominous. Such measures destroy any faith that the US was sincere when it promised, along with other nuclear armed powers, at the NPT Review conference in 2000, to observe an "unequivocal commitment" to total elimination of nuclear weaponry. It is obviously working on the principle that nuclear weapons will continue to exist and that future warfare could call upon these most dreadful of all weapons of mass destruction.
As a long-term ally of the US, should we not be helping our powerful friend to pursue a defence and foreign policy posture that will enhance its potential to be admired and valued, rather than feared and resented? The appalling events of September 11 can never be condoned - but did most horribly demonstrate the low regard held by many in the world's poor (and often Muslim) countries for the US. One way or another, they have analysed their impoverished state and come to conclusions that the US has been implicated in that. Whether this is fair or not, the perception needs addressing, and international relationships need healing.
Results of recent research into global attitudes towards the US by the Pew Research Centre indicated a deep level of discontent and criticism of the "American way" - and in the words of Madeleine Albright (who headed this project), "There is a sense that we are the richest country in the world and we don't share." I was most interested in that study, and re-typed the article on it that appeared in the West Australian, (21.12.2001). In case you are unaware of that study, I will enclose a copy of the article for your interest.
As the world's sole remaining superpower with the capacity to draw an international alliance together for its war on terrorism, could not the US be convinced by its friends that there is another way - beyond military power projection - to use its influence? It could lead the world towards a more equitable state, narrowing the gaping North-South divide - and become 'hero' instead of 'pariah'. The American people want to be loved and find it hard to fathom feelings of angst directed towards their country. Instead of gratitude for US foreign aid and US efforts in peacemaking (such as in the Middle East and also between India and Pakistan), they are puzzled by criticism and much worse. It would be a win-win for the US and the rest of the world if President Bush took a less US-centric view - and decided, in Marilyn Albright's words "to share."
While the US remains so dependent on imported oil, changing its foreign policies is going to be politically and economically exceedingly difficult. A far greater proportion of US technical expertise should be dedicated to R&D to enable a changed energy policy. This should be aimed at renewable energy, increased energy efficiencies - and even simpler (more enjoyable) life styles. This would not, of course, be starting from scratch - as there is much movement in that great country towards such goals already. With more 'official' encouragement, the outstanding energy of the US could really make the significant difference needed to turn things around. and truly earn the admiration and gratitude of the world's people, now and in the future.
Support for the new Kucinich Bill could be part of that strategy. Mr Hill, as Australia's Defence Minister, would you consider urging the Bush Administration to support that Bill?
Yours sincerely,
Judy Blyth
Coordinator, WA Branch of Medical Association for Prevention of War
PO Box 1095, Subiaco WA 6904
3) Bush Asks Daschle to Limit Sept. 11 Probes
Don't go there: Bush Asks Daschle to Limit Sept. 11 Probes --
Daschle perplexed by the notion of not looking into 9-11
Date: Wednesday, January 30 @ 10:09:24 EST
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush personally asked Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle Tuesday to limit the congressional investigation into the events of September 11, congressional and White House sources told CNN.
The request was made at a private meeting with congressional leaders Tuesday morning. Sources said Bush initiated the conversation.
He asked that only the House and Senate intelligence committees look into the potential breakdowns among federal agencies that could have allowed the terrorist attacks to occur, rather than a broader inquiry that some lawmakers have proposed, the sources said.
Tuesday's discussion followed a rare call to Daschle from Vice President Dick Cheney last Friday to make the same request.
"The vice president expressed the concern that a review of what happened on September 11 would take resources and personnel away from the effort in the war on terrorism," Daschle told reporters.
But, Daschle said, he has not agreed to limit the investigation.
"I acknowledged that concern, and it is for that reason that the Intelligence Committee is going to begin this effort, trying to limit the scope and the overall review of what happened," said Daschle, D-South Dakota.
"But clearly, I think the American people are entitled to know what happened and why," he said.
Cheney met last week in the Capitol with the chairmen of the House and Senate intelligence committees and, according to a spokesman for Senate Intelligence Chairman Bob Graham, D-Florida, "agreed to cooperate with their effort."
The heads of both intelligence committees have been meeting to map out a way to hold a bipartisan House-Senate investigation and hearings.
They were discussing how the inquiry would proceed, including what would be made public, what would remain classified, and how broad the probe would be.
Graham's spokesman said the committees will review intelligence matters only.
"How ill prepared were we and why? We are looking towards the possibility of addressing systemic problems through legislation," said spokesman Paul Anderson.
Some Democrats, such as Sens. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Robert Torricelli of New Jersey, have been calling for a broad inquiry looking at various federal government agencies beyond the intelligence community.
"We do not meet our responsibilities to the American people if we do not take an honest look at the federal government and all of its agencies and let the country know what went wrong," Torricelli said.
"The best assurance that there's not another terrorist attack on the United States is not simply to hire more federal agents or spend more money. It's to take an honest look at what went wrong. Who or what failed? There's an explanation owed to the American people," he said.
Although the president and vice president told Daschle they were worried a wide-reaching inquiry could distract from the government's war on terrorism, privately Democrats questioned why the White House feared a broader investigation to determine possible culpability.
"We will take a look at the allocation of resources. Ten thousand federal agents -- where were they? How many assets were used, and what signals were missed?" a Democratic senator told CNN.
CNN Capitol Hill Producer Dana Bash and CNN Correspondents Jon Karl and John King contributed to this report.
4) The Return of Space Nuclear Reactors
SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2002, Issue No. 11
January 31, 2002
** THE RETURN OF SPACE NUCLEAR REACTORS
** REDUCING INTERAGENCY BARRIERS IN INTELLIGENCE
** OFFICIAL RESOURCES
** (TIME OUT)
THE RETURN OF SPACE NUCLEAR REACTORS
For the first time in a decade, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will request funding for development of a space nuclear reactor in the 2003 budget request to be released next week.
Space nuclear reactor technology has followed a boom-and-bust pattern of development since the 1950s. The U.S. launched one space reactor in 1965, a 500 Watt system that operated for 43 days and which remains in orbit. The last U.S. space reactor development program, a joint NASA-Defense Department effort known as the SP-100, was terminated ten years ago following the expenditure of nearly half a billion dollars.
(The Soviet Union had around 30 reactors between 1967 and 1988. The U.S. has launched some two dozen spacecraft utilizing plutonium-powered electrical generators -- which are not reactors -- that produce a low level of electricity, for missions such as the Cassini probe to Saturn in 1997.)
NASA is proposing the new reactor initiative in order to support future space exploration programs, an informed official said. He noted uncertainty about the viability of the program in the current budgetary environment. He also expressed concern about possible attempts to involve the Defense Department in the program, fearing such a move might make it more vulnerable to political opposition.
The use of space nuclear reactors is dictated whenever moderate levels of electrical power (tens of kilowatts or more) are required in space over an extended period of time. The availability of a space nuclear reactor could enable a variety of ambitious space exploration programs such as a multi-decade mission beyond our solar system.
By the same token, space reactors could also be used to power space weapons and other military systems in orbit, attracting the opposition of some arms control advocates and environmentalists.
In an attempt to square this circle, the Federation of American Scientists and Soviet colleagues in 1988 proposed a ban on the operation of nuclear reactors in Earth orbit that would nevertheless permit their use for space exploration.
See "Nuclear Power in Space," Scientific American, June 1991, for background on the checkered history of space reactors and discussion of the FAS proposal.
For some reason there has recently been a small surge of policy interest in space nuclear power, independent of the new NASA initiative.
"Thermionics Quo Vadis?" is the curious title of a new National Research Council report on the status of thermionics, which is an energy conversion technology used in some space reactor designs. The report provides some general information on space nuclear power. See:
http://www.nap.edu/books/030908282X/html/
The Department of Energy Inspector General reported this month on the administration of DOE's Advanced Radioisotope Power Systems program, which provides plutonium-powered electrical generators for NASA missions. See: http://www.ig.doe.gov/pdf/ig-0540.pdf
FLYBY NEWS
=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =
Karl Grossman - Star Globalization - Missile $ Target - Enron Hiding - Treaty Termination
25 January 2002
We need a transformation soon, or we will all go over the edge into oblivion. At the end of item four, you can do something -- Link to an online petition to encourage the Senate to consider, "who has the right to terminate a treaty?" The truth, the obvious incentives behind star wars, the globalization, the money, the power, the fear, were splendidly expressed in this issues first two articles, by Karl Grossman and Jerome Richard. They show the greedy confines, the mind-set, the organized insanity of Corporate rule; and unless we do something, soon, we all will have a free ticket to ride deeper into destruction. Next issue Flyby News will include the text of the newly re-introduced Kucinich Act to the US House of Representatives to ban space-based weapons, (including research and development). This is a requirement, in the House, Senate and World, to defeat the insanity threatening our lives of those ruling our government, and the people accepting such death provoking leadership.
1) Star Wars Protecting Globalization From Above
2) Missile Defense Shield: The Real Target
3) The Enron Story: What are they hiding?
4) Missile Defense: Who terminates a treaty?
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Star Wars Protecting Globalization From Above
Bush's revived Star Wars program got a boost after 9-11. He's asking for $8.3 billion for a missile program from Congress, and the big defense contractors are hoping to make a fortune.
Star Wars Protecting Globalization From Above
by Karl Grossman
Special to CorpWatch
http://www.corpwatch.org
January 18, 2002
Marketing Missile Defense
The United States is moving full-speed ahead on a missile defense program with events of September 11th giving a big boost to the scheme. Missile defense, or "Star Wars," advocates maintain the terrorist attack demonstrated the kind of future assault -- the next time around with missiles -- that the U.S. must seek to offset. They also point to the need to protect "US interests and investments" around the globe. Opponents argue the most likely threat to the U.S. continues to be relatively low-tech terrorist attacks, not sophisticated missiles. Star Wars supporters are now riding high.
Meanwhile the troubled aerospace industry is hoping to be shored up by big-ticket defense contracts.
Some $95 billion has been spent on missile defense since Ronald Reagan first advanced the program in 1983, according to the Center for Defense Information (CDI) in Washington. Despite the billions the program has never produced a successful missile system. Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon and TRW have been the "Big Four" among aerospace corporations receiving program monies. Many billions more will be spent in coming years. All four companies aggressively lobby Capitol Hill on defense spending.
These companies have close ties to the Bush administration, as they did to the Democratic administration that proceeded it. The military machine is alive and well more than a decade after the end of the cold war. This time globalization is the rationale for arms build up -- and some of the same corporations that promoted and profited from the cold war are behind it.
The Star Wars Debate Revived
President George W. Bush cleared a legal path for a renewed missile defense program in December when he advised Russia that the U.S. is withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. September 11th was part of his message as he warned that the threat to both countries came from terrorists and "rogue states".
"We know that the terrorists, and some of those who support them, seek the ability to deliver death and destruction to our doorstep via missile. And we must have the freedom and the flexibility to develop effective defenses against those attacks," Bush said.
On the other side of the debate, Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power In Space, held that "September 11th ultimately is irrelevant" because missile defense is a Trojan horse for the "real objectives" of the U.S. space military program.
"It's never been about defense. It's always been about controlling space, dominating space, denying other countries access to space and the U.S. being the master of space," said Gagnon. "And that isn't a defensive posture."
But others reached a different conclusion.
By September 17th , O'Dwyer's PR Daily was reporting that President George Bush's full $8.3 billion request for missile defense in 2002 "has now gotten new life in the aftermath of the terror attacks."
In the days following the attacks Senate Democrats backed away from a pre-September 11th pledge to cut the amount by $1.3 million and agreed to remove a provision requiring the administration to seek Congressional approval to spend money on activities that would violate the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
Media commentators widely interpreted the move as an effort to avoid a partisan debate in the middle of a national crisis. And the White House made it clear that opposition to its legislative agenda, on a variety of fronts, would be branded unpatriotic.
Militarizing the Heavens to Enforce Globalization
While the push for a Star Wars program was buoyed by the September 11th attacks, plans for the administration's space military program were well underway when Bush took office.
Prior to being appointed U.S. defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld chaired the Commission to Assess U.S. National Security Space Management and Organization -- known as the "Space Commission." Just days before Rumsfeld was named Pentagon chief, the Space Commission issued a report championing Star Wars.
Before there was a director of "homeland defense," this report spoke about "homeland defense" -- against missiles -- urging an array of military hardware, including space-based weapons systems, to "destroy a missile shortly after launch, before either warhead or countermeasures are released."
The 13-member Space Commission advocated elevating the U.S. Space Command, established by the Pentagon in 1985 to "coordinate" U.S. space military operations, to a "Space Corps" like the Marine Corps, to then possibly to become a "Space Department" at the same level as the Departments of Army, Navy and Air Force.
General Richard B. Myers, current chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, headed up Space Command before being tapped by the Bush Administration for his current post a year ago.
The January 2001 Space Commission report was proceeded by its Long Range Plan, which framed the space missile program in terms of furthering corporate-led globalization and maintaining US economic and political dominance. "The United States will remain a global power and exert global leadership," stated the 1998 plan.
"Widespread communications will highlight disparities in resources and quality of life -- contributing to unrest in developing countries. The global economy will continue to become more interdependent. Economic alliances, as well as the growth and influence of multinational
corporations, will blur security agreements. The gap between 'have' and 'have-not' nations will widen, creating regional unrest" the Long Range Plan continued. This worldwide gap between rich and poor, the Space Commission reasoned, would lead to conflicts threatening US dominance.
The Long Range Plan opens by declaring that it has "U.S. Space Command's #1 priority investing nearly 20 man-years to make it a reality. The development and production process, by design, involved hundreds of people including about 75 corporations."
And it subsequently lists these 75 corporations-beginning with Aerojet, Aerospace Corp., BD Systems and Boeing, to Lockheed Martin, Rand Corp., Raytheon, Spaceport Systems International, Sparta Corp., Stella Solutions, TRW Space and Vista Technologies.
Bush Administration Ties to the Aerospace Industry
The Bush administration is intimately linked with the corporate interests behind the missile defense program. Vice President Cheney is a former member of the board of TRW. His wife, Lynn Cheney, was a longtime member of the Lockheed Martin board stepping down only as her husband prepared to take office.
"I wrote the Republican Party's foreign policy platform," Bruce Jackson, vice president of corporate strategy and development of Lockheed Martin, flatly told this reporter in an interview last year, referring to his role as chair of the Foreign Policy Platform Committee at the Republican National Convention where he was a delegate.
Bush's appointee as deputy director of the National Security Council -- whom he has also assigned to travel the world to promote the U.S. missile defense program -- is Stephen J. Hadley, previously a partner in Shea & Gardner, the Washington law firm of Lockheed Martin.
"Space is going to be important. It has a great feature in the military," Hadley, speaking as "an advisor" to Bush, told the Air Force Association in a speech during the Bush campaign.
Other Bush administration officials drawn from the aerospace industry include Albert Smith, a Lockheed Martin vice president, appointed undersecretary of the Air Force; Gordon England, vice president of General Dynamics, named Navy secretary; and James G. Roche, retired
president of a Northrop-Grumman division, appointed as Air Force secretary.
Campaign Contributions.
Then there are political contributions.
William D. Hartung and Michelle Ciarrocca of the Arms Trade Resource Center have tracked these contributions focusing on what they term the "Big Four" of missile defense -- Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon and TRW. These four corporations, which have been receiving 60 percent of government missile defense contracts, have been "making a major political investment," they say.
Their report, Tangled WebThe Marketing of Missile Defense, lists millions of dollars in "soft money donations" and "PAC contributions" to members of Congress in the last several years. The preference has been for money to Republicans, they say. But "the bottom line" is that "both major parties have been bought off."
As a result, "under the leadership of Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and the Democratic Leadership Council, the Democratic Party [was] almost as pro-military as the Republicans throwing billions at missile defense. The answer is to get special interest money out of politics by supporting full public financing of presidential and congressional races."
Other Star Wars critics see the space missile program as a government bail out for the ailing aerospace industry. Missile defense is especially important to Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Raytheon "as a medium-to-long term source of revenue and profits to help them recover from recent management and technical problems that have slashed their stock prices in half and reduced their profit margins," according to the Arms Trade Resource Center.
"Our government is being bribed by these corporations pushing for Star Wars," charges Alice Slater, president of the New York-based Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE). "They have absolutely no regard for the safety and well-being of the world. This is almost a cliche about corporate greed--at a grand scale."
On the other side, aerospace corporations say that they are working to protect the U.S. -- more necessary now than ever after September 11th, they stress.
"This notion that space is going to remain a peaceful area in the future is absolutely putting our heads in the sand. It is just a fact of life," emphasized retired U.S. Space Command commander-in-chief, General Howell Estes, to the Colorado Springs Independent in December. "The fact of the matter is man is a warlike being. That's the nature of the beast, and we just can't be naive about it."
Gagnon of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power In Space sees the Bush Administration's massive military build up in direct competition with funding for social programs.
"Spending hundreds of billions of dollars on Star Wars will take money away from education, programs for women and children, and health care," said Gagnon. "There is a direct link between promoting weapons for space and the destabilization of our communities. People must connect these struggles."
http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=1333
--------------------------->>>>>>>>>>>>>
Karl Grossman is professor of journalism at the State University of New York/College at Old Westbury. He is the author of Weapons in Space from Seven Stories Press and narrator of the TV documentary Star Wars Returns, from EnviroVideo .
To find these resources and other information, visit Flyby News Links.
For more background, vist the Karl Grossman Cassini-NoFlyby page
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Missile Defense Shield: The Real Target
by Jerome Richard
The September 11 attack by suicidal terrorists should have blasted a hole in the Bush administration plan to spend as much as $100 billion on the Missile Defense Shield. Obviously, we have real threats to worry about. Still, the administration is pushing ahead with its shield and the reason must be that intercontinental missiles are not the program's prime target.
According to the administration, the global warming treaty endorsed by 178 other countries is flawed, the small arms pact is not perfect, and all the science is not yet in on stem cell research. Yet, the Missile Defense Shield, which by all the evidence so far has a fifty percent chance of hitting an incoming ballistic missile provided that we are appraised of the precise time and place of launch and given its exact trajectory, is worth this enormous investment. Other conditions for the missile defense's success include good weather (the last test was postponed because of the threat of rain), and, oh yes, the incoming missile would have to be accompanied by no more than one decoy.
The administration admits that the tests so far have not been realistic, but they feel good enough about them to want to proceed, even though it means abandoning the ABM Treaty which has served the world well for over thirty years. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld has said it is not necessary for the system to work perfectly. Apparently, anyone crazy enough to launch such a missile at us will be deterred by knowing that his chances of success are only fifty-fifty. Why that would be more of a deterrence than nuclear retaliation is not explained.
President Bush says the system is not directed against Russia or China, the only two likely adversaries with ICBM capability. Those countries don't believe him, and besides threatening a new arms race in response, have signed a pact that harkens back to the early days of the Cold War. Reuniting Russia and China is so far the only solid achievement of the program. President Putin, while proclaiming Bush's abandoning of the ABM Treaty a mistake, says that he doesn't feel threatened by the tests, perhaps because he doesn't think they will succeed.
The object of the president's missile defense desire is supposed to be "rogue nations." That, at the present time, would be Iraq, Libya, and North Korea, none of whom yet have a missile we need to defend against. Try to envisage circumstances in which a Saddam Hussein or a Kim Jong Il would launch a missile against the United States and you quickly see why Russia and China suspect that they are the real targets of this strategy.
Many scientists doubt that the proposed system will ever be effective in a realistic situation. President Carter, an engineer by training, called the idea "technologically ridiculous." But suppose they are wrong. Imagine that you are the leader of a country and have been contemplating a missile attack against the United States only to learn that we have nearly perfected a missile defense shield. (It would be useless as a deterrent if we kept it a secret.) Would you go ahead anyway? There is more than one way to deliver a bomb. Even without a missile defense shield, a submarine, car, or package would make a cheaper and more reliable carrier. Or even a hijacked airplane, as the attack on the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon tragically demonstrate. And why even think about missiles when germs can be put in the mail? Even a clever computer hacker can wreak widespread damage to our economy.
In fact, the more feasible the missile defense shield becomes, the less likely it is that any country would rely on a weapon susceptible to it.
Surely, the administration is aware of all this, so why press ahead with such an expensive, probably unworkable, and futile program? Precisely because it so expensive. Not only does it feed money to defense contractors that are major Republican Party contributors, but it drains money from the federal government. That's why Bush recently called the disappearance of the non-Social Security surplus, "incredibly positive news." He gloated that it would halt the growth of the federal government.
What separates the Republican Party from the Democratic Party more than anything else is the Republican belief that the federal government should do as little as necessary vs. the Democrats' conviction that government should do as much as possible. This is true even after Clinton announced that the era of big government was over. That moved the Democrats closer to the middle of the public opinion spectrum, but still left it on the other side of the divide. It was the deficits left by the Reagan administration that siphoned away available money for new social programs. (It was also the defense industry that got much of the money.)
Republicans have always believed in small government. The preamble to their 2000 party platform says: "Since the election of 1860, the Republican Party has had a special calling to advance the founding principles of freedom and limited government and the dignity and worth of every individual."
For Republicans, the best way to limit government is to starve it of funds. One way to do that is to cut taxes. The current proposal to refund the Alternative Minimum Tax to large and mainly profitable companies is to do so with shovels. The other way is to spend funds on expensive projects that don't establish ongoing entitlements. It doesn't matter if the missile defense shield never works. It wouldn't matter if the money was spent on producing widgets that were then rocketed into space. It does matter that expenditures not be so large that they trigger a tax increase. That's what happened with the Reagan deficits.
Republican aversion to government programs is not, as many people believe, because they are mean-spirited. Rather, it stems from a blind faith in the private sector. The administration would turn welfare and social security over to the private sector if it could. And if there aren't enough funds in government to provide for welfare and social security, then that might happen.
The real target of the missile defense program is the U.S. Treasury.
Jerome Richard lives in Seattle. He has written for The Humanist, Pacific Discovery, San Francisco Chronicle, Baltimore Sun, Seattle Weekly, TomPaine.com and SocialAction.com.
Posted by Comon Dreams on Thursday, January 24, 2002
http://commondreams.org/views02/0124-05.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Link!
- Bush To Ask For 48 Billion Extra In 2003 Defense Budget
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/milspace-02a.html
Washington - Jan 23, 2002 - US President George W. Bush said Wednesday he would propose a 48-billion dollar increase in the US defense budget for fiscal 2003 in order to complete the war on terrorism.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) The Enron Story: What are they hiding?
From"Wes Boyd" Date23 Jan 2002
SubjectWhat are they hiding?
The full story is finally coming out. Enron gamed the energy markets, brought California to its knees, invaded our political system, and stole from its own employees and stockholders. These same "corporate leaders" have been intimately involved in policymaking in the Bush administration, but the White House has refused to release information about who and how.
Enron is not a tale of accounting errors. It is a story of the powerful few buying their way into the Texas governor's mansion and the White House and using their access for their sole advantage at the expense of employees, stockholders, consumers and taxpayers. This is a tale of corporate greed and corruption aided and abetted by "public servants." Vice President Cheney and the White House are still refusing to release any information about the meetings they held, who they met with, and how they developed their proposals. They claim they have nothing to hide. But why then did they say that they never met with Enron, only later to admit that Cheney met with Enron CEO Lay once and his staff met with Enron executives six times? The White House and Enron have a great deal of explaining to do, and we need to be sure that happens.
The White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer, told reporters, "I really think the public does not share the judgment that there is somehow some political malfeasance here." (NY Times1/18/02, Congress Rebuffed on Energy Documents). They must think we're fools.
The moveon.org website include links to several good articles that document the extent of the White House - Enron connections. Here are some key facts:
* Enron has been President Bush's #1 financial backer over his career. Enron and affiliates gave more than $110,000 to the Bush/Cheney election campaign, and $300,000 to the Bush/Cheney inaugural fund.
* Enron and its executives spent more than $2.4 million supporting various candidates and parties in the 1999-2000 elections. The vast majority of these contributions went to Republican candidates and the GOP (see website for sources).
* Marc Racicot, the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, planned to continue drawing a seven-figure salary partly as an Enron lobbyist. He now says he won't lobby but he will still receive that salary from his law firm.
* Enron participated in secret meetings of the Cheney task force which crafted a national energy strategy and the White House has refused to turn over records of these meetings.
* That energy plan includes tens of billions in taxpayer subsidies to the energy industry. It would also open the Arctic to oil drilling, but not substantially increase car mileage or energy efficiency.
The House has approved it; Bush is pushing the Senate to do the same.
* Last summer, Enron and other companies manipulated the California energy market, costing taxpayers and consumers billions. Enron was a key player in lobbying for the California deregulation plan.
* Enron stands to gain $254 million in rebates of back taxes under the "stimulus" bill President Bush supports. The House has already passed it, and Bush is now leaning hard on the Senate to follow suit.
* Senior Enron executives allegedly made millions selling their stock at high prices, collectively walking off with $1.1 BILLION, yet prevented rank-and-file workers from selling theirs, causing many employees to lose their life savings.
* America's top law enforcement official, Attorney General John Ashcroft, has excused himself from investigating Enron because of his own connections to the bankrupt company. Here's a good summary by Richard Cohen in the Washington Post (Jan 15):
"The fact remains that these guys -- these pals of Bush and Cheney and others in the administration -- made money off a shell game. They sold stock backed by smoke. They cashed out, but when their employees tried doing the same thing, they blocked them. The stock went from $85 a share to 68 cents and the employees lost everything -- their savings, their pensions, their dreams of a comfy retirement with maybe a little boat on the lake. The big shots got the boat. Their employees got the lake. They can go jump in it."
Join our call for accountability. To send an instant email to the administration and Congress demanding a full accounting of Enron's influence, go to http://www.moveon.org/levelwithus/
Thank you. This item is from http://www.MoveOn.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Missile Defense: Who terminates a treaty?
By Walter C. Clemens, Jr.
The Bush administration has heard plenty of reasons why its national missile defense plans are unrealistic: that a good defense can never beat a good offense; that, even if it works, it will break the budget and deprive U.S. forces of funds needed for other purposes; that a shield could make Americans less secure if it goads Russia and China into building more spears; and that if lightly armed terrorists can penetrate U.S. security to attack the Pentagon and World Trade Center towers, couldn't a determined rogue state evade or poke through missile defenses?
But these practical considerations aside, the Bush team could also face a stiff legal challenge from Congress if the White House attempts to jettison the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty to make way for missile defense. Does the White House have the right to flout or void treatiesdescribed by Chief Justice John Marshall in 1823 as the "supreme law of the land"without approval by one or both houses of Congress? If it takes two branches of government to make a treaty, can the White House alone terminate it? The U.S. Constitution provides no clear answers to these questions, and the courts have handed down contradictory or highly qualified rulings. But the precedents established over the past two centuries suggest that the president may not act alone to abrogate U.S. treaty obligations.
The Constitution
The Constitution assigns far more foreign relations powers to Congress than it does to the president. Article 1 grants Congress the power to lay and collect duties, provide for the common defense, regulate foreign commerce, establish rules on naturalization, regulate foreign coin, define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas and offenses against the law of nations, declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, make rules concerning captures on land and water, raise and support armies, provide and maintain a navy, make rules for the government and regulation of the land and sea forces, and provide for calling for the militia to repel invasions as well as for domestic security..
..Whatever the recent practice, the founding fathers did not take treaties lightly. It seems doubtful that they would have allowed a president acting alone to abrogate a treaty entered into with the approval of two-thirds of the senators votingin this case, the ABM Treaty, which was ratified by President Richard M. Nixon in 1972 after the Senate gave its consent, 88 to 2, with no reservations or special understandings..
For the complete article posted at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists web site:
http://www.thebulletin.org/issues/2001/nd01/nd01clemens.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
IMPORTANT NOTE! TAKE ACTION!
A petition to the Senate asking them to exercise their duty to vote on treaty matters has gathered 450 signatures in just 6 days. Signing takes 1 click of your mouse on the link below.
This is just a small step in the process of reclaiming our democracy from the imperial/corporate forces that have taken over the executive branch. Every step counts. We need many more signatures to get the Senate's attention. Please sign and send this to your email list.
You can also print it out, gather signatures and FAX it to your senator.
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/abmtrty/petition.html
Online locator for fax and other contact info for your Congressional Reps can be found from Flyby News Links
http://www.flybynews.com/links.shtml
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Energy Hoax * Greenpeace MD * Lori's Appeal * Crazy Horse * Reich for Governor
22 January 2002
This issue includes updates on the California pseudo energy crisis, (a recent study reports), on the trial in California on Greenpeace activists delaying a missile defensive/offensive weapon test, on Lori Berenson, her trial is up for an appeal today, more on a review of Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas by Mari Sandoz, and a Flyby News political endorsement for Robert Reich for Governor of Massachusetts. His campaign is time sensitive, since he was late to join the fray, and needs 15% of the delegates attending the Massachusetts Democratic Convention this February 2nd in Worcester. More on this can be found in item 5 and from his website, http://www.robertreich.org
Also, the ninety-day action plan to ban space-based weapons is nearly ready to be announced by the Institute for Cooperation in Space. Stay tuned, and if you want to help network this campaign and Flyby News, send your snail mail address to info@flybynews.com, and we will send you copies of a flier to post on bulletin boards and distribute. And pass the word to your online friends to subscribe for Flyby News. There is a link to add any address to our list at the bottom of http://www.flybynews.com . All addresses remain confidential.
Many thanks for subscribing, and supporting campaigns critical for life.
1) Study: California Energy Crisis Was a $71 Billion Hoax
2) Activists get probation in Calif. missile case
3) Lori Berenson - Court Appeal Finally to be Heard
4) Crazy Horse by Mari Sandoz
5) Robert Reich for Governor of Massachusetts
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Study: California Energy Crisis Was a $71 Billion Hoax
January 17, 2002
The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) issued the first comprehensive review of the California energy crisis today, exactly one year after the first rolling blackouts hit California. Using government and industry data, the 58 page report, entitled "Hoax: How Deregulation Let the Power Industry Steal $71 Billion From California," shows that the California electricity system did not fail according to the laws of supply and demand, as it has been widely portrayed. The California energy crisis, instead, was a hoax - orchestrated by a power industry freed from price regulation - that will cost $2,200 for every Californian.
The report is available at
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/utilities/rp/rp002169.pdf
For nearly a year, the energy industry, state officials and President Bush claimed there was a shortage of energy in California. But the crisis suddenly disappeared late last spring after Governor Gray Davis committed the state to spending at least $43 billion for energy over the next twenty years. The report shows that the power industry manufactured blackouts and threatened more of them as tools to gain unprecedented profits and overpriced, long-term contracts during the crisis. The report also warns that unless the state of California regains control of its electricity supply, and makes it publicly accountable, additional artificially-created crises will occur in the immediate future.
"The energy crisis was a hoax, set up by deregulation, to suck billions of dollars out of the state," said Harvey Rosenfield and Doug Heller of FTCR, a non-profit, non-partisan research and advocacy group based in California. "The utilities, energy companies and power traders backed deregulation because they knew it would be a license to steal. Once freed of state scrutiny - once the cop was off the beat - they held the state hostage until we agreed to pay their demands. When they stole as much as they thought they could get away with, the 'crisis' mysteriously disappeared - leaving the people of California stuck with the tab."
"It wasn't a shortage, it was a shakedown," FTCR said.
Among its findings, the report shows that:
* The rolling blackouts, which occurred on generally low-demand days, were not caused by a shortage of power plants, but by energy companies looking to maximize their prices and profits.
* Throughout late 2000 and 2001, when prices skyrocketed, California used less electricity than prior years, in which prices were stable and there were no blackouts.
* Californians overpaid $8.5 billion for electricity between January and October of 2001 alone - and will overpay at least another $20.5 billion over the next decade.
* While the U.S. entered a recession during the first half of 2001, power companies, such as Enron, Duke and Reliant, reaped unprecedented windfalls.
* The crisis suddenly ended - without the predicted summer blackouts - not because of Californians' conservation, mild weather or new power plants, but because the energy industry had achieved its goals, and was facing investigations and legislation that threatened to "kill the goose that laid the golden egg": deregulation.
More Crises Unless Deregulation Ended
The report concludes with a series of policy prescriptions including the development of a long-range plan for a hybrid energy system that is part private and part publicly-owned power,
and well regulated. The study also calls for regulatory and statutory changes that will save consumers billions of dollars, such as a retroactive ban on "direct access," a re-allocation of
the electricity rate structure and the formation of a Consumer Utility Board.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights (FTCR)
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Activists get probation in Calif. missile case
LOS ANGELES - Nine people who were arrested during a protest of a July missile test at a U.S. Air Force base in California were sentenced in Los Angeles federal court last week to a year's probation.
The defendants were among a group of 17 alleged Greenpeace activists who pleaded guilty last week to criminal charges of conspiring to enter a U.S. Coast Guard safety zone in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California aboard inflatable rafts and boats to prevent the Air Force from launching an intercontinental ballistic missile.
The test, in which an unarmed missile was fired over the ocean and then destroyed by another rocket, was delayed while the Air Force cleared the activists out of the restricted area.
"It is not the job of the court to pass judgment on the political views of the defendants or the government," U.S. District Court Judge Margaret Morrow said before imposing the sentences. The judge did not impose fines because Greenpeace USA had already agreed to pay $150,000 to settle a lawsuit spurred by the protest.
Greenpeace had also agreed to keep its activists away from federal military installations involved in missile testing for the next five years or face a hefty fine of up to $500,000, according to court papers.
The remaining defendants face sentencing April 15.
The protesters, from Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany, India, Sweden and the United States, were initially charged with conspiracy and trespassing into restricted space.
Their guilty pleas last week came as prosecutors prepared to go to trial against the defendants, who could have faced 11 years in prison if convicted on all counts. Under terms of a plea deal with prosecutors each defendant could potentially face a maximum of six months in a federal detention center.
Prosecutors said 15 of the defendants appeared to be activists. Two others claimed to be journalists. However, U.S. Attorney's spokesman Thom Mrozek said: "It is our position they were not independent and that they were working for Greenpeace at the time of this incident."
Story Date: 21/1/2002
Reuters News Service 2001
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/14114/story.htm
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Lori Berenson - Court Appeal Finally to be Heard
Monday, January 21, 2002
To All Friends and Supporters of Lori Berenson:
LORI'S COURT APPEAL FINALLY TO BE HEARD
After "sitting in limbo" for seven months, Lori's appeal to the Peruvian Supreme Appeals Court will be heard Tuesday morning. Dr. Sandoval will have but five minutes to present Lori's defense to the five-member court panel. The prosecutor will have five minutes to argue why the charges of collaboration should be upgraded to active participation in a terrorist group. Dr. Sandoval will then get an opportunity to make one very brief remark. The judges will then consider the oral hearing and are expected to examine all the files from the court case before deciding whether to uphold the conviction, change the conviction as requested by the prosecutor, ask for Lori's release as requested by Dr. Sandoval, reduce her sentence, or say she must face another trial. The court cannot raise the sentence above 20 years.
Although, by Peruvian law, the appeal was to be completed 15 days after sentencing, seven months already have passed since the Special Civilian Terrorism Court convicted Lori of collaboration and sentenced her to 20 years last June 20. We hope that the appeal will be looked at carefully and that the court will conclude, as we know, that Lori is innocent of the charges. However, our long experience with the Peruvian justice system leaves us believing this won't happen.
Rumors from Lima indicate a decision by the court is expected from one to 15 days. However, since this is Peru, the decision could be put off for months!
LORI CONCERNED FOR MOUNTING HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN PERU
Much to our and Lori's disappointment it is clear that conditions in Peruvian prisons have substantially worsened these past few weeks. In additition to the way Lori and Nancy Gilvonio were moved from Chorrillos Prison on December 21, with the gassing, beatings, and sexual abuse that the Peruvian government has hidden from its public, we now have learned that recently other political prisoners, and even their families, have been beaten and abused during peaceful protests. And throughout the country, workers, students, and others have faced similar physical abuse when peacefully expressing dissent.
Lori and we don't understand the current lack of tolerance for protest and dissent since these are fundamental rights protected by democratic governments. We hope that the Peruvian authorities will look into these recent abuses and take corrective action before the situation further deteriorates.
MARK RETURNS FROM VISITING LORI IN CAJAMARCA AND HER FORMER CELLMATES IN LIMA
Mark visited Lori this past weekend in Huacariz Prison in the northern Peruvian highlands of Cajamarca. She was in good spirits and busy making greeting cards with a thread design she has been perfecting for a few years. Mark had the opportunity to visit Lori's cell for the first time since her arrest and could not believe how "spartan" the conditions are. The all concrete cell is designed for one person and is very small. Again, the cell has no heat and there is only cold water.
Lori was very preoccupied with the violence that the government has used against those protesting peacefully and of the crackdown against fellow political prisoners. She has reason to be. Mark visited the women in the Santa Monica de Chorrillos Prison in Lima on Sunday following his visit with Lori in Cajamarca. Mark was still able to see the bruises (fading black and blue marks and lumps) on the arms and legs of some of the women. These were still evident 1 month after the Dec. 21 incident in which Lori and Nancy Gilvonio were taken from Lima. The Peruvian government insists this process was a "normal" police effort.
Rhoda and Mark B.
To learn more and what you can do to support Lori Berenson, visit
http://www.freelori.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Crazy Horse by Mari Sandoz
You may recall a short review of the book, Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas, in the Flyby News issue of 21 December 2001. This book was carefully researched on the biography of the Indian leader of the 1800's, recalling the later Indian Wars, especially during the aftermath of the Civil War. Mari Sandoz's writing champions the worth of the Native American, the need for just laws, and concerns for the rights of the poor and dispossessed and those who face discrimination. This book and Cheyenne Autumn was published long before Americans were ready to listen, and give Sandoz's impassioned account of the near destruction of the culture of the Plains Indian Tribes. For more on Mari Sandoz, see
http://sandozlit.com/sandozlit/siouxhistory.html
Excerpts of Reviews of Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas by Mari Sandoz
"Here is a glorious hero tale told with beauty and power...the story of a great American."
New York Times
"[One] of the great stories of the West, and written...in the spirit of the sages, with a scrupulous regard for truth and history."
Atlantic Monthly
"This history of the Oglala Indian Crazy Horse is a splendidly done thing. [Sandoz] gives a magnificent picture of the Plains Indian civilization."
Washington Star
There is much to learn from this book, about a rare leader's pure devotion to his people, true humility, and the deceit and treachery, not just from the conquering ancestors of European descent, but from those of the Oglala nation, too, who became envious and corrupt under influences and weaknesses of a human nature. As the adage says, unless we learn from our past mistakes, we are doomed to repeating them. With this realization, Leonard Peltier, with dignity and humility, calls for the spirit of Crazy Horse in what is good for all to help him overcome the treachery keeping him behind bars for about half his life, more than a quarter of a Century.
To learn more about Leonard Peltier, and his beautiful artwork and devotion to the people of the Oglalas, visit his defense committee's website http://www.freepeltier.org
The following is some information from the web on purchasing
Crazy Horse - The Strange Man of The Oglalas by Mari Sandoz
Price $14.95
Crazy Horse - The Strange Man of the Oglalas: by Mari Sandoz
Hard Cover (limited quantity) Price $15.95
http://sandozlit.com/sandozlit/siouxhistory.html
Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas
University of Nebraska Press (Mari Sandoz) at barnesandnoble
http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/bookSearch/isbnInquiry.asp?sourceid=00001199494924770070&ISBN=0803292112&bfdate=01-21-2002+10:33:26
Crazy Horse : The Strange Man of the Oglalas (50th Anniversary Edition)
Author: Sandoz, Mari
List Price: $14.95
Crazy Price: $11.36
You save: $3.59 (24%)
Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr
Publication Date: February 1992
Dimensions: 7.99" x 5.34" x 1.1"
Type: Trade Paper
Category: History/United States - State & Local
ISBN: 0803292112
http://www.alphacraze.com/shop/detailview.asp?acp=0803292112
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
5) Robert Reich for Governor of Massachusetts
Flyby News is endorsing the campaign to elect Robert Reich for the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Reich needs 15% of the delegates attending the Massachusetts Democratic Convention in order to this candidate on the ballot. Please mobilize yourself, friends and family, who live in Massachusetts to go to the February 2 caucus to elect delegates supporting Bob Reich for Governor. As you well know, for too many years we've had no real leadership, no vision, and no sense of strong public values in that office. Robert Reich can make a difference. For most of his adult life he has fought for more and better jobs. As U.S. Secretary of Labor he helped raise the minimum wage, fought sweatshops, improved pension security, implemented the family and medical leave act, made workplaces safer, and fought for corporate social responsibility. He stands up for the average working people and for those who have been left behind. If you want to know where he stands on issues, see
http://www.robertreich.org/2002/issues.shtm
If you can, help Robert Reich get on the ballot. A lot of entrenched interests want to keep things the way they are. They don't want new ideas. They want politics as usual.
Robert Reich Background
Robert Reich is a university professor at Brandeis University in Waltham. Before joining Brandeis, he served as the nation's 22nd Secretary of Labor during President Clinton's first term. Under Reich's leadership, the Labor Department moved forward on several initiatives to build the skills of American workers. The department cracked down on unsafe work sites and fraudulent purveyors of pensions and health insurance. It initiated a national crusade to abolish sweatshops in the United States and to eradicate child labor around the world. Under Secretary Reich, the Family and Medical Leave Act was passed and implemented. In addition, Secretary Reich was instrumental in raising the minimum wage for the first time since 1989. Before heading the Labor Department, Reich was a member of the faculty of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He served as an assistant to the solicitor general in the Ford administration, representing the United States before the U.S. Supreme Court, and he headed the policy planning staff of the Federal Trade Commission in the Carter administration. Reich is the author of eight books, including The Work of Nations, which has been translated into 22 languages, the best-seller Locked in the Cabinet, and, most recently, The Future of Success, published by Alfred Knopf. He has written more than 200 articles on the global economy, the changing nature of work, and the centrality of human capital. He is a consultant to many governments and corporations. Reich was the host of the widely acclaimed four-part public TV series Made in America (1992), and most recently the writer and host of the PBS special At the Grass Roots (1998). He also co-hosted the public TV series The Long and the Short of It. His radio commentary can be heard every other Thursday evening on public radio's "Marketplace," and his writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Britain's Observer, and many other publications. Reich is founder and national editor of The American Prospect. He has written extensively for the Prospect on the international economy and American progressivism. Currently, he is university professor and the Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy at Brandeis University and its Heller Graduate School. For the past 20 years, Reich has been a resident of Cambridge, MA with his wife, Clare Dalton. They have two sons.
Reich for Governor Committee
P.O. Box 381483
Cambridge, MA 02238
(617) 547-2206
http://www.robertreich.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Hell To Pay * Ashcroft Foiled FOIA * Senate and ABM * Misc. Links
17 January 2002
"To preserve the cooperative, peaceful uses of space for the benefit of all humankind by permanently prohibiting the basing of weapons in space by the United States, and to require the President to take action to adopt and implement a world treaty banning space-based weapons."
-- Preservation of Space Act of 2001, H.R. 2977
{To learn about efforts to ban space-based weapons, visit space4peace.org and peaceinspace.com}
1) HELL TO PAY
2) The Day Ashcroft Foiled FOIA
3) Petition the Senate on the ABM Treaty
4) Miscellaneous Important Story Links
Editor's Notes:
Item 1 follows along the lines of the last issue "corruption in the upper levels of influence polluting our environment," but it goes even further. This courageous author, William Rivers Pitt, writes:
"..The cozy relationship between Bush and the Taliban frustrated the investigative efforts of former Deputy Director of the FBI John O'Neill. O'Neill was the FBI's chief bin Laden hunter, in charge of the investigations into the bin Laden-connected bombings of the World Trade Center in 1993, the destruction of an American troop barracks in Saudi Arabia in 1996, the African embassy bombings in 1998, and the attack upon the U.S.S. Cole in 2000.
O'Neill quit the FBI in protest two weeks before the destruction of the World Trade Center towers. He did so because his investigation was hindered by the Bush administration's connections to the Taliban, and by the interests of American petroleum companies. O'Neill was quoted as stating, "The main obstacles to investigating Islamic terrorism were U.S. oil corporate interests, and the role played by Saudi Arabia in it." After leaving the FBI, O'Neill took a position as head of security for the World Trade Center. He died on September 11th, 2001, trying to save people trapped by the attack, when the towers came down on top of him. The irony in this is simply horrifying.."
In the last issue, Flyby News reported on efforts to stop the Bush administration from gutting the clean air act. Heat-trapping carbon dioxide is the main cause of global warming, and power generation is our nation's single biggest source of CO2 emissions. Stirling engines are inherently more fuel efficient than other forms of onsite power generation, and can use environmentally sustainable fuels for its operation. Stirling engines can convert any heat source into electrical generation. Since 9/11 many efforts to produce cleaner alternatives for power generation are failing due to lack of interest, focus, and funds. This is a big mistake. If you wish to consider learning about one project for researching and developing a cleaner technology for energy generation, visit Stirling Advantage, Inc. .
"O eons of darkness, eternal night
you are only the backdrop for wondrous light..
and here I might find, through the core of self,
the entrance to illuminate, to perceive,
to flow with atoms expelling light,
as a river of purity in the deepness of night."
1) HELL TO PAY
By William Rivers Pitt
"Depend upon it, Sir,
when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight,
it concentrates his mind wonderfully."
- Samuel Johnson
Some time just before January 7th, 2002, an asteroid capable of pulverizing a good-sized nation flashed through the void, passing perilously close to Earth. Had it struck our planet, the impact would have had global consequences. The energy of the strike would have been equivalent to the explosion of a number of large atomic weapons. From the media perspective, it would have been the biggest story since the extinction of the dinosaurs.
At some point in the next six months, a small, darkened corner of George W. Bush's consciousness will wish the thing had hit us. The apocalypse he and his fundamentalist buddies have been waiting for would have been at hand, and a number of potentially calamitous questions about to be put to his administration would have been avoided.
Sadly for him, the planet spins on. Beneath the unpierced stratosphere, the electronic beams of news agencies like CNN and the Associated Press have begun to spread like a widow's web from city to city and house to house. Carried on this invisible wind are rumors of doom, negligence and greed. Each and every one of these rumors lead inexorably back to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, which will soon be issuing significant numbers of visitor passes to lawyers if the pattern holds much longer.
Whichever part of the nation that never heard of the energy giant Enron Corporation has recently been introduced to the company in odious context. The story thus far is nothing less than astounding: Enron, a company valued in the billions on Wall Street, suddenly filed for the largest bankruptcy claim in the history of the known universe. 4,000 employees were abruptly shown the door after having been barred from dumping the company stock, meant to fund their retirement, while it was worth something. Meanwhile, Enron executives in the know were able to dump the stock, back when it was the gold standard on the Street, for a cool $1 billion.
Apparently, Enron was ailing for quite a long time. The aforementioned executives were able to maintain the mirage of financial viability by stuffing the debt into what are called 'off-balance-sheet partnerships.' In essence, each of the executives built personal banking bunkers and hid what has been revealed to be staggering Enron debts within them, keeping fact that the company was hemorrhaging money off the publicly displayed balance sheets. This maintained the company's credit rating, and allowed it to continue doing business.
This went on for four years, which means several things. It means most of the Enron executives were aware of and/or actively participating in this highly criminal and irresponsible activity. It means the stockholders, including 4,000 loyal Enron employees, were lied to. It probably means that the executives knew the stock value was doomed when they bailed out and cashed in several months ago. It means they let their employees lose the retirement funds they believed were growing within their Enron stock portfolios. It means a lot of people got screwed by a pack of sharp operators who didn't give a damn about anyone but themselves.
All this could simply be chalked up as yet another story of corporate greed run amok, until the umbilical political and financial connections between Bush and Enron are illuminated. Enron's capo, Kenneth Lay, was perhaps the best financial friend George W. Bush has ever known. Lay and a number of Enron employees essentially bankrolled Bush's 2000 Presidential campaign, going so far as to lend Bush an Enron corporate jet for trips between whistlestops. Before Bush got White House stars in his eyes, he worked very closely with Enron on energy policy in Texas.
This close connection led to the Bush administration's hiring of a number of influential individuals within Enron's orbit for important government positions:
- Thomas E. White, Bush's Secretary of the Army, was once Vice-Chairman of Enron Energy Service, and held millions in Enron stock;
- Presidential Advisor Karl Rove owned as much as $250,000 in Enron stock;
- Economic adviser Larry Lindsay leapt straight from Enron to his current White House job;
- Federal Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick did the same;
- SEC Chairman Harvey Pitts was hand-picked by Kenneth Lay for the position, due to his notorious aversion to governmental regulation of any kind.
There are some thirty one Bush administration officials who had a line item for Enron in their stock portfolio, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. It is fair to say that the woebegone corporation held, and continues to hold, enormous influence over the day-to-day machinations of Federal government policy. One wonders if Bush's recent gutting of the Clean Air Act, a decision designed to improve the fortunes of companies like Enron, was the brainchild of people with deep connections to the energy industry.
The trail of influence left by Enron leads also to the scabrous heart ventricles of Vice President Dick Cheney, who admitted recently to six separate meetings with Enron executives while formulating the Bush administration's energy policy. Cheney, a former executive of the Halliburton Petroleum interest, was in charge of creating this policy. For reasons soon to be exposed by subpoena, Cheney refused to detail the specifics of the creation of this policy, which included the multiple Enron meetings.
The General Accounting Office was preparing to sue Cheney to reveal this information when the September 11th attacks took place. Those subpoenas may be dusted off and mailed within a month. In the meantime, the Justice Department is preparing a serious criminal investigation into the collapse of Enron. The democratically-controlled Senate is planning hearings on the matter as well. Columnist Robert Scheer has referred to the Bush administration's involvement in the Enron debacle as "Whitewater in spades."
One wonders if "Watergate" would be a more appropriate comparison.
Bush's own dealings within the energy industry carry a disturbingly familiar echo to the Enron situation: once upon a time, he was a high-ranking officer of a petroleum interest called Harken Oil. On June 22, 1990, Bush sold his Harken stock and made $848,560, earning him a 200% profit. One week later, Harken announced a $23.2 million loss in quarterly earnings and its stock dropped sharply, losing 60 percent of its value over the next six months. Bush made a bundle while the other investors lost millions. Harken was Enron in miniature, and might have served as a warning to the American people if the press had chosen to pay any attention to it during the 2000 Presidential campaign.
There is a school of thought, espoused primarily by Republicans, that any investigation into potentially dishonorable or illegal actions by the Bush administration is tantamount to treason. We are at war, undeclared though it may be, and Bush must be free to prosecute this war vigorously, so as to defend our freedom and bring the murderers of American civilians to justice. If reports recently aired on CNN have any credence, however, Bush and his people may well have to answer for actions that make the Enron catastrophe look like a jaywalking offense, actions that led directly to the incredible carnage in New York and Washington, D.C.
In 1998, during the Clinton administration, the U.S.-based energy concern Unocal canceled plans to exploit massive natural gas deposits in Turkmenistan. They had planned to run a pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan, where the natural gas could have been processed for Asian and Western energy markets. The idea was scuttled after Clinton ordered the cruise missile bombing of Afghanistan, in response to a terrorist attack upon U.S. embassies in Africa which were planned and executed by Osama bin Laden.
The pipeline would have had to pass through Afghanistan, and Unocal was given the message in Technicolor by Clinton's people that Taliban-controlled Afghanistan was not to be given any sort of financial boon.
Apparently, the Bush administration found no moral dilemma in dealing with the Taliban to get to the gas. Immediately upon their arrival in Washington, a vigorous courtship of the Taliban was undertaken by Bush's people. In fact, if former U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler is to be believed, the Bush administration had a vested interest in strengthening and stabilizing the Taliban regime, because a stable regime would compel investors to revive the Turkmenistan natural gas pipeline deal. The Taliban, demon of the moment, was the Bush administration's idea of a 'stable' government. Stable enough, anyway, to see the pipeline through.
The connections between Bush and the Taliban became so close that the Taliban went so far as to hire an expert on U.S. public relations named Laila Helms, so as to smooth the way between the two regimes. Meetings between the two nations continued at a high level, the last of which occurred in August, scant weeks before the September 11th attacks. All of these actions were taken to exploit the vast energy reserves in Turkmenistan for the benefit of American energy corporations.
The cozy relationship between Bush and the Taliban frustrated the investigative efforts of former Deputy Director of the FBI John O'Neill. O'Neill was the FBI's chief bin Laden hunter, in charge of the investigations into the bin Laden-connected bombings of the World Trade Center in 1993, the destruction of an American troop barracks in Saudi Arabia in 1996, the African embassy bombings in 1998, and the attack upon the U.S.S. Cole in 2000.
O'Neill quit the FBI in protest two weeks before the destruction of the World Trade Center towers. He did so because his investigation was hindered by the Bush administration's connections to the Taliban, and by the interests of American petroleum companies. O'Neill was quoted as stating, "The main obstacles to investigating Islamic terrorism were U.S. oil corporate interests, and the role played by Saudi Arabia in it." After leaving the FBI, O'Neill took a position as head of security for the World Trade Center. He died on September 11th, 2001, trying to save people trapped by the attack, when the towers came down on top of him. The irony in this is simply horrifying.
In essence, the Federal agent who knew more about bin Laden than any living American was kept from investigating terrorist threats against this country. He was hindered because the Bush administration was desperate to cultivate the favor of the Taliban, who held terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden in great esteem, so as to gain access to lucrative natural gas deposits in Turkmenistan.
If these allegations prove true, Bush and his friends allowed this affinity to hamstring investigations that could have thwarted bin Laden's Sept. plans. If these allegations prove true, everything since September 11th has been a massive cover-up operation in which American soldiers and thousands of Afghan civilians have died. If these allegations prove true, the Bush administration has the blood of thousands of American civilians on its hands.
If these allegations carry even the faintest whiff of credibility, George W. Bush and members of his administration stand in taint of high treason and murder.
On November 7th, 2000, a clear majority of Americans came to the conclusion that George W. Bush was unfit to govern this nation. For a variety of dark and controversial reasons, that conclusion was thrown over. Sometime soon, if the media's electronic web continues to carry these sordid stories of corruption, greed and death, the American people will come to fully understand the consequences of that failed election.
It is one thing to coddle and court a corrupt energy company for political and financial gain. It is quite another to coddle and court a murderous terrorist-supporting regime, hindering anti-terrorism investigations in the process, for the purpose of exploiting valuable natural resources. The former cost a number of people their retirement funds. The latter has cost thousands of people their lives. One is criminal. The other is abominable. George W. Bush is deeply implicated in both. There will be hell to pay.
William Pitt is a teacher in Boston (www.willpitt.com)
****************************************************************************
2) The Day Ashcroft Foiled FOIA
In a memo that slipped beneath the political radar, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has vigorously urged federal agencies to resist Freedom of Information Act requests.
Ruth Rosen, San Francisco Chronicle
January 7, 2002
The President didn't ask the networks for television time. The attorney general didn't hold a press conference. The media didn't report any dramatic change in governmental policy. As a result, most Americans had no idea that one of their most precious freedoms disappeared on Oct. 12. Yet it happened. In a memo that slipped beneath the political radar, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft vigorously urged federal agencies to resist most Freedom of Information Act requests made by American citizens.
Passed in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate scandal, the Freedom of Information Act has been hailed as one of our greatest democratic reforms. It allows ordinary citizens to hold the government accountable by requesting and scrutinizing public documents and records. Without it, journalists, newspapers, historians and watchdog groups would never be able to keep the government honest. It was our post-Watergate reward, the act that allows us to know what our elected officials do, rather than what they say. It is our national sunshine law, legislation that forces agencies to disclose theirpublic records and documents.
Yet without fanfare, the attorney general simply quashed the FOIA. The Department of Justice did not respond to numerous calls from The Chronicle to comment on the memo. So, rather than asking federal officials to pay special attention when the public's right to know might collide with the government's need to safeguard our security, Ashcroft instead asked them to consider whether "institutional, commercial and personal privacy interests could be implicated by disclosure of the information." Even more disturbing, he wrote: "When you carefully consider FOIA requests and decide to withhold records, in whole or in part, you can be assured that the Department of Justice will defend your decisions unless they lack a sound legal basis or present an unwarranted risk of adverse impact on the ability of other agencies to protect other important records."
Somehow, this memo never surfaced. When coupled with President Bush's Nov. 1 executive order that allows him to seal all presidential records since 1980, the effect is positively chilling. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, we have witnessed a flurry of federal orders designed to beef up the nation's security. Many anti-terrorist measures have carefully balanced the public's right to know with the government's responsibility to protect its citizens. Who, for example, would argue against taking detailed plans of nuclear reactors, oil refineries or reservoirs off the Web? No one. Almost all Americans agree that the nation's security is our highest priority. Yet half the country is also worried that the government might use the fear of terrorism as a pretext for protecting officials from public scrutiny.
Now we know that they have good reason to worry. For more than a quarter of a century, the Freedom of Information Act has ratified the public's right to know what the government, its agencies and its officials have done. It has substituted transparency for secrecy and we, as a democracy, have benefited from the truths that been extracted from public records. Consider, for example, just a few of the recent revelations -- obtained through FOIA requests -- that newspapers and nonprofit watchdog groups have been able to publicize during the last few months:
- The Washington-based Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organization, has been able to publish lists of recipients who have received billions of dollars in federal farm subsidies. Their Web site, www.ewg.org has not only embarrassed the agricultural industry, but also allowed the public to realize that federal money -- intended to support small family farmers -- has mostly enhanced the profits of large agricultural corporations.
- The Charlotte Observer has been able to reveal how the Duke Power Co., an electric utility, cooked its books so that it avoided exceeding its profit limits. This creative accounting scheme prevented the utility from giving lower rates to 2 million customers in North Carolina and South Carolina.
- USA Today was able to uncover and publicize a widespread pattern of misconduct among the National Guard's upper echelon that has continued for more than a decade. Among the abuses documented in public records are the inflation of troop strength, the misuse of taxpayer money, incidents of sexual harassment and the theft of life-insurance payments intended for the widows and children of Guardsmen.
- The National Security Archive, a private Washington-based research group, has been able to obtain records that document an unpublicized event in our history. It turns out that in 1975, President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger gave Indonesian strongman Suharto the green light to invade East Timor, an incursion that left 200,000 people dead.
-- By examining tens of thousands of public records, the Associated Press has been able to substantiate the long-held African American allegation that white people -- through threats of violence, even murder -- cheated them out of their land. In many cases, government officials simply approved the transfer of property deeds. Valued at tens of million of dollars, some 24,000 acres of farm and timber lands, once the property of 406 black families, are now owned by whites or corporations.
These are but a sample of the revelations made possible by recent FOIA requests. None of them endanger the national security. It is important to remember that all classified documents are protected from FOIA requests and unavailable to the public. Yet these secrets have exposed all kinds of official skullduggery, some of which even violated the law. True, such revelations may disgrace public officials or even result in criminal charges, but that is the consequence -- or shall we say, the punishment -- for violating the public trust.
No one disputes that we must safeguard our national security. All of us want to protect our nation from further acts of terrorism. But we must never allow the public's right to know, enshrined in the Freedom of Information Act, to be suppressed for the sake of official convenience.
Ruth Rosen is an editorial writer for the San Francisco Chronicle.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12169
****************************************************************************
3) Petition the Senate on the ABM Treaty
The following is a work in progress. To get involved with this petition contact:
Carol Wolman cwolman@mcn.org
Dear Senator,
The Senate has the right and the duty to vote on whether the US should withdraw from the ABM treaty.
The Constitution of the USA assigns to the Senate the task of overseeing treaties. Thomas Jefferson addressed the issue of rescinding treaties in his Manual of Parliamentary Practice (1801). The president-elect recalled that the Constitution makes treaties the "supreme law" of the land. Hence, only an "an act of the Legislature alone can declare them infringed and rescinded...." The Founding Fathers intended that Congress must be involved in all treaties so that the USA doesn't become a monarchy. We are dangerously close to that situation.
The Congress has been entrusted with most foreign policy powers in the Constitution--as is especially evident in the requirement of a 2/3 Senate approval on treaties. This is because a treaty becomes the law of the United States and Congress is the Legislative branch. Similarly, once made a law should not be changed by Presidential fiat but by Congressional vote.
It is your responsibility to maintain the balance of power between the branches of government and vote on this matter. Please assert this duty and sponsor a resolution challenging the President's right to withdraw from the ABM treaty unilaterally.
Signed.......
****************************************************************************
4) Miscellaneous Important Story Links
SYDNEY - More than 250 peace groups, anti-nuclear campaigners, non governmental organisations and lawmakers sent a petition to India and Pakistan to step back from the brink of war, Friends of the Earth said yesterday.
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/14066/newsDate/17-Jan-2002/story.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Flyby News Archives See item 5 Ancient City Found, Irradiated from Atomic Blast!
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid971292042,57133,
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
US Does Missile Deal With Greenpeace USA For Five Years
Los Angeles (AFP) Jan 09, 2002
Sixteen environmental activists who delayed the launch of a US missile to protest against Washington's "Star Wars" defense scheme on Tuesday avoided long jail terms by striking a deal with prosecutors.
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/bmdo-02b.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Nuclear testing back on US agenda
By Walter Pincus in Washington
The United States is to suggest that it may resume underground nuclear testing to help maintain the safety and reliability of a scaled-back US strategic nuclear weapons arsenal, according to weapons specialists.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0201/09/world/world1.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
- Missile Defenses Gets Organized With New Agency
Washington - Jan 4, 2002
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld announced this week the redesignation of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) as the Missile Defense Agency (MDA).
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/bmdo-02a.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Who Fired Up the Missile Threat? Republicans in Congress Know
by Michael Dobbs - Washington Post Service
Tuesday, January 15, 2002
http://www.iht.com/articles/44810.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
January 13, 2002
Base uses space to guide war
by Janene Scully, Times Staff Writer
VANDENBERG AFB -
http://www.santamariatimes.com/archives/index.inn?loc=detail&doc=/2002/January/13-777-news01.txt
= = = = = = = = = = = =
Martin Sheen -- President Bartlet on NBC-TV's "The West Wing" -- is asking you to urge your senators to vote against drilling in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Senate will vote in February, so please act today -- and forward this e-mail to your friends and family so they also can help stop Big Oil from harming this precious wildlife refuge. For the text of Martin Sheen's statement and link to take action, see: http://www.savearcticrefuge.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
The U.S. ban on travel to Cuba -- started during the height of the Cold War -- has become an increasingly dated government policy that must be overturned.
To repeal the ban, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced the "Bridges to the Cuban People Act" (S. 1017/H.R. 2138). And a Senate committee is expected in the next few weeks to convene hearings on overturning this dusty relic of Cold War hysteria. Even the Defense Department has determined that Cuba no longer poses a significant military threat, rendering obsolete the government's prior justification for the travel ban.
Take Action! You can read more about this legislation and send a FREE FAX, urging your Members of Congress to support the repeal of the Cuba travel ban from our action alert at:
http://www.aclu.org/action/cuba107.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Extinction Rate Reaches Historical Proportions
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-02d.html
Austin - Jan 15, 2002 - Half of all living bird and mammal species will be gone within 200 or 300 years, according to a botany professor at The University of Texas at Austin.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Corruption in the upper levels of influence polluting our environment
12 January 2002
1) Don't Gut the Clean Air Act
2) Secret club crippled UN environment talks
3) Bush names Oil company adviser to be US representative to Afghanistan
4) Bush family's dirty little secret
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Don't Gut the Clean Air Act
Under severe pressure from major campaign contributors and the utility industry, the Bush Administration is on the verge of administratively neutering a decades-old provision of the Clean Air Act that protects us from the pollution created by the dirtiest power plants.
Twenty-five years ago, the Clean Air Act was updated by Congress to include stricter rules controlling pollution from power plants. However, plants in operation before 1977 were granted an exemption from the stricter controls unless they renovated their operations. But, dozens of utilities have invested billions of dollars in expanding the capacity of their plants without installing up-to-date pollution control devices. And if President Bush has his way, they won't have to. That's because his administration is about to roll back this provision, with the result that old power plants will continue to belch harmful toxics into the air we breathe.
Twenty-five years is long enough for the dirtiest power plants to get a free ride from the
Clean Air Act. Tell President Bush not to reward his campaign contributors by rolling back the Clean Air Act and to aggressively enforce the law as it was intended by vigorously prosecuting power plants that upgrade without cleaning up.
A prepared letter urging President Bush not to gut the clean air act can be found at the following link. We suggest sending copies to your elected Representatives, too.
http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?itemid=12614
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Secret club crippled UN environment talks
Secret club crippled UN environment talks: report
PARIS (AFP) Jan 02, 2002
A secret club of seven wealthy countries plotted to hamstring the United Nations' first conference on the environment in 1972 to protect their economic interests, New Scientist reports in Saturday's issue.
The "cabal," which called itself the Brussels Group, comprised Belgium, Britain, France,
Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and the United States, the British weekly says.
Representatives from these countries held a series of secret meetings in the runup to the 1972 Stockholm Conference in which they decided to crimp the ambitious agenda of environmentalists and disregard concerns for the Third World, it says.
New Scientist says the evidence comes from papers that have just been released under Britain's "30-year Rule," under which confidential official documents must be placed in the public domain after three decades unless they relate to vital national security.
A note written by a British Foreign Office civil servant after an early meeting in July 1971 described the Brussels Group as "an unofficial policy-making body to concert the views of the principal governments concerned."
"It will have to remain informal and confidential," the note warned.
Referring to the likelihood of criticism "from the Swedes and others," it urged that the group "not... include awkward bedfellows."
The 1972 forum, formally called the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, was the first global conference on environment perils.
The conference secretariat was headed by Maurice Strong, then head of the Canadian foreign aid agency.
He campaigned hard for the agenda to be broad and ambitious and embrace issues that, today, are mainstream concerns, such as deforestation, urbanisation and development in poorer
countries.
But, according to the confidential papers, lobbying by the Brussels Group ensured that the agenda was limited to a small number of subjects, such as cross-border pollution, and did not
touch trade or economic activities.
Britain, for its part, campaigned on behalf of the controversial Franco-British supersonic jet Concorde, still in production at the time, the report said.
At the top of its list of subjects that it wanted excluded from Stockholm's Action Plan were controls on sonic booms and pollution in the upper atmosphere.
At that time, Concorde was in deep commercial trouble for only the British and French national airlines were willing to buy it, and arguments were raging as to whether the noisy, smoke-spewing aircraft would be allowed to land in New York.
A European Union environment official told AFP he had never heard of the Brussels Group, but added he was unsurprised that the rich countries at that time should have moved to crimp the agenda.
Although the Stockholm Conference's achievements are largely limited to high-minded declarations, the event at least launched a new agency, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
It also set an invaluable precedent for further initiatives on the environment, on issues ranging from the ozone layer to deforestation, fresh water and global warming.
For the posted story and links, see
http://spacedaily.com/news/020102190204.wke14jy4.html
All rights reserved. 2000 Agence France-Presse
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Bush names Oil company adviser to be US representative to Afghanistan
By Patrick Martin
January 3, 2002
President Bush has appointed a former aide to the American oil company Unocal, Afghan-born Zalmay Khalilzad, as special envoy to Afghanistan. The nomination was announced December 31, nine days after the US-backed interim government of Hamid Karzai took office in Kabul.
The nomination underscores the real economic and financial interests at stake in the US military intervention in Central Asia. Khalilzad is intimately involved in the long-running US efforts to obtain direct access to the oil and gas resources of the region, largely unexploited but believed to be the second largest in the world, after the Persian Gulf.
As an adviser for Unocal, Khalilzad drew up a risk analysis of a proposed gas pipeline from the former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan across Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Indian Ocean. He participated in talks between the oil company and Taliban officials in 1997, which were aimed at implementing a 1995 agreement to build the pipeline across western Afghanistan.
Unocal was the lead company in the formation of the Centgas consortium, whose purpose was to bring to market natural gas from the Dauletabad Field in southeastern Turkmenistan, one of the world's largest. The $2 billion project involved a 48-inch diameter pipeline from the Afghanistan-Turkmenistan border, passing near the cities of Herat and Kandahar, crossing into Pakistan near Quetta, and linking with existing pipelines at Multan. An additional $600 million extension to India was also under consideration.
Khalilzad also lobbied publicly for a more sympathetic US government policy towards the Taliban. Four years ago, in an op-ed article in the Washington Post, he defended the Taliban regime against accusations that it was a sponsor of terrorism, writing, "The Taliban does not practice the anti-U.S. style of fundamentalism practiced by Iran."
"We should ... be willing to offer recognition and humanitarian assistance and to promote international economic reconstruction," he declared. "It is time for the United States to reengage" the Afghan regime. This "reengagement" would, of course, have been enormously profitable to Unocal, which was otherwise unable to bring gas and oil to market from landlocked Turkmenistan.
Khalilzad only shifted his position on the Taliban after the Clinton administration fired cruise missiles at targets in Afghanistan in August 1998, claiming that terrorists under the direction of Afghan-based Osama bin Laden were responsible for bombing US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. One day after the attack, Unocal put Centgas on hold. Two months later it abandoned all plans for a trans-Afghan pipeline. The oil interests began to look towards a post-Taliban Afghanistan, and so did their representatives in the US national security establishment.
Liasion to Islamic guerrillas
Born in Mazar-e Sharif in 1951, Khalilzad hails from the old ruling elite of Afghanistan. His father was an aide to King Zahir Shah, who ruled the country until 1973. Khalilzad was a graduate student at the University of Chicago, an intellectual center for the American right-wing, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979.
Khalilzad became an American citizen, while serving as a key link between US imperialism and the Islamic fundamentalist mujahedin fighting the Soviet-backed regime in Kabul - the milieu out of which both the Taliban and bin Laden's Al Qaeda group arose. He was a special adviser to the State Department during the Reagan administration, lobbying successfully for accelerated US military aid to the mujahedin, including hand-held Stinger anti-aircraft missiles which played a key role in the war. He later became undersecretary of defense in the administration of Bush's father, during the US war against Iraq, then went to the Rand Corporation, a top US military think tank.
After Bush was installed as president by a 5-4 vote of the US Supreme Court, Khalilzad headed the Bush-Cheney transition team for the Defense Department and advised incoming Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Significantly, however, he was not named to a subcabinet position, which would have required Senate confirmation and might have provoked uncomfortable questions about his role as an oil company adviser in Central Asia and intermediary with the Taliban. Instead, he was named to the National Security Council, where no confirmation vote was needed.
At the NSC Khalilzad reports to Condoleeza Rice, the national security adviser, who also served as an oil company consultant on Central Asia. After serving in the first Bush administration from 1989 to 1992, Rice was placed on the board of directors of Chevron Corporation and served as its principal expert on Kazakhstan, where Chevron holds the largest concession of any of the international oil companies. The oil industry connections of Bush and Cheney are well known, but little has been said in the media about the prominent role being played in Afghan policy by officials who advised the oil industry on Central Asia.
One of the few commentaries in the America media about this aspect of the US military campaign appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle last September 26. Staff writer Frank Viviano observed: "The hidden stakes in the war against terrorism can be summed up in a single word: oil. The map of terrorist sanctuaries and targets in the Middle East and Central Asia is also, to an extraordinary degree, a map of the world's principal energy sources in the 21st century.... It is inevitable that the war against terrorism will be seen by many as a war on behalf of America's Chevron, Exxon, and Arco; France's TotalFinaElf; British Petroleum; Royal Dutch Shell and other multinational giants, which have hundreds of billions of dollars of investment in the region."
Silence in the media
This reality is well understood in official Washington, but the most important corporate-controlled media outlets - the television networks and major national daily newspapers - have maintained silence that amounts to deliberate, politically motivated self-censorship.
The sole recent exception is an article which appeared December 15 in the New York Times business section, headlined, "As the War Shifts Alliances, Oil Deals Follow." The Times reported, "The State Department is exploring the potential for post-Taliban energy projects in the region, which has more than 6 percent of the world's proven oil reserves and almost 40 percent of its gas reserves."
The Times noted that during a visit in early December to Kazakhstan, "Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said he was 'particularly impressed' with the money that American oil companies were investing there. He estimated that $200 billion could flow into Kazakhstan during the next 5 to 10 years."
Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham also pushed US oil investments in the region during a November visit to Russia, on which he was accompanied by David J. Reilly, chairman of ChevronTexaco. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld has also played a role in the ongoing oil pipeline maneuvers. During a December 14 visit to Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, he assured officials of the oil-rich Caspian state that the administration would lift sanctions imposed in 1992 in the wake of the conflict with Armenia over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Both Azerbaijan and Armenia have aligned themselves with the US military thrust into Central Asia, offering the Pentagon transit rights and use of airfields. Rumsfeld's visit and his conciliatory remarks were the reward. Rumsfeld told President Haydar Aliyev that the administration had reached agreement with congressional leaders to waive the sanctions.
On November 28 the White House released a statement hailing the official opening of the first new pipeline by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, a joint venture of Russia, Kazakhstan, Oman, ChevronTexaco, ExxonMobil and several other oil companies. The pipeline connects the huge Tengiz oilfield in northwestern Kazakhstan to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, where tankers are loaded for the world market. US companies put up $1 billion of the $2.65 billion construction cost.
The Bush statement declared, "The CPC project also advances my Administration's National Energy Policy by developing a network of multiple Caspian pipelines that also includes the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Supsa, and Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipelines and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline."
There was little US press coverage of this announcement. Nor did the media refer to the fact that the pipeline consortium involved in the Baku-Ceyhan plan, led by the British oil company BP, is represented by the law firm of Baker & Botts.
The principal attorney at this firm is James Baker III, secretary of state under Bush's father, and chief spokesman for the 2000 Bush campaign during its successful effort to shut down the Florida vote recount.
Copyright 1998-2001
World Socialist Web Site
For the story and related links, see
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jan2002/oil-j03.shtml
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Bush family's dirty little secret
Bush family's dirty little secret: President's oil companies funded by Bin Laden family and wealthy Saudis who financed Osama bin Laden
By Rick Wiles
Copyright: American Freedom News
September 2001
President Bush recently signed an executive order to freeze the US financial assets of corporations doing business with Osama bin Laden. He described the order as a "strike on the financial foundation of the global terror network.
"If you do business with terrorists, if you support or succor them, you will not do business with the United States," said President Bush.
He didn't say anything about doing business with a terrorists brother or his wealthy financier.
When President George W. Bush froze assets connected to Osama bin Laden, he didn't tell the American people that the terrorist masterminds late brother was an investor in the president's former oil business in Texas.
He also hasn't leveled with the American public about his financial connections to a host of shady Saudi characters involved in drug cartels, gun smuggling, and terrorist networks.
Doing business with the enemy is nothing new to the Bush family. Much of the Bush family wealth came from supplying needed raw materials and credit to Adolf Hitlers Third Reich. Several business operations managed by Prescott Bush the presidents grandfather - were seized by the US government during World War II under the Trading with the Enemy Act.
On October 20, 1942, the federal government seized the Union Banking Corporation in New York City as a front operation for the Nazis. Prescott Bush was a director. Bush, E. Roland Harriman, two Bush associates, and three Nazi executives owned the banks shares. Eight days later, the Roosevelt administration seized two other corporations managed by Prescott Bush. The Holland-American Trading Corporation and the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation, both managed by the Bush-Harriman bank, were accused by the US federal government of being front organizations for Hitlers Third Reich. Again, on November 8, 1942, the federal government seized Nazi-controlled assets of Silesian-American Corporation, another Bush-Harriman company doing business with Hitler.
Doing business with the bin Laden empire, therefore, is only the latest extension of the Bush family's financial ties to unsavory individuals and organizations. Now that thousands of American citizens have died in terrorist attacks and the nation is going to war, the American people should know about George W. Bush's relationship with the family of Osama bin Laden.
Salem bin Laden, Osama's older brother, was an investor in Arbusto Energy, the Texas oil company started by George W. Bush. Arbusto means Bush in Spanish. Salem bin Laden died in an airplane crash in Texas in 1988.
Sheik Mohammed bin Laden, the family patriarch and founder of its construction empire, also died in a plane crash. Upon his death in 1968, he left behind 57 sons and daughters the offspring he sired with 12 wives in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. About a dozen brothers manage Bin Laden Brothers Construction one of the largest construction firms in the Middle East.
Fresh out of Harvard Business School, young George W. Bush returned to Midland, TX, in the late 1970s to follow his father's footsteps in the oil business. Beginning in 1978, he set up a series of limited partnerships Arbusto 78, Arbusto 79, and so on to drill for oil.
One of President Bush's earliest financial backers was James Bath, a Houston aircraft broker. Bath served with President Bush in the Texas Air National Guard. Bath has a mysterious connection to the Central Intelligence Agency.
According to a 1976 trust agreement, Salem bin Laden appointed James Bath as his business representative in Houston. Revelation about Bath's relationship with the bin Laden financial empire and the CIA was made public in 1992 by Bill White, a former real estate business partner with Bath. White informed federal investigators in 1992 that Bath told him that he had assisted the CIA in a liaison role since 1976, the same year former President George Herbert Walker Bush served as director of the CIA.
During a bitter legal fight between White and Bath, the real estate partner disclosed that Bath managed a portfolio worth millions of dollars for Sheik Khalid bin Mahfouz and other wealthy Saudis. Among the investments made by Bath with Mahfouzs money was the Houston Gulf Airport.
A powerful banker in Saudi Arabia, Mahfouz was one of the largest stockholders in the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. BCCI was a corrupt global banking empire operating in 73 nations and was a major financial and political force in Washington, Paris, Geneva, London, and Hong Kong. Despite the appearance of a normal banking operation, BCCI was actually an international crime syndicate providing banking services to the Medellin drug cartel, Pamama dictator Manuel Noriega, Saddam Hussein, terrorist mastermind Abu Nidal, and Khun Sa, the heroin kingpin in Asias Golden Triangle.
The BCCI scandal implicated some of the biggest political names in Washington, both Democrats and Republicans during the first Bush White House. The bank was accused of laundering money for drug cartels, smuggling weapons to terrorists, and using Middle Eastern oil money to influence American politicians.
The chief of the Justice Department's criminal division under former President Bush was Robert Mueller. Because the major players came out of the scandal with slaps on the wrists, many critics accused Mueller of botching the investigation. Mr. Mueller was recently appointed by President George W. Bush as the new Director of the FBI, replacing Louis Freeh who did nothing while William Jefferson Clinton allowed the Red Chinese to loot our national security secrets.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a division of the Justice Department, reviewed allegations by Bill White in 1992 that James Bath funneled money from wealthy Middle Eastern businessmen to American companies to influence the policies of the Reagan and Bush administrations. Robert Mueller, the new FBI chief, was in a senior position at the Justice Department at the time of the review.
White told a Texas court in 1992 that Bath and the Justice Department had blackballed him professionally and financially because he refused to keep quiet about his knowledge of an Arabic conspiracy to launder Middle Eastern money into the bank accounts of American businesses and politicians.
In sworn depositions, Bath admitted he represented four wealthy Saudi Arabian businessmen as a trustee. He also admitted he used his name on their investments and received, in return, a five- percent stake in their business deals.
Indeed, Texas tax documents revealed that Bath owned five percent of Arbusto 79 Ltd., and Arbusto 80 Ltd. Bush Exploration Company controlled the limited partnerships, the general partnership firm owned by young George W. Bush.
Although George W. Bush's Texas oil ventures were financial failures, his financial backers recovered their investments through a series of mergers and stock swaps. He changed Arbustos name to Bush Exploration, then merged the new firm into Spectrum 7 Energy Corporation in 1984.
The Bush-controlled oil business eventually ended up being folded into Harken Energy Corp., a Dallas-based corporation. Mr. Bush joined Harken as a director in 1986 and was given 212,000 shares of Harken stock. Bush used his White House connections to land a lucrative contract for the obscure Harken Energy Corp. with the Middle Eastern government of Bahrain. On June 20, 1990, George W. Bush sold his Harken stock for $848,000 and paid off the loan he took out to buy his small share in the Texas Rangers. The Bahrain deal was brokered by David Edwards, a close pal to Bill Clinton and a former employee of Stephens Inc. Shortly after Bush sold his stock, Harken's fortunes nose-dived when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Some critics claim young George was tipped off in advance by his father about the soon-coming Gulf War.
George W. Bush, however, worked wonders for Harken Energy Corp. before the stock collapsed. Using the Bush family name, he managed to bring much-needed capital investment to the struggling firm. George W. Bush traveled to Little Rock, AR, to attend a meeting with Jackson Stephens a powerful Arkansas tycoon who helped bankroll the state campaigns of young Bill Clinton. He first gained political prominence as a fund-raiser for President Jimmy Carter. Stephens was also deeply involved in the BCCI scandal by helping the corrupt bank take control of First American Bank in Washington, DC.
Jack Stephens didn't need an introduction to young George W. Bush. Mary Anne Stephens, his wife, managed Vice President George Bush's 1988 presidential campaign in Arkansas. Stephens Inc., the well connected brokerage firm owned by Jack Stephens, donated $100,000 to a Bush campaign fundraising dinner in 1991. When George W. Bush won the contested Florida election in 2000, Jack Stephens made a substantial contribution to the Bush inauguration. Recently, former President Bush played golf on April 11, 2001, with Jack Stephens at the Jack Stephens Youth Golf Academy in Little Rock. The former president told Stephens, Jack, we love you and we are very, very grateful for what you have done.
Perhaps the former president was thanking him for the money Stephens provided young George W. Bush. Stephens arranged for a $25 million investment from the Union des Banques Suisses. The Swiss Bank held the minority interest in the Banque de Commerce et de Placements, a Geneva-based subsidiary of BCCI.
Both Stephens and Abdullah Taha Bakhsh, a wealthy and well-connected Saudi real estate investor, signed the financial transaction. The Geneva transaction was paid through a joint venture between the Union Bank of Switzerland and its Geneva branch of BCCI.
The BCCI connection, therefore, linked George W. Bush with Saudi banker Khaled bin Mahfouz. Known in Arab circles as the kings' treasurer, Mahfouz held a 20 percent take in BCCI between 1986 and 1990. Mahfouz is no stranger to the Bush family. He was a big investor in the Carlyle Group, a defense-industry investment group with deep connections to the Republican Party establishment. Former President Bush is a former member of the company's board of directors. George W. Bush also held shares in Caterair, a Carlyle subsidiary. Sami Baarma, a powerful player in the Mahfouz-owned Prime Commercial Bank of Pakistan, is a member of the Carlyle Groups international advisory board.
President Bush certainly is aware of that his former Saudi sugar daddy is still financing Osama bin Laden's terrorist network. USA Today newspaper reported in 1999 that a year after bin Laden's attacks on US embassies in Africa, Khaled bin Mahfouz and other wealthy Saudis were funneling tens of millions of dollars each year into bin Laden's bank accounts. Five top Saudi businessmen ordered the National Commercial Bank to transfer personal funds and $3 million pilfered from a Saudi pension fund to the Capitol Trust Bank in New York City. The money was deposited into the Islamic Relief and Blessed Relief - Islamic charities operating in the US and Great Britain as fronts for Osama bin Laden. The Capitol Trust Bank is run by Mohammad Hussein al-Amoudi. His lawyer is Democratic Party bigwig Vernon Jordan, close friend of former President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.
Abdullah Taha Bakhsh, the Arab who cosigned the $25 million cash infusion into George W. Bush's Harken Energy Corporation, appointed Talat Othman to manage his 17.6 percent share in Harken Energy Corp. Othman, a native Palestinian, is president and CEO of Dearborn Financial Inc. an investment firm in Arlington Heights, IL.
Bakhsh also bought a 9.6 percent stake in Worthen Banking Corporation, the Arkansas bank controlled by Jack Stephens. Abdullah Bakhsh's share was the identical percentage as the amount of shares sold by Mochtar Riady, the godfather of the wealthy Indonesian family with close ties to the Chinese communists, Bill Clinton and evangelist Pat Robertson. Bakhsh is represented by Rogers & Wells, a well-connected Republican law firm in New York whose partners include former Secretary of State William P. Rogers.
Independent investigator reporter David Twersky reported in the early 1990s that Othman had a seat on Harken's board of directors and met three times in the White House with President George Herbert Walker Bush. Organized by Chief of Staff John Sununu, Othmans first meeting with President Bush at the White House was in August 1990, just days after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.
There exist to this day an Arab-Texas connection. Khalid bin Mahfouz, financier of both George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden, still maintains a palatial estate in Houston, TX. Former President George Bush also lives in Houston. James Bath, Texas political confidant of George W. Bush, managed to obtain a $1.4 million loan from Mahfouz in 1990. Bath and Mahfouz, along with former Secretary of Treasury John Connally, were also co-investors in Houston's Main Bank. Bath was also president of Skyway Aircraft Leasing Ltd, a Texas air charter company registered in the Cayman Islands. According to published reports in the early 1990s, the real owner was bin Mahfouz. When Salem bin Laden, Osama brother, died in 1988, his interest in the Houston Gulf Airport was transferred to bin Mahfouz.
Since Osama bin Laden's bloody attack on America on September 11, the federal government has moved quickly to freeze bank accounts connected to Osama bin Laden, Khalid bin Mahfouz, and a host of Islamic charities. Perhaps federal agents should freeze the financial assets of the Bush family too. It would not be the first time Bush-family assets were seized by the US government for trading with the enemy.
http://www.americanfreedomnews.com/afn_articles/bushsecrets.htm
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
New Years Resolution * Lori Berenson Brutally Moved * Woody * Tribal Interior
December 29, 2001
This is the ending issue for Flyby News in 2001, which is a good thing. This has been a pretty depressing year, especially if you are a realist, and care about human rights and our environment, and especially if you are an optimist. The oxymoron of this last statement makes more sense if you absorbed the information in the prior issue of Flyby News, which announced a 90-day action plan to cap the arms race in 2002. One must be an optimist not to give up on such a campaign when the Bush decree to end the ABM Treaty seemed so resolute, especially with the support that Congress had previously given to the development of offensive/defensive weapons in space. Yet, all this will change, especially with the united effort of progressive thinking people working for peace and justice. Dennis Kucinich introduced the key legislation for the transformation of the space-weapon and nuclear power industry in the US House of Representatives. Similar legislation is needed in the Senate to give us a fighting chance, which is expected from a prominent Senator. This work, also, to be successful, will require the united support of many nations, organizations, and individuals supporting a world treaty to ban space-based weapons. This could happen way before the next movie episode release of "Lord of the Rings." And this work could be the springboard for the momentum for real disarmament of all weapons of the mass destruction to life, and the positive changes that this will produce.
1) A New Contract with the Planet
2) Lori Berenson Brutally Moved to New Prison in Peru
3) Deadly Silence, Questions Remain about Church Shooting of Woody
4) Open Letter on Tribal Consultation for Interior Secretary Norton
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) A New Contract with the Planet
http://www.contractwiththeplanet.org/main.html
1. Attack World Hunger and Poverty as if Our Life Depends on it: It Does.
Anchor our foreign policy in the compassion for the poor that unites all the world's religions. Reduce the debts of impoverished countries. End America's sad history as the world's leading exporter of weapons. Shift foreign aid from buying weapons to feeding people.
2. Champion the Rights of Every Child, Woman and Man.
Make America stand for justice, not expediency. Stop turning a blind eye to governments that abuse their own people. Ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. If punishing a foreign tyrant means, in actual practice, punishing the women and children who are his victims, desist, and find another path.
3. Pay our UN Dues Ungrudgingly and End our Obstructionism to the World's Treaties.
Throw America's full weight behind the United Nations. Pay our UN dues on time and without conditions. Withdraw our lonely vetoes of the landmine ban, the bans on chemical and biological weapons, the Kyoto accords and the International Criminal Court. Show once again the "decent respect for the opinions of mankind" that our Declaration of Independence affirms.
4. Reduce our Dependence on Oil.
Oil holds us hostage to regimes hated by their own people; their hatred transfers to us. America is 5% of the world's people but we generate 25% of the pollution that causes global warming. It's our duty to lead. We will reduce our consumption 25% by 2010.
5. Lead the World to an Age of Renewable Energy.
Make a Moon Mission scale commitment to develop solar and wind power technologies. Set and meet a goal of 20% of our energy from renewable sources by 2010.
6. Close the Book on the Cold War and End the Nuclear Nightmare Forever.
Cast a cold eye on giant weapons designed to destroy giant enemies that no longer exist. Cancel obsolete Cold War weapons. We applaud the nuclear force cuts announced by President Bush, but even 2,000 warheads poised and aimed at Russia are unwise. We squander $35 billion a year on this obsolete arsenal. Save most of that money, take our missiles off "launch on warning" and invite all nuclear nations to negotiate a nuclear weapons ban.
7. Renounce Star Wars and the Militarization of Space. Reaffirm the ABM treaty.
After spending $134 billion dollars (twice our lifetime commitment to cancer research!) our military has nothing to show for its obsession with a dubious National Missile Defense but the deep suspicions of our new allies. Enough is enough.
8. Make Globalization Work for, not against, Working People.
Open the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to the public. Let sunshine into the councils of the World Trade Organization and the North American Fair Trade Agreement. Affirm that the welfare of the planet's people supersedes corporate patents and profits.
9. Get Money out of Politics.
Curtail the vast corrupting influence of corporate campaign contributions, which make Congress beholden to private interests. Enact public campaign financing--we can fund it entirely by closing a single offshore tax loophole!
10. Close the Gap between Rich and Poor at Home.
All these words will ring hollow to the world if America does not close the chasm between Rich and Poor in our own society. We will fully fund Head Start and healthcare insurance for the millions of American children who can't get either, and invest the money needed to build and nourish schools worthy of this great nation.
To sign on and learn more about "A New Contract with the Planet," visit
http://www.contractwiththeplanet.org/main.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Lori Berenson Brutally Moved to New Prison in Peru
From: "Mark Berenson" |
To: announcements-list@freelori.org
Subject: Lori Update -- Dec. 26
Reply-to: gtaylor@freelori.org
Wednesday, December 26, 2001
To: All Friends and Supporters of Lori Berenson
LORI BRUTALLY MOVED TO NEW PRISON
As the US and Peruvian governments were recessing for the Christmas holidays we were horrified to learn that when Lori was moved to the remote mountain prison in Cajamarca it was done brutally.
At 3:15 a.m. Friday morning, while Lori and 17 other prisoners were sleeping, more than 30 police in gasmasks and wielding clubs stormed her cellblock, filling the corridor and then the individual cells with tear gas. Lori was overcome by the gas, brutally manhandled, and forcefully removed from her cell. She was carried semiconscious wearing only her sleeping clothes (tee-shirt and shorts), leaving behind all her possessions including her eyeglasses, medicines, and shoes. Other women in the cellblock were gassed, beaten, and threatened with rape. Only one other prisoner was transferred (not to the same prison as Lori).
This move was "conveniently arranged" just before the holiday and if it weren't for a friend who visited the women's prison at Chorrillos on Saturday we would not have learned of the "method" by which she was moved or the fact that her possessions were not moved with her, even though she was taken a mountain where the temperature drops to 40 degrees at night. Peruvian authorities did not inform the US Embassy of the manner in which she was moved and misleadingly insisted her possessions were transported with her.
The Counselor official (who brought Lori's possessions) and Lori's lawyer who visited her on Sunday assured us she is okay except for the cuts and bruises on her arms, wrists, and legs and some lingering effects of the tear gas.
On Sunday, in the presence of her lawyer and a Peruvian prosecutor, Lori filed a "denuncia" against the Peruvian Justice Minister, the director of the Peruvian penal system, the prison director at Santa Monica de Chorrillos Prison in Lima, and other officials for abuse of authority and injury.
In addition to this unprovoked brutality, the Peruvian government once again denied Lori due process. They claim she was transferred for disciplinary reasons. But Peruvian law requires that the prisoner be informed of any infractions and be permitted to respond in defense. This was not done.
Once again, we assume she was moved for political reasons. The move on Friday was followed by media articles again portraying Lori in a highly negative light while not reporting the manner in which she was teargassed, dragged from her cell, denied all her rights, and brought to the mountains. Justice Minister Fernando Olivera, who announced Lori's move to the media, has learned well from the Fujimori-Montesinos years of bashing Lori that this is a useful mechanism or increasing one's popularity in Peru. In addition, he would have had backing from the Fujimori-Montesinos supporters who still yield much influence within the judiciary, military, police, and Peruvian penal systems.
Rhoda will be visiting Lori this weekend and we will report further on her move and her well-being as soon as we learn more.
Rhoda and Mark Berenson
website: http://www.freelori.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Deadly Silence, Questions Remain about Church Shooting of Woody
Letter to the Editor, "Reformer," Brattleboro, VT
As a close friend of Robert Woodward, there are several issues that I wish to address in this community forum. First of all, the question that begs attention at this time is why the police chose to act as they did? Why did the police not use words to de-escalate the situation? Why did the police shoot to kill? Why did they not try to injure our friend enough to overpower him? Why did two out of three police officers choose to fire seven rounds and the third refrain from firing at all? What are the policies of the Brattleboro Police regarding the use of deadly force?
We support calls from within the Brattleboro community for a civilian review board who would be empowered to assess and examine the training, policies, regulations, and unwritten norms of the Brattleboro Police Department. We also call for an independent investigation conducted by a non-Vermont based law enforcement agency. Additionally, we strongly question the decision to allow the officers who killed our friend to return to their regular duties on the streets of Brattleboro. This decision, apparently made in haste and poor judgment, flies in the face of rational and conscientious community leadership. We have been made aware by members of the Brattleboro community that Officer Parker, one of the officers who killed our friend, was recently involved in a scuffle with a Brattleboro High School student which involved the use of excessive force and unnecessary restraint. Officer Parker's terrible reputation among young people in Brattleboro begs increased media attention as well as internal review. Outraged Brattleboro citizens have also come forward privately to state that members of the local police department have been "overzealous" and "over the top" since September 11th, causing concern and fear among many town residents.
As a registered nurse, I recognize that if I were involved in a scenario wherein one of my patients died suddenly in direct relation to my actions, my license would be suspended, I would not be able to return to work, and my professional life would be on hold pending the outcome of the investigation. I call for the immediate suspension of the two officers involved and their removal from active duty pending the resolution of this crisis. In the face of a criminal investigation, constant media coverage, and untold other potential legal ramifications, these officers cannot be expected to perform their duties in a conscientious and rational manner. The decision to allow these officers renewed daily contact with the public in this current political atmosphere is both irresponsible and insensitive. I request that the Brattleboro police immediately suspend the two officers pending the complete resolution of this case.
I call on the Brattleboro Reformer to launch a complete investigation of both officers, and full public disclosure of their records and any recent disciplinary actions and complaints against them. I invite the acting Chief of Police, John Martin, to publicly explain his actions and justify the reinstatement of these officers now under criminal investigation. His silence is deafening, and his inability to reach out with condolences to the friends and family of Robert Woodward is reprehensible. My message to the Brattleboro Police Department: we will not allow this issue to rest until we are satisfied that no stone has been left unturned and justice has been properly served. The world is watching, and we will make certain that it continues to do so.
Keith Carlson
Amherst,
For more information see
http://www.justiceforwoody.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Open Letter on Tribal Consultation for Interior Secretary Norton
Posted: December 28, 2001 - 12:04PM EST
by: Suzan Shown Harjo / Columnist / Indian Country Today
This article can be found at
http://IndianCountry.com/?1009559280
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Friend Shot Dead by Police
Justice for Woody
Fatal Police Shooting Shocks Church
Was Woody Assasinated?
This issue was originally posted on
December 21, 2001 - and updated!
1) Robert "Woody" Woodward ~ Fatal Police Shooting
2) 2001 to be second hottest year since records began: UN
3) Does the president have the authority to can the ABM?
Editor's Notes:
For the past few weeks, my work for sustainable energy development and family-related health matters, brought me to southern California. One of the highlights of this trip was in spending real time with Carol Rosin and Jon Cypher at their home and offices for the Institute for Cooperation in Space in Ventura, CA. I met them after a solo walk by the ocean where I watched three pilot whales weave in the Pacific only about 30 yards from shore. Nature reigns in such beauty.
Though funding for the sustainable energy work was missing, it was a good trip, especially to help my mom her during a time when she needed me. And on the airplane on the ride home, after nine months of slowly reading, absorbing, feeling, the revelations in the biography of Crazy Horse: Strange Man of the Oglalas, written in the 1930's by Mari Sandoz.
Shaken a bit, which I didn't realize how little, until on the way at Whole Foods market, I learned what happened to my friend, Woody, just before I departed my journey. on December 2nd, 2001, my friend, Robert "Woody" Woodward, was shot dead by police while seeking political asylum in a Church in Brattleboro, Vermont!
I couldn't help feel but some connection with Woody; and his connection with Crazy Horse, who when arrested and betrayed, struggled with a knife and slain dead.
I attended the memorial service, with a candlelight vigil through town, Brattleboro, Vermont, on December 19 2001. The assembly of friends and community that came to that service demonstrated that Woody was not a dangerous person, and people grieved at their loss of a dear friend and family loved one. But will the truth be revealed, what really happened?
Why would the police, after only one minute, open fire, shooting him
seven times, handcuff him, and deny him immediate medical assistance?
I had an opportunity to address those at the memorial service. I encouraged anyone who could disclose truth on this case to step forward, to take the advice from Daniel Sheehan, legal counsel for the Pentagon Papers, the Iran-Contra, Three Mile Island, and Karen Silkwood cases: to go public as the best strategy and defense to stand up against injustice. I shared these thoughts, and the following poem to a light beyond darkness.
Death
The unknown journey tells us of lives past,
What's behind the sky and how long we can last.
Blight and perish, then return Creation to your chore never ending,
Though it appears dim sometimes because the tunnel winds,
But beyond the next bend the illumined mind might find a permeating ray.
O' divine mystery, naked before my thoughts,
Such grandeur and majesty, am I truly worthy?
Embracing life, colors blend, light filters through,
I am what I am.
The only death that came to be was to that of mystery,
As life has a way of renewing and cleansing,
And with the purpose of growth, the spirit will always be unending.
1) Fatal Police Shooting Shocks Church - Was Woody Assasinated?
- - Updated Archive Links at end of article!
Fatal Police Shooting Shocks Church
By DAVID GRAM, Associated Press Writer
December 5, 2001
BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) - He went before the congregation just as the service was to begin. Weeping, he asked for help, for "political sanctuary."
But All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church - which has long welcomed the downtrodden and the mentally ill - couldn't offer sanctuary to Robert A. Woodward on Sunday.
Gently asked to take a seat or leave, Woodward pulled a knife. Police were called. After making what authorities called threatening moves with the blade, he was gunned down at the altar and died at a hospital.
The police shooting in a church known for its peace activism left the congregation in shock. And it left many of the roughly 10,000 residents of a community known for its left-leaning politics, where a faded "Question Authority" bumper sticker is not an uncommon sight, doing just that. People wanted to know why the officers fired seven shots with their semiautomatic pistols rather than just one, or why they didn't subdue Woodward with the pepper spray they carry, or just tackle him.
"It appears as though there will have to be a high burden on those who pulled the trigger to show that there were no other means to deal with this situation," said Benson D. Scotch, director of the Vermont office of the American Civil Liberties Union.
State authorities are investigating the shooting to determine whether it was justified.
It remained a mystery why the 37-year-old man would drive 25 miles from his apartment in Bellows Falls to seek help in a church hidden from the road on a pine-topped knoll - a church where he was a complete stranger.
Woodward's mother, Joanne Woodward of Bozrah, Conn., told the Brattleboro Reformer that her son had no history of mental problems. And investigators said it appeared he did not have a criminal record.
Woodward, who was single and had no children, worked most recently with foster children at a community mental health organization in Vermont, his mother said.
"I would just like to stress for you that he was a very peaceful person," she said. "He never would have injured anyone else. He was a loving, caring person and very gentle."
The West Village Meeting House, a 1970s chalet-style building with brown-stained shingles, is home to both the Unitarian Universalist church and to a Jewish congregation.
Investigators said it was clear when Woodward went into the church that he wanted to be heard. The chief source of the agitation that led to Woodward's shooting appeared to be that members of the congregation were getting up to leave.
Woodward handed out blank checks with statements written on the backs of them, State's Attorney Dan Davis said. Davis would not reveal their contents.
As Woodward grew more agitated, someone announced it was time for Sunday school, and the 15 children among the roughly 70 people in the church were escorted out to the parking lot. A congregation member used a cell phone to call police.
A church member began talking with Woodward and placed some cellular phone calls for him. Woodward put his knife away. But when someone suggested that the 15 or 20 members of the congregation who remained leave, Woodward grew angry and pulled out his knife again. Davis said it was a folding knife, with a blade 4 to 5 inches long.
"There was a movement with the knife itself and movements made by Mr. Woodward that the officers perceived as a threat to themselves and-or the congregation," Davis said on Monday.
Two officers opened fire; a third officer did not shoot.
Norman Hunt, an 85-year-old member of the congregation, said that Woodward did not verbally threaten anyone other than himself.
"He did tell us he was afraid of the police and afraid if they caught him they'd kill him," Hunt said. "He held a small pocketknife and held it against his right eye and said that rather than being captured he'd kill himself."
For another posting of this article and others, see:
Woodward shouted about "political assassinations" and "global warming"
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
From the website --- "Justice for Woody"
Was Woody Assasinated?
Woody seemed to think so. On the voicemail message from the call that Woody placed to his close friends one can hear
Woody's voice saying "Political assassination, political assassination, political assassination ... global warming," repeatedly, and "I love you, I love you: help, help, help me, help me" between moans in which one can hear immense agony.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Flyby News Archives Updated Links:
August 14, 2006 - Item 2
Justice for Woody?
This above issue includes an article on Robert Woodward's family settlement to drop the case of my friend, Woody, who was shot dead less than 2 months following 9/11/01, while seeking political asylum in a Church one minute after police entered the Church and riddled him with seven bullets and denied emergency medical attention.
September 1, 2005 - Item 2
Justice for Woody and family within a year?
August 27, 2005 - Item 3
Justice for Woody Remains Open
August 19, 2005 - Item 5
Robert Woodward's family seeks justice
May 10, 2004 - Item 3
Woody Case Hearing Report
May 1, 2004 - Item 3
Dangerous Time for Justice in "Woody" Police-Shooting Case
December 8, 2003 - Item 4
Woodward Shooting: Evidence of a Dean Conspiracy?
November 28, 2003 - Item 4
Commemoration of the second anniversary of the death of Robert "Woody" Woodward to be held on December 2, 2003
One-Year Anniversary Since the Shooting -- December 2, 2002 - Item 1
Justice eyes Woodward FBI probe
March 20, 2002 - Item 3
The sound of silence
Article by Kathryn Casa, Managing Editor of the Brattleboro Reformer (March 13, 2002)
February 3, 2002 - Item 4
Family Pursues Quest for Truth in Woodward Shooting
Press Release and link for the legal motion
December 29, 2001 - Item 3
Deadly Silence, Questions Remain about Church Shooting of Woody
Why are the policemen who shot Woody still on duty?
Robert "Woody" Woodward was gunned down by Police Officers on December 2, 2001
in the All Soul's Unitarian Church in Brattleboro, Vermont, while requesting political asylum.
Woody committed no crime, yet he was shot seven times, and medical care, which might have saved Woody's life, was delayed. For the second anniversary of the tragic events, a group of friends of Woody and concerned citizens conducted a Silent March to call for the end of excessive use of police force, support truth, justice, and accountability for such actions, and most of all, the event will pay tribute to Woody's life of compassion and social caring. At a press conference after the vigil, a spokesperson for the Justice for Woody organaization released a report that concluded: "..By refusing to pursue the evidence they possessed that Woodward was shot while down and then denied first aid, and instead putting forth a fraudulent homicide investigation, Governor Dean and William Sorrell conspired to obstruct the lawful application of justice in the matter of the police shooting of Robert Woodward."
For more information visit the web site:
JusticeForWoody.net
2) 2001 to be second hottest year since records began: UN
GENEVA (AFP) Dec 18, 2001
The average temperature of the world's surface will have been higher in 2001 than in any other year except 1988, the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said Tuesday, quoting provisional estimates based on data spanning a century and a half.
WMO Deputy Director-General Michel Jarraud said he believed the high average temperature, which was expected to be 0.42 of a degree Celsiusof a degree Fahrenheit) above the world average for the 30 years from 1961 to 1990, was due to so-called "global warming."
He added that the last decade of the 20th century, including the year 2000, had seen nine of the 10 hottest years, in terms of world averages, since reliable records began back in 1860.
During the whole of the 20th century, average world temperatures rose by 0.6 of a degree Celsius (1.08 of a degree Fahrenheit), with much of the rise concentrated in the last quarter century after 1976.
Jarraud said final figures for 2001 would be released next year.
Many scientists believe the earth is gradually heating up due to the industrial activities of man, mainly the production of vast quantities of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.
They believe the carbon dioxide leads to the creation of a heat trap, which prevents excess energy from escaping from the atmosphere, thereby heating up the globe. The phenomenon has been dubbed "global warming."
All rights reserved. 2000 Agence France-Presse.
For the originally posted story, with photos and links, see
http://spacedaily.com/news/011218170359.mcuy7wxv.html
3) Does the president have the authority to can the ABM?
August 29, 2001- NY TIMES op-ed
By BRUCE ACKERMAN- professor of constitutional law at Yale
NEW HAVEN -- President Bush has told the Russians that he will withdraw from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty, which gives both countries the right to terminate on six months' notice. But does the president have the constitutional authority to exercise this power without first obtaining Congressional consent?
Presidents don't have the power to enter into treaties unilaterally. This requires the consent of two-thirds of the Senate, and once a treaty enters into force, the Constitution makes it part of the "supreme law of the land" just like a statute.
Presidents can't terminate statutes they don't like. They must persuade both houses of Congress to join in a repeal. Should the termination of treaties operate any differently?
The question first came up in 1798. As war intensified in Europe, America found itself in an entangling alliance with the French under treaties made during our own revolution. But President John Adams did not terminate these treaties unilaterally. He signed an act of Congress to "Declare the Treaties Heretofore Concluded with France No Longer Obligatory on the United States."
The next case was in 1846. As the country struggled to define its northern boundary with Canada, President James Polk specifically asked Congress for authority to withdraw from the Oregon Territory Treaty with Great Britain, and Congress obliged with a joint resolution. Cooperation of the legislative and executive branches remained the norm, despite some exceptions, during the next 125 years.
The big change occurred in 1978, when Jimmy Carter unilaterally terminated our mutual defense treaty with Taiwan. Senator Barry Goldwater responded with a lawsuit, asking the Supreme Court to maintain the traditional system of checks and balances. The court declined to make a decision on the merits of the case. In an opinion by Justice William Rehnquist, four justices called the issue a political question inappropriate for judicial resolution. Two others refused to go this far but joined the majority for other reasons. So by a vote of 6 to 3, the court dismissed the case.
Seven new justices have since joined the court, and there is no predicting how a new case would turn out. Only one thing is clear. In dismissing Senator Goldwater's complaint, the court did not endorse the doctrine of presidential unilateralism. Justice Rehnquist expressly left the matter for resolution "by the executive and legislative branches." The ball is now in Congress's court. How should it respond?
First and foremost, by recognizing the seriousness of this matter. If President Bush is allowed to terminate the ABM treaty, what is to stop future presidents from unilaterally taking America out of NATO or the United Nations?
The question is not whether such steps are wise, but how democratically they should be taken. America does not enter into treaties lightly. They are solemn commitments made after wide-ranging democratic debate. Unilateral action by the president does not measure up to this standard. Unilateralism might have seemed more plausible during the cold war. The popular imagination was full of apocalyptic scenarios under which the nation's fate hinged on emergency action by the president alone. These decisions did not typically involve the termination of treaties. But with the president's finger poised on the nuclear button, it might have seemed unrealistic for constitutional scholars to insist on a fundamental difference between the executive power to implement our foreign policy commitments and the power to terminate them.
The world now looks very different. America's adversaries may inveigh against its hegemony, but for America's friends, the crucial question is how this country will exercise its dominance. Will its power be wielded by a single man unchecked by the nation's international obligations or the control of Congress? Or will that power be exercised under the democratic rule of law?
Barry Goldwater's warning is even more relevant today than 20 years ago. The question is whether Republicans will heed his warning against "a dangerous precedent for executive usurpation of Congress's historically and constitutionally based powers." Several leading senators signed this statement that appeared in Senator Goldwater's brief including Orrin Hatch, Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond, who are still serving. They should defend Congress's power today, as they did in the Carter era.
If they join with Democrats in raising the constitutional issue, they will help establish a precedent that will endure long after the ABM treaty is forgotten. Congress should proceed with a joint resolution declaring that Mr. Bush cannot terminate treaty obligations on his own. And if the president proceeds unilaterally, Congress should take further steps to defend its role in foreign policy.
We need not suppose that the president will respond by embarking on a collision course with Congress. His father, for example, took a different approach to constitutionally sensitive issues. When members of Congress went to court to challenge the constitutionality of the Persian Gulf war, President George H. W. Bush did not proceed unilaterally. To his great credit, he requested and received support from both houses of Congress before making war against Saddam Hussein. This decision stands as one precedent for the democratic control of foreign policy in the post-cold war era. We are now in the process of creating another.
Translate this Page!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Osama and the dirty bomb * House takes up Price-Anderson * Narco News
25 November 2001
The first item is about the tremendous dangers created by the arms race and terrorism. Stopping the US from developing space-based weapons could cap the arms race and lead toward disarmament of all weapons and technologies capable of the mass destruction to life. Carol Rosin and colleagues at the Institute for Cooperation in Space have set up an online fax system for lobbying US and world leaders. The Kucinich "Preservation of Space Act of 2001" proposes a win/win solution, which would keep the money flowing in the direction in which it is going now, (like water following the route of least resistance), but the Act would require the banning of space-based weapons, and help initiate new directions with more environmentally benign technology development.
Item 2 needs your almost immediate response to stop the reauthorization of the Price-Anderson Act, which is the nuclear industry's unique scheme to avoid liability for its actions.
Item 3 is from Consortiumnews.com, from the Consortium for Independent Journalism, Inc., a non-profit organization. This site is worthy to explore and to consider supporting. And item 4 is from another alternative news perspective, from Narco News.
1) Osama and the dirty bomb
2) URGENT! House takes up Price-Anderson Tuesday!
3) Consortium News: Mexico's War on Terror
4) Narco News: "Bolivia Suspends Coca Eradication"
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Osama and the dirty bomb
Bin Laden is looking for a nuclear weapon. How close has he come?
Suitcase bombs and old Soviet material pose danger to US
Julian Borger in Washington and Ewen MacAskill
Wednesday November 7, 2001
The Guardian
The seller was an ambulance driver, who had turned up to the meeting in Istanbul with a friend and over a kilogram of uranium wrapped in newspaper. The merchandise was from one of the old Soviet republics, the man said, and he wanted $750,000 for it. Instead, he ended up in jail. The buyers were undercover policemen.
The uranium seizure, confirmed yesterday by the Turkish interior ministry, was a police sting operation, but it is hardly reassuring. It raises the question of how many similar deals are being made by more competent salesmen of what is potentially the world's most deadly commodity.
The chilling uncertainty loomed over President Bush's blunt statements yesterday. His remarks have added the White House's authority to a conclusion reached years ago by most proliferation experts. The threat of a terrorist nuclear weapon is real. The only significant uncertainty is the timing of the first attempt at a nuclear attack, and what kind of bomb would be used.
As the president pointed out, in raising the spectre of an al-Qaida nuclear attack he was simply quoting Osama bin Laden himself, who has told journalists that it would be a "sin" not to develop an Islamic bomb. "He announced that this was his intention and I believe we need to take him seriously," Mr Bush said at a joint appearance with President Jacques Chirac of France at the White House.
There is also no doubt that Bin Laden is in the nuclear market. In February this year, one of the Saudi fugitive's aides, Jamal al-Fadl, told a US court of his role in an attempt to buy $1.5m (1.03m) worth of uranium in Sudan. Mr al-Fadl, who was giving evidence in the embassy bombings trial, testified that in 1993 he was sent to meet a man near Khartoum who was selling uranium apparently from South Africa. He did not know if the deal went through, but he said that al-Qaida was "very serious" about making the purchase.
Awash with uranium
Once Bin Laden arrived in Afghanistan, getting hold of uranium and other nuclear material did not present a serious problem. The black market in Afghanistan is awash with it. Robert Puffer, an American antiquities dealer in Afghanistan in the late 1990s, said he was frequently offered enriched uranium.
"It was in lead containers with cyrillic writing on it," Mr Puffer told the Guardian. "They would carry yellow cake [Uranium] in matchboxes in their breast pockets. They would have rashes and they would ask me why. And I said: "You're stupid - that stuff is dangerous."
Mr Puffer said he was once taken to a warehouse in Peshawar where canisters of nuclear material from the former Soviet Union, wrapped in sacking, were stored under the floor. The radioactivity sent a geiger counter buzzing from outside the building.
Having access to such radioactive material, however, is a long way from making a real nuclear bomb. That would require plutonium and highly enriched uranium and a lot of technical knowhow. However, the mishmash of nuclear fuel and radioactive junk being touted in Istanbul over the weekend and which Mr Puffer saw in Peshawar would suffice to make a "dirty bomb".
Such a weapon would consist of a rough assembly of radioactive material clumped around conventional explosives. When detonated, the blast would send up a plume of radioactive particles into the atmosphere killing and contaminating hundreds of thousands of people for miles around.
The International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) was initially sceptical about the "dirty bomb" threat but has changed its mind since September 11.
"We think this is entirely a live possibility," said David Kyd, a spokesman for the IAEA, which is based in Vienna.
Mr Kyd said it could be delivered in the same way that the IRA took explosives into the City of London: inside a medium-sized van or lorry. Immediate fatalities would be confined to those caught up in an explosion but over the longer term there could be deaths from contamination. The main problem would be the sense of panic it would create.
Before September 11, the IAEA had assumed that terrorists were unlikely to take their own lives in detonating the bomb: "Our attitude has changed because 20 terrorists were prepared to sacrifice their own lives and because of the level of sophistication on September 11."
A real nuclear bomb is far more difficult to make. It is conceivable that a terrorist organisation might be able to put together a crude atom bomb, of the sort that was dropped on Hiroshima. It would require eight kilos of plutonium or 25 kilos of highly enriched uranium. There is clearly a lot of bogus material on sale in Afghanistan, but it is also possible that some of
it really is enriched uranium, or even plutonium.
The Pakistan nuclear programme produces about 100 kilos of enriched uranium a year, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a nuclear watchdog publication. Furthermore, the pioneer of the Pakistani programme, Bahiruddin Mahmood, is a fervent Islamist with close ties with the Taliban. He has been detained by the Islamabad government and is reported to have suffered a heart attack in detention. It remains unclear if he shared any of his knowledge or smuggled any nuclear materials in his frequent trips to Afghanistan in recent years to meet Taliban leaders.
Russian stockpiles of weapons-grade plutonium and uranium are also a cause for concern. Security is reported to be lax and a US programme to provide alternative employment for unemployed Russian nuclear scientists and employees at defunct nuclear plants had ironically been scaled back by the Bush administration a few months before the terrorists struck. It is expected that the aid programme will be on the agenda at next week's summit between Mr Bush and President Putin.
No evidence
There is no evidence as yet that Bin Laden is close to building his own atomic device and his chances of constructing one have lessened considerably since the bombs began to fall on his bases.
Another way to acquire a nuclear weapon is to steal or buy one. There have been numerous unconfirmed reports of ex-Soviet warheads going missing and ending up in the volatile central Asian republics. There have also been rumours of KGB suitcase bombs (whose existence has never been definitively confirmed) being put on the market by Chechen warlords.
However, most experts look sceptically on these stories. Israeli intelligence, which monitors such proliferation closely, has rejected speculation that nuclear weapons have gone missing from the Soviet Union. Brigadier General Yossi Cooperwasser, chief of research for Israel's military intelligence, said:"We've checked out the reports and don't have any evidence to support concerns over lost, stolen or misappropriated nuclear devices."
However, the threat of a "dirty bomb" is serious enough. There is no doubt that this eminently feasible weapon is the most serious terrorist threat facing the US and the rest of the world.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) URGENT! House takes up Price-Anderson Tuesday!
Dear Friends:
This Tuesday evening, November 27, the U.S. House is scheduled to vote on reauthorization of the Price-Anderson Act (HR 2983), the nuclear industry's unique scheme to avoid liability for its actions (HR 2983). The vote is slated to take place under suspension of the rules, a procedure normally used for noncontroversial legislation. No amendments are allowed, and there is only a limited debate. However, the bill must pass by a 2/3 margin--which means we only need 1/3 of the House to vote against it to defeat it! Your calls and faxes can make the difference!
Please contact your House members Monday and Tuesday. Capitol Switchboard, 202-224-3121 or 225-3121. Urge them to OPPOSE Price-Anderson reauthorization--if for no other reason than that such controversial legislation should receive full and broad debate.
REASONS TO OPPOSE PRICE ANDERSON (PA) 1) PA provides a 3.4 billion dollar annual insurance subsidy to the nuclear power industry, a develop, mature industry which should be able to hold its own in a supposed free-market economy. 2) Current reactors are covered by PA whether or not it is reauthorized. The only incentive for voting to extend PA coverage is for a NEW generation of INHERENTLY UNSAFE reactors such as the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) which are designed and can only function without a containment building. Because of public opposition to nuclear power, "new" reactors will most likely be built on existing reactor sites. Even Vice-President Cheney admits that without Price-Anderson there would likely be no new nuclear reactors in the US because of liability concerns. 4) Terrorist attacks on nuclear power facilities are a glaring concern in light of September 11, 2001 and a reactor without containment is an unnecessarily tempting target-no matter how well-guarded. 5) Price-Anderson would cap nuclear liability at 9.5 Billion while the US Government estimates a reactor accident can cost from 24 Billion to 590 Billion dollars.
WHAT YOU CAN DO!
*Please call/e-mail/fax your Representatives and demand THAT THEY VOTE NO ON 2983; the reauthorization of Price-Anderson.
Capitol Switchboard, 202-224-3121 or 225-3121.
House and Senate fax and e-mail information can be found at http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html
It is the height of arrogance--and folly--for the nuclear industry and its backers to push a major nuclear bill at this time without even debate, when National Guard troops are being sent to new reactor sites daily and when every atomic reactor is a potential and horrifying target.
Please fax/email or call your representative's DC office Please also fax/email your local offices as well.
Do not bother mailing letters at this point, since the mail delivery situation to Congress is still unclear.
*Contact your local media and let them know this is going on. A sample letter to the editor (and sample letter to congress members for fax/e-mail) is posted on Nuclear Information and Resource Service website http://www.nirs.org
House and Senate fax and e-mail information plus a comment
section can be found at http://capwiz.com/ombwatch/dbq/officials/
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Consortium News: Mexico's War on Terror
The murder of a human rights lawyer in Mexico has put the government of Vicente Fox on the spot. Following the slaying, Fox freed two of the lawyer's former clients, environmental activists who were jailed amid allegations that they were tortured into confessions.
But President Fox now finds himself in a real-life drama that reads like a scene from the movie, Traffic. It's a crisis that also raises questions about the consistency of the ongoing U.S. war against terrorism.
For the story, go to http://www.consortiumnews.com
Mexico's War on Terror
By Sam Parry
November 25, 2001
On Oct. 19, the body of human rights attorney Digna Ochoa was found in her Mexico City office. She had been shot to death at point blank range in the back of her head. Next to her body was an obscenity-filled letter threatening other human rights activists.
For complete story see:
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2001/112401a.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Narco News: "Bolivia Suspends Coca Eradication"
November 25, 2001
A Narco News Global Alert
Dear Colleagues,
The headlines shout from our Amrica...
-- Bolivia Suspends Coca Eradication
-- Historic Talks Begin but US Embassy is Enraged
...and yet the US media, which claims to have "rediscovered foreign news" after September 11th, has failed to report any of the hard news of the immediate history underway in the hemisphere:
-- National Coca Summit Begins Today, Mediated by the Catholic Church
-- Popular protests and blockades forced the government to suspend eradication and withdraw 4,000 troops from the Chapare region
-- US Embassy opposes the suspension; Bush calls Bolivian president to Washington woodshed; presidents will meet on December 6th
-- Unrest in the Military: Colonel accuses US Embassy of forming paramilitary mercenaries with "the most racist commanders" to bypass Bolivian Army because it is "90 percent indigenous"
-- Congressman Evo Morales: Bolivian Law 1008 specifically allows a "cato of coca" (a 40 by 40 meter garden) per family in the Chapare Government hardliners insist on resuming eradication on Wednesday, regardless of the results of the talks
-- Indigenous leader El Mallku threatens "Christmas Blockades," to surround the capital of La Paz
-- Toll of 53 deaths, 500 wounded, due to US-imposed anti-coca policy
Read a summary of these stories plus "today's press briefing" of translations from the Bolivian media:
http://www.narconews.com/
from somewhere in a country called Amrica,
Al Giordano
Publisher
The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews.com/
narconews@hotmail.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Putin follow-up * Peltier Update * Malik Abdullah Akili on 9/11 * Gore Won?
19 November 2001
"We live on a recycling earth. You can't put poison into a recycling earth. We're damaging the seed that's a death process. We're seeing it crop up as breast cancer, mentally retarded and hyperkinetic kids. We're seeing it crop up as infertility, and we're seeing animal species destroyed. But we don't seem to have quite said yes, that's us. That's our planet, that's what we did, and let's stop it." -- Dr. Rosalie Bertell
After the barbecue, and all the wheeling and dealings, President Vladamir Putin stayed strong for his country's commitment to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Russia doesn't want a new arms race. Please use the Institute for the Cooperation in Space (ICIS) online fax system to thank President Putin for his support of disarmament treaties. Please, also, encourage him to take the lead in endorsing a world treaty to ban space-based weapons. This would pressure the US into making a decision to unite with the world or to continue on a fear-incentive direction that can only return devastation to the sender. If there is any united intelligence left in this world, then we might have an impact to turn the US policy around to a more sustainable direction. Please, also, consider supporting ICIS. They are currently seeking to raise funds in support of their online fax campaign. For more information, link to:
http://www.peaceinspace.com
On another subject, this Tuesday, 20 November, a Leonard Peltier support group is meeting in Brattleboro, Vermont [at the Common Ground Restaurant beginning at 5:30pm] to plan a constituency meeting with Senator Patrick D. Leahy, who is the chair of the US Senate's Judiciary Committee. Senator Leahy could ask for the review of the 6,000 + FBI-Peltier documents still withheld from the defense and public. Also, recently, a Leonard Peltier attorney, Eric Seitz, filed a motion seeking the reduction of Mr. Peltier's life sentences from consecutive to concurrent. The motion argues that the judge who originally sentenced Leonard Peltier was misled to believe that Mr. Peltier shot the agents. The jury, too, was misled. Leonard Peltier never received a fair trial, and has spent more than 25 years in the belly of the beast. Please help free him -- contact your Senators and Representative and request that they urge the Department of Justice not to oppose the motion. Your Senators and Representative can be contacted through the Capitol Switchboard # 202-224-3121. If a D.C. office is closed, please call your local office. And also contact Senator Leahy and any of his Vermont constituents to help support a review of the Peltier case.
For talking points, as well as a sample letter, which can be faxed, link to:
http://www.freepeltier.org/motion_urgentaction.htm#top
Thanks for any of your actions on this case, and especially to those who still are riding with a free Leonard Peltier bumper sticker on their vehicle. Sure, it sticks out more than ever during these times of flag mania, but the integrity of American justice depends on this case being resolved soon.
Item 2 is from a letter from Malik Abdullah Akili. Malik offers an insider's view, and as a Muslim, regarding the tragic events of last September 11. Please forgive any misspellings. Malik's letter was a hand written of October 8. Item 3 is part of the weird tale on the ongoing saga of the 2000 US presidential elections.
1. U.S. to Pursue Missile Test Plans
2. From the inside, reflections of 9/11, from Malik Abdullah Akili
3. Al Gore Won in Florida
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1. U.S. to Pursue Missile Test Plans
Friday November 16 5:16 AM ET
U.S. to Pursue Missile Test Plans
By SANDRA SOBIERAJ, Associated Press Writer
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) - The United States will push ahead with aggressive testing of missile defenses, White House officials said after President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin ended their summit without agreement on the disputed program.
``The timeline has not really changed,'' national security adviser Condoleezza Rice told reporters after Bush bid his Russian counterpart a warm farewell Thursday at Bush's central Texas ranch.
``The president continues to believe that he has got to move forward with the testing program in a robust way, so that we can really begin to evaluate the potential for missile defenses,'' Rice said.
Putin, who went to New York, told National Public Radio later Thursday that, since he and Bush have a common goal of ensuring security, ``We will, at the end of the day, be able to arrive at a solution that will be acceptable for everyone.''
His Russian guests gone after three days of talks in Crawford and Washington, Bush and his wife, Laura, settled in for a long, quiet weekend on their remote ranch.
Already, there were active discussions about when Bush would make a reciprocal visit to Russia. Aides expect a springtime trip.
``Given that I'm from Texas and kind of like the warm weather, I was hoping to wait a couple of months,'' Bush joked Thursday at the final joint appearance of Putin's four-day visit to the United States.
Putin reaffirmed his opposition to testing any kind of a weapons system that could intercept missiles aimed at the United States and its allies. Such tests would violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty as it is currently interpreted.
Putin also said that, no matter what Bush does, ``Under no circumstances could it lead to any tension in the relations between Russia and the United States.''
U.S. officials said they viewed the remark as a signal that Putin won't try to stand in the way of coming missile tests. That understanding, however, fell far short of a formal deal to make the ABM flexible enough to allow testing, which had been Bush's hope for the summit.
Distracted by the war against terrorism, both leaders seemed to push the issue down the road.
``We shall continue our discussions,'' Putin said.
Aides said Bush's trip to Moscow next year might offer a fitting setting to resolve the ABM debate.
A provision in the treaty permits either party to withdraw on six months' notice. Already, the Pentagon, as recently as last month, postponed parts of missile-shield testing that might violate the Cold War-era treaty with the Soviet Union.
The Bush administration, eyeing the schedule for future testing, knows negotiations now are running out of time.
``I think that everybody, including the Russians, understands that we're soon going to run up against certain constraints of the treaty,'' Rice said.
In the meantime, both sides committed to continued talks.
``No particular `kaboom' breakthrough is to be expected at any particular time, but they are continuing to work the issue,'' Rice said.
``And we'll see how long we can go before we have to actually begin the testing and development program.''
On the separate issue of reducing Russian and U.S. strategic nuclear stockpiles, which both presidents promised after their Tuesday meetings at the White House, Putin said Thursday the question of whether warheads should be disarmed or destroyed must be decided in negotiations.
Bush countered: ``We are talking about reducing and destroying the number of warheads.''
Rice later used wording that suggested Bush should not have spoken so definitively. ``We are in the process right now of examining precisely how this drawdown takes place,'' she told reporters.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/ap/20011116/us/us_russia_6.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2. From the inside, reflections of 9/11, from Malik Abdullah Akili
10/8/01
Greetings Friend;
There has been few times in my life that I've had the opportunity call someone "Friend" and truly meant it from my heart to their heart.. I don't take or accept the word friendship loosely. I was raised from the age of the Manchild to respect and honor each and every individual friendship, as if we're the only two people left on earth. From this perspective, you can understand the seriousness of what friendship has developed to mean for me.
Most people of these new times, take friendship as toys. They don't understand the depth of profoundness of the emotions, intake, energy or the sharing/receiving that goes into the building of a principle and respectable friendship..
I don't feel or think that one can learn this.. ..the emotions, sharing, exchanging and love isn't such an emotional feeling one can learn - if we weren't gifted with it from birth... Many of these sort of things I was raised in a house that they were practiced, so it became easy for me to live out what was already within the framework of my gut level feelings.
My mother raised me without the fears of racism and all the other fears of the skin game... I think of it as being extremely important that we develop at a young age HOW TO THINK rather than let someone else teach us WHAT TO THINK. For once we learn how to be independent thinkers. Why? Well, when you read, speak or listen to most people of the world, you'll be able to sense and or feel that the individual has never said or written anything that was his/her own thoughts,,, Most people have never come up with any genuine, original thoughts of their own.. This is why this society is so messed up.. If this society had raised a nation of independent thinkers People wouldn't allow things to take place in their lives, as they do..
..when I reflect or rethink about September 11, 2001, I can't help but to say that all of us have had some tragedy in our lives.. These tragic situations that comes to touch our lives, can so deeply affect our emotions that words become too inadequate to express the core of the depth of that feeling.. As a father, husband and Muslim with a social conscience I am like most people, the events of September 11, 2001 have troubled me enormously and I remain concerned about the foreseeable future.. Therefore, if this letter I address to you from my heart to your heart should fall short of what I could have said, but didn't say, please forgive???
As a result of September 11, 2001, there is much hurt, pain, anguish, suffering and hate throughout the world against Muslims. This hate is only out of ignorance and a lack of knowledge about Islam.
I am and have been a practicing Muslim for quite some years, and I can tell you that this (blowing up of the WTC) isn't the picture of Islam.. These ignorant befools are ascribing to Islam.. There is a richness in Islamic history and civilization even a divided-ness that people in the west do not always appreciate. They would do well to start doing so, given recent events.
From its beginning, Islam has debated within itself, what its true nature should be. Barely a quarter of a Century after the death of the Prophet (P.B.B.H.) In A.D. 632, Islam was rent with civil war between the adherents of the assassinate third Caliph, Uthman and the partisans of Ali, the fourth Caliph. The war eventually led to the division between Suni and Shiite (which I am Sunni) Islam. As the question of the political leadership of Islam was disputed, a philosophical and theological debate began that has never really ended.
One group, the Murji'tes, became the advocates of toleration and equality within Islam. They counseled peace to the warring parties, recognized non-Arab Muslims as the equal of Arabs, accepted even a sinning Muslim as a member of the faith and emphasized faith over works as the means to salvation. They were not enamored of the law. Like most ordinary Muslims today, the Murji'ites defined Islam as a religion of toleration, faith and peace. The second party, Mu'tazilites championed the role of reason within Islam. They made use of the works of the pagan philosophers that had come into the Islamic empire. Reason, the Mu'tazilites taught, could ascertain the truth without the aid of the revelation. But because of the weakness of the human will, revelation was needed to confirm to man, woman, what was truly good and to provide him/her with the rules of conduct that unaided could not apprehend.. Eventually the Mu'tazilites lost the struggle to become the dominant ideology of the Islamic empire. Yet many great Islamic philosophers Al-Farubi Avicenna, Averroes championed reason, even if they were not of the Mu'tazilite party. And many modern day Islamic reformers and thinkers are also, in their own way, heirs to the Mu'tazalite tradition.
A third group, the Kharijites, was the enemy of all. They held that any person who strayed from the perfect practice of Islam was an apostate subject to being killed. And leaders who did not hold true to the principles of Islam was likewise illegitimate and should be overthrown and killed.
The Caliph Ali himself eventually died at their hands. The Kharijites were near fully unified in command or tactics. But true to their beliefs, they committed frightful massacres on Muslims who they believed no longer practiced the faith.
Their ideology followed their politics. They rejected the doctrine of salvation by faith. Practice and only practice determined who was a true Muslim. It took two Centuries of war before the Kharijites were effectively suppressed and rejected by the other Islamic tradition.
Today, radicals who attack civilians replicate the tactics of that ancient sect of behavior.. A fourth element with the faith, the legalists, eventually bested its rivals to become a prominent voice in Islam. As the Islamic empire grew in the eight and ninth Centuries, the legalists disputed and ultimately absorbed a pietist movement that wanted the Qur'an (Koranic) norms to inform conduct in the empire. What emerged was a highly developed system of law, the Shari'a, containing civil and religious regulations.. Where the rules of the Shuri'a got in the way of State governance, such as in criminal law. The authorities often removed it from [their] jurisdiction, and set up state courts enforcing state regulations... In today's Muslim countries, there is often a dispute between those supporting religiously-based law. Modern fundamentalists, though widely differing among themselves, generally seek the adoption of the rules of the Shari'a.
The fundamentalists differ from Kharijite-inspired extremists, and the great majority of Muslims seek to live a morally righteous life without needing the Shari'a to be the law of the state.. which, for me, personally, I am not in agreement with.., because I wholeheartedly have come to understand that without the Shari'a (the law) there can absolutely be no Islam!!!
It isn't for the people of the west, of course, to define what "true" Islam is, especially when Muslims dispute it among ourselves. But, I do know that all of us can stand against evil, and we can oppose an evil that Islam itself experienced and turned away in its early days.
More important, I think that the none Muslims of the world can begin to appreciate the varied voices that Islamic civilization offers to the world.
Thank you for your letter of September 29, 2001. It was great to hear from you after some period of time.
I still have not heard anything about either the bail or the appeal yet. Nor have received any word from my attorney, but my spirit is still high, as I await their decision.
I don't know if the September 11, 2001 had anything to do with not receiving any word. I think patience is extremely important under these circumstances. It isn't the end of the world...
..We'll be together soon in the free world and all this will be behind us. I hope my sharing in a way touches you in the exchange of our friendship, and so, until our spirits meet again in this form take care. Love,
Malik
For more on Malik and a statement from his defense committee, see item 1 in Flyby News issue of 30 August, 2001
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid999200948,87474,
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3. Al Gore Won in Florida
www.consortiumnews.com
Gore's Victory
By Robert Parry
November 12, 2001
So Al Gore was the choice of Florida's voters -- whether one counts hanging chads or dimpled chads. That was the core finding of the eight news organizations that conducted a review of disputed Florida ballots. By any chad measure, Gore won.
Gore won even if one doesn't count the 15,000-25,000 votes that USA Today estimated Gore lost because of illegally designed "butterfly ballots," or the hundreds of predominantly African-American voters who were falsely identified by the state as felons and turned away from the polls.
Gore won even if there's no adjustment for George W. Bush's windfall of about 290 votes from improperly counted military absentee ballots where lax standards were applied to Republican counties and strict standards to Democratic ones, a violation of fairness reported earlier by the Washington Post and the New York Times.
Put differently, George W. Bush was not the choice of Florida's voters anymore than he was the choice of the American people who cast a half million more ballots for Gore than Bush nationwide. [For more details on studies of the election, see Consortiumnews.com stories of May 12, June 2 and July 16.]
The Spin
Yet, possibly for reasons of "patriotism" in this time of crisis, the news organizations that financed the Florida ballot study structured their stories on the ballot review to indicate that Bush was the legitimate winner, with headlines such as "Florida Recounts Would Have Favored Bush" [Washington Post, Nov. 12, 2001].
Post media critic Howard Kurtz took the spin one cycle further with a story headlined, "George W. Bush, Now More Than Ever," in which Kurtz ridiculed as "conspiracy theorists" those who thought Gore had won.
"The conspiracy theorists have been out in force, convinced that the media were covering up the Florida election results to protect President Bush," Kurtz wrote. "That gets put to rest today, with the finding by eight news organizations that Bush would have beaten Gore under both of the recount plans being considered at the time."
Kurtz also mocked those who believed that winning an election fairly, based on the will of the voters, was important in a democracy. "Now the question is: How many people still care about the election deadlock that last fall felt like the story of the century and now faintly echoes like some distant Civil War battle?" he wrote.
In other words, the elite media's judgment is in: "Bush won, get over it." Only "Gore partisans" as both the Washington Post and the New York Times called critics of the official Florida election tallies would insist on looking at the fine print.
The Actual Findings
While that was the tone of coverage in these leading news outlets, it's still a bit jarring to go outside the articles and read the actual results of the statewide review of 175,010 disputed ballots.
"Full Review Favors Gore," the Washington Post said in a box on page 10, showing that under all standards applied to the ballots, Gore came out on top. The New York Times' graphic revealed the same outcome.
Earlier, less comprehensive ballot studies by the Miami Herald and USA Today had found that Bush and Gore split the four categories of disputed ballots depending on what standard was applied to assessing the ballots punched-through chads, hanging chads, etc. Bush won under two standards and Gore under two standards.
The new, fuller study found that Gore won regardless of which standard was applied and even when varying county judgments were factored in. Counting fully punched chads and limited marks on optical ballots, Gore won by 115 votes. With any dimple or optical mark, Gore won by 107 votes. With one corner of a chad detached or any optical mark, Gore won by 60 votes. Applying the standards set by each county, Gore won by 171 votes.
This core finding of Gore's Florida victory in the unofficial ballot recount might surprise many readers who skimmed only the headlines and the top paragraphs of the articles. The headlines and leads highlighted hypothetical, partial recounts that supposedly favored Bush.
Buried deeper in the stories or referenced in subheads was the fact that the new recount determined that Gore was the winner statewide, even ignoring the "butterfly ballot" and other irregularities that cost him thousands of ballots.
The news organizations opted for the pro-Bush leads by focusing on two partial recounts that were proposed but not completed in the chaotic, often ugly environment of last November and December.
The new articles make much of Gore's decision to seek recounts in only four counties and the Florida Supreme Court's decision to examine only "undervotes," those rejected by voting machines for supposedly lacking a presidential vote. A recurring undercurrent in the articles is that Gore was to blame for his defeat, even if he may have actually won the election.
"Mr. Gore might have eked out a victory if he had pursued in court a course like the one he publicly advocated when he called on the state to 'count all the votes,'" the New York Times wrote, with a clear suggestion that Gore was hypocritical as well as foolish.
The Washington Post recalled that Gore "did at one point call on Bush to join him in asking for a statewide recount" and accepting the results without further legal challenge, but that Bush rejected the proposal as "a public relations gesture."
The Bush Strategy
Instead of supporting a full and fair recount, Bush chose to cling to his official lead of 537 votes out of some 6 million cast, Bush counted on his brother Jeb's state officials to ensure the Bush family's return to national power.
To add some muscle to the legal maneuvering, the Bush campaign dispatched thugs to Florida to intimidate vote counters and jacked up the decibel level in the powerful conservative media, which accused Gore of trying to steal the election and labeled him "Sore Loserman."
With Bush rejecting a full recount and media pundits calling for Gore to concede, Gore opted for recounts in four southern Florida counties where irregularities seemed greatest. Those recounts were opposed by Bush's supporters, both inside Gov. Jeb Bush's administration and in the streets by Republican hooligans flown in from Washington. [For more details, see stories from Nov. 24, 2000 and Nov. 27, 2000]
Stymied on that recount front, Gore carried the fight to the state courts, where pro-Bush forces engaged in more delaying tactics, leaving the Florida Supreme Court only days to fashion a recount remedy.
Finally, on Dec. 8, facing an imminent deadline for submitting the presidential election returns, the state Supreme Court ordered a statewide recount of "undervotes." This tally would have excluded so-called "overvotes" which were kicked out for supposedly indicating two choices for president.
Bush fought this court-ordered recount, too, sending his lawyers to the U.S. Supreme Court. There, five Republican justices stopped the recount on Dec. 9 and gave a sympathetic hearing to Bush's claim that the varying ballot standards in Florida violated constitutional equal-protection requirements.
At 10 p.m. on Dec. 12, two hours before a deadline to submit voting results, the Republican-controlled U.S. Supreme Court instructed the state courts to devise a recount method that would apply equal standards, a move that would have included all ballots where the intent of the voter was clear. The hitch was that the U.S. Supreme Court gave the state only two hours to complete this assignment, effectively handing Florida's 25 electoral votes and the White House to Republican George W. Bush.
A Third Hypothetical
The articles about the new recount tallies make much of the two hypothetical cases in which Bush supposedly would have prevailed: the limited recounts of the four southern Florida counties by 225 votes and the state Supreme Court's order by 430 votes. Those hypothetical cases dominated the news stories, while Gore's statewide-recount victory was played down.
Yet, the newspapers made little or nothing of the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision represented a third hypothetical. Assuming that a brief extension were granted to permit a full-and-fair Florida recount, the U.S. Supreme Court decision might well have resulted in the same result that the news organizations discovered: a Gore victory.
The U.S. Supreme Court's proposed standards mirrored the standards applied in the new recount of the disputed ballots. The Post buries this important fact in the 22nd paragraph of its story.
"Ironically, it was Bush's lawyers who argued that recounting only the undervotes violated the constitutional guarantee of equal protection. And the U.S. Supreme Court, in its Dec. 12 ruling that ended the dispute, also questioned whether the Florida court should have limited a statewide recount only to undervotes," the Post wrote. "Had the high court acted on that, and had there been enough time left for the Florida Supreme Court to require yet another statewide recount, Gore's chances would have been dramatically improved."
In other words, if the U.S. Supreme Court had given the state enough time to fashion a comprehensive remedy or if Bush had agreed to a full-and-fair recount earlier, the popular will of the American voters both nationally and in Florida might well have been respected. Al Gore might well have been inaugurated president of the United States.
Favored Outcome
But this outcome was not the favored hypothetical of the news organizations, which apparently wanted to avoid questions about their patriotism. If they had simply given the American people the unvarnished facts, the reality that the voters of Florida favored Al Gore might have bolstered the belief that Bush indeed did steal the White House. That, in turn, could have undermined his legitimacy during the current crisis over terrorism.
In its coverage of the latest recount numbers, the national news media also showed little regard for the fundamental principle of democracy: that leaders derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, not from legalistic tricks, physical intimidation and public-relations maneuvers.
It is that understanding that is most missing in the news accounts of the latest recount figures.
Presumably, the American people are supposed to accept that everything just turned out right the Bush dynasty was restored to power, the proper order was back in place. Anyone who begs to differ is a "conspiracy theorist" or a "Gore partisan."
Article with links is posted from
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2001/111201a.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
A Turn in the War * Critical Opportunity for the End of Terror
10 November 2001
A Turn in the War
An Analysis
by Jonathan Mark
The taking of Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan by forces opposed to the Taliban is significant. It provides land access to Uzbekistan, where American soldiers are stationed, to expand military and humanitarian operations. But this reason, alone, is not what inspired the title of this analysis report. Recently, bin Laden gave an interview, which was published in a reputable Pakistani newspaper, in which he claimed to have access to nuclear and chemical weapons. Bin Laden (during that same interview) also encouraged dissent in America, as during the Vietnam War. You got to be kidding! Is bin Laden working in cahoots with US forces? His comments would make one wonder. The results of his statements will only serve to fuel those justifying the war in Afghanistan, and against the threat of state-sponsored terrorism. This whole war seems to be like one giant scheme to manipulate democracy and freedom by a pseudo democratic government working in cahoots with terrorist forces. They are playing their games, and the result is making the few richer, and the rest of the world more impoverished and controlled.
Just the fact that President Bush used this war to justify missile defense is reason enough to know that the US is committed to a dominating military policy, not a world coalition for peace and the end of terror. By expanding the (offensive/defensive) arms race the US jeopardizes its own nation and the world by continuing policies that add to the proliferation and development of all weapons of mass destruction. This direction of dominance (and fiscal irresponsibility), during an age where civilization has too many vulnerabilities, will never be successful. The war against terrorism has to include an internal struggle for each nation and individual to release fear from guiding us down a road to ruin.
The turn in the House, with the Republican-led Appropriation's Committee denying funding for a key component of missile defense is another significant marker that occurred this week.(1) This is one of the issues leading to a call from the US Pentagon to meet with leaders of industry involved with missile defense. Now is the time to contact these parties to urge them to transform their policies to honor disarmament treaties, and real coalitions and actions for the peaceful use of space.
Please write and call government, military and industrial leaders to support the passing of the Preservation of Space Act of 2001(2) and World Treaty to Ban Space-Based Weapons.(3) By uniting with these efforts, we have the opportunity to transform acts of terrorism into becoming an isolated part of our history. The Act would cap the arms race and lead to a restructuring of the profit incentive for war and ineffective domination, into becoming a vehicle for commercial and environmental growth for a sustainable direction for humankind and many other species of life.
(1) See Flyby News posted November 8, 2001
Item 2 "House Appropriations Recommends Canceling Ineffective/Costly Satellite system"
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1005249137,27208,
(2) Flyby News posted October 21, 2001 Preservation of Space Act of 2001
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1003706576,63890,
(3) World Treaty Banning Space-Based Weapons
http://www.peaceinspace.com/WORLDTREATY.htm
1. Contact Information for writing to help Ban Space-Based Weapons
2) Letter in support of the Preservation of Space and World Treaty
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Contact Information for writing to help Ban Space-Based Weapons
Please see the Institute for Cooperation in Space (ICIS) for their prepared letter and online fax system to contact US and world government leaders: http://www.peaceinspace.com/fax
(You can use the ICIS form letter, or you can use an alternative letter posted in Item 2.)
The following information is for contacting the Aerospace and weapon development industries by snail mail. This information was provided by the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space http://www.space4peace.org
Aerospace Corporate Addresses
Boeing
Philip M. Condit
Chairman & CEO
7755 East Marginal Way South
Seattle, WA 98108
GE
Jeffrey Immelt
Chairman & CEO
3135 Easton Turnpike
Fairfield, CT 06431
Lockheed Martin
Vance D. Coffman CEO
6801 Rockledge Dr
Bethesda, MD 20817
Northrop Grumman
Kent Kresa Chairman, President, CEO
1840 Century Park East
Los Angeles, CA 90069
Raytheon
Daniel P. Burnham Chairman & CEO
141 Spring St
Lexington, MA 02421
TRW
Joseph T. Gorman Chairman & CEO
1900 Richmond Rd
Cleveland, OH 44124
United Technologies
George David Chairman & Ceo
United Technologies Bldg.
Hartford, CT 06101
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Letter in support of the Preservation of Space and World Treaty
Dear _______
I am respectfully writing to request your support for the ban of all space-based weapons, development and research. This will not only help the US continue to honor the Anti Ballistic Missile and other treaties for the peaceful use of outer space, but it could enable a prosperous transformation for industries now benefitting from war, to a new era of benign space activity and commerce. Of course this could only be feasible unless we care for the natural environment on Earth, as well.
On October 2, 2001, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Cleveland), introduced into the House of Representatives of the United States the Space Preservation Act of 2001, a bill to permanently ban space-based weapons: "to preserve the cooperative uses of space for the benefit of all humankind by permanently prohibiting the basing of weapons in space by the United States, and to require the President to take actions to adopt and implement a world treaty banning space-based weapons."
Instead of building space-based weapons, we propose the building of world cooperative space ventures including space habitats, stations, hospitals, schools, industries, laboratories, farms, elevators, hotels and resorts, and craft to travel the universes to learn more about ourselves and our neighbors.
We call for a halt to research and development (R&D), testing, production, manufacturing and deployment of all space-based weapons. This will not disrupt the economy. It will stimulate the economy, jobs and training programs. The largest R&D program in history is now mandated to weaponize space. Removing that mandate to weaponize space will not stop the R&D, but it will stop the R&D intended for space-based weaponry. This will free the industry to create technologies and services that will provide the greatest of benefits and opportunities to all world citizens. The space-based weapons industry will be transformed into a civil, military and commercial space industry without weapons in space.
We oppose the weaponization of space, not the militarization of space. Militaries are not going to disappear. They are well skilled and organized, and have non-space-based weapons roles to play now and after the ban on space-based weapons law is passed.
National and world security will be based on cooperation, on information sharing, on technology development and applications of technology and information services that will solve urgent and potential human and environmental problems.
Please respond immediately to this vital opportunity, and make a statement in support of an agreement to ban all space-based weapons. There is still time for a transformation, to change the course from where we are headed to a more sustainable approach. Please act and support the Preservation of Space Act of 2001 and World Treaty for banning space-based weapons to make survival, peace and prosperity more possible for everyone's future.
Signed
Post Script: I suggest your reviewing these following links to web sites to learn more on this important opportunity for greater security and prosperity on Earth.
http://www.peaceinspace.com
http://www.flybynews.com
http://www.space4peace.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Putin-Bush Meetings and Opportunity to Ban Space-Based Weapons
08 November 2001
Now is one of the last remaining opportunities to stop space-based weapons before they invade our atmosphere and orbit Earth. Until the major nations ban weapons of mass destruction from their own stockpiles, the dangers of terrorism and apocalypse will not go away. Item 1 is from the Institute for Cooperation In Space (ICIS). Please visit their website and use their free fax system to urge world leaders to get behind the strategic ban of space weaponry. Once the arms race is capped, a world treaty signed, a real coalition for peace can and will emerge.
1. Putin-Bush Meetings and Opportunity to Ban Space-Based Weapons
2. House Appropriations Recommends Canceling Ineffective/Costly Satellite system
3. Fighting Terror and the Diversion of Missile Defense
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Putin-Bush Meetings and Opportunity to Ban Space-Based Weapons
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - November 6, 2001
Contact: Dr. Carol Rosin, ICIS President
Institute for Cooperation in Space, ICIS
Tel: 805-641-1999 Fax: 805-641-9669
Email: rosin@west.net
Website: http://www.peaceinspace.com
Putin-Bush Meetings Offer New Opportunity for Ban on Space-Based Weapons
WASHINGTON, D.C. - When President Vladimir Putin and President George W. Bush meet in America during November 13-15, 2001, they will have the unique opportunity to establish "a new framework for security and cooperation" on earth by banning space-based weapons.
An intense search for a new security and cooperation framework has been ongoing during the months of preparations preceding these meetings. In fact, a forthcoming draft World Treaty Banning Space-based Weapons provides this new framework for national and world security, for a stimulated economy and job market, and for a way to cooperatively apply Space Age technology and information services to solve urgent humanitarian and environmental problems. A world space peace-keeping agency charged with monitoring a permanent ban on space-based weapons can be established. This will lead to the verifiable reduction of nuclear arsenals. A permanent ban on space-based weapons is a breakthrough that establishes "the new framework for security and cooperation" that both Russia and America ultimately seek. The world treaty will place a cap on the arms race, and will simultaneously establish the foundation for building a world cooperative civil, military, and commercial space research, testing, development, deployment, and exploration industry that will replace the space-based weapons industry.
Moscow has reportedly reviewed and "digested well" an advance copy of the world treaty. One high ranking Russian source has affirmed to ICIS that, "President Putin absolutely does not want space-based weapons, will not break the ABM Treaty, does not want the U.S. to proceed with missile defense testing, and is ready to sign a treaty that will ban space-based weapons."
Either Russia or the United States - or both - could begin discussions about banning space-based weapons and sign a world treaty at any point prior to, during, or following the Putin-Bush meetings this month. Also, either Russia or the United States or both could reach out to a world coalition of nations to co-sign the world treaty and bring it into effect.
The World Treaty Banning Space-based Weapons is identical in purpose to the little-publicized Space Preservation Act of 2001 introduced into the U.S. Congress by Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-Cleveland) on October 2, 2001, "to preserve the cooperative, peaceful uses of space for the benefit of all humankind by permanently prohibiting the basing of weapons in space by the United States, and to require the President to take action to adopt and implement a world treaty banning space-based weapons."
About the Space Preservation Act of 2001, Kucinich says, "We signed the ABM treaty nearly 30 years ago, which requires a reduction in strategic arms, nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. Weaponization of space clearly violates that treaty. My bill [calls] for an immediate and permanent termination of research, testing, manufacturing, production and deployment of all space-based weapons systems and components by any person, agency or contractor of the U.S. government."
On July 26, 2001, the same date that Congressman Dennis Kucinich announced a bill to ban space-based weapons in the United States, the Foreign Minister of Canada, John Manley, announced in Hanoi that "Canada would be very happyto launch an initiative to see an international convention preventing the weaponization of space." Congressman Kucinich responded to the Canadian initiative stating, "I am pleased with the recent news from our neighbor to the north that Canada is ready to join an international effort to prohibit weapons
in space."
The Space Preservation Act of 2001 requires the U.S. President to "direct the United States representatives to the United Nations and other international organizations to immediately work toward negotiating, adopting, and implementing a world agreement banning space-based weapons." An enforceable and verifiable World Treaty Banning Space-based Weapons must include most world nations in order to prevent the weaponization of space.
Plans are underway for a public announcement about the signing of world leaders on to the World Treaty Banning Space-based Weapons.
ICIS (Institute for Cooperation in Space) has learned that there is worldwide support rapidly growing for a World Treaty Banning Space-based Weapons among major space-faring nations and in developing countries. Dr. Carol Rosin, President of ICIS says, "This treaty will allow everyone to continue to provide improved ground forces to protect people on earth, while ending the arms race and stimulating a whole new industry at the same time. It is in the best interest of everyone, even adversaries, to share the Space Age information and technology applications. This presents a whole new paradigm, a new way of thinking and acting, a new space paradigm. This decision to sign this treaty will impact all future generations . ICIS will be monitoring the situation and briefing members of the world media in the days preceding the Putin-Bush meetings."
Documents posted on http://www.peaceinspace.com:
*World Treaty Banning Space-Based Weapons
*H.R. 2977 Space Preservation Act of 2001
*Frequently Asked Questions (Re: World Treaty and Space Preservation Act of 2001)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"What do you think Putin is up to?" Excerpts from a reply by Carol Rosin:
..so far...I'm told that Putin is not changing his position. He does want to ban space-based weapons, he is NOT in favor of testing missile defense or of the US testing missile defense, he is not going to break the ABM Treaty, and is ready to sign a World Treaty Banning Space-Based Weapons.
However (!) - Putin is being offered all kinds of temptations from Bush (the seat in NATO, extended business and trade, financial assistance, the ridding of nuclear waste...and now the reduction of nuclear arsenals in exchange for Putin allowing the U.S. to test missile defense...which of course would start a whole new arms race in space that nobody would ever be able to stop).
..I think Putin is probably a bit confused...my guess...but I have to hope he has the integrity and awareness not to dare change his position...for the sake of our very survival.
And I HOPE he is maintaining his integrity for the sake of all the suffering children (there were about 1 million displaced people before this Afghanistan bombing...and now there are nearly 8 million...with millions of orphaned children entering into winter with no one to take care of them...) on our mother earth.
Putin knows that Bush is committed to breaking out of the ABM Treaty no matter what any other leader says or does. Bush has said he is going ahead with testing missile defense (space-based weapons). Of course, if Bush does that, the war game would escalate faster than ever and into that place above all our heads quickly (they are ready to do it even if they say it's years down the road...). You see, Bush can get space-based weapons developed and deployed under the "guise" of "it's merely RESEARCH or TESTING," as you know. We can't let this happen, obviously.
I only hope that Putin understands that "testing" means space-based weapons would be deployed. I am sending letters to him explaining this.
We cannot stop Bush at the moment, or those who are caught up in the aftermath of the US disasters...he's on a roll.
But we can change the entire paradigm (second order change) if we get world support and world law into place that even Bush would have to abide by.
I believe the rest of the world is ready to end the arms race after seeing the past weeks of results from the U.S. method of bombing poor people in Afghanistan, dislocating so many, and not getting the job done even yet. I believe the rest of the world is catching on to how and why the U.S. wants to drag out any war to make sure we dump our weapons arsenals, test new weapons, and try to rationalize why we need the next phase of weapons (now in space. (In fact, if you don't watch controlled U.S. media or CNN - and you listen instead to "world news" and pubic channels, you hear how the rest of the world is not happy with Bush's war tactics and doesn't really want to play with the Bush administration anymore. Only a handful are still wearing their look-alike suits.)
We CAN get the rest of the world's leaders to sign on to the treaty to ban space-based weapons. We need to expand into a world view ...bigger than ever...as we expand into the new space paradigm.
That is why I think we need to organize something HUGE with roots action...starting with letters to Putin saying he must maintain his position to NOT accept missile defense testing of any kind, to reduce his nuclear arsenal even if it's unilaterally, and to sign a treaty to ban space-based weapons immediately. I also think we should lobby Putin to introduce the World Treaty Banning Space-based Weapons.
This treaty is on paper and is in the hands of the Russian leader. We're trying to get Bush to look at it, too. If you want to see it go to www.peaceinspace.com or contact me and I'll email you a copy. It's based on the language of already adopted UN space treaties and incorporates the purpose and language of the Kucinich H.R,. 2977 legislation. If we could get Putin to introduce this treaty, we'd have a "tool" to educate people with and a treaty and legislation to rally everyone around, plus a real law that we could get other leaders to sign-on to that would become law. It's brilliant.
We have only one chance in all of history to get this ban on space-based weapons. The Russians have always been "first" in space in many ways, and I hope that Putin can see that HE must be the leader to bring the world into the new space paradigm...and that the rest of the world will follow because it's in everyone's best interest to do this. Russia could be the first to commit to banning space-based weapons...he could sign the treaty right on the spot at the ranch while he eats barbeque.
Please let me know if you have more questions of if I can help you in any way. If you want to get a letter to Putin, please send it to me at rosin@west.net. I will get it to Moscow for you.
Here's what "we" have to get done ... to change the whole game:
1) *Make sure that Putin does not compromise his position and that he calls for an immediate signing of an agreement with world leaders (even if Bush won't do it...so what...we'll get it done with the help of intelligent leaders who understand): Call, write letters, welcome Putin at the Russian embassy or wherever he is going to be (I might be able to find out if you can rally people to do something like that), etc etc.
* We have to do something to get attention about Putin's trip to see Bush on Nov. 13th-15th...and we have to do it fast. Putin has got to hear from us. (If you write a letter and email (rosin@west.net) or fax (805-641-9669) it to me for Putin, I can still get it to Moscow and/or to Putin. I just sent one from David Krieger of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.)
2) Get co-sponsors signed on to H.R. 2977.
3) Get a Senator to introduce H.R. 2977 in the Senate and get co-sponsors to sign on to it.
4) Get a nation-state leader to introduce the World Treaty Banning Space-based Weapons which is based on already adopted UN space treaties and which incorporates the purpose and language of H.R.2977
5) Get this into the media and educate everyone about the new space paradigm that will end the arms race while building a new security system based on enhanced communication and education (about different cultures and our "oneness"), a new stimulated economy with needed jobs and training programs worthy of the Space Age, and new products and services that will be created as we unleash brains and money to explore and develop a whole new frontier...space (inner and outer).
If we don't accomplish the above, space will be closed to all but a few and we will experience weapons pointed down all our throats. The U.S. administration is so bold that they have now admitted (!) that they plan to control the entire world and space from space.
We have only days before President Putin arrives. Anything we do regarding this part has to be done immediately.
We have a few short weeks (at best) before an unstoppable momentum of commitment to funds and vested interests builds that would assure the reality of space-based weapons in any case, so we have to get the legislation passed and a world treaty signed.
Everything and everyone, our networks are in place. We can end the arms race in 2002. I know Putin WANTS to do it. WE have to make sure he sticks with his position.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) House Appropriations Recommends Canceling Ineffective/Costly Satellite system
November 7, 2001
Panel Recommends Ending Satellite Plan
By JAMES DAO
New York Times
WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 - At the urging of its Republican leadership, the House Appropriations Committee is recommending canceling an expensive infrared satellite system that the Pentagon considers vital to missile defense.
The satellites are intended to track ballistic missiles as they soar through the atmosphere, providing data that would help interceptor missiles tell missiles from decoys and home in on and destroy warheads.
The Pentagon had proposed putting two dozen such satellites, at an estimated cost of $11 billion to $20 billion, into low orbits above the earth over the next two decades to provide continuous surveillance against missile attacks. But in a report that has yet to be voted on by the full House, the Appropriations Committee contends that the satellite program is over its budget and behind schedule. It also cites an internal Pentagon study that questions the effectiveness of the satellites in discriminating between warheads and decoys.
Noting that ground-based radar might be a less expensive alternative to the satellites, the committee recommended denying the Bush administration's entire request of $385 million for the satellite program in the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1. Instead, the committee proposed transferring most of that money to other satellite and radar programs.
"This was not ready to move forward," said Jim Specht, a spokesman for Representative Jerry Lewis, a California Republican who is chairman of the Pentagon subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee.
"By taking away the funding, the committee is making clear they need to do more development and testing of this system in order for it to become an integral part of national missile defense," Mr. Specht added.
But Pentagon officials said that canceling or sharply cutting the satellite program would be a major setback to the Bush administration's missile defense plan.
"It would degrade the future capability of the overall missile defense program," said Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, a spokesman for the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization.
"Ground-based systems are limited by the curvature of the earth," Colonel Lehner added. "They don't have the range of a space-based system, which can cover the whole planet."
Congressional officials said the fate of the satellite program before the full House and in the Senate was unclear. The Senate Armed Services Committee has voted to reduce the program by $96.6 million, while the Senate Appropriations Committee has yet to vote on the Pentagon spending bills.
The satellites, known as the space- based infrared system-low, are being developed by two competing teams, one led by TRW and Raytheon, the other by Spectrum Astro and Northrop Grumman.
The system had its roots in the Reagan administration's Strategic Defense Initiative, when it was known as Brilliant Eyes. Using infrared sensors, the satellites are intended to locate warheads when they reach the mid-course of their trajectory, sending back to earth data that would help ground-based radars and interceptor rockets to fix on a threatening warhead.
Proponents contend that the satellites would be valuable not just for tracking long-range nuclear-tipped missiles, but also short-range weapons, known as theater missiles, that could be fired at American troops overseas.
"It's an essential component if ballistic missile defenses are to work effectively," said Representative John Spratt, a South Carolina Democrat who supports the program. "Not just for national missile defense, but also theater missile defense."
Pentagon officials have often cited the infrared satellites in responding to critics who contend that a missile shield would be easily fooled by decoys released alongside warheads in space. By identifying the difference in temperature between a decoy and warhead, the satellites would, in theory, be able to guide an interceptor toward the real target, the Pentagon contends.
Critics of missile defense question whether any system would be effective in picking out decoys. But they concede that a missile defense is likely to be more effective with the infrared satellites than without them.
"The job of the attacker is easier if there is not a S.B.I.R.S.-low system," said Lisbeth Gronlund, senior staff scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, an arms control group.
But over the years, the satellite program has been repeatedly criticized by Congressional investigators and Pentagon testers.
In a report released in February, the General Accounting Office, Congress's investigative arm, asserted that the satellite program was being rushed and was likely to face technical failures and major cost overruns.
The investigators found, for example, that the Pentagon was proposing to launch the first satellites before critical software had been completed.
"The S.B.I.R.S.-low program is at high risk of not delivering the system on time or at cost or with expected performance," the report concluded.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Fighting Terror and the Diversion of Missile Defense
"The worst-case scenario"
BY ANDREW PETTY
Article published in the Santa Maria Sun.
Fighting terrorism is changing the face of warfare. But will we still need a multi-billion-dollar missile defense system?
Hatred lurks deepest in the hearts of men who are not simply in a military trained to kill but trained to die in exchange for the deaths of thousands. This determination is new to western minds causing the public to wonder how far they will go, and what they would do if they had a nuclear weapon.
Military officials say in three to five years terrorists could strike our soil with such weapons.
As the military's job is to defend the United States and its allies, the urgent need to test the National Missile Defense System has grown in order to have it online for defense in the next few years.
The NMDS was met with controversy before the Sept. 11 attacks, which slowed down the testing and decreased the funding. Those speed bumps are cleared now, and the military has more support than ever. Congress recently approved an extra $4 billion for funding, almost twice what they had spent before.
Speculation on the possibility of terrorists or any "rogue" nations possessing nuclear missiles is enough for President George W. Bush to give the NMDS the green light. However, opponents of the NMDS are shocked that the U.S. government is continuing to move in this direction and argue that the NMDS is too expensive, it won't work, and will hurt global diplomacy.
Opponents thought their point was proven when New York City was partially destroyed by airplanesnot nuclear weapons. The United States has spent over $5 trillion preparing for a nuclear assault but was caught off guard on Sept. 11 by an operation that Newsweek magazine reports law enforcement estimated the cost as low as $200,000.
For the past two months our minds have followed this logic and some are asking if we should reformat warfare. During modern wars, the public has seen ground troops, aircraft carriers, and other military vessels deploying to the Middle East. Yet, this man-and-gun power will only be a fraction of the effort. Most of the war on terrorism will be "invisible"intelligence agencies around the world will now investigate phone calls, e-mails, money transfers and stock purchases; covert operations and spy technology will pinpoint the terrorists' locations and target bombing sites. Governments will even offer multi-million dollar rewards for information.
This war is waging from a nationless countryOsama bin Laden's al-Qaedabelieved to operate inside 68 different countries. They strike against anyone, even Muslims living in nations that tread on their religious quests. So far they have not resorted to using nuclear weapons, but sought mass destruction by other means such as suicide bombing missions and biological and chemical warfare.
This new warfare is expected to require more funds, more personnel, and more focus from all departments to effectively combat. Civilians will become more aware of their daily surroundingsat airports, commercial, and federal buildings to spot suspicious activity.
These efforts have helped recover information that will assist in predicting further attacks and bringing terrorists to justice. But before Americans and the world adjust to this new style of warfare, the military insists we not abandon the future threats of a nuclear war. America is ready to fight, but can we afford to be over-protective?
For the complete story, see:
http://www.santamariasun.com/archives/covers_2001/cov_11022001.html
Staff writer Andrew Petty covers military issues for the Sun. He can be reached at apetty@santamariasun.com.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
It's About Oil - Economic Incentive Fiasco & Alaska Wilderness Alert
05 November 2001
Since 9/11 the economy has gone in a tail spin. From a common sense point of view, this has resulted from the US government's response to the attacks. It appears that war profiteering is putting greater stress on working people. Item 1 is from a recent article on the oil incentive to control Afghanistan. Item 2 is from the AFL-CIO, offering its own "Blueprint for Economic Recovery" in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. This item includes information to contact Congress to protect our nation from war profiteering, which would add more harm placed on the US and world economies. It is critical you respond to this issue this week. Item 3 includes a letter by Robert Redford to stop the new push for drilling for oil in the Alaska Arctic Wildlife Refuge. As Robert Redford wrote, "There are plenty of sensible and patriotic ways to guarantee our nation's energy security, but destroying the Arctic Refuge is not one of them." Please respond to these critical alerts to stop irreversible harm to our planet and for all life. If interested in a positive direction in dealing with our energy crises (that could reduce pollution and help a sustainable energy policy), check out this following website for work on an improved thermo-electric engine that could use biomass and other sustainable fuels for generating power economically and beneficially for our environment. http://www.stirlingadvantage.com
Our world is a world out of balance. Your efforts are critical to help!
1. It's about oil
2. Labor and Our Wounded Economy
3. Push for Oil Drilling in Alaska Letter by Robert Redford
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) It's about oil
by Ted Rall
Friday, November 2, 2001
San Francisco Chronicle
New York -- NURSULTAN NAZARBAYEV has a terrible problem. He's the president and former Communist Party boss of Kazakstan, the second-largest republic of the former Soviet Union. A few years ago, the giant country struck oil in the eastern portion of the Caspian Sea.. Geologists estimate that sitting beneath the wind-blown steppes of Kazakstan are 50 billion barrels of oil -- by far the biggest untapped reserves in the world. (Saudi Arabia, currently the world's largest oil producer, is believed to have about 30 billion barrels remaining.) Kazakstan's Soviet-subsidized economy collapsed immediately after independence in 1991. When I visited the then-capital, Almaty, in 1997, I was struck by the utter absence of elderly people. One after another, people confided that their parents had died of malnutrition during the brutal winters of 1993 and 1994.
Middle-class residents of a superpower had been reduced to abject poverty virtually overnight; thirtysomething women who appeared sixtysomething hocked their wedding silver in underpasses, next to reps for the Kazak state art museum trying to move enough socialist-realist paintings for a dollar each to keep the lights on. The average Kazak earned $20 a month; those unwilling or unable to steal died of gangrene while sitting on the sidewalk next to long- winded tales of woe written on cardboard.
Autocrats tend to die badly during periods of downward mobility. Nazarbayev, therefore, has spent most of the past decade trying to get his landlocked oil out to sea. Once the oil starts flowing, it won't take long before Kazakstan replaces Kuwait as the land of Mercedes-Benzs and ugly gold jewelry. But the longer the pipeline, the more expensive and vulnerable it is to sabotage. The shortest route runs through Iran, but Kazakstan is too closely aligned with the United States to offend it by cutting a deal with Tehran. Russia has helpfully offered to build a line connecting Kazak oil rigs with the Black Sea, but neighboring Turkmenistan has experienced trouble with the Russians -- they tend to divert the oil for their own use without paying for it. There's even a plan to run crude through China, but the proposed 5,300-mile-long pipeline would be far too long to prove profitable.
The logical alternative, then, is Unocal's plan, which is to extend Turkmenistan's existing system west to the Kazak field on the Caspian Sea and southeast to the Pakistani port of Karachi on the Arabian Sea. That project runs through Afghanistan.
As Central Asian expert Ahmed Rashid describes in his book "Taliban," published last year, the United States and Pakistan decided to install a stable regime in place in Afghanistan around 1994 -- a regime that would end the country's civil war and thus ensure the safety of the Unocal pipeline project. Impressed by the ruthlessness and willingness of the then-emerging Taliban to cut a pipeline deal, the State Department and Pakistan's Inter- Services Intelligence agency agreed to funnel arms and funding to the Taliban in their war against the ethnically Tajik Northern Alliance. As recently as 1999, U.S. taxpayers paid the entire annual salary of every single Taliban government official, all in the hopes of returning to the days of dollar-a-gallon gas. Pakistan, naturally, would pick up revenues from a Karachi oil port facility. Harkening back to 19th century power politics between Russia and British India, Rashid dubbed the struggle for control of post-Soviet Central Asia "the new Great Game."
Predictably, the Taliban Frankenstein got out of control. The regime's unholy alliance with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network, their penchant for invading their neighbors and their production of 50 percent of the world's opium made them unlikely partners for the desired oil deal.
Then-President Bill Clinton's August 1998 cruise missile attack on Afghanistan briefly brought the Taliban back into line -- they even eradicated opium poppy cultivation in less than a year -- but they nonetheless continued supporting countless militant Islamic groups. When an Egyptian group whose members had trained in Afghanistan hijacked four airplanes and used them to kill thousands of Americans on September 11, Washington's patience with its former client finally
expired.
Finally the Bushies have the perfect excuse to do what the United States has wanted to do all along -- invade and/or install an old-school puppet regime in Kabul.
Realpolitik no more cares about the thousands of dead than it concerns itself with oppressed women in Afghanistan; this ersatz war by a phony president is solely about getting the Unocal deal done without interference from annoying local middlemen.
Central Asian politics, however, is a house of cards: every time you remove one element, the whole thing comes crashing down. Muslim extremists in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, for instance, will support additional terrorist attacks on the United States to avenge the elimination of the Taliban. A U.S.- installed Northern Alliance can't hold Kabul without an army of occupation because Afghan legitimacy hinges on capturing the capital on your own. Even if we do this the right way by funding and training the Northern Alliance so that they can seize power themselves, Pakistan's ethnic Pashtun government will never stand the replacement of their Pashtun brothers in the Taliban by Northern Alliance Tajiks. Without Pakistani cooperation, there's no getting the oil out and there's no chance for stability in Afghanistan.
As Bush would say, "make no mistake": this is about oil. It's always about oil. And to twist a late '90s cliche, it's only boring because it's true.
Ted Rall, a syndicated editorial cartoonist, has traveled extensively throughout Central Asia. In 2000, he went to Turkmenistan as a guest of the State Department. His latest book is "2024: A Graphic Novel" (NBM Books, May 2001).
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Labor and Our Wounded Economy
Labor Unveils Its Prescription To Heal Our Wounded Economy
By Harry Kelber
http://www.laboreducator.org/inside32.htm
Dissatisfied with both Republican and Democratic economic stimulus proposals, the AFL-CIO is offering its own "Blueprint for Economic Recovery" in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The labor federation calls for direct financial assistance to the hundreds of thousands of laid-off workers who still have not received any federal aid; broader eligibility for unemployment insurance benefits so that temporary and part-time workers are included; extending the 26-week benefit period to 52 weeks, and raising benefits that vary from state to state but now average $250 a week.
The AFL-CIO also proposes that the federal government pick up the cost of health insurance coverage for workers who have lost their jobs or been forced to work reduced hours. It requests full funding for job training and retraining, as well as the restoration of cuts in food stamps, child-care, federal housing assistance and other programs. Over the long term, labor wants the federal government to invest in better public health facilities, modernize the public school system, upgrade mass transportation and assist small businesses.
But while at least 500,000 recently laid-off workers struggle to keep their heads above water and get no federal help, House Republicans are pushing "stimulus" package that would award 14 Fortune 500 corporations a total of $6.3 billion in tax rebates. It's not because the 14 companies are on the verge of financial collapse or even mildly distressed; last year, they reported $33.2 billion in pre-tax profits.
Leading the parade of corporations that House Republicans deem deserving are IBM, which would get $1.4 billion; General Motors ($833 million) and General Electric ($608 million). Five of the 14 companies are in the energy business and two are in the airline industry that has already gotten a $15 billion bailout package from Congress. All were substantial contributors to George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, in an Oct. 23 New York Daily News article, calls President Bush's proposed $75 billion stimulus package "another trickle-down solution" that "spends almost six out of every seven dollars for corporate tax cuts and tax favors for the individuals at the top of our economy."
Sweeney added: "America's working families can't wait for a few of those dollars to trickle down to them. America's economy won't pull out of its slump unless working families get back to work and get the country's cash registers ringing again."
Regardless of how much the public sympathizes with workers who are caught in a financial bind, business lobbyists and President Bush insist that preferential treatment for corporations will spur investment and hasten economic recovery. But there are no guarantees that corporations, especially the big multinationals, will invest their government handouts to create jobs in the United States.
Meanwhile, Congress proceeds on the assumption that any stimulus package is only a temporary measure and that the economy is sure to rebound within a year or so. But what if it doesn't? What if unemployment rises and the recession deepens? The AFL-CIO's "blueprint" provides a backstop strategy: it outlines are building program not unlike the New Deal measures that helped pull the nation out of the Great Depression.
Unfortunately, as important as the AFL-CIO document is, it will reach only a limited and specialized audience. There are no longer any weekly union publications; the AFL-CIO's monthly magazine, America@Work, reaches fewer than 1% of union members, and the federation has virtually no presence in the broadcast and cable TV program schedules.
Of course, AFL-CIO leaders could direct their staff in Washington to send a flood of e-mail bulletins or special "alerts" to all 51 state federations and 545 central labor councils, which could, in turn, relay them to local unions and ultimately to the rank-and- file. But based on past non-performance, that is not likely to happen.
The AFL-CIO demonstrated its enormous political leverage in 2000 when voters from union households cast 26% of all the votes in the presidential contest, making it possible for Al Gore to win the popular vote. The same energy and enthusiasm could now be focused upon building an economy based on public need, not corporate greed.
= = = = = = = = = = = =
Action Alert ----
In this time of national crisis, amid calls for sacrifice, I'm truly troubled by some of the choices of the Republican party leadership. Here's their idea of an economic stimulus package:
$1.4 billion for IBM
$833 million for General Motors
$671 million for General Electric
$572 million for Chevron Texaco
$254 million for Enron
This is war profiteering, and it's simply wrong. Yet the House has just approved it, on a virtual party line vote, ending the recent spirit of bipartisan cooperation in Congress.
Will you please join me in speaking up, before the Senate acts? Go to:
http://www.moveon.org/warprofiteering/
While our nation was reeling from the Anthrax threat, the House voted to repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax on corporations. This law normally requires hugely profitable companies to pay at least some tax, no matter how many loopholes they can find. Its repeal would allow many companies to pay zero U.S. income tax in perpetuity - a loss of more than $12 billion in revenue next year alone.
The repeal is retroactive, so companies would get rebates of all the Alternative Minimum Tax they've paid for the last 15 years. The numbers above are a sampling of these rebates.
The House also voted to allow corporations to store their profits overseas as a tax shelter. That's right - this "stimulus" would actually take money _out_ of the U.S. economy. It's backwards.
The right approach to stimulus is to put more money in the hands of everyday people who need it most - by expanding unemployment insurance, for example. People living marginally will spend it quickly on consumer goods, so it circulates through the economy, benefitting everyone.
Helping people would make economic sense. Giving billions in tax breaks to America's biggest corporations doesn't.
The Senate is considering this issue now. Please speak up with me at:
http://www.moveon.org/warprofiteering/
The Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121
Thank you. We've got to stick together on this.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Push for Oil Drilling in Alaska Letter by Robert Redford
"There are plenty of sensible and patriotic ways to guarantee our nation's energy security, but destroying the Arctic Refuge is not one of them."
-- Robert Redford
-- Using 9/11, Bush Pushes for Immediate Approval to Drill for Oil In Alaska Arctic Wildlife Refuge.
-- Bill Already Passed by US House of Reps. is being Rushed through Senate
-- Robert Redford Urges Action
-- Website for more info: http://www.savebiogems.org/arctic
Actor, director and conservationist Robert Redford has been a member of NRDC's board of trustees for 25 years. Always outspoken about wilderness protection, Redford is extremely concerned now that a handful of U.S. senators, encouraged by the White House, are using national security as their excuse to rush a pro-oil energy bill into law and open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. Recently Redford sent out the email message below urging Americans to tell their senators, via this website, that conserving energy to achieve energy security is patriotic -- destroying the Arctic Refuge is not.
LETTER FROM ROBERT REDFORD
Dear Friend,
It is understandable that we Americans feel an almost reflexive need for unanimity in trying times like these. As a nation, we are rightly consumed with responding to the terrorist attacks on September 11th. But, at some point -- and I think we're beginning to get there -- we need to take a long-term view even as we are reacting to the current crisis. Really important domestic issues facing us before all of this happened -- education, energy and the environment, health care -- still have the same dimension and consequence. But we have to recognize that it's much more difficult to discuss and debate them in the aftermath of Sept. 11th. Unfortunately, disagreement is sometimes characterized as unpatriotic during times such as these and open, thoughtful discourse is somewhat muted. The gravity of the current situation is not lost on any of us and we all want to do what's right to insure our national security. It is with this in mind that I felt compelled to write you today.
A handful of determined U.S. senators, encouraged by the White House, are arguing that national security requires the Senate to rush a pro-oil energy bill into law. They have vowed to hold up normal Senate business and attach the bill to every piece of legislation that comes to the Senate floor. So far they have failed in what The Boston Globe is calling "oil opportunism." But with President Bush, himself, now calling for rushed passage of this disastrous bill, intense pressure is building on Senate leaders to succumb to the emotions of the moment.
Using our national tragedy as an opportunity to advance the narrow interests of the oil lobby would not be in the best interest of the public. This bill, already passed by the House, would not only open the Arctic Refuge to oil rigs, it would also pave the way for energy companies to exploit and destroy pristine areas of Greater Yellowstone and other gems of our natural heritage. As important, it would do nothing to address energy security.
I'm asking for your immediate help in stopping this legislation. After reading my letter I hope you'll take action at http://www.savebiogems.org/arctic and then forward this letter to your
friends and colleagues.
Last spring, the Bush administration and some members of Congress said we had to pass the president's oil-friendly energy bill because we were facing the most serious energy crisis since 1973. But here we are, a mere six months later, and the energy crisis has vanished. Due to a slowing economy and falling demand, the prices for gasoline, natural gas and home heating oil have plunged. Meanwhile, the much-feared "summer of blackouts" in California never happened, largely because consumers and businesses made dramatic cuts in energy use by launching the most successful statewide conservation campaign in history.
With no energy crisis to scare us with, the administration and pro-oil senators are now promoting their "Drill the Arctic" plan under the guise of national security and energy independence. Don't buy it. It would take ten years to bring Arctic oil to market, and when it arrives it would never equal more than two percent -- a mere drop in the bucket -- of all the oil we consume each year. Our nation simply doesn't have enough oil to drill our way to energy independence or even to affect world oil prices.
We possess a mere 3 percent of the world's oil reserves, but we consume fully 25 percent of the world's oil supply. We could drill the Arctic Refuge, Greater Yellowstone, and every other wild land in America and we'd still be importing oil, still be paying worldwide prices for domestic oil, and still be vulnerable to wild gyrations in price and supply. As The Atlanta Constitution put it: "Burning through our tiny oil supply faster will not make our country more secure." I'd go further: increasing our dependence on oil, whether that oil comes from the Persian Gulf or the Arctic Refuge, practically guarantees national *insecurity*. And we know that it will bring more habitat destruction, more oil spills, more air pollution, and more global warming. The public health implications will be devastating.
If our nation wants to declare energy independence, then we have no choice but to reduce our appetite for oil. There's no other way. We need to rely on smarter and cleaner ways to power our economy. We have the technology right now to increase fuel economy standards to 40 miles per gallon. If we phased in that standard by 2012 we'd save 15 times more oil than the Arctic Refuge is likely to produce over 50 years. We could also give tax rebates for existing hybrid gas-electric vehicles that get as much as 60 mpg. We could invest in public transit. We could launch an "Apollo Project" to bring fuel cells and hydrogen fuel down to earth, allowing us to begin the mass production of vehicles that emit only water as a by-product. The list goes on and on.
In this climate of national trauma and war, it is up to us -- the people -- to ensure that reason prevails and our natural heritage survives intact. The preservation of irreplaceable wild lands like the Arctic Refuge and Greater Yellowstone is a core American value. I have never been more appreciative of the wisdom of that value than during these past few weeks. When we are filled with grief and unanswerable questions it is often nature that we turn to for refuge and comfort. In the sanctuary of a forest or the vastness of the desert or the silence of a grassland, we can touch a timeless force larger than ourselves and our all-too-human problems. This is where the healing begins. Those who would sell out this natural heritage -- this spiritual heritage -- would destroy a wellspring of American strength. What's worse, their rush to exploit the wildness that feeds our souls won't do a thing to solve our energy problems.
There are plenty of sensible and patriotic ways to guarantee our nation's energy security, but destroying the Arctic Refuge is not one of them. Please tell that to your senators. They urgently need to hear it because the pressure is on to move this pro-oil bill to a vote in the next few weeks. It will take you only a minute to send them an electronic message from NRDC's SaveBioGems website.
Go to http://www.savebiogems.org/arctic
And please forward this message to your family and friends. Millions of Americans need to know about this cynical attempt to promote the interests of energy companies at the expense of everyone else.
Sincerely yours,
Robert Redford
= = = = = = = = = = = =
Tell your senators to oppose all legislation that would allow exploration or drilling in the Arctic Refuge.
Go to http://www.savebiogems.org/arctic
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
US Admitted Bombing Red Cross Purposely * ABM Delay Disingenuous
02 November 2001
Happy Halloween?
So, the news is getting weirder. Flyby News received a posting from the Portside listserve, reporting on an interview on MSNBC, October 31, 2001, when the a senior US military official admitted to INTENTIONALLY bombing the Red Cross. This represents a complete change for the US rationalization, which had previously claimed it had "accidentally" bombed the Red Cross in Afghanistan. "On Tuesday, a senior U.S. military official told NBC News that the Red Cross warehouses were not hit by accident, saying they were bombed because Taliban troops had commandeered the food stored there." A doctor who said he was injured in the bombing attack that struck the Red Crescent dispensary said the 11 people killed and six injured included patients and staff at the facility.
The full story was originally posted at http://www.msnbc.com/news/627086.asp?cp1=1
Should you find a current posting, please send an email to info@flybynews.com
[For the NY Times article on the strikes of the UN for the second time, and earlier US denial, see See item 3 ]
1. World opinion turning against the war
2. A Jordan Editorial "Our Say...Shameful war"
3. Public Declaration on Peace and Security
4. Postponement of Missile Defense System Tests is Disingenuous
5. Bin Laden reported meeting with CIA in July 2001
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) World opinion turning against the war
Bombing casualties cause concern around the world
Some nations shift stance after air campaign
Wednesday October 31, 2001 -- The Guardian (London)
The British public's support for a pause in the bombing of Afghanistan is being reflected across many countries in Europe and the Middle and Far East.
Many governments who signed up to the United States' war against terrorism prompted by the events of September 11 are now urging caution. Some are still supportive of forthright action, others are calling for restraint while a few are now openly hostile to any continuance of military action.
Images of impoverished Afghans being bombed out of their homes has led to street protests in some countries.
Here the Guardian looks at how the mood of different nations has shifted - how some nations' support has wobbled, while others has remained steadfast.
Indonesia
Signs have been mixed. Initial strong support from President Megawati Sukarnoputri turned to "great concern" after bombing began. "No individual, group or government has the right to try to catch terrorist perpetrators by attacking the territory of another country," she said. Although Megawati has recently reaffirmed her commitment to combating terrorism, her foreign minister, Hasan Wirayuda, said it would be "emotionally explosive" to continue attacks during Ramadan.
Turkey
While protests have been muted, unease over the US bombing campaign is growing in the only Muslim member of Nato, bringing together an unlikely alliance of conservative Islamists, hardline nationalists and the small but vocal Turkish far left movement. Polls show between 57% and 70% of Turks are opposed to the country's direct involvement in Operation Enduring Freedom.
Italy
Italians have been among Europe's most lukewarm supporters of military action, with more than 200,000 people participating in a peace march two weeks ago.
Saudi Arabia
Initially the ruling royal family was prepared to "fully cooperate" in tracking down "the perpetrators of this criminal act" of September 11. However relations with the US have soured with American criticism of Saudi links with Bin Laden. "We are not at all happy with the situation," interior minister Prince Naif said recently of the bombings.
Greece
Anti-war protests organised by the small but powerful communist party, have become louder as bombing intensified. Polls show Greeks to be by far the least sympathetic of all European nations. Around 30% of the population view the September 11 carnage as retribution for a superpower's misguided policies over decades.
Iran
President Mohammad Khatami harshly condemned the attacks on the US and expressed desire to be involved in the fight against terrorism. But Iran's spiritual leaders have recently reaffirmed traditional antipathy to US, "the great Satan".
Belgium
Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt pledged "total solidarity" with the US and UK at the outset but has sounded more cautious recently. Foreign minister Louis Michel has accused Tony Blair of being too "bellicose" and said his country will not "blindly follow" Washington and London.
Malaysia
Prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has been a strong supporter of a global campaign against terrorism but opposed the bombing of Afghanistan from outset.
Venezuela
President Hugo Chavez, during a live TV broadcast, displayed photographs of Afghan children reported to be bombing victims and pleaded for an end to "the killing of innocents".
South Africa
Yesterday the government urged the US to show restraint and expressed "grave concern over the disastrous humanitarian tragedy that is unfolding in Afghanistan".
Pakistan
General Pervez Musharraf has been the US's linchpin and supportive from the start. However his language has become more cautionary as protests among sections of the population have become violent. "The operation must be as short as possible. We must try to achieve our objectives through military means, and if we are unable to do that within a certain duration, switch to a political strategy that would give us the same objectives," he said.
India
India threw its weight behind the US-led war on terrorism and offered to provide facilities for American military forces. But yesterday defence minister George Fernandes cast doubt on US objectives and indicated the campaign was a "long-term gamble."
Kuwait
Initially talked of solidarity in the war against terrorism. But as bombing persisted concern has deepened. Last week half of its elected Mps signed a statement calling for an end to the bombing.
Romania
Substantial turnaround in opinion since bombing began when 55% were in favour of allied air strikes and around 35% against. This week's poll showed 54% against bombing and 36% in favour.
France
Support is still solid, with the government last week pledging extra military backing. Recent polls show substantial majority of population behind the operation. But there is concern. The foreign minister, Hibert Vedrine, yesterday admitted the military campaign "isn't yet working", but said there was no alternative strategy on offer.
Spain
The government of prime minister Jose Maria Aznar's rightwing People's party has been an enthusiastic backer of the war against international terrorism, which it hopes will also bring armed Basque separatist group Eta to its knees. But an anti-war campaign is gaining support amongst students, who protested in Madrid's streets last week.
Norway/Sweden/Finland
Have reiterated their "full support" of the campaign, but are increasingly worried about the effects on Afghanistan's civilian population. Public opinion in non-Nato members Sweden and Finland in particular is beginning to demand an end to the bombing. "We're all worried about this, and we regret the civilian casualties," said the Finnish prime minister Paavo Lipponen.
Germany
Germans are divided on the war. At the beginning of October 59% supported the US military action. However a poll last week indicated 54% were in favour of a pause so that humanitarian assistance could be provided. Sixty per cent are against German soldiers' participation in a land war. China. No signs so far of a wobble in Chinese support. While Chinese government spokesmen say routinely that they hope civilian casualties will be avoided, they have not addressed specific reports of "collateral damage".
Japan
According to a poll this week, 63% of the Japanese public approves of the military action by the United States, Japan's main ally. But divisions have started to appear over the extent to which Japan should become involved in the campaign.
Holland
Dutch support for military action has remained solid, although the prime minister, Wim Kok, has expressed concern about the use of cluster bombs and civilian casualties.
Philippines
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has been President Bush's number two global ally after Tony Blair and shows no signs of wavering. In return the US has sent a team of military advisers to help combat the threat posed by the Islamist Abu Sayyaf group.
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Editor's Note:
Police and peaceful demonstrators clash in Hartford, see
http://www.madhattersimc.org/article.php?sid=55
http://www.madhattersimc.org/article.php?sid=61
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) A Jordan Editorial "Our Say...Shameful war"
The Star * Jordan's political, economic and cultural weekly
http://star.arabia.com/article/0,5596,100_2446,00.html
Oct (25 - 31) 2001 12, Issue No. 66
Editorial
27 - Oct - 2001 /05:49 PM GMT
Our Say...Shameful war
US leaders have robbed their people of the moral high ground by unleashing a ruthless killing machine against the hapless Afghani people.
Oct 27, 2001, 03:52 PM
By Osama El Sherif, Responsible Editor Jordan (Star) -
If the United States is seeking to punish those responsible for the 11 September carnage in New York and Washington, then its war in Afghanistan is definitely off the mark. What promised to be a "different" kind of war, targeting terrorists with pinpoint accuracy, is turning
out to be a crude and bloody military campaign against a poor and backward country with civilians as the primary casualty. US leaders have robbed their people of the moral high ground by unleashing a ruthless killing machine against the hapless Afghani people. America's war in Afghanistan is desecrating the memory of those innocent thousands who perished in the World Trade Center tragedy because this war is being waged in their name.
War is ugly because more often than not it destroys the innocent, the young, the vulnerable and the poor. It is only after the fact that people discover the true and long-lasting tragedies of war; millions of displaced people, destruction of infrastructure and means of survival, civil strife and lawlessness, unraveling of social and cultural values and bonds, etc. As the war against Afghanistan enters its third week, international aid organizations are predicting the combined effects of the bombings and the onset of winter threaten the lives of at least five million Afghanis who will be trapped in their own remote villages in uncompromising conditions.
`America keeps telling the people of Afghanistan that it is indeed their friend. It drops food and flyers as well as bombs and missiles. Both are missing their targets. It is now evident innocent civilians have been bombed and that not all those who need food are receiving it. From the ground America appears as a potent but evil power to the starving and helpless people of Afghanistan. For that power to be dropping food and bombs it must appear crazy as well.
So far, after three weeks of unrelenting bombing, we know very little about the damage the terrorist network that masterminded and carried out the 11 September attacks had sustained. But we know that at least three million Afghanis have been displaced and are now living in refugee camps in Pakistan. We know that another five million are starving and have no access to clean water or medical aid. We know that civilian deaths and injuries as a result of the strikes are in the thousands. Kabul, Kandahar, Jallalabad, Hirat and other cities and towns in Afghanistan are in ruins facing a slow death. And yet the war is still in its opening chapters.
America wants to topple the rule of the Taliban and of course capture or destroy Osama Bin Laden. Both goals are elusive because both targets remain defiant and will fight until death. As America and its allies muster a huge flotilla of ships and submarines from which they can launch jets and missiles to strike targets in Afghanistan, the question of what else is there to bomb becomes ironically valid. The absence of legitimate military targets has caused an unusual number of miss hits in such a short time. Until now the US has successfully bombed hospitals, international aid storage facilities, UN employees working on de-mining the country, housing complexes, an entire village, few mud houses and tents. It has also bombed its own Northern Alliance. We fear that more bombings by mistake incidents are on their way with tragic consequences for innocent civilians.
President Bush has said America's war is 'just' and Americans going to war were fighting for a 'noble cause'. He must be speaking about an entirely different war. What is happening in Afghanistan today puts every American, every nation, and every citizen of this world to shame.
c The Star 2000-2001
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Editorials:
"This War is a Farce"
written by John Pilger in The Mirror (UK):
"Surprise! It's also a dirty war for oil"
by Nicholas Woomer in the Michigan Daily.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Public Declaration on Peace and Security
To the President of the United States
Mr. President,
Prior to September 11, the U.S. government had embarked on a unilateral course that frequently disregarded several peace and security treaties. In light of the horrific and tragic events in New York City, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania, the undersigned people and non-governmental organizations call upon the United States government to reverse actions that jeopardize international agreements to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) bans the development, production and stockpiling of biological and toxic weapons. The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) places limits on the testing and deployment of defensive systems in order to prevent the stockpiling of nuclear weapons. Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) aims at the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) bans all nuclear weapon test explosions and all other nuclear explosions. We believe that U.S. adherence to these treaties would promote greater security and peace worldwide.
However, the United States government is undermining all four treaties by rejecting a Verification Protocol on the BTWC that was to be finalized in November in Geneva and by developing a large bioweapons research system that may be in violation of the BTWC; by developing missile defenses and seeking to withdraw from the ABM Treaty; by deploying modified bunker-busting nuclear weapons, conducting research aimed at making nuclear weapons more useable, and maintaining more than 2,000 nuclear warheads on high alert despite recently reaffirming a commitment to the NPT; and by refusing to ratify the CTBT. The U.S. also is researching space-based weapons and is resisting international efforts to ban the placement of weapons in outer space. These actions by the United States threaten peace and security globally by provoking the development of hostile weapons by other countries in an escalating arms race.
Therefore, we urge that:
1) The United States rely on multilateral negotiations and the existing body of international law and treaties to resolve international conflicts.
2) The United States, at the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention Review Conference beginning on November 19th, make an unqualified commitment to uphold Article I, which prohibits all development, acquisition, and stockpiling of biological agents for hostile purposes, and unequivocally endorse prompt completion of the draft BTWC Verification Protocol.
3) The United States abide by the terms of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
4) The United States meet its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, in particular Article VI that calls for complete nuclear disarmament, as unanimously confirmed by the International Court of Justice.
5) The United States maintain its nuclear testing moratorium and ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
Signatories
To sign on to this letter, send an email nsorensen@iatp.org on or before November 6 stating your name, organization if relevant, and country. They will send the signed Declaration to President Bush before his meeting with Russian President Putin on November 12. They also hope to influence the next Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention negotiations starting November 19.
The Declaration was launched on Friday, October 26, 2001 at a symposium on "War and Weapons" in Washington D.C. In this symposium, activists and experts on biological, nuclear and chemical weapons, land mines, small arms, military pollution, and the U.S.-sponsored Plan Colombia discussed the threats to humanity posed by weapons of mass destruction.
For more information contact:
Chela Vazquez
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP)
2105 First Avenue South
Minneapolis MN 55404 USA
Tel. office: (612) 870-3441
Fax: (612) 870-4846
cvazquez@iatp.org
http://www.iatp.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Postponement of Missile Defense System Tests is Disingenuous
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCTOBER 29, 2001
CONTACT: Union of Concerned Scientists
Stephen Young (202) 223-6133
Paul Fain (202) 223-6133
Postponement of Missile Defense System Tests is Disingenuous
Testing Program Not Currently Limited by ABM Treaty
WASHINGTON - October 29 - The Pentagon's recent announcement that it has postponed three missile defense "tracking tests" because they could violate the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty is intended to bolster the Bush administration claim that the Treaty -- rather than technology -- is preventing the US from developing an effective defense against long-range missiles. But the postponement is disingenuous because none of these tests would address any of the numerous critical technical issues facing the development of a national missile defense system against long-range missiles. Separate Bush administration plans to begin deploying five interceptors in Alaska next spring in violation of the ABM Treaty also have no useful purpose.
"The Bush administration is trying to invent reasons to force a withdrawal from the ABM Treaty, and seems to be looking hard for a test that the Pentagon is technically capable of conducting that would violate the treaty," said Dr. Lisbeth Gronlund, a physicist and UCS Senior Staff Scientist. "In fact, the US could conduct a vigorous test program without withdrawing from the ABM Treaty for several years."
The tests the Pentagon says it is postponing are three "tracking tests" in which an Aegis ship-based radar would track a long-range ballistic missile. The Aegis radar is currently part of the air defense system intended to protect the ship from attacks by aircraft, and will also be used as part of the Navy Area theater missile defense currently under development for use against short-range missiles.
Two of the tracking tests were to take place during the next long-range intercept test originally scheduled for October 24. According to the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, that intercept test has been postponed for technical reasons, and should take place in late November.
The intercept tests the Pentagon has been conducting -- in which an interceptor missile fired from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific attempts to intercept a mock warhead released by a missile launched from Vandenberg, California -- are not prohibited by the ABM Treaty. However, to prevent its signatories from giving air defense or theater missile defense systems the capability to also intercept long-range missiles, the ABM Treaty prohibits radars like the one on Aegis ships to observe long-range missiles during intercept tests. Thus, the tracking tests -- in which the Aegis radar was scheduled to track both the target missile and the interceptor missile during the intercept test -- would violate the treaty.
"These tests would not address any of the fundamental and challenging questions about the technical feasibility of either a mid-course or a boost-phase defense against long-range missiles," said Dr. David Wright, a physicist and UCS Senior Staff Scientist. "There is no compelling technical reason to conduct these tracking tests now."
The United States and Russia are reportedly discussing modifications to the ABM Treaty that might allow some Bush administration testing plans to go ahead while remaining in the treaty. However, the five interceptors the Bush administration plans to begin deploying in Alaska next spring would also serve no purpose for testing the system and would offer no useful defense against a missile attack.
"The deployment of five interceptor missiles in Alaska as part of an untested and unworkable rudimentary missile defense system would be an unambiguous, pointless violation of the ABM Treaty," said Stephen Young, UCS Senior Analyst.
# # # # # # # # #
Related Information:
United States Department of Defense NEWS TRANSCRIPT
On the web: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Nov2001/t11012001_t026dsd2.html
Media contact: media@defenselink.mil or +1 (703) 697-5131
Public contact: public@defenselink.mil or +1 (703) 697-5737
Presenter: Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz
Friday, October 26, 2001
Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz Interview with Far Eastern Economic Review
(Interview with Michael Vatikiotis and Murray Hiebert, Far Eastern Economic Review.)
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
5) Bin Laden reported meeting with CIA in July 2001
Bin Laden Met With CIA Agent in July Radio France International -
According to information's collected by Radio France International, and Le Figaro, Oussama Ben Laden met with an American CIA agent last July while he was being treated for a kidney ailment at the American Hospital of Dubai.
For the complete story see
http://www.truthout.com/11.01A.htm
Sources :
Radio France Internationale
Lefigaro
Also reported by
Elizabeth Bryant
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Published 10/31/2001
Radio reports new CIA-Bin Laden details
Elizabeth Bryant
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Published 11/1/2001
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Bombing Afghanistan = Making More Terror * Shame in the House * GMO Alert!
29 October 2001
As winter closes in for those of us in the northern hemisphere, and the bombing continues in Afghanistan, it is getting more and more evident that bombing this starving nation, and harming more innocent people, is counterproductive. A primary concern must be of humanitarian interests, and learning more effective ways for justice and peace to co-exist. Item four is a follow-up article on the Flyby News previous issue on the House of Representatives' shameful vote last week. Item five is an alert for a toll free call to try to stop the House from passing legislation this week, which would not allow the labeling of genetically engineered foods.
1) Starvation in Afghanistan Will Produce 1,000 Bin Ladens
2) 10 Reasons to Stop Bombing Afghanistan
3) U.S. Planes Bomb a Red Cross Site for Second Time
4) Shame in the House of Representatives
5) Labeling Under Attack in Fast Track Legislation
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Starvation in Afghanistan Will Produce 1,000 Bin Ladens
by Stanley Heller
The Bush Administration is not taking the threat of Afghan starvation seriously. On October 17 six respected aid agencies begged for a stoppage in the bombing until they could supply the destitute Afghans for the winter. Their request was turned down. James Dao in the New York Times [October 20] stated that "as many as 7.5 million people could be at risk for starvation by the end of the year".
What will the long term consequences be if 100,000 or 500,000 Afghans die this winter? Will the universal reaction be, "It's all Bin Laden's fault"? Not a chance. President Bush will be sowing a hatred that will come back to haunt us. We will be killing one Bin Laden and growing 1,000 new Bin Ladens in his place.
Jonathan Schell reported in The Nation [11/5/2001] that on October 12 Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and now the United Nations commissioner for human rights, sounded a sharp, warning. She called for a halt to the bombing of Afghanistan in order to permit humanitarian aid--above all, food--to be sent into Afghanistan before the winter snows cut off access to the population. "It is a very, very urgent situation," she noted. "It is very hard to get convoys of food in when there is a military campaign.... You have millions of people, they say up to 7 million, at risk." And she asked, "Are we going to preside over deaths from starvation of hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people this winter because we did not use the window of opportunity?"
On the 17th Oxfam International, Islamic Relief, Christian Aid, CAFOD, Tear Fund and Action Aid called for the bombing halt. In their press release they noted:
* Some 400,000 people are thought to be already having to survive on wild vegetation and essential livestock
* Two million people do not have enough food aid to last the winter, and of those, 500,000 will be cut off by snow by mid November
* Millions more are on the move and we just do not know the scale of their need. The UN says 5.5 million people are short of food
* UN food stocks within Afghanistan are now down to just two weeks' supply (9,000 tonnes).
The Guardian (UK) [10/14] reported that A "climate of fear" prevents truckers and labourers loading or unloading food, driving deep into Afghanistan, or staying overnight in Afghan towns.
"We have 1000 tonnes of food stuck in Quetta in Pakistan," said Islamic Relief director Dr Hany el Banna. "It is enough for 50,000 people but we need 60 trucks and we cannot find truckers to take it in because of their fears."
The worst affected area, Hazarajat, in the central highlands of Afghanistan, had received none at all and people would start dying soon said Sam Barratt spokesman for the of the humanitarian organization Oxfam.
The Bush Administration has turned down the pleas of the aid agencies and has instead launched air drops of ready to eat meals. But that's no solution. The amounts that could be flown in can't possibly match what was trucked in. On October 10 the Nobel Peace Prize winning Doctors Without Borders said in a statement, "What is needed is large scale convoys of basic foodstuffs, rather than single meals designed for soldiers." Dr Jean-Herv Bradol, speaking from Pakistan for the group said the affects of the airdrops would probably be "minimal".
The Clinton administration was blind to the effects on civilians of it sanctions on Iraq. The hundreds of thousands of deaths were explained away as "Saddam's fault". Americans bought it. It didn't seem to matter that the deaths caused intense anger in Arab and Muslim countries. They were powerless, so who cared. Then comes the 911 catastrophe. Looking back at Bin Laden's videos we notice that mixed in with his religious rantings are angry comments about the deaths in Iraq. Was he sincere? Who knows? Does what happened in Iraq justify the atrocity against the Twin Towers? Absolutely not. But we are fools if we think U.S. actions in Iraq and other Mideast hotspots didn't help produce the rage which Bin Laden harvested for his own sick plans.
It's a law of human society that massive injustice creates a powerful reaction, some wise, some confused, some heroic and some monstrous. If the U.S. war on Afghanistan leads to widespread starvation we will be planting the seeds of future and momentous grief not just for Afghanistan, but for America and the world.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) 10 Reasons to Stop Bombing Afghanistan
by Don Hazen, AlterNet
October 19, 2001
Despite almost universal agreement that America "needs to do something" in response to terrorism, our heavy bombing of Afghanistan increasingly looks like a bad idea. While virtually all of us feel that strong steps should be taken to apprehend anyone behind the massive murders on September 11, when you add up all the facts, the pulverizing of a battered country just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Instead, by bombing Afghanistan, we are ...
1. Creating new terrorists. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of innocent civilians have already been killed by U.S. bombing in pursuit of Osama bin Laden. The Pentagon has confirmed numerous instances of "collateral damage," including a 2,000-pound bomb that struck a residential area near Kabul.
The United States' perceived disregard for collateral damage may lead many to conclude that we are waging a war against Muslims writ large. In so doing, we are losing the battle for the hearts and minds of people who are necessary in the fight against terrorism.
2. Generating refugees. Our attacks on population centers are causing a huge refugee problem that neighboring countries can't handle. By October 12, 350,000 people had amassed in the northern Panjsher Gorge and over 150,000 had fled to the provinces of Tahor and Badakhshan. United Nations officials predict that 1.5 million will leave their homes, risking mass starvation in the brutal Afghan winter to escape the bombings.
Moreover, the U.N. refugee agency has been forced to halt work at six planned refugee camps on the Pakistan border because of opposition from Afghan tribal groups. Food convoys that previously entered Afghanistan by truck have been forced to indefinitely halt their shipments.
3. Ushering in regime as bad as the Taliban. The bombing campaign may well usher into power the Northern Alliance, a group some say is even more brutal than the already brutal Taliban. To many, this is a proposition fraught with peril. During their brief time in power from 1992 to 1996, the Northern Alliance scored poorly in the peaceful governance and human rights departments. And while intense efforts are underway at forming a broad pan-Afghan political coalition of anti-Taliban parties, some veteran diplomats and intelligence officers are skeptical that such a confederation would survive after a victory over the Taliban.
4. Increasing drug flow from Central Asia. A corollary to #3 -- if the Northern Alliance takes power, experts predict a new flood of heroin across the globe. According to U.N. officials, Afghanistan produces about 75 percent of the world's opium, which is used to make heroin.While the Taliban government attempted to slow down heroin production in large parts of Afghanistan (and largely succeeded), the Northern Alliance has continued to distribute heroin to help fund their efforts. If our bombing campaign helps ousts the Taliban, opium growth and sales will instantly soar.
5. Aiming at the wrong target. The suicidal hijackers who crashed into the World Trade Center and Pentagon where all from Egypt and Saudi Arabia, not Afghanistan. Rich Saudis fund and encourage the violent, fundamentalist breed of Islam from which the hijackers came. The religious schools that breed the radical mujahdeen, including many who have joined the Taliban Army, are mostly in Pakistan. Iraq and Iran fund and support terrorists. In other words, the terrorists are spread across many nations and not all harbored in Afghanistan.
Furthermore, numerous experts link the September 11 hijackers to an Egyptian group, Gama'at al-Islamiyya. Founded by Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, currently serving a life sentence for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Gama'at al-Islamiyya is best known for the November 1997 massacre of 62 tourists at the Temple of Luxor in Egypt and the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981.
6. Destabilizing Pakistan. Our bombing raids are destabilizing Pakistan, our reluctant ally with nuclear capabilities to the South and East of Afghanistan. Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, has presented his country as wholly allied with the U.S. against terrorists, but in fact many of his top officials remain dependent on a little-known but powerful fundamentalist party called Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam. Known more simply as JUI, this group helped incubate the Taliban -- and it may now spark civil war in its home country.
7. Turning bin Laden into a media superstar. By focusing huge amounts of energy on demonizing and pursuing one person (despite the existence of thousands of terrorists in the al Queda network), we have made Osama bin Laden larger than life.
Among many groups, bin Laden is viewed as a strong and powerful person who has evaded U.S. capture in the three years following his suspected involvement in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. People's affection for him lies not in his alleged terrorist activities, but in the strong anti-American sentiment that grips this part of the world. If our bombs finally strike him, or he is otherwise killed, he will become a celebrated martyr of the Muslim world.
8. Unfairly punishing a helpless population. To bring one man and his small band of followers to justice, we are heaping devastation on a powerless population that is already completely impoverished by war. Nobody in Afghanistan voted the Taliban into power in 1994; they seized and now maintain power by force. To "pressure" the Afghan people with a deadly bombing campaign, when they have no political power anyway, defies America's sense of fairness.
9. Being lured into a trap. Afghanistan is historically a quagmire, the only Central Asian country never conquered by Europeans. From 1979 to 1989, the Soviet Union poured untold monies and lives down the drain in an unwinnable guerilla war against Afghanistan. By being sucked into investing huge resources to find bin Laden, we could find ourselves stuck, ambushed and preoccupied, while terrorists go on with their work from many other Muslim countries.
10. There are smarter ways of fighting terrorism. Call it what you want -- "blowback," the law of unintended consequences, bad karma -- but we continue to dismiss the long-term impact of our powerful desire to find bin Laden. Lots of smart, experienced people suggest that the large-scale, clumsy, overkill approach of the U.S. military is the opposite of what we need to contain terrorism and find bin laden.
Why not treat terrorists like the criminals they are, building a long-term, world-wide coalition to stop terrorism that includes the U.N. and world court? If we use the media more effectively instead of operating in secret, and invest the billions of dollars we are spending to pulverize Afghanistan to address social and economic needs around the globe, we will be on a more productive path toward making the world safer from terrorism.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) U.S. Planes Bomb a Red Cross Site for Second Time
October 27, 2001- NYTIMES
THE BOMBING
U.S. Planes Bomb a Red Cross Site for Second Time
By ELIZABETH BECKER and ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 American warplanes bombed and largely destroyed the same Red Cross complex in Kabul that they struck 10 days ago, an error the Pentagon admitted tonight, saying it occurred because military planners had picked the wrong target.
The bombing took place just after a detailed review by Pentagon and Red Cross officials of the places where the relief agency has installations in Afghanistan. That meeting, which followed the first bombing of the Red Cross compound, was designed to prevent exactly what happened today.
One of the American aircraft that had been ordered to hit the Red Cross supply warehouses missed its target and hit a residential neighborhood instead. The attack on the Red Cross buildings by two Navy fighter-bombers and two B-52's, came in two waves today, first in the early morning darkness and again shortly before noon, using satellite-guided bombs that wrecked and set ablaze warehouses storing tons of food and blankets for civilians.
The Pentagon said tonight that it "sincerely regrets" the strikes on the neighborhood and the Red Cross complex, which had been put off limits by military planners after the bombing of the same complex on Oct. 16. At that time, the Pentagon said it was unaware that the buildings were used by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
But since then, the Pentagon sent a representative to the relief organization's headquarters in Geneva to ensure that such mistakes would never happen again. They exchanged detailed information on Red Cross' sites in Kabul and on the movements of relief trucks that might look like military targets.
A statement issued by the United States Central Command Tampa, Fla. which is in charge of the war and manages the selection of targets, attributed the latest mistake to "a human error in the targeting process."
In other words, the pilots dropped their bombs where they were instructed, and the bombs mostly hit the targets at which they were aimed. The bomb that struck the residential neighborhood did so, the Central Command said, when the guidance system malfunctioned on an FA-18 jet.
The Red Cross seemed stunned by the Pentagon's admission today. "Whoever is responsible will have to come to Geneva for a formal explanation," said Kim Gordon-Bates, the Red Cross spokesman there. "Firing, shooting, bombing, a warehouse clearly marked with the Red Cross emblem is a very serious incident. It is a serious thing. It cannot be accepted, especially since we went through the notification of our facilities twice. Now we've got 55,000 people without that food or blankets, with nothing at all. Recognizing an error does not exactly solve the humanitarian problem."
Red Cross officials said there were no casualties from the attack on the Kabul complex. But it all but wiped out the relief agency's sole complex with supplies of food and blankets for 55,000 disabled Afghans in Kabul.
The United States has said that the Afghan people are not the enemy, and that it is taking great pains to strike only military targets.
Strikes on military targets entered their 20th day today, with bombers operating in and around Kabul and Kandahar.
Every day the Pentagon reports how many food rations it has air- dropped into Afghanistan. Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Thursday that 800,000 of these packets had been dropped so far.
This bombing of the Red Cross complex has renewed fears that relief agencies are losing the race to bring in food and medicine to stave off a crisis this winter.
It has also reopened questions for these groups about their ability to work in the middle of war.
In a statement issued in Geneva, the Red Cross said that shortly before noon on Friday, its Afghan staff members saw the attack, which it said directly hit two buildings and started a fire at a third.
As was the case in the previous incident, it said the buildings had been marked with large red crosses on white backgrounds, about 10 yards square, on each roof.
The Red Cross also said it was alarmed by seizures of its supplies by armed groups, evidently associated with the Taliban government. Armed men occupied and looted its offices in Mazar-i-Sharif three days ago, stealing computers and vehicles, the Red Cross said. Complaints to local authorities and to Taliban representatives in Pakistan have gone unheeded, it said.
"It was already nearly impossible to reach the hungry people in Afghanistan," said Abby Spring of the United Nations' World Food Program. "Now we'll have to move heaven and earth to bring in enough supplies to reach the central mountains before the snow falls."
It is just such confusion that led Oxfam America, a relief organization that is working inside Afghanistan, to renew its call today for a halt in the bombing.
All relief agencies were asking both sides in the conflict to respect international law, which guarantees safe passage for relief supplies and protection for workers distributing the food, blankets and medicine.
At stake is not only the welfare of some 200,000 Afghans in the mountains, but the success of the American war strategy to convince the Afghan people that the United States does not view them as the enemy.
"There has got to be ways to move supplies through, or the humanitarian crisis will overwhelm our military achievements," said Kenneth H. Bacon, president of Refugees International and a former Pentagon spokesman.
Raymond Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America, said, "The issue of humanitarian access is critically important now and all we see is piecemeal attempts to get food to different areas, no overall system for getting food distributed around the country where it's desperately needed."
Earlier predictions of a vast refugee crisis have proved incorrect because Afghans either do not have the wherewithal to flee or have concluded from experience in earlier wars that abandoning their homes for camp in Pakistan can be worse than staying put.
Farmers in particular have much to lose now. October is harvest time for fruit orchards and planting season for winter wheat. Even if they have little food or fuel, by abandoning their fields and homes they could jeopardize their livelihood for years to come. "Many Afghans have already gone through the ordeal of leaving for Pakistan, staying and then coming back, said Franois Grunewald, an agronomist with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. "The most difficult part is coming back and finding your house, your fields in miserable condition, and you have re-create your life out of nothing."
Neighboring nations like Iran and Pakistan are cooperating in attempts to get food into Afghanistan to make sure that they too do not face a refugee crisis.
But the relief agencies say the problems are inside the country, where they say they feel under siege on all sides. The Taliban, the agencies say, is confiscating warehouses, food, medical supplies, jeeps, trucks and radios in Kandahar, Mazar-i- Sharif and Jalalabad.
Cooperation with the United States to open new routes for food by river barge or through airlifts depends on the military's ability to guarantee safe passage.
Pentagon and State Department officials met with relief agencies this week to discuss airlifts and airdrops.
Taliban officials in some Afghan cities have returned a few confiscated buildings and some supplies.
"It's very challenging, but it's not hopeless yet," said Nicholas de Torrente, president of Doctors Without Borders, the international relief agency.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Shame in the House of Representatives
NY Times
October 29, 2001
IN AMERICA
Shame in the House
By BOB HERBERT
Ask not what your country can do for you . . ."
It has been 40 years since John F. Kennedy, standing hatless and coatless in the bitter cold of a snow- covered capital, delivered the lines that turned out to be the most stirring and most famous of his presidency.
If you listened closely last week, you could hear an echo of that moment on the Senate floor. On Wednesday morning, in an address to his colleagues, Senator Edward M. Kennedy said: "Now we have seen, perhaps more clearly than ever before in our lives, how we are all in this together - how if even one of us is hurting, all of us hurt. Our first thoughts on September 11 were about others, not ourselves."
Senator Kennedy, now 69 years old, spoke movingly of the acts of extraordinary bravery and selflessness exhibited by Americans both at home and abroad in this sudden war against terrorism. And he called on the nation as a whole to adopt that spirit of selflessness as the new standard "by which we measure everything we do."
"The standard is clear," he said. "To seek what is right for our country, and not just for ourselves." He said it is essential that Americans not "strive for private advantage in a time of national need."
Not everyone is listening.
Senator Kennedy's speech was, specifically, a call for fairness and common decency as Congress moves ahead with its effort to help revive an economy that was faltering before Sept. 11, and has since been thrown into very serious trouble by terrorism and war.
But last week, as the House narrowly passed its version of an economic stimulus package, the dominant motive at work appeared once again to be greed. The Republicans who control the House thumbed their noses at the ordinary Americans who will absorb the brunt of the economic downturn and shamelessly gift- wrapped yet another bundle of tax cuts for the very well-to-do.
In Senator Kennedy's words, the House proposal, which contains more than $100 billion in tax cuts for corporations and individuals, "merely repackages old, partisan, unfair, permanent tax breaks - which were rejected by Congress last spring - under the new label of economic stimulus. The American people deserve better."
With Americans fighting and dying both at home and abroad, we are understandably in a season of patriotism. That patriotism should not be soiled by wartime profiteering.
The House package is a breathtaking example of cynicism and chutzpah. The bill's primary author, Representative Bill Thomas, a Republican from California, piously proclaimed that there is an urgent need to help businesses because they are the nation's employers. "They're the hardware store," he said, "the diner down the street, the gas station on the corner."
And then you look closely at the legislation and find that it overwhelmingly favors the giant corporations, with tax breaks approaching $1.4 billion for I.B.M., more than $800 million for General Motors and $670 million for General Electric.
It's a stimulus package in name only because the Americans who are the most strapped - the consumers who would take any relief that they received and immediately pump it right back into the economy - get the least. The package has very little to do with economic recovery. It's about using the shield of war and economic hard times as a cover for the perpetual task of funneling government largesse to the very rich.
Nearly $2 trillion in tax cuts were passed just a few months ago, but that was not enough.
True greed knows no bounds.
The political analyst Kevin Phillips, in a commentary on National Public Radio, said: "Neither house of Congress has ever passed this kind of major tax bill in wartime, and no one in the House assumes that the Senate will accept it in whole. But the more extreme the House bill, the further that will drag the eventual compromise in that same inexcusable direction. The only real solution is a public outcry, tens of millions of pointing fingers and voices saying, `Shame.' "
Forty years after the inauguration of President Kennedy, the most favored and least needy among us are proving themselves to be masterful at finding what their country can do for them.
Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
5) Labeling Under Attack in Fast Track Legislation
Please take action on this urgent issue which among other things will make all GMO labeling illegal! HR 3005 Sec 2 b) (9) (viii) (II).
GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) LABELING UNDER ATTACK IN FAST TRACK!
Call Congress TODAY -- Use the AFL-CIO toll-free number to call Congress 800-393-1082 and ask your Representative to oppose HR 3005.
Pro-GMO legislators have sneakily put in language in HR 3005 that would make GMO labeling ILLEGAL as well as eliminating the precautionary principle for GMO regulation. (The Democratic "alternative" to this bill, though better in some aspects, has the EXACT SAME LANGUAGE regarding GMOs.) If either bill passes, then the US would be able to force European countries to accept unlabeled US GMO products!
Bill HR 3005 "Trade Promotion Authority" is currently being considered in the US House of Representatives. It is also known as Fast Track. Fast Track is Bad for Workers, Bad for Consumers, Bad for Family Farmers, Bad for the Environment! We need to have ALL our grassroots out in force calling people telling them to vote against this bill. A VOTE IN THE CONGRESS IS LIKELY THIS WEEK!
If passed, Fast Track would allow the President to negotiate trade pacts like the Free Trade Area of the Americas without any input from Congress. Congress would tie its own hands and would not be able to criticize the absence of labor, human rights or environmental provisions in the final pact! But if Fast Track fails, we have a good chance of stopping the FTAA!
*****Please Take action Today on This Urgent Issue. *****
What can you do?
Use the AFL-CIO toll-free number to call Congress 1-800-393-1082.
Please call your legislator using the toll-free number and ask your representative to oppose Fast Track and to especially oppose section 2 b) (9) (viii) (II) which would make GMO labeling a trade barrier.
Manufacturers should be allowed to label food GMO-free!!!
For more information and to send a message to Congress:
http://www.citizen.org/trade/fasttrack/action/ or
http://www.purefood.org/corp/ftaaresources.cfm or contact OCA at ftaa@purefood.org.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
ABM Treaty Delays Missile Testing * Sham economic plan * No security from space
26 October 2001
The first item is a recent AP report on the announcement from the Bush administration to delay missile testing. Feel free to call the White House Comment Line 202-456-1111 to encourage a permanent delay in honor of disarmament and real security. Item 2 is urgent, and you need to respond soon to have an impact on a sham of an "economic stimulus" plan. Follow the link and send E-mails to your Senators. Better yet, use the link for talking points and call the Congressional Switchboard at 202-224-3121 today to urge your Senators to pass a plan that is fair and inclusive -- without more tax breaks for big business and the wealthy. If Congressional offices in DC are closed, contact your regional offices, which can be located at http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html
Item 3 is a speech by Juergen Scheffran at the anti-war demonstration in Berlin, October 13, 2001. Please copy and forward the transcript to George Bush ( president@whitehouse.gov ) and anyone who tries to justify missile defense as a legitimate response to September 11.
1) Pentagon Delays Missile Testing due to ABM Treaty
2) A sham of an "economic stimulus" plan
3) No security from space against terror
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Pentagon Delays Missile Testing due to ABM Treaty
Pentagon Puts Off Missile Testing
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is putting off three missile tests that might have violated a 1972 treaty banning nationwide missile defenses, Pentagon officials said Thursday.
The announcement by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld marked the first time the administration has allowed concerns about the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty to slow its missile defense project.
The administration may yet withdraw from the treaty, but Thursday's announcement gives President Bushroom to maneuver during his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Washington and at Bush's Texas ranch in three weeks.
The president will have demonstrated in advance that the administration is not going to engage in missile defense testing of questionable legality until the future of the ABM treaty is decided.
Bush has said repeatedly that the United States needs an effective defense against long-range ballistic missiles and that the ABM treaty must not be allowed to stand in the way. Administration officials have said the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, while not involving missiles, show the nation is vulnerable to unconventional surprise attack and one day this could come from missiles.
Rumsfeld told a Pentagon news conference that the delays would allow more time for the administration to strike a deal with Russia on moving beyond the ABM treaty. Bush has said that unless he gets an arrangement with Russia that accommodates his missile defense program, the United States will withdraw from the treaty, which it is permitted to do with six months' notice.
Vocal supporters of missile defense have urged the administration to declare the treaty invalid - since one of its two original signatories, the Soviet Union, no longer exists - and move ahead with unlimited testing.
Henry Cooper, who shares that view, said Thursday he was disappointed by Rumsfeld's announcement.
``It shows that we in fact are constraining our program out of concern for the treaty,'' he said. Cooper was director of the Pentagon's missile defense office during Bush's father's administration.
Rumsfeld and other administration officials had said earlier this year that at some point the Pentagon's missile defense program would ``bump up against,'' or come in conflict with, the ABM treaty.
``That has now happened,'' Rumsfeld said.
Rumsfeld did not say whether he agreed that the three delayed tests would have actually violated the treaty. He has often said the treaty itself is an irrelevant relic of the Cold War and must be discarded. Nonetheless, he said, now is not the time to invite accusations of treaty violations.
``I do not want to put the United States in a position of having someone raise a question about whether or not something is a violation of a treaty,'' he said. ``I don't think that's the position the United States wants to be in.''
Rumsfeld made clear he believes the United States cannot afford to put off building a missile defense system.
``The one thing that's clear is that the United States cannot stay bound to the constraints of that treaty and still do what we've indicated we believe very sincerely we must do, and that is to develop effective ballistic missile defenses,'' he said.
Air Force Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, a spokesman for the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, said in a telephone interview that it was determined by administration lawyers who study ABM compliance issues that the three planned tests could be interpreted as treaty violations.
Two of the three delayed activities - involving the use tracking radars - would not have occurred as scheduled anyway because they were to be performed in conjunction with a missile intercept test that has been rescheduled for unrelated reasons, the official said.
The intercept test, in which a missile interceptor is fired from a U.S. test range in the central Pacific Ocean to chase down an intercontinental-range missile carrying a mock nuclear warhead, was to have been held Oct. 24. Lehner said the Pentagon has rescheduled the intercept test for either late November or early December to provide more time for testing the interceptor.
In conjunction with the October intercept test, an Aegis radar aboard a U.S. Navy ship was to have tracked the target missile launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The Aegis radar also was to have tracked the interceptor.
Also as part of the test, a radar at Vandenberg was to have tracked the target missile.
Additionally, an Aegis radar was to have tracked a Titan II missile scheduled to launch a satellite into space Nov. 14.
Each of those tracking radar activities has been put off indefinitely, Rumsfeld said.
The ABM treaty prohibits the use of sea-based, mobile or space-based radar to track ballistic missiles as part of a missile defense system.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) A sham of an "economic stimulus" plan
Action Needed:
The US House of Representatives voted on a sham of an "economic stimulus" plan that accelerates tax cuts for the wealthy and doles out economic pork to those who need it least. Those most in need, poor families and low-wage or laid-off workers, are little more than an afterthought. Please take a minute to e-mail your senators with this message; "resist the temptation to simply reduce the Republican pork a bit (and call it a victory) -- and instead produce a package that addresses our real needs in this recession.
Click here
http://www.capwiz.com/now/issues/alert/?alertid=65021&type=CO&azip=
or go to http://www.now.org/congress and urge your
senators to pass a plan that is fair and inclusive --
without more tax breaks for big business and the
wealthy.
Statement of NOW President Kim Gandy at the National Press Club on October 24, 2001
Military action and bioterrorism are capturing headlines, but the economy is also in dangerous territory. Hundreds of thousands have lost their jobs in the wake of the September 11 terrorism and the worsening recession. But instead of decisive action to help these displaced workers and spur the economy, the bill passed by the House Ways and Means Committee is the worst kind of trickery. Paying mostly lip service to the plight of laid-off workers and the call for national unity, House Republican leaders are like the magician who says "Watch this hand" -- while shamelessly using the other hand to dole out economic pork.
We all know that the travel and tourism industries have been hit hard and according to the Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union, one-third of its members have been laid off. But among the hardest hit are women in state Welfare-to-Work programs who were trained in large numbers for work in the hotel industry. What happens to one of these women when she is laid off?
What does she find waiting for her at home? Will she receive the unemployment benefits that her co-workers get? Will she be forced to reapply for welfare assistance, for whatever is left of her 5-year limit? Tick. Tick. Tick. Every tick of that cruel clock bringing her and her children closer to despair, and not a job in sight. Only the Congress can stop the clock and stop this heartless threat to poor families during a recession. Furthermore, women who are still receiving welfare assistance but have been unable to find jobs cannot reasonably be held to a time limit that is set to expire, when there simply are no jobs to be found.
It is likely that the House will pass this bill, so we must demand that the Senate create a plan to help both the people and the economy not big business. This includes reforming unemployment insurance to include more workers, especially part-time workers, extending benefits and giving them directly to the unemployed (not block-granting to the states, creating another level of bureaucracy), stopping the welfare time clock, and rejecting any tax breaks for corporations that are not directly tied to new investments and job creation.
If Congress wants to stimulate spending, then it needs to get money into the hands of low-income and laid-off workers who, by necessity, will put it right back into the economy -- while feeding their families.
Click to the following link and urge your senators to pass a plan that is fair and inclusive -- without more tax breaks for big business and the wealthy.
http://www.capwiz.com/now/issues/alert/?alertid=65021&type=CO&azip=
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) No security from space against terror
Missile defense and space war do not provide security against terror
Speech by Juergen Scheffran
held at the anti-war demonstration in Berlin, October 13, 2001
(Revised translation from German)
The events of September 11 have terribly demonstrated how vulnerable our industrial society is. Military lobbyists are using the public fear about terror for their own purposes. They try to convince us that war and new weapons can protect us against terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and missile attacks. They promote the vision of the military controlling outer space in order to counter all threats on earth.
September 11 marks the complete failure of all security systems of the world's greatest military power. All intelligence and secret services, expensive reconnaissance satellites and a giant high-technology military arsenal were incapable to detect people from the neighborhood using pocket knifes to convert commercial airliners into weapons of mass destruction. The attempt to achieve security from great distance with most advanced technical systems failed miserably against a determined enemy sitting within society, waiting for the appropriate moment to attack. Contrary to the vision of a high frontier in outer space, in reality the concept of frontier
becomes meaningless in an interlinked, globalized and fractal society where the threat can be everywhere and nowhere.
Nevertheless, US President George W. Bush still believes that his country can be protected by a multi-billion dollar space shield against ballistic missiles from rogue states. His Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is heading towards space weapons to prevent a Pearl Harbor in space. And the US Space Command aims at a comprehensive space dominance to control earth. The intention is to control the information flows around the globe, to achieve the capability to strike everywhere at any time, and to protect against all adverse consequences. A huge network of missile interceptors and laser weapons, military satellites and radars shall detect, pursue and destroy any threat.
In order to realize these plans Bush has recently nominated the previous director of the Space Command, Richard Myers, to become the leader of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. Instead of dreaming visions of space war, Myers now directs the attack on Afghanistan, a country which has been devastated by decades of civil war. People who until now were massacred by swords, knifes and rifles are now being attacked by laser-guided bombs which probably will not hit those
responsible for the terror.
The quest for total security may lead to total control and total war. Missile defense and space dominance feed a dangerous illusion of security which prevents the search for alternatives and real solutions. Those who feel protected against any threat are tempted to continue a miserable globalization policy, to ignore poverty and hunger, environmental destruction and climate change, scarcity of energy and water in the world. Similar to the attacks on Afghanistan, which sow new terror and drive the chain of violence, the attempt to control earth from space provokes feelings of powerlessness. Despair, anger and hate create the breeding ground for terrorism.
Promoting missile defense and space war adds fuel to the flames of conflict, heats the arms race on earth and in space, provokes instabilities in crisis regions of the Middle East, South Asia and North-East Asia, wastes valuable resources which are required to solve global problems. The destruction of existing arms control and disarmament treaties, including START II, the ABM Treaty, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Biological Weapons Convention, ultimately will strike back to the USA. What they do, others can claim for themselves.
Many have dreamt of invulnerability in history but no one ever reached it. Sometimes it is the recognition of the own vulnerability that requires conflict resolution, the settlement of disputes and agreement. The people in Central Europe had to live over four decades of the Cold War with the worst of all threats: complete nuclear annihilation. Inspired by the peace movement and Gorbachev's New Thinking they learned that only a policy of common security and disarmament could bring peace to Europe. The history of Berlin clearly demonstrates that walls do not exist forever, that parts of the world can neither be excluded nor confined.
Power projection into space and anti-terror wars cannot provide true security. The alternatives are clear and simple: avoid threats before they emerge; dry out the causes of terror; cut the instruments of violence and destruction. To be specific, it is essential to improve international control of missiles and space weapons, of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, leading towards their ultimate elimination and prohibition. Here Europe can be a leader instead of following the US in military strikes. In addition, the possible motivations and the social conditions of terrorism have to be tackled. Sustainable peace requires a broad basis within society which includes the well-being of all people. This is the best way to undermine the sources and resources of terror.
Juergen Scheffran is physicist, co-founder of the International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation (INESAP) and editor of the INESAP Information Bulletin at the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany. scheffran@hrzpub.tu-darmstadt.de, http://www.inesap.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
The Preservation of Space Act of 2001 * D. Roche's NMD Speech in Canadian Senate
21 October 2001
Missile Defense plays into the hands of terrorists because it finances the expansion of the arms race, which supports the proliferation and development of weapons of mass destruction. It promises to do more harm than good in protecting the US and the free world, and has already put extra stress on our economy. Flyby News endorses the Institute of Cooperation In Space's campaign to make the "Space Preservation Act of 2001" a bill in Congress in 2002. This legislation was introduced into Congress on October 2, 2001 by Dennis Kucinich (D-Cleveland). "The time has come to ban the further weaponization of space," Congressman Kucinich said. "We must work toward the elimination of all nuclear weapons, and an end to policies which cause this country to move toward the weaponization of space." Its purpose is to is to preserve the cooperative, peaceful uses of space for the benefit of all humankind by permanently prohibiting the basing of weapons in space by the United States, and to require the President to take action to adopt and implement a world treaty banning space-based weapons. You can link to the draft for the World Treaty Banning Space-Based Weapons at http://www.peaceinspace.com/WORLDTREATY.htm
Item 2 is a debate on the commercialization factors of the Act. This came from the Global Network's active list serv. Item 3 is from the Country that may introduce the World Treaty Banning Space-Based Weapons to the international community.
Many thanks to Flyby News' subscribers, which now numbers to about 700. Your support in reading and acting on this information is inspirational, appreciated, and gives peace and hope a chance.
1) H.R. 2977 - The Preservation of Space ACT of 2001
2) Globenet Debate on the Preservation of Space Act of 2001
3) Douglas Roche's Speech in the Canadian Senate on NMD
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) H.R. 2977 - The Preservation of Space ACT of 2001
107th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2977
To preserve the cooperative, peaceful uses of space for the benefit of all humankind by permanently prohibiting the basing of weapons in space by the United States, and to require the President to take action to adopt and implement a world treaty banning space-based weapons.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 2, 2001
Mr. KUCINICH introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science, and in addition to the Committees on Armed Services, and International Relations, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To preserve the cooperative, peaceful uses of space for the benefit of all humankind by permanently prohibiting the basing of weapons in space by the United States, and to require the President to take action to adopt and implement a world treaty banning space-based weapons.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Space Preservation Act of 2001'.
SEC. 2. REAFFIRMATION OF POLICY ON THE PRESERVATION OF PEACE IN SPACE.
Congress reaffirms the policy expressed in section 102(a) of the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 (42 U.S.C. 2451(a)), stating that it `is the policy of the United States that activities in space should be devoted to peaceful purposes for the benefit of all mankind.'.
SEC. 3. PERMANENT BAN ON BASING OF WEAPONS IN SPACE.
The President shall--
(1) implement a permanent ban on space-based weapons of the United States and remove from space any existing space-based weapons of the United States; and
(2) immediately order the permanent termination of research and development, testing, manufacturing, production, and deployment of all space-based weapons of the United States and their components.
SEC. 4. WORLD AGREEMENT BANNING SPACE-BASED WEAPONS.
The President shall direct the United States representatives to the United Nations and other international organizations to immediately work toward negotiating, adopting, and implementing a world agreement banning space-based weapons.
SEC. 5. REPORT.
The President shall submit to Congress not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and every 90 days thereafter, a report on--
(1) the implementation of the permanent ban on space-based weapons required by section 3; and
(2) progress toward negotiating, adopting, and implementing the agreement described in section 4.
SEC. 6. NON SPACE-BASED WEAPONS ACTIVITIES.
Nothing in this Act may be construed as prohibiting the use of funds for
(1) space exploration;
(2) space research and development;
(3) testing, manufacturing, or production that is not related to space-based weapons or systems; or
(4) civil, commercial, or defense activities (including communications, navigation, surveillance, reconnaissance, early warning, or remote sensing) that are not related to space-based weapons or systems.
SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) The term `space' means all space extending upward from an altitude greater than 60 kilometers above the surface of the earth and any celestial body in such space.
(2)(A) The terms `weapon' and `weapons system' mean a device capable of any of the following:
(i) Damaging or destroying an object (whether in outer space, in the atmosphere, or on earth) by--
(I) firing one or more projectiles to collide with that object;
(II) detonating one or more explosive devices in close proximity to that object;
(III) directing a source of energy (including molecular or atomic energy, subatomic particle beams, electromagnetic radiation, plasma, or extremely low frequency (ELF) or ultra low frequency (ULF) energy radiation) against that object; or
(IV) any other unacknowledged or as yet undeveloped means.
(ii) Inflicting death or injury on, or damaging or destroying, a person (or the biological life, bodily health, mental health, or physical and economic well-being of a person)--
(I) through the use of any of the means described in clause (i) or subparagraph (B);
(II) through the use of land-based, sea-based, or space-based systems using radiation, electromagnetic, psychotronic, sonic, laser, or other energies directed at individual persons or targeted populations for the purpose of information war, mood management, or mind control of such persons or populations; or
(III) by expelling chemical or biological agents in the vicinity of a person.
(B) Such terms include exotic weapons systems such as--
(i) electronic, psychotronic, or information weapons;
(ii) chemtrails;
(iii) high altitude ultra low frequency weapons systems;
(iv) plasma, electromagnetic, sonic, or ultrasonic weapons;
(v) laser weapons systems;
(vi) strategic, theater, tactical, or extraterrestrial weapons; and
(vii) chemical, biological, environmental, climate, or tectonic weapons.
(C) The term `exotic weapons systems' includes weapons designed to damage space or natural ecosystems (such as the ionosphere and upper atmosphere) or climate, weather, and tectonic systems with the purpose of inducing damage or destruction upon a target population or region on earth or in space.
END
By Mr. KUCINICH:
Link to the WORLD TREATY BANNING SPACE-BASED WEAPONS
http://www.peaceinspace.com/WORLDTREATY.htm
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Globenet Debate on the Preservation of Space Act of 2001
To: globenet@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2001 11:20 PM
Subject: [globenet] No vote on commercialization of outer space
Dear All,
I must admit that I do not agree with the Space Preservation Act. I am a simple 'leave space alone' advocate. Creating a so-called peaceful commercial situation in outer space is a pipe dream and lacks sensitivity to the struggle that has occurred within the anti-sweatshop, anti-corporatization community here on earth. Space issues WILL come up involving human cloning, robots, labor violations, working conditions, oppression by the haves on the have nots, and eventually weaponization. Hopefully, I may remain on the Keep Space for Peace team as one who stands aside on this incredibly naive concept that will surely hurt and exploit.
Thanks so much,
sheila
2) Simultaneous to the ban on space-based weapons, we call for enhancing world cooperative agreements on civil, military and commercial space ventures...
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Dear Sheila
I hear your concerns about the Space Preservation Act 2001, agree and understand. I think we are all "leave space alone" advocates with you. That is why the Space PRESERVATION Act of 2001 has been introduced: to preserve space for peaceful purposes.
If you are open to being educated about what IS going on in the space frontier, you will find that space development, militarization, commercialization and exploration has been taking place for decades. But we do have one chance in time when we can actually prevent the weaponization of space from occurring.
What we are trying to prevent is the weaponization and nuclearization of space. If we work to support the legislation and the forthcoming world treaty, now, we can win this issue. But later, once funding and vested interests builds an unstoppable momentum, we could not ever stop it. It would be too late.
There are humanitarian, technological, and environmental issues related to space, just as there are on earth. In fact, this is the time in which decisions are being made regarding "how" the human species will evolve into space. It is not about whether or not we will go into space. It's too late to ask that question. Again, the question is about "how" we will go there. And it happens to be NOW, within the next few short weeks, in which that decision is being made.
Again, the question is no longer whether or not we will evolve into space...that is done. We are there. Nearly a hundred BILLION dollars has been spend on the R&D that is mandated to put weapons into space, to seize that "high ground," to master and control earth from space or space from space. But, we also have three decades or more of world cooperation in space...and that is what we want to continue. The benefits from that continuation are going to be abundant and amazing. The question is, "Will we or won't we take weapons and other dangerous technologies into space?"
This legislation gives us a chance to decide the answer to that question, and to vote for what we want. It is our responsibility to make sure that we keep space weapons-free. And to make sure that this "terrorist situation" does not become yet another excuse to further fund the weaponization of space intentions.
In fact, that is why we are working so hard to make sure that as space gets further developed, as humans explore the universes, that we do it within the context of the new space paradigm that we can all choose. In this paradigm, there is intention of only cooperation in space that can be applied to developing products and services that can be applied directly to solving urgent human and environmental problems. There will be incredible new jobs and training programs applicable to a diversity of cultures. It's a beautiful vision and it's feasible to achieve, not just an impossible dream.
Congressman Kucinich is a rare man in our U.S. Congress. He is spiritually based, intelligent, and courageous. He's an eloquent speaker for the people and our issues. He understands what you are saying and wanting to avoid and eliminate. He's so conscious that he won't even eat animals...he's a vegetarian. He's a moral man of integrity with passion. He works for the same issues you care about. That is why he works day and night, relentlessly. And he needs our help and support.
Please read the below talking points. I hope this will further explain the position.
I just wanted to be sure that you understand that even though we talk of a place that seems to be so "far out" that we want to prevent the nuclearization and weaponization of space while we have this one chance, we are doing this with true sensitivity to the many issues of vital importance and urgency on this planet, and with vision of what can be and what our choices are for our future.
My heart is with you.
In peace with love,
Carol Rosin
President, Institute for Cooperation in Space
ICIS institute for cooperation in space
PO Box 25040 Ventura, CA 93001
Tel: 805-641-1999 Fax: 805-641-9669
http://www.peaceinspace.com rosin@peaceinspace.com
10/16 Update: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS and TALKING POINTS
http://www.peaceinspace.com/FAQ.htm
[This letter had to be excerpted, due to space restraints.]
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
<< I hear your concerns about the Space Preservation Act 2001, agree and understand. I think we are all "leave space alone" advocates with you. That is why the Space PRESERVATION Act of 2001 has been introduced: to preserve space for peaceful purposes.>>
I respect both Bruce's and Carol's response to Sheila, and split the difference in my own personal opinion. We can indeed change aspects of systems that are already fielded, which is where I want to continue to keep an eye on realms of space that are already militarized, but not weaponized. Similarly, there are realms where peaceful uses of space are naturally exploitive - Bruce has done a good job of tracking the companies that want to perform extractive mining of asteroids, for example, duplicating the problems of resource-extraction industries that exist on earth.
But as Carol pointed out, there will be nations and supra-national groups that do go into space, both near-earth orbit and deep space, and it's important that we provide a moral voice as to HOW this is done at the times it is done. Saying, "Well, I don't believe in any exploration of space" is a justifiable position, but it's like saying, "Well, I want all mining and oil companies globally to go bankrupt." Nice idea, but it ain't a-gonna happen. So it is important that we also point out specific times when Freeport-McMoRan is doing unconscionable things in Indonesia, or when Talisman Energy is supporting the regime in Sudan.
The Fall 2001 issue of Cultural Survival is a fascinating special issue on "Developing a Plan B." Basically, the series of articles say that we can all work on areas where corporations and governments keep away from the lands of indigenous people, but we simultaneously work on "Plan B's", in which indigenous groups figure out ways to effectively steer development projects to maximize the good for the indigenous group, and minimize the bad effects for everyone. That's not a matter of selling out, it's a means of developing a good fallback position. This can be applied to space, as well.
Loring
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
This is a good debate, and, of course, each perspective contains truth. However, I believe that the Preservation of Space Act IS our best opportunity to stop the deadly militarization of everything. Surely, it isn't "ideal," but who is an idealist anymore, unless one is able to see the ideal in accomplishing a strategic victory like stopping the expansion of the arms race in space in 2002? The only way this could be possible is by the diverting of funds intended for weapons to still go to the weapon development industry, but now these funds are not wasteful since they will be transforming an industry expanding arms to another focus for benign activities in regard to our politics, economy, and environment. We need to hold a unity and enthusiasm for this to happen. This is the only real peaceful way that stopping the arms race can be accomplished at this opportune time due to the Preservation Act of 2001.
Jonathan
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Douglas Roche's Speech in the Canadian Senate on NMD
Excerpts of Debates of the Senate (Hansard)
1st Session, 37th Parliament, Volume 139, Issue 58
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
NATIONAL DEFENCE
MISSILE DEFENCE SYSTEM AND NEED FOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY-INQUIRY
Hon. Douglas Roche rose pursuant to notice of September 20, 2001: That he will call the attention of the Senate to the urgent need to consider the implications of a missile defence system for Canada's policies on keeping space free of all weapons and, in this context, to promote a cooperative and forward- minded approach to international security in the light of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
He said: Honourable senators, during the worst days of World War II, the Allied leaders met to plan ways to lift the world away from the scourge of war. The result was the birth of the United Nations now the recipient, with Kofi Annan, of the Nobel Peace Prize to provide a strengthened base for peace, development, equity and justice.
That was a turning point for the world which saw, for the first time, that the common management of problems was a better route to peace than reliance on militarism. The world is now at another turning point. Aggressors have found a new way to attack humanity, not on the battlefield far away but in our offices and institutions at home. We must find ways to end forever this aggression. Shocked as we are by the horrific attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, we must, just as was done in the midst of World War II, lift ourselves up and recognize that something, other than bombing and the methods of warfare, is necessary to build human security.
We must use this terrible period we are passing through to think and act beyond the immediate crisis to find an enduring solution, not just one that momentarily gives us the satisfaction of responding in kind to an attack. It is not good enough for the Government of Canada to send our Armed Forces, ships and planes into military action in the perceived battle zone surrounding Afghanistan. It is not good enough for the government to introduce antiterrorism legislation and spend an extra $250 million in an effort to make Canadians safer from the ravages of terrorists. It is not good enough to rush through a bill that tightens regulations dealing with immigrants and refugees in the hope that this will make our borders secure against the incursion of unwanted people.
What is most needed today, at this moment of trauma for the world, is an all-out attack on the causes of terrorism. It is not just the criminals who perpetrated these heinous acts who must be caught and brought to justice. It is the dehumanizing economic and social deprivation that terrorists exploit that must be stamped out.
Let it not be said that I am insensitive to the victims, their families and friends who suffered the horrors of September 11. I went to New York and saw with my own eyes the tangled wreckage of the twin towers and the grieving of the people who stood silently watching the firemen and policemen trying to find survivors.
Let it not be said that I am falling into what is known as ``moral equivalence'' in which the actions of the terrorists are explained away by the injustices of the world. The September 11 terrorists are criminals, guilty of attacks against humanity, and they do not deserve the comforting of those who seek to understand them.
Let it not be said that I do not understand that it is only the power of militarism that can make us safe. I understand all too well that the instant recourse to warfare in the name of curing aggression has in the past and will in the future only lead to more violence and more suffering.
As the Afghan refugees in countless numbers are now experiencing, war exacts a terrible toll on the most vulnerable. I oppose the bombing of Afghanistan, just as I opposed the bombing of Kosovo, and just as I opposed the bombing of Iraq. In simple practical terms, it does not work. Neither Slobodan Milosevic nor Saddam Hussein were flushed out by bombing. In moral terms, bombing inflicts disproportionate damage on the society you are trying to save. Civilians are being killed, and this fact has been minimized.
While opposing the bombing, I acknowledge that military action mounted with the full force of the United Nations Security Council acting under the precepts of international law can legitimately be a proper response to the challenge posed by the terrorists. My point here is that even properly constituted military action cannot by itself remove the threat of future terrorist aggression. We must go deeper than this, and Canada has the credentials to do so.
Terrorism, the epitome of hate, feeds on the hatreds and resentments that have been built up in the rest of the world against western society. We do not like to hear this. CNN does not broadcast it. The political processes do not want to deal with it. Nonetheless, more conflict is coming because people who are downtrodden are rising up against the West they perceive as rich, arrogant and powerful. Anyone who has travelled widely, as I have, through the villages, teeming cities, refugee camps and slums of Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, knows these words to be true.
It is time for Canada to listen to a high-level panel of experts headed by former President Zedillo of Mexico who issued a UN report on financing for development in June 2001. The panel said that half the world's people are still living in abject poverty with 80 per cent of the global population living on less than 20 per cent of the global income. Too many people in too many countries lack the freedom to take advantage of the new opportunities of modern technology and are consequently left on the sidelines of the globalization process.
People lack freedom when they lack food, education, training, health, basic human and political rights, security and employment opportunities. Increasing polarization between the haves and have-nots has become a feature of our world, the panel said. Then there is this sobering warning which I quote directly from the report:
Reversing this shameful trend is the pre-eminent moral and humanitarian challenge of our age. For people in the rich world, elementary self-interest is also at stake. In the global village, someone else's poverty very soon becomes one's own problem: of lack of markets for one's products, illegal immigration, pollution, contagious disease, insecurity, fanaticism, terrorism.
Honourable senators, we fool ourselves if we rely only on militarism to curb terrorists and do not take a gigantic step to ``reverse this shameful trend.'' The high-level panel issued a list of recommendations, ranging from making the World Trade Organization more equitable to recommitment of donor countries to the international target of 0.7 per cent of GNP for official development assistance, to an international tax organization to benefit the development process.
It is not only individual measures, important as they are, that are called for in the present crisis; it is a whole new strategy for the survival of humanity. This is what UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is calling for. Commenting on the anti-terrorism resolutions already adopted by the Security Council, the Secretary-General said:
To defeat terrorism, we need a sustained effort and a broad strategy to unite all nations, and address all aspects of the scourge we face. The cause must be pursued by all the States of the world, working together and using many different means - including political, legal, diplomatic and financial means. How much better for peace and security in the world it would be for governments to put their full weight behind such an effort.
Honourable senators, if we are worried about developing proper relations with Islam, if we are worried about how to cure the hate and racism that feeds evil acts, if we are worried about our own safety inside the borders of Canada, then let us act today to raise up society and its political discourse to project out into the international community the values that have made Canada a great country. These are the values that the Catholic Bishops of Canada recently called for in promoting interfaith dialogue in a common reach for international peace and justice for all. The essence of the great move forward for humanity that I am espousing is to move beyond militarism as the response to conflict.
There is no more pressing matter on the public agenda than preventing the escalation of present weaponry into even new and more dangerous spheres. That is why Secretary-General Annan urged, in the wake of September 11, what he called a ``redoubling'' of efforts to strengthen key treaties banning weapons of mass destruction to ensure that nuclear materials do not fall into the hands of terrorists. We must now work to head off nuclear terrorism.
A cooperative and forward-minded approach to international security, which the inquiry I am launching calls for, must also immediately address the escalating problem of national missile defence. Though the nature of the attacks of September 11 shows the futility of relying on a missile defence system, the opposite is now happening. The clamour of the military industrial complex in the United States to speed up the funding and testing for a missile defence system has grown. Canada, which has taken a low profile on the issue in the hope that somehow the issue will go away, will be challenged soon on whether we support and will be involved in this U.S. effort.
This presents a considerable dilemma for Canada, honourable senators. The U.S. intends the national missile defence system to be directly linked to the weaponization of space. Of this, there can be no doubt. On July 17, 2001, the U.S. announced that the research and development program for missile defence includes space-based lasers and interceptors required to protect the missile defence systems. U.S. defence policy, which can be seen on the Internet, makes a fundamental assumption that space will be weaponized and that the U.S. intends to be the leader by obtaining what is called ``full-spectrum dominance'' of land, sea, air and space. So determined is the U.S. to pursue the missile defence program that it is willing to jettison or severely modify the anti-ballistic missile treaty, which forbids such a system.
The newly invigorated plan to push ahead with missile defence and the weaponization of space threatens over 30 years of international legal norms designed to prevent such a scenario. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, ratified by over 90 countries, including Canada and the United States, is one of those norms. For this same 30-year period, it has been one of Canada's stalwart policies to oppose the weaponization of space.
Canada has worked hard in the UN Conference on Disarmament for a convention on the non-weaponization of outer space and has tabled two proposals to negotiate a convention to keep weapons out of space. Foreign Minister John Manley stated that: Canada would be very happy to launch an initiative to see an international convention preventing the weaponization of space.
However, NMD will undermine such efforts. Canada knows this. For Canada, knowing what it does about NMD's effects on the weaponization of space, to participate in NMD will directly counter three decades of work to prevent the weaponization of space. We will be turning our back on our own policy.
It is not unilateral defence by any one country that is the answer to the threats of our time. Rather, a cooperative and forward- minded approach to security for all is the only way to international security.
Honourable senators, it is now commonly said that September11 has changed the world. I would now ask, has it changed our thinking? Can we now finally rise up and make of God's planet the peaceful, just home for humanity that so many long for?
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Report on October 13 * Ongoing Actions * Disclosure Update * Istanbul UFO Museum
15 October 2001
1) Report on October 13 and Beyond from the Global Network
2) Online Fax -- Peace in Space
3) Disclosure Project Events Update
4) First International UFO Museum Under Construction in Istanbul
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Report on October 13 and Beyond from the Global Network
Mon, 15 Oct 2001 20:46:11 -0400
Friends:
Reports are still coming in from October 13 protests around the world but we have some exciting news to report. We are grateful to all who worked so hard to organize events, especially under the extraordinary circumstances following September 11. Most actions integrated the issues of space weapons and the Central Asian War. We ended up with 115 local actions in 19 countries.
We've been putting the reports, with some great photos, on our website so be sure to check them out at: http://www.space4peace.org
Here is a sampling of numbers that we have heard about:
* Adelaide, Australia (600 people in the rain)
* Amherst, MA (200)
* Arcata, CA (200)
* Ft Meade, MD (4 arrested at NSA HQ)
* Berlin, Germany (50,000)
* Stuttgart, Germany (25,000)
* Hiroshima, Japan (20)
* Isahaya City, Japan (16)
* Kennedy Space Center, Florida (80)
* London, England (50,000)
* Vandenberg AFB, CA (65)
* Los Angeles, CA (300)
* Dublin, Ireland (Letter taken to U.S. Embassy opposing Star Wars)
* Tokyo, Japan (80)
* Stockholm, Sweden (50 at U.S. Embassy, 4,000 at peace march)
* Menwith Hill, England (250)
* Cape Cod, MA (100)
* Cleveland, OH (200)
* Chennai, India (public meeting)
* Fylingdales, England (peace walk and vigil)
* Andover, MA (40)
* Woodstock, N.Y. (50)
* Fairbanks, AL (50)
* Tucson, AZ (150)
* Perth, Australia (400)
* Buckley AFB, CO (106)
* Munich, Germany (400)
* Ithaca, N.Y. (85)
In Cleveland, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) announced, at our Keep Space for Peace conference (sponsored by the Global Network & Cleveland Peace Action), that he has introduced the "Space Preservation Act of 2001" (HR 2977) that calls for the banning of all weapons in space and would outlaw all research and development for space-based weapons. Rep. Kucinich told the assembled that "We need to believe in ourselves and our ability to change things...We have to work on transforming the consciousness of the country. War is not inevitable," Kucinich said.
As a follow-up to October 13 we would like to recommend some of the following ideas for on-going action for space organizing.
1) Build support for the Kucinich ban on weapons in space bill by sending local delegations to meet with your Congressperson. (Ask them to have a copy of his bill available when you meet.) For people overseas, ask your government to support a global ban on weapons in space at the United Nations.
2) Letters to editor of local papers.
3) Meet with local religious leaders and ask them to preach about the need to ban war in the heavens.
4) Outreach to local labor unions and labor federations making the point that funding for Star Wars will cut into other community needs like education, health care, day care funding, social security, etc...
5) Organize a local conference on the issue of Star Wars and how space will be used to control space and the Earth below.
6) Contact the Global Network and arrange for a speaker from our speakers bureau.
7) Send a representative from your community to the Global Network's 10th annual international membership meeting that will be held in Berkeley, California on May 10-12, 2002.
Many thanks again to all and best wishes.
Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, FL. 32607
(352) 337-9274
globalnet@mindspring.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Online Fax -- Peace in Space
Dear friends,
If you want an easy way to contact your elected representatives and world leaders in support of peace in space -- follow the links to the website for the Institute for Cooperation in Space (ICIS) "Online Fax" (located at their left sidebar) http://www.peaceinspace.com/
A modified letter follows, or use the letter online, or your own creation, but please appeal to the U.S. Congress, world leaders, and letters to editors to support the Space for Preservation Act of 2001.
= = = = = = = = = = =
I am respectfully writing to request your support for the ban of all space-based weapons, development and research. This will not only help the US continue to honor the Anti Ballistic Missile and other treaties for the peaceful use of outer space, but it could enable a prosperous transformation for industries now benefitting from war, to a new era of benign space activity and commerce. Of course this could only be feasible unless we care for the natural environment on Earth, as well.
On October 2, 2001, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Cleveland), introduced into the House of Representatives of the United States the Space Preservation Act of 2001, a bill to permanently ban space-based weapons: "to preserve the cooperative uses of space for the benefit of all humankind by permanently prohibiting the basing of weapons in space by the United States, and to require the President to take actions to adopt and implement a world treaty banning space-based weapons."
Instead of building space-based weapons, we propose the building of world cooperative space ventures including space habitats, stations, hospitals, schools, industries, laboratories, farms, elevators, hotels and resorts, and craft to travel the universes to learn more about ourselves and our neighbors.
We call for a halt to research and development (R&D), testing, production, manufacturing and deployment of all space-based weapons. This will not disrupt the economy. It will stimulate the economy, jobs and training programs. The largest R&D program in history is now mandated to weaponize space. Removing that mandate to weaponize space will not stop the R&D, but it will stop the R&D intended for space-based weaponry. This will free the industry to create technologies and services that will provide the greatest of benefits and opportunities to all world citizens. The space-based weapons industry will be transformed into a civil, military and commercial space industry without weapons in space.
We oppose the weaponization of space, not the militarization of space. Militaries are not going to disappear. They are well skilled and organized, and have non-space-based weapons roles to play now and after the ban on space-based weapons law is passed.
National and world security will be based on cooperation, on information sharing, on technology development and applications of technology and information services that will solve urgent and potential human and environmental problems.
Please respond immediately to this vital opportunity, and make a statement in support of signing an agreement to ban all space-based weapons. There is still time for a transformation, to change the course from where we are headed to a more sustainable approach. Please act and support the Preservation of Space Act of 2001 to make peace more possible for our future.
Thank you.
= = = = = = = = = = =
Please consider copying and faxing this letter from the ICIS website http://www.peaceinspace.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Disclosure Project Events Update
Disclosure Project was first reported by Flyby News on May 11, 2001
Part 1
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid989633463,12613,
Part 2
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid989633743,68729,
A couple of planned Disclosure Project events were canceled. These following are the remaining four Disclosure Events of 2001 where Dr. Greer will be presenting in person.
Friday, OCTOBER 26, 6pm - 10pm
The New York Academy of Medicine
Hosack Hall, 1216 5th Av. (@ 103rd St.)
NEW YORK, NY 10029
Local Contact:
Hannah Beaconsfield: (212) 402-2839
Sunday, OCTOBER 28, 1pm - 6pm
Convocation Hall at the University of Toronto
31 Kings College Circle, St. George Campus,
Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A1
Local Sponsor:
Allan Jaggard: (416) 201-1187
Saturday, NOVEMBER 3rd, 1pm - 6pm
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Cone Center, McKnight Auditorium, Room 320
Charlotte, NC 28223 (Exit 45 off Interstate 85)
Local Sponsor:
Don Wilburn: (704) 363-8682
Monday, NOVEMBER 5th, 6pm - 10pm
University of North Carolina at Asheville
Lipinsky Auditorium, Lipinsky Hall
One University Heights, Asheville, NC 28804
Local Contact:
Brad Young: (828) 649-2558
ENTRANCE: Facility Fee Donation: $10 each event
$10 Canadian for Toronto
Ticketmaster facility in Canada only (416) 870-8000
These events include an exclusive area showing of a two hour video summarizing over 100 top-secret military and government witnesses testimony on classified UFO/ET events. This is either one of most fascinating and important stories of our day, or one of the greatest hoaxes. Subjects covered in these testimonies include craft and body retrieval of extraterrestrial origin, the implications behind space based weapons, UFO interaction with ballistic missiles, why some members of our Governments are kept in the dark, the global risks to maintaining the secrecy on these subjects, and much more.
The film will be followed with a presentation by Disclosure Project Director, Steven M. Greer, M.D. and guest witnesses (in Canada). The lecture will highlight how the Campaign for Disclosure is working to:
* achieve open congressional hearings so that over 400 military witnesses may testify
* end illegal secrecy related to UFOs and Extraterrestrial Intelligence
* release Advance Energy and Propulsion systems that will end pollution, solve the energy crisis and end our reliance on foreign oil sources.
* ban weapons from space
For more information contact or visit:
The Disclosure Project
PO Box 2365, Charlottesville, VA 22902
Phone: (804/434) 245-5006
email: events@disclosureproject.org
http://www.DisclosureProject.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) First International UFO Museum Under Construction in Istanbul
From Haktan Akdogan
Founder & Chairman
"Sirius UFO Space Sciences Research Center, Istanbul"
ufotr@ixir.com
Dear Colleagues and Friends
"International UFO Museum of Eastern Europe, Balkans and Middle-East" is going to be opened in Istanbul by the end of October 2001, right before our "Third Annual International UFO Symposium of Eastern- Europe, Balkans and Middle-East" which will take place on the 17th and 18th of November.
THE MUSEUM is located right at the center of the 10 million populated city of Istanbul which connects two continents Asia and Europe together.
The aim of this project is to inform not only the Turkish citizens, but also millions of tourists coming to Istanbul from all over the world, about the UFO phenomenon. Our main goal is serving people coming from every country and age from 7 to 70 by presenting them the proof of the UFO & E.T phenomenon through various data both in English and in Turkish.
WE ARE ASKING YOUR KIND SUPPORT!
Our International UFO Museum is seeking evidence, literature, proof of alien visitations of Earth, photos, videos, DVD's, books, texts, any kind of related materials that are written, audio and visual formats for our permanent public exhibits..
So we kindly ask your cooperation, support, and donations to this highly important International Project. If you have anything related to UFO's and wish to donate them, please send them to our address below. Any contributions of information or research materials and artifacts that can be made available to our Museum are greatly appreciated by all especially the public we serve.
Through this important Project ,which will be the first of its kind in Eastern- Europe, Balkans and Midle-East, the UFO & E.T phenomenon will become widely known by not only the Turkish citizens and the citizens of this region, but also millions of people coming to Istanbul from all over the world.
By taking your stance as a citizen of this Planet and by standing together the whole Truth will be known! Looking forward for your input and support!
May Truth and Peace prevail on Earth!
Haktan Akdogan
Founder & Chairman
Sirius UFO Space Sciences Research Center & SIRIUS Publishing House
&
INTERNATIONAL U F O MUSEUM
Address:
Buyuk Parmak Kapi Sk: No: 14 Kat: 1-2 Beyoglu - Istanbul / TURKEY
Tel : 90- 212- 252 86 46 or 252 86 82
Fax: 90- 212- 252 87 07
E-mail: ufotr@netone.com.tr or ufotr@ixir.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
----------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
FAQ: Space Preservation Act of 2001 * Satellites Reveal Drought Conditions
11 October 2001
There will be 111 local actions in 19 nations on October 13 for the International Day of Protest to Stop the Weaponization of Space. Item 1 is about Dennis Kucinich's proposed legislation to Congress called the Space Preservation Act of 2001. This is the last glimmering hope for preserving space for peace, and preventing a new arms race. Please support this effort to help in the battle against terrorism and the proliferation and development of weapons of mass destruction.
1) Space Preservation Act of 2001
2) Satellites Reveal Drought Conditions
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Space Preservation Act of 2001
Congressman Dennis Kucinich introduced the ban space-based weapons legislation, called the Space Preservation Act of 2001, on October 2nd. The FAQ-Frequently Asked Question (below), about the Space Preservation Act of 2001, may be used in October 13th workshops, and for educational purposes.
You may want copy the Space Preservation Act of 2001 to distribute to our Global Network participants.
[Link to http://www.peaceinspace.com to download a copy.]
ICIS - INSTITUTE FOR COOPERATION IN SPACE
PO Box 25040 Ventura, CA 93001
Tel: 805-641-1999 Fax: 805-641-9669
rosin@peaceinspace.com
FAQ - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Space Preservation Act of 2001
A Permanent Ban on Space-based Weapons
Banning the Weaponization of Space
1. Why is it urgent to prevent the weaponization of space?
The United States has put vast resources into a space-based weapons research and development (R&D) program also known as National Missile Defense (NMD), Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD), "Star Wars," Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), or Global Protection System (GPS). This system would be ineffective, immensely costly, politically destabilizing, offensive, dangerous, and will only perpetuate more violence, suffering and death without protecting anyone or anything from suitcase bombs, biological or chemical warfare, or any number of inexpensive, easy ways of further terrorizing and killing, made all too tragically apparent on 9/11/01. It is our RESPONSIBILITY, to make sure that space remains weapons-free for future generations, and that space technology and information services are applied directly to humanitarian and environmental needs.
There is only one chance in history when we CAN prevent the weaponization of space from occurring. At a certain point, it could become impossible to stop the funding and vested interests that can build a gigantic and complicated system like this. We can now, AIKIDO style, steer the direction. It is not a matter of whether or not we are evolving into space. We are there. It is a matter of "how" we are going into spacewith weapons or without.
Space-based weapons won't stop terrorists. Yet, the momentum is accelerating rapidly to weaponize space. We can stop it now, if we act quickly and effectively. The Space Preservation Act of 2001 introduced on Oct. 2nd offers us the first tool and the opportunity to outlaw space-based weapons while we still have a chance to do it, in 2002. (A World Treaty incorporating the language in the Space Preservation Act of 2001 wording will soon be introduced.)
2. What is the Space Preservation Act of 2001?
On October 2, 2001, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OHIO) introduced the Space Preservation Act of 2001 in the U.S. House of Representatives: "to preserve the cooperative uses of space for the benefit of all humankind by permanently prohibiting the basing of weapons in space by the United States, and to require the President to take actions to adopt and implement a world treaty banning space-based weapons."
About the Space Preservation Act of 2001 Kucinich says, "We signed the ABM treaty nearly 30 years ago which requires a reduction in strategic arms, nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. Weaponization of space clearly violates that treaty. My bill [calls] for an immediate and permanent termination of research, testing, manufacturing, production and deployment of all space-based weapons systems and components by any person, agency or contractor of the U.S. government."
The specially designed wording and the concepts in this Act present a new way of thinking and a politically, economically, technologically and socially feasible law and vision.
3. How does the Space Preservation Act of 2001 prevent the weaponization of space?
The Act places a permanent ban on the basing of weapons in space. It requires the President of the United States to: "(1) implement a permanent U.S. ban on space-based weapons and to remove from space any existing space-based weapons of the United States; and (2) immediately order the permanent termination of research and development, testing, manufacturing, production, and deployment of all space-based weapons of the United States and their components."
The Act defines "weapons" broadly, and prohibits only those that are based in space (60 km. or more above Earth) or on a celestial body, like the moon, the planets, or the asteroids or on man-made objects such as space stations or satellites.
4. Does the Space Preservation Act of 2001 help establish a world treaty banning space-based weapons?
The Space Preservation Act of 2001 requires the President to "direct the United States representatives to the United Nations and other international organizations to immediately work toward negotiating, adopting, and implementing a world agreement banning space-based weapons." An enforceable and verifiable world treaty banning space-based weapons must include most world nations in order to become law that will prevent the weaponization of space.
The Space Preservation Act of 2001 is the foundation for the World Treaty Banning Space-based Weapons. The World Treaty draft is now being discussed on high levels among world government(s) leaders.
Canada has announced an initiative for a world treaty banning space-based weapons. On July 26, 2001, the same date that Congressperson Kucinich announced his ban on space-based weapons, the Foreign Minister of Canada, John Manley, announced in Hanoi that "Canada would be very happyto launch an initiative to see an international convention preventing the weaponization of space." Congressman Kucinich replied to the Canadian initiative stating, "I am pleased with the recent news from our neighbor to the north that Canada is ready to join an international effort to prohibit weapons in space."
A growing list of space-faring nations including Russia and China have publicly announced their support of a treaty banning space-based weapons and their commitment to preserving the Anti-Ballistic (ABM) treaty.
5. Why does space have to be preserved weapons-free?
Keeping weapons out of inter-planetary space is one of the most important and potentially the most important contribution our generation can make to the future of this planet. The time to begin this task is now, before an unstoppable momentum can be generated that would build space-based weapons. That window of opportunity is quickly closing as this space-based weapons R&D program accelerates. We need to cap the arms race before it reaches space.
Weapons in space would not protect anyone or anything from terrorism. The weaponization of space would increase global instability, and the probability of global warfare with weapons of mass destruction.
We've learned that enumerating the dangers, costs, and fallacies of space-based weapon systems will not stop them from being researched and developed, whether called the SDI, NMD, BMD, GPS, or "Star Wars." We've heard the ever-changing rationales for why this system is supposedly needed. In fact, under disclaimer "it's merely RESEARCH(!)" this has become the largest R&D program in history.
While we want a strong "national security" and a "world security" system, we now know that space-based weapons won't protect anyone or anything, and won't protect us against missiles or suitcase bombs.
Besides that thought process is one based on "first order change" that doesn't change anything. By banning space-based weapons, we cause "second order change" to occur. That means we "cap" the weapons industry before it can become a space-based weapons industry and create a cooperative world space industry with out weapons in space that will bring the world together with an abundance of benefits.
We are simply calling for just the removal of the mandate to weaponize space yet, simultaneously, for the continuation of world cooperative civil, military and commercial space R&D, applications and exploration programs of a non-space-based weapons nature.
6. Without weapons in space, how will security be based?
National and world security can only be achieved through world cooperation, information sharing, technology development and through the applications of Space Age technology and information services that will solve urgent and potential human and environmental problems.
We oppose the" weaponization" of space, not the "militarization" of space. Three quarters of existing satellites are of a military nature and have valuable non-weapons oriented applications. Space business, civil and commercial ventures, and exploration are inexorably linked to the military. Militaries in space are not going to disappear. They are highly skilled and organized, and have non-space-based weapons roles to play now and after the law banning space-based weapons is passed.
7. How can the war space industry be transformed into a space exploration and development industry?
The Space Preservation Act and the forthcoming world treaty enact world law that will ban space-based weapons. The timing is right to transform the space-based weapons industry into a world cooperative space industry that will stimulate the economy, create new jobs and training programs, and expand a strong national and global security system based on a world cooperation.
Instead of building space-based weapons, we will build world cooperative space ventures including space habitats, stations, hospitals, schools, industries, laboratories, farms, hotels and resorts, and craft to travel the universes to learn more about ourselves and our neighbors. IMAGINE what we will learn about advanced Space Age medical and healing techniques from developing a space hospital. IMAGINE what incredible advancements in education we will be able to make available to local areas worldwide in terms of global education for our children as we learn about Space Age technologies including enhanced communication satellite applications, for example. IMAGINE the impact on labor as we expand job market thus requiring enhanced training programs. IMAGINE how we will apply space technology and information services to viewing the earth from space so we can see where the sick waters are and clean them up. IMAGINE how satellites can be used not as "force multipliers" in war situations but to verify the reduction and eventual elimination of dangerous technologies, and for seeing to what remote locations suffering people have fled or migrated so that food, water and medicine can be distributed to them.
8. Will the Space Preservation Act of 2001 disrupt the economy?
The Space Preservation Act of 2001 halts research and development (R&D), testing, production, manufacturing and deployment of all space-based weapons. Far from disrupting the economy, it will stimulate it as new products and services are emerge, creating a multitude of diverse ne jobs and training programs.
Now, the largest R&D program in history is now mandated to weaponize space. Removing that mandate will not stop R&D, but it will stop the R&D intended for space-based weaponry. This will free the industry to create technologies and services that will provide an abundance of vital benefits and unlimited opportunities to all world citizens.
The space-based weapons industry will be transformed into a world cooperative civil, military and commercial space industry without weapons in space. The War and Weapons Economy will be transformed into a Space Age Economy.
9. What must happen for the Space Preservation Act of 2001 to become law?
Now that the Space Preservation Act of 2001 has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, it must be introduced into the U.S. Senate, passed by both chambers, sent to the President of the United States and signed into law.
The countries of the world will simultaneously be signing on to the World Treaty Banning Space-based Weapons that incorporates the same language.
U.S. national and world law will finally stop the escalation of the arms race into space during the year of 2002. Thus, the arms race will be over in 2002. The world's leaders, including adversaries, will join together in new kinds of commitments to work together in a new wayto reap the benefits and to participate in support of this new law.
10. What can I do to get the Space Preservation Act of 2001 passed and signed into law?
Make the prevention of the weaponization of space a priority in your life. Develop relationships with your legislative representatives, leaders of your community and country, political parties, and non-governmental organizations. Mobilize your groups and communities. Work every day in every way to keep space weapons-free.
Educate and encourage your congressional representatives to co-sponsor this legislation.
Contact nation-state and world leaders to educate and encourage them to introduce and to sign the World Treaty Banning Space-based Weapons. Also, ask them to contact the U.S. President to encourage him to sign the Space Preservation Act of 2001.
11. What will the World Treaty Banning Space-based Weapons and the Space Preservation Act of 2001 do?
1) Implement a permanent ban on space-based weapons and remove from space any existing space-based weapons.
2) Order the permanent termination of all research, testing, development, manufacturing, production, or deployment of all systems and components intended for space-based weapons by any person, agency, or contractor of any nation or party including any unacknowledged space-based weapons programs.
3) Verifiably disable and remove any deployed space-based weapons, acknowledged or unacknowledged.
4) Prohibit the basing in space of any tactical or strategic weapon or object carrying such weapons, including nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction, or the installation of such space-based objects or weapons on celestial bodies, or the positioning of such weapons in outer space in any other manner. The moon, the planets, and other celestial bodies shall be used exclusively for non-weapons, peaceful purposes. The establishment of weapons-related military bases, installations and fortifications, the research, testing or development of any type of weapons and the conduct of military maneuvers on celestial bodies or on space-based objects, stations or platforms, shall be forbidden.
5) Declare that the use of military personnel for scientific research or for any other non-spaced-based weapons civil, military or commercial purposes shall not be prohibited. The use of any equipment or facility necessary for peaceful research, development, applications or exploration or for habitation on the moon, the planets or other celestial bodies, or on objects, stations or platforms in space shall also not be prohibited.
6) Establishment, funding, equipping and deployment of neutral world outer space peacekeeping organization, whose mission will be to monitor outer space and to verify the permanent ban of space-based weapons.
7) Space exploration, research, development, testing, manufacturing or deployment that is not related to space-based weapons or systems; including civil, commercial, or military and efense activities (ie. communications, navigation, surveillance, reconnaissance, early warning, or remote sensing that are not related to space-based weapons or systems will continue.
8) The establishment of weapons-related military bases, installations and fortifications, the testing of any type of weapons and the conduct of military maneuvers on celestial bodies or space-based objects shall be forbidden. Nations will not base in space any object carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons, including weapons of mass destruction, install such space-based objects or weapons on celestial bodies, or station such weapons in outer space in any other manner. The moon, the planets, and other celestial bodies shall be used by all States Parties to this Treaty exclusively for non-weapons, peaceful purposes.
9) Nation-state leaders will agree to establish, fund, equip and deploy a United Nations outer space peacekeeping agency, whose mission is to monitor outer space and enforce the permanent ban of space-based weapons.
10) Transform the space-based weapons industry into a world cooperative civil, military, and commercial space research, development, application and exploration industry.
Provide a "second order change" in which a new paradigm will be created. Put a literal "cap" on the arms race BEFORE it escalates into space. Change the war game into a space game, without space-based weaponsproviding a new security system based on technology sharing and applications to solving urgent problems that even adversaries need to have solved, including information sharing and enhanced communication worldwide. Provide a stimulated economy with new jobs and training programs based on a new marketplace of products and services that will be applied directly to solving urgent problems of humans, animals and the environment.
CONCLUSION
Remember: We will have peace and justice on earththrough peace in space.
NOW is the time to transform the weapons industry into a space industry. The industry and that old mindset are mobilizing to move into space. It is our responsibility to make sure we ban all space-based weapons. We have a very short amount of time in which to accomplish this.
Together we can and will do it.
Four IMPORTANT position points:
1) We do not protest the "militarization of space." The militarization of space has happened. The military is not going to disappear from the space frontier. Over three-quarters of satellites are of a military nature. We do oppose the "weaponization of space." We identify what the military is doing that is good and in service to the people and what the militaries can do of a non-weapons nature in space (and on earth).
2) Simultaneous to the ban on space-based weapons, we call for enhancing world cooperative agreements on civil, military and commercial space ventures. The world's people, including identified and potential adversaries, will come together on this issue because there are vital benefits and opportunities that will be made available to all (no matter what their belief system) as we apply Space Age technology and information services directly to solving urgent and potential human and environmental problems.
3) We do not call for stopping "research," but we do call for stopping research that is mandated to weaponize space. We must leave the word "research" in the World Treaty as it appears in the legislation, and because this World Treaty as it appears in the Congressional Record. (Congressman Kucinich is introducing the World Treaty into the Congressional Record.) The space-based weapons program of today was built under the guise of "it's merely RESEARCH"! The space-based weapons system can be deployed just by calling it "merely RESEARCH." The Space Preservation Act of 2001 calls for the removal of the mandate to weaponize space yet allow for basic R&D programs to expand.
4) We will transform the entire war industry (and mindset) into a space industry...by removing the mandate to weaponize space. Products and services, technology and information services will be created as minds are unleashed and budgets are applied with the intention to be applied directly to solving urgent humanitarian and environmental problems including those of health and education, civil libertiespeace and justice, poverty, pollution, and the energy crisis will be incalculable.
The only way to build real security is to enhance communication and cooperation. We have the technologyand space gives us the time and the place. We can and will make this unique agreement to ban space-based weapons, and to create this new paradigm. Even adversaries will want to work together to reap the vital benefits that will be made available to all. Adversaries will come together no matter what their belief systems and experiencesno matter what the current situation or past experiencesbecause this is so beneficial to everyone. The game changes here!
Most important of all, this law will cause true "second order change" to occur. First order change is when we respond to bombings with bombings (i.e. more of the same). Second order change is when we respond to bombings with "bombs" of food, medicine and clothingwith no bombs and weapons. First order change is when space-based weapons are deployed. Second order change is when we provide a win-win by preserving space for peaceful purposes and benefits for all that will bring everyone together in a new way, including adversaries.
Everything and everyone is in place to change the entire old, dangerous paradigm into a new space paradigm based on the Space Preservation Act of 2001 and the forthcoming World Treaty Banning Space-based Weapons. The timing is right. This is the time. We have only one chance within the next few short months. 2002 - it will be done! This is the biggest WIN-WIN of all time.
Take Action!
Make the prevention of the weaponization of space a priority in your life. Contact and develop personal relationships with U.S. and world leaders and work with them until they have signed on to the ban on spacee-based weapons bill and/or treaty. Mobilize members of your groups and communities. Work every day in every way to keep space weapons-free.
You can see a copy of the Space Preservation Act or 2001 and a copy of the World Treaty Banning Space-based Weapons draft on the website: http://www.peaceinspace.com
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Nation-state Leader Letter in support for a worldwide ban on space-based weapons.
LETTER TO NATION STATE LEADERS
=============================
Date:
Dear ____________________Nation-state Leader of______________(country)
Address:______________________________________________________________
I am writing to obtain your written statement of support for a ban on space-based weapons. I ask you to please reply to my letter with a simple written response: "I am willing to sign an agreement to ban all space-based weapons."
On October 2, 2001, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (Democrat-Ohio) introduced the Space Preservation Act of 2001 "to preserve the cooperative uses of space for the benefit of all humankind by permanently prohibiting the basing of weapons in space by the United States, and to require the President to take actions to adopt and implement a world treaty banning space-based weapons.".
In addition, a World Treaty Banning Space-based Weapons has been developed which places a permanent ban on space-based weapons. A copy of the treaty was faxed to you for your review and signature. If you did not receive it, please notify us and another will be sent to you immediately.
Canada, China, Russia, and a growing list of national leaders have announced their commitment not to break the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM), and to sign a verifiable treaty to ban space-based weapons. Everything and everyone is in place at this unique moment in history to enact this ban.
Instead of building space-based weapons, we will build world cooperative space ventures including space habitats, stations, hospitals, schools, industries, laboratories, farms, hotels and resorts, and craft to travel the universes to learn more about ourselves and our neighbors.
We call for a halt to research and development (R&D), testing, production, manufacturing and deployment of all space-based weapons. This will not disrupt the economy. It will stimulate it and provide countless new jobs and training programs. The largest R&D program in history is now mandated to weaponize space. Removing that mandate will not stop the R&D, but will stop R&D intended for space-based weaponry.
This will free the industry to create technologies and services that will provide the greatest benefits and opportunities to all world citizens. The space-based weapons industry will be transformed into a world cooperative civil, military and commercial space industry without weapons in space.
We oppose the weaponization of space, not the militarization of space. Militaries are already in space and are not going to disappear. They are highly skilled and well organized, and have non-space-based weapons roles to play after the law is passed banning space-based weapons.
At this time in history, all world leaders, including former adversaries, should sign this statement and form national and world security systems that are based on cooperation, on information sharing, on technology development and on applications of technology and information services that will solve urgent and potential human and environmental problems.
Please respond if you have concerns or questions. We will be glad to address your concerns and will provide you with information to answer questions.
Your letter of support for a ban on space-based weapons will be sent to all other national leaders to show support for a world treaty banning space-based weapons.
Please reply and also send a copy of your response and statement of support for a ban on space-based weapons to:
Dr. Carol Rosin, Institute for Cooperation in Space (ICIS),
PO Box 25040, Ventura, CA 93001
Tel: 805-641-1999 Fax: 805-641-9669
rosin@spaceinspace.com
You can also use ICIS Online Fax to contact world leaders and US Representatives:
http://www.peaceinspace.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Satellites Reveal Drought Conditions In 20 Percent Of The World
From Space Daily
Washington - Oct 4, 2001
A new satellite-based method for early detection, monitoring and analysis of drought shows that nearly 20 percent of the world's landmass has been stricken by drought over the past two years, according to scientists at the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Scientists at NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service in Camp Springs, Md., used solar radiation detected from an instrument onboard NOAA's polar orbiting satellites, called the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer. The solar radiation was observed in three wavelengths of the solar spectrum -- visible, near infrared and thermal -- to study vegetation health, moisture, and thermal conditions.
"Satellite data are important to our understanding of the world's climate, particularly in regions of the world where routine surface measurements are sometimes difficult to obtain," said Felix Kogan, the NOAA scientist who developed the new drought detection methodology. "This method has been tested worldwide for eight years and has proven to be an excellent vehicle for early drought detection and monitoring, as well as for assessing the impacts of droughts."
NOAA is providing information on drought to customers around the world. Many countries in Africa, Asia and North America experienced the effects of two-year droughts.
Long, intensive spring and summer dryness developed in the southern and western United States (and neighboring regions of Canada) during 2000 and 2001 with Texas experiencing severe droughts. Satellite data identified large areas in the Northwest that were vulnerable to intensive fire activity. During the two-year period, active fires consumed large areas of forested land.
For the full story and related links, see
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/earth-01k.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
----------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Intl. Day Against the Weaponization of Space * Propaganda for a Declining Democracy
07 October 2001
Please support the international campaign to protest against the weaponization of space on October 13, 2001. The Bush administration plans to break-off from its commitment on international disarmament treaties that the US signed and employ space-based weapons within about six months from this November.*
This issue, too, is about the propaganda wars. Item 2 is a story about the self-censorship of major American news organizations, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, to withhold the results of its recount of ballots cast in Florida in the 2000 presidential election. Item 3 is an article describing an overview of the propaganda machines now in overdrive, as the US leads the world into a new war with weapons of mass destruction poised to be incorporated.
* For information on the Bush "Deadline on ABM Treaty," see Flyby News Archives posting:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid998931694,85288,
In consort with the International Day to Protest the Weaponization of Space
F l y b y N e w s
P r e s e n t s
EnviroVideo's
STAR WARS RETURNS
Written and Narrated by Karl Grossman
Tuesday, October 9, at the Brattleboro Library,
Main St, Brattleboro, VT; 7pm
and
Wednesday, October 10, at Amherst College's
Campus Center Theater, Amherst, MA; 7pm
Discussion will follow the 29 minute video on local Actions planned
on the Town Common in Amherst, MA beginning at 1:00 P.M. on October 13
on the International Day to Protest the Weaponization of Space
1) International Day to Prevent the Weaponization of Space
2) New York Times, Washington Post suppress media recount of Florida vote
3) Propaganda Machines Go Into Overdrive During Times of Strife
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) International Day to Prevent the Weaponization of Space
Join the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space with hundreds of other Organizations on October 13 to protest the Bush administration's plans to extend the arms race into outer space, with expensive, ineffective, and harmful to the environment, technology-weapon development that would default against international disarmament treaties for peace and add a new level of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. We must create the political movement that can stop the funding of research and development for Star Wars.
The following is from Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network, regarding after the September 11 attack:
"I've heard from several folks who wonder if our plans for October 13 are still on. The answer is yes, yes, yes. Now more than ever. Bush and Congress are moving money in truck loads to the Pentagon and aerospace industry for Star Wars research and development..
It is my feeling that our October 13 Int'l Day of Protest to Stop the Militarization of Space needs to be broadened to include the coming reality of war preparation. I strongly suggest that where possible our actions try to incorporate the following:
Oppose preparations for war. Revenge and the likely killing of more innocent people will only fuel the fires of hatred and terrorism U.S. "control and domination" of space or the Earth below only creates more global instability Deployments of Theatre Missile Defense (TMD) in the Middle East and Asia will escalate tensions and conditions for war in those regions. Cuts in social security and other social spending programs are likely results of massive military expansion..
In times like this we must all show great courage. Our views might not appear popular as the public casts about looking for answers and revenge. But in fact many people will respond positively to our call that violence begets more violence. Our October 13 actions should be used to convey this message.
NO WAR IN CENTRAL ASIA!
NO THEATRE MISSILE DEFENSE!
NO NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE!
NO STAR WARS RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT!
KEEP SPACE FOR PEACE!
FUND HUMAN NEEDS!
For a list of over 250 October 13 Endorsers and about 100 sites where actions are planned see: http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk/actions/oct01.htm
For more information on October 13 and beyond, contact:
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, FL. 32607
(352) 337-9274
globalnet@mindspring.com
http://www.space4peace.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) New York Times, Washington Post suppress media recount of Florida vote
From the World Socialist Web Site [wsws.org]
By Barry Grey
25 September 2001
A consortium of major American news organizations, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, has decided to withhold the results of its recount of ballots cast in Florida in the 2000 presidential election. The consortium had planned to publish its report this week, and although its decision to suppress its own findings has received virtually no media attention, the reason is made clear in a September 23 column by New York Times Washington bureau chief Richard L. Berke.
In a column that enthusiastically welcomes the dissolution of all political opposition in Washington in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks, Berke writes: "Until September 11, the capital was riding a historically partisan period, with leading Democrats still portraying their president as appointed' by the Supreme Court. In a move that might have stoked the partisan tensionsbut now seems utterly irrelevanta consortium of new organizations, including The New York Times, had been scheduled this week to release the results of its ambitious undertaking to recount the Florida presidential ballots. (That has been put on hold indefinitely)."
In other words, the Times and its counterparts in the consortium have decided to conceal from the American people facts damaging to the Bush administration's claims to political legitimacy. They are doing so for the express purpose of suppressing dissent and bolstering the president as he prepares to take the American people into war and makes sweeping attacks on their civil liberties.
This act of self-censorship is entirely in keeping with the overall response of the media to the events of the past two weeksa response that in coming years will be widely seen as among the most shameful episodes in the history of American journalism. Neither in the broadcast nor the print media is there any attempt whatsoever to examine the claims of the Bush administration. All statements emanating from the White House and the Pentagon, even those known to be lies, are presented to the public as good coin.
What "now seems utterly irrelevant" to Berke is the fact the very government which is committing the population to a war of undefined duration and dimensions, with all of the tragic consequences this entails, was installed through the suppression of votes and judicial fiat. Berke voices his own cynicism toward the theft of the 2000 election when he writes: "The indecisiveness of last year's election gave the nation a civics lesson, but one that lent itself to snide jokes, not grave consideration."
This attitude, so crudely expressed and brazen in its contempt for democratic principles, cannot come as a surprise to anyone who has seriously considered the trajectory of news reporting in the US over the past decade. It says a great deal about the role of the media and the
outlook that pervades editorial offices and network news bureaus.
The media, however, does not exist in a void. Its degeneration reflects more profound tendencies within society and the political system.
The suppression of the Florida recount, and the Times' justification for it, exemplify the role of the media as a de facto organ of the state. Journalists like Berke, who occupy prominent positions within the media establishment, no longer conceive of themselves, even remotely, as protectors of democratic institutions and the rights of the people, with a responsibility to inform and educate the public so that it can assert its interests in opposition to those who wield power.
One component of bourgeois democratic institutions in the US was the traditional conception of the press as the "Fourth Estate," an independent force that served as a check on the power of the state. This notion, often enough expressed more in the breach than in the observance, and always attenuated by corporate control of the media and the innumerable ties that existed between the media establishment and state agencies, including the CIA, has now been thoroughly eroded and repudiated. Today, media operatives overwhelmingly, and as a matter of course, conceive of their task as the defense of the corporate elite and the state, as against the right of the people to know.
The debasement of the US media can be traced in relation to the great political convulsions of the past 30 years. During the Vietnam War and the Watergate crisis, major news organs such as the New York Times and the Washington Post played a significant role in exposing the lies of successive administrations, culminating in the exposure of the criminal and authoritarian actions of the Nixon administration. In the aftermath of Watergate, however, there was a determined campaign to bring the media more tightly to heel, to which the media succumbed with relatively little resistance.
Today it is all but inconceivable that the Times would publish anything comparable to the Pentagon Papers, or the Washington Post anything like the series of exposures that ultimately led to the resignation of Richard Nixon.
Already by the time of the Iran-Contra crisis of the mid-1980s, the element of press cover-up for the unconstitutional actions of the Reagan administration far outweighed that of serious investigation and exposure. With the Persian Gulf War of 1991, the media assumed the role of conduit for the propaganda handed down by the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon. The networks and the press submitted with barely a whimper to unprecedented restrictions on the reportage of battle preparations and the actual conduct of the war. To this day, the American media have not revealed the number of Iraqis killed and wounded in that uneven slaughter.
In the 1990s the role of the media assumed an even more pernicious form. Leading newspapers such as the New York Times and the Washington Post lent their prestige to the series of scandals mounted by the Republican right to destabilize the Clinton administration. They
became sounding boards for a thoroughly anti-democratic conspiracy by extreme right-wing forces to remove an elected president from office.
Berke's newspaper, the Times, played a particularly vile role. Times reporter Jeff Gerth lent credibility to the anti-Clinton machinations of unreconstructed segregationist elements, Christian fundamentalists and sections of the Republican leadership with his series of articles in the early '90s on the Whitewater affairarticles based on little more than speculation and rumor. The Times later embraced the Monica Lewinsky scandal and unswervingly depicted the sex-based witch-hunt led by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr as a legitimate investigation, downplaying Starr's attacks on civil liberties. In this manner the Times legitimized the political conspiracy that culminated in the impeachment of Clinton.
Within weeks of Clinton's acquittal by the Senate, Gerth and the Times were at it again, publishing a series of witch-hunting articles against Los Alamos nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee. These tracts provided a platform for sections of the Republican Party that were simultaneously seeking to create a Cold War-style hysteria against "Communist" China, and brand Clinton as a traitor, who supposedly traded nuclear secrets to the Chinese government in return for campaign contributions in the 1996 election. The biased and sensationalist character of Gerth's reporting was exposed when the federal case against Lee collapsed. In the end, the Times was compelled to issue a public apology.
The political wars of the 1990s revealed the profound erosion of American democratic institutions. The Republican Party had been largely taken over by extreme right-wing and fascistic forces, and the Democratic Party had proven itself incapable of opposing their attack on democratic rights.
In the 2000 election, the outcome of this protracted political decay was expressed in a fundamental break with democratic traditions and procedures. The Republican Party, with the tacit support of the media, set out to steal the presidential election, and with the aid of the right-wing majority on the Supreme Court, succeeded. It met with no serious resistance, either during or after the theft of Florida's electoral votes, from the Democrats.
The 2000 election demonstrated that within the American ruling elite, including both capitalist parties and the media establishment, there exists no significant constituency for the defense of democratic rights. The decision of the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other major news outlets to suppress the results of their Florida recount underscores this fact. It demonstrates that the break with democratic forms of rule that occurred last year was irrevocable.
Now, as the Bush administration hurtles toward war and launches an unprecedented drive to strengthen the police powers of the state and dismantle democratic safeguards, the Times and the rest of the media hail the suppression of political opposition and the de facto establishment of one-party rule as a positive good.
The American people must take heed: the ruling elite is well on the way to establishing an authoritarian, anti-democratic state.
No serious resistance to such a course will emerge from within the political establishment. That must come from a politically united and independently organized working class movement, fighting with its own party on the basis of a socialist program committed to the defense of democratic rights.
For original posting and related links, see:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/sep2001/nyt-s25.shtml
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Propaganda Machines Go Into Overdrive During Times of Strife
[Published on Wednesday, October 3, 2001 in the Toronto Star]
The Art of Persuasion
by Vinay Menon
Propaganda - most simply, information used to persuade a group - is as old as civilization. The Aztecs used it to rationalize human sacrifice. Alexander the Great understood its symbolic power and had his image etched on coins. But propaganda has always been most crucial during periods of conflict and war.
So today, with advertising and other forms of modern persuasion ubiquitous, how do leaders slice through the muddled cacophony and target citizens with messages?
"The whole notion of propaganda now is up for grabs," says Robert Thompson, a professor at Syracuse University. "In this age of 24-hour news and spin, where there is constant coverage, propaganda has come out of the closet and it really lives among us every day."
If Thompson is right, what does this mean to the "War Against Terrorism," which seems to be moving toward a more active phase in Afghanistan this week?
Unlike past military efforts, the White House has warned the new war will unfold with "unprecedented secrecy." Though it's now a clich, it is important to remember truth is often the first casualty of war.
Ironically, says Thomas DeLuca, a political science professor at Fordham University in New York, the sheer magnitude of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks created a temporary "propaganda-free zone" because people were simply horrified by the visceral images.
For days there were no television commercials. Almost all news coverage was devoted to the story. The entire world seemed to collapse into the deepening tragedy.
"This is an unprecedented event in U.S. history," DeLuca says. "There has never been an attack like this. Concentration on this event is highly focused. People want the president to have a plan, to reassure them, to be straightforward.
"So George Bush will have an enormous benefit as his words cut through the propaganda that is usually around us."
Anthony Pratkanis, professor of psychology at the University of California in Santa Cruz, and author of Age Of Propaganda: The Everyday Use And Abuse Of Persuasion, agrees. But he says in the weeks ahead, as collective shock begins to ebb, Bush will be faced with a number of daunting challenges.
"If Bush wants to maintain and sustain the effort, the emotional propaganda will be okay for a short war, but in the long term he needs to deliver persuasion. He needs to form consensus and argue with substance, not slogan."
That seemed to be the case recently, as Bush addressed U.S. Congress. As cameras rolled and politicians and lawmakers frequently wobbled to their feet, and to thundering applause, Bush delivered a rousing, evocative speech.
But the raw emotion and patriotism that has since bloomed atop the rubble in New York and Washington is not necessarily beneficial to anybody in the long run, says Nancy Snow, assistant director with the Center for Communications and Community at UCLA. "A `war mentality needs to be decontextualized. It needs to be very clear, black and white, good guys versus bad guys," says Snow, author of Propaganda Inc.: Selling America's Culture To The World.
"So you end up with a single enemy, with slogans like `Wanted: Dead or Alive, ones that simplify the issues. Bush is using an `everyman approach to what is actually a very complex problem, burdensome in a historical and economic context."
And this simplification, whether deliberate or not, can cloud fundamental issues. In times of conflict, things are not always as they appear.
Before the Persian Gulf War, for example, the world gasped with reports that Iraqi troops were yanking sick babies from hospital incubators and leaving them to die on the floor during the invasion of Kuwait. The "dead babies" account was repeated hundreds of times, in the media and in speeches by U.S. leaders, who were now clearly on a war footing. Other reports - that Iraq had amassed thousands of troops along the Saudi Arabia border - were also used to convince the public that military action was necessary.
Both of those reports proved incorrect, but not until the war was over.
Larry Jacobs, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota, says the Persian Gulf War took traditional propaganda to a new level as U.S. authorities controlled the flow of information in the media and expanded the lexicon of military euphemisms. Cruise missiles. Smart bombs. Collateral damage. Safe bunkers. Hard targets. Hit ratios. Surgical strikes. To western television viewers, the war must have appeared essentially bloodless.
John R. MacArthur, publisher of Harper's magazine and author of Second Front: Censorship And Propaganda In The Gulf War, says he believes the war on terrorism will unfold with even more secrecy and censorship. "Already we have a kind of `ahistoricality setting in," he explains. "Nobody here is talking about some very important issues. Youre simply not allowed to discuss the history of American foreign policy."
Such discussions are seen as unseemly, morally ambiguous, and steeped in preposterous and offensive anti-Americanism. The issue, to many, is simple good versus evil.
Says Jacobs: "The whole notion of propaganda raises a larger question: How do you control and manage press reports and the information that is reaching the general public?"
During the uprising in Germany, as the Nazis gained power, Josef Goebbels was able to impart nationalist rhetoric and manufacture consent through selective advertising, state-produced films, and elaborate, orchestrated public events. (Adolf Hitler also asked Leni Reifenstahl to film the Nazi Party's annual rally in Nuremburg. Her film, Triumph Of The Will, is now considered a
seminal exercise in fascist propaganda.)
Decades later, Slobodan Milosevic created "demo networks" - ragtag groups of unemployed youth that would optically boost the size at rallies held for Serbian nationalism. More recently, Osama bin Laden, the Saudi exile U.S. Authorities are calling the prime suspect in the recent attacks, has filmed several training videos. As tools of propaganda, the grainy, disjointed footage is used to mollify moderates and recruit new soldiers for the Holy War. (During its bloody war with Russia, Afghan rebels were given camcorders to record their triumphs.)
In totalitarian states, persuasion is straightforward. Citizens are simply told what to believe and how to behave. But in democratic nations, governance has nuance, inextricably tethered to divergent principles of individual freedom and mass control.
As scholar Noam Chomsky says: "Propaganda is to democracy what violence is to totalitarianism."
In this context, says Pratkanis, where propaganda is concerned, governments realize the importance of the media. "The mass media is now the primary place where we have political discussions. So one of the keys to effective political leadership is being able to control the news media's agenda. That agenda is not necessarily how you are talking about something, but what you are talking about."
In the war against terrorism, he says, there have been a number of examples where U.S. Authorities announced, "they were planning to release" certain information in the future. This allows the media to run a story about the "future release" of information, rather than the information itself.
"This war will be a challenge for democracy itself," Pratkanis predicts. "Because democracy thrives when everything is in the light of day. Now democracy in the United States will require a high degree of trust."
And trust is a commodity in rapid decline. The Internet, decades of independent research, and the rapid evolution of alternative media has created a population that is much more sophisticated in its ability to recognize and decipher propaganda - irrespective of the source.
"Audiences throughout the world are constantly becoming more exposed to the latest in international mass media entertainment, they are better trained, more aware, often more cynical," notes Oliver Thomson, author of Easily Led: A History of Propaganda.
Randall Bytwerk, a professor of communication at Calvin College in Michigan, author and a foremost expert in propaganda, says: "Propaganda, and the control of public opinion, becomes harder when you lack control over the images."
This proved to be the case in Vietnam, where public support suddenly dipped as the horrifying images of war were broadcast back home. "Vietnam was a turning point because there were reporters all over the place," Bytwerk says.
In the stormy, post-Vietnam years, the U.S. has taken a cautious approach to war. (In fact, the number of firefighters and police offices who died during rescue efforts at the World Trade Center is more than the total military personnel who have fallen in combat since the 1983 invasion of Grenada.)
Given the global scope of the new war, and the potential repercussions, Garth Jowett, a communication professor at University of Houston, says Bush has to be very careful in the propaganda he uses.
"I fully expected a propaganda onslaught that was going to be totally irrational. But as I understand it, there was an internal conflict within the Bush administration in terms of what kind of message to give the American public."
Jowett says many people have compared the attacks with Pearl Harbor. But the analogy is problematic. In that case, there was a clear nation-state enemy. And it's important to remember, he adds, that most Americans did not see footage of the Japanese attack for almost a year.
"In terms of propaganda, those visual images (of planes striking the World Trade Center) could not be matched by any other imaginable images," says John Lampe, chair of the Department of History at the University of Maryland. "In fact, if there is any propaganda campaign at play at all, it is to prevent the violent, stereotypical response we have seen domestically in the past."
Lampe is referring to the threats and attacks that have been leveled at Arab-Americans and Muslims throughout North America. The violence, including suspected murder, has raised the specter of the Japanese internment camps during World War II.
As Jowett notes: "Bush has to maintain the public's confidence that the government will actually do something. But he also doesn't want to get the public so riled up so that they are running out murdering their own citizens."
And as Bush said during his speech to Congress: "I also want to speak tonight directly to Muslims throughout the world. We respect your faith. It's practiced freely by many millions of Americans and by millions more in countries that America counts as friends."
First Lady Laura Bush went on 60 Minutes recently to discuss the importance of solidarity and urge Americans to not attack their fellow citizens. And during the recent celebrity telethon, America: A Tribute To Heroes, a number of stars, including Will Smith and Muhammad Ali, urged tolerance.
Similarly, this week, U.S. Authorities have scrambled with messages about the safety of air travel - even though Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport has remained closed (it will open partially tomorrow). And a number of experts have also started appearing on television telling Americans their country is prepared for any biological attack, even though other non-government sources warn the opposite is true.
"We are an action oriented culture," Snow says. "We are not an introspective culture.
``And thats where the sloganeering and jingoism comes into play."
``We are almost given a script and walking papers in terms of how we are supposed to respond."
Copyright 1996-2001. Toronto Star Newspapers Limited
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Star Wars FY 2002! - Sen. Byrd - Civil Freedoms Eroding - RiverKeepers
04 October 2001
Where was the reporting of the funding of missile defense by both the House and the Senate that allows the U.S. to default on the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the US-signed UN treaty on the peaceful use of outer space? The coup to fund Star Wars was the backlash of an irrational response to terrorism that came in a rush to pay homage to the protectors that could start a new acceleration to the arms race, one that would support the greater availability of weapons of mass destruction to the black market, and one that would place the economy, the military, and public in greater risk for continued acts of terrorism.
According to an aide to Congressman John W. Olver, it was confirmed that in deed there was a vote on the Defense authorization bill, which included funding for missile defense - although at a reduced level from the Administration's request. Congressman Olver was one of 17 members to vote against the bill.
The aide also stated that at some point over the next several weeks, there will be a vote on the Defense appropriations bill. There will probably be some dollars there for missile defense, but they we're not sure of the numbers at this time. He imagines that the vote for the Defense appropriations bill will pass, as a great number of other things are included in the bill, which makes it like a "baby with the bath water" situation.
The complexities of politics go both ways, and the movement to ban space-based weapons will need to be a next step, if we should succeed in making our world more secure. The first item in this issue is a transcript of a wonderful speech by Senator Robert C. Byrd. Item 2 includes an action you can take to help in the campaign to free fifteen Greenpeace volunteers and two photographers who entered the exclusion zone at Vandenberg Airbase in California to carry out a peaceful protest against President Bush's Star Wars missile test. Item 3 reports on our civil rights being lost and what you can do about it. And, item 4 is on the Water Keeper Alliance, headed by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., about an expanding positive grass roots campaign to save our water ways, the purity, diversity of our natural environment.
1) "Space Wars," by Sen. Robert C. Byrd
2) Free the GreenPeace "Star Wars 17"
3) "Provide Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism"
4) The Water Keeper Alliance
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) "Space Wars," by Sen. Robert C. Byrd
The concept of greater openness and pragmatism
Congressional Record, September 26, 2001, pp. S9826-28
[Statement by] Mr. BYRD:
Madam President, during the August recess, The New York Times Magazine ran a cover story entitled "The Coming Space War" The article caught my interest, as I am sure that it intrigued many other readers. The author's contention is that the U.S. military is considering a campaign to achieve military superiority in space similar to the kind of military superiority that U.S. forces seek in the air, on land, and from the sky. Military superiority in space is deemed critical in order to protect our increasing dependence on satellites for communications, surveillance, commercial and military purposes. On August 24, President Bush named Air Force General Richard Myers, a former chief of the U.S. Space Command and of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, as the new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. General Myers' selection as Chairman is in keeping with President Bush's strong support for building a national missile defense, NMD, the follow-on to President Reagan's Star Wars Strategic Defense Initiative, SDI.
It is certainly true that our dependence--and that of other developed and developing nations--on these winking, blinking objects winging through the night sky has increased exponentially over the last decade. It has rapidly become almost impossible to imagine a world without the Internet, the World Wide Web, electronic mail on handheld computers or cellular phones, automated teller machines, instantaneous worldwide credit card use, and other forms of global telecommunications and electronic commerce. This expansion and its dependence on satellite links will continue to increase in future decades. We are all dependent, and, therefore, we are all vulnerable, to the seamless and uninterrupted access to satellites. Most people, however, do not understand these technologies. I certainly do not. Like most people, I can understand that I may be vulnerable in ways that are new to me, a boy from the Mercer County hills in southern West Virginia. But how best to address this new vulnerability?
The author of The New York Times Magazine article describes three fundamentally different philosophical approaches to this brave new realm of space. The first is a military approach, which opens up a Pandora's box of weapons in space. The military, it is reported, has looked into the future and come to the conclusion that space represents the "ultimate military `high ground,' "requiring the military to develop and deploy whatever technology is necessary to achieve what has been termed "Global Battlespace Dominance," or "Full Spectrum Dominance." The tools needed might include everything from National Missile Defense to antisatellite laser or high-powered microwave weapons, or clusters of microsatellites to hyperspectral surveillance satellites and other space sensors--or all of these things. Some of these systems are under development now or due for testing soon, according to the article, already undercutting the author's assertion that the weaponization of space is coming, when, in fact, it may already be upon us. Already--already--additional funding to the tune of $190 million is being sought in the defense authorization and appropriations bills for space weapons.
Now, if I, like most people, do not really understand the technologies behind satellite communications and cell phones, it is even harder to understand the technologies behind hyperspectral surveillance satellites or space-based lasers. And that lack of technical expertise means, like most Americans, I must depend on the Pentagon to explain why these new technologies are needed, why no other alternatives will work, and what new questions and challenges might be unleashed by these choices. That is not, I suggest, the best way to perform oversight, but, unfortunately, there are few good alternatives.
The second philosophical approach to space outlined by the author is that of the purist, seeking to unilaterally ban weapons from space and seeking to return the heavens to an earlier, unsullied era--an earlier unsullied era. This is not, in the author's view, a realistic hope. The final philosophical approach, the one seemingly favored by the author, is that of the "pragmatist"--the "pragmatist." This approach recognizes the inevitable migration of commerce and the military to space, but hopes to hold the line at surveillance. Weapons for space would, in this view, remain in the research and test phase, to be launched only in response to another nation's attempt to put weapons in space. This launch-on-warning approach would come in conjunction with further diplomatic efforts to establish operating rules for space modeled on those in place for blue-water ships on the open ocean.
In the pragmatist's scenario, existing space treaties would be retained: the 1967 Outer Space Treaty banning nuclear weapons in space and the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty which, in addition to establishing the surveillance system to avoid nuclear conflict, also forbids most antimissile testing.
One way of reducing competition and tensions in space proposed in the article is by "mutually assured awareness" in space. The U.S. would develop and make globally available direct video access to space, so that anyone could confirm any hostile action in space, as opposed to mishaps from natural causes. I am not sure that this is technologically feasible, but who am I to question it. The concept of greater openness is the point. It interesting, in this light, to note that the 1975 Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space, operated by the United Nations, has not been very successful. In fact, the nation with the largest number, if not percentage, of unregistered payloads is the United States. The United States has failed to register 141 of some 2,000 satellite payloads. Only one nation is in full compliance--Russia. And, of course, it is the Bush Administration advocating the abrogation of the ABM Treaty in order to commence construction on the first National Missile Defense ground site in Alaska.
I cannot say at this point what philosophical camp that I might find myself. The author, Jack Hitt, closes his article by pointing out that if the United States is not successful at holding the line at surveillance, if we "plan, test, and deploy aggressively as the lone superpower, we make certain that after a brief respite from the cold war's nuclear competition, we will once again embark on a fresh and costly arms race. And with it, assume the dark burden of policing a rapid evolution in battlespace." This specter rings true. It should concern us, and it should be debated by the people and the people's representatives. As it stands now, the U.S. military is moving ahead on a trajectory that is both costly and one that carries with it a kind of philosophical imperialism with dangerous ramifications.
Now, what do I mean by philosophical imperialism? The military's plans for "full spectrum dominance," and space superiority, if fully realized, would mean that in some not-so-distant future, the United States would be in a position to (in the words of the Air Force Strategic Master Plan) "operate freely in space, deny the use of space to our adversaries, protect ourselves from an attack in and through space and develop and deploy a N[ational] M[issile] D[efense] capability." The U.S. would presumably, then, have information dominance in this arena as well. Thus, the U.S. would be in a position to know if a conflict between two nations, say India and Pakistan, was about to explode into open, even nuclear, warfare. The U.S. would also be in a position to act, but how? Would we shoot down the missiles from one side or the other, or both? If we shot down the missiles that each nation was firing at the other, what would happen if we missed one and it destroyed a city? What is our responsibility? What if we chose not to act because the conflict did not involve us, and tens of thousands or millions of innocent people died? What is our responsibility?
If the United States achieves, at enormous expense, space superiority, how could we avoid becoming the space marshal on this dangerous new frontier? If we detect a threat against a third party, do we warn the third party? If we provide a warning, and are asked to interdict the attack because only we can, how do we say no? How do we avoid making our military personnel and our commercial enterprises overseas the targets of reprisals from those whose attacks we thwart? It is difficult for me to envision a future in which we could avoid such an imperialist, if benevolent, dictatorship in space.
The role of global policeman and space marshal would not come cheaply, either, and in this period of shrinking or perhaps vanishing surpluses, we cannot ignore those costs. Space dominance would not replace air, land, or sea dominance, but would be additive. In fact, dominance in space might conceivably add to the cost of protecting forces on ground by making them targets for the kind of retaliation I mentioned previously. Gaining and maintaining a robust presence in space is technologically challenging. An airborne laser, reportedly operational sometime around 2010, is budgeted at $11 billion. It will cost still more to build and deploy a space-based laser. The estimated cost for a working space laser test is about $4 billion--that is $4 billion merely to get to a test of a laser in space. A test is expected as early as 2010.
The defense budget already consumes a bit over half of the domestic discretionary budget that Congress must allocate among programs ranging from health research to agriculture, education to highway and air traffic safety, environmental protection to diplomacy. How much more are we willing to trade between guns and butter? How much must we trade, or might alternatives be found in the course of free and open debate?
As most people are now well aware, those large budget surpluses so optimistically predicted just a few weeks ago--it is not funny--while the economy was booming--and so irresponsibly paid out in the form of vote-buying "tax refunds" before the actual surpluses materialized--are now gone, gone. Indeed, the Administration has had to employ a few green-eyeshade accounting tricks just to find a few dollars beyond the Social Security surplus to spend on other priorities. And the administration's No. 1 priority seems to be the defense budget--well, that might be all right--but more particularly, the defense budget for National Missile Defense and space weapons.
The President wants an additional $39 billion for defense--more, perhaps, now--including more than $8 billion to research and test his missile defense plan.
I am troubled that this Administration's number one priority is a project whose scientific feasibility is in doubt. That is the problem. We could very well be rushing down a path that leads to spiraling costs and lengthy delays. In the 1960s, Congress was told that research of a Super Sonic Transport plane was essential to U.S. competitiveness in future decades. I was here. We spent nearly a billion dollars developing this aircraft before canceling it in 1973, a billion dollars then would be much larger now. I do not think we have lost one whit of competitiveness because of the cancellation of that program.
We traveled down the same path again when we considered funding the Superconducting Super Collider. The $8 billion program was supposed to fulfill a supposedly vital role in basic scientific research, but we learned that the true cost was nearly fifty percent greater than expected, and we were not even sure it could ever work. Congress had to step in to end this program in 1993. Again, I do not think that we have lost any crucial advantage by not going forward with that project.
I can think of no one who believes that a national missile defense system will be deployed on-time and under budget.
I am troubled, not because such weapons might be needed, but because we are spending huge sums on them without being sure in our own minds that the weaponization of space is the best course of action to ensure our security.
If the United States builds a missile shield to shoot down enemy missiles as soon after they launch as possible, a smart adversary would attempt to shorten the amount of time that our defenses have to react, in addition to taking measures to fool our defenses. One way to shorten the time between launch and impact is to launch closer to the target--either from a submarine offshore, or, as the seas become more transparent to new technologies, from space. Another alternative for a wily adversary would be to switch gears entirely and employ other forms of weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical or biological weapons, that could be dispersed without using long range or intercontinental missiles whose launch points make determining the adversary a simple exercise in geometry. We must be aware that our actions produce reactions.
We can assume that if the United States deploys weapons in space, even in a purely defensive posture, even in a global policeman role, not all of our friends, allies, and competitors will see this as benign. We have only to consider the reaction of the world to the recent statements by the Administration concerning National Missile Defense and the potential abrogation of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Just what would we do when some other nation--friend or competitor--threatens our space superiority by deploying their own weapons there, even if for avowedly defensive purposes? Again the vision of a space marshal comes to mind, this time facing off another gunman down the dusty main street of space. Does the U.S. Marshal fire first, second, or is it a long, tense stand-off with weapons cocked? None of the alternatives sounds particularly promising.
Though it is difficult to conceive, would a military competition in space weaponry deter commercial satellite growth or the growth of e-business that depends on global satellite networked communications? Once weapons are in space, does the cost of doing business in space go up to the point that global commerce is stifled? That would be very bad news for business, for consumers, and for the prospects of returning our national budget to surplus or even to balance.
These are all ramifications of our current course of action that merit discussion--broad, open, public discussion and debate. I do not wish for the United States to be left undefended--far from it--but neither do I wish for the military to be left, in the face of public silence, to make decisions that spend our treasure and which may create new problems for us in arenas yet unconsidered.
In his farewell address on January 17, 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower looked upon the rising power and influence of armament producers and at the increasing share of technological research that is performed for the federal government. He warned the councils of government to "guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex .....," and to "be alert to the ..... danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite."
Mr. Eisenhower was concerned that, among other things, "democracy ..... survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow." He urged that "[O]nly an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
Coming from a former supreme commander of the Allied military forces during World War II, President Eisenhower's words carry the weight of his experience. They are also uncomfortably prophetic. Just forty years after President Eisenhower gave his warning, President Bush proposes to invest many billions of dollars to achieve military superiority in a new realm, where there currently is no threat, jeopardizing the economic health of the nation and creating instability and mistrust in the hearts of other nations. This will occur unless the citizenry--and its elected representatives--we members of the House and U.S. Senate--especially us--consider and agree upon this course of action. Silence does not equal assent. We must talk, and learn, and consider.
Again, I am admittedly a layman when it comes to high-tech gadgetry on earth, let alone in space. But it seems to me that we must set aside the whizbang and drama of lasers and satellites to consider the real, age-old questions--those that have plagued the great generals throughout time. We should be taking stock of what we have to gain and what we have to lose by moving the lines of battle. We must consider whether or not we have the necessary weapons to protect ourselves and our land before we send our military into new and vastly different frontiers.
We should assess the real, known threats to our Nation, and gauge whether we have the weapons and the resources to remain secure, and whether our time, talent, and treasure would be better spent fending off those most likely threats or devising new unproven plans of attack and fabulously expensive means of battle. And we should ponder the awesome responsibility of militarizing space and then being the world's space cop before we rush headlong into the twilight zone called national missile defense.
Madam President, I believe that it would be both wise and prudent to back off just a little bit on the accelerator that is driving us in a headlong and fiscally spendthrift rush to deploy a national missile defense and to invest billions into putting weapons in space and building weapons designed to act in space. That heavy foot on the accelerator is merely the stamp and roar of rhetoric. The threat does not justify the pace. Our budget projections cannot support the pace.
Let us continue to study the matter. Let us continue to conduct research. But the threat, as I say, does not justify the pace at which we are traveling.
Our budget projections cannot support the pace, so let us slow down a bit, look at the map, and consider just where this path is taking us.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Free the GreenPeace "Star Wars 17"
Greenpeace volunteers face jail over US Star Wars protest
On 14th July, fifteen Greenpeace volunteers and two photographers entered the exclusion zone at Vandenberg Airbase in California to carry out a peaceful protest against President Bush's Star Wars missile test. This group, who came from all over the world, successfully delayed the test by forty minutes and, in doing so, truly reflected the growing global opposition to the Star Wars program.
The "Star Wars 17" now face incredibly severe charges and could face jail sentences of up to six years. The trial date is now set for the 20th November. It is crucial that we continue to send messages of concern at the harshness of the charges, to the US government, prior to this date.
Please email the embassy through Greenpeace International urging him to recognize the democratic right to peaceful protest and expressing concern at the severity of the charges filed against the protestors.
http://cybercentre.greenpeace.org/t/s/aas/e?a=StarWars_em&s=blue2
Please tell him that, The charges against 15 Greenpeace activists and 2 independent journalists are incredibly harsh and do not reflect this entirely peaceful protest. The actions of these individuals reflects growing global opposition to Star Wars The US should recognize the right of individuals to protest peacefully. None of the defendants should face jail for peacefully protesting, or for documenting such protests.
http://www.stopstarwars.org/html/press.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) "Provide Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism"
(PATRIOT)
On October 3, the House Judiciary Committee unanimously approved "compromise" anti-terrorism legislation. Notwithstanding the significant improvements in the legislation, the bill still fails to adequately protect some of our most precious freedoms.
Specifically, the bill -- the "Provide Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act (PATRIOT)" (H.R. 2975) -- continues to contain troubling provisions that would minimize judicial supervision of electronic surveillance by law enforcement authorities and allow intelligence agencies to spy on U.S. citizens by providing them enhanced access to sensitive information about them.
Terror, by its very nature, is intended not only to destroy, but also to intimidate a people, forcing them to take actions that are not in their best interest. We must not be intimidated. Congress must not let terrorism win by weakening essential checks and balances on the authority of federal law enforcement.
Don't Let Terrorism Win!
TAKE ACTION!
Send a Free FAX in 3 Clicks!
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) The Water Keeper Alliance
The Water Keeper Alliance is the umbrella organization for the 70 keeper programs located throughout North and Central America. The Keeper Program started on New York's Hudson River where a coalition of commercial and recreational fishermen mobilized in 1966 to reclaim the Hudson from polluters. They built a boat to patrol the River, hired the first full-time RiverKeeper in 1983 and began filing lawsuits against municipal and industrial polluters. By 1998, they had filed over 150 successful legal actions against Hudson River polluters. Largely as a result of their work, the river that was once dead for large stretches in 1966 is one of the richest water bodies in the North Atlantic. The Hudson's miraculous recovery has helped to make the Keeper program an international model for ecosystem protection.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is President of the Water Keeper Alliance, which is based out of White Plains, NY. The son of the late U. S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, D-N.Y., Kennedy, Jr. is a renowned environmental lawyer, writer and activist. He is chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson RiverKeeper Fund and senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. He has successfully argued cases to expand citizen access to the shoreline and to promote environmental justice. Kennedy has written numerous articles on environmental law and litigation, environmental justice and advocacy. With John Cronin, he wrote The RiverKeepers, published in 1997.
For more information, visit The Water Keeper Alliance
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Fidel Castro on "Infinite Justice" * Father of Neutron Bomb: Use It on Osama
28 September 2001
Fidel Castro's statement delivered on 22 September 2001 is item 1, which is a message of nonviolence and condemnation of violence, except for the right to defend oneself and one's country. He criticized the terrorists for benefitting the far right, which is exactly what has happened. The extremes are in charge, and it doesn't look good for us simple folk in the middle. If there was a terrorist attack using a weapon of mass destruction, it would drive our civil rights into the ground, the cost of freedom for fighting the phantom menace. The only real way to disarm this foe is by example and outlawing weapons of mass destruction, while uniting in the coalition with peace interested nations, also generating healthier bodies and economies with environmentally sustainable technology development. The current direction, however, leads to an abyss of destruction.
Regarding last issue's alert for telephone calling the House of Reps, Bruce Gagnon wrote in an email that the Vote was for missile defense:
"Missile defense. Bush requested $8.3 billion, up $3 billion over this year. The House would provide $7.9 billion. The Senate would provide $8.3 billion, but let Bush use $1.3 billion for anti-terrorism instead."
Bruce said it appears that this funding does permit President Bush to default on the ABM Treaty, which, also, so happens, plays into the hands of the terrorists and military strategists for bringing chaos into new depths. This information is recent and will be checked. We will inform you on this in next issue of Flyby News. Keep praying for a miracle!
1) Fidel Castro on "Infinite Justice" 22 Sept 2001
2) Father of Neutron Bomb: Use It on Osama
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Fidel Castro on "Infinite Justice" 22 Sept 2001
Fidel Castro on "Infinite Justice" 22 Sept 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
PERMANENT MISSION OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA TO THE UNITED NATIONS
315 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Tel: 212-689-7215 * Fax: 212-689-9073
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Speech by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, President of the Republic of Cuba. Havana, September 22, 2001
Fellow countrymen:
No one can deny that terrorism is today a dangerous and ethically indefensible phenomenon, which should be eradicated regardless of its deep origins, the economic and political factors that brought it to life and those responsible for it. The unanimous irritation caused by the human and psychological damage brought on the American people by the unexpected and shocking death of thousands of innocent people whose images have shaken the world is perfectly understandable.
But who have profited?
The extreme right, the most backward and right-wing forces, those in favor of crushing the growing world rebellion and sweeping away everything progressive that is still left on the planet. It was an enormous error, a huge injustice and a great crime whomever they are who organized or are responsible for such action.
However, the tragedy should not be used to recklessly start a war that could actually unleash an endless carnage of innocent people and all of this on behalf of justice and under the peculiar and bizarre name of "Infinite Justice".
In the last few days we have seen the hasty establishment of the basis, the concept, the true purposes, the spirit and the conditions for such a war. No one would be able to affirm that it was not something thought out well in advance, something that was just waiting for its chance to materialize. Those who after the so-called end of the cold war continued a military build-up and the development of the most sophisticated means to kill and exterminate human beings were aware that the large military investments would give them the privilege to impose an absolute and complete dominance over the other peoples of the world. The ideologists of the imperialist system knew very well what they were doing and why they were doing it. After the shock and sincere sorrow felt by all of the peoples of the earth over the atrocious and insane terrorist attack that targeted the American people, the most extremist ideologists and the most belligerent hawks, already set in privileged power positions, have taken command of the most powerful country in the world whose military and technological capabilities would seem infinite. Actually, its capacity to destroy and kill is enormous while its inclination towards equanimity, serenity, thoughtfulness and restraint is minimal.
The combination of elements--including complicity and the common enjoyment of privileges--the prevailing opportunism, confusion and panic make it almost impossible to avoid a bloody and unpredictable outcome.
The first victims of whatever military actions are undertaken will be the billions of people living in the poor and underdeveloped world with their unbelievable economic and social problems, their unpayable debts and the ruinous prices of their basic commodities; their growing natural and ecological catastrophes, their hunger and misery, the massive undernourishment of their children, teenagers and adults; their terrible AIDS epidemic, their malaria, their tuberculosis and their infectious diseases that threaten whole nations with extermination.
The grave economic world crisis was already a real and irrefutable fact affecting absolutely every one of the big economic power centers. Such crisis will inevitably grow deeper under the new circumstances and when it becomes unbearable for the overwhelming majority of the peoples, it will bring chaos, rebellion and the impossibility to govern.
But the price will also be unpayable for the rich countries. For years to come it would be impossible to speak strongly enough about the environment and the ecology, or about ideas and research done and tested, or about projects for the protection of nature because that space and possibility would be taken by military actions, war and crimes as infinite as "Infinite Justice", that is, the name given to the war operation to be unleashed.
Can there be any hope left after having listened, hardly 36 hours ago, to the speech made the President before the U.S. Congress?
I will avoid the use of adjectives, qualifiers or offensive words towards the author of that speech. They would be absolutely unnecessary and untimely when the tensions and seriousness of the moment advise thoughtfulness and equanimity. I will limit myself to underline some short phrases that say it all:
"We will use every necessary weapon of war."
"Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign unlike any other we have ever seen."
"Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists."
"I've called the armed forces to alert and there is a reason. The hour is coming when America will act and you will make us proud."
"This is the world's fight, this is civilization's fight."
"I ask for your patience .... in what will be a long struggle."
"The great achievement of our time and the great hope of every time, now depend on us."
"The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. ... And we know that God is not neutral."
I ask our fellow countrymen to meditate deeply and calmly on the ideas contained in several of the above-mentioned phrases:
-- "Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists."
No nation of the world has been left out of the dilemma, not even the big and powerful states; none has escaped the threat of war or attacks. .
-- "We will use any weapon."
No procedure has been excluded, regardless of its ethics, or any threat, however fatal, either nuclear, chemical, biological or any other.
-- "It will not be short combat but a lengthy war, lasting many years, unparalleled in history."
-- "It is the world's fight; it is civilization's fight."
-- "The achievements of our times and the hope of every time, now depend on us."
Finally, an unheard of confession in a political speech on the eve of a war, and no less than in times of apocalyptic risks:
-- "The course of this conflict is not known; yet its outcome is certain. And we know that God is not neutral."
This is an amazing assertion. When I think about the real or imagined parties involved in that bizarre holy war that is about to begin, I find it difficult to make a distinction about where fanaticism is stronger.
On Thursday, before the United States Congress, the idea was designed of a world military dictatorship under the exclusive rule of force, irrespective of any international laws or institutions. The United Nations Organization, simply ignored in the present crisis, would fail to have any authority or prerogative whatsoever. There would be only one boss, only one judge, and only one law.
We have all been ordered to ally either with the United States government or with terrorism.
Cuba, the country that has suffered the most and the longest from terrorist actions, the one whose people are not afraid of anything because there is no threat or power in the world that can intimidate it, with a high morale, Cuba claims that it is opposed to terrorism and opposed to war. Although the possibilities are now remote, Cuba reaffirms the need to avert a war of unpredictable consequences whose very authors have admitted not to have the least idea of how the events will unfold. Likewise, Cuba reiterates its willingness to cooperate with every country in the total eradication of terrorism.
An objective and calm friend should advise the United States government against throwing the young American soldiers into an uncertain war in remote, isolated and inaccessible places, like a fight against ghosts , not knowing where they are or even if they exist or not, or whether the people they kill are responsible or not for the death of their innocent fellow countrymen killed in the United States.
Cuba will never declare itself an enemy of the American people that is today subjected to an unprecedented campaign to sow hatred and a vengeful spirit, so much so that even the music that sings of peace has been banned. On the contrary, Cuba will make that music its own, and even our children will sing their peace songs for as long as the announced bloody war lasts.
Whatever happens, the territory of Cuba will never be used for terrorist actions against the American people and we will do everything within our reach to prevent such actions against that people. Today we are expressing our solidarity while urging peace and calmness. One day they will admit we were right.
Our independence, our principles and our social achievements we will defend with honor to the last drop of blood, if we are attacked!
It will not be easy to fabricate pretexts to do it. They are already talking about a war using all the necessary weapons but it will be good recalling that not even that would be a new experience. Almost four decades ago, hundreds of strategic and tactical nuclear weapons were aimed at Cuba and nobody remembers anyone of our countrymen sleepless over that.
We are the same sons and daughters of that heroic people, with a patriotic and revolutionary conscience that is higher than ever. It is time for serenity and courage. The world will grow aware of this and will raise its voice in the face of the terrible threatening drama that it is about to suffer.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Speech by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, President of the Republic of Cuba. Havana, September 22, 2001, received from:
http://www.radiohc.org/Distributions/Radio_Havana_English/Fidel_Castro_on__Infinite_Justice__22_Sept_2001
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Father of Neutron Bomb: Use It on Osama
Wes Vernon
Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2001
WASHINGTON Top officials in the Bush administration and in Congress have been urged to use a small neutron bomb to wipe out Osama bin Laden in a quick first strike in the war on terrorism.
Sam Cohen, the scientist who invented the neutron bomb, has outlined for these officials his plan to 'do in' the Taliban and terrorist Osama bin Laden, and do it quickly.
That, says Cohen, would go right to the core of the terrorist threat and at the same time satisfy the typically American impatience.
The neutron bomb has a limited blast and causes little collateral damage or lasting radioactivity while killing its intended targets.
"My offhand guess is that the majority of Americans couldn't care less how we 'do in' the Taliban and bin Laden and company, provided we get it done and [quickly]," he told NewsMax.com in a phone interview from his West Coast home.
Cohen, whose views were often accepted by President Reagan, agrees with President Bush regarding the need for the American people to resolve to hunker down for the long term.
The global terrorist threat is indeed "going to go on for years," Cohen agrees, but he is telling policy-makers in Washington, "the name of the game right now is Afghanistan [and] bin Laden."
What we need, he says, is a quick, highly visible strike to begin that war one that Americans can see now. That, he believes, would stiffen the public's resolve for the future. The president has already told Americans that the war itself won't be quick and easy and could take years.
"I don't think they're going to be very tolerant of a prolonged [ground war,]" argues the scientist. He cites Korea and Vietnam as examples of the limits of America's patience.
At the same time, Cohen points to the 1991 Desert Storm as an example of an air war of short duration that did not do the job, given that Saddam Hussein remains in office today, as powerful as ever, plus the fact that resulting civilian deaths in that conflict vastly outnumbered military casualties. Hardy consistent with the first President Bush's vow to wage "a Christian war," in Cohen's view.
As a solution that would be both quick and effective, the author of "Shame: Confessions of the Father of the Neutron Bomb" proposes reconfiguring Minuteman missiles. Remove the thermonuclear "big bang" component (hundreds of kilotons). Once that is done, these weapons could be deployed to target the hideouts of terrorists in Afghanistan.
Cohen says his sources tell him the U.S. has "fair intelligence" on the Taliban and "where their units and training camps are spread around."
The problem with "bombing the hell out of them" is that "we don't know where these guys are, and they're nobody's fool" and now that they know they're under attack, "they're going to be on the move." They will "burrow and bury themselves" while continuing their training exercises.
To counteract this requires, first, the "element of surprise."
Secondly, there will be a need for a weapon that imposes "mass destruction" that is carefully targeted.
Each Minuteman missile has three warheads. The thermonuclear component could be defused, while keeping the "trigger" at the kiloton level. "A kiloton bomb would do approximately the same amount of harm" as the hijacked airliners did to the World Trade Center Building.
"We hit them unannounced. All the president has to do is punch a button to put the plan into operation, and [these reconfigured kiloton bombs] can be retargeted practically within minutes." Ridding the weapons of the thermonuclear component can be done "within days," Cohen argues.
Further, they would take "considerably less than a half-hour" to reach their destinations. The "kiloton fission" would be a "deadly force," with a radius of about two-thirds of a mile "towards killing people who are exposed." That would be about a square mile, which "ought to cover the area of a training camp." The radioactive fallout would be relatively limited in terms of immediate death and death from prolonged effects.
The neutron bomb stockpile was eliminated after the Gulf War. The weapon had the potential for destroying humans without destroying property. Peace activists around the world had denounced it for that reason.
In fact, Cohen noted, in contrast to his famous invention, the kiloton bomb could destroy property. Also, whereas the neutron bomb can produce widespread radioactive fallout, the bomb he advocates for a quick strike in the current war is more carefully targeted.
Cohen's plan is known to have elicited a very positive reaction in some Washington quarters. Where it goes from there has yet to be determined.
This article was originally posted at newsmax.com
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/9/24/100538.shtml
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby Alert - Stop the Harmful Funding of Star Wars at the House of Reps.
23 September 2001
Flyby Alert - Stop the Harmful Funding of Star Wars!
Call Congress this Monday and during the week to urge your House of Representative to reject any financing of star wars, and to uphold the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. Fiscal discipline and priorities in solving the crises at hand are what is important. The US needs to help to unite our world with policies for peace, not preparations for a war that could bring only bring more harm to life.
Item 1 features an AP article on the U.S. Senate decision to finance Star Wars.
This is incredible! At the same time we are considering spending billions towards space domination, we are dividing the world into two separate camps, both with access to weapons of mass destruction. Tell your Congressman to be a worker for peace and join the lone voice of Representative Barbara Lee. (See item 2).
Please call your Rep. this week and convince them NOT to fund Star Wars.
The Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121
For other information in contacting the US Congress, see: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html
Thanks for any actions and sharing this information with others.
1. SENATE TO RESTORE MISSILE DEFENSE $
2. Alone on the Hill: Interview with Rep. Barbara Lee
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) SENATE TO RESTORE MISSILE DEFENSE $
Friday September 21 2:39 PM ET
By CAROLYN SKORNECK, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate agreed Friday to restore $1.3 billion to the budget for missile defense, providing President Bush his full $8.3 billion request while giving him the option of using the money instead for anti-terrorism efforts.
The amendment to the $343 billion defense authorization bill for the year beginning Oct. 1 was approved by voice vote as debate on the overall bill began. It would put back money that Democrats on the Armed Services Committee had diverted to other defense purposes.
Both committee chairman Carl Levin and the panel's top Republican, John Warner of Virginia, urged support of the bill in light of last week's terrorist attacks.
"Our fury at those who attack innocents is matched by our determination to protect our citizens from more terror and by our resolve to track down, root out and relentlessly pursue the terrorists and those who would shelter or harbor them," said Levin, D-Mich.
Warner said, "This bill will communicate a message to our citizens and to the world that the United States resolves to do whatever is necessary to protect our homeland, our forces abroad, and to work with our allies in their mutual protection and to address the whole spectrum of threats that confronts our nation" and other nations around the world.
Bush had sought to boost this year's missile defense spending by $3 billion, for a total of $8.3 billion.
Levin and Warner cosponsored Friday's amendment in a bipartisan effort combining Warner's wish to fully fund missile defense and Levin's wish, if the money was going back in, to allow it to be used for anti-terrorism, Levin told reporters. Panel Democrats had pushed the bill to the floor two weeks ago on a party-line vote, 13-12.
That rare division stemmed from Republican anger over a Democratic missile defense provision that the GOP believed would tie the president's hands in talks with Russia. The provision sought to require a vote of Congress before any money could be spent on missile defense activities that the president said would violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.
To help speed through the spending bill, Levin dropped that from the measure Wednesday and offered it as a separate bill that Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., can bring to the floor later.
Other issues such as base closings may still pose stumbling blocks, Levin conceded. The panel approved one round of closings, 17-8. The House Armed Services Committee, by contrast, sought to derail base closings by omitting any mention of them.
Levin said the $1.3 billion amendment would actually boost the bill's total above the allowed limit of $343 billion, but he expected offsetting cuts would be made during the House-Senate conference that will resolve differences between the measures the two chambers approve.
The House began debate on its bill Thursday, but no final vote was expected until next week.
Levin and Warner anticipated the bill that emerges from the negotiating conference will include supplemental money the administration will seek after it determines its needs to fight the war against terrorism.
Separately, the House voted 401-0 to authorize $10.5 billion for military construction.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Alone on the Hill: Interview with Rep. Barbara Lee
From MotherJones.com
by Bill Hogan Sept. 20, 2001
http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/features/news/lee.html
Self-described 'Army brat' Barbara Lee explains why she cast Congress' only vote against giving the president a free hand to attack suspected terrorists.
= = = = = = = = = = = =
"It was a vote of conscience," says California Democratic Representative Barbara Lee.
On September 15, the US Congress approved a resolution authorizing President Bush to use "all necessary and appropriate force" against anyone associated with the terrorist attacks of September 11. The measure passed 98-0 in the Senate and 420-1 in the House. The lone
dissenting vote was a colonel's daughter and longtime maverick from California -- Democrat Barbara Lee.
"I am convinced that military action will not prevent further acts of international terrorism against the United States," Lee said on the House floor on Sept. 15. "There must be some of us who say, 'Let's step back for a moment and think through the implications of our actions today -- let us more fully understand the consequences.'"
In the emotionally charged aftermath of the terrorist attacks, Lee's lone vote of dissent brought gridlock to the telephone system in her Capitol Hill office and threats against her life. In the wake of the vote, the Capitol Police assigned a detail of plainclothes officers to guard Lee 24 hours a day.
Lee, whose congressional district includes the liberal bastions of Berkeley and Oakland, is a former social worker who got her start in politics as an aide to legendary progressive Rep. Ron Dellums. When Dellums retired in 1998, Lee won his seat; she was reelected last year with 85 percent of the vote.
Lee, the daughter of a retired lieutenant colonel in the US Army, insists that she isn't a pacifist. Inevitably, however, she has been compared to Jeanette Rankin, the first woman elected to Congress, who in 1917 voted against the United States's entry into World War I and, later in her career, voted against declaring war on Japan in the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
This is not the first time Lee has taken a lonely stand against military action. In 1998, she was one of only five members of the House to vote against authorizing the bombing of Iraq over its refusal to allow weapons inspections by the United Nations. In 1999, she was the only member of the House to vote against sending US forces into Yugoslavia. Lee spoke with MotherJones.com on Sept. 19.
Mother Jones: I read that you made up your mind as you were sitting in the National Cathedral during the prayer service for the victims. You listened, as so many Americans did, to the dean of the National Cathedral as he prayed that "as we act, we not become the evil we deplore." At that moment, you said, you knew what you had to do.
Barbara Lee: Well, the vote was a very agonizing vote. Like the nation, I'm grieving and searching, in mourning, angry, trying to sort through all my feelings. I think everyone is doing that. And of course the memorial service was a time to really stop and reflect on all those who so tragically died, the victims and their families, and what an appropriate testimonial to them would be. ... And so in that context I was listening to the members of the clergy, searching to try and see if I could find some direction and clarity. You know, in moments like these -- when you're agonizing, when you're uncertain in terms of the ramifications of any very serious actions that you're going to take -- you have to go within, and use your head and your heart, and all the faculties that you have, to try to make decisions. And so, as I thought about that one line in the prayer, I said, "You know, this is the right vote -- you've got to vote no."
MJ: Did you know before casting your vote that you were likely to be the only dissenting member of Congress?
Lee: Oh, no -- I did not know that. Many members have these same concerns. The use of restraint is of concern to a lot of them. We don't want to see this spiral out of control; we don't want to see the cycle of violence continue.
We all agree that we've got to bring these terrorists to justice and to make sure that they're never allowed to perpetrate such an evil act as they did. And so all of us are dealing with that. We know that the President has the authority to go to war under the War Powers Act. The Congress has a responsibility to provide the checks and balances and to exercise some oversight. I don't believe that we should disenfranchise the people of America in the war-making decision-making process. At least minimally, we should be able to know which nation we're planning to attack and have some input into that. We should know what the exit strategy is. I'm not talking about all the details of a war plan, but certainly we should have more than a five-hour debate. To me, that's just not the best way to make public policy.
I'm convinced that Congress's role in this is to look at every dimension of international terrorism and to help develop a strategy to combat it, to stamp it out, and ensure the safety of our country. That's why I voted for the $40 billion [disaster recovery and antiterrorism package]. You know, some people don't think I should have voted for that. But I'm convinced that we've got to secure our airports, finance anti-terrorism programs, and provide the resources needed to deal with this -- as well as to help the communities recover, and the families of the victims.
Some people were calling me un-American and all that. I know that I'm unified with our country. I feel and I know that my actions are as American as anyone else's. I'm trying to preserve the people's right to have some kind of oversight and some say in the cycle of violence that could occur if we go into war without an end in sight.
MJ: Were you prepared, coming off the floor of the House, for what was to follow? I read, for example, that you have been assigned bodyguards.
Lee: I knew when I realized that I was the only "no" vote that there'd be a lot of attention. But it wasn't a calculated vote. It was a vote of conscience. So I had not planned what the consequences were. You know, people are angry, they're frustrated. I try to explain my position, but there are some people who are just angry, and that's understandable. But I believe that many people in our country -- in the way the e-mails, the faxes, and letters are coming in -- are beginning to understand what the use of restraint means. And believe me, they understand when you explain that this resolution gives up a congressional role in declaring war against a sovereign nation. And that's a fact, that's what this does. ... And that does not mean that you don't want these terrorists to come to justice, that you don't want to stamp out terrorism. That's not even a question.
I believe that the fervor and the pain of the moment have caused people, understandably, to react emotionally. And all I'm saying is that Congress should step back. Congress has got to be the body of government that does that. We are not the CIA, we are not the FBI, we are not the White House, we are not the Defense Department. We are the United States Congress; we have our role. And we can't give up that role during a national-security crisis. The President already has his role and his authority to do what he needs to do. We do have a unique position, and our Constitution demands it. And for those of us who love America and consider ourselves good Americans, pro-Americans, waving the flag, we want to preserve that democracy, especially in times of crisis, and we want to preserve civil liberties, and we know and understand that it's got to be balanced with public safety. Because we've got to secure the country, make sure that lives are not lost, and ensure that none of our actions create a spiral that could get out of control.
MJ: Do you feel, after the initial blast of anger, that you're hearing more from people who are in support of your position?
Lee: I think it's changed. We're keeping really good tabs on e-mails and calls. We haven't, of course, sorted through all of them, but nationally they're running, I think, 60, 70 percent support, and in my district we're up to 80 percent.
MJ: Do you think that our civil liberties are in danger in the aftermath of this tragedy? There's talk, for example, of changing the wiretap laws.
Lee: I think that there's going to be a rush to judgment on civil liberties, and a clamping down, a suspension of our democratic rights. And I believe that those who are good Americans would want to see this not happen and that we debate how to find a balance between the public safety and the protection of civil liberties. But if you have a five-hour debate, a rush to judgment, on a bill that Attorney General [John] Ashcroft puts forward, and you don't give the Congress any political support to oppose that or to provide ways to ensure this balance, you're in for a very scary period. We've got to be vigilant.
MJ: Do you think there are enough members of Congress who are concerned about the civil-liberties issues?
Lee: I hope so. ... Somehow the public -- once we bury our dead and get out of this mourning period -- has got to be on the Congress consistently with regard to their input into this. We gave away that franchise in the resolution on war-making powers. But on civil liberties, it's not too late.
MJ: Have any of your colleagues been angry with you?
Lee: Oh, no. Even Republicans with whom I disagree ideologically have told me that even though they really disagree with my vote they at least know that I believe in something. Many very conservative members have been quite respectful. I think that they all are struggling
through this. This was not any vote I cast to demonstrate any hostility toward any person or party or the Administration.
MJ: Last Friday night, on the House floor, you cited Wayne Morse, one of two senators who voted against the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which gave President Lyndon Johnson the power to wage war in Vietnam. You quoted Morse as saying, "I believe that history will record that we have made a grave mistake in subverting and circumventing the Constitution of the United States." Then you added: "Senator Morse was correct, and I fear we make the same mistake today." But don't you think that there's a loss of institutional memory on Capitol Hill, that there are Members of Congress who would say, "Wayne who?"
Lee: Oh, yes. So much today is poll-driven. You know, we need people to become empowered at this moment, now that our civil liberties are being eroded. We need people to become more involved in the political process. I believe that firmly.
I wish the press were paying more attention to the erosion of the Constitution and the slippery slope that we're getting into, by giving up the right of the Congress to talk about when and how and where we go to war. I don't think that's been covered enough, and it should be. That's an important right to preserve in a state of national crisis such as this.
Bill Hogan is Mother Jones' Washington, D.C. editor.
For the posted article and links from MotherJones.com visit:
http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/features/news/lee.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com--------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Space Weapon Ban is Key to Thwart Terrorism * Statement by Rep. Barbara Lee
21 September 2001
The first item in this issue shows the writing on the wall. No matter how ineffective, no matter the worsening condition of the economy, and the importance of focusing on the task at hand, Congress is now leaning towards giving the Bush administration all the funds it seeks for an offensive missile defense policy for dominating space that would kill the ABM and peaceful use of space treaties. This would accelerate the arms race and add to the proliferation and development of most all weapons of mass destruction.
The statement of the lone dissenting vote in Congress against a Resolution authorizing President Bush to use military force against anyone associated with the 9/11 terrorist attack is provided in item three. The words of Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) are profound, if we could only learn from our mistakes and history, we could hear her wisdom and concerns.
Item 2 is significant, especially if or when terrorists use a weapon of mass destruction, and then the slippery slope of chaos and ruin becomes more steep and further away from any possibility of a lasting peace and justice for humankind. The time to act responsibly is now. Call your elected Representative and let them know about your concerns and your understanding of how funding missile defense sends the wrong message in building a Coalition against Terrorism. The U.S. wants to dominate the world and receive cooperation at the same time, which leaves a gaping hole in its effectiveness to eradicate terrorism. Such policies polarizes the world more and torments those who are poor to the point of desperation, while the heavens become ineffectively armed in the ruthless struggle of control, violence, and fear. It is a downward spiral that cannot survive during these times of relatively easy access to many technologies and weapons of mass destruction.
The only hope in saving humanity from itself is for the US or terrorist groups to step out of the cycle of violence and the illusion that military might or chaos can result in a lasting peace and security for all remaining. The more likely candidate for fighting for peace is the US, and the statement of Thich Nhat Hanh makes this appeal clear and reasonable. Defeating Missile Defense is an important milestone in transforming the US military from trying to control Earth, to establishing true peace, justice and prosperity for all people in all nations. This action would isolate the terrorist and remove their incentives for bringing the world down into chaos. Already the economy is in Recession and headed for Depression, and unless our leaders and the voice of America can rise over the macho-ego response, the spiral of violence, and find a win/win settlement in stopping terrorism and promoting a united world, things can get rather grim. The key is for a united coalition to take aim on environmental and economic crises, and not acting in a way that creates more harm to more innocent lives.
The Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121
The White House Comment Line is 202-456-1111 ext. O
For the US Plan to Dominate Earth from Space, see "Vision 2020,"
http://www.af.mil/vision
For more on the following Video, see
http://home.earthlink.net/~envirovideo/
v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v
F l y b y N e w s
P r e s e n t s
EnviroVideo's
STAR WARS RETURNS
Written and Narrated by Karl Grossman
Tuesday, October 9, at the Brattleboro Library,
Main St, Brattleboro, VT; 7pm
and
Wednesday, October 10, at Amherst College's
Campus Center Theater, Amherst, MA; 7pm
Discussion will follow the 29 minute video on Actions planned in Amherst and Northampton, MA on October 13, 2001
The International Day to Protest the Weaponization of Space
1) Democrats Ready to Drop ABM Treaty on the Slippery Slope
2) Pentagon recommends use of nuclear weapons
3) Lone Voice * Statement of Rep. Barbara Lee
4) Peace Groups Are Urging Restraint
5) Dalai Lama urges U.S. to shun violence
6) Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh's response to the events last week.
Cultivating Compassion to Respond to Violence: The Way of Peace
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Democrats Ready to Drop ABM Treaty on the Slippery Slope
Monday September 17 6:49 PM ET
Dems to Drop Missile Defense Provision
By CAROLYN SKORNECK, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Looking to quickly approve new defense spending after last week's twin terror attacks, Senate Democrats are setting aside their effort to block money for any missile defense activity that would violate a 1972 arms control treaty.
Republicans had vehemently opposed the provision, saying it tied President Bush hands. It had been expected to trigger a fight on the Senate floor as lawmakers considered the $343 billion defense authorization bill for the year that begins Oct. 1.
Both parties are eager to approve the defense bill. So Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, in consultation with Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., decided to postpone any consideration of missile defense money until later.
``There will be an appropriate time to bring this up for debate, but this week is not the appropriate time,'' Daschle's spokeswoman, Anita Dunn, said Monday.
The version of the bill approved by the Republican-led House Armed Services Committee in July contains no such provision.
In the House, meanwhile, a key Republican is pressing to boost defense spending next year to about $384 billion in light of last week's terrorist attacks, up more than $40 billion over the amounts approved by the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. Rep. Duncan Hunter R-Calif., said some of the money could come from the $40 billion approved by Congress last week to respond to the terrorist attacks.
The $384 billion for defense work by the Defense and Energy departments would represent a $73 billion increase over this year's spending level, up by nearly one-quarter.
Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the House committee's research and development panel, said that along with including $34 billion to cover unfunded needs of the Pentagon - something the committee's top Democrat, Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, approves - it also would add $2 billion to the $8.2 billion the committee had approved for missile defense.
Two committee Democrats said after a closed-door briefing Friday on the attacks that they predicted the final bill would place a greater emphasis on short- and theater-range missile defenses.
Rep. Neil Abercrombie (news - bio - voting record), D-Hawaii, said an emphasis on short- and medium-range missile defense systems could come at the expense of national missile defense that would guard against intercontinental ballistic missiles.
But Hunter said he would fight any such move.
``It's totally illogical for any member of Congress to say that since we were just attacked by terrorist-commandeered aircraft, we shouldn't be building defenses against the long-range missiles that North Korea, Iraq and others are developing,'' he said. ``That's akin to saying we were just hit on the right flank, so let's not protect the left flank.''
Hunter conceded he did not yet have the support of committee Chairman Bob Stump, R-Ariz., the House GOP leadership or the White House.
The proposal also would add $1.4 billion to build more Tomahawk cruise missiles and other precision munitions, and could include several billion for improved radar capabilities.
Skelton, reached by phone at his office in Blue Springs, Mo., said he had not been told about the proposal but he ``absolutely'' favors the overall increase. He was, after all, the one who elicited the list of $34 billion unfunded needs from the service chief.
But he said he wants to see the details: ``I want to make sure it's spent correctly.''
= = = = = = = = = = =
Related Story
Space.com - September 20, 2001
MISSILE NEWS
- Powell, Ivanov Claim New Progress In US-Russo Arms Talks
http://spacedaily.com/news/010920032819.y1ceoxw9.html
WASHINGTON (AFP) Sept. 19, 2001 - US Secretary of State Colin Powell and his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov said Wednesday they believed progress had been made recently in thorny arms control talks that include discussions of Washington's controversial plans for a national missile shield.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Pentagon recommends use of nuclear weapons
Wednesday, September 19, 2001 at 09:30 JST
WASHINGTON The Defense Department has recommended to President George W. Bush the use of tactical nuclear weapons as a military option to retaliate for last week's terrorist attacks in the United States, diplomatic sources said Tuesday.
It is unknown whether Bush has made any decision. But military analysts said the president is unlikely to opt for the use of nuclear weapons because doing so would generate rebuke from the
international community and could even trigger revenge from the enemy involving weapons of mass destruction.
But the Pentagon's suggestion shows the determination of U.S. officials to retaliate for the first massive terrorist attacks on the U.S. mainland, the analysts said.
The recommendation appears intended to deter terrorists, they said.
On ABC television's THIS WEEK program Sunday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld refused to rule out the use of tactical nuclear weapons. He avoided clearly answering a simple question on whether their use can be ruled out. To a similar question, a Pentagon official also replied, "We
will not discuss operational and intelligence matters."
According to the diplomatic sources, the Pentagon recommended using tactical nuclear weapons shortly after it became known that an unprecedented number of civilian casualties resulted from the terrorist attacks.
On Sept 11, hijackers seized four commercial U.S. aircraft. Two of the planes slammed into the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center, while a third hit the Pentagon near Washington. The fourth plane crashed outside Pittsburgh. More than 5,000 people were left dead or missing in the attacks.
Tactical nuclear weapons have been developed to attack very specific targets. The military analysts said Pentagon officials are apparently thinking of using weapons that can reach and destroy terrorists hiding in an underground shelter, limiting damage to non-targets.
In 1986, the U.S. conducted an air raid on Libya, attempting to target Col. Muammar Qaddafi. In 1998, Washington fired a cruise missile into Afghanistan in an attempt to kill Osama bin Laden, whom the U.S. sees as behind last week's terrorist attacks.
The analysts said that since these attempts failed, it may be assumed that U.S. officials are mulling the use of tactical nuclear weapons, which can cause much greater destruction.
Declassified official documents show that since the mid-1990s, the U.S. has indicated that it does not rule out the use of nuclear weapons if a country attacks the U.S., its allies, or its forces with
chemical or biological weapons. (Kyodo News)
[For non-text portions of this message see:
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&id=78870 ]
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Story:
Russian Security Services Warn USA
Re: Next Targets Being Nuke Facilities
Tue, 18 Sep 2001 21:47:45 -0400
Russian television reported on Wednesday: "Our [Russian] security services are warning the United States that what happened on Tuesday is just the beginning, and that the next target of the terrorists will be an American nuclear facility."
http://www.thenation.com/docPrint.mhtml?i=special&s=bivens_wtc_20010916
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Lone Voice * Statement of Rep. Barbara Lee
Statement of Rep. Barbara Lee [House of Representatives, Sept. 14, 2001]:
Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart, one that is filled with sorrow for the families and loved ones who were killed and injured in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Only the most foolish or the most callous would not understand the grief that has gripped the American people and millions across the world.
This unspeakable attack on the United States has forced me to rely on my moral compass, my conscience, and my God for direction.
September 11 changed the world. Our deepest fears now haunt us. Yet I am convinced that military action will not prevent further acts of international terrorism against the United States.
I know that this use-of-force resolution will pass although we all know that the President can wage a war even without this resolution. However difficult this vote may be, some of us must urge the use of restraint. There must be some of us who say, let's step back for a moment and think through the implications of our actions today--let us more fully understand its consequences.
We are not dealing with a conventional war. We cannot respond in a conventional manner. I do not want to see this spiral out of control. This crisis involves issues of national security, foreign policy, public safety, intelligence gathering, economics, and murder. Our response must be equally multi-faceted.
We must not rush to judgment. Far too many innocent people have already died. Our country is in mourning. If we rush to launch a counter-attack, we run too great a risk that women, children, and other non-combatants will be caught in the crossfire.
Nor can we let our justified anger over these outrageous acts by vicious murderers inflame prejudice against all Arab Americans, Muslims, Southeast Asians, or any other people because of their race, religion, or ethnicity.
Finally, we must be careful not to embark on an open-ended war with neither an exit strategy nor a focused target. We cannot repeat past mistakes.
In 1964, Congress gave President Lyndon Johnson the power to ``take all necessary measures'' to repel attacks and prevent further aggression. In so doing, this House abandoned its own constitutional responsibilities and launched our country into years of undeclared war in Vietnam.
At that time, Senator Wayne Morse, one of two lonely votes against the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, declared, "I believe that history will record that we have made a grave mistake in subverting and circumventing the Constitution of the United States.........I believe that within the next century, future generations will look with dismay and great disappointment upon a Congress which is now about to make such a historic mistake.''
Senator Morse was correct, and I fear we make the same mistake today. And I fear the consequences.
I have agonized over this vote. But I came to grips with it in the very painful yet beautiful memorial service today at the National Cathedral. As a member of the clergy so eloquently said, "As we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore.''
* * *
For the Washington Post Article
"The Solitary Vote of Barbara Lee"
by Peter Carlson - September 19, 2001, see
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52813-2001Sep18.html
= = = = = = = = = = =
For more on Representative Barbara Lee's (D-CA) votes on Legislation Regarding the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001
See: http://www.house.gov/lee/Fact_Sheet_Votes.htm
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Peace Groups Are Urging Restraint
Students, Activists Set to Hold Rallies Across the Country
By Eric Pianin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 20, 2001; Page A04
Ending their silence after a week of mourning the victims of terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, a broad range of religious leaders, social activists, entertainers, student organizations and business figures are beginning to publicly urge President Bush to show restraint in his response and to carefully calibrate the use of U.S. military power.
As part of the budding peace offensive, over 1,200 members of the National Council of Churches and a diverse coalition -- organized by Harry Belafonte, Danny Glover and Rosa Parks -- issued strong statements yesterday noting that, while the attacks' perpetrators should be brought to justice, wholesale military action would incite more terrorism, not end it. Demonstrations and teach-ins are planned on scores of campuses today, and some of the groups that had geared up to protest the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington are joining forces, instead, in plans for a peace gathering here on Sept. 30.
Some protesters bring a special moral force to their argument. Judy Keane, whose husband, Richard, was killed in the World Trade Center during last week's attacks, spoke out against military retaliation during a prayer vigil that she helped organize near her home in Wethersfield, Conn., Sunday evening. The event drew more than 5,000 people.
"The World Trade Center [attack] was in retaliation for something else, and that was the retaliation for something else," she said in a telephone interview yesterday. "Are we going to continue this in perpetuity? We have to say at some point, okay, let's find another way of doing this."
Business executive and CNN founder Ted Turner argued against a military solution yesterday at the United Nations as he delivered a $31 million check to cover part of the United States' U.N. dues. "We should not, I don't think, go around and indiscriminately start bombing countries that we suspect the terrorists are in because there are terrorists everywhere, here in the United States," he said. "What were [Oklahoma City bombers] Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh but terrorists?"
The statement by the National Council of Churches declared: "We must not, out of anger and vengeance, indiscriminately retaliate in ways that bring on even more loss of innocent life." The coalition of more than 100 people organized by entertainers Belafonte and Glover and civil rights legend Rosa Parks said in a separate letter: "Our best chance of preventing such devastating acts of terror is to act decisively and cooperatively as part of a community of nations within the framework of international law."
Organizers say there is a fast-growing network of peace activists who will likely outnumber the demonstrators who rallied during the Persian Gulf War a decade ago. Student groups are planning peace demonstrations on 105 college campuses in 30 states today. More than 1,000 students and community members from nine Boston-area schools are expected to participate in noontime rallies that will converge in a march from Boston to Harvard Yard, while close to 3,000 are expected to march and mourn on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley.
"There's pretty much a consensus among students in this group [that] we want to prevent the continuation of the cycle of violence by averting war," said Brad Hornbake, 22, a senior at Emerson College in Boston.
Meanwhile, the Washington Peace Center, a pacifist and human rights group, is planning a major "peace event" in Washington on Sept. 30 as an alternative to the canceled meetings of the World Bank and IMF. Organizers stressed that the event will not involve any of the "confrontational tactics" that were used during previous meetings of the international agencies.
"We don't want the violence here to be perpetrated somewhere else," said Maria Ramos, a coordinator of the event. "The U.S. has the moral high ground now . . . . This is a time for building alliances based on law and strengthening international tribunals [for] cross-border terrorism."
Special correspondent Colum Lynch contributed to this report.
2001 The Washington Post Company
For the above Washington Post article and links
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59308-2001Sep19.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
5) Dalai Lama urges U.S. to shun violence
From Reuters News Service
CALCUTTA, India, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama urged the United States on Monday not to respond militarily to last week's devastating attacks, saying only non-violence could combat international terrorism.
"While I express my sympathy, I have appealed to the U.S. president not to respond with more violence as violence is not an appropriate answer," the Tibetan Buddhist leader told a news conference in Calcutta.
The Dalai Lama fled from his homeland to India with thousands of followers in 1959, nine years after the Chinese army entered Tibet and overthrew the Buddhist theocracy there.
The 1989 Nobel Peace Prize laureate's comments came after Pope John Paul appealed on Sunday to the world not to allow the attacks on New York and Washington to lead to more violence, and not to allow "a spiral of hate and violence" to prevail.
The United States has pledged to avenge the attacks by hijacked airliners that slammed into the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon near Washington last Tuesday.
NON-VIOLENCE ONLY ANSWER
"Most cases of violence only cause destruction...these things will have to be prevented the non-violent way. Only non-violent means can counter terrorism in the long-term," the Dalai Lama said.
The United States has said Islamic militant Osama bin Laden, harboured by Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, was the prime suspect behind the attacks in which some 5,000 people were killed or are missing.
Bin Laden, a 44-year-old multi-millionaire, has denied he was responsible, saying Afghanistan would not permit it.
The Dalai Lama said he believed there were numerous causes for the attacks.
"Every event has many causes...you can't just pick up one individual-- Osama bin Laden -- and say he was responsible. That is not realistic," said the Dalai Lama, whose exiled government accuses China of repression in Tibet.
"The economic gap between the rich and poor nations is one factor (that could have been responsible)," he said.
But the Dalai Lama said the attacks could not have been sanctified by any religion.
"The essence of all major religions is compassion, forgiveness, contentment, self-discipline and brotherhood," he said.
"Some people may only be using the name of religion to justify their actions," he said.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
6) Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh's formal response to the events last week.
Cultivating Compassion to Respond to Violence: The Way of Peace
All violence is injustice.
Responding to violence with violence is injustice, not only to the other person but also to oneself. Responding to violence with violence resolves nothing; it only escalates violence, anger and hatred. It is only with compassion that we can embrace and disintegrate violence. This is true in relationships between individuals as well as in relationships between nations. Many people in America consider Jesus Christ as their Lord, their spiritual ancestor and their teacher. We should heed His teachings especially during critical times like this. Jesus never encourages us to respond to acts of violence with violence. His teaching is, instead, to use compassion to deal with violence. The teachings of Judaism go very much in the same direction. Spiritual leaders of this country are invited to raise their voices, to bring about the awareness of this teaching to the American nation and people. What needs to be done right now is to recognize the suffering, to embrace it and to understand it. We need calmness and lucidity so that we can listen deeply to and understand our own suffering, the suffering of the nation and the suffering of others. By understanding the nature and the causes of the suffering, we will then know the right path to follow.
The violence and hatred we presently face has been created by misunderstanding, injustice, discrimination and despair. We are all co-responsible for the making of violence and despair in the world by our way of living, of consuming and of handling the problems of the world. Understanding why this violence has been created, we will then know what to do and what not to do in order to decrease the level of violence in ourselves and in the world, to create and foster understanding, reconciliation and forgiveness. I have the conviction that America possesses enough wisdom and courage to perform an act of forgiveness and compassion, and I know that such an act can bring great relief to America and to the world right away.
Thich Nhat Hanh
18 September, 2001
The Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh will be fasting from the 21st-30th September as a way of prayer in action. He invites all of his friends and disciples to join him in this prayer and meditation, wherever you may be and for however long you wish, in order to embrace all those who have died and all who are suffering from the recent tragedy. Those who plan to participate in this act of peace may like to e-mail us at mfmaster@vermontel.net, and to write a letter to the President and to their Congresspeople to inform them of your intentions.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
NGO Statement * Vulnerability and Choices Remain for Uncertain Peace
16 September 2001
OCTOBER 13 - NOW MORE THAN EVER
By Bruce Gagnon
Dear Friends:
I've heard from several folks who wonder if our plans for October 13 are still on. The answer is yes, yes, yes. Now more than ever.
Bush and Congress are moving money in truck loads to the Pentagon and aerospace industry for Star Wars research and development. Just last night Congress voted to give Bush $40 billion to handle this new crisis.
It is my feeling that our October 13 Int'l Day of Protest to Stop the Militarization of Space needs to be broadened to include the coming reality of war preparation. I strongly suggest that when possible our actions try to incorporate the following:
Oppose preparations for war. Revenge and the likely killing of more innocent people will only fuel the fires of hatred and terrorism
U.S. "control and domination" of space or the Earth below only creates more global instability
Deployments of Theatre Missile Defense (TMD) in the Middle East and Asia will escalate tensions and conditions for war in those regions
Cuts in social security and other social spending programs are likely results of massive military expansion
NATO's plan to "support" U.S. military action will essentially give the alliance the excuse to permanently "occupy" the Middle East. (Former President Bill Clinton called for this very thing when he ran for president the first time.)
American people must acknowledge that there are root causes for the tremendous anger against our government and we must deal with them
The tragic incidents of September 11 reveal how Star Wars will not offer any real protection from those who are determined to attack the U.S.
We must remind the public that many of those suspected as the leaders of this terror were trained by the CIA
We must defend our constitutional rights to peacefully assemble and speak
In times like this we must all show great courage. Our views might not appear popular as the public casts about looking for answers and revenge. But in fact many people will respond positively to our call that violence begets more violence. Our October 13 actions should be used to convey this message.
For the list of 246 Endorsing Organizations of the International Day of Protest to Stop the
Militarization of Space and locations of 90 action sites for protests on October 13, link to:
http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk/actions/oct01.htm
= = = = = = = = =
Editor's Note:
My daughter challenged me the other day about what sort of impact does anyone have to influence such events now taking shape. I have to admit that I am uncertain, but only know that we must continue to try to awaken the world to a new shift of consciousness, so we are not led by past mistakes and find a new way in learning and responding for a sustainable future for all life. One thing is for certain, only with a united front do we have any chance to eventually reach the critical mass for positive change that would end the vulnerability of non-effective deterrent and offensive war policies that actually create proliferation of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, and provide incentives and easy targets for terrorist acts.
To add to the excellent suggestions of Bruce Gagnon for actions on October 13, please keep in touch with the proposals of Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich. Besides his space weapon ban legislation to be announced on October 2, 2001, the Congressman has also proposed other legislation introduced in the US House of Representatives (H.R.2459) to establish a Department of Peace. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c107:h.r.2459:
Yet all peace efforts has taken a blow with the gripping images of the Twin Towers collapsing and the Pentagon on fire. Power without wisdom becomes a fool-hearty force that can consume itself with arrogance and ignorance of how vulnerable our world has become. Following are examples and reasoning for the consideration of transforming policies for peace, because if we continue on our pathway of vulnerability by the technologies and weapons of destruction that we have spread throughout the world, the hell in NYC this past week could be minuscule compared to the reality of destruction we can witness in our future.
1) NGO Statement on the attacks in the US
2) Report of Missile Defense Plan Buoyed by a Bipartisan Mood
3) U.S. shouldn't fight violence with violence
4) Bin Laden's CIA ties come home to roost
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) NGO Statement on the attacks in the US
The organizations signed below wish to express their sincere sorrow for the enormous loss of life in the United States today. Our heartfelt condolences go out to the families and friends of the victims throughout the world as well as to the American people.
We condemn all acts of terrorism, whether state sanctioned or the actions of individuals or small groups, as indefensible.
These tragic events show us that our current strategies are not effective.
The US has been attempting to construct artificial walls around its nation through schemes such as the National Missile Defense proposal. It is clear that no amount of military spending could have prevented the attacks witnessed by the world today.
We call for a calm response in the face of this tragedy. The world needs to take a deep breath and not take rash and counterproductive steps in retaliation for these attacks. Retaliation can never be justified, and will only serve to perpetuate a cycle of violence.
We call on the international community not to allow this atrocity to increase hatred, racial and religious intolerance. We encourage our leaders to view this as an opportunity to assist the US and the world in its search for peaceful solutions to conflicts.
We add our voices to those of colleagues around the world who recognize that true security can only be rooted in social and environmental justice.
Signed:
Australian groups:
The Wilderness Society
Earth Worker
Friends of Palestine
Friends of the Earth Australia
Action for Peace
Canberra Program for Peace
Rev. Ray Richmond, Wayside Chapel, uniting Church in Australia
Australian AntiBases Campaign Coalition
Campaign for International Cooperation and Disarmament (CICD)
Two Billion Voices for Peace
Environment Centre of the Northern Territory
Albury-Wodonga Environment Centre
National Union of Students (NUS)
Medical Assocn.for the Prevention of War (WA)
SA Nuclear Free Future
Everyone for a Nuclear Free Future, SA
Grass Roots Resource Centre (Brisbane)
Ecoteam in Brisbane
Ausnews Global Network
Justice for Refugees
Coalition for Justice
UNSW Centre for Refugee Research
ANCORW (The Australian National Committee on Refugee Women)
Kelly Hoare, ALP Federal Member for Charlton
UK Organisations
Sussex Peace Alliance
US ORGANISATIONS
Nevada desert Experience
Flyby News and other NGO's (Non Government Organizations) are being added to this list. The document will be sent to President Bush, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, US Congressional leaders, Tony Blair, US Allies. Please feel welcomed to use any of it for a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. If your Organization wants to sign this statement, please contact John Hallam < nonukes@foesyd.org.au >.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Report of Missile Defense Plan Buoyed by a Bipartisan Mood
September 14, 2001
THE MISSILE DEBATE
Shield Plan Buoyed by a Bipartisan Mood
By ADAM CLYMER
New York Times
WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 - The suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon appear to have strengthened, not weakened, the prospects for Congressional support of President Bush's missile defense plan.
Representative David R. Obey of Wisconsin, the senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said that even though the attacks showed that the biggest threat to the nation was from terrorism, Congressional reluctance to oppose the president at this time seemed likely to overwhelm that circumstance.
One Democratic senator after another, while stopping short of Mr. Obey's blunt prediction, said they felt that this was no time for partisanship - and the ballistic missile issue is inevitably partisan.
Moreover, the money issue has all but disappeared, swept away by Congress's sudden post-attack willingness to tap the Social Security surplus for all forms of defense. That has weakened the argument that the president's request for $8.3 billion for an antimissile system would divert needed money from more pressing dangers like terrorism, critics of the plan concede.
"We have enough resources to do both," said Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania.
Before the attacks, the Senate Armed Services Committee had recommended cutting $1.3 billion from Mr. Bush's request of $8.3 billion for all forms of missile defense, including the uncontroversial shield for troops in the field with weapons like Patriot missiles. The cut in the antiballistic missile program would amount to $510 million out of a requested $3.94 billion. Committee aides said the administration request was for more than it could realistically spend in the year beginning Oct. 1.
But the committee's more serious challenge to the administration was an effort to ban any testing that would violate the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, which Mr. Bush wants to abandon.
That prohibition led Donald H. Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, to say that he would urge a Bush veto if the language survived on the Senate floor and in a Senate-House conference.
It is now singularly at risk because of Congress's readiness to rally behind Mr. Bush in the wake of the attacks.
Tom C. Collina, director of global security for the Union of Concerned Scientists, one of the leading foes of the antimissile plan, said, "There's a real danger because of this crisis that the Democrats will give up this fight, which would be a real shame."
The subject is not being openly debated. Instead, lawmakers, eager to present a united front, are trying to avoid contentious issues in the wake of Tuesday's attacks. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski, Democrat of Maryland, who has argued in the past that terrorism was a bigger threat than a rogue missile, said, "Nobody wants to say `I told you so.' "
But a few Democratic critics said the devastation caused by hijacked airliners showed the administration was focusing on the wrong threat. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California said: "I think we probably will not argue about it now. But eventually there will come a realization that these planes were missiles a defense shield could not defend against."
Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota, chairman of the Budget Committee, said: "What we see here is that we are much more vulnerable" to terrorism than to missiles. "We've got to use our resources to defend against this sort of attack."
Republican supporters of the president drew a different lesson. "What Tuesday showed is that attacks can come in many different forms," said Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.
Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi said: "We can't predict what our enemies are going to use as a way to intimidate or harm us or our country. We can't just single out one or two things to work on."
Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee said, "To say that because yesterday's attack came from this direction, then tomorrow's can't come from another direction is foolish."
At the White House today, Ari Fleischer, the press secretary, insisted that there was no question of balancing threats from terrorism and from missiles. He said: "The two are not connected. The United States still faces risks of many natures. This was a terrorist risk that was carried out in a different form of delivery, within our borders. But that does not mean there are not other threats out there that also need to be addressed, per missile defense." And he observed that the government was spending much more money on terrorism, "lopsidedly, overwhelmingly," than on missile defense.
In the House, Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, the minority leader, said "we will continue to see if we can divert some of this money" from missile defense to antiterrorism activities.
But Mr. Obey, who was hopeful before the attacks that the administration's request would be trimmed, said he had no idea now whether that could be done. "It is times like this when the political system produces some of the craziest results and some of the biggest mistakes."
And an aide to a House Democrat who opposes missile defense explained, "What happened Tuesday was just so terrible that people are rallying round, saying we have to let the president lead us. So we're going to give him a lot of leeway."
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) U.S. shouldn't fight violence with violence
By Stephen Zunes
Originally published September 12, 2001
SAN FRANCISCO - Terrorism is not rational, but an emotive reaction by frustrated and angry people. Yet the common reaction to terrorism is often no less rational, no less a reaction by a frustrated and angry people.
It would behoove this great nation not to respond to yesterday's terrorist attack on America in ways that would restrict civil liberties, particularly if the terrorists are from an immigrant community. Already, analogies are being drawn to Pearl Harbor, which resulted in the internment of tens of thousands of loyal U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry.
It is also important that the United States not retaliate militarily in a blind dramatic matter, as has been done in the past. In 1997, in retaliation for the terrorist attacks of two U.S. embassies in Africa, the United States bombed a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan that supplied more than half the antibiotics and vaccines for that impoverished country. The Clinton administration falsely claimed it was a chemical weapons plant controlled by an exiled Saudi terrorist.
In 1986, the United States bombed two Libyan cities, killing scores of civilians, in response to the bombing of a West German discotheque that killed American servicemen. Though the United States claimed it would curb Libyan-backed terrorism, Libyan intelligence operatives ended up blowing up a U.S. airliner in retaliation.
Military responses usually result only in a spiral of violent retaliation. Similarly, simply bombing other countries after the fact will not protect lives. Indeed, it will likely result in what Pentagon planners euphemistically call "collateral damage," i.e., the deaths of civilians just as innocent as those killed in New York City. And survivors bent on revenge.
Today, in the Middle East, the United States backs an occupying Israeli army as well as corrupt autocratic Arab dictatorships, which kill innocent civilians using weapons our government supplies. We justify supporting these repressive governments in the name of defending our strategic interests in that important region. Ironically, it is just such policies that may have provoked these terrorist attacks, inevitably raising the question as to whether our security interests are really enhanced through such militarization.
Even when the United States puts itself forward as a peacemaker, as with the Camp David accords that led to the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979, it may look very different to those in the region.
Indeed, not only did it avoid resolving the Palestinian question - the key to peace in the Middle East - but the accords more closely resembled a tripartite military pact than a real peace agreement in that it resulted in tens of billions of dollars worth of additional American armaments flowing into that already overly militarized region.
It is no coincidence that terrorist groups have arisen in an area where the world's one remaining superpower puts far more emphasis on weapons shipments and air strikes than on international law or human rights and even blocks the United Nations from sending human rights monitors or enforcing its own resolutions against an ally.
Nor is it surprising that superpower would eventually find itself on the receiving end of a violence backlash.
Similarly, it is not surprising that in the Middle East and other parts of the world that have suffered violence, some people have the perverse reaction of celebrating that the United States has now also experienced such a massive and violent loss of life on its own soil.
These tragedies remind us of the need to focus not on unworkable missile defense projects but instead on improved intelligence and interdiction.
Instead of continuing the cycle of violence, we need to re-evaluate policies that lead to such anger and resentment.
Instead of lashing out against perceived hostile communities, we need to recognize that America's greatest strength is not in our weapons of destruction, but the fortitude and caring of its people.
* * *
Stephen Zunes is a senior policy analyst and Middle East editor for the Foreign Policy in Focus project. He is an associate professor of politics and chair of the Peace & Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco.
For original posting of this article see,
http://www.sunspot.net/bal-op.terrorism12sep12.story
Copyright 2001, The Baltimore Sun
= = = = = = = = = = = =
Related Stories:
Hanford vulnerable to air strike
Nuclear reservation with tons of plutonium on highest alert
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=091301&ID=s1022952&cat=section.regional
= = = = = =
RUSSIAN NUCLEAR REACTORS ARE NOT
PROTECTED AGAINST TERROR
Environmental activists calls to shut down nuclear
reactors to avoid Chernobyl style' terrorists attack
http://www.ecodefense.ru
For more info call: +7(095)2784642,
e-mail: ecodefense@online.ru
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Bin Laden's CIA ties come home to roost
Bin Laden comes home to roost
His CIA ties are only the beginning of a woeful story
By Michael Moran MSNBC
http://msnbc.com/news/190144.asp?cp1=1
NEW YORK, Aug. 24, 1998 - At the CIA, it happens often enough to have a code name: Blowback. Simply defined, this is the term that describes an agent, an operative or an operation that has turned on its creators. Osama bin Laden, our new public enemy Number 1, is the personification of blowback. And the fact that he is viewed as a hero by millions in the Islamic world proves again the old adage: Reap what you sow.
BEFORE YOU CLICK on my face and call me naive, let me concede some points. Yes, the West needed Josef Stalin to defeat Hitler. Yes, there were times during the Cold War when supporting one villain (Cambodia's Lon Nol, for instance) would have been better than the alternative (Pol Pot). So yes, there are times when any nation must hold its nose and shake hands with the devil for the long-term good of the planet.
But just as surely, there are times when the United States, faced with such moral dilemmas, should have resisted the temptation to act. Arming a multi- national coalition of Islamic extremists in Afghanistan during the 1980s - well after the destruction of the Marine barracks in Beirut or the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 - was one of those times.
BIN LADEN'S BEGINNINGS
As anyone who has bothered to read this far certainly knows by now, bin Laden is the heir to Saudi construction fortune who, at least since the early 1990s, has used that money to finance countless attacks on U.S. interests and those of its Arab allies around the world.
Osama bin Laden's network
As his unclassified CIA biography states, bin Laden left Saudi Arabia to fight the Soviet army in Afghanistan after Moscow's invasion in 1979. By 1984, he was running a front organization known as Maktab al-Khidamar - the MAK - which funneled money, arms and fighters from the outside world into the Afghan war.
What the CIA bio conveniently fails to specify (in its unclassified form, at least) is that the MAK was nurtured by Pakistan's state security services, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, the CIA's primary conduit for conducting the covert war against Moscow's occupation.
By no means was Osama bin Laden the leader of Afghanistan's mujahedeen. His money gave him undue prominence in the Afghan struggle, but the vast majority of those who fought and died for Afghanistan's freedom - like the Taliban regime that now holds sway over most of that tortured nation - were Afghan nationals.
Yet the CIA, concerned about the factionalism of Afghanistan made famous by Rudyard Kipling, found that Arab zealots who flocked to aid the Afghans were easier to "read" than the rivalry-ridden natives. While the Arab volunteers might well prove troublesome later, the agency reasoned, they at least were one-dimensionally anti-Soviet for now. So bin Laden, along with a small group of Islamic militants from Egypt, Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestinian refugee camps all over the Middle East, became the "reliable" partners of the CIA in its war against Moscow.
WHAT'S 'INTELLIGENT' ABOUT THIS?
Though he has come to represent all that went wrong with the CIA's reckless strategy there, by the end of the Afghan war in 1989, bin Laden was still viewed by the agency as something of a dilettante - a rich Saudi boy gone to war and welcomed home by the Saudi monarchy he so hated as something of a hero.
America strikes back
In fact, while he returned to his family's construction business, bin Laden had split from the relatively conventional MAK in 1988 and established a new group, al-Qaida, that included many of the more extreme MAK members he had met in Afghanistan.
Most of these Afghan vets, or Afghanis, as the Arabs who fought there became known, turned up later behind violent Islamic movements around the world. Among them: the GIA in Algeria, thought responsible for the massacres of tens of thousands of civilians; Egypt's Gamat Ismalia, which has massacred western tourists repeatedly in recent years; Saudi Arabia Shiite militants, responsible for the Khobar Towers and Riyadh bombings of 1996.
Indeed, to this day, those involved in the decision to give the Afghan rebels access to a fortune in covert funding and top-level combat weaponry continue to defend that move in the context of the Cold War. Sen. Orrin Hatch, a senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee making those decisions, told my colleague Robert Windrem that he would make the same call again today even knowing what bin Laden would do subsequently. "It was worth it," he said.
"Those were very important, pivotal matters that played an important role in the downfall of the Soviet Union," he said.
HINDSIGHT OR TUNNEL VISION
It should be pointed out that the evidence of bin Laden's connection to these activities is mostly classified, though its hard to imagine the CIA rushing to take credit for a Frankenstein's monster like this.
It is also worth acknowledging that it is easier now to oppose the CIA's Afghan adventures than it was when Hatch and company made them in the mid-1980s. After all, in 1998 we now know that far larger elements than Afghanistan were corroding the communist party's grip on power in Moscow.
Even Hatch can't be blamed completely. The CIA, ever mindful of the need to justify its "mission," had conclusive evidence by the mid-1980s of the deepening crisis of infrastructure within the Soviet Union. The CIA, as its deputy director William Gates acknowledged under congressional questioning in 1992, had decided to keep that evidence from President Reagan and his top advisors and instead continued to grossly exaggerate Soviet military and technological
capabilities in its annual "Soviet Military Power" report right up to 1990.
Given that context, a decision was made to provide America's potential enemies with the arms, money - and most importantly - the knowledge of how to run a war of attrition violent and well-organized enough to humble a superpower.
That decision is coming home to roost.
[Michael Moran is MSNBC's International Editor]
http://msnbc.com/news/190144.asp?cp1=1
= = = = = = = =
Related 9/16/01 NYTimes story:
Lawmakers See Need to Loosen Rules on CIA
Congressional leaders have concluded that America's spy agencies should combat terrorism with more aggressive tactics.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/16/international/16INTE.html?todaysheadlines
= = = = = = = =
Who Is Osama Bin Laden?
by Michel Chossudovsky
The URL of this article is:
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO109C.html
Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa
Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG), Montral
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
-------------------------------------------------------------------http://www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Even in the Wake of Tragedy: "Space-Based Weaponry is Irrational"
13 September 2001
Osama bin Laden Is More American Than He Thinks and Visa Versa
Bush and bin Laden are caught in a web, in a cycle of violence. They are focused on their differences, their religions, and their righteousness about their perspectives of what is good and what is evil. They have egos. They have convinced themselves that they are honoring their family, country, Creator, and sadly, events become more predictable in their widening paths toward their extreme positions. The picture is not all black and white. American leadership should realize this, and take measures now to transform former policies that would have spent billions of dollars on Missile Defense ineffectively, to a policy that unites most all the world for mutual assurances of peace, health and mutual well-being.
In honor of the people harmed and families suffering, please keep working to end the campaign that would bring weapons into the heavens that would create more instability on Earth. On Tuesday, October 2, 2001, Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich will introduce legislation to ban space-based weapons. You can help pass such legislation by showing "Weapons in Space" by EnviroVideo in a public forum or at a community access cable television station and contacting your elected representatives. We are at a critical point and time, and weapons in outer space could tilt the balance into an unretrievable dive into chaos and destruction to most all life.
"Instead of lashing out against perceived hostile communities, we need to recognize that America's greatest strength is not in our weapons of destruction, but the fortitude and caring of its people." --Stephen Zunes
1. Even in the Wake of Tragedy: "Space-Based Weaponry is Irrational"
2. Nuclear Power Plants easy targets for terrorists
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Even in the Wake of Tragedy: "Space-Based Weaponry is Irrational"
SAN FRANCISCO, CA. - In the aftermath of the tragedies at the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, and the downed airliner near Pittsburgh, Pa., renowned attorney Daniel Sheehan, Director and General Counsel and Director of the Institute for Cooperation in Space, has publicly spoken out, calling "space-based weapons, ballistic missile defense irrational."
"Above all we should now realize that the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars on the construction of an anti-ballistic missile system (the so-called "missile shield") is clearly not a realistic or potentially effective response to an event of this complex nature. We should be on guard against those who would use this incident as an irrational source of support for such an irrational program," Sheehan states.
"The expenditure of hundred of billions of dollars, or any dollars at all, on an irrational missile shield system is most certainly not to be included in how we respond," Daniel Sheehan concludes. Sheehan, a Harvard Law School graduate, who is famous for an impressive body of legal work including the Karen Silkwood case, Pentagon Papers case, Three Mile Island, and the Iran Contra case, states, "At a point in time like this in the lives of our human family it is essential that everyone remain calm, that we extend our prayers and condolences to all of the families of those killed and injured and pray for the recovery of those who are still in danger."
Sheehan continues, "It is equally important that we refrain from resorting to threats of physical violence against those whom we suspect may be responsible. However, it is essential that we respond to tragic actions of this nature by accurately and calmly assessing all of the factors which have contributed to its occurrence and that we craft steps to be taken to prevent incidents of this nature in the future."
"The policies of the US government and of a number of Middle Eastern nations and the non-rational invocations of cultural values have led to this complex tragedy," Sheehan says.
"Only a careful and rational analysis will demonstrate the degree of respect that we must pay to those who have died today," says Sheehan. "The period of mourning for our dead must be characterized by a calm and responsible analysis of what we must do to prevent a reoccurrence of such a tragedy and what we must do to begin to untie the complex knots of policy which have led to this tragedy."
CONTACT:
Daniel Sheehan 415-479-7795
ds@peaceinspace.com
Dr. Carol Rosin 805-641-1999
csr@peaceinspace.com
MORE INFORMATION: http://www.peaceinspace.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Nuclear Power Plants easy targets for terrorists
Nation & World 9/17/01
A nuclear nightmare
They look tough, but some plants are easy marks for terrorists
BY DOUGLAS PASTERNAK
He called it Project Worst Nightmare. And in the twisted mind of Donald Beauregard, commander of the 77th Regiment Militia in St. Petersburg, Fla., it surely was. Beauregard's plan was simpledisable the electric power grid feeding the nearby Crystal River nuclear power plant with explosives stolen from a National Guard armory. That would shut down the plant, blacking out St. Petersburg. This was no idle fantasy. When the cops finally caught up with him, Beauregard and his "strike team" had a 20-mm cannon, a .50-caliber machine gun, and a few pipe bombs primed to blow.
Beauregard might have succeeded if an informant hadn't tipped the police. He was prosecuted and clapped off to prison last year. But the FBI took Beauregard's plan seriously enough to incorporate it into a test it ran last May against the Palo Verde nuclear generating station in Arizona.
And here lies the rub. In the past decade, nearly half the nation's 103 power plants have failed mock terrorist attacks against them. The plants that failed, in other words, would not have stopped the Donald Beauregards of the world.
For full story see: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/010917/usnews/nukes.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The Sky(scraper) Is Falling -- Commentary by Russell D. Hoffman
Editor's note: This following statement was excerpted.
For full text contact: rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com:
September 11th, 2001
Fellow Citizens:
If I had told you, yesterday, that today two commercial airplanes, loaded with passengers and fueled for cross-country flights, would crash into New York City's World Trade Center, one into each of the twin tower buildings, and that shortly thereafter both towers would come crashing to the ground, and also told you that the Pentagon would be hit at about the same time, and another plane would be brought down too, you would have called me "Chicken Little".
America's nuclear power plants are vulnerable. And don't call me Chicken Little.
It should be obvious now that we have no reason to think the nuclear containment domes are safe from planes. But in any event, many of the systems vital to keeping a nuclear power plant from melting down are located OUTSIDE the containment dome, including the control room, the primary coolant pumps, and other systems. There are numerous holes in the containment dome for pipes, wire, personnel, and equipment to go through. Accidents outside a containment dome can affect systems inside the containment dome, and a subsequent meltdown inside the containment dome WILL release radioactivity to the environment.
A meltdown at a nuclear power plant would be 1000 times worse than everything we saw today.
There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that a meltdown would have occurred if one of the hijacked airplanes had been flown into a nuclear power plant. We can be thankful the hijackers passed over these targets.
The spent fuel pools are outside the containment dome, providing an even easier target than the containment dome. And, spent fuel storage casks located near some reactors can also be potential targets, and thus add significantly to the danger at those facilities.
In short, America's nuclear power plants are extremely vulnerable. And don't call me Chicken Little.
Our nation's firemen and other emergency personnel are NOT adequately trained or equipped for handling a severe nuclear radiation emergency, and the evacuation plans for nuclear power plants are absolute garbage.
Everyone recognizes what an incredible job the firefighters, police, and other emergency personnel must be doing, but their task today pales when compared to what emergency personnel would face if a nuke plant was attacked.
All nuclear reactors need to be shut down immediately and permanently, and their waste needs to be stored underground. (However, I am not advocating Yucca Mountain as a solution.)
Clean, renewable energy solutions do exist, and they are far less vulnerable to terrorism and other calamities than our nuclear power plants, and provide cheaper energy as well. Perhaps quickly switching to safe renewable energy solutions would cause some temporary hardship, but nothing is impossible for our great nation, if we recognize our vulnerabilities and seek to eliminate them as quickly as possible.
Sincerely,
Russell Hoffman
Concerned Citizen
Carlsbad, CA
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
-------------------------------------------------------------------http://www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Terror * Michio Kaku - Weapons in Space * Congressional Bill * Astronaut's View
11 September 2001
DAY OF TERROR
Two planes crash into World Trade Center, tower collapses
Plane crashes into Pentagon
Bush calls trade center crashes terrorist act
White House, Capitol, State Department, evacuated
FAA grounds all flights nationwide
www.cnn.com
Editor's Note:
Just before sending this issue to Flyby News subscribers, I received a call about the attacks on the World Trade Center in NYC and on the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. This should only add greater urgency to ban space weapons and support endeavors for peace, justice, and true and effective national defense policies.
Following is an eloquent, direct and purposeful statement made by Michio Kaku as an introduction for Karl Grossman's latest work, Weapons in Space, published by Seven Stories Press.*
Foreword By Dr. Michio Kaku
When historians write the history of the 20th century, they will remark that the threat of all-out nuclear war, involving a cataclysmic exchange of tens of thousands of hydrogen bombs between the two superpowers, receded with the ending of the Cold War.
But just when one danger is fading, another one is rising ominously. Instead of ushering in an era of peace and prosperity, the beginning of the 21st century, historians will note, saw increased militarization, marked by the weaponization of outer space. They will remark that this represented a missed opportunity of enormous dimensions. Right before our eyes, the prospects of banning nuclear weapons is slipping through our fingers.
Unfortunately, most people are not aware of this. Vaguely hearing of arms control talks at the United Nations, people have been lulled to sleep, thinking that the great powers are finally dismantling their weapons.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. Sadly, the U.S. military is dangerously pursuing its goal of military superiority, even though there is not an enemy in sight.
The U.S. military is shadow boxing with itself.
The weaponization of space represents a real threat to the security of everyone on Earth. Not only will this squander hundreds of billions in taxpayer dollars, which are better spent on education, health, housing, and the welfare of the people, it will greatly accelerate a new arms race in space, with other nations working feverishly to penetrate a U.S. Star Wars program, or to build one themselves. A whole new round of the arms race could begin.
Ironically, it is the U.S. that stands to lose the most in such a race to militarize outer space. It is the U.S., not China or Russia, which is highly dependent on a vulnerable, fragile network of communication satellites. It is the U.S., not the developing countries, which has a high concentration of resources centered on just a handful of cities. In case of war, the U.S. would suffer greatly, its satellites blinded by anti-satellite weapons, its communication centers neutralized.
The time to stop this madness, therefore, is now, while the Star Wars program is still in its infancy. That is why this book is so important. It raises the people's awareness about a matter which is largely ignored by the established media. Once again, Karl Grossman has done a great public service in unmasking the true nature of weapons in space, which would not be shields of peace, but weapons of war. Mr. Grossman's efforts in alerting the people to the true danger posed by the weaponization of space have greatly aided the cause for world peace.
Michio Kaku is the Henry Semat Professor of Theoretical Physics at City University of New York.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"The consequences of the proposed National Missile Defense, designed to enhance the United States first strike' capability, are alarming enough: nuclear conflict, more likely, a new nuclear arms race, the destruction of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Yet it is just the precursor to the even more frightening scenario that Karl Grossman sets before us: an all powerful United States using space to dominate a unipolar world to further its own interests. Real security is mutual and will be based on trust and equality in a mulitpolar world. None of us will be free until we are all free." Dave Knight, chair, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, United Kingdom
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
WEAPONS OF SPACE by Karl Grossman can be ordered by calling Seven Stories Press at 1-800-596-7437 or through their website, www.sevenstories.com
[Priced at $6.95 USA, 10.50 Canada and 4.99 U.K.]
Reminder: NOW is the best time to call your elected representatives. The US Congress will be deciding in the coming days how much money to give to the Pentagon in 2002 for Star Wars Research and Development. George W. Bush is requesting $8.3 billion in FY 2002 for the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO).
The Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space recently released this statement:
"On September 7 the Senate Armed Services Committee voted 13-12, along party lines, to recommend $7 billion in 2002 for Star Wars research and development. The recommendation would have the funds transferred to other Pentagon priorities.
While the Democrats on the committee stated that the $7 billion would be a cut from Bush's requested amount of $8.3 billion, they also reassured the public that it was still a 37% increase over Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) funding levels in 2001.
Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) told a news conference that the $7 billion would still provide large increases for both Theatre Missile Defense (TMD) and National Missile Defense (NMD).
The House Armed Services Committee, on August 1 recommended $8.2 billion for BMDO in 2002.
The full House and Senate still have to debate the 2002 funding levels in the coming weeks and several amendments will be expected as opponents attempt to seriously cut Star Wars funding.
The Global Network maintains that research and development for all BMDO programs must be zero funded if we are to prevent an arms race in space. Just the process alone of Pentagon and aerospace corporation Star Wars research and development is destabilizing as the message is sent to the rest of the world that the U.S. intends to follow through with plans for "control and domination" of space.
History shows that with each advancement of weapons technology a new arms race has always followed. We urge all concerned citizens to do all they can to oppose all BMDO funding for 2002 and beyond."
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, FL. 32607
(352) 337-9274
globalnet@mindspring.com
http://www.space4peace.org
* To order "Star Wars Returns" video, send $21.95 ($19.95 + $2 s&h)
{institutions $49.95 + $2 s&h} to
EnviroVideo
Box 311
Ft. Tilden, NY 11695
Please use such resources to help stop the escalation of the arms race into space.
The US Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Kucinich Congressional Bill -- October 2, 2001 -- to Ban Space-based Weapons
WASHINGTON, D.C. - On Tuesday, October 2, 2001 Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) will introduce into the U.S. Congress land-mark legislation to ban space-based weapons.
About his space-based weapons bill Kucinich says, "We signed the ABM treaty nearly 30 years ago; which requires a reduction in strategic arms, nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. Weaponization of space clearly violates that treaty. My bill will call for an immediate and permanent termination of research, testing, manufacturing, production and deployment of all space-based weapons systems and components by any person, agency or contractor of the U.S. government."
A ban on space-based weapons is supported by three long-time proponents of peace in space, all directors of the Institute for Cooperation in Space (ICIS), a nonprofit foundation. ICIS was formed: (1) to focus attention on this legislation and a forthcoming world treaty to ban all space-based weapons, (2) to transform the space-based weapons industry into a world cooperative space industry, (3) to apply alternative energy and other technologies to solving urgent and potential human and the environmental problems, and (4) to educate about who we are in relation to the universe though the MISSION POSSIBLE plan of action.
Dr. Carol Rosin, President of ICIS, a former educator, space and missile defense consultant, aerospace executive and spokesperson for the late Dr. Wernher von Braun, "father of rocketry," has testified before the US Congress and international leaders. According to Military Space (July '84) "Rosin is regarded to be the original political architect of the move to stop the SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) and ASATs (Anti-satellite weapons)."
Rosin says, "We've learned that stating the dangers, costs, and fallacies of the space-based weapon system will not stop them from being researched and developed, whether it is called the SDI, NMD, BMD or Star Wars. We've heard the ever-changing rationales for why this system is supposedly needed. In fact, under the guise of national security' and it's only research(!)' this has become the largest R&D program in history. We are calling for just the removal of the mandate to weaponize space and, simultaneously, for continued non-space-
based weapons civil, military and commercial space R&D, applications and exploration."
"This bill will soon become U.S. law, and a forthcoming world treaty will enact the world law to ban space-based weapons," Rosin says. "The timing is right. Everyone and everything is in place. It will be easy to transform the space-based weapons industry into a cooperative world space industry that will stimulate the economy, create new jobs and training programs, and expand a strong national and global security system based on a world cooperation.
"We can have space battle stations and weapons pointed towards earth and into space, or we can build space habitats, hospitals, schools, farms, laboratories, industries, hotels and resorts, elevators and craft that will free us to explore the universe to find out more about ourselves and our neighbors. Imagine the exciting opportunities and benefits that will be made available to all. It's our choice," Rosin concludes.
ICIS Co-Director and General Counsel, Daniel Sheehan, a Harvard Law School graduate, is famous for an impressive body of legal work including the Karen Silkwood case, Pentagon Papers case, Three Mile Island, and the Iran Contra case, and Mr. Sheehan successfully represented Harvard psychiatrist John Mack in a tenure review process.
Commenting on a ban on space-based weapons, Sheehan says, "During my thirty years in the field of public interest law and public policy, I have supervised professional investigations into the illegal smuggling of weapons-grade plutonium, the illegal supply of arms to terrorist organizations by covert operations and government agents, and into ultra-"black" weapons programs unknown even to the most trusted congressional officials," says ICIS General Counsel and Co-Director Daniel Sheehan. "I have come to believe that keeping weapons out of inter-planetary space is the most important contribution we can make to the future of this planet. The time to begin this task is now."
ICIS Co-Director Alfred Webre, a Yale Law School graduate and former delegate to the UNISPACE Conference in Vienna, Austria, says "The forthcoming Kucinich legislation represents a major cooperative world space development."
Webre adds, "On July 26, the same date that Congressperson Kucinich announced his forthcoming bill to ban space-based weapons, the Foreign Minister of Canada, John Manley, announced in Hanoi that 'Canada would be very happyto launch an initiative to see an international convention preventing the weaponization of space.' Congressman Kucinich reciprocated the Canadian initiative stating, 'I am pleased with the recent news from our neighbor to the north that Canada is ready to join an international effort to prohibit weapons in space.' "
CONTACT: Dr. Carol Rosin, ICIS - Institute for Cooperation in Space
A (501-C-3) non-profit Foundation
P.O. Box 25040, Ventura, CA. 93001
Tel: 805-641-1999
Fax: 805-641-9669
Email: rosin@west.net
Website: http://www.peaceinspace.com
KEY LINK: Peace Action Center: Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich website
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Flyby News is delighted to receive this press release from the Institute for Cooperation in Space (ICIS) for the peaceful use of space. However, we urge this organization to also stress the importance to temper even peaceful, commercial applications in entering space until appropriate propulsion systems are developed where rocket ships no longer severely damage outer layers of our atmosphere. Also, before extensive space exploration and commercialization, Flyby News encourages a greater emphasis on transforming current environmentally damaging terrestrial technologies and conditions, too. The following space.com article illustrates this from an astronaut's point of view.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Astronaut says environmental damage can be seen from space
Space.com -- SPACE WIRE
LONDON (AFP) Aug 31, 2001
The commander of the International Space Station said in an interview while orbiting the Earth Friday that he had observed a noticeable increase in environmental damage since his last mission into space.
US Commander Frank Culbertson expressed his concern over the changes in an interview with the BBC, saying that levels of environmental destruction had increased since his last space mission in 1990.
"I've seen changes in what comes out of some of the rivers, I've seen changes in land uses and we see areas of the world that are being burned for clearing the land so we are losing lots and lots of trees," he said.
"There's smoke and dust in wider areas than we saw before... so yes, it's a cause for concern. We have to be very careful how we treat this good Earth we live on.."
Culbertson is part of the third crew to live on the space station, a collaboration between US, European and Japanese interests. The crew set off on August 10 and will spend four months on board.
The orbiting spacecraft, which he described as like a "large submarine", travels at speeds of 28,000 kilometres (17,500 miles) an hour, or five miles a second.
Culbertson added: "We see storms, we see droughts... we've seen hurricanes and of course in the view at night you see cities lit up in populated parts of the world.
"It's quite amazing to see how many people actually live down there and how much of an effect they are having on the environment."
2002 Agence France-Presse.
For the Space.com article and links, visit:
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010831124619.44fagg4j.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, and the environment.
-------------------------------------------------------------http://www.flybynews.com------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Double Talk on Missile Defense and Arms Race Buildup
5 September 2001
If there was ever a time for you to act to defend the world from a policy that would escalate the arms race, that would kill the ABM and space for peace treaties, NOW is the time to call your elected representatives, and plan to engage your community to help on this issue by showing "Star Wars Returns," a documentary video by EnviroVideo.*
The US Congress will be deciding in the coming days how much money to give to the Pentagon in 2002 for Star Wars Research and Development. George W. Bush is requesting $8.3 billion in FY 2002 for the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO).
"Should we be moving the already insane and expensive global arms race into space or should the U.S. be doing everything it can now, before it is too late, to create international agreements to keep space for peace?" said Bruce Gagnon, Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. "It is really a moral and ethical question." Gagnon asked, "How can Congress justify more money for Star Wars when cuts in social programs continue, unemployment is growing, and our environment cries out for attention?"
The Global Network, made up of 156 affiliate groups worldwide, is calling on peace activists in the U.S. to immediately put pressure on the U.S. Congress to deny Bush's funding request for space warfare programs. People are urged to especially call the Congressional Switchboard telephone number at 202-224-3121 soon and continuously until Congress makes their decision. Also, you can visit this website for receiving other information for contacting members of the US Congress: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html
On October 13 the Global Network is coordinating an "International Day of Protest to Stop the Militarization of Space" that has now been endorsed by over 200 groups around the world. Local actions are planned so far in over 85 locations, at U.S. military bases, aerospace corporation facilities, federal buildings, and U.S. Embassies.
Planning sessions in western Massachusetts for an October 13 event is scheduled on September 10 and 24 at 7:00pm at 140 Pine Street, Florence. For more details contact the American Friends Service Committee at (413)584.8975 or afsc@crocker.com.
For a list of international actions and support see:
http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk/actions/oct01.htm
or contact:
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, FL. 32607
(352) 337-9274
globalnet@mindspring.com
http://www.space4peace.org
* To order "Star Wars Returns" video, send $21.95 ($19.95 + $2 s&h) {institutions $49.95 + $2 s&h} to
EnviroVideo
Box 311
Ft. Tilden, NY 11695
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) US Double Talk on Missile Defense and Arms Race Buildup
2) Missile-Defense System Critic Says He's a Target
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) US Double Talk on Missile Defense and Arms Race Buildup
September 5, 2001
U.S. Restates Its Stand on Missiles in China
By DAVID E. SANGER
WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 The Bush administration issued a new set of statements today about how it views the buildup of Chinese nuclear forces, declaring that it would not "seek to overcome China's opposition" to Mr. Bush's missile defense plan by dropping any objections to the modernization of China's nuclear forces.
In the statement, issued by Mr. Bush's press secretary, Ari Fleischer, the White House also said it would not "acquiesce" in the resumption of nuclear testing by China.
The statement was prompted by an article on Sunday in The New York Times, quoting senior administration officials who said they would not object to China's nuclear modernization. China will add intercontinental missiles to its modest fleet of 20 to 24 such weapons no matter what the United States tells China, the administration concluded.
For full article, see:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/05/international/asia/05MISS.html
==============================================================================================
September 2, 2001 (Referenced Story)
U.S. to Tell China It Will Not Object to Missile Buildup
By DAVID E. SANGER
WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 - The Bush administration, seeking to overcome Chinese opposition to its missile defense program, intends to tell leaders in Beijing that it has no objections to the country's plans to build up its small fleet of nuclear missiles, according to senior administration officials.
One senior official said that, in the future, the United States and China may also discuss resuming underground nuclear tests if they are needed to assure the safety and reliability of their arsenals. Such a move, however, might allow China to improve its nuclear warheads and lead to the end of a worldwide moratorium on nuclear testing.
For full Story see: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/02/international/02CHIN.html
==============================================================================================
Related story:
U.S. to Give Details of Shield Tests to China
(-- Aim Is to Assuage Fears On Missile Defense Plan--)
by Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 2, 2001; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30546-2001Sep1.html
==============================================================================================
[There goes the illusion and false rhetoric of NASA as a "civilian" space agency]
U.S Air Force and NASA Work Closer on Strategic Space Control
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO -- The United States Air Force and NASA are beefing up their cooperative efforts to develop reusable launch vehicle technologies in an effort to assure the American military's dominance and control of space for national security purposes.
A just completed review of NASA and Air Force cooperation in space urges for a closer affiliation with the civilian space agency on reusable space launch technologies, and other technology work now underway.
For full Story see:
http://www.space.com/news/military_space_010829-1.html
==============================================================================================
Related story:
Bush Says Defense Spending to Increase Despite Economic Slowdown
August 29, 2001
By DAVID E. SANGER
NY Times -- August 29, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/29/politics/29CND-BUSH.html
==============================================================================================
Flyby New Archives -- Related Stories:
Sunday, July 29, 2001 -
Congressman Proposes Space Weapon Ban * Foreign minister critical of US space weapons
Sunday, July 1, 2001 -
Ted Postol -- Why a Missile-Defense System Can Never Work
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Missile-Defense System Critic Says He's a Target
AP story in Los Angeles Times
http://commondreams.org/headlines01/0902-03.htm
Published on Sunday, September 2, 2001 in the Los Angeles Times
by Matt Crenson, Associated Press
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- On Ted Postol's desk, behind stacks of paper and scale models of Iraqi missile launchers, is a coffee mug emblazoned with a warning: "Back off, man! I'm a scientist!"
Maybe Postol should try a T-shirt or a bumper sticker, because the mug doesn't seem to be working. The Pentagon is all over him like medals on a four-star general.
"What they're trying to do is maneuver me into a situation where I can no longer talk," Postol says. "I intend to continue talking." The subject is national missile defense, a complex system of radar-guided rockets designed to shoot incoming missiles out of the sky. The Bush administration wants to build the system to protect America from rogue states such as North Korea or Iraq.
"The technology to do so is within our grasp," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in July, two days after one missile intercepted another in a test over the Pacific Ocean.
Postol claims that test was rigged. He says the Pentagon knows it can't field an effective missile shield and plans to build one anyway, concealing the system's ineffectiveness with unnecessary secrecy.
Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, the spokesman for the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, says Postol's charges are unfounded and outdated because they involve a component of the system that has been replaced.
Yet the Pentagon has taken the trouble of sending security agents to Postol's office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, classifying his correspondence and demanding that the university confiscate documents from him and investigate his actions.
It seems mighty strange, this lone professor proclaiming that the Pentagon, the president of the United States and several giant defense contractors are all wrong and that he, Ted Postol, is right. "They hate me for this. Of course they hate me," he says, brandishing one of his thick technical papers. "I'm shoving it in their face."
Colleagues and foes alike call Postol a brilliant, tenacious and egotistical man who never gives up. His adversaries often try to dismiss him as a crank or a charlatan, but they cannot deny one fact: Last time Ted Postol took on the Pentagon, he was right.
Postol is most famous for suggesting after the 1991 Gulf War that the Patriot air defense system might not have been the smashing success that the Army claimed--and then spending years proving it.
Working with George Lewis, another MIT professor, Postol analyzed news footage of more than 40 Patriot-Scud engagements frame-by-frame, about half of the Gulf War total. They concluded that not one Patriot appeared to have stopped a Scud from reaching the ground.
The Army and Raytheon, the company that built Patriot, responded with a barrage of criticism: News footage was too coarse-grained to show anything, the camera's shutter speed was too slow, the flashes didn't correspond with the exploding Patriots.
But soon, government investigators also began finding fault with Patriot. Both the General Accounting Office and Congressional Research Service found that Patriot's success rate was far lower than the 96% claimed by the Army.
In a new review, the Army revised its own estimate of Patriot effectiveness down to 60%. But almost everybody who was involved in the debate agrees the real number is closer to zero.
It appears Postol knew what he was talking about. Whether that's true this time is nearly impossible to tell, because he and his Pentagon adversaries argue more about each other's alleged misdeeds than the facts.
Postol's most recent fracas with the Pentagon started last year when he learned of a whistle-blower named Nira Schwartz who had sued her former employer, the defense contractor TRW. Schwartz charged TRW had faked test results performed for the national missile defense program.
Postol invited Schwartz to MIT, where she made her case to experts from the university and the Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group opposed to the missile defense plan and dedicated to reducing nuclear arms.
"We actually were very impressed by her," says David Wright, a physicist with the group. "It looked like [her case] really held up."
Schwartz's central claim was that TRW's kill vehicle, designed to identify and destroy an incoming missile, could not tell the difference between a real warhead and a decoy. Both the company and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization had declared a 1998 test of that capability a success.
The issue is important because any country technologically capable of launching an intercontinental ballistic missile could easily launch decoys. In an April 2000 study, a group of missile defense critics--including Postol--argued that simple decoys could render almost any missile defense system useless.
Lehner disputes that assertion. Furthermore, he says, TRW's kill vehicle has been dropped in favor of one built by Raytheon, which can distinguish warheads from decoys and "is going to get even better as time goes by."
At the meeting with Schwartz, Postol focused on a study the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization had commissioned to refute her claim--the "Independent Review of TRW Discrimination Techniques."
The report's summary said that TRW could distinguish a warhead from a decoy. But in the pages of charts and tables and impenetrable prose, Postol says, he found abundant evidence to the contrary. It looked to him as if the report's authors had ignored their own evidence to reach the conclusion the Pentagon wanted.
In April 2000, Postol wrote the Clinton administration about his discovery and attached supporting documents, including the report.
"I . . . have discovered that the BMDO's own data shows that the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) will be defeated by the simplest of balloon decoys. I also have documentation that shows that the BMDO, in coordination with its contractors, attempted to hide this fact," Postol wrote to White House chief of staff John Podesta.
Podesta passed the letter on to the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, which promptly classified it.
Postol was livid. As far as he knew, nothing he had sent to Podesta was classified. In fact, the report Postol had gotten from Schwartz had the words "Unclassified Draft" all over it.
In a second missive to Podesta, Postol complained that the BMDO had no reason to classify the report or his letter except to silence him.
Five weeks later, three Defense Security Service investigators showed up in Postol's office. The four men adjourned to a conference room, where the investigators produced a folder labeled "Secret" and asked Postol to read its contents.
It was a bizarre cloak-and-dagger moment. If these men were investigators, Postol thought, why were they giving him information instead of trying to get it? Postol assumed it was a trick designed to shut him up. He held a security clearance through a defense contractor he did consulting work for. If this "secret" folder contained information from the report that he needed to make his case, he would be obliged by that security clearance not to talk about it.
According to a government report of the incident, Postol refused to look inside the folder. After some unpleasantness, the agents gave up and left.
The next day, Postol wrote Podesta a third time to complain that instead of responding to his first two letters, the government had sent agents to harass him.
"It cannot be ruled out that this unannounced meeting was an attempt at intimidation," Postol wrote. "I would therefore appreciate it if you would have this matter fully investigated." Podesta responded in a handwritten note:
"I must say that the overall impression you leave from your correspondence is that your brilliance is only exceeded by your arrogance. Rest assured that we are taking the issues you raised seriously and reviewing them at the highest levels."
The General Accounting Office did investigate the agents' unexpected visit. It concluded that the Defense Security Service had acted properly in classifying Postol's letter and the attached report, because a Pentagon lawyer had failed to blacken a few sensitive parts before passing the study on to Schwartz. The FBI also investigated and determined that TRW was not guilty of fraud.
Things might have ended there. But two months before the GAO cleared the Pentagon of harassing Postol, the professor wrote yet another letter.
Postol explains that when he wrote the White House last year, he had good evidence that the report on missile decoys was phony. But this spring, after hours of analysis, he says he finally deciphered the instructions TRW used to tell its kill vehicle how to distinguish between a real warhead and a decoy.
Those instructions, he concluded, were useless--in some situations they might even guarantee that the kill vehicle missed its target.
Postol wrote the General Accounting Office, which was already investigating Schwartz's claims against TRW. Again, his letter reached the missile defense office and was classified.
This time the Pentagon took its case to Postol's employer. Valerie Heil of the Defense Security Service wrote two letters to MIT demanding the university confiscate the missile decoy report from Postol and investigate how he obtained it.
MIT has not done that. President Charles Vest responded with a public statement defending his professor's right to criticize missile defense and expressing concern over the Pentagon's attempt to reclassify public information. Postol, who has never had warm feelings for Vest, considers that a weak effort.
"I'm surprised that he hasn't added that his favorite flavor is vanilla and his favorite color is blue, since being in favor of free speech as a university president is not a very controversial position to take," Postol says. "He's more intimidated by me than by the U.S. government."
And that is where it stands. At this point, the "secret" report has been bopping around the Internet for at least a year. Any North Korean or Iraqi who cares to see it almost certainly has already, though it wouldn't do any potential adversary much good because the Pentagon has abandoned the TRW kill vehicle in favor of the one made by Raytheon.
To people who pay attention to such things, the situation with Postol has become a joke. But thanks to the classified status of the report and his letters, nobody with a security clearance can talk publicly about it.
And there's the rub. Those who are best qualified to evaluate Postol's claims have either security clearances, strong opinions about missile defense, or both.
The rest of us can only gaze at the mysterious charts and tables and weigh the accusations of a brilliant and fractious man against the Pentagon's denials.
Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times
http://commondreams.org/headlines01/0902-03.htm
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, and the environment.
-------------------------------------------------------------http://www.flybynews.com------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
A Nation Behind Bars: the buried talents of a population
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Martin Luther King Jr.
Editor's Notes: This "updated issue" of Flyby News focuses on the U.S. Criminal Justice System. As with the situation and policies of the U.S. Defense Department, it needs to be transformed. Justice and Peace are interconnected. Yet the mainstream public is brainwashed into believing that the current policies are necessary evils. They are not necessary, but, evil? - It is interesting that the word "evil" comes from the Latin word, Eros, meaning error. How did we get to this point of creating institutional crimes against humanity, inducing incentives for profits to enslave as many as possible in racist-proportioned populations? Our society has created dungeons of depression in a modern day era of slavery and oppression.
Item 1 is called "A Nation Behind Bars: the buried talents of a population." This includes updates, links and resources on many justice issues, and includes resources Desmond Carter, Zolo Azania Agona, Mumia Abu Jamal, and is dedicated to the victims inside the corrupt walls of power, influence, and injustice. Their bodies are confined, yet their minds can be free. Join with the inevitable outcome for truth and justice. In that spirit we will prevail.
Item 2 is on the difficult journey of a dear friend, Malik Abdullah Akili. He was a former member of the Black Panther Party, and has spent too much time in prison, due to his principles and the corruption of the system. At the end of the Item, please learn more by the updated links on his case. This item also includes updates on another friend, who I met from Malik, Jehan Abdur-Raheem, plus information and links on the Human Rights struggles of Leonard Peltier, Richard Sitcha. Chief Iron Thunderhorse, and Zolo Agona Azania.
The third item is on Kenneth Foster, another human on death row where Texas takes pride in its murdering institution. According to a U.S. News 11/9/98 report, for every 7 executions (486 since 1976) 1 other prisoner on death row has been found innocent. Isn't this enough reason for a Moratorium on the Death Penalty? Besides a Moratorium, Flyby News supports the decriminalization of most all nonviolent and victimless crimes as another beginning step to help transform a corrupt and racist criminal justice system.
A Nation Behind Bars:
the buried talents of a population
Updated Information and Resources
October 2-4, 2013 - Censored News - Brenda Norrell
Leonard Peltier Tribunal
Indigenous Human Rights
02 October 2013 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
After 4 Decades in Solitary, Dying Angola 3 Prisoner
Herman Wallace Freed, Conviction Overturned
02 October 2013
Canadian Filmmaker and Doctor Imprisoned in Egypt
Without Charges, Abused After Witnessing Massacre
30 September 2013 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Freed by DNA, Angola Prisoner Henry James
on His 30 Years Behind Bars for Crime
He Didnt Commit
30 September 2013
Cancer-Stricken Angola 3 Prisoner Herman Wallace
Given Just Days to Live After 42 Years in Solitary
10 May 2012 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Mexican Poet Javier Sicilia
Leads U.S. Peace Caravan to
Expose Drug War's Human Toll
Transforming Health-care and Criminal Justice
Not-for-Profit Healthcare and Prisons good for USA!
Updated - Flyby News - Jonathan Mark
Killed At Home * Kenneth Chamberlain
04 May 2012 - Youtube - TheBacmaster
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - "Ohio" (1970)
30 April 2012 - CNN - Michael Martinez and Brad Johnson
RFK assassination witness tells CNN:
There was a second shooter
For resources for balance in a mad mad world
Flyby News Health and Spiritual Blog
Free Leonard Peltier
Sign Online Petition
Executive Clemency for Leonard Peltier
31 January 2012 - Democracy Now! - Eugene Jarecki
"The House I Live In": New Documentary Exposes
Economic, Moral Failure of U.S. War on Drugs
January, 2012 - Culture Project - Link TV
Blueprint for Accountability
Working the Dark Side
30 May 2011 - AVAAZ - Online Petition
End the War on Drugs!
December, 2011 - Link TV - Glenn Greenwald
With Liberty and Justice for Some
22 September 2011 - Color of Change - Rashad Robinson
Troy Davis is dead; the movement continues
19 July 2011 - LPDOC - Sal Rodriguez
Native American Activist Leonard Peltier
"in the Hellhole" of Solitary Confinement
06 June 2011 - Democracy Now! - War and Peace
Former Black Panther Leader, Geronimo Ji-Jaga Pratt,
Wrongfully Imprisoned for 27 Years, Dies in Tanzania
+
Dr. Gabor Mat: Obama Admin Should Heed Global
Panel's Call to End "Failed" U.S.-Led Drug War
Transforming Health-care and Criminal Justice
Not-for-Profit Healthcare and Prisons good for USA!
26 July 2011 - Examiner - Deborah Dupre
America's 100,000 tortured inmates:
Most pressing, ignored human rights issue
22 July 2011 - Examiner - Deborah Dupre
Torture in America: California prison
hunger strikes, national protests continue
29 March 2011 - Democracy Now - Martina Correia
"Shocked and Appalled"
Sister of Death Row Prisoner
Troy Davis
Responds to Supreme Court Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal
of Georgia death row prisoner Troy Davis, whose case
has been taken up by death penalty opponents across
the globe. Davis was convicted for the 1989 killing of an
off-duty white police officer. Since then, seven of the nine
non-police witnesses have recanted their testimony, and
there is no physical evidence tying him to the crime scene.
With his legal appeals exhausted, Davis' fate rests largely
in the hands of Georgia's Board of Pardons and Parole.
Take Action!
Petition the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Parole
Save Troy Davis' life
27 April 2011 - Democracy Now - Judith Ritter, Linn Washington
Court Rules Mumia Abu-Jamal's Death Sentence is
Unconstitutional, Grants New Sentencing Hearing
14 December 2010 - Democracy Now - War and Peace
Prisoner Advocate Elaine Brown on Georgia
Prison Strike: "Repression Breeds Resistance"
17 December 2010 - In These Times - Common Dreams
Georgia Prison Strike: A Hidden Labor Force Resists
"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."
- William Shakespeare
My Friend in Jail - Malik Abdullah Akili
O soul brother, chained by oppression,
Trapped by indecent, uncanny lies,
Denying your heritage they do not realize,
You are free - you are free - you are free - you are free.
What is justice in the hands of the law
When compassion, mercy, and truth are ignored?
Who are the guilty when the Bible spoke thus,
"Judge not, lest ye be judged"?
Who cries alone in isolated cells, and
Who cares about these grieving tones?
"I do," the bride says to the groom,
Yet barred from the expression of love
Our brothers and sisters are doomed.
Scourged with the deepest of depressions,
Forced in inhuman conditions, and
I weep, as I am as powerless as you,
Waiting, only waiting until that hour comes
when we can walk away..
Don't wait, another part of me believes.
Free, free, free my brother, free.
Can we not soar to the highest of highs,
To the place where Einstein knew the speed
at which time flies?
Oh, go beyond, beyond, and let us see
where the holy men go
When they leave the cage of earthly things.
No longer will I weep or pout at the injustices wrought
Though I hate it with all my fury,
Yet all just being a fantasy in a life we sought..
We must go beyond the time spent in lonely hope
To the only moment in our lives, the moment,
The moment of ecstasy, plain living, or even suffering.
In any moment a lasting seed can begin to grow.
It's the instant we can really know.
Feel each moment as the river flows.
Peace, my friend, peace, peace.
O soul brother, chained by oppression,
Trapped by indecent uncanny lies,
Denying your heritage they do not realize
You are free - you are free,
You are free, my brother, free.
Jonathan Mark 10/10/79
This above poem was inspired from a friendship with Malik Abdullah Akili, who has spent too much time behind the bars of injustice and inequality. Malik and I have maintained our friendship through decades of time and struggles. We originally met when this former Black Panther was helping gang members of New York City to organize to redirect their energies and directions in life to be of service to their communities. The circumstances that first brought to work together was when a family we both knew was torn apart by the rash actions of a so-called children's protective agency. They claimed emotional abuse and neglect. This family, like many others, was not perfect, and they were traveling and home-schooling their children, but the real abuse was from the social system, because of one complaint of emotional abuse; they came in the night with State Troopers to haul the kids away from their home to temporary institutional housing. Within a week our activist work together helped to bring an end to this traumatic tragedy of State abuse and misjudgment.
The above poem came a year or two later when Malik was arrested on vague circumstances. He was a marked man due to his political history, and the court system is seriously flawed. I visited him in prison and have corresponded with him for more than two decades. I had learned from Malik what injustice and what a racist criminal justice system is all about, and about the nonviolent character and true integrity of my friend in jail. Malik expects to be receiving a new date for a Hearing on his case soon. This last conviction was based on a single smudged finger print at a location of a robbery. There are evidences of planted finger prints by corrupt law enforcers. According to the primary point of the Court Brief, submitted by Malik's attorney, "..that evidence was insufficient, as a matter of law, to establish appellant's identity as one of the robbers because of substantial defects in the chain of custody involving that recovered print, the absence of the appropriate qualifications of the latent print examiners as well as their mistakes in the evaluative process.."
The following are links to FN archives with updates and letters from Malik and his friend, Jehan Abdur-Raheem. After that are links and information posted at FlybyNews.com on Leonard Peltier, Lori Berenson, Richard Sitcha, Iron Thunderhorse, and Zola Agona Azania. Here you will read in their own words the background of arrest, conviction, what it is like to be in prison, and current campaigns for justice, compassion, human rights and freedom.
September 18, 2009 - Item 3
Leonard Peltier: Obamas Political Prisoner Now
- - Leonards Statement on his Parole Denial
- - Jehan Abdur-Raheem on Leonard's parole denial
January 27, 2008 - Item 4
Sitcha Now In Cameroon
- - Draft Letter On Behalf of Jehan Abdur-Raheem
January 17, 2008 - Item 5
Richard Sitcha, detained without charges
- - Draft Letter On Behalf of Jehan Abdur-Raheem
December 18, 2007 - Item 3
Torture Coming To Its Dying End
- - ABC News Interview With an Executioner
- - New Jersey Abolishes Death Penalty
- - Jehan Abdur-Raheem A Muslim in Isolation Row
- - Free Leonard Peltier, Lori Berenson, Richard Sitcha
June 16, 2006 - Item 3
Message of Liberation by Malik Abdullah Akili
March 22, 2006 - Item 3
Richard Sitcha and Jehan Abdur-Raheem Update
March 10, 2006 - Item 4
"The Book That Changed My Life" - Malik Abdullah Akili
May 10, 2005 - Item 3
Malik Akili ~ Appeal for Parole ~ "Predetermined"
March 25, 2005 - Item 3
A Call for Unity ~ from Inside ~ Jehan Abdur-Raheem
April 4, 2003 - Item 3
Malik Abdullah Akili and Case Breaking for Freedom?
February 3, 2002 - Item 1
Inside the Belly of the Beast
April 11, 2002, see Item 1
Malik Abdullah Akili -- Parole Campaign for Freedom and Family
Item 2 in this above issue also has a book review of Hard Time Blues: How Politics Built a Prison Nation.
May 15, 2002, see Item 3
Overview on the Arrest/Conviction of Malik Abdullah Akili
June 1, 2002 - Item 1
Just Parole for Malik Abdullah Akili
This above link contains a sample letter to the New York State Parole Board
Re: Parole Application For: Malik Abdullah Akili, #94-A-5238 - hearing is scheduled for October 2002
June 26, 2002 - Item 2
Malik Abdullah Akili - Parole Letter Correction
August 17, 2002 - Item 1
Malik Abdullah Akili - Justice and Parole Needed
September 7, 2002 - Parole for Malik - Item 1
Help Parole [FREE] Malik Abdullah Akili
The following is from Editor's Notes from a Flyby News issue posted on October 12, 2002
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1034439107,13627,
"This has been a crushing couple of days. First learning about the Congress vote for George W. Bush to go ahead and make war preemptively, based on his judgement.. This too much.. But then, too, learning that my friend Malik Abdullah Akili was denied parole.. They told him not to come back for another 24 months - in the belly of the beast. Malik and his family, friends, are all struggling now, facing a faceless tomorrow. . . except in knowing each other's love, a moment is brightened to a greater resolve and choice to survive, to choose to struggle, and remain whole as living, caring people, though others are going down the tubes in distorting what is true about being human.
October 23, 2002 - Item 4
Letter from Malik (10/17/02) with his response on being denied parole
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Free Leonard Peltier -- "Amnesty International considers Leonard Peltier to be a political prisoner whose avenues of redress have long been exhausted....Amnesty International recognizes that a retrial is no longer a feasible option and believes that Leonard Peltier should be immediately and unconditionally released." Documents show that although the prosecution and government pointed the finger at Peltier for shooting FBI agents at close range during the trial in 1976, for three years the prosecution withheld critical ballistic test results proving that the fatal bullets could not have come from the gun tied to Leonard Peltier. This trial also denied evidence of self defense. The U.S. Prosecutor, during subsequent oral arguments, stated: "we can't prove who shot those agents". The Eighth Circuit found that "There is a possibility that the jury would have acquitted Leonard Peltier had the records and data improperly withheld from the defense been available to him in order to better exploit and reinforce the inconsistencies casting strong doubts upon the government's case." Yet, a new trial was denied. Judge Heaney, who authored the denial now supports Mr. Peltier's release, stating that the FBI used improper tactics to gain Mr. Peltier's conviction. A good way to learn about Leonard Peltier is to read his book: Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance. For excerpts, see the following link, under article by Louise Erdich: Time for Human Rights on Native Ground. For more resources: Free Leonard Peltier!
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Free Richard Sitcha -- In April 2001, Richard Sitcha fled Cameroon after being imprisoned and tortured by the governments security forces due to his involvement with the political protests against the Bepanda Nine killings. Fearing for his life, Richard applied for political asylum as soon as he arrived in the United States. The United States government granted Richard asylum in January 2003. Life was looking up for Richardhe could now realize his dreams of going back to school and bringing his wife and two children to the US. On September 18, 2003, however, the US government revoked Richards asylum and arrested him in the courtroom. He has been in jail, without charge, ever since that date! For more information, visit - FreeRichard.com. Also, in FN archives, see: Dennis J. Kucinich and the Sitcha Connection; also an article by Richard Sitcha, My Way of the Cross; and updates of March , May, August, 2006, and April, 2007 from the Sitcha Defense Committee. Plus, in item 3, a May 2007 letter from Sitcha to Mark, posted in January, 2008 in item 5, see: Richard Sitcha, detained without charges, plus this update in item 4 on January 27, 2008: Sitcha Now In Cameroon
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Free Chief Iron Thunderhorse -- Chief Iron Thunderhorse of the Quinnipiac Nation is doing time in US prison. Please consider reading and signing this petition to pardon an abused Vietnam Veteran & Veteran advocate. For more information, visit - SaveIronThunderhorse.com. And from FN archives check out in item 3 - Chief Iron Thunderhorse of the Quinnipiac Nation in US Prison
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Justice for Zolo Agona Azania -- Zolo Agona Azania "..is a Black revolutionary who has spent twenty six years - most of his adult life - in prison, and much of it on death row. His death sentence has been overturned not once, but twice, and yet a recent legal decision gives the State a green light to seek it a third time, and this despite the fact that many key witnesses have died and evidence that could help the defense has been "lost" over the past decades. In 1981, at the age of 21, Zolo Agona Azania was convicted of murdering a police officer during a bank robbery gone bad. Unlike his two co-defendants, Zolo was arrested unarmed, walking down the street miles from the scene of the robbery, and has always maintained his total innocence of any involvement in the crime.."
For the complete article and letter from Zolo of July 4, 2007, see: (in item 2) - The State Is Trying Again To Kill Zolo Agona Azania
Desmond Carter was executed in North Carolina on 10 December
International Human Rights Day
Desmond Keith Carter was executed in North Carolina on December 10th, 2002. A Durham judge on December 4th halted the execution and agreed to hold a hearing in January on his legal claims, including an allegation of broad racial bias in sentencing. Desmond Keith Carter, 35, was executed hours after the U.S. Supreme Court twice declined to stop his execution. Gov. Mike Easley also declined to change the death sentence to life in prison without parole. Desmond's brother, Tyrone Wallace, was there with family and protesters while it happened.
For an updated issue, see, this Flyby News issue of 13 December 2002, editor's notes and item 3--
Desmond Carter Executed
A Durham judge Wednesday halted the execution of confessed murderer Desmond Carter, scheduled for early Tuesday, and agreed to hold a hearing in January on his legal claims, including an allegation of broad racial bias in sentencing. For an update on this case, see Item 3 in this December 7 Flyby News: Judge Stays Desmond Carter's Execution
The following was provided in part by Amnesty International:
Desmond Carter was sentenced to death in July 1993 for the murder of Helen Purdy in March 1992. Helen Purdy, a 71-year-old woman, was Desmond Carter's next-door neighbour in Eden, Rockingham County, northern North Carolina. She was found stabbed to death in her house by family members. At the time of the crime, Desmond Carter was reportedly intoxicated on alcohol, cocaine, and tranquilizers. He had taken $15 from Helen Purdy, which he used to buy cocaine.
Desmond Keith Carter was born to a 17-year-old mother in 1967. When he was three, his mother moved away, leaving him with his grandmother and alcoholic grandfather. The grandmother eventually left the grandfather and she and the child moved to North Carolina. During this time, Desmond Carter's father was imprisoned for murder. According to his current lawyers, Desmond Carter began using drugs when he was a teenager, and his substance abuse deteriorated over time. Not long before the murder of Helen Purdy, his grandmother tried to obtain substance abuse and mental health treatment for her grandson, however the hospital refused him treatment due to his lack of medical insurance cover.
In common with most capital defendants in the USA, Carter was too poor to hire his own lawyer to represent him at the murder trial. A study by the Common Sense Foundation, a research organization based in Raleigh, North Carolina, has concluded that more than 1 in 6 of the state's current death row inmates were represented at trial by lawyers who have been disciplined by the State Bar. One of Desmond Carter's court-appointed trial lawyers was recently reprimanded by the State Bar for making demeaning statements about a client in the media and for charging excessive fees.
Desmond Carter is black and Helen Purdy was white. A preliminary study issued in 2001 by researchers at the University of North Carolina indicates that people in the state who kill white people are 3.5 times more likely to receive a death sentence than for murders involving victims who are not white. This likelihood increases if the defendant is not white. About 40 % of murder victims in North Carolina are white, yet 86 % of the 21 people executed there since resumption of executions were put to death for crimes involving white victims. This pattern is reflected in Rockingham County. More than half of murder victims there are African American; in cases which have resulted in death sentences, seven of the eight murder victims were white (87.5 %).
# # #
For more information on Desmond Carter, visit:
People of Faith Against the Death Penalty
# # #
The following is a letter sent from the Governor's web site on November 13, 2002 by Jonathan Mark
Governor Michael F. Easley
Office of the Governor
20301 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-0301
Fax: 1 919 715-3175 or 1 919 733-2120
Email, via website:
Web Site: Office of the Governor - North Carolina (Click on 'contact us') .
Re: Request to grant clemency on behalf of Desmond Carter (inmate # 0068237).
Dear Governor Michael F. Easley:
As you are probably well aware, your state, North Carolina, is scheduled to execute Desmond Carter on December 10, 2002, which is a day commemorating International Human Rights Day. Desmond's brother, Tyrone Wallace, lives in my community in Massachusetts, and has given me information on this case, and his life shows how two brothers, due to circumstances that separated them early in life, have taken totally different pathways. Since he was six months old, Tyrone hadn't seen his brother, Desmond, till last June. Desmond killed someone strung-out on drugs and alcohol, over $15. The State of North Carolina wasn't responsible when a relative sought help for Desmond's treatment of substance-abuse, and was turned away due to lack of insurance coverage. How can the State justify taking Demond's life now, while he is finally sober, confined, and no longer a threat? This killing of Desmond, scheduled on December 10, misses the point on what justice is all about, compassion, family, and protecting our communities. Desmond admits to a dreadful mistake, and spending his life in prison is a very harsh consequence. Taking his life sends the wrong message and does not deter such acts of violence from occurring. Instead, clemency for Desmond Carter would send a message of the responsibility for the State of North Carolina, as well as the responsibility for those who take life from someone else, that these actions are not acceptable, or supported by our civilization. Since we don't know our fate after death, isn't it more reasonable to serve justice with a sentence of what we know what the outcome will be, confinement, as well as to make more of a commitment to support those needing treatment before such a horrible event occurrs?
Please help humankind and the US celebrate this coming Human Rights Day, rather than mourning the fate of another individual with his life destroyed by a racist justice system that condones the exception of one of the ten commandments that we need to honor and show by example that all life is sacred.
I am editor and publisher of an alternative news service on the Internet, and hope we can post your response to this letter. Please see our website, and from the main page, you can link to Prison Issues and the case of Desmond Carter -- www.flybynews.com
Thank you for your consideration.
Jonathan Mark
Editor Publisher
Flyby News
http:///www.flybynews.com
# # #
For additional resources, visit:
People of Faith Against the Death Penalty
110 W. Main St., Suite 2-G . Carrboro, NC 27510
Tel 919.933.7567 . Fax 919.933.5611
Email: info@pfadp.org
Web: http://www.pfadp.org
Mumia Abu Jamal
Mumia Abu Jamal, a black man, is on death row after a trial that represented the extreme of procedural unfairness.
Mumia is a convicted cop killer, and for many, it is impossible to say for sure that Mr. Abu-Jamal is guilty, because our vaunted "due process" was suspended in his case. And it was clearly suspended because, unlike so many prominent black figures, he simply would not compromise with American racism. He would not moderate his appearance, his dress or his beliefs in exchange for a ticket to the mainstream. As a member of the Black Panthers, and later as a radio journalist covering the Move bombing in Philadelphia, he uncompromisingly identified racism wherever he saw it and would not shut up.
Writing of the beatings, torture and occasional murder of prisoners by guards in Pennsylvania's maximum security prisons, Mr. Abu-Jamal says in his book Live From Death Row, (Addison-Wesley 1995), p. 105:
"..But all [prisoners] found out how fragile the very system that stole their very freedom was when the state committed crimes against them. All found out that words like 'justice,' 'law,' 'civil rights,' and, yes, 'crime' have different and elastic meanings depending on whose rights were violated, who committed what crimes against whom, and whether one works for the system or against it.
For those people, millions at last count, who wear the label 'prisoner' around their necks, there is no law, there is no justice, there are no rights.
We must keep our vigil of faith and courage.."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Please join the struggle.
A single candle seems very alone,
but together we can roll back the night.
Check the links on Mumia at this excellent website:
http://members.tripod.com/RobtShepherd/mumia.html
Visit the International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
or
www.Millions4Mumia.org
Also, for more resources on Mumia Abu-Jamal, see:
http://www.iacenter.org/polprisoners/imumia.htm
3) Kenneth Foster - Tribulation's Eyes
Updated! - Flyby News Alert - September 2, 2007
Associated Press
HUNTSVILLE - Gov. Rick Perry accepted a recommendation from the state parole board and said today
he would spare condemned prisoner Kenneth Foster from execution and commute his sentence to life.
For more on this article, see FN Alert: Governor Perry Grants Clemency to Kenneth Foster
Tribulation's Eyes
by Kenneth E. Foster Jr.
Ghost hanging from my trees
The leaves have withered up
and the oak becomes petrified
eyes now become stone
and my body a bit terrified
I see weary faces
that appear to me spontaneously
everyday I know I'll be visited
by your valuable memories
In the corner of my eyes
I can see you in the shadows
and as the wind hits my ears
I can hear your whispers so shallow
You watch my every step
your cold glares turn me into a victim
invading my mind with our own Texas holocaust
I wish I couldn't--but I'll always remember
I've got ghost hanging from my trees
that give me serious looks
they penetrate my soul
and make me remember what they took
the families that now suffer
the friends that stood by my side
precious lives that deserved to be spared
consumed by the killing machine line
the spirits that were lost
haunt my mind everyday
invading my dreams and thoughts for a resting place
I never miss what they have to say
As I look out my window to see a sign of hope
I see no blooming leaves
the only thing I see
is ghost hanging from my trees
"The truth will set you free,
but first it will make you miserable."
- James A. Garfield
Facebook.com/FlybyNews
Also, check out:
Flyby News @ Wordpress
&
FN's Youtube Channel
"As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression.
In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains
seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all
must be most aware of change in the air - however slight -
lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."
- William O Douglas
The views expressed herein are writers' own and not necessarily of Flyby News.
Fair Use Policy that describes use of copyrighted material is at FlybyNews.com.
Feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News is appreciated.
You can write to the editor by email: - flybynews(at}hughes{dot)net-
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus,
and has supported critical campaigns for a healthy
environment, human rights, justice, and nonviolence,
since the launch of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era
= = = www.FlybyNews.com = = =
Deadline on ABM Treaty * BMD Deceptions * U'wa and Disappearing Oil
27 August 2001
This important issue of Flyby News begins with an ominous deadline by the Bush administration threatening to withdraw from the ABM Treaty unilaterally in six months from this November. Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin said that this would negate 30 years of arms control accords, set off a new arms race and force Russia to build a new generation of missiles with multiple warheads. Yet, this important news is hardly noticed while the media and the public are distracted on such issues as Gary Condit and the missing intern, Chandra Levy. Item 2 is more on the deceptions of missile defense. These two stories make actions on October 13 and Congressman Kucinich's proposed space-weapon-ban even more crucial. Please prepare to take actions before the deadline, before it is too late. One way to prepare is to get the video "Star Wars Returns" and show it to many people as possible, and support the lobbying of elected representatives.
Item 3 has some good news. The U'wa tribe of Columbia, following their traditional three month spiritual retreat for fasting, meditation, teaching, singing, and prayer, and following traditional rituals to "hide the oil," Occidental petroleum had recently announced that it has failed to find oil at the Gibraltar 1 well site on the tribe's ancestral land in Northeastern Colombia. The company has begun removing equipment from the site! This is only a partial victory, and the battle continues with other companies trying to exploit ancestral sacred land. So, keep tuned in to this campaign, and keep working for peace and benign technologies and conservation measures that reduce our need for harming our natural environment.
Flyby News has finally installed an automated subscribe/remove system for our listserve. Please note the new directions, which will be at the end of each issue. Also, check out our links page, which is expanding with key sites. Please help us find other organizations and individuals willing to reciprocate links, and work together for peace and a sane environmental policy.
1) U.S. Sets Deadline on ABM Treaty
2) ON MISSILE DEFENSE: A pattern of deception
3) U'wa Wins Battle as Oxy Can't Find Oil on the Tribe's Ancestral Land
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) U.S. Sets Deadline on ABM Treaty
U.S. Sets Deadline for Settlement of ABM Argument
By PATRICK E. TYLER
New York Times
MOSCOW, Aug. 21 - A senior Bush administration official said today that the United States had given Russia an unofficial deadline of November to agree to changes in the Antiballistic Missile Treaty or face a unilateral American withdrawal from the arms control accord.
Speaking in an interview on Russian radio that will be aired on Wednesday evening, the official, John R. Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, said after two days of talks with Russian officials that the United States plans to resolve its strategy for withdrawing from the treaty before Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin, visits Mr. Bush this fall.
It was the first time a member of the Bush administration has set a time limit for consultations that Mr. Bush pledged to undertake with American allies, and with Russia and China, before acting on his campaign pledge to develop a new national missile
defense system. Such a system contravenes the 1972 treaty, which was the first United States- Soviet arms control agreement and was seen as the keystone of detente during the cold war.
In July, a senior Pentagon official told members of Congress that an antimissile testing program would be "bumping up against" the ABM Treaty in a matter of months.
American withdrawal from the treaty, six months after a formal notification to Moscow, would pave the way for the start of construction of a missile defense test site in Alaska. Ground-clearing for missile silos and a command center at Fort Greely, 100 miles southeast of Fairbanks, is to begin this week, a Pentagon spokesman announced today.
Pam Bain, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, said the administration intends to begin building the missile silos as early as April.
The Pentagon has also said a number of tests are planned for early next year that might conflict with the treaty, including using ship-based radar systems to track intercontinental ballistic missiles.
A senior Pentagon official expressed surprise tonight when told of Mr. Bolton's remarks in Moscow, saying he did not know of any decisions by the administration to give a six-month notification of withdrawal in November.
"I've never heard anyone say that before," the official said.
John Rhinelander, a lawyer who advised ABM negotiators in 1972 and is a leading arms control advocate, said Mr. Bolton's remarks suggested that the administration was looking for excuses to withdraw from the treaty unilaterally.
"The Russians will never agree to jointly withdrawal from the treaty," he said. "They will force us to violate it. And we are doing that by manufacturing tests in which we intentionally violate the treaty."
Mr. Rhinelander had suggested earlier that the Russians may be willing to amend the treaty to allow deployment of a small system in Alaska.
Mr. Putin warned in June that a unilateral American withdrawal from the treaty, which he describes as "the cornerstone of strategic stability," would negate 30 years of arms control accords, set off a new arms race among aspiring nuclear powers and force Russia to build a new generation of missiles with multiple warheads, something that Moscow had pledged not to do.
Mr. Bolton was in Moscow to follow up on strategic discussions that have intensified since Mr. Bush and Mr. Putin held their first summit meeting in Slovenia in June.
He was also preparing for a September meeting between Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Russia's foreign minister, Igor S. Ivanov.
Mr. Bolton also said other administration officials would be visiting European capitals this week and NATO headquarters in Brussels to inform European leaders about the administration's plans to develop missile defenses, military budget expenditures and planned reductions in strategic forces.
Excerpts of Mr. Bolton's remarks were released by the radio station Echo Moscow tonight. Mr. Bolton, who did not return a telephone call to his hotel room, has scheduled a news conference on Wednesday evening.
In the radio interview, he said the Bush administration "doesn't regard" the November deadline "as any kind of any official deadline - we will try to achieve as much as we can" by the time Presidents Bush and Putin meet.
"If, though we don't want it, we don't manage to come to an agreement with Russia, in this case we will have to use our right envisaged by the treaty not to violate it, but withdraw from it," he was quoted in the interview as saying.
Making light of the unofficial deadline Washington was imposing, Mr. Bolton said the "by November" time frame had been set because, "I think the presidents will be disappointed if by this time we don't reach significant progress and they won't have anything to talk about at the meeting in Texas."
Mr. Bush has invited the Russian leader to visit his ranch in Crawford, Tex., in November.
But there were other developments today in Washington suggesting that the November deadline is closely connected with Bush administration plans to move forward with missile silo construction in Alaska and more elaborate antimissile tests that might otherwise violate the ABM Treaty.
Mr. Bolton also elaborated on the Bush administration strategy to withdraw from the 1972 accord without bringing down a torrent of criticism from European allies and other countries who fear that Mr. Bush's approach to missile defense is needlessly destabilizing.
"We explicitly stated that we were not going to violate the ABM Treaty," Mr. Bolton said in the interview. "We also don't want to attract criticism for such a violation while we are in the process of development and testing of possible antimissile systems," he said.
He stressed that the United States "wants, together with the government of Russia, to find a way out - either by some way of withdrawing from the treaty together or some way, also together - to go beyond the framework of limitations imposed by it."
In talks with Russian officials this week, Mr. Bolton suggested that he had been promoting the idea of reaching a "gentleman's agreement" that would be considered "a no less serious thing than a documented treaty" to allow the United States to escape the current limitations against testing missile defenses.
But most signs were that Russian officials have held firm. Russian Foreign Ministry officials have made a series of statements in recent weeks that they do not expect substantive talks with Washington on further strategic arms reductions and missile defense to begin before the end of the year.
On Friday, Marshal Igor D. Sergeyev, former minister of defense and now a special adviser to Mr. Putin, criticized Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for televised remarks in which the American defense chief said Russia was still a captive of the "cold war mentality and fear and apprehension and concern about the West."
"I think it was a poor joke by the chief of the Pentagon," Marshal Sergeyev said, adding that Russia has no veto over Washington's right to withdraw from the treaty. He added, "the role of the deterrence factor of nuclear missile weapons" will have to be redefined in such a world.
And, he added, for America, "There is a very long road that has not been properly studied yet from the declarations about deploying a national missile defense to its actual deployment."
A number of European leaders, including Mr. Putin, have recognized the potential threat of ballistic missile attack from rogue nations - though most do not see an imminent threat.
Many leaders have urged Mr. Bush to proceed more cautiously to ensure that neither Russia nor China feel threatened or isolated by missile defenses. Russia and China signed a friendship and military cooperation treaty in July.
Mr. Putin has urged Mr. Bush not to abandon three decades of arms control accords without first negotiating some new strategic framework that would replace them.
Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) ON MISSILE DEFENSE: A pattern of deception
Sunday, August 12, 2001
San Francisco Chronicle Editorial
In their campaign to sell a missile defense system to the American public and a skeptical world community, President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon have engaged in a disturbing pattern of deception.
The dangers posed by breaking international treaties or igniting a new arms race in space -- not to mention the cost or the effectiveness of these new weapons systems -- require a thorough and forthright debate. Yet so far, there is growing evidence that the Bush administration is not presenting the full picture to the American people.
SILENCING THE CRITICS
Consider, for example, what happened to Nira Schwartz, a physicist and engineer who accused TRW, a military contractor, of faking tests and evaluations for the Pentagon's missile defense program. TRW fired her the next day.
Schwartz then shared the information with Professor Theodore A. Postol, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist, who has long argued that flawed software currently prevents a missile system from distinguishing between decoys and enemy warheads. Postol gained fame in defense circles in the 1990s for exposing the fake claims made by the military about Patriot missiles during the Gulf War.
For months, Postol has been circulating a government-commissioned independent report that supports his criticism of the missile defense system. Although the report was labeled an "unclassified draft" when Postol obtained it, the government has retroactively ruled that it includes secret information.
Now the Pentagon has accused Postol of circulating classified information.
In early July, the Pentagon asked MIT to investigate Postol's activities -- a request that has pitted academic freedom against the Department of Defense's effort to silence one of its most credible critics. For MIT, the stakes are high: The university could lose $319 million in missile defense contracts unless it aggressively investigates the professor.
AVOIDING CONGRESS
For six months, dozens of members of Congress repeatedly asked the Defense Department and Secretary Rumsfeld to release an unclassified Pentagon report that criticized the missile defense testing program. The Pentagon finally released the Coyle Report, compiled by the Pentagon's chief civilian test evaluator, in June 2001. It concluded that the tests have become progressively easier so that they can be counted as a "success."
RIGGING THE TEST
After the Defense Department suffered two widely publicized "misses," Pentagon officials knew they had to prove they could hit a bullet with a bullet. On July 14, a "kill vehicle" launched from the Pacific smashed into a rocket hurled from Vandenberg Air Force. Photographs of the vaporized target strengthened the Pentagon view that critics are just cranky curmudgeons.
What most people didn't know, however, was that the Defense Department had rigged the $100 million test. As Joe Conason reported in Salon magazine, "The rocket fired from Vandenberg was carrying a global positioning satellite beacon that guided the kill vehicle toward it." But this fact didn't surface until the Pentagon confirmed the presence of a GPS device to Defense Week magazine. A Pentagon official then conceded that "real warheads in an attack would not carry such helpful beacons."
ARMING THE HEAVENS
The Bush administration has tried to cast the missile defense shield as a defensive weapon, a kind of giant umbrella that will prevent enemy missiles from attacking the American people. But the truth is more complicated.
The missile defense system is just the first step in a much larger plan to transform the military. The Rumsfeld Space Commission Report, presented to Congress just before Bush took office, proposed an offensive U.S. Space Corps that would dominate and control space by military means. The U.S. Space Commission's mission statement, "Vision 2020," even argues that the United States should "control and dominate" space and "deny other countries access to space."
Bruce Gagnon, international coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and National Power in Space, says that "This whole missile defense program is ultimately a Trojan horse. Pentagon officials understand that they can't come before the American people and say, 'Give us hundreds of billions of dollars so we can have offensive weapons in space.' We are talking about creating a new arms race in space that will make the aerospace corporations richer than one could imagine."
THE SECRET IS OUT
In a recent CBS News program, Dan Rather scrutinized the allegations made by Schwartz and Postol and seemed to find their testimony quite credible.
And in a recent New York Times Magazine article, "The Coming Space War," Jack Hitt described the elaborate facilities at which plans for a future Space Corps and space-based weapons are being conceived.
(The next day, coincidentally, came the news that a coalition of conservative organizations and defense-industry labor unions have launched an intensive lobbying campaign to ensure passage of Bush's proposed $8.3 billion missile defense budget for next year.)
THE NEXT STEP
It's time for the American people to understand what's at stake. The development of a missile defense system violates the 1972 ABM Treaty, which outlawed missile defense systems. If the United States prepares to launch space-based weapons, it will also violate the 1967 Outer Space Treaty that banned the militarization of space.
We also need to shed the illusion that there is such a thing as a perfect defense. Someone, someday, will inevitably find a way to pierce supposedly impenetrable defenses.
This debate is not just about whether it is possible to protect Americans from incoming missiles. It is about the desirability of transforming the military into a space-based fighting force and deploying weapons in outer space.
This may sound like science fiction, but it is what's passing as serious military policy in the Bush White House.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/08/12/ED213628.DTL
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) U'wa Wins Battle as Oxy Can't Find Oil on the Tribe's Ancestral Land
http://www.amazonwatch.org/newsroom/newsreleases01/jul31_uwa.html
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 31, 2001
CONTACTS:
Atossa Soltani, Amazon Watch (310) 455-0617 or cell. (202) 256-9795
Patrick Reinsborough, Rainforest Action Network (415) 305-7246
Carwil James, Project Underground (510) 705-8981
Colombia's U'wa Tribe and Supporters
Celebrate Oxy's Failure to Find Oil
End to Oil Drilling on the Tribe's Ancestral Land and Total De-Militarization Urged
The news long awaited by the Colombia's U'wa tribe and their thousands of supporters around the world has finally arrived: the Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum (OXY) announced Friday that it has failed to find oil at the Gibraltar 1 well site on the tribe's ancestral land in Northeastern Colombia. The company has begun removing equipment from the site, a positive turn of events for the valorous non-violent resistance campaign waged by the U'wa, an indigenous community of 8,000 who live high in the Andean cloud forests.
Since OXY received drilling rights in 1992 to the Siriri block (formerly known as Samor), the project has been embroiled in controversy and condemned by environmental and human rights groups worldwide.
The announcement by OXY comes as thousands of U'wa are taking part in a traditional three month spiritual retreat for fasting, meditation, teaching, singing, and prayer. The U'wa Werjayas (spiritual leaders) and Karekas (medicine people) have been praying for months and using traditional rituals to "hide the oil" from OXY's drill.
While the U'wa called this development a "cultural triumph," the tribe pointed out that their ancestral land is still threatened by oil exploration by the Spanish company Repsol, who is just beginning exploratory drilling in the Capachos 1 block. "This is a battle that we have won, but the war continues, because the U'wa territory is not only Gibraltar 1," said Roberto Perez, President of the U'wa Traditional Authority in a communiqu released today.
"The blood spilled from the three North Americans indigenous activists and other supporters who were killed, the loss of our U'wa children in the violent evictions, the humiliations of the armed forces, the cries of the U'wa children and elders in the peaceful mobilizations, the challenge to resist the aggressions by the Colombian State and OXY, will not go unpunished. It will be a bittersweet memory that will remain in the minds of those who participated directly an indirectly in the most difficult moments of this process," said Perez.
The U'wa have become a symbol of resistance to oil exploration and corporate led globalization for thousands of supporters around the world. Over the last 5 years, the U'wa resistance has inspired a massive international solidarity movement that has captured headlines with hundreds of peaceful demonstrations. More recently, the U'wa and their supporters been organizing to stop U.S. military aid to Colombia, of which OXY is an influential proponent.
Using tactics ranging from blockades at the drill site, lawsuits, shareholder resolutions, letter writing campaigns, banner hangs, and non-violent civil disobedience, the U'wa along with environmental and human rights activists have confronted Occidental and its major shareholders including Fidelity Investments, former Vice-President Al Gore and Alliance Capital/Sanford Bernstein.
"This is an important victory and a real milestone in the larger struggle to win recognition and respect for indigenous peoples rights around the world. Unfortunately, until we address our societies addiction to fossil fuels by transitioning to renewable energy sources, the world's remaining pristine ecosystems and traditional cultures will continue to be threatened by unscrupulous oil corporations," said Kevin Koenig, campaigner for Amazon Watch.
This is yet another blow to Oxy's operations in Colombia which have suffered significant losses this year. The company's Cano Limon field and pipeline have been paralyzed since February 17 as a result of more than 110 guerrilla bombings so far this year. In addition, OXY's private security contractor, AirScan, was recently implicated in one of Colombian Military's worst civilian massacres putting OXY in the center of yet another controversy. In 1998, three American pilots working for AirScan guided Colombian military's attack on the Santo Domingo village that killed 12 civilians including 9 children.
###
Related Material:
News Release: From The Association of U'wa Traditional Authorities: Gibraltar I, Cultural Triumph! July 31 2001.
http://www.amazonwatch.org/newsroom/newsreleases01/jul31_uwacom.html
Occidental Finds No Oil At Colombian Siriri Well. Reuters Article. July 27 2001
http://www.amazonwatch.org/newsroom/mediaclips01/col/010727r.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, and the environment.
-------------------------------------------------------------http://www.flybynews.com------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2nd Anniversary Issue: Parallel Universe * CIA Mind Control * Pacifica Under Siege
18 August 2001
Congratulations for all of us working for a free society on this second anniversary day of Flyby News and the Cassini Earth flyby. Your subscribing, reading, (and especially) acting on these issues are truly important. Many thanks, too, for those contributing to Flyby News. This includes the mainstream media. (Since we are non-profit, providing electronic information for research and educational purposes, we are able to use copyrighted materials.) In the right context, the press can be a positive force for transformation. In addition, those organizations and individuals contributing to Flyby News are truly appreciated. This is the substance that Flyby simply transmits. Regular contributors include the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, Disclosure Project, Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, Committee to Free Lori Berenson, Bill Smirnow, Arise Action Network and many others. Keep an eye on the Flyby News link page for more listings in the coming weeks..In today's issue the two first stories were received from the Butterfly World Update. Flyby News is inspired from the momentum of those taking a stand on the threats against world peace and health. Our work to be successful may require a miracle, but such is the nature of life, and being conscious is part of the solution.
The first item makes much sense philosophically to some, but can be a stretch for others. In such a diverse parallel expanding universe on another planet, the Cassini Earth flyby could have proved disastrous. We could count our lucky stars by having this threat in our past, but the future is just as dangerous. Stopping the arms race from reaching into outer space is key to peace and health on Earth. This requires free thinking, which is why the second and third items in this issue are important, too. Your subscribing to such news is what keeps us going, and gives another chance for our unity to to be effective in making major changes. Hopefully we will be part of the solution on Earth, transforming the ways of fear, power, control and selfishness, to the way that helped give each of us a choice and breath of life, the love in Creation that unites us all.
1) Our Universe Not Alone, Say Scientists
2) TRANCE Formation of America
3) Amy Goodman and Pacifica Under Siege
********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Our Universe Not Alone, Say Scientists
To my friends in all the universes. Didn't we see this circa 1967
Sunday, March 25, 2001
By United Press International
Spanish and American astrophysicists claim the universe we inhabit contains an infinite number of other universes like our own, called O-regions, that we will someday be able to contact. Jaume Garriga, of the University of Barcelona, and Alexander Vilenkin, of Tufts University, call the concept "many worlds in one."
As they explained to United Press International, these universes are likely similar to our own - share similar life forms, for instance - because they share a key feature with our world: a finite number of distinct histories. A history is the way something has evolved in time and will continue to evolve. Until now, physicists have never been able to make such an assertion.
The team will publish their hypothesis this fall in the journal Gravitation and Quantum Cosmology.
Are these ideas far-fetched? Alan Guth says no.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist told UPI, "Do I think that the ideas are viable? Definitely yes. In fact, I very much admire the precision with which the ideas are expressed. I consider the work of Alex Vilenkin and his collaborators to be the leading work in this field."
He explained, "What is new in their article is the realization that the total number of possible histories for each universe is finite."
An infinite number of universes like our own is a concept Guth - one of the foremost authorities on a concept called the inflationary universe - finds startling.
"That's a pretty mind-boggling conclusion," Guth told UPI from his Cambridge, Mass. office.
The idea that an infinite number of universes exist gives rise to some interesting, and troubling, implications.
"Whenever a thought crosses your mind that a terrible calamity might have happened," Vilenkin told UPI, "you can be assured that it has happened in some of the other O-regions."
Furthermore, since some O-regions have histories identical or nearly identical to our own, "if you nearly escaped an accident here, then you were not so lucky in some of the O-regions with the same prior history," he said
The worlds Garriga and Vilenkin imagine are not entirely calamitous, and may even be amusing.
"Distant copies of ourselves play all sorts of different roles" in these other worlds, Vilenkin said. In fact, "there are infinitely many O-regions where Al Gore is president and - yes - Elvis Presley is still alive!"
According to Vilenkin, Guth's work gave rise to the idea of many worlds in the first place. Guth formulated the now well-accepted idea that the universe is expanding - or inflating - and published the best-selling book "The Inflationary Universe" in 1997.
As the visible universe expands, or inflates, it gives birth to new universes. Since inflation is eternal, new universe creation is also eternal.
"In an eternally inflating universe, anything that can happen will happen; in fact, it will happen an infinite number of times," Guth told UPI.
Guth also believes the many-worlds hypothesis has profound philosophical implications.
"We already know that our planet is merely a tiny speck in a vast cosmos, but now we are being told that we do not even hold a unique copyright on our own identities," Guth told UPI. "Instead, each of us is actually only a single copy of an infinite number of beings that are completely identical to ourselves."
Copyright 2001, United Press International, All Rights Reserved
********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) TRANCE Formation of America
"It is perfectly possible for a man to be out of prison, and yet not free - to be under no physical constraint and yet to be a psychological captive, compelled to think, feel and act as the representatives of the national state, or of some private interest within the nation, wants him to think, feel and act.
The nature of psychological compulsion is such that those who act under constraint remain under the impression that they are acting on their own initiative. The victim of mind-manipulation does not know that he is a victim. To him the walls of his prison are invisible, and he believes himself to be free. That he is not free is apparent only to other people. His servitude is strictly objective."
-- Brave New World Revisited, Aldous Huxley, 1958
TRANCE Formation of America is the first documented autobiography of a victim of government mind control. Cathy O'Brien is the only vocal and recovered survivor of the Central Intelligence Agency's MK-Ultra Project Monarch operation. Tracing her path from child pornography and recruitment into the program to serving as a top-level intelligence agent and White House sex slave, TRANCE Formation of America is a definitive eye-witness account of government corruption that implicates some of the most prominent figures in U.S. politics.
On August 3rd, 1977 the 95th U.S. Congress opened hearings into the reported abuses concerning the CIA's TOP SECRET mind control research program code named MK-Ultra. On February 8th, 1988, a top-level MK-Ultra victim, Cathy O'Brien, was covertly rescued from her mind control enslavement by Intelligence insider Mark Phillips. Their seven year pursuit of Justice was stopped FOR REASONS OF NATIONAL SECURITY. TRANCE Formation of America exposes the truth behind this covert government program and its ultimate goal: psychological control of a nation.
For more information on the campaign and book, TRANCE Formation of America, visit
http://www.trance-formation.com/index2.htm
*******************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Amy Goodman and Pacifica Under Siege
From: "Bill Smirnow" smirnowb@ix.netcom.com
Subject: AMY GOODMAN PHYSICALLY ACCOSTED, SHOVED, HAD CAMERA STOLEN BY EUTRICE LEID
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2001 04:23:02 -0400
More outrages on the part of Eutrice Leid & "Friends" at "Pacifica." This cannot be allowed to continue! Leid & her EVIL, lying cowardly cohorts must go. Amy Goodman, "Democracy Now" & the fired & banned producers must be restored with their and our [listeners/supporters] freedom of speech also reinstated. Please do everything possible to spread the word & act.
-Bill Smirnow
----- Original Message -----
From: "Juan Gonzalez" pacificacampaign@yahoo.com
To:
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2001 12:43 AM
Subject: Amy Goodman Physically Accosted
> August 12, 2001
>
> Friends,
>
> On Friday afternoon, Amy Goodman was physically accosted by WBAI Interim General Manger Eutrice Leid.
>
> According to eyewitnesses, Amy came upon two WBAI staffers rifling through the personal possessions of fired WBAI Program Director Bernard White. Amy objected to the invasion of privacy, and when the two people refused to stop, she went to her office, got her camera, and took a picture of their illegal search.
>
> WBAI manager Eutrice Leid, who appeared on the scene at that point, ripped the camera out of Amy's hands and walked into an adjacent office. Amy followed her and demanded her camera back. Leid simply laughed in Amy's face, saying she would have the film developed herself. Leid, a tall robust woman who towers over Amy and weighs at least 50 pounds more than her, then physically shoved Amy out of the way and marched down the hallway to her own office whereupon she shut the door. But Amy would not be intimidated. She stood outside Leid's office and again demanded the camera back. Leid finally relented, opened the door and handed it to Amy.
>
> Amy reiterated that it was wrong to be going through Bernard White's possessions. Leid asked her how she knew anyone was doing that. Amy replied that she had witnessed the incident. "Just like you witnessed the massacre in East Timor?" retorted Leid sarcastically, echoing a common slander that has now been made by several WBAI staffers who are followers of Leid: that the 1991 East Timor massacre that Amy witnessed and reported about was fabricated by her.
>
> For those who live in the WBAI listening area, this incident will come as no surprise. We have heard numerous on-air diatribes by Leid and her followers routinely vilifying Amy and other dissidents at the station. Amy has been threatened with violence, made the object of racist and sexist slurs, and denounced as a "criminal," a "saboteur" and a "Svengali" who is responsible for the entire Pacifica crisis. Leid has said that Amy's contribution to Pacifica is "vomit" and "defecation" and her followers have at times used sexist epithets to degrade Amy, even deriding her on the air as "childless."
>
> Amy has directed numerous complaints to interim executive director Bessie Wash and to the Pacifica Board majority about the harassment and slander, but they refuse to intercede. Are they waiting for Leid or one of her stooges to physically assault Amy?
>
> We urge you to act now.
>
> 1) Stop the threats, slander and physical intimidation against Amy Goodman
> 2) Resign. Step aside and allow for new leadership to begin the rebuilding process.
>
> Together we can stop this madness.
>
> Venceremos,
>
> Juan Gonzalez
> Stop the Harassment of Democracy Now!
http://www.progressiveportal.org/letters/pacifica/resign/
>
> The Pacifica Campaign is a grass-roots organization representing listeners and staff alike, fighting to preserve Pacifica's 50-year tradition of progressive, community-based radio.
>
> Tax deductible contributions to support the work of the Pacifica Campaign may be made to our fiscal sponsor, a 501 (c) (3) organization. Make checks payable to: Institute for Media Analysis-Pacifica Campaign. Our mailing address: The Pacifica Campaign, 51 MacDougal St., #80, New York, NY 10012.
= = = = = = = = =
From: "MHF/PMI" mhf1982@pacbell.net
To:
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2001 11:22 PM
Subject: KPFA - KPFK - KPFT - WBAI - WPFW: The Pacifica Radio Network
> YOU HELPED BUILD IT. WILL YOU HELP SAVE IT?
>
> Amy Goodman was walking around the station at WBAI with a mask over her face to protest surveillance cameras installed by Pacifica management.
> Because she did not feel safe, she went to a different studio to do her show. As of today, WBAI began re-broadcasting Amy's old programs rather than playing the new programs she made where she felt safer.
>
> If you think this is outrageous, there's something you can do. The Committee to Remove Pacifica Board (CRPB) and its Listeners' Lawsuit legal team have researched and built their case against Pacifica for over two years. Now they are ready to take depositions from all major participants. This will cost an estimated $250,000 and they need your help.
>
> THE LISTENERS' LAWSUIT, IF SUCCESSFUL, WILL:
>
> remove board members who have abused their authority violated their own rules of operation, and wasted listener funds .give listener-sponsors voting rights . recover damages from individual directors for any misappropriation of funds . amend the bylaws and elect new directors.
>
> WHY DID LISTENER-SPONSORS GO TO COURT?
>
> The Pacifica Foundation Board of Directors, which holds legal title to the network's assets and licenses, has relentlessly abused its authority. They censored and fired programmers and locked out station staff. They fired their controller of twenty years and denied five board members access to financial information. They refused to testify before state and federal investigative bodies. Celebrities, nationally-respected progressives, and elected officials have talked to them. Listeners like you demonstrated, wrote thousands of letters, and filled their phone lines. Now the Board has hired two of Washington D.C.'s most high-powered law firms to fight listener-sponsors in court while they continue to destroy the network.
>
> Amy needs decent working conditions to produce Democracy Now! The people of Houston, Texas need local news reporting. KPFA listeners need to know their station will not be compromised or sold. We all need the Pacifica Radio Network to remain independent, commercial-free, and listener-sponsored.
>
> WHY THE MARIN HEALTH FUND/PUBLIC MEDIA INITIATIVE IS INVOLVED
>
> A founding purpose of the MHF is to protect civil and economic rights of the general public. MHF has focused on protecting local control of public assets and created the Public Media Initiative to protect this important public forum. Of three lawsuits against Pacifica, only the CRPB Listeners' Lawsuit seeks local democratic membership control of Pacifica. Membership control that can give listener-sponsors voting rights, elect responsive, accountable board members whose vision and guidance, rebuild Pacifica into the national treasure it is, and sustain the future of the Pacifica Network.
MHF is raising funds through efforts such as this letter to continue providing grants to the CRPB. The Internal Revenue Service has ruled that the MHF is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
For more information or to contribute contact "MHF/PMI" by E-mail: mhf1982@pacbell.net
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, and the environment.
-------------------------------------------------------------http://www.flybynews.com------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Lost Nuke Weapon * Russian Radioactive Water Catastrophe
15 August 2001
The scariest part of these following stories is that they hardly cause a commotion, and seem rather routine for most of us!
On the bright side -- the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space recently reported that, so far, 213 Organizations are endorsing an end to space weapons and 77 actions are planned on October 13, 2001 for the International Day of Protest to Stop the Militarization of Space.
1) Lost Nuke Weapon Near US Admitted
2) Russian Radioactive Water Catastrophe
************************************************************************
1) Lost Nuke Weapon Near US Admitted
Pentagon officials, though admitting they do not know the bomb's exact location, insist it is safe. . . They have rejected demands for it to be recovered, saying it is too dangerous to be touched.'
This following article was published in "The Australian" 12 August 2001
http://theaustralian.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,2566427%255E401,00.html
US admits losing nuke
12 aug 01
A NUCLEAR bomb, 100 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima, is lying 10km off the east coast of the United States.
Until now one of the most closely guarded secrets in US military history, its existence has been confirmed in newly declassified documents which reveal how it was dumped in the sea after a mid-air collision more than 40 years ago.
Pentagon officials, though admitting they do not know the bomb's exact location, insist it is safe.
They have rejected demands for it to be recovered, saying it is too dangerous to be touched.
The 3450kg hydrogen bomb, known as a Mark 15 weapon, has been lying off the coast of Georgia since February 5, 1958, when it was jettisoned from a B-47 Stratojet bomber after the plane was struck by a fighter jet during a training exercise at 36,000ft.
One of the bomber's wings was damaged and an engine dislodged.
The pilot, Maj Howard Richardson, was ordered to drop the 3.5m bomb before attempting to land.
He did so near Tybee Island, close to the mouth of the Savannah River.
Despite a 10-week search, the bomb was never found.
In a top-secret memo to the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), a Pentagon official wrote: "A B-47 aircraft with a (word censored) nuclear weapon aboard was damaged in a collision with an F-86 aircraft near Sylvania.
"The B-47 aircraft attempted three times unsuccessfully to land with the weapon.
"The weapon was then jettisoned visually over water off the mouth of the Savannah River. No detonation was observed."
Documents reveal the search was called off when another hydrogen bomb was accidentally dropped near Florence, South Carolina.
A TNT explosive trigger detonated on impact, but the actual nuclear device did not explode.
Troops looking for the bomb off the coast were then ordered to Florence to conduct a clean-up operation. They never returned to Tybee Island.
"The search for this weapon was discontinued on 4-16-1958 and the weapon is considered irretrievably lost," one of the declassified documents states.
The military suspected the bomb plunged into water 6m deep, coming to rest beneath about 5m of sand.
The bomb's existence was only made public when a salvage company, run by former CIA officer Bert Soleau, offered to find it.
Now Georgians are demanding action, but the military is standing firm, saying recovery could take five years and cost $23 million.
Officials claim the bomb is safe because, though it contained 180kg of TNT to trigger the atomic explosion, a vital link between the TNT and the nuclear device had been removed. Without the link -- in this case a capsule containing plutonium -- detonation was impossible.
This has been challenged by former servicemen and residents, who have discovered documents stating it was armed.
Derek Duke, a former US Air Force pilot from Savannah, cites a 1966 memo to the Congress Joint Committee on Atomic Energy by W.J. Howard, then assistant to the secretary of defence, stating that the bomb was a "complete weapon".
Howard H. Nixon, a former crew chief who loaded nuclear weapons on to planes at Georgia's Hunter Army Airfield from 1957 to 1959, said the bombs were always armed.
"Never in my air force career did I install a Mark 15 weapon without installing the plutonium capsule," he said.
The capsule debate has failed to convince Mr Duke. "It's a nuclear bomb," he said.
"It's like if I take the battery out of your car, then I try to convince you it's not a car."
Tybee Islanders agree. Mayor Walter Parker said: "It's in the best interest of everybody that it be found to determine what condition the weapon is in."
Resident Ken Wade was more blunt: "There is no doubt we've got a nuclear bomb right here in our neighbourhood."
2001 The Australian
http://theaustralian.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,2566427%255E401,00.html
**********************************************************************
2) Russian Radioactive Water Catastrophe
From:ecodefense@online.ru
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 7:53 PM
Subject: press-release
PRESS-RELEASE
Moscow, August 15, 2001 (Wednesday)
For more information and copy of letter call:
2784642, 7766281 Vladimir Slivyak, ECODEFENSE!
NUCLEAR DISASTER IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN, OFFICIAL SAYS
Greens discloses the letter from Chelyabinsk governor to Russian prime minister on the threat of nuclear catastrophe
International environment group ECODEFENSE! disclosed today the letter to Russian prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov written by the governor of Chelyabinsk region Petr Sumin, who said his region is on the threshold of new nuclear disaster. Chelyabinsk governor demanded immediate action to solve the problem of radioactive pollution in water.
This is consequence of the operation of "Mayak" nuclear reprocessing plant, which dumped its radioactive waste into rivers over last 40 years. Letter sent on July 10, 2001, it never appeared in mass-media.
"It is no doubt that such letter must be disclosed because it contains information on serious threat to millions of Russian citizens," said Vladimir Slivyak, co-chairman of ECODEFENSE!, environmental group working to stop dangerous nuclear power projects in Russia. "There is one more important part in this letter. Instead of working to solve the problem of nuclear waste, governor Sumin wants to build another disastrous giant - South-Ural nuclear plant. Bringing situation to final absurd, Mr. Sumin says new nuclear plant will solve existing environmental problems".
The Sumin' letter says: "It becomes more and more dangerous to use the Techa river' cascade, serving to "Mayak" facility of Minatom (Ministry of atomic power). Open water reservoirs contains about 400 million cubic meter of radioactively contaminated water; level of this waters is about to become dangerous". Another part of letter says: ".. building of the South-Ural nuclear power plant allows to solve this problem effectively".
Presently, amount of high-level radioactive waste, such as spent nuclear fuel, accumulated at Russian nuclear plants estimated at 14,000 ton. Amount of medium- and low-level radioactive waste just can not be calculated across the country because it's large and not all of locations are known. Instead of working to get rid of 400 million c/m of radioactive waste, Chelyabinsk authority proposes the plan that will increase the amount of nuclear waste in the region as a result of new nuclear plant operation.
Earlier in 2001 federal government decided to open the national border for foreign spent nuclear fuel to be stored or reprocessed in Russia. "Mayak" is the only reprocessing facility operating in Russia, its reprocessing line was started in 1970s. Capacity of the plant is 400 ton per year, but through 1990s plant was reprocessing no more than 150 ton of spent nuclear fuel annually. According to the plant source, it needs modernization that costs about $ 600 million. Large territory near "Mayak" facility is still contaminated as a result of 1957 accident which comparable to Chernobyl. On September 29, 1957, the tank containing radioactive waste exploded, releasing several millions of Ci of radioactivity into the atmosphere. Thousands of people were resettled, thousands of square kilometers were polluted. There is special federal program to rehabilitate this territory exist in Russian budget, but it's not clear what kind of programs implemented in its framework.
"Mayak" must be shut down as soon as possible; just nothing can be compared to this facility by the level of danger it presents. Amount of radioactive waste stored at "Mayak" is equal to 8 Chernobyl releases", said Vladimir Slivyak. "More it operates - more plutonium will be generated out of spent fuel reprocessing. Russia doesn't need this plutonium, it already have more than enough, so it's unlikely that this material will ever be properly watched and protected".
**********************************************************************
"News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era"
------------http://www.flybynews.com----------------
Hidankyo Hiroshima Nagasaki Commemoration * Disclosure Project in DC
08 August 2001
1) August 6 and 9 Commemoration - Hidankyo Organization
2) The fast Uphill climb for the Disclosure Project
************************************************************************
1) August 6 and 9 Commemoration - Hidankyo Organization
The Hidankyo Organization should receive the next Nobel Peace Prize.
NIHON HIDANKYO is the only nation-wide organization of A-bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Hibakusha). Hidankyo were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 and 1994. The reason for Hidankyo's nomination was that it has persisted with "tireless work in advocating the total abolition of all nuclear weapons" and has conducted "a continuing campaign not only against nuclear weapons, but also for effective compensation for the Hibakusha.."
The three main objectives of the Hidankyo Organization:
1) Prevention of nuclear war and the elimination of nuclear weapons, including the signing of an international agreement for a total ban and the elimination of nuclear weapons. The convening of an international conference to reach this goal is also part of Hidankyo's basic demand;
2) State compensation for the A-bomb damages. The state responsibility of having launched the war, which led to the damage by the atomic bombing, should be acknowledged, and the state compensation provided.
3) Improvement of the current policies and measures on the protection and assistance for the Hibakusha.
For more information on the Hidankyo Organization, visit:
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hidankyo/nihon/english/index.html
**********************************************************************
2) The fast Uphill climb for the Disclosure Project
"We all know that UFOs are real. All we need to ask is where do they come from."
-- Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut who walked on the moon.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Calling for Congressional hearings for the disclosure of government/UFO encounters and cover-up, based on the Testimonies of more than 400 military, government and corporate witnesses, (documented by the Disclosure Project), is still, a mighty leap of faith to get past the paradigm shift of an impossible reality that enters the realms of our imagination, too. Nevertheless, what is...is. Based on the body of evidences from the Disclosure Project, it makes sense to support hearings, and wonder about what could be the intentions of beings with such an evolved technology while also reflecting on the other questions of government fear and control tactics and policies, and people willing to have the courage to stand up and ask, "What in the world are we doing to ourselves and one another?"
If interested in using the Disclosure Projects fax system to contact your Representatives Online for full disclosure of what the government knows about UFOs and for a space weapon ban, you can link to
http://www.disclosureproject.org/fax
You can also check out responses from elected representatives
http://www.disclosureproject.org/responses.htm
[Some of the responses can be viewed rather humorously.]
"it appears the Department of Defense needs to respond to your request.
I have sent a copy of your letter to the agency and asked that they respond directly to you"
07-18-01 John Ensign (Senator) NV
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Dr. Steven Greer, director of the Disclosure Project, will be presenting at the prestigious International Platform Association annual convention in Washington DC on Friday August 10, 2001 at 8 pm.
His topic is "Disclosure: 400 Military, Government and Corporate Witnesses Reveal Secrets about Classified UFO connected Government Projects. "
(Generally speakers are given hr to present -- Dr. Greer is being given 1 hours.)
The conference will be held at:
The Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill
200 New Jersey Ave. NE
Washington DC 20001
August 8 - 12, 2001
The entire conference is $300. Day passes are $95.
You can call the International Platform association at 410-871-2408 or go to www.internationalplatform.com for more information
For more information on the Disclosure Project see
http://www.disclosureproject.org
**********************************************************************
Peltier/FBI Link for Freedom * Disclosure Project 2001 Events * NASA B-Day Action
02 August, 2001
It is August and we are closing in on the second anniversary of the high-risk Cassini Earth flyby. Cassini was a sign-post over our skies telling of a civilization lost, way lost, pursuing that of military strategies for superiority and dominance in the illusion of security and their well-being. It is encouraging to note that a growing number of military leaders are challenging the Bush administration's corporate-welfare missile defense policy, which takes from limited resources and weakens overall national security interests. Instead of protecting us, BMD escalates proliferation and development of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.
Item one is again on the efforts to free an innocent man, Leonard Peltier. This case cannot be separated from other human rights issues, such as space for peace. Without justice there is no peace. Peltier's case and its relationship with the FBI is still being censored from the mainstream media. This places greater importance on your acting on his behalf. Please give even one call to Senator Leahy, chair of the judicial committee and request that the case of Leonard Peltier be included in the review of FBI misconduct.
Item two updates Disclosure Project (DP) and their upcoming events. This nonprofit organization is not only exposing evidences (based on testimonies of highly credentialed individuals) on UFO and extraterrestrial existence in our solar system, but also on a cover-up that threatens democracy to its very roots of freedom and human rights. This has been perpetrated not by the FBI, but by a stealth government group willing to use intimidation and terminal accidents to enforce their perceived methods for "security interests." It seems the web of deceit is behind much of the corruption in politics, defense policies, news reporting, justice and law enforcement. Please read these testimonies and try to get to a DP event.
Item three is another message from the Global Network, showing their resolve to keep our inalienable rights for freedom and truth. Happy birthday Bruce!
Also, a late breaking news blurb just came through, in the thick of BMD-Global Warming Bush energy-war policy: The US House of Representatives today approved a broad energy bill which would allow some oil drilling in an Alaskan refuge.
http://www.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/08/02/energy.bill/index.html
Tell your Senators/Representatives you are appalled and will work toward removing from office any representative willing to sacrifice one of America's last pristine wildernesses for more pollution in our becoming CO2 saturated atmosphere.
The Congressional switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121.
Link to Fax US government representatives to
"Demand a Responsible National Energy Policy"
http://www.saveourenvironment.org/action/item.asp?item=345
You can also send a fax from NRDC's Action page:
http://www.nrdc.org/action/default.asp
1) Call Leahy to Include the Peltier case on FBI Misconduct
2) Disclosure Projects Events Update
3) NASA's B-day Action - All in a life of an activist.
********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Call Leahy to Include the Peltier case on FBI Misconduct
The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC) is launching a telephone campaign to urge Senator Leahy, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to Include the Peltier case regarding FBI Misconduct. Please make at least one call a week and if possible, call on your region's designated day. This will help to ensure that calls are received on a daily basis:
northeast: Mondays
southeast: Tuesdays
mid-west and International: Wednesdays
northwest: Thursdays
southwest: Fridays.
Senator Patrick D Leahy
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
202-224-3479 fx | 202-224-4242 ph
TALKING POINTS FOR CALLS TO LEAHY
1. I am calling in regard to the Judiciary Committee's current examination of incidences of FBI misconduct and its efforts to create a means for better government oversight.
2. In particular, I would like to bring your attention to the case of Leonard Peltier, the imprisoned Native rights activist who Amnesty International calls a "political prisoner" who should be "immediately and unconditionally released." Perhaps more than any other, the case of Leonard Peltier necessitates urgent congressional intervention.
3. First, Mr. Peltier's case is rooted in a three-year period of violent conflict on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, which began with the 1973 Wounded Knee takeover and ended in 1976 as tribal chairman, Dick Wilson left office. During that period the FBI cooperated with the tribal chairman and together they sought to eliminate American Indian Movement activity and presence on the reservation. Vigilantes hired by the tribal chairman and supported by the FBI carried out a campaign of violence against members and supporters of AIM. Over 60 AIM members were murdered, and scores more were assaulted. Nothing was done to stop the violence and the survivors have received little if any closure. That period was well documented by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, but remains largely unrecognized by our government.
4. Second, it is well documented that Mr. Peltier's conviction resulted from the withholding of exculpatory evidence, the coercion of witnesses, and the utilization of falsified testimony by the FBI and U.S. Attorneys. Since 1985 the government has conceded that it cannot prove who shot the agents. In 1986 the Eighth Circuit Court ruled that had the FBI not improperly withheld evidence, Mr. Peltier might have been acquitted. Yet, a new trial was denied based on a legal technicality. The FBI withheld over 18,000 documents from the defense at trial, and continues to withhold over 6,000 today. Yet, nothing has been done to correct the improprieties and Mr. Peltier has languished over 25 years in prison despite the total lack of evidence against him.
5. Third, the FBI has consistently and aggressively obstructed Mr. Peltier's remaining avenues for redress. As you may know, President Clinton announced that he was considering Mr. Peltier for a grant of executive clemency late last year. The FBI responded with an intensive lobby and media campaign to prevent a positive decision from occurring. The statements disseminated throughout the FBI's campaign were false, intentionally misleading, and absent of highly relevant information. The FBI has utilized similar tactics in blocking Mr. Peltier's release through parole, for which he is long overdue. Clearly the killing of the two agents represents a great tragedy, but official vengeance can never be allowed to replace the due process of the law.
6. Given all of this, we want to urge the Judiciary Committee to hold full hearings on the treatment of residents on the Pine Ridge Reservation between 1973 and 1976, and on the Peltier case in particular. We also want to urge the judiciary committee to declassify the 6,000 FBI documents that remain concealed. Amnesty International, Rev. Jesse Jackson, the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights, the National Congress of American Indians, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Eighth Circuit Court Judge-Gerald Heaney, and the Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights are only a few who have recognized the troubling nature of the Peltier case and have voiced support for resolution.
7. We are encouraged by the Judiciary Committee's commitment to seek better oversight of the FBI and to prevent mishaps and abuses from reoccurring. Certainly, recent revelations of misconduct give way to the need for reform. However, true reform will be difficult to achieve if the situation of Leonard Peltier continues without governmental scrutiny and resolution.
8. Taking an honest and open look at the Peltier case and the era in which it is rooted, will help bring closure to a matter that has long served as a source of distrust and anguish for so many Native Peoples and non-Native citizens. Perhaps most importantly, airing the truth could lead to the prevention of future abuses, and promote a more just and equitable society.
For Senators' telephone, fax, web, and E-mail addresses see:
http://prop1.org/prop1/senate.htm
Senate Judiciary Committee Members:
Democrats
Patrick Leahy, VT Chairman
Edward Kennedy, MA
Joseph Biden, DE
Herb Kohl, WI
Dianne Feinstein, CA
Russell Feingold, WI
Charles Schumer, NY
Richard Durbin, IL
Maria Cantwell, WA
John Edwards, NC
Republicans
Orrin Hatch, UT Ranking Member
Strom Thurmond, SC
Chuck Grassley, IA
Arlen Specter, PA
Jon Kyl, AZ
Mike DeWine, OH
Jeff Sessions, AL
Sam Brownback, KS
Mitch McConnell, KY
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-5774
http://www.freepeltier.org
********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Disclosure Projects Events Update
YOU ARE INVITED!
This CAMPAIGN for DISCLOSURE event will begin with an exclusive showing of the 2-hr Disclosure video of dozens of government and military witnesses to UFO and extraterrestrial events and projects. This will be followed by a presentation by Disclosure Project Director Steven M. Greer, MD and project's witnesses who have just spent several weeks briefing senators and congress people on Capitol Hill, following the landmark National Press Club Conference May 9 in Washington, DC. This event was reported by BBC, CNN, FOX, The Washington Times, The London Sunday Express, and others, plus interviews were done for Dateline, Popular Mechanics, and others.
The Campaign For Disclosure: 2001 Tour:
Seattle, WA - September 8, 2001
Vancouver, BC - September 9, 2001
Portland OR - September 12, 2001
Salem, OR - September 13, 2001
Washington, DC - October 7, 2001
Toronto, Canada - October 20, 2001
Boston, MA - October 21, 2001
New York, NY - October 26, 2001
Atlanta, GA - November 3, 2001
Charlotte, NC - November 4, 2001
Asheville, NC - November 5, 2001
Phoenix, AZ - November 10, 2001
Dallas, TX - November 11, 2001
London, UK - December 8, 2001
Typical Schedule
1-1:30 pm - Registration;
1:30 - 3:30 pm - Disclosure video: The Implications for the Environment, World Peace,
World Poverty and the Human Future
3:30 - 4 pm - Break
4 - 6 pm - Presentation by Dr. Steven Greer & 4 witnesses.
For more information on Disclosure Project see
http://www.disclosureproject.org
********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) NASA's B-day Action - All in a life of an activist.
Fwd. Global Network (Mary Beth Sullivan)
It's no surprise that Bruce Gagnon likes to demonstrate. To celebrate his birthday, he invited friends to join him at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on July 28 to hold some banners at this most popular tourist facility.
Some background is necessary. Last month, eight of us did the same thing. We stood in an area close to the booth where people pay their entrance fee. We weren't there five minutes when NASA security police were all over us, insisting we stand at the "designated protest area." The spot turned out to be a decent one, a grassy walkway with trees that hundreds of tourists passed on their way to and from the ticket entrance.
Although uninvited, NASA security read Bruce's e-mail birthday invitation. They were prepared for us. In the morning, they switched the parking lots so that the areas around the "designated protest area" were full by the time we got there. The "main entrance" for entering tourists was now way out of sight of the "protest area." So we went to the "new" active entrance. We were a dozen people. All but one of us stood with our banners in full view of tourists, without blocking access. There was a steady flow of people. Wil Van Natta (West Palm Beach) stood in the midst of the flow of people,
greeting those who passed by showing them an enlargement of the Space Command's "Vision for 2020."
We had just unfurled our banners when NASA security police arrived to tell us we needed to move to the designated area, or we would be arrested for trespassing. They called for the Brevard County Police. We stayed put, holding banners that said "Keep Space for Peace," "No Weapons in Space," and "No Nuclear Power in Space."
A few people stopped to listen to what Wil had to say about the Space Command and its plans to dominate space. One of the security officers approached, told him he was under arrest, and handcuffed him. Wil remained calm and respectful; others of us questioned the appropriateness of this arrest in every way we could.
Soon thereafter, most of us went over to the "designated protest area." We were shocked to see that they had constructed a "corral" for us - a small metal cage you would expect to see fencing in cows or pigs. We refused to enter. Security police maintained a steady presence near us for two hours videotaping, taking pictures, talking into their radios. Some even hovered around our cars in the parking lot.
Meanwhile, our friend Beth Ehrlich (Daytona Beach) stayed behind with some others to observe what would happen with Wil. She engaged in conversation with a woman tourist who was waiting for friends. When asked by this woman for some written information, Beth handed her a newsletter. Immediately a security officer appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and grabbed the newsletter. All three of them tugged on the paper for a moment before the tourist finally insisted this newsletter belonged to her. He let go of the paper and left.
There's the image, friends: NASA "security", defining their jobs as securing the area from any ideas or written materials they don't approve of. A tourist having to "fight" for the opportunity to read a newsletter. Restricted access to any ideas not bought and paid for by NASA and the aerospace corporations. An expression of their deep fear that a simple slogan on a banner might encourage tourists to open their minds and think before they enter the front door. Their "security," paid for by taxpayers' dollars, is about keeping freedom of expression corralled, marginalized, ridiculed, punished.
Wil was taken to the county jail and booked for trespassing. They eventually waived bond and he was released eight hours later. He has a court appearance scheduled in three weeks.
We will return to KSC on October 13, in greater number. We will not be silenced.
Mary Beth Sullivan
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, FL. 32607
(352) 337-9274
http://www.space4peace.org
globalnet@mindspring.com
********************************************************************************************************************************************************
News Fit to Transmit in the post Cassini Flyby Era
http://www.flybynews.com
Congressman Proposes Space Weapon Ban * Foreign minister critical of US space weapons
29 July 2001
Things are shaping up in regards to the plan of action to ban space-based weapons. Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Cleveland) last Thursday announced his intention to introduce legislation to ban the weaponization of space. He declared, "We must work toward the elimination of all nuclear weapons, and an end to policies which cause this country to move toward the weaponization of space." Following a press release on these statements is an article about Canada's foreign minister, who declared that the U.S. plans to develop space-based weapons are dangerous. John Manley said, "I've made the point as strongly as could possibly be made that Canada is unalterably opposed to the weaponization of space.'' Manley said the U.S. plan encourages the proliferation of nuclear weapons and other responses that are unlikely good for global security. He said Canada is pushing for a treaty to ban weapons from orbit and has support from other countries.
The Global Network's support for international actions on October 13 to ban weapons in space is extremely timely. Right now 198 Organizations are endorsing this campaign, with 72 sites planned for demonstrations. Also, percolating on the side of peace, is the unlikely common interests of peace organizations and many military leaders, concerned that the Bush missile defense plan would lessen their abilities to preserve national (and international) security interests.
The UN's Outer Space Treaty was ratified by 95 States, (including the US), and signed by at least 27 additional states. You can review the "Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies" at the UN's Office of Outer Space Affairs website: http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/treat/ost/ost.html
For a scarier and more dangerous perspective, visit
US Space Command's "Vision 20/20"
http://www.spacecom.af.mil/usspace
To learn more on actions planned for October 13, visit the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. http://www.space4peace.org .
Please send Flyby News any press releases of any events planned on this day for peace and the banning of weapons in space.
1) Kucinich to Introduce Legislation to Ban Weaponization of Space
2) Manley critical of U.S. plan for space weapons
3) No-Nukes Revival, Northampton, MA, August 5
******************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Kucinich to Introduce Legislation to Ban Weaponization of Space
NEWS RELEASE
July 26, 2001
CONTACT: Kathie Scarrah
202.226.8139,
703.845.2874
Kucinich to Introduce Legislation to Ban Weaponization of Space
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Cleveland) today announced his intention to introduce legislation to ban the weaponization of space. "The time has come to ban the further weaponization of space," Congressman Kucinich said. "We must work toward the elimination of all nuclear weapons, and an end to policies which cause this country to move toward the weaponization of space. I was pleased with the recent news from our neighbor to the north that Canada is ready to join an international effort to prohibit weapons in space. It is time for the United States to take the lead and end the weaponization of space."
Kucinich said the argument that supporters of weaponization use claiming our national security and commercial interests would be put at risk are fear tactics backed by greed. "We signed the ABM treaty nearly 30 years ago; which requires a reduction in strategic arms, nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. Weaponization of space clearly violates that treaty. My bill will call for an immediate and permanent termination of research, testing, manufacturing, production and deployment of all space-based weapons systems and components by any person, agency or contractor of the U.S. government." Kucinich will introduce the Space Preservation Act of 2001 this autumn.
==============================================================================================
Please support Congressman Kucinich's Space Preservation Act that he plans to introduce this autumn, network this information and find addtional endorsers for October 13 to unite with the world and stop weapons in space and the expansion of the arms race; also, contact U.S. congressional representatives in support of such proposed legislation to transform from the direction of war to the direction of peace and disarmament of weapons of mass destruction.
The Congressional switchboard telephone number: 202-224-3121.
Web Site: http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.html
For Senators' telephone, fax, web, and E-mail addresses see:
http://prop1.org/prop1/senate.htm
******************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Manley critical of U.S. plan for space weapons
CBC NEWS - Manley critical of U.S. plan for space weapons
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 11:51:45 -0400 (EDT)
From: CBCNEWS
MANLEY CRITICAL OF U.S. PLAN FOR SPACE WEAPONS
HANOI--Canada's foreign minister says U.S. plans to develop space-based weapons are dangerous.
John Manley said, "I've made the point as strongly as could possibly be made that Canada is unalterably opposed to the weaponization of space.''
Manley made his comments Wednesday in a telephone conference call from Hanoi, where he was attending an Asia-Pacific economic meeting.
Manley said the U.S. plan encourages the proliferation of nuclear weapons and other responses that are unlikely to be good for global security.
He said Canada is pushing for a treaty to ban weapons from orbit and has support from other countries.
The Pentagon has said the planned missile defence system should include a mix of land, sea and space-based weapons.
Manley also criticized the U.S. for rejecting a protocol which would have enforced the 1972 convention on germ warfare.
******************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) No-Nukes Revival, Northampton, MA, August 5
You are invited to a NO-NUKES Revival
6:30-9:30 SUNDAY, AUGUST 5,
220 MAIN Street, Northampton, MA.
Street theater begins at 4:30 with Waffles T. Clown.
Breaking bread (ala Bread & puppet) begins at 6:00.
Bread-bakers & garlic lovers welcome!!!
Hear a grand finale with Tony Vacca on percussion raising the roof.
Opening with great songs and singers.
Speakers:
Ira Helfand, Co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility
Bruce Gagnon, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
Randy Kehler, Key organizer of the Freeze movement
Wally & Juanita Nelson, Civil rights leaders and war tax resisters, "Freedom is a Choice!"
Donations will benefit construction at the Leverett Peace Pagoda.
Co-sponsors: American Friends Service Committee, CPPAX Nuclear Weapons Abolition Task Force, Leverett Peace Pagoda, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Traprock Peace Center. For more information call Traprock (413)773-7427
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous issues, and the environment.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------www.FlybyNews.com--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Global Warming Deal * Escalating Costs of Space Control * Swing Senators
The first item is about a deal reached between the European Union and Japan to implement the Kyoto global warming accord. The US, though present at the meetings, had no comment or interest in joining such efforts to benefit our global environment.
Please write letters to editors and lobby your Senators, combine these two issues of global warming and missile defense. Perhaps, Congress will wise up and see the sense of using some of the funds wasted on a missile defense to booster the US economy, as well as honor the Kyoto accords.
1. Global Warming Deal Reached
2) The Escalating Costs of Space Control
3) Critical Swing Senators to Stop Star Wars
******************************************************************************
1) Global Warming Deal Reached
From CNN.com /World
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/07/23/kyoto.talks/index.html
Deal reached at climate talks
July 23, 2001 Posted: 8:24 AM EDT (1224 GMT)
BONN, Germany -- A compromise deal to press forward with the Kyoto pact to cut greenhouse gases has been agreed.
The deal was struck after a week of meetings and more than 24 hours of continuous negotiations through into Monday morning in Bonn, Germany, a United Nations spokesman said.
During the last-ditch effort, delegates struggled with the issue of compliance -- or how to enforce an international treaty covering nearly 180 nations on greenhouse gases and how to impose penalties for violations.
The 1997 treaty aims to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions by 5.2 percent of 1990 levels by 2012.
"We have finalised the rescue operation. We have rescued the Kyoto protocol. It is a major achievement because we live with this for many years to come," EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom told Reuters.
The deal leaves the U.S. -- the planet's biggest polluter -- as the only world power not to accept the Kyoto accord. President George W. Bush rejected Kyoto in March, saying it would harm the U.S. economy.
"Almost every single country stayed in the protocol," said Olivier Deleuze, the chief European Union negotiator.
"There was one that said the Kyoto Protocol was flawed. Do you see the Kyoto Protocol flawed?"
The U.S. delegation, which participated in the talks, declined to comment on the deal.
An activist from environmental group Greenpeace, Bill Hare, told Reuters news agency: "It shows that George Bush is totally isolated in the climate debate."
"It is the long-awaited second step in the implementation of the Kyoto protocol. We are calling on Japan to ratify it now," he added.
Envoys admitted the deal fell short of tight rules they initially sought, The Associated Press news agency reported.
"I prefer an imperfect agreement that is living to an imperfect agreement that doesn't exist," Deleuze said.
Hundreds of delegates waiting in the convention hall lobby hugged each other when the news came that the agreement was clinched.
The deal clears the way for nations to continue the process of ratifying the protocol, which delegates hope to achieve in 2002.
The treaty must be ratified by 55 nations responsible for 55 percent of global green gas emissions to take force. Some 30 nations have ratified the pact to date.
The European Union has been a major driving force in trying to get the Kyoto accord ratified and onto the statute books of parliaments across the globe.
But it was Japan that became the key player, with the power to make or break the treaty.
"It's a brilliant day for the environment. It's a huge leap to have achieved a result on this very complex international negotiation," British Environment Minister Michael Meacher told Reuters news agency.
Conference chairman Jan Pronk had urged the environment ministers to continue talks when they reached a deadlock after a week of meetings.
"This is a good text. It is a balanced text," Pronk said of his compromise proposal.
"It is my conviction that it is possible to reach a full agreement."
Climate talks had already failed once when a conference last November in The Hague, Netherlands, collapsed in a last-minute dispute between the U.S. and the Europeans.
******************************************************************************
2) The Escalating Costs of Space Control
By Loring Wirbel
Citizens for Peace in Space
Trappings of Empire:
The Escalating Costs of Space Control
As elements of George Bush's revamped military plan were released piecemeal over the course of the summer, the contradictions and hypocrisies were as evident in the work of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's master plan as they were in the Cheney/Abraham energy policy.
The White House is trying to satisfy a Republican leadership that wants to own it all, while proving that it can move to a leaner, more agile defense establishment that fits within the boundaries of a post-tax-cut national budget. The inconsistencies are there for everyone to see, nowhere more evident than in space imperialism. Even prior to the official May unveiling of an expanded Global Missile Defense program, the Bush administration was faced with an open-ended military space program with costs that could quickly expand beyond the $100 billion level.
This is not only because U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wants to accelerate peripheral missile-defense programs like airborne laser and Navy boost-phase defense, as well as the ground-based kinetic-defense program. It is also because the true costs of maintaining the type of planetary space control promoted by U.S. Space Command, includes many of the underlying costs of National Reconnaissance Office, National Security Agency, and multiple tactical intelligence programs.
Slowly, the realization is dawning on many within the defense establishment that the Space Command rhetoric, now adopted department-wide within DoD, cannot be supported in reality without massive increases in defense spending. With Rumsfeld's pet missile-defense programs operating at cross-purposes to his weapon-systems study projects, the schisms between space imperialists and budget-cutters could manifest themselves in very public ways by the end of 2001.
[To read the complete article link to]:
http://www.peacevision.org.uk/papers/wirbel.html
******************************************************************************
3) Critical Swing Senators to Stop Star Wars
Forwarded from
Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, FL. 32607
(352) 337-9274
http://www.space4peace.org
globalnet@mindspring.com
Date:20 Jul 2001 10:43:45 -0400
Friends:
Our friends at the South Dakota Peace & Justice Center have taken on the responsibility to apply loving pressure and persuasion on their Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD), the Senate Majority leader, concerning Star Wars issues.
They have given us a message from Daschle's staff that they need help with some key swing senators.
We are asking you to look at the list below and if one of your senators is on the list to work hard to get them turned around on space weapons.
But if your senator is not on the list please don't assume they are not in need of attention. All of them are!
Please make sure to tell them that you do not support any research and development & D) funding for Star Wars (NMD, TMD, space-based laser, etc).
It is important to remember that in April, 1999 the U.S. Senate voted 97-3 in favor of the "National Missile Defense Act" that gives the president the right to deploy "missile defenses" as soon as technically feasible. Only Wellstone (D-MN), Leahy (D-VT), and Durbin (D-IL) voted no.
The Bush administration is asking for $8.3 billion (40% increase) in R & D in 2002.
KEY LIST:
* Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI)
* Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI)
* Sen. Jean Carnahan (D-MO)
* Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE)
* Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN)
* Sen. John Edwards (D-NC)
* Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-SC)
* Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
* Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
Thanks for your efforts. Please let us know if you have any questions and be sure to share any correspondence that you have with you senators so that we can track what they are saying.
Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, FL. 32607
(352) 337-9274
http://www.space4peace.org
globalnet@mindspring.com
= = = = = = = = = = = =
Note: Check this link to a Flyby News issue posted May 9, 2001 for a sample letter:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid989462751,59348,
******************************************************************************
Peace Activists' Denial of Freedom * Peltier responds to threat
The reckless unjust law is coming down hard on Star Wars protestors. Also, on the dark side, President Putin is starting to shift in dealing with President Bush on an agreement for a limited U.S. missile defense. How can anyone be surprised under such leadership with horrendous human rights violations against many innocent people in Chechnya? The corruption of government leaders are well known, money talks. These issues make it even more important for the peace community to organize effectively against the expansion of the arms race. October 13 is far enough away for us to quadruple the number of organizations holding and supporting peace actions on the International Day to Protest the Militarization of Space. We need everyone's support. If they reach arms in space, life on Earth will subsist under a growing military tyranny and more chaos. One suggestion is to order and show the documentary video, "Star Wars Returns," and then organize for October 13.
Check http://www.envirovideo.com and
http://www.space4peace.org
for more ideas and information.
Item 2 is a recent statement by Leonard Peltier, responding to threats of violence in response to the injustices of his imprisonment. Right now the FBI is on trial, and Leonard's statement makes it very clear how absurd it is that he should be in prison. He is 100% nonviolent and willing to protect others. His right of self defense has been usurped by a corrupt law enforcement and justice system. If Congress wants to take a hard look at the FBI, COINTELpro and abuses of power, they have as far to go as the case of Leonard Peltier, where 6,000 documents remain still withheld from his defense team, where an illegal land transfer remains in effect today, (while uranium and gold mining sicken the Earth), where evidences of an unfair trial, and FRAUD in his extradition from Canada, show the real culprit against the honor and principles of the US Constitution. For a current story on senators investigating the FBI for losing track of hundreds of guns and computers, with related links, see:.
http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,301963-412,00.shtml
To support Leonard Peltier's case in the inclusion of the Senate's FBI investigation, contact the new Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Leahy, who has an excellent human rights record. The Judiciary Committee has the power to initiate investigations. Here's the best link for helping free Leonard Peltier and writing to Senator Leahy:
http://www.freepeltier.org/fbi_investigation.htm#top
Please respond in any way you can, but keep the sight on strategic actions in uniting with other movements for basic freedoms and rights for all. We need a consensus to respond to such heavyweights as the FBI and the corrupt web of the military industrial academic complexes, and the warped sense of justice to maintain an illegal national security system that spends billions of dollars for the corporate welfare for those threatening to harm all life.
1. Latest on Star Wars Peace Activists' Denial of Freedom
2) Peltier Responds to Threat Made In His Name
************************************************************************************************************************
1) Latest on Star Wars Peace Activists' Denial of Freedom
STAR WARS PRESS CENTRE
Latest News
U.S. GOVERNMENT DEMANDS STOP STAR WARS DEFENDANTS REMAIN IN PRISON UNTIL TRIAL
Activists protest outside US consulate in Hong Kong in protest of the charges made against the 17 activists.
Los Angeles, July 18th 2001: Greenpeace has condemned as brutal and unnecessary the actions of the United States government in demanding that all but one of the foreign nationals involved in the Stop Star Wars 17 court case be forced to stay in prison until their trial.
The U.S. government attorney has filed an appeal against Monday's ruling which had allowed all the defendants bail, but with restrictions put on their movements and their passports seized. The prosecution has not made clear the grounds for the appeal, but had previously indicated they believed there was a chance that if they were released they would leave the country. The motion is due to be heard tomorrow (Thursday 19th July) at 10.00am (PDT), and if it is granted then all may be kept in federal jail until their trial. The activists and an independent photographer come from the UK, Sweden, Australia, Germany, India and Canada.
"This is a disgrace. To claim that these activists will flee the country is nonsense. The reason they are in prison in the first place is because the government is trying to suppress legitimate opposition to George Bush's Star Wars programme. The activists are here because they want to have their voice heard, and they want to stay here until it is." said Greenpeace International disarmament campaigner William Peden. "The conditions that these men are being held in are appalling. They are housed in a maximum security facility, 30 prisoners to a pen and one open toilet for all. The governments from all these nations must demand the original bail conditions are respected, and stop this brutal attempt to silence peaceful, non violent protestors." Peden added.
So far all but one of the U.S. citizens has been released on restricted bail conditions as well as a Spanish videographer who was independently documenting the action. The non U.S. nationals were due for release on bail in the next 24-36 hours when the paperwork had been completed.
Notes to editors: The appeal will be heard at Judge Roybal Federal court, 255 East Temple Street, room 670. The charges against all the defendants are: Conspiracy to violate a safety zone is a Class D felony charge and carries a minimum 5 years jail term, and a maximum ten years jail. It could also carry a fine of up to $250,000. Either could be imposed singly or jointly. Failure to adhere to commander's instructions is a Class A misdemeanor and carries a maximum one year jail term and a maximum $5,000 fine Both sentences can run consecutively.
For more information visit http://greenpeace.org/
Media contact:
* Sara Holden, Greenpeace International media officer in Los Angeles +1-805-291-1749
* William Peden, Greenpeace International disarmament campaigner in Los Angeles +1-202-285-9130
************************************************************************************************************************
2) Peltier Responds to Threat Made In His Name
Fwd. Leonard Peltier Defense Committee:
Dear Friends,
Unfortunately, there has been some inappropriate activity undertaken in the name of Leonard Peltier. The article below will serve as an explanation. Leonard Peltier's statement in response, which has been sent to "The Forum" Newspaper in Fargo, North Dakota follows the article. We know you are already familiar with Leonard Peltier's policy of non-violence regarding any activities pursued on his behalf, but we want to make doubly sure that his position, especially in response to this specific incident, is known and that any further activity is halted.
Thank you for your understanding.
In Solidarity,
LPDC
Forum receives letters indicating bomb threats
Forum staff reports
The Forum - 07/14/2001
The FBI is treating as serious three letters received by The Forum, possibly sent from the unknown suspect in the Fargo Post Office vandalism.
The latest was received Thursday afternoon by the newspaper. The envelope was addressed to the newspaper; the letter inside was addressed to the FBI. It implied the Federal Building, where the FBI office in Fargo is located, could be a target of another incident. The letter stated, in part:
"Even if I never become violent, I'm wasting your time and creating stress. Do you want to hire someone to watch the federal building full time? Do you want hundreds of people crowding around, holding their breath as they wait to discover whether a bomb threat is just a threat?"
The motive for the threatening letters appears to be the conviction and continuing imprisonment of Leonard Peltier, who in 1975 was convicted of slaying two FBI agents at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He received two consecutive life sentences following the trial, which was held in Fargo. Peltier maintained the evidence against him was falsified.
"But I can not excuse many of your activities, among them your continued mistreatment of Leonard Peltier. No concealed evidence? You can only get away with that because of public apathy," the letter stated.
Referring to the Peltier case, the letter stated, "Think about that when you start attending the funerals of your own agents. Just remember that you have it coming."
Forum Editor Lou Ziegler said he contacted the FBI after the letter was received Thursday.
An FBI agent took possession of the letter Thursday afternoon.
The newspaper, Ziegler said, did not publish contents of the second letter because "we normally don't give anonymous letter writers a platform in our newspaper."
But he said Friday's police presence around the Federal Building, the evacuation of some people from their living quarters, the possible escalation in activity by the suspect, and the inconvenience caused to hundreds of people during Friday's rush hour were factors in reporting
and publishing this story about the letter.
"The content in Thursday's letter, and the timing of it, offer a possible explanation for Friday's disruption downtown. That makes it newsworthy, Ziegler said.
The two other letters were sent to the newspaper in June. Both mentioned Peltier.
STATEMENT FROM LEONARD PELTIER
IN RESPONSE TO "FORUM" ARTICLE:
"FORUM RECEIVES LETTERS INDICATING BOMB THREATS"
July 15, 2001
I have just been notified of the letter sent to "The Forum" newspaper in Fargo, North Dakota, which makes violent threats against the FBI and refers to my continued imprisonment, in part, as the motivation. I want to make it completely clear that I do not condone violence, nor do I want any violence or threat of violence committed on my behalf. I have repeatedly made this clear to my supporters through public statements over the years of my imprisonment. Whoever sent this threat is using my name in a way that I cannot tolerate and I insist that they immediately cease the pursuit of any such activity. Threatening violence, or far worse, perpetrating violence, is not only heinous and loathsome, but will compromise our honest and righteous efforts to seek justice in my case as well as justice for all Native Peoples. In fact, such tactics so obviously contradict what I stand for and what all of my supporters stand for, that I must question the true intent of whoever is doing this. Clearly this person does not hold my interests at heart.
As Native Peoples, our traditional values teach us that all life is sacred and should be protected. Any act of violence perpetrated upon innocent people violates our most sacred beliefs. We have already witnessed the horrifying and devastating outcome of the Oklahoma City Bombing in which so many died needlessly, including children. I fully denounce any scheme that has the potential to cause this type, or any type of death and despair.
Leonard Peltier
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-5774
http://www.freepeltier.org
************************************************************************************************************************
Feedback from last missile test and debate on best approach to stop Star Wars
18 July 2001
Last weekend President Bush was "pleased" by a successful missile test, but Russia criticized it, saying the test threatened a 1972 arms control agreement. This was the second successful missile intercept out of a total of four tests to date. This test only proves that the U.S. missile defense policy is making the world more dangerous.
Writing an article for an Australian publication, Dr Helen Caldicott, author of the upcoming book The New Nuclear Danger - George Bush's Military Industrial Psychosis and its Tragic Consequences, (to be published by Scribe in Australia and New Press in the US), wrote:
"..Official US policy is still to fight and win a nuclear war, so it maintains extremely accurate, first-strike weapons whose purpose is to destroy enemy missiles in their silos in a surprise attack. NMD weapons would then be launched against the few enemy missiles that may survive an American first-strike. This scheme will thus destabilize the delicate nuclear balance among the superpowers, because Russia and China see it as a move to enhance America's first-strike capability.
The result will be a new arms race as China, India, Pakistan and even Russia attempt to overcome NMD by building even more nuclear weapons. What's more, NMD will also negate the 1972 Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty, the cornerstone of nuclear arms control, and all other subsequent treaties which provide a modicum of stability in a nuclear-armed world.
For the full story by Helen Caldicott:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0107/12/features/features2.html
For a CNN article: Bush pleased' by successful missile test
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/07/15/missile.test/index.html
This Flyby News issue includes various feedback from last weekend's missile test, and actions to stop this potentially deadly direction for most all life on Earth. Some argue that missile defense can work, but it cannot. This direction leads to a dead end where the continued development and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction will lead us to our doom.
Gordon R. Mitchell, author of "Strategic Deception: Rhetoric, Science and Politics in Missile Defense Advocacy" (Michigan State University Press) recently wrote: "..The Bush administration wants to deploy missile defenses even before they have been proved to work! What is the military logic behind such a peculiar strategy? Rumsfeld explains that when it comes to missile defense systems, "they need not be 100 percent perfect" to have a deterrent effect on future adversaries. Here, leaky shields are thought to work like scarecrows, frightening away enemies hell-bent on destroying the United States. This makes about as much sense as expecting a desperate burglar to be deterred from entering your home by a sign reading: Beware: premises protected by an untested and unreliable anti-theft system'...Scarecrow missile defense could end up being much worse than no defense at all."
For full story see:
http://www.post-gazette.com/forum/20010708edmitch08p9.asp
So, what can we do to stop Missile Defense? Some suggestions are to keep communicating with your elected representatives. Besides opposing Missile Defense, please support the opposition to the re-authorization of the Price-Anderson Act, which limits nuclear utility liability in the event of a nuclear accident. Other amendments likely to be attempted to be pushed through Congress is an amendment to provide $30 million for a uranium mining project, and efforts to eliminate the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's authority to conduct antitrust reviews for reactor licenses. [For more informaiton on these issues see: http://nirs.org/ .] Let your so-called representatives know what you think. The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121 Also, please support world leaders standing up to all the deals proposed by the U.S. to support its initiatives to can the ABM and UN's Outer Space Treaties. You can fax President Vladamir Putin at 011-7-095-206-5173. However, if you plan to do only one thing, please concentrate efforts for world-wide actions against the militarization of space on October 13, 2001. Join with other individuals and peace-activist organizations in your area, and begin now to organize to show the world we cannot accept a U.S. missile defense policy that threatens to escalate the arms race and ignore the peace initiatives by reasons of greed, fear or psychosis. Write letters to editors on this issue, and mobilize as many as you can to make the world a safer place, while directing our valuable resources for environmental and human rights protection. The best defense is actions for peace.
On a side note, coincidental or not, last weekend, too, there were reported strange lights in the sky, deemed as UFOs over New Jersey, which was reported by ABC News yesterday:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/ufo010717.html
Lieutenant Daniel Tarrant of the Cataret Police Department said, "I saw 16 golden-orange colored lights, several in a V-shaped formation. Others were scattered around the V."
1) Feedback from last missile test and debate on best approach to stop Star Wars
a. Bruce Gagnon: Now What: Star Wars Might Just Work
b. Russell Hoffman: Response
**********************************************************************
a. Bruce Gagnon: Now What: Star Wars Might Just Work
Friends:
The news that the Pentagon has successfully tested their "missile defense" system is not easy to swallow. It reminds me of the feeling I had when Galileo (1989), Ulysses (1990), and Cassini (1997) all were launched carrying plutonium payloads to loud cheers at NASA.
I think the most important lesson from all of this is that given enough time and money that Star Wars could be made to work. In the end it might not be the lemon some claim it to be after all.
Our opposition to Star Wars can't be based on technological claims. If the rocket scientists have proven anything it is that they can do amazing things sending rockets to the moon, Mars, and having bullets hit bullets in space (even if not 100% of the time.)
The public has been told by some that Star Wars will never work. Now they might not believe us next time we make such a claim.
Better we don't get into a technological pissing contest with the Pentagon. It's not our best card to play.
The lesson for the peace movement is to stick to the moral, ethical high ground. Star Wars might just work and can we really afford weapons in space? Can we afford to hand over the national treasury to the Pentagon?
Do we want the U.S. Space Command to "control and dominate" space and to "deny other countries access to space"? Is "full spectrum dominance" in the heavens going to make the world more secure? What is the relationship between the Space Command's "Vision for 2020" and the plans for corporate globalization? These, I think, are the questions we should be asking.
Many politicians would prefer that we restricted our criticism to the technological questions. That way they can easily answer them by offering more money for research, development, and testing. That makes the aerospace industry happy as well. The politicians would rather not debate the messy points about space "control and domination" because they are basically in favor of U.S. corporate global dominance.
If we focus on the real issues surrounding a new space arms race we won't be affected by flight test results in the future. We need to control the debate on our terms and not get sucked into the technology vortex. Let's keep our eyes on the prize and march on.
Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, FL 32607
(352) 337-9274
http://www.space4peace.org
globalnet@mindspring.com
======================
b. Russell Hoffman: (Excerpted response to above letter)
I'm all for vastly more sums of money being poured into education (shall I note that I write educational software and such a policy might help my business, as a form of disclosure?). I'm for national health care, and I'm against Star Wars, and our Pentagon budget could surely be cut to 1/5th of what it is and yet, if it were properly spent, it could protect our troops and our citizens as well as the trillions we now spend is doing.
Those are things I believe.
I seriously doubt that any Pentagon test that appears to make Star Wars seem to work is valid. The Ruskies or whoever our supposed enemy is can just make ever-so-slightly smarter rockets to get around that. Patriot missiles hardly worked against SCUDs during the Gulf War -- despite what the media politely reported for the Pentagon during the heat of battle. And SCUDS aren't the least bit smart, and go much slower than an ICBM might travel.
Also, Star Wars technology would be virtually completely destroyed by a single nuclear EMP first-strike above the atmosphere, and that same blast would render our electronic equipment useless, much of it on fire, with no way to get to the fires because the fire trucks won't run, the pump stations won't have any power to create water pressure for the hoses, and the electricity generating stations will all be fried (this is all over the entire United States, Canada, and Mexico, in the first millionth of a second after the very first attack). Our nukes will probably be melting down as well. It would be chaos and horror everywhere.
And there are other ways to beat Star Wars. Our enemies might even resort to manned or unmanned airplanes which pretend to be drug smugglers, which seem to have little trouble getting through our supposedly impenetrable defense system. Who needs an expensive rocket when a private plane, boat, or even a suitcase will do?
So what, exactly, does Star Wars buy us anyway? Nothing! First of all, IT WON'T WORK. And even if it could miraculously be designed to defeat today's attacker, that's only a momentary gain. To make Star Wars work against a smarter weapon will cost vastly more than the smart weapon that could penetrate the current generation that is being contemplated for Star Wars. Got that? If the aggressor ups the ante just a little bit, it will cost an order of magnitude more to defend against it. Star Wars, if it works at all, will barely work against yesterday's and today's rockets, which have predictable trajectories and speeds, and which are not expected to be sent against us in overwhelming numbers, and which are not expected to be preceded by a nuclear EMP first strike. So all Star Wars could possibly buy us is a flimsy umbrella of protection, full of holes, easily defeated by smarter weapons, and fragile as well and susceptible to a wide variety of attacks against it. Effective laser weaponry is little more than smoke and mirrors (literally).
We can and should fight Star Wars on the grounds that it will not work as planned, would cost billions more to be hardened against nuclear EMP first strikes, will encourage an enemy to use a nuclear EMP first strike which would be devastating to the country, and lastly, the enemy who is capable of launching a rocket attack against us will in a few short years be capable (if they aren't already) of launching MIRVs, dummy rockets, jinking rockets, and maybe even stealth rockets.
We can and should also fight Star Wars on the grounds that much of it uses dangerous radioactive elements for its operation, which should be banned from space (and on earth too). The power for space-based lasers will have to come from somewhere. Do you think it will be solar, with big space-panels supplying the laser beam with the incredible amounts of juice it needs to sustain itself?
An International treaty to ban nuclear material in space would end much of the Star Wars threat, because the power for a lot of space-based Star Wars weaponry has to come from nuclear generators out in space, or even from nuclear explosions, as some Star Wars laser proposals are built around. They explode a nuke, and in the fractions of millionths of a second before the nuke destroys the Star Wars weapon itself, mirrors aim the incredible light which emits from the explosion at the incoming enemy. Yeah, right. This is going to work. This is going to be easy to test. This will make us sleep well at night, knowing military geniuses have made us safe.
This is preposterous, of course. But that's the sort of thing we are spending billions on right now.
The best way to stop Star Wars is by each of us acting as though our efforts alone will make the difference...The proposed Star Wars won't work. It would be an environmental disaster if it is ever built. It would be even more of one if it is ever used. These facts remain our best arguments against it, because all the principles (misguided or otherwise) in the world, all the money that can be had, all the perceived need, won't make something that doesn't work a practical reality. So if it won't work, why pour even one thin dime into it?..
Thanks,
Russell Hoffman
former editor, STOP CASSINI newsletter
Concerned Citizen
Carlsbad, CA
The Effects of Nuclear Weapons:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/tenw/nuke_war.htm
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous issues, and the environment.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------www.FlybyNews.com--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Rumsfeld Charts Missile Defense * Pentagon Reports Flaws * Berrigan Meets Darth Vadar
The battle is taking shape against the militarization of space. Your involvement and support for the planning of 13 October Actions is critical. This battle, if we will make a difference, will require as many world citizens as possible to unite with the Global Network and 181 Endorsing Organizations for actions at 64 sites worldwide so far. The following items describe Star Wars efforts in both directions. Regarding item 3, thanks to Frida Berrigan and the Brandywine Peace Community for their inspirational efforts in Pennsylvania!
For more information on plans for October 13 visit http://www.space4peace.org.
This weekend, too, SolarFest's Music Festival and Energy Fair is happening in Vermont. Flyby News will be there signing on supporters for October 13 2001. For more information on this creative, fun, educational, music and energy fair, see http://www.solarfest.org .
1) Rumsfeld Charts Missile Defense Course
2) Pentagon report reveals flaws in missile defense
3) Report from the Star Wars Conference by Frida Berrigan
**********************************************************************
1) Rumsfeld Charts Missile Defense Course
By Robert Burns
AP Military Writer
Sunday, July 8, 2001; 12:49 p.m. EDT
WASHINGTON The Bush administration wants to greatly expand the number and kinds of testing it believes is needed to build effective missile defenses, and is willing to spend billions more to do it.
In a sense, military planners have gone back to the drawing board to fulfill President Bush's goal of creating a reliable defense against ballistic missile attack on the United States, its allies and U.S. forces abroad.
The Bush administration sees no less urgency in obtaining a missile defense capability. But after months of reviewing options and studying the Clinton administration's approach, the Pentagon has decided to explore a wider range of technologies before deciding when the system could be ready for use.
"The focus of missile defense is no longer on deployment," says Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, a spokesman for the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, which manages the Pentagon's missile defense work.
The focus is on testing, and lots of it. "It is going to be structured and disciplined," Lehner said.
It is also going to be expensive..............
[For the full story published in the Washington Post on 8 July 2001, see]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010708/aponline124909_000.htm
**********************************************************************
2) Pentagon report reveals flaws in missile defense
By John F. Tierney, 7/10/2001
NOT TOO LONG ago, the Pentagon's purchase of $400 hammers and $640 toilets raised eyebrows in Congress and among the public. Yet few people claimed those deluxe hammers couldn't cleanly hit their targets - most likely overpriced nails. And the toilets were said to flush with exquisite efficiency.
Not so the Pentagon's latest folly - an obscenely expensive but flawed missile defense system the Bush administration appears determined to deploy as early as 2004, even though the individual who was charged with evaluating its readiness has declared that it will not be ready, even in a limited form, until 2011.
Philip Coyle, formerly the Pentagon's chief civilian test evaluator, testified last September at a hearing before the national security subcommittee of the House Committee on Government Reform, of which I am a member. Coyle outlined the findings of a report he prepared during the National Missile Defense Deployment Readiness Review a month earlier. I asked him to provide his report, which is unclassified, to the subcommittee. Neither he nor Lieutenant General Ronald Kadish, director of the missile defense program, expressed reservations about making the report public. The subcommittee voted unanimously to make the report part of the hearing record.
Finally pried free two weeks ago - after eight months, six official requests, threats of subpoenas, a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld from 55 House Democrats, and over the continuing objections of Pentagon officials - the report confirms the glaring deficiencies in the testing program that Coyle raised last September.
The report describes a phenomenon in simulation exercises called ''phantom tracks'' in which interceptors were accidentally launched against missiles that did not exist. Although operators attempted to take emergency actions to override these launches, they failed every time. The system ''simply was not behaving according to operator actions.''
Coyle concluded that the system's effectiveness is not yet proven, even in the most elementary sense. In fact, according to his report, the program is so immature that ''a rigorous assessment of potential system performance cannot be made.''
Yet the Pentagon has no plans to test basic elements of the system, not even to conduct flight tests with more than a single missile, even though the Pentagon concedes that multiple engagements are the most likely scenario. The testing program also ignores widely available decoys that adversaries would find simple to implement.''
The report describes how flight tests are being dumbed down to ensure the public perception of success. The Pentagon, for example, is reducing the number of decoys, operators are relying on artificially ''canned'' scenarios, and interceptors are being given advance information they won't have in real engagements. Even with these ''adjustments,'' the program has experienced embarrassing failures.
Significantly, the report finds that the system can't defend against accidental or unauthorized launches from major nuclear powers, as originally envisioned. The Pentagon has been backtracking on this issue and no longer considers it a key goal.
Despite these warnings, President Bush proposes accelerating deployment and spending $3 billion more for all missile defense next year - a 57 percent increase. The Pentagon will move to deploy a ''rudimentary'' system, even before this limited and flawed testing is complete, just to build ''something'' by the politically significant date of 2004.
As Congress examines the president's missile defense program, and as the administration begins testing components of the system this weekend, I submit that the 52 recommendations in the Coyle report should be the minimum standard by which the new program is evaluated. And the Pentagon's ''you-can't-handle-the-truth'' attitude that kept this report bottled up for eight months must give way to a constructive and reasoned public dialogue based on full disclosure and honest information.
Absent that, the Pentagon might consider those $640 toilets as a more reliable way to dispose of the $200 billion to $300 billion that this flawed system could cost our nation.
John F. Tierneyof Massachusetts is a Democratic member of the US House of Representatives.
This story ran on page A19 of the Boston Globe on 7/10/2001.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/191/oped/Pentagon_report_reveals_flaws_in_missile_defense+.shtml
Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
**********************************************************************
3) Report from the Star Wars Conference by Frida Berrigan
June 28-29, 2001
Valley Forge Radisson
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
I was the mole, the spy, the interloper. I went to King of Prussia, Pennsylvania to attend a conference organized by Representative Curt Weldon and the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis (IFPA), stirringly entitled "Defending the Northeast, America and Our Allies from Ballistic Missile Attack." It was the first time I've been back to King of Prussia since 1981, when I was there for the trial of my Dad, Uncle and six others who symbolically disarmed a Mark 12A nuclear warhead manufactured by General Electric [now, Lockheed Martin]. This action, called the Plowshares Eight, sparked a movement of over 75 disarmament actions on three continents. So, going back to where it all started, to hang out with the merchants of death, was an experience.
As the Brandywine Peace Community, LEPOCO's Angels Against Star Wars and the anti-Star Wars Darth Vader sweltered in 95 degree sun outside the hotel, I froze inside listening to Representative Curt Weldon give the opening address to the assembled men in suits. An informal count yielded a grand total of ten women among more than 200 men. Weldon, who chairs the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee, welcomed us to the Radisson Hotel in King of Prussia and Valley Forge, and commented that a broad spectrum of expertise was present at the conference, including the defense industry, which he said was "especially well represented."
Well represented indeed, I counted over 70 participants from Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and smaller missile defense companies like Alliant Missile Products and Science Applications International Corporation, out of a list of 200 or so. Not surprising, given how much the weapons industry has to gain from an accelerated push for missile defense and how actively they have supported missile defense boosters on the Hill. Weldon alone pulled in more than $200,000 in defense industry contributions in the last five years. Ironically he had the gumption to say that "I have never worked for a defense contractor in my life." With money like that coming into his office, he's stumping for Boeing and Lockheed every day on Capitol Hill.
Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing and a local defense company all had elaborate displays in the basement "Independence Hall." Raytheon brought a half size model of its exoatmospheric kill vehicle (EKV). The EKV looks sort of like a vacuum cleaner or a snow blower and costs about $25 million. Pound for pound, it is among the most expensive weapons ever built. But that does not mean it works.
The EKV's slogan is "Discriminate and Destroy" but so far it seems more likely to "Crash and Burn." The 1999 National Missile Defense Review Committee Report, chaired by retired Air Force General Larry Welch, highlighted the "'hardware-poor' nature of the EKV program," and pointed out that the EKV might not be able to withstand the shock loads once mounted on the actual Ground Based Interceptor booster. The failure of the July 7, 2000 NMD test was due in large part to the failure of the Raytheon kill vehicle to separate properly from the Lockheed Martin booster rocket. As a result, the sensors used to hone in on the mock warhead were never turned on, and the vehicle sailed wide of its target. So much for Discrimination and Destruction.
But the model looked great and so did the computer generated graphic displays. Each company offered attractive freebies too. I took three handsome blue "Boeing: Team NMD" mugs. There were also lapel pins, key chains and baseball hats for conferees to take home.
In addition to bringing his industry friends and their freebies along, Curt Weldon also brought some props, including a Scud missile and a Theater High Altitude Area Defense launcher-- deployed in the parking lot. The Scud missile was accompanied by a poster with 28 names-the Americans killed in an Iraqi attack on a bunker in Saudi Arabia. Weldon dedicated the conference to their memory, saying they died because "America failed them." Ten years later, he said, we still don't have a fully deployed missile defense which could assure that "never again will Americans come home in body bags."
In addition to pulling the heart strings of the assembled, Weldon also railed against the "left wing rhetoric" of the "liberal media establishment," singling out Dan Rather for special attention by saying the CBS anchor had the "intellectual honesty of my pet." [To see where this comment might have come from see the CBS TV Transcript: Critics Say the Missile Defense System is Flawed: http://cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,245328-412,00.shtml ] To combat what he sees as the anti-missile defense slant in the mainstream press, Weldon envisions a series of regional conferences to follow this one, with the aim of awakening the American people to the fact that they are vulnerable to ballistic missile attack and there is no defense. He used the work "vulnerable" countless times throughout his almost two-hour speech and Q&A session.
Other speakers included Lt. General Ronald Kadish, Director of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization; Ambassador Henry Cooper, the Chairman of the Board of High Frontier-a pro-missile defense think tank that was distributing "Strategic Issues Policy Briefs" at the conference with titles like, "Toward the High Ground of Space: A Fine First Step!!" and "The Battle Lines Are Drawn!!!" Frank Gaffney, President and CEO of Center for Security Policy, was also in attendance. Gaffney, whose think tank has received over $2 million from weapons manufacturers in recent years, spoke on a panel with Baker Spring from the Heritage Foundation entitled "The ABM Treaty and Missile Defense."
Curt Weldon said the two-day conference was aimed at the American public. But I didn't see any there. All I saw were representatives of weapons manufacturers, right wing-nut think tanks and the Pentagon. The only normal Americans I met were sweating in the hot sun on the curb, chatting and holding their signs, and waving at the cars that honked in support. While the news coverage of the conference downplayed the presence of protestors from the Brandywine Peace Community, it was big news inside. Weldon referred to the 20 or so gathered outside as "misguided but well intentioned" and said that "Darth Vader is wandering around out there looking sort of bewildered, I think he's lost." Every time he mentioned the protestors, the audience laughed and guffawed, but it seemed to me that they felt exposed. Darth Vader wasn't lost, he had found them.
Frida Berrigan, World Policy Institute
Spread the Word No Star Wars: No Way No How!
Bush's 1st Star Wars Test This Saturday, July 14
Darth Vader will be at Lockheed Martin Again
Protest the Star Wars Test,
Noon, this Saturday, July 14, Lockheed Martin, Mall & Goddard Boulevards, Valley Forge, PA (behind the King of Prussia Mall). Septa buses #124 and 125 available from Philadelphia; Septa bus #123 available from the 69th St. Terminal.
"What began with "Trinity" (the first atomic test blast 56 years ago) and the atomic bomb continues with Lockheed Martin and Star Wars"
This coming Monday, July 16, the anniversary of "Trinity" and the start of the nuclear age, Join us in Moorestown, New Jersey at Lockheed Martin's Aegis Warship site (and home to the Navy's "Star Wars" Theater Missile Defense plan), Centreton & Hartford Rds., for a 7 AM sunrise vigil of commemoration and protest. Directions available at the Brandywine Peace Community web site: www.geocities.com/brandywinepeace/index.htm
For more information:
Call the Brandywine Peace Community, (610) 544-1818
**********************************************************************
For interviews, documentaries+
FN's Youtube Channel
Also you can follow us
@Flyby_News on Twitter
Note:
FN had been suspended from Facebook
Fair Use Notice
Flyby News film-TV-video productions and website contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Flyby Background
Karl Grossman gave a slide presentation at UMASS in Amherst, MA, about a month before the launching of NASA's Cassini in 1997. This presentation and the educational tools provided by the author of the WRONG STUFF: The Space Program's Nuclear Threat to our Planet, and the writer and narrator of the video documentary, "Nukes In Space," inspired the launching of the Action Site to Stop Cassini Earth Flyby. After Cassini dangerously whizzed past Earth in August 1999, Jonathan Mark continued reporting news fit to transmit in the post Cassini flyby era.
Flyby Support
Any financial support to Flyby News will help cover expenses. FN is not for profit, and not a tax deductible organization. Special thanks to Mik Muller helping Flyby News get started on the web, and thanks too for the artistic support of Liz Nicholas and Lahri Bond for logo designs and more. Also much appreciation for the staff and the facilities at Greenfield Community Television. And thanks for all those contributors, readers and those sharing FN information. Our efforts together empower us to help preserve what is real in life, integrity, and freedom from fear that connects us with love to all our relations - Mitakuye Oyasin.
Donate To Flyby News!
Flyby News is not for profit and uses donations
to cover expenses. Small donations are appreciated.
Send an email to noflyby@yahoo.com if interested.
For large donations, FN recommends donating to
non-profit 501c3 tax exempt organizations like
ICAN and Children's Health Defense.
The views expressed herein are writers own and not necessarily of Flyby News.
Feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News is appreciated.
To subscribe or to comment, you can write to: FlybyNews.com@gmail.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus,
and has supported critical campaigns for a healthy
environment, human rights, justice, and nonviolence,
since the launch of NASAs Cassini space probe in 1997.
News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era
Greenpeace Occupies Menwith Hill * Disclosure Project Events
4 July 2001
In the spirit of independence and peace, Greenpeace activists in England yesterday surprised the Menwith Radar Base with a direct action and occupation to oppose England's cooperation with the U.S. to kill the ABM and UN's peaceful use of space by implementing its so-called Missile Defense - Star Wars plan. This reversal of independence day by British activists is actually a gift to the people of the US and the world. Many Thanks. Please use this as an inspiration to continue planning for International Actions to stop the militarization of space for October 13, 2001, sponsored by the Global Network, which has been endorsed by 175 organizations with actions planned at 61 sites, so far. Please consider getting and showing EnviroVideos' "Star Wars Returns," video documentary available from http://www.envirovideo.com to help organize and motivate people from every walk of life.
In item two, Flyby News is posting an events schedule from the Disclosure Project organization. Related to this issue, the Village Voice recently reported that a British housewife recently sold a homemade video of what she thinks was a flying saucer to a Hollywood film producer. The BBC reports officials at NASA want to look at her tape because they think it might be the same kind of craft the agency's cameras picked up on a space shuttle mission. In any case, the testimonies from the Disclosure Project of fifty individuals with substantial credentials is the most credible evidences on the debate of the actuality of UFO's, and is not only important about the disclosure of a government cover-up, but its use of intimidation and threats that jeopardizes freedom and democracy for all. (For a sample of some of the testimonies see Flyby News May 11, 2001 at flybynews.com.)
One of truth's best allies is from the communications' revolution.
Thanks for tuning in to Flyby News.. And especially to our friends from the Greenpeace activists taking a stand yesterday, and those supporting their cause.. Happy fourth of July, 2001!
1) Greenpeace Occupies Menwith Hill Radar Base to Stop US Star Wars Threat
2) Disclosure Project Events Announcement
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Greenpeace Occupies Menwith Hill Radar Base to Stop US Star Wars Threat
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1419000/1419762.stm
Tuesday, 3 July, 2001
Protesters occupy radar base
BBC NEWS
More than 100 demonstrators have broken into a major British defence site in North Yorkshire.
Greenpeace activists entered the Menwith Hill base, near Harrogate, North Yorkshire, at 0500BST in protest against American plans to use it as part of the so-called "Son of Star Wars" national missile defence programme.
Some have chained themselves to buildings or hidden around the site, while others are demonstrating by the main gate as workers arrive at the radar early warning complex.
North Yorkshire Police say they are at the incident, and a Ministry of Defence spokesman has confirmed that some arrests have been made.
A Greenpeace spokesman co-ordinating the protest said: "At the moment we have 20 people on top of the radar building, 15 on top of the water tower and another 15 in various locations around the base.
"We will stay there for as long as we possibly can."
Reports suggest that demonstrators were on the site for almost an hour before security teams reacted.
'Dangerous plan'
Protester Helen Wallace told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that she was among the group chained to the water tower.
"There are around 20 people here on top of the tower, and other people chained down below," she said.
"We are going to stay here continuing to make our point that Menwith Hill is part of Bush's dangerous Star Wars plan."
Greenpeace says one group of protesters walked straight through the main gate playing the Mission Impossible theme tune.
Some carried flags emblazoned with the message "Star Wars Starts Wars", while others dressed as missiles.
Other teams scaled three-metre fences topped with razor wire to get in.
Protester Eleanor Gordon, 30, of Manchester said: "About 30 went in through the main gates. There were only one or two security guards on duty and they were just overwhelmed.
"My team headed in the direction of a water tower and some climbed up, while others chained themselves to the bottom.
"I was locked to the bottom with chains and a padlock but eventually a group of four security officers came along, used bolt cutters to cut the chains and escorted me off the site.
"The protest may seem drastic but the effects of the Star Wars programme could be so devastating for the world that only direct action will do."
Greenpeace UK executive director Stephen Tindale, who is at Menwith Hill, said President George Bush's proposed missile defence programme was "a disaster".
He called on Prime Minister Tony Blair to turn down American requests to use UK-based sites at Menwith Hill and Fylingdales, North Yorkshire.
He said President Bush needed the two sites as the "eyes and ears" of his planned Star Wars system.
"But Bush can't install the system without Tony Blair's approval.
"We urge Mr Blair not to kowtow to Bush on such a crucial issue. He must say no to UK involvement."
He said Greenpeace had been planning the operation to enter the base for six months, but added that he had been surprised at "how easy it was to get in".
"We decided to do it today because we thought tomorrow, being American Independence Day, they would be expecting us."
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Disclosure Project Events Announcement
From the Campaign For Disclosure: 2001 Tour Dates
In each city, we will begin with an exclusive showing of the 2-hour Disclosure film of 50 government and military witnesses to UFO and Extraterrestrial events and projects, followed with a presentation by Disclosure Project Director Steven M. Greer MD.
To build a grass roots campaign to push for open congressional hearings, we need your help and your support:
Campaign for Disclosure Sponsors - To bring the Campaign for Disclosure to your city will cost a modest $5000. If you can help underwrite part or all of this cost and become an individual or corporate sponsor, please contact us. You may also support the campaign anonymously. Please contribute what you can.
Become part of the local host committee - We need local volunteers to help with organizing the event, locating suitable venues for the event, getting the word out, helping during the day of the event, etc. If you can help coordinate the local Campaign for Disclosure, please
lwillitts@disclosureproject.org.
Local Networking - If you can help us reach local VIPs, environmental leaders, civic leaders, and potential founders, please let us know. We will be meeting with people who can help advance the Campaign in each area and need local networking support. Identify new government, military, and corporate witnesses to UFO and ET events and projects - If you can help us identify new witnesses who live in your region, we will interview and film them when we come to your city. Please help us identify more of these heroic witnesses who stand ready to testify to the truth.
If we unite in action, we can begin a new, open chapter in human history; one with new technologies for energy and propulsion without pollution; one where we go into space in peace, not with weapons. Please join us and help us today!
The Campaign for Disclosure will be coming to the following cities:
(Dates and times are tentative and subject to change based on local support and funding.)
Denver / Boulder, CO - June 23, 2001
This event was reported as a big success. Dr. Greer filled the auditorium in Boulder on the 23rd. with standing room in the isles and in the halls, (two hundred people had to be turned away). A skeptical senior space lawyer (sent to this event on the advice of Carol Rosin) said Greer is spectacular, credible, and a wonderful man. The video and Steven Greer received lasting standing ovations and many information packages were sold. Gradually the word is getting out. Those inside the government are saying what they witnessed, and how they were silenced for decades.
San Francisco, CA - July 22, 2001
Charlottesville, VA - August 1 , 2001
Los Angeles, CA - August 4, 2001
San Diego, CA - August 5, 2001
Miami, FL - August 19, 2001
Seattle, WA - September 8, 2001
Vancouver, BC - September 9, 2001
Portland OR - September 12, 2001
Salem, OR - September 13, 2001
Washington, DC - October 7, 2001
Toronto, Canada - October 20, 2001
Boston, MA - October 21, 2001
New York, NY - October 26, 2001
Atlanta, GA - November 3, 2001
Charlotte, NC - November 4, 2001
Asheville, NC - November 5, 2001
Phoenix, AZ - November 10, 2001
Dallas, TX - November 11, 2001
London, UK - December 8, 2001
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, and the environment.
-------------------------------------------------------------http://www.flybynews.com------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Ted Postol: Why a Missile-Defense System Can Never Work * space weaponry insiders
1 July 2001
1) LA Times Interviews Ted Postol: "Why a Missile-Defense System Can Never Work"
2) Star Wars Inc. The men and the money behind space weaponry
3) Why Wasn't Kissinger Asked About War Crimes Charges?
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Why a Missile-Defense System Can Never Work
Los Angeles Times
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/laweekly/20010629/lo/26047_1.html
Friday June 29 05:00 PM EDT
Why a Missile-Defense System Can Never Work
By Joshuah Bearman LA Weekly Writer
Ever since W. made missile defense a central feature of his campaign, boosters of all stripes have been salivating over the opportunity to get their various pet Star Wars projects funded. There are plans for putting missile defense in the ocean, in the air and in space. There are even researchers working on airplane-mounted lasers and killer satellites. Recently W. announced that he plans to expand Clinton's already-contentious limited missile-defense research and deploy a comprehensive system over the objections of our allies.
The problem with all this is that none of it works. These systems use imprecise technology to track their targets, and most tests so far have failed. Last July, in the most recent trial run of the "hit to kill" vehicles currently being developed, the defensive rocket sailed wide of its target in an embarrassingly harmless arc high over the Pacific.
Ted Postol, a physicist and former Pentagon adviser who is now a professor of science, technology and national-security policy at MIT, is a leading critic of missile defense. Building a $60-billion-plus system, he argues, provides the worst of both worlds: no effective defense and less international stability. In a telephone interview from his MIT office, Postol explains why the so-called kill vehicles won't kill anything, why having them will make the world more dangerous, and why the whole scheme is as dumb now as when Ronald Reagan was seduced by the Star Wars fantasy.
L.A. WEEKLY:
First, maybe you could describe a little bit about how the missile-defense system works.
TED POSTOL:
Basically, it is a system of radars that try to track objects in space and an interceptor, which is a rocket booster with a device mounted on top called a kill vehicle. The kill vehicle weighs maybe 120 or 130 pounds, and it looks like a sort of telescope with small rocket motors on it. The kill vehicle gets launched towards the target of concern Eor targets, as you'd expect in a real-world scenario.
Does it all happen quickly?
Yes. The rocket booster accelerates the kill vehicle to a very high speed Ebetween 7 and 8-and-a-half kilometers per second Eand the incoming warhead is itself traveling near that speed. So the crossing speed is quite high. This is why accuracy is important. But the system is not very accurate. The kill vehicle is launched a few minutes before the actual flyby, but it is launched to a point in space where the system has calculated that it will be near incoming targets. And only there does the kill vehicle open its eyes, so to speak, to look for the targets. And when the kill vehicle opens its eyes, it's a very small field of view, perhaps 1 degree on a side. And then it has about 60 seconds to observe and home in on its target.
So the kill vehicle is not tracking the incoming missile the entire way. It goes to what it thinks is the vicinity, and then only has a brief moment to meet the target.
Right. It is a projected interception point calculated by the radar Ewith some uncertainty, I might add.
I understand that the infrared sensors of the system are an issue too. The tracking system on the kill vehicle sees the incoming missiles as E
Points of light. Like little stars.
And the resolution of these sensors is not very good.
That's part of the problem. There's no dimensional information.
Is that a technological limitation that can be overcome? Will we be able to make more accurate sensors in a few years?
No, that limitation will not be overcome, and even if it were improved, it would not entirely solve the accuracy problem.
And, if I understand correctly, the reason increased resolution wouldn't solve the problem is that even a better image would still not allow the kill vehicle to distinguish between actual warheads and decoys.
Yes. For example, say there's a warhead flying through space, tumbling end over end as warheads do. And say there's also a decoy balloon shaped like a warhead, also tumbling end over end. There would be no observable difference that would allow the sensor Eeven a better one Eto determine which was the warhead. This is the fundamental problem. This kind of system is designed to work in the vacuum of space, and in the vacuum of space, the two would behave exactly alike. In space, it is extraordinarily easy to deploy decoys.
What other kinds of decoys are there, and how do they affect the infrared signals?
You could take a decoy balloon, for example, and paint big stripes on it so that its signal scintillates like that of a tumbling warhead. Or tethering objects to a warhead would be a way to defeat the system for sure. Tethered flares, for example Ethey would completely dominate the infrared signal. You wouldn't be able to see the warhead at all. Or you could throw flares out freely, and the system would have no way of telling one from the other.
And would that mean a total miss? How precise does the intercepting kill vehicle have to be?
It has to be precise within a fraction of a meter.
That's a tall order.
Yes. It's ridiculous to believe that our potential adversaries would be able to build ICBMs and warheads but not be able to devise these kinds of countermeasures.
You've said that the Pentagon went easy on its own tests of the systems. They didn't use these kinds of decoys.
They didn't do anything. First, their data showed clearly that the sensors wouldn't be able to distinguish tumbling warheads from tumbling decoys. So in the actual test series, they modified the tests to never deal with those kinds of decoys. They removed that kind of threat from their test program in order to claim they can build a system that's workable.
Tell me about the test of the system last July, which failed altogether.
That test was an extraordinary set of failures. First, the only targets were a warhead and a large balloon. The balloon is almost 10 times brighter than the warhead. There was no discrimination necessary. They told the kill vehicle ahead of time, "You are going to see two objects Ea large bright object and a less-bright one. Now, go after the less-bright one." Even if it had gone well, it would have proved nothing because it was the simplest possible situation you can imagine. But the test warhead and decoy didn't deploy properly; the kill vehicle didn't deploy properly. They screwed up the whole thing.
Clinton used this test as a reason for delaying the decision to employ the National Missile Defense program, citing the uncertain technology. But the current administration has signaled its interest in building the system. Whether or not it works.
And we've been talking about what is called a midflight interception, right?
Right. This is not a boost-phase interception. This happens many hundreds of kilometers in altitude, where there's no atmosphere.
What about a system that tries to intercept the missiles at a different point in the trajectory?
A boost-phase interception or a re-entry interception, that is where the missile is exiting or re-entering the atmosphere, would make decoying much harder.
Let me ask you about that. Some, including Bush's advisers, propose boost-phase interception as a more workable alternative. How feasible is it?
Well, there are a lot of caveats here. I am not an advocate of a boost-phase system. But I will say that I have analyzed it more than anyone else. If the threat is North Korea, and they're using a fairly primitive missile technology, you could build a system of radars and interceptors that would have a very good chance of getting those missiles.
But a good booster-phase system still wouldn't be able to answer a large-scale attack or even a limited attack from missiles launched inland, from China, for example, or even Iran for that matter.
Right. Well, let me say this. Suppose that I can build a defense system that is so capable and robust that no missile could get through E100 percent effective. Then, you might have a case for it. I say "might" because the likely response from our adversaries would be to try to develop weapons with different modes of delivery or to concentrate on short-range missiles [which are much harder to intercept because they are in the air less time] or to threaten our allies. So increased security for us, in this optimistic case, would come at the expense of arms control and the security of our allies. Now the other extreme, which is the situation we currently have, and will continue to have, is that defense, even under the most optimal conditions, is unlikely to work. But we will provoke the reaction anyway. This is the worst of both worlds: The defense has no capability, while also prompting our adversaries to step up the threat.
Is there any system that will ever work effectively, or is the whole idea a bust?
Ever?
Right. There are new proposals all the time. The most recent idea is lasers mounted on airplanes.
Well, a laser on an airplane has some potential to shoot down an ICBM. Now there's an important caveat there as well. It's not yet demonstrated that lasers have the power or beam quality that would make it effective. And maybe they will. On the other hand, a laser can only destroy a rocket in powered flight, which means that it will target the booster, leaving the warhead or biological payload or whatever else is in there to fall to Earth before it gets here. That would mean a WMD [Weapons of Mass Destruction] payload falling somewhere else, like in Canada. And that might bother the Canadians.
So lasers or other systems, even if effective, wouldn't solve all the ancillary problems of missile defense: no protection against short-range missiles; no protection for allies; and the slippery slope of arms escalation and even militarizing space.
Right. The question always should be: What do you get in relation to the cost? And, with missile defense Eat least all forms of missile defense that will be available for the foreseeable future Ethe answer is: not a lot. My own view is that it is important to analyze these things in a comprehensive way, as opposed to dismissing them out of hand. Because there's people out there selling noodles, as the Israelis would say. And the systems sometimes have some merit, but they get oversold Eway oversold in the case of what's on the table today. Missile defense has been completely politicized.
It's not only politicized, but it has become quite vitriolic.
Oh yeah. I had one guy threaten to attack me. A guy who works for Thad Cochran [Mississippi's Republican senator, who is an ardent supporter of missile defense] wanted to have a fistfight with me. It was in London, and I was sure he was going to hit me, but a bunch of British officers fell on him just before he got to me.
Maybe you need a Congressional Staffer Defense System.
Right. Well, that's the mindset of some of these guys.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Star Wars Inc. The men and the money behind space weaponry
http://www.valleyadvocate.com/articles/starwars.html
Please check the above link for a current article in a weekly publication in the Connecticut River Valley area. The following is a letter to the editor, which will hopefully be published in next week's edition.
June 30, 2001
Re: Valley Advocate -- June 28-July 4, 2001 Issue
http://www.valleyadvocate.com/articles/starwars.html
Letter to the Editor:
The Advocate's cover story on the men and money behind space weaponry is appreciated and timely. This is when Congress makes decisions about the next year's spending of taxpayer dollars. However, Ericson's article made it appear that Star Wars and the waste of our tax dollars are "inevitable" (in light of a bought and paid for Congress). This is the defeatist attitude that the Bush administration and Darth Vadar are counting on. Why not include more on the people and nations working to stop an evil empire?
The Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space is conducting a series of conferences and protests around the world, including the International Day of Protest to Stop the Militarization of Space on October 13, 2001. So far one hundred and sixty-three organizations are endorsing it, and more than fifty action sites have already been designated. Hopefully one in our Valley will surface; maybe the Advocate will cover this side of the story.
UN General Secretary, Kofi Annan, in his opening remarks to the Third United Nations Conference on Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in July 1999 said, "Above all, we must guard against the misuse of outer space. We recognized early on that a legal regime was needed to prevent it from being another arena of military confrontation." Annan continued "..But there is much more to be done. We must not allow this century, so plagued with war and suffering, to pass on its legacy, when the technology at our disposal will be even more awesome. We cannot view the expanse of space as another battleground for our earthly conflicts."
For more information on October 13 visit the Global Network's website: www.space4peace.org and check out news fit to transmit in the post Cassini flyby era at www.flybynews.com. Maybe we will all respond in time with the "force" to stop the arms race from entering this new domain before it is too late.
Jonathan Mark
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Why Wasn't Kissinger Asked About War Crimes Charges?
June 29, 2001
From: "FAIR-L"
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was summoned last month to appear at the French Palace of Justice to answer questions about murders and disappearances in Chile in the 1970s. While the story was carried by major European news outlets, it has received relatively little coverage in U.S. media.
French authorities wanted to ask Kissinger, who was visiting Paris, about Operation Condor, the terror network set up by the governments of Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Ecuador and Bolivia. Evidence that the U.S. government was aware of and lent support to Operation Condor has been available for years (see The Nation, 8/9-16/99; New York Times, 3/6/01). The French magistrate who summoned Kissinger was particularly interested in what light he might shed on the disappearances of five French nationals who disappeared in Chile during or shortly after the U.S.-supported coup there in 1973.
But the French courts would learn nothing from Kissinger, who left town the day after being summoned without answering any questions.
After the episode in France, Kissinger did a lengthy, one-on-one interview with PBS's Charlie Rose (6/20/01). Kissinger also appeared alone with CNN's Wolf Blitzer (6/21/01) and Fox News Channel's Paula Zahn (6/13/01). None of the interviews even mentioned the French attempt to question Kissinger about human rights abuses. Nor did any of the journalists bring up the question of whether Kissinger might be indictable on war crimes charges, as journalist Christopher Hitchens argued in a two-part Harper's magazine article (2/01, 3/01).
Was there an agreement that the interviewers would avoid raising such uncomfortable issues for Kissinger? Charlie Rose was recently accused of making such an agreement with Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News Channel. In an interview with the New York Times Magazine (6/24/01), Ailes claimed that he had written assurance from Rose that he would not be asked about "politics" during his May 22 interview. Yvette Vega, the executive producer for the Charlie Rose Show, told FAIR that she was unaware of any such deal with Ailes.
But Kissinger himself seemed to have this kind of agreement with the National Press Club in Washington, DC, where Kissinger spoke on June 21. Noting that none of the questions asked of Kissinger, chosen from written questions submitted by the audience, dealt with war crimes or human rights investigations, journalists Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman asked Press Club moderator Richard Koonce if there was some sort of arrangement to avoid these topics.
According to Mokhiber and Weissman, Koonce explained that there was a "definite sensitivity" to those kinds of questions, and that Kissinger "was afraid that if we got into a discussion of that, for the vast majority of people that, it would take so much time to explain all of the context, that, you know, he preferred to avoid that."
Which raises the question: If a former Secretary of State receiving a summons about his knowledge of murder, torture and disappearances is not news, then what is?
FAIR ACTION: Please contact Charlie Rose and ask why he failed to ask Henry Kissinger about the newsworthy issues of human rights investigations and war crimes charges. You might also contact the National Press Club to voice your disappointment that journalists were not allowed to press Kissinger on these matters.
CONTACT:
The Charlie Rose Show
mailto:charlierose@pbs.org
Phone: 212-940-1600
National Press Club
Melinda Cooke, Assistant to Club President Dick Ryan
E-mail: mcooke@npcpress.org
Fax: 202-662-7537
As always, please remember that your comments are taken more seriously if you maintain a polite tone. Please cc fair@fair.org with your correspondence.
Read Mokhiber and Weissman's column, "Censorship at the National Press Club," at:
http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/2001/000077.html
Read "The Fugitive" by Christopher Hitchens (The Nation, 6/25/01)
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010625&s=hitchens
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous issues, and the environment.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------www.FlybyNews.com--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Nuclear Murder: America's Atomic War Against Its Citizens and Why It's Not Over Yet
27 June 2001
The first item is a powerful article by David Proctor, published in the "Boise Weekly" http://www.boiseweekly.com/coverstory.html
The second item is about a strategic action at a major Star Wars Conference in PA.
The third item is a review of a book called: Strategic Deception Rhetoric, Science, and Politics in Missile Defense Advocacy.
These disclosures are quite a contrast to the sheer lunacy of the possibility of the subject of the article written by Robert Roy, Senior Science Writer for Space.com called: "Nuclear Power Poised for Re-Entry into Space"
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/nuclear_space_010625-1.html
Thanks for all those united to keep space for peace.
For more information on global campaigns to Stop Star Wars join with the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space.
http://www.space4peace.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Nuclear Murder: America's Atomic War Against Its Citizens and Why It's Not Over Yet
by David Proctor
"After 15 years of investigating, I have concluded that the United States government's atomic weapons industry knowingly and recklessly exposed millions of people to dangerous levels of radiation. "Nothing in our past compared to the official deceit and lying that took place in order to protect the nuclear industry. In the name of national security, politicians and bureaucrats ran roughshod over democracy and morality. Ultimately, the Cold Warriors were willing to sacrifice their own people in their zeal to beat the Russians."
Former Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall from the foreword to Atomic Harvest: Hanford and the Lethal Toll of America's Nuclear Arsenal By Michael D'Antonio
Since early June, newspapers in Australia and Great Britain have published articles about experiments conducted in the 1950s and 1960s by U.S. scientists on the bodies of deceased and stillborn babies. Documents declassified by the U.S. Department of Energy show that scientists from the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority worked with their American counterparts to take the bodies of 6,000 infants from hospitals in Australia, Great Britain, Canada, Hong Kong, South America and the U.S., then ship them to the United States for the nuclear experimentswithout permission from the parents.
It was called Project Sunshine. Sunshine began in 1955 at the University of Chicago when Willard Libby, later a Nobel Prize laureate for his research into carbon dating, instructed colleagues to skirt the law in their search for bodies. "Human samples are of prime importance, and if anybody knows how to do a good job of body-snatching, they will really be serving their country," Libby is quoted as saying. The reasoning: Nuclear tests released great amounts of Strontium 90 into the atmosphere. Libby and others connected with the American defense industry wanted to know how much radiation was entering the food supply. The bodies and body parts were cremated and the ashes tested with a sophisticated Geiger counter.
Grotesque as Project Sunshine was, it fits the pattern. Since 1945, high officials of the United States government have maimed and killed hundreds of thousands of their own people, first while they spent $5.5 trillion to test and maintain nuclear weapons, then as they spent billions to support and under-regulate nuclear power plants. To cover their actions, the officialsand those who succeeded themhave for decades lied to the public and perjured themselves in court about the amount of radiation released and its effect on the millions of people exposed to it.
Now, that same government wants to transport hundreds of tons of nuclear waste through 43 states, including Idaho, on inadequate rail lines and highways past 138 million people to be stored in containers of unknown longevity for hundreds of thousands of years in geologically unstable formations in New Mexico and Nevada. And once again, officials insist it will all be perfectly safe.
The government has known for at least 70 years that nuclear energyregardless of its formis deadly to the human body. The first publicized case of radiation injuries in America was the radium-dial painters in the 1920s. These women used radium paint to put the luminous numbers on watch dials. Many wet their brushes with their mouths to make the tiny points needed for such fine work. When they began to die of cancer their successful lawsuit against the watch company in 1928 made the dangers of radiation very public. The government also sponsored radiation experiments on animals in the 1940s, as well as follow-up studies of the Trinity test at Alamogordo, New Mexico, and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, all in 1945.
Despite this knowledge, and America's acceptance of the Nuremberg human rights protocols, the Atomic Energy Commission, a group appointed by the president and obligated by law to protect the public, detonated more than 300 above ground nuclear weapons at the Nevada Test Site and in the Pacific Ocean. The blasts totaled 138,600 kilotons of explosive power, which Soviet scientist Andrei Sakharov estimated would kill as many as 2.5 million people and American Nobel laureate Linus Pauling calculated would cause 1 million seriously defective children, another 1 million embryonic and neonatal deaths, and create millions of hereditary defects. In 1969, Dr. Ernest Sternglass traced the dramatic increases in infant deaths and childhood leukemia in upstate New York to airborne radiation from the nuclear tests. He estimated 375,000 American babies had been killed by fallout radiation between 1951 and 1966. And that didn't count the deaths caused by the Soviet Union's 715 tests.
Dr. John Gofman found that even low doses of radiation could cause cancer. In the early 1970s, when Gofman and Dr. Art Tamplin refused to keep their findings secret, they lost their research grants at DOE's Livermore National Laboratory. The government, of course, did not have this information when it began above ground testing. It did know, however, that radiation was dangerous and was being blown thousands of miles from the Pacific and Nevada sites. AEC's response was to lie about fallout readings, falsify some reports and bury others so Americans and Pacific islanders would accept the government's propaganda mantra that there was no danger. It wasn't only civilians who were handed this line of falsehoods. The Defense Department marched soldiers within a few hundred yards of ground zero during several atomic tests. When these "atomic veterans" started getting cancer, their claims for benefits were denied. Soldiers who obtained their service records found no mention of their trip to the Nevada Test Site. Only recently has Congress recognized their sacrifice and authorized limited treatment for the dying veterans.
Radioactive waste management complex at Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, located 32 miles west of Idaho Falls. In the early 1950s, southern Utah ranchers lost thousands of animals from radiation poisoning following a particularly dirty test shot. They sued the government, but during the discovery phase of the trial AEC officials lied about having reports that documented the radiation the animals received and testified there was no connection between fallout and the deaths. The truth came out at another trial 30 years later. Cancer deaths spiked in southern Utah in the mid-1950s. Diseases that had been nearly nonexistent until then decimated whole families. The overwhelmed undertaker in Cedar City, Utah, needed special training in order to prepare the cancer-devastated bodies. Simultaneously, Nevada Test Site workers began to develop the same types of illnesses and die at an alarming rate. AEC again insisted the workers were safe, that there was no connection between the cancers and the fallout. But there was a connection, and AEC knew it. Government records, finally released after decades of denial and secrecy, show that the entire country was repeatedly dusted by fallout. Radioactive hot spots were found as far away as Albany, New York. Public health statistics showed hundreds of thousands of American babies were killed by fallout between 1951 and 1966. Another study found SAT scores dropped in Utah during the testing.
The story of the uranium miners is as tragic as any. During the 1940s and 1950s, thousands of poor, uneducated men, most of whom were American Indians, labored in mines in the Four Corners region to produce uranium needed to manufacture plutonium for bombs and atomic tests. Forced to work without even the most basic ventilation system, the miners breathed uranium-laced air, drank uranium-contaminated water and carried the deadly dust home to their families. Thousands have since died of lung cancer and other radiation-related diseases. Thus far, Congress has approved no compensation for them. The deadly rain of fallout stopped in 1963 but only momentarily. Even after the United States and the Soviet Union's limited test-ban treaty, many of the next 700 underground tests "vented," the government's euphemism for explosions that drifted radiation across the country.
In order to conduct those tests and build its nuclear stockpile, the government needed bomb factorieshuge installations that manufactured, assembled and tested the deadly nuclear components. These factories were located at Savannah River, South Carolina; Fernald, Ohio; Rocky Flats, Colorado; Pantex, Texas; Idaho National Engineering Laboratory; Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Hanford, Washington. Again, the government played fast and loose with the safety and health of both its employees and the thousands of civilians who lived nearby. At Hanford, the infamous "Green Run" in December 1949, released 20,000 curies (a curie is a measure of radioactivity) of xenon-133 and 7,780 curies of iodine-131. The radioactive plume measured 200 by 40 miles and dropped high concentrations of fallout on the Tri-Cities. There was no public health warning and no follow-up studies on the health of the residents. Over the years, Hanford plastered the Columbia Valley repeatedly. About 1 million curies, the largest accumulation of atomic industrial pollution on record, were dumped in the air, water and ground. Some lambs near Hanford were born without eyes, mouths or legs. Some had two sets of sex organs, others had none. Juanita Andrewjeski had three miscarriages and kept a map of her neighborhood, one of the closest farms to Hanford. On it were 35 crosses for heart attacks and 32 circles for cancer. One girl was born without eyes. Another couple had eight miscarriages and adopted all their children. Two children were born without hipbones. One farm wife killed her baby and herself after her husband died of cancer.
In 1974, Dr. Samuel Milham, a Washington State Department of Health epidemiologist, noticed a 25 percent excess of cancers among Hanford nuclear workers when compared with the rates among the state's non-nuclear workers. As it had done so many times before, AEC buried Milham's findings. The agency commissioned another study from a company with extensive Hanford contracts. When that study affirmed Milham's work, it was buried, too. Some 600,000 people worked in the nuclear weapons industry. Only last year did Congress approve lump payments of $150,000 and lifetime care for those approved. The Labor Department estimates 43,000 workers per year, and 28,000 survivors, will apply annually.
From 1952 to 1970, INEL (now known as INEEL) workers dumped some 16 billion gallons of liquid radioactive wastes into injection wells that fed directly into the water table below. Radioactive contamination has been found 7.5 miles away, threatening the long-term viability of the huge Snake River Plain Aquifer, the major underground water source for 270,000 people and Idaho's famous potatoes. There were also intentional iodine-131 releases in 1957 and 1963 that dosed the residents of the farming communities west of INEL. Site officials waited for the wind to blow away from Idaho Falls, where they lived, to make the release. The people downwind were not told of these incidents until years later. The taxpayers' bill to clean up this ungodly mess has already run into billions of dollars, and the meter is still running. In the 1950s, nuclear energy was billed as the answer to America's energy questions. Today we know that billions of dollars have been wasted in this attempt to produce electricity "too cheap to meter." The power plants, according to a study done after Three Mile Island, were under-engineered, poorly built, poorly staffed and badly run. Now, as President Bush lobbies for more nuclear plants, ratepayers and taxpayers are still on the hook for the billions of dollars it will cost to decommission the plants, clean up the sites and safely store the contaminated building and fuel rods for hundreds of thousands of years.
Hazardous and radioactive waste previously buried at an INEEL subsurface burial area. Finally, let us not forget the ugly history of medical experiments. Declassified documents show that government and university doctors injected scores of prisoners, mental patients, retarded adults and children and even pregnant mothers with radioactive substancesnearly always without full consentsometimes just to see what would happen.
The Next 500,000 Years
Now, with this revolting 50-year record behind it, the government wants us to believe it can safely move military, commercial and foreign waste to gigantic burial grounds near Las Vegas (Yucca Mountain) and Carlsbad, N.M. (Waste Isolation Pilot Project or WIPP). And protect it there for hundreds of thousands of years. Yucca, which is still not built despite 20 years of study and nearly $7 billion invested, is intended to hold high-level nuclear reactor waste. WIPP, which is open, was built to hold transuranic wasteclothing, tools, sludge and dirt contaminated with small amounts of plutonium. The thousands of shipments that will be made to these repositories through 43 states, this "mobile Chernobyl," are a nightmare of potential accidents, economic catastrophe and terrorism. The radioactive garbage will then be stored in containers that haven't been adequately tested and placed for longer than the human race has recorded its own history in underground caverns whose long-term stability remains in doubt. As one engineer put it, "How would you like to have to build something that had to be 99.99999 percent perfectforever?" Perfect. That word doesn't quite describe either WIPP or Yucca. The WIPP salt caverns near Carlsbad, N.M., are located 2,150 feet below the surface and consist of a 112-acre underground area on which taxpayers have spent $2.1 billion so far. In 30 to 35 years, when the space is filled, the price tag is expected to be $9 billion. It will include an elaborate marker system to warn people not to drill into the salt for the next 500,000 years.
But some scientists expect problems long before that. DOE first discovered water seeping into the WIPP excavations in 1983. The leaks finally became public in 1987 when New Mexico scientists concluded the salt formation contains much more water than DOE anticipated. They warned that over time the brine could corrode the waste drums and create a "radioactive waste slurry" that could eventually reach the surface.
Inside WIPP, cracks have appeared in the ceilings and floors of several large waste storage rooms, and the ceiling has collapsed in three areasthe result of natural room closure (salt movement) that is two to three times faster than anticipated. In 1983, DOE estimated it would take 25 years for the salt walls to completely close in and lock the waste barrels into solid salt rock. At the rate the rooms are closing, it may take only 13 years.
Another hazard is the known reserves of gas and oil. There is even an existing oil and gas lease beneath the WIPP site. Despite the warning signs, these resources could invite intrusion during the long future the repository must stay isolated. WIPP also has capacity problems. The repository is expected to hold about 160,000 cubic meters of transuranic waste. However, there are expected to be 443,000 to 592,000 cubic meters of waste that will need storageroughly two-and-one-half to three-and-one-half times WIPP's capacity.
Yucca Mountain, located about 80 miles from Las Vegas, the fastest growing city the America, has been studied for 22 years to the tune of nearly $7 billionpaid by electric utility customers. There is still no agreement on whether it is a suitable site or not. The plan is to bury the waste 660 to 1,400 feet below the surface in a 1,400-acre facility served by 100 miles of tunnels. By the time it's finished, it will cost about $53 billion. Utility ratepayers will fork over $28 billion. The rest of the bill will be handed to taxpayers.
One of the most volatile issues is the mountain's geology. There are 33 known faults near Yucca Mountain. About 600 seismic events have occurred near the site in the last 20 years alone, including a 5.6-magnitude earthquake in 1992. Meanwhile, 70,000 tons of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel rods are stored at 77 sites around the country. The waste increases by 300 to 600 tons per year, and those facilities are quickly running out of space. If Yucca ever is opened, it will be full in less than 15 years.
Twice in the 1960s, INEEL's Pit 9, a subsurface disposal area, was flooded by snowmelt runoff. First, though, the waste has to get there. The Yucca shipping campaign would be the largest nuclear materials transport in historysome 80,000 shipments over 24 years. Accidents happen. The federal government predicts 70 to 310 nuclear transportation accidents over the next 75 years. From 1964 to 1990, 2,561 spent fuel containers were shipped in the United States. If a repository opens, there will about that many shipments per year. An accident or terrorist act that opened a high-level waste cask would be catastrophic. DOE predicts a severe accident in a rural area would contaminate 42 acres and cost $620 million. In an urban area it would cost $2 billion. Dr. Marvin Resnikoff, the nuclear physicist who was an expert witness in the 1991 Andrus vs. U.S., testified that a similar accident would cost $40 billion. Andrus vs. U.S. was a case filed by Idaho Governor Cecil Andrus. A judge ordered that Andrus not interfere with nuclear waste shipments. The waste will be transported by rail (88 percent) and truck (12 percent). Union Pacific is the largest rail company in America and will handle most of the work. Their track record is not encouraging. Derailments and other problems have become an epidemic.
Even former Gov. Phil Batt, who allowed DOE to bring more than 1,000 shipments of waste into Idaho and store it on the promise it would be removed to Yucca and WIPP, declared Union Pacific's safety record "unacceptable." Utah-based Huntsman Chemical says problems with Union Pacific have cost more than $8 million in lost business and increased shipping costs since June 1997. The U.S. military stopped using Union Pacific because of delays, and once the railroad left a shipment of M-1 tanks unguarded. The Association of American Railroads has said today's rail linesin Idaho and elsewherecannot handle the weight of nuclear casks, the casks themselves may not withstand an accident and the railroads cannot afford to carry casks at the slow speed the federal government requires.
In the meantime, the existing nuclear plants continue to produce this deadly poison, much of which will last longer than human civilization has existed thus far. The public has been alerted to these dangers, but nuclear energy is a silent killer, and the nuclear industry has run a very effective lobbying campaign. Crucial to this is the fact that cancers take up to 20 years to develop, and in that time people move, officials retire and change jobs, records are lost. It is not a spectacular earthquake or even the AIDS epidemic, which burst suddenly upon the world. Nuclear radiation kills quietly, with diseases that sometimes do occur for other reasons. The tragic truth is it may take a large-scale accident to get through to the daily media and much of the public.
Clearly, the history of nuclear energynot just in the United States but worldwidedemonstrates that the human race has not yet learned how to deal with this incredible power and the waste it produces. We have left death and destruction behind us every step of the way, from the mining of raw uranium, to the manufacture of plutonium, to the assembly of weapons and reactors, to the operation of the reactors, to the disposal of the waste they create. If we humans had to pass a test, had to prove to some rational outside observer that we deserve to be able to continue working with nuclear power, we would fail utterly. The only sensible solution is to stop producing nuclear waste altogether and store existing waste as safely and as close to the point of production as possible. Then, begin a reverse Manhattan Project to find ways to neutralize the deadly mess we have created.
David Proctor has written for Boise Weekly, The Salt Lake Tribune, Idaho Mountain Express, The Idaho Statesman, USA Today and Gannett News Service as a reporter and editor. His work has also been published in Rolling Stone, Utah Holiday, New Times, Zoo World, Edging West, InPrint, Focus, Boise and Supermarket News magazines and Reuters news service.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Tomorrow, Protest at Star Wars Conference Begins!
Noon - 2pm, tomorrow, June 28; 8am - Noon, Friday, June 29
NO STAR WARS: No way, No how!
Signs and Banners, A costumed "Specter of Darth Vader" (with sign reading: "Welcome to the Dark Side, brought to you by: the Star Wars Empire of Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, TRW, Curt Weldon, and George W. Bush"), People wearing "masks of anguish" behind pictures of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and hopefully YOU!
Protest tomorrow, June 28 (noon - 2pm) and Friday, June 29 (8am - noon) at the Radisson Hotel/Valley Forge Convention Center, N. Gulph and 1st Ave., Valley Forge, PA
Thursday, June 28 and Friday, June 29
"Defending the Northeast, the Nation, and America's Allies from Ballistic Missile Attack Conference", sponsored by the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis at the Radisson Hotel/Valley Forge Convention Complex, N. Gulph Rd. & 1st Ave., Valley Forge, PA. Invited panelists and speakers for the two days include: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Lt. General Ronald Kadish, Director of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, and various "Star Wars" Ballistic Missile Defense contractors (Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon).
Ballistic missile defense, national missile defense, theater missile defense - its all Star Wars. And it must be stopped.
Protest Star Wars and the Militarization of Space. Protest the business of Star Wars which protect the profits of the Star Wars' military contractors.
Stand against Bush's policy of Star Wars "inevitability" at this major conference of military, legislative, and corporate Star Warriors.
Protest in front of the Radisson Hotel (a mile from Lockheed Martin's Valley Forge complex):
Thursday, June 28, noon - 2pm, prior to the opening keynote address of Congressperson Curt Weldon (R, Delaware Co.) - the Congress' chief advocate and self-described "pit bull" of Stars Wars; Protest again on Friday, June 29, 8am - noon.
NO STAR WARS: No Way, No How!
For more information:
Brandywine Peace Community
Post Office Box 81, Swarthmore, PA 19081
610-544-1818
brandywine@juno.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Strategic Deception Rhetoric, Science, and Politics in Missile Defense Advocacy
New Title from Michigan State University Press
(Online at http://www.msupress.msu.edu/rhetoric/strategic.html)
*Strategic Deception Rhetoric, Science, and Politics in Missile Defense Advocacy*
by Gordon R. Mitchell
Notes, photographs, bibliography, index, 404 pages, 6' X 9'
Cloth $55.00
Paper $24.95
BOOK DESCRIPTION
The Cold War's legacy has been characterized by a systematic pattern of threat inflation, a relentless stream of surplus weapons development, and a predilection for a brand of secret science that lines the pockets of defense contractors and swells the war chests of hawkish politicians-things that fray the fabric of democracy. There is perhaps no military project more representative of this legacy than ballistic missile defense (BMD). Since Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars address" in 1983, taxpayers have spent more than $100 billion on BMD projects. Close examination reveals that many of these programs were of dubious value. Politically seductive but scientifically elusive, the notion of missile defense has given rise to waves of runaway rhetoric featuring technical claims that have outstripped supporting scientific data.
Many expected that such instances of strategic deception would crumble with the Berlin Wall, but interlocking military and industrial interests have invented sophisticated new forms of deception to keep BMD projects alive. In this work, Gordon Mitchell examines the technical and political dimensions of the recurrent BMD controversies from a rhetorical perspective. His analysis yields original insights into the origins and dynamics of Reagan's Star Wars proposal, the postmodern complexities of strategic deception on Patriot missile accuracy in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, as well as fresh perspectives on Theater High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) and National Missile Defense (NMD). Mitchell believes that, as the episodes of strategic deception in missile defense advocacy recur perennially, the democratic pedigree of American society erodes.
Advance Praise for STRATEGIC DECEPTION
With one hand [Mitchell] has earned the gratitude of those of us who are desperately concerned about the latest and most unsettling political threats to the orderly control of weapons of mass destruction. With the other hand, he has earned the admiration of those of us who are interested in the politico-economic framework of modern science and technology. . . . As one of "us" on both counts, I commend this two-handed sword of a book to all who care about either of these apparently unrelated matters, and especially to the few who appreciate how closely they are now connected.
- John Ziman, author of *Prometheus Bound*
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gordon R. Mitchell is Associate Professor of Communication and Director of Debate at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His articles on missile defense have appeared in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists; The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs; Science, Technology & Human Values; and The Quarterly Journal of Speech. His missile defense briefing papers can be found on websites hosted by the Federation of American Scientists, the International Security Information Service (UK and Europe), and the Peace Research Institute of Frankfurt.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous issues, and the environment.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------www.FlybyNews.com--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
A Critical Time to Take Action for Leonard Peltier, Lori Berenson, BMD NoFlyby
June 26, 1975 was when the tragic shoot-out occurred, at the Jumping Bull Ranch, leaving three fallen that resulted from an FBI chase on the land of a sovereign nation for the theft of a pair of cowboy boots. This whole issue doesn't make any sense, except to respond to the threat of a disappearing democracy and US violations of basic human rights and decency for all relations. The following is a letter prepared by the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee to the new Chair of the Judiciary Committee of the US Senate, Judiciary Committee, the Honorable Patrick Leahy. Please copy into a letter and send to Senator Leahy with copies to Senator Schumer, Senator Grassley, the two senators of your state, and the representative of your district.
Item 2 gives relevant information on a new resource from the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee called "The Case of Leonard Peltier, Evidence and Documentation of a Wrongful Conviction.". This book contains the "statement of facts," written by Attorney Jennifer Harbury, with inserted references to key documents and the documents themselves. Especially due to the significance of June 26, please urge your elected Representatives to give a "top to bottom review" of the FBI and include Leonard Peltier, who was noted as a "human rights defender" by the United Nations.
When calling Congress, please also consider voicing your concerns about a policy of a Missile Defense that will likely not work, but would violate treaties and threaten peace on Earth with a new level to the arms race. This is the time of year that Congress makes decisions about how they will spend taxpayer dollars in the coming year. For mor information on this issue see www. Space4peace.org .
Issues of social justice, human rights and space for peace are related and sensible. Make use of your telephone call, and don't forget about the plight of Lori Berenson. Please lobby your Congressional Representative to sign on to the Maloney "Dear Colleague" letter on behalf of Lori Berenson and Justice. It is easy to send an E-mail letter to the to Peruvian President Valent Paniagua and the Ambassador, Carlos Alzamora at the following link: http://www.dfn.org/stand/peru/freelori.htm
Thanks to the Digital Freedom Network for setting up this email campaign.
1) Peltier/FBI Review Letter to The Honorable Patrick Leahy
2) "The Case of Leonard Peltier,
Evidence and Documentation of a Wrongful Conviction"
3) Help Keep NoFlyby Online at its original web address
**********************************************************************
1) Peltier/FBI Review Letter to The Honorable Patrick Leahy
Date
The Honorable Patrick Leahy
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Leahy,
I want to begin this letter by thanking you for all of your fine work in support of civil rights and justice. Your courage and integrity are admired by many. I also want to congratulate you on your new position in the Judiciary Committee. I am very encouraged to see that you will be overseeing such an important government duty.
I am writing today to express my firm support for "top to bottom" investigations of the FBI as called for by both Senator Schumer and Senator Grassley. There is an obvious pattern of FBI misconduct involving the withholding of evidence and obstruction of justice which must be examined and halted. Such conduct puts in jeopardy our nation's concepts of democracy, open government, and equal justice.
I am especially concerned with the FBI's treatment of Leonard Peltier, the Native American rights activist who Amnesty International calls a "political prisoner" who should be "immediately and unconditionally released." Mr. Peltier has been imprisoned for over twenty-five years, following his highly controversial conviction of the 1975 murders of two FBI agents. During Mr. Peltier's trial, the FBI and U.S. Prosecutors emphatically swore that every FBI document had been handed over to the defense. Yet, years later a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit would force the release of over 12,000 FBI documents which had in fact been withheld. Had the jury been able to consider this evidence at trial, I have no doubt that Mr. Peltier would be free today.
Among the documents was a formerly concealed ballistic test, which proved that the fatal bullets could not have come from the gun tied to Mr. Peltier at trial. The exposure of the test prompted the U.S. Prosecutor to admit during subsequent oral arguments, "we can't prove who shot those agents". Yet, a new trial was denied on technical grounds, even though the court found that, "There is a possibility that the jury would have acquitted Leonard Peltier had the records and data improperly withheld from the defense been available to him in order to better exploit and reinforce the inconsistencies casting strong doubts upon the government's case." The judge who authored the denial now supports Mr. Peltier's release.
To make matters worse, the FBI continues to withhold over 6000 documents pertaining to the Peltier case today, come twenty-six years after the incident. We are convinced that these files contain even more critical information.
We also note that Mr. Peltier's conviction is deeply rooted in the Pine Ridge "Reign of Terror." During this period, the FBI cooperated with vigilantes who killed over 60 members and supporters of the American Indian Movement and terrorized, assaulted and battered scores of others.
Given all of the above, I am asking you to initiate a Senate investigation of the FBI, which will include a comprehensive examination of the Peltier case, including the subpoena of 6000 FBI documents still withheld today.
Thank you for your time and consideration to this matter.
Sincerely,
(name)
cc. Senator Grassley
Senator Schumer
Your Senators
Your Representative
* Congressional E-mail Listings:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html
The telephone number for the Congressional Switchboard is (202)224-3121.
Your actions on June 26 would honor the three fallen on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1975, and help expose the illegal land transfer for uranium mining, and stop the abuses of power by the FBI and the threat to democracy and the continued unjust imprisonment of Leonard Peltier for more than 25 years!
If possible, attach the following documents to each of your letters:
(a) FOIA Status Report
http://www.freepeltier.org/foia_status_request.htm#top
(b) Special Prosecutors Conspire to Withhold Evidence -
http://www.freepeltier.org/peltier_trial2.htm#top
For more information see www.freepeltier.org
**********************************************************************
2) "The Case of Leonard Peltier,
Evidence and Documentation of a Wrongful Conviction"
The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee has completed a new compilation of court records, testimony, affidavits, interviews, and FBI documents. The book contains the "statement of facts" written by Attorney Jennifer Harbury with inserted references to key documents, a table of contents describing each document and its relevance, and the documents themselves.
It is an improved and updated version of the LPDC's "FBI files." This book is enhanced with more documentation on the FBI's surveillance of AIM, excerpts from an interview with the Jury Foreman of the Butler Robideau trial, excerpts from an interview with a former GOON, affidavits and testimony from key people, reports from the US Civil Rights Commission, more court documentation, and updated letters of support.
The documents are presented with little commentary so that the reader can draw her or his own conclusion independently. Not only is this book a resource to educate ourselves, but those who may be more skeptical or cautious. This book will be useful in lobbying our Senators and Congress People.
How to order:
Specify "The Case of Leonard Peltier, Evidence and Documentation of a Wrongful Conviction" and send a check or money order for $20 (includes shipping & handling) to the LPDC, PO Box 583 Lawrence, KS 66044. (Bulk Order: Three or More $13 per book).
You can fill out an order form at:
http://www.freepeltier.org/order_form.htm#top
**********************************************************************
3) Please Help Keep NoFlyby Online at its original address!
Would you care to pay $44.55 to keep NoFlyby online for another year at its original site address? http://www/nonviolence.org/noflyby
This could be important to maintain all the links going to the current noflyby address. Flyby News needs to pay $11 per month for hosting costs, and cannot afford carrying additional costs. We have posted a mirror site linked from flybynews.com . If you can help save the original, please send $44.55 to "Datarealm Internet Services" at the following address, reference it for "noflyby" hosted by nonviolence.org. The following is an invoice with payment information.
To: noflyby@yahoo.com
From: Datarealm Internet Services
Subject: Datarealm Internet Services, Inc Invoice# 010613-0003
Main telephone number: 877 22-SERVE
Datarealm Internet Services, Inc 010613-0003
117 South 17th Street, Suite 707
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Service Period Is Paid Through: Tuesday, June 26, 2001
Payment Will Extend Service Period To: Wednesday, June 26, 2002
Payment Terms: DUE ON RECEIPT
Description Qty. Total
---------------------------------------- ------ ----------
Non-profit Account w/o Domain Hosting - 1 44.55 Year
(Hosted by Nonviolence.org
Invoice Total 44.55
----------
Previous Balance 0.00
----------
Balance Due $44.55
Thanks if you can send a check to:
Datarealm Internet Services, Inc 010613-0003
117 South 17th Street, Suite 707
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Note "noflyby" in the memo portion of your check
**********************************************************************
Lori Berenson Wrongfully Convicted Again by Flawed Peruvian Justice System
**********************************************************************
For Immediate Release
20 June 2001
For more information, contact:
Gail Taylor 202-548-8480 or Bob Schwartz 212-475-3232
Lori Berenson Wrongfully Convicted Twice by Flawed
Peruvian Justice System
Lori Berenson was convicted and given a 20-year sentence this afternoon in Lima, Per, of terrorist collaboration despite a lack of evidence and multiple due process violations in her trial. Although Berenson has consistently maintained her innocence, a panel of three judges ruled today that she is guilty.
None of the witnesses in the case confirmed the prosecution's accusations that Berenson was involved with the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), including the prosecution's star witness Pacifico Castrelln. However, the prosecution is relying on much of Castrelln's testimony as a basis for keeping Ms. Berenson in jail, because he is the only witness that points out links between Berenson and the MRTA. Berenson denies any such connections. I am innocent of all charges against me. Neither of my trials, in the civilian or military court, has proven me guilty of any crime, she stated this morning in her closing address before the court.
Berenson maintained that she did not assist the MRTA and only became aware that some of her acquaintances in Lima were involved with the group after her arrest. All witnesses in Ms. Berenson's case have confirmed this statement, saying that they did not receive any support from her for their plans to attack the Peruvian Congress.
Berenson's parents, who have been in the courtroom for the past three months, addressed reporters outside the prison today after the verdict stating, Even before this trial began we knew that, as responsible and experienced observers worldwide uniformly recognized, a fair trial in Per on terrorism charges in its special civilian courts under the present laws that were instituted by former President Fujimori and staffed by Fujimori appointees would not be possible. This was simply a retrial of the corrupt military proceedings of five and a half years ago.
Interestingly, Per's judicial system is more on trial these past few months than Berenson herself, since the open hearings which began on March 20 have been broadcast on national and international television. It is apparent that Per's judicial system remains flawed, and that due process guarantees are not automatically guaranteed, even though some basic international standards of due process are inherent in the Peruvian legislation.
Berenson was prejudged by the 3-judge panel before and during her open hearing in the courtroom and the media. She was not presumed innocent as Peruvian and international law require, but was considered guilty throughout the entire proceedings. Corrupt and incompetent court personnel also continues to be a problem in Per; a state prosecutor who was responsible for drafting the charges against Ms. Berenson has since been fired for this reason. Still, Per has a long way to go in improving its judicial system, and Berenson's case has only reaffirmed that to the world.
It's amazing that even though the entire world is watching, the Peruvian government gave Lori a sentence despite the fact that they were unable to produce evidence to prove she is guilty, stated Gail Taylor, National Organizer of the Committee to Free Lori Berenson in Washington, DC. Many in Per are talking about what a crook [former President] Fujimori is, and yet there is not sufficient pressure to reform the judicial system and take out all of the illegal anti-terrorist legislation that he passed by executive decree after he overthrew his own government in 1992.
Lori taught us not to stand for that. She said that to be silent is to be an accomplice to the injustice. So we re not going to be silent, because someone has to be the voice for thousands of people who, like Lori, are being unjustly held in a system that doesn't treat people accused of crimes fairly.
Lori Berenson was convicted of terrorism under the Fujimori-Montesinos government and given a life sentence in 1996. After serving almost five years in extremely harsh conditions, her conviction was overturned. In the short time since Fujimori and Montesinos fled Per in disgrace no structural changes have been made to the corrupt justice system Fujimori installed. The terrorist court that retried Berenson has been criticized internationally, as well as the anti-terrorist laws under which she has been convicted. The US State Department's report on human rights found that Per's court system does not provide a fair trial for people charged with terrorism according to international standards.
Berenson's previous conviction in the Peruvian military courts was overturned last August because of new evidence that was presented, but instead of being released she was held with no charges as the civilian terrorist court case was being developed. Berenson's lawyer and independent legal observers documented at least twenty due process violations in the second trial.
**************************
Boston Globe supports Lori
"Although it makes possible her exoneration, the retrial in a Peruvian civilian court of former MIT student Lori Berenson on charges of ''terrorist collaboration'' flouts the principle that a defendant should not be subject to double jeopardy. The second trial also suggests that despite the fall of President Alberto Fujimori and his corrupt spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos, Peru remains a sham democracy."
***************************************
PLEASE ACT NOW TO SECURE LORI'S RELEASE
Call your Member of Congress and ask them to sign on to the Dear Colleague letter: Lori's Congresswoman, Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), along with Reps. Jim Leach (R-NY), Connie Morella (R-MD), and Maxine Waters (D-NY). They are asking that Members sign a letter to Peruvian President Paniagua asking for Lori's release.
The U.S. Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121.
Talking Points:
1) Lori Berenson has already served over 5 years under extremely harsh conditions. She was unjustly sentenced in January 1996 by a special military court for terrorism in Peru, and on June 20 she was unjustly sentenced by a special civilian court for terrorism.
2) She has repeatedly claimed her innocence, stating recently that, "I am innocent of all charges against me. Neither of my trials, in the civilian or military court, has proven me guilty of any crime." The original sentence was overturned for insufficient evidence, and using the same tainted evidence the prosecution has unjustly sentenced her again.
3) Her trial was unfair because of due process violations, judicial bias and prejudgment (considered by the public, press, and judges to be guilty before evidence was presented), and the use of tainted and fabricated evidence.
She should be released. Please join your colleagues in sending a message to the Peruvian Government that Lori Berenson should be released immediately. Call Orly Isaacson in Cong. Maloney's office: 202-225-7944.
Thanks!
**********************************************************************
Closing Court Statement of Lori Berenson, June 20, 2001
I am innocent of all charges against me. Neither of my trials, in the civilian or military court, has proven me guilty of any crime. The charges against me are still based upon the hearsay of a fellow detainee who is trying to be freed at my expense.
Since the very day of my arrest I have been called a terrorist, a term that has been used and abused in Peruvian society for far too many years, mostly because of the psychological impact of a concept that brings to mind indiscriminant violence designed to terrorize; irrational destructive violence; deadly, senseless terror. I am not a terrorist; I condemn terrorism; I always have.
I feel very sad for all direct and indirect victims of violence. The damage to a society goes beyond the physical and psychological impact of violence on its victims and their families. It leaves deep wounds, painful wounds, and it is very sad to watch a people endure it. Political violence harms a society because it is interconnected with the institutionalized violence criticized by important church authorities in the second half of the twentieth century. El Salvador's martyred Archbishop Oscar Romero gave his life in 1980 because of his criticism of what he called institutionalized violence, as did Bishop Juan Gerardi martyred in Guatemala. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of clergy and lay workers were assassinated for defending the poor and speaking the truth against social injustice and the institutionalized violence of hunger and poverty that is the horrendous daily peril of millions.
When on March 20 I said my case has been used as a smoke screen, that it is a political trial, it is because of the particular elements regarding my case and also, in general, the cases of all those detained and tried in the context of political violence. There is a very simple reason: the existence of insurgent or rebel movements in Latin America and many other places in the world has a lot to do with social and economic conditions. The government responds through state policy, albeit solely militarily or with other components, to draw attention from these conditions.
Thousands of Peruvians have suffered persecution, detention, torture, death as part of a state policy violating the human and fundamental rights of its population. After ex-President Fujimori's self-coup in 1992, constitutional law was violated by executive decrees made during a state of emergency. The congress and universities were closed, all forms of social organization and opposition were prohibited. The unconstitutional legislation included the antiterrorist laws that destroyed due process in civilian and military courts. But today in Peru and throughout the world it is common knowledge that the Peruvian state did more than violate human rights by closing democratic institutions and stomping on labor and social rights and leaving its people hungry. It is now common knowledge that behind the unconstitutional legislation and the manipulation of public opinion around certain issues like political violence was an extremely corrupt government that profited from the blood and sweat of its citizens, condemning them to live in hunger and misery. The dictatorship manipulated the judiciary to ensure the cover up of human rights violations and corruption. It wasn't an issue of particular judicial authorities, but the system itself and the legislation. In the cases of those tried for "terrorism" or treason, they were often condemned on the basis of hearsay and fabricated evidence. People were sentenced for refusing to admit guilt regardless of whether or not they were guilty. They were condemned for not fingering others and for rejecting the psychological and social stigma of being called a "terrorist." Hearsay, supposed intentions, finger pointing or lack thereof, personal and political opinions none of these constitute proof of any crimes.
I am aware that much of the Peruvian public has a very negative image of me, which in part is because of the anger I expressed, how aggressive I came across, when I was illegally presented to the press in January 1996. And I am aware how that image and those statements were manipulated to create a monster larger than life, so that later I personified twenty years of insurgent and state violence. This was part of the propaganda designed to make people forget how government policy and corruption impoverished the Peruvian people.
As I have stated in this trial, I regret having come across as such an angry or aggressive person, especially if it confused or offended the Peruvian people whom I really respect and love. The anger I showed was the result of my indignation upon seeing not only the violation of human rights and fundamental rights of the Peruvian people, but also the suffering I witnessed in DINCOTE and the farce of a trial I was undergoing. The mistreatment and outright torture of my fellow detainees form only a short chapter of the history of torture in DINCOTE or army bases that was a state policy. Even so, I think it was wrong of me to have expressed myself in that way, so angry. I should have said the same or similar things, but in a calmer way. However, I believe I was punished more for what I said. Not only was I given a life sentence, but also for over five years my name and image were used as a symbol of so-called "terrorism." The punishment was for not cowering to the system of injustice and for expressing my beliefs.
I am innocent of the charges against me. Even with the limitations of ex-President Fujimori's antiterrorism legislation that will sentence me today, this court has not proven the contrary.
Yes, I jointly rented a house with another person, but I did not do so with the idea or intent of doing so for the MRTA and there is no evidence to the contrary.
Yes, I did rent an apartment later that year, once the house had been sublet. I rented it and lived in it as witnesses from the apartment building have confirmed. I did not rent it to hide anyone or for any reason related to the MRTA, and there is no evidence to the contrary.
Yes, I did know on a social, human basis, several people who wound up being part of, or somehow related to the MRTA. I knew them with other identities and I had absolutely no reason to doubt the truth of who they said they were. They did not act in any way to make me think otherwise. Perhaps there is a cultural difference here, but it goes against my upbringing to snoop around in someone else's belongings or covertly visit their rooms, to interrogate them or pry into their private lives. I had already lived in several communal environments, both in the United States and abroad, and there is an issue of mutual respect, respect for other's space and privacy. One must mind one's own business. For these reasons, after subletting, I never went to the fourth level of the house nor did I go into any other room that was sublet. I never cooked for the MRTA nor brought food upstairs. I never led nor participated in indoctrination courses not with or without a hood. No one has testified to the contrary. In fact the young people who had lived there all said as do I that they first saw me in DINCOTE or in prison.
Among my personal belongings the police found my computer, beeper, and the cell phone I rented. I used these things for work and recreational purposes. Unfortunately the books, the tapes, and my writings "strangely" disappeared. They would have provided concrete evidence of studies I was conducting and the articles I was writing. I did not obtain any "communications equipment," beepers, or computers for the MRTA and there is no evidence to the contrary.
I did not come to Peru to cause any harm. I was and am interested in Peru's history and Peru's future. The reason I wanted to write articles about Peru was precisely because I thought it was very important that people in the United States and elsewhere know more about Peru. Peru's cultural richness should be more greatly appreciated by all. I believe that cultural history should be considered useful in the present and looking toward the future. I was seriously writing those articles. The editors of the magazines have confirmed it. My notes, my interviews with various people prove it. I knew nothing about any supposed plan the MRTA may have had to seize the congress. To this day I know nothing about such a plan or even if it existed and if it existed, I certainly had nothing to do with it.
After hearing Miguel Rincon's testimony in this courtroom and the reading of Pacifico Castrell & oacute;n's statements at different phases of this process, I am absolutely certain that Castrell & oacute;n has told lies to save his own skin, not simply to hide any real participation he may have had in all of this, but especially to seek his own release by condemning others. His statements were the only basis of my sentence in the military court and were the basis of the prosecutor's accusations here. It is very common to shift responsibilities to others when trying to secure your release. Castrellón admitted to knowing many people who he described in detail and pointed a finger at. I don't know if he really knew these people or if they even existed because the only evidence of their existence is in Castrellón's statement. But certainly I have never, ever met any of the people he claims he met through me. Such claims are absolutely false. Some of the contradictions between Castrellón's statements and those of the other detainees support what Miguel Rincon said about Castrellón in this courtroom. When Castrellón was asked why Rincon called him an international collaborator, Castrellón said "Oh, that's part of their jargon, the same way he would have considered me to be a traitor." The concept of betrayal denoted having belonged to or shared something with a group of people or cause.
I am innocent of the prosecutor's charges of being a member of and a collaborator with the MRTA. In fact, by definition one cannot be both a member and a collaborator. I am neither and there is no evidence to the contrary.
I did not come to Peru to cause harm or damage to anyone or anything. I have always been deeply concerned with issues of poverty and social justice, and if I was interested in Peru' history and its people, it was with my best intentions. When I spoke about poverty five years ago during my press presentation, it was because the human suffering caused by social injustice is unfair, inhumane, and downright immoral. Poverty in Peru has gotten worse since my detention. Now people talk about more sectors of poor and higher percentages of extreme poverty. And no one can deny this. Not only that, politicians, the church -- everyone speaks of it. I have been very open and honest about this because it has been part of my way of life for many years -- I believe that when things are wrong, one should say they are wrong. One should speak out when faced with injustice. I am grateful I was raised that way, as I am also grateful that my family continues to support and promote those social and moral values, for all people. I am grateful for the help of my family and friends and especially for the presence of my parents in this courtroom throughout this trial.
I haven't hidden my opinions or my beliefs. I have been honest and transparent when expressing who I am and what I think. It has been a tremendous honor for me to be involved in social issues for many years. It has also been a great honor for me to work in a country like El Salvador, work with refugees, with students, and, particularly, on the peace process. I have nothing to be ashamed of. If I describe my work in El Salvador or say I like the music of Victor Jara who was cruelly assassinated by a dictatorship because of his beliefs, that does not make me guilty of a crime. On the contrary, I think that it makes it clearer who I am and what I believe. I have nothing but love for the Latin American and Peruvian people. I've been in jail many years now, but I still have great hopes and I'm still convinced that there will be a future of justice for the people of Peru and all humanity.
Lori Berenson
June 20, 2001
* * * * * *
For the 20 June 2001 AP story:
Lori delivers her closing statement
to the court ahead of announcement of the verdict, see
http://www.freelori.org/news/01jun20_ap_b.html
* * * * * *
If you can, please join supporters of Lori Berenson at the following demonstrations:
Mon. June 25
5:30 - 7 PM
Peruvian Consulate, 241 E 49th St
New York City
Speakers, music, rally-- welcome Mark and Rhoda Berenson back to the United States after 3
months in Peru; call for Lori Berenson's freedom.
Thurs. June 28
5:30 PM
Peruvian Embassy, 1700 Mass Ave NW
Washington, DC
Speakers, music, rally, puppets-- Mark and Rhoda Berenson come to Washington to lobby US Congress to support Lori's release, ask Peruvian government to release Lori.
For more information visit:
http://www.freelori.org
Navy Backs Off Bombing Vieques * Rescue and Development for Vieques
This is great news and shows some of the power and resolve from nonviolent civil disobedient protestors to stop an injustice and harm to a people's right for sovereignty and basic rights.
1) Navy will give up bombing Vieques!
2) Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques 6/11
**********************************************************************
1) Navy will give up bombing Vieques!
Navy will give up Vieques bombing range
From CNN.com.
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/06/14/vieques.halt.02/index.html
June 14, 2001 Posted: 10:19 AM EDT (1419 GMT)
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Navy will end controversial bombing exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques in May 2003, according to a Bush administration official traveling with the president in Europe.
That is the date an agreement with the Puerto Rican government allowing use of the Vieques bombing range expires.
One senior administration official told CNN that senior Navy officials met Wednesday with Karl Rove, a top Bush adviser, "to receive the Navy's guidance" on its needs and plans for Vieques.
Rove is Bush's top political adviser, policing how major policy decisions could impact target political constituencies.
Pentagon sources had told CNN's Jamie McIntyre Wednesday night that the White House was ready to announce that use of the bombing range would end, but that the plans were put on hold in the face of angry reaction from Capitol Hill and the Navy.
Congressional conservatives see such plans as betrayal of the U.S. Navy by an administration that professed support for the military.
Georgia Republican Bob Barr expressed concern Wednesday night about halting the exercises. "There is no other place that we have where we can use live fire as we do in Vieques. That would put a serious hole in our ability to conduct training to protect our troops," Barr said on "CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports."
The U.S. military has conducted exercises on Vieques since 1941. Controversy over use of the island for bombing practice has grown since October 1999, when an errant bomb killed a civilian security guard. In late April, about 180 protesters were arrested at the main gates of the Navy facility on the island during the Navy's resumption of exercises.
Demonstrators claim that the island's 9,000 residents are at higher risk of cancer and are exposed to dangerous levels of noise. They want the bombing stopped permanently.
Under an agreement negotiated during the Clinton administration, Vieques residents will vote in November on whether to accept a package of economic incentives in return for allowing the Navy to continue using the range after May 2003. Until then, the Navy is using only non-explosive "inert ordnance" in its exercises.
The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and its escort ships are scheduled to begin training exercises at Vieques this weekend, and demonstrations are expected.
**********************************************************************
2. Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques
11 June, 2001 [Excerpt from Statement]
Our people are getting ready to face the bombings announced by the US Navy to start on June 13. Just like in April, when our forces held up the naval exercises at several moments, during the upcoming maneuvers we will also resist this military force that enslaves us in the name of "freedom", violates our human rights while "defending" democracy.
There is no turning back for us. The mayor, the parish priest, our women, youth and fishermen. In short, our people have decided that the US Navy will not fire any more bombs without the community resisting through pacifist civil disobedience. Neither threats from two hundred Puerto Rican police members, nor tear gas, nor rubber-bullet shotguns can tame these people who have taken control of their future to ensure a free and healthy Vieques for the next generations.
For the past three weeks there have been workshops and orientations about civil disobedience on the main island [Puerto Rico] and in Vieques. The PR Bar Association, Todo Puerto Rico con Vieques, el Congreso Nacional Hostosiano, the Caribbean Project for Justice and Peace, and Law Students with Vieques, along with the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, have all prepared a handbook for Practical Workshops for Civil Disobedience in Vieques.
Several comrades from the main island, including our Luz Nereida Pérez, gathered at the Justice and Peace Camp last Friday to discuss the handbook and the workshop's procedures. Six members of the Juventud Viequense Unida (Vieques Youth United) shared information about their own acts of civil disobedience last August, about the arrest, and about a pamphlet that they put together in order to train the next civil disobedient actions.
Juan Vera, Bishop of the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico, was a special guest at this Saturday night's vigil, and so were a great number of officials of the Church who participated this week in the celebration of the centenary of the Methodist Church in Vieques. Bishop Vera read a resolution, that was unanimously accepted by the Methodist Assembly, which supports civil disobedience and the struggle for peace in Vieques.
The full list of names of the prisoners for the peace of Vieques is available at http://www.viequeslibre.org , or via our email: bieke@coqui.net.
The CRDV covers costs and coordinates transportation for family members of Vieques prisoners so they can get to the federal prison for weekly visits and return to Vieques the same day. Also, we deposit funds for Vieques prisoners needing aid in their prison account for purchases in the prison store and for phone calls.
Our Committee also maintains a support camp outside the federal prison next to camps set up by the PIP and the University Students / Friends of Vieques and the Carolina Giants. Maintain the CRDV camp in support of our prisoners, transport people from Vieques to participate in activities at the camp represents another cost for the struggle. Therefore, we ask for your donation in funds or materials for the Peace and Justice Camps.
R. Rabin, CRDV
**************
10 June, 2001
Demilitarization
The US Navy must case immediately and permanently the bombing our land and waters. The people of Vieques demand the removal of all military personnel and war artefacts installed in Vieques, including the ROTHR radar. Our people have hope that future generations of Viequenses may have the chance to live on an island of peace and not war. That is why our principal slogan is: Navy out! Navy out!
Decontamination
The contamination from more than half a century of bombing and other military practices must be cleaned from our lands and waters and the Navy must leave our house as clean as they found it sixty years ago.
The EPA and Puerto Rican government agencies responsible for the protection of our natural resources and for enforcing environmental laws, have permitted the destruction of Vieques & acute; flora and fauna both on land and sea and the contamination of water, air and land by the US Navy. Get out and clean up your mess!
Return of Lands
Every inch of Vieques lands must be returned to the Viequenses. We need the land for our homes, schools, hospitals, agriculture, tourism development, fishing and for the future generations. During the 1940's the US Navy expropriated 26 thousand of Vieques 33,000 acres. The rescue of our lands is indispensable for the development of Vieques for future generations. For Vieques to progress, we must get the Navy out!
Development
The people of Vieques have a vision for the development of a Vieques freed from the US Navy. With ample community participation - together with the Municipal Government and our Technical and Professional Team in Support of Vieques Sustainable Development - we will promote a new economy based on peace. Eco-tourism, agriculture, fishing, marine biology investigations and projects related to Vieques archaeology, among other projects generated by the creativity of our people, will provide work for our population. Vieques has the natural resources and the human capacity to create a healthy economy and end half a century of social and economic crisis caused by the military presence.
For more information: http://www.viequeslibre.org
**********************************************************************
China Backs Space Weapon Ban * Disclosure - Art Bell * Lori Berenson
Many thanks for those demonstrating at the White House and lobbying Congress to Stop Star Wars this week. For those continuing this campaign, Carol Rosin, who was described by "Military Space," July 1984, as "..regarded to be the original political architect of the move to stop the SDI and ASATs," suggests that when lobbying we focus on the issue of the willingness of China and Russia to sign and honor Treaties for World Peace (including an immediate
treaty to ban space-based weapons). The Bush administration in the world arena stands alone in its desire to spend billions for a fathom space defense system that endangers life to new heights. Rosin suggests emphasizing that an immediate ban on space-based weapons would not disrupt the economy, but could actually help transform the war industry into new directions to help solve urgent problems of humanity, other life, and the environment.
The U.S. Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121.
= = = = = = = = =
Carol Rosin participated in the May 9th National Press Club conference with the Disclosure Project. This organization has assembled detailed evidences of UFO encounters by highly credentialed witnesses. They are calling for a space weapons ban, too.
Carol Rosin, a former educator, corporate manager of an aerospace industry, space and missile defense consultant, founder of the Institute for Security and Cooperation in Outer Space, ISCOS) can be reached my E-mail at
Announcement:
The founder and director of the Disclosure Project, Steven Greer, will be interviewed on the Art Bell show on Friday night June 15 into early morning on Saturday June 16 from 2 a.m. - 4 a.m. Eastern time [ 6 a.m. - 8 a.m. GMT]. He will be discussing the status of the Disclosure Project. You can listen to it live on radio, or via the Internet, or later via the archives on Art Bell's web site http://www.artbell.com
For more information of the Disclosure Project link to their website, which has been visited 1,356,194 visits since May 1, 2001.
http://www.disclosureproject.org
Please note the address in the last issue of Flyby News was incorrect, regarding the link to the website supporting the sovereignty and health of the Sicangu Lakota (Rosebud Sioux Tribe) in its struggle to avoid becoming the home of the world's third largest hog farm.
http://www.pathshop.com/camp_sovereignty/
1) China Backs Treaty To Ban Weapons in Space
2) Trial of LORI BERENSON Draws to a Close in Peru
**********************************************************************
1) China Backs Treaty To Ban Weapons in Space
By Alexander G. Higgins
Associated Press Writer
07 June 2001
GENEVA (AP) -- China proposed a treaty Thursday to ban weapons in outer space because of the imminent "danger" stemming from U.S. missile defense plans.
Chinese Ambassador Hu Xiaodi made the proposal at the 66-nation Conference on Disarmament, the world's only multinational forum for negotiating arms-control treaties.
"All space-based weapons and all weapons attacking outer space targets from the earth are to be prohibited once and for all," said Hu, who introduced draft wording for the proposed treaty.
There was no immediate U.S. reaction, but Western diplomats said Hu's comments only added detail to China's known position on the issue.
China, a bitter critic of U.S. plans for a National Missile Defense system and the expectation that it would involve deployments in space, has long called for a treaty to prevent an arms race in outer space.
The United States has said it was willing to discuss outer space issues, but that it is too soon to say if a new treaty is needed.
A congressionally appointed U.S. panel in January urged Washington to pay more attention to defending the country's assets in space. Donald H. Rumsfeld, now Secretary of Defense, was a member of the panel.
The panel said the United States depends on space more than any other country for a range of activities from military surveillance to weather forecasts and communications.
Hu noted the panel urged steps be taken to protect against the danger of a "space Pearl Harbor" and said the report and U.S. plans "clearly demonstrate that the weaponization of outer space is by no means a remote issue."
"The danger is imminent," he said.
Following diplomatic practice Hu never named the United States, but his direct reference to U.S. plans left no doubt that he was talking about the
Bush administration.
"Outer space is now faced with the danger of being weaponized, which manifests itself in two aspects, namely the development of the missile defense program and the 'space control' plan," Hu said.
He was referring to the U.S. Air Force's long advocacy of "space control," which could include weapons to deny an enemy the use of space for combat operations against the United States or its allies.
The Bush administration has been trying to allay fears of China, Russia and other countries about the plan to construct a system to defend against limited missile attacks from "rogue" states like Iraq or North Korea.
It has indicated that it hopes the key other countries can be won over to its approach in the long run, but the Chinese speech showed Beijing remains deeply skeptical.
The disarmament conference has been deadlocked over starting any new negotiations since 1996, when it wrote the treaty to ban nuclear test explosions.
Washington has been urging the conference to work on preventing the spread of nuclear weapons by negotiating a treaty to ban the "fissile materials" -- plutonium and highly enriched uranium -- needed for their manufacture.
**********************************************************************
2. Trial of LORI BERENSON Draws to a Close in Peru
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 12, 2001
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Gail Taylor, 202-548-8480
http://www.freelori.org/mediacenter/
On Monday, June 11, defense lawyer Jos$B!&(BSandoval presented his closing remarks in Peru in the trial of U.S. citizen Lori Berenson. The court is expected to reconvene to hear final comments from Berenson on Wednesday June 20 at 9 a.m. and a verdict may be announced by the three-judge panel later that afternoon. Berenson, 31, was convicted of treason and sentenced to life in prison in a secret proceeding in 1996 by hooded military officers. After serving almost five years in harsh conditions, the Peruvian Supreme Military Council annulled that conviction on August 28, 2000 on the grounds of insufficient evidence. Despite issues of double jeopardy and international judicial and public opinion that Peru's Civilian Terrorism Courts cannot provide a fair trial until reformed, these courts began taking testimony in formal proceedings immediately thereafter. The open court hearings began on March 20, 2001.
Berenson has consistently maintained she is innocent of all charges. In his closing remarks, Mr. Sandoval pointed out that there is no direct evidence whatsoever to lead to a conviction and any circumstantial evidence is totally inadequate to support a conviction. Only the most prejudiced mind could decide otherwise. Mr. Sandoval reminded the court that much of that circumstantial evidence was presented by Pacifico Castrellon who five years ago decided to "cooperate" with the Security Police in order to secure a reduced sentence and has commenced a retrial looking for another reduction in sentence. The prosecutor has accused Berenson of belonging to the Peruvian rebel group, the MRTA. But no witness, including Castrellon, has claimed she was a member and no other evidence supports this charge. Although Berenson and Castrellon had rented a house which was subsequently used as a safehouse for this group and where a shootout occurred on November 30, 1995, evidence showed that she moved to an apartment in August 1995, visiting the house only occasionally after that time. Testimony indicated that MRTA members moved into the house and were hidden on the 4th floor after Berenson had moved out. During this trial, no witness testified Berenson was ever on the 4th floor. Those who lived on the 4th floor testified they never saw Berenson until after their arrests. A videotape of this large house showed that the 4th floor was in a different wing, separated from the rooms Berenson visited, and it would have been unlikely that she would have known of their whereabouts. She was not in the house during the shootout. Sandoval also observed that there was no evidence that Berenson knew anything about any MRTA plans to seize the Peruvian Congress. As a freelance journalist, Berenson attended sessions of Congress and sat in the press gallery. She had interviewed members of Congress in their offices, not in the Congress itself, and members confirmed the professional nature of the interviews. Castrellon testified that he knew nothing to connect Berenson to any MRTA plans concerning the Congress and that even though he was building a model of the Congress which he never mentioned to her, she never provided him with any information.
After the closing remarks, Berenson's father Mark said, "The failure of the prosecutor to present evidence to support his charges requires an acquittal. This Fujimori-Montesinos persecution must end." He cited the Peruvian Penal Code which states that doubt must favor the accused and that when evidence is not sufficient to establish guilt, the judges must acquit.
###
This is a special update from the National Office of the Committee to Free Lori Berenson, listing important upcoming events:
Thursday, June 14: Demonstrations to protest unjust trial of Lori Berenson
Chapel Hill, NC
Downtown Post Office
Noon - 1:00 PM
Contact Joe: jstraley@email.unc.edu
202-548-8480
San Francisco, CA
Peruvian Consulate
4 - 6 PM
Contact Deborah: dl_hirsh@yahoo.com
202-548-8480
Washington, DC
Peruvian Embassy (fliering)
12 - 1 PM
Contact Gail: gtaylor@freelori.org
202-548-8480
Thursday, June 28
Washington, DC
Peruvian Embassy (demonstration)
5:30 - 6:30 PM
Contact Gail: gtaylor@freelori.org
202-548-8480
OTHER EVENTS:
Washington, DC
Tuesday, June 26
10 - 10:30 pm
U.N. INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SUPPORT OF SURVIVORS OF TORTURE
Lafayette Park, White House
We will be part of a 24-Hour Vigil
Contact Orlando Tizon at (202) 529-6599 or otizon@ghrc-usa.org
Sponsored by The Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC)
www.torture-free-world.org
Kingston, NY
Friday, June 29
8 PM
Benefit Concert to Free Lori
Holy Cross Church, Pine Grove Avenue (behind Rite-Aid)
$10 donation
local musicians: Helen Avakian, Stephanie Fix, and Susan Maclean (3 talented rock/pop/folk female artists)
www.helenavakian.com
www.stephaniefix.com
www.susanmaclean.com
Contact Mark: 845-883-5674
**********************************************************************
Respond to FBI's Obstruction to Justice * Commercial Hog Farm Threat
Executing Timothy McVeigh this Monday supports the covering up of the more significant issue of FBI's obstruction to justice. Will they keep getting away with it? The justice system in the U.S. is obviously broken, and viewed as barbaric by my most other nations. Integrity and honor demands -- at least -- a full investigation as to why key evidences were withheld in this case in order to uphold the U.S. Constitutional right for a fair trial, before the execution.
This week the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee is asking for people to support a letter campaign to newspapers in response to the recent disclosures of FBI misconduct. The case of Leonard Peltier is a model in this regard, and investigations into his case could someday begin to right the wrongs of the U.S. seriously flawed justice and law enforcement systems.
Please take action in this regard, as well as supporting the Sicangu Lakota (Rosebud Sioux Tribe) in its struggle to avoid becoming the home of the world's third largest hog farm.
And please, call your Congressional representatives in support of Project Abolition's campaign to help stop the arms race. They are holding a rally at the White House at 2pm June 10 and will be lobbying the halls of Congress on June 11 and 12. Let your representative know about your concern for this nation and help them understand what steps they can take to support peace and justice. The U.S. Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121.
Keep the faith $B!&(BOur United Efforts $B!&(BCan make all the difference in the world!
1. Letters to the Editor Week - Leonard Peltier
2) Rosebud Reservation Under Commercial Hog Farm Threat
*******************************************************************************
1) Letters to the Editor Week - Peltier
Fwd. Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
Dear Friends,
Below is a new sample letter to the editor for next week's awareness effort. Many of the last letters you submitted did get printed, so the word is getting out and our new campaign is picking up pace. This letter takes a new angle - so hopefully the papers will find it of interest. As always, you can personalize this letter, write your own, or use the text below. Again, check your local paper's word limit for letters to the editor before sending yours in. The sample letter is 300 words. If your letter is printed, please send us the clipping for our files. Thank you!
In Solidarity,
LPDC
SAMPLE: LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Little Attention Given to People of Color Victimized by FBI Misconduct
Recent disclosures of FBI misconduct have justifiably prompted significant outcry from the public. However, few acknowledge those who have probably been most affected. In the 60's and 70's the FBI sought to destroy many civil rights organizations and leaders committed to uplifting their communities. Activists of color were commonly targeted for undue criminal prosecution during that era and many still languish unjustly in prison today.
One of the most daunting examples is the case of Leonard Peltier, the American Indian Movement leader who has spent 25 years in prison following his controversial conviction for the murder of two FBI agents. The agents and one Native man were killed in a shoot-out on the Pine Ridge Reservation, which occurred during a three year period of brutal conflict. During that time, the FBI maintained a large presence on the reservation, but did nothing to stop the violence. Instead, they collaborated with vigilantes who killed over 60 AIM members and supporters.
Peltier, long under surveillance by the FBI, was unfairly targeted for conviction. Despite vast evidence against several other suspects, the FBI chose to "put the full prosecutive weight of the US government against Peltier." The FBI withheld over 18,000 documents during trial, coerced witnesses and manufactured evidence to gain his conviction. 6,000 FBI documents remain secret today. The government now admits they do not know who killed the agents, yet Peltier remains behind bars, a symbol of US repression against Indigenous Peoples.
By locking up civil rights leaders and subverting their organizations, the FBI has hampered positive change for communities of color. We must prevent such abuses from continuing. If we do not, the road to true racial justice will be very long. To learn more on the case of Leonard Peltier visit his defense committee's website at www.freepeltier.org.
Name
Address
Phone #
e-mail
(contact information not for print)
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-5774
http://www.freepeltier.org
**********************************************************************
2) Rosebud Reservation Under Commercial Hog Farm Threat
Dear Friends of the Indigenous, the Buffalo, and the Earth,
I am appealing to you to support the Sicangu Lakota (Rosebud Sioux Tribe) in its struggle to avoid becoming the home of the world's third largest hog farm. The first phase of 24 barns is already in place and in spite of tribal opposition and legal intervention by several organizations, Bells Farms (Sun Prairie) continues construction on the second phase. When completed, there will be 13 sites, of 24 barns each. The waste disposal digestor at site #1 is not properly functional, as predicted.
As indicated in my letter to Mr. Bell, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe is valiantly battling the matter in the judicial system, with its sovereignty in serious jeopardy. Meanwhile, we are establishing a vigilance camp, to be called Camp Sovereignty, in the vicinity of the hog farms. We can no longer tolerate the severe corporate oppression of Bell Farms. We can no longer tolerate the threats to our environment, to the quality of justice, and to our sovereignty.
There are several options for you to consider. You may join me in a letter to Rich Bell by snail mail (sorry we are not able to access an email address for him yet) to: Bell Farms in Wahpeton, ND. Phone number is 701-642-4021. Fax is 701-942-9237.
The RST tribal officials are working against incredible odds. Tribal council resolutions and letters of support from tribal officials would be greatly appreciated. Individual messages of concern are just as powerful.
William Kindle, President
Rosebud Sioux Tribe
POB 430
Rosebud, SD 57570.
Phone: 605-747-2381
If you're looking for a quick, convenient way to indicate your support or to support and/or join the camp vigil for the environment and for justice, check the Camp Sovereignty website at:
http:///www.pathshop.com/camp_sovereignty/index.htm
To see this hog farm to full scale of operation, Mr. Bell would have to crush the tribe. I believe he is capable. We have determined spirits. We need public outrage (and lots of prayers too).
Thank you from my heart,
Rosalie Little Thunder
wakinyela@yahoo.com
**********************************************************************
Change from Within - Challenges to Missile Defense
When working to expose the dangers of the Cassini space probe's flyby of Earth, we learned of much inside support from individuals working at Jet Propulsion Laboratory and other NASA-associated facilities. We received word that NASA was "embarrassed" by postings on the Internet. The NoFlyby website [ http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby/contents.htm ] detailed credible evidences and individuals showing how such a mission was outside a reasonable concern for the safety of life on Earth. Such is the power of the Internet: NASA will probably never again attempt such a high-speed high-risk flyby mission of Earth with dangerous amounts of Plutonium on board. However, the forces for Missile Defense, propose more dangerous space missions for control and domination of Earth. This is being challenged by most all nations, and by those inside the system, too.
The following is a statement from an individual working at Lockheed Martin, sent to Flyby News regarding the Star Wars direction:
"Many thoughts. Some folks LOVE the idea of puttin a laser weapon in space to zap anyone they don't like 'cause it doesn't seem to put any Americans at risk to wage war. I have stayed away from the war toys development side of Lockheed Martin because I could not do that kind of work in good conscience. I think W Bush is paying for his election by pushing star wars systems. I don't think we will have enough money, though, if his tax cut goes through as well. It takes a lot of money to put anything into space and keep it there. And it's not something they will be able to do secretly. We've spent billions of star wars systems and don't have anything to show for it except larger, blotted defense contractors (companies) hungry for more contracts. I hope this go-around gets squashed for lack of merit but the House is getting pretty close to even (Republicans vs Democrats) so anything is likely to squeak by these days."
Please call Congress this coming Monday and Tuesday regarding Missile Defense in support of Project Abolition's White House Protest of this June 10 [ http://www.projectabolition.org ]. United, we can make a difference. Certainly logic, common sense and humane concerns are on our side. Stand up and be counted for peace in space, which can result in peace on Earth.
For a Sixty Minutes transcript of a program showing:
a.. Critics Say The Missile Defense System Is Flawed
b.. Claim Contractors Fraudulently Covered Up Failures
c.. 60 Minutes II Observes Latest Missile Test, A Failure
http://cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,245328-412,00.shtml
1) Analysis and Concern of Democrats and Missile Defense
2) New Japan Foreign Minister Blasts Bush on Missile Defense
**********************************************************************
1) Analysis and Concern of Democrats and Missile Defense
by Joseph Gerson
June 1, 2001
"Don't follow leaders. Watch parking meters." - Bob Dylan
Friends,
While I have your attention, let me start with my conclusion, which I should be clear simply reflects my thinking and that of several fellow/sister organizers. Then I'll share the thinking that got me there.
I want to encourage people who will be traveling to Washington, D.C for the June 10-12 demonstration and lobby days to take two questions with you: one for legislators and official "policy makers", and the other for ourselves. (Of course, these are not the only two questions we should be asking!)
1. What is the Democratic leadership's and the party's approach to "Theater" missile defenses?
(This is the technology Rumsfeld wants to concentrate on for early deployment of "missile defenses" and which is the most immediate fear for the Chinese.)
2. What strategy can we develop to STOP funding "missile defense" research and development, in addition to preventing deployment?
Then the background: Today's New York Times reports that Senator Carl Levin, who will soon be heading the Senate Armed Service Committee, wants to prevent early deployment of "missile defenses" in part because he doesn't want to ignite a second Cold War with the Russians and Chinese. BUT, he is clear in supporting "robust" funding of research & development for "missile defenses." And, while there is clarity about his opposition to "National" missile defenses, the report is silent about his approach to "Theater" missile defenses. I'm not rushing to judgment on this. We simply need to know.
Then we come to the more fundamental question: how do we defeat, stop, end, continued "missile defense"/Star Wars research and development? Remember, more than Republicans are to blame for getting us to this very dangerous point. A "Democratic" Administration and Congresses funded "missile defense" R & D for eight years, in part because of their fear that this would cost them votes. And, as we saw with Bush's "tax" bill which will severely truncate governmental services for education and health care to housing and environmental protection, there is always the danger of some "Democrats" joining "Republicans" in a voting for a deployment amendment from the Senate floor. And, if "Democrats" "simply" keep "missile
defenses"/star wars alive through R & D funding, in 2002 or 2004 or as a result of U.S.-Russian triangulation against China (analogous to Bush senior using the U.N. to win the Senate vote authorizing the 1991 war against Iraq), we could find ourselves in a situation where the Republicans have the votes to begin deployments.
We need to begin thinking, strategically and among ourselves, about how we can transform the discourse, de-legitimate "missile defense" Research and Development as well as deployment, and lead this or future Congresses or Administrations, to relegate the "missile defense"/star wars program to the dust bin of a nightmarish history.
If we don't begin seriously asking this question of ourselves and "movement" leaders, we'll never get there.
Three final notes: In addition to firmly believing that we won't be able to reduce, let along end, "missile defense"/star wars funding unless we build an educated and committed grassroots movement, I also believe that such a movement must be linked to people's felt needs - what we/they feel in our guts. In this regard Bush may have tactically, though not materially, helped us with his $1.35 trillion tax refund coup. As Republican strategist Grover Norquist has said, the tax cut ties the hands of the Democratic Senate and of future U.S. governments many years to come. "Nothing", he said, "that Daschle wants or Ted Kennedy wants is for free...We're going to spend the next two years talking about how the Democrats...want to spend your money." With a smaller government pie for guns and butter, star wars or housing, "missile defenses" or health
care (or the environment, or...) the choices become more immediate, stark, compelling, and individually "felt.". Arm the heavens, seas and continents or care for the people.
As we did in the 1980s, we're going to have to confront "the deadly connection" between U.S. nuclear warfighting policy and U.S. foreign military intervention, if we are to drive a legislative stake through the Star Wars Vampire's heart.
The military's strongest rationale for TMD deployments is to protect our forward deployed troops and bases from enemy missiles, for example U.S. troops in Okinawa. (Remember that TMD technology apparently works far better than NMD technology, and - as the Chinese know - TMD are much closer to being credibly deployed) In addition to serving as a shield to reinforce U.S. nuclear swords, "missile defenses" are also designed to facilitate "conventional" U.S. foreign military interventions, and to reduce U.S. military death tolls in the midst of U.S. military aggressions. We do well to remember, as the Okinawans, so many others, and our own Declaration of Independence tell us, that these forward deployments are intolerable neo-colonial "abuses and usurpations" that must be ended. We don't need "missile defenses" to "save our soldiers." Bring them home.
Finally, the "rogue" state rationales we can handle, but we should also prepare ourselves for arguments that TMD are necessary for Israel's security. The answer to which is: "End the occupation."
With friendship and humility,
Joseph Gerson
Director of Programs
American Friends Service Committee
New England Regional Office
Join Project Abolition at the White House
for a rally to stop the arms race.
Lafayette Park
Washington, DC
Sunday, June 10, 2:00 PM
And in the halls of Congress
Monday and Tuesday, June 11 and 12
Activist Training and Congressional Education Days
Site for training to be announced
U.S. CONGRESS SWITCHBOARD 202-224-3121
[Support above actions by calling June 11 and 12]
**********************************************************************
2) New Japan Foreign Minister Blasts Bush on Missile Defense
The Asahi Shimbun (Japan)
June 2, 2001
Makiko Tanaka's tendency to shoot from the hip has got her into trouble again, this time with critical comments about the U.S.-proposed missile defense system.
The sharp-tongued, no-nonsense foreign minister told Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini that Japan and Europe should work together to put the brakes on President George W. Bush's plan for a new defense system against ballistic missiles, according to aides.
Her comments, regarded as deeply embarrassing for the fledgling Koizumi administration, were made at a luncheon held during the conference of foreign ministers of Asia and Europe in Beijing on May 25.
Tanaka was sitting next to Dini.
Undiplomatic language has become Tanaka's hallmark. Even so, her comments this time are at odds with Japan's official position.
In a May 8 meeting in Tokyo with visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Japanese officials said they share U.S. concern about the spread of ballistic missiles and vowed to continue to promote joint technology research on the Theater Missile Defense (TMD) project with the United States.
Coincidentally, Tanaka canceled a meeting with Armitage during his stay. She cited physical and emotional panic resulting from her new responsibilities.
Armitage is one of the Bush administration's top point men for Asian policy.
Tanaka told Dini she had doubts about whether a missile defense system was really necessary.
Foreign Ministry officials said Tanaka told Dini, ``Japan and Europe should tell the United States `Don't overdo it.'''
She also said the United States was using China to justify the missile defense program.
``In order to counter the economic and military threats from China, the United States is promoting the missile defense plan, but such threats should be dealt with intelligence and not with force,'' Tanaka told Dini.
Foreign Ministry sources said Friday that Tanaka made similar remarks to Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer during bilateral talks Monday in Tokyo. Sources said Downer admonished Tanaka for making such remarks about an ally.
Asked Friday to confirm the remarks, Tanaka told reporters, ``I made no such comments and I will not comment on each and every report in the media.''
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said earlier in the day he was not aware his foreign minister had spoken in such a manner.
Uranium Munitions - devastation to our planet and humanity
How America Nukes Its Own Troops
The Horrible Truth About U.S. Military's Use of Depleted Uranium
"I die with the conviction, held since 1968 and Catonsville,
that nuclear weapons are the scourge of the earth;
to mine for them, manufacture them, deploy them, use them,
is a curse against God, the human family, and the earth itself."
Philip Berrigan
"Up to 1,300 million people have been killed, maimed or diseased by nuclear power
since it's inception. The industry's figures massively underestimate the real cost
of nuclear power, in an attempt to hide its victims from the world.."
-- Dr. Rosalie Bertell --
Planet Earth As Weapon and Target
by Leuren Moret
"Depleted uranium weapons are an unacceptable threat to life,
a violation of international law, and an assault on human dignity.
We have an obligation to do what is right for our servicemen and women,
for our children and our grandchildren, and for all citizens of the world.
We must ban the use of depleted uranium in our military and worldwide;
we must provide medical care to all DU casualties; and we must clean up
all the places where we've used this poison that has the power to kill
for countless generations, far into the future."
Dennis J. Kucinich
"Depleted (DU) uranium is one of the largest categories of radioactive waste produced for the nuclear weapons and nuclear reactor industry. It is highly toxic to humans, both chemically as a heavy metal and radiologically as an alpha particle emitter which is very dangerous when taken internally. . . When used in war, the DU bursts into flame from the impact when it hits a target. It can pierce tanks and armoured cars, releasing inside of them a deadly radioactive aerosol of uranium, unlike anything seen before. It can kill everyone in a tank. This ceramic aerosol is much lighter than uranium dust. It can travel in air tens of kilometres from the point of release, or be stirred up in dust and resuspended in air with wind or human movement. It is very small and can be breathed in by anyone: a baby, pregnant woman, the elderly, the sick. This radioactive ceramic can stay deep in the lungs for years, irradiating the tissue with powerful alpha particles within about a 30 micron sphere, causing emphysema and/or fibrosis. The ceramic can also be swallowed and do damage to the gastro-intestinal tract. In time, it penetrates the lung tissue and enters into the blood stream. It can be stored in liver, kidney, bone or other tissues, again for years, irradiating all of the delicate tissues located near its storage place. It can effect the blood, which is the basis of our immune system, and do damage to the renal system as it is eventually excreted in the urine. It can also initiate cancer or promote cancers which have been initiated by other carcinogens."
- Dr. Rosalie Bertell
Occupational Hazards of War
Questions About DU and GULF WAR SYNDROME Not Yet Answered
by Rosalie Bertell
Above link is to article published by the International Journal of Health Services,
Volume 36, Number 3, Pages 503520, 2006 2006, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc.
"NO SAFE DOSE"
May 11, 1999, John W. Gofman, M.D., Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Molecular and Cell Biology, one of the leaders of the "Plutonium Group" at the University of California, Berkeley, (which managed to isolate the first milligram of plutonium from irradiated uranium), wrote: "By any reasonable standard of biomedical proof, there is no safe dose, which means that just one decaying radioactive atom can produce permanent mutation in a cell's genetic molecules. My own work showed this in 1990 for xrays, gamma rays, and beta particles (Gofman 1990: Radiation-Induced Cancer from Low-Dose Exposure). For alpha particles, the logic of no safe dose was confirmed experimentally in 1997 by Tom K. Hei and co-workers at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) Vol.94, pp.3765-3770, April 1997, 'Mutagenic Effects of a Single and an Exact Number of Alpha Particles in Mammalian Cells')."
For the entire statement, see:
"Letter of Concern"
from Dr. John Gofman
Depleted Uranium resource links:
November 13, 2008
Israeli Bombs-Uranium Source at Shelled Site?
July 8, 2008 - Item 2
Depleted Uranium Situation Worsens - Dr. Doug Rokke, PhD
The use of uranium weapons is absolutely unacceptable,
and a crime against humanity. Consequently the citizens of the world
and all governments must force cessation of uranium weapons use."
-- Dr. Doug Rokke, PhD
May 23, 2007 - Item 2
Hawaii Depleted Uranium - US Army has contaminated paradise
November 8, 2006 - Item 3
From DU to Uranium Munitions to a Dying Planet
- - Whats the relationship between 9/11 and DU?
- - Bob Nichols on weaponized uranium gas
February 27, 2006 - Item 3
DU SCANDAL EXPLODES
- - The Queen's Death Star: Depleted Uranium Measured in British Atmosphere
from Battlefields in the Middle East
by Leuren Moret
The highest levels of depleted uranium ever measured
in the atmosphere in Britain, were transported on air currents
from the Middle East and Central Asia; of special significance
were those from the Tora Bora bombing in Afghanistan in 2001,
and the "Shock & Awe" bombing during Gulf War II in Iraq in 2003.
October 14, 2005 - Item 2
The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium, and the Dying Children
August 9, 2005 - Item 1
Depleted Uranium is WMD
February 2, 2005 - Item 2
High Uranium Levels Found in Troops and Civilians
October 11, 2004 - Item 1
- - Daughter of Soldier Contaminated with Depleted Uranium
August 30, 2004 - Item 4
Depleted uranium: Dirty bombs, dirty missiles, dirty bullets
August 12, 2004 - Item 4
"The Doctors, the Depleted Uranium, and the Dying Children"
March 22, 2004 - Item 3
Kucinich to reveal details of secret U.S. nuclear wars
February 16, 2004 - Item 6
First award for depleted uranium poisoning claim
July 22, 2003 - Item 2
Mysterious Diseases Haunt U.S. Troops In Iraq
June 5, 2003 - Item 1
The Silent Genocide from America
May 24, 2003 - Item 3
When DU Burns Through a Target
May 3, 2003 - Item 3
Kennedy Warns on Nuclear Tests
April 30, 2003 - Item 4
When the Depleted Uranium dust settles
April 21, 2003 - Item 2
Royal Society Urges DU Clean-Up In Iraq
April 15, 2003 - Item 1
US rejects Iraq DU clean-up
March 13, 2003 - Item 6
Pentagon Seeks Freedom to Pollute Land, Air and Sea
February 27, 2003 - Item 2
The War Against Ourselves - an Interview with Major Doug Rokke
February 27, 2003 - Item 2
The War Against Ourselves - an Interview with Major Doug Rokke
January 9, 2003 - Item 1
Afghanistan: The Nuclear Nightmare Starts
January 4, 2003 - Item 1
Doug Rokke - Depleted Uranium - War Hazard
December 7, 2002 - Items 1 & 2
O death, where is your sting? Phil Berrigan's Last Statement * U.S. Gulf War 'crime'
November 11, 2002 - Item 3
Veteran Doug Rokke and Depleted Uranium
January 9, 2001 - Item 3
Maybe Iraq Is Right Re Depleted Uranium
Also, read this statment (next to last item, near the botton of the page) from an April 23, 1999 Cassini NoFlyby newlestter:
Dr. Rosalie Bertell on Depleted Uranium [DU] Weapons
For updated extensive resources on DU, Major Doug Rokke, Gulf War Casualties, and 'Depleted' Uranium, see:
Traprock Peace on DU
The National Gulf War Resource Center:
www.ngwrc.org
Veterans for Common Sense:
www.veteransforcommonsense.org
Britain used DU in 1950s 'nuclear guinea pig' tests
SUNDAY HERALD [Glasgow]
By Rob Edwards Environment Editor
Tonnes of depleted uranium (DU), the toxic radioactive metal blamed for causing cancers in the Gulf and Balkan wars, were blasted into the environment by Britain's nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific and Australia in the 1950s, the Sunday Herald can reveal.
The disclosure has shocked veterans of the nuclear tests, who now suspect that DU may be implicated in the illnesses that many of them have suffered in the years since. And scientists are calling for the government to reopen its inquiry into the health of the 21,000 British servicemen who took part in the tests on Christmas Island and at Maralinga in the Australian desert.
'It beggars belief,' said Sheila Gray, the secretary of the British Nuclear Tests Veterans Association. 'They gave us the impression that DU had never been used before the Gulf war and now it turns out it was used in the 1950s. It's yet another hazard our men had to face.'
Last week the Sunday Herald revealed that the government had a top-secret plan, code-named Operation Lighthouse, to put hundreds of British and Australian troops 'as close as possible' to nuclear explosions at Maralinga in 1959 to test the effects of the bomb. On Wednesday, that prompted the Australian federal government to launch an inquiry into whether servicemen had been used as radiation guinea pigs.
Bruce Scott, the veterans affairs minister, was seeking an urgent briefing on 50 classified documents posted on the internet which outlined the planned operation. He is also investigating another disclosure by the Sunday Herald in April that two dozen soldiers tested protective clothing by crawling, marching or driving through a fall-out zone three days after a nuclear test at Maralinga in 1956.
The first confirmation that DU was present in the Pacific tests came in a private letter last month from the Ministry of Defence to a Scottish veteran from Fraserburgh, Bob Brown. 'There were quantities of depleted uranium used in the weapons tested at Christmas Island,' wrote an MoD officialfrom Whitehall. The official said that much of the DU would have been consumed in the nuclear explosion, but that some would have been shot upwards in a fireball and contained in the mushroom cloud. Brown, who was at Christmas Island in 1957 and 1958 and now chairs a veterans' research group known as G2, feared that DU could turn out to be the cause of much illness.
The uranium was wrapped around the core of bombs to boost their yield because it was cheap and available, said Brown. 'But they have kept it under wraps until now. I believe the MoD knew about the effects of the weapons, including DU, long before the Gulf war but they kept it quiet.'
Evidence that DU was also used at Maralinga came in an e-mail to an Australian veteran, Major Alan Batchelor, from the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency. The agency's Geoff Williams said that more than eight tonnes of uranium was 'dispersed' by explosions at Maralinga. The British government had admitted that this consisted of 7.4 tonnes at Kuli, 47.3kg at Taranaki and the rest at a series of 'minor trials'.
The uranium, which included both the 235 and 238 isotopes, 'formed very fine particles under implosion'. According to Batchelor, the British bombs contained up to 20 times as much uranium as plutonium. 'These materials, when vaporised in the fireball, would condense out as finely divided invisible oxides of these metals, potentially lethal or capable of causing cancer in the lung, liver, kidney or blood-forming bone marrow.'
The uranium from a bomb would form much smaller particles than the DU from a shell and would be easier to inhale, argued Batchelor. If DU had harmed soldiers in the Gulf, he said, 'this could have been worse for servicemen working in areas close to ground zeros (the sites of nuclear explosions), and with no follow-up action would have gone unnoticed.' However, last week the MoD argued that there was no comparison between the DU used in armour-piercing shells during the Gulf and Balkan wars in the past decade and that exploded in nuclear tests during the 1950s. Except in the most extreme circumstances, the metal posed no significant threat to human health, a spokeswoman claimed. But Malcolm Hooper, emeritus professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Sunderland, disagreed. 'You can't distribute small aerosol particles of DU and then deny there is a hazard,' he said. 'They are trying to belittle what is a serious problem.'
Please note above article and following items were originally posted, May 31, 2001.
2) White House says nuclear reactors in US could double
3) Solar Festival in Vermont
4) Technology Development for Sustainable Energy Generation
2) White House says nuclear reactors in US could double
USA: May 18, 2001
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration said yesterday the United States could increase its use of nuclear power by doubling the number of reactors at many nuclear power plant sites already licensed by the federal government.
As part of its recommendations for a comprehensive national energy policy unveiled by President George W. Bush in St. Paul, Minnesota, a White House task force said building more nuclear reactors at existing locations avoids "many complex issues" associated with finding new sites.
"Many U.S. nuclear plant sites were designed to host four to six reactors, and most operate only two or three; many sites across the country could host additional plants," the task force said in its report to Bush.
There are currently 103 nuclear reactors operating in 31 states. Nuclear energy accounts for 20 percent of all U.S. electricity generation and more than 40 percent of power generation in 10 states.
No new nuclear plants have been built since the 1979 accident at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island plant, where the failure of the plant's water cooling system led to the partial melting of a reactor's uranium core. That $1 billion accident effectively halted the U.S. nuclear industry in its tracks.
Some environmental groups have said they will try to block any new nuclear plants.
In addition to safety issues, the green groups contend that a key problem is what to do with all the highly radioactive waste from the 103 plants now in operation.
The cabinet-level task force said about 12,000 megawatts of additional nuclear electricity generation could be derived from "uprating" plants, a process that uses new technologies and methods to increase the level that a plant could operate without decreasing safety.
One megawatt provides enough power for about 1,000 homes.
The task force recommended that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission speed the approval process for licensing new nuclear reactors that use advance technologies. The report also said the agency should facilitate the industry's efforts to expand power generation by uprating existing nuclear plants safely.
Many nuclear utilities are planning to extend their licenses for another 20 years, and the task force said the administration should encourage the NRC to relicense existing nuclear plants that meet or exceed safety standards.
As many as 90 percent of the licenses for current operating plants may be renewed, the task force said.
Separately, the task force said 2,000 megawatts of power could be added by increasing the operating performance of nuclear plants to 92 percent capacity, up slightly from the current industry average of 90 capacity.
The White House panel acknowledged that storing spent fuel from nuclear reactors remains a problem and urged the administration to use the "best science" when deciding on a permanent waste storage site.
The task force made no recommendation on where a storage site should be located, but noted the administration will continue to study whether spent nuclear fuel should be stored at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
It also urged Congress to renew the Price-Anderson Act, which expires in August 2002 and shields nuclear power plants from catastrophic liability costs.
A nuclear industry trade group praised the White House energy report.
"The White House rightly has recognized that nuclear energy plays an essential role in helping our nation achieve its economic and environmental goals," said Joe Colvin, president of the Nuclear Energy Institute. "It sends an important message to Wall Street ... that national policy at the highest level envisions continuing and even greater reliance on nuclear power as part of our long-term energy strategy."
Story by Tom Doggett
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
3) Solar Festival in Vermont
SolarFest: Energy Education Through the Arts is a homegrown 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization dedicated to sustainable living. SolarFest's Seventh Annual Solar-Powered Music Festival and Sustainable Future Fair -- July 14 and 15, 2001, is a weekend celebration of the performing arts, renewable energy, and sustainable living, featuring over 25 performers on two solar-powered stages, Chelsea Green's Convocation of the Invisible Universe (presentations by their authors and friends), and over 16 workshops on renewable energy topics. There will also be over 25 sustainable future exhibitors, a singer/songwriter competition, story tellers, open mic, Frank Asch's Theater-in-the-woods, children's activity tent, solar site tours, food and craft vendors, and more. For complete performer and workshop descriptions, directions and ticket prices, please visit the website at SolarFest.org
4) Technology Development for Sustainable Energy Generation
Stirling engines are external combustion engines that can use most any fuel (including biomass, solar, geothermal, fossil or anything that produces heat), and can drive a generator for onsite electrical power. Stirling engines are inherently efficient, since they use regenerators that recycle heat back to the power stroke of its piston. The following article was recently published on the developmental efforts of an early stage company seeking to revolutionize the power industry with cost-effective onsite power generation that could significantly reduce pollution entering our atmosphere. Who needs nukes when you have innovative technologies dating back 200 years waiting to be developed for today's energy and environmental standards.
= = = = = = = = =
Athol company on cutting edge with 200-year-old engine concept
May 24, 2001 The Recorder, Greenfield, MA, page 1.
By RICHIE DAVIS
Recorder Staff
ATHOL -- Try to imagine an unlikely setting for a high-tech, energy-efficient engine. You'd be hard-pressed to come up with anything that beats the old vise factory here where Ricardo Conde and company are revving up their Stirling engine prototype.
In fact, it's hard to imagine how the Stirling engine -- a nearly 200-year-old contraption that once powered tractors and fell into disuse when the internal combustion engine came into vogue -- can be looked on as innovative at all.
This is an EXTERNAL combustion engine, which Conde and other principals in Stirling Advantage Inc. have rescued from the automotive uses that have attracted most researchers over the years.
Instead, the 6-year-old company has been working on developing a Stirling engine to generate 200-kilowatts of power for hospitals, hotels, factories and similar uses. It produces both heat and electricity, can be fueled with solar power, biomass, natural gas or other fuels and gives off low nitrous emissions.
``We said, `Let's forget trying to make it fit under the hood of a car and (instead) make it for what it's best suited,''' said Conde, who hopes to have 20 test model generators ready in about a year or two, if he can raise the capital. So far, they've spent about $1 million researching and developing the technology he sees as Stirling gold.
Conde is among the participants in this afternoon's renewable energy Tour de Sol-related Green Futures workshops at Greenfield Community College. He is the 40-year-old president and chief executive officer of Stirling Advantage. With training at New York City Technical College, Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and Parsons School of Design, the New Salem resident has had a lifelong interest in technology development and worked with Athol's solar-power research octogenarian, Alvin Marks, before turning to optical films and polarizers and ultimately the engine first invented in 1816 by Scottish minister Robert Stirling.
Using a heat source external to the engine, his invention pushes a power piston when hot air expands, not unlike the exploding gases inside a car engine pushing a piston. The Stirling engine's 16 percent greater potential efficiency -- allegedly the highest of any heat engine -- comes from using heat exchangers to cool the hot expanded gas while retaining some of that heat to power the next cycle. Those pushes of the piston are converted to mechanical motion by rods and a flywheel, and eventually drive an electric generator. The heat that is recovered in the cooling cycle then can be recycled, to heat a building, for example. (In a car's internal combustion engine much of that heat is simply wasted through hot exhaust and the radiator.)
Stirling Advantage began focusing on the technology 3$B%)(B years ago, after consulting with a team of businesses trying to develop a 2-megawatt generator for a building on New York's Times Square, Conde said.
The project proved too expensive, ``but we realized there were flaws in the basic premise of using the technology,'' said Conde. By reworking a Swedish military design, Conde was able to home in on a plan based on industrial rather than automotive needs.
While other Stirling developers are busy working on solar-powered 25-kilowatt generators that require a 35-foot dish to capture the sun's rays, the Athol team is concentrating on a much larger generator that burns natural gas in the United States and biomass in Third World countries. Biomass is fuel derived from corn, wood or other crops, or from methane gases from landfills, for example.
Using the power directly, along with heat, makes this technique much more efficient, said Conde. Instead of driving up costs through transmission of electricity from a central generating plant or storing the electricity produced, Conde said, ``Our solution is just don't generate the power when you don't need it.''
Lowering the combustion rate to reduce nitrous oxide emissions, Stirling Advantage's design produces drastically less pollution than an internal-combustion engine. The design also introduces a hydraulic motor rather than depending on a crankshaft.
``So far, it's all theoretical,'' said Conde. ``But these are all improvements of a state-of-the-art design. Most people are scared to take the approach we are: to get into a 200-kilowatt should require millions and millions of dollars for research. We can do it for $1 million. That's what makes people very skeptical.''
After manufacturing a 20-kilowatt, one-cylinder demonstration engine for testing over the next couple of months, the company plans to begin turning out 20 test models of the 200-kilowatt size -- 6-by-6-foot engines that are about 8-feet high -- to customers that are already lined up, said Conde. One of those customers is the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
In about two years, if funding works out, the company hopes to turn out engines at a wholesale price of $90,000, or about $450 per kilowatt. Those models can get as large as 800 kilowatts before the company has to begin manufacturing components, Conde said, and can get as large as 5 megawatts before the technology becomes impractical.
But with potential applications seen at landfills-- where methane gases could generate power as the engine's heat helps evaporate lechates $B!&(Band sewage treatment plants, as well as factories, hotels and hospitals, Conde believes there's a ready market for technology that's been easier to develop than to capitalize.
With the aim of raising an additional $7 million in investment over the next two years, he says, ``As always, a lot of big people want to get involved, but they want to see it first.''
* Richie Davis
The Recorder
rdavis@recorder.com
*For additional information, visit ReGen Power Systems web site!
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Disclosure * European Opposition to Missile Defense * FBI Obstruction to Justice
The three issues of this issue of Flyby News updates work on the Disclosure Project, efforts to politically thwart U.S. Missile Defense, and the FBI's obstruction to justice. The latter item is covered by an Editorial in Indian Country Today, which questions why the issue of Leonard Peltier, regarding FBI abuses, is basically ignored in the mainstream media and Congress.
Please remember that tomorrow is the deadline date to send a fax to stop the Navy from experimenting with their deadly sonar blasts in the ocean. Please respond. It takes just a few minutes to send a free fax from:
http://www.nrdcaction.org/index.asp?step=2&item=377
The next issue will contain stories on the movement to increase the use of nuclear power and on available alternatives.
1) The Disclosure Project $B!&(BOverview
2) Report by the Coordinator of the Global Network $B!&(BBruce Gagnon
3) Indian Country Today: "FBI misconduct must be remembered.."
**********************************************************************
1) The Disclosure Project $B!&(BOverview
The Disclosure Project is a nonprofit research project working to fully disclose the facts about UFOs, extraterrestrial intelligence, and classified advanced energy and propulsion systems. The disclosure of the truth will have far-reaching implications for our society -- new technologies to end pollution and global warming, long-term solution to the energy crisis, and the beginning of an era of peaceful relations with other civilizations in space. The key evidences of the validation of this project are revealed in over 5 dozen military and government witnesses.
THE CAMPAIGN FOR DISCLOSURE
On May 9, 2001, one of the largest and most successful press conferences in the recent history of the National Press Club was completed. More than 20 military, government and corporate witnesses to unambiguous UFO and extraterrestrial events stated their testimony before millions. This kickoff event for the Campaign for Disclosure was carried by major media world-wide. The event was live webcast, and at 9 a.m. over 250,000 people were waiting on-line for the press conference to begin. The next biggest webcast event at the National Press Club was less than 25,000. While the first hour of the conference was "electronically jammed" according to the president of ConnectLive, the company that webcasts all National Press Club events, eventually
thousands of people around the world were able to watch the event on-line. It may still be viewed by going to ConnectLive.com.
For more information, visit the updated website for the Disclosure Project:
http://www.disclosureproject.org/
**********************************************************************
2) Report by the Coordinator of the Global Network $B!&(BBruce Gagnon
27 May 2001
Friends,
Just back from three weeks away to England, Ireland, and Germany.
The Global Network's (GN) membership conference in Leeds, England was a great success (see Karl Grossman's recent article that we mailed out for details). For the first time we had folks come from places like Alaska, Egypt, South Korea, Australia, Norway, Sweden, France, and Belgium. In all we had over 200 people from 20 countries represented.
As Karl said in his article we expanded the GN Board of Directors (BOD). We have added several new people including: Alla Yaroshinskaya (Russia), Cheong Wooksik (South Korea), Loring Wirbel (Colorado), Sally Light (California) and we have asked activists in Australia to suggest a woman to be added to the BOD. We expect this to be done very soon.
We also approved Dave Knight, the chairperson of CND in the United Kingdom, to be the new chair of our advisory board. We'd like the advisory board to take a greater role in 2001-2002 in helping us do long-range planning. With consultation with our BOD, Dave will be working to expand the advisory committee in the coming months.
After a few days off in Ireland I went to Germany for a speaking tour that took me to Berlin, Hamburg, Bonn, Trier, Munich, Kornwestheim, Darmstadt, and Frankfurt. I went by train to each stop and our advisory board member Wolfgang Schlupp-Hauck (Mutlangen) coordinated the tour.
GN board member Regina Hagen and Wolfgang joined me in Berlin where we spent 2 $B%9(B days holding a news conference, held public meetings with several different peace groups, and held sessions with members of parliament (MP) and their staffs. We met with two MP's from the ruling SPD party, one of whom extended an invitation to Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) to come to Berlin to speak to German members of the Bundestag. I carried home a hand written invitation and have sent it to Rep. Kucinich. We also met with 14 leaders in the PDS party (former East Germans) who have recently been working to gather anti-Star Wars signatures of parliamentarians from around the world. They were particularly pleased to develop relationships with the GN. We were supposed to meet with two MP's from the Green Party but instead they sent four of their aides. The German Greens are being heavily criticized by the peace movement for their support of the NATO war on Yugoslavia and for recent weak statements on Bush's plan for "missile defense."
Several news articles came out of our Berlin news conference as well as radio coverage.
Hamburg was my biggest meeting, with representatives from many different groups in attendance. In Bonn I did a radio interview that was broadcast nationally and in Trier the local newspaper covered my talk.
Prior to the event in Munich, local activists took me to a local radio station for an interview. Munich was a very important meeting because it is very near the U.S. signals intelligence base at Bad Aibling. We have not had a lot of work done around Bad Aibling in the past and it was my hope that we could get folks in Munich to agree to focus more attention on the base. The people at the meeting enthusiastically agreed to hold an action there in conjunction with our October 13 international day of protest.
While in Munich I stayed at the home of the renowned nuclear physicist Hans Peter Duerr. We had a wonderful breakfast discussion on the Star Wars issue and I feel certain that he will become more involved in the campaign to keep space for peace. He has tremendous influence inside and outside of Germany.
I am confident that several key German cities (including Berlin) will hold actions on October 13 as a result of this trip. There was tremendous interest in the issue, several people in Berlin followed us from meeting to meeting. Both in England and Germany it is clear that people view the Bush administration as a significant threat to global peace and stability and will respond with increased activity on the issue. In both these countries there is always talk about the "special relationship" their government has with the U.S. and it was important for an American citizen to be publicly saying that they do not need to "follow" the U.S. on this issue.
Much thanks to all those who made the events in England and Germany such a success.
Immediately upon our return Dr. Michio Kaku, one of our GN board members, had Karl Grossman and me on his radio show (Science for the People) to talk about our trip to Europe. Michio regularly keeps the work of the GN before the public on his national radio program.
I think it important that people understand that the recent return of the U.S. Senate to Democratic party control will only marginally help us stop Star Wars. While it is likely to help slow down any early deployment of "missile defense", Democratic Senate leader Tom Dsachle (D-SD) said just this morning on TV that his party still supports "missile defense" but only wants to be sure that it works properly before deploying. He said clearly that research and development (wasting hundreds of billions of dollars) should continue. It has always been my opinion that if you give the Pentagon enough money and enough time that they will come up with some technology that will work. So please don't be fooled into thinking that the Democrats will save us -- they won't. We have much work to do.
Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083; Gainesville, FL. 32607; (352) 337-9274
http://www.space4peace.org
For a related story: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-2001181592,00.html
Allies rebuff Powell over missile shield
BY MICHAEL EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR
NATO allies refused to endorse President Bush's missile defence project yesterday. It is the latest evidence of division between the
United States and Europe over the "Son of Star Wars" plan.
= = = = = = = = =
Reminder:
June 10 -- Washington, D.C. Action -- Stop Missile Defense
And in the halls of Congress
Monday and Tuesday, June 11 and 12
U.S. CONGRESS SWITCHBOARD 202-224-3121
For more information, visit:
http://www.projectabolition.org/
**********************************************************************
3) Indian Country Today: "FBI misconduct must be remembered.."
In an editorial in this week's issue, Indian Country Today says that the current debate over the FBI and its mistakes should include its handling of Leonard Peltier's case. Despite all the media attention, no one seems to focus on Peltier. Ruby Ridge, Wen Ho Lee, and of course, convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, have received coverage while little has been made of Peltier. WHY?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FBI misconduct in Peltier's case must be remembered in the interest of justice
http://www.indiancountry.com/articles/editorial-2001-05-23-02.shtml
The recent FBI boondoggle in Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh's case is indicative of a pattern of prosecutorial abuse going back decades.
In case after case, withholding of evidence, intimidation of people under investigation and other questionable practices have made national commentators as well as Washington politicians call for a thorough review of the agency founded, and highly politicized, by J. Edgar Hoover.
New York Democrat Sen. Charles Schumer, citing numerous other cases where FBI misconduct has become obvious, requested that President Bush appoint a special commission to examine the nation's primary federal law enforcement agency. Attorney General John Ashcroft already is investigating.
Critics have recalled the case of Joseph Salvati of Boston, freed in January after serving 30 years for murder. A judge concluded in that case that the FBI, to protect an informant, hid testimony that would have cleared Salvati.
Then there was the botched investigation of Wen Ho Lee, the Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist accused of 59 criminal counts and held for nine months in solitary confinement. After a horrific public disclosure campaign against him, Lee was cleared of all but a minor charge and released.
So have critics recalled the case of Richard Jewell, targeted in the bombing at the Atlanta 1996 Summer Olympics. The intense, no-holds-barred investigation and, again, devastating public disclosures, nearly destroyed a man who had rushed to help the victims and was the actual hero of the day. Jewell was lucky; he was exonerated after only three months.
Others have pointed to cases of apparent excessive deadly force (Ruby Ridge, Waco), botched evidentiary science, and even simple incompetence, as in the case of TWA Flight 800, where the FBI never passed on to the National Transportation Safety Board crucial evidence that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms uncovered early on.
But no one in the national media seems to have remembered Leonard Peltier. So we again wonder, what about the case of Leonard Peltier?
In McVeigh's case, the most horrific of terrorists gets a reprieve of 30 days while more than 3,000 pages of evidentiary information are belatedly handed over to his defense team to study.
But consider Peltier, who has served 25 years for the 1975 killing of two FBI agents. In his highly controversial case, the FBI continues to hold secret more than 6,000 pages of information, claiming national security reasons. This despite clear indications of misconduct, including falsification of evidence and intimidation of witnesses by various FBI officials, which forced the American Indian Movement activist's conviction.
This much is known. In the climate of violence against traditional American Indians that characterized Indian country in the 1970s, FBI agents were all over the place, en masse, often in combat gear, constantly raiding the remote home compounds of traditional people who sympathized with the issues raised by AIM.
The FBI's closest collaborators, the so-called Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOONS), known for their night raids and drive-by shootings that left many wounded and some dead, were actually given arms by the federal agents. It was in that context that a young Leonard Peltier signed on to help defend elders at the Jumping Bull compound in Oglala district, where the FBI raid took place that would result in the deaths of one American Indian man and two federal agents.
Judge Heaney of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, who heard an appeal in Peltier's case (denied on a technicality) wrote in a 1991 letter to Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii: "The United States government overreacted at Wounded Knee. Instead of carefully considering the legitimate grievances of the Native Americans, the response was essentially a military one which culminated in the deadly firefight on June 26, 1975 ... The United States government must share responsibility with the Native Americans for the .. firefight ... the government's role can properly be considered a mitigating circumstance." Judge Heaney, in this letter, recommended clemency/commutation of sentence for Mr. Peltier as part of the healing process.
We know that Peltier was extradited from Canada, where he had fled, on the basis of an affidavit signed by Myrtle Poor Bear, who claimed to have witnessed Peltier shooting the agents. Poor Bear later recanted and testified to being intimidated by FBI agents, who confronted her with
photographs of the murdered body of Anna Mae Aquash.
At Peltier's trial, FBI ballistic expert Evan Hodge testified he was unable to perform the best test, a firing-pin test, on certain casings found near the agents' car, because the rifle in question had been damaged in a fire. Instead, he stated that he conducted an extractor-mark test and found the casing and weapon to match. But years later, an FBI teletype obtained through the Freedom of Information Act showed that in October 1975, a firing-pin ballistic test had indeed been performed on the rifle said to have belonged to Peltier and that the results were clearly negative.
The jury never heard this crucial information.
Considering the critical nature of the materials later disclosed, such as the ballistic tests, the approximately 6,000 FBI documents still being withheld in their entirety as well as 5,000 partial documents could very well contain evidence that would establish Peltier's position. A government attorney actually conceded in one appellate hearing that, "We had a murder, we had numerous shooters, we do not know who specifically fired what killing shots ... ." But Peltier, the government insisted, could still be guilty for aiding and abetting, a complete change of theory from that mounted at his trial.
It is a crucial moment to remember Peltier. The national media must be made to remember his case among the numerous other cases of FBI misconduct resulting in the incarceration of innocent people. Clearly, the FBI's culture of concealment and sense superior purpose, which have led the agency into such transgression, must be challenged.
Peltier's trial and subsequent intense campaigns by the FBI to deny him any relief must be reconsidered in light of the emerging pattern of abuse now revealed. Tell all the media; tell the U.S. Congress; Indian country demands justice for Leonard Peltier.
$B%%(B2001 Indian Country Today
v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v
For a related story on the FBI and McVeigh read the transcript from Sixty Minutes II,
aired on CBS TV on May 29, 2001:
http://cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,293828-412,00.shtml
For more information on the defense of Leonard Peltier
http://www.freepeltier.org
**********************************************************************
Save Sea Life from Deadly Sonar * Missile Defense vs. Peace
The deadline for responding to the National Marine Fisheries Service to stop the Navy from experimenting with their deadly sonar blasts in the ocean has been extended. Please respond again and again to stop this aggravated assault on sea life.
In item two is a call for actions in Washington D.C. on June 10, 11, and 12 to stop Missile Defense. Please support such actions, and if you can't make it to D.C., call your Senators and Representatives on June 11 and June 12.
Item 3 shows how the momentum is building for an International movement to stop Missile Defense. Senator Jeffords has given call for hope that Congress will stand up against the corporate threat to peace and life. Please support the Global Network, plan an action on October 13 and get the video, "Star Wars Returns" to educate and motivate people to support one of the most important issues of our day.
1) Save Sea Life from USN sonar torture - New Deadline May 31 2001!
2) June 10 -- Washington, D.C. Action -- Stop Missile Defense
3) Global Network International Membership Meeting Report
**********************************************************************
1) Save Sea Life from USN sonar torture - New Deadline May 31 2001!
Don't let the Navy blast marine mammals with dangerous sonar. The National Marine Fisheries Service could permit the Navy to blast the world's oceans -- and the whales, dolphins, and other marine life that live in them -- with deadly sonar. Your voice could make the difference -- write before the May 31 comment deadline. Act Now!
http://www.nrdcaction.org/index.asp?step=2&item=377
You can watch LFAS videos at:
http://www.dreamweaving.com/lfas/av
**********************************************************************
2) June 10 -- Washington, D.C. Action -- Stop Missile Defense
http://www.projectabolition.org/
Join Project Abolition at the White House
for a rally to stop the arms race.
Lafayette Park
Washington, DC
Sunday, June 10, 2:00 PM
And in the halls of Congress
Monday and Tuesday, June 11 and 12
Activist Training and Congressional Education Days
Site for training to be announced
U.S. CONGRESS SWITCHBOARD 202-224-3121
[Support above actions by calling June 11 and 12]
For more information, visit:
http://www.projectabolition.org/
**********************************************************************
3) Global Network International Membership Meeting Report
Leeds, England; May 4-6, 2001
By Karl Grossman
The board of directors of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space has been expanded to provide for representatives from more of the world following the group's international meeting held in Leeds, United Kingdom drawing participants from 20 countries (including Australia, South Korea, Norway,
Germany, Sweden, and Belgium.)
The three-day event from May 4 to 6 began with a protest at the Menwith Hill military facility near Leeds, a key U.S. coordination center of space military activities. Helen John, a member of the Global Network board, was arrested at the action
The following day, at the University of Leeds, there was a conference packed with speakers and workshops. Dave Knight, chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the U.K., opened the proceedings by noting that "this is a very timely conference" as the Bush administration was pushing aggressively ahead on its Star Wars program.
Among the speakers was Jeremy Corbyn, a member of the British Parliament, who described the U.S. Star Wars program as "complete madness." Reflecting on the gathering, Corbyn declared: "We have a movement here!"
Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network, declared that the broad spread of countries that the more than 200 people in attendance came from constituted the "biggest representation" in differing nationalities that the Global Network has had at one of its annual international conferences since its founding in 1992.
Having this Global Network gathering in the U.K. was important because the group would "help build a fire under [Prime Minister] Tony Blair's ass"$BMU(Bo prevent him from supporting the U.S. Star Wars program, Gagnon said.
Later at the conference, Helen John announced that she would be challenging Blair for his Parliament seat making Star Wars the major issue in the campaign.
"Star Wars," said Gagnon, "is about corporate power, corporate domination" and unless it is stopped it will be "stealing our future." He spoke of how, back in the U.S., some leaders of the Democratic Party and "some in the peace movement" are beginning to describe the Star Wars program as "a lemon that won't work." Given "enough money," parts of the program will work, said Gagnon, and the "argument can't be about whether it will work or not" but instead should challenge the horrible U.S. scheme of seeking "control" of space and "domination" of Earth below.
Dr. Atsushi Fujioka, director of the Institute for Peace and Human Rights Studies in Kyoto, Japan criticized the U.S. Space Command motto of "Master of Space" stating that "humankind will never be master of space$B!&(Be are all children of Mother Earth and Mother Space."
Edward Appiah Brafoh of the Green Earth Organization in Ghana described the U.S. Star Wars program as "showing nothing but greed and selfishness." He said: "It is peace we want in this world, not war. War is expensive. Peace is priceless." The Star Wars program is a "recipe for violence and war," he said. "
Dr. Philip Webber, chair of UK-based Scientists for Global Responsibility, said that the U.S. Star Wars program "creates a grave risk of re-igniting the global nuclear arms race, undermining international security and wastes resources which could be used to the benefit of the world's people and the environment." Dr. Webber advised: "Don't let anybody fool you," the lasers the U.S. seeks to deploy in space "are not defensive." The U.S. Space Command, he said, "makes hawks look like doves" and seek to project power from space to exercise "dominion." He said, "Frankly, the biggest rogue state around is America."
Dr. Alla A. Yaroshinskaya, former advisor to the president of Russia and president of Russia's Ecological Fund, said the U.S. "son of Star Wars" program could cause a return of the Cold War. If the U.S. moves ahead with the scheme, Russia as well as China will be compelled to counter the U.S. program and there would be a "breakdown" in the "whole world order."
Dr. Caroline Lucas, a Green Party member of the European Parliament from the U.K., said that space must be seen as a "wilderness area" to which humanity should not "spread war" and leave a "junkyard." She said: "We have a chance to stop something horrific before it happens$BMJ(Bf we start now$B!&(Be must keep space for peace."
Alice Slater of the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment said that with the Bush administration, the "U.S. is out of the closet" in pushing Star Wars. Star Wars "is about the U.S. military first enforcing U.S. corporate domination of the world," said the president of the U.S.-based organization. The scheme can and must be stopped, she said. "We all have to work together$BMS(Bepresentatives from every continent."
She noted George W. Bush's "announcement this week that he is prepared to go full-steam ahead" with the U.S. Star Wars program. "The gauntlet has been thrown down to people of good will to prevent the heavens from being turned into a new frontier of war and to forestall a new nuclear arms race," said Slater.
The three-day event closed with a morning meeting of the Global Network at which the board was enlarged to 14 members to provide for representatives from more of the world. Also at the meeting, strategy was developed and activities discussed for the year ahead. This will include an International Day of Protest to Stop the Militarization of Space that the Global Network is organizing for October 13, 2001.
***
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, FL 32607
(352) 337-9274
http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk
globalnet@mindspring.com
***
To order a copy of the video documentary:
"STAR WARS RETURNS"
http://www.envirovideo.com
**********************************************************************
Stop Terror Threats * Berenson's Trial Winding Down * "Star Wars Returns"
The days for those willing to harm innocent lives and use terror as a strategy for silencing people are gradually coming to an end. This is part of the value of the communications age, where the threats to life, by injustice and heinous crimes to humanity, are shrieking to a closure by the openness and courage of those willing to unite behind what is just and what is good. Please take time in your day to support those needing your help, and those who have stood up to help us all.
1) Action Requested to Stop Threats to a Key Guatemalan Witness
2) Lori Berenson's Public Trial Winding Down
3) "STAR WARS RETURNS" IS RELEASED
**********************************************************************
1) Action Requested to Stop Threats to a Key Guatemalan Witness
The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee has sent out an alert regarding their Attorney, Jennifer Harbury. Besides her incredible work in support of Peltier, Attorney Harbury has done extensive human rights work in Guatemala, where she married a Mayan resistance leader, who was secretly imprisoned, tortured and murdered by the Guatemalan army in conjunction with the CIA. (For more on this you can read SEARCHING FOR EVERARDO by Jennifer Harbury.) Since then, she has filed lawsuits against the CIA and the Guatemalan army. One of these cases is currently heating up, and her key witness and others are receiving death threats.
In the following report, Jennifer Harbury is asking for calls to the Guatemalan Embassy and Congress. Only by a united front can we possible stop such heinous crimes against justice and human rights.
From Jennifer Harbury,
forwarded by the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
SECOND URGENT ACTION : HARBURY/BAMACA CASE
THREATS TO KEY WITNESS AND HIS CHILDREN CONTINUE
Dear Friends,
I am writing to let everyone know that we need more extremely urgent calls and letters to the Guatemalan Embassy on behalf of Otoniel De La Roca Mendoza and his children. Unfortunately, the threats and intimidation against him and his family are escalating, and I fear that very soon someone will be very seriously injured or worse.
For those of you who did not see my last alert, Otoniel was a key witness in the recent Inter-American Court trial of the Guatemalan army in my husband's torture and murder. We won that case last December, with a 100 page unanimous international decision. Needless to say, the army was not amused, nor are they happy about our coming reparations hearing. Since they cannot undo the judgement, they are looking for revenge, and they want to warn all future witnesses to remain silent.
Otoniel was himself captured by the Guatemalan military and severely tortured. Among other abuses, he was "hooded" ( a plastic bag filled with pesticides was placed over his head to induce asphyxiation), drowned, beaten with a bat and given electric shocks. Then the army kidnaped his two small children from a church refuge and brought them to the base where he was being tortured. His mother, father , wife, and sister had already been "disappeared" by the military. During his time as a prisoner, he saw Everardo in military hands, being seriously abused. He was also able to learn the real names of many high level officers in the G-2 inner death squad. He shared all of this information with the UN Truth Commission, as well as MINUGUA, and he was a key witness in my OAS trial.
Since Otoniel arrived here in 1997 and began to share his information, the threats have been grim. When he first testified to the Inter American Commission in 1998 in Washington D.C., he received frantic calls from friends at home reporting that army officers had come by to leave messages for him, warning that he should think about the safety of his friends back home before he testified. He had the courage to speak out anyway, and has continued to do so. Since then, with a fair amount of difficulty, we have been able to bring his current wife and children and younger siblings here. However, an ex-wife remained in Guatemala with two young sons.
Once the court ruling came out, the pressure began to escalate again. A good friend fled Guatemala in December after repeated military "visits". In April, someone broke into my home in Texas, stealing only the laptop and not the money, cd player or credit cards, then called Otoniel from San Antonio, threatening to kill him and his children for what he had done. (As you will recall, an Amnesty representative received death threats in this time frame because of her editorial on the Gerardi trial). Then another call came to Otoniel's home with someone in a frightening voice declaring in Spanish that the call would be taped. They hung up. Meanwhile, back in Guatemala, menacing cars have been parking near the home of Otoniel's ex wife, watching her and her two sons. Just a few days ago she was followed into her neighborhood by an obvious military person and told she would be seeing them.
Otoniel believes that something drastic will soon occur, both to make an example out of him and this silence other potential witnesses, as well as to punish. We are both very fearful for the safety of his sons back in Guatemala. Our State Department tells me a visa could take nearly a month to obtain.
PLEASE CALL THE EMBASSY AS WELL AS YOUR CONGRESSPERSON ABOUT THIS AND DEMAND THAT ALL OF THE WITNESSES AND THEIR FAMILIES BE LEFT ALONE AND THAT THEIR RIGHTS BE RESPECTED.
I realize that the thousands of calls everyone has made throughout all these years have been exhausting and burdensome. But they have saved lives, including mine, The telephone system does work.
Some of you have asked whether or not the police and FBI here have been informed. The answer is yes, we have reported to all agencies. But do not let the Guatemalan Embassy off the hook with this red herring. They used to say they would free Everardo if only I would tell them where he might be. This is just part of their style and strategy of distraction. It is not up to the US law enforcement agencies to locate and identify Guatemalan death squad members who are traveling in this country, using public phones, and false names. The Guatemalan army knows full well who these people are. It is up to the Guatemalan army to reign them in.
Please ask you Congresspersons to call the Guatemalan Ambassador as well.
GUATEMALAN EMBASSY TELEPHONE : 202-745-4952
ADDRESS 2220 R St. NW WASHINGTON DC 20008
U.S. CONGRESS SWITCHBOARD 202-224-3121
**********************************************************************
2) Lori Berenson's Public Trial Winding Down
Thursday, May 17, 2001
To: All Friends and Supporters of Lori Berenson
LORI'S PUBLIC TRIAL WINDS DOWN
In what may be the longest public trial in Peruvian history, the ninth week of hearings ended today with a continuation of Tuesday's session in which official testimony was read into the court record from all witnesses who provided information during the first (investigatory) phase of the trial that occurred between August 28 and early December 2000. Judge Marcos Ibazeta told Reuters that this reading should conclude at the next session on Tuesday May 22 and a trial summation by Prosecutor Carlos Navas, by Special Prosecutor Mario Cavagnaro, and by the Defense Lawyer Jose Luis Sandoval would likely follow next Thursday. The court is then expected to reconvene a week later for verdict and sentence. Before the verdict and sentence are announced, Lori will be permitted a last opportunity to speak. There could be a break lasting from one to 24 hours between Lori's last words and the actual reading of the verdict and sentence.
Judge Ibazeta expects the verdict and sentencing to occur two weeks from today unless the Appeals Court rules that he must withdraw from Lori's case based on the petition her lawyer filed against him for prejudice two weeks ago. Should that ruling occur, the whole public phase of the trial may have to start over again. To date, the hearings that began on March 20 have had 24 sessions. During this time, Lori has given testimony for 25.5 hours.
WITNESS TESTIMONY SUPPORTS LORI
One of the accusations against Lori is that she supposedly served food and gave "political classes" to members of the MRTA who moved into the fourth floor of the large house after she moved out in August 1995. However, when testimony was read into the court records today from six MRTA members presently imprisoned throughout Peru who had lived on that fourth floor, they testified that they never met Lori until days after their arrest when they were all held at the DINCOTE anti-terrorism police headquarters in Lima. This confirmed Lori's testimony that she never met them, fed them, or educated them. Lori has testified that she knew three people who had used false names and who, as she learned in DINCOTE, were members of the MRTA. These three testified that Lori never knew their true identities, never knew they were members of the MRTA, was not herself a member of the MRTA, and never collaborated or in any other way helped that organization.
EL SALVADOR LEADER SENDS LETTER SUPPORTING LORI'S TESTIMONY
Congressman Salvador Sanchez Ceran, now a leader of the FMLN political party in the Congressional Assembly of El Salvador, sent to the court a letter attesting to the veracity of Lori's testimony regarding her work during the peace process that ended El Salvador's 12-year civil war and her subsequent work for the development of the democratic process in that country. At that time Lori worked as a personal secretary and assistant to Mr. Sanchez Ceran who then used the name Leonel Gonzalez when he was head of one of the five factions of the FMLN guerrilla movement.
BISHOP GUMBLETON ATTENDS TRIAL AND VISITS LORI
Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton from the Archdiocese of Detroit attended Tuesday's hearing and then went to Chorrillos Prison where he had a private meeting with Lori for nearly three hours. This visit was arranged by the State Department and Bishop Gumbleton confirmed that he was treated very well by the Peruvian prison officials. This is a major change from the treatment he received during his first visit to Lori in September 1999 in Socabaya Prison in Arequipa. During that earlier meeting, a General from the Military Police, on direct orders from President Fujimori, sat in.
Bishop Gumbleton, a founder of Pax Christi, a human rights branch of the Catholic Church, said Lori was in excellent spirits. They discussed both political and ethical issues.
UPCOMING ACTIONS
As Lori commented in her interviews last week with AP and Reuters, she has prepared herself for the worst. We will continue to hope for the best, but must also be prepared to respond if Lori receives a second unjust prison sentence, again with no evidence presented to prove that she is guilty. Currently, there are several protests being planned in San Francisco, Tucson, Dallas, Miami, Washington [DC], Paterson [NJ], and New York. If you would like to participate in the planning or if you would like to find out about planning a demonstration in your area, please contact the Washington office at gtaylor@freelori.org. Details of the events will be forthcoming at the end of the month.
Rhoda and Mark Berenson
Website: http://www.freelori.org
**********************************************************************
3) "STAR WARS RETURNS" IS RELEASED
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts: Steve Jambeck or Joan Flynn (718)318-8045)
Karl Grossman (631)725-2858)
"STAR WARS RETURNS," a video documentary exposing how the Bush administration is moving to make space a new arena of war, in violation of the intent of international law, has just been released by EnviroVideo.
The documentary is being distributed in the U.S. and around the world."STAR WARS RETURNS" is narrated and was written by investigative reporter and journalism Professor Karl Grossman, directed and edited by Emmy Award-winner Steve Jambeck and produced by Joan Flynn.
It presents U.S. military documents setting forth U.S. plans to "control space" and from space "dominate" the earth below. It reveals the multi-billion dollar U.S. development program now underway to produce space-based laser weapons, and that far more than "missile defense" is involved. It also details the international opposition to the U.S. Star Wars program.
"STAR WARS RETURNS" explores the recently issued report of the Space Commission chaired by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld which calls for U.S. "power projection in, from and through space" and declares: "In the coming period the U.S. will conduct operations to, from, in and through space in support of its national interests both on earth and in space."
U.S. Senator Bob Smith, who wrote the legislation establishing the Rumsfeld Space Commission, asserts in "STAR WARS RETURNS" about U.S. "control" of space: "It is our manifest destiny. You know we went from the East Coast to the West Coast of the United States of America settling the continent and they call that manifest destiny and the next continent if you will, the next frontier, is space and it goes on forever."
Others appearing in "STAR WARS RETURNS" are Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space; Rear Admiral Eugene Carroll (USN, ret.), vice president of the Center for Defense Information; Congressman Dennis Kucinich; physicist Dr. Vandana Shiva of India; Bill Sulzman, director of Citizens for Peace in Space; Dr. Michio Kaku,
professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York; editor Loring Wirbel; and Regina Hagen, a Global Network director.
Also interviewed is Craig Eisendrath who, as a U.S. State Department officer, was central in drafting the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, the intent of which the U.S. is now preparing to violate, charges Eisendrath in "STAR WARS RETURNS." It is the basic international law on space, ratified by most countries of the world, and sets space aside for "peaceful purposes."
EnviroVideo has produced 175 television programs including the award-winning documentary "Nukes In Space: The Nuclearization and Weaponization of the Heavens."
***
Editors: For review copies of "STAR WARS RETURNS" call 718-318-8045.
For order information, see http://www.envirovideo.com
**********************************************************************
Demand Investigations of the FBI -- Including the Case of Leonard Peltier
"There can be no due process, there can be no such thing as an open government, there can be no real justice or democracy when an agency as powerful as the FBI can, decade after decade, break the laws it vows to uphold with no repercussions. The cases covered in the media lately are only the tip of the iceberg." Leonard Peltier
1) Demand Investigations of the FBI, including the case of Leonard Peltier
Recent revelations of FBI misconduct have prompted Senator Charles Schumer of New York and Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa to call for "top to bottom" investigations of the FBI. The :Leonard Peltier Defense Committee is appealing for your support for investigations and push for the inclusion of the Peltier case.
Write and call your local Representative and your two Senators, and send copy of your letters to Senator Schumer and Senator Grassley.
Following is a sample letter.
(If either Schumer or Grassley is one of your Senators, please adapt the letter by thanking them, encouraging them, and urging them to include Peltier in any push for investigations.)
Dear Senator/Congressman _____________,
I am writing to express my firm support for "top to bottom" investigations of the FBI as called for by both Senator Schumer and Senator Grassley. There is an obvious pattern of FBI misconduct involving the withholding of evidence and obstruction of justice which must be examined and halted. Such conduct puts in jeopardy our nation's concepts of democracy, open government, and equal justice.
I am especially concerned with the FBI's treatment of Leonard Peltier, the Native American human rights activist, who Amnesty International calls a "political prisoner" who should be "immediately and unconditionally released." Mr. Peltier has been imprisoned for over twenty-five years, following his highly controversial conviction of the 1975 murders of two FBI agents. During Mr. Peltier's trial, the FBI and U.S. Prosecutors emphatically swore that every FBI document had been handed over to the defense. Yet, years later a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit would force the release of over 12,000 FBI documents which had been withheld. Had the jury been able to consider much of this evidence at trial, I have no doubt that Mr. Peltier would be free today.
Critical to his case among those documents withheld from his defense and jury, was a formerly concealed ballistic test, which proved that the fatal bullets could not have come from the gun tied to Mr. Peltier at trial. The exposure of the test prompted the U.S. Prosecutor to admit during subsequent oral arguments, "we can't prove who shot those agents". Yet, a new trial was denied on technical grounds, even though the court found that, "There is a possibility that the jury would have acquitted Leonard Peltier had the records and data improperly withheld from the defense been available to him in order to better exploit and reinforce the inconsistencies casting strong doubts upon the government's case." The judge who authored the denial now supports Mr. Peltier's release.
To make matters worse, the FBI continues to withhold over 6000 documents pertaining to the Peltier case today. We are convinced that these files contain even more critical information.
We also note that Mr. Peltier's conviction is deeply rooted in the Pine Ridge "Reign of Terror." During this period, the FBI cooperated with vigilantes who killed over 60 members and supporters of the American Indian Movement and terrorized, assaulted and battered scores of others.
Given all of the above, I am asking you to press for a thorough and bi-partisan investigation of the FBI, which will include a comprehensive examination of the Peltier case, including the subpoena of 6000 FBI documents still withheld today.
Thank you for your actions and consideration to this urgent matter.
Sincerely,
__________
c.c. Senator Grassley; Senator Schumer
Senator Charles Schumer
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Senator Charles Grassley
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
For contact information to write to your Senators and Representative, visit:
http://www.senate.gov/senators/index.cfm
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
You can call via the Congressional Switch Board: 202-224-3121.
**********************************************************************
2) Leonard Peltier's Statement Regarding FBI Abuses
Greetings Brothers, Sisters, Friends and Supporters,
I am writing this statement in the midst of controversy surrounding the FBI's withholding of 3000 documents pertaining to the case of Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing. This incident is only one of many revelations of grave FBI misconduct in recent weeks, all of which expose very serious violations of the Constitution and severe abuse of power by the FBI.
In Boston, what started with suspicions that FBI Agent, John Connolly was involved in money laundering and racketeering led to the exposure of much more. As it turned out, almost the entire Boston office was involved in a heavy scheme, which protected notorious gangsters, who were allowed to murder with impunity in exchange for information. That office even put two innocent men, men they knew were innocent and who they very purposefully framed, in prison in order to keep their informants free from prosecution. These innocent men served thirty years in prison and were only released after previously hidden FBI documentation was uncovered. What is worse is, it all could have been prevented. FBI agent Robert Fitzpatrick says he reported the misconduct early on, and was ignored. How much time will the agents responsible serve in prison? What will be done to prevent this type of official criminal behavior from reoccurring? If history is any clue, not too much at all unless we take a firm stand against these types of FBI abuses.
Meanwhile, media coverage of Thomas Blanton's conviction for the racist murder of four young girls, which occurred some 38 years ago, is widespread. Since 1965 the FBI knew exactly who the murderers were, and they hid the information. They protected KKK members who murdered children. What will happen to these former agents? How will the FBI be held accountable for their complicit role in such heinous activities? These violations are most serious. There can be no due process, there can be no such thing as an open government, there can be no real justice or democracy when an agency as powerful as the FBI can, decade after decade, break the laws it vows to uphold with no repercussions. The cases covered in the media lately are only the tip of the iceberg.
There are many, many more well documented incidences of FBI abuses. It is up to the public to hold the FBI accountable. Clearly, no system of checks and balances is in place and the media rarely reports FBI misconduct unless politicians and judges condemn it first, in which case it is usually too little too late. Don't let these latest disclosures deteriorate into "flash in the pan" news stories. An effort must be forged to stop FBI abuses, and to gain recognition that these are continuations of an all too common pattern.
The FBI unfairly targeted Wen Ho Lee, withheld evidence about Waco, and botched its handling of the Ruby Ridge incident. In 1998 the Los Angeles FBI crime lab was exposed for it's routine tampering of evidence, especially in high profile cases. In 1997 Geronimo Ji Jaga Pratt was released after 27 long years of unjust imprisonment - yet another FBI frame-up. In 1990 Judi Bari's car was bombed, and again, the FBI hid evidence proving the bomb had been planted. Instead of finding the perpetrators, they criminally charged the Earth First! activist, who was left crippled for life. (Find out more about this case at www.judibari.org).
Of course, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation the FBI allowed, and further supported, the murderous GOON squads. Year after year I sit through meaningless parole hearings where I am told that I must take responsibility for a crime I did not commit. All the while, the faces of my brothers and sisters who were killed during that era, loom in my head, as I suppress my bitterness over such blatant discrimination and injustice. One day I know, this too will be recognized and exposed as a result of the efforts of the people. Officials will likely act surprised and outraged, even though we have been telling them all along about what we have experienced and witnessed.
Friends, I am not writing this statement out of bitterness, but out of alarm. When will these kinds of abuses be stopped? When will we overcome our fear of the FBI and say, never again. Not one more innocent person in prison, not one more political prisoner, not one more unnecessary death? If the FBI thought that Martin Luther King was a threat to the "American way of life" then we must ask, what way of life do they defend, and do the American people want the FBI to act on their behalf?
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Leonard Peltier
For more information contact:
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-5774
http://www.freepeltier.org
**********************************************************************
Disclosure Project Update * Navy Testing Whales' Hearing Level * Lori Berenson
15 May 2001
1) Disclosure Project Update
2) Navy Testing Whales' Hearing Level
3) The Inquisition of Lori Berenson
Editor's Notes:
This time on planet Earth is anything but boring. There are many priority issues
and anything you can do to help the balance of life on Earth is critical.
**********************************************************************
1) Disclosure Project Update
http://www.disclosureproject.org
Dr. Steven Greer, director of the Disclosure Project, issued this statement:
"Over 250,000 people were lined up to go online as the National Press Club event began at 9am on May 9, 2001 - the largest webcast audience in the history of the National Press Club in Washnington, D.C.
To date, approximately 1 billion people world wide have heard of the event and support is growing for Hearings..
Team [Disclosure Project] has met with over 2 dozen Senate and House members and staff with witnesses present. [It is] Urgent that all concerned write their 2 Senators and their House Representative and ask for IMMEDIATE OPEN HEARINGS ON THE UFO MATTER. Inform them that we need Legislation to Ban Space Weapons and a Release of Advanced Energy and Propulsion Systems that will Solve the Energy Crisis and end Global Warming and Pollution.."
Steven M. Greer, MD
Director, The Disclosure Project
See http://www.disclosureproject.org/congress/congress.htm for more information
**********************************************************************
2) Navy Testing Whales' Hearing Level
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=051101&ID=s961837
Navy testing whales' hearing level
Many whales beached themselves during Navy sonar tests last year
Associated Press
TACOMA -- The Navy, criticized for the deaths of whales after sonar tests in the Bahamas, is testing the hearing of two beluga whales at Tacoma's Point Defiance Aquarium, hoping to determine what frequencies the marine mammals can hear Beethoven and his half brother Turner are being subjected to a variety of sounds at their aquarium pool, and are being trained to respond by vocalizing to the tones from an underwater machine, said trainer Traci Belting. The 1,300-pound whales swim to a "bite plate" they seize in their jaws to hold their heads in the proper position. For their trouble, the whales are rewarded with treats and praise, Belting said.
The long-term study will examine the hearing of the whales and the effects of noise in their environment, said Tom LaPuzza, spokesman for the Navy's Marine Mammals Program.The first phase, which begins as soon as Turner and Beethoven can reliably use the testing apparatus and sound off whenever they hear a tone, will determine the range of the mammals' hearing. The second phase will introduce background noise to see how it interferes with their hearing. In the third phase, the whales will be exposed to other sounds to see how their hearing is affected. LaPuzza likened it to a "rock concert effect" -- the experiment will involve sound levels that temporarily impair a whale's hearing similar to a loud concert that impairs a human's hearing for a short period.
The Navy had studied two beluga whales at a facility in the noisy environment of the San Diego Bay. Point Defiance was selected because it is quiet and controlled. Last year, animal rights advocates blamed Navy sonar transmissions for a mass beaching of whales in the Bahamas. Necropsies of the dead whales showed they all had severe trauma to their ears. LaPuzza said there was no scientific evidence linking Navy tests to whale beachings.
The National Marine Fisheries Service is currently considering the Navy's request for permission to operate an even more powerful sonar system for submarine detection that would be used in more than 80 percent of the world's oceans. Some experts compare the sound of the proposed new tests to a rocket taking off.
The project, especially the third phase, sounds questionable and possibly cruel to the sensitive ears of the whales, said Toni Frohoff, a marine biologist with the Humane Society of the United States. "I'm concerned that the welfare of these animals might be compromised for goals that have nothing to do with marine mammal conservation and protection," she said.Other animal rights advocates object to what they call an unnecessary test.
"There's enough scientific research that has been done on the hearing capability of these animals for (the Navy) to figure out the consequences of what's going on at sea from setting off those detonators," said Stephanie Boyles, spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Please Note:
The National Marine Fisheries Service is now accepting public comments through May 18, 2001, on whether to grant the Navy's LFAS permit request. Send a free fax or write them a letter and stop the Navy from deploying LFAS There is now undeniable evidence that high-power "active" sonar systems can and do kill marine animals. Analysis of the inner ears of several dead whales enabled scientists to confirm, for the first time, the dangerous role of LFAS to a level of certainty that even the Navy could not ignore. All but one of the whales suffered hemorrhages in the inner ear, almost certainly the result of a sonic blast.
http://www.DirectActions.net/LFASproposal.htm
**********************************************************************
3) The Inquisition of Lori Berenson
From: Rhoda and Mark Berenson
http://www.freelori.org
Thursday, May 10, 2001
To: All Friends and Supporters of Lori Berenson
THE INQUISITION
We would like to draw your attention to two articles that were just placed on the website.
The first is an English translation of an article by Peruvian novelist Eduardo Gonzalez Viana, "The Inquisition in Lima in 1736 and in April 2001: Lori Berenson." The Spanish original was published in the Peruvian newspaper Liberacion. This is the first newspaper account in Peru that has defended Lori and told the Peruvian people what this trial is really about
http://www.freelori.org/news/01apr26_liberacion.html
The second is a detailed account of nine courtroom sessions in Lori's current trial by human rights observer Marie J. Manrique from Rights Action. Reading this should give you some sense of the 'inquisition in Lima -- April 2001.'
http://www.freelori.org/statements/01apr_mariemanrique.html
Rhoda and Mark Berenson
Website: http://www.freelori.org
Call the White House and ask George W. Bush to put more effort in Lori's return home.
202-456-1111, O
**********************************************************************
Testimonies from Project Disclosure - Part 2
Flyby News - posted 12 May 2001
Testimony of Merle Shane McDow,
US Navy Atlantic Command - October 2000
Mr. McDow entered the Navy in 1978 and gained a top-secret, Special Compartmented Intelligence (SCI) clearance with a Zebra Stripes. He was assigned to the Atlantic Operational Support Facility, Atlantic Command, then under Admiral Trane. Mr. McDow was present when a UFO was tracked by radar and seen by pilots visually moving at high speed up and down the Atlantic coast. The Command Center was put on Zebra alert and Admiral Trane gave the order to force down the UFO. Mr. McDow discusses the threats, intimidation and confiscation of logbooks that occurred after the event.
MM: Merle McDow
SG: Dr. Steven Greer
MM: I enlisted in the United States Navy in August of 1978, and was assigned to the USS America, where unfortunately I sustained some injuries on the flight deck while performing my duties. I then went to CINC-ANT Fleet, Atlantic Command Support Facility in Norfolk, Virginia on Hampton Boulevard. I was directly assigned to AOSF, Division 22; we were a group of about eleven people then. We were directly responsible for briefing Admiral Trane who was the Commander in Chief, Atlantic Command. We briefed him on current military operations around the world, what the Soviets were doing that day, what they had done the night before, etc.
AOSF is just an acronym for Atlantic Operational Support Facility and CINC-ANT Fleet is another acronym for Commander in Chief-Atlantic Fleet, which Admiral Trane was at the time. Everyone on the eastern seaboard answered to this man.
After a six month wait I got a top-secret, Special Compartmented Intelligence (SCI) clearance, with a zebra stripe identification badge, which permitted access to all facilities on the base at all times. I had unrestricted access to any facility at any time as well as the Command Center to which it was specifically assigned. My station was up on the mezzanine, or the third deck as we called it, over the Command Center. My job was to make sure that any incoming and outgoing audio/video information that came into the Command Center was recorded and duly logged for reference in case they needed it later.
I recorded all of the video and audio- everything that is going on- even when they called a Condition Zebra alert. This was generally a training exercise that they would announce beforehand by saying, "This is a drill. This is a drill. Set Condition Zebra." and unauthorized personnel would then be escorted out of the Command Center if they didn't already know that they had to leave.
Condition Zebra is the highest level of alert that the Navy [at that time had been] generally dealing with global nuclear threats, in particular the Soviets. Soviet Bearcats were routinely patrolling up and down the eastern seaboard watching what we were doing. And we would set a Condition Zebra if we had the need to put planes in the air to escort the bearcats out of the area if they were a little too close to our airspace or if they had ships in the area that were suspicious acting, for instance. Or we would have a drill, for instance, when they would get out the MAD books to wage nuclear war. The Watch Officer and the Junior Watch Officer, the JOD, had keys to a safe and they would get these books out called the MAD books "Mutual Assured Destruction" and they would have the codes that were necessary to transmit to the submarines if necessary, to launch a nuclear strike. And not many people were allowed in the Command Center when that was going on because they actually did use the codes and so forth. I am sure the Soviets and any others person who were enemies of the United States would like to get their hands on that information.
The Zebra Classification- well, without that you were not allowed authorized access to these facilities during this drill and the Zebra Drill was specifically for the highest level of top-secret information that was being exchanged between the Command Center and ships and/or submarines at sea.
Well, about this incident: The day started out pretty routine. I would say this was around the first week or two in May [1981] to the best of my knowledge. So everything was going along pretty routinely when they dimmed the lights (they did this first in the Command Center when they set a Condition Zebra alert). Most of the time when they set these drills they would say, "This is a drill. This is a drill. Set Condition Zebra." But they turned the lights down this time and they didn't say, "This is a drill." And the Watch Officer and the Junior Watch Officer looked at each other and told some of their assistants to verify whether or not this was a drill as the event was taking place. And the early warning system- I believe it came in from an Air Force base in Greenland or Nova Scotia at that time- said that we had contact with an unidentified flying object that had entered our air space. And they said that this was not a drill and so it was treated with the utmost promptness and everyone started running around like mad once they realized that it wasn't a drill. It took on a whole different air.
Within moments of that, the Watch Officer summoned Admiral Trane over to the Command Center because this was a little out of his area of authorization for lack of a better way to put it. It required Admiral Trane's oversight. And within minutes Admiral Trane was rushed into the Command Center into his viewing booth that he had right under the Mezzanine there and the first thing that Admiral Trane wanted to know was how many contacts we had, where they were, which direction were they going, and were the Soviets responding. Because we knew that it wasn't the Soviets that had entered our airspace. That was verified from the get go, from the start.
At that point, when Admiral Trane found out that it wasn't the Soviets and that he wanted to know were the Soviets responding to this threat also, that was the moment that he gave authorization to put two planes up to go see what this thing was. And that was when the chasing up and down the eastern seaboard began. We launched planes from as far north as Greenland to NAS (Naval Air Station) Oceania. This object, we had it on radar- this event lasted almost an hour. You could hear the pilots live voice transmissions being piped into the Command Center. And they had visual confirmation of the object and made descriptions of the object. Pilots were able to close a couple of times and were able to see that the object was not an aircraft that we were familiar with- it was nothing that we had and nothing that the Soviets had. That was determined very quickly. This vehicle or whatever it was that they were chasing showed very erratic flight up and down the coast, quick flight.
It would actually be off the coast of Maine, for instance, and would leave the airspace in that area so quickly that we were having to have planes coming out of Dover Air Force base just to pick it up just in what seemed like moments. Well, I know for a fact that it would take an F-14 probably thirty minutes to traverse that much distance but this object, whatever it was, was just popping up. One minute it was here and the next minute bam, it was down several hundred miles down the coast, just playing tag.
It did go all the way down to a point off the coast of Florida around Mayport, the Naval Air station that we have down there at Cecil Field. And that was before it turned and took what would have been an easterly direction from our vantage point back up towards the Azores before we actually lost track of it.
During all this, we were using satellites called the KH-11 satellites that we use for information gathering. And this satellite did have a very high capability of taking really good photographs of things literally within a few feet of the ground from a vantage point out in outer space. And they were trying to get the KH-11 satellite to track this thing to get some photographs of it. The photographs that we did get back in the Command Center later on came from the first encounters that the planes had with it off of the northern North American coast. They did get close enough to get some photographs taken that were later brought over to the Command Center.
Well, from the photograph I remember the shape was more like a cylinder; it was quite flat and long. It had abrupt ends. The ends didn't taper down like most aircraft. It just came to an abrupt end and it did appear to be reflecting sunlight and you could clearly tell that it was metallic. And the pilots were giving information such as it was not leaving behind a vapor trail, no discernable lights or markings on it, no cockpit windows or doors, nothing like that. It just seemed to be one solid thing whatever it was.
What was really bugging Admiral Trane, what was really driving him nuts, was this thing absolutely had complete control of the situation and could be anywhere that it wanted to be in a matter of seconds. One minute we were closing on it off the coast of Maine and the next minute it is in Norfolk heading south towards Florida. And it is all that we can do to get the early warning radar up and down the coast to watch for this thing as it just had it's day with us.
Admiral Trane and his staff were quite concerned about it to say the least. They were quite concerned especially once they found out that it wasn't the Russians and it wasn't us and he wasn't aware of anyone else who had the technology to build such a craft that could move about so easily and so quickly. I remember distinctly looking over the rail of the mezzanine and just watching complete chaos break out because of their inability to keep an eye on this thing, whatever it was.
The UFO was moving around so erratically and so quickly up and down the coast$B!&(BThey were trying to notify as many commands as they could up and down the coast to track this thing or get a plane up. Admiral Trane was scrambling and authorizing planes just left and right up and down the whole eastern seaboard to try and cut this thing off and to get some planes from the north and south to literally track it and to force it down. It was clear that they wanted to recover it, to force it down by whatever means possible.
The order was given by Admiral Trane to try and get this object forced down out of the sky if at all possible, by whatever means possible. After they found out and knew for certainty that it wasn't the Russians, they didn't care who it was as long as it wasn't the Russians. They didn't care who it was or where it was from. They wanted it and they wanted it bad.
The information coming in from the Command Center was being relayed to us from different radar sites that we have up and down the eastern coast that watch our airspace.
I would describe the officers as being scared. Yeah, they were scared to put it in a nutshell. Admiral Trane was usually a very calm man of very mild demeanor a really nice fellow. And you never really saw him lose control or raise his voice or get excited about anything. But this really got him upset to say the least. I would say that was the impression that I had from most of the officers there- they were just as much in the dark and scared as everybody else.
They would actually not track it down the coast. It would just appear hundreds of miles from the last sighting. And the pilots said that one moment it was there and the next moment it wasn't. And I think that that was one of the things that really had Admiral Trane's hackles up because he didn't have any control of it or the situation.
This thing just had a mind of its own and was causing such an uproar up and down the eastern coast. Admiral Trane was ultimately responsible at that time and I am sure it was stressing him out quite a great deal. You could tell by his tone of voice. You could just tell by listening to him that he was very, very, very worried.
But on radar we were keeping track of it one minute and then we would absolutely lose it, and then we would pick it up. It would just appear as an unauthorized vehicle in military airspace.
And trust me, the military knows where every commercial flight is at all times. We knew where every plane we had was at all times. We knew where every commercial flight coming through our airspace was at all times. There just wasn't anything going on that we didn't know about it. All the planes that were scrambled were put up off of the shore facilities- the Navy has shore facilities, the Naval Air station for example, Oceania.
When you set a Condition Zebra, whether it is a drill or not people are not authorized to be there who do not have a Zebra Access Badge. It is a zebra striped area on your clearance badge. They have to leave the Command facility and we have Marines stationed inside and outside the building there that were under orders to shoot any unauthorized personnel that remained in the Command Center during one of these episodes. That was for the interest of national security.
For example, one time a Condition Zebra was called and the Marine comes in and wants to know what is going on. Is this a drill or so forth? They have got orders to start shooting people. And I know because I actually got the Junior OOD's attention and said, "Hey, you guys need to tell this guy something. He is ready to start shooting people." They haven't told him to stand down yet, which he did. And I remember wanting to just get the hell out of there because he came in there and he said, "You have got a minute or two. If I don't find out something" (he was ready to come in there and start shooting people, destroying evidence.
When this event, as I refer to it, ended, the object that we had been chasing up and down the seaboard headed out over the Atlantic, over the Azores. I do remember them saying that it had pulled up at a 66 degree angle as it approached the Azores like this, and it just pulled up at a 66 degree angle without slowing down or anything and left the atmosphere and was gone into space. It just took off into space and was gone like that (snaps fingers). I mean it just absolutely left. You are talking about something that covered thousands of miles in a blink of an eye and it was just gone and it just left everyone sitting around scratching their heads. "Gee whiz, I wonder what that was."
It was comical in a way to see how the vast military might of the United States was put on its knees by something they had no idea what it was, where it came from, where it was going or anything. The only thing that they knew for sure was that it wasn't the Soviets and they were very adamant about finding that out.
So we secured from Condition Zebra. They turned the lights up. Everyone was sitting around talking about it down on the command floor. I am up here by myself on the third deck. Admiral Trane is down here in his briefing area. They stayed for a few minutes before they left. I made a note of it in my logbook like you had to do. Then I really didn't give it much more thought.
Later, these two guys came in, in suits. They weren't in military uniform. They just came in, in suits and they had their little badges on but they didn't have Zebra Striped badges. It was like a visitor badge. You could tell that they weren't regular personnel. And I didn't know them from Tom, Dick, or Harry. I had never seen these guys before. So we go downstairs to the first floor and there were several little conference rooms and they took me into one that they already set up and sat me down- and they had my logbook. They got that and took it down with me.
These two gentlemen began to question me about this event. They were being pretty rough about it to be honest with you. I remember literally putting my hands up and saying, "Wait a minute fellows. I'm on your side. Just a minute," because they were not really nice. They were very intimidating and made it quite clear to the point that nothing that was seen, heard, or witnessed, that transpired was to leave this building. "You are not to say a word about it to your co-workers. And off base, you just forget everything that you may have seen or heard concerning this. It didn't happen." They were nasty, I guess is a good way to put it. I distinctly remember sitting back in my chair and I put my hands up and had to tell these guys, "Wait a minute, we are on the same side fellows. We don't have a problem here."
You got the impression that they would do bodily harm to you otherwise, without really coming out and threatening you. You could just tell by their tone of voice when someone is saying, "Hey buddy, do what I say or else."
If this object had been hostile and wanted to drop weapons or shoot missiles at us, or whatever, it would have been very easy for them to do that. There was no question about that. We didn't have anything at that time that could hold a candle to whatever this was. And it just had its own free run of our airspace and could do anything it wanted as far as traveling. We did not pose any threat to it whatsoever. That was painfully obvious, very much so. I do believe that Admiral Trane knew that too and was quite afraid. Just in a word I would say that that old boy was just plain scared.
SG: Whatever happened to the photographs of the UFO?
MM: That is a really good point that you raised about what happened to the 35 mm slides that we had. That is a really good point that you have there because we never got around to putting them up on the Telesign [sp] for Admiral Trane to actually view. They were just prepared. I can remember her [the technician dealing with the slides] telling me that these two men in suits came in, got up all the film developed and undeveloped and all the materials that they had with it and the slides. My logbook, I never did see that again. I know that we had a new logbook the next day- a brand spanking new one to start with. I don't know what happened to it and nobody really knew what happened to it.
This technician also said, "These two guys came in here and read us the riot act and wanted this, that and the other and rounded up all their stuff and they weren't real nice."
This event went down as just an unidentified flying object. They never did know what it was. I remember the Watch Officer and the JOD and the OOD, Officer of the Deck and Junior Officer of the Deck, I do remember them looking at each other talking. And I am just hanging my head over listening and they are talking to each other about how to put it in their logbook. They just said, "Put it down as an unidentified flying object contact and that is it."
I would say that the facilities that actually had this UFO on radar- there were five that I am sure of, and that is from Greenland all the way to Florida, and there may be some others that I don't know. I know this because Admiral Trane was giving orders to NAS Oceania, "Let's get some planes up from there, scramble some fighters." He did make a call for them to alert Dover Air Force Base, Patuxent River, Maryland, Cecil Field down in Florida.
When I got out, I received an official United States Navy document on the Navy letterhead. They gave me this document where for five years it was absolutely out of the question for me to leave the country under any circumstances whatsoever. And to leave the state of Virginia I had to contact the Roanoke office of the FBI and let them know if I just wanted to cross the state line to go into North Carolina. And that was for five years after I was discharged.
I also wanted to tell you about this member of my wife's family. Jack Booth is his name. He is dead now but he was in the army and he was stationed at Roswell when the Roswell incident happened. He was my wife's uncle- my wife's mother's brother. He was from Bluefield, West Virginia. He said that when he was just a kid in the army, he was at Roswell (NM) when this thing, whatever it was, crashed. And he was there pulling guard duty when they went out to the crash site. A truckload of them went to pick debris up and whatnot, and he was there when they actually did recover the bodies. He said, "I am telling you that they put little bitty guys in body bags and they weren't humans. They were just little odd-looking fellows. They were nothing like a human." And they put them in body bags and one or two of them were still conscious or alive or something like that from the crash. There were actual survivors from this crash according to him.
They were picking up all the little pieces of the craft and he said that they actually put those guys down shoulder to shoulder on their hands and knees and went across the debris area picking up any little speck and scrap that they had. And they did it for days. He said that they were all threatened. He said they just came right out and said, "Look, if you say anything about this you might just turn up missing tomorrow."
He did say that. They didn't make any bones about it and came right to the point about letting them know how much they wanted to keep this under wraps. He said, "I'm telling you I was there."
Another man I met who knew about this subject was John Michael Murphy. He was a Marine Corp Corporal when I was in the Navy. He was stationed down there at the security barracks at CINC-ANT Fleet. He was part of the security detail there for the base. Murphy swore up and down that when he was still in the Marine Corp that he had actually guarded a spaceship, an extraterrestrial craft at a facility not far from Dover Air Force Base over in Delaware. Knowing Murphy as I did, I would believe him. I would believe Murphy. This would have been 1979 maybe, 1980.
[This testimony is of great significance because the witness had such a high security clearance top secret SCI with Zebra stripes and was personally involved in a prolonged encounter with an extraterrestrial vehicle for over one hour that was on at least five radar scopes, visually contacted by pilots, etc. It underscores the need for a general disclosure on the subject since the dangers to world peace and security resulting from our forces chasing and attempting to down such advanced craft are obvious. In briefings that I have done for senior CIA and Pentagon officials, often we find these men are not at all adequately informed about the subject and might react in a similarly dangerous fashion shown here by Admiral Trane's orders to down the object. In the vacuum of secrecy, terrible mistakes can be made due to a lack of knowledge and perspective. For this reason we continue to call for an ending of secrecy on this subject so that our military and national security leaders can be adequately informed and so diplomats and other leaders in society can formulate an appropriate, safe, and peaceful response to the extraterrestrial civilizations which are already observing our world. The stakes are too high to allow this matter to be the domain of only covert projects or unprepared military leaders. The danger here is not from the extraterrestrial vehicles per se but from a lack of knowledge and preparation in how to properly deal with their presence. SG]
Testimony of Sgt. Clifford Stone,
U. S. Army (ret.), September, 2000
Stone has seen living and dead ETs in his official duties on an army team that retrieved crashed ET craft. He tells an amazing story about the history of UFOs and extraterrestrials dating back.. and probably before. Gen. Douglas MacArthur organized a group called the Interplanetary Phenomena Research Unit back in 1943 to study this issue and it continues to this day. Their purpose is to recover objects of unknown origin. They obtain field intelligence information and pass it on to those who are "keepers of this information." Stone says that even Project Bluebook had an elite investigation unit which was outside of Bluebook. This unit was thought to be working in conjunction with Bluebook but in fact was not.
Sgt. Clifford Stone: ...During the discussion of UFOs the question, ultimately, is going to come up, can any government keep secrets, let alone the U. S. government? And the answer to that is, unequivocally, yes...we look for a prosaic explanation and we throw out the bits and pieces of the evidence that doesn't meet our paradigm. So it is a self-keeping secret. You can conceal it in plain sight. It is political suicide to go and start hitting up intelligence agencies to get this information released. So, most of your members of Congress, and I know, I've worked with a lot of them along that line, will balk and try not to do it...When I got members of Congress to help me open up more files, they were immediately destroyed and I can prove this...only a small nucleus within the intelligence community, numbering less than...50 control all that information. It is not subject to congressional review or oversight at all...
Now, in order to prepare me for this...they sent me to NBC School...NBC meaning Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical. And it would always be in the context of an NBC unit that I would be involved in UFO retrievals...
I am prepared to state that I have been at locations where craft of unknown origin that did not originate on the face of this planet were there...we saw living and dead bodies of entities that were not born on this planet...that we had what they referred to as "interfacing" with those entities...that when I got out of the service in 1990, that they held me for two months so that I might better reconsider to stay in and not get out...We have contact with aliens...originating...from some other solar system. And I have been a party to that. I've worked it. I've been there. And I know some of the things we do are really, really...terrible. They are not hostile towards us...I have concluded that I am fighting against the clock. That I have but a short time to try to convince people that we are moving down an avenue where we are going to militarize space...
Testimony of Master Sgt. Dan Morris
USAF, (ret.)/NRO Operative September, 2000
Dan Morris is a retired Air Force career Master Sergeant who was involved in extraterrestrial projects for many years. After leaving the Air Force, he was recruited into the super secret National Reconnaissance Organization (NRO), during which time he worked specifically on extraterrestrial-connected operations. He had a cosmic top-secret clearance (38 levels above top secret) which, he states, no U. S. president, to his knowledge, has ever held. In his testimony, he talks of assassinations committed by the NSA; he tells how our military deliberately caused the 1947 ET craft crashes near Roswell, and captured one of the ETs, which they kept at Los Alamos for three years until it died. He talks about the intelligence teams that were charged with intimidating, discrediting, and even eliminating witnesses to ET/UFO events. He talks about Germany's re-engineering of UFOs, even prior to WWII. He talks about our current energy crisis and the fact that we have not needed fossil fuels since the 1940s, when free energy technologies were developed but have been kept from humanity. This is the real reason for the secrecy of the ET/UFO subject.
Master Sergeant Dan Morris: I had a clearance 38 levels above top secret. It is for UFOs and aliens, etc. No president has had that level...Eisenhower was the closest...And then there were several secret intelligence agencies. One that did not exist, it was so secret, was the NRO...If you're on that level, then there's an organization worldwide called ACIO, that's Alien Contact Intelligence Organization. If you pay your dues and you follow the rules, your government is allowed to benefit from that organization's information,.so I called headquarters. I said, "Okay, we have a contact."... He says, "What do you mean...?"...I said, "I mean there are three UFOs sitting out there."...I became part of a group that would investigate, gather the information, and in the beginning it was still under the Blue Book, Snowbird and different covert programs. I would go interview people who claimed they had seen something and try to convince them they hadn't seen something or that they were hallucinating. Well, if that didn't work, another team would come in and give all the threats. And threaten them and their family and so on and so forth. And they would be in charge of discrediting them, making them look foolish...Now, if that didn't work, then there was another team that put an end to that problem, one way or another...So there would be cover stories deliberately put out and then de-bunked. Information, disinformation has been going on for 50 years.
For Testimony of Astronaut Edgar Mitchell and part 1,
see:
Disclosure Project on UFO/ET Presence
and for more info:
DisclosureProject.org
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Disclosure Project - UFO/ET Documentation
"Yes there have been ET visitations.
There have been crashed craft. There have
been material and bodies recovered. And there
is some group of people. . . attempting to conceal
this knowledge or not permit it to be widely disseminated."
-- Edgar Mitchell,
Astronaut, (May, 1998)
Editor's Notes: After reading dozens of testimonies collected and distributed by the Disclosure Project, one must consider supporting a group of former government workers, many of them military and security officials, who stepped forward to say they had witnessed evidence of aliens and unidentified flying objects and called for congressional hearings about such sightings. This FN resource was first posted 12 May, 2001, and updated!
Youtube 2010-2011 Overview
UFO mainstream news coverage
MASS SIGHTINGS WORLDWIDE
December, 2011 - Disclose.TV - History Channel
SECRET ACCESS: UFOs On The Record
Astounding Sci-Fi Channel documentary
Out of the Blue
Revealing interviews with astronauts, generals,
admirals, professors, and other respected people.
"Best UFO Documentary Ever"
- Fred Burks
Former language interpreter for Presidents Bush and Clinton
30 September 2010 - National Press Club - WantToKnow.info
US Air Force Officers Speak Out on UFOs
15 September 2010 - Reuters - PR Newswire
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Have Been Compromised
by Unidentified Aerial Objects
WantToKnow.info Resource Links
UFOs: Nuclear Missile Warheads Shut Down
Insiders Account of UFO Shutting Down 18 Nuclear Warheads
15 October 2010 - NewsBlogged - Youtube
Video: UFO Sighting NYC 10/13/10
14 October 2010 - Fox News - UFO blogger
Fox News Accidentally Recorded Live UFO
Sighting Over New York On October 13th 2010
14 October 2010 - UFO Digest - Jon Kelly
NYC UFO Fleet predicted by retired NORAD officer?
23 October 2010 - Examiner.com - Stanley A. Fulham
ET council: 'We will increase UFOs,
address U.N. in 2014, renew ecology in 2015'
08 August 2010 - Latest UFO Sightings - GWETV
Unknown Lights Recorded Over Manhattan, NY
03 February 2011 - Huffington Post - AOL
Jerusalem UFO Spottings Over Islamic
Landmark Surface Spark Debate VIDEO
UFOs, Aliens and Secrets
Published by ABC News, May 10, 2001
"They're out there and the government knows."
That's according to a group of about 20 former government workers, many of them military and security officials, who stepped forward on Wednesday to say they had witnessed evidence of aliens and unidentified flying objects and called for congressional hearings about such sightings.
"These testimonies establish once and for all that we are not alone," said Steven Greer, director of the Disclosure Project, a nonprofit research organization dedicated to disclosing alleged alien sightings.
Greer, who organized the program at the National Press Club in Washington, argued that the United States and other governments have known about UFOs for at least 50 years and have been keeping the information secret.
Greer said there were some 400 witnesses who claim to have firsthand experience with UFO sightings or alien evidence, and are willing to testify before Congress.
Among them is Daniel Sheehan, a well-known Washington lawyer who is acting as counsel for members of Greer's group.
Sheehan told reporters that during the Carter administration he found out about government-held UFO information that then-CIA Director George Bush, father of the current president, would not release.
Sheehan said he was then led into the National Archives, where he was shown photographs of captured UFOs, complete with what appeared to be alien writing symbols, but he was only allowed to take notes on a yellow legal pad. He traced the photos onto the cardboard back of his pad, he said.
The original URL source for article was: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/ufo010509.html
Updated- UFO in Texas Witnessed by dozens of credible people
Residents of rural Texas town abuzz over UFO sightings
By Angela K. Brown - Associated Press Writer
January 15, 2008
Standing near the area where he saw a large silent object in the sky, Ricky Sorrells talks about the sighting in Dublin, Texas. Sorrells said he has seen the object several times, and was glad to read that other people had seen it, too, because that means Im not crazy.
Stephenville, Texas In this farming community where nightfall usually brings clear, starry skies, residents are abuzz over reported sightings of what many believe is a UFO.
Several dozen people including a pilot, county constable and business owners insist they have seen a large silent object with bright lights flying low and fast. Some reported seeing fighter jets chasing it.
People wonder what in the world it is because this is the Bible Belt, and everyone is afraid its the end of times, said Steve Allen, a freight company owner and pilot who said the object he saw last week was a mile long and half a mile wide. It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts.
Truncated, for the complete article, see:
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2008/jan/15/residents_rural_texas_town_abuzz_over_ufo_sighting/
or
Item 7) UFO in Texas Witnessed by dozens of credible people
Excerpts from Project Disclosure of UFO-Related Testimonies
Testimony of Astronaut Edgar Mitchell
May 1998 [The director of the Disclosure Project is Steven Greer (SG)]
[Our deepest gratitude goes to James Fox for sharing with us this interview. SG]
In February 1971 Astronaut Edgar Mitchell flew on Apollo 14 and was the 6th man to walk on the moon. In his testimony, he acknowledges the fact that there have been ET visitations here on Earth as well as crashed craft and recovered materials and bodies. He also speaks of the concealment that has been prevalent surrounding this subject for over 50 years and the lack of oversight and visible Government control. He is concerned over our stewardship of this Earth and sees our growing environmental crisis as real.
EM: Astronaut Edgar Mitchell JF: James Fox
EM: In the literature we see accounts from military people who have had encounters in flight, and been vectored to chase unidentified objects. These are people who have official positions whose job was to know about possible extraterrestrial visitation and to do something with it, people within Government.
There's a lot that does go on with these high security classifications-they are under military rules. I think it is a fairly muddy area when we are talking about this level of activity. There are some stories [about how secrecy has been enforced] that are rather ghastly, as a matter of fact. I can't validate those. I don't know that they are necessarily true. But, like many other stories, they put fear in the hearts of people and that's, perhaps, why many people don't want to come forward.
My interest basically is what's the nature of the universe we live in? What is our relationship to the larger reality? If [UFOs] are a part of the larger reality and we are denying it, that to me is unconscionable. I don't live that way. I went into space to learn about the universe we live in, to get new insights, to go beyond the boundaries of our known existence. And if these phenomena are really indicators of new information about the cosmos at all, and intelligent life in the cosmos, and our ability to travel in the cosmos, then we ought to get to the bottom of it. It is just my curiosity that drives me.
There seems to have been, over the last 50 years at least, a great deal of secrecy surrounding the so-called UFO events. It's a very complex subject. We are not dealing with something that's very simple here. We have sightings of all sorts. We've been reporting thousands and thousands of sightings for 50 years or so. Large numbers of those sightings are indeed misperceiving natural phenomenon in some way. But a large number of them are not misperceiving. They are well documented events that represent flying craft that do not match anything we have in an Earthbound arsenal, which is very short of saying we have validated in the public domain that they are ET craft. We have to rely upon people who have been there and interacted, have firsthand data.
The only people I know of that claim to have been in that position are former intelligence, military, and Government people, and some contractor people whose official duties in the early days were to investigate this and know about it. Those people were under, at that time, great restrictions and high security clearances that prevented them from telling the general public about it. It would appear that period has long past but they are still under security restriction, or at least believe they are.
Yes there have been ET visitations. There have been crashed craft. There have been material and bodies recovered. And there is some group of people somewhere that may or may not be associated with Government at this point, but certainly were at one time, that have this knowledge. They have been attempting to conceal this knowledge or not permit it to be widely disseminated.
I cannot answer who are these people. But there is a lot of evidence that points to what I call a clandestine group- people who have some quasi affiliation with Government and certain Government facilities but operate in a very stealth and secret way that is not generally under high level Government control as far as we can tell. From all that I know, yes there has been ET visitation and may continue to be. There have been craft that have been recovered. There has been a certain amount of reverse engineering that has allowed some of these craft, or some components, to be duplicated. And, that there are Earthlings who are utilizing some of this equipment in certain ways.
And, that, perhaps a large part of the activity that's classified as UFO activity- abductions and the whole host of this type of activity- may very well not be due to ET activity at all. I would suspect if any is due to ET activity, it is a rather small part. And a larger portion is due to human type activity, Earthling type activity in a very clandestine fashion.
I will stop short of attaching motivation to this. I don't know the motivation. But if it is normal human motivation, it has to do with power and control and greed and money and so forth.
I think it is long past time to open this up to the public. I do not see anything that suggests, really, malevolent intent. We see things that, like abductions for example, that many would claim are hostile. To the extent that that may be true, I would more likely attribute it to some other [non ET] cause.
There is a mountain of evidence, if you will, that essentially amounts to smoking gun evidence that has not been brought forward at this point, at least not by the powers of Government.
The question of, has it been kept secret, or how could it be kept secret? It hasn't been kept secret. It's been there all along. But it has been the subject of disinformation in order to deflect attention and to create confusion so the truth doesn't come out. Disinformation is simply another method of stonewalling. And that's been used consistently for the last 50 years or so: Weather balloons over Roswell as opposed to a crashed craft of some sort. That is disinformation. We've seen that for 50 years. And it's the best way to hide something.
It shouldn't be any more of an effect that ET's have come here than that we have gone to the moon. Okay? It's just a part of the way things are. And we have to understand it and put it in context of the story of ourselves, our knowledge base, of cosmology, the nature of our existence, who are we, how does the world work. And of course that knowledge does change our understanding of how the world, or the universe at large, works. Until the last 30 years, it was conventional wisdom, both in science and theology, that we are alone in the universe, that we are the whole, single repository of life anywhere in the known universe. Well no one believes that anymore. That changes our concept of who we are and how we fit.
And it is becoming very clear that the way we have conducted ourselves as stewards of life on planet Earth is wanting. We haven't been good stewards. We have environmental, global problems right now that are bringing civilization to a crisis. And people don't want to hear that but it's slowly becoming obvious that that is true. And so, this knowledge of who we are, how we manage a planet, how we fit into the larger scheme of things, is a very important question.
Well, Dr. Greer did indeed mount an initiative and did go to Washington, did speak with high level Government people, did present some of the witnesses that we've talked about here, to give briefings. He has asked for congressional hearings on these matters. I attended and helped him with that. And I believe it is a very important effort that we get congressional oversight of all of this. But so far, that hasn't happened. We briefed certain members of Congress, some of their staff, some of the people from the White House. We talked with people in the Pentagon. And in general, it was well received and some were quite amazed at what they heard. But so far it hasn't resulted in any great activity.
JF: Was this news to a lot of their ears?
EM: To some people, yes. Others, not really so much. But I will say, it led me to the belief that people in high level Government have very, very little, if any, valid information about this. Most have no more knowledge than the man in the street. They were out of the loop of the things we were talking about, that's right.
JF: Is that a concern for you?
EM: Oh yes, it's a very great concern. I have expressed this concern over and over. That is exactly what I'm saying: whatever activity is going on, to the extent that it is a clandestine group, a quasi-Government group, a quasi-private group, it is without any type, as far as I can tell, of high level Government oversight. And that is a great concern.
[Astronaut Mitchell here is referring to the 1997 Briefings that Dr. Greer organized for Congress, White House personnel, the Pentagon and others. There were over a dozen government and military witnesses present who testified regarding what they personally had seen related to UFOs and ET matters. It was indeed disconcerting to see so many high government officials and senior Pentagon officers who had been kept in the dark about something as important as this. SG]
FN-post 12 May 2001
Testimony of Merle Shane McDow,
US Navy Atlantic Command - October 2000
Mr. McDow entered the Navy in 1978 and gained a top-secret, Special Compartmented Intelligence (SCI) clearance with a Zebra Stripes. He was assigned to the Atlantic Operational Support Facility, Atlantic Command, then under Admiral Trane. Mr. McDow was present when a UFO was tracked by radar and seen by pilots visually moving at high speed up and down the Atlantic coast. The Command Center was put on Zebra alert and Admiral Trane gave the order to force down the UFO. Mr. McDow discusses the threats, intimidation and confiscation of logbooks that occurred after the event.
MM: Merle McDow
SG: Dr. Steven Greer
MM: I enlisted in the United States Navy in August of 1978, and was assigned to the USS America, where unfortunately I sustained some injuries on the flight deck while performing my duties. I then went to CINC-ANT Fleet, Atlantic Command Support Facility in Norfolk, Virginia on Hampton Boulevard. I was directly assigned to AOSF, Division 22; we were a group of about eleven people then. We were directly responsible for briefing Admiral Trane who was the Commander in Chief, Atlantic Command. We briefed him on current military operations around the world, what the Soviets were doing that day, what they had done the night before, etc.
AOSF is just an acronym for Atlantic Operational Support Facility and CINC-ANT Fleet is another acronym for Commander in Chief-Atlantic Fleet, which Admiral Trane was at the time. Everyone on the eastern seaboard answered to this man.
After a six month wait I got a top-secret, Special Compartmented Intelligence (SCI) clearance, with a zebra stripe identification badge, which permitted access to all facilities on the base at all times. I had unrestricted access to any facility at any time as well as the Command Center to which it was specifically assigned. My station was up on the mezzanine, or the third deck as we called it, over the Command Center. My job was to make sure that any incoming and outgoing audio/video information that came into the Command Center was recorded and duly logged for reference in case they needed it later.
I recorded all of the video and audio- everything that is going on- even when they called a Condition Zebra alert. This was generally a training exercise that they would announce beforehand by saying, "This is a drill. This is a drill. Set Condition Zebra." and unauthorized personnel would then be escorted out of the Command Center if they didn't already know that they had to leave.
Condition Zebra is the highest level of alert that the Navy [at that time had been] generally dealing with global nuclear threats, in particular the Soviets. Soviet Bearcats were routinely patrolling up and down the eastern seaboard watching what we were doing. And we would set a Condition Zebra if we had the need to put planes in the air to escort the bearcats out of the area if they were a little too close to our airspace or if they had ships in the area that were suspicious acting, for instance. Or we would have a drill, for instance, when they would get out the MAD books to wage nuclear war. The Watch Officer and the Junior Watch Officer, the JOD, had keys to a safe and they would get these books out called the MAD books "Mutual Assured Destruction" and they would have the codes that were necessary to transmit to the submarines if necessary, to launch a nuclear strike. And not many people were allowed in the Command Center when that was going on because they actually did use the codes and so forth. I am sure the Soviets and any others person who were enemies of the United States would like to get their hands on that information.
The Zebra Classification- well, without that you were not allowed authorized access to these facilities during this drill and the Zebra Drill was specifically for the highest level of top-secret information that was being exchanged between the Command Center and ships and/or submarines at sea.
Well, about this incident: The day started out pretty routine. I would say this was around the first week or two in May [1981] to the best of my knowledge. So everything was going along pretty routinely when they dimmed the lights (they did this first in the Command Center when they set a Condition Zebra alert). Most of the time when they set these drills they would say, "This is a drill. This is a drill. Set Condition Zebra." But they turned the lights down this time and they didn't say, "This is a drill." And the Watch Officer and the Junior Watch Officer looked at each other and told some of their assistants to verify whether or not this was a drill as the event was taking place. And the early warning system- I believe it came in from an Air Force base in Greenland or Nova Scotia at that time- said that we had contact with an unidentified flying object that had entered our air space. And they said that this was not a drill and so it was treated with the utmost promptness and everyone started running around like mad once they realized that it wasn't a drill. It took on a whole different air.
Within moments of that, the Watch Officer summoned Admiral Trane over to the Command Center because this was a little out of his area of authorization for lack of a better way to put it. It required Admiral Trane's oversight. And within minutes Admiral Trane was rushed into the Command Center into his viewing booth that he had right under the Mezzanine there and the first thing that Admiral Trane wanted to know was how many contacts we had, where they were, which direction were they going, and were the Soviets responding. Because we knew that it wasn't the Soviets that had entered our airspace. That was verified from the get go, from the start.
At that point, when Admiral Trane found out that it wasn't the Soviets and that he wanted to know were the Soviets responding to this threat also, that was the moment that he gave authorization to put two planes up to go see what this thing was. And that was when the chasing up and down the eastern seaboard began. We launched planes from as far north as Greenland to NAS (Naval Air Station) Oceania. This object, we had it on radar- this event lasted almost an hour. You could hear the pilots live voice transmissions being piped into the Command Center. And they had visual confirmation of the object and made descriptions of the object. Pilots were able to close a couple of times and were able to see that the object was not an aircraft that we were familiar with- it was nothing that we had and nothing that the Soviets had. That was determined very quickly. This vehicle or whatever it was that they were chasing showed very erratic flight up and down the coast, quick flight.
It would actually be off the coast of Maine, for instance, and would leave the airspace in that area so quickly that we were having to have planes coming out of Dover Air Force base just to pick it up just in what seemed like moments. Well, I know for a fact that it would take an F-14 probably thirty minutes to traverse that much distance but this object, whatever it was, was just popping up. One minute it was here and the next minute bam, it was down several hundred miles down the coast, just playing tag.
It did go all the way down to a point off the coast of Florida around Mayport, the Naval Air station that we have down there at Cecil Field. And that was before it turned and took what would have been an easterly direction from our vantage point back up towards the Azores before we actually lost track of it.
During all this, we were using satellites called the KH-11 satellites that we use for information gathering. And this satellite did have a very high capability of taking really good photographs of things literally within a few feet of the ground from a vantage point out in outer space. And they were trying to get the KH-11 satellite to track this thing to get some photographs of it. The photographs that we did get back in the Command Center later on came from the first encounters that the planes had with it off of the northern North American coast. They did get close enough to get some photographs taken that were later brought over to the Command Center.
Well, from the photograph I remember the shape was more like a cylinder; it was quite flat and long. It had abrupt ends. The ends didn't taper down like most aircraft. It just came to an abrupt end and it did appear to be reflecting sunlight and you could clearly tell that it was metallic. And the pilots were giving information such as it was not leaving behind a vapor trail, no discernable lights or markings on it, no cockpit windows or doors, nothing like that. It just seemed to be one solid thing whatever it was.
What was really bugging Admiral Trane, what was really driving him nuts, was this thing absolutely had complete control of the situation and could be anywhere that it wanted to be in a matter of seconds. One minute we were closing on it off the coast of Maine and the next minute it is in Norfolk heading south towards Florida. And it is all that we can do to get the early warning radar up and down the coast to watch for this thing as it just had it's day with us.
Admiral Trane and his staff were quite concerned about it to say the least. They were quite concerned especially once they found out that it wasn't the Russians and it wasn't us and he wasn't aware of anyone else who had the technology to build such a craft that could move about so easily and so quickly. I remember distinctly looking over the rail of the mezzanine and just watching complete chaos break out because of their inability to keep an eye on this thing, whatever it was.
The UFO was moving around so erratically and so quickly up and down the coast$B!&(BThey were trying to notify as many commands as they could up and down the coast to track this thing or get a plane up. Admiral Trane was scrambling and authorizing planes just left and right up and down the whole eastern seaboard to try and cut this thing off and to get some planes from the north and south to literally track it and to force it down. It was clear that they wanted to recover it, to force it down by whatever means possible.
The order was given by Admiral Trane to try and get this object forced down out of the sky if at all possible, by whatever means possible. After they found out and knew for certainty that it wasn't the Russians, they didn't care who it was as long as it wasn't the Russians. They didn't care who it was or where it was from. They wanted it and they wanted it bad.
The information coming in from the Command Center was being relayed to us from different radar sites that we have up and down the eastern coast that watch our airspace.
I would describe the officers as being scared. Yeah, they were scared to put it in a nutshell. Admiral Trane was usually a very calm man of very mild demeanor a really nice fellow. And you never really saw him lose control or raise his voice or get excited about anything. But this really got him upset to say the least. I would say that was the impression that I had from most of the officers there- they were just as much in the dark and scared as everybody else.
They would actually not track it down the coast. It would just appear hundreds of miles from the last sighting. And the pilots said that one moment it was there and the next moment it wasn't. And I think that that was one of the things that really had Admiral Trane's hackles up because he didn't have any control of it or the situation.
This thing just had a mind of its own and was causing such an uproar up and down the eastern coast. Admiral Trane was ultimately responsible at that time and I am sure it was stressing him out quite a great deal. You could tell by his tone of voice. You could just tell by listening to him that he was very, very, very worried.
But on radar we were keeping track of it one minute and then we would absolutely lose it, and then we would pick it up. It would just appear as an unauthorized vehicle in military airspace.
And trust me, the military knows where every commercial flight is at all times. We knew where every plane we had was at all times. We knew where every commercial flight coming through our airspace was at all times. There just wasn't anything going on that we didn't know about it. All the planes that were scrambled were put up off of the shore facilities- the Navy has shore facilities, the Naval Air station for example, Oceania.
When you set a Condition Zebra, whether it is a drill or not people are not authorized to be there who do not have a Zebra Access Badge. It is a zebra striped area on your clearance badge. They have to leave the Command facility and we have Marines stationed inside and outside the building there that were under orders to shoot any unauthorized personnel that remained in the Command Center during one of these episodes. That was for the interest of national security.
For example, one time a Condition Zebra was called and the Marine comes in and wants to know what is going on. Is this a drill or so forth? They have got orders to start shooting people. And I know because I actually got the Junior OOD's attention and said, "Hey, you guys need to tell this guy something. He is ready to start shooting people." They haven't told him to stand down yet, which he did. And I remember wanting to just get the hell out of there because he came in there and he said, "You have got a minute or two. If I don't find out something" (he was ready to come in there and start shooting people, destroying evidence.
When this event, as I refer to it, ended, the object that we had been chasing up and down the seaboard headed out over the Atlantic, over the Azores. I do remember them saying that it had pulled up at a 66 degree angle as it approached the Azores like this, and it just pulled up at a 66 degree angle without slowing down or anything and left the atmosphere and was gone into space. It just took off into space and was gone like that (snaps fingers). I mean it just absolutely left. You are talking about something that covered thousands of miles in a blink of an eye and it was just gone and it just left everyone sitting around scratching their heads. "Gee whiz, I wonder what that was."
It was comical in a way to see how the vast military might of the United States was put on its knees by something they had no idea what it was, where it came from, where it was going or anything. The only thing that they knew for sure was that it wasn't the Soviets and they were very adamant about finding that out.
So we secured from Condition Zebra. They turned the lights up. Everyone was sitting around talking about it down on the command floor. I am up here by myself on the third deck. Admiral Trane is down here in his briefing area. They stayed for a few minutes before they left. I made a note of it in my logbook like you had to do. Then I really didn't give it much more thought.
Later, these two guys came in, in suits. They weren't in military uniform. They just came in, in suits and they had their little badges on but they didn't have Zebra Striped badges. It was like a visitor badge. You could tell that they weren't regular personnel. And I didn't know them from Tom, Dick, or Harry. I had never seen these guys before. So we go downstairs to the first floor and there were several little conference rooms and they took me into one that they already set up and sat me down- and they had my logbook. They got that and took it down with me.
These two gentlemen began to question me about this event. They were being pretty rough about it to be honest with you. I remember literally putting my hands up and saying, "Wait a minute fellows. I'm on your side. Just a minute," because they were not really nice. They were very intimidating and made it quite clear to the point that nothing that was seen, heard, or witnessed, that transpired was to leave this building. "You are not to say a word about it to your co-workers. And off base, you just forget everything that you may have seen or heard concerning this. It didn't happen." They were nasty, I guess is a good way to put it. I distinctly remember sitting back in my chair and I put my hands up and had to tell these guys, "Wait a minute, we are on the same side fellows. We don't have a problem here."
You got the impression that they would do bodily harm to you otherwise, without really coming out and threatening you. You could just tell by their tone of voice when someone is saying, "Hey buddy, do what I say or else."
If this object had been hostile and wanted to drop weapons or shoot missiles at us, or whatever, it would have been very easy for them to do that. There was no question about that. We didn't have anything at that time that could hold a candle to whatever this was. And it just had its own free run of our airspace and could do anything it wanted as far as traveling. We did not pose any threat to it whatsoever. That was painfully obvious, very much so. I do believe that Admiral Trane knew that too and was quite afraid. Just in a word I would say that that old boy was just plain scared.
SG: Whatever happened to the photographs of the UFO?
MM: That is a really good point that you raised about what happened to the 35 mm slides that we had. That is a really good point that you have there because we never got around to putting them up on the Telesign [sp] for Admiral Trane to actually view. They were just prepared. I can remember her [the technician dealing with the slides] telling me that these two men in suits came in, got up all the film developed and undeveloped and all the materials that they had with it and the slides. My logbook, I never did see that again. I know that we had a new logbook the next day- a brand spanking new one to start with. I don't know what happened to it and nobody really knew what happened to it.
This technician also said, "These two guys came in here and read us the riot act and wanted this, that and the other and rounded up all their stuff and they weren't real nice."
This event went down as just an unidentified flying object. They never did know what it was. I remember the Watch Officer and the JOD and the OOD, Officer of the Deck and Junior Officer of the Deck, I do remember them looking at each other talking. And I am just hanging my head over listening and they are talking to each other about how to put it in their logbook. They just said, "Put it down as an unidentified flying object contact and that is it."
I would say that the facilities that actually had this UFO on radar- there were five that I am sure of, and that is from Greenland all the way to Florida, and there may be some others that I don't know. I know this because Admiral Trane was giving orders to NAS Oceania, "Let's get some planes up from there, scramble some fighters." He did make a call for them to alert Dover Air Force Base, Patuxent River, Maryland, Cecil Field down in Florida.
When I got out, I received an official United States Navy document on the Navy letterhead. They gave me this document where for five years it was absolutely out of the question for me to leave the country under any circumstances whatsoever. And to leave the state of Virginia I had to contact the Roanoke office of the FBI and let them know if I just wanted to cross the state line to go into North Carolina. And that was for five years after I was discharged.
I also wanted to tell you about this member of my wife's family. Jack Booth is his name. He is dead now but he was in the army and he was stationed at Roswell when the Roswell incident happened. He was my wife's uncle- my wife's mother's brother. He was from Bluefield, West Virginia. He said that when he was just a kid in the army, he was at Roswell (NM) when this thing, whatever it was, crashed. And he was there pulling guard duty when they went out to the crash site. A truckload of them went to pick debris up and whatnot, and he was there when they actually did recover the bodies. He said, "I am telling you that they put little bitty guys in body bags and they weren't humans. They were just little odd-looking fellows. They were nothing like a human." And they put them in body bags and one or two of them were still conscious or alive or something like that from the crash. There were actual survivors from this crash according to him.
They were picking up all the little pieces of the craft and he said that they actually put those guys down shoulder to shoulder on their hands and knees and went across the debris area picking up any little speck and scrap that they had. And they did it for days. He said that they were all threatened. He said they just came right out and said, "Look, if you say anything about this you might just turn up missing tomorrow."
He did say that. They didn't make any bones about it and came right to the point about letting them know how much they wanted to keep this under wraps. He said, "I'm telling you I was there."
Another man I met who knew about this subject was John Michael Murphy. He was a Marine Corp Corporal when I was in the Navy. He was stationed down there at the security barracks at CINC-ANT Fleet. He was part of the security detail there for the base. Murphy swore up and down that when he was still in the Marine Corp that he had actually guarded a spaceship, an extraterrestrial craft at a facility not far from Dover Air Force Base over in Delaware. Knowing Murphy as I did, I would believe him. I would believe Murphy. This would have been 1979 maybe, 1980.
[This testimony is of great significance because the witness had such a high security clearance top secret SCI with Zebra stripes and was personally involved in a prolonged encounter with an extraterrestrial vehicle for over one hour that was on at least five radar scopes, visually contacted by pilots, etc. It underscores the need for a general disclosure on the subject since the dangers to world peace and security resulting from our forces chasing and attempting to down such advanced craft are obvious. In briefings that I have done for senior CIA and Pentagon officials, often we find these men are not at all adequately informed about the subject and might react in a similarly dangerous fashion shown here by Admiral Trane's orders to down the object. In the vacuum of secrecy, terrible mistakes can be made due to a lack of knowledge and perspective. For this reason we continue to call for an ending of secrecy on this subject so that our military and national security leaders can be adequately informed and so diplomats and other leaders in society can formulate an appropriate, safe, and peaceful response to the extraterrestrial civilizations which are already observing our world. The stakes are too high to allow this matter to be the domain of only covert projects or unprepared military leaders. The danger here is not from the extraterrestrial vehicles per se but from a lack of knowledge and preparation in how to properly deal with their presence. SG]
Testimony of Sgt. Clifford Stone,
U. S. Army (ret.), September, 2000
Stone has seen living and dead ETs in his official duties on an army team that retrieved crashed ET craft. He tells an amazing story about the history of UFOs and extraterrestrials dating back.. and probably before. Gen. Douglas MacArthur organized a group called the Interplanetary Phenomena Research Unit back in 1943 to study this issue and it continues to this day. Their purpose is to recover objects of unknown origin. They obtain field intelligence information and pass it on to those who are "keepers of this information." Stone says that even Project Bluebook had an elite investigation unit which was outside of Bluebook. This unit was thought to be working in conjunction with Bluebook but in fact was not.
Sgt. Clifford Stone: ...During the discussion of UFOs the question, ultimately, is going to come up, can any government keep secrets, let alone the U. S. government? And the answer to that is, unequivocally, yes...we look for a prosaic explanation and we throw out the bits and pieces of the evidence that doesn't meet our paradigm. So it is a self-keeping secret. You can conceal it in plain sight. It is political suicide to go and start hitting up intelligence agencies to get this information released. So, most of your members of Congress, and I know, I've worked with a lot of them along that line, will balk and try not to do it...When I got members of Congress to help me open up more files, they were immediately destroyed and I can prove this...only a small nucleus within the intelligence community, numbering less than...50 control all that information. It is not subject to congressional review or oversight at all...
Now, in order to prepare me for this...they sent me to NBC School...NBC meaning Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical. And it would always be in the context of an NBC unit that I would be involved in UFO retrievals...
I am prepared to state that I have been at locations where craft of unknown origin that did not originate on the face of this planet were there...we saw living and dead bodies of entities that were not born on this planet...that we had what they referred to as "interfacing" with those entities...that when I got out of the service in 1990, that they held me for two months so that I might better reconsider to stay in and not get out...We have contact with aliens...originating...from some other solar system. And I have been a party to that. I've worked it. I've been there. And I know some of the things we do are really, really...terrible. They are not hostile towards us...I have concluded that I am fighting against the clock. That I have but a short time to try to convince people that we are moving down an avenue where we are going to militarize space...
Testimony of Master Sgt. Dan Morris
USAF, (ret.)/NRO Operative September, 2000
Dan Morris is a retired Air Force career Master Sergeant who was involved in extraterrestrial projects for many years. After leaving the Air Force, he was recruited into the super secret National Reconnaissance Organization (NRO), during which time he worked specifically on extraterrestrial-connected operations. He had a cosmic top-secret clearance (38 levels above top secret) which, he states, no U. S. president, to his knowledge, has ever held. In his testimony, he talks of assassinations committed by the NSA; he tells how our military deliberately caused the 1947 ET craft crashes near Roswell, and captured one of the ETs, which they kept at Los Alamos for three years until it died. He talks about the intelligence teams that were charged with intimidating, discrediting, and even eliminating witnesses to ET/UFO events. He talks about Germany's re-engineering of UFOs, even prior to WWII. He talks about our current energy crisis and the fact that we have not needed fossil fuels since the 1940s, when free energy technologies were developed but have been kept from humanity. This is the real reason for the secrecy of the ET/UFO subject.
Master Sergeant Dan Morris: I had a clearance 38 levels above top secret. It is for UFOs and aliens, etc. No president has had that level...Eisenhower was the closest...And then there were several secret intelligence agencies. One that did not exist, it was so secret, was the NRO...If you're on that level, then there's an organization worldwide called ACIO, that's Alien Contact Intelligence Organization. If you pay your dues and you follow the rules, your government is allowed to benefit from that organization's information,.so I called headquarters. I said, "Okay, we have a contact."... He says, "What do you mean...?"...I said, "I mean there are three UFOs sitting out there."...I became part of a group that would investigate, gather the information, and in the beginning it was still under the Blue Book, Snowbird and different covert programs. I would go interview people who claimed they had seen something and try to convince them they hadn't seen something or that they were hallucinating. Well, if that didn't work, another team would come in and give all the threats. And threaten them and their family and so on and so forth. And they would be in charge of discrediting them, making them look foolish...Now, if that didn't work, then there was another team that put an end to that problem, one way or another...So there would be cover stories deliberately put out and then de-bunked. Information, disinformation has been going on for 50 years.
For more information on this subject, see:
WantToKnow - UFO Information Center
and
The Disclosure Project
"There exists a shadowy Government with its own Air Force,
its own Navy, its own fundraising mechanism, and the ability
to pursue its own ideas of national interest, free from all
checks and balances, and free from the law itself."
- Senator Daniel K. Inouye,
during the Iran Contra Hearings
Send a friend request for updates, videos, comments
Facebook.com/FlybyNews
For a list serve for discussions and related posts,
including files and fliers for events and more, see:
FlybyNews@YahooGroups
Also, check out:
Flyby News @ Wordpress
&
Valley 9/11 Truth
&
FN's Youtube Channel
The views expressed herein are writers' own and not necessarily of Flyby News.
Fair Use Policy that describes use of copyrighted material is at FlybyNews.com.
Feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News is appreciated.
You can write to the editor by email: - flybynews(at}hughes{dot)net-
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus,
and has supported critical campaigns for a healthy
environment, human rights, justice, and nonviolence,
since the launch of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era
= = = www.FlybyNews.com = = =
Global Warming / Star Wars Letter ^ Scientists Contradict Bush
9 May 2001
1) Letter on Global Warming and Missile Defense to George W. Bush and Congress
2) Scientists Contradict Bush Re Conservation
3) Congressional E-mail Addresses (updated for 2002)
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Letter on Global Warming and Missile Defense to George W. Bush and Congress:
Dear President Bush and U.S. Representative:
The proposed Bush administration's energy policy does not take into account reasonable concerns that humankind is likely impacting global climate change. Scientists can visibly see accumulations of carbon and other gasses in our atmosphere. Our forests (the lungs of our world) are disappearing. We need leadership in the U.S. to respond to this global life-threatening crisis.
Please, also, reverse the direction of the Bush administration's missile defense programs. By turning this policy around, you can have the resources to help industries and national laboratories respond effectively to global warming, while improving economies and other environmental concerns. It could also help strengthen the U.S. conventional military forces, and help produce alliances with other nations to outlaw threats of weapons of mass destruction. This could lead to world peace. Your leadership and legacy can either be leading our world toward ruin or for a lasting peace and a healthier environment. Please heed and respond to the obvious warnings, before it is too late.
Signed,
= = = = =
[Please sign, edit, copy and send to:
president@whitehouse.gov
cc or bcc to US Congressional Representatives:
[The list of some E-mail addresses of the US Congress, follows article, in item 3.]
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Scientists Contradict Bush Re Conservation
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/06/national/06CONS.html
May 6, 2001
U.S. Scientists See Big Power Savings From Conservation
By JOSEPH KAHN
The Associated Press
Vice President Dick Cheney's official residence is energy efficient.
The Price of Power Nationwide
In California, Solar's Time to Shine (May 3, 2001)
Energy Efficiency Programs Are Set for Bush Budget Cut
Cheney Promotes Increasing Supply as Energy Policy Clinton Energy-Saving Rules Are Getting a Second Look (In the Race to Produce More Power, States Are Faced With Environmental Tradeoffs
Politics: White House
WASHINGTON, May 5 - Scientists at the country's national laboratories have projected enormous energy savings if the government takes aggressive steps to encourage energy conservation in homes, factories, offices, appliances, cars and power plants.
Their studies, completed just before the Bush administration took office, are at odds with the administration's repeated assertions in recent weeks that the nation needs to build a big new power plant every week for the next 20 years to keep up with the demand for electricity, and that big increases in production of coal and natural gas are needed to fuel those plants.
A lengthy and detailed report based on three years of work by five national laboratories said that a government-led efficiency program emphasizing research and incentives to adopt new technologies could reduce the growth in electricity demand by 20 percent to 47 percent.
That would be the equivalent of between 265 and 610 big 300-megawatt power plants, a steep reduction from the 1,300 new plants that the administration predicts will be needed. The range depends on how aggressively the government encourages efficiency in buildings, factories and appliances, as well as on the price of energy, which affects whether new technologies are economically attractive.
Another laboratory study found that government office buildings could cut their own use of power by one-fifth at no net cost to the taxpayers by adopting widespread energy conservation measures, paying for the estimated $5 billion investment with the energy savings.
But the Bush administration, which is in the final stages of preparing a strategy to deal with what it calls an energy crisis, has not publicized these findings, relying instead primarily on advice from economists at the Energy Department's Energy Information Agency, who often take a skeptical view of projected efficiency gains and predict a much greater need for fossil fuel supplies.
Administration officials said that some of the national laboratories' studies were based on theoretical assumptions that do not translate well into policy.
"We are looking for practical solutions here," said Jeanne Lopatto, a spokeswoman for the Energy Department. "Whatever works, we're interested in. But some of these ideas have been funded over many years and they have a very small impact on energy needs."
The once obscure debate between scientists at the national laboratories and economists at the information agency, both sides working for the Department of Energy, reflects a raging dispute between President Bush and many Democrats and environmentalists. While both sides agree that the United States faces energy problems, Mr. Bush's team has emphasized the quest for new supplies, while his critics emphasize untapped potential to reduce demand.
Vice President Dick Cheney, speaking publicly last week on the energy plan he is in charge of drafting, used the information agency's projections when he said that the nation would need at least 1,300 new power plants by 2020. Mr. Cheney used the figure to dramatize the need to mobilize public and private resources to close a supply gap.
Mr. Cheney has not publicly noted that other Energy Department studies show ways to trim that number. The conservation measures that the scientists consider feasible would save future energy costs and prevent air pollution from hundreds of power plants.
The laboratories' estimates assume widespread application of some time-tested efficiency standards and the success of some newer inventions that scientists love but many bottom-line economists tend to distrust as expensive or unrealistic.
Their work was reviewed by outside experts from industry, government and universities.
Some of the proposed conservation steps are neither costly nor complex. Just this week, researchers at the Energy Department's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory announced that they had developed a fluorescent table lamp that reduces the need for overhead lighting. The laboratory says the lamp matches the combined output of a 300-watt halogen lamp and a 150-watt bulb, but uses a quarter of the energy.
"Widespread use of this lighting system in offices and homes could greatly reduce the current power problems we have in California," said Michael Siminovitch, a scientist at the laboratory.
Other technologies have been proved in field tests. At Fort Polk, an Army base in Louisiana, electricity use during peak hours fell by 43 percent after base managers installed fluorescent lights, low-flow shower, attic insulation and new home heating and cooling systems.
Most of the savings came from installing geothermal heat pumps, an efficient home heating and cooling system that circulates fluids through underground coils but otherwise uses conventional technologies. Hundreds of homes on the base were equipped with the systems, generating immediate cost savings for electricity and totally eliminating the homes' use of natural gas for water heating. The entire installation cost was covered by a private contractor that makes a profit by sharing in the government's cost savings for the first 20 years. The heat pumps, though still something of a novelty, are completely proven and save so much money that President Bush installed a system at his new ranch home in Crawford, Texas. Mr. Cheney's official home, the Naval Observatory in Washington, also uses geothermal heat pumps to cut down on its energy bill.
A study prepared by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory last year contended that striving to make such savings often made sound economic sense.
The study found that the federal government, the largest energy user in the United States with some 500,000 buildings, could reduce its own energy consumption by one- fifth. The investment necessary to realize those gains would be $5.2 billion, the study said, but the energy savings would knock nearly $1 billion annually off the government's energy bill, an attractive rate of return.
Some private companies have already made significant advances in what are known as combined heat and generation plants, which could become industry standards, energy department experts say. Chevron has estimated that it saved $100 million a year after it withdrew a refinery from the Texas electricity grid and relied on an on-site generator, which allowed it to recycle waste heat from the generation process for refining.
New efficiency standards for clothes washers, water heaters and air-conditioners adopted by the Clinton administration were projected by the Clinton Energy Department to reduce electricity demand by the equivalent of 170 300-megawatt power plants over 20 years if fully enforced.
President Bush's fiscal 2002 budget slashed the department's spending on researching and developing energy-efficient buildings and factories, more fuel-efficient automobiles, new appliance standards and more efficient lighting. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said some of that work was better left to the private sector.
Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, both former oil industry executives, seem to have assigned a tertiary role to efficiency improvements, behind new drilling for oil and gas and new construction of energy infrastructure, like pipelines and power plants. Neither the president nor the vice president has promoted his own energy-saving home as a model.
In fact, Mr. Cheney said last week, "Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy."
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) E-mail Addresses for some members of the US Congress (January, 2002)
For more information on contacting members of US Congress, see
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html
Neil.Abercrombie@mail.house.gov, Anibal@mail.house.gov, gary_ackerman@mail.house.gov, jay.inslee@mail.house.gov, rick.larsen@mail.house.gov, brian.baird@mail.house.gov, adam.smith@mail.house.gov, senator@boxer.senate.gov, lynn.woolsey@mail.house.gov, George.Miller@mail.house.gov, sf.nancy@mail.house.gov, barbara.lee@mail.house.gov, budmail@mail.house.gov, budmail@mail.house.gov, snyder.congress@mail.house.gov, faleomavaega@mail.house.gov, democratic.caucus@mail.house.gov, lynn.woolsey@mail.house.gov, samfarr@mail.house.gov, gary.condit@mail.house.gov, brad.sherman@mail.house.gov, Howard.Berman@mail.house.gov, arcoiris@mail.house.gov, Rep.Harman@mail.house.gov, Millender.McDonald@mail.house.gov, talk2geb@mail.house.gov, loretta@mail.house.gov, degette@mail.house.gov, david.skaggs@mail.house.gov, Kennelly@mail.house.gov, bozrah@mail.house.gov, rep.boyd@mail.house.gov, thurman@mail.house.gov, pdeutsch.pub@mail.house.gov, alcee.pubhastings@mail.house.gov, cymck@mail.house.gov, john.lewis@mail.house.gov, guamtodc@mail.house.gov, neil.abercrombie@mail.house.gov, leach.ia01@mail.house.gov, rep.boswell.ia03@mail.house.gov, bobby.rush@mail.house.gov, luis.gutierrez@mail.house.gov, danny.davis@mail.house.gov, sidney.yates@mail.house.gov, jfc.il12@mail.house.gov, lane.evans@mail.house.gov, tim.roemer@mail.house.gov, in09.wyr@housemail.house.gov, rep.carson@mail.house.gov, john.olver@mail.house.gov, jim.mcgovern@mail.house.gov, mtmeehan@mail.house.gov, joe.moakley@mail.house.gov, william.delahunt@mail.house.gov, rep.cardin@mail.house.gov, rep.tomallen@mail.house.gov, stupak@mail.house.gov, jim.barcia-pub@mail.house.gov, debbie.stabenow@mail.house.gov, dkildee@mail.house.gov, david.bonior@mail.house.gov, slevin@mail.house.gov, john.conyers@mail.house.gov, martin.sabo@mail.house.gov, tocollin.peterson@mail.house.gov, oberstar@mail.house.gov, gephardt@mail.house.gov, ike.skelton@mail.house.gov, thompsonms2nd@mail.house.gov, gene.taylor@mail.house.gov, EClayton1@mail.house.gov, bob.etheridge@mail.house.gov, david.price@mail.house.gov, CongMcIntyre@mail.house.gov, nc12.public@mail.house.gov, Rep.Earl.Pomeroy@mail.house.gov, rob.andrews@mail.house.gov, bill.pascrell@mail.house.gov, steven.rothman@mail.house.gov, thomas.manton@mail.house.gov, jerrold.nadler@mail.house.gov, major.owens@mail.house.gov, rep.carolyn.maloney@mail.house.gov, rangel@mail.house.gov, jserrano@mail.house.gov, mike.mcnulty@mail.house.gov, mhinchey@mail.house.gov, louiseny@mail.house.gov, mike.oxley@mail.house.gov, ted.strickland@mail.house.gov, rep.kaptur@mail.house.gov, sherrod@mail.house.gov, telljim@mail.house.gov, rep.elizabeth.furse@mail.house.gov, write.earl@mail.house.gov, peter.defazio@mail.house.gov, darlene@mail.house.gov, paul.kanjorski@mail.house.gov, murtha@mail.house.gov, mchale@mail.house.gov, rep.doyle@mail.house.gov, jclyburn@mail.house.gov, bob.clement@mail.house.gov, bart.gordon@mail.house.gov, rmhall@mail.house.gov, lloyd.doggett@mail.house.gov, Rep.Hinojosa@mail.house.gov, martin.frost@mail.house.gov, ken.bentsen@mail.house.gov, rep.e.b.johnson@mail.house.gov, ninthnet@mail.house.gov, bernie@mail.house.gov, adam.smith@mail.house.gov, ron.kind@mail.house.gov, telltom@mail.house.gov, nrahall@mail.house.gov
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
********************************************************************************************************************************************************
FBI on Trial <> Roadless Areas Surviving <> Disarmament Feedback
Leonard Peltier's voice will never be silenced by the dungeons of a Federal Penitentiary. In this issue Flyby News is forwarding information from the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee about the Redwood Summer Justice Project. This came on the day that Joseph Salvatti testified on Capitol Hill about the FBI's shady use of informants. The bit of good news in this issue is that the roadless forests are protected, still, but the fight is not over.
1) Peltier Supports Bari/Cherney Civil Rights Suit
2) Joseph Salvatti and the FBI's Use of Informants
3) Bush Keeps National Forest Road Building Ban in Place
4) Missile Defense / Disarmament Flyby Feedback
******************************************************************************
1) Peltier Supports Bari/Cherney Civil Rights Suit
From the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC)
Dear Friends,
Below is a statement from Leonard Peltier in support of the Redwood Summer Justice Project. The Redwood Summer Justice Project is suing the FBI and the Oakland Police for falsely accusing Earth First! Activists, Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney of carrying explosives, after their car was bombed in 1990. The bombing crippled Judi Bari permanently and caused minor injuries to Cherney. The bomb had been placed under Judi Bari's seat. Rather than finding the perpetrator, the FBI launched a major disinformation campaign against the staunchly nonviolent activists, and blamed them for bombing themselves. Since then, FBI materials released through discovery have proven that the FBI was infiltrating the organization and that they withheld photos illustrating the bomb's position in the car, thus discounting their allegations. Sound familiar?
In fact, Richard W. Held, who was also involved in the framing of Geronimo Ji Jaga (Pratt) and Leonard Peltier, headed this "investigation" as well. A hearing on the civil rights case is set for October 1st of this year. The trial will essentially challenge the FBI's use of COINTELPRO tactics. This is truly a case for solidarity. Check this site for more information: http://www.judibari.org
LPDC
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Statement from Leonard Peltier in support of the Redwood Summer Justice Project
Dear Friends,
No one can return the twenty-five years I have spent in prison based on an orchestrated frame-up at the hands of the FBI.
The Redwood Summer Justice Project is struggling for all of us who have been targeted for our work in defense of our people and the land.
In May of 1990, as Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney were on their way to an organizing event, they were nearly killed in an assassination attempt. A pipe bomb wrapped in nails for a shrapnel effect and triggered by a motion device exploded under the seat of Judi's car. The force of the blast buckled the car frame and blew a hole in the floorboard. The blast crushed Judi's coccyx and pelvis and left her crippled. Darryl escaped with cuts and broken eardrums.
Within minutes of the explosion, the FBI was on the scene and orchestrated a massive disinformation campaign designed to discredit and imprison these Earth First activists. Equally sinister, the FBI never tried to find the real bomber who to this day, remains at large.
There can be no healing without truth, and the greatest love is that which is based on justice. Together we must guarantee the First Amendment rights of all activists who courageously defy corporate control of our environment.
I urge you to support Judi Bari and Darry Cherney's historic lawsuit that will finally put the FBI on trial.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Leonard Peltier
http://www.freepeltier.org
******************************************************************************
2) Joseph Salvatti and the FBI's Use of Informants
No apology from agent in Salvati case
But he acknowledges a man's innocence
(By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff)
WASHINGTON - After spending 30 years in prison for a murder that he didn't commit, Joseph Salvati received profuse apologies and promises of compensation from members of Congress yesterday, but not a word of remorse from the FBI agent who helped put him away.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/124/metro/No_apology_from_agent_in_Salvati_case+.shtml
******************************************************************************
3) Bush Keeps National Forest Road Building Ban in Place
Friday, May 04, 2001
http://capitolhillblue.com/Article.asp?ID=1684
The Bush administration will keep in place a contentious ban on road building in much of the nation's federal forest lands while it revises the regulations to give more say to local officials on what forests should be affected, according to government sources.
The road ban, a pivotal part of former President Clinton's environmental legacy, ropes off 58.5 million acres - about a third of the federal forest land - from developers, loggers and mining companies. These industries are lobbying to have the measure reversed.
While the road ban could still be scrapped, congressional and administration officials said Thursday the White House has decided to keep the ban in place while new rules are developed. This process could be lengthy since it would require formal rule making, including public comment periods.
The revised regulations, about which additional details may be announced Friday, are expected to give a greater say to state and local officials. Also the restrictions would likely be imposed on a forest-by-forest basis, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"We are going to be reviewing it for a while, but at least we are going to be doing it on a site-specific basis where real land considerations can be made," a congressional source said.
Exactly how the new rule would be crafted was still fluid late Thursday, but more details could emerge when the Bush administration files a brief Friday in response to a lawsuit brought by the state of Idaho seeking to block the rule.
Clinton's policy, announced Jan. 5, was supposed to take effect in March. The Bush administration delayed implementation until May 12 while it conducted a review.
An announcement of the decision to revise the plan was expected Friday at a news conference with Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman.
The Clinton administration began creating the rules about three years ago, but did not issue them until just weeks before President Clinton left office.
The road ban on much of the federal forest in the West was praised by environmentalists as a way to protect the nation's most pristine forest lands from developers and preserve critical wildlife habitats. Opponents, including the timber and mining industries, say the rules needlessly place valuable resources off-limits.
The state of Idaho and timber company Boise Cascade sued in federal court in Boise seeking to block the rule from taking effect. The Bush administration had until Friday to file a brief with the court outlining its analysis of the rule.
In an interim decision, U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge rejected a call for an immediate blocking on the policy, but said there was "strong evidence" that the process was hurried and the Forest Service was not prepared to produce a "coherent proposal or meaningful dialogue and that the end result was predetermined."
While awaiting the judge's final decision, Chris West, vice president of the American Forest Resource Council, said he would be disappointed if the Bush administration kept the ban in place while a new rule was created. Such a move could put forests in the West at risk to insects, disease and fire because the roadless areas will be inaccessible, he said.
"What has us worried is what they are going to be doing in the interim," said West, whose Portland, Ore.-based group represents timber interests.
Jim Lyons, an agriculture undersecretary in the Clinton administration who oversaw the Forest Service, said the only way the Bush administration could legally change the rules was through the rule-making process, which could be lengthy and provides the opportunity for public comment.
"Clearly, the people close to this process have a strong philosophical problem with protecting roadless areas," said Lyons, now a professor at Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
Marty Hayden, legislative director for Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, said he thought the expected revisions would take the Bush administration back to where the government started three years ago - trying to maintain 380,000 miles of roads that have an $8.5 billion maintenance backlog.
"They have chosen not to suspend it because they are feeling the heat of the public support that was behind the rule in the first place," Hayden said. "But they are still heading down a path for undoing it."
The vast majority of roadless federal forests are in the West, including parts of Idaho's Bitterroot range and Alaska's Tongass, viewed by environmentalists as North America's rain forest.
Smaller sections are scattered across the country from Florida's Apalachicola National Forest and Virginia's George Washington National Forest to New Hampshire's White Mountains.
$B%%(B Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
******************************************************************************
4) Missile Defense / Disarmament Flyby Feedback
DANIEL wrote:
> Dear Sir:
>
> Are you out of your mind? Do you honestly think that Russia has not prepared for nuclear war with us already? Why would you not want to be able for the US to be able to defend itself against Russia or some other rogue state such as N Korea, Iran, Pakistan, India, China, ETC., ETC., ad nauseam, that has, will have, or is trying to develop nuke capabilities?
>
> It is a documented fact that Mother Russia violated the ABM Treaty signed with us in 1972. They have developed and installed a BM Shield that is state of the art. This they have done with the aid
of American taxpayer dollars. So if we are going to build them one, why not build one for ourselves?
> Respectfully-
>
> Daniel
jm replies:
thanks for your respectful letter, even though we clearly are coming from different points of view. my interest with russia and other countries are to become allies with them in the mutual beneficial concern to end stupid weapons that can kill all life. my interest is for the u.s. to maintain past treaties and encourage a full disarmament of all weapons of mass destruction. meanwhile, we should be developing a much stronger conventional military force, one that could stop the greater dangers of terrorists using weapons of mass destruction, and by aligning with all nations choosing to outlaw such weapons, we would have the deterrent to wipe out anyone trying to harm life, meanwhile instead of the policies of the last 50 years, which are only making security matters worse, we would engage a more effective security system and alliance with most all nations of the world, committed
to working together to respect all nations living peacefully and under a fair international law and interests.
the fear incentive of preparation with missile defense weakens our nation, since it has been shown to be ineffective, and can waist valuable resources, while other global security interests go down the tubes such as environmental devastation and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. this direction of enforced disarmament of weapons of mass destruction is better to all national security interests.
thanks for writing. i appreciate your consideration and our differences. this issue needs to be debated,
as it is a powerful decision to try and dominate peace with ineffective weapons and development while we are truly at a most dangerous time.
jonathan
>RE: WHAT STAR WARS/NMD IS REALLY ABOUT
To: Daniel
DANIEL wrote:
> Jonathan-
>
> I heartily agree that our 'Free Press' is as bought and paid for as the Atlanta Braves baseball team and Time -Warner Enterprises. The once great nation whose founders designed a government by the people and for the people has tragically been usurped by the love of money. However, with the present shift of power by the Russo-Sino military and political structure would you have us sit on our thumbs and for the 'sake of peace' allow THEM to make a pre-emptive strike making us defenseless against, say, a land invasion?
jm replies:
No, i would actively make these countries partners with the u.s. to solve problems of mutual concern.
there is room in this world without fear and destruction. though, this step would begin by our honoring treaties we signed and commit to joining forces for the direction of disarmament in a unified and verifiable direction. Until we can trust one another, all countries joining the alliance would agree [if necessary] to destroy any member nation going against its pact in order to deny the use of weapons of mass destruction.
>
> These are perilous times indeed, and I am all for world peace, prosperity, live and let live, etc. But not at the expense of my future freedoms, your future freedoms, and the freedoms of our future
children. Do not forget the commitment these folks have over there. Communism is alive and well as the news show with the riots that have occurred since yesterday. Communisms soul objective is total global control without any regards to the economy, environment, religion . . . you name it.
jm/
Communism, in the form you present is only energized by those frustrated by capitalism. If one solves problems within our current system, frustration is reduced or nonexistent. our freedoms and survival rely on the choices for the direction we take. If we try to dominate, to control, it naturally causes a response like cause and affect. If countries and people unite behind common interests, and develop trust, gradually, everyone can benefit by a true direction for peace and well being.
>
> If they were so concerned with 'Peace' they would not make such provoking moves as shooting down our military plane, take over the Panama Canal, establish strategic missile batteries 100 hundred miles off the Fl. coast, etc. I am not blind to the fact that our government has not done things to antagonize their behavior as well, but I feel that mutual respect is achieved when BOTH parties can come to the bargaining table with much to lose.
>
> I appreciate your position and DO agree with you as far as peace is concerned. Peace is often only achieved by holding an olive branch in one hand and a big stick in the other. Platitudes, overtures, and trying to 'buy' them is only viewed as weakness in these cultures and in the ideological view of communism.
>
> Unless you are a communist, I do not think that you would like living in their 'idea' of a peaceful utopian society. The only ones who do like it are the ones who have never lived in it and the ones
who are at the top of the food chain in the nations that are.
>
> This is an age-old debate and one that will never get resolved in the present state. I respect your convictions and our desire is to live as peacefully as best as we can. We however disagree on how that means is to be achieved.
>
> As gentlemen of good will, we can agree to disagree and still be friends.
> I do know for a fact that one day true peace will prevail on earth and I hope with all sincerity that you are there to see it come to fruition.
>
> I will send you an article relating to the present
> Sino-Russo alliance for your review and I wish you the best in your endeavors.
>
> Respectfully-
>
> Daniel
many thanks for your letters. on the big issues we agree, and i agree, our choices for getting there differs greatly. that we can share a respect and disagree is a good beginning to finding solutions that work. your idea of peace with a big stick got us this far, yes, but the consequences are a questionable future as technologies and capabilities expand. we need to transform our direction into win/win rather than win/lose. yes, i value freedom as life itself. i think a big stick in conventional weapon technology should be as far as we go in this direction, if we were smart and choose the direction of disarmament of all weapons of mass destruction. our united will for good is much greater than any separate-ego source. we give it strength by having it affect us to the degree it has, influenced by the greed of those benefitting by development of such technologies and for market domination.
best regards,
jonathan
In another E-mail reply/feedback, (which hopefully represents the feelings of many), Kim wrote:
I'm so grateful for the flyby news. I just wanted to appreciate the work and energy that goes into it so the rest of us can be informed about what's going on
Kim
--------------------
Thanks for the feedback, reading, and acting for peace. Keep the dialog flowing and truth will be uncovered and justice will prevail.
Hang loose, soon we will have a discussion board at flybynews.com.
Bush Missile Plunder - UFO Press Release - Grossman's Address to Parliament
This issue of Flyby News covers quite a spectrum. It includes Star Wars updates and actions, item 3 is on UFO and extraterrestrial disclosure. This may require more review and a wait and see attitude before getting too excited. However, it is based on fascinating testimonies from numerous high-level military and government witnesses on UFO/Extraterrestrial presence, with hearings & space weapons ban sought.
Please be ready to respond to proposed actions suggested in this issue. The time is now to stop Missile Defense and protect our environment. The U.S. Bush Administration is representing a small group of military and coroporate interests, and it will be up to Congress, the media and others, to stand tall in the face of such falsehoods and honor treaties and directions for peace and well being for planet Earth and its diversity of life.
Just prior to transmitting, I received a message from Karl Grossman, confirming that his newest video, "Star Wars Returns" is ready for distribution. For ordering visit http://envirovideo.com . Knowing the quality of their past videos, this will be a wonderful educational tool, (30 minute TV-formatted) to help Stop Star Wars. Please purchase and distribute to all mainstream and community access TV stations In Item 6, is the transcript of Karl Grossman's May 3, 2001 Presentation to Members of the British Parliament, which will be sent in a following E-mail.
1) Uniting with the World to Stop Star Wars
2) More on Bush's "Pie in the Sky" Proposal
3) UFO Witnesses at the National Press Club May 9th
4) Presentation to British Parliament Members by Karl Grossman
**********************************************************************
1) Uniting with the World to Stop Star Wars
The following letter to President Bush and the governments of NATO and US allies is to be sent by fax on June 12 in Washington, London, and Sydney. Please consider signing and also sending to your newspaper. This action is being sponsored by Friends of the Earth, Sydney - Nuclear Campaign
Dear Presidents, Prime Ministers, Secretaries and Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense:
We, the undersigned organizations, representing millions of people world-wide, write to express our opposition to current US plans to deploy a national ballistic missile defense network.
We urge instead that the United States proceed with deep cuts to the US arsenal and de-alerting of nuclear weapons -- promised by President George W. Bush during his campaign -- in order to move toward the total and unequivocal elimination of nuclear arsenals, to which the United States, Russia, and other nuclear weapons states are obligated under binding and repeated international commitments.
The deployment of missile defense will undercut these measures, making the fulfillment of those commitments more difficult.
In our view, the deployment of a National Missile Defense (NMD) network is deeply-flawed and reckless, decreasing rather than increasing overall international security.
President Bush says that the United States will propose modifications to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to allow for US national missile defenses. If Russia does not agree to the US proposals, the Bush Administration has said the United States is prepared to withdraw from the ABM treaty. President Bush may decide as soon as this year whether to begin construction of a key NMD radar site in Alaska, which could violate the treaty.
Russia has stated clearly in the recent session of the Conference on Disarmament that its offer of deep reductions in warhead numbers is conditional on the integrity of the ABM treaty. Russia's ratification of START-II was also conditional on the maintenance of the integrity of the ABM treaty, and therefore the non-deployment of US missile defenses.
It is our strong view that the deployment of even so-called limited missile defenses will undercut the possibility of deep reductions in US and Russian nuclear weaponry, and could foreclose the possibility of removing US and Russian missiles from their current, dangerous hair-trigger alert status.
Military planners react to capabilities rather than intentions. The deployment of even limited missile defenses could lead to Russian re-deployment of tactical nuclear weapons and multiple warhead missiles. It also may accelerate a Chinese build-up of strategic nuclear weapons, which could include deployment of multiple nuclear warheads on long-range missiles, and a dramatic increase in the now limited number of those missiles.
A Chinese build-up could easily result in a dangerous acceleration of Indian, and in turn, Pakistani nuclear weapons deployments. This escalation of offensive capabilities is likely to lead to nuclear arsenals poised at even higher levels of alert.
Furthermore, missile defense systems, particularly the NMD network now being contemplated by the United States, are extraordinarily expensive and have not been proven to work in an operational environment.
No NMD system, even a limited one, can be deployed for at least six to 10 years. Two out of three US NMD flight tests so far have failed, yet in order to be effective, NMD (or TMD) must intercept incoming nuclear warheads with close to 100% reliability.
Even if an NMD system could be designed to defeat countermeasures, could be engineered to be operationally effective, and would not prompt a state to build additional offensive missiles to over-saturate missile defenses, neither NMD nor TMD can guard against less sophisticated and more reliable means of delivering weapons of mass destruction.
Likewise, various systems of proposed Theatre Missile Defense, possibly to be deployed in Taiwan, Japan, Europe or the Middle East, suffer from many of the same technical problems, and may have the same effect as NMD in creating a dangerous action-reaction cycle leading to offensive missile
build-ups.
The deployment of missile defense/TMD in Taiwan is particularly likely to result in a Chinese build-up.
The problems associated with missile defenses require that the international community work together to make effective use of diplomacy, trade and assistance, and new mechanisms to control and reduce existing and potential ballistic missile proliferation. Near-term efforts should be focused on securing a lasting and enforceable framework agreement freezing the North Korean missile program.
Further efforts to enforce and strengthen the Missile Technology Control Regime, and control and reduce missile stockpiles on a global and regional basis, should be pursued on an urgent basis.
In light of the above:
--We respectfully urge the United States not to seek to deploy such missile defenses, and to support more effective methods to prevent missile proliferation.
--We urge governments of NATO and other US allies not to enable US deployment of such missile defense systems by allowing the upgrading of joint facilities at Menwith Hill, Fylingdales, Pine Gap, Thule, or elsewhere, for NMD- or TMD-related purposes, and to use their diplomatic influence to continue to dissuade the US government from the pursuit of missile defense.
To address the most immediate and dire missile threat:
--We urge that the United States and Russia remove all nuclear weapons from hair-trigger alert as part of a policy of eliminating launch-on-warning from their strategic war plans. This will serve as the most immediate step to increase global security and stability, and reduce the risk of unintended nuclear attack.
--We urge the United States and Russia, with the support of other states, to proceed toward immediate, verifiable and irreversible reductions of strategic and tactical nuclear stockpiles to less than 1,500 warheads each through implementation of START-II, START-III, and/or by other means.
The above measures would help fulfill their solemn commitments as expressed in the final declaration of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty 2000 Review Conference to "an unequivocal undertaking by the nuclear weapon states to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals leading to nuclear disarmament to which all states parties are committed under Article VI."
The undersigned organizations believe that these measures, and not the deployment of missile defense, constitute the way forward to the elimination of nuclear arsenals to which the nuclear weapons powers are committed, and which the overwhelming majority of the world's peoples and governments expect.
(Signed by more than 475 organizations/parliamentarians)
Say No Star Wars
# # #
Organizations can sign this letter by forwarding it to John Hallam, Friends of the Earth, Sydney, Australia. Please include your name, position, organization, and location, (including country). Individuals are encouraged to forward this to Organizations and copying and sending it as a letter to the editor to your local newspaper.
**********************************************************************
2) More on Bush Tuesday's "Pie in the Sky" Proposal
Sunday April 29 1:26 PM ET
Bush To Propose Missile Defense
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The missile defense favored by President Bush - a shield of global reach rather than covering only U.S. territory - bears a striking resemblance to the approach his father's Pentagon was pursuing a decade ago The Clinton administration quickly killed it.
Bush will outline his intentions for missile defense in a speech Tuesday that aides say will link the concept to his desire for substantial, perhaps unilateral reductions in the U.S. nuclear missile arsenal.
The question Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has been mulling is how to go beyond the current missile defense approach that is focused on a land-based intercept system designed to protect just the 50 U.S. states.
One approach reported to be under consideration by Rumsfeld and Bush is known as a ``layered'' missile defense.
It might combine the Clinton approach, which would use ground-launched rockets to intercept missiles midway through flight, with sea- and space-based weapons that would make the intercept during the hostile missile's ascent phase, or while its rocket plume was still burning inside the atmosphere.
The result - if it worked - would be a missile defense system with global reach.
Brig. Gen. Michael Hamel, director of space operations for the Air Force, said last week he supports that approach.
``Layered missile defense is absolutely the right way to go,'' he said.
More than 30 scientists and missile experts who oppose the administration's push for missile defense planned to gather at the Capitol on Wednesday to assert that the science of missile defense is too immature to justify moving ahead with a project expected to costs tens of billions of dollars.
The administration has made clear it will press ahead; when, at what cost and with what blueprint are the only questions.
How far-reaching a missile defense should be is a sensitive issue.
For one, it affects the degree of political support by Canada and U.S. allies in Europe. It also bears on the prohibitions against certain missile defenses spelled out in the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. The first Bush administration believed that with the demise of the Soviet Union the emphasis in missile defense should shift from protection of the United States against an attack by thousands of nuclear missiles to protection of America and its allies against perhaps several dozen missiles of any origin.
It was called Global Protection Against Limited Strikes, or GPALS, and was made public at a Pentagon news conference Feb. 12, 1991.
The official who presented the $32 billion plan was Stephen J. Hadley - then an assistant secretary of defense, now a deputy national security adviser to Bush. The defense secretary at the time was Dick Cheney, now the vice president.
Rumsfeld may come up with a different acronym, but the concept of global protection is likely to be a key aspect of whatever missile defense program the administration decides to pursue, in the view of many private analysts who follow the subject closely.
``After the president's speech we will no longer talking about national missile defense,'' but instead a global or international approach that is much broader - and probably much more expensive - than the Clinton administration was developing, said Joseph Cirincione of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Alan Frye, an arms control expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, said he believes, based on his contacts with administration officials involved in the matter, that Bush will adopt a GPALS-like approach. He also thinks it highly unlikely Bush will announce a U.S. withdrawal from the ABM treaty, but rather that he is willing to discuss possible missile defense cooperation with the Russians.
Morton Halperin, director of policy planning at the State Department during the Clinton administration, said he believes the Russians would be more likely to engage in missile defense talks if Bush also committed to reducing the U.S. offensive nuclear arsenal to 1,500 or 1,000 warheads.
The United States now has about 7,200 active warheads and is committed to cutting to 3,500; Clinton favored cutting to 2,500, although that has not been made a binding commitment.
Rumsfeld has made a point lately of saying that he has stopped using the term ``national missile defense,'' because ``what's `national' depends on where you live,'' as he put it to reporters March 8. His point was that if a U.S. missile defense is capable of protecting, say, Japan, then it is ``national'' to the Japanese but is global to everyone else.
= = = = = = = = =
Late Developments and Actions Needed!
CONTACT BUSH & CONGRESS:
NO STAR WARS
On Tuesday, May 1 George W. Bush will outline his plan to dramatically expand the so-called "missile defense" system.
WE MUST RESPOND IMMEDIATELY.
Bush intends to go beyond National Missile Defense (NMD) to include a multi-layered program that will be made up of:
* Theatre Missile Defense (TMD) systems on ships, land, and air which would be forward deployed surrounding China and provoke a new arms race.
* Space-based laser (SBL) which was Ronald Reagan's original dream of weapons in space. This constellation of 20-30 orbiting lasers would likely be powered with nuclear reactors and would knock out other countries satellites in space and hit targets on the Earth.
Funding levels would virtually double to around $10 billion per year just for research and development for Star Wars.
Bush's call for reductions in nuclear weapons is essentially being made in order to appear as a promoter of peace and global stability. He intends to move money from nuclear weapons right into Star Wars and will propose to keep enough nukes to still destroy the world. His plan will just create more instability.
Contact U.S. Congress and government representatives immediately and say no to the Star Wars program:
* White House Comment Line: (202) 456-1111
* Congressional Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
Also please write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper.
Thank you for your efforts.
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, FL. 32607
(352) 337-9274
http://www.space4peace.org
globalnet@mindspring.com
**********************************************************************
3) UFO Witnesses at the National Press Club, May 9th
Military, Government, witnesses to provide testimony on UFO/Extraterrestrial presence; hearings & Space Weapons Ban Sought
http://www.ecologynews.com/cuenews22.html
On Wednesday, May 9th 2001, over twenty military, intelligence, government, corporate and scientific witnesses will come forward at the National Press Club in Washington, DC to establish the reality of UFOs or extraterrestrial vehicles, extraterrestrial life forms, and resulting advanced energy and propulsion technologies. The weight of this first-hand testimony, along with supporting government documentation and other evidence, will establish without any doubt the reality of these phenomena, according to Dr. Steven M. Greer, director of the Disclosure Project which is hosting the event.
The Disclosure Project, a non-profit research organization, is calling for open Congressional hearings on the UFO/Extraterrestrial presence, and for legislation that will ban space-based weapons. Congressional hearings were last held in 1968 by the House Science and Astronautics Committee (90th Congress, 2nd Session, Committee Print No. 7. "Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects.")
The Project has identified several hundred witnesses throughout the world and spanning every branch of the armed services, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), DIA, CIA, NASA, Russia. UK, and other agencies and countries. Over 100 have been videotaped; 70 have been transcribed into edited testimony. Videotaped summary of the testimony and an in-depth briefing document with witness transcripts will be available at the press conference.
Among the witnesses attending the event are: John Callahan, former Division Chief of the Accidents and Investigations Branch, FAA; Master Sergeant Dan Morris, former US Air Force and NRO operative with cosmic top secret clearance; Dr. Carol Rosin, space missile defense consultant and former spokesperson for Wernher Von Braun; Major George A. Filer III, former Air Force Intelligence; Graham Bethune, retired Navy commander pilot with a top-secret clearance; Michael Smith, former Air Traffic Controller, US Air Force; Sergeant Clifford Stone, United States Army; Lt. Col. Robert Salas, former SAC Launch Controller, US Air Force and FAA.
Participants in this phase of the disclosure effort are asking for Congressional, White House and UN action to allow witnesses to testify under oath in open hearings. The group is requesting a Presidential Executive Order to protect witnesses afraid of violating security oaths and to declassify documents and secret projects for the benefit of all world citizens.
"These testimonies establish once and for all that we are not alone. Technologies related to extraterrestrial phenomena are capable of providing solutions to the global energy crisis, and other environmental and security challenges," says Dr. Greer.
The Disclosure team and selected witnesses will be meeting with members of Congress and conducting briefings to address these issues and call for legislation.
Wednesday, May 9th
8 $B!&(B9 AM Continental Breakfast
9:00 AM - 11:00 AM $B!&(BOverview by Dr. Greer; Witness Presentations;
Release of Statement for Congress; Questions Ballroom -
The National Press Club 529 14th Street NW - 13th Floor
Washington, D.C.
WEBCAST: http://www.connectlive.com/events/disclosureproject
Website: http://www.disclosureproject.org
**********************************************************************
4) Presentation to British Parliament Members by Karl Grossman
London May 3, 2001
The United States is seeking to make space a new arena of war--and is looking to the United Kingdom to be a "partner" in this venture.
The Bush administration would--as President George W. Bush attempted in his speech two days ago--have the world believe this is all about "missile defense."
This is untrue. A broad U.S. space military program is involved, indeed revealed in U.S. government and military documents such as the recent report of the "Space Commission" chaired by the new U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the blueprint for the space military program of the Bush
administration.
As the report of the commission's report, issued January 11, says: "In the coming period the U.S. will conduct operations to, from, in and through space in support of its national interests both on the earth and in space."
"Power projection in, from and through space" is advocated by the "Space Commission," formally called the Commission to Assess United States National Security Space Management and Organization. It urges the U.S. president "have the option to deploy weapons in space" and the U.S. Space Command be made a quasi-independent U.S. armed service, a Space Corps, like the U.S. Marine Corps.
The Rumsfeld "Space Commission" report follows a series of U.S. military reports in recent years that call for the U.S. to "control space" and from space "dominate" the Earth below.
I have brought copies of pages from these reports for you. You will see that "missile defense" is a "layer" in a far wider program.
As the U.S. Space Command's "Long Range Plan" declares: "The time has come to address, among warfighters and national policy makers, the emergence of space as a center of gravity for DoD [Department of Defense] and the nation $B!&(B Space power in the 2lst Century looks similar to previous military revolutions, such as aircraft-carrier warfare and Blitzkrieg."
But the U.S. is hard-pressed to do this alone. We need you and a few other nations for sites for command-and-control facilities and other assistance--"Global Partnerships" as the "Long Range Plan" puts it to "strengthen military space capabilities." And also there in the "Long Range Plan," above an oval with the words: "Potential Initiatives To Enable * Control of Space * Global Engagement * Full Force Integration" and below the word "Partnerships" are the flags of nine nations. Among the flags: the Union Jack.
The United Kingdom shouldn't be involved in this U.S. scheme.
It is a scheme involving, in part, money. President Bush, for example, spoke in his speech about three emissaries he'll be sending around the world to promote the U.S. space military plan. He identified one as Stephen Hadley.
Stephen Hadley? Before joining the Bush administration, Hadley was a partner in the Washington law firm of Shea & Gardner which represents Lockheed Martin, the world's biggest weapons manufacturer and a corporation central to the U.S. Star Wars program. The U.S. recently gave the go-ahead for development of the Space-Based Laser, a $20 to 30 billion program. The Space-Based Laser's builders: Boeing, TRW--and Lockheed Martin.
And it is a scheme involving power. When President Ronald Reagan first announced the U.S. Star Wars program in 1983, he said it was about fending off what he considered the "evil empire," the Soviet Union. There is no Soviet Union any longer. Why Star Wars now?
The U.S. space military documents, as you will note, stress the "global economy." As the U.S. Space Command's "Vision for 2020" report, its cover depicting a laser weapon shooting a beam down from space zapping a target below, says: "The globalization of the world economy will also continue with a widening between $BAI(Baves' and $BAI(Bave-nots.'" From space, the U.S., the engine of the global economy--would keep those "have-nots" in line.
"Vision for 2020" further declares the mission of the U.S. Space Command as "dominating the space dimension of military operations to protect US interests and investment. Integrating Space Forces into warfighting capabilities across the full spectrum of conflict." And it compares the U.S. effort to "control space" and Earth below to how centuries ago "nations built navies to protect and enhance their commercial interests," referring to you and the other empires of Europe which once ruled the waves.
The "Long Range Plan" states: "The United States will remain a global power and exert global leadership. The United States won't always be able to forward base its forces$B!&(Bidespread communications will highlight disparities in resources and quality of life--contributing to unrest in developing countries$B!&(BThe global economy will continue to become more interdependent. Economic alliances, as well as the growth and influence of multi-national corporations, will blur security agreements. The gap between $BAI(Bave' and $BAI(Bave-not' nations will widen--creating regional unrest. One of the long acknowledged and commonly understood advantages of space-based platforms is no restriction or country clearances to overfly a nation from space."
Of power, when I was last here at the British Parliament, the Honorable Alan Simpson took the copy of "Vision for 2020" I was showing and declared: "Professor Grossman, we understand. We, too, were once an empire--drunk with power."
That is the situation my dear Members of Parliament. I regret to inform you that your former colony is out of control. Its government and a segment of its military--plus more modern entities called corporations--are drunk with power.
Your other North American progeny, Canada, not too incidentally, has been trying hard to stop the U.S. Star Wars program. It has been moving at the United Nations for a strengthening of the basic international law on space, the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. Canada is proposing a ban on all weapons in space (the Outer Space Treaty presently bans nuclear arms and weapons of mass destruction in space).
At the UN in October Marc Vidricaire of the Canadian delegation declared: "Outer space has not yet witnessed the introduction of space-based weapons. This could change if the international community does not first prevent this destabilizing development through the timely negotiation of measures banning the introduction of weapons into outer space. It has been suggested that our proposal is not relevant because the assessment on which it rests is either premature or alarmist. In our view, it is neither. One need only look at what is happening right now to realize that it is not premature."
"There is no question that the technology can be developed to place weapons in outer space," said Vidricaire. "There is also no question that no state can expect to maintain a monopoly on such knowledge -- or such capabilities -- for all time. If one state actively pursues the weaponization of space, we can be sure others will follow."
The United States has been blocking the Canadian initiative.
Weeks later, on November 20, 2000, because of the U.S. space military program, a vote was held on a resolution for "Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space." It sought to "reaffirm" the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 and specifically its provision that space be reserved for "peaceful purposes." Some 163 nations--including the United Kingdom--voted in favor. The U.S.--an original signer of the treaty--abstained. We have become quite the rogue state.
But getting drunk with power can do strange things. The legislation which got the Rumsfeld "Space Commission" established in 2000 was authored by U.S. Senator Bob Smith of New Hampshire. Of the U.S. "controlling space," Smith in a new TV documentary"Star Wars Returns"that I have written and narrate (copies of which I have for you today) says: "It is our manifest destiny. You know we went from the East Coast to the West Coast of the United States of America settling the continent and they call that manifest destiny and the next continent if you will, the next frontier, is space and it goes on forever." Yes, now it's U.S. Cosmic Manifest Destiny.
No, the United Kingdom shouldn't be involved in this U.S. scheme.
What the U.S. is up to will destabilize the world. Canada as well as China, Russia, indeed basically the rest of the world, seek to keep space for peace and are agreed on banning all weapons in space.
As, after the horror of chemical warfare in the First World War when nations said we can no longer allow chemical warfare, the world for nearly 35 years has agreed--and successfully managed--to keep war out of space. The Outer Space Treaty should be strengthened to ban all weapons in space. Verification mechanisms should be added. And space be kept for peace.
But there is only a narrow window to do this--for if the United States moves ahead with its Star Wars scheme there will be no putting this genie back in the bottle. Other nations will respond in kind and there will be an arms race and ultimately war in space.
This weekend, people from around the United Kingdom--indeed from all over the world--will gather in Leeds because of the proximity of Menwith Hill, an important component in the U.S. space military program. The meeting is titled "No Star Wars: An International Conference to Keep Space for Peace."
I urge you distinguished members of Parliament to join in helping stop this move by the United States to turn the heavens into a war zone.
***
Karl Grossman is full professor of journalism at the State University of New York/College at Old Westbury. He has specialized in investigative journalism for 35 years
He is a principal of EnviroVideo, a New York-based company which produces news, interview programs and documentaries for television and the Web.Video documentaries he has written and hosted for EnviroVideo include "Nukes In Space: The Nuclearization and Weaponization of the Heavens," "Nukes In Space 2: Unacceptable Risks" and his new video documentary, "Star Wars Returns," just released by EnviroVideo (718.318.8045) or http://www.envirovideo.com).
His books include "The Wrong Stuff: The Space Program's Nuclear Threat To Our Planet" and "Weapons In Space," to be published in June 2001 by Seven Stories Press (212.226.8760 or http://www.info@sevenstories.com
Grossman is the recipient of the George Polk Award, James Aronson Award and John Peter Zenger Award along with six citations from Sonoma State University's Project Censored for his journalism on space issues.
Grossman's home address: Box 1680, Sag Harbor, New York, USA 11963.
E-mail: kgrossman@hamptons.com
Star Wars: Now or Never - Tooth Fairy Study Update - Vieques - Karl Grossman
During these next coming days and months, U.S. policy holders will make the decision to press forward for missile defense, or, they will choose to honor treaties, and keep space open for peace. The U.S. wants to use billions or trillions of dollars for a renewed "star wars" military space effort that would lead to a greater acceleration of the arms race for all weapons of mass destruction. This is suicide and we need to convince the U.S., especially those serving the U.S. Congress, that disarmament is in the national security interests, not breaking treaties for questionable military strategic advantages. The scuffles between China and the U.S. of late, reminds me of two teenage gangs going at each other at high speeds in a game of chicken. Obviously, it is reasonable to assume that the faster plane is more responsible for causing the accident than the slower plane. Yet., the U.S. could have been humble, acknowledging once again its fatal mistake for bombing the Chinese Embassy in Serbia, but no, this played into the Taiwan deal for big weapon contracts. The arms game is to get rich using fear incentives that can never really work.. The only thing is, with the nature of this game, time is growing short.
Please join the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space and support their educational campaigns for peace in space and International Actions -- October 13, 2001. For more information, contact the Global Network
http://www.peace4space.org
Also, call the Congressional Switchboard to reach your Representative
202-224-3121
ask their support to Stop Star Wars for Peace in Space
1) The Bush Star Wars Speech Next Tuesday
2) Russia, China and North Korea Respond to U.S. Missile Defense
3) Tooth Fairy Study Update
4) U.S. military detains protesters at Vieques
5) Tools for Raising Consciousness by Karl Grossman
**********************************************************************
1) The Bush Star Wars Speech Next Tuesday
Thursday April 26 6:55 PM ET
Bush Plans Missile Defense Speech
By RON FOURNIER, AP White House Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush will explain his rationale for seeking a national missile defense system in a major address Tuesday, before sending diplomatic teams overseas to consult with wary American allies.
The speech, still being drafted at the White House, is expected to outline the president's view that a national missile defense system is part of a broad national security policy that could include reductions in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, said three senior White House advisers who spoke on
condition of anonymity.
Many European allies and Russia oppose Bush's plan for a national missile defense system, saying it could spark an arms race. Bush hopes talk of reducing U.S. nuclear stockpiles will soften opposition in Europe and reassure Russia that missile defense is not a threat to Moscow.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told European allies during meetings in Germany in February that the administration would consult closely before committing to a missile defense. Those consultations will begin after Bush's speech, officials said.
Rumsfeld also offered to share missile defense technology to ensure the allies are protected as well.
Asked to preview the speech, the Bush advisers pointed to an address he delivered in May 2000 as a presidential candidate. In that appearance, Bush said he would slash America's nuclear arsenal to its ``lowest possible number consistent with our national security,'' regardless of whether Moscow went along.
Bush has offered no details about the size of the possible nuclear cuts or the cost of a missile defense system. He said at the time he was trying ``to demonstrate to Russia that we are no longer enemies.''
Russia's objections to a U.S. missile defense system date to the bleak days of the Cold War, when former President Reagan pushed for a space-based initiative. Bush has said he is willing to scrap the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to make room for the development of technology that could protect the United States against missile strikes from a growing number of nuclear threats.
The Russians have said they will put all arms control treaties on hold if the United States either violates or withdraws from the 1972 pact, which prohibits national missile defenses.
Bush said last year he would ask his defense secretary to review the United States' nuclear posture and determine how far the arsenal could be cut Rumsfeld is conducting that review now.
Former President Clinton and former Russian President Boris Yeltsin agreed in 1997 that a START III accord would further reduce their nuclear arsenals to between 2,000 and 2,500 warheads, although recently the Russians have suggested going even lower, perhaps to 1,500.
Rumsfeld has a group of experts working behind closed doors to develop a detailed plan for achieving Bush's goals on missile defense.
In the meantime, the Pentagon has been proceeding on the land-based missile defense project that the Clinton administration was pursuing. A key test of the land-based system is expected to be held in early summer, although no announcements have been made.
When Bush entered office in January, the Pentagon's position was that even a rudimentary national missile defense could not be ready for use before 2006. Bush has not specified his preferred timetable.
Aides would not rule out the possibility that Bush will discuss the timetable or other questions left unanswered in last year's speech.
Military officers who have discussed the administration's defense priorities with Rumsfeld say he has made it clear that missile defense is priority No1.
Many in the military worry that the billions of dollars likely to be invested in missile defense will take away from programs they consider more important.
-
Pentagon reporter Bob Burns contributed to this story.
**********************************************************************
2) Russia, China and North Korea Respond to U.S. Missile Defense
[This news story was received from the Global Network 4/11/01]
By EDITH M. LEDERER
The Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Russia, China and North Korea attacked U.S. intentions to build a national missile defense system, warning that it would threaten international security and trigger a new arms race.
The three countries said in separate speeches to the U.N. Disarmament Commission that a U.S. missile defense system would also undermine the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which bans such systems.
U.S. officials did not speak at Tuesday's meeting.
In the harshest criticism, North Korea's U.N. Ambassador Li Hyong Chol accused the United States of ``unjustifiably'' branding the country "a rogue state'' and making claims about ``the nonexistent `missile threat' from us'' in order to justify building the missile system.
At a meeting last month with South Korean President Kim Dae-jung in Washington, President Bush said he was skeptical about North Korea and would not immediately resume talks to pressure the communist country to curb its missile program.
Li said the Bush administration's decision to establish a missile defense system makes ``crystal clear'' why it is evading the resolution of the missile issue with Pyongyang. He warned that as long as the United States ``continues picking on us,'' North Korea would have no choice but to take countermeasures.
``Even if this entails an arms race between North Korea and the U.S. and all other agreements are scrapped, we will have little to lose,'' he warned.
Chinese Ambassador Hu Xiaodi, who is based in Geneva, said a U.S. missile defense shield ``will severely hinder the international arms control and disarmament process and even trigger off a new round of (the) arms race.''
Once a shield is in place, he said, ``the country concerned will be more prone to act unilaterally and to use or threaten to use force in international affairs.
``That will consequently create more instability in the world,'' he added.
Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador Andrey Granovsky warned that destroying the ABM treaty ``owing to the U.S. plans to deploy a national missile defense system would seriously affect global stability and international security.''
Unless the ABM treaty is preserved, he said, Russia cannot move ahead on cutting its stockpile of nuclear weapons.
******************************************************************************
3) Tooth Fairy Study Update
Dr Jay M. Gould
Radiation and Public Health Project
Box 60
Unionville New York 10988
USA
Dear Friend,
As one who has expressed interest in our work in the past , you may be interested in the enclosed recent exchange of letters carried in The Nation magazine, which describes the remarkable success of our Tooth Fairy Study, and which was the subject of a BBC World news report on April 5, which
was seen by 90 million viewers worldwide. We have to date analyzed the radioactive strontium levels (called Sr90) in 1,500 baby teeth, mainly from those born in recent years near nuclear reactors. We have found that about half have levels far above the expected trace levels, in some cases 30 or 40 times higher!
When we have around 10,000 baby teeth we hope then to collect medical histories of each child to ascertain the degree to which children with high levels have had such childhood illnesses as asthma, learning disabilities, infections etc. We already have many teeth from kids with cancer. Our findings eventually may replicate the success of the first baby teeth study started by Dr. Barry Commoner in St. Louis in 1958. After collecting 60,000 teeth, that study found that Sr90 levels rose one-hundred fold from 1948 to 1963. In that year President Kennedy asked Dr. Ernest Sternglass to testify to Congress on radiation-induced childhood cancer, to accelerate the ratification of the ban on above-ground nuclear bomb tests. Dr. Sternglass, it should be noted, is the scientific director of our current baby teeth study.
We are now facing an embarrassment of riches. We are now getting baby teeth from all parts of the nation and now from England, Russia, Japan and even China too, because of the BBC report, as well as mailed appeals from Alec Baldwin and Christie Brinkley as concerned parents. We may reach our
goal of collecting 10,000 teeth within the next year or two. but the number of teeth received is growing so rapidly, we need to raise funds to pay for testing these teeth . Our hope is that individuals such as yourself will help us by sponsoring the testing of one or more teeth, at the cost of $50 per
tooth. If you feel that our study merits support, please send a check for $50 (or more) as a tax-deductible contribution to my address above. But this will work only if you can send this appeal to others who share our interest in eliminating nuclear pollution. If you can forward this message by Email write me at jaymgould@aol.com, and I will send this to you by e-mail. In this way we hope to have enough small donations to encourage foundations to fund completion of our study. The enclosed [following] letter exchange in the March 26th issue of The Nation illustrates the irony that our study is opposed by the federal government which has been measuring Sr90 levels in adult vertebrae each year since 1954 but inexplicably terminated these efforts in 1982.
Passionate appeals by local residents as well as Alec Baldwin and Christie Brinkley moved the New Jersey Legislature to approve a grant of $75,000 to analyze baby teeth from children living near the notoriously malfunctioning Oyster Creek reactor. Governor Christie Whitman (now EPA administrator) vetoed this tiny grant from a multi-billion dollar state budget. Similar grants of $60,000 from the legislatures of Suffolk and Westchester counties have yet to materialize. It is becoming clear that our primary resource will continue to be the support of individuals and foundations who are concerned that our health is threatened by nuclear reactor emissions, and who
want us to continue to establish strong scientific evidence of radioactive exposure by measuring Sr90levels in baby teeth. Also, please visit out website http://www.radiation.org
Sincerely, Jay M. Gould
-------------------------------------------------------------
Letters to The Nation ,March 26, 2001
NUCLEAR POWER & US
New York City
I would like to provide an update on some remarkable events that followed Joseph Mangano's epidemiological discovery that closing the Rancho Seco reactor in 1989 was followed by an enormous improvement in infant mortality and childhood cancer (Harvey Wasserman, "No Nukes--Better Health" Jan.29) Mangano has now found that mortality rates for all age groups in these areas have, since 1989, improved for all diseases mediated by the immune response. San Francisco, for example (only 70 miles from Rancho Seco) had in 1998 the lowest age-adjusted mortality rate of any large US county, with extraordinary declines since 1990 in all cancers, including breast and prostate, and in all infectious diseases. Even AIDS death rates by 1998 have declined to the level of 1979.As a result of local grassroots dissemination of these facts and a generous grant from the CEO of a large San Francisco company, Mangano may soon be able to offer clinical as well as epidemiological proof of the benefits of closing reactors. As national coordinator of our Tooth Fairy Project, which has been finding ominously high levels of bone-seeking radioactive strontium (Sr90) in the baby teeth of about 2000 children born in recent years that could not be the result of past superpower aboveground nuclear bomb tests, he may soon be able to ascertain the change, if any, in the ratios of Sr90 to calcium in the baby teeth of children born before and after reactor closings. The Nation readers can give us invaluable support by collecting baby teeth from anyone born in recent years, or even from baby boomers born as far back as the bomb test years of the 1950s, for we have found that they have the same incredibly high levels, after correction for the 29 year half life of Sr90, that prompted President Kennedy to terminate such aboveground tests in 1963. Please visit our website, www.radiation.org, and/or call 800 582 3716 for tooth envelopes.
JAY M. G0ULD
Radiation and Public Health Project Inc.
**********************************************************************
4) U.S. military detains protesters at Vieques
April 27, 2001
Web posted at: 3:23 p.m. EDT (1923 GMT)
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/04/27/vieques.protests.02/index.html
VIEQUES, Puerto Rico (CNN) -- Protesters faced off with the U.S. military on Friday at a Navy bombing range on Puerto Rico's Vieques Island.
By midday, U.S. security forces had detained at least 13 people, including eight protesters who boated to a tiny island just offshore, forcing the Navy to stop its bombing minutes after it started.
The bombing, using "inert" bombs the Navy said would not explode, resumed after the eight were arrested. At least five more people were detained overnight when they were found on the practice range grounds.
The range, used for target practice since 1941, has been a battleground of a different sort since a civilian security guard was killed two years ago by an errant bomb.
Puerto Rico had sought a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to block the drills, but U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler rejected the arguments.
After the ruling, the Navy said it would again conduct training exercises at Vieques, and hundreds of protesters converged on San Juan, Puerto Rico, to signal their displeasure.
By Friday afternoon, dozens of protesters beat drums, sang and chanted as they marched in front of the gates. A line of security guards stood between them and the bombing range on the eastern end of Vieques Island.
Opponents confident of eventual win
Earlier on Friday, Navy A-4 bombers from the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico started bombing but stopped minutes later when the protesters were spotted on the island. Security forces were dispatched to remove them.
Two destroyers from the carrier's battle group launched ship-to-shore bombs after the protesters were taken into custody and removed to safety.
Opponents of the Navy's use of the island said they were not discouraged by the ruling that allowed the resumption of the bombing.
"We have a strong case, a difficult case, but a strong case. ... I'm confident we're going to prevail on the merits," said Eugene Gulland, an attorney representing the Puerto Rican government. He said Puerto Rico hopes to resolve the matter through talks with the Bush administration.
Kessler rejected arguments from attorneys for Puerto Rico that the coming exercise would inflict irreparable harm on people living near the range. The Department of Health and Human Services is studying whether the noise may be linked to some health problems in residents of Vieques.
Justice Department attorneys had argued the United States has the right to continue the drills while broader questions over noise are resolved.
Range used for 60 years
Last year, hundreds of demonstrators were arrested as they sought to block use of the bombing range, protesting the accidental bombing death of a civilian there. In April 1999, a Marine Corps jet inadvertently dropped two bombs off target, killing a civilian guard working on the bombing range.
The Pentagon says it needs the range for combat training for Navy and Marine pilots.
"We continue to say that the training down there is very, very important. Realistic training is one of the reasons that the United States military is as effective as it is around the world," said Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley. "And Vieques is a superb training range, the best in the entire Atlantic for the uses that the Navy and Marine Corps need to put it toward."
He added that the training there "is absolutely essential to the value and the realism and the preparedness of our military forces as they prepare to deploy forward."
CNN Producers Allison Flexner and Paul Courson and Correspondent John Zarrella contributed to this report.
Please Note:
CNN is running a poll today: Created: Fri Apr 27 11:13:34 EDT 2001
Should the U.S. end its bombing exercises on Puerto Rico's Vieques Island?
at around 5:30 P.M. the tally was:
Yes 44% 16530 votes
No 56% 20769 votes
Total: 37299 votes
To vote go to http://www.cnn.com
Scroll down to shaded area called: QUICK VOTE
This QuickVote is not scientific and reflects the opinions of only those Internet users who have chosen to participate. The results cannot be assumed to represent the opinions of Internet users in general, nor the public as a whole. The QuickVote sponsor is not responsible for content, functionality or the opinions expressed therein.
**********************************************************************
5) Tools for Raising Consciousness by Karl Grossman
Available on May 1, 2001 from EnviroVideo, Karl Grossman's new production "Star Wars Returns." This powerful 30-minute documentary reveals how the United States is moving to make space a new arena of war. It presents military documents declaring the U.S. intention to "control space" and from space "dominate" the world below. It exposes U.S. development programs now underway to produce space-based laser weapons. And, it shows how the George W. Bush administration and, especially, its Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, is pushing ahead rapidly with Star Wars--that far more than "missile defense" is involved. It tells how, at the UN, because of the U.S. program for space warfare, a vote was recently held to reaffirm the Outer Space Treaty--the basic international law which sets aside space for "peaceful purposes." Some 163 nations voted yes. The U.S. abstained. Star Wars Returns explores the international opposition to Star Wars. It spotlights the strong challenge to Star Wars being made at the grassoots level worldwide by the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power In Space. (Available May 1, 2001)
For ordering and to learn more visit http://www.envriovideo.com .
Also, NEW BOOK AVAILABLE: Karl Grossman,* "Weapons in Space." Award winning investigative journalist, Karl Grossman documents the corporate forces behind Star Wars and their direct links to the Bush administration. The preface is written by Dr. Michio Kaku. To order contact the Global Network or Seven Stories Press http://www.info@sevenstories.com or 212-226-8760.
*Karl Grossman is full professor of journalism at the State University of New York/College at Old Westbury. He has specialized in investigative reporting for 35 years. He is an associate of the media watch group FAIR.
He is a principal of EnviroVideo, a New York-based company which produces news, interview programs and documentaries for television and the Web. Video documentaries he has written and hosted for EnviroVideo include "Nukes In Space: The Nuclearization and Weaponization of the Heavens," "Nukes In Space 2: Unacceptable Risks," "Three Mile Island Revisited" and "The Push To Revive Nuclear Power," all of which have received video festival awards. His new video documentary, "Star Wars Returns," has just been released by EnviroVideo (1-800-ECO-TV46 or http://www.envirovideo.com).
His earlier books include "The Wrong Stuff: The Space Program's Nuclear Threat To Our Planet," "Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed To Know About Nuclear Power," "Power Crazy," "The Poison Conspiracy" and "Nicaragua: America's New Vietnam?"
Journalism by Grossman on the nuclearization and weaponization of space have been included six times on Project Censored's annual lists of the ten most "under-reported," "best-censored" stories. Grossman is the recipient of the George Polk, James Aronson and John Peter Zenger Awards.
Grossman's postal address is: Box 1680, Sag Harbor, New York 11963.
His E-mail is: kgrossman@hamptons.com
Flyby News Returns <> Environment Under Assault <> Transformation Needed
Editors Note:
It has been a while since the last issue of Post Cassini Flyby News. My computer and I have been down for upgrades; slowly, we are picking up from where we left off. The news hasn't been good. The Corporate-driven US President has pushed one bad policy to the next in regards of saving our environment. The Bush Administration announced the U.S. backing down from the Kyoto Accords. Also, I believe on the same day that scientists announced visible proof of accumulating global warming gases in our atmosphere (from satellite images), George Bush announced his backing down on a campaign promise to make the lowering of pollution emissions mandatory by power producers. Now he says that would harm our economy during his Presidency, but what about our future? The new Bush proposed budget would slash $200 million from solar and other alternative energy programs. Yet, he would add $150 million to what is called "less polluting coal products." This is pretty weird.since coal-electric production is a leading contributor of global warming.
I hope some of you watched CBS TV's Sixty Minutes 2 last Tuesday April 3rd. They showed a segment of beached whales in the Bahamas during exercises of the U.S. Navy's use of high screeching sonar.
"Although active sonar has been suspected in previous strandings, analysis of the inner ears of several dead whales enabled scientists to confirm, for the first time, the dangerous role of active sonar to a level of certainty that even the Navy could not ignore. All but one of the whales suffered hemorrhages in the inner ear, almost certainly the result of a sonic blast.
And in February 2001, a marine scientist observed that at least one of the whale species that stranded in the Bahamas had virtually disappeared from the area, raising questions about impacts well beyond the initial strandings and deaths.
The National Marine Fisheries Service is accepting public comments through May 3, 2001, on whether to grant the Navy's LFA permit request. Use the form below to fax a message to the chief of the Fisheries Service's Marine Mammal Conservation Division, telling her to deny the Navy's request to deploy LFA sonar."
Act Now! http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/marine/nlfa.asp
For an easy way to Fax a Letter to help stop the terrorization of sea life!.
**********************************************************************
Please Note:
Bart Jordan's website (www.bartjordan.com) is down due to nonpayment. Also, Bart has stopped sending new information to Flyby News. However, the fascinating background information that he posted on his website will soon be re-posted at FlybyNews.com. We expect to have this site online within a month. We look forward to announcing this new site for "all the news fit to print in the post Cassini flyby era." We have certainly established a record of breaking news reports regarding issues including sonar-impact on cetacean life, harm from exploded depleted uranium and critical human rights issues. FlybyNews.com will include an archive section from past issues, which will be listed according to their dates and subject titles. We also plan to post a bulletin board for an open exchange of information and ideas. Also, subscribing and removing will become automated.
Please keep the spirit alive and keep acting on policies of transformation that will change our current direction toward extinction and harming most all life on Earth.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
For a magical song/story of North Alaskan Indians and their struggle with the oil industry and the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, you can download a "Song For The Gwich'in" by Marienne Kreitlow.
http://www.marienne.com
At the upper right corner of her homepage you can link for an MP3 download.
"Isn't there a way?
Isn't this a page that we have turned?
Isn't this a lesson we have learned?
Oh Sacredness of Life"
Marienne Kreitlow, Living Song, BMI
copyright 1993
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Following is a statement of resignation by Jonathan Mark as a Coordinator with the Leonard Peltier Support Group of Greater New England.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
On April 26, I will be stepping down as a Coordinator of the Leonard Peltier Support Group of Greater New England (LPSG/GNE). It is time for me to focus more on my other projects, especially development of an improved Stirling engine for cleaner and more efficient (thermoelectric) onsite power generation. I expect, too, it is a good time for the LPSG/GNE to expand its leadership base. Everyone is welcomed to join in this core work with Chris Groden, members of I.AIM, Paul Burton and others in support of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC). Also, Paul Burton has agreed to serve as Manager for the LPSG/GNE LISTSERV. Paul will continue designing hard copy newsletters, too, for wider distribution of campaigns and events in our communities. I believe Jahfree Harp will be around again this spring, who has been key in producing wonderful music benefit events at the Iron Horse Music Hall for the last two years in October. Lahri Bond of Heartwork Graphics continues to be another significant force for our group in his creative artwork and design of fliers announcing events and actions to our communities. Stepping down as a Coordinator and a Founder of the LPSG/GNE is really an honor due to its ongoing work in support of the freedom of Leonard and the reconciliation of our government's relationship with indigenous peoples.
On the last day of my role as a Coordinator, four musicians will be performing at the Fire and Water Cafe (April 26) to benefit the LPSG/GNE. We hope to raise funds to pay off debts at Collective Copies and Paradise Copies, and purchase additional Peltier Congressional Briefing Videos for community access television. The talented performers for the benefit include Joy Sumberg, Tom Neilson, Paul Burton, and the Jennifer Greer Trio. A meeting will precede the music from 5-7pm at a one of a kind vegetarian cafe and performing place. Please join the fun and support the work. Leonard's book and beautiful artwork will remain as treasures through time. Yet, our united effort for his freedom is what gives the chance for breaking the cruel chains of arrogance and racism that have continued with his imprisonment for more than a quarter of a Century.
I helped found the LPSG/GNE in 1998 when the LPDC requested support for nonviolent civil disobedient actions to help expose the injustices of Leonard's case. I had lobbied the LPDC in 1996 to pursue such a campaign, figuring that this method used by Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr., appropriate and could be effective in freeing Leonard Peltier. However, the LPDC abandoned this campaign due to opposition of some of their supporters, believing this method would be too confrontational. The LPSG/GNE, disagreed with this perspective, but, in any case, continues to support LPDC campaigns. Supporting the LPDC is really the best way to support Leonard. The LPDC coordinators, Gina Chuala and Pat Benabi, are continuing to work closely with Leonard and with others on his defense team. His attorneys and supporters are accomplished human rights activists, including those who gave testimonies at the Peltier Congressional Briefing in May 2000, which Congressman Porter sponsored. The LPSG/GNE recently showed a video of this at the Unitarian Society of Northampton. You can get a copy of this tape by sending $15 to the Defense Committee [ http://www.freepeltier.org ]. After viewing it, we suggest sending it to the LPSG/GNE or bring it directly to your local public access TV station or library. Many people responded in support of Leonard during the Countdown to Clemency campaign. This united effort at least received national attention when President Clinton announced his priority in reviewing Leonard's Clemency petition. However, the forces of the FBI and the independent investigators apparently blocked or influenced the denial of a Clemency pardon by President Clinton. Leonard Peltier remains in Leavenworth at this time, and is losing more rights for access to the media and to his defense team. Only an expanded and renewed effort will right the wrongs committed by the US government and its intolerance of traditional Native American rights and justice for all. Please respond and help distribute the Congressional Briefing video to our communities, and help pressure Congress for this call for justice and human rights, which is strongly supported by Amnesty International and leaders throughout the world.
Chris Groden, besides his role as Coordinator, also serves the LPSG/GNE as treasurer. Chris asked that I present another great opportunity to support the LPSG/GNE by making a $5 or higher donation to receive a lithographic print of the donated, inspired artwork by Lahri Bond. Chris invested his own money for printing costs to help support LPSG and LPDC campaigns. The lack of support and the false criticism of the LPSG's misuse of funds by some has been very frustrating. Anyone interested in a general accounting of funds at the LPSG/GNE, can write to Chris at cgroden@hotmail.com . The Spirit of Crazy Horse artwork is posted for viewing at http://earthlovers.org/leonard/ . Prints will also be available at upcoming LPSG/GNE events.
On a good note, I.AIM and Arise for Social Justice joined in a Coalition with the LPSG to demonstrate on the 25th anniversary of Leonard's arrest in Springfield, MA. This is a good beginning in joining with those supportive of a unified and nonviolent campaign in our area. However, this unity and show of support needs to expand, if we are ever to be successful in seeing Leonard Peltier free from prison. I don't understand why the LPDC did not report on our united actions on the International Day of Protest for the Arrest of Leonard Peltier. Perhaps the Clemency's denial came too unexpectedly and they weren't prepared for contingency plans. Yet everyone makes mistakes and learning from them are important. Keeping the momentum building from one campaign to the next is critical for achieving Leonard's freedom. For this purpose, the LPSG/GNE is supporting a greater distribution and broadcast of the Congressional Briefing to raise the awareness of the public to help push for Congressional hearings and investigations. Your support for such an initiative with the LPSG and the LPDC is vital in support of democracy, justice and racial harmony on land we share.
It is my conviction that the criminal justice system in the US and elsewhere needs a transformation. All nonviolent and nonvictim offenders are in essence political prisoners in a system that uses cruel and unusual punishment for most all stated crimes. The system is disproportionately unfair to those of minority races. Leonard's freedom is critical for truth and reconciliation for all races. I will continue reporting on this case in Flyby News, which is an E-mail news service covering such divergent and related issues as peace in outer space, disarmament of weapons of mass destruction, environmental, indigenous, and human rights concerns. This work comes from efforts to stop the Cassini plutonium-carrying space probe from a flyby of Earth in 1999. For those interested in the background of this work see http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby . You can subscribe for Flyby News by sending an E-mail to noflyby@yahoo.com .
I will continue supporting the LPSG/GNE and hope we keep the faith and actions for US human rights and integrity throughout our world.
In the spirit of Mitakuye Oyasin, All Our Relations
Jonathan Mark
MD Pie in the Sky ^ Environmental Destruction ^ Peltier Congressional Video
15 February 2001
1) Missile Defense is Still Just a Pie in the Sky
2) Air Force Gearing Up for Space Operations
3) Peltier Congressional Video Press Release
************************************************************
President George W. Bush has ordered a review on the way the military will conduct war in the future. The idea that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of a cure is often a foreign concept for military planners. The first sentence in the Item 2 news story confirms this, "The Air Force embraced a report that cited the 'virtual certainty' of future hostile action in space and said it was moving forward with plans to boost U.S. military strength in the heavens." This virtual certainty of conflict becomes a self-created reality. Instead of war-creating strategies, the U.S. could and should adopt preventing the spread of war and terrorism by endorsing programs that support prosperity, health and well-being in all nations. Yet, while the industrial revolution and the misguided global economy sink icebergs, global warming threatens any realm of hope. The current U.S. Administration is in denial of this real threat. They are considering spending billions and billions of dollars for Star Wars, which not only diverts limited resources, but harms the environment by ozone depleting rocket ships and missiles destroying the outer layers of Earth's atmosphere. This confirms that human fear and distorted logic are our most significant threat to life.
Please consider taking actions, especially referred to at the end in item 3 regarding the Leonard Peltier Congressional Briefing video tape. We need your help to support justice and human rights to lobby the public and the U.S. Congress, which may become our only safeguard in preventing a destructive missile defense system leading to a new deadlier arms race.
Before the three items listed above, following are important environmental news briefs regarding Global Warming from the Environmental News Service. http://ens-news.com
===========================================================
MELTING ARCTIC PERMAFROST MAY ACCELERATE GLOBAL WARMING
NAIROBI, Kenya, February 7, 2001 (ENS) - Global warming may be set to accelerate as rising temperatures in the Arctic melt the permafrost causing it to release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, a United Nations scientist warned today. An estimated 14 per cent of the world's carbon is stored in Arctic lands.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-07-06.html
===========================================================
CLIMATE CHANGE TALKS SET FOR SUMMER
NEW YORK, New York, February 13, 2001 (ENS) - International negotiations to work out exactly how greenhouse gas emissions will be limited to avert global warming are set to resume this summer, the president of the United
Nations process said Monday.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-13-01.html
===========================================================
ENFORCEMENT CHANGES ON TAP FOR BUSH'S EPA
By Brian Hansen
WASHINGTON, DC, February 13, 2001 (ENS) - Enforcement activities at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will soon be carried on very differently now that George W. Bush has replaced Bill Clinton in the White House, according to two of Washington's most prominent environmental attorneys.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-13-15.html
===========================================================
NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, these materials are distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for research and educational purposes.
**********************************************************************
1) Missile Defense is Still Just a Pie in the Sky
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57045-2001Feb11.html
By Roberto Suro
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 12, 2001
As the Bush administration takes the first steps toward carrying out its campaign promise of a global missile defense, a stark reality is setting in: Bush's initiative carries heavy upfront costs -- budgetary, political and diplomatic -- but the benefits to American security and foreign policy lay far off in the future.
During last year's election campaign, President Bush repeatedly criticized the Clinton administration's missile defense plans as inadequate, and he promised to build a larger, more complex shield. But there is virtually no chance that this expanded system can be in place before Bush leaves the White House, according to Pentagon documents and military experts.
Even a token defense would require three or four years of work, according to the most optimistic assessments of the technological challenges and construction schedules. Realizing Bush's vision of a multilayered system with worldwide reach will take a decade or more, the experts said.
Pentagon officials warn that these schedules cannot be accelerated very much, even by infusions of money or exhortations from the commander in chief. "This is not a matter of cranking up assembly lines," said a senior military officer. "It is, in fact, rocket science."
The difficulties of mounting a missile defense have been writ large in the skies above the Pacific, where the Pentagon's most advanced system -- a land-based rocket mounted with a "kill vehicle" designed to smash into an enemy warhead -- failed two flight tests last year. After the second botched intercept in July, the testers put in place higher quality standards and inspected every component. As a result of the two failures, the date for the next test has slipped -- from last July to November, then to January, then to March. Now it may not take place until June, almost a year late, according to a senior Pentagon official.
If everything goes right from now on, a small-scale version of the interceptor system could be operating by 2006. But that is the option the Clinton administration had proposed and which the Bush campaign derided as too limited. As an alternative, some Bush advisers have proposed to adapt Navy "theater defense" systems being developed to shoot down short- and medium-range missiles. However, the Navy recently revised timelines for those programs, which would put new, high-speed interceptors aboard cruisers.
The Navy had planned to build a hurry-up, stopgap interceptor, the Block I missile, and to equip at least two ships by 2006. But that plan has been scrapped so that the Navy can focus on testing and developing the final version, the Block II missile, a senior defense official said. By taking what it considers a more prudent tack, the Navy has put off initial deployment of a ship-based shield to 2010 at the earliest, officials said.
Administration's Logic
Despite the long timeline, Bush remains "fully committed" to building a missile defense to deal with an international problem that will not just go away, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said last week.
"And that problem is simply that there are nations on Earth who are developing these weapons that can threaten their neighbors and can threaten us, and it would be irresponsible of us not to move forward with technologies that have the possibility of being able to stop these kinds of weapons," Powell said.
The Clinton plan called for interceptors based in Alaska to protect only the United States -- not its allies -- from a few missiles fired by a rogue state or an accidental launch by a major power. That approach was "flawed" and the product of "failed leadership," Bush said during the campaign.
Bush has not specified what technologies he will employ. Nor has he said whether the system is intended to be shared with Russia and China, or to defend against them. But he argued forcefully during the campaign that U.S. missile defenses must protect not only the 50 states but also "our friends and allies and deployed forces overseas."
Recent statements by Powell and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld indicate that the new administration is worried that unless the European powers, Israel, South Korea, Japan and other allies feel safe from missile attack, they may be unwilling to join in a future U.S.-led military coalition.
Within a few years, the senior officials predict, a relatively weak military power, such as Iran, Iraq or North Korea, could try to blackmail the United States and its allies by assembling a few long-range ballistic missiles.
Decrying Clinton's inattention to this danger, Bush contended during the campaign that the defensive technology is within reach. "There's a lot of inventiveness in our society that is -- hasn't been unleashed on this
particular subject," he said.
Rising Costs
In addition to technological problems, however, the White House faces the issue of how to pay for the global shield. It will cost an additional $8 billion to $10 billion a year to start with, according to conservative estimates by missile defense advocates.
The price tag for Clinton's plan was estimated at $60 billion. Bush's bigger shield could cost much more, especially if the United States tries to build a network of radars and interceptors to protect Europe, Israel and perhaps also Russia, or if it develops killer satellites and space-based weapons.
The chiefs of the military services have long insisted that any spending on national missile defense must come on top of the substantial budget increases they are seeking to modernize existing forces. The Bush administration has promised new money only for a military pay raise.
Any additional defense spending must wait until Rumsfeld completes a "top-to-bottom" review of U.S. strategy, weapons programs, nuclear forces and military personnel issues, Bush said last week. Even as it decides how to proceed on the technology and budget fronts, Bush will have to wage a diplomatic offensive as well.
Opposition to the president's missile defense goals is virtually unanimous among the European allies as well as in Moscow, where Bush's ideas are viewed as a prescription for a new arms race. China, which sees even a limited shield as a way to defeat its nuclear capabilities, threatens to be first off the starting line, building missiles as fast as the United States can build defenses.
No Apparent Haste
With its early focus on domestic programs and tax cuts, the Bush administration has not hurried to tackle the multiple challenges posed by missile defense.
Senior military officers have been ready for weeks to brief the new administration on options for missile defense testing and development. But the generals, admirals and civilian scientists have been left cooling their heels, according to senior defense officials.
And although Bush has said he wants to overcome Russian opposition to U.S. missile defense plans -- perhaps by negotiating an agreement that would further reduce both sides' nuclear arsenals -- the administration has not announced a schedule for consultations with Moscow.
Last year, the Clinton administration launched intensive consultations with Russia and the European allies in January. The plan was to have some kind of agreement in place by September, when the president was to decide whether to go forward with construction of a new tracking radar on the remote Aleutian island of Shemya. Failure to make any progress on the diplomatic front, along with the two failed intercept tests, caused Clinton to hold back.
The Shemya radar is essential to almost any kind of national missile defense system, and the earliest it could be completed is 2006 if work on the island begins next year, according to the Pentagon. Because all the materials must be shipped by barge from Seattle to be in place for the short summer construction season, Bush will have to make a decision on whether to build on Shemya by November or see the schedule slip by a full year.
Getting a global shield up by the end of the decade would require the kind of urgent commitment that went into the development of Polaris submarine-launched nuclear missiles in the early 1960s, when the nation believed that the Soviets were pulling ahead in strategic weapons, according to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that has been a leading advocate of missile defenses.
Heritage urged Bush to use his inaugural address "to assure Americans and America's allies that he intends to stand by his campaign commitment to field a national missile defense system as soon as technologically possible."
But Bush did not mention the subject then, nor has he spoken of it in any detail since. He may say more this week, when he is to visit military bases across the country and discuss his ideas on defense.
In the view of some prominent Republicans, such as Sen. Thad Cochran (Miss.), Bush by now should have set in motion a plan to scrap the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which prohibits any national missile defenses.
"I think [the administration] should give the Russians six months to accept modifications of the ABM treaty, and if they don't agree, we should withdraw from it," said Cochran, who sponsored legislation in 1999 that requires creation of a missile defense system as soon as the technology is available.
But the Bush administration appears reluctant to upset European allies and infuriate Russia years before the United States will have even a rudimentary system in place.
During an interview Feb. 4 on ABC's "This Week," Powell said it was possible that the United States might someday have to abrogate the ABM treaty "if it is no longer serving our purposes or if it is not something that we can accommodate our programs within."
But, Powell added, "it's not something that's going to happen tomorrow, and it's not something that's going to happen without full consultation with our friends and allies and full consultation with the Russians. And beyond that, full consultation with other nations that have an interest in this in Asia, Japan, Korea and China."
Bush's selection of Rumsfeld as defense secretary initially heartened missile defense advocates, because Rumsfeld chaired a commission that reported in 1998 that North Korea and Iran could threaten the United States with missile strikes within five years. That report spurred the Cochran legislation and helped persuade President Bill Clinton to take missile defense out of the deep freeze.
Cochran and others who saw Rumsfeld as an embodiment of their hopes expected the new administration to quickly reverse Clinton's decision to put off construction on Shemya. But Rumsfeld has deflected questions about how he expects to proceed.
Addressing a conference of European defense officials in Germany recently, he spoke only in general terms about the need for a missile shield. During a session with reporters on his plane en route, Rumsfeld said he could not discuss his views of missile defense plans because "we are working that through now back home, but we are not yet at that stage."
Professing a degree of ignorance about a field in which he is widely considered an expert policymaker, Rumsfeld added, "I had my first meeting earlier this week. It seems it is all a blur. I am trying to think when that was on the subject. And they are working through some things for me now. We are going to be meeting again. We are not in a position to talk specifics."
Coming Tests
Perhaps the first decision he will have to make is whether to go forward with the Clinton plan to put 100 land-based interceptors in Alaska starting in 2006.
The strategy behind that system is to attack incoming warheads when they have begun to descend on targets. Time is short at that stage of an engagement, and the interceptors must streak into space aboard a high-speed rocket.
Development of the booster has proven more time-consuming and difficult than the Pentagon expected. Behind schedule by almost a year already, the new missile is scheduled to undergo its first two tests in the coming months.
Once the interceptor is in space, it is supposed to find enemy warheads with the help of a tracking radar on land and infrared sensors in a satellite system. Both are still in the prototype stage and have never been tested together.
In the final seconds of flight, the "kill vehicle" is supposed to home in on the warhead with its own infrared sensors, then ram into it. Two intercept tests are scheduled this year. With only one success in the three previous tests, top Pentagon officials worry that they need two consecutive hits to restore the system's credibility.
Even as they try to master long-standing technological challenges, missile defense developers are expanding their testing programs. Critics both in and out of the Pentagon have questioned whether the "kill vehicle" will be able to find the right target amid the flock of decoys that might surround an incoming warhead.
While expressing confidence in their capabilities, the system's developers recently scheduled four additional flight tests with more difficult targets so they can prove that it will work. If the tests go right, deployment will stay on schedule. But any misses could add months of delay, Pentagon officials said.
--
$B%%(B 2001 The Washington Post Company
**********************************************************************
2) Air Force Gearing Up for Space Operations
'Virtual certainty' of future hostile action in space
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010209/ts/arms_space_dc_2.html
Friday, February 9 5:38 AM ET
Air Force Gearing Up for Space Operations
by Jim Wolf
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Air Force embraced a report that cited the "virtual certainty" of future hostile action in space and said it was moving forward with plans to boost U.S. military strength in the heavens.
Donald Rumsfeld headed the congressionally mandated commission that issued the report, although he stepped down from the commission post after being tapped to become President George W. Bush defense secretary.
"The Air Force strongly supports the space commission report and is already moving to implement many of (its) recommendations," said Maj. Gen. Brian Arnold, director of space and nu
Peltier Storm ^ Quarter of a Century Mark
Tuesday's storm in New England was a blast, up to 30 inches overnight. It was fitting for something big to happen in nature at this quarter of a Century mark for Leonard Peltier in prison. He must feel this day deeply, and with the fresh wounds of high expectations turned down from the Clemency rejection, he must feel disgust, sadness.., not just for himself and family, but also for a Country intimidated by the highest level of law enforcement. It is not good when 500 FBI Agents march to the White House to influence a Presidential Clemency decision.
Much of the day for many humans in the northeast USA, on Feb. 6, was spent digging out of snow. They can count themselves lucky; Leonard is buried in concrete separate from his family, friends and nature. His sentence, based on all the available evidences, is excessive. He did not shoot the agents, and he was justifiably present that day at the Jumping Bull Ranch with a rifle in hand, as a defender of terrorized people. The examples of FBI's misconduct in his case are evident and scary.
To get the word out, the Leonard Peltier Support Group of Greater New England, Arise for Social Justice and I.AIM joined in a demonstration at the Federal Building, Main Street, Springfield, MA. Another group, Hampden County Chapter of Mass. Citizens Against the Death Penalty was present, too. The groups shared a first rate public address system and the speakers shared common concerns of justice for Leonard Peltier and for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to maintain its standards to outlaw the death penalty, especially in view of an obviously broken or corrupt federal justice system.
Until Leonard is free, all Americans partake of a shameful time in our Country's history. The FBI could prove me wrong by releasing those 6,000+ documents still withheld. But the answer is likely linked to why they are keeping them so secret, which Leonard alludes to the reason in the following press release excerpt from his book, Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance. The basic element linking the injustices of Leonard Peltier and Ballistic Missile Defense together is Uranium. Unless we change the current misguided national security policies of the U.S. government, life is threatened. Nonviolence and disarmament go together like violence and death; our choices can make a sustainable future or nothing at all, and time for such a potentially fatal decision is running out. The last paragraph in the following press release has ideas on how you can help a campaign for awareness and hope. Later, Flyby News looks forward to announcing such a campaign for the expected EnviroVideo release and book by Karl Grossman. This information needs to be viewed by the public and they need to urge their Congressional Representatives to investigate the injustices of Leonard Peltier and to honor the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty by stopping the proposed Missile Defense program. If Organizations and individuals unite effectively, then, there is a chance of making a difference during the current Bush Administration, from a promise of death and destruction to the possibility of undoing the harm already committed.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Leonard Peltier Support Group / Greater New England
Box 9534, North Amherst, MA 01059; Tel 413-549-2739
E-mail Updates
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
International Day of Protest for the Arrest of Leonard Peltier
February 6, 2001 marked the 25th year of the unjust imprisonment of Leonard Peltier. Human rights leaders and organizations around the world are organizing to respond to the recent denial of Executive Clemency by President Clinton. Many are calling for members of the U.S. Congress to hold investigative hearings regarding violations of Leonard Peltier's Human and Constitutional Rights.
Documented FBI and prosecution misconduct includes terrorizing Myrtle Poor Bear to sign a false affidavit, then committing fraud to the Canadian government by presenting her statement in the Extradition process. They also terrorized and coerced three teenaged boys into giving false testimonies to the grand jury and at the trial. They concealed a ballistics test reflecting Peltier's innocence from the defense, and the FBI expert witness gave distorted testimony to the jury. Yet, they denied Leonard Peltier a new trial on a technicality, with the Judge admitting that a strong doubt was cast on the prosecution's case. Most disturbing is that Leonard Peltier's highly controversial conviction was deeply rooted in one of the most grim chapters of recent American civil rights history, specifically the Pine Ridge Reign of Terror. Between 1973 and 1976 FBI-supported vigilantes terrorized, battered and assaulted scores of Lakota Traditionalists and AIM supporters throughout the Reservation. They burned houses and entire families were wounded by drive-by shootings. With high FBI presence during 1973 to 1976, not one of more than sixty murders was investigated. Why?
In his book, Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance, Leonard Peltier wrote, "Someday the true reasons for their ill-conceived assault, what really was going on, will come out. The answer or answers, if they haven't already been shredded, may lie in those 6,000+ FBI documents they admit having withheld to this day, both from us and from the American public, on grounds of "national security." Lately, I understand, they claim those documents have been "lost." Certainly it was no accident that the day before the gunfight at Oglala, the head of the nontraditional tribal government was signing over to the federal government one-eighth of the Pine Ridge reservation, an area reputedly rich in uranium deposits. Many of us believe that the shoot-out at Oglala was specifically intended as a diversion to conceal that illegal deal, which wasn't revealed to the public for nearly a year. The public furor over the death of the two agents also scotched a planned Congressional investigation of what had happened at Wounded Knee Two in 1973 and the subsequent Reign of Terror on Pine Ridge that led to the Oglala firefight on June 26, 1975."
The freedom of Leonard Peltier is vital for human rights, environmental protection and Constitutional freedom for all Americans. It represents truth and reconciliation with the first Americans and the U.S. government. Supporters are encouraged to call their Congressional Representatives (202) 224-3121 to support a review of the Peltier case and for the release of the 6,000+ documents still withheld from the public. You can also help support gaining investigative hearings by reviewing and distributing the Peltier May 2000 Congressional Briefing video. To receive this tape send $15 to the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee; P.O. Box 583; Lawrence, KS 66044 Tel (785)842-5774; http://www.FreePeltier.org. For New England E-mail updates reply to lpsg_gne@yahoo.com with subscribe in subject. The Leonard Peltier Support Group and I.AIM are planning a benefit music event at the Fire and Water Cafe in Northampton Thursday April 26, 2001 from 7 to 10pm. Also, they are presenting the Peltier Congressional video Thursday March 22 (8-10pm) at the Unitarian Society on Main Street in Northampton, MA.
**********************************************************************
"In the Spirit of Crazy Horse - Free Leonard Peltier"
Artwork by Lahri Bond, lithographic prints available
http://earthlovers.org/leonard/
**********************************************************************
Day to Remember Leonard -- 25 Years of Unjust Incarceration -- Protests Planned
This Tuesday marks the 25th year of the unjust imprisonment of Leonard Peltier. Please respond to this injustice by contacting Congress and asking your Representative to investigate inappropriate actions by the FBI and the Prosecution in the case of Leonard Peltier.
The telephone number to reach the
Congressional Switchboard is (202)224-3121.
Specifically ask your Representative for help in the declassification of the 6000 documents pertaining to the Peltier case still being withheld by the FBI. Supporters believe these documents contain evidence that will further expose misconduct in the gaining of Leonard Peltier's conviction. Their disclosure, they say, could lead to Peltier's acquittal. 12,000 FBI documents were released in the early 1980's pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. Among them was a ballistic test reflecting Peltier's innocence and prompting the Eighth Circuit to conclude: "There is a possibility that the jury would have acquitted Leonard Peltier had the records and data improperly withheld from the defense been available to him in order to better exploit and reinforce the inconsistencies casting strong doubts upon the government's case."
===================================================================
From: Paul Burton
To: Jonathan Mark,
Date: Mon, Jan 29, 2001
RE: Letter from Cong. John W. Olver
Jonathan
here is text of letter Olver sent me.... I've misplaced the original letter but I think the date was 1/24 or 1/25. I think it shows we are having an impact and Olver knows LP has a lot of supporters in our region. We should get R. Neal to get on board and check with Boston LPSG re: other Mass Congressmembers who could present a united front in the effort re: declassification of documents, hearings, etc. Also called Kennedy and Kerry several times over the last two months but got no written response.
..................
Dear Paul
Thank you for contacting me with your support for the plight of Leonard Peltier.
As you are aware, prominent human rights activists and government officials have called for a retrial and even amnesty for Leonard Peltier. I fear that due to the chaotic nature of the moment and radically different perspectives of those involved, we may never know the truth about what happened the day two FBI agents were killed in Oglala. What is clear is that the circumstances surrounding Mr. Peltier's conviction reflect very badly on the FBI, and should not be tolerated in a free and equitable society.
Though I respect the feelings of law enforcement officials after losing two of their comrades, I am extremely disturbed by the tactics they used to secure his conviction. I also believe that the political lobbying campaign that the FBI has undertaken to ensure that Peltier stays in jail is entirely inappropriate. Sadly, Mr. Peltier has lost his appeals and is left to await either a presidential pardon, or a parole hearing in 2009.
Please know that I am sympathetic to your concerns. I have lobbied the Justice Department in the past on behalf of Mr. Peltier, and I will continue to look for any opportunity to address the inequities highlighted by his case with your views in mind.
Thank you again for your correspondence. Please feel free to contact my office if vou have any further questions or concerns
Sincerely,
John W. Olver
Member of Congress
-------------------- End Forwarded Message --------------------
STATEMENT BY LEONARD PELTIER
Greetings Friends and Supporters:
January 20, 2001, was a sad day for all of us. I know that this denial of clemency has affected many of you as much as it has affected both my family and myself. It is a terrible feeling and disappointment knowing that this nightmare has not ended and will continue for many months to come.
When I received the news, I felt my stomach curl and a feeling of nausea rolled over me. It took a while for me to refocus. For some reason I had thought I might be having dinner with my family that night. It was an especially disappointing day for all of us.
What Bill Clinton did to us was cruel. For eight years he ignored my clemency petition despite the major campaign that was waged. Then, just months before leaving office he publicly promised to make a decision on my case, one way or the other. He said he was aware of its importance. The White House gave my attorneys indications that there was a good chance for my clemency to be granted. I had to prepare myself for being released because there was no sign that my petition would be denied.
The LPDC bought me clothes, my grandson prepared his bedroom for me to sleep in and other preparations were made for my homecoming. My friends on Pine Ridge began plans to build me a house. We were literally forced to get our hopes up because we did not want to be unprepared if I was suddenly set free.
January 19, came and still, they kept us in nervous anticipation saying the more difficult clemencies are still being worked on and would be announced the next morning. Then January 20 came and went! The White House never even told us what the decision was. We had to find out through the press that my name was not on the list of clemencies. To leave a person's life and so many peoples' hopes hanging in the balance like that is truly hardhearted.
Since that dark Saturday, I have managed to get up and dust myself off, and begin to lift my spirits once more. I am just as determined now to fight for my freedom as I was on February 6, 1976 when I was first arrested. I will not give up. This is the second time in the span of my incarceration that I made it to the top of the hill and saw that freedom was in view, only to be kicked right back down to the bottom again.
The first time was in 1985, when the evidence used to convict me was impeached and I was denied a new trial, despite Judge Heaney's finding that I might have been acquitted had the jury been presented this evidence. To be denied a new trial after such a finding shocked our network and me just as much as this denial of clemency has. However, we never lose a battle without making some major gains in the overall struggle.
I want to compliment and thank my staff at the LPDC and all of you grassroots supporters who stood beside me and fought so tirelessly for my freedom. You put on one of the strongest and most memorable campaigns I have experienced. Years from now people will read about the accomplishments you made. People from every walk of life worked on this campaign. People from every denomination and belief prayed from every corner of the Earth. Although it feels like our sentiments were shooed away like an irritating fly by a president who did not want to face the consequences of his own mistakes, I believe we put up a serious challenge. We can see who was granted clemency and why. The big donors to the President's campaign were able to buy justice, something we just couldn't afford. Meanwhile, many political prisoners continue to languish unjustly, proof that this nation's talk about reconciliation is nothing but empty rhetoric.
We now have a number of strategies to continue this struggle for my freedom. These ideas are in the early planning stages. I ask you to remain with us while we regroup and develop a thorough plan. We must carefully consider every option and make sure the strategies compliment each other in order to have the best effect. The LPDC will release strategies as they are developed. Some will be released this week.
I also have my own personal plans. I will continue doing artwork and will be looking at ways to make it more available to the public. I will also be working with my friends, Fedelia and Bob Cross, to build a grade school in Oglala. Before my clemency was decided, I began to dream of the different projects I would like to work on in Pine Ridge if I were free. Now that I have been denied, Fedelia and Bob have said they will take the initiative to begin the projects themselves, with my input. Soon, we will be establishing a board and non-profit status.
Bob and Fedelia are schoolteachers and lifetime Oglala residents, and they have the land on which to build the school. They have told me of the desperate need for an improved school in Oglala. The existing school is severely under funded and inadequate and does not provide the kids with the quality education they need and deserve. We have the highest drop out rate of all ethnic groups in the country and part of the reason is the lack of stimulating and challenging programs for the youth.
Another idea I would like to develop is building a small recreation center for Oglala. As most of you know Native health conditions are also probably the worst in the country. We want to change that, beginning with this center. We want the center to have modern exercise equipment, a kitchenette, and card tables. As everyone gathers here to socialize, have coffee, gossip, and play cards, we can encourage them to try the equipment and to begin getting in the habit of exercising and eating healthy foods. I believe it would be a nice place for people to spend time and a good incentive for them to get into better physical condition and stop the trend of diabetes on the reservation. The reservation currently has no facility like this.
If we are successful in establishing these two services, I believe that the community of Oglala will truly benefit. We will then be able to move on to other projects that will bring people together and raise the quality of life. For example, one day I would like to rebuild Jumping Bull Hall so that there will be a drug and alcohol free place where people, especially youth, can gather. We could set it up for a movie theatre and bring in video games. People can watch movies, hold meetings, have birthday celebrations, community meals and dances here. Right now, our youth have no place to go to socialize and I believe this facility could help prevent the hopelessness and despair too many of our young people feel. I would hope that word of these projects would spread to other reservations and others like Fedelia and Bob Cross will be inspired to take on similar ideas which we could help support.
Your ideas, input, and support are welcomed. If you know people who would donate supplies (books, wood, cement, hardware, etc), make financial contributions, or donate their skills and labor, please get in touch with the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee.
In closing, I want to thank you again for your support and ask that you stand with us in this struggle. I believe that one day in the near future we will succeed. But it can't be done without your support.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Leonard Peltier
======================================================================
Reminder: You can help expose the injustices and support Investigative Hearings by helping to distribute the Peltier May 2000 Congressional Briefing video for community access TV and to share with your family and neighbors. Send $15 per tape to the LPDC:
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC)
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-5774
http://www.freepeltier.org
To subscribe for LPDC E-mail updates,
send a blank message to < lpdc-on@mail-list.com >
**********************************************************************
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
International Day of Protest for the Arrest of Leonard Peltier
This February 6 marks the 25th year of the unjust imprisonment of Leonard Peltier. Human rights leaders and organizations around the world are organizing to respond to the recent denial of Executive Clemency by President Clinton. Many are calling for members of the U.S. Congress to hold investigative hearings regarding violations of Leonard Peltier's Human and Constitutional Rights.
Documented FBI and prosecution misconduct includes terrorizing Myrtle Poor Bear to sign a false affidavit, then committing fraud to the Canadian government by presenting her statement in the Extradition process. They also terrorized and coerced three teenaged boys into giving false testimonies to the grand jury and at the trial. They concealed a ballistics test reflecting Peltier's innocence from the defense, and the FBI expert witness gave distorted testimony to the jury. Yet, they denied Leonard Peltier a new trial on a technicality, with the Judge admitting that a strong doubt was cast on the prosecution's case. Most disturbing is that Leonard Peltier's highly controversial conviction was deeply rooted in one of the most grim chapters of recent American civil rights history, specifically the Pine Ridge Reign of Terror. Between 1973 and 1976 FBI-supported vigilantes terrorized, battered and assaulted scores of Lakota Traditionalists and AIM supporters throughout the Reservation. They burned houses and entire families were wounded by drive-by shootings. With high FBI presence during 1973 to 1976, not one of more than sixty murders was investigated. Why?
In his book, Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance, Leonard Peltier wrote, "Someday the true reasons for their ill-conceived assault, what really was going on, will come out. The answer or answers, if they haven't already been shredded, may lie in those 6,000+ FBI documents they admit having withheld to this day, both from us and from the American public, on grounds of "national security." Lately, I understand, they claim those documents have been "lost." Certainly it was no accident that the day before the gunfight at Oglala, the head of the nontraditional tribal government was signing over to the federal government one-eighth of the Pine Ridge reservation, an area reputedly rich in uranium deposits. Many of us believe that the shoot-out at Oglala was specifically intended as a diversion to conceal that illegal deal, which wasn't revealed to the public for nearly a year. The public furor over the death of the two agents also scotched a planned Congressional investigation of what had happened at Wounded Knee Two in 1973 and the subsequent Reign of Terror on Pine Ridge that led to the Oglala firefight on June 26, 1975."
On this International Day of Protest for the Arrest of Leonard Peltier, February 6, supporters are again demonstrating around the world. The Boston Area Leonard Peltier Support Group will hold a protest at the Government Center from 3 to 6:00 P.M. In Springfield, MA, Arise for Social Justice, Independent, American Indian Movement and the Leonard Peltier Support Group of Greater New England are facilitating a legal demonstration at the Federal Building on Main Street from 11:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. Everyone is invited to join this effort for the freedom of Leonard Peltier, which represents truth and reconciliation with the first Americans and the U.S. government. Supporters are encouraged to call the Congressional Switchboard (202) 224-3121 to speak with their Representatives about reviewing the Peltier case, in urgency, due to its importance for human rights, environmental protection and Constitutional freedom for all Americans. For more information reply to lpsg_gne@yahoo.com or contact the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee Tel (785)842-5774 http://www.freepeltier.org
**********************************************************************
"In the Spirit of Crazy Horse - Free Leonard Peltier"
Artwork by Lahri Bond, $10 lithographic prints available
http://earthlovers.org/leonard/
**********************************************************************
International Day of Protest for Leonard Peltier * Alliance Between China and N. Korea
The following issue of Flyby News contains three items. Two is on the relentless struggle for justice and human rights in the case of Leonard Peltier. Next Tuesday marks the day of the 25th year of his unjust imprisonment. The third item was written by Cheong Wooksik, a representative of the Civil Network for a Peaceful Korea, a nonprofit peace organization in South Korea. Cheong's perspective confirms the reality that Missile Defense threatens an expansion of the arms race. Please lobby your Congressional Representatives to make sure that the U.S. honors the ABM Treaty and cans Missile Defense for a more effective and healthier approach to peace, security and the disarmament of weapons of mass destruction. During the same call ask how your Representative can support Congressional Hearings on the case of Leoanrd Peltier. You can call your Representative using the Congressional Switchboard (202)224-3121.
1) International Day of Protest for the Arrest of Leonard Peltier
2) Statement of Fedelia Cross, of the Oglala Lakota Nation
3) Missile Defense and the Alliance Between China and North Korea
**********************************************************************
1) International Day of Protest for the Arrest of Leonard Peltier
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
This February 6 marks the 25th year of the unjust imprisonment of Leonard Peltier. Human rights leaders and organizations around the world have denounced the recent denial of Executive Clemency by President Clinton. Many supporters are calling for the U.S. Congress to hold investigative hearings regarding violations of Leonard Peltier's Human and Constitutional Rights.
Documented FBI and prosecution misconduct includes terrorizing Myrtle Poor Bear to sign a false affidavit, then committing fraud to the Canadian government by presenting her statement in the Extradition process. They also terrorized and coerced three teenaged boys into giving false testimonies to the grand jury and at the trial. They concealed a ballistics test reflecting Peltier's innocence from the defense, and the FBI expert witness gave distorted testimony to the jury. Yet, they denied Leonard Peltier a new trial on a technicality, with the Judge admitting that a strong doubt was cast on the prosecution's case. Most disturbing is that Leonard Peltier's highly controversial conviction was deeply rooted in one of the most grim chapters of recent American civil rights history, specifically the Pine Ridge Reign of Terror. Between 1973 and 1976 FBI-supported vigilantes terrorized, battered and assaulted scores of Lakota Traditionalists and AIM supporters throughout the Reservation. They burned houses and entire families were wounded by drive-by shootings. With high FBI presence during 1973 to 1976, not one of more than sixty murders was investigated. Why?
In his book, Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance, Leonard Peltier wrote, "Someday the true reasons for their ill-conceived assault, what really was going on, will come out. The answer or answers, if they haven't already been shredded, may lie in those 6,000+ FBI documents they admit having withheld to this day, both from us and from the American public, on grounds of "national security." Lately, I understand, they claim those documents have been "lost." Certainly it was no accident that the day before the gunfight at Oglala, the head of the nontraditional tribal government was signing over to the federal government one-eighth of the Pine Ridge reservation, an area reputedly rich in uranium deposits. Many of us believe that the shoot-out at Oglala was specifically intended as a diversion to conceal that illegal deal, which wasn't revealed to the public for nearly a year. The public furor over the death of the two agents also scotched a planned Congressional investigation of what had happened at Wounded Knee Two in 1973 and the subsequent Reign of Terror on Pine Ridge that led to the Oglala firefight on June 26, 1975."
On this International Day of Protest for the Arrest of Leonard Peltier, February 6, supporters are demonstrating around the world. The Boston Area Leonard Peltier Support Group will hold a rally at Government Center from 3:00 to 6:00 P.M. In Springfield, MA, supporters will be holding a peaceful demonstration at the Federal Building on Main Street from 11:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. Speakers and special guests include Harvey Arden, editor of Leonard Peltier's book, and Chief Arvol Looking Horse. Everyone is invited to join this effort for truth and reconciliation with Native Americans and for the freedom of Leonard Peltier. Supporters are encouraged to call Representatives in Congress (202) 224-3121 in support of investigative hearings. For more information contact the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee Tel. (785)842-5774 P.O. Box 583; Lawrence, KS 66044
http://www.freepeltier.org
**********************************************************************
2) Statement of Fedelia Cross, Citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation
I cannot express the sadness and anger that I felt when I heard that my brother, Leonard Peltier was not given a presidential pardon from Clinton. At first I could not believe Clinton's lack of courage, but now I know that he is not an honorable man. Freedom for Leonard would have been freedom for all of us Indigenous People here on our own home land. I would like to know why Clinton did not give him his freedom. Clinton came here to Pine Ridge in July of 1999. I thought he had a little compassion for the Lakota People and all Native Peoples of this land. Clinton broke our hearts and made us cry on January 20, 2001. We also cried for all of our ancestors whose lives were taken by the white man who came to this continent over 500 years ago.
We as Lakota People have four values that we live by every day of our lives. They are bravery, wisdom, generosity, and fortitude. Although Clinton didn't give my brother Leonard his life back, we must continue to be brave and continue the battle to bring him home. We must educate Clinton and all the U.S. government officials about our culture. We as Lakota people have a form of government ruled by our sacred pipe and our laws are all natural. We must remind the federal government that we still have treaties with them. We must be kind and compassionate to the US government officials because we were born with the gift of kindness, love and generosity. Clinton witnessed this when he was here on our homeland in July of 1999.
Our forefathers were all honorable men just like my brother Leonard Peltier. One of our greatest leaders was Crazy Horse. He protected and loved his people until he was killed in jail by the federal government. Crazy Horse asked us to remember him when we look toward our sacred Black Hills. We also remember our brother Leonard Peltier when we see the Black Hills. Some day Leonard will be singing Crazy Horse's praise song while looking toward the Black Hills. That's what keeps us going. We are all very resilient. Although Clinton broke our hearts, through our prayers and our spirituality, we will survive.
When we thought Clinton was going to give our brother Leonard his life back we had plans to build a Lakota school here in Oglala. Through Leonard's demonstration of our Lakota values, we plan to develop his dream and plans for the betterment of our people even though he is not here with us.
I heard one of our respected elders of our tribe talk on KILI radio about Leonard the other morning. He said although Clinton slapped our faces, we must remain strong and show them how to forgive and pray for them so they will understand us. He also stated that we should educate our children so they could become lawyers and help us in the future. At Leonard's school we hope to accomplish this. I would like to thank all of you for loving and supporting him. All he wants is to be is a terrific grandpa and a good relative. May God bless all of you.
Mitakuye Oyasin
All my relations,
Fedelia Cross
*Fedelia Cross is the niece of Roselyn Jumping Bull and a survivor of the Pine Ridge Reign of Terror. She is a school teacher, a mother and a grand mother.
Received from the
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC)
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-5774
www.freepeltier.org
To subscribe, send a blank message to < lpdc-on@mail-list.com >
Reminder: You can help expose the injustices and support Investigative Hearings by helping to distribute the Peltier May 2000 Congressional Briefing video for community access TV. If anyone wants to contribute dollars for this purpose, the LPSG/GNE will make sure a video will find a host station, but please hurry. February 6 is a prime time to respond to a quarter of a Century of unfair imprisonment. Send $15 per tape to the LPDC:
**********************************************************************
3) Missile Defense and the Alliance Between China and North Korea
Inauguration of President Bush and alliance between China and North Korea
written by Cheong Wooksik
translated by You Sanghee(Volunteer of CNPK)
North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong-il's surprise visit to China, in the very first month of 2001, has provoked keen interest of the international community. The fact that the visit took place only days before the inauguration of President Bush allows for a possibility of the two leaders, Mr. Kim and his old ally Chinese Premier Jiang Zemin, looking into a comprehensive structure of dynamics on the Korean peninsula as well as in the Northeast Asian region.
On the surface, Mr. Kim's visit to China strongly hints at his intentions toward China-style opening and reform. In fact, North Korea is currently faced with almost no choice at all, to revive its 20-year recession economy, than to open up and introduce reforms through improving ties with the outside world. In addition, the communist regime finds enough merits in the new Chinese system, where socialist political regime coexists with capitalist economy, resulting in a huge economic success.
However, there is something more to the visit than what it seems. The two leaders are expected to devise a joint strategy toward the US, which still regards China as its "strategic rival" and North Korea as "a rogue state". At the present point, it is rather difficult to imagine what kind of strategy they will be making.
For North Korea, normalizing relations with the South, the US, and Japan is essential for its economic reforms and opening. Indeed, the US has both legal and institutional keys to lifting off of sanctions against the "rogue state", as well as to advancing into the international market. As for Japan, it is the only country that can provide financial assistance, which North Korea desperately needs for economic revival - whether it be in the form of compensation for the colonial brutality, or of economic development fund.
North Korea is now facing a serious dilemma between economic needs and security reality. The Bush administration appears to be moving towards a hardline stance against Pyongyang, and there is also a sign of growing militarism in Japan. These two countries, it seems, will forge a stronger military alliance in the future.
What is certain for North Korea is that it will not give up on the mid-range missile development programme, the most controversial issue so far with the US and Japan, unless security threats from the US and Japan are completely eased.
In fact, Theater Missile Defense (TMD) and National Missile Defense (NMD), which symbolize strong military ambitions of the US and Japan, are enough to make North Korea feel threatened. Worse yet, the Bush administration is expected to urge Pyongyang to give up its development and export of missiles without adequate compensation, exposing North Korea to severe security threats, regardless of its giving up of the missile programs.
As William Perry, former US Defense Secretary and writer of guidelines toward North Korea under the Clinton administration, admitted, North Korea's missiles are more of a means to deter the US and Japan, rather than to provoke war. In other words, for North Korea, giving up on missile development without full guarantee of security would be losing all means of war deterrence.
However, it does not mean that boosting missile development would save North Korea from its current dilemma. If TMD, scheduled to be located starting 2003, deactivates North Korea's missiles, the US would be able to attack the communist regime under the cause of stopping the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. As for Japan, it may join hands with the US in attacking North Korea if Pyongyang resumes development of missiles or nuclear weapons.
In retrospect, a considerable part of normalization of relations between the US and North Korea should have taken place after the signing of the Agreed Framework in 1994. However, the US has not kept its part of the bargain, and this is basically why North Korea finds it difficult to feel secure about the "positive prospect", where it stops missile development in return for full political security and normalized relations with the US and Japan.
North Korea is not alone in its dilemma - China is in similar situation, with the inauguration of the Bush administration. For China, NMD may debilitate its nuclear deterrence against the US. If the US proceeds to deploy 100 interjector missiles by 2006 as planned, all of 15 or so nuclear war heads in China will be debilitated, each of which by 3-4 interjector missiles.
In this regard, China can never downplay the impact of TMD. With Japan's militarism growing in the 90s, and with its own airforce and marine capability weakness compared with Japan's military power, deployment of TMD seriously threatens the strategic advantage that China has maintained so far. Worse yet, if Taiwan is included in the US East-Asian missile defense network, further in the US security umbrella, China's dream of unification with Taiwan may forever be shattered.
Taking into account the current dilemma both North Korea and China are in, main purpose of the meeting between Mr. Kim and Premier Jiang would be to seek a joint strategy against the US hegemony in the region. However, since the US is both a potential threat and source of assistance for the two countries, it is all the more difficult to predict how they would respond to the superpower in the future.
What is rather certain here is that the two leaders must have shared concerns over, and seek joint strategy against NMD and TMD, which are sure to be deployed under the new Bush administration. In addition, they could have exchanged ideas on solutions to Pyongyang's mid and long-range missile development, which is an alleged cause, as well as a target of the proposed NMD.
What is interesting is that the two leaders met again on January 20, two day after the senate confirmation hearing of Colin Powell, appointed as Secretary of State. In the hearing, Powell disclosed his East Asian strategy, in which he emphasized an overall review of the existing North Korean policy, strengthened alliance among the US, South Korea, and Japan, forward stationed military forces, and deployment of missile defence.
East Asian policy of the Bush administration indeed sounds like a story right off of the Cold War era. Then how will Mr. Kim and Premier Jiang respond to this new circumstances? Will they partly restore a socialist system? Or will they pursue a "peace" strategy so as to "warm up" the "cold" stance of the Bush administration?
From a short-term perspective, such dilemma surrounding China and North Korea will be firstly resolved by how the US and North Korea settle the so-called "Star Wars project" (deployment of NMD/TMD) and missile development programs.
President George W. Bush, following the steps of Reagan, Bush, and Clinton, has repeatedly expressed his commitment to the "Star Wars project". Such strong intentions of the new president fans global concerns that the international community will be mired in yet another Cold War, and that the hard-won thawing mood on the Korean peninsula will be disrupted.
The North Korean regime is likely to interpret the deployment of NMD as lack of willingness, on the US part, to resolve nuclear and missile issues through dialogue. The US, for its part, is likely to focus more on strengthening its deterrence and attack capability, through NMD and TMD, than on negotiations with Pyongyang.
Republicans believe that 1994 Geneva Accord and 1999 Berlin Agreement, regarded as the most outstanding accomplishments of former President Clinton, had been nothing more than compensation for vice. In this regard, the Bush administration will be rather reluctant to provide compensation to North Korea in return for giving up the missile development programs. This will naturally lead to another long deadlock over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile issues, raising a possibility of yet another war on the peninsula.
For China, it will have less reasons to dissuade North Korea from developing missiles if the US continues to develop and deploy NMD and TMD. It would then be obvious to China that the US is in fact targeting China on the pretext of deterring North Korea. Russia, for its part, would be in no different position than China.
Many experts predict that the US would not give up its "Star Wars project" even if Pyongyang renounces its missile programs. They believe the ultimate reason behind the development of NMD/TMD is not deterring North Korea, but China.
However, if North Korea gives up its mid/long range missile ambitions, the US would have less convincing rationales for developing NMD/TMD, because the superpower has always argued that its project is aimed at deterring the rogue states, including North Korea.
In this case, the US would have to find itself another convincing rationale for NMD development - which will not be so easy. "Threats from Iran or Iraq" is not convincing enough, since their missile capability does not even equal North Korea. However, the US cannot directly mention China or Russia, because it would be admitting its past deceptions, therefore imposing on itself a huge political burden. The US media may not leave the administration in peace in those circumstances.
In this regard, it is convincing enough to argue that the Bush administration would not resolve the North Korean missile issues through negotiations - indeed, for the US, resolving the North Korean issue would mean losing a good rationale for NMD/TMD development.
Due to deep-rooted mistrust and conflicting strategical interests, it would be difficult for the US, China, and North Korea to resolve the issues by themselves. In current circumstances, a good idea would be a mediation of South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.
President Kim Dae-jung, though not from all, has earned a considerable support from many leaders across the world. He probably is the least hostile person at present point. In addition, as a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, President Kim obtained the least authority needed to mediate between North Korea and the US, whose conflict will indeed determine the much delicate security circumstances surrounding the Korean peninsula.
In this regard, it is important to note that President Kim said, in an interview with (International Herald Tribune) on January 6, that he intended to ask the North to stop the production of long range missiles. He declined to comment directly on the development of NMD and TMD.
President Kim's remark is important, because he seems to have recognized the possibility of the hard-won security on the Korean peninsula being wrecked by the political instability caused by NMD and TMD. South Korean President also seems willing to mediate North Korea and the US in resolving the hottest issue- Pyongyang's missile development.
Although exact date is not set, leaders of the countries involved will be making state visits to and fro one another during the next 3 months: North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's visit to Seoul and Russia, President Kim Dae-jung's visit to Washington, Russia President Putin's visit to Seoul, etc. The series of state visits, main agenda of which will be security on the Korean peninsula and NMD/TMD development, will make a favorable environment for President Kim to act as a mediator between the US and North Korea.
In this regard, North Korean National Defense Commissioner Kim Jong-il's visit to Seoul would be an important milestone in determining stability on the Korean peninsula. Whether the two Korean leaders will decide to coordinate their policies in the face of new security threats remains to be seen.
* * * * * *
This above article was forwarded to Flyby News by the
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
Coordinator: Bruce Gagnon
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, FL. 32607
(352) 337-9274
http://www.space4peace.org
globalnet@mindspring.com
**********************************************************************
Day of Shame Feedback * 25th year Peltier Imprisonment - from Leonard via Harvey
25 January 2001
This coming February 6, 2001 is the 25th anniversary of Leonard Peltier's arrest. A fierce Congressional lobbying effort may be Leonard's last chance to get out of prison alive. A very effective educational tool is the Peltier Congressional Briefing video with the testimonies of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Rigoberta Menchu Tum; acclaimed human rights activist and attorney, Jennifer Harbury; Pine Ridge reign of terror survivor, Debbie White Plume; shoot-out survivor, Nilak Butler; LPDC spokesperson and survivor, Jean Day; former NPR journalist, Kevin McKiernan; Amnesty International Advocacy Director, Carlos Salinas; National Congress of American Indians Executive Officer, Ernie Stevens Jr., and Leonard Peltier's lawyer since his trial and expert in FBI activities on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Bruce Ellison. The tape runs about 45 minutes, concise and powerful. To receive a copy send $15 to the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee; P.O. Box PO Box 583 Lawrence, KS 66044 Tel. (785)842-5774. Please help distribute it to the public, especially via community access tv.
Feedback from Vincent Guarisco and Harvey Arden
[Vincent's father is Anthony Guarisco, Director of the Alliance of Atomic Veterans.]
From: Vincent
To: noflyby@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: Leonard Peltier Defense Committee's Statement: "DAY OF SHAME"
Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2001 01:27:43 -0700
Dear Jonathan: Today is truly a sad day in American history. Clinton's denial to grant freedom to Leonard Peltier is his final act of disgrace. I can't begin to explain the lost and despair feeling of emotional pain I have felt today. Perhaps I'm not alone? It started for me watching bush getting sworn in as president, then most of his cabinet members successful confirmation, protesters in D.C. denied their constitutional rights, Leonard............it hit me like a bullet in the heart, the reality of gloom & doom this country is headed for. Years of work my family and friends have fought for, will probably set us back to square#1. This maddening despair took me over and i walked outside away from my family and cried for about 10 minutes, and had to walk for another 20 to lose the shakes. I started thinking back of old times when my father, brother and i were in D.C. for the unveiling of the vietnam statue, I wore a hat that said "fuck the draft" at the prez speech that followed. Attending press hearings in Utah, and listening to Hatch talking out of the side of his face on the downwinder's around election time. Going to Berkley during the Gulf War protesting with brian wilson,norman solaman, and many others. All of the victory's we achieved were small ones after countless defeats, and through it all i've never felt the up-hill battle as the one we face now.......I'm hopping this is just a low point in time for me, but I have to admit i'm scarred this time around. At (41) years of age i can't remember our government so far to the "Right" with no balance to counter-set the events that undoubtedly will occur. My family and i will never give up the fight, but god help us, this will be the mother of all battles! These crazy bastards dominate all of the field and will quickly attempt to silence us through our own US Supreme Court. I hear concerns for Roe V Wade, but what about the rest of our const. rights? Freedom of speech........... I wonder if most americans believe it's possible for us to lose most of our civil rights? Keep me informed of islands or other squat-spots on planet earth to move my family to where dictators and war mongers have no natural resources to steal! We all may need a contingency plan to pack up the tents. Keep the faith brother!***VINCE***
Editor's note: I hope Vince and others can write directly to Leonard.
USPL
Leonard Peltier #89637-132
PO Box 1000
Leavenworth, KS 66048
**********************************************************************
From: JTRoad@aol.com
Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2001 21:38:07 EST
Subject: Re: Tomorrow the struggle resumes!!/LEONARD CALLS
To: AIM4JUSTCE@aol.com, NativeAmerican-Issues-Chat@egroups.com
Content-Disposition: Inline
In a message dated 01/21/2001 11:50:26 AM Eastern Standard Time, AIM4JUSTCE
writes:
> Dear Family:
> When I met with Leonard at Leavenworth in November of 1999 his first words to me were "how are the people"? Knowing him to be a true warrior of our people, I'm sure that is his greatest concern today. I spent Saturday morning with my three grandchildren: wrestling, playing kissing. They said to me "I love you Pap" As I awaited word of Leonard's pardon my thoughts were that soon he will be enjoying his family much as I am. I was so sure he would soon hold his grandchildren and hear similar words. I took Leonard's grandson a ride on my Harley several years ago in Tulsa. It was no big deal at the time, but now it takes on a whole new meaning as I reflect back.
If we are to incorporate the words "Mitakuye Oyasin " into our lives I believe it is imperative to remember, our children are Leonard's children. Our grandchildren are Leonard's grandchildren and his are ours. Sunday I will reflect, curse, plot, maybe even mourn a bit. When the Creator lifts the Sun on Monday morning I will rejoin our family of the 7th generation in a celebration of determination and gratitude and resume the journey to liberate our brother and in doing so liberate my own soul to better serve our people. Please join me...we are still strong!
>
> Matt Sherman Madadje Moniga
> Rep. National Field Office
> American Indian Movement
> Dennis J. Banks, Director
>
Matt--
Noble words! I concur absolutely and with renewed dedication. Thanks for your inspiration. Monday morning "when the Creator lifts the Sun," as you say, Matt, the struggle resumes...Leonard WILL be free...and so will his People!
I am heartened that the U.S. Army has just borrowed for their own slogan Leonard's words "Be an Army of One!"...those words from his book have become one of the mantras of our movement for justice and equality in America. Even the U.S. Army recognizes the strength in Leonard's heart...and in ours. We share the warrior's spirit...and they are welcome to Leonard's inspiring and transformative words.
What IS an "Army of One"? Here are Leonard's words from his book...they lay out a program of action that is up to EACH of us...
"People often ask me what my position is, or was, in AIM--the American Indian Movement. That requires an explanation. AIM is not an organization. AIM, as its name clearly says, is a movement. Within that movement organizations come and go. No one person or special group of people runs AIM. Don't confuse AIM with any particular individual or individuals who march under its banner--however worthy or unworthy they may be. AIM is the People. AIM will be there when every one of us living today is gone. AIM will raise new leaders in every generation. Crazy Horse belonged to AIM. Sitting Bull belonged to AIM. They belong to us still, and we belong to them. They're with us right now.
One other point I want to make about AIM. There are no followers in AIM. We are all leaders. We are each an army of one, working for the survival of our people and of the Earth, our Mother. This isn't rhetoric. This is commitment. This is who we are."
Then later he states:
"We're in this together, my friends, the rich, the poor, the red, the white, the black, the brown, the yellow. We're all one family of humankind. We share responsibility for our Mother the Earth and for all those who live and breathe upon her. Our work will remain unfinished until not one human being is hungry or battered, not a single person is forced to die in war, not one innocent languishes in in prison, and no one is persecuted for his or her beliefs.
I believe in the good in humankind. I believe that the good can prevail, but only with great effort. And that effort is ours, each of ours, yours and mine.
WE MUST EACH BE AN ARMY OF ONE in the endless struggle between the goodness we are all capable of and the evil that threatens us all from without as well as from within. Yes, we can each be an army of one. One good man or one good woman can change the world. Are you that man or woman? If so, may the Great Spirit bless you. If not, why not? We must each of us be that person. That will transform the world overnight. That would be a miracle, yes, but a miracle within our power, our healing power. We can do it. Yes, you and I and all of us together. Now is the time. Now is the only possible time. Let the Great Healing begin."
*
Hey, Matt--the Great Healing begins tomorrow morning!
JUST AS I'M ABOUT TO SEND THIS LEONARD CALLS!! (9:05pm)...I read him Matt Sherman's email above...I told him the struggle resumes tomorrow AM and will continue larger than ever until he's free. He says, "Tell everyone...I was down for a couple of days there...but now I'm UP! Tell them we may have lost a battle but we WILL win the war! Tell them to get together and stay together and work together... Don't stop now...we're stronger than ever!"
I told Leonard we're still with him...every step of the way...
He really laughed when he heard the US Army has adopted his "Be an Army of One" motto...
"That's what we need to do, too," he said, "Advertise...publicize...get the attention of EVERYone! Don't EVER let them forget those of us in here... And, hey, Bro, tell'm all I love them, every one of them...make sure you tell them that!"
/Harvey Arden
The Dreamkeepers Project
http://dreamkeepers.net
"Bringing the Elders to the World...and the World to the Elders"
**********************************************************************
The Leonard Peltier Support Group of Greater New England in coalition with I.AIM is planning peaceful actions on February 6, 2001, the 25th anniversary of his arrest and the International Day of Protest to Free Leonard Peltier. If interested in joining this work in the central New England call Chris 413-549-2739 or send an email for updates to lpsg_gne@yahoo.com.
**********************************************************************
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee's Statement: "DAY OF SHAME"
LEONARD PELTIER DEFENSE COMMITTEE
PUBLIC STATEMENT REGARDING DENIAL OF CLEMENCY: "DAY OF SHAME"
We were both shocked and saddened by President Clinton's decision to deny executive clemency to Leonard Peltier. During the last few days world support for the immediate and unconditional release of Mr. Peltier had reached remarkable levels, with calls and letters arriving from such renowned human rights and religious leaders as Coretta Scott King, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Amnesty International, Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchu and the Archbishop Desmond Tutu, amongst many others. Grassroots support from people across the country had swamped the White House phone and fax lines for months. Native nations and organizations made their support known again and again in powerful messages. Thousands of concerned citizens walked and prayed in the streets of New York on International Human Rights Day. Yet somehow none of this was enough.
Why? The question remains for William Clinton to answer. The fact that so light a penalty attached to the perjury charge in the Monica Lewinsky case raises disturbing issues. We would like an explanation.
For many weeks now President Clinton had called for national reconciliation and racial unity in this country. He has called for "One America" and emphasized the great racial disparity and discrimination so evident in our criminal justice system. He has called again and again for respect and equality for all races. He has stressed the need for righting historical injustices and healing long festering wounds inflicted upon people of color. He has insisted that the United States take its place as a world leader of human rights affairs. He has personally visited Pine Ridge Reservation, the site of the tragic shoot out at Oglala a long and bitter quarter of a century ago, and called for greater respect and justice for our first citizens.
Yet in this last and most critical test, President Clinton has betrayed his own goals and ideals. Again we must ask why?
Leonard Peltier has been imprisoned for 25 years without ever receiving the benefit of a fair trial. The FBI forced Myrtle Poor Bear to sign a false affidavit, then committed fraud upon the Canadian government by presenting her statement to their courts of law. Three teenaged boys were terrorized and coerced into giving false testimonies to the grand jury and at his trial. A ballistics test reflecting his innocence was concealed from the defense and the FBI expert gave distorted testimony to the jury. No consequences for these illegal acts have ever attached. Today even the United States Attorneys admit that no one knows who fired the fatal shots. Yet Leonard Peltier was denied a new trial on a technicality, with the judge admitting that a strong doubt was cast on the prosecution's case. Even that judge now supports clemency. Meanwhile Mr. Peltier himself is long overdue for parole and receives human rights awards for the remarkable human rights work he carries out from behind bars. He is now in failing health.
Most disturbing still is the fact that Leonard's highly controversial conviction is deeply rooted in one of the most grim chapters of recent American civil rights history, specifically the Pine Ridge Reign of Terror. Between 1973 and 1976, FBI backed vigilantes terrorized, battered and assaulted scores of Lakota Traditionalists and AIM supporters throughout the reservation. Houses burned and entire families were wounded in drive by shootings. While the FBI stood by, some 64 AIM members and supporters were murdered, their deaths never properly investigated or vindicated. Civil rights organizations excoriated FBI abuses again and again.
It can hardly be gainsaid that the history of our government's dealings with the first citizens of this country have been tragic at best, and oftentimes shameful. It is difficult to imagine a case more crucial to national reconciliation and healing that the case of Leonard Peltier. Yet a door, instead of opening, has been slammed and locked. Our society will pay the price.
Today will be remembered as but another day of U.S. government shame and betrayal of Native people.
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
P.O. Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-5774
http://www.freepeltier.org
**********************************************************************
Peltier Denied Freedom (Clemency)
Peltier Denied Freedom
President Clinton, in his farewell address said, "..As for me, I'll leave the presidency more idealistic, more full of hope than the day I arrived and more confident than ever that America's best days lie ahead." Even though the word "lie" stood out, one could only hope that what he was saying will become true. For this to happen it would require a total transformation in the military-industrial-academic complex with a truly fair justice system for prosperity, health and peace for humankind and our natural environment. Yet the denial of Leonard's freedom, in the wake of documented evidences of overt FBI misconduct, showed the reality of the ruthless power dominating world affairs and our government.
Peltier's Clemency denial does not bid well for justice, human rights and the peace in space issue. The new administration is proposing a policy for the U.S. to dominate space, which would lead to an acceleration of the arms race, which leads to more terrorism, leading to more elimination of our civil rights and liberties, that leads to more terrorism, internal instability, more wars and a more probable collapse of the human and many other species of life. Our environment has a limited capacity for abuse.
A political solution to help end the continued injustices to Leonard Peltier and help prevent a downward sprial with missile defense, is in the hands of our supposed representatives in Congress. This may be our last resort in stopping the terror confronting everyone. Congressional Hearings on the case of Leonard Peltier would expose FBI misconduct, an illegal land transfer, a corrupt Indian Council group, armed by the FBI, and more than sixty murders remaining uninvestigated during the Reign of Terror. Leonard Peltier was on the Pine Ridge Reservation to protect families for their lives and for Mother Earth. He remains in prison for this same purpose.
It seems apparent that when President Clinton made his deal with the independent investigators about being less than honest in court regarding his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, other nondisclosed issues were tide-up in the same package, including the sad fate of human rights activist, Leonard Peltier. Perhaps, what was at stake for President Clinton in fighting the FBI, or whoever they represent, was too much to take a stand to grant Clemency. This choice of self interest will place Leonard Peltier in prison for a quarter of a Century this February 6.
To keep best informed on the ongoing struggle subscribe for the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee's email updates by sending a blank message to < lpdc-on@mail-list.com > .
Leonard Peltier's book, Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance, is available from bookstores, libraries and the Leonard Peltier Defense Committe - http://www.freepeltier.org
**********************************************************************
An excerpt from President Clinton's final address 1/1801
".. we must remember that America cannot lead in the world unless here at home we weave the threads of our coat of many colors into the fabric of one America. As we become ever more diverse, we must work harder to unite around our common values and our common humanity.
We must work harder to overcome our differences. In our hearts and in our laws, we must treat all our people with fairness and dignity, regardless of their race, religion, gender or sexual orientation and regardless of when they arrived in our country, always moving toward the more perfect union of our founders' dreams.."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Farewell Address in 1961.
"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
Full Address:
http://www.eisenhower.utexas.edu/farewell.htm
**********************************************************************
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20010120/ts/clinton_leadall_dc_3.html
Saturday January 20 11:22 AM ET
Clinton Pardons McDougal, Not Milken
By Patricia Wilson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Less than two hours before leaving office, President Clinton pardoned on Saturday Whitewater scandal figure Susan McDougal and one-time revolutionary and kidnapped heiress Patricia Hearst Shaw.
But Clinton, after lengthy discussions with his advisers, decided not to pardon financier Michael Milken, Native American Leonard Peltier and former Justice Department official Webster Hubbell. He also declined a pardon for convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard.
All told, Clinton pardoned 140 people. The White House papers announcing the pardons were released at about 10:30 a.m. EST, 90 minutes before Clinton's term was to expire.
Clinton also pardoned his half-brother Roger Clinton, a musician who served a year in jail on a drug offense. Roger Clinton is 10 years younger than the 54-year-old president and says he has kicked his cocaine habit.
Also receiving pardons were former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros and former CIA Director John Deutch.
Cisneros pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of lying to the FBI about how much he paid a former mistress. He remains one of the most popular Hispanic politicians in the United States.
Deutch has reportedly been negotiating with the Justice Department about possibly pleading guilty to a misdemeanor for keeping classified information on his home computers.
Deutch, who was CIA director from May 1995 to December 1996, was stripped of his CIA and high-level defense intelligence clearances in August of last year for mishandling classified information.
Clinton also commuted the prison sentences of 36 people.
A presidential pardon -- providing official forgiveness for criminal wrongdoing -- gives back to convicted criminals benefits enjoyed by a full citizen, including the right to vote. Clinton relinquishes the presidency to George W. Bush at noon on Saturday.
Kidnap Victim, Friend Pardoned
Patricia Hearst Shaw, an heiress to the Hearst fortune, was kidnapped by a radical terrorist group called the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974 and while under control of the SLA, she was forced to rob a bank. But she maintains that she committed the crime after being mistreated by the group, including spending more than 50 days in a closet, and after being brainwashed.
When found, she was put on trial for grand theft and convicted. She served nearly two years of a seven-year prison term and was released with help from then-President Jimmy Carter. She later married her bodyguard and sought a full pardon.
McDougal was convicted in connection with an improper loan to pay the debts of the Whitewater Development Co., the Arkansas land company in which Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, were partners.
McDougal spent 21 months in jail for refusing to testify about Clinton to independent counsel Kenneth Starr.
Hubbell, a former top Justice Department official and longtime friend of Clinton, was convicted of defrauding his Little Rock law firm, where he was a partner with Mrs. Clinton.
Milken, a Wall Street financier who made billions in the junk bond industry before pleading guilty to securities fraud in 1990, had attracted high-profile support for a pardon.
A prostate cancer survivor, Milken served two years in prison, paid $500 million in fines and was barred from the securities industry for life. He has earned a reputation as a philanthropist after raising large sums of money for cancer research and education.
In his final weekly radio address, the last of more than 400 such recordings, Clinton announced that the federal government was awarding $112 million to fund 1,400 more police officers in communities across the country.
Clinton leaves office with an approval rating of about 65 percent, but held in low regard personally because of scandals such as his affair with Monica Lewinsky. He reached a deal with independent prosecutor Robert Ray on Friday to avoid being indicted on perjury charges in the Lewinsky case.
``Now, my job as your president draws to a close, and the work of our new president begins,'' Clinton said. ``I want to wish President-elect Bush, Vice President-elect (Dick) Cheney, their families and entire administration the very best.
``I know you do, too,'' he said to Americans. ``Thanks to your work, he takes the reins of a nation renewed, ready to move into a new century and a whole new era in human affairs. I join every American in wishing him Godspeed,'' Clinton said.
On Friday, his last full day in office, Clinton cut a deal to escape criminal indictment in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, admitting he gave ``evasive and misleading'' testimony about the sexual affair that nearly cost him the presidency.
In return, Ray shut down his perjury investigation and dropped any plans to indict Clinton. As part of the deal, Clinton accepted a five-year suspension of his license to practice law in Arkansas and paid a $25,000 fine.
**********************************************************************
Free at last * Clemency Campaign * Star Wars Boosters * Star Wars Postcards
FREE AT LAST
Can a seed wither into the dust of despair
and if truth than be neglected, then tell me why,
can a man speaking out with a righteousness really die,
was not Martin Luther King Jr. wise?
My life is inspired by a few and to those I congratulate and continue
to breathe the air and receive its gifts,
nourishing the cells with a spritual lift.
but when confusion enters into the night,
we must go to the center of love not fright,
For in ideals of freedom we will last forever in realms of wisdom,
loving one another.
Life is thus, a series of attitudes, bringing peace war or feuds,
but by keeping the dignity of what is right, we cannot be discouraged by a brother's soulful flight.
Jonathan Mark 6/15/76
* * * * * * * * *
Please consider reading/signing the online petition:
"Include Native Americans In MTV's Anti-Hate Crimes Campaign"
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/ffyrna/
===================================================================
1) Countdown to Peltier Clemency Campaign
1992 Boston City Council Resolution
2) In the The Nation: "Star Wars Boosters"
3) International Star Wars Postcard Campaign
**********************************************************************
1) Countdown to Peltier Clemency Campaign
1992 Boston City Council Resolution
We were hoping for an announcement from President Clinton today, on Martin Luther King Day. But no word so far. This is President Clinton's last week in office to show his real character. Can he stand up while threatened with criminal investigations by a new Administration that would nominate a conservative rightist for Attorney General? Please support the campaign to stand up to Injustice.
Fwd From: "chris groden"
Subject: text of 1992 Boston City Council Resolution
Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2001 02:24:54
Please contact Chuck Turner and other BCC members and ask them to re-affirm this resolution.
Charles.Turner@ci.boston.ma.us chuckturneroffice@yahoo.com
(617)635-3510/4203FAX (617)427-8100/442-9404FAX
[Also consider emailing it to president@whitehouse.gov ]
City of Boston
in City Council
RESOLUTION OF COUNCILLOR SCONDRAS
WHEREAS Leonard Peltier,an influential leader in the American Indian Movement,was convicted of the murders of two FBI agents; and
WHEREAS The US Government admits that the affidavits which were used to arrest and extradite Peltier were false and that Peltier's shell casings did not match the bullets which killed the agents; and
WHEREAS The misconduct and judicial impropriety,such as coertion of witneses,perjury,evidence fabrication,and supression by the FBI and the Government,is clearly an abuse of the moral standards of American Justice; and
WHEREAS Worlwide,numerous and respectable law,religious,and political groups, including fifty-five members of the US Congress and sixty members of the Canadian Parliament, have filed"Friends of the Court "briefs calling for a re-evaluation of Peltier's case; and
WHEREAS Boston, as a capital city for one of the thirteen original founding constitutional states, is a symbol of the basis of American law and judicial order and observed by the media nationwide; Now, Therefore, Be it Resolved That the Boston City Council, in meeting assembled does hereby call for an investigation of the judicial improprieties involved with the conviction of Leonard Peltier and urge the commutation of Peltier's sentence to end these past sixteen years of injustice.
# # # # # # # # #
Support the Countdown to Clemency Campaign for Leonard Peltier
Send an E-mail: president@whitehouse.gov
Send a FAX:
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/usa/peltier/getInvolved.html
Online Petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/Clemency/petition.html
Also, consider getting a video tape of the May 2000 Peltier Congressional Briefing for yourself and community access tv. Send $15 to the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee; P.O. Box PO Box 583 Lawrence, KS 66044. It runs about 45 minutes and powerfully gives the message from people who bore witness to a reign of terror, and who stand with Leonard in eloquence and dignity.
For more information contact the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC) (785)842-5774. http://www.freepeltier.org . Leonard Peltier's book, Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance, is available from bookstores, libraries and the LPDC.
Check out "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse - Free Leonard Peltier"
the donated artwork of Lahri Bond, $10 lithographic prints available
http://earthlovers.org/leonard/
**********************************************************************
2) In the The Nation: "Star Wars Boosters"
Appearing in the current issue of The Nation, January 29, 2001
Star Wars Boosters
As soon as George W. Bush and Dick Cheney take up the reins of government, they'll give a big boost to waging war in and from space. Under their leadership, right-wing advocates of US global dominance and corporations eager for contracts will join forces with a military eager to make space the battleground of the twenty-first century.
Indeed, Star Wars--"missile defense" in the current Newspeak--is emerging as a central goal of the new Bush Administration. It is "an essential part of our strategic system," declared Colin Powell immediately upon being named as Bush's Secretary of State.
"I wrote the Republican Party's foreign policy platform," declared Bruce Jackson, vice president of corporate strategy and development at Lockheed Martin, the world's largest weapons manufacturer [see William D. Hartung and Michelle Ciarrocca, "Star Wars II," June 19, 2000], which is deeply involved in space military programs. In a recent interview, Jackson said that although he was "the overall chairman of the Foreign Policy Platform Committee" at the Republican National Convention, he hasn't led the advocacy for the full development of Star Wars because "that would be an implicit conflict of interest with my day job" at Lockheed Martin.
Such advocacy, he said, has fallen to Stephen Hadley, George W. Bush's pick for deputy director of the National Security Council. Hadley, Bush Senior's assistant secetary of defense for international security policy and a member of his National Security Council, is a proud member of the Vulcans, an eight-person foreign policy team formed during the Bush campaign that includes future National Security Council director Condoleezza Rice and Reagan administation superhawk Richard Perle. The Vulcans named themselves after the Roman god of fire and metalwork and for a statue in Rice's hometown, Birmingham, Alabama, commemorating its steelmaking history.
Besides being a Vulcan, Hadley is a partner in Shea & Gardner, the Washington law firm representing Lockheed Martin. Hadley has also worked closely with Jackson on the Committee to Expand NATO--based in the offices of the right-wing American Enterprise Institute--Jackson as president, Hadley as secretary. The committee sought to enlist Eastern European countries into NATO and, of course, build the client base for Lockheed Martin weapons.
"Space is going to be important. It has a great future in the military," Hadley told the Air Force Association Convention in a September 11 speech. Introduced as "an advisor to Governor George W. Bush," Hadley said that Bush's "concern has been that the [Clinton] Administration... doesn't reflect a real commitment to missile defense. This is an Administration that has delayed on that issue and is not moving as fast as he thinks we could."
To remedy that, Bush has named as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld--a man whom the Washington Post calls the "leading proponent not only of national missile defenses, but also of U.S. efforts to take control of outer space" [see Michael T. Klare, page 14]. In 1998 Rumsfeld's commission reversed a 1995 finding by the nation's intelligence agencies that the country was not in imminent danger from ballistic missiles acquired by new powers, declaring that "rougue states" did pose such a threat. The answer? Missile defense. Trusted adviser to and financial supporter of the right-wing Center for Security Policy, Rumsfeld has been awarded its Keeper of the Flame prize. The center's advisory board includes such Star Wars promoters as Edward Teller--and, of course, Lockheed Martin executives, including Bruce Jackson.
"This so-called election was a victory for putting weapons in space, at enormous cost to US taxpayers and to world stability," declares Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Florida-based Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space (www.space4peace.org). He points to Bush campaign statements about deploying "quantum leap weapons" and about Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories playing a major role in the development of "weapons that will allow America to define how wars are fought." Both labs have been deeply involved in space-based lasers, an integral part of Star Wars. In 1998 the Defense Department signed a multimillion-dollar contract for a "Space-Based Laser Readiness Demonstrator" and this past November solicited final comments on development of the program, estimated to cost between $20-$30 billion. Lockheed Martin, TRW and Boeing are the contractors. (Lynne Cheney has just resigned from the board of Lockheed Martin, Dick Cheney has been a member of the board of TRW.)
The military's would-be space warriors, meanwhile, are bullish. The U.S. Space Command's top general, Ralph "Ed" Eberhart, exhorts the Air Force to "be the space warfighters our nation needs today...and will need even more tomorrow." The Air Force command's "Almanac 2000" touts "defending America through the control and exploitation of space." The Air Force in the 2lst Century must be "globally dominant -- Tomorrow's Air Force will likely dominate the air and space around the world."
The Vulcans, Keepers of the Flame and Lockheed Martin et al. will be cheering them on.
Karl Grossman and Judith Long
Karl Grossman is the author of the forthcoming Weapons in Space (Seven Stories) and the new TV documentary Star Wars Returns (EnviroVideo 800-ECO-TV46). Judith Long is The Nation's copy editor.
**********************************************************************
3) International Star Wars Postcard Campaign
The Yorkshire Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) has initiated a postcard campaign throughout the United Kingdom urging George W. Bush to back away from Star Wars. One side of their card has a photo of a Star Wars
protest at Fylingdales (U.S. radar facility in their country.)
Groups all over the world are urged to create similar postcards to Bush for distribution in your nation.
Not only would this effort help to flood the White House with messages from all over the world, but it would also help to focus attention on the issue in your country as the cards are distributed. (Please let us know if you decide to join this effort from overseas.)
The Global Network has produced such a postcard for distribution throughout the U.S. The cards contain a "Ban War in Space" photo message on one side and a written message to Bush on the other.
Bulk postcard orders can be made as follows (prices include postage):
* 25 cards $3.00
* 60 cards $7.00
* 120 cards $12.50
* 240 cards $25.00
* more Negotiable
Send your order, along with check made out to GN, to address below:
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, Fl. 32607
(352) 337-9274
http://www.space4peace.org
globalnet@mindspring.com
**********************************************************************
Rogue U.S. Pushing Missile Defense to HELL with the Environment * Peatlands Loss Linked to Global Warming Surge
It is one week before the Inauguration of George W. Bush for U.S. President. Meanwhile the press is taking the same lead as the U.S. Senate in 1999 when they voted almost unanimously for Missile Defense, (97-3) when technologically feasible.[1] According to reports in the media, Donald Rumsfeld's nomination for U.S. Secretary of Defense isn't expected to have any trouble with U.S. Senate Confirmation. Meanwhile, this new Administration is threatening all of us with an emphasis in the military domination of space that could lead to environmental and economic catastrophes for everyone. In item two, an alarming report discloses that 'the slender "latch" which locks vast quantities of carbon into the world's peatlands has been identified and that climate change could trigger the release of carbon dioxide on a catastrophic scale.'
Scientists have widely expected that Mars once had an atmosphere. Now it consists of more than 95% carbon dioxide (CO2), which is very close to the CO2 proportion of Venus' atmosphere. Is Earth's atmosphere headed in this direction for a lifeless atmosphere devoid of human beings? The billions of dollars and energy focused on space military domination needs to be redirected in response to the real threat to life by those in power who are greedy, fearful and so far, willfully ignorant. Will people wake up in time? It could already be too late. But, then again, miracles are a part of life, and our attempts to make a positive difference gives life meaning and purpose. Many thanks to GlobeNet, Veterans of Peace and Karl Grossman for their courageous work. Please support their efforts for peace in space and survival for all life.
Reference [1] Arms Race Going Bonkers - NoFlyby Alert 3/19/99
http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby/alerts/bonkers.htm
======================================================================
1) Panel Urges U.S. to Defend Space
2) Peatlands Loss Linked to Global Warming Surge
3) Rumsfeld: ABM Treaty "Ancient History"
4) Helms Says U.S. Not Bound by ABM Treaty
5) Groups Call for Rejection of Rumsfeld
**********************************************************************
1) Panel Urges U.S. to Defend Space
January 12, 2001
Panel Urges U.S. to Defend Space
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published in the NYTimes
---------------------------------
WASHINGTON -- An advisory commission headed until recently by Defense Secretary-designate Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday a lack of attention by the government to its satellites and space policy makes the United States ``an attractive candidate for a space Pearl Harbor.''
The United States depends on space more than any other country -- for military surveillance, weather forecasts, cell phone connections -- yet the White House, Congress and various government agencies fail to make space protection a top priority, the panel concluded.
And that, the commission said in its report to Congress, ``could leave the U.S. vulnerable to surprises in space.''
``The U.S. government -- in particular, the Department of Defense and the intelligence community -- is not yet arranged or focused to meet the national security space needs of the 21st century,'' the panel found.
The commission suggested several steps to restructure the government's space policy, which currently is scattered among more than a dozen military, intelligence and other federal departments.
``Right now, there are lots of little individuals who will give you lots of little individual space answers,'' said former Sen. Malcolm Wallop, R-Wyo., a commission member who characterized the situation as ``an enormous band of chieftains with no tribes.''
Among the commission's recommendations:
--Naming a new undersecretary of defense for space to coordinate national military and intelligence activities and research in the area.
--Having the undersecretary of the Air Force oversee the National Reconnaissance Office, which develops and operates satellites.
--Forming a presidential advisory board to provide guidance and help press the importance of space activities upon the White House.
--Establish within the National Security Council a group of senior space advisers and staff from various federal agencies who could be included in any security decisions.
--Assign regular meetings between the secretary of defense and director of central intelligence to ``address national security space policy, objectives and issues.''
The government must also do more to encourage students and tap experts who could help make contributions to the space industry, the advisers said.
``The investment in science and technology resources, not just facilities but particularly people, is essential if we're going to continue to be a leader as a space-faring nation, and we don't see that robustness today,'' said retired Adm. David E. Jeremiah, one of the commissioners.
Jeremiah said other nations may soon act upon America's dependence on its space satellites and ``are going to be attracted to our vulnerabilities.''
He pointed to one satellite problem in 1998, in which 85 percent of the nation's pagers were silenced, as a possible ``space attack.''
``The difficulty of space is that you can't tell,'' he said. ``We don't know if the interruption of all the pagers not so long ago was an attack or an anomaly that showed up in the hardware.''
In its report, the 13-member commission stressed that while organization and management of the nation's space efforts were important, ``the critical need is national leadership to elevate space on the national security agenda.''
The commission was led by Rumsfeld until he stepped down following his nomination by President-elect Bush to be defense secretary. Rumsfeld has listed ``defense of our space assets'' as one of his top priorities.
**********************************************************************
2) Peatlands Loss Linked to Global Warming Surge
http://envirolink.netforchange.com/frame.html?page=search.html%3Fcatid%3D10%26sourcetype%3Dnews
JAMES FREEMAN
The slender "latch" which locks vast quantities of carbon into the world's peatlands has been identified by a Welsh scientist, who warns that climate change could trigger the release of carbon dioxide on a catastrophic scale.
Dr Chris Freeman, a Royal Society research fellow at the University of Wales, Bangor, has been studying the processes controlling decomposition in wetlands for 10 years.
The study has attracted attention because of the recent violent weather, which has concentrated minds on global warming.
It is also known that the world's peatlands, mostly concentrated in the northern hemisphere, contain
as much CO2 as the entire atmosphere and three times as much as the rain forests.
In a paper in the journal, Nature, Dr Freeman says he has identified the mechanism which prevents the CO2 being released from the peat wetlands back into the atmosphere.
He writes: "We used to think that the CO2 was not released because the waterlogging in wetlands starved the enzymes involved of oxygen. But we realised that decomposition can be quite efficient in other places that have no oxygen, such as in a sheep's stomach or a sewage treatment works."
His team set about identifying the enzymes involved to see how effectively they worked with and without oxygen. Most of the main enzymes worked well without oxygen but one, phenol oxidase, hardly worked at all unless oxygen was added.
This unusual enzyme destroys the natural chemicals which slow down the decomposition process so in wetlands the scarcity of oxygen means there is nothing to stop these "inhibitors" building up, preventing breakdown and release of CO2.
Dr Freeman says: "In one way this all sounds a bit worrying because it suggests that one simple enzyme is all that prevents re-release of the CO2 locked up in our wetlands, doubling atmospheric CO2 levels. At least we now know, on the other hand, that if we can find a way to keep that enzyme under control, we can stop the problem arising."
The crunch comes with the realisation that many scientific models of global warming have predicted more extreme weather episodes because of the increased volatility of warmer, wetter air.
"But these patterns predict that some regions could also suffer prolonged droughts and if such a drought occurred over the vast peatlands of northern Europe, Russia, Siberia or Canada and America, the wetlands could dry out sufficiently, exposing the enzyme to oxygen and releasing the vast carbon store.
Dr Freeman told The Herald: "The take home message from this research is that we urgently need to take every step to preserve our own peat wetlands against drainage for forestry or agriculture, cutting for fuel or extraction for horticultural use."
Dan Barlow, campaign manager for the Scottish Wildlife Trust, said: "Scotland still has superb examples [of peatlands] and the message is loud and clear - they must be protected both for reasons of their biodiversity and to keep the carbon locked up."
- Jan 11
**********************************************************************
3) Rumsfeld: ABM Treaty "Ancient History"
Recieved by Bruce K. Gagnon
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
RUMSFELD: ABM TREATY "ANCIENT HISTORY"
George Bush's nominee for Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, today told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the 1972 ABM Treaty between Russia and the U.S. is "ancient history."
Rumsfeld was given a free ride by the Democrat and Republican members of the committee as they fell over themselves in their congratulations of Rumsfeld on his nomination. Over and over they remarked how impressed they were with his "credentials".
Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) reminded Rumsfeld that the Gore/Lieberman Democratic ticket had promised to spend "$100 billion more" on the Pentagon than the George W. Bush campaign. Lieberman concluded his remarks to Rumsfeld saying that the American people do not rate military spending as a high priority for their tax dollars and that "we" must all work harder to change that mindset.
When asked by Carl Levin (D-MI) if deployment of BMD and arms control talks could be considered at the same time in a Bush administration, Rumsfeld said that he would promise to think about the question.
Several senators questioned Rumsfeld about the so-called "threat" to the U.S. by "rogue" states. Rumsfeld stated that this is a "dangerous" world and that the threat of a missile attack on the U.S. is greater today than ever before. He painted a picture of unemployed Russian rocket scientists going to work for angry dictators who want to destroy American cities.
Feeling confident and relaxed, often leaning back in his chair, Rumsfeld gave the appearance of a man totally in control. When asked about the "militarization of space" he stated that "It would be a stretch to suggest that in the future space will not be recieving the same kind of attention that is now given to land, air, and sea."
Rumsfeld stated that in his mind there had been "no change" in North Korea's work to develop nuclear weapons. "They are world class tunnelers... they don't have a good record of behaving well...It's a shell game with those folks."
Rumsfeld's record has long been one of denying the obvious. His 1998 "Commission" manipulated existing U.S. intelligence findings to come up with new conclusions that fit the political agenda of pro-Star Wars groups that he was closely associated with. Now, despite evidence that North Korea has suspended their missile testing program and is working toward reunification with South Korea, Rumsfeld still promotes the threat from North Korea to justify a quick deployment of Star Wars.
Rumsfeld concluded his testimony by saying that "We have a new president coming into office who is committed to deploying BMD."
Several new Democrats have been added to the Senate Armed Services Committee. See the full list just below:
Democrats - Levin (MI), Kennedy (MA), Bingaman (N.M.), Byrd (W.V.), Lieberman (CT), Cleland (GA), Landrieu (LA), Reed (R.I.), Nelson (NE), Nelson (FL), Akaka (HI), Carnahan (MI)
Republicans - Warner (VA), Thurmond (S.C.), McCain (AZ), Smith (N.H.), Inhofe (OK), Santorum (PA), Snowe (ME), Roberts (KS), Allard (CO), Hutchinson (AR), Sessions (AL)
Call your Senators to oppose the Rumsfeld nomination as soon as possible via the Congressional Switchboard at: (202) 224-3121
**********************************************************************
4) Helms Says U.S. Not Bound by ABM Treaty
Thursday January 11
Helms Says U.S. Not Bound by ABM Treaty
By Tabassum Zakaria
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The influential chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee said on Thursday that the United States was not bound by an arms control treaty that Russia has said would be violated if a missile defense were deployed to protect the United States and its allies.
Sen. Jesse Helms, who will be going into his seventh year as head of the committee, said the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) expired when the Soviet Union dissolved and should not be an impediment to a U.S. missile shield.
``The United States is no longer bound by the ABM Treaty -- that treaty expired when our treaty partner the Soviet Union ceased to exist,'' said Helms, a North Carolina Republican.
``Personally, I do not think that a new ABM Treaty can be negotiated with Russia that would permit the kind of defenses that America needs and must have,'' he said in a speech at The American Enterprise Institute.
President Clinton deferred a decision on whether to deploy a national missile defense system to President-elect George W. Bush, who takes office on Jan. 20.
Russia and China have opposed a U.S. national missile defense, saying it could lead to a renewed arms race.
Donald Rumsfeld, Bush's choice for defense secretary, said at his confirmation hearing on Thursday the United States must develop defenses against missile attack. But he refrained from setting any date for deployment.
Helms said his top priority would be to undo Clinton's endorsement of a treaty to create the first permanent global court for trying alleged war criminals.
Some Republicans are concerned such a court could lead to a foreign country putting members of the U.S. military on trial.
``I will make reversing this decision and protecting America's fighting men and women from the jurisdiction of this international kangaroo court my single highest priority in the new Congress,'' Helms said.
Bush's team has criticized the treaty as flawed and said that Bush would not send it to the Senate for ratification in its current form.
The International Criminal Court would be set up in the Netherlands to try individuals accused of mass murders, war crimes and other gross human rights violations. The tribunal would not come into force until 60 countries ratify the treaty, and so far almost half that number have done so.
Helms said he intended to work with the Bush administration to ensure that the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia would be invited to join NATO, an expansion that Russia opposes.
``We must show Russia's leaders an open path to good relations, while at the same time closing off their avenues to destructive behavior,'' Helms said.
He said he hoped more action would be taken to undermine foreign leaders such as Cuban President Fidel Castro and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
``We must have a new Iraq policy, and such a policy must be based on a clear understanding of this salient fact: Nothing will change in Iraq until Saddam Hussein is removed from power,'' Helms said.
He advocated a new U.S. policy on Cuba, saying debate over whether to lift the economic embargo against the communist-ruled island was likely to end with a Bush White House which supports keeping it. Helms said the types of policies that undermined communism in Poland could also be applied to Cuba.
On Taiwan, Helms said the island's self-defense capabilities were not keeping up with China's military modernization and it was ``imperative that we act quickly to reverse the decline.''
**********************************************************************
5) Groups Call for Rejection of Rumsfeld
For Immediate Release
Contacts Bruce Gagnon at Global Network
Peter Shaw at Veterans for Peace
Investigative Journalist Karl Grossman
The Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and Veterans for Peace, with the support of peace groups around the world, are calling on the U.S. Senate to reject the appointment of Donald Rumsfeld as the next U.S. Secretary of Defense charging that he is a Star Wars zealotEwho will cause a new arms race and ultimately war in space.
Rumsfeld has been the agent of the right-wing and corporate forces that have been pushing for Star Wars,Edeclared Bruce Gagnon, Coordinator of the Global Network. It was Rumsfeld who, in 1998, was appointed by arch-conservatives Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott to chair a commission that insisted on prompt deployment of a missile defense system. The Commission's findings undermined earlier CIA analyses that threats of attack from 'rogue states' were not iminent, eventually forcing the CIA to change its projections."
Rumsfeld was then given the Keeper of the FlameEaward by the pro-Star Wars right-wing Center for Security Policy,Enoted Gagnon, an operation funded by the aerospace corporations that seeks to become Star Wars contractors and which has listed Rumsfeld as a trusted advisorEand a financial supporter.E Rumsfeld recently chaired a second Space Commission, made up of former Space Command leaders, that insists that the U.S. needs anti-satellite weapons to protect U.S. "space assets."
Rumsfeld supports U.S. plans to control spaceEin violation of the intent of the United Nations' Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which sets aside space for peaceful purposes,Eand which the U.S. not only has signed but was a leader in initiating. With Rumsfeld in charge of the Pentagon, we will see a push for the weaponization of space that will lead to an arms race in space. Other nations will not submit to having the U.S. control spaceE The real fight to stop Star Wars begins with the issue of Senate approval of Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense."
Peter Shaw of Veterans for Peace said that our members know what war is aboutEand described Rumsfeld as a radical operative of the military industry complex who opposes the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, testified against the chemical weapons convention, opposed the SALT II arms agreement, and lobbied for the B-2 Bomber and the MX Missile--and has carried the flame for Star Wars. The United States and the world cannot afford this extreme agenda."
Karl Grossman, author of a soon-to-be-released book, Weapons In SpaceE(Seven Stories Press) which includes information on Rumsfeld and his Star Wars links, said that as The Washington Post has just reported, Rumsfeld is the leading proponent not only of national missile defenses, but also of U.S. efforts to take control of outer space." Grossman, a professor of journalism at the State University of New York, said that we must focus on strengthening the Outer Space Treaty, bolstering it by banning all weapons from space. Our neighbor Canada is a leader in this call at the United Nations. With Rumsfeld as defense secretary, the U.S. will be moving in the other direction: toward war in space.E
The Global Network and Veterans for Peace are calling on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and thereafter the full U.S. Senate, to reject Rumsfeld. They are organizing a grassroots campaign in which people across the United States are contacting their U.S. senators and expressing their opposition to the Bush appointment of Rumsfeld.
Check out the Global Network's web site at:
http://www.space4peace.org
**********************************************************************
Clemency * Space Commission * DU * Ashcroft and Norton * Global Warming
9 January 2001
Flyby News combines the reporting of usually separated issues, Missile Defense and Indigenous (Human) Rights. Of course the connection is with the well being of Earth. The President's Executive Clemency decision to free Leonard Peltier and the push for missile defense is occurring at the same time. Both have major potential consequences. Another related issue with the well being of our planet is Energy. If President-Elect Bush gets his way, the U.S. would strike at the Earth by exploiting one of the last remaining wilderness areas, increase offshore oil drilling, and build an entire new generation of nuclear energy power plants. It seems that the new administration could ramp up the timetable for destruction; the seeds were planted in prior administrations. The DoE has completed biased environmental impact studies on how to expand Plutonium-238 production. Facing the vast array of problems, however, is critical. The only way we can find out if our actions have any impact is to try. Working together and strategically improves our chances. If humans can survive the 21st millennium that would be a miracle.
Please support the following items and call U.S. Senators and elected officials to encourage them to support reconciliation and truth with indigenous peoples, and, during the same call encourage them to make a stand against an expensive and "cannot work" missile defense. For these issues support the blocking of the Bush (or whoever is really in control) nominations.
"In the past we honored our grandparents
In the present we threaten our grandchildren"
Bart Jordan
1) Countdown to Peltier Clemency Update
2) Space Commission Set to Report to Congress
Paving the Way for Rumsfield and Star Wars
3) Depleted Uranium Follow-Up
"Maybe Iraq Is Right Re Depleted Uranium"
4) Block Ashcroft and Norton Nominations
5) Global Warming Opportunity
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Countdown to Peltier Clemency Update
Below is an editorial published in the LA Times, written by journalist Kevin McKiernan, who witnessed several aspects of the Pine Ridge Reign of Terror. The White House recently indicated that the next round of clemency decisions will not likely occur until the last minute (just before January 20).
If true, this leaves us with about ten more days to continue the campaign.
# # # #
LA Times
Sunday, January 7, 2001
Put a Close to This Sad Chapter
By KEVIN MCKIERNAN
http://www.latimes.com/news/comment/20010107/t000001689.html
SANTA BARBARA--I don't know which American Indian killed FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams in a notorious South Dakota shoot-out 25 years ago. Nor do I know the identity of the federal lawman who shot and killed Joe Stuntz, the American Indian Movement (AIM) member, whose body I photographed afterward. But I was there on June 25, 1975, outside the Jumping Bull ranch on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, when some of the bullets were flying. A stray round hit my pickup, and my memory is still fresh of crouching low behind the truck with my portable tape deck, recording the exchange of gunfire for a National Public Radio broadcast.
The government has never produced an eyewitness in the deaths of the agents, and prosecutors admit they still don't know who actually killed Coler and Williams. But AIM leader Leonard Peltier, one of the estimated two dozen Indians present on the 40-acre reservation that day, has admitted that he participated in the firefight. A U.S. appellate court upheld his murder conviction as an aider and abettor, but the court chastised the FBI for its use of "fabricated" evidence in securing Peltier's extradition from Canada and for withholding from the jury an exculpatory ballistics test conducted on a rifle attributed to Peltier.
Amnesty International maintains that Peltier, who is 56 and has been in jail for the last 25 years, did not get a fair trial. Now, in the waning days of the Clinton administration, the organization is one of several groups petitioning the president to commute Peltier's sentence.
Two other AIM members were acquitted in the case, on grounds of self-defense, despite testimony that they had fired in the direction of the agents. The jury also heard evidence about COINTELPRO, the FBI's
counterinsurgency program used against AIM, and a representative of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission testified to the "climate of fear" on the reservation before the 1975 shootings. Other testimony challenged FBI assertions of neutrality in the tribal civil war that followed AIM's takeover of the historic reservation village of Wounded Knee two years earlier. Two Indians were shot to death at Wounded Knee; a dozen Indians and two lawmen also received gunshot injuries during the 10-week takeover.
There have long been allegations that the FBI chose sides in the internecineconflict that took place from 1973-75 between AIM-led traditionalists and a vigilante group of mostly mixed bloods who called themselves the GOONs (Guardians of the Oglala Nation). But testimony concerning FBI activities on the reservation before the 1975 killings was excluded by the judge in the case of Peltier, who was tried separately from the other two defendants.
In fact, the climate of fear back then was all too real, and it matched anything I have experienced reporting from war zones like El Salvador and the Middle East. In those days, the reservation seemed like the Wild West, and almost everyone was armed. I once was threatened with guns in my face when I tried to film a GOON squad roadblock; another time I was slammed up against a wall by GOONs, who tended to perceive the entire press corps as AIM sympathizers. The brakes on my car were cut, and, on one occasion, a high-powered rifle blew a hole in an automobile in which I was riding. My experiences pale by comparison to the beatings, fire-bombings and drive-by shootings were common during the period; at least 25 murders of Indians still remain unsolved. Former South Dakota state Sen. James Abourzek said that the near-lawless atmosphere on the reservation approached "total anarchy."
District U.S. Judge Fred Nichol, who tried many of the Wounded Knee cases, once told me in a filmed interview that "The FBI and the GOON squad worked pretty much together . . . because they were against AIM." In a 1984 televised interview, which I conducted for PBS's "Frontline," a leader of the GOON squad claimed that FBI agents provided his group with intelligence on AIM and, in one instance, "armor piercing" bullets for use against AIM members who, like the GOONs, were heavily armed at the time.
A few years ago, Gerald W. Heaney, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals that upheld Peltier's conviction, petitioned the White House to commute Peltier's sentence. Heaney stated in a letter that the FBI shared the blame for the two agents and one Indian killed in the South Dakota shoot-out. He said that the government "overreacted" to the 1973 occupation at Wounded Knee. Instead of "carefully considering the legitimate grievances of Native Americans," he said, "the response was essentially a military one that
culminated in a deadly firefight on June 26, 1975.
Before he leaves office, President Bill Clinton can provide closure to a difficult and divisive period in Indian history. As Heaney wrote in his clemency plea, "At some time, the healing process must begin. We as a nation must recognize their unique culture and their great contribution to our nation."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Kevin Mckiernan Covered the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for National Public Radio From 1973-1976. He was the Co-producer of the PBS "Frontline" Program "The Spirit of Crazy Horse."
======================================================================
For more information contact the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC) (785)842-5774. http://www.freepeltier.org . Leonard Peltier's book, Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance, is available from bookstores, libraries and the LPDC. Also, a video tape of a Congressional Briefing last May is available from the LPDC for a $15 donation. It includes testimonies by Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Jennifer Harbury, Debbie White Plume, Nilak Butler, Jean Day, Bruce Ellison and others. Please consider reviewing this (45-minutes) video and distributing it to your local community television stations for broadcasting.
Support Clemency for Peltier
WHITE HOUSE comment line: 202-456-1111
(press 0 to bypass recorded message)
Send a FAX:
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/usa/peltier/getInvolved.html
Online Petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/Clemency/petition.html
Call the Congressional switchboard 202 224 3121.
This number can connect you to your Senator or Congressman from any state
Check out the donated artwork of Lahri Bond, lithographic prints available
http://earthlovers.org/leonard/
"In the Spirit of Crazy Horse - Free Leonard Peltier"
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Space Commission Set to Report to Congress
Paving the Way for Rumsfield and Star Wars
by Bruce Gagnon
On January 11, the same day that the Senate Armed Services Committee begins public hearings on the Rumsfeld nomination for Secretary of Defense, the Commission to Assess U.S. National Security Space Management and
Organization is to release its findings after more than a year of study. Established by members of Congress who
claim that preparations to protect U.S. "Space Assets" are inadequate, the commission's report will likely pave the way for Star Wars.
The commission was led by Donald Rumsfeld, President-select George W. Bush's nominee for Secretary of Defense, who has pledged to make the missile "defense", and the space-based laser, a top priority.
Three former leaders of the U.S. Space Command are commission members and there is no doubt that the timing of the "Commission's report", on the same day that Rumsfeld's confirmation hearings begin, are intended to create
the momentum to sweep Rumsfeld into his new cabinet seat without a word of controversy.
While the media and some in Congress question the appointments of Ashcroft, Chavez, and Norton, the move toward Star Wars and the expenditure of over $100 billion to get there is not open for public discussion. The creation
of a new arms race in space and the U.S. violation of the ABM and Outer Space Treaties seems to be an insignificant issue to the corporate controlled media.
The aerospace industry has the media in the bag. Now they are lining up Congress to ease through the Rumsfeld nomination. Once done they figure not a wimper will be heard from the American people. The new space "control and domination" regime will be underway and massive corporate welfare for the industry will be in place. Further cuts in social spending will have to come next to pay for the enormous costs in Star Wars.
We urge all who are concerned to immediately contact your two U.S. Senators to urge them to fight Star Wars. The real fight to stop Star Wars begins with the issue of Senate approval of Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of
Defense.
CALL YOUR SENATORS ASAP via the Congressional Switchboard at:
(202) 224-3121.
Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, Fl. 32607
(352) 337-9274
http://www.space4peace.org
globalnet@mindspring.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Depleted Uranium Follow-Up
"Maybe Iraq Is Right Re Depleted Uranium"
MAYBE IRAQ IS RIGHT
* Weapons Of War Are Supposed To Kill -- But Not This Way
* Questions Arise About Shells That Use Uranium As Ballast
* By CBS News Correspondent Kimberly Dozier
(CBS) A few years back, Iraq complained of a rise in childhood leukemia and other cancers, in the south of the country -- byproducts, it said, of the allied bombing there, and the use of depleted uranium ore in allied munitions.
The Pentagon dismissed such reports, and told inquiring reporters they'd been taken in by Iraqi
propaganda.
Fast-forward to Kosovo, and the former Yugoslavia in general, and the funerals of six Italian peacekeepers. They all served in one of the most heavily bombarded areas of Kosovo, Pec, where NATO fired the bulk of its 31,000 tank rounds, all of them filled with depleted uranium ore.
Also dead were five Belgians and one Portuguese soldier.
Italian politicians say uranium ore dust is to blame, and they and other NATO member nations have demanded an explanation.
NATO says there's no connection and no danger, insisting that this is not a radioactive weapon, or a nuclear weapon in any sense. The dense, spent ore is simply used to make the munitions heavier.
The problem is, soldiers on short tours of duty in the Balkans are dying. And, like the people of southern Iraq, who knows what's happening to the people who live there?
http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,261415-412,00.shtml
______________________
(c) 2001, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From "The Independent" of January 9, 2001
Schroeder tells Nato to ban use of toxic shells
By Imre Karacsin in Berlin, Stephen Castle in Stockholm and
Elizabeth Nash in Madrid
9 January 2001
Germany called for the banning of uranium shells yesterday as several European countries ordered health checks for soldiers who served in the Balkans, while Nato and the EU scheduled urgent meetings to discuss the risks. [for full story visit]
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Europe/2001-01/karacs090101.shtml
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Block Ashcroft and Norton Nominations
From: ActForChange
Happy New Year from ActForChange!
..Your continued engagement is needed to challenge two particularly controversial nominations to President-Elect Bush's cabinet, the nominations of Senator John Ashcroft to serve as Attorney General and Gale Norton to serve as Secretary of the Interior.
Throughout the 2000 election, candidate Bush promised to be a "uniter" for our country, not a "divider." When a partisan Supreme Court narrowly awarded the election to George W. Bush by a slim 5-4 decision, President-elect Bush pledged to bring the country together.
His nomination of Senator Ashcroft -- one of the right wing's leading lights -- to serve as Attorney General exposes Bush's obligation to the fundamentalist activists who propelled him to the Republican nomination.
His nomination of Gale Norton -- who the League of Conservation Voters calls a "throwback to the James Watt era -- one of the darkest periods of natural resource exploitation" -- exposes Bush's obligations to the mining, grazing, tree-cutting and drilling industries who seek unfettered access to public lands.
Please add your voice to this effort by joining us in our campaign to reject the Ashcroft and Norton nominations -- this year's first critical fights for justice and the environment.
Click here to urge your Senators to join the Block Ashcroft Campaign.
http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?itemid=10494
Click here to urge your Senators to join the Block Norton Campaign.
http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?itemid=10495
There is strength in numbers! So once you take action, please forward this e-mail to friends and associates so they can speak out too. Confirmation hearings are expected to be completed soon after the Inauguration on
January 20, so time is of the essence.
The next few weeks are also our last opportunity to urge President Clinton to enact some critical new policies. Here are just a few of the Activism Alerts currently posted on ActForChange that we want President Clinton to complete in the weeks before he leaves office. He does respond to public pressure, and the thousands of messages sent to him via ActForChange already helped convince him to protect the Steller Sea Lion, clean up dirty diesel engines, and enact the roadless area protection plan.
Click on these links to make your voice heard on these remaining issues:
Support International Treaty to Ban Land Mines
http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?ItemId=1211
Protect Arctic Wildlife Refuge From Oil Drilling
http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?ItemId=1244
Release Leonard Peltier
http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?ItemId=9579
Help Rape Survivors Get Needed Treatment
http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?ItemId=10448
With appreciation,
Michael Kieschnick
President, Working Assets
Reply to: info@actforchange.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
5) Global Warming Opportunity
by Rachel Massey*
During November, while Americans were preoccupied by questions of rigged elections, representatives of 170 countries met in The Hague, Netherlands, to tackle what is arguably the biggest environmental problem we face -- global warming. The meeting at The Hague was supposed to fill in the blanks of the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 international treaty intended to combat global warming by ensuring that countries limit their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, chiefly by reducing the combustion of coal, oil and gasoline (so-called "fossil fuels"). Many scientists consider global warming the biggest environmental problem of the 21st century because they expect it to change weather patterns, spread serious diseases like malaria and dengue fever, and cause droughts, floods, large storms, and major shifts in water supplies.
The goal at The Hague was to spell out how each country would curb greenhouse gas emissions to comply with limits established at Kyoto in 1997. Instead, negotiators left The Hague after two weeks with no agreement. The negotiations collapsed largely because of efforts by the U.S. negotiators to get emission reduction "credits" for existing vegetation, such as trees or crops growing within U.S. borders.[1]
Trees and other plants remove carbon dioxide from the air and store it in their tissues. Negotiators refer to them as "carbon sinks" -- places where carbon is stored in solid form after it is pulled from the atmosphere. The U.S. negotiators wanted credit for vegetation "sinks," as a way of minimizing the need to change how we use energy in the U.S. The U.S. is the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels. And our energy use is notably inefficient; for example, we emit about twice as much carbon dioxide per person as Germany does.[2]
U.S. negotiators insist that curbing the use of fossil fuels will hurt the U.S. economy. But a new study challenges that premise, showing in detail how we could reduce U.S. carbon dioxide emissions by increasing the efficiency of our economy.
Fossil fuel companies have worked relentlessly to convince the American public that global warming is a Chicken Little fantasy. The insurance industry, on the other hand, knows that global warming is real because hurricanes, cyclones, and floods between 1990 and 1995 cost the industry about fifteen times as much as such events had cost in the 1980s.[3, pg. 10] Recently even a few oil companies have decided to come clean. British Petroleum and Shell Oil, for example, have now withdrawn from the Global Climate Coalition, an industry group that tries to dismiss the science on global warming.[4]
As opportunities to misrepresent the science diminish, opponents of precautionary action have stirred economic fears, arguing that curbing greenhouse gases will create economic disaster. But according to a new study funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and carried out by five U.S. national laboratories, the opposite is true. The study, SCENARIOS FOR A CLEAN ENERGY FUTURE (CEF), shows how energy use could be reduced in each of four broad economic sectors -- buildings, industry, transportation, and electricity -- and concludes that it would help, not hurt, our economy to make the needed changes.[5]
For each sector, the CEF study examines "market barriers" that limit our incentives, or our ability, to use energy efficiently. For example, in the "buildings" sector, which includes household appliances, they note that:
** Electricity bills do not give any details: we cannot see how much we are paying to run a refrigerator or a TV set. The authors liken this to a grocery store where customers receive a total bill at the checkout counter, but never see the prices of individual foods.[5, pg. 2.13]
** Switching to an energy-efficient appliance will produce only small savings for an individual family. For example, reducing the standby power of a TV set from 7 watts to less than one watt would save about $5 per year per TV. As a result, most people won't put much effort into finding an energy-efficient TV. But if all TVs in the country used less than one watt of standby power, "the total savings would be hundreds of millions of dollars per year."[5, pg. 4.4]
** Another market barrier is called "split incentives": the person buying the equipment is not the person who will pay to run it. For example, a landlord might buy an inefficient furnace, letting the tenants pay the high heating bills that result.[5, pg. 4.5]
One of the important functions of government is to compensate for market barriers. For example, the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) jointly run the Energy Star program, which labels appliances according to their energy efficiency. This system helps consumers see at a glance how much money an energy-efficient refrigerator or furnace will save them during a year. And the government can help overcome the "split incentives" problem by setting minimum standards for efficiency in equipment such as water heaters.[5, pg. 4.7] According to the CEF study, there is enormous opportunity to achieve efficiencies by such means.
In the transportation sector, the government could promote investment in alternative fuels; improve air traffic control to reduce the time airplanes spend circling airports; and create "pay-at-the-pump" automobile insurance, giving car owners the opportunity to save on insurance by driving less.[5, pg. 1.10]
Some economists say opportunities to save both energy and money must be fiction: if they were real, people would already be doing them. Pointing out such opportunities, they say, is like claiming there is a $20 bill lying on the sidewalk. If it were there, someone would have picked it up long ago. But as one commentator points out, the appropriate metaphor is not a $20 bill lying on the sidewalk but $20 worth of pennies hidden in the sand. Nobody wants to sift through sand for a few pennies. But if you make it easy by giving people a metal detector, they will happily gather up the pennies. The "metal detector" represents the reforms we can make in energy markets to help people save both energy and money.[6]
The CEF study considers three main categories of economic reforms:
1. Increasing government research and development (R&D) for technologies to reduce energy consumption.
2. Government projects to correct economic barriers to efficient energy use -- like the Energy Star program to help consumers choose more cost-effective home appliances.
3. Taxing carbon dioxide emissions to motivate people to save energy. The authors propose such a tax in the form of emissions permits the government would sell at auction each year.
Using varying combinations of these policies, the authors explore 3 possible scenarios for future energy use: Business as Usual, Moderate, and Advanced. Under Business as Usual, current energy policies continue more or less unchanged, with a "modest pace of technological progress." In the Moderate scenario, some reforms occur; and in the Advanced scenario "a nationwide sense of urgency" motivates deeper reforms.[5, pg. 3.3]
By the year 2020, the Moderate scenario sees emissions reduced by 9% to 10% compared with Business as Usual, and the country's energy bill is 14% lower. The Advanced scenario sees emissions 23% to 32% lower and the energy bill 18% to 22% lower than the Business as Usual forecast. In other words, even taking into account the administrative costs of programs like Energy Star, plus increased costs for research and development, the country still saves money. And the gains calculated in the CEF study are ONLY energy cost savings. They do not include other advantages of more rational energy use, such as improved health from cleaner air and reduced dependence on foreign oil.[5, pg. ES8]
To be cautious, the authors say some of the gains they describe might be offset by "indirect" losses in other parts of the economy, which they do not model in detail. Indirect losses could conceivably equal direct gains, so instead of making a profit, we might simply come out even.[5, pgs. 1.40-1.41] On the other hand, a recent analysis of the CEF scenarios by the International Project for Sustainable Energy Paths (IPSEP) concludes that when we factor in broader economic patterns, the potential gains look substantially larger, not smaller.[6]
The CEF scenarios are not designed to get the U.S. all the way to its Kyoto target of reducing emissions to 7% below 1990 levels by the period 2008 to 2012. But they make it clear that for every day we delay taking steps toward that target, we are losing money.
One way to save a bundle would be to stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry. A report by Friends of the Earth (FoE) points out that taxpayers currently provide billions of dollars worth of unnecessary support to polluting industries each year.[7] This money could be given back to taxpayers, or redirected to support clean energy projects and job training for workers leaving the coal industry.[8]
When U.S. negotiators try to delay U.S. actions to reduce emissions, they are not protecting the U.S. economy as a whole; they are protecting a small group of our dirtiest industries. Given the strong personal ties of both George W. Bush and Dick Cheney to the oil industry, the U.S. role in follow-up meetings, expected in May or June, could be even more obstructionist. We shouldn't let our representatives get away with protecting oil and coal companies at the expense of the rest of the economy, not to mention the planet.
=================
* Rachel Massey is a consultant to Environmental Research
Thanks to Barbara Haya of the Energy and Resources Group,
University of California at Berkeley, for help developing several
ideas presented in this issue.
For online links to references and more information visit
http://www.rachel.org
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
DU * Campaign to Block Rumsfield Nomination * Stop Low Frequency Active Sonar
NBC TV evening news reported yesterday that veterans of the Kosovo conflict were experiencing similar symptoms as to those Vets from the Gulf War. Depleted Uranium is a prime suspect by many NATO nations. This is due to illnesses, including cancer from those likely exposed depleted uranium shells that were exploded. This releases a fine dust that can be inhaled or ingested.
John W. Gofman, M.D., Professor Emeritus of Molecular and Cell Biology was a co-leader of the "Plutonium Group" at the University of California, Berkeley, which managed to isolate the first milligram of plutonium from irradiated uranium. In a Letter of Concern, May 11, 1999, he states "..By any reasonable standard of biomedical proof, there is no safe dose, which means that just one decaying radioactive atom can produce permanent mutation in a cell's genetic molecules. My own work showed this in 1990 for xrays, gamma rays, and beta particles (Gofman 1990: Radiation-Induced Cancer from Low-Dose Exposure). For alpha particles, the logic of no safe dose was confirmed experimentally in 1997 by Tom K. Hei and co-workers at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) Vol.94, pp.3765-3770, April 1997, "Mutagenic Effects of a Single and an Exact Number of Alpha Particles in Mammalian Cells").
It follows from such evidence that citizens worldwide have a strong biological basis for opposing activities which produce an appreciable risk of exposing humans and others to plutonium and other radioactive pollution at any level. The fact that humans cannot escape exposure to ionizing radiation from various natural sources --- which may well account for a large share of humanity's inherited afflictions --- is no reason to let human activities increase the exposure to ionizing radiation. The fact that ionizing radiation is a mutagen was first demonstrated in 1927 by Herman Joseph Muller, and subsequent evidence has shown it to be a mutagen of unique potency. Mutation is the basis not only for inherited afflictions, but also for cancer."
The complete letter and reference link by Dr. Gofman is posted:
http://www.ratical.org/radiation/CNR/LetterOfConcern.html
This evidence of "no safe dose" hasn't sunk into the consciousness of military planners or the accepting public. The U.S. government has denied doing harm with the stuff since injecting it into poor civilians as guinea pigs in the forties and exposing soldiers to atomic bomb explosions. It is time we stop its dangerous use and development. One way to accomplish this is to stop the development of missile defense. The Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and Veterans for Peace have begun a national grassroots campaign to block the nomination of Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense in the Bush Administration for this purpose.
The second item in this Flyby News issue, which also asks for your support, has to do with the U.S. Navy testing of Sonic Blasts harmful to sea life. Life is too special to allow military strategists to risk the well-being of life in all its forms.
1) Campaign to Block Rumsfield Nomination
2) Choice of Rumsfeld Creates Solid Team for Missile Shield
3) Action to Stop Low Frequency Active Sonar Blasts for Ocean-Life
**********************************************************************
1) Campaign to Block Rumsfield Nomination
From: "Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space"
Subject: CAMPAIGN TO BLOCK RUMSFELD NOMINATION
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 13:57:10 -0500
CAMPAIGN TO BLOCK RUMSFELD NOMINATION
The Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and Veterans for Peace have undertaken a national grassroots campaign to block the nomination of Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense in the Bush Administration.
The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee will soon hold hearings on the nomination before the full Senate votes on Rumsfeld. We are urging people across the U.S. to contact their two U.S. Senators in opposition to the Rumsfeld nomination. Please help spread this message.
Call your Senators as soon as possible via the Congressional Switchboard at: (202)224-3121
For your information, members of the Armed Services Committee are as follows:
* Democrats - Levin (MI), Kennedy (MA), Bingaman (N.M.), Byrd (W.V.), Lieberman (CT), Cleland (GA), Landrieu (LA), Reed (R.I.)
* Republicans - Warner (VA), Thurmond (S.C.), McCain (AZ), Smith (N.H.), Inhofe (OK), Santorum (PA), Snowe (ME), Roberts (KS), Allard (CO), Hutchinson (AR), Sessions (AL)
Our primary goal in this effort is to immediately show the nation that Rumsfeld is a radical operative for the military industrial complex and will be a prime mover for a new Star Wars system and an even greater military build-up. It is our intention that this campaign will force the Star Wars issue into greater public focus. The peace movement must take a bold, proactive stand against this appointment.
BACKGROUND ON RUMSFELD
As a Congressman from Illinois he voted against food stamps, Medicare, and antipoverty programs. Secretary of Defense from 1975-77. Past board member of Hoover Institution (right wing think tank), was a member of the
Committee on the Present Danger (mid-1970s), and is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is now in a position to drive up military spending that will force further cuts in already hard hit social spending.
KEY POINTS:
1) Rumsfeld is a leading proponent of Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD).
The 1998 Rumsfeld Commission report inaccurately portrayed North Korea as a potential nuclear threat to the U.S. thus justifying BMD. The "Commission's" findings negated earlier CIA analyses, eventually forcing the CIA to change its projections.
2) Rumsfeld supports massive increases in an already bloated military budget.
3) Rumsfeld supports U.S. efforts to take control of outer space by developing technology to attack other nations' satellites with new generation weapons like the space-based laser.
4) Rumsfeld has been described by the avidly pro-Star Wars right-wing Center for Security Policy (Frank Gaffney) as a "trusted advisor and a financial supporter," and in 1998 was awarded its "Keeper of the Flame"
award.
5) Rumsfeld opposes the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, testified against the chemical weapons convention, opposed the SALT II arms agreement, and lobbied for the B-2 Bomber and the MX Missile.
Please help us by forwarding this appeal to others who will support this effort.
Thank you.
Bruce K. Gagnon
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, FL. 32607
(352) 337-9274
http://www.space4peace.org
globalnet@mindspring.com
Peter Shaw
Vets for Peace
Port Matilda, PA.
(814) 237-1216
pbs@psu.edu
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
RUMSFELD HEARINGS BEGIN IN SENATE ON JANUARY 11
PHONE CALLS TO U.S. SENATE OPPOSING RUMSFELD NOMINATION NEEDED ASAP
Call your Senators as soon as possible via the Congressional Switchboard at:
(202) 224-3121
**********************************************************************
2) Choice of Rumsfeld Creates Solid Team for Missile Shield
December 29, 2000
Choice of Rumsfeld Creates Solid Team for Missile Shield
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 - For more than two years, one man more than any other has driven the debate over whether to build a national missile defense: Donald H. Rumsfeld.
Now, in choosing Mr. Rumsfeld to be his secretary of defense, President-elect George W. Bush has signaled that the politically and diplomatically divisive goal of building a shield against nuclear missiles will be at the core of the new administration's national security agenda.
In 1998, Mr. Rumsfeld, the former Republican congressman, former ambassador to NATO and former secretary of defense, oversaw a commission that concluded that "rogue" nations could threaten the United States with ballistic missiles sooner than analysts had predicted.
Conservatives who supported a missile shield hailed the findings as refreshingly candid and worrisome. Liberals who supported arms control criticized them as too focused on potential threats and not on the diplomatic and financial obstacles to building a missile shield.
Either way, the commission's report - and a provocative North Korean missile test a month later - led the Clinton administration to propose its own limited version of a national missile defense. What turned out to be one of the most influential documents in modern American military planning bears Mr. Rumsfeld's name.
"The Rumsfeld Report was the main reason the debate was gradually turned around and the administration turned around," said Sen. Jon Kyl, a Republican of Arizona and an ardent advocate of a missile defense.
In his campaign for president, Mr. Bush repeatedly advocated building a more expansive defensive system than the one President Clinton proposed and, last summer, deferred. Mr. Rumsfeld offered little detail, however, except to say that he would not rule out defenses based on the ground, as Mr. Clinton proposed, or at sea and in space.
Today, Mr. Bush was no more specific, saying only that he would expect Mr. Rumsfeld to work closely with his budget director "to make sure that the missile defense receives the priority we think it must receive in future Pentagon budgets."
Still, it is clear that Mr. Bush's selection of Mr. Rumsfeld completes a national security team - including the next vice president, Dick Cheney, and the next secretary of state, Gen. Colin L. Powell - that shares the dream of building the sort of shield against nuclear missiles that President Ronald Reagan envisioned.
When his selection was announced on Dec. 16, General Powell made the case forcefully, calling a defensive shield "an essential part" of the nation's security. Mr. Bush himself referred to Mr. Rumsfeld's prominence on the issue of missile defense, citing his work as chairman of the commission, to which Congressional Republicans had appointed him.
"In picking Don Rumsfeld, we'll have a person who is thoughtful and considerate and wise on the subject of missile defense," Mr. Bush said.
Mr. Rumsfeld's report, released in an unclassified form in July 1998, was striking in its contradiction of previous analyses by the nation's intelligence agencies, which had concluded that no new nation could strike the United States with ballistic missiles for at least a decade.
Instead, the commission warned that countries like North Korea, Iran and Iraq could develop a missile "with little or no warning" - and essentially at any moment.
Since the report became public, North Korea, in particular, has undergone significant changes. Its once hermitic leader, Kim Jong Il, had been negotiating with the Clinton administration to halt its production of long-range missiles, though the White House announced today that progress had not been enough to warrant a presidential trip to North Korea to seal a deal.
Mr. Rumsfeld did not address North Korea today, but his remarks indicated that his assessment of the threat of a ballistic missile attack on America had not changed.
"There is no question but that the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the delivery systems for them is extensive across the world," he said.
Mr. Bush's proposals for a missile defense will face the same hurdles as President Clinton's. And since Mr. Bush's would go further, they may be more contentious, especially in Russia and China, which view missile defenses as destabilizing.
President Clinton decided against moving ahead with a limited system that began with 100 interceptors after failing to persuade the Russians to amend the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972.
Although Mr. Bush and Mr. Rumsfeld have not advocated abandoning the treaty, they have suggested that they will not be bound by its prohibition on developing a missile defense. Other Republicans have called for its abolition, which even the nation's staunchest European allies oppose.
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers, an arms control advocacy group, said the new administration would have to prove that a shield against missiles was feasible. Despite spending $4.8 billion this year, the Pentagon has had tests of a limited system fail.
"It's not only technically difficult and expensive," Mr. Kimball said. "It's a political hot potato. This is going to be much more difficult than they think."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, these materials are distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for research and educational purposes.
**********************************************************************
3) Action to Stop Low Frequency Active Sonar Blasts for Ocean-Life
>fwd: Alert
>The following is an action alert sent out by Natural Resources Defense Council regarding the plan proposed by the US Navy to develop a Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System Low Frequency Active noise research.
The Commission's full staff report is available online.: Tell the California Coastal Commission to stop allowing the Navy to blast the Pacific with dangerously loud noise. The U.S. Navy has asked the California Coastal Commission for permission to operate a new extended-range submarine detection system in the Pacific Ocean that will blast ocean waters with noise billions of times louder than that known to disturb whales (the Navy must get the commission's permission because the sounds generated by the system will travel into California's coastal waters).
This risky technology - Low-Frequency Active Sonar (LFA) - presents a serious and wide-ranging threat to California's marine life. A single LFA transmitter would generate sound in the range of 235 decibels, flooding hundreds of square miles of ocean with noise. Two hundred thirty-five decibels is millions of times more intense than the 160-decibel level known to harm human divers. The sheer force of 230-decibel blasts could cause permanent hearing loss, serious physical injury, or even death to whales and other creatures unfortunate enough to be swimming near an LFA transmitter. But what concerns marine scientists even more than physical injury are the impacts that LFA could have on the behavior (such as breeding, feeding, and migration) and viability of entire populations of marine mammals. It is exactly these effects on vital activities, experienced over hundreds of miles of ocean, that pose the greatest risk to California's marine mammals.
What to do:
Write to the California Coastal Commission urging the commissioners to deny the Navy's request to deploy LFA.
You can email the California Coastal Commission directly from NRDC's Earth Action Center at http://www.nrdc.org/action. Or use the contact information and sample letter below to send your own message, and feel free to add your own reasons for wanting to protect the marine animals that inhabit California waters.
Sample Letter:
Sara Wan, Chair California Coastal Commission
45 Fremont St., Ste. 2000, San Francisco, CA 94105
Phone (415) 904 5289 Fax (415) 904-5400
Subject: Don't let the Navy deploy LFA in the Pacific
Dear Chair Wan,
I am deeply concerned about the Navy's plan to expose marine animals living in California's coastal waters to loud, low frequency noise. The Navy's proposed deployment of its Low-Frequency Active (LFA) sonar system poses a serious threat to marine mammals, and other ocean life, in California waters. The Navy's most recent studies have not adequately addressed the short-term and long-term impacts of the LFA system on whales, dolphins, porpoises, sea turtles, and a host of other marine animals. The Commission has a responsibility to assure the long-term safety and protection of the wildlife that inhabits California's coastal waters. I urge you and the rest of the Commission to deny the Navy's request to deploy LFA in the Pacific. Please forward a copy of my letter to each Commissioner.
Sincerely,
[Your name and address]
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Rev. Moon, the Bushes & Donald Rumsfeld ^ Radioactive Consumed Items ^ Gorbachev
1) Stop Star Wars Petition
2) Rev. Moon, the Bushes & Donald Rumsfeld
3) U.S. Agencies Seek to Turn Radioactive Metals into Consumed Items
4) Bush 'Star Wars' Plan Will Put US-China On A Collision Course
5) Gorbachev: "Mr. Bush, The World Doesn't Want to Be American"
The following items are astonishing. Peace in Space is a boundary and an opportunity to extend peace everywhere. However, if we cross over that boundary and commit space to war, the destruction of life as we know it would be hastened, generating wealth (temporarily) for a few, and the vast majority would suffer horribly.
Please sign the Stop Star Wars Petition, item 1. Please join the efforts of Organizations and individuals opposing policies that jeopardize life. The following articles give much support for this appeal.
Also, please consider remaining vigilant and supportive during these final days of the Clinton Presidency. Keep encouraging him to grant Leonard Peltier an Executive Clemency pardon.
Visit http://www.FreePeltier.org for recent updates, including a testimony of a former BIA empoyee who worked on Pine Ridge during the "Reign of Terror." Besides calling the comment line 202-456-1111,0 weekdays, to urge Clemency, please, also send a prepared or your own fax, by visiting
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/usa/peltier/getInvolved.html
Justice and Peace in Space go hand in hand.
**********************************************************************
1) Stop Star Wars Petition
To: President Bush and Congress
We, the undersigned, urge you to stop all plans to build, test and deploy the Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system, and the space-based laser program -- the real Star Wars.
We are deeply concerned that the U.S. Space Command, in their goal to "control and dominate" space, is creating a costly and deadly new arms race in space. Once begun it will be virtually impossible to stop.
The United Nations Outer Space Treaty states that no nation should be allowed to put weapons into space and that space must be preserved for the benefit of all humankind.
We pledge to work to stop the bad seed of war, greed, and environmental contamination from being moved into the heavens.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
To View and Sign this Petition visit:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Jules/petition.html
To learn more about a Coalition of Organizations and Individuals to
STOP STAR WARS
Contact the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
http://www.space4peace.org
PO Box 90083; Gainesville, FL. 32607
Tel: (352)337-9274
**********************************************************************
2) Rev. Moon, the Bushes & Donald Rumsfeld
Published Wednesday, January 3, 2001 in The Consortium News
Rev. Moon, the Bushes & Donald Rumsfeld
by Robert Parry
George W. Bush's choice of Donald Rumsfeld to be U.S. defense secretary could put an unintended spotlight on the role of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon - a Bush family benefactor - in funneling millions of dollars to communist North Korea in the 1990s as it was developing a missile and nuclear weapons program.
In 1998, Rumsfeld headed a special commission, appointed by the Republican-controlled Congress, that warned that North Korea had made substantial progress during the decade in building missiles that could pose a potential nuclear threat to Japan and parts of the United States.
"The extraordinary level of resources North Korea and Iran are now devoting to developing their own ballistic missile capabilities poses a substantial and immediate danger to the U.S., its vital interests and its allies," said the report by Rumsfeld's Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States.
"North Korea maintains an active WMD [weapons of mass destruction] program, including a nuclear weapon program. It is known that North Korea diverted material in the late 1980s for at least one or possibly two weapons," the report said.
Rumsfeld's alarming assessment of North Korea's war-making capabilities now is being cited by Republicans as a justification for investing billions of taxpayer dollars in an anti-missile defense system favored by Bush and Rumsfeld.
Yet, during the early-to-mid 1990s, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency was monitoring a series of clandestine payments from Sun Myung Moon's organization to the North Korean communist leaders who were overseeing the country's military strategies.
According to DIA documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, Moon's payments to North Korean leaders included a $3 million "birthday present" to current communist leader Kim Jong Il and offshore payments amounting to "several tens of million dollars" to the previous communist dictator, Kim Il Sung.
For the complete story by Robert Parry visit:
http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0103-07.htm
**********************************************************************
3) U.S. Agencies Seek to Turn Radioactive Metals into Consumer Items
By Brian Hansen
WASHINGTON, DC, January 3, 2001 (ENS) - The manufacture of consumer products out of radioactively contaminated materials discarded from commercial nuclear power plants and government bomb factories could become a fact of American life. In an extraordinary move, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission today asked the National Academy of Sciences to sanction the controversial practice.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/jan2001/2001L-01-03-15.html
**********************************************************************
4) Bush 'Star Wars' Plan Will Put US-China On A Collision Course
Tuesday, January 2, 2001
Toronto Globe & Mail
Bush Risks Renewed Arms Race
by Miro Cernetig
BEIJING -- It seems a fine idea from Washington: Build an antimissile system to blow a distant enemy's nuclear and chemical weapons out of the sky, perhaps making the world's richest country impervious to a sneak missile attack.
But on the other side of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, where no country can yet match the development budget of the Pentagon's $65-billion (U.S.) defence scheme, President-elect George W. Bush's hope of building such a missile shield is guaranteed to shake the so-called nuclear balance that has held between nuclear powers since the Cold War. "There's no doubt that if Bush pushes ahead on this, Washington and Beijing will be on a collision course," said a Western diplomat in Beijing.
China's Communist regime, which analysts believe now controls about a dozen missiles capable of hitting North America on a good day, has already signalled that it will be forced to scale up its nuclear arsenal if Mr. Bush goes ahead with the missile-defence shield. Beijing has never attempted to compete with the United States or Russia in numbers of nuclear missiles, but an economically buoyant and increasingly nationalistic China has already said it would have no choice but to start.
To show they mean business, China's generals have been announcing tests of a longer-range missile system with more reliable workings that will improve the weapons' chances of hitting North American targets. Meanwhile, Russia and China are also warning Mr. Bush that if his administration moves ahead with the antimissile system, it will be a violation of the Antiballistic Missile Treaty, a cornerstone of the world's nuclear balance since the 1970s.
Over the weekend, Russia's Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov showed his country's concern by saying that Moscow will be seeking "serious dialogue" with Mr. Bush's administration to try to retain the ABM treaty. That would likely involve a stipulation from Moscow that Washington back off on its continental missile-defence shield. But those high-level warnings seem to be going unheeded by Mr. Bush. President Bill Clinton has retreated from a decision to expand funding for the so-called Star Wars system, named after the dream first backed by former Republican president Ronald Reagan during the 1980s, but Mr. Bush, who takes over on Jan. 21, seems to be pushing it to the top of his military agenda.
He has appointed a security team that is bullish on the shield, even though it is still unclear whether the system can ever work outside laboratory conditions.
In a surprise move that shows his determination, Mr. Bush nominated Donald Rumsfeld as his secretary of defence. Mr. Rumsfeld is a seasoned Cold War warrior who has been a staunch advocate of a missile-defence shield.
Mr. Rumsfeld's hawkish views are backed by Colin Powell, the retired general who is Mr. Bush's choice for secretary of state. Mr. Powell has called a missile shield "an essential part" of the new administration's defence strategy.
China's leaders have been largely silent on these developments. Beijing had success with a propaganda campaign aimed at persuading Mr. Clinton to take a slower approach on the idea, and expected more of the same if Vice-President Al Gore was elected.
But Mr. Bush's agenda is clearly more hawkish, and is expected to get a negative reaction from China after his inauguration.
"The Chinese will hate this. They will attack the Bush administration over missile defence in the days and in the years to come, and the hawks in the Chinese military will be using Mr. Bush's plan for antimissile defence to try and garner bigger budgets to build more missiles," said another Western diplomat in Beijing.
"This will be one of the major issues affecting Sino-U.S. relations in the next four years."
Particularly worrying to the Chinese is that the Pentagon is hoping to use the antimissile umbrella to build regional antimissile systems, known as theatre missile defence.
The Pentagon sees those systems as a way of defending its allies and U.S. troops outside North America from rogue states such as North Korea, but there are complications. Taiwan, the breakaway island democracy that China considers a wayward province and hopes to reabsorb, wants to be covered by the U.S. system to help defend against Chinese attacks. But Beijing angrily opposes the idea, having built up its coastal missile arsenal to ensure that it could successfully invade Taiwan if the island ever declares independence from China.
China believes that a theatre missile-defence shield would shake the Asian military balance, giving the United States too much influence.
**********************************************************************
5) Gorbachev: "Mr. Bush, The World Doesn't Want to Be American"
Published on Saturday, Dec. 30, 2000 in the
International Herald Tribune
Mr. Bush, The World Doesn't Want to Be American
by Mikhail Gorbachev
MOSCOW - Dear Mr. Bush:
I am writing to you as a citizen of our planet and someone who beholds the last remaining superpower. Can there be any doubt that the United States plays a major role in guiding our world? Only a fool could disregard that fact. To acknowledge this is a given, even though American spokesmen are perhaps somewhat overly inclined to press the point home to the rest of the world.
For while America's role is acknowledged throughout the world, her claim to hegemony, not to say domination, is not similarly recognized. For this reason, I hope, Mr. Bush, as the new American president, that you will give up any illusion that the 21st century can, or even should, be the "American Century." Globalization is a given - but "American globalization" would be a mistake. In fact, it would be something devoid of meaning and even dangerous.
I would go even further and say it is time for America's electorate to be told the blunt truth: that the present situation of the United States, with a part of its population able to enjoy a life of extraordinary comfort and privilege, is not tenable as long as an enormous portion of the world lives in abject poverty, degradation and backwardness.
For 10 years, U.S. foreign policy has been formulated as if it were the policy of a victor in war, the Cold War. But at the highest reaches of U.S. policy-making no one has grasped the fact that this could not be the basis for formulating post-Cold War policy.
In fact, there has been no "pacification." On the contrary, there has been a heightening of inequalities, tension and hostility, with most of the last directed toward the United States.
Instead of seeing an increase in U.S. security, the end of the Cold War has seen a decline. It is not hard to imagine that, should the United States persist in its policies, the international situation will continue to deteriorate.
It is also difficult to believe that, under present circumstances, relations between the United States, on the one hand, and China, India and all the rest of the earth that lives in abject poverty, on the other, could develop in a positive direction. Nor is it possible, on the basis of its present posture, for the United States to establish effective, long-term cooperation with its traditional allies, Europe first and foremost.
Already we see numerous trade disputes, evidence of the conflicting interests separating the United States and the European Union. At the recent conference in The Hague, where the participants were supposed to come up with a common policy on limiting greenhouse effects, U.S. positions were far removed from those of all others. As a result, no decision was taken. This is clearly an example of a failure of "world governance."
From the standpoint of the Old World, the post-Cold War period ushered in hopes that now are faded. Over the past decade, the United States has continued to operate along an ideological track identical to the one it
followed during the Cold War.
Need an example? The expansion of NATO eastward, the handling of the Yugoslav crisis, the theory and practice of U.S. rearmament - including the utterly extravagant national missile defense system, which, in turn, is based on the bizarre notion of "rogue states."
Isn't it amazing that disarmament moved further during the last phase of the Cold War than during the period after its end? And isn't that because U.S. leadership has been unable to adjust to the new European reality? Europe is now a new, independent and powerful player on the world scene. To continue to regard it as a junior partner would be a mistake.
Europe's experience must serve as a lesson for future relations, but it can do so only if America and Europe build a genuine, equal partnership.
Finally, it is hardly a secret that relations between the United States and Russia have deteriorated over recent years. Responsibility for this must be shared between Russia and America.
The present leadership of Russia appears ready to cooperate with the United States in framing a new agenda for relations. But it is unclear what your orientation will be.
What we heard during the electoral campaign did not sound encouraging. If we truly want to build a new world order and further European unity, we have to recognize that this will not be possible without an active role for Russia. This recognition is the necessary basis for setting future Russian-American relations on the right path.
The world is complicated, it contains and expresses a variety of interests and cultures. Sooner or later, international policy, including that of the United States, will have to come to terms with that variety.
---
The writer, the last president of the former Soviet Union, contributed this comment to the Washington Post.
Copyright 2000 the International Herald Tribune
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, these materials are distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for research and educational purposes.
**********************************************************************
Time for Human Rights on Native Ground
Grandfather,
Mysterious One,
We search for you along
this Great Red Road you have set us on.
Sky Father,
Tunkashila,
We thank you for this world.
We thank you for our own existence.
We ask only for your blessing
and for your instruction.
Grandfather,
Sacred One,
Put our feet on the holy path
that leads to you,
and give us the strength and the will
to lead ourselves and our children
past the darkness we have entered.
Teach us to heal ourselves,
to heal each other
and to heal the world.
Let us begin this very day,
this very hour,
the Great Healing to come.
01 January 2001
1) A Time for Human Rights on Native Ground by Louise Erdich
2) Excerpts from Leonard Peltier's book
Editor's Notes:
The above prayer is published at the beginning of Leonard Peltier's book, Prison Writings: My Life Is A Sun Dance. President Clinton will be announcing his decision on the Clemency-Freedom of Leonard Peltier before he leaves office on January 20. The following article by Louise Erdich and words from Leonard Peltier show the true light of this man and the importance of a pardon for humanitarian reasons and a healing for all the races of humankind. The second item are excerpts taken from Prison Writings. Please call the White House Comment Line on weekdays and support the cry for freedom and justice in America, before it is too late.
1-202-456-1111 press 0 to bypass the taped message
Urge Support of Clemency Now!
1) A Time for Human Rights on Native Ground
December 29, 2000
A Time for Human Rights on Native Ground
By LOUISE ERDICH
MINNEAPOLIS - In 1977, fresh out of Dartmouth College's Native American program, I got a job in Fargo, N.D. I worked only blocks from the federal court building, and one day, from my window, I saw a crowd collect near the courtroom entrance. I walked over to see what was happening and spotted a few friends I had grown up with in Wahpeton, N.D.
My political leanings were all surface, consisting mainly of fashion statements. During the 1973 siege at Wounded Knee and the subsequent murderous climate on Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, in which more than 60 Native people and two F.B.I. agents were killed, I had been trying to get good grades.
Now, here were my friends dressed in flamboyant vests, beads and black hats hung with eagle feathers. I, too, wore a hat, a brown Italian fedora, only my feather was a blue macaw's. On the basis of our hats, rather than any political awareness, I joined the crowd entering the court building and became immediately drawn into the trial of Leonard Peltier.
I changed the hours in my job so that I could sit through the trial and listen carefully until at last the cases were presented. Once I'd heard it all, I was confident that not one scintilla of hard evidence linked Mr. Peltier to the murders of F.B.I. agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams. When the jury came back with a guilty verdict I remember extreme shock, a surprise so visceral that I jumped up, shouted, and then found myself quietly weeping in the swirl of subsequent chaos. I had, then, no personal connection with Mr. Peltier. I was not persuaded of his innocence, but that was not the point. I was positive that on the basis of what I'd heard in court that there was reasonable doubt as to his guilt and that he should not have been convicted. My horror was for the United States judicial system.
The court system had been influenced, as had I, by the black hats and the feathers and the aura of paranoia. Only to me, these things were attractive. To others, the mood at the back of the courtroom and the drum beating in the street outside were threatening. No one at the time was capable of impartiality, or dedicated to discovering the truth.
Here are a few truths. There is no exact forensic evidence that links the rifle said to have been carried by Mr. Peltier to the weapon that caused the fatal injuries. There was no witness to the shooting of the F.B.I. agents. The young witnesses who placed Mr. Peltier, along with some 30 other people, in the vicinity of the crime scene have since insisted that they were coerced and intimidated by the F.B.I.
Subsequently, it appears that the F.B.I. sought to avenge the murders on the only person who could still be brought to trial after everyone else involved in the fatal episode was acquitted, by withholding and manipulating critical evidence.
During the next few weeks, President Clinton has an opportunity to demonstrate to Native American people and to the world that our country practices some of what it preaches about human rights. By extending clemency to Leonard Peltier, Mr. Clinton could make an enormous gesture of reparation and healing. Mr. Peltier's release is urged by the European Parliament, Amnesty International, the Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights; by Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Dalai Lama; as well as Canada's Assembly of First Nations, not to mention Native rights groups and ordinary citizens throughout the United States. As long as Leonard Peltier is imprisoned, our country's relationship with its Native people is stained by ongoing dishonor, and our own human rights statements are undermined by hypocrisy.
After the Peltier trial, I immersed myself in writing and then motherhood. Having experienced some of the hysteria and hatreds of those times, I was ambivalent about Mr. Peltier and the attendant posturing of other leaders of the American Indian Movement. I was not a knee- jerk defense committee member, although I am a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe, as is Leonard Peltier. But I was haunted because of the high degree of reasonable doubt that existed in the evidence against him. Eventually, I wrote to Leonard Peltier.
He is not a killer and never was. How do I know this? Because of the person he has become. Leonard Peltier lives, physically half-destroyed, in Leavenworth Prison. He is 56 years old, and he has suffered a stroke and a jaw condition that left him in unalleviated pain. Everything has been stripped away from him. He is transparent now; 24 years in prison do that. There is no rage, there is no blame in him. If his life were based upon two murders, he could not have grown, as he has, into a spiritual force, a person of true humility and gentle humor. I believe the only way he could have survived is on the strength of his innocence.
Last summer, I walked my grandfather's Turtle Mountain land, side- stepping wild prairie roses, flicking off wood ticks, snapping the dry tall stems of sage into a bundle I would wrap and keep through the winter. As I walked, the evening sun blazed beneath a low cloud and lighted all I saw with a shivering golden fire. I felt in that moment the vast blessing of my own freedom, and took out a letter I'd recently received from Leonard. Words are the soul to me, so I neatly folded the letter and buried it, there, in his home ground.
Leonard Peltier has paid a terrible price for all that the American Indian Movement was blamed for during the late 1970's. While other AIM leaders have trekked to Hollywood, married, remarried, traveled first-class around the world and reaped the rewards of notoriety, Mr. Peltier has paid. He has paid for our nation's savagery at Wounded Knee in 1890 and 1973, and for the shame of the F.B.I.'s treatment of Pine Ridge people. He has paid for the violence of the AIM "warriors" who trashed government offices, strutted, mugged, brandished weapons and used them. He has paid the debt for whoever actually did commit those murders. He has paid every day for 24 years. He has paid enough.
It is time to let him go home.
Louise Erdrich is the author of the forthcoming novel, "The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse."
2) Excerpts from Leonard Peltier's book
PRISON WRITINGS: MY LIFE IS MY SUN DANCE
Published by St. Martins Press, NYC 1999
The time has come for me to write,
to set forth in words my personal testament--
not because I'm planning to die, but because I'm planning to live.
This is the twenty-fourth year of my imprisonment for a crime I did not commit.
I'm now just over fifty-four years old. I've been in here since I was thirty-one.
I've been told I must live two lifetimes plus seven years before I get out of prison
on my scheduled release date in the year 2041.
I don't think I'll make it.
I feel like I've lived a hundred lifetimes in prison already. And maybe I have.
If my imprisonment does nothing more than educate an unknowing and uncaring public
about the terrible conditions Native Americans and all indigenous people around the world
continue to endure, then my suffering has has had--and continues to have--a purpose.
I know this. My life has a meaning. I believe Wakan Tanka, the Great Mystery of which we are all a part,
has shaped each of our lives for a reason. I don't know what that reason is. Maybe I'll never know.
But you don't have to know the meaning of life to know that life has a meaning.
I acknowledge my inadequacies as a spokesman and my many imperfections as a human being.
And yet, as the Elders taught me, speaking out is my first duty, my first obligation to myself and
to my people. To speak your mind and heart is Indian Way.
This book is my own personal testament as best as I've been able to set it down under the circumstances.
It was written down on a thousand scraps of paper in the eternal half-light of my prison nights.
Each page catches my frame of mind--and heart--at some crucial moment. In truth, to a man in prison
for a crime he didn't commit, every moment is crucial.
It was never my intention in this life to become a symbol, a focus for the sufferings of my people.
But all of my people are suffering, so I'm in no way special in that regard.
You must understand... I am ordinary. Painfully ordinary. This isn't modesty. This is fact.
Maybe you're ordinary too. That ordinariness is our bond, you and I. The Creator made us this way.
Imperfect. Inadequate. Ordinary.
Be thankful you weren't cursed with perfection. If you were perfect, there'd be nothing for you to achieve
with your life. Imperfection is the source of every action. This is both our curse and our blessing as human beings.
Our very imperfection makes a holy life possible.
We're not supposed to be perfect. We're supposed to be useful.
==============================================
[page 114]
Someday the true reasons for their ill-conceived assault, what really was going on, will come out. The answer or answers, if they haven't already been shredded, may lie in those 6,000+ FBI documents they admit having withheld to this day, both from us and from the American public, on grounds of "national security." Lately, I understand, they claim those documents have been "lost." Certainly it was no accident that the day before the gunfight at Oglala, the head of the nontraditional tribal government was signing over to the federal government one-eighth of the Pine Ridge reservation, an area reputedly rich in uranium deposits.
Many of us believe that the shoot-out at Oglala was specifically intended as a diversion to conceal that illegal deal, which wasn't revealed to the public for nearly a year. The public furor over the death of the two agents also scotched a planned Congressional investigation of what had happened at Wounded Knee Two in 1973 and the subsequent Reign of Terror on Pine Ridge that led to the Oglala firefight on June 26, 1975.
The FBI's later assertion that we ambushed its agents makes no sense. We had women cooking, kids playing outside, all of our belongings, clothing and personal items left behind. In fact, we now know (again, through the Freedom of Information Act) that one month prior to the firefight at Oglala, the FBI had issued an internal memo concerning "paramilitary law-enforcement operations" on the reservation. They had obviously long been gearing up for such an assault against us. And they just as obviously bungled it terribly, to their own subsequent grief as well as ours.
I can understand how the FBI hallows its own. To them, Coler and Willams are fallen comrades, heroes, tragic victims, martyrs. Yes, that I also understand. But we, too, hallow our own. We, too, have our fallen comrades, our heroes, our tragic victims, our martyrs...and we have them in countless numbers. I live with the wail of their voices in my inner ear. I hear them always. I can't forget them. I refuse to forget them.
They are victims of the energy wars, as were agents Coler and Williams, as am I. And so are you, my friend, and your children and your children's children. The FBI itself is a victim of the energy wars, having strayed far beyonds the bounds of legality and human decency in its misguided eagerness to serve the interests of the multinational invaders in their continuing assault upon the Mother Earth. All these things are acts of war against the Lakota people, against all Indian people, against all indigenous people everywhere, against all humanity. We must continue to oppose these forces of destruction with every fiber of our being, with every breath we take.
[page 172]
My defense committee and supporters have been pushing for many years for a congressional hearing on my entire case, and I'm told that there's real hope for this in the near future. Scores of U.S. congressmen and Senators have given me their open support. But even a congressional hearing - no matter how revealing - will not in and of itself set me free. Only people of goodwill in the U.S. government, and in particular the president himself, can do that. I await their--and your--consideration and compassion.
I am an Indian man. My simple request is to live like one.
[page 213]We Are Not Separate
We are not separate beings, you and I.
We are different strands of the same Being.
You are me and I am you
and we aer they and they are us.
This is how we're meant to be,
each of us one,
each of us all.
You reach out across the void of Otherness to me
and you touch your own soul!
Forgiveness
Let us forgive the worst among us
because the worst is in ourselves,
the worst lives in each of us,
along with the best.
Let us forgive the worst
in each of us
and all of us
so that the best
in each of us
and all of us
may be free.
The Message
Silence, they say, is the voice of complicity.
But silence is impossible.
Silence screams.
Silence is a message,
just as doing nothing is an act.
Let who you are ring out and resonate
in every word and every deed.
Yes, become who you are.
There's no sidestepping your own being
or your own responsibility.
What you do is who you are.
You are your own comeuppance.
You become your own message.
You are the message.
Editor's Note: Many thanks go to Harvey Arden, who edited Leonard's book, and has given me permission to use these excerpts from Leonard Peltier's Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance, which is available from the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee: Tel: (785)842-5774. http://www.freepeltier.org , libraries and bookstores.
For more information on Harvey Arden, visit
http://wisdomkeepers.com/books.html
where you can find information on his other books:
Wisdomkeepers: Meetings with Native American Spiritual Elders
Dreamkeepers: A Spirit Journey into Aboriginal Australia
Noble Red Man
Travels in a Stone Canoe
For FN's updated resource: Free Leonard Peltier
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Human rights and Human Duties * Money Questions & U.S. Military * Supreme Decison
1) Human rights and Human Duties
2) Bush Will Face Money Questions on U.S. Military
3) A Laymans Guide to the Supreme Court Decison in Bush V. Gore
by Mark H. Levine, Attorney at Law
**********************************************************************
1) Human rights and Human Duties
The following message is from Tefilo L. Martez from Chile, who is offering feeback stemming from the Tupac Amara story in the last issue of Flyby News, (December 27, item 3: Peru Alert for Human Rights and Political Prisoners). I realize there are many points of view, but often various ideas overlap in mutual interests to learn a little more how to serve for the well being of all. Teo offers ideas relating to a spiritual reality and a common sense that supports our united efforts in caring for life.
----- Original Message -----
From: Contacto Consultores
To: Jonathan Mark
Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2000 7:45 PM
Subject: Human rights and Human Duties.
Dear Jonathan:
Well if my opinion helps you, I am satisfied and end of the story. I think it is not worth to issue, because you will get answer back from the Tupac Amaru suporters, and your site interest will move for a while to other topics different than your goals and our commom goals. So I suggest not to issue it.
Remember Cambodia? Millions were killed after Americans withdrew from Vietnam. Who ever cared for the human rights of those campesins killed by nonsense guerrilla?
Peru was not nearly as bad as Cambodia, but very frequently they were on the news because guerrilla assalted a town or a village, similar to what is happening in Colombia where thousands are dying every year.
In many places around the world some people thought that fighting with guns they were going to free their countries from whatever ruling and social progress was going to be achieved. Reality has shown in many countries exhausting ever lasting civil wars have followed and countries had been destroyed, thousands and thousands of people death or injured. The final situation is worser than when they begun to fight. The thinking than changing peoples will by guns is the same thinking behind poor countries, and behind nukes and missile advocates in rich nations. God, peace, harmony, brotherhood, justice had been forgotten and buried.
In my modest opinion, guerrilla really affect more middle class people and the poor. The rich can pay for security, guards, or even move to live in another more peaceful country. So the middle class, the hardworking people normally is the one more affected for guerrilla, because assaults scare people, dammage roads, communications, jobs get unstable, investment is stopped, mothers and parents dont know if their children are going to come back safe home from shools, etc. The poor always have lived with little, but the middle class is the people seriously affected. In Latin America, medium class is not what you think in USA or Europe. It is just hard working people with good education and low salary. And the real poor and humble also suffer so much because they get scared of this men in guns, and they are used by the rich to get more rich, and they are also used by the guerilla as argument to explain their fight, but they never get anything out of those strugles. The poor people under civil war and guerrilla fight around the world, only suffer more pain at the end. Just look around the world.
Jonathan, you have many subjects related to the nukes you can deal with, and teach to us. Probably once in a while issue articles about the knowledge of the ancient people, indian tribes about the sky, planets and outer life to show modern people than modern technology is NOT really a must to get certain knowledge. There are other ways to know the Universe and another definitions of Science.
For instance, Have you read about the life of Giordano Bruno, the former dominican priest burned by the church in Rome, in February 1600 ? Maybe you can issue something about his efforts teaching about other planets and stars with inteligent life when there is another anniversary of his death (401 years). I just got back from Rome, and on his statue erased where he was burned in Campo di Fiori, there were flowers because people hasnt forgotten his sacrifice. My wife and I also put a carnation to this brave man fighting for the Universe.
Probably the darkness of some of our military and politicians to understand the global consequences of the technology, is due to the killing of men like Giordano Bruno, because to Bruno, all planets and stars were the body of a big soul. So there were parallel universes. Like our body is the house of our soul, on the same way, the Earth is the physical body of a great being.
So the meaning of life and evolution is far more rich and complex than the concepts being developed by some of our narrow minded powerful men in the governments today. They see no life on the space. And there is plenty of life we are dammaging by our technology, because the scientist with more vision were killed or left aside. This sort of controversy is good to develop, because we can teach the young scientist to look in another sources and deep in their own heart, before being able to discover natures hearth and secrets.
Have you read, for instance Fritjoj Capra book: The Tao on physics ? You will enjoy it.
My dear friend, nukes and all the weapons we have, threathen all sort of rights: human rights, animals rights, plants rights, the angels rights, and all sort of beings right to live in Earth and the Earth itself right to live in equilibrium. Men always will fight between themselves for whatever reason, but we can not kill the entire life or dammage it for centuries as radiation does, when we have a fight or disagreement between men or nations. So I encourage you to stay in your subject but enrich it with more spiritual visions or other thoughts, so we also can pray together to stop this madness and learn and enlight our inteligence and spirit..
And a philosophical thought. Everyone asks today for human rights, but to acomplish them, someone has to be willing to take duties. Otherwise the rights will never be fullfilled.
So in modest opinion, we must fight for the Human Duties. Like you do, you feel the duty to fight and teach about the space and the nukes. You took the duty. The entire world is built by men that takes duties. We have to teach the people to work, to serve the comunity. The talk, the speachs must be about taking a challenge, a mission, duties for life. We need more men and women on asignement around the world to improve our quality of life. Enough of human rights speaches that weakens warriors will and motivation. You and I dont ask for rights. You are on duty. This is the philosophy for the new millenium. We need men and women ready to fight for their ideas, to live plenty a new philosophy in more harmony with nature. One example helps more than many words about human rights. One takes on duty, and the rest follow behind.
It is a pleasure to be in contact with you. Well, if you want to issue part of this mail is OK.
Sincerely
Teo
Tefilo L. Martez
contacto@telsur.cl
**********************************************************************
2) Bush Will Face Money Questions on U.S. Military
Thursday December 28 3:53 PM ET
By Charles Aldinger
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When George W. Bush becomes president and commander-in-chief of the U.S. military on Jan. 20, he could quickly find that putting new muscle in an overworked armed force is more easily promised than done.
Analysts say the current $310 billion defense budget will increase under Bush, but it is unlikely he can add perhaps hundreds of billions over the next four years for new arms, more troops and higher pay while giving Americans a tax cut and building a costly, unproven National Missile Defense (NMD).
For full story click to:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001228/pl/bush_defense_dc_1.html
**********************************************************************
3) A Laymans Guide to the Supreme Court Decison in Bush V. Gore
by Mark H. Levine, Attorney at Law
Q: I'm not a lawyer and I don't understand the recent Supreme Court decision in Bush v. Gore. Can you explain it to me?
A: Sure. I'm a lawyer. I read it. It says Bush wins, even if Gore got the most votes.
Q: But wait a second. The US Supreme Court has to give a reason, right?
A: Right.
Q: So Bush wins because hand-counts are illegal?
A: Oh no. Six of the justices (two-thirds majority) believed the hand-counts were legal and should be
done.
Q: Oh. So the justices did not believe that the hand-counts would find any legal ballots?
A. Nope. The five conservative justices clearly held (and all nine justices agreed) "that punch card balloting machines can produce an unfortunate number of ballots which are not punched in a clean, complete way by the voter." So there are legal votes that should be counted but can't be.
Q: Oh. Does this have something to do with states' rights? Don't conservatives love that?
A: Generally yes. These five justices, in the past few years, have held that the federal government has no business telling a sovereign state university it can't steal trade secrets just because such stealing is prohibited by law. Nor does the federal government have any business telling a state that it should bar guns in schools. Nor can the federal government use the equal protection clause to force states to take measures to stop violence against women.
Q: Is there an exception in this case?
A: Yes, the Gore exception. States have no rights to have their own state elections when it can result in Gore being elected President. This decision is limited to only this situation.
Q: C'mon. The Supremes didn't really say that. You're exaggerating.
A: Nope. They held "Our consideration is limited to the present circumstances, or the problem of equal protection in election processes generally presents many complexities."
Q: What complexities?
A: They don't say.
Q: I'll bet I know the reason. I heard Jim Baker say this. he votes can't be counted because the Florida Supreme Court "changed the rules of the election after it was held." Right?
A. Dead wrong. The US Supreme Court made clear that the Florida Supreme Court did not change the rules of the election. But the US Supreme Court found the failure of the Florida Court to change the rules was wrong.
Q: Huh?
A: The Legislature declared that the only legal standard for counting vote is "clear intent of the voter." The Florida Court was condemned for not adopting a clearer standard.
Q: I thought the Florida Court was not allowed to change the Legislature's law after the election.
A: Right.
Q: So what's the problem?
A: They should have. The US Supreme Court said the Florida Supreme Court should have "adopt[ed] adequate statewide standards for determining what is a legal vote"
Q: I thought only the Legislature could "adopt" new law.
A: Right.
Q: So if the Court had adopted new standards, I thought it would have been overturned.
A: Right. You're catching on.
Q: If the Court had adopted new standards, it would have been overturned for changing the rules. And if it didn't, it's overturned for notchanging the rules. That means that no matter what the Florida Supreme Court did, legal votes could never be counted.
A: Right. Next question.
Q: Wait, wait. I thought the problem was "equal protection," that some counties counted votes differently from others. Isn't that a problem?
A: It sure is. Across the nation, we vote in a hodgepodge of systems. Some, like the optical-scanners in largely Republican-leaning counties record 99.7% of the votes. Some, like the punchcard systems in largely Democratic-leaning counties record only 97% of the votes. So approximately 3% of Democratic votes are thrown in the trash can.
Q: Aha! That's a severe equal-protection problem!!!
A: No it's not. The Supreme Court wasn't worried about the 3% of Democratic ballots thrown in the trashcan in Florida. That "complexity" was not a problem.
Q: Was it the butterfly ballots that violated Florida law and tricked more than 20,000 Democrats to vote for Buchanan or Gore and Buchanan.
A: Nope. The Supreme Court has no problem believing that Buchanan got his highest, best support in a precinct consisting of a Jewish old age home with Holocaust survivors, who apparently have changed their mind about Hitler.
Q: Yikes. So what was the serious equal protection problem?
A: The problem was neither the butterfly ballot nor the 3% of Democrats (largely African-American) disenfranchised. The problem is that somewhat less than .005% of the ballots may have been determined under slightly different standards because judges sworn to uphold the law and doing their best to accomplish the legislative mandate of "clear intent of the voter" may have a slightly different opinion about the voter's intent.
Q: Hmmm. OK, so if those votes are thrown out, you can still count the votes where everyone agrees the voter's intent is clear?
A: Nope.
Q: Why not?
A: No time.
Q: No time to count legal votes where everyone, even Republicans, agree the intent is clear? Why not?
A: Because December 12 was yesterday.
Q: Is December 12 a deadline for counting votes?
A: No. January 6 is the deadline. In 1960, Hawaii's votes weren't counted until January 4.
Q: So why is December 12 important?
A: December 12 is a deadline by which Congress can't challenge the results.
Q: What does the Congressional role have to do with the Supreme Court?
A: Nothing.
Q: But I thought ---
A: The Florida Supreme Court had earlier held it would like to complete its work by December 12 to make things easier for Congress. The United States Supreme Court is trying to help the Florida Supreme Court out by forcing the Florida court to abide by a deadline that everyone agrees is not binding.
Q: But I thought the Florida Court was going to just barely have the votes counted by December 12.
A: They would have made it, but the five conservative justices stopped the recount last Saturday.
Q: Why?
A: Justice Scalia said some of the counts may not be legal.
Q: So why not separate the votes into piles, indentations for Gore, hanging chads for Bush, votes that everyone agrees went to one candidate or the other so that we know exactly how Florida voted before determining who won? Then, if some ballots (say, indentations) have to be thrown out, the American people will know right away who won Florida.
A. Great idea! The US Supreme Court rejected it. They held that such counts would likely to produce election results showing Gore won and Gore's winning would cause "public acceptance" and that would "cast[] a cloud" over Bush's "legitimacy" that would harm "democratic stability."
Q: In other words, if America knows the truth that Gore won, they won't accept the US Supreme Court overturning Gore's victory?
A: Yes.
Q: Is that a legal reason to stop recounts? or a political one?
A: Let's just say in all of American history and all of American law, this reason has no basis in law. But that doesn't stop the five conservatives from creating new law out of thin air.
Q: Aren't these conservative justices against judicial activism?
A: Yes, when liberal judges are perceived to have done it.
Q: Well, if the December 12 deadline is not binding, why not count the votes?
A: The US Supreme Court, after admitting the December 12 deadline is not binding, set December 12 as a binding deadline at 10 p.m. on December 12.
Q: Didn't the US Supreme Court condemn the Florida Supreme Court for arbitrarily setting a deadline?
A: Yes.
Q: But, but --
A: Not to worry. The US Supreme Court does not have to follow laws it sets for other courts.
Q: So who caused Florida to miss the December 12 deadline?
A: The Bush lawyers who first went to court to stop the recount, the mob in Miami that got paid Florida vacations for intimidating officials, and the US Supreme Court for stopping the recount.
Q: So who is punished for this behavior?
A: Gore, of course.
Q: Tell me this: Florida's laws are unconstitutional, right?
A: Yes
Q: And the laws of 50 states that allow votes to be cast or counted differently are unconstitutional?
A: Yes. And 33 of those states have the "clear intent of the voter" standard that the US Supreme Court found was illegal in Florida.
Q: Then why aren't the results of 33 states thrown out?
A: Um. Because...um.....the Supreme Court doesn't say...
Q: But if Florida's certification includes counts expressly declared by the US Supreme Court to be unconstitutional, we don't know who really won the election there, right?
A: Right. Though a careful analysis by the Miami Herald shows Gore won Florida by about 20,000 votes (excluding the butterfly ballot errors).
Q: So, what do we do, have a re-vote? Throw out the entire state? Count all ballots under a single uniform standard?
A: No. We just don't count the votes that favor Gore.
Q: That's completely bizarre! That sounds like rank political favoritism! Did the justices have any financial interest in the case?
A: Scalia's two sons are both lawyers working for Bush. Thomas's wife is collecting applications for people who want to work in the Bush administration.
Q: Why didn't they recuse themselves?
A: If either had recused himself, the vote would be 4-4, and the Florida Supreme Court decision allowing recounts would have been affirmed.
Q: I can't believe the justices acted in such a blatantly political way.
A: Read the opinions for yourself:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/supremecourt/00-949_dec12.fdf (December 9 stay stopping the recount), and
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/00pdf/00-949.pdf (December 12 final opinion)
Q: So what are the consequences of this?
A: The guy who got the most votes in the US and in Florida and under our Constitution (Al Gore) will lose to America's second choice who won the all important 5-4 Supreme Court vote.
Q: I thought in a democracy, the guy with the most votes wins.
A: True, in a democracy. But America is not a democracy. In America, in the year 2000, the guy with the most US Supreme Court votes wins.
Q: Is there any way to stop the Supreme Court from doing this again?
A: YES. No federal judge can be confirmed without a vote in the Senate. It takes 60 votes to break a filibuster. If only 41 of the 50 Democratic Senators stand up to Bush and his Supremes and say that they will not approve a single judge appointed by him until a President can be democratically elected in 2004, the judicial reign of terror can end... and one day we can hope to return to the rule of law.
Q: What do I do now?
A: E-mail this to everyone you know, and write or call your senator, reminding him that Gore beat Bush by several hundred thousand votes (three times Kennedy's margin over Nixon) and that you believe that VOTERS rather than JUDGES should determine who wins an election by counting every vote. And to protect our judiciary from overturning the will of the people, you want them to confirm NO NEW JUDGES until 2004 when a president is finally chosen by most of the American people.
-- MarkLevineEsq@aol.com
**********************************************************************
Peltier vote.com * Pu Production Expands Peril * Peru Challengd by Political Prisoners
1) Peltier Poll on vote.com
2) Plutonium Production Expands Peril at Everyone's Expense
3) Peru Alert for Human Rights and Political Prisoners
**********************************************************************
1) Peltier Poll on vote.com
Fwd from: "LPDC" (Leonard Peltier Defense Committee)
Subject: Peltier Poll on vote.com
Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2000 16:39:41 -0600
Dear friends,
The website http://www.vote.com has a poll up with the question "Should President Clinton Pardon Leonard Peltier, Who Was Convicted Of Killing Two FBI Agents?"
The current total is about 6,500 votes no and 350 votes yes. Clearly the FBI found out about the poll before we did, but we can fix that!
For each person that votes, "vote.com" sends an email to President Clinton, telling him how he/she voted.
[Vote.com was created by Dick Morris (who was President Clinton's chief strategist and advisor in the 1996 campaign. He's now a commentator on the Fox News Channel and writes a weekly column in the New York Post) and Eileen McGann is an attorney and former public interest lobbyist.]
We are asking all Peltier supporters to go to this website and vote in support for Clemency for Leonard Peltier.
In solidarity,
--- LPDC
To subscribe for lpdc updates, send a blank message to
lpdc-on@mail-list.com
Have you signed the on-line petition supporting clemency for Leonard Peltier? The LPDC will send it to President Clinton on Monday. Over 22,000 people have signed! http://www.petitiononline.com/Clemency/petition.html
Following is its statement:
To: All People
Mr. President:
We the undersigned come together before you to request the immediate and unconditional release of Mr. Leonard Peltier from Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.
Mr. Peltier was convicted for the June 26, 1975 murders of 2 FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. There were 4 defendants originally charged before the Grand Jury. Two of the defendants were tried before the court and found Not Guilty by reason of self-defense.
Charges were dropped on the 3rd defendant. Mr. Peltier was tried after a change of venue to North Dakota. In this trial Mr. Peltier wasn't able to put up a self-defense argument. Any evidence that could have proven Mr. Peltier's innocence was not allowed in his trial or if it was allowed it was not allowed in front of the jury. Witness testimony wildly diverged between Grand Jury testimony and trial testimony; further, several of the witnesses recanted their testimony after the trial, claiming perjured testimony because of threats from the FBI. Despite testimony, prosecuting attorneys have stated on several occasions that they don't know who shot the agents that day.
The FBI coerced Myrtle Poor Bear into signing three mutually exclusive affidavits in order to extradite Mr. Peltier from Canada. In Mr. Peltier's trial Ms. Poor Bear testified that she never knew Mr. Peltier, that she had never seen Mr. Peltier prior to the trial. She testified that she signed the affidavits as a result of intimidation by agents interviewing her. The jury never heard her testimony, despite the fact she had originally been scheduled as a government witness, her testimony was excluded on the basis of her "incompetence".
A few FBI officials and/or agents have launched campaigns to publicly proclaim the guilt of Mr. Peltier. Thus perpetuating the original cover up through dissemination of misinformation in editorials, web sites and full page newspaper ads in what is seen as an effort to discredit the common sense and creditability of many national leaders and their organizations. These leaders have studied the case in-depth for over twenty-three years since the reign of terror on the Pine Ridge reservation and areas supposedly under the protection of this county.
Mr. President and elected officials of all people, we ask that you no longer ignore the voices of the tens of millions of signatures and letters of the last twenty three years, and the results of the most recent polls in favor of his immediate release. We ask all politicians and officials to support true justice. Honor the voices of your constituents. Call for immediate unconditional executive clemency for Mr. Peltier.
Sincerely,
PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION
http://www.petitiononline.com/Clemency/petition.html
AND CALL THE WHITE HOUSE COMMENT LINE WEEKDAYS
1-202-456-1111 press 0 to bypass taped message
VOTE FOR CLEMENCY >>>>>>> http://www.vote.com
**********************************************************************
2) Plutonium Production Expands Peril at Everyone's Expense
OAK RIDGE MAY PRODUCE PLUTONIUM
The Tennesseean -- December 25, 2000
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (AP) -- The Oak Ridge National Laboratory is expected to be tapped next month to help in plutonium production for the space program, a development that would bring $34 million for renovations to the nuclear lab.
The U.S. Department of Energy has identified Oak Ridge as one of two sites under consideration to help produce plutonium-238 and serve as the primary processing facility of radioactive material.
Oak Ridge's High Flux Isotope Reactor and the Advanced Test Reactor at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Lab would split the production role, according to the latest DOE proposal.
For Oak Ridge, the new project would mean long-term work for about 70 people, and it would help solidify the lab's nuclear mission. Once the decision is final, plans will proceed for upgrades to the
Radiochemical Engineering Development Center, a two-building nuclear complex.
Gordon Michaels, director of nuclear technology programs at Oak Ridge, said the staff is excited about the new work, which would bring "an interesting and challenging scientific operation."
NASA needs plutoniuim-238 to fuel probes in deep space.
Oak Ridge workers would purify the plutonium, which then would be shipped to Los Alamos National Laboratory where it would be formed into pellets used in space power systems.
Oak Ridge has never handled plutonium in large quantities, but the lab has experience in handling other highly hazardous. If approved, Oak Ridge is expected to begin plutonium production in late 2006 or early
2007.
To work with others to help stop Plutonium development for space,
Contact: Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
Bruce Gagnon, Coordinator; PO Box 90083 Gainesville, FL. 32607
Telephone:(352) 337-9274 Internet: http://www.space4peace.org
E-mail:
**********************************************************************
3) Peru Alert for Human Rights and Political Prisoners
Fwd.
Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 14:01:28 -0600
Subject: PERU-URGENT - PLEASE CIRCULATE
From: Pio Celestino
PERU ALERT - URGENT ACTION
It was announced today, Thursday, December 21, 2000, that all the political prisoners belonging to Peru's Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru, M.R.T.A., who are imprisoned in the jail of Puno have begun a take over of the jail in protest for the conditions of detention to which they are subjected. Four principal demands have been raised:
1.- A denunciation and demand for punishment of the military personnel involved in Human Rights violations.
2.- The immediate closure of the high security prisons of El Callao, Naval Base, Yanamayo and Chorrillos.
3.- Repeal of the anti-terrorist laws installed by the ex-dictator Fujimori.
4.- Liberation and deportation to their respective countries of all foreign political prisoners presently jailed in Peru.
Puno, Peru, December 21, 2000.
PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS INFORMATION
We ask you to spread this to all human rights organizations and to socio-cultural and political institutions as well. Please contact with letters, telephone calls or e-mails to the Peruvian Consulate or Embassy nearest you; write, call or e-mail the following authorities:
>Defensoria del Pueblo, Apartado 3906, Jiron Ucayali 88, Lima 1, PERU
FAX: 511-4267889; E-mail:
>Miguel Aljovin Swayne, Fiscal de la Nacion, Avenida Abancay, 5ta.
Cuadra, S/n., Lima 1, PERU
FAX: 511-4269421; E-mail:
>Jorge E. Taiana, Executive Secretary,
Interamerican Commission of Human Rights,
1889 F Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20006;
FAX: 202-458-3992; E-mail:
>Patricio E. Chellew,
Director, OAS, PERU,
Calle Los Laureles 370, San Isidro, Lima 27, PERU
Telephone: 511-4416214; FAX: 511-4416715; E-mail:
Translation by LSB and PLC, REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, US, from versions provided by REVISTA TIEMPOS MODERNOS, Gonzalo Toro, and by the COMITE DE REFUGIADOS PERUANOS EN CHILE,
RDRG-12.23.2000
**********************************************************************
Peltier Clemency Coverage * 1.3 BILLION Sickened By Atmpospheric Testing & Nuke Plants
26 December 2000
1) Peltier Clemency Coverage
2) 1.3 BILLION People Killed, Maimed, Sickened By
Atmpospheric Testing & Nuke Plants
**********************************************************************
1) Peltier Clemency Coverage
On December 22 several news networks released statements that President Clinton will not grant clemency to Leonard Peltier. Please don't jump to conclusions. A formal decision has not yet been made. The clemency petition is still pending. The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC) is asking everybody to continue calling, faxing, writing the White House urging clemency, until an official decision is made.
Have you signed the on-line petition supporting clemency for Leonard Peltier? If not, be sure to sign it now. It will soon be sent to the White House before a decision is announced. Over 16,700 people have signed! http://www.petitiononline.com/Clemency/petition.html
PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION NOW AND CALL THE WHITE HOUSE COMMENT LINE TODAY
1-202-456-1111 press 0 to bypass the taped message
===================================================================
To: lpsg_gne@yahoo.com
Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 19:56:15 -0500
Subject: Providence Journal Op-ed
From: Michael M Suter
Re: www.projo.com 12/20 editorial entitled
"Peltier should stay in jail" rwhitcom@projo.com, letters@projo.com
Attached is a letter I wrote to the editor re Peltier.
Michael
Dear Editors,
Your 12/20 editorial entitled "Peltier should stay in jail" is a cause for great concern for myself and many others who have spent any time at all independently researching Mr. Peltier's case, and the events leading up to the slayings of the two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Clearly the writer did no such independent research, and simply swallowed the disinformation spread by the FBI and regurgitated it for the public. Such blind faith in the FBI does an enormous disservice to the public and does nothing but promulgate racist stereotypes of Native People.
Pine Ridge in the early 70's was subjected to a siege, a veritable low intensity war at the behest of the FBI. Through the Freedom of Information Act, the FBI has been forced to release countless internal documents which demonstrate that members of the American Indian Movement, a legal, nonviolent political organization dedicated to protection of Indian treaties, empowerment of Indian people, preservation of Indian land, and drawing media
attention to instances of abuse of these issues, had been systematically surveilled, harassed (legally and physically), infiltrated with agents provocateurs, and targeted for neutralization. This is not conspiracy theory or conjecture; the documents exist and have been compiled by Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall in the books Agents of Repression and the Cointelpro Papers, both available through the South End Press.
It was this climate of complete political repression that lead to the meeting of traditionalists and AIM at Wounded Knee, which the corrupt tribal government and the FBI turned into a siege and fire fight. The rate of murder of Indians for political reasons during this time was roughly equal to the rate of extermination in Chile at the time that Allende was deposed and murdered. This was at a time when the FBI held preeminent domain over the Pine Ridge Reservation, and yet not one of these murders was ever solved.
So it was in this situation that the FBI agents were killed- given this background, even if Peltier were guilty (which there is more than adequate reason to believe that he wasn't), shouldn't he be treated as a prisoner of war? But the question is entirely moot, since the evidence gathered to convict Peltier was so suspect, and the trials so flawed, that the conviction hardly bears the slightest scrutiny before the entire proceeding reveals itself to be a sham and a perversion of justice.
So it is truly incomprehensible to me that the Journals editorial staff would reach the conclusions that it did if it had researched this matter at all- unless they in fact have no interest in the truth. The matter-of-fact recounting of the officially mandated "story"- agents pursuing kidnapping suspect in a red pickup (or was it a Jeep?) stop the suspect (Peltier), he emerges from vehicle with rifle and executes them- tells me that this editorial was written with purely political motivation. That conclusion also can be gleaned from the first sentence, when the editors go out of their way to label Pacifica Radio as "left wing". Is the political leaning of the radio station of any bearing on the story? I don't think so. But it does reveal the editors' bias.
Michael Suter
PO Box 252
Wendell, MA 01379
====================================
Date: Sat, 23 Dec 2000 19:44:21 EST
From: JTRoad@aol.com
Subject: Leonard at Auschwitz
To Marc Steiner
From Harvey Arden
On behalf of Leonard Peltier
December 23, 2000
Dear Marc:
I have just returned to Germany from a visit on Thursday to Auschwitz in southwest Poland, where the Nazis slaughtered a million and half of my Jewish brethren, killing each of them with a special vengeance for the crime of being innocent-the same crime for which Leonard Peltier has been imprisoned this past quarter century. The day was appropriately bleak, the sky a grimy white, the air sulphurous with the fumes of Soviet-era factories that even today make Poland's air almost unbreatheable. As I walked through the barracks where the innocents were tortured and murdered with such malignant glee during that Holocaust of the human spirit, I felt Leonard walking with me-and I pondered the ways of men toward their fellow men.
I wondered, What is the use of prayer? For most of those who died here prayed with the most intense passion and profound belief every morning, noon and evening of their lives. I pondered what is the use of Justice, when it is so selectively dispensed by the Unjust?
I asked myself what is the use of Love, when those who love their families and friends and country, as the Nazis did, have such hatred in their hearts as to obliterate the very meaning of Love. As I walked through those ghost-filled barracks, I thought not only of these hallowed ones, but of my brother Leonard, languishing in his 5-by-9-foot cell at Leavenworth, and also of President Clinton, who now holds Leonard?s fate in his hands, and, yes, of the FBI agents Ron Williams and Jack Coler-whose portraits sat above my desk for three years as I edited Leonard?s book. I thought of the thousands of FBI agents who today put their lives on the line to protect every one of us, yet wish to see an innocent man die in prison for standing up for the rights of his People? I thought of all the Holocaust-deniers, who would have it that no Holocaust ever occurred, just as the FBI pretends the Reign of Terror it instigated at Pine Ridge in the 1970?s never occurred? I think now of Mr. Janklow, a man who has played Goebbels to the Indian People for more than generation, sitting in the Oval Office even as I was visiting Aushwitz and doing his best to convince our unknowing President to deny clemency to Leonard Peltier-and I wonder, what is the use of Truth, when it can be so violated as to obliterate all Truth?
Marc, you ask me what I can say that could be passed on to convince President Clinton to give our brother Leonard clemency. Ask him, please, to give a half-hour audience to me and Chief Arvol Looking Horse, 19th-Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Pipe of the Great Sioux Nation, so that we may deliver a message on behalf of the tens of millions of people around the world who plead for Leonard?s freedom, who see Leonard's freedom as The Sign that Democracy and Justice and Love and Prayer still have a meaning in America. I want to read to Mr. Clinton from Leonard?s book PRISON WRITINGS: MY LIFE IS MY SUN DANCE. I welcome the presence of President-elect Bush and Mr. Cheney and Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Reno and Mr. Freeh and any others the President cares to have on hand, even Mr. Janklow-for he, too, I know, loves his family and his friends and his country, and his soul, too, is redeemable, as are all of ours. Tell Mr. Clinton I also ask to have Leonard Peltier standing beside me in the Oval Office as I read his words-words Leonard would read himself if his locked jaw would allow him to.
I ask no more than that, make no plea beyond that. The decision is President Clinton's.
Marc, I hope you can get this message to the President. May Spirit guide it on its way.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse and Leonard Peltier,
/Harvey Arden
[Harvey Arden is the author of many book on Native People and is the Editor of Leonard Peltier's book, Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance, which is available from bookstores and the LPDC; Box 583; Lawrence, KS 66044
Tel: 785-842-5774 http://www.freepeltier.org ]
**********************************************************************
2) 1.3 BILLION People Killed, Maimed, Sickened By
Atmpospheric Testing & Nuke Plants
http://www.geocities.com/mothersalert/victims.html
The following is from the November 1999 "The Ecologist"
Volume 29, No. 7 from pages 408 to 411.
Copies can be obtained in the USA at: Phone:510-548-2032, Fax:510-548-4916
Main Office in UK: Phone:0171-351-3578, Fax:0171-351-3617
E-mail: ecologist@gn.apc.org
"VICTIMS OF THE NUCLEAR AGE" Up to 1,300 million people have been killed, maimed or diseased by nuclear
power since it's inception. The industry's figures massively underestimate the real cost of nuclear power, in an attempt to hide its victims from the world. Here, the author calculates the real number of victims of the nuclear age.
By Dr. Rosalie Bertell
On the tenth anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, I was standing at a public meeting in Kiev, Ukraine, listening to the story of one of the firemen employed to clean up the site after the explosion. These workers took huge doses of radiation during this task, and their story is a terrifying one.About 600,000 men were conscripted as Chernobyl 'liquidators' [also called bio-robots']: farmers, factory workers,miners, and soldiers- as well as professionals like the firemen- from all across Russia. Some of these men lifted pieces of radioactive metal with their bare hands. They had to fight more than 300 fires created by the chunks of burning material spewed off by the inferno. They buried trucks, fire engines, cars and all sorts of personal belongings. They felled a forest and completely buried it, removed topsoil, bulldozed houses and filled all available clay-lined trenches with radioactive debris. The minimum conscription time was 180 days, but many stayed for a year. Some were threatened with severe punishment to their families if they failed to stay and do their duty.
These 'liquidators' are now discarded and forgotten, many vainly trying to establish that the ill health most have suffered ever since 1986 is a result of their massive exposure to radiation. At the Centre for Radiation Research outside Kiev, there is an organization of former liquidators. This group reports that by 1995, 13,000 of their members had died- almost 20 percent of which deaths were suicides. About 70,000 members were estimated to be permanently disabled. But the members of this organization are the lucky ones. Because many former liquidators are now scattered throughout Russia, they neither have the benefit of the organization's special hospital, nor of membership of a survivor organization. They are known as the 'living dead.'
The fireman whose story I was listening to seemed to be an exception to this grim litany of illness and death. He was telling the meeting how pleased and excited he was that, for the first time in ten years, his blood test findings were in the normal range. I was standing next to a delegate from the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA]- the organisation charged with promoting the use of atomic energy. On hearing the fireman's story, he leaned over to me and said: "You see! We said these were only transient disorders." A rough translation might read: Chernobyl? What's the problem?
IGNORING THE VICTIMS
The IAEA man's attitude was perfectly in keeping with that of his organization which, along with the International Commission on Radiation Protection [ICRP] exists in practice largely to play down the effects of radiation on human health, and to shield the nuclear industry from compensation claims from the public. The IAEA was set up in the late 1950s by he UN, to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and to promote the peaceful use of atomic energy- ironically, two contradictory objectives. The ICRP which evlved from the 1928 International Committee on X-Ray and Radium Protection, was set up in the fifties to explore the health effects of radiation and [theoretically] to protect the public from it. In fact, both organizations have come to serve the industry rather than the public.
The Chernobyl case is a classic example of the IAEA's inadequacy and questionable science. Despite massive evidence to the contrary, not least from the many thousands of victims themselves, the IAEA insists that only 32 people have so far died as a result of Chernobyl- those who died in the radiation ward of Hospital six in Moscow.All other deaths related to the disaster and its aftermath [and there have been many more than 10,000 in Ukraine alone according to the Minister of Health there] are ignored. Belarus had the highest fallout, and yet there is an international blackout among the IAEA and the rest of the "radiation protection community" on the suffering of its people.
The essential problem is that both the IAEA and the ICRP are dealing not with science but with politics and administration; not with public health but with maintaining an increasingly dubious industry. It is their interests, and those of the nuclear industry, to play down the health effects of radiation.
RESTRICTIVE DEFINITIONS
The main way in which the "radiation protection industry" has succeeded in hugely underrating the ill-health caused by nuclear power is by insisting on a group of extremely restrictive definitions as to what qualifies as a radiation-caused illness statistic. For example, under IAEA's criteria:
If a radiation-caused cancer is not fatal, it is not counted in the IAEA's figures. If a cancer is initiated by another carcenogen, but accelerated or promoted by exposure to radiation, it is not counted.
If an auto-immune disease or any non-cancer is caused by radiation, it is not counted.
Radiation-damaged embryos or foetuses which result in miscarriage or stillbirth do not count.
A congenitally blind, deaf or malformed child whose illnesses are are radiation-related are not included in the figures because this is not genetic damage, but rather is teratogenic, and will not be passed on later to the child's offspring.
Causing the genetic predisposition to breast cancer or heart disease does not count since it is not a "serious genetic disease" in the Mendelian sense.
Even if radiation causes a fatal cancer or serious genetic disease in a live born infant, it is discounted if the estimated radiation dose is below 100 mSv [mSv= millisievert, a measurement of radiation exposure. One hundred millsievert is the equivalent in radiation of about 100 X-Rays].
Even if radiation causes a lung cancer, it does not count if the person smokes- in fact whenever there is a possibility of another cause, radiation cannot be blamed.
If all else fails, it is possible to claim that radiation below some designated dose does not cause cancer, and then average over the whole body the radiation dose which has actually been received by one part of the body or even organ, as for instance when radio-iodine concentrates in the thyroid. This arbitrary dilution of the dose will ensure that the 100 mSv cut-off point is nowhere near reached. It is a technique used to dismiss the sickness of Gulf War veterans who inhaled small particles of ceramic uranium which stayed in their lungs for more than two years, and in their bodies for more than eight years, irradiating and damaging cells in a particular part of the body.
THE REAL VICTIMS
Despite the authorities' attempt at concealment, we can still begin to enumerate the real victims of the nuclear age. Although the calculations and statistics which I have brought to bear below do not include all of the human suffering that has been caused by the nuclear age, a closer look will show that the methodology is adequate for a first estimate of major damage. The magnitude of the harm already caused is startling, and even more so when we realise many types of damage have been omitted from this first estimate.
In my estimate cancer, whether fatal or non-fatal [excluding non-fatal skin cancer], genetic damage and serious congenital malformations and diseases will be included in the figures. Other damage is acknowledged but not estimated. Ultimately, whether or not one cares about the damage caused by radiation exposure is ultimately a human, not a scientific question. Damage is damage, and causing an unwanted attack on someone's person or reproductive capacity is a violation of human rights. Such damage can be rated for importance, but it should not be arbitrarily ignored.
"Statistics are the people with the tears wiped away" stated one of the Rongelap people of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, who 'hosted' the United States Bikini nuclear testing in the 1950s. This is the story of many tears, and of a hard hearted mindset that laid down the degree of suffering and ill-health that would be the 'acceptable' price to pay for the world 'benefitting' from nuclear technology.
RISK ESTIMATES USED IN THIS ANALYSIS
In order to estimate the real victims of the nuclear industry [as oppossed to those figures enumerated by the ICRP, IAEA and other nuclear apologists] I will take the customary risk estimates, indicate their probable range of error, and then extend the definition to cover related events not recognized as 'detriments' by the regulators. For example, while the nuclear regulators only take fatal cancers into consideration as detriments' by the regulators, others, especially those who endure a non-fatal cancer, may find their suffering equally worthy of consideration. And limiting genetic effects to live born offspring does not wipe away the tears of a family that has endured a spontaneous miscarriage or stillbirth.
ESTIMATING THE FATAL AND NON-FATAL CANCER RISKS
In 1991, the ICRP concluded that the projected lifetime risk of fatal cancer for members of the population exposed Sievert whole-body radiation at a low dose rate, was between seven and 11 excess fatal cancers, and seven to eight excess fatalities for in the nuclear industry aged 25 to 64 years. We extend these estimates to non-fatal cancers by estimating the total number of cancers which were used by the ICRP in order to obtain the number of fatalities. We therefore estimate 16 fatal and non-fatal cancers if we exclude non-fatal skin cancers] or 36 if we count them.If the estimate of fatal cancers was off by a factor of two then we can double all those numbers.
The estimate I use for cancer 16 per 100 Person Sieverts, but the reader can adjust this estimate to suit other inclusions, exclusions or uncertainties.
ESTIMATING DAMAGE TO AN EMBRYO OR FOETUS
According to the BEIR Committee [Bilogical Effects of Ionizing Radiation] 1990 report, a dose of 150 mSv to human male testes will cause temporary sterility, and a single dose of 3.5 Sv will cause permanent sterility. According to the ICRP in 1991, just 5 mSv to the testes will cause damage to offspring - YET THIS DOSE WAS PERMITTED YEARLY TO MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC, AND TEN TIMES MORE TO NUCLEAR WORKERS, IN ALL COUNTRIES PRIOR TO 1990. It continues today to be permitted yearly for nuclear workers in most countries.
Women carry with them all of the ova from birth which they will ever have. The threshold for permanent female sterilisation decreases with age, but in general about 650 mSv is considered to be the threshold for temporary sterility in women. After the Bravo event- the detonation of a hydrogen bomb at the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific in March 1954- the women of Rongelap Atoll experienced about five years of sterility. As they regained their sterility, they experienced faulty pregnancies, miscarrigies, stillbirths and damage to their offspring. Since some radionucleides can be retained in bone or fatty tissues, they are able to cross the placenta barrier and disrupt the developing embryo or foetus. Radionucleides in the mother's body can also be transferred in her breast milk.
The official nuclear industry definition of 'detriment' includes only serious genetic disease not judged to be serious, and teratogenic diseases [those which are not passed on to offspring] are not counted. Recently the 1990 BEIR committee made one small concession in recognizing mental retardation in children exposed to radiation during the fifth to 15th weeks of their mother's pregnancy. Radiation kills brain cells, causing both an underdeveloped brain [microcephaly] and mental retardation. For the individual child, BEIR estimates that a dose in utero of 100 to 500 mSv can cause a range of problems from poor school performance to severe mental retardation.
GENETIC DAMAGE
The U.N. Scientific Committee on the effects of Atomic Radiation [UNSCEAR] and BEIR both agree that a population of one million live births exposed to 100 Person Sieverts will result in one to three genetic damage effects to offspring, and so to the human gene pool. The doubling dose for genetic effects [the dose that will cause twice as many genetic effects] is more contentious, with some geneticists claiming that it is 2.5 Sv, and others claiming much greater sensitivity with a 0.12 Sv doubling dose. If the latter is true, then the increase in genetic effects will be 8.3 per cent for every 10mSv and therefore 83 such effects per million live births when the total averaged dose is 100 Person Sieverts rather than the 4 such effects in the first instance. On the conservative side, we have taken 10 genetic effects to be the number for exposed offspring.
ESTIMATE OF TERATOGENIC EFFECTS'
The damage to an embryo from ionizing radiation when in the womb is not considered to be genetic. Such irradiation can lead to some 30 different congenital anomolies including permanent damage to the brain, mental deficiency, skull deformities, cleft palate, spina bifida, club-feet, genital deformities, growth retardation and childhood cancer. A total of all those effects, including mortality, amount to 46, of which 25 are live
born.
When we summarise those risk estimates, we get 16 cancers, 10 genetic effects and 25 congenital effects for one million exposed to 100 Person Sieverts. The task now is to apply those numbers for the global population from industrial nuclear activities, including weapons testing in the fifties, sixties and early seventies and electricity production from nuclear power over the past half century. When we do this we find that weapons
testing has lead to nearly 376 million cancers, 235 million genetic effects and 587 million teratogenic effects to give A TOTAL OF APPROXIMATELY 1,200 MILLION. Meanwhile, electricity production from nuclear plants between 1943 and 2000 may have lead to another million victims, of which as many one-fifth will have been premature cancer deaths. Although not officially accounted for, about 500 million fetuses would have also been lost as stillbirths during that period from radiation exposure while in the womb.
Another century of nuclear power, and this carnage would continue with more than 10 million victims a year. An industry which has the potential to kill, injure and maim that number of innocent people- and all in the name of 'benefitting' society - is surely wholly unacceptable.
Rosalie Bertell, PhD, GNSH, is President of the International Institute of Concern for Public Health and Editor in Chief of International Perspectives in Public Health and Editor in Chief of International Perspectives in Public Health [IICPH].
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes/corrections to clarify above article as it was published in the "Ecologist" from the Author, Dr. Rosalie Bertell:
RE: November Issue
Important references were omitted, as was the fact that I used only UNSCEAR data on population doses of radiation due to weapons or civilian nuclear enterprises. The text does not mention the source of the population dose estimates, which are fundamental to the credibility. I can also be faulted for the comment (added by someone) that 100 mSv is the equivalent in radiation to about 100 medical Xrays. Nuclear doses are always whole body doses, while medical Xray delivers a partial body dose to the target organ (teeth, chest, kidney, etc.). Speaking about "100 medical Xrays" is pretty vague and useless.
I tried to present the results in table form so that you could aggregate them as you needed, but I cannot match the numbers used in the article with my original estimates. The editor exaggerated somewhat the weapon
testing contribution and very much slighted the nuclear power contribution. Both calculations were made using the same methodology and both used the official UNSCEAR data.
However, the text says: "we find that weapon testing has led to .......approximately 1,200 million. Meanwhile, electricity production from nuclear plants between 1943 and 2000 may have led to another million victims.."
My estimates are:
Nuclear weapon testing: 1, 138 million
Nuclear weapon production: 3.2 million (84% local or regional)
Nuclear power production: 21 million (76% local or regional)
Medical production and use: 4 million
Accidents:
Military - 16 million
Civilian - 15 million
Total Military: 1,156 million
Total civilian electricity related: 36 million
Total medical: 4 million
GRAND TOTAL: 1, 200 million
Of these amounts, about 31.4% are radiation induced cancers; 19.6% are genetic effects and 49% are teratogenetic effects in live born offspring.
I used official risk factors except for not introducing the dose rate effect which the nuclear people do to reduce the number of cancers. My own research would say that the cancer estimates should be doubled, not divided by two. In the paper I maintained a neutral position be not doing either.
Best wishes,
Rosalie Bertell
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Former FBI agent condemns FBI's anti-Peltier demo - Wall Street - Religious Leaders
22 December 2000
1) Unprecedented FBI Anti-Clemency-Peltier Demonstration Criticized
2) Wall Street Journal's Erroneous Anti Peltier Editorial
3) Statements from Religious Leaders on Peltier's Behalf
**********************************************************************
1) Unprecedented FBI Anti-Clemency-Peltier Demonstration Criticized
The following statement was given last Friday at the National Press Club in Washington DC, by former Rep. Don Edwards, who was also a former FBI agent.
= = = = = = = = =
Hon. Don Edwards
P.O. Box 7151
Carmel, CA 93921
STATEMENT
As a former Congressman from California for over thirty years, a former FBI agent and a citizen committed to justice, I wish to speak out strongly against the FBI's efforts in opposing the clemency appeal of Leonard Peltier.
I served as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights in the U.S. House of Representatives. I took a personal interest in Mr. Peltier's case and became convinced that he never received a fair trial. Even the government now admits that the theory it presented against Mr. Peltier at trial was not true. After 24 years in prison, Leonard Peltier has served an inordinate amount of time and deserves the right to consideration of his clemency request on the facts and the merits.
The FBI continues to deny its improper conduct on Pine Ridge during the 1970's and in the trial of Leonard Peltier. The FBI used Mr. Peltier as a scapegoat and they continue to do so today. At every step of the way, FBI agents and leadership have opposed any admission of wrongdoing by the government, and they have sought to misrepresent and politicize the meaning of clemency for Leonard Peltier. The killing of FBI agents at Pine Ridge was reprehensible, but the government now admits that it cannot prove that Mr. Peltier killed the agents.
Granting clemency to Mr. Peltier should not be viewed as expressing any disrespect for the current agents or leadership of the FBI, nor would it represent any condoning of the killings that took place on Pine Ridge. Instead, clemency for Mr. Peltier would recognize past wrongdoing and the undermining of the government's case since trial. Finally, it would serve as a crucial step in the reconciliation and healing between the U.S. Government and Native Americans, on the Pine Ridge Reservation and throughout the country.
12/14/00
[signature]
Don Edwards (D-CA), ret.
Member of Congress, 1963-1995
**********************************************************************
2) Wall Street Journal's Erroneous Anti Peltier Editorial
December 19, 2000
Brad Moore replies to following article, posted at interactive.wsj.com:
Gov. Keating makes some very outlandish claims and assumptions in his piece on Leonard Peltier. The first, and most glaring, blatant lie is that 114 shell casings all came from the same rifle. He states in his article that the "rifle's extractor mechanism was matched to all 114 spent casings." This is absolutely not true. The report from the FBI stated that the casings may have come from that type of rifle, not the exact same weapon. The second lie in his article states that "no one else at the scene that day carried such a rifle."
* * * *
Commentary
Freeing Peltier Would Stain Clinton's Legacy
By Frank Keating, governor of Oklahoma, and a former federal prosecutor and official of the Department of Justice. He began his career as an FBI special agent.
President Clinton has indicated that he will consider a clemency request for Leonard Peltier before he leaves office.
Peltier is serving consecutive life sentences for the 1975 murders of two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, both of whom were slain at close range as they lay wounded, following an ambush on a South Dakota Indian reservation. In Peltier's long criminal career, he has also been charged in two other armed confrontations with police, and in connection with a jailbreak that left another prisoner dead.
This man does not deserve clemency. But amazingly, he has become a martyr to the left, who may succeed in convincing Mr. Clinton to take action in his case. That would be an insult to all law enforcement officers, and would leave an indelible stain on the Clinton presidency.
The myths that surround the Peltier case have all but obscured the facts. There are several "Free Peltier" Web sites, bearing support from such "experts" in criminal justice as Ed Asner and Oliver Stone. Those sites are packed with falsehoods, beginning with their claims that Peltier was framed and is an innocent man.
In fact, Peltier was found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the vicious murders of FBI Special Agents Jack R. Coler, 28, the father of two young sons, and Ronald L. Williams, 27. On June 26, 1975, Peltier and other American Indian Movement activists ambushed Coler and Williams as they drove, in separate vehicles, on property that was part of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The agents were seeking a suspect in a beating and robbery, and had no knowledge that Peltier, who was wanted on warrants for the attempted murder of a Milwaukee police officer, was present.
Peltier, who has since admitted firing at the agents, was joined by other AIM gunmen in opening fire with high-powered rifles and other weapons. The FBI agents, grievously wounded and outgunned, returned a total of five shots; there were more than 125 bullet holes in their cars -- and more still in their bodies.
The wounded Williams apparently removed his bloody shirt, crawled to Coler's side, and wrapped it around Coler's arm, nearly severed by gunfire. As they lay helpless, both were shot through the head at point-blank range. The shot that killed Williams passed through his upraised hand, as if he had pleaded for his life. At the scene were 114 shell casings, all later linked to Peltier's rifle.
One witness, Michael Anderson, an AIM member who took part in the attack, later testified that he saw Peltier standing beside the agents' vehicles with the rifle in his hands. Three other witnesses, none especially sympathetic to the FBI or the government, also said the weapon was Peltier's. No one else at the scene that day carried such a rifle. Peltier and others fled the scene. The murder weapon was later recovered from a vehicle driven by Peltier associates in Kansas, along with weapons taken from Williams and Coler at the murder scene. The rifle's extractor mechanism was matched to all 114 spent casings from Pine Ridge, proving that it was the weapon that fired the fatal shots.
In November 1975, when the fugitive Peltier was stopped by State Trooper Ken Griffith in Oregon, he exchanged shots with the trooper and escaped on foot. His abandoned vehicle and a car driven by his companions yielded a large cache of ammunition: 14 handguns, nine grenades and Coler's service revolver. It was in a paper bag, under the driver's seat, that bore Peltier's fingerprints.
In February 1976, Peltier was captured by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on an Indian reservation where he had been hiding since his flight from Oregon. Though armed, Peltier was surprised and unable to resist. He later made statements to the Mounties admitting involvement in the Oregon shootout and in the Coler-Williams slayings. He also told Chief Small Boy, who had granted him refuge and hospitality, that had he had advance warning of the Mounties' raid, he would have "blown them out of their shoes."
Peltier was convicted on April 18, 1977 of both murders and sentenced to consecutive life terms. His convictions have been repeatedly upheld by appellate courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear his appeals. He later escaped briefly from the federal prison at Lompoc, Calif., in an incident that led to the death of another fleeing prisoner. When Peltier was recaptured, he had a stolen rifle and had attempted to rob a farmer at gunpoint. He was convicted in additional charges related to that escape.
The "Free Peltier" forces lobbying Mr. Clinton have concocted a range of specious and sometimes bizarre conspiracy theories in support of their claims that he is innocent. In one, the FBI men were supposedly trying to assassinate Peltier in shadowy support of uranium miners who wanted to exploit reserves said to be located on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Peltier's supporters even try to gloss over his admission, on a 60 Minutes broadcast, that he was among the shooters on June 26, 1975. They also make much of the fact that two Peltier associates were eventually acquitted in a separate trial, ignoring overwhelming evidence that continues to point to Peltier as the triggerman.
"I cannot begin to explain adequately the devastating effect Jack's murder has had on me and my family," wrote Peggy Coler in 1994. "How does a young widow explain to her sons age 4 and 1 why they will never see their daddy again? What kind of human being blasts two point blank range bullets into a helpless man?" Peltier did that.
Now Mr. Clinton may free him. Clemency for Peltier would be a sad and shameful way to close a presidency.
===================================================================
NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for research and educational purposes.
===================================================================
[ To respond to this editorial published in the Wall Street Journal, December 19, 2000, "Freeing Peltier Would Stain Clinton's Legacy" write to: ]
**********************************************************************
3) Statements from Religious Leaders on Peltier's Behalf
Following are some of the statements from religious leaders that were read during the Prayer Vigil on Peltier's behalf December 17 in front of the White House. CNN shot footage of the Prayer Vigil for Peltier, and they may use clips during the week on CNN or HNN (the half-hour Headline News channel).
Bishop Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace Prize laureate);
April 18th 1999
"He is a remarkable person and the depth of his spirituality shows.... I would hope that the campaign to have him freed will succeed. I certainly support it very passionately.... It is a blot on the judicial system of this country that ought to be corrected as quickly as possible."
Reverend Michael Yasutake (National Council of Churches);
October 8th 1998
"The National Council of Churches passed a major resolution at its annual General Assembly held in Washington, DC in November 1997 calling for executive clemency as a moral right to correct a legal wrong.' After being incarcerated for more than 22 years, Mr. Peltier is still a prisoner. The resolution states: We call on President Clinton, Attorney General Janet Reno, Senators and Congresspersons to seriously consider the case of Peltier, look at the facts with an open mind, and come to the only conclusion possible. This conclusion is freedom for Peltier. He has paid a tremendous debt for his political beliefs and it is now time to thank him for his sacrifice.' "
Sarah Chandler (Canadian Friends Service Committee, of the Quakers'); April 29th 1998
"In the many years since charges were first laid against leonard Peltier, the Canadian Friends Service Committee of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) has followed with concern the course of his imprisonment.... We urge you to release Leonard Peltier as an act of executive clemency..... We anticipate a positive response to the many requests you have received from around the world on this issue."
The Dalai Lama;
June 15th 1995
"I wish to support the petition for clemency for Leonard Peltier. Mr. Peltier's health is said to be worsening. I am deeply concerned and appeal to the concerned authorities in the United States to positively consider the petition on humanitarian grounds."
Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr.;
December 18th 1996
"Dear Mr. President, I would like to add my name to the long list of people supporting the immediate release of Leonard Peltier. I urge you to PLEASE GRANT EXECUTIVE CLEMENCY TO LEONARD PELTIER, who has already served over twenty years of unjust imprisonment."
Dr. Elias Rinsampessy (the Muhabbat Foundation);
January 28th 1998
"I'm convinced that through the FBI misconduct and the fabricated evidence, Peltier did not receive the best justice can serve. Therefore I support Senator Daniel Inouye's request to consider commutation or otherwise mitigation of the sentence of Leonard Peltier. It is my deep and sincere wish that you will make a decision beneficial for Peltier, so that he can live in peace with his people and family again."
former Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Cantuar (Anglican Church);
May 30th 1986
"My American and Canadian colleagues have brought to my attention the case of Mr. Leonard Peltier. I write to let you know that I share their concern that there seem to be a number of disturbing aspects about this case. I am therefore glad to join with my brother bishops in writing to ask you to give sympathetic consideration to a new trial for Mr. Peltier."
Baltimore - Stony Run Monthly Meeting of Friends (i.e., 'Quakers')
December 1st 1998
"Baltimore Monthly Meeting of Friends, Stony Run, recognizes Leonard Peltier as a prisoner of conscience and as a political prisoner of the United States government. We urge the President of the United States to grant Leonard Peltier the Presidential Commutation of his conviction in federal court and thereby immediately to release him from federal custody. We recommend this prisoner, Leonard Peltier, to Friends everywhere for their consideration of his condition and for their conscientious action on his behalf."
Reverend Nancy Tomlinson (Eastern Area Council, Presbyterian Churches);
November 21st 1993
"It has been proven that the gun of Leonard Peltier could not have fired the bullets that killed the FBI agents.... Despite the evidence of unfair, unethical, and illegal actions during his trial and appeal process, he has been denied the opportunity for a retrial and has been unjustly incarcerated for over seventeen years.... The Eastern Area Council of the Churches, of the Presbytery of Cincinnati, of the U.S. Presbyterian Church, denounces the injustices committed against Leonard Peltier, and calls for his immediate release.... The people of this country and the people of the world who have learned of Leonard Peltier are calling for his release. Grant him his freedom."
v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^
Call the White House Comment Line (202)456-1111 or (877)-561-1364
Support Presidential Executive Clemency to Free Leonard Peltier
v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^
Leonard Peltier's book, Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance, is available from bookstores and the LPDC; Box 583; Lawrence, KS 66044 http://www.freepeltier.org
Check out a special offer for Prints of the donated artwork of Lahri Bond "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse - Free Leonard Peltier" http://earthlovers.org/leonard/
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1964 U.S. atomic bomb blast in the Van Allen belts
Posted to Flyby News - 21 December 2000
1964 U.S atomic bomb blast in the Van Allen
Friday, 8 December 2000, 9:37 PM EST
U.S physics blunder almost ended space programs
By Richard Sale, Terrorism Correspondent
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- In 1964, a U.S atomic bomb blast in the Van Allen belts surrounding the earth almost permanently ended the U.S. space program, according to retired Gen. Ken Hannegan of the Defense Nuclear Agency. Hannegan spoke recently with United Press International.
Hannegan acknowledged that during a 1964 test for a new U.S. anti-satellite weapon system, the United States fired an atomic bomb of about 50 KT (or two and a half times the strength of the Nakasaki bomb) in the Van Allen belts -- areas of radiation and charged particles which surround the earth's upper atmosphere and which are held in place by the earth's magnetic field.
According to former Lockheed scientist Maxwell Hunter, who worked on the program, "It was a military idea -- that you might be able to create a weapon by artificially pumping up radiation in the belts by detonating explosions in them and trapping the radiation."
In the 1960s, prodded by concerns over a Soviet orbital bombing threat, the U.S. Air Force had begun work on a nuclear-armed direct ascent anti-satellite system targeted at Soviet low-altitude satellites. The project was based on Kwajalein Island in the Pacific. Another companion effort was based on Johnston Island, which is due east, and a little north of the Marshall Islands. The Johnston Island testing used nuclear-armed Thor intermediate range ballistic missiles, according to Hunter and other former Lockheed officials who asked not to be named.
Richard Freeman, a former vice president of Rockwell International and E-Systems, who was involved in many military "black curtain" or secret U.S. space programs, said that Johnston was picked because its location was excellent for interception Soviet satellites on their first orbital passes.
In a test that was part of a program called Project Century, the atomic bomb was exploded at an altitude of between 300 to 400 miles, "not a high shot," said Hunter. "We wanted to fill up the belts at the point where they were closest to earth."
But the effect was totally unplanned for.
"It unexpectedly disabled U.S. and Soviet satellites," Hunter said, adding, "You have to remember that we had very primitive satellites in those days that lacked any protective shields."
But another effect became extremely disconcerting. Hunter said that the bomb blast loaded the belts longitudinally in a pie shape from pole to pole. But where the Air Force had expected the radiation from the blast to remain in the belts for only two days, "There was a trapped radiation phenomena" -- in other words, the extraordinarily high radiation levels refused to disperse. In fact, Hunter said, the energy from the A-bomb blast stayed in the belts "for over a year, maybe more." Hannegan said that the trapped radiation knocked out all American and Soviet equipment that passed through it. "The area was militarily neutral," said Hannegan.
Hunter said a dispute then broke out within the military and scientific community. "There were discussions about us having poisoned space for good, about having destroyed all satellites. An equal number of scientists disagreed, but everyone agreed that such a weapon would only end up blinding ourselves," he said.
One effect of the panic was the strengthening of U.S. satellites against radiation that in the end would help shield them from ground-based laser attacks. According to U.S. intelligence sources, who asked not to be named, such attacks damaged super-sophisticated American spy satellites deployed to monitor missile and spacecraft
launches at the major Russian space center.
These sources said that the Soviets fired ground-based lasers to cripple sensitive optical equipment attempting to scan launches at Tyuratam to obtain a variety of sensitive military information including payloads and throw weights. The Soviet laser "hosings" of costly satellites, details of which remain classified, occurred throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s, and sent U.S. scientists scrambling to shield the space surveillance system.
According to a former Senate Intelligence Committee chief of staff, Angelo Codevilla, the Soviets regularly "pulsed" or targeted lasers on U.S. satellites. A senior Air Force official said that the U.S. had decided to keep evidence of the laser attacks hushed up for a variety of reasons.
The official said that first, it makes our equipment "look bad" but more important, the United States has used the collective evidence as a bargaining chip in strategic arms limitation talks. "U.S. negotiators say, look, we know this is happening and we are willing to make it public if you don't give us this or that concession," said the official.
In 1976, a KH-11 or Code 1010 satellite was "painted" by a Soviet laser and sustained "permanent damage," according to a senior Air Force official. This source said that such paintings continued into the late 1980s.
According to U.S. intelligence sources, the attempt to use U.S. satellites to view launches at Tyuratem, stemmed from concern over the Soviet launch of "killer satellites" that would be used in the event of war.
Although U.S. air defense radar is capable of tracking the smallest objects orbiting Earth, if a satellite is inactive or "dark" the Pentagon does not become aware of its mission until it becomes activated, and by then it's too late.
These Pentagon sources said it was common practice for the Soviets to launch satellites three at a time with only two becoming immediately active. Such dark satellites are highly unlikely to be identified as a threat, these U.S. analysts said.
Air Force officials told UPI that for years the Soviets had a "battle-ready" ground-based laser at Saryshagan that they said they believed had been involved in past blindings of U.S. spacecraft.
When the Soviet Union dissolved, it was in the process of building a new battle-ready laser at Nurek in Tadzhikstan and a second 500 miles away at Khazakstan in the Caucasus Mountains. Four more ground laser battle stations were planned, one begun on mountains near Dushanbe and another between Nruek and Dushambe and two more at unidentified areas. A Pentagon source said the collapse of the Soviet Union prevented their being completed.
But the result of the "hosings" of U.S. equipment was positive. The United States moved quickly to install laser warning receivers on its newest generation of low-orbit spacecraft, U.S. intelligence sources said. The receivers have allowed time for evasive action and have assisted ground controllers seeking to prove the Soviets had inflicted the damage.
One State Dept. analyst said that the whole Star Wars system of the Reagan presidency was the result of Soviets "messing around with our satellites."
And although official U.S. policy was not to interfere with Soviet satellites, the U.S. scientists often targeted Soviet spacecraft trying to observe the launch of U.S. missiles involved in a Defense Research Projects Agency program at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. U.S. scientists targeted the Soviet satellites with beams from ground-based facilities in Maui and Oahu, Hawaii and San Juan Capistrano, Calif., according to former Air Force officials.
Although most "hosings" of Soviet craft were used for "range finding purposes," Richard Freeman said that the Capistrano facility, which has since moved to Cloud Croft, N.M. "possessed "a full anti-satellite capability."
Freeman added: "If we didn't damage Soviet equipment, it wasn't because we weren't trying." The U.S. has since moved to jam Russian satellite radio communications to ground stations, he said.
So why did the earlier Starfish blunder occur? "We didn't know enough yet about plasma physics," said Hannegan. "We just didn't understand it yet."
But former military space expert, Clarence Robinson said that the reason the United States probably stopped such testing was because it discovered "that there isn't anything you do to the enemy that you don't end up doing to yourself."
Copyright 2000 by United Press International. All rights reserved.
[Note that a comment on the wordpress page by Flyby News for this article includes a memorandum from Stephen Schwartz, Publisher, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists regarding the article by Richard Sale, which was posted in NucNews archive.]
Pro Missile Defense (Washington Post) Editorial
Washington Post
Why Bush's Missile Plan Might Bomb
By Robert Kagan
Monday, December 18, 2000; Page A27
People who thought a vote for George W. Bush was a vote for rapid deployment of a stronger national missile defense may be disappointed. Missile defense could be the first casualty of the 2000 election fracas.
In the effort to reach out to Democrats, Bush's advisers are scouting around for nice little bipartisan policies to push through Congress this year. Missile defense doesn't fit the bill. As with his big tax cut proposal, Bush made missile defense one of the centerpieces of his campaign. He said he favored a more ambitious system than the one proposed by President Clinton, and he promised to deploy his more robust system "at the earliest possible date."
But that was then and this is now. Senior Bush advisers are now talking about conducting a thorough "review" of the whole issue. Fair enough, except that the review may prove interminable. Stephen Hadley, slated for one of the top posts in the new administration, has suggested it may take as long as a year.
The truth is, there was always reason to wonder whether Bush's tough campaign talk would translate into tough policies. Even if Bush had won the election handily, building domestic support for his more robust missile defense system would have been difficult. For the past few years, Democrats in the House and Senate reluctantly supported President Clinton's missile defense apostasy out of political necessity -- to shield Clinton and Gore from Republican attack.
But come Jan. 21, 2001, most will flip back to their accustomed roles as crusaders against Republican "Star Wars."
Then there is another small problem: the rest of the world. Thanks to the way Clinton mishandled the process of consulting with Europe, even close allies view American plans as harebrained and dangerous. This past year Russia's Vladimir Putin played on those European fears and successfully rebuffed overeager Clinton diplomatists trying to modify the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to allow Clinton's limited program. Putin will try to play the same game with Bush.
The Chinese, meanwhile, may decide to make missile defense the chief obstacle to improved Sino-American relations. They are petrified that a successfully deployed system would undermine their ability to threaten or attack Taiwan.
The Chinese have a history of testing U.S. presidents early to see what they're made of. In 1994 they put the heat on Clinton and discovered that his tough 1992 campaign rhetoric about the "butchers of Beijing" was empty. They will put Bush to a similar test, and on what better issue than missile defense, where the rest of the world is already lined up against Washington?
So even in the best of circumstances, Bush would have had to spend a lot of political capital at home and abroad. If he stuck by his guns, there was a chance that the allies would eventually come to accept the inevitable. And once the Europeans accepted it, the Russians would be more amenable to cutting a deal on the ABM treaty. The waning opposition in Europe and Moscow would in turn undermine some of the opposition at home.
But for this strategy to work, Bush had to be the man of steel. Bush's supporters like to compare him to Ronald Reagan. It was going to take a Reaganesque commitment--and Reagan's devotion to missile defense was almost literally religious--to get a robust system over all the hurdles. This was true even before this past month's electoral fiasco, even before the Democrats picked up seats in the House and pulled even in the Senate. Now the missile defense mountain will be an even steeper climb.
Will Bush want to take it on? It is understandable that Bush officials want to wait. The allies do need to be consulted. The Russians ought to get a glimpse at what Bush has to offer. The restive Congress will need massaging. And the new team will need some time to figure out what technologies are actually available, since Clinton long ago killed a number of the most promising missile defense programs. But unfortunately this is one of those times when sweet reason, careful diplomacy, and lengthy deliberation are likely to produce failure.
Contrary to what many Bush officials may think, it will be harder, not easier, to gain support for missile defense if Bush waits until 2002. Bush politicos think missile defense is unappetizing this year. But guess what? They won't find it any tastier next year. Meanwhile, once the world figures out that Bush is reluctant to press the issue at home, the aura of inevitability will vanish, and Bush officials such as Hadley will have a harder time convincing the Europeans and Russians that they have to make a deal. Persistent international opposition will strengthen the hand of opponents in Congress.
If Bush waits until next year to put missile defense high on his agenda, the result could be a political death spiral.
Candidate Bush made the case that the growing ballistic missile threat from Iraq, Iran, China and, yes, North Korea, would soon undermine America's capacity to maintain international peace by opening us up to blackmail by the likes of Saddam Hussein. He understood, too, that time was a-wasting. If Bush is really committed to missile defense, and he seems to be, then the time to make his stand is now.
The writer, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, writes a monthly column for The Post.
2000 The Washington Post
http://washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20013-2000Dec17?language=printer
NYTimes Editorial: Reason and Restraint regarding NMD
December 19, 2000
Prelude to a Missile Defense
New York Times editorial
The incoming Bush administration risks making an early mistake if it rushes to build a national missile defense. A hasty move in this area could quickly deplete the good will generally accorded a new president by foreign leaders, especially those of Russia, China and Washington's main European allies.
George W. Bush should instead expand research and testing to determine what kind of defensive shield can best meet America's security needs.
A reliable antimissile system could protect the country against the future threat of nuclear missile attack from unpredictable nations like North Korea, Iraq and Iran. American intelligence agencies predict that North Korea could have the capacity to launch a handful of nuclear-tipped long-range missiles within five years and that Iraq and Iran could reach that point within a decade.
But no workable shield now exists. The prototype interceptor missile developed by the Clinton administration has so far proved highly unreliable in tests. Mr. Bush and his advisers made clear during the presidential campaign that they considered the Clinton system flawed and inadequate. They promised to consider a variety of other technologies, including sea-based and space-based systems as well as the current land-based model.
Any of those alternative approaches would require rigorous study and testing before construction commences. While that evaluation proceeds, Mr. Bush's new foreign policy team should try to persuade skeptical countries that a limited defensive system can be built without wrecking existing arms control treaties or setting off a destructive new arms race.
Their biggest hurdle will be overcoming Russia's current refusal to modify the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty to permit limited national missile defenses. The ABM treaty has been a keystone of the arms control efforts of the last three decades. If America abruptly withdraws from that treaty to build a defensive system, other agreements might begin to unravel, including the two primary nuclear arms reduction treaties signed by Mr. Bush's father at the end of the cold war.
Those two treaties provide for a two-thirds reduction in both sides' nuclear arsenals from their mid-1980's peak and for a total elimination of Russia's land-based, multiple-warhead missiles, Moscow's most dangerous weapons. Already progress in carrying out the second of these treaties has been held up by disputes over missile defense rules.
China fears that even a limited United States missile shield might be able to deflect Beijing's small force of long-range nuclear missiles. In response, China, which is not bound by any nuclear arms limitation agreement with Washington, could be tempted to build hundreds of new intercontinental missiles. America's European allies do not wish to see the revival of a costly arms race.
Mr. Bush's foreign policy advisers have been around Washington long enough to know that few initial steps would be more divisive abroad than a decision to move ahead with installation of a missile defense system. Colin Powell, the prospective secretary of state, and Condoleezza Rice, the future national security adviser, also recognize that construction of even a limited system would cost tens of billions of dollars. Until the technology is perfected, there is no point in incurring these diplomatic and financial costs.
Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company
Powell insists defence rests on 'Star Wars'
December 18, 2000
From Ian Brodie in Washington
GENERAL Colin Powell, America's new Secretary of State, has said that the Bush Administration would make national missile defence (NMD) an essential part of US strategic policy.
Russia, China and America's allies have all been alarmed at the idea of NMD. General Powell made the comment after being invited at the weekend to take up the role by George W. Bush, the President-elect.
Critics have said that building an NMD system would risk a new arms race with Russia and China. Britain and other Nato allies have expressed reservations, although Mr Bush has spoken of the need for ballistic missile defences to include America's allies.
General Powell offered the rationale for NMD first given by Ronald Reagan, for whom he worked as National Security Adviser. He said: "I harken back to the original purpose of such a defence, to start diminishing the value of offensive weapons." It was time to take away the blackmail inherent in some regimes having such weapons and "thinking they can hold us hostage", he said.
Robin Cook, the British Foreign Secretary, is known to be worried by the US plan because it would mean breaching the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and could damage relations with Russia. During the election campaign Mr Bush called for deployment of a more expansive missile system than the limited "Son of Star Wars" pursued under Mr Clinton, who put off making a final decision after a string of failed tests.
Mr. Bush said that ballistic missile defences should also protect America's allies. The Republican platform promised that a Bush Administration would spend billions of dollars to research and deploy a robust missile defence system, including sea-based missiles, that would extend a shield around Europe, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
Mr. Bush's advisers argue that the rise of Iraq, Iran and North Korea as potential missile-building states has changed the strategic balance. General Powell described Russia and China as countries the US would attempt to work with "not as potential enemies or adversaries, but not yet as strategic partners".
He also said that the new Administration will undertake a review ofthe role of US troops in Bosnia and Kosovo.
As well as reaching out to the black community with the appointment of General Powell, and of Condoleezza Rice as National Security Adviser, Mr Bush sought to include the Hispanic community by choosing Al Gonzales, a judge on the Texas Supreme Court, as his chief White House lawyer.
Mr. Bush flew from Texas to Washington last night for meetings with Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, President Clinton, Vice-President Al Gore and members of Congress. He will also interview potential Cabinet members.
In state capitals across the United States today, 538 members of the Electoral College will be meeting to cast their votes for President: 271 for Mr Bush and 267 for Mr Gore.
Despite speculation, no "faithless electors" have come forward to say that they will switch votes.
Copyright 2000 Times Newspapers Ltd.
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,15-52851,00.html
For more on this, see:
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
The views expressed herein are writers' own and not necessarily of Flyby News.
Fair Use Policy that describes use of copyrighted material is at FlybyNews.com.
Feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News is appreciated.
You can write to the editor by email: -- flyby(at}mtdata{dot)com --
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus,
and has supported critical campaigns for a healthy
environment, human rights, justice, and nonviolence,
since the launch of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
Men in Suits March to White House to Denounce Peltier - Media Obeys! WHAT NOW?
President Clinton must really have a difficult decision to make, considering the pressure from the FBI, and yesterday's sweep of disinformation via international media sources. More than three thousand individuals marched last Sunday in support of Clemency and it was barely mentioned. This is the same control that can convince people to support and pay for Missile Defense, which may not work, and can trash Earth and its atmosphere. It makes me wonder how far this power will go to control individuals and leaders for [sic] "national security interests?" President Clinton could be inclined to say, 'four more years for you fella, better than my neck, or my family's.' Four years for Leonard Peltier has been multiplied six times already. It may be now or never for basic justice and human rights to free him, and demand honesty in Government, law enforcement and national security interests that doesn't threaten life and all our relations.
REACT:
Purchase the video of last May's Congressional Briefing Tape
[Send $15 to the LPDC, P.O. Box 583, Lawrence, KS 66044]
http://www.freepeltier.org ] Tel: (785)842-5774
The Congressional Briefing Video tells the story of the Reign of Terror and FBI-involvement from those who lived through it: Traditional Indians, lawyers, representatives of human rights organizations, activists and journalists. Then take video to your local community access television station and give it as much public airing as possible between now and January 21, 2001. Go around the media blockade, carry the torch for truth and reconciliation * honor justice and help end a 'reign of terror' for all humanity and life.
v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^
Call the White House Comment Line Weekdays -- (202)456-1111
Support Presidential Executive Clemency to Free Leonard Peltier
v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^
Write to President Clinton and Letters to Editors:
___________
Publication
Address
City, ST ZIP
December 16, 2000
Dear Editors:
I am writing in regard to the FBI's march in Washington, D.C. to oppose clemency for Leonard Peltier. True to form, the FBI continues to spread misinformation about Mr. Peltier's case. Hopefully, President Clinton will not succumb to their desperate attempt to distort the truth.
Mr. Peltier never received a fair trial. The witnesses were intimidated and coerced by the FBI, false testimonies were utilized and a ballistics test reflecting his innocence was concealed from the defense. U.S. Attorney Lynn Crooks now admits no one knows who killed the two agents.
Judge Gerald Heaney, who authored the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals' denial of a new trial, has himself written to express his full support for a grant of clemency. He condemned the FBI's tactics in the overall investigation and trying of the case. Furthermore, Heaney stated that favorable action by the President in this case would be an important step in the healing process between the United States and the Native American community.
While the deaths of Ron Williams and Jack Coler are a terrible tragedy, it is also a tragedy to imprison an individual for nearly 24 years who was so obviously never granted a fair trial.
Mr. Peltier's clemency supporters include the National Congress of American Indians, Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchu, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Dalai Lama, Robert Redford, the National Council of Churches, Amnesty International and many others.
As President of the United States, it is Clinton's duty to mitigate injustices. Granting clemency to Leonard Peltier is not only morally right, but necessary.
Sincerely,
Name
Address
City, State
* * * * * * * * *
The following are excerpts from Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance by Leonard Peltier.
LEONARD PELTIER'S MESSAGE TO THE SLAIN AGENTS' FAMILIES:
IF YOU, THE LOVED ONES of the agents who died at the Jumping Bull property that day, get some salve of satisfaction out of my being here, then at least I can give you that, even though innocent of their blood. I feel your loss as my own. Like you, I suffer that loss every day, every hour. And so does my family. We know that inconsolable grief. We Indians are born, live and die with inconsolable grief. We've shared our common grief for twenty-three years now, your families and mine, so how can we possibly be enemies anymore? Maybe it's with you--and with us--that the healing can begin. You, the agents' families, certainly weren't at fault that day in 1975, any more than my family was, and yet you and they have suffered as much as, even more than, anyone there. It seems it's always the innocent who pay the highest price for injustice. It's seemed that way all my life.
To the still-grieving Coler and Williams families I send my prayers if you will have them. I hope you will. They are the prayers of an entire people, not just my own. We have many dead of our own to pray for, and we join our sorrow to yours. Let our common grief be our bond. Let those prayers be the balm for your sorrow, not an innocent man's continued imprisonment. I state to you absolutely that, if I could possibly have prevented what happened that day, your menfolk would not have died. I would have died myself before knowingly permitting what happened to happen. And I certainly never pulled the trigger that did it. May the Creator strike me dead this moment if I lie. I cannot see how my being here, torn from my own grandchildren, can possibly mend your loss. I swear to you, I am guilty only of being an Indian. That's why I'm here. Being who I am, being who you are -- that's Aboriginal Sin.
* * * * * *
ABORIGINAL SIN
We each begin in innocence.
We all become guilty.
In this life you find yourself guilty of being who you are.
Being yourself, that's Aboriginal Sin,
the worst sin of all.
That's a sin you'll never be forgiven for.
We Indians are all guilty,
guilty of being ourselves.
We're taught that guilt from the day we're born.
We learn it well.
To each of my brothers and each of my sisters, I say,
be proud of that guilt.
You are guilty only of being innocent,
of being yourselves,
of being Indian,
of being human.
Your guilt makes you holy.
* * * *
Doing time creates a
demented darkness of my
own imagination...
Doing time does this thing
to you. But, of course, you
don't do time.
You do without it. Or
rather, time does you.
Time is a cannibal that
devours the flesh of your
years
day by day, bite by bite.
**********************************************************************
Leonard Peltier's book, Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance,
is available from bookstores, libraries and the LPDC.
http://www.freepeltier.org
Check out a special offer for Prints of the donated artwork of Lahri Bond,
http://earthlovers.org/leonard/
"In the Spirit of Crazy Horse - Free Leonard Peltier"
v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^
FBI to demonstrate against Peltier - RSVP * Peltier's Message to the Slain Agents' Families
14 December 2000
FBI anti-Peltier Demonstration Friday December 15
This Friday the FBI will be holding a demonstration in Washington DC condemning Leonard Peltier. The following quotes come from
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/HallsOfJustice/hallsofjustice.html#one
"Those agents, the rank and file, are so alarmed at the prospect of Peltier's release that they are planning a demonstration in front of the White House, Dec. 15.Needless to say, a public demonstration by FBI agents is exceedingly rare. The rally is technically not sanctioned by headquarters, and the agents who participate will be taking leave to do so, but there's no question the top ranks will be giving moral support to the demonstrators.
John Sennett, president of the FBI Agents' Association, said the purpose of the rally is to draw the attention of the president, and frankly the media, to the reality of the murders of the two agents by Peltier, and, to offset what we regard as the misinformation and disinformation regarding the guilt of Leonard Peltier.
They are aware of the intense lobbying effort under way by Peltier's supporters and are concerned there may be some basis for the supporters' optimism.
One agent said there probably wouldn't be signs or banners because that wouldn't be dignified. Another, when asked what the demonstration would look like, responded, it will be a very dignified and quiet gathering of a couple hundred people in raincoats. They plan on leaving a letter signed by a large number of agents at the White House gates."
They go on to say that the Justice Department thinks Clinton was just pandering and has no real intention of granting Peltier clemency.
**********************************************************************
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC) Press Advisory:
A Press Conference and official response to the FBI Demonstration
For More Information call Jennifer Harbury 512-751-5852
For Immediate Release
Speakers: Don Edwards, Former Congressman & FBI Agent
Representative, National Congress of American Indians
Jennifer Harbury, Attorney
Press Conference and Official Response to the FBI Demonstration
Where: National Press Club
Peter Lisagor Room, 13th floor
529 14th St NW #1300
Washington, DC
When: Friday, December 15, 2000 [9:00 A.M.]
An official response by Leonard Peltier supporters, including former FBI Agent and Congressman Don Edwards, regarding the march by the FBI against clemency for Leonard Peltier.
Leonard Peltier is a Native American who has been incarcerated for nearly 24 years, following his highly controversial conviction for the 1975 murder of two FBI Agents.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
COUNTER THE FBI'S DEMONSTRATION AGAINST PELTIER
HERE IS WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1- Calls to the White House: 202-456-1111 FLOOD THE COMMENT LINE WITH CALLS!
Talking Points:
* I am calling to express my outrage over the FBI's demonstration against Leonard Peltier.
* As members of law enforcement, the FBI should be neutral and should not interfere in the clemency process.
* Furthermore, the FBI continues to make false statements about the case of Leonard Peltier. There is no evidence that Leonard Peltier shot anyone and in fact, the US Prosecutor admits that he cannot prove who shot the agents. Yet, Leonard Peltier has remained behind bars for over 24 years.
* Keeping a wrongly convicted man in prison is extremely damaging to public relations with Law enforcement.
* I want to express my full support of Executive Clemency for Leonard Peltier.
2- Contact members of Congress: Contact your Congressional Representatives and express your outrage with FBI attempts to block clemency. Talking points listed above apply here as well. The switchboard number is: 202-224-3121. The operator can transfer you to your representative.
3- Contact local media: Please send out our Press Advisory to your local media and send letters to the editor to your local papers.
Sample letter:
Letters to the Editor
Publication
Address
City, ST ZIP
December 14, 2000
Dear Editors:
I am writing in regard to the FBI's march in Washington DC to oppose clemency for Leonard Peltier. True to form, the FBI continues to spread misinformation about Mr. Peltier's case. Hopefully, President Clinton will not succumb to their desperate attempt to distort the truth.
Mr. Peltier never received a fair trial. The witnesses were intimidated and coerced by the FBI, false testimonies were utilized and a ballistics test reflecting his innocence was concealed from the defense. U.S. Attorney Lynn Crooks now admits no one knows who killed the two agents.
Judge Gerald Heaney, who authored the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals' denial of a new trial, has himself written to express his full support for a grant of clemency. He condemned the FBI's tactics in the overall investigation and trying of the case. Furthermore, Heaney stated that favorable action by the President in this case would be an important step in the healing process between the United States and the Native American community.
While the deaths of Ron Williams and Jack Coler are a terrible tragedy, it is also a tragedy to imprison an individual for nearly 24 years who was so obviously never granted a fair trial.
Mr. Peltier's clemency supporters includes the National Congress of American Indians, Nobel Laurete Rigoberta Menchu, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Dalai Lama, Robert Redford, the National Council of Churches, Amnesty International and many others.
As President of the United States, it is Clinton's duty to mitigate injustices. Granting clemency to Leonard Peltier is not only morally right, but necessary.
Sincerely,
Name
Address
City, State
* * * * * * * * *
The following is an excerpt from Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance by Leonard Peltier.
LEONARD PELTIER'S MESSAGE TO THE SLAIN AGENTS' FAMILIES:
IF YOU, THE LOVED ONES of the agents who died at the Jumping Bull property that day, get some salve of satisfaction out of my being here, then at least I can give you that, even though innocent of their blood. I feel your loss as my own. Like you, I suffer that loss every day, every hour. And so does my family. We know that inconsolable grief. We Indians are born, live and die with inconsolable grief. We've shared our common grief for twenty-three years now, your families and mine, so how can we possibly be enemies anymore? Maybe it's with you--and with us--that the healing can begin. You, the agents' families, certainly weren't at fault that day in 1975, any more than my family was, and yet you and they have suffered as much as, even more than, anyone there. It seems it's always the innocent who pay the highest price for injustice. It's seemed that way all my life.
To the still-grieving Coler and Williams families I send my prayers if you will have them. I hope you will. They are the prayers of an entire people, not just my own. We have many dead of our own to pray for, and we join our sorrow to yours. Let our common grief be our bond. Let those prayers be the balm for your sorrow, not an innocent man's continued imprisonment. I state to you absolutely that, if I could possibly have prevented what happened that day, your menfolk would not have died. I would have died myself before knowingly permitting what happened to happen. And I certainly never pulled the trigger that did it. May the Creator strike me dead this moment if I lie. I cannot see how my being here, torn from my own grandchildren, can possibly mend your loss. I swear to you, I am guilty only of being an Indian. That's why I'm here. Being who I am, being who you are -- that's Aboriginal Sin.
* * * * * *
ABORIGINAL SIN
We each begin in innocence.
We all become guilty.
In this life you find yourself guilty of being who you are.
Being yourself, that's Aboriginal Sin,
the worst sin of all.
That's a sin you'll never be forgiven for.
We Indians are all guilty,
guilty of being ourselves.
We're taught that guilt from the day we're born.
We learn it well.
To each of my brothers and each of my sisters, I say,
be proud of that guilt.
You are guilty only of being innocent,
of being yourselves,
of being Indian,
of being human.
Your guilt makes you holy.
**********************************************************************
For more information contact the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC) (785)842-5774. http://www.freepeltier.org or call the NYC Free Peltier March Hotline (212)539-6027. Leonard Peltier's book, Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance, is available from bookstores, libraries and the LPDC.
v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^
Call the White House Comment Line Weekdays -- (202)456-1111
Support Presidential Executive Clemency to Free Leonard Peltier
v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Report on Walk for Truth and Reconciliation * Of Nukes, Nuts and Tarot Cards: Reagan Revisited
1) Report on Walk for Truth and Reconciliation
2) Spirit of Crazy Horse Artwork Auction and Prints
3) Book Review: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War
**********************************************************************
1) Report on Walk for Truth and Reconciliation
New York City -- December 10 -- Thousands took to the streets for a powerful show of support for Leonard Peltier, who has been unjustly imprisoned for nearly 25 years. At Union Square, before the Walk, Harvey Arden read from Leonard Peltier's book Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance. Attorney Jennifer Harbury received a special quilt with the gratitude from women survivors of the "reign of terror" from the Pine Ridge Reservation. Even though this legal rally stretched for 16 blocks, taking up half the width of Second Avenue, International and even local media (except for such faithful sources as WBAI, Peoples Video Network and other local cable and political media) was absent.
However, for those present, the procession led by Leonard's family and residents of the Pine Ridge Reservation was uplifting, and a show of strong support for President Clinton to do the right thing, to free Leonard free this Holiday Season. The rally was peaceful. However, there were a strong police presence and four supporters of Peltier were unnecessarily arrested.
Although cautiously optimistic about the soon release of Leonard by an Executive Clemency Pardon by President Clinton before he leaves the Office, Jean Day of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC) was also concerned. Leonard has been denied access to communicate with his defense team in the last three days before the Walk. For those wanting direct email updates from the LPDC, send a blank message to < lpdc-on@mail-list.com > or go to their website: http://www.freepeltier.org .
Speakers at the rally near the UN (on the anniversary of Human Rights Day) included survivors of the Pine Ridge reign of terror, Peltier's family, Peter Matthiessen, Alice Walker, Jennifer Harbury, Ramsey Clark, Amnesty International and many more. They urged supporters to keep calling and writing until Leonard is free.
Call the White House Comment Line Weekdays -- (202)456-1111
Support Presidential Executive Clemency to Free Leonard Peltier
ONLINE PETITIONS FOR EXECUTIVE CLEMENCY:
http://kola-hq.hypermart.net/actlp.htm
http://www.petitiononline.com/Clemency/petition.html
v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v
2) Spirit of Crazy Horse Artwork Auction and Prints
Lahri Bond, of Heartswork Graphics, Amherst, MA, has graciously donated his original (framed) drawing/etching to benefit the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee in support of freedom for Leonard Peltier.
The current highest bid is $200 for a one of a kind artwork of the "Spirit of Crazy -- Free Leonard Peltier." The auction will conclude at 9pm Eastern on Dec. 12, 2000. You are welcomed to call and bid on this one of a kind artwork until between 8:00 P.M. and 9:00 P.M. EDT 12/12/2000 -- Tel: (978)544-7862.
Also, a thousand high quality prints of this work is available to purchase.
For details you can link from the LPDC webiste or go directly to:
http://earthlovers.org/leonard/
v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v
3) Book Review: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War
Of Nukes, Nuts and Tarot Cards: Reagan Revisited
By Alex Zaitchik
Books - 11.27.00
Book reviewed:
Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War (by Frances Fitzgerald, Simon and Schuster, 2000)
As a kid, Ronald Reagan scared the hell out of me. Originally the fear was personal, the way a clown or smiling puppet frightens a child. But by 1982 I came to associate his visage with the cultural climate of Casper Weinberger's America, which was qualitatively more terrifying than any Jack-o-lantern. At eight years old and a virgin to newspapers, I knew this wrinkled man with the pompadour was responsible for the bloodless fear I carried to bed each night, the fear that I would awake to the flash of a nuclear blast, and spend my remaining two weeks alive bald, nursing burn wounds and wretching up my large intestine. I am confident that a lifelong commitment to the liberal wing of the Democratic Party was borne out of this childhood experience.
It is admitted across the political spectrum that the world came closer to nuclear war during Reagan's first administration that it had since the Cuban missile crisis. From this admission two opposing camps line up against each other. Conservatives claim that by skillfully pushing their politico-military full-court press, they broke the Soviet system and "won the Cold War." Liberals argue that the witless Reagan build-up merely prolonged the Cold War and needlessly brought the world to the brink of holocaust. After surveying a good deal of the literature on the subject, I am prone to agree with the latter interpretation. After reading Frances Fitzgerald's recent synthesis of a wider cross-section of this literature, I am doubly so.
But Way Out There In the Blue is no partisan tract. Fitzgerald the sober historian has amassed a mountain of material drawn from memoirs, interviews and declassified documents. Much of this material speaks for itself, and offers a stark inside account of the Reagan White House and the hawks that dominated the national-security bureaucracy. The book is multifaceted, and can be read as a number of histories: of arms control in the 80s, of the Strategic Defense Initiative, of the internal politics of the Republican foreign policy establishment, of Reagan's relationship with Gorbechev. Fitzgerald's weaving of these complex threads into a single tale is--but for sometimes confusing chronological jumps --nothing short of masterful.
Reagan himself emerges as a minor character; almost epiphenomenal. Although known as a bloody-fanged dove eater throughout his political career--from urging in 1965 to "pave" North Vietnam and "put parking stripes on it" to virulently attacking Nixon/Ford dtente in 1976--by the time he gets to the White House he appears as the bumbling, clueless elderly of caricature, tending toward a nuclear utopianism and passively swallowing whatever his manipulative advisors suggest. Throughout Fitzgerald's narrative Reagan is merely pathetic: he enters office not even trying to understanding basic policy and leaves it telling an incredulous Gorbechev stories culled from People Magazine.
Reagan's advisors are the key to grasping the acute turn taken by US foreign policy after 1980. For Reagan's was the first Cold War administration whose defense advisors were pulled from outside the mainstream. They were not representatives of an intra-party coalition and had no respect for the assumptions and carefully drawn lines of previous governments. Rather, they graduated from the Curtis LeMay school of strategic thinking, and represented the extreme right-wing of the party, many coming from the neo-conservative pressure group the Committee on the Present Danger. This nest of sharp-beaked ideological hawks included assistant secretaries of defense Fred Ikle and Richard Perle, CIA director William "contra kid" Casey, in-house Sovietologist Richard Pipes, Deputy Defense Secretary Frank "Sure We Can Win A Nuclear War" Carlucci and Eugene Rostow, the enemy of arms control and disarmament who was confirmed as director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.
Leader of the pack was Secretary of Defense Casper "Cap" Weinberger. A defense novice when named to his post--he didn't even know the difference between defcon 3 and defcon 4--Weinberger soon adopted the crusading rhetoric of his staff, preaching the dangers of arms control and the peril of the increasing Soviet threat. He led the charge in passing the enormous arms budgets of the early 80s, which in real dollars were larger than those at the peak of the Korean and Vietnam wars. The numbers were only logical in the context of Defense Department rhetoric, ominously proclaiming that the US was in a "pre-war" situation, one that called for national mobilization in the areas of offensive weapons and civil defense. That the CIA knew Soviet defense spending to have leveled out in the mid-70s, and that our solid-fuel missiles were superior to liquid-fuel Soviet ones didn't matter. The Reagan men were intent on an arms build-up, based upon the fiction of the "window of vulnerability," and an arms build-up there was.
This build-up, together with Reagan's refusal to negotiate an arms control agreement, was the impetus for the freeze movement which spread like wildfire across the US and (mostly Northern) Europe in the mid 80s. It is here that the Strategic Defense Initiative comes to the fore. Although the earliest variant of missile defense dates back to WW II, when the Allies feared the Germans would develop missile technology, the issue had largely been dead since Nixon signed the ABM Treaty in 1972, which outlawed the deployment of missile defense. This document enshrined the logic that offense and defense are intimately related and thus laid the basis for all subsequent arms control.
But Reagan didn't care about the intricacies of deterrence theory behind the ABM Treaty; he liked the idea of a missile shield. His advisors did too, and exhumed it for political purposes in 1983. For it was the political necessity of countering the freeze movement that drove Reagan to give his famous Star Wars speech, calling upon scientists to create a defensive weapon to make nuclear arms "impotent and obsolete." By co-opting the language of the freeze movement and proposing SDI as an aid to arms control--which it wasn't--the Reagan people were able to outflank the peace movement and run for re-election without looking like Dr. Strangelove. It worked, and Reagan won in the biggest landslide in US history.
The interesting thing about SDI is that it was a sham for all seasons--and everybody knew it, except the Russians and the American people. For the Defense Department, it was a means of breaking the ABM treaty and undermining past and future arms control agreements. For the Democrats, it was a bargaining chip to be traded away in strategic weapons negotiations. Only the napping Reagan and a slightly senile Edward Teller seemed to believe that X-ray lasers would soon be blowing ICBM's out of the atmosphere. Weinberger consistently lied about the progress of the program to Reagan (and Congress), who then sold it starry-eyed to the American people, who then demanded it of Congress, who reluctantly agreed to fund the program with billions of dollars. What exactly was being funded was never very clear.
But the Democratic Congress was mistaken to think the program would later be curtailed for Soviet concessions. Even though Secretary of State George Shultz bent over backwards to make an offense-defensive swap with the Soviets in which SDI was forever consigned to the laboratory in exchange for the removal of Russia's intermediate range missiles (INF) from Europe, Reagan refused to limit the scope and ambitions of SDI. This was the sticking point for arms control talks until the end of Reagan's second term, and to the extent that Shultz tried to work through it, he emerges as the sole knight of reason who fought valiantly but was constantly
outflanked by the hard-liners.
It was only when Gorbechev, at the urging of Andrei Sakharov, saw that Star Wars was an unworkable bluff did a breakthrough occur. At this point talks were "untied" from SDI and an INF treaty was finally worked out, resulting in the dismantling of a mere few hundred missiles. Although important, it was a minor treaty. No drastic cuts were ever made under Reagan, pictures of him smiling with Gorby notwithstanding. The START Treaty would wait until 1991.
Under the shadow of the SDI phantom, Fitzgerald offers a detailedanalysis of arms control negotiations at Geneva, Reykjavik, Washington and Moscow. Any non-expert who has studied the arcana of arms talks during a condensed period of time knows that it is like watching speed chess. It gets confusing fast. This is especially true for the Reagan years, as conflicts occurred not only with the Russians but between competing factions within the cabinet and Congress.
Fitzgerald does an admirable job of simplifying the issues, but it remains difficult reading. Given that we are still living with the live nuclear triggers built during its timeline, Way Out There in the Blue makes for painful history. A goofy old man became enchanted with the idea of putting an astrodome over the US, was convinced by scheming war-hungry advisors that this was possible, and then proceeded to link all arms
control to his fantasy, all the while pushing ahead with a major arms build-up. The result almost ended the world.
It is a timely story, this. Moving into the next century there is a firm Republican-led bipartisan consensus that an ABM system must be built, and damn the consequences. The arms contractors are riding confidently towards their dream of nuclearizing space, and it seems that without a mass movement against them they will get their billions. The Russians are back to believing (just enough) in the potential of such a system to give the US first-strike capability, and are threatening to pull out of all arms treaties if the US proceeds with deployment. The system itself remains, in the words of Lewis Lapham, "built entirely of metaphors," but in America, to the rest of the world's increasing dismay, this would seem to be enough, yet
again. That we went through this whole charade only fifteen years ago is funny. That the arms control process will almost certainly not survive the sequel is even funnier.
You see I can laugh about this madness now. I shed all my frozen tears back in 1983.
[Alex Zaitchik is an editor at Freezerbox.com ]
Copyright 1998-2000 Infocrat Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
MD "Losing the Forest for the Trees" * Belgian Second Resolution for Peltier
5 December 2000
1) Missile Defense - "Losing the Forest for the Trees"
2) Belgian Second Resolution in the Case of Leonard Peltier
**********************************************************************
1) Missile Defense - "Losing the Forest for the Trees"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
VOLUME 4, ISSUE #47 November 30, 2000
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Losing the Forest for the Trees"
Colonel Daniel Smith, USA (Ret.), Chief of Research, dsmith@cdi.org
Like "K" in Franz Kafka's "The Castle," we may wonder if there's someone real -- and really in charge of missile defense -- in the castle called the Pentagon.
One of the central themes of Franz Kafka's "The Castle" is the discovery that there is no reliable, solid communications link between the real world and the occupants of the Castle to which he believes he has been summoned to work as a land surveyor.
Surveying the landscape that is the U.S. missile defense program, the same aura of insubstantial whimsey seems to pervade. And even when a soul from the "real" world seems to get a line that connects to the Castle, what one finally gets is a busy signal, static, or a recording that simply recycles the caller through endless connections and reiterations of choices that lead to frustration.
A perfect example is the Pentagon's response to a letter from MIT physicist Theodore Postol. Dr. Postol presented evidence that called into question the interpretation of the results of an early national missile defense test designed to tell the difference between a real warhead and a decoy. The first response from the Pentagon was, "We wouldn't be spending a billion dollars -- billions of dollars on developing a National Missile Defense System unless we had some degree of confidence that we can make that discrimination and make it in time to be useful." The second response was to classify Dr. Postol's letter and the scientific/mathematical enclosures he submitted to buttress his position.
Even the third try was only partially successful. Philip Coyle, who as Director of the Pentagon's Office of Operational Test and Evaluation has been unafraid to criticize NMD, said in an interview with PBS' "Newshour With Jim Lehrer" that there is no evidence that tests were rigged. But he also acknowledged that while
"testing has been as realistic as we know how at this point of the program... tests to date have not been operationally realistic."
The "who's in charge" question is more evident when one surveys the multiplicity of theater missile defense systems. The Army has the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) and the Theater High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) system. The Navy has the Theater Wide (NTW) and Area Theater Missile Defense (NAD) programs. The Air Force contribution is the Airborne Laser (ABL) and, with BMDO, the Space-Based Laser (SBL). PAC-3 and NAD are being developed to knock out shorter range, lower flying ballistic missiles such as Scuds. THAAD and NTW are designed essentially to take on longer range, higher trajectory missiles in mid-flight or even in the descent phase. The ABL and SBL are oriented against rockets still in the ascent (boost) phase.
The Navy, however, believes that it will be able to get its NTW system closer to enemy missile launch points and thus will also be able to knock down missiles during boost phase before higher speeds are achieved. In this role, NTW becomes a rival for ABL and SBL. But the Navy programs suffered a double hit in July. In a test of the NTW's Standard Missile 3, a "complication" occurred when the third stage did not separate. Projected purchases of NAD missiles reportedly will be virtually halved -- to 134 instead of last year's programmed 240 missiles -- over the Future Years Defense Plan (FYDP -- FY2001-2007). The longer range plan does provide for purchasing the planned 1,500 missiles, but this is still short of the 2,100 the Navy wants.
How much are these programs costing the taxpayer? Before answering that question, one should note that, in March of this year, General Ronald Kadish, the current head of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, said something his predecessors never did -- that more money (he advocated over half a billion dollars for Fiscal Year 2001) might speed the deployment of the Army and Navy systems.
In May the Armed Services Committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives each passed a $310 billion authorization bill for military programs for Fiscal Year 2001. For the tactical missile defense programs mentioned above, the committees' actions pushed funding to over $2.1 billion. The Administration's request, General Kadish's recommendations, and the committees' work break out as follows (in millions):
Request BMDO Senate House
Add On Authorized Authorized
PAC-3 $446.5 $112.2 $446.5 $511.7
NAD $274.2 $103 $274.2 $274.2
THAAD $549.9 $150 $549.9 $549.9
NTW $382.7 $160 $442.7 $407.7
ABL $148.6 -- $241.0 $231.0
SBL $137.7 -- $167.7 $137.7
TOTALS $1,939.6 +$525.2 $2,122.0 $2,112.2
BMDO appropriations follow a similar pattern. The Administration request compared to the Senate-House conference committee report is (in millions):
Request Conference Report
PAC-3 $446.5 $446.5
NAD $274.2 $274.2
THAAD $549.9 $549.9
NTW $382.7 $462.7
ABL $148.6 $233.6
SBL $137.7 $147.7
TOTALS $1,939.6 $2,114.6
In addition, the FY2000 supplemental provided $125 million for PAC-3 "unfunded requirements."
But there is more to the story. The Army has or is involved in a total of six anti-ballistic missile programs:
* Patriot Advanced Capability-2 (PAC-2). PAC-2, already deployed and sold to a number of U.S. allies, recently was discovered to have a major operational defect: leaving it on active alert status for long time periods causes failure in a radio frequency data link. How extensive the problem is -- and thus the cost of fixing it -- is still being assessed. Taiwan plans to test fire its PAC-2 next year to see how it performs in a subtropical climate.
* Guidance Enhanced Missile-Plus or GEM+, an upgrade to PAC-2. The Army is spending at least $47 million on GEM+ to improve the PAC-2 missile guidance system.
* PAC-3. The sixth PAC-3 test, a success, finally occurred in late July after being postponed for safety reasons. It featured a cruise missile target flying below 40,000 feet. (Cruise missiles typically fly well under 1,000 feet, but the exact test altitude is classified.) The follow-on test now set for September will pit a PAC-3 against a ballistic missile type target and a PAC-2 against a simulated cruise target. The Army has already bought 52 PAC-3 missiles, including 32 in FY2000 for just under $154 million ($4.8 million each), and was to buy 40 more in FY2001. But rising program costs -- the General Accounting Office last summer put the increase at 77% to $6.9 billion compared to the 1994 projected price tag of $3.9 billion -- may cut the FY2001 buy to 32 missiles and slice the number of launchers from 22 to six.
Originally, the Army wanted 1,200 missiles. By FY2000 this had been scaled back to 1,012. Now, according to the trade publication Defense Week, BMDO's latest budget roadmap funds a mere 240 missiles (instead of an anticipated 528) over the FYDP and a program total of only 724. Meanwhile, the head of the Army's missile program predicts that "cost reduction incentives" will lower the per missile price to roughly $2.3 million, allowing the Army to buy as many as 500 more missiles which, with the original 1,200, would have put the Army within striking distance of the number they really want -- 2,200. Taiwan wants to buy six PAC-3 batteries which, if approved, could lower costs further. When operational, the U.S. system will control both the PAC-2 interceptors targeted against aircraft and PAC-3 missiles targeted against cruise and ballistic missiles. Deployment of the first complete system is scheduled for late summer 2001.
* The Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS). A multinational effort, MEADS is more mobile, transportable, and versatile than PAC-3. MEADS features 360 degree radar coverage and defense against aircraft, cruise, and theater ballistic missiles. MEADS is touted as the mid-range air defense system for the Army's new medium weight combat brigade being tested at Fort Lewis, Washington. Yet only two years ago the program almost died because the U.S. was unwilling to provide its share of the money to keep development going. A technology risk-reduction contract (for $220 million) was due to be signed this autumn but at last word is still being held up over Defense and State Department clearances for Lockheed Martin to transfer technology to its European partners. For FY2001 the Administration requested $63.2 million but only $53.5 million was authorized. The target date for initial fielding using the PAC-3 missile is 2008.
* HUMRAAM (medium range air-to-air missile on a high mobility multipurpose vehicle). The HUMRAAM is also being advertised as a "new" air defense concept that complements the short range heat-seeking anti-aircraft Stinger missile and MEADS. The radar guided HUMRAAM would be used against cruise missiles, helicopters hovering beyond range of the Stinger, and unmanned aircraft, thereby freeing MEADS to counter ballistic missile threats. Interestingly, while the Army is just starting to mount a modified air-to-air missile on a ground vehicle, the Marines have been developing a similar concept and Egypt is planning to buy ground vehicles for mounting anti-missile missiles. The Army has not yet said how much it is willing to commit to start its program.
* Arrow, a joint U.S.-Israeli project. Arrow is the first specifically designed anti-missile system to be fielded. The Arrow 2's effective range of 16 to 48 km from its launch point at altitudes between 10 to 40 km overlap the PAC-3 and THAAD. The system achieved full operational status in March, but the U.S. remains involved in system improvements. In FY2000 the U.S. allocated $82.7 million with another $53 million authorized for FY2001. Overall, some 60% of the program's $1.3 billion cost to date has been paid by the United States, which expects to use data and technology from the Arrow program for THAAD and NTW.
To all the above must be added the Army's kinetic energy anti-satellite technology program, the Space-Based Laser, and the U.S.-Israeli Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL) program to counter low flying rockets such as the Russian built 122mm Katyushas. In July, at White Sands Missile range, THEL hit a target rocket in flight for the first time. But the U.S. will not procure THEL, mainly because it is too difficult to transport -- it requires 6 vans. The United States, which has agreed to pay two-thirds of the cost, has already contributed $145 million while Israel has put in $70 million. Raytheon, the system manufacturer, is obligated to pick up 50% of any cost overruns. So far the system has cost $250 million, and Israel has added $7 million for the next test against multiple targets. The FY2000 supplemental provided $5.7 million for THEL, and the FY2001 Authorization bill provided an additional $30 million for U.S. Army High Energy Laser research.
So what does it all come to? Adding National Missile Defense (at $1.875 billion), associated sensors (Space Based InfraRed Systems -- Low and High at $810 million), and Air Force TMD and BMDO "technical operations" (at $311 million) to the theater missile defense programs detailed above, brings the total ballistic missile defense effort in the FY2001 Authorization Bill (PL 106-398) $5.112 billion.
Is anybody listening?
For more information on efforts to halt Missile Defense, contact:
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, FL. 32607
(352) 337-9274
http://www.space4peace.org
globalnet@mindspring.com
**********************************************************************
2) Belgian Second Resolution in the Case of Leonard Peltier
Fwd. from LPSG Belgium.
Ask your local newspaper to print (publish) the story!!!!
Forward a copy to:
President@whitehouse.gov
Vice.President@whitehouse.gov
First.Lady@whitehouse.gov
Mrs.Gore@whitehouse.gov
THE BELGIAN PARLIAMENT
29th June 2000
PROPOSAL FOR RESOLUTION CONCERNING LEONARD PELTIER
Defender of Human Rights for the North-American Indigenous Peoples
(filed by Mr.Lode Vanoost & c.s.)
RsumE
Leonard Peltier, member of an American Human Rights Movement, served already 24 years of imprisonement for the murders of two FBI-agents. The petitioner believes that there are concerns about tha fairness of Leonard Peltier?s trial. In his proposal he asks the government to insist with the American President to grant presidential clemency to Leonard Peltier.
Furthermore, he request the government to support the Members of US Congress' initiative for Congressional Hearings about Mr.Peltier's case.
Elucidation
The Belgian House of Representatives, having regard to its previous resolution 603/6-95/96 - unanimouly adopted on March 13, 1997, requests the Members of the United States Congress to organize a hearing into the circumstances which led to Peltier's charge and conviction of two life sentences, for the murder of two FBI agents.
The trial and sentence of Leonard Peltier is the most controversial case in the postwar judicial history of the United States. Since his sentencing, Leonard Peltier has become a symbol of the way in which the government and the white majority of the U.S., deals with the indigenous population of what is known today as the United States. In most U.S. States, and also in a great number of other countries, the Leonard Peltier Defense Committe (LPDC) and Leonard Peltier Support Groups (LPSG), have been active for 24 years of continuous struggle for justice for Leonard Peltier.
In depth documentation concerning the trial can be found in the following publications:
*Churchill, Ward & Vander Wall, Jim. The Cointelpro Papers, Documents from the FBI's Secret War Against Dissent in the United States. South End, Boston, 1990. This book situates the event leading to the firefight on the Pine Ridge Reservation in the broader political context of the persecutions of civil rights organisations during the 1960s and 1970s throughout the U.S.
*Matthiessen, Peter. In the Spirit of Crazy Horse. The Story of Leonard Peltier and the FBI's war on the American Indian Movement. Penguin, New York, 1991 The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) withheld the release of that book for eight years. In the end, the FBI was sentenced to pay all legal expenses. Important to note is that the theorem of the author remains without prejudice, and that in 1991 the book was republished in its original version.
*Sklar, Holly (ed). Trilateralism. The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World management. South End, Boston, 1980, Chapter IV. Inside the United States: Carter is No Hypocrite to the Trilateralists: 3. The U.S.Colonial Empire is as Close as the Nearest Reservation (Michael Garrity). In this chapter the author explains why the FBI accorded so much attention and effort to stop AIM in its struggle against mining on the Pine Ridge Reservation, and how the FBI purposefully targeted the AIM leaders.
Within a few years, judges involved in Peltier's trial admitted there was no evidence concerning Peltier's involvement in the murder of the two FBI agents. The only established fact is that Peltier was involved in the firefight with the FBI agents as well as three other individuals. For reasons never clarified by the court, one of the four people involved, was never brought to trial. The two others, Robideau and Butler, in a separate trial, were acquitted for reasons of legal self-defense. It is also important to note that Peltier, nor Robideau nor Butler have ever denied participating in the firefight. They have always claimed to be acting out of legal self-defense, returning fire to individuals whom they couldn't identify at that time. This is not surprising since at the exact moment of the facts, dozens of indigenous peoples on the Pine Ridge Reservation had been murdered by death squads. Non of these murders have ever been investigated. In those circumstances, the people involved had sufficient reason to fear for their lives.
The major obstacles in this case do not implicate the basic reasons for the case, but rather its institutional and ideological grounds.
The release of Leonard Peltier implicates following:
*the admission that the FBI was indeed guilty of organizing political repression in the 1960s and 1970s, however, this was already acknowledged by a congressional investigation committee headed by Douglas Pike, which ascertained a political repression campaign called COINTELPRO (Counter intelligence Program),
*the admission that the North American court system has structural shortcomings, especially the facts that in some states judges are not elected and not appointed based on their competence, the fact that appeal procedures are held by the same judges as in the court of first instance, and the fact that a judge can autonomously decide which witnesses for the defense or for the prosecution will be heard. All examples of facts that were systematically used in Peltier?s case to prevent a fair trial. These ffaws are also copiously reviewed in the last report of Amnesty International "Right for All" which in 1998 analyzed the respect for human rights in the United States; and which quotes besides the Peltier case also several similar cases such as, for example Mumia Abu-Jamal, who received the death sentence. Furthermore, this case painfully reveals that the white population in the U.S. still poignantly discriminating the indigenous population in all aspects of society.
Judge Gerald Heany admitted in a letter dated April 18, 1991, to Senator Daniel Inouye, that : "There is a possibility that the jury would have acquitted Leonard Peltier had the records and data improperly withheld from the defense been available to him in order to better exploit and reinforce the inconsistencies casting strong doubt upon the government?s case." Furthermore, the United States Government over-reacted at Wounded Knee. Instead of carefully considering the legitimate grievancess of the Native Americans, the response was essentially a military one which culminated in a deadly firefight on June 26, 1975. While the government's role in escalating the conflict into a firefight cannot serve as a legal justification for the killing of the FBI agents at short range, it can properly be considered as a mitigating circumstance. Peltier was not the only individual involved in the firefight, an action of the President was recommanded to start the "healing process". "We as a nation must treat Native Americans more fairly" Judge Heany.
Furthermore, it seems that this case severely suffers from the usual belittling and bias on inadequate understanding that generally rules when the issue of North American Indigenous Peoples is brought forward. The stereotypical image of ?cowboys and indians? is so deeply rooted in Western psyche that people hardly realize it concerns people whose ancestors have suffered one of the most bloody genecides in human history. In the 1950's one assumed the Americas in 1492 counted a mere population of about eight million people, of which approximately one million lived on what is today known as the United States. Recent scientific studies at North American universities, however, say that a more accurate extimation would be arround 145 million indigenous peoples, of which 18 million were living north of Mexico. (David E.Stannard, American Holocaust. The Conquest of the New World. Oxford University Press 1992 p 11).
The argument that the mass mortality during the colonization is due to a lack of immunity against European diseases appears to be a myth. These past years, historian analysts are more drawn to the theory that there was indeed, without a doubt, an organized campaign to annihilate the indigenous population of the Americas.
The recent readness of the Belgian government to critically investigate its own responsibility in the murder of Patrice Lumumba, and the recent book of the North American historian Adam Hochschild, (King Leopold?s Ghost. A story of Greed, Terror and heroism in Colonial Africa, 1998) concerning the slaughter of an estimated 10 million people in Freestate Congo remind us of our own past.
These and simular initiatives should make us realize that the struggle for peace and justice is a plight of all times, that respect for human rights cannot be selectively enforced but should equally be in force in hostile as well as allied countries, in dictatorial as well as democratic countries. History is irreversible. However, what is happening today falls under own responsibilities.
This resolution is an attempt to live up to the responsibility for a rather concrete case. For 24 years a fellow human being is incarcerated for a crime of which his guilt has never been proven. He is imprisoned because he stood up for the rights of his people. This resolution does not enuciate guilt or innocence of the person involved. This document only asks the U.S.President to grant executive clemency for humanitarian reasons, and that the U.S. Congress would review the entire case.
With this resolution Belgium joins the European Parliament, numerous governmental officials such as Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, JosERamos-Horta, numerous non-governmental organisations such as Amnesty International, as well as dozens Members of the U.S.Congress, who have been asking justice for Leonard Peltier for years now.
Lode VANOOST (AGALEV-ECOLO)
Proposal for resolution
The House of Representatives,
-Considering the House of Representatives resolution 603/6-95/96 adopted on March 13, 1997,
-Considering the resolutions of the European Parliament adopted on December 15, 1994 and February 11, 1999;
-Whereas Mr.Peltier in his efforts to obtain a new trial is being supported by numerous religious leaders, and a considerable number of Members of the U.S. Congress;
-Whereas several Members of the U.S.Congress have proposed to hold investigative hearings into the circumstances that led to Mr. Peltier?s indictment and sentence;
-Whereas the request for executive clemency still has not been heard by the U.S. President;
The Belgian Government requests :
-to pursue the President of the United States to take an early decision concerning Mr. Peltier's request for clemency, based on humanitarian reasons;
-to support the Members of the U.S.Congress in their endeavors to open investigative hearings in this case;
-to forward this resolution to the President and the Congress of the United States, to the European Parliament, the European Council and the Secretary General of the United Nations.
18th January 2000
Lode VANOOST (AGALEV-ECOLO)
Daniel BACQUELAINE (PRL-FDF MCC)
Hugo COVELIERS (VLD)
Martine DARDENNE (AGALEV-ECOLO)
Erik DERYCKE (SP)
Jacques LEFEVRE (PSC)
Patrick MORIAU (PS)
Marc VAN PEEL (CVP)
Ferdy Willems (VU & ID)
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Bart Jordan Update * Speakers' Schedule for Truth and Reconciliation Walk for Peltier
1) Bart Jordan Update - Venus, star of stars
Portrait in D
2) Speakers' Schedule for Truth and Reconciliation Walk
Human Rights Day 2000 - Time to Free Leonard Peltier
**********************************************************************
1) Bart Jordan Update - Venus, star of stars
Portrait in D
Bart Jordan might be the most fascinating uniquely skilled person on the face of the planet, who has used his skills as a musician, anthropologist, metrologist, mathematician, artist and expert in many ancient languages to show evidences of technologically advanced ancient civilizations on Earth, dating back to before the last Ice Age.
Newly posted on his website is a link for the musical score from one of his improvisational pieces performed on classical guitar, which was performed at Linclon Center for the Performing Arts in New York City.
Also, recently posted at BartJordan.com is his article and artwork first published in "Publick Occurrrences," August 16, 1974, entitled "Venus, star of stars."
see Bart Jordan, his story and references, now posted at Flyby News
http://www.flybynews.com/bartjordan
**********************************************************************
3) Schedule for Truth and Reconciliation Walk
Human Rights Day 2000 - Time to Free Leonard Peltier
[Forwarded from the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee]
Dear friends,
We are writing to update you on some MORE positive delevopments regarding the Leonard Peltier clemency effort. The White House officially released a statement last Monday reaffirming the President's commitment to deciding on Leonard Peltier's clemency petition before leaving office. The release prompted a media outburst. The story was covered by CNN, NPR, AP, the LA Times, USA Today, the Washington Post and numerous other papers.
We want to congratulate each of you for all of your phone calls, faxes, and letters. We have made it through a critical period, the Thanksgiving Holiday, without a denial and we are still going strong. Our advisors
suspect that the White House released the statement in order to test the waters and find out what kind of reaction would ensue.
Let's give the White House an overwhelming reaction of support for Leonard Peltier's clemency! In our last urgent telephone action, we said we would update you after December 1st. Since there has been no decision, it is important to keep up and increase, the intensity of our calls. Please continue the daily calls through December 1st and on through the month of December. There is a good chance a decision will be made after the Freedom Walk (December 10) and before the Christmas Holiday, so please hang in there and keep up the great work!
Wait! more good news. Amy Goodman of "Democracy Now" has struck again. Last week she posed questions to both Rev. Jesse Jackson and Congressman Ackerman. Here is what they said:
Amy Goodman: "Reverend Jackson, President Clinton says he's weighing executive clemency for Leonard Peltier, what are your thoughts on that? "
Jackson: "I hope that when he weighs it, he will free Peltier. He's been in jail a very long time for a crime he never committed in the first place. I hope that as an act of humanity that President Clinton will free Peltier."
Goodman: "Will you talk to him about it?"
Jackson: "I have."
Goodman: And what has he said?
Jackson: "He's weighing it."
* * * * * *
New York Congressmember Gary Ackerman, ranking Democrat on Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere under the Committee on International Relations:
Goodman: President Clinton says he's weighing executive clemency for Leonard Peltier..."
New York Congressmember Gary Ackerman: "I think he should review it. There's no term limits on justice. Sometimes with the benefit of history and hindsight, sometimes some of these cases should be reviewed. It appears that he might have gotten a very bum rap based on the temperament of the times and the fervor of the feds and the dislike for people who protest".
v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^
Call the White House Comment Line Weekdays -- (202)456-1111
Support Presidential Executive Clemency to Free Leonard Peltier
v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^
LEONARD PELTIER WALK FOR FREEDOM
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2000
NEW YORK CITY
TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
BEGINS WITH THE FREEDOM OF LEONARD PELTIER
PROGRAM:
SUNRISE CEREMONY AT BATTERY PARK-7:00am
David Chief, a citizen of the Lakota Nation and a spiritual advisor for Leonard Peltier, will lead a sunrise ceremony at 7:00am. All are welcome to come and pray for a good day, for Leonard Peltier's freedom, and for truth and reconciliation for all Indigenous Peoples.
GATHER IN UNION SQUARE 11:00am
WELCOMING AND PRAYER BY ASIBA TUBAHUTHI FROM THE LOCAL MATINECOC NATION
READING FROM LEONARD PELTIER'S PRISON WRITINGS: MY LIFE IS MY SUN DANCE,
BY EDITOR, HARVEY ARDEN
WALK TO THE UNITED NATIONS AT 12:00
Walk will be led by the delegation from the Pine Ridge Lakota Nation and Leonard Peltier's family. Several Native drum groups will sing throughout the route.
PROGRAM AT DAG HAMMARSKJOLD PLAZA NEAR UN FROM 2:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M.
Following are the names of the speakers, introductory notes and topics:
Masters of Ceremony:
ERNIE STEVENS JR. AND JEAN ANN DAY
ERNIE STEVENS, Jr. is a citizen of the Oneida nation. He is an executive officer of the National Congress of American Indians, coordinator of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, and a close friend to Leonard Peltier.
JEAN ANN DAY is a citizen of the Ho Chunk nation. She is also a coordinator of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee and a close friend to Leonard Peltier. She is a survivor of the Pine Ridge reign of terror.
FAMILY OF LEONARD PELTIER, KATHY, ALEXANDRA, AND CYRUS PELTIER
KATHY PELTIER IS LEONARD PELTIER'S DAUGHTER. ALEXANDRA AND CYRUS ARE LEONARD PELTIER'S GRANDCHILDREN.
Topic: "We want our grandfather/father home"
JENNIFER HARBURY
Attorney Jennifer Harbury is well known for her human rights work on the behalf of the Mayan people of Guatemala, and for her own struggle to save the life of her husband, a Mayan resistance leader killed by the
Guatemalan army in conjunction with the CIA. Seeing parallels between her husband's tragedy and the unjust imprisonment of Leonard Peltier, Jennifer has become an invaluable member of Leonard Peltier's legal and political defense team.
TOPIC: Short case background, summary of important issues
SURVIVORS OF THE PINE RIDGE REIGN OF TERROR: ELLEN MOVES CAMP, ROSALYN JUMPING BULL, GERALDINE JANIS, EDGARD BEAR RUNNER, FEDELIA CROSS, IVIS LONG VISITOR, DEBRA WHITE PLUME, JEAN BORDEAUX ROACH
These men and women have traveled from the Pine Ridge Lakota Nation to be here to today. Each one played an important role in the movement to maintain traditional ways of life on Pine Ridge, and each carries with them invaluable experiences and stories from which we should all learn. We very honored to have them.
MIGUEL ALFONSO MARTINEZ
Miguel Alfonso Martinez is the president of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Peoples
TOPIC: The significance of calling for Leonard Peltier's release on the anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights-Peltier's incarceration is a human rights violation.
RAMSEY CLARK
INTRO: Ramsey Clark is the former Attorney General of the Unites States and a current lawyer for Leonard Peltier. His lifetime of advocacy for human rights, including the rights of Indigenous Peoples, has won him worldwide acclaim.
TOPIC: Why the President should grant clemency to Leonard Peltier
The COLORADO SISTERS
Vera and Hortencia Colorado are Mayan citizens from Mexico who have worked tirelessly for Indigenous Rights, and have long supported the freedom of Leonard Peltier. The Colorado Sisters raise important issues for Indigenous Peoples through the use of theatre and humor.
PETER MATTHIESSEN
Peter Matthiessen is the author of the best selling book, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse. His thorough examination and documentation of the Peltier case and its background has become an important historical record. His book helped bring the case of Leonard Peltier to the forefront of the human rights community.
GLENN MARSHALL
Glenn Marshall is the President of the Mashpee Wampanoag Nation, which has long supported the release of Leonard Peltier.
Topic: The importance of Leonard Peltier's freedom to the Wampanoag Nation, and other native nations.
REVEREND MICHAEL YASUTAKE
Reverend Yasutake is the Executive Director of the Interfaith Prisoners of Conscience Project of the National Council of Churches and a priest of the Episcopal Church. He is also a Japanese American who survived the Unites State's internment camps during World War II. He has long served as a strong advocate for Leonard Peltier.
Topic: NCC support of Leonard Peltier and personal witness to Leonard Peltier's character and gift to society.
KAHN TINETA HORN
Kahn Tineta is a citizen of the Mohawk Nation who is a lifetime defender of sovereignty for Indigenous Peoples.
TOPIC: The importance of Leonard Peltier's case to struggles for sovereignty among First Nations.
KATHLEEN CLEAVER
Kathleen Cleaver is a former Black Panther, an attorney, and a committed advocate for all political prisoners.
TOPIC: Devastating effects of COINTLPRO on justified movements dedicated to uplifting communities of color, the need to free the political prisoners victimized, and update on efforts to gain investigations
LONG ISLAND NATIVE AMERICAN TASK FORCE
The Long Island Native American Task Force is a group dedicated to maintaining the cultures of the diverse tribes among the Long Island area.
TOPIC: Traditional dance and speech from elders
ALICE WALKER
Alice Walker is a Pulitzer Prize winning author and a committed human rights advocate. Her literature has been instrumental in raising consciousness around issues of racism, cultural identity, and women's issues. She is the author of many books, including The Color Purple and most recently, The Way Forward Is With a Broken Heart
DENNIS BANKS
Dennis Banks is the co-founder of the American Indian Movement.
TOPIC: open
INTERNATIONAL DELEGATION
INTRO: Together this delegation represents the broad base of support which exists in Europe for Leonard Peltier. M. Birsinger is a member of the French Parliament and he is joined by the CGT, which is the largest labor union in Europe, and MRAP one of the largest human rights NGOs in Europe. They are also joined by Julia Wright, the daughter of writer, Richard Wright and the collective to save Mumia.
TOPIC: Will read collectively written statement about broad base support for Leonard Peltier in Europe
DON MULLAN
Don Mullan is the author of two best-selling human rights books in Ireland. At age 15 he witnessed the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre in his home town of Derry, when British Paratroopers murdered 14, and wounded 13,
unarmed demonstrators. Seeing parallels between the injustices perpetrated against the Irish and Native Peoples, he has become a strong advocate for the freedom of Leonard Peltier.
TOPIC: long standing relationship between the Irish and Native peoples and the need for truth about human rights atrocities to be told in order for reconciliation to occur.
PAM AFRICA
Pam Africa is a spokesperson for the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal.
TOPIC: open
LARRY ADAMS AND DENNIS ONEIL
INTRO: Larry Adams is the president of the Mail Handlers Union of New York City and Dennis Oneil is the president of the American Postal Workers Union.
TOPIC: Labor support for Leonard Peltier
CURT GOERING
Curt Goering is the Senior Deputy Executive Director of Amnesty International
TOPIC: Amnesty International's position on Peltier
KENNETH DEER
INTRO: Kenneth Deer is a member of the Mohawk Nation and the President of the United Nations Indigenous Caucus.
TOPIC: The importance of the Leonard Peltier's case to the Indigenous Peoples internationally
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
For more information contact the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC) (785)842-5774. http://www.freepeltier.org or call the NYC Free Peltier March Hotline (212)539-6027. Leonard Peltier's book, Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance, is available from bookstores, libraries and the LPDC. Contact the Leonard Peltier Support Group of Greater New England (413)549-2739 for local efforts and transportation to NYC on 12/10. For LPSG/GNE E-mail Updates send an email to: with "Subscribe" in subject field.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
New York City <> Human Rights Day <> December 10, 2000
Truth and Reconciliation <> Peltier Walk for Freedom
**********************************************************************
Elections on Hold - Human Rights, Leonard Peltier and Myrtle Poor Bear's Tortured Testimony
The U.S. Presidential Election has divided the two party system pretty equally, and demonstrated, once again, the impact of a third party contender to benefit the opposing side of the liberal-conservative spectrum. A two-party-rule system is what it is. It happened in 1992 when Ross Perot helped Clinton, and in 2000, Nader helped Bush. You would think leaders wouldn't keep making the same mistakes. Perhaps, however, with enough humility, the U.S. could learn a thing or two from young democracies like Russia that hold Elections without the inevitable outcome of the "spoiler," as in the U.S. system for upcoming Parties. In Russia, if there is no majority rule for an election, then a runoff election would allow the peoples' choice between the two leading candidates. Is the U.S. too proud to learn from Russia, or have those who inherited an old archaic system, too corrupt?
Star Wars is on hold since President Clinton has passed the buck on advancing the expensive defensive/offensive weapon system that cannot work for the next President to decide. Gore is noncommittal and Bush wants to accelerate its development. The Bush direction could kill any chance we have to seriously contend with such crises as Global Warming and nuclear proliferation. People better learn to unite soon for human rights, justice and for our very survival.
A good opportunity for a new positive direction for human rights is on December 10, 2000. On this 52nd Anniversary of "Human Rights Day," many people around the world will be focused on the "Countdown to Clemency" campaign to help free Leonard Peltier. Peltier's family and residents of the Pine Ridge Reservation will lead a Truth and Reconciliation Walk, beginning at Noon, from Union Square to the United Nations, NYC. Speakers and cultural activities will be presented from 2:00 to 4:00 P.M. at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza. The UN has recognized Leonard Peltier as a Human Rights Defender, who could die in prison unless granted Executive Clemency. Please join this effort for Human Rights and Justice before it's too late. President Clinton has until January 20 to decide the Clemency issue, which could be a beginning for Truth and Reconciliation for Indigenous and all people. Don't wait for the next President to be elected, support Clemency Now - Free Leonard Peltier.
**********************************************************************
Call the White House Comment Line Weekdays (202)456-1111, 0
Support Presidential Executive Clemency to Free Leonard Peltier
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Send a free fax on this issue to President Clinton:
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/usa/peltier/getInvolved.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------
New York City <> Human Rights Day <> December 10, 2000
Truth and Reconciliation <> Peltier Walk for Freedom
**********************************************************************
The following articles show much progress for the freedom of Leonard Peltier.
1. An article in the Ottawa Citizen
Topic: United States judge condemns Peltier's extradition from Canada
2. An article in the Globe and Mail
Topic: Myrtle Poor Bear speaks to Canadian Justice
3. Amnesty International press release
Topic: Support for Clemency
These articles can be accessed from
http://www.freepeltier.org/progress.htm#top
The article on Myrtle Poor Bear is particularly startling and revealing on FBI Misconduct regarding the "interrogation." Although this information was broadcast on CBS TV's "Sixty Minutes" in the early 1990's, the timing of it surfacing now for the Clemency Campaign is very significant. It is important to note, once again, that an illegal land transfer occurred on the day before the shootout at the Incident at Oglala, pertaining to the exploitation of the Earth for U.S. Plutonium mining interests.
THE GLOBE & MAIL - SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2000
RETRACTION ENDS 25 YEARS OF GUILT
WOMAN WHO IMPLICATED ACTIVIST IN KILLINGS SAYS SHE WAS "FORCED" INTO IT BY FBI AGENTS
Kirk Makin, Justice Reporter, Toronto
Twenty-five years of pent-up fear and guilt gushed from Myrtle Poor Bear as she recanted the utterances that led to aboriginal activist Leonard Peltier being extradited to the United States in 1976 over the murder of two FBI agents.
"I was forced into this, and I feel very awful", the weeping woman testified, at a unique hearing held in a Toronto office tower. "I just wish that Leonard Peltier will get out of prison".
In her first public statement on the case, Ms. Poor Bear testified that she agreed to implicate Mr. Peltier in the 1975 shooting deaths of two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in North Dakota only after she had endured months of unrelenting harassment and threats from other FBI agents.
"They told me they were going to take my child away form me. They told me they were going to get me for conspiracy, and I would face 15 years in prison if I didn't co-operate. They said they had witnesses who placed me at the scene."
The 48-year-old woman said her claim that she was Mr. Peltier's girlfriend and that she saw him shoot the agents was utterly false. She testified that she has never met Mr. Peltier, and that she was actually 80 kilometres away at the time of the shooting.
The hearing held to put Ms. Poor Bear's statements on the record, was presided over by the commissioner of several high-profile inquiries - former Quebec Court of Appeal judge Fred Kaufman. The witnesses were questions by Scott Fenton, a former federal prosecutor, and Michael Code, a onetime assistant deputy attorney-general in Ontario.
(Organizers asked The Globe and Mail to delay coverage of the hearing until the U.S. election campaign was over, lest Ms. Poor Bear's testimony spark an inflamed campaign debate.)
The hearing was the latest event in a worldwide effort to free Mr. Peltier, who has languished behind bars since 1977, when he was convicted in the Murders of FBI agents Ray Williams and Jack Cooler on June 25, 1975. Mr. Welter's supporters have long believed the FBI was so incensed by the murders that they went to great lengths to frame Mr. Peltier - including eliciting false affidavits from Ms. Poor Bear in order to bamboozle Canadian authorities.
The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee intends to approach both Prime Minister Jean Chretien and U.S. President Bill Clinton with evidence from the Toronto hearing to convince them the extradition was obtained by fraud.
A member of the committee, Dianne Martin, said there is a realistic possibility Mr. Clinton may grant clemency to Mr. Peltier before he leaves office next January.
"It's not asking a lot, as a Canadian, to have an honest look at the factual foundation under which he was sent back to an unfair trial", Prof. Martin said. "A strong case has now become overwhelming."
"There is a clear pattern of [U.S.] government misconduct. We hope there will be diplomatic pressure from Canada because the only person who can do anything now is President Clinton."
Unfortunately, Prof. Martin said, Canada has dodged the Peltier controversy for years. Justice Minister Anne McLellan even sent a letter to U.S. Attorney-General Janet Reno last year saying that there seemed to be nothing untoward in the case.
"I've seen a lot of things happen in the Peltier case over the years, but that stunned me," Prof. Martin said. "She didn't just keep ducking, she added a nail to the coffin."
Mr. Coler and Mr. Williams were shot during a chaotic, daylong firefight between a large contingent of federal agents and about a dozen Indian activists on North Dakota's sprawling Pine Ridge Reservation. The agents had arrived to investigate the theft of a pair of cowboy boots.
Ms. Poor Bear told the Toronto hearing that several weeks after the shooting, FBI agents started showing up at her workplace. She was allegedly told that she would face dire consequences unless she cooperated with them.
Ms. Poor Bear said she was taken on long drives - sometimes in neighboring states - and confined, incommunicado, for days or weeks at a time in hotel rooms. She said the agents worked continuously to break her resistance.
On rare occasions, she was briefly allowed to return to her family - a daughter, her father and 10 siblings - Ms. Poor Bear said she was ordered to reveal nothing of her ordeal.
"They told me I could go home and by with my family if I signed is [a false affidavit; that they wouldn't bother me any more." Ms. Poor Bear said, "I was telling the agents I didn't want to go through with anything that I didn't know."
Ms. Poor Bear said she was eventually told that word had leaked out on the reservation that she was a FBI informant. She said the agents said that without their protection, she would be killed as a traitor by the American Indian Movement.
Ms. Poor Bear also testified that she was shown autopsy pictures of an Indian activist from Nova Scotia - Anna Mae Quash - who had just been shot to death, execution-style, and dumped in a ravine on the reserve.
"They showed me certain parts of her body that were decomposed." Ms. Poor Bear testified. "They said that's how I was going to end up if I didn't co-operate with them. They said they could kill me and get away with it. [I] was very scared. I got to the point where I believed they would do it.
"They talked to me real mean. They were threatening me mostly every day. I remember that at one point, they hung the autopsy pictures of Anne Mae up in the hotel room wall. I decided to go ahead with what they wanted me to do."
Ms. Poor Bear was drilled for hours on minute details she was expected to memorize and shown models of the murder scene, complete with the positions of each participant. Later, she was taken to see the scene in person. "I recall them saying they had to make the story very serious, because they were going to convict Leonard", Ms. Poor Bear said.
The first affidavit she sore stated that Ms. Poor Bear was far from the shooting scene that day, but that Mr. Peltier - her "boyfriend" - had confessed to her several days later.
As it turned out, Canadian officials did not see this affidavit until after the extradition was approved. Instead, they were given two other affidavits for use at the extradition proceeding. In these, Ms. Poor Bear claimed to have actually witnessed the shooting.
In 1977, the district attorney handling the Peltier murder trial quietly dropped Ms. Poor Bear from his witness list, claiming she was unstable and incredible.
Ms. Poor Bear's sister - Elaine Poor Bear-Martinez - also testified at the recent Toronto hearing and recalled Ms. Poor Bear being at home on the day of the shootout doing laundry.
Ms. Poor Bear told the hearing that the Peltier incident has marred her life. "I'm always fearing for my life - not only mine, but my family." she concluded, tears streaming down her face. "I pray for Leonard every day.
"I want him to be free just as much as you all want to see him free. I would probably rest in peace if I knew he was out of prison."
[Also see: Warren Allmand's Statement on the Leonard Peltier Case
http://www.freepeltier.org/allmand3_110199.htm#top ]
**********************************************************************
For more information contact the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC) (785)842-5774. http://www.freepeltier.org or call the NYC Free Peltier March Hotline (212)539-6027. Leonard Peltier's book, Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance, is available from bookstores, libraries and the LPDC. Contact the Leonard Peltier Support Group of Greater New England (413)549-2739 for local efforts and transportation to NYC on 12/10. For LPSG/GNE E-mail Updates send an email to: with "Subscribe" in subject field.
**********************************************************************
Peltier 7-Year Clemency Anniversary <> AI - Truth and Reconciliation Walk
19 November 1993 was when Leonard Peltier filed his petition for Presidential Executive Clemency, which normally requires a process that takes six to nine months for review. Now, finally, President Clinton recently publicly stated that he would reply to the petition soon. The following press release from the Leonard Peltier Support Group of Greater New England has more details on this case and what you can do to support a justice that is good for all people and our environment. Next, is a short blurb that was in the Boston Globe regarding Amnesty International's support of a Clemency pardon. For a better Thanksgiving, actively support the efforts and directions for the Truth and Reconciliation Walk on Human Rights Day.
Friday November 17, 2000
Boston Globe
page 2
The Nation Today
Washington, D.C.
Rights group urges a pardon for Peltier
Washington -- Amnesty International yesterday urged President Clinton to pardon Leonard Peltier, an American Indian leader who has spent 24 years in prison for killing two FBI agents during the 1975 siege at the Pine Ridge Reservation. The international human rights organization said Peltier's case was riddled with prosecutorial misconduct, perjury, fabrication of evidence, and suppression of exculpatory evidence. (Reuters)
* * * * * * * * * * *
For IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New York City <> Human Rights Day <> December 10, 2000
Truth and Reconciliation <> Peltier Walk For Freedom
On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since then December 10 has been widely recognized as "Human Rights Day." The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee is sponsoring a "Free Peltier March" at noon from Union Square, NYC to the United Nations (Dag Hammarskjold Plaza) December 10, where a candlelight vigil, speakers, cultural activities, and traditional music will be presented from 2:00 to 4:00 P.M. The walk will be led by members of the Pine Ridge Lakota Nation and members of Leonard Peltier's family.
Leonard Peltier may now be facing the most critical time ever in his campaign for freedom and indeed, his life. His only chance for a near future release lies in the hands of President Clinton by Executive Clemency. Already, seven years have passed since Leonard Peltier filed his petition, in a process that normally takes six to nine months for review. Many supporters of Leonard Peltier would welcome a Presidential Pardon for just time served. A quarter of a Century is already excessive time spent in prison, especially when formerly withheld evidences forced the government to change its position from the time of the trial to a later admission that they can't prove who actually shot the two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation June 26, 1975.
Robert Redford's film, Incident at Oglala, tells more of this story during a time still described by Pine Ridge residents as a Reign of Terror. Besides an investigation of the shoot-out with the FBI, where, tragically, three people died, the film describes circumstances of more than sixty murders in three years with high FBI presence, and to this day, these murders have not been investigated. Leonard Peltier was targeted by the FBI due to his role with the American Indian Movement. Amnesty International claims that Peltier is a political prisoner who should be "immediately and unconditionally released." Such concerns are echoed by European Parliament resolutions, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and millions of people, who believe that the freedom of Leonard Peltier is critical for human rights everywhere.
For more information on the Countdown to Clemency - Walk for Truth and Reconciliation - December 10, 2000 - contact the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC), Tel (785)842-5774 or http://www.freepeltier.org . For NYC Free Peltier March Hotline call (212)539-6027. Leonard Peltier's book, Prison Writings: My Life is My Sun Dance, was published in 1999 by St. Martins Press, and available in bookstores and LPDC. To subscribe to email updates from the Leonard Peltier Support Group of Greater New England, reply to with subscribe in subject field.
**********************************************************************
Call the White House Comment Line Weekdays (202)456-1111, 0
Support Presidential Executive Clemency to Free Leonard Peltier
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Send a free fax on this issue to President Clinton:
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/usa/peltier/getInvolved.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------
New York City <> Human Rights Day <> December 10, 2000
Truth and Reconciliation <> Peltier Walk For Freedom
**********************************************************************
Breakthrough News for Leonard Peltier * Re: through the shambles of a pseudo democracy
1) Breakthrough News for Leonard Peltier
2) Re: Going through the shambles of a pseudo democracy
3) Fwd. My mother, Palm Beach County precinct clerk
*********************************************************************
The following was received from the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
http://www.FreePeltier.org
You can subscribe directly to them for E-mail updates, (see bottom of their post). This is very good news since Leonard Peltier's petition for Presidential Executive Clemency has been dormant for nearly seven years. Please take actions to ensure justice is served. It is as simple as a telephone call to the White House Comment Line 1(202)456-1111 ext O; and to really support Leonard try to come to NYC on December 10, 2000.
From: "LPDC"
Subject: URGENT PELTIER ACTION!
Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2000 10:50:49 -0600
EXTREMELY URGENT ACTION
From: LPDC
CALL THE WHITE HOUSE FOR LEONARD PELTIER : 202-456-1111
[weekdays, business hours]
CLEMENCY MAY BE DECIDED SOON : IT'S NOW OR NEVER
Dear Friends,
We have some very exciting news for everyone ! President Clinton has publicly confirmed that Leonard's clemency petition has reached his office, and that it will be decided one way or the other in the very near future. Quite possibly, a decision could be made over the Thanksgiving holiday!
It looks like critical decisions are being made in the White House RIGHT NOW.
Congratulations to everyone who has worked so hard the last many years for Leonard. You have brought this case right up to Clinton's desk. But now we must work harder than ever for the next few weeks. We are down to the wire and this is literally a matter of life and death. It looks like Bush will be the new President, and you know what that means for clemency for Leonard.
It is now or never for telling the White House how we feel about the case. We are asking people to call every single day to the White House, starting now, and up through December 1. (We will send out new information then). While it is possible that a positive decision might take longer, we must make very sure that Leonard's case is not dropped from the list in the early stages.
The FBI camp has initiated their own phone campaign to the White House protesting clemency. WE MUST DROWN THEM OUT. Leonard's support across country is huge, but we must now make ourselves heard, more than ever.
PLEASE CALL THE WHITE HOUSE COMMENTS LINE EVER DAY THROUGH DECEMBER FIRST!
TRY TO ORGANIZE AS MANY FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS AS POSSIBLE TO MAKE THE CALLS WITH YOU!
To reach the White House Comments Line just call 202-456-1111. You will geta recording, but you can skip it by dialing "0" for the live people. What counts is that hundreds of calls come in every single day. Clinton needs to know he has our full support for Leonard's release.
You may get an operator who seems very interested in talking, or someone who does not want to talk at all and doesn't care. This doesn't matter at all either. Whoever answers your call, they must tally the total at the end of the day and send the numbers upstairs to Mr. Clinton.
Keep the message courteous and straightforward. Here is a sample :
1. Identify yourself and your state.and any nation you belong to..any job title if you wish.
2. Explain that you want Clinton to immediately and unconditionally release Mr.Peltier.
3. Explain that Mr.Peltier never got a fair trial because the FBI coerced witnesses and concealed the ballistics test reflecting his innocence.
4. Mr.Peltier especially deserves clemency because of his incredible record of good deeds behind bars, like sponsoring a Native scholarship program, adopting children in Central America, supporting battered women's
centers and substance abuse programs, and sponsoring an annual Christmas clothing and toys drive for the children of Pine Ridge.
5. Time is running out to resolve this national tragedy, because Peltier now suffers from diabetes, a heart condition and high blood pressure.
6. Releasing Mr.Peltier will be an important first step in national reconciliation between the United States government and the Native American people of this country.
If you wish to write as well as call, the White House fax number is 202-456-2461
COUNTDOWN TO CLEMENCY : FINAL PHASE : IT'S NOW OR NEVER
--LPDC
Call the White House Comments Line Today
Demand Justice for Leonard Peltier! 202-456-1111
Be in New York City December 10th
Peltier Walk For Freedom!
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-5774
www.freepeltier.org
To subscribe, send a blank message to < lpdc-on@mail-list.com >
*********************************************************************
2) Going through the shambles of a pseudo democracy
Editorial
1. Going through the shambles of a pseudo democracy
The U.S. election problem is a battle ground between two ruling parties, at everybody else's expense. Though, Ralph Nader made this point perfectly clear, he missed an excellent opportunity to unite with a more significant share of the voters, who support the platform of the Green Party, but also, want a better next four years. This remains, still, in question; yet this situation gives us another opportunity to take actions in support of democratic ideals, call for a Re-Vote in Florida. Let the people decide, rather than "irregularities.".
The following information came from
activate-northeast@egroups.com .
>1. Call the US Department of Justice and demand that there is a re-vote in Palm Beach County, Florida due to the mass confusion of the Butterfly Ballot. The number is (202) 514-2000
>2. Call the US Department of Justice, Voting Section and Civil Rights action demanding that the Butterfly Ballot in Palm Beach County, Florida should be looked at and voice your formal complaint and DEMAND that there
is a re-vote. The number is (800) 253-3931 press option 4.
>3. Call Brian Heffernan at the US Department of Justice who is handling this ALONE and demand that there is a re-vote. The number is (202)514-4755.
>4. Send an e-mail to the Director of Elections in Florida, Clay Roberts. there's a form letter available at
http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?ItemId=9237 . All you have to do is add your name and e-mail address.
--- Richard wrote:
> I am a Greenie and agree with your comments, for the most part. Just curious though why you think Ralph missed the opportunity to unite the Greens. Its a big job and he hasn't given up yet, by no means. However, I
enjoy following the various debates surrounding Ralph and would like to hear your opinion. Please hold no punches. :-)
>
> Thanks,
>
[the following has been grammatically edited from original reply]
Hi Richard,
It was an interesting choice and dilemma for Ralph Nader and the Greens in this election, and your appreciation of the debate surrounding this issue is welcomed. I believe Nader and the Greens took the conventional root of party commitment/development, but missed out in the creative trade scenario to both support gore in 2000 in swing states and to gain a much stronger Nader vote (over 5% possible) in committed states for Bush or Gore. This way the Greens would be responding to the real differences in the next four years to the environment and for social justice issues. Otherwise they could be viewed as supporting a direction of making matters getting worse before things could, if possible, improve. However, they opted for the protest vote for a system that we are stuck with now, and the Greens, in this system, most likely, would take at least eight years to be true contenders for a Presidential race. With this in mind and with the desperate scenario of our declining health in our environment, I believe the Greens would have gained a bigger base, even if they lost some Green (all the way) die hards, because they would be showing concern for the interests of most of people, and not personal party politics that appeal to a limited contingency.
I hope this response is helpful in furthering this debate. With the elections tied up, you can easily see the impact Ralph Nader had on this situation.
Many thanks for writing, Jonathan
*********************************************************************
>Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2000 10:33:15 -0800 (PST)
>From: Ben Austin
>Subject: My mother, Palm Beach County precinct clerk
the plot thickens...
>Dear friends,
>
>I don't normally send emails like this to a large block of people, certainly when it comes to my family, and certainly when the import of the issue makes it seem like the letter might travel far and wide. But so many people have asked about this story that it seems important to send it out. This is the true story of my mother, precinct clerk in Palm Beach county, Florida.
>
>My mother was a precinct clerk in Palm Beach county, Florida, election day of 2000. Mom's very good friend Leah was a precinct clerk as well. Both of them were incredibly upset during and after election day, before anyone knew the import of these specific voters. And my mother was convinced there were serious irregularities long before they gained national prominence, and she called me to say so.
>
>I note this because some Republicans are now asking if there were these irregularities, how come they were not raised until after the election? In fact, my mother and the other precinct clerks raised these issues from the moment that the polls opened in the morning; the problem is that the person they intially called on was Theresa LePore, elections supervisor of Palm Beach county. She was the source of the ballot confusion, and was uninterested in the issue.
>
>First, the paper ballot was extremely confusing to these voters. Although both major parties got a chance to review the card layout, it is not clear if any had a chance to put the actual ballot in an actual machine and punch the holes. The card is laid horizontally as you vote, and it is hard to see the holes as you punch them. And my mother, who supervised the precinct she was in (this is a paid position, and she reported directly to Ms. LePore) said the card did not even fit correctly in the ballot machine, so the holes in the card did not line up with the ballot.
>
>Anyone who thinks this was minor voter confusion has never dealt with retirees in a West Palm Beach retirement village in Florida, I promise you.
>
>My mother, following the rules, said the poll workers had been told not to help people with the cards, as it might bias the voters. My mother witnessed many, many people who voted incorrectly. Some stayed on a second line and had their cards re-done, some punched the second hole (and thus were probably thrown out), and some found out they voted for Buchanan after they had deposited their cards in the ballot box, and there was thus nothing they could do.
>
>Mom called me up to complain about this after the elction, and she called me up again on Thursday, very upset after reading a story in the New York Times (Nov. 9 2000, p. B6). The Times story states:
>
>After numerous complaints were received on Tuesday morning, Ms. LePore issued this directive to the county's 106 precincts: Attention all poll workers. Please remind all voters coming in that they are to vote only for one (1) presidential candidate and that they are to punch the hole next to the arrow next to the number next to the candidate they wish to vote for.
>
>Mom never received this directive, and she believes that if anyone knew they could have helped people vote their preference, the outcome would have been very different. Instead, my mother and the others were trying to do the right thing, and they felt that helping explain the ballot to these people would have been helping them to vote for Gore, something she didn't feel was proper. These women are honest to a fault.
>
>Leah did receive the directive, but not until 4pm on election day, and only by accident; someone was coming to visit from the main office and told her about it. In the mean time, my mother and Leah (and most of the precinct clerks) had been desperately trying to call the county office. They had been given a phone number by Ms. LePore and told that the phone line would be staffed throughout the day. They were told to call if there were any problems.
>
>Mom tried to call starting at 7:30am, calling straight through when polls closed, but she got a busy signal the entire time. But mom was at a polling station with only a pay phone, so she had to deposit coins each time, and with long lines waiting for her, she was becoming increasingly frustrated.
>
>Leah was precinct chief at the retirement village where they live, and ran a polling station at the clubhouse. Having a more modern facility, Leah tried on the phone as well, and when she couldn't get through, she called the operator to ask her why the phone was busy. Leah had the presence of mind to get the operator's number (history is made by people like Leah) when the operator told her the phone was off the hook, meaning nobody was on the line the entire day. Evidently, the supervisor's office just didn't want to hear the complaints.
>
>Leah then faxed the supervisor's office with her concerns at noon and again at 2pm. Nobody called Leah back until 5pm, when she heard from Ms. LePore, with the following words "don't bother me."
>
>So as this news starts to be spun and re-spun, let me tell you a few things I am certain to be true: -I can't argue intent either way, but the supervisor' office in Palm Beach county is at the very least unable to carry out an election in which these people have their say
>
>-These people started trying to fix the problem from the moment polls opened, and were fought along the way. This is not about crying about the election once it is over.
>
>It pains me to see the issue being politicized by both sides. Gore has no place having his advisor Daley make statements that after a recount, Gore will emerge victorious; and Bush has no place saying that he is the victor, or setting up a transition team. In fact, the idea that Bush and his brother were together on election night, with Jeb Bush promising to "deliver Florida," draws a picture at least to me with the semblance of impropriety, especially now that we have seen the results so askew. I hope everyone will pay attention to the facts here, and let the people of South Florida have the same opportunity to vote that the rest of us had.
>
>You are free to send this to anyone you wish.
>
>Ben Austin
*************************************************************
Going through the shambles of a pseudo democracy
Editorial: Going through the shambles of a pseudo democracy
The U.S. election problem is a battle ground between two ruling parties, at everybody else's expense. Though, Ralph Nader made this point perfectly clear, he missed an excellent opportunity to unite with a greater number of the voters, who support the platform of the Green Party, but also, want a better next four years. This remains, still, in question; yet this situation gives us another opportunity to take actions in support of democratic ideals, call for a Re-Vote in Florida. Let the people decide, rather than "irregularities.".
The following information came from
activate-northeast@egroups.com .
>1. Call the US Department of Justice and demand that there is a re-vote in Palm Beach County, Florida due to the mass confusion of the Butterfly Ballot. The number is (202) 514-2000
>2. Call the US Department of Justice, Voting Section and Civil Rights action demanding that the Butterfly Ballot in Palm Beach County, Florida should be looked at and voice your formal complaint and DEMAND that there is a re-vote. The number is (800) 253-3931 press option 4.
>3. Call Brian Heffernan at the US Department of Justice who is handling this ALONE and demand that there is a re-vote. The number is (202)514-4755.
>4. Send an e-mail to the Director of Elections in Florida, Clay Roberts. there's a form letter available at
http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?ItemId=9237 . All you have to do is add your name and e-mail address.
**********************************************************************
Strategic Voting and the Sierra Club Petitions Nader
The CBS show, Sixty Minutes II, which was aired last Tuesday on U.S. Missile Defense and evidence of U.S. Government and Contractor fraud, was simply powerful television. Millions of viewers got to see a taped live telecast of Command Headquarters at the Pentagon to witness the second of three rigged missile defense test failures. That last failed test cost U.S. taxpayers about $100 million. Dr. Nira Schwartz, a soft-spoken former TRW employee whistle blower, is like the mouse that roared. Her honesty and courage, and association with Dr. Ted Postol of MIT, is truly inspiring, with all the best elements of their being true American heroes. The show ended with the positions of George Bush and Al Gore on missile defense; both were in favor of current missile defense work, but the Bush/Cheney ticket would be much more aggressive in financing this expensive, wasteful and deceitful direction.
1) Strategic Voting and the Nader Trader
2) Sierra Club, Petitioners ask Nader to Stop in Swing States
**********************************************************************
1) Strategic Voting and the Nader Trader
With such a tight election brewing, our communications via the Internet could make all the difference in the first election of the 21st Century. Many folks are highly principled in their voting for Ralph Nader and believe that the voting of a lesser evil is still evil, but you can always look at this another way and realize that the pathway to hell is paved with the best of intentions. A win/win solution is a possible solution to have your cake and to eat it, too.
The following is from http://www.nadertrader.org
What's a Nader Trader?
A Nader Trader is someone who is leaning toward Ralph Nader in a swing state, but agrees to discuss his or her vote with a Gore-voting friend in a state that's strongly expected to go for Bush. In other words, you might want to vote for Gore in your swing state, while your friend casts a vote for Nader in a Bush-safe state, where it will not do harm to the Gore/Lieberman ticket. It's an easy way to tip the electoral balance away from Bush while preserving the national totals for the Green Party. If enough people consider this option, there is a very real chance that the Green Party's power will be increased AND that George W. Bush and his cronies will be kept out of the White House.
If you're a Gore supporter in a state that's strongly expected to go for Bush, phone or email a friend in a swing state who you think might be leaning toward Nader. If you're a Nader supporter in a swing state, contact a friend in a secure state for Bush. Even if you don't fit these categories, you can still play a crucial part by passing on this idea through forwarding this via email, telling as many friends as possible so that everyone hears about it by election day. Encourage friends who may receive a partial email to visit
http://www.nadertrader.org for more information.
Where are the swing states?
The state-by-state information at http://www.abcnews.com has been keeping a running assessment of what
states are considered tossups, and they now include information about how strongly each state is leaning toward one candidate. Don't just guess about the status of yours-- visit the site (and others like it) or read on.
At the time of this writing (Wednesday, 11/1/00), there are over 150 electoral votes among tossup states.
Tossup States:
Washington
Oregon
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Michigan
Iowa
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Florida
Tennessee
West Virginia
Missouri
Arkansas
New Mexico
New Hampshire
Maine
Many voters in these tossup states would like to cast a vote for Nader, but are unwilling to put Bush in the White House. Are you one of them? If so, contact friends and family about moving your Nader vote out of your swing states. Bring a Gore vote from a Bush-secure state into your swing state. Move your Nader vote to a Bush state.
Where are the Bush-secure states?
Even the quickest look at the electoral map will make you realize that there are a lot of states that are secure for Bush. There are millions of Gore voters in these states who would love to cast a meaningful vote in this election. They're currently stuck in a state that will go for Bush. These Gore voters in Bush-secure states should contact friends and family about bringing a vote for Nader into their state while their desire to vote for Gore will appear in a swing state.
Bush-Secure States Include:
Texas
Mississippi
Alabama
Georgia
South Carolina
North Carolina
Virginia
Montana
Idaho
Wyoming
North and South Dakota
Isn't California secure for Gore?
Nader Traders should realize that California is not a secure state for Gore. This cannot be overemphasized. Recent polls have shown a once-strong California lead for Gore has eroded, leaving California as merely leaning toward Gore with significant support for Nader. Many California voters have seen recent articles in the LA Times and other papers about the threat of Nader to Gore's chances in California. Gore voters in California should not switch their votes to Nader under any circumstances.
California voters interested in Nader should contact friends and family in Bush-safe states. Move those Nader votes down to Texas where they won't hurt anybody!
How might this help Nader's candidacy?
The benefits of the Nader Trader idea for the Gore/Lieberman campaign are obvious. But the idea will also almost certainly help Nader and the Green Party as well. Potential Nader supporters who had been reluctant (but willing) to vote for Gore can now be encouraged to find partners in other states, actually raising Nader's national vote total! Thus, it's in the best interest of all Nader and Gore supporters to work together to spread the word about Nader Trader.
Is Ralph Nader on the ballot in all 50 states?
No, and NaderTraders should take this into account when talking with friends and family. The map on Nader's official site currently shows that North Carolina, Oklahoma, and South Dakota are the three states where Nader is neither on the ballot nor will be counted as a write-in. Write-ins for Nader will be allowed in Georgia, Indiana, Wyoming, and Idaho. Ralph is on the ballot in the remaining states.
Is it legal?
"A spokesperson at the U.S. Justice Department, which investigates potential instances of voter fraud, said it is, since the sites 'serve as a clearing house. There is no pecuniary exchange, and it is an agreement amongst private parties, no legal violation there in terms of violation fraud. It definitely is an innovative campaign technique, to say the least.' " (excerpted from the MSNBC article of 10/27, reachable through our media page.)
There's no way for authorities to know how or why you as an individual casts your secret ballot. Any agreement with a friend is informal, based on your personal relationship, and is not a legal contract. Since you're contacting a personal friend about being a Nader Trader, you can be sure your faith isn't wasted. You'll feel good about keeping Bush out of the White House, and you'll feel good about voting for progressive politics, too.
A vote for Nader on November 7 does not have to put George W. Bush in the White House.
**********************************************************************
2) Sierra Club, Petitioners ask Nader to Stop in Swing States
To: Ralph Nader
We, the undersigned, endorse the following letter to Ralph Nader from Carl Pope, Executive Director of The Sierra Club. Furthermore, we respectfully call upon candidate Nader to cease and desist from campaigning in swing states in the 2000 presidential election, for the many reasons stated below.
Ralph Nader
Nader 2000
PO Box 18002
Washington, DC 20036
Dear Ralph:
Yesterday you sent me (and many other environmentalists) a long letter defending your candidacy and attacking "the servile mentality" of those of us in the environmental community who are supporting Vice-President Gore.
I've worked alongside you as a colleague for thirty years.
Neither the letter nor the tactics you are increasingly adopting in your candidacy are worthy of the Ralph Nader I knew.
The heart of your letter is the argument that "the threat to our planet articulated by Bush and his ilk" can now be dismissed. But you offer no evidence for this crucial assertion. Based on the polls today Bush is an even bet to become the next President, with both a Republican Senate and a Republican House to accompany him.
You have referred to the likely results of a Bush election as being a "cold shower" for the Democratic party. You have made clear that you will consider it a victory if the net result of your campaign is a Bush presidency.
But what will your "cold shower" mean for real people and real places?
What will it mean for tens of millions of asthmatic children when Bush applies to the nation the "voluntary" approach he's using in Texas to clean up the air. And what about his stated opposition to enforcing environmental standards against corporations?
What will it mean for Americans vulnerable to water pollution when Bush allows water quality standards to be degraded to meet the needs of paper mills and refineries as he has consistently done in Texas, most recently at Lake Sam Rayburn? And what if he eliminates federal financial support for both drinking water and water pollution, as his budget calls for and his record in Texas (46th in spending on drinking water) suggests?
What will it mean for communities of color and poverty located near toxic waste sites, when Bush applies his Texas approach of lower standards and lower polluter liability to toxic waste clean-up?
What will a Bush election mean to the Gwich'in people of the Arctic, when the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is turned over the oil companies and the calving grounds of the Porcupine Caribou herd on which they depend are destroyed and despoiled?
What will it mean for the fishing families of the Pacific Northwest when Bush amends the Endangered Species Act to make extinction for the endangered salmon a legally acceptable option? If he refuses to remove the dams on the Snake River or reduce timber cutting levels to preserve salmon?
What will it mean for millions of rural Americans whose livelihood, health and communities are being destroyed by unregulated factory feeding operations, if Bush weakens the Clean Water Act? When he appoints Supreme Court justices who complete the task of shutting down access to federal courts for citizens trying to enforce environmental laws?
What will it mean for the wildlife that depend upon our National Forests when Bush undoes the Clinton-Gore Administration reforms, reverses their roadless area protection policy, and restores the timber industry to the mastery of the forests and the Forest Service that it enjoyed under his father? If he doubles, or triples, the cut on those Forests?
What will it mean for millions of people in Bangladesh and other low-lying countries when an American refusal to confront the problem of global warming unleashes the floods and typhoons of a rising ocean upon them?
Your letter addresses none of these real consequences of a Bush victory. Nor has your campaign. Instead, you indulge yourself in the language of academic discourse when you claim:
"Bush's "old school" allegiance to plunder and extermination as humanity's appropriate relationship to our world speaks a language effectively discounted by the great tradition of naturalists from John Muir to David Brower. Bush's blatant anti-environmentalism will lose corporate favor as it loses popular support. It is a language of politics fading rapidly, and without a future."
Candidate Bush may well be speaking a fading language. So was candidate Reagan in 1980 when he ranted that trees caused air pollution. It is power, however, not language, that determines policy. President Bush would be vested with the powers of the government of the United States, and he is an even more devoted servant of environmental counter-revolution than Reagan ever was.
Because your letter is couched in this language, so divorced from the real world consequences of your candidacy, and the real world choices that face Americans, it is difficult to respond to all of its selective misrepresentations and inaccuracies. A few samples, however, may show you why I am so disappointed in the turn your candidacy has taken:
You claim that "Earth in the Balance" was "an advertisement for his calculated strategy and availability as an environmental poseur." Can you offer a single piece of evidence to support this quite astonishing statement?
You claim that the Clinton Administration stood up to the oil industry on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge only because "focus groups have shown him he cannot give" it up. In fact, most polls show that the public is somewhat split on this issue, and there are certainly no focus groups I know of showing that it is a third-rail which no President can cross at his peril. Can you cite your evidence?
You lament that the Administration has "set aside lands not in National Parks, but rather in National Monuments...." You are surely aware that a President cannot legally create national parks, which require an act or Congress; nor can you be under the misapprehension that this Congress with Don Young as the head of the House Resources Committee and Frank Murkowski as his counterpart in the Senate would have designated these areas as parks however long a battle Clinton and Gore might have fought. No, you simply took a cheap shot, and ignored the facts.
You have also broken your word to your followers who signed the petitions that got you on the ballot in many states. You pledged you would not campaign as a spoiler and would avoid the swing states. Your recent campaign rhetoric and campaign schedule make it clear that you have broken this pledge. Your response: you are a political candidate, and a political candidate wants to take every vote he can. Very well -- you admit you are a candidate -- admit that you are, like your opponents, a flawed one.
Irresponsible as I find your strategy, I accept that you genuinely believe in it. Please accept that I, and the overwhelming majority of the environmental movement in this country, genuinely believe that your strategy is flawed, dangerous and reckless. Until you can answer how you will protect the people and places who will be put in harm's way, or destroyed, by a Bush presidency, you have no right to slander those who disagree with you as "servile."
You have called upon us to vote our hopes, not our fears. I find it easy to do so. My hope is that by electing the best environmental President in American history, Al Gore, we can move forward. My fear is that you, blinded by your anger at flaws of the Clinton-Gore Administration, may be instrumental in electing the worst.
Sincerely yours,
Carl Pope
Executive Director
The Sierra Club
Please Note: While the letter above was written and distributed publicly by Carl Pope, neither he nor the Sierra Club have been involved in any way in creating this petition based on that letter. All those responsible for establishing this petition are listed below.
Sincerely,
You can sign and comment on this letter at
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?nader1
Note: Although Flyby News considers the statement in the last paragraph of the above letter that Al Gore would be the best environmental President in American history as an exaggeration, we encourage you to sign and comment on this letter with hopes of encouraging the Green Party and Ralph Nader to consider the significant difference for the next four years in comparison with George Bush as President.
======================================================================
Asked how he would feel on Nov. 8 if [George W. Bush] was elected, he smiled, and even seemed to suggest he would prefer that outcome. "A bumbling Texas governor would galvanize the environmental community as never before," he said. "The Sierra Club doubled its membership under James Watt." --NYT, 11/1/00
The Bush Watch: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3750/bush.htm
**********************************************************************
Special Endorsement Issue - CBS 60 Minutes II on Missile Defense - Peltier Benefit Press Release
It is about a week from the U.S. Presidential Elections with much debate on a Nader vs. Gore vote that could swing the election to Bush. Four years with George Bush as President could prove disastrous. He is a bigger supporter of big oil, missile defense, Reaganomics, and a racist and cruel prison industrial complex. Based on these and many other issues, including the best situtation for Leonard Peltier, Flyby News is endorsing Al Gore in tightly contested states and Ralph Nader / Winnona LaDuke of the Green Party in states where a vote doesn't jeopardize accelerating policies that threaten irreversible harm to our environment. Flyby News' win/win strategy for Al Gore and the Green Party is in concern for the planet and an opportunity for better choices in 2004.
Another Flyby News Endorsement is for Carla Howell,
http://CarlaHowell.org
who is a Libertarian Candidate challenging Ted Kennedy's seat for Senator of Massachusetts. Carla Howell is for small and efficient government/military, individual freedom and the transformation of the criminal justice system by ending the prohibition of drugs. She is clearly spoken with an intelligent transformative agenda. We need significant change, sooner rather than later, without making matters worse.
Please, make your vote count November 7!
1) Maximizing Ralph: The Free Nader Vote
2) 60 Minutes II, On Tuesday October 31
2 Part Special On Star Wars
3) News Release - Peltier Benefit
Countdown to Clemency
**********************************************************************
1) Maximizing Ralph: The Free Nader Vote
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=9926
Maximizing Ralph: The Free Nader Vote
Don Hazen, AlterNet
October 10, 2000
For liberals and progressives (and any radicals or anarchists who are voting), it's getting close to the time to fish or cut bait in the presidential election. The choice this year appears to be a stark one: vote enthusiastically for Ralph Nader, whose critique of corporate power is filled with outrage and overwhelming facts and figures, or hold your noise and vote for Al Gore, who -- in supporting increased military spending, massive prison expansion, the murderous drug war, the current health care system and much more -- is neither liberal nor progressive.
No issue has dominated liberal and progressive political debate more this election cycle than the Gore/Nader dilemma. Many pages of rhetoric and much public hand-wringing has gone into deciding who to vote for, especially in lefty magazines like The Nation and In These Times, on progressive web sites like TomPaine.com and NewsforChange.com, and in public gatherings like the big Nation event in LA during the Democratic Convention and a recent conference in New York called "Independent Politics in the Global Age."
The Nader vote is risky, according to the conventional wisdom, because it could be a vote for Bush, who would turn back the clock of social progress. The Gore vote is the safe one, the infamous "lesser of two evils." Voting safe suggests protecting such cherished goals like worker's rights and a women's right to chose.
But is this conventional wisdom correct? Must we choose between idealism and pragmatism? Must we fall back to a candidate we don't want, when there is a candidate who is articulating virtually every issue we care about with clarity and intelligence? The answer is a clear no -- the Nader/Gore dichotomy is a big exaggeration. Here's why.
The overwhelming majority of states are shoe-ins for either Bush or Gore. In fact, their campaigns have already decided that more than 35 states where there are significant leads for one candidate aren't worth fighting over, and their voters don't deserve a nickel's worth of political ads. In New York, for example, Gore is ahead by 19 points. Why would the parties squander their soft money there?
Likewise, why would a progressive New Yorker squander their vote on Gore?
The Ivins Rule
Given the nature of our winner-take-all, corporate-money-drenched democracy, many believe that voting isn't the best way to create social progress. For them, voting is tactical; it's about setting the agenda and holding politicians accountable. In this election, progressives who feel that way have an opportunity to make a significant statement, to send a loud and clear message to the political establishment -- we won't let our issues be left out of politics anymore.
[for a Reference Article by Molly Ivins on Star Wars
http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby/ref/bonk.htm ]
Actually, the concept is pretty simple, as the ever-wise Molly Ivins points out.
She has written:
"My voting philosophy is simple: In the primaries, go with your heart; in the finals, vote your brain.... The point here is to move the debate. I am so sick of having to listen to Newt-Gingrich, Rush-Limbaugh Republicans and the Democrats who keep caving to them that I'll vote Nader in a New York minute. OK, that's because I live in Texas, where a vote for Nader is a 'free vote.' Our electors are going to Dubya no matter how Democrats here vote, so for us this is the equivalent of a primary vote: Go with your heart. The same is true in states with the reverse situation. Massachusetts and New York will go Democratic no matter how the progressives vote; and if we can get Nader and the Green Party the 5 percent they need to qualify for federal spending in 2004, we will, in fact, move the debate. There's every reason to do it, and no reason not to. As for you voters in swing states, where you might actually make a difference, why don't we wait and see how it looks in November?"
This tidbit of wisdom will be forever known as the Ivins Rule. Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel calls the Ivins Rule "strategic voting." But hey, shouldn't all voting be strategic?
As sociologist Harry Levine reminds us, "election results nowadays are very knowable -- not the exact percentage of the vote, but the outcome and likely range of victory. Gore, Lieberman, Bush and Cheney are all campaigning like mad in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Missouri, Florida and a few other states because those are the states where the elction is turning, where it's close. The rest of the states are fairly certain to go one way or the other, and there are good guesses about the percentage."
Why is voting for Nader without risk possible? Because of the Electoral College, it makes no difference if Gore or Bush win a particular state by one vote or by a million. The president is not elected by the popular vote, but by a majority (270) of the 538 electoral votes. These electoral votes are cast by state, and it's winner-take-all within each state. Thus, a Nader vote has no chance of "spoiling" the outcome for Al Gore unless it potentially changes the outcome within each state. And for 90 percent of the states (including the biggest ones), that's not going to happen.
Many articulate Goreites have missed this point, and insist on hammering home the spoiler argument. Of course, we need to consider their motivation. From Paul Wellstone to Barney Frank, Jesse Jackson (both Senior and Junior, although at least Junior tried to get Nader into the presidential debates) to Bob Borosage, Joe Conason and on and on, they are elected officals who need the Democrats to get themselves reeclected, or people with funding ties to trade unions deeply invested in a Gore victory, or pundits with sources of inside information in White House establishment, etc, etc.
It's not that these Gore apologists should be completely blamed. These guys are practicing the pragmatic politics that works for them, a position they think is the "left wing of the possible." But working constantly within the system and losing touch with the larger progressive base -- especially with the many disgusted voters who have dropped out -- can backfire on you in the end. Much more than a solid Gore victory is possible in this election. If progressives vote smart, we could elevate the Nader populist critique to much larger audiences.
To make the numbers case is Steve Cobble, a Nader supporter but one who, as an advisor for Jesse Jackson and many others, has earned a reputation as one of the most acute analysts of voter patterns and the arcane machinations of the political system. Cobble broken down the numbers in an article for TomPaine.com, and come to this conclusion:
"Except for a very small number of states, progressives have a free vote. They can vote their conscience for Ralph Nader, and help him get the 5 percent he needs to build a new fourth party. In at least two-thirds of the country, and perhaps as many as nine states out of ten, a vote for Ralph Nader is not a vote for George Bush. It's really a vote for Ralph Nader."
Here is Cobble's run down, state by state:
(1) Safe for Bush (17 states): Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wyoming.
In these states, every progressive can vote for Nader knowing that they are not endangering the Supreme Court in any way.
(2) Leaning toward Bush (7 states): Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Nevada, New Hampshire.
Same basic rule -- in these states, progressives can vote for Ralph safe in the knowledge that none of these states are absolutely necessary to build a winning electoral coalition for Gore.
(3) Safe for Gore (15 states): California, Connecticut, D.C., Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee, West Virginia, Vermont.
In these states, progressives can not only vote safely for Nader, they can each recruit one or two other friends to vote for Ralph, secure in the knowledge that George Bush has given up (or will give up in early October) on winning these electoral votes.
(4) Leaning toward Gore (7 states): Delaware, Iowa, Michigan, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, Wisconsin.
These states are likely to end up in Gore's column, unless he badly blows the debates. If they do maintain his current lead, then progressives are secure in voting for Nader.
(5) Toss-up (5 states): Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio.
In these five swing states, the Ivins Rule applies most strongly -- check the state polls right before election day, then make your judgment.
The Moore Rule
There is another complementary take on the Ivins Rule -- the Michael Moore rule:
"If you didn't vote at all in 1996, then you are free to vote for Ralph Nader no matter where you live. As a non-voters, you are part of the biggest party of all, and you should come to the polls to help build a fourth party that can offer you more choices in future elections."
Moore goes on to note that if non-voters show up at the polls for Ralph, they are likely to vote for Democrats in state and local elections, since most races don't have Green Party candidates on the ballot. In that scenario, Gore and the Democrats will owe Nader a big thank you, especially if the extra voters help secure the House or Senate for the Dems.
Cobble makes a similar appeal:
"If it bothers you that you might be a 'spoiler,' then follow the [Ivins Rule] and you won't risk it. If it doesn't bother you, then let's spend the last few weeks identifying and turning out the 5 percent we need to build an alternative (while taking back the House from the remaining Gingrich crowd at the same time, and maybe even the Senate from Helms and Hatch).
"I support Ralph Nader because he is a genuine American hero, a leader of unquestioned integrity, and a lifelong progressive. He is campaigning on the issues that I believe will most affect the earth in the next few decades -- the impact of globalization on working people and the environment, the rising inequality in wealth, and the increasing corporate domination of democracy."
If these arguments from Cobble and Ivins and Moore can't calm the nerves of jittery progressives everywhere, it may be that nothing can. But with Gore creeping ahead in the polls -- he has 45 percent to Bush's 41 in the very comprehensive American Research Group poll -- it may be a victory for both the Democrats and the Greens come November.
**********************************************************************
2) 60 Minutes II, On Tuesday October 31
2 Part Special On Star Wars
Next Tuesday (Oct. 31) at 9pm EST (check local listings to confirm time), 60 Minutes II on CBS will air a special two-part program on Star Wars, focusing on Nira Schwartz, the whistleblower at TRW, and Dr. Ted Postol, the MIT physicist whose letter to the White House detailing inherent weaknesses in the Star Wars program was classified as secret.
This is an excellent opportunity to write a brief letter to the editor of your local paper denouncing the Star Wars coverup. Below is a sample letter. Feel free to modify or write your own letter.
To the Editor:
The recent 60 Minutes II show on Star Wars national missile defense confirms that the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and the contractors working on Star Wars are more keen on protecting their own jobs and profits than protecting the American people. Now it is plain for everyone to see, that for $70 billion the taxpayers get a system that cannot distinguish between a missile and a decoy, and an illegal attempt by the government to cover up that fact. It's time to put an end to this massive corporate welfare program and seek real security through the proven process of arms control.
Sincerely,
Your Name
A few tips before you submit your letter:
* Know your paper's policy about length requirements and deadlines,
* Include your name, address, and phone number to allow for newspaper confirmation,
* Don't forget follow-up. If your leter is not printed immediately, resubmit an edited form with a slightly different angle.
If your letter is published, _PLEASE_ send us an original (if possible) or
at least a good clean copy.
Good luck!!
James C. Bridgman
Research & Resource Coordinator
Peace Action Education Fund
mailto:jbridgman@peace-action.org
http://www.peace-action.org
202.862.9740x3041
fax: 202.862.9762
1819 H St., NW, #425
Washington, DC 20006
**********************************************************************
3) News Release - Peltier Benefit
Countdown to Clemency
Benefit for Leonard Peltier, Northampton, MA
Thursday, November 9, 2000 7:00-10:00 P.M.
Leonard Peltier Support Group
E-mail Updates
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
Gina Chiala, Pat Benabi, Jean Day
P.O. Box 583, Lawrence, KS 66044
Tel: 785-842-5774, Fax: 5796
http://www.FreePeltier.org
The Leonard Peltier Support Group of Greater New England is sponsoring music benefits and meetings in support of Native American Activist, Leonard Peltier. The program presented at the Iron Horse Music Hall on October 19 was a success, featuring an exciting blend of speakers, readings from Leonard Peltier's book called Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance and more than four hours of creative, diverse music by four excellent bands. The next event is scheduled Thursday, November 9 at the Fire and Water Cafe from 7:00 to 10:00 P.M. with acoustic sets by Abdul Baki, Rob Skelton, Jennifer Greer and special guests.
"The purpose of these events," said organizer Jonathan Mark, "is to build a momentum and support for an international action for Leonard Peltier." Many individuals from the Pioneer Valley will be joining people from around the world to participate in the "Free Peltier March" on Sunday, December 10, noon from Union Square to the United Nations on the anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The United Nations has recognized Leonard Peltier as a Human Rights Defender. People interested in bus transportation to NYC from central New England can contact Nicole at 413-586-4632 or , or come early to the Fire and Water Benefit November 9 at 6:00 P.M. for an organizational meeting.
Leonard Peltier may now be facing the most critical time ever in his campaign for freedom and indeed, his life. His only chance for a near future release lies in the hands of President Clinton by Executive Clemency. Already, seven years have passed since Leonard Peltier filed his petition (in a process that normally takes six to nine months). At this point, Leonard and many supporters would welcome a Presidential Pardon "for time served." This is quite reasonable since formerly withheld evidences forced the government to change its position from the time of the trial to later admitting that they couldn't prove who actually shot the two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1975.
Robert Redford's film, Incident at Oglala, tells more of this story and the surrounding circumstances of a time still described by Pine Ridge residents as during the Reign of Terror. Sixty-three Traditional Native Americans were killed from 1973 to 1976. Amnesty International claims Leonard Peltier is a political prisoner, who should be "immediately and unconditionally released." Such concerns are echoed by European Parliaments, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and millions of people, who believe that Leonard Peltier's freedom is critical for human rights everywhere.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Call the White House Comment Line Today (202)456-1111
Support Presidential Executive Clemency to Free Leonard Peltier
FREE PELTIER MARCH -- DECEMBER 10 -- NYC -- http://www.FreePeltier.org
**********************************************************************
TV American Justice: Murder on a Reservation * Hopeful Message from Leonard via Harvey Arden *
1) Hopeful Message from Leonard via Harvey Arden
2) American Justice: Murder on a Reservation
World Premiere,
Tues. October 17 at 9-10pm ET/PT
3) Benefit Music Event to Support Clemency for Leonard Peltier
**********************************************************************
Post Cassini Flyby News features reports regarding human rights, justice, disarmament of weapons of mass destruction, peace in space, environmental and indigenous issues. Leonard Peltier is an indigenous rights activist who has been unjustly imprisoned for over 24 years despite the total lack of evidence against him. He is considered by Amnesty International to be a political prisoner who should be "immediately and unconditionally released." Formerly withheld evidence casting serious doubt on Mr. Peltier's guilt forced the government to admit that they could not prove who was actually guilty of the crime he was convicted of and yet, he remains behind bars. Because of clear indications that he was unfairly targeted due to his key role in the American Indian Movement, Leonard Peltier is often seen as a symbol of the US government's attempts to silence those seeking positive change for Native communities. Now Leonard Peltier is facing the most critical time ever in his campaign for freedom and indeed his life. His only chance for a near future release lies in the hands of President Clinton through a grant of Executive Clemency. Now is the time for us to join our voices together in making a call for justice too loud to be ignored. December 10 will mark the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Leonard Peltier has been officially recognized as a Human Rights Defender by the United Nations, and we must insist that the US apply human rights to its original peoples. Come join the Leonard Peltier March For Freedom on Dec.10 in New York City at 9:30 a.m. (Exact location to be announced.)
To Download a flier -
COUNTDOWN TO CLEMENCY!
LEONARD PELTIER MARCH FOR FREEDOM
HUMAN RIGHTS DAY - DECEMBER 10, 2000 NEW YORK CITY
http://www.freepeltier.org/countdown_flyer1.htm#top
**********************************************************************
1) Hopeful Message from Leonard via Harvey Arden
>From: JTRoad@aol.com
>Date: Sun, 15 Oct 2000 11:47:22 EDT
>Subject: HOPEFUL NEWS FROM LEONARD PELTIER...
EVERYONE--
Leonard called me from Leavenworth just a few moments ago (Sun 10:45AM)... he's in unusually high spirits, and says he has reason to believe that "something good" is about to happen soon. He said he couldn't say more right now, but he's very hopeful of getting out. I'm tremendously heartened to hear that from Leonard. He's rarely sounded so optimistic.
As you may know, I've been running a "WRITE-IN LEONARD PELTIER FOR PRESIDENT CAMPAIGN" all year, winning commitments from many many thousands of people around the country to cast their protest ballots for Leonard.
I asked him just now if I should continue with this "LEONARD 4 PREZ CAMPAIGN," and he tells me, "Harvey, I appreciate your efforts, but tell all those who were going to vote for me that I release them from their commitment...and suggest to them, if they want to help me, to vote for Al Gore for President...that's what I would do if I could vote, and that's what I hope every one of my supporters will do..."
PLEASE send this message TODAY to ALL you know!
Harvey Arden
Editor of Leonard Peltier's PRISON WRITINGS:
MY LIFE IS MY SUN DANCE
=============
Editor's Note:
This November 19 marks the 7th year of the filing of the Executive Clemency Petition by Leonard Peltier. Although Bill Clinton's campaign office in 1992 gave clear indications that he would give this case immediate "fair and impartial review" the case has been stagnant. There is so much corruption in the "Law of the Land" with White House politics, and the threat of the escalation of the arms race in space, that Flyby News cannot 100% endorse voting for Al Gore for President. However, due to the reality that Ralph Nader cannot win as President even with a majority vote (due to the electorate system) this year, and that George W. Bush supports death, oil and star wars at a much more furious pace than Al Gore, Flyby News suggests voting for Al Gore in any state where the elections are close between Gore and Bush, AND VOTE FOR NADER/LADUKE FOR PRESIDENT in all other states in support of the Green Party's platform and future in politics.
**********************************************************************
2) American Justice: Murder on a Reservation
World Premiere,
Tues. October 17 at 9-10pm ET/PT
A&E on cable TV will be doing an hour long special on the case of Leonard Peltier this week. Above is the world premiere showing and following are when the show will be repeated. Please tape this program if you have access to this network and a vcr to show others. Thanks.
Show will repeat:
Wednesday, October 18 1:00 AM - 2:00 AM
Saturday , October 21 5:00 PM - 6:00PM
Call the White House Comments Line Today
Demand Justice for Leonard Peltier! 202-456-1111
Be in New York City December 10th
Peltier March For Freedom!
To receive a copy of Leonard Peltier's book:
PRISON WRITINGS: My Life Is My Sun Dance
check your bookstores, libraries or to best support Leonard
Contact the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583 Lawrence, KS 660440
Telephone: 785-842-5774
http://www.freepeltier.org
**********************************************************************
3) Benefit Music Event to Support Clemency for Leonard Peltier
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Iron Horse Music Hall, Northampton, MA October 19, 2000
The Leonard Peltier Support Group of Greater New England (LPSG/GNE) is sponsoring a series of music benefits and meetings in support of Native American political activist, Leonard Peltier. The first upcoming program is at the Iron Horse Music Hall Thursday, October 19, 2000 from 7:00 P.M. to 1:00 A.M. Admission is $10 in advance and $12 at the door. The program features the diverse music of AYE, Dredi, Gaia Roots and Electric Blue and the Kosmic Truth, spanning the styles of folk, world beat, reggae, harmonious vocals, rhythm and blues.
Many believe that Leonard Peltier has been unjustly imprisoned for over 24 years. Amnesty International considers him a political prisoner who should be "immediately and unconditionally released." Because of clear indications that he was unfairly targeted due to his key role in the American Indian Movement, Leonard Peltier is often seen as a symbol of the US government's attempts to silence those seeking to protect the interests of Native land and communities. Now Leonard Peltier is facing the most critical time ever in his campaign for freedom and indeed his life. His only chance for a near future release lies in the hands of President Clinton through a grant of Executive Clemency.
"The purpose of the benefit," said organizer Jonathan Mark, "is to build momentum and support for an international action on Leonard Peltier's behalf." Many individuals from the pioneer region will be joining people from around the world to participate in a "Free Peltier March" on December 10 at the United Nations in New York City. December 10 marks the anniversary for the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The United Nations have recognized Leonard Peltier as a Human Rights Defender. Other supporters include Coretta Scott King, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Reverend Jesse Jackson, the American Friends Service Committee, Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchu, the National Council of Churches, and many others.
This is the second consecutive year of music, meetings and demonstrations in the Pioneer Valley in support of Leonard Peltier. Last year's event at the Iron Horse was successful and this year should be even better. Posters with the artwork of Lahri Bond of Heartwork Graphics show the engraved drawing of the spirit of Crazy Horse with Peltier seeing the bars of his prison dissolve in a vision of a star-bright night.
**********************************************************************
TV's Mr. President arrested at Vandenberg protest * Nuclear Storage * Ancient City--Atomic Blast!
1) TV's Mr. President arrested at Vandenberg protest
2) Nuclear Waste Storage on Utah Tribal Land Wins Safety Approval
3) Environmentalists, Nuclear Workers At Odds
Over New Uranium Enrichment Facility
4) Russian Villagers Dump Radioactive Soil on Duma's Doorstep
5) Ancient City Found, Irradiated from Atomic Blast!
**********************************************************************
-- Martin Sheen --
"..It's foolhardy, it's destructive, it's wasteful and it can't work."
"My producers have a life and I have a life. That's what I do for a living, this is what I do to stay alive."
1) TV's Mr. President arrested at Vandenberg protest
October 7 2000
By Rick Tuttle, Lompoc Record Staff
http://www.lompocrecord.com/display/inn_news/news16.txt
America's television president, Martin Sheen, was among 23 peace activists arrested Saturday during a non-violent but tense standoff at Vandenberg Air Force Base's main gate - the culmination of local protests against a developing national missile defense system and the perceived "militarization of space." Sheen, the veteran actor who plays the U.S. president in the Emmy-winning drama "West Wing," ignored numerous warnings by base security forces and attempted to walk into Vandenberg hand-in-hand with two Bay Area Catholic priests and two activist friends.
Like all of those arrested, Sheen was quickly placed in plastic handcuffs, amid a shower of cheers from fellow protestors, and loaded onto a bus.
A human wall of helmeted and baton-carrying members of the Vandenberg's Confrontation Management Team met protestors as they approached base property alone or in small groups.
When the crowd of about 140 protesters finally dispersed, the arrested were transported to an on-base processing center for booking on charges of trespassing and failure to disperse, authorities report.
All were released from custody last night, each handed a letter from 30th Space Wing Commander Col. Steve Lanning barring them from entering the base for at least one year, with the exception of required appearances in Vandenberg's federal magistrate court to face the charges.
Some of the arrested may face other charges, base officials said, including a female protester caught on videotape striking a member of the security force, which included about 50 personnel, two dogs and a water cannon. The cannon would have only been used if the group had stormed the base en masse, according to Maj. John Cherry, Vandenberg spokesman.
"We're very sure that the level of response was appropriate for the level of action from the protesters," he said. "I hope you all saw what I saw which was people being treated very fairly, no one being force down to the concrete or anything like that."
The tense confrontation came after a "Stop Star Wars" rally, sponsored by the Vandenberg Action Coalition, which included two and a half hours of folk singing and speeches amplified from a flatbed truck parked on the northwest corner of the intersection of Highway I and Lompoc-Casmalia Road.
The protests, often drowned out by base helicopters patrolling overhead, were part of similar actions taken in 16 other countries and 39 U.S. cities.
Protesters had promised stealthy invasion of base security zones to disrupt base operations, but base officials reported no back country arrests were made. Three local hikers were stopped and quickly released after they wandered on base near Point Sal, Cherry said.
Prior to his arrest, Sheen, no stranger to political activism, told the Record that he had traveled to the Vandenberg rally "to protest the continuation of Star Wars research and planning. It's foolhardy, it's destructive, it's wasteful and it can't work."
"Star Wars" is the term used by protesters to describe the ground-based system the Pentagon is developing to protect the United States from limited long range missile attacks by rogue nations. The name is taken from a space-based program proposed two decades ago.
The next $100 million intercept test of the NMD system, in which a "kill vehicle" launched from Kwajalein Atoll - 4,200 miles away - attempts to strike a "target vehicle" launched from Vandenberg, is scheduled for next January.
Before the main gate action occurred, Sheen said he was unsure whether he would try to enter the base and risk arrest.
"I leave that to the Holy Spirit,' he said. "I just stand on line and let the spirit lead me where I have to go."
When asked if his voice was significant considering his commander-in-chief television role, he said, "You tell me. I do this for myself. I'm not the president, I'm the acting president."
"My producers have a life and I have a life. That's what I do for a living, this is what I do to stay alive."
As he was being loaded onto the bus, witnesses heard Sheen offering in-character presidential humor and spiritual encouragement. He also spoke at the rally, but limited his remarks to the recitation of a poem.
Other speakers included Green Party Senatorial candidate Medea Benjamin and Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.
"They are not here to protect us, we are here as slaves to feed this machine to build these pyramids to the heavens," said Gagnon, referring to base personnel across the street. "The aerospace corporations are the Pharaohs of our age and we the taxpayers will be the slaves to build these pyramids to the heavens."
Some demonstrators carried large puppets representing companies that fund defense research. These include Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Raytheon and TRW which rally organizers said have split more than $2.2 billion in missile defense research and development in the last two years - approximately 60 percent of Pentagon contracts.
Vandenberg Action Coalition member Frank Nolan, of Los Osos, an English and philosophy professor at Allan Hancock College's Lompoc Valley campus, said he opposed the NMD system because it would start a new arms race.
"One of the reasons I'm here is to be an example to my students, that they should be active and they should speak out on issues of conscience," he said.
Despite being from where protesters consider to be the base's "company town," first-time protester Lisa Williams, of Lompoc, said her presence at the rally showed "that there is a concern even among people that are part of the immediate community ... about our children, about what we're showing our children about violence and about nuclear arms."
Terms of the protests were negotiated two weeks ago, which included a time limit on the protests and vows of non-violence from both sides. But base officials feared many out-of-towners- many of the protesters came down from the San Francisco Bay Area - would not comply with the predetermined conditions.
"One of the main reasons why we were out with our Confrontation Management Team is that they had made threats that they would break the line," Cherry said, "and a couple hundred feet (from the main gate) you have family housing. We were not going to allow anyone to go into family housing and infiltrate that area."
Vandenberg received security and traffic control assistance from the U.S. Marshal's office, the FBI, the California Highway Patrol and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department.
Base officials estimated it was the largest protest at the main gate since the actions against the Peacekeeper missile in the early 1980s.
For more information contact
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
Coordinator: Bruce Gagnon
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, FL. 32607
(352) 337-9274
http://www.space4peace.org
globalnet@mindspring.com
**********************************************************************
2) Nuclear Waste Storage on Utah Tribal Land Wins Safety Approval
By Brian Hansen
ROCKVILLE, Maryland, October 9, 2000 (ENS) - A controversial proposal to build a spent nuclear fuel storage facility on an Indian reservation in the Utah desert cleared another procedural hurdle last week, as the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission ruled that the proposed facility would meet key safety and regulatory requirements.
In its safety evaluation report, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) concluded that the facility proposed by the Skull Valley Band of the Goshutes Indian Tribe would meet all federal safety standards during "normal, unusual and accident conditions."
But a growing contingent of environmentalists and elected officials see things differently. According to these critics, the proposed nuclear waste storage facility would pose a host of environmental and public health risks.
For Full Text and Graphics Visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2000/2000L-10-09-15.html
**********************************************************************
3) Environmentalists, Nuclear Workers At Odds Over
New Uranium Enrichment Facility
WASHINGTON, DC, October 10, 2000 (ENS) - In a move that drew cheers from disaffected nuclear industry workers and jeers from environmental activists, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson announced last week that the federal government will build a new uranium enrichment facility in Piketon, Ohio.
For Full Text and Graphics Visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/oct2000/2000L-10-10-07.html
**********************************************************************
4) Russian Villagers Dump Radioactive Soil on Duma's Doorstep
MOSCOW, Russia, October 10, 2000 (ENS) - Villagers from the Chelyabinsk region in the Ural Mountains delivered contaminated soil to the Russianparliament Monday. The soil comes from the gardens and farms that surround the giant Mayak nuclear site. The villagers' protest, which has attracted more than two million signatures on a petition, is at a proposal to allow imports of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
For Full Text and Graphics Visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/oct2000/2000L-10-10-11.html
**********************************************************************
5) ANCIENT CITY FOUND, IRRADIATED FROM ATOMIC BLAST
[Excerpt from the World Island Review, January 1992.]
Radiation still so intense, the area is highly dangerous
A heavy layer of radioactive ash in Rajasthan, India, covers a three-square mile area, ten miles west of Jodhpur. Scientists are investigating the site, where a housing development was being built.
For some time it has been established that there is a very high rate of birth defects and cancer in the area under construction. The levels of radiation there have registered so high on investigators' gauges that the Indian government has now cordoned off the region. Scientists have unearthed an ancient city where evidence shows an atomic blast dating back thousands of years, from 8,000 to 12,000 years, destroyed most of the buildings and probably a half-million people. One researcher estimates that the nuclear bomb used was about the size of the ones dropped on Japan in 1945.
The Mahabharata clearly describes a catastrophic blast that rocked the continent. "A single projectile charged with all the power in the Universe...An incandescent column of smoke and flame as bright as 10,000 suns, rose in all its splendor...it was an unknown weapon, an iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death which reduced to ashes an entire race.
"The corpses were so burned as to be unrecognizable. Their hair and nails fell out, pottery broke without any apparent cause, and the birds turned white.
"After a few hours, all foodstuffs were infected. To escape from this fire, the soldiers threw themselves into the river."
A HISTORIAN COMMENTS
Historian Kisari Mohan Ganguli says that Indian sacred writings are full of such descriptions, which sound like an atomic blast as experienced in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He says references mention fighting sky chariots and final weapons. An ancient battle is described in the Drona Parva, a section of the Mahabharata. "The passage tells of combat where explosions of final weapons decimate entire armies, causing crowds of warriors with steeds and elephants and weapons to be carried away as if they were dry leaves of trees," says Ganguli.
"Instead of mushroom clouds, the writer describes a perpendicular explosion with its billowing smoke clouds as consecutive openings of giant parasols. There are comments about the contamination of food and people's hair falling out."
ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION PROVIDES INFORMATION
Archeologist Francis Taylor says that etchings in some nearby temples he has managed to translate suggest that they prayed to be spared from the great light that was coming to lay ruin to the city. "It's so mid-boggling to imagine that some civilization had nuclear technology before we did. The radioactive ash adds credibility to the ancient Indian records that describe atomic warfare."
Construction has halted while the five member team conducts the investigation. The foreman of the project is Lee Hundley, who pioneered the investigation after the high level of radiation was discovered.
**********************************************************************
Stop The Militarism Of Space - Leonard Peltier Benefit 10/19/2000
1) Press Release on October 7 Action for PEACE IN SPACE
2) Press Release for Leonard Peltier Benefit
**************************************************************************
1) Press Release on October 7 Action for PEACE IN SPACE
Northampton Joins an International Day of Protest to Stop
The Militarism Of Space
~ raising our community's awareness
about the real cost of weapons escalation!
For Immediate Release: October 5, 2000
Contact: AFSC, (413)584-8975
NORTHAMPTON, MA On Saturday, October 7, 2000, local activists representing a broad range of peace, globalization and disarmament communities will gather on the steps of Northampton's City Hall for a walking vigil in honor of the International Day of Protest to Stop the Militarism of Space. Beginning at 1:00 pm, this action is one of 63 taking place worldwide to call attention to the real cost to communities and individuals of outrageous weapons escalation.
The United States has spent $4 trillion $33 billion annually over the last 50 years to maintain its nuclear forces. In September of this year, President Clinton yielded his decision regarding whether or not to deploy the National Missile Defense to his successor, saving himself from having to commit an additional $60 billion over 14 years to a program proven to be ineffective, faulty and in violation of the Strategic Arms Reduction and Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaties. We can be certain that this issue will resurface early in next President's first term.
The call for an end to the militarism of space rightfully originates with the residents of Western Massachusetts and our colleagues in cities and towns across the globe. Our labor and tax dollars fund the construction of new weapons and the clean-up of those already built, tested or deployed. A recent study by the National Academy of Sciences found that more than two-thirds of government sites involved in decades of nuclear bomb production will never be completely free of contamination. Our labor and tax dollars will help ensure that we are stewards of these sites for thousands of years to come, sites which pose a known and profound heath risk. In the United States, increased defense spending is also at the cost of sufficient federal allocations for affordable housing, Head Start, health insurance, and one of the barriers to closing the gap between our country's minimum wage and the widely-know living wage.
Please Note:
There are now 63 actions in 16 countries and 38 U.S. cities for the October 7 "International Day of Protest to Stop the Militarization of Space."
Please participate in our day of actions by writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper; sending a message to your nation's political leaders; calling the U.S. Embassy/Consulate in your country; or attending an action near your community.
Demand that the U.S. stop all plans to put weapons into space and that all
nations support a treaty calling for a global ban on weapons in space.
TALKING POINTS:
* Star Wars research, development, testing and deployment is destabilizing and will lead to a new arms race
* Star Wars development is a waste of resources and will result in more
social spending cuts
* Theatre Missile Defense (TMD) is as destabilizing as National Missile Defense (NMD) and must be opposed as U.S. moves to deploy it in the Middle East & Asia
* Space-based laser program, now nearing a testing site decision, is the real Reagan-era Star Wars plan
* U.S. must join in signing a global ban on all weapons in space
For more information contact the Global Network
Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space (352) 337-9274
http://www.space4peace.org
**********************************************************************
2) Press Release for Leonard Peltier Benefit
Benefit Music Event to Support Clemency for Leonard Peltier
Iron Horse Music Hall, Northampton, MA October 19, 2000
Contacts:
Leonard Peltier Support Group Jonathan Mark 978-544-7862
P.O. Box 1999 Chris Groden 413-549-2739
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 Email Updates
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee Gina Chiala, Pat Benabi, Jean Day
P.O. Box 583, Lawrence, KS 66044 Tel: 785-842-5774, Fax: 5796
http://www.FreePeltier.org
The Leonard Peltier Support Group of Greater New England (LPSG/GNE) is sponsoring a series of music benefits and meetings in support of Native American political activist, Leonard Peltier. The first upcoming program is at the Iron Horse Music Hall Thursday, October 19, 2000 from 7:00 P.M. to 1:00 A.M. Admission is $10 in advance and $12 at the door. The program features the diverse music of AYE, Dredi, Gaia Roots and Electric Blue and the Kosmic Truth, spanning the styles of folk, world beat, reggae, harmonious vocals, rhythm and blues.
Many believe that Leonard Peltier has been unjustly imprisoned for over 24 years. Amnesty International considers him a political prisoner who should be "immediately and unconditionally released." Because of clear indications that he was unfairly targeted due to his key role in the American Indian Movement, Leonard Peltier is often seen as a symbol of the US government's attempts to silence those seeking to protect the interests of Native land and communities. Now Leonard Peltier is facing the most critical time ever in his campaign for freedom and indeed his life. His only chance for a near future release lies in the hands of President Clinton through a grant of Executive Clemency.
"The purpose of the benefit," said organizer Jonathan Mark, "is to build momentum and support for an international action on Leonard Peltier's behalf." Many individuals from the pioneer region will be joining people from around the world to participate in a "Free Peltier March" on December 10 at the United Nations in New York City. December 10 marks the anniversary for the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The United Nations have recognized Leonard Peltier as a Human Rights Defender. Other supporters include Coretta Scott King, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Reverend Jesse Jackson, the American Friends Service Committee, Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchu, the National Council of Churches, and many others.
This is the second consecutive year of music, meetings and demonstrations in the Pioneer Valley in support of Leonard Peltier. Last year's event at the Iron Horse was successful and this year should be even better. Posters with the artwork of Lahri Bond of Heartwork Graphics show the engraved drawing of the spirit of Crazy Horse with Peltier seeing the bars of his prison dissolve in a vision of a star-bright night.*
* http://earthlovers.org/leonard/
More information can be found at the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee's website
http://www.FreePeltier.org
**********************************************************************
October 7 Actions for PEACE IN SPACE - Peltier Clemency: Human Rights Day, UN/NYC
1) Press Release from Global Network on October 7 Actions for PEACE IN SPACE
2) December 10 - Peltier March for Freedom - Human Rights Day - UN NYC
3) Clemency Update on the impact of telephone support for Leonard Peltier
**********************************************************************
Editor's Note: Flyby News has often reported the complementary nature of human rights and star wars. The physical link between the two is Uranium, which has been seized from land legally, but unethically. Both October 7 and December 10 are times to make a difference at the right place at the right time.
1) Press Release from GlobeNet on October 7 Actions for PEACE IN SPACE
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST
OCTOBER 7 ACTIONS OPPOSE PLANNED STAR WARS PROGRAM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Bruce Gagnon (352) 337-9274
On October 7 an "International Day of Protest to Stop the Militarization of Space" will be held worldwide. Currently protest events are planned in 16 nations and in over 34 U.S. cities.
The October 7 actions are being organized by the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and have been endorsed by organizations around the world.
President Clinton's recent decision to postpone deployment of National Missile Defense (NMD) was largely a result of recent testing failures and growing worldwide opposition to a new Star Wars program. "However,
elements of this new Star Wars program are still moving ahead," said Bruce Gagnon, Coordinator of the Global Network. "In the next few weeks, for example, the U.S. government will finalize plans for the testing of a space-based laser - a critical weapon in the Pentagon's scheme to 'control' space, and from the 'ultimate high-ground' of space to 'dominate' the Earth below."
"We won't rest for a moment," said Gagnon. "The October 7 protests represent the largest grassroots global expression against moving the arms race into space ever held. We will utilize Clinton's delay decision to expand our organizing and opposition. More people are getting involved every day."
October 7 actions include rallies and demonstrations in:
1. Adelaide, Australia
2. Albuquerque, N.M. (Lockheed Martin - Oct 6)
3. Amherst, MA (Oct 8)
4. Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD)
5. Asheville, NC (Downtown at Vance monument)
6. Baku, Azerbaijan
7. Bathe, Maine (Oct 5)
8. Beale AFB, CA (Space Command Radar Facility)
9. Berlin, Germany (Bundestag)
10. Brookfield, CT
11. Bucharest, Romania (American Embassy)
12. Buckingham Peace Fair (Bucks County, PA)
13. Cambridge, England
14. Cape Canaveral AFS, FL (Key Launch Facility)
15. Chicago, IL (Kluzynski Federal Building)
16. Colorado Springs, CO. (Space Command HQ)
17. Edwards AFB, CA (Flight Testing Center)
18. Flic en Flac, Mauritius
19. Fort Bragg, CA
20. France
21. Fylingdales, England (U.S. Radar Base)
22. Greece
23. Hartford, CT (Oct 4)
24. Holland, MI
25. Huntsville, AL (TMD Directorate)
26. Kalamazoo, MI
27. Kathmandu, Nepal (U.S. Embassy)
28. Kirtland AFB, N.M. (Key Laser Development Center - Oct 6)
29. Leicester, England
30. London, England (U.S. Embassy)
31. Los Angeles AFB, CA (Space-Based Laser Directorate)
32. Madison, WI
33. Mays Landing, NJ (Rep. Frank LoBiondo's office - Oct 6)
34. Menwith Hill, England (U.S. Spy Satellite Base)
35. Nevada Test Site
36. New York, N.Y. (Wall Street - Oct 6)
37. Northampton, MA
38. Osaka, Japan (Navy TMD Deployment Site)
39. Oslo, Norway (Parliament)
40. Pathanamthitta, India
41. Penn State University
42. San Francisco State University Planetarium (Cosmic Cabaret - Oct 6)
43. Schwaebisch Gmuend (Germany)
44. Seattle, WA (Boeing Corporation)
45. Seoul, Korea (TMD Deployment Sites)
46. Stockton, CA
47. St. Paul, MN (Lockheed Martin)
48. Sunnyvale, CA (Lockheed Martin)
49. Sydney, Australia (TMD testing expected in Western Australia)
50. Tokyo, Japan
51. Toronto, Canada (Oct 14 at U.S. Consulate)
52. Tucson, AZ (Raytheon)
53. Valley Forge, PA. (Lockheed Martin)
54. Vandenberg AFB, CA (Key Launch Facility)
55. Vancouver, Canada
56. White House, Washington DC
57. White Sands Missile Test Range, N.M.
Meanwhile, testing of the NMD system is scheduled to resume in January, 2001 from Vandenberg AFB in California. The Pentagon is also dangerously promoting Theatre Missile Defense (TMD) deployments in the Middle East and Asia which will provoke regional escalations of nuclear weapons development.
October 7 protest sites are still being added each day. To see the current list of actions, and worldwide sponsoring groups, check the Global Network's web site at: http://www.space4peace.org
Note: Media reps and others seeking the actual Pentagon plans for "control and domination" of space can obtain them by clicking on Space Command's web site at:
http://www.spacecom.af.mil/usspace/index.htm
# # #
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, FL. 32607
(352) 337-9274
http://www.space4peace.org
globalnet@mindspring.com
**************************************************************************
2) December 10 - Peltier March for Freedom - Human Rights Day - UN NYC
December 10 will mark the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The United Nations have recognized Leonard Peltier as a Human Rights Defender. We must insist that the US apply human rights to its original peoples. Please join the Leonard Peltier March for Freedom on Dec.10 in New York City at 9:30 a.m. (Exact location will be announced soon).
Please download and distribute fliers for the march posted at:
http://www.freepeltier.org/countdown_flyer1.htm#top
For more information on this, to see Leonard Peltier's artwork, or to order Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance, visit the LPDC website:
http://www.FreePeltier.org
**************************************************************************
3) Clemency Update on impact of telephone support for Leonard Peltier
*Below is a letter from Attorney/Human Rights Advocate, Jennifer Harbury on the Peltier telephone campaign. The letter includes sample comments for your calls if interested. We received this information from the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee's listserve. To subscribe for their updates directly, send a blank message to < lpdc-on@mail-list.com >
UPDATE !!! WHITE HOUSE TELEPHONE CAMPAIGN
COUNTDOWN TO CLEMENCY
Dear Friends,
The White House telephone campaign has been going on now for a full year, and we are pleased to note that there are very real results from all of your hard work these last many months. A year ago, the White House operators were expressing surprise at hearing Leonard's name again, and many commented that it was a very old case and that they had not heard about him in years. Now they all recognize the name extremely wellEnd comment that it is high profile case. Nothing could be more important. Mr. Clinton is hearing you. At the same time, all our outreach has paid off in Washington D.C. networks outside the White House as wellEhereas last year some of the human rights groups were asking who Leonard Peltier isEow they all ask how to help. There are so many other signs too that things are headed in a positive direction. Your long efforts have been paying off.
KEEP IT UP THROUGH JANUARY 21, 2001!!!!
Our very best window for getting clemency for Leonard Peltier lies between election day in November, and Inauguration Day on January 21. The Democratic party will have carried out its campaign, and Hillary Clinton and Al Gore will have either won their offices or not. Either way, Mr. Clinton will not have so many reasons to avoid controversial issues. After that, we will have a long wait. Even if Gore wins, it will take him some time to learn all the facts and gain the political confidence to deal with this caseEprobably sometime in his second term. Leonard cannot wait this long. His medical condition puts him at risk for kidney failure, blindness and stroke. Time is running out.
We need daily calls to the White House from as many people as possible. Please focus ALL your calls there. The telephone number is 202-456-1111. We will let you know if we need additional calls to Janet Reno or to members of Congress. But for now, please ALL CALLS GO TO CLINTON!!! Try to begin organizing networks of friends for the calls, and assure that during the most critical time of all, CHRISTMAS WEEK, that the calls keep rolling in to the White House. We know we are asking a lot, but if Leonard at last goes free, we will all be able to rest at last, after one big celebration of course. At the very least, please call once a week on your regional call-in day: The northeast people call on Mondays. The southeast calls on Tuesdays, the mid-west and International calls on Wednesday, the northwest calls on Thursday and the southwest calls on Friday.
MESSAGE :
1. We demand clemency for Mr. Leonard Peltier, a Native American citizen who has now been imprisoned for nearly twenty five years. His immediate release has also been demanded by Amnesty International, Coretta Scott King, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the American Friends Service Committee, Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchu, the National Council of Churches, and many
others.
2. Mr. Peltier never received a fair trial of any kind. The witnesses have all admitted they were heavily coerced and intimidated by the FBI, and a ballistics test proving the bullet in question did not come from Mr. Peltier's weapon was concealed from the defense attorneys. The judge who denied him a new trial has written to support clemency for Mr. Peltier.
3. Mr. Peltier is long overdue for parole, and it is clear he will not be released until he confesses to a crime he did not commit.
4. Mr. Peltier has achieved a remarkable record of humanitarian achievements during his many years behind bars. Among other things, he sponsors and annual Chirstmas drive for toys and clothing for the children of Pine Ridge, he contributes his art to assist battered women's shelters and substance abuse programs, he has established a Native American scholarship program, collaborated in improving health care on the reservation, and adopted children in Guatemala and El Salvador through Childreach, amongst many other good deeds. His also received a human rights award from the Commission on Human Rights from Spain.
5. Mr. Peltier is now in deteriorating health. He suffers from a heart condition, high blood pressure and diabetes. He is blind in one eye due to poor medical care. He risks, in the future, blindness, stroke and kidney failure given the poor prison medical care and living conditions. TIME IS RUNNING OUT FOR JUSTICE.
6. Mr. Peltier is a living symbol of U.S. repression against its Native citizenry. We must remember that 64 AIM supporters were murdered on Pine Ridge during that tragic period, and that the FBI was closely collaborating
with the GOONs carrying out the violence. The time has come to heal some of these old wounds. The time has come for the United States to show that it is worth to claim the position of leadership in world human rights affairs.
Call the White House Comments Line Today
Demand Justice for Leonard Peltier! 202-456-1111
Be in New York City December 10th
Peltier March For Freedom!
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-5774
www.freepeltier.org
To subscribe, send a blank message to < lpdc-on@mail-list.com >
# # #
"Silence, they say, is the voice of complicity.
But silence is impossible.
Silence screams.
Silence is a message,
just as doing nothing is an act.
Let who you are ring out and resonate
in every word and every deed.
Yes, become who you are.
There's no sidestepping your own being
or your own responsibility.
What you do is who you are.
You are your own comeuppance.
You become your own message
You are the message."
Leonard Peltier
(Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance)
**************************************************************************
Act to Stop PU Development for Space * Leonard Peltier and Lori Berenson Defense Updates
1) Help Stop DoE's Plutonium Development for Space by Monday
2) Help free Leonard Peltier this Tuesday on his 56th birthday
3) Lori Berenson Update
**********************************************************************
1) Help Stop DoE's Plutonium Development for Space by Monday
Please act by Monday to place your statements on record to the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) to stop their development of Plutonium-238 for space. This direction continues, like Cassini, so clearly stated by Dr. John Gofman as an act of "organized insanity." With problems like Global Warming, under nourished people and political instability, this direction for plutonium is simply irresponsible. Please place your statements on record by E-mail, fax and/or telephone by this Monday, September 11.
ACTION ALERT!
DoE PLANS FOR EXPANDED PRODUCTION OF PLU-238 FOR FUTURE SPACE MISSIONS
PUBLIC COMMENTS ON DRAFT PROGRAMMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT (PEIS)
COMMENTS DUE BY: SEPTEMBER 11, 2000
SEND COMMENTS TO:
Colette E. Brown,
U.S. Department of Energy, NE-50,
19901 Germantown Road, Germantown, MD 20874-1290;
by fax (toll-free) at 1-877/562-4592; by phone (toll-free) at 1-877/562-4593;
or by electronic mail to: Nuclear.Infrastructure-PEIS@hq.doe.gov
BACKGROUND:
In the Draft PEIS the DoE states that they must "assess the need of expansion of its existing nuclear infrastructure" due to growing demand for space nuclear power.
DoE maintains that "NASA has yet to identify or demonstrate technologies that can visibly replace plu-238-fueled radioisotope power systems for use in deep space missions."
DoE further states that "Because the supply of plu-238 produced at Savannah River Site (S.C.) to support NASA space missions is limited, DoE signed a 5-year contract in 1992 to purchase plu-238 from Russia. The political and economic climate in Russia creates uncertainties as a source of plu-238 to satisfy future NASA space mission requirements."
DoE thus proposes to "re-establish a domestic capability for producing and processing this material. Since the SRS facilities previously used for plu-238 production are no longer available, DoE needs to evaluate other DoE irradiation and chemical processing facilities, as well as potential commercial light water reactors for this mission. Unless an assured domestic supply of plu-238 is established, DoE's ability to support future
NASA space exploration missions may be lost."
DoE states that the targets for plu-238 production would be fabricated in one of three facilities at:
* Oak Ridge Nat'l Laboratory (TN)
* Hanford Site (WA)
* Idaho Nat'l Engineering & Environmental Laboratory
Among the space missions requiring space nuclear power in coming years are:
* Pluto/Kuiper Express (16 pounds)
* Europa Orbiter & Solar Probe (6.6 pounds)
* NASA Mars Surveyor series
* Nuclear Powered mining colonies on Moon/Mars
* Nuclear Powered rockets to Mars
TALKING POINTS TO DoE
1) NASA is not doing enough to develop environmentally benign power sources for space missions. European Space Agency (ESA) has now developed high-efficiency solar cells for deep space missions.
2) The plutonium production/fabrication process for space nuclear power missions has recently led to several worker contamination accidents. An expansion of production will only worsen this problem.
3) Expanding the number of launches of nuclear powered space devices from Cape Canaveral on rockets with 10% failure rates will only increase the possibility of a deadly mishap.
4) The massive cost of expanded production of plu-238 can not be justified at a time when DoE admits it needs over $300 billion to clean-up existing problems at DoE facilities.
5) The military is promoting the use of nuclear power in space for space-based weapons technology. Using nuclear power for space war will have severe environmental implications for life on Earth.
YOU MUST ACT BY MONDAY -- SEPTEMBER 11 -- TO HAVE YOUR STATEMENT GO ON RECORD:
SEND COMMENTS TO:
Colette E. Brown,
U.S. Department of Energy, NE-50,
19901 Germantown Road, Germantown, MD 20874-1290;
by fax (toll-free) at 1-877/562-4592; by phone (toll-free) at 1-877/562-4593;
or by electronic mail to: Nuclear.Infrastructure-PEIS@hq.doe.gov
Thank you for sending your comments to the DoE in support of stopping the nuclearization and weaponization of space.
Please send a copy of your comments to GlobeNet .
**********************************************************************
2) Help free Leonard Peltier by his 56th birthday
The following transcript is from a telephone conversation with Leonard Peltier from Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary to his defense committee and supporters.
Dear brothers and sisters, friends and supporters,
I just want to thank everyone for their contributions toward this year's clemency effort. I know a lot of people think that the LPDC has access to sizeable funding due to the support we have from many affluent people, but in reality, our movement has always been a grass roots movement. And, I have learned all too well over the years that the only people we can depend on to struggle and sacrifice for what is right, is each other. We are the ones who do not have much to lose, unlike many who enjoy luxuries and a life style we could never even imagine having access to. However, I know that means every penny you have donated has not come easy and I want you to know that I very much appreciate your heart felt help. The LPDC tells me that we have now raised $17,053 and that we are close to being able to hire the PR firm who we so desperately need at this time. They are the people with the connections we need, both among the media and in Washington DC, and I cannot express to you how important their help is. THANK YOU VERY MUCH, my friends for your support. We could not do it without you. You continue to give me hope for a happy ending to this year's struggle.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Leonard Peltier
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee's Note: We want to remind everyone that the fund drive's goal of $50,000 is set to end on Leonard Peltier's birthday, which is only days away! If you are in a position to contribute any amount, now is the time to do it! If each of Leonard's supporters donated just a small amount, we would have enough to really pump up this fight!
Thank you very much for your help.
Please print or use this form to send in with your donation:
________________________________________________________
COUNTDOWN TO CLEMENCY! LEONARD PELTIER JUSTICE CAMPAIGN, YEAR 2000
YES! I want to contribute to the emergency fund drive and help gain freedom for this innocent man!
Name ________________________________ Phone #___________________
Address________________________________________________________
Enclosed is my contribution for:
___$25 Please send my free year's sub of Spirit of Crazy Horse News
___$50 Please send a copy of PRISON WRITINGS by Leonard Peltier
___$100 Please send my Free Peltier sweatshirt to the above address
___$150 Please send a "What About Joe" poster to my above address
___$500 Please send me one numbered print of ___Grandma Jumping Bull,
___Spirit of the Bear
___Big Mountain Lady
___$1000 Please send me ____a full set of the above prints
____a signed copy of In the Spirt of Crazy Horse
____a hand beaded necklace made by Leonard Peltier
____an "Oasis in the Badlands" (an Edward Curtis lithograph
donated by Christopher Cardozo, Inc)
___$5000 Please an original Peltier oil painting.
TITLE:____________________
(see http://www.freepeltier.org/artist_writer.htm#top )
___Other, I have enclosed a contribution of $ ______.
NOTE: With the exception of Prison Writings and oil paintings by Leonard Peltier, all gifts will be available during this fund drive only. Donations over $100 are tax deductible, but checks must be made out to "Global
Exchange," our 501C3 fiscal sponsor, with "c/o LPDC" in the memo. All other checks can be made out to LPDC directly. All donations should be sent to our address. Thank you for your generous contributions.
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-5774
www.freepeltier.org
To subscribe for email updates
send a blank message to < lpdc-on@mail-list.com >
Call the White House Comments Line Today (and especially on Leonard's Birthday 9/12)
Demand Justice for Leonard Peltier! 202-456-1111
Be in New York City December 10, 2000 On the Anniversary of the UN's
Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- Peltier March For Freedom!
**********************************************************************
3) Lori Berenson Update
Lori Berenson is a U.S. citizen, human rights activist, and free-lance journalist who currently is serving a life sentence in PerEfollowing her conviction by a secret, hooded military tribunal, in violation of international law. The U.S. would have more clout for human rights by undoing the injustices to Leonard Peltier and Native Americans. The attorney for Leonard Peltier, Ramsey Clark, is also working for Lori and the drive for justice for her and Leonard to come home to their families.
--------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Mark and Rhoda Berenson"
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2000 00:29:59 -0400
Thursday, September 7, 2000
To Friends and Supporters of Lori Berenson
This is day 1,744 of Lori's wrongful incarceration in Peru.
LORI'S "SHOW TRIAL" PROCEEDING UNFAIRLY AND THE WORLD IS WATCHING
Based on newly obtained information, on Monday August 28 the Supreme Military Council overturned Lori's conviction of treason and aggravated terrorism and nullified her life sentence, finally conceding what Lori has said all along -- that she is not guilty of the preposterous charges levied against her. This was a major admission by the government of Peru, undermining all its claims against Lori. Instead of releasing her, however, the government of Peru remanded Lori's case to the civilian courts for a "show trial." The US State Department has reported that these civilian courts do not meet international standards of openness, fairness, and due process.
The so-called "trial" of Lori officially began Thursday August 31 when a judge visited Lori upon her arrival at Chorrillos Prison in Lima and tried to take testimony immediately. Lori refused, saying she will not speak to a judge before she has the opportunity to speak to State Department officials, parents, and US legal advisers to learn about the civil court process.
The pre-trial activities are proceeding in ways that will only hurt Peru and further isolate that country in the community of nations for its continued violations of fundamental human rights. There was no due process in Lori's military tribunal five years ago and to date there is no evidence there will be due process now. Lori continues to be demonized by Peruvian government officials, Peruvian jurists, and by the Peruvian media. In addition, the pre-trial procedures have begun without Lori having any opportunity to prepare a defense. Already, Peru has committed several violations to Article 8 of the American Convention on Human Rights.
1. Lori has not yet been notified of the charges against her.
2. Lori has not yet been able to select a lawyer.
3. Lori is permitted to have a lawyer hear testimony taken from witnesses, but this testimony is currently being taken before she has hired a lawyer.
On Tuesday September 5 Lori filed a petition with the court, asking that all proceedings against her be held in abeyance until her fundamental rights are protected. (See home page of www.freelori.org web site for full wording of petition). In the presence of former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Rhoda, and U.S. State Department Consular Officer Mary Grandfield, the judge agreed to give Lori one week to hire a lawyer and prepare a defense. On Wednesday September 6 he "changed his mind" and told Lori he would start taking testimony from her on Friday September 8 and if she did not have a lawyer he would assign a public defender. Given these violations of due process, Lori plans to remain silent in accordance with Article 8 of the American Convention on Human Rights.
LORI'S "VOICE" HEARD THROUGHOUT THE WORLD
Amy Goodman, award-winning journalist and host of Pacifica Radio's "Democracy Now," played portions of a taped interview with Lori on Wednesday September 6 (see home page of www.freelori.org to hear this broadcast). The interview with Lori occurred in the yard at Socabaya Prison in March 1999. Amy Goodman participated in a human rights delegation from the Los Angeles-based Office of the Americas that was given permission to see Lori. The interview was never aired before and this is the first time Lori's voice had been heard in public since her sentencing in January 1996.
**********************************************************************
"To be silent in the face of injustice is to be an accomplice to evil.
I will not be silent." -- Lori Berenson, January 2000
**********************************************************************
"Silence, they say, is the voice of complicity.
But silence is impossible.
Silence screams.
Silence is a message,
just as doing nothing is an act.
Let who you are ring out and resonate
in every word and every deed.
Yes, become who you are.
There's no sidestepping your own being
or your own responsibility.
What you do is who you are.
You are your own comeuppance.
You become your own message
You are the message."
Leonard Peltier
(from Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance)
**********************************************************************
Clinton Punts Missile Defense Decision * But Calls for Work on TMD
The relationship of the fires in Montana to global warming has a long and twisted path that wanders from the burning of fossil fuels to deforestation. The cause and effect of accumulating greenhouse gases that trap the sun's warmth is leading dangerously closer to the lifeless CO2 atmospheric levels of Mars and Venus. National security protectors should recognize the task at hand. Some of the funds earmarked for missile defense should be used to support environmentally benign technologies and energy systems. The following news report that President Clinton is delaying the decision on employing a five-year commitment for missile defense is very good. However, following the AP report, is a press release by the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. They are asking for people to press the issue and unite on October 7 with actions for peace in space. The threat remains.
Presidential candidate George Bush has made his pro-missile defense stance well-known, Al Gore is evasive. We should demand to know his stance on this critical issue. Two out of three tests that were set-up to secure a successful demonstration, failed. Why spend billions. President Clinton admits that it is a questionable technology that doesn't deal with protecting citizens from low-tech methods of delivering nuclear and chemical weapons.
The key to peace is peace in space.
**********************************************************************
Friday September 1 12:59 PM ET Clinton Punts Defense Decision
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Clinton, saying he lacks ``absolute confidence'' in existing technology, announced Friday he would leave to the next president - Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites) or Texas Gov. George W. Bush (news - web sites) - a decision on whether to begin deployment of a national missile defense.
In a speech at Georgetown University, Clinton said that by deferring a decision he aimed to ``maximize the ability'' of his successor to pursue a missile defense as part of a broader national security strategy.
``I am convinced that America and the world will be better off if we explore the frontiers of strategic defenses while continuing to pursue arms control, to stand with our allies and to work with Russia and others to stop the spread of deadly weapons,'' Clinton said.
Gore, the Democratic presidential nominee, has been noncommittal on whether there should be a national missile defense, saying he supported continued development work. Republican nominee Bush has said he would push hard
for a missile defense even more robust than the one currently on the drawing board.
``Today's announcement that President Clinton will leave this unfinished business for the next President underscores the fact that for seven years, the Clinton-Gore administration has failed to strengthen America's defenses,'' Bush asserted.
Gore said Clinton's decision allows time to more completely test the design of the missile defense system. ``I welcome the opportunity to be more certain that these technologies actually work together properly,'' he said.
Clinton stressed the importance of persuading Russia, whose nuclear arsenal is formidable but shrinking, that a U.S. national missile defense is not a threat to international stability. In Moscow, the Interfax news agency quoted Gen. Leonid Ivashov, head of the international military cooperation department of the Defense Ministry and one of the harshest critics of missile defense, as saying that Clinton's statement demonstrated that ``elements of constructiveness'' are visible in the U.S. administration.
Clinton's decision means he has opted not to authorize the Pentagon to award contracts to begin building a new high-powered radar in the Aleutian Islands, as part of a national missile defense. By putting off this initial step, Clinton effectively pushed the decision on finishing the project into the next presidency.
The decision came in the face of strong objections from Russia and reservations among many Democrats in Congress. The radar is an essential element of the missile defense system because it would track incoming warheads.
Work on other elements of national missile defense will go forward with additional testing of a ``kill vehicle'' to destroy warheads in flight and development of key components such as a new booster rocket, Clinton said.
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook welcomed Clinton's decision, which, he said, ``has taken careful account of the views of the United States' allies and other international partners.''
Daryl Kimball of the Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers, a vocal opponent of the national missile defense system, said: ``This outcome is the most prudent decision the president could make at this time.''
Defense Secretary William Cohen, perhaps the administration's strongest support of the system said Clinton's statement ``underscores the importance of having the next president fully involved in decisions regarding the future of the program before committing the United States to a deployment strategy. I support this approach.''
In his speech, Clinton said he was not assured that the United States has ``enough confidence in the technology'' to move forward with the project now. He asked Cohen to ``continue a robust program of testing'' to make sure the system will work properly.
``A national missile defense, if deployed, should be part of a larger strategy to preserve and enhance the peace, strength and security we now enjoy, and to build an even safer world,'' Clinton said. ``I have tried to maximize the ability of the next president to pursue that strategy.''
Clinton said his decision gives the United States time to work with the Russians to overcome their opposition to the system, and to court the support of U.S. allies.
``The United States and Russia still have nuclear arsenals that can devastate each other, and this is still a period of transition in our relationship,'' Clinton said. ``Therefore, for them, as well as for us, maintaining strategic stability increases trust and confidence on both sides; it reduces the risk of confrontation; it makes it possible to build an even better partnership, and an even safer world.''
Awarding the contracts for the work in Alaska this fall would have allowed the radar construction to begin next spring - a timetable that, on paper at least, would have kept the missile defense project on track to completion by 2005.
By putting off the initial step, Clinton in effect has pushed back the 2005 target date by at least one year.
In previous public comments on missile defense, Clinton had never given a clear signal of what course he would take. In a May 31 news conference he seemed to indicate that missile defense was justified by a growing threat, not from Russia or China but from so-called ``rogue states'' like North Korea.
``Is there a threat which is new and different? The answer to that, it seems to me, is plainly, yes, there is, and there will be one.''
The proposed national missile defense, projected to cost about $60 billion, is designed to protect all 50 states against attack by a limited number of long-range ballistic missiles from North Korea or the Middle East. It is a scaled-down version of the global missile defense pursued during the Reagan administration that came to be known as Star Wars for its focus space-based lasers and other exotic weaponry.
In weighing his decision, Clinton faced conflicting pressures. Republicans in Congress have pushed hard for years for a national missile defense, and last year they gained passage of a law requiring the Pentagon to deploy such a system as soon as ``technologically feasible.'' The anti-missile testing program, however, has suffered numerous technological setbacks, including a failed flight test in July.
**********************************************************************
CLINTON DECISION ON NMD REFLECTS GROWING INTERNATIONAL OPPOSITION
BUT MUCH TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT AS PRESIDENT CALLS FOR WORK ON TMD
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Bruce Gagnon (352)337-9274
The decision by President Clinton to hand-off any deployment of the National Missile Defense (NMD) system to his successor is a welcomed turn in an otherwise twisted road that still points toward the danger of an arms race in space.
While the president admitted that "I cannot conclude that we have enough confidence in the technology...to move forward to deployment," he did state that the Pentagon would continue with 16 more NMD tests at $100,000 each. Clinton maintained that there was not a net loss in his decision as a "delay won't affect the 2006-2007 timetable for deployment."
Close scrutiny of Clinton's speech revealed a call for the Pentagon to work closely with Russia on the development of Theater Missile Defense (TMD) that would enable the U.S. to strike launched missiles in their boost-phase. Long-time avid proponent of Star Wars, Rep. Kurt Weldon (R.-PA.) while critical of Clinton's NMD decision did praise his call for TMD development.
"This fight is not over by any means. We now have Clinton talking about Theater Missile Defense and we know that the Pentagon will begin its space-based laser testing program here in the U.S. in coming months. We must build on this victory and continue to work to shut down all research, development, and testing of Star Wars," said Bruce Gagnon, Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.
Acknowledging that European opposition was key to the delay, Clinton also made clear that his administration and the next would need to "complete" efforts to get the consent of the Europeans on the necessary upgrades on U.S. radar systems that will coordinate a new Star Wars program.
"While not mentioned by the president as a reason for delay, it is vital that we salute the collective efforts of grassroots peace groups around the world who have rallied to apply pressure on Clinton/Gore and their own governments in recent months," Gagnon said.
The Global Network is now coordinating a vigorous international campaign in coming months tht will include: October 7, 2000 INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST TO STOP THE MILITARIZATION OF SPACE. Protests are planned throughout the U.S. and around the world.
For details and more activities check the Global Network's web site at: http://www.space4peace.org
**********************************************************************
Cassini Anniversary - What a long strange trip it has been
Cassini Anniversary - What a long strange trip it has been
18 August 2000
Just one year ago, Cassini whizzed by Earth just seconds away from potential disaster. The NASA space probe carries 72.3lbs of radioactive plutonium on board, which is used to produce thermo-electricity to run the 740-watts of electrical equipment for exploring the origin of life around Saturn in 2004. The poignancy of Dr. John W. Gofman's statement, "..I think the use of plutonium in space is a manifestation of organized insanity," stands clear and firm. Many scientists showed evidences on how an accident could result in millions of deaths, impacting life horrifically for thousands of years.
The program that Cassini was meant to herald exists today, ballistic missile defense. The Republican and Democratic parties in the U.S. support the continuation of Star Wars even following the two out of three recent test-failures and credible claims of fraudulent activity by Government and Industry representatives, fudging past test results in their favor. It is time for more people to speak out to stop a policy that threatens every one of us. Together, perhaps, we can help change this direction. Please support Karl Grossman and the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space and respond on October 7 in support of their campaign for keeping space for peace. Our collective actions can help turn the threat of Cassini into a scary memory, and not let it become a signpost for a short-lived future.
Information on Flyby News - future and past -
http://www.flybynews.com
Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
http://www.space4peace.org
Action Site to Stop Cassini Earth Flyby
http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby
**********************************************************************
Tonkin Incident Might Not Have Occurred
Published on Saturday, August 3, 2002 in the San Antonio Express-News (Texas)
Tonkin Incident Might Not Have Occurred
by Bob Richter
AUSTIN - Thirty-eight years ago Sunday, network television was interrupted at 11:36 p.m. EDT so President Lyndon B. Johnson could tell the nation that U.S. warships in a place called the Gulf of Tonkin had been attacked by North Vietnamese PT boats. In response to what he described as "open aggression on the open seas," Johnson ordered U.S. airstrikes on North Vietnam. The airstrikes opened the door to a war that would kill 1 million Vietnamese and 58,000 Americans and divide the nation along class and generational lines.
Over the years, debate has swirled around whether U.S. ships actually were attacked that night, or whether, as some skeptics suggest, the Johnson administration staged or provoked an event to get congressional authority to act against North Vietnam. Recently released tapes of White House phone conversations indicate the attack probably never happened.
The tapes, released by the LBJ Library at the University of Texas at Austin, include 51 phone conversations from Aug. 4 and 5, 1964, when the Tonkin Gulf incident occurred. Two days earlier, on Aug. 2, North Vietnamese forces in Russian-made "swatow" gunboats had attacked the USS Maddox, a destroyer conducting reconnaissance in the gulf. But from the get-go, many have doubted anything really happened to the Maddox and a sister ship, the USS C. Turner Joy on Aug. 4. Even LBJ seemed skeptical, saying in 1965: "For all I know, our Navy was shooting at whales out there."
The released tapes neither prove nor disprove what may have happened that night, but they do indicate jittery sailors in a tense area thought they were under attack.
"Under attack by three PT boats. Torpedoes in the water. Engaging the enemy with my main battery," the Maddox radioed.
Indeed, the destroyers fired 249 5-inch shells, 123 3-inch shells and four or five depth charges, according to Navy records.
Many of the taped conversations from that night are between Defense Secretary Robert McNamara - who was trying to verify something actually happened so he could brief LBJ for his TV bulletin - and Adm. U.S. Grant "Oley" Sharp, commander of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet.
Sharp was feeding McNamara information from the field and trying to get a strike force in the air to retaliate for the alleged attack before the president went on television.
"If it's open season on these boys, which I think it is, we'll take if from there," Sharp said about noon on Aug. 4.
Later, in a 1:59 p.m. EDT conversation with Air Force Lt. Gen. David Burchinal of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Sharp was elusive, saying, "many of the reported contacts and torpedoes fired appear doubtful."
He blamed the reports on "overeager sonarmen" and "freak weather effects on radar."
But, asked Burchinal: "You're pretty sure there was a torpedo attack?"
"No doubt about that, I think," Sharp replied.
At 8:39 p.m., with McNamara laying plans for LBJ to go on TV, McNamara asked Sharp why the retaliatory strike was delayed.
Bad weather, Sharp said, and an agitated McNamara replied: "The president has to make a statement to the people and I am holding him back from making it."
Thirty minutes later, at 9:09, Sharp said the launch still was 50 minutes off.
"Oh my God," McNamara said.
And about an hour before he went on television, Johnson spoke by telephone with Barry Goldwater, his Republican opponent in that year's presidential race.
"Like always, Americans will stick together," the Arizona senator told LBJ.
At 11 p.m., McNamara asked Sharp, who was in Honolulu and getting feedback from the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga, if Johnson could say "at this moment air action is now in execution" against North Vietnam.
Sharp chuckled and replied: "I don't think it would be good, sir," noting the retaliatory strike had not yet launched.
Shortly after 11 p.m., the counterstrike was under way and LBJ went on the air to tell the American people the "attack" on U.S. ships was an "outrage."
"I shall immediately request the Congress to pass a resolution making it clear that our government is united in its determination to take all necessary measures in support of freedom and in defense of peace in Southeast Asia."
But, says James Stockdale, a Navy aviator who responded to the "attacks" on the Maddox and Turner Joy, it all was hogwash. Stockdale later was shot down and spent eight years in a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp. In 1992, he was presidential candidate Ross Perot's running mate.
"I had the best seat in the house to watch that event, and our destroyers were just shooting at phantom targets - there were no PT
boats there. There was nothing but black water and American firepower," Stockdale wrote in his 1984 book, "In Love and War."
Congress, however, responded to LBJ's call to arms, giving him a veritable blank check to make war.
While the U.S. response, as the tapes seem to bear out, was a mistake rather than a charade, there is ample evidence the United States was a provocateur in 1964, not an innocent bystander.
The Johnson administration had approved covert land and sea operations involving U.S. forces earlier in 1964, the so-called Op Plan 34-A.
On Monday, Aug. 3, 1964, the day after the first Tonkin Gulf incident where the USS Maddox actually was attacked, Johnson, according to White House tape recordings, said:
"There have been some covert operations in that (Tonkin Gulf) area that we have been carrying on - blowing up some bridges and things of that kind, roads and so forth. So I imagine (the North Vietnamese) wanted to put a stop to it."
Later that same day, LBJ, who ironically was about to ask Humphrey to be his running mate in the '64 election, complained to their mutual friend, James Rowe: "Our friend Hubert is just destroying himself with his big mouth," LBJ said, noting the Minnesota liberal told the media after an intelligence briefing that U.S. boats were running covert operations in the gulf - "exactly what we have been doing."
Two months before the Tonkin Gulf incident, Undersecretary of State George Ball, a member of Johnson's inner circle and a member of a committee that oversaw the 34-A operations, had drafted, but not submitted, a congressional resolution endorsing "all measures,
including the commitment of force," to defend South Vietnam and Laos, should their governments seek help - in effect, the language in the subsequent Tonkin Gulf Resolution.
In a May 24 meeting, the National Security Council suggested the best time to submit such a resolution was after Congress had passed the landmark 1964 civil rights bill, which occurred in July.
Ball later said, according to McNamara in his 1995 mea culpa, "In Retrospect," that "many of the people who were associated with the war ..... were looking for any excuse to initiate bombing. ....."
However, another close LBJ aide, William Bundy, according to the same source, said the Tonkin Gulf incident was not engineered.
While the reasons for it either were unclear or false, the Tonkin Gulf Resolution cleared Congress on Aug. 7, 1964 - 414-0 in the House and 88-2 in the Senate.
History has seemed to coalesce around the belief that the second Tonkin Gulf incident, on Aug. 4, was a mistake, but not a charade.
It was not a "put-up job," claims Professor Edwin Moise, a Vietnam War expert at Clemson University.
As the LBJ Library tapes indicate, the Navy was not ready to launch a retaliatory strike Aug. 4 against North Vietnam, but it would have been if the event had been staged, Moise theorizes.
Professor David Crockett, a presidential scholar at Trinity University, calls the incident an accident, but says the greater problem was that Congress "rolled over" and gave LBJ what he wanted: "a virtual blank check to make war."
The irony, Crockett notes, is that LBJ painted Goldwater as a warmonger in the '64 campaign. A powerful but notorious LBJ TV ad featured a little girl picking daisies followed by the detonation of a nuclear bomb.
"LBJ campaigned that he wouldn't send American boys to die in Asian wars," says Crockett, who is only a year older than the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, "but he was actually doing it" by pushing the resolution through Congress.
Jerry Paull*, a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam vet, has another perspective. For six months in 1965, he ferried South Vietnamese forces on Norwegian-made PT boats into North Vietnam to conduct raids, kidnaps and psychological operations such as dropping propaganda leaflets.
Although he was a U.S. Marine, Paull says he wore civilian clothes on the missions - in violation of a 1954 Geneva convention - and the PT boats, called "nasties," were painted black and had no markings.
"I have heard and read," Paull says, "that at the time of the Gulf of Tonkin incident that it is suspected that the North Vietnamese mistook the U.S. destroyers for the nasties, and that the whole Gulf of Tonkin incident was a mistake on the North Vietnamese's part."
Paull would later turn against the war, but, he reminds younger Americans, the mid-'60s was an era of idealism, when America's No. 1 foreign policy thrust was to stop the spread of communism.
"War was what I had trained for and what I wanted to do for my country," he recalls.
"At that time, there was a common saying in the Marine Corps: 'It's not much of a war, but it's the only war we have.'."
A year later, though, while waiting at an air strip at Chu Lai to head into the field, a newsman asked Paull if he'd noticed a change in attitude among the Marines between 1965 and 1966.
"I said, 'Yes, the idea of being carried home on a shield was not as glorious as it had been in 1965. Death is final.'."
"The hard realities of war were realized."
Bob Blackburn, a former college professor who had to give up teaching because of Vietnam-induced post traumatic stress disorder, served two tours with the Marines in Vietnam and fought in another turning point in the war, the 1968 Tet offensive.
The North Texas resident says he was bitter toward Johnson then, but now simply refers to LBJ as a "tragic figure" who got himself into a situation he couldn't politic his way out of.
"He could never realize why (North Vietnamese leader) Ho Chi Minh wasn't like a Republican senator who could be bought. He'd have built a TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) for (Ho) if he'd just quit fighting," says Blackburn, who has a doctorate in American political history with an emphasis on Vietnam.
George Christian, who was LBJ's press secretary from 1966 to 1969 and wrote LBJ's resignation speech in 1968, confirms that.
"There was never a better legislative president," Christian recalls. "He was a master at working the system and he made honest efforts to try to reach an honest end to the war.".' Why can't Ho Chi Minh see that?'." Christian recalls Johnson often lamenting.
Vietnam had a "corrosive" effect on the president, Christian says, but it wasn't the main reason LBJ resigned.
"It was his health; he was worried about having a stroke and being incapacitated.
"I thought the country was ungovernable," Christian says now. "I wanted him to go home. Mrs. Johnson wanted him to go home. He wanted to go home."
A lot of Americans never came home, and those who did often weren't welcomed home as conquering heroes, as their fathers and grandfathers had been.
Still, coming home whole was no less joyous.
Blackburn, for example, was picked up by a helicopter in the field in Vietnam on May 2, 1968, and was discharged from the Corps 12 days later at El Toro Naval Air Station, Calif.
He used the money he saved in Vietnam to buy himself a sports car, and as he drove away from the base, en route back home to Texas, Blackburn removed his uniform and, piece by piece, threw it into the wind from his convertible.
"There wasn't a sign between El Toro and Needles that didn't have a piece of my clothing on it," he says.
2002 San Antonio Express-News
###
Flyby News 'Fair Use Policy' is posted near the bottom of our homepage:
http://www.flybynews.com
Peltier Update/Action - Political Identity Crisis Convention
While the Rupublican and Democratic conventions struggle with image-identity persuasions, the environment continues to be trashed to create serious doubts of the survival of the human species beyond the 21st Century. 160 species are disappearing each day! Time is moving too swiftly for dead-end politics, especially with the "politically correct" Ralph Nader - Green Party agenda that can play the spoiler for Al Gore and swing the electorate for the George Bush "Star Wars" ticket. Presidential candidate Nader mentioned that he realizes this, and if things get worse, then, perhaps, the corrupt two-party U.S. political system would change in the next election. But this may come at a price and timing that is too late for a beloved planet of life that can be destroyed by humankind's collective ignorance. The time is now for change and the transformation to stop star wars and abuses to human and other life.
1) Leonard Peltier Update and Call for Action
Attorney Jennifer Harbury filed an Ethics Complaint with the Justice Department asking for an official investigation of FBI misconduct starting with the Pine Ridge reign of terror and finishing with the FBI's current campaign of disinformation against Leonard Peltier. You can find it on the LPDC website:
http://www.freepeltier.org/ethics_complaint1.htm#top
Please consider calling the White House daily for the remainder of 2000 to help free Leonard Peltier by supporting his 1993-filed Presidential Executive Clemency Petition. During the same call, support canceling the expensive "cannot work" missile defense program that can kill the anti-ballistic missile treaty and escalate a more deadly arms race. Jean Day of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee said that after every one hundred phone calls, President Clinton is notified on these issues.
(over)
The White House Comment Line: (202)456-1111
Congressional Switchboard: (202)224-3121
Justice Department: (202)514-2007 /
fax 202-514-5331
GOOD NEWS! The Democratic Party of California passed a unanimous resolution in support of Executive Clemency for Leonard Peltier. The resolution, introduced by the Marin Progressive Democrats, passed with overwhelming support, including the entire 550 California Democratic delegates to the National Democratic Convention. President Clinton needs to know that overwhelming support for Executive Clemency exists among his party, and if he grants clemency, he will not stand alone.
**********************************************************************
BAD NEWS! BRAZILIAN OIL GIANT SPILLS TOXIC MTBE NEAR RIO
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, August 1, 2000 - Two weeks after Brazil's biggest oil spill in 25 years, the government owned oil company Petrobras admits another of its pipelines leaked Saturday, spilling 1,000 litres (270 gallons) of toxic fuel additive near Rio de Janeiro.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_860000/860706.stm
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2000/2000L-07-18-12.html
**********************************************************************
CNN chat with author/editor Harvey Arden about the movement to free Leonard Peltier
Thanks for your patience, if you received the last issue of Flyby News more than once. I was hoping for more commentary on the failure of last Friday's test for missile defense on Sunday morning TV news. How can anything be more clear that the Star Wars deal is too complex, ineffective and expensive? Like missile defense, the case of Leonard Peltier is an abuse of Human Rights and Justice. The following is a transcript of an interview of Harvey Arden, who edited Leonard Peltier's book, PRISON WRITINGS: My Life Is My Sun Dance.
"I could wish, with a new century and a new millennium coming, that today's FBI would cleanse itself of the misdeeds of the 1970s and at least stand back and allow an innocent man to be returned to his People."
-Harvey Arden
An online CNN chat with author/editor Harvey Arden about the movement to free Leonard Peltier
(CNN) -- Harvey Arden, author of Wisdomkeepers: Meetings with Native American Spiritual Elders, Travels in a Stone Canoe: The Return to the Wisdomkeepers, and Dreamkeepers: A Spirit-Journey into Aboriginal Australia, joined CNN.com for a Book Chat on Wednesday, November 3, 1999. Mr. Arden is also the editor of Prison Writings: My Life is My Sun Dance, a book written by Leonard Peltier, and Noble Red Man: Lakota Wisdomkeeper Mathew King. The following is an edited transcript of the chat.
Chat Moderator: Welcome, Harvey Arden.
Harvey Arden: It's an honor to be here. Thank you so much.
Chat Moderator: Please tell us about Prison Writings: My Life is my Sun Dance, by Leonard Peltier.
Harvey Arden: It is a book that came about in a very unusual way in my life. I was a writer for many years at National Geographic magazine. At the end of those years, I wrote books about Native American wisdom. I wrote a book about the path of the Wisdomkeepers, the spiritual elders of Native America. I never dreamed that that path would take me into Leavenworth Prison, but so it happened. My book Noble Red Man mentions Leonard in passing. It shows how he was railroaded with the others. It tells about the siege of Wounded Knee in 1973. I sent a copy of the book Noble Red Man to Leonard via the publisher and it turned out that he was already a fan of mine from the stories I had written in National Geographic.
About 2 1/2 years ago I asked his lobbyist, Ron Lessard, in Washington, whether Leonard had ever written a book. Ron said, "No, why don't you write him a letter about it?" And I did, suggesting a book of more of a spiritual than a political nature, along the lines of Noble Red Man. Leonard agreed and for the next six months I gathered together all of his writings from his bimonthly journal, "Spirit of Crazy Horse," as well as other sources, hoping that, as an editor, I could glean from those enough of his really beautiful writing to make a book.
Alas, I only came up with about 30 to 40 pages, since most of his statements related specifically to the current legal dilemmas and hearings that his case was involved in. But I did pick out paragraphs and sentences, even adjectives that seemed worthy of being in a book. Ron brought them to Leonard, since I'm not allowed to, and he said to me, and, when I visited him the next day, Leonard told me, "One mind, Harvey, one mind."
I knew exactly what he meant because he and I had both been taught by the very same spiritual elders or Wisdomkeepers, as I called them in my first book, Wisdomkeepers.
I can honestly say that I was half hoping that he would be disappointed in what I had brought because I was getting a little spooked by the human nastiness that seemed involved in every aspect of Peltier's case. I was spooked especially by the nastiness of a government that seemed to be hiding its own misdeeds by attacking and imprisoning Peltier and his supporters, of whom I now found myself one.
Chat Moderator: Does the book describe the incident which resulted in Peltier's imprisonment?
Harvey Arden:Yes, it does. There is a whole chapter on it. And this is nothing you will hear about from the FBI…how an eagle flew above the heads of Leonard and those he was trying to save and led them away from the cordon of crazed lawmen who they were convinced were closing in to slaughter them, as Custer's cavalry slaughtered the people at Wounded Knee in 1890. That event is like yesterday to Indian people.
Comment from Aurora: Custer died in 1876.
Harvey Arden: It was Custer's cavalry that did the massacre in 1890, long after Custer's death.
Question from Suyeta: Mr. Arden, don't you think it's more than a bit odd that FBI agents, members of the official U.S. law enforcement arm, have taken out these newspaper ads opposing Peltier's release?
Harvey Arden: I don't know if it is odd. I think they have a right to state their piece. I don't, however, think they have a right to intimidate newspapers and politicians and to knowingly distort the truth, which they do their best to conceal from the American people. I could wish, with a new century and a new millennium coming, that today's FBI would cleanse itself of the misdeeds of the 1970s and at least stand back and allow an innocent man to be returned to his People.
Question from stream: Do you think that your book will force a change? And do you feel safe?
Harvey Arden: I think that I am maybe the canary down in the mine because the FBI has not intimidated me in any way. There is a time I thought they would. There may have been phone calls made here or there that were made to intimidate others but not to me personally. I think the FBI would like to cleanse itself of this matter. But it cannot "betray" its old agents who acted overzealously at the very darkest time of the cold war, when they launched illegal assaults on supposedly dissident groups like Black Power, the Vietnam movement, and the so-called Red Power movement represented by AIM, the American Indian Movement.
Question from Fred: Should we consider a "Free Leonard Peltier" march on Washington?
Harvey Arden: Certainly consider it. I have thought often about a million-man march on Washington on behalf of Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and other political prisoners. But our media, in particular the newspaper media, has been so complicit in the silence on Peltier and other political prisoners, that I think that it is impossible to stage such a march. We don't need a march. We need a prayer to President Clinton to give his heart the strength to withstand the flak from those who will undoubtedly give it and, with a stroke of his pen, to free an innocent man. And we all know he is innocent, including the FBI.
Question from Lorna: It's clear from Mr. Peltier's writings that he yearns for release from prison. Is there any word as to when the Justice Department will forward its recommendation to President Clinton regarding an adjusted sentence?
Harvey Arden: I find that the Justice Department, like the White House itself, answers only by auto responder. You may have received such an auto response from your own Congressman. Our government might think it is OK to govern by auto responder. We the people will not stand for that. The Justice Department has had nearly six years now to respond to the president with a recommendation on Leonard's petition for executive clemency. The usual time is three to nine months. So we hope that recommendation is sitting on the president's desk today and that it will be signed today, even as our people reenact the massacre of Wounded Knee outside the White House windows.
Leonard has written about how he wishes that the golden eagle on the flagstaff in the Oval Office would come to life and add its voice to the voices of millions of people who have written to President Clinton asking for, praying for, pleading for, and demanding the release of Peltier and the innocents in prison. Innocents should not be imprisoned. A prayer from every one of us will strengthen Bill Clinton. May he do it today!
Chat Moderator: Has President Clinton given any indications about whether or not he will sign it?
Harvey Arden: The only reports I have are from Tampa, Florida, in 1991 or 1992, when he said he would give the matter a "fair review." That would have been during the campaign for his first term. He knows the facts. I pray that he will not be intimidated by the sheaf of lies the FBI has once again perpetrated on the American people, as they did in 1995, with today's ad in the "Washington Post," a newspaper that has studiously avoided any mention of Leonard Peltier for five years. And it continues to deceive its readers on a daily basis by concealing major events now going on in the Indian world -- this I know for sure. And I only have to wonder what else they are concealing from us in other areas of public interest. I would like to know why the Washington Post has failed to review Leonard's book*, as has virtually every other major metro daily in this country. I really fear that there has been intimidation.
[Note from Harvey Arden: The Post finally reviewed Leonard's book Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun ance--very favorably, as a matter of fact--in a Colman McCarthy article in spring 2000...nearly a year after publication.
McCarthy called it: "Eloquent and compassionate...deserves a place alongside the best works of Vine Deloria, Jr., N. Scott Momaday...and other Indian authors." Why, then, was it not reviewed when it came out?]
I invite those who know of any such intimidation to reveal it publicly. I speak in particular to journalists, all those journalists who have NOT written all those articles about Leonard Peltier, and also their secretaries
and colleagues. Do they know what the decision-making process was in refusing to review, even if negatively, a book by the foremost political prisoner in the U.S. Gulag?
Question from Suyeta: It's my understanding that the FBI, like all law enforcement agencies, conducts internal reviews whenever their agents are involved in firefights. But, to my knowledge, there has never been such a review concerning the shooting death of Joe Killsright.
Harvey Arden: That is my understanding. There is probably some paperwork somewhere. The whole strange thing is that the FBI that day sent two unmarked cars onto a property they knew had armed men there to defend the defenseless. The FBI's excuse for those two unmarked FBI cars roaring at a high speed onto what was, in effect, foreign territory, was supposedly to search for a man whose alleged great crime was having stolen a pair of used cowboy boots. What's more, they had no warrant for such an arrest. Indian people and their supporters are convinced that this was utterly fabricated after the fact, and that the FBI's true intent on that day was to provoke a confrontation with the dozen or more people in the spiritual camp, one of whom was Leonard Peltier.
There is no aspect of this case from start to finish (and it ain't finished yet) that has not been fabricated by the FBI. Today's FBI is desperately in need of cleansing itself of this terrible chain of misdeeds and becoming once again respected by the American people whom they are sworn to defend.
Question from Cathy: Do you think that this case will further the cause of indigenous people?
Harvey Arden: This case is the cause of indigenous people. Anyone who would separate the political struggle from the spiritual struggle is not following the Indian Way.
Question from Cathy: How does Leonard feel about the tremendous amount of grass roots support he has gotten (i.e. e-mail campaigns, etc.)
Harvey Arden: He is endlessly overwhelmed by it and endlessly thankful for it. It is what has given him the strength to endure the daily torture he undergoes from a cruel and vindictive government that is hiding its own
misdeeds, not Leonard's. Leonard did NOT KILL THOSE AGENTS!
Lynn Crooks, the prosecutor, admitted in federal court that the FBI had no idea who shot its agents. The federal appeals judge in 1986 also said that the FBI was "equally responsible" for the deaths of its own agents and advised the president at that time to give clemency to Leonard Peltier. We pray that the president will heed that message 13 years later. Either allow Leonard out or give him a new trial. He would take the second option anytime.
Question from Suyeta: Harvey, how do you think the recent CNN/Time piece on Peltier went?
Harvey Arden: I think it made Leonard look very bad. The camera repeatedly focused on him chewing his lips, but never told CNN's audience that Leonard suffers from an extremely painful case of lockjaw. His upper and lower jaws are fused with only a one-eighth-inch space between his upper and lower teeth. He continually works his lips to fight the terrible feelings in his jaw. This is a condition the bureau of prisons has repeatedly refused to allow to be fixed by the Mayo clinic, which has offered to do this rare operation. So to focus on Leonard's lip movements repeatedly, which they did, is like focusing on Bob Dole's pencil in hand while he gives a speech. I wish CNN had hold that.
So much truth was left out, so many lies were left in, and the words of the FBI were never challenged. Yet Leonard was virtually cross-examined. Other pieces of tape were inserted in the discussion with him. It was a set up. He never went down to the agents. Could he see them? Not nearly as well as CNN's audience, which was treated to nearly a dozen shots close up of the agents' bodies.
If Leonard was cross-examined, why was the FBI not cross-examined? Because their lies are endless. Leonard was not lying. He saw the agents from a distance, as would anyone standing where he was because the landscape is bowl shaped and the agents were at the bottom of it.
Question from Squirrel: Looks to me like it is finished. Peltier remains in prison, regardless of how much we protest. Regardless of all the books, pow wows, letters, TV specials, whatever, the bottom-line is -- he is there, right?
Harvey Arden: He is definitely there. He can be released from there by the simple action of one man, President William Clinton. He has absolute constitutional authority to grant clemency. The FBI may state to him their opinion but they had better not intimidate him. This is his decision. And allowing Leonard to go, to be free once again, is as much in the interest of the FBI and the government as it is in the interest of the Indian people who love Peltier and share this land with us. So I believe that he will be given clemency and that every one of the protests of the last 25 years, every one of the messages sent by millions of supporters, every one of the prayers we sent winging to the White House, that every one of those was well worth doing and continues to be worth doing. And everyone here reading these words today, the moment this interview is over, should be grabbing his or her telephone and dialing the number of a friend or of the president to make your feelings
known. There are tens and scores and millions of us. We must raise our voices.
Question from Suyeta: How is it that Peltier's companions acted in self-defense, yet Peltier himself committed first degree murder?
Harvey Arden: A very good question. In fact, it has never been demonstrated that there was a murder. The entire scenario of someone coming up to the agents and finishing them off at close range is created by the FBI to present a false picture of what happened. Leonard does not know how those agents were killed, only that he could see their sprawled bodies beside the cars, as CNN's tape clearly showed, as anybody would see.
So it has never been demonstrated that there was a murder, only a killing. How could there be a murder if the two people who were accused of it were acquitted on self-defense. To defend yourself is not murder, which is all Leonard ever did. He did not kill those agents. There is not a shred of evidence to show it. The words of the FBI agent and the prosecutor on CNN's recent show were knowingly false. This same prosecutor has admitted in federal court that they do not know who killed their agents. Therefore, how can they describe in such amazing detail how this man, Leonard Peltier, walked up with a high powered rifle to these injured agents and dispatched them at close range. Where did they get these "facts?"
I can understand their anguish at the deaths of their agents. And I can tell you absolutely that their anguish is exceeded by Leonard's anguish, because he never took part in any such execution. And it is even unlikely that any execution took place at all. But whatever happened to those two agents is something neither the FBI nor Leonard Peltier knows for certain. They may both have their ideas about it but, in the words of their own prosecutor, Lynn Crooks, they don't know who killed the agents. Therefore, Leonard Peltier is not guilty of murder by any evidence now on the record.
Question from Lorna: Mr. Arden, why not a political book now?
Harvey Arden: Leonard is delighted that people like his book and his writing. It surprises him and he will now be working on a book about the very concept of imprisonment, whether it is for the guilty or for the innocents. The title will be a line taken from this present book, Even the Guilty are Human: Meditations on Imprisonment by Leonard Peltier. For more information on all this please go to http://www.wisdomkeepers.com/
Chat Moderator: Thank you, Harvey Arden, for joining us today.
Harvey Arden:Thank you for your very perceptive questions.
# # #
[Additional Note from Harvey Arden 7/9/2000]
Also definitely check out <"http://www.freepeltier.org/" the terrific website of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC) and you can order Leonard's book & CD from them. Also subscribe to the LPDC's bimonthly Spirit of Crazy Horse newsletter to learn things about America and the world that you won't read about in the Washington Post or the New York Times!
Also--IMPORTANT!-- check out and sign petition at
http://clemency_for_peltier.tripod.com/ Clemency for Leonard Petier
TAKE PART IN THE HISTORY OF YOUR OWN TIMES!
BECOME AN ARMY OF ONE!
Star Wars Test Failure * Text of scientists' anti-missile letter
1) Star Wars Test Failure
2) Text of scientists' anti-missile letter
The following is an excerpted statement by Lieutenant General Ronald Kadish, Director, BMDO at the Pentagon's press briefing on Saturday, July 8, 2000 - 1:37 a.m. EDT:
"..We launched the interceptor. But we failed to have the kill vehicle separate from the booster second stage. All we know based on telemetry now, and of course we will get more data as time goes on, is that the kill vehicle was waiting for a signal that we had second stage separation. We did not receive that signal. Therefore, the timeline shut down and the kill vehicle did not separate, and therefore, we did not attempt or have any activity in the intercept phase. So we had a failure of the booster kill vehicle separation.."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Are the Gremlins at Work
or Is It the Nature of the Beast?
This could be where the tide turns toward the abolition of weapons of mass destruction to a more peaceful use of space.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Antimissile System Fails Over Pacific, Pentagon Reports"
New York Times Online article By ELAINE SCIOLINO
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/global/070800missile-test.html
**********************************************************************
2. Text of scientists' anti-missile letter
The full text of the letter from the Federation of American Scientists to President Clinton urging that the National Missile Defence system be abandoned
http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/monitoring/media_reports/newsid_823000/823196.stm
(over)
Dear Mr President:
We urge you not to make the decision to deploy an anti-ballistic missile system during the remaining months of your administration.
The system would offer little protection and would do grave harm to this nation's core security interests.
We and other independent scientists have long argued that anti-ballistic missile systems, particularly those attempting to intercept re-entry vehicles in space, will inevitably lose in an arms race of improvements to offensive missiles.
North Korea has taken dramatic steps toward reconciliation with South Korea. Other dangerous states will arise. But what would such a state gain by attacking the United States except its own destruction?
While the benefits of the proposed anti-ballistic missile system are dubious, the dangers created by a decision to deploy are clear.
Arms race
It would be difficult to persuade Russia or China that the United States is wasting tens of billions of dollars on an ineffective missile system against small states that are unlikely to launch a missile attack on the US.
The Russians and Chinese must therefore conclude that the presently planned system is a stage in developing a bigger system directed against them.
They may respond by restarting an arms race in ballistic missiles and having missiles in a dangerous "launch-on-warning" mode.
Even if the next planned test of the proposed anti-ballistic missile system works as planned, any movement toward deployment would be premature, wasteful and dangerous.
Respectfully,
Dr Hans Bethe
On behalf of the Federation of American Scientists
July 8, 2000
**********************************************************************
Part 2 - Last words from Shaka Sankofa [Gary Graham] before Execution
3) Institutional Murder - Shaka Sankofa Last Words
From: "Marpessa Kupendua"
To: Paul D Burton, 103125,320
Date: Sun, Jun 25, 2000 11:47:08 AM
FORWARDED MESSAGE - This seems to be the complete 6 to 8 minute last words of Shaka that mainstream media and lynch mob supporters tried to belittle as "rambling."
======================
From:
Sent: Saturday, June 24, 2000 6:01 AM
As.. lethal chemicals into the bloodstream of Shaka Sankofa, the condemned man said these last words:
****
"I would like to say that I did not kill Bobby Lambert. That I'm an innocent black man that is being murdered. This is a lynching that is happening in America tonight. There's overwhelming and compelling evidence of my defense that has never been heard in any court of America. What is happening here is an outrage for any civilized country, to anybody anywhere to look at what's happening here is wrong.
I thank all of the people that have rallied to my cause. They've been standing in support of me. Who have finished with me. I say to Mr. Lambert's family, I did not kill Bobby Lambert. You are pursuing the execution of an innocent man.
I want to express my sincere thanks to all of ya'll. We must continue to move forward and do everything we can to outlaw legal lynching in America. We must continue to stay strong all around the world, and people must come together to stop the systematic killing of poor and innocent black people.
We must continue to stand together in unity and to demand a moratorium on all executions. We must not let this murder/lynching be forgotten tonight, my brothers. We must take it to the nation. We must keep our faith. We must go forward.
We recognize that many leaders have died. Malcom X, Martin Luther King, and others who stood up for what was right. They stood up for what was just. We must, you must brothers, that's why I have called you today. You must carry on that condition. What is here is just a lynching that is taking place. But they're going to keep on lynching us for the next 100 years, if you do not carry on that tradition, and that period of resistance.
We will prevail. We may lose this battle, but we will win the war. This death, this lynching will be avenged. It will be avenged, it must be avenged. The people must avenge this murder. So my brothers, all of ya'll stay strong, continue to move forward.
Know that I love all of you. I love the people, I love all of you for your blessing, strength, for your courage, for your dignity, the way you have come here tonight, and the way you have protested and kept this nation together. Keep moving forward, my brothers. Slavery couldn't stop us. The lynching couldn't stop us in the south. This lynching will not stop us tonight. We will go forward. Our destiny in this country is freedom and liberation. We will gain our freedom and liberation by any means necessary. By any means necessary, we keep marching forward.
I love you, Mr. Jackson. Bianca, make sure that the state does not get my body. Make sure that we get my name as Shaka Sankofa. My name is not Gary Graham. Make sure that it is properly presented on my grave. Shaka Sankofa.
I died fighting for what I believe in. I died fighting for what was just and what was right. I did not kill Bobby Lambert, and the truth is going to come out. It will be brought out.
I want you to take this thing off into international court, Mr.Robert Mohammed and all ya'll. I want you, I want to get my family and take this down to international court and file a law suit. Get all the video tapes of all the beatings. They have beat me up in the back. They have beat me up at the unit over there. Get all the video tapes supporting that law suit. And make the public exposed to the genocide and this brutality, and let the world see what is really happening here behind closed doors. Let the world see the barbarity and injustice of what is really happening here. You must get those video tapes. You must make it exposed, this injustice, to the world. You must continue to demand a moratorium on all executions. We must move forward.
Minister Robert Mohammed, Ashanti Chimurenga, I love you for standing with me, my sister. You are a strong warrior Queen. You will continue to be strong in everything that you do. Believe in yourself, you must hold your head up, in the spirit of Winnie Mandela, in the spirit of Nelson Mandela. Ya'll must move forward. We will stop this lynching. Reverend Al Sharpton, I love you, my brother. Bianca Jagger, I love all of you. Ya'll make sure that we continue to stand together. Reverend Jesse Jackson, know that this murder, this lynching will not be forgotten. I love you, too, my brother..
This is genocide in America. This is what happens to black men when they stand up and protest for what is right and just. We refuse to compromise, we refuse to surrender the dignity for what we know is right. But we will move on, we have been strong in the past. We will continue to be strong as a people. You can kill a revolutionary, but you cannot stop the revolution. The revolution will go on. The people will carry the revolution on. You are the people that must carry that revolutionary on, in order to liberate our children from this genocide and for what is happening here in America tonight. What has happened for the last 100 or so years in America. This is the part of the genocide, this is part of the African [unintelligible], that we as black people have endured in America. But we shall overcome, we will continue with this. We will continue, we will gain our freedom and liberation, by any means necessary. Stay strong. They cannot kill us. We will move forward.
To my sons, to my daughters, all of you. I love all of you. You have been wonderful. Keep your heads up. Keep moving forward. Keep united. Maintain the love and unity in the community. And know that victory is assured. Victory for the people will be assured. We will gain our freedom and liberation in this country. We will gain it and we will do it by any means necessary. We will keep
marching. March on black people. Keep your heads high. March on. All ya'll leaders. March on. Take your message to the people. Preach the moratorium for all executions. We're gonna stop, we are going to end the death penalty in this country. We are going to end it all across this world. Push forward people. And know that what ya'll are doing is right. What ya'll are doing is just.
This is nothing more than pure and simple murder. This is what is happening tonight in America. Nothing more than state sanctioned murder, state sanctioned lynching, right here in America, and right here tonight. This is what is happening my brothers. Nothing less. They know I'm innocent. They've got the facts to prove it. They know I'm innocent. But they cannot acknowledge my innocence, because to do so would be to publicly admit their guilt.
This is something these racist people will never do. We must remember brothers, this is what we're faced with. You must take this endeavor forward. You must stay strong. You must continue to hold your heads up, and to be there. And I love you, too, my brother. All of you who are standing with me in solidarity. We will prevail... we will keep marching... keep marching black people
... black power
... keep marching black people
... black power
... keep marching black people
... keep marching black people
... they are killing me tonight
... they are murdering me tonight
*********************
For Immediate Release
ORGANIZERS VOW TO STAND STRONG AND MAINTAIN ANTI-DEATH PENALTY MOMENTUM IN THE FACE OF "THE BIGGEST LEGAL LYNCHING IN THE HISTORY OF THE U.S."
In a statement from Houston this morning, anti-death penalty activist Larry Holmes of Millions for Mumia called last night's execution of Gary Graham (Shaka Sankofa) by the state of Texas "The biggest legal lynching in the history of the United States". Holmes saw the execution as a clear-cut case of racist government terror tactics. "Everybody knew he was innocent-even the conservative New York Times ran three editorials questioning his guilt. And yet before the eyes of the world, Governor Bush and the reactionary Texas political establishment said, 'We don't care. We'll kill him anyway.' And they did."
Organizers stressed the importance of maintaining the momentum of the anti-death penalty movement at this critical moment in the struggle. Teresa Gutierrez of the International Action Center stated, "What they are doing here is a test, to see what people will let them get away with. They are trying to throw cold water on the fire of this movement, to make people think that there is nothing they can do to stop this killing machine. We need to show them that we will not lie down while they kill our brothers and sisters." Looking ahead to the
next stage of the fight against the death penalty, Holmes said, "What freedom loving people all over the world are obliged to do is make sure that Gary Graham (Shaka Sankofa) did not die in vain. We have to turn our deep anger at this crime into a war against the racist death penalty that will end it once and for all. The principle targets in this war must be George Bush, Jr., and the republican convention, but also Al Gore and President Clinton and the Democratic convention. Not only is the Democratic leadership pro-death penalty, but they said nothing to stop this from happening.."
For more information on this press release and upcoming demonstrations contact: International Action Center
39 West 14th Street, Room 206; New York, NY 10011
email: iacenter@iacenter.org
web: www.iacenter.org www.mumia2000.org
phone: 212 633-6646 fax: 212 633-2889
**********************************************************************
A Missile Defense With Limits? * Critic accuses Pentagon of trying to silence him
July 4, 2000
1) A Missile Defense With Limits?
2) Critic accuses Pentagon of trying to silence him
3) Institutional Murder - Shaka Sankofa's Last Words
The first section is from a NYTimes article entitled "A Missile Defense With Limits," which overview and status of missile defense. The author, William Broad, has brought this issue to light in his reporting with Theodore A. Postol, an arms expert at M.I.T., who claimed evidences of widespread antimissile fraud by contractors and Defense Department officials. Section 2 is about Dr. postol's experience with the Pentagon trying to silence him. In following E-mail, Section 3 is last words from Shaka Sankofa [Gary Graham], who many believe was innocent and institutionally murdered by the state of Texas.
May this 4th of July instill an awareness and appreciation in the best interests of our nation and world.
***********************************************
1) A Missile Defense With Limits?
A Missile Defense With Limits: The ABC's of the Clinton Plan
New York Times By WILLIAM J. BROAD
--
June 30, 2000
-- [A crucial test of antimissile technology is set for Friday, July 7. If it succeeds, a decision may follow this fall on building a national missile defense. A site considered is a former antimissile base near Nekoma, N.D.]
For ages, nations have dreamed of building invulnerable shields to protect themselves from hostile forces. There was the Great Wall and the Maginot line and, in America, the Safeguard antimissile system and "Star Wars."
All fell short. Now, the Clinton administration and its military advisers may try again, this time with a limited antimissile weapon they think can go a long way toward immunizing America against attack -- at least from missiles launched by adversaries like North Korea, Iran and Iraq, which are known to be developing intercontinental missiles.
Officials at the Pentagon and experts outside of the government say this defense technology has reached a new level of maturity. They argue that the combination of miniaturized parts and fast rockets can produce an agile, lightweight weapon that can find and ram an incoming warhead at about 7,000 miles per hour.
But critics are skeptical that it can work. Even its advocates compare the overall challenge of building and orchestrating the system's millions of parts to developing the atom bomb and putting men on the Moon. One question is whether the defending weapon can survive the boost into orbit. More fundamental is whether it can be made to distinguish between a warhead heading for the United States and a cloud of decoys, a task that it has about 100 seconds to accomplish.
In fact, since research on so-called hit-to-kill weapons began in 1976, attempts to destroy mock warheads have failed more than 70 percent of the time. A crucial flight test of the technology is set for next Friday, when a ground-based interceptor missile is to thunder aloft and try to destroy a mock warhead in space.
If it goes well, President Clinton may decide this fall whether to build the first phase of the so-called national missile defense. Though the administration is weighing approval of preliminary construction, it says a final deployment decision may fall to the next president.
The central feature of the proposed system would be a supersmart "exoatmospheric kill vehicle" that is designed to be carried atop a rocket and guide itself to a collision with an incoming warhead.
Proponents are confident that it can work, even though the first two tests of this design were discouraging. One was a partially lucky hit and the other a complete miss. If next week's test fails as well, the chorus of critics will no doubt grow.
The scope of the proposed project is both challenging and enormous, growing in four steps from an initial 20 missile interceptors in 2005 to a much larger system by 2011. By the time it is complete, the shield would require at least 2 launching sites, 3 command centers, 5 communication relay stations, 15 radars, 29 satellites, 250 underground silos and 250 missile interceptors.
It would be based in Hawaii, Alaska, California, Colorado, North Dakota, Massachusetts, Greenland, Britain and possibly Maine. Two radars would be set up in Asia, possibly in Japan and South Korea. Building it would cost at least $60 billion and running it would take at least 1,455 people, and probably hundreds more more.
The first phase alone is supposed to take eight years, the government says, though most experts consider 12 to 16 years a safer pace and less risky. But the antimissile program's director, Lt. Gen. Ronald T. Kadish of the Air Force, says a rushed job is doable, just barely. "We're confident in the path we've chosen," he said in a recent interview. "Our program will do what we ask it to do."
As for whether the interceptors can pick out enemy decoys that are sure to accompany any attack, General Kadish said he was certain that new antimissile technology would enable the system to prevail.
"This is not well understood," he said. "Critics assume the system will remain static forever. We've never assumed it would never change." He added, "We can play the countermeasure, counter-countermeasure game."
But critics say this approach will only beget costly arms races that will erode confidence in any antimissile weapon. If the antimissile dilemmas can be resolved, and a weapon built that really works, the nation might at last establish something approaching a limited nuclear sanctuary. If the effort proves futile, it risks wasting billions while upsetting a balance of terror that has kept an uneasy peace among nuclear antagonists for more than half a century.
The Plan: In Space, Feats of Annihilation
The exoatmospheric kill vehicle is the star of the Clinton plan, a 130-pound wonder just 54 inches long. It is made by Raytheon at a plant in Tucson. In space, it would guide itself toward the target, its tiny computer analyzing sensor readings and firing thrusters.
Its big challenge is to disregard the decoys amid the nuclear warheads, which the sensor tracks through their heat rays and sees as twinkling points of light, like stars.
Zipping along at about two miles per second, the kill vehicle is to slam into the nuclear warhead in space and demolish it by force of impact.
Antimissile designers praise the kill vehicle as the apex of miniaturization and accuracy. By contrast, they say, the world's first successful hit-to-kill interceptor, in 1984, had to unfurl a 15-foot-wide steel umbrella to raise the odds of collision.
"It's a world of difference, the way the technology has moved," said Edward L. Wilkinson, project manager of the 1984 system, which succeeded after three failures.
Donald R. Baucom, an antimissile historian at the Pentagon, said the new kill vehicle's deadly agility is rooted in its miniaturized parts and light weight -- pounds versus earlier tons. So firings of its four small thrusters produce fast maneuvers. "You can make that baby really hot," Dr. Baucom said. "All this adds up to greater and greater accuracy."
Still, even its staunchest backers acknowledge that the kill vehicle is blind to enemy warheads for most of its flight. Raytheon, its maker, says it can pick up the telltale heat emanations of targets only in the last 100 or so seconds before impact. So the weapon must still rely on radars and satellites to find its quarry. The needed helpers, detailed in April in a Congressional Budget Office report, and in interviews with its author, Geoffrey Forden, include these:
. Early-warning radars. Five existing ones would be improved and a new one built in Asia to help alert the force of interceptor missiles of enemy attack.
. High-resolution radars. These can better resolve targets inspace to aid tracking, eliminate decoys and assess whether targeted warheads have been destroyed. Nine would be built.
. Missile-tracking satellites. These detect heat from newly launched missiles and can help estimate flight paths. In time, existing ones would be supplemented by five new ones, all in high orbits.
. Warhead-tracking satellites. From low orbits, 24 of these new spacecraft would aid the hunt for warheads and decoys.
. Command centers. The main one at Cheyenne Mountain, Colo., a bunker hewn out of solid rock, would link all the data, and its officers would fight the defensive war.
. In-flight relays. On the ground, radio transmitters would send navigational signals to missile interceptors heading for battle.
The goal of this network is not only to aid kill vehicles but to push the defensive battle as close as possible to enemy territory so as to give military officers time to fire more than one interceptor at a specific warhead, raising the odds of success.
The tactic is known as shoot-look-shoot. In theory, antimissile officials say, three or more hits might be attempted against a given warhead.
General Kadish, director of the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, told Congress in February that if interceptors are 80 percent dependable, two tries will provide 96 percent confidence and three will give 99 percent assurance of a successful kill.
The anticipated power of the weapon system is a state secret. But documents that the State Department gave Moscow in January said the full system would be able to destroy up to 50 enemy warheads. The system's full coverage is detailed in a Pentagon map. Its colors range from red to blue for "bad" to "good" levels of protection and show North America as solid blue -- including all 50 states, Canada and Mexico. Cuba, however, is a conspicuous green, its coverage relatively poor.
To achieve this protection, the Pentagon would base 20 interceptors in central Alaska by 2005 and 100 by 2007, ready to shoot down missiles coming out of places like North Korea. By 2011, the Pentagon would put a total of 125 interceptors in Alaska and 125 in North Dakota, either at the old Safeguard antimissile base in Nekoma, N.D., that was mothballed 25 years ago, or farther south at Grand Forks.
Either site would increase the system's ability to target warheads streaking in from the Middle East, where military experts cite Iraq and Iran as possible threats.
Quietly, experts talk of a third interceptor base in Maine to raise the East Coast's level of protection. "Ideally," said Bill Davis, an antimissile pioneer who advises the National Missile Defense Program, "you'd like to have three sites."
The Problems: Doubts on Science And Engineering
A quiet threat to antimissile success is the defense industry itself, which loves the huge contracts but is reeling after years of mergers and cutbacks. The system's main contractors -- Boeing, Raytheon, TRW and Lockheed Martin -- insist that they are up to the job. But many experts have doubts.
"All these companies are in trouble at the same time," said Richard Cook, a former Lockheed vice president who backs the antimissile plan. "They're poorly managed. And they're not attracting the talent."
In a major setback, the Air Force last year canceled an $832 million contract with TRW and Boeing for test models of the low-orbit satellites because of cost overruns and troubles with software and sensors. Now, the first 6 of 24 satellites are to be experimental. When fired into space in 2006 or 2007, rigorous testing is to reveal any flaws in time to fix later models.
So far, a backup effort at expanded ground testing is "making good progress," said Sally Koris, a TRW spokeswoman. But computers meant to manage the battle are performing poorly. In recent ground tests, they failed five of six objectives, the Congressional Budget Office report said.
Some of the biggest woes center on the kill vehicle itself. Its development is proving unusually hard, even after Pentagon officials cut the number of decoys in flight tests from nine to one.
Last October, the Pentagon hailed its first interception test as an unqualified success but later acknowledged that the kill vehicle had initially drifted off course and picked out the large decoy balloon instead of the warhead. In a January test, a leak of sensor coolant made the missile interceptor miss the target altogether.
After investigating Raytheon, a Pentagon panel headed by retired Air Force Gen. Larry Welch last year found that a shortage of spare parts was behind testing delays, higher risks and work omissions.
More troubling, the panel said there was danger that the kill vehicle would fall apart when shaken atop its booster rocket, the development of which is lagging far behind schedule at Boeing.
The temporary two-stage booster used in flight tests is slow and relatively gentle. The three-stage one planned for war is fast and rough. The Welch panel said it was unclear if the kill vehicle "is designed to withstand" the planned tumult of shocks and vibrations, calling such uncertainty "a high risk" and urging close attention to the problem.
Barring new delays, the first time the kill vehicle is to thunder into space atop the Boeing booster is next year, and Boeing says it is moving steadily toward that goal.
Roy Danchick, a senior engineer at TRW who retired two years ago after four decades in the industry, said many of the antimissile ills derived from corporate disarray. "The contractors no longer have the talent pool," he said. "So they fake it with glossy view graphs."
For their part, the contractors insist that they are in good shape and are simply experiencing the growing pains natural to any big project. "We're making significant strides at Lockheed and the missile defense industry in general," said Jeffery Adams, a Lockheed Martin spokesman. Raytheon, feeling the most heat of all, is deferring technical questions to the Pentagon, said David Shea, a company spokesman in Washington.
Jacques S. Gansler, the Pentagon's acquisition czar, recently conceded that the Defense Department and its contractors were pushing the technological limits. "It's clearly a high-risk overall program," he told reporters this month, adding that having everything work right on the upcoming flight test was "not a high probability."
The test flight next Friday is to be the most demanding yet and the first to aid the hunt in space for the mock warhead by relaying data from a ground radar to the kill vehicle.
After that experiment, 16 more intercept attempts, each costing about $100 million, are to fly before the planned initial deployment in 2005. The Pentagon says data from these increasingly complex tests will help designers debug the antimissile system and improve the weapon's performance.
Yet even if it eventually works perfectly, critics say, the kill vehicle and its radar and satellite assistants can still be undone easily by decoys and other countermeasures that even an inexperienced attacker like Iraq or North Korea is sure to employ.
In April, the Union of Concerned Scientists and the security studies program of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology released a 175-page study on likely enemy countermeasures, saying such tricks were much easier than making a missile.
For instance, it said that disguising a weapon to look like a decoy -- just wrapping a Mylar balloon around a warhead so it drifts inconspicuously among other decoy balloons -- would foil the defense. The Pentagon has announced no plans to test the kill vehicle against such a stratagem.
Federal intelligence agencies also worry about such countermeasures. Last September, a National Intelligence Estimate said nations developing missiles could also respond to a defensive shield with at least eight types of tricks and decoys, including simple balloons.
Backers of the system say critics naEely credit foes with great powers. The technology of deception is far from easy, they say, and defensive arms can evolve to foil any offensive trick.
Mr. Davis, the antimissile pioneer who consults for the current program, said new generations of kill-vehicle sensors are to have chips of up to 1,048,576 pixels, far beyond the current level of 65,536 pixels and the 72 pixels of the 1984 success. So in the future, he said, sensor resolution will soar, aiding the kill vehicle's ability to ferret out subtle differences among warheads and decoys.
"It's a game that never ends," he said, faulting the critics. "You get action and reaction all the time. So it's a little unfair for them to state with finality that they know of a simple, cheap countermeasure that can defeat the system from here to eternity."
Theodore A. Postol, an arms expert at M.I.T., dismissed such statements as glib, saying the reality is so grim that contractors and Defense Department officials are resorting to widespread antimissile fraud.
In two reports to the White House, Dr. Postol has charged that the Pentagon is covering up its own discovery that the sensor cannot tell warheads from decoys and, to hide this flaw, is rigging all interception tests of the kill vehicle. These flight tests began last year and are to run to 2005.
The Defense Department has strongly denied his charges, saying that the kill vehicle, teamed with its proposed array of radars and orbiting sensors, can do the discrimination job just fine. And General Kadish and other Pentagon officials have hinted repeatedly that the job will be aided by technologies and techniques that are secret.
Michael W. Munn, a retired Lockheed chief scientist whose team accomplished the first hit-to-kill successes, in 1984 and 1991, said the Pentagon was deluding itself.
"Discrimination looks easy when you do it on paper," he said. "But you get up there and you never see what you expect -- the data never agree with the predictions." "The only way to make it work is to dumb it down," Dr. Munn said of antimissile flight testing. "There's no other way."
The Alternatives: From Boost Phase to No Phase
Though the United States has focused its energies on ways to kill incoming warheads once they are well under way, there is, at least in theory, a clever way to sidestep the whole problem of designing interceptors that must seek out the correct target: It would be to smash a missile while its engines are firing -- before it releases its payload of warheads, chaff, balloons and other decoys.
Hot engine flames are considered an easy target compared with warheads that are merely warm. And thin-skinned missiles, laden with highly explosive fuel and laboring to escape the Earth's gravity, are fragile compared with hardened warheads meant to survive fiery atmospheric re-entry. Finally, the missiles move at a relatively slow pace.
Moscow threw Washington a curve in early June by suggesting that so-called boost-phase antimissile systems were better than the Clinton proposal. For years, the Russians have discussed the idea with American scientists, including Dr. Postol of M.I.T.
The idea is simple: To thwart a North Korean attack a nearby interceptor based at sea or on land (Russia abuts North Korea) would smash the rising missile, shattering its body and sending its warheads plummeting back to earth.
Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, after going to Moscow to hear the Kremlin's proposal, backed developing a boost-phase weapon jointly. "We're prepared to cooperate with them," he told reporters. But Mr. Cohen added that any resulting weapon would be slow in coming and no substitute for a national missile defense.
Among other things, boost-phase technology has never been tested and if perfected would have to be based at multiple sites within a few hundred miles of missile threats. That would be relatively easy for North Korea, possible for Iraq (with interceptors in Turkey or Kuwait) and difficult for Iran (with interceptors in Belarus, Ukraine or Kazakhstan).
"It's a big project," Dr. Postol said of boost-phase defenses. "Nothing even close to it could come off the shelf." Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, raised the stakes even further. In May, he said that as president he would back research on more robust antimissile weapons like
lasers and weapons in space, taking a page from President Reagan's "Star Wars" plan.
Space arms could cost up to many hundreds of billions of dollars. Their allure is that they could, in theory, hit rising missiles in their boost phase with great ease and offer protection against large strikes. But here, too, there are countermeasures, and global coverage could be hard. One "Star Wars" proposal envisioned a need for 100,000 orbital arms.
Some critics say the risks of antimissile weapons outweigh any benefits. Besides fueling arms races, they worry that such arms could promote military tactics that raise the risk of accidental war and can be viewed as provocative because "defensive" arms can also do things like attack satellites.
Proponents counter that antimissile arms could deter missile development by small nations, preserve freedom of action for the United States during international crises and -- most important -- save lives. And new kinds of global teamwork, they add, could forestall arms races.
A shadow that hangs over all these antimissile proposals is Safeguard, the only weapon the United States ever built against long-range missiles. Switched on in North Dakota in October 1975, it was meant to shield nearby missile fields from a disarming first strike.
Its plug was pulled as military strategists concluded that Moscow could overwhelm it with a rush of new warheads then being deployed. In all, the $25 billion weapon system lasted just 133 days.
Today, its mothballed base is a wilderness of broken asphalt, empty silos, tumbled buildings and a chapel, eerily intact. It all stands as a monument to what can go awry in antimissile plans.
Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company
**********************************************************************
2) Critic accuses Pentagon of trying to silence himCritic accuses Pentagon of trying to silence him
This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 6/24/2000.
Critic accuses Pentagon of trying to silence him
By David Abel, Globe Correspondent, 6/24/2000
As the debate heats up over whether the United States should build a national missile defense, one of the program's leading critics, an MIT professor, is charging the Pentagon with trying to silence him. This week, three agents from the Pentagon's Defense Security Service arrived unannounced at Theodore A. Postol's office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They said they came to show the outspoken physicist classified documents, Postol said.
But Postol said he refused to look at the papers stamped ''SECRET.'' Recalling the Army's attempt to classify his critical analysis of Raytheon Corp.'s Patriot missile after the 1991 Gulf War, he believes the agents' visit was a ruse to prevent him from speaking out further against the proposed antimissile system, which has already cost at least $60 billion.
''I definitely saw this as potential for entrapment and a means of intimidation,'' said Postol, so miffed he wrote a letter to John Podesta, President Clinton's chief of staff, after the Wednesday morning visit. ''By showing me classified information, they could say I was talking about classified information. I saw it as a means of abridging my First-Amendment rights.''
The surprise visit came more than a month after Postol, once one of the military's top science advisers, made headlines after a letter he wrote to the White House detailed potential pitfalls in the Clinton administration's missile-defense plan and exposed what he says is evidence of a cover-up.
In the letter, the 54-year-old professor explained why he and many scientists believe current technology is incapable of defeating a ballistic missile attack. The essence of his dissent is that the system being developed can't differentiate a potential enemy's decoys from its warheads. A few balloons, he said, might be sufficient to fool current or future antimissiles.
But shortly after the letter arrived at the White House, officials sent it to the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Office. Officials there promptly classified Postol's findings, even though the letter had already been posted on the Internet. The move echoed the Army's attempt to muzzle him after the Gulf War, Postol said.
Although Postol says he never received a call before the Pentagon agents popped into his office, and accuses the security service of improperly handling secret documents, a Defense Security Service spokeswoman said the agents repeatedly tried to contact the professor and followed strict protocol in presenting the information.
Caryl Clubb, a Defense Security Service spokeswoman, said the agents went to Postol's office to deliver a letter from the service's deputy chief of staff for industrial security. The document detailed areas in which Postol's White House letter contained classified information, she said.
''The purpose of our visit was to prevent the further disclosure of classified information,'' Clubb said. ''We in no way, shape or form meant to get him to stop speaking out.''
But Postol and others describe the visit as a tactic they say the government has used before to silence informed dissidents with high-level security clearances. A scientific adviser to the chief of naval operations in the 1980s, Postol has top-secret clearances at the departments of energy and defense.
Yet all the information he assembled in his White House letter, he contends, came from a lawsuit filed by a senior engineer against the military contractor TRW Inc., which accused the contractor of sending the Pentagon fraudulent performance reports about a key portion of the antimissile system.
If Postol had consented to view the letter, he said, he would be obliged not to talk about its contents, even if the information was identical to what he previously published. The penalty for revealing the contents of a classified document ranges from the loss of security clearances to a prison sentence.
''This entire episode is Kafkaesque,'' said Democratic US Representative Edward J. Markey of Malden, who said he plans to ask the General Accounting Office to investigate. ''First, you have the government classifying a report raising questions about potential fraud ... then you have government agents showing up at the author's office, trying to force him to read a classified document that he doesn't want to read.'' Joseph Cirincione, director of the Nonproliferation Center at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said it ''appears they were trying to force feed him classified material for reasons other than his education on this matter.''
Jennifer Weeks, a former congressional military analyst who runs a project on nuclear policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, said the episode might have been a clumsy attempt to explain the missile program to Postol.
''I think it's plausible this was an effort to silence him,'' she said. ''It also may have just been a dumb, badly managed way of showing him classified information.''
Postol, though, has no doubts. ''This wasn't an accident,'' he said. ''They know what they were doing.''
...
Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company
**********************************************************************
Peltier's Parole Denied Before Hearing Completed?
1) Leonard Peltier Defense Committee's Press Release
United States Parole Examiner Refuses to Consider New Evidence
2) A Disregarded Letter to the Parole Board
Leonard Peltier Support Focuses on Clemency Campaign 2000
**********************************************************************
1) Leonard Peltier Defense Committee's Press Release
United States Parole Examiner Refuses to Consider New Evidence
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 12, 2000
LEONARD PELTIER REVIEWED FOR PAROLE
United States Parole Examiner Refuses to Consider New Evidence
Native American rights activist, Leonard Peltier was reviewed for parole today during a hearing held at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas. The Hearing was held to determine whether there is any reason why the Parole Commission should change their 1993 decision to deny Peltier parole. Today Peltier's representatives told the Commission that Peltier's health, serious family needs, and his positive program achievements were all reasons for the Commission to reconsider their denial of parole to Peltier. They also argued that the Commission's original decision to deny parole was wrong. They said the Commission has yet to justify their reasons for denying his release in excess of what their guidelines recommend.
The Parole Examiner refused to read a report from Dr. Peter Basch who, after reviewing Peltier's recent medical records, determined that problems with Peltier's health could result in "recurrent central retinal vein occlusion, stroke, heart disease, and kidney failure." The doctor also noted that several of Mr. Peltier's health problems had not been treated appropriately by prison medical staff.
Attending the parole hearing were representatives for Amnesty International, the National Council of Churches, the National Congress of American Indians, and the Assembly of First Nations. Legal council included attorneys Jennifer Harbury, Carl Nadler, and former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark. Jean Ann Day, survivor of the Pine Ridge "reign of terror" also testified.
The Parole examiner did not respond to pleas from Amnesty International or the National Council of Churches, and he showed no interest in the eight parole plans offering Peltier housing and employment from various Native Organizations and tribes.
Furthermore, the examiner refused to accept or consider the 10,000 letters collected over the last three months from US citizens, human rights organizations, luminaries and members of the international community supporting Peltier's release.
Without deliberation or the consideration of any documents presented, the parole examiner recommended that Peltier's sentence be continued until his next full parole hearing in 2008. Those in attendance reported that the examiner wrote the denial while the presentation was still being made.
Peltier's defense council will continue to protest the Parole Commission's denial of parole to Peltier in federal court. Supporters will continue efforts to gain Peltier's release through a grant of Executive Clemency. Leonard Peltier was originally convicted for the murders of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. However, formerly withheld documents supporting Peltier's innocence would later force the prosecution to admit that they could not prove who actually killed the agents. Despite this, Peltier has remained in prison for 24 years. Amnesty International considers him to be a political prisoner who should be immediately released.
Call the White House Comments Line Today
Demand Justice for Leonard Peltier! 202-456-1111
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-5774
www.freepeltier.org
To subscribe, send a blank message to < lpdc-on@mail-list.com >
For NPR's June 12, 2000 story on Leonard for Democracy NOW!
Click: http://www.webactive.com/webactive/pacifica/demnow/
(scroll down half the page to story)
**********************************************************************
2) A Disregarded Letter to the Parole Board
Leonard Peltier Support Focuses on Clemency Campaign 2000
The following letter was one of the thousands denied review by the Parole Board. However, this letter by Flyby News editor, Jonathan Mark, was published with minor revisions as a letter to the editor on June 8, 2000 in the "Recorder" newspaper, Greenfield, Massachusetts.
The best chance to now end the unjust continued imprisonment of Leonard Peltier is from his petition for Presidential Executive Clemency, which has been in limbo since filed in 1993. The review for the Clemency process usually takes six to nine months. In almost six years the Justice Department has not responded to President Clinton's request for their recommendation.
Re: Leonard Peltier's Parole Hearing -- June 12, 2000.
May 30, 2000
Dear Parole Commission:
I have requested that the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee bring this letter and enclosures to share my support for the parole of Leonard Peltier. The volume of letters on his behalf is not nearly as significant as the evidences showing his innocence and the unfair treatment that he has received. He was extradited fraudulently from Canada. From a CBS-TV 60 Minutes interview, I learned that the U.S. knowingly used a false affidavit signed by Myrtle Poor Bear, who said she was threatened and coerced by the FBI to agree that she saw Peltier shoot FBI agents Coler and Williams. The prosecution also withheld key ballistic tests showing Peltier's rifle was not the rifle used to kill the agents. The Jury never learned of this and other important facts regarding Peltier's innocence.
Leonard Peltier was at the Jumping Bull Ranch in 1975 to protect families. More than 60 uninvestigated homicides occurred on Pine Ridge over a three-year period. Those murdered were traditional Lakota, who received many threats from FBI-supported Tribal Council Leader, Dick Wilson. On the same date as the shootout, 1/8 of the Pine Ridge Reservation was turned over for U.S. gold and uranium mining interests. Was this coincidence or related during the time still called by Lakota as the "Reign of Terror?"
I hope you read Leonard Peltier's book, Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance. When I read it, I appreciated his courage, integrity and suffering. The continued imprisonment of Leonard Peltier destroys U.S. leadership role for justice and human rights. We cannot erase the wrongs of the past, but we can go on in a better direction. Twenty-four years is a long time for a human being to be in prison, especially when evidences of abuses are apparent by U.S. justice and law enforcement policies.
Please grant Leonard Peltier parole.
With best regards,
Jonathan Mark
[Please note,you can subscribe for the Leonard Peltier Support Group of Greater New England E-mail Updates by sending an E-mail to with subscribe in subject field.]
**********************************************************************
Peltier Parole * Missile Defense Decision Delayed * Pentagon Rigging Antimissile Tests
1) Parole for Peltier - A Call for Justice
2) Clinton all but certain to punt on missile defense decision
3) Pentagon Has Been Rigging Antimissile Tests, Critics Maintain
4) A Message from Standing Deer
**********************************************************************
1) Parole for Peltier - A Call for Justice - 202-305-1400
Please contact Janet Reno today in support of parole for Leonard Peltier, who's Hearing is scheduled for 12 June 2000.
The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC) reported that the Attorney General's comment line voice mailbox was full last Friday after requesting their supporters to call the Attorney General for Leonard. Today is another good day to let Ms. Reno know the widespread support and commitment for justice and the freedom of Leonard Peltier.
If this following voice mailbox is full when you dial the number 202-305-1400, press 0 and the operator will direct you to another mailbox for Janet Reno.
You can also call the main switchboard of the Department of Justice at 202-514-2000 and a tell the operator that you want to leave a message for Janet Reno. You can also send her a fax at 202-514-4371.
For more information contact:
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583, Lawrence, KS 66044
(785)842-5774 http://www.freepeltier.org
**********************************************************************
2) Clinton all but certain to punt on missile defense decision
http://shns.scripps.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=CLINTON-DEFENSE-06-08-00&cat=WW
By LISA HOFFMAN
Scripps Howard News Service
June 08, 2000
WASHINGTON - President Clinton is all but certain to punt to his successor the politically charged decision on building a $21 billion national missile defense system. National security officials say the choice of whether to commit to building such a costly and controversial system ranks as one of the most important military decisions facing a commander in chief in recent years. An appreciation that the next president should bear that burden plus a winding down of Clinton's tenure make it a "virtual done deal" that he will take a pass on the question of committing the nation to such a course, according to a ranking official. Specifically, the choice facing Clinton is whether to commit to start constructing a 100-interceptor missile system, with the first interceptor to be built in Alaska and the first 20 missiles operable by 2005. Estimates are that it would cost another $36 billion to operate the continent-wide system through 2026. Initial plans had Clinton reviewing results of several tests of the still-unproven technology along with recommendations of Defense Secretary William Cohen in the spring and making his decision by this month.
But failure of a test in January blew up that schedule. A repeat test - which involves a maneuver as technologically difficult as hitting a fast-moving bullet with another bullet - is slated for early July. The new timetable would push Clinton's decision into the fall - and perhaps close enough to the Nov. 7 presidential election to influence the campaigns. That is another reason for the White House to take a pass, officials said.
Already, GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush and his Democratic rival, Vice President Al Gore, are trading barbs about the need for the complex missile defense and what it should encompass. Texas Gov. George Bush advocates erecting two missile defense systems to protect America and GIs overseas from attacks by so-called "rogue" nations, such as Iraq and North Korea. He also contends the systems should be developed and deployed as soon as possible. One would shield the entire United States and the other would protect troops abroad. Gore, like Clinton, is more cautious. He says the lack of an immediate, credible threat buys America time to make sure the technology works before shelling out billions of dollars to build it. He also says more time may be needed to convince the Russians - along with U.S. allies in Europe - that such a shield would not violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty between the two superpowers or trigger a new arms race.
(Contact Lisa Hoffman at HoffmanL@shns.com or http://www.shns.com.)
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
1090 Vermont Ave. N.W. Suite 1000 Washington, D.C. USA 20005
GENERAL LINE: 1.202.408.1484 FAX: 1.202.408.5950
(c) 1999 Scripps Howard News Service.
All Rights Reserved.
**********************************************************************
3) Pentagon Has Been Rigging Antimissile Tests, Critics Maintain
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/060900sci-missile-defense.html
June 9, 2000
Pentagon Has Been Rigging Antimissile Tests, Critics Maintain
By WILLIAM J. BROAD
Citing the Pentagon's own plan, critics of the proposed antimissile defense and even some military experts say all flight tests of the $60 billion weapon have been rigged to hide a fundamental flaw: The system cannot distinguish between enemy warheads and decoys.
In interviews, they said that after the system failed to achieve this crucial discrimination goal against mock targets in its first two flight tests, the Pentagon substituted simpler and fewer decoys that would be easier for the antimissile weapon to recognize.
The Pentagon's plan was obtained by Theodore A. Postol, an arms expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who opposes the weapon. It covers the four tests that have taken place as well as future tests up
to the system's projected deployment in 2005. Other technical experts who have seen it, including both antimissile and decoy designers, concurred with his criticism, as did a senior government official who has examined the Pentagon's testing plan.
"It is clear to me," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, "that none of the tests address the reasonable range of countermeasures," or decoys that an enemy would use to try to outwit an antimissile weapon.
While acknowledging the plan Dr. Postal obtained as authentic, Pentagon officials strongly defended the testing program. Lt. Gen. Ronald T. Kadish of the Air Force, director of the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, denied that his program had engaged in any deception or dumbing down. General Kadish said the testing program would be extremely useful and the resulting weapon would defeat crude warheads launched by inexperienced nuclear powers that might emerge in the future, like Iran, Iraq or North Korea.
Though unclassified, the plan is considered sensitive. Dr. Postol said he obtained it from a Pentagon source he would not identify. Dr. Postol, who is preparing a report for the White House on what he sees as the plan's flaws, made his argument on Monday at a meeting of the State Department's advisory board on arms control, along with another antimissile critic, Nira Schwartz. Dr. Schwartz, a former senior engineer at the military contractor TRW, lost her job after after challenging the claims the company made about the weapon's ability to
distinguish warheads from decoys.
Dr. Postol, who worked in the Reagan Administration on such issues as antimissile defense, says that the Pentagon has ignored earlier criticism like Dr. Schwartz's and instead put flawed testing methods at the heart of all its plans to develop and build a weapon. The upshot, he says, is that any real attacker -- no matter how inexperienced -- would be able to easily outwit the weapon.
Pentagon officials "are systematically lying about the performance of a weapon system that is supposed to defend the people of the United States from nuclear attack," Dr. Postol said in an interview. General Kadish conceded that "this technology is difficult." As a result, he said, his organization's approach "is to walk before we run, with increasingly stressful decoys to match what we expect" by way of enemy threats. "When we get to that end point," he said, "we'll have the confidence to put this on alert."
But far from increasing the complexity of future tests, the Pentagon has made them easier, military experts who examined the testing plan agreed. Two rigorous experiments, in 1997 and 1998, to have the weapon simply observe the targets, they said, have been followed by interception tests designed to make discriminating between decoys and mock warheads as easy as possible.
"They did a good fox trot for the first couple of tests and then slowed down to a crawl," said Bob Dietz, a retired former designer of warhead decoys for American missiles. "You have to ask why they don't build better decoys. They've always said they'd get better with time." Michael W. Munn, a retired scientist for the military contractor Lockheed and a pioneer in designing and testing antimissile weapons, said: "The only way to make it work is to dumb it down. There's no other way to do it. Discrimination has always been the No. 1 problem, and it will always remain that way." He said manipulation of antimissile flight tests was nothing new. "It's always been a wicked game," Mr. Munn said.
The Pentagon itself is sharply divided on the testing issue. In February, Philip E. Coyle III, the Defense Department's director of testing and evaluation, faulted the antimissile tests as insufficiently realistic to make decisions about moving from research to building the weapon.
The 16 interception test flights called for in the development program would cost at least $1.6 billion, Pentagon experts say. So far, the two observation tests have been followed by two interception attempts, the first successful, the second a failure. Another test is scheduled in July. The Clinton administration plans to make a decision later this year on whether to start building the antimissile system, which is to shield the United States from limited missile attacks by so-called rogue states.
Dr. Postol, a professor of science and national security studies at M.I.T. and the author of many private and federal weapon reports, was a top Navy science adviser in the Reagan Administration and for decades has studied enemy countermeasures to antimissile weapons. After the 1991 Persian Gulf war, he challenged the Army's claims of success for its Patriot antimissile system, saying it had, in fact, destroyed no Iraqi missiles at all. Though the Pentagon at first denied his assertion, it later conceded that initial reports of the Patriot success had been exaggerated.
The current scientific fray centers on the interceptor's 120-pound homing device, known as a kill vehicle. Fired on a rocket, it is designed to use a telescopic sensor, a computer and jet thrusters to steer itself through space toward a warhead, destroying it by force of impact.
Dr. Postol's critique involves its hardest job, distinguishing between actual enemy warheads and the cloud of decoys considered sure to be launched to disguise them. If unable to tell decoys from warheads, a defender would be forced to fire interceptors at every threatening object, quickly exhausting a defensive force. Dr. Postol began digging into the first antimissile flight test, in June 1997, after reviewing Pentagon data gathered by Dr. Schwartz.
The sensors at issue are cooled to more than 300 degrees below zero and work in the icy void of space to track faint heat emissions from warm targets, just as ordinary telescopes track light. They see warheads and decoys as twinkling points of light, like stars. The June 1997 flight test, Dr. Postol asserted, showed that the infrared twinkles were random and insufficiently different from one another to let the interceptor distinguish among them, and that the Pentagon had conspired to hide this surprising discovery.
The Pentagon, he said, has altered future tests to artificially heighten any differences that could be detected between warheads and decoys. His accusation is based mainly on a detailed chart from the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization that gives an overview of its program for Integrated Flight Tests of
Court Ruling to Stop Navy's LFAS Experiments * Bart Jordan's Creten maze, Stonehenge, Lippard's Overlay
1 June 2000
1) Big News on Court Ruling to Stop Navy's LFAS Experiments
2) Feedback on GlobeNet's D.C. Actions to Help Stop Star Wars
3) Bart Jordan on the Creten maze, Stonehenge, Lucy Lippard's Overlay
4) Leonard Peltier's 12 June Parole Hearing
5) FlybyNews.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Big News on Court Ruling to Stop Navy's LFAS Experiments
The following is from Attorney Lanny Sinkin that was forwarded to Flyby News on 28 May 2000, which was originally from an email to a listserve hosted by Cheryl Magill ,
>Yesterday, I received word from Andrew Wetzler at the Natural Resources Defense Council that the United States Navy officially cancelled the LWAD 00-2 Sea Test scheduled to begin this week off the east coast of the United States. For those interested in the details of this event, I have provided below a chronology. The cancellation of LWAD 00-2 is a remarkable victory for those devoted to protecting marine life, especially cetaceans, from the unwise technological decisions being made by humans in the United States Navy. Congratulations to everyone involved in achieving this outcome.
The next major developments, as far as I know, will come from the hearing scheduled in Honolulu before Judge Alan C. Kay on June 13 at 9:00 a.m. A suit filed in February challenges the environmental impact statement (EIS) process being conducted by the Navy for its low frequency active sonar system. The central challenge is that the entire EIS process is compromised by the fact that the Navy spent at least $350 million preparing to deploy this system without preparing an EIS first, as required by law. The hearing will consider the defendants' motion to dismiss the case and a motion filed by plaintiffs' counsel seeking to reopen a 1998 LFAS case for further litigation.
CHRONOLOGY - LWAD 00-2 CANCELLATION
Week of March 13-17 - Seventeen whales strand in Bahamas at the same time Navy conducts tests using various active sonar devices, including high intensity (200 dB) broadcasts. The tests are known as Littoral Warfare Advanced Development (LWAD) Sea Tests. The Bahamas test is LWAD 00-1. Navy claims coincidence. Stranded whales come from at least four different species in three families of two suborders of cetaceans, including Balaenoptera sp., Ziphius cavirostris, Mesoplodon densirostris, Stenella frontalis, and Balaenoptera acutorostrata.
March 21, 2000 - Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) send letter to Secretary of the Navy Danzig demanding a suspension of such tests. Further tests are scheduled in late May.
March 22, 2000 - Attorney for plaintiffs in Hawai'i case challenging deployment of low frequency active sonar sends formal notice to Secretaries of Commerce and Navy that Bahamian tests violated environmental laws, including Endanger Species Act.
March 24 - HSUS, the nation's largest animal protection organization, demands that the United States Navy suspend upcoming tests involving active sonar systems.
March 31, 2000 - Attorney for plaintiffs in Hawai`i cases sends letter to Secretary of Commerce calling upon the Secretary to notify the Navy that further LWAD testing without formal consultation and permits from National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) would be a criminal violation of the Endangered Species Act.
April 5, 2000 - After less than thirty days of analysis, US Navy concludes that testing in the Bahamas did not cause strandings and deaths of whales. [Note: Scientists conducting 1998 studies of affects of LFAS on whales are still analyzing the data two years later.]
April 21, 2000 - Navy issues press release again concluding that LWAD 00-2 could not be responsible for the strandings and deaths in the Bahamas. The release does state that a U.S. fleet in the same area broadcast sonar signals from five ships and one submarine in the time frame of the strandings. A Navy/NMFS investigation continues.
April 24, 2000 - Navy submits Overseas Environmental Assessment (OEA) to NMFS requesting concurrence in LWAD 00-2. As was the case for LWAD 00-1, the Navy seeks agreement based on informal consultations. Such a process confines the discussion to a Navy-NMFS dialogue with the public rarely becoming aware of the project. In this case, however, the disaster in the Bahamas brought elevated public attention brought to the LWAD testing program. NRDC secures a copy of the OEA and makes the document available to people working on potential litigation to stop LWAD 00-2 and others.
Late April/early May - information begins to emerge indicating that NMFS personnel are dissatisfied with the process underway and the OEA. The Navy provided less than thirty days in which to review the OEA, placing NMFS personnel under pressure to simply agree. NMFS personnel are not pleased with the late filing and concerned about what appears in the OEA.
May 5, 2000 - NMFS sends a letter to the Navy stating that "we are not able to concur with your determination that the proposed action is not likely to adversely affect listed species under the National Marine Fisheries Service's jurisdiction." The letter stated that additional time would be needed to complete the review. Given the short time frame available, the letter requested the Navy to postpone the operation.
May 9, 2000 - Attorney for plaintiffs in LFA Hawai`i litigation sends extensive comments on the OEA to NMFS. The essence of the comments are (1) the informal consultation process should stop and a formal process be initiated, in part to allow for public participation; (2) the events in the Bahamas and the emerging evidence of shock trauma call for extraordinary caution in allowing more tests; (3) the March 21 NRDC/HSUS letter to the Secretary of the Navy provides additional legal and scientific concerns that need to be considered before relying upon informal consultations to concur in the LWAD 00-2 test; (4) the OEA did not address at all what happened in the Bahamas; (5) the sonar activities of the naval fleet in the Bahamas suggest the possibility of synergistic impacts from LWAD 00-1 and the fleet sonars; (6) the OEA is seriously deficient because there is no discussion of the Bahamas, there is no discussion of the history of cetacean strandings and deaths now associated with low frequency active sonar (e.g. Mediterranean 1996), such as LWAD 00-2 intends to use, the cetacean exposure levels set forth as safe rely on a reference that directly contradicts the claimed safety or rely on a single study on one species to generalize to numerous species. [Presumably others are sending in comments as well, which as yet are not available to include in this chronology.]
May 10, 2000 - Environmental groups and scientists hold a press conference in Washington, D.C. calling for a moratorium on any further high intensity sonar testing. At the press conference, Ken Balcomb, Director of the Center for Whale Research, reports on the emerging evidence that the whale deaths in the Bahamas trace to some form of shock. Blood in the eyes, blood in the brains, and damage to lungs all point to some explosive or high intensity source. Dr. Marsha Green, Ocean Mammal Institute, discusses the impact of sound on cetaceans. Dr. Naomi Rose, Director of the Humane Society of the United States, issues the call for the moratorium. Dr. Charles Bernard, former Navy weapons development specialist, criticizes the LFAS technology from a military perspective.
May 15, 2000 - Attorney for plaintiffs in LFA litigation sends second comments to NFMS. The comments direct NFMS attention to evidence in the Navy's draft EIS for LFAS deployment, which demonstrates that the claims of safe levels in the OEA actually derive from the Scientific Research Program conducted as part of the draft EIS preparation. The comments suggest that the Navy failure to include the draft EIS information with the OEA constituted a serious omission and that had those documents been included, NMFS would have been required to wait because regulatory decisions cannot be made based on draft documents.
May 9-19, 2000 - Intense pressure placed on NMFS to prevent finding that formal consultations are required. Environmentalists, scientists, and other citizens opposed to LFAS deployment mount campaign to build support for NMFS staff recommendations.
May 19, 2000 - Patricia Kurkul, Regional Administrator, Northeast Region, NMFS sends letter to Navy stating that NMFS is "not able to concur with your determination that the proposed action is not likely to adversely affect listed species." The letter cites to the limited time given to NMFS to review the project; the deficiencies in the OEA, including a failure to include the latest evidence available on various issues; the imprecise descriptions given of the intensity of planned broadcasts; questionable evidence, methodology, and conclusions regarding impacts on marine life; and inadequate discussion of potential impacts on turtles. The letter concludes that "NMFS recommends formal consultation under Section 7 of the [Endangered Species Act].
May 25, 2000 - Navy cancels LWAD 00-2. Density surveys of marine mammals will be conducted using only commercial locators and passive arrays. There will be no use of low frequency active sonar.
For further information or to request periodic updates, send an email to light@ilhawaii.net
and visit http://www.ilhawaii.net/~light/lfaindex.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2) Feedback on GlobeNet's D.C. Actions to Help Stop Star Wars
The following are excerpts from the Global Network Space Alert Newsletter # 9 (Summer 2000):
TREASURY DEPARTMENT DEMO:
Loring Wirbel from Colorado Springs writes: Our Keep Space for Peace events started in Washington DC in an atmosphere of hope and good spirits. A demonstration against Star Wars at the Treasury Department on April 14 drew 140, and the numbers swelled to 200 during an hour long picket line at the White House. Speakers at the rally included Dr. Michio Kaku and representatives from the Greens, WILPF, Peace Action, England, Puerto Rico and many others. An incredible amount of media were present and stayed for much of the event, due largely to the fact they were waiting for the IMF/World Bank protests to begin that weekend. Friends in New Mexico said they saw us on TV. It was great fun protesting with our overseas friends!
SPACE CONFERENCE:
Loring Wirbel continues: The Global Network (GN) April 15 conference at American University had an overabundance of excellent speakers, capped by Rep. Dennis Kucinich. The former mayor of Cleveland, Ohio also spoke at the April 16 Mobilization for Global Justice rally in DC. Kucinich addressed issues of space militarization as stridently and succinctly as he addressed global debt. The Congressman left many in the Saturday audience feeling that he not only understood space weapons issues, but that he was the first Democrat in many years to exude honesty and intelligence in his convictions. Rep. Kucinich made the connections between "missile defense" and planetary dominance, and warned that "We cannot survive as a nation with a Sword of Damocles approach." Speakers at the conference ranged from the lively Australian Helen Caldicott to the moving South African poet Dennis Brutus to the comedic but factual presentation by Bill Hartung of the World Policy Institute. Our Saturday evening supper party entertainment included moving folk music presentations by Holly Graham (Olympia, WA), Aurel Duta (Romania) and Michael Scott Miller (Ventura, CA), as well as a dynamic multimedia presentation from the "physics chanteuse" of San Francisco State University, Lynda Williams. This years conference included representatives from Romania, Ghana, Niger, England, Ireland, Japan, Australia, Canada, Germany and from all corners of the U.S. Other representatives from Bangladesh, Togo, Sierra Leone and Uzbekistan could not attend due to Visa troubles, despite concerted efforts by the GN Board of Directors to line up Congressional complaints to the State Department. Thanks to all who made this a great event!
NPT REVIEW CONFERENCE:
The United Nations Non-Proliferation Review Conference began in New York on April 24 with Secretary-General Kofi Annan warning that deployment of the Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system "could well lead to a new arms race." Annan said that plans to move away from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty "may well reduce, rather than enhance, global security." The U.N. conference was called to review a 1968 treaty in which non-nuclear states agreed not to try to develop or acquire nuclear weapons as long as the nuclear powers pursue disarmament. Hundreds of representatives from NGO's around the world came to the event to lobby all the nuclear powers to move quicker toward disarmament. The GN, along with Abolition 2000, hosted a panel discussion for NGO's and U.N. missions that drew a large crowd to hear Karl Grossman, Alice Slater, Dr. Rashi Mayur, and Bruce Gagnon speak about space weapons. GN Board member Regina Hagen (Germany) also represented the GN on another panel dealing with space during the several week event. To a considerable extent the U.S. plan to deploy Star Wars set the tone and dominated the conference deliberations because of the obvious implications for arms control.
BMD LATEST NEWS:
The cost is going up! A recent Congressional Budget Office figure is now at $60 billion through 2015. The next test from Vandenberg AFB in California and Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean will be June 26 and an extra test has been set for October. Each National Missile Defense (NMD) flight test costs $100 million. Russia's recent ratification of the CTBT and Start II, as well as calls for missile reductions in the range of 1,500, is causing North Carolina's Republican Sen. Jesse Helms' veins to harden. Clinton will meet with Russia's President Putin in Moscow on June 4-5 to try to get Russia to agree to changes in the ABM Treaty that presently restricts systems like BMD. Clinton is said to be offering cuts of his own in nuclear weapons under a new Start III treaty in exchange for Russian acceptance of BMD. Star Wars proponent Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa) recently fumed that, "People like Kofi Annan and Bill Clinton have been overwhelmed by the arms control crowd."
PROBLEMS FOR BMD:
Several key obstacles are popping up that could cause a delay in deployment of BMD. The first is that a former senior engineer at TRW, Dr. Nira Schwartz, was recently fired by the corporation after she told them the system will not work. She is now suing the company alleging that BMD is "not a defense of the U.S..It's a conspiracy to allow them (TRW) to milk the government. They are creating for themselves a job for life."
A delay by Boeing Corporation in delivering key simulation software for
NMD could also delay the system. Flight tests performed so far cannot test the ability of NMD to counter a wide range of potential missile attacks. The head of the Pentagon's testing and evaluation directorate recently stated that, "Absence of a functioning and valid simulation software will place significant limitations on the DoD's ability to assess the potential effectiveness of the NMD system at the deployment readiness review" that will be done before Clinton makes his final decision. Another key problem is that deployment of the new BMD fleet of surveillance and tracking satellites called Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) that is central to the operation of the system will not be in place until a year after the rest of the program is scheduled to be ready.
PETITION: Click onto and sign our No Star Wars - No BMD on-line petition addressed to Clinton & Congress. http://www.petitiononline.com/BKG/petition.html
For more information or to receive this full newsletter contact:
Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083 Gainesville, FL. 32607 (352) 337-9274
globalnet@mindspring.com http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
3) Bart Jordan on the Creten maze, Stonehenge, Lucy Lippard's Overlay
New Hampshire Times - January 19, 1977 - Page 13
(Part 2) ROOTS:
unlocking the secrets of the White Goddess, the Cretan maze
New Hampshire Times - July 6, 1977 - page 21
The Secrets of Stonehenge
From Lucy Lippard's OVERLAY
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
4) Leonard Peltier's 12 June Parole Hearing
After 24 Years of Imprisonment, Leonard Peltier Will Be Reviewed For Parole
Contact: The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee:
Gina Chiala, co-coordinator 785-842-5774
For Immediate Release:
Press Conference June 12, 2000 from 3:00pm E4:00pm
Leavenworth, Kansas
The Lincoln Room of the Ramada Inn (3rd and Delaware)
Speakers Include:
Ramsey Clark, former US Attorney General
Carl Nadler, Attorney
Jennifer Harbury, Attorney and Renowned Human Rights Advocate
Curt Goering, Amnesty International, USA Director
Jean Day, LPDC Spokesperson, Jean Day
Leonard Peltier's grandchildren, Alexandra and Cyrus Peltier
Representatives for the National Council of Churches
The Assembly of First Nations
The National Congress of American Indians
Background:
Native American Leonard Peltier will be reviewed for parole on June 12 at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. Amnesty International, who considers Peltier to be a political prisoner, will attend the hearing in person to ask the Commission to set Leonard Peltier free. The National Council of Churches, the National Congress of American Indians, the Assembly of First Nations, and Peltier's family will also be asking the Parole Commission for Leonard Peltier's release.
Peltier underwent his first full parole hearing in 1993, at which point the Parole Commission denied his release far beyond what their guidelines recommend, and set his next full hearing for the year 2008. However, the Commission is required to hold subsequent hearings every two years in order to determine whether there are any circumstances that warrant a change in their original decision. On June 12, Peltier's attorneys will tell the Commission that there is no justifiable reason to continue Peltier's sentence, and the Commission's original decision to deny him parole was based on error.
The Parole Commission originally denied Peltier parole based on their finding that he "participated in the premeditated and cold blooded execution of those two officers." However, the Parole Commission has since said it "recognizes that the prosecution has conceded the lack of any direct evidence that [Peltier] personally participated in the executions of the two FBI agents." Leonard Peltier, who has served over 24 years of his sentence and has maintained a good behavior record during his incarceration, has been eligible for release for over nine years.
Thousands have written to the Commission in support of Peltier's release. Additionally, several Native organizations and communities are submitting parole plans offering Peltier work and housing. On June 12, a parole examiner will hear the case and make an initial recommendation as to whether or not the Parole Commission should grant Mr. Peltier a date to be released. Thousands will await the results.
* * * * *
Please Note: The LPDC is bringing letters of support to Parole Board's Hearing. If you want to write a letter to the Parole Board reviewing Leonard Peltier's case, sign and send hardcopy of your letter to the following address, asap before the June 12 Hearing:
Peltier For Parole
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee PO Box 583 Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-5774 www.freepeltier.org
To subscribe, send a blank message to < lpdc-on@mail-list.com >
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
5) FlybyNews.com
The editor of Post Cassini Flyby News' has registered FlybyNews.com for a future website. Anyone interested in helping with the role of a webmaster on a voluntary basis, please contact Jonathan Mark .
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Peltier's Parole * Oil Spill Threatens Indigenous People * Bart Jordan's Origins of Ancient Symbols
16 May 2000
1) Press Conference to Call for Leonard Peltier's Parole
2) Oil Spill Threatens Indigenous People and Ecosystem
3) Bart Jordan's Article on Origins of Ancient Symbols
v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^
1) Press Conference to Call for Leonard Peltier's Parole
Wednesday, May 17, 2000 10:00 A.M.
at Amnesty International, 600 Pennsylvania, SE Washington D.C.
Following is a press advisory for a Washington DC press conference that will be held this Wednesday, May 17, 2000 to call for Leonard Peltier's release through parole. The press conference will occur just hours before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus holds a briefing on the Peltier case.
Contact:
Pat Davis (202)518-7781
Leonard Peltier Justice Coalition
News Advisory:
Nobel Peace Laureate Rigoberta Menchu will join acclaimed author Peter Matthiessen, Amnesty International representatives and Ernie Stevens of the National Congress of American Indians to press the United States government to grant parole and/or clemency in the case of Leonard Peltier.
They will speak at a press conference scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 17, at the Washington, D.C. offices of Amnesty International, 600 Pennsylvania, SE Washington D.C. Leonard Peltier is a Native American leader who has been incarcerated in the United States for 24 years, following his highly controversial conviction for the murder of two FBI agents. Despite disturbing evidence of FBI misconduct in the case, including the coercion of witnesses, the intentional use of false evidence and the concealment of a key ballistics test reflecting his innocence, Peltier has been denied a new trial and is long overdue for parole. He has been recognized by numerous human rights organizations, religious leaders and Nobel laureates as one of the United States' few political prisoners. Domestic and international pressure is mounting for his immediate and unconditional release.
The press conference will be followed by a congressional briefing from 2-4 p.m., May 17, Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2358, sponsored by the offices of U.S. Representative John Porter (R-Ill.), co-chairperson of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. The witnesses will include survivors of the Pine Ridge Reservation's "Reign of Terror," which took place from 1973-1976. During this period 64 Native American members and supporters of the American Indian Movement, or AIM, were murdered on the reservation. Despite a massive FBI presence at the time, there was no adequate investigation and no charges were ever brought for these killings. Menchu and Native American leaders from the United States will also speak on the case.
Please Note:
Individuals and Organizations are invited to write a letter in support of Leonard Peltier's upcoming Parole Hearing. The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee will bring letters sent to them to the Parole Hearing on June 12, 2000.
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-5774
www.freepeltier.org
To subscribe for LPDC updates, send a blank message to
< lpdc-on@mail-list.com >
**********************************************************************
2) Oil Spill Threatens Indigenous People and Ecosystem
Transredes, an oil company owned by US Enron and Dutch Shell is responsible for the spill which occurred February 3,2000 and dumped 39,000 barrels of crude oil into Bolivia's Lake Poopo. To date the oil has not been adequately cleaned up. The Uru Morato, a 5,000 year old native group, which lives only by hunting lake birds and fish, are at risk. For more than three months since the oil spill, the 600 member group has not seen a single fish or bird on their lake. They are in danger of starvation.
When for the first time in thousands of years, the flamingos did not return to lay their eggs alongside Lake Poopo, the Uru Morato realized that their situation was a permanent one. They took action by marching 135 kilometers to the city of Oruro to meet with Transredes oil company's representatives and Bolivian authorities. Transredes refused to recognize damages and the Urus were forced to return defeated to their lakeside communities. Today they wait alone without food, resources, or communication.
"What we have here is truly a crisis. The Uru Morato survived the invasion of the Aymara, Inca, and Spanish colonists but globalization is what will kill them," explained group member and international journalist, Tamara Stenn de Choque, who met with the Uru Morato in April.
Friends of Poopo is seeking help with the development of a web site, chat group, e-mail data base, and outreach especially to environmental experts. For more information contact Friends of Poopo at: (802)258-3421 or by Email: .
*This information is relevant to the U'wa's plight and their resistance to Occidental Petroleum's drilling for oil against their traditional homeland.
**********************************************************************
3) Bart Jordan's Article on Origins of Ancient Symbols
Bart Jordan is posting information at http://bartjordan.com/ with evidences indicating that ancient civilizations measured most all aspects of the solar system. There is a new link posted at bottom of page for a January 12, 1977 New Hampshire Times article entitled:
"ONE MAN'S SEARCH FOR THE ORIGINS OF ANCIENT SYMBOLS"
http://216.202.21.57/bartjordan/nh-times-1977-01-12.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Missile dispute 'threatens Nato' * Call-In * Lawsuit against the Navy's Low Frequency Active Sonar
8 May 2000
The pressure is building for the U.S. to change its position on missile defense. Much is on the line and many in Europe are seeing the larger picture, as noted in the following article in section 1. Perhaps, too, the laying down of arms in Ireland is a good sign. Please support GlobeNet and other campaigns to stop the development of space-based weapons, and support initiatives for sustainable technologies to replace environmentally damaging ones.
v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v
1) Missile dispute 'threatens Nato'
2) GlobeNet International Call-In Days to Oppose Star Wars 1-15 May 2000
3) Lawsuit against the Navy's Low Frequency Active (LFA) Sonar
v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v
1) Missile dispute 'threatens Nato'
http://www.the-times.co.uk (World)
The Times (UK)
May 5 2000
"Many European members of NATO also expressed anger at what they saw as U.S. arrogance and unilateralism with regard to war with Yugoslavia over Kosovo."
Missile dispute 'threatens Nato'
BY MICHAEL EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR
DISAGREEMENTS between the United States and its European allies on several key issues, particularly Washington's proposal to build a national missile defence system, are threatening the future of Nato, a report said yesterday. Past strains in the alliance had been "manageable" because of the willingness of all members to operate "on the basis of mutual trust", the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said in its annual Strategic Survey.
The US proposal for a limited missile defence system to protect against potential attacks from rogue states such as North Korea, however, was neither understood nor welcomed by European nations, the institute said. Europe was also "irritated" by the reluctance of the United States to give a clear signal of approval for its plans to develop the European Security and Defence Identity, which would lead to a European rapid reaction force of about 60,000 troops.
"Many European members of Nato also expressed anger at what they saw as US arrogance and unilateralism with regard to war with Yugoslavia over Kosovo," the report said.
The institute added: "The danger for the coming years is that the bridge of communication seems to have broken down and, unless some way is found to reconstruct it, the loss of trust could have a profound impact on the alliance's cohesion."
The biggest illustration that the United States and Europe were "marching to different drummers" was the argument over the American project to construct a national missile defence (NMD) system which would mean modifying the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
"The US has had little success in convincing its European critics that its plans for NMD deployment are needed, sensible or useful . . . [and] many Europeans do not believe the system will ever work as intended," the report said.
The report added: "There are few in Europe who believe the so-called rogue states are led by men so irrational they would threaten the US with weapons of mass destruction carried on ballistic missiles, even if they were able to do so."
**********************************************************************
2) GlobeNet International Call-In Days to Oppose Star Wars 1-15 May 2000
The following was received from GlobeNet's website
http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk/
From Global Network's Coordinator, Bruce Gagnon --
"International Call-In Days Against Star Wars"
Congress has voted to allow the Pentagon to move forward with the Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system as "soon as technically feasible". Clinton is scheduled to make a deployment decision on the BMD in June, 2000. U.S. military officials have been heard to remark that while the BMD is supposedly to be used for "defensive" purposes, it's "dual use for offensive purposes is clear." Deployment of BMD would circumvent the 1972 ABM Treaty that outlaws the development of weapons systems like the BMD. Russia and China are urging the U.S. to join them in signing an international ban on space-based weapons. The U.S. has refused to discuss such a ban.
In order to escalate opposition to plans for the weaponization of space the Global Network has called for the International Call-In Days on Star Wars.
Please call the White House and Congress at the numbers listed below during our call-in days. For our friends outside the U.S. we ask you to contact the U.S. Embassy in your country as well as send a message to President Clinton and VP Al Gore. Demand an end to Star Wars and the waste of our tax dollars!
White House Phone # (202) 456-1111
White House Fax # (202) 456-2461
President Clinton's e-mail: president@whitehouse.gov
V-P Al Gore's e-mail: vice.president@whitehouse.gov
Congressional Switchboard # (202) 224-3121
* * * * * * * * *
[Please Note: Flyby News would appreciate information on Global Network's April 14-17 Washington D.C. Conference and Actions from anyone who had attended.]
**************************************************************************
3) Lawsuit Against the Navy's Low Frequency Active (LFA) Sonar
On February 29, 2000, Mr. Lanny Sinkin, (representing several environmental organizations) filed suit in federal court to halt the U.S. Navy's preparations to deploy LFA Sonar.
For information on this see:
http://www.ilhawaii.net/~light/lfaindex.html
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Vieques - U'wa and Big Mountain Updates - Stop the current direction for war and destruction
1) Vieques - Stop the Direction of War
2) Update on U'WA - Columbian Court Halts Oil Drilling
3) Big Mt. Connection - Is Anyone Listening?
v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v
1) Vieques - Stop the Direction of War
Vieques is occupied by peaceful people who love the Earth and are resisting a war machine that eats up everything in its path, including itself. The rationale for Vieques as target range is national security interests, but in reality this policy threatens everyone. The post Cassini flyby era poses a short window of opportunity in time to change from the destruction to the preservation of human and other species of life. Please support those struggling to resist control, greed and fear to protect sacred places.
Navy Plans Immediate Shelling of Vieques
by STEWART M. POWELL
2000 Hearst Newspapers
WASHINGTON, April 27, 2000
Navy warships will immediately fire non-explosive shells at the target range on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques as soon as federal authorities remove encamped Puerto Rican demonstrators, defense officials said Thursday. Three defense officials outlined the Navy's plans for a quick show of force as a Justice Department-led task force prepared to end a year-long occupation of the 899-acre target range that has thwarted Navy training on the range.
The task force, including FBI agents, U.S. Marshals, the Coast Guard, the Navy and 1,200 Marines, is expected to begin rounding up protestors early next week, according to a fourth U.S. official who said he is familiar with coordination planning between law enforcement agencies on the U.S. mainland and in Puerto Rico.
Navy warships will begin using the 59-year-old range "as quickly as possible'' after the law enforcement operation is complete, said one defense official. A second defense official said the Navy wants to "demonstrate use of the range in a prudent fashion as soon as we can just to get that principle established or restarted.''
A third defense official said the Navy would "be in a hurry to make a statement by using the range.''
The three officials spoke on background on the condition that their identity not be disclosed.
Attorney General Janet Reno, speaking at a Justice Department news conference, declined to discuss the impending operation.
"I don't comment on any prospective, or otherwise considered, law enforcement action,'' Reno declared.
Navy Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Pentagon has been in "consultation with the Puerto Rican government (and) with the Department of Justice to work out a way to clear the range of the trespassers,'' adding: "That process continues.''
Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., the senior Puerto Rico-born lawmaker in Congress, urged Clinton in a letter to halt the plans for a federal round up.
"This is not going to be nice,'' warned Serrano. "It's not too late to call the whole thing off.''
A federal raid to break up peaceful civil disobedience on Vieques would likely be a hot campaign issue for the 900,000 Puerto Rican voters in New York who could play an influential role in the outcome of the Senate campaign of first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Serrano said.
"What happens in Vieques affects greatly the largest Hispanic voting bloc in New York,'' he said. Many of Puerto Rico's 3.8 million residents - U.S. citizens by birth - have relatives living in the United States.
The removal of the protestors is designed to clear the way for implementation of an agreement reached by President Clinton and Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Rossello on Jan. 31 to end a bitter standoff between the Navy and the demonstrators.
Dozens of protestors, led by Puerto Rico Sen. Ruben Berrios, the Puerto Rico Independence Party's candidate for governor in November, occupied the beach-front bombing range after a Marine bombing mishap in April 1999 killed a Puerto Rican security guard working for the Navy.
The occupation of the target range prevented the Navy and Marine Corps from conducting the final air, land and sea combat rehearsals on Vieques that have prepared every departing Atlantic-based combat force since World War II.
The Clinton-Rossello agreement calls for the White House and Congress to provide $40 million in immediate economic development assistance to the 9,300 residents of Vieques and reduce noisy military training on Navy-owned land to 90 days a year using only non-explosive shells and bombs. The accord also calls for the island's residents to vote in a binding referendum on future Navy use of the island by February, 2002, with $50 million in additional U.S. assistance due to Vieques if the residents vote to permit combat training with explosive ordnance.
The forcible removal of protestors is expected to take place barely 10 days after a Justice Department-led operation broke into a Miami home to take custody of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez and return him to his Cuban father.
The Navy is poised to resume using the range. Four warships armed with 5-inch guns with ranges of 15 miles will be in the region in coming days as part of a combat exercise with the aircraft carrier USS George Washington and a Marine amphibious task force. The armada is scheduled for deployment in June to the Mediterranean.
Navy Secretary Richard Danzig told Congress in testimony on March 22 that the Navy is eager for "the resumption of the use of the range and establishing the rhythms of cooperation.''
The shutdown of the target range since April 1999 forced the battle fleet led by the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower to sail for duty in the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf in late February with five of the eight escorting surface warships still needing to requalify for their naval gunfire support mission by firing roughly 100 shells of 5-inch ammunition at shore targets. The ships broke away from the fleet in transit to requalify at ranges at Cape Wrath, Scotland, or Capoteulado, Sardinia.
**********************************************************************
2) Update on U'WA - Columbian Court Halts Oil Drilling
Associated Press
Colombian Court Halts Oil Drilling
March 31, 2000
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - A court on Friday ordered a halt to a U.S. oil company's exploration near a Colombian Indian reservation, in what appeared to be at least a temporary victory for the tribe.
Alberto Calderon, president of the state-owned Ecopetrol oil company, said the government had notified Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE:OXY - news) of the order to suspend operations.
Details on the Bogota circuit court verdict favoring the 8,000 member U'wa nation were not immediately available.
Calderon, whose company has contracts with Occidental, denounced the verdict, saying it placed a small minority's interests above those of the nation. The government plans to appeal.
"This is a process in which if oil is found it could generate nearly $900 million a year," Calderon told a news conference Friday night. "It's a project of enormous importance for the country."
U'wa tribal leader Roberto Perez said the tribe still sees a long battle ahead.
"This is not a fight that's been won," he told The Associated Press, speaking from Washington, where he has been meeting this week with members of Congress and activists. "But we've taken a step forward and I feel content."
Occidental Corp. was unavailable for comment Friday night.
The tribe has waged a national and international campaign since 1995 to stop the company from drilling on or near its ancestral lands near Colombia's eastern border with Venezuela. At one point, the group threatened mass suicide to highlight their cause.
Seeking compromise, the government last September approved a nearly fourfold increase in the size of the tribal reservation, to 850 square miles stretching across four states.
An exploratory drill site - one Occidental and Colombian officials hope will lead to reserves of as many as 2.5 billion barrels of crude - was approved a few miles outside the expanded reservation.
* * * * *
For more information link to:
http://www.ran.org/ran/ran_campaigns/beyond_oil/oxy/
**********************************************************************
3) Big Mt. Connection - Is Anyone Listening?
"Is Anyone Listening?"
A Message from Roberta Blackgoat --- June 99
Great Spirit gave us this land to live in a good way. We're not living here for free, everything we have, we have worked hard for it. We humble ourselves before Great Spirit and it is according to them (the Holy Ones) that we live here.
Before non-indians came, we were put here with original guidelines to live in harmony. Some prayers we say are for our veterans, our young ones, they go to war and its those prayers and ceremonies that keep them in good health and able to come back.
All the natural resources that abound here are not here to be exploited but to be revered. All the things that we hold sacred have been comodified. It's commodification of the sacred. We are given no respect as human beings, as to our existence. The problems of relocation and all the mental anguish that we've gone through, and the deprivation of rights, religious rights, is the equivalent to the internment of Fort Sumner back in 1864 to 1868. The government and people in this country encompass our demise.
We need help as much as possible to reverse this relocation process. The government of this country must come to a compassionate understanding and allow us to go back to our traditional lifestyles. Guidance was given to us from the original instructions.
We've been told to get permission from the Hopi Tribal Council to gather herbs and religious paraphernalia. We already have permision from Great Spirit to gather herbs for performing ceremonies, which we were told to do according to the original instructions. We are not living arbitrarily, the way we are living has definite significance.
These laws and guidelines that we were given allow us to maintain certain values and truths, a certain ideology. To ask us to live other ways and ignore these laws is to ignore the truth. These non-indians have no regard for our existence.
We want all people to know that evertything we are doing(our struggle) encompasses environmental issues and all other things that go with it. We want no more energy exploitation, no more mining, cutting up, drilling of our Mother Earth. We do not benefit from these anyway. We want Mother Earth to heal again and this will only happen when we stop all the fencing and scarring of the land that modern industrialized man is doing.
I'm pleading with the entire nation and the whole world. Pleading with you. We were put upon here by the Creator within the four Sacred Mountains. Mt. Blanca to the East, Mt. Taylor to the South, San Francisco Peaks to the West, and Mt. Hesperus to the North. We were given instructions to live in a sacred way here.
These mountains encompass a Hogan in which we were told to carry on our lifestyle in harmony. The influence and influx of outsiders and cultural assimilation has dwindled us and the Traditionals have been reduced to a handful. That's why I appeal to everyone of you. I don't know what the government and the news and the media has told you, but that is the situation here.
I've been saying these things for years and years; is anyone listening?
Roberta Blackgoat
* * * * * * * *
For more information link to:
http://www.LISN.net
**********************************************************************
Music Benefit to help Free Leonard Peltier
May 21, 2000 (Sunday)
8:00 to 10:00 P.M.
Performers: The Jennifer Greer Trio - Jeff Martell - Chaz
at the Fire and Water Cafe - Northampton, Massachusetts USA
Sponsored by the Leonard Peltier Support Group of Greater New England
Leonard Peltier is having a Parole Hearing on June 12, 2000.
Please write a letter on his behalf for justice and freedom and send to the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, which will be presenting letters for individuals and organizations.
For more information contact the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
Box 583 Lawrence, KS 66044 Tel: (785)842-5774 http://www.freepeltier.org
**********************************************************************
Bart Jordan Revisited
Bart Jordan Website coming soon!
http://www.flybynews.com/bartjordan
On August 13, 1999, less than a week before NASA's Cassini space probe threatened Earth with a record load of plutonium at record flyby speeds, the NoFlyby website posted a commentary by Bart Jordan.
http://www.flybynews.com/archives/ref/bart.htm
Bart Jordan gave simple equations showing evidences that ancient cultures knew all about Uranium, Neptunium and Plutonium, and why they stayed away from developing certain life endangering isotopes.
Until Cassini, Bart Jordan worked anonymously, supplying scientists in U.S. government agencies with measurements he discovered as a child that were passed on by ancient civilizations such as the ancient Greek, Hebrew and Aramaean. Most notable of his contributions to science is his measurement of the velocity of Light at 299792.5 km per second & 186281.3 mi per second and the Cesium Second at 9192631770 Hz frequency, which regulates atomic clocks all over the world. Now Bart Jordan plans to publish his measurements of the dimensions of the sun in relation to the speed of light. He plans to post this and other work on the Internet with his question: "How many coincidences make a fact?"
At a very early age, Bart Jordan learned the languages of the ancient Hellenic (Greek), Germanic, and Semitic from his grandfather. It was after reading Gulliver's Travels in which Swift, although writing fiction, had accorded two moons to Mars that young Jordan wanted to determine their exact revolutions and distances from Mars (because he thought they might hold a key to their actual dimensions). In 1944, aged seven, he calculated the distances of moons, Phobos and Deimos (named by the ancient Greeks) from the center of Mars. His four measures appeared in the statistical box of Encyclopedia Britannica's article on Mars, running from 1966 to 1973. He also predicted the fifth moon of Uranus, which was known to the Homeric Greeks as Harmonia. Bart Jordan gave his calculations to Dr. Gerard Kuiper a year and half before Kuiper identified the moon in 1948 (which he called Miranda after a heroine of Shakespeare).
Bart Jordan met Ernest O. Lawrence, the Nobel prize physicist in the early summer of 1945 (at eight years of age) to whom he gave a thirty-five-page paper entitled: Ares, Phobos, Harmonia, Deimos, Aphrodite, and Comet. Two years later at Lawrence's urging, Jordan met with Albert Einstein to discuss the content of his paper and its supportive data. By way of introduction to a brief article by Jordan in Early America Revisited, Dr. Ivan Van Sertima states: "Bart Jordan was a child prodigy to whom Einstein granted special audience because of his phenomenal mathematical abilities."
Jordan's article, "The Moons of Mars," published by Quest Magazine in 1997, was excerpted from his paper of 1944 and provided mathematical evidence that the moons of Mars were culled from the Asteroid Belt between Jupiter and Mars. Jordan claims that his Cesium Second Equation is the most spectacular of all his evidences suggesting that human beings were clearly the authors of this event.
The significance of Jordan's work is revolutionary. Our viewpoint of human history will never be the same. The realization and obligation of examining these evidences could become a motivating factor in altering the direction of current humanity. Jordan's evidences underscore not only the disastrous consequences of using dangerous radioactive isotopes but also provide a new blueprint for space programs in harmony with Earth and the peaceful use of space.
Flyby News will announce the launching of Bart Jordan's website when it is posted later this spring.
In mindful time past, we honored our grandparents;
in mindless time present, we threaten our grandchildren.
-- Bart Jordan
**********************************************************************
Peltier Receives Medical Treatment) - NASA knew Mars Lander doomed - Fear and Separation
1) Update on Indigenous and Human Rights Issues
2) NASA knew Mars Polar Lander doomed
3) Secretary of Defense William Cohen on BMD
4) Fear and Separation - Post Cassini Flyby Editorial
**********************************************************************
1) Update on Indigenous and Human Rights Issues
Leonard Peltier Receives Long Awaited Medical Treatment
Native American activist, Leonard Peltier, underwent surgery on March 21, 2000 by a Maxillofacial expert at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. E.E. Keller performed a five hour surgery on Peltier who had been suffering for the last four years from a severe condition which caused his jaw to be frozen open 13 millimeters. X-rays taken on Monday, March 20 showed that Leonard Peltier suffered from ankylosis on both sides of his mandible, meaning that his jaw was completely frozen and immobile, according to Keller. Keller reported that the surgery went smoothly and Peltier's jaw has been returned to normal. He reported that Peltier is happy and recovering comfortably.
Peltier contracted tetanus as a child which caused him to have long lasting problems with his jaw. However, two surgeries performed at the Federal Springfield Medical Facility in 1996 far worsened his condition and resulted in ankylosis. During his stay at Springfield, Peltier was housed in "the hole" or solitary confinement to recover. Dr. Keller had written to the warden at Leavenworth in 1997, offering to treat Peltier but prison officials insisted he undergo a third surgery at Springfield instead. Peltier refused. Since then, members of Congress, United Nations officials, human rights organizations and hundreds of concerned supporters have been writing to prison officials to urge them to transfer Peltier to the Mayo Clinic. For a year prison officials have been responding to such requests by reporting Peltier's condition to be "stable" and not "warranting" treatment.
Leonard Peltier, considered by Amnesty International to be a political prisoner who should be immediately and unconditionally released, was convicted in 1977 for the murders of two FBI agents. After being faced with formerly withheld evidence on appeal casting serious doubt on Mr. Peltier's guilt, the prosecution admitted that it could not prove who actually shot the agents or what participation Mr. Peltier may have had in their deaths. Peltier will be reviewed for parole on June 12, 2000. Individuals and Organizations are encouraged to send letters of support. Please send them to the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, which will be presenting them to the Parole Commission in person.
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-5774
http://www.freepeltier.org
On a disappointing note, Standing Deer, otherwise known as Robert H. Wilson, prisoner # 640289, serving a life term at Pack One Prison in Navaston, Texas for for armed robbery, not murder, was denied parole by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in February 2000. This seems especially inhumane since Standing Deer is not a threat to society, being 74 years of age, who has served the last 24 years in the ironhouse and now has six incurable diseases, four of which are fatal. Why is he receiving such harsh treatment? The following excerpt from Leonard Peltier's book PRISON WRITINGS (pgs. 164-165) may explain:
"..I'd been alerted to the assassination plot [of Peltier] by the very man who was originally supposed to do the assassinating, a fellow Native American prisoner at Marion--and a tremendously brave human being--named Robert Standing Deer Wilson. Under extreme pressure, he had relunctantly agreed to do their dirty work for them and "get Peltier." In exchange, they'd promise him that they'd have outstanding murder charges against him dropped, and also that they'd see he got desperately needed medical treatment for an extremely painful spinal condition he had that they'd refused to treat for years.
But, after agreeing to their schem, Standing Deer couldn't bring himself to do it. He came to me and told me the whole scheme.."
To learn more information to help support this aging couragous person, please contact or visit his defense committee's website at
http://standingdeer.homepage.com/index.html
For a recent article entitled "Caged Warrior"
Boulder Weekly interviews Leonard Peltier see:
http://www.boulderweekly.com/archive/030900/coverstory.html
<><><><><><><><><><><><><<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
COLOMBIA/U'WA OIL DRILLING FIGHT WELLS UP IN CONGRESSWOMAN'S OFFICE
WASHINGTON, DC, March 30, 2000 (ENS) - A surprise encounter in the
Congressional office of Georgia Representative Cynthia McKinney today
brought the vice president of Occidental Petroleum face to face with the president of the U'wa indigenous people who are fighting the company's oil drilling on their traditional land in Colombia.
For the full story see:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/mar2000/2000L-03-30-04.html
**********************************************************************
2) NASA knew Mars Polar Lander doomed
United Press International - March 21, 2000 15:01
By James Oberg, UPI Space Writer
HOUSTON, March 21 (UPI) -- The disappearance of NASA's Mars Polar Lander last December was no surprise to space officials, UPI has learned.
Prior to its arrival at Mars, a review board had already identified a fatal design flaw with the braking thrusters that doomed the mission, but NASA withheld this conclusion from the public. The probe was lost while attempting to land near the martian south pole on December 3. Two small microprobes which had deployed separately also were never heard from again. It was the second expensive setback for American interplanetary exploration in less than three months. On September 23, a companion probe had been destroyed when a navigation error sent it skimming too deeply into the atmosphere of Mars..
**********************************************************************
3) Secretary of Defense William Cohen on BMD
Below is an interchange with the media and the U.S. Department of Defense March 24 briefing by Secretary of Defense William Cohen on the BMD issue.
Q: Mr. Secretary, yesterday a pretty substantial group of Republican leaders on the Hill and former Reagan and Bush Administration defense and national security officials issued a kind of manifesto on missile defense urging Governor Bush to make it a focal point of the fall campaign. They had about three major criticisms of your policy on missile defense.
Secretary Cohen: Not my policy.
Q: Well, the Administration's policy. (Laughter) Kind of yours. I'd ask you to respond to each of them. One was that the threat is much more immediate than you have portrayed it. That there is a clear and present danger now, not four or five years off. Second, that a sea-based system based on existing technologies with some add-ons would provide a kind of interim defense. And third, that the Clinton Administration is willing to negotiate limits on future sea and space-based systems in order to get an agreement with the Russians to allow your current plan for a land-based system.
Secretary Cohen: Let me go to the first one. I can't speak for others, but I have made it very clear I think the threat is here. I don't put the threat off into the future. I have said there have been four criteria the President has spoken of frequently that he would base his judgment on whether to deploy a system or not, number one, the threat. I maintain the threat is here today. If it's not here right now it will be here tomorrow. So I don't look for it in terms of off into the future. So I see it quite more immediate than perhaps others do. Number two, the issue of getting an interim system. I was one of those who helped negotiate the compromise up on the Hill when I was in the Senate on the 3+3. The reason that 3+3 was negotiated was to try to get a system in place as quickly as possible. That is the reason the land-based system was in fact chosen, and that's the reason we put so much into NMD as opposed to even our theater missile defense system because we saw this threat as emerging quite near term and this was the best way to have the technology we think we can develop to get it deployed as quickly as possible. Now there have been suggestions...
Q: Excuse me, Sir. 3+3?
Secretary Cohen: Okay, it was three years of research and development and then a decision would be made to try to deploy them in three years. When I took over I extended that to five years so it's three years of R&D and then over a five year period to deploy because I became convinced that this system was being rushed to the point where it would not be effective in the sense that we needed more time for testing and to make sure we're doing the right thing from a technological point of view. So the notion that you can have an interim system that is sea-based, I have not seen support for that in the sense it would be an effective system. The information that has been brought to me is that you would have to have a new missile with new radars, and those would take longer to develop than the actual land-based system that we have in mind right now. Now is it conceivable you could have some kind of a short-term system where you base it off the coast of one of the countries in question using a system of systems? It depends, you'd have to be really lucky in that case. I think we're on the right track as far as a land-based proposal, and that the CNO has said when you're looking at future systems don't discount sea-based, and we've said we won't. That's still open. As far as the third point, the Administration has made it clear that the current proposal that we have is a limited system against a limited type of an attack. It will be land-based. It will be in roughly two phases. The first phase being in Alaska; the second to be determined, but would come fairly quickly in terms of negotiations. So that's the posture that we're in, and frankly, when I was on the Hill and negotiated, that's the reason we went with the land-based system.
Q: Mr. Secretary, on missile defense. It's understandable perhaps why the Russians and the Chinese are sort of skittish on this. But you were in Munich last month talking with our European allies and there seems to be a fair level of anxiety there. Can you tell us, number one, why you think they're so anxious? And number two, how you're going -- What do you want from them? Do you just want them to stay out of the way? Do you want them actually to participate? What's the situation there?
Secretary Cohen: Can I go back and finish on the...
Q: Sure.
Secretary Cohen: Tie this in. We talked about threat, technology, cost, and the fourth factor was arms control. That's something the President has to take into account, namely, do you get more security or less? Do you cause an arms race to be rekindled? Do you undercut the whole movement on START II and III and IV? That's something that has to be factored into this and will be factored in. The President made it very clear, it's not just the first three, it's the fourth as well. With respect to the European allies, there are a number of concerns that
they raise. Number one, they see the ABM Treaty as being the stabilizing factor in the overall relation for the United States and Russia. They do not want to see that destabilized. Number two, they're concerned whether there's any "decoupling". The British and the French say what will this do to our systems? So they want to make sure they still have an effective retaliatory system should the Russians ever decide to attack them. The third is whether or not there would be any kind of disconnect between the trans-Atlantic relationship. So we have tried at least to address those. That this would not diminish, number one, would not diminish their retaliatory capability. It would not decouple the United States from them. And that potentially they too can evolve into a defensive type of arrangement. They are concerned about TMD, for example. The Germans, the Italians are joining the United States in a theater missile defense system called MEADS. So they see an emerging threat as well. When I spoke to the NATO allies at the meeting in Brussels, once we laid out what our program was, number
one, we are trying to negotiate changes to the ABM Treaty. This is not an Administration that says the treaty is irrelevant, it wants to modify it to allow for a limited type of system against a limited type of an attack. This is not the former Star Wars redux. I think that once we laid out the threat, and we did that in a classified briefing, and then showed what we had in mind for that, a lot of minds were changed. They at least were opened. Did you change everybody? The answer is no. Did it open minds? The answer is yes. I had some who came in and said before this meeting we were totally opposed. Now I can see your point and we support it. So it's going to take some time, but what basically the Russians would seek to do is to find if they can divide the alliance by saying that we don't have unanimity or solidarity of the alliance, that's the most effective way to try to terminate any NMD on the part of the United States. I've also tried to convey that message to the alliance. The more solid we are the better off we're going to be as far as negotiating with the Russians. The Russians are unlikely to agree to anything as long as they feel they can split the alliance on this, because we will need the cooperation of several key allies as far as forward deployed radars. Not only do you need to upgrade existing radar capability, but to actually build new radars called X-Band radars. So their cooperation is going to be important. So we have undertaken to meet with them regularly. I was with the Italian Minister of Defense yesterday. He received a briefing before I met with him and we discussed it during the meeting as well. So I think there's a lot more equanimity about what we have in mind and the fact that we're seeking to work within the ABM context of modifying it for a limited purpose. The fact remains that we, you cannot defend against an all-out assault by the Russians. This is designed to deal with the rogue nations, to prevent a Saddam Hussein or Iran or Libya or another rogue nation, North Korea, to try and intimidate the United States saying don't think about responding. Or don't deploy Desert Storm because I might put one in downtown LA or New York City or Washington, D.C. Then you have a different calculation. Would the allies be as willing to join up to Desert Storm in those circumstances?
Q: But have you gotten agreement from England and from Denmark to upgrade those two first radars for the initial...
Secretary Cohen: We're still, we haven't even sought agreement at this point. We're going through the educational process and I think we're having some pretty substantial, positive signs.
Q: Mr. Secretary, a big flaw was found in the Patriot system the other day, and that system's been around for quite awhile. Does that suggest that maybe the whole technology is a lot more fragile than has been known at this point?
Secretary Cohen: I can't give you a good answer on that, Paul. Right now there's, the situation -- I think our security situation has been corrected so there's adequate protection for our forces and for our allies. We're still going through a very detailed examination in terms of what was the specific cause of failure so I think it's too early to tell how to correct those.
Q: But in terms of the broader sort of whole missile defense concept, does it raise questions about that as well?
Secretary Cohen: Not in my mind, no. I think any time you have high technology instruments there's always a potential for a defect or failure. How long have we been building cars? Because we have recalls that take place from time to time doesn't mean we haven't been successful in building cars. I don't want to minimize the situation, but whenever you're dealing with high technology, you've got to check it, constantly test it to make sure that all the components are fully capable of carrying out the particular mission.
Q: Nuclear missile defense. What do you think of this idea of putting over the decision to the next President?
Secretary Cohen: I think it's too early to make that decision right now. As far as I'm concerned what we should do is complete the tests, allow for an examination of the tests. It's going to come now later than we anticipated, now sometime in June. It takes about a month to evaluate that. Then I have to look at it and make a recommendation. I think there's, at this point we should just press ahead and complete the tests and resolve that question later, but it's too early to say that it should be postponed.
Q: The argument is made that if this President makes the decision it is more likely we could get a limited nuclear system plus limited modifications of the ABM Treaty which is held in high esteem all around the world.
Secretary Cohen: As opposed to...
Q: If the Republicans should win, that we just go for broke on the whole thing, you know? (Laughter) ...bigger than your budget.
Q: ...go to hell.
Secretary Cohen: Please note that Bud said we were going to hell.
(Laughter) Q: Could you just focus on that question a little bit?
Secretary Cohen: Right now there is bipartisan support for deploying a limited missile defense system. Both the House and Senate, Republicans and Democrats have spoken on this issue. To say that if a Republican is elected that he is going to simply disband any consideration of the ABM would imply that he doesn't care what our allies have to say, or that we can deploy a system without the support of our allies, which I don't think is realistic. As I tried to point out, there are some who argue, Henry Kissinger and others may argue that the treaty is no longer relevant today. But it's relevant in the sense that certainly diplomatically it's relevant to our allies, and from a technical point of view we still need their support because we have to have forward deployed radars in order to make a national missile defense system effective. So I think anyone who is elected -- Democrat or Republican -- has to take that into account. You cannot simply devise a system, not in the short term at least, to say that we don't care what our allies have to say about this and we're just going forward, because you do need their support. So I don't think... I think it's too easy to say if the Republicans get in they're just going to abandon everything, abandon, "all ye who enter here in the Republican booth abandon all hope". I don't think anyone can say that. I think that you'd say that once, if a Republican takes office, if George Bush is elected, he will have the same considerations that President Clinton has. How do I hold this system together, how do I hold the support of the allies, what kind of a system do I deploy that is persuasive to them that also engenders their support? Now conceivably, you can come up with a project to say that we can do it all on our own, but that's further away, and that's not likely to build a real nexus of consensus for our relationship with our allies.
Q: I just have one other thing. I read Mr. Perry's report on North Korea. He does not recommend the building of a missile defense.
Secretary Cohen: It was under Bill Perry that the 3+3 was negotiated. As a matter of fact...
Q: But he doesn't in the report. At least in the unclassified one. (Laughter) Secretary Cohen: You'd have to ask him on that. I think Bill Perry does in fact support a limited type of system, but I can't speak for him.
Q: It's a lot of trouble for one little country, don't you think?
Secretary Cohen: It's not just North Korea. North Korea is also exporting its technology. You also have Iran developing long range missiles. You have the potential should Iraq get back in the business, they certainly were very close to having long range missile capability. So it's not just North Korea.
**********************************************************************
4) Fear and Separation - Flyby Editorial
Fear and separation, ignorance of the meaning of the Lakota (Sioux) words, Mitakuye Oyasin -- All Our Relations -- are threatening life on Earth. The United States of America has been making policies based on an escalating arms race with weapons of mass destruction, which has been proliferating around the world. When is it going to stop? Mixed with economic self-interests, this policy falsely rationalizes fear with fear itself and self-deceit. In 1967 the United Nations passed a resolution for the peaceful use of space. Although 95 States ratified and an additional 27 signed it, the U.S. is threatening to incorporate space-based weapons, which would escalate the arms race to this final frontier. This could be the point when all hopes for disarmament will be laid to rest and the downward spiral of fear and developing technologies can end life as we know it on Earth.
The "Battle of Seattle" has brought awareness to many of the harm being caused to the environment by such institutions as the World Trade Organization (WTO). However, few realize or are responding to the impact of upcoming decisions to commit to star wars technologies. The post Cassini flyby era poses a brief window of time to respond or continue in the downward trend for life.
**********************************************************************
For information on the GLOBAL NETWORK ACTION -
4 DAYS OF PROTEST EVENTS
WASHINGTON DC April 14th-17th 2000
and to Sign their
NO STAR WARS/STOP BMD ON-LINE PETITION
http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk/
**********************************************************************Contact Post Cassini Flyby News Editor, Jonathan Mark ,if interested in volunteering as a Webmaster.
**********************************************************************
Military-Industrial-Academic Complex * Human Rights regarding Global Warming,: the U'wa and Big Mountain
In the post Cassini flyby era, human damage to our ecosystem is increasing at an alarming rate. It was recently reported that the last three winters were the warmest in recorded history in the U.S. (and probably for the world). This is manifesting in extended and more severe devestating storm seasons, droughts and disasters (like that of Mozambique). Instead of responding to such human-made crises, programs such as the Ballistic Missile System use valuable economic resources to destabilize the world even more. Also, programs by NASA that claim to serve humankind are adding to the nuclear pollution of our planet and beyond. The U.S. Congress supports these projects and the American public has little choice in the matter, because the political arena and the media are controlled by those tied to oil and military-industrial interests.
The U'wa are an indigenous community of 5,000 that has lived in the cloudforests of the Colombian Andes for thousands of years. At the heart of their culture is the belief that the land which has sustained them for centuries is sacred, and that they exist to protect that land. Today, the U'wa and their sacred land are threatened by a United States oil company set to drill its first oil wells on the U'wa's territory. The U'wa 's opposition to the oil project is so strong that they have vowed to commit collective suicide if the project goes forward, believing that it would be better to die by their own hands than to watch the destruction of their culture and their homeland. Despite this, the Colombian government and Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum are moving forward with plans to drill for oil on the U'wa's traditional territory. This is similar to the crisis confronted by the Dine'h (Navajo) at Big Mountain, Arizona where Peabody Coal Company, with the support of the U.S. Government is planning to strip-mine the land and relocate the indigenous community now living on the Earth in a sacred and simple way.
For more information on the U'wa and Big Mountain and what you can do to help, please refer to these websites:
http://www.ran.org/ran_campaigns/beyond_oil/oxy/uwa_facts.html
http://solcommunications.com/
http://www.lisn.net
Instead of a full scale commitment to sustainable energy technologies that emit less carbon elements into our atmosphere, our shortsighted technological civilization is supporting strip mining for coal burning, funneling billions of dollars for an ineffective life threatenning arms race and the use of toxic nuclear power to gain knowledge of our solar system. This is clearly irrational and devoid of concern for human and other life species.
Space can be explored with advanced technologies without harming the one planet that we know is alive and most suitable for human life. However, without the wisdom of patience and balance, the military-industrial-academic institutions are destroying life as we know it. Now is the time to change this direction, but unless we unite and support critical issues, our time will end prematurely for people, who claim to be intelligent?
**********************************************************************
Missions to Mars: Nuclear-powered Probes In the Plans for Mars
Wed. Mar 8, 2000
By Paul Hoversten
Washington Bureau Chief
http://www.space.com
posted: 09:04 pm EST
Missions to Mars: Nuclear-powered Probes In the Plans for Mars
WASHINGTON -- NASA is considering the use of nuclear-powered spacecraft in the future to explore Mars -- an idea certain to ignite a firestorm of protest on Earth, SPACE.com has learned.
No such spacecraft would be launched to Mars anytime soon.
Probes targeted for launching in 2001 or 2003 still would carry conventional solar panels or wings that would draw their power from sunlight.
But the plan to use nuclear power at Mars, as was done with the 1970s-era Viking mission, is "not off the table," said Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for space science. "For better or worse, Mars is a faraway planet and using these things makes a lot of sense when you're trying to build a robust program there."
Both the Galileo and Cassini deep space missions have nuclear power packs known as radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG's) on board. These are needed to provide electrical power in the far reaches of the solar system where sunlight is minimal.
Dan McCleese, Chief Scientist of the Mars Exploration Directorate at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said that the space agency is encouraging Mars planners to look again at using RTGs on the Red Planet.
The idea is gaining momentum as NASA puts the final touches on its new multi-year, $1.5 billion martian exploration program. The revamping of the Mars program follows last year's losses of the Mars Climate Orbiter and the Mars Polar Lander.
An independent panel led by former Lockheed Martin executive Thomas Young is studying those failures and is to issue its report on March 15. NASA plans to reveal its restructured plans for Mars the same day. The agency is expected to announce:
It has canceled a lander spacecraft for 2001 and will instead send one in 2003 that lacks a robotic rover but includes new communications gear to help ground controllers better monitor the lander. The added gear would allow NASA to maintain contact with the spacecraft during its descent to the surface and avoid a repeat of Polar Lander, which vanished without a peep on the way down. It will fly an orbiting spacecraft in 2001 as planned but it will have improved technology that was not aboard the doomed Climate Orbiter.
A mission to return a sample of the martian soil to Earth is still a key scientific goal, but NASA will not be held to a specific time on when it might fly. The mission, which had originally called for separate launches in 2003 and 2005, will still include European participation and will be launched on a French Ariane rocket.
The primary scientific goals at Mars are to search for evidence of past life and investigate the planet's climate and resources. The thread that connects all of those is water and future missions to Mars will strive to find out where the water was on the surface, where it is now and what it did during the transition.
"Let's be bold and say it up front," Weiler said in an interview Thursday. "We're looking for two things. Is there life and can we live on Mars and colonize it. As for the missions, we will fly them when we have a good chance of success. I am not going to sign on the dotted line for any mission unless it stands a good chance of succeeding."
One way to build a more robust exploration of Mars is through nuclear-powered spacecraft. "I'm not saying we're going to use radioactive power sources in the near term," Weiler said. "Something like that takes years to get approved. But people forget that the reason Viking lasted so long on the surface of Mars was because it had one of these."
The Viking 1 and 2 landers were launched in 1975 and arrived at Mars in 1976. Viking 1 lasted until November 1982 and Viking 2 stopped transmitting in April 1980. The solar-powered Polar Lander, by comparison, was designed to last just 90 days, the same life span as that of Mars Pathfinder in 1997.
NASA has flown a total of 25 missions with radioactive power packs since the 1960s.
NASA last sent radioactive material, Plutonium 238, to Mars in 1997. The rover Sojourner carried three radioisotope heater units. Each of the units -- about the size of a C-cell battery -- contained a 0.1 ounce (2.6 grams) of the isotope to keep the vehicle's electronics warm.
As program managers see it, radioactive power would only be needed for spacecraft that land on the surface and any rovers that those craft might carry. Any decision to outfit such landers with nuclear power would have to be made by the White House and would need to be coordinated with such agencies as the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency.
"NASA doesn't make a decision by itself to fly nuclear material," Weiler said. "There's a long list of requirements and quite a list of agencies that are involved. It takes years to fly those types of missions."
One reason it takes so long is because such missions tend to touch off protracted legal battles. Anti-nuclear protesters filed suit in federal court to stop both the 1989 launch of the Galileo probe to Jupiter and the 1997 launch of Cassini to Saturn, arguing the missions put Americans at risk from radiation exposure in the event of a launch accident.
"We'll be very much on top of it and organizing to stop it," said Bruce Gagnon, of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space in Gainesville, Florida. "Our concern goes beyond launch problems. It's also the health and safety of workers who have to produce this material. What NASA has in mind is a massive infusion of nuclear material in the space program"
Gagnon was among those filing a federal suit to stop the Galileo and Cassini launches and said his group might do the same with nuclear-powered Mars missions.
In the case of Mars, nuclear power on a spacecraft "solves the problem of what happens at night," said Carl Pilcher, NASA chief of solar system exploration. "At night you get to stay warm. You need a power system for the heaters in order to keep the lander alive. It's thermal cycling, going from warm in the day to cold at night, that kills you at Mars."
Copyright 2000 space.com, inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
**********************************************************************
News Release
Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
Washington, D.C. 20301
(703)695-0192(media)
(703)697-5737(public/industry)
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 16, 2000
DEFENSE AWARDS GIVEN FOR COMPETITIVE RESEARCH
Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Science and Technology Delores M. Etter announced today plans for the Department of Defense (DoD) to award $24 million to 35 academic institutions in 18 States, including Puerto Rico, to perform research in science and engineering fields important to national defense. Eighty-one projects were competitively selected under the fiscal 2000 Defense Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DEPSCoR). The DEPSCoR is designed to expand research opportunities in States that have traditionally received the least funding in federal support for university research. The average award will be approximately $296,000.
University professors in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico were eligible to receive awards under this competition.
The Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Army Research Office, the Office of Naval Research, and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (Science and Technology Directorate) solicited proposals utilizing a Defense-wide Broad Agency Announcement (BAA). The DEPSCoR BAA was published on the Internet and accessed by the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research State Committees, which solicited and selected projects for their state's proposal. In response, 20 proposals consisting of 256 projects were submitted requesting more than $82 million.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2000/b02162000_bt074-00.html
**********************************************************************
March 9, 2000
Biden Joins G.O.P. in Call for a Delay in Missile-Defense Plan
NEW YORK TIMES
By JANE PERLEZ
WASHINGTON, March 8 _ Adding weight to a growing bipartisan movement, a senior Democratic senator has warned President Clinton that he should leave the decision on deploying a national missile-defense system to the next administration.
Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democrat from Delaware who is the ranking minority member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told an audience of scientists on Friday at Stanford University that he did not believe that the North Korean missile threat was sufficient to warrant a vastly expensive system that was not technically proven.
Further, Mr. Biden said deploying the system could not only severely upset relations with Russia, but also encourage China to increase sharply its warheads, prompting an arms race in Asia.
Mr. Clinton is scheduled to make a decision on a national missile-defense system in the summer. His top arms negotiators have been talking to the Russians over six months about deploying the system in a way that Moscow might find acceptable.
Mr. Biden stated his opposition after Chuck Hagel, a Republican from Nebraska on the Foreign Relations Committee, called for a delay until a new president took office.
Henry A. Kissinger recently wrote that an election year was not the time to proceed on national missile defense.
Mr. Biden, who amplified his comments on Monday in an interview, also cited election year politics as a reason for postponing a decision. Mr. Biden said that he disagreed with White House advisers who say Vice President Al Gore and the Democrats need to proceed with the system to inoculate themselves against Republican criticism of being weak on national defense and that the Democrats would be most successful by campaigning on the strength of the economy, and not allowing the Republicans to turn the focus to foreign policy.
"This is going to cost $30 billion, and there has been no national debate," Mr. Biden added. "This doesn't make sense absent public debate."
In explaining his opposition to Mr. Clinton's making a far-reaching foreign-policy decision under such time pressure, Mr. Biden said he was particularly uneasy with the missile-defense system because he thought that it would essentially mean withdrawal from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty of 1972.
That treaty, which its advocates regard as the cornerstone of arms control, forbids a missile-defense system that protects an entire nation. The administration has been trying to persuade acting President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to amend the ABM treaty so that Mr. Clinton could decide on a system without scrapping the pact. Russia has shown few signs of agreeing.
In his interview, Mr. Biden said he had an alternative idea to answer the threat from North Korea's Taepo Dong missiles, which are believed to be able to deliver strategic warheads to the United States.
Mr. Biden said an Aegis sea-based system with missiles based off the North Korean coast would let the United States intercept the missiles in their ascents. Such a system would not endanger the whole fabric of arms control or threaten nonproliferation safeguards in the way that a national missile defense would, Mr. Biden said.
When Mr. Biden spoke at Stanford, former Defense Secretary William S. Perry was in the audience. Mr. Perry has also expressed reservations about the system's being the best way to counter the threat of long-range missiles from North Korea and in Congressional testimony favored the sea-based system off North Korea.
**********************************************************************
For information on the GLOBAL NETWORK ACTION -
4 DAYS OF PROTEST EVENTS
WASHINGTON DC April 14th-17th 2000 and to Sign their
NO STAR WARS/STOP BMD ON-LINE PETITION
http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk/
**********************************************************************
Contact Flyby News Editor, Jonathan Mark ,
if interested in volunteering as a Webmaster.
**********************************************************************
Nuclear Weapons in Space * The Ugly Face of Racism * Policy Agenda Letter to Senator John McCain
February 9, 2000
Subject: Nuclear Weapons - Racism - Letter to Senator McCain
Post Cassini Flyby News
Editor - Jonathan Mark
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Re: http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby
* Nuclear Weapons in Space
* The Ugly Face of Racism
* Policy Agenda Letter to Senator John McCain
*****************************************************************
* Nuclear Weapons in Space
Some of the following information was received from Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. To subscribe for their email updates and news releases, send your email address to with subscribe in subject field.
Ballistic Misile Defense is ineffective and dangerous, too!
I hope many of you saw the excellent CBS Sixty Minutes 2 (2/8/00) segment of the hair trigger dangers for destruction of life as we know it. It is incredulous and the stakes of this game keeps getting bigger. Currently there is not one major candidate talking about disarmament and the honoring of ABM treaties and the Peaceful use of Outer Space Treaties. Perhaps people's innerspace is cut off from the reality of the nightmare we may be creating.
WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (AFP) -
The Pentagon unveiled a 291.1 billion dollar budget proposal for fiscal 2001 Monday that would fully fund deployment of a controversial national missile defense system.
The proposal also seeks to boost flagging morale with pay raises and bigger housing allowances for military personnel.
If approved by Congress, the proposal would add 4.8 billion dollars to the defense budget -- the second consecutive year of increased US military spending since the end of the Cold War.
Rising oil prices and the cost of maintaining US troops in the Balkans accounted for much of the increase, senior Pentagon officials said.
The proposal would raise spending on national missile defense to 10.4 billion dollars over the next five years, a 2.3 billion dollar increase and enough to fund the deployment of the system by 2005 should President Bill Clinton give the go ahead later this year, the Pentagon said.
"Basically what you have here is a fully funded program awaiting a presidential decision on deployment," a senior defense official told reporters last week.
***********************************
KEEP SPACE FOR PEACE
No BMD -- No Star Wars
April 14-17, 2000 Washington DC
SPEAKERS/PERFORMERS TO INCLUDE:
Abdul Aziz Said (Center for Global Peace, American University)
Andy Lichterman (Western States Legal Foundation, CA)
Aurel Duta (Mama Terra/For Mother Earth, Romania)
Bill Sulzman (Citizens for Peace in Space, Colorado)
Bruce Gagnon (Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space)
Carol Miller (Association of State Green Parties, New Mexico)
Carol Moore (Washington DC Area War Tax Resistance)
Dave Webb (Yorkshire CND, England)
David McReynolds (Socialist Party candidate for President)
Dennis Brutus (South African poet)
Dr. Carol Rosin (Founder, ISCOS)
Dr. Gregori Khozin (Russia space/peace activist)
Dr. Helen Caldicott (Founding President PSR)
Dr. Michio Kaku (Prof. of Physics, CUNY)
Dr. Rashmi Mayur (Int'l Institute for Sustainable Future, India)
F.R. Sarker (Bangladesh Astronomical Society)
Gordon Clark (Peace Action)
Helen John (Menwith Hill Women's Peace Camp, England)
Holly Gwinn Graham (Siner/Songwriter, Olympia, WA)
Karl Grossman (Prof. of Journalism, SUNY)
Loring Wirbel (Managing Editor for Communications, Electronic Engineering Times)
Lynda Williams (Prof. of Physics/Astronomy, San Francisco State Univ.)
Patricia Mische (Pax Christi USA)
Regina Hagen (Darmstadter Friedensforum, Germany)
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio)
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)
Victor Rodriguez (Comite Contra las Experimentaciones Ambientales, Puerto Rico)
Join with people from around the world as we gather in Washington DC during these four days of protest events to call upon President Clinton and Congress to cancel plans to revitalize Star Wars. In order to prevent the weaponization of space we must develop an international constituency that can build the movement to keep space for peace.
For the schedule of events and more information contact:
Global Network
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, Fl. 32607
(352) 337-9274
globalnet@mindspring.com
http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk
**********************************************************
The Ugly Face of Racism
The following was received by email from
ASSOCIATION ON AMERICAN INDIAN AFFAIRS
Winter 1999/00
Senator Campbell Calls For Federal Investigation of "Indian Hunting Season" Flier
NEWSLETTER
ASSOCIATION ON AMERICAN INDIAN AFFAIRS
Winter 1999/00
CAMPBELL CALLS FOR FEDERAL INVESTIGATION OF
" INDIAN HUNTING SEASON" FLIER
Washington, DC--- U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell called on the Department of Justice to launch a hate-crimes investigation into a newspaper ad announcing the start of " Indian Hunting Season."
Campbell received a copy of the ad, which ran in a South Dakota newspaper, that is intended to look like a real hunting season announcement. The ad declares open season on the Sioux reservations, sets a limit of ten kills per day and other regulations for where and in what manner Indians may be killed.
Campbell, Chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, wrote Attorney General Janet Reno that "when such an ad authorizes hunting season on human beings and places a limit on how many can be killed, surely it is reason for law enforcement to take action. Such a solicitation to commit mass homicide must run afoul of federal law. I am requesting that you direct an investigation by the appropriate hate crimes office within the department."
He also pointed out that in the 1800's, some Coloradans expressed support for the Sand Creek Massacre. "For those that think anti-Indian sentiment and feelings are a relic of the past, I urge them to read this product of a twisted and hateful mind,"
Campbell said in a Congressional Record Statement last week. "At the turn of the millennium here in the greatest nation on earth, there are pockets of hate that continue to thrive. After my tenure here in Congress, I know full well the limits of government. I know we can pass no law forcing people to respect each other, or forcing them to be tolerant. But this ad goes beyond mere hurtful worlds and actually advocates murder and I condemn it in the strongest possible terms."
The following is a copy from the newsletter of the actual "Indian Hunting Season" flier.
(you need a strong stomach for this one)
STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA
Game, Fish and Parks Department
Pierre,SD
(605)224-0000
PROCLAMATION
RE: Indian Hunting Season hunting fees: Free to first 7,683 hunters/
$1.00 thereon.
Dear South Dakota Hunters:
The 1999 Big Game hunting season in the state of South Dakota has been canceled due to shortages of Deer, Turkey, Elk and Antelope.
However, this does not mean there will be no hunting. In the place of the big game animals this year we will have open season on the Sioux Reservations. This will entail the hunting of Americans Worthless Slounis Pyutus, commonly known as "Worthless Red Bastards," Dog Eaters, " Gut Eaters, "Prairie Niggers" and F......Indians." This year from 1999-2000 will be an open season, as the f.......indians must be thinned out every two to three years.
It Will be Unlawful to:
* Hunt in a party of more than 150 persons
* Use more than 35 bloodthirsty, rabid hunting dogs
* Shoot in a public tavern ( Bullet may ricochet and hit civilized white people)
* Shoot an Indian sleeping on the sidewalk
Trapping Regulations
* Traps may not be set within 15 feet of a liquor store
* Traps may not be baited with Muscatel, Lysol, rubbing alcohol or food stamps
* All traps must have at least 120 lb. spring strength and have a jaw spread of
at least 5'3"
Other rules and Regulations
* Shooting length-wide in a welfare line is prohibited
* It will be unlawful to possess a road-kill-Indian, however, special road-kill
permits shall be issued to people with semi-tractor trailers and one-ton pick-up
trucks.
* With such a permit you may bait the highway with muscatel, Lysol, rubbing alcohol or food stamps
How to Know When An Indian is in you Area
* disposable diapers litter the street
* Large lines in front of the welfare office and for free cheese
* Trails of empty wine bottles leading from the city parks to all city alleys
* Empty books of food stamps thrown all over
* Car-loads of Indian children waiting outside liquor stores
Rememer limit is ten (10) per day
Possession of limit: Forty (40)
Good Hunting!!
***************************************************************
Policy Agenda in a letter sent to John McCain
>Date: Fri, 09 Feb 1990 13:15:16
>To: mccain2000@mccain2000.com
>From: Jonathan Mark
>Subject: Policy Issues of Concern
From:
Jonathan Mark Haber
P.O. Box 1999, Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Tel: 978-544-7862 E-mail
To:
Senator James McCain
National Campaign Headquarters
735 N. St. Asaph Street
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
703/837-2000
703/837-2001 FAX
877/905-7700 (Toll Free)
mccain2000@mccain2000.com
February 9, 2000
Dear Senator McCain:
I am writing with the particular concerns of the well-being of our environment and social justice issues. In particular I am involved with the executive clemency issue of Leonard Peltier and supporting efforts of the traditional Dineh (Navajo) Indians, who want to continue living at Big Mountain, Arizona. I am concerned that if Peabody Coal Company successfully mines this land, we will increase gain global warming and harm our deep-rooted connection with the harmony of our Earth.
During the Presidential campaign of 1992, President Clinton promised he would give Leonard Peltier's case "a fair and impartial review." What would you do if you were president? I applaud your efforts for campaign financing reform. This is a positive step. However, your political stance regarding the Cuban child concerned me. I feel we should return him to his father, because his mother died while putting this young person in a situation of great potential harm.
Another key concern of mine is the arms race extending into space. Following the press release on the 24th year of Leonard Peltier's imprisonment, I will send you a copy of my letter to the Department of Energy in response to their plans to expand plutonium-238 production. To maintain U.S. leadership in the world's best interest, we need to make strides toward disarmament of weapons and technologies capable of the mass destruction to life. Can you be a leader for an everlasting peace with national strength and unity, not just our species, but for all life?
My day job is with MicroPhotonics, Inc., a start-up company developing an improved Stirling engine. These engines can convert heat to electricity very efficiently with excellent cogen applications, i.e. exhaust heat for heating, cooling or water purification. We are building a 200kW prototype for commercial and industrial power applications. Please let me know if interested in more information on any of my projects.
I hope you will have the opportunity to consider the following information. Please advise if interested in further information or support on such campaigns.
Best regards,
Jonathan Mark
post script: I am also adding to the following a 1995 letter I wrote to President Clinton on a plan to beneficially transform the U.S. criminal-justice system.
**********************
Jonathan Mark - Editor
Post Cassini Earth Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999, Wendell Depot, MA 01380
(978)544-7862 noflyby@nonviolence.org
Office of Nuclear Energy,
Science and Technology (NE-50),
U.S. Department of Energy, Attn: Ms. Colette Brown
19901 Germantown Road, Germantown, Maryland 20874,
Re: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) intent to prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) for accomplishing expanded civilian nuclear energy research and development and isotope production missions in the United States, including the role of the Fast Flux Test Facility http://www.ne.doe.gov/
October 4, 1999
Dear Ms. Brown:
Thank you for your reply to my telephone call last week. This letter is my written statement regarding the DOE's consideration in preparing the Nuclear Infrastructure PEIS.
To be very simple and straightforward I want to be on the record for opposing any consideration of expanding the development of production of Plutonium-238. Recently the Earth flyby of the Cassini space probe threatened life on Earth with the possibility of dispersing 400,000 curies of radioactive Plutonium into our atmosphere. Fortunately the mission went by Earth without a catastrophic incident, but if we keep taking chances with isotopes that are toxic and known to cause mutations and cancers in living cells (remaining harmful for many generations), we will continue threatening life in an unprecedented way by our shortsightedness and disregard for the health of life on Earth.
Please use the information on the website from the Action Site to Stop Cassini Earth Flyby. It is posted at http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby . You are invited to download the NoFlyby website as part of my statement. At the end of this letter I will list a few critical references from this website, in case you cannot review the whole site.
One of the most significant findings in the last few years about the potential harm by dangerous radioactive isotopes is by the work of Hei, et all. In a letter by Dr. John Gofman's May 11, 1999 letter, he wrote, "..By any reasonable standard of biomedical proof, there is no safe dose, which means that just one decaying radioactive atom can produce permanent mutation in a cell's genetic molecules. My own work showed this in 1990 for xrays, gamma rays, and beta particles (Gofman 1990: Radiation-Induced Cancer from Low-Dose Exposure). For alpha particles, the logic of no safe dose was confirmed experimentally in 1997 by Tom K. Hei and co-workers at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) Vol.94, pp.3765-3770, April 1997, 'Mutagenic Effects of a Single and an Exact Number of Alpha Particles in Mammalian Cells')."
This information and new findings by many scientist studying the disproportionate harm of low level radiation show that the currently accepted internal dosimetry models presented in the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Publication 30 and the radiation health effects' estimator for the induction of fatal cancers as outlined in ICRP Publication 60, both of which are accepted by the national and international radiation protection communities, are inaccurate, limited and misleading. Based on the findings of Hei, et all, and other analyses, such as the "Baby Tooth Project" [see www.radiation.org ] I urge you to conduct new investigations on the disproportionate harm that could come from low level radiation, and until those investigations are complete, to stop the use and development of plutonium in space programs.
Plutonium radioactive isotopes are relatively new. They have only been developed in the last sixty years, initiated by the fear that Germany would produce the first atomic bomb during World War II. This is very little time compared to these substances long-term toxicity to generations of human beings and our environment. The scientific standards that you are using today in measuring the possible harm of low level plutonium radioactive isotopes are most likely inaccurate. Yet, knowing that the U.S. military has strong interests in using plutonium for space-based weaponry, knowing that NASA and DOE operates with the military on the development of nuclear space programs, it is practical to assume the close involvement with these agencies in the development of plutonium for the nuclear space program. This is why I am not only suggesting a "No Action" alternative to where no domestic capability to produce Plutonium-238 for future space missions would be established by the DOE, but I am also strongly encouraging that the DOE supports the stopping of all development and use of dangerous Plutonium isotopes.
Your support of a "No Action" alternative would be a step in the correct direction in the consideration for life and the future of life on Earth. By stopping these programs, I am confident that the DOE, NASA and the U.S. military could find other ways to explore our heavens, benefit humanity and protect life. Please contact me, if I can assist you further in such beneficial transformative directions. We can either change the direction, which was initiated by the threatening past, by intelligence and concern for life, or we may learn by the way of the dinosaurs and shortsightedness. Please help stop the nuclear space program for the regard of human life and the children not yet born.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Mark
Radiation and Public Health Project, Inc.'s status report of the Baby Teeth Project
http://www.radiation.org/whatsnew.html
"No Safe Dose "- a Letter of Concern by Dr. John W. Gofman
http://www.ratical.org/radiation/CNR/LetterOfConcern.html
Landmines at the cellular level
http://www.pgs.ca/pages/nl/lmcells.htm
Bart Jordan Commentary on ancient civilizations and development of dangerous isotopes
http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby/ref/bart.htm
NoFlyby Newsletter No. 19
http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby/alerts/19nl.htm
****************************************************
President Bill Clinton
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500
November 27, 1995
Dear Mr. President:
Newt Gingrich is right. We need a revolution. However, most Americans do not agree with his direction, but I appreciate his interest for making big changes. I have an idea that will both reduce the deficit, and more importantly, reduce the violence in our streets. The plan is nothing less than revamping our criminal justice system. My proposal is that by 1997 we develop legislation that would make most nonviolent offenses misdemeanors. This could transfer resources now used in locking these individuals in prisons to provide for their civil service employment. This would help stop the cycle of recurring crime and help rebuild America from the bottom up. We need a revolution of the mind and spirit. This could help to ignite such a movement.
This idea focuses on nonviolent offenders, the majority of which are probably drug users. However, the results of this proposal would ease the overcrowding of prisons and help everyone but the current jail building industry. It would also separate nonviolent from violent offenders. Your stand as President is correct, society cannot tolerate one person hurting another. However, for those who just happen to be raised in difficult situations, who are depressed, lost, and hurting no one but themselves, society would benefit greatly by beginning such a plan, with the addition of coordinating religious and community groups to volunteer counseling services, helping individuals deal with his or her problems.
The best plans are win/win. This plan reduces the budget deficit, helps to rebuild our neighborhoods and reduces crime. I hope you fervently support this plan. You could play it safe and win the coming election anyway. Your agenda is obviously more favorable than the Republican's contract on America. However, the mandate of change by the people in electing you as President in 1992 has not yet been fulfilled. America requires bold new programs for its rebuilding. I hope you use this election to help educate and lead the people and Congress. A little more than a hundred years ago black people were slaves and the Native American people were forced unto reservations. Now there is a disproportionate amount of minorities locked up in prisons. Our justice system is not fair or effective. We have the opportunity to make the change and improve conditions for all.
On a related subject, please provide clemency to Leonard Peltier. I'm sure you are aware of his case. His innocence is obvious to me and many Americans. The deceitful manner by which the FBI gained his extradition from Canada, should be ground alone for Clemency. Twenty years is enough time.
Also, I wish you to know of my appreciation of your leadership in dealing with the assault on humanity in Bosnia. You have stood up for what is right, demonstrating leadership and patience in the midst of opposition from European leaders, helping to end a present day holocaust. Thank you.
I hope you read and consider my ideas for transforming the criminal justice system. Right now it is a part of a created hell on earth. Please make the big changes that you know in your heart are correct. I appreciate all the service you, your family and team have provided for our nation and world.
Best regards for a wonderful holiday season.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Mark
**********************************************************************
Is Low Frequency Sonar Blowing Away Dolphins and Whales?
"In more than a dozen instances dating back to the 1960s,
whales have stranded themselves on the beaches and sometimes
died at the time of naval training exercises miles away using mid-
frequency active sonar. An unprecedented stranding of 16 beaked
and minke whales in the Bahamas in 2000 brought worldwide
attention to military sonar. A NOAA investigation concluded that a
Navy testing maneuver using midfrequency sonar was the likely
cause. Necropsies found signs of brain hemorrhaging,
which is consistent with injury from sound."
-- San Francisco Chronicle,
12/13/04, front page
Months before in early 2000 a Boston CBS TV news station
reported that 100 dolphins had beached off the Florida keys
and twenty dolphins died. Flyby News, guided by Bart Jordan,
contacted rescuers and expressed concern that it was caused by
low frequency active sonar used by US Navy. We encouraged
biopsy tests around ears of the mammals
for locating hemorrhaging signs.
National Geographic Video - The Bahamas Incident:
www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/103001whales-video.html
US Navy Admits Its Sonar Killed Whales
"The U.S. Navy and the National Marine Fisheries Service
have released a report acknowledging the role that the Navy's
experimental sonar played in the deaths of 17 marine mammals
in the Bahamas [March 2000].. The report is the agency's first
official admission that sonar may contribute to whale beachings."
Critical News
25 September, 2013 - Science Daily -News
Whale Mass Stranding Attributed
to Sonar Mapping for First Time
FN Archives:
November 12, 2008
Court rules for Navy in dispute over sonar, whales
February 16, 2007 - Item 3
Navy to continue sonar training
December 29, 2006 - Item 3
Stop Navy Noise January 10th Hearing
May 2, 2006 - Item 3
Navy Sonar and Mass Dolphin Stranding
January 12, 2006 - Item 2
Protect Whales and other Marine Life from Navy's Sonar
October 21, 2005 - Item 3
US Navy sued over dolphin-stranding sonar!
May 10, 2005 - Item 5
Sign on to UN Ocean Noise Petition
March 6, 2005 - Item 1
Whales, dolphins, now under attack - LFAS sonar blasts!
July 26, 2004 - Item 3
Death of whales linked to NATO navy exercise
October 13, 2003 - Item 4
Study Says Sonar linked to death of whales
May 24, 2003 - Item 4
Defending Our Environment and Health from the US Military * LFA: House & Senate Pass Versions of Military Exemptions
March 13, 2003 - Item 6
Pentagon Seeks Freedom to Pollute Land, Air and Sea
November 17, 2002 - Item 4
Navy's Sonar and Protecting Marine Life
November 5, 2002 - Item 4
For Whales' Sake, Judge Halts Sonar
August 8, 2002 - Item 6
ENS - New Sonar System Could Deafen Marine Mammals
July 30, 2002 - Item 2
Massive Worldwide Whale Beachings
July 20, 2002 - Item 2
Navy Wins OK for New Sonar,
May 8, 2002 - Item 2
Can Navy sonar hurt whales?,
April 18, 2002 - Item 4
Navy Sonar Controversy Coming to a Head
June 1, 2000 - Item 1
Court Ruling to Stop Navy's LFAS Experiments
May 14, 2001 - Item 2
Navy testing whales' hearing level,
January 8, 2001 - Item 3
Information and Action to Stop Low Frequency Active Sonar Blasts for Ocean-Life
For more resources, visit:
StopLFAS.com
SonarSlaughter.org
OceanNoiseCoalition.org
OceanMammalInstitute.com
TAKE ACTION!
Send a message to the secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
and to NATO ambassadors, urging their member countries to stop deploying
high-powered sonar systems in sensitive whale habitats around the world.
Call on NATO to take immediate steps to protect
marine mammals from deadly sonar.
Stop LFAS Worldwide!
Insist that people be told the truth about LFAS
and other high intensity sonars. For more information:
http://listen.to/lfas
Stop LFAS Worldwide Network
1556 Halford Ave., Box 322
Santa Clara, CA 95051
(408) 516-9716
Recommended for breaking news on this topic:
Stop LFAS Listserve
Whales and sonar -- Under water, no one can hear you scream
Feb 28th 2002 | NEW YORK
From The Economist
The American navy may soon have a whale of a problem
IT MIGHT offer a plot for a Hollywood blockbuster. The usual suspects are present: evil military types, a plucky band of environmentalists and a cast of loveable animals fighting for their survival. The story is spoilt, though, by the fact that the would-be heroes of the drama (earnest biologists trying to make the truth heard over the political fray) are still off in a corner arguing with each other over the scientific evidence.
The loveable animals in question are the world's whales. At stake is the American navy's use of a new form of sonar. For the past two years, it has been trying to get permission to deploy low-frequency active sonar (LFAS), a system designed to hunt for very quiet submarines. But the frequency range of LFAS (100-500Hz) is the same as that used by baleen whales (blue, grey, fin and humpback (the most charismatic species) in their songs. Biologists worry that LFAS might thus damage these whales in some way. That would make its use illegal under an American law from which not even the navy is exempt. In the next couple of months, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the agency responsible for protecting the welfare of marine mammals, is due to announce whether it will let the navy deploy the new device. It's decision, one way or the other, is sure to infuriate somebody.
Sounding the depths
The reach of the proposed system is remarkable. Because of the distance that low-frequency sound waves can travel under water, a set of four ships emitting sound at 235 decibels could monitor 80% of the world's oceans for submarines. But it is precisely that reach which, from the whales' point of view, might be worrying. So, in 1997 and 1998, the navy gathered data on the response of whales to an LFAS test array. Kurt Fristrup, a marine biologist at Cornell University who helped to conduct this study, says humpback whales exposed to LFAS altered the lengths of their songs slightly, but resumed normal calling a few hours afterwards. Grey whales exposed to a test source in the middle of their migration path altered their routes to avoid it, but once the source was moved out of the migration corridor and further into the ocean, they appeared to ignore it.
That does not sound much to worry about, and in any case, the navy says the system can be made safe. It has been designed to switch off as soon as a broadcasting ship comes within 1km of a whale. At this distance the animal would hear the sonar at a volume of 180 decibels, which the navy says will cause no harm.
Some whale experts, however, disagree with the navy's boffins. Lack of alteration does not imply lack of injury, according to Naomi Rose, a marine biologist at the Humane Society, an American animal-welfare charity. The animals could have been disturbed or even partially deafened, but their mating and migrating activities may have been too important for them to change their patterns of behaviour. More pertinently, the navy's test array broadcast at a maximum level of 155 decibels. That is roughly 0.3% of the power of the 180-decibel cut-off point that the operational system would have.
Meanwhile, greens are fretting not only about the whales, but also about the vigour of the agency appointed to protect them, which they fear is the victim of "regulatory capture". According to Michael Jasny of the National Resources Defence Council, an environmental lobby group, the best available science has shown that LFAS causes "severely adverse effects" in marine mammals. "The NMFS would have to tie itself in knots to come up with a determination supporting the navy."
Dr Fristrup, though, doubts if more studies and more tests could assuage the fears of whale-lovers. Certain groups, he says, "oppose LFAS deployment on principle: their positions are clearly not susceptible to change based on any scientific evidence that can be developed."
Article from The Economist
Mark J. Palmer
Assistant Director
International Marine Mammal Project
Director
Wildlife Alive
Earth Island Institute
300 Broadway, Suite 28
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 788-3666 x139
(415) 788-7324 (fax)
< mpalmer@mother.com >
www.earthisland.org
(429-347 BC)
Above is also posted at FN's wordpress blog with images!
Is Low Frequency Sonar Blowing
Away Dolphins and Whales?
The views expressed herein are writers' own and not necessarily of Flyby News.
Fair Use Policy that describes use of copyrighted material is at FlybyNews.com.
Feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News is appreciated.
You can write to the editor by email: - flybynews(at}hughes{dot)net-
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus,
and has supported critical campaigns for a healthy
environment, human rights, justice, and nonviolence,
since the launch of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era
= = = www.FlybyNews.com = = =
Putting Technology to the Test - 7 Generations - Big Mountain - Leonard Peltier
Putting Technology to the Test
The communications revolution withstood the test of fixing a mistake to account for the year 2000. It was easier to do than most had expected. (I took the temporary fix of dating my computer back ten years.) No big deal, right, but the problems we are facing in today's world are.. perhaps, too scary for most to ponder. What is the post Cassini flyby era? I wonder where we are headed, star wars, the grim reality? pushed into motion by 97 out of 100 U.S. Senators!? Too scary to ponder, the consequences of an accelerated arms race and technologies capable of big time destruction. Are we headed toward chaos, big growth for short term life?
The real test for technology needs to be taken from the philosophy lived by the Native American -- council meetings would consider any impact their actions would have for seven generations, three present and four into the future, before making significant decisions. The half life of toxic nuclear radiation outlasts seven generations and is known to cause cell mutations and cancer. This is an aberration of human intelligence and lack of creativity to find a safer way to end the threat of one nation destroying another or to make a living.
I feel that in this climate of undeniable global warming, over population, hunger and suffering, while financial institutions are soaring in all time highs, we have a unique opportunity to transform policies and actions for beneficial directions for most everyone. Yet, the current assessment for such a change seems quite bleak, but we still have a little time. The U.S. should change its position and honor the ABM Treaties with Russia and China, and take the lead to help unite nations for mutual interests in national security and prosperity in harmony with Earth's natural ecosystems. Humility and courage are two good attributes to help make a change, before the current rise in environmental catastrophes lose all control.
The following is a press release from the Leonard Peltier Support Group of Greater New England. It is regarding Leonard Peltier and Big Mountain, which is uniquely related to post cassini flyby interests. Without basic human rights, justice and democracy for all, our future is very bleak, indeed.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Leonard Peltier Support Group / Greater New England
P.O. Box 1999, Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
For Immediate Release
January 2000 Events for Indigenous American Issues:
Leonard Peltier and Big Mountain
Contacts:
Harvey Arden (202)244-4693 The Wisdomkeepers Project
http://www.wisdomkeepers.com
Paul Tohlakai(413)862-3415 Sacred Mountains Foundation
http://www.visionquests.com
Jonathan Mark(978)544-7862 Leonard Peltier Support Group / GNE
For twenty-three years Harvey Arden was a staff writer for National Geographic magazine; he is coauthor of Wisdomkeepers: Meetings with Native American Spiritual Elders. He has written many books on Indigenous cultures and edited Leonard Peltier's book PRISON WRITINGS: My Life is My Sun Dance, published by St. Martins Press, 1999. Leonard Peltier is now in his twenty-fourth year of confinement and according to many, including Amnesty International, was wrongly convicted of the murder of two FBI agents. Leonard Peltier, an accomplished artist has written his first book as a personal testament, "I am an Indian--an Indian who dared to stand up to defend his people. I am an innocent man who never murdered anyone nor wanted to. And, yes, I am a Sun Dancer. That, too, is my identity. If I am to suffer as a symbol of my people, then I suffer proudly. I will never yield." Harvey Arden will be reading from Prison Writings many places in New England during January 2000.
Paul Crane Tohlakai is a Dineh (Navajo) ceremonial leader and will be a guest speaker at the events with Harvey Arden. Paul Tohlakai is Director of Sacred Mountains Foundation and will be sharing information on how and why we should help him support his people at Big Mountain. Traditional Dineh are threatened to be forcibly evicted from their homeland, and placed downstream from the nation's worst nuclear waste disaster, near Chambers, Arizona. A previous relocation proved disastrous, of the 12-16,000 Dineh moved to this same area, within six months, 3,000 Dineh people died! The U.S. government claims it is working according to the law of the land. However, sacred land is planned to be stripped mined for coal during this era of record-shattering increases in global temperatures. Paul Tohlakai's vision is to help bring unity and peace by celebrating the special gifts of the Dineh in honor of Mother Earth.
Scheduled Events with Harvey Arden and Paul Tohlakai
January 12 (Wednesday) [Organizational Meeting] Attorney Bob Doyle's office,
7:00 P.M.
114 Main St. Northampton, MA
January 13-15 -- "Democracy in Action" Presidential Primary Event and Forum in Manchester, NH (Contact Bonnie Winona (603)659-8888 for details)
January 16 (Sunday) Unitarian Universalist Society, 121 N. Pleasant St., Amherst, MA
10:00 A.M.
January 18 (Tuesday) Jones Library, 43 Amity Street, Amherst, MA
7:00 to 9:00 P.M.
January 20 (Thursday) Unitarian Society. 220 Main Street, Northampton, MA
7:00 P.M.
January 21 (Friday) Odess-Gillett Home, Hadley, MA (413)586-0580
Excerpts from Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance by Leonard Peltier
"I know who and what I am. I am an Indian---an Indian who dared to stand up to defend his people. I am an innocent man who never murdered anyone nor wanted to. And, yes, I am a Sun Dancer. That, too, is my identity. If I am to suffer as a symbol of my people, then I suffer proudly. I will never yield.
We are in this together-the rich, the poor, the red, the white, the black, the brown, and the yellow. We are all one family of humankind. We share responsibility for our Mother Earth and for all those who live and breathe upon her.
I believe our work will be unfinished until not one human being is hungry or battered, not a single person is forced to die in war, not one innocent languishes imprisoned, and no one is persecuted for his or her beliefs.
I believe in the good in humankind. I believe that the good can prevail, but only with great effort. And that effort is ours, each of ours, yours and mine.
We must be prepared for the danger that will surely come our way. Critics will attack us, try to distance us from each other and mock our sincerity. But if we are strong in our beliefs, we can reverse their assaults and grow even stronger in our commitments to Mother Earth, our struggles, and our future generations of children.."
- Leonard Peltier
PRISON WRITINGS: My Life Is My Sun Dance, published by St. Martin's Press, 1999.
Please read this work from an accomplished artist and caring courageous human being. Please consider supporting Congressional Hearings to investigate FBI abuses in this case (which is weirdly linked to uranium, gold and other polluting mining interests).
Please ask President Clinton to grant Executive Clemency.
URL References
http://www.lisn.net
http://www.freepeltier.org/
http://www.wisdomkeepers.com
http://standingdeer.homepage.com
http://www.whrc.org/globalwarming/warmingearth.htm
**********************************************************************
The Sky is Not Always Blue (Star Wars Op-Ed) * 17 DAYS TO Y2K AND 5,600 WARHEADS ON ALERT *
December 13, 1999
I. The Sky is Not Always Blue
{an op-ed piece by Greg Robie}
II. Y2K Nuclear Dangers
RE: 17 DAYS TO Y2K AND 5,600 WARHEADS ON ALERT -
PLEASE FAX TO TAKE THEM OFF!
III. 21 plants in Japan are shutting down during the Y2K rollover!
**********************************************************************
I. The Sky Is Not Always Blue
an op-ed piece by Greg Robie (11/25/99)
In the movie "Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee" a Native American elder questioned the Whiteman's integrity due to our forbearers' failure to honor treaties whose permanence was for "as long as the sky was blue." Entering into negotiated agreements implies that the involved parties respect one another and act with integrity. In such a process the resulting mutual trust is the groundwork on which lasting cooperation and security is built.
The Native Americans treaties were not honored. The United States government, feeling superior by race and being political in nature, found it pragmatic to act without integrity. It allowed its citizens to violate with impunity, agreements it made with sovereign nations. The shameful "Indian Wars" (or more accurately described as indigenous people eradication initiatives) were its subsequent resolution to the dilemma.
Repeating history, our government is willing to "withdraw"--what a wonderful wordsmithing for the term "break"--rather than renegotiate, the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Aren't those who break treaties "the bad guys?" Walter Slocombe, undersecretary for defense policy said: "We will not permit any other country to have a veto on actions that may be needed for the defense of our nation." This attitude, and the pending decision next summer by President Clinton to do the first deployment of a "Star Wars" defense system in Alaska lack integrity and need a reality check. Let us thoughtfully consider the family of nations' judgment of our behavior.
In a 54-7 vote on November 5th, with all of the members of the European Union abstaining or, like France, voting with Russia, the UN's First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) opposed the pending unilateral US action "to undermine or circumvent the ABM Treaty." That judgment can be joined by an equally important question: Has the planned Star Wars "defense" system passes the technological feasibility requirement of the Congressional resolution that support its deployment?
It is always wise to see one's behavior from perspectives that are different. Such a discipline demonstrates respect. It can clarify perceived differences and their meaning. The US is clearly understood by the vast majority of nations--as our own behavior in the 19th Century can be viewed in retrospect--to be an action devoid of respect for a process of negotiation that historically secures security non-violently; it reflects a commitment to and trust in violence.
Does not history repeat itself? Why won't a violation of treaties lead us to a future of "Indian" Wars? Why won't future wars also fail to usher in national security and require negotiating the underlying issues we would be so much wiser, as well as economically better off, to resolve through negotiations now? Consider the situation of the potential costs of the unresolved Native American claims in our courts today and their impact on the negotiations surrounding tribal gambling.
Unless we choose to live in the insecurity of a security secured by war and grounded in the oppression and violation of the human rights of others, why wouldn't we choose today, to act with integrity out of the spiritual strengths of patience, trust and love? Why wouldn't we persist with the negotiation process to see what that practice, based on respect, integrity, and trust, may make possible the we cannot otherwise imagine?
The "may" in Mr. Slocombs rationalization is huge. In the 15 years North Korea becomes this supposed threat some very serious destabilizing trends _*will*_ unfold. Another billion and a half people will share this planet. Our industrialized American lifestyles, which we are exporting world-wide (and which we are "investing" billions militarily to preserve), will likely have environmentally displaced or killed 100's of millions of humans and countless other forms of life. The threats to global security of these two very real trends dwarf any minutely possible threat of ICBM attacks
from "evil" countries.
It is time to wake up and realize that the "Star Wars" defense system has next to nothing to do with security. Instead it is predominately about economic security for the military industrial complex. It is about political campaign financing that this industry funds and, in turn, from whence it receives its funding.
The threat to global security is not "out there" among "terrorist" governments. It is right here at home. It is our terrifying exercise of denial about the true nature of our lifestyle choices. Like lemmings, we are fools running blindly to our own historically assured destruction when we repeat the choices of bygone civilizations, kings and empires and trust the lie that might defines right; when we forget that the sky is still blue.
**********************************************************************
II. Y2K Nuclear Dangers
RE: 17 DAYS TO Y2K AND 5,600 WARHEADS ON ALERT -
PLEASE FAX TO TAKE THEM OFF!
Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 18:52:35 -0800
To: Post Cassini Flyby News
From: Rosa Zubizarreta
Subject: Your Assistance Requested
Dear Jonathan,
We need your help. Could you post information about the following websites to your list?
http://www.y2kwash.org is the site for the World Atomic Safety Holiday campaign, advocating for greater safety measures for nuclear power plants and the deactivation of weapons systems as a reasonable and necessary precaution in face of the year 2000 computer problem.
http://www.geocities.com/mothersalert is another website with good information about this issue.
The public health risks of the year 2000 problem have been trivialized by p.r. campaigns designed to downplay and ridicule any serious concern about this issue. Rather than broad-based public participation in addressing these risks, we are told that "everything is being taken care of".
Please, if you are not informed about this issue, take a few minutes to do some research and make up your own mind. One good place to start is the website of the Center for Y2K and Society, http://www.y2kcenter.org
With all best wishes,
Rosa Zubizarreta
From: FoE Sydney - Nuclear Campaign,
RE: 17 DAYS TO Y2K AND 5,600 WARHEADS ON ALERT -
PLEASE FAX TO TAKE THEM OFF!
Dear All who are concerned about the safety of our planet,
How you react to this email really makes a difference to the safety of this planet on Dec 31.
At only 17 days from the Y2K rollover, the largest, oldest, and poitentially least Y2K compliant computer systems in the world are still those that control the 2000US warheads and the 3,600 Russian warheads in land-based silos, that are kept on 24 hour a day hairtrigger alert. So far there has been no indication that they will be removed from alert. However there are many little indications that your faxes to Cohen, Clinton, and Yeltsin are having an effect, and that people in the pentagon
are noticing.
The Canberra Commission, the Tokyo Forum, four resolutions in the United Nations General Assembly (two last year two this year), two motions in the Australian Senate, and a resolution carried on Thursday 18th Nov by the European Parliament have all called for them to be taken off alert.
Please write to US defence secretary William Cohen, President Clinton, and to Russian Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev, asking them to take nuclear weapons off hairtrigger alert at least over the Y2K 'rollover' period.
Defence Secretary Cohen's fax number is +1-703-695-1149 President Clintons fax number is +1-202-456-2461 Yeltsin/Sergeyev's fax number is +7-095-205-4330.
Faxing a single A4 page should not cost you more than a dollar.
You can fax for free on http://www.fax4free.com
*If you are an organisation* and want to sign a large sign-on letter, please sign the letter to Presidents Yeltsin and Clinton that is being periodicaly faxed to them on
http://homepages.tig.com.au/~foesyd/nuclear/bbletter.html
Sample letters to Cohen/Clinton and to Sergeyev are below.
Please customise and/or abbreviate.
1)SAMPLE LETTER TO COHEN/CLINTON
(You can also post it to The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington DC.)
TO:
WILLIAM COHEN, US SECRETARY OF DEFENCE,
+1-703-695-1149,
PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON,
WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, US,
+1-202-456-2461, +1-202-456-2883.
Dear President Clinton and Secretary for Defence Cohen,
I am writing to urge your administration to take US nuclear forces off 'hairtrigger alert' even if only during the Y2K rollover period.
As you will be aware, the European Parliament recently voted to ask you and President Yeltsin to do as the UK has already done, and de-alert nuclear weapons.
It is particularly disturbing that Secretary Cohen has been reported as having stated in Moscow some time ago that de-alerting of nuclear forces is 'off the table' as a stability building measure. You have also been quoted as saying that 'The better course is reduction, limiting the number of weapons, and establishing shared early warning centers'.
The recent Europarliament vote clearly puts de- alerting back on the table. De-alerting of nuclear forces was strongly recommended by the Canberra Commission in 1996 and then by the Tokyo Forum, as a way to develop strategic stability and build trust between the US and Russia. It has also been incorporated into last year's and this years text of the New Agenda Resolution in the UN General Assembly. It has also been reccommended by a resolution specifically on the subject passed by last years General Assembly and by this years First Committee on Reduction of Nuclear Dangers. In addition it has been the subject of two resolutions passed by the Australian Senate on 12 August and 20September, and finally it has been clearly requested by the European Parliament. It is also the subject of congressional resolution H.Con Res177 put by Edward Markey, and most recently, the City of Berkley has asked for it.
These measures are not in competition with each other. All of them - reductions in the number of weapons, the establishment of shared early warning centers and de-alerting - are vital to the reduction of tension and the establishment of strategic stability.
This is particularly the case in view of the uncertainties posed by the millennium date change (Y2K). As you are well aware, the largest and oldest computer system complexes in the world are those that control nuclear weapons systems.
The very nature of the Y2K problem makes it impossible to be sure everything has been fixed until well into the new year.
Russia has, until recently, made little effort to even acknowledge the Y2K problem, let alone fix it. It is therefore quite possible that Russian computerized control systems are not Y2K compliant and that they will experience widespread failures during the Y2K rollover period.
Even more disquieting is the fact that that the Russians have constructed the system known as 'Perimeter', or the 'dead hand'. This system seems to include additional ways in which Y2K failure might lead to an accidental launch.
The establishment of a Y2K strategic stability center in Colorado is certainly an advantageous move and an absolutely essential one.
However, it does not entirely remove the danger of an accidental launch of nuclear weapons.
The fact that the Center is scheduled, as far as we the public are aware, to come into operation only on December 27th, four days prior to the rollover, is far from reassuring. A four day delay will render it useless.
Similarly, the center itself will depend on the availability of ultra-reliable hotlines between it and Moscow. The Y2K vulnerabilities recently discovered in six of the seven hotlines on which US/Russian communications depends, are also cause for deep concern.
If nuclear weapons are removed from a status in which they can be launched within minutes, and placed in one which would require at least days to launch, the risk of an accidental missile launch induced by Y2K or other errors in command and control systems will be virtually eliminated.
This has been done by the UK, which has moved the 'notice to fire' for its missile forces from minutes to days.
In taking De-alerting 'off the table', the United States is making a serious error. Failure to take nuclear forces off hairtrigger alert over the Y2K 'rollover' period is an error that has the potential of causing unthinkable consequences.
The probability of this may be low, but it will never be zero as long as nuclear forces remain on hair-trigger alert.
In a previous administration, President Bush took strategic bomber forces off alert. We urge you to do this with all US nuclear forces.
(SIGNED) etc.
2)SAMPLE LETTER TO YELTSIN/DEFENCE MINISTER SERGEYEV
THIS SAMPLE LETTER IS FOR YOU PERSONALLY TO FAX, CUSTOMIZED AS YOU FEEL BEST, TO YELTSIN AND DEFENCE MINISTER SERGEYEV. PLEASE DO FAX IT AND SEND IT NOW.
You can also post it to Boris Yeltsin, C/O The Kremlin, Moscow - but its really too slow. A single A4 page fax will cost you about a dollar.
PRESIDENT BORIS YELTSIN,
IGOR SERGEYEV, RUSSIAN DEFENCE MINISTER,
+7-095-205-4330,
Dear Defence Minister Sergeyev and President Yeltsin,
I am writing to convey my deep concern that Y2K-related computer failures in the command and control systems for nuclear weapons may lead to an accidental nuclear war.
I am aware that both Russia and the US have taken this problem seriously enough to establish a joint strategic stability center in Colorado. However, I am very much concerned that this facility will come into operation only by 27th December 1999, so that a delay of just four days will make it useless.
I am also very much concerned that Y2K problems have been found recently in six out of seven of the 'hotlines' that would be used if a crisis of any sort arose over the Y2K rollover period.
I am aware that there have been a number of occasions when either the US or Russia have mistakenly believed that the other nation was in the process of launching a nuclear attack.
With 3,600 Russian warheads on 700 missiles and 2,000 US warheads on 500 missiles, with each side capable to launch within roughly 20 minutes, this must never be allowed to happen, either over the Y2K 'rollover', or at any other time.
The use of 5,600 warheads would certainly mean the end of what we call civilization, would likely mean the end of the human race and could possibly mean the end of all life.
I therefore urge both you and the United States, to place all your nuclear forces in a status in which at least days not minutes, would be required to launch . The United Kingdom has, I understand, already done this.
The European Parliament has recently called on both the US and Russia to de-alert nuclear weapons and to place them in a state similar to that in which the UK has placed its weapons. The recent Europarliament vote clearly puts de- alerting back on the table. De-alerting of nuclear forces was strongly recommended by the Canberra Commission in 1996 and then by the Tokyo Forum, as a way to develop strategic stability and build trust between the US and Russia. It has also been incorporated into last year's and this years text of the New Agenda Resolution in the UN General Assembly. It has also been reccommended by a resolution specifically on the subject passed by last years General Assembly and by this years First Committee on Reduction of Nuclear Dangers. In addition it has been the subject of two resolutions passed by the Australian Senate on 12 August and 20September, and finally it has been clearly requested by the European Parliament. It is also the subject of congressional resolution H.Con Res177 put by Edward Markey, and most recently, the City of Berkley has asked for it.
The immediate stakes are so high and the potential for global catastrophe is so great, that mutually verified de-alerting of nuclear forces in the face of the Y2K computer problem must take precedence over all other considerations of political and national security.'
(Signed) etc.
John Hallam
Friends of the Earth Sydney,
17 Lord street, Newtown, NSW, Australia,
Fax(61)(2)9517-3902 ph (61)(2)9517-3903
nonukes@foesyd.org.au
http://homepages.tig.com.au/~foesyd
http://homepages.tig.com.au/~foesyd/nuclear/bbletter.html
**********************************************************************
III. 21 plants in Japan are shutting down during the Y2K rollover period!
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 07:11:04 +0000
To: y2k-nuclear@egroups.com
From: Paul Swann
Mailing-List: contact y2k-nuclear-owner@egroups.com
From: "Soula "
NEWS: 21 plants in Japan are shutting down during the Y2K rollover period! This is from the December 4th edition of the Asahi Newspaper, local edition (Tokaimura area). This is big news. But they are trying not to make this look like a big deal -- no headlines or anything. We are trying to get more information from the activists in Japan, who are in close contact with some of our members.
**********************************************************************
The NoFlyby Website's [ http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby ] account with nonviolence.org's server, DataRealm, is paid up until December 25, 1999. If interested in contributing toward NoFlyby's cost for being posted into the indefinite future, send a check payable to "DataRealm" and send to NoFlyby, P.O. Box 1999, Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA. A year's worth for keeping NoFlyby online is only about $45. Thanks for any help and while it is still posted, please use the noflyby site for a reference source and information on the incredibly dangerous nuclear space programs.
UN's Peaceful Outer Space Anniversary * U.S. Pushes Arms Race * Candidate Bradley About Peltier
I) 40th Anniversary of the UN Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS), December 1999
From Global Network Against Nuclear Power and Weapons in Space:
It is quite clear that the US Space Command intends to carry out its stated objective of mastering space (and hence the Earth). The publicity surrounding the recent Cassini spacecraft (carrying 72lbs of plutonium and luckily missing the Earth's atmosphere on its recent fly-by) has emphasised that it is the intention of the US government (through military and civil programs) to carry on using and developing nuclear power sources to be used in space - ultimately as part of the program of domination.
The US makes no secret of the fact that it wants to "master space"
During the month of December the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space are asking groups and individuals to lobby the UNCOPUOS (or the Office of Outer Space Affairs/OOSA in Vienna) to encourage the peaceful use of space but discourage aggresive and expoitative policies by all countries.
UNCOPUS was set up by the UN General Assembly in 1959 to "review the scope of international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space, ... to encourage continued research and the dissemination of information on outer space matters, and to study legal problems arising from the exploration of outer space" (see http://www.un.or.at/OOSA/copuos.html).
There are two important facts that they should consider:
1. No country or space agency (civil or military) has ever categorically stated that it would ensure the "ultimate disposal" of any nuclear-powered earth-orbiting or deep-space missions. All the Russian Kosmos missions with uranium reactors that are still in orbit around the Earth will eventually fall back within the next 650 years. The half-life of the uranium is 4.5 billion years. Many deep space missions will probably eventually leave the solar system altogether - their final destination is not always considered. Is it responsbile behaviour to fire off radioactive bullets in random directions? For example, what will happen to Cassini after its mission ends?
2. NASA plans to launch the Europa Orbiter mission in 2003. The Europa Orbiter will use an Advanced Radioisotope Power Source (ARPS, i.e. a new form of RTG) to produce electrical energy for the on-board instruments. According to Jackie Alan Giulino, who had been working for NASA for 20 years, NASA plans to have the spacecraft captured by Europa's gravity at the end of the mission and crash it into the icy surface of this Jupiter moon hoping to find a proof for water on the moon. In an article (http://www.ens.lycos.com/ens/jul99/1999L-07-26g.html) he asks:
"But what will become of the spacecraft's 9.6 kg of plutonium? No one really knows - or cares - at NASA. One scenario is that the ARPS canisters could melt through the ice, falling into the moon's ocean".
So let's get this straight: the Europa Orbiter spacecraft will be exploring Europa from orbit, paving the way for future robotic explorers that might actually search for life. Yet the plutonium it carries will be thoughtlessly dumped into the very oceans that could contain pre-biotic life?"
You can therefore contact UNCOPUOS by e-mail, fax, or letter at:
Office for Outer Space Affairs
Vienna International Centre
P.O. Box 500,
Room E-0946 A
1400 Vienna,
Austria
Phone: (43-1) 26060 4270
Fax: (43-1) 26060 5830
E-mail: OOSA@unov.un.or.at
Please Note: More information can be found on UNCOPUOS at the GlobeNet Website
http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk/ Latest News - Lobby UNCOPUOS - Dec 1999
*********************************************************************
II. U.S. Push for the Arms Race in Space
The following is from an article in the New York Times. This push for the arms race in space and the breaking of the ABM and Peaceful Use of Space Treaties is perhaps the greatest threat for life on Earth. The money being spent on these policies reduce the U.S. chances to maintain peace with North Korea, Russia, China and other countries. The pollution and fall-out from such a program endangers the survival of the human species in the coming decades. If we don't stop this next step of the arms race, we are really in big trouble, all of us.
Please see http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby/ref/bonk.htm
for a critical article on the Star Wars Threat by Molly Ivins.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
December 2, 1999
Cohen Warns Allies About Missiles
By CRAIG R. WHITNEY
BRUSSELS -- Ten years after the end of the cold war, the United States, unchallenged as a superpower, faces a different challenge within NATO: its allies' insistence on seeing the world from their own perspectives and setting their own defense priorities instead of following Washington's.
So it was at the alliance's headquarters here on Thursday when Defense Secretary William S. Cohen tried to convince skeptical Europeans that not only the United States but Europe, too, would face a real threat to security if North Korea, Iran or other "rogue states" continued developing or acquiring intercontinental nuclear missiles.
"I think it's important for allied countries to understand that the threat is real, and that in all likelihood it will increase in coming years," Cohen said later.
The United States would have to have the support of its allies even if it decided to build an effective missile defense system to defend itself alone., he said. But, he concluded: "There is by no means a consensus within the alliance. It's something they will look at and we will discuss over the coming year." There was an element of shadow-boxing here, too, in allies' assurances to Cohen that their ambition to create an autonomous, all-European military force with the ability to send 50,000 troops to the far reaches of the continent the next time trouble broke out would not diminish their military commitments to the American-led alliance.
NATO's secretary general, Lord Robertson, said, "There are around two million people in European armies in uniform today, and yet the European allies had to struggle hard to get 40,000 to go and serve in Kosovo."
But reorganizing and cooperating more closely with each other, the Europeans said, could give both the European Union and NATO the stronger European defense pillar the United States has been urging for decades. As long as the new European Union defense structure did not duplicate NATO's unnecessarily, Cohen agreed with his fellow ministers, "a stronger Europe means a stronger alliance."
To some extent, the problems the alliance is having arise because the member countries are finally getting things they have wanted for years.
The United States has been calling for a stronger European defense contribution to NATO since John F. Kennedy was president, but now that the Europeans say they want to make one, the United States wants them to concentrate on building that stronger European security and defense identity within NATO.
The European allies thought they won the lasting peace they had yearned for when the cold war ended, and some of them cut defense spending by up to half. But two wars in the Balkans, and the Europeans' obvious defense shortcomings in this year's war in Kosovo, convinced them that they still depended far too much on the United States to deal with trouble in their own backyard.
Britain, with France, bore most of the burden and frustration of the unsuccessful United Nations peacekeeping operation in Bosnia until NATO took over and ended the fighting there in 1995.
And now, France and Britain, even with President Clinton's closest soulmate in Europe, Tony Blair, as prime minister, are at the core of the European defense structure that is expected to be decided next week at a European Union summit meeting in Helsinki.
The countries that would provide the bulk of any European force agree that it would only act on its own if NATO as a whole -- in effect the United States -- decided not to get involved.
Though American officials have trouble imagining a European crisis the United States could stay out of, Europeans no longer do. "American politicians, not only in the Senate but in public discussion generally, have to make big efforts to explain to the public why they should be engaged in Kosovo with billions of dollars and thousands of soldiers even though their vital interests are not in the least involved," the German defense minister, Rudolf Scharping, said today.
But how the Europeans can build the force structure they plan by 2003, let alone meet their commitments to strengthen NATO, with defense spending as low as it is now, was another question debated on Thursday.
"You cannot buy security on the cheap," Lord Robertson said.
The United States spent 3.2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense this year, according to alliance figures. But Germany, with one of the largest armies in Europe, spent only 1.5 percent.
Even France and Britain, with 2.8 and 2.6 percent respectively, will not soon catch up at those rates to the United States in precision-guided weapons technology, battlefield intelligence and command-and-control systems, heavy-lift air transport and the other assets the Europeans found they lacked in Kosovo.
The North Korean missile threat got mostly shrugs here, European diplomats said, after watching a series of slides shown by Pentagon officials depicting wider and wider circles radiating from North Korea, representing the ranges of the three classes of missiles already tested or being developed there. The circles threw their shadows over parts of both Europe and the United States.
A three-stage missile, the TaepoDong 2, which North Korea is still developing but has agreed to refrain from testing in exchange for American economic aid, could devastate targets in all of the United States and most of Europe with a nuclear payload, the Pentagon officials said.
But the allies appeared unprepared to take this missile threat seriously, European officials said.
Part of the point of the American briefing on missiles was to try to convince the allies why the United States might decide to build a limited anti-missile defense system to counter the new threat, a system that would be barred by the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty unless Russia agrees to changes American negotiators have so far failed to get Moscow to accept.
"There is no reason why you cannot have a system like the one the United States is thinking about and full strategic stability at the same time," a senior American official said, explaining that if President Clinton decides to go ahead with a national missile defense, it would initially have only 100 interceptor missiles based in Alaska. That would not be enough to pose a threat to Russia's huge nuclear arsenal, but if it worked it might be able to defend against a small number of warheads from Iraq or North Korea.
But coming on top of the United States Senate's recent rejection of the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty, the Clinton Administration's desire to tinker with the anti-ballistic missile treaty has piqued the concern among some allies, particularly the French, that the world's only superpower is crashing around the world like a bull in a china shop.
"We must avoid any questioning of the ABM treaty that could lead to disruption of strategic equilibria and a new nuclear arms race," Chirac said a few weeks ago, as Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott was trying vainly to convince the allies that amending the treaty to meet the new missile threat from rogue states would not set off a new arms race.
French officials worry that China, for one, might decide to deploy hundreds of intercontinental missiles rather than the score or so that it has now.
They also worry that, with the Senate having rejected the test ban treaty, countries like India and Pakistan will reject pleas from Washington to stick with their decision to stop testing the nuclear weapons they both first exploded last year.
Several allies, Cohen said Thursday, raised concerns that Europe might be more exposed to possible rogue missile attacks if the United States went ahead alone with a missile defense.
*********************************************************************
NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for research and educational purposes.
*********************************************************************
III. Is the U.S. Government Spying on You?
TO: ACLU Action Network
FR: Jared Feuer, ACLU Internet Organizer
December 3, 1999
Is the secret National Security Agency, working with its counterpart agencies in England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, eavesdropping on private communications from around the world? Credible reports suggest that a global electronic surveillance system -- known by the code name of
"ECHELON" -- is indeed capturing satellite, microwave, cellular and fiber-optic communications worldwide.
Over the past few months, the U.S. House of Representatives has been investigating ECHELON and related activities. As part of these investigations, the House Select Committee on Intelligence requested documents from the National Security Agency (NSA) regarding its operating standards for intelligence systems like ECHELON that may intercept communications of Americans. In a surprising move, NSA officials invoked attorney-client privilege and refused to disclose the documents. This
action drew the ire of several members of Congress, including the committee's chairman, Rep. Porter Goss (R-FL).
TAKE ACTION!
Many observers, from the ACLU to conservative Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), are calling Congress to conduct further inquiries into the workings of this global surveillance system. You can read more about ECHELON and send a letter to Congress supporting further investigations into its activities at
our action alert:
http://www.aclu.org/action/echelon106.html
In addition, the ACLU has launched a special website detailing the possible threats of ECHELON and other research on the program. The website can be found at:
http://www.echelonwatch.org
*********************************************************************
IV. Leonard Peltier Update -
From: Leonard Peltier Support Group / Greater New England (LPSG/GNE)
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Tuesday November 30 was a powerful day, besides the healthy signs of resistance in Seattle raising concerns of the WTO threat to the Environment and social justice, Bill Bradley finally made a statement in response to a question about Leonard's Clemency at his press conference at Keene State College.
The New Hampshire LPSG "Speak Up For Leonard" Bill Bradley event began at noon. A group of about twenty to thirty supporters of Leonard greeted Bill Bradley at the town green in Keene, NH with banners encouraging Bill Bradley to make a statement on the Clemency issue. He received our 10x13 clasp envelope, which was with a cover letter and enclosures* that was also given to media representatives. Bill Bradley replied when asked if he was interested in a copy of Leonard's book, yes, so we gave him a copy of Prison Writings.
Supporters of Leonard Peltier traveled with the Bill Bradley campaign to local stores and at the diner Russell Peters and Paul Tohlakai offered the beat of a drum and song connecting all in touch with their own heartbeat. Afterwards the lpsg group gathered at Keene State college to again greet the Bradley contingent. I caught up with Bill Bradley upon entering the college building and mentioned of the possibility of a campaign to write-in Leonard Peltier for President, unless we receive justice or support from a candidate on the Clemency issue this December. I told him that is the most effective time to help influence President Clinton to act responsibly.
Bill Bradley's speech to the audience of Keene State College was likeable. He shared stories of his background, including some b-ball tales, qualities of himself that he finds important, humility and confidence, and he spoke of his perception of the general goodness of people. He fielded questions comfortably in the tradition of a careful liberal, none of the questions asked about his thoughts of clemency for Leonard.
After the presentation to the public, we listened to his press conference. When it seemed like the last question was asked, I popped out of my seat and asked by giving the background of the '92 Clinton promise and six-year silence since the clemency petition was filed. The normal response time is usually six or nine months. When asked about his stance on the Clemency issue for Leonard, he stated that he believed that granting executive clemency is a very important issue for a President and without all the information, he could not respond. I followed quickly with 'but don't you think that six years is too long a time for President Clinton to respond?' Bill Bradley responded, "yes, it is."
Enclosures to Bill Bradley and press representatives included:
1) Cover Letter (follows)
2) The New Hampshire LPSG Statement ( FreedomCampaign@aol.com )
3) Amnesty International Appeal: http://www.lisn.net/peltier12.htm#top
4) Jonathan Mark 10/30 letter to Bill Bradley ( lpsg_gne@yahoo.com )
5) Gfld Recorder article about Captain "Free Peltier" Turner commemoration and 11/19 letter to editor
6) Letter 11/25 to Board of Selectman, Gill, MA
7 Declaration in support of Executive Clemency
8) Statement by State Rep. Benjamin J. Swan (D-Springfield) to October 12, 1999 LPSG/GNE Rally
9) Standing Deer Defense Committee http://standingdeer.homepage.com/
10)10/4/99 letter to office of nuclear energy (DOE) about (uranium) proposal to review plans to expand plutonium-238 production
11)CNN Report - Critique and Response http://www.lisn.net/peltier5.htm#cnn-critique
********************
Senator Bill Bradley
Presidential Campaign
395 Pleasant Valley Way,
West Orange, NJ 07052
Tel: 1-888-643-9799
Re: Your Presentation at Keene State College, Keene, New Hampshire
November 30, 1999
Dear Senator Bradley:
Thank you for your campaigning in Keene.
The enclosures, including a statement by Amnesty International are to give you information on the innocence of Leonard Peltier and evidence of FBI misconduct. Please make a statement during Peltier Freedom month, which ends today, or by early December when you can help influence President Clinton to provide an executive clemency pardon. Six years of waiting for a response is outrageous! President Clinton gave an empty campaign promise in 1992. We hope you have the courage to speak up for Leonard and be an alternative voice for justice, health and prosperity for all.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Mark
Please Note: On the day or the day before the shoot out incident on the Pine Ridge Reservation, 1/8 of the Reservation was "handed-over" to the U.S. government for uranium and the mining of gold.
"Amnesty International considers Leonard Peltier to be a political prisoner whose avenues of redress have long been exhausted....Amnesty International recognizes that a retrial is no longer a feasible option and believes that Leonard Peltier should be immediately and unconditionally released.
---Amnesty International, April 6, 1999
"I have been reading in Leonard Peltier's book, and about an hour ago I spoke with him....He is a remarkable person and the depth of his spirituality shows....I would hope that the campaign to have him freed will succeed. I certainly support it very passionately....Because it is a blot on the judicial system of this country that ought to be corrected as quickly as possible.
---Archbishop Desmond Tutu, April 18, 1999
Regarding FBI use of falsified testimony)...."I have nothing on my conscience at all."
---U.S. Prosecutor Lynn Crooks
**********************************************************************
Allies Fear U.S. Project May Renew Arms Race * Peltier letter to the editor
Dear Congress, UN Delegates, Heads of State, Media Reps and subscribers,
The following article was published in the nytimes, forwarded to me by a friend. If anyone has good ideas of a campaign to change the current trend, please pass forth soon. What can we effectively do in a united way for peace in our world, to stop space-based weapons and the escalation of the arms race?
**********************************************************************
November 20, 1999
A MISSILE PROGRAM
Allies Fear U.S. Project May Renew Arms Race
By ELIZABETH BECKER
WASHINGTON -- A senior State Department official flew to NATO headquarters this week to defend the administration's plans to deploy a national missile defense system in the face of growing criticism from European allies who say their security is being threatened.
Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott met with NATO members' representatives in Brussels, explaining American intentions and "getting an earful of complaints" from the Europeans, according to a senior diplomat here.
"This was the first time the Americans really discussed with us their plans for a missile defense that could become a big divide between us," said the European diplomat.
"It is very late to wait to talk to your allies."
As President Clinton prepares to decide next summer whether to build a $20 billion national missile defense system, the European allies have joined Russia and China in questioning why the United States needs to move so quickly.
"Nobody in his right mind would argue that this is welcome timing," Talbott said in an interview. "It is necessary because of what we need to do and when we need to do it in order to respond to a looming threat."
Chief among the complaints voiced in Brussels was the administration's threat, stated with even greater firmness by leading Republican candidates for the presidency, that the United States might withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty if necessary to field the system.
Under that treaty, Russia and the United States are restricted to deploying one limited ballistic missile system to defend a small area of their countries.
The administration now is negotiating with Russia to alter the treaty to allow for the construction of a missile system to protect the entire country from a limited attack by a state with an emerging missile threat, like North Korea.
Several officials, according to a European diplomat here, asked whether the deployment, even if approved by Russia, would trigger a new arms race as other countries felt compelled to find ways around a new missile defense system.
Others said they feared that a separate American system would undermine the trans-Atlantic network because Europe would be left unprotected.
"Ballistic missile defenses have become the hub where relations with Russia and China intersect, the future of nonproliferation intersects and where our European allies express their most severe disgruntlement with the American leadership," said George Perkovich, director at the
W. Alton Jones Foundation and author of "India's Nuclear Bomb" (University of California, 1999).
Alaska would probably be home to the system, including at least 20 interceptor missiles ready to shoot down incoming missiles.
It would also use satellites and radar stations in the United States, as well as two radar sites the United States already maintains in Greenland and Britain.
Talks are under way with Copenhagen, for the site in Greenland, a Danish territory, and with London, for the British site, according to an American official. Neither country has yet approved allowing its site to be part of the new system.
******************************************************
Stretching the arms race to another critical justice and human rights issue, I am sharing the following, which contains a recent letter to the editor that was published in the newspaper "Recorder" (Greenfield, MA). For more info on the Peltier campagn see http://www.freepeltier.org/ Also, a related issue to help a 74 year old native american with 4 incurable diseases receive parole this coming february, visit the Standing Deer website at http://standingdeer.homepage.com/index.html
**********************************************************************
Leonard Peltier Support Group / Greater New England (LPSG/GNE)
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
The following was published in the Recorder newspaper, Greenfield, MA, in the November 19 issue.
*************************
Leonard Peltier
In my opinion an article in the Greenfield Recorder on October 9, 1999 in the local regional section had a misleading perspective. The article was entitled "Gill monument defaced in the name of activism." I believe that whoever dumped crimson red paint on the monument that commemorates Captain William Turner's "victory," (which is controversial in itself, since many are convinced that this wasn't a decisive battle to end King Phillip's War, but the decisive massacre), and stenciled the declaration on the boulder "Free Leonard Peltier," acted with an intent to educate the public about injustice, or perhaps it was a sign of frustration about the injustices to Native Americans for the past 507 years.
I cannot condemn or condone this act of defacing public property, but in light of apparent American injustice and genocide against the indigenous peoples of this land, I hope that the people and the town of Gill will consider asking the Commonwealth to leave the monument as it is now, or to remove this commemoration representing a massacre of a village that included women and children in our area.
November is Free Leonard Peltier Month. In 1993 Attorney Ramsey Clark filed for executive clemency on Leonard's case. Normally it takes six to nine months for a clemency petition to be reviewed. It has been six years and we have heard nothing. The only response ever received from President Clinton is a form letter stating that it is still being reviewed by the department of justice. President Clinton has the authority to look into the status of the review and he has the authority to grant clemency whenever he chooses. The Clinton Administration has ignored letters and resolutions from foreign parliaments, letters from many prestigious people, and millions of signatures and letters from the people of the U.S. The government admits that they do not know what involvement Leonard may have had in the agents' deaths. It is an outrage that he is still in prison after more than 23 years. I hope many people in our area will write to President Clinton, call the White House comment line (202-456-1111) and contact Congress to make an appeal for Leonard's freedom and justice.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Mark
**********************************************************************
U.S. Pushes Missile Defense Despite Allies' Opposition
The policies of the USA are moving rapidly to escalating the arms race. Fear, greed and politics are the prime movers toward this irrational decision that endangers life.
*******************************************************************
November 6, 1999
U.S. Pushes Missile Defense Despite Allies' Opposition
By ELIZABETH BECKER
WASHINGTON -- The administration said Friday that it could go ahead with a national missile defense system, even if it meant withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty over Russian objections.
"We will not permit any other country to have a veto on actions that may be needed for the defense of our nation," Walter Slocombe, undersecretary of defense for policy, said Friday in a speech at the Center for Strategic International Studies.
The first deployment -- 200 missile interceptors and a radar station in Alaska -- would break the ABM treaty, which strictly limits the number, type and placement of defensive missiles in Russia and the United States. That would require renegotiating the treaty, which Moscow has been resisting.
Friday, Russia won support for keeping the treaty intact from many of Washington's allies and friends in a largely symbolic vote at the United Nations. A Russia-sponsored resolution opposing any new missile defense system that "attempts to undermine or circumvent the ABM Treaty" won a lopsided committee vote of 54-7, with all of the members of the European Union either voting with Russia or abstaining.
Next summer Clinton will decide whether to begin deploying a $10 billion missile system. This revamped "star wars" network, which is designed to knock down incoming enemy missiles, is not large enough to be aimed at Russia or any other major nuclear power. Instead, it is meant to protect all 50 states from small missile attacks from countries like North Korea.
In his speech Friday, Slocombe said that in the next 15 years, North Korea, Iran and possibly Iraq were "likely to be able to field intercontinental-range missiles that could deliver chemical, biological or nuclear weapons against the territory of the United States."
Slocombe said the administration believed that Moscow would eventually agree to modify the treaty, clearing the way for the United States to deploy the missiles.
But in the past month, since the U.S. military successfully tested a crucial element of the missile network, Moscow has repeatedly demanded that the treaty be preserved, even taking its campaign to the United Nations.
While insisting that the administration remains committed to the treaty, Slocombe argued that Russia shares some responsibility for recognizing that rapid technological changes and new political realities require changes in the treaty.
Several European countries have raised questions privately and publicly about the wisdom of threatening to withdraw from the treaty, which has been the basis for nearly every nonproliferation agreement.
Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer of Germany said in Washington on Thursday that he believed the administration's willingness to consider abandoning the ABM treaty was based on political calculations in the upcoming presidential elections. Otherwise, he said, it could mean a change in the U.S. policy of promoting disarmament.
"Everyone should think very carefully about the results of scrapping the treaty," he said. "Is it better to have Russia in the framework and under the control of international treaties or not? Yes or no?"
The ABM treaty bars the United States and Russia from building nationwide systems, allowing each only one site for limited defenses. Until recently the United States had its small, limited system in North Dakota, but tore it down in anticipation of deploying a new nationwide system in Alaska.
Russia has retained its anti-ballistic missile system of radars and missiles built around Moscow during the Soviet era. On Wednesday, Russia announced that it had tested a short-range interceptor missile for that system, an act several Pentagon officials interpreted as a warning against further American testing of its new system.
The Pentagon has scheduled two more tests of the system for the spring, before the president makes his decision in June. Though those are to be followed by 16 more tests, weapons experts doubt that the first three tests will provide enough information to make a sound judgment.
"By next summer we will have no technical basis on which to make a very serious decision about whether this system is ready to go," said Tom Collina, director of arms control at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
He argued that such a decision should not be made in the heat of the political campaign for president.
"The stakes are too high," he said. "If we pull out of the ABM, the administration is inviting the collapse of other treaties. Both sides still refer to ABM as the cornerstone for stability and arms control."
*******************************************************
Civilian casualities mount in Chechnya - CNN's coverage of Leonard Peltier
1) Russian Bombing of Chechnya
The Russian government justifies bombing Chechnya as an appropriate response to terrorism, which is similar to rationalities used by the U.S. and Israel after "relataliatory strikes." Nevertheless, violence begets violence. Are the bombs so smart that they only explode on terrorists? Communities are devastated and terrorists become more supported at a time when weapons of mass destruction are increasingly more available. All people have mutual interests for peace, security, freedom and well being. Stop the violence, the bombing of innocent people in Chechnya.
"Civilian casualties mount in Chechnya"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_484000/484244.stm
October 24, 1999 Published at 17:54 GMT 18:54
UK BBC Online News
2) CNN's coverage of Leonard Peltier
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee's critique
Fwd. From: "LPDC"
Subject: CNN critique-Leonard Peltier
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1999 18:38:04 -0500
RE: CNN REPORT ON THE CASE OF LEONARD PELTIER: CRITIQUE AND RESPONSE
Sunday evening 9:00 P.M. September 10, 1999
For those of us who have long followed the tragic case of Leonard Peltier, and who are familiar with the full and rather frightening factual record, the CNN broadcast of Sunday evening, September 10, 1999 was disturbing indeed. False and conclusory statements were made about Mr. Peltier and the June 26, 1975 gun battle: statements which have no support or basis anywhere in the record or the available evidence. Worse yet, information of critical importance was simply omitted altogether or presented only superficially.
While we are grimly accustomed to false and misleading statements by U.S. officials in this case, we must question why a news organization of the caliber of CNN could so fail, either to have done its basic homework or to have maintained its professional neutrality and courage. Was this a form of self censorship resulting from the recent forced recanting of the Vietnam scandal and the discharge of two top level journalists? Has the chilling effect of that negative experience indeed set such deep roots so quickly?
Let us be specific in our criticisms. The broadcast failed to present the clear and massive evidence that the FBI officials simply manufactured a case against Mr. Peltier because he represented their last chance at obtaining a murder conviction for the deaths of their agents.
He was extradited on the basis of a fictional affidavit obtained through FBI intimidation and coercion of a local woman. Other witnesses openly admitted that they too had been coerced; and changed their testimonies repeatedly. A key ballistic test was withheld for years from the defense because it showed that the fatal bullets could not have been fired from Mr. Peltier's alleged weapon. A red pick up truck mysteriously metamorphosed into an orange and white van as the trial approached. Even the U.S. Prosecutor now admits that no one knows who did the killing. Yet Mr. Peltier remains in prison, long overdue for parole and in deteriorating health. What more shameful a symbol of United States repression and injustice against Native American peoples could exist?
We would ask that the CNN journalists reflect on the following facts and issues:
I. The program makes virtually no mention of the context in which the deaths of the two FBI agents and the Native American youth occurred. These facts are of crucial importance for many reasons, including legal ones. The American public needs to know that during the 1973 AIM occupation of Wounded Knee, the United States government responded with military force, firing nearly half a million rounds at the men, women and children inside the town. The siege ended only when the White House promised an investigation, convincing the AIM members and supporters to return home.
The investigation never materialized. Worse yet, for the next two years, the AIM members were subjected to what is now known as the "Reign of Terror" on Pine Ridge Reservation. During the next three years, 64 AIM leaders and traditionalist supporters, and their relatives, were murdered, and scores more were harassed, beaten and threatened. The victims included men, women and children. Despite a massive FBI presence, no one ever stood trial for these crimes. Instead, hundreds of charges were brought against AIM members over the Wounded Knee siege. Most were dismissed when the courts ruled that the United States had illegally deployed military force in its response. In many of the court hearings, the FBI was rebuked for coercing witnesses and otherwise tampering with the evidence. In one notable case, the outraged judge wrote that the FBI had "polluted the waters of justice". It was in this atmosphere of terror, tension , and repression that the 1975 shoot out occurred. As Judge Heaney of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has noted, the FBI bears equal responsibility for the skirmish which took place. It is simply irrefutable that the unmarked FBI car drove onto private property, and that shooting unexpectedly began, trapping children in the cross fire, and creating immediate and very understandable confusion and fear amongst the AIM members camping out nearby. They believed they were about to die. So many of their friends already had.
None of this justifies the close range killings of Mr. Williams or Mr. Coler, or the sniper killing of a young Native American named Joe Stuntz. However, this context makes it very clear that AIM was not simply a terrorist group launching a premeditated and cold blooded ambush of two unsuspecting FBI officers. The AIM people were the ones being hunted and brutalized. They were returning fire in the full good faith belief that they were acting in self defense. The conditions at that time certainly justified their assumption. The jury, in the trial of Mr. Robideau and Mr. Butler for these murders, listened to this evidence and agreed, finding that the act of returning fire had indeed been a matter of self defense. Notably, this critical background evidence was withheld at Leonard Peltier's trial.
We do not condone the murder of any human being, whether Native American or FBI agent.. However, to this day no one knows who carried out the killings, nor how they occurred. Perhaps, as stated by a heavily disguised witness years ago, someone had approached the agents, incorrectly believing them to be dead. When one of them moved and fired, he reflexively shot them both to protect himself. Then again, perhaps someone else shot the agents in a moment of rage and grief that had been accumulating throughout the "Reign of Terror". Perhaps we will never know what really happened that day. Even the prosecutor, Mr. Lynn Crooks, has long since admitted that the government does not know who fired the fatal shots. Why then, does Mr. Peltier remain in prison?
What gives us the greatest cause for concern here is the fact that CNN apparently found it appropriate to spend a great deal of footage on the two slain FBI agents, while the 64 Native Americans murdered for political reasons were deemed scarcely worth mentioning. Unlike Judge Heaney, the journalists seemed unable to comprehend that the United States too bore responsibility for the tragic shoot out. The program comes dangerously close to portraying the incident as the mere act of irrational savages. Hence our opinion that racial insensitivity and indifference did indeed play a role in the production and editing of this broadcast.
2. Given these realities, we were rather taken aback by the statements of both the FBI Officer Nicholas O'Hara and the U.S. Prosecutor Mr. Lynn Crooks, to the effect that Mr. Leonard Peltier is a cold blooded killer and even a "mad dog". As made clear in the above discussion, we find no reasonable basis for such claims, and we question why the reporter made no attempt to ask for the actual facts behind these declarations. As anyone at all familiar with the case knows, Mr. Lynn Crooks himself has long since admitted that he does not know who fired the fatal shots at the FBI agents.
He made this admission in court after being confronted with the long concealed FBI ballistic test stating that the bullet in question could not have been fired from Mr. Peltier's alleged rifle. At that point, of course, there was little else Mr. Crooks could say. There is simply no evidence tying Mr. Peltier to the actual murders other than the fact that he was present at the Jumping Bull Ranch on that fateful day, and that he was an adult leader. In this respect, he is in exactly the same position as Mr. Robideau and Mr. Butler, who were acquitted so many years ago. The suggestions of the FBI and Mr. Crooks that Leonard Peltier actually ordered or directed the killings are, in our opinion, simply without basis. Why would experienced CNN reporters merely accept these official declarations instead of demanding proof and facts? After the all we have learned about the FBI abuses of power against minority leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King or Mr. Geronimo Pratt, or even in the recent Waco case, have our eyes not been opened enough to at least question what we hear from such officials?
3. We were also surprised by the statements that the two slain FBI victims had driven onto the ranch and been accosted by Mr. Peltier in an orange and white van. Again, if the reporters had done their homework, they would have known that this version of the facts has long ago been uncovered as yet another instance of tampered evidence and altered testimonies; precisely the sort of abuse of power that Mr. Peltier's supporters are complaining about.
The story of the "orange and white van" is as follows. On the day of the actual shootout, FBI Agents Coler and Williams were looking for a young man named Jimmy Eagle, and had information he was driving a red pick up truck. There exists evidence showing that the two agents knew Mr. Eagle was staying at the Jumping Bull Ranch, had spotted his pick up on the road, and had chased him onto the ranch. On the day on the day of the shoot out, FBI Officer Adams heard Agents Williams and Coler on their radio, stating that they were at the house on the Jumping Bull Ranch, and that people were getting out of a red pick up truck and shooting at them. Other agents also heard the agents refer to a red truck or similar open red vehicle. Shortly after the agents were killed, a red pick up was seen speeding from the Ranch by approaching FBI officials. The day after the tragedy, the FBI Director Mr. Clarence Kelley gave a press conference, referring to the suspect red pick up truck described by the Agents Williams and Coler in their radio communications. In fact, for some time thereafter, all red pick up trucks or similar vehicles on the reservation became the subject of intense FBI scrutiny. At the trial of Robideau and Butler, FBI officials Adams again reported the red pick up truck description. Once the acquittals occurred and Mr. Peltier presented the FBI's last chance at revenge, the pick up truck suddenly turned into an orange and white van. Jimmy Eagle and the red pick up were forgotten about. A year later, U.S. government officials decided to discard any case against Jimmy Eagle, "so that the full prosecutive weight of the Federal government could be directed against Leonard Peltier." Given all this, we were disturbed to hear Mr. Lynn Crooks state that there was no evidence about any red truck, and that this must be some new "theory" of the defense. This is not a new theory. The evidence comes directly from the FBI's own records, dating from the first few weeks following the tragedy. We understand that the CNN journalists had many of these FBI documents in their possession. Why then, were these not mentioned or used?
4. The FBI refers to "witnesses" who supported their various theories, apparently referring to the three Native American youths who gave inconclusive, vague and highly self contradictory testimonies throughout the trial as well as before. None of them pinned Mr. Peltier to the actual killings. Notably, two refused to swear on the Sacred Pipe. According to various reports, all had been threatened with serious FBI prosecutions and long sentences if they did not "cooperate". One was threatened with a beating even after he stated that he did not wish to answer questions. He had no lawyer. His original statements and his trial testimony were vastly contradictory on key issues. Another witness was tied to a chair and threatened with a murder indictment; he later admitted that some of his statements to the grand jury were false. The third had similar experiences. Are these the witnesses the FBI and the prosecutor are referring to as the basis of their air tight murder case? Where was CNN on these issues?
5. Similarly, we were disturbed by Mr. Crooks' statement that the fact that the FBI coerced Myrtle Poor Bear into signing completely fictional affidavits identifying Mr. Peltier as the killer, was harmless. In previous interviews, he has declared that the coercion of witnesses and intentional use of perjured evidence bothers his conscience "not one whit". In the CNN interview he blithely reports that these grossly illegal acts did no harm, since Ms. Poor Bear was not permitted to testify in Mr. Peltier's actual trial. We beg to differ.
Terrorizing Ms. Poor Bear into signing an affidavit falsely stating that she was Mr. Peltier's girl friend and had directly witnessed the murder had a very immediate and harmful result. Mr. Peltier was extradited from Canada and returned to the United States in chains to stand trial, despite the fact that there was no genuine evidence against him. A fraudulent extradition is hardly "harmless".
More importantly, the fact that Ms. Poor Bear was not allowed to testify to the jury was extremely harmful to Mr. Peltier's case. In other prosecutions against AIM members throughout the "Reign of Terror", the defense counsel had been allowed to introduce evidence about the FBI's repeated and current tampering with both witnesses and evidence in order to obtain convictions of AIM leaders. This permitted the jury to carefully evaluate the prosecution's evidence; to question whether or not witnesses might have been improperly coerced, to be alert for signs of falsifications. Had Ms. Poor Bear been allowed to testify, or had the defense been able to show the FBI pattern and practice of misconduct in AIM prosecutions, the jury would have been far better equipped to evaluate the numerous and otherwise inexplicable contradictions in the testimonies of the three Native American youths. The jury would also have scrutinized the ballistic and other information with far greater care.
However, all of this information was withheld from the jurors. They were left to innocently trust their government officials. Myrtle Poor Bear was a good enough witness to use in an extradition case; but too "unstable" to permit her to open the eyes of the jury. We have no doubt in our minds that if a jury heard the whole truth today, they would immediately acquit Mr. Peltier.
6. Perhaps the most painful misrepresentations concern the long concealed ballistic test. At Mr. Peltier's trial, the FBI ballistic expert said he had carried out two tests. He claimed that the first test had not been carried out on the key bullet casing found near the slain agents' car. That bullet casing was tested much later. Although he would have liked to perform the more precise test, called the firing pin test, he was unable to do so because of the damage done to the rifle during a fire. Instead, he had to make do with the less precise extractor test. According to the expert, this extractor test showed that the casing could have come from Mr. Peltier's alleged rifle. This is the expert testimony that went to the jury. Years after Mr. Peltier's conviction and imprisonment, his attorneys managed to gain access to a portion of the FBI's files through the Freedom of Information Act. There they found two FBI reports indicating that the far more precise firing pin test had indeed been performed on the correct casing. That was the first test, performed shortly after the tragic shoot out. The same FBI expert had concluded in writing that the bullet casing did not come from the rifle in question. The FBI and Prosecutor in the program brush this aside, and claim that the reports were not conclusive and were confusingly written. In fact the language is crystal clear: "Recovered .223 caliber colt rifle received from SA ( redacted) BATF, contains different firing pin than that in rifle used at resmurs scene" and "casings not identifiable with AR-15 rifle".
The officials' argument that they are correct in their statements about the ballistics tests because the courts ruled in their favor is a bit circular. Leonard Peltier's supporters, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Amnesty International, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, among many others, have recognized him as a political prisoner, not because they have not bothered to read the court rulings, but because they have indeed read them and found them to be irrational. Our position is that the courts have failed utterly in this case, largely as a result of FBI misconduct. For this reason we are seeking justice from the other branches of our government, as provided for in our constitutional system of checks and balances.
7. We also note that the CNN program makes short shrift of Mr. Peltier himself. Mr. Peltier has now been in prison for 23 years for a crime that he clearly did not commit. The truth about his case has been withheld from the public for decades; even the distribution of Mr. Peter Matthiessen's book "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse" was delayed for years by litigation. Mr. Peltier is fifty five years old and long overdue for parole. The same government officials who openly admit that they do not know who fired the fatal shots, have blocked his parole, insisting perversely that he is a cold blooded killer, or that he has not shown enough contrition for a crime he has said time and again that he did not commit.
It is difficult for us to imagine what mental anguish and long term psychological suffering these abuses have caused. Those of us who know Mr. Peltier have always found him remarkable in his ability to maintain hope, humor and an unbroken spirit from day to day, and to continue with his many humanitarian efforts, including his Native American Youth Scholarships and other excellent programs he carries out from behind bars. Yet there are times when his sudden silences and unspoken sadness cause us great concern.
Far more disturbing is the current deterioration of his health. He is now near blind in one eye as a result of poor medical treatment. He is diabetic and suffers from a heart condition as well, conditions which can only worsen swiftly and dangerously if he remains in prison. He also suffers from a worsening jaw problem, which leaves him unable to move his lower jaw. This makes it difficult to speak and chew properly. It also causes him constant and intense pain. Prison physicians have been unable to properly treat this condition. A Mayo Clinic jaw specialist is willing to treat Mr. Peltier free of charge. Permission has been denied.
Given all of this, it is hardly difficult to understand why Mr. Peltier might view outsiders and questions with caution and even outright distrust. Nor is it difficult to understand why, in a moment of tension, fatigue, or quiet despair he might have misheard a question or mispoken an answer. We are all capable of human error. Leonard Peltier has been in prison for far too long.
Once again we note that CNN journalists never posed any hard hitting or decisive questions of any kind to the FBI officials or to the U.S. officials involved in this disturbing case. Why such disparate treatment?
8. In the CNN broadcast, Mr. Peltier's vast and often illustrious list of supporters is noted, but quickly dismissed by U.S. officials with vague insinuations. According to them, we are blindly objecting to a garden variety murder conviction because, for some reason we don't wish to see a Native American in prison. We are romanticists who have never troubled ourselves with learning the facts. We certainly feel that the above analysis sets this misconception to rest.
Amnesty International, the Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, the National Conference of Churches, the Dalai Lama and the Archbishop of Canterbury are only a few of the world renowned human rights leaders and organizations which have recognized Leonard Peltier as a political prisoner and are demanding his immediate and unconditional release. These world leaders are hardly irrational romanticists. They are fully aware of the full factual record.
That is why they are protesting Mr. Peltier's imprisonment. That is why so many of us have protested Mr. Peltier's imprisonment since the day of his arrest nearly a quarter of a century ago. We stand by Mr. Peltier because we have taken the time to learn the facts, and because we have the courage to take a stand against such gross abuses and acts of corruption. We had hoped that CNN would do the same.
Mr. Peltier is a remarkable Native American leader who deserves to walk free at last so that he can dedicate his remaining years to serving his people. This is not a matter of being soft on crime. This is a matter of being tough on official corruption and the abuse of power. The COINTELPRO program of the FBI has destroyed many lives, from Dr. Martin Luther King, to Mr. Geronimo Pratt, to the Pine Ridge residents and AIM supporters, to Leonard Peltier, to name only a few. We have only to look to the recent Waco disclosures to see that these problems have followed us into recent years as well. Our most basic concepts of democracy demand that these corrupt practices and abuses
being swiftly exposed, examined, and corrected, not covered up or concealed. We had hoped for better from CNN.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Harbury
Attorney at Law,
Human Rights Director, Global Exchange
Gina Chiala
Leonard Peltier DefenseCommittee
It's 1999, why is Leonard Peltier still in prison???
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-5774
http://members.xoom.com/freepeltier/
***************************************************************
Nuke Test Ban Treaty and Campaign Finance Reform Defeated * Responses to the DoE
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Defeated by U.S. Congress
Campaign Finance Reform Defeated by U.S. Congress
Senator John McCain called the system corrupt. Just recently India and Pakistan tested nuclear weapons, adding more nuclear pollution into our environment. By defeating the Test Ban Treaty, Congress loses any credibility that the U.S. had for disarmament interests. Current policies place profits over true national/international security and democratic ideals.
What can you do?
Write, call and meet with the U.S. Department of Energy to stop their plans for expanding plutonium isotope production. This is a small step, but in a better direction than where we are headed.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) scoping meeting for the programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) for accomplishing expanded civilian nuclear energy research and development and isotope production missions in the United States, including the role of the Fast Flux Test Facility.
Please respond by going to the public meeting:
(Each person will receive at least a five minute time slot to make a statement)
MEETING DATE AND LOCATION:
Wednesday, October 27, 1999, 2-5 p.m.
The Mariott at Metro center
775 12th Street, NW
Washington, D.C.
202-737-2200
Or Call Toll Free to Make Your Statement
(877-562-4593
Or add your statement by E-mail to:
Following are examples of responses. For more information see:
http://www.greensense.com/Features/Action/n_pollute.htm
**********************************************************************
Colette Brown
Office of Nuclear Energy
Science and Technology (NE-50)
U.S. Department of Energy
19901 Germantown Road
Germantown, Maryland 20874
Re: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) intent to prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) for accomplishing expanded civilian nuclear energy research and development and isotope production missions in the United States, including the role of the Fast Flux Test Facility. http://www.ne.doe.gov/
October 4, 1999
Dear Ms. Brown:
I oppose expansion of isotope production. If we keep taking chances with isotopes that are toxic and known to cause mutations and cancers in living cells we will unnecessarily continue threatening life on Earth. I have read the letter sent to you on this subject by Jonathan Mark. It sufficiently documents the technical reasons for opposing the development, let alone the intended uses of harmful isotopes. Think of the self-defeating behavior which DOE is proposing. Think of their potential impacts on your friends and familyfor countless generations to come!
Sincerely,
Jerry C. Bosworth
321 Beale St.
Brooksville, FL 34601-2029
**********************************************************************
Dear Colette Brown,
I am in support of a "No Action" alternative where there would be no domestic capability to produce Plutonium-238 for future space missions.
I have a two year old child and want him to grow up into a healthy adult in a safe world. There are clearly alternatives to Plutonium for space travel and the horrors of nuclear war are unthinkable. I urge you to do all that is within your power to stop any further production of Plutonium and to divert resources to non-nuclear, non-fossil fuels. Individual moral responsibility must outweigh political considerations.
Sincerely,
Paul Kirsch
Administrative Assistant, UCLA
Paul Kirsch
**********************************************************************
To Whom It May Concern:
Lately, I have been reading a lot about the Cassini fly-by and other issues related to nuclear power used in space vehicles. Consequently I also did some research on low-level radiation and the opposed viewpoints on its effect on humans and other life forms.
I am convinced that the current mainstream attitude towards this radiation may be in error. There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that the current estimates of risk may be based on false assumptions.
In 1997, Tom K. Hei and co-workers at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York found that there is no safe dose for alpha particles (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) Vol.94, pp.3765-3770, April 1997, 'Mutagenic Effects of a Single and an Exact Number of Alpha Particles in Mammalian Cells')."
I often hear the counter argument that humans are already exposed to much greater levels of low-level radiation from natural sources. Why then should we be worried about adding another source? John Goffman, M.D., Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, explains why: "The fact that humans cannot escape exposure to ionizing radiation from various natural sources --- which may well account for a large share of humanity's inherited afflictions --- is no reason to let human activities increase the exposure to ionizing radiation. The fact that ionizing radiation is a mutagen was first demonstrated in 1927 by Herman Joseph Muller, and subsequent evidence has shown it to be a mutagen of unique potency. Mutation is the basis not only for inherited afflictions, but also for cancer."
Do the benefits of the DOE proposal to expand civilian nuclear energy research and development and isotope production outweigh the risks entailed by the increased potential exposure to ionizing radiation? I do not think so.
The DOE states in the Federal Register, vol. 64, no. 178, that the purpose of expanding the program is threefold: "(1) The production of isotopes for medical and industrial uses, (2) the production of plutonium-238 for use in advanced radioisotope power systems for future National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) space missions, and 3) the Nation's nuclear research and development needs.
Considering the recent situation with the Cassini spacecraft, item #2 is uppermost on my mind. After reading much e-mail from an organization opposed to the fly-by and the counter arguments on NASA's website, I concluded that concern over the fly-by was probably over-stated. The odds of an accidental release of plutonium occuring as a result of collision with earth's atmosphere seemed very small (one in a million by NASA's reckoning).
Then came the news last week regarding the navigational errors that led to the Mars explorer vaporizing in Mars's atmosphere. Apparently, the JPL's risk evaluations do not sufficiently account for the most common cause of accidents -- human error.
Considering this recent very indisputable evidence of the very real dangers of the use of radioactive materials in spacecraft that could potentially release their radioactive contents and expose humans to ionizing radiation, I have concluded that NASA should abandon its current dependence on plutonium and further develop the solar alternative. (As far as I know, the Mars explorer did not contain any plutonium, as this is used only in deep space flights. However, the incident clearly demonstrates that the risks of miscalculation are much higher than originally estimated for the Cassini mission and others like it.)
I am also concerned that the FFTF at Hanford would be the site for plutonium-238 production. I live in Washington State and have followed the Hanford clean-up issue for years. As I understand, the clean-up is far from complete and many serious problems with progress have recently been reported in the news. Until DOE can prove its reliability in this area, I do not want to see it producing more dangerous material that could add to an already huge problem.
Included in the list of industrial uses is food sterilization to which I am adamantly opposed. Civilization has done a great deal to improve the quality and abundance of our food supply through numerous human improvements on nature -- by which I mean everything from agriculture to refrigeration. It seems to me food irradiation is overkill as well as potentially harmful.
As for the third use, "Euclear research and development needs" I would rather see the DOE spend a greater effort on alternatives to nuclear and carbon-based fuels. Rather than further promote nuclear fuel usage by providing assistance to commercial reactors seeking license renewal or helping with international fusion research, the DOE could be helping lead humanity towards the cleanest, most renewable and potentially cheapest source of energy we know of: the sun.
Finally, the last use mentioned, "non-proliferation programs" contains an encouraging concept: "Eto safely convert plutonium-based materials for disposition Equot; Otherwise, I do not see any of the uses outlined in the statement as sufficiently benefiting humanity to outweigh the risks of ionizing radiation that would be promoted under the proposed program.
In conclusion, I am for the "No Action" alternative, although an even better alternative would be for the DOE to start to move away from nuclear energy altogether and take leadership in the area of providing energy from the source (the sun) that has the highest potential for providing clean, safe, low-cost energy for endless generations to come.
Sincerely,
David Sokal
Seattle, WA
***************************************************************
see http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/nltrs/nltr0203.htm
for letters to the DOE by Jonathan Mark and Russell Hoffman of the Stop Cassini Homepage.
***************************************************************
DOE Interest to Expand Plutonium Production * Indigenous Peoples Day - October 12
1) The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has rescheduled the scoping meeting that was to be held in Arlington, Virginia for the programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) for accomplishing expanded civilian nuclear energy research and development and isotope production missions in the United States, including the role of the Fast Flux Test Facility.
The scoping meeting previously scheduled for October 26, 1999 has been canceled.
NEW MEETING DATE AND LOCATION:
Wednesday, October 27, 1999, 2-5 p.m.
The Mariott at Metro center
775 12th Street, NW
Washington, D.C.
202-737-2200
Please respond to this DOE consideration to expand Plutonium-238 production for the civilian space program. It is critical to stop such harmful directions. Please respond by going to the public meetings, calling (877-562-4593 or you can even add your statement by E-mail to:
For more information on the DOE proposal and how to respond visit this webpage:
http://www.greensense.com/Features/Action/n_pollute.htm
[In the next issue of Post Cassini Flyby News, we will send out many powerful statements responding to this critical call to respond. Thank you for those responding to this opportunity.]
**********************************************************************
2) Indigenous Peoples Day - October 12
The connection between the U.S. government's intent to expand Plutonium development relates to the injustices that have occurred in America for more than 507 years, since the landing of Columbus in the Carribean Islands. The beautiful American environment had been preserved by Native Americans and their way of life, resulting in prosperity for many and genocidal destruction for others. It is time for a change before we experience irreparable damage for everyone. The legacy of violence and genocide begun by Christopher Columbus still reverberates loudly today:
* In Leavenworth, Kansas where Leonard Peltier sits in his 23rd year of imprisonment for a crime the U.S. government admits they have no evidence that he actually committed. In reality, he was on the scene during a shoot-out with U.S. federal agents for the purpose of defending indigenous people on the Pine Ridge Reservation being murdered for uranium and other mining rights;
http://members.xoom.com/freepeltier/
* In Big Mountain/Black Mesa, Arizona where Native people fight government-supported efforts to remove them so that Peabody Western Coal Company can make huge profits from the exploitation of coal, uranium and other natural resources underneath their land;
http://www.visionquests.com/
* In the Black Hills of South Dakota where non-Indian private and federal squatters still keep the tribal treaty lands away from the rightful owners and prevent Native freedom of religion;
* In Fort Reno where the Oklahoma congressional delegation is tying to wipe out legal rights of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes to their Fort Reno lands, while a federal/private scheme is afoot to move 500 baboons onto the tribal land for "research;"
* In Nevada where the Western Shoshone people continue to oppose the presence of the National Nuclear Test Site and the development of the only long-term High Level Nuclear Waste Repository on their land;
* In Tucson, Arizona where the University of Arizona is building telescopes and an observatory on Mt. Graham/Dzil Nchaa Si An, holy ground of the Apache Nation.
Native Americans suffer from continuing thefts of land and natural resources; from a violent crime rate 150% higher than that for the U.S. as a whole; from one of the highest rates of arrest and incarceration; and from institutionalized disrespect through name-calling and stereotyping of Native Peoples in sports. Truly, the Columbus legacy is alive and thriving.
Yet, since 1992, people of all races and nationalities have fasted and organized in scores of localities throughout the U.S. as part of a growing movement in opposition to the Columbus way of racism, greed, violence, genocide and environmental destruction. We honor October 12th as Indigenous Peoples Day, a day to heal what 507 years of the Columbus way has done and continues to do for the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas.
Participating in or supporting this effort and the struggles of Indigenous Peoples are much more than just the right thing to do. What has been done to those who are the original peoples of this land has been done in different forms to many of those who have lived here in recent times -- African Americans, Mexicanos/Chicanos, Asian Americans, other Latino people and low-income European-Americans. But today, the growing power and greed of transnational corporations like Peabody Coal that are behind much of what goes on in Indian country, affect the vast majority of people in the United States and the rest of the world. They further corrupt the already imperfect institutions of "democracy" that still exist. They pollute our air, food, land and water and are the primary cause of global warming that is already beginning to have devastating impacts worldwide. And they force workers to compete against fellow workers in other countries for the "right" to have low-wage jobs and terrible working conditions.
Leonard Peltier has written of what we must all do: "Speaking out is my first duty, my first obligation to myself and to my people. To speak your mind and heart is Indian Way. In Indian Way, the political and the spiritual are one and the same. You can't believe one thing and do another. What you believe and what you do are the same thing. In Indian Way, if you see your people suffering, helping them is an absolute necessity. It's not a social act of charity or welfare assistance, it's a spiritual act, a holy deed."
We will never be free until we face up to the historic record, set it straight and get it right. "Getting it right" means honoring, upholding and joining in solidarity with those who have much to teach us about living in harmony with the natural world, about working cooperatively for the good of all, and about steadfastness in struggle despite the most difficult conditions. We urge you to support changing the Columbus Day legacy and unite with Indigenous Peoples in considering seven generations in every major decision, the three present and four yet to come.
Please note: The main content of the above statement has been endorsed by:
Act Up/East Bay, Oakland, Ca.; David Acosta; Randi M. Bearden, Taylors, S.C.; Dennis Brutus, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Debora Bump, Schenectady, N.Y.; Janet Cavallo, Philadelphia, Pa.; Stuart Chen-Hayes, Ph.D., Bronx, N.Y.; Matthew Ciuccio, Nyack, N.Y.; Jenny Cochrane, Seattle,Wa.; Community Organizing Center, Columbus, Oh.; Maricke Van Copenolle, Belgium; Dave Dellinger, Board Co-Chair, Toward Freedom; Fellowship of Reconciliation; Five Hundreds Years of Indigenous Resistance, N.Y., N.Y.; George Friday, Kannapolis, N.C.; Ted Glick, Natl. Coord., Independent Progressive Politics Network; Susan Greywolf, Everett, Wa.; Roma Guy, San Francisco, Ca.; Suzan Shown Harjo, Morning Star Foundation; Rick Hauptman, Chair, Ca. Demo. Pty. Internet Caucus; Bill Hawkwatcher Hathaway; Howie Hawkins, Green Party, Syracuse, N.Y.; Healing Global Wounds, Tecopa, Ca.; Jesse Heiwa, N.Y., N.Y.; Ngati Hiikairo, Aotearoa; Jodi Hofmeister, Kettleby, Ontario; Delores C. Huerta; Allison Jack, Toronto, Ontario; Tracey Kingi; Allen R. LeCours, Belchertown, Ma.; League of Indigenous Sovereign Nations; Roger Leisner, Augusta, Me.; Leonard Peltier Defense Committee; Sally Light; Martin K. Manley, Schenectady, N.Y.; Esperanza Martell, Pro-Libertad: The Amnesty Campaign to Free Political Prisoners; Terry Martin, Phoenix, Az.; John Martinez, "Radio Chicana," Los Angeles, Ca.; Patrick Masterson, San Francisco, Ca.; Michael McEvoy, Austin, Tx.; Elizabeth McCleary-Kiffe, Chandler, Az.; Bill Means, International Indian Treaty Council; Matt Meyer, War Resisters League; Arthur Miller, Coordinator, Northwest Leonard Peltier Support Network; Sara Moore, Berkeley, Ca.; Ursula Mueller, Intl. Sec., Green Party of Sweden; Native Youth Alliance, Washington, D.C.; Native American Indian Center of Central Ohio; Beth Newberry, Chair, Indigenous Support Coalition of Oregon; Daniel Osuna, The Positive Revolution; Piscataway Indian Nation; Queers for Racial and Economic Justice; DeAnna Rivera, Port Jeff, N.Y.; Resistance in Brooklyn, N.Y.; Olivia Salazar, Olympia, Wa.; Sid Socolar, N.Y., N.Y.; David Swift, Perrysburg, N.Y.; Angel Torres, Phoenix, Az.; Jennifer Viercek, Tempe, Az.; S. Brian Willson, Wendell, Ma.; Farrell Winter, Graton, Ca.; Cynthia Young, N.Y., N.Y., Leonard Peltier Support Group of Greater New England and Jonathan Mark, Wendell Depot, MA.
(List in formation)
Contact: Ted Glick
**********************************************************************
Time to Respond - before DOE expands Pu-238 Production for Civilian Space Program
1) Please respond soon to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE's) intent to prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) for accomplishing expanded civilian nuclear energy research and development and isotope production missions in the United States, including the role of the Fast Flux Test Facility. This PEIS will be referred to as the Nuclear Infrastructure PEIS.
Beginning October 13 to October 26 the DOE will be holding public scoping meetings solicit oral and written comments on the porposed scope and content of the PEIS. One of their options is a "No Action" alternative where there would be "no domestic capability to produce Plutonium-238 for future space missions would be established." Please respond by going to the public meetings, calling (877-562-4593 and by E-mail to:
The following is a sample letter. Please edit, change or rewrite, but send YOUR STATEMENT in response to the DOE PEIS to expand PU-238 for the civilian space nuclear program.
********************************************************************
Colette Brown,
Office of Nuclear Energy,
Science and Technology (NE-50),
U.S. Department of Energy,
19901 Germantown Road,
Germantown, Maryland 20874,
Re: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) intent to prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) for accomplishing expanded civilian nuclear energy research and development and isotope production missions in the United States, including the role of the Fast Flux Test Facility.
http://www.ne.doe.gov/
October 4, 1999
Dear Ms. Brown:
Thank you for your reply to my telephone call last week. This letter is my written statement regarding the DOE's consideration in preparing the Nuclear Infrastructure PEIS.
To be very simple and straightforward I want to be on the record for opposing any consideration of expanding the development of production of Plutonium-238. Recently the Earth flyby of the Cassini space probe threatened life on Earth with the possibility of dispersing 400,000 curies of radioactive Plutonium into our atmosphere. Fortunately the mission went by Earth without a catastrophic incident, but if we keep taking chances with isotopes that are toxic and known to cause mutations and cancers in living cells (remaining harmful for many generations), we will continue threatening life in an unprecedented way by our shortsightedness and disregard for the health of life on Earth.
Please use the information on the website from the Action Site to Stop Cassini Earth Flyby. It is posted at http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby . You are invited to download the NoFlyby website as part of my statement and can use
http://www.bluesquirrel.com/products/grabasite/grabasite.html
to grab an entire web site to your hard drive. At the end of this letter I will list a few critical references from this website, in case you cannot review the whole site.
One of the most significant findings in the last few years about the potential harm by dangerous radioactive isotopes is by the work of Hei, et all. In a letter by Dr. John Gofman's May 11, 1999 letter, posted at
http://www.ratical.org/radiation/CNR/LetterOfConcern.html , he wrote, "..By any reasonable standard of biomedical proof, there is no safe dose, which means that just one decaying radioactive atom can produce permanent mutation in a cell's genetic molecules. My own work showed this in 1990 for xrays, gamma rays, and beta particles (Gofman 1990: Radiation-Induced Cancer from Low-Dose Exposure). For alpha particles, the logic of no safe dose was confirmed experimentally in 1997 by Tom K. Hei and co-workers at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) Vol.94, pp.3765-3770, April 1997, "Mutagenic Effects of a Single and an Exact Number of Alpha Particles in Mammalian Cells").
This information and new findings by many scientist studying the disproportionate harm of low level radiation show that the currently accepted internal dosimetry models presented in the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Publication 30 and the radiation health effects' estimator for the induction of fatal cancers as outlined in ICRP Publication 60, both of which are accepted by the national and international radiation protection communities, are inaccurate, limited and misleading. Based on the findings of Hei, et all, and other analyses, such as Dr. Ernest Sternglass' measurement with the "Baby Tooth Project" [see www.radiation.org ] I urge you to conduct new investigations on the disproportionate harm that could come from low level radiation, and until those investigations are complete, to stop the use and development of plutonium in space programs.
Plutonium radioactive isotopes are relatively new. They have only been developed in the last sixty years, initiated by the fear that Germany would produce the first atomic bomb during World War II. This is very little time compared to these substances long-term toxicity to generations of human beings and our environment. The scientific standards that you are using today in measuring the possible harm of low level plutonium radioactive isotopes are most likely inaccurate. Yet, knowing that the U.S. military has strong interests in using plutonium for space-based weaponry, knowing that NASA and DOE operates with the military on the development of nuclear space programs, it is practical to assume the close involvement with these agencies in the development of plutonium for the space program. This is why I am not only suggesting a "No Action" alternative to where no domestic capability to produce Plutonium-238 for future space missions would be established by the DOE, but I also strongly encourage the DOE support to stop all development of dangerous Plutonium isotopes.
Your support of a "No Action" alternative would be a step in the correct direction in the consideration for life and the future of life on Earth. By stopping these programs, I am confident that the DOE, NASA and the U.S. military could find other ways to explore our heavens, benefit humanity and protect life. Please contact me, if I can assist you further in such beneficial transformative directions.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Mark
For important references see:
Radiation and Public Health Project, Inc.'s status report of the Baby Teeth Project
http://www.radiation.org/whatsnew.html
"No Safe Dose "- a Letter of Concern by Dr. John W. Gofman
http://www.ratical.org/radiation/CNR/LetterOfConcern.html
Landmines at the cellular level
http://www.pgs.ca/pages/nl/lmcells.htm
Bart Jordan Commentary on ancient civilizations and development of dangerous isotopes
http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby/ref/bart.htm
NoFlyby Newsletter No. 19
http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby/alerts/19nl.htm
*******************************************************
Star Wars Call-In - Cassini and Peltier: What's the connection?
1. GlobeNet Call-In Days -- Stop Star Wars
The Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space is promoting an action to contact the U.S. Government to ban spaced-based weapons. The Call-In is proposed for Monday through Wednesday this week, September 13-15. For details visit GlobeNet's website.
www.globenet.free-online.co.uk/
***********************************************
1. Cassini and Leonard Peltier
Question: What's the connection between Cassini and the imprisoned American Indian Movement activist, Leonard Peltier?
Answer: Uranium, Injustice and Human Rights Concerns.
In the early 1970's, geologists from the US Geological Survey discovered uranium deposits on Pine Ridge Lakota Indian Reservation. Due to the history of the Lakota struggle over the Paha Sapa (Black Hills), the U.S. government knew that traditional Lakotas would resist selling land for coal and uranium mining rights. A corrupt tribal government was induced to begin a reign of terror. Over 60 traditional Indians on Pine Ridge were killed by a group that allegedly had FBI support. None of the sixty homicides was ever investigated.
In 1975, Lakota elders sent an appeal to members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) for protection. AIM set up an encampment on the Jumping Bull compound on the Pine Ridge Reservation. On June 26, the FBI staged a raid, two FBI agents and one Indian were killed. Two AIM members were captured after their escape and found not guilty for reasons of self-defense by a jury.
Leonard Peltier was captured in Canada and extradited by government-induced fraudulent testimony. Also, the Judge chosen to preside over Peltier's case had a reputation of being prejudiced toward Indians. The evidences of Leonard Peltier's innocence for self defense reasons were not permitted to be entered for consideration by this court. The chief prosecutor later admitted that they had no evidence showing that Leonard Peltier actually shot the two FBI agents, he was quoted saying, but, "...someone had to pay for it."
**************************************************
In November there will be a major month long campaign for executive clemency for Leonard Peltier. Please consider signing the document below and send it to President Clinton and to the Northwest Leonard Peltier Support Network, Tacoma Office; P.O. BOX 5464; TACOMA, WA 98415-0464 E-mail: bayou@blarg.net
NOVEMBER FREEDOM MONTH DECLARATION IN SUPPORT OF EXECUTIVE CLEMENCY FOR LEONARD PELTIER
WHEREAS; The events that led up to the firefight on the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota Reservation on July 26, 1975 created a situation of extreme concern for the lives and well-being of many Oglala people. Because of that great concern traditional Oglala Elders requested the assistance of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and among the AIM members who responded to the request was Leonard Peltier.
WHEREAS; On July 26, 1975, two unmarked cars came into the area where AIM had an encampment in the same manner that most other driveby shootings had occurred on Pine Ridge, the AIM members believed that they were under attack. In the firefight that resulted one AIM member and two FBI agents were killed. In the first trial of AIM members this was clearly shown for they were found not guilty because the jury believed that they acted in self-defense.
WHEREAS; In the case of Leonard Peltier, there is proven FBI misconduct including fraudulent affidavits used to extradite him from Canada, the suppression of key evidence of innocence at his trial, the coercion of witnesses, perjury by government agents and the refusal of the trial judge to allow the same type of defense evidence that led to a not guilty verdict in the first trial. For these reasons Leonard Peltier did not have a fair trial and was found guilty.
WHEREAS; Leonard Peltier's attorneys have disproved the government's case against Leonard, in the appeals process, to the point that the government's prosecutor in this case has conceded that they don't know who killed their agents, and if they had to try Leonard again they do not have the evidence to reconvict him.
THEREFORE; We the undersigned view the continuing imprisonment of Leonard Peltier to be extremely unjust and a blight upon the principles that the United States of America claims to follow. Throughout the world and along with many citizens of the United States, people of all walks of life have called for you, President Clinton to grant Leonard Peltier executive clemency. We the undersigned wish to add our names to that request.
Please sign here how you wish to be listed, name, tribe, organization, city, state, country and send to President Clinton and to the NWLPSN .
***************************************************
The following is an excerpt from an excellent article and interview with Leonard, published in the London Guardian Unlimited.
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,3881972,00.html
Chief behind bars
He's been in jail for 23 years - the innocent victim, says his supporters, of institutionalized injustice to Native Americans. And the longer he's there, the greater the legend of Leonard Peltier grows. By Andrew Mueller
Saturday July 10, 1999
When I apologise to Leonard Peltier for keeping him waiting, he smiles and tells me not to worry - the thunderstorms that had delayed my flight to Kansas City for nearly 36 hours had passed over Leavenworth's maximum security Federal Penitentiary as well. And Peltier, icon of the American Indian Movement and focus of its claims of institutional injustice, knows a fair bit about waiting.
United States Prisoner 89637-132 has been waiting for just over 23 years. According to current plans, he'll be waiting 41 more - two consecutive life sentences for the murders of two FBI agents during a shoot-out on the Oglala Lakota Indian reservation on Pine Ridge, South Dakota, in 1975, plus seven for an escape attempt in 1979.
The complete article was posted at the following URL link:
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,3881972,00.html
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
NASA-Plutonium-NoFlyby Correspondence
NASA-Plutonium-NoFlyby Correspondence
Dear members of Government, UN Delegates, representatives of media, friends and subscribers,
The following is correspondence with NASA, which shows the main points of our differences and the scientific evidences that show why low level radiation is much worse than what NASA is currently projecting from limited scientific analyses since the atomic bomb explosions on Japan in 1945. References for more information on this subject is in the following letter, including the website for Radiation and Public Health Project, Inc. Please, do what you can help to push on the side of caution and peace, stop the development of weapons and technologies threatening the mass destruction to life.
Post Cassini NoFlyby email will be infrequent, so I hope you will subscribe for updates from the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space .
Best Regards,
Jonathan Mark
To:
Earle K. Huckins III
Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Science
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Headquarters - Attention: Mail Code: S
Washington, D.C. 20546-0001
Re: Your letter to me dated August 12, 1999
August 30, 1999
Dear Dr. Huckins:
Thank you for your reply to my June 16, 1999 letter to President Clinton concerning the Cassini mission to Saturn. I am grateful that the Cassini Earth swingby maneuver was carried through without an incident that could have dispersed 400,000 curies of radioactive plutonium into our atmosphere. However, I am still very concerned about future plutonium fueled missions passing near or through Earth's atmosphere. In this letter I will try to help you understand my perspective and the main consideration of our differences of opinions.
In your letter you wrote that the work by Hei, et all, published in the April 1997 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was taken into account in the risk/benefit analyses of the mission. It is true that based on this evidence that a single decaying atom of plutonium can cause cancer, the Safety Evaluation Report (SER) stated that tens of thousands of deaths could occur. However, based on the one-in-a-million risk assessment and possible benefits, the report supported the mission, (and President Clinton's science advisor, Dr. John Gibbons). Yet the SER recommended that the launching of Cassini should be delayed for two months to increase the safety factor 30 to 100 times by reducing the speed of the probe during the Earth flyby. Why wasn't this recommendation put into effect, if safety is in the number one priority in NASA's missions?
You wrote that the consequence and risk analyses of the Cassini mission reflect the internal dosimetry models presented in the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Publication 30 and the radiation health effects' estimator for the induction of fatal cancers as outlined in ICRP Publication 60, both of which are accepted by the national and international radiation protection communities. However, these standards are not based on accurate updated analyses on low level radiation, but on the tests conducted after the two atomic bombs were unleased on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Based on the findings of Hei, et all, and other analyses, such as Dr. Ernest Sternglass' measurement with the "Baby Tooth Project" [see www.radiation.org ] I urge you to conduct new investigations on the disproportionate harm that could come from low level radiation, and until those investigations are complete, to stop NASA's use of plutonium in its space programs.
Plutonium radioactive isotopes are relatively new. They have only been developed in the last sixty years, initiated by the fear that Germany would produce the first atomic bomb during World War II. This is very little time compared to these substances long-term toxicity to generations of human beings and our environment. The scientific standards that you are using today in measuring the possible harm of low level plutonium radioactive isotopes are most likely inaccurate. Yet, knowing that the U.S. military has strong interests in using plutonium for space-based weaponry, knowing that NASA operates with the military on many space missions, it is practical to assume the close involvement with NASA and the military in its development of plutonium for the space program.
Before 1997 there was no experimental evidence that a single inhaled or ingested particle of plutonium caused cancer. With this relatively new information, I hope NASA will reassess the use of plutonium in its space program, and refrain from any risk that could jeopardize the health of life on Earth for thousands of years.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Mark
For important references see:
Radiation and Public Health Project, Inc.'s status report of the Baby Teeth Project
http://www.radiation.org/whatsnew.html
"No Safe Dose "- a Letter of Concern by Dr. John W. Gofman
http://www.ratical.org/radiation/CNR/LetterOfConcern.html
Landmines at the cellular level
http://www.pgs.ca/pages/nl/lmcells.htm
Bart Jordan Commentary on ancient civilizations and development of dangerous isotopes
http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby/ref/bart.htm
NoFlyby Newsletter No. 19
http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby/alerts/19nl.htm
*******************************************************
The following is a copy of the letter from:
Earle K. Huckins III
Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Science
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Headquarters - Attention: Mail Code: S
Washington, D.C. 20546-0001
August 12, 1999
Thank you for your letter of June 16, 1999, to President Clinton concerning the Cassini mission to Saturn. Your letter was forwarded to me for a response because the NASA Office of Space Science is responsible for the Cassini mission.
Page E-94 of the Cassini Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) clearly states "The GPHS-RTGs modules and the Light Weight Radioisotope Heater Units (LWRHUs) were designed to withstand reentry from Earth orbit." In the preceding paragraph the SEIS explains that "The analysis differentiates between the orbital and VVEJGA (EGA swingby) reentry conditions." Though the radioisotope thermoelectric generator modules (or "containers") were designed to withstand reentry from Earth orbit, NASA did not say or imply they were designed to withstand a reentry during the Cassini Earth swingby.
You reference work by Hei, et al, that was published in the April 1997 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). The consequence and risk analyses performed for the Cassini mission is in accord with this NAS study. Furthermore, the EIS and SEIS results reflect the internal dosimetry models presented in the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Publication 30 and the radiation health effects estimator for the induction of fatal cancers as outlined in ICRP Publication 60, both of which are accepted by the national and international radiation protection communities.
Before Administrator Goldin sent the request for launch approval to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), two separate processes were completed to address the environmental and safety aspects of the mission. NASA completed an Environmental Impact Statement in June 1995 and a supplement in June 1997, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act and NASA policy.
Consistent with long-standing Presidential policy, the Department of Energy (DOE) prepared a comprehensive Safety Analysis Report (SAR). In addition, an Interagency Nuclear Safety Review Panel, including safety experts from DOE, NASA, the Department of Defense (DOD), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and a technical advisor from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission conducted a comprehensive evaluation in a Safety Evaluation Report. This panel was supported by over 50 scientific experts from academia and industry.
DOD, EPA, and DOE wrote to the NASA Administrator confirming that, in their view, the safety analysis conducted for the mission was comprehensive and thorough. Additionally, the SAR and SER were presented to the NASA Administrator and OSTP. Then OSTP Director, Dr. John H. Gibbons, who signed the launch approval, said of the SAR and SER, "NASA and its interagency partners have done an extremely thorough job of evaluating and documenting the safety of the Cassini mission. I have carefully reviewed these assessments and have concluded that the important benefits of this scientific mission outweigh the potential risks."
Safety is the number one priority in all NASA missions, regardless of whether humans or robotic spacecraft are doing the exploring. Extensive and updated information about the Cassini mission related nuclear safety matters can be found on the World Wide Web at: www.jpl.nasa.gove/cassini.
Again, thank you for your interest in the Cassini mission.
Sincerely,
Earl K. Huckins III
Deputy Associate Administrator
for Space Science
**********************************************************
Cassini Flyby-Activists - Space.com article
22 August 1999
1) Activists Stand their Ground, Even As Cassini Sails Safely Away
2) Notes on Bart Jordan's Commentary
3) NoFlyby Advisory Board and Ernest Sternglass
1) Activists Stand their Ground, Even As Cassini Sails Safely Away
By Daniel Sorid, Staff Writer - SPACE.COM
Aug 18 1999 16:02:21 ET
They saw it as a ball of poison.
Across the world, they yelled and held up banners to protest its flyby of Earth.
They said the craft, careening through space at 42,000 miles per hour, had a good chance of slapping into the Earth's atmosphere and spreading dangerous radiation throughout the planet.
In protests, on Web sites, in papers, and in speeches, they claimed that thousands, even millions, could die.
No one did.
On early Wednesday morning the Cassini probe, carrying 72 pounds of radioactive fuel, whizzed by Earth -- without incident -- on its way to Saturn.
But as long as there's been a Cassini, there have been vocal anti-Cassini activists. For two years, they've spoken out on the craft's plutonium dioxide power, made with the radioactive element used in nuclear weapons. (The plutonium used on Cassini, though, is not weapons-grade.)
Come launch time -- in October 1997 -- the protesters staked out the Cape Canaveral launch site to try to stop the probe.
The launch went off without a hitch.
And when the craft was on its way back to Earth after spiraling around Venus for a gravity boost, the opponents once again unfurled their banners.
Jonathan Mark was one of the protest leaders. His website, "Stop Cassini Earth Flyby," was a kind of Protest Central for opponents of the craft.
On it, there are impassioned pleas to stop the mission with headlines like "NASA Misleads the World," and "The Cassini Gamble."
There are links to scholarly papers on the risks of the mission to the planet and its inhabitants and to political dispatches decrying the military's role in space research.
You can sign up for legal action and send off thoughts to world leaders.
And you can view pictures of the worldwide protests: of grandmothers making their voices heard, and Bangladeshis taking a stand.
But now that Cassini passed by safely, was it all for naught?
"Protesting against Cassini wasn't a mistake," Mark said. "It's significant, and I'm glad there wasn't any accident."
Mark, who sends his anti-Cassini newsletter to over 1,000 subscribers, still believes that plutonium-powered spacecraft could one day play a role in destroying life on Earth.
"We're living at a time when human beings don't have to survive on this planet," he said. "We can go extinct like the dinosaurs."
On the other side of the world, the General Secretary of the Bangladesh Astronomical Society had a similar reaction.
"Our calculation was not wrong, because we did not say that it would definitely fall on the Earth during its closest approach with Earth," F.R. Sarker said. "We were more concerned about the radioactive materials Cassini has been carrying on board."
NASA, on the other hand, couldn't resist a little gloating.
"We told you so," chimed in Mary Beth Murrill, spokeswoman for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, when asked what she would say to the anti-Cassini protesters.
The space agency had said all along that a disaster was extremely unlikely, with a probability of less than one-in-a-million.
Another NASA spokesman, Douglas Isbell, said the protesters' concerns were legitimate, but that mission scientists had taken extra precautions to prevent an accident.
NASA is planning eight more missions that will rely on the same kind of plutonium power generators used on Cassini, Isbell said.
Radioisotope thermoelectric generators, or RTGs, power Cassini. They are primarily used on missions to the outer solar system, where the sun's rays are too weak to be a usable source of power.
RTGs rely on the heat produced as plutonium, a radioactive element, decays. A converter changes that heat into electricity, which powers the craft.
The next launch of an RTG-powered craft is scheduled for the end of 2003, the Europa Orbiter, which will study a moon of Jupiter.
Those future launches are keeping protesters from packing up their signs.
"Concern about future plutonium launches is my main concern," Mark said.
He plans to leave his website up as a reminder of the Cassini protests, though daily updates will probably stop.
And in Bangladesh, the Cassini probe's success has left a residue of worry.
"It is true, we are lucky as there was no accident with Cassini," said Sarker, whose group led an anti-Cassini protest march on June 18. "But we are unlucky because this would encourage NASA to launch more space probes in the future with plutonium dioxide until an accident really takes place."
2) Notes on Bart Jordan's Commentary
In the commentary, Bart Jordan provided simple equations that gave evidence that ancient cultures, such as the Greek, Hebrew and Aramaean, knew all about Uranium, Neptunium and Plutonium, and why they stayed away from developing certain life endangering isotopes.
The Notes were written by Bart Jordan in response to many queries from the scientific community and from individuals in NASA. URL Source: www.flybynews.com/archives/ref/bart2.htm
3) NoFlyby Advisory Board and Ernest Sternglass
Following is a brief report from Ernest Sternglass on his important work that shows physical evidences from baby teeth of the harm being committed by nuclear pollution.
His work and that of others on the NoFlyby Advisory Board, (with many of these members continuing their work on the Board for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space) is very special and truly inspirational.
Please keep engaged with these good people and continue to support efforts for peace in space and everywhere else. For the list of those on the NoFlyby advisory board, see: www.flybynews.com/archives/board.htm .
Note: Karl Grossman will be speaking at a Rally this Sunday in Brattleboro, VT on the decommissioning of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. Dave Dellinger and music with the reggae music of the Black Rebels and other speakers.
As NoFlyby settles down, I wish to thank us all for sharing and not allowing Cassini to go unnoticed. Perhaps we can help the military evaluate the strategic advantages of going in another direction, peace in space and responsible technologies to benefit and not threaten life.
Many thanks for your support on the campaign to stop and expose the high risk Cassini Earth flyby.
Jonathan Mark noflyby{at]yahoo(dot}com
Coordinator
Action Site to Stop Cassini Earth Flyby
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
From: Ernest Sternglass
MSSEJS[at}aol(dot]com
Subject: IDEAS FOR FUTURE
To: noflyby@nonviolence.org
I agree that we need to find ways for people around the globe to work together on the technology that will allow us to explore the universe and secure the peace on our globe in such a way that it will not endanger the health and survival of our species.
What my colleagues and I in the Radiation and Public Health Project are working on, namely the baby tooth study to be released to the public September 21 (See our web site: radiation.org) can help to achieve this. Our results show that radioactive fission products represented by strontium-90 in the teeth of newborns have been rising alarmingly in areas close to or downwind from nuclear reactors, and that in these same areas breast cancer and childhood cancers have been rising most strongly since the early 1980s despite the fact that all atmospheric bomb tests ended in 1980.
It implies that we have grossly underestimated the leakages from nuclear facilities and the amount of damage bomb fallout and nuclear plant releases have done to human health since the nuclear age began.
By involving people all over the globe in the collection of baby teeth, we can bring this message to millions, and prepare public opinion to respond to the call for the abolition of nuclear weapons and an end to the production of plutonium in nuclear reactors for both weapons and the generation of electricity both on Earth and for the operation of satellites in space.
Ernest Sternglass
8/19/99
The views expressed herein are writers own and not necessarily of Flyby News.
Fair Use Policy that describes use of copyrighted material is at FlybyNews.com.
Feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News is appreciated.
You can write to the editor by email: - flyby(at}mtdata{dot)com -
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus,
and has supported critical campaigns for a healthy
environment, human rights, justice, and nonviolence,
since the launch of NASAs Cassini space probe in 1997.
=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
= = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =
